Wine is fine with our woman

March 5, 2009

Recently we witnessed the sad spectacle of a bunch of hoodlums belonging to a saffron brigade chasing and thrashing girls in a Mangalore pub in full media glare on the pretext that drinking by women was “not our culture’. There were plenty of protests and a public discourse followed (a woman minister now faces legal action for describing the assault as an attempt at “Talibanising” our society) but not a word was spoken against that not-our-culture assertion, which somehow left an impression that probably the hoodlums were right, howsoever silly may that seem in the land of Kamasutra, Tantra and Ganikas (remember Amrapali and Vasantasena?) Not to forget the dope-loving Lord Shiva, who all Hindu virgins are suppose to worship to be blessed with a good husband and the perpetually doped out Lord Indra, who presides over Heaven and should figure in the Guinness books for a record on chasing women!
With such a colourful and rich cultural heritage it would actually surprise if our past records didn’t show up women cheering up their evenings with an occasional drink or two or our menfolk so unimaginative or downright stupid as to deny themselves the pleasure of wine and women concoction. And guess what we found? There are plenty of delicious accounts!
Let us start with the profound and end up with the profane as the heady cocktail of wine and women takes its effect.

Sita and Draupadi
Our religious texts like Ramayana and Mahabharat are replete with references of royal ladies having gala evenings with generous use of wine. No less than Sita, the ideal wife and role model for all Hindu women, has been described sharing a drink with her Lord in the Ashok vatika after the demon king Ravana is killed! Yes, you read that right. She and her lord celebrated much as we would do in our age and time with, presumably, a cup of maireya, a ‘spiced liquor’, for that was her favourite drink.
(Ref: Economy and Food in Ancient India by Om Prakash; Wine in Ancient India by D.K. Bose and ‘Alcoholic fermentation and its products in ancient India’ by K.T.Achaya-who remains the first reference point for all food writers in India)

The books referred tells us further that maireya was a variety of Sura (Soma, that heavenly nectar that only the very privileged had access to and used in Vedic rituals, had presumably disappeared by then), a distilled liquor prepared from Guda (jaggery).

Sita even promises goddess Ganga, thousands jars of wine while accompanying her husband during his banishment thus: "Oh Goddess, be pleased, when we come back we shall propitiate you with thousands jars of wine."

We are told the women of monkey-king Sugriva were fond of wine. Queen Tara has been described in her intoxicated state with ‘uncertain gait and dancing eyes’. Yes, you would be right to check to closet of Ravana’s harem. There are passages that talk of the “charming women of demon king Ravana’s harem—sleeping beauties under the influence of liquor”.

Mahabharata has its own share. Here we quote: “Draupadi along with Subhadra, lovely sister of Krishna, went for a picnic on the bank of river Yamuna and enjoyed wine in the company of other women of the harem”. (M.L.Varadpande in “Women in Indian Sculpture”)
“Virtuous ladies like Sudesna (queen of King Virat with whom Draupadi stayed during her ‘agyantvas’) drank wine”. (Bose)

Soma and songs
Going further back in time, to the Vedic period and thereafter, when women had high status in society, when they studied and debated philosophy with men openly and participated equally in all important rituals, we find women had access and they enjoyed wine.

As far the heavenly nectar Soma—the very first wine known to India which had a prominent role in certain Vedic rituals apart from social use--is concerned no specific passage is found talking about women drooling to its effect (it was a very exclusive and expensive drink in any case and sourced from certain high mountains, the eponymous plant whose juice was extracted for preparing Soma, disappeared soon enough and heard no more) a Rig Vedic hymn lays bare the relation:
“Seven women stir thee with their fingers
blending their voices in a song to thee, you remind
the sacrificer of his duties at the sacrifice." (Bose)

As we travel through time (800 BC to 300 BC), we learn Sura (poor country cousin of Soma) had become a regular part of life, having found a place in several rituals. Om Prakash (referred earlier) writes that “it was served to women when a bride arrived at the bridegroom’s place” and that “women who performed a dance at the time of marriage were also served Sura”. It was also “served to the wives of forefathers in the Anavastakya rite”.
Elsewhere we find mention of a ritual in which young girls irrigating the Ashoka tree with ‘mouthfuls’ of wine (probably it had something to do with fertility rites).
What to make of another custom that talks of “drenching the limbs of young bride by sprinkling wine on her”! (Varadpande)

Wine and wonder
Coming down to the Christian era, we find wine turning even more irresistible part of life as a new discovery was made of its use. For, now we find wine being associated with beauty! Actually it was believed that wine imparted a ‘special charm’ to women and ‘heightened their beauty’ (how true!).
Om Prakash writes that during the Gupta period (300 AD to 750AD) “it was believed that intoxication gave a special charm to women; ladies of royal families, therefore, enjoyed drinking”.
He goes on to quote several instances:
“In the Malavikagnimitra, Iravati indulges in drinking. Indumati, the queen of Aja liked to receive wine from the mouth of her husband. The Mandasore inscription mentions a phrase, ‘like the cheeks of the intoxicated women’. The after effects of drinking on women are described in the Kumarasambhava. The Harshacharita also mentions beautiful ladies who had drunk wine. Kumarila mentions that in Ahicchatra (modern Ramnagar in Bareilly) and Mathura even Brahmin women indulged in drinking.”
“The Matsya Purana describes Krishna drinking with sixteen thousand ladies and doesn’t regard him as a sinner. Ajanta paintings also depict scenes of drinking such as wines being brought in large jars.”
“The Brahspati Smriti also lays down that drinking should be avoided by those women whose husbands are away.”
“The staple food grain of the people in north was wheat and women there drank liquors.”
“In Kumarila’s time Brahmin women in Ahicchatra (modern Ramnagar in Bareilly) and Mathura drank wine.”
“Even respectable women considered drinking wines a necessary embellishment.”

If these instances don’t make drinking of liquor by women a regular and essential part of our culture what would?

Nevertheless, we continue our journey to post Gupta Period (750 to 1200 AD). “Even some Brahmin youths wasted their time in company of dancing girls who were addicted to drinking. The sons of Harischandra by a Kshatriya wife are called madhupayina (addicted to drinking). Some women are described as intoxicated with drinking. Women liked the varuni variety of wine.”
“Medhatithi also says that while Brahmin women did not drink wine at festivals, Kshatriya and other women, to whom drinking was not forbidden, indulged in excessive drinking on festive occasions. Courtesans and Tantrikas were, no doubt, addicted to drinking.” (Bose)

‘Ornament of women’
Set aside those serious texts. Consider the literature, which has even more compelling descriptions indicating that not only was wine and women made an alluring concoction it was even glorified.
Kalidas too often spoke of ladies whose lips were scented with perfume of liquor! The Katha Sarit Sagara thus describes the drinking hall of King Naravahan Dutta. “It was full of goblets, made of various jewels, which looked like so many expanded lotuses and strewn with so many flowers, so that it resembled a lotus bed in a garden; and it was crowded with ladies with jugs full of intoxicating liquor, who made it flash like the nectar appearing in the arms of Garuda. There they drank wine- that snaps those fetters of shame that bind the ladies of the royal households, wine the essence of Love’s life, the ally of merriment!”
“In Mrichchkoti, we find that profligate youths came to the house of a woman, to drink iced wine. In Ratnabali we see at the ceremony in honour of the God of Love, citizens both male and female being drunk, reveling in song and dance.”
“We find wine is called ‘ornament of woman’. (Bose)


Women in Sene land
All the accounts given so far relates primarily to north India. What about southern part of India (part of the territory where Ram Sene, the hoodlums who said it was not-our-culture operate)? Well, going by the evidence, it is very clear that southern India (the Dravidian territory) was far more liberal and generous towards women even when it came to drinking. “Drinking wine after partaking of pepper and betal leaves was the general practice among the ladies of the south”. (Om Prakash)

Achaya agrees. The only passage in which he talks about drinking habits in south India, he wrote in his scholarly article in 1991 we have already referred to goes like this: “…..a favourite drink of women was munnir or triple-liquid, a mixture of tender coconut water, sugar-cane juice and palmyra juice, which may or may not have been fermented. Pre-Aryan society in the south showed no prejudice against (women) consuming liquor.”

Sculpture
Well, that is not all. Indian sculpture too provides its own share of evidence that well, you can’t really keep wine and women away from each other. We are told it was the Mathura school of sculpture that made drinking scenes popular in temple architecture. The National Museum has quite a few of sculptures that show woman with a wine cup.
At Sanchi (first century of Christian era), the earliest sculptures of Indian art, shows men and women drinking.
Yoginis and Ganikas were, of course, allowed their wine.

Wine and salvation
Ah, coming to the voluptuous Yoginis of our temples of love, lust and salvation. Whoever found that ‘magical route’ to salvation called Tantra must be laughing from the Heaven (surely he/she would have got salvation!). Tantra made women and wine essential parts of nirvana (Tantra didn’t spare even austere Buddhism or Jainism) and changed the face of our holy temples forever. India became the land of Kamasutra in sculpture too. Khajuraho is only one example. They are there in every nook and corner of the country.
One last quote to end. “Tantrikas gave religious sanctions to the use of wine and meat and the company of women, and associated pleasure with salvation in their teachings.” (Om Prakash)

Sculptures in national museum
1. woman serving liquor to pot-bellied man Kuber (kushan period)
2. young girl drinking from wine glass (kushan period)
3. drunk courtesan being helped

NaxalSpeak

Freedom movement
The Congress Party, and later the Gandhian leadership in the Congress, was brought forth by the British colonialists to divert and derail the growing anti-imperialist national liberation movement and to deprive the people of revolutionary leadership

Independence
The declaration of ‘Independence’ in 1947 was nothing but fake in essence. Actually the direct colonial and semi-feudal system of the British imperialists was replaced with semi-colonial and semi-feudal system under the neo-colonial form of indirect imperialist rule, exploitation and control.
Since India is semi-colonial and semi-feudal, neither there is real independence nor there is democracy. Therefore, this new democratic revolution will bring national independence uprooting the imperialist slavery, exploitation and control, and will establish the people’s democracy uprooting the feudal autocracy.

Green Revolution
After the transfer of power in 1947, the Indian ruling classes, in serving imperialism, resorted to several measures to promote alternative development models in place of radical land reforms based on "land to the tiller". Firstly, they brought forth community development programme, rural co-operatives and intensive agricultural development programmes (IADP) etc. with the aid of, and according to the needs and planning of, Ford and Rockefeller foundations, the World Bank and other imperialist agencies. Thereafter, in continuation of these steps they introduced the so-called Green Revolution in Punjab and some rural pockets of the country by the mid-1960s. This ‘Green Revolution’ was meant not only to provide captive market for the imperialist goods but also was an attempt to counter the emerging threat of the Red Revolution and to solve the chronic food crisis.

Parliament
In our country, parliamentary system was imposed by British imperialism from above. Moreover, bourgeois democratic revolution too has not been completed here. Hence no bourgeois democracy ever came into being here.
This state machinery is nothing but an instrument of suppression and repression, and represents the dictatorship of the comprador bourgeoisie and landlord classes subservient to imperialism. The repressive rule is sought to be covered up behind the façade of fraudulent parliamentary system. This state system represents the semi-colonial, semi-feudal system under neo-colonial form of indirect rule, exploitation and control.

Revolution
This new democratic state will be the people’s democratic dictatorship exercised by the united front comprising the proletariat, peasantry, petty-bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie class under the leadership of the proletariat based upon the worker-peasant alliance. The state will guarantee real democracy for the vast majority of the people while exercising dictatorship over the tiny minority of the exploiters. The minimum programme of our party is to establish socialism by accomplishing the new democratic revolution and the ultimate programme is to establish communism on a world scale.

Election boycott
In fact, the tactics of participation in the election in the name of using it is tantamount to abandoning the tasks of building and advancing the armed struggle. Reality is that without people’s political power everything is illusion. The people’s political power can be established and advanced only through the path of protracted people’s war. Parliamentary path and participation in the elections are completely incompatible with Protracted peoples war in the concrete conditions of India. Even the advancement of real people’s political consciousness is closely linked with it. More so, the accumulation of forces, including the development and Bolshevization of the party itself are inseparably linked with it. That is why the armed struggle is the ‘centre of gravity’ of the Party’s work as comrade Mao stated. In this overall context, the slogan of ‘Boycott Election’, though a question of tactics, acquires the significance of strategy in the concrete conditions of India. It is also correct to raise the slogan ‘Boycott Election is a Democratic Right’ on a mass scale.

Stand up to fight!

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s offer of talks with Maoists who abducted a policeman in West Midnapur district last Tuesday once again exposes our failure to deal with a hostage crisis. Just it had happened in the past, often with disastrous consequences, the first reaction of our governments both at the Centre and the state-level have been to bend backwards and get the hostages freed at any cost. There have been three major cases in the recent memory—Rubaiya Saeed’s abduction, hijack of IC-814 plane and abduction of three truckers in Iraq in 2004—and in all these cases the governments negotiated with the hostage takers. Ironically, every such capitulation followed by an uproar in the country after which the Centre solemnly declared its resolve to adopt a no-nonsense hostage policy the cornerstone of which would be ‘no negotiation’. But this has remained more as a statement of intent.
No lessons were learnt by the Rubaiya Saeed abduction case and some of the most dreaded international terrorists were released after the hijacking of IC-814 plane. The NDA regime seemed firm in putting in place the ‘no-negotiation’ policy but soon it was forgotten. When the UPA came to power in 2004, it did the same—first it went ahead and negotiated release of three truckers in Iraq and the then said India would henceforth follow US, China and Israel in adopting the policy of no-negotiations. The then National Security Advisor JN Dixit went to the extent of saying that it had the backing of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Dixit went on to say how Maulana Masood Azhar, who was released after the IC-814 hijack, was responsible for the death of 400 to 500 people thereafter!
Cut back to October 2009. Everything has been forgotten and the West Bengal government is now “waiting for a well-defined line of talks from the Maoist”. In turn, the Maoists have promptly sought release of detained ultras, declaring the abducted cop in their custody as a ‘prisoner of war’. Mind it, Maoist ultras have been declared terrorists and a massive operation is being launched against them by the Centre to reclaim the land from their clutches. If the West Bengal government is ready to buckle to free just one policeman, imagine what a big incentive it would be for the Maoists to attempt kidnapping a few more cops and if possible, some high-profile individuals. And what chance in the hell the state has in its battle against the Left-wing extremists! Your task, therefore, is cut out Mr Bhattacharjee: Don’t stoop to submit, rise to fight the menace!

Carry on Mr Thackeray!

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s declaration that he and his party would now take up the Marathi issue more stridently, which essentially means the hate campaign against the north Indians would continue unabated, should surprise none. After all, it paid rich dividend in the just concluded Assembly election in which his party won 13 seats! And he should be a worried man, readying for the big challenge confronting him: Migrants from UP and Bihar constitute half the population of Mumbai as per a recent BMC survey, as he pointed out. But that is not the only justification. As a politician he has every right to continue with his sectarian politics. Look at the main national opposition outfit, the BJP. It may moderate its Hindutva policies to please the allies at times but it essentially remains and espouses the cause of one particular religious community, the Hindus. Same is true of the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Rashtriya Janata Party, the DMK and many other political outfits which champion the cause of one or more caste groups. This parochial politics may have promoted divisive tendencies but the fact that it continues to pay good electoral returns clearly means that it is doing something good for the people. And that leads us to an issue of greater importance: our development plans are skewed. Why else would people from UP and Bihar crowd Mumbai in such large numbers? Why employment opportunities are not created uniformly across the country? Why some sections of the society continue to lag in terms of education and feel they are sons and daughters of lesser gods? In fact, Raj Thackeray’s policy of hate is symptom of the flaw in our policies and plans. And so long as we don’t take corrective measures, Thackerays would continue to flourish and practice politics of hate. To that extent, Raj Thackeray serves a great purpose by constantly reminding us of our shortcomings and the need for course correction.

Whose brief the CM holds?

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has suddenly woken up to the fact that the CFL bulbs that she and her government have been promoting for the past two years can prove quite an environment hazard. Her statement last Sunday is self-explanatory: “I was told that mass use of CFL could pose environmental hazards in the long run as they contain mercury. So we must find an alternative.” What she didn’t say hold the key to what a good government should have done. One, she didn’t explain why she ignored presence of mercury in CFL bulbs then; two, she didn’t say what she did to ensure safe disposal of mercury and three, why she went full throttle promoting CFL bulbs without giving the matter a proper thought. Had she paused and deliberated before promoting CFL bulbs, she would not have been sorry. The worst part is she is rushing again into adopting another technology to replace CFL about which she and people in general know little: Light-emitting Diodes or LEDs, for short. While denouncing CFL, the Chief Minister declared that her government has already entered into an agreement to promote LED technology and that soon 100 buildings would be retro-fitted with LED bulbs. But she didn’t explain why she opted for LED, if one were to ignore her concern about mercury content of CFL bulbs. Is LED environmentally safer than CFL? Has there been any study or experiment to find out if it posed any health hazard to humans or to the environment in any way? Will there be any problem in disposing off these bulbs? Will there be any standard set or a regulatory body to ensure power quality of the appliance? We don’t know and the Delhi Chief Minister didn’t bother to explain. Just as she ignored the presence of mercury while promoting CFL, she has ignored concerns such as high-energy visible light that LED emits and its adverse impact on eye-sight. In fact, we should consider ourselves be lucky if LED turns out to be energy efficient as well as healthy, never mind that it is several times costlier than CFL. Yes, you read that right, we should consider ourselves LUCKY. For, the Chief Minister seems to work as promoter of a commercial product in the present case, rather than head of a government working for a better tomorrow.

Kashmir: A new opportunity beckons

A heartening piece of news came from London last night. A dispatch by the wire service said 13 Kashmiri political groups in the UK, who have been functioning under the umbrella of the Kashmiri National Party and is an important voice in matters relating to the Kashmir dispute, passed a resolution condemning Pakistan’s tribal invasion of the Kashmir Valley in 1947! What a turnaround for the Kashmiri diaspora which, for the past six decades, has been commemorating October 22 as a black day against India forces marching into Srinagar on that day in 1947. These Kashmiri groups mainly comprise of those who have mainly settled in UK after leaving the PoK. The resolution acknowledged that the tribal invasion was designed to force the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir to join Pakistan and that Pakistan had made the territorial acquisition of Kashmir a form of jihad. It went on to reject the “genie of extremism and hatred released in the name of jihad in October 1947 to advance political agenda”. Equally heartening news has come from those involved in the process of finding a solution to the vexed Kashmir problem. It has been revealed that some of the key groups from PoK are also disturbed about the precarious political situation in Pakistan and the battle with the Talibans. The strident voice in support of Pakistan has died down. Though all these Kashmiri groups still pitch for independent statehood for Jammu and Kashmir (that includes PoK), the statement emerging from October 22 meeting in London it is illuminating. One participant said that over the years Kashmiris remained confused about their identity: “We don’t know if we are Pakistanis or Kashmiris.” Now, this indicates that the time has come for a fresh round of initiative, an aggressive one at that, for India to push forward its case at bilateral and international levels for peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue. We may not be ready for a composite dialogue yet, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t raise the issue at international fora. In fact, this is the best time in decades when we can take the initiative away from Pakistan on the Kashmir issues and utilize the disillusionment of the Kashmiri groups to our advantage. This can then be used to pressure Pakistan to act in a manner that brings peace to the Valley. One caveat: We must think through and plan the peace offensive carefully for a positive result.

Romancing the ultras

The entire nation watched in shock and disbelief as the Maoists detained Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani Express for several hours in a forested stretch of West Bengal’s West Midnapur district. Some of the details about the entire hostage drama are fuzzy but what is clear is that members of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA), which is a front of the Maoists operating in the area, detained the train and took the driver of the train hostage. Two persons, a passenger and driver of a police vehicle were injured, and there were telltale marks to show that the train had been attacked. Presumably, the Maoists fled as the local police and paramilitary forces closed in. As words spread that the Maoists wanted PCPA leader Chatradhar Mahato to be released, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee made a brave declaration that there would be no swapping of prisoners this time. It was clear that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was in charge and was closely guiding and monitoring the situation. The only persons found missing from the scene were the civil society activists like Arundhati Roy and Nandini Sunder who had sprung to the defence of the Maoists when the Centre decided to mobilize additional paramilitary forces to crush them. Also missing were Mahashweta Devi, Aparna Sen and other West Bengal intellectuals who had earlier travelled to Lalgarh to show solidarity with Chatradhar Mahatao. Nothing surprising in that. They were all missing when the PCPA killed two cops and abducted another a few days back to secure release of 21 detained Maoists. Or earlier when 17 cops on election duty were gunned down in Gadchiroli. In fact, whenever the Maoists indulge in violence, which is pretty frequent in recent years, the civil society groups found missing. When they wrote a protest letter to Chidambaram, asking him to initiate an ‘unconditional dialogue’ with the Maoists, not a word was said about the Gadchiroli incident or violence unleashed by the ultras. They betray a romantic notion towards the ‘revolutionaries’ that characterized 1970s and has only emboldened the ultras to indulge in more mindless violence. The Rajdhani Express incident is only the latest. More would follow if these civil society groups and intellectuals don’t shut up and let the state deal with the ultras in an appropriate manner. Needless to say, the only right way to deal with a group bent on using violence for whatever goal it has in mind is to use force in a decisive manner. Let Punjab be the shining example of buying peace with the extremists.

What’s in a name, Mr Patnaik?

Just as it was visualized when the Shiv Sena bulldozed all sensible reasoning to turn Bombay into Mumbai in 1995, the propensity to change the name of our states, cities, parks and roads has spread like a contagious disease. (Not that this was the first but it caught the nation’s imagination like no other before or since.)The latest to join the bandwagon of name-changers is the Orissa government. Orissa now becomes Odisha and Oriya become Odia. The first question that the Centre should have asked before giving the nod should have been: How will it change the fortune of the people living in the state? After all, what does it do except pleasing the parochial bunch who have nothing better to fight for? Did the name change in anyway alter the fate of cities like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras which have become Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, respectively? No, it didn’t. On the contrary, it cost a fortune to affect the name change in official documents, stamps and seals, stationeries, signposts and publicity brochures etc. Secondly, the Orissa government forwarded the flimsiest of grounds for the change—the state was spelt wrongly. If this logic has to be accepted then Orissa must change three of its four key cities: Bhubaneswar (instead of Bhubaneshwar), Cuttack (instead of Kataka) and Balasore (instead of Baleshwar). Thirdly, the biggest challenge facing the state is poverty and unemployment. All big ticket projects of POSCO, Tata Steel and Vedanta groups are stuck because the locals are scared of losing the precious land on which they survive. Domestic and foreign investors are now shunning the state and the Maoists have now taken control of a large part of the state, preventing whatever little development work was in progress. Wouldn’t it be better to use the fund that the name change would gobble up in addressing more pressing problems of hunger, healthcare and education? And who better than the anglicized Chief Minister Navin Patnaik to understand what Shakespeare meant when he wrote that immortal line, “what’s in a name?.....”

Hot topic

The Delhi government’s decision to hike water tariff by as much as two-and-half times (expected to come into force from January 1) would surely cause heartburns in many. And justifiably so. It is one thing to pay for a service but quite another to shoulder the burden of an utterly inefficient and callous Delhi Jal Board that looks after the supply of water to the city. It has never managed to match supply with the need. Right now Delhi needs about 1100 mgd water while the supply is merely 800 mgd. The equation remains more or less for the past two decades. Worse, leakage and pilferage continue to be unbelievably high—at 50%! And as Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit admitted while taking the decision to hike the tariff, “tanker mafia” continues to charge several times more than what it should abd routinely diverts supply to the highest bidder.
If there is a crisis requiring a steep hike in tariff, which it seems with an annual loss of Rs 1500 crore a year to the DJB, shouldn’t the government first put its house in order? Say for example, by eliminating the leakage and pilferage or at least setting a target of reducing it by 10% every year? It is also known that while an ordinary resident is struggling for a regular supply even for the purpose of cooking, the privileged ones living in the Lutyens’ Zone and the commercial establishments, particularly the five star hotels in and around it, have no qualms in splurging by way of watering the sprawling swimming pools and lawns that dot the area. Reports suggest that the government plans to install fancy Jacuzzis in all the state-run hotels and the apartments being readied for the officials and athletes who would be attending the Commonwealth Games next year.
If the Delhi Jal Board is in a crisis, isn’t it more appropriate to begin an austerity drive? How about making a beginning by banning all Jacuzzis, for example?

You have blown it Mr Chidambaram

There is no other way of explaining what is happening in the naxal-hit states these days. There is a massive movement of people in West Bengal, Odisha and Chhattisgarth. Reports about hundreds of tribals fleeing their homes in fear of the impending Operation Green Hunt are pouring in daily. There are also reports that the naxals are retreating into Andhra Pradesh’s north Telangana region -- which had been quiet for the past few years because of Andhra government’s successful anti-naxal operation-- that borders insurgency affected areas of neighbouring states. The naxals have also paralysed life in Malkangiri, Koraput districts of Odisha and West Midnapur of West Bengal and elsewhere, first calling for a 48-hour bandh in protest against the Operation Green Hunt and then digging up roads and felling trees to block passages to interior areas. Some of the inter-state roads have also been cut off. These are obviously meant to prevent movement of security forces. Simultaneously, organizations sympathetic to the naxalsa have been staging protests in Delhi and elsewhere in the country. The implication of all these developments is clear. Once the security forces roll in, they will find a Lalgarh-like situation everywhere. They will find the passage difficult and may have to confront the tribals being used as shields by the naxals. Worse, they may find the hardcore naxal militants, who have already fled to the interior areas or retreated to north Telangana, missing from the battlefront. So, what’s the point of the Operation Green Hunt, Mr Chidambaram? By announcing the operation to the whole world without doing the basic ground works first, you have blown whatever chance of success there was. Would it not have been better had your intelligence agencies got into action first to prevent this kind of mobilization of manpower and logistics by the naxals? Besides, by depriving the security forces an element of surprise that is so essential in such operation, you have allowed the naxals to set the ground rule for engagement. Nobody would be surprised, therefore, if the Operation Green Hunt ends up like any other in the past decades.

Why this tokenism, Mr Raj?

The Indian Express’ expose that eight of 13 Maharashtra Navnirman Sena legislators, who assaulted Abu Azmi of the Samajwadi Party for not taking oath in Marathi, send their children to English-medium schools (and not to the Marathi-medium schools) has not come as a surprise. It is well known that the son and daughter of MNS chief Raj Thackeray study in English medium schools and colleges. Hypocrisy is not considered a sin in Indian politics, even if it is as blatant as this one. After all, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad set the standards through their diatribe against English education even while sending their children to the English medium schools. The easiest way to nurture a vote bank is through the politics of tokenism that the Indian politicians have mastered over the ages and Thackeray and his colleagues in the MNS are merely taking it forward. Just how serious they are is obvious from the way they singled out Azmi, who has come to symbolize the resistance to MNS’ attack on the north Indians, while ignoring several others who took oath in Hindi, English or Sanskrit that very day. The MNS doesn’t even have the excuse of the cultural anxiety that gripped Tamil Nadu in early decades of our independence when the Hindi was sought to be imposed by a section of politicians, to justify its action. On the other hand, people of Maharashtra have more pressing problems that require attention. Thousands of farmers are committing suicide every year, especially in Vidarbha, as moneylenders tighten their noose and repeated droughts. A few districts like Gadchiroli and Gondiya continue to languish in utter poverty and are now virtually cut off from rest of the state because of the naxal menace. Terrorism, communal tension and caste-related conflicts also plague the state in a big way. If the MNS is really serious about improving the lot of the Marathi manoos, as it claims to justify its sectarian politics, it should start focusing on these issues rather than indulging in politics of tokenism, which has done no good to anyone, at least not to those who get swayed by it.

Disband the Collegium

Is it beginning of the end of collegium system of appointing higher judiciary? It does seem so with the Supreme Court collegium deciding to disengage itself and asking the Centre to take a call on elevating Karnataka High Court chief Justice P D Dinakaran to the apex court. In its letter to the Centre, the collegium said it would forward details of the discreet inquiry the Chief Justice of India had ordered and other documents for the purpose of deciding the fate of Justice Dinakar. The move comes after Thiruvallur district collector stood by his report that Justice Dinakaran had encroached 197 acre of public land. By passing the buck to the Centre, the collegium has not only revealed its feet of clay, it has also abrogated its responsibility and has, thus, no right to arrogate itself the power to appoint the higher judiciary. It is particularly disappointing since the course of action was clear: Drop Justice Dinakaran from the list of judges to be promoted to the apex court! More so since an inquiry has confirmed his culpability in a criminal case and protest by lawyers have virtually paralysed the Karnataka High Court. In fact, in view of various controversies in appointment of judges, the Law Commission had recently suggested (before the Dinakaran issue hit the headlines) reconsideration of the collegium system. It had proposed that the Centre should either “seek reconsideration” of the three judgments that brought in the collegium system or bring in law to restore “primacy” of the CJI and the executive power to appoint Supreme Court and High Court judges. It was a nine-bench apex court bench that, in 1993, overruled an earlier judgment that had eroded primacy of the CJI in such appointments. The Dinakaran controversy later prompted eminent jurist Fali S Nariman to propose a “judicial ombudsman” over the collegiums to hear complaints against the higher judiciary. By expressing its inability to act decisively in the case of Justice Dinakaran face of clear evidence and other such controversies in the past the collegium has clearly reduced itself to a mere post office and there is absolutely no case for such a post office.