Latest News Update: Nov 5, 2009

Thursday, November 5, 2009

[ZESTCaste] Quota in place, Rahul’s youth brigade to have women, Dalits at forefront

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/quota-in-place-rahuls-youth-brigade-to-have-women-dalits-at-forefront/537563/

Quota in place, Rahul's youth brigade to have women, Dalits at forefront
Express News Service Posted: Nov 05, 2009 at 0508 hrs

Lucknow Sticking to AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's agenda of
empowering Dalits and women, the youth wing of the Congress in Uttar
Pradesh will have reservation for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes
and women in all the 26 units of its central zone — where
organisational elections will be held in the first phase.
These units will be coterminous — covering the same area — with the 26
Lok Sabha constituencies in the zone. Enrollment of members in the
zone will begin from November 12 and will last a month. After
scrutiny, which is expected to take one month, central zone elections
will be held. Seats will be

reserved at the level of unit presidents and also in organisational
committees. The reserved posts will be selected by a draw.

As many as 25 per cent posts of unit presidents will be reserved —
half for SC/ST and half for women. As a result, three SC/ST members
and three women will become presidents in the central zone.

"At all levels, whether panchayat, state, Assembly and Lok Sabha
constituency, we will have reservation in the committees. Out of the
10 committee members at all levels, one post of general secretary will
be reserved for SC/ST, one for women and one for OBC or minorities,"
said Prakash Joshi, member of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) Election
Commission who has been given the charge of UP.

Former state Youth Congress president Yogesh Dixit pointed out that in
the old structure, when district presidents were appointed by
nomination, there was no reservation.

To give a boost to the membership drive, Rahul Gandhi will visit all
the 26 districts of the central zone later this month. "His three-day
visit will only focus on the membership drive of youth Congress in the
central zone," said Jitendra Singh, AICC secretary in-charge of the
IYC.

Besides Singh, Youth Congress president Ashok Tanwar and IYC general
secretary Virendra Rathore were in town on Wednesday to discuss
arrangements for the drive. To tackle fake membership, Singh said that
apart from forms, even the voters' list will carry photographs.

Asked about the role of those selected through the talent hunt, Singh
said those who wanted to contest election can do so. The others will
be given an opportunity to work in different cells and departments
after the elections. About 1,500 people will be involved in conducting
the elections, he added.

K J Rao, general secretary of the Foundation for Advanced Management
of Elections — which has been appointed to conduct NSUI and Youth
Congress elections — said no one convicted in a criminal case will be
given a chance to contest.

"We will also not allow those against whom a court has taken
cognizance of a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment of more
than five years, or where a chargesheet has been filed against a
person for any such offence," he added.

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[ZESTCaste] Sculpting the legacy of India's 'Dalit Queen'

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iA8Q1SheIp_HLGngCA9F8x1EPK_g

Sculpting the legacy of India's 'Dalit Queen'
By Penny MacRae (AFP) – 2 days ago

NEW DELHI — Towering statues of the heroes of India's "untouchable"
caste, shrouded in blue tarpaulin, provide a surreal sight for drivers
speeding along a highway near the national capital.

The statues are part of a grandiose memorial complex -- the pet
project of the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati, and one of
several in the state that are being built on a scale to rival the
monuments of ancient Rome.

Once the site of frenzied construction, the half-finished memorial
park in the New Delhi satellite city of Noida is now silent and
deserted.

Guards brandishing bamboo sticks shoo curious visitors away from the
high gates guarding the entrance to the park, which is dominated by
the outsized statues mounted on huge plinths, sandstone walkways,
pillars and a massive rotunda.

"You can't come in -- these are Madam's orders," says guard Jagdish
Kashyap, referring to Mayawati, who is known as the "Dalit Queen"
after building her political base championing those at the bottom of
Hinduism's age-old caste pyramid.

The Supreme Court of India has forced Mayawati to suspend work while
it examines the constitutionality of spending hundreds of millions of
dollars in public funds to build the monuments.

The 53-year-old Mayawati, who likes to drape herself in diamonds and
shiny silk saris on her birthdays in what she calls displays of
"self-respect," says the memorials are intended as an inspirational
"lighthouse" for the Dalits.

India's 160 million Dalits were once known as "untouchables" and given
the most menial jobs. Many still face discrimination, forbidden to use
communal wells and excluded from social events, despite
anti-discrimination laws.

But the estimated 20 billion rupees (420 million dollars) she has
spent on marble, granite and sandstone memorials to the Dalit icons,
according to a Supreme Court suit, has appalled critics.

The money could have been far better spent, they say, to improve life
in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, which is desperately
backward and lacking proper medical facitilies and schools.

"The chief minister's aim is to get popularity and immortality not by
doing work for the millions of poor and downtrodden in the state but
by building statues," says the suit, which notes 12 projects on top of
dozens already built.

Mayawati has put up a slew of statues of her mentor, Kanshi Ram, who
brought her into politics and founded the Bahujan Samaj Party which
she now leads, and of B.R. Ambedkar, the Dalit who framed India's
constitution.

The former schoolteacher, who has declared her ambition of being
India's first Dalit prime minister, has also immortalized herself --
commissioning one statue that was 50 feet (15 metres) high.

Opponents accuse Mayawati, whose own statues show her toting her
trademark square handbag, of megalomania. She had one edifice of
herself torn down and replaced last year because it was three feet
shorter than an adjacent statue.

S.R. Darapuri, a police officer turned social activist who is a Dalit
himself, accuses the chief minister of wallowing in
"self-glorification."

"It's a shame the chief of a downtrodden party is squandering public
money putting up party icons," he said.

Mayawati says she is the victim of discrimination and hypocrisy,
pointing to monuments the ruling Congress party built to the
Nehru-Gandhi dynasty which has governed India for most of the time
since independence in 1947.

But none of the Congress monuments have been on such a vast scale.
Some 6,000 trees were felled for the Noida memorial which sprawls over
82 acres (33 hectares).

"This was all beautiful green space with trees. We went there for
walks in the morning -- now it's all paved," lamented Noida resident
Priyanka Sharma. "What has been done is unforgiveable."

A senior civil servant in the Uttar Pradesh government said Mayawati
called in bureaucrats after her re-election in 2007 and told them she
was building the memorials as "something that will last for
generations."

Mayawati said she wanted something "no succeeding government can break
down -- that is why she has built them with two perimeter walls," he
said on condition of anonymity.

Mayawati's arch-rival, Uttar Pradesh opposition chief Mulayam Singh
Yadav has already vowed that, if he returns to power, he will "raze to
the ground" the memorials which he likens to those built during the
Roman Empire.

Ajoy Bose, who wrote a biography of Mayawati and her rise from
daughter of a lowly government clerk to the country's most prominent
low-caste politician, said critics of her statue building spree were
missing the point.

"We may look at them in terms of aesthetics and cost" but for many
Dalits and other marginalised Indians the statues are "symbols of
empowerment", Bose told AFP.

"The Dalits were denied entry by upper caste Hindus into temples --
they lacked an iconography. Mayawati has tried to fill this pantheon
with figures like Ambedkar and she is the latest figure in this
pantheon," said Bose.

But for security guard Kashyap, the statues are a waste of money.

"These statues will not give work to anyone," Kashyap said, gesturing
toward the lifeless, concealed forms.

------------------------------------

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[ZESTCaste] When Rahul came knocking

http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2009/11/3335

When Rahul came knocking

For dalits of Semra village, Rahul Gandhi's visit was like manna from
heaven. It forced government officials to fast track development work

Pradeep Kapoor Semra (UP)

A fairytale is unfolding in a non-descript village of Semra in Uttar
Pradesh. On January 14, 2009, the hopelessly poor dalit residents of
this village, 30 km from Amethi, were visited by farishtas (angels).
They seemed to have dropped some magic dust on a village that had not
seen any development.

They were no ordinary farishtas of the kind that descend from the
skies. They were Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi and British
Foreign Secretary David Milliband, who decided to stay in Semra to
experience the hardships of Indian village life.

Ten months later, change seems to be sweeping this dusty village. A
metal road is being speedily laid. Chotelal, owner of a tea stall on
the road leading to the village, said, "Construction work on the road
has accelerated during the past three months." "Rajiv Gandhi had
flagged off the kuchcha road by using the spade or phawra. Now, his
son Rahul is turning it into a metal road through Pradhan Mantri Gram
Sadak Yojana."

A huge neon-sign board has been set up. It flashes description of the
road.Electricity poles, too, have been erected along the road to bring
power to the villagers of Semra. The manifest change is visible in the
life of dalit widow, Shiv Kumari. It was in her house that Rahul and
Milliband spent a night. An excited Shiv Kumari opened the door for
this correspondent to show with pride the room where her bhaiyya Rahul
Gandhi and Milliband had spent the night on two cots and ate the food
she had cooked.

Wiping the tears that welled up in her eyes, Shiv Kumari remembered
how patiently the young leaders had heard her and the other members of
the self-help group. She had told them about her tragic life - how she
had been widowed a few years ago and how she had to bring up her five
children alone on a measly daily wage of Rs 25 per day. A moved Rahul
had picked up her youngest son, three-year-old Sunil, in his arms and
hugged him.

Rahul had promised help then which came a few months later when an NGO
began building another room in her house. Her father, Ram Kishore, and
brother, Heeralal, both construction workers, are also helping out
Shiv Kumari. She is also getting a widow pension. Even the ration for
her family has improved after Rahul visited Semra.

Shiv Kumari complained about corruption in the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). She alleged that she received
only Rs 600 of the Rs 1,200 that was due to her. The rest, 50 per cent
of her wages, was held back by the village pradhan. Later, however,
she was told by the pradhan that she would get the entire money and
also that she did not have to work at all.

Another dalit woman, Shivkala, who is also a member of the self-help
group, said that women have begun to assert themselves. The likes of
Pooja Bedi, film actress, are also helping them build their resolve
and confidence. Bedi has assured that the villagers will soon be able
to get interest-free loans to build pucca houses.

Nankau, a dalit youth, said that although Semra has been adopted as an
Ambedkar village, there has been no development. Neither did people
get old-age pension nor did they benefit from any government
programme. Yet, villagers had enthusiastically participated in the
2009 general elections. Voter turnout in Semra was about 68 per cent.

Local political activist and social worker, Jagdish Piyush, has been
working here for the past three decades. He said that Rahul's visit to
the dalit basti in his Lok Sabha constituency has brought them closer
to the Congress. "Now, government officials have been forced to fast
track development work," he said.

Interestingly, Rahul's visit has been welcomed by opposition parties,
too. Senior BJP leader, Kalraj Mishra, told the media that such trips
and close interaction between politicians and dalits should be
encouraged.

Prominent dalit activist and former IG of police, SR Darapuri, told
Hardnews that Rahul was reaching out to those who had never been
looked up by anyone before. "He is doing what Gandhiji did by touring
India to get first-hand information of the ground reality," he said.
Darapuri further said that Rahul was exploiting the dalits neglected
by the complacent BSP supremo Mayawati.

While dalits in UP are happy with Rahul's periodic visit to their
houses, there is a growing rage against copy cat visits by various
Congress leaders. On Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, the state
unit of the Congress instructed its leaders to follow Rahul's example
and spend the day with the poor and the oppressed.

Congress leaders followed the directive of UPCC president, Rita
Bahuguna. While Bahuguna cooked rotis for the dalits, some MPs and
Union ministers from UP made a mockery of the programme. They took
along with them cooks, guests, mosquito nets, coolers and other luxury
items and the media, too. Branded as "dalit tourism", their conduct
attracted the ire of the party leadership. Both AICC President Sonia
Gandhi and Rahul conveyed their unhappiness about the shoddy manner in
which Gandhi Jayanti was observed by sycophants of the UP Congress.
Minister of State for Petroleum Jitin Prasada was an honourable
exception who lived without fanfare at a dalit house.

NOVEMBER 2009

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[ZESTCaste] On Maya statues, UP says sorry to SC

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/on-maya-statues-up-says-sorry-to-sc/537098/

On Maya statues, UP says sorry to SC
Express News Service Posted online: Wednesday, Nov 04, 2009 at 0424 hrs
New Delhi : The Uttar Pradesh government has tendered a "sincere and
unqualified apology" to the Supreme Court over violation of court
orders stopping construction work at memorial
sites across the state. The court is scheduled to hear petitions
challenging the Mayawati government's construction of memorials on
Wednesday.

Responding to a contempt notice issued against him, UP Chief Secretary
Atul Kumar Gupta submitted a 51-page affidavit last week, conceding
prime facie violation of court orders.

While initiating contempt action against the Chief Secretary on
October 6, the Supreme Court had pulled up the UP administration,
saying it seemed "desperate" to continue the ambitious projects,
pushed by the Chief Minister herself. Issuing Gupta a notice, the
bench said: "It appears you want to play hide and seek. If you want
confrontation, let's have a confrontation." It directed Gupta to
appear in court on November 4.

The case will come up on Wednesday before the bench of Justices H S
Bedi and J M Panchal. Reconstituted after Justice B N Agarwal retired
on October 15, the new bench does

not include Justice Aftab Alam who was part of the earlier bench.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati making Lucknow a "city of statues": Sahay

http://www.ptinews.com/news/362956_Mayawati-making-Lucknow-a--city-of-statues---Sahay

Mayawati making Lucknow a "city of statues": Sahay

STAFF WRITER 14:33 HRS IST
Lucknow, Nov 5 (PTI) Attacking the Mayawati government for
constructing statues of Dalit leaders, a Union minister today said
that the priorities of government in a "poor" state were not in place.

"Mayawati is turning this city into a 'city of statues' and making fun
of crore of rupees and misusing public funds," Union minister for food
processing, Subodh Kant Sahay told reporters here.

He said the funds meant for central government schemes have remained
unutilised while last year funds worth crore of rupees had lapsed.

He also said that winds of change have started blowing in Hindi
heartland since the Lok Sabha elections and expressed confidence that
Congress would continue its winning spree, in the upcoming Assembly
elections in Jharkhand and bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.