Untouchability Unmasked in "Singaara" Chennai!

THE word "Singaara (Beautiful) Chennai” was coined when the present deputy chief minister and the so-called choice for the future chief minister, M K Stalin, took over the reins in Chennai Corporation as mayor. That was really a dream for every Chennai-ite, and that remains a mere dream even now. The myth like "there is no untouchability in cities" was disproved by the existence of Untouchability Walls in urban areas.

Though concrete information remained for long elusive regarding the capital city, the Tamilnadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) has brought out the realty by surveying Chennai, thus exposing the ugly side of the "Singaara" City. For this purpose, the TNUEF had deputed 80 volunteers to carry out the survey. As many as 31 locations in the city were selected and the volunteers met 775 people. This was carried out in October 2010. The survey report was released to the press on December 29. P Sampath (president of the TNUEF), K Samuel Raj (general secretary, TNUEF), R Jayaraman (treasurer, TNUEF), K Swaminathan (state secretary, TNUEF) and R Krishnamoorthy (convenor, TNUEF in South Chennai) were present at the press meet.

The detailed questionnaire meant for the survey incorporated issues like land patta, toilet facilities in houses, maintenance of public conveniences, health hazards, maintenance of houses of the Tamilnadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB), availability of ration shops, social welfare schemes, school education, playgrounds, roads, drinking water and hospital facilities etc.

The general belief that no oppression in the name of caste takes place in the city was then belied. The city has its own story of caste discriminations. The censuses of 1991 and 2001 have earlier presented a bleak scenario. It was claimed that, post-1991, dalits have got jobs and their share in the middle class population has increased. It is, therefore, surprising to note that the ratio of dalits in the city population has come down between 1991 and 2001.

In 1991, dalit population in Chennai was 13.78 per cent but it got reduced to 13.76 per cent in 2001. "This is because of the eviction of dalits from their areas in the name of development," said P Sampath while releasing the survey report. Also, most of these dalits are living in the Chennai slums. This in itself proves that discrimination is alive and kicking in the Chennai metro.

About 60 per cent of these dalits are living in places where there is no water, nor ditches or litter bins. They are staying on the banks of Koovam and Adyar rivers and of Buckingham Canal. In the past 38 years, the Tamilnadu Slum Clearance Board has built only 72,000 houses. In fact, an ambitious plan has been announced to make Chennai hut free by 2013. The real intention seems to be to throw the dalits out of the city rather than rehabilitating them.

The discrimination in the casteist sense gets reflected in the jobs they perform. They are doing the "demeaning" jobs in which manual work is involved. Many streets are named after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, but these have remained as the dalits-only residential areas. Dalits are not welcomed in posh areas like West Mambalam, T Nagar, Kodambakkam, Triplicane and Mylapore. Even those who are in coveted government posts do not get a house on rent to stay here.

There are places where dalits are living for the last 80 years but they have not yet get the pattas for their plots. Likewise, there are various other places where dalits have been living for the last 50 to 60 years but have been denied pattas. Everyday, they live in the fear of eviction. Even when the TNUEF volunteers went to these areas with their job of survey, the residents though that government officials had come and were perplexed that their fears of eviction had come true. However, when the intentions of the surveyors became clear, they briefed them in detail.

Most of the dalit students are studying in government schools and municipal corporation schools. As far as their general health is concerned, they live in such places as can be described as health hazardous only. Safe drinking water remains a distant dream for dalits in almost all of the dalit areas. Most of these places have no hospital facilities. Even if there is any, doctors are not regular. Dalits hardly get any medicines in these places. Many dalits are not aware of the social welfare schemes that are supposedly being implemented for them.

In the name of development, dalits are being thrown out of the city. This act had devastated their economic conditions. Many of them have lost their jobs and some of them have left since they cannot go all the way from outskirts to the city. The conditions of their women are still worse. Their girls are being married off at very early ages. Their bad economic conditions have making them sex workers.

Dalits have no place in the temple administration. Conversion to Christianity has not been a balm to the disease. In CSI churches too, dalits remained outside of the administration. They are not allowed to contest the church elections.

What happened in Lalgarh?

In yet another brutal attack six people were killed and 15 others seriously injured when Maoists and Trinamool Congress activists jointly opened fire on a group of villagers at Netai at Lalgarh under Binpur block in West Midnapore district of West Bengal January 7 morning. Scared by the growing people’s resistance against Maoist-Trinamool terrorism and violence the Maoists have resorted to a reign of terror with the help of Trinamool activists.

It was on December 31 a massive rally was held at Lalgarh in which participation of local villagers was spontaneous to voice against Maoist-Trinamool violence and for restoration of peace in Jangalmahal. It created wrath among the Maoists who in retaliatory measures have started terrorizing the innocent village people.

With this in mind a group of armed Maoist cadres under the leadership of Tanmoy Roy, who was once a secretary of the pro-Maoist Janaganer Committee (PCPA) but now a Trinamool leader, swung into armed action in the morning of January 7 and started indiscriminate firing on villagers protesting against the Maoist menaces. As a result 6 villagers were killed and 15 others seriously injured.

Deepak Sarkar, secretary of West Midnapore district CPI(M), in a statement, demanded immediate arrest of those who were responsible for the murder. The CPIM) brought out processions in Lalgarah on January 8 to condemn the incident.

Untouchability Modernised!

UNTOUCHABILITY practices are going "modern" now. This was evident from the recent exposure in Nagarajapuram, a village that is there in the outskirts ofCoimbatore city. In the name of resettling the dalits, they were driven to almost no man's land years ago. But the expansion of the city and its sub-urban areas brought them near again. So the profit minded real estate companies have resorted to a new strategy to keep dalits away from their area. Blocking the way for dalits to have access to the area, they expect the value of the land to remain high.

This has happened in many places and Nagarajapuram was no different. In this place, hundreds of dalit families are living since 1976. The real estate promoters have built a wall that was measuring 10 feet in height and 2 feet in width and the length is close to a kilometre. To have direct access to the main road, therefore, most of the people had to take many extra steps. The building of the wall did not happen overnight. But the landowners of the other side did it clandestinely. It was carried out during the last two years. Dalit people on the other side woke up only when the last 30 metres length of the path was closed.

A team led by U K Sivagnanam, district convenor of the Tamilnadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) recently visited the spot. When the team was convinced that this is an untouchability wall indeed, TNUEF decided to take up the issue. Next day, Tamil daily Theekkathir prominently published the news and that created tremors in the administration. At the very first sight, the officials were convinced that the wall was unlawful. The sketch for the plots also showed a 30 metres path. The people also complained to the officials that the closure of the path had made them feel like imprisoned. The only hitch was that the wall itself was on the border of not only for two panchayats but of two taluks as well. This did not deter the TNUEF to press for the demolition of the wall. A series of agitations was planned.

Expecting a backlash, the district administration acted fast lest there was some mass action. On December 25, revenue officials demolished two portions of the untouchability wall. These two stretches of 30 feet and 23 feet now provide the dalit people direct access to the main road. Though the structure has remained largely intact, the purpose of the land promoter has been defeated. Just after the demolition, one could find joyful women and children walking through the newly restored path.

Uthapuram was just a beginning in of exposing the untouchability walls in Tamilnadu. Somebody sought to belittle its impact by saying that villages are yet to be radicalised. Another wall in Periyar Nagar, that is in the heart of "South India's Manchester," i.e. Coimbatore city, exposed that too. One more wall was found in the municipal limits of Trichy. Now in the news is Udumalpet, a small town in Tirupur district. A wall has been raised by a realtor to block the way for dalits.

The world is getting modernised. Yet the caste oriented society somehow finds space to land its feet. The landing is atrocious. The TNUEF, through its well oiled machinery, has conducted many surveys. In its first state conference, a list of atrocities was released. But the recent problems have brought new varieties of atrocities. In another village near Coimbatore, a Dalit cannot talk on his cellphone in front of a caste Hindu. He has to switch off his phone or cut the call. When this came up, A Raja of the "spectrum" notoriety was the union telecom minister. This village falls in his constituency.

"SOFTWARE" FOR UNTOUCHABILITY

Another incident of untouchability has crossed all the limits. One Mr Jayan had registered himself with tamilmatrimony.com in order to find a life partner. He is a Christian and was registered in that category. When a few proposals came for him, he surfed some of the profiles. In one profile, “caste no bar” was mentioned. He was happy to see that. But his happiness did not last for more than a moment. The very next column said "SC/ST excuse." Jayan was furious to see that. He did not stop there.

He called up the contact number and blasted them. His argument was: people may prefer one or another particular caste in the matrimony ads, but how come these people could say, "we do not want these and these castes." He rang up a few newspaper offices to give vent to his anger. He said, “This is untouchability modernised. In fact, the website that offers this service should pull up its socks. The software that serves the purpose of casteist requirements should be thrown away by thetamilmatrimony.com.”

The TNUEF had listed around 85 types of atrocities committed upon dalits in Tamilnadu. In the states where the survey has been done, Gujarat stands first. As many as 99 types of atrocities have been listed by the Navsarjan, a non-profit voluntary organisation. It seems that Tamilnadu is now poised to take Gujarat over by creating new, "modern" types of atrocities.

The impact of the agitations run by the TNUEF is being felt. The people have started looking up to the TNUEF for solving their problems concerning social issues. Uthapuram is leading from the front. Wherever an untouchability wall is found, people take inspiration from Uthapuram. The unsolved problems in Uthapuram make the people more steely. The TNUEF has announced a series of programmes for the next year. The year 2011 is going to be an eventful year for the TNUEF.

UPA Government Zindabad...!!!

"I Have Become A Communist!"

Venezuela's March Continues...


ONE by one, the bricks are being removed in the capitalist walls that were erected in Latin American nations during the pro-imperialist rule. Taking Cuba as a model, president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez is chalking his own path towards socialism. Last week, he had nationalised Venezuela's third largest bank, i e the Banco de Venezuela. This bank was earlier privatised in 1996. The government of Venezuela has paid one billion dollars to the Spanish group Grupo Santander for their shares.

This purchase has brought one fifth of all bank deposits in Venezuela into the government fold. After getting the people's nod for nationalisation of core sectors, President Hugo Chavez has nationalised telecommunications, electricity, steel, oil and other core companies in the last two years. The latest push of bringing the banking sector under control will increase the government's role in shaping the economy.

Now, the government can regulate the money supply in a better way. Even earlier, the banking sector was properly regulated and the interests rates and commissions were set by the government. Leonardo Vera, an economist and professor at Venezuela's Central University, pointed out, "The government of Venezuela will now be able to indirectly regulate prices and market strategies."

Moreover, the welfare oriented schemes also will get enough resources after this move. Chavez has once again assured the people of his country that the march towards socialism will continue.



“Sympathy Budget” For Warmongers



IT has now come to light that the Japanese rulers are throwing away the taxpayers’ money in the name of national security. Toguchi Osamu, a Japanese Communist Party representative in the Okinawa prefectural government, has raised a question on the expenditure incurred by the US forces stationed in Okinawa.

The revealed fact was outrageous. The prefectural government had paid 10 billion yen to the US forces stationed in Okinawa. This amounts to 71 per cent of the entire nation's electric bill in 2007. Toguchi commented, "The government spends nearly 10 billion yen of tax money in the name of “sympathy budget” while the elderly have to bear the increasing financial burden of medical services that used to be free. Free medical services for the elderly can be achieved by doing away with the sympathy budget."

But this is the picture of Okinawa only. All over Japan, about 33,000 US soldiers are stationed, and the expenditure for this force is enormous. The government has named the expenditure as sympathy budget. The US forces play a role in Japan's national security, the officials justify. The Japanese Communist Party has demanded that this issue should be discussed in the Diet, the Japanese parliament.



Startling Facts On Israeli Offensive



STARTLING facts have come out regarding the war crimes committed by the Israeli forces in Gaza in January this year. Amnesty International, a rights group, has come out with an indepth report on this issue. In the three-week offensive, the report says, 1,400 Palestinians were killed. Among them were 300 children and 900 unarmed civilians. The rights group has questioned: Why did high-precision weapons like tank shells, air-delivered bombs and missiles kill so many children and unarmed civilians?

On the other side, the Israelis have refused to cooperate with the veteran war crimes investigator Richard Goldstone. He is probing this massacre on behalf of the United Nations. This UN probe’s investigator is biased, Israel claims. They say they have themselves investigated the whole episode and announced that their military had done nothing wrong! Hamas, the ruling group in Gaza, is cooperating with the UN investigating team and allowed them into Gaza.

However, even the startling facts revealed by the rights group are an understatement. Israeli forces have used Palestinians as human shields, charged the Hamas. Apart from killing the civilians, Palestinians were blocked from receiving medical care and humanitarian aid from neutral sources. The Hamas has pointed that even the counter-attack killed only 10 Israeli soldiers, showing that it was purely defensive in nature.



"I Have Become A Communist!"



I HAVE become a communist, said a girl to her parents. They were surprised to hear this from their daughter. But the girl did not want to get identified, fearing that she might lose her job. She is one among those lakhs of Japanese who were browsing in Google, Bing etc to come out from the crisis. The crisis that started from the sub-prime loans doled out by the US banks, has affected the second largest economy in the world too.

The girl found out that "in capitalism now we are controlled by the capitalists, or capital. But I think in a communism society we can think about the whole of society and decide our economic activities in a democratic way." She claims that she is a member of a "lost generation." She also mentioned about the people who came to the employment market during Japan's long stagnation in the 1990s and could not find proper jobs.

She is not alone in embracing communism in Japan. The party that has four lakh members on its rolls, is getting about 1,000 new members every month. Rallies by retrenched Japanese workers have become day to day affair. Presiding over these protests are none other than the leaders Japanese Communist Party. One worker among the rallyists claimed, "I support the Communist Party because it's the one that thinks about workers first." "The Communist Party is the only party that gets really serious about problems like this," said another.

When the recent international economic crisis erupted, Marxist literature came in demand from the affected, would-be affected and may-be affected sections. It was a 'classical' case in Japan. One classical novel was written in 1929 and was almost forgotten by the Japanese. The crisis has brought that novel into limelight now. The title of the novel is Kanikosen, and its story revolves around some poor fishermen uniting against their owners. Along with history, the story also repeats itself.

Finally, the cat is out

For long, there was a constant denials from the Japan's ruling establishment. They had dubbed the charge as nothing but fiction. The charge was that the US and Japan had a secret pact regarding the handling of nuclear weapons. Japan, being the only country that was struck the nuclear bomb has a policy of not to allow the production, possession and bringing in of nuclear weapons. But the secret pact that has come into light clearly shows that nuclear weapons carrying Warships or planes do not need prior consultations when they enter the Japanese territory.

This secret pact was brought out by the Kyodo News through four former Vice Foreign Ministers who were interviewed. They had even said that few former Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers knew about the whole thing. The people of Japan were kept in dark. Japanese Communist Party has called for a thorough enquiry. Its Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi has demanded that the Parliament should summon all those people connected with the deal to bring the truth out.

lnfact, the JCP has pointed out about such secret pact on handling of nuclear weapons by the US in Japanese territory on earlier occasions too. Their claims were dismissed as mere gossips. The latest revelations have proved that what JCP was kept saying was one hundred percent right. Ichida commented, when the entire world is moving towards non-nuclear world, the Japanese government should reveal publicly the facts regarding the secret deal with US.

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Military superior to Health!

Gloabal Financial Crisis has taken its own toll. But the crisis did not deter the nations from spending more on military. The expenditure on military went up 4% more in last year, 2008. The total expenditure was $1.46 trillion. As per the report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, US's close ally Israel spends more than any other country when compared with the population. They spend more than $2,300 per citizen. This is $300 more than United States of America that stands at the second place.

As far as the total military expenditure concerned, the US stays at the top. It spends 41% of the world military expenditure. Only the combined expenditre of other top 14 countries can match the US expenditure. Though the People's Republic of China has increased its military expenditure by 10%, it is still far away from US. Meanwhile, the US Federal Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke has urged the US Congress to address the nation's budget deficit that stands at $2 trillion. He has warned that there cannot be any indefinite borrowing by the country.

Military expenditure by the US is mounting. On the other side, the US President Barrack Obama is pushing health care reform. This is the make or break period said Barrack Obama to some Senators. He is insisting that the legislation for health care reforms should be passed without any delay. Unmindful expenditure on military has put pressure on both industry and healthcare.

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The so-called Left beaten, not the ism!

European Parliament elections have shown the doors to the Centre-Left. The outcome of the elections is that the Centre-Right has won considerable victory. Centre-Left has been defeated. The Left and the Greens have increased their tally marginally. Some analysts says that the result is contradictory. One side the rightist policies have put the entire world into crisis. But the people have no hesitation to choose them. Some say that the people believe that the rightist policies can only heal the wounds inflicted by the Global economic crisis.

The reason for the defeat of moderate Left is in the policies itself. Though the Centre-Left parties have claimed themselves as the custodians of Left policies, they do not practice the same. Infact they do not even preach. The tilt of these parties is towards the same harmful imperialist driven policies. The Labour Party of Britain is the best example. Be it Tony Blair or the incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown, they are toeing the policies US administration. A serious joke in the restaurants of London is that the Britain does not need separate ministries in many sectors.

When the people voted for the European Parliament, Greenland voters have rejected the rightist party, Siumut, which was ruling the country for the last 30 years. The new Government, led by the Leftists has put the issue of full independence from Denmark in the priority mode. To begin with, Greenland will implement Keynesian policies through which the country will develop the domestic market. The people were disgusted with the lavishness of Siumut party.

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Isolation isolated!

The life has come full circle incase of Cuba. Last week was politically more important for the nation that stood the imperialist assault for the last 50 years. Firstly, the El Salvador has signed an agreement with Cuba for renewing the relation between both the countries. The time has gone, when the US could manouvre other countries in the American continents to isolate Cuba. With El Salvador opening its doors to Cuba, only US is left in the American continents that did not have the relations with Cuba.

El Salvador had its own celebrations since another Leftist President has taken over the reins. Mauricio Funes took Office on June 01. His first job was to restore the diplomatic relations with Cuba. With the co-operation from other Left Presidents, a new path has been laid in the area that was considered as the backyard of US not so long ago. The policies of US have gone awry in each and every place it was implemented. The countries that implemented the US-prescribed policies have done it not on conviction, but by compulson.

The second event was that the Organisation of American States(OAS) has voted unanimously to end Cuba's 47 year suspension. The United States that was cornered by the other countries also voted in favour of the resolution. The Cuba should adhere to the pro-democracy principles of OAS, the US put a string on the vote. Cuba has firmly rejected the call to join OAS. It has infact called for a new organisation that will reflect the real aspirations of American people.

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Response to Economist.com article...

The ground reality in India is different. Post-2004, the so-called reforms have been slowed down. Welfare programmes have come up due to the intervention of the Left parties, particular Communist Party of India(Marxist). For example, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme through which the rural poor gets 100 days of employment in a year. Though many shortcomings are there in the implementation of the scheme, it has given a breathing space to the rural poor.

During the election campaign, the Congress did not campaign on reforms plank. It campaigned saying that they had brought a scheme that gave the employment to the poor. Infact, the Congress should thank the Left parties for having helped them to come back.

Another example is banking sector. Even the people in the government had agreed, the banking sector did not collapse because of the ownership nature. Since the banks are in public sector, unlike the American banks, they have survived the worst world economic crisis.

Congress could capitalist the inaction of the main opposition party, that Bharathiya Janata Party(BJP). They had always side-stepped from the issues that affects the people.

If the Congress deviates from the trend that was set due to the pressure of the Left, they will start losing from the next state election itself.