Bhopal Declaration

Bhopal Declaration was unanimously adopted by the “The Bhopal Conference” held at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on 12-13 January 2002. The Bhopal Declaration is to chart the new course for Dalits in 21st century. This blog emphasizes the action mechanism to be accelerated by the State and Central Governments in India for the noble cause.

The conference declares its belief in Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s ideal of Social Democracy and his prophecy that, “A democratic form of Government presupposes a democratic form of society. The formal framework of democracy is of no value and would indeed be a misfit if there was no social democracy”.

The intellectuals and activists gathered in Bhopal deliberated the issues concerning the 250 million Dalits in India. They solemnly proclaimed to rededicate themselves to work in unison to achieve the basic rights of Dalits. They carved out a 21-point agenda to liberate the Dalits from scourges of untouchability and exploitation.

The significant observation in the agenda is to ensure the National and State budgets to provide the appropriate allocations according to the population of SC and ST and demands a stringent penalization measures for the Governments which not utilize and diversify the funds allocated for the Dalits. The forum eventually claims the essentiality of installing the Dalit Capital for the empowerment for Dalits.

The subtle employment opportunities occupied by the Dalits in Government and Public sector is vanishing rapidly due to market economy and privatization. As the Government has not ready to show any form of reluctance towards the disinvestment and corporatization, it mandates the focus on Dalit Capital.

The creation of Dalit Capital enables the country to produce Dalit entrepreneurs after 48 years of Independence which has the potential to open the gates for thousands of Dalits to be employed in the industries own by them. The emergence of Dalit Capital has the capacity to tap the inherent talents of the Dalits who have witnessed all possible sorts of discrimination so far. The Dalit capital is the threshold to subsume the innate ability of the Dalits for the Nation’s mainstream growth.

The concept of Dalit Capital should not be conceived or perceived to be the magnanimity shown to Dalits instead it is the affirmative action which they have been denied all the time. The Central Government should conciliate the recommendations and should frame a standing committee which comprises of legislatures across political spectrum to contemplate and debate the Dalit Capital concept.

The committee should not incline itself to hear the noises come from sections which vociferously oppose the social justice. The committee members should commit themselves to roll out the process in top gear to draft the impeccable action plan. The action plan should be made as legislation rather than the G.O. so that it cannot be misinterpreted or put in deep freeze through the judicial machinery.

Millions are anticipating the positive reciprocation from the State and Central Governments.

Social Justice: Judicial Hurdles

There are many obstacles to achieve a social justice for the masses who are oppressed, suppressed and exploited for thousands of year in India. Courts are posing a major threat to social justice in India. Those who are not able to counter reservation politically here can easily do it through the Courts. This blogs shows some of incidents where the Judicial System has become a barrier for Social justice.

The Supreme Court stayed the Communal G.O, which practiced in Tamilnadu after the Independence. The Communal G.O is the Government order that provided reservation for Scheduled and Backward class people in education and employment. The Supreme Court stayed the Communal G.O by sighting the Constitution, which says, “All are equal before Law”. After the long and tedious struggle by Great leaders like Periyar and Anna, it was restored by amending the Constitution. This is the first amendment to the Constitution of India.

The then Prime Minister V.P.Singh had created history by implementing the Mandal Commission report. The Supreme Court without any good reason stayed the implementation of Mandal report.

The decision to discontinue the Entrance Examination for professional courses by Tamilnadu government for the benefit of rural students has been disapproved by all the Courts in India. Though the decision has got a roaring welcome from all quarters and was supported by all parties including the main opposition could not come in effect. Has the courts are superior to people mandate?

The recent judgment regarding the continuance of reservation in self-financing institutions is a great blow to the social justice. This will hammer down the dreams of SC, SC and BC students to become Doctors and Engineers.

Ultimately the Courts in all status of India are ready to gun down any policy that guarantees Social justice here. There exists a rigid vault in the form of Courts even if the reservation is achieved politically. The judges are so injustice when it comes to social justice problems. To achieve a social justice in India, the reservation has to be implemented in judicial system also. Those who fight for the social justice should also keep in mind that the Courts are there to fight for.

Social Justice: Indian Ltd Vs US Inc

This blog is based on the two articles “Infosys and Microsoft-1 &2” by Gail Omvedt in “The Hindu”(Sep10th &11th, 2001) and “Learn Social Justice from US Inc” by Chetan Dhruve in “The Indian Express” (July 22nd, 2005). The objective of the blog is to compare the Reservation in India and Affirmative Action in US, which differs in the name but not in the sole purpose.

The word Reservation has negative connotation here and it is been seen as a demerit and compromising the quality. The philosophy behind Reservation is Adequate Representation. The very word Adequate means Add + Equal, see to it is equalized. Reservation is not like giving out something for free to the masses here. It is to prepare or make them to represent in all the activities for the benefit of the nation.

Reservation is to make the government, education institutions and corporate sector to search the required skills in the larger circle of the society instead of fishing in small same pond for years. It is an exercise to mobilize the abundant talent available in all the sections of the society.

Reservation is synonymous with the Affirmative Action practiced in United States where the positive steps have been taken to include those from disadvantaged groups (Blacks) in education and employment. The Black people who suffered slavery and extreme exploitation like the oppressed section of the society in India for centuries has been able to make their presence in all the departments of the United States as a result of Affirmative Action.

As said in the “Learn Social Justice from US Inc” article by Chetan Dhruve, the US government not only extended the Affirmative action to African American alone, they included the ethnic minorities like Indians also to get the benefit out of it after the Civil Rights Movement.

Luckily for us, without doing any of the fighting, we reaped the fruits of the Civil Rights Movement. In the name of diversity, the Americans opened their doors and let us into their elite universities and companies and corporate America began doing business with the likes of TCS, Wipro and Infosys. Yet, our ‘meritocratic’ industry and ‘self-made’ NRIs bleat about how India’s competitiveness will be eroded if we give special consideration to SCs/STs in the private sector in India.

As it is very evident from the above said fact, until or otherwise if a person is given an opportunity, it so injustice to determine the merits of the OBC, SC and ST people whom are suppressed for thousands of year.

The employers like Intel, Microsoft, IBM, HP, Boeing, Lucent, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, GE, Nike, General Motors, United Airlines and Proctor & Gamble are supporting the Affirmative action so as like top universities such as Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Yale. Many former military Chiefs in United States are showing their approval to include Affirmative action in US military. In other words, the world’s most successful companies, the world’s most competitive businesses, the world’s best universities and the world’s most formidable armed personnel favour special consideration for disadvantaged groups. Why the same gratitude is not shown in here in India in all top education institutes and in top corporate sectors.

Microsoft has taken many good steps to educate and train the African Americans to equip themselves to get into IT industry, why don’t the same step has not been initiated here in IT industry which has the greatest potential to grow and blossom. We do not expect the corporate sector to statically define certain percentage for the oppressed section here rather then can take some proactive steps to educate, train and include them in their payroll.

They can open their eyes a little wider to see the people who are all standing little far. This could not only benefit the nation or the particular section of people, it will pay the corporate’s greater dividends that they haven’t tasted so far.

An open letter to Shankar for Anniyan

First of all let me thank Mr.Shankar for his extravagant and racy entertainer, which once again unleashed the laudable talent of Mr.Vikram. After watching your latest movie Anniyan, I can’t stop many questions arising out from me.

Hope Mr.Shankar might have known that creating scientific temper is the fundamental duty of the citizen in India. Already the whole country is spoiled by many superstitious beliefs; he added fuel to fire by reasserting haven, hell, and punishments in hell and of course “karuda puranam”. Has he able to prove the existence of hell or haven scientifically? Does he have any authentic evidences?
The resurgence of suffixing the caste name, by naming the hero’s name as Ramanuja Iyengar and induction of the song starts with “Iyengar veetu azhage” are the examples where Mr.Shanker is way beyond the common goal of eradicating the caste system. The practice of suffixing the caste name is been eliminated from the Tamil community after a long and lengthy struggle by leaders like Thanthai Periyar.

Instead of urging the people to avoid using the caste names, he reintroduced the given up practice. There exists relatively a hatred felling of using or addressing the caste names in the society, but when it comes to Iyer or Iyengar, it is not. I don’t understand this hypocrisy? I do strongly advocate that both the names are also caste names, and we should be ashamed of using those names.

The third fault in the movie is the extensive use of Sanskrit. Common man neglected the language and it is alien to all of us. I don’t know why Mr.Shanker hailed the language in his movie. May be he did it to show some difference, but it is unnecessary.

And of course the great blender in his movies is death penalty given by the hero. Much has been debated about death sentence in the world so I don’t want to say anything about it and it is up to him to contemplate about it.

I do accept the facts like corruption, social irresponsibility, in discipline, not performing the duty is eroding the country, but he should not forget the major problem. Yes, it is Social justice. Mr.Shanker, can you know or at least heard about what is social justice? We need to uproot the tree developed in the name of social injustice rather then weeding around the tree. We should eradicate the social injustice prevailing in every corner of the country. When are you going to worry about it Mr.Shanker? Great economist and Nobel laureates are often insisting about the importance of social justice for the growth of the country without which there is no economical or social development.

After seeing Gentleman,Indian and Mudhalvan, I really appreciated his concerns about the society, having a feel that his approach needs be streamlined. But I after seeing his Anniyan, I doubt I am wrong about him. He showcased all his views to make money rather than creating awareness.

If he really cares about the country, he should better channel his ideas in the same way what Thanthai Periyar and Dr.Ambedkar did it here? That will pay him more than what his movies collected at the box office. Your medicines will cure only the cold and cough, but the patient will soon die out of cancer Mr.Shanker.