Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com

by Declan Walsh
ISLAMABAD - Decorum was abandoned as accusations ricocheted between the wood-panelled walls of Pakistan’s national assembly on Monday night. “Murderers! Murderers of innocent people!" screamed an MP from a religious party, his yellow turban shaking as he wagged a finger towards the government benches.

Five female parliamentarians, their faces concealed behind black and white burkas, slapped the benches with open palms. Another mullah stood up and started shouting. The speaker strained to maintain order.

Others were less captivated by the debate on last month’s siege of the Red Mosque, in which more than 100 people died. One man snoozed at his desk. Across the vast hall others started whispered conversations. And high above them Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a dapper man with a pinched, clean-shaven face, looked on impassively from his giant portrait on the wall.

In August 1947 Jinnah founded Pakistan in the hope of forging a homeland where the subcontinent’s Muslims could live in peace and harmony. Sixty years later, it is going badly wrong. The military runs the country, headed by a dictatorial and unpopular general. Huge protests have filled the streets, the courts are defiant and the Taliban control the tribal belt. So, in part, does al-Qaida, and the United States is threatening to use force. Suicide blasts have rocked the big cities - and there may be worse to come.

President Pervez Musharraf’s rule has been “catastrophic" but his regime could yet “turn really nasty" said Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution in Washington and author of The Idea of Pakistan. “The country hasn’t had a crisis of this magnitude since the 1970s when East Pakistan split off and became Bangladesh. But in this case it’s an Islamist movement that wants to transform the country from within."

Nerves are on edge. “We are very scared," said Enver Baig, a senator with the opposition Pakistan People’s party, who says his wife calls him several times a day to check he is still alive. “If we don’t mend our ways, it could spell the end of the country. The Islamists have sleeper cells in every city. We could have a civil war."

Others do not believe the situation to be so grave. The army has ruled for 19 out of the past 30 years and some say the crisis could be a necessary spasm to flush it from power. A secretive meeting between Gen Musharraf and the exiled opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi last Friday has triggered speculation of a power-sharing deal. Neither side has confirmed the details but supporters say it could offer a peaceful transition to “full democracy"; critics call it military rule under another name.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/02/2941/

P. Sainath

NEW DELHI, Sep 3 (IPS) - Palagummi Sainath, winner of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay award in the category for journalism, literature, creative communication and arts, believes that while India has a free press there is a growing disconnect between mass media and mass reality, arising from monopolistic trends.

In an interview with IPS correspondent Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Sainath who is widely respected for his reportage on rural issues, says that the ‘dumbing down’ process is actually pure business strategy on the part of media moguls.

IPS: How have you seen journalism evolve in India over the last 30 years or so?

Palagummi Sainath: The last 20 or 30 years have been really a process of growing concentration of media ownership. Normally, we look back at how media has been changing in technological terms, its spread and reach. But what you are also seeing is the rising clout of a very few owners that really diminishes diversity and marginalises the smaller voices in the media. The game has become far more expensive. So, the richness or diversity is dying even though the numbers are proliferating. The statistics show all sorts of growth.

IPS: What has this meant for ethical standards? Reporting should be balanced and should provide the full story, different points of view, the proper perspective, the historical, social and economic perspectives.

P.S.: Again, what I am saying is that the culture and the mindset that monopoly creates, the homogenisation, creates this situation.

IPS: In the name of being first with the news, ‘facts" are published which may not be verified, allegations are made which may not be substantiated, and the basic duty of trying to get the other side of the story is ignored.

P.S.: This is the low end of what people are fond of calling the ‘rat race’ in the media. As far as I am concerned, the rat race in the media is over. The rats have won. These are fringe battles but they still mean a lot of damage to the credibility of the profession, to the craft and the practice of the profession. It’s just incredible, the kind of low-end competition that is there. If there is an earthquake and if the rival says 20,000 have died, nothing less than 40,000 would do for me. You have to pitch it higher than the other person.

Another way the debate is posed is “serious journalism versus non-serious journalism". I maintain that non-serious journalism is a very serious business proposition. It is a well thought-out business strategy.

IPS: There were large numbers of farmers committing suicide in different parts of the country. For the owners of the media, the newspapers, the magazines and the television channels, what makes news is different. It was the wardrobe malfunction of the model on the ramp and not the plight of the farmer who is committing suicide or what happens to his family thereafter. Journalism is about how, as you rightly pointed out, one makes money. Therefore, you do not have readers and viewers but you have consumers. The idea is to bring the advertiser closer to the consumer. Is it not this mindset which is dominating the major media organisations in our country?

P.S.: Yes, you are right, except that I question the idea — they are not carrying what they see as news; they are carrying what they see as revenue. It is not news — the wardrobe malfunctioning is not news, it is revenue. There are many proprietors who have said so. They said so quite frankly. Journalism is a business, like any other business. Now, I do not think so. Newspapers might be a business or a part of a business. Journalism is not a business but it is a profession. I have a very different take on what journalism is. Bringing out a newspaper is a business, journalism is not.

IPS: If you look at what is happening, for many of these business houses, media is their main business.

P.S.: In fact, in India, you can speak of media monopolies. At a global level, you have monopolies in the media because media is one component, a very vital component, of much larger transnational empires. You have five or six such conglomerates in the world. You have News Corp. and you have Time Warner. Some of these corporations are into the armament business; they are into multinational banks; they are into airlines; they are making rockets. One of them is actually a part of the U.S. mint.

IPS: Is journalism a business or is it something more than a business? An Indian proprietor has gone on record saying that it is not in any way different from producing soap or toothpaste or whatever. Actually it is, because you cannot sell yesterday’s newspaper today. But you can sell yesterday’s packed toothpaste for the next six months at least.

P.S.: There is also no direct link between the price of a newspaper to the consumer and the cost of production because 90 percent of your revenue is coming from advertisements.

IPS: Whenever there is talk about restrictions on cross-media ownership, namely that one particular newspaper group or one particular media organisation should not dominate all media in a particular area, be it in print, radio or television, there is a big hue and cry. When you say that there are restrictions in the U.S. or Australia, they say there is an attempt to curb freedom of expression, a right enshrined in the constitution of India.

P.S.: This is the point. This is where fraud and hypocrisy stand out at their worst. On the one hand, in dealing with the journalist, dealing with content and dealing with the readers, you (owners) assert that journalism is a business like any other business. The moment your financial interests are threatened, you talk about freedom of press. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If it is a business like any other business, then it has to be regulated like any other business. If it is a business like any other business, you have to have the rights and responsibilities of any other business and you do not have a special dispensation.

IPS: What can be done to uphold journalistic traditions in India, traditions that say a journalist plays an adversarial role to those in positions of power and authority? Hopefully, not all journalists in India will dumb down their audiences and there will be some good guys.

P.S.: I would be a little nastier than this. I would say that the media are the most exclusionist institution in this country. In the worst government, you have the representation of dalits (so-called untouchables), adivasis (tribals) in very important positions. Show me one dalit, one adivasi in the mainstream leadership of the media who counts for something. That is why it shows in our content. There is an absolutely hysterical, abusive attitude towards reservation issues and quota battles. It is as elitist as you can get and it is getting worse.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39121

Thoothukudi (Tamil Nadu, India) SVM News, September 4, 2007: Chandralekha Sankaran, a Dalit woman is the present president of Athichanallur panchayat, near Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. Previously this position was held by Shanker Ganesh, a Thevar, an upper caste man.

After the last election, Shankar Ganesh was elected only as the the vice-president of the panchayat.

In fact, Mrs. Chandralekha Sankaran became the panchayat president, because Athichanallur was converted into a reserved panchayat before the last local body elections.

But now the panchayat facing a serious caste crisis.

Ganesh Sankar, the vice-president has the majority support of the ward members by the base of castes. The six ward members comprised three Thevars, two Dalits and one Nadar. So Ganesh causing delays in the panchayat works.

Any hopes of exercising his will over the panchayat had been quashed since Chandralekha would brook no interference with her duty.

“The vice-president is doing everything to stop me from functioning. He does not like me sitting on a chair in his presence," Chandralekha said to the Salem Voice Ministries (SVM) News Service.

Unable to bear his caustic comments, Chandralekha lodged a complaint with the police, who refused to take action but forced her to reach a compromise on Ganesh"s terms.

Ganesh Sankar had also instigated a lady named Arumuga Vadivu and lodged another complaint to the High Court which stated that eight men in the village had molested her, including Chandralekha"s husband.

Chandralekha approached the High Court stating that this case had been foisted on the Dalits due to the election rivalry, for Thevars could not accept a Dalit as their president of the panchayat.

High Court ordered the local police to lodge a First Information Report regarding this issue. But Dalits do not expect to get justice from the police. In the judiciary they had faith.

The All India Muslim Conference (AIMC) today demanded the immediate implementation of recommendations of Sachar Committee and Shri Krishna Commission Reports and tabling of Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission report in Parliament to address the problems of Dalit Muslims.

The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Tuesday demanded immediate tabling of the Justice Ranganath Commission report on religious and linguistic minorities and implementation of the Justice Rajendra Sachar panel recommendations.
“Muslims are the most backward class and therefore a separate reservation provision in employment and educational institutions should be made for them. To this effect, if an amendment to the Constitution is required, the same should be done," LJP chief and Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan said at the Muslim Conference organised by his party. The LJP demanded that victims of communal riots, including those of the Bhagalpur riots, be compensated like the Sikh victims of 1984 riots. Dalit Muslims should also be provided the same facilities as have been provided to Hindu and Sikh Dalits under the Constitution"s provisions, according to the resolution adopted at the conference.

The resolution also sought constitution of fast track courts for speedy disposal of communal riots cases and proper employment representation of Muslims in the armed, paramilitary forces and state police. The LJP further demanded that separate Urdu universities be opened in the states, which have majority Muslim population so that Urdu can be encouraged.

On the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, the LJP chief said that the Left had its own agenda to oppose any agreement with the US.

Most of these Adivasis live a life of semi-starvation
which cripples their immune system and their bodies
become vulnerable to a host of diseases .In
KBK(Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) region, for better
part of the rainy season, large numbers of Adivasis
have hardly any food to eat and they survive on mango
kernel gruel ,roots,tubers, wild leaves and
vegetables. This tragedy repeats every year. The
historic anti-poverty programme NREGS(National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme) has been launched to
stop precisely this kind of tragedy.The primary
objective of NREGS is to prevent hunger and provide
food security to the rural poor of India.

However, CEFS survey in 100 villages of Orissa has
uncovered that out of Rs 733 crore spent under
NREGS during 2006-7, over Rs 500 crore has been
siphoned off and misappropriated by the government
officials of executing agencies.

Is there any linkage between misappropriation of Rs
500 crore of NREGS funds by government officials and
cholera deaths of 500 Adivasis in Orissa? On the
surface, the link is tenuous. Scratch a little deeper
and the linkage is direct.

To put Rs 500 crore of siphoned NREGS funds in
perspective , this amount of money would have given
about 90 days of wage employment to about 10 lakh poor
families of Orissa. In other words, each of these 10
lakh poor families would have got Rs 5000 as wages.
This amount of Rs 5000 in the context of these poor
and hungry families would have given them 4-6 months
of two subsistence meals or one meal for the whole
year. Therefore, it is not just another financial scam
, callous officials of Orissa have robbed 10 lakh
hungry families" one meal for the whole year or
both meals for 4-6 months. Who is real killer of
Orissa’s Adivasis ?

Please click the following links to see related news
stories in The Indian Express and The Hindu:

http://indianexpress.com/story/214301.html

(http://www.hinduonnet.com/2007/09/04/stories/2007090455200700.htm)

BHUBANESWAR: With more than 5000 tribal children from districts of Orissa staying and undergoing formal and vocational education the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) here, it is now poised to enter the record books as the Asia"s largest residential tribal school.

“My dream is to eventually have a complete tribal university so that tribals who till now have been a neglected lot both socially and politically can come forward to be part of the resurgent India," says philanthropist Achyuta Samanta. The school"s academic record can be gauged from the fact that 90 per cent of its students clear Plus Two and one even topped last year"s National Children"s Science Congress.

The school offers free education from KG to post graduation along with all the facilities that most of the students had not heard of or dreamt about. From well stocked library to hostel and computer centre and vocational training centres to complete medical care, tribal children from most of the 52 tribes in Orissa are a happy lot here.

“Back in the village there was hardly any facility. This school gives us everything that we wanted," says Sunita Hasta, class XI, who was selected as a young reporter and represented India at a conference in Belgium last year.

Hailing from Kuraput district in Orissa which has a literacy level of under 37 per cent, she adds, “Studying along with other students itself is a very learning experience".

KISS, which was started by Samanta with just 100 children in 1993 now offers post graduate courses. Its degrees are recognised by Utkal University, Samanta says.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Education/Largest_tribal_school_to_be_Indias_first_tribal_university/articleshow/2336928.cms

Akash Bisht Robertsgunj, Eastern UP
http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/2007/09/1160

Robertsgunj, a small, sleepy town in UP"s Sonbhadra district, has become the epicentre of a major land rights struggle, especially after the arrest of several social activists and police repression. Roma, a woman leader of the Kaimur Kshetra Mahila Majdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (KKMMKSS) and an active steering committee member of the National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers (NFFPFW), has been charged under the National Security Act (NSA) by the UP police. Her crime: she resurrected human and constitutional rights awareness amongst the landless poor in Sonbhadra with the slogan of ‘Jo zameen sarkari hai, woh zameen humari hai", originally coined by Mayawati in 1996.

Besides, peaceful tribals are branded as Naxalites. Village homes face midnight raids and people are beaten up. Even women are brutally attacked.

Roma, along with three other social activists, who work with landless tribals and dalits in the abjectly backward and poor Kaimur region of eastern UP, was picked up from Robertsgunj in Sonbhadra district in early August on dubious charges framed by the police and forest department. “While Shanta Bhattacharya, Lalta Devi and Shyamlal Paswan have been charged with IPC 143, 144, 447, 34 and IFA 1927- 5/26 and 63, Roma has also been charged under 120(B) of the IPC," informs Ramesh Shukla, a lawyer

representing Roma.

Sonbhadra is the largest and one of the poorest districts in eastern UP. Of its 6,788 sq km area, 3,782.86 sq km has forest cover. The locals call Sonbhadra the energy capital of India because of the vast natural and mineral resources the area possesses. However, for several decades now, the Sonbhadra region and several other districts of eastern UP have been the focus of a protracted land struggle. The struggle is between the forest department and forest dwellers, mostly landless tribals and dalits, for the return of land that the local community claims is their traditional gram sabha land, illegally and forcibly taken over by the forest department in collusion with the police and local landlords. The forest department claims the land as its own and has reportedly refused to negotiate the issue or recognise the rights of these landless and economically impoverished indigenous communities.

The struggle dates back to 1950 when the Zamindari Abolition Act was passed and surplus land of landlords distributed among the poor. Later, as a step towards social and economic justice by way of providing land to the landless and agricultural labour, the Uttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holding Act, 1960 (subsequently amended in 1972), was enforced in the district in1961. It replaced the UP Large Holding Tax Act, 1957. Under this Act, the maximum area of a holding was fixed at 16.19 hectares of fair quality land. If, however, the number of members of the landholder"s family was more than five, he was allowed to retain for each additional member an area of 3.25 hectares, subject to a maximum of 9.72 hectares of such additional area.

“Everyone knows that upper-caste landlords registered large families and took land under names of their servant and cattle, and this is most disturbing to us. Lokpati Tripathi is one of the landlords who registered land under such dubious names but nothing has been done. While our land is forcibly taken away in the name of forests, no one is bothered to check the records of these landlords who are holding huge portions of land that should have been ours," rues Munnabhai, a tribal leader.

After the ceiling on Land Holding Act was implemented, the landlords didn"t want to part ways with their land and lodged various cases in the court on the settlement issue. “Each landlord filed various cases on the distribution of land. This led to overcrowding of courts and delays in the distribution process. More than one lakh acres of land could not be distributed because of the delay in the judicial process benefiting the landlords who continued to till these lands," informs Shukla.

Before Independence, large portions of forest land were under private owners. With the passage of an amendment to the Forest Act, 1927 in 1933, the forest department started taking control of the forests and the tribals and dalits working in these forests were thrown out. After much hue and cry, the government in 1986 ordered a survey of Sonbhadra district to assess the land situation but the survey was conducted in only 20 per cent of the villages and settlement was made only in those areas. This has become the main issue of dispute in the region.

After the passage of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, the debate has shifted. This new law ensures land rights for the forest people on the disputed forestland and thus attempts to end the injustice against the poor, landless forest people. NFFPFW and its constituent KKMMKSS initiated a campaign in the Kaimur region to make the ‘forest people" aware of their rights, in the light of the enactment of the Forest Act, 2006.

Roma pointed out to this reporter at the Robertsgunj district court while still in police custody. “The government arrested me and my colleagues on charges that don"t make sense at all. The forest department filed an FIR against me at Vindangunj police station falsely charging us with inciting land-grabbing by dalits and adivasis of the area. The administration said that my slogan of ‘Jo zameen sarkari hai, woh zameen humari hai" incited the crowds. The truth is: I only used a slogan that was used by Chief Minister Mayawati in 1996. Why didn"t they arrest her when she declared this slogan publicly and repeatedly?" complains Roma.

Since the enactment of the Forest Act in December 2006, tension between the forest department and KKMMKSS has heightened. “The passage of the Forest Act in 2006 by Parliament and Mayawati"s declaration to distribute land to the landless after August 1, 2007 gave more teeth to the movement but it also threatened land-owners and forest officials who virtually owned the land of these poor farmers. In collusion with the police they are doing every bit to suppress the movement and brand these peaceful protestors and dalits and tribals as Naxalites. The Forest department has become the new zamindars in Sonbhadra," says Roma.

However, after the arrest of Roma and her colleagues, the locals blocked roads and held strong protests with women as catalysts and at vanguard. Consequently, in what seems a clear act of vengeance, the police on August 10 came in two jeeps with upper-caste landlords to Chandouli village near Robertsgunj in the night. Heavily armed, they demanded the villagers to produce Bachalal, an active member of the KKMMKSS, before them. When they did not find Bachalal, they barged into his house and attacked his sister-in-law and pregnant sister. They misbehaved with them and other women of the village.

His sister later that night delivered a baby boy with injuries on his head. “I haven"t gone home for the past 10 days as I fear for my life because everyday goons of local landlords come to my house looking for me. I am even scared to go to the police station as they might take me to the forest and kill me and then brand me as a Naxalite," says Bachalal.

The administration is brazenly toeing the police line. They are blaming Roma and her colleagues for instigating people to organise a “violent struggle to grab land". “Roma"s attitude is positive but the speeches she gives are very negative. She incites the crowd to grab land. The Forest Act, 2006, has not been implemented yet and she cannot go on saying ‘Jo Zameen sarkari hain, woh zameen humari hai". I know even Mayawatiji raised the same slogan in 1996 but she is a political person and can get away with it," explains Rajendra Prasad Singh, District Magistrate, Sonbhadra.

He, however, agrees that tribals have not benefited from any of the land reforms and blames the forest department for making the situation so difficult. Says Singh, “I know that there are officials who have the tendency to benefit themselves from all these schemes and suppress the tribals. Their human tendency is to benefit from the poor and impoverished and that"s what the forest department is doing. But even Roma is not right. There needs to be a dialogue and both parties should agree on issues; only then can we arrive at a peaceful solution."

Meanwhile, Shanta has been released on bail while Roma, Shamla and Paswan are still under police custody. NSA has also been withdrawn against Roma and the state cabinet has ordered to distribute the gram sabha land amongst the tribals and dalits who had been tilling the land before August 13, 2007. The Mayawati government has also asked her principal secretary to visit the area and submit an unbiased report to her on the entire land issue in Sonbhadra.

PUCL January 2004