Why the resolution isn’t right Second showdown in Geneva
Posted on March 7th, 2012
by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The US resolution at the UN HRC in Geneva has deepened the schisms in Sri Lankan society. That resolution will have the same polarising function as did the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), in defining each political tendency in the popular mind for a while to come.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Today the country is tragically dividing between those who accuse the Government of mounting protests against the US resolution at the UN HRC resolution against Sri Lanka as a diversion from issues of the rising cost of living, and those who claim that the demonstrations against the rising cost of living are wittingly or not, part of a foreign plot to de-stabilise the government which is defending national sovereignty.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ThatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s a debate easily resolved. If the government is using protests against the HRC resolution to mask the cost of living, thatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s no excuse not to protest against such a resolution. Rather, it is a reason to protest either independently against that intrusive resolution while also protesting against the cost of living, or moving in parallel with the government on this issue while proceeding against it on the domestic front. Any other stance and tactic would only be tantamount to support of a move against oneƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s country; a move which has doubtless incensed the vast majority of or citizens.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Conversely, if oppositional protests (allegedly involving NGOs) are helping de-stabilise the government and undermine our defence of national sovereignty, then the answer surely is to cease and desist from those policies and actions that generate those protests, and to never meet such protests with responses that can only trigger more protests and international criticism which help the project of undermining our sovereignty.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The dominant elements of the centre-right Opposition, the UNP (apart from its ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”ReformistsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢, that is) opine that there is nothing wrong, or particularly anti-Sri Lankan, with a resolution that calls on the state to implement its own LLRC recommendations. The TNA has, after a sporadic show of realism, finally taken the line of the Tamil DiasporaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s pro-Tiger lobby by calling on the member states of the UNHRC to support the resolution. For the most part, the cosmopolitan civil society commentators are cheering the resolution on. On the left, the JVP opposes the resolution but opposes the government still more, on economic issues and dismissively terms the governmentƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s anti-resolution mobilisation, a mere tactic. The breakaway Movement for PeopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Struggle (Jana Aragala Vyaparaya) is strangely silent and submerged. Both these currents of the radical Left make no reference and give insufficient attention to the stand of China, Russia, Cuba and the NAM on the Resolution, and are ambiguous on the LLRC. For their part, the leftists within the government are firmly against the US move and for the LLRCƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s implementation.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The reasoning of the OppositionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s leading ideologues is flawed. The problem with the resolution is not that it calls for the implementation of the LLRC recommendations. The problems are (a) where the Resolution is coming from, (b) the body of the text that precedes the seemingly innocuous points about the LLRC and (c) the sleight of hand where it expresses disappointment about the LLRC report and goes beyond it to issues of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”accountabilityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢. Furthermore, a resolution would provide a UN mandate ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” as was sought, and would have done, had we not outdrawn and shot it down at the UNHRC in May 2009. UN resolutions are notoriously elastic (Russia and China havenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t forgiven the endgame in Libya, behind the mask of UNSC 1973, meant to institute a no-fly zone for the protection of civilians in Benghazi). Even without the mandate of a resolution, the UN SGƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Panel of Experts report on Sri Lanka, originally meant to advise him on standards and norms of accountability, monstrously mutated into a 190 page indictment. The three ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”expert panellistsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ co-authored a piece in the New York Times a few days ago, calling for stringent action on Sri Lanka by the UN HRC at this session, thereby amply demonstrating the partisan prejudice and politics of their project.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Certainly the implementation of reform recommendations of the LLRC report must be fast-tracked, and a compressed timeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…”frame committed to by the government, preferably so swiftly as to pre-empt the US resolution by removing its purported basis. Even if it fails in prevention, this would help us rally the support to defeat it. However, this commitment must be made to and in the Sri Lankan Parliament. The Government of the Republic of Sri Lanka is primarily responsible to the citizens of Sri Lanka. That is what popular sovereignty in a res publica, a republic, is about. The popularly elected government of Sri Lanka is not responsible in the first or last instance to any international forum or intergovernmental body comprised of governments responsible to their respective citizenries. Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Opposition may do well to move a resolution demanding a time frame and suggesting one for the implementation of the LLRC report. The push or indeed drive for implementation of reform must be from within our society, with the international solidarities and multipliers of our choosing.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I rather doubt that the vast majority of Sri Lankan people want Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha and Vaiko, still less the Tiger flag waving demonstrators who will camp in Geneva from March 5th to the 23rd, to help guarantee and hasten the implementation of the LLRC reforms. With support like this, the LLRC does not need enemies.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ None in Sri Lanka and India, who were supportive of the war against the LTTE, are on the side of the resolution. Conversely, those who practised appeasement of the LTTE, were against the war, were fellow travellers of the Tigers (e.g. Vaiko, the TNA) or were lukewarm and vacillating with regard the war and considered Mahinda Rajapaksa a greater enemy than Prabhakaran, are all supportive of the resolution. This congruity, and the presence of Tiger flag bearing demonstrators outside the UN HRC in Geneva, will not be lost on the vast mass of the Sri Lankan people. The people will also remember who in the world community stands with and who stands against a Resolution which has so greatly roused the enthusiasm of the Diaspora Tigers.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ As for accountability, the number of civilians killed in North Vietnam by the US bombing campaign named Rolling Thunder, commencing February 1965, was 182,000. The number of children who died in the sanctions on Iraq, according to Denis Halliday, the administrator of that programme who resigned in disgust, was 5,000 a month. Guantanamo, the vast prison camp located on the soil of a foreign country against the wishes of that country, still remains open despite a presidential pledge to close it. The National Defence Authorisation Act has provisions only describable as draconian.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ These are the guys whose draft resolution seeks to preach to us about the observance of international law in the fight against terrorism? Of course it must, but who are they to tell us that, when they are serially responsible for the most egregious violations of international law, ranging from the invasion of sovereign states on false pretexts, to the practice of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”extraordinary renditionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢. DoesnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t the hypocrisy just get to you? And if it does not, what does that say about you?
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In my closing remarks at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva after the special session on Sri Lanka in May 2009, I equated the allegation of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Sri Lanka, with the charge that Iraq possessed WMDs and asked whether we should buy a used car from the guys who sold the world the Goebbelsian Big Lie on WMD.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ None of this is to say that all is well in Sri Lanka; far from it. Let me explain by way of analogy. A stable functional piece of furniture usually needs four legs. If it is to rest firmly, it needs these four legs to be even. Politics and political discourses in Sri Lanka remind me of furniture which either doesnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t have four legs or which have one or more legs shorter than the others.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Analogous to the four legs of a piece of furniture, the four pillars that a strong successful state and a good society must rest upon equally, are national sovereignty, popular sovereignty, individual rights and self-determination.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ National sovereignty means that a nation-state (or a pluri-national state) is a political unit or community entitled to its unity and territorial integrity, and has the right to determine its own path, regulate its own affairs, without external domination, intervention or interference in its internal affairs.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Popular sovereignty means that the right to rule rests with the people, who decide who rules, how and for how long. If the rulers violate this social contract, this sacred trust, the people have the right to replace, even overthrow them. The Sri Lankan Constitution makes explicit that as a republic, sovereignty is vested in the people, who exercise it through a regularly and periodically elected Executive president and legislature.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Individual rights pertain to the sovereign individual person; to the equality of every citizen, who is inalienably possessed of a stock of rights and freedoms which must not be transgressed upon.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Self-determination refers to the right of a collective to determine its own destiny. The structural coordinates of that collective or community impose limitations upon the degree to which the right of self determination is exercised. The right to set up an independent state belongs to a nation, not a national minority. An established nation-state possesses the right of self determination. The entire (multiethnic) nation and not one part of it, is the legitimate agency of self determination. A nation which is under colonial occupation or annexation has the right of self determination (e.g. Occupied Palestine). An ethno-national minority, on the other hand, has a structurally more limited right to self governance and self administration, which may be termed the right to autonomy.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A society must rest on the equal recognition of all four of these principles, rights and fundamental values. Though at different points of history, one or the other may find itself emphasised due to the threats posed and the tasks at hand, all four must be held in equilibrium; never abandoned or counter-posed to one another.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This may require much struggle, change, transformation. But that will be undertaken one way or another, by the sovereign citizens of Sri Lanka at a time and on issues of their choosing, and with the solidarity of allies of their choice.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Source: http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=46823
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 7th March 2012
March 7th, 2012 at 4:15 pm
Dear Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
We are in Geneva today because you PUT OFF (POSTPONED) the matter in 2009 WITHOUT resolving it.
That was good (better than a nasty resolution) but not good enough. We should NOT have promised ANY political concessions to Tamils. That is the problem. We did and now we are hold to account.
War time abuses should be investigated by SL. That’s all. There is no need to APPEASE Tamils or their new masters just to get away TEMPORARILY from a UNHRC resolution.
When a blood hound gets the taste of blood, don’t expect it to be satisfied. It NEVER happens.
When a shark smells blood in water don’t expect it to be satisfied. It NEVER happens.
LTTE RUMP AND more impoartantly TNA, TULF, ACTC, ITAK are made up of blood hounds, leeches and sharks.
Give them NOTHING! and they will be at our feet begging for life. We can sell it, at a price.
March 8th, 2012 at 5:52 am
Any devolution of power, however small, would be a stepping stone for Tamil racists, to expand the Tamil empire, with deadly and fatal consequenses, (suicidal) to the Sinhalese. Means need to be found to halt the rot.
March 8th, 2012 at 6:06 am
It is the Separatist cry from various Tamil Leaders, from way back to 1930’s and including the present tiems, that has caused Riots at various times and made Integration into mainstream life in Lanka impossible for the Tamil People. Remove the Separatist cry and all will be well. While Caste is the Root Cause of Tamil problems, the call for Separatism has made matters worse for them.
Unfortunately, Separatism to form Eelam has been used by most Tamil leaders to unify Tamil people and wean away serious Caste problems. It has only managed to cause mistrust toward Tamil people in general from the rest of Lanka society and brought more pain & confusion for the ordinary Tamil people.
Separatism must be outlawed in Lanka.
Where Tamil SEPARATISM ends, TRUST & UNITY BEGINS.
March 8th, 2012 at 8:47 am
Give them NOTHING! and they will be at our feet begging for life. We can sell it, at a price.- Very nasty policy it only have short live !
unit in diversity ! long term permanat solution for ever !
March 8th, 2012 at 10:09 am
Govt should defeat this resolution almost at all cost. After that, Govt should learn from this and should take some concrete steps to unite people in the south. Right now, using the same old tactics of fooling & cheating people and neglecting them and heavy handedness to defeat anything come against us havn’t worked. Instead, it has destroyed Sri Lanka.
What ever it is given in the name of “Tamil” will never work for Sri Lanka because it is simply the part of the game of politics.
Govt should abolish 13th amendment, implement some of the recommendations in LLRC and should bring about political reforms in Sri Lanka to minimize cut throat politics and politicization of everything in Sri Lanka.
Successive govts have made it a habit to fool people and neglect them. Right now, there is no system in Sri Lanka. What ever available works only for the powerful and that is only the politicians and the wealthy aligned with the politicians. That should be changed.
March 8th, 2012 at 10:15 am
Remember, resolution for Libya was only a no fly zone. that ended the reign of Gadhaffi.
That is how every resolution is.
March 8th, 2012 at 10:33 am
Any changes happening to Sri Lanka should equally help the every citizen and should not help one group more and less to the others.
Again, anything happening in Sri Lanka should strengthen the majority existence and those changes should not weaken the majority.
The bottom line is that Tamil language and the culture are preserved in Tamilnadu. Why Sri Lanka, should weaken our own culture and civilization for a foreign language and culture which is trying claim the native status.
March 8th, 2012 at 11:46 am
The so-called International Community and all its known lapdogs, puppets and stooges such as HR groups, Drusman and co and I/NGOs have criticized and opposed LLRC on various grounds from the very outset. They even refused to give evidence in writing or verbally to LLRC.
No sooner the LLRC report was out, amazingly some of those who opposed it erlier have started to praise it, but their toungs were in cheeks: They complained the government is dragging its foot to implement it. What is more strange is, they demanded the government implement LLRC findings on selective basis. Startlingly, the US ambassador for Sri Lanka Ms. Butenis wanted President Rajapakse to use his popularity to implement not just selected parts of LLRC of their choice but to implement their Drusman report in full as well. And she got the cat out of her bag.
It is clear that the US and its lap dogs are not worried about ‘Human Rights’ or the unity of Sri Lanka as they claim but change the government that does not obey them.
Pirapakaran and his fellow terrorists were armed to teeth with western money. Somehow, at the end of a thirty year war, Pirapakaran and co were killed in a gun battle in the middle of a battle zone. Though it’s a proven fact that every follower of Pirapakaran had a cyanide pill around their necks to kill themselves when cornered, stooges and lapdogs of IC disseminated that Pirapakaran and co were shot by Sri Lanka forces while they raised white flags high to surrender.
However, IC and its stooges were totally mum about the rights of 300,000 plus humans that Pirapakaran and co kept as a human shield by force within mud bunds at gunpoint. They never uttered a word about human rights of those 300,000 odd Tamils or those that LTTE shot at when they tried to scale that mud bund. They never uttered a word about heavy guns Pirapakaran and co placed in between the huts of those civilian either.
But they got many media houses to accuse Sri Lanka forces for crimes they never committed using masked stooges who craved for a few dollars as witnesses. It is this duplicity and the possible ulterior motives of the IC that we must think when they praise LLRC report.
We Sri Lankans have seen enough of implementation of opinion and judgment of foreigners and Colombians in a rash. Remember the resulting mayhem caused by Indu-Sri Lanka agreement and thereafter lingering waste by its baby, 13A. If that catastrophe and waste is anything to go by, we should not think of implementing recommendation by just eight people of LLRC based on few hundred witnesses and affected ones at that in a hurry.
The fact that IC and its lapdogs had waver their opinion on LLRC cannot be a good omen for Sri Lanka. Anything neo-colonialists said good for our country in the past had always turned out to be a disaster later. Just look at the gradual but failed and futile outcome of that peace agreement sponsored by Norway, a lackey of the IC.
So the vital question we must answer is; whether the nation should rest its future by implementing selected items of LLRC report by a learned few or let a select committee of elected representatives discuss its entire finding and pick the clause that should be implemented for the approval of the mass? The President should not even think of imposing what is not in ‘Mahinda Chintana Idiri Dekma’ on those who trusted him and elected him to office. He should leave it for Members of Parliament to decide whether they wanted to change ‘Mahinda Chintana Idiri Dekma’ and follow Butanis’s view.
Leela
just the way they did it in Libiya from 33,000 ft
March 8th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Shouldn’t we present the ltte list of Crimes against Humanity in Sri Lanka for a period of some 30 yrs., list of leaders killed from all ethnicities, etc. to the UNHRC ?
March 8th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
We need to communicate to the world that initial training, funding and supporting of terrorism came from India. Later on, funding for terrorism originated from the West. Sinhalese are the powerless and perhaps voiceless victims, with Western media, supporting terrorists. Those that funded terrorism should compensate the victims. GOSL need to support Sri Lankan orgs that fight racist propaganda.
March 8th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Anud,
Why the Sinhale got divided is because they were colonised for nearly 500 yrs. as opposed to our period of Independence for only 64 yrs. And add to that the various modes of governance, the east/west divide, neo-colonists and their partners, etc.
– that’s the reason why, sad to say.
What we make of this ‘soup’ is up to us. Whether we save the country and the people, is up to the masses of Lanka.
March 9th, 2012 at 12:13 am
Time to stop being passive, dump dangerous, suicidal Indian myths and relegions that even Inians have dumped, whilst retaining Buddhist precepts. Time to stand up and be counted and develop desires to compete, survive and win rather than give up desires because of fear of ‘Dukke’.
March 9th, 2012 at 4:25 am
Throughout our history, we had to face foreign aggression and the country was under British Imperialism for over 150 years. Some Tamil invaders destroyed our irrigation system and killed many. LLRC and some of us have not learnt any lessons. By now we should have learnt to defend ourselves and make our own weapons like the Islrilites do. Instead, we blindly follow dead Indian myths, that even Indians have dumped.
March 10th, 2012 at 3:19 am
Sri Lanka’s abject poverty levels declining
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 09, Colombo: Sri Lanka has recorded the lowest number of persons suffering from abject poverty in the Asian region, Housing and Engineering Services Minister Wimal Weerawansa has said.
Addressing a tree planting ceremony in Ratmalana, Minister Weerawansa has observed that the country’s economic indicators were on a positive path and that poverty levels were on the decline.
According to the World Bank data Sri Lanka has recorded the lowest number of persons suffering from severe levels of poverty among the South Asian countries.
The Minister has pointed out that the number of persons suffering from abject poverty in Sri Lanka stood at 7% while it was 32.7% in neighboring India.
World Bank poverty and equity data released for 2012 indicated that the poverty headcount ratio which is the percent of population earning below US $1.25 a day (PPP) in Sri Lanka declined from a 14% in 2002 to a 7% in 2007.
Similarly, in Sri Lanka people living below national poverty line declined form 15% in 2007 to 9% in 2010.
Elsewhere in the South Asian region 43.3% in Bangladesh in 2010 earned below US$ 1.25 per day while Pakistan recorded 21% in 2008. In Nepal 24.8% of the population earned less than US$ 1.25.
Sri Lanka recorded the second highest per capita income of US$ 2,240 in the region in 2010. Maldives topped the record with US$ 5,750 per capita income. India’s per capita income stood at US$ 1,330 while the other countries in the region stood below US$ 1,000.
March 10th, 2012 at 11:26 am
I wonder if the good Dr DJ agree or disagree that the current “soft” resolution presented by USA, seeking the Govt of Sri Lanka to implement its own home grown LLRC recommendation compared to the UPR of the UN to be held in Oct 2012, a more powerful body that made over 100 recommendations to Sri Lanka on protection of human rights, law and order. Which of those recommendations have been implemented?
A gentle push or a “tokka”?
March 10th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Bravo! Here is a great move towards Ethnic and Religious Integration of Sri Lanka!
………….
Sri Lanka to abolish ethnic and religious divisions in schools
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 10, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has decided to abolish the ethnic and religious divisions in the island’s schools, the Ministry of Education sources say.
According to the amendments to the laws, children will be able to receive education from any school island wide irrespective of their ethnicity and the religion.
…..More
March 10th, 2012 at 2:05 pm
As Marco says the resolution is soft. So, let us not worry about it too much. Ananda-USA has presented some statistics that are encouraging. Either Gosl or private sector has been doing a good job. I think we should now seriously concentrate on the illegal immigration, settling Sinhalese and Muslims who were chased away from North in their former places and maintaining law and order which is essential for growth of economic activity.
March 10th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
A soft resolution?
Rubbish!
UPR is another BS process that is ONLY restricted to human rights. It is a cooperative process where the STATE decides what to implement and what not to.
First LLRC and then UPR. That is their plan.
DO NOTHING! No LLRC and no UPRC actions that are totally BS. People of SL must decide what to do.
March 10th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
As Lorenzo says, the US resolution is the THIN END OF THE WEDGE. They are trying to leverage the LLRC now, and intend to be much TOUGHER later with the “war crimes” charges and “devolution of power” to the Tamil separatists..
There will be NO RELIEF from these activities for Sri Lanka by acceding to the US, no matter how much we bend over backwards. If we do that, we will lose our shirt now, and our underwear later.
The underlying MOTIVE is not related to “democracy” and “human rights” PRETEXTS at all, but to the global agenda of preventing the growth and power of China, and to a lesser extent India, in the competition for limited global resources and markets in the future.
The only way out is for the GOSL define Sri Lanka’s National Policy in a manner that is perfectly fair to all and cannot be accused of discriminating against anyone or community, is geared to protecting national integrity, and the creation of ONE Nation, of ONE People, sharing ONE national Destiny.
To this end, the GOSL should lay down a coherent internally-consistent Policy for National Integration:
1. the goal is a vibrant free-market democracy with equal rights and equal responsibilities for the citizens.
2. No power will be devolved to any community or region on the basis of communal attributes; Sri Lanka recognizes only equal citizenship as the basis for any and all benefits.
3. Community diversity is relegated to its proper place in the private sphere of individuals lives and homes; not the public sphere of governance, employment, education, business etc.
4. Provincial councils will be dissolved in favour of smaller Districts administered directly by the central government because large regional administrations threaten the government and the integrity of the nation. The 13th Amendment will be repealed in its entirety.
5. The entire franchise enjoyed by the people will be to elect their representatives to Parliament on a one-adult-one-vote basis. MPs will be empowered more than they are now to deliver an equitable share of national income and benefits to their constituencies with adequate oversight to ensure proper legitimate deployment of those resources.
6. National Integration geared towards creating a uniform demographic distribution in the country will be adopted and pursued to increase the empathy between communities, and to eliminate regional concentration that lead to separatist movements.
Such a Policy is demonstrably fair to all communities and will yeild the demoracy and human rights of the West that they view as the “holy grail”, but it is fundamentally different from the federalist approach of devolving power to disparate communities with the fond hope that there is sufficient incentive to stay within the union after they have gained the devolved power.
Sri Lanka and small enough, and its minorities sufficiently few in number, for such a Policy of National Integration to work. After all, that is exactly what was made to work … albeit by draconian force with much larger minority populations … by Lee Kwan Yew in Singapore.
March 11th, 2012 at 2:30 pm
The PERILS of UNINTENDED Government Sponsored COMMUNALISM.
In India, aid and “reserved jobs” are available to the poor belonging to certain “scheduled” or “historically disadvantaged” castes within a government sponsored affirmative action program. The motives are entirely altruistic, but the effects are catastrophic to the integrity of Indian society.
If you are poor but do not belong one of those “listed” castes, you are out of luck. This has led to much dissatisfaction, civil discord, even riots, immolations and killings in India.
This has also led to a “landrush” to become a disadvantaged class, with much elbowing and jockeying for position along the way. As an Indian Supreme Court judge once observed “there is no other country in the world where people compete so vigorously to degrade themselves in social status simply in order to gain government benefits.”
There are reports of vast numbers of very poor high-caste Brahamins in New Delhi and other big Indian cities cleaning toilets, serving as porters, and pulling rickshaws. They are unable to qualify for government aid or reserved jobs … because though poor, they are Brahamin; apparently, they are “clean” but not “untouchable”!
Now, the 162-million strong Muslims of India (13.4% of 1201 million) have woken up to the indisputable fact that in Hindu majority India they have lost ground, are economically disadvantaged, and are suffering from abject poverty. They are now demanding government aid for their poor as a religious group, a move vigorously resisted by those already on board the gravy train. More dissatisfaction and violence is in the offing in mother India.
All of this DEMONSTRATES the STUPENDOUS FOLLY of segmenting one’s citizenry on communal bases for the allocation of national benefits: it SIMPLY PITS communities against one another.
So what is the solution, you may well ask? The SOLUTION is to allocate government benefits (money, land, jobs, whatever) on the basis of DEMONSTRABLE NEED ONLY, not on COMMUNAL BASES of race, religion, language, caste, or sex.
Even so, the wealthy are likely to oppose government handouts … they would rather let the poverty stricken to be left to die, piously pronouncing that it arises from their karmic destiny.
But, there is a better way: provide aid, jobs, training and infrastructure to the needy and uplift them to self-sufficiency. Otherwise, the wealthy may not survive to keep their heads for long … as was demonstrated on Bastille day on the 14th July, 1789 in Paris, France.
All of this should TEACH US SOMETHING about the FOLLY OF PANDERING to Racist Calls for special treatment by the TNA. Allocation of Special Rights to certain people while denying them to others leads not to satisfaction and peace, but to PERMANENT dissatisfaction and discord.
Those who gain in the short term against their fellows, will lose their heads ion the long term.
…………..
India Eyes Muslims Left Behind by Quota System
By Jim Yardley
NewYporkTimes.com
March 09, 2012
MUZAFFARNAGAR, India — Along the narrow lane known as Khadar Wallah, Muslims and low-caste Hindus have lived side by side for years, bound by poverty, if not religion. Yet recently, Muslims like Murtaza Mansuri have noticed a change. Their neighbors have become better off.
Many of the Dalits, the low-caste Hindus once known as untouchables, have gotten government jobs, or slots in public universities, opportunities that have meant stable salaries and nicer homes. And to Mr. Mansuri the reason is clear: the affirmative action quotas for low-caste Hindus, a policy known in India as reservation, which is not explicitly available to Muslims.
…More