Just Jo

A group of scientists and technologists did a research and found out that contrary to the claims of Election Commission of India (of India’s EVMs being “perfect” and “infallible”), the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) are easy to tamper with. Their technical paper (PDF link) details the process they have done to prove their point, with a real EVM. But rather than ordering a detailed inquiry and a fix to those EVMs, the Election Commission arrested Hari K Prasad, one of the researchers, to have stolen an EVM. The research website says “in 2009, the Election Commission of India publicly challenged Prasad to demonstrate that EVMs could be tampered with, only to withhold access to the EVMs at the last minute.”

As per the research website, the device was given by an anonymous source which itself raises questions about the security of these machines. And what exactly should we say about an independent researcher being charged for stealing the machine while the more important questions he raised about the credibility of EVMs are muted? The technical paper (PDF link) also claims that Hari Prasad “was approached in October 2009 by representatives of a prominent regional party who offered to pay for his technical assistance fixing elections. They were promptly and sternly refused.”

Who does not encourage that? Is it the men?

There are some people who thinks that it will be a ‘market’ like situation if women come to the fore front (of politics). Some fear that their seats will be lost. To a certain level, the male dominance and their prejudices have made women withdraw themselves.

The above is an excerpt from an interview with a retd. prof. Annie Johns from Thrissur. She was being interviewed by “Catholica Sabha“, the official monthly newspaper of Thrissur Arch Diocese. The interview was about the need for women to enter politics. What made me smile after reading the interview and the above quoted piece in particular is the time that the interview is published. The Catholic church in Kerala is more fervently being involved in Kerala politics than any other time in Kerala’s history. But before I come into all that, let me quote the history of the newspaper that’s called “Catholica Sabha” (meaning “Catholic Church“).

In the About page of the Catholica Sabha website, it says that the original publication was started in 1977 as a magazine. But even though we live in a Catholic neighborhood, I or the people I know including the older generation  have had no idea about the existence of this newspaper until it was delivered to our homes since a couple of years back. And it was during the Church vs. Communists fight on self-finance colleges issue that it was very promptly started appearing monthly in our homes.

Just one look at the newspaper and all you see is anti-Communist propaganda and not much of anything else. It is as if the Church administration started this newspaper, not to spread the news related to the Church activities but to fill their pages with their anger against their enemy no:1 – Communists. The language of the articles that appear in this newspaper can compete with any third-rate tabloid. Take the column “nErum nuNayum” for example (or this, this and this). I don’t think even an official Congress party mouthpiece would use such level of intolerant language. It is pathetic to see it coming from a religion in the name of Jesus Christ.

But you should notice that the language that the Church is using against Communists is different from the language they use against Hindutva brigade or any extremist forces of other religions. It is quite evident from the copies of the newspaper which was published during the Orissa riots. In those copies, the language mellowed down and the tone was soft (but that ain’t surprising as the Church claimed that their greater enemy is Communism during the anti-Christian riots of Orissa). A recent example is Prof Joseph’s hand-chopping incident. Apart from a couple of press protests, there was no serious forms of protest from the bishops or priests.

The ordinary Catholics, as dumb as they are, did not raise any question as to why the Church authorities chose to speak softly on Sangh Parivar when the community members were being hacked to death in Orissa or in places as close to Kerala as Mangalore or in Kasaragod. They did not ask why the priests were rather arranging massive protest rallies and meetings against the Communist government in the name of self-finance colleges and a silly text book issue. They were also planning to lead the second liberation struggle, which of course popped like a balloon. So the attitude of the Church is clear. The Catholic church in Kerala cares only about their money and power and don’t give a hoot about the lives and security of their fellow community members. They use the mass power of the community members to sustain their financial and power interests. Now imagine if the hands of Prof Joseph were chopped off by a CPM member than the Popular Front activists; by this time, the Church would have brought down the government itself.

I have been wondering about the sudden urge on the Catholics side, particularly in the Thrissur Arch Diocese, to fight the ‘evil of Communism’ and then I could draw some ‘co-incidences’. In one of the issues, “Catholica Sabha” newspaper stated that K Karunakaran was one of the most capable politicians of our state (Emergency? Rajan murder case? What are they??). The late Thrissur bishop Joseph Kundukulam was a close friend of K Karunakaran and it is alleged that he openly asked the community members to support the Congress party (legend has it that the priests would raise their hand and show it like the hand symbol of Congress party and say “all of you should caste your vote” during the sermons). The next Thrissur arch bishop Mar. Jacob Thoomkuzhy was a soft spoken priest who did not have any political control ambition like his predecessor. But soon arch bishop Mar. Andrews Thazhath who was a close aide of late Bishop Kundukulam took in charge and he is the guardian of the newspaper now while the assisting bishop (also newly crowned) Mar. Raphel Thattil (who also was close to Bishop Kundukulam) is the chief editor. So it is obvious how the political ambitions and it’s related dirty politics have come to the Thrissur Archdiocese.

Bishop Thazhath has played more politics than his guru Bishop Kundukulam. He, along with Changanacherry Arch Bishop Joseph Powathil, had lead a massive campaign against the Communist government on the issues of 7th standard text book and self-finance college. He also openly advocated for the candidature of Tom Vadakkan in Thrissur constituency in the last Lok Sabha elections and rumor has it that the requests went straight to ‘high-command’. But ultimately the Congress party turned down the request and Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, a sensible man and the supreme leader of Syro Malabar Catholic church, issued a strong statement saying that it is wrong for bishops, priests and Church leaders to intervene in the selection of candidates during the elections.

The newly released “Catholica Sabha” newspaper, which we Christians in Thrissur had not heard of until Bishop Thazhath took in charge, is yet another attempt by the church administration of the Thrissur Arch Diocese to play the political games and claim their political power. I think somebody from the higher authority, like Cardinal Vithayathil, should check with this newspaper and ask the editorial team to control themselves. I go to Church and I hear the Bible interpretations of love, tolerance etc and then come home to read “Catholica Sabha” to read all the intolerant political pieces in a cheap, venomous language. I’m not interested in that and many people I know who are afraid to speak about it are also not interested in that. Particularly when the Church has no interest in protesting against the communal forces but spend all their energy on Communist bashing.

Coming back to the interview that I mentioned in the beginning of this post, what made me smile all the way is the Church’s interest in getting Christian women in to politics. Perhaps it is the pessimist in me who links this to the electoral seats reserved for women. But it is not exactly that which made me laugh. It is the recent news of Vatican still not allowing women priests and I wonder if prof. Annie Johns would have the exact same answer if she is asked about the priesthood of women and Vatican’s decision – “There are some people who thinks that it will be a ‘market’ like situation if women come to the fore front. Some fear that their seats will be lost. To a certain level, the male dominance and their prejudices have made women withdraw themselves.” Would she say these exact words then?

I think “Catholica Sabha” may want to publish a piece on that.

It is official now. Suresh Kalmadi, the organizing committee chairman of the Commonwealth Games has officially stated that beef will not be served during Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Even though he has offered no reason for the beef-ban, the issue was first raised by the former BJP president Rajnath Singh when he wrote to Kalmadi asking him to keep cow meat out of the menu during the Games. Meaning, congress has chosen to succumb to BJP.

What makes me petrified is that this could be the beginning of governments like this surrendering to the demands of religious extremist forces. I think this will lead to an anti-beef bill nationally and Congress’s will take up the role to help BJP implement its agenda (the anti-cow slaughter bill and anti-conversion bill are BJP’s prime agendas). Think about a federal government calling itself ‘progressive‘ and ‘secular‘ doing this in such an international event. What is next? Will they ban pork meat too because radical Muslims find pork meat offensive?

The ultimate question here is about surrendering to the religious extremist forces and taking away a citizen’s freedom of choice. By the same so called ‘progressive‘ and ‘secular‘ government.

Suresh Kalmadi, I bestow upon thee, the Order of the Holy Cow. You and your sirs and madams in Congress can now proudly bear your soft-Hindutva badge on your sleeves.

In my post about Prof. Joseph’s hand-chopping incident, I had written about the intrusion of religious elements into the liberal, democratic and political spheres of Kerala in disguise. I think this is more dangerous than the Hindutva politics because Hindutva politics is there on the surface for everybody to see. Hindutvavaadis thrive on anti-minority sentiments and extreme Hindu-nationalist views, and everybody knows that. Hindutavavaadis never hesitate to boast upon their beliefs (except for the grooming campaigns of Narendra Modi these days), but on the other side, the hard-core Islamists chose to play different. When they learned that terrorism and an extreme Islamist movement is a growing concern in the public, they put on the mask of liberal activism and tried to play more left than the Left. While the Left in Kerala has left itself to be rotten, there was an empty space in the field of activism that was available for others to occupy. And the Islamists were quick to fill in that space. It is said that ‘even the BJP is Leftist in Kerala’. So the best way to get public acceptance was obvious – be more left than the Leftists.

The first step in that direction was taken long back – starting with media. A prominent Malayalam weekly and news daily is owned by such a group. They invited the prominent figures in the socio-political-liberal sphere to write for them and made a mark. Then came their student/youth organizations. They started campaigns and agitations on several issues – Capitalism, Globalization, Bourgeoisie, Western Imperialism, Environment, Development, Human Rights etc. When they shouted slogans against America and Israel, their tones were sharper than the Communists. When they talked about freedom of speech for M F Hussain, they kept mum on the threats and Fatwas issued to Taslima Nasreen. When they talked about Imperialism and Human Rights, they never talked about the Islamic imperialist countries and the grave human rights violation in those countries.

When Madani was released from jail, he also played the same political card. Madani was smart. He saw the possiblity of a wider political spectrum and thus included “Dalits” in his come back. The term “Dalit” had already become a fine selling point of all political parties by then. Madani also banked upon the same “anti-imperialistic” politics of the other Islamist organizations.

But people failed to notice it or chose to ignore. And our socio-political leaders kept taking part in their meetings and that image has been used to boast upon their public acceptance. And now the final step – Jamaat-e-Islami is forming a political party in Kerala. And what is their declared obective? Their Wiki page says, “Establishment of (Islamic) way of life in all aspects of life“. And their core doctrine? “the Divine Being is solely Allah, there being no God except Him, and that Muhammad is Allah’s messenger“. Tell me how it is different from the dream of a Hindu nation proposed by the Sangh Parivar.

Now we have a number of such “political parties” and “activist organizations” in our public sphere. And the news of bombs and detonators being placed in the public spaces and people being hacked in the name of religion is increasing day by day. Even though some of the socio-political leaders and intellectuals have turned a blind-eye towards such developments, the consolation is that there are people like Hameed Chennamangaloor who have been voicing against these groups openly since a very long time. And publications like Mathrubhumi weekly having open debates about this as cover stories. But that is not enough. People have to stand up and say, we don’t want an Islamic or Chrsitian version of BJP or Sangh Parivar. We don’t want religion in our political space. We don’t want that one God or multiple Gods and their doctrines to rule us, instead the secular ethos envisioned by the founding fathers of this country. We want to keep our democracy in place, how much shortcomings and failures it has.

Whenever I read the major Malayalam newspapers in Kerala, I see a lot of news about Communists – the bad things they do, their fight between themselves, their flawed ideologies etc. I have been reading this for the past few years and ever since the Communists got in to power  in Kerala. It has really made me think that Kerala has become such a trashy place because of Communists. But then I thought, how could it be because Kerala is not West Bengal and we have sent successive Congress governments to power in alternate terms. That made me ask – is everything alright on all other sides?

The Malayalam media weeps about the changed ideologies of the present day Communists. They celebrate it. Very often they publish articles with stories of old comrades who have fought hard for the party but still live in poor condition, but rarely would you find stories of Gandhians who live the same way. You would read stories of old comrades weeping about how Communists have changed but you won’t read stories of old Congressmen including Gandhians weeping about the state of Congress party and the dreams and hopes they had on this party during the freedom struggle.

Every now and then, the media quotes the old Communist leaders like AKG, Azheekkodan etc. They sighs out something like “those were the times”, but have any of these media barons left a word of support, during any of those agitations they held, when they were alive? What did they actually think of them then? On the contrary, what about the Congress? How much have they changed from the times of leaders like Gandhi?

I think there is some truth in saying that V S Achuthanandan is a media creation. V S is no political messiah. That man has made big news while he was the head of opposition. He lead many agitations and made sure that the media followed him suit in all those events. When he came in to power, he held on to his chair, doing nothing about what he was preaching all the time as an opposition leader. The argument that he was not being given a chance to do any doesn’t hold water. He could still have done something, or just walked out. But what he did instead was being a cry baby and the media is celebrating him to use as a tool to project the groupism in CPM.

On the other side, situation is much worse when it comes to groupism. The old Karunakaran fraction has started demanding more positions in the Congress party eying the forthcoming elections. Even within that group, some people are not satisfied with what Padmaja Karunakaran is settling for the group. The group fight between Chennithala and Chandy groups are really explosive and they have started fighting from the youth congress election level itself. Do the media not report it? Oh yes, but in smaller boxes inside the inner pages of the paper, unlike the front page coverage that the CPM groupism gets in newspapers.

Checkout the newspaper reports of any crime cases in any parts of Kerala, you would see the two major newspapers reporting that “the convicted includes a former area secretary of CPM” or “..is a first cousin of CPM block president” or “..is an area member DYFI” etc. But I have never read any news items that reads “..is a member of BJP” or “..an area secretary of Youth Congress” etc. Not that you cannot find any criminals in Congress or BJP, of course. You can find plenty of them. From local goondas to political goondas, affiliated with both parties.

Earlier you could take Deshabhimani newspaper and say “oh, this is party’s mouth piece, they of course would publish news this way” and you could resort to other news papers for unbiased reporting. Or rather I should say “less-biased” than “unbiased” because all major newspapers in Kerala have strong political/communal biases. Deshabhimani (CPM newspaper), Janayugam (CPI newspaper), Janmabhoomi (BJP mouthpiece),  Punyabhoomi (VHP mouthpiece), Kerala Kaumudi (Eezhava/SNDP mouthpiece), Malayala Manorama (Congress mouthpiece), Deepika (Syrian Christian mouthpiece), Mathrubhumi (ex-Janatha party, now solely Veerendrakumar family mouthpiece) etc. But these days you have NO single newspaper in Kerala to read the less-biased news.

All of these cribbing above might make you think that I am a Communist party member or a sympathizer, but I am not one. During the two-three times of my voting exercise, I have never voted for the Communists. But going by the examples given above, it really makes me think now – is there really a media syndicate in work here?

I don’t know whom to believe any more.

Some say that Maoists are fighting for the tribals because of the abuse they face by the corporates and government. Maoists seem to be a group of people fighting for a cause.

But then I see Maoists killing people, jawans and civilians alike, and that makes me think how can such a group of killers ever fight effectively for a just cause.

Then some activists, including some ex-Naxalites, sign a press copy saying that they condemn the heinous acts of Maoists. They say that both the state and Maoists are abusing the tribals. They say that the fight against the mining industry was born even before Mao himself. And if Maoists have any sincerity in the matter, they should first fight the mining corporates than just plainly taxing them for business.

I don’t know. The picture that I get from all these is of the state and its politicians who make way for some corporates to function smoothly because there is big money for everyone to make in those thick, dark layers of land. And a set of killing machines who kill people to overthrow a corrupt system to replace it with another more centralized and violent system in the name of revolution. And a state-sponsored militia that fights/kills/abuses it’s own people.

I don’t know whom or what to believe anymore. But I do know that I should thank God that I was not born a tribal. For, at the end of the day, they are the ones who are most suffered, abused and wiped out of history that we, rest of the people in this land, keep making. I should be happy that I am not one of those unlucky tribals. But then that darn line keeps ringing in my head:

“THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.“

You know what, I have a huge admiration for Karan Thappar. What makes him different than the rest of interviewers from the Indian television scene is that, he is well-researched and very much up to the point in many of his interviews, rather than throwing some silly questions and being happy and content in just asking some questions.

Here he puts forward a good thought in an interview with Farooq Abdullah while they talk about Shashi Tharoor and the recent IPL controversy:

Farooq Abdullah: I don’t think so, I don’t think he needs to be corrupt

Karan Thapar: He doesn’t need to be?

Farooq Abdullah: No

Karan Thapar: Need doesn’t determine corruption.

Ever since Tharoor was contesting for MP from Trivandrum, the people who were supportive of him was of the opinion that he could not be corrupt like the other politicians because he doesn’t need to be corrupt. Because he gets – and they made up some big figures about this – a large amount of pension from United Nations and runs his own business. Some say it is 40 lakhs per month. Some say its more than that. But I really don’t get that point. Is privately owned wealth a good reason enough to claim that people wouldn’t be or needn’t be corrupt? If so, why isn’t that kind excuse offered to other rich and allegedly-corrupt politicians in India? How is Shashi Tharoor any different?

Now that Modi’s links with IPL team owners of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab have emerged, the whole IPL controversy is getting more interesting, wide and ugly. I think there is enough material to make a movie out of the whole story. There is glamor, big money and beautiful women involved. What more do you need to make a good story line for a Bollywood movie?

So here is announcing the movie (title suggested by @rameshnair):

Kabhi Shashi, Kabhi Game
The story of an interlocutor and his friends

The movie will have two versions. In South India, Shashi is the hero and Modi is the villain. Up in the North, it is Modi in the lead and Shashi, the villain. Sreesanth will play the role of a crouching tiger in both the versions. Make up and costumes will be handled by Ms. Pushkar.

In the North Indian climax, the other Modi, Modi N, will be seen protecting Modi L and finally securing an IPL team for Ahmedabad and Shashi will be seen being left alone with a beautician in the Chala market in Thiruvananthapuram, looking for land with cheap prices to build IT parks.

In the South Indian climax, Shashi will win over Modi L, securing an IPL team for Kochi and building a cricket stadium near the Smart City project area. Modi L will be seen being left alone  with a South African model and sniffing 5 grams of Cocaine.

Part of the profits made from the movie will go to Mr. Modi and Twitter. We are looking for prospective producers for the movie, so do start bidding. And yes, multiple stake holders who are family members, friends and acquaintances of yours are welcomed.

Shashi Tharoor with Sunanda Pushkar (L), Lalit Modi (R)

When the news of an IPL team for Kerala came out, all hailed Shashi Tharoor for the role he played in bringing many people together to bid for a Kochi team. For the development hungry urban youngsters of Kerala, their political messiah had done one more good deed. Shashi Tharoor had said that he did not have any role in the team except for his wish to have an IPL team for Kerala and helped bringing a team together. He said his role ended there.

But not everything seems to be going well with this favorite politician of the urban youth of India. The Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi recently publicized the names of the stake holders of Kochi IPL team through Twitter and that includes Ms. Sundanda Pushkar, reportedly a “close associate” of Shashi Tharoor, who holds 18% stake in Rendezvous, the firm that has 26% stake in the Kochi IPL team. Modi also accused that a union minister called him up to ask not to bring the details of the stake holders out, especially of Ms. Pushkar’s. This has raised concerns over Shashi Tharoor’s interest in the Kochi IPL team.

It is impossible to come to a conclusion at this stage (definitely there will be a verbal battle in the coming days between Modi and Tharoor and the drama will continue for a few more days), but there is definitely something fishy in here. Let me clarify, if Tharoor had made his business interests, if any, or helping his “close associates” in business clear before public, nobody would have any problem against his personal / business interests because helping “close associates” or making money is not a crime as long as it is very well within the legal means.

But Tharoor had proclaimed that his sole interest in bringing an IPL team to Kochi is to bring material and “psychological benefits” (???)  to Kerala. In that case, there would be some obvious concerns that there is this mystery lady who reportedly have been socializing with Tharoor in the Delhi circles (and press rumors say Tharoor is going to marry her) having 18% stake in the company that has 26%  stake in a team that Tharoor “mentored” to bring up.

While searching for the mystery lady, a LinkedIn profile page of one Sundanda Pushkar popped up, with a profile picture of Ms. Pushkar mentioned in the news reports (you can see the profile photo if you sign in to LinkedIn). If the LinkedIn page is to be believed and authentic, there is  more to read to the whole story when this “close associate” of Tharoor is a Sales Manager at TECOM, the people behind Smart City, who, apparently, also have a love for Kerala’s development so that they wouldn’t take the Smart City project elsewhere (from when did these global corporate companies begin to develop so much love to uplift the entire Kerala state which is not even in their own country?).

I am not saying Tharoor is the culprit.  Or Modi is a saint. There might be some other interests for Modi to publicize the names of the stake holders of Kochi team alone. Perhaps Modi was batting for some other group like Tharoor accused. But we don’t know any of these for sure and let us wait and see who comes out clean. And who knows, perhaps both of them will stop commenting further on this matter to save themselves and we, the general public,  may end up being fools. For the time being, let us not waste our tears for Tharoor. There is not enough ground to support him, as of now.

(Image courtesy: Indian Express)

• The general cry for development and employment
• A real estate company – that’s going to get acres of our land for cheap price, of which only 25% will go for IT
• An anti-Left-in-everything newspaper – that will even burn it’s own house if it helps the anti-Left cause
• The interest of home-grown business scions like Leela Krishnan Nair and Muthoot Pappachan in taking up the project from TECOM
• The sloppy un-clear stand of the so-called Leftist government

All of these make me think – what is really there in this cake called Smart City in Kerala that everybody wants to get hold on a piece of it?

Read this too – The Smart politics of Smart City