Saturday, April 22, 2006
The biggest internal threat India is facing today
Presently I am stationed at Jagdalpur. The political situation here is grave. The emergence of Naxalites and their counter force ‘Salwa Judum’ are creating havoc. No day passes without any news of killing of people either by the Naxalites or their opponents. Yesterday the naxalites raided a police station killing 10 policemen. The state Govt. appointed Mr. K.P.S.Gill, the super cop of Punjab as advisor to counter the naxalites. Mr. Gill is credited with the curbing of Khalistan movement in Punjab. Yesterday he landed here and had a hectic tour with the administrative officials.
Prime Minister had said that the naxalite threat is the most dangerous threat the country is facing today. But some how the attitude of the Govt. does not show the seriousness of the situation. During my interaction with the local populace, almost all of them have sympathy for the naxalites. It seems the emergence of the naxalites are not a new phenomena. They are people friendly and operating since long. Till recently they were mainly targeting the contractors of forest produce collecting money from them, but generally left the populace unaffected. But the emergence of Salwa Judum has started the violence. Salwa Judum is created by a local opposition leader as a resistance force against the naxalites. In paper that seems to be good movement. But as per the version of local populace, the salwa judum mainly built up with political motive. The members of Salwa Judum are local goons. With the active blessings of administration they are playing havoc with the day-to-day life of innocent people. Now because of them the naxalites are taking retaliatory action and killing members of Salwa Judum. I personally had a bitter experience with the salwa judum members.
I go back to Hyderabad every week end. The only convenient transport system available is bus, which is not definitely comfortable, but faster than train journey. It takes approx. 13 hours. But my last journey to Hyderabad was miserable. From Jagdalpur to Kothagudem of Andhra Pradesh is densely forest area and the place is infested by the naxalites. The bus was checked by the Salwa Judum members. The most irritating part of this wasteful exercise is that, every village on the way has their own group of members to check the bus, thus checking the bus almost every 5 kms. The members were rude, asking irrelevant questions and mainly targeting the tribal passengers. Ultimately when the checking started at rate of after every 10 minutes of ride, I could not keep myself quiet and at one point tried to reason with them about the stupidity of this kind of checking. In response they started abusing me and threatened me to detain me forcibly. Ultimately the bus conductor and driver counseled me to keep low. They allowed us to leave after detaining the bus for another half an hour as punishment.
That is the reason this week end I am here at Jagdalpur, as I want to make this unpleasant encounters as less as possible. Hence instead of weekly, my return to Hyderabad will be fortnightly.
The total episode brought out one clear picture, that the administration has abdicated its duty. The citizens are at the mercy of Naxalites at Naxalite controlled areas and of the Salwa Judum members at the rest of the places.I am going to give some more reports on the raging political activities of the area and from the horse’s mouth i.e. the version of the affected people.
Prime Minister had said that the naxalite threat is the most dangerous threat the country is facing today. But some how the attitude of the Govt. does not show the seriousness of the situation. During my interaction with the local populace, almost all of them have sympathy for the naxalites. It seems the emergence of the naxalites are not a new phenomena. They are people friendly and operating since long. Till recently they were mainly targeting the contractors of forest produce collecting money from them, but generally left the populace unaffected. But the emergence of Salwa Judum has started the violence. Salwa Judum is created by a local opposition leader as a resistance force against the naxalites. In paper that seems to be good movement. But as per the version of local populace, the salwa judum mainly built up with political motive. The members of Salwa Judum are local goons. With the active blessings of administration they are playing havoc with the day-to-day life of innocent people. Now because of them the naxalites are taking retaliatory action and killing members of Salwa Judum. I personally had a bitter experience with the salwa judum members.
I go back to Hyderabad every week end. The only convenient transport system available is bus, which is not definitely comfortable, but faster than train journey. It takes approx. 13 hours. But my last journey to Hyderabad was miserable. From Jagdalpur to Kothagudem of Andhra Pradesh is densely forest area and the place is infested by the naxalites. The bus was checked by the Salwa Judum members. The most irritating part of this wasteful exercise is that, every village on the way has their own group of members to check the bus, thus checking the bus almost every 5 kms. The members were rude, asking irrelevant questions and mainly targeting the tribal passengers. Ultimately when the checking started at rate of after every 10 minutes of ride, I could not keep myself quiet and at one point tried to reason with them about the stupidity of this kind of checking. In response they started abusing me and threatened me to detain me forcibly. Ultimately the bus conductor and driver counseled me to keep low. They allowed us to leave after detaining the bus for another half an hour as punishment.
That is the reason this week end I am here at Jagdalpur, as I want to make this unpleasant encounters as less as possible. Hence instead of weekly, my return to Hyderabad will be fortnightly.
The total episode brought out one clear picture, that the administration has abdicated its duty. The citizens are at the mercy of Naxalites at Naxalite controlled areas and of the Salwa Judum members at the rest of the places.I am going to give some more reports on the raging political activities of the area and from the horse’s mouth i.e. the version of the affected people.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Shame of a Nation
I read about Saraswathi Amma refered by another blogger http://bhadraandnotsobhadra.blogspot.com/ .
the article on Saraswati Amma is in http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/apr/05spec.htm?q+np&file+.htm.
An article worth reading. This story must act as inspiration for all Indians specially for the newer generations. However my thinking goes like this:
Her comment "I don't like this corrupt India. This is not the India we dreamt of, the India we sacrificed our lives for” is of worth pondering.
This is not the first time a true freedom fighter spoke thus. I remember my interaction with few of them. In the fag end of their lives they lamented, ‘did we give our lives for this kind of India?’.
I also remember the famous film director Ritthik Ghatak of bygone era who made remarkable films on the failure of independence on plights of refugees, the fruit of independence. He used to say, ‘this is a sham independence’.But by blaming the politicians we can not absolve ourselves from the responsibility. We, the people of India, are responsible for the state of India we are living and we must be ashamed for failing our freedom fighters
the article on Saraswati Amma is in http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/apr/05spec.htm?q+np&file+.htm.
An article worth reading. This story must act as inspiration for all Indians specially for the newer generations. However my thinking goes like this:
Her comment "I don't like this corrupt India. This is not the India we dreamt of, the India we sacrificed our lives for” is of worth pondering.
This is not the first time a true freedom fighter spoke thus. I remember my interaction with few of them. In the fag end of their lives they lamented, ‘did we give our lives for this kind of India?’.
I also remember the famous film director Ritthik Ghatak of bygone era who made remarkable films on the failure of independence on plights of refugees, the fruit of independence. He used to say, ‘this is a sham independence’.But by blaming the politicians we can not absolve ourselves from the responsibility. We, the people of India, are responsible for the state of India we are living and we must be ashamed for failing our freedom fighters
Bengali New Year
Today is Poila Baisakh, the Bengali New Year Day. On this auspicious day I wish all my friends who read my blog a very very happy New Year. May the New Year bring all the happiness, peace and prosperity in your life. May God bless you.
Smell of Forest
My sojourn at Jagdalpur is giving me lots of new insight of life. Everyday I travel to Banka vund around 30 kms from Jagdalpur by two-wheeler. The day temperature is hovering around 40 degree Celsius. The journey on this hot weather is an experience of itself. The road is through dry land interspersed by small villages every 4/5 kms. The hot sun has dried up the whole land. No vegetation can be seen except a few trees here and there. The villages on the way are kinds of oasis with trees etc. One common sight is women and children lying under tree shades wherever one is found.
While coming back in the afternoon, every exposed part of my body starts burning. The hot air forced on naked face while driving gives some dizziness, as if inhaling lava.The most interesting experience is the smell of forest. The road passes through a deep forest. As the trees beside the road were cut down, there is no direct tree shade on the road. But the moment I enter the forest area, the whole body experiences a cool soothing effect. The air becomes cool, carryings scents of known and unknown trees, ripe flowers of Mahua. (The Mahua flowers are used for making country liquor and one of the specialties of this part of the country. The flowers when dries up gives a peculiar heavy smell of intoxication.) The mixture of all these smell is really heavy one. I enjoy the smell of forest. I immediately slow down and pass the path as slowly as possible enjoying the smell of forest.
While coming back in the afternoon, every exposed part of my body starts burning. The hot air forced on naked face while driving gives some dizziness, as if inhaling lava.The most interesting experience is the smell of forest. The road passes through a deep forest. As the trees beside the road were cut down, there is no direct tree shade on the road. But the moment I enter the forest area, the whole body experiences a cool soothing effect. The air becomes cool, carryings scents of known and unknown trees, ripe flowers of Mahua. (The Mahua flowers are used for making country liquor and one of the specialties of this part of the country. The flowers when dries up gives a peculiar heavy smell of intoxication.) The mixture of all these smell is really heavy one. I enjoy the smell of forest. I immediately slow down and pass the path as slowly as possible enjoying the smell of forest.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
More on Pondichery
Kali Temple near Auroville
Cathedral at Pondichery
Park Guest House
Aurobindo Ashram where Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother is worshiped.
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