Monday, July 30, 2012

Homeless in Kokrajhar - By Subrata Nagchaudhury - The Sunday (Indian) Express - Mumbai

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/homeless-in-kokrajhar/980803/0

The Indian Express




Homeless in Kokrajhar

Subrata Nagchoudhury : Sun Jul 29 2012,
A road slices Gokulkata village in Kokrajhar into two. On one side lived its Muslim residents, on the other the Bodos. But after four days of rioting, no one lives here any more.

What’s left in Gokulkata are rows of burnt houses. The houses with bamboo poles and tin shades have been reduced to ashes while the once-concrete houses are now just sooty walls. Bodies of dead ducks and goats lie amongst the debris. The living have all fled and no one knows when they will be back.

In the past week, villages across Kokrajhar have emptied out, leaving behind burnt homes and an eerie silence.

On Wednesday, Idris Ali walked 35 km with seven others from his family and four cattle from his village Sapkata to the Hatidhura relief camp, only to find it full. So, he continued walking, looking for a relief camp that would take him in.

Ali says the attack on his village last week looked like it had the patronage of the administration. The attackers, he says, came in green camouflage outfits and were seen talking to local security forces before they targeted Muslim houses.

At Tamahata relief camp, Azizul Haque from Moktaigaon village relives the attack that nearly killed him. “I was fired at from close range and a bullet grazed my stomach. I was taken to Gosaigaon hospital first and then to Kokrajhar hospital where again a group of Bodo youth attacked me. I am alive only by Allah’s grace,” says Haque.

At another relief camp in Jaraguri in Gosaigaon block of Kokrajhar, where 3,400 Bodo refugees are taking refuge, Longshri Basumatary of Burichitam village is still perplexed over how the relationship between the two communities soured so quickly. “We had extremely cordial relations with our Muslim neighbours. We used to go to their houses, have tea with them, share meals with them and they too would come over to our homes. The same people set fire to our houses and drove us out,” she says.

Bhadreshwar Basumatary, a forest guard in the camp, says that for the last few years he has been cultivating his one-acre farm along with Muslim farmers in his village Dawaguri. The Muslim farmers tilled his land and he would share his produce with them. They also took care of his banana orchard. With the relationship between the Muslims and Bodos now turning bitter, Bhadreshwar is worried about who will tend to his paddy crop.

Simmering discontent

Trouble in Kokrajhar had been brewing for the last few weeks after minority student unions and non-Bodo tribes began pressing their demand for greater representation in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). On July 6, two Muslim youths were shot at. Suspicion fell on the Bodos. Nearly a fortnight later, on July 20, more violence followed. Pradip Bodo, a former cadre of the Bodoland Liberation Tigers (BLT), and three of his friends were killed, which triggered full-scale rioting.

The riots have brought onto the surface simmering tensions between the two communities. Ever since the clashes between Bodos and migrant Muslim groups in 2008, Kokrajhar, the seat of administration of the BTC, has held an uneasy peace. The area under the BTC’s jurisdiction has seen undercurrents of tension even after the Bodo Accord of 2003.

Rashmi Kant Basumatary, a Bodo leader who is overseeing the Gambaribil relief camp, says the rioting may have ceased but it’s “certainly not the end of it.” “The Muslims have been trying to assert themselves more and more in recent times. Several student bodies of the minorities are spearheading this campaign,” says Rashmi.

At the root of the problem is a “crisis of land”, he says. “They (Muslims) need land to expand as their population is growing.”

Meanwhile, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, an MP of the All India United Democratic Front from Dhubri, says Muslims have been uprooted in a planned manner with the help of the administration.

There are a number of reasons underlying the tension between the Muslims and Bodos in Kokrajhar. Discrimination is one of them. Minorities and non-Bodo tribes feel only the Bodos have benefited from the setting up of the BTC.

The BTC, says Sarath Narzary, former principal of the Kokrajhar Government College, has not been able to fulfill the aspirations of the people. “It has been constrained with limited powers and limited resources and has proved beneficial for a handful of people. Non-Bodo communities feel that the creation of the BTC has opened up vast opportunities for the Bodo people, which, in fact, is not true. This feeling that ‘they are enjoying the fruits of power while we are deprived’ could be one of the prime causes of the worsening relations between the Bodos and the non-Bodos,” says Narzary.

The issues of discontent are many. Population pressures, land rights, self determination, illegal migration and occupation all led to a tipping point. Khampa Borgoyri, deputy chief of the BTC, says it’s time the council undertakes a survey of the land holding status within the BTC area. “We are sure that over 35 per cent of government vacant khas land has been encroached upon by illegal settlers,” he says.

The region has seen much violence in the last few years. U G Brahma, former president of the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) and a former Rajya Sabha member, says at least 200 Bodos have been killed in the last couple of years in isolated attacks from unidentified assailants.

The last few years have also seen mounting pressure from Muslim groups to dissolve the BTC and also to exclude those areas from the BTC where the Bodos are not in a majority. Bodos, says Ajmal, constitute only 27 per cent of the population of the BTC.

The growing clamour against Bodo influence has culminated in the formation of a Non-Bodo Suraksha Samity, which, according to political sources, wants to bring various non-Bodo communities under one umbrella. At the helm of its activity are surrendered ULFA members, extreme Left outfits and various Muslim student bodies.

Moinuddin, president of the All Bodoland Minority Students’ Union, alleges that the Bodos want to increase their numbers in the BTC and push for a separate state. “The recent flare-up coincides with the raising of demands for a separate statehood of Bodoland,” he says.

As the accusations and counter-accusations continue, in the relief camps across Kokrajhar, villagers dream of the day they will return home.

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Sunday, July 29, 2012

As Tensions in India Turn Deadly, Some Say Officials Ignored Warning Signs - By Gardiner Harris - The New York Times

The delay in getting army to step in, holds the key to Assam State Government's sinister policy to fish in the muddle waters and using carrot and stick approach, prepare for the next elections. It is downright a criminal act, when State itself by its acts of commission or omission, is directly responsible for deaths, destruction and mass exodus due to ethnic cleansing. Those responsible for the security, either in the state or at the center, should be made to resign and stand trial.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/world/asia/after-tensions-in-indias-east-turn-deadly-claims-officials-turned-a-blind-eye.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

New York Times


As Tensions in India Turn Deadly, Some Say Officials Ignored Warning Signs

Anupam Nath/Associated Press
Women from the Bodo tribe, which is feeling squeezed by Muslims from Bangladesh, at a relief camp on Thursday in Assam State.
By
Published: July 28, 2012

NEW DELHI — There is a numbing familiarity to the riots that struck the eastern Indian state of Assam this month, leaving 48 dead and 400,000 people homeless. The violence had been building for months and even years — thousands of years.
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Indian paramilitary forces in Kokrajhar district.
The New York Times
Recent clashes in Kokrajhar reflected years of tensions.
So why, critics ask, were the authorities caught by surprise despite clear warnings of impending conflict?

“The district authorities should have seen the tension building up and acted sooner to prevent the kind of violence that we have seen since,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

The Bodo tribe in the finger of land between Bangladesh and Bhutan has long been feeling squeezed by Muslim Bengalis immigrating from Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries on the planet. In addition to having less communal ideas about land ownership than the Bodos, the Bengalis, whose numbers are growing, increasingly threaten the Bodos’ dream of having an independent state.

The Bodos, many of whom have been converted to Christianity, now represent just 10 percent of Assam’s population of 31 million, but have ancestral claims to roughly half of its land.

Four years ago, Bodos and Bengalis, who speak different languages, clashed in Assam, leaving 70 people dead. Tensions began to build anew on May 29, when a local Muslim youth group called for a strike in Kokrajhar to protest the removal of a signboard from a mosque. A series of drive-by killings followed until generalized violence exploded on July 19.

State officials said they were caught unaware. “We had requisitioned the army on the very first day, but it took four, five days for the forces to reach the state,” Tarun Gogoi, chief minister of Assam, said Friday at a news conference.

U. G. Brahma, a former member of Parliament from the region, said police and other government officials did nothing to stop the violence for several days. “This is a deliberate act of negligence,” Mr. Brahma said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Gogoi said no further violence had been reported for at least two days, although bodies from earlier outbreaks continued to be found and homes were still being burned.
Mr. Gogoi rejected the charge that the government was slow in its response and said he had no intelligence before the rioting suggesting the need for troops. Such riots have been part of India’s history since its violent birth in 1947, but its roots go back far longer.

Indians’ genetic variability is vast. Scores of languages are spoken, 15 of which appear on the nation’s currency. The Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist religions are all strongly represented.

And then there is the issue of land, a scarce resource in a nation of nearly 1.2 billion people.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited two relief camps in Kokrajhar on Saturday. He called the fighting “a blot” on India, The Associated Press reported, and promised to provide $3,600 to each family of those killed and $900 to those seriously injured.

Sultan Alam, a member of a Muslim student group in Assam, called for an inquiry by the nation’s top law enforcement agency. “The minority community here has been ruined by the violence,” he said in a telephone interview, demanding more benefits for Muslims. “We just want our rightful share in everything.” A representative of a rival Bodo student group could not be reached for comment.

Opposition lawmakers accuse the Congress Party, the dominant party in the governing coalition, of turning a blind eye to the immigrant issue, since Muslims tend to support the coalition.

Vijay Goel, general secretary of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, said the influence of Muslim immigrants in elections had grown too great. “We want the illegal immigrants to be identified and deported,” he said, according to news media reports.

At the news conference, Mr. Gogoi said politics played no role in his decision making and blamed his political opponents for the violence. “The situation has flared up because of the N.D.A. regime,” he said, referring to the National Democratic Alliance, an opposition coalition that includes the Bharatiya Janata Party. “It is not me who is playing vote bank politics. I do not need a single vote of the illegal migrants.”

Bengali Muslims have been a significant part of Assam’s population since India’s founding, and separating the recent arrivals from those who have been in the state for decades would be difficult. Each side in the conflict has long-held grievances.

Ms. Ganguly said the state should have done far more in recent years to ease tensions. “This is a battle over resources, not religion,” she said.

Mr. Gogoi promised action.“The only solution to these waves of ethnic conflicts is development, and tomorrow the state government will seek some kind of development package from the prime minister,” Mr. Gogoi said Friday, joining a long line of state officials seeking more money from India’s central government.


Malavika Vayawahare contributed reporting from New Delhi, and Samrat from Mumbai, India.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

In defence of MS ( Manmohan Singh or Muhammad Shah)- By Aakar Patel - LOUNGE - LiveMint.com

Aakar Patel's reconnoiter of India's history, recent past and the present, in the breezy style of the historian Ramachandra Guha, is both readable and thought provoking. In his short essay, Patel has painted the broad strokes of historical currents that more or less appear to be permanent fixture of our public life, give or take a comma here, a full stop there. However, Patel should be credited for his courage to expose the dark forces, that always muddy the historical current and are the main cause for the deluge that destroys the nation again and again.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>

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http://www.livemint.com/2012/07/26212751/In-defence-of-MS.html




In defence of MS
Across India, power has drained away from Delhi. The peasant leaders have captured the Gangetic belt in collaboration with Muslims. Both Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are lost

Reply To All | Aakar Patel

I’m fond of the leader in Delhi (call him MS for short). Most Indians don’t like him because he’s seen as being soft and manipulated by the real power, S. Mind you, S is not popular either, being born a foreigner and of different faith.

Our finest historian has harsh words for MS: “Weak”, “puppet”, “timid”, “fickle”, “idle”. He admits MS is “free from insolent pride” and possesses “courage of a certain kind”, but adds that he has “no inborn capacity to rule”.


History repeats: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh(Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times)
History repeats: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times)
 
I find this judgement a little unfair. I’m fond of the historian too, but he doesn’t see one positive aspect to MS. Besides, the conditions were forced upon MS, and not of his doing.
The dynasty was great 25 years ago, before he arrived. He stands on an ever-shrinking base of power. How can he sustain himself on past glory alone? His position is difficult.

Let’s survey and assess the situation as MS himself might see it.

Across India, power has drained away from Delhi. The peasant leaders have captured the Gangetic belt in collaboration with Muslims. Both Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are lost. In Lucknow, power has passed from father to son. Delhi dispatched the heir to campaign there personally, but he could produce no result.

In Punjab, there is dependence on the scion of the royal family of Patiala. But the Sikhs are with the Akalis, and they have had little trouble in managing him.

Near Delhi and in Haryana, the Jats are a nuisance, let’s be honest. Primitive in their rules, horrible with women. There’s no chance of reforming them.

In Rajasthan, the Rajputs are martial only among themselves, and forever surrendering to the Marathas. See how shamelessly they prostrate before the Scindias.

Gujarat was lost long ago and there appears little chance of it coming back. The Gujarati wants two things: firm rule and and an environment for business. These he has, and so he doesn’t need Delhi.

Bengal says it is with the Centre but behaves petulantly and often nastily. The Bengali leader is strong and brave, true. But also untrustworthy, petty, quick to anger and immature. Because there is no trade in and little revenue from Bengal, it is unimportant as a state. Important only in the negative sense as a nuisance.

In Madhya Pradesh, another Scindia wants to instal the heir in Delhi. He’s mostly talk and little fight (blood will tell: The Scindias fled the field at Panipat).
The tribal belt in central India is not under Delhi’s control any longer. The state has entirely given up trying to enforce the rule of law there except for the occasional skirmish in which many claims of killing rebels are made (mostly untrue).

Karnataka is lost to MS, Tamil Nadu was never his. In Andhra Pradesh, the son of a dead satrap is certain to install himself over the wishes of Delhi. Resistance to this is futile, because much of Delhi’s power comes from the state. In slow motion that state is being lost.

In Maharashtra, the Maratha shows how shamelessly venal and corrupt he has become. Scandal relentlessly follows scandal, tarring a once-great society. The Chitpavan Brahmins continue to plot their fantasies of Hindu rule over Pakistan.

From across the border, the enemy sends its fighters to harass India. Afghan mercenaries are used as they have been for centuries. Afghanistan is in turmoil and the Pashtun leader is trying to hold the country together.

Such is the story of the time of our leader. I think our historian, Sir Jadunath Sarkar, was not entirely fair with MS, whose 310th birth anniversary is next month. MS was known to history as Muhammad Shah, the Mughal emperor who ruled from 1719-48.

The S whose thumb he ruled under was Safdarjung, the wazir from Iran who was Shia.

Chitpavans used to be Peshwas till 1818; after 1925, they became Sarsanghachalaks. The Scindias here were Dattaji and Mahadji, ancestors of Vasundhara Raje and Jyotiraditya, and the Patiala ruler Ala Singh, ancestor of Amarinder Singh and servant of Ahmed Shah Abdali. Many of the other characters are interchangeable from 250 years ago. Certainly the circumstances are much the same.

There’s a reason we saw familiarity in what was written. The Mughal empire was built around the emperor. When his power was weakened, the empire couldn’t function. The republic of India is also constitutionally designed for a strong centre. This came from a wide consensus which included B.R. Ambedkar and K.M. Munshi, as Ramachandra Guha shows in India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy.

But a strong Centre assumes clean Lok Sabha majorities and at least one pan-India political party. Our tribal nature of voting has inflicted on India a federalism of the late Mughal variety. The Centre reigns but does not rule. As the Congress has declined in time, it is every caste for itself and every state for itself, squeezing Delhi for personal profit. We haven’t had a party with a majority for two decades and should be prepared to see this helplessness of Delhi as a permanent feature.

The position of Manmohan Singh is almost the same as that of Muhammad Shah, who called himself Rangeela—the colourful.

Not all of Rangeela’s rule was bad, and this was the positive aspect I referred to earlier. His patronage gave us Sadarang, composer of many popular Hindustani bandishes (Bhimsen Joshi said when he forgot the antara’s lyric in a song, he would wail “Sadarang!” to fill space).

Ending his four-volume Fall of the Mughal Empire, Sarkar stepped back to assess what he had studied for six decades.

“Corruption, inefficiency and treachery disgraced all branches of the public service. In the midst of this decay and confusion, our literature, art and even true religion had perished.”

The 86-year-old scholar concluded that our condition is the result of “the rottenness at the core of the Indian society”.

Aakar Patel is a writer and columnist.

Send your feedback to replytoall@livemint.com
••••••

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Comments posted on NY Times article by Thomas L. Friedman - Syria is Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/opinion/friedman-syria-is-iraq.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Comments posted on NY Times article by Thomas L. Friedman - Syria is Iraq:


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  1. Thomas L. Friedman is a thinker and his out of box style of thinking and theorizing is widely treated as readable and interesting, though not always practical. Visionaries are poor activists. In his following article: Syria is Iraq - he completely overlooks, that both countries have their own people and if, as he himself wrote, the change from bad is not necessarily good, but could be worse. Here the change that is most important for the natives, is if the change means going under US bombardment and mass destruction of the country. Common Iraqi cares more about his own life, his own family and his prospect for future. US assumes that the native is prepared for war and bloodshed for a 'change'. In fact he is not prepared for the bloodshed. He is not given a choice between a dictator and a US controlled democratic nation. All he is supposed to do is to sing the paeans of US armed intervention in the cause of 'regime change', and mourn his dead. Thomas L. Friedman, who may not be equated with America's Jewish Neocon cabal's agenda for New American Century; but he is incapable of thinking or even attempting to think how the natives feel. His thinking is on a vastly different level than the thinking feeling of common people of the Middle East. One can say, America and Americans care a hoot. But in essence, America cannot flee from the consequences of the violence it is prepared to unleash around the world and hope that it will not suffer Aurora fate in its own home ground.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/opinion/friedman-syria-is-iraq.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

New York Times

Op-Ed Columnist

Syria Is Iraq

By
Published: July 24, 2012 5 Comments
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Thomas L. Friedman

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And Iraq was such a bitter experience for America that we prefer never to speak of it again. But Iraq is relevant here. The only reason Iraq has any chance for a decent outcome today is because America was on the ground with tens of thousands of troops to act as that well-armed midwife, reasonably trusted and certainly feared by all sides, to manage Iraq’s transition to more consensual politics. My gut tells me that Syria will require the same to have the same chance.
But because I absolutely would not advocate U.S. intervention on the ground in Syria or anywhere in the Arab world again — and the U.S. public would not support it — I find myself hoping my analysis is wrong and that Syrians will surprise us by finding their own way, with just arms and diplomatic assistance, to a better political future. I know columnists are supposed to pound the table and declaim what is necessary. But when you believe that what is necessary, an outside midwife for Syria, is impossible, you need to say so. I think those who have been advocating a more activist U.S. intervention in Syria — and excoriating President Obama for not leading that — are not being realistic about what it would take to create a decent outcome.
Why? In the Middle East, the alternative to bad is not always good. It can be worse. I am awed at the bravery of those Syrian rebels who started this uprising, peacefully, without any arms, against a regime that plays by what I call Hama Rules, which are no rules at all. The Assad regime deliberately killed demonstrators to turn this conflict into a sectarian struggle between the ruling minority Alawite sect, led by the Assad clan, and the country’s majority of Sunni Muslims. That’s why the opposite of the Assad dictatorship could be the breakup of Syria — as the Alawites retreat to their coastal redoubt — and a permanent civil war.
There are two things that could divert us from that outcome. One is the Iraq alternative, where America went in and decapitated the Saddam regime, occupied the country and forcibly changed it from a minority Sunni-led dictatorship to a majority Shiite-led democracy. Because of both U.S. incompetence and the nature of Iraq, this U.S. intervention triggered a civil war in which all the parties in Iraq — Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds — tested the new balance of power, inflicting enormous casualties on each other and leading, tragically, to ethnic cleansing that rearranged the country into more homogeneous blocks of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
But the U.S. presence in Iraq contained that civil war and ethnic cleansing from spreading to neighboring states. And once that civil war burned itself out — and all sides were exhausted and more separated — the U.S. successfully brokered a new constitution and power-sharing deal in Iraq, with the Shiites enjoying majority rule, the Sunnis out of power but not powerless, and the Kurds securing semi-autonomy. The cost of this transition in lives and money was huge, and even today Iraq is not a stable or healthy democracy. But it has a chance, and it’s now up to Iraqis.
Since it is highly unlikely that an armed, feared and trusted midwife will dare enter the fray in Syria, the rebels on the ground there will have to do it themselves. Given Syria’s fractured society, that will not be easy — unless there is a surprise. A surprise would be the disparate Syrian opposition groups congealing into a united political front — maybe with the help of U.S., Turkish and Saudi intelligence officers on the ground — and this new front reaching out to moderate Alawites and Christians who supported the Assads out of fear and agreeing to build a new order together that protects majority and minority rights. It would be wonderful to see the tyrannical Assad- Russia-Iran-Hezbollah axis replaced by a democratizing Syria, not a chaotic Syria.
But color me dubious. The 20 percent of Syrians who are pro-Assad Alawites or Christians will be terrified of the new Sunni Muslim majority, with its Muslim Brotherhood component, and this Sunni Muslim majority has suffered such brutality from this regime that reconciliation will be difficult, especially with each passing day of bloodshed. Without an external midwife or a Syrian Mandela, the fires of conflict could burn for a long time. I hope I am surprised.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 25, 2012, on page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: Syria Is Iraq.
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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

My comments posted on article: The root causes underlying Manesar plant riot and a lesson to learn

My comments posted on "

The root causes underlying Manesar plant riot and a lesson to learn"


Amaresh Misra, a historian and social scientist observes parallels of the incidents at Manesar and the 1857 uprising against British colonials. The management/labor relations at Maruti /Suzuki, do not necessarily abide by the dialectics of modern labor management in India unless the power of religious symbolism is given equal or even more weightage in any analysis. The benign neglect or even proactive degradation of religious and cultural sentiments by management may first appear to be merely triggers, but in fact that is the very background against which any foreign intrusion, benevolent or malevolent is judged from the very outset by the Indian society. Be that Japanese management or foreign trained Indian management, the reaction to the tradition-bound ethos, is continuously evaluated and judged by the community as well as the wider society. It is therefore incumbent on the Maruti-Suzuki management, not to interpret the outburst in purely modern capitalist/labor inter-relationship, but accommodate willingly and proactively the deeply entrenched religious, social and cultural ethos of the locals. That is not an impossible task. Mughals ruled for 300 years with those strategies.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

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The root causes underlying Manesar plant riot and a lesson to learn

July 24, 2012, 10:17 IST by CarTrade Editorial Team



Recently, the country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) received a jolt when the infuriated mob of workers at its Manesar plant attacked the officials and set the production line on fire. The incident claimed life of one of the Senior Managers, injured nine policemen and left 100 officials being hospitalised. The incident was a blot on the entire history of the car industry being one of the most violent, even though India is not new to such incidents and demonstrations. The mishap has left the plant at Manesar gasping with parts of the assembly line being burnt down and around 1,200 policemen have been called-in to avoid any kind of repercussion.

According to Maruti spokesperson, the conflict began after the Maruti Suzuki Worker's Union stood up for a worker who has been suspended for roughing up a company executive. The official who is being currently treated in a hospital stated that the attack from the worker was unprovoked. According to the executive, who suffered a broken elbow and received injuries in head, ribs and legs, “The workers grabbed whatever they could, split up in small groups and attacked us.” Police has arrested a number of workers of the Manesar plant under the charges of murder and attempted murder.
MSIL commented that the riots were not due to the friction between the white collared and blue collared workers over working conditions and wages. But than the question arrives, what actually triggered the whole conflict. True that there were low cohesion between the workers and management on the issue of the suspended employee; however, that is not enough to drive the incident to this level wherein a manager lost his life.

Then what drove the worker's mob to shun against the law and claim a life. The root cause of the whole incident is the underlying aggression and the anger of the workers. After the strikes in 2011, the then worker's union ceased to exist after its official submitted their papers being faced with severe penalties. Ever since then, there has been unrest among the workers regarding the working conditions and the wages.

Besides these, there has also been a lack of control and discipline at the Manesar plant. One could easily mistake the plant for a railway station with undisciplined workers voicing their grudges loudly and no senior official in sight. A Japanese manufacturing plant, even if it is located on the outskirts of Delhi, is expected to follow an unannounced code of discipline, which was not so in the case of Manesar plant. The incident at the MSIL plant is a perfect example for the others auto makers in the industry as to what can happen in the absence of a proper protocol and employee satisfaction.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Amaresh Misra - Times of India Blog + readers; comments


                Manesar: Class Struggle of the 21st Century

                                                        By Amaresh Misra



While right wing sections inside the media, fanatically anti-working class bloggers, vested interest in the Haryana establishment, and other sundry forces are baying for Trade Union/Communist blood in the unfortunate incidents that took place inside the Maruti-Suzuki plant at Manesar, sober assessment reveals a different picture.

1991, the year that inaugurated new economic policies and the liberalization drive, marked also the emergence of new ideas regarding the management of productive forces.  Large Public Sector sections were dismantled. Enormous human and domestic/foreign capital resources were placed in the hands of private corporate players. In the name of fiscal management, State expenditure was sought to be restricted. But perhaps, most importantly, production relations between labour and capital, workers and management, were altered.

Foreign Direct Investment in the manufacturing sector brought in foreigners in management as well. The new management structures—that included Indians and foreigners—were inculcated with a new work ethic that placed growth above workers welfare: but the crucial change rested in the way the new management culture downplayed the cultural sensitivities of the Indian worker.

In a famous case that took place last year in the Honda factory of Haryana’s industrial belt, foreign trained Indian managers refused to allow workers to celebrate Vishvakarma Pooja. In the Hindu pantheon, Vishvakarma is the lord of tools and workers—his birthday is normally a holiday, no less relevant than Ram Naumi, Buddha Jayanti or the birthday of Prophet Muhammad.

Workers worship their tools on Vishvakarma Diwas. In Honda, a worker was assaulted by the supervisor when, the latter tried applying a teeka on the former’s head. Indian workers have their own definition of what constitutes `hard work’. It includes whiling away time, bonding with fellow workers, and then putting in extra work at the right time. Also, the sense of impersonal hierarchy is alien to Indian workers. They can respect an angrez who mingles with them; but they will boycott Indian managers trying to put up foreign airs and indulging in unfamiliar hierarchical behaviour.    

Foreign—especially American, German and Japanese personals—were often found dumbfounded by these cultural practices. Because of historic factors—the traditional resistance of the Hindi-Urdu belt to British Imperialism, the  rugged-peasant masculinity and sense of honour—dubbed mistakenly, `pre-modern’ by social analysts—the management Vs worker clash was more severe in post-liberalization, North Indian factories.

In the 1990s and 2000s, India saw substantial creation of wealth. The culture of malls and new units in service sector and manufacturing, inducted a new working force emerging from Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The management culture in force looked more towards casual, contract labour.

Affiliated either to Communists, Congress, and BJP-Shiv Sena—or practicing Dutta Samant type syndicalism—the old Unions were unable to read the modern times. After failing miserably in creating space for casual/contract labour, they started losing their grip over old working class centres as well.   

Interestingly, the Gurgaon-NCR based factories flirted at first with CITU and AITUC, the Trade Unions respectively of the CPM and the CPI. The workers—most of them in their twenties—young, restless and ambitious—however, soon grew tired of old negotiating skills of traditional Unions. It is symptomatic that last year, the Manesar Maruti-Suzuki plant, saw the emergence of a new Union with a new, younger leadership. Sonu Gujjar, the erstwhile chief of the Union, typified the novel, 21st century worker. By presenting the viewpoints of workers through con-calls and other modern techniques, Sonu Gujjar grabbed national headlines. His colleagues wanted their own voice, independent of the management, to be heard.

Indeed this contemporary worker, especially in North India/Hindi-Urdu heartland, was both more rooted and cosmopolitan. Unlike his counterpart of 1970s and 1980s, who hailed mainly from a landless labour, poor peasant or a pauperized proletariat background, the contemporary worker came from middle to upper-middle peasant backdrop. In Indian terms, he belonged to a khaata-peeta milieu—he was much more capable of acting on his own. He was part of the North Indian pattidari village community system that ensured both bonding and individuality. He had learned how to fight while growing up, without getting inflicted with the scars of the lumpen proletariat. Averse to slow paced, constitutional ways, he found the quick action recommended by radical Left activists—or `on their own’ marka angry young men—far more attractive.

This contemporary worker disliked both the detached persona of the foreign manager as well as the philistine, pseudo-personalized approach of Indian mangers. He was as impatient with the taalu-chaalu andaaz of the foreigners as with the baniagiri of Indian executives.

In March 2012, while the Manesar plant was facing wage negotiations between the new Union and the  management, two workers shocked the managers with their statistical knowledge. The workers knew exactly that between 2007 and 2011 while the Maruti Suzuki  workers’ yearly earnings increased by 5.5 percent, the consumer price index (for the Faridabad centre, Haryana), went up by over 50 per cent. Since 2001, profits for the Maruti Suzuki company increased by 2200 percent!

So in any case, the Maruti Suzuki management was throwing crumbs at the workers. The workers’ salary was in no way, by any yardstick, commensurate with the rise in Company’s profit.  Yet the Manesar plant management was not ready to grant even a miniscule wage increase. Here, while contract labor got Rs. 7000 a month, regular workers survived on a mere Rs. 17000. Manesar workers were demanding wage increase of Rs. 15-18000, which the management was resisting, even when Honda workers were getting similar pay scales.

In this period of global crisis, the Maruti section(Swift and Dzire cars) was contributing more to Maruti Suzuki’s super profits. There seems to be immense pressure on the management to reduce wages in the name of increasing productivity. But why should Indian workers always suffer during a downward spiral cycle of global capitalism?  

The problem is that post-liberalization India has no idea of 1857, India’s first war of Independence. The Bengal Army of the East India Company, which remained at the forefront of the war’s long and torturous course, comprised of soldiers from the Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar belt. They rebelled against what was seen as the insensitivity of a multinational company—the world’s largest that managed a huge country like India plus other colonial stations—towards the sense of dignity, pride and religion of both Hindus and Muslims.

It is imperative to note that the Manesar incident arose following an anti-Dalit, caste slur issued by a supervisor to Jiya Lal, a worker. Then Jat-Gujar-Tyagi-Dalit workers—belonging to the Haryana region—and UP-Bihar Poorabias—united to give a fitting reply to the miscreants belonging to the management. The management brought in hundreds of bouncers to beat workers to submission. In fact, the official statement of the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union, states that the bouncers started the fire that killed a senior manager.  

So class solidarity overcame caste divisions—a similar phenomenon occurred during 1857.   

Both 1857 and Manesar incidents arose out of cultural slights inflicted by an insensitive foreign/part-foreign management. At the other end of the spectrum, it can be seen that like the Manesar incident, the cultural aspect of 1857 carried a slew of wage related issues, and other socio-economic grievances, nursed by soldiers against the British East India Company.

It can be seen clearly that though India runs on the workforce of UP, Bihar, Delhi and Haryana, the people of these regions have historically resisted the homogeneity, uniformity and conformity demanded by global corporate culture. These workers demand their own indigenous-capitalist ethic, different from the west. They are in no mood to comply. Be it Gujarat or whatever take, Maruti Suzuki anywhere—Gujarat is not India. But UP, Bihar, Delhi and Haryana do constitute India. The country is finished without these states. As the author signs off this article, news about certain Jat sections of the Haryana establishment dividing Jats and Gujars and undermining workers’ solidarity is pouring in—massive police repression has been unleashed on workers. Without a proper enquiry, workers are being blamed for the Manesar violence. Such tactics however are not going to work—after twenty years of enormous  liberalization, India is on the threshold of a gigantic working class unrest. Indian people regard economic reform and the English speaking managerial elite with disdain. They have tasted wealth—but they also know that, foreigners and their lackeys have amassed riches a thousand times over. With people of North Indian origin—their culture of constructive violence and non-submission to power intact—leading this battle, the stage is set for new class struggles of the 21st century. Like the Anna Hazare movement of August 2011, the Manesar incident has taken all political parties by surprise. Their political response system is simply, not attuned to the new, 21st century Indian reality.         
Comments:
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Rajesh Upadhyay (Delhi) says:
July 23,2012 at 01:30 PM IST
While references to 'gujrat' may have been avoided in this article and so the 'glorification' of UP, Bihar, haryana... There is no doubt that the article raises the most relevant points that the mainstream media is trying to hide and avoid. Any body who claims to be on the side of justice cant agree that the workers be given only 5.5% raise when the price index goes up by 50% and company's profit goes up by 2200%. The Marutii management should take the responsiblity of creating the situation for such incidents. The labour deptt has been a silent spectator of the violation of rights of workers who had to for strikes for a minimum democratic right of getting their union registered. If the system thinks it can use the 'investment' illusion to convert the workers to mere slaves, the Indian society is not going to tolerate it. Support voices for workers have already started gaining ground. There was a demonstration at Haryana Bhawan in Delhi on 21st July for justice to workers. And this support process continues.


Harsh (India) says:
July 23,2012 at 12:35 PM IST
There is some thing seriously wrong in management admission or in the training as very low HQ people get the job that bound to create problem. The human nature and behavior basically depend on the natural climatic conditions of that particular region and place. It is very much necessary the working conditions have to be managed according to that and global generalization of rules and regulation in human management is wrong. In most tropical country, the human output is low and it has natural reason. The management policies have to strike proper balance between the business demand, requirements and limitations posed by the natural constraints, then only the problems of unnecessary shut down can be minimized.


KKK (India) says:
July 23,2012 at 12:22 PM IST
Mr Mishra's foreigner party president and her lackeys have also amassed huge wealth, while junior party workers remain less well off. So when is Mr Mishra going to lead a mob of Congress workers to do some constructive violence and break her legs?


Sharma M C L (Bangalore) says:
July 23,2012 at 12:07 PM IST
Although the killing of a Maruti executive is not pardonable, the overall approach and demand of the Maruti workers are justified. The workers are right in demanding their religious culture to be practised. Managers cannot stop the workers from performing Vishwakarma worship. In reality, it is the aggression of North Indian Hindus that has saved Hinduism in India. If North Indians were weak then the British or Mughals would have wiped out Hinduism from India
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RCH (BNZ) says:
July 23,2012 at 12:58 PM IST
Absolutely right. I'm a Southern Hindu and is ashamed of the general cowardice of Southern Hindus and that is why Islaam and Christianity are making merry here. Thank God for the MARAD North Hindus.


Class employee (Manesar) says:
July 23,2012 at 11:31 AM IST
The mainstream maverick sucks.... Our struggle as a class of Indians is to shut this stupid of writing blogs. He is just enticing hatred. The writer should be punished by breaking his legs, since that would be constructive violence.


Vee (North India) says:
July 23,2012 at 11:28 AM IST
To, The editor and web site handler and the mainstream maniac Times of India Sirs Is this man who has wrote the above article sane? "Gujarat is not India" are his words. This writer is absurd in his thought process. He further wrote " united to give a fitting reply to the miscreants belonging to the management. People like him are the major reason that we the people of India are suffering from caste-ism and violence. The stage is not set for a class struggle but should be set to give this writer to suffer out of his north Indian constructive violence. If this writer is attuned to his own reality least he should do is reply to all the comments to this article and apologize to the Indians.


C R Gauba (jaipur) says:
July 23,2012 at 11:14 AM IST
What a stupid analysis of a serious situation? Mr Mishra if Gujarat is not India, next you will say that only Patna is India. Actually you should be charged for inciting workers for violence, and jailed.


Anonymous (Mumbai) says:
July 23,2012 at 11:12 AM IST
After reading this blog, I read the blogger's profile twice and, I am not at all surprised in what he has blogged. The comparison to the '1857 uprising', 'Gujurat is not India', 'constructive violence',etc.etc.(mercifully he did not drag Narendra Modi in to this. Perhaps, in his excitement he simply forgot!) , all fits into his 'dalit/minority/human right activist' profile. I have now come up with what I would to call as the 'ACTIVIST THEOREM' and I think it is time tested and proven true on several occasions. And, it runs like this: THE SUCCESS OF ANY ACTIVIST(HUMAN OR ANIMAL RIGHTS) IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENT HE/SHE MAKES PUBLICLY OR POSITIONS HE/SHE TAKES.SUCCESS VANISHES WHEN THE ACTIVIST STOPS MAKING/TAKING OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENTS/POSITIONS. Here are some examples to support it: 1) An 'activist' says J & K should be part of Pakistan. This activist will be on on TV channels Prime time panel discussion and allowed to make even more ridiculous statements. 2) An 'animal activist' says that 'stray dogs and mad dogs which maim and bite people should be treated with love, affection and compassion.Actually, it is the human beings which drive these poor animals mad.
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P P Rajagopalan (Chennai) says:
July 23,2012 at 12:15 PM IST 4 Followers
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After replying to your earlier post, I once again read Amaresh Misra's article. Yes, there is a tinge of parochialism in it. I also agree with you that controversial positioning is a passport to get into limelight! But that does not alter the overall substance he presented. That the workers are denied and provoked are beyond doubt. Maruti Suzuki deserve to be blamed more than the workers - that is the bottom line.
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Sushant (Kuwait) says:
July 23,2012 at 12:32 PM IST
After reading this article - which is an insult to any intellectual's sensibilities- I have decided to refrain from reading further articles from this author. Statements made by him are definitely anti nationalistic and divisionary in nature. I agree with Anonymous one his views about the article and the author and certainly wish to know what sort of editor allows such statements like 'Gujrat is not India' to be a part of his newspaper. I am totally for the rights of the employees ( again, please refrain from using the word labourors) and it is the duty of the Maruti Suzuki management to adress their concerns. Each organization, while being responsible towards its employees, is also responsible towards its stakeholders and no matter which company it is, the stakeholders always want to see growth in profits and overall growth of the organization. What happened in the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki is not something that anyone wants - netiher the employess, nor the management and definitely not the stake holders. Instead of a post mortem of events form 1857 to current date, what is needed and what will benefit everyone involved is to give time and understand the concerns of all parties and come to a logical, win - win conclusion of this incident.


S Mohandas (pune) says:
July 23,2012 at 11:11 AM IST
Misra ji , your great union leaders should build their own factory having already learnt whatever skills are required to build world class cars. They should employ only Biharis, Haryanvis UPites and ofcourse the great citizens of "Daly"and give them a minimum of Rs 50,000 per month with a mandatory 20% hike every year , 8 hours shift with suitable tea ,lunch , biological and socialising breaks.


akumar (mumbai) says:
July 23,2012 at 11:00 AM IST
Such warped logic! The problem with people like Amaresh Mishra is pure jealousy. These frustrated columnists were left behind by their classmates in pursuit of success and now is the time of retribution. I can say with certainty that Mishra must have prepared for civil services during his student days where he picked up bits about 1857 movement. and now he will leave no chance to apply it anywhere to showcase his intellectual superiority. People like Mishra will leave no stone unturned to destroy the Indian growth just to satisfy their bloated misdirected egos. We Indians have seen time and again the menace of unionism which has served only to destroy job creating industries. Who can forget Datta Samant and his destruction of Bombay textile industries. Or for that matter jute industry of Bengal and absymally low productivity in public sector. Only one sector which has seen tremendous job creation is IT sector, and the only differentiating factor has been the non application of stringent labor laws in the sector. Now even that sector is coming under the gaze of revolution spewing comrades. God save India from these people.


sughoshbansal Bansal (Delhi NCR) says:
July 23,2012 at 10:49 AM IST 3 Followers
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It is apparent that Amaresh Mishra is on this earth 155 years late. 2012 is not 1857 and should not be compared. Today the people are more enlightened, and knowledgeable about their rights and their duties. But alas they care only for their rights but not of their duties. It appears that this Amaresh Mishra was an eye witness to the episode, thenwhy is he not co-operating with the probe. Suzuki is not foreigner to this country and so is the case with many more foreign companies which are running their operations pretty successfully in the country in general and Gurgaon in particular. Labour unrest based upon wages, working environment and many other matters can be justified and there are set procedures to resolve them. And none of those procedures contain or can justify burning a human being alive. People of the like of Amaresh must bear in mind (1) Business is not run for charity; (2) No business is forcing the worker to join them. A worker joins an organisation for the worker’s own self needs and not for the businessmen; (3) The organisation is successful if it operates based upon laid down principles, norms and protocol and not to satisfy the whims of the workers; (4) In any organisation one has to give respect to the relationship between the supervisor and subordinate, elder and younger, experience and inexperience, productivity and inefficiency. If one does not respect these, he has no business to remain the part of that organisation. Amaresh’s dislike of Foreigners can be understood but then throw them out of the country. Once George Fernandes did throw out IBM and Pepsi but his successors brought them in and they are today far more stronger than ever. A worker may be frustrated in his life for various reasons other than Maruti Suzuki but he does not get a license to kill his supervisor. And a Contract worker is working in Maruti for Rs. 6,000 only because he is not able to earn even that out of Maruti.


Mandar Karnik (Mumbai) says:
July 23,2012 at 10:38 AM IST 5 Followers
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Haha so Gujarat is not India but UP and Haryana with its caste cauldron and bad work ethic is India. Shows what a great view of India you have Mr Misra. I agree the workers most of them contract labourers werent given adequate compensation but in these modern times killing isnt the answer. Datta Samant destroyed the textile industry of Mumbai. Manesar is looking to go down that same path now
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Sangharshi (Bangalore) says:
July 23,2012 at 11:42 AM IST
I am surprised whether you have read the piece of Amaresh Misra carefully! It may not have conveyed what you wish to hear. But I can tell you that you have not understood the context of Amaresh telling that Gujarat is not India. What is meant is that in this context Gujarat is not typical of India. He is postulating a theory to understand the labour relation in the changed context, and particularly with reference to Delhi Capital Region. How many Gujarathis do you see there among the workers? Most of the workers come from these states whether it's Gujrat, Delhi or Maharashtra. People can have their own opinion. But that won’t change facts. Analysis of the ground realities matches with class of achievements the author has as an historian and novelist.


Indian (US) says:
July 23,2012 at 10:31 AM IST
Mr Misra tends to blame everything on Hindus. What has rightwing sections of media got to do with this Mr Misra. The hollowness of your mind, in blaming rightwing and Hinduism, stands exposed. Haryana has been ruled by your favorite Sonia Gandhi's party, central govt from 2004 is your favorite Sonia Gandhi's- yet the blame on right wing for criticizing the violence without even issuing a statement against Sonia? You have been at the forefront in criticizing BJP governments for a non issue and yet when this scale of violence rocked Manesar, not a single journalist has questioned the stoic silence maintained by the state CONGRESS govt. You now try to turn the tables by saying fire was started by the management and not the workers - the destruction and damage caused, has many witness' who managed to save themselves, so stop trying your old tricks of fooling people. Finally though every true Indian believes in providing the hardworking workers their due, this kind of violence has to be stopped and guilty should be punished. Amareesh Misra your biased articles have eroded your credibility to provide honest viewpoints. You have been relegated to the trash can and no blogger considers your articles worthwhile (the ratings you receive are a reflection of it). Your answer is anticipated Right-wing Hindus giving you negative marks….??? Search for a new job sir..


Arvind (India) says:
July 23,2012 at 09:27 AM IST
Nothing can justify the violence unleashed by the workers on their managers. An armchair critic like you should have been in the position of a manager to understand what industrial peace is about.
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S.Anand (Bangalore) says:
July 23,2012 at 10:05 AM IST
Someone should break this blogger 's both legs so that no orthopedic surgeon can re-construct it ever. Maybe then he will understand the full meaning of his 'constructive violence' theory.
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VIKAS (DELHI) says:
July 23,2012 at 10:32 AM IST
a class called worker class has more than often allways been oppressed by foreign trained managers + sympathised by IDIOTS like Mr Aravind if u r statistically unaware about the situation - u r insane!!! No doubt the loss of life is disregarded but how do u retaliate when again n again u r oppressed!!!!! the message is these MARUTI managers must reconcile their differences by undertaking welfare initiatives simply sending in police teams n bouncers will only aggravate the situation a lock -out 'LL LEAD TO DELAYS N I THINK WEN THEY SUFFER THE LOSSES THEY'LL GET THE HAMMER ON THEIR HEAD N THEN THE MANGMNT LL TAKE STEPS POSITIVE AFTERALL THIS WAS NOT XPECTED FROM A TRUSTED INDIAN giant MARUTI
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Pravin (Pune) says:
July 23,2012 at 10:39 AM IST
I am always amazed with the communist/Socialist writers. Right from pre-independence era, they have been the parasites/virus eating at the progress of India. There is no constructive violence. Dont have to go far in history, Gandhiji halted his agitation due to Chauri Chaura incident for the same reason. No agitation or struggle can justify use of violence. FULL-STOP.
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Ashwini (Bangalore) says:
July 23,2012 at 11:51 AM IST
I think it is you who should feel stupid for your lack of understanding even a simple article based on facts and ground realities. You cannot justify violence but at the sametime you cannot neglect the injustice and abuses which were the reason behind it. Most of the uprisings in the world have similar patterns. phrase. I am surprised whether you have read the piece of Amaresh Misra carefully! It may not have conveyed what you wish to hear. But I can tell you that you have not understood the context of Amaresh telling that Gujarat is not India. What is meant is that in this context Gujarat is not typical of India. He is postulating a theory to understand the labour relation in the changed context, and particularly with reference to Delhi Capital Region. How many Gujarathis do you see there among the workers? Most of the workers come from these states whether it's Gujrat, Delhi or Maharashtra. People can have their own opinion. But that won’t change facts. Analysis of the ground realities are eye-opening for the HR management and leadership of any manufacturing company in India. Excellent article!!


Bhagwad Jal Park (Chennai) says:
July 23,2012 at 09:20 AM IST 7 Followers
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You're insane. "Construc
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