Revisiting the criminalization of politics (Part II)

An update on Bastardization of the public office and criminalization of Indian Politics. Read earlier updates on general elections and the political tactics around the same:
http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/03/criminalization-of-politics-revisiting.html
http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/03/general-elections-great-indian-tamasha.html
http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/03/elections-and-populist-gravy-train.html
http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/03/urban-rural-divide-and-electoral-anti.html

I had in an earlier post covered the fact that despite pressure from the media and citizenry, political parties have gone out and fielded candidates with criminal and other dubious backgrounds. This is an extension of the first two blogs on the same topic http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/03/general-elections-great-indian-tamasha.html, http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/03/criminalization-of-politics-revisiting.html. The practise of fielding candidates tainted with a criminal record continues unabated. The following is the list released by National Election Watch, an initiative by Association of Democratic Reforms, a NGO from Ahmedabad.

Of 730 candidates declared by INC, BJP, SP, BSP, CPI and CPM for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, 278 candidates had filled their affidavits for the 2004 election and out of the 278, 63 have criminal records aganist them. 39 of them have serious charges like Murder, Robbery, ATtempt to Robbery, Theft and Kidnapping against them. The candidates with serious charges against them include 14 from BJP, 13 from BSP, 5 each from INC and SP and 2 from CPI(M).

Reference: http://www.adrindia.org/home/index.asp

Join http://groups.google.com/group/national-election-watch?hl=en to support the movement and spread the message around.

Delhi: The ecological disaster to be.

Visits to many European countries and their capitals sometimes mandatorily include a walk down the river side or lake shores. The river/lake ecosystem is carefully maintained and managed not only from an ecological point of view but also from a tourism point of view. The same cannot be said of Delhi and Yamuna. Crossing the Yamuna over to East Delhi, means a foul nauseating stench along with a sorry side of a dying river system. The growth, population and administration failures have killed a once flourishing eco system.

And if that was not enough, the Common Wealth Games 2010 will ensure that the final nail on the Yamuna coffin is pressed down in a haste. There is a hyperactivity along the floodplains of Yamuna as shopping malls, residential and commercial complexes and now a 47.3 hectare $40 million CWG village do quick and irreversible damage to the fertile alluvial plains of Yamuna.

In as far as CWG is concerned, the inability of the government to plan and execute the games infrastructure on time, has induced a knee jerk reaction. The quickest and easiest development alternatives are being invested upon largely ignoring and discounting the long term economic and environmental perils of the actions. The 10 day CWG will showcase the strides that India has made in the recent times and will spawn a wanton destruction of the environment.

Yamuna is already one of the most polluted rivers in the world and the Delhi stretch is particularly a disaster for the river eco-system. The Governments, ministries and departments have "action plans" to their credit. The first one being a Rs.10000 crore farce which did little and achieved a zilch. A second (better and bigger) plan is on the anvil. This one is for Rs.20000 crores and there is little or no doubt to the discerning thought that this money will serve more to increasing bank balances of the influential and responsible members of the system than doing anything on Yamuna.

Also, the unrestricted growth of the city has pressured the river system and attempts to clean it have been hampered by high population density of the city, unplanned city development, dumping of sewage and solid waste into the river, inadequate government monitoring and mismanagement of projects (like the Rs.10000 crore Yamuna Action Plan Fiasco). Delhi pumps out 3296 million litres of sewage to Yamuna per day. The systematic encroachments (by housing and comercial complexes) and building of walls and bunds on the flood plains have led to drying up of lakes and ponds in East Delhi. The Ground water levels are falling by 1 to 3 metres per year in many parts of Delhi. This large scale devastation of the Yamuna river system will impact water security of Delhi in Long term and will alter the character of the river.

Amidst all this, a glimmer of hope have been efforts of the Jal Biradari (National Water Brotherhood), who are raising a grass roots campaign which involves people in terms of creating awareness, educating masses to stop polluting the river, stopping encroachments, rainwater harvesting, better management of water resources and raising the citizen activism bit around the Yamuna issue. However, unlike the political awakening that followed 26/11 Mumbai, a trigger is what may be required to get the threshold citizen activism on the same.

Source Sites:

http://www.tarunbharatsangh.org/yamuna/jal_satyagraha.htm

http://www.tarunbharatsangh.org/yamuna/index.htm

http://www.indiaedunews.net/In-focus/September_2007/Yamuna_river_finds_new_saviour_-_tech_savvy_youth_2061/print.asp

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=096eb8c8-dbc6-414d-bfb6-4df32a0d2d97&&Headline=EMSatyagraha+%2fEMto+save+Yamuna+riverbed

http://www.toxicslink.org/nalert-view.php?id=179

The virtues of new found citizen activism

In many earlier posts, i have mentioned this new movement in the educated citizenry across the country, which i choose to call Citizen Activism. It is not a new phenomenon and has been around for a while. Hindi movies have churned scores and hundreds of movies based on citizen activism essentailly, the efforts of one man/group of people to awaken a nation. The movie that immediately comes to my mind is Rang De Basanti. Not that Media and new reporters and columnists have never been a part of "awakening". In their distinct capacities all these agents of change have justified their role in a citizen awakening. It could be against injustice, corruption, reservations, red tapism, Goonda-ism, economic in-equality, so on and so forth... individuals in their might and right have taken a stand at times for the greater good of their communities, their futures, their families, states or the nation as a whole.


However the trauma post 26/11 served as a tipping out for a country neglected, a country besieged, as people publicly started lashing out at establishments and influential leaders in the country for having under delivered on all counts. 26/11 massified the movement. It wasn't as if one had not seen public outrages before, but the audience was limited and the action was specific to an institution/individual.

1. It started with the anti Mandal commission protests in 1990s, where students challenged the ministry and V P Singh led coalition on the execution of the reservation of seats for SC/STs and OBCs in professional courses. There after the AIIMS -
2. Jessica Lal's murder was the first instance of public outrage and media pressure leading to high court ruling out the judgement of a lower court.(acquiting the murderer, Manu Sharma, the son of a wealthy and influential politician). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Lal

The candle marches and other peaceful protests established this movement towards a more awakened and educated India. The tone was sorrowful and yet definitive. Just how many terrorist strikes were needed and how many innocent killed before the government and the bureaucracy would wake up to fulfill their duty of protecting the nations and citizens. The movement cost the Maharashtra CM and Home Ministers their seats. It was the first time, Citizen activism and media were getting their act together and the partnership effected the rise of this new phenomenon Citizen Activism.

Even as India goes to vote this time around, the activist media is proving its worth by educating the citizens about their voting rights and priviledges and the political drama unfolding and the criminal antecedents of a lot of the Lok Sabha candidates fielded by popular political parties.

1.I appreciate the attempts made by TATA TEA JAAGO RE campaigns in national media. http://www.jaagore.com/
2.Times of India's "No Criminals" LEAD INDIA' 09 campaign also focusses on much of the same message. http://www.lead.timesofindia.com/. Every other publication house is stoking the nationalist ideals within the citizens in its own way.
3.There are forums like National election Watch, a google based group that is actively disseminating information regarding criminals who are in the fray of seats for this years Lok Sabha elections. http://groups.google.com/group/national-election-watch?hl=en.
4.An Ahmedabad based NGO, http://www.adrindia.org/home/index.asp is actively educating the citizenry on elections, manifestos, candidates and criminals in politics.

5.On the humorous and sarcastic bit , there is this campaign from Radio Mirchi, called Bleed India, which is a satiric take on the virtues(or bane) of not voting!

But that is not just it, in terms of Citizen activism. Sample These:
1. Aamir Khan is actively advertising for Switch off, a volutary movement of switching of all electrical appliances for an hour on a given day, 28th March, 2009. http://www.earthhour.in/
2. Sachin Tendulkar dedicated his test century at Hamilton against new Zealand to tiger preservation.
3. Perizaad Zorabian, is a part of "Save the Glaciers" group educating people about Global warming and the likes.
4. Preity Zinta, adopted 34 orphans on her birthday.

The good thing about any person (forget Aamir, Sachin or Preity's status) voluntaring for a cause is that he raises interest and awakening in the vicinity around him. As is said, a single candle cannot light up the whole room, but does it own little bit in fighting darkness. Citizen Activism is passing that light, that beacon of hope and awareness from one person to another and presisting till the stated goals are achieved.

Delhi's Commonwealth Tamasha

There are less than 18 months to October 2010, when Delhi will be hosting the Commonwealth games. It will be a world stage where India will exhibit its own progress and panache much like China did it in the 2008 Olympics and Sydney did it in 2006 Commonwealth. However, the road to Commonwealth has been bumpy, patchy and with a reason, non existant. In an earlier post, i had covered the state of (un)readiness of Delhi to host an event so large in magnitude and scale. http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/03/delhi-running-out-of-time-on.html

Lately, Australian Commonwealth Games Association, has issued a threat to pull out of the Delhi CWG if its security concerns are not met. The security assessment a month before the games would be critical in terms of Australian contingent proceeding with their participation. It comes on the back of the attack on Sri Lankan Team in Pakistan. Earlier, the centre government had sanctioned Rs.78.26 crore for security arrangements (after the Sri Lankan team episode in Pakistan).

While security is the top most in the list of priorities, Infrastructure addition to the city has also been a concern. A few interesting notes about the same:

1. The longest flyover in Delhi, which will connect the 5 kms stretch from Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to the Games Village bypassing Sarai Kale Khan and Nizamuddin West will be built at a cost of Rs.5 billion! This will facilitate movement of 10000 atheletes from the games village to the main stadium. This project is expected to be finished in 24 months!
Please note, the 24 month project starting date (March 2009) onwards would mean that the fly over will not be fully available ort may be partially available for the task it is being built for!

2. Earlier this flyover was supposed to be a tunnel road which was rebuffed by the Archeological Survey of India fearing danger to Humayun's tomb!
So much for town planning and preparation for Games

3. While MCD tries to expedite the projects at hand, it is now eating some of its own medicine as it faces resistenace from the environment department of Delhi Government. The widening of the the road to Karni Singh Shooting range has hit the breaker (after being stuck for 6 months anyway) because widening of the road would require felling 400 trees, which is not permitted.
So a "one- way" solution is being thought about.
Did the MCD involve other stake holders in the goverment when they had first envisaged the locations of the games? The answer seems to be no!

4. In a report to the chief justice K.G.Balakrishnan, town planner and former chairman of Delhi Urban Arts Commission, Charles Correa has advocated that the badminton and the squash stadiums be moved away from Siri Fort Indoor Stadium to elsewhere for the purpose of preserving the the green in the area. MCD is now looking at other options with a Rs.1.5 billion kitty for Squash and Badminton stadiums!
Alternate options had never been prepared. Old Sites were being counted upon. With the development tactic backfiring on issues such as environment it will be interesting to see how MCD generates options for the CWG

Pakistan on edge

The power struggle between Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz sharif threatens to paralyze the government in Islamabad and distract the army from its fight against Taliban militants operating along the Afghan border. (Pakistani army has always fancied distractions that reduce its Focus from US aided war on Taliban. Earlier, the distraction was a belligerent India and now the distractions are the polticial forces within.)

So then, it was Zardari who started it all by dismissing Shahbaz Sharif's Punjab government (Shahbaz being Nawaz's brother) over convictions dating back to an earlier chapter in Pakistan's political history. Coupled with a mess of reinstatement of (Musharraf Sacked) chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhury, which has piqued lawyers and judicial authorities and a no show at being able to keep Taliban at bay, Zaradari's inconsistency and inability has been attacked by Nawaz Sharif. Not only has he violated the state imposed house arrest, he also has a few brownies from the Long march to Islamabad. Ceeding to pressures all around him Asif Zaradari has now thrown the towel in.Iftikhar Chowdhury restoration to the chief justice position has re-instated Nawaz Sharif's stature as a viable alternative to Asif Ali Zardari. This also has de-escalated a political flashpoint that was looming large on Islamabad.

With no control of Army and Intelligence, Asif Ali Zardarai seems to have now lost the high moral grounds of presidency after he had to reinstate Iftikhar Chowdhury. The public sentiment for him is worse than that of Musharraf in his time. The US is clearly according the army chief Gen Ashfaq Kiyani more importance than Zaradri and his PM, Gilani.

For everything after all, it seems that Asif Ali Zardari's step down time is near.