(One good man) in Hell

I've taken a two-week leave of absence, due both to overwork and a strange inability to write. Which was remiss of me, because in those two weeks there has been plenty to write about, none of it pleasant.

Where do I begin? How about the fact that in India's greatest city, the vibrant, teeming metropolis celebrated (yes, celebrated, whatever the unsubtle India-shining types have to say) by Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, the common citizen has no protection from thugs and goons?

How about the fact that when the world agrees on the responsibility of Pakistani actors, non-state or otherwise, for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Narendra Modi casts aspersions on the guilt of Indian Muslims and seeks punishment? Much as I dislike our present government, it behaved admirably in limiting anti-Muslim "retribution" to essentially nil. Under Modi, imagine how different things could be.

How about Rajnath Singh and LK Advani raising the ugly head of Hindutva in its worst form, the Ram temple agitation? The word "pseudo-secularism" is back, as well.

How about the fact that Hindu Taliban wannabes invoke the name of Ram and describe themselves as "the custodians of Indian culture" while beating up women who attend a pub, and are defended by the chief minister of Karnataka, my chief minister, BS Yeddyurappa?

How about the fact that this selfsame chief minister, having taken on a mistress and received a "no" from his wife in response to his request for a bigamous arrangement, murdered his wife by drowning in a water tank?

Living away from India, I miss my country daily and intensely, not only longing for home but feeling unduly nostalgic and positive about everything Indian. As an idealist, I've long shared my father's passionate celebration of Indian democracy in the face of a widespread sentiment in the middle class that we ought to go the Chinese way. I've often taken refuge in the argument that while our politicans are corrupt and worse, while we commit excesses in Kashmir and the North-East and fail to help our poorest citizens, Indians are still free and politically empowered. Things are definitively better than in any alternative system.

Or are they? Reflecting on these pieces of news, I can confess nothing but the deepest gloom. In the land of Gandhi, I can find in our current polity only one resonant legacy of the Mahatma's life- the rise of Mayawati, and that gives me no pleasure. That it is in Gandhi's state- prosperous, educated, Gujarat- that Narendra Modi reigns is as difficult to believe- and live with- as it was seven years ago. In a civilized society, the private citizen has the protection of a functioning police force- for otherwise, all societies descend into the rule of the fist. It is apparent that our police force is intent on ensuring such a descent.

There is so much more to say, so many more crimes and tragedies to report. Many commentators described last December in end-of-term reports 2008 as "possibly our worst year ever", an annus horribilus (to use the Queen's phrase) to rank with 1948, 1965, 1976, 1984, 1992. On the evidence of a month-and-a-bit, 2009 is set to outdo 2008 and all the others.

But in this morass of evil I do find one cause for an admittedly minor optimism. The source of this is not the Congress Party- Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, for instance, offered implicit moral support to the Ram Sena. There is, however, one politician in this country who has not utterly disgraced himself. The "Congress lackey" Vinod Mehta said of Kumar on his election two years ago that "of all Indian politicians, he leaves behind the cleanest smell", no small praise of a BJP ally. Last week, when Rajnath Singh raised the Ram temple issue, Nitish refused to cooperate with the BJP president. When elected Bihar CM, Nitish had asserted that he had no plans for following the "Gujarat model" of development; unlike Modi, he wanted to include all communities in the resurrection of his state. Now, he made clear that the Ram temple was not in the "common minimum programme" of the BJP and its allies; neither was removing Kashmir's special status or a uniform civil code (while I approve of the latter two measures, there's no question that the BJP intends them only to spite the Muslims). If the NDA is elected, the JD(U) will not be party to the mindless propagation of Hindutva.

I am not saying that Nitish Kumar is perfect. Bihar's development under his watch has been slow, although we cannot count out the difficulties of achieving great things quickly in a state so thoroughly crippled by Laloo Prasad Yadav. I do not know if he is free from corruption; while I would like to think so, I don't assume it. He is an ambitious man with an eye out for his own political future, but these are not faults. What separates Nitish from not just the Yeddyurappas but also the Modis and Pranab Mukherjees of this world is his innate, old-style patriotism, patriotism that involves a respect for the idea of a secular, democratic India and a vision and commitment to its improvement. In its own way, this passion inspired Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, PV Narasimha Rao and Atal Behari Vajpayee. Even Indira Gandhi, much as I hate to admit, was not untouched by it. All these leaders had flaws, great and small. But what I call patriotism clearly separated them from the cynics, rapists, murderers and self-interested businessmen that now rule us. Apart from Nitish Kumar, I can think of no other major politician that carries this flame. May the gods ensure that he is successful. We need him.

Edit: A reader has wisely pointed out that to Nitish's name should be added that of Sheila Dixit. Unquestionably she too represents a politician with good intentions and impressive achievements. Governing Delhi is a far easier job than governing Bihar. But of all Indian Chief Ministers she is is the closest to being an authentic success story.

The Great Renunciation

In response to Keshava's post 'School Textbooks: India's no-spin zone' (01/19/2009)

I could not agree more with Keshava when he criticizes the governments decision to set up the salwa judum movement and arm unemployed young men in an attempt to fight the naxalite threat. When any government, any where sets up vigilante groups to deal with security threats, it indulges in the ultimate abdication from responsibility. The people of naxalite affected districts defy boycott calls and an unimaginably high risk of violence to come out and vote not for a government that gives them arms and ammunition to fight their own battles, but one that can, among things, allow them to go into their fields without fear of being shot, allow their children to go to school without fear of being kidnapped. When a government decides to abdicate responsibility in this regard it is not just wrong, it is criminal.

What is tragic is that the Indian government is guilty of this sort of abdication not just in Chhatisgarh but in wide swathes of the country. In Kashmir the government armed those with any sort of grudge against the militants and made 'renegades' of them. Popularly known as Ikhwani's, these renegades were largely responsible for widespread human rights violations and for losing India's battle for the hearts and minds of thousands of Kashmiris. In large tracts of the cow belt, thugs like Raja Bhaiyya and Mohammad Shahbuddin controlled, till very recently, almost the entire administration. This was not because the government couldn't move in. It is because the government was quite happy letting other people do its job.

In some form or the other, all across India, authorities elected or appointed to perform a particular task simply don't do it. With elections coming up, those who lustily sing the Indian democracy's praises while ignoring its many flaws would do well to remember this fact.

School textbooks: India's no-spin zone

Well, well. State governments meddling with school history and social science textbooks for political purposes is not a new thing. Every five years, when Kerala's Communist government is replaced with a Congress government or vice versa, textbooks are rewritten to include or remove references to the greatness of Lenin, Stalin and Namboodiripad. More recently, Narendra Modi's government in Gujarat had gone one step further by adding favourable references to Hitler and Mussolini in middle school history textbooks.

It's taken less than a decade's existence as a state of the Republic for Chattisgarh to join this odious club. Today's Indian Express reports that school textbooks have been rewritten to include praise of Salwa Judum. Many of our readers may not even know of the existence of Salwa Judum, a vigilante group created and armed by the government in response to India's greatest internal security threat: the Maoist Naxalites. The Naxalites have prospered in recent years, feeding off the government's apathy towards both rural development in general and the upliftment of the adivasis (tribals; a group much more oppressed and disenfranchised than even the Dalits) in particular. The Home Ministry estimates Naxalite influence in 10% of India's districts, and although this may be a slight exaggeration, this number is growing quickly. The Naxalites, brutal and violent as they are, offer a (admittedly false) hope to unemployed, disaffected young men and create an alternative infrastructure of health, education and employment in areas, especially in central India, where the government has never tried to provide these essential services.

There are two legitimate and essential ways to combat the Naxalite threat. One is through more efficient, fair and extensive policing. Police brutality and police apathy are equally unhelpful. Secondly, we need to aggressively address the deep-lying problems that have led to the Naxalite's success, by helping those Indians most ignored by our recent economic growth. By pandering to better-off farmers in certain states, the ruling UPA government has done next to nothing for the states most affected by Naxalites, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

Instead of these just and rational solutions, the government has responded to the Naxal threat in a profoundly counterproductive way- the creation of Salwa Judum. Those unemployed youths not with the Naxalites are armed, instead, by the government, and told to shoot Naxalites. There is a very real civil war going on in India's heartland, and in Chattisgarh, and in the beautiful, forested district of Chattisgarh in particular, the environment is one of kill or be killed. Salwa Judum has, belatedly, attracted the attention of intellectuals and the media and even the Supreme Court chastised the government for the illegal action of arming civilians. Far from moves to disband the group, however, the Chattisgarh government chooses to use the medium of school textbooks to brainwash public opinion into supporting Salwa Judum:

The controversial Salwa Judum movement has now been incorporated in the Chhattisgarh school curriculum with a chapter on "Necessity of social security from problem of Naxalism" being included in the social science text book of class X of the Chhattisgarh Board of Secondary Education. Describing the movement as a peace march', the two page chapter throws light on the anti-Naxal movement of Bastar and its objectives, causes for the spread of Naxalism, initiatives being taken by the government to deal with the situation and the possible steps required to find a permanent solution to the problem. "Naxalism is an ideology that aims at capturing political power. The most sensitive situation is prevailing in Bastar area as the Naxalites feel safe there because of the inaccessible terrain, located very far away from the state capital. The region remains backward and anyone could easily influence the gullible and peace-loving locals", the chapter points out.

It goes on to say that the Naxal presence in Bastar can be primarily attributed to the slow pace of development, the language problem and the forest terrain that prevents security forces from carrying out an aerial attack and facilitates the military and guerilla training of the Naxal recruits. "Now tribals have become aware and they have stood up against Naxalism. People are getting themselves associated with Salwa Judum, " says the text book. "Nearly 70,000 people , affected by the problem of Naxalism, have taken shelter in the relief camps where the state government has been providing them with all necessary basic amenities. Non-government organisations are also associated for educational development of these people", it said. " Naxalism can be solved through wisdom, sensitivity and mutual understanding and it requires awareness and peoples' participation," it said. The chapter, which did not mention the name of its author, refers to attempts like the first ever revenue survey of Abujmarh", a remote forest area, other welfare schemes, modernisation of police force and development of infrastructure in the region. The Opposition Congress and CPI, meanwhile, criticised inclusion of issues pertaining to a controversial subject like Salwa Judum in the school curriculum.

It's well and good for the Congress to criticize this action, when the Congress-led Central Government has consistently supported Salwa Judum, defending it in the Supreme Court and continuously attempting to present it as a legitimate means of resistance against Naxalites, when it is not only immoral and foolish but also unconstitutional. But with the attention of both policymakers and the media primarily elsewhere, the disbanding of Salwa Judum appears unlikely at best.