life in financial markets: how companies manipulate government to stop market regulators from investigating them

Anna Hazare's close aides, last week, were comfortable in dealing with a representative of the government who happens to be pressurising the stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India, to go easy in ongoing investigations in the cases of certain large influential companies and corporate groups. None other than India's finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, as per this newsreport published in today's Indian Express newspaper, is influencing Sebi to "manage" ongoing investigation cases against certain influential corporate gorups.

Here is the newsreport:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/exsebi-member-to-pm-id-leaked-family-at-grave-risk/838990/0:

Ex-SEBI member to PM: ID leaked, family at grave risk

P. Vaidyanathan Iyer

A whole-time board member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the stock market regulator, has complained to the government that he and his family are at “grave” risk after his letter to the Prime Minister complaining against Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the minister’s advisor Omita Paul, and his chairman U K Sinha, was sent to the finance ministry — and his identity leaked.

In that first letter sent on June 1, K M Abraham, a 1982 IAS Kerala-cadre officer — his term in SEBI ended on July 20 — alleged that Mukherjee and Paul put pressure on Sinha to “manage” some high-profile corporate cases and, in the process, undermined the regulator’s integrity.

Abraham’s letter referred to several enforcement cases against groups including Sahara, Reliance Industries Ltd and ADAG companies, Bank of Rajasthan and MCX-SX, a new stock exchange that currently offers trading facilities in currency derivatives.

“While reviewing these cases in his three months as Chairman SEBI, Shri U K Sinha has directly or indirectly, referred to how these cases are sensitive and are engaging the attention of the Union Minister for Finance or Smt Omita Paul, Advisor to the Finance Minister,” Abraham alleged.

Sinha had replaced C B Bhave as SEBI chairman on February 18 this year.

A fortnight after receiving Abraham’s letter, the PMO sent a copy to Economic Affairs Secretary in the finance ministry, R Gopalan, for his comments. Expressing anguish at this, Abraham wrote again to the Prime Minister on June 24.

“I couldn’t have gone to the Finance Minister who (as U K Sinha disclosed) had conveyed his interest in a few cases in SEBI to the Chairman personally.

Giving a copy of my letter that bears specific references to corporate houses, to the Finance Ministry, under the present circumstances can have the unintended consequence of exposing our lives and safety to grave risks,” he said.

Sinha did not respond to an email sent by The Indian Express almost 10 days ago.

When contacted, Paul said: “I do not know Abraham. I have never spoken to him. The Finance Ministry has sent its response on the issue to the PMO, the Department of Personnel and Training and the Central Vigilance Commissioner.”

Paul referred the newspaper to a Finance Ministry official, who said that Abraham was “perhaps raising these issues” because he was trying to deflect allegations against him.

These relate to his purchase of a flat in Mumbai built by Kohinoor Planet Construction Ltd. The flat is in the same complex where the National Stock Exchange, an entity regulated by SEBI, bought commercial space, raising questions of conflict of interest.

Further, the official said, Abraham may have been cut up with the Ministry for not extending his tenure by another two years and with the new SEBI chairman for not clearing a file relating to his appointment as Director in the National Institute of Securities Market. He was the only candidate shortlisted by a search committee set up during Bhave’s tenure.

The institute is a public trust set up by SEBI to add market quality through educational initiatives.

Upon receiving Abraham’s letter from the PMO, Gopalan wrote to Sinha on June 21 seeking his comments. After two reminders from the ministry on June 29 and July 5, Sinha replied that Abraham’s allegations are “completely baseless, motivated and are an attempt to tarnish the image of the government; apart from being a malicious attack on me as Chairman of Sebi”.

In his July 8 letter, Sinha also said Abraham was “under severe stress and tension” for the last one month or so.

“He appears to be suffering from an insecurity complex which has got aggravated after some media articles regarding CBDT probing certain properties purchased by him and by (one) Mr M S Sahoo, other whole-time member,” Sinha wrote to the ministry. He, however, said in the letter that Sebi — after verification of facts on Abraham’s purchase of the flat — sent reports on February 11, March 14, May 9, May 25 and July 4 that “the allegations are not true”.

Sinha added: “His (Abraham’s) behaviour is being erratic and he seems to be under some delusion about threat to his family.”

When contacted, Abraham said: “I had applied for a Provident Fund loan from the government for purchasing the flat.” Further, he said, there are thousands of entities regulated by SEBI and each of them may have commercial space in Mumbai. “Does that mean, I cannot buy a flat in any complex where an entity regulated by SEBI has bought space?”

In his June 1 letter to the Prime Minister, Abraham had said: “Sinha mentioned that ‘they are not interested in too many cases in SEBI’, and if he is able to ‘manage’ these few cases, then it becomes ‘easy’ for him.” On a few occasions, he wrote, the SEBI Chairman mentioned that, “the ‘Big Man’ (which he then clarifies is the Union Finance Minister) is interested, and that he has personally told him so”.

Several times, he wrote, “the Chairman has aired his sad frustration that the ‘Lady’ (referring to Smt Omita Paul, Advisor to the Union Finance Minister) is controlling everything — and all such things are being done at her instance... I have heard him mention that it is so difficult to interact with the Finance Ministry.”

life in journalism: a welcome torchlight on unhealthy aspects of Indian journalism

Every once in a while the ugly facets of Indian media editors come out in the open. Last week, Outlook magazine published the tapes between Nira Radia and a few media editors and journalists. Everything about the issue and the tapes can be on Outlook's website here, here, here, here, here and here.

Nira Radia and her firms including Vaishanvi handle the public relations of all the companies of the Tata Group (whose chairman is Rata Tata) and the Reliance Industries Group (whose chairman is Mukesh Ambani).

Its good that the Radia tapes have been published by Outlook magazine. Such a torchlight was necessary, and I am sure other dirty aspects of Indian journalism would also not remain un-hidden forever.

The editors who feature in these tapes are not the only ones who subtly plugged Radia's clients in their publications and television channels or to political parties using their influence. There are a few other media editors too who do the plugging in their publications/channels but do so in a very cunning manner. I have no doubt that over time these editors would receive payback for their un-ethical and dangerous liaisons with large companies and their PR representatives.

I have written about the unhealthy practises in journalism in my blog a few times. In one of my blog post (29 September 2008 one) I even mentioned Vaishnavi company (owned and run by Radia) by name. I share below the contents of that blog post:

http://natant.blogspot.com/2008/09/life-in-journalism-public-relations.html

There is a slyness with which India Inc and their pubic relations (PR) companies treat the media. Partly, of course, it is the media's self-imposed cowardliness but it also due to the sophistication that the public relations companies (or in some cased the companies do it directly without hiring a public relations firm) deploy to discourage/intimidate/fool the editors and journalists that dare to ask even basic tough questions about their client-companies.
As a journalist, I have seen how some PR companies directly deal with the Editor-in-chief (or other senior editors) of a publication or a news channel and try to manipulate them if they perceive a junior-level editor/reporter probing the affairs of their clients a little deeper (such a journalist, in my view, would only be carrying out his/her journalistic duties more diligently).
The PR companies that try to aggressively wield a lot of influence on the top media editors include Genesis Burson-Marsteller, Vaishnavi PR, Perfect Relations and 2-3 more.
The media dare not even write about their PR companies as a part of the regular coverage of the role of all kinds of business entities in the economy and industry. But in June this year Tehelka magazine dared and wrote a story on them (you can read it here). It was a welcome torchlight on an evasive bunch of people although I still felt the story was soft.
There is a lot more to say about the techniques used by the PR companies that would do a Goebbels proud. The readers/viewers of Indian media do not adequately know the kind of insights/news/analysis they are missing out on due to such Goebbels'.

life in general & financial markets: dangerous hypocrisies of capitalists

Any human violence is harmful. But violence can be of two types -- one, physical that injures humans and properties and two, the silent, subtle manipulation of state of affairs that brings about loss of human rights and dignity for the victims.

Acts of Naxals in India can be deemed to be the first type and the acts of Indian central government (particularly P. Chidambaram, Manmohan Singh, Kamal Nath, Montek Singh Ahluwalia) and state governments (of Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharasthra, Goa, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh etc) is of the second type with an element of physical intimidation of the first type.

The recent violence by Naxals is deplorable. Also deplorable is the fact that the Indian government is going after Naxals purely because of pressure from companies such as L N Mittal's Sterlite/Vedanta, Korea's Posco, Tatas, other multi-nationals etc to make it easy for them to set up projects (that violate all basic human rights conditions and ecological norms) in remote areas to dig, mine or set up large factories. Chidambaram is clearly a corporate crony and that is exactly why he was made the Home Minister in the last government and again when the same government came into power this March.

Development is just an excuse to grab land for companies who will then make electricity, goods etc which will be consumed in urban India and other countries. Such capitalists are an insult to true capitalism that says that governments should not interfere in the free play of property rights and competition in trade. Why then do companies worldwide manipulate governments to seek tax favours and other cruel interventions against poor people living in remote areas?

Why aren't the property rights of these poor & un-influential, whether individual or collective (of a community or a tribe) respected by industrialists, politicians and civil-service-bureaucrats? Their machinations and double-standards disgust me completely. As a journalist, I know, for a fact, that they also manipulate very senior editors in the media (print, TV and internet) to carry forward their ugly agenda. The affluent citizenry, in the meanwhile, continue to remain steeped in their excessive consumerism.

Tehelka's Shoma Chaudhury has written an insightful piece on the issue of Naxalite violence in a recent issue of Tehelka. Below are some excerpts from it:

Here goes:

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 39, Dated October 03, 2009

...Over this past year, the Home Ministry has been planning a major armed offensive against the Naxals, particularly in Chhattisgarh. According to reports, the plan involves stationing around 75,000 troops in the heartland of India — including special CRPF commandos, the ITBP and the BSF. Scattered newspaper accounts have spoken of forces being withdrawn from Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast; there is also talk of bringing in the feared Rashtriya Rifles — a battalion created specially for counter-insurgency work — and the purchase of bomb trucks, bomb blankets, bomb baskets, and sophisticated new weaponry. Minister Chidambaram has also said that if necessity dictates, he will bring in the special forces of the army.

The decision to launch such a massive armed operation on home ground — due to start this November — should have triggered animated political, civil society and media debate. But Operation Green Hunt — as the offensive is being termed — has been gathering force in almost complete silence. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Chidambaram have variously called Naxals — or “Maoists” — “the gravest threat to India’s internal security.” Perhaps a military offensive against them is the answer, but is it the only answer? Is it the best answer? Will it provide a solution? Who will be impacted by this offensive? What will be its repercussions? Who are we really declaring war on? What are we declaring war on? Are we going into this with eyes wide open? Is there anything we should have learned from the seemingly irreparable psychological mess in Kashmir and the Northeast? These are the questions a democratic society should be asking. One can perhaps understand the well-heeled turning their back on such bleak issues. But with such a significant operation looming on the horizon, what can excuse the complete absence of debate from national political parties?

But silence, perhaps, is only the lesser worry. A few days ago, the government announced an ad blitzkrieg as part of its psychological offensive. “Naxals are nothing but coldblooded murderers” the ad screamed across all major news dailies. The visual showed a series of men, women and children brutally killed by Naxals.
......

AT THE heart of the Naxal riddle, there are three primary questions: Who is a Naxal? What is one’s position on violence as a tool of struggle? And why is Naxalism on the rise across the country?

As Kobad Ghandy proves, a Naxal ideologue, commander or politburo leader can come from any milieu. The disempowered dalits of Andhra Pradesh, the destitute tribals of Chhattisgarh, the middle-class intellectuals of Bengal or the privileged rich of Bombay. These “informed revolutionaries” function at two levels. At a political level, they do not believe in parliamentary democracy (where they see power still concentrated in the hands of the feudal upper class) and their long-term objective is to seize State power for the people through armed struggle. In this, they threaten the sovereignity of the Indian State and many humanist thinkers, including men like K Balagopal of the Human Rights Forum, who was part of brokering peace talks between the government and Naxals in Andhra Pradesh in 2004, believe the State is within its rights to confront them. “The Maoists themselves would not tolerate such a challenge if they came to power,” says he. Balagopal is also critical of Naxal leaders creating “liberated zones” where the Indian State cannot function. “If they claim to be the voice of the people, can they pursue a political agenda that injures people — either by their actions or the repercussions they invite? Does the current tribal generation of Chhattisgarh want to sacrifice itself for a utopian future that may never come?”

It is true that in this prolonged ideological war, many Naxal attacks like the horrific one on the Ranibodli police station two years ago and the more recent one in Rajnandgaon embrace brutal tactics and almost fetishise violence. Even if these attacks are against an oppressive and corrupt police, it is a nobrainer to condemn them and say one is opposed to this violence. Or that their perpetrators should be punished.

But like dozens of other intellectuals, Balagopal points out that it is suicidal to focus only on this ideological war or resort to extrajudicial means alone to quell it. Can Naxalism really be wiped out by brute counter force? If that were so, Siddhartha Shankar Ray’s crackdown in Bengal in the 70s should have nailed it for all time. But the fact is, while stories of their own coercions are true, Naxal leaders enjoy wide support because they also espouse social-economic causes and empower people that the Indian State has ignored — criminally — for 60 years. Most Naxal cadres, therefore, are not “informed revolutionaries” fighting a conceptual war: they are beleagured tribals and dalits fighting local battles for basic survival and rights. Bela Bhatia, an activist, says she met a mazdoor in Bihar who was part of the cadre. “You can call me a Naxal or whatever you want,” he said. “I have picked up the gun to get my three kilos of annaj.”

The point is, should the Indian State be declaring armed war on its most despairing people? Is there no other way to empower them and wean them away from the gun and the seduction of the ‘informed revolutionary’? When Arnab Goswami evoked the 15 dead CPM members in Bengal last week, he forgot to mention that, according to newspaper reports (since no TV channel bothered to send teams there to find out) a 10,000-strong crowd of tribals had descended on the CPM office which was stockpiling arms in Inayatpur, near Lalgarh. When his panelists tried to draw his attention to this, he scathingly dubbed all 10,000 tribals as Maoists. Should “Operation Green Hunt” then stamp all 10,000 out? And if 10,000 Maoists had attacked an office, is it possible that only 15 people would have died? What is the real truth about the attack on the CPM office last week? And why was the superintendent of police, visiting a day later, unable to find any bodies? And why were the central paramilitary forces stationed there unable to prevent any of it?

.......


As Himanshu Kumar, a Gandhian and the only human rights activist on ground zero in faraway Dantewada where Operation Green Hunt is to be launched, says, “We can all be agreed on the premise that Naxalism is a problem, but why are these poor people attracted to a politics that will end in death? Have we created such a heinous system that death is more attractive than the deprivations and humiliations this system doles out? If that is so, why should I defend this system? All that these people want is food, health care, school, clothes and their legitimate right over their land. Yet, instead of weaning them away by strengthening the democratic process, if we are going to run our democracy only on the strength of weapons, I fear we are entering a dangerous and irrepairable state. We are headed for civil war.” Men like Himanshu should know. For 17 years, he has functioned like an ICU on the edges of a wounded society, providing education and health care, painstakingly drawing tribals into the electoral and constitutional process. The government, loath to undertake the trouble, has been happy to outsource its functions to him. Yet now, it is deaf to his wisdoms.

.....

In 2006, the Planning Commission asked an expert committee for a report on development challenges in “extremist affected areas.” The committee comprised senior officers like former UP police chief Prakash Singh; former intelligence head, Ajit Doval; senior bureaucrats like B. Bandopadhyay, EAS Sarma, SR Sankaran and BD Sharma; and activists like Bela Bhatia and K Balagopal. The report submitted in October 2008 had some visionary analysis and recommendations.

“The main support for the Naxalite movement,” it said, “comes from dalits and adivasi tribals”: the element of water: the infinite constituency in which Naxal leaders swim. Dalits and adivasis comprise a staggering one fourth of India’s population, yet are disproportionately destitute and low on the Human Development Index scale. Worse, they suffer the most humiliation and indignity: the proverbial insult on injury. The report is an exhaustive anthology of the causes for rural discontent and violence — recording meticulous data and case studies — but at the heart of its argument, it places the “structural violence implicit in our social and economic system” as the key explanation for Naxalite violence. Slamming the neoliberal directional shift in government policies, it urges a “development centric” rather than “security centric” approach to the Naxal problem.

Curiously, three years earlier in 2005, human rights lawyer Kannabiran had written a letter to Dr Manmohan Singh reminding him of his own report as a Planning Commission Member in 1982 and one written by Pranab Mukherjee in 2002 that had come to the same conclusion. As Bela Bhatia says, “With all this insight and understanding already with them, it is completely mystifying why they should go against their own intuition and recommendation and take a security-centric route. Actually,” she adds, “it is not mystifying. It only makes the character of the Indian State more clear.”

This ‘character’ gets even more depressing when you know that barely a week ago, on 15 September, Arjun Sengupta, former economic adviser to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also wrote that “Naxalism is a cry that must be heard”. Responding to Dr Manmohan Singh’s admission that despite the State’s best efforts to contain the “Naxal menace”, violence was still on the rise, Sengupta wrote powerfully, “It is important to understand why this is so and in what sense Naxalite violence is different from other violent outbursts. Although it has always expressed itself as a breach of law and order with violence, murder, extortion and acts of heinous crimes, it may not be prudent to think of every protest movement of the disaffected people as a simple issue of law and order violation, and calling for its brutal suppression. This form of extremism, indeed, goes beyond law and order, fanning some deep-seated grievance. We must try to resolve those problems first, as otherwise the violence will remain insurmountable.”
image

(Way back in 1996, Justice MN Rao of the Andhra Pradesh High Court had also remarked in a judgment, “While left wing extremism is viewed as a problem by the administration, it is increasingly being perceived as a solution to their problems by the alienated masses.” Why is this so? That’s a question every self-styled jingoistic nationalist must ask themselves.)

As Sengupta reminds the prime minister, he is right to fear that Naxal violence will raise its head again and again, because at its heart is the deeper structural violence that our democratic Republic refuses to address: a violence that forces 77 percent of Indians to live on less than Rs 20 a day while 5 percent enjoy lives that border on obscene excess.

Structural violence: that’s an imaginative vacuum. For most urban Indians, the lives of tribals and dalits has no meaning, no face, no flesh. Our books no longer write of it, our films no longer evoke it, our journalists no longer cover it. It’s not just the poverty; it’s bumping into a face of the Indian State you have never seen before: brutal, illegal, rapine, pimped out to serve the interests of a few. Unless one travels into the silent smoky hole in the heart of this country — the remote jungles of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh; the desolate corners of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and Rajasthan, one cannot feel the dread of this question: How will Operation Green Hunt solve this? You might stealth-march a mythic army of COBRA commandoes into this imaginative vacuum, but how will that dissolve the “two categories of human beings” our nation has created? Operation Green Hunt may kill several hundred ‘informed revolutionaries’ and several thousand of the despairing poor who have taken up arms, but how will it address the birth of new anger — anger born out of bombing an old wound?

.....


ONE OF the key architects of Operation Green Hunt, Home secretary Gopal Pillai sits in a giant office in powerful North Block. At first meeting, he doesn’t seem the average cynic you expect Indian bureaucrats to be. An amiable, thoughtful man, he says he’s seen long years of service in the Northeast and knows what a security-centric approach can do to a people, how it can trigger a world of smoke and mirrors where nothing is what it seems and everyone is chasing someone’s shadow. He seems open and ready to listen. More, he is full of surprisingly honest admissions: Manipur is a society in collective depression, he says. Yes, raising the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh (which human rights activists have been crying hoarse about) was wrong; yes, the Naxals have often taken up causes and done work that the government should have. But, he adds, their violent disruptions are a real deterrence for governance. You have no argument with that.

According to him, then, Operation Green Hunt is being planned as a kind of “area domination”. “We want to take back control of the land; but we will only fire if we are fired against,” says he. “Lalgarh is the model; we want no collateral damage. Our real success will be in restoring civil administration in this area. PDS, mobile medical vans, stronger police chowkis, schools – that’s our goal.” You feel eager to believe him.
MANMOHAN SINGH AND PRANAB MUKHERJEE HAVE BOTH HEADED REPORTS URGING DEVELOPMENT CENTRIC APPROACHES TO NAXALISM

Part of the problem of administering the tribal villages in the jungles of Chhattisgarh is that they are lonely and farflung; also few in the district or political administration know the tribal languages. Operation Green Hunt has been long in the planning. Battalions of CRPF men and para-military forces across the country are being given crash courses for the impending operation. The Centre has sanctioned 20 new schools in jungle warfare; invited crores worth of bids for military equipment. Is there a similar hot-foot programme for training, sensitising and incentivising the civil administration? you ask. Has he invited civil society activists in the region for their inputs? Mr Pillai has a sudden shocked moment of self-recognition. No, he admits, and scribbles “training” and “dialogue” on a yellow notepad.

There is a month to go before Operation Green Hunt is launched. A familiar despair sprouts: the gap between stated intention and action. And miles of paper and good advice gathering dust in the Planning Commission.
image

TODAY, THE biggest riddle for anybody concerned about a just and equal world is the dilemma of violence as a tool of political struggle. When the government shows such poor intention, when it is completely deaf to peaceful people’s movements like the Bhopal gas victims’, or the tribal resistance to bauxite mining in Niyamgirhi, or the Narmada Andolan, is one justified in asking the poor to defang themselves, unless one is willing to step out of one’s comfort zone and share their lives of helpless status quo?

Should one distinguish between Naxal violence and spontaneous rural violence? Yet, in a democratic society, how can violence of any kind be condoned? Where does that leave democratic practice?

Despite these internal tussles, contrary to what Arnab Goswami asserts, almost the entire human rights community is agreed that not only is Naxal violence to be condemned, but subdued. Increased and international access to weaponry has led to escalating violence. As Prakash Singh, a widely respected retired police chief, says, “The Naxals used to move in dalams [cells] of 20. That’s gone up to a 100. They have sophisticated weapons and their attacks have become more brutal. We have to show that such armed insurrection will not be tolerated.”
NAXALS ARE OFTEN GUILTY OF BRUTAL VIOLENCE. THEIR STRUGGLE TO SEIZE STATE POWER THREATENS INDIA’S SOVEREIGNTY

The disagreements arise over strategy and efficacy. A top security expert who wishes not to be named but is generally considered a hawk, for instance, has serious doubts over Operation Green Hunt. Ironically, he voices the anxiety of a wide range of human rights activists. “To attempt this kind of an action by police forces against your own land and people is a dangerous trap,” says he. “We usually reserve such operations for hostile territory. The police is supposed to go after particular individuals – say, Ram Lal, a criminal. But in an operation of this kind, you don’t even know who Ram Lal is, it is very difficult to know who he is or get accurate intelligence on his movements. You might end up killing Ram Lal’s relatives or his whole village. And if you don’t hold inquests, you’ll never know who you killed.”

Kashmir and the Northeast are bleeding, painful reminders: once paramilitary forces or the army moves in, you can never really withdraw. No bureaucrat or military strategist or powerful minister can control the vicious logic of paranoia, fake killings, genuine mistakes and revenge that sets in. When friend and family can be an informer, everyone is an enemy.

Already, this helpless cycle has started to turn in Chhattisgarh. Last week, in the first of its assaults, a company of 100 COBRA commandos set off to destroy an alleged Naxal arms factory in Chintagufa area. They were caught in Naxal fire. Seven COBRAs were killed. In turn, they claimed to have killed nine Naxals (whose bodies they say they have) and many more they claim the Naxals dragged away. The government has tried to pass this off as a big triumph. But the deadly smoke and mirrors game has already begun. Villagers claim the COBRAs made no kills and had dragged innocents out of villages to tot some up, among them an old man and woman. Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwaranjan does not help matters by refusing to answer questions: “I don’t have any details,” he says. An odd answer for a DGP. Plus, there’s the wound of six COBRAs dead in the first sortee.

As Operation Green Hunt kicks into top gear, all these problems will magnify. The hallucinations of the impregnable forest. Extremists who disappear, leaving villagers to bear the brunt of the commandos’ ire. Paranoia within and without, revenge and, as in the Salwa Judum, innocent tribals caught between the fury of the Naxals and the fury of the State.
TODAY, THE BIGGEST RIDDLE FOR ANYONE CONCERNED ABOUT A JUST WORLD IS THE DILEMMA OF VIOLENCE AS A TOOL OF POLITICAL STRUGGLE

Pressure will create equal and opposite counter pressure. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can’t seem to grasp this simple physical equation. The impact of the Salwa Judum was to drive more tribals into the arms of Naxals. Operation Green Hunt promises to set the place on fire. When Binayak Sen spoke against the Salwa Judum, he was jailed. Now, when Himanshu Kumar is warning about impending civil war, no one is listening.
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“Not commandos. Send in health workers and schoolteachers protected by the CRPF,” pleads he. “Show the tribals hope and they will choose life over death.” But the weight of his voice does not sway even a mote of dust in the corridors of the Home Ministry.

THERE IS one final silent piece in the escalating Naxal violence that has gripped the country: neo-liberal land grab and tribal rights. It is no coincidence that a majority of the Naxal leadership today is from Andhra Pradesh. According to journalist N Venugopal, the roots of this go back to the Telengana Movement of 1946-51, which was abruptly withdrawn by the Communist Party. In the Andhra Second Five-Year Plan (1956), 60 lakh acres of surplus land was identified. Yet by the time the Land Ceiling Act was passed in 1973, and enough concessions had been made to rich landowners, the State said only 17 lakh acres of surplus land was available, and it distributed only four. Land, livelihood and liberation was the clarion call then. Still driven by that unfulfilled aspiration, most leaders today are from the families of the ‘46 – ’51 movement.
‘THIS OPERATION IS A DANGEROUS TRAP,’ SAYS A SECURITY HAWK. ‘YOU ARE LOOKING FOR RAM LAL, YOU’LL END UP KILLING HIS RELATIVES’

EAS Sarma, former Commissioner of Tribal Welfare and former secretary, Expenditure and Economic Affairs, unlocks the real heart of the matter. “I am totally against violence of any kind and a firm believer in democratic process,” says he. “But Left extremism is a secondary issue. How many tribals even know there is a government? Their only experience of the State is the police, contractors, and real estate goons. Besides, the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution grants tribals complete rights over their traditional land and forests and prohibits private companies from mining on their land. This constitutional schedule was upheld by the Samatha judgement of the Supreme Court (1997). If successive governments lived by the spirit of the Constitution and this judgment, tribal discontent would automatically recede.”

Mr Sarma is probably right. Human rights activists have long argued that the real intention of the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh was to capture tribal land — brimming-rich with minerals — and hand it over to private companies. The fact that 600 tribal villages have been evacuated in the last few years gives credence to this theory. If tribals no longer live on that land, the inconvenient Fifth Schedule of the Constitution will not apply.

Given that the Supreme Court directed that the Salwa Judum was to be dismantled, perhaps, Operation Green Hunt is the second lap. In any case, whether for ill-intention, poor execution, or unplanned collateral damage, there is much to fear in the impending operation.

In the meantime, we would all do well to read the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.

WRITER’S EMAIL
shoma@tehelka.com
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 39, Dated October 03, 2009

life in financial markets: why not ask for a level playing field in this as well?

One often hears/reads/sees a corporate CEO or an industrialist talking of level playing field. Depending on what it pertains to, such a thing can be considered valid or not. I think barring a very few genuine cases most of them are frivolous and unfair. But on the surface they look very apt and fair. Dig a little deeper and you realise the dirty game being played.

Anyway, I was reading this newsreport on how the fraud-affected and in-prison Satyam Computer's former chief, Ramalinga Raju, is receiving excessive soft treatment. Read the entire text of the newsreport below. Now, I was wondering, whether corporate India would also seek a level playing field in the treatement given to corporate CEOs when they land in prison due to fraud. Would it not be fair for corporate India to seek that Satyam's Raju be treated like any other undertrial-prisoner in the country?

Even hardened criminals-cum-politicians receive the kind of treatment that Satyam's former chief is receiving now. When such politicians are from states such as Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, many in corporate India (and I have personally experienced this) mock, and make derogatory remarks on, the favoritism accorded to these states' politicans. But, pray, tell me, what is the difference between a powerful criminal in such a state and Satyam's Raju?

Coming to the status of the cases against Satyam's former bosses, I am not surprised by the slow pace of investigations to arrive at a final conclusion in the Satyam fraud case that involved, among other things, artificially jacking up profits and siphoning off company funds for personal benefit by the company bosses. But I am apalled by the fact that even Sebi, under the chairmanship of a supposedly-tough C.B.Bhave, has been extremely slow to bring to justice the Satyam offenders under the wide ranging powers available to Sebi under the various regulations and Acts.

When Bhave was the chief of NSDL (National Securities Depository) his company was unfairly targeted by former Sebi chief, Damodaran, during the IPO scam blowout. While merchant bankers (lead managers to the IPOs) were being allowed to go scot free, Damodaran was going after the two depositories. But I did notice at that time that NSDL, under Bhave, never took any action against Karvy Stock Broking that was a DP in NSDL and which had opened over 40,000 fake demat accounts. NSDL, under its various rules and regulations, could have levied a hefty penalty on Karvy. But it never did. Of course, neither did CDSL penalise its DPs that were involved in the scam. But I expected differently from Bhave and NSDL.

Now, here is the twist. Karvy's headquarters are in Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. So is Satyam Computer's. Though the matters are serious I can not help but find some humour in the fact that Hyderabadis are exposing chinks in Bhave's strengths.

Here, then is the newsreport. Its shocking:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Ramalinga-Raju-is-raja-in-hospital/articleshow/4988416.cmsRamalinga Raju is 'raja' in hospitalTNN 9 September 2009, 02:02am IST
HYDERABAD: If Ramalinga Raju was the rare undertrial playing badminton in Chanchalguda prison, he now holds the
distinction of being the first prisoner to enjoy the comforts of the only VIP room in the NIMS ICCU where he is currently recuperating.
The former Satyam boss was admitted to NIMS after he complained of chest pain on Monday evening. Medical reports
stated that he was suffering from Hepatitis C and hypertension.
While the other patients' beds are divided by curtains, Raju has a separate room to himself which staffers refer to
as the 'VIP section'. The room has an attached bathroom with round the clock attention from doctors.
With his wife Nandini Raju on his side along with a few other family members since he was admitted to the hospital
on Monday night, it appears that the Raju family is having a reunion of sorts. Raju's elder son, Teja Raju, visited
his father on Monday night. There are five policemen outside his room keeping a vigil.
Raju's aides were seen hanging around the ICCU on Tuesday and even entering to meet him with the help of hospital
staff. The medical superintendent N Satyanarayana mentioned during a brief press briefing that Raju had the company
of his personal assistant in the ICCU.
At about 1.15 pm a Raju aide was seen entering the ward with two oversized basket like bags carrying food, clothes
and other items. The aide was accompanied with Raju’s counsel S Bharath Kumar’s junior who was taking in some
documents inside for Raju.
"He (Bharath Kumar) wanted Raju to go through these documents," the lawyer said. Sources said that his father-in-law
visited Raju in the morning, apart from the other visitors, later in the day, on Tuesday.
The hospital authorities even blocked an entrance which leads to the in-patient ward of the hospital on Tuesday. At
the other entry points, the security guards kept a close watch ensuring that nobody went inside without a pass, as
against the normal days when they are usually lax. Those who did not have a pass, were denied entry.

life in general & financial markets: clintons & india's corrupt

The ultimate sycophancy is being carried out during USA's Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, current ongoing few days visit to India. It is not surprising that much of the Indian media [that is known to shamelessly ignore the corruption of India's politicians, bureaucrats (IAS, ICS & IPS officers) and industrialists/company bigwigs] is going ga-ga over what Clinton is doing and whom she is meeting.

This is still ok but the tone of most of the media stories is adulatory in nature and most media columnists and senior journalists are completely silent on the recent and far past of Clintons' (Hillary now as US Secretary of State), and Bill earlier when he was the US president for 8 years from 1992 to 2000) notorious penchant for wheeling dealing with companies for monetary gains by abusing their official positions in the US government.

Barrack Obama, in his misguided sense to keep the cool in Democratic Party, gave in to the pressure from his party's corrupt elements to give an important position to Hillary Clinton. This was despite the fact that Hillary's campaign to get the Presidential nomination in Democratic Party in 2008 was very ugly and nasty towards Obama's nomination campaign.

In India, Ambanis and Tatas are shamelessly close to this corrupt couple. It started in the 1990s when Bill Clinton was the president of the US. Their sycophancy continues with Hillary because the Clintons are known to operate as one when it comes to their ugly wheeling-dealing activities.

Look at what New York Times reports on Hillary's visit to Bombay. I would laugh if it were not a serious matter:

"..But she began her visit to India, the first by a top official from the Obama administration, by discussing climate change, education and health care with private-sector potentates.

Flanked by Mukesh Ambani (estimated net worth: $19.5 billion) and Ratan Tata (estimated net worth: $1 billion), Mrs. Clinton heard ideas from seven other guests about how Indian companies could provide health care, education and banking services to India’s desperately poor.

“You’re so right, Ratan,” Mrs. Clinton said to Mr. Tata when he explained how his Tata Group was delivering nutrients to children and young mothers through daily staples like milk. “If we could get the nutritional status of children to improve, it would solve so many problems.”

The purpose of her visit, Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference on Saturday, was to “broaden and deepen” dialogue between the United States and India. Given the potential for friction in the issues that face the two countries — climate change, trade and the insurgency in Pakistan — Mrs. Clinton’s visit with business leaders was more than a sidelight.

The United States is clearly hoping that Indian business will help bridge potential gaps between the two countries.

Mr. Ambani, for example, proposed that Indians and Americans work together to develop “clean technologies” that would reduce carbon emissions. The Indian government is resisting the Obama administration’s push for a global treaty that would mandate cuts in carbon emissions, arguing that developing economies deserve to grow without compulsory constraints...."

See what is happening above. Obama administration wants US itself to commit to carbon emissions cuts and not just use its superpower position and join hands with other industrial countries such as Japan, Germany, UK and France to pressurise China and India to also commit to carbon emission cuts.

The way I see it the industrial powerhouses are not doing enough and not doing much right about genuinely reducing their carbon footprints on Earth and their footprints are the highest. Obama wants to genuinely do something. But he is stacked against powerful opposition from the corporate world in US and Europe.

The governments of India and China are taking refuge under a ridiculous argument -- "the West developed and we should also be allowed to develop without constraints to protect the environment". Its like saying "you exploited someone to become wealthy and we also want to exploit that someone to become wealthy" knowing very well that "someone" in this case is our Mother Earth and her previous natural resources.

The carbon footprint of the affluent of China, India and S.Korea are as high the national averages of the industrial nations. Not only will their governments fight against all global efforts to curb carbon emissions but their industrialists will go all out and utter all kinds of lies in front of Western governments' top officials like Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a very easy target to influence for Ambanis and Tatas. In India, right now, during Clinton's visit to India the top Indian industrialists must be carrying forward their thoughts such as "Pamper her and bribe her directly or indirectly to allow us to pollute the air, river, soil and mountains of India".

The Clintons are easy to bribe (do a google on 'clintons corruption'). But at least the proportion of American journalists exposing their corruption is way more than the proportion of Indian journalists exposing corruption in India of politicians such as Sharad Pawar, Kamal Nath, P. Chidambaram, Bal Thackeray, Narendra Modi and many many more across the Indian political spectrum. The Indian media has also been threatened, dierctly and indirectly, by companies such as Ambani's Reliance and Ratan's Tata group whenever there is a story exposing any bit of activity, including environmental violation norms, by these companies.

life in financial markets: mauritius-based companies dominate listed India Inc

There are countries where tax laws and corporate laws for international companies are deliberately kept lax to attract black money of individuals, companies and investment funds. These individuals, companies and investment funds register companies in such countries and then use these new companies to invest in their home markets or across global markets.

Mauritius is one such notorious country. Many companies and investment funds that are registered are investing in listed and unlisted companies in India.

I did some number crunching on quarterly 'greater-than-one-percent' shareholders' data of listed companies in India. I looked for shareholder names that had the word 'Mauritius'. The data analysis revealed that these Mauritius-based companies and funds have increased their dominance in listed companies in India.

Here is a summary of my analysis:
1) As on 31 December 2006 there were 470 Mauritius-based shareholders that held greater than one per cent stake in a listed Indian company across 311 companies. On that date, the aggregate market capitalisation of these 311 companies was Rs 12,34,275 crore and the aggregate market value of the holdings of the 470 Mauritius-based shareholders in these companies was Rs 59,872 crore, or 4.85 per cent.
2) As on 31 December 2007 there were 749 Mauritius-based shareholders that held greater than one per cent stake in a listed Indian company across 410 companies. On that date, the aggregate market capitalisation of these 410 companies was Rs 26,31,094 crore and the aggregate market value of the holdings of the 749 Mauritius-based shareholders in these companies was Rs 1,53,951 crore, or 5.85 per cent.
3) As on 31 December 2008 there were 643 Mauritius-based shareholders that held greater than one per cent stake in a listed Indian company across 375 companies. On that date, the aggregate market capitalisation of these 375 companies was Rs 7,11,956 crore and the aggregate market value of the holdings of the 643 Mauritius-based shareholders in these companies was Rs 45,594 crore, or 6.40 per cent.
4) As on 31 March 2009 there were 599 Mauritius-based shareholders that held greater than one per cent stake in a listed Indian company across 355 companies. On that date, the aggregate market capitalisation of these 355 companies was Rs 6,22,461 crore and the aggregate market value of the holdings of the 599 Mauritius-based shareholders in these companies was Rs 44,876 crore, or 7.20 per cent.

Notice the rise of the per cent figures -- from 4.85% in December 2006 to 5.85% in December 2007 to 6.40% in December 2008 to 7.20% in March 2009. Black money rules the corporate world!

life in financial markets: the great indian accounting scam

Accounting manipulation by companies is not a new phenomenon. But due to the ongoing Satyam Computer Services accounting fraud reportage in India there is a temporary awareness of the dangers of accounting manipulation.

There are two recent excellent research reports of a global equity research firm that are worth reading. Download them here and here.

life in general&financial markets: terrorism of companies

Just like religious extremists get misled on 'religion' and become terrorists, the ultra-affluent industrialists and companies get misled on 'development' and become terrorists.

See how the so-called largest democracy on Earth, India, treats any one who campaigns for human rights and environmental rights -- click here. The guy in the video is shown chained to a hospital bed after being arrested for campaigning against the illegal eviction of villagers/tribals and others and illegal environmental pollution at the Posco manufacturing sites in Orissa. (the pic below is a snapshot from the youtube video whose link I have given above)
One mainstream media newsreport on it here. Tehelka, a mainstream publication but not afraid to write about the issues affecting tribals and adivasis of India had written about Abhay Sahoo about a month back -- see here. The police, acting on behalf of the state that in turn is acting on behalf of the company, claims that Sahoo has indulged in various law-breaking acts. My take on this is: surely, no mass leader will be free of some acts that won't be legal in the strict sense but the punishment has to fit the nature of the crime and the other activities of the person. Nelson Mandel was too known to have been a bit violent at the beginning of his fight against apartheid in South Africa. Of course, most mass leaders also later realise the futility of most kinds of violence and shun it but thats a process of learning.

But the bigger point is that the companies in India are getting away by violating any law and every law, enivronmental, civil or criminal. The police looks away and does nothing because the state deliberately does not want to invoke the law against the companies. Why are company chiefs and chairmans such as Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata never chained and handcuffed? Does this not shatter the illusion that democracy in India is for all its people? Well, Indian democracy is only for a few as I said in an earlier post.

The anti-Posco people's movement leader, Sahoo, has been a member of the Communist Party of India. I rate the communist parties of India as bad or not-so-bad as any other party in India including the BJP. Communism, capitalism, socialism are all isms that many people choose to categorise themselves in. But ultimately its about the greed and excessive ego of people in power and people with influence that determines whether this ism or that ism will bring more good or more harm to Earth and its inhabitants.

Here's some more on the Posco steel company's matter in Orissa followed by another similar matter of tribals (adivasis) being the victims of companies-state terror in Jharkhand:

1)
From: Campaigns and Advocacy Desk - TOM
Date: 2008/12/8
Subject: Please Endorse: Appeal Letter To Orissa Governor Demanding Proper Treatment to Abhay Sahoo & Other PPSS Leaders
To:
Dear Friends,
As you might aware, Abhay Sahoo, one of the prominent leaders of the anti POSCO movement in Orissa was arrested on 12th October 2008 under various false charges. Abhay Sahoo who is diabetic and has blood pressure problems had to be admitted to Cuttuck Medical College hospital on 3rd December 2008. Despite his fragile health condition State is continuing with its inhuman atrocities even in hospital. On the pretext of non-availability of bed in the hospital, Abhay Sahoo whose condition is critical has been kept on the floor and he has been handcuffed and chained. He is being treated like a dreaded criminal.
This calls us to come together and show our solidarity with these movements and strongly demand from State to act sensibly by respecting people’s rights. This Appeal letter written to Orissa Governor demands to stop continued harassment of Shri Abhay Sahoo and other POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti leaders in Jail, ensuring immediate proper medical care of Abhay Sahoo and withdrawal of false cases against POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti activists.
Please send your endorsement by tomorrow afternoon.
In solidarity
Bipin Kumar

To
Shri Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare
Governor of Orissa
Raj Bhavan
Bhubaneshwar

Sub: Appeal to instruct Orissa Government to stop its continued harassment of Shri Abhay Sahoo and other POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti leaders in Jail, ensuring immediate proper medical care of Abhay Sahoo and withdrawal of false cases against POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti activists

Dear Sir,
We are writing to condemn the continued imprisonment of Shri Abhay Sahoo, leader of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) and other six PPSS leaders on account of several false cases in order to suppress anti POSCO people’s movement in Jagatsinghpur District. As you might be aware, tens of thousands of people in Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa, have put up an exemplary, ‘non-violent’ resistance for the past three years against forcible take-over of their lands and resources by the Korean steel giant POSCO. The state’s dubious plans to build a mega steel plant on their lands will not only devastate the sustainable livelihood systems of thousands of local people; it will also pauperise many more lakhs considering the port and iron-ore mining necessarily associated with the project.
State repression on the movement started right from the day one and it reached a high point when the president of PPSS, Abhay Sahoo, was malafidely arrested on 12 October 2008 evening near Paradip. Now even after period of nearly two months there has been hardly any progress on litigation part. Clearly Orissa Government in synchronization with POSCO is trying to delay judicial proceedings to languish Abhay Sahoo and others for longer period of time with these unjustified and unfair legal tactics. One can understand these legal maneuverings with the fact that State is still piling false cases against these leaders, allegedly very recently six new cases has been framed against Mr. Sahoo.
Sir, its not only that State is employing legal plotting to defame and unjustly detain Abhay Sahoo and others in order to silence people’s voice but dangerously they are also playing with lives of these protestors who are in jail, especially with the life of Abhay Sahoo. It’s a fact that Abhay Sahoo was arrested while coming back from hospital after attending his on going treatment sessions. After his arrest, due to deliberate negligence of his fragile health status on the State part he is under consistent life threat. Only after his health status turned from bad to worst jail authorities bother to admit him to hospital on December 03, 2008. Apart from other health problems Mr. Sahoo is acute diabetic and patient of blood pressure. Even in hospital Police is continuing with their inhuman atrocities, not only he has been kept on the floor but also Mr. Sahoo has been handcuffed and chained like a dreaded criminal.
We therefore call upon you to ensure:
· Ensuring human treatment and immediate arrangement of proper medical facilities and care for Mr. Abhay Sahoo
· Immediate release of Mr. Sahoo and all other arrested PPSS leaders and withdrawal of false cases framed against them
· Restraining Police from carrying their physical and mental atrocities with these leaders
Prosecution of all those responsible for human rights violation of these leaders
Sincerely,

2)
From: Campaigns and Advocacy Desk - TOM
Date: 2008/12/8
Subject: Against unlawful police firing on peaceful demonstration in Dumka
To:
Action Alert: Police firing against peaceful adivasis protestors in Jharkhand : Write to CM & NHRC
by Mukta Srivastava, 6 December 2008
Voice your protest
Write to the Jharkhand CM and NHRC
Against unlawful police firing on peaceful demonstration in Dumka
Against unjust corporate-led mass displacement of adivasis
We, members of people’s movements unequivocally condemn the unlawful obstruction of the peaceful protest of 7000 adivasis from the Dumka region in Jharkhand and the police firing unleashed against them today afternoon at Kathikund that has left 5 people battling for their life. We are receiving messages from Jharkhand that even now the firing is on and the situation is quite tense and Section 144 has been clamped in the area.
The adivasis in the Dumka region of Jharkhand have been struggling against the plunder of natural resources and destruction of livelihoods by the giant mining corporates and are asserting their right to community control and ownership over their resources, including land, water, fish, forests and minerals. They started a new phase of their Satyagraha today, which also took the form of a Jail Bharo Rally, strongly protesting against this unjust displacement and the false cases being foisted against the local activists and movement leaders, including Amelia Hansda of the Jharkhand Ulgulan Manch Leader and National Convenor, NAPM.
It is notable that in addition to the two strong people’s movements in the region, including the Jharkhand Ulgulan Manch (JUM) and Jharkhand Hulgulan Mahila Manch (JHMM), the mass movements of the local adivasis with local leadership, the Gram Sabhas of the regions, which repeated denied land for acquisition through oral and written means were also fully involved in organizing the non-violent demonstration.
Many leaders of people’s movements, including National Convenors of the NAPM had very recently written to the CM of Jharkhand to take a firm position against the unjust displacement of the people by holding a conclusive and intensive dialogue on the issue and ensuring that all the due process as enshrined under the Constitution and the PESA Act are implemented.
We mark this day of violence and repression as one more Black Day in the history of peaceful people’s struggles in this country agitating for a constitution-based movement for basic rights and call upon all progressive minded individuals and groups to strongly condemn the unlawful corporate-state tyranny.
Mukta Srivastava, Anand Mazgaonkar, Simpreet Singh, Shrikanth