t i w a r i m a n i s h

2011-11-26T04:25:00.009+05:30

Sense of Proportion:

Disproportionate Justice Katju, Media and the ‘most in India’

Sense of proportion is a rare sense, not common and difficult to achieve. I am writing about Justice Katju’s recent comment on intellectual level of ‘most in India’ where he offended everyone while trying to defend his earlier comments on Indian media. I am straight way criticizing Justice Katju for his recent remarks and his understanding of ‘most in India’.

I have some sympathy with Justice Katju over his earlier remark on media because they are true, although partially. Justice Katju says that his remark on media was misrepresented but I believe that his remark was not misrepresented but was disproportionately blown off.

Justice Katju wanted to comment on likes of India TV but could not keep his direction and senses balanced and his sense of proportion went off in the air, literally! He wanted to criticize TV channels which have astrologers and Shani-Devs in studios for primetime shows. He wanted to criticize BogBoss for its vulgaity and Colors for creating images of Balika Vadhus but he lost sense of proportion.

Some may disagree with me to agree partially with Justice Katju but I believe truth could exist partially and there are different shades between the black and the white. I agree with Justice Katju for his criticism of Shani Devs and Balika Vadhus but I disagree with him when he thinks everyone in the media is same. What I do not like of Justice Katju is that he puts everyone in the same box - Devil’s Advocate’s Karan Thapar or Sansani’s Shrivardhan Trivedi. Justice Katju does not realize that there are many shades in Indian media and it is his problem that he could only see grey. It could even be his color-blindness!

When Justice Katju says, ‘Most in India are of very low intellectual Level’, he do not realize the socio-cultural differences existing in the country. I cannot believe that Justice Katju is not aware that it is the ‘base’ of any society which builds the ‘super-structure’. One could differ methodologically here but it is true that most people in our country are striving to ensure a day’s meal. They are so helpless that they cannot find themselves an occupation to keep them alive. When the government has to make a law to grant them employment for 100 days out of 365 days, how can someone expect ‘most in India’ to have so called ‘intellectual level’?

Still, it is not simply possible to put our country into one big-broad category. Whenever one makes such a statement, s/he should categorize it. Such statements can’t be generalized. Before making any such statement, Justice Katju should re-read texts which describe the reasons for differences in learning capacities of human beings across different societies in the world. I am saying, ‘re-read’ because I believe he is well-read. He had the advantage of having the ‘cultural capital’.

I firmly believe that although ‘most in India’ are often poor and lack existential necessities but they as ‘smart’ as Justice Katju himself is. I am saying so because if this ‘most in India’ gets half the chance and opportunities as Justice Katju had, it would do much better than what Justice Katju has achieved in his lifetime.

I find Justice Katju’s remarks about ‘most in India’ misplaced. He has formed his opinion on the basis of what he finds around him. India is not just what Justice Katju finds around him. When Justice Katju went to JNU recently to deliver annual Nehru Memorial Lecture he spoke on ‘What is India’. When he finished, a student asked him that in last one hour he spoke about ‘what was India’ and ‘What will be India’ but not ‘What is India’. Justice Katju got agitated and replied in rather irritated way, ‘India is poverty’. Actually Judges are not habitual of answering questions and this question of a young student irritated Justice Katju.

If Justice Katju gets down to discuss on ‘whom to vote for’ with one of the ‘most in India’ in a village in Kushi Nagar in Western Uttar Pradesh or in a small town in Bundelkhand or in any other part of India for that matter, he would get to know of their intellectual level. I am saying so because I have recently done that as widely as described above and I am amazed at the intellectual level of ‘most in India’. They are as smart as anyone who has had ‘cultural capital’ and if Justice Katju gets into a debate with them as a commoner, they would make him realize ‘what is India’?

I would suggest that Justice Katju should go around the country and learn more about ‘most in India’. I would suggest him to board the general bogey of Sapta Kranti express and get down at any mufassil station in UP or Bihar. Take a ghodagadi to the bazaar next to the station and on the way to discuss politics in the area. He would immediately know what intellectual level ‘most in India’ has. The ‘most in India’ would tell him what democracy is and what rights of citizens in a democracy are. They would also explain how caste is an important category in democratic mobilization and what difference religion makes when you go to vote.

My experience is that the ’most in India’ may not fit into a category where they could be divided into ‘low’ or ‘high’ levels of intellect. One has to redefine ‘categories’ of ‘low’ or ‘high’ for ‘most in India’ because those who have defined these categories, do not actually know what ‘most in India’ is.

I am ready to believe that Justice Katju’s remarks are based on his experience and well founded. After all he is a learned man but I must bring it to his notice that ‘most in India’ have silently changed over time. It is necessary to keep oneself update on changes even if they are not happening in your immediate surroundings.

Beaten by my Baba’s lathi, I learnt – not to raise hand on any woman

2011-11-24T15:27:00.003+05:30

(It’s part of ‘Men say No’ Blogathon)

When I got this link on my facebook page, I wondered what Blogathon is and then, what ‘Blogathon: Men Say No’ is all about? When I went to the facebook page, I read, “We invite diverse blogs that share experiences of men challenging Violence against women, celebrate the action leaders, provide perspective on role of men, and even highlight the barriers to male participation & leadership.” When I tried to recall what are my experiences of men challenging Violence against women, I immediately recalled the most interesting and impressive incident from my own life.

My baba (grandfather) was an embodiment of all that stands for the term ‘patriarch’. He was tall, well-built, lathi wielding man who spent his life tilling the land in our village in Alwar. Our region is dominant by Meenas, which primarily were martial caste and in those times of physical might and prowess, it was necessary to show one’s physical strength and valor to live with self-respect. I am describing this because now when I read about masculinity, feminism and patriarchy, I sometimes feel that his generation was very much ‘anti-feminist’, if not anti-women. But when I try to analyse it deeply, I find that he was neither anti-women nor a staunch patriarch but what he appeared to me, was the necessity of his times.

Let me come to the incident which formed the basis of my own ‘No Violence against Women’ philosophy and behavior. I have a twin sister and we studied together for our school and college. It is another matter that our ways of life and its paths are quite different now but we have a lot common than any other brother-sister of this world. We shared our best secrets along with our tiffin for school and the school bag. Her name is Manisha and now she is into an administrative officer in Rajasthan. She is mother of a two toddlers - one boy and another a girl.

I must tell you here that this wasn’t just a goody-goody story and we used to fight a lot and we still fight over all kind of issues – from petty things like ‘you don’t call me’ to our views on State politics and policies of the government she works for! Our fights were not just verbal but they were actually violent where I usually ended up with many nail-scratches on my hand and face and she with a punch on her nose. This also means that I too was involved in a sort of ‘violence against women’ but you must agree that this form of violence and at that level is not included in ‘VAW’. There were series of those fights and no one was allowed to intervene between us in any form. At the end of the day or at most, the next day, we were one again.

It was summer of 1991 or 1992. My baba has come to Ajmer from the village for a longer duration. We were living in a colonial railway bungalow then, which had a very large garden and open space. In the evenings, baba used to put his charpoy beneath a neem tree and sit there with people who came to meet him. We, children of home used to loiter around him just for nothing and used to fight for something or nothing. He has warned me many times before against raising hand over the girl, my sister. Still, there were occasions when he gets annoyed over me.

One evening, he was sitting on his charpoy under the neem. I had an argument with my sister and she probably had hit me by her hand or nails and ran away. I was running after her with a cricket bat in my hand. My baba saw that I told me stop or else he would beat me. I didn’t listen. Rather I thought how would he, at around 80 years of age, run after me? There was a long aangan and veranda and there was at least 50 meters distance in between. I was sure that even if he would run after me, he can’t catch me. After all, she has hit me so hard; I had to balance the account! So I ignored his warning.

Baba too didn’t waste much time and took his lathi in one hand, aimed towards me and threw it with such a force and trick that it hit my legs directly and I fell down. He quickly came towards me and without caring if I am hurt, started hitting me hard with his lathi and hands. He had strong palms and hands at that age too. He was very angry with me and was swearing and abusing me for raising hand on the girl. He told me sternly and I would say, violently that if I ever again raise my hand over the girl, he would break my legs and hands.

This was one of the sternest warnings I ever had and the look on his face and the anger in his eyes sent a shiver into my spine. I can still recall that moment and I whenever I think about it, I realize how angry he was. He later told me that he does not like and want that any men should raise his hand on a woman. He told me that our ‘culture’ is to protect women and not to harm her- be it your sister or anyone else. My dadi had many differences with him on many issues but she always vouched that he is dead against raising hand on women. She stated many other incidents in support of this.

I do not know if I can debate the ‘culture’ or doubt what dadi vouched for, but I know that what he taught me that day, even if it was violent, has become the basis of my behavior. For me he was the first man who challenged VAW and taught me a lesson. If everyone has such a baba or dada or anyone else, I believe anyone indulging in VAW in any form would think twice before doing so.

This Blog is part of the Men Say No Blogathon, encouraging men to take up action against the violence faced by women. More entries to the Blogathon can be read at www.mustbol.in/blogathon. Join further conversation on facebook.com/delhiyouth &twitter.com/mustbol

2011-11-24T02:42:00.006+05:30

Rajasthan: Politically Speaking

Political atmosphere in Rajasthan is becoming different from what it used to be. May be Rajasthan politics is evolving and these are signs! This conventional-conservative State is witnessing unconventional incidents which have intricate political implications and overtones. They include: Bhanwari Devi CD episode and her possible ‘murder’; Minister Ramlal Jat’s alleged involvement in a murder case and his resignation; Gopalgarh firing and killing of minorities.

Now there is a new CD episode which involves BJP ex-MP and some other leaders and then the Dungapur-Udaipur communal outburst on the issue of facebook picture about one religion’s sacrosanct objects and beliefs. On top of all this, Gurjars are sitting on another ‘padav’ in Bhandarej, Dausa and they are threatening to make a ‘kooch’ to Jaipur. Then there is visible resentment in Congress brass on political postings and places in new cabinet- this is reflected in Congress heavy weight MLA Raghu Sharma not joining the post he was assigned in the reshuffle

The ‘hand’ of high command has always been the most influential in the Congress party but recent incidents and news items suggest that Gehlot saved his chair by very thin margin and stern warning because of the dominance of old coterie around Sonia Gandhi, which recommended him ‘this’ last chance. He may not get such another chance if power gets transferred in the Congress party. This too could happen soon and Gehlot would be a big loser in this game of power-change.

BJP too in the State is not in best of its health. It is also ridden with internal issues and they reflect externally. Still, Advani’s yatra proved boon for the party and Vasundhara Raje was able to put up a good show of her strength – to show it to her distracters and supporters equally. BJP government too was not an ideal one for the State and was riddled with many scams but it fared better than the present government. There are some popular parameters of governance and the Gehlot government has failed on them in the State.

Rajasthan has not been very volatile politically in its democratic history. Contests here are usually two ways and everyone knows each other’s opponents clearly. They also know the limits which they keep for each other’s sake. Now those limits are being crossed and the State politics is taking a new shape, mainly in terms of trying new formations.

In last elections, there were efforts to create a third front and some parties and individuals leaders tried hard for that without success. This time those forces are again getting active. They include powerful Meena leader, Kirori Lal Meena. Kirori went against the BJP in the last elections and the BJP suffered for that. He supported the Congress government and his wife, Golma became minster. She later resigned but was kept in the cabinet. Kirori keeps abusing the Congress government in the State and the Party but the Congress keep mum.

Kirorilal has recently announced that he would look for option other than Congress and BJP. He said so very clearly and Kirori is no buffoon. BJP suffered in the last election in 2008 because of Kirori. He has good hold among Meenas and no one has been able to shake that. The BJP in its government in last term tried to project Virender Meena as an alternative Meena leader but it failed ultimately. Congress tried to project Namo Narayan Meena, MP and cabinet minister in Centre but he too wasn't able to move Kirori a little. Kirorilal is still the tallest leader of Meenas in that part of Rajasthan.

If the anti-defection case against six BSP and two others MLAs proves them wrong, the government may fall off majority. In such a situation, if Kirorilal’s ‘wisdom’ prevails and the BJP manages to put up a collective show, the Congress government in Rajasthan would come under clouds. Congress governments in Rajasthan are being associated with bad times, bad performance and anti-people actions. Congress government in the State is not being credited for any constructive work by people, media and its opponents; its governance agenda is also looking failed when we look at examples like Gopalgrah and now Dungarpur; it has not been able to satisfy its cadre and leaders as the political appointments are being made very late and are not complete yet – all these factors are not creating a very good image of the Congress government in Rajasthan.

Depending upon the mood or Gurjars and Meenas; of the tribals and minorities in Dungarpur-Udaipur tribal belt; of the ambitious insiders in the Congress party and finally on the mood of high-command’s commanders, the Congress government and Ashok Gehlot could survive this cold-wave, which has already started in the State. If the opposition gets together and decide to blow Ashok Gehlot government off, then it would not be an unthinkable task. Let’s see how much heat the opposition produces in coming days.

Two 'Gandhis' in the Battle of Uttar Pradesh

2011-11-21T04:00:00.019+05:30

Battle for 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections is almost on full throttle now and if Mayawati wants to save herself from the humiliation of a no-confidence motion, she would dissolve this assembly in next few days. This battle would then be officially ‘on’. Gandhi is one name without which we cannot conclude any discussion in Indian politics. In discussions on Uttar Pradesh politics, we are mostly hearing the name of just one Gandhi although there is another Gandhi in the State politics. Can we question, which one of the two Gandhis is more eligible heir of the Nehru-Gandhi legacy in Indian politics?

This could be an interesting comparison and for a surprise, common people in the State are now making this comparison. Political analysts and the media have not yet started going to the field thus they are not being able to observe and read these comparisons prevailing in common places and in the minds of common people. People in the State have started noticing the competencies or the incompetency of these two Yuvrajs, both Gandhis.

Let’s begin with the lesser ‘Yuvraj’ - Varun Gandhi. Knowing the temperament of the electorate which votes for the BJP in the State, it could be said that they very much want someone like Varun Gandhi to lead them. They want the one who could lead from the front and they believe that Varun Gandhi has that spark and has once proved that in his speeches in the last elections. They may not completely agree with all what he said but they are happy seeing the anger and the spark, which they want to see in their leader.

For the first Gandhi this is a battle where he wants to prove his political mettle but for the other Gandhi too, this could become as equal a battle as the first. Varun Gandhi is not being pushed forward by the BJP and he too doesn’t seem to be doing a lot in this direction. But if Varun Gandhi could be projected as another Gandhi, he could turn the fortunes of the BJP in the State. The BJP would not do so for many reasons at the national level but at the level of Uttar Pradesh, this could be a fruitful projection for the BJP. Either top leaders in the BJP are not realizing the importance of the Uttar Pradesh or they are not realizing the significance of putting one Gandhi opposite another in the State. If the BJP could manage to put Varun as a competitor to Rahul Gandhi as ‘another Gandhi’, it could stall the progress of the Congress party in the State which is completely riding only on the shoulders of Rahul Gandhi.

The other Yuvraj, Rahul Gandhi deserves more to be called Yuvraj. It’s proved again with the rumors of him taking over the Congress party as is working-President. That’s in the pipeline but everyone in the Congress, all other political parties, in the media and the public knows the role he is playing in the matters of government and of the party including his role in recent cabinet reshuffle in Rajasthan.

When we speak in context of Uttar Pradesh, people believe that Rahul Gandhi is not putting best of his efforts in the battle which is being fought in his name. He has many more issues to tackle and many more States to focus although he always try to unsuccessfully project that the State is his first priority. Congress cadre and leaders in the State knows that the Yuvraj is inaccessible and if one has to succeed in in-party competition one should know how to keep his managers or the ‘middle-man leaders’ in the Party happy. They should put all efforts in keeping these people posted of what all they are thinking of doing, even if they are not doing. Anyone who is in the Congress or has joined the Congress knows this mantra and also knows that the Yuvraj cannot know it at his own. They know that the Yuvraj do not have any system in place from which he could know the ground situation.

Also, Rahul Gandhi is losing his sheen as a political brand in the State. His press coverage has improved a little in last 2-3 weeks but it looks more like his managers job than his deeds. His speeches lack any kick for the youth although this time in Phulpur, his managers tried better to put his angry-man’s image even before he spoke. But they couldn’t gauge the mood right. What Rahul spoke about ‘begging’ in Maharasthra could not be his own faux passé because if one understands what agitates his electorate, he cannot use such terms. He was probably ill-advised on how to present one-self as agitated.

Among these two Yuvrajs, Rahul Gandhi occupies more airtime om electronic media and also more square-inch space in newsprint. He has the advantage of being sitting on unlimited resources of the Centre government. One could see its example in yesterday’s Rs. 6234 Crore package for the weavers of the State. This is the advantage the Congress Yuvraj would have over other Yuvraj. Another point against the BJP-Yuvraj is that he actually hasn’y been announced as Yuvraj yet. He is still struggling to be announced as Yuvraj by the oldies, which are not willing to leave grounds for the younger generation in the BJP.

The BJP in the Uttar Pradesh is in dire need of a young face. People are fed up of old and oft-repeated faces like Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra or Sadhvi Uma. The BJP’s youth want someone who speaks their language, who has age on his side to take the contest to a longer distance. There are people in the State - and they are common people and not experts - who are comparing Rahul Gandhi and Varun Gandhi after Rahul Gandhi’s faux passé on the Anna Hazare issue in the Parliament. They are saying that Varun went to Anna Hazare’s place because he could gauge the pressure of popular sentiment but Rahul failed to do that.

People are also comparing the oratory skills and anger-on-face which they want to see in their leader – as they once saw in Sanjay Gandhi. This comparison is becoming more common on tea-stalls and in not-so-political circles in the State. Those in the common people who makes image and ‘mahaul’ and who lead discussions and debate in public sphere in small towns and villages and bazaars in the hinterland – have started making this comparison.

It should be noted that if this comparison finds place in the mainstream media, it would be a disaster for the other Gandhi – Rahul. It seems his managers are not realizing this and this could prove dearer for Rahul Gandhi. Also, the top-leadership in the BJP is not able to sideline its difference over Varun Gandhi and its in-house battle otherwise they could project Varun as a competitor to Rahul Gandhi in the State at least. If the BJP could succeed in this effort, its result could go much higher than what its managers and leaders are expecting now. This could also send shock-waves in the Congress camp because the Congress would never want son of Sanjay and Menka Gandhi to challenge the son of Rajeev and Sonia Gandhi. This could even unsettle Rahul Gandhi’s as the only rightful heir of the Nehru-Gandhi legacy in the national politics.

(photographs from google images)

Ochsenschwanz Suppe

2010-07-21T04:55:00.004+05:30

Do not wonder on this title, but just put this, I would say, phrase, in google.com. You will know what it mean! I know many of you are intelligent enough to know before hand, what I am going to write!

It so happened that I went to a store called Edeka Neukauff to buy some vegetables and wheat flour. I have invited a professor for breakfast tomorrow with a promise of some aalu-paranthas! I found the store quite interesting as it has more green vegetables than the store I was going till now, the Aldi. I was just going through the stacks and found an intersting section of Maggi and Knorr soups. I think myself as quite an intelligent man, who can sense the meanings of written words, even though they are in a different language. Thus, I picked up a Maggi suppe with pictures of tomato and pepperika (red chilllies) and was happpy about it. I reached home (don't know if I should call it home?) after a fifteen minutes walk, uphill. I was hungry, after all, I worked for the whole day, where, there are only few people in the whole building, and they too, are locked inside their rooms. I decided to treat myself of a two-course meal. Its difficult to cook for oneself, at times, I start questioning myself, why I am eating? I opened up the suppe cache, poured half of its powedered content in a bowl, stirred it. The smell was kind of unknown and a little pungent. I decided to check what this soup or suppe is? I read 'Ochsenschwanz Suppe' on the cache and was sure its a kind of hot (with lots of pepper) soup and was just wondering, how will it taste!

My laptop was on, musicindiaonline.com was playing Kabir in Abida Parveen's voice and the google translate was also opened in another window. A few minutes back, I was actually translating some messages which reached the inbox of my phone, in German. I find google translate as a great help and a great innovation! It has reduced the language barrier, at least when we use websites in different languages.

Back to my two-course meal. I typed the title of the Maggi cache 'Ochsenschwanz suppe' in the google translate and it showed up- 'Oxtail soup'. I wondered, what kind of vegetable or vegetable concoction it is? After all, I do not know all the vegetable whihc are there in Germany! But, a suspicion had entered my mind. I decided to check in google, what Oxtail soup is? What I found shocked me: 'Oxtails are beef, and they make the most delicious soup'. I realised, it would have been so that one, who hasn't eaten an egg even, would have eaten, tails of Ox or cow! Its no meat, no chicken, no pork but beef, the straight way!

I know, many of my friends must be thinking of me as psuedo-secular or a brahmin-to-the-core, but thats not the only matter. I concede, it matters; for matters, I find not neccasary to explain. I do not want to hide the fact that I am serious and sincere about my vegetarianism or so-to-say, brahminism. But that too is not the only matter. Its more so that I have a kind of biological fear of eating some non-vegetarian food. I feel that I may not be able digest it and will get ill, which is the last thing, I want here.

Thus, the significance of the internet and the google, is mosre interesting and significant fact! Jai ho google baba ki (Hail google!). I know, there are many questions, many doubts, many sarcastic remarks, many more knwon and unknon expressions, which will come to minds of my friends, but what comes to my mind is the significance of google. This is not important that I eat beef or not, more impotant here, for me at least, is the significance of the google. It may initiate a new research on the role of google in hardening the religious beliefs or a new topic, " Google, Globalisation and Conservatism in Food Habits!' I am talking to my friends who are hardcore pandits and may be not, simply vegetarians. You, my dear friends, thank 'google baba' to save a pandit of his dharma!!

I shall begin now !

2010-07-20T02:57:00.002+05:30

For a very long time now, I have been avoiding writing. I know why and do not know! Whatever it is, I shall now begin !

Let this be my first post - a confession as well as a pledge, from a distant land and a lonely me!

There will be something here, in next 24 hours ....

Manish

I will begin writing again !!

2010-06-04T15:28:00.002+05:30

Hope it will continue now... will begin next week and continue....

लिखा - मिटाया -लिखा

2009-11-26T23:08:00.005+05:30

लिखा - मिटाया -लिखा

तुम्हारे नाम

तुम, जो मेरे समक्ष हो

मेरे सामने हो

तुम्हारे नाम ..

मैंने लिखा और मिटाया

मिटाया फिर लिखा

फिर लिखा और मिटाया

लिखा - मिटाया - लिखा ..

बहुत कुछ ऐसा है

जिसे लिखना चाहता हू

पर मिटाते जाता हू

फिर लिखता हू

क्या मैं ही हू ,

जो बार बार

लिखता और मिटाता हू

या कोई और है

यह लिखने मिटानेवाला ,

सवाल , सवाल ही है

जवाब कई हैं

और नहीं भी

कोई जवाब देने वाला है

और नहीं भी

यही उधेड़बुन

और यही , कशमकश ,

बस यही है

जो मुझे पता है

बाकि कुछ नहीं !

बहुत दिनों बाद

और नए तरीके से ,

यहाँ ,

आज, तारीख नवम्बर छब्बीस , दो हज़ार नौ ..

देर शाम .

JNUSU Elections 08' and Honourable Supreme Court of India

2008-12-24T16:09:00.005+05:30

Know more about the the

JNUSU Elections 08'

and the controversy generated due to a STAY put on it by a bench of our

Honourable Supreme Court.

JNU STUDENT'S ELECTIONS AND THE LYNGDOH RECOMMENDATIONS

Albeena Shakeel
Economic and Political Weekly, Dec 13, 2008

The Lyngdoh Committee, constituted to frame guidelines for students’ union elections, saw the elections for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union as a "model to be followed". Therefore, the recent Supreme Court stay on the JNUSU elections on the ground that they do not meet the committee recommendations is unfortunate. Follow any of the links to read the article.

http://epw.in/uploads/articles/12970.pdf
http://epw.in/epw/user/viewAbstract.jsp

DEFENDING OUR ICONS
Yoginder K. Alagh

Indian Express, Dec 12, 2008

The heroism of a Hemant Karkare, a Kamte, a Salaskar — the salt of the land, young men who only knew their duty — is ennobling. Yet if the sacrifice is not to be in vain, we have, chaotic and strong as we are, to find the inner strength to recreate the institutions that such men serve, the institutions in which they are created. Why do we weaken these institutions? We have to realise that a price has always to be paid for undermining community strength. We need groups all over: confident, committed, supported, competent and ready to act.
The courts have stayed a student’s union election at JNU. I remember taking over as vice-chancellor in 1992: I reached the campus alone, on a chilly December morning; the first thing I asked was that the security fellows should open the windows of the V-C’s bungalow and then go away. At lunchtime I walked to a hostel; this took the students union a little by surprise for they had declared they would break any V-C’s leg if he dared to come into a hostel after one in 1984 had called the police onto campus. I caught them unawares and the girls and boys crowded around me, shooting questions: Isn’t the food bad? No, a vegetable, a salad and dal is good food. But the water is contaminated. Well, if you promise to maintain it well we will buy you a filter.
When I left JNU, years later, if the V-C did not come to a hostel in a semester there would be an agitation. At Nagoya in the History and Culture Department I was given a monograph on JNU student life by an eminent Japanese historian who had been a visiting professor there. He called the JNU Students Union one of the most democratic institutions in the world. In “after-dinner sessions” they would call in anybody outside the pale of accepted norms. They might be from the left or from the right, but they would have to stay until the “problem” had been solved. In other words, every last question had to be answered. Being Japanese he noticed an aspect I hadn’t, even though the students would sometimes ask me to chair these sessions: there were, he said, no class distinctions but they sat in regional clusters — and he prepared a small chart with Japanese precision to illustrate his point.
Elections in JNU were truly remarkable. They would elect an election commission with a president and (s)he was then non partisan. They never allowed mikes. Canvassing was by mouth and speeches and debates: no printed posters, only handwritten ones. Those who managed JNU never intervened; and if asked we would support the election commission by organising peripheral administrative help. It was because of such strength within that it could be rated at the time as one of the best in the world. But this year, somebody apparently went to court and got the entire process stopped.
JNU is a fascinating place. Tens of thousands apply. They take in a thousand strictly on merit. I never return to a job once done, but to me it’s truly the best job I ever had. The young are idealistic; they have energy enough to push the margin. JNU searches over a much wider genetic pool, for it is not restricted to the other great knowledge centres in India, those that concentrate on management or technology. When in idealism they would push at the frontiers of acceptability I would always try to tell myself: there must be something in what they are saying; after all, there is an Alagh Law of generational progress — the next generation is smarter than mine. The teacher in me was never attacked, the vice-chancellor was agitated against. In my long tenure they only once pushed me to the brink. I could have called the police, but then the SP would have been the V-C. Instead I went on a hunger fast. They couldn’t take it. For, the only thing idealistic youth cannot accept is to be shown to be wrong. Within forty-eight hours the leaders agreed to come back to the University’s bodies to solve their problem, an offer they had had at the word go.
We have to make stronger the institutions which make us all live together even if sometimes we want to do so in disharmony. The police and administration has to work. Schools, colleges, community institutions and public places have to be strengthened, and alert. We have to do all of this and a little more. In these defining times we must reinvent our future. To paraphrase Ratan Tata, a bunch of homicidal fanatics cannot stop us.

The writer, a former Union minister, is chairman, Institute of Rural Management, Anand

(Acknowledgement: Pictures in collage are from different sites on the internet.)

कौऩ, किसका ऩेता ?

2008-11-21T16:32:00.010+05:30

HT Leadership Summit 2008...

... leaders???

कयों हमारे नेता हैं -
दलाल, जवांई, बेटे, बहू, पोते?
क्यों नहीं,
अपने ही अपनी नेता है,
आम अवाम?
यह पहले भी सोचा गया है,
अब भी सोचा जा रहा है,
और आगे भी सोचा जायेगा।
पर होगा क्या?
यह भविष्य के गर्भ में है,
और यही है,
इस प्रश्न का,
एक पक्का जवाब,
बाकी सब,
सिर्फ कयास ।

Dawn of e-Campaigning in Indian Politics

2006-07-17T21:37:00.000+05:30

Digital Technology is changing the politics world over. The Television and the World Wide Web are already a powerful influence on the public’s access to government’s policies and documents, the tactics and contents of political campaigns, the behaviour of voters, the efforts of activists to circulate their messages and the ways in which topics enter the public discourse.
India as an emerging country in the Information Technology (IT) arena has vast potentials of applicability of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the democracy polity. It is the largest democracy of the world and also the fastest emerging IT power, but ICT applicability to the voting & election campaigns is a very recent phenomenon in the country, not even an year old. The recent Parliamentary elections in the country are the beginning of a new age in its democratic history. The reasons for such a late start are quite obvious for any layman who knows even a little bit about the state of human development indices in the country.
Still in the twenty first century the country has more than seventy percent rural population, the literacy rate is quite low than the international averages, infrastructure like roads, power and communications are in their nascent stage of development. Society is fractured among the caste, regional and linguistic lines, the divide between the rich and poor is still very wide and there are innumerable factors to count along this line.
But then there is the brighter side also, which is blooming in the metros like Delhi, Banglore and Hyderabad and their upcoming flashy suburbs. There are a large number of English speaking urban populations, which is the serious contender in many fields of the international market, particularly the service sector like IT and others involving Business Process Outsourcing. The country is one of the largest player and supplier of IT goods and professionals in the world. The fast growing urban middle class is also one of the biggest markets in the world.
Theoretical Conceptualization
Anthony Downs’s model of the strategic behaviour of political parties and individuals dominates much research on campaigns and elections[1]. According to this framework, elections are a competition between two political parties and goal is to receive fifty percent plus one of the votes. To do so, parties adopt issue positions that are close to the positions of a large number of voters. To remain in power, parties try to enact the policies they campaign on. The strategic or rational model of voting behaviour can produce representative policy decisions via democratic elections.
The practical constraints of directly communicating with all voters leads politicians to rely heavily on televised communications rather than traditional party organizational efforts. Campaigns have adapted to this new era of direct communication with voters by focusing their efforts on refining their images rather than on defining their policy positions, for the media convey image better than policy positions[2]. Thus the mass media are central to the conduct of elections, and political candidates to convey information to voters use them.
This paper would envisage the election campaigns in India in the above theoretical context, through the specific case of the Bhartiya Janata Party’s election campaign in the 2004 Parliamentary elections in trhe country. It will mainly take into account the use of ICTs by the party campaigners, though other conventional mediums like newspapers, public meetings and yatras (travels) were also the part of the campaign. Special to this campaign this time is the use of ICTs – for the first time by any party in the country.
State and Promotion of ICTs in the Democractic Processes
Politically speaking it is the largest democracy in the world, which has never failed. It’s federal system, the legislative and the bureaucracy is unique the world over. The use of ICTs in the country has come up with the globalization and opening up of the economy in the early nineties. The high fidelity growth of the IT sector has been reflected in the politics of the country too.
If we look at the State’s effort to use the ICT’s for the strengthening of the democracy, we can find the evidences in many forms. One is the promotion of internet in the government and computerization of most of the government departments. Most relevant of these is the Election Commission of India. It’s been fully computerized and the data regarding the candidates, polling booths, polling officers, details of the constituencies and the details of the earlier elections is available to everybody who log on to the website. All the government department’s and ministries have their web portal, which have all the crucial and relevant information and are interactive in nature. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the government agency looking after these, which comes under the ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The state owned broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) and the radio network. All India Radio (AIR), both under the Prasar Bharti Act of The Constitution of India are leading in their respective sectors and have worked as catalyst in the development of the country.
The Election Commission of India is one of the foremost institutions in keeping high the democratic tradition of the country. The Commission has taken several new initiatives in the recent past. Notable among these are, a scheme for use of State owned Electronic Media for broadcast/telecast by Political parties, checking criminalization of politics, computerization of electoral rolls, providing electors with Identity Cards. The use of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for the first time in the State Assembly elections in 1998 and their widespread use this time has made the polling more transparent. The Commission has used total number of ten lakhs and twenty-five thousands EVMs for six hundred and seventy five registered voters in these elections. This has revolutionized the concept of voting in the country.
Political Parties and the ICTs
On the side of Political Parties, the use of ICTs is of very recent origin. A single largest party the Indian National Congress (INC), also the main nationalist party in the freedom movement of the country, mainly dominates the trajectory of the history of Indian politics in the post independence period. The rise of rightist politics is a phenomenon of late eighties and early nineties of the last century and is also paralleled by the growth and rise of regional parties based on linguistic and regional identities and aspirations in the country.
Chandrababu Naidu, one such regional leader and former Chief Minister of the Andhra Pradesh, is the forerunner in the use of IT for state governance and political mileage. He was termed by the media as CEO of the State rather than Chief Minister and the state capital, Hyderabad came to be known as Cyberabad during his regime.
But, the widespread use of ICTs for electoral purposes i.e., for campaigning, assessment and selection of candidates, opinion polls, etc. has started in these elections only. Both the main contenders of the power, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), have used the ICTs for targeting the voters. Different media in the election also took up the promotion and awareness of voting rights and polling. Radio-FM and others, television channels - state owned and private ones, newspapers, web portals and mobile service providers have contributed to the promotion of election and voting this time.
We can divide this campaign in two parts, one, by political parties for their own promotion and the other by the state and different groups like civil society organizations, newspapers and other institutions and agencies feeling the social responsibility for the democracy they are living in.
ICTs and Civil Society for the Promotion of Democracy
We will mostly discuss the cases of urban locality here, as the ICTs are still an urban phenomenon in the country. IT has reached the rural areas but to those which are situated at the periphery of urban centers; and that too for very crucial purpose like telephone to distant relatives and family members. Voting is still a matter based on caste and family alliances and one of community persuasion.
The most effective and fascinating is the case of
film stars, sports persons and other prominent figures showing their figurers with black dots, the sign put on the index finger’s nail of the right hand by the polling officers. They were showing their figures in newspapers, magazines and on television and web portals.
These promotion stunts were provided free air time and space by the media, and both the media and stars have highlighted this points that they have not charged any money for these and that this is for the causes of social responsibility. Voting has got new dimensions in these elections, that to vote is an act of responsibility, of duty, a sacred karma and everyone has to give his or her share in the ‘mahayajna’ of democracy to complete it.
One could hear jingles and mimicry of popular songs, pursuing to vote. If you will pick-up the cradle of your fixed (land line) phone, you will hear the request to vote at the place dial tone. You get an SMS on your mobile and emails, from the civil society organizations, the state departments like the Election Commission and the political parties, appealing you to go to the polling booth on the day of voting, termed as D-Day by the media.
There were advertisements running over thousands column- inch space of the newspapers and magazines, by different institutions and agencies to promote the voting. Another interesting development this time was the formation of Election Watch Groups at the national and state level, by different civil society organizations, funded by different national and international agencies. They have their publications and web portals, which have all the details about the declaration of assets and criminal record of each candidate. These watch-group’s websites and Election Commission’s portal has all these records and the voters can use that for the choice of the candidates. Overall this election was an interesting story with regard to the use of ICTs.
Use of ICTs in Election Campaigning
There are seven national parties and forty state parties registered with the Election Commission of India. We will take up the case of two most prominent parties as indicated earlier. The Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). Out of these two, the BJP is much ahead of the INC in the use of ICTs. Both have their own web portals, started with these elections, but the BJP is the forerunner. We are going to discuss the case of BJP only, in detail here in this paper due to the limitation of space and time.
The BJP, the rightist Hindu- Nationalist party of the country has an image of being traditional, conservative and hardcore. The media at home and the world over has projected it so. Conscious of this fact and the other that this time more than two six million youngsters are being added to the country’s poll rolls, the party started acting on it’s image building, vis-à-vis changes and shifts in policy. The issues or points as mentioned by one of leading weekly news magazine of the country Outlook[3], the party is focusing on, are:
· Putting Hindutva issue on the backburner.
· Limited use of Ram Mandir issue.
· Active wooing of Muslims
· Sangh Parivar’s (RSS) voice blunted.
· Media and tech literacy reigns.
· Scientific election management.
Out of these issue we will discuss the last two only. The BJP’s Election 2004 Control Room (read war rooms as put by one news magazine[4]) at the residence of its General Secretary, looks like any call center, with a row of air conditioned cubicles, where trendy techies worked at a dozen or more plasma screen computers. Here documents were drafted; surveys analyzed and new features were added to party’s websites. One officer on special duty and an IT entrepreneur, who is IIT and Cornell alumnus, oversaw the entire operation. The publicity blitz of the party including its e-campaign, a first time in Indian elections- was developed here. Feedback, based on independent surveys, on the suitability of ticket aspirants for individual constituencies, emanated from here.
Media Cell of the Party was also spruced up during the elections. A popular T.V. personality was made the joint convener of the Cell. He spruced up the web site also and was busy in T.V. monitoring room where the news channels were tracked on ten T.V. screens. Spin-doctors in the party were intended to use every technological device or ICT available. Out of 600 million voters in the country, they were aimed at reaching the 200 million via telephones, TV, radio and SMS. The prime Minister and the senior party leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee recorded the message for the phone, which reached (as they claimed), almost all residential phones in the country. The party established a call center and everybody was able to listen to the Prime Minister’s message by dialing 3030. They also targeted 150 million voters via email and sms.
This all is very different and new to the elections and campaigning in the country. Earlier the elections in the country were an exercise, which was more rural in character in the sense that the voter turnout was always higher in the rural areas rather than urban. Urban middle class and the so-called elites of the society were negligent or careless about their right to vote or their social responsibility to vote and elect a responsible and representative government. The white attires of rural people overshadowed general view of the political partie’s headquarters and the parties were also concentrating in the rural areas. The public meetings of the tall leaders of the parties were more in the rural areas. Overall the election were not and ‘up’ or ‘hot’ thing among the educated and the so-called modern masses of the country. This time it was a cool thing as the youth and the media were more aware and active.
These elections have changed everything radically. Mahesh Murthy, writes: ‘Things have changed. I have elated to see urban college classrooms and pubs full of black spotted fingers. This is now an India we want to take back ownership of, and an India where the age-old way of doing politics is dying rapidly’[5].
It we log on to the website to the BJP, www.bjpelections.com, it’s a wonderful and informative site of a rightist, traditional party. I am not talking in ideological terms, but in the terms of information and interaction it provides. It has several links on its home page. One can see all the news items about the party in last six months, results of the countrywide opinion polls and much more information about the Party. Advertisement released during the election campaigns, press releases, and stand of party on major issues of national and international importance. An interactive link where one can go and find the information the constituency he /she belong, can comment on the party cadre and the representative of the Party and, can email to the party leaders, it’s candidate or the top leaders.
Overall it has increased the interaction among the voters and party leaders, which is a rare and new thing to both, the election campaigning and the party politics in the country. Its is a very good head start of ICT and Politics interplay in the beginning of this millennium in the country, though it has it’s limits and is more targeted at urban and educated voters, which are very small in proportion to it’s rural counterpart. I can see it’s distant effects on the democratic polity of India.
These elections have given a message that the young generation is not indifferent to the processes of democracy. The number of young voters included this time to the electorate is very crucial and it has been reflected in the fact that 141 MPs under 40 years of age has been elected to the Parliament which is three times of that in the last Lok Sabha.
My purpose here is not the propaganda of for any party, but just to show that how the ICTs and Politics Interplay can contribute to the strengthening of the democracy in a country like India. The party we are talking about has lost the elections and the mandate with the public, but this is also an effect of better knowledge of the facts to the electorate that they have shown their choices in a right way. These elections are a landmark in the democratic history of the country, which has initiated the Dynamics of ICTs and Politics.

[1] Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper & Row, 1957)
[2] John Aldrich, Presidential Campaigns in – and Candidate- Centered Eras, in Under the Watchful Eye: Managing Presidential Campaigns in the Television Era, Eds. Mathew D. McCubins (Washington, DC:CQ Press, 1992)
[3] Outlook, 8th April, 2004
[4] The Week, April 18th 2004
[5] Mahesh Murthy, The New Political Consumer, Business World, June 7th 2004, p.28

(Written in July 2004)

अपना क्या है .........

2006-06-20T18:53:00.000+05:30

अपना क्या है इस जीवन में
सब तो लिया उधार
सारा लोहा उन लोगों का
अपनी केवल धार

Story on Lapodiya in Tehelka weekly on 17 June 2006

2006-06-14T18:49:00.000+05:30

CRUSADE

DROUGHT CAN'T PUT DOWN LAPODIYA

Despite falling under a ‘drought-hit’ region, this village in Rajasthan has an abundance of water. Manish Tiwari writes how the seemingly impossible was achieved with one man’s will.

You really can change the world if you care enough. And it’s espoused best by Laxman Singh. He is the banna of the Lapodiya village, Rajasthan. He has spearheaded the development of the village for two decades. Infact he has shown a new way for Lapodiya and many other villages in the region. Lapodiya falls in the Dudu block of Jaipur district of Rajasthan on the border of Tonk and Ajmer districts. This semi-arid area has one lean year every three years and one year of famine every eight years. The fragile eco-system comprises of soils that are low in organic matter, ground water that is deep and often saline, sparse vegetation cover, low and erratic rainfall, low humidity and high transpiration. Growing up in Lapodiya, Laxman Singh witnessed his once green village turn into a barren pastureland. Already drought-prone, the area’s water problems were exacerbated by lack of maintenance of existing village ponds. Shortly after independence, the village’s lifeline and only irrigation reservoir, Ann Sagar’s embankments were breached during heavy rain. It remained unrepaired for over twenty years. Problems persisted all this while.

Laxman Singh’s saga begins in the late 80s when he realised that the water bodies in the region were dying and were of no use to the village anymore. He came in contact with Anupam Mishra of Gandhi Peace Foundation and Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh and realised the importance of preserving the traditional community structures of water harvesting. He realised that if invoked, the traditions and culture of the region to worship water and its resources as god, might go a long way in bringing awareness among the people.
After the fall of the traditional system of governance and the beginning of new democratic regimes, this village also fell prey to the policies of imbalanced development. More than 40 percent of the villagers migrated to different parts of the neighbouring states in search of jobs and so did most of the cattle of the village, which migrated for fodder according to the seasons.
Farmers grew wheat for the first time in 20 years. The amount of irrigated land area increased. The land that could barely support a meagre rain-fed crop in the past can now produce two irrigated crops per year. Household incomes have risen too
Laxman Singh decided to revive the traditional patterns of natural resources and started working on it alone. Belonging to the erstwhile ruling family helped him to gather the support of the villagers. He says, “When I started going out on my own with a spade and shovel to work on the old tank which was dilapidated, people joined me because they felt obliged to help their thikanedar. When I started repairing the tank, the villagers thought that they should not allow their banna to do this small work. They came forward and joined me. Ultimately the whole village was involved in these activities across caste lines.”
He mobilised local youth and brought them together as Navyuvak Mandal in the village and eventually institutionalised it in the form of “Gram Vikas Navyuvak Mandal, Lapodiya” (GVNML). He then secured some funding from unicef, Christian Relief Fund etc. The launch of this community group coincided with the first major challenge to Singh’s strategy. A small group of individuals, who had encroached upon a 60-hectare patch of traditional village common land, created obstacles to the fledgling GVNML. While it was a relatively small piece of land, the battle proved crucial in two ways. First, from a waterbed standpoint, the 60-hectare land was situated on a ridge and thus, if not treated under the GVNML’s programme, downstream lands would receive less or no water. Second, from the view of community mobilisation, such opposition would have undermined the sense of cooperation that the group was attempting to instill through equal distribution of benefits.
Laxman Singh established a gram sabha (village council) with the support of the villagers to solve this matter and succeeded. Later this gram sabha became the centre of many of the activities in the village. This people-driven system of governance slowly began to find its place. The council played a key role in treating pastureland, in rehabilitating old irrigation tanks and in de-silting percolation tanks — buttressing the work of the GVNML. As a result, there were bumper harvests. “Our philosophy,” says Laxman, “is that whatever work has to be done, it has to involve the people and they must contribute. The people should take pride in developing their village instead of waiting for the government’s help.”
The villagers have recently rediscovered a past tradition where the people used to revere water bodies that sustained life, on a particular day. The practice has been revived and is now an annual event. On this day, villagers offer prayers at Dev Sagar and organise padyatra to spread the conservation message to all communities. Part of Singh’s strategy has been to coordinate construction with the traditional festival season. Festivals occur in November and December. When the work on Ann Sagar began in 1990, Singh revived a traditional festival called Devudhni Igyaras, which falls on the 11th day after Diwali. Villagers have organised a “Gram Swawlambi, Gram Samriddhi Padyatra” and they participate passionately in this padyatra. Diwali occurs after the first harvest season comes to an end, and it ushers in the second season of the farming calendar. Devudhni Igyaras is considered an auspicious time to initiate new activities, including the desilting of water bodies and all other activities connected to the soil. There is an air of festivity in the village on that day. The villagers begin a procession to the fields and pasturelands amid much fanfare. This padyatra is greeted at every village with a warm welcome. They worship the water bodies of the village and make a pledge not to cut trees, harm the animals and to take care of the village water resources.
After Lapodiya’s main tank Ann Sagar (Sea of Grain) was restored, the villagers constructed two more percolation tanks to store groundwater and to supply the remaining for the villagers and their livestock. Out of reverence, they named them Phool Sagar (Sea of Flowers) and Dev Sagar (Sea of Gods).
Downstream from Ann Sagar, farmers grew wheat for the first time in 20 years. The amount of irrigated land area increased to 300 hectare out of a total of 1,500 hectare, and the village’s agricultural production increased manifold. By 1996, assured irrigation to 300 hectare of land downstream of the tank had increased harvest 12 times. Household incomes have risen from a mere Rs 500-700, to as high as Rs 17, 000. Though these levels of harvests are difficult to sustain during low-rainfall seasons, water conservation has had a lasting impact on family incomes.
The model developed by Lapodiya has impacted over 90 villages in the three districts of Tonk, Jaipur and Pali. As many as 40,000 families have benefited from the cultivation of 30,000 hectare. There have been other sorts of benefits too. Women are being empowered by women’s organisations that are springing up everywhere.
Despite this success, the sustainability of the transformation still troubles Laxman Singh: “Until the development process gets deeply integrated into society and the culture, the long-term success of this work may remain a big question,” he says. In this seventh consecutive year of low rainfall, despite the declaration of drought in the region by the State, Lapodiya still has water for irrigation of its land, for its people and cattle. A three-fold increase in harvests was ensured even after a seventh consecutive year of poor rainfall. With avenues for round-the-year farm employment in the village itself, migration is also under control.

The author is a Research Scholar, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Jun 17 , 2006

Water for Life

2006-05-13T00:22:00.000+05:30

This is one of the tanks of the area which has been renovated by the GVNML, the organization led by Laxman Singh. It has water even in the seventh consequetive drought year.

Worshipping the Life - Trees

2006-05-13T00:10:00.000+05:30

Community worships the trees and other vegetation in the pastures, which are the basis of the village life.

Water Warrior of Lapodiya

2006-03-13T02:30:00.000+05:30

Water Warrior of Lapodiya

A short film by - Manish Tiwari

ENGLISH /12 minutes

Reviving cultural traditions of conserving – revering nature and synthesizing modern and indigenous knowledge for managing natural resources at community level, Lapodiya is having enough water for drinking, for cattle and cultivating two crops even in the sixth continuous drought year.

The film documents a novel effort of reviving and institutionalizing traditional -cultural traits and indigenous know how to manage the water resources at community level. Laxman Singh, the man behind the success has effectively utilized the rich religious and cultural practices of revering the nature and indigenous knowledge of managing the scarce natural resources like water.

One of the two pivotal instruments of this effort is the annual walkathon or ‘padyatra’ to raise consciousness and mobilizing the communities for conserving and managing natural resources at their own. The second is an indigenous rainwater harvesting system, called as ‘Lapodiya Square’, to regenerate the pasturelands and recharge the ground water. Pastures are the basis of rural economy in the region as they are essential for cattle rearing which is one of the primary occupations along with agriculture. They are also important to the ecology as the pastureland provides open grounds for rainwater harvesting and recharging the ground water, which in turn is used for agriculture.

Laxman Singh initiated this effort around twenty years back. The region is drought prone with barren and saline landscape. Continuous cycles of drought forced the populations to migrate to other parts of the State or country for mere existence. Traditional community and social support systems were eroding with the pace of irrational modern socio-political systems after the independence of the country. By early eighties the ill effects were visible. Later in nineties the State started withdrawing from its social responsibilities and welfare functions due to the compulsions of world wave of Liberalization-Globalization–Privatization. This way, the local communities were afflicted from this two way agony: traditional systems were withering away and there was no salvage from the new.

In such times, Laxman Singh thought of an alternative, which can bridge this suffrage of the transition and instigated this effort. It has garnered applaud able relief for the local communities. Even in this sixth consecutive drought year in 2005, communities are harvesting two crops and the milk production has increased manifolds. Village wells and ponds still have enough water and now they even send water tankers to nearing villages during the shortage and organize cattle relief camps for the thirsty and starving cattle

This effort divulge the way, particularly for the rural communities in the country and also across the globe to institutionalize such systems which are sustained by the nature and which do not require human intervention beyond a point.

Water - my life

2006-03-11T12:13:00.000+05:30

I think therefore I am!
but without water I cannot exist, therefore i cannot think and thus....

Is that true?
Ask yourself, you will come to know....
So start thinking about water and you will come to exist, otherwise you are nowhere!!!