Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo, Mamata Banerjee not only hosted leaders of 23 political parties including some chief ministers, but also exhibited her strength before an ocean of people assembled at the Brigade ground to listen to leaders from different political parties. Mamata moderated the rally too, like a good hostess.
Lok Sabha polls will be like that of 1977 – India voting against the dictatorship of Indira Gandhi, says Dipankar Bhattacharya
Bagodar/Giridih: The All India General Secretary of Communist Party of India- Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML), Dipankar Bhattacharya, while addressing the humongous crowd assembled at Bagodar claimed that the 2019 General Election will be like of 1977 when India rose against the dictatorship of Indira Gandhi and Emergency. This fight, he claimed is bigger than that of 2004 when the general public voted against the falsehood of India Shining. He recalled how the common man removed the NDA government after the Gujarat genocide.
Dipankar, for the uninitiated, was addressing the huge number of people, who annually gather on this date (January 16) to pay tribute to their beloved leader and former Bagodar MLA Mahendra Singh, a three times legislator belonging to CPI-ML party, was killed in 2005. This was the 15th Martyr Day celebration of the slain leader, however, till date; the CBI has failed to nab the assailants.
Dipankar, while addressing the meet said, “They (Narendra Modi led NDA government) have neither to do anything with Supreme Court, CBI, RBI nor with the university, education, farmer, youth, labour, farming, business. It has only one thing to do – how to disturb people, they want to ruin India. They seem to have a contract to ruin the country.”
He added that “It (2019 Lok Sabha election is important) as at every Republic Day, on January 26 we talk about the constitution, but today Indian constitution is being attacked. Modi (Narendra) government has made the constitution (Indian) seem like a mere piece of paper.”
While addressing the crowd, former Bagodar MLA and son of Mahendra Singh, Vinod Singh said, “In the coming Lok Sabha and assembly polls, you people have to affirm how Jharkhand has witnessed the highest number of hunger deaths, and how people have been protesting against it. Right from Latehar to other parts of Jharkhand, people were killed for their eating habits, in the name of child lifters. You have to avenge for every single death that took place in our state in the name of mob lynchings and hunger.”
Rajkumar Yadav, MLA from Dhanwar, once again alleged that it was during the BJP government that Mahendra Singh was killed. He also accused the present Member of Parliament from Koderma (Ravindra Rai) of being directly involved in the murder. Till date, the killers of Mahendra Singh have not been arrested.
After the killing of three times MLA Mahendra Singh, his wife Shanti Devi had lodged an FIR against the then Superintendent of Police (SP) Deepak Verma and minister (a BJP leader) Ravindra Rai for conspiring the killing. However, CBI could not reach any conclusion in the high profile murder case.
Kanak Sarkar, the ‘misogynist’ professor barred from entering and teaching at Jadavpur University campus
Kolkata: Teachers and students committee of International Relations (IR), Jadavpur University conducted a meeting today and jointly decided that Professor Kanak Sarkar would be barred from teaching at the university from January 16 onwards. The meeting presided by the head of the department (International Relations), Prof Omprakash Mishra was conducted in the presence of other professors and students’ representatives.
Students revolt against Prof Sarkar
Sarkar has been vehemently criticized after his obnoxious Facebook post, in which he compared a woman’s virginity with that of a bottle’s seal, went viral. In the post, Sarkar had questioned people would purchase a bottle with a broken seal? The post had caused public outraged on social media.
In response to his post and public outrage, a two-hour meeting had been organized within the department. Students were seen protesting against the professor, making it very evident that they would be boycotting Sarkar’s classes.
Sarkar, the misogynist
Many of the protesting students even raised questions over his credibility as an accomplished teacher. “He keeps on staring at us if we wear a short dress or hot pants to his class. He even passes snide remarks. We feel utterly uncomfortable during his classes,” said Sohini Dutta of IR.
The girl students also complained about Sarkar’s lecherous behaviour. Most maintained that the professor would not just make snide remarks in the classroom but would also ask his female students to come over to his quarter if they needed score higher marks.
A habitual casteist too
The students accused Sarkar of not only being a misogynist but also a casteist, who would demoralize students who hailed from a vernacular background.
“During the admission process, he had a doubt regarding my capability as a student. He blatantly said I wouldn’t be able to study IR as I am not from an English medium background. I was so demoralised,” revealed Ekta Dutta, another student of IR.
Students and teachers approach VC
But it is not only students; teachers too have had to bear the brunt of his behaviour. “Sarkar has the habit of naming and shaming. He would discuss often discuss the personal lives of other teachers with the students. This not only unacceptable but also repulsive,” said Rachana Das, associate professor of IR.
Based on the outcome of the discussion, Prof Mishra submitted the decision of the teachers and students committee before Vice-Chancellor Professor Suranjan Das. The students too submitted their deputation at VC’s office.
Later, Sarkar has also been barred from entering university campus.
“We have got the recommendation submitted by teacher student committee of International Relations. He has been debarred from enter the university campus” said the VC.
Using Freedom of Speech to escape criticism
In the opinion of doing fair journalism, eNewsroom’s correspondent went to the Sarkar’s JU quarter, to seek his response to the criticism he has been receiving. On being questioned about his Facebook post, Sarkar expressed no remorse. On the contrary, he confidently defended himself by saying, “Freedom of speech and expression is for everyone. I had said what I felt.” Having said so, he closed the door on the face of the reporter, before she could ask any further questions.
Makar Sankranti and the intriguing politics of Bihar
Patna: Political chitchat and discussion along with traditional food—dahi (curd), chura (flattened rice) and tilkut (a sweet item made of sesame seed) were part of this year Makar Sankranti. The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) presented a united face with all three constituents (JDU, BJP and Lok Janshakti Party) holding separate feasts marking the day, however, there was no dahi-chura feast at RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s 10 Circular Road residence this year.
The feast is an annual ritual when people from across the state visit their leaders’ residences to enjoy the delicacies apart from meeting their leaders. With Lalu behind the bars and Jharkhand High Court, rejecting the bail petition of RJD president in cases of multi-crore fodder scam, Lalu family and his supporters deciding not to host grand celebrations.
This is second year in row that no Dahi chura feast was held at 10 Circular Road residence. Last year too there was no Makar Sankranti festival at RJD camp due to death of Lalu’s elder sister Gangotri Devi.
However, RJD leader and former chief minister Rabri Devi said that party has not decided to celebrate the festival due to death of their leader and party MLC Khurshid Ahmad Mohsin.
A senior RJD leader requesting anonymity said: “The beauty of Lalu feast is that Lalu used to personally supervise everything, serving people and ensuring that nobody went home without eating. There used to have separate stalls for VIPs and supporters with no difference in food for VIPs and common people.” He further said: “Though this year there is no feast, but we are optimistic that next year our leader Tejashwi Prasad would host a grand Makar Sakranti feast as days of Modi government is numbered.”
At most places the feast is held for just one day but at Lalu’s house, Makar Sankranti was always a two-day ritual. On Day One, Lalu used to play host to Hindus and on Day Two to Muslims.
Sources said that the other reason behind RJD not hosting feast is that RJD senior leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav not in state capital. Lalu ‘s son Tejashwi Yadav was in Lucknow meeting Samajwadi Party chief and Uttar Pradesh former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav with an attempt to forge an understanding among regional forces in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that are opposed to BJP. On Sunday, Tejashwi met Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Mayawati. Tejashwi’s Lucknow visit assume importance as Akhilesh and Mayawati bitter rival recently went for an alliance for Lok Sabha elections.
While there was silence at RJD camp, NDA all three constituents organized separate Makar Sakranti festival.
The state JD(U) president, Bashishtha Narayan Singh hosted a grand feast at his Harding Road residence which was attended by chief minister Nitish Kumar, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, ministers from Nitish’s cabinet and LJP chief and union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag Paswan.
LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan too hosted Makar Sakranti feast at party office Pir Ali Marg. LJP parliamentary board chairman and Jamui MP, Chirag Paswan talking to media said: “The alliance between SP and BSP is alliance of compulsion and though two leaders have joined hands there will be no tie-up between supporters of both the parties.” Chirag also attacked Akhilesh and Mayawati for dumping Congress from their alliance. Chirag son of Ram Vilas Paswan also expressed confidence that after JDU returning back to NDA camp, the alliance has become stronger with NDA set to win more than 35 seats in Bihar out of total 40 Lok Sabha seats. As per NDA seat sharing alliance, both JDU and BJP are going to contest 17 seats each while six seats have been left out for LJP in state.
BJP MLC Rajnish Kumar also hosted Makar Sakranti feast which was attended by Nitish, Sushil Modi and Ram Vilas Paswan.
Makar Sankranti, a Hindu festival that marks the end of the month with the winter solstice and beginning of longer days, falls on January 14.
It is a day dedicated to Lord Surya and devotees mark this day by taking a holy dip in river Ganges. According to the Hindu calendar, this day is also celebrated as the harvest festival.
Dhaka is now the hub for Bengali language, says Amitav Ghosh
Kolkata: In his latest book The Great Derangement, Climate Change and the Unthinkable, the Jnanpith Award 2018 winner, author Amitav Ghosh talks about the absurdity of politics globally where subjects like religion, language, ethnicity, casteism are given manifold importance but issues related to environment don’t get the limelight or the importance.
Generation of the deranged?
Keeping in sync with the core issue highlighted in the book, Ghosh, during an interactive session organised at a Kolkata bookstore said, “Our future generation will call us deranged.”
During his session, the author stressed up on the need to awaken the collective conscious of the society so that a collective action can be taken to avert the inevitable doom. “Cities like Delhi or Bangalore have been worst hit by water scarcity. It eventually is leading to disruptions in the social structure or weakened social fabric. Needless to say, it is unfolding disasters. I get really frightened when I see rain bombs or cyclones devastating human civilisation. For example the rain bombs hitting Mumbai or Chennai. If such a calamity strikes Kolkata then we are finished. We all know, Kolkata is a low lying area,” said Ghosh.
Wrath of the nature
Speaking about environmental refugees, who are quite common these days, he mentioned, “It’s a phenomenon that we are witnessing not just across our nation but globally. So we need to think seriously about environment now.”
In his novels like The Hungry Tide or Sea of Poppies, nature comes alive in such a way that it can’t be ignored.
Environment and Bengali Literature
Meandering to pre-modern Bengali Literature, the writer talked about Manasamongol Kabya and Padma Puran. “If one reads carefully one would see how natural phenomena like cyclones, storms, tsunamis etc have been brought alive in these literary works. Pre-modern Bengali literary works were enmeshed with environment,” he said.
However, the much popular author, disappointed his Bengali fans when he said that he had no plans of penning a book in Bengali. He pointed out that, “The Hungry Tide has been translated into Bangla and it’s quite popular with the readers.” Four of Ghosh’s books have been translated into Bengali.
Newage Bengali influenced by Hindi
However, while answering one of the questions posed by a reader, Ghosh said, “I read Bengali books all the time. But I cannot recall names of young Bengali writers. However, I am well aware of the literary works of Sunil Gangopadhyay, Mahashweta Devi but that generation is gone. I grew up reading them. They were my close friends. I had a very long engagement with them.”
He however maintained that Bangladesh, at present is the citadel of Bengali literature. The author said, “It will be a mistake if we think that the mantle of Bengali culture is still here in Kolkata. I don’t think so. On the contrary, it is Bangladesh, where a lot of Bengali writing is happening. The leadership and stewardship of ‘Bangalee Sanskriti’ is in Dhaka. Very recently a scholar of Bangla sent me an article which was very interesting. Bengali in Kolkata is heavily influenced by Hindi. The fundamental Bengali language is now in Bangladesh.”
Greed puts us at the mercy of nature
Bringing him back to issues of environment was a question propped by eNewsroom, concerning his view on the rise of the Far Right and their environment policies India and outside, like the present fascist regime of Brazil. Ghosh answered, “Yes it’s devastating. They are destroying the Amazon, which is not only arrests the carbon emission of Brazil but of the entire world. Similarly the palm oil cultivation in Indonesia is causing negative environmental impacts like water and air pollution, which in turn are harmful to human health. The cultivation is causing severe damage to the landscape of Sumatra and Borneo leading to soil erosion and polluting of rivers. Here in India we have cut down on mangroves of the Sunderbans so cyclones and tsunamis are bound to happen. We have to succumb to our greed and be at a mercy of nature.”
Bengali poet attacked by right wing extremists in Silchar, event cancelled
Kolkata: Poet Srijato Bandyopadhyay came back to Kolkata on Sunday morning after facing the wrath of Hindutva forces in Silchar, Assam. On Saturday, right-wing activists of Silchar, Assam protested against the poet, who was there to participate in a recitation programme called Esho Boli.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee come forward in support of the poet. Srijato has been assured of every possible help by the chief minister. She personally called up the poet and assured to be by his side and had even inquired about his well-being.
CPIM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury has condemned the incident and stated that incidence of intolerance is on rise, which is not acceptable at all.
The poet had been in the wrong book of the right wing protestors after he had penned a poem – Abhishap, just after Yogi Adityanath’s inflammatory speech, in which he talked about raping dead Muslim women in their graves.
Amake dhorshon korbe joddin kobor theke tule (till the time you rape after digging me out of my grave)
condom porano thakbe, tomar oi dhormer trishule! (Till then the trident of yours will be seen wearing a condom)
– (Abhishap, Srijato Banerjee)
These two lines of his poem had courted controversy and invited the ire of Hindu extremists.
Recalling the moment, while speaking to eNewsroom, Srijato, said, “After about 45 minutes, we saw few people coming towards the stage and demanding the reason for my presence. The organisers tried to pacify the protestors saying no controversial comments will be made during the event. This got them so agitated that the verbal altercation intensified to such an extent that even the hotel had been vandalised. These right-wing activists even staged a protest outside the hotel, which eventually forced the organisers to cancel the event.”
A visibly disturbed Srijato added, “This has happened with me in my country, right outside my state. For the past four years, we have been witnessing similar intolerant attitude.”
The literary world has condemned the incident. Indologist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri condemned the incident. “This form of extremist nationalism was never an Indian thing,” said Bhaduri.
Poet Subodh Sarkar said, “This is the true face of the Central government. For the past four and a half years, this is what they have been doing – propagating fear. Government at the centre is anti-intellectual so we have witnessed the assassinations of Gauri Lankesh, Pansar and many others. They are trying to erase the voice of the dissent, the voice of plurality. What happened in Silchar is a part of the whole mechanism.”
This is not the first time that Srijato has earned the ire of the Hindu extremists. Unhappy with his poems, Hindu extremists had filed FIR twice in Bengal, itself.
Bihar Police claims brutal murder of girl is honour killing, arrests father
Patna: The horrific incident of a minor girl being allegedly gang-raped and brutally murdered in Buniyadganj in Gaya district in Bihar, is getting murkier. Now the police is claiming that it is a case of ‘honour killing’. The body of a 16-year old girl was found on January 6, around 600 metres away from the victim’s Rampur Manpur Patwatoli residence. Followed which Gaya police arrested the victim’s father and his friend the alleged honour killing case.
Buniyadganj police had recovered the badly mutilated body of the girl. The victim has been beheaded following which her head was doused in acid to make the identification difficult. The victim’s clothes were torn and the upper half of her body deep wounds.
Gaya police have arrested the victim’s father and his friend Leela Patwa on charges of honour killing.
Gaya police is claiming that the victim’s elder daughter had also recorded her statement in a local court under section 164 of CrPC. “The girl’s elder sister in her statement at the court had stated that the victim who was missing since December 28 had returned home on December 31. Her father and his friend (Leela Patwa) beat up the girl for eloping with a youth. On January 4, the friend of the victim’s father came again to their house and took the girl to an unknown place, following which the girl’s beheaded body was found on January 6,” said Gaya SSP, Rajiv Mishra.
Mishra while taking to eNewsroom, said: “The police is investigating the case and probing all possible angles behind the gruesome murder.”
However, the locals of Patwatoli and members of weavers (Patwatoli) community are not ready to buy the police theory behind the murder. The locals on January 9 and 10 organised candle marches in Gaya town to protest against the police inaction and for targeting the family members of the victim.
Prem Narayan Patwa, president of Vastra Udyog Bunkar Sewa Samiti (Patwatoli) told eNewsroom, “The police is unnecessarily targeting the victim’s family. The victim’s elder sister had given her statement under police duress and the police is cooking up the story to shield some influential person behind the incident. We have demanded a probe by Special Investigation Team (SIT) or CBI.”
Echoing the views of Prem Narayan Patwa, Bablu Patwa a resident of Patwatoli who knows the deceased family members said that the deceased family members were subjected to third degree torture to admit to the case of honour killing.
Bablu Patwa said that family members were pressured by police to confess that the victim had returned home December 31 night and was thrashed by family members for eloping with the youth.
Bablu said, “I know the family members, they are poor with victim’s father not even having enough financial resources to meet their daily requirements.” Bablu also refuted the allegations that the girl was having any affair with any youth, ruling out the possibility that she had eloped with any youth. The residents of Patwatoli also claimed that police are yet to receive the post mortem report of the victim and they have also not recovered the murder weapon.
Meanwhile, on Saturday Magadh range DIG Vinay Kumar along with Gaya SSP Rajiv Mishra and other senior police officials visited the victim’s residence at Patwatoli and assured the family members that within seven days they will carry out point by point probe. The of Vastra Udyog Bunkar Sewa Samiti (Patwatoli) who had given a two day bandh call today lifted the bandh after an assurance from police. The Patwatoli once known as Manchester of Bihar houses more than 1000 power looms domited with Patwa weavers community. The area is also known for producing IIT-ians as several students from the locality every year are in IIT merit list.
Electoral reforms by politicians is a classic example of a fox guarding the henhouse
On February 28, 2018, Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers from 19 states had met in the New Delhi BJP headquarters to discuss the possibility of simultaneous polls. One view that emerged during the discussion was that till India reaches a stage where there is a possibility of conducting simultaneous elections right from the panchayat to general elections, the government to contemplate the possibility of holding the state polls along with the 2019 general elections.
Ostensibly, the rationale of holding simultaneous polls is to address the issues of massive expenditure that the government incurs when conducting elections; paralysis of governance due to the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, and the disruptions that elections cause to public life. In a democracy, the will of the people is paramount and it forms the basis of authority. This will is expressed by exercising the right to vote in elections. Many opposition parties, including the Congress, Left parties and many regional players feel the cycle of elections indicate the level of public satisfaction and attitude towards the current government(s). Homogenization of elections is packaged as a “One Nation, One Poll” policy, therefore, is somewhat anti-democracy, they argue.
On the other hand, a discussion paper- “Analysis of Simultaneous Elections: The “WHAT”, “WHY” AND “HOW” by NITI AAYOG, justifies the amendment of the constitution to execute this policy. However, a debate about the drawbacks of why and how this policy could be problematic in the Indian context is the need of the hour as even the Chief Election Commissioner , Sunil Arora, insisted that this policy is a desirable goal in an interview with a leading news channel.
Advocates of simultaneous polls argue that the practice of simultaneous elections started in the general elections of 1950-51 and continued for three subsequent general elections (1957, 1962 and 1967). The March 1967 general elections were a blow for both the ruling Congress and its supreme leader Indira Gandhi. While the Congress managed to keep power at the Centre, it lost powers in nine states.
According to V Krishna Ananth, a political commentator, 1967 elections witnessed the unfolding of the fractures in the nation’s social and political edifice. With the 1967 elections emerged the fragmented socio-political reality of India as a nation which had been stitched together in 1947. 1967 experiments in alliances, coalitions and vote appeal on the lines of caste, region etc. made far-reaching impact and continues to influence politics even today.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances , Law and Justice in its 79th report on “Feasibility of Holding Simultaneous elections to the House of People (Lok Sabha) and State legislative assemblies” mentions the precedent of simultaneous elections in countries like South Africa and in Sweden, where elections are held on a fixed date (similar to the USA). Interestingly, the practice of simultaneous elections in these countries is complimented by the electoral system of proportional representation.
Therefore, to implement Simultaneous polls, government should adopt the practice of proportional representation. Is this feasible? The main criticism of first-past-the-post system is that individuals can be elected and parties can achieve a governing majority of parliamentary seats even though they have not received a majority of the votes. Therefore, the dissent voiced by the minority (that may be significantly a large group) would be silenced. First-past-the-post works to the advantage of political parties whose support is concentrated in certain areas but may be weaker in other parts of the country. Such a party may win more seats than a party whose nationwide support is spread more uniformly — so the number of seats that an election allocates to each party is not commensurate with the overall level of support the party has on a nationwide basis. Secondly, PR system involves complex calculations. To implement this scheme we must restrict the number of candidates and the number of parties, thereby offering limited options for the voters. Therefore, the PR system is desirable but it is not feasible in the Indian context.
Are the arguments fair?
Simultaneous elections are desirable, as quite often-Indian polity is in election mode, which leads to huge expenditures. On the contrary, concurrent elections if held would result in sharing the expenditure between the centre and the state.
Is the reason of massive expenditure a fallacy? Let’s do a fact check. Election Commission incurs a total cost of roughly around 8000 cr in the span of 5 years, out of which 4000 cr is spent on general elections (Lok Sabha) and around 800 million people participate in this exercise. Therefore, 0.03% of the total expenditure is not a huge price we are paying to celebrate democracy.
It is not the government expenditure that the advocates of this policy intend to address. Instead, their line of argument is that simultaneous polls would help in bringing down the election expenditure of the political parties/candidates. Political parties cannot fight elections without large funds as elections in recent times are all about visibility. India’s privately funded election campaign is a contrast to the trend in most countries, which have partial or full public funding or transparent regulation and financial accountability of political finance. State funding of elections is a potential solution to this problem. The Indrajit Gupta Committee on State Funding of Elections had endorsed partial state funding of recognised political parties and their candidates. But the lack of political will has prevented a serious discussion on this issue. Therefore, to adopt simultaneous polls the government must make laws to cap the expenses of the political parties or consider state funding of elections to ensure a level playing field and it would increase accountability.
The argument that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) prevents the government from carrying out welfare schemes is questionable. Firstly, the absence of strong state leaders has forced the national parties to depend on the Prime Minister and the national leadership to campaign for the state elections. This essentially drains the Prime Minister’s time and distracts him from governance. Secondly, the trend where government brings out populist schemes just prior to elections to persuade a specific section, particularly the swing votes. There are instances wherein the ECI has allowed the centre to implement its schemes without much hassle (subject to restricting the publicity of such schemes). For example, the release of the second installment of funds under MGNREGA was allowed by ECI for poll-bound states of Himachal and Gujarat, with a rider that it should not be publicised. Therefore blaming the MCC for hindering governance is inappropriate. The onus is on the government to empower the ECI prior to making amendments to the Indian Constitution to boost Indian polity. If India wants to embark on the path of “cooperative federalism”, then more welfare projects should be taken up by the state and not by the center. But the current standoff between the centre and states regarding the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM JAY) projects a different picture.
Electoral reforms in the hands of the politicians is a classic example of a fox guarding the hen house. These issues are employed as deviationary tactics to avoid debating issues that have caused crises (like demonetisation and poor implementation of GST). The gullible Indian electorate might not be able to distinguish the state and national narratives as they are not well informed. By conducting simultaneous polls, the issues of the state might take a backseat.
All-women Madhubani artists wait for their payment after painting Bihar Sampark Kranti Express
Darbhanga/Kolkata: On August 23, Bihar Sampark Kranti Express was rolled out with immense pride by the Indian Railways. All of its 24 coaches were beautified with Madhubani Paintings or Mithila Art by the hard work of 45 Madhubani artists, all women. What more, their artwork was even appreciated by the United Nations.
However, six months down the line, the artists who made it to the headlines for their work, are yet to receive any payment. Take the example of 20-year-old Anjali Jha, a Madhubani artist who ekes-out-a-living by painting. She was the key artist for the Madhubani Art on train project.
“We were a group of 45 artists who worked on the coaches. I played a key role in making the sketches on all the 20 coaches of the Bihar Sampark Kranti Express. There were two other artists who been hired to do the sketches, but they quit after working on four coaches. Also, most of the artists that were brought in to paint the train coaches were inexperienced,” recounts Anjali, who had stationed in Darbhanga for three months along with other artists to give shape to this venture of the Indian Railways.
She then added, “We have heard that our work has been appreciated by all, but we are yet to receive the payment for our work.” On being asked, about the amount that the contractor would be paying she said, “No fixed pay was decided. We were just told that we would be paid a nice amount by the Indian Railway.”
Anjali hails from Milwar, a remote village in Darbhanga, Bihar, she helps her father sustain their six-member-family. On a month that is kind to her, she earns about INR 10000 by painting shawls, sarees or artefacts with the now-much-in-vogue Madhubani art, based on the specification of her clients. Similar is the story of Sapna Roy, from Madhubani’s Pakhraoni village, who also paints to sustain her family needs.
But the life of a rural artist specializing in an art form, which the Indian Railway has adopted, seems to be not so easy. “We generally get work on an ad-hoc-basis. There is no fixed earning for us. So, when we got this opportunity we grabbed it with both our hands,” said Sapna Ray.
Ray further added, “We worked from July till October on this project. The first train with Madhubani Art was launched on August 23, since then we worked on more trains. But it’s almost January and we are yet to get our payments. We had been told that we would be receiving our payment in December, but are yet to get paid.”
On contacting Ashutosh Sahu, the main contractor for the ‘Madhubani Art Train’ said, “I had made some mistake while filling up the forms and then the officials were on leave, hence the delay.” He then paused and added, “Amount that needs to be paid to the 45 odd artists is high. Approximately every artist is to get paid between Rs 15000 to Rs 20000, so I have no option but to wait till the payment gets cleared from the department; else I would have paid from my own funds. The girls need not panic.”
Interestingly, according to an India Today report, Indian Railways spent about Rs1 lakh per coach to beautify it with Madhubani Paintings.
More scams of the Chouhan regime
PDS scam
Kamal Nath, Congress Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, constituted his cabinet on December 25. Ten days later, new Food Minister Pradyuman Singh Tomar inspected a Public Distribution System (PDS) shop in Bhopal city and found mud and stones in wheat and rice, in addition to detecting other irregularities. The PDS scam had grown into gigantic proportions in the BJP government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan with his blessing. It was by accident, or call it by a little carelessness of his officers, that the enormity of the scam had come to light.
Bhopal witnessed heavy rains in July 2016 when it rained cats and dogs without a glimpse of sun for days together. The low-lying colonies were flooded, houses collapsed, people died and thousands had to be evacuated to hastily put up camps. It was then revealed – once again – that these colonies had been allowed to be built on sewage drains and there was no outlet for the rain water to flow out.
But the flood-victims, belonging mostly to the lower strata of society, had to be fed. Chouhan directed the Civil Supplies Department to disburse grains among them and the Department promptly sent some bags of wheat to these people. In the hurry they sent them the wrong bags which were not meant to be opened in cities but in remote villages. Because, when the people opened the bags they found a substantial quantity of mud cakes and stones along with the wheat. They cried foul inviting the media persons and activists. Mud cakes and stones were separated in presence of the media and activists and weighed. In a 50-kg bag, mud cakes and stones weighed 15 to 20 kgs.
This accidental exposure led to the revelation that mud cakes and stones were mixed in certain number of wheat bags at warehouses where the grain is kept. These ‘mixed’ bags were meant to be sent to remote areas to be distributed through fair price shops in villages. As the individual consumer got a certain quantity of wheat at a time, all that he complained of was that the wheat was dirty or had some mud and stones in it but he never came to know of the actual quantity of the adulteration. Sometimes some people did create ruckus but they were taken care of by the police or the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of the area. The reason was simple: Chouhan’s most trusted officers were put at the helm of affairs in both the departments; Civil Supplies and Warehousing Corporation. Some close relatives of Chouhan were said to be having interest in the working of the two departments.
Chouhan’s criminal intent
What the Congress and other opposition parties could not do was done by a member of Chouhan’s cabinet to make the Chief Minister and his RSS mentor (late) Anil Madhav Dave aware of their criminal intent in trying to rob the poor of their land fraudulently. Minister of Food and Civil Supplies Akhand Pratap Singh vehemently opposed at a cabinet meeting the proposal to allot 13.766 hectares of land in the Chief Minister’s Budhni Assembly constituency by overruling the objections of the revenue and finance departments to Narmada Samagra Trust floated by Anil Madhav Dave. The land near Uma Bharti’s favourite Bandrabhan Ashram was the pastureland belonging to the poor people of Ramnagar village on the bank of river Narmada.
Under the rules, this land could not be converted into the land for construction of houses. Dave’s Trust was to be allotted the land at throwaway prices. The Chief Minister’s criminal intent became clear in giving the khasra number of some other land in the newspaper advertisements inviting objections. Narmada Samagra Trust was registered with the Registrar of Public Trusts only a few months earlier, its movable property amounting to only Rs 11,000 and no immovable property. Anil Madhav Dave, as secretary, was the only person authorised in the Trust deed to enter into legal proceedings. The required application fee was not deposited while applying for allotment of land to the Trust. The move to allot land to Dave’s Trust was dropped after the fraud was exposed by Akhand Pratap Singh.
Murder of IPS officer
Chouhan and his wife Sadhna Singh were celebrating Holi at the Chief Minister’s sprawling residence in Bhopal when the news of IPS officer Narendra Kumar Singh’s murder by the mining mafia at Morena was conveyed to them. If they were affected, they did not show it and the revelry continued unabated with full gusto. Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) of Chambal range D P Gupta had told media persons after the incident that Singh had tried to stop a tractor carrying illegally mined stones but the driver ran over him. “We won’t call it an accident. Even after he was stopped, the driver crushed the officer with his tractor. It’s a clear case of murder. The tractor driver (identified as Manoj Gurjar) has been arrested and a case (under Section 302 IPC) has been registered against him and we are trying to ascertain whom he was working with”, the DIG was quoted as having stated.
Home Minister Uma Shankar Gupta and Director General of Police (DGP) Nandan Dubey rushed to Gwalior on the way to Morena and with that the murder became accident. The police also spread the word that no mining mafia was behind the incident, that the driver was carrying the stones to his village for his own use and that he had become nervous on seeing the police officer and lost control of the vehicle resulting in the “accident”.
IPS officer’s wife Madhurani Tewatia, an IAS officer posted in Gwalior (who later got herself transferred to UP cadre), said: “One day you say it is a murder and the other day you say it is not – this is not acceptable… If someone has done something good for the country, you can’t just get hold of the driver and feel that it is enough. You need to start from the roots to eradicate this mafiasm.” Madhurani Tewatia asked if a poor driver dare trample an IPS officer, or even a constable, under the wheels of his vehicle unless he was assured of full protection – legal, monetary and otherwise – by those in control of the illegal operations?
Another murder
Constable Dharmendra Singh Chauhan, an ex-army man, was posted at the Noorabad police station in Morena district. One night he was part of a patrolling party when they saw sand-laden truck parked under suspicious circumstances. As the police party challenged the vehicle, its driver started the engine and tried to flee the scene. Chauhan ran forward to stop the truck. He had almost reached the engine when the driver abruptly turned the truck trampling the constable under its wheels. The driver ran away from the scene. Chauhan’s colleagues in the patrolling party took their own time to reach the scene of the ghastly murder.
Note: Illegal mining in Madhya Pradesh was directly supervised by Chouhan’s wife Sadhna Singh through a promotee IAS officer with a dubious record S K Mishra.
Jhabua blast
A blast in a store in the small town of Petlawad in Jhabua district killed 90 persons and injured over 100 others. The law does not permit storage of explosives in a residential area but here the explosives were kept in a house at the centre of Petlawad town. Moreover, the owner of the explosives store Rajendra Kasawa did not even have a licence to store or sell the explosives. The licence for explosives is issued by the Petroleum and Safety Organisation (PESO). Deputy Chief Controller of PESO M K Jhala, based in Bhopal, said a day after the blast that no licence had been issued in the name of Rajendra Kasawa. Jhala said: ‘it is a serious matter. I have checked records and no licences were issued from our side. Our officials will be visiting Petlawad and submit a report’, he added. The residents of Petlawad had been complaining to the district administration about the storage of the explosives in the residential areas but the district administration always ignored the complaints. Chouhan’s close associates were said to be the beneficiaries of the racket.