Since then a third winning alliance has never been formed in Tamil nadu. With the term of the present Tamil nadu asssemby ending in May 2011, the political parties are busy in discussing possible alliances in a Bipolar contest. ( Of course BJP shall be orphaned and left high and dry to contest like independents)

The comparatively recent entry DMDK founded by Actor Vijayakanth won a single seat out of 234 seats in TN assembly elections held in 2006. The significance of that election was formation of a Minority Government by DMK with less than 100 MLAs with the support of Congress party. This was the first time a Dravidian party forming a minority Government. That showed a fractured verdict after the entry of DMDK along with the role of other players such as MDMK, PMK, CPI, CPIM and VCK.

Later DMDK leader was out to show his strength by contesting without any alliance in Parliamentary elections and By elections. Now his party is estimated to have a share of 8% to 12%. In the last elections the political circles were talking about “ influence” of DMK and Congress party in the decision of DMDK to go alone to split the votes.

Since Vijayakanth strongly criticizes DMK in the recent weeks, his alliance with DMK is ruled out..

Now it is said that Rahul Gandhi was in favour of Congress party in forming alliance with DMDK in assembly elections by ditching DMK at state level while maintaining the alliance with DMK at Centre. This has caused confusion in DMK circles. They rest their hopes on Sonia Gandhi who is having good terms with Karunanithi for the continuance of their friendship with Congress party in both State and Central level.

Recently Vijayakanth is talking about alliances forgetting his own songs of contesting alone to become Chioef Minister and he has categorically declared that he will not settle for just 30 or 40 seats. Those working towards AIADMK –DMDK alliance are now confused. How Jayalalithaa can offer more than 40 seats to DMDK? If Vijayakanth demands one third of the seats Jayalalitha may satisfy for an alliance with MDMK, CPIM, CPI , PT, TMMK and other fringe parties. The PMK another influential party may also join AIADMK. Therefore Jayalalitha is not solely dependent on DMDK. At present only DMDK is in a compulsive position to form an alliance to keep its flock intact.

Vijayakanth, the Hero is in favour of confusing both his rivals to bargain a friend of good value. His politics sound interesting particularly if we predict the trends. In the last few elections the electorates have voted alternately in favour of DMK or AIADMK. By that logic the AIADMK gets its turn in 2011 General elections. Vijayakanth knows this. If Vijayakanth is satisfied with 50 seats in AIADMK alliance, PMK shall be compelled to accept whatever is allotted in DMK Congress alliance. That will be a tough fight to form a Hung assembly for the circus of the Hero.

There is natural tension between the State and the public on the question of transparency. Authoritarian states by definition limit access to information. In democratic states, democracy manifests itself as elections, which reduces incentive for routine oversight (to delay judgment) and in case of ruling government’s culpability, creates a disincentive for transparency. In addition, democratic states necessarily follow a capitalist model of development, either by choice or obligation (IMF, World Bank, Free Trade Agreements). While the premise of a democratic government is at least partly altruistic and redistributive (in addition to security and maintenance of law and order) thereby deriving the moral rationale for taxation, the premise of capitalism is the pursuit of self-interest and maximization of profit for a small group of people.  Internally as well, corporations aren’t democratic – divergent interests are resolved not by open discussion but by pure might (preferential ownership; bulk of the share holders don’t have voting rights). With increasing size of private corporations and increasing privatization of governance, democratic states are adopting corporate ethos of opacity, consolidation of power and growing authoritarianism. This authoritarian tendency is in the true sense of the phrase, not “politically correct” and in the past fifteen years, sixty countries have passed laws to facilitate public access to state information. However institutional reticence to transparency is evidenced by the fact that only a fraction of these countries have a whistleblower’s law[1] to protect the individual who exposes institutional corruption from reprisal. When the institution in question is public, states with whistleblower’s law frequently undermine their own legislation[2] by blocking publicity, investigation, and counter intuitively pressing criminal charges on the whistleblower! The last is aimed at deterring future whistleblowers, and stems from the desire to retain control – of fragmentary transparency and hence accountability – to release only that information, the consequences of which can be accommodated in business as usual, and to calculatedly deploy state infrastructure against the will of the people.

There are obvious limits of a state legislated and managed RTI/FOI regime: first and foremost, the State defines the categories of exempt information. Security and intelligence agencies are both outside the ambit, with good rationale though increasingly less defensible given their disproportionate contribution to instances of human rights violations. Exempt categories are further susceptible to spurious classification, where information is withheld not to preserve the integrity and/or security of the State but its machinery and/or functionaries. Second, there are many ways of subverting the spirit of the act through shoddy implementation (conveniently transferring culpability to a frontline official from the institution). In India, this manifests itself as lack of information management, ignoring Section 4 (proactive dissemination), harassing applicants, convoluted processes, high pendency[3] etc. Lastly, since the application for information is initiated by a beneficiary, there are two drawbacks: the disadvantage of being an outsider who cannot know of the universe of relevant information; second, a David and Goliath scenario pitching an individual against the might of the State to obtain information of public interest but without the force of the citizen collective.

An independent website, Wikileaks (launched in 2006) aims to fill this gap. “WikiLeaks is a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public. […] WikiLeaks information is distributed across many jurisdictions, organizations and individuals. Once a document published it is essentially impossible to censor[4].”  Notable publications of the website include a report on toxic dumping in Africa by Trafigura, a US military video that shows American soldiers killing eighteen people in Baghdad including two Reuters photographers, Climategate emails, and tax evasion by American citizens in connivance with Swiss bank, Julius Baer. In India, Wikileaks published the UIDAI approach document in November 2009. It’s interesting to note that the respective state apparatuses had blocked public access to this information:  UK ordered a super injunction[5] against the publication of Trafigura report; Reuters tried unsuccessfully to obtain the Baghdad video for three years under the American FOIA; Julius Baer succeeded in temporarily knocking down the Wikileaks website after obtaining a permanent injunction against the website and domain registrar in a California court; and allegedly numerous RTI applications had been made to get more information about the UID project. Julian Assange, one of the founders of the website says, “Open government is strongly correlated to quality of life. Open government answers injustice rather than causing it (plans which cause injustice are revealed and opposed before implementation). Open government exposes, and so corrects, corruption. Historically, the most resilient form of open government is one where leaking and publication is easy. Public leaking, being an act of ethical defection to the majority, is by its nature a democratising force.” There are some features that make Wikileaks or a similar concept of a private leaking system worth consideration:

1. Establishes global accountability: Freedom of information laws often mandate citizenship of the country. However, in a globalized world, states are accountable not to just their citizens, but to the global citizenry.  America’s “war against terror” has changed the global landscape; the financial crisis of 2007-2010 has had global consequences; global warming affects us all. The need for concerted global action makes global transparency imperative. For instance, one classified CIA report on shoring support in Europe for the war in Afghanistan states “public apathy enables leaders to ignore voters” and goes on to discuss the different ways to manipulate the public in France/Germany to support their country’s continued presence in Afghanistan. The report is an indictment of the unilateral nature of America’s battle in Afghanistan and its disdain for democracy.
2. Ensures anonymity of the whistleblower: States are increasingly crushing dissidence through draconian laws and their application.  Obama despite campaigning on a platform of transparency is aggressively pursuing Bush-era whistleblowers, all of who exposed high-level illegal activity. In India, the government has cynically used TADA, POTA and UAPA essentially classifying the right to dissent in a democracy as terrorism. In this situation, not only is it impossible for the whistleblower to use formal mechanisms to trigger correction but there’s also a high probability of reprisal against the individual. India’s most famous whistleblower, Satyendra Dubey was murdered in 2003[6] after writing to then Prime Minister, Vajpayee about high-level corruption in the NHAI (despite widespread outrage, India has not passed a whistleblower’s law). Further anonymizing the individual’s identity in no way detracts from the substance of the leak, and also reduces incentive to publish information for personal profit. Wikileaks operates a series of complex technological and other measures to protect sources, and claims that no source has been revealed in the three years of its operations[7].
3. Circumvents state: A question worth asking is whether the state can be held accountable through state legislated and controlled mechanisms. History is replete with examples where the State has used the police, investigative agencies and even the judiciary for its own ends. In India, the two main anticorruption agencies, CBI and CVC lack independence and frequently close investigations with questionable conclusions[8].  Obama who  ran on a platform of change and transparency signed a law just to supersede the FOIA and suppress torture photos. Governments also prevent public mobilization with the use of gag orders[9], not only to suppress and censor information, but also the fact that the information has been suppressed!
4. Uncovers spurious classification into exempt categories: The history of leaked classified documents reveal content kept secret not to protect the security/integrity of the State but to protect the might/authority of the State machinery. This brings into the public domain unconstitutional/unethical means adopted by the Government and hidden from its constituents through false classification.
5. Exposes state hypocrisy: Even though China has a Freedom of Information Act, it blocks all URLs with the word “wikileaks” in it[10]. The US, which can’t censor so obviously commissioned a counterintelligence report to take down Wikileaks, perversely citing China’s blanket blocking as justification.
6. Expedites timelines: In India, publishing the UID document online forced the Chairman, Nandan Nilekani to release the document as well, leading to increased media coverage and public discourse on a government project of great public interest. In a less direct measure, the publication of the Baghdad video and report on Afghanistan will decrease domestic and international support for US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan increasing pressure for disengagement.

While the purpose of such institutions is to promote transparency and accountability in large corporations, the integrity[11] of such institutions themselves is internally policed and inextricably linked with the integrity of its executives. Opacity is built into the Wikileaks model (understandably given the many attempts to take down the site) however this lends itself to unaccountable discretion to filter information – what is received, what is put out, how and when it’s put out. Legitimacy of democratic state institutions is contingent on, inter alia, equal treatment of all citizens and constituencies through due process of law – citizens voluntarily give up some freedoms to the state under this very assurance – however private institutions are not obligated to neutrality. For Wikileaks to serve as an alternative/complement to legislated freedom of information regimes, it must evolve mechanisms to ensure (both in implementation and appearance) that its internal bias is not reflected in the information put out. Finally the sticking point with both Wikileaks and Freedom of Information laws is that information does not exist in a vacuum. Merely making information public will not necessarily catalyze social change – information must also be accessible (understandable). Moreover for information to have meaning, corresponding mechanisms must be developed to force (and sustain) state accountability. Institutions have longevity that often transcends the people who direct it, and while ad-hoc embarrassing information may have consequences at the personal/party level, institutions will remain unaffected without an active inquisitive citizenry.

Note: Bulk of this piece was written before the arrest of Bradley Manning for being the alleged source of the Iraq video and also the Garani massacre in Afghanistan.  Bradley apparently initiated a series of chats with former hacker Adrian Lamo and revealed his identity. Based on the heavily edited chat transcripts put out Wired, it is evident that Lamo baited Bradley in these chats, asking him incriminating questions with the full intention of outing him (there is also the disturbing question of when government officials were involved and their complicity in eliciting confession). In the fallout, Wikileaks is under attack and founder, Julian Assange hunted by the US DoD. Even three weeks after arrest,Bradley Manning has not been chargesheeted.  Bradey, Julian and other Wikileaks members are all on the right side of history, and deserve our support. To learn more, please follow Wikileaks on Twitter or visit the Wikileaks site and follow links from there

Countries with existing/draft whistleblower laws: UK (Public Interest Disclosure Act, 1998); US (Whistleblowers Protect Act of 1989, 1994); South Africa (Protected Disclosures Act, 2000), Australia, Norway, Canada, South Korea, Argentina, Russia, Slovakia, Mexico and Nigeria

[2] Obama’s pursuit and escalation of Bush era whistleblowers; Super injunctions in UK

[3] A recent Delhi HC judgment struck down single benches as unconstitutional ruling that all information commissioners should pass judgments together. This will increase pendency further

[4] Wikileaks .Org– About Us

[5] Gag order in the UK, which prohibits publicizing even the fact of gagging

[6] Satyendra Dubey’s case was closed in March 2010 by the CBI, which concluded that the murder was the fall-out of a botched robbery and not connected to the alleged criminal nexus at NHAI

[7] Bradley Manning was recently detained by the US military for being the alleged source of the Iraq video and also the Garani massacre in Afghanistan. Note: Bradley revealed his identity himself in a series of online chats with former hacker Adrian Lamo.

[8] Lalu Yadav, Mayawati, Shibu Soren etc

[9] US: Patriot Act National Security Letter; UK: super injunctions

[10] Wikileaks hosts multiple cover sites (mirror sites with different names) to allow access even from China. These cover sites change frequently, and current names can be googled outside of China

[11] Some comments by Julian Assange on the financial and attribution integrity of Wikileaks

1. Our funds audited according to German, Australian, Swedish, French, Swiss and US law and most of our funds are even blind to us to prevent donor influence.
2. There has never been a documented case of WikiLeaks misattributing a document. We have a perfect record over three years of publishing. Compare this record with any other publisher of political materials.
3. In the US a lot of the anti-wikileaks propaganda comes from military apologists attempting to undermine the strength of http://collateralmurder.com/ by attacking its messenger. However, read that website carefully and all statements made in the video itself. You will see that even after other details have come to light, none require corrections. Why? Because we fact checked–to the degree of sending people to the most dangerous part of Baghdad during election time to do it. Who else has such demanding standards?
4. We push the ideal of “scientific journalism” — all primary sources for every article made available. It’s our invention because we love fact-checking and want others to check our facts to prove our good work.
5. On the balance issue. You’re right. We don’t believe in “balance”—we believe in accuracy and fairness. That is an important difference and a higher standard. The truth is not revealed by balancing the lies of competing powergroups–that is a job for politicians. We, as servants of the historical record, have a higher standard.

Earlier when Mr. Obama was running for senate and later for Presidency, the history of his full name Barack Hussain Obama was raked up. His political opponents raised the question on his faith in public forums directly and indirectly despite knowing that he was a member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ.

Mr Obama in his autobiography has not hidden the fact that his grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was a Muslim. Mr Obama, was raised as a Christian by his white mother despite his Kenyan father being Muslim. During his presidential election campaign he declared “Let’s make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance [to the American flag] and lead the pledge of allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate when I’m presiding.”

After assuming office at White house, his policies towards Iraq and Afghanistan differentiating liberal Muslims from conservative Muslims was considered to show his soft corner towards Muslims. This is because a conservative Christian shall not believe in such a differentiation and they wish to put all Muslims in one basket of terrorism.

Then came the Iftar party hosted by Muslims in this month in which Mr. Obama spoke for the constitutional right of Muslims to build a mosque near the New York site of 9/11 terrorist attacks. This is enough for a Republican party follower to confirm that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.

To the surprise of the people around the world , a opinion survey recently revealed that one in five Americans believed that he was a Muslim.

The next day White House spokesman Bill Burton clarified “the president is Christian.”

“By the president choosing a church, it does put undue pressure on that congregation, and it makes it a lot harder for folks to get into the church and to worship’.”

“he (Obama) prays every day. He talks to a wide range of pastors and religious leaders periodically. And you’ll see him in church again. I mean, he’s been to church as president. He’ll go to church once again. But he is getting spiritual guidance on a regular basis.”

Mr. President resorted to a personal clarification this Sunday regarding the mis information campaign about his religious faith. Mr Obama appeared in NBC television and commented about the designs of his opponents. He said,

“There is a mechanism, a network of misinformation, that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly”.

“I’m not going to be worrying too much about whatever rumors are floating out there,”

“If I spend all my time chasing after that then I wouldn’t get much done”

“I can’t spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead,’’

Regarding building a Mosque in Ground zero, he asserted “If you can build a church on that site, if you can build a synagogue on that site or a Hindu Temple on that site, then we can’t treat people of the Islamic faith differently, who are Americans — who are American citizens.”

“That is central to who we are. That is a core value of our Constitution. And my job as president is to make sure in part that we’re upholding our Constitution.”

But opponents of Mr. Obama who happen to be conservatives are not ready to accept the clarifications from White house or Mr. Obama since they are now confident that the ignorance of one in five Americans can be cashed in for campaign in the next presidential elections.

Mr. Glenn Beck, Television host and a conservative said that many Americans don’t think Obama is a Christian because they don’t recognize the faith that he’s practicing, which is a form of “collective salvation’’ rather than the personal salvation some believe is taught in the Bible. “ Obama is a guy who understands the world through liberation theology, which is oppressor and victim.’’ “People aren’t recognizing his version of Christianity and 48 percent of the African-American community doesn’t recognize it either, by the way,’’

That is a funny argument to imply that Mr. Obama should be considered a non Christian at least which may lay a foundation to stamp Mr. Obama as a Muslim.

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ThiruValluvar

Birth is alike to all but not their worth
Because of their diverse deeds

Thirukkural (972) a Tamil book of wisdom

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The rally was said to be organized to pay tribute to America’s military personnel and others “who embody nation’s founding principles of integrity, truth and honor”

The rally was a talking point since the venue of the rally and the date announced were the same as that of famous Washington March conducted by Rev. Martin Luther King forty seven years ago. The voice of the great civil right activist “ I have a dream” should still reverberate in the air. The speech of the great leader has inspired millions of people all over the world.

Earlier when the preparations were on for Mr. Beck’s rally, Son of Martin Luther King and president and chief executive, Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change said “My father championed free speech. He would be the first to say that those participating in Beck’s rally have the right to express their views. But his dream rejected hateful rhetoric and all forms of bigotry or discrimination, whether directed at race, faith, nationality, sexual orientation or political beliefs. He envisioned a world where all people would recognize one another as sisters and brothers in the human family. Throughout his life he advocated compassion for the poor, nonviolence, respect for the dignity of all people and peace for humanity.”

Mr. Glenn Beck has acquired a voice to hear but not a philosophy as good as that of MLK. As expected he turned towards god while addressing the rally.

Mr Beck was totally unscientific when he said to the crowd that “Something that is beyond man is happening,”. Much like a a religious skeptic who will try to put anything on something but actually knowing nothing about it.

He added “America today begins to turn back to God.” It is not known how he discovered such turning point. In fact outside America, people in the regions like Iraq or Afghanistan are wondering whether America is turning its back on God.

Mr. Beck worried “For too long, this country has wandered in darkness and we have wandered in darkness in periods from the beginning,”. “We have had moments of brilliance and moments of darkness. But this country has spent far too long worried about scars and thinking about the scars and concentrating on the scars.” “Today we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished – and the things that we can do tomorrow. The story of America is the story of humankind.”

His speech was nothing more than an average inspirational speech by a self help author.

Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor also spoke a large crowd mostly of White Americans. She kindled Patriotic fervor. She said that she was appearing “not as a politician” but “as the mother of her soldier,” her Army son Track. While honoring “those who served something greater than themselves,” the crowd should also recall “those who killed without mercy on Sept. 11,” she added.

On the same day Civil rights movement activists also gathered in the football stadium of a local black high school to commemorate the event of MLK 1963. The gathering was largely of Black Americans. They were there for “reclaiming the dream” — from Beck and his followers. One of the speakers Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) observed “Glenn Beck’s march will change nothing. But you can’t blame Glenn Beck for his march envy. His message can’t match ours,”

It looks like the world is same all around. Whether it is USA or India, the oppressors take refuge in God and Patriotism to coat a philosophical justification to keep themselves ahead.

Instead of restoring the honor Mr. Beck has rallied backwards as he has proved to be instrumental in widening a gap between White and Black. Yes on the grounds Blacks and Whites have conducted separate rallies. If this is the result then whatever MLK’s dream realised may rewind back in time.

Mr. Karunanithi in his report has quoted references to the films like, Mannin Mainthan, Kannamma and Uliyin Osai for which he has penned dialogues. He has listed how he has donated the money earned through writing dialogues in films to charities after paying taxes. However Mr. Karunanithi has not listed films of Vijayakanth in which he has been alleged to have collected Black money.

Only yesterday Vijayakanth observed that both DMK and AIADMK are corrupt parties, Mr. Karunanithi has taken exception to the above remark and has compared himself with Vijayakanth. It may also be recalled that recntly he compared himself with Rajinikanth on involving family members in film industry. Such comparisons are seen as making news to keep the tempo of the election works which have started already.

The political circles are now surprised by the remark of Vijayakanth distancing DMDK from both AIADMK and DMK since such a move may result in a possibility of Congress party forming a third front along with DMDK and PMK.

With Sonia Gandhi said to be in favour of continuing alliance with DMK, Rahul Gandhi favouring to go it alone, a section in Congress party is also eagerly waiting to form alliance with AIADMK.

Jayalalithaa has been exhibiting such a confidence after her public meetings held at Coimbatore and Trichy where she was cheered by huge crowds. She has already spoken to Dr.Krishnamurty of Puthiya Thamizhagam party representing Devendra kula velalar community spread in southern districts and Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetrak kazhagam as a prelude to forming alliances.

DMDK leader and actor Vijayakanth too conducted free marriages on the same day and has observed that no one can form government without the help of DMDK. He was attacking both DMK and AIADMK as corruption parties.

Another party PMK which wield influence in Vanniar dominated northern belt has declared to imitate their election plan followed in Pennagaram by elections in which they could garner 40000 votes pushing the AIADMK to a third position. They have already started their election works based on what they call micro plan to be implemented in selected constituencies.

The plans of DMK and Congress parties are not yet clear. Already a bargain for seat sharing has been set in motion by Ex Minister EVKS Elangovan who was allowed by the Congress high command to talk against the continuance of DMK – Congress alliance. This has added advantage to AIADMK.

With the elections to Municipal Corporation fast approaching, the players in Mumbai are doing warm up exercises. Marathi Pride which is a late comer to Maharashtra when compared to Tamil pride which arrived several decades before is going to be the foot ball of this game.

Shiv Sena, starting from pro north and anti south plank converted to Hindutwa during the emergence of BJP. But since the sheen of Ram temple is lost, a dialogue within the party resulted in a healthy division wherein MNS was born.

Now SS and MNS are projecting themselves as representatives of Marathi Manoos. It will be interesting to watch the National parties too who vie for a pie in Marathi pride to find themselves in future third and fourth places.

Recently MNS took up the cause of running Marathi movies in various Multiplexes in Mumbai . Demanding prime-time slot for Marathi movies in Mumbai Multiplexes cannot be considered as unjustified act. If Marathi arts cannot be promoted in Maharashtra then where else it can be done? If Karnataka Government can regulate the screening of Non Kannada films in Bangalore and Tamil Nadu Government can award tax concessions to Tamil Films why not Marathi films be given some guidelines for promotion?

One suggestion made by Shiv Sena is to reduce ticket rates for Marathi movies affordable to Marathi viewers. Uddhav Thackeray of SS is even ferocious and wishes to overtake Raj in this issue and has said “The multiplex owners should take a decision at the earliest or else we will handle the issue in Sena style,” “Our protest will be much stronger than the MNS’s.”

Earlier MNS activists ( mainstream media call them as goons) were up in arms against auto and taxi drivers who represent a sizable population of migrant work force. In this connection Raj Thackeray alleged that those drivers tamper with meters and refuse to carry passengers for short distances Citing this reason MNS chief met Transport Commissioner and asked him to stop issuing taxi licenses to migrants. This is how Raj tries to check the flow of Non Marathis from the North.

What about the old Tiger Bal Thackeray? He looks down further south. He raises his voice in an entirely different plank of regaining Marathi soil from neighboring Karnataka state. He is a great statesman and wishes to fix Congress party. For him ensuring impartial handling of Maharashtra – Karnataka border issue rests with the removal of Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily. “Moily is a Kannadiga…the Central Government has courts under pressure… How can one expect that Marathi people in border areas (of Karnataka) get justice from courts,”

In many inter state disputes for water or land the Unionl government of India was not following declared uniform policies and was doing Cats and Monkey politics. This is another example where the so called National integration songs of National parties shall be put into test.

The behavior of National parties initially would be to oppose the regional parties as anti national or separatist forces. But when they get weakened they will bring them to their fold for alliance. They will become friends. Then the twists and turns in politics shall bring the Regional party to power in the state. This is the trend observed in Tamil Nadu.

Maharashtra is heading towards a bipolar politics between SS and MNS and the future Maharashtra shall replicate Tamil Nadu where the Power is handed over either to DMK or AIADMK the offshoot of DMK.

Mr R. Nallakkannu a politburo member of Communist Party of India ( CPI) has stated that the Srilankan Navy are entering the Indian boundary in the Tamil nadu coast and attacking our fishermen. He has stated that the reason for this is handing over Katchatheevu ( an island) to Srilanka, and therefore the Katchtheevu should be reclaimed.

The observation of the senior leader of Tamil Nadu is in continuation of the reply read in Parliament by External Affairs Minister SM Krishna who was seen advising the fishermen not to cross boundary .( to save their life from Sri lankan Navy)

The minister said that Indian fisherman needed to be sensitized vis-a-vis the maritime boundary. “Most such incidents take place in Sri Lankan waters, it is therefore important we sensitize our fishermen to respect the international maritime boundary” He further added that “Fishermen are not literate, so they do not understand anything beyond fishing,”

Since the Minister had admitted that most of the incidents took place in Srilankan waters, he has implied that the rest of the incidents occurred in Indian waters.

Many political leaders in Tamil Nadu have expressed their displeasure about the tone of the reply given by S.M Krishna since the Indian Navy or coast guard have not prevented Srilankan Navy or fishermen from entering Indian waters. The outburst of Mr. R. Nallakkannu who is usually soft spoken should be seen in this context.

The editorial has explained how Kashmiris of Indian side are wealthy and peaceful when compared to their counterparts in Pakistan and alleged that Kashmir is Islamised.

The following are few excerpts

“We know that the Kashmiris on the Indian side are a pampered lot. They are too happy that they can afford to shut down the state for days at a stretch, and let their children roam on the street instead of going to school. Whereas in that part of Kashmir under Pakistani occupation the Kashmiris live like slaves-poverty stricken, illiterate, exploited by the Punjabi Muslim elite, part of their land ceded to China, deprived of all progress and modern amenities. “

“The Kashmir on our side is fortunate to have better roads, electricity, education, railways, huge central subsidy and the highest per capita income compared to any other state in the country. Jammu and Kashmir gets the highest central aid which is deprived to such poor states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh”

“The Islamisation of Kashmir is a dangerous game. This was on for the last two decades. First they started changing the names of places and sign boards. For instance, Kashmiri names like Anantnag was converted to Islamabad. Then they imposed a ban on cinema halls, beauty parlours, restaurants and fashion shops. They asked their women to wear veil even in schools and offices. The women were asked not to wear jeans, fashionable outfits and makeup.”

“The problem in Kashmir is not one of bread and butter. This state by the way, has the richest politicians in the country owning villas, hotels and palaces as far as London, Dubai and of course Pakistan.”

After explaining such a rosy picture about the life of Kashmiris the RSS has concluded “The writ of Delhi has to run in every part of the country. It has to be enforced whatever the price we have to pay. Only that clear message will douse the so-called fire in Kashmir.”

An idiot is described as a mentally deficient person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way. However our IDIOT is the one who is Intelligent Democratic Indian Of Truth. He acts fearlessly in a self destructive way to defend the truth. Those three are, by this time they have become History, Satyendra Dubey, Shanmughan Manjunath and Amit Jethwa.

Satyendra Dubey ( 1973 – 2003) raised from a humble background in Bihar, graduated in Civil Engineering in IIT Kanpur. After entering Indian Engineering Service he was in charge of part of the Golden Quadrilateral Highway Corridor Project. There he found construction firm Larsen and Toubro entrusting the works to low quality sub contractors. Further he found financial irregularities about advance payment to contractors.

Satyendra Dubey resorted to unusual method of writing a detailed letter to the Prime Minister whistle blowing the irregularities in the Government road project. Later on November 27 2003 he was found murdered near Gaya railway station. The case was handled by CBI which concluded it as a simple robbery and murder case. In March 2010 the court convicted the culprits who committed the crime. This story consists of episodes of death and disappearance of witnesses, escape and recapture of prime accused etc.

But no one knows what was the action taken by the Prime minister on the contents of the letter written by Satyendra Dubey and about who actually ordered to kill him. If bringing out the truth in writing is the reason for his murder then we are left to wonder who is idiot, the person or the system.

Shanmughan Manjunath ( 1978 – 2005) hailing from Kolar in Karnataka was graduated in Computer Science Engineering and got MBA from Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. He was working for Indian Oil Corporation in Lucknow when he ordered for sealing two petrol pumps for selling adulterated petrol. Manjunath was shot dead on 19 November 2005. The murderer is still to be awarded the punishment.

The dealership of Petrol pumps are mostly allotted to persons with political patrons. The adulteration is a way for quick money. Manjunath who was a good singer refused to sing along the tunes of the dealers. He knew what he was doing. Was he idiotic in hitting hard a stone wall? Well we pass on to the latest and third episode of this story.

Amit Jethwa (1977 – 20 July 2010) was a Right to Information (RTI) activist and environmentalist from Gujarat. He was working towards protection of animals in Gir Forest area. Incidentally he had come across illegal mining. He was raising allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party member of parliament.Mr. Dinu Solanki

On 20 July 2010 he was shot dead by two assailants on a motorbike near the Gujarat high court in Ahmedabad. The case is being investigated.

What is significant about this person is that he trained over 4,000 people about RTI act , out of which 1,500 people are now using RTI to bring out the truth in Gujarath, a state stained by genocide of Muslims and false encounters. Murder of Amit Jethwa is an effort to silence the voices of citizens to circumvent the RTI. Can we say that each RTI activist is an idiotic suicide fighter?

These three heroes were in their twenties/ thirties when they were shot to death by guns. This indicates that the Indian youth are determined to face the challenges of our rotten democracy just for the cause of Truth. On the other hand we can see that the paid murderers use guns and have moved on from knives sickles and other country weapons.

On 9th August the Indian cabinet cleared the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill, 2010. This bill shall empower the Central Vigilance Commission for protecting Government servants from disciplinary action for exposing corruption in a government department. This will also enable the Commission to penalize people revealing the identity of whistle-blowers.

However this act will only a be symbolic act to show that a democratic country is having such an act for the name sake. The existing law enforcing agencies have worked for their masters and have failed to protect the life of whistle blowers. It is the attitude of the establishment which needs to be changed and the political will of a strong leadership only can protect the honest citizens.

The politicians will enact symbolic laws in Parliament. The power to rule shall encourage the Bureaucracy to have a nexus with criminals and money launders. The Judiciary shall bring maximum justice based on the evidences only derived after the death and hostility of witnesses.

Under the circumstances prevailing in India a person who wishes to bring out the truth against a powerful lobby, should have a licensed gun at least to protect himself. He should not venture out alone and we have to think about many more precautions to be taken. A person has to defend himself with more intelligence while working in an idiotic system which knowingly fails to act.

We should acknowledge that a written law is just an organ of impotent institution at the moment a gun targets the forehead of a honest citizen.
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ThiruValluvar

An oppressive ruler of misgovernance
Is worse than a paid murderer

Thirukkural (551) a Tamil book of wisdom

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I am neither a political analyst nor a politician myself, but just a common man who keenly observes the happenings on this large nation on a day-to-day basis. The term democracy comes from the Greek: δημοκρατία – (dēmokratía) “rule of the people” – this means to say that whatever the majority of the people wish, will be taken into consideration by the government. This system of elected governance has however utterly failed in our so-called largest democracy.

If you analyze the events that unfolded over the past few years you will come to agree with me on when and why this democracy failed resulting in failure of justice. Rather it amounts to untold misery and sometime avoidable killings of the innocents. The failure of the system cannot be attributed to one party or just the politicians. Various other factors have also contributed to failure.

Firstly, we have to analyze the failures and then about the causes. The failure of this democratic system actually reflects on the states first rather than the nation itself. As India is divided into many states and union territories governed by the regional or the national political parties formally elected by the people, the inconvenience of the people has to be addressed by the governing states first. If the issue cannot be addressed by the states, then the issue has to be resolved by the centre. This is how the system is set up. Either the centre or the state should come up with the solution thereby fulfilling the end wishes of the people. But what happens when both the centre and state are against the wishes of their own people. Do the people have any choice? Now whatever protests made by the people becomes meaningless.

Even now people do have a chance to fulfill their dreams by casting their votes to the opposition party. However, they have to wait until the next elections. Now what happens in this election is that the ruling state party needs the support of central parties in order to form the government in the state. This alliance is established at the cost of compromising the real demands of the people. This situation is the state of reality across several states in India, where the ruling regional parties have become powerless to address the real demands of its people.

Ironically, the state parties tend to take an anti-people policy to safeguard the interests of the central political partner. This situation is true in states like Tamil Nadu where the ruling DMK party compromises with Congress party. Situation is worse if the state and the central parties are out of alliance. Both the parties play opponents and game continues throughout as both of them slams each other. This results in the central party sending a team to probe the activities of the state party. This situation can be seen in Karnataka, UP and in Gujarat where the ruling state party does not comply with the central party.

As money and power plays an important role within the political parties of India, often the wishes of people are neglected. Politicians are interested only in safeguarding their position rather than addressing the core issues of the people. For the past 40 years people of India are suffering at the hands of Indian political system and not just from the politicians.

The Indian system of political administration can be one among the big reasons for this chaos and confusion. Both the central and the state governments have actively played their role in maintaining unrest within the people of the Indian soil. As India is not just one country with one language and culture, often friction arises due to the differences connected with these issues. India comprises of different nationalities like the Tamils, Kannadigas, Marathis, Keralites, Telugus etc, and each of these identities have their own history.

The one thing that is common within all the states is the religion called Hinduism though the practice of this religion differs from region to region. However these practices are accepted as parts of Hinduism, regardless of whatever methods of worship a community follows. But the core fundamentalists of this religion have made all the people of India to think that that Vedas and Bhagavat Gita as the only authority of Hinduism and it is not my prerogative to deny it.

However there are millions of Hindus – rather sons and daughters of this soil who have not touched these books in their life time, but still follow the same old style of worshiping their Gods in ways not endorsed or relevant to the methods preached by Vedas or Bhagavat Gita. Therefore in my opinion, religion is not a common factor that links all the states of India, if we consider the fundamental religious practices followed by the people of India.

At the moment Indian government does not want to see this unity in diversity. It simply cannot stand this term ‘diversity’. It wants all the states to speak one language and follow one culture. Therefore it often uses the term ‘Patriotism’ and ignites the feeling among all Indians that they should be patriotic to support the decisions of the central government though these decisions are anti-regional. The Delhi agents of the Indian government makes people to think Hindi as the national language of India though it is not so per Indian constitution. The central ministers, every now and then want to impose Hindi on all non-Hindi speaking states in order to achieve this pseudo unity. \

The central government does not want to promote the regional language as it is not their language; instead they want to promote their language Hindi as a link language. This is not a language imposition, but also a cultural invasion. As the languages are intertwined with the cultures, the imposition of languages leads to cultural invasion. UNESCO has predicted that in a hundred years, the regional languages of India would be extinct. The pathetic part is that many of the Tamils, Telugus etc think that they have to welcome Hindi into their states and should converse in this language.

Least they realize that they are being made a frog in the boiling water. As the water boils slowly, the frog dies slowly also. The same way as language invasion happens passively, our languages are dieing slowly. Death of a language amounts to death of an age old culture. For this very reason, many Tamils blew the whistle to not take up any language that is being imposed.

At the moment fifty percent of spoken Tamil is mixed with English words because of the wide use of English language. If Hindi is also imposed on the people of Tamil Nadu, there is a good chance that it will lead to the decay of Tamil language.  Tamil is not the only language to take this beating; it equally applies to all regional languages of India. Bengal, Orissa, Maharastra, Gujrat, Rajasthan, Assam and many more states have already lost their ground in sticking on to their mother tongues as they watch only Hindi movies, Hindi serials and speak only Hindi at public places. Tamils is probably the last frontier and an identity that has not fallen.

Yet the state pf Tamil Nadu has developed in leaps and bounds. Now it also serves as a commercial hub for many North Indians who travel to the  Tamil land everyday for better life. Thanks to the Social Justice movements by the Dravidian think tanks who vehemently opposed Hindi imposition on Tamils. Late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister CN Annadurai said

‘why provide two holes for a two cats – one big another small to come inside our home when just one big hole is enough for both?’

He meant to say why India needs two link languages English and Hindi when just one is enough.

The Dravidian movement founded before the independence of India’s by E.V. Ramasamy also known as Periyar actively alerted southern Indians that they have the right to protect their language and culture from the invasion of Hindi language.  In due course the movement called for the unity of South Indian states to challenge the imposition of Hindi language and even the decisions of the central government connected to the southern states. Had this Dravidian movement been successful, south Indian states would have resolved many of the present unsolved issues like the Cauvery issue, Godavari issue, Mullai Periyaru issuse, Telengana issue, Eelam Tamils issue etc, etc. But the central government carefully diluted that unity of uprising among the south Indian states.

The Delhi pundits considered the emerging unity among the South Indian states at that time as a major threat to the authority of the central government. It was perceived that the unity of regional groups will also give rise to a new nation within India which will take its own social, political or economic decisions. Hence the Delhi political pundits cleverly managed to maintain unrest, disunity and enmity within the neighboring states. Hence several core issues between the states remain unresolved.

The power circle in Delhi, wants all its states to depend on the center to negotiate disputes rather than negotiating the disputes themselves. The central government acts as big brother and makes sure that it is the boss and people of the states are mere servants.  This mentality of the central government would be more evident whenever the ruling central party wins a majority. When the government is stable and strong, without the support of the states, it actually behaves as a monarchy.

The Social Justice movement of the Dravidian parties, unfortunately confined to Tamil Nadu alone also slowly subsided after the evolution of the political entities DMK and ADMK. Now the Dravidian movement is just a name sake slogan used by political parties in Tamil Nadu. The present day Political parties in Tamil Nadu associate with any political party in order to capture power. Hence the state political parties too greatly failed in their attempt to provide real security to the language and culture of the people.

As we have seen in our days, how the state and the central political parties have failed to serve the people, it is my humble conclusion that never ever, Indian people will find peace inside India. We have to accept that democracy in India has literally failed and non existent. In addition this failed democracy can never be resurrected. The real security for our people may lie in the hands of multi-party coalition governments both in the centre and in the state. The simple reason is, if a single party majority government comes to power, then it can certainly afford to ignore the wishes of the people as its authority cannot be challenged during its tenure. However, if a minority coalition party assumes power, then people could demand their wishes more authoritatively as the government is more dependent and answerable or I should say citizen friendly in its day to day dealing of issues.

At the moment, India is only concerned about posting the magical 10 % GDP growth and a stable stock market. But this is not going to serve the common man who desperately need help. India now boasts of having highest number of people in the world who starve for everyday food.

In spite of all these facts, politicians want Indian youngsters to sing the national anthem and say ‘Jai Hind’ in our school. Politicians make people believe in patriotism, but the real patriotism for India means business. Whether it is the Moaist issue or the Eelam Tamil crisis,  India shows tremendous business interest in the affected areas. In both the cases, India wanted to crush the rebels who claim for their  basic rights. But India sees them as terrorists and wants a clean solution of wiping them from the face of the earth. It is understood that in this pseudo democratic land, there cannot be any protests or agitation or uprising anymore. India does not want an uprising nor does it want to provide a solution. This is evident with India’s foreign policy towards Srilanka. Everyday Tamil Nadu fishermen are either attacked or killed by the Sri Lankan navy. However, India pays no attention to this problem, rather it warns Tamil fishermen not to fish in waters close to Srilanka sea limit.

This is just one such problem. There are hundreds of other unresolved problems which keep on piling for which solution cannot be found in the current political framework of India. India is too big and complex and not organised enough to handle all the states. We should accept that the people are pathetic as they will slowly lose their rights, language, culture and their ancestral signs.   We can only expect something magic to happen among Indians who can suddenly wake up from their deep sleep to resurrect justice, secularism and true democracy.

Let the reign of cruel ones  crumble,

And the  graceful compassionate people rule the world

- Saint Vallalar