Significance of Assam – West Bengal Assembly election, 2011.
Posted by Labels: Assam, Bengal, ElectionArup Baisya (written for ARUNOOY)
Hundreds of people came out in the streets of Silchar in Assam today ( 1st May, 2011) in support of the campaign against corruption launched nation-wide by India Against Corruption and marched about 4 kilo meters along the heart of the city from below the statue of Shaheed Khudiram at Dakbangla to below the statue of Netajee Subhash Chandra Bose at Rangirkhari point. The march started at about 5pm after a street play by CHORUS, a local drama organization. People were holding placards written in both English and Bengali and shouting slogans. Some of the placards read ‘we condemn smear campign against the Bhushans’, ‘down with vilification campaign against the civil society’, ‘repeal sedition laws and enact the Jan Lokpal’ repeal repressive laws/AFSPA and enact the Janlokpal’, ‘destroy the corruption cartel of big corporations-politicians and bureaucrats’, ‘stop corruption in broad gauge project’ etc.
l The march was organized by Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC) along with other 20 odd local organizations including 1. Asom Majuri Shramik Union, Silchar, Cachar; 2. Krishan Bikash Samiti, Banskandi, Cachar; 3. Centre for Integrated Rural Development (CIRD), Srikona, Cachar; 4. Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Silchar, Cachar; 5. Cachar Jamiot Ulema Hind; 6. Ever green Society, Silchar, 7. Nari Mukti Sangsta, Silchar; 8. Srikona Club, Silchar; 9. Chours, Drama Organisations, Silchar; 10. SC, ST Student Development Forum, Assam University, Silchar; 11. Tarapur G.P. Bachao Committee, Tarapur, Silchar; 12. Student Democratic Forum, Assam University, Silchar; 13. Manipuri Diaspora, Silchar; 14. Mukta Sena (Club), Silchar;15. Swabhiman, Silchar; 16. Minority Student Forum, Assam University, Silchar; 17. COPE (NGO) Silchar; 18. Gono Bikash Sangtha, Assam, Silchar.
The event started at 4pm with a very compact and beautiful street play presented by CHORUS. The play showed how inequality of power and unaccountably of those who wield the rein breed corruption and injustices that do not spare any one and eventually eats up those who initially got benefit from the situation. It was a story of two beggars. One is blind and another is limp. But the limp one was more powerful and got corrupt.
“People of Barak valley came out in streets in hundreds to demands an effective Jan Lokpal at the centre”, said Neharul Ahmed Mazumder, secretary general of BHRPC. He added that corrupt forces of the country were shaken to see the recent outpouring of public outrage against the corruption and they launched smear campaign against the Bhushans and other civil society members in the joint committee formed by the government to draft a Lokpal Bill. “We wanted to send a message that the civil society members do not eed to be distracted by the diversionary tactics as people from the remotest of the corners of the country are with them.”
The joint statement of the organizers said, “In Assam there is already a Lukayukta (State Ombudsman) in existence since 1989 constituted under the Assam Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayuktas Act, 1985. However, its existence is only in papers. Legally it is ineffective and practically dysfunctional. Corruption in Assam is, by no means, lesser in amount of money involved or its effect in defeating the rule of law and justice than what is happening in the rest of the country. Assam needs to amend its Lokayukta Act in line with the Jan Lokpal Bill, as it will be shaped in its final version, to make it effective.
“Moreover, corruption needs to be fought in other fronts also. A strong and effective Lokpal can only provide deterrence and disincentives for corruption by investigating and prosecuting the corrupt officials and politicians. Thus, it can only check the supply side of corruption. There is a huge demand of corruption from giant corporations that came into existence due to the privatization of essential services and natural resources under the name of liberalization. It is not possible to curb corruption without changing the government policies.”
The march ended at about 7pm at Rangirkhari point.
(c)Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC)
l The march was organized by Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC) along with other 20 odd local organizations including 1. Asom Majuri Shramik Union, Silchar, Cachar; 2. Krishan Bikash Samiti, Banskandi, Cachar; 3. Centre for Integrated Rural Development (CIRD), Srikona, Cachar; 4. Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Silchar, Cachar; 5. Cachar Jamiot Ulema Hind; 6. Ever green Society, Silchar, 7. Nari Mukti Sangsta, Silchar; 8. Srikona Club, Silchar; 9. Chours, Drama Organisations, Silchar; 10. SC, ST Student Development Forum, Assam University, Silchar; 11. Tarapur G.P. Bachao Committee, Tarapur, Silchar; 12. Student Democratic Forum, Assam University, Silchar; 13. Manipuri Diaspora, Silchar; 14. Mukta Sena (Club), Silchar;15. Swabhiman, Silchar; 16. Minority Student Forum, Assam University, Silchar; 17. COPE (NGO) Silchar; 18. Gono Bikash Sangtha, Assam, Silchar.
The event started at 4pm with a very compact and beautiful street play presented by CHORUS. The play showed how inequality of power and unaccountably of those who wield the rein breed corruption and injustices that do not spare any one and eventually eats up those who initially got benefit from the situation. It was a story of two beggars. One is blind and another is limp. But the limp one was more powerful and got corrupt.
“People of Barak valley came out in streets in hundreds to demands an effective Jan Lokpal at the centre”, said Neharul Ahmed Mazumder, secretary general of BHRPC. He added that corrupt forces of the country were shaken to see the recent outpouring of public outrage against the corruption and they launched smear campaign against the Bhushans and other civil society members in the joint committee formed by the government to draft a Lokpal Bill. “We wanted to send a message that the civil society members do not eed to be distracted by the diversionary tactics as people from the remotest of the corners of the country are with them.”
The joint statement of the organizers said, “In Assam there is already a Lukayukta (State Ombudsman) in existence since 1989 constituted under the Assam Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayuktas Act, 1985. However, its existence is only in papers. Legally it is ineffective and practically dysfunctional. Corruption in Assam is, by no means, lesser in amount of money involved or its effect in defeating the rule of law and justice than what is happening in the rest of the country. Assam needs to amend its Lokayukta Act in line with the Jan Lokpal Bill, as it will be shaped in its final version, to make it effective.
“Moreover, corruption needs to be fought in other fronts also. A strong and effective Lokpal can only provide deterrence and disincentives for corruption by investigating and prosecuting the corrupt officials and politicians. Thus, it can only check the supply side of corruption. There is a huge demand of corruption from giant corporations that came into existence due to the privatization of essential services and natural resources under the name of liberalization. It is not possible to curb corruption without changing the government policies.”
The march ended at about 7pm at Rangirkhari point.
(c)Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC)
HAZARE’S MOVEMENT AND THE WORKING CLASS - Arup Baisya
Posted by Labels: Hazare's movement, working class
All the socio-political events can be viewed from the perspective of the ruled and the ruler. Beyond these two diametrically opposite perspectives, there may be a lot many observational interpretations which are the mix of these two in different proportion. The outburst of the professional intellectuals and the middle class people’s pent up anger in the event of Anna Hazare’s hunger fast and the subsequent turn of the situation towards building up a sustained movement is also not an exceptional event that cannot be viewed from divergent angle. The type of ‘civil society’ which develops within the womb of capitalism and acts beyond the institution of state as a buffer for the workers to take relief, cannot be expected in a country like India with a semi-colonial status. The subtle and complex dimension of colonial hegemony amounts to reorganization of civil society of the colonized through a diffusion of cultural-ideological construction and moral regulation. The ‘civil society’ here has an intimate relationship and private aspects of life as patriarchy, skewed views on motherhood, sex and sexuality and inherits colonial property laws and regulations etc. The people or the class of people who appears to constitute the civil society are in anyway the integral part of the state, though they are losing faith on the efficacy of the existing state due to its messy, disorderly and rapidly discrediting nature. So the terminology of ‘civil society’ is misconstrued here. It can not also be explained in the Gramscian or Hegelian sense of the term. Rather we can say that a conglomeration of people who came out to the street in large number belong to the middle class, professional intellectuals, students-youth and section of the elites. Even a section of the corporate leaders honchos who are scared of the falling legitimacy of the existing institutions of the state that may lead to a collapse, are also not averse to an anti-graft act for the limited reform of the system, citing Narendra Modi’s Gujrat and Nitish Kumar’s Bihar as the role-model. The “fourth estate” which has its origin in a revolutionary context jumped into the fray to spread venom against the crass political class not withstanding their desire to increase TRP-rating and not to jeopardize their booming paid-news income. All these were done from a sense of dejection and self-delusion about the efficacy of the neo-liberal market and state system and their shattered dream of residing in a neo-liberal haven. The inequality and the expropriation of the vast masses of people are not treated as the root cause to sustain a system that holds corruption in its womb. The symbols of all kinds of obscurantism, feudal values were emanating from the rostrum where Anna Hazare and his core group members were on hunger fast. So in the wake of loosing legitimacy of all the institutions of the state, and taking the cultural-ideological moorings of the leaders centering whom the masses were coming out to the streets, one may conclude that this phenomenon may favour the ruling class to maintain status-quo of the system eradicating the threat of radical change for popular control of the state structure.
An appeal from "A LONG MARCH"
Posted by Labels: apeal, deprivation, India against corruption, inequality, people's initiativeIndia Against Corruption, Barak Valley
Very recently, India India
AN APPEAL FROM
“A LONG MARCH” In The Light Of
“INDIA
“
The movement for “India
However, from our experience as the inhabitant of Barak Valley vis-à-vis Assam & north-east, we can conclude beyond reasonable doubt that the regional marginalization and people’s disempowerment cause the corruption to be widespread and deep-rooted. The obverse of the curtailment of rights and deprivation of people is the corruption. The crass political class here is busy pampering their bosses and taking advantage of caste-community divisions. In every front, right from road-rail-water communication, internal infrastructure, employment generation, modernization of agri-production, industrial development, poverty eradication, rural employment and food security, human rights-civil rights-worker’s rights, plight of people related with unorganized sector, democratic functioning of all political-administrative-educational institutions, the situation is of utter dismay. The local self Government, Panchayeti Raj Institutions have become mere tools for facilitating the loot of Govt-exchequer and tax-payers money (especially the indirect tax-payers of common people) and sustaining the rule of power-that-be and their local-level hangers-on hands-in-glove with the administrative machinery. The people feel disgruntled but helpless.
But the movement for “India
SO, RISE-JOIN-UNITE AND FIGHT FOR PEOPLE’S POWER AND AGAINST CORRUPTION ON THE BASIS OF THE ABOVE ORIENTATION TO INITIATE A PROCESS AT BARAK VALLEY LEVEL TO START WITH, AND IN THE LIGHT OF ALL INDIA INITIATIVE LAUNCHED BY THE PROCESS NAMED “INDIA
Many Organisations and individuals have already joined this process, you also join this process.
We have decided to initiate this long march from 1st May at Silchar.
On behalf of “A LONG MARCH” In The Light Of
“INDIA
“
1. Nirmal Kumar Das, 2. Neharul Ahmed Mazumder, 3. Dr. Shanti Kumar Singha, 4. Dr. Kulenddra Chandra Das, 5. Bikash Das, 6. H. M. Murtaza Laskar and others
.
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অরুণোদয় শিলচর শহরের প্রাচীনতম পত্রিকা। প্রতিষ্ঠাতা সম্পাদক ছিলেন প্রয়াত সুনীল দত্তরায়। গেল এক দশকের বেশি সময় জুড়ে এর সম্পাদনা করছেন চন্দন সেনগুপ্ত। এখন থেকে আমরা চেষ্টা করব এর প্রতিটি সংখ্যা স্বাভিমানে তুলে দিতে। শুরু শুরুতে সামান্য প্রযুক্তি গত অসুবিধের জন্যে কোথাও কোথাও পাঠ পড়তে অসুবিধে হবে, কিন্তু আমরা আশা করব অচিরেই সেটি দূর করতে। এখানে আপনারা পড়তে পাবেন এর জানুয়ারি-ফেব্রুয়ারি ২০১১ সংখ্যা।
হয়তো, আপনার এটি পড়তে ফ্লাসপ্লেয়ার দরকার পড়তেও পারে। নামিয়ে নিন এখান থেকে।
হয়তো, আপনার এটি পড়তে ফ্লাসপ্লেয়ার দরকার পড়তেও পারে। নামিয়ে নিন এখান থেকে।
অরুণোদয় শিলচর শহরের প্রাচীনতম পত্রিকা। প্রতিষ্ঠাতা সম্পাদক ছিলেন প্রয়াত সুনীল দত্তরায়। গেল এক দশকের বেশি সময় জুড়ে এর সম্পাদনা করছেন চন্দন সেনগুপ্ত। এখন থেকে আমরা চেষ্টা করব এর প্রতিটি সংখ্যা স্বাভিমানে তুলে দিতে। শুরু শুরুতে সামান্য প্রযুক্তি গত অসুবিধের জন্যে কোথাও কোথাও পাঠ পড়তে অসুবিধে হবে, কিন্তু আমরা আশা করব অচিরেই সেটি দূর করতে। এখানে আপনারা পড়তে পাবেন এর ডিসেম্বর ২০১০ সংখ্যা।
হয়তো, আপনার এটি পড়তে ফ্লাসপ্লেয়ার দরকার পড়তেও পারে। নামিয়ে নিন এখান থেকে।
হয়তো, আপনার এটি পড়তে ফ্লাসপ্লেয়ার দরকার পড়তেও পারে। নামিয়ে নিন এখান থেকে।
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