Romanticizing violence

The Dantewada massacre by so-called 'fighters' for equality has once again highlighted the fact that these marauders will understand nothing but the language of guns. However, our 'intelligentsia' continues to romanticize these butchers.

Arundhati Roy's article Walking With The Comrades that appeared in March 29 issue of the Outlook is a case in point. She sees all evil in Indian authority. She writes "On one side is a massive paramilitary force armed with the money, the firepower, the media, and the hubris of an emerging Superpower. On the other, ordinary villagers armed with traditional weapons, backed by a superbly organised, hugely motivated Maoist guerrilla fighting force with an extraordinary and violent history of armed rebellion. The Maoists and the paramilitary are old adversaries and have fought older avatars of each other several times before: Telangana in the ’50s; West Bengal, Bihar, Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh in the late ’60s and ’70s; and then again in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra from the ’80s all the way through to the present. They are familiar with each other’s tactics, and have studied each other’s combat manuals closely. Each time, it seemed as though the Maoists (or their previous avatars) had been not just defeated, but literally, physically exterminated. Each time, they have re-emerged, more organised, more determined and more influential than ever. Today once again the insurrection has spread through the mineral-rich forests of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal—homeland to millions of India’s tribal people, dreamland to the corporate world." If this is not glorifying violence what else is.

She talks of class divisions and caste inequalities. Were the jawans who were ambushed by these 'Robin Hoods' very rich? Most of them were sole bread winners of their families. These writers see everything wrong with development projects in India. Everything is evil with corporates. How do you want tribal to live? You want them to live in same cultures which have no significance in this age. Of course the environmental issues must be addressed. The habitats should not be destroyed. But is it not being done by J. Ramesh, our minister for this same job. He has recently objected to Adani's project in Maharashtra and is at loggerheads with Mr. Kamalnath, another minister for highway project land. And what your 'Robin Hoods' do? They charge 'protection fee' from corporates. Most corporates don't have problem giving that. Now you decide who is better?

Now if you think Maoists have people support, why don't they contest elections? Some of these 'intellectuals' doubt about fairness in elections. Was the election in Bihar, which had been under Lalu rule, not fair? I don't have to go too far. I am a resident of Uttar Pradesh and last elections were very fair. But the reality is something else. The support for Maoists is thin (and it is forced in some cases) and after this massacre, they will lose further support. This article points out the questions raised by sister of a tribal jawan killed by 'Maoists' and clearly points to the fact that time for romanticizing violence is over. Like most insurgencies even this will subside.

Open Source in Drug Discovery

The title of this post is pretty unusual. Just as you are pleasantly surprised even I was pleasantly surprised after knowing of such an initiative through this report. Leading the research in drug discovery are corporate giants who are more interested in developing vaccines or drugs for curing a select set of diseases and in the process they churn out high margin drugs. So this CSIR led initiative is a whiff of fresh air. I am not an expert on patenting and those in pharmaceutical industry would know better if this model will work or not but going by success of Mozilla, Linux and Wikipedia in the areas of open source software and crowd sourcing, I believe with some effort on legal and patent issues this initiative can be made successful.

The scientists at the OSDD have started with neglected diseases like TB and malaria and they say that despite deaths of 1.7 mn people throughout world due to TB there has been no new drug discovery in last 4-5 decades. That just goes on to show how much we can bank on current state of drug development. The CSIR chief Samir Bramhachari is pretty hopeful of this initiative's success and that is important. When Richard Stallman started free software movement it had many doubters but it has contributed to a large extent in present success of open source softwares. And if OSDD succeeds, it will have much bigger impact and on a much larger population.

Newspaper Dilemma

These days I am riding on the horns of dilemma as far as choosing a newspaper is concerned. Till last month I had an 'intermittent' (courtesy IITK vendors) supply of The Hindu. Before subscribing to The Hindu I had 4 months of exposure to Indian Express. I still believe that The Hindu is the best newspaper currently in India. Here I proclaim it to be the best in terms of the quality of articles, veracity of reporting and yes, an important parameter is absence of those obtrusive ads which adore our populist circulations of Hindustan Times and Times of India. By now you might be thinking where the problem is?

The problem is that The Hindu seems unduly sympathetic to left ideology. In fact a regular columnist is M K Bhadrakumar, a former Indian diplomat whose loyalty it seems (and it is my personal opinion, forgive me if you disagree) lies with China. I shudder to think of what he would have done when he was in his service to the 'nation'. You can search for his articles and look how baseless claims he makes. I once commented on his article citing his earlier baseless allegations but to my surprise The Hindu did not even publish it. But just as one swallow does not makes a summer, the rest of The Hindu is a fine example of quality journalism. Indian Express, to me is a nationalist newspaper and comes hard on bigotry, but the problem with it is that it seems anti-Congress to me at times. I am open to fair criticism of Congress but having columnist like Tavleen Singh who are known to spew venom against Congress deters me. A ray of hope is the medium which connects me to you. The online edition of The Hindu is very good but the same cannot be said of Indian Express. Subscribing to Indian Express and reading The Hindu online seems to be an idea worth looking.

Pune blasts : Lessons to be learnt

Once again a blast strikes an Indian city. Once again the blame game begins. Once again media frenzy comes to fore. Once again we do nothing. Please rise to the occasion. Get out of this mess. It is very disappointing to see the same pattern one after the other. If the speculations presented in newspaper reports are true, it becomes very difficult to have faith in our internal security.

There are several reports claiming that Headley had surveyed the German bakery. If true this implies that the administration of the bakery had advance knowledge of the gravity of the situation and also the government should have been more active. The trigger for the blast is highly disappointing. A waiter opened an unclaimed object. This is ridiculous. After so much awareness campaigns we Indians can't even follow simple rules for security. As far as I remember these campaigns have been since Khalistan militancy days. But how many of us are serious about it?
This is the time that we learn our lesson although a very tragic way to learn it. I would suggest that we plan an awareness campaign with the friends of that waiter exhorting people to follow security norms. Please do not miss this opportunity.

In the defence of Thackerays

The title is perhaps highly unlikely to be found elsewhere as Thackeray bashing seems to be the in-thing these days. Although it is justified to some extent but our media has this tendency to overdo things whether it is the case of Chinese incursions or of Indian team losing a match. What I am talking about here is castigation of Bal Thackeray for criticising Shahrukh Khan for his remarks on Pakistani players' participation in the IPL. I do not approve of hooliganism associated with Shiv Sainiks but there is no doubt that Shahrukh Khan's statement on IPL was a highly irresponsible statement. Yes, I agree that in a democracy everyone has right to express his/her opinion but then is it not true that a hypocrite should deserve flak for what he/she is ? Mr. Chidambaram also expressed his opinion on the matter saying that Pakistan has very good Twenty20 players and they should have been brought out. But then he has no control over who is picked in the tournament. He is not a franchisee but Shahrukh Khan is. What Mr. Khan offers is a pretty lame excuse. He says they wanted Razzaq in the team but didn't pick him because he was injured. How does he know that same problem was not with other owners? That's a true charlatan for you. Oh! can a charlatan be true?

Language Barrier

At times I wonder how foolish we can be. Just because someone speaks a different language we see that person as alien. Of course as I have posted earlier, language can be a barrier as far as administration is concerned but how is it that it can be used as tool to alienate a section of society. Why do you feel slighted if someone else speaks some other language? I agree we all should be proud of our mother tongue but that does not implies we look down upon other languages. Still you can see a lot of instances in history where language was used as a tool to create divide in society. Forcing your language on others can lead to a lot of trouble. Pakistan forced Urdu on Bengali speakers and eventually had to part with them. India was engulfed in language movement in 1960's when they tried to force Hindi on southern states. One of the reasons for unrest in Punjab was Hindi/Punjabi divide. Now language is being used as a political tool in Maharashtra. There are several parties who are opposed to the English education terming English as a foreign language. Should we abandon a good thing just because it is foreign? They raise trivial issues such as changing 'India that is Bharat' to 'Bharat, that is India' in constitution. What good this change is going to bring? But as usual these parties have no logic to defend their statements. Be proud of your mother tongue but respect other languages. The language in usage should be the language that is convenient. I will talk to a farmer in Uttar Pradesh in Hindi and a foreigner in English. Just imagine what will happen if I do the other way round?

Realization of Regression in Science

Today, Dr. Manmohan Singh has accepted existence of red tapism and need of urgent reforms in order to move Indian Science forward and take it to greater heights. Brain drain is a severe problem now. But it is not that only those who leave our shores are responsible. The onus also lies with our establishment which has made it difficult to carry out research in India. Even premier institutions have not been spared. Despite all this there are some who stay here and work for country. But you cannot expect everyone to work just because of patriotism. At the time when the US is thinking of attracting entrepreneurs to their country we are not even able to stem the rot which plagues our educational establishments. The fellowships given to our research scholars are peanuts compared to those given in West and this is even if you take PPP into account.

Dr. Singh has announced revision in funding schemes which bodes well for Indian Science. The number of Phds is very less in India. More so in science. Currently, IITs pay only 14000 p.m. This should be hiked to at least 25,000-30,000 p.m. The admission process to Phd should be reformed in order to attract best talent. This will surely enhance the quality of our research and because the number of Phd scholars is so small, it is not going to be a burden on government also. If industry interface is improved, the burden on government can be lightened even more.