Wednesday, June 9, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Maya’s googly stumps BSP, rivals alike

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/mayas-googly-stumps-bsp-rivals-alike/631408/

Maya's googly stumps BSP, rivals alike
Sanjay Singh Posted: Jun 09, 2010 at 0339 hrs

Lucknow Chief Minister Mayawati's decision to not let her party BSP
take part in Assembly and Lok Sabha bypolls till 2012 has put both her
partymen and the Opposition at their wits' end.
Bypolls are regarded as a test of a government's popularity. With the
ruling party staying away, the Opposition parties wonder who will they
fight. BSP leaders, on the other hand, are left guessing what the
party would gain by the decision.

Mayawati, who made the announcement after the BSP's victory in the
Domariyaganj bypoll on Monday, said the BSP would now concentrate on
the next Assembly elections, due in 2012. Bypolls for Lakhimpur and
Nidhauli Kalan Assembly seats are likely to be held soon, necessitated
by the deaths of two SP MLAs, Kaushal Kishore and Anil Yadav.

BSP insiders say Mayawati took the decision because bypolls disrupt
her normal work schedule since political preparations begin much in
advance. Also, since most of the ministers are involved in the
campaign, it also affects the government.

Since the last Lok Sabha elections, held in May 2009, the state has
seen 16 Assembly bypolls. As many as four of these were held in August
last year,

11 in November and now the one in Domariyaganj.

Many in the party, however, feel this may prove counter-productive. If
a political party stays away from elections, it may send out a wrong
signal to the people, said a BSP leader. Besides, what will the BSP
workers do at the time of bypolls?

As for the Opposition, it's yet to gather its wits. "Who will we
target in the bypolls?" said Samajwadi Party spokesman Mohan Singh,
though he said he doubted Mayawati would stick to her decision. "Wait
and watch. I think she would field her candidates," he said.

BJP state president Surya Pratap Shahi was puzzled too. "How can she
abstain from bypolls? She is first accountable to the people of the
state. She cannot stay away from bypolls on the plea that she wants to
spend her time strengthening her party."

State Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who had had many a
skirmish with the BSP chief in the past, doubted Mayawati's
intentions. "She has no confidence to face people. You can't use same
tricks in all the bypolls. The Opposition parties are now fully aware
of her tricks and are also in position to counter them."


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[ZESTCaste] When ignorance is convenient (Opinion)

http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/08215435/When-ignorance-is-convenient.html?h=B

Posted: Tue, Jun 8 2010. 9:54 PM IST
Views

When ignorance is convenient

It's not the inclusion of caste data in the census, but what we make
of it, that defines political outcomes

Himanshu

The issue of counting caste in the population census has now been
referred to an empowered group of ministers (eGoM). This may be the
easier way of addressing the vertical split that this issue has
created among India's major political parties (the Congress and the
Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP).

Interestingly, there is a parallel to this debate elsewhere—the case
of France, which prohibits by law any collection and maintenance of
data on race, ethnicity and religion ever since the Third Republic. As
a result, the French census is devoid of these classifications.
However, there has been a continuing debate to include these in the
census with overtones similar to the Indian case.

Two years ago, I was invited by the French government to visit that
country. One of the issues I decided to study was discrimination,
knowing well that there was no data that could help me understand the
level of discrimination in French society. More importantly, I wanted
to know how one goes about removing racial, ethnic and religious
discrimination without knowing its nature and extent.

The "colour blind" French are proud of the fact that their republic
treats everybody as equal without any reference to their race,
ethnicity and religion. But that is easier said than practised. The
movement for inclusion of race in the census is spearheaded by CRAN
(Conseil Representatif des Associations Noires, or the Representative
Council of Black Associations in France). According to the council's
survey, 56% of blacks reported having suffered racial discrimination
in everyday life in 2007. Similar stories of discrimination were
reported by Muslims and immigrants in France, represented by higher
drop-out rates and low employment availability. The November 2005
riots were in many ways a reflection of the frustration and anger of
immigrants and similarly disadvantaged groups.

Illustration: Jayachandran/Mint

A decade ago, the response was to brush such statistics under the
carpet. That ignorance is bliss was best represented by the French
position. But things have started changing. By the 2007 presidential
election, when counting race in the census became an issue, most of
the political parties in the country had come around to the idea of
including race and religion in the census except for the socialists,
who feared the data might be used to target minorities.

More importantly, there is recognition of the problem at the least in
government circles. The Haute Autorité de Lutte contre les
Discriminations et pour l'Egalité (HALDE, The French Equal
Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Commission) is an independent
statutory authority, established by law to fight discriminatory
practices.

Nonetheless, the problem remains. How do you counter discrimination
when there is no evidence of it in official statistics? That also
rules out affirmative policies as a means of fighting discrimination.
How do you achieve equality (one of the three tenets of the French
republic—liberty, fraternity and equality) of opportunity when you
have no idea what inequality is? The only way, then, is to be an
ostrich and behave as if everybody is equal.

The French solution is not acceptable in India's democratic
framework—based on the explicit recognition of diversity, inequality
and constitutionally mandated instruments to eradicate them, such as
reservations. It was this recognition that led to the inclusion of
caste data for scheduled castes/scheduled tribes groups in the census.

It is obvious that a strategy for equality has to be based on a solid
diagnosis of inequality, its nature as well as dimensions. It is this
necessity that is being lost in the debate over the caste census.
Those who argue that this will lead to demands for affirmative action
(reservations such as in the Gujjar case) must also recognize that
such demands emanate and are accepted even in the absence of such
data. Wasn't the other backward classes (OBC) reservation demanded and
accepted without any credible evidence? On the contrary, such data
have helped uncover evidence of inequality and discrimination. A good
example of this is the Sachar committee, which was successful in
highlighting the situation of Muslims. Could we have done this if
there was no data on religion? No. But, of course, it would have given
us the comfortable pretext of a working secularism. It is this fear of
accepting failure in providing equality that bothers most of us. The
fear is also that this truth will embolden OBC leaders in the populous
states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. What also hurts the BJP is the
inconvenient truth that these OBC leaders have used discrimination to
ally with similar disadvantaged groups such as Muslims.

But it is better to face the truth than hide it under the carpet. The
problem is not the data itself, but what we make of it. It is here
that politics plays its role. A caste census may or may not lead to
demands from various caste groups. Either way, aren't we interested in
better targeting government subsidies, as the latest Economic Survey
argues? Caste data will at least give us the information as to which
castes should be included for affirmative action/reservation.

A personal confession: for those of you who have wondered why I go
with only a single name, I was trying to be an ostrich. I always
thought that the best way to decaste oneself was to drop one's
surname—the obvious manifestation of caste. But those who saw things
through the prism of caste still managed to uncover the truth. And
here I was thinking that I had got rid of my caste. Ignorance is
bliss, but not when the reality is omnipresent. It is then convenience
that becomes bliss.

Himanshu is an assistant professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and
a visiting fellow at Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi.

Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.com


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[ZESTCaste] BSP MLA's kin kill Dalit

 

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/bsp-mlas-kin-kill-dalit/631004/

BSP MLA's kin kill Dalit
Agencies
Posted online: Jun 08, 2010 at 1219 hrs

BalliaThree persons, including the relatives of a BSP MLA, were on
Monday arrested here for allegedly beating a Dalit youth to death
after he attended a wedding function, defying a diktat, police said.

Tribhuvan and Laxman, cousin brothers of BSP MLA and former minister
Ghuraram, and Shobha Devi were held on the charges of killing Direndra
Kumar on Saturday night, Deputy Superintendent of Police B N Tiwari
said.

Dhirendra's family, which had been "socially boycotted" some years
ago, had earlier lodged a complaint accusing the BSP MLA of conspiring
in the murder, he said.

Earlier, police said the victim went to attend a marriage function
Saturday night and some villagers attacked him in order to teach a
lesson.

However, some persons had lodged a complaint alleging that the attack
was in retaliation to rape of a 15-year-old girl allegedly by
Dhirendra and his two associates.

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[ZESTCaste] ‘Does everyone keep track of UP’s Dalit castes the way they do in the case of Bihar?’

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/-Does-everyone-keep-track-of-UP-s-Dalit-castes-the-way-they-do-in-the-case-of-Bihar-/631310/

'Does everyone keep track of UP's Dalit castes the way they do in the
case of Bihar?'
Vandita Mishra Posted online: Wed Jun 09 2010, 01:27 hrs

Madhepura : He's been in poll mode almost ever since he's been in
power. The ongoing Vishwas Yatra is his fifth in four-and-a-half
years. Nitish Kumar uses this latest yatra to showcase his
government's record and to dole out new schemes in an election year.
In the corridors of Patna's secretariat, awed stories do the rounds
about how this Chief Minister puts in 8-10 hours in a sitting, parses
the commas, looks at a 10-page document and spots mistake in line 13.
On his yatra, he travels with the image of a chief minister immersed
in detail.

Nitish Kumar evidently revels in this. "I hear every voice, howsoever
distant, and then I reflect and take a decision. I am going away now
to the district headquarters where I will spend several hours
assessing the area's problems," he says as he takes leave of his
audience at the village meeting in Jorgama, during the yatra in
Madhepura.

Later, in an interview to The Indian Express, he narrates an instance:
"In my last tour through the state, the Vikas Yatra, a disabled child
came up to me. I was told that he didn't get the disability pension
because he was under 18 years. I went back to Patna and changed the
requirement. Now, all are entitled to it. Then, I was told that the
disability certificate can only be issued by a civil surgeon. I
changed that as well. Now it can be issued by the doctor at the
primary health centre. Earlier, the collector would dole out the
pension. Now, the SDO can do it." These are "micro-level"
implementation issues for which "I try and find a way out", he says.

The Chief Minister is most at home surrounded by his team of
bureaucrats, a number of whom he ferries with him to the district on
his yatra to showcase on the dais when he makes his speeches. But the
politician has sensed the clamour building from below. Across the
poll-bound state, there is increasingly audible criticism of what many
call afsar shahi, or the perceived rule of the bureaucrat in Nitish's
Bihar.

In his recent speeches, Nitish pointedly addresses allegations of
increased corruption in the lower bureaucracy. Corrupt bureaucrats
will not be spared, he says. He plays to the gallery in Madhepura: "I
ask my IAS officers, if you are so qualified, so intelligent, and
you've come in through the UPSC, then how come a petty village thug
can subvert your schemes?"

He has set up a trial system for public servants under the Bihar
Special Courts Act, he tells the Express. "This is through an
amendment last year of the Prevention of Corruption Act. There will be
designated courts with two provisions — one, a time-bound trial, and
two, if the government finds ill-gotten property, it can be
confiscated by a designated authority. When these courts begin working
in the next one year, there will be an impact," he says.

But as elections draw closer, when faced with criticism of his
government on most other counts, the much-awarded Chief Minister is
surprisingly testy, and ill at ease. Two questions, or two criticisms,
agitate Nitish Kumar especially.

One, the suggestion that his government has been able to deliver in
the state in part because he was better placed than his predecessor in
terms of financial assistance from the Centre. Incidentally, this is
the thrust of the anti-Nitish campaign being conducted by JD(U)
dissidents and the Opposition in election year. It is finding echoes
in Bihar's streets, where it often translates into a hard-nosed
questioning of the Nitish government's achievements vis-a-vis the role
of Central largesse in Bihar's recent development, especially in the
building of roads. And two, the bataidari issue.

On the first, the role of the Centre versus the state in Bihar's
development, Nitish counters: "What does the Centre give us? Is there
any Bihar-specific scheme?"

Bihar's plan size has grown from about Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 20,000
crore, he says. But, of this, "70 per cent is made up of our own
resources and our borrowing; and only 30 per cent is plan assistance
from the Centre which is formula-driven. We're not going to be
grateful to the Centre for that!" On the contrary, he claims that the
Centre has withheld funds for relief for the Kosi-affected, and the
state has had to pitch in its own funds to repair the national
highways. "The national highways are more visible, so if the Centre is
tardy in sanctioning the money, I have to do it. Or else, what will
everyone say?"

On the second issue of the "bataidari" fears spreading in the
countryside among the upper castes, sparked off by a
government-appointed commission's proposals on land reform, Nitish is
unyielding. "This is not an issue, this is a ghost. I will not discuss
it," he says. His government has put the 2008 land reforms report,
which advocates legal recognition of the tiller, on the backburner in
the most time-tested way: it has set up a committee. But the political
calculators are still out on whether or not Nitish had revived the
sensitive subject of land reform by electoral design in the first
place.

When asked about another government-appointed commission's
controversial renaming of 21 out of Bihar's 22 Dalit groups as
Mahadalit, leaving out only the Paswans, he contends: "Does everyone
keep track of Uttar Pradesh's Dalit castes in the same manner as they
do in the case of Bihar?" And on reports of increasing dissidence in
the ruling party: "It happens in every party. But in our case, it
makes news even in states where the JD(U) does not exist."

Stories abound in Patna, and outside it, of the Chief Minister's close
monitoring — and opponents allege, his close manipulation — of his
image in the media. There are loud murmurs of the growing government
adspend being unabashedly used as leverage.

Nitish denies charges of being overly sensitive to criticism. "I take
advantage of the information provided by the media. It is others who
are on the phone (to newspapers) all day. I am not touchy. I am only
involved in my work." "If the government of the day is working, there
is a provision for publicising it," he declares with vehemence.

He is expansive once again as he spells out the biggest challenge in
his four-and-a-half years as Chief Minister. When he came in, Bihar's
problem was not lack of governance or mis-governance, he says, but the
"absence of governance". "There was a fear of doing. No one had any
expectations from the state. Now, the people's confidence is back. Now
there is talk of growth rates," he says.

(Concluded)


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[ZESTCaste] Dalit sarpanch ostracized for contesting poll

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Dalit-sarpanch-ostracized-for-contesting-poll/articleshow/6025933.cms

Dalit sarpanch ostracized for contesting poll

Deepender Deswal, TNN, Jun 9, 2010, 02.33am IST

ROHTAK: Bhoop Singh, a brick kiln worker in Army chief V K Singh's
village in Bhiwani district, could be walking proud. Afterall, a
Scheduled Caste sarpanch is a rarity in this socially conservative,
caste-conscious jat belt.

But Bhoop Singh now moves sleathily with armed escorts provided by the
state administration to protect him from the upper caste community
leaders of Bapora village who insist that all major panchayat and zila
parishad posts were wrongly reserved for SCs. The upper caste leaders
had forced most villagers to boycott Monday's local election and say
they won't recognize the lower caste man as the village panchayat
head.

Soon after Bhoop Singh was elected unopposed on Monday, villager
elders held a meeting and issued a fiat ordering residents to
ostracize Singh and his family. Villagers said they were told not to
talk or have any relations with the family of the new sarpanch.

''We have decided not to keep any with relations his family and we
have decided not to acknowledge him as sarpanch of the village,'' said
Mitersein, a villager.

Bhoop Singh could not be reached for comment. A villager said he had
not been seen in the village since May 27 after the village elders
held a meeting and resolved to boycott the local election.

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