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CURRENT ARTICLES OF V. SUNDARAM (JANUARY 2010 ONWARDS)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Illegal Mining by Vicious Vedanta and Venal Naveen Patnaik Government of Orissa



V. SUNDARAM I.A.S

At the beginning was the money-filled suitcase,
The Suitcase was with Naveen Patnaik Orissa Government,
And Naveen Patnaik Orissa Government was Suitcase,
The Suitcase given by illegal miners from England
With true “Vedanta” persistence and
total devotion to unabashed PLUNDER of Orissa!!


Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Environment and Forests



Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Environment and Forests has covered himself with everlasting glory yesterday (Tuesday, 24 August 2010) by successfully thwarting the nefarious attempts of a coterie of international corporate gangsters called the Vedanta Resources Plc of United Kingdom which wanted to strip the thick forest cover of the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa which range over 250 kilometres across the districts of Rayagada, Kalahandi and Koraput in Orissa.


The Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa are home to more than 8,000 Dongaria Kondhs and other tribes who are now wholeheartedly engaged in what they have been doing for centuries: defending their hills, forests and streams. This time, however, they were facing a more formidable enemy than ever --- a mining giant that calls itself “Vedanta”, a term that in Hindu philosophy embodies centuries of spiritual knowledge and traditional wisdom. The name Vedanta, adopted from Hindu Philosophy, is only a mask for covering the face of corporate avarice and illegal loot and colonial-style plunder of mineral resources in the Niyamgiri Hills area of Orissa State. While the Orissa State Government seems to have been purchased wholesale by the Vedanta Resources with tremendous corporate resolve, the Dongaria Kondhs and other tribals seem to be equally determined to fight against the money power of the Vedanta Company and the State power of the Orissa Government in order to save themselves and their natural habitat in the Niyamgiri Hills from total extinction and decimation.



Dongaria Kondhs of Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa



Timeline of Vedanta mine imbroglio by livemint.com Wed, Aug 25 2010


09 September 2007: British mining giant Vedanta Resources faces fresh delays in its battle to mine an Indian forest considered sacred by tribal people after the nation’s top court ordered a sweeping impact study. Vedanta Resources Plc’s legal fight to mine the area is being seen in India as a test case, pitting industrial development interests against those of indigenous peoples and the environment.


08 August 2008: The Supreme Court has finally gives approval for Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd and Posco-India Pvt. Ltd to start projects which were delayed over protests and land disputes in Orissa.


25 September 2008: In India, investors in Vedanta subsidiary Sterlite Industries India Ltd sold shares following the announcement of the restructuring. Shares of the company lost almost one-fourth of their value in two weeks.


03 March 2009: The metal and mining major Vedanta Resources saw prices of all its major products dip by about 60% in the past six months due to the slackening demand arising from the global industrial downturn.


09 March 2009: Vedanta Resources has lined up a whopping Rs 70,000 crore investment in its aluminium, copper, zinc and iron ore businesses in India by 2011-12.


05 June 2009: Vedanta Resources is in dialogue with a syndicate of banks to arrange the debt, which would be used for expanding its aluminium production capacity in Orissa.


10 July 2009: The start of the mining to feed the alumina refinery in Orissa has been delayed for at least four years by protests from indigenous Dongaria tribal people, who consider the area that will be mined as their traditional, hereditary and primordial sacred ground.


11 November 2009: The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) rejected proposed amendments on relaxing environmental norms for industrial expansion and modernization. While some say that the amendments would not have been beneficial for the environment, others claim that continuing the clearance process for such projects will deter India from achieving its 10% economic growth target. Vedanta continues to ignore protests by local residents. It bought Mitsui and Co.’s majority stake in Sesa Goa Ltd, a major iron ore extractor and exporter, in 2007.


02 February 2010: The Church of England announced it had sold its six-million-dollar stake in Vedanta because the company had not shown “the level of respect for human rights and local communities that we expect”.


03 February 2010: Documents made available before National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) following a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by an environmental activist group in July brought to public light the fact that clearance for the Sterlite’s project given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests was based on a report that was different than the one shared with residents of the area during public hearings. Companies building large plants have to conduct studies on the impact their project will have on the environment and share this with the affected population through public hearings. This is part of the mandated approval process for industrial projects in India.


09 February 2010: Amnesty International calls for halt to Vedanta’s mine plans. The government should not allow mining an Indian forest held sacred by tribal people until it gets their “informed consent”. The Amnesty report had alleged that Alumina mining in Orissa by Vedanta has affected the communities living in that area and led to violations of human rights.


22 February 2010: Public outcry to persuade Government to direct the mines pay more for displaced people. For years villagers and tribesmen have opposed several projects such as India-focused miner Vedanta Resources Plc’s bauxite mines and Posco’s proposed steel plant in the eastern state of Orissa. The protests have been often violent, with Maoist rebels killing people, disrupting mining operations and damaging property in eastern and central India, saying companies were exploiting the region and its mineral wealth.


14 March 2010: In two separate letters to officials of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, Orissa’s Forest and Environment Department Special Secretary B P Singh baselessly asserted that the proposed mining by Vedanta Resources jointly with Orissa Mining Corporation is not in violation of any law.


16 March 2010: Vedanta wants to mine bauxite for its alumina refinery in Orissa, but the project, bogged down since 2005, is opposed by tribal people who fear losing their traditional homes, habitat and livelihood.


24 June 2010: The minister wants to protect and expand India’s remaining forest land as part of a strategy to fight climate change, even if it means refraining from mining about a quarter of the country’s mineral reserves.


30 June 2010: A new 4-member N.C Saxena Committee formed by Union Environment Ministry would investigate the “specific impact on the livelihood, culture and material welfare” of a local tribal group in Orissa.


22 July 2010: Government ministers meet to consider revamping a five-decade old mining law that tries to balance the needs of investors with those of locals affected by the industry. Plan aims for 26% equity for affected people.


16 August 2010: The N C Saxena Committee formed by Union Environment Ministry said: “Allowing Vedanta mining in the proposed area in Orissa by depriving tribals of their rights may have serious consequences.”


23 August 2010: Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and raised concerns over the delay in environment clearances to projects like the Posco steel project and Vedanta bauxite mining initiative.


24 August 2010: After five long years of court hearings, violent public protests, Centre-State wrangling and media coverage, the Union Government denied permission for bauxite mining at Niyamgiri in Orissa, settling the dispute in favour of the tribe that’s indigenous to the area.


In a big blow to Vedanta Resources, Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Environment and Forests, categorically rejected environment clearance to its USD 1.7 billion bauxite mining project in Orissa after accepting the recommendations of its key Committee constituted for clearing such ventures. Giving reasons for the denial of clearance, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told the Press that “here has been a very serious violation of Environment Protection Act, Forest Conservation Act and the Forest Rights Act. There have been no emotions and no politics and no prejudice involved in this report. I have taken this decision in a proper legal approach.” By making such a bold announcement in the larger public interest, without any fear or favour, Jairam Ramesh has clearly shown that he is the only Union Cabinet Minister duly endowed with the qualities of sound judgment, courage, integrity and long-term vision. Those who dismissed Environment as a light weight ministry are ruing it now. His visit to Bhopal in September 2009 put the spotlight on the toxic waste lying there since the 1984 Union Carbide plant gas leak. Later in April 2010, he announced the setting up of the first National Green Tribunal in Bhopal.


During the last five years, I have repeatedly attacked the Sonia Congress UPA Government as completely wanting in integrity, accountability and vision. Most of the disgraceful Union Cabinet Ministers have been as of right functioning as imbecilic invertebrates with no political or official commitment to the classical ministerial virtues of accountability, transparency and integrity. Jairam Ramesh seems to be a spectacular exception to this run of cheap, crude, venal toadies who populate the Union Council of Ministers. I am of the view that he is an outstanding Minister in the line of great ministers of India like Gobind Vallabh Pant, T.T Krishnamachari, C. Subramaniam and the like.


The Union Government’s decision to stop the rape of forest wealth of Orissa by the Vedanta Resources FREEBOOTERS and CARPETBAGGERS came after the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) which after reviewing the suggestions given by the N C Saxena Committee, gave a report to Union Minister Jairam Ramesh PROPOSING A BAN on the ravenous mining project in Orissa's Niyamgiri Hills in view of various and grievous violations at the site. The N. C Saxena Committee was set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to investigate if the Orissa State Government and the aluminium giant Vedanta Resources had complied with the Forest Rights Act and Forest Conservation Act while mining for bauxite. It is a huge turnaround for the Union Government itself on the case. As the N. C Saxena Committee Report pointed out, the Union Government had earlier looked the other way when infringements were reported to it. The stern report of the Committee signaled that tribal rights and environmental issues have finally muscled their way onto the governance agenda, forcing the authorities to take action against corporate bodies who may have shown disregard for laws and rules.


N C SAXENA COMMITTEE CONSISTED OF FOUR MEMBERS

Dr N C Saxena, Indian Administrative Service (Retd.) former Secretary to the Planning Commission

Dr S Parasuraman, Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences;

Dr Promode Kant, Indian Forest Service (Retd.), Director, Institute of Green Economy (IGREC); and


Dr Amita Baviskar, Professor, Institute of Economic Growth.


The N. C Saxena Committee Report has citied many violations of the in-principle environment clearance given to Orissa Mining Corporation in 2008 including non-compliance with the provisions of the Forest Rights Act. The Committee has observed: “The consent certificate of the Gram Sabha was fake.”


The report reveals exhaustive evidence to nail the complicity of the Naveen Patnaik headed Orissa State Government in permitting Vedanta to flagrantly violate the laws.


This Committee has noted large-scale violations and taking note of these flagrant violations by Vedanta Resources, the Committee has recommended that the project should be scrapped forthwith. Union Minister Ramesh has said: “We are examining what action has to be taken against the project proponents for violation of various laws including the EPA,” while his ministry has already suspended the term of reference and the appraisal process for the Vedanta's refinery expansion at the site.


In a move that is likely to make the things more difficult for Vedanta Resources, Union Minister Ramesh has said that a show-cause notice has also been issued to it as to why the clearance for the one million tonnes per annum alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Orissa should not be cancelled in view of gross violation of environment norms.


The FAC in its report submitted to Ramesh yesterday had agreed on most of the recommendations of the N.C Saxena Committee seeking ban on the mining project in Orissa's Niyamgiri Hills in view of various violations at the site "which would shake the faith of the tribals."


The N. C Saxena Committee has also recommended action against Vedanta Alumina Refinery at Lanjigarh saying that it has illegally encroached 26 hectares of forest land. “This despite the fact that the environmental clearance was given on the condition that no forest land would be used,” the Committee had said.


All right thinking people of India dedicated to the sacred cause of preservation of India’s natural and mineral resources are fully aware of the fact that the Vedanta Resources Inc, a British registered company is wholly committed to the cause of endless loot and plunder of mineral resources of Orissa and many other forested hilly regions of India, reminiscent of the rapacious English East India Company of the 18th and 19th centuries.


The Dongaria tribals have been growing their own food on the Niyamgiri hills for generations. Dongaria tribal culture is sustainable in the true sense of the word, in that it is a way of living in which the indigenous people have been interacting with nature for hundreds of years without damaging the ecosystem. For the forest-dwelling locals, Vedanta's mining project would result in the demolition of the Dongria's centuries-old sacred grove on Niyamgiri, threatening their ancient way of life, right to water, food, livelihood and cultural identity.


In March 2009 the Dongaria and other tribes marched through dense forest to create a 17-km human wall along the base of Niyamgiri Hills to blockade the roads and thus to defend their sacred mountain and its biodiversity. This is a part of their sustained struggle to protect their traditional life style and livelihood. They are clear and firm about their objective of confronting the modern-day corporate terror and error unleashed BY a gangster company called ‘Vedanta’. This mining company seems to have bought up all the leading politicians of the Sonia Congress Party in Orissa. Likewise they have bought up the Patnaik Government of Orissa. Even though the Dongaria Kondh tribals are managing to hinder construction work, the new road has already reached the Dongaria village of Phuldumer, very close to the mine site.


One of the Dongaria Kondh tribal leaders from the village of Katraguma in the Kurli Panchayat in the area has raised this legitimate question: “How can we survive if our lands are taken away from us?” He is unable to understand as to how the source of their traditional livelihood can be mined for profit by a private corporate giant from Britain. He asserts that his people won't leave their land come what may, and that the hill tribal people will continue to resist every single attempt to evict them from their centuries old traditional tribal homelands.


Vedanta - a British company owned by London-based Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal - was launched on the London stock exchange as Vedanta Resources plc (VRP) in December 2003. What Vedanta signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Orissa government on 7 June 2003 to set up a 1-million-tonne alumina refinery, along with a 100-MW coal-fired power plant, at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore (just over US$800 million).


The major investors in Vedanta Resources include Barclays Bank (UK), Deutsche Bank (Germany) and ABN Amro (a consortium that includes the Dutch Government). The company plans to dig a vast open-cast bauxite mine in the Niyamgiri Hills to feed an alumina refinery that it has already built in the area, at Lanjigarh in south-west Orissa.


From Left to Right


(1) M. S. Mehta, Chief Executive (Executive Director)


(2) Navin Agarwal, Deputy Executive Chairman (Executive Director)


(3) Naresh Chandra, (Non-Executive Director)

Mr Naresh Chandra joined the board in May 2004. He was Union Home Secretary in India in 1990, Union Cabinet Secretary from 1990 to 1992, Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister of India from 1992 to 1995 and the Indian Ambassador to United States of America from 1996 to 2001.


(4) Anil Agarwal, Executive Chairman (Executive Director)

Mr Agarwal, who founded the Group in 1976, is also Chairman of Sterlite and is a Director of BALCO, HZL, and Vedanta Alumina Ltd. Since 1976 the Group has grown under his leadership, vision and strategy. Mr Agarwal has over 30 years’ experience as an industrialist.


(5) Aman Mehta, (Non-Executive Director)


(6) Euan Macdonald, (Non-Executive Director)


Since 2007, Vedanta has been seeking clearance for a six-fold expansion of its refinery and 721-hectare bauxite mining project. The bauxite project has been stalled by a forest law. Now the Union Minister Ramesh has stopped it permanently!!!


In the first week of March 2009 the Dongaria and other tribes marched through dense forest to create a 17-km human wall along the base of Niyamgiri Hills to blockade the roads and thus to defend their sacred mountain and its biodiversity. This is a part of their sustained struggle to protect their life source. They are preparing to confront the modern-day CORPORATE terror UNLEASHED BY a gangster company called ‘Vedanta’. This company has bought up all the leading politicians of the Sonia Congress Party. Likewise they have bought up the Patnaik Government of Orissa. Even though they are managing to hinder construction work, the new road has already reached the Dongaria village of Phuldumer, very close to the mine site.


THE ORISSA STATE GOVERNMENT STRONGLY BACKED THE PLAN TO MINE THE NIYAMGIRI HILLS AND EXPECTS THE PROJECT TO BRING DEVELOPMENT IN THE IMPOVERISHED KALAHANDI DISTRICT WHERE THE MINING SITES AND VEDANTA'S LANJIGARH ALUMINA REFINERY ARE LOCATED. Foreign investors are keen to gain control of Eastern India’s “mineral assets”, with promises of a new age of prosperity. Once these assets are fully exploited, the regions that were rich in minerals or oil, far from benefiting from such an extraction, are irreversibly and irretrievably launched into a vicious cycle of poverty and violence worse than anything seen before.


In November 2007, to the delight of the Dongaria tribal people, India's Supreme Court forbade Vedanta from mining the Niyamgiri Mountain. But it proved only a temporary reprieve: in August 2008 Sterlite, Vedanta's Indian subsidiary, came back with a somewhat modified proposal and was given the green signal by the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court case excluded Dongria opinion – one of the judges made an amazingly savage and racist comment that “tribal people have no place in this case”!!!


But the Dongaria Tribes are still putting up a brave fight. If mining goes ahead, two of India's strongest CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES will be overturned;


1. the right of a “primitive tribal group” to their territorial integrity and to decide on their own path of development (Schedule V of the Indian Constitution); and


2. the right to religious practices and beliefs, since the summit of this mountain is a sacred place of worship to the Dongaria Kondh's supreme deity, Niyam Raja.


According to environmental activists, the open-cast mine would also wreck the rich biodiversity of the thickly forested hills and disrupt key water sources that supply springs and streams in the area and feed two rivers that irrigate extensive farmland. It is well established that when a mountain has a bauxite cap it retains monsoon water, releasing it slowly throughout the year. But when the bauxite is mined, the mountain loses this water-retaining capacity. The surrounding area hardens and the fertility-promoting qualities go into reverse. Water from the mountains feeds 36 streams and two rivers - Vanshadhara and Nagabali - that thousands of people depend upon for their water needs and to irrigate their crops.


It is not only the tribal peoples who are threatened with total extinction. The entire Niyamgiri range which is made up of hills, peaks, valleys and gorges, is very picturesque and the dense forests stretch for miles connecting four districts. Elephants and Bengal tigers cross this range. Other animals found here are leopard, sloth bear, pangolin, palm civet, giant squirrel, mouse deer, langur, rabbit, four-horned antelope, sambhar and numerous types of snake and lizard. New species of birds, amphibians and plants continue to be discovered in the area. Because of its ecological importance a proposal has been made to declare it as a wildlife sanctuary. An entire ecosystem will be destroyed if mining activity by Vedanta Resources is allowed in this richly diverse eco-bowl.


It is once again ironic that the Dongaria's resolve to safeguard the very essence of their identity is being depicted as “anti-development” and the tribal people themselves as “primitive” and “backward”. The fact is that the only really sustainable lifestyles are those of indigenous communities and others. They live according to the principles of self-sufficiency that are characteristic of tribal societies, and whose values and religion are based upon respect for nature. For them, to sell their mountains for large-scale mining is an act of pure greed --- eating into the flesh of the sacred Mother Earth.


But for Vedanta Resources Plc such a philosophy holds no meaning. The mineral-rich earth is for them a resource to be exploited for corporate profit. Greed is the most essential part of their corporate policies and the flesh of the earth the perfect menu for fattening their balance sheets with filthy lucre. The unselfish motives of the “primitive” tribe of Dongaria are really a puzzle to them, a primitive obstacle to be overcome, if possible, or an inveterate tribal enemy to be obliterated, if necessary. Unfortunately for them, the tribal peoples of the area are not “civilized” and who refuse to listen to “reason” (threats and bribes offered with equal gusto!). The world waits with bated breath as the struggle between Goliath and David continues.


Flash floods, which are common here, will get aggravated by hilltop deforestation. A flash flood in Vamsadhara River can breach the red mud pond, causing disastrous wastewater spills into the river. The Orissa State Pollution Control Board has issued several warnings to Vedanta since its refinery trial started in 2006, calling its attention to the shoddy protective lining of the red mud pond that leeches wastewater into Vamsadhara River flowing next to it. Villagers use that water for drinking.


Green activists say the gravest concern pertains to water. Hilltop mining will dry up perennial water sources, while possible poor management of refinery wastewater could degrade surface water and pollute groundwater too. There is also concern about the huge quantities of water that the expanded refinery will consume daily.


In this context, Bhubaneswar-based environmentalist Biswajit Mohanty has rightly said: “Skin rashes and sores are common among residents. Some 40,000 truckloads of bauxite are transported to the refinery from outside Orissa per year, creating colossal air pollution arising from mud roads.”


Three-quarters of the targeted hill have thick forests. The 300 species of plants in them include 50 species of medicinal plants and trees, six of which are in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of threatened species. Apart from being an elephant reserve, these forests are also home to tigers, leopards, and barking deer.


In early November 2007, the world's second-largest sovereign pension fund, operated by the Norwegian government, sold all its shares in the London-listed mining major Vedanta Resources Plc, saying that investing in the company presented "an unacceptable risk of contributing to grossly unethical activities". Recently Vedanta has been seeing international investors sell their stakes in it due to ethical concerns over the Orissa project. Britain's Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust is the latest to leave, after the exit of the Church of England, the Norwegian government and Martin Currie Investment Management. International pressure to save the Dongria Kondh is mounting rapidly.







One of the Donghria Khond Tribals RAJENDRA VADAKA HAS DEFIANTLY DECLARED: “VEDANTA has come here to destroy the DONGRIA. We will drive them away. They don’t have any right to touch our mountains. Even if they behead us, we are not going to allow them to destroy our sacred mountain forest homeland. “



The Vedanta Resources Plc–-- a shady coterie of multinational corporate rodents --- is solely committed to the total obliteration of India’s mineral and oil resources.


Many people seem to be unaware of importance of Bauxite. It is the most important aluminium ore. This form of rock consists mostly of the minerals gibbsite Al(OH)3, boehmite γ-AlO(OH), and diaspore α-AlO(OH), in a mixture with the two iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite, and small amounts of anatase TiO2. Bauxite was named after the village Les Baux in southern France, where it was first recognized as containing aluminium and named by the French geologist Pierre Berthier in 1821.


Courtesy Maps of India.com

Map showing Bauxite Mines in India



The N C Saxena Committee pointed out how right from the beginning, the firm had FURNISHED FALSIFIED REPORTS to the Centre to seek clearance, and how the Orissa State officials ranging from the highest bureaucrats to the Collectors of two Districts either refused to enforce existing laws or simply colluded with the company to deny the tribals right over their lands.


The aluminium czar Anil Aggarwal's Vedanta company has illegally -- despite legal notices from the Orissa State Pollution Control Board -- begun building a refinery to produce 6 million tonnes of aluminium per annum instead of the 1 million tonnes per annum plant that it had got the green clearance for.


The no-holds-barred indictment by the N C Saxena committee of the state and private sector in the $1.7billion project brings out the short shrift given to concerns about tribal rights and environmental protection. It is significant also because it underlines the changed sensibilities of the lawless Naveen Patnaik Government of Orissa State towards the issues against the backdrop of Left-wing extremism and why Naxalites are finding it easy to influence alienated tribal belts. But the committee, even as it recommended that the mining project be disallowed, stopped short of asking for prosecution of the officials involved in what seems to be a blatant fraud that went unchecked for years. Union Minister for Enviroment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said: “The question of whom to prosecute is secondary. First, we have to consider the clearance.” Asked if the violations could be set right now, the Minister said, “WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO THE EXISTING CASE, IT WOULD BE A TRAGEDY THAT ONE VIOLATES LAWS AND STILL HAS A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY TO JUST PAY A PENALTY AND GET AWAY WITH IT LATER.”


There is no doubt whatsoever that the shamelessly corrupt Naveen Patnaik Orissa Government has proved itself to be as corrupt as the publicly discredited Janaki Vallabh Patnaik Congress Government. I have no doubt that the people of Orissa who in their infinite sagacity threw out the highly venal Janaki Vallabh Patnaik Government will also deal a similar electoral blow to the Naveen Patnaik Government.


The highly corrupt Naveen Patnaik Government of Orissa today termed as “unfortunate” the Centre's decision to reject environment clearance to Vedanta's USD 1.7 billion bauxite mining project in Kalahandi district.


I fully endorse the editorial opinion of The Daily Pioneer that withdrawing the bauxite mining clearances given to Vedanta Resources, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has served the cause of protecting the environment and the rights of indigenous people from corporate marauders who place profit above all else and are least bothered by the long-term damage that is caused in the guise of ‘industrialisation’. Industrialisation is not about laying to waste the nation’s resources; it is about harnessing them in a just and wise manner.


The Orissa Government owned Odisha Mining Corporation which is under the control of the highly corrupt Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik worked its way around the Forest Rights Act by submitting fake certificates, claiming that gram sabhas had agreed to the mining of Niyamgiri hills, held sacred by the Dongria tribe, being mined for bauxite. THE N.C SAXENA COMMITTEE REPORT RECORDS HOW THE ORISSA STATE GOVERNMENT FALSIFIED DOCUMENTS AND CONCEALED INFORMATION FROM THE UNION GOVERNMENT TO FACILITATE THE ALUMINIUM REFINERY IN MINING BAUXITE WHILE THE COMPANY ENCROACHED UPON GOVERNMENT AND TRIBAL LANDS WITH IMPUNITY.


This immoral and lawless Naveen Patnaik Government of Orissa State needs to be dismissed forthwith.


Dr. Subramanian Swamy

About One year ago Dr. Subramanian Swamy, that indefatigable and fearless fighter for saving the honour and chastity of Bharat Mata, now under the open assault and siege of global terrorist Islam, global evangelical Christianity, Indo-Chinese brand of Marxism and poisonous anti-Hindu Nehruvian secularism issued the following Press Statement:


“I demand that the Prime Minister drop Mr. P. Chidambaram from the Home Ministry because he is conflicted in his office, by his private interests, in the performance of his public duties.”


“I have documents with me to show that Mr. Chidambaram has had fiduciary and financial relations with Vedanta Resources Inc. as a paid Director on their Board as well as he was receiving fees for various legal opinion provided by him from time to time. He has also enjoyed at Vedanta Inc expense account his personal hospitality in London and provided with appropriate companionship there. Vedanta Inc has been paying the Maoists “silence” money on a commission basis for every wagon of ore shipped out of mines in Orissa. Hence how can Mr. Chidambaram be seen to be above board in dealing with Maoists?”


            P. Chidambaram                                        Naveen Patnaik

Partners in Corruption, political differences notwithstanding

I fully share the view of Dr Subramanian Swamy. Mr Chidambaram is as guilty and as culpable as Mr Naveen Patnaik in the wholly shady and reprehensible Vedanta-gate affair --- the Indian counterpart of the Watergate affair. The American citizens threw out President Nixon by raising the slogan of “Down with Watergate”. Likewise the citizens of Orissa must all come together and throw out Naveen Patnaik Government from power so that he can join the Vedanta Resources Plc as its non-working Chairman! He should derive his inspiration from that ‘exemplary’ civil servant Naresh Chandra who is one of the Directors of Vedanta Resources Plc





Tuesday, August 17, 2010

IS IT GAGGING OF THE PRESS? OR GAGGING OF NEWS BY THE PRESS?



V.SUNDARAM I.A.S.




DR. SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY
The only man fit to be the Prime Minister of India.



On 11-August-2010 Dr. Subramanian Swamy, President of Janata Party convened a Press Conference at Chennai. As the All India General Secretary (Ideology) of the Janata Party, I am presenting below a copy of the Press Note issued by Dr. Subramanian Swamy to the Press on that day which speaks for itself.


In the Press Note, Dr. Subramanian Swamy has stated that Rahul Gandhi is indulging in Himalayan corruption and that he is the recipient of the largest share of the bribe of about Rs.15,000 Crores in London under cover of payments to Consultants and Contractors under the ongoing Sonia Congress mega-fraud of Congresswealth (definitely not Commonwealth) Games Programme.



The Correspondents of all the major English and Tamil Newspapers in Chennai attended the Press Meet convened by Dr. Subramanian Swamy. I was shocked to see that not one of the correspondents raised any question regarding the Saga of Mega Corruption of Crown Prince Rahul Gandhi. I have the following questions regarding the sphinx-like silence of the Press in regard to the corruption charges leveled by Dr. Subramanian Swamy against Rahul Gandhi:
a) Who is gagging the Press in India in general and Tamil Nadu in particular?


b) Is it true that the gagging of the Press emanates from the evangelical Residence of firangi memsahib Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi?


c) Is it true that the comrade-in-arms of Sonia Gandhi in this antinational and antisocial act of gagging of the Press is that known Islamic Political wheeler-dealer Ahmed Patel who became famous in 2008 when the Sonia Congress Party started purchasing MP’s from opposition Parties to garner support for the Indo-American Nuclear Deal?


d) Is not gagging of news BY the Press in Chennai a direct consequence of the gagging OF the Press starting from the residence of the firangi memsahib Chairman of the UPA Coordination Committee in New Delhi?


e) Are we living in an undeclared State of Emergency today? Why are newspapers nervous about publishing news about firangi memsahib and her son and other members of her family? Are they afraid that they would get picked up in the night by plain clothed policemen sent by the Congress Bureau of Intimidation (CBI)?


f) Do you want a society in which newspapers have to operate under the fear of being put to sudden death by the Sonia Congress Government?


g) Do you want a society in which the larger public does not know what is taking place in vital parts of our apex national governance in New Delhi?


h) Why are the nervous men in the Press worshipping the False Gods of Material Success and Shallow Fame Today? Are they not ashamed of their ever quaking fear of the ruling cabal? Do they think that shame is “communal” and shamelessness is “secular”?


Please think about all these vital questions. If your answer is “NO, I don’t want that kind of Sonia Congress Society”, THEN FIGHT LIKE HELL EVERY INCH OF THE WAY. At 69 years, I still see Fearless Journalism as a noble and ennobling profession. It ought not to be a petty, creeping and crawling, shameless, and unabashed prostitution in search of Government advertisement revenues and financial bottom lines.


Truth and knowledge about crucial national issues can function and flourish only if mega-corruption of maha-criminals masquerading as mighty national leaders may freely be exposed without fear or favour. And corruption may go unchallenged if the current stage-managed dogma, no matter how widely accepted or clearly held, may not be questioned. A National Public Figure of Dr. Subramanian Swamy’s eminence cannot speak or write freely, reposing invincible faith in the stellar role of a virile and independent press, then all important public figures (not the artificial, hollow, stuffed and puffed up men and women like Dr Manmohan Singh and firangi memsahib!) would cease to think or talk freely. It is the inalienable, indivisible, inexorable and immutable right of every responsible citizen in India to challenge the Himalayan corruption and gargantuan public misdeeds of these petty men and women of straw, not merely by silent impotent thought. Thought like other human instincts will atrophy unless formally and regularly exercised. If gagging by the press prevents men from speaking or writing freely, then they will also cease to think freely. The test of real freedom of speech is readiness to allow it to men whose opinions seem to you to be wrong and even dangerous. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly will be empty phrases if their exercise must yield to unreasonable fear.

THOSE GREAT MEN AND WOMEN IN THE MEDIA WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR INDEPENDENCE FERVENTLY BELIEVED THAT THE FINAL GOAL OF THE MEDIA WAS TO MAKE MEN FREE TO DEVELOP THEIR FACULTIES; AND THAT IN THIS GIGANTIC TASK THE DELIBERATIVE FORCES SHOULD PREVAIL OVER THE ARBITRARY. They valued Liberty both as an End and as a Means. They believed Liberty to be the Secret of Happiness and Courage to be the Secret of Liberty. They believed that Freedom to Think as you will and to Speak as you Think are the Means indispensable to the discovery of Political truth; that without free speech and Assembly, Discussion would be futile; that with them, Discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to Freedom is an inert people; that Public Discussion is a Political Duty and that this should be the Fundamental Principle of the Indian Government in Post-Independent India. All these values cherished and upheld by our bold, fearless and intrepid pressmen in British India have been given a go-by by our slavish, supine and invertebrate pressmen in the media today. Their daily prayer for mean, mendacious and sordid living seems to be this today:

“Lead us from Mahatma Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi,

From Guru Gobind Singh to Dr Manmohan Singh,

From Rajaji to Karunanidhi,

From Manliness to Unmanliness,

From Communal Chastity to Secular Prostitution,

From Truth to Untruth,

From Democracy to Dictatorship,

From Courage to Cowardice,

From Liberty and Freedom to Servility and Slavery,

From Knowledge to Ignorance,

From Wisdom to Folly,

From Light to Darkness,

From Immortality to Sonia Congress Death!

The myriad millions of India have come to realize that they can get no justice at all from the servile, banal and stupid mass media --- both print and electronic. The irresponsible Indian Press is steeped in its commitment to drivel, duplicity and demeaning programming. Our pressmen seem to be no longer interested in the relentless pursuit of Truth, Information and Enlightenment. Like an alcoholic drunkard chasing alcohol everyday, our vicious men in the media seem to be in the hot pursuit of Misinformation, Disinformation, Dissimulation, Untruth and wholesale promotion of degrading public ignorance.

Our newsmen seem to be no longer interested in proper news gathering and responsible reporting. They are only interested in propaganda which is that branch of lying which often deceives their friends without ever deceiving their enemies. All the major English newspaper owners and editors are interested in printing and publishing only PAID NEWS. The correspondents in their bonded labour are interested only in disseminating their own personal political views and prejudices, totally divorced from terrestrial reality and objective reporting, as BASIC GROUND-LEVEL NEWS. Their daily frivolous reporting is nothing but cheap propaganda which again is a monologue which seeks not any response but only an echo. What is public is only their propaganda, what is secret is their serious moral corruption.

The double charge against the Indian Press may thus be stated: “Its calculated failure to inform the public better than it does is the evasion of its responsibility. Its failure to educate and elevate the public taste rather than following that taste like a blind, wallowing dinosaur is an abuse of its freedom.”

Thus our FOURTH ESTATE is in a state of utter moral disarray, spiritual collapse and irretrievable ruin today. Sonia Gandhi is monitoring this tottering Press everyday, every minute through her ill-gotten wealth and money power.







Sunday, August 15, 2010

63 YEARS AFTER OUR INDEPENDENCE or SWARAJ FROM WHENCE AND FOR WHOM




V.SUNDARAM I.A.S.

UPA II GOVERNMENT AND IT’S VOLUNTARY COMA


63 years after our independence, all the aam aadmis of India are working round the clock 24x7 only to keep firangi memsahib’s family in an unshakable position of unchallenged power derived from unsurpassed prosperity. I am presenting below a series of pictures to bring out the saga of service and self-sacrifice of Nehru-Indira Gandhi-Rajiv Gandhi-Sonia Gandhi-Rahul Gandhi-Priyanka Wadhera.


The Aam-Aadmi Beneficiary                      Rahul Gandhi’s future Aam-Aadmis!
of Sonia Congress Benedictiction

Homeless Aam-Aadmi                                    Farmer and child in Sonialand's
under Sonia Congress Rule                                            'suicidebelt'
                                                                          

Indian farmers up in arms in Sonialand                       French farmers up in arms 
                                                               during the French Revolution in  1789



  MARIE ANTOINETTE OF INDIA                               MARIE ANTOINETTE OF FRANCE

 

   Firangi memsahib’s humble abode              Aam-Aadmi’s magnificent palace

India’s anti-Hindu Congress Dynasty     An Aam Aadmi family at home
;      ;      Struggling below the poverty line
Farmers of India toiling for Sonia’s Family!            Visible rural child beneficiary
                                                                          Of Sonia UPA II Government’s
                                                                                Himalayan corruption!

SONIA AND HER WEDDING CAKE              ;       TRADITIONAL HINDU FARMER’S WEDDING

  
The "Royal" Family’s humble meal!            The sumptuous meal of India’s millions!


Chill penury of India’s millions after 63 years of Congress rule

Aam-aadmi’s luxurious transport!              Firangi memsahib’s poverty stricken
                                                           and poverty-embracing bullock cart!




Here is a prose poem in a true Bibilical style:


At the beginning was the disaster of firangi memsahib
firangi memsahib was with the UPA Government
And the disaster of UPA Government was firangi memsahib!
Where UPA II Government injustice becomes greater than we are
Where firangi memsahib’s injustice becomes swifter than we are
Where UPA II injustice becomes stronger than we are
HELP US NOT TO TIRE


Where UPA II Government injustice excels us
In knowledge and resources
Where firangi memsahib’s injustice excels us
In endurance and success
Where UPA II Government injustice becomes so great
That we shrink
At its glance
HELP US NOT TO DESPAIR

Where UPA II Government injustice speaks with the voices
Of justice and of power
Where firangi memsahib’s injustice speaks with the voices
Of benevolence and of reason
Where UPA II Government injustice speaks with the voices
Of moderation and of experience
HELP US NOT TO BECOME BITTER

And if we do despair
Help us to see that we are desperate
And if we do become bitter
Help us to see that we are becoming bitter
And if we shrink with fear
HELP US TO KNOW THAT IT IS FEAR
DESPAIR AND BITTERNESS AND FEAR

National destroyers - Yesterday,Today and Tomorrow!


Tomorrow August 15 2010, we would be completing 63 years after our Independence from British yoke. We are in the vicious grip of firangi memsahib’s Italian yoke!We seem to be in an irretrievable state of National Degradation. India today presents a general picture of cultural, ethical and spiritual malnutrition if not starvation. Vast sections of our population have lost all touch with the strengthening, invigorating and purifying spiritual traditions of our timeless culture. This is bad enough. This is sad enough. But what is worse and sadder still is that we have also failed to get ourselves ethically and spiritually re-nourished and re-strengthened by our own consciously chosen socio-political actions, consequent upon the attainment of our Independence as a free nation during the last five decades. The current malady in our society, if allowed to grow unchecked and uncontrolled, will only lead this country to an irretrievable chaos, turmoil and confusion.

The great philosopher-poet-king, Bharthruhari classified the human beings in any given society into four categories 1,300 years ago. According to him, in the first category, are the Sat-Purushas who are the good people, who always seek to promote the interests of others even by sacrificing their own interest. They practice the ethics of self- effacement and universal love, of renunciation and service. They constitute a very small minority in any society and they are the people who can live up to the teachings of Saints like Adi Shankara or Gauthama Budha or Mahaveera. They are the Salt of the earth. In the second category are the Samanyas who constitute the generality of the people and who strive to promote the welfare of others as long as it does not involve the sacrifice of their own self-interest. This, in modern parlance, would mean those who seek enlightened self-interest---the middle class, the men controlling business and men occupying high positions in society. In the third category, are people who destroy the welfare of others in order to safeguard their own self-interest and they are described by Bharthruhari as Manavarakshasas, veritable human demons. These people indulge in all kinds of anti-social practices inherited from the past and also drawn from the present. People indulging in corruption, food and drug adulteration and such other anti-social elements would come in this category. Most of our politicians in India today would come under this category. In the fourth and last category, are the people who are absolutely unethical and who are given to unprovoked and wanton anti-social violence and destruction as a daily way of life.


In the light of Bharthruhari’s analysis above, let us look at the Indian situation. The main problem in India today arises from the uncontrolled and unregulated mass manufacture of human beings belonging to the third and fourth categories described by Bharthruhari and this trend has been aggravated, especially since the attainment of our political freedom on account of the perverted functioning of our democratic system promoted, sustained and maintained by the Nehru-Indira-Rajiv-Sonia Congress Party. This is what poses a real challenge to our education and religion, our politics and social life today. This challenge has to be met by mobilizing all the intellectual, ethical and spiritual resources of the nation inherited from our own past and also acquired from modern experience. We must take conscious and deliberate steps to preserve and nourish the ever present and small minority of the first category of human beings described as Sat-Purushas by Bharthruhari and also described by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavath-Gita and Buddha in Dhammapada. The Samanyas belonging to the second category have to be ethically fortified, spiritually strengthened, educationally well-trained and materially supported to pursue the path of enlightened self- interest without coming into conflict with our vision and image of renascent India of the future. It is a sad but irrefutable fact that people belonging to this category have become mute and helpless spectators of wholesale and cold-blooded slaughter of all our traditional values in our national life. The current trend of endless and uncontrolled growth of people belonging to the third category, the Manavarakshasas, must be severely restrained and ultimately thinned out. Finally, the large scale emergence of people belonging to the fourth category who are the enemies of all mankind must be completely prevented. All these can be achieved only by refashioning and restructuring our educational system. The present educational system in our Schools and Colleges has completely failed in giving proper training and guidance to our youths and children who are going to be the leaders of tomorrow.


Knowledge does not comprise all that which is contained in the large term of ‘education’. The feelings are to be disciplined ; the passions are to be restrained; true and worthy motives are to be inspired; a profound religious feeling is to be instilled and a pure morality inculcated under all circumstances. All this is comprised in ‘education’. As Swami Vivekananda said: “Let us strive to bring light to the world, light to the poor, and more light to the rich, for they require it more than the poor. Bring light to the ignorant and more light to the educated, for the vanities of education of our time are tremendous.”


What we need today more than any time in our past history is moral leadership, founded on courage, intellectual integrity and complete sense of balance.


We have a large number of educated, highly specialised and capable men in our country today. But they are all working in an uncoordinated and directionless manner like the blind men of Hindustan groping in the dark, without being inspired by a larger vision and animated by a larger purpose. They should remember the saying of Albert Einstein who was a specialist among specialists and who, at the same time, could be a specialist among generalists and a generalist amongst specialists. He said: “It is essential that a student acquires an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise, he---- with his specialised knowledge---- more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person”.

The tragedy of post-independent India is that we have lost our sensitivity to and sensibility towards the Quality of Life and become oblivious of the sense of values that should enrich and sustain it. All right thinking people in India are fully aware of the many things which are going wrong in India today. And yet there is a feeling of frustration, cynicism, helplessness, uncertainty and impotence everywhere at all levels of society.

Growing indiscipline everywhere and at all levels, complete erosion of all cultural, ethical, moral and religious values, the ever rising tide of communalism, regionalism, casteism and linguistic chauvinism, Himalayan corruption eating into the vitals of national life, total want of inspiring and enlightened leadership in all fields of national endeavour and finally a mounting wave of violence in all parts of India---- these and other destabilizing, disturbing and disintegrating factors have raised doubts in many responsible quarters in India and abroad about the very survival of India as a nation.
WE HAVE TO REALISE WHAT IT IS THAT IS THREATENED WITH DESTRUCTION AND WHAT IT IS THAT WE ARE CALLED UPON TO DEFEND?

As we are just at the beginning of the 21st century, what is the standard to which we as a nation should repair? Upon this STANDARD, it is written: ‘You have lived the easy way; henceforth, you will live the hard way’.
It is written: ‘You came into a great heritage made by the insight and sweat and blood of inspired and devoted and courageous men; thoughtlessly and in utmost self-indulgence you have all but squandered this glorious inheritance. Now only by the heroic virtues which made this inheritance possible can you restore it again’.

It is written: ‘You took the good things for granted. Now you must earn them again’.
It is written:For every right that you cherish, you have a duty which you must fulfill. For every hope that you entertain, you have a task that you must perform. For every good that you wish to preserve, you will have to sacrifice your comfort and your ease. There is nothing for nothing any longer’.

Let us remind ourselves how in the last fifty five years we have at critical junctures taken always the road of the least effort and the method of the cheapest solution and of greatest self-indulgence.

So we are here today. We are where we are because whenever we had a choice to make, we had chosen the alternative that required the least effort at the moment.

THERE IS ORGANISED MECHANISED EVIL LET LOOSE IN THE INDIA OF TODAY. What has made possible its victories is the lazy, self-indulgent materialism, the amiable, lackadaisical, footless, confused complacency of free India after 1947.

We have dissipated, like wastrels and drunkards the inheritance of freedom and order that came to us from hard working, thrifty, faithful, believing and brave men.

The disaster in the midst of which we are living today is a disaster in the character of men. It is a catastrophe of the soul of a whole generation which has forgotten, has lost and has renounced the imperative and indispensable virtues of laborious, heroic and honourable men.

To these virtues we have to return in the ordeal through which we are now passing or all that still remains will be lost and all that we attempt, in order to defend it, will be in vain. WE SHALL HAVE TO TURN FROM THE SOFT VICES TO THE STERN VIRTUES, REMEMBERING THAT THE HARD WAY IS THE ONLY ENDURING WAY.


The crying national need of the hour is to substitute morality for egoism; honesty for dishonesty; principles for expedients and usages and precedents; duties for improprieties masquerading as proprieties; the empire of reason for the casual tyranny of caprice; dignity for insolence; nobleness for vanity; love of public glory for the love of filthy lucre; good people for ‘high society’; merit for intrigue; creative genius for brilliant manipulation; the charm of ‘high’ contentment for the satiety of ‘low’ pleasure; the majesty of man for noble lineage; a vigorous and happy people for a wretched nation of servile people.


In short the nation as a whole should uphold in a virile manner the virtues of a strong Republic that will replace the soft vices and absurdities of a perverted parliamentary democracy. We have to put an end to both ‘Parliamentary Monarchy’ and ‘Parliamentary Anarchy’. By ‘Parliamentary Monarchy’ I mean a system of hereditary Government like Monarchy which survives by manipulating the apparatus of Parliament to serve and suit the private interests of one family or one small group as the case may be. By ‘Parliamentary Anarchy’ I have in my mind the conditions of anarchy and lawlessness created by elected Members in the Legislative Assemblies in various States and the Lok Sabha in New Delhi. We have to usher in a new era of ‘ACCOUNTABLE PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY’ in India in order to open out to our people opportunities for a fuller and richer life. In order to make this happen we have to have enlightened and awakened dictatorship of the people, by the people and for the people.


At the beginning was the suitcase. The suitcase was with cabinet minister. The cabinet minister was suitcase. We have to put an end to this system of Government of suitcase-ability, by suitcase-ability, for suitcase-ability. By ‘Vicious Cycle of Suitcase-ability’, I mean the operation of a circular constellation of forces---economic and non-economic, religious and cultural, social and sociological---acting and reacting upon one another in such a manner so as to keep the Indian Nation in general and the Government(s) in India in particular in a state of self-preserving and self perpetuating suitcase-ability.

A great poem entitled ‘what happens’ graphically sums up the wretched position in India today:

It has happened
and it goes on happening
And will happen again
if nothing happens to stop it.


The innocent know nothing
because they are too innocent
And the guilty know nothing
because they are too guilty.


The poor do not notice
because they are too poor
And the rich do not notice
because they are too rich.


The stupid shrug their shoulders
because they are too stupid
And the clever shrug their shoulders
because they are too clever.


The young do not care
because they are too young
And the old do not care
because they are too old.


That is why nothing happens
to stop it.
And that is why it has happened
and goes on happening and will happen again.


Are we going to be wise enough and brave enough to bring about a ‘Total Revolution’ in India in the immediate future?

Post Script:
I served as the District Collector and Magistrate of the then un-bifurcated Tirunelveli District during Indira Gandhi’s draconian Emergency in 1976-77. I used to get a weekly newsletter called ‘OPINION’ published by Astad Dinshaw Gorwala from Bombay who had served earlier in the Indian Civil Service (ICS) during the days of the British Raj.

A.D. Gorwala is one of the many unsung heroes of modern India. Born in 1900 in the small Parsi community, Gorwala joined the prestigious Indian Civil Service (ICS) in 1924 and served in the Northwest province of Sindh and elsewhere. It was Gorwala who established Bombay's food rationing system during the World War II, a system that still operates, though with falling efficiency now.

After Indian Independence, A.D Gorwala quit the Indian Civil Service (ICS) after differences with the ministers and became a journalist. His critical articles were published in several newspapers including The Times of India. Despite freedom of expression being a fundamental right its unfettered exercise was always subject to some form of informal censorship even in the days of Jawaharlal Nehru. A. D. Gorwala's column in The Times of India written under the pseudonym “Vivek” was discontinued at Nehru's insistence for it was too critical of him and no other newspaper was ready to publish A.D. Gorwala's column. This compelled A.D. Gorwala to start his own weekly Newsletter in 1960 which he named ‘OPINION’ to exercise his right to free expression to publicise his opinions. (Its annual subscription was Rs.2.) It was a unique 2-page back-to-back cyclostyled ‘paper’ that was held in considerable awe in its time. A.D. Gorwala fought for the citizens’ fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. But that was exactly what the insecure dictator Indira Gandhi wanted to suppress. The veteran Gorwala showed great ingenuity in keeping his newsletter ‘Opinion’ in circulation until the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting got the Postal Department to refuse to carry the copies of that newsletter. In the fullness of time Indira Gandhi received her Divine retribution in the manner and measure required for all the atrocities she had perpetrated against the nation.

Through the medium of ‘OPINION’, A.D. Gorwala, a man of legendary integrity, fought a long battle against corruption in the 1960’s and the first half of 1970’s till the introduction of  Emergency by Indira Gandhi in June 1975.

During the state of Emergency declared by that petty Indian dictator Indira Gandhi, the authorities, which had imposed press censorship in the country, ordered 'Opinion' to be shut down. In the last issue of ‘OPINION’ before it was shutdown for ever by Indira Gandhi, A.D Gorwala wrote fearlessly as follows:

“THE CURRENT INDIRA REGIME, FOUNDED ON JUNE 26, 1975, WAS BORN THROUGH LIES, NURTURED THROUGH LIES, AND FLOURISHED BY LIES. THE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT OF ITS BEING IS THE LIE. CONSEQUENTLY, TO HAVE A TRUTH-LOVING, STRAIGHT THINKING JOURNAL TO EXAMINE IT WEEK AFTER WEEK AND POINT OUT ITS FALSEHOODS BECOMES INTOLERABLE TO IT”.

No better exhortation to writers and publicists to preserve their integrity in the face of a dictatorial Government’s pressure can be found than in the following blazing and bracing words of A.D.Gorwala; “ The urge towards conformity, the pressure for turning all thought into the same mould, the resentment against bonafide criticism, more especially if valid and difficult to refute, is often strongly present in the decadent India of today. In these circumstances, on the publicist, speaker or writer, a grave responsibility rests. He must tell the truth as he sees it. It is not for him to endeavour to win the confidence of statesmen by altering the truth and suiting his words to the political aims of their policy. Nor must he allow the power and influence of owners of great wealth and mighty institutions to affect his task, whatever the good or harm they can do him. HIS PRIMARY AND ONLY DUTY IS TO THE PEOPLE. THEM HE MUST SERVE, WHETHER OR NOT THEY SUSTAIN HIM.”

These great and deathless words of A.D. Gorwala are my permanent beacon lights. I do not know whether my writings are influencing or affecting Public Opinion to any extent at all. And yet at the same time I can say that I have saved myself from some inner triviality and shame and this to myself has been some achievement. JAI HIND