FROM BLACK DIWALI TO BLACK REPUBLIC DAY- KERALA EVOLVES INTO A TERROR STATE

FROM BLACK DIWALI TO BLACK REPUBLIC DAY-KERALA EVOLVES INTO A TERROR STATE-

MAJ(RETD) P M RAVINDRAN, KALPATHY-678003

Three months ago, precisely on 12 Oct 2012, shortly before 3 pm, I was arrested on the orders of the Dy SP, Palakkad, Mr Prasob, when I was in front of a hotel. Defence Minister A K Antony was scheduled to inaugurate the 50th anniversary of public life of O Rajagopal, Minister of State for Railways in the earlier Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government, at 3.30 pm in the auditorium of the hotel. My crime- having some leaflets titled ‘For whom the soliders make their sacrifices‘ to be distributed to those going into the hotel to participate in the function and also a banner to be displayed outside the hotel on the road side! (For more details please read my blogs  ‘Black Diwali 2012‘ at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2012/11/black-diwali-2012.html and ‘Black Diwali-follow up‘ at http://raviforjustice.blogspot.in/2012/11/black-diwali-follow-up.html. And just for the records, an application under the RTI Act to provide information on action taken on the petition to the DSP elicited the reply that the petition has not been received by that office, though I have with me the acknowledgement card signed by their authorised person! The matter is with the 1st appellate authority!)

Today, that is 26 Jan 2013, the venue was Fort Maidan, Palakkad where Kerala Cabinet Minister Manjalamkuzhy Ali was to take the salute at a formal Republic Day Parade at the District Headquarters. Dr P S Panikkar, all of 70 years, a well known activist working in the area of conservation of ecology, human rights and other civic issues, was there to distribute some leaflets on the on going struggle by civic society to persuade the Government of Kerala to appeal before the apex court on an order issued by the Kerala High Court in the matter of Noorani Hindu High School Playground. The issue in brief is as follows.

In 1917 and 1951 the then Madras Government acquired and handed over 2 acres and 3.19 acres of land to the school for playground purposes. When the school stopped functioning in 1997, the management returned 3.19 acres of land to the government but retained the earlier 2 acres. After enough enquiries by the concerned authorities and enough opportunity being given to the proprieters of the school to prove their claim to the land and legal opinion tendered by the Government Pleader, the tehsildar took over the land on the orders of the then district collector, on 8/10/2007. The very next day the owners brought a stay order on the proceedings from the Kerala High Court. Later they got a favourable verdict too. The appeal by the government was also dismissed three months ago. The present government has not gone on appeal to the apex court and various sports clubs and civic society under the banner of Noorani Playground Protection Council has been agitating and also appealing to every authority possible, from the CM to the local MLA, to appeal before the apex court to retain possession of the ground already taken over and convert it to a sports complex.

Back to the day’s events, Dr Panikkar was forbidden to enter the ground by the special branch officers of the police. When he agreed and started distributing the leaflet on the road side he was forbidden to do that also. When he was returning helplessly, he was met by an acqaintence who had come with his 11 year old son to witness the parade. At this point the police sweeped on all three of them, bundled them up in their van and took them to the Town South Police Station.

Meanwhile, I, who had dropped Dr Panikkar near the Maidan and gone to get a camera returned and while entering the ground was stopped by the officers of the special branch. When I said I wanted to meet Dr Panikkar I was told that he had been taken to the police station. I was shocked and told them that I was going to the police station myself. On my way to the area where my motorcycle was parked I was handed over a copy of the day’s newspaper Madhyamam by some body who had been distributing it free of cost there. Even as I collected it and was about to move on a Dy SP standing there called me and had a physical check of my person. The waist band that I was wearing due to low back ache seemed to have aroused his suspicion. By then two police personnel in civvies came to me and asked me to get into their vehicle. They brushed aside my statement that I was going to the police station itself but on my own motorcycle. At the police station I joined Dr Panikkar, Syed and his 11 year old son, as a detainee.

Soon about 15 or so activists, including an advocate, Mr Shaji, gathered in the police station. At about 1030h the Dy SP came and all the activists followed him to his office. Thereafter Dr Panikkar, Syed and myself were also summoned. After some discussions, we were given to believe that the police acted in our interest, to protect us from from (some imaginary!) counter protestors and the ugly situation that could have followed! He later let us off with a snide threat that he could file an FIR if we wanted it!

Ever since my voluntary retirement in 1998 I have been an activist in the area of good governance and judicial reforms. With the promulgation of the Right to Information Act I believed that here was an opportunity to usher in democracy without bloodshed but suffice to say that the responses that I have received to my applications and appeals have convinced me that government has become a synonym for a group of people in offices of authority doing nothing that is required to be done by them and doing everything that they should never be doing!

For now I wish Anna, Kejriwal, Jai Prakash Narayan (of LokSatta Party)and Baba Ramdev would close ranks and help the masses to oust the thugs, scoundrels and traitors occupying the offices of authority of the state and usher in real democracy in this, my motherland!

PETITION TO DECLARE STRIKE BY GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ILLEGAL

A section of the employees of the Government of Kerala has declared an indefinite strike from 08 Jan 2013. Their cause is genuine but means totally unjustified. So here is a petition I have sent to the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court to declare the strike illegal and ensure that the rights of the citizens to get the services due to them from the government are not hampered or delayed.

P M Ravindran

2/18, 'Aathira', Sivapuri, Kalpathy-678003

Tele: 0491-2576042; E-mail: pmravindran@gmail.com

 

File: Petn/kerhc-strike080113-040113                                                                              04 Jan 2013

The Chief Justice                      Through e mail at hckerala@nic.in

High Court of Kerala

Kochi

PETITION TO DECLARE STRIKE BY GOVERNEMNT EMPLOYEES ILLEGAL

1.       It is understood from reports in the media that a section of the government employees will be on an indefinte strike from 08 Jan 2013. The reason for the strike is learnt to be their opposition to introduction of contributory pension.

2.       The Supreme Court of India has held that pension is a right because it is deferred wages. However, the court has not laid down any guidelines on the quantum or modus of payment of this pension. Hence the legality or otherwise of the government decision to introduce contributory pension is left for the judiciary to decide. But there is no gainsaying the fact that the principle has to be applied universally. It just cannot be limited to government employees. Strictly speaking the government would have done better to have introduced this scheme for the ministers, MPs and MLAs before forcing it upon the employees.

3.       More importantly, the services to be delivered by the government to the citizens are amoung the most essential services. It can even be termed the most essential service because there is no alternate source for such services. So while democracy admits the right to protest, government employees cannot protest by striking work, or in other words by refusing to deliver the services due to the citizens. Amoung the many means to protest available to them are working beyond working hours or even working indefinitley or staging protest through dharnas out of office hours.

4.       While the government has declared dias non (no work, no pay) for the striking employees this is practically a fraud being perpetrated on the gullible citizens because invariabley as  a condition for terminating the strike the government always gives in to the demand for withdrawing all cases against the striking employees as well as waiving the dias non condition.

5.       For reasons given above, you are requested to declare strikes by government employees illegal and protect the rights of ordinary citizens to the services due from the government without interruption or delay.

Yours truly,

(P M Ravindran)

Online petition for Jan Lokpal

Given below is the online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/lkpalind/petition.html
It is addressed to the PM of India and you may like to support it.


Mr Prime Minister

I was just listening to media reports and discussions on Lokpal Bill and I found Kapil Sibal taking the cake for the most honest comment: Implementing Hazare's demands have lots of practical problems! Sure, I agree. The only thing that your team of ministers (and super ministers too) have no problem implementing seems to be.... looting the country!

The tallest claims made by UPA-1 were NREGS and RTI Act. And ask the citizens who know what is the state of those those programs/laws. Almost 25 years back one of your predecessors had admitted that out of every Re 1 spent by the govt only 14 paise reaches the beneficiary. Can you claim today that even 4 paise reaches the beneficiary?

RTI? The CJI himself subverts the law brazenly and instead of being kicked out he is rewarded with another plum appointment after honourable retirement!

Coming to the Lokpal Bill itself, your own draft bill had included you under the purview of the Lokpal but how come that Pranab Mukerjee and his team is opposing it now?

Sorry Mr Singh, you and your minions are fooling no one. It is only that even after seeing the fate of Irom Sharmila and Swami Nigamanda, the civil society seems to be under the illusion that the thugs, scoundrels and traitors will be moved to act justly by such illogical protests as fasting and torturing oneself in the name of satyagraha! Your minister, P Chidambaram is that way right, fasting is no way to make laws. I know that the Indian army also teaches its soldiers the wrong lesson that it is the duty of a soldier to die for his country. I learnt the truth from an American General who had said: the duty of a soldier is not to die for his country but make the other bastard die for his! So let us hope that the educated citizens like the naxalites, maoists and insurgents ruling the roost in various parts of the country and expanding their tentacles by the day can persuade you to make the laws that the citizens want.

Black Diwali-follow up

After the Black Diwali arrest and bail some well wishers have made some efforts to help me. Veteran Brig M PG Menon, AVSM arranged a copy of the Kerala Police Act, 2011 (which has replaced the '61 Act'). Veteran Maj Gen P Subhas, VSM had explored contacts to see if the case can be kept away from the court and found it futile. Veteran JWO Sivasankaran also made an effort to pay up any fine in the police station if it could be done so to close the case and reported that I may have to pay about Rs 100/- as fine only when the case came up in the court! In the meanwhile I studied the Kerala Police Act and based on the knowledge so gained, sent a letter to the District Superintendent of Police. This letter is reproduced in this blog.

Maj (Retd) P M Ravindran

2/18, 'Aathira', Sivapuri, Kalpathy-678003

Tele: 0491-2576042; E-mail: majorravi@gmail.com

 

File: Pers/DSP-261112                                                                                                                                      26 Nov 2011

The District Superintendent of Police

District Police Office

Yakkara Road, Palakkad-678014

Sub: Illegal arrest and detention- request to exercise powers under sec 22 of the KPA, 2011.

Ref: Sec 22, 29, 32, 39, 40, 116,120, 125 and 126

1.       On 13 Nov 2011, Minister of Defence, A K Antony, was in station to inaugurate a function in the Auditorium of Hotel Indraprastha at 1530h.

2.       Armed forces veterans had been agitating in various parts of the country seeking redresal of their many problems. The agitation at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi where veterans had gathred on many occassions to collect and return their hard  earned medals to the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, the President of India,  and also submitting memorandum signed in blood have been reported adequately in the media. Given this situation and the rare visit of the Defence Minister to Palakkad I had tried to mobile a protest in front of the venue, that is Hotel Indraprastha from 1500h. I had reached there by about 1450h and had with me 1000 copies of a leaflet titled ‘Pattalakkaar sahikkunna thyaganagal aarkkuvendi‘ and a banner which amoung other things demanded the resignation of the Defence Minister. The intention was to display the banner across the road, opposite Hotel Indraprastha, and distribute the leaflet to those going in to participate in the function in the hotel complex. I had earlier requested the members of the Defence Services Officers‘ Institute to join the protest. I had also requested the President, Indian ExServicemens League (Palakkad Block) to convey the message to the members of the League in the district.

3.       Since I had 10 minutes to spare to see if any other armed forces veterans would be joining the protest, I waited. Then I met one of the councillors of the Palakkad Municipality who was also one of the organisers of the function being inaugurated by Mr A K Antony and walked upto him on the driveway of the hotel. There he sought to see the leaflet and the banner and I had obliged. At this Mr P B Prasobh, Dy SP, Palakkad, standing next to him, ordered my arrest and I was whisked away to the Town South Police Station.

4.       At the Police Station I sought to make a telephone call but was denied.

5.       Around 1900h, I was told to get 2 persons to provide surety as a prelude to granting me bail. I rang up Dr P S Panikkar and soon he along with two others came to the police station.

6.       We were then made to sign some forms in which the space for the charges against me were found  left blank. On enquiry, we were told that it was under the Police Act and had to do with creating public nuisance.  We left after signing the documents – the charges space still blank- by about 2000h.

7.       A perusal of the KPA 2011 indicates that the arrest was illegal.

8.       Also the provisions of the Supreme Court orders had not been complied with.

9.       In fact till now I am ignorant of the charges framed against me and also how my intention of distributing leaflets and holding a banner on the road side could in way have been interpreted as a public nuisance. To the best of my knowledge and understanding, I was only asserting a democratic right to protest. In fact I have mostly been a victim of bandhs, held illegal by the apex court itself but enforced as hartals therafter and even denial of access to the offices of the district administation by even more blatantly illegal seige of the complex by groups owing allegiance to various political parties.

10.    For reason given above, I request you to exercise you power under Sec 22 of the KPA and undo the damage done by the Dy SP, Palakkad.

Yours truly,

(P M Ravindran)

 

Black Diwali 2012

13 Nov 2012 was Diwali (Deepaavali in Malayalam), the festival of lights! Some how I was not in a mood to sent out my usual greetings through e mail. To those who had greeted me I had replied almost perfunctorily. My mind was full of the activity planned for the after noon- the Defense Minister was coming to Palakkad to inaugurate the 50th year of public life of O Rajagopal, former minister of state of various ministries under AB Vajpayee. It was indeed a rare occasion. Not that a congress minister was inaugurating a bjp function but a defense minister was coming to Palakkad. I had tried to mobilise some veteran soldiers to protest on the occasion. I wouldn't go into the list of our grievances here. The activities of Indian Ex Servicemen Movement in returning medals to the President of the country, the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, and signing petitions signed in blood has been somewhat adequately reported. Here, the various organisations I contacted and am part of, were only interested in presenting memorandums, which  I knew would have helped only to subsidise the expenditure on toilet paper, if he had been one of those using such a process. Antony being from Kerala I knew he wouldn't be and so memorandums would be a total and sheer waste of precious paper. So I tried to do the next best thing. I got out a leaflet in Malayalam-titled 'For whom the soldiers make sacrifices'- and decided to distribute it to the participants at the entrance to the hotel where the function was being organised. I had put in a word to the President of the Block level unit of Indian Ex Servicemen's League and while he had outright said that it would be impossible for him to help as an organisation I had suggested that there was no need for him to help as an organisation but the members could come as individuals. If they were coming they could be there before the hotel by 3 pm. (The function was to commence in the auditorium attached to the hotel at 3.30 pm!) He had just smiled.

I reached there with 1000 copies of the leaflet and a banner having the following slogans- Soldiers against Traitors; Pattala dhrohi 'pattala' manthri raaji vekkuka (pattalam means armed forces and raaji vekkuka means resign); Pathirodha senakale prathirodhatthilaakkunna Prathirodha manthriye puratthakkuka (the defence minister who is puttting the defence forces on defence should be removed); raajya surakshakku bheeshaniyaaya raajya raksha manthriye naadu kadatthuka ( excommunicate the defence minister who is a threat to the security of the nation); raajyadhrohikalkkethire sainikar (Soldiers against traitors). Police personnel were overflowing and I had to wait for another 10 minutes or so to see if anybody else would come. I saw one of the organisers inside the gates and since he had invited me to the function I decided to say hello to him. And that turned out to be my undoing. He saw my bag and wanted to see the notice. After seeing the heading he decided that  it had to be brought to the notice of the Dy SP standing next to him. That, plus a look at the banner, the Dy SP snapped 'arrest'. My saying that I was only going to distribute the leaflets on the road, outside the hotel compound and the banner was to be displayed facing the hotel on the roadside did not make any difference. I was soon in a jeep and taken to the police station.

I asked to make a call (I do not carry any mobile!) and was denied. The SI was courteous enough to lie that the telephone at the reception had only incoming facility. But he read through the leaflet and asked some questions, admitting that whatever had been written would be of interest to fellow soldiers. Of course he shared his own understanding that the soldiers were extremely happy with what Antony had done. I blamed it on self serving media for such misinformation campaign.

Of what I overheard of the conversation between the police personnel one bit struck me- O Rajagopal is from BJP, right? So why should Antony be here to inaugurate this function? And the conversation veered on to 2014 elections and the possibility of trade offs between Congress and BJP. I wanted to intervene saying that it was the BJP govt that bailed out Rahul, the Congress prince, when he had been arrested in the USA in 2002. But I kept good counsel- with the devil, use the barge pole!

Anyhow, sitting there my thoughts wandered off in different directions. Maybe I will have to soon take a call on 'jail bharo' -when one would refuse to provide sureties and refuse to argue in courts too!- because there seems to be no other way. The law and order situation is so preposterous in our country, sooner than later people will have to take law into their own hands. Those who are responsible for enforcing law and order seems to be under the impression that what they think and do is the ultimate in law. I myself have no doubt that had I been exposed to even a fraction of the injustice that I see around me today, at the age when I opted to join the army, I would have been a successful naxalite or maoist! A wry smile crossed my lips while imagining how my wife would deal with tracing me out if I had to spend the whole night in the police station! Will be some learning process for her, I told myself. After all adversity is the greatest teacher!

Around 7 pm the SI on duty told me to get two people to bail me out.  And when I repeated I could not because I did not carry a mobile, I was allowed to use the telephone at the reception! I rang up Dr P S Panikkar who told me he was on his way to the police station!

Anyhow, a media friend had got wind of my arrest and he had alerted those in my activists circle- Dr Anuvarudhin and Vilayodi Venugopal. Soon Dr P S Panikkar, Mr Muhammed Shafi and Mr Akbarali were at the police station to bail me out. I was told that the charge was under Sec 35 or so of the Act of 61(the SI on duty was not sure, but he said that it was for creating disturbance in a public place and added that it would be a penalty of Rs 100/- unless contested.)

Anyhow, those 5 hours at the police station, with no familiar faces around, was a new experience. It has only reinforced my understanding that we have a long, long way to go before we can call ourselves a civilized society, leave alone a democracy! I have no choice but to continue with this fight for justice society. Personally I am unlikely to make any worthwhile impact but the concept will always dominate human conscience and should succeed ultimately.

VIDHYAARAMBHAM WITH A DIFFERENCE

Today is Vijayadasami, the last day of the Navraathri Pooja festival when people celebrate the victory of the good over evil. This is the season when soldiers worship the weapons they use and students the books they study. I wondered what should our people in government be worshipping?  Mamon or the devil himself? Anyhow this train of thought led me to start my own vidhyarambham by showering the choicest epithets in my repertoire on the most good-for-everything-bad person on this side of the Western Ghats. But I soon realized that these would not be a patch on the perfidy and treason of this person. So I have limited myself to listing the top 5 on two lists: ‘Not doing anything that he (the Chief Minister of the Government of Kerala) is expected to do’ and ‘Doing everything that he (the Chief Minister of the Government of Kerala) is expected not to do’.

1.       Not doing anything that he is expected to do.

1.1. As the Chief Minister of the Government of Kerala he has been tasked, empowered and paid to the extent of being pampered to work for the greater common good of the citizens of India who are native to this part of the country. In this he is expected to be guided the Directive Principles of State Policy as explained in the Constitution.

1.2. As the Chief Minister of the Government of Kerala, we, the citizens, have placed a lot of resources at his disposal which he is expected to manage judiciously and fairly for achieving the objective of Justice- social, economic and political- enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution.

1.3. As the Chief Minister of the Government of Kerala, he is required to be beyond reproach as his conduct is supposed to be totally transparent and worthy of emulation.

1.4. Such incompetence as this government has displayed cannot be imagined in any democracy worth the name. A bill passed unanimously by the whole lot of elected representatives in the Legislative Assembly almost two years ago, to set up a tribunal to compensate the victims of Coca Cola bottling plant at Plachimada, remains in cold storage in one of the posh offices in Delhi.

1.5. How much do the citizens of Kerala know about the pros and cons of the UID or Aadhaar which have been thrust on them in unusual haste? But look at the tax payer’s money splurged on advertisements (with mostly exaggerated claims of unsubstantiated achievements and mirage like promises) on the occasion of completing 1 year of governance by the UDF and on the eve of another bash in the name of Emerging Kerala!

2.       Doing everything that he is expected not to do.

2.1. Kerala can easily be said to be the worst governed state in the country. That it tops the list of states with highest rate of suicides and consumption of alcohol is proof enough for this. And the only businesses that it is doing with full gusto seems to be selling liquor and lottery tickets! (Of course that is apart from the not so open business of helping every known and unknown mafias-land, sand, forest etc- on this side of the Sahyadris).

2.2. The resources that we have placed at the disposal of the CM is not to be treated as dowry or inheritance from his pop’s assets. But that is exactly what Mr Ommen Chandy has been doing. While he has been volunteering to pay the hospital bills of celebrities who have no need for any financial help, poor patients depending on the government run hospitals are forced to depend on external pharmacies and laboratories for their medicines and diagnostic services at unaffordable cost. Examples are plenty- while cricketers and film actors are the beneficiaries of his indulgence there are plenty of cases of poor people running from pillar to post to get some financial help or refund of expenses they have incurred while seeking treatment from government hospitals. The number of sick and old people who have been brought- in ambulances and on stretchers- to the venues of his much touted Public Contact Programs would alone suffice to prove the perfidy of this person mismanaging our resources authoritatively with impunity! And now even a football player coming to the State to inaugurate a private business showroom and air taxi service is being pampered as a state guest at the cost of the poor and hapless tax payer! (I need to clarify that all these celebrities are lovable people and I too, personally, hold them in great esteem. But the point is that they do not need financial largesse from the government. In the case of Maradona, the King of Football, not only is the government not required to spend on him, it is also required to recover the cost related to provision of security etc from those who have brought him to our land as part of a campaign for their business! Of course even these expenses could be condoned had the government been able to fulfill the basic needs of health care and education to all the citizens here instead of only whining about the lack of funds for fulfilling these most essential of their responsibilities.)

2.3. While the Right to Information Act is supposed to be a landmark legislation to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed, this law been totally subverted in this state. Not only have even the basic requirements like the mandatory information required to be disclosed proactively not been disclosed, there have not even been any transparency in the appointment of information commissioners who are required to enforce the law using the penal provisions effectively.  It may sound ludicrous, funny, offensive and all that but it is also true that when information was sought from the Public Information Officer in the office of the Chief Minister on the action taken on an application submitted to the Chief Minister sometime earlier, the reply received was that the application ‘seems to have been submitted to the earlier incumbent and there is no provision in the Secretariat system to transfer files and documents when incumbents change’!

2.4. In contrast to the dumped Special Tribunal Bill, a controversial bill to facilitate misuse of plantation land for resorts has been pushed through without any problems being encountered anywhere, by the time one could say ‘ithe poyi, ithe vannu’!

2.5. Do the citizens know that after spending about £250 million (that is about Rs 2000 Crores at current exchange rates!) over eight years on developing the National ID (NID) program, the UK government (administering a population of just about 62 million which is less than 6 percent of the population of Mera Mahan Bharath!) abolished it? This scrapping of the project meant that Britain avoided spending another £800 million over a decade. The NID was launched in July 2002-and as of February 2010, its total costs rose to an estimated £4500 million. The UK government has cited higher costs, impracticality and ungovernable breaches of privacy as reasons for cancellation of the NID project. These concerns will no doubt impact India as well. (See: http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/5684.html). It is important to note that even as the process to issue Aadhaar cards began, fake cards even in the name of Nandan Nelekani, heading the project, had been produced? And we all know how tardy and error prone has been Voter’s Identity Cards issued by the Election Commission of India. Not to mention the gross crime of not even having a reliable electoral roll- the Gita-Bible-Koran-like document in a democracy! And for that matter, what is the quality of the process of issue of even ration cards which have been in existence for so long as we have been free from the colonial yoke?

3.       Of course these lists may not make any impact on any politician worth his/her name. But this is part of my vidhyarambham for this year. It is sincerely hoped that both my pen and my compatriots become stronger by the day throughout the year and the good will win over the evil before the year is out!

P M Ravindran

Kalpathy-678003

Tel: 0491-2576042