As a country grappling with political and infrastructural problems, there are very few issues that do not evoke extreme, often diametrically opposite, reactions in India. Population control Bills, vaccination policy, farmer income initiatives, river water sharing mechanisms or surrogacy laws—there is no dearth of topics that have triggered controversy, and …
the Union minister for panchayati raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar, is a worried man. Even before he could select his personal staff and a place for the newly created ministry of panchayati raj affairs (mopra), questions are being raised about the efficacy of carving out this section from the Union ministry …
IN 1993, India's members of Parliament (MPs) decided they weren't doing enough for the constituencies that had sent them to the country's seat of legislative power. Speedily, the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) was hatched: each MP began to receive Rs 2 crore annually to spend on …
Elections 2004 are over. Was it a vote for development, social inclusion and justice? Or simply a vote against an incumbent government, flattened by sleazy and slick self-promotion? The answer is complicated, as can be expected from a country as diverse and layered as India. So, for instance, it can …
Elections always teach lessons. The outcome of the 2004 polls is still a few days away but we have already learnt from media reports that the water scarcity has left a countrywide imprint. The crying need for water reverberates in villages of the water-stressed regions in central India, in rainfall …
Last year, Congress chief minister Digvijay Singh lost the Madhya Pradesh (MP) state elections. Two years before, the Communist-led coalition lost in Kerala. Since both governments had fervently promoted decentralisation, questions naturally come to the fore: Was their defeat a vote against the move towards local governance and devolution of …
The impending Lok Sabha and state assembly polls have brought a brief respite to Orissa's 2 lakh-odd traditional fisherfolk who eke a living off Chilika lake. For, electoral compulsions have forced political parties to shelve the controversial Chilika Fishing Regulatory Bill, 2002, which seeks to grant 30 per cent fishing …
Does holding the World Parliamentary Forum indicate the Left is using the event to resurrect itself? The World Parliamentary Forum was formed much before the wsf. But wsf's emergence has definitely given it a forum to explore issues the globe is talking about. The parliamentary forum is a platform for …
Cancun: a paper tiger jurgen maier The strategy of the European Union (eu) did seem to be transformed in the conference centres of Cancun. A coherent eu policy is non-existent. Europe is deeply divided between the American satellites (the uk, Spain and Italy) and the Gaullist camp (France, Germany and …
Our world did change in 2003. The US war on Iraq made sure that the rules of 'engagement' were changed, perhaps for a long time to come. The change I see most visible is that the world has become overtly aggressive and rude. And it is not just the US. …
A report about a Tehelka-style spycam sting, published by national daily The Indian Express on November 16, left Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dilip Singh Judeo with no option but to quit as the Union minister of state for environment and forests. The video footage showed the ex-minister allegedly taking a …
THE acid test of a politician's commitment to his/her polity is the ability to stay above the dominant trend and to fashion the public imagination along a path of common welfare. This is a rarity in politics. Always has been. Politicians across the world take the easier course. So, instead …
India has the largest tribal population in the world. Tribals number 8.6 per cent of its total population. They are also among the country's most marginalised. Why has India's political democracy not given its tribals their due? What is in India's political system that prevents the tribal voice from being …
Kunwar Singh Jonko, 34, belongs to the Ho people, a Scheduled Tribe. His village Katamba is deep inside the forest, 60-odd km west of Chaibasa, the headquarters of East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. In the Forest Department (FD) register, his house, his fields and the entire Katamba village is an …
February 2, 2001, is a date etched in blood in Tapkara. It was the first major incident of violence in about three decades of protest against the proposed Koel-Karo dam in the Torpa block of Ranchi district, Jharkhand. Police opened fire on 2,000 tribal people (or 5,000, depending on the …
Andhra Pradesh (AP) is the best place to learn how to use a tribal welfare machinery to subvert tribal interests and then use it to counter the polity at large that defends those interests. Three years ago, the state used a body mandated by the constitution
Democracy and self-rule remain elusive in tribal India. The main reason: India has no policy for its tribal people. Though the constitution acknowledged the special situation of tribal communities, it did nothing more than create some special windows of representation according to the population proportion. Result: the overall approach of …
You talk about a paradigm shift in tribal affairs. What do you mean? At the time of India's independence, tribal people in central India were seen as backward, superstitious, naive and poor. Even well meaning people concentrated on relief and improving their physical conditions. After 1947, the so-called mainstream had …
Chekkottu Kariyan (C K) Janu is an adivasi leader in Kerala. She is on bail after she was imprisoned for more than 40 days for leading an agitation demanding tribal rights over the Muthanga Wild Life Sanctuary in Wayanad district in Kerala (See: The truth about Muthanga). C K Janu …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your area? I would say education, poor living standards, the need for sound water management, and improvement in the communications infrastructure. There is a lot of discontentment among tribals in Jharkhand against the forest department over the issue of unsettled claims …
