[Reader-list] Mallika Sarabhai's Public Meeting in JNU on 31st March

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Bipin (and all)

Since you have put up this article, which I feel is very biased, I think the
truth needs to be put out in perspective as well.

To begin with, the man contesting as BJP candidate from Gandhinagar, Mr. Lal
Krishna Advani, is known to be the man who led the Somnath-Ayodhya Rath
yatra, which was responsible for the second biggest series of communal riots
across India after the Partition post 1946. Wherever his rath went, there
were riots. Infact, the Babri Masjid was also demolished thanks to his
movement. And who can forget his contributions to the nation, in addition to
these: The Parliament attack (to understand its meaning, think about what
would have happened if Vajpayee would have been killed), the Akshardam
attack, the fiasco after the Parliament massacre (putting up troops on the
border without fighting any war led to death of soldiers due to mines laid
there), as well as wastage of public expenditure. To add to that, his role
during the Godhra and post-Godhra incidents, as Home Minister of India. (If
I accept BJP's contention that the Godhra incident was planned, it was a
massive intelligence failure of both the Central NDA govt. and the Gujarat
govt that they failed to prevent it). What more do we need?

What do you know about Medha Patkar? Go and first read about her before
commenting on her at all. She fought for 10 years just to ensure that
villages which were getting drowned by the Sardar Sarovar dam should be
rehabilitated properly at other places. When this was not done for 10 years,
she decided to fight against the dam. Go and first ask the BJP Govt in
Madhya Pradesh to get those people rehabilitated, and also read the
technical reports prepared which prove that the Dam wouldn't fulfill its
missions of water supply and electricity in the way it is supposed to as per
public pronoucements.

The second fact is that poverty line as measured in India is very skewed.
Today, it's Rs. 400 in rural areas and Rs 600 in urban areas. Taking the
urban value as cut off, it is about Rs. 20 per day. What can people do in
Rs. 20 per day? What can one buy in that, can anybody tell me? The Congress
has been a failure, but if somebody makes me feel the reforms are good as of
now, it's all crap. Please go and find figures before making grand
statements.

The growth in India which has been registered has by and large been just
because of getting rid of licence raj, which at best, can be considered as
piece-meal reforms. Real reforms have never taken place in any sector, be it
labour, banking or anything. Infact, the useless development paradigm used
prior to 1991 has been still continued, whereby people should put up the
state above their families, and should sacrifice everything for the state
rather than they getting compensated. Only recently has a Rehabilitation
bill been passed.

Roads are important not only for truck movement and movement of industrial
goods; roads are important because they connect villages to cities, and
thereby provide good means of transporting agricultural produce from
villages to cities. Quick transportation means better quality and less
chances of deterioration in quality, thereby ensuring better sale and
profits of the sellers. Moreover, roads can also help definitely in quick
transportation of industrial goods and cheaper means of transport compared
to railways.

This is all a big hoo-hah being created regarding policy creation in the
name of votebank politics. The fact is that first of all, democracy in India
means vote bank politics, and it's not as if other democratic nations don't
experience it too. Bangladesh experiences it, the US experiences it and so
do others. It would be better if somebody names a democratic nation which
doesn't experience vote-bank politics.

Secondly, the policy creation has never helped Muslims. On the other hand,
the propaganda used by the BJP and now the media has now made their lives
horrible and problematic compared to about 20-25 years ago. And the Congress
has also played a part in ensuring this, to get Muslim votes solidly behind
them. Hence, it's their complementary politics which is a problem for us. In
many cases, Congress is replaced by some other 'secular' party.

Since you talk about nuclear plant programs, the fact is that a US document
concludes that by 2030, the maximum electricity we would be able to produce
by nuclear fuel would be about 6-7%. Even the DAE (Dept. of Atomic Energy),
India has made similar kind of projections. Then why do we make a kind of
hoohaah that this nuclear deal is a huge achievement, is beyond my
comprehension. Moreover, this is not about energy security as well. Cheaper
energy can be obtained through coal and other means. Plus getting this fuel
and building nuclear plants would entail huge costs, which if subsidized
would increase govt. burden a lot from what it already is.

Vande mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, and it was written
in favor of India viewed as a motherland. Since Muslims don't indulge in any
image worship/idol worship as it's prohibited in their religion, and the
given song idolizes India as a mother, they refuse to sing the song. It does
not mean they don't respect the nation, for they do sing 'Jan Gan Man' and
also 'Saare Jahan se Achcha'. Then what is the problem if Muslims don't sing
the song? Would the patriotism of Muslims or their loyalty towards India be
judged on whether they sing one particular song or not?

It seems by saying nationality can be brought through such moves,
nationality resides somewhere else. Nationality is there the moment we are
born with us, it doesn't have to be brought from somewhere by some song or
some dance form or something else.

Nothing is achieved by useless force, and instead people should be made to
understand the repercussions of their activities. Many poor people produce
poor children because they are poor, and since their children start earning
from a very young age (instead of going to schools), they feel that more be
the number of children, more is the income of the family, and hence their
economic situation will improve. Rather than improving their economic
situation and thereby ensuring that they produce less children, you wish to
force this solution upon them and degrade their economic position, which is
not acceptable to me, or to them. And if this is votebank politics, it is
better to subscribe to it rather than your suggestion which is not right to
tackle the problem.

Just because BJP does not take any step against Muslims, doesn't mean it
loves them or does not hate them. The BJP belongs to the RSS led Sangh
parivar, which had Golwalkar as one of its chairmen, who had said that
Muslims and Christians should live as second class citizens in this country,
based on the goodwill of the Hindus. In other words, their lives would be
worse that of servants. They are supposed to follow the customs of the
Hindus, rather than their own. Worse, other RSS heads have directly or
indirectly repeated the same in their speeches at different times. And of
course, who can forget that in the Gandhi assassination case, the judge had
remarked that though there is no proof,  he believed that RSS was also
involved in this case.

Nehru and Patel had different views. Patel suspected that Muslims would not
be loyal to India post partition, whereas Nehru believed the opposite to be
the case since Muslims had shown their magnanimity by staying back in India
rather than migrating to Pakistan, thereby proving they were willing to live
back in a secular republic than in an Islamic state. Plus, he did not want
India to be a Hindu version of Pakistan. The reasons are there for all to
see. If India would have been a Hindu Pakistan, then we would have been in
same situation as Pakistan is today. And we would have been the joint
headache of the world.

Nehru took Kashmir to UN in the hope of getting the matter resolved, because
he believed in peaceful co-existence of nations and believed that armies are
not required as such to waste public funds on, like Gandhi. However, the
1962 war changed all that and he started spending more on defense, which has
continued to this day. And while Sheikh Abdullah was his friend, he also got
the Sheikh jailed since he never wanted Kashmir to go to Pakistan, for he
knew that doing this would mean loss of PM post in India.

How can Indira Gandhi be a great leader when she tried to destroy Indian
democracy by imposing Emergency to perpetuate her own rule? Even she removed
it when told that she would win the elections after removing them and
declaring elections. Moreover, how is 1971 war related with vote-bank
politics? Are you trying to suggest that Muslims were the reason she decided
to let Kashmir remain with Pakistan? And if yes, have the guts to say that.
Then we can argue upon it.

As for the BJP, the fact remains that they have a different conception of
economy from what the Congress has. To begin with, BJP has always been a
party of upper castes and upper classes, and the schemes they suggest have
always been good for these people. The introduction of mobiles on a large
scale (used by large farmers, not those earning Rs. 600 a month), the Golden
Quadrilateral Road + Rail scheme (Yes, there was a Golden Quadrilateral Rail
scheme, where it is today nobody knows), the Airport Privatization Scheme
and so on. But all these schemes would directly or indirectly favor the rich
classes and the upper castes.

The BJP was more concerned about the Sensex and the ups and downs in it, so
also today it connects with the economic recession and loss of jobs. The BJP
is concerned with inflation primarily because inflation is an urban issue.
When a poor person never earns enough to buy to satisfy the hunger of
himself or his family, how can he worry about inflation at all? Moreover, he
does not have a proper shelter or clothes to wear as well.

However, the Congress till 2004 at least was more concerned about the 'aam
aadmi' (at least it said so) which is why they introduced schemes like the
NREGA (to provide employment to people in their villages and ensure they
don't migrate to cities in search of livelihood), as well as the RTI (Right
to Information which ensured transparency in central and state govt
sponsored schemes). However, since the Congress is an amalgam party, it
includes people of diverse backgrounds and castes and classes. Hence, they
also have schemes for rich people like loans for farmers at 7% credit, as
well as the other schemes which BJP introduced in their reign, with the
exception of privatization, which was not there thanks to the Left present
in UPA govt for 4.5 years.

The BJP has learnt the lesson from the Congress, hence in Chhatisgarh and
Madhya Pradesh they introduced the schemes of rice at Rs. 3/- kg and wheat
at Rs. 2/- kg in their respective states, as well as more food items
available at subsidized prices in their ruled states to the BPL
families. *Moreover,
in Madhya Pradesh, the Ladli Laxmi Yojana was started  (brainchild
politically of Shivraj Singh Chauhan), which ensures girl child education
upto 12th standard as responsibility of the state govt, as well as
depositing Rs. 1 lakh in her account till age of 18, so that she is not a
burden for the family. So impressed is Mr. Advani himself that he has now
said that if  elected to power at the centre, he will introduce this scheme
across the nation through the central govt. *

Hence, please don't make broad based assumptions. Highways and all don't
necessarily ensure votes, whereas employment schemes if properly
implemented, and such BPL schemes can possibly give votes for they ensure
people are able to at least feed themselves properly.

As for Mallika Sarabhai, if you know something she hasn't put up in public
domain, do let us know that.

Regards

Rakesh

PS : Sorry for this long mail, but I think I had to counter this.