Seema and Azadi

Today I have gone around with my heart in the pit of my stomach - a fervent and conscious prayer on my agnostic lips - pushing aside the limits of my faithless belief, leaving nothing to chance - not even the irrational hope that could flip at a mantra, and save her - the one I have never met.

This is what Lena Ganesh wrote on Seema Azad.
" Seema Azad, editor of the left-wing journal DASTAK published from Allahabad, was taken into custody by the police on 6th February 2010, soon after she alighted from the train on her return from the Book Fair at Delhi. She, along with her husband and left-wing activist Vishwa Vijaya Azad, has been detained at the Khuldabad Police Station. Seema Azad just published a collection of articles criticizing the Indian government for its "Operation Greenhunt" - the ongoing massive armed operations by the government in central and eastern India. The booklet contains articles by noted authors and media-persons such as Arundhati Roy, Himanshu Kumar, Anil Chamaria, Punya Prasoon Vajpeyi, Sunita Narayan, and others. Seema is the state secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) for Uttar Pradesh"


This morning's email from Kavita Srivastava(General Secretary) PUCL Rajasthan contained the following:

Seema Azad handed over to UP police for two days by the Allahabad Magistrate - a judgement against the law

Dear Friends,

I just got a call from PUCL Vice President, Ravi Kiran Jain, who has also been Seema's lawyer in the High Court and lower court, told me that the magisterial court where Seema's matter was being heard, granted the UP police two days remand of Seema Azad exparte, without even giving Seema the right of being represented by a lawyer.

On the 7th of July, 2010 the Allahabad High Court had rejected a recall application that had been filed by Ravi Kiran ji against a sec 482 ( CrPC ) application that had been filed by the police after a magisterial court had ruled against granting remand to the police in May, 2010.

After the judgement on the 7th of July, Ravi Kiran jj was still planning the next move, including moving to the Supreme Court when the police moved an application today the 19th of July, 2010 in the magistrate's chamber, demanding the police remand of Seema. Neither was Seema called nor was she given the right of a lawyer. The scandalous part of this decision of the magistrate is that, after 90 days in Judicial Custody" police remand" is not allowed. The law says that if the police wants remand after 90 days then it must apply within 90 days. But then 90 days were up. This application of the police was not maintainable. still an illegal judgement was passed.

Ravi Kiranji will move an application tomorrow that a lawyer's presence be allowed during her two day remand. But the police will take her away at 8am tomorrow and no court judgement will come before the evening.

Seema told Ravi Kiranji when he met her in jail some time ago that the police had humiliated her when she was arrested in February. We fear the same this time.

Friends, the whole system including the judiciary, is helping the illegal ways of the Government, crushing the constitutional and legal rights of the people. If this attack on a persons life, personal liberty and democratic rights is not resisted today it may be yours and my turn tomorrow.

Incase you want to know more the please contact: 09335108309. Please ensure publication of this news.

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This morning Seema Azad was whisked away under police custody to an undisclosed location...

Who do we turn to when judiciary makes a mockery of our laws? when police are no longer our protectors but have legal sanction to repress? to quell voices raised in protest at rampant wrong doings by State? When State becomes the oppressor - a violator of our democratic and constitutional rights? Who do we turn to? and how much will we bear? What are our Seemas (boundaries, limits, horizons) and what should we do for our Azadi (freedom)?

I Confess

For a person particularly partial to Gandhian philosophy, ideals of austere simplicity and aspirations to frugality, I Confess, I am utterly, and dismally spoilt. I am spoilt by a taste of finer things in life, the decadence of self indulgence and appeasement of flesh and senses. I live in eternal guilt torn between lists of what I believe in and what I indulge in, seesawing between principles and greed, beliefs and habits. And then, occasionally I am directed, by outside forces, towards my right-action...and a just sometimes, I favor it.

For years now I have stood, absolutely guilty, in prolonged hot showers, chiding myself, scolding, gathering will power to step away, close the tap - save water, save energy, save the Earth - to deaf ears and an unheeding self. In a recent list of Enviromentaly friendly measures for city folks ( I am an avid reader of all that I do not do), I agreed that the most difference I could make was by taking cold showers! And so...the other day the geyser broke. Bangalore these days is a cool 25 degrees during day (at least inside IISc.) and tap water freezing - or so it seems. This was my chance to exercise mind-over-matter, a litmus test of my beliefs, a chance to live the Way.

For 5 days now, I have resolutely paused and pondered, willing to enter a shower of icy needles, soap and clean in a blink of an eye and re-emerge in two minutes flat - shivering, but smiling and victorious. Of course, I would have preferred the victory to be sweeter, warmer...

Meanwhile, the kids have immediately taken to using the other bath with a working geyser - NOT FAIR!

Science And Society

For some time now, I have been deeply interested in the question of
science and its social relevance. Arguably, there has been great human progress, with proliferation of science and the related growth ofindustrial enterprise. However, the whole question of scientific process, scientific temper and its relevance to our daily living
somehow has left our and the younger generations untouched. India
today still remains fragmented by deep social, religious, caste
divisions that defy our common and melodramatic origins from bellies of stars. The timescales of origins of life on earth, the insignificance of our brief, individual appearances in the vast epic
of cosmic drama has failed to touch our imaginations significantly enough - that we think differently, act and live differently. We have somehow failed in our 'Responsibility to Awe'.

I think, there are two key ways by which society might benefit with
scientific interface. One is the act of placing a human life on the
space-time chart of all other 'action' happening around us - from
quasar collisions to quantum interactions of fundamental particles,
from mating of mites to significance of spiders, from geological
births to radioactive decays...and the list is endless. We sit here,
on earth, in middle of some incredible theatre, on all kinds of
incredible scales - unaware, unawed, unaltered.

Another significant aspect of scientific influence on society is the
process of inquiry and discovery. Of promoting rational, logical,
independent thought - encouraging critical questioning, questioning
social and religious dogmas, development paradigms, individual
happiness and aspirations, and larger rational responsibilities.

I believe that, as society, we are sinking into an entropy pit - exponentially. And yet, it need not be so - there is a way to be poised, in equilibrium - circling, always in free fall, and yet - not falling. This requires the urges to societally sink be perfectly countered by rational scientific thought, action, movement - persistently, perpetually - and in eternal balance.

I Walk the Woods No More...

It took just one person with inappropriately large powers, and a very large budget to change the face of IISc. Prof. Balaram took charge as the Director of Indian Institute of Science Campus in 2005. During the same period, Central government allocated Rs 100 crore to make IISc a world-class university ranked along with Harvard, Cambridge and Stanford.....now the woods are gone, and also the fields, the dark groves of old trees. We mistakenly replaced world class achievements with world class buildings of concrete, steel, glass. Our leadership thought that original thinking and better performance could be achieved in larger, air-conditioned office spaces, more equipment, and shamefully high salaries - not to scale to the poverty that infests the land, hunger that wipes out our young, causes farmer suicides in hordes...We thought we would better compete with international performances, forgetting that excellence is an internal quality, fed by internal passion, nurtured by internal imagination - an obsessed curiosity , a pursuit to solve a puzzle, crack a problem - unmindful of the other, or the international, unmindful of pursuing excellence. Excellence is not an orchestrated, funded entity to be bought in shops, just as middle class happiness is not available in malls. Scientists whose discourses evolve around funding, and looking over their shoulders to catch up either with facilities abroad, or with salaries of their IT peers (with MNCs) are disabled to even comprehend, let alone access excellence.

Here at IISc, scientists are on verge of getting their 'firang' shaped spaces - it took five years to provide these facilities. Let us see, five years hence, whether they become a Stanford, or a Harvard, or whatever...

Meanwhile...I walk the woods no more...

Bright Light of the Day..

That was the name he asked me to call him...the driver of bus number 2341, route 284 to Old Yelahanka. He said that by telling his given name, he would reveal is religion, caste, and he did not want that to influence our interaction....

I ran and got onto this bus around 6:30pm to be advised by the driver, that I was on a wrong bus. Since I had actually got a seat, I refused to get off, maintaining that if he took me to the closest point I could easily walk the rest of the way. He was appalled that I might walk 3-5 km or lose 3 rupees getting another bus. However, I just grinned at him, bought a ticket and kept sitting there - on a side seat next to the driver.

What followed was a 45 min. ride with a non-stop 'sat-sang' in this brief companionship.

This is how I had got into conversation with him : I heard him converse with a passenger next to me " A lucky man has a little less money - since with more money he forgets himself and the God in him" - I knew then that I had hit a jackpot for the day! When I asked him, how and why he spoke like this, he said,

" I am never tired or unhappy - I research human beings - I come across 2000 human beings everyday and from this I learn much!";

Him:" I see God or ONE supreme energy in everyone - we might feel that we are the actors - but we are being directed by a mightier will"
Me: " You are lucky to have this belief or faith; I am not similarly blessed"
Him : " You are Still immature on Spiritual path"

"Let me give you only one advice - every morning when you wake up, think to yourself, I am re-born today";

and "I will Pray for you"

For all that I Witness that is dark and grim, there are some days that get illumined by fortunate encounters (accidental? he would not agree) that are clean slated, clear hearted, and memorable for life.

Drawing Parallels

There has been stiff opposition, persuasion, arguments and discord over my previous blog - on my previous non-condemnation of Maoists...

I thought, therefore, I'd elaborate a bit more...

My personal protest history began with the first Iraq War, by George Bush Sr. I continued to subsequently protest, publicly and privately, the US invasion of Iraq. As I see it (particularly highlighted after Randy Pausch's Last Lecture), "For every Agenda, there is a hidden Agenda". US actions in Iraq were certainly propelled by hidden agendas that went beyond their 'Moral War' dictum. There was wide scale protest against this immoral invasion, internationally and in the US. And, there were disproportionately larger material losses and losses of lives in Iraq, unforgivable collateral damages of a war - waged by an enemy from outside. Yet, when American lives lost, if the Iraqis were condemned (especially by Americans who were the invaders....just to show how they were against violence from both sides), since by attacking the US military personnel, the Iraqis were undermining the peace processes that the rest of the world was trying to design for them...

Well, the situation in CG, according to me, is similar. Indian State is waging a war on CG tribal population, as outsiders, for its own set of hidden-agendas. The State is guilty of all kinds of war crimes against a civilian population, in this case, its own civilian population that are disproportionally large compared to the lives lost by the security forces at the hands of the Maosits, who increasingly represent the interests of the tribals in that area. And, the Indian army, or rather the poor suckers that we hire out as SPOs, try to save their own hide by latching on to civilian populations by using buses, ambulances on completing their own 'operations' against the locals - hoping thereby to be spared by the Maoists!! But when they are attacked by Maoists, and they die with the civilians that they deliberately jeopardised, we all cry "FOUL!!

I just cant seem to do that.


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Why I dont Condemn Violence by Maoists

Today, on email discussions, condemning the recent Maoist attack in Dantewada, I stated that my position on the issue is firmly one of silence. I was also silent last month when 76 CRPF lost their lives - no outrage, no condemnation, no protests on violations of Human Rights - the Right to Life - LOST.

I belong to People's Union for Civil Liberties, because I am opposed to all acts of violence created, and inflicted by and between humans, and because I believe Civil Liberties of All People, a cause worth defending. And Yet...

I cannot bring myself to simple condemnation of lives lost recently in Maoist attacks. Many reasons why I should do so have surfaced - some examples being
" If you want (PUCL) to be taken seriously you must condemn violence by both parties",
"you don't want to be branded as Maoist sympathiser",
"All human lives are precious and one must oppose all violence" etc.

To varying degrees, I do agree with the above positions. And Yet...

I have no tears, no anger, no outcries..
I sit in anaesthetised sorrow, a pain that only translates to longer hours of harder work, more protests, more letters, more leaving-no-room-for-sorrow, and working toward right-actions - at least right by me.

And my position on most conflict situations in the country today is as follows:
I hold the Indian State firmly responsible for creating these situation of conflict, in Chattisgarh, Orissa, and elsewhere. I feel that the state inflicted violence is vastly in excess, continuous and largely 'collateral' in nature. I see this State as representative of me, of who and how I am. I am ashamed and impotent as actions of this State seek to benefit my class, but do not represent - at all - my personal positions, politics, or understanding.

I see me, us, all of us - cumulatively as creators of these vast wrong doings on fellow citizens, mostly not-in-garb of alternate politics - largely women, children, old - those left behind when men, the able, run away into - fields, forests, far from the State or State Sponsored attacks...and I see myself responsible for this, in not stopping those that represent me. And for this that I or mine do... I do not continuously condemn - I do not have a roster of death tolls under my name,or my country's name - for which I send out a 'condemnation' at say every 50, or every 100 lives lost. I do not keep tabs of the heavy toll taken by my country, this largest democracy, on its civilians, citizens, those that oppose the high, imposed penalty of India's development - I cry, but I do not condemn continuously. Is dying more horrific when it happens in 35, or 76, or some such large number , because it happens in single dramatic events, but other quieter wiping outs, over longer periods, genocides of people, cultures, lands, rights, less horrific? What about the 644 villages attacked by Salwa Judum (according to NHRC) and all the lives rendered meaningless because of it? of hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, of approximately three lakh lives?

I also believe that for all wrong doings, wrong speaking, wrong thinking, by non-state actors, we do have a mighty state to discipline us - harshly, strongly, insistently and often brutally. After these latest attack, there are many calls for larger, militarised interventions - to stomp out the maoist threat, to work even harder in Chattisgarh to preserve the interests of national security. I will watch this not silent, not mute, but also not effective in changing the future course of events that threaten to unfold.

How do I reach out to this country of mine? To those important governors of our national fate? How do I say to a nation - look at yourself and ask what you can do to make things right, for the least empowered of us, instead of appeasing only the corporates that are vultures at our doorstep for greed? How and who do I say all this to?

I feel that the country, its middle and privileged class and our leadership have strayed far from upholding the constitutional rights of all its citizens, and are very distanced from the ideal that seeks the welfare of the most. The effort to 'develop', 'globalise' are now formulas used to indulge in rampant, accumulative greed of a particular class that I belong to, which in turn feeds the hungry, globalised, powerful corporates that seek cheap people, cheap politicians, cheap forests, water, air, minerals...that seek a stupid, cheap India. Unless I and mine take responsibility for who we are and what we have become, how can I condemn someone else, who do not even acknowledge a belonging to 'us' ?