Criminalization in Indian Politics , 16 - 30 , 2013 NOV, JUST IN PRINT

India, the largest democratic country and also home to the fair and regular elections.

Elections aim at providing the power to select the one by whom we want to be governed. Looking the present statistics, are we really choosing the adroit body to govern us or the candidates are besmirch to the constitution, the elections, and the Indian freedom struggle?

The country is struggling hard to make its mark as the emerging leader in terms of economy and development but the blemish to its own image is the gigantic number of abet and aberrant leaders having the heinous charges of rape, theft, dacoity, murder, extortion etc.

On 28th August 1997, the Election Commissioner Krishnamurthy made a startling annunciation. According to him, of 1, 37,752 candidates who had contested the General Election to the Lok Sabha in 1996, nearly 1500 had criminal records.

Moreover, the number of candidates with criminal records among our ‘elected representatives’ is steadily increasing. In 2004 Lok Sabha, there were 128 MPs with criminal background; and in 2009 the number rose to 150.

UP hits the list with 520 such candidates, succeeded by Bihar with the count of 350. The eleventh Lok Sabha reportedly had 40 members, who had criminal background, 700 MLA's out of 4722 in the country then were involved in crimi¬nal cases and trials were pending against them in 25 states and 2 union territories.

In the special session of Lok Sabha, on the auspicious occasion of completion of 50 years of Independence, the house passed a resolution on 31st August 1997 saying that, "more especially, all political parties shall undertake all such steps that will attain the objective of ridding of our polity of criminalization or its influence". But it just remained a resolution without implication

If we quote some notorious leaders, the picture will decipher a colorfully tainted image of not just one party but several parties -

Mohammad Sahabuddin was elected to four successive terms in the Indian Parliament from 1996-2008 from Siwan constituency Bihar on RJD ticket. In 1996, Sahabuddin was named as a Minister of State for the Home Ministry in the H.D. Deve Gowda government. He is currently serving a life sentence for kidnapping with intent to murder and as many as 34 cases of serious crime are pending against him.

Mukhtar Ansari won the Mau seat in the Uttar Pradesh Elections, 2007 as an Independent while lodged initially at Ghazipur jail.

Arun Gawli is one of the most notorious criminal turned politicians who is based in Mumbai. With his operations center at Dagdi Chawl in Bayculla he now enjoys the position of MLA. However, he has not been convicted of any crimes but has spent almost ten years in prison.

Shibu Soren is another politician who was the chief minister of Jharkhand and was found guilty of murder of his secretary.

Raja Bhaiya is a SP leader who has royal ancestry; however he is a criminal and has spent considerable amount of time in Jail under the POTA (Prevention of Terrorist Activities) Act.

Atiq Ahmad was a member of Lok Sabha from the Phulpur Lok Sabha Constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He is currently in prison facing trial in 35 criminal cases including several cases of murder. In the Indian general elections, 2009, he was allowed to contest in election since he is yet to be convicted in any case.

Now, Lalu Prasad Yadav who  was accused and charged in Fodder scam was sent to jail and had to resign his CM"s seat which was given to wife Rabri Devi. But Congress led UPA made him Railway Minister. So a criminal remained India's minister. This shows there are flaws in our laws and our corrupt leaders misuse and abuse the process of law to help their allies in politics. There is utter and urgent need to amend the defective constitution such that only honest are allowed to rule.

A case started in 1996 and sentence to be yet delivered on 3 Oct but the Court has finally declared these accused as convicts in this case What away these people have developed the systems to delay the results to such an extent so that the people involved as well the victims are tired out of these long drawn cases 17 years and would have yet been running had it been not struck down by the SC .The maximum sentence for each convicts and their assets confiscated sooner and made to honour all the guilt done on the Society.

The radical cause of increasing criminalization of politics is nexus of muscle power, money power and politics. Criminalization of politics is actually a mysterious enigma.

The statutory limit is- Rs 15 lakhs for a Lok Sabha seat (depending on the constituency and the number of voters), Rs 3 to 6 lakhs for state legislatures (depending on the area), and Rs 75,000 for municipal corporations.

The political parties and the candidates appraise and spend a huge amount compared to the meagre limits. They incur the capital through funds and donations. The questions pings, who furnishes such funds and donations? These funds generally come from underworld or the business bizarre. After becoming the MP or MLA they become altruist and venerate to the supporting factors before the elections and victory.

The criminals and mafia thus dwell and flourish under the aegis of these MPs and MLAs. This nexus is the real shoot in arm to the criminalization of politics or in other words ‘Bemired politics’. Indian politics is not a philanthropic activity instead it has become a means to accrue power by the avid and abhorrent leaders.

On May 2, 2002, the Supreme Court gave a historic ruling following public interest litigation by an NGO.

It ruled that every candidate, contesting an election to Parliament, State Legislatures or Municipal Corporation, has to declare the following along with the application for his/her candidature: 1) A Candidate’s criminal charges , 2) The Candidate’s financial records, 3) The candidate’s educational qualifications.

If the candidate fails to file any of the above three declarations, the Returning Officer will have the right to reject his nomination papers. The Supreme Court has ruled that all the three declarations will have to be true.

The Election Commission had sent a notification on June 28, 2002, to all State Election Officers with a view to enforcing it. The Supreme Court's thrust has been that the people and the voters have the right to know about the candidate's criminal record, assets and liabilities and educational qualifications. The Returning Of¬ficer has to publish these declarations for the voters' knowledge.

The Election Commission under T S Krishnamurthy proposed in its 2004 report that Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 should be amended to disqualify candidates accused of an offence punishable by imprisonment of 5 years or more even when trial is pending, given that the Court has framed charges against the person. In the report the Commission addresses the possibility that such a provision could be misused in the form of motivated cases by the ruling party.

To prevent such misuse, the Commission suggested a compromise whereas only cases filed prior to six months before an election would lead to disqualification of a candidate. In addition, the Commission proposed that Candidates found guilty by a Commission of Enquiry should stand disqualified.

The above stated reformative measures are just a drop in bucket. A complete renaissance is needed to clean the politics, the gravity of matter can be deciphered with the fact that almost all political parties are up a blind allay to win elections.

In a TV show an affluent politician had said “people say that politics is not a good career option for amenable youngsters. If good, flawless, educated youngsters would not come to politics then be ready to be ruled by the aberrant leaders.”

Silence signifies our acquiesce.

Many commission and committees have been framed for amelioration of politics. But this is just a political gimmick. We are the choosers then why not to come in the forefront and vote against the candidates possessing the criminal allegations. Why are we waiting for a reformer, an august to help us get rid of this circumstance?

The number of political parties in India has been phenomenally increasing. The mushroom growth of political parties is not the result of improvement in political standard; nor is it because more qualified and service-minded persons are entering the field of politics, determined to serve the country and its people. On the contrary, it is a definite indication of political standards going down to abysmal levels. The field of politics nowadays does not attract selfless gentlemen, eager to use their expertise and time for nation-building; it attracts rowdies and criminals with proven record of hooliganism, who want to become rich quickly and dominate the officials and law-abiding citizens. Subject to rare exceptions, in short, the politics in India has become a profitable business for rowdies.

The political parties do not pay attention to inculcate noble political values and principles of citizenship in the people. They do not promote patriotism and commitment to nation-building. They do not want to unite the people of nation by stressing the importance of harmonious living. On the contrary, they perpetuate the differences among the people and make full use of those differences for creating conflicts among them.

The decency ,decorum and sobriety once considered inseparable from the public offices are thrown to the wind; these elected representatives would stoop down to any level, for achieving their personal political aims or the interests of their parties. From village panchayat meetings to Parliament, the common behavior includes selfish quarrel, cheap arguments, disrespect to authorities, violation of healthy conventions, and waste of time.

The main reason for such downslide in political standard is the absence of reasonable restrictions to formation of political parties and admission of members to the political parties. For example, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, 369 parties contested. And, totally 8070 candidates represented these parties. Out of 369 parties, 333 parties did not win even in a single constituency. Even among the remaining 36 parties, 19 parties won only in three or less number of seats! Why should there be such a large number of non-serious political parties and candidates, making a mockery of the election process?

In all political parties, these criminals are given red-carpeted welcome; because their ‘services’ are needed to these parties frequently for carrying on unlawful activities during the bandhs, strikes, rallies etc., organized by them. When such criminals become political leaders, they seek to achieve whatever they want without caring for rules and regulations; they would not hesitate to adopt criminal methods for attaining their goals; whether it is winning an election or elimination of rivals. For these hard core criminals, the offences like threatening officials, kidnapping and even murder do not appear bad.

The British followed the policy of ‘divide and rule’; after India became independent, our politicians have become past masters of the art of creating groups and inciting them against one another. They want to fish in the troubled waters and when the water is placid, they trouble it to achieve their selfish ends.

The corner-stone of democracy is objective discussion of the public issues by the people. The representatives of the people are expected to encourage such discussions, generate valuable ideas and take decisions in the larger interests of the people. But even the democratic forums like legislative assemblies and Parliament are not used for sincere discussions.

Political leaders can never be serious about change in the election system because in its present form it is tailor-stitched to suit the wrong persons reaching the legislature. Effective poll-reforms and strict rules for those in legislature are rather of prime importance than the much-talked about Lokpal.

If these are not affected to prevent wrong elements entering legislature to misuse the system, then institution of Lokpal may collapse under excessive complaints. Lokpal is just a curative medicine for acute disease of corruption while poll reforms and stricter rules are preventive medicines for the chronic disease of corruption in the nation's politics.

In an event that could bring a landmark change in Indian politics and governance, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to respond to a proposition that the law allowing Members of Parliament (MP) and Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLA) to continue despite being sentenced to more than two years' jail term upon conviction in a criminal case was discriminatory and encouraged criminalization of politics.

The PIL which was filed by an advocate Lily Thomas contended that an anomalous situation existed under the Representation of People Act, where one provision debarred a person from contesting election for six years on conviction in a criminal case with two years imprisonment while the other allowed MPs and MLAs to continue if they filed an appeal within three months of the judgment of conviction.

Senior Advocate Fali S Nairman, who appeared as amicus cure in the PIL cited several judgments of the apex court on this point and said that in one case, it had held that the presumption of innocence of a person ended after a trial court convicted him of an offence.

The Election Commission is powerless in preventing criminals from contesting elections. The Representation of People Act allows it to debar candidates convicted of certain crimes, but cannot prevent those under trial or whose appeals from their earlier convictions are pending for disposal before the higher court for multiple murders or rape or corruption or theft from the public exchequer from representing the people in the country’s highest legislative forums. There have been a number of cases where persons under trial have contested elections, while in jail and won. Unfortunately, no political party has taken any concrete step to curb this malpractice.


It is not difficult to see why political parties put up criminals as candidates. Given a situation in which the sanctity of elections is being increasingly undermined by rigging and booth-capturing, a criminal with muscle power has greater chances of winning than a clean and decent individual without such ‘capabilities’. And most often criminals do win, which is why they are increasingly present in the country’s representative institutions. The consequences of the trend, if allowed to continue unchecked, hardly deserve an elaboration and are seen in the increasing criminalization of the process of governance with ministers, legislators, bureaucrats and unscrupulous businessmen combining to plunder public funds and prey on the public.

In fact a new dimension has been added to the process by the criminalization of bureaucracy and the police. What makes the situation particularly dangerous is that a criminalized administration poses a serious threat to the country’s security even as Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism continues unabated. This is clearly reflected in the fact that agents of the Inter Service Intelligence [ISI] have no difficulty in getting passports and driving licenses and carrying out their deadly assignments in India. De-criminalization of politics should be the main issue in all elections in the country. While political parties have a serious responsibility not to put up criminals as candidates, voters have an equally strong responsibility of defeating candidates with a criminal record. 

Lastly, the Election Commission has taken noticeable measures to check criminalization of politics. It has already banned convicted people from contesting elections to the state legislature or parliament, at the same time; it has asked all criminally-charged persons to disclose all the charges they face, in the nomination paper. This information will be easily made available to the public. Cases pending against politicians should be settled as quickly as possible. It is found that cases against them remain pending for long and they keep winning elections while the cases remain pending. Later, with their ministerial power, they manipulate the cases in their favour. Withdrawal of criminal charges against some tainted ministers of the present government is a case in point.

This evil of Criminalization of Politics calls for special attention of the people because the subject revolves around the vested interests of politicians of all hues; as such the people can never hope that the politicians would take any initiative to rectify this evil. The prevailing trend is spreading like cancer. It is nullifying all the constitutional safeguards of democracy; that is, it is spoiling bureaucracy by making it partial; it thwarts press; and even threatens judiciary; and thus is destroying the foundation of democracy. So the people should wake up at once and force the political parties to mend their ways.

Let’s pledge to vote, vote against the criminal bugs who have percolated in the roots of politics of the country which has an aureate history of freedom struggle through ahimsa. Let’s fight another freedom struggle.

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,

SAMBALPUR, ODISHA

Is Third Front a Myth or Reality ? Nov 1 -15, 2013, JUST IN PRINT

As per the enigmatic leader Naveen Pattnaik , CM , Odisha is very uncomfortable with Modi as a prime ministerial candidate . In a earlier interview , he categorically stated that his party is equidistant from both the BJP and the Congress. “The third front will be a healthy alternative in Indian politics. It is early days and I do not want to speculate,” he said .

Modi’s growing clout in the BJP might just do what many political efforts over the years have not. Resurrect a Third Front. Can there be a change in the 15 Lok Sabha itself through a re-alignment of political forces? The numbers don't suggest that: the UPA currently has 267 MPs supporting it from inside, and another 48 from outside, totalling 315. The 48 MPs include the Samajwadi Party's 22 MPs, the Bahujan Samaj Party's 21 MPs and the one member Sikkim Democratic Front. The SP, though victorious in U.P. and currently on a strong wicket, is not going to back a BJP-led government, as it would damage its credentials with the Muslims who have brought it to power. The NDA currently has 149 MPs, and even if all the unattached parties (minus the Left parties, which would never back the BJP) were to back it, it would add up to just 203, 69 short of the halfway mark, 272.

Meanwhile, the SP's Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav emphasised that while he welcomed a debate on the possibility of a non-Congress, non-BJP third front, he did not anticipate the possibility of one. Instead, he stressed: “My priority is to set U.P. on the road to prosperity.”

As for the Biju Janata Dal, whose leader and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, has, of late, tried to unite non-Congress Chief Ministers on federal issues, its leader B. Mahtab said that the party was keen to form a “federal front” of like-minded parties.

“We are not for a Third Front or Fourth Front. We are for a federal front,” he said, adding that “a federal front recognises the view of every State and State leadership. Any party which supports the federal character of the country will be part of the front.”

But BJD sources said that while the party would like to assert the rights of the States, it knew that no coalition government at the Centre would be possible for the foreseeable future without either the Congress or BJP in it.

Many have different views. When asked to Sitaram Yechury CPI (M) that there is a periodic talk of third front, but Advaniji recently said that no government can be formed without BJP or Congress. He categorically stated that a third front for name’s sake is not good.

Repeated failures to resurrect the defunct Third Front have made leaders of these parties cautious. Instead they say they are getting together to fight communalism. The protagonists of the Third Front were together when the United Front ruled India for almost two years between 1996 and 1998. They are hoping that India elects a hung parliament next year, following which they would have a chance to get together and form the next government with outside support of the Congress party.

While the Left Front sustained the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in its first tenure before withdrawing support due to differences over Indo-US civil nuclear deal, the Samajwadi Party has been sustaining the UPA-II with its outside support after it was reduced to the minority earlier this year after Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam pulled out of UPA.

They are confident that the Congress party would extend support to their effort to form the next government to keep the rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power.

They are in touch with the three regional parties of Andhra Pradesh and are convinced that some constituents of the UPA may also join hands with them in case a hung parliament is elected, to ensure they are able to form a non-Congress non-BJP government in the country.

Is a Non-BJP, Non-Congress government actually possible?  It sounds more like an impractical thing. If we see, the current Loksabha seats or even somewhat predict for the next general election, it is impossible to have a third front government- without Congress or BJP. For this to work out there will have to be a drastic decline in the number of seats, which seems a very, very unlikely possibility.

This is what L.K. Advani said in his very controversial statement which did a lot of run around in the media for many days. According to him ( in his words) , “My own view is: (i) the shape which national polity has acquired in the past two-and-a-half decades makes it practically impossible for any government to be formed in New Delhi which does not have the support either of the Congress or of the BJP.  A Third Front Government, therefore, can be ruled out; (ii) A non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister heading a government supported by one of these two principal parties is however feasible. This has happened in the past also. But, as the Prime Ministership of Chaudhury Charan Singh, Chandra Shekharji, Deve Gowdaji and Inder Kumarji Gujral (all supported by Congress), as also of Vishwanath Pratap Singhji (supported by BJP), have shown, such governments have never lasted long.”

So, as Mr. Advani, pointed out foremost, that a government cannot be formed, under any circumstances, without the support of either Congress or BJP. So, that situation is out of the question. However, he does say in his second point that, a Minority Party Leader, someone like Mulayam Singh or any other Third Front Leader, may get benefitted from a minority government supported by either Congress or BJP.

Even, if we examine carefully, the actions of Mulayam Singh, It won’t be a top race for him. First of all, the supporters he relies on are themselves having a very tough time. And, have almost lost credibility.  The only chance that Mulayam Singh could go to top is by the support of Congress. But the question arises, why would Congress do that?

So, as pointed already above, the dream of Third Front Government is in reality, not possible as Math won’t work out, in favor of Mulayam Singh Yadav or any Third Front Government (Congress and BJP together hold 320 seats in Loksabha, to have such a fall is rather an unlikely circumstance)

Also, if we talk about Mulayam Singh Yadav specifically, he has been the center of many controversies already, his soar relations with Mayavati are no new news Thus, losing the support of a major party. Also, the assumption that Congress might actually make Mulayak Singh Yadav Prime Minister is rather a false one.

The most unpredictable factor could most likely be the emergence of a third front comprising of political parties that are unwilling to become a part of the two major coalitions, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Considering the possibilities of them merging together, the first major obstacle is that of rival parties coming together for this common cause. For example, the leftist parties of West Bengal and the opposing Trinamool Congress uniting seems nigh impossible. Similarly, as does the coming together of the Samajwadi party and their fierce rivals, the Bahujan SP of Uttar Pradesh. This is because these parties have always contested fiercely against each other, in both state and central elections and are party to completely different ideologies.This is where the biggest problem of the formation of this front lies.

The fact that there are so many differences between these parties, means that they are being speculated over as members of this elusive alliance. This is also a huge disadvantage owing to the fact that they are initially not as powerful in numbers and hold, relative to the two major coalitions, thus these differences will weaken the fragile possibility. Another obstacle with the parties is that some of them exhibit a cat on the wall with the tendency of swinging in favour of either of the two big coalitions, depending on the time and the situation. Therefore there is no doubt that the UPA and the NDA will try and make use of this demonstration to each of their advantages as much as possible.

There is no denying the fact that some of the possible constituent parties of this possible front boast of names that have been synonymous with the development in their respective states, such as Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar of the Janata Dal United (JDU). Both these individuals’ development models in their respective states have been lauded and have triggered good levels of development. There is also a growing section of the public in India who are not convinced by either the UPA or the NDA and, provided a third front comes into existence, would not mind giving them a chance. This is fairly clear from an opinion poll conducted in July 2013 by Times Now-CVoter which projects a third front gaining 129 seats and other parties (sometimes referred to as a Fourth Front) gaining 122 seats.

This being said, if the third front manages to materialise sans the issues, there is little or no chance of them forming a government on their own. This is a paradoxical situation because they will have to ally with the other coalitions which was what were initially against. However, all is not lost for the elusive third Front, yet. If they are able to earn a fair number of seats, they may be able to dictate terms of the possible alliance and may even succeed to govern the nation.

With less than a year to go before the elections, it is crucial that these parties collectively decide immediately whether or not this third front should emerge.

If we look at the history, there are two instances when India had a non-BJP and non-Congress government. The first one was in 1989 and the second one in 1996. On both occasions, they failed to give stability to the nation and collapsed due to conflict among themselves. An important architect of both these governments was late Harkishan Singh Surjeet who played the role of a consensus builder. The possibility of creation of a third front cannot be completely ruled out. But even if it is formed, there are more reasons that the third front would not be able to run a government than there are for it making one.

To start with, when you have so many parties, consensus building becomes the most difficult task. There would be conflicting ideologies, difference in working style and personality conflicts. Besides, if a third front is formed, it will have at least half a dozen leaders aspiring for the prime ministerial berth. Parties with regional outlooks would not be able to govern and upkeep the diverse Indian population. The foreign relations and the economic growth would be worst hit as all potential members of the so-called third front have conflicting views in these two domains.

As of now, having a third front government is actually more a myth than reality. India’s polity has taken such a shape that having a government without the support of Congress, BJP and BSP is impossible. For now, we could only hope  that in some era, we may see a government without having Congress or BJP support in it.

Given the pros and cons, it is in the best interest of the people of India, the Indian democracy and the economy that the idea of third front never becomes a reality. For the time being let it be a distant dream.

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,

SAMBALPUR, ODISHA

Disaster Phailin , Just In Print , October 16-31-2013

On October 4, the Japan Meteorological Agency began monitoring a tropical depression that developed in the Gulf of Thailand, about 400 km (250 mi) west of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Over the next couple of days the system moved westward within an area of low to moderate vertical wind shear. As it passed over the Malay Peninsula, it moved out of the Western Pacific Basin on October 6. The system subsequently emerged into the Andaman Sea during the next day, before the India Meteorological Department (IMD) started to monitor the system as Depression BOB 04 early on October 8. During that day the system moved towards the west-northwest into an environment for further development. The IMD reported that the system had become a deep depression early on October 9 as it intensified and consolidated further. The United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center subsequently initiated advisories on the depression and designated itas Tropical Cyclone 02B, before the system slightly weakened, as it passed near to Mayabunder in the Andaman Islands and moved into the Bay of Bengal.After moving into the Bay of Bengal, the system quickly reorganized as it moved along the southern edge of a subtropical ridge of high pressure. The IMD reported that the system had intensified into a cyclonic storm and named it Phailin.

After it was named, Phailin rapidly intensified further, and became equivalent to a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS) early on October 10, after bands of atmospheric convection had wrapped into the systems low level circulation center and formed an eye feature. Later that day the IMD reported that the system had become a very severe cyclonic storm, before the JTWC reported that Phailin had become equivalent to a category 4 hurricane on the SSHWS, after it had rapidly intensified throughout that day. Early the next day the system underwent an eyewall replacement cycle and formed a new eyewall which subsequently consolidated.After the new eyewall had consolidated the system slightly intensified further with the JTWC reporting that the system had reached its peak intensity, with 1-minute sustained windspeeds of 260 km/h (160 mph) which made it equivalent to a category 5 hurricane on the SSHWS. Early on October 12, the system started to weaken with the Phailins eye starting to rapidly deteriorated as the system moved towards the Indian coast.The system subsequently made landfall later that day near Gopalpur in the Indian state of Odisha, at around 2130 IST (1600 UTC) as a very severe cyclonic storm.

A gigantic cyclone, one of the strongest ever to hit the Bay of Bengal, pounded India's eastern cost with heavy winds and rain Saturday, as nearly a million people fled the region.

More than 18 hours after the storm — the strongest to hit India in more than a decade — made landfall in eastern Orissa state, officials said they knew of only nine fatalities, most of them people killed by falling branches or collapsing buildings in the rains ahead of the cyclone.

The final death toll will almost certainly climb, and parts of the cyclone-battered coast remain isolated by downed communication links and blocked roads.

Hundreds of trees were uprooted before the eye of the storm even made landfall early evening local time and flights, trains and shipping operations were canceled and power shut down in six districts in the coastal area.

The India Meteorological Department said the cyclone made landfall near Gopalpur, India, with sustained winds of 124 mph — equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.

Cyclone Phailin caused one of the largest evacuation operations in Indian history, with 870,000 people moved to higher ground in the coastal state of Orissa.

Electricity had been cut off in the entire state of Odisha as a precaution, said Indian navy retired commodore A.K Patnaik, in Bhubaneshwar, who was reached by phone before he shut it down to conserve power.

Satellite images showed the cyclone filling nearly the entire Bay of Bengal, an area larger than France that has seen the majority of the world's worst recorded storms, including a 1999 cyclone that killed 10,000.

"If it's not a record, it's really, really close," University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy told the Associated Press. "You really don't get storms stronger than this anywhere in the world ever."

The storm slowed significantly overnight, with some areas reporting little more than breezy drizzles by midday Sunday, but meteorologists said parts of the region would face heavy rains and winds for the next 24 hours.

"Its intensity is still strong, but after crossing the coast it has weakened considerably," Sharat Sahu, a top official with the Indian Meteorological Dept. in Orissa, told reporters.

To compare it to killer U.S. storms, McNoldy said Phailin is nearly the size of Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,200 people in 2005 and caused devastating flooding in New Orleans, but also has the wind power of 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which packed 165 mph winds at landfall in Miami.

"The storm has the potential to cause huge damage," L.S. Rathore, director-general of the Indian Meteorlogical Department told reporters.

In Behrampur, about 7 miles inland from where the eye of the cyclone struck, there were reports of only three deaths early Sunday morning.

"We have stopped all cargo operations," Paradip Port Trust Chairman Sudhanshu Shekhara Mishra told the Press Trust of India, a local news agency. "We have set up control rooms and are ready with a contingency plan. We have cleared all vessels. People have been evacuated from low-lying areas."

The state has created 800 shelters as government workers and volunteers put together food packages for relief camps.

"I don't want people to panic," said Naveen Patnaik, chief minister of Odisha told PTI, calling for everyone to do their part in helping relief operations.

Still, some didn't want to leave their mud-and-thatch homes, particularly vulnerable to the storm.

More than 100,000 people from the low-lying areas of neighboring Andhra Pradesh state had been evacuated. The sea has already pushed inland as much as 130 feet in parts of that state, officials said.

Some locals were at a loss.

The cyclone was one of three major storms over Asia on Sunday. The smaller Typhoon Nari was approaching Vietnam and Typhoon Wipha loomed over the Pacific.

At least 873,000 people in Odisha and adjacent Andhra Pradesh spent the night in shelters, some of which had been built after a 1999 storm killed 10,000 in the same area. Others sought safety in schools or temples, in an exercise disaster management officials called one of India's largest evacuations. Now people are going back to their homes. Where their homes have been devastated, they will continue to stay in relief camps.

Cyclone Phailin was expected to dissipate within 36 hours, losing momentum as it headed inland after making landfall on Saturday from the Bay of Bengal, bringing winds of more than 200 kph (125 mph) to rip up homes and tear down trees.

Further northeast, port officials said they feared a Panama-registered cargo ship, the MV Bingo, carrying 8,000 tonnes of iron ore with a crew of 17 Chinese and an Indonesian, had sunk on Saturday as the storm churned across the Bay of Bengal.

Winds slowed to 90 kph (56 mph) early on Sunday and rain eased. But large swathes of Odisha, including its capital, Bhubaneswar, were without electricity for a second day after the storm tore down power cables. Officials said it was too early to assess damage accurately.

Soldiers and rescue workers in helicopters, boats and trucks fanned out across the two states, but officials sounded confident that a major disaster had been avoided.

Under the influence of the cyclone, several parts of Odisha like Paradip will witness heavy rainfall for next 24 hours. The Met department has also predicted heavy rainfall in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, and Sikkim in the next 48 hours. It has also issued a flood warning for Bihar. 

Ganjam district in south Odisha is believed to have been the worst-hit due to the cyclone, with extensive damage to crops and some buildings, government sources have said. Coastal areas in northern Andhra Pradesh however managed to escape the fury of Phailin.

The cyclone has destroyed railway signals and high-tension electricity wires and uprooted tracks and railway platforms at various stations, bringing rail services in the region to a halt. "More than 100 trains have been cancelled in Bhadrak, Puri and Palasa sections while at least 25 other trains have been diverted," East Coast Railway spokesperson Anil Saxena said today. The airport in capital Bhubaneswar was also closed  and 10 flights were cancelled.

Siddhartha Shankar Mishra,

Sambalpur,Odisha

Strikes and Bandhs on regular interval creating nuisance , JUST IN PRINT , Sept 16 - 30 , 2013

According to Wikipedia, "Bandh, originally a Hindi word meaning 'closed,' is a form of protest used by political activists in some countries like India and Nepal. During a bandh, a political party or a community declares a general strike. Often bandh means that the community or political party declaring a bandh expect the general public to stay in their homes and strike work. The main affected are shopkeepers who are expected to keep their shops closed and the public transport operators of buses and cabs are supposed to stay off the road and not carry any passengers. There have been instances of large metro cities coming to a standstill. Bandhs are powerful means for civil disobedience. Because of the huge impact that a bandh has on the local community, it is much feared as a tool of protest. The Supreme Court of India tried to 'ban' bandhs in 1998, but political parties still organize them."

Everything is supposed to be closed on a day when a bandh is ‘called’ for. In college terms it’s similar to mass-bunking the class due to a problem with a lecturer. The reason I’m mentioning this is whether declaring bandhs justifies the cause howsoever noble?

In a country like India, everyday every single person has to deal with a lot of chaos, may it be getting into overcrowded trains or buses, or a power cut or a dead telephone line or ‘no network’ or problem with water supply, or the recent price rise. And here come historic days like these where a bandh is called adding to the list of our never-ending chaos.

To achieve our mortal ends, we have developed an obnoxious habit of proceeding to strikes, bandhs or some other means having crippling impact on the health of this country at a stage when she is passing through a very critical state of affairs. 

One minute bandh or strike can render the loss of hundreds of crores to the nation but we, despite calling ourselves true Indians, have never realized it simply because we are slave to the dictates of selfishness at the cost of the interest of nation. 

If strikes, "WE WANT JUSTICE" slogans, screaming, smashing cars, setting buses on fire, terrorising the common people solved problems, today wouldn’t be in the computer era. Even 64 years after the British left we are following the same approach that we used to get independence, but against whom!!? World changed, people changed, generations passed on, but our ways of approaching a situation like this didn’t. Funny, is it not, in a country like ours where there is no dearth of intellects and smart heads, a meaningful constitution, we are still made fun of, because we don’t know how to handle conflicts, problems or confusions. At a higher level we are amazing, take for example Mumbai growing out of 26/11, but at the fundamental level we are ridiculous.

In India the connotation of patriotism or nationalism has undergone a reverse change after Independence when the destiny of this poor nation was handed over to the native political vampires who sucked the blood of their motherland ruthlessly. By taking a resort to Strikes, where official work is suspended, cause not only the scathing inconvenience to the poor public but cause practical harm to the country itself and the elements, involved in such subversive activities, cease to be the true Indians and deserve to be declared anti-national calling for stringent punishment. 

Everyone who acts contrary to the interests of the nation whether he is a teacher or a lawyer or shopkeeper is an unwanted component of the system and hence deserves either to be set in order or to be dumped behind the bar. The market observing 'bandh', the customers stand subjected to the hard times; the doctors being on strike, the patients suffer badly and the lawyers being on the protest, the poor clients beat their heads against the walls and rub their hands. This is height of inclemency and ethical degradation. Why to go for all this non-sense after all? Don't we have some other means to rail-up the system? Our constitution places its people at the top and empowers them to pull down the system in elections if it is not functioning well. But we don't do that simply because during elections we fall a prey to the ills of nepotism, favoritism and several other petty considerations and directly or indirectly we create the miasmic system. Very recently the Bar associations all over the country proceeded on strike and their stance, for no bigger cause, culminated into the emergence of unremitting sufferings of many clients.

Most of the clients in Indian Courts are quite crest fallen and dejected because their cases were being adjourned sine die by the Honourable judges in the event of the non- availability of the Defense Counsels concerned.

At least the privately paid lawyers should have no right to go for strikes at the cost of those clients who have paid handsome amounts of money for the timely disposal of their cases. Point to be considered is that if the government impinges the rights of Advocates, the later should initiate some legal action against it. 

Their resort to strike is not going to make any big difference to the government. It rather adversely affects the poor clients who are otherwise waiting since long for justice. Most of the thankless souls feel that the best way to draw the government's attention towards their grievances or to protest against any move of the government is to call a bandh, strike or taking out procession in the streets. 

To strike silently in a civilized way or to come on the streets shouting and voicing anti-government slogans creating noise pollution is all the same for me because in both the gestures and styles of protesting is hidden a big loss of the country. Bandhs are a huge blow to the State's economy. This apart, normal life is thrown out of gear by these bandhs. 

Economic loss due to bandh (in crore):

13,000 according to FICCI
10,000 according to Assoc ham
3,000 according to CII

Maharashtra (estimated economic loss Rs 1,000 crore), Karnataka (Rs 725 crore), West Bengal (Rs 250 crore), Kerala, Orissa, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh (Rs 150 crore each) are among the worst-hit states. Though the stock market remained open, trading volume at BSE was down 52% to Rs 2,857crore against daily average of Rs 6,000 crore. Rail operations, especially in east, severely affected with 78 trains, 60 mail and 18 passenger, cancelled and 340 disrupted. At least 96 flights were cancelled across India, with at least 47 departures being cancelled in Mumbai alone. Over 62 lac commercial vehicles remained off road, according to trucker unions.

In 1997, the Kerala High Court ruled in a landmark judgment that forced bandhs were illegal. Let me go a step further to say that even peaceful and willing bandhs are also harmful. By cutting both the ways, the nation is propelled into the abyss of multi-dimensional crisis. The decision was upheld in 1998 by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the then Chief Justice of India J S Verma. 

Again in 2010 one of the high courts declared bandhs "illegal and unconstitutional" as these violate the fundamental right of citizens. But political parties and organizations continue to call bandhs, disrupting public life and trampling the fundamental rights of citizens. The state governments also refrain from taking suo moto action against such elements as it does not want to rub off any organization the bad way for the reason best known to them. The governments of all states as well as the central power-house must try to understand the implicit dangers of these strikes by the responsible members of the system and enact some stringent law to stem the tide of this melodrama if, at all, the state and national mechanisms are serious about the well being of the common people. By not coming up with a strategic solution to the problem, the governments are in a way, encouraging these bands of strikers. 

It must be noted that in a rather laconic ruling, the Supreme Court of India had banned bandhs in 1998. Nearly a decade later, in 2007, the Supreme Court in another ruling had clarified that bandhs or complete shutdowns were illegal but strikes and hartals were not.

"You don't seem to understand the difference between bandhs and strikes. Bandhs are illegal [but] not strikes, which are only a way of raising objections," the court had maintained, dismissing the petition of a Chennai resident who had sought action against political parties that had called a "general strike" across Tamil Nadu on February 4, 2007 to press for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.

Acknowledging the distinction between bandhs and strikes, it would be logical to deduce that some of the biggest Indian revolutions of the last century Gandhi's non-cooperation movement, the salt strike and Quit India movements were strikes and not bandhs. The 1974 railway strike in India which went on for 20 days and had 17 million workers participate in it, was clearly a bandh and thus illegal according to the SC ruling which came into effect later. Around the same time in 1974, J P Narayan led the students' movement in Bihar which gradually developed into a popular people's movement known as the Bihar movement. It was during this movement that JP gave a call for peaceful Total Revolution. JP's crusade against the "imperialistic" Indira Gandhi, which was to lead to Emergency and subsequently the formation of the first non-Congress government in India, employed a mix of strikes and bandhs. The most interesting feature about the JP movement was that here was a Gandhian who had participated in at least two of Gandhi's biggest mass movements against the British now trying to replicate a similar mass movement against a Congress government in independent India.

Strikes by doctors, lawyers, teachers or any other segment of the system is, in fact, a heinous crime and should be curbed with the rod of iron. The government should be keen on good governance and not exempt itself of any responsibility to counter this culture. 

Most importantly, organizations should realize that a 24-hour or a 72-hour bandh can never be a solution to their problems. It, on the contrary, creates more hurdles on the way of this developing nation which needs our loyalty on the practical lines. Mere lip-patriotism and bare slogans are not going to give anything solid to this country already suffering due to our incompetence, veiled disloyalty and unethical attitude.

Demands should be placed in other ways. Strikes and bandhs should not be encouraged by any political party. Bandhs and strikes are not the solution. A nation that is undergoing rapid growth cannot afford such luxury, especially when the bells of recession are ringing everywhere.

Siddhartha Shankar Mishra,

Sambalpur,Odisha

The Third sex – An overview ( JUST IN PRINT ) SEPT ,1 - 15 - 2013

The words "hijra", "khusra" or "khwajasara" make us have goosebumps, we ridicule them, crack disgusting jokes questioning there sexual identity. We never realizing what are those poor creatures facing, a crises that excommunicates them from there family, loved ones, education from all the major social spheres of life. we never ask this question "ARE WE DOING JUSTICE TO THE THIRD GENDER?" 

The eunuchs or hijras have been an integral part of Indian society since time immemorial. An estimated 5–6 million eunuchs live in India.In modern day India, eunuchs often live a ghetto-like existence, in their own communities. They make a living by dancing and celebrating in births and marriages but often have to resort to other means to make both ends meet. Yet, the community is beginning to make a mark in the national mainstream as well. A member of the eunuch community, Shabnam Mausi, was elected as a member of the legislative assembly in 1999. Others have been elected as mayors and municipality presidents.

The term eunuch – hijra – that we commonly use to mean a ‘sexless’ person has been defined in the dictionary as a castrated man. A hermaphrodite is a creature possessing both the male and female organs. A transvestite is a person who chooses a sex other than the one he/she is born as. Facts tell us that neutralized neutral-sex persons are a rarity. The hijra population in India has a well-defined group structure and regional affiliations with a group head. Though Balucharaji is their Goddess and they revere Ambe Mata, there are religious demarcations. Most of them identify with the female sex. Within the eunuch community, incest is absent. Most of them have worked as prostitutes at one time or another.  Research shows that some persons labeled hijra in India are both prostitutes and celebrants of rites of passage.




Hijras trace their origins to myths in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Rama, while leaving for the forest upon being banished from the kingdom for 14 years, turns around to his followers and asks all the `men and women' to return to the city. Among his followers the hijras alone do not feel bound by this direction and decide to stay with him. Impressed with their devotion, Rama sanctions them the power to confer blessings on people on auspicious occasions like childbirth and marriage, and also at inaugural functions. This set the stage for the custom of badhai in which hijras sing, dance and confer blessings.

The legend in the Mahabharata is that Aravan, the son of Arjuna and Nagakanya, offers to be sacrificed to Goddess Kali to ensure the victory of the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra war. The only condition that he made was to spend the last night of his life in matrimony. Since no woman was willing to marry one who was doomed to be killed, Krishna assumes the form of a beautiful woman called Mohini and marries him. The hijras of Tamil Nadu consider Aravan their progenitor and call themselves aravanis.

 Hindu epics, puranas and mythology are replete with the courageous feats of true hermaphrodites who, within these scriptures, have always been referred to as the ‘third sex.’ “But after the Arab attack in the eighth century, castration of males in order to put them on specific jobs began on a large scale” writes S. N. Ranade . Centuries ago, guards to king’s harems were castrated to ensure that no co-habitation between royal wives and guards took place. This led to the creation of the ‘third sex’ – the castrated eunuchs. But it was not the end of the story. These sexless wonders realized that perversions did exist in society. Many males found them distractingly attractive. And the potential ‘femme fatale’ was born. 

Transgender communities have existed in most parts of the world with their own local identities, customs and rituals. They are called baklas in the Philippines, berdaches among American Indian tribes, serrers in Africa and hijras, jogappas, jogtas, shiv-shaktis and aravanis in South Asia. The hijra community in India, which has a recorded history of more than 4,000 years, was considered to have special powers because of its third-gender status. It was part of a well-established `eunuch culture' in many societies, especially in West Asia, and its members held sanctioned positions in royal courts.

The Eunuchs are deprived of their fundamental rights guaranteed under the part III of the Constitution. Article 5 of the Constitution of India clearly states citizenship as the political status of a person and domicile to his civil rights. A person may be without a home but he cannot be without a domicile and the law must attribute to him the domicile of the country where he was born. This is called the domicile of origin and a person acquires it at his birth . The Supreme Court has also held that citizens include natural persons in the State Trading Corporation case . The Eunuchs in the instant case are citizens of India; still the Eunuchs are deprived of the civil rights guaranteed to the citizens of India. As there is no gender conformity their ability to access the basic civil rights available to all citizens guaranteed under the Constitution are adversely affected.

Article 14 of the Constitution of India provides that “the state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India”. In the given case the transgender are deprived of the right to equality guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. Article 7 of the UN. Declaration of Human Rights provides that “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of law”.

The Indian state policy has not recognized the transgender either as male or female and has failed to recognize hijaras [transgender] as women or man or a third sex. This act of omission on the part of the Government of India has totally deprived the transgender community of several rights which include, right to vote, right to own property, right to marry, right to claim a formal identity through a passport and a ration card, driving license and even employment. 

The Constitution has not made any provisions in determining the sex of the transgender community. But the medical jurisprudence clearly explains the sex determination in doubtful cases can be done with accuracy .

Article 15 of the Constitution of India provides that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on the grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth. The main purpose of Article 15 is to provide equal civil rights to all the citizens without discrimination on the grounds mentioned under the article. It also provides for the state to make special provisions for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens. Backwardness must be both social and educational, caste cannot be the criteria for the determination of the backward class of people . In the given case the transgender community can be considered as social backward class of people and special provisions can be made by the state for their upliftment, but, no such action is been taken by the Government. This shows the breach of duty that has been casted upon the government by the Constitution of India.

There are about 1.2 million eunuchs residing in India. They are deprived of various human rights like right to vote, right to contest in election, right to marry, right to hold ration card etc. They are deprived of such rights because India recognizes only 2 sexes, that is, male and female , and eunuchs being the third sex are being deprived of exercising their rights as all the fundamental rights are available only to male and female. 

However, when it comes to criminal liability they are not excluded. The courts always include them either under male or female. But in case of civil rights the courts do not consider them as a legal entity. The Constitution of India provides various rights to ‘person’. Person means natural person and artificial person. Natural person includes all human beings and the eunuchs are no doubt from the human race and they must come under the category of natural person. Two Articles under the Constitution of India i.e., Article 15 and Article 16 have used the word ‘sex’ and the term sex include transgender also. The courts have often interpreted the term ‘ sex’ in a narrow sense that is male and female, and have not recognized the third sex, that is the eunuchs, which indeed has resulted in the eunuchs being deprived of the basic civil and human rights such as right to vote . 

This view of law is contrary to the interpretation of the legislature. Before independence there was an act enacted to regulate the activities of the eunuch community. This clearly indicates that they are a legal entity. And also in the statute, wherever the term ‘person’ is defined it has never been specifically mentioned that eunuchs are excluded from the term person. Thus the interpretation of the term ‘sex’ by the courts in India have unfair and not satisfactory thereby violating the rights of the eunuchs.


Article 21 of the Constitution of India states that “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”. The right to life and personal liberty are inherent in human beings. Thus, Article 21 seeks to protect these inherent rights by prohibiting the state or any person from depriving a person of the right to life or personal liberty except in accordance with a procedure established by law.

The Supreme Court of India has interpreted the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of Constitution of India to include the right to privacy, right to dignity and right to health. The Supreme Court for the first time, recognized that domiciliary visits, which were unauthorized by law violated the personal liberty of individual . In the case in hand the right to privacy of Eunuchs of Sukasthan has been infringed by the state police by arbitrary intrusion into their privacy.

Further, the Constitution requires the rights of the marginalization and unpopular to be protected, even in the face of public disapproval. Mere public preference cannot be a sufficient justification for curtailing a right . Article 21 of the Constitution of India also guards the right to dignity, every citizen of India has a right to live with dignity and through the act of omission on the part of the Government, the Eunuchs have been deprived of their right to dignity, because of non conformity of their sex, they have no access to the rights available to every citizen and it also affects their right to dignity. It is submitted that the states justification on maintenance of public morality for the infringement is not sufficient cause.

Therefore the state is violating the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India in relation to the Eunuchs and the transgender community. It is submitted that the government has a duty cast upon it by the Constitution of India to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens of India, which has to be done by classification of the Eunuchs either under male or female and providing access to all the rights available to every citizen of India.

Hijras (Eunuchs) in India have virtually no safe spaces, not even in their families, where they are protected from prejudice and abuse. The PUCL(K) Report on Human Rights Violations against the Transgender Community has documented the kind of prejudice that hijras face in Bangalore. The report shows that this prejudice is translated into violence, often of a brutal nature, in public spaces, police stations, prisons and even in their homes. The main factor behind the violence is that society is not able to come to terms with the fact that hijras do not conform to the accepted gender divisions. In addition to this, most hijras have a lower middle-class background, which makes them susceptible to harassment by the police. The discrimination based on their class and gender makes the hijra community one of the most disempowered groups in Indian society. The systematic violence that hijras face is reinforced by the institutions such as the family, media and the medical establishments and is given legitimacy by the legal system. The hijras face many sorts of state and societal harassments such as:

Harassment by the police in public places
Harassment at home
Police entrapment
Abuse/harassment at police stations
Rape in jails

The law that is used most to threaten the hijra and kothi communities, as well as the homosexual community in India, is Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalizes "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal" even if it is voluntary. In effect, it criminalizes certain kinds of sexual acts that are perceived to be `unnatural'. The law, which has its origin in colonial ideas of morality, in effect presumes that a hijra or a homosexual person is engaging in `carnal intercourse against the order of nature", thus making this entire lot of marginalized communities vulnerable to police harassment and arrest. The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) of 1956 (amended in 1986), whose stated objective is to criminalize brothel-keeping, trafficking, pimping and soliciting, in reality targets the visible figure of the sex worker and enables the police to arrest and intimidate the transgender sex-worker population.

According to the two main diagnostic systems used in the Indian medical establishment, transsexualism is defined as a `gender identity disorder'. The doctors usually prescribe a sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), which currently resorts to hormone therapy and surgical reconstruction and may include electrolysis, speech therapy and counseling. Surgical construction could include the removal of male sex organs and the construction of female ones. Since government hospitals and qualified private practitioners do not usually perform SRS, many hijras go to quacks, thus placing themselves at serious risk. Neither the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) nor the Medical Council of India (MCI) has formulated any guidelines to be followed in SRS. The attitude of the medical establishment has only reinforced the low sense of self-worth that many hijras have at various moments in their lives.

With every single thing going against the Eunuchs; a notable amount of awareness has also been seen all over the world. Around the world, countries are beginning to recognize the rights of transgender people. In a landmark judgment (Christine Goodwin vs. the United Kingdom, 2002) the European Court of Human Rights declared that the U.K. government's failure to alter the birth certificates of transsexual people or to allow them to marry in their new gender role was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. It said that a test of biological factors could no longer be used to deny recognition legally to the change of gender that a transsexual had undergone. In New Zealand, in New Zealand Attorney General vs. the Family Court at Otahuhu(1994), the court upheld the principle that for purposes of marriage, transsexual people should be legally recognized in their re-assigned sex.

Of  late the Indian hijra community has begun to mobilize themselves through the formation of a collective. Sangama, an organization working with hijras, kothis and sex workers in Bangalore, has played an important role by helping them organize and fight for their rights. Its services include organizing a drop-in centre for hijras and kothis, conducting a series of public rallies and marches, using legal assistance in case of police harassment, and establishing links with other social movements.

The organizations of the hijra community can be seen as constituting a larger movement of sexual minority groups in India. They are challenging the constitutional validity of Section 377 and are organizing a campaign questioning the government's stand that the law should remain. The discrimination and violence that hijras face show that it is high time that both the government and the human rights movement in the country begin to take this issue with the seriousness it deserves.

Yet, It is difficult to warm up to this strange creature we meet in the train or on the streets, with exaggerated gestures, a low-cut blouse sans breasts, a voice so raucous and manly and a manner so obscenely revolting that our immediate response is to shy away in disgust. We silently fume at this person’s gumption in demanding – not asking – not requesting – not begging, mind you – some money in exchange for a package deal in blessings – sukh, paisa and beta. But for this strange species of humanity, who happen to be eunuchs more by design than by birth or accident and rarely by choice, nothing is what seems to be. When a section of human beings becomes a cliché of our making, never mind the pressures of our social conditioning, it is time we questioned their claim to be treated only as normal human beings who can love and hate, construct and destroy, as strongly and as powerfully as ordinary mortals can.

Siddhartha Shankar Mishra,

Sambalpur, Odisha

Politics over Smaller States ( JUST IN PRINT ) SEPT 1 - 15 , 2013

There is a demand of smaller states in India. The question arises why ?

Many of the demands for new states in India are based on ethnicity. The most recent of them was the demand for Telangana in Andhra Pradesh. For months the state saw bloodless agitations. The capital Hyderabad was brought to a standstill.

The government set up a committee that came up with seven options. The new point of contention was, who will get Hyderabad? The capital of the Nizam's princely state, the city has seen a lot of development in the last few years and generates a large revenue for the state government. It falls in Telengana region but also has an identity of its own. Home to Urdu-speaking Muslims, the elite and representatives of Hyderabad simply refuse to become part of the economically backward Telangana. They demanded a separate union territory status.

Free India had its first tryst with re-organisation of states in 1956 after the implementation of The States’ Reorganisation Act, which resulted in the formation of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh out of a single unified Punjab. In the subsequent ten years all these three states became the pioneers in making the green revolution successful and managed to show growth rates way better than that of the country as a whole.

There are many advantages and disadvantages in this regard. November 2000, three new states Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Uttaranchal were carved out of three of the biggest states in India, namely Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Focussing on the average growth rate from 2004 to 2008, amazingly, all three new states have grown fabulously fast. Uttarakhand has averaged a growth of 9.31% annually, while Jharkhand and Chattisgarh have managed 8.45% and 7.35% respectively. All three states belong to what was historically called the BIMARU zone, a slough of despond where humans and economy stagnated. Out of this stagnant pool have now emerged highly dynamic states.

Surprisingly, as regions they appear to have contributed much more to the parent states' growth than was apparent.

Post separation, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal's parent, grew by 4.6 per cent against a targeted 7.6 per cent. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh grew by 4.3 per cent against 7 per cent and Bihar grew by 4.7 per cent versus the 6.2 per cent target.

Despite these positive figures favouring smaller states, detractors say only local politicians and their followers benefit from the new-found power, leaving the poor in the lurch.

Jharkhand, while registering the highest growth rate among the new states, is also a good case study of the darker side. Nine years after its formation, widening social disparities have driven many of its people to join the Maoists and its first chief minister along with other politicians have been charged with some of the worst cases of corruption.

The central government exempted industries in Uttarakhand from excise duty, a concession already applicable to other hill states. Many big industries rushed to Uttarakhand for the tax break, giving the state’s growth an artificial boost. Still, Uttarakhand easily outperformed Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir which already enjoyed the tax-exemption. Remember, Uttarakhand was once considered the poorest, most backward part of UP. After statehood, it has become a growth champion.

Uttar Pradesh is a classic example of how small states make better sense in a democracy. In a democracy, communication between the government and the public is very necessary. That is completely out of the question in a state the size of UP. While People of Haryana or Punjab, can go to the capital to air their grievances and return home by evening, whichever part of the state they are in. But if a citizen in western UP were to do the same, he has to travel over 600 km to Lucknow.

In addition to that it’s easier to distribute basic amenities in smaller states. Many surveys show that even though Kerala is smaller but still it is backward than other south Indian states. Progress is best defined by the Human Development Index. Amazingly Kerala has the best HDI among all the south Indian states. Even though the government may not be able to provide many factories or IT jobs but being smaller it was able to provide education, food to its people. Whereas the bigger states like AP, still have many regions where people die of Hunger or lack of shelter.

However, the UPA is caught in its own cobweb over the Telangana now. Endless demands for new smaller states have been raised from various states. Ajit Singh of Rashtriya Lok Dal has demanded creation of Harit Pradesh and Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh; the Bodos in Assam are demanding Bodoland; supported by Jaswant Singh the Gorkhas in West Bengal have already raised their voice for creation of separate Gorkhaland in West Bengal. Besides, popular support is being sought to further the demands for separate Vidarbha in Maharashtra, Coorg in Karnataka, and Gondwana in Madhya Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh former Chief Minister Mayawati had given her consent for trifurcation of her state into three smaller political units.  There is Kosal uprising in Odisha too, the people of Western Odisha demand a separate state “ Kosal”. It is a 50 years long battle too.

There are bigger problems too by forming smaller states.

A separate Telangana does not serve any good to the
common man.We have clear examples in the name of Chattisgarh and
Jharkhand. The administration in these two states is facing
considerable stain due to "Red Terror".The state of Jharkhand is
reeling under lack of stable government since its very formation.

A reality check will make things clear to the people.Although a new
state may emerge out of the existing state but the same corrupt
politicians and bureaucrats will govern the state.The very spirit
behind the creation of a new state is lost.

The Telangana agitators should realize the fact that districts like
Srikakulam, Ananthpur,Kurnool,Kadapa are far backward than  the rest of the state.

Development is a collective effort and not a political game.   The basic thing that matters for good governance and administration is "How many heads to shelter and how may mouths to feed" that should be the criterion. No matter how good a system is, with a increase in number of users there is delays and gaps and the system becomes inefficient, incompetent and "Corrupt". 

We are strong when we unite.  When there is unity at micro level the same will reflect at Macro level too.  Go on dividing where will be the unity in diversity. Dividing the resources of the country will have bad results.  Economically also large scale of economies can be achieved when people are unite. The cooperative movement we saw in indian agriculture sector is the best example that we win when we are together.   Hence the country should not divided into smaller states the country should be one as it is in the past and should fight against the evil in the system for its own development for which government should devise a policy and should have a vision. 

Well, in India’s case, statehood has generally been determined by political expediency, not logic. The whole Telegana issue is a very good example of that. If we take the successful example of USA, we see that dividing states on the basis of latitudes and longitudes is more logical.

Although I am unable to find any reasonable conclusion out of this discussion, but a significant part of me believes that division is the road to development, and the way Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have performed, I find this voice to be gaining ground. For now I can leave with the thought that a United “smaller” States of India is a necessity having its delusions, that some of the “regional separatists” are right in their arguments although they too are driven by greed of power than being moved by the tears of the people concerned. I rest my hope on the Government of India that they will see to every aspect of this case before carving out any state.Even though small states are necessary for a mission like India 2020 to become a success, the reason for demand of new states should only be governance and not a cultural or linguistic one.

Siddhartha Shankar Mishra,

Sambalpur, Odisha.