By Sagar ​​Godbole:

Within days of the 26/11 attack, there was a great hue and cry demanding that Ajmal Kasab be arrested and executed swiftly. A great many felt that considering the audaciousness and the scale of the attack, a quick retaliation against the terrorist, by bypassing the ordinary procedures meant for the ‘regular’ crimes, was justified. Every other day I could hear someone on the street, train, or bus claim that our ‘system’ was being too nice to Kasab.

The outrage regarding the trial dragging on increased multifold when almost all media outlets faithfully reported the Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam saying, “Kasab demanded that he be served Biryani while in prison.” Barely any news channels reported the prison officers’ comments about the incident. Either the channels swept up in nationalistic outrage did not bother to probe deeper, or the Prisons Department was asked not to comment. Either way, the fact remains that the entire nation believed a lie and went on to berate Kasab. The truth, as finally admitted by Ujwal Nikam, is that he made up the story regarding Kasab’s demands for Biryani.

Now think about this, of all the people that you have heard berate the Indian legal system for being too slow in conducting Kasab’s trial and the delay in hanging him, how many were actual victims of the 26/11 attacks? By and large, those baying for Kasab’s blood and saying that he did not deserve humanitarian treatment were merely relying upon media reports, and we now know how easily that could be manipulated.

Kasab was no doubt guilty of barbarous, horrific and unconscionable acts. However, what exactly was his role was needed to be determined by the courts. He was sentenced to death but only after the trial court called all the eye-witness to the stand and gave Kasab a chance to defend himself. While it is tempting to deny the right to a fair trial to terrorists, it is a right that no doubt everyone would want for themselves if they were to be the accused.

This time the media trial got the right guy, but were wrong regarding the food he was having. What if tomorrow the media trial get the wrong guy? This isn't the first time the media has been hoodwinked, and I am sure this is far from the last.

It is the free and fair judiciary that keeps all of us safe from injustice. If the ‘system’ was updated to just hang or punish every single person who the police accused of being a terrorist, then over time they shall start taking things easy. They can just pick a random person, accuse them of being guilty, and everyone would probably believe so when the TV news flash it (just as everyone believed that Kasab demanded Biryani). In such a case, the person shall have no means to defend themselves without a trial. They can end up in prison, or worse still at the gallows. The really scary part is that the poor fellow could be you.

At present, since every accused has every chance to defend themselves, the police naturally have to do a good and thorough investigation because if they don't, then the defence lawyers can easily get the accused off the hook. This keeps each and everyone of us safe because a thorough police investigation coupled with a chance to defend oneself means that an innocent individual won't get convicted.

While I hope the government takes action against Ujwal Nikam for spreading lies simply to build up public opinion, there are two lessons for every Indian today –

1. Don't condemn anyone as a terrorist or don't attribute certain acts to an accused undertrial just because the media says something. Determining guilt is a judge’s job, not a TV anchor’s.

2. Be thankful for the fair legal system. A trial by media can be easily influenced by people like Nikam and the next time it might just be you on the receiving end.

Finally, the question that everyone should ponder about is – Would you like for yourself or your parent/child/spouse, the same limited and minimal legal recourses that you wish be extended to an alleged terrorist?

The post The Biryani That Never Was: 2 Lessons From The Media Trial Of Ajmal Kasab appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Disha Pandey:

In India, we love to stereotype everything. We put labels on men, women, colour, marriage, mothers-in-law, women who “drink,” women who do not “drink,” men who stare, men who do not stare, Punjabis, Bengalis, Gujjars, Jatts and almost every one we can possibly stereotype. This seems to be a convenient claim for justifying our own actions, and this makes all of us prone to it. Lately, we have been questioning stereotypes of all sorts, but there still exists a stereotype that remains unquestioned - the act-your-age stereotype.

[caption id="attachment_45313" align="aligncenter" width="699"] Photo Credits[/caption]

There’s a nagging fear of getting old inside all of us, because we perceive old age as a phase of life, which is bereft of passion and fun. If an old lady wears a bright red saree, we call her “Buddhi Godhi Laal Lagaam.” If an old man tries to look funky, we say “Buddha Sathiya gaya hai”.

Is old-age really an end of your passions? I thought so too, before I met him.

I often feel that I have little time left in my life. I am 24, and I have huge ambitions - so huge that one life would fall short of time for fulfilling all of my dreams. So when I met this man at a family get-together, I was dumbstruck or rather profoundly amused by his personality.

A Germany returned 70-year-old business man with an exceptionally charismatic voice has returned to his childhood dream of acting and singing in the Hindi Biz industry. His ambitions are high and defy all the age stereotypes.

By the age of 60 - when it was time for him to sit back and relax with all the luxury that he had worked hard for, he decided to take a completely different route that requires courage for even those who are young. I happened to spend some time with this man, who proudly introduced himself as Raman Kapoor. He was dressed in a floral yellow shirt, which I made fun of  and subtly giggled telling my cousin about the absurd fashion sense this man seemed to have.

As I discovered the real man behind that oddly vibrant form, I even started liking his weird yellow shirt. Maybe, it was just his age that made me find it inappropriate and if Ashton Kutcher was wearing the same thing, then I would have probably drooled all over him. I was surprised at how he had changed my perception of age in just a little over an hour.

I discovered that this man was everything we dissociate old-age with. He sings without a hint of old age in his voice (his latest song is Maula, and I love it). He acts with passion. He works hard for finding new roles, he does whatever befitting roles he gets and in this way, he works towards fulfilling his dream. Like a true fighter, when he has every option and reason for surrendering and giving in to the convenient option of relaxing and holidaying in whichever part of the world he wants to, he has decided to pursue his dream.

He loves his wife with a passion that even we - the young people – lack. He still meets his old school friends to play a match of football during the weekends. In this phase of his life he has an aim and he is striving towards it, while living his life to the fullest. I no longer fear aging because I know that I will not let myself be overpowered by the stereotypical view of old-age, especially when there are so many people in the world, who are flouting all the social conventions related to ageing and old-age. I have compiled a small list of such unsung heroes, apart from Raman Kapoor, who is the original inspiration behind my research.

1. A 61 year old pole dancer.
Greta Pontarelli

2. A 78 Year Skateboarder
Lloyd Kahn

3. Breaking The world Record in Cycling at the age of 102
Robert Marchand

4. 100 Year old Industrial Climber
Doris Long

5. 61 year old Multi-Career Woman
Cindy Joseph

So, when I saw what these people are doing, I thought to myself, “Why do we fight age?  Why not embrace old age as just another phase of life? Why make fun of old folks trying to live a life on their own terms? If we fight for young women’s right to dress as they want to, why can’t we just let old people have the same right without being judged?"

If we have the right to choose our career and relationships in our 20s, then old people should have the right to choose the same without worrying about how the society would react. Let’s break the age stereotype. Let’s start from the adorable oldies around us.

The post These 6 People Will Change How You Perceive Old-Age Forever appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Devanik Saha:

A direct transfer of cooking-gas subsidies has revealed 12.73 million “duplicate” connections – implying fake consumers - or illegally held multiple accounts – across India.

[caption id="attachment_45635" align="aligncenter" width="850"] Photo Credits[/caption]

The PAHAL (Pratyaksh Hastantarit Labh or “Direct Transfer of Benefits”) program credits subsidies directly into bank accounts. Started by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and continued by the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), its success in winkling out fakes indicates the benefits of direct subsidy transfers.

Subsidy programs in India have always been marred by corruption and irregularities.

IndiaSpend has earlier reported on how Maharashtra cancelled about 5.3 million ghost public distribution system (PDS) cards.

The Indian government’s largest rural employment program, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), is also plagued by leakages and delays.

The NDA government is now pushing for better targeting of the end recipients of other subsidies like food, fuel, and fertiliser to avoid wastage and leakages.

India has 176 million registered liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections for domestic use with the largest spread in south Indian states and union territories: Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep.

[caption id="attachment_45631" align="aligncenter" width="496"] Source: Lok Sabha; Figures for 2014 as on Nov 1, 2014[/caption]

Around one in 14 connections is a duplicate, or fake, which is nearly 7% of all connections across India, according to the data released by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas.

Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 1.87 million multiple connections, followed by Maharashtra at 1.35 million and Assam at 0.99 million.

[caption id="attachment_45632" align="aligncenter" width="497"] Source: Press Information Bureau[/caption]

The three major public-sector oil companies producing and distributing LPG are Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL).

The maximum number of blocked – fake connections shut down — connections are with IOC (6.63 million). However, only 0.17 million connections have been surrendered/cancelled till March 1st, 2015.

A possible reason for this could be the fact that since the NDA government re-launched the direct benefit scheme in 2014, the process of tracking and subsequent cancellation of duplicate connections takes time and effort.

[caption id="attachment_45643" align="aligncenter" width="607"] Source: Press Information Bureau[/caption]

The PAHAL direct benefit transfer for LPG was launched by the UPA government in 2013 to reduce multiple and duplicate connections. The programme, running in 291 districts, was modified and re-launched by the NDA government in 2014.

As many as 122.3 million beneficiaries have received Rs. 6,506 crore ($1.05 billion) as subsidy.

Although LPG gas connections have been made available to 75% of the population between 2009 and 2015 under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitaran Yojana (Rajiv Gandhi LPG Rural Distribution Scheme), no more than 7% of the rural population uses LPG as of February 1, 2015, as IndiaSpend reported earlier.

Black marketing of LPG cylinders and irregularities are rampant, but in 2013-14, 29,837 checks were conducted, mostly across north India.

[caption id="attachment_45634" align="aligncenter" width="499"]
Source: Lok Sabha[/caption]

This article was originally published by IndiaSpend.

The post Ghost Protocol: The Cooking Gas Consumers That Don’t Exist! appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Mehernaz Patel:

Dissent is a word thrown around fairly often in our current political vocabulary. Despite, its common usage, its importance is often forgotten in a highly competitive democracy like India, where garnering enough votes to come to power can often seem like the first thing political parties base their priorities on.

[caption id="attachment_45684" align="alignleft" width="850"] Photo Credits[/caption]

This has been dubbed as “winnability” by Yogendra Yadav. He has criticized this in his and Prashant Bhushan’s open letter following the events of yesterday, which culminated in their removal from the AAP’s National Executive, along with Anand Kumar and Amit Jha. The AAP in its interactions with the media and also on its official Facebook page lists the reason for this as “their anti-party activities”.

Further, the update also states:

"The National Council has also authorized the PAC to take disciplinary action against any member who, without authorization, issues media statement against party line and decisions in a bid to tarnish the party’s image."

From their allegations, it seems that those removed have committed an error in their statements released to the media that apparently tarnish the party’s reputation as a whole. This isn’t a very new thing to anyone even remotely interested in the current Indian political scenario. Factionalism has always been a part of and a major detriment to India’s parliamentary system that not only results in a dilution of ideological standards, but also hinders crucial legislation processes.

Interestingly, when the AAP Convenor Arvind Kejriwal first resigned from the post of Chief Minister of Delhi in 2013, it was because the then minority government couldn't pass the anti-corruption legislation. These beliefs in the values that define the AAP, once their USP, seem to be deteriorating under the pressures of internal bickering. For example, although Yadav and Bhushan have, for a while, kept their silence on the issue, their letter brings to light a number of reasons they believe they saw fit to raise their voices against the prominent party members and their decisions. The most disconcerting reason is that a Lokpal needed to be set up to investigate into the candidature of some MLA hopefuls.

Yadav, even went on to say that this was brought to his attention by volunteers. He added that these candidates were either under-qualified or in possession of a criminal record. He lamented at “making winnability the main criterion.” Another complaint that prominently featured in the letter was the fact that the state divisions were not being given the autonomy to contest in the state wise elections.

These are two in a long list of criticisms against what was till recently one of the most respected parties in India, which was built upon the trust of voters and the input of a number of grassroots workers. The lack of transparency amongst party members, the absence of a secret ballot, and the outing of the party’s most known and loved faces is not in any way helpful to its image. Even the Delhi Congress chief, Maken, has commented on how the Delhi government is one of the few that has failed to assert the losses in agriculture caused by the freak weather.

Is this how the AAP is choosing to reward the loyalty of its base? By engaging in the same dirty politics that the other parties have been critiqued for? The way AAP has been behaving recently is alarming, and it shows a lack of transparency in their reasoning. Actions such as not allowing for anonymous votes, not considering the 54 members who walked out on the party leadership's decision to not let Admiral Ramdas attend the Executive meeting, and then removing him as the leader of the internal Lokpal don't bode well for the party. This isn't how they are warranted to treat those volunteers who have worked to support this party.

A party that has the words “directly responsible to the voters who elected them” seared into its vision cannot fall apart and more importantly, it cannot treat dissent with intolerance. If the AAP, that has thus far stood up for its own members is trying to weed out those who stand against its “central” leadership, there is no doubt that it has little time left in power, let alone fulfilling the promises of effective work to the people.

The post AAP Rift: Is This How The Party Is Choosing To Reward The Loyalty Of Its Base? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Yatharth Mishra:

The Aam Aadmi Party was born with a pledged commitment towards democracy and transparency. Its core ideology revolved around curbing corruption and establishing ‘Swaraj’. Since its formation, the AAP has proclaimed to be the only party that involves the people’s consent in the decision making process. It has always enjoyed the support of the intellectual class of our country. People have seen it as a hope; they have put their faith in it and served it wholeheartedly.

Sadly, today the case is not the same. If the recent developments are any indication, then the party, which was perceived to be different and cashed in on this perception, now seems to be no different from its counterparts. Since the last month, a tussle has been going on amongst the senior leaders of the party. On one side Arvind Kejriwal, the party’s national convener, with his coterie, accusing others of anti-party activities, while on the other side Yogender Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, two of the AAP’s very senior and respected leaders, questioning the autocracy of Arvind Kejriwal - these are the two camps in the AAP.

Yesterday the fight turned ugly, when four of the party founding members, including Yadav and Bhushan were thrown out of the national executive body of the party. This shows that Arvind Kejriwal seriously lacks the leadership skills necessary to run a party. His autocratic style of functioning could work in an ‘Andolan’ but it can’t work in a political party. Today, he is the Chief Minister of Delhi and enjoys the support of a majority of the volunteers, but that is not enough for him.

If we go by the trends in the  social media, then many of the volunteers and supporters of the AAP are angry with the way Arvind has handled this matter. Many of them are standing behind Yadav and Bhushan. This clearly indicates that the party is on the verge of getting divided.

In my opinion, Arvind Kejriwal thinks that he can work well in Delhi and gain lost ground. It is true that people have a weak memory and party infighting is not an issue directly related to them. But, here things are different. What happened in the last few days has just shattered the credibility of Arvind Kejriwal as a leader. Today’s politics is all about perception and now, AAP seems to be similar to all the parties which were accused by them of autocracy and a lack of internal democracy.

From my assessment of the current situation, it is clear that the Yadav-Bhushan camp wants to keep principles on the upper side rather than just winning the elections, and on the other side, Kejriwal thinks that politics is all about winning the elections. For any other party, Kejriwal’s view seems to be right, but that is not the case with the AAP. This party was never formed to become another ‘election winning machine’ , in fact, it came into existence to change the rules of politics and make it clean and transparent.

Arvind Kejriwal has to understand that the AAP has just won Delhi for now, and there is a long way to go if he really wishes to see a corruption free and a well developed India.  In his very first speech after becoming the CM of Delhi, he signaled that he wanted to focus on Delhi for now and turn it into a model state. Theoretically, it seems to be the easiest way to grow into a big party instantly, but in reality this is not easy. In a diverse county like India, winning the main elections on the basis of work done in some other state is not an easy task.

This is the time when Arvind Kejriwal should start building leaders in the other states as well and act like a leader, who is ready to work with people having a different point of view. It would have been much better if the Kejriwal camp could have answered the questions raised by Yadav and Bhushan, before kicking them out from the top decision making body of the party. This has proved that the questions raised by them have shaken kejriwal. And if the issues raised by these questions are not rectified quickly, then in the coming times the AAP will suffer because of this.

The post Mr. Kejriwal, Choose Wisely, Or Your Days Are Numbered appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Liam Miller, The University of Queensland:

Earlier this month, at the opening of an exhibition dedicated to his work at Brisbane’s GOMA, David Lynch got stuck into street art, calling it “ugly, stupid, and threatening”. Apparently, shooting movies can be very difficult when the building you want to film is covered in graffiti and you don’t want it to be.

Is there a distinction between art and vandalism? This is the question that always seems to rise up when graffiti becomes a topic of conversation, as it has after Lynch’s outburst. This is, however, not just important for those of us who want to know the answers to obscure questions such as, “what is art?” It affects everyone.

[caption id="attachment_45888" align="alignleft" width="300"] mikkelz[/caption]

Why? Because graffiti exists in our public spaces, our communities and our streets.

Let’s for a minute put aside the fact that an artist such as David Lynch, known for pushing the envelope in terms of what art is and can be, is criticising one type of art on the grounds that it is inconvenient to the kind of art that he prefers to undertake.

There is something more important to discuss here. The opinion that street art is vandalism (that is, not art) is widely held. Many people despise graffiti – but we are more than happy to line our public spaces with something much more offensive: advertising. That’s the bigger story here, the use and abuse of public space.

At heart, I think this is why people don’t like graffiti. We see it as someone trying to take control of a part of our public space. The problem is, our public spaces are being sold out from under us anyway. If we don’t collectively protect our public spaces, we will lose them.

Two types of graffiti

I would like to make a bold distinction here.

I want to draw out the difference between two kinds of graffiti: street art and vandalism.

We need something to be able to differentiate between Banksy and the kids who draw neon dicks on the back of a bus shelter. They are different, and the difference lies in their intention.

Tagging, the practice of writing your name or handle in prominent or impressive positions, is akin to a dog marking its territory; it’s a pissing contest. It is also an act of ownership. Genuine street art does not aim at ownership, but at capturing and sharing a concept. Street art adds to public discourse by putting something out into the world; it is the start of a conversation.

[caption id="attachment_45891" align="aligncenter" width="800"] macwagen[/caption]

The ownership of a space that is ingrained in vandalism is not present in street art. In fact, street art has a way of opening up spaces as public. Street art has a way of inviting participation, something that too few public spaces are even capable of.

Marketing vandals

If vandalism is abhorrent because it attempts to own public space, then advertising is vandalism.

The billboards that line our streets, the banner ads on buses, the pop-ups on websites, the ads on our TVs and radios, buy and sell our public spaces. What longer lasting sex? A tasty beverage? To be young, beautiful, carefree, cutting edge, and happy? For only $24.95 (plus postage)!

Advertising privatises our public spaces. Ads are placed out in the public strategically. They are built to coerce, and manipulate. They affect us, whether we want them to or not. But this is not reciprocated.

We cannot in turn change or alter ads, nor can we communicate with the company who is doing the selling. If street art is the beginning of a conversation, advertising is the end. Stop talking, stop thinking – and buy these shoes!

Ads v graffiti

We are affronted by ads. They tell us we are not enough. Not good enough, not pretty enough, not wealthy enough.

At its worst, graffiti is mildly insulting and can be aesthetically immature. But at its best, it can be the opening of a communal space: a commentary, a conversation, a concept captured in an image on a wall. Genuine street art aims at this ideal.

[caption id="attachment_45893" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Street art by Ghostpatrol in Brisbane.
(Paul Cunningham)[/caption]

At its best, advertising is an effective way of informing the public about products and services. At worst, advertising is a coercive, manipulative form of psychological warfare designed to trick us into buying crap we don’t need, with money we don’t have.

What surprises me is that the people who find vandalism in the form of tagging and neon dicks highly offensive have no problem with the uncensored use of our public spaces for the purposes of selling stuff.

What art can do

If art is capable of anything in this world, it is cutting through the dross of everyday existence. Art holds up a mirror to the world so that we can see the absurdity of it. It shows us who we really are, both good and bad, as a community.

[caption id="attachment_45894" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Ian Whitfield[/caption]

Street art has an amazing ability to do this because it exists in our real and everyday world, not vacuum-sealed and shuffled away in a privileged private space. Its very public nature that makes street art unique, powerful, and amazing.

If we as a community can recognise the value in street art, we can begin to address it as a legitimate expression. When we value street art as art, we can engage with it as a community and help to grow it into something beautiful.

When street art has value, our neon dicks stop being a petty and adolescent attempt at ownership, and become mere vandalism. When we value our public spaces as places where the we can share experiences, we will start to see the violence that is advertising as clearly as the dick on the back of a bus shelter.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The post Not All Graffiti Is Vandalism – Let’s Rethink The Public Space Debate appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Prashant Bhushan:

Dear Arvind,

In the National Council meeting held on the March 28, in your Convenor's address, instead of giving a review of the party's situation and the path ahead, you chose to launch an attack on Yogendra Ji, my father and me, making all sorts of false and inflammatory allegations against us. Your speech incited several Delhi MLAs - (who were invited despite not being members of the NC) to scream that we were "gaddars" who should be thrown out, and behave in the manner of hooligans. Such was the ferocity of the mob of these MLAs and others as they rushed towards my father, that he felt that he may not get out of this alive.

[caption id="attachment_45915" align="alignnone" width="850"] Picture Credit: Joe Athialy[/caption]

You did not even allow us to respond to your allegations. Immediately after your speech, in the middle of shouting and screaming by MLAs and others, Manish read out a resolution for our removal (without any chair, and without anyone allowing him to do so). He then proceeded to call for vote by show of hands without allowing any discussion, forcing us to walk out of what had clearly become a farce.

It was farcical for many reasons: Many members of the NC had not been invited or allowed to attend; more than half the people inside the meeting hall were non-members, which included MLAs, district and State convenors of four states, volunteers and bouncers; there was no orderly conduct of the proceedings for many reasons, including the hooliganism displayed by many people there; no independent videography was allowed, the party's Lokpal was not allowed, etc.

What has happened subsequent to the 28th, however, has taken the farce to a level where it seems as if a Stalinist purge is taking place in the party. The party's internal Lokpal, a person of immense stature and independence, has been removed unconstitutionally, merely because he expressed his wish to attend the National Council meeting and was seen to be fair; other members of the National Executive are being suspended, again unconstitutionally, only because they had attended a press conference held by us after the hooliganism in the National Council meeting.

Thereafter, you have ordered the release of a carefully-edited version of your speech at the National Council meeting, containing various false charges against us, and carefully editing out the portions showing the hooliganism of the mob. It is in such circumstances that I am having to write this open letter to you.

In order to respond to your charges, I would need to go back a bit to see where my serious differences started with you. If you will remember, my differences started after the Lok Sabha elections, when a series of things happened which began to show two serious defects in your character and personality. Firstly, you wanted to push through your decisions at any cost in the party, despite the majority of the PAC or the National Executive disagreeing with you. This included decisions that would have undoubtedly been very harmful for the party and against public interest. And secondly, you were willing to use some very highly unethical and even criminal means to achieve your ends.

After the Lok Sabha elections, you felt that the party was finished, and could only be revived if it were able to form the government again in Delhi. So immediately after the elections, you started talking to the Congress party for taking its support again to form the government in Delhi. When news of this came out, a large number of important people in the party including Prithvi Reddy, Mayank Gandhi and Anjali Damania called me up saying this would be disastrous, and if this happens, they would have to quit the party. I was in Shimla at that time, I called you up, and I said that you should not go ahead with this unless there is a proper discussion in the Political Action Committee (PAC).

I immediately came back and we had a meeting of the PAC at your residence. And at that meeting, a majority of the members - 5:4 - felt that we should not go ahead with forming the government with Congress' support. I had pointed out that this would seem extremely opportunistic, since there was no logical reason for us to change our publicly stated position. I also added that such a government would not last, as the Congress will withdraw support soon, and thereafter, for us to revive the party would become even more difficult.

Instead of abiding by the majority decision, you said that while that may be the majority view, as the Convenor of the party, you have the right to take the final decision, and that you would go ahead with seeking Congress' support. At that point, I had a verbal argument with you. I said the party can't be run in this manner, and it has to be run by some democratic means. So it was decided to refer this issue to the National Executive which had many more people. This reference was made by email, and people were expected to vote by next morning. By next morning, again a majority of people opposed this decision in the National Executive and yet, a letter was secretly sent by you to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi saying that he should not dissolve the Assembly for another week because AAP wants to seek the opinion of the people on whether to form the government again.

Immediately after the letter came out, Congress said they were not ready to support AAP and that left us with egg on our face with the result that you had to backtrack the next day and apologize. But despite that, the attempt to form the government with Congress' support or with the support of breakaway MLAs from the Congress continued, as is clear from the sting tape of Rajesh Garg which shows you were wanting to form the government with the support of those MLAs whom you had yourself accused of having being bought over by the BJP for Rs. 4 crore each. How could you even think of forming a government with the support of such people! And this went on till as late as November, just before the dissolution of the Assembly. In November, you called Nikhil Dey and asked him to speak to Rahul Gandhi to convince him to get the Congress party to support. But Nikhil told you that he can't talk to Rahul Gandhi on this issue.

Can you deny any of these facts? All this, showed your willingness to go against majority opinion, break all democratic rules of the party, and seek unethical support of MLAs whom you yourself had accused of being corrupt, all in the pursuit of power at any cost.

Then came the issue of AVAM or Aam Aadmi Volunteer Action Manch, which was a group of volunteers who wanted their voices heard in the party. Because this was threatening to brew into a rebellion amongst volunteers who felt that they were being used only like slave labour, and because you felt that it was necessary to crush this, it appears that the party got an SMS sent in the name of AVAM, saying that volunteers should join the BJP - the idea was to suggest that AVAM had become an agent of the BJP, though the SMS was fabricated by the party itself in the name of AVAM. And using this, you announced in a Google Hangout that these people had become traitors because of that SMS. And on that basis, Karan Singh, who was the leader of AVAM, was suspended and removed from the party. He appealed to the national disciplinary committee, which I was heading, and he said 'I had been saying that this is not sent by me, please have this investigated'. So I asked you and Dilip Pandey and others to get this investigated, but you steadfastly refused.

Eventually, Karan Singh had to lodge an FIR, and the police investigated the matter and it was found that a volunteer of the party, not of AVAM, called Deepak Chaudhary, created this identity in the name of AAVAAM and used that to send that SMS. You should know Arvind, that impersonating an organisation or persons in order to defame them, is a serious criminal offence. Unfortunately young volunteers in the party under your tutelage are being taught that use of such means is OK in politics, since any means used to defeat a "Bigger evil" is OK.

Then came the issue of whether the party should contest Assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra. Again the matter was put to the National Executive by email, and the majority - 15 is to 4 - said that that should be left to state units to decide in accordance with our principle of Swaraj. But you did not allow that decision to be implemented. And eventually, it was rendered infructuous, because elections came too close and finally in that National Executive meet in Sangrur it was decided that there's no point, and one should forget about contesting those elections.

When the Delhi elections were announced and campaigning started, you instructed volunteers to start a campaign 'Modi for PM, Kejriwal for CM'. I said this is totally unprincipled. It means that our party has gone down on its knees before Modi at a time when it was positioning itself as the main opposition to Modi.

When the process of candidate selection for the Delhi Assembly election of 2015 started, I found there was no transparency. Contrary to earlier practice, we were not posting candidates' names on the website. Even the PAC, which was meant to approve the candidate, was not being sent the bio-data or names of the candidates in advance to enable us to check the records of the candidates. In the second meeting of the PAC to discuss candidate selection, because I had received complaints about two of the candidates who were being proposed in that meeting, I pointed this out. You got very angry saying, "Why do you think we will be selecting crooked people?" I said that is not the point - we need to have some transparency and due diligence. That led to an argument between you and me, and I walked out of that meeting and wrote an email on November 27, that I cannot be a rubber stamp for non-transparent and questionable selection of candidates. That email is now in the public domain.

After that, in the next list, again there were at least four questionable candidates among the 10 names proposed. Yogendra Yadav and I wrote a letter to the PAC on 10th December, detailing the objections against these four and pointing out that this time, the process of candidate selection was very different from the last time. This time, we were giving tickets to a large number of political entrepreneurs who had joined the party only for opportunism, who had jumped ship from Congress, BJP or BSP at the last moment, who had no ideological commitment to our party, had no record of public service, and whose sources of wealth weren't explained.

Some of them were people against whom our party had itself complained that they were distributing money or liquor or had beaten up our volunteers. One of them (our initial choice from Wazirpur), went back to the BJP within 4 hours of us announcing his candidature. Your initial choice for the Mehrauli seat, Gandas, had to be dropped at the last moment only because his photographs were circulated with him showing off, with a glass of liquor in one hand and a revolver in the other. Yet, while he was dropped, his brother was given the ticket. Eventually, even he had to be changed because our Lokpal, Admiral Ramdas gave a strong report against him.

Thereafter, AAP stopped having meetings of the PAC or sending names for the approval of the PAC, and started announcing names on their own. When all this happened, I said "Now enough is enough. If this does not stop, and if there is no credible scrutiny of these candidates, I will have to resign from the party and make public the reasons for my resignation." On that, an emergency meeting was called at my residence on January 4, by Yogendra Yadav, Prithvi Reddy etc which had 16-17 people from all over the country, important functionaries of the party. All of them felt that the party's campaign would be ruined if I resigned at that stage.

In that meeting I said, "Look, all these kinds of compromises are being made, various ethical corners are being cut and now you are selecting these kind of candidates without proper transparency or scrutiny. If you go with these kinds of candidates, then even if you win, the further compromises that you will have to make, will be such that they will completely destroy the USP of the party, which is of being a clean, transparent party, wedded to alternative politics. And instead of winning by using these kinds of candidates, it would be better to lose the elections by going with clean and honourable candidates". That statement is being twisted around to claim that I said that I wanted the party to lose.

I had said that rather than winning by these kinds of candidates and means, it's better to go with honourable candidates and run the risk of a possible loss. Because winning with these kinds of candidates and means destroys the founding principles of the party in the short run, and will destroy the party itself in the long run.

If I had wanted the party to lose the elections, I would have resigned and gone public with my reasons at that very time. If Yogendra Yadav wanted the party to lose, he would not have convened that meeting and stopped me from going public. Instead, he worked his heart out for this campaign, defended the party on innumerable occasions on TV. And yet you have the temerity to accuse even him, along with me, of working for the defeat of the party!

At the end of that meeting, an arrangement was worked out with your express consent, that: We would immediately refer all the complaints against candidates who had been selected to the Lokpal of the party and his decision would be final. And the rest of the issues of institutional reforms about transparency in the party, accountability, swaraj, inner party democracy - those issues will be taken up immediately after the elections. So those complaints against 12 candidates were referred to the Lokpal. In the 4 days that he had to do this exercise, he recommended the removal of two against whom there was clear evidence, recommended the issuance of warnings against six against whom there was some evidence, and allowed four to continue. Two were thus removed.

But the other issue of institutional reforms, which was agreed to be taken up within two days of the election results, were not discussed. Instead, the National Executive meeting of February 26, which you chose not to attend, started with Vishwas announcing your resignation and a no holds barred attack on Yogendra Yadav and myself by members of your coterie. The message conveyed by them on your behalf was clear: That the price for your continuing as Convenor was our removal from the PAC and NE. I then responded and pointed out the things I have mentioned above, and the issues of institutional reforms, but those were not discussed. The only issue that was discussed that day was whether you should continue as Convenor.

We all agreed that you should continue, but thereafter, some people went to your residence to meet you, and you made it clear that it's either you or us, and that we have to be removed. And therefore, that is what happened in the next meeting which was held on March 4.

A charge that is made against me is that I did not campaign for the party during this election. I had said that I can't campaign for many of these candidates, and given the manner in which these candidates had been selected, I was willing to campaign only for those candidates about whom I was fairly certain that they were the kind of people who would take the ideology of clean politics forward and work in public interest if they win. I had in fact given a list of five people that I thought were decent. But the party did not send me any programme for addressing public meetings. I therefore went for Pankaj Pushkar's public meetings who had personally invited me.

The other charge made against me is that I stopped people from donating to AAP. When other people asked me whether they should donate etc, I'd said, "Look, you should donate to those candidates who appear to be decent and honest to you". You and your coterie have made the same charge against my sister Shalini Gupta. She also said the same thing that I had said to a closed circle of friends. In fact she strenuously encouraged the Global group to donate to deserving candidates, which is why several candidates got so much funds from NRIs.

Your coterie have also accused my father, my sister and myself of trying to capture the party. Arvind, you know very well that none of us have even wanted any executive positions or tickets for ourselves or any friends or family members. We have only tried to contribute and help in every way that we could to see the party grow into a powerful and credible vehicle for alternative politics in the country. My father, apart from donating more than 2 crores as seed money to the party, has spent an enormous amount of time in giving selfless advice, legal and otherwise to the party. He played a major role in the draft of the Jan Lokpal bill. He worked for the well being of the party with his "tan, man and dhan". Yes, when he felt that you, for various reasons were not the right person to lead the party organisation, he frankly told you so. Apart from the reasons of ethical compromises mentioned above, he also saw that you were violating the constitution and rules of the party repeatedly, not allowing any working structure of the party organisation to be created (other than a coterie), and were not interested in formulating the policies of the party.

For two years, the elaborate reports of the 34 policy committees that we had set up, have been gathering dust because you havent found the time or have the inclination to look at those reports and apply your mind to them. You accuse my father of having stated that you were his third choice for CM after Kiran Bedi and Ajay Maken. That was his honest view after seeing all the shorcomings in your character that he had been observing. I had immediately publicly disagreed with his opinion, but in the light of what has transpired subsequently, particularly the stage managed lumpenism that you got unleashed in the NC meeting, I regretfully wonder if he was right.

My sister Shalini Gupta, as well as many other highly qualified persons, left their lucrative jobs abroad to help you build credible and efficient systems which would have proper cells and expertise so that it could function as a world class organisation. On repeated occasions you had yourself asked Shalini to give up her job for the sake of the country and said that her role as Organization Development Advisor was only an advisory role and not a formal position with any power in the party as discussed in the PAC before she was appointed. However it became clear over time that you did not want any professional advice in this matter. Instead you asked Ashutosh who has no such professional expertise to come up with an alternative plan to make each cell of the party organisation an appendage to your coterie and accountable only to you.

It is true Arvind that I have not contributed as much as you for the party. I have not fasted, nor gone to jail. I have been mostly involved in my various PILs against various scams, 2G, Coalgate, the CBI director, 4G, the Reliance Gas robbery, against GM foods, Nuclear Power Plants, destructive Hydel projects, Section 66A, Tobacco and Gutka, etc. I have spent the rest of my time giving legal and other advice to the party and fighting its cases in court. I have never been interested in any executive posts and I have seen my role in the party mainly as a person who will try and ensure that it remains true to its founding principles. And it is for this reason that I have raised my voice whenever I have found it to be slipping from its path.

Arvind, this party was founded with a lot of idealism by thousands of people, especially young people, who came out and spent a lot of their time, effort, energy, money, sweat and blood in order to create a vehicle for alternative politics, in order to create a party that would practice clean and transparent politics. But unfortunately, all those principles are being betrayed by you and your coterie, who are currently in control of the party. And it has become a supremo-oriented, high-command culture kind of party.

You feel that you can rectify everything by running the Delhi government well in the 5 years that you have. You think that if you deliver on governance, people will forget what you have done to the party. I wish you well in that endeavour. Even traditional political parties like Congress, BJP have done some governance. But the dream that we started with for clean and principled politics and corruption free governance was much much bigger. The fear that I have, is that after how you have behaved and the character traits that you have showed, this dream of clean and principled politics that the Aam Aadmi party was founded on may well turn into a nightmare. But still, I wish you well.

Goodbye and good luck,

Prashant

The post Explosive Open Letter By Prashant Bhushan To Kejriwal – ‘Goodbye And Good Luck’ appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Nikhil Pahwa:

Imagine what kind of an Internet you would have in India three years from now, once the Airtel Zero idea, of creating a free Internet by allowing Internet companies to buy data, becomes the norm across telecom operators. The top 4 telecom operators are adding around 9 million mobile Internet users a quarter. India is adding around 14-15 million a quarter, and that’s around 60 million a year, probably more, with free. Where will the next 200 million users that will come online in India prefer to go? Will they buy a data pack, or will they use the free Internet?

How Airtel Zero splits the Internet in India

Airtel Zero, which we wrote about yesterday, is a platform that allows Internet companies to pay money to Airtel, to allow users to get free Internet. On the face of it, for a user, this seems great. A few things to consider on how it splits the Internet:

- Free and paid: What will they use? Facebook’s free Internet.org. Free Cricinfo. Maybe the free Indian Express (which calls “Net Neutrality” nonsense, here…do read the comments) instead of The Hindu or Times of India? Maybe YouTube will be free while Vimeo and Dailymotion will not be. Shopping from Flipkart at no data charges? Google, a part of the telecom lobby COAI and a serial violator of Net Neutrality in India (read this) will be free. With all the popular, favorite sites free, they'll choose free. They'll have to think before buying a data pack to access the freedom of the open web.

So, two Internets. Free and paid.

What will they see, when users who are on free try and go to a paid site? This:

That’s what happened to me when I tried to access the open web on an ‘Airtel Live’ (not Mobile Internet) connection back in 2008.

- Indian and global: When a new app launches globally, will they line up outside an Indian telecom operators office, so that they can reach that 200-300 million users in India? Imagine if YouTube had launched now as a startup, and it wasn’t owned by net-neutrality-violating Google. Do you think they would have cared about being made available in India? Twitter – which has also violated net neutrality in India – recently launched a video streaming service Periscope. What if it isn’t available to those users on the free plan? All the small little tools that can launch globally now will not be available to that user base, because they won’t be able to roam the Internet freely.

So, two Internets: Indian and global.

What will they see, when users who are on the free Indian Internet, try to go to a global site that hasn’t signed up with a telecom operator? This:

- Between big and small Internet companies: Indian Internet companies will need to raise higher funding, for their sites to be made available to free users who don’t have a data plan. So, Flipkart, with $1.9 billion raised last year, will be free, but, maybe, DailyObjects with lesser funding, will not. So the users on the free plans will never find out that DailyObjects exists, unless DailyObjects raises more funding and also signs up. What will student startups do? MediaNama was started with Rs 500 for a domain name, Rs 500 per month for hosting and our biggest expense was registration for a private limited entity. What will happen when most of the Internet in India is inside a walled garden? Will not market forces ensure that this so called “marketing expense” isn’t optional. If Flipkart has signed up, do Snapdeal or Amazon have a choice? How long will they hold out?

So, two Internets: one for the big funded companies, one for the rest.

What they see, when users who are on the free Indian Internet, try to go to a site that hasn’t signed up? This:

- Between telecom operators: Now take this situation with Airtel, and replicate it across telecom operators. Different services free on different operators. Telecom operators could do exclusive deals with some sites (even though Airtel has said that it isn’t doing that now, it could, or others could), so some sites will be free only on one telecom operator, or available to those 200 million odd users from one telecom operator.

So, how many Internets? 26: Two Internets per telecom operator, and 13 telecom operators (including Jio). If ISP’s also go down this path (BSNL, Airtel and MTNL are the largest), and there are over hundred ISPs, then we would have hundreds of different Internets in India. Oh, just to clarify, that isn’t a good thing.

What they see, when users who are on the free Indian Internet, try to go to a site that hasn’t signed up with their telecom operator? This:

Maybe it won't be as bad as this

I’m giving you the worst case scenario. It might not be all that bad. All the telecom operators and ISP’s in India could collaborate and create a free “India Internet”, allows all apps and sites to make their product available to free across all telecom operators, maybe at a discounted rate. That still splits the Internet into two parts: free and paid. And there could be a single “Supply chain manager” (a role that exists in the mobile vas industry) which Internet companies, Indian or otherwise, have to negotiate with to make their app available, or negotiate with every year for the renewal as a vendor with telecom operators. Is that better? I don’t know. Telecom operators could also charge on a pay per use basis for sites outside the free Internet, and not block access, keep in mind two things: Firstly, once that distinction is created in a users mind between paid and free – they will lean towards free. Secondly, Indian telecom operators have a history of manipulation of their platform. In Mobile VAS, there is a “Supply Chain Manager” who renegotiates deals, telling “Vendors” that they’re making too much money, and more share needs to go the operator. Where have we heard that before? Well, in the TRAI paper, the telcos argue that Internet services are “free riding” on their networks, and that have very high valuations. That $19 billion WhatsApp deal, which valued the company higher than Airtel, probably really made them angry about this “free riding”.

Calling bullshit on Airtel’s “marketing spends” spin

Technically, Airtel Zero isn’t a marketing or promotional platform. It’s platform that allows Internet companies to buy data so their consumers have to pay for it later. It is essentially subsidizing Internet access. I can buy an iPhone and decide that it is available for free for anyone to take. If I don’t tell anyone about it, how will they know? The promotional aspect is separate: either the Internet company or Airtel will have to promote the services and the platform. Allowing companies to buy free access for consumers is not promotion.

Also, Airtel, in the interview with us, didn’t disclose rates, the list of companies that signed up, how this price was decided, or how different it is from what regular users pay. Srini Gopalan, Director – Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel, said that “The way our pricing structure works, the pricing is transparent, but I can't talk to you about the details right now.” Okay, then.

This post was originally published on MediaNama.  

The post The Airtel Zero Idea: Splitting India’s Internet Into Many Internets appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Kanika Sharma:

There are two bus routes in Delhi that I am most familiar with - the one I take from where I stay to where I work, and the other one from my office to Malviya Nagar (where a lot of work-related meetings take place). Both these commutes are 8 to 10 kilometers long. Unlike many of Delhi’s poorer commuters, I can afford to take the metro as and when I like. But the metro station is not close to my destination, and taking the metro also involves changing lines, therefore, I find that taking a bus is more convenient.

[caption id="attachment_46040" align="aligncenter" width="850"] Picture Credit: Make way for buses - बस को रास्ता दो Facebook page[/caption]

For the first route, I sometimes have to wait for as long as one hour for the bus to arrive. When it does, it is often quite full. Once I board the bus, I’m sure that I will reach my destination comfortably, though I'm never sure of the amount of time it will take. It is the same story when I come back on this route.

On the other route that I take, the bus is more frequent and the journey takes much lesser time. It also passes through the much-maligned Bus Rapid Transit Corridor (BRT), but I have never seen that as a problem. Every bus user is also a pedestrian and I find it safer to approach the Sheikh Sarai bus stand (the BRT intersection) than many other busy intersections in Delhi. Apart from elite roads of Lutyens' Delhi, I have not seen such good footpaths anywhere else in the city. My bus journeys on the BRT corridor would have been much faster had cars stuck to their designated lanes. People who travel in cars may hate the BRT corridor, but bus users seem to like it a lot.

I remember an incident that happened at one of the peak hours last winter. A car had entered the bus lane and was stuck there at the Sheikh Sarai intersection. There were jam-packed buses on the corridor which were obstructed because the car was in the wrong lane. Instead of apologising and trying to find a remedy for the dangerous situation, the arrogant car owner took out their phone and started clicking photos of the bus and the bus driver. They obviously thought that the buses and the drivers were the erring party and were shouting at them. On that day I realized that many car owners in Delhi feel entitled to every inch of the road and do not want to yield any concessions to the majority of Delhi’s citizens who walk, cycle, or use public transport.

It is because of this sense of entitlement of car owners that the BRT corridor in particular, and public transportation in general, is in such a disarray. The BRT, an intervention that serves the majority of people on the road, is now on the verge of being scrapped because influential residents of colonies such as GK 1, GK 2 and Alaknanda cannot tolerate dedicated lanes for cyclists, pedestrians, and buses. Over the years, Delhi has built several flyovers and signal free roads to placate car owners, yet the congestion has not reduced because the number of cars keeps on increasing. This sense of entitlement is also partly responsible for the pernicious air pollution in Delhi which has detrimental effects on small babies, while also causing various respiratory diseases, and even cancer.

Delhi has the worst air pollution in the world, and this has had impacts on my health too. Over the past one year in Delhi, I have suffered from upper tract respiratory infections. Often I cannot stop coughing and suffer from routine chest pain. These problems magically vanish when I am in smaller towns or rural areas where I have to go regularly for my work. My friends and colleagues have had similar experiences. That is why it was extremely shocking for me to learn that the Delhi government and some of its MLAs are hell-bent on scrapping the BRT corridor. They have not taken any steps till now to improve the public transportation and to reduce air pollution in Delhi, nor have they given the BRT a fair chance ever, and instead are kneeling before Delhi’s powerful car lobby.

To challenge this preference given to cars in public transportation, some of us who have been involved with people’s movements, academia, citizens’ and professional bodies, as well as public transport enthusiasts, researchers, architects and students, have decided to initiate the Make Way for Buses Campaign – or the Bus ko rasta do abhiyan. We are organising and raising awareness to promote public and non-motorized modes of transportation in Delhi. This will improve accessibility for all citizens of all genders and classes, as well as children and differently abled persons. We believe that walking, cycling, and buses should also be seen as essential elements in any solution to Delhi’s rapidly deteriorating air quality. We hope that you will support this initiative.

Back in my hometown, and in most rural areas of India, stars are still visible in the night and the sky is still blue in the day. Many people in Delhi don't realize this, but stars and blue skies are rarely visible in Delhi because of such bad air pollution. The repercussions of scrapping the BRT and not improving public transport in Delhi would be severe. That children would learn about “twinkle twinkle little stars” only in nursery rhymes would be just one of them.

Kanika is national organizer of the National Alliance of People’s Movements and a part of the Make Way for Buses Campaign – or the Bus ko rasta do abhiyan.

The post To Delhi’s Powerful Car Lobby – ‘Bus Ko Rasta Do’! appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Video Volunteers:

On 29th July 2011, Magdalene, a 15-year-old girl from Mailpidi village, was walking back home after school. On her way, she was arrested by the police. “Stop pretending to be a student” the police told her as they went through her school bag and roughed her up. Her crime? Bank robbery; armed conflict with the police; and being a Maoist.

Magdalene’s village, Mailpidi, is nestled between the Elephant Corridor and the Saranda-Singhbum range in Jharkhand. No roads or vehicles go there. Magdalene shifted to Murhu in the next district and rented a place to stay with her brother so that she could go to school easily. Little did she know that her plans of getting a better education were going to be put on hold by the Jharkhand police.

After being arrested, Magdalene, baffled and hapless, was taken to the Khunti jail and transferred to the Namkum Women’s Probation Home. She stayed here for 10 months and for the first 9, no one — not her family, not her friends, not her teachers — knew where she was.

“But why did they think she was a Maoist? Did she do something?” I asked Amita, our Community Correspondent who, among other activists, was involved in getting Magdalene out of jail.

“This was not the first time she was arrested” Amita reveals, “She was arrested in 2010 after a tussle at the Murhu State Bank between some people and the police. She wasn’t involved in any of it; she wasn't even there. She and her friends were visiting her sister who lived nearby.”

Amita continues, “They went to see a cricket match at her sister’s house when that shootout happened. The police came around to do a routine search and found a bunch of kids in school uniforms who weren't originally from Murhu. They concluded that they must be Maoists and took them all into custody.” Magdalene and her friends spent 3 months in jail.

It took a lot of convincing from her teachers, who clarified to the police that there had been a mistake, for the four students to be released. They put the incident behind them and attempted to move on with their lives. Magdalene went back to her school and continued to live with her brother in Murhu.

July 2011, Magdalene found herself in a women’s probation home again. “There was no evidence against her. It seems that the Superintendent of Police instigated the other officers to arrest her. The charge sheet from the event in 2010 does not even have her name on it,” says Alistair Bodro, an activist who has worked closely with Magdalene and many others like her.

“I am sure if you took a look around jails in Khunti and others in Jharkhand, you'd find a lot of the people who have been falsely accused of being conspirators against the state. They are poor and nobody comes to bother the police if they disappear,” he says. The police have been arresting people on unsubstantiated grounds to mount figures. The jacked-up jail population of Jharkhand touts the efforts of the state police in fighting insurgents, but a closer look reveals that democratic principles are being jeopardized by the state as much as its enemy.

It was a matter of chance that Alistair found Magdalene at the probation home. Once he had the information, he was able to involve enough people to get her out of the jail. Two years later, Magdalene is beginning to put back together her plans that were rudely interrupted.

Her family was convinced that she should just stay at home and forget about completing school. “But she’s not going to give up so easily,” says Amita; who, along with other activists, was able to secure admission for Magdalene at the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidhyalaya. The District Commissioner and school principal have been very supportive through the entire process.

Even as Magdalene attempts to get on with her studies and make new friends, the court case against her continues to drag on. She is currently supposed to appear at the court in Khunti every month. The ordeal, both Amita and Magdalene’s teachers agree, is detrimental to her emotional well being as well as her studies. “Cases like this one need to be brought forward. More people need to know about the state’s repression otherwise it will never stop,” Alistair said.

The post Suspected Of Being A Maoist, This 15 Year Old Was Beaten Up And Forced To Strip appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

This first person account was sent to us by a student of IIT BHU. If you were present there, add on to the story by telling us what you saw in the comment section below.

By Nikhil Jain:

In what can be only termed as a brazen display of hooliganism, IIT BHU students were beaten up, pelted with stones and attacked with petrol bombs by students of Law Faculty-BHU. Last night, a riot was triggered by the mismanagement and incompetence of the IIT BHU proctors. Initially, there was a minor scuffle when some IIT BHU students were denied the right to play cricket on their own ground. As the situation got tense, the IIT BHU proctors were called to the scene to calm the agitated crowd. But what can only be seen as a shameful reality of the inadequate security that the IIT-BHU students are provided with, they were threatened with dire consequences and ultimately beaten mercilessly with stumps and bats, while the proctors stood as “silent guardians”, allowing the hooligans to continue with this barbaric act. All this happened in front of around two dozen officials who kept their hands and tongue tied.

Seeing our batch mates bleed profusely, the IIT students retaliated and ran behind the perpetrators to catch them. But by then, they had reached the safety of their hostel and started pelting stones. When the IIT students advanced forward, petrol bombs were hurled at them. Then it turned into a standoff, with both sides hurling stones at each other. The IIT students were always on the backfoot as petrol bombs were being hurled on them continuously. It was a really horrifying scene to see a student running around screaming for help, after being hit by a petrol bomb. He had more than 25% burn injuries on his face and body. Standing there in the dark with bleeding heads and burns on our bodies, we alone took on the fight with no support from the BHU administration or the police. After nearly four hours, the police came to intervene but by then the students of IIT had suffered massive casualties.

But this was not the end of the story, reports started coming that our friends were being picked up and attacked at various places inside the campus. At 10.30 PM, when more than 2000 students gathered at that very place to demand for immediate action, lathicharge was inflicted upon them with severe brutality. They chased the students inside the hostels, delivering blows after blows. At around midnight, 400 students from one of the hostels were evacuated and thrown out of the campus with no regard for their safety when there was every possibility of retaliation on these students as they spent a sleepless night on the streets.

This was not a stray incident, girls are being groped in daylight and students picked up and thrashed inside the campus, events like these have happened in the past but now the frequency is increasing. Only last year, three students from IIT-BHU were attacked and abducted, for which a huge protest was held. But the hypocrisy of the promises made by the administration can be seen clearly. There has been no barricading, no checking of IDs, and lack of police personnel; instead they are forced to live in fear expecting to be the next victim in this never ending series of attack on IIT students. Providing a safe and secure environment should be the first priority of the administration, but the irony of getting thrashed in front of them, being portrayed as the culprits instead as victims has come too far.

The post ‘It Was A Horrifying Sight’ – IIT BHU Student Recounts ‘Battleground’, Braving Bombs And Lathis appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Jordan Gaines Lewis, Penn State College of Medicine:

Anyone who knows me also knows that I have a huge sweet tooth. I always have. My friend and fellow graduate student Andrew is equally afflicted, and living in Hershey, Pennsylvania – the “Chocolate Capital of the World” – doesn't help either of us.

[caption id="attachment_46163" align="aligncenter" width="668"] Sugar lips. Sweet by Shutterstock[/caption]

But Andrew is braver than I am. Last year, he gave up sweets for Lent. I can’t say that I’m following in his footsteps this year, but if you are abstaining from sweets for Lent this year, here’s what you can expect over the next 40 days.

Sugar: natural reward, unnatural fix

In neuroscience, food is something we call a “natural reward.” In order for us to survive as a species, things like eating, having sex and nurturing others must be pleasurable to the brain so that these behaviours are reinforced and repeated.

Evolution has resulted in the mesolimbic pathway, a brain system that deciphers these natural rewards for us. When we do something pleasurable, a bundle of neurons called the ventral tegmental area uses the neurotransmitter dopamine to signal to a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. The connection between the nucleus accumbens and our prefrontal cortex dictates our motor movement, such as deciding whether or not to taking another bite of that delicious chocolate cake. The prefrontal cortex also activates hormones that tell our body: “Hey, this cake is really good. And I’m going to remember that for the future.”

Not all foods are equally rewarding, of course. Most of us prefer sweets over sour and bitter foods because, evolutionarily, our mesolimbic pathway reinforces that sweet things provide a healthy source of carbohydrates for our bodies. When our ancestors went scavenging for berries, for example, sour meant “not yet ripe,” while bitter meant “alert – poison!”

Fruit is one thing, but modern diets have taken on a life of their own. A decade ago, it was estimated that the average American consumed 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day, amounting to an extra 350 calories; it may well have risen since then. A few months ago, one expert suggested that the average Briton consumes 238 teaspoons of sugar each week.

Today, with convenience more important than ever in our food selections, it’s almost impossible to come across processed and prepared foods that don’t have added sugars for flavour, preservation, or both.

These added sugars are sneaky – and unbeknown to many of us, we’ve become hooked. In ways that drugs of abuse – such as nicotine, cocaine and heroin – hijack the brain’s reward pathway and make users dependent, increasing neuro-chemical and behavioural evidence suggests that sugar is addictive in the same way, too.

Sugar addiction is real

“The first few days are a little rough,” Andrew told me about his sugar-free adventure last year. “It almost feels like you’re detoxing from drugs. I found myself eating a lot of carbs to compensate for the lack of sugar.”

There are four major components of addiction: bingeing, withdrawal, craving, and cross-sensitisation (the notion that one addictive substance predisposes someone to becoming addicted to another). All of these components have been observed in animal models of addiction – for sugar, as well as drugs of abuse.

A typical experiment goes like this: rats are deprived of food for 12 hours each day, then given 12 hours of access to a sugary solution and regular chow. After a month of following this daily pattern, rats display behaviours similar to those on drugs of abuse. They’ll binge on the sugar solution in a short period of time, much more than their regular food. They also show signs of anxiety and depression during the food deprivation period. Many sugar-treated rats who are later exposed to drugs, such as cocaine and opiates, demonstrate dependent behaviours towards the drugs compared to rats who did not consume sugar beforehand.

Like drugs, sugar spikes dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Over the long term, regular sugar consumption actually changes the gene expression and availability of dopamine receptors in both the midbrain and frontal cortex. Specifically, sugar increases the concentration of a type of excitatory receptor called D1, but decreases another receptor type called D2, which is inhibitory. Regular sugar consumption also inhibits the action of the dopamine transporter, a protein which pumps dopamine out of the synapse and back into the neuron after firing.

In short, this means that repeated access to sugar over time leads to prolonged dopamine signalling, greater excitation of the brain’s reward pathways and a need for even more sugar to activate all of the midbrain dopamine receptors like before. The brain becomes tolerant to sugar – and more is needed to attain the same “sugar high.”

Sugar withdrawal is also real

Although these studies were conducted in rodents, it’s not far-fetched to say that the same primitive processes are occurring in the human brain, too. “The cravings never stopped, [but that was] probably psychological,” Andrew told me. “But it got easier after the first week or so.”

In a 2002 study by Carlo Colantuoni and colleagues of Princeton University, rats who had undergone a typical sugar dependence protocol then underwent “sugar withdrawal.” This was facilitated by either food deprivation or treatment with naloxone, a drug used for treating opiate addiction which binds to receptors in the brain’s reward system. Both withdrawal methods led to physical problems, including teeth chattering, paw tremors, and head shaking. Naloxone treatment also appeared to make the rats more anxious, as they spent less time on an elevated apparatus that lacked walls on either side.

Similar withdrawal experiments by others also report behaviour similar to depression in tasks such as the forced swim test. Rats in sugar withdrawal are more likely to show passive behaviours (like floating) than active behaviours (like trying to escape) when placed in water, suggesting feelings of helplessness.

A new study published by Victor Mangabeira and colleagues in this month’s Physiology & Behavior reports that sugar withdrawal is also linked to impulsive behaviour. Initially, rats were trained to receive water by pushing a lever. After training, the animals returned to their home cages and had access to a sugar solution and water, or just water alone. After 30 days, when rats were again given the opportunity to press a lever for water, those who had become dependent on sugar pressed the lever significantly more times than control animals, suggesting impulsive behaviour.

These are extreme experiments, of course. We humans aren’t depriving ourselves of food for 12 hours and then allowing ourselves to binge on soda and doughnuts at the end of the day. But these rodent studies certainly give us insight into the neuro-chemical underpinnings of sugar dependence, withdrawal, and behaviour.

Through decades of diet programmes and best-selling books, we’ve toyed with the notion of “sugar addiction” for a long time. There are accounts of those in “sugar withdrawal” describing food cravings, which can trigger relapse and impulsive eating. There are also countless articles and books about the boundless energy and new-found happiness in those who have sworn off sugar for good. But despite the ubiquity of sugar in our diets, the notion of sugar addiction is still a rather taboo topic.

Are you still motivated to give up sugar for Lent? You might wonder how long it will take until you’re free of cravings and side-effects, but there’s no answer – everyone is different and no human studies have been done on this. But after 40 days, it’s clear that Andrew had overcome the worst, likely even reversing some of his altered dopamine signalling. “I remember eating my first sweet and thinking it was too sweet,” he said. “I had to rebuild my tolerance.”

And as regulars of a local bakery in Hershey – I can assure you, readers, that he has done just that.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Read the original article.

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By Jason Jacobs, The University of Queensland:

When Game of Thrones returns to screens for its fifth season on Sunday night, US time, it will no doubt continue to attract the critical and popular praise that it richly deserves.

DB Weiss and David Benioff’s HBO adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s string of fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, has achieved its cultural prominence not because of the vast amount of cash invested in the production and not on the back of the passionate fan base for the books. It’s not even the lucky coincidence of industrial changes in Hollywood television organisation over the past 20 years that have made it more hospitable to signature television, that is, television with strong authorial identity, style and attitude.

No: Game of Thrones is successful simply because it is much better than most other television and, for that matter, most other contemporary cultural output.

By “better”, I mean it reaches a consistently satisfying – often breathtaking – level of achievement as entertainment.

That’s something that is not explainable by merely pointing to its fidelity to the books on which it is based, or its budget. There are many other well-funded television shows that blend history, sex, violence in a genre package, such as Marco Polo, The Borgias, Wolf Hall and Spartacus. The thing is, picking a formula and loading it with cash and a sprinkling of talent doesn’t guarantee critical or popular success: art and culture do not work like that.

What Game of Thrones does best

So what is the distinction of Game of Thrones - what makes it better?

First of all it avoids the temptation to import a bunch of boutique contemporary issues into its narrative.

The women depicted in it, for example, would have little truck with the contemporary feminist tendency to paint women as vulnerable victims in need of legal and state protections against feral men. Daenerys, Brienne and Arya are valiant as lions and cunning as foxes: armies, weapons and courage are their currency. We’ve watched them over four seasons carving out a space for themselves in a hostile world full of pitiless foes.

Its homo- and bisexual characters are not magical emblems of ethical goodness for our edification; its men are not oversensitive metrosexuals in fur.

In avoiding such things, the show sidesteps the self-righteous and pompous tendency of some Hollywood productions to instruct us on how we should conduct our moral lives.

Secondly, Game of Thrones embraces its genre and uses it as a medium for expression.

It was the great philosopher Stanley Cavell who, in his books on Hollywood screwball comedies and melodramas, developed the notion that popular genres in the hands of great artists can be the source of extraordinary accomplishment. Game of Thrones – unlike other critically acclaimed shows such as Mad Men or Breaking Bad – fully revels in its fantasy genre.

More importantly, it draws on the familiar resources of the genre – the magic, the medieval brutality, the monarchical mania for power – in order to do something never achieved in the genre before – even, arguably, by the books. That is, it makes the search for meaning, particularly of those struggling for power and revenge, intelligible in dramatic and spectacular ways.

The threat of the White Walkers, the disintegration and murder of the families of the North, the corruption and debt of the Lannisters; competing religious faiths, one breeding evil the other a strange kind of solidarity and commitment to justice; it shows us what loyalty, lies and betrayal mean when the stakes are mortal not trivial.

Somehow we feel this speaks to our own search for meaning today, but not in an aversive way that suggest the writers have the cocky confidence to provide an answer.

Popular genres resonate in uncertain times

The unravelling of Westeros, as it is figured by some of the finest performances on screen today, resonates with a profound uncertainty about our relationship to our own history and future. And it is through genre and fiction that this intelligibility is achieved. Why? Because we cannot make sense of it, cannot feel its palpable weight for us, through other forms of discourse such as philosophy, politics or science.

Indeed the great Hollywood directors of the 1940s and 50s all used popular genres in this way – think of John Ford’s westerns, Hitchcock’s thrillers, the melodramas of Douglas Sirk, Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray and Max Ophuls.

None of that would matter much if it was executed poorly.

Veteran actors like Charles Dance, Liam Cunningham, Diana Rigg and Ciaran Hinds have never done better work; the standout contributions are Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark and Aiden Gillan as Lord Baelish. Dinklage communicates the shifting blend of family resentment with the wit of a well-read intellect. Williams uses her youth as a constant misdirection for her evolving capabilities as a killer. Gillan manages to pull off the feat of never being less than chillingly ahead of us in his political designs while allowing us to glimpse chinks of his interiority that almost humanises him.

A win for ‘complex TV’?

Finally, the credit for making Game of Thrones better than the rest of television must lie with Benioff and Weiss.

In a recent Conversation, piece Jason Mittell made the case for denoting the shift to more sophisticated television drama as part of the rise of “complex TV”, by which he meant narrative complexity enabled by “major shifts in the television industry, new forms of television technology, and the growth of active, engaged viewing communities.”

There are many problems with this notion of “complex TV”: as a criterion of achievement, “complexity” is a quality that is too broad to capture aesthetic specificities. Lots of complex things are quite unrewarding aesthetically – transport and sewerage systems for example. And complex narratives can be irritating, or over plotted.

But what is striking is the demotion, in Mittell’s account, of the creative achievement of individual artists who are given a perfunctory mention at the end of his piece. On the contrary. Without Weiss and Benioff, Game of Thrones would be just another disappointing adaptation – think Harry Potter films – of some fine genre writing.

The tendency of cultural and media studies over the past 20 years has been to avoid judgement and discrimination between the bad, the good and the better, by pretending that everything except the contribution of talented artists is important.

In the meantime, the leading artists of our time – such as David Milch (Deadwood), Matthew Weiner (Mad Men), Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective) and Weiss and Beinoff – have got on with the job of making great art for the masses. And herein lies one lesson that Game of Thrones can be said to offer us: without the talent and courage of individuals, no justice and, I would argue, no art, is feasible.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Read the original article.

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By Mehernaz Patel:

There is no doubt that the Aam Aadmi Party’s regime in Delhi started off with a joyous wave which then sunk to the murkiest depths of petty pandering, as only a good political scandal can. The ousting of Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha from the party’s National Executive filled plenty of newspaper pages and occupied a sizable chunk of prime time news as fingers were pointed just about everywhere and the Bhushan-Yadav duo even released a letter defending their actions, for the sake of their volunteers.

The party was then heavily criticized for repaying their volunteers in such a manner, putting their future as the ruling party of Delhi at stake. Even Congress chief Maken went on to put in his two cents and label them as the “ladne-dharne wali party”. Yet, their recent report card stands dignified and goes beyond the sheer weekly-soap style entertainment the media rung out of them.

Ever since their coming to power in Delhi, the AAP has been busy on a number of projects. A notable one being their initiation to encourage the suggestions of the public in preparing a participatory budget. The suggestions would be filtered through Mohalla Sabhas, the most innovative ideas warranting discussion in the cabinet. To challenge the popular notion of Delhi being notoriously unsafe for women, Convenor Kejriwal’s office issued a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi, seeking to install CCTV cameras across the city, specifically “dark spots” and police stations. A great move considering the lack of accountability prevalent in the police force relating to matters of gender and sexual violence. The cost, as specified in the letter, was one the government was more than willing to bear.

Even DCM Manish Sisodia gave the party a fairly well deserved pat on the back as he commemorated two of their best achievements in a month of their election - their subsidies on power and the provision of up to 20,000 litres of water per month free of cost to all households. These, in addition to limits set on swine flu test prices, a hike in minimum wage to Rs. 9048 per month, and the setting up of a corruption helpline, ensure their current success in governing the capital city.

Considering what most of us get done in a month-or even two, their recent status as media fodder couldn't possibly be held against them. Or could it? To what degree would the representation of a political power in mainstream media affect the public’s view of their calibre?

Perhaps we could compare the AAP’s recent debacle with one as old as memory goes, and even more shamelessly entertaining - the Lewinsky scandal during President Clinton’s term in the USA. After his initial denial of the incident and Hillary Clinton’s appearance on the news in support of her husband, his approval ratings which were earlier at 60 went up to 10%. This entire time, Clinton maintained a sharp focus on policy and eventually retired as one of the more favourably looked at Presidents in US history. This judgment based on political substance and prior assessments is termed as “politics of substance”. An idea proposed by John Zaller, a professor of political science at the University of California, it counteracts a lot of the notions of the media as the so called fourth branch of government and the all-powerful sway it holds on public opinion. Here, we as a population do not necessarily believe what the press presents to us at the time of political turmoil, this “substance” in question moves public opinion to the bottom-line of whether a politician is effective in working toward the welfare of his constituency.

This means that Clinton’s approval would reflect an approval of his policies, not his character. This adds up if we consider that Clinton’s term saw some of the lowest crime rates, a peaceful nation and the best economy the US had seen in 25 years. Basically the whiter version of acche din.

So what would such a concept mean for AAP?

Similarly, despite all the flak the AAP got and continues to face due to its split with core members like Yadav and Bhushan, their performance will be the judge of their effectiveness and not the version narrated by the media. A version we are collectively beginning to agree is being overtly sensationalized by everyone without apology in order to compete with old rivals and the time-based nature of new media.

This brand of news has resulted not only in blowing details completely out of proportion, but has also ushered in the era of paid news as well as the memory of the public consciousness being whittled down to a few days at best. Swine flu who?

Yet, despite our collective amnesia when it comes to the faux pas du jour, national memory always favours those leaders who do their jobs well. An outcome that the AAP is clearly vying for and one we'd hope they achieve.

The post What AAP Can Learn From The Bill Clinton Scandal appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Meenal Thakur:

Chennai: Twenty three years have passed since the incident took place, but the memories of escaping from Tibet are still fresh in Tenzin Norbu’s mind. His story, he says, is the story of most of the Tibetan students who come to India, leaving behind their families, in search of a ‘free, secure and better’ life.

[caption id="attachment_46381" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Source: Tibetan Students' Association of Madras[/caption]

“I was smuggled to India when I was eight-years-old, on the pretext of going on a pilgrimage to Nepal. We were a group of 22 people, including children, monks and nuns. We trekked continuously for one-and-a-half months, travelling during the day and hiding during the night. Most of us suffered frost bites, some children died on the way, others gave up and returned home, the rest of us somehow managed to reach the Nepal border from where we were taken to India,” recollects Tenzin who entered India alone after his uncle was shot dead in a police firing while crossing Nepal.

Tenzin Norbu (30) or Ten Nor as his friends call him, says that just like him, most of the roughly 120 Tibetan students presently studying in Chennai were tempted by their parents to undertake the tough journey. “You will get lots of free apples and oranges in India,” his mother had told Ten.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are an estimated 1.20 lakh Tibetan refugees in India. Most of these people entered India through Nepal, Bhutan or Arunachal Pradesh. They studied in either the Tibetan Children's Villages (TCV) schools in Dharamshala and Mussoorie or the Central School for Tibetans (CST) established in different refugee colonies in the country. However, higher education drew some of them to Chennai.

“Colleges in Chennai are considered India’s Harvard in Tibet. Madras Christian College (MCC) and Loyola College are the most preferred institutions,” says Ten who studied in Loyola College and is now pursuing his PhD in English from Madras University. “The Tibetan Students’ Association of Madras (TSAM) assigns a few students every year who help new students in the admission process and in finding accommodation,” he says.

“We do not come with the intention of settling in India, but of learning and returning to our country. But with time, our individual survival and aspiration is hindering the fulfilment of our moral responsibility. This is reflected in the courses students have started studying here,” says Ten.

Earlier, English Literature, Political Science and Commerce were the desired courses, but now students are aware of the possibility of them staying back in India so they have started opting for courses like animation, which do not have much scope in Tibet, he added.

As far as jobs are concerned, earlier students would go back to join the Tibetan Government in Exile, schools and NGO’s operating in Tibet. But now, more and more students are staying back, working mostly in Business process outsourcing (BPO’s) with companies like Infosys and Wipro or in the hospitality sector. Some students leave Chennai, but to work with the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamshala; Dorjee Tsering who worked with Infosys here before leaving for Dharamshala is one of them. Ten, on the other hand plans to settle down in Delhi and teach at Jawaharlal Nehru University, “From Delhi I can easily visit Dharamshala where I spent my childhood,” says Ten.

However not all students who stay back, do so by choice. In 1996, the Chinese government had issued a notice to all Tibetan families whose children had been studying in India to call their kids back. The pressure was more on parents who were government employees. “My mother destroyed my birth certificate so that no one finds out about me. Now even if I wish to go back I will be spied upon, my family will be harassed and I will have to weekly report to the nearest police station to keep them informed about my whereabouts,” says Ten.

If going back is tough, living in India has its own set of challenges. These students’ phone calls are regularly tapped which restricts the conversation they have with their families whom they haven’t seen in years. “We cannot even name the Dalai Lama while talking,” says Ten who speaks to his family once in two days.

Another major problem is being identified as northeast Indians. “The first time I told my classmates I am from Tibet, they asked me whether Tibet was a state in the northeast. Sometimes people also call us Nepali,” says Kalsang (23) who is a second year Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) student in MCC. Like Ten Nor, he was also born in Tibet but came to India without his family, in September 2002.

This attitude of locals has made these students closer to their roots. “We get angry when people think we are from Nepal. This provokes us to use symbols like free Tibet bags and t-shirts to make people aware of the existence of Tibet,” says Ten. The celebration of Tibet’s National Uprising Day which is held annually is yet another way of educating the locals about Tibet.

Problems adjusting to the spicy South Indian food and the hot weather deter students from staying in hostels. Most of the students stay in shared apartments in Nungambakkam, Guindy and Tambaram due to these areas’ proximity to nearby colleges. Staying together also makes the girls here feel safe. “Compared to other states, Chennai is much safer for girls, but we still prefer staying with our own people,” says Pasang, who graduated from MCC and is pursuing her MA in English in Madras University.

Staying together is also convenient because there has been little support for these students from the State government, so much so that the Department of Rehabilitation in the State does not even have an official count of the number of Tibetans living in the city. “There are no Tibetan refugee camps in the city, therefore we do not keep an account of their population,” says S. Bhaskar, Superintendent, Department of Rehabilitation.

An unfamiliar local language and no family to fall back on has made the TSAM a close-knit community with students looking after each other. Though the TSAM has been holding the community together since its inception in 1993; these students have also found support in a local resident here.

Since June 2001, Mrs. Asha Reddy, popularly known as Aunty Asha has been acting as these students’ local guardian, helping them with college admissions, arranging internships, organising cycle rallies , hunger strikes, medical camps and even taking care of them in case of medical emergencies.

Mrs. Reddy (58) is a housewife, who was first introduced to the Tibetan students in Chennai, when she attended a meeting of the TSAM, on the persuasion of her daughter’s Tibetan roommate Nyima Tsam at MCC. “I am amazed at how much responsibility these students shoulder at such a young age. I have great respect for the pride, passion and patriotism they have for Tibet”, says Mrs. Reddy who has been given the Tibetan name, Tenzin Yangchen, by the Dalai Lama for dedicating her life to the Tibetan cause.

With Tibetan students coming to Chennai every year, questions about their contribution to the society tend to rise. To this Ten responds, “Tibetan Buddhism has its roots in India’s Nalanda tradition of Buddhism, which was based in Magadha (present day Bihar) but with time it lost its popularity in India. When we came to India in 1959, our monks brought back the same Buddhism that India had once given us, thus enriching India’s lost tradition. Not only this, around 5000 Tibetans are serving in the Indian Army under ‘Establishment 22’ or the Special Frontier Force (SFF), something that the Indian government wants to keep a secret from the Chinese, but at least Indians should know about it.”

There is a lot more these students want to give back to the city which has been their home for so many years, but the community expectations with which these students are sent to India puts them in a dilemma. Explaining the situation Ten says, “We will forever be grateful to this city but we also need to tirelessly work for Tibet’s freedom. We need to fulfil the dreams of our people back home who see us as mawongbhodkyisontsa- the future seeds of Tibet.”

The post “They Asked Me If Tibet Was In The Northeast”: The Life Of Tibetan Students In Chennai appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Kavita Krishnan:

Can Army officers claim to have raped someone in the pursuit of their duty? Absurd claim, isn't it? The AFSPA’s raison d’etre is that it is needed to shield Army officers from investigation and prosecution for violence done in the pursuit of their duty. If it is obvious that rape cannot form any part of ‘duty’ by any definition, then Army personnel accused of rape ought not to be eligible for any sort of protection under AFSPA. AFSPA requires sanction of the central government for prosecution of armed forces personnel – such sanction should not be needed when it comes to sexual violence cases. And yet, AFSPA serves as a virtual ‘licence to rape’ for Army personnel in conflict areas.

[caption id="attachment_46432" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Picture Credit: I Am In[/caption]

Take the recent case in Karbi Anglong. On 6th April, an Army regiment entered a village in Karbi Anglong, and molested and injured many women. Around eight jawans carried off a 15 year old girl into the forest; when her mother and another woman rushed to rescue her, the jawans raped all three. An ICDS worker who tried to intervene was also injured, and a three-year-old baby was hit with the butt of a rifle. Although protests have been ongoing in Karbi Anglong ever since the rape, none of the jawans have been arrested – the police say they cannot make an arrest because of the AFSPA. Instead, the victims are being pressurized and terrorized into withdrawing their complaints.

The Justice Verma Committee had observed, “Systematic or isolated sexual violence, in the process of Internal Security duties, is being legitimised by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which is in force in large parts of our country.” The Verma Committee had recommended that the continuance of AFSPA in the law books be reviewed. The Committee had also recommended that the requirement of central government sanction for prosecution of armed forces personnel should be specifically excluded when a sexual offence is alleged. Not only that, the Verma Committee had recommended that complainants of sexual violence in conflict areas must be afforded witness protection, so that they can give witness without fear of reprisal by the Army against their families; and special commissioners should be appointed in conflict areas to monitor and prosecute for sexual offences.

The UPA Government, rejecting the Verma Committee recommendations, had then orally claimed to women’s movement campaigners, that AFSPA in fact did not apply to rape cases, and there was no question of letting rape-accused hide behind AFSPA. But that claim was obviously a false one. Rape and molestation by Army personnel enjoys widespread impunity, and police do not arrest or prosecute rape-accused Army men. The failure to appoint special commissioners and offer witness protection further means that the victims are extremely vulnerable and fearful of giving evidence against the mighty Army that can not only rape, but also kill, without fear of facing any case.

Karbi Anglong is one of the hill districts of Assam, the site of an agitation demanding autonomous statehood that has lasted several decades. In Karbi Anglong, following the rape case, the Army and Ministry of Defence is seeking to distract and confuse the anti-rape agitation. The Army is claiming that there is no need to prosecute, it will itself take action against the rapists. But in fact, the Army’s latest claim is that 'the rapist jawan' has committed suicide inside the Army camp. This claim is extremely suspicious. The entire regiment, after all, was involved in the attack on the village, and the three women were gang raped by at least eight men. So, there was no single ‘rapist.’ Moreover, the protesters are seeking investigation and prosecution of the entire regiment and its commanding officer. What proof is there that the man who died was indeed one of the rape-accused? The survivors have not yet been given any chance to identify the perpetrators. Further, a suicide inside the Army camp should be treated as a suspicious death and must be probed to check for foul play. 

The protesters in Karbi Anglong continue their agitation – they have said clearly that a suspicious ‘suicide’ inside the Army camp is not justice. Justice can only mean that an FIR of rape be lodged, and the rape investigated and to punish all the perpetrators as well as the commanding officer who was in charge of the operation.

Moreover, justice can only mean the scrapping of the AFSPA – that time and again provides a protective shield to rapists in uniform.

The Central Government must of course answer as to why AFSPA is not only being allowed to remain, but is also being extended to Arunachal Pradesh. It must also answer as to why it is yet to give sanction to the Assam police to file a rape FIR against the accused Army personnel in Karbi Anglong. Why instead is the Army being allowed to try and influence the justice process and intimidate witnesses?

But the Assam Government also cannot claim helplessness. After all, it is the State Government that has responsibility for the safety of its citizens. Why isn’t the Assam Government at least seeking permission to prosecute the rape-accused Army personnel? Why can’t the Assam Government at least order an independent judicial enquiry, instead of allowing the Army to tamper with evidence and witnesses?

There is a lot of hue and cry in the media over ‘delays’ in justice in some selected rape cases. But one wonders why most channels fail to speak of the delay and sheer denial of justice in rape cases involving the Army. Why do the channels with flaming fire across their screens, screaming to tell us what ‘the nation wants to know’, develop such cold feet when it comes to covering a story like the rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama?

In 2004, Thangjam Manorama’s brutal rape and murder by the Assam Rifles personnel sparked off a historic movement demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Manipur’s women stripped off their clothes and protested in front of the Assam Rifles headquarters at Kangla Fort, shouting ‘Indian Army Rape Us!’

An Enquiry Commission, under the Chairmanship of C. Upendra Singh, retired District and Sessions Judge, Manipur, was set up in 2004 by the Manipur Government because of the explosive public pressure. But it was thwarted from the start by the Assam Rifles, that claimed it was protected by AFSPA from such enquiries. Justice Upendra Singh submitted his final report to the Manipur government in November 22, 2004 – the same year that Manorama was raped. But the report could not be made public because the Army and Central Government continuously challenged it in courts. Finally, in 2014, the Upendra Singh commission report could be made public, only after the Union home ministry submitted the report to the Supreme Court on its directive. The Supreme Court ordered the Centre to pay compensation to Manorama's mother – tacitly admitting that the report is factual and true in establishing that Manorama was raped and murdered by the Army. Yet, can Rs 10 lakhs be a substitute for justice in a case of rape, torture and murder?

Ten whole years after Manorama was raped and killed, the Upendra Commission report was made public, which detailed the “brutal and merciless torture” and rape to which Manorama was subjected before being murdered in cold blood. Yet – even after ten years – those named by the Commission as the guilty men, are yet to face prosecution and trial!

The media talks of brutal torture and rape in the December 2012 case, as well as other similar cases in Lucknow and Haryana. But why is it mostly (with a few honourable exceptions) so reluctant to speak of the brutal and merciless torture and murder of Manorama? Clearly, it is because they would rather not speak of rape committed by men in uniform – only of rapes in which slum-dwelling men like Mukesh are accused. But rapists and killers in uniform rape not out of opportunism but because it is part of the tacitly accepted and encouraged state policy of repression of local population in conflict areas. These are rapes done – and shielded – in the name of the ‘nation’.

We, the people of the country, need to speak louder and clearer against the AFSPA and rapes shielded by AFSPA.

Let us support the protests by the Karbi Nimso Chinthur Assam, SYC and other women’s and students’ groups in Karbi Anglong. Let us tell the Governments of Assam and the Centre, that we refuse to condone rape that is shielded in the name of ‘the nation’ – in our name. Let us demand to scrap the AFSPA.

A protest demonstration by women’s and students’ groups will be held at Assam Bhawan at 3 PM on 18th April. A memorandum will be submitted after the demonstration to both the Assam Government as well as the Home Ministry.

Kavita Krishnan is Secretary, All India Progressive Women’s Association and tweets at @kavita_krishnan

The post The Army’s ‘License To Rape’ – What The Nation Doesn’t Want To Know appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Chaitanya Kumar:

The netizens of India are up in arms against the proposed attack on net neutrality. Stand up comedians, Bollywood icons, technology startups and the general online milieu are tweeting their hearts out with the hashtag #SavetheInternet and #IndiaWantsNetNeutrality. As I write this, thousands of complaints are reaching the inboxes of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which will decide if private companies and internet service providers will be allowed to make profits by segregating the internet and its services.

Internet users expressed their disapproval of companies like Flipkart and Airtel for their stand on net neutrality through creative means; and social media has been at the heart of their response. By using the very tools that the proposed changes affect risk on, people took to petitions, blogs, videos, tweets and Facebook posts to spread the information needed to take action. It is a fantastic example of collective action to tackle what is perceived as a collective risk to the values we hold dear. These values of innovation, open access, individual choice and freedoms are hallmarks of the 21st century and critical for a young and rapidly evolving country like India.

But in other, more ignored parts of the country, there is a much more complex scene at play. Over the last 2 months, more than a 100 farmers have committed suicide owing to crop losses and financial debt due to unseasonal rains. According to numbers released by the agriculture ministry on 26 March, about 11 million hectares (ha), or nearly one-fifth of the rabi crop in the country was damaged due to the unseasonal showers. Wheat produce is expected to decline 5-10% and fears are ripe that food prices are set to rise.

The footprint of climate change on this disaster is unmistakable. Bhupendra Nath Goswami, former director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune says his studies have shown that the occurrence of "extreme rainfall events" had been increasing over the country in the last five-six decades. "We can say with a high degree of confidence that this increasing trend is due to global warming," he said. Hundreds of scientists in India support this claim, effectively ringing an alarm bell for climate action.

As carbon emissions continue to rise, extreme weather events like unseasonal rainfall, cyclones, floods and droughts are expected to increase in frequency and intensity across India.

While we see creativeness and energy sparked from anger over net neutrality, how is is that in this country we hardly hear a whimper on the very visual and devastating effects of climate change. A problem that very often brings our way of life to a screeching halt through power cuts, heat stress and flooding seems not enough to draw the fierce response required and witnessed through the past few weeks on net neutrality.

There is one thing we cannot ignore; both net neutrality and farmer suicides vis-a-vis climate change are important examples of a global paradigm that has pitted ordinary citizens against big industry, in this case - the telecom and fossil fuel industry. This power struggle has so far, and quite unfairly it seems, been in favor of these huge monolithic powers. With wealth and the accompanying clout to influence and twist policy to their needs, big corporations (barring a few) have consistently infringed on the rights and values of the people.

The need for citizens to become more meaningfully engaged in the political and policy choices of their country is greater than ever before and as a campaigner over the last 6 years, I can say that we cannot let this moment go. I have seen the incredible power that modern tools on the internet offer for change in inspiring collective action on a common cause. They are effective for creating informed citizens and subsequently working with them to influence powers we often feel powerless to take on.

These tools are of course only useful as part of a smart campaign strategy. A strategy that lays out ambition, vision and clarity between the forces at play. In order to see a vibrant India work together as engaged and active citizens, we need to start building a movement. One way to start is to begin skilling up, which is why a few organisations have come together for Campaign Academy India, a training course for young people raring to change the way the system works in our country. The 6 day training followed by an year long mentorship program will highlight successful campaign stories from around the world, present the best practices of digital campaigning, share experiences of engaging with media and discuss other essential aspects of modern day campaigning. Whilst applications for this years academy are closed, we hope to learn from our first training and introduce the program annually.

So, join the campaign academy and help build a movement of active citizenship.

Chaitanya Kumar is South Asia campaigns coordinator for 350.org. The views expressed by the author are personal.

The post As Big Industry Infringes On Our Rights, Here’s How To Fight Back! appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Alastair Blanshard, The University of Queensland:

There was a time when we used to worry about how the world began. Few debates were as furious as the argument over whether it was God or the Big Bang that we should thank for creation. These days we only seem to care about how the world will end.

[caption id="attachment_46794" align="aligncenter" width="668"] The flames are hotter and the snow is colder in Avengers: Age of Ultron. © Marvel[/caption]

The potential causes for our demise are numerous. Global warming, viral pandemic, zombie apocalypse. Or, as the latest episode in the Marvel Avengers franchise would have it, our greatest threat comes from psychotic robots with faulty programming. The Millennium Bug is back, only this time it’s armed with pulsar cannons.

Under the direction of Joss Whedon, Avengers: Age of Ultron – which opens today – reunites Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow to fight against a rogue Artificial Intelligence called Ultron. The action is fast-paced, but the title feels like a misnomer.

Although it is difficult to work out the actual length of events, partly because the film is in love with slow-motion cinematography, the “age” of Ultron can’t have lasted longer than a couple of weeks in real time. Still with a running time of two hours and 22 minutes, audiences will be grateful that the rule of Ultron wasn’t longer.

The length of the film is a response to the needs of juggling so many characters. In addition to all of the Avengers, the film introduces a pair of twins, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. The boy, Quicksilver, has the power of superhuman speed and the girl, Scarlet Witch, gets practically every other superpower that’s left. It is a good thing that Quicksilver never stops running, because if he paused to think, he might develop a severe case of sibling envy.

Just when you think the Scarlet Witch has shown all that she can do, she pulls out another trick. As if this cast size wasn’t large enough, three-quarters of the way through the film another major character emerges. In this case, quite literally Deus ex Machina, God from a Machine.

Too many heroes

Ensemble casts are difficult. It is hard to balance so many competing points of focus. From the earliest Greek myths, we have traditionally preferred our heroes as solitary figures. One of the epithets for Hercules was “monoikos”, “the one who lives alone”. The modern town of Monaco takes its name from a local cult to this aspect of Hercules.

We love stories with a central hero. Achilles gets star billing in the Iliad. Similarly Odysseus in the Odyssey. In the ancient world, only the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece involved a team of heroes, and it is perhaps no accident that the retelling of their exploits, the Argonautica, has proven to be history’s least favourite epic.

Complicating the problem of ensuring that every hero gets a fair share of screentime is the requirement that every hero now needs a fatal flaw and a tragic backstory. These golden boys and girls all have feet of clay.

The trend for the tormented hero has been growing ever since 19th-century Romanticism taught us that there was something heroic about suffering. The Greeks would not have understood it. All they demanded from their heroes was the ability to be spectacular.

Now, we require our heroes to be haunted by their past or terrified by their future. We love to watch a set of rippling muscles, but we demand that the heart they encase is fragile. If you're going to be a super-soldier, you also need to be a wallflower at the Victory Day dance.

Ultron wants to destroy the Avengers because he regards them as a danger to stability and growth. It is hard not to have sympathy with his logic. Golf has been described as a game in which people try to get a ball in a hole using implements ill-adapted for the purpose. Watching the Avengers achieve world peace feels a lot like watching a round of golf.

Equipped with razor-sharp throwing-shields, exploding arrows, and the ability to command lightening bolts, the Avengers make odd advocates for tranquillity. The movie transports our heroes around the world leaving mayhem in their wake. Just when you thought downtown traffic in Johannesburg couldn't get any worse, along comes the Hulk.

The superheroes we need

Ultron sees the Avengers as emblematic of the worst excesses of humanities desires and, in a sense, he’s right. If we really do lust after world peace, why aren't we inventing heroes with the superpower to erase the gap between rich and poor or, at the very least, get Google to pay tax?

Iron Man can scatter the earth with incendiary devices, but he can't compulsorily vaccinate children. In the movie, the Scarlet Witch has been genetically enhanced so that she can mess with people’s minds. Why don’t geneticists ever work on enhancing the ability to make people feel comfortable about their lifestyle choices?

Perhaps this is the real appeal of heroes. They provide us with an enjoyable sound-and-light show that distracts us from facing up to just how hard it is to make a real difference.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The post After ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’, We Really Don’t Need Another Hero appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Komal Ganotra:

We don't currently have a copy of the new bill, however according to various media reports it is clear that the cabinet has approved the amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act. One of the major amendment approved by the cabinet includes treating juveniles between the age of 16 to 18 years as adults in cases of committing heinous offences. This particular change has taken place despite of clear recommendation of the parliamentary standing committee and members of the civil society opposing the particular clause. This is likely to have great implications and has the potential to challenge the whole justice paradigm for children - moving away from reformative to punitive. Through the change in the proposed Bill, children may be forced to spend their formative and productive years behind bars, rather than being reintegrated with society.

In India, the juvenile crime from the period 1990 to 2012 ranged between 0.5 to 1.2 per cent of total crimes committed. Juvenile crimes were only 1.2 per cent in 2012 and 2013 as compared to the child population of 472 million in 2013. Further analysis shows that out of the total number of juvenile cases, 79% belonged to families whose annual income levels were below Rs. 50,000/- , a telling fact that gives us an insight into their lives and struggles. Only 5,812 have completed their secondary education; 8,392 have never been to school, while almost equal proportions have studied at primary and above primary levels (13984 and 15423 respectively). The emphasis therefore at a systemic level, needs to be much more in terms of preventive policies and mechanism that can ensure a protective environment for each child.

About the author: Komal Ganotra is Director, Policy Research and Advocacy, CRY-Child Rights and You

The post Trying 16-18 Year Olds As ‘Adults’ Under An Amended Juvenile Justice Act Is Just Plain Wrong appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Vir Das:

Disclaimer: Letter produced verbatim

Last Night, while I was on stage at the ‪#‎UnbelievableTour‬ The Police showed up and what happened was upsetting and wrong. Not sure what else to do, so here's an open letter:

Dear Under the influence of influence,

I’m a fool. On my best and worst day that’s the largest compliment I can receive. If you go home thinking “What an idiot” i’ve done my job.

Being an idiot however, doesn’t make me a criminal.

My new show UnbelievabLISH is a show about truth & outrageous fiction. In one bit, I tell a story about how I performed for the man I consider to be India’s coolest president ever Dr. Abdul Kalam. My tribute, goes into an outrageous sketch about how Kalam hosts MTV cribs, has swag & defends himself against a fictitious lesbian assault. It’s stupid, immature, I take full ownership of it and I think it is funny. Musicians write songs, artists paint, I parody.
We are now at interval in Sirifort, and an intellectual gentlemen has walked into my green room and said “Excuse me….you CANNOT talk about Kalam”. I’ve done this for long enough to know that any audience feedback is good feedback and must always be humbly accepted. However, I have under 2 minutes to get back on stage and inform him that I cannot have this discussion at this time as politely as I can.

Second half of my show begins and somewhere 20 mins into it, policemen have begun showing up to Sirifort. I am on stage and I can see Policemen backstage, in the control room, and with my crew. My crew Is being questioned by Police as the show is going on, they are all taken away from their event duties. Trying to explain to them that it’s a comedy show, which the police have now begun recording for investigation purposes on phones. To their credit, they are just doing their job…investigating a complaint filed. And more than an investigation “Humare pass kissi Ka phone aaya tha” seems to be the consensus. Clearly someone with influence was called who, then made this call.
This is in addition to the multiple policemen that have showed up through the day in Delhi and during the show in Chandigarh saying “Humare sahib to ticket chahiye nahin toh show nahin hone denge”…but the bribery and free pass system is another much longer open letter for another time.

The venue is panicking because cops are now saying we are overtime (Not my fault, the audience just laughed a little more than I expected). Sensing that we are about to get shut down, I skip the big closing bit, wrap up the show as quickly as I can, spend no time at all thanking my audience, which I think is the most important part of the show and get off stage.

I am now in my green room with my crew who is asking me to just evacuate the venue which I refuse to do. My logic: I’ve done nothing wrong, let me talk to the Police, it will be fine. Eventually the cops leave saying that the complaint will have to be addressed, they will be reviewing my comedy footage, and I’m preparing myself for that process. This letter isn't about that.

Here’s the kicker: The Gentleman who filed the complaint is nowhere to be found. He just left, called someone with influence, filed a Police complaint over the phone, and went home leaving us to deal with this messy situation. It was that easy.

This is my problem.

The fact that you can use influence to shut down or intimidate any artist or art form that you may not personally agree with is scary. But the fact that the Police will back you up without any consequences is a slippery slope and a tool that’s prime for misuse.

It is immature to quote voltaire in this situation or say “If you don't like it, don't attend the show”.

If you don't like it, please attend the show, and tell me why you don't like it, and as an artist I will absorb that and do what I can with it, always respectfully. But it is strange that instead of giving us feedback, commenting on our work, critiquing it, rejecting it (all of which are welcome)….it’s just so much easier to just make life difficult for us with a phone call.

That to me represents a larger picture of where we are today, and which this govt has created, where comedians, humorists, cartoonists, filmmakers, musicians aren't just scared of leaders anymore…we are also scared of the random dude with a cellphone who knows someone who knows someone who is related to someone who is the third cousin of someone with power.

If I may, Here’s what I want them to understand:

1. Comedy is a performance and not just a person.

2. This one is important: Please tell me what you thought of what i said, you cannot tell me what I CANNOT say. “You CANNOT talk about Kalam” is an unacceptable sentence to me. Yes I can, he was my president too, I’m a citizen and I have rights…one of them includes the freedom to discuss my leaders.

3. When you come to see a comedy show, that’s someone else's vision of the world, not a service to yours. This is comedy not Karaoke.

4. This isn't about censorship. I don’t apologise for the Subjects in my material because I consider myself an intelligent, moral and patriotic person. I will not change my material and I shouldn't have to based on what Govt is in power or who is attending the show.

5. Understand this: If we’ve offended you…that’s all we've done. We've offended you. that’s it. Accept it and move on. Much like we accept every single political troll who tells us to go to Pakistan or threaten’s our life and abuses us on twitter/facebook/letters/emails. If you didn't like it, Thats not a crime, that’s just a waste of your ticket money which most of us would be more than happy to refund.

Here’s something that I need you to do:

The next time you don’t like a show, leave, or ask for your money back.

The next time you call the cops, make sure a crime has been committed.

The next time you see 1989 people laughing all around you, try and join them.

The next time an artist is in your city, if you really truly want to see him/her, put your cell phone down and buy a ticket.

The next time you file a Police Complaint that shuts down a show and scares the shit out of people…have the courage to stick around.

The next time i’m in town, if you're a powerful, influential person….please just don’t come.

This letter isn't for publicity. It’s because i’ve got a lot more shows to do and i’d like to get back to work.

Sincerely Touring,
Vir

Posted by Vir Das on Sunday, 26 April 2015

The post Delhi Police Shut Down Comedian Vir Das’s Show, Here’s His Powerful Response appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.