bones of slaves !

struggle
The enemy would finish us

with his bayonets
And pointing to our bones he would tell the rest of the world
 

Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com

By Subhash Gatade

13 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org

If we do not struggle
If we do not persist in our struggle
The enemy would finish us with his bayonets
And pointing to our bones he would tell the rest of the world
Look, these are bones of slaves !
Look, these are bones of slaves !!

( A Hindi couplet)
D Dhanraj from Tsundur ( Guntur, A.P.) possibly does not know how the rest of the world remembers 6 th of August. Neither possibly he knows that there is a city called Hiroshima in far away Japan which was nearly obliterated that day. But for him also the very day symbolises deaths and destruction and an endless wait for justice.

He can still recollect each and every incident on that fateful day way back in 1991 when five people from his own community were lynched before his eyes by a mob of marauders belonging to his village itself.

In fact, the blood thirsty mob had nearly lynched him also but somehow he was saved. Streets of Tsundur that day witnessed deaths of total eight people all of them dalits when a 400 strong armed mob of Reddys - a landlord caste which has dominated the politics of A.P since independence - attacked the dalits to teach them a lesson. The perpetrators of the massacre were so brutal that they cut the dead bodies into pieces, put them in gunny bags and threw them in the nearby Tungabhadra canal.

But as of now the wait for justice seems to be finally over. The recent judgement of the Special Court - which was the first of its kind formed under the provisions of the SC and ST Act (1989) at the scene of offence- has rather vindicated their sixteen year old struggle. Twenty one of the accused have been given life imprisonment which 35 of the accused have been asked to serve one year rigorous imprisonment. The court have acquitted the rest of the accused showing lack of evidence, but a coalition of dalit organisations have been pressing upon the government to file a petition in the upper court to challenge the acquttal.

A brief recap of the events in this ‘historic case" tells us that the upper caste ( read Reddys" ) used the pretext of of alleged harassment of a Reddy girl by a dalit youth in a cinema hall to attack the dalits. The planned nature of the attack was evidnt also from the fact that within no time a few hundred strong mob of Reddys wielding traditional weapons (and few of them carrying modern firearms) descended on the dalit hamlett and unleashed their fury against the innocents. In fact, sensing an imminent attack, most of the menfolk had alread left the village. Once the marauders came to know of this they literally chased the dalits on the road adjoining the Tungabhadra canal and lynched them one by one.

Looking back it is clear that the preplanned attack against the dalits was another futile attempt by the Reddys to reassert their age-old authority which had seen fissures with the growing assertion of dalits. The changed atmosphere in the village was for everyone to see.Not only many of the dalits boys and girls had benefitted from the affirmative action programmes in education, a few among them had even surpassed the Reddys in many respects. Many of the dalits from the village were working with Indian Railways. Overall the situation was such that the Dalits had refused to follow the medieval dictats reserved for them under the Varna system.

D Dhanraj was a crucial witness to the whole case. He did not falter for a moment despite tremendous pressure brought upon him by the powerful Reddys.One can see that Tsundur, the small village in Guntur, has created many such ‘unsung heroes" - ordinary looking people who faced heavy odds so that they get justice. Merukonda Subbarao, a fifty six year old daily wage-worker, who had served as the first president of the Tsunduru Victims Association was another such ‘hero" who identified and named forty of the accused standing in the court room, from among the one hundred and eighty three accused. It was clear that the whole incident was etched in his memory so strongly that he did not falter despite the judges requests to repeat the identification. And who can forget Martyr Anil Kumar, a young man in his twenties who was in the forefront of the struggle so that the perpetrators of the massacre are punished without delay. Anil was killed in a police firing during one of those struggles.
http://www.countercurrents.org/gatade130807.htm
The Supreme Court Monday found itself pitted in an unsavoury row with the central government on the question of its power to order closure of commercial activities in unauthorised colonies in Delhi without hearing the four million affected people.

While the government is building pressure on the corporate sector to pitch in for the welfare of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), its own efforts are drastically wanting. Despite having higher allocation of funds for welfare and educational development schemes for SCs and STs, the gap between them and general students is widening, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pointed out in its latest audit report. Meanwhile,Observing that the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has lost its power in recent years, its newly appointed chairman Buta Singh today said he will take up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make the Commission more effective.He said the Commission does not have the power to implement the Reservation Act following certain court directives.He demanded that on the pattern of Central Election Commission, which has sole responsibility to implement People"s Representation Act, the Commission for Scheduled Castes should also be given the right to strictly implement the Reservation Act.He also demaned the revision of the Reservation Act which prescribes 15 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes. The government has drafted a new Reservation Act which envisages increase in reservation for the SCs. It also envisages more power to the Commission, he said.
“Since UPA government in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) promised strengthening the Commission and formation of new Reservation Act, I will take up the issue with the prime minister and urge him to pass the draft of the Act, which was finalized and submitted to the government few years back," Buta told reporters in Jalandhar.
“I along with Sushil Kumar Shinde, has chalked out a concrete draft of the proposed reservation Act, which at present is lying before the cabinet and the Commission demands the Act be passed at the earliest and be handed over to the Commission for its implementation in true spirit," the chairman said.
In the performance audit report on “Educational Development of SCs and STs" the CAG has flayed Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and Ministry of Tribal Affairs for poor financial management resulting in ambitious schemes for education of SCs and ST not delivering the desired results.

“The two indicators of educational development - Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Gross Drop-out Ratio (GDR) - displayed an adverse trend in respect to SC and ST boys and girls. The gap in GDR between general and SC and ST candidates, which was 6.7 per cent and 15.1 per cent in 2001-02, deteriorated to 10.4 per cent and 16.6 per cent in 2003-04, respectively," the report said.
The CAG has pointed out underutilisation of funds, delayed or short release and diversion of funds, unspent balances lying with states and inadequate publicity resulting in poor awareness of schemes as the reason for the gap.

A bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat entered into a heated argument with Additional Solicitor General Vikas Singh when the latter was fiercely opposing the bench order passed Monday for shuttering down commercial activities in 15,000 unauthorised colonies within three weeks.In halting commercial activities in the unauthorised colonies, the bench, which also included Justices C.K. Thakkar and Lokeshwar Singh Panta, was of the view that ‘what is impermissible in the authorised colonies, could not be allowed in unauthorised colonies".The bench passed the shuttering order amid stiff opposition from Singh.
‘Don"t raise your voice. We are not accustomed to hear raised voices," snapped Justice Pasayat as Singh insisted that the court should not pass the sealing order without hearing the people likely to be affected.

A New Delhi radio station had a discussion panel on an August 2005 night, where an industrialist, a businessman, a lady medical doctor and a scientist, talked about how India can become a global superpower. It was mind blowing! The doctor commented that India had drastic disasters in recent years like the Gujarat Quake, Orissa"s Super Cyclone and Tsunami, yet without an epidemic. She said it was because of how India is equipped to deal with medical emergencies. The panel experts went on to say that it was because of India"s qualified medical professions, scientists, technologists, and industrialists etc. What communities do these professional experts represent? Very few work in poor and backward communities.

India is one of the focal countries for MDGs. In connection to the question, “Is India really a poor nation?" it will worth to note the comment of V. T. Rajshekar, a writer and Dalit activist. “In fact “poverty" is not the problem of India itself. India is rich country deliberately kept poor by the 15% upper caste rulers. (V. T. Rajshekar, The Dalit Voice, 25/1, 1-15 January 2006, p.23)
http://desicritics.org/2007/08/23/013305.php
We can look at the question of MDGs through four windows.

The 15/85 Window
15/85 Window represents the 15% Indian High Caste who hold 85% of India"s assets! V. T. Rajshekar has described how India has been kept in desperate poverty by the minority high caste community who possess increasingly excessive assets.

This window also represents the inequality of assets-sharing, motivated, influenced and nurtured by ethics, tradition, politics and religion through the centuries. How can MDGs be viewed through this 15/85 window and can they restructure the situation?

The 52/9 Window
The 52/9 Window represents the 52% Indian BC (Backward Class) who live on 9% of India"s assets! This window has been the Indian vote bank or national policy-making body, yet remains poor. Although they suffer caste discrimination from High caste, they still enjoy oppressing the SC/ST (Dalit) community which is lower in the Brahminical caste setup.

The community of this window - being India"s largest community - suffers economic, political, oppression at the hands of the upper caste.

The 22.5/2 Window
22.5/2 Window represents the 22.5% Indian Dalits (SC/ST) who live on 2% of Indian assets! This window is the weakest section of Indian society closest to the poverty line. They not only suffer inequality in sharing assets, but suffer dehumanization. This group does not even come under Hindu caste categories.

Although SC/ST suffers caste discrimination they are also used as an Indian vote bank like backward classes. This window is almost a quarter of the population, yet survives on only 2% of Indian assets. This condition has been in Indian soil for years and nothing has been done even after half a century of Independent India. The backdrop of poverty in India has deep roots in caste and religion, which need to be sorted out before any attempt to fulfill the MDGs.

The 10.5/4 Window
The 10.5/4 Window represents the 10.5% of India"s religious minorities (Islam, Christians, Sikh, Buddhist) who live on 4% of Indian assets! This window has been liberated from the dominion of Hindu upper caste oppression by means of converting to other religions where caste does not exist. Yet, the economic condition does not change.

Though socially liberated, economical, political, and physical oppression continues to exist. The Indian government has made choices for government aid based on faith, and they"ve been against religious minorities. Inclusion of Sikhs and Buddhists in the presidential provisional list of Schedule Caste categories, leaves Christian Dalits blindfolded. Christians live with 4% of Indian assets is a visible sign that they are still under the poverty line. It is the same with the country"s Muslims.

Christians and Muslims of India suffer double at the hands of Indian micro-minority upper-caste rulers. Christians Dalits suffer caste discrimination under the Hindu caste system before converting to Christianity. By means of converting to Christianity, they are liberated from caste oppression only to be re-oppressed under India"s constitution by snatching away the SC status facilities from the movement when the religious symbol of baptism falls on him/her. This act of bias forces the person into economic oppression even after being liberated from the caste system.

What can be said finally?
What can be said finally can never become a final solution. It will take a long time to see the long-lasting impacts and MDGs being fulfilled. Destroying spiderweb a hundred times will not solve the problem unless and until the spider is destroyed first. Similarly, finding the root cause and uprooting it will be essential to create a caste-free society, sharing.

The 15/85 Window sharing its excessive 85% assets with other windows will help fulfilling eight-fold MDGs: 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. 2. Achieve universal primary education. 3. Promote gender equality and empower women. 4. Reduce child mortality. 5. Improve maternal health. 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. 7. Ensure environmental sustainability. 8. Develop a global partnership for development.

The communities of 52/9 Window and 22.5/2 Window should plead with India"s government to reserve some of the private sectors is their birth right to ask their mother land. Denial and opposition from the private sector is the sign of their desire to keep 85% of Indian assets in their hands.

The community 10.5/4 Window needs to ask to be granted SC status as their birth-right demand to live with equality, dignity and in a democratic nation.

MDGs should be addressed within the issues of four windows presented here.

Some Dalits Are Even Less Equal

The Arunthathiyars bear the weight of caste oppression in Tamil Nadu, says R. Adhyaman

I belong to the Arunthathiyar community, the most oppressed of the Scheduled Castes in Tamil Nadu, where Dalits comprise 20 percent of the population. Of the 76 communities listed as SCS, the Paraiyars, the Pallars and the Arunthathiyars are the three main groups.

Arunthathiyars constitute about one-third of the state’s Dalit population and live in miserable conditions, working as manual scavengers, cobblers and agricultural labourers. Thousands are employed as conservancy workers in civic bodies. Though they speak Telugu at home, their children go to Tamil medium schools and follow Tamil customs. We are Tamils and that’s why I have named my organisation the Adhi Thamizhar Peravai.

All Dalits are not equal. Arunthathiyars are looked down upon by other SCS. We bear the whole weight of caste oppression. It is no secret that the two-tumbler system is still prevalent in many villages. But I have news for you. There are villages where they keep three tumblers in tea shops — one for the caste Hindu, one for the Arunthathiyar, and one for the non-Arunthathiyar Dalit. The Pallars and Paraiyars think they are superior to us. They don’t inter-marry with us. The two Dalit parties in the state, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal (VC, formerly known as Dalit Panthers of India) and Puthiya Thamizhagam, represent the interests of the Paraiyars and the Pallars respectively. In the last Assembly elections, VC contested nine seats as part of the AIADMK front and all nine candidates belonged to the Paraiyar community.

There are 44 reserved seats in the Assembly, but Arunthathiyars have never won more than five seats. At present, there are three Arunthathiyar MLAS — two in the DMK and one in the AIADMK. Paraiyars are the majority in the northern districts, Pallars in the southern districts, and Arunthathiyars in the western districts. No one except a Paraiyar can contest a reserved seat in the north. Pallars rule the roost in the south. But when it comes to areas where we are in majority, this rule does not apply. Parties field non- Arunthathiyars and win.

The benefits of reservation for Dalits in Tamil Nadu have gone to Pallars and Paraiyars. There is 18 percent reservation for SCS. Our demand is that six percent of it should be earmarked for Arunthathiyars. We have represented our demands to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and he has promised to consider the matter. We have also asked him to take steps to abolish manual scavenging. The CM granted one of our demands and formed a welfare board for conservancy workers.

Adhiyaman is founder president, Adhi Thamizhar Peravai, a Dalit social movement. As told to PC Vinoj Kumar
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main33.asp?filename=hub010907shadowlines.asp

Laloo Takes Maya Path

Borrowing from the UP Chief Minister’s Sarvajana strategy, the RJD promises 10 percent quota to upper caste poor if it is voted to power, reports Anand ST Das reports

THE PROMINENT red tilak that Laloo Prasad Yadav often wears on his forehead has acquired a different hue these days. Over the past one year, Laloo has probably visited more temples and performed more religious rituals than in his entire political career. Restless ever since his and wife Rabri’s 15-year reign in Bihar came to an inglorious end, Laloo is now looking to replicate in his state Mayawati’s social engineering formula that won her the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. His staunchly pro-backward Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party has begun openly espousing causes of the forward castes.

At the RJD’s state-level conclave in mid- July at Rajgir, in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s home district of Nalanda, Laloo promised a 10-percent reservation in state government jobs for upper caste poor if the RJD comes to power in the 2010 Assembly polls. To strike a balance, he also reasserted his commitment towards the Dalits and the extremely backward castes, and promised to fight for their “dignity" and “just rights".

The need for a new social arithmetic was being increasingly felt in the RJD’s think-tank after Laloo’s Muslim-Yadav vote bank failed to win him the November 2005 election. Laloo has engaged in a number of religious ceremonies at his residence and visited several temples with wife Rabri Devi in the past few months. After months of a calculated image makeover, he finally announced his party’s soft stance towards the upper castes. The RJD’s mantra has changed to welfare of “all communities and sections". In Rajgir, the party vowed to fight on behalf of all castes and communities. One of the nine resolutions adopted at the conclave also promised Scheduled Caste status to backward Muslims in Bihar.

“It is unfair and wrong to say that the RJD was harsh towards the upper castes. Our governments always had ministers from the upper castes. Now we have announced a 10 percent reservation for upper castes because there is an urgent need for their socio-economic uplift," said Shyam Razak, the RJD’s spokesman and a former minister. Many political observers, however, see the RJD’s new strategy as a reflection of Laloo’s impatience to win back power. “This is a clever, last-ditch ploy by Laloo with obvious inspiration from Mayawati. It is too late for him to see the need for uplift of all sections of society," said Dr Shaibal Gupta of the Patna-based Asian Develop - ment Research Institute.

WHAT IT TAKES TO ACHIEVE THE RIGHT BALANCE

India’s Unending Journey: Finding Balance in a Time of Change
By Mark Tully,
Rider, £14.99

We should be thankful to Mark Tully for deciding to leave his explorations into faith and spirituality, his own and India’s, as a post-retirement option. But given his belief that much of life is 95 per cent fate and 5 per cent free will, this might have been predestined. Even then, one cannot but feel grateful that Tully kept his religious thoughts to himself most of the two decades he was chief correspondent of the BBC in India. Given his fatalism (he believes that his being in Puri on Kartik Purnima and the beginning of this book on that propitious day were no mere coincidence), who knows, there might have been doubts over the objectivity of the broadcasts, and BBC Radio would not have been what it has been.

Tully talks about his personal growth — the changes in his belief system as he goes through school in Marlborough, university in Cambridge, a failed stint at a theological college and, finally, as assistant representative of the BBC in India, where he rediscovers his own religion. The sparse account of this transition is interwoven with reflections on the drawbacks of world religions (particularly Semitic), and on religious beliefs, accompanied by scholarly observations. His point is to show how profoundly his religious thoughts have been influenced by the Hindu way of life, its pluralism, its humility, its diversity and its sense of balance. Having achieved this feat, he now wants all the faithful, as well as the different faiths, to follow suit in order to strengthen the belief in god and to restore harmony among peoples.

His other significant intention is to rediscover India’s tradition and religious virtue for the people of the country, which is hurtling down the path of change without a thought and without a suspicion that it may fall into the same trap that Western materialistic societies have fallen into. Since Tully subscribes to the belief that “he could only preach what he had personally experienced", his experiences in England, Scotland and India come in handy.

While preaching (Tully’s propensities can hardly be suspected to be anything else), he dares his readers to call him “counter-cultural" or “an old-fashioned socialist and romantic about India" — all the phrases being presented by him as comments already made by previous listeners. Tully, perhaps in order to prevent these precious descriptions from being repeated, mentions that his thoughts about India have been thrashed out in front of — and found an echo among — scholars, economists, heads of multinational companies as much as of religious bodies. Tully, quite evidently, is not the only one worrying his head about India’s destiny.

But what is he so worried about? One is the loss of faith. He illustrates this with the example of Ireland. The gay, colourful and yet rabidly Catholic country, which once had priests swarming all around, is squirming under the aggressive secular drive of the State. Although the inflexibility of the Church and its prescriptions about sexual practices had a lot to do with its decline, Tully believes the development has robbed the country of its unique character. It is now like any other place in the world undergoing the onslaught of globalization.

This brings us to another of Tully’s worries — progress and its pitfalls, be it in science, technology or economy. Man’s strides in the former gave the world the atom bomb, and the latter has led to an unbridgeable gap between the rich and the poor. Tully warns that there is no ‘certainty’ that progress will benefit all. He quotes John Gray, professor of European thought in the London School of Economics, to strengthen his case, “Belief in progress is the Prozac of the thinking classes."

Tully preaches balance at all times, be it in the pursuit of religion, political success, economic prosperity or sex. Which is fair enough. But did Tully need to hardsell Hinduism this way to promote it as the model to be followed in order to achieve the balance? Tully presents an almost idyllic picture of India where festivals are occasions for reaffirming social harmony (he mourns the lack of festivals in the British calendar), caste brothers share marriage expenses, and religious leaders shake hands and make up. Why gloss over the uglier side? When his friend, Radhakant Nayak, reminds him that casteism lacks a social conscience, Tully can only answer that there have been movements to redress the balance — the Bhakti movement, and the more contemporary Dalit movements. How far has it got India? While Uttar Pradesh has a Dalit chief minister, Dalit doctors in a premier medical institution in the heart of the Indian capital continue to be ghettoized. Would Tully call that ‘balance’?

Tully sees the rise of the Hindu Right as a response to dogmatic secularism practised over the years by India, and blames politics for the development. One wonders if Praveen Togadia and his kind would continue to have such a huge audience to hear their fulminations against the minorities had Indian pluralism been truly at work. Tully’s idealization of Indian social cohesion is almost insufferable. India is definitely undergoing a lopsided growth. But one wonders if the answer to the problem could lie in the reassertion of the fundamental Hindu values. Besides, who is to decide what is ‘fundamental’?

There can be no doubting Tully’s sensitivity to the changing Indian scenario. This comes out best when he goes back to his old-style reporting on the Dalit family in UP or on communal amity in Varanasi. But in trying to bind his own spiritual growth to India’s unforeseen destiny, Tully ties himself in knots. He raises profound questions — like “Is God malign?" “Why should a loving God make it necessary for us to suffer?" — but cannot answer them. He wants the Church to be less dogmatic and learn from the Indian tradition to be “more tolerant of plurality and more willing to question their certainties." But he does not want it “to forfeit all claims to certainty merely in order to avoid conflict with others, or that it should come to feel it should avoid all moral judgments". He swears to have learnt humility from India, but does not refrain from crowning himself with glory for taking on John Birt (spelt once as Bird), director general of the BBC.

There are incisive passages in this book. Take Tully’s lambasting of modern management doctrines and their indiscriminate use in all situations. He also senses, as astutely as ever, India’s dilemmas as it tries to follow the path of progress. But if Tully is so sure of India’s “genius for absorption and adaption", one cannot see why he indulges in the foolhardiness of assuming its self-destruction.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070824/asp/opinion/story_8230269.asp

Govt asked to do more for cause of Dalits [ 2007-8-15 ]
By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Aug. 14: Lawyers and politicians voicing for the rights of Dalits Tuesday said the government had not been doing enough for the promotion and protection of Dalit rights
“The constitutional amendments declaring Nepal a society free from all caste hierarchies are only limited to the documents and have not been implemented into meaningful practice," they said.

Speaking at a talk programme ‘Nepal`s Dalit Movement and Friendship with India," they said Indian leaders voicing for the Dalit rights had always helped in emancipating their people from caste discrimination and the same should be emulated here.

Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Chabilal Bishowkarma said India"s Dalit movement was initiated following the success of its social revolution and social reforms.

He said Dalit had played a leading role in the then democratic movement against the Ranas as well as during the April movement last year.

Bishowkarma said Dalits have demanded equal participation in the constituent assembly election through proportionate participation adding that the patience of the Dalits in launching the movement should not be regarded as their weakness.

“The Dalits are having patience so that their action would not affect the CA polls," he said.

Vice-Chairman of Nepal Bar Association Hari Prasad Upreti said there is virtually no participation of the Dalits in the judiciary.

Upreti said though the parliament has declared Nepal of being freed from untouchability but the same has not been put into real practice.
http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/content.php?nid=24987

India"s Statue of Liberty
Posted August 18th, 2007 by kashifIndia News Articles By Dr. Joseph D"souza
International President, Dalit Freedom Network
www.josephdsouza.com

In the fields of agriculture, technology, education, economics and our experiment with ‘democracy" we have done well. We have managed to remain a pluralistic, democratic, free India in spite of attempts to destroy our diversity, plurality of religions and our democratic foundations by fundamentalist forces. These forces have never reconciled to the idea of a modern Indian nation built on the modern Indian Constitution.

We remember our founding fathers: Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Predictably, the elitist media and spin doctors will pay some lip service to Ambedkar or completely forget him as did the speechwriters and advisors of President Bush when he gave his speech in New Delhi in March 2006 and mentioned Nehru, Gandhi and Tagore as India"s great founding leaders.

Tagore was a great Indian but not a founding father of the Indian nation. Ambedkar was. Without Ambedkar, the author of India"s Constitution and a Dalit, there would be no social justice in the nation; there never would be the empowerment of millions of Dalits and lower castes in modern day India through the means of ‘reservation" and affirmative action by the State in keeping with the requirements listed in the Constitution.

Without Ambedkar and Nehru there would be no religious freedom of the kind we have known in India for 60 years. It has withstood efforts of the Hindutva forces - those who live by the slogan ‘one nation, one religion, one culture" - to take away this freedom from the masses through anti-conversion laws dubbed as ‘freedom of religion" laws. Thankfully, three governors of states ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have recently rejected the anti-conversion laws passed by legislators.

The Indian National Congress party - traditionally nonsectarian and currently in power nationally - seems to have a schizophrenic mentality towards these laws. While the Congress governors in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are contesting the laws passed by the BJP governments, the Congress leadership allowed the state of Himachal Pradesh - where the Congress party is in power - to pass an anti-conversion law despite wide spread protests by civil society groups.

This catering to a "soft-Hindutva" line has been one of main reasons for the demise of the Congress Party in northern states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and the Hindi heartland. Those who want Hindutva do not opt for the softer version. They go for the real thing. And anyway the majority of oppressed peoples and the minorities do not want Hindutva because it will not deliver freedom, dignity and development for the masses. The people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, two of India"s most populated states, have repeatedly demonstrated this.

The present Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit woman, reportedly is building a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the city of Lucknow which will stand taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York. If this really happens it would be a fitting symbol of liberty and equality within the Indian nation as we celebrate our 60th birthday: an Ambedkar statue with the Constitution in his hand. The Hindutva founders declared over 60 years ago that they would discard the present Constitution in favour of a ‘Hindutva" Constitution! I don"t think it will ever happen.

There is good news for the Dalit campaign for freedom, equality and empowerment. The IT Indian giant Infosys recently set an example by picking dozens of Dalit candidates and training them for India"s IT sector. Bharti, the company that owns Airtel which is perhaps India"s largest mobile phone operator, has followed and just announced they wi