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08/29/2009: "Redefine freedom: Imchen Correspondent ((NPN):"

Redefine freedom: Imchen Correspondent ((NPN):

Kohima, The ongoing political talks between the Government of India and the NSCN (I-M) was not within the purview of the constitution of India and any point agreed upon between the two entities should also be outside the constitution of India, said Home Minister Imkong L. Imchen.
He said this while addressing the 33rd annual Conference cum Freshers’ meet cum 78th Death anniversary of Pou Jadonang which was held at the State Academy Hall,here today. Stating that since the talks were outside the ambit of the constitution, any agreement between the two sides would later have to be inculcated by an amendment of the constitution of India, said Imchen. According to the home minister, the constitution was flexible as it had undergone as many as 102 amendments.
Terming it as misnomer the frequent utterances by the Indian leaders that any solution to the Naga political problem would have to be within the constitution of India, Imchen alleged that the leaders were only saying so in order to mislead the people.
However, he opined that ‘independence’ had to be properly defined as Nagas lacked proper understanding of its definition. “What are the areas we want Independence should be well defined”.
Imchen also said that Naga have not lost sight of the Naga political agenda but it remained as agenda number one for which it was being pursued.
He said though a light is seen at the other end of the tunnel, but when it is entered, the world becomes darker. Even if one is at the top of Mount Everest, there is still the stars, moon and the universe that overshadowed it , he said while stressing on the need for students to widen their vision.
He also said that Naga undergrounds have forgotten their agenda and started to kill each others. Nagas are opposed to such and have come to terms with the prevailing no killing situation.
He said the prevalent no killing situation should remain as Nagas today long for peace and unity since the government of India cannot enter into agreement so many times with the same people. He also encouraged the students present to tell their brothers and sisters in the underground that people want unity first because the 1951 Naga plebiscite gave the mandate only for one Naga nation. The Home Minister also told the students that the Nagas were in the dark earlier and one confined only to their own village. However, through the effort of former Naga leaders like Pou Jadonang and A.Z.Phizo, the concept of Naga nationhood was birthed. Today, Nagas are coming closer and so also the world because of the IT revolution he said and reminded students that they live in an immensely competitive world. He also admitted that the state government has problems in scientific manpower management and reiterated that the state is suffering from employment problem and not unemployment problem. He pointed out that all big projects in the states were being implemented with manpower from outside . If all these big projects were implemented through use of local manpower, instead, the state will be short of manpower. He also bluntly admitted that the curriculum adopted in the educational system was so general that it was difficult for a student to go for specialization. One has to develop base on the curriculum, he said and pointed out the helplessness of the teachers who had to teach the students only based on the curriculum.
Speaking along the same lines, Additional Chief Secretary Alemtemshi Jamir, IAS, who was the guest of honour on the occasion, stressed on the need to redefine the Naga people’s concept of freedom.
“What we think is free from India” as the concept of freedom envisaged by the Naga pioneer leaders was different from what it is today he said.
“We Nagas need to redefined our freedom” he said and opined that if that was done, the Nagas can achieve an honourable and acceptable solution.
He also alleged that the Naga leaders engaged in the ongoing talks today were perhaps afraid to come back without sovereignty. He also said that he was inspired by the philosophy of Jadonang, who was hanged by the Britishers for pioneering the struggle for freedom of the Zeliangrong and the Nagas. “We need to think Global and act locally”, Alemtemshi said adding that was what Pou Jadonang’s philosophy was as he didn’t want to become slave, he told the students.
Alemtemshi Jamir also said the worldview was a matter of how big the brain was. He explained, if the brain was big, then the world becomes small and conversely, if the brain was small, the world became big. In this regard, he reminded students that if their vision was too distant, then only few could achieve it.
He also regretted that today no educated youth were inclined to take up marketing management and transportation of agriculture produce as a career option, even though post harvest management for the farmer was the biggest problem in the state.
Meanwhile, the Zeliangrong Students Union Kohima on the occasion had elected new team of office bearers which includes Kidungyi -President, Haukieteing -Vice President, Iluna -General Secretary, Pauriachi -Assistant General Secretary, Heilunggyile -Finance Secretary, Japhet -Education & Statistical Secretary, Tariwang -Information & Publicity Secretary, Keyitiakpeu -Games & Sports Secretary and Phokut -Treasurer
‘Turn Nagaland into a producing state’ DIPR
Medziphema, (DIPR): A two-day General Conference of the Agriculture Students’ Association of Nagaland (ASAN) began on August 28 at the SASRD, Nagaland University, Medziphema, under the theme ‘Role of agriculture students in the socio-economic development of Nagaland’.
Minister of Agriculture, Nagaland, Dr. Chumben Murry, speaking as the chief guest stated that agriculture continues to be the mainstay of our population with 68% of the state engaged in agricultural activities.
The Minister said that though our state lacks in scientific application, we have huge potential agricultural land in the state. Encouraging the students gathered there, he said that being agricultural students they have massive challenges to be messengers of development. He, thus, appealed to the student community to bring about a change by turning the state into a producing state rather than a consumer state.
The Minister also said that most of our farmers grow domestic oriented crops; hence measures should be taken to grow commercial crops which will boost our economy and in turn pave way for future development so that many unemployed youth can be employed in other avenues other than government jobs.
Also speaking during the function, Chotisuh Sazo, Parliamentary Secretary for social welfare, child & women development, pointed out that 80% people of the state depends on agriculture. He urged the agricultural students to be more active and try to bring about a change in the state’s economy. Other highlights of the programme included a technical session, literary session and business hour. The programme was sponsored by the agri & allied departments.

Militants target politicians OUR CORRESPONDENT The Telegraph
Itanagar, Aug. 28: Naga militant outfits are targeting politicians from Naga-dominated districts of Tirap and Changlang for extortion as Assembly elections are drawing near.
Stating that police were carrying out anti-extortion drives in the state, a top police official today said two NSCN (Isak-Muivah) linkmen were arrested from a hotel here on August 24 for trying to extort money from three politicians in Tirap district.
The police source said a team from Itanagar police station swung into action after forest minister Newlai Tingkhatra tipped it off about the NSCN (I-M) linkmen taking money from him on August 24. The police arrested Joshua Ngobang and Samchang Wangsu the same day.
The duo also extorted money from Congress MLA Kamthok Lowang and another politician from the district, Anok Wangsa of the Naga People’s Front. Each of them was asked to pay Rs 5 lakh.

Advani was at centre of cash-for-vote drama in LS: Jaswant Nagaland page
New Delhi, August 28: Firing a fresh salvo, Jaswant Singh has said that senior BJP leader L K Advani was "at the centre" of the cash-for-votes scam drama enacted in the Lok Sabha last year.
"It's a great sense of pity. Here was a man who has consumed by an ambition to be Prime Minister, and that desire made him commit so many mistakes.
"Do you know this whole wretched thing of money for votes is a classic example of wrong decision making and it's extremely troubling that he did not stand up and say no. Advaniji was at the centre of this whole drama," he told a news magazine.
Singh was referring to the episode in the Lok Sabha during the Trust Vote in July last year when three BJP MPs displayed bundles of currency notes totalling Rs 1 crore claiming they were being offered as bribe to support the government.
Singh said the facts were clear and he stumbled on to the whole thing when a very strange looking fellow was brought to his house by Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of Advani.
"I was not consulted but I was appalled that Advaniji was giving the MPs the go ahead to display money in Parliament," he said adding that Advani had two choices -- either to take the money to the Speaker or into the House. But he told the MPs to display the money in Parliament.
Singh said it was a matter of great sadness that Advani had singularly failed in his function as a leader to lead. A leader will have to lead by example and not through diktats, vague and unspecified insinuations and fears.
Citing the example of the army where leaders take responsibility, he said there were numerous examples when Advani would either keep quite or transfer responsibility to somebody else on occasions that troubled him and where he is likely to come under fire. "That is not the trait of a leader."
On Arun Shourie's description of Rajnath Singh as a Humpty Dumpty, Singh said the BJP president was a provincial leader who should never have been pushed up.
On BJP, he said "this is no longer a political party. It is a cult or a sect. It has been reduced to the proprietary partnership of a few. This has come about under the leadership of Advani. To explain superficially, the 116 BJP MPs today are like lost waifs."
The former External Affairs and Defence Minister said he did not support the decisions like banning of overflights to Pakistan and deployment of troops during 'Operation Parakram' when he was away on some visit. He said he was also greatly distressed when the BSF was sent into Bangladesh and a "wounding photograph" of the body of a BSF soldier being carried slunge on a bamboo appeared in the media.
"I never really was able to illicit an answer as to who ordered the BSF to go into Bangladesh. Is it not the Home Ministry," he said.
Singh told a weekly that Advani talked of stepping down for about two to three hours after the election results came out. "I don't know what happened but he changed his mind. At about 11:30 am he was all for stepping down and by 4:30 or by 5 pm he was all for staying on. That is a characteristic of Advani's decision making processes," he said.
Talking about corruption, he said he had told Advani "please, stop this rot of India."
To a question about Rajnath Singh's refusal to introspect even after the debacle in Uttar Pradesh, Singh said "do ask Rajnathji if he knows the spelling of introspection." (Agencies)

NLFT ‘army chief’ surrenders OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT The Telegraph
Agartala, Aug. 28: The “army chief” of the NLFT, Bidyasingh Jamatya, who played a key role in the murder of health minister Bimal Sinha, today handed himself in to police. Jamatya, the organising secretary of the banned outfit, surrendered before the deputy superintendent of police, special branch (intelligence wing), Amiya Chowdhury, at subdivisional police headquarters in Gandacherra of Dhalai district this morning.
Jamatya was accompanied by his wife Jamuna Rupini and their two children aged four and five. The militant surrendered in front of officers of the BSF’s 118 battalion. Sources said though he could not bring any weapon from the outfit’s arms cache in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, he deposited a sophisticated wireless set.
Chowdhury said on realising his “hopeless future in the NLFT”, Jamatya had early this month sent feelers to state police. After consultations among senior police officers, he was allowed to enter India and instructed to inform the date and time.
Junior officers in remote Raisyabari on the edge of the border with the Chittagong Hill Tracts received the militant and his family early this morning and brought them to Gandacherra in a car. “He is tired and one of his children is sick. We will start interrogating him from tomorrow and hope to extract crucial information from him,” Chowdhury said.
“He is one of the very few militants of Tripura who was taken to Pakistan and then to Afghanisthan by the ISI and given advanced training. Possibly that is why he was so deadly in operations against security forces between 1996 and 2003 when the NLFT showed signs of weakening.”
No further division of State : Gogoi STAFF Reporter Assam Tribune
GUWAHATI, Aug 29 – Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today asserted that Assam would not be divided again under any circumstance. He also ruled out possibility of division of NC Hills. Interacting with the apex bodies of the tribal communities during a visit to Haflong today, Gogoi called upon all section of people to build up mutual trust for restoration of peace in the violence-hit NC Hills district. He assured that all possible measures would be taken for rehabilitation of the violence hit people and Government would soon launch a special package for the development of the district.

Gogoi revealed that law and order situation of the district in the high-level meeting in Haflong circuit house and instructed the administration and security forces to take all possible measures to prevent any further incident of violence.

Myanmar suggests alternative route Spl Correspondent Assam Trib une
NEW DELHI, Aug 29 – Even as the controversy rages on over reopening of the Stilwell Road, Government of Myanmar has suggested an alternative route, 40 km away from the historic route. Divulging this, Minister Development of North Eastern region (DoNER), Bijoy Krishna Handique said that the neighbouring country doesn’t seem keen on reopening of the old Stilwell Road. Instead they have suggested the alternative route called the Rangoon Road.

Pointing out that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is handling the issue, Handique said that it is not that India has given up the issue, adding that New Delhi has been taking up the issue of Stilwell Road with the Government of Myanmar.

The Ministry of DoNER had even made a presentation before the then President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam highlighting the need to reopen the Stilwell Road.

Reporting progress in another front, Handique said that with a view to creating awareness, India and Myanmar would exchange cultural delegations of youth. The first delegation from Myanmar would join the Hornbill Festival from December 1-10. This delegation would be taken to different States of the North-east, as well as the Kaladan river that would connect to Sittwe Port.

The Indian delegation is scheduled to visit Myanmar in January 13-14 during a festival in that country, he said. India will invest $103 million to re-develop the Sittwe Port on the northwestern coast of Myanmar. RITES will execute the project, targeted for commissioning by 2009.

The re-development of the port would also improve navigability on the Kaladan river in Myanmar and enable the opening of another trade route between the North-east and the rest of India with southern Mizoram as the hub.

The Centre has sanctioned over Rs 4 crore to develop the land customs station at Zokhawtar to facilitate border trade with Myanmar and the project was being executed by the Border Roads Organisation.

UNDP programme launched in Nagaland NEWMAI NEWS Assam Tribune
KOHIMA, Aug 29 – In an effort to make a paradigm shift from the concept of replacing jhuming to improving jhum practices in an eco-friendly manner, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) aided Sustainable Land and Eco-system Management in shifting cultivation areas has been launched in Nagaland.

Having realised that shifting cultivation is a socially-preferred practice and is often the most suitable form of agriculture for certain agro- climatic conditions and steep terrain, the five year UNDP aided (Multilateral) Sustainable Land and Eco-system Project is being implemented in Mokokchung, Wokha and Mon districts of Nagaland initially and would cover other districts in a phased manner.

UNDP Programme Officer from New Delhi, Lianchawii and Director, Soil and Water Conservation of Nagaland, R T Asang, who is the Project Director held a pre-launching preparatory meet with officers of Agriculture and allied departments from the three districts in Mokokchung today.

Addressing the meeting, Lianchawii said that the programme aimed at promoting sustainable land management and use of bio-diversity as well as maintaining the capacity of eco-systems to deliver goods and services while taking into account the effects of climate change. She said that the project would also target on minimising too much pressure on land.

Asang called upon the officers to make a concerted effort to achieve the goal. He also thanked the UNDP Programme Officer Lianchawii for taking keen interest in the project.

The Inter-departmental officers had intensive discussions on implementation of the programme to maintain the eco-system and at the same time meeting livelihood needs. After the day-long deliberations, the meeting decided to constitute District Level Committees in each district to oversee the implementation of the project.

No further division of Asom: Gogoi to apex tribal bodies
: By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Aug 29: Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today told the apex bodies of tribal communities of NC Hills in no uncertain terms that under no circumstances Asom would be allowed to be divided again and that there would be no division of NC Hills in the name of its nomenclature. Interacting with the apex bodies of tribal communities, Gogoi said violence is not the solution to any problem and urged all to respond to the need of building up mutual trust and peace among themselves for an atmosphere congenial for peaceful coexistence, harmony and brotherhood in the violence-hit hill district.
Earlier, Gogoi reviewed the law-and-order situation of NC Hills at a meeting at Haflong Circuit House today and instructed the administration to remain alert so that no unpleasant incidents take place. He directed the district administration to take proper measures for providing baby food and educational facilities to the children living in relief camps and also to enrol the names of violence-hit villagers living in relief camps for rehabilitation under various DRDA schemes.
The Chief Minister also reviewed the latest position and functioning of the NC Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) and directed its administrator Md Alauddin to take necessary steps to clear the pending salaries of the employees and to start the process of development works in full swing. The matter of setting up of village councils in the district was also discussed at the meeting.
The review meeting was attended by Chief Secretary PC Sarma, DGP Shankar Barua, Additional Chief Secretary PP Verma, Principal Secretary of Revenue and Disaster Management Binod Kumar Pipersenia, Administrator of North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) Md Alauddin, Deputy Commissioner Shyam Jagannathan, the Commander of 45 Mountain Brigade, IG (STF) PP Singh, SSP Anurag Tangkha and other senior Army and CRPF officials.
The Chief Minister said the government will take all possible measures for peace, rehabilitation of violence-affected people and for special package of development of the district. He had a detailed discussion with the representatives of the Congress, ASDC and AGP on the issue of NCHAC.
Nagas, suspected B’deshis encroach areas along Doyang Correspondent Sentinel

JORHAT, Aug 29 : The Doyang river that flows through Sector C and D of Asom has been completely encroached by Nagas and suspected Bangladeshi immigrants. The river originates from Japhu peak of Nagaland and traverses the western part of Golaghat district to finally join the Dhansiri river at Duinoimukh area under Sarupathar subdivision. The Doyang is one among the four rivulets of Dhansiri and a tributary of the Brahmaputra river which has been completely occupied by suspected Bangladeshi immigrants of late.
According to sources, under Sector C of Asom, both the banks of Doyang river comprising Uriamghat, Haladhibari, Naujan and Sungajan areas have been occupied by Bangladeshi immigrants who were brought by the Nagas from Moirabari, Nagaon and Dhing area of Asom via Guwahati. These suspected Bangladeshi nationals are mostly used for stone excavation works at the stone quarries of Doyang river.
Sources further said there are more than 40 illegal stone quarries at Napani, Sisupani, Sarupani, Negheribeel, Dayalpur etc along the Doyang river under Sarupathar subdivision. The Nagas have been excavating stones with the help of the suspected Bangladeshi immigrants and supplying it to various districts of Asom through Merapani-Guwahati and Naujan-Guwahati road. The tax should be paid to the Asom Government, but due to the Government’s silence on the matter, the payable tax is collected by the Nagaland Government and the NSCN.
Sources said illegal trade is being carried out under the very nose of the border outpost of Napani area, security personnel deployed by the Central Government and the border police under Sector C of the Government of Asom.
According to official sources, although eviction drive should be carried in the border areas from time to time, no such drive has been executed so far since 1980. As such, the suspected Bangladeshi immigrants have been erecting their permanent houses on the Asom soil without any hindrance. As per the Government of India Forest Conservation Act, 1980, the stone quarries are illegal. Despite repeated violation of border laws by the Nagaland Government, the Central Government has turned a deaf ear to the entire issue.

Development of remote areas: How serious is CM? Correspondent Sentinel

GUWAHATI, Aug 29: As many as 1,152 remote and border villages of 20 of the 27 districts of the State have been identified as fertile grounds for various militant outfits in the State for recruitment of their cadres. The major reasons behind this, according to the State government’s own observations, are underdevelopment and lack of employment avenues that lead the youths of the areas to live with a sense of alienation. Asom has about 26,000 villages.
According to sources, these 1,152 backward villages are in remote, riverine and border areas where the presence of the administration is not glaring. The sense of alienation which the youths of these villages live with in their course of upbringing generates a tendency among them to join various militant outfits. One of the common features of these villages is poor infrastructure like lack of proper road communication, water supply and electricity.
Now the State Government is ready to give a special thrust on these villages so as to develop them. The district administrations concerned have been asked to submit details of developmental activities needed to be done in these villages. Sources said this work should have been done by now as the idea was put to practice about one-and-a-half years back. According to sources, the delay on the part of a section of the district administrations led to the non-happening of this idea into a reality. Of late, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has been monitoring himself all complaints relating to remote and border areas being reported in the media.
Corruption: as the PM sees it: WITH EYES WIDE OPEN D. N. Bezboruah

During the last five years of the UPA government, one rarely heard Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speak up against the rampant corruption in the country. There may have been the odd ritualistic remark against corruption, but there had never been a frontal attack against the worst of India’s problems. But on Wednesday, Dr Manmohan Singh seems to have felt the need to make up for lost time. Addressing the biennial conference of the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) in New Delhi, the Prime Minister spoke at some length on the worst scourge afflicting the nation. And yet his diatribe to the officers of the CBI lacked conviction because of how he saw corruption affecting India. His main concern about the all-pervasive corruption in India seemed to pivot on what other countries of the world might think of a totally corrupt India rather than what corruption was doing to the soul of the nation itself, its future and its tremendous potential for being one of the great powers of the world. It was like saying, “What will the rest of the world think if we are so corrupt? Do you think they will come and invest money in India if we present such a tarnished image of ourselves?” There was little in his speech about what rampant corruption was doing to the very character of Indians and how it was eating into the very vitals of the nation. His speech naturally reminded me of the book “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” by Nobel Laureate physicist Richard P. Feynman that I am reading now. It gave me an idea of how even the Prime Minister can get his priorities wrong in dealing with the worst of the country’s problems. It also made me think of which country the Prime Minister must have had at the top of the list when he was telling the nation “Just think of what other countries will think of you?” I am almost certain that the guess of most people would be the United States of America. Likewise, when he was worrying about which country would hesitate to invest in India, he was almost certainly thinking of the US rather than of Norway and Sweden. The Prime Minister’s other concern seems to be how the CBI is letting the big fish escape punishment. This is a noble and just sentiment (for the head of government of a so-called democracy), but then the proof of the pudding is in the eating. When the rest of the world deals with India, it is not going to delink the CBI from India. The international community is going think of how the entity known as India has succeeded in dealing with the big fish among its criminals and economic offenders. Here the track record is pretty dismal. In India all the big fish go scot-free even after the worst crimes against the nation. No wonder the conviction rate of the CBI is a dismal 9.6 per cent. And no matter what the Prime Minister told the CBI officials about pursuing high-level corruption aggressively (in other words, not letting the big fish escape) there are any number of ministers who will pick up the telephone and tell the CBI to go soft on the case of one big fish or the other. And reminding the CBI officers about the constitutional and legal protection does not help, because in India it is a servile attitude to the big bosses – attenuated by two centuries of slavery to the British – that has ruined the mental attitude needed to stand up to the rulers of the day and their stooges. The latest snub by the Chairman of the Swiss association of bankers should be an apt reminder of this mismatch between the Prime Minister’s stated wishes and the ground realities. Here is a country that has enabled its hordes of economic offenders (including industrialists, exporters, importers, politicians, bureaucrats, senior police officers and businessmen) to hoard about Rs 70 lakh crore in Swiss banks over the years and has woken up only now to this serious economic malaise. So India now wants Swiss bankers to hand over a list of all Indians with accounts in Swiss banks. The bankers have rightly told the Indian government that it cannot expect to be allowed to undertake a fishing expedition in the banking world of Switzerland. Nor can India throw a telephone directory at Switzerland and expect the country to pick out names of people with accounts in Swiss banks. That Switzerland would not respond in the same manner to a similar request from the US is a different matter. In any case, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statement about providing Switzerland with a list of the major economic offenders of India who may have numbered accounts in Swiss banks looks very well on television and in the newspapers. But how much of this will really get done remains to be seen.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointed out some of the ways in which corruption can destroy a society. “Systems and procedures which are opaque, complicated, centralized and discretionary are a fertile breeding ground for the evil of corruption. They should be made more transparent, simple, decentralized and less discretionary,” he said. However, he neglected to mention two of the worst injuries that corruption has inflicted on the nation. The ways in which corruption destroys a nation are so varied and so numerous that one would need a whole book to dwell on them. And yet it is important to point out what corruption has done to the vital relationship between the government and the people on the one hand and the political executive and the nation on the other.
In the kind of set-up that we have in India, the government has turned itself into an enemy of the people through the deeds of government employees that have gone unpunished. When virtually every government employee tells the citizen that something that takes half-an-hour to do cannot be done in a month unless money is paid for what should be done free, they have created millions of enemies within the public – among the very citizens whom they were required serve and not to harass. Citizens know the vindictive attitude of these employees and realize that antagonizing them can result in their files getting lost. So they grit their teeth, put on a smile and pay up. But they know that the government employee is generally an enemy of the public and can go on finding reasons why a simple routine legitimate demand cannot be met unless a bribe has been paid to neutralize this hostility and this blatant misuse of power to deny what is legitimate and reasonable. We have a bureaucracy that does not like people; we have a police force that is in league with criminals and thinks poorly of citizens who are their real masters. The long and short of this situation is that this democratic government exists for itself alone and not for the people. The people are its enemies, and everything that they seek to achieve must be thwarted unless they have paid bribes for something that should get done routinely without any payment. This is the vested interest of corruption that the government itself has built up and nurtured, and real, worthwhile initiatives against corruption must strike at this base. We did not hear the Prime Minister even mentioning this.
The second major act of corruption is what our lawmakers have done in order to retain reservations permanently for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the new categories they have created, even though the Constitution stipulated such reservations only for ten years. Our politicians were looking for a means of remaining in power without any performance, and so they hit upon this wonderful trick of investing ‘backwardness’ on more and more people so that they can derive all the social and economic benefits that go with such reservations. The mode of operation seems to be rather simple. They tell more and more ethnic groups, “Come, I’ll make you backward too, so that you can reap all the benefits of reservations. Your future will be made; your children will have no trouble about admissions to colleges or about getting jobs thereafter. All you have to do is to keep voting for me and my party.” In one fell sweep they eliminated the time-honoured principles of merit, qualifications and competition. Were it not for the Supreme Court that put a ceiling on reservations, many Indian States were extending reservations to the extent of 80 and 85 per cent. And look where the ‘creamy layer’ begins – only at incomes of over Rs 8 lakh a year per family! Any family with an income of Rs 8 lakh a year will be deemed to be so backward as to need reservations to the end of their days. This is a worse act of corruption against the nation than the other corruptions of our polity like lawmakers deciding their own salaries, allowances and fabulous perquisites; dispensing with a retirement age for politicians; retaining a life-long pension for just five years of service rendered and appointing the party’s blue-eyed boys as governors even after the age of eighty!
Let the Prime Minister launch a crusade against these acts of corruption that are now encouraged by the polity itself; let him evince the political will to punish the corrupt and the criminal elements in power; the other forms of corruption will begin to evaporate of their own accord. I shall not dwell on the dangerous cocktail of shortages (both natural and created) and the government control of everything that promotes corruption, since I have done so already. However, it may be worth talking about how sheer numbers alone can provide all the ingredients necessary to keep corruption India’s prime vested interest.