FRONTLINE

MAY 2 2, 2 009

SPACE SPY SATELLITE

WWW.FRONTLINE.IN

PHOTOGRAPHY MARC RIBOUD

INDIAS NATIONAL MAGAZINE

POLITICS ELECTION 2009

RS.20

Tango with Israel 30 Frames of passion 64 Instability ahead 114

Endgame in Sri Lanka

Once the military operations are over, President Rajapaksa
will face the twin challenges of crafting a political solution
and rebuilding devastated lives
 VOLUME 26 NUMBER 10 MAY 9-22, 2009 ISSN 0970-1710 WWW.FRONTLINE.IN

SP AC E
Spy satellite: Tango
C O V ER S T O RY Endgame R.K. Raghavan:
A model judge 90
with Israel 30 The Sri Lankan government is close to Praful Bidwai:
crushing the LTTE, but the battle for the Isolating the BJP 96
FOCU S: ED UC A T I O N Jayati Ghosh:
IN M Y SOR E hearts and minds of Tamils could prove Farmers fury 102
Hub of learning 34
equally tough. 4
WOR L D A F F A I R S BOOKS 73
South Africa:
Zumas burden 48 THE E N G LI S H
U.N. conference LAN G UAG E 78
against racism 51
LE TTE R S 134
Fiji: Crisis island 54
Thailand: Power play 58
Summit of the Americas 61

P H OTOG R A PH Y
The art of Marc Riboud 64

E SSAY
Independent voices 79

SC IE NCE
Discovery of a new particle 85

CINE M A
Animated Ramayana 92

TH E STAT E S
Eviction of Chennais
slum-dwellers 98 RELA T ED S TOR I E S
FOCU S: AN N A M A L A I
U NIVE R S I T Y Devastated lives 7 Indias role 21
Campus of excellence 105 Damning indictment 9 Election fodder in
Innovative courses 109 Why LTTE failed 12 Tamil Nadu 22
Realities of war 16 Deploying the
G E NE R AL E L E C T I O N
Halfway and hung 114
Timeline 18 diaspora 26
Tamil Nadu:
Burning issues 117 SPACE
Puducherry: Tight race 120
The recent launch of the spy On the Cover
West Bengal:
satellite RISAT-2 by India Sri Lankan soldiers in Puthukudiyiruppu,
Maoist threat 121 in northern Sri Lanka.
emphasises the widening of
Delhi: A new issue 123
strategic ties between India and PHOTOGRAPH: REUTERS
Himachal Pradesh:
Israel. 30 COVER DESIGN: U. UDAYASHANKAR
Uphill task for Congress 124
Uttar Pradesh: Published by N. RAM, Kasturi Buildings,
C I N EM A
Twists and turns 126 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600 002 and
Bihar: Signs of a shift 128 American director Nina Printed by P. Ranga Reddy at Kala Jyothi

Uttarakhand: BSP factor 129 Paleys feminist visual reading Process Private Limited, Survey No. 185,

Punjab: Patriarchy of the Ramayana draws critical Kondapur, Ranga Reddy District-500 133,

versus royalty 131 attention. 92 Andhra Pradesh on behalf of Kasturi & Sons Ltd.,
Chennai-600 002.
Jammu and Kashmir:
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: N. RAM (Editor responsible
In boycott mode 132
ELEC T I O N 2 0 0 9 for selection of news under the PRB Act). All
rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or
COL U M N As the electoral process
in part without written permission is prohibited.
C.P. Chandrasekhar: crosses the halfway mark,
Tainted money 45 indications are that the nal e-mail: frontline@thehindu.co.in

Bhaskar Ghose: outcome will once again be a Frontline is not responsible for the content of
Danger within 83 hung Parliament. 114 external Internet sites.

F R O N T L I N E 3
Cover Story MAY 22, 2009

Endgame
The Sri Lankan government is
close to crushing the LTTE, but the
battle for the hearts and minds of
Tamils could prove equally tough.
B Y B . M U R A L I D H A R R E D D Y IN COLOMBO

The LTTE is undoubtedly part of the

problem, but its elimination as a
conventional force is not the answer
to the problem. The Tigers are the
byproduct of the long-neglected
legitimate grievances of Tamils.
APRIL 26, 2009, marked the third anniversary
of the assassination attempt on Sri Lanka Army
Chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka by a suspected preg-
nant cadre (it is still not clear if the woman was
actually pregnant or had passed off as one) of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Lt. Gen.
Fonseka suffered serious injuries in the attack,
mounted right inside the Army Hospital located on
the premises of the military headquarters. It took
him over ve months to recover and return to his job.
In a way the attack proved to be a landmark in
Eelam War IV, beginning from August 2006, and
paved the way for the virtual annihilation of the
LTTE as a conventional force. Three years and ve
days later, on the afternoon of May 1, as this report is
being penned, the military map of Sri Lanka has
changed beyond the wildest imagination of any Lan- The military and the government are convinced
ka watcher. The hunter has become the hunted and that inside the NFZ Prabakaran and other top-rung
vice versa. Tiger leaders are holding innocent citizens as a last
The LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabakaran, having wall of defence against the rapidly closing-in mil-
lost all the 15,000 square kilometres of land he lord- itary. Whether Prabakaran is inside the NFZ or not,
ed over in the east and the north prior to commence- the plain reality is that the defeat of the LTTE as a
ment of Eelam War IV, has ed into the conventional force is irreversible at least for several
government-earmarked no-re zone (NFZ) and tak- years to come.
en shelter among an unknown number of civilians. The fate of Prabakaran, who has led the LTTE

4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
P R E SIDE N T M A H I N D A R A J A P A K S A
Kilinochchi on April 16.
from the front for almost three dec-
ades, has been a topic of vigorous anal-
ysis. In case he has escaped or decides
to ee the battle zone, he is scripting
his own political obituary. In the other
scenario of the LTTE chief going down
PRESIDENTS OFFICE, SUDATH SILVA, HO/AP
welcomed by Army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka when he visited
ghting, he would end up as a mar- Until there is clarity on the fate of
tyr, a prospect that does not augur Prabakaran, the suspense over the out-
well for a peaceful resolution of the come and consequences of Eelam War
ethnic conict. In either case, the im- IV will continue. The military and ex-
plications are serious and perts whose articles are featured el-
unpredictable. sewhere in this issue have dwelt at
F R O N T L I N E 5
 MAY 22, 2009

length on where, why and how only to return as a high-prole ofcial the battle front, it went the extra mile
Prabakaran and his fellow-travellers in his brothers government. The De- to ensure that the mistakes of the past
blundered during the nearly three- fence Secretary and the Army chief were not repeated and that the soldiers
year phase of the current war. proved to be a lethal combination for were offered maximum protection.
Among the vital miscalculations by the LTTE. The President backed them The motto, in the words of the Army
the LTTE, the first and foremost was to the hilt even when some of their chief, was: Go for the kill, maximum
the Tigers naivety in believing that actions evoked strong disapproval casualties and destruction of infras-
Mahinda Rajapaksa as the President within and outside the island nation. tructure of the enemy with minimum
of Sri Lanka was a better bet than his The duo faced innumerable charg- possible damage to the troops.
opponent and United National Party es of intimidation and targeting of The current phase of hostilities
(UNP) leader Ranil journalists and political witnessed the maximum use of air
Wickremesinghe. Ironi- opponents of the Presi- power. Despite an estimated 20,000
cally, the Tigers worked dent but always aerial sorties, it is only in the last phase
assiduously to put Raja- emerged unscathed of the war (from December 2008) that
paksa in the presidential with the blessings of the the military faced ak for alleged in-
saddle and despite this highest authority in the discriminate bombing.
the November 2005 land. With the Presi- Of course, the human costs have
presidential race ended dent in charge of the been enormous. The military concedes
in a photo-nish. The Defence portfolio and that it lost 4,200 soldiers and ofcers
LTTE had clearly un- his brother as the De- and claims to have killed 20,000 Ti-
derestimated Rajapak- fence Secretary, the war gers. There is no independent conr-
HAND OUT

sas determination and budget was no con- mation of the losses the LTTE
acumen in executing his straint though the suffered.
electoral promise of LT T E C H I EF V ELU P I LLA I economy of Sri Lanka The LTTE just could not match the
ght to nish the Ti- Prabakaran, a February was in dire straits. government on any front. The way Ra-
gers on the ground. The 2009 picture. Until what The President and japaksa handled international pres-
LTTE believed that the has happened to him is his team tapped all pos- sure in general, and Indian
electoral alliance of Ra- known, the outcome and sible sources for de- expectations in particular, was best re-
japaksa with the ultra- consequences of Eelam fence supplies, at times ected in the 56-word statement is-
nationalist Janatha Vi- War IV will remain a causing discomfort to sued on April 27 promising to stop
mukthi Peramuna suspense. India. The ranks of the using heavy weapons in the NFZ. It
(JVP) and the Jathika military, all the three was much ado about nothing and it
Hela Urumaya (JHU) and his pledge wings put together, swelled to over does not require a genius to under-
to scrap the 2002 Norwegian-broker- 200,000 and the allocation for de- stand it.
ed Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) and fence for 2009 was pegged at Rs.177.1 The obvious question is, what
throw out Norway as the ofcial peace billion ($1.66 billion). Sri Lankas ratio next? The LTTE is undoubtedly part of
facilitator would further its Eelam of soldiers to population (under 20 the problem, but its elimination as a
agenda. million) must be one of the highest in conventional force is not the answer to
Rajapaksa and his core group the world. the problem. The Tigers are the bypro-
made a political determination in Au- On the political front, the Rajapak- duct of the long-neglected legitimate
gust 2006 to launch a ght to nish sa government adopted a shrewd strat- grievances of Tamils, and unless these
campaign against the Tigers after the egy, borrowing some of the LTTEs grievances are addressed the cause
latter gave the much-needed opportu- own tactics, such as continuing to would remain.
nity and excuse when they closed down make politically correct statements on In the immediate context, the big-
the Mavil Aru sluice gates in the east. matters of peace, development and gest challenge for the Rajapaksa regi-
The presidential core team in the cam- steps towards conict-resolution me is to ensure the basic minimum
paign included his younger brother while meticulously planning oper- facilities to the two lakh-odd displaced
and Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Ra- ations for an all-out war. The facade of people. It is beyond the capability of
japaksa, and Fonseka, both of whom the CFA was kept alive until January the government to cope with the chal-
had scores to settle with the Tigers. 2008 and it did not ban the LTTE as a lenge and it would have to bank on the
In December 2006, after the at- terrorist outt until the rst week of international community for generous
tempt to kill the Army chief, suspected January 2009 when Sri Lanka became help. For the help to ow unhindered,
Tiger cadre targeted the Defence Sec- the 31st country to proscribe the the government has to treat the in-
retary, who had retired as a colonel organisation. ternational community with respect
from the Army almost two decades ago On the propaganda front, too, the and stop looking at hidden agendas
and settled down in the United States government imitated the LTTE. On where none exists.

6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
Cover Story

Devastated lives
The plight of the internally displaced people in northern Sri Lanka is
unimaginable. B Y B . M U R A L I D H A R R E D D Y I N K I LI N OC H C H I , P U TH U K U D I Y I R U P P U A N D P U TH U MA TH A LA N

Those pouring in from the

no-re zone were shrunk and
sick old men and women with
little children clinging to them.
Barefooted and empty-handed,
they could hardly walk.
IS it Sri Lanka or Ethiopia? That was the spon-
taneous reaction of a Western journalist, who was
part of a 49-member team of foreign and local jour-
nalists on a visit to the no-re zone (NFZ) in north-
ern Sri Lanka, as he spotted a group of emaciated
and visibly ill Tamil civilians walking gingerly to-
wards the military checkpoint at Puthumathalan.
The journalists were on a military-conducted
trip four days after the Sri Lanka Army (SLA)
breached the three-kilometre-long earthen wall-
cum-bund built by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) to halt the advance of the troops and
prevent civilians from escaping from the NFZ.
The breaking of the three-metre-high embank-
ment in the early hours of April 20 resulted in a ow
of 1.15 lakh civilians into government-controlled ter-
ritory over the next six days. It began as a trickle but
turned into a ood within hours and grew into an
avalanche over the next four days. On the day the
media team visited the area, more than 1.05 lakh
people had crossed into government-controlled ter-
ritory.
A sense of disbelief and shock was writ large on
the faces of those trudging in as also the military
personnel entrusted with the task of ushering them
in after a preliminary screening. With three suspect-
ed cadre of the LTTE blowing themselves up amid
the early groups of eeing civilians, to take a chance
U.N. HANDOUT/AFP

in executing what came to be dubbed as the worlds

largest-ever rescue mission would have meant
courting death.
The people of northern Sri Lanka are among the
toughest communities in the world and dignity of life A D I S P LACE D TA M I L woman at a government
is of supreme importance to them. The harsh weath- camp in Vavuniya.

F R O N T L I N E 7

BU IL D I N G S D A M A G E D I N the military action at Puthukudiyiruppu.
er conditions under which they eke out
their livelihood, coupled with more
than two decades of conict, have
earned them the distinction of being a
hardy race.
Looking at the ghostly images
emerging from the NFZ under a blis-
tering afternoon sun on April 24, one
wondered if they were the same peo-
ple. The instant reaction of the West-
ern journalist did not seem misplaced.
Of those pouring in from the NFZ
were shrunk and sick old men and
women with little children clinging to
them. Barefooted and empty-handed,
they could hardly walk. As the report-
ers and photojournalists descended on
them looking for sound bites and pho-
to opportunities, they appeared dazed
and bewildered. Presumably, they had
not had a decent meal in weeks if not
months. Living under the constant
fear of death for nearly two years, they
looked like walking corpses.
It would be no exaggeration to sug-
gest that this proud community had
not faced such a prolonged period of
agony, trauma and humiliation in
their 2,000-odd-year history. The
tragedy of the people of northern Sri
Lanka has few parallels in recent histo-
ry. Imagine the plight of a people set-
tled over a geographical terrain of over
15,000 square kilometres the area
under LTTE occupation before the
military operations began in the north
in March 2007 suddenly nding
themselves squeezed into a 19-sq-km
hole facing the sea. On the day the SLA
launched the rescue mission, the
KANCHAN PRASAD
NFZ was down to an area of 12 sq km.
Sometime in the third week of Feb-
ruary, the military demarcated a 20-
sq-km area along the edge of the Mul-
laithivu coast as a no-re zone even as
it engaged the Tiger cadre in their last
remaining strongholds in Mullaithivu
district. But how was the message of
the creation of an NFZ to reach the
civilians caught in the middle of the
war? Even if it did reach them, how
would they gure out the area that
constitutes the NFZ? These are valid
questions that have no answers in a
war situation.
TIGERS RETREAT
Sometime in the last week of March
the LTTE began losing the last re-
maining stretches of land it held and
by April 4/5 it had lost the convention-
al military battle and the last inch of its
territory. True, several hundred cadre
and dozens of middle-rung leaders
fought until their last breath and per-
ished. However, the top rung, presum-
ably including its chief, Velupillai
Prabakaran, retreated into the NFZ,
taking with them civilians as hostages.
In doing so they shunned the repeated
offers of the government and pleas
from all parts of the world to end the
conict.
Sections of the Tamil diaspora are
entitled to be guided by information
dished out by Tiger outts across the
globe. But it would be the height of
naivety to ignore the outcry of 1.15 ci-
vilians who crossed from the NFZ into
government-controlled territory.
8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
Daya Master, the media coordina-
tor of the LTTE, and George Master,
the ofcial interpreter of the late polit-
ical wing chief, Thamilchelvan, could
be traitors and renegades in the eyes
of die-hard LTTE supporters. But
would they be magnanimous enough
to suspend their convictions for a brief
while and care to listen to what the two
had to say about the Tigers conduct,
particularly in the past few months,
towards the very citizens whose cause
they claim to espouse? True the pre-
recorded confessions of the two senior
ofcials of the LTTE were telecast on
the Sinhala racist, government-run
television channel, Rupavahini. Yet, it
is worth a listen at least for a change if
not for anything else.
For all the impressive gains made
by the military with much less collater-
al damage than feared, the govern-
ment does not cover itself with glory on
the subject of stranded civilians in the
war zone. For months before the April
20/24 avalanche of eeing civilians,
the government was engaged in a
high-decibel debate on the number of
people stranded in the war zone.
The estimates of the United Na-
tions and other international agencies
were between two and four lakhs. Of
course, the last census in the Northern
and Eastern provinces was carried out
in 1981, and no one had any reliable
estimate of the civilian population in
the areas that were once under LTTE
control.
As the military kept up its steady
advance into the Wanni and there was
no trace of civilians, the government
went into denial mode, and with a ven-
geance. All kinds of motives were attri-
buted to everyone who questioned the
governments gures that the number
of civilians in the war zone could not be
more than 40,000.
HUMAN SHIELD
It is indeed astonishing how a govern-
ment equipped with some of the best
technology in the form of satellite im-
agery, unmanned aerial vehicles and
human intelligence and the backing of
virtually the whole world could have
erred in its estimates by over a lakh.
MAY 22, 2009
Damning indictment
THE University Teachers for Hu-
man Rights-Jaffna (UTHR-J), in its
report dated April 17, three days be-
fore the great escape of more than
one lakh civilians from the grip of the
LTTE in northern Sri Lanka, does
not spare either the military or the
LTTE, but the former shines in com-
parison with the latter.
Here are some excerpts from the
report, which capture the plight of
the civilians:
A young mother is injured and
her three-month-old baby killed by
shell fragments as she breastfeeds
the child in the government-de-
clared no-re zone. Parents hide
their children in roughly dug bun-
kers to escape LTTE press gangs who
comb the no-re zone for conscripts.
A woman loses her husband to
sniper re and the toddler he was
carrying too drowns when they at-
tempt to wade across a lagoon to
escape the no-re zone. A father is
shot in the head by LTTE members
as he attempted to ee with his
family.
We seldom receive independent
accounts of current developments in
the Wanni. The information provid-
ed in this bulletin is an exception.
Given below are some cross-checked
facts drawn from persons who re-
cently escaped from the Wanni,
which give the lie to the govern-
ments claims that it does not re on
the civilians and show clearly the
LTTEs cynical use of civilians as
bargaining chips.
Shells fall in the no-re zone al-
most every day and take a heavy toll
on civilians. Persons in regular touch
with those who have escaped con-
rm that an average of 15 to 20 peo-
ple die each day; either killed by
shells or shot by the LTTE attempt-
ing to drive fear into would-be escap-
ees.
The military is presently stationed
some distance away from the lagoon.
Thus they are able to spot movement
including movements of LTTE
vehicles within the no-re zone.
Typically, they rain a few shells soon
after spotting a militant vehicle mov-
ing within the zone.
Persons who escaped on April 8
said that about the same day, the
army announced over speakers tied
high up on palmyra trees instructing
the public to come across the lagoon
into their area immediately, as they
were going to advance into the no-
re zone. Soon afterwards, they red
a large shell right into the midst of
the public, apparently to goad them
into complying. This reportedly
caused heavy casualties among the
public.
Many escapees from the no-re actions and would be detrimental to
zone testied to a heavy recruitment
drive by the LTTE. The minimum
age for conscription is now 14. There
is no ceiling set on the maximum
number that could be taken from
one family.
The LTTE has recently started the
practice of sending out teams of six
cadre with instructions for each
team to return with 30 conscripts. If
they fail they are reportedly subject
to heavy and often lethal
punishment.
The LTTE, conned and re-
duced by steady attrition, poses no
threat to the government. It is mere-
ly postponing the inevitable, placing
more and more conscripts and chil-
dren before missiles of the govern-
ment, whom it is happy to blow to
smithereens.
This has been true for several
months and a government with a
minimal sense of responsibility
should have looked to other political
means.
Two paragraphs in the report de-
F R O N T L I N E 9
serve particular attention. They
read:
The Tamils all over the world
have been mobilised by the expa-
triate LTTE lobby, making use (one-
sidedly) of their very real and legiti-
mate concerns on the plight of scores
of thousands of civilians trapped in
Wanni. This distortion of reality
would at best make a short-term im-
pact on the international commu-
nity and a section of the human
rights community, but in the long
term it would founder on the rock of
credibility. LTTE abuses against Ta-
mil civilians would inevitably come
to light, even in a context where in-
dependent observers were being
kept out by the government. It would
further undermine the prospect of
making the State accountable for its
Lanka and in particular her minor-
ities.
While the expatriate campaign
is focussed on the Genocidal Sri
Lankan state (an accusation that re-
quires deep scrutiny), it whitewash-
es the LTTEs crimes against its own
people whom it holds hostage. The
LTTE and its expatriate backers are
no less party to the large-scale killing
of Tamil civilians by misrepresent-
ing civilians as staying with the
LTTE voluntarily and turning a
blind eye to its abuse of the people
and their children who are con-
strained to die in large numbers. In
doing so, they enable the Sri Lankan
state to argue that they are legiti-
mate targets. Rather than help to
resolve the conict, it would drive
the communities further apart and
allow the government to muzzle and
goad the Sinhalese on an obscuran-
tist course behind patriotic slogans,
against an alleged worldwide con-
spiracy against them.
B. Muralidhar Reddy

AT THE K A D I R G A M H camp in Chettekulam in the north, Tamils who ed the war zone.
The irony is that the count is not over
yet. As of the morning of May 1, the
Tigers still held seven square kilo-
metres of land in the NFZ with an
unknown number of civilians as hu-
man shields.
The government does not seem to
have learnt any lesson from its blunder
and insists that the number of civilians
still under the grip of the Tigers cannot
be more than 20,000. What is the ba-
sis for this assessment? In the words of
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollaga-
ma, This is what we have learnt from
Daya Master.
How did so many civilians get
caught in the war and ultimately end
up as hostages in the war zone? In the
course of the military campaign, which
began in July/August 2006 in the east
and in September 2007 in the north,
the military seized 15,000 sq km of
territory from the LTTE. A substantial
chunk of this territory is spread across
the ve northern districts of Mannar,
Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu
and Jaffna.
The Army marched through 70-
odd small- and medium-sized towns
and villages under the administrative
control of the LTTE in the north.
These included Kilinochchi, the so-
called administrative and political
headquarters of the Tigers which fell
on January 1, and Mullaithivu, the
LTTEs military hub and the main base
of the Sea Tigers, which came into mil-
itary hands on January 25.
By then only 5,000-odd civilians
had crossed over to government-con-
trolled territory or reported at the go-
vernment camps set up for internally
displaced people. So, where did the
civilians disappear as the military took
town after town and village after vil-
lage in the ve northern districts?
The Joint United Nations North
East Situation Monitoring Report for
December 2008 put the number of in-
ternally displaced people in the north
1 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
at 2.73 lakh. The report was released
before the fall of Kilinochchi and Mul-
laithivu towns, which were presumed
to have a sizable civilian population.
GHOST TOWNS
Correspondents based in Colombo,
who were taken on conducted tours to
areas captured by the military in the
north, were struck by the sight of ghost
towns and villages for hundreds of
miles.
The vast majority of the civilians
obviously moved ahead of LTTE cadre
as the Army advanced. A close look at
most of the captured towns and villag-
es suggests that people moved out with
whatever they could carry and erected
temporary shelters deep inside LTTE
territory. So, the civilian population
faced repeated displacement as it ed
the advancing troops.
For several months now, the go-
vernment has accused the LTTE of us-
ing civilians as human shields and of
MAY 22, 2009
not allowing them to cross over to
government-controlled territory. This
charge was subsequently borne out by
testimonies of civilians who escaped.
However, there appears to have been
two different phases for the civilians.
They initially opted not to cross
over to government-controlled territo-
ry out of fear and distrust and chose to
move into Tiger-held territory. After
two decades of Tiger propaganda that
the Sri Lankan military was out to an-
nihilate Tamils, and with the deepen-
ing Sinhala-Tamil divide, brought
about by opportunist politicos of the
majority community, the civilians had
good reason to be worried at the pros-
pect of being interrogated by the mil-
itary on their links with the LTTE. The
government did little to allay their
apprehensions.
Besides, in terms of the logistics
involved, the repeated shifting of such
a large number of people would not
have been possible by force alone. Also,
PEDRO UGARTE/AFP
policing the civilians when it was en-
gaged in the war would have been
tough for the LTTE.
The governments September
2008 order to all U.N. and interna-
tional non-governmental organisa-
tions (NGOs) to move out of
LTTE-controlled areas perhaps made
things worse for the civilians.
There is no denying that the go-
vernments war strategy did not factor
in the interests of civilians trapped in
the rapidly shrinking LTTE territory.
But the LTTE cannot escape primary
responsibility for conning such a
large number of citizens to a battle
zone that was slipping out of its con-
trol. The LTTE leadership undoubted-
ly considered their presence as the best
insurance against the advancing
forces.
Indeed, the frenzy that the LTTEs
propaganda machinery whipped up
from September onwards on the hu-
manitarian crisis in the Wanni in the
F R O N T L I N E 1 1
international community in general
and in Tamil Nadu in particular sug-
gested that the Tigers hoped to invite
international/Indian intervention in
the name of the plight of civilians. But
its appeals for a ceasere failed to
evoke any response.
The LTTE had lost its credibility
within and outside Sri Lanka, and the
world had had enough of its tactics of
embracing war and truce depending
on what suits it.
For all its expressions of concern
on the safety of civilians, on the ground
the LTTE prepared for an all-out war
for nearly three years with forced
recruitment from every family in terri-
tories under its control. According to
Rajan Hoole of the University Teach-
ers for Human Rights-Jaffna (UTHR-
J), in 2006 the LTTE made it manda-
tory for every family to send at least
one ghter to sign up for its troops and
enforced the diktat by raiding homes
and abducting minors when they
turned 17.
The escape from the terror grip of
the LTTE has not meant the end of the
ordeal for the civilians. Speaking to the
media after touring camps for people
who ed ghting, John Holmes, U.N.
Under-Secretary-General for Human-
itarian Affairs and Emergency Relief
Coordinator, said on April 27 that Sri
Lanka was trying to cope with what
amounts to two quite distinct crises.
There are still tens of thousands of
people trapped on a small patch of
territory in the north, with the LTTE
refusing to let them leave, and with
ghting continuing, said Holmes.
The second crisis is the swollen camps
that are lling up with 200,000 people
who ed the ghting, many in very
poor condition, with more likely on the
way soon.
The large numbers arriving at
Omanthai checkpoint in such a short
space of time stretched the govern-
ments capacity to cope, and our capac-
ity to help, said Holmes. But we are
now making progress with basic ser-
vices such as shelter, water and food.
Nevertheless it is a long way to go be-
fore we can achieve anything like satis-
factory conditions.
Cover Story MAY 22, 2009

Why LTTE failed

Its performance in Eelam War IV glaringly displayed Prabakarans limitations
in mastering the art of conventional warfare. B Y R . H A R I H A R A N

His monolithic and egocentric leader, Velupillai Prabakaran, built a loyal network
of cadre the Black Tigers whose deadly suicide
leadership style does not encourage terror attacks changed the course of political history
in Sri Lanka and to a certain extent in India also.
the free exchange of ideas within Now the insurgents stand reduced to a few hundreds
and have lost their entire territory of over 15,000
the organisation and his handling square kilometres and their equipment, weapons,
armament and infrastructure so essential for surviv-
of the international community al as a viable entity.
The LTTE demonstrated its prowess with a dar-
lacked coherence. ing suicide attack on Colombos Katunayake inter-
national airport, destroying 26 military and civil
SRI LANKAS security forces appear to have aircraft, in July 2001, just four months before Al
redeemed their professional reputation with their Qaedas dramatic 9/11 attacks in New York. It sent a
resounding success in the fourth edition of the Ee- strong message to Sri Lanka and the world at large
lam War, which has been going on since 2006 that the LTTE was a formidable force not be tried
against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with. But the consequences of the 9/11 attack on the
(LTTE), popularly known as the Tamil Tigers. They global attitude to terrorism was far-reaching. The
were not able to achieve decisive results against the U.S. marshalled forces for a global war on terror to
LTTE in their three earlier outings. destroy Al Qaeda and its roots in Islamist terror. And
The United States Federal Bureau of Investiga- the LTTE was already listed in the U.S. as a foreign
tion (FBI) had rated the Tamil Tigers as among the terrorist organisation.
most dangerous and deadly extremists in the world. The late Anton Balasingham, a close condant of
The FBI said the LTTEs ruthless tactics have in- Prabakarans and the political adviser to the LTTE,
spired terrorist networks worldwide, including Al apparently understood the need to modify the LTTE
Qaeda in Iraq. So, the security forces success strategy in the face of the rising tide against terro-
against the LTTE should rism. He persuaded a re-
not be underestimated, luctant Prabakaran to
particularly when similar agree to take part in a
wars against insurgents Norwegian-mediated
and terrorists in other peace process, deferring
countries, including Af- the idea of an indepen-
ghanistan, have been dent Eelam in favour of
dragging on. nding a solution to ac-
The LTTE, over the commodate Tamil aspi-
past 25 years, has built a rations within a federal
SENA VIDANAGAMA/AFP
KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP

15,000-strong force that structure. That was how

innovatively adapted its the 2002 peace process
suicide war tactics to came into being.
both land and naval war- The LTTE signed the
fare with deadly results. Cease Fire Agreement
It mastered the use of ter- A N T O N B A LA S I N G HA M , THE LTTEs political (CFA) with Sri Lanka in
ror tactics as a force mul- adviser. A 2003 picture. (Right) Lakshman 2002 as part of the peace
tiplier. The LTTEs Kadirgamar, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister who process from a position of
charismatic and ruthless was assassinated in 2005. political and military

1 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009

strength, having weathered four wars

three against Sri Lankan security
forces and one against Indian forces. It
was at the pinnacle of its power at that
time. To a certain extent, this enabled
the Tamil Tigers to dictate the terms of
the peace process, which recognised it
as the sole representative of the Tamil
minority, a status denied to it earlier.
Thus, the peace process accorded par-
ity of status to the LTTE at the nego-
tiating table in its equation with the
elected government of Sri Lanka.
By then, the repeated stories of
LTTE successes, propagated by its
well-oiled propaganda machine that
glossed over its signicant failures (for
example, the retaking of control of
Jaffna by the Sri Lanka Army), rein-
forced the popular belief of Prabak-
arans invincibility in war. It also
generated great political expectations
among the Tamil population of his
ability to satisfy their long-standing
aspirations through the peace process
although he had dropped the demand
for an independent Tamil Eelam. All
that has been proved wrong now.
Winston Churchill once remarked,
Those who can win a war well can
rarely make a good peace and those
who could make a good peace would
never have won the war. This is very
true in the case of Prabakarans han-
dling of events leading up to the war.
His monolithic and egocentric leader-
ship style does not encourage the free tion manifesto, to eliminate LTTE ter- cent when it came to observing the
exchange of ideas except with his trust- rorism. Prabakaran not only ignored ceasere in spirit. The LTTEs con-
ed childhood friends. This has been the this but, on the basis of some convolut- duct, which was in utter disregard of
big roadblock in his strategic decision- ed reasoning, enforced a boycott of the international norms on human rights
making process. Prabakaran failed to presidential poll in areas under LTTE and humanitarian laws during the en-
use fruitfully the political talent at his control. This action prevented a bulk tire period of the ceasere, came under
disposal, among the seasoned mem- of the Tamils from voting for Wickre- severe criticism from international
bers of the Tamil National Alliance mesinghe. This enabled Rajapaksas watchdog bodies and the United Na-
(TNA), in handling complex political victory with a wafer-thin majority tions. These related to a large number
issues during the period of peace. through southern Sinhala votes. And of issues, including the recruitment of
Their advice was neither sought nor the newly elected President went child soldiers, illegal arrests and kid-
paid heed to in taking decisions on key about systematically dismantling the napping apart from the assassinations
issues. The LTTEs handling of the LTTE. and suicide bombings. This made the
presidential poll of 2005 is one such Similarly, Prabakarans handling LTTEs rhetoric on human rights hol-
instance when their plea for his sup- of the international community lacked low.
port to elect Ranil Wickremesinghe, coherence. Apparently, he misunder- While the co-chairs were sympa-
an architect of the peace process, went stood the international involvement in thetic to the Tamil struggle for equity,
unheeded. the 2002 peace process and thought it they were wary of the LTTEs tactics
Wickremesinghes rival, Mahinda was a vindication of the LTTEs meth- and covert operations in their own
Rajapaksa, had promised, in his elec- ods. Perhaps this made him compla- countries. And the LTTEs indiffer-

F R O N T L I N E 1 3

ence to their counsel during the peace
process eroded its credibility. Things
came to a boil with the assassination of
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Laksh-
man Kadirgamar in August 2005. This
wanton act compelled the European
Union and Canada to ban the LTTE.
Thus, the LTTE shot itself in the foot
as it was banned in 32 countries. The
ban also coincided with the introduc-
tion of strong international protocols
in shipping and against money laun-
dering to prevent the international op-
erations of terrorists.
Prabakaran probably failed to ap-
preciate the implications of these de-
velopments when he gave the
government a legitimate excuse to
abandon the peace process after the
LTTE made an abortive suicide attack
in April 2006 on Lieutenant General
Sarath Fonseka, the Army chief. It also
enabled Rajapaksa to persuade the in-
ternational community to crack down
on the LTTEs support network and
front organisations in their midst. In-
ternational cooperation was further
enlarged in scope to intelligence shar-
ing and economic aid, which indirectly
underwrote Sri Lankas mounting bur-
den of war.
Similarly, Prabakaran never made
any effort before the war to redeem the
LTTEs relations with India. He failed
to tap the fund of sympathy for the
Tamil cause that exists in India even
among large sections of the non-Tamil
population. Presumably, his dubious
role in Rajiv Gandhis assassination
prevented him from dispassionately
examining the positive contribution
India could have made in pushing the
Tamil cause at the negotiating table.
Apparently, he put his faith in the in-
ternational community rather than in
India to bail him out when the Sri
Lankan government decided to go to
war. This showed a lack of understand-
ing of the complexities of international
relations. On the other hand, succes-
sive Sri Lankan Presidents went out of
their way to keep India in good hu-
mour and that helped the country po-
litically and militarily in its war with
the LTTE. In Eelam War III (1995-
2002), the performance of the Sri Lan-
kan security forces was far from satis-
factory. By then, the LTTE had
developed the Sea Tiger wing a dar-
ing guerilla navy that played havoc
with the Sri Lanka Navy. The Sri Lan-
ka Army had suffered heavy casualties
in defending Mullaithivu and suffered
a huge setback in Elephant Pass de-
spite its superior strength and repow-
er. In that operation, the LTTE
acquired its modern artillery, armour
and high-tech communication sys-
tems apart from capturing equipment.
At the start of the peace process,
the security forces were a demoralised
lot. The terms of the peace process
further added to their misery as it pre-
vented them from retaliating when the
LTTEs pistol groups systematically
eliminated the forces intelligence op-
eratives and killed even military com-
manders during the rst three years of
peace. In this backdrop, no one was
sure of the ability of Sri Lankas forces
to sustain an offensive against the
LTTE when Eelam War IV started in
2006.
Even after the LTTE defeat in Ma-
vil Aru in the Eastern Province in July
2006, the security forces were cautious
in their optimism. However, the LTTE
belied the defence analysts expecta-
tions when it oundered in the Eastern
Province, offering stiff resistance only
in patches. Perhaps, it was at this time
that Rajapaksa and Fonseka made up
their minds to go the whole hog
against the LTTE in the north.
Although Prabakaran has demon-
strated strategic military capability in
the past, he appears to have failed to
draw two obvious strategic deductions
in the developing war scenario, which
put the LTTE at a disadvantage. The
rst was not factoring the impact of the
defection of Karuna, his able military
commander from Batticaloa, on the
LTTEs overall military capability. The
second was in underestimating the de-
termination of Sri Lankas political
and military leadership to turn Raja-
paksas promise to eliminate the LTTE
into a reality.Prabakaran never made
any effort to patch up with Karuna,
who had grievances with respect to the
poor representation of easterners in
1 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
the leadership although they provided
the bulk of the LTTE cadre. Instead, he
dispatched killers to eliminate Karu-
na. The rebel leader commanded wide
support among cadre in the east, par-
ticularly around LTTE strongholds in
Batticaloa. A direct consequence of his
defection was the disbanding of a bulk
of LTTE cadre, other than Karunas
core supporters. It also drove Karuna
into the arms of the Sri Lanka Army for
protection. So when the war started in
the east, the LTTEs strength as well as
its manoeuvring space was reduced.
In the course of time, recruitment
from the east to augment LTTE
strength petered out. Ultimately,
when the security forces launched
their offensive in the north with huge
numerical superiority, the LTTE did
not have the essential strength to face
the onslaught. It was clear that the
LTTE would not be able halt the secur-
ity forces by conventional warfare.
However, somehow Prabakaran
failed to use his superior insurgency
tactics to overcome his limitations in
conventional warfare. Instead, the
LTTE adopted a passive defensive
strategy with a line of bunds that re-
duced the natural advantage of gueril-
la mobility enjoyed by the cadre. The
bunds imposed a limited delay as they
required heavy repower to break up
the offensive. This was a luxury that
the LTTE did not enjoy.
The second aspect was the LTTE
leaders failure to read the mind of Ra-
japaksa. In his rst two years in ofce,
the President had oriented his entire
policy framework towards the goal of
eliminating the LTTE. His strong sup-
port to the operations of the security
forces, regardless of national and in-
ternational compulsions, enabled the
Army chief to plan and execute his
offensive.
His strategic direction of war, op-
erational planning and neat execution
undoubtedly paved the way for suc-
cess. In the words of Lieutenant Gen-
eral Satish Nambiar, the distinguished
Indian Army ofcer, Fonseka dis-
played the qualities of a great military
leader nations are blessed with from
time to time. In short, under Fonse-
MAY 22, 2009
to women LTTE ghters in Batticaloa district
KAR U NA (R I G H T ) S PE A K I N G
on Womens Day in March 2004. Prabakaran failed to take into account the
impact of Karunas defection from the LTTE on its overall military capability.
kas leadership, the demoralised
armed forces reinvented themselves to
become a well-knit and highly motiv-
ated force.
As a result, when the security forc-
es went to war in 2006, they were well-
trained and enjoyed superiority in re-
power and mobility. Learning from the
past, they built up force levels on land,
in the air and at sea to ensure success
against the Tamil Tigers. The Sri Lan-
ka Army went on a recruiting spree.
For instance, in the year 2008 alone
40,000 troops were added, to raise 47
infantry battalions, 13 brigades, four
task force contingents and two divi-
sions. The Army now has 13 divisions,
three task forces and one armoured
brigade. Evidently, Prabakaran failed
to read the sea change taking place in
the capabilities of the security forces
and adapt his tactics. Instead, he stuck
to a conventional warfare mode that
was doomed to fail although it inicted
casualties on the advancing troops.
Fonseka adopted a multi-pronged
strategy to split the defending Tamil
Tiger ranks and keep them guessing. It
aimed at pinning down the LTTE at
SENA VIDANAGAMA/AFP
the forward-defended localities as-
tride the Kandy-Jaffna A-9 road in the
north from Kilali-Muhamalai-Nagar-
kovil and in the south along the Pala-
moddai-Omanthai line. This
prevented the LTTE from thinning out
the troops to reinforce its defences
along other axes.
Offensives along two broad axes
were launched: along the Mannar-
Pooneryn/Jaffna A-32 road on the
west coast to block LTTE access to
Tamil Nadu through the Mannar Sea
and along the Welioya-Mullaithivu-
Puthukudiyiruppu line on the east
coast. Operations on these axes pro-
gressively cut off the external supply of
military equipment and essential
goods to the LTTE by sea. In tandem
with ground operations, the Sri Lanka
Navy progressively curtailed the free-
dom of movement of Sea Tiger boats
and prevented LTTE shipments from
reaching the Sri Lanka coast. In well-
planned raids in international waters,
the Navy destroyed eight ships of the
LTTEs tramp supply shipping eet in
2006-07.
Despite faltering steps at times, the
F R O N T L I N E 1 5
security forces maintained the mo-
mentum of their offensive in the north
from the second half of 2007, which
culminated in the dramatic capture in
January 2009 of Kilinochchi, the so-
called administrative capital of the
LTTE. This capture contributed large-
ly to the rapid advance of the security
forces in areas east of the A-9 axis,
which never gave the withdrawing
LTTE a respite or permitted it to deliv-
er a strong counterstroke.
In the present Eelam war, except
for a short-lived surprise offensive in
the Jaffna peninsula in the early stages
of the confrontation in the north, the
LTTE was never able to launch proac-
tively a major offensive or a sizable
counteroffensive against the security
forces that would have turned the
course of the war.
The LTTE strategy of carting off all
the civilians from captured areas to
areas under its control after the fall of
Kilinochchi is questionable. This reac-
tive defence strategy affected the mo-
bility of cadre, pinning them down to
static defences rather than allowing
them to adopt a resilient mobile with-
drawal strategy. This strategy neither
prevented the security forces from us-
ing their heavy weapons or air force
nor vindicated the LTTEs use of civil-
ians as human shields. It only generat-
ed adverse publicity, and that the
security forces were also blamed for
the same callousness in dealing with
ordinary people is no consolation as
they have emerged as victors.
The performance of the LTTE in
Eelam War IV glaringly displayed Pra-
bakarans limitations in mastering the
art of conventional warfare. As he is an
astute military leader, if he survives the
current ordeal, he will put on his
thinking cap to reinvent the LTTE, just
as Fonseka reinvented the security
forces when he took on the monumen-
tal task of reviving them and leading
them to war.
Colonel R. Hariharan is a retired Mil-
itary Intelligence specialist on South
Asia and served as the head of intelli-
gence of the Indian Peace Keeping
Force in Sri Lanka 1987-90.
E-mail:colhari@yahoo.com
Cover Story
Realities of war
A response challenging the calls for ceasere as a solution to the hard realities
around the LTTEs endgame. B Y M I C H A E L R O B E R T S
Given that between 15,000 and
50,000 civilians are still trapped
within the remnant LTTE patch of
5-6 sq km, is the demand for a
humanitarian pause a pragmatic
course that will help the Tamil
people?
WITH the LTTE cornered and restricted to a tiny
patch of isthmus beside Nanthi Kadal Lagoon ever
since April 6, the world has witnessed a menagerie of
world leaders playing the game throw egg on my
face.
On April 22, Hillary Clinton told the world that
a terrible humanitarian tragedy was taking place in
Sri Lanka and demanded a halt in the ghting so that
we could secure a safe passage for as many of the
trapped civilians as possible.
Remarkably, for a superpower leader with access
to up-to-date information Clinton appeared to have
been some 48 hours behind breaking events: name-
ly, the escape of some 107,000 Tamil civilians
(doubtless including Tiger cadre who had given up
the ght) from their hell-hole situation after a com-
mando operation carried out by the Sri Lanka Army
on the night of April 19-20. Alternatively, one must
conclude that Clinton read this miraculous tale as
something that spelt a humanitarian disaster
hence the use of the egg metaphor.
She was not alone. Various world leaders, the
United Nations and its agencies and some human
rights organisations reiterated the call for a ceasere
that they had been parroting for months as a solution
to the hard realities around the LTTEs endgame. It
is this mantra that is challenged here.
As I arrived in Sri Lanka on April 17, I told
Kumari Jayawardena that the ground situation fac-
ing the army was labyrinthine. I could not, I said, see
how it could move forward without generating disas-
trous death rates. Yet, today, we know that the com-
1 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
mando operation was one for the textbook: it
resulted in relatively few non-combatant deaths and
created a path for streams and streams of Tamils to
cross the lagoon and the beach over the next 2-3
days, roughly 110,000 people making this little epic
journey. This, for me, was better than the tale of
Moses crossing the Red Sea. It was both elevating
and saddening.
It was distressing because of the condition of
some of these people, displayed so starkly on camera,
bespeaking the privation they had undergone in the
immediate past. Indeed, as one or two died of de-
hydration or starvation while being bussed or airlift-
ed by the military to the nearest hospitals in
Vavuniya, one knew, now, why the people of Tamil
Eelam had turned their back on the Eelam demand
and the LTTE.
Reports from journalists conrmed that this ex-
istential plight had been aggravated by the draco-
nian measures taken by the LTTE during the past
two months or so. Again, the facial expressions of
those prepared to speak (in Sinhala) on camera con-
stituted a message in itself: May a pox befall the
house of Pirapaharan [Prabakaran] and the Tigers.
These outspoken Tamil individuals would surely
be among those who would cast rotten eggs at Hil-
lary Clinton. Perhaps we should not be surprised at
Clintons insouciance. Nor am I surprised by the
pantomime, a Dance of the Seven Veils, being per-
formed on the electoral platforms in Tamil Nadu. In
a similar fashion, Sri Lankas democratic process has
often revealed how vote-gathering inames ethnic
passions. The LTTEs demise has sparked off an
upsurge of pan-Dravidian sentiment (an issue de-
manding specialist treatment).
But how can Tamil dissidents who are fully aware
of the character of the LTTE also fall into the same
simpleton stance: namely, believing that ceaseres
will help a trapped people? Take Nirmala Rajas-
ingams passionate appeal in the British newspaper
Independent on April 24. While denouncing the
LTTE for its atrocities and asserting, validly, that
the LTTEs exclusivist Tamil nationalism and ex-
treme militarism have led the Tamil community to
this political dead-end, Rajasingam also insisted
that the governments claim that there were few
MAY 22, 2009
IN TH IS PH O T O G R A PH released by the Sri Lanka Navy on April 21, people
ee a beach controlled by the LTTE in the north-east of the island nation.
civilian casualties defy reason, and
spoke of huge civilian losses through
indiscriminate re.
Indeed, she began her essay with
these words: The world has watched
aghast at the level of bloodshed and the
horric plight of the civilians who have
now been under siege for months. She
seems to have been accepted as an au-
thority by The Economist of April 23
(Anon 2009a) which has another
anonymous article, Dark victory,
which notes unequivocally that in its
rush to exterminate the Tigers partly
in justied fear of their skill at manip-
ulating foreign opinion the army has
shown a cruel disregard for Tamil ci-
vilians crowding the battleeld (Anon
2009b).
CASUALITY FIGURES AND
UNREALISTIC DEMANDS
But what exactly is the count of those
civilians killed as against those who
have ed the coop in the past 5-6
months? A U.N. report dated April 24
estimated the death toll among civil-
ians at 6,432, with those injured being
estimated at 13,946. These gures
must be qualied by two sets of facts:
(a) they include individuals who
stepped on LTTE mines and those shot
by Tigers (or killed by suicide bom-
bers) as they ed; and (b) a few of these
civilians would be new conscripts who
had not been issued with uniforms.
Our adjectives must be relative. So,
mean that there was no cavalier bomb-
ing and artillery re on some
occasions.
But the more immediate issue now
is this: given that between 15,000 and
50,000 civilians are still trapped
within the remnant LTTE patch of 5-6
square kilometres, is the demand for a
SRI LANKA NAVY HANDOUT/REUTERS
humanitarian pause (that is, cease-
re in ethical clothes) presented by
concerned agencies a pragmatic
course that will aid the Tamil people in
rump Eelam?
This is not a novel issue. Strident
non-governmental organisations and
human rights voices demanded a cea-
sere from January 2009 onwards. It
prompted my initial essay on Dilem-
mas at Wars End: Thoughts on Hard
let us place these numbers in a com- Realities in mid-February 2009. So,
parative context beside the gure of we have before us a conundrum that
1,75,714 people who reached the go- has been faced over 4-5 months. In
vernment lines by April 24, with addressing the dilemma now, we can
roughly 68,000 having escaped before benet from the experiences in this
April 20 and 107,000 in that remarka- period.
ble moment between April 20 and 23. But to fully grasp the ramications
The dead 6,432 make up roughly 4 we must (a) understand the ultra-na-
per cent of those who have survived. tionalist ideology of the LTTE and (b)
Add the injured, some 13,000 accord- undertake a brief historical summary
ing to the same U.N. report, and one that delineates previous peace-talk
has 20,000 casualties [caused by both failures as well as the steps leading to
sides] set against roughly 170,000 this present Eelam War IV (see time-
freed. While the gures are not to be line on page 18).
laughed at, the death score is not
huge while talk of extermination in TIGER IDEOLOGY
Dark victory, displays mind-bog- Here I am in agreement with Rajas-
gling bias and/or credulity. ingam in her characterisation of the
So what we see here from Rajas- LTTE as militaristic and fascist. Full-
ingam is an emotional outburst from a er elaborations have been provided re-
Tamil heart. That is understandable. cently in cyber-space and a capsule
But, here, the combination of inaccu- version sufces here.
racy (regarding the large number of Every LTTE ghter takes an oath
deaths on April 20-23 not true ac- to sacrice life and soul to the talai-
cording to B. Muralidhar Reddy) and var (leader) Pirapaharan and the
stridency in her outburst suggest that cause of Tamils freedom. This gift-
it is a voice of someone who has been ing of life as weapon, or uyirayutam,
imprisoned in a medieval monastery secured widespread admiration
for centuries and has no awareness of among the Sri Lankan Tamil people
the devastating power of modern from its inception in 1982/83 because
weaponry (or medieval crusades for it bespoke the quality of arppanippu
that matter). If there had been no re- (dedication). The LTTEs capacity to
straint at all in the army offensive dur- withstand the Indian Peace-Keeping
ing the past six months, I can assure Force (1987-89) and then the Sri Lan-
her that we would have had a death toll kan government forces from 1990-
in the 30,000-50,000 range. As caveat 2000 compounded this admiration.
let me stress that this claim does not From then on the LTTE was widely
F R O N T L I N E 1 7

Timeline
A. 1989-90: Peace talks.
B. June 1990: Eelam War II be-
gins after LTTE launches a surprise
move against police stations in the
north and the east.
C. Late 1994: Presidential elec-
tion Chandrika Kumaratunga
elected on a peace platform.
D. January-April 1995: Peace
talks.
E. Mid-April 1995: Mini-Pearl
Harbour sees two gunboats sunk in
Trincomalee by LTTE frogmen.
F. April 1995 - late 2000: Ee-
lam War III.
G. Early 2001: New UNP go-
vernment of Ranil Wickremesinghe
signs Cease Fire Agreement with the
LTTE.
H. April 10, 2002: Prabakaran
and Balasingham hold grand media
event for world press at Kilinochchi.
I. December 2001 to 2004:
Peace talks at different venues with
key points being (a) Sattahip, Thai-
land, September 16-18, 2002; (b)
Oslo, November 2002; followed by
the Oslo Declaration of December 5,
2002 all conrming the LTTEs de
facto demi-nation status.
J. 2001-04: Wickremesinghes
policy of consumer materialism be-
gins to penetrate the fund-starved
terrain of Tigerland and some Tiger
cadres display a fondness for the
good life a process that frightens
Prabakaran no end.
K. December 5, 2002: When
Balasingham, S.P. Thamilselvan and
Karuna return with the Oslo princi-
ples for a political settlement that
secures what can be called pragmat-
ic Eelam, namely, autonomy for the
north and the east within the Sri
Lankan state (Roberts 2002 a, b, c);
Prabakaran tears up the document.
Thus, against the sentiments of his
advisers Prabakaran directs the
LTTE to prepare for war a course I
can conrm from my ndings in the
AFP
P RA B H A K A R AN S I G N S AN
agreement to join the Norwegian-
brokered peace talks with the Sri
Lankan government in Kilinochchi
on February 20, 2002.
course of a visit to Jaffna and Kili-
nochchi in late November 2004 .
L. April 2004 et seq.: Karuna
defects and the Eastern Province is
swept by faction reghts. The
LTTE emerges as winner, but is
clearly weakened as a result.
M. December 26, 2004: Tsu-
nami decimates Sea Tigers and de-
lays LTTE plans.
N. August 12, 2005: Kadirga-
mar is assassinated as the prelimina-
ry step in the LTTE policy of
assisting Mahinda Rajapaksa and
the UPFA to win the presidential
election thereby removing a poten-
tial Prime Minister and a dangerous
Tamil foe.
O. December 2005: Mahinda
Rajapaksa scrapes in as President
with the abstentions of Tamil voters
serving as one factor inuencing his
victory and the support of the Ja-
natha Vimukthi Peramuna and
Jathika Hela Urumaya as another
factor. Thus, by early 2006 one has
two sets of hawks facing each other,
the ultra-nationalist Tamil Tigers
and the chauvinist UPFA regime,
the one totalitarian and the other
restrained by electoral demands, but
leaning towards extra-parliamen-
tary methods.
P. Late 2005: Intifada tactics by
the LTTE in Jaffna peninsula west
1 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
where the government of Sri Lanka
is seen as an occupying army.
Q. August 6, 2006: Mavil Aru
intervention by LTTE sees unde-
clared war breaking out in Trinco-
malee district. This moment
eventually escalates into a full-scale
war on all fronts although the major
focus is the Eastern province. So we
have Eelam War IV.
R. 2007: The Sri Lankan forces
gradually prevail in the East: with
(a) the capture of Vakarai on Janu-
ary 19, 2007, and (b) the nal ascen-
dancy at the Toppigala redoubt on
July 11, 2007, marking two central
victories. After Toppigala, Tiger
power in the east is conned to iso-
lated units in the deep jungle.
S. 2007: Over the course of the
year the Navy intercepts and de-
stroys 10 LTTE supply ships in in-
ternational waters (with the aid of
Indian intelligence networks).
T. Early 2008: the Army begins
to chip away at the LTTE frontline
defences in Mannar district while
threatening them on all other fronts
as well.
U. May-November 2008: Army
breakthroughs see the LTTE lose
control of the north-western coast,
severely weakening its supply lines
from India.
V. Late 2008: The LTTE is
squeezed in by a three-pronged pin-
cer from south, west and northern
edge above Elephant Pass.
W. January 1-2, 2009: The
strategic Paranthan junction town
falls to the Army and the LTTE
abandons its capital Kilinochchi.
X. January 25, 2009: The mil-
itary headquarters of the LTTE at
Mullaithivu is captured.
Y. 2008/09: As the LTTE with-
draws in orderly fashion at different
stages during the moments U to X in
the timeline box, it persuades and/or
forces the Tamil people to move with
the LTTE into the remaining Tiger
territories.
Michael Roberts
MAY 22, 2009

regarded by many Tamils as their best

bulwark against Sinhala domination.
From late 1989, the LTTE took the
innovative step of burying all its dead,
the mavirar (great heroes), in tuyilam
illam (resting places) sites consi-
dered holy. This martyr cult not only
served to inspire and mobilise support,
but also legitimised the LTTE. As one
poem in a Tiger publication presented
matters, the martyr sacrices himself
for the whole by destroying the I
(Hellmann-Rajanayagam 2005; page
134).

PERNICIOUS FORCE
Thus, the LTTE embodied the philoso-
phy of ultra-nationalism, which has
been such a pernicious force in the
contemporary world, pernicious be-
cause it encourages wars in which hu-
man bodies are sacriced in the name
of perpetuating a magical entity, the
body politic (Koenigsberg 2008; page
42).
Both Nazi Germany and imperial
Japan were prime instances of this
philosophy. The fascist Japanese regi-

me of the 1930s and 1940s inculcat-
e[d] in the minds of the people the
idea that all the Japanese, but especial-
ly the soldiers-to-be, must sacrice
their lives for their country (Ohnuki-
Tierney 2006; page xiii). You are
nothing, your nation is everything,
said Hitler on one occasion (Koenigsb-
erg 2009; page 13). This leads Eck-
steins to the conclusion that in Nazi
thinking the individual was the na-
tion. The nation had been telescoped
into the dynamic individual (1989;
page 195, emphasis his).
In encouraging and enforcing an
exodus of people from the western half
of the Jaffna peninsula in late 1995 and
now, again in late 2008-09, in effect-
ing a similar programme for the people
of the northern Wanni, the LTTE was
adhering to its self-conviction that
Prabakaran, the Tigers and the people
were one.
Before evaluating the recent di-
lemmas posed by this strategy, it is
wise to consider the temporal steps
that brought about this situation (see
timeline). One of the lessons emanat-
B O X ES O F S U P P L I E S are delivered by a helicopter to the Menikfam Vanni
refugee camp near Chettekulam in northern Sri Lanka on April 29.
ing from this process is the fact that
whenever war resumed after a period
of talks/ceasere, at points B, F and
Q/R in our timeline, it moved to a
higher pitch of weaponry and death
than previously. That is, escalation of
death and destruction was the end re-
sult of each failed ceasere.
As clearly, one signicant devel-
opment during Eelam War IV was the
stage when the overwhelming superi-
ority in manpower and weaponry
available to the Government of Sri
Lanka began pushing the LTTE into
retreat at points U, V, W and X, that is,
from roughly April 2008. Under ex-
treme pressure, the LTTE repeated the
strategy it had adopted in Jaffna in late
1995: in metaphoric terms one can say
they became sharks who took the sea
with them.
While some do-gooders and go-
vernment spokesmen claim that this
REUTERS
was a coercive step, that verdict is as
uncertain as it is doubtful. As Muralid-
har Reddy has noted, the Tamil people
distrusted the government and looked
up to the LTTE. In effect, there is
strong support for my contention that
a substantial proportion of the mi-
grant body was attached to the Eelam
cause and the Tigers at least initially.
This was an exodus of biblical pro-
portions. However, no one knew the
exact proportions. As the mass of peo-
ple were squashed into smaller por-
tions of Tigerland, the U.N., the
NGOs, and human rights activists be-
came understandably anxious about
the prospect of large-scale deaths in
the furnace of war. Agitated voices
peddled gures ranging from 250,000
to 400,000 in a denitive tone. The
compassionate goal of human care was
not balanced by any care of caveat.
Propagandist goal and frenzied voice

F R O N T L I N E 1 9
 MAY 22, 2009

ensured that their picture was a proph- ment considered them citizens and not continued military stalemate. It is as if
ecy of doom with maximal gures for Eelam Tamils. But as critical was the the shout of ceasere will provide
maximal impact. These gures were fact that the civilians on the one hand some form of Immaculate Salvation to
the platform for strident demands that and the outsider prophecies of doom the civilian mass within the LTTE fold.
both parties in this vicious war should about their fate on the other together But I, for my part, do not have such
agree to a ceasere and do so immedi- provided the LTTE with a large stack faith in divine intervention.
ately. The blame game usually pointed of bargaining chips. Always bold in No one has challenged subsequent
equally at both parties to the conict. their militarism, the Tigers hoped to articles where I explained my readings
The ethics promoting such claims gamble their way to a peace table with of LTTE ideology and why they would
without any qualifying caveats regard- this body of people-chips. It is this bar- expect the civilian mass of Eelam Ta-
ing the numbers quoted was one as- gaining power as much as the human mils to come die with us as one
pect that I questioned in my essay shield they provided for Tiger ghters internally displaced persons who got
(Roberts 2009a). But that was a minor that I consider to be the main reason away told a reporter some time back
quibble. The main issue raised then in for this brilliant, if callous, policy of (Roberts 2009c). Thus guided, I even
February 2009 was embodied in a people-exodus. feared that the LTTE and the people
simple question: How would a cease- None of these considerations was would indulge in a devotional pact of
re [implicitly a bilateral one] help the addressed by the bevy of voices direct- mass suicide in the manner of the Ja-
body of civilians in the immediate fu- ed against my original article by both panese at Saipan and Okinawa. Thus
ture if they continued to remain in Sinhalese human right activists and far, thankfully, that conjectural fear
Tigerland by choice or under duress? Tamils. The moral high ground of fu- has been shown to have no foundation.
My question was then backed up by the ture political ends, and the doom I am pleased that I was wrong. In the
simple note that a resumption of war awaiting the downtrodden Tamil mass conditions of privation they have been
would nd the civilians in similar dan- in Tigerland, subsumed reasoned re- forced to undergo in the past three
ger. Or, one can add, in the light of past sponse to my central questions. Not months, the Tamil people of the exo-
experience, in even greater danger. one person indicated how they could dus have revolted against the LTTE
Supporting this critical question persuade the LTTE to release the civil- and voted with their feet (or boat in a
was a clarication of the character of ians. Instead, both my critics, the U.N. few cases).
the LTTE state and its ideology togeth- and its agencies, human rights activ- It would be far too harsh to say they
er with a series of pictures that graphi- ists and Tamil dissidents have contin- have moved from frying pan to stove.
cally revealed the LTTEs extensive ued to press for ceasere as if it will Their conditions now are a distinct im-
programme of mass mobilisation and save the Tamil civilians thosai for the provement of welfare from their state
paramilitary training for its civilian days to come. in the last few months. But internment
population from the year 2007 at the camps and second, class status togeth-
very least. THE REALITY OF CEASEFIRE er do not comfort make. It remains to
One did not need to be a rocket Even though two unilateral govern- be seen whether the government will
scientist to conclude that an author- ment ceaseres (of admittedly short seize the moment and convert sullen
itarian command state such as the duration) produced no benecial re- Tamil citizens into normal com-
LTTE would value its civilian mass as a sults and only led to a military setback plaining citizens of the variety one
source of new conscripts and a labour for the government of Sri Lanka in the nds everywhere.
pool, as well as a source of some food rst instance (circa January 31) cease- Michael Roberts is a Rhodes Scholar
supplies (however inadequate) sent re remains a mantra in many circles. for Ceylon (1962) and has taught His-
what weird generosity by the Sri Lan- No thought is given to the long-term tory at Peradeniya University and An-
kan government because the govern- and fundamental issues attached to a thropology at Adelaide University.
REFERENCES:
1. "The Sri Lankan army could turn triumph into disaster unless it shows restraint", Anonymous 2009a, Economist.com, April 23, http://www.economist.com/opinion/
displaystory.cfm?story_id=13527659.
2. "Dark victory", Anonymous 2009b, Economist.com, http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13527366.
3. Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age by Modris Ecksteins, Anchor Books, New York, 1989.
4. "And Heroes Die: Poetry of the Tamil Liberation Movement in Northern Sri Lanka" by Dagmar Hellman-Rajanayagam, South Asia 28: 112-153, 2005.
5. Nations have the Right to Kill: Hitler, the Holocaust and War by Richard A. Koenigsberg, Library of Social Science, New York, 2009.
6. Kamikaze Diaries: Reections on Japanese Student Soldiers by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, University of Chicago Press, 2006.
7. "The many faces of Eelam" by Michael Roberts, "Daily Mirror", August 8, 2002.
8. "LTTEs ideological retreat" by Michael Roberts, "Sunday Observer", October 13, 2002.
9. "LTTEs pragmatism: at two moments" by Michael Roberts, "Lanka Monthly Digest", May 2003.
10. "Dilemmas At Wars End: Thoughts on Hard Realities" by Michael Roberts, www.groundviews.org, February 10, 2009, and Island, February 11, 2009.
11. "Dilemmas at Wars End: Clarications & Counter-Offensive" by Michael Roberts, www. groundviews.org, February 17, 2009.
12. "Suicidal Political Action" (in four parts) by Michael Roberts, www.transcurrents.com, April 1, 2009, onwards.
13. "LTTE and Tamil People" (in four parts) by Michael Roberts, www.groundviews.org, April 21, 2009 onwards.

2 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
Neighbours concern
India extracts a promise from the Sri Lankan government that the military will
cease using heavy weapons and air strikes in the combat zone. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N
The Indian government has said
that it has got an assurance from
Colombo that the Tamil population
in the island will be re-integrated
fully into the national mainstream,
once the hostilities cease.
SR I L A NK A N PR E S I D E N T Mahinda Rajapaksa (right) greets
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, as Security Adviser M.K.
Narayanan looks on, in Colombo. The senior Indian ofcials met
Rajapaksa to demand an immediate ceasere in the civil war.
AS the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
remains cornered in a small strip of sandy beach,
international diplomatic efforts led by India have
brought about a lull in the ghting. The Sri Lankan
government announced on April 27 that it had or-
dered its military to cease using heavy weapons,
artillery and air strikes in the combat zone, where
tens of thousands of civilians are trapped. The Unit-
F R O N T L I N E
Cover Story
ed Nations estimates that around 50,000 civilians
are still trapped in a 10-square-kilometre area and
that 100,000 refugees are in urgent need of medical
care.
The rising civilian death toll and the calls by the
major parties of Tamil Nadu, including the ruling
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), to the Indian
government to intercede with Sri Lanka prompted
the sudden dispatch of National Security Adviser
M.K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar
Menon to Colombo on April 24. Their main brief was
to impress upon the Sri Lankan government the
need to immediately adopt a more humanitarian
approach to the crisis facing the Tamil population in
the north-east of the island.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also called
for a cessation in the ghting so that aid workers
could reach the conict zone. U.N. Security Council
President Claude Heller, speaking on behalf of all 15
members of the body, demanded that the LTTE
immediately lay down arms, renounce terrorism,
allow a U.N.-assisted evacuation of the remaining
civilians in the conict area and join the political
process.
U.N. agencies have concluded that if ghting
continues and if the LTTE does not allow the people
to leave the conict zone, the number of casualties,
especially among children, will increase dramatical-
ly in the coming days. The agencies estimate that
around 6,500 civilians have been killed and another
14,000 wounded in the Sri Lanka Armys offensive.
The U.N. sent John Holmes, the Under-Secretary-
AP
General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator, to Sri Lanka in the last week of
April.
The European Union (E.U.), which is becoming
increasingly critical of the Sri Lankan militarys con-
tinued offensive, has also sent its top ofcials to
Colombo to convince the Sri Lankan government to
agree to a ceasere. The United States has called on
the Sri Lankan government to offer an amnesty to
most LTTE ghters and open the way for a political
dialogue.
By early 2009, the U.S. and many European
countries had written the LTTE off as a military
2 1

Election fodder
FOR the rst time in the past 26
years, after the Sri Lankan Tamil is-
sue became part of the political dis-
course in Tamil Nadu in 1983, it has
become a talking point on election
platforms in the State. Even as politi-
cal parties used it for political one-
upmanship, they gave the Sri Lankan
issue a wide berth when it came to
making it an election issue. After the
LTTE assassinated former Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991,
the DMK was trounced in the As-
sembly elections with the Congress
and the All India Anna Dravida Mun-
netra Kazhagam (AIADMK), then al-
lies, going to town accusing the DMK
of adopting a soft line on the LTTE.
There were enough indications
from January that the opposition
would not hesitate to use the Sri Lan-
kan Tamil issue in the run-up to gen-
eral elections to excoriate the DMK
and the Congress, partners in the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government at the Centre, on their
inaction in bringing about a cease-
re on the island. The Sri Lanka Army
capturing large swathes of territory
from the LTTE, and the Tamil press
highlighting the killing of Tamil civil-
ians in the crossre, had an impact on
the public mood.
On April 16, at a largely attended
public meeting in Chennai, the
AIADMK-led alliance front compris-
ing the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK),
the Marumalarchi Dravida Munne-
tra Kazhagam (MDMK), the Com-
munist Party of India (Marxist) and
the Communist Party of India (CPI)
made it clear that it would make the
Sri Lankan Tamil problem an issue at
the hustings. AIADMK general secre-
tary and former Chief Minister Jaya-
lalithaa, MDMK general secretary
Vaiko, CPI(M) general secretary Pra-
kash Karat, CPI national secretary D.
Raja and PMK founder Dr.S. Rama-
doss went hammer and tongs at the
M. VEDHAN
Karunanidhi
C H I EF M I N I S TE R M .
with his son M.K. Stalin as he
observes a fast in connection with
the Sri Lankan Tamils issue in
Chennai on April 27.
inaction of the Congress-led UPA go-
vernment at the Centre to bring about
a ceasere and the DMK government
playing a second ddle to it.
Vaiko, who has been consistently
alleging that it is the Government of
India which is waging the war on be-
half of the Sri Lankan government
against the LTTE, said that although
the United States, England and the
United Nations insisted on Colombo
declaring a ceasere, the government
of India had never asked for it.
Raja said India could not abdicate
its responsibility of ensuring a cease-
re on the grounds that Sri Lanka was
an independent country and that In-
dia could not interfere in its civil
war.
Prakash Karat accused the UPA
government of dereliction of duty in
the issue and said if only it had devot-
ed on the Tamil problem one-tenth of
the time it spent in negotiating the
nuclear deal with the U.S., it could
have stopped the war in Sri Lanka.
What has made the difference this
time is the sea change in the stance of
Jayalalithaa on the Sri Lankan issue.
2 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
She had made no bones about her
opposition to the LTTE. During her
earlier tenure as Chief Minister, she
tabled a resolution on April 16, 2002
in the Assembly that if necessary, the
Indian Army should go to the island
and, with the help of the Sri Lanka
Army, capture Prabakaran and that
he should be made to face the trial in a
court of law for his role in the assassi-
nation of Rajiv Gandhi. A few weeks
ago, she had said that Tamil civilians
getting killed in the conict was inev-
itable. However, in the run-up to the
Lok Sabha elections, she rst sig-
nalled a change in her stand when she
declared her support to the Sri Lan-
kan Tamils right to self-determina-
tion and even the formation of a
separate Tamil Eelam.
The AIADMK election manifesto
called for an immediate cessation of
war in Sri Lanka and demanded an
immediate stop to the genocide
against the civilian Tamil popula-
tion. The Tamils, it said, should be
accorded equal status with the Sinha-
la majority, with the devolution of
administrative power to the Tamil-
dominated provinces of Sri Lanka. If
these moves fail, then the AIADMK
will press for a separate State of Ee-
lam to ensure that the Tamils on the
island live a life of dignity, its mani-
festo added.
With Vaiko, Ramadoss and D.
Pandian, State secretary of the CPI
hitting the campaign trail and attack-
ing the DMK government for its ab-
ject inability to force the Centre to
pressure Colombo to declare a cease-
re, the DMK high command real-
ised it was on the backfoot on this
issue. Time was running out too. If
the compulsions of coalition politics
with the Congress had prevented the
DMK from taking up the issue in a big
way, it had to perforce demonstrate
that its sympathies were still with the
islands Tamils.
MAY 22, 2009

On April 9, the Foreign Secretary nanidhi expected a positive outcome.

DMK took out a rally Shivshankar Menon and But nothing came from New Delhi.
in Chennai, demand- National Security Advi- He got a feeling that he was being
ing a ceasere. Chief sor M.K. Narayanan met taken for a ride. But he could not
Minister Karunanidhi Mahinda Rajapaksa in express it openly. Within a couple of
took part in the rally. Colombo on April 24. hours of his embarking on the fast, he

E. LAKSHMI NARAYANAN
He said that there was On April 26, the LTTE got phone calls from Manmohan
no other option in the announced a ceasere Singh, Pranab Mukherjee and Chi-
present situation than but Colombo rejected it, dambaram [Union Home Minis-
to plead, Oh, mother! calling it a joke. There ter], the source said. A few hours
save the Tamils and was no word from New later, Colombo announced the end of
that if the war in Sri Delhi either about what combat operations with heavy cali-
A I A D M K LEA D ER
Lanka were to end was under way. bre weapons, combat aircraft and ae-
J A Y A LA LI T H A A at a
(with a defeat for the It was in this back- rial weapons, which could cause
Tamils), Prabakaran
public meeting in ground that the 85-year- civilian casualties. And Karunanidhi
should be treated with
Namakkal on April 29. old Karunanidhi drove called off his fast.
respect, like the way Alexander the down to his mentor C.N. Annadurais Jayalalithaa, Vaiko, Ramadoss
Great treated King Porus. samadhi in Chennai on the morning and Vijayakant, founder of the Desiya
This provided more ammunition of April 27 and announced that he Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam called
to the CPI, the MDMK and the PMK was beginning an indenite fast to Karunanidhis fast a drama. Jayala-
for a fresh round of onslaught on the sacrice himself to bring about a lithaa said, How can we call the mere
DMK. Karunanidhi comparing Sri ceasere. The move stunned the Cen- stoppage of dropping of bombs a
Lankan President Mahinda Rajapak- tre. Karunanidhi told reporters that ceasere?
sa to Alexander the Great had made he had decided to go on an indenite Meawhile, Jayalalithaa has sig-
the Tamils hang their heads [in fast because his hopes about the cea- nalled that she was serious about her
shame], said Ramadoss. Tamil Na- sere were dashed when Colombo re- newfound enthusiasm for Eelam. She
tionalist Movement leader P. Ne- jected the ceasere announced by the asserted on April 25 that if the next
dumaran said the mischievous LTTE. Since the Sinhala govern- government at the Centre were to be
desire of the Chief Minister will never ment in Sri Lanka never came for- formed with the help of the AIADMK
be fullled. ward to make such an and if that government were to heed
With no ceasere in sight despite announcement, I began this fast to the AIADMKs word, steps would be
its rally and endless pleadings to the sacrice myself and to be counted as taken to establish a separate Tamil
Centre, the DMK called for a bandh one of the lives extinguished by the Eelam. I will take the required steps
in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Sri Lankan Government, the Chief for it. Formation of Eelam is the only
April 23 to press the Centre to initiate Minister said. way to nd a permanent solution to
steps for a ceasere and protect the There are two versions about the the Sri Lankan problem, she said.
Tamils. On April 17, Karunanidhi had reason behind Karunanidhi taking Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal
sent telegrams to Prime Minister this step. One version goes like this: described her demand for Tamil Ee-
Manmohan Singh, Congress presi- Shivshankar Menon and Narayanan lam as anti-national and irrespon-
dent Sonia Gandhi and External Af- met Rajapaksa and requested him for sible. In a sharply worded reply to
fairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee a ceasere on April 24, he reportedly Sibal, she said, I am a patriot to the
requesting the Centre to snap all dip- agreed that he would announce a cea- core and I do not need Kapil Sibal to
lomatic relations with Sri Lanka if it sere in a few days after the elections teach me lessons in patriotism. I have
did not heed Mukherjees call for a to the western provincial council stated that a separate Tamil Eelam
cessation of hostilies. The Chief Min- were held on April 25. The news was should be carved out in Sri Lanka.
ister sent another telegram to them also reportedly conveyed to Karuna- How can that be an anti-national act
on April 2 asking them to give an nidhi. But the Chief Minister jumped in India?
ultimatum to the Sri Lankan govern- the gun and went on a fast to put As the election campaign hots up,
ment for an immediate and perma- Rajapaksa on the mat and to get cred- it is clear that the AIADMK-led front
nent ceasere and save lakhs of it for the ceasere if it came about. has hijacked the Sri Lankan Tamil
Tamils the war-like situation in The second version, an informed issue from the DMK and that the
Sri Lanka is alarming and that the DMK source gave, was: after the two DMK is in despair.
plight of the Tamils is very critical. Indian envoys met Rajapaksa, Karu- T.S. Subramanian

F R O N T L I N E 2 3

force. It is effectively nished except
as a guerilla outt, wrote Robert
Rotberg, a Harvard University expert
on intrastate conict. He, however,
stated that the guerilla war could con-
tinue if Velupillai Prabakaran, the Ti-
ger chief, escaped the Sri Lanka Armys
net.
The E.U. has signalled to the Raja-
paksa brothers Mahinda Rajapaksa,
the President, and Gotabaya Rajapak-
sa, the Defence Secretary that the
collateral damage being inicted on
the Tamil populace is no longer accep-
table. In 1997, the U.S. placed the
LTTE on the terror list and most Eu-
ropean countries followed suit. For the
past three years, the international
community has tacitly supported Ma-
hinda Rajapaksas abrogation of the
2002 ceasere and the military oper-
ations that followed. The Sri Lankan
government had characterised the
ght against the LTTE as its own war
against terror.
SHOW OF DISPLEASURE
The Sri Lankan government, in a show
of displeasure at the increased Euro-
pean diplomatic activity in recent
weeks, went to the extent of denying a
visa to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl
Bildt, who was to be part of an observer
mission of E.U. Foreign Ministers. The
U.S., the E.U., Norway and Japan are
responsible for overseeing the Sri Lan-
kan peace process, which was started
with great fanfare in 2002. British
Foreign Secretary David Miliband,
who was part of the E.U. observer mis-
sion, told reporters in Colombo that
they wanted an immediate end to the
ghting. The international commu-
nity has been asking for a ceasere, not
to save Prabakaran but to allow civil-
ians to leave and for long-term peace
in Sri Lanka, said Miliband.
The Indian government, which has
come in for considerable criticism
from many regional parties in Tamil
Nadu, says it has got an assurance
from Sri Lanka that the Tamil pop-
ulation on the island would be rein-
tegrated fully into the national
mainstream once the hostilities
ceased. External Affairs Minister Pra-
nab Mukherjee, in a statement in the
last week of April, said that India re-
mained concerned about the fate of the
civilians trapped in the conict zone
and that the government was in con-
stant contact with the Sri Lankan go-
vernment. The Sri Lankan President
was planning to send Basil Rajapaksa,
his brother and close adviser, to India
in early May to apprise the govern-
ment of the steps taken to address In-
dian concerns.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram
told the media that he considered the
Sri Lankan government more at fault
for preferring the military option military supplies, intelligence and
rather than negotiations to resolve the
Tamil issue. Chidambaram is facing
the electorate in Tamil Nadu, where
Sri Lankan issue has become an emo-
tive one. Chidambaram had also made
the allegation that China was trying to
gain diplomatically at Indias expense
in Sri Lanka. He told a national daily
that China was shing in troubled wa- The Indian External Affairs Ministry
ters.
The E.U. has
signalled to the
Rajapaksa
brothers that
the collateral
damage is not
acceptable.
Chidambaram described China as
a lone, discordant voice among all of
the global community. India consid-
ers Sri Lanka to be within its zone of
inuence. Hu Shicheng, an expert at
the China Institute of Contemporary
Studies, told a Chinese newspaper that
the criticism was groundless. He said
that the interests of the two countries
overlap in South Asia, and it was in
the mutual interest of both Beijing and
New Delhi to promote peace in Sri
Lanka.
China and Pakistan have been sup-
2 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
plying military hardware and giving
training to the Sri Lanka Army. China
is also helping Sri Lanka build a mod-
ern port in Hambantota. The Indian
media have reported that the two se-
nior Indian government emissaries
who were recently in Colombo con-
veyed their misgivings about the con-
tinued sourcing of arms and munitions
from China and Pakistan by the Sri
Lankan government. During the dis-
cussions with the Rajapaksa brothers
on mutual concerns, the Indian dele-
gation, according to reports, promised
Sri Lanka assistance in the areas of
training.
New Delhis top priority is to en-
sure that immediate relief is provided
to the civilian population displaced by
the long-running conict. India also
wants the Sri Lankan government to
accelerate the process of rehabilitating
the huge number of displaced people.
issued a statement calling the cessa-
tion of hostilities an important step.
The statement said that urgent steps
were needed to ameliorate the situa-
tion of those who had come out of the
conict zone. Every measure must be
taken to protect them and guarantee
their welfare, the statement said.
India also wants Sri Lanka to im-
plement at the earliest its devolution
package for the Tamils promised in
the Sri Lankan Constitutions thir-
teenth Amendment. This amend-
ment was part of the 1987 India-Sri
Lanka Agreement. If implemented, it
would devolve powers to elected bod-
ies in the Tamil-dominated north and
east of the country. New Delhis posi-
tion on the Tamil question has been
clear and consistent since the late
1980s. It is against a separate state for
the Tamils but at the same time wants
a genuine devolution of powers to the
Tamil-majority areas. New Delhi is
trying to ensure that Tamils are given
their legitimate political rights. There
is a fear that a chauvinistic section of
the majority community will want
victors justice to prevail in the after-
math of the LTTEs military defeat.
During the visit of the two senior
MAY 22, 2009

DAVID GRAY/REUTERS
FR E NCH F O R E I G N M I N I S T ER Bernard Kouchner (second from left) and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband
(centre) listen to local ofcials on their visit to the Menikfam Vanni refugee camp located near Chettekulam town in
northern Sri Lanka on April 29. Kouchner and Miliband urged the government to implement a humanitarian
ceasere in order to allow civilians to escape the battle zone.
Indian ofcials, the request for the ex- de-mining team to the north of the Party of India, on the other hand, has
tradition of Prabakaran, if and when country once the conict winds down. been critical of the Indian govern-
he was captured, was formally re- A temporary, 100-bed hospital ments handling of the Sri Lankan cri-
newed. New Delhi has been demand- manned by Indian medical personnel sis. The Bharatiya Janata Party, in a
ing that the rebel leader stand trial in will be set up inside Sri Lanka to treat statement, said that the Indian go-
India for his role in the assassination of the civilian casualties of the war. vernment should retain the option of
Rajiv Gandhi. Senior Sri Lankan of- The Communist Party of India imposing sanctions on Sri Lanka and
cials themselves are not too condent (Marxist) Polit Bureau has welcomed withdrawing the Indian High Com-
of ever catching the elusive Tamil lead- the Sri Lankan governments decision missioner from Colombo if the killing
er alive. to halt combat operations. A CPI(M) of innocent civilians continued.
The Indian government has an- statement said that the move should None of the major national parties,
nounced a Rs.100-crore emergency re- pave the way for the rescue of the civil- however, supported All India Anna
lief package, including food packets for ians trapped by the ghting. The party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
90,000 families, for the displaced peo- also asked the LTTE to facilitate the (AIADMK) leader J. Jayalalithaas call
ple in the war zone. New Delhi has safe passage of civilians and not to de- for a separate Eelam (homeland) for
announced that it is planning to send a tain them by force. The Communist the Tamil minority.

F R O N T L I N E 2 5
Cover Story
Deploying diaspora
After having brought Tamils to the verge of disaster, the LTTE is putting the
diaspora on a confrontational course with Western governments. B Y D . B . S . J E Y A R A J
In one swift move, the LTTE
exposed its true colours. The
diaspora demonstrations now openly
espouse the Tiger cause. The poor
civilians have been abandoned.
IN 1989, this writer attended a conference orga-
nised by the pro-Tiger publication Tamil Voice In-
ternational in London. Among the participants were
politicians and bureaucrats from India such as P.
Upendra, S. Unnikrishnan, Aladi Aruna, N.V.N. So-
mu, K. Veeramani, A.P. Venkateswaran and Saman-
tha Datta Ray.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupil-
lai Prabakaran sent a felicitatory message to the
conference. The delegates, consisting mainly of
members of the worldwide Sri Lankan Tamil diaspo-
ra, were shocked by a reference in that message.
Prabakaran described the diaspora as tholaintha
santhathi or lost generation.
The diaspora representatives were seething with
anger but were unable or unwilling to challenge the
Tiger supremos poor opinion of them. Despite
members of the diaspora playing an important role
in the affairs of the LTTE, that organisation regarded
those who had left the homeland (pulam peyarn-
thor) generally with contempt. The LTTE described
them as people who had deserted Tamil Eelam at a
critical juncture.
A former LTTE spokesperson told a German
journalist that the expatriates were traitors. The
LTTE poet laureate Puthuvai. Rathinadurai called
them dogs. That opinion began to change as more
and more Tamils left Sri Lanka as refugees to swell
the numbers of a global diaspora. Even as contribu-
tions to the LTTE decreased at home, the funds from
abroad increased. In recent times, the shrinkage of
the LTTE sphere of control in the island has resulted
in the reduction of the Tigers revenue base also.
Thus, the Tigers who had at one time ridiculed the
diaspora were compelled to rely more and more on
2 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
funds raised from it. The bizarre twist was yet to
come. With the LTTE getting gradually boxed into a
tiny strip of coastal territory in the Assistant Govern-
ment Agent division of Karaithuraipattu in Mul-
laithivu district, the endgame for the Tigers began.
The fate of Prabakaran itself was a big question
mark.
Desperate, the LTTE turned to the diaspora. The
wheel had turned full circle. The LTTE claiming to
liberate the Tamil people now started looking to the
pulam peyarnthor to extricate itself from the morass
it had sunk into.
NEED FOR OXYGEN
It was felt that only high-level pressure exerted by
the international community could compel Sri Lan-
kan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to call off the
offensive and enter into negotiations with the LTTE.
The Tigers gasping for breath needed oxygen. For
this task, the LTTE hierarchy thought that the Tamil
diaspora would be the trump card. Sections of the
diaspora in Western countries would mount pres-
sure on their respective governments and make them
pressure Colombo. The Tiger lobby in Tamil Nadu
was expected to do the same in India.
An international campaign focussing on the
plight of Tamil civilians in Tiger-controlled territory
was to be orchestrated. Charges of genocide were
raised. The objective was to use the civilians plight to
pressure the international community into fullling
its responsibility to protect civilians.
The Tigers, who are known for grave political
miscalculations, were way off the mark in this too.
While being sympathetic to the tragedy, the interna-
tional community had a different take on its causes
and possible remedy. The unwritten consensus was
that the LTTE was primarily responsible for the
Tamils plight. The bulk of the Tamil people were
being held against their will by the Tigers. As such
the crisis amounted to a hostage situation. The best
option, therefore, was for the LTTE to release the
civilian hostages and discuss terms of surrender.
But then the LTTE, which is known for its dis-
connect with political reality, opted to go along the
doomed course. The Tigers, underestimating the
MAY 22, 2009
IN TOR ON T O O N April 27, a "Tamil Eelam" ag ies high at a demonstration
held to protest against the Sri Lankan military attacks on LTTE territory.
collective intellect of the international
community, resorted to stratagems
that were patently obvious.
In Tamil folklore and everyday us-
age, there are many sayings and refer-
ences about the tiger. Pasuthhol
porthiya puli is one such descriptive
phrase, which means the tiger covered
in a cows skin or hide.
Metaphorically, this alludes to so-
mething ercely dangerous portraying
itself as harmlessly docile an equiv-
alent of the English idiom wolf in
sheeps clothing. An interesting phe-
nomenon within the global Tamil
diaspora was the carnivorous tiger at-
tempting to portray itself as a herbivo-
rous cow.
NEW PATTERN OF PROTESTS
A new, different pattern was discerni-
ble. For the rst time in many years,
demonstrations and protests were be-
ing staged in Western capitals and im-
portant cities without two familiar
items. One was the portrait of and the
other the ag with the image of a roar-
ing tiger symbolising the LTTE. They
were conspicuous by their absence.
A harsh reality in recent times was
that no signicant public demonstra-
tion or meeting of a political nature
MARK BLINCH/REUTERS
could be convened or conducted by
anti-Tiger or non-Tiger sections with-
in the diaspora.
Though low-key events with ade-
quate security arrangements were held
occasionally by persons independent
of the LTTE, it was virtually impos-
sible to organise something political
on a large scale. Such was the LTTEs
grip on the Tamil diaspora.
With the Tigers enjoying a monop-
oly of large-scale public politics,
most demonstrations and meetings
organised by the Tiger and pro-Tiger
elements usually saw an abundance of
placards with Prabakarans picture
and ags with the tiger emblem.
Against this backdrop, it was in-
deed a noteworthy deviation from the
norm when large-scale political dem-
onstrations and events began prolifer-
ating amidst the Tamil diaspora
without these familiar objects. The
reasons were not hard to seek. Funda-
mentally it was a change of tactics dic-
tated by the politico-military
circumstances in northern Sri Lanka.
The situation back home for the
LTTE was bleak.
Realising fully well that the writing
on the wall was clear for the LTTE if
this trend continued, its supporters
F R O N T L I N E 2 7
and sympathisers began orchestrating
a campaign to save the Tiger.
In what seemed a tactical yet pue-
rile manoeuvre to hoodwink the world
at large, the lead role in these efforts
was delegated to students and youths
who were not openly identied as
LTTE supporters. Well-known LTTE
elements adopted low proles.
In a further bid to show that the
demonstrations were not LTTE-ori-
ented and that the concern displayed
was altruistic in purpose, the tell-tale
signs of Prabakaran placards and Ti-
ger ags were dispensed with.
A FACADE
The demonstrations were shown as
being expressions of concern about the
civilian plight. That this humanitarian
concern was only a facade was exposed
by four factors.
First, no such concern was shown
when civilians in the Eastern province
were in distress owing to the military
campaign or even when civilians in the
north-western regions of Wanni were
affected. It was only when the LTTE-
dominated north-eastern enclave was
under threat that this cacophony for
civilian concern increased in volume.
Secondly, these voices were stri-
dently loud about the damage and de-
struction caused by artillery shelling
and aerial bombardment by the armed
forces but were conspicuously silent on
the atrocities committed by the LTTE
against its own people. There was no
condemnation of the Tigers endanger-
ing civilian life, limb and property by
locating their artillery and mortars in
thickly populated places and engaging
the enemy, thus bringing about inevi-
table retaliatory attacks.
Thirdly, there was no criticism of
the LTTE for preventing sections of
the people eeing its territory for safe-
ty reasons. The LTTE has killed and
injured several civilians for daring to
escape its clutches and seek Army pro-
tection. Only the armed forces were
blamed by sections of the diaspora.
Fourthly, these sections wanted a
permanent ceasere. The United Na-
tions has called for a temporary cease-
re to help facilitate the humanitarian
 MAY 22, 2009

exercise of evacuating entrapped civil- of logic and reason. Their usual role is advocated the soft approach of fo-
ians. But the pro-Tiger elements ag- to generate heat and not to shed light. cussing on the civilian predicament,
itating for civilian protection are not These people started protesting Castro, unwilling to relinquish his
responsive. They want a permanent against the new decision to blackout power, fomented revolt against the
ceasere to safeguard the LTTE. Their the leader and the ag. They remon- diktat through his hard-line loyalists.
intention was to let the LTTE survive strated that it was a betrayal of the In this situation, the LTTE hawks
further by bringing about an end to the struggle. within the diaspora began to gain the
military campaign. They also wanted Aggravating this situation was the upper hand. The earlier, comparative-
the entrapped civilians to remain as cold war between Veerakathy Mani- ly sensible, approach was jettisoned.
human shields in Tiger areas rather vannan alias Castro, the accredited Instead, a deant but unwise decision
than obtain safety and relief in govern- head of the LTTEs overseas branch to pursue a confrontational course was
ment-controlled areas. administration and the newly appoint- adopted.
While these frantic attempts were ed global Tiger chief Selvarasa Path- With this change, the focus shifted.
on, Colombo seemed to be rm that manathan alias KP. While KP The crocodile tears shed for helpless
the military juggernaut should keep on
rolling forward until the Tigers were
rmly dislodged from their positions
and the LTTEs remnants were chased
away. The only way the governments
resolve could have been weakened was
through Indian or international inter-
vention. Despite the endeavours of
pro-Tiger elements and the well-
meaning concern shown by organisa-
tions such as Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch, there
seemed very little hope that the mil-
itary campaign would be called off.
At best, there could be a human-
itarian pause to facilitate evacuation
of civilians but a permanent ceasere
seemed unlikely. This was the real sit-
uation.
However much the Tiger elements
protested and demonstrated about the
civilian crisis, neither Colombo nor the
international community was pre-
pared to budge. Whenever the demon-
strators evinced concern for civilians,
they were informed directly and in-
directly that the best option was for the
LTTE to send civilians out and that
arrangements could be made for that.

TENSIONS WITHIN
Meanwhile, tensions emerged within
the Tiger ranks. The old hands were
getting jittery that the leadership
role was slipping away from their
hands to new sections. They were be-
coming increasingly irrelevant in a Ti-
ger-free environment. Resentment at
their enforced eclipse grew.
JOEL SAGET/AFP

The hard-core Tiger elements were

also becoming unhappy. These emo-
tion-driven sections are usually devoid
MAY 22, 2009
civilians dried up. The demonstrators
and protestors began singing a differ-
ent tune. Instead of lamenting about
innocent civilians, they began de-
manding that the Western nations lift
the ban on the LTTE and formally rec-
ognise it as the sole representatives of
the Tamil people.
The placards showing scenes of
suffering civilians and slogans urging
international intervention were re-
placed by ones supportive of the LTTE.
Placards with Prabakarans portrait
were displayed at demonstrations with
the slogan Our leader Prabakaran.
Tiger ags uttered proudly as crowds
chanted LTTE sole representative.
There was a cosmetic change in the
ag. The two ries at the bottom went
missing in some. The glib explanation
was that the ag with a roaring tiger
sans the rearms was the Tamil na-
tional ag.
The ofcial ag of the LTTE until
then had the image of ries on it. In
one swift move, the LTTE exposed its
true colours.
The diaspora demonstrations now
openly identified themselves with the
Tiger cause. The poor civilians were
abandoned. The tiger had shed its
cowskin and was on the prowl with its
growl.
There had been a slow but gradual
growth of sympathy for the tragic Ta-
mil civilian plight among the govern-
ments, people and the media in the
West. An important reason for this
was the absence of Tiger symbols and
emblems in the public demonstra-
tions. The problem was being viewed
in humanitarian terms and a change of
heart was evolving.
The logical and humanitarian
course to be adopted by the Tamil dias-
pora was to persist with its earlier role
of focussing on the civilian predica-
ment alone. Shifts in public opinion
take time. Instead, the LTTE hierarchy
blundered in a typical fashion by rea-
dopting its earlier hard-line stance.
The civilian plight card had outlived
its usefulness. The confrontational
course of afrming solidarity with an
organisation banned in many Western
countries and expressing loyalty to a
man like Prabakaran as national lead-
er was not going down well with the
mainstream opinion in the West.
This trend in public opinion be-
came more and more visible. Media
coverage began dropping in quality
and quantity. Mainstream Western
politicians, except for a few, started
avoiding demonstrations and meet-
ings where Prabakaran placards and
A T A M I L D EM O N S TR ATI ON in Paris
calling for ceasere in Sri Lanka, on
April 25.
F R O N T L I N E 2 9
Tiger ags were displayed. Things took
a turn for the worse as the LTTE de-
clined further back home. A new mil-
itancy was displayed.
Committing self-immolation, go-
ing on fasts unto death, stopping traf-
c on public roads, storming public
departments and Ministry buildings,
protesting outside embassies, high
commissions and consulates, throw-
ing rotten eggs and tomatoes, vanda-
lising Sri Lankan and Indian
diplomatic missions and other acts in
similar vein started spreading.
A disturbing trend was the tenden-
cy on the part of young activists to
confront the law-enforcement author-
ities. There were also incidents of fric-
tion with members of the Sinhala
diaspora who had commenced
counter-demonstrations.
Sadly, the younger generation of
the Tamil diaspora is being politicised
and radicalised for an unworthy and
unwinnable cause. Moreover, the
demonstrators open identication
with the LTTE had rendered the cam-
paign ineffective with no scope for suc-
cess. It is indeed pathetic to see the
passionate idealism of youth being di-
verted and sidetracked into a dead
end.
This short-sighted conduct of the
LTTE within the diaspora is just one
more instance of the irreparable dam-
age inicted upon the Tamil people by
the Tigers. After having brought Ta-
mils to the precipice of disaster in Sri
Lanka, the LTTE is now compelling
the diaspora to embark upon a con-
frontational course with Western go-
vernments and law-enforcement
authorities.
Unless saner elements among the
Tamil diaspora are willing and able to
protest against the monstrous activ-
ities of the LTTE in their midst, this
trend is likely to continue. Apart from
being totally counterproductive to
their own interests, this conduct of the
LTTE will in the long run stigmatise
the Tamil diaspora as being supporters
of terrorism.
This certainly is not in the best in-
terests of the global Tamil diaspora in
the long run.
Space
Tango with Israel
The recent launch of the spy satellite RISAT-2 by Indias PSLV-C12 emphasises
the widening of strategic ties between India and Israel. B Y R . R A M A C H A N D R A N
The sooner the Indian scientic
community realises the grave
political and national security
implications of this and takes a
principled stand on such matters,
the better it will be for the country.
THE charade put on by the
Indian Space Research Organi-
sation (ISRO) around its twin-
satellite launch on April 20,
aboard the 15th mission of its
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV-C12), was completely un-
called for and, not surprisingly,
unsustainable. It was clear from
reports worldwide that the main
payload of the mission, a 300- T H E T ECS AR S P Y
kilogram radar imaging satellite unkown location.
called RISAT-2, was a micro-
wave-based high-resolution imaging reconnais-
sance (or spy) satellite, which India had procured
from Israel. Radar-based imaging has an all-weather
including cloudy and foggy conditions 24-hour
viewing capability as well as an ability to distinguish
camouaged formations from surrounding terrain.
But ISRO chose to pretend it was a satellite realised
by ISRO in association with Israel Aerospace Indus-
tries [IAI][that] will enhance ISROs capability
for earth observation, especially during oods, cy-
clones, landslides and management of disasters in a
more effective way (emphasis added).
Why ISRO resorted to obfuscation using words
such as realised cannot be fathomed. Insiders say
that it was a decision at the highest level of the
government. ISRO obviously could not say that the
satellite was collaboratively built with the IAI be-
cause it clearly was not. For one, ISROs earth obser-
vation systems specialists are busy sorting out
technical problems with its own radar imaging satel-
3 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
lite, RISAT-1, which was originally slated to go on
PSLV-C12, and it is extremely unlikely that the orga-
nisation has enough specialists to put together an-
other earth observation team for a system with a
totally different technology. It now seems that all the
problems with RISAT-1 have been successfully
solved, and the indigenous radar imaging satellite,
which has a high-resolution reconnaissance capa-
bility, could take to the skies by the end of the year.
Two, if RISAT-2 were a satellite jointly built by
ISRO and the IAI for remote sensing applications, it
would have at least found a mention in the annual
reports of the Department of
Space or in the detailed de-
mands for grants or in the out-
come budgets of the last couple
of years. It did not gure even in
the latest Vote-on-Account
statement for the department.
More importantly, according to
reliable sources, the Hyderabad-
ISRO
based National Remote Sensing
satellite at an Agency (NRSA) is in no way as-
sociated with the mission, which
would not be the case if it were
for civilian remote sensing applications. It would
also be highly unlikely that the IAI would transfer
any technology or even design features necessary for
the integration of the satellite with bought-out parts,
such as the highly innovative ve-metre-diameter
dish-shaped Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that
forms the heart of the spacecraft.
Given that ISROs RISAT-1 weighs 1,750 kg, and
other current SAR-based reconnaissance satellites
are also of the same order, a SAR satellite weighing
just 300 kg is indeed remarkable. The IAI tied up
exclusively with the United States Northrop Grum-
man Corporation in 2007 to supply these SAR-based
reconnaissance satellites to the U.S. government.
Israeli agencies the IAI and its subsidiary rm Elta,
which designed the SAR seem to have developed
this advanced technology on their own without any
U.S. assistance. As a result, Israel could export to
India without any need for a U.S. Department of
State export licence.
MAY 22, 2009

Interestingly, this is the rst time

ever that ISRO has not released any
photograph of the satellite as is its nor-
mal practice in its press releases of
launches. What is available are sche-
matic diagrams of the satellite in
stowed and deployed conditions or a
photograph of a stowed satellite at an
unknown location.
As will be at present argued, most
probably the entire satellite was
bought out by some Indian agency
which is clearly not ISRO and is pre-
sumably some intelligence agency
and ISRO has merely launched it. This
is what analysts and media reports also
generally believe. But, in keeping with
its claims of openness and transpar-
ency, ISRO could have stated this up
front and this might have been more
acceptable from a national security
point of view and gone down better in
international perception.
The political implications of In-
dias increased strategic ties and deal-
ings with Israel are, however,
doubtless serious and undesirable,
notwithstanding the fatal attraction of
mutually advantageous geostrategic
locations of the two countries from a
space-based surveillance perspective.
This aspect will become clear shortly.
One could also pertinently ask why
the great hurry to buy an Israeli satel-
lite, that too at an enormous cost? In-
deed, a news report in Spaceight Now
shortly before the launch stated that
the satellite cost about $200 million
(as compared with RISAT-1s project
cost of about Rs.380 crore), and the
IAI is likely to have sold the complete
package, including ground station
communication hardware and soft-
ware, which would have cost an equal
amount or much more. Who has ac-
tually paid for the satellite and its asso-
ciated systems is, of course, a well-kept
secret.
An argument that is advanced is
that, given the delay in launching RI-
SAT-1, the need for an alternate recon-
naissance mission became necessary
in the wake of the Mumbai terror at-
ISRO

tack and amid increasing serious con-

P SL V-C12 C O MI N G O UT of the Vehicle Assembly Building in Sriharikota, cerns about growing pro-Taliban
readied to launch RISAT-2. activities in Pakistan and the need to

F R O N T L I N E 3 1

monitor the movements of terrorists
belonging to organisations such as Al
Qaeda. Of course, media reports sug-
gesting that inltration from across
the border can be monitored are gross-
ly misplaced, unless it occurs in un-
likely groups of large numbers. Given
that the velocity of the spacecraft is
about 8 kilometres/second, it would be
just meaningless to say that a small
band of inltrators could be detected.
Just as in remote sensing, recon-
naissance involves repeated surveil-
lance of a given area to detect
unexpected or suspicious changes in
the viewed region with the aid of im-
age-processing techniques and value
addition. These generally require com-
bining data over 4 pixels, which means
that the least size that can be meaning-
fully observed should be at least four
times the size of the highest resolution
(4 1 m in this case). So, only a rela-
tively slowly changing scenario in
terms of group formations or vehicular
movements can be detected and
discerned.
Notwithstanding ISROs experi-
ence with handling TecSAR data, it is
likely to be at least a few months before
ISRO scientists get familiar with the
new RISAT-2 imaging hardware, the
new image-processing software and
the new communication systems, by
which time India should be close to the
launch of RISAT-1. Admittedly
though, RISAT-1 whose SAR seems
to be very similar to Canadas Radar-
sat-2 in terms of design and technol-
ogy and whose data ISRO has been
receiving is less capable than RI-
SAT-2. Indeed, U.S. analysts say that
RISAT-2 will give India a radar-recon-
naissance-imaging capability compa-
rable to the imaging radars carried by
the most modern versions of the high-
ying U-2 spy plane operated by the
U.S. Air Force.
India-Israel space cooperation be-
gan with the launch by ISROs PSLV in
January 2008 of TecSAR, Israels rst
radar-based spy satellite, which was a
technology demonstrator for the novel
and advanced design of the SAR. It is
interesting to note that TecSAR and
RISAT-2 are identical, in terms of ap-
MAY 22, 2009
agencies, a 410 inclination includes
these locations as well and such a sur-
EO PORTAL, EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
veillance capability would be regarded
as useful.
From this strategic perspective, a
polar orbiting satellite would be in-
efcient as it would spend too much
time looking at areas that are not im-
portant. This is precisely why Israel
has chosen such an orbit conguration
S C H EM A T I C OF R I S AT- 2 in for its reconnaissance needs.
deployed conguration. The up-coming Indian RISAT-1,
on the other hand, is designed to be a
pearance as well as actual detailed con- polar orbiting satellite, with a SAR res-
guration. Both are 300 kg satellites olution of 3 m to 50 m in operational-
with a SAR resolution of 1 m to 10 m scanning modes and a 1 m resolution
depending on the mode of operation in in an experimental-scanning mode.
terms of different ground-viewing as- Inclined orbits at appropriate alti-
pect angles and scanning. If RISAT-2 tudes have also the advantage of much
had been congured and built by ISRO shorter revisit periods of the satellite,
with the SAR supplied by the IAI, as is when the satellite returns to repeat its
being claimed, this would be a highly ground track, as compared with polar
improbable coincidence. Even more orbits.
interesting is the fact that the orbits For the particular case of TecSAR
into which the two were launched are and RISAT-2, the naive revisit period
also nearly identical. TecSARs orbit is about four days as compared with 18
parameters are an altitude of 450 km to 22 days for polar orbiting satellites
580 km, an inclination of 410 and an such as the Indian remote sensing sat-
orbit period of 94.6 minutes. RI- ellites. With a low mass of 300 kg and a
SAT-2s orbit parameters according diameter of just 1 m, TecSAR is ex-
to an April 2009 Jonathan Space Re- tremely manoeuvrable so that the
port based on tracking by a U.S. viewing angle can be altered very
ground station are an altitude of 455 quickly if required. This would render
km 557 km, an inclination of 41.10 the revisit period even shorter. Pre-
and an orbit period of 94.19 minutes. sumably, RISAT-2 has the same ma-
An inclined orbit of 410 becomes noeuvrability. The above reasoning
strategically important for both coun- would have been the geostrategic fatal
tries because of their fortuitous rela- attraction for Indian intelligence
tive geographic locations. A Low Earth agencies.
Orbit (LEO) satellite in an inclined The fatal attraction is mutual. For
orbit covers the area lying between 410 Israel this comes from the east-facing
N and 410 S extremely well during its launch site at Sriharikota. If Israel
repeated orbits and that too quickly. were to launch satellites on its own
As can be seen from an atlas, this re- using its Shavit launcher, as indeed it
gion covers the areas of strategic in- has been doing with its Ofeq series of
terest for both countries the entire reconnaissance satellites (of similar
West Asia region for Israel, and Pakis- weight) with optical, ultraviolet and
tan and China, except for a part of its infrared viewing capabilities, it would
north, for India. have to be in an east-to-west retro-
From a purely Pakistan-centric se- grade orbit, which would be against
curity perspective, an inclination of a the rotation of the earth and a drain on
little less than 400 would sufce. But if the on-board fuel resources. The orbits
China is also a consideration, partic- of the Ofeq satellites had an inclina-
ularly its missile deployments directed tion of about 1410 to 1430 (which is
towards the subcontinent as per the equivalent to a west-to-east orbit with
threat perception of Indian security an inclination of about 400) and about
3 2 F R O N T L I N E
 MAY 22, 2009
EO PORTAL, EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
S C H E MAT I C O F T E C S A R in deployed conguration and (right) a detailed schematic of TecSAR.
the same altitudes and orbit periods
but with lifetimes of only one to three
years. But by launching eastwards with
ISROs help, the satellites lifetime in-
creases. According to an April 2006
paper by Y. Sharay and U. Naftly, the
original Israeli plan before ISRO came
into the picture was to launch TecSAR
westwards aboard Shavit into a 143.30
inclined orbit. TecSARs life is now
stated to be about ve years.
According to reports, there is also
an intelligence-sharing arrangement
between the two countries, and infor-
mation from TecSAR is probably being
exchanged already by the intelligence
agencies. It is believed that under this
arrangement Israel is also sharing its
data downlink and change detection
software capability with ISRO. The
pro-Israel Indian political executive
obviously sees this as a win-win sit-
uation for the two countries and, clear-
ly, the launch of RISAT-2 ts into that
logic and thinking.
Indeed, when TecSAR was
launched, news reports from elsewh-
ere, quoting the U.S.-based Centre for
Strategic and International Studies,
said that India was also interested in
purchasing a TecSAR-class imaging
radar satellite design from Israel for its
own military reconnaissance oper-
ations to focus specically on Pakistan
and China. In fact, the TecSAR and
RISAT-2 launches may not be the end
of ISROs tango with Israel. Soon after
TecSARs launch, Ami Haldersberg,
Director of Remote Sensing at the
IAIs MBT Space Division, stated that
with increasing need for quick revisits
of a given location, a constellation of
such satellites that are launched in
quick succession was very much on the
cards. He suggested that the TecSAR-
class satellites, being modular in de-
sign, could also be quickly modied to
carry an optical payload to supplement
the radar imageries.
BEGINNING OF COOPERATION
India-Israel cooperation actually be-
gan with the visit of Shimon Peres, the
then Deputy Prime Minister and Min-
ister of Foreign Affairs, to ISRO on
January 9, 2002, when the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP)-led government
was at the Centre. A few months later,
an umbrella space cooperation agree-
ment was signed, the details of which
are not known.
In 2003, then Israeli Prime Minis-
ter Ariel Sharon visited India, the rst
Israeli Prime Minister to do so. This
was soon followed by another space
cooperation agreement in 2003 when
the then ISRO chief K. Kasturirangan
visited Israel. This agreement includ-
ed a contract for an ISRO launch of the
Israeli astronomy satellite TAUVEX
carrying an ultraviolet telescope.
TAUVEX is yet to be launched. The
F R O N T L I N E 3 3
EO PORTAL, EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
other details of the agreement are,
however, not known. Since for Israel
an Indian launch seems to be ideal,
and India was only too ready and will-
ing a partner in such an engagement,
this agreement presumably includes
launches by ISRO of all future Israeli
reconnaissance missions as well.
The growing India-Israeli ties un-
der BJP rule have since been sustained
and even stepped up by the present
Congress-led United Progressive Alli-
ance government in the past ve years,
particularly in defence acquisitions
and joint military exercises and train-
ing. This was also the period when
India-Israel science and technology
cooperation for joint investment in re-
search and development projects was
initiated (2004) and a joint venture
was launched between the IAI and Ta-
ta Advanced Systems for offset pro-
duction in defence- and
aerospace-related areas in India
against various strategic acquisitions
(February 2008).
But widening India-Israeli strateg-
ic ties will only lead to a vicious cycle of
increasing backlash that in turn will
make pro-Israeli politicians push the
country even closer to Israel. The soon-
er the Indian scientic community re-
alises the grave political and national
security implications of this and takes
a principled stand on such matters, the
better it will be for the country.
FOCUS EDUCATION IN MYSORE MAY 22, 2009

Hub of learning
Mysore has established itself as a leading centre of education and research in the
country. B Y V I K H A R A H M E D S A Y E E D

PHOTOGRAPHS: M.A. SRIRAM

TH E C R A W F O R D H A L L on the University of Mysore campus. The administrative ofces of the university are located
in the hall built in 1947.

Before Independence, enlightened cely state of Mysore, will be impressed by the many
places of interest as well as the slow pace of life here.
kings and their far-sighted Diwans In the past, the city had nurtured great traditions in
the eld of art, architecture, education, literature
the likes of Sir K. Seshadri Rao, and progressive administration. The canopy of trees
and broad avenues add to the charm of the city.
Sir M. Visvesvaraya and Sir Mirza Above all, Mysore has established itself as a leading
centre of higher education in the State as well as the
Ismail made Mysore one of country.
Major Central government research institutes
the most progressive states and private colleges ourish in this city, which has a
population of about 10 lakh.
in the country. The University of Mysore, established in 1916 in
Mysore city, was the rst university in the region and
MYSORE, the city of palaces that is commonly the sixth in the country. The Karnataka State Open
referred to as the cultural capital of Karnataka, is a University (KSOU) was set up in the city in 1996
popular tourist destination in the State. A visitor to because the University of Mysore had been conduct-
the city, which was the capital of the erstwhile prin- ing distance education programmes since 1969. The

3 4 F R O N T L I N E
FOCUS EDUCATION IN MYSORE
TH E C E N T R A L F O O D Technological Research Institute in Mysore.
city also has two autonomous Central
institutes the All India Institute of
Speech and Hearing (AIISH) and the
Central Food Technological Research
Institute (CFTRI).
The most recent addition to the list
of private institutions in the city is the
Agriculture and Food Management
Institute (AFMI), which was estab-
lished in 2007 with the intention of
combining the studies of business
management and food processing.
An engineering college for women,
established by the Geetha Shishu
Shikshana Sangha (GSSS), is the rst
institute of its kind in Karnataka. An-
other engineering college that has
made a mark in the State is the 63-
year-old National Institute of Engi-
neering (NIE). The JSS Law College is
the rst law college in the country to
become autonomous.
Before Independence, enlightened
kings and their far-sighted Diwans
the likes of Sir K. Seshadri Rao, Sir M.
Visvesvaraya and Sir Mirza Ismail
made Mysore one of the most progres-
sive states in the country. A modern
system of education was established in
Mysore in 1833 itself. Maharajas Col-
lege, affiliated to the University of My-
sore now, was founded in 1864 and
became a rst-grade college in 1894.
ILLUSTRIOUS UNIVERSITIES
The University of Mysore was founded
by the Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnara-
ja Wodeyar IV, to promote higher
learning. It is situated on a beautiful
campus called Manasagangotri, which
3 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
is close to the heart of the city and
offers a panoramic view of the nearby
Chamundi hills.
The administrative ofces of the
university are located in the majestic
Crawford Hall, built in 1947. Planned
originally to house the Representative
Assembly of Mysore, it now hosts uni-
versity convocations and other impor-
tant functions.The colleges located
across the districts of Chamrajnagar,
Hassan, Mandya and Mysore are af-
liated to the university. With close to
80,000 students (including 63,000 in
afliated colleges at the undergrad-
uate level) under its fold, the university
has won international recognition if
the presence of over 1,400 foreign stu-
dents on its rolls is any indication.
Says V.G. Talawar, Vice-Chancel-
FOCUS EDUCATION IN MYSORE
lor of the university: Mysore universi-
ty is a comprehensive university. It has
various academic departments, labo-
ratories, libraries, sports facilities,
folklore museums, and so on. Its geol-
ogy and zoology departments are well
known nationally.
The university plans to establish a
placement cell, strengthen research fa-
cilities, increase the number of hostels,
revive the publications division, ex-
tend online education and seek more
collaboration with foreign universi-
ties.
The KSOU has established itself as
one of the leading centres of distance
education in the country. The universi-
ty, which has more than 100,000 stu-
dents across the country, has over 500
study centres and seven regional cen-
tres, including one in Delhi. Its Bache-
lor of Education (BEd) course is very
popular among primary school teach-
ers. The university also offers a BEd
course in Special Education. Its Mas-
ter of Business Administration (MBA)
programme is also popular with its
alumni working in commercial estab-
lishments across the country. Other
popular courses include MA in Jour-
nalism and Diploma in Food and Nu-
TH E S PE E C H A N D Hearing Therapy Clinic.
V I J A Y A LA K S HM I B AS AVA R AJ ,
D I REC T O R of All India Institute of
Speech and Hearing.
trition, which is offered in
collaboration with the CFTRI.
According to Prof. B.A. Viveka Rai,
Vice-Chancellor of the KSOU, one of
the main strengths of the university is
that it caters to a section of society that
would not have managed to get edu-
cated otherwise. Our students come
from different sections of society espe-
3 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
cially the socially backward classes.
Women form a major part of our stu-
dent body; so do working people and
members of the Scheduled Caste and
Scheduled Tribe communities. Phys-
ically challenged persons and prison-
ers also opt for our courses, he said.
The university plans to develop on-
line systems of distance learning and
increase the number of courses as well
as the study centres across the country.
A series of innovative certicate pro-
grammes that will teach basic skills in
handicrafts, pottery, wood carving,
and so on are planned to be introduced
soon. The main reason for people opt-
ing for distance education is its ex-
ibility. The KSOU offers quality
distance education and our popularity
can be gauged from the fact that for
some courses we get more than 10,000
applications for 500 seats, said Viveka
Rai.
RESEARCH INSTITUTES
The AIISH, established in 1965 under
the aegis of the Union Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare, is an au-
tonomous body imparting training in
the eld of speech and hearing. The
CFTRI was established in 1950 be-
FOCUS EDUCATION IN MYSORE
cause of the vision of V. Subrahmany-
an, the founder-director of the insti-
tute. Its emphasis is on training
scientists and technologists in the area
of food science and technology.
The AIISH aims to provide high
quality training to young people, to
uphold the cause of people with com-
munication disorders and to encour-
age research in the eld of speech and
hearing.
Apart from being a premier insti-
tute in its area of research, AIISH is a
one-of-a-kind institute in Asia. Af-
liated to the University of Mysore, it
shares the lush green Manasagangotri
campus with the university. The in-
stitute has been conducting public
awareness programmes on speech and
hearing impairments. The institute
has nine departments. Its postgradu-
ate course in Audiology and Speech-
TH E K A R N A T A K A S T A T E Open Universitys ofce in Mysore.
Language Pathology is popular.
According to Vijayalakshmi Basav-
araj, Director of AIISH, the institute
will soon offer two unique postgradu-
ate diplomas in Forensic Voice Sci-
ence Technology and in Clinical
Linguistics. Admission to the BSc.
courses and MSc. courses is through a
national-level entrance test and all the
students admitted to the AIISH are
offered a monthly stipend. Apart from
its focus on manpower development,
the institute offers diagnostic and re-
habilitation services to people with all
types of communication disorders
such as hearing impairment, stutter-
ing, learning disability and mental re-
tardation. Basavaraj adds, Apart from
all these services we are trying to
spread awareness in public about com-
munication disorders.
The CFTRI has made big strides in
4 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
food technology research. One of its
early contributions in this eld was the
formulation of an infant food using
buffalos milk, which is the basis for
Indias ourishing baby food industry
today. Research at the institute is re-
sponsible for the extraction of plant
protein for the nutrition base of a new
class of food supplements.
As far back as 1964, the CFTRI was
identied as the centre of knowledge
and expertise to start the International
Food Technology Training Centre
(IFTTC). So far, more than a 1,000
students (Indian and foreign) have
successfully completed their masters
programme in food technology offered
at the institute and are occupying
prime positions in national/govern-
mental institutions and leading com-
panies involved in food processing.
The institute conducts a certicate
course in wheat milling in collabora-
tion with the International School of
Milling Technology. It also runs ac-
claimed short-term training pro-
grammes focussing on industry
personnel, working scientists, technol-
ogists, academics and young research-
ers. The CFTRIs global reputation is
evident from the fact that it is one of
the associated institutions of the Unit-
ed Nations University (UNU). More
than 160 UNU Fellows have complet-
ed their research programmes at the
CFTRI.
The Agriculture and Food Man-
agement Institute (AFMI) was found-
ed in 2007 in Mysore. Stating that the
presence of the CFTRI in Mysore was
one of the major reasons for locating
the AFMI here, Saurabh Sinha, Direc-
tor of the Institute, said: Even though
the agri-food business in our country is
almost $300 billion there is no special-
ised institute in India that trains peo-
ple for exactly this industry. The AFMI
was founded to ll this gap.
The rst batch of students who had
come from States across the country
were condent that they had chosen
the right course and institute. They
seemed excited by the many job oppor-
tunities that this sector offered. The
idea behind setting up the AFMI,
FOCUS EDUCATION IN MYSORE
which combines studies of manage-
ment and food processing technology,
is that its graduates would be able to
take up managerial and administrative
positions in the vast agri-food industry
in India that currently makes do with a
huge number of general management
graduates.
Citing statistics, Saurabh Sinha
said that at present the agri-food in-
dustry in India requires 5,000 man-
agement professionals a year at entry
level in the organised sector but only
1,200 technical agri-food graduates
were going in for management educa-
tion. Thus, there is a huge opportunity
for technical agri-food graduates who
do a course in customised agri-food
business management. This sector is
immune from the impact of factors
such as global recession since food pro-
duction does not decline generally.
The Academic Advisory Council for
the institute is drawn from among ac-
claimed academics in the area as well
as industry professionals. The chair-
man of the council is Dr. B.L. Amla,
who was formerly director of the
CFTRI. Other members include Si-
mon George, Head, Asia Pacic, Car-
gill Flavours and Arun Bewor, who was
formerly associated with Flavours and
Fragrance India Limited.
ENGINEERING COLLEGES
Winning a reputation in six years as a
quality engineering college in a State
like Karnataka where scores of estab-
lished engineering colleges are thriv-
ing is not an easy task.
The fact that the GSSS Institute of
Engineering and Technology for
Women, which was founded in 2003,
has managed to do this speaks volumes
about the vision of its founder, the late
B.S. Pandit. It was his perseverance
and dream that led to the founding of a
college of engineering dedicated to
women.
The rst batch of engineering stu-
dents from the college passed out last
year and is doing extremely well in the
competitive job market. The idea be-
hind this engineering college is that
women students can be comfortable
here. This is one of the few such colleg-
M.A. SRIRAM
P RO F . B . S . P A N D I T, founder
secretary of GSSS Institute of
Engineering and Technology for
Women.
es in India and the rst such engineer-
ing college in Karnataka catering
exclusively to female students, said
R.K. Bharath, chief administrative of-
cer.
Located on a spacious campus a
few kilometres from the heart of My-
sore, a massive dome like vestibule
greets visitors. The serenity of the cam-
pus is enhanced by a capacious med-
itation centre that has been built for
students to de-stress themselves. The
hostels are modern and look more like
hotel rooms with attached toilets.
With several students from across the
The KSOU has
established
itself as one of
the leading
centres of
distance
education.
4 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
country, the college is attracting atten-
tion because of its plans to introduce
innovative postgraduate courses and
engineering degrees.
The NIE is the second oldest engi-
neering college in the State and the
rst in the city of Mysore. Founded in
1946, it is one of the premier autono-
mous technical institutions in the
country having been accredited by the
National Board of Accreditation, Go-
vernment of India.
The college offers Bachelor of En-
gineering courses in seven disciplines
and Master of Technology (M.Tech)
courses in ve disciplines. Six of the
departments of the university have
been recognised as research centres to
offer a Master of Science (MSc.) de-
gree. NIE is only one of the 14 colleges
among the 144 engineering colleges
(afliated to the Visvesvaraya Techno-
logical University) that have been
granted academic autonomy.
Well known for the excellent qual-
ity of its academic staff, the college has
signed MoUs with internationally
known entities such as Bosch Rexroth,
Cognizant Technologies, National
Aerospace Laboratories and Eicher
Motors. Its long list of distinguished
alumni includes industry stalwarts
such as N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chief
Mentor, Infosys Technologies; Mysore
Nagaraja, chief, New York Metro; N.
Ramanuja, former Chairman and Ma-
naging Director, HMT Ltd.; Ramesh
Bharadwaj, Chief Engineer, Naval Re-
search Lab, Washington D.C.; M.S.
Loknath, Head, Institute of Arma-
ment Technology, Pune.
FIRST AUTONOMOUS LAW
COLLEGE IN INDIA
Adding to the variety of higher educa-
tion available in Mysore is the J.S.S.
Law College, an autonomous law col-
lege established by the JSS Mahavi-
dyapeetha in 1982. The college has
students from 12 States across India
and seven countries of the Common-
wealth.
Of these, nearly 50 per cent of the
students are women. Recognised by
the Bar Council of India, it has been
accredited with a high grade of B+ by
FOCUS EDUCATION IN MYSORE
TH E N A T I O N A L I N S T I T U T E
MAY 22, 2009
the NAAC (National Assessment and
Accreditation Council). The college
currently offers two courses at the
graduate level a ve-year BA course
and LLB, which students can join after
their graduation. At the postgraduate
level, the college offers the LLM, with
specialisation in business laws.
The college has regular campus
placement every year when leading
MNCs, legal rms and legal process
outsourcing rms recruit nal-year
students, said Prof. K.S. Suresh, the
principal of the college. The students
are not restricted to their classrooms
but are encouraged to dabble in the
practical aspects of law. The college
conducts a regular legal aid clinic to
counsel members of the local com-
munities around Mysore.
In the near future we are planning
to introduce innovative courses com-
bining other bachelor degrees and
of Engineering. law, said Suresh.
MAY 22, 2009
Tainted money
India ranks fth among developing countries with illicit outows of around $22
billion to $27 billion a year during 2002-06.
HE money is tainted; it is a
T drain of wealth from the
country, being located in se-
cretive Swiss banks; and the
sums involved are large. Not
surprisingly, the issue of monies
stashed away by Indias rich and po-
werful in numbered accounts in Swiss
and similar banks is periodically
raised, provokes controversy and then
enters a period of hibernation. It is
revived periodically for a number of
reasons.
Most often, the transfer of money
to Swiss bank accounts involves a vio-
lation of tax, foreign exchange and/or
other laws of the country, and there-
fore is illegal and morally repugnant.
To boot, the sums involved are not
small. Finally, these reect surpluses
that can be used to nance much need-
ed development initiatives in the
country, but are now being kept idle
abroad to facilitate illegal accumula-
tion. Their existence is symbolic of an
elite that places self before the nation.
This is even truer of alleged payoffs for
award of defence contracts.
The moral and nationalistic indig-
nation this generates leads to the cor-
rect demand that violations of law that
permit accumulation of such wealth
abroad need to be investigated, the of-
fenders must be prosecuted and the
money brought back and directed to-
wards pushing growth and improving
welfare. Morality aside, equity de-
mands that the rule of law should ap-
ply for all.
Currently, three factors have com-
bined to revive the controversy in In-
dia. First, early this year, in a major
breakthrough, prosecutors from the
United States Internal Revenue Ser-
vice (IRS) investigating violations of
Economic
Perspectives
C.P. CHANDRASEKHAR
tax laws by American citizens man-
aged to force UBS, Switzerlands lar-
gest bank, to reveal the names of 250
nationals who were suspected of hav-
ing evaded payment of about $300
million in taxes by using offshore ac-
counts. The bank also agreed to pay the
U.S. government $780 million to settle
the issue.
These sums are indeed small. But
this decision of a banking system that
thrives because of the countrys secrecy
laws was a huge concession with major
ramications. Even in the case of the
U.S., the 250 names involved were a
small proportion of the 19,000 ac-
counts that are allegedly held by
Americans in Swiss banks. The sums
held by these 250 would only be a
small fraction of the $20 billion that
the IRS suspects was illegally ferreted
away between 2002 and 2007.
Pressure on the Swiss banking in-
F R O N T L I N E 4 5
Column
dustry to reveal more was bound to
increase. And, the U.S. was just one
country. If secrecy laws were being re-
laxed to accommodate the U.S. be-
cause it is an important economic
player, it would become difcult for
the system to resist pressures to reveal
the names and details of account hol-
ders from other countries, including
developing countries such as India,
which need the money to raise per cap-
ita incomes and reduce poverty. On the
other side, the pressure on govern-
ments to demand, obtain and act on
similar information increases. Thus,
the possibility that the sums involved
could be tracked and investigated was
bound to revive the issue in India.
The second factor leading to a re-
vival of the debate was the release of
estimates of how much money could
be illicitly owing to accounts abroad
from developing countries, India in
particular. Provided by Global Finan-
cial Integrity, a programme of the Cen-
tre for International Policy, these
estimates based on accepted metho-
dologies suggest between $858.6 bil-
lion and $1.06 trillion owed illicitly
from developing countries in 2006.
India ranked fth among develop-
ing countries with illicit outows of
around $22 billion to $27 billion a year
during 2002-06, following Russia
($32-$38 billion), Mexico ($41-$46
billion), Saudi Arabia ($54-$55 bil-
lion) and China ($233-$289 billion).
At current exchange rates, the gure at
the lower end of the range amounts to
more than Rs.110,000 crore a year. If a
quarter of that could be recovered as
tax it could go a long way in nancing
the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme each year. And if
the whole amount is spent within the
 MAY 22, 2009

country, it would amount to a demand laundering, there is an opportunity in the system. Much of it remains in
stimulus of close to three and a half per now. All this having been said, howev- the country. Such domestically re-
cent of gross domestic product , which er, a few words of caution are in order. tained illicit wealth can be more easily
could help reverse the current slow- First, the concern with illicit outows identied and taxed and the gener-
down in growth. If there is so much should not divert attention from the ation of new illicit wealth (that may or
money that could be kept back at home larger issue of tax evasion and avoid- may not go abroad) more easily
the issue is bound to be controversial, ance which plague developing coun- plugged.
even if the gure is just an estimate. tries such as India. Illicit outows to And estimates on the size of the
Finally, all this has occurred when Swiss and other foreign banks are only black economy, the volume of tax eva-
India is in election mode. With an is- one part of the black money generated sion, and the amount of disputed and
sue at hand which can provoke moral
indignation and fuel nationalistic sen-
timent, it would be too much to expect
the opposition to let it be never mind
the fact that ows of this kind were
occurring even when the principal op-
position party, the Bharatiya Janata
Party, was in power at the Centre.

AN OPPORTUNITY
Whatever the combination of circum-
stances that have brought the issue to
the fore once again, the case for ex-
ploiting the opportunity is strong. Do-
mestically, tax and foreign exchange
laws must be implemented more strin-
gently. And internationally, the go-
vernment must exert itself to obtain
the information that could reduce,
even if not put an end to, this menace.
One route to take would be to use
the opportunity afforded by the hole in
the Swiss banking wall created by the
recent limited success of U.S. lawmak-
ers to suck out information on Indian
offenders as well. The other is to work
towards a better global environment
for obtaining information that can
help reduce this form of accumulation
of black money.
As Raymond Baker, the Director of
Global Financial Integrity and author
of Capitalisms Achilles Heel: Dirty
Money and How to Renew the Free-
Market System, puts it in Financial
Times (April 24): Most effective in
curtailing the massive illicit outows
from developing countries would be a
requirement for automatic cross-bor-
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP

der exchange of tax information on

personal and business accounts and
country-by-country reporting of sales,
prots and taxes paid by multination-
als. With increasing GLOBAL con-
cern over the role of tax havens in A B RA N C H O F Switzerlands largest bank, in Zurich. Pressure on the Swiss
promoting tax evasion and money banking industry to reveal more is bound to increase.

4 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
unresolved claims on Indians by the
tax department are all as mind-bog-
gling as the gures on illicit outows of
wealth. Moreover, the issue is not just
of tax evasion but of tax avoidance fa-
cilitated by the loopholes present in
and concessions afforded by the tax
laws. Examining the revenues fore-
gone because of tax concessions is a
rst simple lesson on what can be done
to nd the money to do a lot that re-
mains undone for want of resources.
MORE EVASION AFTER
LIBERALISATION
Second, concern with illicit outows
should not divert attention from the
licit ows that are on the rise because
of nancial liberalisation. Until the
early 1990s, Swiss accounts allegedly
held by Indians were seen not just as
the result of ill-gotten wealth. They, it
was argued, were the result of the lim-
its placed on accessing foreign ex-
change. It was not just that the rupee
was not convertible on the capital ac-
count, preventing Indians from con-
verting rupees into dollars (say) to
acquire assets abroad.
Even foreign exchange for current
account purposes such as imports of
commodities, travel, health and edu-
cation was scarce and rationed. This, it
was argued, encouraged those who
could afford it and nd ways to ensure
it to transfer and hold money abroad.
Economic policy was forcing many to
exploit Swiss banking secrecy and vio-
late the law. What the more recent
estimates show is that this argument
was not all true. Even after the sub-
stantial liberalisation of rules relating
to accessing and using foreign ex-
change, monies are being transferred
and held abroad.
The real change now is that such
transfer occurs in both illicit and licit
forms. For example, trade and ex-
change rate liberalisation notwith-
standing the practice of over-invoicing
imports and under-invoicing exports
to evade taxes and transfer funds
abroad continues. Simultaneously,
funds are being transferred abroad to
acquire assets and hold balances. The
outow of capital in the form of foreign
direct investment (FDI) from India
during the rst nine months (April-
December) of nancial 2008-09 was
close to $12 billion or more than two-
fths of FDI that owed into the coun-
try, that is $27 billion. Not all such
outows are necessary. There has also
been an increase in the outow of for-
eign exchange from the country in the
form of outward remittances under
the liberalised remittance scheme for
resident individuals. These remittanc-
es totalled $9.6 million, $25 million
and $72.8 million in the three years
ending 2006-07. But they shot up to
$440.5 million in 2007-08.
The point to note is that this trans-
fer of foreign exchange abroad is not
linked to the earning of such foreign
exchange. Nor is it accompanied by an
increase in the ability of India to earn a
positive surplus of foreign exchange
through trade in goods and services
and incomes generated from invest-
ment abroad.
India records a decit in its current
account so that any excess foreign ex-
change it possesses has not been
earned but has been borrowed. It is
a part of that borrowed foreign ex-
change that is being transferred
abroad with no likelihood of return. It
could happen that there could be occa-
sions where demands to full commit-
ments on past debt substantially
exceed current earnings and inows,
leading to instability and crises of a
kind that are now common in the de-
veloping world. At that point of time,
the burden of adjustment falls on all,
not just on those who have ferreted
away foreign currency in the past. This
too is unacceptable.
Preventing such an outcome re-
quires restricting unnecessary and re-
strictive inows and unwarranted
outows in countries where a histor-
ically determined subordinate posi-
tion in global trade and investment
ows makes foreign exchange a valua-
ble resource. This should not be for-
gotten either by the ruling party or its
leading opponents when they vent
their moral outrage at illicit outows.
Unfortunately, that is what they seem
to do.
F R O N T L I N E 4 7
world affairs
Zumas burden
South Africa: Jacob Zuma eventually makes it, but the President-elect has a
challenging task ahead. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N
The impoverished masses are
looking to him as a redeemer.
The SACP and the ANC want the
state to use its nancial institutions
in a big way to combat poverty
and bring down the high rates of
unemployment.
MUCH of the international media attention in
April was focussed on the election process in India.
The general elections in South Africa in late April
drew less attention in comparison despite the fast-
changing political equations there. The election re-
sults have cleared the way for Jacob Zuma to take
over the presidency in May. The victory of the Afri-
can National Congress (ANC) under the leadership
of Zuma was a foregone conclusion, but many ob-
servers had expected the new political party, the
Congress of the People (COPE), made up of former
ANC members, to give it a tough ght.
In the event, the ANC narrowly missed getting
the two-thirds majority in parliament, which en-
ables the ruling party to amend the Constitution if
needed. Preventing the ANC from getting this was
the major goal of the opposition. The ANC polled
65.9 per cent of the votes.
COPE, which was expected to emerge as the
second biggest party, managed only around 8 per
cent of the votes. Its leaders, however, pointed out
that it was still quite an achievement to emerge as the
third largest party barely ve months after its forma-
tion. The traditional white-dominated opposition
party, the Democratic Alliance, emerged as the sec-
ond biggest party, polling more than 16 per cent of
the votes.
The ANC, for the rst time, swept the province of
Kwazulu-Natal, the home province of Zuma. Until
4 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
now, it was the bailiwick of Mangosuthu Buthelezi
and his Inkatha Freedom Party. The ANC, however,
lost the Western Cape province to its rivals. In South
African elections, parties compete for seats in pro-
vincial and national legislatures on the basis of pro-
portional representation. No individual candidates
are elded. The party which gets the most votes gets
the most number of seats in parliament. Only a
simple majority is needed in parliament for the Pres-
ident to be elected.
This years elections, the fourth since South Afri-
ca emerged from the apartheid regime, had generat-
ed a lot of heat. Zuma came under intense criticism
in sections of the media for his alleged personal
misdemeanours. He has sued South Africas Sunday
Times newspaper for publishing a cartoon of him
preparing to rape a gurative Lady Justice. The out-
spoken Bishop Desmond Tutu called on his fellow
countrymen to vote against Zuma, saying that his
presidency would be a hiccup for the country.
But former President Nelson Mandela, despite
his frail health, made an appearance at an ANC rally
along with Zuma a few days before the elections.
Mandela said he would remain faithful to the ANC
until the end and called on South Africans to endorse
Zuma and the ANC.
The turnout was around 80 per cent. Interna-
tional observers described the election process as
absolutely free and fair. Salim Ahmed Salim, the
head of the African Union (A.U.) observer mission,
told the media that the conduct of the elections had
done honour not only to the people of South Africa
but to Africa as a whole.
POLITICAL FIGHTER
The man in the centre of it all was Zuma, who ousted
Thabo Mbeki from the ANC leadership as well as the
presidency in an acrimonious political struggle last
year. People had virtually written off Zuma three
years ago after he was embroiled in a serious corrup-
tion case. Mbeki, who was President at the time, had
dismissed him from the post of Deputy President.
And it was only three years ago that Zuma was
MAY 22, 2009
JA C OB Z U M A (R I G H T ) and Nelson Mandela at a campaign rally in Johannesburg on April 19.
acquitted in a rape case. Charges of
corruption were also formally dropped
against him two weeks before the elec-
tions. Many of his supporters were
convinced that Zuma was a victim of a
conspiracy hatched by Mbeki to de-
prive him of his rightful claim to the
presidency.
Zuma, a self-taught man who
fought the apartheid regime from in-
side South Africa and spent 10 years in
prison in Robben Island along with
Mandela and other ANC stalwarts,
turned out to be a tenacious political
ghter. He was the head of the ANCs
internal security wing during the
struggle against apartheid.
In the April elections, Zuma and
the ANC ran a populist campaign,
promising more jobs and a secure safe-
ty net. The unemployment rate in the
country is estimated at around 40 per
cent. He made education and housing
the centrepiece of his campaign. Zuma
F R O N T L I N E 4 9
JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES/AFP
promised that in the rst ve years of
his presidency, 60 per cent of the
schools would become non-fee paying
ones. The ANC manifesto says that un-
der the Zuma presidency, South Africa
will be liberated from illiteracy.
The ANC government was unable
to get a grip on the problems relating
to poverty, unemployment and the
AIDS epidemic despite South Africa
having the strongest economy in the
African continent. AIDS claimed more
World Affairs
under a tree at the Zandise Junior
CH IL D R E N A T T E N D I N G C LA S S ES
Primary School in the Eastern Cape village of Libode on March 13.
Education got high priority in Zumas election campaign.
than 330,000 lives in the country be-
tween 2000 and 2005. The number of
families needing housing rose by 2.4
million. This means that the new go-
vernment has to double the rate of
house-building activities. Under ANC
leadership, 2.7 million subsidised
houses have been built. Most of the
people have access to potable water,
and three quarters of the people have
access to electricity and sanitation.
In his successful leadership quest,
Zuma identied himself with the rad-
ical wing of the ANC that is aligned to
the South African Communist Party
(SACP) and the countrys trade union
movement, the Congress of South Afri-
can Trade Unions (Cosatu). In his
early political career, Zuma was briey
a member of the SACP.
Both the SACP and Cosatu were
bitter with Mbekis International
Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank-
inuenced policies. In Zuma we see
ourselves, we see humility. We see so-
mebody we can speak to, who has gen-
uine love for the people, said
GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP
Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu general sec-
retary.
Zuma is also indebted to former
ANC members who became rich under
the black empowerment programme
in the last 15 years after the end of
apartheid. They no doubt want Zuma
to continue with the pro-market pol-
icies of his predecessors.
The impoverished masses are look-
ing at Zuma as a redeemer. The SACP
and the ANC have called on Zuma to
roll back the conservative economic
policies implemented during the Mbe-
ki period. They want the state to use its
nancial institutions in a bigger way to
combat poverty and bring down the
high rates of unemployment. The com-
modity-based economy of South Afri-
ca has been badly hit by the global
meltdown. The markets for South
Africas minerals have collapsed.
After the results were out, Zuma
was careful to stress that his immedi-
ate priority was to see that there were
no more job losses. Global recession
continues to cast a long shadow on
5 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
South Africa. The poll promise of cre-
ating more jobs may have to wait. Zu-
mas radical support base, especially
those belonging to the ANCs youth
wing, which was key to his political
resurgence, naturally expects Zuma to
live up to his pre-poll promises.
The disparity between the rich and
the poor is only widening in South
Africa. A recent poll showed that a
sizable section of the populace thought
that it was actually better off econom-
ically under apartheid. The white mi-
nority still has its wealth and
advantages.
Robert Mugabes land reforms in
neighbouring Zimbabwe may have
come in for criticism in Western cap-
itals, but the rank and le of the ANC
are beginning to ask why such land
reforms are not being carried out in
South Africa. White landowners still
continue to hold on to the best swathes
of agricultural land.
FOREIGN POLICY
Zuma is expected to continue with his
predecessors policy on Zimbabwe.
South Africa has played a crucial role
in ensuring that the power-sharing
deal in Zimbabwe between Mugabe
and the opposition continues and that
political stability returns to that coun-
try. Zuma has made it clear on many
occasions that there will be continuity
in South Africas policy vis-a-vis Zim-
babwe. South Africa does not want
outside powers, especially former colo-
nial powers, to meddle in the region.
South Africa has been playing the
leading peace-keeping role in the Afri-
can continent. Zuma himself was in-
strumental in defusing the crisis in
Burundi where the Tutsis and the Hu-
tus were ghting a bitter civil war.
Under Zumas leadership, South
Africa will no doubt continue to play a
leading role in forums such as the
Southern African Development Com-
munity (SADC), the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM) and the A.U. Last
year, he made a couple of visits to New
Delhi to apprise the Indian govern-
ment and the Congress party of the
developments in his country and the
region.
MAY 22, 2009
World Affairs

In defence of Israel
The U.S. and its allies boycott the second World Conference Against Racism
claiming that the summit had an anti-Israel agenda. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N

The Final Declaration, adopted by Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed her
deep regret at the withdrawal of the U.S. and some
consensus, called for protecting of its close allies from the conference. Pope Benedict
XVI, however, gave the conference a thumbs up. He
vulnerable people and ghting said that the conference was important for the cause
of eliminating racial intolerance.
against racism, discrimination and The Catholic news agency, which reects the
views of the Vatican, said that the Popes comments
intolerance. It contains no explicit were a clear indication that the Holy See is dis-
tancing itself from the criticisms of some Western
criticism of Israel. countries. The U.S. Congressional Black Caucus,
which had strongly urged the U.S. to participate,
THE second World Conference Against Racism issued a statement saying that it was deeply dis-
(WCAR), held in Geneva in April, was, like the rst mayed by Obamas decision. The statement said
one in Durban in 2001, unnecessarily dogged by that the decision to boycott the conference does not
controversies, all of them instigated by Tel Aviv and advance the cause of combating racism and intoler-
backed by Washington. ance, but rather sets the clock back.
Israel, the United States and Canada boycotted Durban II was held, at the U.N.s European
the Durban Review Conference, or Durban II, in headquarters, to evaluate the progress made towards
Geneva on the imsy grounds that the Jewish state the goals set eight years ago in South Africa. At the
was being targeted for unnecessary criticism. Israel 2001 conference, the overwhelming majority of na-
and Canada, which has a right-wing government, tions had condemned the legacy of colonialism, the
decided last year itself to boycott the conference. slave trade, and racism in the contemporary era.
There was considerable pressure from liberal groups Most of the delegates present in Durban had equated
in the U.S. on the Barack Obama administration to Zionism with racism.
participate in the conference. The horric events in the interregnum have
The U.S. State Department had in fact thanked made the world even more incensed with Israel. The
the organisers for taking American sensibilities into U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled
consideration while preparing for the conference. with serious violations of human rights in the eight
Another positive signal from the White House was years of the Bush presidency, has made the devel-
the U.S. decision to join the United Nations Human oping world even angrier about the Wests double
Rights Council. The George W. Bush administration, standards on human rights and racism.
driven by U.N. phobia, had, These double standards
along with Israel, refused to were on display again in Gene-
join the body. But to the sur- va. A small but raucous minor-
prise of the international com- ity in the audience tried to
munity, the U.S. backed out of disrupt Iranian President
the Geneva conference at the Mahmoud Ahmadinejads
11th hour claiming that the speech. The U.N. had extended
conference had an anti-Israel invitations to all heads of state.
agenda. The 2001 conference Only the Iranian President saw
focussed on human rights is- it t to attend.
sues such as the repression of There was little in what Ah-
AP

Palestinians and also indige- madinejad said that could be

nous people the world over. N A V I P I LLA Y, THE U.N. High construed as offensive to the
Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Jewish religion or people. He

F R O N T L I N E 5 1

African
ME M B E R S O F A N
delegation demonstrate
outside the conference
venue on April 21.
said that Israel was the creation of Eu-
ropean states that had emerged victo-
rious in the Second World War.
After the Second World War, by
exploiting the Holocaust and under
the pretext of protecting the Jews, they
[the Zionists] made a nation homeless
with military expeditions and inva-
sion. They established a completely
racist government in the occupied Pal-
estinian territories. And in fact under
the pretext of making up for the dam-
age resulting from racism in Europe,
they established the most aggressive,
racist country in another territory. The
Security Council endorsed this usur-
per regime and for 60 years constantly
defended it and let it commit any kind
of crime. The final Draft Declaration
that was prepared by the U.N. con-
tained a paragraph stating that the
Holocaust should never be forgotten,
Ahmadinejad said.
The accusation against Ahmadine-
jad is that he questioned the veracity of
the Holocaust, but the fact remains
that Iran is a signatory to the nal
statement issued in Geneva condemn-
ing the Holocaust. Ahmadinejads ver-
bal attacks have been aimed against
the ideology of Zionism, which has
been grossly perverted by some of its
high-prole adherents today. The
Draft Declaration, however, charac-
terised Israel as a racist and cruel
regime. This wording prompted 23
European Union member-states to
temporarily stage a walk-out. Most of
5 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
them were back before the conference
ended. Interestingly, the E.U. nations
did not have a common position on the
U.N. racism summit.
ETHNIC CLEANSING
A Palestinian member of the Israeli
Parliament told the media in Geneva
that what the Israelis were doing to
Palestinians was worse than what
apartheid South Africa had done. The
Israeli government, he said, was sep-
arating not only Palestinians from
Jews but Palestinians from Palesti-
nians by building walls and illegal set-
tlements on Palestinian land. But he
also said that Ahmadinejads interven-
tion only served to divert the confe-
rences attention from the Palestinian
MAY 22, 2009

humour Tel Aviv and Washington at

the Geneva conference by keeping Is-
raels actions in Palestine out of the
formal framework. Rami Khoury, the
Lebanese political commentator, not-
ed recently in an article that Western
powers chose to deny and ignore the
rule of law when it comes to more than
four decades of Israeli actions, but en-
thusiastically promote it when it
comes to their aspirations to transform
the Arab and Islamic world. He wrote
that the rhetorical downgrading of Is-
raels criminality by the West is path-
ological.
Ahmadinejad, in his speech, also
made valid criticisms against the West.

FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP
He said that the U.S. had invaded Iraq
to loot the country of its energy re-
sources. He went on to add that the
American-led invasion of Afghanistan
had brought more chaos to the region.
I R A N I A N P R E S I D E N T M AHM OUD
The Iranian leader pointed out that
Ahmadinejad speaking at the
the production of narcotics in Afghan-
conference. He was the only head
istan had increased manifold after the
of state who attended it.
U.S. occupation. The countries that
joined in the boycott to show solidarity It stated that we are concerned about
with Israel and the U.S. were Canada, the plight of the Palestinian people un-
the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Ger- der foreign occupation.
many, New Zealand and Australia. In- The 143 articles of the Durban II
terestingly, many of these countries Declaration call for the protection of
ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS/AP

issue. Mairead Maguire, winner of the
Nobel Prize for Peace, recently accused
Israel of practising ethnic cleansing.
She told a news conference in Jerusa-
lem that the Israeli governments pol-
icies are against international law,
against human rights, against the dig-
nity of the Palestinian people.
Israel recently conrmed that it
would not cooperate with the U.N. in-
vestigation into war crimes committed
during the 22-day military assault on
Gaza. The U.N. Human Rights Coun-
cil had appointed Richard Goldstone,
a prominent judge from South Africa,
to examine the charges of human
rights violation and war crimes against
the Jewish state.
The U.N. bent over backwards to
have a history of racism, which they
have failed to address adequately. The
Czech Republic walked out of the con-
ference after Ahmadinejads speech.
These countries also made a concerted
effort to derail the conference and sab-
otage the Final Declaration.
FINAL DECLARATION
The Final Declaration at the Durban
Review Conference was adopted by
consensus by the U.N. member-states,
barring the nine absentees. The Decla-
ration called for protecting vulnerable
people and ghting against racism,
discrimination and intolerance. The
adopted text was slimmer than the
draft that had been put up for dis-
cussion. It contains no explicit crit-
icism of Israel. Any mention
of the Jewish state would have
scuttled the chances of a consensus. It,
however, refers back to the Durban I
Declaration, which specically men-
tioned the Israeli-Palestinian conict.
vulnerable minorities such as the Ro-
mas in Europe and people infected
with HIV and AIDS. The continuing
legacy of the slave trade and its impact
on the African continent is mentioned
in great detail. For the sake of unanim-
ity, the Palestinians allowed the docu-
ment to gloss over their case, the most
important issue and one that has been
crying out for a resolution for 60 years.
The Islamic states wanted a tough
paragraph on the issue of the right of
free speech, which is being used to in-
sult religions. The Danish cartoon con-
troversy involving the Prophet
continues to anger them. The Orga-
nisation of the Islamic Conference
(OIC) wanted defamation of religion
dened as racist behaviour.
In the end, the OIC settled for
wording that would not infringe on the
freedom of expression. The nal text
deplored the derogatory stereotyping
and stigmatising of persons based on
their religion.

F R O N T L I N E 5 3
World Affairs/Fiji
Crisis island
The abrogation of the 1997 Constitution and the reinstatement of Commodore
Bainimarama deepens the political morass in Fiji. B Y S H U B H A S I N G H
Each coup has sent Fijis economy
into a recession. The most important
task now is to rebuild the economy
and work on dealing with the rising
levels of poverty and deprivation.
FIJI was plunged into another political crisis in
April, which resulted in the military regime tighten-
ing its control over the country through the abroga-
tion of the Constitution and the declaration of a
30-day state of emergency. These events are a severe
setback to the possibility of restoration of the demo-
cratic process in the country in the near future.
On April 9, Fijis Court of Appeal ruled that the
military coup in December 2006 against the elected
government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was
illegal as was President Ratu Josefa Iloilos appoint-
ment of an interim administration headed by a mil-
itary commander, Commodore Voreqe
Bainimarama.
The appellate court overturned a Supreme Court
verdict that had rejected a case led by the ousted
Prime Minister questioning the legality of the coup.
The Supreme Court had held that the appointment
of the interim government by the President was legal
on the grounds that in the absence of mala des or
arbitrariness the existence only and not the exercise
of the presidential powers to appoint ministers was
capable of review. It added that the events of De-
cember 2006 were relevant to that determination. It
upheld the Presidents actions as valid and lawful in
the exercise of prerogative powers of the head of state
to act for the public good in a crisis. Government
counsel had argued that Iloilo had exercised his
powers under the Constitution to dismiss Qarases
government in the face of a grave political crisis.
The appellate court, however, ruled that Iloilo
had unlawfully purported to validate the 2006 coup
that brought Bainimarama to power. The three Aus-
tralian judges on the bench of the Court of Appeals
rejected the Attorney Generals contention that if the
ruling were implemented, the country would be left
5 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
with a dangerous vacuum. They stated: In our
opinion, the only appropriate course at this time is
for elections to be held to enable Fiji to get a fresh
start.
In his address to the nation after the appellate
court ruling, Iloilo said that the court had held that
the appointment of the interim government by him
was invalid as the 1997 Constitution did not give
express written powers to do so. The court held that
he should exercise his discretion and appoint a care-
taker Prime Minister and that the appointee should
not be Qarase or Bainimarama. Iloilo pointed out
that there were no written powers for such a step
either. Indicating that the government would appeal
the ruling, government lawyers asked for a stay on
the judgment, which the court rejected. Iloilo said
that the result of the courts judgment was that in
practical legal terms Fiji did not have a government
in place.
The appellate courts verdict has created a dange-
rous political vacuum in Fiji. The interim regime was
held invalid without a replacement and only a direc-
tion was made to the President to appoint a new
interim government. The court said: In the events
that have occurred it would be lawful for the Presi-
dent as a matter of necessity to appoint a caretaker
Prime Minister to advise dissolution of the Parlia-
ment and issuance of writs for election of members
for the House of Representatives.
After the courts verdict, Bainimarama resigned,
 MAY 22, 2009
REUTERS

AFP
COMM OD O R E V O R E Q E B A I N I M A RA M A taking the oath as caretaker Prime Minister on April 11. Fijis President
reappointed Bainimarama to head the government a day after a court ruled his 2006 coup illegal. (Right) President
Josefa Iloilo (right) arrives to swear in Bainimarama.
but the very next day Iloilo abrogated police more powers to maintain public the political parties under a process
the Constitution, sacked the judiciary, safety. The media became an immedi- termed the Presidents Political Dia-
declared a state of emergency and ate target under the Emergency Reg- logue Forum (PPDF). Though the dia-
reappointed Bainimarama interim ulations as publishers and television logue was at the preliminary stage, it
Prime Minister together with his nine- stations were directed to submit all was a beginning of sorts. Three meet-
member Cabinet. The President said news material for clearance before ings had already taken place and had
that the order was for peace, order publication or broadcast. In protest, been attended by the smaller political
and good government. A military dic- Fiji Times, Fijis oldest newspaper, ap- parties, which had agreed to a mecha-
tatorship that takes over power by the peared with a blank page and the main nism that would have allowed the
show of force does so in total disregard television channel did not telecast the United Nations and the Common-
for the law or constitutional function- regular evening news bulletin. All con- wealth to mediate the PPDF. The
ing; it is unlikely to give up power stitutional ofce holders, including the U.N., the Commonwealth and the Pa-
merely on a court ruling. Fiji has been Superviser of Elections, the Ombud- cic Islands Forum, a regional body,
pushed back into a deeper political sman, the Auditor General, the Direc- were slowly edging the interim regime
morass as it no longer has a Constitu- tor of Public Prosecutions, the towards setting a denite date for elec-
tion but is run by decrees. Under the Commissioner of Police and the Gov- tions.
Administration of Justice Decree ernor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, were The reappointment of Bainimara-
2009, the Fiji High Court has refused replaced by the newly reappointed ma and the abrogation of the Constitu-
to accept civil suits relating to the regime. tion was roundly criticised by the U.N.
abrogation of the Constitution. The The events in Fiji come at a most Security Council, the European Union,
reappointed regime promulgated the unfortunate time. The country was in and Fijis larger neighbours, Australia
Public Emergency Regulations the process of initiating a political dia- and New Zealand. The Common-
2009, which gives the army and the logue between the military regime and wealth condemned the developments,

F R O N T L I N E 5 5

while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-
moon said that it was a clear rejection
of the legal process. Australian Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd said that Fiji was
under a military dictatorship. The
reappointment of Bainimarama as Fi-
jis interim Prime Minister was a sham
and the events surrounding his ap-
pointment had taken his country down
an even darker path, New Zealand
Foreign Minister Murray McCully
said.
The E.U. has already suspended
aid to Fiji. The United States expressed
its deep disappointment. The Security
Council expressed concern, termed it a
step backwards and called for the res-
toration of the democratic process that
Fiji had been undertaking in cooper-
ation with its regional and interna-
tional partners, including the U.N.
Fijis smaller Pacic island neigh-
bours had a more tempered response
to the developments. These island na-
tions, which have greater empathy and
understanding of the complexities of
the Fiji situation, argued for a different
approach from the Australian and
New Zealand policies of economic
sanctions. President Anote Tong of Ki-
ribati stressed the need to keep the
dialogue going with the military regi-
me.
Prime Minister Derek Sikua of the
Solomon Islands said that the Pacic
Islands Forum should not rush into
implementing sanctions against the
Fiji government as not all the Pacic
nations agreed with the stance taken
by Australia and New Zealand. Sir Te-
repai Maoate, Deputy Prime Minister
of Cook Islands, said that setting dea-
dlines and using harsh terms were not
of any use in the situation.
HISTORY OF COUPS
Fiji has a history of serial coups ,which
began in 1987 when the middle-rank-
ing army ofcer Colonel Sitiveni Rabu-
ka overthrew the newly elected
Indian-dominated coalition govern-
ment on the grounds that indigenous
Fijians should have political primacy
in the country. A few months later,
Rabuka staged a mini-coup to tighten
military control by abrogating the
Constitution and declaring himself
head of state. Elections were held un-
der a new Constitution adopted in
1990, which enshrined a dominant po-
sition for ethnic Fijians in the coun-
trys political life.
Indigenous Fijians and ethnic In-
dians form the two main communities
in Fiji, Indians being third-generation
descendants of the Indian workers
brought to Fiji in the late 19th century
and early 20th century to work on the
sugarcane plantations. Tensions be-
tween the two communities over shar-
ing of power have been a factor in the
early coups. A more equitable Consti-
tution was adopted in 1997, but in
2000, an armed gang led by George
Speight took Mahendra Chaudhry, the
countrys rst ethnic Indian Prime
Bainimarama
plans to put in
place a one
man, one vote
system.
Minister, and his Cabinet hostage.
Bainimarama, as military chief,
conducted the negotiations for the re-
lease of the hostages and installed Qa-
rase, a former banker, as interim
Prime Minister. Qarase then went on
to win two elections, the last one in
2006. However, the ill-will and bitter-
ness over the 2000 coup and an at-
tempted mutiny in the Fiji army
lingered on, creating tensions between
Qarase and Bainimarama. Eventually,
the differences over granting amnesty
to those involved in the 2000 coup and
mutiny led to the military chief over-
throwing the elected government in
December 2006.
The rst three coups in Fiji had
been carried out by people claiming to
protect the interests of the Fijian ma-
jority, and the Indian community be-
came the target in the violence that
followed the overthrow of the govern-
ment in each case. But Bainimarama
5 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
conducted a bloodless coup and as-
serted that he had acted to protect the
rights and interests of all the people of
Fiji.
The situation in Fiji is a complicat-
ed one and cannot be seen as an elected
government versus a military com-
mander. Bainimarama took over pow-
er in 2006 with the claim of cleaning
the system of widespread corruption.
There had been mixed reactions to the
military takeover, which, unlike the
earlier coups, was not accompanied by
violence or looting. Indo-Fijians were
relieved that the military commander
was not targeting Indians and was
speaking of equity between the differ-
ent races. There were others who were
thankful that the political instability
due to the open bickering between the
Prime Minister and the military chief
had come to an end. The presence of
the army led to a reduction in crime
and cases of common assault.
The interim governments record
has been a mixed one. The commodore
has taken several controversial deci-
sions; the army has used a heavy hand
on a couple of occasions. The Fiji In-
dependent Commission Against Cor-
ruption was set up but there have been
few convictions for corruption. How-
ever, there is a growing impression
that the level of corruption has de-
clined. The interim regime has since
turned its attention towards electoral
reforms. One of the charges against the
Qarase government was the use of
highly inated electoral rolls and elec-
toral malpractices.
Bainimarama now has an agenda
that he plans to implement to put in
place an electoral system that provides
for a one man, one vote system in-
stead of the present race-based voting
system. According to Bainimarama,
the decision to abrogate the Constitu-
tion was taken after a survey showed
that the majority of Fijis citizens
wanted the electoral system to be re-
formed.
In an interview to Radio New Zea-
land, he said that 64 per cent of the
people in Fiji wanted a change from
the old system of voting based on race.
He said that the Emergency Regula-
MAY 22, 2009

tution, the 71-member House of Re-

presentatives had 46 communal seats
and 25 open seats. Out of the 46 com-
munal seats, 24 seats were for indige-
nous Fijians, 19 seats for ethnic
Indians and three seats for the other
races, each elected on a communal
roll comprising their own ethnic
group. According to Bainimarama,
this race-based voting has perpetuated
an unequal polity.
The military is now back in power
again after a days gap, more deeply
entrenched this time, with greater re-
strictions on the peoples liberties and
rights. The abrogation of the Constitu-
tion has removed one obstacle that the
military regime could have faced in its
plans to reform the electoral system. It
has put off the elections by more than
six years. Parliamentary elections will
only be held after September 2014, the
new regime has said.
The 2006 coup led to a sharp eco-
nomic downturn in Fiji, affecting in-
vestor condence. Tourism and the
TIM WIMBORNE/REUTERS

garment export industry, both major

foreign exchange earners, were hit
hard by the economic sanctions im-
posed by Australia and New Zealand,
leading to major job losses. Hotels and
TH E P AC I F I C I S L A N D has a history of coups. Here, soldiers take up position resorts, which had been running at less
outside Prime Minister Laisenia Qarases residence in the capital, Suva, on than 40 per cent capacity and had be-
December 5, 2006, after the military chief said the army had taken over the gun to pick up business in the past
country. year, are likely to be hit again. In recent
months, the global recession has hit
tions were imposed so that electoral communal system of representation Fiji hard, with exports declining and
reforms could be implemented. entrenches inequalities; by not provid- prices rising. Growth gures for 2009
The military regime had set up a ing one value for one vote, it has con- were recently revised from 2.4 per cent
National Council for Building a Better tributed to the coup culture and the to 0.3 per cent, according to govern-
Fiji to prepare a Peoples Charter for consequent ethnic-based politics that ment estimates. The government is-
Change, Progress and Peace, which has impeded national development, it sued instructions in March to all
was released in August 2008. The says. The charter proposes to estab- government departments to cut down
PPDF had been under way to discuss lish a system of voting so that all the their operational expenses by 50 per
the charter. Political consultations had interests and wishes of the people of cent.
begun with the different political par- Fiji can be represented in the Parlia- Each coup has sent Fijis economy
ties, though the larger political parties ment through an Open List Propor- into a recession; and disruption in
such as Qarases Soqosoqo Duavata ni tional Representation (PR) Electoral tourist arrivals. There has been a sub-
Lewenivanua (SDL) and the Indian- and Voting System. It also plans to stantial increase in poverty in these
dominated National Federation Party incorporate specic anti-discrimina- unstable times. The most important
(NFP) had refused to attend the talks tion measures into Fijis electoral laws task is to rebuild the economy and
because of the preconditions set by the to ensure no person is discriminated work on dealing with the rising levels
interim government. against by political parties on the of poverty and deprivation in the coun-
According to the charter, Fijis grounds of race, religion, gender or try. It is the poor who are the most
electoral system is racially discrimi- circumstance. affected by the continuing instability
natory and undemocratic. The current Under the abrogated 1997 Consti- and the economic downturn.

F R O N T L I N E 5 7
World Affairs/Thailand MAY 22, 2009

Power play
The latest crisis in Thai politics brings
into focus the primacy of the military
elite, which was the real target of the
peoples revolution.
B Y P . S . S U R Y A N A R A Y A N A IN SINGAPORE

The Army, acting in partnership

with civilian-elite leaders such as
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva,
has not succeeded in erasing the
deposed leader Thaksin Shinawatras
pro-poor image.
SOUTH-EAST Asia is witnessing the stirrings of
a transition to some form of truly representative
democracy in a few pockets. While Indonesia leads
the pack of a few countries in such a transition, it is
the vivid rumblings from Thailands troubled experi-
ment with the basics of electoral democracy that
have captured prime attention.
The strategically located South-East Asian na-
tion, not colonised by Western powers, has gone
through intermittent phases of people power since
1932. Absolute monarchy was abolished in that year,
and Thailand has survived an estimated 18 military
coups since then. The latest crisis, which in mid-
April brought into focus the primacy of the military
elite in Thai politics, is distinct from the earlier
episodes of power struggle.
Sitting comfortably in the eye of this political course, rendered. Yet, before executing his emergen-
storm was the entire Thai military elite. No leader cy decree, the Thai Army resorted to a brief phase of
from its hierarchy courted the limelight this time, keeping equidistance from him and the protesters.
because the real target of the so-called peoples Beyond that brief phase, the military elite put up a
revolution was this elite in its entirety. Outwardly, formidable show of force in his favour.
of course, the key target was the civilian Prime Min- For now, the peoples revolution, orchestrated
ister, Abhisit Vejjajiva. from abroad by Thaksin Shinawatra, a leader elected
Despite his intellectual experience of one-time twice but deposed by the military, has zzled out.
exposure to the values of liberal democracy in the Thaksin was toppled in a bloodless military coup in
West, Abhisit has actively sought the militarys help. September 2006, when he had gone to New York to
Sought specically to quell a three-week-long street address the United Nations. In that context, he opt-
protest in Bangkok against his rule, this help was, of ed to remain in self-imposed exile. He returned to

5 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
A SU P P O R T E R O F Thaksin Shinawatra gestures to troops during anti-government protests in Bangkok on April 13.
Thailand in 2008, in what turned out
to be a brief sojourn, after one of his
key associates became Prime Minister.
The military elite had held a round of
democracy-restoring general elec-
tions towards the end of 2007.
The elections themselves were
caused by the militarys failure to with-
stand popular resistance. The possible
use of arms, aimed at subduing the
prolonged resistance, was an action
the Thai Army did not or simply could
not take. Later, these political nuances
would not help Thaksin after he re-
turned home in 2008. So, while he was
abroad yet again, he jumped bail in a
case relating to his tenure as Prime
Minister. Soon thereafter, he was con-
victed in absentia. In such circum-
stances, his latest action of
F R O N T L I N E 5 9
SUKREE SUKPLANG/REUTERS
orchestrating a peoples revolution
came as no surprise.
The reason is not far to seek. The
Thai Army, acting in partnership with
civilian-elite leaders such as Abhisit,
has not so far succeeded in snufng out
Thaksins pro-poor image. However,
this reality has not deterred the pre-
sent-day Thai authorities, in effect a
ranking civil-military elite.

Abhisit, according to his critics,
has been successfully co-opted by the
military elite as its civilian face at the
helm. He assumed ofce as Prime
Minister a few months ago, after two
successive pro-Thaksin leaders were
judicially unseated from that position.
What rankles Thaksins supporters
is that both those leaders, like Abhisit,
were also elected in the 2007-end gen-
eral elections. Signicantly, the poll
was held under a Constitution crafted
by the anti-Thaksin military leaders.
For traces of democratic legitimacy, it
was actually held only after the Consti-
tution was approved by the people in a
junta-organised referendum.
The latest peoples revolution, re-
gardless of its genesis in pro-democra-
cy sentiments, has brought Thailand a
bad name. And all the players, Thak-
sins supporters and the civil-military
elite, have contributed variously to this
crisis of regional condence in their
country. The sequence of events makes
this aspect clear, although no long-
term solution has been fashioned yet.
Soon after his conviction, Thaksin,
a business tycoon-turned-politician,
began a calibrated campaign to gal-
vanise his supporters among the mass-
es. Through video calls and phone-in
addresses at public rallies, he raised
their hopes for an imminent restora-
tion of people power and real democ-
racy. Towards this end, he mobilised
supporters across Thailand under the
new banner of United Front for De-
mocracy against Dictatorship. The
Fronts activists sport red shirts as a
mark of identity and revolutionary
fervour.
The remote-controlled Thaksin
bandwagon acquired momentum dur-
ing the brief tenures of two of his asso-
ciates as Prime Ministers in 2008.
After their sequential court-ordered
exit, he chose to go the proverbial extra
mile in his political campaign for real
democracy.
The core demand was that the cur-
rent military-crafted Constitution
should be amended into a genuine de-
mocracy charter. Related to this was
the parallel demand that Abhisit re-
sign and hold unconditional general
BAZUKI MUHAMMAD/REUTERS
P RI M E M I N I S TE R AB HI S I T Vejjajiva
arrives for a special cabinet meeting
at the Government House in
Bangkok on April 17.
elections by guaranteeing a level play-
ing eld.
All the while, the civil-military elite
kept up the heat on Thaksin by rst
organising the so-called Peoples Alli-
ance for Democracy. The yellow-shirt-
ed Alliance activists held rallies and
occupied state premises in Bangkok
during the rule of the two pro-Thaksin
leaders in 2008. The red-shirted
Thaksin loyalists point out that the Al-
liance was never stopped in its tracks
by the Army and the security forces. At
one stage in 2008, Alliance activists
occupied Bangkoks international air-
port; and the Thai Army did not move
in to restore order. In fact, the anti-
Thaksin protests ended only when two
of his loyalists, one after another, were
judicially unseated as Prime Ministers.
PRO-DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN
Such simmering sentiments among
Thaksins supporters, mostly poor
masses, boiled over during their mid-
April pro-democracy campaign. For a
while, the Thai Army did not move in
against Thaksins supporters too.
Sensing a new sign of political neutral-
ity on the part of the Thai Army, they
6 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
raised the stakes. A series of East Asian
summits, which Abhisit was to host at
the resort town of Pattaya on April 11
and 12, were disrupted. Pro-Thaksin
protesters stormed the venue, forcing
Abhisit to postpone the summits. The
visiting foreign leaders, including
those from China and Japan as also
India and South Korea, were evacuat-
ed by helicopter.
Encouraged by this success,
Thaksins supporters raised the tempo
of the protest, in its third week at the
time of writing, in Bangkok. Abhisit
declared a state of emergency in the
capital and adjoining provinces but
the military elite took time to decide its
response. Having ignored similar de-
crees by the two pro-Thaksin Prime
Ministers during their months of cri-
ses, the military was now in a x. How-
ever, Abhisit, already smarting under
the label of the militarys proxy, was
not amused. Hours after declaring the
emergency, he appeared on national
television anked by top military of-
cials, in a show of common purpose.
The military elite took some time to
cast its lot conspicuously; a crackdown
on Thaksins supporters began in the
pre-dawn hours on April 13.
However, the military elite went
into overdrive in terms of defensive
politics. The troops were said to have
acted only after the protesters
100,000 at one stage, by ofcial count
turned violent at an iconic monu-
ment in Bangkok. Above all, it was
emphasised that the soldiers used only
non-lethal paper bullets or practice
blanks, not live ammunition. Over
100 persons, including protesters and
military personnel, were injured. The
death of two local residents was
blamed on the protesters. With that,
the mid-April battle in Bangkok end-
ed, as hard-core protesters at the Go-
vernment House, the focal point of the
campaign, sued for peace.
Since then Abhisit has sent out
mixed political signals about restora-
tion of genuine democracy. The mil-
itary elites latest political
defensiveness about its role in civilian
affairs is a slim but real moment to
seize in the cause of democracy.
MAY 22, 2009
World Affairs

American rally
The Summit of the Americas in Trinidad occasions Barack Obamas rst ofcial
interaction with the heads of Latin American and Caribbean states. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N

Latin America extends a hand

of friendship to the United States.
But there is a widespread fear that
the latter continues with its policy
of conspiracy.
ONE of the lasting images from the recently
concluded Summit of the Americas was President
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela going to United States
President Barack Obamas seat and presenting him
with a copy of the book Open Veins of Latin America:
Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduar-

do Galeano. Chavez was reciprocating Obamas ges-
ture of walking up to him to greet him at the opening
of the summit.
The book by Galeano, who has a fan following
rivalling Gabriel Garcia Marques in Latin America,
was rst published in the early 1990s. The author has
been regularly updating the book, which chronicles
the exploitation of the region by colonial powers and
U.S. corporations. It has been a bestseller in Latin
America and now, thanks to Chavezs gesture, is an
international bestseller too.
Obama, who was in listening mode during the
summit, told journalists that he was a reader. The
people of Latin America now hope that the American
President will be able to use the book as a guide post
while formulating his administrations policies to-
wards the region and the Caribbean.
Chavez also told Obama in English that he wants
to be a friend of the new President. Chavez, like
many in the continent, had nothing but disdain for
George W. Bush. Bush had tried to orchestrate a
coup in 2002 against his government. According to
reports, U.S. intelligence agents had ordered the
assassination of Chavez when he was briey held in
custody by the coup plotters. Chavez and most of the
leaders assembled in Trinidad for the summit felt
that Obama is somebody whom they can do business
with. The political realities of the region have
changed in the past eight years. The states of the
JIM WATSON/AFP
VE N E ZUE LA N P R E S I D E N T HUG O Chavez
gives the book Open Veins of Latin America
by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano to U.S.
President Barack Obama during the summit,
on April 18.
region have formed new political alliances and eco-
nomic groupings excluding the U.S.
The fth Summit of the Americas, held in Port of
Spain, Trinidad, in the third week of April, was
Obamas rst ofcial interaction with the heads of
Latin American and Caribbean states. The summit
was the brainchild of the Clinton administration to
bring together the leaders of the Organisation of
American States (OAS) once every ve years. The
goal originally was to further Washingtons glob-
alisation agenda. But that is now a mirage. Many of
the leaders present in Trinidad were elected on the
basis of their opposition to the U.S hegemonic pol-
icies.
Before leaving for the summit, Obama had talked
of dealing with hemispheric issues on an equal foot-
ing with his fellow heads of state. There was also talk
of the new administrations willingness to engage
diplomatically with Cuba after 50 years of unremit-

F R O N T L I N E 6 1

ting hostility. Coincidentally, the day
the summit started was the date on
which the U.S. launched its ill-fated
invasion of Cuba in 1961.
Obama had announced that some
of the travel restrictions on Cuban-
Americans wishing to visit their close
relatives on the island would be lifted
and the amount of money that they
could remit to relatives back home
would be raised. This move was hailed
in the American media as a radical
break from past policies.
NO CONCRETE STEPS
But there have been no concrete steps
to relax the economic blockade, which
has caused much misery to the Cuban
people, even slightly. President Raul
Castro said that the Cuban govern-
ment was willing to engage diplomat-
ically with the U.S. in response to the
move by the Obama administration.
We are willing to discuss everyth-
ing human rights, freedom of the
press, political prisoners, everything,
everything they want to talk about, but
they keep their conditions without
even attempting to respect Cuban sov-
ereignty, while violating the Cuban
peoples right of self-determination,
Raul Castro said at a meeting of lead-
ers from the Bolivarian Alternative for
the Americas (ALBA), held a few days
before the Trinidad summit. ALBA, a
regional grouping consisting of Vene-
zuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Hon-
duras and Dominica, was formed to
counter the American-sponsored Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Leader of the Cuban revolution
and former President Fidel Castro
wrote that the steps taken by Obama
were positive, although minimal. Fi-
del Castro felt that the changes did not
go far enough. He pointed out that
Obama had chosen not to utter a word
so far on the blockade, which he de-
scribed as a genocidal measure, whose
damage cannot be calculated on the
basis of its economic effects. In fact,
the Obama administration, just after
taking over, had penalised a French
company, which supplied milk prod-
ucts to Cuba. Obamas main adviser
during the Trinidad Summit was Jef-
MAY 22, 2009
frey Davidow. Davidow, a career for-
eign service ofcer, was in Chile during
the coup against the elected govern-
ment in the early 1970s. After that he
was assigned to South Africa, where he
helped the apartheid regime mount
covert operations to destabilise Angola
and Mozambique. He has also played a
major role in Plan Colombia, the
U.S.-funded counter-insurgency pro-
gramme.
While Obama was pressing for a
new diplomacy, Davidow was practis-
ing the old, wrote Tom Hayden in an
article. Hayden is a prominent Amer-
ican political activist. Obamas choice
of advisers is a clear sign that Amer-
ican policy on Latin America is not
likely to undergo radical changes.
During the eight-year presidency
of George W. Bush, the region, once
considered Washingtons political
backyard, had begun to chart out its
own economic and political course.
The Bush administrations war on ter-
ror had very few takers in Latin Amer-
ica. According to opinion polls, he was
the most hated U.S. President in Latin
America. The people of the region
were the rst to turn their backs on the
International Monetary Fund/World
Bank propagated neoliberal economic
policies. Unlike the elites in countries
such as India, the intellectuals and the two. The left-wing FMLN, which has
people of the Americas strived politi- close links with Cuba, has won the
cally to get out of the embrace of the presidential election in El Salvador.
colossus of the North the U.S. There was a strong demand at the
And in the last couple of years, the summit that Cuba be invited back into
region has spoken as one on the eco- the OAS. Chavez said in his speech that
nomic blockade on Cuba. For the rst the grouping would be incomplete
time Latin American countries held a without the presence of Cuba. Almost
summit, hosted by Brazil late last year, all the leaders present called on the
pointedly excluding the U.S. Cuba U.S. to change its policy towards Cuba.
took its designated place at that sum- Argentinas President Christina
mit. Cuba was of course not present at Kirchner demanded the lifting of the
Trinidad. It was expelled from the anachronistic blockade on Cuba.
OAS in 1962 soon after the revolution President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua,
under Washingtons orders. At that in his speech, said, [I am] ashamed of
time almost all Latin American coun- the fact that I am participating in a
tries toed the U.S. line, except Mexico. summit with the absence of Cuba. Cu-
Today, the reverse is happening. bas only crime, he declared, was ght-
The only Latin American country that ing for the sovereignty of its people.
does not have diplomatic relations Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
with Cuba is El Salvador. It is only a members at the summit called on the
question of time before diplomatic re- U.S. government to reverse its policy of
lations are established between the non-engagement with Cuba.
6 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
leader Fidel Castro after receiving UNESCOs
CH A VE Z W I T H C UB A N
International Jose Marti Prize in February 2006 at the Revolution Square in
Havana. Chavez said the OAS was incomplete without Cuba.
But the Cuban government is not
all that keen on rejoining a club that
was used for long as an instrument to
destabilise the revolution. The OAS
chief, Jose Miguel Insulza, said that
Cuba should adhere to democratic
principles if it wanted to be readmit-
ted.
In response to Insulzas statement,
Fidel Castro wrote that Cuba would
not join the OAS in its present form as
it was an incarnation of betrayal. He
emphasised that the OAS was an ac-
complice of the U.S. in its aggressive
actions towards Cuba for the past ve
decades. The United States doesnt
have any right to speak about democ-
racy, because from over there they in-
stall coups detat, said Bolivian
MARCELO GARCIA/MIRAFLORES/AFP
President Evo Morales. The U.S. had
unscrupulously used the OAS to iso-
late Cuba. Until a few years ago, the
U.S. used its inuence to veto any dis-
cussion on Cuba.
But, as the latest summit exempli-
ed, those days are over. Cuba was at
the centre of the debates in Trinidad.
To show their solidarity with Cuba,
OAS members, led by countries such
as Nicaragua and Venezuela, ensured
that a Declaration of Port of Spain
was not signed as was envisaged. Oba-
ma, in a press conference after the
summit, conceded that U.S. policies
against Cuba in the past 50 years had
not succeeded in destabilising the go-
vernment there.
With capitalism in crisis, the peo-
F R O N T L I N E 6 3
ple of the region are looking to the
Cuban model for inspiration. Though
the economic blockade has caused
considerable hardship for the econo-
my, the tangible benets of the revolu-
tion for the Cuban people in health,
education and other elds are there for
all to see. Chavez said recently that the
Cuban economic model was the one to
be emulated.
Socialism is the way forward, said
Chavez, and if election results in recent
years are an indication, most of Latin
America and the region agrees with
him.
STRATEGIC THREAT
Chavez, Morales and Rafael Correa of
Ecuador have already started nation-
alising important assets for the benet
of their people. The Obama adminis-
tration views these developments as a
strategic threat to U.S. interests. The
U.S. gets around 40 per cent of its oil
and gas from the region. Despite the
bonhomie displayed at the summit be-
tween Obama and Chavez, Washing-
ton will continue to view left-wing
governments as a threat to the empire.
An assassination plot against Morales
was thwarted a few days before the
Trinidad summit. Both Bolivia and
Venezuela had expelled American en-
voys for interfering in the domestic
affairs of their countries.
Obama criticised Chavez again
during his interaction with the media
in Trinidad. While running for Presi-
dent, Obama had said that Chavez ex-
ports terrorism and was an obstacle
to progress in the region. But Chavez,
for the time being, seems to have given
Obama the benet of the doubt and
is keen to re-establish normal diplo-
matic relations with Washington. He
declared that the summit was the
most successful he has attended in
this decade. He told reporters that the
summit opened the doors to a new era
of rationality among all countries.
Morales, however, has no such illu-
sions about the Obama presidency.
One hundred days have gone by and
we in Bolivia have yet to feel any
changes. The policy of conspiracy con-
tinues, said Morales.
Photography MAY 22, 2009

Frames of passion
Marc Riboud is a remarkable photojournalist whose compositions never cease
to spring a surprise. B Y P A R T H A C H A T T E R J E E

PICTURES COURTESY GALLERY ART MOTIF, NEW DELHI

S H A N G H A I 20 0 2 . A dramatic composition, taken through the windscreen of a car. Aesthetically, it
belongs to the Bauhaus School of 1920s Germany, but its wit would please even an Alfred Hitchcock.

Rather than a profession,
photography has always been a
passion for me, a passion closer to
an obsession. Riboud has never
regarded himself as an artist but
became one by temperament.
MARC RIBOUD is one of the most remarkable
photojournalists of the 20th century. He is a poet of
the camera without intending to be one. He is the
most celebrated French photographer of the 1950s,
that of the post-Cartier-Bresson generation. Tas-
veer, an Indian organisation devoted to photogra-
phy, held a show of his works from April 1 to 10 at
Gallery Art Motif, New Delhi.
It was a small exhibition with two 1953 pictures
from Paris, two from the British Museum, London; a
haunting one of a boy drying himself by a large tank
in a temple complex in Angkor, Cambodia (1969);
and the rest mostly from his visits to Nepal, India,
Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan in 1956. The latest
picture included is one taken in Shanghai, China, in
2002, with a distinct surreal avour.
Ribouds photographs reect a variety of moods
and, when required, the ability to compose compli-
cated visual elements with amazing grace. In this
respect he equals his senior Henri Cartier-Bresson,
whose mastery of visual geometry in 35mm candid
photography remains unchallenged to this day. But
Ribouds goals are different from that of Cartier-
Bresson. Modest to a fault, he is rst and foremost

6 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009

CHANDIGARH, INDIA, 1956. Ribouds penchant for contradictions is brought out with droll
humour. This elegantly composed shot is a good example.

F R O N T L I N E 6 5
 MAY 22, 2009

M A R C R I B O UD : " B E A U T Y is
everywhere, as is strangeness...."
delighted to connect with the people
he has photographed and those who
see them published in a magazine or
occasionally in exhibitions. He has
never regarded himself as an artist but
became one by temperament and a li-
fetime of achievement.
Musing about his metier, he has
observed: Rather than a profession,
photography has always been a pas-
sion for me, a passion closer to an
obsession.
His pictures have compassion, so-
metimes wit of both varieties, gentle
and cracking. There is, to state the ob-
vious, a search beyond recording, per-
haps for the elusive; an
acknowledgement of the will-of-the-
wisp quality of life itself. Take, for in-
stance, a 1956 photograph taken so-
mewhere in Iran. It is a vertical
composition with a tortoise crossing
the road from left to right in the fore-
ground. At the back is a darkish car
driving away, in the middle ground
and beyond it is the outline of hills.
Seen today, it seems to encapsulate
the destiny of 20th-century Iran.
There is an incongruity in the elements
that constitute the picture. One can be
quite sure that Riboud had not
thought out his image. It happened
to present itself to him and his athletes
reexes made it possible. To those who
are politically oriented, Irans repeat-
edly thwarted attempts to attain mo- from the Arab Islamic World, was sumptuous takeover. Mohammad
dernity may be seen in this innocent well-known even as the Anglo-Saxon Mossadegh, a patriot and a highly ca-
picture. world became aware of its most pre- pable Prime Minister, nationalised the
Irans existence as a highly sophis- cious natural resource oil. It was rst oil industry. Major American oil com-
ticated civilisation, with its own pan- the British and then the Americans panies had huge stakes in the Iranian
theon of poets, painters and architects who coveted it. A politically vibrant oil industry. The American govern-
and an identity distinct and separate country would never allow such a pre- ment, through the Central Intelligence

6 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
Agency, engineered a military coup in
1953 to overthrow Mossadeghs go-
vernment and installed Shah Reza
Pehlavi, a man with a fake imperial
lineage, in his stead (Saga of resis-
tance, Frontline, September 26,
2008). To call him a contradictory pro-
gressive would not be wrong. He want-
ed women to be educated and the sexes
to mix freely with each other. The up-
per classes were the major beneci-
aries of his municence. Those who
opposed the Shah faced the wrath of
the secret police, SAVAK. Nationalists
F R O N T L I N E 6 7
FOR B I D D E N CI TY, BE I J I N G
1957. The geometrical
perfection, with a descending
gure in black, the white of snow
in the middle ground and the
bisecting lines of the old imperial
building, does help freeze time.
 MAY 22, 2009

BR A TI S LA VA, 1994.
A face on a poster
with a diagonal gash
on the right eye
running slightly down
across the bridge of
the nose and towards
the left ear. This is a
singular picture: its
impact is as much as
any taken along the
same lines by the
American great
Walker Evans.

I R A N , 1955 ( LE FT) . The focus on

the girls is quite acceptably sharp. It
captures a mysterious aspect of
childhood, which is deeply poetic and
which cuts across economic
deprivation. And, as a glimpse of
childhood, it links up with a 1953
picture, above, of two small girls in
their drawers, in the woods
somewhere in France, taken in 1953.

TUR KE Y, I R A N , 1955.
There is in his
photographs a search
beyond recording,
perhaps for the elusive;
an acknowledgement of
the will-of-the-wisp
quality of life itself.

6 8 F R O N T L I N E

saw him as an American stooge and
erred even more grievously by bringing
the rabid cleric Ayatollah Khomeini to
power following the Shahs overthrow
in 1978. The rest, as they say, is history.
There are two other moving pic-
tures from a 1955 trip to Iran. The rst
is of two burqa-clad women crossing
each other in front of an ornate build-
ing. The gure on the left is wearing an
off-white garment with polka dots and
the one on the right a dark, but not
black, garment with white polka dots.
Apart from the visually arresting qual-
ity of the composition, there appears to
be a subtle feminine statement made,
not necessarily ideological.
There is another picture: a vertical
one of two little girls, facing left and
right respectively, and an even smaller
boy in very soft focus, down the frame
at right. The focus on the girls is quite
acceptably sharp. It captures a myste-
rious aspect of childhood, which is
deeply poetic and which cuts across
economic deprivation, and as a
glimpse of eeting childhood links up
with a picture of two small girls in their
drawers, in the woods somewhere in
France, taken in 1953.
Ribouds attitude towards photog-
raphy is very simple: Beauty is eve-
rywhere, as is strangeness, which even
came my way in Shanghai last year in
the form of a small plastic bag left in
the garden of the Mandarin Yu: with
its knot forming ears, it looked like a
lost little rabbit.
Images come to him through hours
of waiting, usually; occasionally they
also come quick. A face on a poster
with a small diagonal gash on the right
eye running slightly down across the
bridge of the nose and towards the left
ear, taken in Bratislava in 1994, is a
singular picture: its impact is as much,
if not more, as any taken along the
same lines by the American great
Walker Evans.
An even more dramatic photo-
graph is the one taken in 2002 in
Shanghai through a car windscreen,
with a large, angled billboard of a
womans startled eyes, her forehead
7 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
C ALCUTTA, I N D I A, 1956 .
This image, taken on a
cloudy morning, and
another, of the ghat at
dusk, capture very deftly
the literal and
metaphorical passing of
time.
I R A N , 1956. S E E Ntoday,
this image seems to
encapsulate the destiny of
20th century Iran. One can
be quite sure that Riboud
had not thought out his
image. It happened to
present itself to him, and
his athletes reexes made
it possible. To the
politically inclined, Irans
repeatedly thwarted
attempts to attain
modernity may be seen in
this innocent picture.
MAY 22, 2009 F R O N T L I N E 7 1
Photography
and the bridge of her nose. Aesthetical-
ly, it belongs to the Bauhaus School of
1920s Germany, but its wit would
please even an Alfred Hitchcock.
Riboud never ceases to spring a
surprise. There is a formal composi-
tion of the Forbidden City in the old
quarter of Peking, or Beijing (1957).
The geometrical perfection of the pic-
ture, with a descending gure in black
on the right, the white of snow in the
middle ground and the lines of the old
imperial building bisecting each other,
often at right angles, does help to
freeze time. It could well be a frame
from an old nitrate-based silent lm.
There is also a deceptively simple 1971
picture of Chairman Maos statue in
prole with industrial chimneys bil-
lowing smoke in the background.
Then there are two landscapes
from 1983, in colour so muted as to be
almost monochromatic. Their visual
impact is no less than that of any wa-
tercolour by a great Chinese classical
landscape painter. The China pictures
included in this exhibition highlight
the countrys position as an ancient
I R AN , 1955. A P AR T
from the visually
arresting quality of
this composition (the
gure on the left is
wearing an off-white
garment with polka
dots and the one on
the right a dark, but
not black, garment
with white polka
dots), there appears
to be a subtle
feminine statement
made, not
necessarily
ideological.
culture and also reect its dilemmas
and contradictions as a communist
state in the post-modern world.
Ribouds penchant for contradic-
tions is often brought out with droll
humour. One example is an elegantly
composed vertical shot of a Sikh gen-
tleman with a shaft of vertically slant-
ing light falling behind him in a drab,
grey and somewhat intimidating inte-
rior of a new building in the just-built
city of Chandigarh (1956) and an
anonymous shadowy peasant in the
middle ground.
A picture of a peasant boy, bare-
bodied save for his shorts and an im-
provised headgear to protect him from
the sun and the rain, posing against a
giant stone wheel at the Konark Sun
Temple is evocative, as is his Calcutta
(now Kolkata) picture of a dhoti-clad
gure in sleep, with modelled gods and
goddesses in clay behind him keeping
watch. Two other pictures from the
same 1956 trip, of the Calcutta ghats
with people in the foreground and
boats in the distance, but taken in dif-
ferent light conditions one on a clou-
7 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
dy morning and the other at dusk
capture very deftly the literal and
metaphorical passing of time.
Two Parisian pictures from 1953
are full of quiet mischief. In the rst, a
bespectacled Capuchin Nun is awk-
wardly trying to board a partially seen
taxi in an overcast morning; the sec-
ond is of a precariously balanced work-
man painting one of the girders of the
Eiffel tower with a portion of Paris
seen in plunging perspective. This
photograph could well be a still out of a
Buster Keaton silent comedy.
Ribouds attitude to life and pho-
tography has always been celebratory
but in a gentle, rened way while re-
maining energetic. Look at his picture
of a vehicle crowded with people driv-
ing away from the camera, with the
slogan Its Great to be Young painted
in white on its back, and one will im-
mediately share his joie de vivre. It is a
eeting image of an emerging modern
society. The lone man smiling at the
camera is, in retrospect, symbolic of
Ghana in 1960.
Riboud quotes Walker Evans in
empathy thus: The photographer is a
joyous sensualist for the simple reason
that the eye trafcs in feelings and not
in thoughts.
As a photojournalist he has consis-
tently shown respect and love for his
subjects over the past 70 years. Wheth-
er it is an abstract pattern of a Shang-
hai bridge with a road-marker in the
centre of the frame disappearing dra-
matically into the distance, or a camel
fair in India more than 50 years ago, or
a bent old man walking across, one
nds in them a photographer, an art-
ist, truly in love with life and conver-
sant with its changing moods. Also
testifying to this quality were his pho-
tographs of the street in Leeds, En-
gland, from the same period, of a
pensive young Ravi Shankar tuning his
sitar, of a woman offering a ower to
the armed-to-theteeth National
Guardsman in Washington during an
anti-Vietnam war rally, and of a couple
silhouetted against a partially seen sky
in one of the alcoves of the rigorously
geometrical Jantar Mantar in New
Delhi.
MAY 22, 2009
Unity hymns
Khushwant Singhs translation of the hymns of the Sikh gurus reminds us of the
need for tolerance between religions. B Y P U S H P A S U R E N D R A
ONGS of the Gurus From
S Nanak to Gobind Singh is a
translation by Khushwant
Singh of the hymns of the
Sikh gurus. It is a well-pro-
duced book with beautiful illustrations
by the noted painter Arpana Caur.
More than half of this small, 123-
page book is devoted to Guru Nanaks
hymns. Nanak, the founder and the
rst Guru of Sikhism, is said to have
composed 974 hymns in all. These
hymns form a major part of the Adi
Granth or the Granth Sahib, the holy
book of the Sikhs. Seven of the 10 Sikh
gurus were composers and poets
themselves. Besides their composi-
tions, the writings of Hindu and Mus-
lim saints and poets of the medieval
period, such as Kabir, Trilochandas,
Baba Farid and Namdev, are included
in the Adi Granth. The holy book of the
Sikhs is not merely a religious work but
a work of historical importance,
throwing light on language, literature
and society of medieval India. Some of
the compositions of the bards who ac-
companied the gurus were also includ-
ed in the holy book. It is to the credit of
the Sikh gurus that they have not ap-
propriated the contributions of these
simple folk as their own work but have
acknowledged their authorship.
The compilation of the hymns,
which started during the time of the
fth guru, Arjan Dev, was completed
during the lifetime of the tenth and last
guru, Gobind Singh. The personal in-
volvement of the gurus in the compila-
tion of the hymns leaves no room for
doubt about their authenticity and au-
thorship. The same cannot be said
books
IN REVIEW
Songs of the Gurus: From
Nanak to Gobind Singh,
translated by Khushwant
Singh; Penguin Books, 2008;
pages 123, Rs.399
(hardbound).
about some other works of the medie-
val period, which were appropriated
by established religions not to reform
themselves but to dilute the teachings
and blunt the criticism contained in
them. The Sikh gurus and their dis-
ciples, in contrast, guarded the inde-
pendence of their young religion
zealously from those who were eager to
destroy it.
Only those who have read the
hymns in the original Punjabi will be
F R O N T L I N E 7 3
able to comment on the quality of the
authors translation of them into En-
glish. This reviewer can only say that
the translations read effortlessly.
Hymn or kirtan singing has always
occupied an important place in Sikh
community worship. Guru Nanak
himself composed hymns and sang
them at prayer meetings. The hymns
were set to music by Mardana, his rst
Muslim disciple and also a rebeck
player. Mardana followed the guru
everywhere in the subcontinent and to
far-away places. Upon Mardanas
death, his son played the rebeck for
Nanak. It is still a Sikh tradition to
have Muslim rebeck players called ra-
babis perform devotional music in
gurdwaras along with Sikh and Hindu
rebeck players.
The subject matter of most hymns
is simple and is meant to appeal to
ordinary people. Most of the hymns
are basically about the true nature of
God. The hymns dispel false notions
and myths about God. Nanak believed
in the unity of God, not in the plurality
of gods. He preached against exhibi-
tionism in religion and emphasised in-
ner spiritual awakening; wherever
Nanak went, he challenged supersti-
tion and formalism. Nanak turned
deeply inward and came up with the
powerful message of love and unity at a
time of social divisiveness resulting
from competition and mistrust among
religions. The hymns tell us that the
way to experience God is through love.
God is the Master, God is Truth,
His name spelleth love divine,
His creatures ever cry: O give,
O give,

He the bounteous doth never de-
cline.
Some of the hymns are so relevant
to our times that they read as if they
were written only a week ago, on the
eve of the Lok Sabha elections.
There is no count of fools who
will not see,
Nor of thieves who live by fraud,
There is no count of despots
practising tyranny,
Nor of those whose hands are
soiled with blood.
There is no count of those who
sin and go free,
Nor of liars caught in the
web of falsehood,
There is no count of the
polluted who live on lth,
Nor of the evil-tongued
weighed down with calumny.
Of such degradation, O Nanak,
also think.
Khushwant Singh is also a histori-
an of Sikhism. In a brief introduction
to this book, he outlines the important
aspects of Sikh religion and the sym-
bols in Sikh rituals. According to him,
Nanaks teachings reveal the inuence
of Islam as well as Hinduism, and his
early band of disciples were dissenters
from both Hinduism and Islam. Na-
nak rejected the caste system and idol
worship, emphasised devotion to God
and propagated a religion for the hou-
seholder, thereby rejecting asceticism.
While Nanak spoke against polyth-
eism, caste differences and the seclu-
sion of women, he was inspired by the
philosophy of the Upanishads and the
metaphysics of the Gita. He took from
Hinduism the belief in Karma and
transmigration of the soul but rejected
the belief in the Vedas and the Pura-
nas, reincarnation and the degrada-
tion of women as propounded in Manu
Smriti, and so on.
The importance of Sikhism as an
independent religion does not dimin-
ish because it was inuenced by Hin-
duism or Islam. One cannot deny
Christianity its independence just be-
cause it originated in the larger ethos
of the time of Judaic inuence. Sik-
hism too retained its distinct character
from mainstream Brahmanical Hin-
GU RU GO B I N D S I N G H, the tenth
and last guru.
duism throughout its history. Nanaks
religion grew out of the turbulence of
the times he lived in. His spiritual
quest led him to the acceptance of the
best in other traditions and faiths such
as Islam and Hinduism. According to
Dr. Gopal Singh, author of A history
of the Sikh People (1469-1988), many
people before Nanak had preached the
oneness of God but Nanak was the rst
to speak of the oneness of man.
The gurus that succeeded Nanak
came into conict with Mughal of-
cials in Punjab. They often complained
to the emperor in Delhi of the rising
power and inuence of the Sikh gurus,
which they viewed with suspicion, and
they saw the rise of Sikhism as an eco-
nomic and political threat to Mughal
power. It must be remembered that
Sikhism was a householders religion
and the gurus and their disciples were
not recluses. The Sikhs were a prosper-
ous community. The gurus laid great
emphasis on hard work and pursued
their professions of trade and agricul-
ture. Soldiering was also considered a
noble profession by the gurus.
The hymns
tell us that
the way to
experience God
is through love.
7 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
After Guru Arjan Dev was put to
death by the Mughals, the Sikh reli-
gion became more militant. There are
several interpretations about why the
Mughals mistrusted Sikhs. The out-
come of these tensions was that the
pacist ideals propagated by Nanak
when he started the movement lost its
usefulness to its followers. The Sikhs
paid a heavy price for their insubordi-
nation to Mughal power. Three of the
Sikh gurus were put to death by Mugh-
al rulers.
It is interesting to note that Mahat-
ma Gandhi was critical of the teach-
ings of Sikhism. Gandhiji felt that the
greatness of Nanaks movement and
Sikhisms value as a great religion di-
minished after the death of Nanak.
Sikhism as interpreted by the gurus
who succeeded him changed. It
changed forever under Guru Gobind
Singh.
Sikhism lost its universal appeal
when it became the religion of only a
small band of men, more a cult of the
sword. Whatever the merits of this
charge, Nanaks religion no doubt was
an inclusive one in which even out-
castes and dissenters from other reli-
gions could nd refuge. Of course, the
same cannot be said about Sikhism
today.
Gobind Singh was only 10 years old
when his father Guru Tegh Bahadur,
the ninth guru, was put to death by the
Mughal rulers. His decision to put an
end to the line of gurus and declare the
Adi Granth the future guru in guiding
Sikhs was revolutionary. Guru Gobind
Singh knew the impermanence of hu-
man gurus since his own death was
imminent.
The message of Sikhism as a reli-
gion that preached the unity of God
and man is as relevant today as it was
when it was founded. The rst words
uttered by Nanak at the age of 30 after
his rst mystical experience was:
There is no Hindu, no Mussalman.
Thus the teachings of Nanak will never
lose its relevance, especially for India.
Songs of the Gurus is a timely publi-
cation reminding us of the need for
more tolerance between religions and
love amongst mankind.
MAY 22, 2009
Colonial liaisons
A new extension to the role of native women in the complex process of British
empire building. B Y J A S O D H A R A B A G C H I
HIRTY years down the line,
T the title of Lawrence Stones
path-breaking book The
Family Sex and Marriage in
England 15001800 nds
an echo in the book under review. This
book, which omits the crucial word
marriage, is a different study alto-
gether. It tries to retrieve from the in-
terstices of the existing records the
visibility of a group of women who
were either native born or products of
mixed-race marriage. These were the
women who kept the British function-
aries of the East India Company or the
male members of the British army, in a
situation of sexual or familial comfort
through the early period of colonialism
of Company Rule, right through the
18th and early 19th centuries.
The author, herself of Indian ori-
gin, living and working in North
America, tries to focus on this crucial
problem of hybridity from the perspec-
tive of the British in India in the early
stages of colonialism. The book also
happens to be a highly gendered one.
Its avowed aim is to try and restore the
agency of these innumerable women
who contributed to the sexual needs
and well-being of the British males
who were actively colonising Indian
society and who, according to the book
in question, were contributing to the
making of the British Empire.
The book has not been able to live
up to the grandiose claim made in the
title. As Indrani Chatterjee had said in
her earlier book on Gender Slavery
and Law in Colonial India (1999),
these stories of agency have to be
prized open from the interstices of so-
cial and economic history. A complex
process of colonial state building lies
submerged in these narrations of in-
digenous women who formed rela-
IN REVIEW
Sex and the Family in
Colonial India: The Making
of Empire by Durba Ghosh;
Cambridge University Press,
2006; pages 277.
tionships of various degrees of
intimacy and domesticity with the
white male ofcials of the East India
Company and British military person-
nel.
At the beginning of the book, the
author claims that she is out to retrieve
the name and identity of women born
in the Indian subcontinent with whom
the British had formed familial or qua-
si-familial relationships. These rela-
tionships not only helped the
companys servants and soldiers to
form the right kind of networks both
emotionally and sexually but help the
multilayered public negotiation they
had to undertake in order to entrench
F R O N T L I N E 7 5
books/review
Company Rule on the subcontinent.
On the whole, the grey zones
through which the establishment and
entrenchment of the British Empire
on the subcontinent proceeded have
been exposed more in the areas of pub-
lic aspects of political economy. The
more private and intimate areas of sex,
marriage and family have been, by and
large, neglected in the history of the
subcontinent, though quite a number
of parallel studies focus on other parts
of the empire-building process across
the globe. Therefore, the book does ll
a lacuna in the area of our understand-
ing of the complex process of colonial
state formation, especially in its gen-
dered aspect.
Despite its over-ambitious title,
the book really tries to bring to light
the process of local or native women in
the lives of the British ofcers and sol-
diers of the East India Company,
mostly in the 18th century.
In moves reminiscent of Kumari
Jayawardenas classic formulation
Erasure of the Eurasians, these wom-
en, who had once played such a dy-
namic role in the lives of these white
men, have been erased from the narra-
tions of the history of the British Em-
pire in India. In order to reect the
cleanliness of the Empire that was
straight and white, the suppression of
the grey areas of hybridity, on which
such a process inevitably rested, was
almost mandatory. Hence one cannot
but welcome the book in hand for
bringing to light the lives of these
women from behind the naturalised
white purdah of the Empire.
Inevitably, these women, as if fol-
lowing the logic of the honour, are
not visible in the historical archives. In
this area the author could draw upon
the paintings left by some of the white

artists, such as Zoffany and Renaldi.
Within these highly stylised photo-
graphs, these women have a presence
which is dignied to match the ambi-
ence of these courtly gatherings. But
for getting their more mundane pres-
ence (voices or agency, I still think, are
too strong words) she has had to look
into court records, wills and other doc-
uments in which the white male part-
ners have formulated their
responsibility towards these unortho-
dox unions and the future progeny
born through such unions. These are
the ways in which Ghosh has tried to
prize open the active presence of these
women in the history of British coloni-
alism in India.
Hidden from history, the original
feminist description of womens rela-
tive absence in the so-called public
eld of historical enquiry, is given a
new extension by Durba Ghosh in
these stories of native women in the
18th century. She has overtly tried to
resist the Scylla of the passivity of these
oriental women in the male orientalist
gaze and the Charybdis of linking
them up with the agency of white men
saving the brown women from the
brown men (Spivak). Very clearly, she
has suggested that she would like to
retrieve the agency of these women,
their subjectivity in the mapping out of
an alternative domestic terrain that
went into the making of the peculiar
colonial formation, the family, as the
handmaiden of the state.
Emerging from the interstices are
these women, no doubt, and the stories
of these liaisons and relationships are
extremely readable. But the absence of
an adequate awareness of the colonial
compulsions cannot transform these
stories into analytical accounts of how
sex and family were being harnessed to
the colonial state formation through
stereotyping in the eyes of law, revenue
collection and other areas of
governance.
The book claims to go beyond the
conventional narrative about the pro-
gressive racialisation of British coloni-
alism on the Indian subcontinent.
This claim is difcult to accept. The
necessity for a narrative of the pro-
gressive racialisation of the British co-
lonialism is not a conventional one
because it is a process fraught with
challenges for the gendered history,
both of the colonial onslaught and of
the growing resistance against coloni-
alism. If fear of miscegenation and
deep anxiety about a hybrid creole
population played up among the colo-
nial masters, similarly, a need to keep
the indigenous women chaste and un-
contaminated was also hyped up. The
transition from the one to the other
still needs to be mapped adequately,
looking at the existing scholarship,
particularly among feminist histori-
ans. I feel the gaps in the jigsaw puzzle
are still quite glaring. Despite the pro-
fessed aim of the book not to be part of
this, the stories of native women
whom she tries to retrieve will certain-
ly contribute to this general under-
standing of the transition.
The author is a good narrator,
whatever may be her shortcomings as
theoretician of gender.
QUESTION OF AGENCY
In the Introduction to the volume,
Durba Ghosh has tried to take a posi-
tion that tries to steer clear of William
Dalrymples position that the relation-
ship between the white rulers and the
coloured women, who come from
among the ruled, was really open in the
18 and early 19 centuries and Indrani
Chatterjees linking of the family and
slavery in these early stages.
Durba Ghosh seems to think that
she has to avoid either in order to open
out the question of the agency of the
women with whom the British of-
cials and soldiers cohabited and raised
families. Without placing too much
emphasis on the question of agency,
one can testify that the book has suc-
ceeded in narrating the different as-
pects of the lives, expectations and
aspirations that these women may
have experienced, but whether it still
qualies as their agency or not is so-
mething that has not been convincing-
ly established.
The thick description of the Niza-
mat in Murshidabad that Indrani
Chatterjee has given in her book tends
7 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
to give us a better understanding of the
ways in which sex and family were per-
ceived and manipulated by the coloni-
al authority. What the white rulers did
when forced with their own familial
and sexual compulsions, which is what
the present book narrates, will then
have to be matched to see how the
women in the white households of the
Nabobs shaped their agency com-
pared to those in the courtly and other
households of the local Nawabs and
Nazims.
Through a clear progression of
narration, Chapter I, which deals with
the cultural representation of the fe-
male companions of the British of-
cers and uses most of the photographic
representations of these households,
gives way to the anxieties of cohab-
itation of the white male who had
gone native, through the wills and
other documents that try to map out
the patriarchal authority as exempli-
ed in the paternal responsibility in
the eld of inter-racial spectrum of
marriage slavery and other forms of
owning and disowning and nally the
bureaucratic and institutional practic-
es associated with colonial governance
both among the civilians and the army.
Particularly in Chapter 6, which deals
with the women in the military bar-
racks, one misses the reference to
works on prostitution by scholars such
as Professor Ratnabali Chatterjee.
Chatterjees work has touched on the
effects of Contagious Diseases Act and
the Lockgate Hospitals on indigenous
women.
One has to be grateful for what the
book has achieved. But there are other
dimensions of Colonial Rule politi-
cal, as well as moral economy that
may invoke too much of a macro per-
spective that may threaten to gobble
up the micro-level perspective in
which gender appears to nestle. Agen-
cy could, and should, be adequately
contextualised in the larger perspec-
tive in order to avoid any possible
charge of essentialisation.
Jasodhara Bagchi is retired Professor
of English and Founder-Director,
School of Womens Studies, Jadavpur
University, Kolkata.
MAY 22, 2009
Mirror to media
The books look at ethical issues in journalism and the depiction of Muslims in
the media. B Y A . G . N O O R A N I
ARANJOY GUHA THA-
P
KURTA, a journalist of 30
years experience, is
uniquely qualied to write
this textbook. He has expe-
rience in both print and electronic
journalism besides directing docu-
mentary lms. In the wake of the
Mumbai blasts, calls were heard for
self-regulation by the media rather be-
latedly. Similar excesses were commit-
ted, by television particularly, in
similar circumstances. That is, where
something sensational had happened
and the public was fair game for
arousal.
This is not an arid textbook. It con-
tains a number of case studies from
India and abroad, such as the Mumbai
blasts, the Aarushi Talwar murder
case and even the Watergate scandal.
It has excerpts from the codes of con-
duct issued by the Press Council, the
resolution of Europes Parliamentary
Assembly Council on the ethics of jour-
nalism and the code of ethics for ad-
vertising issued by the Advertising
Council of India.
That it would serve eminently as a
textbook for courses in journalism and
mass communication is apparent even
on a cursory reading. But the ethical
issues it raises, pointedly and perti-
nently, make the book an excellent
working paper, as it were, for a serious
seminar among the truly concerned on
the issues very many raise about the
media.
Covered here are topics such as ob-
jectivity, sources of information, ob-
scenity and blasphemy, reporting on
the judiciary, election campaigns, pri-
vacy, media market, the clout of the
advertiser and the power of the mar-
keting manager over the editorial staff,
libel, contempt of court, public rela-
BOOK FACTS
Muslims and Media Images:
News versus Views edited by
Ather Farouqui; Oxford
University Press; pages 354,
Rs.695.
Media Ethics: Truth, Fairness
and Objectivity by Paranjoy
Guha Thakurta; Oxford
University Press; pages 334,
Rs.245.
tions, the Internet and blogging.
Sting journalism is discussed well.
But there are a couple of sorry omis-
sions. One wishes that there was a
chapter on the Press Council and, in
comparison, the British Press Com-
plaints Commission set up by the press
itself to enforce a Code of Practice also
drawn up by the editors. That docu-
ment surely deserved reproduction in
a volume like this.
So also the commissions landmark
ruling on July 17, 1994, upholding
sting operations. There is, sadly, a col-
ossal ignorance on this in high places,
F R O N T L I N E 7 7
books/in brief
executive and judicial. Ather Farou-
quis book has come not a day too soon.
It is a comprehensive compilation of
informed essays on the depiction of
Muslims in the media, the Urdu press,
the projection of stereotypes by Bolly-
wood, and Indian Muslims and
Bollywood.
The contributors, distinguished
journalists and academics, carefully
document their assertions. Estelle
Drylands paper Indian Muslims and
the Free Press is particularly impor-
tant. She explores the underlying rea-
sons for a perceived lack of
representation of Muslim Indian writ-
ers in Indias press. She examined a
selection of publications from 1948 to
the present day in an attempt to ascer-
tain if Muslim writers are indeed un-
der-represented and, if so, why? Her
paper is in three sections. The rst
deals with the Urdu language and
Muslim identity; the second with Indi-
an Muslims and the free press; and the
third with Indian Muslims, the ver-
nacular press, writing and modernity.
How have the contributors to In-
dias free press addressed Muslim is-
sues throughout this period? Have
Indian Muslim writers been given a
fair and equipollent voice? The readers
will be more able than I to distinguish
[by name] between Muslim and oth-
er writers whose contributions are ex-
amined in this paper. Again, the paper
will seek to establish whether more
others are writing more on Muslim/
Islamic issues more than Muslims
themselves.
In her opinion, Indian Muslims
must achieve success in the world of
Indias mass media and try to excel in
journalistic skills. That holds good for
Indian Muslims participation in the
national life as a whole.
Column
Baseball lingo
The pitch, pundits and the language of baseball.
HERE would pols,
W pundits and morose
mucky-mucks be with-
out the language of ba-
seball?
Here is the pitch: Despite distrac-
tions, you have to keep your eye on the
ball. You have to be aware of someth-
ing unexpected coming out of left eld,
and only if your ad-libbed response is
not off base will your home team go to
bat for you.
You cannot be born on third base
and think you hit a triple. Last year,
candidate Obama took the sting out of
criticism by the scribes for playing ball
with a Chicago xer by admitting,
right off the bat, that his property pur-
chase was boneheaded. Palin showed
she had something on the ball, consi-
dered 2008 a warm-up in the bullpen
and took a rain check for 2012, when
she hopes to knock the ball out of the
park, unless she gets thrown a curve by
the rise of Romney, now in the cat-
birds seat.
THE BREAKUP METAPHOR
Meanwhile, the boss of G.M. (Go-
vernment Motors) was knocked out of
the box, and the investment banker
sent in to pinch-hit as industry czar
could hit a home run or go down
swinging. Voices in populisms bleach-
er seats look at the too-big-to-succeed
banking-corporate conglomerations
and shout, Break up the Yankees.
On that last trustbusting slogan, I
turn to Paul Dickson, lexicographer of
the new, updated and expanded Dick-
son Baseball Dictionary (Norton,
$50). He denes that sense of break up
as to dismantle a winning team by
trading or releasing players. By poki-
ng around in ProQuest Historical
Newspapers, he reports the earliest
known usage in a 1927 Chicago Daily
Tribune: The well-wishers would
have the league break up the Yankee
combination and distribute the
strength among the weak clubs.
Lordly federal budgeteers as well
as grovelling nancial tycoons now
toss about what they call ballpark g-
ures. The term is not from womens
softball. Dicksons discursive diction-
ary a delight for former sandlot
players, lexical scholars and members
of the hot-stove league denes it as a
rough estimate, within a reasonable or
acceptable range.
But the hard-hitting lexie adds
that the term has an odd connection
to baseball given that most gures hav-
ing to do with the game (such as bat-
ting averages and earned-run
averages) are relentlessly precise. He
cites The Times 1965 reporting that a
government order for 200 aircraft
was accepted in qualied quarters as
an accurate ballpark gure, a contra-
diction in terms because a ballpark is a
large area.
First use, in The Los Angeles Times
in 1963, was about the costs of art in a
public building (apparently drawn
from the phrase in the ballpark, in
contrast to knocked out of the ball-
park). In the era of todays huge stadi-
ums, the word eld is vanishing into a
eld of dreams and the nostalgic that the reporter testify about his
ballpark is preserved only in meta-
phoric modiers.
PUNDITITIS
I used to be a political pundit, a pundi-
tizing player in the world of punditry
and a member of the medias talking-
headed, talking-pointed punditariat,
that last a recent coinage of Lorrie
Goldstein of The Toronto Sun. The
root word attracted a trail of snifng
sufxes: pundit, from the Sanskrit
learned man, was publicised by Hen-
7 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
The English
Language
WILLIAM SAFIRE
ry Luce as a courtesy title when he
started Time magazine in 1923. Its
offspring are hot today because at their
best they can denote fresh reporting
with an unconcealed point of view.
The latest is pundicity, a website of
informed opinion and review edited
by Grayson Levy of the set New York
Sun. I caught it because he reprinted
an opinion article by Judith Miller, a
former Times reporter and now a Fox
News contributor, from the April 6
New York Post headlined, Jailing Re-
porters: Why the U.S. Needs a Shield
Law.
It is about David Ashenfelter of
The Detroit Free Press, a Pulitzer win-
ner threatened with jail for refusing to
reveal a source for his article about a
2004 investigation of a federal prose-
cutor who was later indicted for with-
holding evidence. (Shades of the Ted
Stevens case.)
The prosecutor, who was later ac-
quitted, sued Justice and demanded
sources. The judge threatens jailing for
contempt. Every word he wrote was
true, says Lucy Dalglish, the lawyer
who heads the Reporters Committee
for Freedom of the Press, yet now he
faces jail and possible bankruptcy for
doing his job.
Here goes some punditry: In the
age of pundicity, where are the other
outraged blogs? Why is the Web-foot-
ed punditariat ducking? Wheres In-
stapundit?
The New York Times Service
MAY 22, 2009
Essay

INDEPENDENT VOICES
There is polarisation but little middle space in public life, and there is hardly any
effort at informed, reasoned discourse. B Y A . G . N O O R A N I

The rst scandal in independent denigration of membership of political parties. Poli-

tics revolves around political parties and they need
India revealed two grave aws in members to run them. It is just that political life is far
the poorer without independents. Politics gets de-
Nehrus character, which not only based if there is no debate on issues in which facts are
marshalled, with evidence and documentation to
the tabalchis and drummer boys in back them. That is what pamphleteering is about.
Forty years ago, in 1969, the Congress split, and
journalism but also some Indira Gandhi, and more so some of her minions,
launched a campaign for a committed civil service,
historians carefully ignore. committed judges and committed journalists. In-
stitutions were undermined and have not quite reco-
THERE are two gaping voids in Indias politics. vered from the assault. Those who came after Indira
Pamphleteering has all but vanished and so have Gandhi attered her by imitation. Constitutional
independents, a testimony to the pathetic decline in wrongs are discussed in a partisan manner. Article
the quality of public life. There is polarisation but 80 (1) (a) and (3) of the Constitution empowers the
little middle space, and there is hardly any effort at President to nominate to the Rajya Sabha 12 persons
informed, reasoned discourse. That requires hard having special knowledge or practical experience in
work, and hard work is put in only by persons of respect of such matters as the following. This is a
commitment. unique provision and must be construed in an honest
This is altogether distinct from the issue of in- manner. The expression such matters suggests that
dependent candidates in the elec- the categories mentioned are not
tions to the Lok Sabha. It is a exhaustive. Would the President
notorious fact that independents have been in violation of the provi-
mushroom in suspicious circum- sion were he or she to nominate Dr.
stances, whether at the behest of D.D. Kosambi, for instance, or for
some political parties or others, on- that matter Romila Thapar? The
ly to ensure the defeat of a targeted categories are clearly mentioned:
winning candidate. Spoilers was an Literature, science, art and social
apt term that Prime Minister Man- service. It is as gross an abuse of
mohan Singh used. But all inde- this provision to nominate a jour-
pendents must not be tarred with nalist for his special knowledge or
THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY

the same brush. Meera Sanyal, for practical experience in literature

example, deserves respect as does as it would be to nominate a pain-
her response that she is an impor- ter of hoardings for his contribu-
tant candidate. Even so, she has re- tion to art. One wishes the
versed the process. She does not Supreme Court or the Delhi High
contest an election after a record in Court would quash such nomina-
public life but assures her partici- B . S H I VA R AO was a tions by a writ of quo warranto.
pation in it after her election. correspondent of The Hindu The nominations accurately reect
Which brings us back to the and The Manchester the state of things today, however.
question, where are the indepen- Guardian. Later, he was a Pamphleteering is not without
dent voices in our public life? Per- member of the Constituent its hazards. Objectivity and integ-
sons who have no axes to grind, who Assembly, the Lok Sabha and rity lie not in shunning preferences
are not afliated with political par- the Rajya Sabha and was a but in the attitude to evidence. Yet
ties and who speak up regardless of delegate to the U.N. General there do arise moments when writ-
whom the truth hurts. This is not in Assembly. ers, be they journalists or others,

F R O N T L I N E 7 9

sail close to the wind. They advise the
policy-maker and push for acceptance
of their views other than through
their writings by personal approach-
es. Walter Lippmann was a notorious
offender.
Historically, the middle space was
not diminished in 1969. It had begun
to be diminished by the Congress levi-
athan much earlier. The Muslim
League followed suit. Muslim intellec-
tuals who opposed the demand for Pa-
kistan were subjected to abuse.
Dictators ran both parties Mahatma
Gandhi and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Gandhis inner voice determined the
Congress policy. Jinnahs diktat laid
down the Leagues policy.
A TRUSTED REPORTER
The Congress found its rst taste of
power, though limited to the provinces
(1937-39), intoxicating. It went into a
vigorous fandango. Sir Tej Bahadur
Sapru, derided as a Liberal, watched
the scene from Allahabad. An erudite
constitutional lawyer and friend of
Nehru, he kept his own counsel. In
New Delhi, B. Shiva Rao, a highly re-
spected correspondent of The Hindu
and The Manchester Guardian, was
close to the Congress circles but was
aware of his duties as a trusted report-
er of the national scene. His access to
the leaders in government and the po-
litical parties was enviable. Shiva Rao
had a scholarly bent of mind. He stud-
ied hard and was ever determined to
nd concrete solutions to political and
constitutional tangles.
Shiva Raos independence of spirit
cost him dear. Jawaharlal Nehru did
not respect independents if they dis-
agreed with him on matters of conse-
quence. Shiva Rao was a member of
the Congress Parliamentary Partys
subcommittee on the jeep scandal, in
which V.K. Krishna Menon, the High
Commissioner in London, was in-
volved. Its other members were Pandit
Thakurdas Bhargava, B.P. Jhunjun-
wala and R.K. Sidhwa and its chair-
man was Ananthasayanam Ayyangar.
It submitted its report on April 9, 1951.
The Public Accounts Committee rec-
ommended, in its Ninth Report, that
the deals be assessed by a high-level
committee, consisting of one or two
High Court Judges. The governments
response was shocking. It rst asked
the committee to reconsider their ear-
lier recommendations. That was on
December 18, 1954. The committee re-
fused to do so. On September 30, 1955,
the government announced that the
case was closed.
This, the rst episode of its kind in
independent India, revealed two grave
aws in Nehrus character, which not
only the tabalchis and drummer boys
in journalism but also some histori-
ans carefully ignore. He was indiffer- realised that by 1941, Jinnah had ac-
ent to corruption and had scant
respect for Parliament as an institu-
tion that exacted accountability. His
regular attendance and verbal assu-
rances should not obscure that.
The report bore all the hallmarks of
Shiva Raos gifts. Nehru was not
pleased when Shiva Rao compounded
it with the revelation in Parliament
that in Egypt senior ofcers who had
placed orders with the very rms with
which Krishna Menon had dealt were
given the sack. Shiva Rao fell from
grace, and Nehru treated him grace-
lessly. Given the early example that
Nehru set, are you surprised that cor-
ruption increased during his lifetime
and has assumed the proportions it
has today?
Shiva Rao soldiered on. He fought
for justice for Sheikh Mohammad Ab-
dullah after Nehru ordered his sacking
from the ofce of Prime Minister of
Kashmir in 1953 and imprisoned him
for 11 years. He was a member of the
group led by Jayaprakash Narayan
with S. Mulgaokar, editor of Hindus-
tan Times, and J.J. Singh as its mem-
bers. With Rajajis help from Madras,
they pleaded for the Sheikhs release
and for conciliation with Pakistan by a
settlement of the Kashmir dispute.
Even when he was close to the men
in power, Shiva Rao was never an es-
tablishment man. He kept up a steady
correspondence with Sapru in the
1940s, writing at times more than once
a week. The Shiva Rao papers in the
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
in New Delhi the writer is grateful for
8 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
access to the papers hold lessons in
times as cynical as ours. An indepen-
dent politician and an informed jour-
nalist, both men of scholarly interests
and deep commitment, exchanged
views on the nations affairs. The cor-
respondence should be published in a
book.
RICH INSIGHTS
Shiva Rao crossed the divide at times.
He actively tried to get Sir Sikandar
Hayat Khan, Premier of Punjab, to de-
fect from the Muslim League, and kept
Sapru informed of his efforts. Neither
quired a mass following in that prov-
ince. It was a charged atmosphere in
which they tried to keep their heads.
Their exchanges bear recalling even
now, nearly seven decades later, be-
cause they offer rich insights into his-
tory and the ways of politicians. Shiva
Raos letter of February 28, 1941, in-
formed Sapru of his fruitless meeting
with Jinnah.
I saw also Mr. Khaliquz-Zaman
Choudhri of Lucknow who had come
here for the League meeting. He was
very bitter about the treatment he had
received from Jawaharlal and main-
tained that he was a staunch Congress-
man for twenty years but had been
driven into the Muslim League by the
arrogance of the Congress leaders in
the U.P. [United Provinces]. At the
same time I could see that he is not at
all happy with Jinnahs barren and un-
compromising policy. In fact he asked
me to see Jinnah and suggest (but not
to reveal that it came from Khaliq) that
Hindus and Muslims should work to-
gether for fteen years; and if at the
end of the period the experiment
proved a failure, then the Muslims
should be free to demand Pakistan.
In the Congress, S. Satyamurthy
and Rajaji were independent of Gand-
hi. Liaquat Ali Khan, though loyal to
Jinnah, had views of his own. I know
from Liaquat that if the [Viceroys]
Executive Council consisted of four
Hindus, four Muslims and three other
minorities, Jinnah would very likely
accept such a composition, provided
neither side raises any major issue dur-
MAY 22, 2009
Sapru (right), an erudite constitutional lawyer, after a
SIR TE J B A H A D UR
Non-party Leaders Conference meeting in New Delhi, with Sir Jagdish
Prasad, a former member of the Governor-Generals Executive Council. A
1942 picture.
ing the war. Personally, I am willing to
believe that Jinnah would like to nd a
way out for himself, Shiva Rao wrote
on November 29, 1941.
Nehru was sceptical of the Cripps
Mission in 1942. The British Empire
may not be in existence at the end of
the war to carry out any pledges or
declarations that may now be made.
Stafford Cripps told Sapru that the
League had privately decided to ac-
cept the scheme [Cripps Proposals]
and that Jinnah had informed him of it
though he was manoeuvring for posi-
tion and waiting to see what the Con-
gress decided. The Congress rejected
the proposals. So, did the League.
On the Congress and Gandhi, Sa-
pru had strong views. In a letter of
THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY
February 18, 1941, Shiva Rao re-
marked: We are condemned to the
leadership of Mahatma. Sapru, in re-
ply, called it the most important part
of your letter. He had been in corre-
spondence with Gandhi, but the dif-
culty is that no two letters of his agree,
Sapru wrote on February 20, 1941. He
added: Those in high authority in In-
dia and in England think now that
Congress have dealt a mortal blow to
the very spirit of democracy in India, a
view with which I am not wholly in
disagreement. Indeed, I may say that
my criticism against the Congress dur-
ing the years during which it was in
power was that it was building up its
strength as a party dictatorship. It was
not interested in other matters or in
F R O N T L I N E 8 1
developing a true democratic spirit. It
was intolerant of criticism and differ-
ence of opinion. It alienated large sec-
tions of people. The applause and the
shouting of the so-called masses went
to the head of the Congressmen. If
the rest of the country has got to suffer,
it must pay the penalty for its lack of
courage. That in short is the situation.
I have no doubt Congressmen have
professed faith in their methods and
they can go on ad innitum with Sa-
tyagraha and things of that kind, but as
you say, we are condemned to the lea-
dership of a Mahatma.
MIDDLE GROUND
The middle ground had slipped away.
Sapru wrote again on June 5, 1941: I
am not prepared to play the game of
the Congress or the Hindu Sabha and I
should on no account give rise to the
impression that we are playing their
game. I have as much horror of Jin-
nahs Pakistan as of [V.D.] Savarkars
cry that our politics should be Hin-
duised and militarised. My reply to it is
that if that is the genuine feeling of the
Hindus, they have discovered it 900
years too late in history. I should on no
account identify myself with this silly
Hindu cry any more than I should
identify myself with the viewpoint of
the Congress. I am anxious that in our
enthusiasm about our views we should
not identify ourselves with the Hindu
Sabha or the Congress. I know you
have got a weakness for the Congress. I
have none as it is constituted today.
Sapru reverted to the theme on Au-
gust 29, 1941: Mind you, unlike your-
self I have got no soft corner for the
Congress in my heart. I think most of
our troubles are due to them. They
have set the pace for non-cooperation
and yet, to be fair, I should not like to
make any difference between Congress
Ministers, who resigned their seats in
their Cabinets under the behest of the
High Command, and Sikandar Hayat
and others who are resigning their
seats in the Council of National De-
fence under the behest of Jinnah.
Frankly, we are moving openly to-
wards totalitarianism. As for Jinnah,
how can he do anything less than the
Essay
Mahatma, though I think he has
stopped short of sending his Ministers
to jail.
In prison, Nehru felt the same way
about Gandhi. He wrote in his prison
diary on November 21, 1943: To crit-
icise any step taken by Bapu is lese
majeste. That is the hiatus between the
so-called Gandhiite members of the
W.C. [Working Committee ] and the
others (Selected Works of Jawaharlal
Nehru; Volume 13; page 297).
These papers must be read with
those in Rima Hoojas excellent com-
pilation (Crusader for Self-Rule: Tej
Bahadur Sapru and the Indian Na-
tional Movement; Rawat Publications,
Jaipur and New Delhi, 1999). I do not
think that we have yet got the mental-
ity for democratic form of Govern-
ment, Sapru conded to a friend in
1930 (page 167).
In two letters to Shiva Rao, of No-
vember 16, 1940, and January 10, 1941,
Sapru expounded his views with great
candour (pages 280-284). His re-
marks reveal the gulf between him and
the Congress. If you will allow me to
speak candidly I shall say that some of
the newspapers sometimes overshoot
the mark in their indiscriminate sup-
port of the Congress, though I know
that they are well intentioned and
mean India to achieve self-govern-
ment you know that in politics
strong prejudices and dislikes play a
great part, particularly in times of
great excitement, I am fully aware that
I am not persona grata with the Con-
gress. I make no grievance on that ac-
count. As a person holding the views
that I do and lacking in that faith in the
Mahatma, which is at the present mo-
ment a necessary condition for a public
man in India to claim audience. I have
no right to complain on that account.
Out of my regard for you personally I
shall, however, tell you what I feel.
As regards your third difculty,
namely, Jinnahs objection about the
domination of Hindu majority in the
legislature, I should be very generous
to the minorities in regard to their rep-
resentation in the Cabinet and further
there could be [some] sort of under-
standing that in matters affecting the
minorities the majority would not,
during this period, use its powers as a
majority. Indeed my view all along has
been that for a long time to come the
British or Western type of majority
rule in India will not do and we shall
have to come to some arrangement by
which we may take along with us the
minorities in matters of general in-
terest. All this is possible if there is the
goodwill behind it.
You at Delhi, where there has
been no responsible government,
probably cannot have any idea of the
experience we have had of party dicta-
torship or of Congress Ministries
wherever they have existed and partic-
ularly in the U.P. and Bihar. I shall not
dilate upon this subject as that will be
going into controversial matters, but
one thing I shall say that so long as
these people were in power they treat-
ed everybody else with undisguised
contempt and asserted the weight of
their majority in a most unfortunate
manner. You say in your letter that the
Congress is agreeable to waiving its
demand for a party majority in the
executive. I wish they would say so in
so many words. My experience has
been that they say one thing today and
then try to explain it or explain it away
the next day.
ROLE OF THE PRESS
Sapru despaired of the press. More
than anything our press should cease
to indulge in the language of ridicule
and bitterness, which it always does
when anyone has the temerity to differ
from the prophet [Gandhi] and his
apostles. I have had talks with [a] good
many Muslims and my belief is further
conrmed that they can still be man-
aged and brought to take a rational
view if only concrete facts will be dis-
cussed and not abstract theories or
words or phrases.
This was written on January 10,
1941. Only a few days later, Sapru re-
turned to the charge. I shall beg you to
keep my condence and not to let all
this appear either in The Hindu or in
any of the local papers at Delhi. If only
the press could exercise some more
discretion at a juncture like this and
8 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
not write in a spirit to exasperate those
whom it detests, and realised the del-
icacy of the situation, I think it would
confer a great boon on the country, but
I am in despair. This was long before
the days of investigative reporting
and television.
SHIVA RAO ON KASHMIR
Among the last letters Shiva Rao wrote
to Sapru was one on Kashmir, dated
May 8, 1948. Regarding Kashmir I am
not at all condent that a plebiscite
would result in a verdict for joining the
Indian Union. It is a huge gamble and
the end of it may well be a verdict in
favour of Pakistan. A compromise is
worth seeking on this issue. What do
you think of the forthcoming two al-
ternatives which have been suggested
by my brother [Sir B.N. Rau]? (1)
Make Kashmir like Switzerland in Eu-
rope, independent of all other coun-
tries with of course responsible
government under the aegis of the
Maharaja or (2) hold a zonal plebiscite
instead of a single plebiscite for the
whole of the State? The zonal plebi-
scite would be in four regions. (a) Jam-
mu Province, (b) Kashmir Valley and
Ladakh, (c) Muzzafarabad and Gilgit
Agency, (d) Poonch, Mirpur and the
surrounding areas. On evidence which
has reached my brother from certied
observers, fresh from Kashmir and his
own knowledge of the State, his esti-
mate is that (a) and (b) would vote for
accession to India and (c) and (d) to
Pakistan. Should that be the verdict
then (c) and (d) would be ceded to
Pakistan more or less under the same
arrangements as have obtained in re-
spect of Berar.
Around the same time, Indira
Gandhi was also present in Kashmir.
In a letter to her father, dated May 14,
1948, she informed him that they say
that only Sheikh Saheb is condent of
winning the plebiscite. Five years lat-
er, Nehru put the Sheikh behind bars
on grounds he knew were wholly false.
Few spoke in the Sheikhs defence. To
this day, the middle ground on Kash-
mir or the boundary dispute with Chi-
na barely exists. Apologetics abound.
The drummer boys have a eld day.
MAY 22, 2009
Danger within
The terror from naxalites perhaps poses a greater threat to India than the
advance of the Taliban to Pakistan.
GREAT deal of attention is
A being paid to the advance
of the Taliban from the
Swat valley into Buner in
Pakistan, and on the prox-
imity of Buner to Islamabad. True,
there are reports, at the time of writing
this article, that the Taliban are mov-
ing out of Buner, but they are rmly
ensconced in Swat, although one hears
that the Pakistan Army is preparing to
move against them.
All this is certainly worrying to the
establishment here, as it must see this,
as many others do, as a prelude to a
terrible internal conict in Pakistan,
into which the Pakistan Army will be
drawn; there are stories that increas-
ingly larger numbers of soldiers and
lower ranks of the Army are being con-
verted to the Taliban cause, if one can
call it that.
One mentions this only to high-
light that Indias gaze, like that of Sau-
ron in the classic The Lord of the Rings,
is xed on Pakistan. It is not looking at
a danger inside the country that may
pose a greater threat: the activities of
the Maoist terrorists.
It is astonishing that they have
been active for over 10 years now, and
operate in an area that stretches, ac-
cording to one observer, from the Te-
lengana region of Andhra Pradesh to
parts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh,
large parts of Jharkhand up to Bihar
and to pockets of eastern Uttar Pra-
desh and western Orissa. This is a huge
tract of Indian territory in which they
have, over the years, carried out a
number of attacks.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
has been one of the few to have seen
the potential danger of this insurgency
and called it the single biggest inter-
Point of View
BHASKAR GHOSE
nal security challenge ever faced by our
country. In another context, but one
that dealt with internal security, the
Prime Minister urged those in posi-
tions of authority to think out of the
box in tackling this problem. Sadly,
there has been no evidence of this.
Recently, during the polling in
Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, when
one would have expected a strong se-
curity presence in these areas, the
Maoists blew up a railway station, an
unused girls school, set nine buses on
re and killed one of the drivers, and
then took over a train and held its
passengers hostage for several hours.
A few years ago, they raided Jehana-
bad jail and set free over 2,000 prison-
ers. Besides, over the years they have
killed large number of policemen in
different States.
True, some Maoists have also been
killed, and it is said that Telengana is
more or less free of them owing to the
relentless combing operations by the
F R O N T L I N E 8 3
Column
police. But their writ certainly still
runs in the sense that they are able to
strike at will in the regions where they
operate. Battalions of security forces
have been deployed and helicopters,
we are told, have been put into service
(to do what is not clear), but the at-
tacks and killings continue.
For some strange reason, this
problem is not being given the kind of
importance it deserves, despite the
Prime Ministers own assessment of its
danger. For one thing, the efforts to
contain them have been left to the
oundering State governments, who
appear to have neither the wits nor the
equipment and people capable of
countering them. For another, there
does not seem to be a carefully-
thought-out strategy to eliminate this
terrorist group or groups.
One does not need to tell the sea-
soned ofcers in the Home Ministry
and the Intelligence Bureau (I.B.) the
vital importance of trying to get into
the minds of these insurgents, to try
and anticipate what they would do,
how they would act. One does not have
to tell them about the paramount im-
portance of training specialised units
in counterterrorism, and about the
need to take the battle to them rather
than wait for them to kill more po-
licemen. Above all, one does not need
to tell them that it is the height of folly
to leave the matter to the policemen in
these States.
There is just one area in which the
police forces could prove to be useful;
they know the areas better, some speak
the local dialects, and some even know
the key people who could assist the
counterinsurgency units. What is
needed to meet the Maoist threat is to
draw together the abilities of all the

S C EN E O F A training camp of Maoists in the forest of Dantewada
district, Chhattisgarh, a le picture. There does not seem to be a carefully
thought-out strategy to eliminate the Maoist threat.
forces available, and to work to a care-
ful plan. Something of the kind was
done in West Bengal in the early 1970s
by Siddhartha Shankar Ray, who was
Minister for West Bengal Affairs in
addition to being Union Education
Minister. He worked closely with A.L.
Dias, Governor of West Bengal, and
between them they were able to elim-
inate the naxalite menace in that State;
to this day it is free of naxalite or
Maoist terror, except for sporadic hit-
and-run cases near the borders with
Bihar and Jharkhand.
It is true that the security forces
may well be doing a good deal, about
which we know little. But some in-
formation must be made available, as
the lack of information is the rst con-
dition to the spreading of rumours and
horror stories. In the absence of this
information, one has to conclude, at
the very least, that not much is being
done.
Just two years ago a former chief of
the I.B., Ajit Doval, said as much in an
interview. He said the governments
reaction was not enough, and as a
reaction to the Prime Ministers appeal
to think out of the box, all that one has
got has been conventional responses.
This has been Indias abiding tragedy.
When insurgency was brewing in the
northeastern region, little was done
other than despatching troops there. It
is only now the government seems to
have realised that the problem is not
8 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
AKHILESH KUMAR
one of shooting insurgents but of look-
ing at the basic problems in the region.
The trouble is that, given our sys-
tem of administration, everything ulti-
mately goes to what is called ofce by
all bureaucrats, even the best: (English
grammar has never been their strong
point). And ofce means a large
number of babus whose notion of the
northeast and now the Maoist-af-
fected areas is as good as ours is of the
moons of Saturn. So, couched in the
best bureaucratese, persuasive pro-
posals are put up to consult X or Y
Ministry to set up a committee or fact-
nding mission or something equally
mindless, and our harassed senior ba-
bus just sign. And nothing concrete is
done.
Nothing will happen now either,
with the elections going on and on. But
once there is a government, it must put
aside all these les and proposals and
the ruling parties must work out strat-
egies in the party ofces, with all the
inputs they can get from local people,
for these are, nally, political prob-
lems. Then they must get the adminis-
tration to act on these strategies and
plans quickly, and without demur. In-
ter-ministerial turf wars must be
stamped out and clear orders given.
They are what the system understands.
And the prime response that it is a
matter for the States to handle must be
given the short shrift; this is a national
problem and must be tackled as one.
 MAY 22, 2009
Science

Exotic arrival
The discovery of one more mystery particle, designated as Y(4140),
throws up a lot of questions. B Y R . R A M A C H A N D R A N

These discoveries are trying to say something

that physicists are attempting to decipher. Is it
SOURCE: FERMILAB

new physics? Or is it just new insights into the

known physics of elementary particles?
ON March 18, the Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois, United States, an-
nounced that it had found evidence of an unexpect-
ed particle whose curious characteristics may reveal
new ways that quarks can combine to form matter.
Fermilab houses the Tevatron, the most powerful
particle accelerator until the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) at the European Organisation for Nuclear
Research (CERN) now scheduled to start oper-
ations in July after repairs following the mishap of
September 19, 2008 (Frontline, January 30, 2009)
overtakes it.
The new particle has been temporarily desig-
nated as Y(4140), which signifies that it has a mass
equivalent to 4,140 million electron volts (MeV) of
energy in the sense of Einsteins mass-energy rela-
tion and the symbol Y is indicative of its as yet
unconrmed and ill-understood status. Once its oth-
er characteristics besides mass, such as the intrinsic
quantum properties and its internal structure, get
established it may get a permanent name.
At the Tevatron, counterrotating beams of pro-
tons and antiprotons (the antimatter equivalents of
protons), each with an energy of 980 billion, or giga,
eV (GeV), are brought to collide head on. As protons
and antiprotons annihilate at the collision points, a
total of 1.96 trillion eV (TeV) of energy becomes
available for particle production. Two major inter-
national experiments, called D-Zero (which has sig-
nicant Indian participation) and CDF, are
currently running at Fermilab. The experiments in-
volve looking at trillions of collisions and analysing
the vast amounts of data generated for signals of
something new among the particles produced.
The Y(4140) discovery came from the data gath-
ered at the CDF detector. Scientists found signatures
that could not be explained with known particle
processes and the resulting products. For appro-
priate signatures, scientists look at the spectrum of
energy distribution of all, as well as subsets of, rela-
tively long-lived nal particles from the decays of
short-lived particles (whose typical lifetimes are in
the order of 1022 to 1023 seconds) that are produced
by the proton-antiproton collisions. A bump in the
energy distribution, or a clustering of events around
a particular energy, would point to something signif-
icant (Figure 1).
At present, it is not clear what exactly Y(4140) is
made of. It does not seem to t into the known
scheme for making up particles from the funda-
mental building blocks of matter called quarks (and
their antimatter equivalents, the antiquarks). It
must be trying to tell us something, CDF spokesper-
son Jacobo Konigsberg said.
So far, we are not sure what it is, but rest assured
well keep on listening, he was quoted as saying.
Signicantly, Y(4140) is not the rst mystery particle
to be discovered in recent times. In the last ve years,
physicists, particularly at the electron-positron col-
lider experiments called Belle at KEK in Tsukuba,
Japan, and BaBar at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Centre (SLAC), U.S., have seen signals of several
other exotic particles variously designated as X-, Y-
and Z-particles with different masses that cannot
be explained in terms of conventional particle
structure.
Clearly, all these discoveries are trying to say
something that physicists are trying to decipher. Is it
new physics? Or is it just new insights into the known
physics of elementary particles? At this point, it
seems to be the latter but physicists are yet to grasp
the new insights and there are several ideas oating
around. Tommaso Dorigo of Padova University and
a member of the CDF collaboration wrote in his blog
after the recent discovery: While all eyes are pointed
at the searches for the Higgs boson and supersym-

F R O N T L I N E 8 5

Figure 1
Figure 2
metric particles [Frontline, October
10, 2008] if not even more exotic high-
mass objects, and careers are made
and unmade on those uneventful
searches, it is elsewhere that action
develops. Such discoveries tell the tale
of a very prolic research eld [of low-
energy particle physics] where there is
really a lot to understand.
The standard picture is based on
what is known as the Standard Model
(Figure 2), which describes all known
matter and forces (except gravity). Ac-
cording to this model, the fundamen-
tal constituents of all matter are six
quarks and six leptons and their anti-
particles. The six quarks are called (so-
mewhat whimsically): up (u), down
(d), charm (c), strange (s), top (t) and
bottom (b). These quarks and their an-
Figure 5
tiquarks combine in different ways to
make the particles that are produced
in accelerator experiments. For exam-
ple, three quarks make up a proton
(two u quarks and one d quark) and a
neutron (two d quarks and a u quark).
In general, three quarks can bind to
form other proton-like particles whose
generic name is baryon. Similarly, a
quark-antiquark pair can also form a
bound state whose generic name is
meson.
For example, the positively
charged pi-meson, or pion, is made of a
u quark and an anti-d (d-bar) quark.
The J/psi-meson is made of a c quark
and a c-bar quark. Mesons and ba-
ryons are collectively referred to as
hadrons.
But quarks themselves are not seen
8 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
SOURCE: FERMILAB PRESS RELEASE
in isolation. This is because of the na-
ture of the strong force, called the col-
our force, that mediates between
quarks. The word colour has nothing
to do with its usual meaning and is
merely a name given to a new type of
charge that quarks carry. This colour
charge comes in three varieties, often
labelled as red, blue and green. The
theory that describes this force is
called quantum chromodynamics
(QCD), analogous to the force of elec-
trodynamics that mediates between
electric charges. QCD posits that col-
our charge is conned within hadrons
and can never emerge to be detected in
an experiment unlike electric charge,
which can exist in isolation. That is,
quarks must always combine so that
only colourless bound states are
MAY 22, 2009

SOURCE: FERMILAB

TH E Y ( 4 1 40) D I S C O V E R Y came from data gathered at the CDF detector (shown above), one of the two major
international experiments currently running at Fermilab.
formed, which can be detected. That is, tween charged particles is described by culiar properties of gluons make the
protons, pions and other particles that the exchange of photons (light parti- colour force drastically different from
are created in collision experiments in cles) between them, that is, a photon is the coulomb force between electric
accelerators, for example, should have the carrier of the electromagnetic charges. The latter, as we know, falls
quarks combined in such a fashion force. Analogously, particles called off as the inverse square of the distance
that they are colour-neutral (Figure 3). gluons are the carriers of the colour between the charges.
It is the colour force that gives rise force between quarks. However, there The colour force, on the other
to a residual strong force that extends are crucial differences. Photons are hand, does not decrease with distance
beyond a colour-neutral proton or massless and chargeless. But gluons, as the colour-carrying entities
neutron to bind them into a nucleus, though massless, have a colour charge. quarks and gluons are moved apart.
much like the van der Waals force that That is, gluons, unlike photons, can This means that an immense amount
allows electrically neutral atoms to interact with each other. Also, unlike a of energy will be required to separate
bind into the molecules of chemistry. single carrier for electrodynamics, two coloured objects. This is why
The electromagnetic force be- QCD requires eight gluons. These pe- quarks are conned forever within ha-

F R O N T L I N E 8 7

drons (Figure 4). (One could, of
course, imagine imparting a huge
amount of force to separate quarks for
a distance, say, about the diameter of a
proton. But that would only result in
pumping enough energy to create a
real quark-antiquark pair and the
process generating two colour-neutral
particles from the initial one.)
The above simple picture of ha-
drons as a mere collection of two or
three quarks, together with a set of
approximations, provides a theoretical
framework for calculations called the
constituent quark model (CQM), and
the model seems to describe hadrons
at low energies pretty well. But this
picture is overly naive because quarks
are actually dressed in a force eld of
the mediating gluons, and all of them
packaged together is the particle that
one sees.
In fact, QCD allows for the number
of quarks and gluons that constitute a
hadron to uctuate with time. The
uctuations are in the form of addi-
tional virtual gluons or quark-anti-
quark pairs. This is because of the
underlying vacuum in the theory. At
the quantum level, the vacuum is never
empty. It is actually seething with vir-
tual particle-antiparticle pairs ever so
momentarily created and annihilated
without violating any conservation
laws (because of the quantum uncer-
tainty principle). But the CQM ignores
the constituent gluons, neglects these
vacuum uctuations and treats quark
motion as non-relativistic.
This picture of a particle as quarks
plus a sea of virtual gluons and quark-
antiquark pairs actually solves another
problem with the naive quark model:
quarks are much too light to account
for the mass of the particles that they
form.
Physicists now believe that these
virtual particles constitute the missing
mass about 98 per cent in a proton,
for example that makes up a typical
hadron. But can gluons, which account
for the mass of hadrons, exist as col-
our-neutral objects devoid of quarks
on their own? Since gluons carry col-
our charge and mutually interact,
could gluons combine to form purely
Figure 3
T H E Q U A RK M OD E L: the proton and
the pi-meson, or pion.
gluonic matter? Such objects are
called glueballs. Similarly, gluons
could also combine with quarks and
antiquarks to form hybrid particles.
Physicists have even conceived of four-
quark (tetraquark) or ve-quark (pen-
taquark) systems to form colour-neu-
tral particles. One could also think of
bound states of mesons, a kind of
mesonic molecule, just as protons
and neutrons bind to form nuclei.
Nothing in QCD forbids such mesonic
bound states as well or even baryonic
bound states. These hybrids, glueballs
and higher multiquark states are to-
gether called QCD exotics.
But are we now beginning to see
evidence of these exotic objects? Eric
Swanson of the University of Pittsburg
believes that the CQM, which is an
approximation that works well at low-
er energies, must fail somewhere. As
he pointed out in a 2006 review article,
8 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
quark models are not QCD. But mod-
els do not seek to be QCD, rather they
attempt to capture the dominant phys-
ics relevant to the problem at hand.
In this regard quark models suffer
from deciencies which will become
apparent as states higher in the spec-
trum are discovered. Are these discov-
eries evidence of deeper
manifestations of the strong colour
force beyond the CQM?
These new discoveries have been
seen in the analyses of the production
of what are called charmonium states,
particles that are bound states of the c
quark and its antiquark such as the
prototype J/psi-meson and its higher-
mass avatars, which are expected in
the conventional CQM framework.
Physicists look for these different char-
monium particles in the decays of B-
mesons (mesons containing a b-
quark), which are copiously produced
in the experiments at Belle (KEK), Ba-
Bar (SLAC), the Tevatron (Fermilab)
and CLEO (Cornell). Being heavier
particles, their decay modes favour
production of various charmonium
states.
According to Swanson, to date 16
new charmonium states have been dis-
covered, of which, Y(4140) is the latest.
A great number of interpretations,
Swanson said in an e-mail response,
have been proposed for these states.
Of course, since there are very many
interpretations, most of them must be
wrong!
The manner of discovery of
Y(4140) by CDF scientists was quite
similar to that of other new particles.
The signal for a particle at 4,140 MeV
mass was seen in the decay of a much
more commonly produced B+ meson.
From trillions of collision events, they
found a sample of about 80 events
the largest sample in the discoveries of
such unusual decays so far, according
to Tammaso decaying in an unex-
pected pattern (Figure 5). Further
analysis showed that B+ mesons were
decaying into Y(4140), which was, in
turn, found to decay into a pair of par-
ticles, J/psi-meson and a phi-meson.
(The latter is made of s and s-bar
quarks.) Though this decay mode sug-
MAY 22, 2009
gests that it could be a charmonium
state, its characteristics did not t
what is expected of a charmonium
state.
The properties of charmonium
states are well predicted by theory,
said Estia Eichten, a theorist at Fermi-
lab involved with charmonium phys-
ics, in an e-mail response. Y(4140)
adds an important piece to the puzzle
of new states discovered recently.
However, the theory of these new
states is not yet clear. There is not yet a
consensus on Y(4140)s composition.
This, as well as the others, must have
other active degrees of freedom, like
gluons, to form a hybrid or an addi-
tional light quark pair to form a mole-
cule or a tetraquark state. Theorists
have not yet made reliable predictions
for the spectrum and properties of
such [exotic] states, Eichten added.
EXPERIMENTAL ARTEFACT?
Swanson, however, believes that
Y(4140) may not be a real particle at
all, the signal seen being just a statisti-
cal uctuation or an experimental ar-
tefact. If it is real, he said in his
e-mail, one must consider the possi-
bility that it is a threshold enhance-
ment. This happens quite often when
two particles are produced, and be-
cause of their interactions, cause a
bump in the signaland eager experi-
mentalists call them particles....Ex-
cept for one thing. Threshold
enhancements tend to be quite broad
[but] Y(4140) is very narrow and so is
quite unusual. My bottom line is that,
if the state is conrmed, then it is an
unusual thing indeed. But my bet is
that this signal will go away with more
statistics.
But Masanori Yamaguchi of the
KEK believes that the state may be
related to the Y(3940) discovered at
Belle in 2004 and has been hypothe-
sised to be a hybrid state. We will try together, he explains.
to conrm this state in our own Belle
data, he said. However, Swanson be-
lieves that Y(3940) is also a threshold
effect. For him, in his list of 16, only
two X(3872), one of the rst of the
new particles, discovered at Belle in
2003, and Y(4260), discovered at Ba-
Figure 4
Q U A N T U M C H RO M OD YN AM I C S : THE
connement.
Bar in 2005 make the grade as real
exotic particles.
The X(3872) is the poster boy of
the new heavy hadrons, Swanson
wrote. It has been observed by four
experiments in three decay and two
production channels and continues to
refuse to t into our expectations for
charmonium, he said. Though it now
stands established as a distinct new
particle, the exact nature of its compo-
sition is still being hotly debated by
physicists. One of the widely accepted
interpretations for X(3872) is that it is
a bound state a molecule of two
other mesons, called D0 and anti-D0*.
(D0 is a combination of c and u-bar
quarks; anti-D0* is an excited state of
its antiparticle anti-D0 made of c-bar
and u quarks.) If true, it opens up an
entirely new eld of chemistry of ele-
mentary particles, just like the che-
mistry of atoms.
If mesons can form such mole-
cules, one could ask why we do not see
molecules of the lighter mesons, such
as the pion. This is a question of dy-
namics, says Swanson. In principle, a
pi-pi bound state could exist, but when
you solve the equations you nd no
bound states. It is because, one, there
is no long range van der Waals force
between pions, and two, pions are very
light and therefore are difcult to bind
Y(4260), on the other hand, is a
very good candidate for a hybrid,
which is a bound state of c, anti-c and
gluons, says Swanson. If conrmed,
this would be the rst sighting of a
dramatically new form of matter,
which incorporates gluons, he adds.
F R O N T L I N E 8 9
colour force and quark separation and
Like these higher states of charmoni-
um, higher state analogues of botto-
monium, composed of heavier b and
b-bar quarks, are expected. Searches
are on for these and some candidates
like Yb have been found at Belle. But
top quarks are so heavy that they decay
before they can form bound states. So
the story is unlikely to repeat with
toponium.
The discovery of glueballs would,
of course, be yet another intriguing
story. Though candidates for this have
been seen, the f0 states discovered in
2006, they are still unconrmed. But,
as Swanson points out, a theoretical
framework to handle glueballs could
be particularly problematic as they are
states of pure gluons, with which phys-
icists have no experience, and existing
models are untested and numerical
predictions less reliable.
Though there is a lot of evidence
now that nature is presenting us with a
tantalising hint of unusual happenings
at energy scales of 10s of GeV, someth-
ing not expected in the standard pic-
ture that had worked so well until now,
it appears that there is as yet no need to
invoke new physics beyond the Stan-
dard Model and the extended applica-
tion of QCD in detailed quark-gluon
spectroscopy.
These discoveries have brought
surprise and excitement only because,
as Swanson put it, nature is more
complex than it had indicated to date.
The discoveries also teach us impor-
tant things about how QCD actually
works. In the end, we are learning how
the Standard Model and QCD build up
the universe.
Column
A model judge
Justice Arijit Pasayat will be remembered for many years to come for his
perceptive rulings in the area of criminal justice.
GLORIOUS chapter in the
A history of the Supreme
Court of India comes to an
end on May 10. Justice Ari-
jit Pasayat, one of the most
outstanding judges of recent times,
bids goodbye to the Supreme Court on
that day after serving the court for
more than a decade. A god-fearing,
affable and soft-spoken person, he will
be leaving his deep impress on the
criminal justice system of the country,
which needed a guiding hand like his
in its present hour of crisis. Many of his
judgments revealed anguish over the
decline in standards of criminal justice
administration. He did not, however,
stop merely with strong expressions of
disappointment. He went beyond to
fuse a few unique and practical reme-
dies into the existing law so as to stem
the rot at least partially. It is this deter-
mination to attempt proactively to im-
prove matters that marked him from
many others who believed that the sys-
tem had gone beyond repair.
When one analyses his judgments
a record 2,300-odd what stands out
is his utter humanity and pragmatism.
He was no believer in shibboleths. His
rulings were not convoluted. Nor were
they obfuscated or complicated by
owery language, intended more for
the ear. He did not indulge in phoney
philosophising either. His statements
came directly from the bottom of his
heart, out of a supreme desire to do
justice to the victim, be it the innocent
citizen who had been subjected to un-
deserved violence or an accused who
had been framed by a conspiracy of
circumstances and against whom the
evidence adduced was only
half-convincing.
If I remember right, it was former
Law and Order
R.K. RAGHAVAN
Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee who
once described Pasayat as a no-non-
sense judge. Those who knew the lat-
ter well enough would unhesitatingly
agree with this down-to-earth descrip-
tion of the man. Where he was con-
vinced that an accused was guilty, he
had no hesitation in going the full
length in endorsing the severest penal-
ty. One instance that comes to my
mind readily is the case of two men of
Ghaziabad district (Uttar Pradesh)
who gunned down ve members of a
family in August 1994. While the trial
court sentenced them to death, the Al-
lahabad High Court chose to commute
the punishment to a life sentence.
Overruling the High Court and
restoring the death penalty, Justice
Pasayat (along with Justice Mukund-
kam Sharma) observed: Any liberal
attitude by imposing meagre sentence
or taking a too sympathetic view mere-
ly on account of lapse of time in respect
of such offences, will be result-wise
9 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
counterproductive in the long run and
against societal interest, which needs
to be cared for and strengthened by a
string of deterrence inbuilt in the sen-
tencing system the case at hand falls
in the rarest of rare category. The de-
praved acts of the accused call for only
one sentence, that is death. In effect,
what Justice Pasayat, who wrote the
judgment, had possibly in mind was
that heinous crime had to be necessar-
ily dealt with mercilessly. This was not
actuated by any sadism or authoritar-
ianism. The objective was to send the
right signal to those out in society who
were contemplating violent crime.
THE BEST BAKERY CASE
If Justice Pasayat ever wrote his mem-
oirs, the Best Bakery case will gure
prominently in it. This case is that dur-
ing the post-Godhra violence in Guj-
arat, a bakery in Vadodra owned by
Muslims was vandalised by a Hindu
mob and 14 persons were burnt alive
on March 1, 2002. The 21 accused in
the case were acquitted by the trial
court, a decision that was upheld by
the Gujarat High Court. In a nearly
unprecedented move, on a petition
seeking fair trial from Zaheera Sheikh
(whose close relatives were the vic-
tims), the Supreme Court ordered a
re-trial to be held in Maharashtra.
The Supreme Court Bench that
heard the case comprised Justices Pa-
sayat and Doraiswamy Raju. Writing
the judgment, Justice Pasayat lam-
basted both the State government and
the Gujarat High Court in unusually
strong language. He said: Those who
are responsible for protecting the life
and properties and ensuring that in-
vestigation is fair and proper seem to
have shown no real anxiety. A large
MAY 22, 2009
number of people had lost their lives
The modern day Neros were look-
ing elsewhere when Best Bakery and
innocent children and helpless women
were burning, and were probably de-
liberating how the perpetrators of the
crime can be saved or protected. Law
and justice became ies in the hands of
these wanton boys.
Justice Pasayat was also intrigued
how, after nding the investigation
faulty and dishonest, the Gujarat High
Court did not choose to order a re-
investigation, a perfectly legitimate
course of action permitted by the Code
of Criminal Procedure. Subsequent
events proved the sagacity of the two
judges in ordering a fresh trial outside
Gujarat. In February 2006, the Mum-
bai Sessions Court found nine of the
accused guilty and sentenced them to
life. If this did not infuse condence in
the hapless victims of any dastardly
crime, what else could?
What was most signicant about
the Best Bakery case was the convic-
tion of Zaheera Sheikh, who turned
hostile in the Mumbai Sessions Court,
for perjury by the Supreme Court in
March 2006, after she was found re-
peatedly changing her statements and
the Registrar Generals enquiry con-
cluded she was guilty.
Here, Justice Pasayat was not
swayed by sentiment in having to send
to jail for a year a young woman who
had lost all her near ones in the attack
on Best Bakery. Obviously, he thought
that the credibility and respect of the
judiciary had to be preserved, even if,
in the process, a person who was al-
ready in extreme grief was hurt.
DOWRY ACT
Another of Justice Pasayats concerns
was to protect the innocent against
gross abuse of the law by dishonest
elements. In particular, he was aware
of how some pieces of social legislation
could be misused to x ones adversar-
ies. The Dowry Prohibition Act, in par-
ticular, is one law that has repeatedly
come to adverse notice in many parts
of the country. Where a marriage has
failed and the girls parents are venge-
ful, the Act has become a handy tool to
J U S T I C E A RI J I T P A S A YA T,
no-nonsense judge.
destroy reputations. Of course this is
with the connivance of the womens
wing of the police, whose reputation in
most of India is soiled beyond descrip-
tion. This sordid situation is especially
true in cases where the bride dies with-
in seven years of marriage under ab-
normal circumstances, when the
burden of proof nearly totally shifts to
the husband and his close relatives
that they were not responsible for the
death.
Justice Pasayat has been more
than sensitive to the many distortions
of a law that was meant to root out a
social evil, and his ruling that gifts de-
manded from the parents of a bride
after the marriage, especially on the
occasion of the birth of a child, howev-
er despicable the practice might be,
could not be termed dowry, is a real-
istic recognition of age-old custom.
Any complaint, therefore, against a
boy or his parents would be untenable
if such a demand was made to the girls
party subsequent to a marriage. The
same anxiety to protect individuals
from a imsy allegation of dowry
death was evident in Justice Pasayats
ruling in another case which ran like
this: There must be existence of a
F R O N T L I N E 9 1
proximate and live link between the
effect of cruelty based on dowry de-
mand and the concerned death. If al-
leged incident of cruelty is remote in
time and has become stale enough not
to disturb mental equilibrium of the
woman concerned [to take extreme
step], it would be of no consequence.
Justice Pasayats outrage over vio-
lence on campuses led to the creation
of a monitoring mechanism in the
Ministry of Human Resource Devel-
opment. In the form of a committee of
educationists and administrators, this
device has pumped some life into reg-
ulatory bodies such as the University
Grants Commission, the All India
Council for Technical Education
(AICTE) and the Medical Council of
India (MCI). These organisations have
M. VEDHAN
now become more accountable to put-
ting down the evil of ragging and en-
a suring that innocent students are not
terrorised by hooligans who have en-
rolled themselves in various profes-
sional colleges.
Justice Pasayat is pushing for ex-
emplary punishments in the form of
stoppage of grants and withdrawal of
recognition to institutions from where
instances of ragging get reported fre-
quently, indicating a lack of enthu-
siasm to enforce anti-ragging
measures endorsed by the court. The
passion and drive displayed by Justice
Pasayat in this area offers hope that
the barbaric practice of ragging will
become a thing of the past in the near
future.
Justice Pasayat will be remem-
bered for many years to come for his
perceptive rulings in the area of crimi-
nal justice. His ability to sift facts even
in complicated cases and place them in
a legal perspective was his strength.
His judgments deserve to be assem-
bled in an exclusive volume that will
guide practitioners, both in the law
enforcement agencies and the legal
fraternity. Young lawyers aspiring to
occupy crucial positions in the judici-
ary will also do well to emulate his
qualities of hard work, absolute integ-
rity and, more than these, his concern
for the lowliest of low who look to the
judiciary for relief.
 Cinema MAY 22, 2009

A break-up story
American director Nina Paleys feminist visual reading of the Ramayana
draws critical attention. B Y V I K H A R A H M E D S A Y E E D

It is only when an epic is told and
retold, and especially one as nuanced
as the Ramayana, that its literary
immortality is established. The lm,
with all its aws, is the result of the
directors personal engagement with
the futility of her own relationships.
IN an academic paper titled Three Hundred
Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on
Translation, A.K. Ramanujan wrote: The number
of Ramayanas and the range of their inuence in
South and Southeast Asia over the past twenty-ve
hundred years or more are astonishing. Just a list of
languages in which the Rama story is found makes
one gasp: Annamese, Balinese, Bengali, Cambodian,
Chinese, Gujarati, Javanese, Kannada, Kashmiri,
Khotanese, Laotian, Malaysian, Marathi, Oriya,
Prakrit, Sanskrit, Santali, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu,
Thai, Tibetan. Sanskrit alone contains some twen-
ty-ve or more tellings belonging to various narra-
tive genres. Even this erudite scholar of Indian

9 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
literature was unsure as to how many
tellings (a word he prefers to versions
or variants as that would imply that
there is an original text) of the Ra-
mayana actually exist. Is it 300, is it
3,000, he asks in the article.
An animated version of this epic,
Sita Sings the Blues, is the latest addi-
tion to the vast repertoire of Ramaya-
nas. The lm juxtaposes the personal
experience of its American director,
Nina Paley, who goes through the
break-up of her marriage, with the
break-up of Rama and Sita. Even the
tagline of the animated version is The
Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.
While the analogy between the two is
not completely accurate, Nina Paley
writes on the lms website how she
Rama reject Sita? Why did my hus-
band reject me? We dont know why,
and we didnt know 3,000 years ago.
The 82-minute lm, which broadly
has Valmikis Ramayana as its prem-
ise, has been creatively rendered from
Sitas perspective. Its tongue-in-cheek
irreverence is already attracting seri-
ous criticism, but it cannot be denied
that the lm provides a different way
for people who are unfamiliar with the
feminist tellings of the Ramayana to
understand this epic. The lm begins
with a series of Hindu gods, including
Lakshmi and Vishnu (whose avatars
are Sita and Rama respectively), danc-
ing to techno-funk music accompany-
ing the credits. This slightly unusual
portrayal of gods sets the tone for the
rest of the lm. Vishnu lounges on his
snake bed while the many-armed god-
dess Lakshmi massages his feet. (At
the end of the lm the roles are revers-
PICTURES COURTESY: NINA PALEY, SITASINGSTHEBLUES.COM
ed with Vishnu massaging Lakshmis
feet.)
The lm uses four animation tech-
niques to construct the narrative of the
Ramayana while there are two sep-
arate stories being told with a similar
theme the inexplicable breaking up
of relationships. The rst brief story is
of Nina Paleys seemingly failing rela-
tionship with her husband which is
spliced with a shortened version of the
Ramayana from Sitas perspective.
There are some aws in the technique
of storytelling, with the plot meander-
Hanuman in the
RA M A , S I T A A N D ing at times. Some people might also
82-minute animated lm. nd unnecessary the casual dialogue
(Below) Nina Paley, the director. indulged in by the three South-East
Asian shadow play gures who try to
piece together the Ramayana applying
modern rational and gender-relation
notions to the fantastic tale. The result
is an irreverent, but fairly interesting,
presentation of the Ramayana. There
is also an empathetic understanding of
the characters of Sita and Ravana,
while Ramas attitude towards his de-
relates to the story: Im just an ordi- voted wife is shown to be inexplicably
nary human, who also cant make her harsh.
marriage work. And the way that it Sitas lip-synching of jazz songs,
fails is uncannily similar to the way originally sung by the early 20th cen-
Rama and Sitas [relationship fails]. tury American jazz singer Annette
Inexplicable yet so familiar. And the Hanshaw, is used by Nina Paley to
question that I ask is, Why? Why did highlight Sitas feelings; they also form
F R O N T L I N E 9 3

Rama slaying demons.
the high point of this lm. An example
is when Sita is accepted by Rama after
she goes through her trial by re and
comes back to Ayodhya with him. As
his subjects continue to cast aspersions
on Sitas chastity and Rama becomes
more aloof from Sita, she sings, You
always scold me whenever somebody
is near, dear/ It must be great fun to be
mean to me, you shouldnt/ Oh cant
you see what you mean to me? Sweet-
heart I love you, think the world of you,
but Im afraid that you dont care for
me/ You never show it, dont let me
know it, everyone says Im a fool to be
pining the whole day through. Why do
you act like you do?
FEMINIST TELLINGS
This latest interpretation of the Ra-
mayana is interesting because in most
popular renditions of this epic, Sitas
aspect of the story is glossed over and
her altruistic behaviour vis-a-vis her
relationship with Rama is lauded as
the epitome of female conduct. Nina
Paleys version, which gives primacy to
Sitas feelings and emotions, is not in
any way pioneering.
In an article titled Lady Sings the
Blues: When Women retell the Ra-
mayana in the journal Manushi, Na-
baneeta Dev Sen writes of the many
versions of the Ramayana written by
women, including the Telugu Ra-
mayana written by Molla and the Ben-
gali Ramayana written by Chandrabati
in the 16th century. Mollas narrative is
through the traditional eyes of the
male epic poet, and as a sudra and a
woman she subverts the literary tradi-
tion by writing a perfectly classical Ra-
mayana, a task that was considered the
Ravanas chariot with the abducted Sita.
exclusive dominion of male Brahmin
court poets. Chandrabati, on the other
hand, looks at the Ramayana through
a womans eyes and critiques Rama
from a womans perspective. Accord-
ing to Nabaneeta Dev Sen, these two
were the rst women to retell the Ra-
mayana in their respective regional
languages.
Nina Paleys personal feminist vi-
sual reading of the Ramayana was
made available as a free download on
www.sitasingstheblues.com in Febru-
ary 2009 and has been screened at
several lm festivals. It is gaining sev-
eral admirers across the virtual world.
The lm was made available under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike License, allowing third parties to
share the creative content for non-
commercial purposes freely as long as
the author of the content is attributed
as the creator of the work.
PROTESTS IN CYBERSPACE
Since February, as word began spread-
ing about the lm, a gradual online
protest has been gathering steam. A
group called the Hindu Janajagruti
Samiti (www.hindujagruti.org) is
leading these protests in cyberspace.
Demanding a complete ban on the mo-
vie and the initiation of legal action
against all those who have been in-
volved in production and marketing of
this derogatory act against the entire
Hindu community of world, the
group has listed 15 points that it nds
offensive. Many of these pertain to the
animated representations of certain
aspects of the story, but it is obvious
that more serious problems exist with
the presentation of Sitas perspective.
9 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
Much of the common understand-
ing of the epic was inuenced by Ra-
manand Sagars television version. For
78 weeks in 1987-88, Sagars Ramaya-
na dominated television space, helped
by the fact that there was only one
national television channel at that
time. Conservative estimates about the
viewership of the serial range between
60 million and 80 million. This ver-
sion, scripted personally by Sagar, had
run into some serious criticism for its
depiction of Sita.
In an article in Seminar in Febru-
ary 1988, feminists Kamla Bhasin and
Ritu Menon wrote: Eternal mytholo-
gies like the Ramayana are revived and
popularised via state-controlled media
at the mass entertainment level, and
the negative values they convey re-
garding women nd more than ade-
quate reection in textbooks and
childrens literature at the education
level. With Sita as our ideal, can sati
(widow-burning) be far behind? It is
this overarching ideology of male su-
periority and female dispensability
that sanctions sati and leads to its glor-
ication, and accepts the silent vio-
lence against women that rages in
practically every home across the
country.
The historian Romila Thapar
wrote in the January 1989 issue of
Seminar that the television serial Ra-
mayana reected the concerns of the
middle class and other aspirants to the
same status and the pervasive impact
of the serial would lead to a margin-
alisation of other versions. In her cri-
tique she said: The Ramayana does
not belong to any one moment in his-
tory for it has its own history which lies
MAY 22, 2009
Hanuman sets re to Lanka.
embedded in the many versions which
were woven around the theme at dif-
ferent times and places.
Romila Thapar, a respected schol-
ar of ancient Indian history, says in her
book Early India that the conict narrators say that the Mughals were
between Rama and Ravana probably
reects an exaggerated version of local
conicts, occurring between expand-
ing kingdoms of the Ganges plain and
the less sedentary societies of the Vind-
hyan region. This explanation offered
by her might perhaps explain how his-
tory and mythology coalesce in this
case.
Sagars Ramayana also intro-
duced, according to Ramachandra Gu-
ha in his book India After Gandhi,
subtle changes in this pluralistic
and decentralised religion [Hin-
duism], long divided into sects, each
worshipping different deities, lacking
a holy book, a unique and singular god,
or a single capital of the faith. The
subtle change was a veering towards
congregational Hinduism, which Gu-
ha says contributed enormously to
the VHPs [Vishwa Hindu Parishads]
movement to liberate the birthplace
of Ram[a]. Hitherto one of the many
gods worshipped by Hindus, Ram[a]
was increasingly being seen, courtesy
of the serial on television, as the most
important and glamorous of them all.
Among the more recent versions of
the Ramayana is the one by Ashok K.
Banker, who is writing a six-volume
version of the epic. Written in a saucy
and racy style, Bankers rendition of
the Ramayana reads like a fast-paced
thriller. While keeping Valmikis Ra-
mayana as its premise, Banker freely
rewrites the tale for a modern au-
Sita returns to Mother Earth.
dience. There are some problems with
his work as he indulges in anachro-
nisms.
In Sita Sings the Blues, there are
some factual errors (for example, the
ruling India in the 14th century when
Babur did not win the rst Battle of
Panipat until 1526) and the plot mean-
ders, but it is interesting because it is a
new, modern version of an epic that
has seen thousands of tellings. Writing
the introduction to his easy-to-read
prose version of Kambans Ramayana
published in 1972, R.K. Narayan said,
It may sound hyperbolic, but I am
prepared to state that almost every in-
dividual among the ve hundred mil-
lions [Narayan wrote this in 1971]
living in India is aware of the story
[Ramayana] in some measure or oth-
er.
The tale has pervaded the con-
sciousness of people living across Asia
and easily stands out as one of the
worlds greatest epics. Earlier, litter-
ateurs used to write versions of the
Ramayana in the dominant literary
traditions of their times; for example,
Kambans Ramayana runs to 10,500
stanzas with modern annotations run-
ning into six parts, with each part be-
ing of a thousand pages.
With the growth of the mass media
and the shortening attention span of
the public in mind, Andy Warhol, the
American artist, predicted in 1968 that
in the future, everyone will be world
famous for fteen minutes. Nina Pa-
leys version must be recognised, as a
modern American version of an epic
though it would be the 301st or the
3,001st rendition.
F R O N T L I N E 9 5
Romila Thapar wrote in 1989:
The appropriation of the story by a
multiplicity of groups meant a mul-
tiplicity of versions through which the
social aspirations and ideological con-
cerns of each group were articulated.
The story in these versions included
signicant variations which changed
the conceptualisation of character,
event and meaning. Ramanujans ar-
ticle discusses some of these many ver-
sions: Kambans Iramavataram, a
Tamil literary account incorporating
South Indian material; Jain tellings,
which provide a non-Hindu perspec-
tive on familiar events; a Kannada
folktale that suggests that Sita was Ra-
vanas daughter; the Ramakirti per-
formed in Thailand, which has
nothing in common with any Indian
version.
As societies have discovered their
own Ramayana, Nina Paleys lm also,
with all its aws and limited research,
is the result of her personal engage-
ment with the futility of her relation-
ship. It is only when an epic is told and
retold, and especially one as nuanced
as the Ramayana, that its literary im-
mortality is established. Even Mo-
hammed Iqbal, the poet-philosopher
whom many credit with laying the in-
tellectual foundation for Pakistan, was
not immune from the effect of the Ra-
mayana and was a great admirer of
Rama. One of his nazms is titled
Imaam-e-Hind and a couplet from it
goes: Hai Ram ke wajud pe Hindus-
tan ko naaz/ Ahl-e-nazar samajhte
hain usko imaam-e-Hind (Hindustan
is proud of Rams existence/ Discern-
ing minds consider him the leader of
the land).
Column
Isolating the BJP
Sending the Bharatiya Janata Party to the margins of politics and consolidating
progressive secular forces should be the voters topmost priority.
HE spin doctors of the Bha-
T ratiya Janata Party, always
more media-savvy than any
other partys supporters,
have launched a concerted
campaign to claim that the Congress
has squandered away its early lead in
the electoral arena, the Third Front
has not managed to make much head-
way at half-time, and the elections
momentum has shifted decisively in
favour of the BJP.
This campaign has taken three
forms: the planting of heavily slanted
stories and personality-based features
in the media, especially television; un-
substantiated claims about the BJPs
better-than-anticipated performance
in several States in the rst three phas-
es of polling; and the orchestrated pro-
motion of Narendra Modi as the BJPs
Prime Minister-in-waiting after L.K.
Advani, who seems to be faltering as
his more dynamic opponents put him
in the dock.
Thus, several news channels and
newspapers have run stories on BJP
leaders, which vest unique talent, vi-
sion and strategic foresight in them.
For instance, an English-language
channel ran an outrageously one-sided
biographical feature on Advani, in
which apparatchik after BJP appa-
ratchik lavished praise upon the man
and rationalised his hate-driven com-
munal politics. In a pretence to bal-
ance the poorly disguised
hagiographical account which was
overwhelmingly biased in Advanis fa-
vour in a ratio exceeding 10:1 it in-
terviewed two critics, including this
writer. The channel promised to carry
my brief comment in full on the con-
tent of Advanis ideology and politics;
on his claim that he personally and
Beyond the
Obvious
PRAFUL BIDWAI
decisively broke the stranglehold on
Indian politics of the one-party dom-
inance system under the Congress; on
the role of his 1990 rath yatra from
Somnath to Ayodhya; and on the polit-
ical legacy that Advani leaves behind.
In what was broadcast, more than 90
per cent of the comment was edited
out, including the most important re-
marks on how the BJP under Advanis
leadership introduced a remarkably
bitter and confrontational style of poli-
tics in India, and how it cynically
stoked anti-minority prejudices and
victimhood-based self-perceptions of
historys wrongs against a manufac-
tured notion of Hindu India.
One comment traced the growth of
Hindu-nationalist politics to the Jan
Sanghs devious entry into the Janata
Party and its exploitation of the anti-
Congress popular sentiment engen-
dered by Indira Gandhis Emergency.
9 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
The programme trivialised the sec-
ular critique of Hindutva and the BJPs
divisive and violent methods of politi-
cal mobilisation. It gloried Advani as
a much-misunderstood person, but as
the logical Prime Minister-in-waiting.
It papered over his praise of Moham-
mad Ali Jinnah by virtue of his being
the founder of Pakistan. It erased the
whole signicance of the poisonous
Ram Janmabhoomi movement that
brought the BJP to power nationally.
The second prong of the pro-BJP
media campaign is equally interesting.
It is as if the party with a difference
had suddenly overcome all differences
within its leadership and dramatically
expanded its appeal and vote share
everywhere. The spin doctors claimed
that the BJP would not only win 15 to
20 seats in Uttar Pradesh (against 10
in 2004), but also double its tally in
Bihar (ve), and greatly contain its
losses in the central States of Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
It had won 56 of the 67 Lok Sabha
seats in the region in 2004 but per-
formed relatively poorly in the As-
sembly elections in 2008. At
minimum, it is claimed, the BJP would
ensure hung Assemblies in Andhra
Pradesh and Orissa and compel other
parties to ally with it, thus ending its
growing isolation. These claims, espe-
cially those about the BJPs Lok Sabha
performance in the central States, defy
credulity. It seems counter-intuitive
and highly unlikely that the BJP can
repeat the 2004 score (25 of 29 seats in
Madhya Pradesh, 21 of 25 in Rajasthan
and 10 of 11 in Chhattisgarh).
It is plausible that the party or the
National Democratic Alliance it leads
could improve its tally in small States
such as Jharkhand, Assam and Harya-
MAY 22, 2009
na, and to some extent even in U.P. But
it is highly unlikely to do so in bigger
States such as Bihar, Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka,
where it performed above its weight
ve years ago.
At any rate, the purpose of making
these claims seems related more to
generating propaganda and drum-
ming up support for the BJP than to
anything else.
THE MODI BOGEY
Finally, take the Modi bogey. It was
started by Arun Shourie and Arun
Jaitley, two of the BJPs more West-
ernised leaders, who probably have no
illusions that the post-Godhra vio-
lence was even remotely spontaneous,
and not instigated by Modi for deplor-
able political ends.
The bogeys function is to try to
shore up the BJPs sagging appeal by
offering a younger alternative to the
ageing Advani, and more important, to
conjure up the impression that the BJP
still remains a legitimate and natural
claimant to the nations top political
job when in reality it is in danger of
losing seats and becoming more isolat-
ed than ever before.
However, as this column has ar-
gued right since 2002, particularly af-
ter the two post-pogrom Assembly
elections in Gujarat, Modi is the logical
successor to Advani not as Prime
Minister but as the BJPs top-most
leader and best-known public face. He
long ago overtook other second gen-
eration claimants and is now the
BJPs star campaigner, and internally,
the most favourably viewed and ap-
plauded leader. The party has accepted
and sanctied his ascendancy with
complete and profound cynicism. It
has normalised his blood-soaked ver-
sion of Hindutva in theory and prac-
tice.
The BJPs defence of Modi even
after the Supreme Court ordered the
Special Investigation Team to open up
the Gulberg Society case will be long
remembered as the most brazen justi-
cation of mass murder ever proffered
by a political party. Why, Arun Jaitley
dismissed the investigation as politi-
cally motivated and timed to coincide
with the polling in Gujarat, and even
predicted that Modi would turn it to
his advantage.
This, when there is compelling evi-
dence that Modi, his ministers and se-
nior police ofcials ensured that
Gulbergs Muslims would not be pro-
tected from marauding attackers and
former Member of Parliament Ahsan
Jafris countless pleas for help would
go unheeded. Eventually, at least 38
Muslims were hacked, speared or
burned to death and 32 went missing.
The real battle
can begin once
the communal
threat
represented
by the BJP
recedes.
Make no mistake. A vote for the
BJP could soon become a vote for Na-
rendra Milosevic Modi. Even in the
extremely unlikely event that the BJP
does spectacularly well and Advani
leads the next coalition government, it
will only be a matter of time before
Modi takes over from him. To achieve
that goal, Modi may for a while omit all
references to the Ram temple and stop
abusing and threatening Muslims.
However, violent Hindutva is in-
separable from and integral to Modis
politics. He personies it. Modi will
forever remain associated in the public
mind with the worst-ever state-spon-
sored pogrom of a religious minority in
independent India.
This makes it imperative that all
citizens who value democracy, the rule
of law, public decency and pluralist
secularism consciously vote to defeat
and isolate the BJP. It remains the
greatest menace to Indian democracy
and the biggest obstacle to building a
tolerant and inclusive society in which
F R O N T L I N E 9 7
all citizens are equal and none feel dis-
empowered or disenfranchised.
The Congress and a host of other
parties, including caste-based regional
parties, doubtless have their faults.
Some of them may even have been
complicit in the rise of Hindutva or
passively tolerated it, or at least failed
to resist it. But they can never be equa-
ted with the BJP, which proactively
seeks to transform Indian society into
a Hindu-supremacist entity and which
vehemently rejects the project of
building a pluralist multireligious so-
ciety with real civic and political free-
doms and rights, which respects
diversity and difference.
So we citizens have a historic
chance in this election to send the BJP
into the political margins. If it ends up
with 110 or fewer seats, the BJP will
soon lose the one advantage it has
which outweighs its own positive (but
extremely limited) appeal: its status as
a coalition partner of choice, which
does not threaten its allies and can be
an asset to them.
Once this happens, the BJP may
well spiral down to a political pres-
ence, weight and salience similar to
that of right-wing parties of the past
such as the Jan Sangh, the Swatantra
Party or the Rama Rajya Parishad. It
bears recalling that the Jan Sangh
would normally have 25 to 35 Lok Sab-
ha seats until it merged with the Jana-
ta Party.
The real battle for the soul of India
can begin once the communal threat
represented by the BJP recedes. This
will involve a series of struggles over
social visions, programmes and pol-
icies that can take India forward to-
wards a rm embrace of modernity,
openness, inclusion, equality and jus-
tice, besides a new deal for the
wretched of the Indian earth.
Through which agencies and polit-
ical coalitions this will be accom-
plished remains unclear. But the Left
and the emerging Third Front must
have a major role here. That role will
probably fall in place only after the
election results come in and hard polit-
ical bargaining begins. Meanwhile, de-
feating the BJP must top our agenda.
The States/Tamil Nadu MAY 22, 2009

On the margins
The State governments decision to resettle three lakh slum-dwellers of Chennai,
most of them Dalits, has evoked a lot of anger. B Y S . D O R A I R A J I N C H E N N A I

The new settlements do not have the slums in objectionable areas in the city are in
perpetual fear as the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance
basic amenities such as drinking Board (TNSCB) authorities are determined to res-
tart eviction so as to ensure that Chennai becomes
water and power supply. Besides, slum-free by 2013.
Ironically, the eviction drive has been given a
many have lost their livelihoods fresh impetus now though the British rulers had
decided exactly 100 years ago that against the back-
because they have been shifted drop of increasing squatter settlements in the cities
of Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata then Madras,
far away from their workplaces. Bombay and Calcutta respectively a beginning
should be made regarding town planning legislation
IT is a notorious fact of contemporary life in and the form it should take.
metropolitan cities that no person in his senses
would opt to live on a pavement or a slum if any other
choices were given to him. Anyone who cares to have
even a eeting glance at the pavement or slum-
dwellings will see that they are the very hell on
earth. The eviction of the pavement or the slum-
dweller not only means his removal from the house
but the destruction of the house itself. And the de-
struction of a dwelling house is the end of all that one
holds dear in life. Thus observed Justice Y.V. Chan-
drachud, while responding to the arguments in the
famous Olga Tellis vs Bombay Municipal Corpora-
tion case in the Supreme Court in 1985. The pet-
itioners, who were pavement dwellers in Bombay
(now Mumbai) city, argued that they had chosen a
pavement or slum to live in only because of its prox-
imity to their place of work and that eviction would
result in depriving them of their livelihood.
Two decades after the Supreme Court upheld the
right to shelter and livelihood as part of the right to
life under Article 21 of the Constitution, government
agencies in Tamil Nadu bulldozed dwellings made
up of tarpaulin, bamboo sticks, iron sheets and
thatches in different parts of Chennai and sent their
residents to far off locations on the pretext of un-
dertaking beautication works in the city and imple-
menting various development schemes, including
mega projects such as elevated corridors, mass rapid
S.R. RAGHUNATHAN

transit system and metro rail.

Though the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for
May 13 in Tamil Nadu have provided a reprieve to
the slum-dwellers who face eviction, those living in

9 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
The issue of tackling the citys
slum problem has a chequered histo-
ry. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi,
who has always claimed to follow in
letter and spirit his predecessor and
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
founder C.N. Annadurais motto We
shall see God in the smile of the poor,
set up the TNSCB during his rst ten-
ure in 1970. The board was formed to
clear all the slums in Chennai within a
targeted period, prevent further
growth of slums in the city, give pro-
tection to slum-dwellers from eviction,
re-house them in modern tenements
and provide basic amenities such as
drinking water supply, electricity and
storm water drains to certain slum ar-
eas until they were nally cleared.
Laying the foundation stone for
the TNSCBs rst project in Nochikup-
pam to construct 1,000 tenements at a
cost of Rs.67 lakh, Karunanidhi de-
clared on December 23, 1970, that his
government had decided to replace all
slums in the city with modern build-
ings under a seven-year programme at
Rs.40 crore. But the failure of succes-
sive governments to translate this lofty
idea into practice is evident in the stea-
dy growth of slums not only in the city
but also in the Chennai Metropolitan
Area (CMA), which extends over 1,189
sq km in three districts. Besides the
Chennai Corporation, the CMA covers
one cantonment, 16 municipalities, 20
town panchayats and 214 villages
forming part of 10 panchayat unions in
Thiruvallur and Kancheepuram
districts.
In 1971, the slum population in
Chennai stood at 7.37 lakh. According
to Census 2001, the slum population in
the city was over 10.79 lakh, 26 per
cent of the citys total population.
The pre-feasibility study on iden-
tication of environmental infrastruc-
ture requirement in slums in CMA,
F R O N T L I N E 9 9
conducted by a Hyderabad-based con-
sultant for the TNSCB under the
World Bank-funded Tamil Nadu Ur-
ban Development Project-II in 2005,
also indicated a marked growth in
slums in Chennai. A total of 1,431
slums, including 242 undeveloped
slums, were covered by the survey;
122 of the undeveloped slums were
found located in objectionable areas
such as the margins of rivers, and feed-
er canals, roadsides, seashore and
places required for public purposes.
The Master Plan-II for the CMA,
prepared by the Chennai Metropolitan
Development Corporation (CMDA)
and approved in September 2008, also
refers to the TNSCB estimates indicat-
ing that of the 1.1 lakh families in the
undeveloped slums, 75,498 live in ob-
jectionable slums. They include
30,922 families squatting on the mar-
gins of the Cooum and Adyar rivers
and the Buckingham Canal, 22,769
families that have put up huts along
road margins, 16,519 families located
on the seashore and 5,288 families
dwelling along feeder canals such as
the Mambalam-Nandanam canal, the
Otteri nullah and the Captain Cotton
canal.
The number of objectionable
slums has risen to 150 now. In addi-
tion to this, 40,763 persons at 405
clusters were living on pavements, ac-
cording to a survey of pavement-dwell-
ers in the city conducted by the
consultant SPARC for the CMDA in
1989-90.
Now the government has decided
to evict the people in the objection-
able slums, retrieve the land under
their occupation and hand it over to
the land-owing departments con-
cerned for implementing pro-
grammes such as road widening,
desilting and strengthening of bunds.
Ofcial sources admit that the
TNSCB has not been able to clear all
the slums and provide houses to the
economically weaker sections (EWS)
AT THE N E W settlement in Kannagi
Nagar on the outskirts of Chennai.
Allottees cooking food outside the
tenements is a common sight here.
 MAY 22, 2009

in the 38 years of its existence. So far,

the board has only been able to con-
struct 72,000 houses or tenements
over 35 years, which works out to over
2,000 houses a year. At this rate, it
will be difcult to cover all the remain-
ing 1.1 lakh households in raw slums in
Chennai, an informed source pointed
out.

ECONOMIC PROFILE
A study on Effective Demand for
Housing in Tamil Nadu, conducted
for the State government in 1995, had
brought out the economic prole of the
households thus: About 38 per cent of
the households have an income less
than Rs.1,101 per month, while 9 per
cent draw less than Rs.501 per month.
Three per cent of the households have
an income of less than Rs.250 per
month. EWS and lower income groups
(LIG) account for 72 per cent of the
households. The city, thus, has more of
poor people houses on the ground than
M. KARUNAKARAN

of rich people houses, as a skyline.

The same report also quoted a
study by K. Madhav, a Communist
Party of India (Marxist) leader and the
convener of the Association for Protec-
tion of Slumdweller Rights, that nearly
92 per cent of the Scheduled Caste
(S.C.) and Scheduled Tribe (S.T.) hou-
seholds were from the LIG and the
EWS.
The failure of the government and
its agencies to tackle the problem
through traditional modes or strate-
gies has been attributed to factors such
as lack of availability of funds, lands,
in-house implementing capacity, spe-
ciality in respect of newer, faster build-
ing technologies, manpower and
organisational wherewithal to take up
huge projects, delayed execution ow-
ing to governmental procedures and
indifferent quality of construction.
Now the government has made it
clear that it will redene its strategy by
allowing private developers to use
TNSCB land and raw slum land to re-
construct the existing dilapidated
tenements and slum houses on a part
of the land and use the rest of the space
for commercial exploitation.
The government gloats over its
H U T S A LO N G THE Cooum river in the Pudupet area in Chennai. According to
Census 2001, the slum population in the city was over 10.79 lakh, 26 per cent
of the citys total population.
new schemes to provide 28,000 dwell-
ing units for the EWS at several places
in the CMA, including Thiruvotriyur,
Tondiarpet, Okkiyam Thoraipakkam,
Semmancheri and Perumbakkam, un-
der the Jawaharlal Nehru National
Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM),
the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruc-
tion Project (ETRP), the Rajiv Gandhi
package for tsunami housing and the
12th Finance Commission.
These schemes offer a glimmer of
hope on the grounds that they have
the mandate of a slum-free Chennai by
2013, ofcial sources claim. Minister
for Housing and Slum Clearance Suba
Thangavelan said on February 27 that
his department aimed at constructing
one lakh dwelling units in two years.
But the governments decision on
resettlement and rehabilitation has
evoked a lot of protest from the slum-
dwellers. The issue relating to the dis-
placement of over three lakh people,
most of them Dalits, has been totally
ignored by the ruling DMK and the
main opposition All India Anna Dravi-
da Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)
during the election campaign.
Though the government claimed
that it would not repeat the mistakes
committed in Mumbai where slum-
dwellers were forcibly evicted, several
hundreds of people have already been
shifted from some slums in the city to
new settlements in north Chennai and
on the outskirts of the city.
People living in the slums and sh-
ermen colonies have resorted to differ-
ent forms of protest, including hunger
strike, demonstration, dharna, road
roko and rallies calling for a halt to the
eviction plan and to take up immediate
steps to ensure in situ development as
declared in the governments policy on
slums. The uprooted people have

1 0 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
urged the government to enhance ba-
sic amenities in the new settlements
and ensure their livelihood.
People who have been shifted to
new locations in the past eight months
revealed the pathetic situation prevail-
ing in the new settlements, which are
devoid of electricity or drinking water
supply. Heaps of garbage and clogged
toilets are common sights in these new
settlements. Public distribution of es-
sential articles and hospital facilities
are inadequate here.
LIVELIHOOD ISSUES
Those resettled at Kannagi Nagar, 20
km from the city, said most of them
were daily-wage workers and had to
spend Rs.30 to Rs.40 a day on trans-
portation. K. Renuka, a teenager, lost
her job that fetched a monthly pay of
Rs.1,500 in a cardboard-box manufac-
turing unit in Pudupet, in the centre of
Chennai, because of the eviction. Sa-
raswathi, another resident, said she
had been uprooted from her place of
employment and social interaction.
Navaneetham, a domestic help,
said she had no job because she was
not able to reach the workplace in the
city in time. We have been evicted
from our homes and dumped here
along with the household articles. Our
children do not have schools here and
we fear they will drop out, said Sen-
thamarai, an elderly woman. An erst-
while resident of a slum in north
Chennai said: We are at the mercy of
armed gangs who supply power by pil-
fering electricity from the cables of the
Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.
The sudden inux of slum-dwell-
ers to the new settlements have also
resulted in conicts with the local peo-
ple, besides causing environmental is-
sues; the construction of tenements
have allegedly affected the groundwa-
ter recharging ponds near Kannagi
Nagar.
M. Dhamodharan, an activist of
the Democratic Youth Federation of
India, said the government had plans
to shift 6,000 families living in 12
slums in the Chepauk area alone to the
citys outskirts. The authorities say
they want to evict us as part of the
beautication programme. We are in
no way responsible for spoiling the
aesthetics of the city. Even those settle-
ments along the margins of rivers and
canals cannot be blamed for polluting
the waterways. It is a known fact that
untreated sewage is let into these riv-
ers and canals by the Chennai Metro
Water and Sewerage Board, he said.
Dhamodharan added that the evic-
tions were a violation of the Common
Minimum Programme of the United
Progressive Alliance government (of
which the DMK is a part). It said,
Forced eviction and demolition of
slums will be stopped and, while un-
dertaking urban renewal, care will be
taken to see that the urban and semi-
urban poor are provided housing near
their place of occupation.
VIABLE STRATEGY NEEDED
A.K. Padmanabhan, Central Commit-
tee member of the CPI(M), said, Ur-
ban development does not mean that
ordinary people should not live in the
CMA. Genuine urban development
should aim at providing these people
basic amenities. Instead of adopting a
viable strategy, several thousands of
people are uprooted and thrown to the
outskirts of the city with scant regard
to their livelihood. These people will be
forced to come back to the city seeking
jobs. Any resettlement plan should be
linked to the livelihood of these people,
keeping in mind that the informal sec-
tors contribution to the citys economy
is more than 40 per cent. He also
ayed the government for repressing
the demand of the people to enhance
basic amenities in the new settlements
at Kannagi Nagar, Semmancheri, Ok-
kiyam Thoraipakkam and other areas.
R. Geetha, additional secretary of
the Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat, said
it was highly objectionable that the
slum-dwellers had been evicted just
like that. The government wants the
service of these rickshaw pullers, con-
struction workers, carpenters, pain-
ters and sanitary workers, but it does
not like them to live in the city. This is
nothing but neo-untouchability. The
governments city development plans
are lopsided, targeting the high-end
F R O N T L I N E 1 0 1
users, though priority should be given
to the improvement of the sewerage
system, drinking water supply and
road facilities, she said, adding that
basically the eviction drive was an at-
tempt to privatise public land for set-
ting up ve-star hotels and
amusement parks.
K. Shanmugavelayutham, coordi-
nator of the Chennai Slum Dwellers
Rights Movement, said the govern-
ment had failed to distribute pattas to
genuine slum-dwellers. Apart from
the Rs.1,468-crore elevated express-
way project from Chennai Port to
Maduravoyal, several proposed
schemes, including the Ennore Road
project and the metro rail project, will
cause large-scale displacement of the
slum population, he added.
Experts are of the view that forced
eviction amounted to human rights vi-
olation and it should not be forgotten
that India was a signatory to agree-
ments such as the International Cov-
enant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights. The struggle for hous-
ing in many countries had been a gen-
uine one as reected in the success of
the Movement of National Struggle for
Housing (MNLM) in uniting vast sec-
tions of the masses to highlight the
issue, they point out.
The TNSCBs socio-economic sur-
vey in 1971 said poverty and frequent
failure of monsoons had led to the
mass inux of agricultural labourers
into the city from the adjoining dis-
tricts. After coming to the city, they
pick up any manual job. The income
they derive from their jobs was very
low which was hardly sufcient for a
balanced diet, so they were unable to
pay for rents for securing decent dwell-
ings and hence squatted on open spac-
es available near their workspots.
In the era of neoliberalism, things
became only worse. After all, neoliber-
alism creates conditions in favour of
increasing private investment in the
housing sector. Such investors target
only the protable high-income
groups. And the government has grad-
ually withdrawn from investing in
housing, particularly in projects for
the economically weaker sections.
Column
Farmers fury
They are in distress again because the Central government, which began well in
undoing the wrongs of the past, lost its way or lost interest.
T is possible to say that the Unit-
I ed Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government and several other
State governments that were
elected in 2004 came into being
at least in part because of trends in
agriculture. Farmers and farm work-
ers still dominate Indias population
more than half the workforce of India
is engaged in farming and more than
two-thirds of the rural population still
depends on cultivation for its basic li-
velihood. And their conditions of life
and work will naturally affect their at-
titude to governments and their voting
patterns.
That is why what happens to agri-
culture really matters not just for the
economy, but also for society and pol-
ity. The National Democratic Alliance
government that was in power at the
Centre between 1999 and 2004 chose
to ignore this basic reality. It contin-
ued and even intensied the neoliberal
policies that had made cultivation
such a precarious, risky and difcult
occupation across the country. Be-
cause it was caught up in its own hype
of India Shining, it missed and even
denied the symptoms of widespread
agrarian distress: growing and unvia-
ble levels of debt, farmers suicides,
forced migration for short-term work.
This is why the Congress and other
parties that took up the issues faced by
farmers were able to capture both the
Central government and several State
Assemblies in 2004. The National
Common Minimum Programme of
the UPA government declared that it
would arrest the decline in agriculture,
substantially increase public spending
in rural areas, especially in ways that
would benet cultivation, and speci-
cally tackle the problem of farmers
Preoccupations
JAYATI GHOSH
suicides. In other words, it essentially
promised to reverse the policy deci-
sions of the previous governments that
had created the agrarian crisis.
The problems of farming in India
are both deep and varied. They include
weather problems such as less reliable
monsoons, more frequent droughts or
oods, soil degeneration, lack of in-
stitutional credit and insurance lead-
ing to excessive reliance on private
moneylenders, problems in accessing
reliable and reasonably priced input,
difculties in marketing and high vola-
tility of crop prices.
Except for the rst set, these are all
related to public policies from the early
1990s onwards that systematically re-
duced the protection afforded to farm-
ers and exposed them to import
competition and market volatility; al-
lowed private proteering in agricul-
tural input supply and crop purchases
without adequate regulation; reduced
critical forms of public expenditure;
1 0 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
tried to cut subsidies by increasing the
prices of important inputs such as fer-
tilizer and water and electricity rates,
ran down or destroyed important pub-
lic institutions that have direct rele-
vance for farming, including public
extension services and marketing ar-
rangements; and failed to generate ad-
equately other non-agricultural
economic activities.
Even as various forms of public
protection for cultivation were being
reduced, trade liberalisation forced
farmers to operate in a highly uncer-
tain and volatile international envi-
ronment. They were effectively
competing with highly subsidised
large producers in the developed coun-
tries, whose average level of subsidy
amounted to many times the total do-
mestic cost of production for many
crops.
PRICE FLUCTUATIONS
In addition to increasing the risks of
farming, volatile crop prices also gen-
erated misleading price signals. Indian
farmers tend to respond quickly and
extensively to price signals by shifting
to more high-priced crops. This caused
large and often undesirable shifts in
cropping pattern, which ultimately re-
bounded on the farmers themselves.
For example, when cotton prices in
the world and in India increased in the
mid-1990s, there was a widespread
shift towards cotton cultivation, even
in many areas with soil and climatic
conditions not ideally suited to grow-
ing cotton. The subsequent collapse of
world cotton prices from the late 1990s
onwards was a major factor contrib-
uting to the material distress of cultiv-
ators in cotton growing areas.
In dryland areas, traditional staple
MAY 22, 2009
Top Sengattupatti on Pachamalai in Tiruchi district. More than two-thirds of the rural
H AR VE ST I N G PA D D Y A T
population depends on cultivation for its basic livelihood.
crops such as millets and sorghum
were abandoned in favour of oilseeds
such as groundnut, which require
more irrigation and purchased inputs
and which have also faced major vola-
tility in crop prices. As a result of the
shift away from traditional staple
grains to cash crops, there was much
greater use of a range of purchased
inputs, including new varieties of seed
and related inputs marketed by major
multinational companies. Small cul-
tivators, who took on debt (often from
informal credit sources at very high
rates of interest) in order to pay for
these cash inputs, found themselves in
real difculty if crops failed or output
prices remained low.
So the inevitable uncertainties as-
sociated with weather uctuations
were compounded by problems of ex-
tremely volatile crop prices, which
were no longer inversely related to har-
vest levels but followed an internation-
al pattern. Further, this dramatic
volatility of output prices was associat-
ed with continuously rising prices of
inputs. This was especially marked be-
cause of government attempts to re-
duce fertilizer subsidies, and
progressive deregulation of supplies of
inputs such as seeds and pesticides.
PRIVATE DEBT
Such exposure to global price volatility
was associated with a growing reliance
F R O N T L I N E 1 0 3
M. MOORTHY
on private debt, because of the lack of
extension of institutional credit and
growing inability to meet debt service
payments. This inability was caused by
the combined volatility of crops and
prices. Farmers access to institutional
credit was already inadequate, but
things got much worse after 1993. Fi-
nancial liberalisation measures caused
a signicant slowdown in the growth
of bank credit, particularly from com-
mercial banks to rural areas, and a
relative fall in the proportion of bank
credit owing to the priority sectors,
especially agriculture. The impact of
the slowdown in rural banking fell dis-
proportionately on poor and small
borrowers.

That is why the UPA government
promised to double institutional credit
to agriculture. This is indeed one of the
promises that has been kept more in
letter than in spirit. Much of the in-
crease in bank credit for agriculture
has actually gone to a range of rural
non-farm activities and even con-
sumption loans for richer farmers,
such as automobile loans.
Plans for reviving credit cooper-
atives have been delayed and are con-
troversial. Also, particularly
vulnerable groups such as marginal
farmers, tenants and women farmers
still remain outside the ambit of in-
stitutional credit.
Meanwhile, other promises with
respect to agriculture were not hon-
oured. The desperate need for more
resources and major improvements in
public agricultural research and exten-
sion systems has still not been ad-
dressed, and the changes that have
been proposed are paltry. So farmers
still do not get access to correct and
relevant information that will allow
them to make the most informed deci-
sions and to use the most desirable
techniques. There was hardly any in-
crease in public investments directed
to improving soil quality, which is rap-
idly emerging as one of the most crit-
ical issues in agriculture.
The new central legislation on
seeds is in many ways the opposite of
what is required, allowing seed com-
panies and input dealers far too much
freedom and reducing their accounta-
bility to farmers.
The poor handling of public pro-
curement and distribution continues,
with the food economy emerging as
one of the most mismanaged sectors,
creating problems for both producers
and consumers. Volatility of output
prices remains a huge problem for
farmers. And the central question of
the huge burden of farm debt has real-
ly not been solved.
It is not that the government has
not been given good advice about how
to solve these problems. The report of
the Farmers Commission set up by the
Central government, which runs into
thousands of pages, provides extensive
and detailed recommendations on
how to deal with all of these problems,
and many of them are well worth con-
sidering.
However, the UPA government
has chosen not to act on most of these.
Instead, it set up more committees to
examine the recommendations.
By last year, it was evident that
despite some positive moves, govern-
ment policies on agriculture were still
far from adequate. What did save Indi-
an agriculture to some extent over the
past few years was a series of good
monsoons, which kept agriculture
growing faster than before. Even so,
agrarian distress continued.
Bank credit to
agriculture is
one of the
promises that
has been kept
more in letter
than in spirit.
And, therefore, the much-touted
loan waiver for farmers, which was
announced in the 2008-09 Budget,
was touted as a major sop that the
government had provided to help cul-
tivators. It is true that this did provide
some relief to a small section of farm-
ers who held institutional debt that
they could not repay. The bulk of the
farm debt is informal, which farmers
owe to typically either rural money-
lenders or input dealers.
Instead of a blanket waiver only for
public debt, the government could eas-
ily have set up a Debt Commission to
deal with cases of both public and pri-
vate debt and recapitalise the money-
lenders to alleviate the problems of
borrowers and keep private rural cred-
it channels owing. But this did not
happen, and so the real problems of
rural debt have still not been dealt
with.
1 0 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
Meanwhile, crop price volatility
has become much worse in the past
year, dramatically increasing the dif-
culties of cash crop producers. Glob-
ally, primary commodity prices
zoomed upwards in 2007 and the rst
half of 2008, and then collapsed very
rapidly thereafter. So all the price
gains of the period from January 2007
to mid-2008 were wiped out by the fall
in prices later.
Farmers are not likely to have ben-
eted from such a short-lived price
boom. Indeed, it is even likely that they
could face the opposite effect: farmers
shifting acreage in response to price
increases and nd the prices crash by
the end of the growing season.
The domestic prices of bres
mainly cotton, jute and silk have
barely increased. Oilseed prices have
fallen by more than 5 per cent. This
immediately affects all the producers
of cash crops, who will be getting the
same price or less for their products
even as they pay signicantly more for
fertilizer and pesticides, whose prices
have continued to increase. Worse, do-
mestic prices of food have kept on in-
creasing at double digit rates, which
means that farmers who cultivate non-
food crops have to pay more for food
even as their own crops command low-
er prices.
Such an unstable environment will
obviously make farming even more
difcult and full of risky and painful
choices. The least the government can
do is try to stabilise prices, through
commodity boards or through price
support, which will make sure that cul-
tivators at least recover their costs. But
there is no such initiative on the part of
the government.
The impression, therefore, is of a
Central government that began well in
trying to undo the wrongs of the previ-
ous policy regimes that adversely af-
fected farmers, but rather quickly lost
its way or simply lost interest. As a
result, agriculture is once again in dis-
tress, and the farming community
once again has good reason to feel dis-
affected. How this translates into po-
litical change this time around is still
to be seen.
MAY 22, 2009
FOCUS ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY

PICTURES: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

TH E A DMI N I S T R A T I V E B U I LD I N G of Annamalai University in Chidambaram.

Campus of excellence
The 80-year-old institution continues to take higher education to the deprived
sections of society. B Y S . D O R A I R A J

The medical college has adopted
three primary health centres all
in Cuddalore district to look
after the health needs of the
rural community.
To plant orchards, dig wells
And relieve the travellers pains
With a thousand wayside choultries,
To build ten thousand fanes;
Establish numerous charities
That will our greatness reiterate
A million times better than all this
Is to make one poor soul literate.
NATIONAL poet Subramanya Bharathis great
dream appears to have become real, thanks to the
efforts of several reputed educational institutions,
including the Annamalai University.
The university has set its vision, mission and
goals thus: taking care of the needs of the econom-
ically most backward and downtrodden people from
neighbouring regions in the higher education sector
and introducing new need-based academic pro-
grammes which are innovative, career-oriented, vo-
cational and employable.
The university has grown into a premier, unitary
and residential institution, during the past 80 years
of its existence. It has accomplished academic excel-
lence through teaching, research and extension ac-
tivities despite its location in semi-urban
Chidambaram in Tamil Nadus Cuddalore district.
Prof. M. Ramanathan, its Vice-Chancellor, says
that the university was founded in 1929 by the mu-
nicence and single-minded devotion of a far-sight-

F R O N T L I N E 1 0 5
 MAY 22, 2009

1 0 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009

F R O N T L I N E 1 0 7
FOCUS ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY
Annamalai
DR . R A J A S I R
D R. RA J A H S I R
Chettiar, Founder Chettiar, Second Founder
Pro-Chancellor. Pro-Chancellor.
ed and noble-hearted philanthropist
and patron of letters, the Honble Dr.
Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar of
Chettinad.
His son and second Founder Pro-
Chancellor Dr. Rajah Sir Muthiah
Chettiar, during his tenure from 1948
to 1984, assiduously nurtured the
growth and development of the uni-
versity and devoted himself to the real-
isation of the aims of his noble father,
he says.
The present Founder Pro-Chan-
cellor M.A.M. Ramaswamy who has
been giving a dynamic leadership to
the university, is also hailed as a pa-
tron of sports.
The university has 49 departments
under the faculties of Arts, Science,
Indian Languages, Fine Arts, Engi-
neering and Technology, Education,
Agriculture, Medicine and Dentistry.
MILESTONES
The university celebrated its Silver Ju-
bilee in January 1955, Golden Jubilee
in 1979 and Diamond Jubilee in 1989.
Another important milestone was
the celebration of three great events
Platinum Jubilee of the university,
birth centenary of Muthiah Chettiar
and Silver Jubilee of the Directorate of
Distance Education in August 2004.
The successful conduct of the 94th
Indian Science Congress, Childrens
Science Congress and Exhibition in Ja-
nuary 2007 was a memorable event.
The uniqueness of the university is
the location of all the nine faculties
Muthiah
M . A . M . R A M AS W AM Y ,
present Founder
Pro-Chancellor.
under one roof in a sprawling 1,000-
acre site, enabling easy access, inter-
action and efcient administration.
The Centre of Advanced Study in
Marine Biology, located in Porto Novo
in Cuddalore district, has been doing
pioneering work in marine study and
research.
A centrally located computerised
library with University Grants Com-
mission infonet facilities, a central
medical library, a centralised instru-
mentation and services laboratory, one
of the largest marine aquaria of the
nation, sports facilities including an
indoor stadium, a gymnasium, a swim-
ming pool, a centre for yoga studies, an
air-conditioned convocation hall, ade-
quate farmlands and orchards for agri-
cultural research, Campus Wide
Networking with 1,750 access points,
15 halls of residence for students and
researchers that accommodate 15,000
students and a modern press are
among the facilities available on the
campus.
A MEDICAL RECORD
The medical faculty has won the ac-
claim of one and all, university sources
say. The Rajah Muthiah Medical Col-
lege Hospital is the teaching hospital
of the faculty and it is extremely well
equipped. With a bed strength of 1,210
and 17 modern operation theatre
suites, the hospital is a tertiary level
centre. On any regular day, the hospi-
tal receives 2,475 outpatients and over
1,000 inpatients, on an average. Every
1 0 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
P R OF. M . R AM A N ATHA N ,
Vice-Chancellor of the
university.
year, 6,000 emergency interventions
and over 6,000 deliveries take place.
The hospital is equipped with CT scan,
MRI scan and mammography facil-
ities, colour doppler machines, an am-
bulatory BP monitor and a holter
recorder with analyser.
While basic services are provided
to the people in the three surrounding
districts free of cost, special investiga-
tion and treatment are provided at
nominal cost. Free food is served to all
inpatients.
The hospital also runs clinics for
ailments that need specialised care
and supervision. They include adult
and paediatric cardiology services, a
paediatric neurology clinic, a high-risk
babies paediatric clinic, a nephrology
clinic, a nutrition clinic, a child guid-
ance clinic, an adolescent clinic, tuber-
culosis and chest diseases clinic, a pain
clinic, a diabetic clinic and a dialysis
unit.
The medical college has adopted
three primary health centres at B.
Mutlur, Orathoor and Vadalur and a
rural health centre at Pichavaram all
in Cuddalore district to look after the
health needs of the rural community.
The Rajah Muthiah Medical Col-
lege has been granted permanent rec-
ognition by the Medical Council of
India for admission of 150 students
annually since 2003.
At present, it offers postgraduate
medical degree courses in 18 speciali-
ties and postgraduate diploma courses
in 10 disciplines.
MAY 22, 2009
FOCUS ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY

New opportunities
The university offers innovative courses in physiotherapy, pharmacy and
dentistry. B Y S . D O R A I R A J

The learning experience in this
environment enables students
to gain condence in managing
difcult clinical situations and to
acquire higher-level competencies
and soft skills.
PROVIDING the right type of educational pro-
gramme that suits a person and the right kind of
institution with adequate facilities to accomplish
his/her educational pursuit is the basis of success of
any educational institution.
The Annamalai University is no exception. For
instance, education in physiotherapy cannot be bet-
ter elsewhere because the university provides unique
facilities. At present there are very few centres in
India with such facilities, says Vice-Chancellor M.
Ramanathan.
The university offers three programmes: Bache-
lor of Physiotherapy (BPT), a four-year programme
with six months of stipendiary internship; Master of
Physiotherapy (MPT), a two-year stipendiary pro-
gramme; and Master of Physiotherapy (MPTh), a
ve-year integrated programme with six months of
stipendiary internship.
Every eligible candidate has two options after
completing the higher secondary education.
The rst option is to join the four-year pro-
gramme, which equips the candidates in all aspects
of physiotherapy and prepares them to take up the
two-year MPT programme with electives in ve sub-
jects. The second option is to take up an integrated
programme that leads to complete postgraduate

PICTURES: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

T H E D E PA R T M EN T O F Pharmacy. Collaborations with pharmaceutical industries, research

organisations and hospitals give an added advantage to the students.

F R O N T L I N E 1 0 9
 MAY 22, 2009

1 1 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009

F R O N T L I N E 1 1 1
FOCUS ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY MAY 22, 2009

A SE C T I O N O F the pharmaceutical laboratory.

education with electives in ve differ-

ent subjects.
According to university sources,
the ve-year integrated programme is
a trendsetter in physiotherapy educa-
tion. While it gives the candidate an
opportunity to save a year while doing
postgraduation, training remains as
intensive as before. Fitness sciences,
ergonomic diseases and ethics and
management are part of the curricu-
lum. This gives the graduate the much
needed advantage in practice and in
academics, said a source.
The presence of large number of
patients in the outpatient and inpa-
tient categories in the Raja Muthiah
Medical College Hospital also offers
the student rich and varied clinical
material, which is seldom found on a I N S I D E T H E L I BR A R Y on the university campus.
campus.
The university has its own depart- neuromotor clinic with neuro-devel- South-East Asia. Their work and per-
ments of Sociology, Psychology, Edu- opmental therapy facilities, a speech formance are seen as commendable
cation, Management and Statistics. and language service and community and this opens up new opportunities
Since the Medical College runs MBBS rehabilitation services. and scope to future graduates as well,
and postgraduate programmes in 18 The learning experience in this en- pointed out a university source.
medical specialties, it has good facul- vironment gives students a distinct ad- For the BPT course, the total fees,
ties in all medical disciplines. vantage and enables them to gain including that for board and lodging, is
Referring to the physiotherapy condence in managing difcult clin- around Rs.2,00,000; for the MPTh
programmes run by the Division of ical situations, higher level competen- course, the same works out to around
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, cies and soft skills. Rs.4,00,000.
university ofcials say that as of now These have made them much-
very few educational institutions in the sought-after human resource in clin- OPPORTUNITIES IN PHARMACY
country can boast such a specialty. ical and academic settings. Our gradu- With increasing investments in and
The department has an articial ates have been recruited into clinical growth of pharmaceutical industries
limb centre, a gait and equilibrium lab, practices, hospitals, sports and tness and the contract research market, a
an electro-diagnostic section, cardio- centres, physiotherapy colleges across graduate in pharmacy has ample scope
pulmonary rehabilitation services, a the country and abroad in North to nd placements as production exec-
sports medicine section, paediatric America, the United Kingdom and utives, quality assurance and quality

1 1 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
I NSIDE T H E R A J A H Muthaiah Dental College and Hospital.
control ofcers and marketing exec-
utives, experts in the sector say.
The Department of Pharmacy in
Annamalai University was established
in 1982. It offers various programmes:
Diploma in Pharmacy, Bachelor of
Pharmacy, Master of Pharmacy and
PhD. The department has an excellent
infrastructure for teaching, learning
and research, says the
Vice-Chancellor.
Collaborations with pharmaceuti-
cal industries, research organisations
and hospitals give an added advantage
to the students. The department has
been receiving funds from various na-
tional and international agencies. It
has well-qualied, trained and experi-
enced faculty drawn from different
parts of the country. The alumni of the
department have occupied pivotal po-
sitions in the country and abroad.
Candidates with the following
qualications are eligible for admis-
sion: A pass in the higher secondary
examination or an equivalent exam-
ination with a minimum aggregate of
50 per cent marks in Physics, Comput-
er Science, Chemistry and Biology,
Botany and Zoology, Mathematics,
and Biotechnology.
For Scheduled Caste-Scheduled
Tribe candidates, the minimum qual-
ication is a pass in these subjects.
Candidates who have not studied Biol-
ogy or Mathematics undergo a pro-
gramme in Introductory Mathematics
as the case may be along with rst year
BPharm subjects.
FOCUS ANNAMALAI UNIVERSITY
Students with Diploma in Phar-
macy under the new educational reg-
ulations of the Pharmacy Council of
India, can directly join the second year
BPharm courses as a lateral entry.
A pass in BSc. degree in one at-
tempt with Physics, Chemistry, Math-
ematics, Biology, Biotechnology and
Computer Science subjects either at
the Plus Two level or at the graduate
level.
Selection of candidates to the
BPharm degree programme is made
on the basis of a qualifying examina-
tion, an entrance examination and an
interview. Tuition fees, examination
fees, hostel fees and the cost of books
and lab records for all the four years
would work out to Rs.3,00,000.
DENTAL COLLEGE AND
HOSPITAL
The Rajah Muthiah Institute of Health
Sciences came into existence following
the founding of the medical college in
1985.
Designated then simply as Faculty
of Health Sciences, both the dental
and medical colleges surged ahead to
new horizons with the collective effort
of everyone associated with it, uni-
versity sources say.
According to them, the Rajah
Muthiah Dental College and Hospital
is one of the most-sought-after dental
education destinations in the world
today.
With the undergraduate course
making a mark in dental teaching and
F R O N T L I N E 1 1 3
training curriculum, the postgraduate
stream in Oral and Maxillofacial Sur-
gery, Periodontics and Pedodontics
and Preventive Dentistry was
launched in 1988.
Apart from this, two more post-
graduate specialties Prosthodontia
and Orthodontics and Dentofacial Or-
thopaedics were incorporated in
1989. Three more postgraduate cours-
es Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology,
Oral Medicine and Radiology and
Conservative Dentistry and Endodon-
tics were introduced in 2006. The
institute also offers diploma courses in
Dental Hygiene and Dental
Mechanics.
The institute has won approval to
function as a centre for Diplomate in
National Board (DNB) and the rst
exam in Oral Pathology was conducted
in 2005.
The entire college has been given a
facelift recently and the departments
have been refurbished and new equip-
ment installed.
Conferences are held periodically
to enable the students to update them-
selves with the ever-expanding re-
search, progress and development in
the diverse realms of the profession.
Faculties from foreign institutions also
visit the institute very often. Contin-
uing dental education programmes
are held every month to help both the
faculty and students to present re-
search papers.
Adopting the reach out to the un-
reached strategy, the institute holds
regular screening and treatment
camps for the public and schoolchil-
dren in different parts of the State.
Over the past 26 years, there has been a
fourfold increase in the number of pa-
tients treated at the institute from
6,240 in 1983 to 49,595 patients in
2008.
The present intake in the under-
graduate section, which is recognised
by the Dental Council of India, is 100
students.
The performance of the three de-
partments stand testimony to the An-
namalai Universitys commitment to
serve the economically backward sec-
tions, university sources say.
Election 2009
Halfway and hung
As the electoral process crosses the halfway mark, indications are that the nal
outcome will once again be a hung Parliament. B Y V E N K I T E S H R A M A K R I S H N A N
A stark feature of this phase has
been the two major formations
failure to highlight bread-and-butter
issues in their campaign in the
Hindi heartland, which accounts for
a substantial part of the seats.
THE clearest indication of the political direction
the country would take after the 15th general elec-
tions came from Sharad Pawar, president of the
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and a Prime Min-
ister-aspirant, on April 26, three days after the sec-
ond phase of polling. Talking to the media, Pawar
said the Congress would emerge as the single largest
party with 150 to 160 seats. He put the Bharatiya
Janata Partys tally at 125.
More signicantly, Pawar said the Congress
would not be able to form the next government
PTI
NCP L E A D E R S H A R A D Pawar. He has said the Congress will
not be able to form the government without the support of its
UPA allies and the Left parties.
1 1 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
without the support of the Left parties and United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies such as Lalu Pra-
sads Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Ram Vilas Pas-
wans Lok Janshakthi Party (LJP) and Mulayam
Singh Yadavs Samajwadi Party (S.P.). It was as clear
and concrete a depiction of the poll trends as one
could get in the context of the long-winding election
process.
None of the other leaders, including Prime Min-
ister Manmohan Singh and Leader of the Opposi-
tion Lal Krishna Advani, has made bold to project
the number of seats their or other parties would win.
However, both the leaders have, in more ways than
one, assented to Pawars projection about the impor-
tance that the Left and the regional parties will have
in the next Lok Sabha.
Responding to pointed queries about a revival of
ties with the Left, Manmohan Singh said on April 20
that he was open to all possibilities. Advanis agree-
ment with the point made by Pawar was more nu-
anced. Obviously, he could not list the Left as a
potential post-poll ally, but the BJPs Prime Minis-
ter-designate does cherish the hope that the BJPs
and the National Democratic Alliances (NDA) elec-
toral performance will compel former allies such as
the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(AIADMK) and the Trinamool Congress to return to
the alliance.
Clearly, the formation of the next government is
dependent on a number of ifs and buts and this lack
of clarity is reected in the campaign for the ve-
phased elections too. None of the projected thrust
issues of the two main parties has had an impact on
the electorate.
The Congress effort was to highlight the track
record of the UPA government in the social sector
and the promise of inclusive governance. The BJP
jointly and severally sought to advance issues such as
national security, the need to bring back black mon-
ey deposited illegally in Swiss banks and use it for
nation-building, and the need to use information
technology for the overall development of various
sectors.
This correspondent travelled more than 4,000
kilometres by road in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and
MAY 22, 2009
Singh and the BJPs prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani. Both have agreed with
P R IM E M I N I S T E R MA N M O H A N
Pawars views on the importance that the Left and the regional parties will have in the next Lok Sabha.
Bihar during the election campaign
and interacted with a large number of
people, but nowhere were these issues
discussed as vital topics. In fact, most
people in many villages and towns of
these Hindi heartland States were not
even aware of the black money issue
that Advani so avidly put forth in his
campaign meetings.
All that one could deduce from
these public interactions was that the
majority held the view that the Con-
gress was better suited to run the coun-
try at the national level. However,
almost the same number of people
were convinced that the Congress had
a penchant for misusing power too.
In this context, the BJPs campaign
on issues such as the ofcial withdraw-
al of the Interpol Red Corner notice
against Ottavio Quattrocchi, an ac-
cused in the Bofors bribery case, has
evoked some reverberations. The Con-
gress defence that the party or its go-
vernment had nothing to do with it has
not gone down very well with the peo-
ple. To the BJPs credit, it has focussed
the campaign on the functioning of the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
and how it has become a tool in the
hands of the Congress.
However, the efforts by sections of
the BJP to extend this argument and
club the Quattrocchi issue with the Su-
preme Court order for a special probe
into the role played by Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002
communal carnage in the State have
not received a positive response. The
majority of people across these States
appeared to be convinced about Mo-
dis culpability.
So, if one were to make a broad
deduction, the Congress was seen as
being capable of corrupting public in-
stitutions and using them as political
tools. At the same time, large segments
of public opinion were not ready to
condone the BJPs pursuit of aggres-
sive Hindutva.
What stood out in the public inter-
actions across the Hindi heartland was
that beyond all the emotive and not-
so-emotive issues advanced by the two
big parties, the electorate was more
interested in bread-and-butter issues.
F R O N T L I N E 1 1 5
RAVEENDRAN/AFP
In village after village one heard peo-
ple say that they were more interested
in BIPASA, or bijli, pani, sadak (elec-
tricity, water and roads), than high-
falutin issues such as black money in
Swiss banks and catchwords such as
inclusive governance.
REGIONAL ISSUES
Along with this general concern, di-
verse regional issues relating to caste-
based permutations and combinations
impacted different constituencies in
different ways. These diverse factors
are certain to have a signicant impact
on the overall result. Organisational
and perception-related problems, too,
had a negative impact on the cam-
paigns of the two major formations.
The advantage that the Congress and
its partners in the UPA had at the start
of the campaign process was nullied
when UPA Ministers and associates
such as Lalu Prasad and Mulayam
Singh Yadav launched caustic attacks
on the Congress, holding it respon-
sible, along with the BJP, for the dem-
olition of the Babri Masjid.

Several Congress leaders admitted
to Frontline that such acrimonious ex-
hibition of political resentment would
deplete the perception-vote signi-
cantly. Similarly, Janata Dal (United)
leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish
Kumars refusal to share the stage with
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Mo-
di had a negative impact on the NDAs
overall electoral thrust. In fact, at his
public meetings Nitish Kumar re-
frained from endorsing Advani as the
NDAs Prime Minister candidate.
If this was the situation in the two
big parties, the so-called Fourth Front,
of the RJD, the S.P., and the LJP was
also at the receiving end of the percep-
tion vote. On the one hand the parties
claimed to be partners of the UPA and
on the other they castigated the Con-
gress and its leadership. This did not
go well with large sections of the core
support base, including Muslims, of
these parties.
The assessment within the Fourth
Front was that the S.P. suffered revers-
es in the rst phase of the elections in
Uttar Pradesh. The rst two phases in
the State were mainly a contest be-
tween the S.P. and the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP). But the trends had both
parties worried. The Brahmin vote did
not seem to swing towards to the BSP,
while the S.P. may have faced a serious
erosion of Muslim votes. It was the
frustration of these reverses that per-
haps made Lalu, Paswan and Mu-
layam blow hot and cold against the
Congress.
SEAT CALCULATIONS
In the midst of all this, parties belong-
ing to the non-Congress, non-BJP for-
mation, including the Left parties,
evoked a reasonably good response in
their campaigns. The Left parties kept
economic policy issues at the core of
their campaign, which were essentially
linked to the BIPASA issues raised by
the electorate in many places. Howev-
er, the impact of this will be felt only in
the limited number of seats because
the non-Congress, non-BJP forma-
tions political and organisational re-
ach is conned to a few States.
In this background, each forma-
tion has made its own calculations for
the 265 seats that went to the polls in
the rst two phases. Of these seats, the
Congress has 75 and its present allies,
the NCP, the Jharkhand Mukti Mor-
cha (JMM) and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul
Muslimeen (MIM), 16. The BJP has 63
and its allies, including the Shiv Sena,
the JD (U) and the Asom Gana Par-
ishad (AGP), 16. The Left parties have
24 and the other parties in the non-
Congress, non-BJP formation, includ-
ing the BSP, have 31 seats. The RJD,
the S.P. and the LJP together have 34.
The remaining six seats are with
others.
The Congress
hopes are
centred mainly
on a revival in
West Bengal.
In 2004, the Congress made major
gains in Andhra Pradesh (29 out of 40
seats), Assam (nine out of 14) and
Jharkhand (six out of 14) and moder-
ate gains in Karnataka (eight), Mah-
arashtra (eight), Bihar (three) and
Uttar Pradesh (three). Even the Con-
gress leadership admits that the party
will not be able to repeat its perfor-
mance in Andhra Pradesh, Assam and
Jharkhand.
However, the party believes that it
will make substantial gains in Kerala
(where it had none in 20 seats) and
Orissa (two out of 21). It also hopes to
make some gains in Karnataka and
Maharashtra. So, the calculation is
that its losses and gains will even out.
And, if it can spring some surprises in
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pra-
desh it may actually surpass its 2004
tally.
The BJPs 63 seats came mainly
from Madhya Pradesh (12), Karnataka
(nine), Orissa (nine), Maharashtra
(11), Chhattisgarh (10) and Uttar Pra-
desh (four). The BJP expects to retain
its tally in Madhya Pradesh, Karnata-
1 1 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
ka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh,
and improve in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Jharkhand and Assam. Clearly, on the
basis of polling trends, the BJP hopes
for a sizable improvement in its 2004
tally in these 265 seats.
In the non-Congress, non-BJP for-
mation, the Left parties are bound to
lose in the constituencies that voted in
the rst two phases. They have 24
seats, including 18 from Kerala. Other
parties in the formation, such as the
Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Biju
Janata Dal (BJD), and the Janata Dal
(Secular) are of the view that polling
trends indicate an addition to their
tally. The TDP expects signicant ad-
ditions and the other two marginal ad-
ditions. The BSP has 11 seats of the 265
and is expected to hold on to that num-
ber. The Fourth Front has 34 of the
265 in 2004. The S.P. has 14, the RJD
15 and the LJP ve. The calculation in
these parties is that they will nd it
difcult to maintain their tally.
Overall, the break-up of seats from
the rst two phases points to a hung
Parliament. It is in this background
that Pawar reiterated the value of a
Congress alliance with the Left and
other regional parties. For the mo-
ment, the Left has spoken through
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
general secretary Prakash Karat and
refused to accept a Congress-led go-
vernment after the polls. But after the
elections that position could change to
one of qualied support, which places
conditions and demands on the Con-
gress.
Karat himself has given an indica-
tion of this change of tactic by stating
that the Left parties would support on-
ly a Lok Sabha member as Prime Min-
ister.
All the four formations expect to
improve their respective positions in
the remaining phases. The Congress
hopes are centred mainly on a revival
in West Bengal through the alliance
with the Trinamool Congress, while
the BJP has great hopes about Gujarat
and Bihar. The Fourth Front hopes to
retrieve lost ground in Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh, while the Third Front looks
for a clean sweep in Tamil Nadu.
MAY 22, 2009
Election 2009

Broad spectrum
As the campaign enters the last two phases, parties are concerned about
apparent changes in the trends in some States.

Though the general strategy was to At this and other meetings, State Public Works
Minister Durai Murugan praised Manmohan Singh
paint a broad national picture, for protecting India from the global recession. He
also lauded Karunanidhi for introducing the Re.1-a-
regional issues have come to take kg rice scheme.
If there are three issues that hold the key to the
centre stage. A roundup from some electoral outcome in Tamil Nadu, they are price rise,
power cut and the Sri Lankan Tamil problem.
of the States. Touch this stone, Bhuvana, a housewife asked this

TAMIL NADU
BURNING ISSUES
By T.S. Subramanian and S. Viswanathan
IN Tamil Nadu, which goes to the polls on May
13, it is essentially a contest among the fronts led by
the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the All
India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam
(DMDK), which is contesting alone in all the 39
constituencies in the State and for the one seat in
Puducherry.
The DMKs allies are the Congress and the Dalit
Panthers of India (DPI). The second front consists of
the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(MDMK), the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Com-
munist Party of India (CPI), apart from the
AIADMK. The BJP-led front also has the Akila India
Samathuva Makkal Katchi led by actor Sarath Ku-
mar, the Puthiya Tamizhagam and the Naadalum
Makkal Katchi as its constituents.
The DMK-led fronts strategy is to paint a broad
national picture and attack the Third Front for its
inability to project a prime ministerial candidate. At
a public meeting at Katpadi in the Arakkonam con-
stituency on April 21 to campaign for the DMK
M. VEDHAN

candidate S. Jagathratchagan, Tiruchi N. Siva, Rajya

Sabha member of the DMK, said only seasoned poli-
ticians such as Karunanidhi and Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh could protect India from evil
forces and religious fanatics. Siva said: We are sure
who our prime ministerial candidate is. Can the
Third Front tell us who its candidate is?
M . KA R UN A N I D HI , C HI E F Minister,
at an election campaign meeting of the DMK-led
front in Chennai on April 18. K.V. Thangkabalu,
State Congress president, is behind him.

F R O N T L I N E 1 1 7

reporter at a temple at Takkolam in the
Arakkonam constituency. The granite
block that formed part of the base of
the temple tower was burning hot in
the afternoon sun. How do you expect
us to be inside our home when there is
no electricity in summer? she asked.
At Kancheepuram, a weaver was
xing decorative glass stones to the
zari of a silk sari when load-shedding
plunged the small room into darkness.
He has no doubt about the power crisis
in the State affecting the outcome of
the elections.
Voters in the Kancheepuram, Sri-
perumbudur, Vellore, Arakkonam,
Arani and Tiruvannamalai constitu-
encies in the northern areas of the
State are agitated over other issues as
well, such as farmers being forced to
part with cultivable land for industri-
es, an iron-ore mining project threat-
ening to uproot hundreds of villagers,
land sharks grabbing even lake beds
and canals, efuents being let into
lakes, water bodies deteriorating be-
cause of silt, and contract farming
being introduced because of the shor-
tage of labour and mechanisation.
In a paddyeld in a village near
Varanavasi in Sriperumbudur constit-
uency, where Union Minister T.R.
Baalu of the DMK, is ghting A.K.
Moorthy of the PMK, a combine har-
vester has been hired for Rs.1,300 an
hour. There are not enough workers,
said a farm hand.
At Parameswara Mangalam village
in the Arakkonam constituency, con-
tract farming has come to stay. L. Va-
su, one of the farm hands, said that
about eight workers were paid a total
of Rs.1,000 a day for planting saplings
on an acre and they had to nish the
work in a day. R. Velu (former Minis-
ter of State for Railways) of the PMK is
facing Jagathratchagan here. Both
sides are equally tough, agricultural
labourers said on being asked who
stood a chance.
If people in Kunnavakkam and
Hanumanthai villages, near Singape-
rumal Kovil in the Kancheepuram
constituency, are angry about their be-
ing forced to part with their agricultu-
ral land to Mahindra City, a huge
industrial zone, hundreds of villagers
of Periapaliapattu and other villages in
the Tiruvannamalai constituency are
in a militant mood over environmental
issues. Everywhere in Periapaliapattu
are painted boards: Dont destroy the
mountains, dont block the rains; tem. At Palaya Ekambara Nallur in
Dont destroy the natural wealth,
dont ruin the ground water; Crows cheek statement about the govern-
and sparrows are our kith, mountains
and streams are our kin, and so on.
VILLAGERS ANGRY
Periapaliapattu and surrounding vil-
lages are ghting a project, proposed
by the Tamil Nadu Iron Mining Cor-
poration, a joint venture between the
State-owned Tamil Nadu Industrial
Development Corporation and the
Jindal group, to mine iron ore in the
Kavuthi and Vediappan hills. Most vil-
lagers are angry with the DMK govern-
ment over the project.
Four elderly women had sought
shelter from the heat at the Draupadi
Amman temple, the two hills, full of
trees, streams and wildlife, providing
the backdrop to it. We will boycott the
elections, said 85-year-old Pachai-
yammal, an articulate leader of a
movement to protect the hills. Bagh-
yam, the other woman, said if anyone
came to excavate the hills we will tear
them apart.
The Tiruvannamalai constituency
is in the Vanniya heartland, and the
contest here is between J. Guru, the
young, rebrand leader of the PMK,
and 73-year-old D. Venugopal, a four-
time Lok Sabha member of the DMK.
The villagers are happy with the assu-
rance given by PMK founder Dr.S. Ra-
madoss that he is opposed to the
project.
At Tirumalai in the Arni constitu-
ency, a Jaina centre with exquisite
sculptures of Tirthankaras, C. Kum-
araswamy, a road worker, is annoyed
with rapid urbanisation. Everywhere
agricultural land is being converted in-
to plots for houses and this has made
people lazy, he said. The electoral
ght here is between M. Krishnaswa-
my, former president of the Tamil Na-
du Congress Committee, and Mukur
N. Subramanian of the AIADMK.
1 1 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
The steep rise in the prices of es-
sential commodities has robbed the
ruling DMK government of a fund of
goodwill it earned when it started pro-
viding 20 kg of rice a month at Re.1 a
kg through the public distribution sys-
Arni, Syed Pasha makes a tongue-in-
ment selling rice at Re.1 a kg through
the ration shops when the prices of dal,
sugar, chilli, garlic, and so on are on
the rise. It is like giving a banana to a
child and preventing it from eating it,
he said.
If the government is selling rice at
Re.1 a kg, salt sells at Rs.7 a kg, a road
worker at Tirumalai said. Rice may be
sold through the ration shops at Re.1 a
kg. But a cup of tea costs Rs.3.
Several voters, such as D. Ravi of
Gudiyatham and K. Selvaraj of Keezh-
vazhi Thunaiyankuppam, both in the
Vellore constituency, are angry that
the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) had de-
generated into a farce with the DMK
and the Congress using the scheme to
garner votes. Wherever they can exca-
vate, they do so and enact a big drama
that they are implementing the
NREGS, and make money, alleged
Ravi.
Another issue that has annoyed
voters across the State is a big increase
in bus fares by indirect means
through the introduction of what are
called deluxe, luxury, low-oor, point-
to-point and limited-stop bus services.
As the DMK sensed this, it resorted to
subterfuge. Passengers travelling in
government-owned buses in the State
were in for a surprise on April 30 when
conductors charged them Rs.2 as the
minimum fare whereas it ranged be-
tween Rs.3 and Rs.7 earlier. No ofcial
announcement had been made about
the reduction.
Chief Electoral Ofcer Naresh
Gupta reacted sharply to the reduc-
tion, calling it a violation of the model
code of conduct. There is not an iota of
doubt [about it], he said. His ofce
had reported the matter to the Elec-
tion Commission of India, he said.
The killing of Tamil civilians by the
MAY 22, 2009
WOME N S UPPO R T E R S W A V I N G at the helicopter bringing AIADMK chief
Jayalalithaa, at a rally in Sivaganga on April 24.
Sri Lankan military bothered many
voters and they were angry with the
Government of Indias military assis-
tance to the islands army. They were
also disenchanted with the DMKs
constantly shifting stand on the issue.
T. Jothi, 59, an electrician at Vanchiy-
ur on the outskirts of Vellore, was em-
phatic that Karunanidhis shifting,
uctuating stand on the Tamil prob-
lem will not favour the DMK. Besides,
he said, everybody knows that the Go-
vernment of India has given weapons
to the Sri Lanka Army.
At Pattavarthi, near Tiruchi, young
P. Venkatesan was furious about the
Congress being oblivious to the plight
of the Sri Lankan Tamil civilians and
the DMKs inability to inuence the
Congress on the issue.
In the opinion of N. Krishnama-
chari, K.T. Krishnaswamy and K.T.
Srivatsan, all belonging to Singaperu-
L. BALACHANDAR
mal Kovil, the Sri Lankan Tamil prob-
lem is not an issue at all in the coming
elections. I dont think there is any
reaction to the Tamil problem. People
are bothered only about the price rise
and the power cut, Krishnamachari
said.
Krishnaswamy said that even if
there were to be a massacre of Tamils
on the island, tears might be shed but
nothing will happen. According to
him, the power cut will be a major
issue, for it affected lakhs of people,
including industrialists, workers,
weavers and housewives.
What worries many voters such as
K.E. Ranganathan of Kunnavakkam
village, A. Shanmuganathan of Tirup-
arankuram and Mariammal of Tiru-
mangalam is the role money will play
in the elections. A voter in Arni tapped
this reporters pocket and said, The
rot began when candidates contesting
F R O N T L I N E 1 1 9
in the municipal elections thrust a
Rs.500 note in your pocket.
THE MOOD IN THE WEST
In the industrial and commercial belt
of western Tamil Nadu, stretching
from Salem to Coimbatore, the elec-
tion campaign was dull and in some
places almost nil even a week after the
faction-ridden Congress released, at
long last, its list of candidates, a couple
of days before the ling of nominations
opened on April 16. It, however, gath-
ered momentum with AIADMK gen-
eral secretary Jayalalithaa, addressing
massive gatherings in support of the
candidates of her party and the front it
heads, at Erode and Salem on April 26.
The relatively wealthy region, also
known as Kongu Nadu, accounts for
seven parliamentary constituencies
(Salem, Namakkal, Erode, Tirupur,
Coimbatore, Pollachi and Nilgiris)
comprising 43 Assembly segments
spread over seven revenue districts.
Agriculture, industry and commerce
are the principal occupations of the
people, known for their hard work.
Besides textile, knitwear and gar-
ment units, handlooms and power
looms, there are foundries and other
engineering units that manufacture a
variety of items ranging from domestic
equipment and components of indus-
trial products to textile machinery
here. Coimbatore district, with 813
spinning, weaving and composite
mills, accounts for 27 per cent of the
over 3,000 mills in the country. Tamil
Nadu has 1,912 mills. The district also
has to its credit 12,000 small and me-
dium industries.
In the newly formed district of Ti-
rupur are located hundreds of gar-
ment-manufacturing units and their
ancillaries. A substantial number of
these export-oriented units have been
hit hard by the recent nancial crisis.
Not only the fall in export orders but
also the irregular and inadequate sup-
ply of power has forced most of these
units to down their shutters or declare
layoffs. As a result, thousands of work-
ers have lost their jobs and an equal
number of people have had their earn-
ings cut.

PUDUCHERRY
TIGHT RACE
CAMPAIGNING is in full swing in
the Union Territory of Puducherry
for the election to its lone Lok Sabha
seat on May 13. Union Minister of
State for Planning and Parliamen-
tary Affairs and Rajya Sabha mem-
ber V. Narayanasamy is the Congress
candidate. He faces a tough ght
from M. Ramadass of the PMK, who
is seeking re-election in a multi-cor-
nered contest. Other parties in the
fray include the BJP, the Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP) and the DMDK.
While the Congress is in alliance
with the DMK, the PMK is a constit-
uent of the front led by the
AIADMK. Narayanasamy is ghting
for a Lok Sabha seat for the rst time.
If 30 years of experience in politics is
the strength of Narayanasamy, a
postgraduate in law, Ramadass, 59,
a former university professor who
holds a doctorate in economics, re-
lies mostly on his impressive perfor-
mance in the Lok Sabha.
The Congress has enjoyed a pre-
dominant position in Puducherry
ever since this territory, which was
under French control, was merged
A large-scale reverse migration of
the workforce has taken place in the
past few months (Frontline, March 13,
2009). It is in this context that the
people in this region are facing the
general elections.
W.R. Varadarajan, member, Cen-
tral Committee of the CPI (M), told
Frontline that the rst two stimulus
packages announced by the Union go-
vernment had not beneted the work-
ers much. The packages did not
address the concerns of the common
man, he said. There is strong dis-
content among the public over the pol-
icies of both the Union and State
governments.
Irregular and inadequate supply of
power has added to the worries of the
industrial units, he said. This has been
with the Union of India in the late
1950s. Of the 13 elections held for
the Puducherry seat since 1993, the
Congress has won nine. The
AIADMK won the seat in 1974 and
1977, the DMK in 1998 and the PMK
in 2004. The PMK was a constituent
of the DMK-led alliance along with
the Congress in 2004.
Neither the DMK nor the
AIADMK enjoys popular support in
Puducherry. The Congress unit,
which is better placed than its Tamil
Nadu counterpart, has expressed its
resentment to the party high com-
mand over the arrangement that fa-
cilitates the Tamil Nadu unit of the
party to decide the electoral alliance
in Puducherry.
The AIADMK, which entered
the Puducherry poll scene in 1974
with a bang and won two successive
elections, began losing ground when
its founder-leader and former Chief
Minister M.G. Ramachandran sup-
ported a proposal to merge the
Union Territory with Tamil Nadu.
The DMK has not been able to make
any big inroads into Puducherry pol-
itics though it is believed to have an
edge over the AIADMK in the Union
Territory. So, an AIADMK-led alli-
ance considered formidable in Tamil
particularly bad in the continuous
process units. Layoffs, closures, wage
cuts and loss of jobs were there even
before the export-oriented units in
Coimbatore and Tirupur bore the
brunt of the recession. The ruling par-
ties at the Centre and in the State are
facing the wrath of the affected people.
Today, large units run with tem-
porary workers constituting more than
70 per cent of their workforce. Even
those in permanent jobs are given
work only for two or three days a week.
The workers have nothing to fall back
on because there is no worthwhile so-
cial security cover or unemployment
relief for them, Varadarajan said.
The economic downturn has also
hit the automobile, engineering, con-
struction, cement and steel sectors.
1 2 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
Nadu need not necessarily be so in
Puducherry.
The PMK, which has forged a
new alliance this time, hopes to ben-
et from the anti-incumbency factor
working against the Congress, and
the disunity among Congressmen.
Factionalism in the Congress had
disrupted the administration for
about eight months and it ultimately
pulled down the Ministry, led by N.
Rangasamy. Two weeks after the l-
ing of nominations, the popular ex-
Chief Minister, who has been keep-
ing a low prole since his ouster in
2008, remained apparently unde-
cided on his support to the party
candidate.
The supporters of the AIADMK-
led front hope that the governments
failure in many areas such as educa-
tion, public health, housing, devel-
opment, reopening of closed mills,
and welfare schemes for the under-
privileged, besides the charges of
corruption against it, will go against
the Congress in spite of the addition-
al support it could enlist from the
Puducherry Munnetra Congress, a
regional party founded by former
Assembly Speaker and former Con-
gressman P. Kannan.
S. Viswanathan
Small and medium enterprises have
shut down in all industrial clusters.
The worst affected are micro units that
make accessories for big units. Said J.
James, district president of the Tamil
Nadu Association of Cottage and Mi-
cro Enterprises: A substantial num-
ber of entrepreneurs engaged in the
tiny sectors are in mounting debts and
are being harassed and humiliated by
the lending institutions for defaults
under insurmountable conditions.
Our repeated representations to bank
chiefs and other responsible persons
have failed to provide us any relief.
On top of wage cuts and job losses
is the steep rise in the prices of essen-
tials such as rice and other foodgrains,
milk and vegetables. Although the
one-rupee-a-kilo rice scheme intro-
MAY 22, 2009
duced by the DMK government has
beneted a large number of the poor,
there is also deep concern over the spi-
ralling prices of essential commodities
and the rise in house rents. This is
likely to reect in the verdict.
State Congress president K.V.
Thangkabalu, in a brief interview to
Frontline on April 21 in Salem, where
he is seeking re-election to the Lok
Sabha, rejected the perception of many
analysts that the Congress and the
DMK, in power at the Centre and in
the State respectively, have been facing
the anti-incumbency factor. Describ-
ing the achievements of the UPA go-
vernment as remarkable and
phenomenal, he cited the Right to In-
formation Act and the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act as two
outstanding pieces of legislation initi-
ated by the outgoing government.
He said that the State government
had brought in several benecial
schemes. He also referred to Manmo-
han Singhs announcement about in-
vesting Rs.25,000 crore to revive
agriculture.
Thangkabalu, who won the Salem
seat in 2004 by over 1.75 lakh votes, is
facing a formidable rival this time in S.
Semmalai (AIADMK), who held the
Health and Education portfolios in the
Jayalalithaa Ministry (2001-06).
There are also 21 others (17 of them
independents) in the contest. Inght-
ing in the Congress could work against
Thangkabalu.
In the neighbouring Erode constit-
uency, former TNCC president
E.V.K.S. Elangovan is making a bid to
re-enter the Lok Sabha. Taking him on
is A. Ganesamurthy of the MDMK.
Also in the eld are six other contes-
tants. A section of weavers who form a
signicant section of the electorate
here did not hide their displeasure
over what they called Elangovans fail-
ure to intervene in the issues involving
them in spite of his being the Union
Minister of State for Textiles. The
main complaint here is that nothing
has been done to end the problem of
pollution caused by dyeing units.
Twenty-one candidates are ght-
ing for the prestigious Tirupur seat.
The principal contestants in this newly
formed constituency are S.K. Karven-
dan (Congress), the MP from Palni,
and C. Sivasamy of the AIADMK. Siva-
samy, who was a member of the State
Assembly, is keen on nding a solution
to the problem of efuents from the
dyeing units.
A prestigious electoral battle is be-
ing fought in Nilgiris (Reserved),
where Union Minister of Information
Technology A. Raja of the DMK is fac-
ing another sitting MP, Dr. C. Krish-
nan (MDMK). Both are new to the
constituency. With the multi-crore
spectrum scam casting its shadow on
the DMK candidate, the ght promis-
es to be a tough one. The MDMK can-
didate is said to be banking on the
support of estate workers, a substan-
tial number of them Tamils of recent
Indian origin repatriated from Sri
Lanka. The battle for Coimbatore ap-
pears to be mainly between R. Prabhu
(Congress), a sitting MP and former
Union Minister, and P.R. Natarajan of
the CPI(M), a trade union leader.
Prabhu won the election in 2004 from
Nilgiris and moved to Coimbatore af-
ter Nilgiris became a reserved constit-
uency following delimitation.
WEST BENGAL
MAOIST THREAT
BY Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay
AS the 28 remaining constituen-
cies of West Bengal vote on May 7 and
13, all eyes will be xed on Nandigram
and Singur, where land acquisition for
industrial projects has been a burning
issue for the past two years.
For over a year the Trinamool Con-
gress, aided by Maoists, created a lib-
erated zone at Nandigram in Purba
Medinipur district after 14 people
were killed in police ring during pro-
tests in the wake of rumours of land
acquisition to set up a chemical hub
there. A bloody turf battle ensued be-
tween the Trinamool and the Maoist-
backed Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh
(Land Eviction Resistance) Commit-
tee on one side and supporters of the
F R O N T L I N E 1 2 1
CPI(M) on the other. On April 16, Tri-
namool supporters attacked a police
team that entered Nandigram on the
directive of the Election Commission
to make preventive arrests.
We live in constant fear as our
supporters continuously fall prey to
barbarous attacks, a CPI(M) source in
Nandigram told Frontline.
The going will be tough for Laksh-
man Seth, CPI(M) strongman of the
district and sitting Member of Parlia-
ment from Tamluk, under which Nan-
digram falls. In the light of the
outcome of last years panchayat elec-
tions, this years byelection results, and
the recent Congress-Trinamool tie-up,
the CPI(M)s position in the region has
weakened. The impact may also be felt
in the neighbouring Kanthi constitu-
ency. Interestingly, the Trinamool
candidates in these two constituencies
are father and son Suvendhu Ad-
hikari from Tamluk and his father Si-
sir Adhikari from Kanthi.
At Singur in Hooghly district,
where the Trinamools protracted and
violent agitation forced Tata Motors to
shift its Nano car project out of West
Bengal, the CPI(M)s sitting MP, Rup
Chand Pal, may not face a serious
problem despite the fact that a section
of the population remains anti-Left.
This is because only a small section of
farmers had resisted land acquisition
for the project 2,000 out of 13,000;
the majority of the electorate is, in fact,
disappointed at the lost opportunity
for employment and development.
Moreover, following delimitation,
the three gram panchayats of KGD
Anchal, Basubati and Balarambati,
which formed the hub of the Singur
movement, now fall in the neighbour-
ing Arambagh constituency, where the
CPI(M) won by over 5.9 lakh votes in
2004, the highest margin of victory in
those elections. At the most the mar-
gin may be reduced slightly, but no
way can it swing the result against the
CPI(M), a political source in Aram-
bagh told Frontline.
An ominous aspect that has
emerged in this round of elections is
the Trinamools unholy nexus with the
Maoists. It has been reported that Ko-

teswar Rao, polit bureau member of
the CPI (Maoist) and who is in charge
of the outts operations in West Ben-
gal, Jharkhand and Orissa, admitted
to having assisted the Trinamool in
Nandigram in the past. The outt also
supports the Trinamools opposition
to the proposed chemical hub at Naya-
char. In the Maoist-backed Lalgarh
movement, too, Trinamool supremo
Mamata Banerjee shared the dais with
Chhatradhar Mahato, leader of the
Peoples Committee against Police
Atrocities, a Maoist organisation.
Since November last year, after an
assassination attempt on Chief Minis-
ter Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee near
Salboni in Paschim Medinipur dis-
trict, tribal people led by Maoists at-
tempted to create a liberated zone in
nearby Lalgarh on the lines of Nan-
digram. They refused to allow the po-
lice into the area and even threatened
to boycott elections in the zone, but
relented later with conditions, which
included the shifting of polling booths
outside the region and the provision of
transport to voters on polling day. The
movement even spread to Kolkata
when they organised a massive armed
rally of tribal people on April 24, para-
lysing the city for hours.
Since its participation in the Nan-
digram agitation, the Maoist move-
ment in the State has expanded
alarmingly, particularly in the back-
ward districts of Purulia and Pashchim
Medinipur, and Bankura. Members of
the CPI(M) are being eliminated syste-
matically, according to party sources.
They said 39 party supporters and lo-
cal leaders had been killed since the
poll dates were announced in March.
In a recent interview to a leading
English daily, Koteswar Rao stated
that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,
Lakshman Seth, Deepak Sarkar (Pas-
chim Medinipur district secretary of
the CPI(M)) and Anuj Pandey, zonal
party leader, were on their hit list.
For the Congress-Trinamool com-
bine, the Lok Sabha elections are noth-
ing more than a dress rehearsal for the
2011 Assembly elections in the State.
National issues have hardly been men-
tioned in their poll campaigns, which
MAY 22, 2009
almost completely focus on State and
local issues. Their success in last years
panchayat elections has given them
hope of an anti-incumbency factor
working against the CPI(M)-led Left
Front government. However, in the
red fortress of Bardhaman district, in
which there are three Lok Sabha con-
stituencies Bardhaman (Purba),
Asansol and Bardhaman-Durgapur
there is little chance of them making
any inroads. In last years panchayat
elections, too, the verdict went over-
whelmingly in favour of the Left there.
According to Biswanath Das, a
landless agricultural worker from Bo-
ro Posla village in Bardhamans Bhatar
region, the CPI(M) is the only hope for
the poor. The CPI(M) is needed at the
Centre for the sake of communal har-
mony and to highlight the voice of the
poor, he said. Malik Alam, a farmer in
neighbouring Bhumsor village, ex-
pressed the same sentiment: Victory
for the CPI(M) in Bardhaman is a fore-
gone conclusion; the Opposition hard-
ly has any presence there.
The delimitation process has ister of State. In 2004, Sikdar won by
brought the three key Assembly con- only 20,387 votes.
stituencies of Ausgram, Mangalkot
and Ketugram under the Bolpur con- TOUGH FOR MAMATA
stituency, giving the CPI(M) candidate It may not be a cakewalk for Mamata
there, Ram Chandra Dom, a clear ad- Banerjee this time. In the Kolkata
vantage over his Congress rival Asit South constituency, a seat she has re-
Mal. These three regions alone will tained since 1991, her victory margin
give the CPI(M) an easy margin of 1.5 in 2004 was 98,429 as against
lakh votes, said Amal Haldar, the CPI 2,14,008 in 1999. Her violent agita-
(M)s Bardhaman district secretary. tions against land acquisition have not
Bolpur was former Lok Sabha gone down well with the urban voters,
Speaker and one-time CPI(M) stal- especially those of the younger gener-
wart Somnath Chatterjees constituen- ation, who want new job opportunities
cy. Following delimitation, it has and constitute 35 per cent of the 14
become a reserved seat, for the Sched- lakh voters in the constituency.
uled Castes. Ram Chandra Dom is the This point was highlighted by her
sitting MP from Birbhum, where the CPI(M) opponent Rabin Deb. The
partys new candidate is Braja Muk- youth of the State, and not just the
herjee. His Trinamool rival is the Ben- constituency, want jobs. Her violent
gali movie star Shatabdi Roy. resistance to all important industrial
The Trinamool has elded another projects, such as the one in Singur and
lm actor, Tapas Pal, in Krishnanagar, the Katwa thermal development pro-
where his rival is the sitting MP, Jyo- ject, has disillusioned them, he told
tirmoyee Sikdar, an Asian Games gold Frontline. Moreover, following delim-
medallist. However, the BJP candi- itation, the new contours of the con-
date Satyabrata Mookherjee is also a stituency may prove advantageous to
serious contender here. He won the the CPI(M). Strong CPI(M) bases such
seat in 1999 and served as Union Min- as Behala East, parts of Garden Reach,
1 2 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009

sociations have taken over an other-

wise lacklustre campaign.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
accused the Congress government of
failing to control the high-handedness
of the schools. The Congress, while de-
nying the charge and accusing the BJP
of playing petty politics, defended it-
self by talking of the action taken
against unaided private schools for the
fee hike.
About a month ago a few private
schools, defying the State govern-
ments order, raised their fees sudden-
ly, taking many middle-class parents
by surprise. The schools had demand-
ed an increase of up to 50 per cent in
the tuition fee in order to implement
the Sixth Pay Commission recommen-
dations on teachers salaries and ar-
rears. Earlier, in January, the Delhi

SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH
government had created ve slabs on
the basis of the existing tuition fee,
allowing schools a maximum fee hike
of Rs.500 a month.
In its campaign, the BJP played up
the issue, with some of its candidates,
TR IB A L P E O PL E C A R R YI N G arms protesting in Kolkata against the such as Vijendra Gupta (contesting
proposed entry of police into Lalgarh, Paschim Medinipur district, where for from Chandni Chowk) and Vijay Goel
the past six months they have been agitating under the banner of the Maoist (New Delhi), leading rallies.
Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities. The Congress candidate from
Chandni Chowk, Kapil Sibal, told
Tallygunge and the port area now fall sources Development Minister, Anisur Frontline that it was unfortunate to
within it. Rehman, of the CPI(M). In 2004, see the BJP candidates, particularly
The Kolkata North seat will see an Hossain won by 15,480 votes. The fac- Vijendra Gupta, politicising the tui-
interesting contest between two tionalism and bickering within the tion-fee issue in order to further their
heavyweights Mohammad Salim of Congress in the region and Rehmans political careers. He said that after the
the CPI(M) and Sudip Bandopadhyay popularity, give the CPI(M) a good Sixth Pay Commission recommenda-
of the Trinamool. chance of regaining the Murshidabad tions, the government had xed a
In the Congress-dominated Ber- seat, which it won in 1999 by a con- norm that only 25 per cent of the hike
hampore district, External Affairs vincing margin of 1,23,360 votes. in the salaries of teachers would be
Minister Pranab Mukherjee will try to raised as fees and the remaining would
retain his Jangipur seat against a new be borne by the schools. However,
candidate of the CPI(M), Mriganka since some schools did not adhere to
Bhattacharya. For the Berhampore DELHI the norm and unfairly raised the fees,
Lok Sabha seat, the contest will be they were sent show cause notices, he
once again between the Congress EDUCATION AS said.
strongman and sitting MP, Adhir Ran- The matter got worse on April 16
jan Chowdhury, and the former MP ISSUE when a Class 12 girl, Aakriti Bhatia,
from the same constituency, Pra- By Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta died after an asthmatic attack in one of
mothes Mukherjee, of the Revolution- SOMETIMES the most unusual of the posh schools. Her parents alleged
ary Socialist Party (RSP). issues seem to catch the peoples atten- negligence by the school authorities
The Murshidabad seat will witness tion during elections. In Delhi this and demanded the principals resigna-
an interesting contest between the sit- time it is the arbitrary hike in fees by tion.
ting Congress MP, Abdul Mannan several public schools. Widespread Arun Jaitley, BJP general secretary
Hossain, and the States Animal Re- protests by parents and residents as- and in charge of Delhi, said the fee hike

F R O N T L I N E 1 2 3

P A R E N T S A N D S T UD EN T S protest against the arbitrary fees hike, outside
the residence of Delhi Lieutenant Governor on April 19.
would be the partys main election is-
sue. If there is one issue that can make
the Congress lose all seven seats, it is
the mess of the education system it has
pushed Delhi into. There has been an
exorbitant fee hike, along with the
compulsion to pay arrears. The middle
class is feeling the pinch. Even as the
citys education system is burning, the
Neros in the Delhi government are in-
different. The fee hike will be the Con-
gress nemesis, he told a national
newspaper.
The BJP has traditionally wooed
the middle classes, but this time the
focus of both parties was on addressing
the issues of the poor. The fee hike
came in handy to reach out to the mid-
dle classes and government em-
ployees, who voted for the Congress in
the 2008 Assembly elections. This is
for the rst time that the party has
gone to the polls without stalwarts
such as Madan Lal Khurana, Vijay Ku-
mar Malhotra and Sahib Singh Verma.
Out of the seven candidates, only Vijay
Goel is a prominent face.
Meanwhile, the intense lobbying
that surrounded the selection of candi-
SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
dates to replace Jagdish Tytler and
Sajjan Kumar reopened the feuds
within the Congress. While J.P. Agar-
wal, the party president in Delhi for
more than a year now and a two-time
Lok Sabha member, was the unani-
mous choice for North-East Delhi in
Tytlers place, the choice for South
Delhi became so problematic that the
high command could take a decision
only a day ahead of the last date for the
ling of nominations.
The Congress eventually gave in to
Sajjan Kumars demand that only so-
meone from his family could get his
support in South Delhi. So, Ramesh
Kumar, his brother and a former
Member of the Legislative Assembly,
got the ticket, overriding Sheila Diksh-
its choice of Yoganand Shastri, now
Speaker of the Delhi Assembly. Since
the South Delhi constituency is now 92
per cent rural, it was difcult for the
Congress to ignore Sajjan Kumar, a
popular leader among Jats, who com-
prise 16 per cent of the population.
In North-East Delhi, the Congress
expects J.P. Agarwal to attract the
Vaish/Bania votes. The politically po-
1 2 4 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
werful Bania community, traditionally
BJP supporters, had switched sides in
the last Assembly elections. Agarwal
who is, in a way, their representative,
lost in 1999 from Chandni Chowk, af-
ter which the seat was given to Kapil
Sibal, who won in 2004.
Another interesting revelation, ac-
cording to a population survey report
by the Congress party, is that Poor-
vanchalis (migrants from Uttar Pra-
desh and Bihar) comprise 40 per cent
of Delhis population. The Congress
candidature of Mahabal Mishra, con-
vener of the Poorvanchali cell of the
Delhi Congress, in the Jat- and Punja-
bi-dominated West Delhi is, perhaps,
intended to attract this population.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ad-
dressed his only rally in Delhi in Mis-
hras constituency.
While local issues dominate the
election campaign in the national cap-
ital, it is interesting to see how candi-
dates respond to such an electoral
pulse. Most of the advertisements and
hoardings of both parties do not have
pictures of their national leaders de-
spite the fact that both parties have
announced their prime ministerial
candidates. The focus is on the candi-
date; most of these hoardings do not
even mention the name of the party.
The BJP candidate from New Del-
hi, Vijay Goel, said: There are many
hoardings of Advaniji and Rajnathji.
One has to focus some attention on the
candidates as well.
HIMACHAL PRADESH
UPHILL TASK
FOR CONGRESS
By T.K. Rajalakshmi in Shimla and Mandi
THE contest for the four parlia-
mentary seats in Himachal Pradesh is
by no means going to be an easy one.
The Congress is struggling to retain
the three seats it won in 2004 Mandi,
Shimla and Kangra and the Bharati-
ya Janata Party, which won Hamirpur,
is attempting to repeat its perfor-
mance in the November 2007 As-
MAY 22, 2009
sembly elections (41 of the 68 seats).
Although the battle for the four
seats is primarily a bipolar one, the
voters are increasingly showing a tend-
ency to look at candidates of parties
other than the BJP and the Congress,
and even independents and rebels. It is
another matter that most of the al-
ternatives that emerged in the past ei-
ther tended to dissipate into political
anonymity or coalesced into the main
political parties. Theoretically, barring
the Left parties, represented primarily
by the CPI(M) and its mass organisa-
tions, no other party has been able to
present itself here as a credible alter-
native to the Congress and the BJP.
In this round of elections, there is
no wave in favour of either the Con-
gress or the BJP and political observ-
ers contended that the situation was
uid. The people have voted more
often on the basis of the State govern-
ments performance irrespective of the
political formations at the Centre. For
instance, the Congress-led govern-
ment of Virbhadra Singh was voted out
when the UPA was in power at the
Centre. Similarly, in 2003 the BJP lost
badly despite a BJP-led NDA govern-
ment at the Centre.
The thinking is that if the anti-
incumbency sentiment is high against
the BJP government, this may nd res-
onance in the Lok Sabha elections on
May 13. There is enough reason to be-
lieve that the P.K. Dhumal govern-
ment has not delivered much in the
past one and a half years. On the other
hand, some political observers feel that
a party in power enjoys a natural ad-
vantage and in that sense the BJP had
an edge over its rivals. It could be a
two and two division, said a political
commentator.
The Third Front in the State is es-
sentially represented by the Left par-
ties, which have jointly put up a
candidate in Mandi. The BSP, which
opened its account in the last Assemb-
ly elections and managed to increase
its vote share as well, was hardly able to
retain its hold on the candidates it put
up. The lone BSP candidate who won
joined the BJP, while those who con-
tested unsuccessfully gravitated to-
wards the Congress. The leader of the
BSP, Vijay Mankotia, a former Con-
gressman, is said to have quit politics.
The joint candidate of the Left, On-
kar Shaad, a veteran leader of the All
India Kisan Sabha, has long experi-
ence of participation in democratic
struggles in the State. Shaad, who
holds a PhD in Horticulture, is from
the CPI(M) and is pitted against Virb-
hadra Singh of the Congress and Ma-
heshwar Singh of the BJP, who has
represented Mandi three times.
In 2004, the Mandi seat was won
by Virbhadra Singhs wife Pratibha
Singh. According to Congress sources,
she could not get re-nominated be-
cause the high command wanted
strong candidates in all the constitu-
encies. Sanjay Chauhan, district secre-
tary of the CPI(M), said that as always
neither the BJP nor the Congress was
interested in projecting the real issues.
F R O N T L I N E 1 2 5
He said the BJP government was in
complete denial of the nature of the
agrarian crisis, using the pretext of the
model code of conduct during elec-
tions. He said the governments own
assessment was that the damage to
crops owing to the prolonged drought
and the untimely and excessive rain
was to the tune of Rs.2,500 crore.
In 2004, the BJP just about man-
aged to retain the Hamirpur seat. Sub-
sequently, Suresh Chandel had to
relinquish his membership following
the cash-for-queries scam. Now in
charge of coordinating the Lok Sabha
elections in the State, Chandel is opti-
mistic of a BJP sweep. I won the Ha-
mirpur seat against heavy odds. The
circumstances under which I had to
resign from the Lok Sabha were also
very unfortunate. It was also the par-
tys decision, so I quit, Chandel told
Frontline. He was certain that the par-
ty stood a good chance of winning even
the Shimla (S.C.) seat, which is consi-
dered a traditional Congress bastion.
Of the 17 Assembly segments in
the Shimla parliamentary constituen-
cy, we won eight, almost the same as
the Congress. We hope to better this
lead, he said. In fact, in the last two
Assembly elections, the runner-up in
the Shimla Assembly segment was
Sanjay Chauhan, who polled more
than 10,000 votes in 2007. The BJP
won the seat by a margin of around
2,000 votes, while the Congress candi-
date came a poor third.
For the Lok Sabha, the BJP has
elded Virender Kashyap, against the
twice-elected Dhani Ram Shandil of
the Congress. BJP sources conceded
that Kashyap was a weak candidate
and only if there was a wave in favour
of the BJP he would have a chance of
winning against Shandil. Virbhadra
Singh is himself contesting and he is
not likely to give much time in Shimla.
We have a good chance, Satpal Jain,
BJP leader in charge of Himachal Pra-
desh, told Frontline. Interestingly,
Satpal Jain himself is contesting from
Chandigarh and has been unable to
devote much time for the State.
As in Mandi, an interesting contest
is on the cards in Hamirpur. This is

one constituency where the BJP has
consolidated its vote bank over the
past few elections. In recent years, the
combination of Brahmin and Rajput
votes has helped it in achieving this.
Here the outgoing MP is Anurag Tha-
kur, who is Chief Minister P.K. Dhu-
mals son. He won the Hamirpur seat
in the May 2008 byelection after his
father vacated it when he took over as
Chief Minister in December 2007.
Interestingly, the Congress initia-
lly chose to eld the cricketer Madan
Lal, who belongs to Hamirpur. The
decision was surprising as less than a
year ago Anurag Thakur won by more
than a lakh votes. There was intense
speculation that the Congress had
gifted away the seat to the BJP by
elding a novice. Evidently, the party
did some rethinking. While Madan Lal
opted out for health reasons, the Con-
gress put up Narender Thakur, son of
BJP heavyweight Thakur Jagdeo
Chand. The contest has become more
interesting now. Even if Anurag wins
with a lower margin, it will be a loss of
face for the Chief Minister, said a
Congress worker.
But Congress workers are sheepish
about the fact that the party had to
eld a former BJP man to take on the
BJP candidate. Sohan Lal, the Con-
DH AN I R A M S H A N D I L ( S EC O N D from right), Congress candidate from
Shimla, with party leaders Anand Sharma, Vidya Stokes and Virbhadra Singh
after ling his nomination papers in Shimla on April 17.
gress MLA from Kasaumpti in Shimla,
told Frontline that a section of the BJP
would also vote for Narender Thakur.
In the Kangra parliamentary con-
stituency, the BJP won 14 of the 17
Assembly segments in the 2007 elec-
tions. The image of the seat being a
BJP stronghold was dented in 2004
when four-time Congress Minister
Chander Kumar trounced former
Chief Minister and BJP leader Shanta
Kumar. But the resentment against
the Virbhadra Singh government was
such that in the Assembly elections,
the BJP swept nearly all the segments
in Kangra.
The BJP has elded Rajan Sush-
ant, the MLA from the Jawali constitu-
ency, to take on Chander Kumar. This
is one constituency where social engi-
neering does come into effect and
where the votes of the Other Backward
Classes and the Gaddi tribal people
play a crucial role, said Suresh Chan-
del, adding that the rest of the State
voted according to the party and the
individual put up and not on caste
lines. While the BJP has put its hopes
on Rajput, Brahmin and Gaddi votes,
it is aware, from its experience of the
Assembly elections, that OBC voters,
who form 25 per cent of the electorate,
do play a decisive role.
PTI
1 2 6 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
The BJP is hopeful that the 2007
mandate will be reected in the Lok
Sabha elections. It is a proven trend.
Whichever party is in government in
the State, the electorate votes for that
party in the Lok Sabha as well, said
H.N. Kashyap, BJP general secretary.
UTTAR PRADESH
TWISTS AND TURNS
By Venkitesh Ramakrishnan in Meerut
UTTAR PRADESH has seen many
twists and turns in its tortuous electo-
ral journey spread across ve phases.
Political pundits projections of a run-
away victory for the ruling BSP and a
momentous performance by the prin-
cipal opposition party, the Samajwadi
Party (S.P.), before the rst phase of
polling on April 16 changed after poll-
ing trends suggested a signicant re-
vival of the BJP.
The second phase of polling, on
April 23, led to the assessment that the
BJP had not been able to retain the
momentum. The S.P. and the BSP
were back as front runners despite the
ight of a section of Muslim voters
from the two parties in a few seats,
Basti among them. The second phase
also witnessed the Congress extending
its sphere of inuence from Amethi
and putting up a spirited ght in Sul-
tanpur and Pratapgarh.
In this context, the contest for the
last three phases, where 47 seats will
be decided, has acquired greater in-
tensity. There is no dominant social or
political issue that covers all the 47
constituencies. Local issues, the perso-
nality of the candidates and caste
equations have impacted constituen-
cies differently.
Muslims have shown a preference
for the Congress in more seats than
before, but the pundits are uncertain if
this will continue until polling day. A
predominant number of these seats
are in the western region, Awadh and
Ruhelkhand, with also a smattering of
seats in Bundhelkhand and the cen-
tral-east region.
The constituencies where the pres-
MAY 22, 2009
idents of four major parties are candi-
dates Rae Bareli (Congress, Sonia
Gandhi), Ghaziabad (BJP, Rajnath
Singh), Mainpuri (S.P., Mulayam
Singh Yadav) and Baghpat ( Rashtriya
Lok Dal, Ajit Singh) vote in the last
three phases. So do Pilibhit, which at-
tracted attention on account of Varun
Gandhis controversial speech, and
Lucknow and Kanpur. Many of these
contests are interesting either because
they are one-sided (as in Rae Bareli) or
because they are tough (as in the case
of Baghpat and Ghaziabad).
However, the following four ques-
tions will determine which way the
battle swings in these 47 seats: One:
How many votes can the S.P. win
through Mulayam Singh Yadavs
friendship with Kalyan Singh and
how many Muslim votes will it lose on
account of this association and a varie-
ty of other factors?
Two: How far will the BJP benet
from its alliance with the Ajit Singh-
led RLD?
Three: How far will the BSP be
able to cement its Dalit-Brahmin
bhaichara and in how many constitu-
encies can it attract Muslim votes as
the strongest force capable of defeat-
ing the Hindutva forces?
Four: Will the Congress be able to
spread the Amethi-Rae Bareli effect to
other constituencies?
There are no denite answers to
these except for broad pointers that
have emerged from the developing sit-
uation. Kalyan Singh will bring in his
Other Backward Classes (OBC) Lodh
communitys votes to the S.P. in as
many as eight constituencies in the
Aligarh, Farrukhabad and Etawah re-
gions, bolstering the partys chances.
And, if the trend in Aligarh is an
indication, the partys Muslim vote
base should not suffer major depletion
on account of its association with Ka-
lyan Singh. Here, the S.P. has put up a
Muslim candidate, Zafar Alam, an in-
dustrialist. Across the constituency,
S.P. workers and Kalyan Singhs sup-
porters work together promoting
Alams candidature.
The argument of S.P. workers is
that by roping in Kalyan Singh, Mu-
ADNAN ABIDI /REUTERS
P RI Y A N K A GA N D HI AFTE R
addressing an election meeting at
Balla village in the Rae Bareli
constituency on April 22.
layam Singh Yadav is using a discarded
bomb to destroy a bomb factory, an
allegory for the BJP and the Sangh
Parivar. Kalyan Singhs supporters, on
their part, say that their leaders repen-
tance for the demolition of the Babri
Masjid is total and unqualied.
He has realised that Hindutva and
OBC politics do not go together. Now,
his only aim is to strengthen OBC and
Dalit assertive politics, said Kalyan
Singhs son Rajveer Singh to Frontline.
But this harmony is not evident in con-
stituencies such as Rampur, Badaun
and Aonla. All three come under the
F R O N T L I N E 1 2 7
inuence of Azam Khan, the founder
leader of the S.P., who has attacked
Amar Singh as the creator of the Ka-
lyan Singh association.
The BJP had great expectations
about the alliance with the RLD, but
reports from Baghpat, Mathura
(where Ajit Singhs son Jayant Chaud-
hary is contesting) and Ghaziabad sug-
gest that this enthusiasm has not
turned into a grand alliance. This is
essentially because the alliance has not
been able to paper over the clash be-
tween Ajit Singhs Jat supporters and
non-Jat communities in several con-
stituencies of western Uttar Pradesh.
In Ghaziabad, the absence of an S.P.
candidate was expected to help the
BJP president, but the view as the
campaigning progresses is that the
S.P.s absence seems to be strengthen-
ing the Congress candidate, Surendra
Prakash Goel. Gujjars and Muslims
constitute the S.P.s core vote in Gha-
ziabad and by all indications these
communities are moving towards the
Congress. The overall assessment of
the BJP itself about the RLD alliance is
not one that points to enhancing the
gains in the rst phase.
The BSPs hopes for the last three
phases rest on the calculation that its
core Dalit vote base is strong in 32 of
the 47 constituencies. Naturally, this
makes the party a strong contender for
the tactical Muslim votes, which
would go to the candidate most capa-
ble of defeating the BJP. This percep-
tion, party leaders say, has made its
presence felt in seats such as Morada-
bad, which the S.P. won in 2004.
The appreciation for the Congress
has spread across communities in this
election, and candidates such as Sai-
duzzama in Bijnore have come to rep-
resent it. Yet, the party suffers from
two major deciencies: the absence of
a core vote in many constituencies and
the lack of a sound organisational ma-
chinery. Clearly, these deciencies are
bound to hamper the partys capability
to attract Muslim votes, which can de-
cide the elections in a signicant num-
ber of seats. So, for the Congress it will
be the same story in the rest of the
State: more votes, but not more seats.

BIHAR
SIGNS OF A SHIFT
By Venkitesh Ramakrishnan in Patna
THREE distinctive trends have be-
come visible in Bihar as the election
process moves towards completion,
with the last round of polling in the
State scheduled for May 7. The most
striking among these is the ssures in
the once redoubtable Muslim-Yadav
(MY) support base of the Lalu Prasad-
led RJD in quite a few constituencies.
The second is the near-total consoli-
dation of the Extremely Backward
Caste (EBC) communities behind
Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JD (U).
The third signicant trend is the reviv-
al of the Congress in a number of con-
stituencies owing to the support it is
getting from sections of the upper-
caste communities and Muslims.
Cumulatively, the three trends sig-
nify an advantage to the NDA, which
has the JD(U) and the BJP as its con-
stituents in the State. Of the 40 seats,
the NDA leadership expects to get
more than double the 11 seats (JD (U)
six, BJP ve) it won in 2004. This can
happen only at the expense of the
Fourth Front, the other prominent po-
litical formation, comprising the RJD
and the Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP,
which won 26 seats last time (RJD 22,
LJP four).
Whether the Congress revival will
actually lead to an increase in its tally
of three seats or not, there is little
doubt that the party is in the contest in
at least half a dozen seats. The spirited
campaigning by Congress candidates
has the potential to bring it votes of
those who would have otherwise sup-
ported the Fourth Front or the NDA in
quite a few seats. The greater loss is
likely to be to parties in the Fourth
Front, the Congress electoral partner
in 2004.
In every election over the past two
decades, the key question was which
leader or formation would be able to
rustle up a winning combination. This
time, initially, the OBC Yadav-Dalit-
Dussadh social consortium of the
Fourth Front, bolstered by the MY
combination, was thought to be a good
match for the OBC Kurmi-EBC-upper
caste combination of the NDA. How-
ever, as the election process advanced
the NDAs combination was thought
to have greater winning potential.
Several factors have contributed to
this assessment, the most crucial being
the drain of the Muslim vote from the
Fourth Front in many constituencies.
There was a sense in the early stages of
the campaign that the RJD and the
LJP would attract the minority votes
even though the JD(U), and partic-
ularly Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,
was acceptable to Muslims in general.
The primary reason for this analysis
was that the JD(U) would ultimately
help the NDAs Prime Minister candi-
date and one-time Hindutva icon L.K.
Advani to become Prime Minister.
As the campaign progressed, the
formation of the Fourth Front, after
throwing out the Congress, proved to
be a political misadventure by the RJD
and the LJP. One of the reasons they
cited for throwing out the Congress
that the national-level leadership of
the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
had a line of communication open with
the JD(U) boomeranged on them in
many seats. The refrain from the mi-
nority community was that if the JD
(U) and the Congress could get togeth-
er it would prefer them in seats where
they had acceptable candidates. The
fact that some of the candidates of the
RJD and the LJP had local-level anti-
incumbency sentiment going against
them also contributed to this trend.
The most striking example of this
shift can be seen in Kishanganj, where
60 per cent of the voters are Muslims.
In the early stages of the elections
Kishanganj was expected to return the
RJDs Taslimuddin despite the strong
anti-incumbency feeling against him.
The advent of the local Muslim philan-
thropist and social activist Maulana
Asrarul Haque as the Congress candi-
date changed this situation.
That Haque has a wide individual
following in the constituency was evi-
dent in 1999 when he contested the
seat as the candidate of the NCP,
which does not have much of an orga-
nisation in the region. He garnered
1 2 8 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
close to two lakh votes, which helped
the BJPs Shanawaz Hussein defeat
Taslimuddin by 9,000 votes. This time
Haque is seen as a possible winner and
not merely a spoiler.
A similar shift of the Muslim vote
away from the RJD-led combine is vis-
ible in Madhepura, which Lalu Prasad
won in 2004, and Supaul, where the
former LJP MP Ranjeeta Ranjan is
contesting on the Congress ticket. In
Madhepura, Taranand Sada of the
Congress seems to have gained signif-
icant support from the Muslim and
Brahmin communities at the expense
of the JD(U)s Sharad Yadav and the
RJDs Ravindra Charan Yadav.
However, seasoned political ob-
servers such as Anisur Rehman Kazmi,
Editor of the Urdu weekly Desh Videsh
published from Bhagalpur, told Fron-
tline that the challenge for the Con-
gress organisational machinery was to
convert this new-found appeal for the
party, and the resultant enthusiasm
among its workers, into votes.
Senior leaders of the RJD and the
JD(U) are unanimous that the Con-
gress does not have the critical electo-
ral mass to carve out victories. They
will merely cause us and the NDA a
little harm in some constituencies
without really altering the nal result,
said Lalu Prasad to Frontline. Siva-
nand Tiwari of the JD(U) echoed his
words when he predicted that the Con-
gress would draw a blank in this
round.
However, the fact is that the Con-
gress is on course for a revival in Bihar.
The NDA and the Fourth Front have
suffered a depletion of upper-caste
and Muslim votes respectively in other
constituencies, too, and the loss has
not been to the Congress alone. In Be-
gusarai, the two main formations face
this situation at the hands of Sha-
trughan Prasad Singh, the CPI upper-
caste Bhumihar candidate.
The local Bhumihar community
leader, Ramjeevan Singh (who had
been active in the JD(U) for many
years), and the All India Muslim Per-
sonal Law Board general secretary,
Wali Rehmani, who hails from the
nearby town of Munger, have declared
MAY 22, 2009
L OK JAN S H A K T I PA R T Y chief Ram Vilas Paswan and son Chirag Paswan campaigning in Hajipur on April 23.
their support to Shatrughan Prasad
Singh.
Amid such vacillation in the up-
per-caste vote the silver lining for the
NDA is the EBC vote, which is rock
solid behind the JD(U). Sivanand Ti-
wari had stated during the early stages
of the campaign that that the EBC
communities would stay with his party
and that condence does not seem to
be misplaced.
The EBC communities have rallied
behind the JD(U) across the State so
strongly that even Paswan had to face a
stiff contest in his bastion, Hajipur. So
erce was the contest that speculation
was rife that Paswan might leave the
ght and take shelter in Bijnore, in
Uttar Pradesh, as a candidate support-
ed by the S.P., the Fourth Fronts
mainstay in that State.
Paswan dispelled this rumour by
moving around his constituency on
polling day, April 23. It may be dif-
cult for the NDA to undermine Pas-
wans grip over Hajipur, which he has
won eight times since 1977 with huge
margins, but his walk around the con-
stituency on polling day is perhaps
symbolic of the uphill battle the
Fourth Front faces in Bihar.
UTTARAKHAND
BSP FACTOR
By Purnima S. Tripathi in Dehra Dun/
Nainital
IT is a low-key campaign in Utta-
rakhand this time, without any emo-
tive issues, unlike in the 2004 Lok
Sabha elections. In a State where every
second house has either a serving or a
retired solder, the cofn controversy record on the development front. It
touched a raw nerve in 2004 as the
State debated whether the charges be-
ing levelled by the Congress that the
NDA government made money in the
purchase of cofns to bring home the
bodies of soldiers killed in the Kargil
War were true.
However, the BJP won three of the
ve seats and the Congress and the S.P.
one each.
Caste and party loyalties play a big
role in Uttarakhand politics, and so far
the BJP and the Congress have been
the main contenders here, with the
former having an edge. This time,
however, the BSP too has emerged as a
major player.
The Congress is ghting the elec-
tions on the development plank, citing
the investments worth thousands of
F R O N T L I N E 1 2 9
PTI
crores of rupees that came to the State
during N.D. Tiwaris rule. Signicant-
ly, the Congresss development plank
did not work in the 2007 Assembly
elections and it remains to be seen
whether it will work this time.
The BJP, on the other hand, has
made the UPA governments step-
motherly treatment of the State an
issue in trying to justify its own poor
blames the Centre for withdrawing the
special industrial package that the
NDA government had given the State.
The package was valid until 2013, but
the UPA government withdrew it in
2007, which meant the withdrawal of
facilities such as income tax and excise
exemption, and cheap power and land
to industries. As a result, many big
names such as General Motors, Suzuki
and Ford shelved their projects
planned for the State.
Besides, the Centre withdrew the
funds for the third phase of the Prad-
han Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, and
thus over 5,000 villages were deprived
of road connectivity. They also re-
duced our cooking gas and kerosene
quota, making it difcult for us to meet
the demand in the villages, said Vish-

was Davar, the BJPs spokesman, in
Dehra Dun.
Davar also cited the seven elections
since the BJP came to power in Febru-
ary 2007, including byelections to the
Lok Sabha and the Assembly and the
civic body elections, for its poor perfor-
mance vis-a-vis development. With
the model code of conduct in force for
more than half the time, we have had
no time to work, he said.
Nevertheless, the BJP is pinning its
hopes on two factors at least to hold on
to its present tally: the support of
women and defence personnel, who
together constitute 80 per cent of the
electorate, and the split in the anti-
BJP votes. Davar said the partys move
to give 50 per cent reservation to wom-
en in panchayats had earned it their
goodwill, while its promise of giving
income tax exemption to defence per-
sonnel and fullling their demand of
same rank, same pension would
bring this section also to its fold.
The BSP is likely to damage the
poll prospects of the Congress. Unlike
previous elections when the BSP had a
tacit understanding with the Congress,
this time the BSP has elded its own
candidates.
In the Tehri Garhwal constituency,
for instance, the BSPs Munna Singh
Chauhan is considered a strong candi-
date. The fact that he has been an MLA
of the BJP from the same area for a
long time makes him a force to reckon
with. He joined the BSP after the BJP
denied him the Lok Sabha ticket.
Chauhan is expected to cut into Con-
gress candidate Vijay Bahugunas
votes.
BJP candidate Jaspal Rana, the
shooting champion, contesting from
here, has emerged as the clear favou-
rite because of his youthful, dynamic
image and his international prole.
Tehri has been a BJP seat since 1991
when the Tehri maharaja, Manvendra
Shah, won it. It remained with the BJP
until 2007 when Vijay Bahuguna
wrested the seat from the maharajas
son, Manujendra Shah, in a byelection
following the maharajas death. This
time, the BJP ignored Manujendras
claim for the ticket and Rana, a relative
of BJP president Rajnath Singh, got
selected. Rana runs a shooting acade-
my in Dehra Dun where he provides
free coaching to 500 students and is
also in the process of setting up a
world-class institute of physical edu-
cation. He is also the brand ambassa-
dor of the ONGC. Besides, he hails
from the area. The BJP is condent
that Rana will sail through.
What also makes the BJP camp
condent is the fact that Vijay Bahugu-
na, despite being the son of late Con-
gress stalwart Hemwati Nandan
Bahuguna, has nothing to show as his
achievement. His sole claim to fame is
a 2.5-minute speech at the U.N. in
2008, which he attended as part of an
all-party delegation, said Ravikant
Kothari, Ranas shooting coach-
turned-political aide.
The neighbouring Pauri Garhwal
has traditionally been a BJP seat, with
1 3 0 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
B.C. Khanduri representing it since
1991, except in 1996 when Satpal Mah-
araj, then a Tiwari Congress nominee,
won. On becoming the Chief Minister
in February 2007, Khanduri had to
vacate the seat and Lt. Gen. (retd)
T.P.S. Rawat won from here as the BJP
candidate.
T.P.S. Rawat was the Congress
nominee in the 2004 Lok Sabha elec-
tions and he was defeated by Khanduri
then. Later he joined the BJP. This
time he faces Satpal Maharaj of the
Congress, who is known more for his
religious discourses than anything
else.
The division of anti-BJP votes
seems to be taking place in the presti-
gious Nainital-Udhamsinghnagar seat
of the Kumaon area also. Nainital,
which is known as the bastion of N.D.
Tiwari, is at present represented by
K.C. Singh Baba of the Congress. Baba,
who has been re-nominated, is up
against the BJPs State president Bachi
Singh Rawat, who is a four-time MP
from the adjacent Almora seat. B.S.
Rawat had to shift from Almora be-
cause it became a reserved seat after
delimitation. He has been a Minister
in the A.B. Vajpayee government at the
Centre and has done a lot for the area.
His prospects are looking up as the
BSPs Narayan Pal, a rich business-
man, is expected to cut into Babas
votes.
Babas chances are also being spoilt
by the presence of the S.P.s Thakur
Premprakash Singh in the fray. He
wields considerable inuence among
Thakurs in the area and will take away
precious anti-BJP votes.
The Congress prospects are get-
ting damaged by the division of secular
votes, while the BJPs votes remain in-
tact, said R.C. Sah, a travel and tour
operator in Nainital.
The BJP has been winning the Al-
mora seat since 1991, with Bachi Singh
Rawat representing it continuously
since 1996. The BJP seems upbeat
about its prospects here.
The most interesting contest of all
is unfolding in Haridwar, which is now
represented by the S.P.s Rajendra Ku-
mar. This time the main battle is
MAY 22, 2009
V.V. KRISHNAN
B.C . KH A N D UR I , Uttarakhand
Chief Minister.
among the Congress Harish Rawat,
the BJPs Swami Yatindranand and
the BSPs Mohammed Shehzaad. The
substantial Dalit-Muslim combina-
tion here has made the BSP candidate
emerge the front runner. Besides, the
Congress candidate is considered an
outsider because he hails from the Ku-
maon hills. He has represented Almo-
ra many times in the 1980s before it
turned saffron.
Haridwar, incidentally, is the only
constituency in Uttarakhand which is
fully in the plains and the caste and
religious dynamics of Uttar Pradesh
politics seem to spill over to this area.
It was for the same reason that the BJP
lost this seat, which it had held since
1991, to the S.P. in 2004.
It is anybodys guess how much
the BSP is harming us, but this division
of secular votes is going to hurt us
badly, confessed a senior Congress
leader in Dehra Dun.
PUNJAB
PATRIARCHY VS
ROYALTY
By Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
THE widespread agitation led by
the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal)
against the candidatures of Jagdish
Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, both accused
in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, died
down after the Congress decided to
withdraw them from the electoral fray
in Delhi. But then, vendetta politics,
which has shrouded agitations for
some time, is back in Punjab. What is
commonly known as patriarchy ver-
sus royalty politics in the State has
been the focus of the campaign for the
polls scheduled for May 7 and 13. The
rivalry between Chief Minister Pra-
kash Singh Badal, a self-proclaimed
leader of the Jat community within the
Sikhs, and former Chief Minister
Amarinder Singh of the Congress, the
maharaja of Patiala, has long dened
the States political equations.
Neither camp is talking about any
signicant issues plaguing the State.
Here it is not about the Congress win-
ning or the Akalis losing. It is about the
pride of Captain Amarinder Singh. We
will give our best to ensure Captains
victory this time, said a senior leader
of the Punjab Congress.
The mood is similar in Badals
camp, where his loyalists are canvass-
ing to restore the SAD supremos pride
which had received a boost with the
defeat of Amarinder Singh in the par-
liamentary elections in 2004 and the
Assembly elections in 2007.
The focal points of rivalry are Bha-
tinda and Patiala. Amarinder Singhs
son Raninder Singh is battling it out
with the SADs Harsimrat Singh Ba-
dal, the wife of Deputy Chief Minister
Sukhbir Badal, in Bhatinda. Raninder
has been organisationally involved
with the party in the Malwa region for
the past few years. Harsimrat rose to
fame with her anti-female-foeticide
campaign, called Nanhi Chhan. In
Patiala, Amarinders wife and sitting
MP Preneet Kaur is pitted against a
staunch loyalist of Badal, Prem Singh
Chandumajra. In this political imbro-
glio, one party whose prospects have
been severely affected is the BJP. After
having increased its tally from three in
2002 to 19 in the 2007 Assembly elec-
tions, the BJP was hoping to contest
more seats in the parliamentary elec-
tions but had to settle again for three
Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur.
With three apparent outsiders being
F R O N T L I N E 1 3 1
elded for these seats, there is great
resentment within the State BJP unit.
Former cricketer Navjot Singh
Sidhu and actor Vinod Khanna are the
chosen ones for Amritsar and Gurdas-
pur respectively. Former bureaucrat
Som Prakash has been elded from
Hoshiarpur on the BJP ticket. Sitting
MP Avinash Rai Khanna, the only
State leader who was given the party
ticket to contest from Hoshiarpur in
2004, was not even considered this
time since the seat has become a re-
served constituency post-delimitation.
Even State BJP president Rajinder
Bhandari was ignored, said a BJP
worker.
The BJP, until recently, was com-
fortable playing second ddle to the
SAD in the ruling alliance. However,
the relationship started souring when
Badal started inducting many of his
family members into the Cabinet.
Since both the BJP and the SAD had
made dynasty politics an electoral
plank against the Congress in all the
elections, senior Badals political in-
dulgence, including Sukhbir Badals
anointment as Deputy Chief Minister,
did not go down well with the BJP.
Even after its impressive performance
in the Assembly elections, the State
BJP leaders continued to suffer ne-
glect as Badal enjoyed a close rapport
with the BJPs central leadership.
Moreover, despite the party being in
power, BJP workers allegedly faced
harassment and violence at the hands
of SAD workers in the panchayat and
municipal elections.
With rampant politicking, socio-
economic issues have been increasing-
ly sidelined. The ruling combine has
been very lax in procuring wheat and
paddy produced in the State. We have
had economic development in the
State because of the Green Revolution
but it is very backward in social devel-
opment. Religion, vendetta and fac-
tional politics seem to have taken
precedence over all the other issues,
said Jagrup Singh Sekhon, a political
researcher based in Amritsars Guru
Nanak Dev University.
Leader of the Opposition in the
State Rajinder Kaur Bhattal agreed:

CONG R E S S G E N E R A L S EC RET A RY Rahul Gandhi (second from left) holds a
sword presented to him by Raninder Singh (right), the partys candidate for
the Bhatinda seat on April 14.
We lag behind a lot in education and
health and we will take up these
issues.
The Left parties, whose electoral
prospects are not very bright, seem to
be the only ones raising such issues in
campaign rallies. Charan Singh Virdi,
State secretary of the CPI(M), said:
Declining landholdings in the rural
areas, unemployment among the
youth, and drug trafcking have be-
come severe problems. Punjab has to
repay a loan of Rs.57,000 crore to the
Centre and our growth rate is much
less than the national average. As
much as 60 per cent of all our small
and medium-scale industries have
shut down.
The CPI (ML-Liberation) candi-
date from Sangrur, Tarsem Jodhan,
said: We will raise issues like mini-
mum wages for agricultural workers
and proper sanitation and other facil-
ities for them in the villages.
There is also widespread anger
among government employees over
the States failure to implement the
Sixth Pay Commission recommenda-
tions. The development-hungry urban
NARINDER NANU/AFP
population can also inuence the out-
come of the elections. Amarinder
Singh told Frontline that his party
would concentrate on the urban pop-
ulation and its concerns as he thought
it had been the deciding factor in the
Congress defeat in the Assembly elec-
tions. The Congress lost almost all the
urban seats.
Meanwhile, in an apparent effort
to get rid of factional politics and
strengthen the organisation, Congress
general secretary Rahul Gandhi, for
the rst time, chose three Youth Con-
gress leaders to contest from three
constituencies. The most prominent
among them is Ravneet Singh Bittu,
grandson of former Chief Minister
Beant Singh, who is contesting from
Anandpur Sahib. His candidature is
signicant as he is also the rst elected
president of the Punjab Youth Con-
gress (PYC). The other two are PYC
vice-president Sukhvinder Singh Dan-
ny (Faridkot) and former PYC presi-
dent Vijay Inder Singla (Sangrur).
Another constituency to look out
for is Khadoor Sahib. Named Tarn Ta-
ran before delimitation, this seat has
1 3 2 F R O N T L I N E
MAY 22, 2009
been a stronghold of the Akalis since
the days of the Khalistan movement.
Tarn Taran was proclaimed the capital
of Khalistan at that time. After delim-
itation, the urban tracts from Feroze-
pur and Jalandhar were pulled into the
new Khadoor Sahib constituency. The
battle here is between two sitting MPs:
three-time MP from erstwhile Tarn
Taran Ratan Singh Ajnala is taking on
Rana Gurjeet Singh, the Congress MP
from Jalandhar, which has now be-
come a reserved constituency.
The Congress seems all set to cash
in on the anti-incumbency factor
against the SAD-BJP ruling combine.
However, Dr. Pramod Kumar, a politi-
cal observer based in Chandigarh, said
that though the Congress seemed to
have better candidates, the party
might lose the edge if it did not raise
real issues affecting the people. It
should remember that the vote shares
of the rival parties in all elections since
the formation of the State in 1966 have
been only marginally different. In the
2004 elections, for instance, the SAD
was only a nose ahead with 34.28 per
cent in comparison to the Congress
34.17.
JAMMU AND KASHMIR
IN BOYCOTT MODE
By Shujaat Bukhari in Srinagar
THE rst round of elections in the
Kashmir Valley indicated how the
mood of the people had changed in the
ve months since the Assembly elec-
tions. The four South Kashmir dis-
tricts of Pulwama, Anantnag, Shopian
and Kulgam recorded a 56 per cent
turnout in the Assembly elections held
in December. But in the third phase of
elections to the Anantnag-Pulwama
Lok Sabha constituency on April 30,
just 26 per cent of the nearly 16 lakh
voters turned up. In some areas the
voter turnout was as high as 55 per
cent whereas in some others it was a
mere 3 per cent. Some of the booths in
Pulwama and Anantnag did not poll a
single vote.
Wherever the turnout was high the
MAY 22, 2009
people said they were voting because of
the local legislator. In those areas
where it was low, the writ of the sep-
aratists, who had called for a boycott,
ran. Those who did not participate
were categorical in saying, We are
with the boycott.
Also, the militants did not re a
single bullet in the last elections, which
emboldened people to come out and
vote. But this time they killed a few
political workers, causing fear in the
minds of the people.
Absar Ahmad, a young graduate in
Achabal area, said the Indian govern-
ment had been exploiting the partici-
pation in the December elections at
the international level, saying that
Kashmiris had no problem with New
Delhi. We voted last time for day-to-
day problems and this time we hardly
bother who is going to be our MP.
What can he do for us? he asked.
There are others like him who feel
disenchanted with the exercise. We
braved the boycott call last time and
voted, but nothing has changed. The
roads are as bad as ever and there is no
respite from our difculties. Why
should we waste our time? said Mo-
hammad Ramzan, a villager in Ak-
hran, who was busy working in his
orchard.
Gull Mohammad Wani, who
teaches political science at Kashmir
University, lists three main reasons for
the low turnout: Growing religious ex-
tremism in Pakistan, which has a di-
rect impact on Kashmirs polity;
peoples tendency to maintain a dis-
tance from parliamentary elections,
which are seen as synonymous with
New Delhi; and the State govern-
ments failure to make any visible im-
pact on the ground.
Campaigning, however, was in-
tense in Anantnag, with Peer Muham-
mad Hussain of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and Meh-
boob Beg of the National Conference
(N.C.) taking each other head on.
While the PDP won 12 of the 16 As-
sembly segments in the constituency,
the N.C. got one, the Congress two and
the CPI(M) one.
So the N.C. put all its resources
PTI
O M A R A B D U LLA H, J AM M U and
Kashmir Chief Minister.
together to make a dent in the PDPs
vote share this time. It invited Con-
gress general secretary Rahul Gandhi
to campaign for Beg. The voting pat-
tern, indeed, indicates that the N.C.
might have made an improvement this
time as most of the segments held by
the PDP registered low turnout. For
instance, Tral, which the PDP won last
time, recorded the lowest turnout: 3
per cent. It has a signicant number of
Jamaat-e-Islami cadre who, according
to reports, favour the PDP.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
sounded condent of a win. I could
see a change this time. We had a good
participation in the public meetings
though we lost 12 seats in the Assembly
elections, he told Frontline.
Besides, the State Information De-
partment had launched an aggressive
advertisement campaign ahead of the
Assembly elections, asking people to
exercise their franchise. But this time
no such effort was made to woo voters.
Many analysts feel the ruling alliance
was silent because the boycott would
eventually favour its candidates. In-
stead, the separatist parties had a eld
day using the electronic as well as the
print media to send across their mes-
sage. However, they were not allowed
to launch a boycott campaign.
In all likelihood, this trend may
replicate itself in the remaining two
F R O N T L I N E 1 3 3
phases of polls, in Srinagar and Bara-
mulla. Srinagar city has even other-
wise not obliged political parties with
huge turnouts in the past elections. In
the Assembly elections the turnout did
not cross 25 per cent. This time anti-
poll demonstrations had started rock-
ing Srinagar much before the polls
were announced.
Days ahead of the April 30 phase,
the authorities clamped a curfew in
Srinagar to thwart the protests.
Though the moderate faction of the
Hurriyat Conference initially dis-
tanced itself from the boycott, pressure
from the United Jehad Council, an
amalgam of militant outts, forced
Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Fa-
rooq to toe the line adopted by the
hard-line leader Syed Ali Geelani. And
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
(JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik could
not stay away from this shift. He too
launched a campaign in South Kash-
mir but he was put under house arrest
along with the Mirwaiz and Geelani.
The boycott has enthused the sep-
aratist political camp, which got a
drubbing with the huge voter turnout
in December. But it does raise a ques-
tion as to what extent the mainstream
political parties have been able to
make use of the change in the mind-
set of the people. If in ve months
their ground is slipping, the future is
not difcult to imagine.
Which way the next two phases will
go remains to be seen. In Baramulla,
all eyes are on the former separatist
Sajjad Lone who is contesting the elec-
tions. How much support he can mus-
ter will also determine the
acceptability of separatists in the
mainstream.
If he wins, New Delhi can lure the
rest by saying that anything is possible
under the Indian Constitution. And if
he loses it can keep saying that sep-
aratists do not have a representative
character. Both ways New Delhi will be
in a winning position, but the larger
question is of ensuring peoples partic-
ipation in the electoral process to safe-
guard the credibility the Indian
system earned in the Assembly elec-
tions.
letters
Election 2009
DESPITE the realignment
of forces in the search for a
non-Congress and non-BJP
government at the Centre,
one is surprised to see that
the unity among the new
partners has become fragile
(Cover Story, May 8). More-
over, they take different
stances on the Sethusamu-
dram project and Sri Lan-
kan Tamils issue in Tamil
Nadu, there are violent
clashes between workers of
major political parties in
Andhra Pradesh, parties are
indulging in communal and
caste politics in Karnataka,
and Muslims are moving
away from the Left in Ker-
ala. These factors are bound
to upset the calculations of
pollsters. All the combina-
tions practise caste and
communal politics, raising
doubts about the future of
democracy in the country.
K.R. SRINIVASAN
SECUNDERABAD
THE Cover Story gave a re-
alistic picture of the elec-
tions. Election time
generally sees migrations
of politicians from one party
to another and of the politi-
cal parties from one alliance
to another. This time, with a
Third Front in the fray, the
contest has become a lot
more interesting for the
voters but it is a headache
for political parties.
SIDDHARTH CHATURVEDI
LUCKNOW
THE compilation of the sa-
lient features of the mani-
festos of three major
political parties does help
discerning voters to look
critically at the priorities of
each political party (What
is on offer). The CPI(M)s
manifesto reects the con-
cerns of the common man.
Any political party that is
genuinely concerned about
the health of our parliamen-
tary democracy should take
a stand not to give the ticket
to criminals.
M.O. PETER
NEW DELHI
THE comparative presenta-
tion of manifestos gives
their viewpoints on several
basic national issues, which
will enable a discriminating
voter to choose the best par-
ty to govern us for the next
ve years. The manifestos
are silent on how the parties
will implement their prom-
ises. Unfortunately, while
the elite who can assess the
manifestos will not turn up
to vote, the vast majority of
the people will have no
knowledge of the manifes-
tos and will be taken for a
ride by the rhetoric in public
meetings. In Tamil Nadu,
the election has been turned
into a kind of a referendum
on the Sri Lankan issue and
all the issues affecting the
common man have been
pushed to the background.
S.S. RAJAGOPALAN
CHENNAI
Vembanad
FRONTLINE has done well
in bringing into focus the
problems of the Vembanad
lake in Kerala (Wetland or
wasteland?, May 8). The
second largest wetland in
India has shrunk to a third
of its size and is a sink of
1 3 4 F R O N T L I N E
pollutants. Long years of ne-
glect and wrong policies
have led to this state of af-
fairs. There are reports sug-
gesting ways to prevent the
pollution of rivers. The State
government should have the
will to implement them.
JACOB SAHAYAM
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
Nehru
IN the essay Power drive,
A.G. Noorani speaks of
Nehrus secularism (April
24). Nehru carried his caste
identity in his name
throughout his life to identi-
fy himself with Brahmins,
who are held in high esteem
by the Hindu community.
The secular Nehru, who
brought about changes in
the Hindu law to uplift
women in the Hindu com-
munity, did nothing for
Muslim women. He was
afraid of losing the commu-
nal vote bank. After the Chi-
nese invasion in 1962, he
allowed the RSS cadre to
participate in the Republic
Day parade.
SATYA PRASAD
NEW JERSEY, U.S.
IPL
THIS refers to R.K. Ragha-
vans article on the shifting
of the Indian Premier
League to South Africa (A
victory for the terrorist?,
April 24). The rst phase of
elections held on April 16
has proved that the Home
Ministers citing of elections
as a reason for the govern-
ments inability to provide
security to IPL is a hogwash.
MAY 22, 2009
The naxalite violence on
polling day in Orissa shows
that the government and
the Election Commission
have not done their home-
work well. The IPL had to be
shifted because of the Con-
gress politics and not be-
cause of security issues.
S. SURIYANARAYANAN
SURAT, GUJARAT
ILO report
THE ILO report Global
Employment Trends for
Women delineates the rea-
sons behind the gender dif-
ferentials in employment
and also suggests remedies.
Any effort to overcome the
problem should involve
greater investment in wom-
ens education, changes in
labour legislation and shar-
ing of family responsibilities
by men, which would pro-
vide women opportunities
to participate equally in the
labour market.
NEHA RAGHUVANSHI
LUCKNOW
States role
THE Cover Story on the real
issues before the electorate
(Time for change, April
10) indicates that this is the
time to asses our economic
system. Neoliberalism has
failed to solve the basic
problems of the country. We
need to change the system.
SARBESWAR PADHAN
BURLA, ORISSA
ANNOUNCEMENT
Letters, whether by surface mail or
e-mail, must carry the full postal
address and the full name, or the
name with initials.
Published on alternate Saturdays.WPP No.CPMG/AP/SD-15/WPP/2008-2010 & MH/MR/South-180/2009-11.Postal Regn. No.TN/ARD/22/09-11. RNI No.42591/84