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Late September
1999 Bihar
26Sp99 TI - Two ministers
arrested, six killed in Bihar
28Sp99 TI - 'Total Revolution' is dead,
28Sp99 TI - Bloody battle of
ballots feared in Naxal bastion
24Sp99 Tg - Text LALOOS BIHAR IN CIRCLE OF BARH
- [HTM]
24Sp99 Tg - Text - BJP GROOMS PASWAN TO TAKE OVER BIHAR THRONE
- [HTM]
25Sp99 Tg Text - p. 11: Bloodbath / Cornored Laloo
25Sp99 Tg Text - CORNERED LALOO DRIVEN TO BRAHMIN
24Sp99 Tg p11. Text -
BkRv - GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME
- [HTM]
26sp99 Tg, p. 1: Text - BIHAR BEHAVES, MINISTERS DONT
- [HTM]
Guardian in 26Sp99 Telegraph Look. p. 1 Text -
Out of the shadows [Edward Said] -
[HTM]
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Subject: 26Sp66 Two ministers arrested, six killed in Bihar
Two ministers arrested, six killed in Bihar
http://elections.timesofindia.com/26home1.htm
Election India - The Times of India Presentation
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Two ministers arrested, six killed in Bihar
The Times of India News Service and Agencies
NEW DELHI: Six persons were killed in Bihar on Saturday but the polling was by and large peaceful in the eight other states which also saw voting in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections.
Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill termed it ``a very satisfactory day'' as there were apprehensions earlier that Bihar might witness violence comparable to the third phase of polling when 38 people had lost their lives.
As many as 750 people, including two Bihar ministers, were arrested for breach of poll laws. BJP candidate from Patna C.P. Thakur was also detained for allegedly trying to take ballot papers out of a polling station but was released later.
Saturday's average turnout was 51 per cent while the statewise split (percentages) was: Bihar 55; UP 50; MP 45; Orissa 55; Manipur 53; Meghalaya 52; Mizoram 45 and Nagaland 38. Repolling is likely to be held in 60 polling stations of Ballia, Begusarai, Munger and Arrah (all in Bihar) and in 10 stations of Muzzafarnagar in UP where polling was disrupted in Surjo village after supporters of a party clashed with the police.
Bihar minister of state for cooperatives Shyam Bihari Prasad was arrested in Motihari for disturbing polling while minister of state for agriculture Shiv Shankar Yadav was taken into custody in Siwan following recovery of four rifles from his vehicles.
Two persons each were killed in Nalanda and Barh constituencies from where defence minister George Fernandes and former railway minister Nitish Kumar, respectively, were contesting. One person died in Siwan while another was shot dead outside a polling booth near Anjai village of Chhapra district.
Other prominent candidates in the fray on Saturday included Union ministers Ramesh Bais, Maneka Gandhi and Som Pal and former ministers Ram Vilas Paswan, Mulayam Singh Yadav, P.A. Sangma, Kamal Nath and N.D. Tiwari.
Incidents of snatching of ballot boxes were also reported from Munger, Patna and Arah constituencies in Bihar. Naxalites tore ballot papers in some polling booths in Bastar but the polling was not affected.
In north-east, several bomb blasts were reported in Nagaland capital Kohima while gunshots were fired in Dimapu shortly before polling began.
A report from Shimla said 55 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the state. No untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the state.
Voters of Lindur polling station in tribal Lahaul-Spiti district and two polling stations in Kangra district boycotted the polls in protest against the lack of development in their villages.
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Subject: 28 September 1999 TI: `Total Revolution' is dead,
long live three Cs
`Total Revolution' is dead, long live three Cs
28 September 1999
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`Total Revolution' is dead, long live three Cs
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Tuesday 28 September 1999
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`Total Revolution' is dead, long live three Cs
By Vinay Pandey
The Times of India News Service
PATNA: Bihar loves ideologies, especially those of the leftist variety. No wonder, anybody who is somebody in the politics of the state claims to be a socialist. And everybody is a ``disciple'' of Loknayanak Jayaprakash Narayan.
The JP movement of 1974, from which sprang most of the leaders dominating the stae's politics today, was built around the lofty ideals of ``Total Revolution'', which aimed at a corruption-free society, elections by consensus and right to recall. The Congress, accused of corruption and casteism, was seen by JP and his brigade as the main threat to democracy.
Twenty-five years later, the ideals of 1974 lie shattered. The names of JP and Ram Manohar Lohia are heard only when a politician is paying lip service to them. The ``socialist'' parties of Laloo Yadav and Nitish Kumar derive considerable strength from their Shahabuddins and Anand Mohans. The Congress and the BJP are no execeptions.
The boundaries between political parties were completely erased long ago. Many of those who, in 1974, symbolised the ``oppressive rule'' of the Congress are now part of the Janata parivar. One of them is Abdul Ghafoor, who was chief minister of the Congress government of Bihar during the JP movement. Later, he joined the Janata Dal. In the run-up to the present elections, he quit JD (U)-Samata to join the RJD but within a few days returned to the JD (U)-Samata fold.
The inheritors of JP's legacy have taken the art of corruption and casteism to new depths and added to it the new dimension of crime. If the late Jagjivan Ram used to distribute saris and dhotis to woo dalit voters, a candidate today has to distribute arms and money among those managing his campaign. Bihar's politics is now firmly in the grip of three C's - corruption, casteism and crime.
Interestingly, members of every political party claim they are forced to resort to muscle-power only to defend themselves against the terror perpetrated by their opponents. Thus, elections have been transformed into a strange ``Mahabharata'' in which each side claims to be Pandava.
Some politicians are frank enough to admit that the spirit of 1974 is dead. ``Everything is finished,'' says JD (U) leader and defence minister George Fernandes. However, he puts the blame on the ``all-round decline in every sphere of life''. ``Politics cannot be isolated from the social milieu,'' he says. Of course, one can always indulge in a debate on what came first - chicken or egg.
According to conservative estimates by political observers here, a candidate who wants to be in the reckoning in the Lok Sabha elections in Bihar has to spend a minimum of Rs 30 lakh. A good part of this money flows into the underworld - on acquisition of arms and for distribution among local musclemen.
Bihar has 54 Lok Sabha seats. Assuming that only two candidates in each constituency can spend this kind of money and Rs 5 lakh of the amount coming from either side is spent on arms and musclemen, Rs 5.4 crore is pumped into the underworld during each LS election in the state. With the all-round economic downslide of the state and frequent elections, this is the only industry that seems to be prospering here.
Like any other business, the stakeholders in this business - politicians and their criminal aides - too want to make the maximum out of their investments. The profits come mainly from the money meant for development. As a result, Bihar hardly has anything that can be called infrastructure. The condition of most roads is so bad that you should consider yourself lucky if with the best car you can travel more than 20 km an hour. There are stretches on which a 20-km journey takes two hours.
Asked why he has done nothing to improve the condition of roads in his constituency, one candidate said the people of the area were so poor they did not need roads. ``If you give a Mont Blanc pen to somebody who has seen nothing better than a Reynolds ballpoint pen, he won't know what to do with it,'' the candidate explained. Later, inquiries from the locals revealed that renovation of the roads in the area could not be taken up because those favoured by the MP could not get the contract.
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Subject: 28 September 1999 TI: Bloody battle of
ballots feared in Naxal bastion
Bloody battle of ballots feared in Naxal bastion
http://www.timesofindia.com/280999/28indi12.htm
28 September 1999
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Bloody battle of ballots feared in Naxal bastion
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Tuesday 28 September 1999
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Bloody battle of ballots feared in Naxal bastion
By Raj Kumar
The Times of India News Service
ARRAH: Strife-torn Arrah parliamentary constituency, which sprang a surprise in 1989 elections when it sent an ultra-leftist as its representative in Parliament and which at present has a veteran Naxalite of yesteryears as MLA from one of its assembly segments, seems set to see another bloody battle of ballots with the dreaded Ranvir Sena throwing its hat in the ring -- through a proxy. The Sena, the outlawed private army of the land-owning class, has targeted Naxalites since it was formed to fight "anti-landlord" extremists in 1994.
"I am here to win a voice of our own in Parliament," asserts Rang Bahadur Singh, nominee of the Rashtravadi Kisan Mahasangh (RKM), a front organisation of the Sena, in an interview to this reporter. And by a "voice of our own" he says he means a voice "of and for" the farmers who have immensely suffered at the hands of Naxalites in central Bihar.
Sexagenarian Mr Singh belongs to Ichari village which comes under the Jagdishpur police station. This was the place where on March 29, 1993, ultra-leftists had gunned down five villagers and injured nine others of a marriage party when they were returning on Mr Singh's tractor. "The killings shook me no end and it was natural for me to join the RKM," the dhoti-kurta clad RKM state president said.
He is hoping to attract upper caste votes which could spell trouble for the sitting MP, Hardwar Singh of the Samata, who had bagged 2.86 lakh vote in the last poll and whose "indifference to the farmers' cause" was the reason behind the Sena decision to join electoral politics. "Last time, we worked overnight to ensure Hardwar's win and the man after getting the certificate did not bother to visit our office," an indignant Rang Bahadur says. One of his aides adds angrily, "office mein rakha phool aur mithai sukh gaya hamara". But, Mr Singh points out, "our aim is not to defeat anyone but to win".
The Sena presence in the fray has also added to the fears of poll violence in this constituency where at least 24 persons, including five upper caste men and 19 Dalits and backwards, were killed at a clash in one booth in Danwar Bihta in 1989 when the CPI-ML (then an underground outfit) had decided to contest the poll through its front organisation, Indian People's Front (IPF). The IPF nominee, Rameshwar Prasad, eventually won the seat.
For its part, the administration feigns ignorance about any Ranvir Sena presence obviously because the Sena is a banned body. "The RKM is also not a registered party so we would not like to comment," said the district magistrate and returning officer, H S Meena, when asked about fears of violence.
Outlawed Ranvir Sena leader, Barmeshwar Singh issued a press release on Thursday, describing the poll as "our pariksha ki ghari" and exhorted the Sena youths to give a befitting reply to those who grab booths or intimidate voters or mislead them, and ensure Rang Bahadur's win. "I'm sure Arrah will change its history and will emerge as another Chittorgarh after the polls," said the Sena supremo who is a fugitive from the police. Not surprisingly, polling in Arrah has now been postponed from its scheduled date on September 25.
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Subject: 24Sp99 Tg-1: LALOO'S BIHAR IN CIRCLE OF BARH
http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/990924/front_pa.htm#head3
LALOOS BIHAR IN CIRCLE OF BARH
FROM SANKARSHAN THAKUR
Barh, Sept. 23 Vijay Krishna is a would-be giant killer who must by now be
terribly used to getting killed; every time he girds his loins and swings
his mace he ends up flat on his back. Pity he has an opponent like Nitish
Kumar. Pity Vijay Krishna continues to think he can beat him.
Pre-poll forecasts of Nitish Kumars imminent defeat have become a bit of a
joke in Barh now. It happens every time. Vijay Krishna puts out the
invincible arithmetic of the Rajput-backward-Muslim combination, spices it
up with anti-incumbency disgruntlement with Nitish Kumar and serves it as
his recipe for victory. And every time he ends up eating humble pie, with
Laloo Yadav for company.
Barh is a prestige seat for Laloo and Vijay Krishna; talk of worsting
Nitish Kumar is almost an obsessive pre-election preoccupation with the
two. But Barh is one of those things for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)the
more they want to win here, the more difficult it gets.
It is not at all surprising that Vijay Krishna is out predicting doom for
Nitish Kumar yet again. The Yadavs and Muslims are with him, the Rajputs
have consolidated, specially after this weeks daylight murder of a Thakur
trader, the mood is silently changing. Equations are changing quickly in
our favour, says a Vijay Krishna man at the RJD office in Bakhtiyarpur,
scene of the murder of the Rajput tradesman, You will see the result, the
anger against Nitish will show up.
Changes are taking place in Barhs vast backyard expanse but not to Vijay
Krishnas script. For the first time you can witness a formidable anti-Laloo
socio-political alliance coalesce in Bihars rural heartland: the BJPs upper
castes, Samatas Kurmi-Koeri support base, Ram Vilas Paswans Dalits, and
even a section of other backward communities brought in by the Janata Dal
(United). This is almost the combination that the Congress used for decades
to hold sway over the state. Only, instead of the OBCs, the Congress had
the Muslims.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has almost succeeded in conjuring
a social combination that threatens to uproot Laloo Yadav who has so far
looked quite invincible in his Yadav-Muslim-Dalit fortress, says a senior
official who has long worked closely with Laloo Yadav.
Anti-Lalooism surges in every election but this time it has a strong
platform. It is not a paper sentiment, it is actually working on the
ground.
This is not the first election in Bihar where defeat Laloo has been the
dominant slogan of anti-Laloo forces but it does appear to be the first
time that anti-Laloo sentiment has been channelised into a consolidated
political groundswell: the upper castes, the lesser backwards like Kurmis
and Koeris, the Dalits, all are in the drive-Laloo-out campaign together.
Barh is an instructive case in how the political nature of the alliance
against Laloo has changed. In the 1995 Assembly elections, the fledgling
Samata Party had struck a deal with the CPI(ML), influential in some
sections of central Bihar which is also Nitish Kumars homeground, in a bid
to undo Laloo Yadav. Nitish then was, in fact, projecting himself as future
chief minister; his anti-Lalooism was as strong as it is today.
But the 1995 result? Laloo swept Bihar with an unexpected two-thirds
victory and the Samata Party managed seven seats in the Assemblya tattered
figleaf barely covering its dignity.
The Samata-CPI(ML) alliance had remained a leader-level deal, neither
worked to transfer votes to the other. Nitish and other parties that now
form the National Democratic Alliance, seem to have learnt their lessons
from 1995 well.
The anti-Laloo alliance in Bihar this time is not merely about Nitish
shaking hands with Paswan and Paswan shaking hands with the BJP; it is
about their constituencies, their social bases shaking hands as well.
So if Nitish has been feeling a little insecure about the Dalit and Rajput
votes in Barh, Paswan and Anand Mohan Singh, the militant Rajput
protagonist from north Bihar, have sent in their platoons to help.
And if Anand Mohan Singhs wife, Lovely Anand, has needed to shore up
backward votes in Vaishali, Nitish has been there to campaign. Paswan
himself makes a strange sight speaking under the BJPs saffron banner but he
has done so quite unashamedly; and in doing so, he has sent the message
across: the priority at the moment is to oust Laloo Yadav, doesnt matter
what compromises, personal or ideological, he has to make for that.
It is not simply arithmetic that the anti-Laloo forces have worked on this
time, it is also chemistry. There is a sense now that Laloo is going, says
Paswan, because we have given one voice, one flag to the anti-Laloo
sentiment. Many of the people I am campaigning for in this election have
been my strong adversaries but we decided that in Bihar there is no bigger
adversary than Laloo.
Paswan and Nitish Kumar arent the best of friends, personally or
politically, but in Barh, as in Bihar at large, they have a common
adversary who makes their differences quite irrelevant. Pity Vijay Krishna.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/990924/front_pa.htm#head3
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LALOOS BIHAR IN CIRCLE OF BARH
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FROM SANKARSHAN THAKUR
Barh, Sept. 23
Vijay Krishna is a would-be giant killer who must by now be terribly used to getting killed; every time he girds his loins and swings his mace he ends up flat on his back. Pity he has an opponent like Nitish Kumar. Pity Vijay Krishna continues to think he can beat him.
Pre-poll forecasts of Nitish Kumars imminent defeat have become a bit of a joke in Barh now. It happens every time. Vijay Krishna puts out the invincible arithmetic of the Rajput-backward-Muslim combination, spices it up with anti-incumbency disgruntlement with Nitish Kumar and serves it as his recipe for victory. And every time he ends up eating humble pie, with Laloo Yadav for company.
Barh is a prestige seat for Laloo and Vijay Krishna; talk of worsting Nitish Kumar is almost an obsessive pre-election preoccupation with the two. But Barh is one of those things for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)the more they want to win here, the more difficult it gets.
It isnot at all surprising that Vijay Krishna is out predicting doom for Nitish Kumar yet again. The Yadavs and Muslims are with him, the Rajputs have consolidated, specially after thisweeks daylight murder of a Thakur trader, the mood is silently changing. Equations are changing quickly in our favour, says a Vijay Krishna man at the RJD office in Bakhtiyarpur, scene of the murder of the Rajput tradesman, You will see the result, the anger against Nitish will show up.
Changes are taking place in Barhs vast backyard expanse but not to Vijay Krishnas script. For the first time you can witness a formidable anti-Laloo socio-political alliance coalesce in Bihars ruralheartland: the BJPs upper castes, Samatas Kurmi-Koeri support base, Ram Vilas Paswans Dalits, and even a section of other backward communities brought in by the Janata Dal (United). This is almost the combination that the Congress used for decades to hold sway over the state. Only, instead of the OBCs, the Congress had the Muslims.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has almost succeeded in conjuring a social combination that threatens to uproot Laloo Yadav who has so far looked quite invincible in his Yadav-Muslim-Dalit fortress, says a senior official who has long worked closely with Laloo Yadav.
Anti-Lalooism surges in every election but this time ithasa strong platform. It is not a papersentiment, it is actually working on the ground.
This is not the first election in Bihar where defeat Laloo has been the dominant slogan of anti-Laloo forces but it does appear to be the firsttimethatanti-Laloo sentiment has beenchannelised into a consolidated political groundswell: the upper castes, the lesser backwardslike Kurmis and Koeris, the Dalits, all are in thedrive-Laloo-outcampaign together.
Barh is an instructive case in how the political nature of the alliance against Laloo has changed. In the1995 Assembly elections, the fledgling Samata Party had struck a deal withthe CPI(ML), influential in some sections of central Bihar whichis also Nitish Kumars homeground, in a bidtoundoLalooYadav. Nitish then was, in fact,projectinghimselfasfuturechief minister; his anti-Lalooism was as strong as it is today.
But the 1995 result? Laloo swept Biharwith an unexpectedtwo-thirds victory and the Samata Party managedsevenseatsin the Assemblya tattered figleaf barely covering its dignity.
The Samata-CPI(ML) alliance had remained a leader-level deal, neither worked to transfer votes to the other. Nitish and other parties that now form the NationalDemocratic Alliance, seem tohave learnt their lessons from 1995 well.
The anti-Laloo alliance in Bihar this time is not merely aboutNitishshakinghandswith Paswan and Paswan shaking hands with the BJP; it is about their constituencies, their social bases shaking hands as well.
So if Nitish has been feeling a little insecureabouttheDalitand Rajput votes in Barh, Paswan and Anand Mohan Singh, themilitant Rajput protagonist from north Bihar, have sent in theirplatoons to help.
And if AnandMohan Singhs wife, LovelyAnand,has needed to shore up backward votes in Vaishali,Nitish has been there to campaign. Paswan himself makes a strange sightspeaking undertheBJPs saffronbannerbuthehasdonesoquite unashamedly; and in doing so, he has sent the message across: the priority at the moment is to oustLalooYadav,doesntmatter what compromises, personal or ideological, hehastomakefor that.
It is not simply arithmeticthat the anti-Lalooforceshave worked on this time, it is alsochemistry.There is a sense now that Laloo is going, says Paswan, because we have givenone voice, one flag to the anti-Laloo sentiment. Many of thepeople I am campaigning for in thiselection have been mystrong adversaries but we decided thatinBiharthereisnobigger adversary thanLaloo.
Paswan and Nitish Kumar arent the best of friends, personally or politically, but in Barh, as inBiharatlarge,theyhavea common adversary who makes theirdifferencesquiteirrelevant. Pity Vijay Krishna.
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Subject: 24Sp99 TG p. 6 - BJP GROOMS PASWAN TO TAKE OVER
http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/990924/national.htm#head2
BJP GROOMS PASWAN TO TAKE OVER BIHAR THRONE
FROM KAY BENEDICT
New Delhi, Sept. 23
The BJP, with the support of George Fernandes, has begun grooming Ram Vilas
Paswan as its chief ministerial candidate for the March 2000 Assembly
elections in Laloo Yadavs gradually-weakening kingdom.
The move is a blow to Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar, who has his eyes
set on the Bihar throne if the National Democratic Alliance is voted to
power.
Though the BJP has several other stalwarts, like legislature party leader
Sushil Kumar Modi and finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who are also keen on
the top job, the party chose Paswan to kill two birds with one stone.
First, the alliance will pocket the six per cent Paswan votes in Bihar.
More important, it hopes to send a positive message to Dalits across the
country, who are traditionally anti-BJP.
While Kumar is waging a lonely war, Paswan has emerged as the darling of
Samata president Fernandes and the BJP leadership.
The BJP, and even Fernandes, are not quite at home with Kumar, who is
fighting a no-holds-barred battle against the formidable Vijay Krishna of
the Rashtriya Janata Dal to retain his Barh Lok Sabha seat. In the 1998
polls, Kumar scraped through by a slender margin of 15,000 votes.
BJP strategists feel Kumar is still wedded to his socialist image. Party
managers and also a section of the Samata leadership fear that Kumar, with
his backward Kurmi votebankabout four per centcould regroup the Mandalites
and emerge as another Laloo.
Egged on by reports that the NDA is gaining ground in Bihar, BJP leaders
are trying to work out a winning formula for the state. As the Muslims
remain staunchly anti-BJP, the party sees the Congress votebank as its best
bet. The Dalits and a section of the OBCs are still with the Congress. But
the Paswan gambit means a chunk of the Dalit votes would fall into the BJP
kitty.
Realising this, senior BJP leader K.N. Govindacharya, has held at least 10
meetings with Paswan over the past six months. Sources said Govindacharya
suggested that Paswan float a party of his own which would be backed by the
BJP in a few constituencies.
Paswan spoke to Bihar Jan Congress leader Jagannath Mishra, Koeri leader
and Samata rebel Shakuni Chowdhry and Rajput leader Anand Mohan. Both Mohan
and Chowdhry had quit the Samata Party following differences with Kumar.
But Paswans venture did not take shape as Chowdhry joined Laloos Rashtriya
Janata Dal.
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BJP GROOMS
PASWAN TO TAKE OVER BIHAR THRONE
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FROM KAY BENEDICT
New Delhi, Sept. 23
The BJP, with the support of George Fernandes, has begun grooming Ram Vilas Paswan as its chief ministerial candidate for the March 2000 Assembly elections in Laloo Yadavs gradually-weakening kingdom.
The move is a blow to Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar, who has his eyes set on the Bihar throne if the National Democratic Alliance is voted to power.
Though the BJP has several other stalwarts, like legislature party leader Sushil Kumar Modi and finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who are also keen on the top job, the party chose Paswan to kill two birds with one stone.
First, the alliance will pocket the six per cent Paswan votes in Bihar. More important, it hopesto send a positive message to Dalits across the country, who are traditionally anti-BJP.
While Kumar is waging a lonely war, Paswan has emerged as the darling of Samata president Fernandes and the BJP leadership.
The BJP, and even Fernandes, are not quite at home with Kumar, who is fighting a no-holds-barred battle against the formidable Vijay Krishna of the Rashtriya Janata Dal to retain his Barh Lok Sabha seat. In the 1998 polls, Kumar scraped through by a slender margin of 15,000 votes.
BJP strategists feel Kumar is still wedded to his socialist image. Party managers and also a section of the Samata leadership fear that Kumar, with his backward Kurmi votebankabout four per centcould regroup the Mandalites and emerge as another Laloo.
Egged on by reports that the NDA is gaining ground in Bihar, BJP leaders are trying to work out a winning formula for the state. As the Muslims remain staunchly anti-BJP, the party sees the Congress votebank as its best bet. The Dalits and a section of the OBCs are still with the Congress. But the Paswan gambit means a chunk of the Dalit votes would fall into the BJP kitty.
Realising this, senior BJP leader K.N. Govindacharya, has held at least 10 meetings with Paswan over the past six months. Sources said Govindacharya suggested that Paswan float a party of his own which would be backed by the BJP in a few constituencies.
Paswan spoke to Bihar Jan Congress leader Jagannath Mishra, Koeri leader and Samata rebel Shakuni Chowdhry and Rajput leader Anand Mohan. Both Mohan and Chowdhry had quit the Samata Party following differences with Kumar. But Paswans venture did not take shape as Chowdhry joined Laloos Rashtriya Janata Dal.
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Subject: 24Sp99 Tg p11. BkRv - GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOMEBack to the top
GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME / BOOK REVIEW
BY RUDRANGSHU MUKHERJEE
Origins of Nationality in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical Government in
the Making of Modern India
By C.A. Bayly, Oxford, Rs 575
C.A. Bayly is a historian who likes the idea of continuity. He prefers to
see colonialism not as a disruptive intervention in the Indian economy and
society but as a continuity of some of the traditions that had been created
before the advent of the British. He also highlights continuities in his
own work.
The concerns of this book, he says, go back to questions which he had
addressed in his first book, Local Roots of Indian Politics: Allahabad,
1880-1920, in which he wrote of networks of older institutions which
propped up the Congress in Allahabad. Nationalism had a pre-history. In his
next book, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society during the
age of British Expansion, 1770-1870 , he made the suggestion that some
features of modern Indian civil society harked back to the tradition of
corporate rights and governance inherent in the organization and ideologies
of the traditional Indian merchant communities. The third book, Empire and
Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India
1780-1870 , analysed the density of social communication and suggested this
to be an important factor in explaining how nationalism spread in a poor
country with a low level of literacy. Nationalism and colonialism could
not be understood as imports from the West. Both had indigenous roots.
At the heart of this book lies the text of the Radhakrishnan Lectures
delivered in the University of Oxford in 1996. Bayly looks at the
interaction between patriotism and nationalism. He uses the term
patriotism to describe the sense of loyalty to place and institutions which
bound some Indians, even in the immediate pre-colonial period, to their
regional homelands. Baylys use of the word is deliberately provocative
since he wants to push the study of Indian nationalism away from where
modernists and their critics have taken it. Historians inspired by the
national movement saw nationalism in India as the harbinger of the modern
nation-state. From the Eighties this position has been attacked by scholars
like Partha Chatterjee, Ranajit Guha and Ashis Nandy who saw the Indian
nation-state as the inheritor of the centralizing and normalizing
tendencies inherent in its European exemplar since the time of the
Enlightenment.
Bayly does not disagree with the view that Indian nationalism, its
organization and its ideology, was derived from Western models. But he
insists the particularities of Indian nationalism have to be understood in
the context of Indian forms of social organization and ideologies of good
governance that pre-date the full western impact even if they, in turn, had
been modified by colonial rule. In his analysis, nationalism has a longer
history than colonialism.
Bayly shows that identities of and doctrines wider than the village, the
clan and the community were forming and reforming in immediate pre-colonial
India. This patriotism was aware even of parties and crises in the British
domestic political systemwitness its reactions during Warren Hastingss
impeachmentand even when coloured by religion, region or caste was pitched
more broadly. These sentiments with the new mediums of communication
created the beginnings of oppositional politics in India which pre-dated by
two generations self-consciously nationalist critiques of British rule.
Bayly reinterprets the revolt of 1857 in this light.
Bayly accepts now, under pressure from recent work done on the revolt, that
it was something more than a concatenation of grievances. He sees it now as
a set of patriotic revolts picking up on many themes of land and kingship.
This is a welcome acknowledgment of the work done by Indian historians.
Bayly very deftly weaves many of their findings and conclusions into his
own analysis. But very few of these historians will accept Baylys
minimalization of the impact of British rule on Indian society. If there is
continuity anywhere it is in the debate.
Back to the top
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24Sp99 Telegraph
GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME/BOOK REVIEW
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BY RUDRANGSHU MUKHERJEE
Origins of Nationality in South Asia:
Patriotism and Ethical Government in the Making of Modern India
By C.A. Bayly, Oxford, Rs 575
C.A. Bayly is a historian who likes the idea of continuity. He prefers
to see colonialism not as a disruptive intervention in the Indian economy
and society but as a continuity of some of the traditions that had been
created before the advent of the British. He also highlights continuities
in his own work.
The concerns of this book, he says, go back to questions which he had
addressed in his first book, Local Roots of Indian Politics: Allahabad,
1880-1920, in which he wrote of networks of older institutions which
propped up the Congress in Allahabad. Nationalism had a pre-history. In his
next book, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society during the
age of British Expansion, 1770-1870, he made the suggestion that some
features of modern Indian civil society harked back to the tradition of
corporate rights and governance inherent in the organization and ideologies
of the traditional Indian merchant communities. The third book, Empire
and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India
1780-1870, analysed the density of social communication and suggested
this to be an important factor in explaining how nationalism spread in a
poor country with a low level of literacy. Nationalism and colonialism
could not be understood as imports from the West. Both had indigenous
roots.
At the heart of this book lies the text of the Radhakrishnan Lectures
delivered in the University of Oxford in 1996. Bayly looks at the
interaction between patriotism and nationalism. He uses the term patriotism
to describe "the sense of loyalty to place and institutions which bound
some Indians, even in the immediate pre-colonial period, to their regional
homelands." Bayly's use of the word is deliberately provocative since he
wants to push the study of Indian nationalism away from where modernists
and their critics have taken it. Historians inspired by the national
movement saw nationalism in India as the harbinger of the modern
nation-state. From the Eighties this position has been attacked by scholars
like Partha Chatterjee, Ranajit Guha and Ashis Nandy who saw the Indian
nation-state as the inheritor of the centralizing and normalizing
tendencies inherent in its European exemplar since the time of the
Enlightenment.
Bayly does not disagree with the view that Indian nationalism, its
organization and its ideology, was derived from Western models. But he
insists "the particularities of Indian nationalism have to be understood
in the context of Indian forms of social organization and ideologies of
good governance that pre-date the full western impact even if they, in
turn, had been modified by colonial rule". In his analysis, nationalism
has a longer history than colonialism.
Bayly shows that identities of and doctrines wider than the village, the
clan and the community were forming and reforming in immediate pre-colonial
India. This patriotism was aware even of parties and crises in the British
domestic political system -- witness its reactions during Warren
Hastings's impeachment -- and even when coloured by religion, region or
caste was pitched more broadly. These sentiments with the new mediums of
communication created the beginnings of oppositional politics in India
which pre-dated by two generations self-consciously nationalist critiques
of British rule. Bayly reinterprets the revolt of 1857 in this light.
Bayly accepts now, under pressure from recent work done on the revolt,
that it was something more than a concatenation of grievances. He sees it
now as a set of patriotic revolts picking up on many themes of land and
kingship. This is a welcome acknowledgment of the work done by Indian
historians. Bayly very deftly weaves many of their findings and conclusions
into his own analysis. But very few of these historians will accept Bayly's
minimalization of the impact of British rule on Indian society. If there is
continuity anywhere it is in the debate.
|
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Subject: 25Sp99 Tg p. 11: Bloodbath / Cornored LalooBack to the top
http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/990925/front_pa.htm#head3
BLOODBATH SPECTRE OVER BIHAR ONPOLL-EVE
OUR BUREAU
Sept. 24: Battered and bruised, Bihar braces for another round of
bloodbath in the second phase tomorrow. Though the Centre has beefed up
security after last Saturdays violence spiral, the administration fears
that groups owing allegiance to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, BJP and the
Samata Party will unleash a no-holds-barred attack as much is at stake in
the state.
South Bihar was the worst hit by violence in the first phase as Naxalite
groups, which have called a poll boycott, struck with clinical precision.
At least 50 people, including 35 security personnel, were killed as the
Naxalites triggered landmines throughout the region.
Yet north and central Bihar, with over 29,000 polling booths, will not be
crawling with security forces. The strength of central paramilitary forces
has been augmented by only 15 companies, despite state police chief K.A.
Jacobs fears of largescale violence in Gopalgunge, Nalanda, Ara, Barh,
Siwan and Madhepura because of the profile of candidates. A red alert has
been sounded in these areas.
Besides, Naxalite groups have considerable sway over Bhojpur and Patna
(rural). There is a culture of violence in these areas, Jacob said.
Around 240 rounds of ammunition were seized from five persons in Asthana
area of Nalanda last evening. The police also rounded up Raina Singh, a
dreaded criminal of Hajipur, during a flush-out operation in the disturbed
areas last night.
The marginal increase in the strength of the paramilitary troops is giving
the state administration sleepless nights. There is nothing like enough
security forces, but we are going to bed with our fingers crossed, Jacob
told The Telegraph over phone.
Security forces would be deployed in remote Naxalite-infested areas after
screening the roads with mine-sweepers, Jacob said.
Though the officials are not complaining, the inability of the Union home
ministry to deploy more troops places the Election Commission, and also the
much-maligned Rabri Devi government, at an advantage. Pushed to the wall by
the Samata Party, which has hurled a string of accusations, the poll panel
has already requested the home ministry for more forces for Bihar. If there
is violence tomorrow, both the Rabri Devi government and the commission
will find it easier to pass the blame to the Centre.
While 132 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed in south Bihar
last Saturday, 147 companies will be stationed across the 19 constituencies
that vote tomorrow. The state administration had demanded 100 additional
companies..
Union home ministry officials, however, say that states always demand
excess troops. But this is the best that can be deployed under the
circumstances. Security forces will have to be sent to Uttar Pradesh and
Andhra Pradesh as well, an official said.
Initially, south Bihar was sanctioned 119 companies and north Bihar 110.
But 13 more companies were deployed in the southern areas following a
request from the state government.
All parties have much to fight for tomorrow. In central Bihars Buxar,
Vaishali, Bettiah and Chapra, Laloo Prasad Yadavs party is facing its
toughest-ever challenge following the Janata Dal-Samata merger.
Among the stalwarts in the fray are Nitish Kumar from Barh, Ram Vilas
Paswan from Hajipur and George Fernandes, who is fighting to retain his
Nalanda seat.
Dal(U) complaint
The Janata Dal (United) today complained to the Election Commission that
the RJD was misusing official machinery in Madhepura, where Laloo is pitted
against Dal(U) chief Sharad Yadav.
Dal(U) spokesman Mohan Prakash alleged that criminals were canvassing and
coercing voters to support Laloo.
Back to the top
http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/990925/front_pa.htm#headr
CORNERED LALOO DRIVEN TO BRAHMIN
FROM TAPAS CHAKRABORTY IN SIWAN AND GOPALGUNGE
Laloo Yadav is on shaky ground, even on his home turf. The growing
disenchantment with the Rashtriya Janata Dal coupled with the consolidation
of Brahmin-Rajput-Koeri votes has forced the messiah of the downtrodden to
opt for an upper caste candidate in Gopalgunge, his home district.
Brushing aside claims of top leaders like Abdul Ghafoor, Laloo has picked
Kali Pandey, a Brahmin, to retain his fief. Pandey, a former Congressman
who till recently was part of the Jagannath Mishra camp, is known more for
his trips to jail than for his political acumen.
By taking the gamble, say RJD workers, Laloo hopes to split the Brahmin
votes and stymie the BJP progress. But by doing this, he has given the
impression that the mirror of his caste structure has cracked from side to
side, says Mohan Dubey, a freelance journalist in Gopalgunge town.
Observers see Laloos decision to field an upper caste candidate as a
desperate gamble born out of the challenge posed by the Janata Dal(U) which
is positioned enviously to gain both the Paswan and the traditionally
upper-caste anti-Laloo votes.
In the 1998 polls, the RJD boss had a tacit understanding with Bihar
Peoples Party leader Anand Mohan in north Bihar to consolidate the backward
votes and split the upper caste ones. But Mohan has since switched
allegiance to the Dal(U).
The caste arithmetic of north Bihar was reflected in Gopalgunges
demographic structure. The Brahmin vote-share here touches 2.5 lakh. In
Buxar, it is at least a lakh. In Motihari and Champaran, the Brahmin-Rajput
division has always helped the RJD to scrape through. But this time, they
have rallied behind the Dal(U).
RJD leaders are putting up a brave front. Politics has never come under
scrutiny on the moral sense of caste combination. Politics is a constant
process of merging with the masses for magic power, says Jogesh Chaturvedi,
Laloos ardent supporter and his office secretary in Gopalgunge.
Laloo supporters like Harendra Yadav, a Yadav-Mukhia of Gopalgunge, point
out that with one Assembly segment accounting for 70 per cent Brahmins and
a sprinkling of at least five per cent in the remaining seven, the decision
is a wise one.
But the decision has raised a few eyebrows in the Yadav lobby. It is
difficult to convince the ordinary voter about the poll exigencies, says
Dinanath Yadav, a resident of Laloos village Phulwari.
Laloos elder brother, Gulab Yadav, is also puzzled. What could I say? He is
the best judge, he remarks indifferently. By harping on the caste
arithmetic, Laloo has ignored other local factors. Four major sugar
factories have closed down. One dalda manufacturing plant employing about
200 workers has also gone out of business.
Besides, the strong-arm tactics of Laloos kin have become a potent issue
for the Dal(U) candidate, Raghunath Jha. If Bihar has two chief ministers,
Gopalgunge has at least four, including two brothers of the chief minister,
he says.
Back to the top
  
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Bloodbath spectre over Bihar on poll-eve
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Cornered Laloo driven to Brahmin
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25Sp99 Telegraph
BLOODBATH SPECTRE OVER BIHAR ON POLL-EVE
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OUR BUREAU
Sept. 24:
Battered and bruised, Bihar braces for another round of bloodbath in the second phase tomorrow.
Though the Centre has beefed up security after last Saturdays violence spiral, the administration fears that groups owing allegiance to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, BJP and the Samata Party will unleash a no-holds-barred attack as much is at stake in the state.
South Bihar was the worst hit by violence in the first phase as Naxalite groups, which have called a poll boycott, struck with clinical precision. At least 50 people, including 35 security personnel, were killed as the Naxalites triggered landmines throughout the region.
Yet north and central Bihar, with over 29,000 polling booths, will not be crawling with security forces. The strength of central paramilitary forces has been augmented by only 15 companies, despite state police chief K.A. Jacobs fears of largescale violence in Gopalgunge, Nalanda, Ara, Barh, Siwan and Madhepura because of the profile of candidates. A red alert has been sounded in these areas.
Besides, Naxalite groups have considerable sway over Bhojpur and Patna (rural). There is a culture of violence in these areas, Jacob said.
Around 240 rounds of ammunition were seized from five persons in Asthana area of Nalanda last evening. The police also rounded up Raina Singh, a dreaded criminal of Hajipur, during a flush-out operation in the disturbed areas last night.
The marginal increase in the strength of the paramilitary troops is giving the state administration sleepless nights. There is nothing like enough security forces, but we are going to bed with our fingers crossed, Jacob told The Telegraph over phone.
Security forces would be deployed in remote Naxalite-infested areas after screening the roads with mine-sweepers, Jacob said.
Though the officials are not complaining, the inability ofthe Union home ministry to deploy more troops places the Election Commission, and also the much-maligned Rabri Devi government, at an advantage. Pushed to the wall by the Samata Party, which has hurled a string of accusations, the poll panel has already requested the home ministry for more forces for Bihar. If there is violence tomorrow, both the Rabri Devi government and the commission will find it easier to pass the blame to the Centre.
While 132 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed in south Bihar last Saturday, 147 companies will be stationed across the 19 constituencies that vote tomorrow. The state administration had demanded 100 additional companies..
Union home ministry officials, however, say that states always demand excess troops. But this is the best that can be deployed under the circumstances. Security forces will have to be sent to Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh as well, an official said.
Initially, south Bihar was sanctioned 119 companies and north Bihar 110. But 13 more companies were deployed in the southern areas following a request from the state government.
All parties have much to fight for tomorrow. In central Bihars Buxar, Vaishali, Bettiah and Chapra, Laloo Prasad Yadavs party is facing its toughest-ever challenge following the Janata Dal-Samata merger.
Among the stalwarts in the fray are Nitish Kumar from Barh, Ram Vilas Paswan from Hajipur and George Fernandes, who is fighting to retain his Nalanda seat.
Dal(U) complaint
The Janata Dal (United) today complained to the Election Commission that the RJD wasmisusing official machinery in Madhepura, where Laloo is pitted against Dal(U) chief Sharad Yadav.
Dal(U) spokesman Mohan Prakash alleged that criminals were canvassing and coercing voters to support Laloo.
|
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25Sp99 Telegraph
CORNERED LALOO DRIVEN TO BRAHMIN
|
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FROM TAPAS CHAKRABORTY IN SIWAN AND GOPALGUNGE
Laloo Yadav is on shaky ground, even on his home turf. The growing disenchantment with the Rashtriya Janata Dal coupled with the consolidation of Brahmin-Rajput-Koeri votes has forced the messiah of the downtrodden to opt for an upper caste candidate in Gopalgunge, his home district.
Brushing aside claims of top leaders like Abdul Ghafoor, Laloo has picked Kali Pandey, a Brahmin, to retain his fief. Pandey, a former Congressman who till recently was part of the Jagannath Mishra camp, is known more for his trips to jail than for his political acumen.
By taking the gamble, say RJD workers, Laloo hopes to split the Brahmin votes and stymie the BJP progress. But by doing this, he has given the impression that the mirror of his caste structure has cracked from side to side, says Mohan Dubey, a freelance journalist in Gopalgunge town.
Observers see Laloos decision to field an upper caste candidateas a desperate gamble born out of the challenge posed by the Janata Dal(U) which is positioned enviously to gain both the Paswan and the traditionally upper-caste anti-Laloo votes.
In the 1998 polls, the RJD boss had a tacit understanding with Bihar Peoples Party leader Anand Mohan in north Bihar to consolidate the backward votes and split the upper caste ones. But Mohan has since switched allegiance to the Dal(U).
The caste arithmetic of north Bihar was reflected in Gopalgunges demographic structure. The Brahmin vote-share here touches 2.5 lakh. In Buxar, it is at least a lakh. In Motihari and Champaran, the Brahmin-Rajput division has always helped the RJD to scrape through. But this time, they haverallied behind the Dal(U).
RJD leaders are putting up a brave front. Politics has never come under scrutiny on the moral sense of caste combination. Politics is a constant process of merging with the masses for magic power, says Jogesh Chaturvedi, Laloos ardent supporter and his office secretary in Gopalgunge.
Laloo supporters like Harendra Yadav, a Yadav-Mukhia of Gopalgunge, point out that with one Assembly segment accounting for 70 per cent Brahmins and a sprinkling of at least five per cent in the remaining seven, the decision is a wise one.
But the decision has raised a few eyebrows in the Yadav lobby. It is difficult to convince the ordinary voter about the poll exigencies, says Dinanath Yadav, a resident of Laloos village Phulwari.
Laloos elder brother, Gulab Yadav, is also puzzled. What could I say? He is the best judge, he remarks indifferently. By harping on the caste arithmetic, Laloo has ignored other local factors. Four major sugar factories have closed down. One dalda manufacturing plant employing about 200 workers has also gone out of business.
Besides, the strong-arm tactics of Laloos kin have become a potent issue for the Dal(U) candidate, Raghunath Jha. If Bihar has two chief ministers, Gopalgunge has at least four, including two brothers of the chief minister, he says.
|
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Back to the top
Subject: 26sp99 Tg, p. 1: BIHAR BEHAVES, MINISTERS DONTBack to the top
http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/990926/front_pa.htm#head2
BIHAR BEHAVES, MINISTERS DONT
OUR BUREAU
New Delhi, Sept. 25 Five persons were killed and two ministers arrested in
the second phase of polling in Bihar today, which was relatively peaceful
compared to the first round in which nearly 50 people were killed.
Following the bloodbath on September 18, the authorities had braced for
widespread violence today. Polling in other states, including Uttar
Pradesh, was also largely peaceful.
Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill said: The deaths took place in police
firing away from polling stations. There were two deaths each in Nalanda
and Barh and one in Siwan.
Shyam Behari Prasad, a minister in the Bihar Cabinet, was arrested in
Motihari for disturbing polling at a booth. In Patna, sitting BJP MP C.P.
Thakur was detained by the magistrate for trying to take ballot papers out
of the polling booth. He was later released. In the afternoon, another
minister, Shiv Shankar Prasad, was arrested for having firearms in his
possession. Unconfirmed reports said two more ministers were booked.
In some 60-odd booths there could be no polling because of heavy rains,
Gill said.
In the first phase in Bihar, most of the victims had died in landmine
explosions. Almost heaving a sigh of relief, Gill said: It has been a very
satisfactory day today.
The overall turnout continued to be low at 51 per cent. Polling was
particularly dull in Nagaland and Mizoram. The turnout was 55 per cent in
Bihar, 50 in Uttar Pradesh, 45 in Madhya Pradesh, 55 in Orissa and 52 in
Himachal Pradesh.
Sixteen people were injured in the violence in Bihar where 19
constituencies went to the polls, including Nalanda where defence minister
George Fernandes is contesting and Barh, where former railway minister
Nitish Kumar is a candidate.
In both Nalanda and Barh, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal(United)
activists clashed with each other. They were involved in shootouts and
snatching of ballot papers and police rifles. A villager was killed in the
crossfire between supporters of Nitish Kumar and his RJD rival. In Siwan,
where Mohammad Shahabuddin is contesting, activists of the
CPI(M-L)Liberation and the RJD exchanged fire. A Naxalite was killed in the
shootout.
Polling in Gopalgunge, Laloo Yadavs home town, was disrupted when the
polling party walked out following snatching of ballot papers.
The Dal(U) has demanded repolling in as many as 325 booths, including 148
in Barh and 64 in Hajipur.
In Nagaland, eight crude bombs exploded shortly before polling for the lone
seat in Kohima.
The Samata Party has protested against the Election Commission directive
asking Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala to stay away from
Bhiwani, where his son is contesting, on polling day.
Back to the top
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26Sp99 Telebraph
BIHAR BEHAVES, MINISTERS DONT
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OUR BUREAU
New Delhi, Sept. 25
Five persons were killed and two ministers arrested in the second phase of polling in Bihar today, which was relatively peaceful compared to the first round in which nearly 50 people were killed.
Following the bloodbath on September 18, the authorities had braced for widespread violence today. Polling in other states, including Uttar Pradesh, was also largely peaceful.
Chief Election CommissionerM.S. Gill said: The deaths took place in police firing away from polling stations. There were two deaths each in Nalanda and Barh and one in Siwan.
Shyam Behari Prasad, a minister in the Bihar Cabinet, was arrested in Motihari for disturbing polling at a booth. In Patna, sitting BJP MP C.P. Thakur was detained by the magistrate for trying to take ballot papers out of the polling booth. He was later released. In the afternoon, another minister, Shiv Shankar Prasad, was arrested for having firearms in his possession. Unconfirmed reports said two more ministers were booked.
In some 60-odd booths there could be no polling because of heavy rains, Gill said.
In the first phase in Bihar, most of the victims had died in landmine explosions. Almost heaving a sigh of relief, Gill said: It has been a very satisfactory day today.
The overall turnout continued to be low at 51 per cent. Polling was particularly dull in Nagaland and Mizoram. The turnout was 55 per cent in Bihar, 50 in Uttar Pradesh, 45 in Madhya Pradesh, 55 in Orissa and 52 in Himachal Pradesh.
Sixteen people were injured in the violence in Bihar where 19 constituencies went to the polls, including Nalanda where defence minister George Fernandes is contesting and Barh, where former railway minister Nitish Kumar is a candidate.
In both Nalanda and Barh, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal(United) activists clashed with each other. They were involved in shootouts and snatching of ballot papers and police rifles. A villager was killed in the crossfire between supporters of Nitish Kumar and his RJD rival. In Siwan, where Mohammad Shahabuddin is contesting, activists of the CPI(M-L)Liberation and the RJD exchanged fire. A Naxalite was killed in the shootout.
Polling in Gopalgunge, Laloo Yadavs home town, was disrupted when the polling party walked out following snatching of ballot papers.
The Dal(U) has demanded repolling in as many as 325 booths, including 148 in Barh and 64 in Hajipur.
In Nagaland, eight crude bombs exploded shortly before polling for the lone seat in Kohima.
The Samata Party has protested against the Election Commission directive asking Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala to stay away from Bhiwani, where his son is contesting, on polling day.
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Back to the top
Subject: 26Sp99 Tg, p.6: BATTLE OF DELHI FOR BIHAR THRONEBack to the top
http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/990926/national.htm#head4
BATTLE OF DELHI FOR BIHAR THRONE
FROM SANKARSHAN THAKUR
Patna, Sept. 25 It is easy to get confused in Bihar about what exactly this
battle is for. Delhi? This is a Lok Sabha election but it is being fought
like a campaign for the Assembly. The big prize they are competing for is
not the resplendent South Block, but the office of the chief minister of
Bihar in a mofussil corner of west Patna.
The Bihar election is not about installing Atal Behari Vajpayee or Sonia
Gandhi. It is about dethroning Laloo Yadav and Rabri Devi. The fight for
the Lok Sabha is not the end of the battle, just the means. Dilli mein
Vajpayee sarkar, Bihar mein Laloo ki nishchit haar (Vajpayees government in
Delhi will mean the defeat of Laloo in Bihar) is the reigning slogan. Even
when the Prime Minister comes to Bihar, he seems to shift his focus from
Delhi to Patna. He asks not for a vote for himself, but for a vote against
Laloo Yadav.
Help us finish off this jungle raj in Bihar, he told a rally in Barh near
here the other day. We have tried and failed in the past, give us the
numbers this time and we will remove Laloo for you.
It is perhaps a tribute to Laloo Yadav that he remains the main, and
perhaps the only, issue of this campaign.
Bihar is a battle between those who are for him and those against; Laloo,
and Laloo alone, is the cutting edge, as he has been for the past decade or
so. Even for the protagonists of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA),
the issue is not Vajpayee, it is Laloo. In Bihar, we are not fighting for
seats in the Lok Sabha, concedes Ram Vilas Paswan, arguably the most able
general of the burgeoning alliance against Laloo. We are fighting to
upstage Laloo and his jungle raj. This election is about killing two birds
with one stone, if Vajpayee returns to power in Delhi, Laloo will have to
go from Bihar.
The script, as Paswan and fellow leaders like George Fernandes and Nitish
Kumar see it, is simple: If Laloos Lok Sabha tally goes down even by a few
from its current tally of 17 and if the NDA comes to power in New Delhi,
they will be able to engineer desertions from the Rashtriya Janata Dal
(RJD). Rabri Devi could lose her majority in the Assembly and state
elections, scheduled for the first quarter of 2000, could be advanced.
Already two senior ministers of the Rabri Devi government have quit, more
could join them after the elections. Most people still with Laloo are
fence-sitters, says Paswan. They are waiting to see how he does in the Lok
Sabha polls and if he does badly, they will begin to leave the sinking
ship.
This is, of course, not a new situation for Laloo. This is not the first
time he finds himself fighting a combination of parties single-handed.
Neither is it new for him to be faced with rumours of imminent revolt. What
is new is that the alliance fighting him this time is stronger than ever
before and his supportersYadavs and Muslims, essentially and more passive
than ever. Paswan has strummed Harijan militancy to a new pitch, the upper
caste-Kurmi-Koeri coalition of the BJP and the Samata Party is sensing its
hour, what with the Harijans joining hands, and the old Janata Dal is, in
places, splitting the Yadav-Muslim votebank away from Laloo; Madhepura,
where Laloo is in fray against Sharad Yadav, could provide the breach that
will sink Laloo.
Hitherto, Laloo has always managed to keep the arithmetic of social
coalitions on his side. He has kept the upper castes from uniting with
Dalits or sections of the backwards. He has divided and ruled. But with
Paswan joining the BJP-Samata combine, equations may change drastically.
For the first time in decades, says an analyst in Patna, Dalit votes are
going to be cast wholesale with upper caste votes. Not since the heyday of
the Congress has any party managed to do this.
Laloos response to the widening axis against him has been to accept the
real threat and betray it to his constituency: Lose the Lok Sabha, he has
been telling his Muslim-Yadav boroughs, and it will be the beginning of the
end of your supremacy in Bihar.
Tum logon kaa raj, jo dus saal se chal raha hai, chheen liya jayega, yeh
garibon ke khilaf saazish hai, Laloo has been going around saying. This
(the BJP-Paswan-Samata coalition) is a conspiracy against the poor of
Bihar. You will lose power in Bihar if you dont defeat them in the Lok
Sabha.
Everybody knows that even Laloo knows that if he falters in the race to
Delhi, he will end up losing Patna. No wonder he looks worried.
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26Sp99 Telegraph
BATTLE OF DELHI FOR BIHAR THRONE
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FROM SANKARSHAN THAKUR
Patna, Sept. 25
It is easy to get confused in Bihar about what exactly this battle is for. Delhi? This is a Lok Sabha election but it is being fought like a campaign for the Assembly. The big prize they are competing for is not the resplendent South Block, but the office of the chief minister of Bihar in a mofussil corner of west Patna.
The Bihar election is not about installing Atal Behari Vajpayee or Sonia Gandhi. It is about dethroning Laloo Yadav and Rabri Devi. The fight for the Lok Sabha is not the end of the battle, just the means. Dilli mein Vajpayee sarkar, Bihar mein Laloo ki nishchit haar (Vajpayees government in Delhi will mean the defeat of Laloo in Bihar) is the reigning slogan. Even when the Prime Minister comes to Bihar, he seems to shift his focus from Delhi to Patna. He asks not for a vote for himself, but for a vote against Laloo Yadav.
Help us finish off this jungle raj in Bihar, he told a rally in Barh near here the other day. We have tried and failed in the past, give us the numbers this time and we will remove Laloo for you.
It is perhaps a tribute to Laloo Yadav that he remains the main, and perhaps the only, issue of this campaign.
Bihar is a battle between those who are for him and those against; Laloo, and Laloo alone, is the cutting edge, as he has been for the past decade or so. Even for the protagonists of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the issue is not Vajpayee, it is Laloo. In Bihar, we are not fighting for seats in the Lok Sabha, concedes Ram Vilas Paswan, arguably the most able general of the burgeoning alliance against Laloo. We are fighting to upstage Laloo and his jungle raj. This election is about killing two birds with one stone, if Vajpayee returns to power in Delhi, Laloo will have to go from Bihar.
The script, as Paswan and fellow leaders like George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar see it, is simple: If Laloos Lok Sabha tally goes down even by a few from its current tally of 17 and if the NDA comes to power in New Delhi, they will be able to engineer desertions from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Rabri Devi could lose her majority in the Assembly and state elections, scheduled for the first quarter of 2000, could be advanced.
Already two senior ministers of the Rabri Devi government have quit, more could join them after the elections. Most people still with Laloo are fence-sitters, says Paswan. They are waiting to see how he does in the Lok Sabha polls and if he does badly, they will begin to leave the sinking ship.
This is, of course, not a new situation for Laloo. This is not the first time he finds himself fighting a combination of parties single-handed. Neither is it new for him to be faced with rumours of imminent revolt. What is new is that the alliance fighting him this time is stronger than ever before and his supportersYadavs and Muslims, essentiallyand more passive than ever. Paswan has strummed Harijan militancy to a new pitch, the upper caste-Kurmi-Koeri coalition of the BJP and the Samata Party is sensing its hour, what with the Harijans joining hands, and the old Janata Dal is, in places, splitting the Yadav-Muslim votebank away from Laloo; Madhepura, where Laloo is in fray against Sharad Yadav, could provide the breach that will sink Laloo.
Hitherto, Laloo has always managed to keep the arithmetic of social coalitions on his side. He has kept the upper castes from uniting with Dalits or sections of the backwards. He has divided and ruled. But with Paswan joining the BJP-Samata combine, equations may change drastically.
For the first time in decades, says an analyst in Patna, Dalit votes are going to be cast wholesale with upper caste votes. Not since the heyday of the Congress has any party managed to do this.
Laloos response to the widening axis against him has been to accept the real threat and betray it to his constituency: Lose the Lok Sabha, he has been telling his Muslim-Yadav boroughs, and it will be the beginning of the end of your supremacy in Bihar.
Tum logon kaa raj, jo dus saal se chal raha hai, chheen liya jayega, yeh garibon ke khilaf saazish hai, Laloo has been going around saying. This (the BJP-Paswan-Samata coalition) is a conspiracy against the poor of Bihar. You will lose power in Bihar if you dont defeat them in the Lok Sabha.
Everybody knows that even Laloo knows that if he falters in the race to Delhi, he will end up losing Patna. No wonder he looks worried.
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Subject: Guardian in 26Sp99 Telegraph, Look p. 1: Out of the shadows
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3900657,00.html
The Guardian Profile: Edward Said [Mya Jaggi reports]
Out of the shadows
Renaissance man, charmer, passionate advocate of the
Palestinian cause, and 'the most respected
Arab
intellectual in Israel' - yet this US
academic has had to
defend himself recently against claims that he lied about
his roots. Maya Jaggi on a man who has been
in the wars
a long time
Saturday September 11, 1999
"The life of an Arab Palestinian in the
west, particularly in
America, is disheartening," wrote Edward
Said in his
pathbreaking book on western power's
invention of the east,
Orientalism: 21 years on, in the thick of
one of the bitterest rows
in years among America's intelligentsia, he
is reminded of those
words, though outrage and the solace of
friends keep him
buoyant and battling.
On the eve of publication of his keenly
anticipated memoir of
youth, Out Of Place, a small New York
magazine, Commentary,
has alleged that Said, the foremost
Palestinian American, had
through "30 years of carefully crafted
deception" fabricated a
childhood in Palestine so as to invent
himself as a "living
embodiment of the Palestinian cause".
Though conceding that Said was born in
Jerusalem in 1935, the
author, Justus Reid Weiner, claimed he grew
up in Cairo, neither
residing in the Jerusalem house he says he
lived in, nor
attending school there. According to
Weiner, Said and his family
were not driven out of Palestine in 1947 as
refugees on the eve
of Israel's creation. Bizarrely, he
suggested Said's imminent
memoir furnishes a "corrected" version of
his early life in Cairo in
panic at his unmasking.
Weiner's argument crumbles with even mild
scrutiny, much of it
resting on his refusing Said the right to
call his time in Palestine
"formative", since his well-off business
family moved frequently
between Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon until
1948. Yet its
spurious scholarship has not prevented
newspapers from giving
weight to its claims. Said found himself
denounced as a liar and
a fraud in the Daily Telegraph under the
headline "Past catches
up with refugee from truth". The Wall
Street Journal labelled him
"The false prophet of Palestine".
"You feel tremendous anger when you read
those lies," says
Said in his New York apartment overlooking
the Hudson river,
near Columbia university where he is
professor of English and
comparative literature. "But I've trained
myself to use a steely
cold resolve to fight back rationally and
calmly - though it's
made easier by friends." Hanan Ashrawi, a
former student of his
and PLO negotiator, was the first of many
to offer comfort,
despite Said's steadfast opposition to the
1993 Oslo accord
between the PLO and Israel, which he
described as the
"Palestinian Versailles". "You begin to
realise it's a badge of
honour," he adds. "These people are
attacking you because
they're afraid of you and they take you
seriously."
Now 63, Said revolutionised swaths of the
academy, and
launched the entire field of postcolonial
studies, by insisting
western culture cannot be understood
outside its links with
imperialism, and that knowledge, far from
being politically
neutral, is tainted by power and interests.
He has coupled
cultural criticism with acting as the most
persuasive conscience
in the west for Palestinian
self-determination, charting the
difficulty of being "a victim of a victim"
and revealing how western
guilt over the Holocaust masks injustice to
another people.
A member of the Palestinian National
Council, the parliament in
exile, from 1977 until his resignation due
to ill health in 1991, he
was once known crudely as "Arafat's man in
New York", though
since Oslo he has been among the fiercest
critics of the man he
sees as an increasingly despotic "Ptain
figure", whose
Palestinian Authority colludes with Israel.
Three years ago
Arafat tried to ban his books in the West
Bank.
In his 1993 Reith lectures, Representations
of the Intellectual,
Said described the intellectual's public
role as that of
"unaccommodated" yet engaged outsider and
amateur, divorced
from the professional "expert" who serves
power while
pretending to detachment. He argued
passionately for speaking
the truth to power, "personal cost be
damned", and has tilted at
both US expansionism as the world's
self-appointed policeman,
and dictatorial Arab and Third World
regimes.
Salman Rushdie once said of Said that he
"reads the world as
closely as he reads books", and the Irish
critic Seamus Deane
describes him as : "That rare figure: a
truly public intellectual
who has a powerful influence within the
academy and also a
potent public presence. He's a very
brilliant reader, of both texts
and political situations."
The combination has been a red rag to some.
In 1985 he was
called a Nazi by the Jewish Defence League
and his university
office was set on fire. He has endured
periodic death threats and
blacklists, to say nothing of verbal spats
such as that with
Bernard Lewis, the chief surviving
Orientalist in the 80s, or the
late Cambridge anthropologist Ernest
Gellner, who derided Said
- renowned among often drab academics for
being attractive,
well dressed and having cultivated tastes -
as a "dandy and
Manhattan bon viveur".
Noam Chomsky, the philosopher, fellow
critic of US foreign
policy and friend, says: "Edward's in an
ambivalent position in
relation to the media and mainstream
culture: his contributions
are recognised, yet he's the target of
constant vilification. It
comes with the turf if you separate
yourself from the dominant
culture." He adds: "His scholarly work has
been devoted to
unravelling mythologies about ourselves and
our interpretation of
others, reshaping our perceptions of what
the rest of the world is
and what we are. The second is the harder
task; nothing's
harder than looking into a mirror."
Although Said is both weary and indignant
at the latest
onslaught, he is reluctant to sue. Since
being diagnosed as
having leukemia eight years ago during a
routine cholesterol
test, he has other priorities. Last year
his doctor Kanti Rai (to
whom his memoir is dedicated jointly with
Said's wife Mariam),
revealed he had a rare form of the disease
unresponsive to more
than four years of chemotherapy and
radiation. "It was
depressing; my blood counts were
astronomical," he says.
Last summer he put himself through a
gruelling 12-week clinical
trial for a breakthrough drug treatment. He
relishes that he was
treated "in a Long Island Jewish hospital,
by an Indian doctor,
where all the nurses were Irish". But
holding up a three-page list
of harrowing side-effects, he says: "I had
'em all. I was sick as a
dog. I couldn't talk. I had temperatures of
104, 105, and shaky
chills." The course - "a treatment not a
cure" - worked
miraculously. His counts returned to normal
and the disease
has since been in remission. But now, one
year on, it shows
signs of an insidious return. Said blanches
at the prospect of
further treatment.
Though he tires easily, he still gets up at
dawn, teaches and
travels, and remains combative. "I've been
in the wars a long
time. They recklessly defame you to provoke
a lawsuit to tie you
up for years. But they miscalculate; they
don't realise how much
resentment they stir up." As Chomsky,
himself a veteran of
smears, says: "It's a familiar genre. But
if they'd tried to
discredit themselves they couldn't have
done a better job: going
to someone's childhood home to see how many
family members
they think could fit in it is something
even the most extreme
Stalinist commissar would have shied away
from."
Out Of Place, the most intimately personal
book of his 17 to
date, and a "conscious effort at a more
literary form", covers his
life till the early 60s, and forms a
"record of a lost world". The
initial spur for the memoir, commissioned
in 1989, was personal
grief. "My mother was dying [of cancer] at
the time and I
thought, there's an end to a special part
of my life."
Two years later, when his leukemia was
diagnosed, he found
himself writing a letter to his deceased
mother, from the urge to
make sense of a frenetic but seemingly
ebbing life. He began
the book at the same time as he started
chemotherapy, in
spring 1994, and for most of 1997 was
confined to bed or in
hospital. "I worked on the memoir as a way
of fighting the
disease. It gave me the strength and
determination because I
felt my life was slipping away and it was a
way to reconstruct its
foundations."
Said was born an American in west Jerusalem
because his
Palestinian father, Wadie, took US
citizenship after serving in
the first world war. He was named Edward
after the Prince of
Wales, whom his mother Hilda admired. She
was born in
Nazareth of Palestinian and Lebanese
parentage. When he was
two his parents moved to Cairo, where his
father ran a branch of
the Palestine Educational Company, a
thriving book and
stationery business jointly owned with his
uncle Boulos. They
travelled constantly back to the extended
family home in
Jerusalem and to the Lebanese mountain
resort of Dhour
el-Shweir.
Crystallising his own "overriding sensation
of being Out Of
Place", Said says: "My story was
complicated, because the
names were all wrong. Not everyone's
identity is a simple story
from A to Z. There are other experiences
and countries that feed
into it." A polyglot, he dreams in both
English and Arabic, is
fluent in French and literate in Spanish,
German, Italian and
Latin.
He left Palestine for the last time in
1947, just before the nakba ,
or "catastrophe", of 1948 [when the state
of Israel was created
out of the territory of Palestine after a
war with neighbouring
Arab states], and shared the "massive sense
of loss and
dispossession that over the years clarified
itself into a narrative
into which mine fits". Although his family
was, he says, driven
out and lost all its property, it was
cushioned by the business in
Egypt, and Said has never claimed to have
been a refugee. But
his Aunt Nabiha worked for refugees in
Cairo. "I had a protected
upbringing, but through my aunt I learned
the importance of
service, which is what the Palestinian
cause always meant to
me," he says.
While Said sees the latest effort to
discredit him as "part of the
attempt not to let us have a narrative" -
harking back to Golda
Meir's assertion in 1969 that "There are no
Palestinians" - his
memoir implicitly forms part of the
resistance: the insistent
retelling from scratch of the other side of
the story.
All the worlds of his childhood were lost
to him through political
upheaval - Palestine, pre-civil war
Lebanon, cosmopolitan Cairo,
where his classmates included Jews, Copts,
Armenians and
Muslims. But he feels he was saved from
nostalgia by the
deflating realities of family life; more,
he says, Butler's Way of
All Flesh than Proust.
The eldest child, with four sisters, he
says his mother cultivated
an exclusive intimacy with each child in
"bilateral relationships
as colony to metropole", a manipulative
technique he blames for
"creating rifts between me and my sisters
that continue to this
day". He also remembers with horror
"tremendous sexual
repression". His mother blocked his
marriage to his Lebanese
first love, Eva, by warning her against
him. His father's "Victorian
design" was to correct his incorrigible
"naughtiness" with sports
and extra lessons. To this day, says Said,
he has no concept of
leisure or sense of cumulative achievement
and he's never
learned to relax fully.
"I have no blue-collar tastes, like
watching sports on TV or
fishing, my son says. I fall asleep at
movies and I don't enjoy
nature at all. But I love the sea - which
to me means the
Mediterranean - and my idea of pleasure is
to play the piano."
Surprisingly, Said grew up in an apolitical
household, "cosseted
and buffeted" in a "gigantic cocoon".
Though he belonged to "a
tiny Protestant group within a much larger
Greek Orthodox
Christian minority within the larger Sunni
majority", he feels he
grew up in a Muslim culture, "unable to
feel any identification
with Christianity as threatened by Islam",
despite growing
sectarianism among Levantine Christians.
But the memoir
reveals the tensions of being an Arab with
a western education,
shaped by the "three empires" of Britain,
France and the US. At
Victoria College in Cairo, the "Eton of the
Middle East" (where
Omar Sharif was head boy), Arabic was
banned. Expelled "for
being a troublemaker" and banished to a
"puritanical" school in
Massachusetts in 1951, he found himself
alone among
native-born Americans.
He describes an "unsettled sense of many
identities, mostly in
conflict with each other, all my life". As
he says elsewhere: "To
be at the same time Wog and Anglican was to
be in a state of
standing civil war", a predicament
replicated as a Palestinian
Arab in America. But he says: "I realised
it wasn't necessary to
try to reconcile these contradictions, but
to have them within
you as a potential, not a problem.
Belonging to both sides of the
imperial divide enables you to understand
them more easily."
Initially "tormented", Said
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