Historical Materialism and the Black Kettle!

Despite the fact that the struggle for independence has today mostly become mere pages in our collective history, no one with a right frame of mind, would stand in admiration based on blissful ignorance or selective amnesia of what the British had done here in this country, and certainly, not Dr Manmohan Singh or any Congress (wo)man for that matter! The reason is fairly obvious: The Congress’ claim to Delhi is rooted entirely in its history of struggle for Indian independence from the British! The freedom movement, which had thousands undergoing incarceration and other forms of persecution in their struggle against the British, happened mostly under the Congress flag! And that is a history that the Indian National Congress is proud of!

That is also a history, which troubles the Communist Parties in India. Therefore, such vociferous criticism of the Prime Minister for his statements in Oxford, should merely be seen as attempts by the Left to appropriate a part of the nationalistic spheres of Indian politics for themselves. Whether one likes it or not, economic growth and an apparent change in the status of the Country to one that has arrived in the international scene, has lead to there being an evident sense of pride in being an Indian. While Bharathiya Janatha Party would have wanted to hitchhike to power on such newfound and widespread nationalistic tendencies, they have to live with the fact that the original claimants to nationalism are still around.

As for the Left, while they may not be dreaming of coming to power on their own, in times like these, even they would like to have a piece of the pie, which has the flavour of the times! But, unfortunately for them, documented history stands in their way. Communist participation in freedom struggle was at its best, questionable; at its worst, fit to call them 'anti-nationals'! While Leftist historians have repeatedly pointed out the dubious role of the RSS, most of them would want themselves to skip a few pages here and there when looking at the role of the united Communist Party in the Indian Independence movement. In that sense, it is ironic, to say the least, although not unexpected, to see both the Comrades and the Pariwar now trying to appropriate historic pan-Indian nationalism!

In the course of this fight for political space, we even had one gentleman asking the Prime Minister to get back to basic history and learn about the freedom struggle against the British! If only he had known what he was asking!! And if only he himself had learned that history, he would then have realized that the Prime Minister’s statements put him in the august company of the likes of Gandhi, Tagore, Tilak, Gokhale, Radhakrishnan and Nehru. And these were leaders for whom the freedom struggle wasn't a story that they had heard from their parents. Who knows what Comrade Prabhat Patnaik, former member of the CPI (M) Central Committee might say tomorrow? That by having said good things about the British, they had all been insensitive to the millions of ordinary Indians, who had toiled hard and had even given up their lives to secure precious freedom? That these leaders had failed to see through the game plans of the forces of imperialism? Who really knows?

In the 1920s, when the Communist Party in India was born (CPI says it was born on 26, December, 1925 in India; CPM claims it was born in 1920 in the USSR!!!), it was equally opposed to both British Imperialism and the Congress Party. In response to the growing threat of fascism in the 1930s, the Comintern (which was, for all practical purposes, controlled by Stalin) adopted a policy of forming broad alliances with almost any political party willing to oppose the fascists. This brought about a change in the nature of the Indian communists' relationship with the Indian National Congress. Most communists joined the Congress Socialist Party, and in Kerala, they took control over the Congress Socialist Party. But during the Second World War, USSR sided with the British and the British legalised Communist movement in India. What happened then is interesting: The Communist Party opposed the Quit India movement, characterizing the Congress' call against the British as 'helping the fascists!!!

People's War, the then publication of the Communist Party, called Netaji Bose, 'Tojo's dog' and 'an agent of imperialism'. A series of cartoons in the People's War in 1942 attacked Netaji Bose: On August 8, Netaji was portrayed as a mere mask for the Japanese imperial ogre; on September 13, as a cur held up by Joseph Goebbels, and on November 21, as a Japanese bomb to destroy India. (Recently Budhadeb Bhattacharya and Jyoti Basu have admitted that they were wrong in discrediting Bose.) During Quit India movement, J. P. Narayan was shown in a cartoon as jumping into the pouch of the 'Kangaroo-Gandhi'. Mahatma Gandhi was accused of being merely "the astute leader of the bourgeoisie", being in a "decadent phase", and as one who had reached "the nadir of his bankruptcy".

In 1947, after having considered Gandhi's movement as 'a bourgeoisie struggle to entrench local capitalists', the Communists refused to accept India’s independence. History undoubtedly records that the Communists were the culprits behind the first armed rebellion against the newly independent state of India from Telengana, which Sardar Patel neatly crushed. It is only after the failure of the rebellion that the party abandoned 'armed struggle'! In 1962, when the Sino-Indian war broke-out, the Soviet faction of the Indian communists backed the position of the Indian government, while other sections of the party claimed that it was a conflict between a socialist and a capitalist state, and thus took a pro-Chinese position. (EMS and BTR were imprisoned for their anti-national stand.) By 1964, this split was formalised. The pro-Moscow arm retained the original name of the party, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the pro-Beijing arm became the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM! Later, the extreme left movement came out of the CPM after the party started tasting success in parliamentary elections and began to go back on revolutionary talk. There is little wonder that these groups call themselves Maoists, and even today talk of Indian aggression against the Chinese in 1962!!! Unfortunately, these groups still cause havoc in regions like Telengana.

Let us cut a long story short. The Communist Party's chameleon role in the freedom struggle, whether they opposed both the British and the Congress, whether they opposed the British and sided with the Congress, or whether they opposed the Congress and sided with the British all depended upon the stand the USSR took vis-a-vis the UK at each point of time and had nothing to do with the interests of the people of this country. The only thing that changed in the post-independence days was that by the Sixties, some communists had new masters: China, instead of the USSR!

If the RSS finds faults with the Communists for being more Marxists than Indian, can you find fault with that?

This is not to call the entire present generation of Communists anti-nationals or traitors! Yet, it is a little unpalatable to read a write up by Comrade Patnaik in People's Democracy (which is nothing but the CPM successor of People's War, which had discredited the Congress leaders all the time during the freedom struggle), finding fault with a Congress PM for telling the British that despite a history of colonialism, India has moved far too forward to continue to blame Britain for all its ills!

There is no doubt that the role of the RSS in the freedom struggle is dubious! As is being pointed out, Savarkar's letter is a public document. This is not to deny the fact that Savarkar fought the British to deserve imprisonment. But he also gave up at a certain point. In any case, how much ever the Pariwar wants to glorfy its predecessors role in the freedom struggle, documented history would always trouble them. And, this holds true for the Left as well! No wonder, to prove their credentials, People's Democracy has been forced to cite a British despatch, which merely is about the gut feeling of a British officer that "the behaviour of many of CPI's members proves what has always been clear, namely, that it is composed of anti-British revolutionaries". History writing, the Left way!!!

The Left-leaning historians, who've dominated Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) till recently have come up with an 'official history', which is biased and deliberately ignoring 'other versions'. The worst example to cite? When ICHR decided that history should be available in regional languages as well, and not just in English, much to their ‘embarrassment’, most members of the ICHR 'realised' that they were themselves the leading historians in this country. R. S. Sharma, Romila Thapar, Bipan Chandra, Muhammad Habib, S. Gopal, Nurul Hasan, D. N. Jha and the rest have got not one, but two or three or four of their books so translated. And guess, who else have got the honour of ICHR publications? Surprise, surprise! EMS, P. C. Joshi, and even R. P. Dutt, the leader of the Communist party during the British period!! But certainly not the works of Sir Jadunath Sarkar or R C Majumdar!!!

Yet, Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (1888 - 1980) was in my understanding, one of the greatest historians this country has ever seen. It is no surprise if some haven't heard of him or his three-volume History of the Freedom Movement in India. ICHR, which is supposed to promote historiography and history learning in this country didn't want people to know about him. To know why the Left didn't want people to know much about Majumdar, let me quote Rajaram quoting Majumdar: "During the great national upsurge of 1942, the Communists acted as stooges and spies of the British Government… Mr. Joshi (of the Communist Party) was placing at the disposal of India the services of his Party Members… Joshi had, as General Secretary of the Party, written a letter in which he offered ‘unconditional help’ to the then Government of India and the Army GHQ to fight the 1942 underground workers and the Azad Hind Fauz (INA) of Subhas Chandra Bose… Joshi’s letter revealed that the CPI was receiving financial aid from the British Government, ...had a secret pact with the Muslim League…"

For ages, we've discussed and debated the roles Jinnah and the RSS have played in the partition of this country. People have debated the roles of Gandhi and Nehru even. Have you ever heard the role of the Communist Party in it? Have you ever heard of the EMS thesis, as they called it then? In any case, don’t bother! For a party (CPM), which had called India the aggressors in the Indo-Chinese war and supported the Chinese, for a party, which had lauded the scientists and the people of China for successfully testing their nuclear weapons, but severely criticised the nuclear weapons testing of India, their history couldn't have been any better!

It is important to note that the 'standard history', that the Left cites in the case of Sarvarkar, also comes from Majumdar. To quote from People's Democracy, Vol. XXVI, No. 19, dated May 19, 2002, from the article titled 'Such Attacks Will Not Silence Us : CPI(M)' - "Sitaram (Yechuri) said that historically it is indeed true that V D Sarvarkar was in jail. It is equally true that he sought clemency from the British government, subsequently. These are historical facts. They are mentioned in the History of the Penal Settlement by none other than the nationalist historian, R. C. Majumdar."

Of course, the best line in that article is something else: "Sitaram rubbished the RSS talk that communists had played no role in the freedom struggle saying it is like the pot calling the kettle black."

Should I say Inquilab Zindabad for that?

_______________________________________

I would like to thank my dear friends, Muneera, Rijo and Swapna, for all the debates that happen in E-gops and especially, for the one we had on this issue. A special word of thanks to Rijo for encouraging me to state my case in the form of this write-up.

Ah, the revolution! It is coming!

Peter Drucker once said: “In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from”. Some Economists in our country assume that, by this, Drucker was suggesting doing Economics as a good career option for youngsters.

Not surprising, considering the fact that we indeed have economists, perched in their state funded academic ivory towers, preaching the virtues of subsidies and telling us how labour reforms are a bad idea to begin with.

It seems, once labour reforms happen, it would be difficult to earn wages without working. Now, who would know it better than these scholarly men that there cannot be a worse concept than having your wages linked to your contribution to work! I mean, can you imagine, the right to wages being conditional? The right to life is a fundamental right, and income, which is so basic to life; can it be conditional upon, say, work?

Isn’t it so obvious that the right to strike too is a fundamental right? Apparently, the honourable Supreme Court is not taking into consideration the rights and the aspirations of the common man. I didn't say this. The Professors, they said it!

Of course, the right to employment is a fundamental right as well. Doesn’t it follow that you need to be employed to have the right to strike? In which case, if someone is unemployed, it means that the state has failed to protect the rights, and hence the government should resign. Now, don’t ask me why only the government should ensure results, when the labour force of the country wouldn’t have to! Or may be I should attempt to answer that. Let me think... Is it that while the labour force forms the proletariat, the comprador capitalists, who cannot be left unaccountable, run the government?

Aha! I can see some sense now. Too good! I am glad that despite American imperialism strangling even our cultural ethos, and the liberalization, privatization and globalization, forced on us by the MNCs, the World Bank and the IMF, we have not lost the ability to think clearly. I am glad we haven’t been influenced by the steady growth in the economy or the expansion of the middle-class or even the gradual reduction in poverty. Ask the Professors and they can disprove all the changes that you think you have seen in the last two decades. In case, some things can’t be disproved, they can very well tell you how terrible those would be for the country in the long run.

Alright! Let us put two and two together: The Left in this country is allowed to have it way and the right to wages, the right to strike, and the right to be employed become fundamental rights. This, clearly, precludes the possibility of any rights to the capitalist-employer. Since the employers, given their limited rights, would then decide to minimize the use of labour, it becomes imperative upon the state to generate employment. The state, since it needs capital to employ these millions, and since it is expressly anti-national to depend on imperial agencies like the World Bank and the IMF, taxes the capitalists to the extent possible. The capitalists, who would thus see their capital sponged off, could then either go and settle abroad with whatever they have or continue producing till s/he is broke and join the labour force. You thought of cost cutting through technological change as a possibility? Sorry, the money that could have been invested in R&D would have been wiped off as taxes, and foreign-collaboration is a strict no-no! Thus, as more and more businesses close, the state steps in to provide jobs for more and more people. How long? Since there are no additional sources of capital left, the state starts pump priming and galloping inflation sets in. Or did you think of the possibility of state-run firms employing everyone who were around and still making profits and thus, generating enough capital to continue running the show? Goodness, you are so right! I mean, if we can make sure that there is no competition from anywhere for the goods and services produced by the state-run firms, why can't they make profit? May be the prices might rise a bit, but the Government can subsidize… oh, sorry, forgot that there is no money… well, prices might rise and then the salaries can be increased and then the prices may rise a little more and the salaries can rise a little further…

Hours and days pass by and finally the system comes to a stand-still! The reserve army of the unemployed swells up instantaneously and the revolution- ah! the revolution, the Professors have taught and foretold a whole generation of students - would finally happen. Of course, this revolution may not have guns and bullets. Stones and sticks should still be affordable, and in any case, Marx hasn’t said anything about that. The state, the ultimate oppressor, would finally collapse, and assuming that other countries are all too busy with their own affairs, peace, a just peace, an academically ideal condition, would prevail, even if it would be of the graveyard variety. What is important is that by then all private property would have been eliminated, and inequality would have already become history. And, well, the poor! You see, there can’t be such categories as the rich or the poor then.

The better-off and the worse-off? Yeah! The dead and the living!

My bets are on the Professors joining places ranging from Amherst to the Hague, offering new courses on neo-imperialism and underdevelopment, as soon as the Left parties come to power!

'Son-stroke' at twilight!

Thrishivaperoor: When Shri K Karunakaran, the crafty old man of Kerala politics, handed over the flag of his new party to his son, Shri K Muraleedharan, many in the audience were left wondering if he had finally lost the script. The veteran ‘leader’ would have liked his family form a dynasty at the state level in the Congress, on the lines of the Nehru-Gandhi family at the national level. For almost a decade now, he had tricked and blackmailed the Congress leadership at the Centre and at the state level, into deals, which foisted Shri Muraleedharan on to the state unit of the Congress in return for peace from him. But, the ever-spiraling ambitions of the father-son duo and the dormancy of Shri A K Antony’s leadership ended up in the parliamentary positions from the state being handed over to the opposition Left front on a platter. A complete disconnect with the grassroots meant that the Congress high-command did not know what actions to take until the state unit of the Congress had lost all semblance of credibility.

It was only after a couple of months that a leadership change in the government and a course correction in group politics happened. Less-idealistic but highly shrewd politicians took charge of the anti-Karunakaran forces in the Congress in a process, which found Shri Antony pleading once again before the party leadership for accommodating Karunakaran and his family. Yet, neither Shri Antony nor Shri Karunakaran’s friends at the centre, Shri Pranab Mukherjee and Shri Motilal Vohra, could stop Shri Karunakaran’s exit from the party. The central leadership apparently expects the party, as would anyone familiar with the see-saw politics of Kerala, a chance to sit in the opposition after the next Assembly elections. Hence, it becomes pointless to pamper Shri Karunakaran. The fact that even the Left wouldn’t openly woo him would have been considered when Shri Muraleedharan was expelled from the party for six years.

At his moment of reckoning, Shri Karunakaran was forced to choose between the party he built in the state and his son. He chose his son. Ironically, now that he finds himself outside the Congress, any dynasty, which he would have wanted to build through his son, can now be realized only in a setting similar to that of any of the Kerala Congress factions, where he could be a mere scarecrow on the fields of either of the opposing fronts in Kerala. What a fall for someone who was affectionately called by many Keralites as ‘the leader’! Smt Margaret Alwa appropriately referred to Shri Karunakaran’s problem as ‘son-stroke’. It is likely that history would judge him a trifle too harshly for succumbing to this sickness at the twilight of his life.

May Day wishes for the unemployed!

Collecting thoughts and colouring them with ink may not be treated as labour and so I wonder if I can rightfully celebrate May Day! That brings me to an interesting question about the place the unemployed have in India's proletarian parties.

The immediate provocation for this is the sustained opposition of the Left parties and the trade unions to labour reforms in this country. It is not very difficult to comprehend the position of the trade unions: Self-interest necessitates defending their existing rights and benefits. So it makes perfect sense for them to fight to keep wages higher than what they should be, even if it means that the demand for labour remains lower than what it should be. As long as they remain employed, the effect of high cost of labour on the overall industrial employment and the nature of production do not matter to them. Rational behaviour? You bet!

The Left parties cannot oppose the Trade unions. It is a problem, part of a historic image trap. Organised workers are the most visible component of the working class and historically, Left movements have identified with their cause. But where does that leave the Left parties vis-a-vis the unemployed, the underemployed and the employees of the unorganised sectors?

Contrary to the expectations of basic economic logic, Indian industrialisation has been predominantly capital-intensive, even as the country has remained as an obvious case of a capital scarce, labour abundant economy. A couple of distortions explain this. One is the presence of the so-called 'depreciation allowance' on tax, which allows companies to write off amounts against capital depreciation, promoting an obvious bias in favour of capital over labour. What a brilliant state policy for an over-populated country, right?

What is, but of much more consequence is the inflexibility in the labour market and the presence of laws obviously biased against the employers. Once the real cost of employing labour is artificially high, it should hardly be surprising that industrialists prefer capital-intensive techniques of production, even in a labour abundant country like ours. So the liberalised private sector now grows at exciting rates, but without any reforms in the labour market, there is hardly any growth in employment in the manufacturing sector. Well, the critics of economic reforms talk about jobless growth, but what they would not want to admit is the fact that it is due to less reforms and not more!

In a country, where nearly 9 out of 10 workers in the manufacturing sector are in the unorganised sector, where a good number of agricultural workers are underemployed, and where unemployment levels are high even by developing country standards, should a small percentage of unionised workers hold back employment growth? Should the better off among the working class be allowed to protect their interests by effectively blocking the entry of others?

Labour reforms would reduce the cost of employing labour and would thus result in an increased demand for labour. Any benefit this process accrues to the industries would again translate into more jobs. In a country, where the average level of education is nothing worth writing home about, service sector jobs can provide employment only to a small, often English educated, minority. So there is no way one can truly undermine the importance of employment generation in the manufacturing sector. This, but, demands the immediate removal of anti-employer biases from labour laws. In the long-run interests of the working class movement, in the interests of the 'reserve army of the unemployed', would the Left parties oblige? Let this May Day mark a new beginning for the poor and the unemployed of this country.

Juvenile pleasures...

Happy April Fools'!
Copyright Manorama Online 2004

Human Rights!

CLASSIC VERSION...

Remember the old story!!!! The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION...

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. BBC, CNN, NDTV show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper. Opposition MP's stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter. The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retrspective fines, his home is confiscated by the government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by BBC, CNN and NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice".

Source: Mail forward. Origin unknown

The Curtain Rods

She spent the first day packing her belongings into boxes, crates and suitcases. On the second day, she had the movers come and collect her things. On the third day, she sat down for the last time at their beautiful dining room table by candlelight, put on some soft background music, and feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar, and a bottle of Chardonnay.

When she had finished, she went into each and every room and deposited a few half-eaten shrimp shells, dipped in caviar, into the hollow of the curtain rods. She then cleaned up the kitchen and left.

When the husband returned with his new girlfriend, all was bliss for the first few days. Then slowly, the house began to smell. They tried everything: cleaning and mopping and airing the place out. Vents were checked for dead rodents, and carpets were steam cleaned. Air fresheners were hung everywhere. Exterminators were brought in to set off gas canisters, during which they had to move out for a few days, andin the end they even paid to replace the expensive wool carpeting.

Nothing worked. People stopped coming over to visit. Repairmen refused to work in the house. The maid quit. Finally, they could not take the stench any longer and decided to move.
A month later, even though they had cut their price in half, theycould not find a buyer for their stinky house. Word got out, and eventually, even the local realtors refused to return their calls. Finally, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to purchase a new place.

The ex-wife called the man, and asked how things were going. He told her the saga of the rotting house. She listened politely, and said that she missed her old home terribly, and would be willing to reduce her divorce settlement in exchange for getting the house back...

Knowing his ex-wife had no idea how bad the smell was, he agreed on price that was about 1/10th of what the house had been worth. But only if she were to sign the papers that very day. She agreed, and within the hour, his lawyers delivered the paperwork.

A week later, the man and his new girlfriend stood smirking as they watched the moving company pack everything to take to their new home...including the curtain rods.

I LOVE A HAPPY ENDING, DON'T YOU????

Source: Mail forward. Origin unknown.

SUGAR AND SPICE AND ALL THINGS NICE??

Here is a poem that I found on the MCC Alumni group mailing network. Comments are welcome!

An angel of truth and a dream of fiction,
a woman is a bundle of contradiction.

She's afraid of a wasp, will scream at a mouse,
but will tackle her boyfriend alone in the house.

She'll take him for better, she'll take him for worse;
she'll break open his head and then be his nurse.

But when he's well and can get out of bed,
she'll pick up the tea-pot and aim for his head.

Beautiful and keenly sighted, yet blind,
crafty and cruel, yet simple and kind.

She'll call him a king, then make him a clown,
raise him on a pedestal, then knock him flat down.

She'll inspire him to deeds that ennoble man,
or make him her lackey to carry her fan.

She'll run away from him and never come back,
but if he runs away, then she'll be on his tracks.

Sour as vinegar, sweet as a rose,
she'll kiss you one minute, then turn up her nose.

She'll win you in rags, enchant you in silk,
she'll be stronger than brandy, milder than milk

At times she'll be vengeful, merry and sad,
she'll hate you like poison, and love you like mad.

Help us find a missing friend!

Our friend, DENNY V JOHN, aged 28, is missing from CBD, Belapur, New Mumbai since the early hours of 1st of January, 2005. He is an MCA graduate. He is of medium height and complexion.

If you spot him or get any information about him or can help us in any way to find him, please contact us.

Thank you,

Friends of Denny
[macri@yahoogroups.com]

Contact phone numbers:

Denny's home at Kottayam, Kerala: +91-481-2572462
Denny's phone at Mumbai: +91-9820826324

Young Economist Re-Trained!

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad, 4 January 2005: Budding economist, Ms Ally, finally left the twin cities for Kerala today. She was scheduled to have left on the 2nd, but for reasons still unclear, she had to reschedule her travel plans.

The official version of the story is that Ms Ally tried boarding Sabari Express from Secunderabad station on the 2nd, while her ticket had been for the 1st. The real owner of the berth showed her the compartment door right in time, and she managed to be on the platform before the train left. The blame has been apportioned to her travel agent. She, we are told, then managed to get a Tatkal ticket for today and is right now on her way back home.

Eye witnesses but tell a different story altogether: Ms Ally was seen rushing to the Pantry car first, and after some confusion inside, she jumped off the rolling stock right in time. Unconfirmed sources indicate that she changed her travel plans as soon as she realised that the rakes with the person she wanted leaves only on 4th.

However, an apparently innocuous press statement from the official spokesperson of Kaveri Caterers in the evening has added to the confusion. The statement says that 'as a matter of policy, even reserved passengers are not allowed to travel in any of the cabins of the pantry car'. The content and timing of the statement, while surprising, has also raised doubts among many as to whether it has any connection with the incident that occurred on the Sabari Express on Sunday.

Reacting to the incident, the Chief Minister said that as an immediate measure, he has asked the Hon Minister of Railways to rename the Caterers as Rajiv Caterers. A commission is to be formed to look into the matter and to evolve policies to avoid such incidents in the long run. Immediately afterwards, a stampede occurred at Gandhi Bhavan as Congress leaders from across the state vied with each other to head the Commission. Informed sources reveal that a panel of 21 names consisting of 7 leaders each from the three regions of the state would be sent to the High Command, which would take the final decision in consultation with the Left parties.

The former Chief Minister said that this incident would never have occurred during his regime. While severely criticising the government, he added that the fact that visiting intellectuals to even the State Capital are not being provided with the facilities they desire indicate the level of degeneration that has occurred in the last six months. BJP state unit, in a statement bashing the Central government, has demanded the resignation of the Railway Minister over the incident. The party has also invited the budding economist to contest the next parliamentary elections from Ongole.

The Railway Minister, when asked about BJP's demand, was first heard asking his Secretary as to whether Secunderabad was in Bihar or in India. He subsequently stated that he would make a statement in Parliament on the issue when the subject matter of Railway tragedies would come up next.

The Left parties in a joint statement has attacked the imperialist forces represented by the World Bank, IMF and WTO. The statement says that 'in an era of unabashed privatisation and globalisation, incidents such as these are inevitable'. They have called on the people to resist all forms of enslavement that happens through the trans-national corporations and hoped that the visible oppression felt by this progressive thinker on Sabari Express would serve as an eye-opener for many.

It is learnt from reliable sources that various women's groups on the Central University campus, near Gachibowli, have already begun a sit-in strike at the University administration building demanding justice. A representative of the organisations, quoting Foucault over the phone, accepted that all aspects of the incident are still not clear: "What we know, we know only locally". Yet, she was clear that such limitations cannot stop them in their unrelenting fight against patricarchal forces.