The Musahars of Gaya

The Musahars of Gaya

by Prayaag Akbar

Vilas Ravi Raj, a Musahar, has brought his son Dileep, a shivering six-year old with bandages across his face like a zebra crossing, to the Anugrah Narain Magadh Medical College Hospital. The boy’s grandmother has walked with them from the village of Utlibari, around thirty kilometres away, in the same district of Gaya, Bihar. The father bends over his son, feeding him milk via a syringe and through a tube that goes up the boy’s nose. All the beds in the children’s ward are filled with similarly suffering children. By their side are parents in tattered clothes and haunted eyes, eyes that are shrouded by confusion and fear each time the nurses describe what is happening to their child.

District health officials have just announced there is an epidemic of meningitis and encephalitis amongst the 30 lakh strong Musahar population of Bihar; their living habits bring them in close proximity to pigs and cows, making the children of this community especially susceptible to infectious disease. This hospital is at the epicentre of the epidemic because Gaya district has the highest concentration of Musahars, though they are found all over the state. 27 children have died in the hospital in just a few days, but members of the medical staff say that the number of children who receive poor or no medical attention far outstrips this number. This is the third year in a row that a meningitis epidemic has been declared in the district.

The Musahars are one of the most deprived communities in India. They were given Maha-Dalit status by the Bihar Government some years ago, testament to the abject penury in which most live. They are perhaps best known as rat-eaters (Mus – mouse; ahar – eater), a title many in the community are keen to live down, though the tradition remains. Even so, in the villages I visited, the villagers refused repeatedly to hunt rats for the cameras of the freelance photographer who accompanied me (in one ridiculous interlude, he offered the children ten rupees for every rat they caught. They still refused.) And this is one of the main problems the community faces; as the dominant caste groups in the area and a compliant, sensation-seeking media continue to frame the Musahars’ existence through practices like rat-eating, their perilous standards of living can continue to be justified as those deserved by a “subhuman” community.

Try this for a paradox. Dwarako Sundari is a 68-year old Sindhi gentleman who crossed the border at Partition. In his twenties he was entrusted by Acharya Vinobha Bhave to come to Bodhgaya and build an ashram where Musahirs could be educated and fed. He has been running his school for more than thirty years with no government support, reliant on the kindness of people who travel to Buddhism’s holiest place. He received the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Social Work in 1992, but otherwise there have been few public plaudits. Almost all the educated Musahars in the area have studied in his school, including the aspiring politician Biswas Manjhi, who is hoping for a RJD Vidhan Sabha ticket. He tells me: “Dwarakoji is akin to a saint. He has done so much for us.”

It is shocking, then, to learn Dwarakoji’s views on these people: “After much thought, I have realised the Musahars are a subhuman community. Jayprakash Narayan once visited my ashram and he said this exact thing to me. Now, years later, I have to agree. I have seen students of mine throw their parents out of the house once they cannot earn anymore, saying they need to feed their children. Women complain to me because their husbands refuse to acknowledge their marital contract. Other families desert their children. Is this the way human beings live?”

When I point out to him that the practices he has listed are prevalent in other communities – could even be considered common practice in countries like the United States – he brushes my objections aside. Once again the problem that faces these people is illustrated. Dwarakoji has done as much for Musahar children as perhaps anyone in the world, and when he speaks of the children you can sense his abiding affection. Yet, after thirty years of interacting with the community there is a sharp delineation, a need to see people with such strange and objectionable habits as something quite different from himself.

****

About fifteen minutes drive from the town of Bodhgaya, where the Enlightened One has ensured hundreds of tonsured Japanese and European tourists sit drinking imported lapsang souchong and bubble tea, there is the village of Parariya, a dot in the hinterland of 300 homes and 1200 people. To reach this village you must walk through an ankle-deep swamp until you arrive at a cluster of tiny mud huts. Like every village in India, living arrangements are segmented sharply along the lines of caste: in the distance are the houses of the Yadavs and further along are the Paswans (both of whom are considered upper-caste Dalits and have enjoyed years of patronage under leaders like Laloo and Ram Vilas Paswan). The biggest houses belong to the Thakurs, the landowners of the area, though I am told there is a smattering of Muslim families who have their own conclave.

The Musahar huts are the simplest, reflective of their status within the village hierarchy. Each hut has two windowless rooms, a small open-air courtyard that is used as a kitchen and a roof of thatched hay. The doors and ceilings are built so low you must bend at the waist to enter the room. It is clear that a Musahar roof cannot be higher than a Yadav roof, and so on up the chain.

Kuleshar Manji and his wife Sudama Devi have been married for thirty years. They have five children, four of whom scamper in and out of the house like the mice running around on the floor. They are landowners: “humraa paanch gaj”. Though this is not common in the community, this is one of the few areas in Bihar with strong Musahar politicians, and some years ago a land redistribution scheme was implemented that gave each family in the surrounding villages a parcel of land.

But in the village land without water is like no land at all. The Musahars have the smallest freehold plots of the worst land. Manji and his wife still spend the majority of the agricultural season cultivating the plots of Yadav families. The Yadav landowners pay each Musahar man Rs 15 for a day’s work, while every Musahar woman receives just 2.5 kilos of unrefined wheat, no money. Kuleshar Manji says, “There is no irrigation, so we can’t water any of the crops on our land. But the government put in pumps and pipes for the areas where the upper-castes have their land. If we don’t work on their land we won’t have anything at all.”

This works out to around Rs 500 a month during the agricultural season. Manji and Sudama Devi are lucky because their oldest son is working as construction labour in Bhutan, from where he sends Rs 500 a month. “Now with Rs 1000 we are more comfortable. Three of my children are in school. But most families here don’t have anyone to send money. If we had to get by on just the wages I am paid to cultivate the Yadav farms we would be in trouble.” Both husband and wife agree that NREGS has been a huge boon during the difficult non-agricultural season, when the steady daily payment of Rs 80 comes as a massive windfall. The Bihar Government has one of the best records of implementing of this scheme.

But such poverty can only breed discontent. Many young men from the lowest-caste groups in each village have taken up cause with the Naxalites, disillusioned by the unchanging patterning of society. One former Naxal, a young Musahar who studied in Dwarako Sundari’s school and is now a businessman in Bodhgaya, explains: “A lot of the villages here are named after Naxal heroes. People get tired of waiting for change. I drifted in and out of camps since I was 15. We used to hold tribunals here, because the villagers were tired of going to the corrupt courts.”

The Naxalite problem affects even the least political villagers desperately, because state functionaries now have a ready-made excuse for not doing their jobs. The former Naxal continues, “while I was growing up, the schools did not have teachers, no health officials would ever come to these areas. They all said the Naxals made it too dangerous for them to work. It is the same now.”

Bodhgaya is jammed with tourists from all over the world. The Bihar Government has built a shiny, metalled road from Patna to this small town. An international airport has been built at Gaya so Buddha-tourists can pop in and out without seeing the rest of India. But with so much spending allocated to ease the journey of foreigners, what remains for the people of this area? None of the tourism money trickles down to the poorest people of this district, of which the Musahars are only one community.

As the Buddha once left the grounds of his palace in Kapilavastu and found nothing but disease and desolation, leave the city limits of Bodhgaya and you enter a poverty-stricken wasteland. It is only the very richest people of Parariya, the Thakurs, who own motorbikes, so they do not have to trudge through the swamp that separates the village from the main road. In these villages, the difference between those who own motorbikes and those who don’t is not a simple one; it tells the story of a thousand years of caste-based repression, and of a people’s quest for dignity under a democracy that has failed them.

Extreme America

EXTREME AMERICA
By Prayaag Akbar
(Travel Blog: In Covert Magazine)

On television and in newspapers, the voices of conservative commentators veer towards hysteria. They speak of an impending existential crisis in America, of a President who is willing to disrespect the tenets of a 200-year history. The drumbeaters of CNN, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and most other news media proclaim that one of the holiest of their holy principles is being violated, the foundation of their great state, the policy that is more American than the bacon cheeseburger [extra cheese, extra bacon]. Quite simply, they are amazed that a President has been elected who has the audacity to attempt to control the tentacles of unstinting capitalist endeavour. The message is clear: mess with anything, Mr President, but do not mess with the free market.

As one final flip of the finger to the large swathes of the country that came to despise him, when President Bush exited he left a broken down economy and a perilously damaged relationship with most of the world. The new incumbent, President Obama, has had to tackle the backslapping bonhomie that has long existed between corporate interests and political parties in the United States. This crisis has grown from a particular economic climate, one where traders like Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford were allowed to do pretty much as they pleased, where insurance companies were able to reinsure dud investments ad infinitum, where the heads of publicly-held corporations could write themselves bonuses of hundreds of millions of dollars while guiding their companies to hell in a gilded hand basket. Yet now that Obama has confronted these issues with the suggestion of Government-appointed financial overseers, the cries of “Socialist!”, which never left his presidential campaign, have begun to hover over his presidency. Obama is certainly not a socialist. He seems unencumbered by attachment to ideology and willing to tackle individual problems free of the politics of Left or Right, White or Black, Straight or Gay. Why voters and the media seem to prefer politicians with such identifiable baggage, it is hard to say.

The car industry was a symbol of the industrial dominance once enjoyed by the United States. The muscle cars of the 1950s, 60s and 70s were valorised and glorified, in movie after movie, book after book. But their steady decline over the past three decades was visible even when the economy showed no signs of distress. Obama’s plan, to nationalise the car manufacturer General Motors, keeps thousands of jobs in America, as well as protecting one of the great institutions of the country. Yet it is met with ridicule and headlines of “GM now Government Motors”. The idea that any modern economy is allowed to run according to the classical neo-conservative theories of laissez-faire and non-intervention is, in any case, ludicrous. Regulation exists. Thankfully, Obama looks stronger than his critics.

THE REAL QUESTION The media is right that America is facing an existential crisis of sorts, but the question this country is just beginning to ask itself is substantively different. What becomes of a country whose identity is premised upon being at the forefront of the world? Whose people have always considered themselves the vanguards of political, economic, cultural and religious expression? Growing, insatiable economies like China, India and Brazil have all demonstrated a greater capability to rebound, largely because they still have economies that build things. Economies that make things people need even in times of crisis, like steel, sugar, textiles and electronics. The America that used to build things is simply no longer there. The Motor City of Detroit is now a ghost town, full of boarded up shop windows and abandoned factories. The steel capital, Pittsburgh, has been forced to reinvent itself as a university town. Both cities surrendered more than industrial supremacy through the flight of capital to Special Economic Zones in China and India. They surrendered a part of the American story, one there is no guarantee can be returned.

ONE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS theory beloved of scholars in America used to be the Hegemonic Stability Theory, which emerged during the period of peace that followed the Cold War. To simplify it, the theory describes a Pax Americana [Peace through American dominance], as there was once a Pax Romana [Peace under the Roman Empire]. Such a belief, that the world would benevolently look on as the American military-financial complex steamrolled cultures and homes around the globe, has been left in tatters by the rise of terrorist insurgencies. If in 50 years, America finds itself no longer the global hegemon, it will need to fashion a new identity for itself, one that does not derive from expanding its influence over the world.

It is a gloomy picture I have painted here, but it is not the complete picture. For the most part, America remains a land of unrivalled plenty, with scales of consumption and the kinds of choice in food, clothing, entertainment and leisure that even the wealthiest Europeans are amazed by. It is humbling, especially when you consider hubristic comments in India about how if our economic progression continues we might soon be on par with the national wealth of the United States. Even if by some miracle our national wealth reaches that of America, the concentrations of power will ensure that too many people are left out of the economic boom for the numbers to be meaningful.

IT MIGHT NOT fit the popular conception of “the idiot American” that so suited the Bush years, but the governance in this country, especially on domestic issues, has been unparalleled for the last hundred years. I was reminded of this as I drove through Yosemite National Park, a lush outpost of Central California full of giant redwood trees and scalpel-cut granite rocks. The trees sparkled in the intermittent sun, their leaves polished green; dead wood was cut from the boughs; dead grass on the ground was burnt away immediately. Nature flourished here, but in a classic American way, with a team of rangers and foresters constantly monitoring everything, improving the colours, spring-cleaning the vistas. It was magnificent. It made me wonder when Indian national parks would justify such outlay. It is then you are reminded of how many steps America is ahead of us; ahead of everyone in the rest of the world. In this and in so many other avenues of life, the pitfalls that stand in the way of development have been negotiated, some with more success than others. And each has been negotiated to the extent that is required to keep the nation warmly vital in a number of pursuits, from athletics to playwriting. This at a time when in China forests are clear-cut to build massive factories that make sewing machines and electric razors. This at a time when in India we displace thousands of farmers every time a corporation has an idea for a cheaper car. National wealth is one, usually meaningless, measure of development. We have a long way ahead of us.

A CULTURE ALL ITS OWN As intrinsic as politics is to the American conception of nationhood, there are many other facets of their identity, some even more unfathomable to the foreign visitor. For instance, it would be hard to imagine another nation that takes its television viewing so seriously. The sale of its biggest car companies has been the most prominent news story while I have been here. The second? Conan O’Brien taking over the Tonight Show from Jay Leno. Reams of newspaper space were devoted to the switch; not back in the entertainment section, but on the front page. Journalists debated with great earnestness the merits of the comically adventurous O’Brien over Jay Leno, whose show had steadily declined into tepidity. The television is an essential part of Americana, at once uniting a disparate people through the plasma prism they watch. The switch between comedians attracted so much attention because it tells of what millions of Americans will do right before going to sleep. Political strategists will now consider what jokes Conan will make about their candidates where once they had to consider Leno’s take. Movie producers will think of what stance the new host will take on their big-investment movie projects. Culture here is inextricably entwined with television.

Another uniquely American tradition is the propagation of insane activities, or as they like to call it, Extreme Sports. If you can find a snow-covered mountain to propel down strapped to a board, or a bridge or building high enough to parachute from, or a hundred foot long sheer rock face to climb with only your fingers and some rope, you are almost certain to find an American or two indulging in said activities, muttering “Extreme! Extreme!” as they go along. I participated in one such activity, which I would be laughed at if I called an extreme sport, but an activity that nonetheless left my body bruised and battered, an activity to which I shall add elements of danger on every retelling of this story.

My cousins, who were raised in California, drove us out to a place in the Sierra foothills they quaintly called “The Water Slides”. I do not believe it was their intention to mislead, but if I had to choose another name for the place I would perhaps go with “Whitewater Chutes of Sharp, Jaggedy Rocks”, for that is what they actually were. The place was basically an offshoot of a waterfall, where water trickled down quite pleasantly in certain parts and very rapidly in others. My cousin decided to demonstrate how to travel down the slide. His method, which I would not have considered possible before, involved sitting on your behind and basically being thrown by the force of the water down the waterfall, bouncing off rocks on either side all along the way. When he reached the pool in the bottom he got up and yelled [I think it was “Extreme!” but I could not hear] and began to encourage others in our party to do the same.

Once all the other Americans started getting in on the act, hurtling down this rocky slope with huge smiles on their faces as though they were at a particularly hilarious movie, I of course could not shame my country by declining to participate. My instructions were clear: lean in front and keep my arms by my side. But somehow by the time I was sitting in the flowing water, waiting to push myself off, those instructions disappeared completely from my mind, replaced by thoughts along the lines of, “That rock looks very sharp” and “What am I doing here?” Many times I flew down that waterfall at great speed, each time forgetting to stay in front, in fact leaning back as if I was on a reclining chair, but thankfully each time emerging from the water with only a few cuts on the arms and legs and a pair of bruised buttocks.

Then, as a little after dinner snack as it were, we climbed down to a little ledge over a lovely green pond that the waterfall fed. Standing there, with no way to get back to safety and without much warning, my cousin took a couple of steps and jumped into the water 40 feet below. Forty feet does not sound like much on paper, but peering over the edge of that ledge, as the girls we were with stood below filming us, it looked like a whole lot. By this time I had already submitted my fate to whichever God would accept me, so it was not hard for me to jump. What I had failed to notice however was that each of the rest who had jumped had taken a substantial leap. I sort of sauntered off the edge of the ledge, flying down one-two-three seconds through the air perilously close to the cliff, prompting one onlooker to tell me I would have cracked my head open had I leaned back. One cousin called it “the path of least effort and most danger”, which I assumed meant I embodied some sort of Gandhian ideals, but in retrospect might have been a polite way of calling me both lazy and stupid.

I had spent most of the day in a sort of stupor, wondering at the surreal nature of the challenges being placed in front of me, my brain refusing to comprehend that this was something Americans called “fun”. But by the end of it all I was exhilarated beyond words, my heart invigorated and my body racing. Then on the drive back, as I was falling asleep, I think I whispered to myself: “Extreme!”

153 MPs have criminal charges against them in new Lok Sabha

153 MPs have criminal charges against them in new Lok Sabha
(SPECIAL REPORT)
By Prayaag Akbar

NEW DELHI: Ninety-eight elected members of the 15th Lok Sabha have failed to provide their PAN details to the Election Commission, according to a study conducted by the NGO collective National Election Watch. Another report, just released by the group, has found that 153 of 535 MPs had criminal charges against them. To compound matters, almost half of these MPs — 74 to be precise — are in the dock for the most serious offences against the Indian Penal Code like robbery, attempt to murder, inciting communal violence and the like.

Of the 98 MPs who refused to file their PAN details, National Election Watch has found that 25 are crorepatis. Rajkumari Ratna Singh of Pratapgarh, a member of the Indian National Congress’ surprise run in Uttar Pradesh, heads the list, with movable assets of around Rs 62 crores and immovable assets of Rs 5.5 crores. The Congress also has the most crorepatis in Lok Sabha, with 138 of their 206 winning candidates having assets of more than Rs 1 crore. The BJP has 58 such MPs. Even Marxist stalwart CPI[M] has amongst its ranks a solitary member of the crorepati club. The Samajwadi Party has 14 crorepatis in the Lok Sabha, though presumably none of them have computers.

Though election observers have been singing of a new dawn in electoral politics in India — with the polity supposedly moving towards a responsible, enlightened future — the figures suggest this is hardly the case. Of the 116 BJP MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha, 43 have criminal charges — 37% — while 19 [16%] have serious criminal charges. Of the 204 Indian National Congress Members of Parliament examined, 41 have criminal charges, while 12 have serious criminal charges. Regional outfits like the Samajwadi Party are even more prone to such politics: 35% — 8 out of their 23 — have serious criminal charges against them, while 9 have just criminal charges.

Keeping in mind the notorious politics of Bihar, it is impressive that the JD[U] has managed to keep these figures down to a degree, while Naveen Patnaik’s clean image seems justified, with only one of his party’s 14 MPs accused of serious criminal misdemeanour. Eight of the crorepati MPs who failed to declare their PAN details have serious criminal records. Again Rajkumari Ratna Singh tops the list as she is accused of three extremely serious violations of the Indian Penal Code, including attempt to murder, robbery and criminal intimidation. Angadi Channabasappa, BJP MP from Karnataka has, perhaps predictably, been accused of promoting enmity between different communities. Various other charges have been brought against a number of the candidates, including the charge of forgery against P. Karunakaran of CPI[M} in Kerala, and culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempt to murder, and dacoity against Vinay Kumar, again of the Indian National Congress.

THESE REPORTS WERE prepared by studying the affidavits declared by 535 Members of Parliament. National Election Watch is an election-monitoring agency that was started by the Association for Democratic Reform [ADR], the organisation that filed the PIL which culminated in the Supreme Court order of 2003 that requires every Lok Sabha candidate to disclose their full financial, criminal and educational background.

A number of interesting facts have been thrown up by the number-crunching of this organisation. The average assets per MP in Haryana is an astonishing Rs 18 crores, which suggests a strong correlation between winning candidates and level of assets in the state. Next on the list is Andhra Pradesh, with the average amongst 42 candidates coming to the remarkable figure of Rs 15 crores. Meghalaya, one of the poorest States in India, is third on the list, with the two candidates averaging Rs 12 crores between them. Most of the other north-eastern States are on the opposite end of the spectrum, with Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur all having winning candidates with average declared assets of Rs 50 lakhs or less. The sole Member of Parliament from Andaman & Nicobar Islands has Rs 12 lakhs of declared assets, which makes his territory the last on this list [¼]

Champions, Inevitably

Champions, Inevitably
By Prayaag Akbar

Another season, and another Premier League title for Alex Ferguson and Manchester United. The Scottish knight has just racked up a 18th title for the self-proclaimed biggest club in the world, equalling the record that bitter rivals Liverpool have held since their last league victory, way back in 1990. When Sir Alex was appointed manager of the club in 1986, the once-great club was enduring a protracted fallow period, far from the heady days of the 1950s and ‘60s. They could no longer attract the best talent in the country, as they had in the days of George Best and Bobby Charlton. Yet Ferguson took his time, fashioning a team that matched the fervent supporters of Manchester. More than twenty years later, he has won eleven league titles, the first coming in 1992 when the old Football League was rebranded and became the Premier League. In 1992 Liverpool’s haul of eighteen league titles seemed unassailable, and if you had suggested then that the mighty Liverpool would fail to win the league once in the next seventeen years you would have been laughed out of Old Trafford. But that is how things have panned out. By equalling that record this year Ferguson has comprehensively demonstrated who the top dog of English football has been since he has been around. It is worth keeping in mind that Ferguson is no shrinking violet. When he first headed south from the Scottish club Aberdeen, he was asked what his primary responsibility would be in England. His answer was succinct: ‘to knock Liverpool right off their f***ing perch’.

But if Manchester United’s unquenchable thirst for trophies is making things a little predictable at the top – this is their third league title in a row – football lovers seeking thrills should look below those heady reaches, to the pit of the Premier League table, where every season a gut-tingling fight to the finish takes place. This is the battle to decide which teams will be allowed to ply their trade in the topmost echelon of English football. Until the last weekend of the season, two of the three teams that would be demoted had not been decided. Only West Bromwich was sure to go down; Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Hull were all struggling to avoid the drop.

As it turned out, it was Newcastle and Middlesbrough that suffered that ignominy, with their failure to win ensuring Hull, who lost to the champions on the final day, and Sunderland, who lost to Chelsea, would escape the chop. The relegations come as something of a shock because both clubs have been established fixtures in the Premier League for some time now. Middlesbrough at least stayed true to their principles, playing decent football and never resorting to the overt physicality that typifies the approach of strugglers like Hull and Bolton. But it was the demise of Newcastle which is most startling. They are traditionally one of England’s biggest clubs, with highly-paid stars like Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins, Mark Viduka, Nicky Butt and Damien Duff all in the squad. Much is also made of the passionate support of the Geordie nation (they are often described as the best fans in England). In a bid to stave off relegation, in April Newcastle appointed their former striker Alan Shearer, who is revered as a demi-god in the northern city, but had absolute zero experience in football management. He had eight games to turn it around, but only managed to get three points during his tenure, all from a 3-1 win against Middlesbrough. Lessons need to be learnt for the club. Stability will be needed if a return to the top-flight is to be envisaged [¼]

In a season saturated with cricket, Saeed Naqvi spotted a write-up which forms part of a series of Covert quizzes. The questions are: Who wrote the piece? And which batsman is being praised by the cricket writer? The first five correct entries will get a year's subscription to the magazine.

The innings was rent in twain now; A was left standing on a solitary rock of sound technique; between him and rearguard yawned a chasm. He proceeded to play the cricket of heroic loneliness; he hit B for six to square leg with the serenest sweeping movement. He cut late with the touch of intimate art. Impending disaster did not ruffle him; even a snick through the slips off B was tranquil and graceful. B bowled keenly, accurately, ominously, and fast; C at the other end turned his leg-break now and again and avoided too much short stuff. D’s off-breaks had an amiable aspect. Now came the death and glory, brilliance wearing the dress of culture. A demolished the attack with aristocratic politeness, good taste, and reserve. Claude Duval never took possession of a stage coach with more charm of manner than this; his boundaries were jewels and trinkets which he accepted as though dangling them in his hands. He scored nearly fifty, unhurried but trenchant. He cut and glanced and drove, upright and lissome; his perfection of touch moved the aesthetic sense; this was the cricket of felicity, power and no covetousness, strength and no battery, dazzling strokes and no rhetoric; lovely, brave batsmanship giving joy to the connoisseur, and all done in a losing hour.

IPL: The Fun has gone [to South Africa]

IPL : THE FUN HAS GONE [to South Africa]
by Prayaag Akbar
(cover special, Covert Magazine)

At 9 p.m. on 20 April, outside the Members Entrance of the Sahara Newlands Stadium at Cape Town, a thick swarm of teenage girls of Indian origin stand with autograph books and pens poised. A flutter passes through the crowd every time the thick panelled door is opened by an attendant to release another of the group of dignitaries who have travelled to Cape Town for the second edition of the Twenty20 Indian Premier League. In the background brothers and boyfriends hold cameras and mutter disconsolately, while the younger girls are accompanied by mothers who can barely conceal their own excitement. The movers and shakers of India’s financial and sporting firmament walk out of the door, but the Indian immigrant community of South Africa, most descendants of indentured workers brought to the continent in the 19th century, cares little when they realise it is not the one they wait for. They stand in the drizzle for one man alone — Mr Shah Rukh Khan.

It is not clear how much of the success of Lalit Modi’s pet venture [and the enforced globalization of the IPL in its second year has perhaps cemented its success] is down to Modi’s shrewd capitalisation on the extraordinary draw that Bollywood holds for Indians in India and abroad. Even cricket-loving white and black South Africans, whose knowledge of India’s film industry remains minimal, seem further drawn to it because of the glamour it is already associated with.

After all, purely from a cricket perspective, in the swinging, cloud-covered conditions in South Africa, the players’ displays in this smash-bang version of the game have often been some distance from exhilarating. Modi will be aware that the allure of the league rests on the subliminal thread that has wrapped the IPL and Bollywood together. Every day, local newspapers feature huge photographs of Shilpa Shetty, Preity Zinta, Akshay Kumar, and indubitably the biggest of all, Shah Rukh, their eyes shaded from the intermittent sun by huge glasses, waving the flags of their teams or sporting their colours. This is not to suggest that the cricket has taken a backstage in this sports-mad country. It is just that by inviting Bollywood to the party, cricket is no longer the biggest show in town.

But Modi, Niranjan Shah, I.S. Bindra and the rest of the tournament’s promoters will not be complaining, because in its second season the IPL already looks an unstoppable force, ready to revolutionise the sport both domestically and internationally. The IPL already generates substantially more revenue than any six-week international tour could ever manage — see below for detailed figures — and there is no denying the possibility of further encroachments on an already packed international calendar if it continues in this vein. If Modi and BCCI supremo Sharad Pawar figure out a way to adequately compensate foreign players and the national boards of the major cricket playing countries, this cricketing super league only stands to grow and grow, carrying this truncated version of an age-old game on its back.

CIRCUS OLE: INDIA’S ANSWER TO FORMULA 1

The luminescence of the league can be judged by the size of the moths it draws: on the opening day of the tournament, seated in the magnificent President’s Box at Newlands, are some heavy hitters indeed. The owners of various teams drift in and out of their personal boxes, an inventory list of industrialist scions and Bollywood power brokers: Mukesh Ambani walks by in a surprisingly casual outfit, rubbing shoulders with Ness Wadia, Dabur heir Mohit Burman, Daredevils’ owner G.M Rao’s son-in-law Sreenivas Bomidala. The Indian film industry, of course, is out in full force. Shah Rukh has brought his family and assorted retinue. Preity Zinta is there, accompanied by two massive security guards, whose primary duties seem to be holding her umbrella when it is raining and waving the Kings XI flag when it is not. Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra are also there with their families — they get to the stadium and back in a flaming orange Lamborghini Gallardo, just one of the luxuries that team owners are according themselves. As one BCCI functionary sitting in the box proudly says, “Vijay Mallya is the only one who has not made it for the opening day, and that’s because Force India has a race this weekend. He could not make it, but everyone else is here. He’ll be there for their next game.”

One consequence of Bollywood’s involvement is their domination of camera time in between balls and overs. When a Kings XI Punjab batsman hits a six, or a Kolkata Knight Riders bowler takes a wicket, the natural reaction of the cameramen and producers is to pan to Preity or Shah Rukh to capture the delight or dismay of one of India’s beautiful people. The other owners do not quite hold the same pulling power. One of the owners of a team sent his bodyguard to have a quiet word with the television producer to make sure he was accorded an adequate share of screen time. It seems even the rich and successful are subject to the vagaries of vanity.

With so many of the glitterati around, it is no wonder that the nightlife that surrounds the IPL does not slow down even in South Africa. Just as in Formula 1, where a huge cast of owners, drivers and technicians travel to a different spot on the globe every two weeks, what happens on the field during the IPL is the precursor to a whole lot more. Last year it was a succession of private parties, where every night owners would throw lavish affairs where the cricketers and administrators could let their hair down after 20 strenuous overs in the field. This year, perhaps because of the recession, perhaps because it is in South Africa and every company associated has sent only the bare minimum of staff, private parties are no longer the norm.

Now the nightclubs of South Africa are filled with cricketers, primarily of the English and Australian variety. The Indian players venture out from time to time, but despite pretences, South Africa is still divided along a gaping racial fault line. In most exclusive nightclubs in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, brown and black faces are not customary. Even during the IPL, these clubs are filled predominantly with shining blonde hair. The younger Indian players, who are usually the ones seen out at night, mostly stand around looking awkward. It is the owners of the teams and their friends who come home every morning as the rooster crows.

MONEY TALKS AND CRICKET WALKS

Compare the incentives that Modi is presenting to Pawar, the BCCI and everyone who makes their money from cricket with what they were earning before, and you understand why the former chief of the Rajasthan Cricket Association has been able to weather allegations of financial impropriety, ally Vasundhara Raje’s removal as the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, and various other controversies that might have shipwrecked less hardy voyagers, to emerge as cricket’s great new hope. For the BCCI alone, the revenues pulled in through the tournament are enormous. The television deal with Sony Entertainment Television alone provides Rs 900 crore; Rs 150 crore is channelled into their coffers via central sponsorships; a further Rs 300 crore is paid to them in total each year from the eight franchisees. That is Rs 1,350 crore for six weeks of the BCCI and the Indian national team’s time. Before the IPL the BCCI’s revenues already dwarfed the revenues of the other national boards like America’s GDP dwarfs the GDPs of the rest of the world. Still, they would only generate about Rs 750 crore in an entire year. The arithmetic is simple, and Modi is now seen by sport officials around the world as the herald of cricket’s brave new dawn, just as the promoters of the English Premier League were seen as the men who revolutionised football in England and consequently the world.

The figures discussed here, of course, are only the direct revenues generated for the BCCI by the IPL. Then you have to count the money being made by the gamut of institutions that constitute that essential periphery of the sport: television channel partners, event management companies, sports marketing agencies, advertising firms, airlines, shoe manufacturers, security agencies and travel bureaus. Modi’s venture is making all these people a whole lot of money. As a result, his vision for the game is slowly being accepted as the vision of the game.

Though the majority of the money for the IPL derives from television, Modi is shrewd enough to know, this year’s election induced aberration aside, in the future the league’s matches must be played in India. The screaming passion of teams playing in front of their home audiences adds the vitality that is missing from this second edition. Dhoni and Tendulkar have both said that playing in South Africa has resulted in a diminishment of the charm of the league. Some reinvention will also be required if the league is to continue to be as successful every year. The playing rosters of some of the teams are a whisker away from elderly — players like Sanath Jayasuriya, Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath and Saurav Ganguly might all not be there next year. The chat surrounding the Kolkata team is not only about the alarming rate at which Ganguly is losing his hair, but also about whether he retains the ability to perform at this level. Most important, however, is that the circus returns to India, for cricket’s biggest circus it most certainly is [¼]

Exports Downturn

Exports Downturn
by Prayaag Akbar

“Asia’s recoveries from previous downturns have been led by a rebound in exports to the rich world. This is unlikely in the near future.” – The Economist, Troubled Tigers, January 29, 2009

The Indian export sector is bracing itself for the mother of all crash-landings, come the new financial year in March. Industrialists may see a dip in their profits, but they can live with a downturn. By March 10 million workers, both men and women, will face the more searing loss of lay-offs or job loss. Can they live without their wages, which already hover close to the basic subsistence level? Over 150 million work in the exports sector in India and it is the largest provider of jobs after agriculture. It is these people whose livelihoods are now under threat.

As banks crash around the world and behemoth corporations cut their financial budgets to amounts they would previously allocate to corporate “getaways”, many industry watchers assert that the Indian export sector – which saw a decline of 22% in volume in January alone, according to a survey conducted by the Commerce Ministry – would only really begin to feel the effects of the crisis in March, when most of the current contracts run out. After March, expect an even more significant level of job loss in employment-intensive export industries like garments, leather and jewellery. Jobs are even expected to be lost in the capital-intensive IT sector because of the decline in demand for the services of industry leaders like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.

While India is not as reliant on exports as other Asian economies like Singapore, Malaysia and its primary competitor in the region China, Indian exports still constitute more than 20% of the Gross Domestic Product [GDP] of the nation. It is also considered one of the most employment-intensive sectors of our economy, providing jobs for the poor across the country: leather workers in Calcutta, Chennai and Kanpur, garments workers in the National Capital Region, Tiripura and Navi Mumbai, diamond-cutters in Gujarat, and so on. The volume of exports has been declining since October 2008, when they crashed by 12.1%, followed by a 9.9% crash in November. With January’s 22% crash – the largest single-month crash in volume since India opened its trade borders in 1991 – concern is spreading throughout the export sector.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has conducted a number of studies into the depth of the crisis for Indian exporters. Covert spoke with Mr Anand Seth, the Deputy Director General of the FIEO, about their findings: “We already know that by March 2009 10 million jobs will be lost all over the country, both in regular and contractual labour. But export orders usually run until March, so we are expecting a huge level of job loss after that. It could very easily be another 10% a month for some time if fresh orders do not come in.

“We had an expected trade target of $200 billion for this year. Now it looks like we will only be getting $160 billion worth of trade. Apart from the jobs that have already been lost, we should also count the jobs that would have been created by the trade we have lost out on. That would be at least another 3 million well-paying jobs for the people of India. As always, it is the labour-intensive industries that are hit the most, it is the poor who will lose their livelihoods.”

Mr Seth also points out that at such a time government inaction is harming India’s prospects of remaining competitive in exporting to the First World. He says, “Two steps are essential: China has just announced a 15% tax rebate across the board for exporters. India needs to do something similar urgently. Second, the duties we have to pay need to be alleviated to help the industry out.”

Garment Exporters

Over an informal conversation one evening in New Delhi, an extremely successful exporter of shorts and shirts to department stores in the United States [who asked for his name to be withheld] was blunt in his assessment: “I’ll tell you very honestly, after March I am going to sack 80% of my workforce. There’s nothing I can do about it. With orders falling so drastically I’m tempted to stop this whole exports thing and rent out the land my factory is on. I’ll earn a whole lot more money.”

On the 5th of February, the top brass of the apex body for apparel export, the AEPC (Apparel Export Promotion Council), met the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, at his office on Parliament Street in New Delhi. They presented him with a set of recommendations they feel would revive their industry at a time when it is urgently demanded. Amongst other things, they asked the Planning Commission to exempt them from fringe benefit tax, a privilege that has already been extended to the IT industry, for the government to provide interest-free loans for investment in machinery, for zero percent duty for import of capital goods and for a section of the funds allocated to the rural employment guarantee scheme be earmarked for the apparel sector.

Rakesh Vaid, chairman of the AEPC, elaborated to Covert on the extent of the job crisis that is affecting the textile and clothing export industry of India. He asserts, “We have already lost 5 lakh jobs in the industry. But this is just the beginning, because right now most exporters have contracts that go until March. However there has been a sharp decline in the number of new contracts being signed from abroad. By April I anticipate the figure will be more than 1.5 million jobless people all over the country – and even that could be an underestimation.”

The question now is what steps the government take to ensure that such a large number of people are not left without a regular source of income, especially because in this economic climate it seems no industry is in the position to be able to hire labour. Mr Vaid adds, “we have asked the government to give us power at industrial prices, rationalise the stricter labour laws, provide genuine exit options and allow us to introduce schemes where we can link wages to productivity. Now it is up to them.”

The Deputy Secretary General of the AEPC, Vijay Mathur, explained the pervasive impact such widespread unemployment will cause. “In the north there will be job losses in our big centres like the National Capital Region, Ludhiana and Jaipur. In the south Bangalore, Navi Mumbai and Hyderabad are sure to be hit. But what of a place like Tirupur (near Coimbatore) that is one of our largest centres and where a large part of the economy is dependent on textile export?” Mr Mathur goes on to explain that it is always the poorest and most unskilled workers who suffer the most, because the maximum job losses are in the mass products sector. Job losses will be highest amongst those textile labourers involved in making the cheap T-shirts, trousers and clothes sent abroad in bulk orders. Workers higher up the value-chain have a greater degree of protection because higher-value orders have not fallen as drastically.

Mr Mathur adds, “At this rate we will lose even more business to Bangladesh, which has already overtaken us in terms of volume. The important thing is for the Government to act now! They can’t take their time over this because February is the time we usually book our orders. If they don’t provide the exemptions and increase in drawback rates we are looking for then they should be prepared to face massive layoffs.”

Rohan Bhargava, who runs Delhi-based Viraj Exports, an export house that supplies to large-scale buyers in Europe like Tesco, spoke to Covert on the issue: “It’s natural for us to suffer some consequences. Retailers are ordering less and less pieces, though people doing business with Europe (like us) are better off than those trading with America. People are shutting down factories all over. There are huge exporters who are doing small jobs here and there instead of the bulk work they are accustomed to just so that they can keep their factory running. I haven’t seen anything like this before.”

Leather Industry

Leather is another of India’s major exports that relies heavily on skilled and unskilled labour. The tune within this industry again seems to be one of caution until March, as exporters await the impending loss of contracts. Agastya Chopra of Anca Leathers, a Mumbai-based exporter of leather bags, clarified that they had not been hit yet because they were booked at full capacity until March. He explained: “Most of our buyers are from England and Australia. By this time we usually have a few orders coming in and we start our development work towards fulfilling the order. But this year we just haven’t received any orders. It’s a tricky situation. Our leather is all sourced from Calcutta. Now that everybody is feeling the pinch I’m sure people will already be losing jobs there.”

The three major centres of leather production in India are Chennai, Calcutta and Kanpur. The industry has been seeing a month-to-month decline in volume demanded of drastic proportions. There has been a 30% loss of trade since September 2008. Industry insiders were expecting trade to grow substantially from the $3.5 billion it was last year, but now they are resigned to the figure remaining at that level, or even decreasing.

Mr Habib Hussain, Chairman of the Council for Leather Exports, outlined the scenario for Covert. “The industry is not in major crisis yet, but there are signs that it is coming. Everyone is already planning for a drop of 30% in demand from last year, which will have an effect all the way down the production chain. Kanpur, which specialises in footwear, has already been hit very badly and Calcutta and Chennai are not far behind.

“There are 2.5 million people employed in the industry. We have already seen 70,000-100,000 job losses in the industry. It’s hard to estimate because many factory owners don’t own up to the number of people they have laid off. But after March you will see this number shoot up – I would say 300,000 – 500,000 jobs will be lost in the organised sector alone.” If the number reaches that level over 1/5th of the poorest workers in the leather industry will be left jobless.

IT Industry

And where does all this leave the golden child of Indian industry, our much-vaunted Information Technology sector? While the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) corporations that kickstarted the IT revolution in India have been positively impacted by the recession, as they are still able to provide their services at a cost that Western firms can afford, they no longer dominate the infotech industry as they once did. Our IT industry provides a whole range of services that they export across the world. Companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys have clients that include Citigroup, Ferrari, American Express and some of the largest corporations in the world.

Nasscom, the lobby body for the IT industry, recently announced that export growth projections needed to be cut by 5 - 7% for March 2009 after unexpected contractions in the global economy. As IT budgets are trimmed and discretionary spending is curtailed all over the world, our software and information export companies are suffering as demand falls. Mr Priyadas, President of the software specialist GuildSoft, explains how his business has suffered: “the long-term effects of this crisis for IT companies will be even more than when the dotcom bubble burst in 2001. One of my biggest clients is Panasonic. Two days ago I received a message that they are $1.1 billion in the red. After hearing that, how can I expect them to renew their contract with me after March?”

Job losses are expected as the effects of reduced spending percolate through the industry. A financial manager for American Express, who asked not to be named, told Covert that they are cutting their spending on IT companies because it is easier to do that than lose jobs. “Banks and other financial institutions use the services of IT consultancies all the time. But when times get tough we can cut this expenditure down because it’s a discretionary expense. Last year, we paid TCS $104 million, Accenture $100 million and Infosys $78 million. This year we are paying TCS $45 million, Infosys $40 million and Accenture only on an “as-used” basis.” Export revenue is sure to fall quite dramatically as demand for the services of these leading IT companies falls.

As the Indian economy soldiers its way through the worldwide financial recession, it is the producers of those goods and services that were in such high demand at the same time last year that are suffering. India’s booming economy had convinced manufacturers, IT wizards and exporters of all kinds that they should ramp up their production levels to match demand. Now that demand has fallen, it is those jobs that were created in the past few years that are most at threat. With the general election taking place in the months directly after March – when things are expected to be at their worst – the Government will need to take a number of prudent steps to ensure they are not out of work themselves.

Satyam Shows We Need Bankruptcy Laws

One thing the Satyam case has shown quite clearly is that India needs a proper set of bankruptcy laws that will deal with cases like this. While the Government response to the Satyam crisis has been sensible and measured, the various stakeholders in large corporations – employees, shareholders, customers and suppliers – should not have to rely on the government of the time making the correct response. Bankruptcy laws, like the Chapter 11 regulation in America, allow large corporations that have suffered for whatever reason to survive, sometimes through much-needed restructuring.

Strengthening Dollar is No Help

Exporters are supposed to benefit from a weak rupee as the dollar price for their products or services falls as the value of the Indian currency declines, thus increasing demand. With the recent weakening of the rupee against the dollar – at the time of writing it was close to its all-time low – exporters were expected to clean up, but this has not been the case. Habib Hussain of the Council for Leather Exports explains why: “last year, when we were taking orders it was Rs 38 for 1 US dollar. Most exporters fixed their contracts at a forward price of Rs 42 for 1 USD because no one anticipated that the rupee would go down so much. Even though it now has, we are not the ones who are benefitting.”

Rural Unrest

It is not only corporate/urban India that is suffering in these credit-crunched times. Sources point to a high level of dissatisfaction in rural India because of the failure of the winter rains to come this year. Winter rains are considered essential to the healthy development of Rabi crops like foodgrain, oilseed and pulses. Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and parts of Northwestern India have been worst affected, as deficient winter rain meant several wheat regions in the north were unable to get sufficient rain during the usual sowing and post-sowing period.

Inside the Bajrang Dal

INSIDE THE BAJRANG DAL
By Prayaag Akbar

Since its first meeting in 1996 in Karnataka, a state that has only recently seen the emergence of saffron politics, how has the Bajrang Dal reached a position of such strength that it can leave the law and order of the area in a shambles? The slow rise of this amorphous, shadowy organisation in various parts of the country has been accompanied by bouts of fierce violence. The Bajrang Dal has more than fifty thousand units all over the country, each with at least 10 members. It is just one of the 52 organisations that comprise the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) controlled Sangh Parivar. But the Dal is the militant face of the Parivar, utilised when and where required and shunned when their violence garners too much criticism.

Unlike the other Sangh Parivar groups, the organisational structure of the Dal is with limited leadership, with only a convenor and co-convenor for every unit, and one convenor at the national level. This allows for them to operate as a lumpen force, the stormtroopers of the Hindutva brigade. However, the RSS influence over all the organisations in the Sangh Parivar cannot be discounted. At present, any activities of the VHP and Bajrang Dal must be sanctioned by Bhaiyaji Joshi, who is the prachari sent by the RSS. But this limited independence can sometimes lead to a power struggle between the organisations.

The genesis of the Bajrang Dal owes to the mobilisation surrounding the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement, when they escorted the rath yatra through North India to ensure its security. Soon after this became the youth wing of the VHP, committed to propagating Hindutva ideology amongst the younger generation. Prakash Sharma told Covert, “Our tradition is at stake. The youth is under the influence of Daaru, Disco and Drugs. Our goddesses are insulted. Cows are being slaughtered. We are the victims of terrorism. We are here to prepare our youth to combat these situations.”

The Dal uses a very specific strategy that combines religious pride and nationalism to mobilise support in a new area. Relying on the power of religious belief in India, Bajrangis hold weekly meetings, called Saptahik Milaks, in which bhajans and patriotic songs are sung which attract large crowds of people, especially the youth. After establishing trust within the community these meetings often acquire a political dynamic. Literature proclaiming the virtues of Hindu Rashtra and portraying minorities as threats to the integrity of the nation is then distributed. Activist Shabnam Hashmi described the operational strategy of the Bajrang Dal: “These meetings are part of a slow process of organisation. After the bhajans and patriotic songs, a local religious figure, usually associated with the VHP, will speak about the need to protect Hindu women from Muslim usurpers or the increasing numbers of conversions by Christian missionaries. The aggressive content of the speeches and pamphlets are tempered with the spirituality of the religious songs, making the meetings acceptable to the larger community while igniting the passions of young, underprivileged youth.”

Martial training is an important aspect of the Bajrang Dal curriculum. As Sharma told Covert, “volunteers are trained, usually on a daily basis, to shoot using air guns and are given basic lessons in self-defence by retired servicemen and police officers. One major camp happens every year in each state bringing volunteers together from all over the state.” There also seems to be an economic incentive for full-time Bajrang Dal activists. Sharma says, “if someone devotes all their time to our cause we take care of all of their daily needs, providing them with accommodation, food, clothes, kharcha-paani – but only if those workers cannot make ends meet.”

The refusal of our security forces and police to control the more violent agitations of the Bajrangis stems from political protection. RB Sreekumar, chief of Gujarat Intelligence Bureau during the 2002 riots, pointed out “people do not engage in such violence unless they are sure nothing will happen to them. Police monitoring mechanisms will know immediately if tomorrow Naveen Patnaik goes somewhere and his security is not adequate. But somehow they can’t tell when a church goes up in flames in front of a police station and the police does nothing. The destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya was the trigger for most of the support you see amongst Muslims for SIMI today. If we watch and do nothing while the same thing is done to the Christians we will have the same problem on our hands.”

Box 1:
RISE OF THE BAJRANG DAL

- 1984: Began during the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation as a method of moblisiing the Hindu youth of Uttar Pradesh for the VHP-orchestrated Ram-Janaki Rath Yatra.
- 1984: Was formally recognised as the youth wing of the VHP.
- 1986: Began to spread into other states of North India.
- 1992: Complicit in violence surrounding the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
- 1994: Successfully established units all over North India.
- 1996: Efforts began to establish their presence in South India. First meeting in Karnataka.
- 1999: Implicated in the brutal burning of Graham Staines and his sons.
- 2002: Implicated in the killing of Muslims during the Gujarat pogrom.
- 2007: Implicated in attacks on churches in Orissa
- 2008: Accused of widespread attacks on Christian groups in Orissa and Karnataka.

Box 2:
Prakash Sharma

- Began as an RSS pracharak in 1984 in Kanpur.
- Was made Kanpur convenor of the Bajrang Dal after its formation.
- In 1992 was put in charge of coordinating Bajrang Dal activities across the North Indian states.
- Made national co-convenor in 1996.
- Made convenor on 12 June 2002.

Jharkhand

JHARKHAND
By Prayaag Akbar

“Corruption is too small a word to describe what goes on in Jharkhand. What we have here is a complete failure of the system. The sad part is, it is the Legislative Assembly that is the fountainhead of this corruption. That is where everything starts from.” These are the words of Sarju Rai, one of the senior politicians in the State. Rai himself was a MLA until President’s Rule was announced in January this year, and he is just one of many lamenting the state of affairs. It seems almost any person you meet in the State can cite numerous instances of corruption of senior bureaucrats, small and big-time politicians, police officers and judges. When specific instances of malfeasance come out into the open, files are opened and then never looked at again, investigations are conducted that don’t lead to arrests, cases bounce from court to court faster than a tennis ball but still drag on without conclusion, bureaucrats are transferred from one position to another less visible, less lucrative posting. After all, when everyone is on the take, who is going to do the policing?

MINISTERIAL CORRUPTION

Since Jharkhand became its own state in 2000, following the Bihar Reorganisation Act of the same year, the resources and people of the State have repeatedly been victimised by a number of the area’s most senior politicians, many of whom have piled up vast reserves of cash, property and other forms of assets. After the elections in 2005, which resulted in another divided house, the corruption became so blatant that, in November 2008, a concerned citizen filed a Public Interest Litigation against six Cabinet ministers in the State, citing that their accumulation of assets was vastly disproportionate to their income. The PIL has named Hari Narayan Rai, formerly Minister of the Department of Rural Engineering, Anosh Ekka, Minister of the Department of Transport and the Department of Rural Development, Kamlesh Singh, who oversaw the Departments of Irrigation, Excise, Food and Supply, Dulal Bhuiyan, Minister of the Department of Land and Revenue, Bhanu Pratap Shahi, Minister of the Department of Health, Bandhu Tirkey, Minister of Human Resources Development and Chandra Prakash Choudhary, MLA.

Earlier this year, on February 12, the Vigilance Bureau in Ranchi conducted raids at the residences of two of those accused of accumulating the most wealth, Anosh Ekka and Hari Narayan Rai. The raids were carried out both in their official residences in Doranda and in the former minister’s ancestral homes and documents on fixed and movable assets worth over Rs 10 crore were collected. These raids were conducted as a direct result of the PIL, but it is interesting to note that the directives from the Special Vigilance Court came only after the State went under President’s Rule, in January 2009.

Niyaz Ahmed, the Director General of Police [Vigilance Bureau] explained to Covert that they have been working on the case since then: “Since the raids took place we have made a lot of progress in building up the case against Ekka and Hari Narayan Rai. But now we have submitted the report to the High Court. They will tell us or the CBI how to take the matter further when they decide what to do. Until they do that we cannot do anything more.” When asked whether the Vigilance Bureau was looking into conducting investigations on the other five politicians named in the PIL Ahmed was quite clear that it was a question of protocol. “No, we will not be looking into those matters. We can only investigate when the Special Vigilance Court asks us to look into something.”

The case against Hari Narayan Rai is as follows. When this tribal leader was elected to the Jharkhand Assembly in 2005 he declared his assets as follows: Rs 40,000 in cash, Rs 1.25 lakhs in National Saving Certificates, Rs 50,000 worth of jewellery, 5.5 acres of ploughable land and a Khapparpose house. Prior to his nomination he had never submitted an Income Tax return, so his official income fell under the minimum taxable level. In the 39 months he was an MLA, Rai was only entitled to Rs 15.39 lakhs in salary. Yet by late 2008, his moveable and immoveable assets had increased to an incredible Rs 30.18 crores, including vast tracts of land in and around Ranchi, a fleet of cars, a dairy farm and large houses in the posh districts of the capital, some in his own name, some in his wife’s name, and some in the names of close relatives.

Similar allegations have surfaced about the other ministers named in the PIL. Bhanu Pratap Shahi is accused of having purchased a DLF property in Gurgaon worth crores, where he is constructing a shopping mall. The PIL also alleges that the former Sports Minister Bandhu Tirkey bought a flat in Vasant Vihar for Rs 8 crores, for which the payment came from the Andhra-based infrastructure and construction corporate Nagarjuna Constructions. Over one hundred pages detailing various instances of corruption have been painstakingly compiled by the complainant.

Kamlesh Singh, the Excise Minister under both Madhu Koda and Shibhu Soren, reportedly has links with an entity known in Jharkhand as “The Syndicate”. The Syndicate is a collection of businessmen who controlled the supply of domestic and country liquor in the State while Kamlesh was minister, selling about Rs 16 crore worth of alcohol every month from government shops. During his tenure, every district in Jharkhand was supposed to have tenders to decide who would be allowed to sell alcohol in the different areas. The Syndicate, using their influence with the State Government, managed to acquire the licenses for the entire State without a tender of any kind. However, they were unavailable to get the licenses for three very lucrative districts: Dhanbad, Ranchi and Jamshedpur. When they were unable to get those licenses The Syndicate stopped supplying alcohol to the State altogether, as a method of applying more pressure on the Government. During this period, the estimated revenue lost by the State was Rs 50 lakhs a day.

Anosh Ekka, an independent political heavyweight in the State, has been accused of illegally acquiring tribal land [which he has put in his wife’s name], in direct contravention of Section 46 of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908. The Act prevents people of tribal origin from purchasing the land of a tribal of another locality, yet Ekka has acquired a number of pieces of protected land around Ranchi, though he is a permanent resident of Simdega. Ekka got around the provision by claiming a different place of residence for his wife in each instance, a blatant instance of committing fraud for personal gain.

This is also where the nexus between politicians and officials in Jharkhand is seen clearly. As the PIL points out, none of this could have been possible without the help of a number of officials, who allow ministers to get away with barely-concealed violations in exchange for cash or favours. The PIL directly calls to account the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi, the Circle Officers of Ormanjhi and Namkum and the Circle Officer of Ranchi, all of whom would have been privy to the scam Ekka was carrying out so successfully. As Suman Srivastava, a local journalist, points out, “if politicians and bureaucrats work hand in hand, there is no one powerful enough to stop them. They can steal whatever they like.”

GHATKURI MINES

Jharkhand has been blessed with a sizeable proportion of India’s mineral wealth, which means that big corporates involved in steel, iron ore, coal or similar must have a presence in this State. This is the crux of the matter – ministers and officials in charge of the various portfolios run their ministries like personal fiefdoms, extracting tribute from anyone who wants or needs to do business with them. Stories abound in Jharkhand about crores and crores paid in bribes to politicians and officials. One representative of a major steel company told Covert, “It would be impossible to do business in Jharkhand if you didn’t pay out bribes. The bureaucrats and politicians are expecting them – and they will stop you every step of the way if you don’t play by their rules.”

The furore surrounding the Ghatkuri iron ore mines are one instance where allegations and counter-allegations have been so virulent that the matter has reached all the way to the Supreme Court. Covert was told by a senior official in Ranchi, who did not want to be named: “What happened in that case was very interesting. There were a number of companies that wanted access to these Ghatkuri iron ore mines, which were reputed to have huge stores of the mineral. However, these mines were supposed to be given only to public sector companies. Under the UPA Shibu Soren Government, an affidavit was filed that Mining Leases could be given to private companies, though under the Mining and Minerals Regulation Development Act of India, Mining Leases should only be given to companies that have already done the prospecting work there. However, six companies – Abhijeet Infrastructure, Monet Ispat, Ispat Industries, Jharkhand Ispat, Prakash Ispat and Adhunik Alloys – were given Mining Leases there without doing the prospecting work. There was a serious amount of money that exchanged hands to get them those leases.”

A number of PSUs like SAIL, NMDC, JSMDC [which are the only companies that should be allowed to prospect there], as well as private companies like Arcelor Mittal, Tata Steel and Usha Martin had applied for leases and not been given the opportunity for a hearing. They began to petition the Government to explain how the Ghatkuri block could be partitioned and allocated without all the scientific preparatory work being done. When the six companies that were originally awarded the Mining Leases were told to stop any extracting of iron ore in the area they took the matter all the way to the Supreme Court, where hearings are currently taking place.

Covert has in its possession a letter from 3rd February, 2009 by Raghav Nandan Prasad, the Deputy Director (Mines) addressed to the Additional Director (Mines), which clarifies that certain companies were favoured unreasonably in the deal. The following are excerpts that have been directly quoted from the letter:

“The views presented by State of Jharkhand in aforesaid meeting dated 03.10.2008 has got following serious suppression of facts…
iii) Reserving an area for public sector under section 17(A) of MMDR Act, 1957 is a policy decision of State which can never be overruled by invoking relaxation clause 59(2) of mineral concession rules, 1969.
v) Not providing opportunity of hearing [to the PSUs and private players] under rule 12.26 to other players can not be explained by 59(2) because 59(2) at the most may relax gazette requirement but can never relax hearing process.

5. Due to aforesaid suppression of fact as mentioned above, the technical facts & materials required for a decision making process at apex level were not provided at all. The situation is the same at Directorate of Mines level where dissenting views expressed in file no.103/08 prior to Delhi meeting by Deputy Director, HQ (R.N Prasad) and Additional Director, HQ (S.I. Minz) endorsed by the same subsequent to meeting appears to have been overlooked completely and does not appear to have been put up before Government.

7. State of Jharkhand has already moved forward to allocate Iron ore resources to SLP Applicants and their Group companies in areas other than Ghatkuri…and as such Ghatkuri is not the only area to be considered in their favour.

8. District Mining Officer, Chaibasa is one of the respondents in pending analogous SLP’s before Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, but the comments of subordinate respondent – District Mining Officer, Chaibasa were never obtained on the affidavit dated 6.12.2008 of State Government completely changing the earlier stand of State Government as was filed before Jharkhand High Court under oath.

9. Now the only recourse left to the Government is filing a review petition/supplementary affidavit before Hon’ble Supreme Court of India stating above facts with a prayer to completely recall the earlier affidavit dated 6.12.2008 stating mistake of facts and suppression of technical facts.”

MOBILE DAROGAS

On occasion, it has been those who are entrusted with the enforcement of the law who are directly involved in the most blatant violations. Instances of massive corruption are not limited to the politicians of Jharkhand. Because Jharkhand is home to so much heavy industry, a huge number of trucks carrying coal, steel, iron ore and other minerals pass through the State everyday. Their movements are tracked by a team of transport officials called Enforcement Officers, or in the local parlance, mobile darogas.

The mobile darogas of Jharkhand had acquired a notorious reputation with transporters working through the State, until the onset of President’s Rule in January, when Governor Syed Sibtey Razi discovered a shortfall of some Rs 355 crore from the target of Rs 500 crore that had to be achieved by the end of the fiscal year. Eleven officials – all of whom had amassed huge amounts of wealth in the past few years, opening auto dealerships in Ranchi and Dhanbad amongst other things – were called back to their home department and removed from their postings. All eleven officers have been implicated in this siphoning of funds, which took place over a number of years. Those who have been named include Pradeep Kumar Singh, Shailendra Singh, Ramswarath Yadav and Ramashish Rawat.

Every truck that ran through Jharkhand would be forced to pay a tribute of Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000 to the officers, who had worked out a unique system of payment. Transporters and iron ore dealers claim they would deposit the money at road-side dhabas, where these officers would have agents waiting. If the money was not deposited, gangs of hired local toughs would pay dealers visits to get their money. Though the period for a mobile daroga to remain in office is only supposed to be three years, The Telegraph reported in late January that Rs 10 lakh monthly payments would be made to ministers to ensure officers were kept in this extremely lucrative position.

JHARKHAND ASSEMBLY CASE

Jharkhand-based BJP leader Sarju Rai has on three separate occasions attempted to initiate an investigation into a case where he claims the NDA alliance that controlled the Assembly was indulging in widespread corruption. In this instance, according to Rai, the recruitment of assistants and clerks to work in the Assembly House was severely compromised by the Speaker of the House Alamgir Alam. Rai told Covert, “Alam was the Assembly Speaker – and without any concern for the dignity of the office or the House he was complicit in charging Rs 7-8 lakh from each one of the clerks who were given jobs. There were 150 appointments made and almost each one of them was paid for. I have a CD with recorded statements from people who paid bribes and still didn’t get through, which I took the House.”

After Rai brought these allegations up in front of the House, the Speaker [Alam himself] announced an Assembly Committee would be constituted to look into the matter. The committee was formed and Sarju Rai submitted the evidence he had collected in this case. The committee reported that prima facie, there could have been some wrongdoing and the matter could be looked into further. However, as with many such cases in Jharkhand, this is where the matter has stalled. According to Rai, the case has been with the Vigilance Commission for almost two months now, but nothing has been done in the matter.


The corruption in Jharkhand is endemic. President’s Rule came as a huge relief to people in the State, as a series of unscrupulous ministers, bureaucrats and law-enforcement agents fleeced the public and the state exchequer for as long as they could. Coalition Governments come and go with alarming regularity, and politicians here try and stuff as much into their pockets as they can, as quickly as possible, because they know their grip on power in this politically volatile State is tenuous. Some locals say democracy has failed here. But it is the converse that is true, for it is the politicians, bureaucrats and their ilk who in Jharkhand have failed democracy.

Slums : Their Vote is their Right!

Slums : Their Vote is their Right!
by Prayaag Akbar

In the far corner of Sunder Nagari, in front of a derelict communal toilet, a cricket match is on. Four boys, all between eight and twelve years old, wait with their hands on their knees, as another comes off a short run up and bowls a red rubber ball with some pace. The batsman swings the plank in his hand with a flourish and hits the ball straight past the bowler, watching it travel twenty feet before it lands in the man-made gutter that runs along this makeshift maidan, a gutter filled with water so fetid it looks like unrefined oil. As the batsman runs up and down the pitch one of the boys plunges his arm halfway into the gutter and, after a while, pulls out the ball. He bounces it off the ground a couple of times and tosses it to the bowler, wiping his arm on his shirtfront. The bowler rubs his fingers on his tongue then shines the rubber ball, mimicking cricketers on television. Living in Sunder Nagari, it is perhaps pointless to be finicky about hygiene.

Technically, Sunder Nagari is not a slum. It is what is known in government parlance as a resettlement colony, one of many across New Delhi that families that lived in slums were moved to in the 1970s, as the beautification of the middle-class city began. Situated in the far north-east of the city, next to the Shahdara area, no one is quite clear how many live here now, though some believe the figure fluctuates around one lakh people. All over the country you will see similar scenes – this is where the masses of urban India live, in resettlement colonies, unauthorised colonies and slums. By some estimates, over 70% of the population of Delhi live in areas like this or are homeless: 10 million people.

“10 million people means at least 4 million voters,” says Dunu Roy of the Hazards Centre. And come election time, the smart politician knows that it is not the well-fed middle class businessman who goes out to vote, it is the poorest in society, those who rely on the electoral process as their only method of influencing the conditions in which they live and work. Politicians use a number of well-established tactics to court these areas when it is time to stand for election. One favourite method is plying these already depressed spaces with cheap alcohol. Lakhan, a cycle-rickshaw driver, explains: “A few weeks before the election, trucks sent by rival politicians will start coming into the area every night. Their workers will start distributing pouches and bottles of alcohol like its prasaad. Every politician who stands for election here does it.”

Roy believes tactics like this speak more of the mindset of politicians than the residents of slums. “Politicians believe they can manipulate these people, but I have never seen slum-dwellers vote based on things like that. They might take the alcohol – though more and more I see that many women don’t let their husbands go near those trucks – but their votes go to the leaders who promise them real help. The problem is that since V.P. Singh there has not been a leader who has caught the imagination of the poor.”

There are a number of myths that prevail in middle-class minds about slum dwellers. While researching this story this correspondent is told by well-meaning citizens that slum-dwellers are given cash for votes, are not charged for the electricity they use because of the votes they hold (in fact a report prepared by the Delhi Vidyut Board showed there was less pilferage in slums than in middle-class households), are pressured into voting in blocs by slumlords or are easily manipulated by devious politicians. The reality is very different. Residents of slums are usually aware of the political power of the vote, and almost everyone Covert spoke with insisted that no politicians tried to buy their votes. Rajmati, a strident, middle-aged garments worker, explains “They give out money only when it comes to attending their rallies. They pay Rs 100 to adults and Rs 50 to children to come and cheer for them, but when it comes to voting-time they don’t try anything. Our vote is our right. We don’t know or care about leaders at the state or national level. We need someone who can take care of us at our level, who is concerned for our needs.”

The demands of the residents of Sunder Nagari are not elaborate. Clean water, basic standards of sanitation and health facilities. Leela Devi, a 60-year old embroidery worker, explains: “We just want what was promised to us by the Government. There is one bathroom for all the women in our block, but it is in terrible shape. Human waste reaches up to our knees there. It is totally unusable, so we all have to use a pit nearby, but then men come and trouble the young women. Last Sunday, they found a dead body in there. We have taken the matter to our councillor Santosh Kumar, the MLA Vir Singh Dighaan and even our MP, Sandeep Dikshit. They all say there is nothing they can do, but there has to be something, because we can’t keep living like this.”

Daniel Swamy, a resident of the newly-world famous slum of Dharavi in Mumbai, believes that the social structure of the slum prevents politicians from obtaining votes through the threat of violence. Swamy explains, “Mumbai is not Bihar. In our slums you cannot get votes at gunpoint. And it’s not even guaranteed that the candidate who spends the most money will be the winner. Slum dwellers have become increasingly aware of the importance of their vote and can bargain accordingly.”

Dunu Roy explains that the relationship between politician and the residents of the government-created resettlement colonies has become something of a patron-client relationship, based on the ability of the politician to provide a service like electricity or clean water. Slums are different because they grow organically, without outside (government) interference, and are usually based around ties of ethnic or geographical kinship. He elaborates, “Here the pradhan (slumlord) can control votes to some extent because of community-based voting. But even then, I believe the level of control is overstated by our media. I see the affluent middle-class as a much bigger vote bank. Amongst the poor, the vote is a genuine instrument of political assertion. And its not like they are naive – they vote, but they vote with cynicism, knowing that the promises made are empty, that the person they are voting for will not or cannot help.”

Bhupendra Singh, who lives in Hanuman Nagar, a slum near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport in Mumbai, tells Covert that the number of North Indians living in this area tend to vote on the basis of community affiliations. “Voters in slums generally get promised a lot every election, and often they are also paid in cash by candidates, but unfortunately they get little in return. Politicians come here to capture the votes from slums but then fail to show their face for five years.” Singh insists that most slum-dwellers vote for the Congress, while right-wing parties like the BJP and Shiv Sena get most of their votes from housing societies.

But community-based political affiliations can often be a recipe for violence. Kamal Siddiqui, a 65 year old from the largely-Muslim slum of Malvani in Mumbai, says, “Even if it’s a worse candidate, those who have been voting for the Congress will continue to do so. We see which candidate belongs to which group and the voting takes place accordingly.” Political parties seem very attentive to which buttons they need to press to excite passions. Siddiqui continues, “All the political parties are the same. They know that in a place like this the caste-factor won’t work, so they resort to dividing people along religious lines. In the slums they sometimes try to make the Hindu-Muslim wedge an issue between people who live together throughout the year.”

Politics in the slum seems to be heading down a difficult path. The broad mass of the urban population of India lives in slums and unauthorised colonies, yet their desires and requests are constantly marginalised. The demands of the middle-class are repeatedly privileged as the demands of the Indian population as a whole. One example is the arrival of the Commonwealth Games in the city, often trumpeted by both Government and the affluent as an indicator of New Delhi’s newfound prosperity and progress. The work surrounding the Games has destroyed the livelihoods of a great number of people. Rajmati explains, “5 weeks ago they stopped all the street markets for these Games. This was our family business – we have been doing this in Delhi for 50 years. Now we are denied even this. This election we will fight against this, but what are the alternatives? When the lotus [BJP] was in power onion prices went up.”

Most slum-dwellers want: legal title to shelter; legal provision for livelihoods; and basic services, which they are happy to pay for as long as it is provided regularly and legally. What they get are politicians who provide them with cheap alcohol when the election nears and little else. A number of people in Sunder Nagari made regular trips to the councillor Santosh Kumar and the MLA Vir Dighaan’s office for help on a number of issues. Sometimes their demands are satisfied, but on most occasions they are told they cannot be helped. Dunu Roy has hope for the future, however. “Right now the media does not understanding this kind of political action – they go to slum-dwellers’ morchas but don’t take photographs because there are no political leaders. They can’t see that there is an incipient emergence of the politics of the slum. You might not see politicians come from this background, but you will see these people assert themselves politically. In spite of the schisms and betrayals, these people are beginning to find a voice.”