Preventing asphyxiation of artistic expressions

After Andhra Pradesh High Court, it is time for Madras High Court to lecture the Govt. on their “secular” decision to ban The Da Vinci Code

“It would be dangerous to allow the State to straightjacket the right to Freedom of Expression, as artistic expressions may be asphyxiated by law if a petulant group of self-appointed `censors’ prescribes the paradigms for suspending the screening of a film, which has got the approval of the Censor Board,” said Justice Prabha Sridevan.
Rejecting the submission that the State had material to show that there would be a “breach of peace” if the film was exhibited, the judge said, “the inability of the State to maintain law and order or to avert a violation of breach of peace can never be a ground to throttle the Fundamental Rights.”
She said the order did not satisfy the “compelling State interest test,” and added: “When highly respected members of the Christian community have seen the film and have not expressed any apprehension that it may result in breach of peace, and when the Censor Board has certified that the film is worthy of being exhibited, the compulsion that forced the State to pass the impugned order is inexplicable and does not justify the violation of the Fundamental Right of the petitioners.” [Madras High Court quashes ban on film via Reporter’s Diary]

Terrorists strike Mumbai Again (contd)

Continuing from where we left off yesterday, The Acorn points to a piece by Praveen Swamy

what evidence is available, though, suggests that the tactics and techniques used in the Mumbai bombings are similar to those deployed in the wave of strikes that have taken place across India since the end of 2005. Fabricated from easily-available chemicals such as potassium permanganate or aluminium chlorate, with small amounts of RDX to accelerate the detonation, the kinds of explosives that seem to have been used in Mumbai are easy to manufacture — and lethal when used in crowded locations.
If recent experience is a guide, investigators are likely to find that the real architects of the bombing are outside its reach: the Lashkar is headquartered at Muridke, near Lahore, while the HuJI operates out of bases in Dhaka and Chittagong. More likely than not, though, the operation will have been facilitated by local operatives of these terror groups — part of a subterranean but still enormously dangerous movement of small numbers of recruits into the ranks of Islamist terror groups.

CNN reports that timers were hidden in pencils
Update 1: According to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh (not Sonia Gandhi), India will win the war on terror. Terrorists must be surrendering in droves after hearing his pathetic speech.
Update 2: Mumbai Politician suspected?

He, however, dodged a query on a media report that claimed a south Mumbai politician, who has considerable clout in a minority community, was under the scanner of intelligence agencies for his suspected role in yesterday’s serial blasts in suburban trains.
The report quoted intelligence sources as saying that the politician could have instigated the blasts in retaliation for a recent strife in a minority-dominated area of Thane district.

Update 3: Premature to blame LeT

The director general of police in Maharashtra, the Indian state that includes Mumbai, said that officers had

Terrorists strike Mumbai Again

Terrorists (not militants as the MSM likes to call it), have struck Mumbai. Amit Varma has the updates and he points to Mumbai Help for getting additional help and information.
Update 1: Amit mentions an incident where a correspondent asks a victim if this was a terrorist attack and remarks how would he know in five minutes. B. Raman has guessed who is behind the blasts instantly.
Update 2: Indian Intelligence believes that Dawood Ibrahim was behind the serial attacks. (via Counter Terrorism Blog)

Indian intelligence believes the attacks on Mumbai

Forgive Them Lord..

Finally the High Court of Andhra Pradesh had to lecture the State Government on why it should not have banned The Da Vinci Code.

Rejecting these arguments, Mr. Justice Raghu Ram, in his 48-page judgment, said, “The Constitution does not confer or tolerate such individualised hyper-sensitive private censor intrusion into and regulation of guaranteed freedom of others.”
Tracing the concept of freedom of speech and expression and its necessity for the blossoming of the human mind, he noted that the Censor Board had cleared the film with appropriate conditions. A film was not like a billboard or hoarding that involuntarily affected innocent passersby. Those who purchased tickets to see the film made a conscious decision, and the state had no role to stop the screening.
Mr. Justice Raghu Ram said the authorities who passed the ban order had not even seen the film. The officer “mechanically certified” the veto of a few objectors rather than arriving at a decision based on informed satisfaction. This was “arbitrary, casual and [a] wholly irrational exercise of a very sensitive and responsible executive power, namely the regulation of a cherished, valued and guaranteed fundamental freedom of expression.”
The judge, who saw the film at a special screening, recalled various works on different interpretations of Jesus Christ.
The court said, “Freedom of speech and expression contributes to the richness and equilibrium of human existence.” Terming the Government’s action wholly negligent and an irresponsible exercise of executive power, the judge directed the Government to pay Rs. 10,000 each to the distributors and Rs. 2,500 to Mr. Reddy. [ A.P. ban on Da Vinci Code quashed]

The movie will now be released in the state, but Congress has proved to its vote bank that it is an upholder of “secularism”

A Tale of Two Movies

Aamir Khan recently came out with a statement that people affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam should be rehabilitated.

“The BJP is saying I’m against the dam and against Gujarat but I’m not against the dam. What I’m saying is that the people who have been affected by the dam should be rehabilitated,” Aamir said late on Friday, during an interview with the a television news channel. [I’m neither against Narmada dam nor Gujarat: Aamir]

He also came out against the Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the recent violence in Vadodara and the riots few years back.

it is (Vadodara incident) very sad and what happened in Gujarat a few years ago was also equally unfortunate. It’s a shame that the administration is not able to control the situation there and it is resulting in deaths of innocent people,’ according to a BBC transcript of the interview.[Aamir Khan slams Narendra Modi]

All these statements did not go well with some Gujaratis. The BJP threatened to disrupt the screening of the movie in the country. Members of a student wing of Congress Party staged a demonstration and burned posters of Aamir’s latest film Fanaa, smashed bottles of a soft drink endorsed by the actor and urged people to boycott all products promoted by the actor.The Cinematograph Exhibitors Association of Gujarat has decided not to show the movie unless Aamir Khan apologizes for his remarks.
This “mob censorship” in a state ruled by the BJP was enough to get all the familiar secularists all worked up. Shabana Azmi heard only about the protests by the BJP activists and not by the Congress and she got all worked up. Mahesh Bhatt, approached the Supreme Court asking for police protection in those movie halls, which was willing to show the movie.
There is another state sponsored censorship going on in India. The Da Vinci Code, which was cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification was banned in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Meghalaya and Nagaland. Coming out in support of Aamir Khan, this is what Shabana had to say

It is the State’s business to ensure that those citizens who wish to see the film should have the freedom to do so. No political party has the right to jeopardise a film that has been duly cleared by the central board of film certification”.[Shabana Azmi, in defence of Aamir Khan]

For her, these priciples do not apply in the Da Vinci case. When political parties are dictating that a vast majority cannot see a movie assuming that a miniscule minority could be offended, such defenders of “free speech” are nowhere to be seen. People who got so angry over the so called “state sponsored violence” in Gujarat are silent when the state is supressing a movie elsewhere. These are the real communalists we should be careful of.

Da Vinci arrives in Kerala

As Kuttan notes, The Da Vinci Code has been released in Kerala. Kerala has a large Christian population, which wields political power, but the Govt. was not retarded like the ones in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Punjab.

The film, whose screening has been banned or suspended in five states, was released in both English and a dubbed Malayalam version in 11 theatres in Kerala.
Long queues were seen for booking tickets for all four shows at Sridhar cinema hall here.
“The telephones are continuously ringing and all tickets have been sold out,” said manager Ramkumar. “This is the only film after ‘Titanic ‘ which has received so many enquiries.”
Catholics have, however, reacted “coldly” to the film, Father Paul Thelekkat, spokesperson of the Syro Malabar church, said. [‘The Da Vinci Code’ released in Kerala]

Eradicating poverty through micro-credits

Micro-credits, pioneered by Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has been an effective way to bring poor people out of poverty, not by depending on politicians, but by allowing people to take control over their destiny. In this program, small loans are provided mainly to women for self-employment projects that generate income. While traditional money lenders charge large interest rates, these micro-credits provide loans at reasonable rates.
Big businesses are also involved in this. While they advertise and market for an urban audience, they are missing the rural population, which forms the majority in India. While there were women availing micro-credits, they needed businesses to run and the companies stepped in.

When executives at Hindustan Lever were plotting how best to reach untouched markets in rural India in 1999, they noticed that dozens of agencies were lending microcredit funds to poor women all over the country. These would-be microentrepreneurs, the company thought, needed businesses to run.
So Hindustan Lever approached the Andhra Pradesh state government in 2000 and asked for access to clients of a state-run microlending program. The government agreed to a small pilot project that quickly grew. The initiative, dubbed Project Shakti (which means strength in Hindi), has expanded to 12 states. Agencies such as CARE India, which oversees one of the subcontinent’s biggest microcredit programs, also have teamed up with the company.
Mrs. Nandyala has repaid her start-up microloan and hasn’t needed to take another one. Today, she sells regularly to about 50 homes, and even serves as a miniwholesaler, stocking tiny shops in outlying villages a short bus ride from her own. She sells about $230 of goods each month, earning about $16 in profit. The rest is used to restock products.
For NGOs, such commercial link-ups have meant shedding distrust of big business. “At first we were unsure about it,” says Vipin Sharma, director of CARE India. “But in the long run, we think the poor will benefit from learning about retailing, distribution and marketing.” [Microcredit helps women entrepreneurs in India]

Courting the fundamentalists

On February 14th, 1998, before L K Advani was to arrive in Coimbatore, there were serial blasts and 58 innocent people lost their lives. The mastermind behind the attacks, Abdul Nasser Madani, was arrested and jailed. Madani had started an organization called Islamic Sewak Sangh (ISS) in 1990 as an opposition to the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. He spread communal hatred through his speeches, but disbanded the organization immediately after the demolition of the Babri Masjid structure.

Soon after the Union government banned the ISS in 1992, he launched the People’s Democratic Party to forge a broad Muslim-dalit-backward alliance. Though Madani entered into parleys with the Congress and the Indian Union of Muslim League, his political aspirations did not fructify.
Today Madani is imprisoned in the Coimbatore jail. He was arrested from his Kochi home on the night of March 31, 1998 in connection with the Coimbatore bomb blasts. He has been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 153 (a) (spreading communal hatred), 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 124 (a) (sedition), and also under the Arms Act. [Madani: Kerala’s most notorious fundamentalist]

Before the poll season started, the Communist MP, TK Hamsa went to Coimbatore jail had held parleys with this terrorist and the result? PDP asked its cadre to support the Communists. Communists also got the support of Jamaat-e-Islami, a party which has difficulty singing Vande Mataram. Clearly this pandering to parties which spread communal hatred has helped the Communists as they have won a landslide victory in Kerala.
On May 2, 2003, armed men hacked eight fishermen to death in Marad, Kerala. The judicial commission report which probed this incident found all arms of the “secular” Congress Govt., which was ruling till now, guilty . According to the commission, atleast one senior politician belonging to the Muslim League, a coalition buddy of Congress, had advance knowledge of this conspiracy. The other findings of the commission are explosive and “vote bank” politics was explcitly blamed for this.
When the Communists were actively courting Madani’s PDP, the Congressmen did not want to be seen lacking in secular credentials. In an amazing act of insensitivity to the 58 people who were murdered in Coimbatore, the Kerala Assembly, at a special session on Holi, passed a unanimous resolution calling for freeing Madani on parole on humanitarian grounds. Such is the power of vote bank politics.
With the current elections, one set of fundamentalists have been voted out of power and another set has taken over. We will soon know what quid pro quo arrangement the Communists have made with the fundamentalists.

Rashomon Effect – Episode 4

Two Indian parliamentarians talk to American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice together. When they come out they have two stories on what the Secretary said
Shahid Siddiqui

Rajya Sabha member Shahid Siddiqui of the Samajwadi Party told reporters that ‘our main concern was over expected amendments to the legislation, but she (Rice) said, if the amendments are within the spirit of the July 18 agreement, then you should be prepared for it.The message was that there are going to be amendments and we should be ready for it’.

Sachin Pilot

But Sachin Pilot of the Congress party told rediff.com that Rice had not spoken about any amendments but agreed that ‘the essence of the agreement is what we should focus on and that’s what we are going to achieve. That whatever the understanding the two governments have, that’s what it is. There’s been no additions or deleting’.

Surrounded by failed states

Foreign Policy magazine has announced its failed states index. The indicators of instability include factors like demographic pressures, public services, external interventionand delegitimization of state. The top countries in the list are Sudan, Congo, Ivory Coast, Iraq and Zimbabwe.
In this list India’s neighbourhood does not look promising at all. Almost all its neighbours, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Burma are among the toppers in the failed states list. Leading the list in our region is Pakistan with a ranking of 9, just faring better than Somalia and Chad. Even a war torn Afghanistan did better than Pakistan. Regarding Pakistan, the report mentions that it remains “acutely vulnerable to internal conflict and social disintegration”.

Pakistan moved from 34th last year to ninth in the new report – one of the sharpest changes in the overallscore of any country on the list. The contributing factors were Pakistan’s inability to police the tribal areas near the Afghan border, the devastating earthquake last October in Kashmir and rising ethnic tensions, the report said. [Pakistan ‘is a top failed state’]

The others did not do much better. Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are ranked 18th, 19th, 20th and 25th respectively. China is ranked 57th, while India did much better with a ranking of 93.

The authors cite India as an example of a state which has pulled back from the brink, saying that in the 1970s analysts predicted dire consequences as a result of population growth, economic mismanagement, poverty and corruption. Now, they say, India today has turned itself around and might have the edge over China (ranked 57) in the long run. Pauline Baker, president of the Fund for Peace, told the Associated Press news agency that India had greater social mobility and was more decentralised than its more populous neighbour. [Pakistan ‘is a top failed state’]

While India is facing both internal and external threats, the failing of these neighbours should be a major concern. The Acorn’s item number 2 & 10 on the Foreign Policy Objectives has to be pursued seriously to avoid another 1971 type of situation.