While 'channel suffering' (some of my friends also call it channel surfing) a few days back, I was arrested by the face of Anil Kakodkar, the former chief of the Atomic Energy Commission and perhaps the last word in things nuclear in India. Sadly (for me), the interview was in its last few frames and I was chagrined that I couldn't follow what the learned man was saying about things that had caught the public's imagination in a scary manner in the post-Fukushima weeks. However, one phrase caught my ear, and that was "educating the public" about nuclear energy and its advantages, and perhaps about its other long-term plus points.
That was the note on which the presenter too wound up the discussion, and with these words ringing in my ear, I came to a decision--get some nuke education, ASAP. So I set out trawling the Net and talking to 'educated' people, mostly my friends who are scientists with the space organization, some knowledgeable medical doctors and army officers, and any and every body who could/would give me some additional nuggets of information and knowledge about the somewhat mystical science of the nucleus in its split avatar.
One thing that struck me (perhaps because of a thick skull and little within that) was that it is an esoteric science that is not very clear about matter/s when you get down to the nitty-gritty and also it has more questions than answers to critical issues--most of which get grouped under the broad rubric of things that science will 'soon' have answers for. Nu-clear is 'clear' enough, but it is not the old-world clarity that we all know and cherish, but something totally 'nu' that only the cognoscenti (pretend to!) understand fully.
When you travel back in time, you could see that it all started in Germany back in the late 1930s with the discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and others. Germany was into serious nuclear research from then on, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_nuclear_energy_project) with scientists seeking to understand matter and energy and such mysteries. At the end of WW-II, the rocket and atomic scientists and equipment were quietly transplanted to the US (the Russians too got their share), with gifted scientists like Oppenheimer (the 'father' of the A-bomb: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer ) and others leading the research. But for a government that was seeking the ultimate weapon of mass destruction to dominate the world with an unprecedented fear factor, the development of the A-bomb was top priority (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project). While developing a weapon to kill, one doesn't stand on fine considerations and try to understand the subtler nuances. You then are not far from the shady terrorist fabricating a home-made IED (Improvised Explosive Device) for nefarious purposes--you want to carry it about with some amount of safety, but once it is out of your hand, you dont bother how it kills -- so long as it kills effectively. We all know what this kind of 'research' led to. The first A-bomb was tested on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_weapons ) Hardly a month later, in August, the US 'tested' the little-understood technology at the earliest opportunity in Japan--twice.
This sort of a 'shady' past is inseparably tied to nuclear science. ( 'Old Configuration, New Context' -- K S Jacob, The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article1685224.ece?homepage=true )The primarily military nature of nuclear R & D had created this aura of mystery. Transparency was something that was missing all along and safety was an afterthought in the military sector, despite what the 'insiders' will tell you. In the post cold-war era, the substantial investments made in the nuclear field were set to be recouped by companies mainly in the West by re-engineering the systems for power production. That nuclear power was touted as a 'clean' and 'advanced' option was in itself one of the best PR coups of the modern era orchestrated by the nuclear corporates. How quickly the world had forgotten Hiroshima and Nagasaki ! It was now fashionable to 'go nuclear'. Obviously, as is often the case with "developmental decisions" worldwide, the questions here were not technological, but 'economical', which in simple terms meant "commissions".
But the complacency of the world was shaken by the Three Mile Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident) and Chernobyl (http://www.greenfacts.org/en/chernobyl/index.htm ) nuclear accidents. But the "fallout" was short-lived. The nuclear industry PR wizards were able to 'contain' the information damage much before the nuclear spill itself could be contained fully! Ultimately they succeeded in fully dismissing safety and other concerns from the minds of the public, and promoting nuke power again, brushing aside risks and anxieties. And the governments (translation: greedy politicians) once again embarked on a spree of 'going nuke'. And the latest and perhaps the greatest victim of that PR barrage was Japan itself. As a people, it had experienced the horrors of the nuclear holocaust and have suffered for generations. But watch how their pacifist and anti-nuclear stand was watered down and how they were 'sold' so many nuclear power plants as a 'safe' option to power their burgeoning power needs. Japan has once again been cursed by the nuclear genie unleashed from the proverbial bottle. Post-Fukushima, many questions remain unanswered.
Where are the experts now who said that it was all safer than the safest? Where are all those nuke wizards who knew how to get the nuclear 'genie' back into the bottle when it sort of misbehaved? What are their definite answers to the worried questions of the public at the receiving end? What is the difference between an A-bomb and the radiation from a nuke plant that has gone haywire? Well, they will tell you one is military and it is part of an act of war; this is pure civilian...and as a result probably a lot 'softer' in its fallout... God!
It is in the post-Fukushima context that one has to take the words of pundits that the general public needs to be "educated" about the nuclear options. ( http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article1557377.ece )
If one is to go by the volume of 'education' that the nuclear lobby has till date foisted upon the world's vulnerable public, and its quality vis-a-vis the truth about the nuclear option, one would term it not exactly education. Fortunately the English language has many words to convey different shades of meaning. In totalitarian states and such other places, they speak of "re-education" to make the citizen tread 'happily' the line of new thoughts and ideologies. Nuclear 'education' too is somewhat in that class. Indoctrination, in my humble opinion, would be a more honest and a more truthful word to denote that.
But I do not want to be a member of the 'thought police' and so I do not think it is my duty to 'educate' you regarding the ideal nature of nuke power. Rather, permit me share with you what all I learned in the meantime.
The Indian government's brinkmanship at the time of the nuke deal with the US and how it survived and went ahead with the deal by forging new local deals by 'spending good money' has been leaked well and truly by Wikileaks. Another hurried nuke deal was struck with France in order to prop up the troubled French AREVA and this led to the brouhaha over the Jaitapur power project. In a country like India where "cut and paste" artists supply any number of environmental impact assessments (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1607058.ece) and other 'studies', including seismic and other critical data, it is not difficult for the 'powers that be' to paint a rosy picture of all being safe and environment friendly and pro-people and pro-development on the strength of such 'cooked-up' studies and reports. This has happened in the case of Jaitapur too despite massive public protests led by people like retired Supreme Court Judge P B Sawant and others. (http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/interview_we-dont-want-to-negotiate-on-jaitapur-plant_1517634)
Jaitapur is a quiet place with a great diversity of wildlife and with Nature probably at her best. The Madhban plateau on which the giant nuclear plants will be built is the largest coastal plateau in the Konkan with a unique biodiversity. But it will no more be like that if we let the energy Czars have their way. 40,000 people will be displaced from their homes and lands, their livlihoods destroyed, countless tigers, elephants and hundreds of other species 'erased' and the landscape levelled into an arid moonscape. All in the rush to build the mega EPR (the European Pressurized-water Reactor, also called Evolutionary Power Reactor)... which has NOT YET been built or tested fully ANYWHERE in the world ??!!!??? A ticking time-bomb waiting for a seismic incident or a tsunami to unleash its destruction far and wide. Do we need to be the guinea pigs in this mega experiment, this mega-disaster-in-the-making???
Each of the giant Jaitapur reactors will have a capacity of 1,650 Megawatts of electrical power, and the six reactors together will output just short of 10,000 MW of electricity. Great! But there is another side to it too. Atomic reactors are "hot" devices; REALLY hot ones. The thermal output of each reactor is about 5,000 Megawatts, and that means a total of 30,000 Megawatts of heat will be generated. Since their conversion efficiency is at best between 25 and 30 per cent, approximately two-thirds of their energy will be dumped into the sea and a smaller per centage into the air as waste heat. Did you say global warming? This will be some sort of a massive local 'warming' that will play havoc with fisheries (the livelihood of most of Jaitapur's poor locals; but then you have GOT to make some sacrifices for development!) and affect the weather and our lives in unprecedented and unforeseen ways.
Experts have warned that the higher 'burnup' in the EPR, a design ploy to increase the 'productivity' of the reactor, may result in a thinning of the fuel cladding, making it prone to early failure. A study by the French power utility EDF has reported that the toxicity from the radioactive waste of the EPR is four times that of ordinary reactors, and is especially high in radioactive Iodine and Bromine, which stay at dangerous levels of radioactivity for over...no, not a hundred years, but more like a million years.
Today in almost every 'civilized' country (including India!) they have rules and regulations against dumping waste. Before you junk your car or even your PC, you have to conform to many rules that specify how to get rid of all that dangerous waste material without damaging the environment. But all those pollutants are "chicken feed" when you compare them to nuclear waste. Nature can in certain ways tackle even worst pollutants. Areas devastated by giant oil spills have shown a re-emergence of life forms and 'normalcy' after just a few years. Man-made chemicals are perhaps the exception here (including plastics) when Nature concedes total defeat. But what about the accumulating cache of nuclear waste that goes on piling up over the years as the plants operate? Even without any tsunami or quakes to complicate issues, the accumulated nuclear waste challenges safe storage and safe disposal/re-use/recycling. The nuke lobby says they will be safely stored until science finds a solution/use "tomorrow". A team of Japanese anti-nuke pacifists on a global mission has compared the nuke plants to houses without toilets for waste disposal. What will be the quality of life in such a place? But lack of toilets will only drive you nuts or give you dysentery, not maim you for life right from the womb, and till Kingdom come.
In the case of Jaitapur too it is not clear where the nuclear waste emanating from all the reactors will be dumped. The plant is estimated to generate 300 tonnes of waste each year. And the French EPR reactor waste will have about four times as much radioactive Bromine, Iodine, Caesium, etc, compared to that from an ordinary pressurized water reactor like India's Trombay unit. In fact details slowly emerging out of Fukushima (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-tech-and-agri/article1566421.ece) speak of a ten year gap of safety regimes being tested or verified. Also, reports speak now of the dangers posed by the massive storage of nuclear waste --stored "casually" near the reactor in small pools. One expert has called that a greater threat than if the reactor itself were to melt. The details of neglect that have slowly 'leaked out' are worse than the radiation leaks, and they are appalling in the extreme. And, mind you, all that has happened in Japan; a technology-minded and disciplined society like Japan, and one with a 'healthy respect' for things nuclear. But bureaucratic short-cuts and industrial apathy oriented to mere profitability played havoc at Fukushima, and an emergency of frightening proportions is unreeling fast before our very eyes--one that the world has been reassured again and again will never happen.
In the context of Jaitapur, right from the beginning there were voices of concern that were brushed aside by the "powers that be", the foremost of which is the PMO, and then the nuke lobby and its middle men. The Tata Insitute of Social Sciences came down heavily on the project for its negative social and environmental impact. ( http://www.indianexpress.com/news/jaitapur-nproject-sitting-on-high-severity-quake-zonetiss/730737/ ) But the study has been rubbished by the NPCIL, the Nuclear Power Coporation, which will build and operate the plants. (http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/10/stories/2011011058922000.htm)
It is interesting in this context to listen to the eye-opening revelations of Dr Gopalakrishnan, former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board:
“... The AERB's disaster preparedness oversight is mostly on paper and the drills they once in a while conduct are half-hearted efforts which amount more to a sham.....
In the case of earthquake engineering, the Nuclear Power Corporation strategy is to have their favourite consultants cook up the kind of seismicity data which suit them.....
There is practically no independent verification of their data or design methodologies. A captive AERB which reports to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) makes the overall nuclear safety management in India worthless.....”
That, coming from a person like him who was definitely in the know of things, should shock us into some sort of action against the casual, "at-any-cost" approach of the nuke lobby. The 'cut-and-paste experts' are active to serve the interests of the 'government' and the nuke lobby, whether it is environmental impact or seismic safety or nuclear dangers.
---> http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/comment_why-should-jaitapur-be-made-a-guinea-pig-for-untested-reactor_1520843
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1555422.ece
Now what about even a truthful and factual study? Have we achieved that scientific certainty when we could with some amount of surety predict the ways of nature? The present conditions, including seismic and weather, are no guarantees for future safety. It is interesting to listen to a voice of sanity as Gopalkrishna Gandhi examines the need for 'long-term learning' from the Fukushima fallout. (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article1586399.ece ). Surely the public will learn from history and will be guided by their more knowledgeable peers. But our 'leaders' want to 'sell' us progress at any cost, and pocket their 'share' with no qualms.
Have the proponents of nuke power seriously looked at alternatives? India is so placed that she is rich in many sources of power. Hydel (not environment-threatening mega dams, but mini- and micro-hydel power plants for local needs), wind, solar and now hydrogen-based power. All these are safer at any time than nukes, and with some focussed research, could be harnessed to supply enough power for our immediate and future needs. What is needed is the will, the political will to do that. Instead, in our country the political will is to pursue easy money from 'imports', whether we need it or not, whether it is a white elephant or a mammoth of some other hue. The Indian setup is full of such intentional 'starvation deaths' of successful indigenous enterprises in order to benefit somebody somewhere far away...of course, with the right kind of 'commissions'. The latest such casualties were the Indian vaccine manufactories, prestigious institutions working to full satisfaction and with an enviable track record, that were closed down on the whim of our "minister for health"! (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1510997.ece ) So let us strongly root for an exploration of alternative energy strategies with redoubled vigour--NOW.
When it comes to nuke power, the French are in the forefront, with most of their energy needs supplied by nuke plants. They have no choice as their other energy resources are virtually nil. But when you look at the nuke 'market', the US has a strong presence, with the French being only a second-level player. (Remember, practically all the Japanese nuke plants were supplied by US firms, including the ill-fated ones at Fukushima.) Both the French and the Americans fall over each other to reassure the purchasers about the safety and superiority of their systems. But look at what happens when the French try to sell their 'third generation' advanced nuke power plants to the US. There is a huge hue and cry (http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_59795.shtml ) about endangering the lives of Americans with sub-standard and untested technology! This is probably the best example of doublespeak that one may come across--the Americans are pushing their own 'Fukushima-standard' technology around the world, but when it comes to building one on their soil, they are scared stiff ! If only there was the sale of a US reactor to France would we learn of its inherent dangers from a suitably strident French outcry!
However, disinterested readers could easily glean critical information after a careful reading of the above article and afterwards they will be in a "better educated" position so far as the unproven technology of EPR is concerned, and how dangerous advocacy for them can be. I must urge you to spend quality time reading the above article by Ms Cathy Garger at Axis of Logic.
However, what stood out like a sore thumb was the fact that the concern of the US goverment for 'people' (and, for that matter, democracy and other high-flown ideals) is confined to within their nation's borders, and when it comes to protecting the commercial interests of American companies even at the risk of millions of lives of innocents, they play another tune. If someone could dig up the 'deals' made by GE with Japan for the sale of Fukushima and other reactors, it would make for some sordid reading. This is obvious when you look at the lengths to which they went to twist the arm of the Indian government - I am sure you had your favourite reads of the Wikileaks "India cable-gate" series. Activist Gopal Krishna has made a good case against the Jaitapur project, and I guess your nuke eduction wont be complete without a look at it. (http://www.rediff.com/news/column/why-the-jaitapur-nuclear-plant-must-be-opposed/20101229.htm )
Advocates for nuke power say that it is the most viable and cost-effective approach for clean power. How true is that? The cost per mega watt of installed capacity for the EPR is over Rs 20 crore, compared to Rs 4 crore to Rs 5 crore for a coal-based plant and Rs 7-9 crore for Indian-designed boiling water reactors, according to Delhi Science Forum chief Prabir Purakayastha. But one look at the trouble-plagued and delayed first French EPR at Olkiluoto in Finland, begun in 2005 and still not completed nor commissioned, tells you that cost over-runs and escalations will ultimately make the energy economically unviable. You can imagine how the whole thing will materialize in a country like India.
A glow of hope in this dark scenario is that the German financier has backed out of the Jaitapur project on account of "reputational risk"--that means, they dont want to be seen supporting such 'anti-people' projects. (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/145949/german-bank-pulls-jaitapur-nuclear.html ) Germany till recently was an advocate of nuke power. But the policy has cost the present government dearly in the wake of increasing public protest against extending the service life of existing nuke plants in Germany. Now the German policy is to take everything nucler with a large pinch of salt. Greenpeace, the pro-environment protest group too has interesting details about the project. (http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2010/03/nuclear_news_edf_nuclear_react.html )
Whatever be the negatives you or anybody can dish up, the govenment remains "committed" to providing its people with the latest and the greatest. (http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_congress-signals-commitment-for-jaitapur-nuclear-power-project_1519966 ) How could one fault such altruism?! Forget the commissions they have pocketed, and look at the growth rate the country will achieve with all that cheap and abundant power!! Our ministers, from the top down, are singing the praises of nuke power and are set to worship at these modern temples of power, come what may. Politicians are naturally power crazy, and Megawatts of nuclear 'power' are likely to supercharge them with a strange 'high' and make them forget all else. But when ultimately the reactor core starts going 'hyper-critical' and radiation comes leaking invisibly in search of living, breathing flesh to sear it into the agony of a painful death for no fault of yours, don't look around for all those 'yeah-sayers' to save you. Even if they are around, they are sure to survive somehow as their thick skin is likely to be impervious even to the nuclear radiation; at worst, you could expect a mutation of the political species into something much more abominable.
So take your nuclear education seriously and make up your mind whether you need it. REALLY need it in your soil, in your backyard. If the Americans or the French are so keen to build nuke power stations, let them build it in THEIR backyards and sell us the power. (It will be easier to invent a way to transmit power over great distances using some new-fangled tech than inventing a safe use for nuke waste!)Do you want to be a guinea pig in the biggest nuke experiment of all time?
It is your life, and the lives of your loved ones...and also the lives of your dear, beloved countrymen. Don't play dangerous nuclear roulette with your lives and with Nature and make this beautiful earth a radiation graveyard. And dont be too sure Anna Hazare will undertake another fast to save you and the country!
IT IS ONE FOR ALL, AND ALL FOR ONE --all, except the above thick-skinned ones!
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Monday, April 11, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
TRYST WITH DESTINY -- A SEQUEL
Fast rewind to another century, another time, another situation -- and another man!
But the similarities with the present should shock any upright, right-thinking, honest Indian.
--- A selfish and autocratic government that ignores and suppresses the rights and aspirations of its citizens, a siphoning away of the vast resources of the country into alien coffers, rampant 'double-speak', tricks of the trade like 'divide and rule', a "democratic championing" of the downtrodden minorities, laws rules and regulations to protect the government's own interests, threats of rightful protests being treated as sedition ..... the list could go on and on.
Surely we are talking of the India of the British Raj days. But it is not difficult to detect the similarities with the present situation or the tenor of the government. At the most what one would need to do is to rephrase some of the things to put them into the proper choronological perspective.
To those of a generation now somewhat long in the tooth, the pre-Independence scenario is all too familiar. Today those very epochal events that served to shape this great nation are only vague commentaries in the cavalierly textbooks that students cram to somehow get through the ten/twelve years of schooling so that they could sit for the "Entrance" exam and fulfil their destiny of being little better than info-coolies or medics to hand-hold the aging West. For today's "gen-text" (most of whose fathers were little more than mischievous gleams in the eyes of THEIR fathers and mothers at the time all that and the famous Tryst with Destiny happened!), it is mere text that has no contemporary relevance, especially in today's neo-liberal world without walls where chasing their destinies means being ready with skill-sets that have a demand. The parents who egg on their beloved children (oops! child!) sadly have no idea about how over the past decades a liberal education has deteriorated to little more than mere specialized training to impart 'skill-sets'. Add to that the Government's knee-jerk reactions to things like Lelyveld's book on the Mahatma, and the alacrity with which a ban order is slapped on it--which somehow promote the implanted poisonous comment that Gandhiji is "not all that great as he is made out to be" as he too was open to many "things". Dont blame the younger generation if they think that the past was not all that great. For them it is at best a distant unreal chimera.
But as they say, history repeats itself and historians repeat each other, ad nauseum. But unfortunately it is not the lot of mankind to learn from history. And today's 'truant' schoolboy has only his parents to blame if he is a stranger to history, and is more at home with other more 'utilitarian' studies. But he is fortunate that he has better and more "connected" tools to enable him to explore history and more, and share and interact with his peers. I urge the younger generation to do that NOW with a vengeance and come to their own conclusions. My job is merely to tell you what to look for, to ask to you look again and think again and see "the wood for the trees", to make comparisons and then, well, to ACT !!
If you read that first para again, and put it into the present context, you would agree that it pretty well reflects what is happening around us. Period. But I had in mind what the Brits were doing in pre-Independent India. Believe me, history is more entertaining than any fanciful novel you might have read recently. Just look at the example of the ridiculous "salt legislation" that the Brits dreamed up--so that their ships could sail with stabilizing cheap ballast of salt from London. But the salt would fetch a price in India only if there was acute scarcity of that normally plentiful commodity in India. Ah, easy. Legislate that no one should make salt in India, and if anybody broke that rule, nothing less than the "cooler" for him. The Dandi March (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Satyagraha) taken out by a determined Gandhiji is today the stuff of legends. The few crystals of salt that Gandhiji made in symbolic protest on the seashore of the obscure village of Dandi ultimately crystallized into Independence for this nation and its people, and earned the little village a name in the annals of history.
Today the caucus of politicians and their corporate cronies who style themselves as the government is enacting more draconian laws against its own people at the behest of "the powers that be". ( I dont have to ask you if you have read the India cables part of the Wikileaks.) They thrust "development" in your face--whether you want it or not. The Tehri Dam and the Jaitapur nuclear power stations are only a couple of examples that spring to mind. If today you so much as travel to Jaitapur, you will end up in jail as you have broken some law! Whose law is it anyway? Whose country is it anyway??
While the Brits siphoned off the money {John Keay's "The Honourable Company" is a delightful/shocking account of the legerdemain of the Brits in India: http://www.indiaclub.com/Shop/SearchResults.asp?ProdStock=6447. Keay paints a detailed picture of the Company "... a band of South China Seas buccaneers who helped create the London money market, controlled half the world's trade, recruited armed forces larger than those of most states and became a private empire that was the jewel in the British crown. Founded in 1600 to challenge the Dutch monopoly of the hugely profitable spice trade, the Company was built on hardship, greed and savagery... } largely into the coffers of the East India Company and indirecty into the British government treasury (and a proportionately smaller share into the pockets of the functionaries of the Company!), today's corporate and political buccaneers siphon it into numbered accounts in the many havens of black money like Switzerland. I am sure every Indian in every far off corner of the world is familiar with the flood of scams that marked the New Year, which surely would have contributed billions into the hoard. The echoes of the loud expostulation from the Supreme Temple of Justice in reaction to the apathy of the government vis-a-vis chasing the black money and the people behind it ("What the hell is happening in this country...") have hardly died down.
One thing is painfully plain. The 'government' is playing a game of obfuscation and delay and doublespeak. You cant blame them, in a way; it is their bread and butter (and more!) that is being threatened! We will be fools if we for a moment think that they are serious about ending corruption and sleaze and slush money; they are frantically looking for ways to "re-channel" all that money. Witness the 'legislation' that is planned to bring back to India all that black money by way of individual FDI, and the loud protestations of 'agreements' with many foreign governments that will be jeopardized if we publish a few names and clamp a few into jail in India on clear charges of grave economic offences. In this democracy they want us to believe that and more! It is a lark... At least the Brits in their day considered the public to be lesser fools and not absolute nincompoops!
It is all a big 'eye-wash' and the proposed Lokpal Bill too will be like many other Indian Bills--legislation without any "teeth", and with enough and more loops and holes--that is, if the government has its way. The 'watchdog' that is supposed to bite the wrongdoer or the thief, will instead be administering a "massage" to his fat bum! (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/134429/latest-headlines/lokpal-vs-jan-lokpal-a-study-in-contrast.html) The whole thing is a laugh--if you can laugh at serious things. And they have been sitting on the Bill for very nearly half a century, and yet they have the gumption to ask us for more time!
We have had enough of "crony-corruption" in this land, and this has to stop. And that is where the relevance of this second Tryst with Destiny lies. And this is where the Gandhian protest of Anna Hazare assumes new significance.
The last century had thrown up an immortal man who gave us the freedom to speak our minds and to live proudly as free Indians. Today the poor soul lies (safely) buried under the mountains of black money amassed by his own 'followers', and his memory has been sullied by the lies and half-truths that fuel that party to which once he too belonged. Yes, I have the Congress party and Gandhiji in mind. If Gandhiji were to return today, just as King Mahabali does during Onam as Malayalis believe, he shall in all probability eschew non-violence when it came to "handling" his own partymen! In the India of today, the politicians and their cronies know for sure that Gandhiji, conveniently forgotten except on October 2nd, and safely ensconced in the protraits that line their rooms and their offices, could not come down to put a spoke in their well-oiled wheels of sleaze and corruption.
But Destiny works in strange ways. The 21st Century needed another Gandhi to spearhead our Second Liberation Struggle--this time not from the Brits, but from our own so-called elected, democratic government. Wasn't it the great American writer Edward Abbey, an umcompromising and honest humanist, who said that “...a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government” ? Yes, the time has come for every Indian patriot to rally to do precisely that. Today the great Gandhian Anna Hazare has thrown down the gauntlet before the government and has signalled the start of an unrelenting, uncompromising struggle to wipe out corruption in government and public life. Surely this is already showing signs of building up into a groundswell that will shake and topple the thrones of corruption.
The noble Hazare put it like this: "... This is the next struggle for our independence. Even though the British have left, only the colour of the rulers' skin has changed, nothing else has." How true!! Our 'babus' and 'netas' are more British than the Brits when it comes to pure hauteur! Already there is growing concern and support for Hazare and the idea that he champions. The young and the young at heart are using the social media to reach out to one another and to put more steam into the iconic struggle, the likes of which we haven't witnessed for a long long time. Here is crusade which any average Indian can identify with and join while forgetting all other personal affiliations and preferences. Surely there is every chance the movement will beat with the pulse of all Indians and culminate in the 'liberation' of this nation from the octopus-like clutches of corruption.
Who is this humble man Hazare? He is a one-man army against corruption. The other day while launching his fast unto death at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi he said:
“I have been working for the society for long time. For the past 35 years, I have not gone home. I have three brothers and I don’t know the names of their children. I don’t have any bank balance.... the public takes to satyagraha when all the doors are shut. If he [a Congress party spokesperson] says that this is wrong, does he mean to say that people should continue to suffer? The public will have to protest when there is a threat to their independence." Hazare is an ex-soldier and in him we can see a humble, yet strong and determined man who is in every way suited to wear the mantle of Gandhiji. Read all about him and his crusade at: < http://www.annahazare.org/ >
Who are the people who are sharing the experience and fasting along with him? Hundreds have joined the symbolic crusade. Here are just a couple of stories of supreme sacrifice for the sake of the nation:
Sixty-year-old Geeta Gupta, one of the protesters who had come from Dehradun to participate in the fast, said, "My son came to take me back home and requested that I should end the hunger-strike , but I told him that my responsibilities for the family are over. I am ready to die for the country, if that is the sacrifice required to get rid of the menace of corruption." She said that sitting idle and thinking that what difference a joint committee or renewed draft bill on corruption would make is not going to help. "We cannot sit idle. Anna has shown us the way and it is the right moment to do something ," said Gupta.
Dr Praveen Sharma, a professor of neurosurgery at MGM College in Mumbai, is also on fast. "I have treated many patients and will continue to do that till I live. But this is the moment to treat the malaise of corruption . I have taken off from my duties to participate in the protest.
(Do check out the full story at <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Groundswell-of-support-for-Anna/articleshow/7894607.cms > )
For the curious and the uninformed, here are other links worth reading:
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article1604213.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1607789.ece
---> http://expressbuzz.com/nation/ready-to-talk-but-can%E2%80%99t-take-rash-decision/263294.html
---> http://expressbuzz.com/nation/show-courage-to-fight-graft-hazare-tells-pm/263166.html
---> http://expressbuzz.com/nation/hazare-caught-in-pmo-nac-crossfire/262996.html
---> http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1607058.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1607073.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1603784.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1603787.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1603791.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article1603879.ece
The time has come for all Indians to rally round the iconic figure of Anna Hazare as he takes on the powerful and arrogant Goliath of our government in perhaps a fitting replay of the true Gandhian approach. In these modern times, if we are to take a cue from what happened in Egypt and other countries where the regimes had stopped listening to the peoples' voices, the tools of social networking will demonstrate that they are also powerful tools for social change. The new tools will empower the people to interact in a more meaningful and powerful manner. It is up to all of us to fuel the wave of protests that will gather strength and, tsunami-like, break down the bulwarks of corruption and obfuscation that the politicians and their cronies have erected around themselves over the past decades.
The winds of change have indeed started blowing. It is only a matter of time before they will attain unstoppable gale force. The entire nation is waiting for the dirt and filth of corruption to be blown away. India is waiting for a rebirth into a nation founded solidly on truth, ahimsa and co-existence.
Destiny leads the nation and its people to a new tryst with its real future.
Are YOU ready?
* * * * * * * * * * * *
But the similarities with the present should shock any upright, right-thinking, honest Indian.
--- A selfish and autocratic government that ignores and suppresses the rights and aspirations of its citizens, a siphoning away of the vast resources of the country into alien coffers, rampant 'double-speak', tricks of the trade like 'divide and rule', a "democratic championing" of the downtrodden minorities, laws rules and regulations to protect the government's own interests, threats of rightful protests being treated as sedition ..... the list could go on and on.
Surely we are talking of the India of the British Raj days. But it is not difficult to detect the similarities with the present situation or the tenor of the government. At the most what one would need to do is to rephrase some of the things to put them into the proper choronological perspective.
To those of a generation now somewhat long in the tooth, the pre-Independence scenario is all too familiar. Today those very epochal events that served to shape this great nation are only vague commentaries in the cavalierly textbooks that students cram to somehow get through the ten/twelve years of schooling so that they could sit for the "Entrance" exam and fulfil their destiny of being little better than info-coolies or medics to hand-hold the aging West. For today's "gen-text" (most of whose fathers were little more than mischievous gleams in the eyes of THEIR fathers and mothers at the time all that and the famous Tryst with Destiny happened!), it is mere text that has no contemporary relevance, especially in today's neo-liberal world without walls where chasing their destinies means being ready with skill-sets that have a demand. The parents who egg on their beloved children (oops! child!) sadly have no idea about how over the past decades a liberal education has deteriorated to little more than mere specialized training to impart 'skill-sets'. Add to that the Government's knee-jerk reactions to things like Lelyveld's book on the Mahatma, and the alacrity with which a ban order is slapped on it--which somehow promote the implanted poisonous comment that Gandhiji is "not all that great as he is made out to be" as he too was open to many "things". Dont blame the younger generation if they think that the past was not all that great. For them it is at best a distant unreal chimera.
But as they say, history repeats itself and historians repeat each other, ad nauseum. But unfortunately it is not the lot of mankind to learn from history. And today's 'truant' schoolboy has only his parents to blame if he is a stranger to history, and is more at home with other more 'utilitarian' studies. But he is fortunate that he has better and more "connected" tools to enable him to explore history and more, and share and interact with his peers. I urge the younger generation to do that NOW with a vengeance and come to their own conclusions. My job is merely to tell you what to look for, to ask to you look again and think again and see "the wood for the trees", to make comparisons and then, well, to ACT !!
If you read that first para again, and put it into the present context, you would agree that it pretty well reflects what is happening around us. Period. But I had in mind what the Brits were doing in pre-Independent India. Believe me, history is more entertaining than any fanciful novel you might have read recently. Just look at the example of the ridiculous "salt legislation" that the Brits dreamed up--so that their ships could sail with stabilizing cheap ballast of salt from London. But the salt would fetch a price in India only if there was acute scarcity of that normally plentiful commodity in India. Ah, easy. Legislate that no one should make salt in India, and if anybody broke that rule, nothing less than the "cooler" for him. The Dandi March (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Satyagraha) taken out by a determined Gandhiji is today the stuff of legends. The few crystals of salt that Gandhiji made in symbolic protest on the seashore of the obscure village of Dandi ultimately crystallized into Independence for this nation and its people, and earned the little village a name in the annals of history.
Today the caucus of politicians and their corporate cronies who style themselves as the government is enacting more draconian laws against its own people at the behest of "the powers that be". ( I dont have to ask you if you have read the India cables part of the Wikileaks.) They thrust "development" in your face--whether you want it or not. The Tehri Dam and the Jaitapur nuclear power stations are only a couple of examples that spring to mind. If today you so much as travel to Jaitapur, you will end up in jail as you have broken some law! Whose law is it anyway? Whose country is it anyway??
While the Brits siphoned off the money {John Keay's "The Honourable Company" is a delightful/shocking account of the legerdemain of the Brits in India: http://www.indiaclub.com/Shop/SearchResults.asp?ProdStock=6447. Keay paints a detailed picture of the Company "... a band of South China Seas buccaneers who helped create the London money market, controlled half the world's trade, recruited armed forces larger than those of most states and became a private empire that was the jewel in the British crown. Founded in 1600 to challenge the Dutch monopoly of the hugely profitable spice trade, the Company was built on hardship, greed and savagery... } largely into the coffers of the East India Company and indirecty into the British government treasury (and a proportionately smaller share into the pockets of the functionaries of the Company!), today's corporate and political buccaneers siphon it into numbered accounts in the many havens of black money like Switzerland. I am sure every Indian in every far off corner of the world is familiar with the flood of scams that marked the New Year, which surely would have contributed billions into the hoard. The echoes of the loud expostulation from the Supreme Temple of Justice in reaction to the apathy of the government vis-a-vis chasing the black money and the people behind it ("What the hell is happening in this country...") have hardly died down.
One thing is painfully plain. The 'government' is playing a game of obfuscation and delay and doublespeak. You cant blame them, in a way; it is their bread and butter (and more!) that is being threatened! We will be fools if we for a moment think that they are serious about ending corruption and sleaze and slush money; they are frantically looking for ways to "re-channel" all that money. Witness the 'legislation' that is planned to bring back to India all that black money by way of individual FDI, and the loud protestations of 'agreements' with many foreign governments that will be jeopardized if we publish a few names and clamp a few into jail in India on clear charges of grave economic offences. In this democracy they want us to believe that and more! It is a lark... At least the Brits in their day considered the public to be lesser fools and not absolute nincompoops!
It is all a big 'eye-wash' and the proposed Lokpal Bill too will be like many other Indian Bills--legislation without any "teeth", and with enough and more loops and holes--that is, if the government has its way. The 'watchdog' that is supposed to bite the wrongdoer or the thief, will instead be administering a "massage" to his fat bum! (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/134429/latest-headlines/lokpal-vs-jan-lokpal-a-study-in-contrast.html) The whole thing is a laugh--if you can laugh at serious things. And they have been sitting on the Bill for very nearly half a century, and yet they have the gumption to ask us for more time!
We have had enough of "crony-corruption" in this land, and this has to stop. And that is where the relevance of this second Tryst with Destiny lies. And this is where the Gandhian protest of Anna Hazare assumes new significance.
The last century had thrown up an immortal man who gave us the freedom to speak our minds and to live proudly as free Indians. Today the poor soul lies (safely) buried under the mountains of black money amassed by his own 'followers', and his memory has been sullied by the lies and half-truths that fuel that party to which once he too belonged. Yes, I have the Congress party and Gandhiji in mind. If Gandhiji were to return today, just as King Mahabali does during Onam as Malayalis believe, he shall in all probability eschew non-violence when it came to "handling" his own partymen! In the India of today, the politicians and their cronies know for sure that Gandhiji, conveniently forgotten except on October 2nd, and safely ensconced in the protraits that line their rooms and their offices, could not come down to put a spoke in their well-oiled wheels of sleaze and corruption.
But Destiny works in strange ways. The 21st Century needed another Gandhi to spearhead our Second Liberation Struggle--this time not from the Brits, but from our own so-called elected, democratic government. Wasn't it the great American writer Edward Abbey, an umcompromising and honest humanist, who said that “...a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government” ? Yes, the time has come for every Indian patriot to rally to do precisely that. Today the great Gandhian Anna Hazare has thrown down the gauntlet before the government and has signalled the start of an unrelenting, uncompromising struggle to wipe out corruption in government and public life. Surely this is already showing signs of building up into a groundswell that will shake and topple the thrones of corruption.
The noble Hazare put it like this: "... This is the next struggle for our independence. Even though the British have left, only the colour of the rulers' skin has changed, nothing else has." How true!! Our 'babus' and 'netas' are more British than the Brits when it comes to pure hauteur! Already there is growing concern and support for Hazare and the idea that he champions. The young and the young at heart are using the social media to reach out to one another and to put more steam into the iconic struggle, the likes of which we haven't witnessed for a long long time. Here is crusade which any average Indian can identify with and join while forgetting all other personal affiliations and preferences. Surely there is every chance the movement will beat with the pulse of all Indians and culminate in the 'liberation' of this nation from the octopus-like clutches of corruption.
Who is this humble man Hazare? He is a one-man army against corruption. The other day while launching his fast unto death at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi he said:
“I have been working for the society for long time. For the past 35 years, I have not gone home. I have three brothers and I don’t know the names of their children. I don’t have any bank balance.... the public takes to satyagraha when all the doors are shut. If he [a Congress party spokesperson] says that this is wrong, does he mean to say that people should continue to suffer? The public will have to protest when there is a threat to their independence." Hazare is an ex-soldier and in him we can see a humble, yet strong and determined man who is in every way suited to wear the mantle of Gandhiji. Read all about him and his crusade at: < http://www.annahazare.org/ >
Who are the people who are sharing the experience and fasting along with him? Hundreds have joined the symbolic crusade. Here are just a couple of stories of supreme sacrifice for the sake of the nation:
Sixty-year-old Geeta Gupta, one of the protesters who had come from Dehradun to participate in the fast, said, "My son came to take me back home and requested that I should end the hunger-strike , but I told him that my responsibilities for the family are over. I am ready to die for the country, if that is the sacrifice required to get rid of the menace of corruption." She said that sitting idle and thinking that what difference a joint committee or renewed draft bill on corruption would make is not going to help. "We cannot sit idle. Anna has shown us the way and it is the right moment to do something ," said Gupta.
Dr Praveen Sharma, a professor of neurosurgery at MGM College in Mumbai, is also on fast. "I have treated many patients and will continue to do that till I live. But this is the moment to treat the malaise of corruption . I have taken off from my duties to participate in the protest.
(Do check out the full story at <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Groundswell-of-support-for-Anna/articleshow/7894607.cms > )
For the curious and the uninformed, here are other links worth reading:
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article1604213.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1607789.ece
---> http://expressbuzz.com/nation/ready-to-talk-but-can%E2%80%99t-take-rash-decision/263294.html
---> http://expressbuzz.com/nation/show-courage-to-fight-graft-hazare-tells-pm/263166.html
---> http://expressbuzz.com/nation/hazare-caught-in-pmo-nac-crossfire/262996.html
---> http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1607058.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1607073.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1603784.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1603787.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1603791.ece
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article1603879.ece
The time has come for all Indians to rally round the iconic figure of Anna Hazare as he takes on the powerful and arrogant Goliath of our government in perhaps a fitting replay of the true Gandhian approach. In these modern times, if we are to take a cue from what happened in Egypt and other countries where the regimes had stopped listening to the peoples' voices, the tools of social networking will demonstrate that they are also powerful tools for social change. The new tools will empower the people to interact in a more meaningful and powerful manner. It is up to all of us to fuel the wave of protests that will gather strength and, tsunami-like, break down the bulwarks of corruption and obfuscation that the politicians and their cronies have erected around themselves over the past decades.
The winds of change have indeed started blowing. It is only a matter of time before they will attain unstoppable gale force. The entire nation is waiting for the dirt and filth of corruption to be blown away. India is waiting for a rebirth into a nation founded solidly on truth, ahimsa and co-existence.
Destiny leads the nation and its people to a new tryst with its real future.
Are YOU ready?
* * * * * * * * * * * *
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