Versions of the following comment have appeared in:
online Wall Street Journal: Jessica E. Vascellaro - Google Discloses Requests on Users
WATBlog.com: Siddharth Raman India Ranks 3rd in Censoring & Removal Requests To Google – A Detailed Look
voxy.co.nz David Silversmith Google Publicizes Government Censorship Requests
Defamer Australia: Glen Runciter Google’s New Government-Tracking Toy
ZD Net: Tom Espiner UK leads in Europe for Google data surveillance
France 24.com: Google ‘outs’ countries that demand data on web users
news.techwhack.com: Google launches GovernmentRequests tool
truthdig.com: Google’s ‘Government Requests’ Map Outs Nosy Feds
technewsworld.com: Katherine Noyes New Google Tool Exposes Government Pushing and Prying
techdailydose.nationaljournal.com: Juliana Gruenwald New Google Tool Highlights Data Removal Requests
I commend this path-breaking idea from Google. Now it must be put to good use by responsible civil society groups.
It is interesting that India stands third in the number of requests to block content and fourth in the number of requests for data.
Internet freedom is not complete without privacy.
But I am grateful for even this “free” scrap.
Till I put some money on this P III and net connection, the ruling class of India had believed it had consumed me with their toast.
Guardian UK has “disappeared” me. Withdrawn my posting privileges and scrubbed my earlier comments.
The Economist wobbles – sometimes scrapping my comments and at other times leaving them on.
bbc.co.uk has published my comment in one blog but would not publish them in the Indian blog.In a form letter they have conveyed their fear that they may be sued for “defamation” !!!!!
Have these eminences of the media seriously scrutinised my claims and found them inadequate ? Absolutely not.
But they do crumble with one phone call from the Prime Minister’s Office or someone else.
The Indian media’s poppadum panjandrums have said what I have said from the safety of their armchairs.
I am recounting my lived experience, with documentation.
Have I acted in the larger interest ? You be the judge.
Have they ?
Here’s my comment that appears to have rocked some stalwarts of the "free world"
As somebody who has conscientiously refused to do business the way it “normally” is in so called democratic societies – “Go along to get along” – I will not pay bribes – and who has been almost destroyed for my pains, I have come to believe that the Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh and his Congress party have been wishy washy, namby pamby, lackadaisical, mealy mouthed and covertly encouraging of corruption.
As long as the Eleventh Commandment – Thou Shalt Not Get Caught – was not broken, Dr Singh and his party could be relied upon to engage his considerable personal influence and the immense powers of his office to pour unction on roiling waters.
Faced with a eight day long furore and the cold fact of one of his brightest colleagues having been caught red handed, Dr Singh’s reported first response was, ” There are ups and downs in politics”.
Given such dissimulation from the Prime Minister Of India, a scholar with a reputation for probity, for those who stand up for the idea of the rule of law in India, there is only one long, unbroken “down”.
Twenty years ago – I had the privilege of having conceived, researched, scripted, edited, presented and produced a 37 minute Doordarshan commissioned documentary in Urdu,”Hyderabad. August 1948?, on the circumstances in which the 28 year old editor Shoebullah Khan of an Urdu newspaper, Imroose, was slaughtered, because of his open defiance of the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad.
The documentary was acclaimed nationally.
Historians of the calibre of Dr Bipan Chandra commended the meticulous research.
Freedom fighters expressed their gratitude that light had been shone on a chapter of history, which they believed had been obscured.
Among the most epiphanic reviews was the one by Dr Manmohan Singh’s former media adviser, currently editor of Business Standard and fellow Hyderabadi Dr Sanjaya Baru.
Under the informal chairmanship of Dr Abid Hussain, India’s former ambassador to the USA, I was able to organise a petition to the former Prime Minister Dr P V Narasimha Rao.
This resulted in a freedom fighter’s status and pension for the martyr’s wiidow, more than four decades after his supreme sacrifice.
However since the past two decades I have been hounded by the bureaucracy, with the Indian editorial class (with an occasional honourable exception)doing its bit to trivialise, denigrate and gag me.
My crime?
I have been outspoken – wrote an article in the editorial page of The Hindustan Times and The Pioneer- about corruption in Doordarshan – the Government’s so-called public service broadcaster.
Since the past two decades, the Government of India, the Government of my own state, Andhra Pradesh, the Andhra Pradesh High Court , the Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner have combined to impress on me that what works in India is what I have called the “patronage paradigm” – the paradigm of shoddiness, irresponsibility, cronyism and corruption” – and that ideas of the rule of law and democratic processes are merely spectacles to lull the gullible.
I have been denied the recognition that were commended to me by one former Chief Minister of my state, one former minister of home affairs, one speaker of the Lok Sabha, several prominent ministers of the central cabinet, eminent intellectuals and freedom fighters.
I have been unable to earn a decent living.
The office of the Governor of Andhra Pradesh incited my neighbors to cut off my water supply.
Wajahat Habibullah and C D Arha have conducted themselves as though the RTI Act 2005 does not exist.
The information commissions in the state and at the centre denied me my right to information on spurious, brazenly illegal grounds and punished me for daring to object.
The AP high court sought independent legal opinion on my plaint, which was completely and unequivocally in my favour, and a judge issued a notice, yet the AP High Court high court denied me my right to competent counsel – a right given to the 26/11 gunman – and punished me for complaining.
The Prime Minister’s Office appears to have jumped through hoops to heap honour on a businessman alleged to be a serial swindler.
In the same vein, it has and continues to illegally and fraudulently deny me the information I have sought and protect the miscreants who have stonewalled my pursuit of justice.
Rashtrapathi Bhavan, after repeated urgings from me, had issued notices to the Ministry of Law and the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh almost a year ago, presumably it has taken a prima facie view, but since then has been content to let matters fester.
In other words, even as we speak, Dr Manmohan Singh”s office, “Daredevil” Pratibha Patil’s Rashtrapati Bhavan, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, State Information Commissioner CD Arha are all locked in a most perverse and ignominious conspiracy of silence to deny me justice.
India’s editorial class always narcissistic has decayed and is useless.
Like the police in Hindi films, it arrives after all the action is over and then mouths “dialogue’.
Variations of this comment have appeared in almost every major Indian online publication plus in many abroad.
However, not a single editor or reporter has had the professionalism to pick it up and make it “impact”.
My credentials are strong and I have taken much trouble to meet many editors personally, usually on impeccable referrals.
Our “know-it-all-in -chiefs” have had nothing but smirks to offer.
When I sought the solidarity of the press, Shekhar Gupta (editor in chief of The Indian Express) advised me, “You cannot go around taking pangas (quarrels) with people, yaar.”
Even my comments are mutilated.
Vinod Mehta’s “Outlook” has banned my comments on risible grounds.
The Hindu crawled.
It published “spin” by corrupt officials and got hissy with me for pointing out, with evidence, its craven, yellow soul.
The Indian Press (with a solitary exception) blacked out the fervent open letter written by Padma Vibhushan Kaloji Narayana Rao.
That dear man , clear as a bell in his nineties, had laid his head on my shoulder, hugged me and wept.
What about “civil society” in India ?
Since close to a year now, I have written to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Campaign for Judicial Accountability And Reform, Forum For Judicial Accountability, MKSS (Aruna Roy)and Anna Hazare regarding this cascading delinquency of constitutional bodies in India.
There has not been one constructive response.
They all appear to be in helpless denial of the awful truth that an innocent citizen has been hounded and humiliated since two decades, not for any bad behaviour or wrongdoing, but for resisting the dilution of the values of the Indian constitution and standing up for the correct administration of the Right To Information Act 2005.
Please visit and participate at http://sathyagraha.blogspot.com
Andhra Pradesh High Court’s Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law .05/29/09
RTI Act 2005 Abuse In Andhra Pradesh- SIC Cheats! Chief Secretary Lies!05/07/09
Prejudiced CIC Laps Up PMO Lies 05/05/09
Compelling Criminality. Divakar S Natarajan and Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong ! 01/28/09
And India’s editorial class will not report the story!
Also Mad Dogs And Guardian UK
News and views from Divakar S Natarajan’s, “no excuses”, ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.
Now in its 18th year.
Any struggle against a predatory authority is humanity’s struggle to honour the gift of life.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
When Guardian UK succumbed to an alleged pedophile and 'disappeared' me.
The other day, Guardian UK, did something more befitting an apparatchik of a military junta.
It "disappeared' me.
After months of moderating and publishing my comments, it suddenly and without any notice or discussion, withdrew my posting privileges. It had also scrubbed all my previous comments.
Guardian UK's draconian action is in keeping with the moral sloppiness and copious hypocrisy of India's feudal editorial class.
In my personal experience, I have found that for India's infantile editorial class, wounded narcissism, "honour" is everything.
Social consciousness, professionalism, a concern for truth, mean little.
India's editorial class might preach dialogue with Pakistan and tenderness with left extremists, but it is when they encounter a soft target like yours truly, that you get to feel their repressed blood lust.
Like any group in the throes of power lust, India's editorial class will lie and connive to criminally abet witch-hunts,ostracism, deprivation and annihilation.
Yes.
In my experience, India's editorial class is just another bunch of slobs with English.
Life is tough and unpredictable,but that is no license to drink and drive.
Priests must minister and not violate their wards.
Teachers must make their students wonder and aspire, not help them cheat and pass.
Doctors must heal and not take bribes to create factories of disease.
And editors and administrators who make excuses for the violation of the idea of the rule of law must be disabused of their pretensions and cleaned out like the the trash they are.
Fortunately, I have been blessed with a loving character. Often I have been able to create ease from disease. I will not give up this gift for anything.
And that is why, despite the fact that I have not made a paisa in profit, and very, very little income in the last twenty years, I have had it with this rabid riffraff.
This is what I wrote to the Reader's editor of the Guardian UK (April 1,2010):
Dear Ms Butterworth,
I am shocked and upset that my commenting privilege has been suddenly withdrawn.
Guardian.co.uk has since months moderated and published my comments.
It has now withdrawn my privilege without any notice or explanation.
I believe I have been extraordinarily considerate and respectful of the various authorities against whom I have voiced my complaint when I have directly dealt with them.
I have spent months and in some cases years communicating with them.
Equally, their arrogant, inhuman and unprofessional - narcissistic is my description - response has staggered me and left me bereft.
It was clear that they were not very concerned about their reputations at that time.
I stand by every word and have conscientiously substantiated with documentation most of the comments in my blog, whose address I have always provided in my comments.
May I also bring to your kind attention the fact that I am an individual citizen, unsupported in any way by any government, religious body, special interest society or any other organisation,
Keeping in mind, the tremendously unfair conduct to which I have been subjected to by the authorities and others in India, and the fact that they have not in way responded responsibly yet, it is but natural that I would be forced to repeatedly post the same message.
This may please not be confused with "spam".
I am reaching out to make some good, sturdy minded friends.And I am very receptive to constructive input.
I request Guardian.co.uk to respect my intentions and efforts, restore my commenting privilege and support me in any other way that it sees fit.
Sincerely,
Guardian UK replied (April 1, 2010):
Divakar - here is the note we send to readers raising queries about
moderation of their comments. It explains that moderation is largely
outside the realm of the readers' editor, and outlines where to go to look
for answers about moderation.
The readers’ editor deals primarily with complaints about content
commissioned and published by the Guardian and/or written by Guardian
journalists. She does not usually deal with complaints about the way
moderators have responded to comments posted online, although she may do so
in exceptional cases. Several thousand comments are posted on the website
every day and it is not feasible for her to get involved, routinely, in
complaints about the way individual comments are moderated.
If you are wondering why your post has been deleted or has not been
published you should first consult the Community standards and
participation guidelines to see whether your comment has breached its
provisions:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/community-standards
You may also find these FAQs about posting comments and moderation helpful:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/community-faqs
Any complaints about the removal of comments or the suspension of posting
rights should be sent to the moderators at cif.moderation@guardian.co.uk or
community.suggestions@guardian.co.uk (as appropriate). The moderators
operate a two-stage procedure for such complaints. If you are unhappy with
the moderator’s response to your complaint you may use the same email
address to ask for the decision to be reviewed by a second moderator.
General comments about moderation should be sent to this email address:
community.suggestions@guardian.co.uk
Unfortunately the moderators cannot respond to every email but they say
that all emails are reviewed.
best wishes
Helen Hodgson
Assistant Readers' editor, the Guardian
I wrote back:
Helen,
Thank you for your prompt reply. I shall go where you sent me.
Sincerely,
divakar
And wrote again (April 7, 2010):
Helen,
I have not yet heard from cif.moderation@guardian.co.uk and I am beginning to wonder about the strange and obscure professional ethics of The Guardian.
From where I sit, things do not look very good for your venerable publication.
But I am willing to, at further risk to my and my family's personal safety willing to hold out for another day, before I make my next move.
Please help.
Sincerely,
divakar
Guardian wrote back (April 7, 2010):
Dear User,
I have been forwarded your message about moderation. Please could you send me your username so that I can help find out why your posting privileges have been removed.
Thanks,
Isabella.
I replied to her and Ms Hodgson (April 7, 2010):
Thank you Helen. Isabelle Mackie has emailed me. I have replied.Thank you once again.
Sincerely,
divakar
And finally (April 14, 2010):
Helen:
It is now a week since I appealed and despite my reminder to Ms Mackie, I have not heard from her or anyone else.
Sincerely,
--
divakar
Divakar - I'm afraid the office of the Readers' editor cannot help you with
this. Please address your concerns to the moderators as previously
advised.
best wishes
Helen Hodgson
Assistant Readers' editor
And that has been that.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The IPL Fiasco & Dr Manmohan Singh's Penchant For Purgatory
Versions of the following comment have appeared in :
Reuters.com: Krittivas Mukherjee Cricket row lands India reformist minister in trouble
Telegraph.co.uk: Ayaz Memon IPL 2010: Lalit Modi's Twitter controversy is no surprise
Telegraph.co.uk: Ayaz Memon IPL 2010: Kochi controversy shows action not limited to the pitch
The Independent: Andrew Buncombe India's tweeting cricket boss hits minister for six
The Independent: Andrew Buncombe How Twitter attack brought down the most popular tweeter in India
online Wall Street Journal.com: Tripti Lahiri India's Junior Foreign-Affairs Minister Resigns
blogs Wall Street Journal.com: Rupa Subrahmanya Dahejia India Journal: An Inconvenient Truth About Corruption
Newsweek: Samanth Subramaniam India’s Next Big Thing
SF Gate: Indian Cricket Chiefs to Meet Next Week on Franchise Scandal
M J Akbar is reported to have “insightfully” observed,”They went to war through the media…A veteran would have told them, had they but asked, that children in glasshouse nurseries shouldn’t throw stones.”
I have always puzzled that the popadum panjandrums of India’s media are always blaming those who seek recourse to the media for the expression of their views.
What’s wrong with that in a putative democracy ?
Also everybody knows in the subcontinent, nothing happens without “band baja”
I blog, Modi and Tharoor tweet, and our more forceful neighbours in Pakistan fire off their AK 47s and their IEDs.
M J Akbar is too coy to speak the truth about India’s ruling class.
And the truth is that Dr Manmohan Singh and his Congress party have been wishy washy, namby pamby, lackadaisical, mealy mouthed and covertly encouraging of corruption.
As long as the Eleventh Commandment – Thou Shalt Not Get Caught – was not broken, Dr Singh and his party could be relied upon to engage his considerable personal influence and the immense powers of his office to pour unction on roiling waters.
Faced with a eight day long furore and the cold fact of one of his brightest colleagues having been caught red handed, Dr Singh’s reported first response was, ” There are ups and downs in politics”.
Given such dissimulation from the Prime Minister Of India, a scholar with a reputation for probity, for those who stand up for the idea of the rule of law in India, there is only one long, unbroken “down”.
Till date nobody knows for sure whether Shri Tharoor has been fired for corruption or has merely had his Blackberry temporarily taken away from him.
In other words India is so mired in corruption, that it is for all practical purposes an administrative basket case.
Yesterday it was Satyam, today IPL, tomorrow what ?
It is in the context of Dr Manmohan Singh’s indecisiveness and the leading political parties’ ambivalence on the idea of the rule of law in India, that the following recounting of the most perverse injustice may be seen:
Twenty years ago – I had the privilege of having conceived, researched, scripted, edited, presented and produced a 37 minute Doordarshan commissioned documentary in Urdu,”Hyderabad. August 1948″, on the circumstances in which the 28 year old editor Shoebullah Khan of an Urdu newspaper, Imroose, was slaughtered, because of his open defiance of the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad.
The documentary was acclaimed nationally.
Historians of the calibre of Dr Bipan Chandra commended the meticulous research.
Freedom fighters expressed their gratitude that light had been shone on a chapter of history, which they believed had been obscured.
Among the most epiphanic reviews was the one by Dr Manmohan Singh’s former media adviser, currently editor of Business Standard and fellow Hyderabadi Dr Sanjaya Baru.
Under the informal chairmanship of Dr Abid Hussain, India’s former ambassador to the USA, I was able to organise a petition to the former Prime Minister Dr P V Narasimha Rao.
This resulted in a freedom fighter’s status and pension for the martyr’s wiidow, more than four decades after his supreme sacrifice.
However since the past two decades I have been hounded by the bureaucracy, with the Indian editorial class (with an occasional honourable exception)doing its bit to trivialise, denigrate and gag me.
My crime?
I have been outspoken – wrote an article in the editorial page of The Hindustan Times and The Pioneer- about corruption in Doordarshan – the Government’s so-called public service broadcaster.
Since the past two decades, the Government of India, the Government of my own state, Andhra Pradesh, the Andhra Pradesh High Court , the Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner have combined to impress on me that what works in India is what I have called the “patronage paradigm” – the paradigm of shoddiness, irresponsibility, cronyism and corruption” – and that ideas of the rule of law and democratic processes are merely spectacles to lull the gullible.
I have been denied the recognition that were commended to me by one former Chief Minister of my state, one former minister of home affairs, one speaker of the Lok Sabha, several prominent ministers of the central cabinet, eminent intellectuals and freedom fighters.
I have been unable to earn a decent living.
The office of the Governor of Andhra Pradesh incited my neighbors to cut off my water supply.
Wajahat Habibullah and C D Arha have conducted themselves as though the RTI Act 2005 does not exist.
The information commissions in the state and at the centre denied me my right to information on spurious, brazenly illegal grounds and punished me for daring to object.
The AP high court sought independent legal opinion on my plaint, which was completely and unequivocally in my favour, and a judge issued a notice, yet the AP High Court high court denied me my right to competent counsel – a right given to the 26/11 gunman – and punished me for complaining.
The Prime Minister’s Office appears to have jumped through hoops to heap honour on a businessman alleged to be a serial swindler.
In the same vein, it has and continues to illegally and fraudulently deny me the information I have sought.
Rashtrapathi Bhavan had issued notices to the Ministry of Law and the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh almost a year ago, presumably it has taken a prima facie view, but since then has been content to let matters fester in limbo.
In other words, even as we speak, Dr Manmohan Singh”s office, “Daredevil” Pratibha Patil’s Rashtrapati Bhavan, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, State Information Commissioner CD Arha are all locked in a most perverse and ignominious conspiracy of silence to deny me justice.
India’s editorial class always narcissistic has decayed and is useless.
Variations of this comment have appeared in almost every major Indian online publication plus in many abroad.
However, not a single editor or reporter has had the professionalism to pick it up and make it “impact”.
My credentials are strong and I have taken much trouble to meet many editors personally, usually on impeccable referrals.
Our “know-it-all-in -chiefs” have had nothing but smirks to offer.
When I sought the solidarity of the press, Shekhar Gupta (editor in chief of The Indian Express) advised me, “You cannot go around taking pangas (quarrels) with people, yaar.”
Even my comments are mutilated.
Vinod Mehta’s “Outlook” has banned my comments on risible grounds.
The Hindu crawled.
It published “spin” by corrupt officials and got hissy with me for pointing out, with evidence, its craven, yellow soul.
The Indian Press (with a solitary exception) blacked out the fervent open letter written by Padma Vibhushan Kaloji Narayana Rao.
That dear man , clear as a bell in his nineties, had laid his head on my shoulder, hugged me and wept.
What about “civil society” in India ?
Since close to a year now, I have written to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Campaign for Judicial Accountability And Reform, Forum For Judicial Accountability, MKSS (Aruna Roy)and Anna Hazare regarding this cascading delinquency of constitutional bodies in India.
There has not been one constructive response.
They all appear to be in helpless denial of the awful truth that an innocent citizen has been hounded and humiliated since two decades, not for any bad behaviour or wrongdoing, but for resisting the dilution of the values of the Indian constitution and standing up for the correct administration of the Right To Information Act 2005.
Please visit and participate at http://sathyagraha.blogspot.com/ :
Andhra Pradesh High Court’s Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law .05/29/09
RTI Act 2005 Abuse In Andhra Pradesh- SIC Cheats! Chief Secretary Lies!05/07/09
Prejudiced CIC Laps Up PMO Lies 05/05/09
Compelling Criminality. Divakar S Natarajan and Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong ! 01/28/09
And India’s editorial class will not report the story!
News and views from Divakar S Natarajan’s, “no excuses”, ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.
Now in its 18th year.
Any struggle against a predatory authority is humanity’s struggle to honour the gift of life.
Reuters.com: Krittivas Mukherjee Cricket row lands India reformist minister in trouble
Telegraph.co.uk: Ayaz Memon IPL 2010: Lalit Modi's Twitter controversy is no surprise
Telegraph.co.uk: Ayaz Memon IPL 2010: Kochi controversy shows action not limited to the pitch
The Independent: Andrew Buncombe India's tweeting cricket boss hits minister for six
The Independent: Andrew Buncombe How Twitter attack brought down the most popular tweeter in India
online Wall Street Journal.com: Tripti Lahiri India's Junior Foreign-Affairs Minister Resigns
blogs Wall Street Journal.com: Rupa Subrahmanya Dahejia India Journal: An Inconvenient Truth About Corruption
Newsweek: Samanth Subramaniam India’s Next Big Thing
SF Gate: Indian Cricket Chiefs to Meet Next Week on Franchise Scandal
M J Akbar is reported to have “insightfully” observed,”They went to war through the media…A veteran would have told them, had they but asked, that children in glasshouse nurseries shouldn’t throw stones.”
I have always puzzled that the popadum panjandrums of India’s media are always blaming those who seek recourse to the media for the expression of their views.
What’s wrong with that in a putative democracy ?
Also everybody knows in the subcontinent, nothing happens without “band baja”
I blog, Modi and Tharoor tweet, and our more forceful neighbours in Pakistan fire off their AK 47s and their IEDs.
M J Akbar is too coy to speak the truth about India’s ruling class.
And the truth is that Dr Manmohan Singh and his Congress party have been wishy washy, namby pamby, lackadaisical, mealy mouthed and covertly encouraging of corruption.
As long as the Eleventh Commandment – Thou Shalt Not Get Caught – was not broken, Dr Singh and his party could be relied upon to engage his considerable personal influence and the immense powers of his office to pour unction on roiling waters.
Faced with a eight day long furore and the cold fact of one of his brightest colleagues having been caught red handed, Dr Singh’s reported first response was, ” There are ups and downs in politics”.
Given such dissimulation from the Prime Minister Of India, a scholar with a reputation for probity, for those who stand up for the idea of the rule of law in India, there is only one long, unbroken “down”.
Till date nobody knows for sure whether Shri Tharoor has been fired for corruption or has merely had his Blackberry temporarily taken away from him.
In other words India is so mired in corruption, that it is for all practical purposes an administrative basket case.
Yesterday it was Satyam, today IPL, tomorrow what ?
It is in the context of Dr Manmohan Singh’s indecisiveness and the leading political parties’ ambivalence on the idea of the rule of law in India, that the following recounting of the most perverse injustice may be seen:
Twenty years ago – I had the privilege of having conceived, researched, scripted, edited, presented and produced a 37 minute Doordarshan commissioned documentary in Urdu,”Hyderabad. August 1948″, on the circumstances in which the 28 year old editor Shoebullah Khan of an Urdu newspaper, Imroose, was slaughtered, because of his open defiance of the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad.
The documentary was acclaimed nationally.
Historians of the calibre of Dr Bipan Chandra commended the meticulous research.
Freedom fighters expressed their gratitude that light had been shone on a chapter of history, which they believed had been obscured.
Among the most epiphanic reviews was the one by Dr Manmohan Singh’s former media adviser, currently editor of Business Standard and fellow Hyderabadi Dr Sanjaya Baru.
Under the informal chairmanship of Dr Abid Hussain, India’s former ambassador to the USA, I was able to organise a petition to the former Prime Minister Dr P V Narasimha Rao.
This resulted in a freedom fighter’s status and pension for the martyr’s wiidow, more than four decades after his supreme sacrifice.
However since the past two decades I have been hounded by the bureaucracy, with the Indian editorial class (with an occasional honourable exception)doing its bit to trivialise, denigrate and gag me.
My crime?
I have been outspoken – wrote an article in the editorial page of The Hindustan Times and The Pioneer- about corruption in Doordarshan – the Government’s so-called public service broadcaster.
Since the past two decades, the Government of India, the Government of my own state, Andhra Pradesh, the Andhra Pradesh High Court , the Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner have combined to impress on me that what works in India is what I have called the “patronage paradigm” – the paradigm of shoddiness, irresponsibility, cronyism and corruption” – and that ideas of the rule of law and democratic processes are merely spectacles to lull the gullible.
I have been denied the recognition that were commended to me by one former Chief Minister of my state, one former minister of home affairs, one speaker of the Lok Sabha, several prominent ministers of the central cabinet, eminent intellectuals and freedom fighters.
I have been unable to earn a decent living.
The office of the Governor of Andhra Pradesh incited my neighbors to cut off my water supply.
Wajahat Habibullah and C D Arha have conducted themselves as though the RTI Act 2005 does not exist.
The information commissions in the state and at the centre denied me my right to information on spurious, brazenly illegal grounds and punished me for daring to object.
The AP high court sought independent legal opinion on my plaint, which was completely and unequivocally in my favour, and a judge issued a notice, yet the AP High Court high court denied me my right to competent counsel – a right given to the 26/11 gunman – and punished me for complaining.
The Prime Minister’s Office appears to have jumped through hoops to heap honour on a businessman alleged to be a serial swindler.
In the same vein, it has and continues to illegally and fraudulently deny me the information I have sought.
Rashtrapathi Bhavan had issued notices to the Ministry of Law and the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh almost a year ago, presumably it has taken a prima facie view, but since then has been content to let matters fester in limbo.
In other words, even as we speak, Dr Manmohan Singh”s office, “Daredevil” Pratibha Patil’s Rashtrapati Bhavan, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, State Information Commissioner CD Arha are all locked in a most perverse and ignominious conspiracy of silence to deny me justice.
India’s editorial class always narcissistic has decayed and is useless.
Variations of this comment have appeared in almost every major Indian online publication plus in many abroad.
However, not a single editor or reporter has had the professionalism to pick it up and make it “impact”.
My credentials are strong and I have taken much trouble to meet many editors personally, usually on impeccable referrals.
Our “know-it-all-in -chiefs” have had nothing but smirks to offer.
When I sought the solidarity of the press, Shekhar Gupta (editor in chief of The Indian Express) advised me, “You cannot go around taking pangas (quarrels) with people, yaar.”
Even my comments are mutilated.
Vinod Mehta’s “Outlook” has banned my comments on risible grounds.
The Hindu crawled.
It published “spin” by corrupt officials and got hissy with me for pointing out, with evidence, its craven, yellow soul.
The Indian Press (with a solitary exception) blacked out the fervent open letter written by Padma Vibhushan Kaloji Narayana Rao.
That dear man , clear as a bell in his nineties, had laid his head on my shoulder, hugged me and wept.
What about “civil society” in India ?
Since close to a year now, I have written to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Campaign for Judicial Accountability And Reform, Forum For Judicial Accountability, MKSS (Aruna Roy)and Anna Hazare regarding this cascading delinquency of constitutional bodies in India.
There has not been one constructive response.
They all appear to be in helpless denial of the awful truth that an innocent citizen has been hounded and humiliated since two decades, not for any bad behaviour or wrongdoing, but for resisting the dilution of the values of the Indian constitution and standing up for the correct administration of the Right To Information Act 2005.
Please visit and participate at http://sathyagraha.blogspot.com/ :
Andhra Pradesh High Court’s Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law .05/29/09
RTI Act 2005 Abuse In Andhra Pradesh- SIC Cheats! Chief Secretary Lies!05/07/09
Prejudiced CIC Laps Up PMO Lies 05/05/09
Compelling Criminality. Divakar S Natarajan and Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong ! 01/28/09
And India’s editorial class will not report the story!
News and views from Divakar S Natarajan’s, “no excuses”, ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.
Now in its 18th year.
Any struggle against a predatory authority is humanity’s struggle to honour the gift of life.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Grieving For The Bloodbath Of The Innocents
The following comment appeared in The Economist: Politics with bloodshed -
A slaughter reveals the inadequacy of India’s counterinsurgency effort
divakarssathya wrote:
Apr 9th 2010 3:06 GMT
As somebody who has conscientiously refused to do business the way it “normally” is in so called democratic societies - “Go along to get along” - I will not pay bribes - and who has been almost destroyed for my pains, I grieve for the this and other bloodbaths that might follow.
An avoidable fiasco of this and various other kinds that splatter over the local television screens everyday reinforce the apprehension that despite the fantastic growth figures, India is fast deteriorating into an administrative nightmare and a bit of a basket case.
Readers are aware that for several years, I have been banging at the doors of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and the Prime Minister's Office, demanding that they step in and do all within their powers to bring accountability to the cascading delinquency of constitutional authorities that I have documented.
Unfortunately, both these august offices have not yet stirred.
They have demonstrated that they do not value life.
Their 'pontifical' silence demonstrates without any doubt, that they are too mired in perversity to care about the public weal.
Much more than the Vatican, Rashtrapathi Bhavan and Prime Minister's Office appear to be able only to blame the complainant and protect the offender.
In such a situation where the psychosis and necrophilia of the ruling classes are relieved only by the perennial Bollywood and IPL excitements, calamities, catastrophes and the bloodbath of innocents, appear preordained and inevitable.
A slaughter reveals the inadequacy of India’s counterinsurgency effort
divakarssathya wrote:
Apr 9th 2010 3:06 GMT
As somebody who has conscientiously refused to do business the way it “normally” is in so called democratic societies - “Go along to get along” - I will not pay bribes - and who has been almost destroyed for my pains, I grieve for the this and other bloodbaths that might follow.
An avoidable fiasco of this and various other kinds that splatter over the local television screens everyday reinforce the apprehension that despite the fantastic growth figures, India is fast deteriorating into an administrative nightmare and a bit of a basket case.
Readers are aware that for several years, I have been banging at the doors of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and the Prime Minister's Office, demanding that they step in and do all within their powers to bring accountability to the cascading delinquency of constitutional authorities that I have documented.
Unfortunately, both these august offices have not yet stirred.
They have demonstrated that they do not value life.
Their 'pontifical' silence demonstrates without any doubt, that they are too mired in perversity to care about the public weal.
Much more than the Vatican, Rashtrapathi Bhavan and Prime Minister's Office appear to be able only to blame the complainant and protect the offender.
In such a situation where the psychosis and necrophilia of the ruling classes are relieved only by the perennial Bollywood and IPL excitements, calamities, catastrophes and the bloodbath of innocents, appear preordained and inevitable.
Democratic India's Dodgy Media - The Hindu's Modus Operandi Revealed
Boot-lick the powerful and ambitious Roman Catholic Church.
Bully the local khat panchayat.
The following comment was published in: The Economist: The Vatican's travails When walls are too high
divakarssathya wrote:
Apr 9th 2010 3:51 GMT
Finally after years of careless silence, The Hindu finally bestirred itself to write a second editorial on this horrendous issue of pedophilia and systematic cover up in the RCC.
In another disturbing show of the Indian media's small mindedness and self hatred, the editorial stayed well within the safe boundary of recycling the well worn foreign criticisms of the RCC.
Not one word on what this might mean to the children and the RCC institutions in India!
To the best of my knowledge, there is very little from the vernacular media - especially television.
What an outrageous betrayal of India's health and future !
India's ruling classes are given to believe that sado masochism or the boot-licking/bullying thought and behaviour is a secret legacy of our ancient wisdom.
After its careful and tender licking of the RCC boots, The Hindu thundered on about a tiny so called "khap" panchayat from an India state.
From where I sit, this is yet another glimpse of a nauseating lack of self awareness by India's self celebratory ruling classes.
In my experience that I have documented, it is India's editorial classes colluding with the rhino hided babucracy, that are the truly barbaric panchayats that are the crushing burdens of India today.
With such a dodgy and deluded Indian media and authority, who needs the alleged 10 yuan armies ?
Recommend (3)
divakarssathya wrote:
Apr 9th 2010 3:16 GMT
Earlier I had written:
India is crisscrossed by schools and other institutions run by Jesuits.
Yet thanks to India’s dodgy editorial class very few in India know that the Vatican has paid out close to a hundred million dollars to compensate for victims of child sexual abuse by albeit “a small minority” of priests.
The Indian media has barely reported that story.
Was the media’s heinous silence an act of concern for Indian children or a hideously wrongheaded act of leaving well enough alone ?
Abuse of power often happens in plain sight, since to the busy and self absorbed lay person, the powerful appear glamorous and formidable and their prey appear to be rebellious, despicable and in many ways, asking for it.
As somebody who has conscientiously refused to do business the way it “normally” is in so called democratic societies - I will not pay bribes - and who has been almost destroyed for my pains, I am able to feel deep appreciation for the heroes who spoke out and for those who heard them, felt outrage and who together managed to extract a measure of accountability from one of the most powerful and ambitious organisations on this planet.
Since the past two decades, the Government of India, the Government of my own state, Andhra Pradesh, the Andhra Pradesh High Court , the Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner have combined to impress on me that what works in India is what I have called the “patronage paradigm” – the paradigm of shoddiness, irresponsibility, cronyism and corruption” – and that ideas of the rule of law and democratic processes are merely spectacles to lull the gullible.
I have been denied the recognition that were commended to me by one former Chief Minister of my state, one former minister of home affairs, one speaker of the Lok Sabha, several prominent ministers of the central cabinet, eminent intellectuals and freedom fighters.
I have been unable to earn a decent living.
The office of the Governor of Andhra Pradesh incited my neighbours to cut off my water supply.
The information commissions in the state and at the centre denied me my right to information on spurious, brazenly illegal grounds and punished me for daring to object.
The high court denied me my right to competent counsel and punished me for complaining.
Even as we speak, Dr Manmohan Singh”s office, “Daredevil” Pratibha Patil’s Rashtrapati Bhavan, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, State Information Commissioner CD Arha are all locked in a most perverse and ignominious conspiracy of silence to deny me justice.
Even as the Prime Minister’s Office maintains a guilty silence in my case, it appears to have jumped through hoops to heap honour on a businessman alleged to be a serial swindler.
India’s editorial class is as dense, amoral and narcissistic.
Variations of this comment have appeared in almost every major Indian online publication plus in a few abroad.
However, not a single editor or reporter has had the professionalism to pick it up and make it “impact”.
My credentials are strong and I have taken much trouble to meet many editors personally, usually on impeccable referrals.
Our “know-it-all-in -chiefs” have had nothing but smirks to offer.
When I sought the solidarity of the press, Shekhar Gupta (editor in chief of New Indian Express) advised me, “You cannot go around taking pangas (quarrels) with people, yaar.”
Even my comments are mutilated.
Vinod Mehta’s “Outlook” has banned my comments on risible grounds.
The Hindu crawled.
It published “spin” by corrupt officials and got hissy with me for pointing out, with evidence, its craven, yellow soul.
The Indian Press (with a solitary exception) blacked out the fervent open letter written by Padma Vibhushan Kaloji Narayana Rao.
That dear man , clear as a bell in his nineties, had laid his head on my shoulder, hugged me and wept.
Recommend (4)
divakarssathya wrote:
Apr 9th 2010 3:15 GMT
What about “civil society” in India ?
Since close to a year now, I have written to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Campaign for Judicial Accountability And Reform, Forum For Judicial Accountability, MKSS (Aruna Roy)and Anna Hazare regarding this cascading delinquency of constitutional bodies in India.
There has not been one constructive response.
They all appear to be in helpless denial of the awful truth that an innocent citizen has been hounded and humiliated since two decades, not for any bad behaviour or wrongdoing, but for resisting the dilution of the values of the Indian constitution and standing up for the correct administration of the Right To Information Act 2005.
Please visit and participate at http://sathyagraha.blogspot.com/ :
Andhra Pradesh High Court’s Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law .05/29/09
RTI Act 2005 Abuse In Andhra Pradesh- SIC Cheats! Chief Secretary Lies!05/07/09
Prejudiced CIC Laps Up PMO Lies 05/05/09
Compelling Criminality. Divakar S Natarajan and Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong ! 01/28/09
And India’s editorial class will not report the story!
News and views from Divakar S Natarajan’s, “no excuses”, ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.
Now in its 18th year.
Any struggle against a predatory authority is humanity’s struggle to honour the gift of life.
Recommend (4)
Bully the local khat panchayat.
The following comment was published in: The Economist: The Vatican's travails When walls are too high
divakarssathya wrote:
Apr 9th 2010 3:51 GMT
Finally after years of careless silence, The Hindu finally bestirred itself to write a second editorial on this horrendous issue of pedophilia and systematic cover up in the RCC.
In another disturbing show of the Indian media's small mindedness and self hatred, the editorial stayed well within the safe boundary of recycling the well worn foreign criticisms of the RCC.
Not one word on what this might mean to the children and the RCC institutions in India!
To the best of my knowledge, there is very little from the vernacular media - especially television.
What an outrageous betrayal of India's health and future !
India's ruling classes are given to believe that sado masochism or the boot-licking/bullying thought and behaviour is a secret legacy of our ancient wisdom.
After its careful and tender licking of the RCC boots, The Hindu thundered on about a tiny so called "khap" panchayat from an India state.
From where I sit, this is yet another glimpse of a nauseating lack of self awareness by India's self celebratory ruling classes.
In my experience that I have documented, it is India's editorial classes colluding with the rhino hided babucracy, that are the truly barbaric panchayats that are the crushing burdens of India today.
With such a dodgy and deluded Indian media and authority, who needs the alleged 10 yuan armies ?
Recommend (3)
divakarssathya wrote:
Apr 9th 2010 3:16 GMT
Earlier I had written:
India is crisscrossed by schools and other institutions run by Jesuits.
Yet thanks to India’s dodgy editorial class very few in India know that the Vatican has paid out close to a hundred million dollars to compensate for victims of child sexual abuse by albeit “a small minority” of priests.
The Indian media has barely reported that story.
Was the media’s heinous silence an act of concern for Indian children or a hideously wrongheaded act of leaving well enough alone ?
Abuse of power often happens in plain sight, since to the busy and self absorbed lay person, the powerful appear glamorous and formidable and their prey appear to be rebellious, despicable and in many ways, asking for it.
As somebody who has conscientiously refused to do business the way it “normally” is in so called democratic societies - I will not pay bribes - and who has been almost destroyed for my pains, I am able to feel deep appreciation for the heroes who spoke out and for those who heard them, felt outrage and who together managed to extract a measure of accountability from one of the most powerful and ambitious organisations on this planet.
Since the past two decades, the Government of India, the Government of my own state, Andhra Pradesh, the Andhra Pradesh High Court , the Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner have combined to impress on me that what works in India is what I have called the “patronage paradigm” – the paradigm of shoddiness, irresponsibility, cronyism and corruption” – and that ideas of the rule of law and democratic processes are merely spectacles to lull the gullible.
I have been denied the recognition that were commended to me by one former Chief Minister of my state, one former minister of home affairs, one speaker of the Lok Sabha, several prominent ministers of the central cabinet, eminent intellectuals and freedom fighters.
I have been unable to earn a decent living.
The office of the Governor of Andhra Pradesh incited my neighbours to cut off my water supply.
The information commissions in the state and at the centre denied me my right to information on spurious, brazenly illegal grounds and punished me for daring to object.
The high court denied me my right to competent counsel and punished me for complaining.
Even as we speak, Dr Manmohan Singh”s office, “Daredevil” Pratibha Patil’s Rashtrapati Bhavan, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, State Information Commissioner CD Arha are all locked in a most perverse and ignominious conspiracy of silence to deny me justice.
Even as the Prime Minister’s Office maintains a guilty silence in my case, it appears to have jumped through hoops to heap honour on a businessman alleged to be a serial swindler.
India’s editorial class is as dense, amoral and narcissistic.
Variations of this comment have appeared in almost every major Indian online publication plus in a few abroad.
However, not a single editor or reporter has had the professionalism to pick it up and make it “impact”.
My credentials are strong and I have taken much trouble to meet many editors personally, usually on impeccable referrals.
Our “know-it-all-in -chiefs” have had nothing but smirks to offer.
When I sought the solidarity of the press, Shekhar Gupta (editor in chief of New Indian Express) advised me, “You cannot go around taking pangas (quarrels) with people, yaar.”
Even my comments are mutilated.
Vinod Mehta’s “Outlook” has banned my comments on risible grounds.
The Hindu crawled.
It published “spin” by corrupt officials and got hissy with me for pointing out, with evidence, its craven, yellow soul.
The Indian Press (with a solitary exception) blacked out the fervent open letter written by Padma Vibhushan Kaloji Narayana Rao.
That dear man , clear as a bell in his nineties, had laid his head on my shoulder, hugged me and wept.
Recommend (4)
divakarssathya wrote:
Apr 9th 2010 3:15 GMT
What about “civil society” in India ?
Since close to a year now, I have written to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Campaign for Judicial Accountability And Reform, Forum For Judicial Accountability, MKSS (Aruna Roy)and Anna Hazare regarding this cascading delinquency of constitutional bodies in India.
There has not been one constructive response.
They all appear to be in helpless denial of the awful truth that an innocent citizen has been hounded and humiliated since two decades, not for any bad behaviour or wrongdoing, but for resisting the dilution of the values of the Indian constitution and standing up for the correct administration of the Right To Information Act 2005.
Please visit and participate at http://sathyagraha.blogspot.com/ :
Andhra Pradesh High Court’s Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law .05/29/09
RTI Act 2005 Abuse In Andhra Pradesh- SIC Cheats! Chief Secretary Lies!05/07/09
Prejudiced CIC Laps Up PMO Lies 05/05/09
Compelling Criminality. Divakar S Natarajan and Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong ! 01/28/09
And India’s editorial class will not report the story!
News and views from Divakar S Natarajan’s, “no excuses”, ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.
Now in its 18th year.
Any struggle against a predatory authority is humanity’s struggle to honour the gift of life.
Recommend (4)
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