WELFARE PARTY, CAN IT SURVIVE IN KARNATAKA?

By CJ Khaja Pasha in Bangalore

Near Modi Masjid at Indian Express road take a few turns and before you reach the Welfare Party of India (WPI) Karnataka state office. Located in a residential building, when one gets inside, it nothing but resemble a well-designed corporate office where state leadership in the press hall were busy in taking interviews of candidates who wish to contest election on party’s ticket.

WPI Karnataka state unit is just a year old but seem enthusiastic with the hope of making a mark in a state where corruption rule the roots of the politics.

WPI, formed as anational political party in 2011 was launched by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in Delhi. It claims of striving towards alternate politics and hopes to achieve it by inculcating moral values in political system. According to WPI the criminalization, communalization, commercialization and the sectarianization of politics are the biggest evils prevailing in Indian political culture, which WPI hopes to eradicate by propagating ‘value-based politics’.

A 'STRONG MESSAGE' FROM PEOPLE OF KARNATAKA

By Srivatsa Krishna (Guest Writer)

The new government must realise that they will not tolerate corruption and poor governance. BJP has found its way to electoral damnation in Karnataka by shooting itself in the head, and Congress to a convincing victory. The results throw up a few key lessons worth exploring; they also underscore the new government’s priorities in terms of good governance as against just mouthing motherhood platitudes, or worse still, squandering taxpayers’ money in motherhood expenditures. 
    
First, a deadly combination of visible, almost publicly touted corruption, discernible maladministration and infighting drove the nails into the incumbent’s coffin.

DOES KARNATAKA REALLY CARE ABOUT THE CORRUPT?

By M H Ahssan / Bangalore

As Karnataka sets out to vote on Sunday, May 5, 2013, one cannot help but feel that this has been an election of ifs and buts. The biggest ‘If’ of them all being, what if BS Yeddyurappa had stayed back in the BJP. The support base for the ruling party on social media would have us believe that it would have been a cakewalk for the BJP then, as the only reason why it will lose this election is because Yeddyurappa is playing an angry spoiler.

TIME FOR A REVIVAL IN KARNATAKA FOR CONGRESS

By M H Ahssan / Bangalore

“The BJP will lose here. We can hear it in Delhi,” said Rahul Gandhi at his election meeting in  Sindhanoor in Raichur district of Karnataka. If he travelled enough through Karnataka, he would also  get to hear the rumblings within his Congress camp that threaten to turn a winning march into a less  than a simple majority status.

On the face of it, the Congress is poised to make the most of the disappointment with the way BJP  governed Karnataka in the last five years. Most opinion polls have predicted a Congress victory in the  state that in 2008 was celebrated as BJP’s gateway to the south.

WAS MODI'S FLOP SHOW ROUTED BJP IN KARNATAKA?

By M H Ahssan / Bangalore

For all inveterate Narendra Modi worshippers, the Karnataka election results should be a shocker. The man with the magic wand has failed to deliver in a state where the party required a miracle most. After all here’s a man who is supposed to have phenomenal following among the middle class, the youth and in urban India. He lords over social media and draws passionate support like not even film stars do. And yes, he, some would vouch, talks the new language of politics – growth, development, governance and what not.

'ALL EYES ON KARNATAKA POLLS TODAY'

By M H Ahssan / Bangalore

As Karnataka goes to the polls today to elect a new Assembly, the incumbent BJP, which was staring at a crushing defeat, is counting on a late burst, inspired by Narendra Modi‘s brief but full-throated campaign, to make it a close-enough race to deny the Congress an outright victory.

Pre-poll surveys conducted a month ago, when the candidates’ lists had not been finalised, pointed to a thumping victory for the Congress, but more recent surveys, particularly those undertaken after Modi’s whistle-stop tour of Karnataka, indicate a tightening of the race.

A 'LAST HURRAH' FOR DEVE GOWDA'S ACTIVE POLITICS?

By Sangamesh Gowda / Bangalore

When he was Prime Minister of India, HD Deve Gowda was accused of behaving like the Prime Minister of Karnataka, given his penchant of breathing down the neck of his successor in the chief minister’s chair, the late JH Patel. Sixteen years after he was forced out of office by an angry Sitaram Kesri, the then Congress president, Deve Gowda is fighting what his colleagues in the Janata Dal (Secular) say is the semi-final before the final one in 2014.

Focus: Mango, The 'King Of Fruit' Is Now In Indian Markets

By Dabu Sadaf | INNLIVE

SPECIAL REPORT Summer in India for foodies is synonymous with the mango season. In our country, each state boasts of different varieties of mangoes, all hailed as delicacies. Some are meant to be eaten ripe, while others are best eaten when they're green and raw.

While this season starts as early as the last weeks of March, it is only around the last week of April that the many varieties make their entry in the fruit bazaars across the country. This season lasts up to the end of June. In certain areas, it lasts up to the first week of August.

BJP adopts 2-point electoral Strategy in Karnataka

By Javid Hassan

The BJP-led government has adopted a two-pronged strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held in Karnataka on April 23 and 30 respectively.

Like the Congress and other mainstream parties, it is fielding mostly those candidates who are either legislators or those with high-voltage influence with good prospects of winning what could be the most fiercely contested general elections this time around.

Accordingly, this year’s budget, announced on February 20, was unveiled with an eye on boosting BJP’s electoral fortunes. It was a populist budget meant to appease voters across a broad spectrum of the constituencies in urban and rural areas, the farming community, infrastructural, industrial, education and hospitality sectors as well as temples and mutts, religious minorities, artisans and the entertainment business.

Whether these inducements will work is a question that only the electorate will answer, since some new equations that will weigh on the voter’s mind this time is the launch of the Third Front led by former prime minister H.D.Deve Gowda.

The anti-incumbency factor against the BJP on the one hand and the unhappy experience with the Congress administration in the past could swing the vote away from these power points towards the Third Front. However, another imponderable during these forthcoming elections is a massive voter education campaign led by the media. The main thrust of this move is to get the people out and vote for change. To this end, a public awareness campaign has been launched through the print and electronic media providing a lowdown on the candidates in the electoral fray.

Against this background, the BJP is fielding six legislators for the parliamentary elections, including three who are outsiders. The probable candidates being mentioned are animal husbandry minister Revunaik Belamagi who will take on Congress stalwart Mallikarjun Kharge in Gulbarga, while health minister B. Sriramulu and Malleshwaram MLA C.N.Ashwathanarayan will be vying for Bellary and Bangalore North seats respectively.

Apart from their winning chances, the BJP also has to contend with tainted politicians in its own camp. Recently, the party landed itself in an embarrassing situation when Y. Sampangi , BJP MLA from Kolar Gold Fields, about 70 km from Bangalore, was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs.500,000 to close a criminal case. Confirming the bribery scandal, Karnataka Lok Ayukta Justice Santosh Hegde disclosed that of the hush money Sampangi had received, Rs 50,000 was in cash and the rest in self cheques.

In fact, rampant corruption involving politicians and government officials could impact the ruling party adversely, unless the voters choose to ignore it, as they did in some constituencies during the legislative assembly elections in May last year. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the Karnataka government received Rs. 23 crore on its Rs. 22,279 crore investment in companies and statutory corporations.

This amounted to no more than 0.10% return on such huge investment, states the CAG report, which points out that the state’s fiscal deficit surged by Rs.644 crore to reach Rs. 5,332 cr resulting from the growth in capital expenditure. The CAG also held the Cooperation Department responsible for granting reimbursement to inadmissible claims by distorting facts that led to excess reimbursement to the tune of Rs. 11.40 crore to farmers.

Karnataka has achieved the dubious distinction of being top among the four southern states, where its citizens living below the poverty line (BPL) have to pay bribe for getting access to 11 basic services. While 67 percent of the BPL households had to bribe their way in Karnataka to get basic services, it was much lower in Tamil Nadu at 59 percent. The actual payout at Rs.97.6 crore was the highest among the four southern states.

As a result of these factors, Karnataka’s annual rate of growth dropped to 5.5% from 11% last year, while public debt stood at 27% of the State GDP. Mindful of all these skeletons in its cupboard, the government’s electoral strategy is to woo the urban voters, some of whom had supported the Congress during the legislative assembly elections last May. In line with this strategy, of the Rs. 7,000 crore allocated for urban infrastructure, as much as Rs.3,000 crore has been earmarked for Bangalore. Similarly, as part of its campaign to ease the traffic bottleneck, a Rs.500-cr outlay has been set aside for the purchase of 1,000 buses to beef up the public transport network.

The opposition has been quick to pounce on this lop-sided spending that has seen the agricultural sector with a budget allocation of Rs.2,440 crore. Former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, too, underlined this point when he said the government was not doing enough to improve the lot of farmers and the downtrodden, when 66% of the population lives in rural areas. He has also blasted the government for its inability to check farmers’ suicide.

The former chief minister has also accused the BJP government of caste-wise allocation in view of the upcoming elections. This is seen in the Chief Minister’s allocation of Rs. 130 crore in the budget for temples and mutts. Economics professor S.T. Bagalkoti of Karnatak University also referred to the allocation to mutts and other religious organizations and called it a wrong precedent in a secular country.

Other provisions in the budget with political implications envisage the establishment of new universities for ayurveda, Sanskrit, vedic education in Bangalore, as well as for a new academy for music and fine arts in Davanagere. Similarly, to tap the vote bank of artisans from backward classes engaged in traditional arts and crafts, the government has announced loan facilities up to Rs. 5,000 and a subsidy Rs.5,000 per head. Such a measure will benefit one lakh artisans.

The government has also not lost sight of the fact that Dalits had played a significant role in the BJP’s ascent to power in May last year. And to mobilize the support of the minorities, including Christians, Sikhs and Buddhists, it has pitched in with a Rs. 10- crore grant for their institutions.

In incurring such a hefty expenditure, the BJP government is making use of New Delhi’s concession to states allowing them to raise their fiscal deficit target to 3.5% of their GDP for the financial year to cope with the economic slowdown. But the government is seeking political mileage out of it.

A NEW BREED OF 'EXPERT POLITICIAN' IN KARNATAKA

By Ashok Shettiyar / Bangalore

Every morning, before he sets out for campaigning in Siddlaghatta constituency in Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka, Sivakumar Gowda of the Karnataka Janatha Paksha (KJP) does something no politician does. He spends time at his study table, taking a look at his notes.

That’s because Gowda belongs to a rare breed of politicians who have undergone a diploma course in politics. This builder-cum-developer entered politics three years ago and when he decided to contest the assembly election, he decided to learn the ABC of politics.

‘NATAK’ IN KARNATAKA, 'SUPERSTITIOUS CANDIDATES' IN FRAY

Superstitious candidates do bizarre things like wearing six layers of clothing or a fur cap while filing their papers.

Some use only a particular colour of ink to sign their name. Others wear several layers of clothing, or fur hats, or even gold chains around their waists. And then there are those who would want to be in their birthday suits.

This isn’t from the lifestyles of the eccentric and famous, but from what candidates are doing as the process for electing a new Karnataka Assembly gets underway.

The regular Indian fetish for astrology is being taken to bizarre lengths in this key southern battleground.

Black magic, vaastu, superstition: you name it, and it’s there in the great Karnataka poll show. Though it is close to a week since the Congress, BJP and the Janata Dal ( Secular) announced the first list of candidates, only 27 have filed nominations so far. Most of the candidates will file the nomination on April 15 ( Monday), as it is considered the most auspicious day of the month.

Special Report: Indian Doctors Are Shamelessly Lying On Women To Perform Unwarranted Hysterectomies

By LIKHA VEER | INNLIVE

In Chapla Naik, a tiny village in Karnataka’s Kalaburgi district close to the state border with Telangana, two women died this year.

Arati (name changed) died of pancreatic cancer. Sumana bai (name changed) died of sepsis in her abdomen. What the two women had in common with each other—and with many other women in the village—is that they were aged less than 30, and they had recently undergone hysterectomies.

'KARNATAKA AWAITS A DECISIVE VERDICT'

By M H Ahssan / Bangalore

Karnataka is now on the edge of public mandate, being 61.5% polled today in entire state. Several political parties fate is closed in the electronic voting machines. The decision, must be an intelligent by the frustrated voters, always seek change in lives will rattle the future of 'leading aspirants'.

These days, former external affairs minister S M Krishna does not travel out to exotic destinations, only to a few Assembly constituencies.

'Nobody Will Be Spared For Telangana State': Jagan Reddy

By Ramesh Reddy / INN Live

“I am starting this Samaikya Shankharavam with a call to all the people of Andhra Pradesh, let us remain united”. YSRCP president YS Jaganmohan Reddy started his speech at the public meeting with these words after blowing the symbolic ‘Shankhu’ to indicate the fight against bifurcation and the arrogant ways of Congress leadership.

YSRCP President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy today said that people will never forgive UPA Chairperson and AICC President Sonia Gandhi, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and TDP President Chandra Babu Naidu for dividing Telugu people.

How Bangalore’s Professionals Are Fighting For Their City?

“I heard there is a vacancy for the post of MLA of Malleswaram. I am applying for the job.”

This is how Dr Meenakshi Bharath introduces herself to her voters in this part of north-west Bangalore. A gynaecologist, Bharath is contesting her first assembly election as a Loksatta party candidate and her supporters distribute her resume to voters so that they know her better.

Dr Bharath is not the only professional making her entry into the world of politics. In the Bommanahalli constituency, a Bangalore suburb, Ashwin Mahesh is making a similar pitch to voters. This astronomer-cum-journalist who along with Bharath, has been very active in the anti-corruption Saaku movement and the India Against Corruption Jan Lokpal Bill movement in Bangalore, is also contesting on a Loksatta party ticket in this election.

Where Morality Is Saffron Coloured?

Moral policing. Attacks on minorities. Intolerance of the media. Karnataka’s coastal city Mangalore is in the grip of right-wing  hooligans.

After a brief lull in 2011 and the early part of 2012, incidents of moral policing and violence are back in the coastal town of  Mangalore, Karnataka. Situated between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats, the town with a population of just under 5  lakh, has been a hotbed of aggressive Hindutva nationalism ever since the 2009 pub attack case, when members of the Shri  Ram Sene vandalised a local pub and beat up the customers there in the name of moral policing.

Four years later, not much has changed. It has been three months since local journalist Naveen Soorinje was wrongfully jailed  on charges of conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting with deadly weapons, criminal trespass, causing grievous hurt and  assault on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty.

Soorinje’s crime? On 28 July 2012, he had captured on video camera a similar attack, this time on youngsters having a party  in a private homestay. The whole nation was stunned with pictures of goons belonging to the Hindu Jagarana Vedike (HJV) —  an outfit affiliated to the Sangh Parivar — roughing up young boys and girls, some even molesting the girls.

Whereas the Karnataka High Court cleared Soorinje of all the charges, it denied him bail simply for not having informed the  police. On 31 January, following a campaign to free Soorinje, the Karnataka Cabinet cleared a note for dropping all charges  against the 24-year-old scribe. As this article goes to print, it would have been a month since the note reached Chief Minister  Jagadish Shettar for final approval.

Such attacks on the media are not a new phenomenon in Mangalore. On 5 February, the Karavali Ale newspaper had carried  a story citing police reports that Keshav, an HJV activist, was the main drug peddler in the Surathkal area. Keshav is a known  associate of Satyajit Surathkal, a big name in the HJV, and was arrested by the police with 650 gm of marijuana in his  possession.

In response, HJV activists attacked the newspaper’s office, ransacking it and causing injuries to the staff. Two senior staff  members had to be hospitalised. A week later, another staff member was waylaid in the dark and attacked with iron rods,  sticks and other weapons.

This was not the first time Karavali Ale had been attacked. The paper used to come under regular attack from the Sangh  Parivar when Soorinje was a reporter there. “The fear of another possible attack has reduced my staff strength from 20 to  four,” says BV Seetharam, editor and proprietor of Karavali Ale.

Sudipto Mondal of The Hindu remembers the time when he came very close to being assaulted by the Sangh Parivar.  “Subhash Padil, one of the perpetrators of the July homestay attack, was also part of the infamous pub attack in January  2009. He had once threatened to stab me with a trident,” recalls Mondal.

Incidents of violence have come to characterise Mangalore even more in the recent past and have now become  commonplace. Human rights group People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has documented 300 incidents of violence by  right-wing fringe groups between 1998 and 2012 in Mangalore. Interestingly, 253 of these happened after the BJP assumed  power in 2008. The Bajrang Dal has itself claimed that its cadres have carried out more attacks in the past two years and  “rescued more girls” than what has been reported.

“A lot of what we do does not get reported these days because we do not alert the media all the time… Plus, (Hindu) girls  usually learn the lesson,” says Puneeth, a young Bajrang Dal worker. “We don’t find them mingling with Muslims boys that  often anymore.”

Mangalore PUCL Convenor Suresh Bhat Bakrabail, 67, who has painstakingly documented all such attacks from newspapers,  says it is simply impossible to keep a tab on every incident, as “it’s almost on an everyday basis. There’s always something in  one or the other newspaper every day”. A look at a few incidents from 2012 alone gives an idea of what he means:

1) 23 January: During a local fair, the police had to resort to lathicharge to control an unruly mob. What started as a harmless  conversation between a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy selling watermelons, soon catapulted into a full-blown crisis, when  around 150 Hindutva activists first beat the boy, Nazir, and then went around breaking shops belonging to Muslims.

2) 27 February: A Hindu girl working at a beauty parlour had requested a Muslim boy working in the mobile shop next door  to help her down the shutters at closing time. As the boy was helping her, a group of people led by the owner of a local  garage suddenly appeared on the scene and attacked both of them.

3) 16 March: Prakash Poojary, editor of Hi Udupi magazine, was beaten up by BJP members and Hindutva activists, while  distributing the magazine in town. Poojary said that he was attacked for writing about the St Mary’s Island rave party (a  State-sponsored event to promote tourism, in which tourists were found consuming psychotropic substances). “If you wish  to write about Hindu organisations, be prepared for the consequences,” he recalled his attackers as saying.

4) 17 March: Six people, allegedly of the Sri Ram Sene, barged into the offices of Karavali Maruta, a local Kannada magazine,  and ransacked the office. The group was angry about an article criticising them.

5) 7 April: Hussain, 53, was on his way to Mangalore to sell cattle, when a group of Bajrang Dal activists started following the  tempo he was driving. Scared, he tried to speed away, but the vehicle veered out of control and overturned at Kottara.  According to Hussain’s son Nazir, “the incident took place at around 6 am”. Hussain’s leg was trapped under the vehicle and  the Bajrang Dal men, instead of helping him, attacked with swords and wooden planks. This happened in front of a police  station.

6) 12 May: Members of the Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva outfits of the twin districts, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, such  as Durga Vahini and Matru Mandal, objected to the screening of the film Katari Veera Surasundarangi. They said that the film  portrayed Hindu gods and goddesses in a poor light. The activists vandalised theatres, forcing owners to cancel the screening.

7) 24 June: Members of an alleged local Hindu outfit assaulted a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl because they were talking to  each other in a deserted spot. The boy was then handed over to the Mangalore South police.

8) 4 September: Sabira, a student of Government College, Bellary, was sitting with her friends — all Muslims — inside the  university campus during a bandh called by the ABVP, when they were accosted by the outfit’s members. Sabira was beaten  so badly that she had to be admitted to a hospital. Three months before that, ABVP members had pulled her burqa when she  was returning home and had threatened her against wearing it to college.

Shockingly, Hindutva groups do not express any regret at the provocations and incidents of violence. On the contrary, they  seem to take pride in their work and speak of it in gloating terms.

Sharan Pumpwell, district president of the Bajrang Dal, is one of those Sangh leaders in Mangalore who have been able to  bring several boys into the Dal.

“More than 7,000 Hindu girls have been abducted by Muslims, who force them to fall in love and convert. We are the ones  who rescue them,” says Pumpwell. Interestingly, Pumpwell also runs a security agency where his men provide security to one  of Mangalore’s biggest malls, City Centre, which is owned by a Muslim. The mall also has one of the poshest pubs in  Mangalore. When asked about it, Pumpwell was reluctant to say anything.

On its part, the police denies that it plays a partisan role in such incidents. “We do not tolerate moral policing,” says Pratap  Reddy, IGP (Western Range). “Our primary concern is to diffuse the situation, so that it does not go out of hand. Sometimes,  the police take the boy or the girl out of the scene for their own safety. However, that does not mean we endorse a particular  kind of morality.”

The rise of Hindtuva in coastal Karnataka dates back to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the 1990s, when LK Advani  came to Mangalore as part of his Rath Yatra. According to K Phaniraj of the Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike (Karnataka  Forum for Communal Harmony), the Sangh launched a big movement in 1989 to consolidate castes like Poojaris, Bunts,  Billavas and Moghaveera, and revive Hindutva.

The impunity with which these groups operate also stems from the political backing they seem to have got over the years. In  August 2007, the then deputy home minister BS Yeddyurappa dropped as many as 51 cases against Sangh Parivar activists,  including Shri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik. According to media reports dated 28 January 2009 (four days after the  infamous pub attack case), the state Cabinet withdrew more than 42 cases registered against Muthalik.

Again, on 20 February 2010, the Cabinet took the decision to withdraw 17 criminal cases registered against ABVP members.  And on 17 June 2010, the state Cabinet withdrew all pending criminal cases against Sangh Parivar activists. In one stroke, the  Cabinet withdrew cases against the persons responsible for the attacks against minorities in various cases.

In a strict electoral sense, the stakes seem even in Mangalore. In the eight constituencies of the Dakshina Kannada district, of  which Mangalore is a part, the Congress and the BJP have four seats each. But the Sangh Parivar enjoys an overall control  over the district administration. “They have cadres and booth-level workers, and can mobilise various outfits during elections,  which the Congress lacks,” says UT Khader, an influential Congress leader.

Phaniraj, in fact, believes that Mangalore holds the key in many senses. “I do not feel that Hindu votes will go away from the  BJP simply because they have been corrupt in the past five years,” he says. “The cards are currently held by the Hindutva  forces in Mangalore. Whenever it wants, the saffron brigade can pull out a joker and change the game.”

NEED A UNIVERSITY FOR MINORITIES IN INDIA

Setting up a university could be a fanciful idea in the current context of mega ventures, but ground realities suggest that Muslims suffer more due to absence of good quality education at the lower level.

The proposal to set up a university named Tipu Sultan at his erstwhile capital Srirangapatna has raised quite a storm of protest from the ranks of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). It was not unexpected from quarters that are accustomed to see issues from communal perspective. But this has not allowed several other aspects of the issue to be discussed adequately in Karnataka.

Universities are meant to provide higher education and lend an emphasis to specialization. All that has been said about the proposed university is that it is meant especially for minorities. Since it is located in Karnataka, it will necessarily and is principally supposed to serve the minorities in the State.

336 Suicides Everyday in India

By Kanwaljeet Singh

‘AP, TN, Karnataka, Maharashtra & West Bengal Have Highest Number Of Suicide Deaths’

India reported an average 336 suicides every day in 2007 with more men ending their lives than women, the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has revealed.

Although suicide was a nationwide phenomena, five states — Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka — registered consistently higher number of suicidal deaths during the last few years. Overall, 2007 recorded an increase of 3.8% over the previous year’s figure of 118,112.

Poverty was surprisingly not the major reason for suicide with more people ending their lives due to family (23.8%) and health problems (22.3%) than bankruptcy or sudden change in economic status (2.7%), love affairs (2.8%), dowry dispute (2.6%), unemployment (2%) and suspected/illicit relation (1.1%). Only 2.3% of people committed suicide due to poverty.

A definite trend is also noticed among different states which, perhaps, speaks volumes about the ‘psychological state’ of people than their actual difficulties which they might be facing before being prompted to take the extreme step.

The latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), released in November and covering the year 2007 has revealed much more. Incidentally, it is not the comparatively poor states like Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, which witnessed suicides in higher numbers. The dubious distinction, in fact, went to well-off states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Out of the total 122,637 suicides committed in the country in 2007, the highest, 15,184, was reported from Maharashtra followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,882), West Bengal (14,860), Tamil Nadu (13,811) and Karnataka (12,304). These five states accounted for 57.9% of the total suicides reported in India. The remaining were reported from the other 23 states and 7 Union Territories (UTs). Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state (16.6% share of population) reported comparatively lower percentage, accounting for only 3.2% of the cases.

As far as suicides committed by farmers (16,632) are concerned, Maharashtra (4,238) surpassed all other states with its Vidarbha region becoming the focal point.

According to the NCRB’s report, Karnataka saw 2,135 farmer suicides, Andhra Pradesh (1,797), Chhattisgarh (1,593), Madhya Pradesh (1,263) and Kerala (1,232). Although the overall figure shows a slight fall from 17,060 in 2006, the broad trend remained unchanged with indebtedness becoming the main cause.

Referring to the sex profile of persons committing suicide during 2007, the NCRB report said social and economic causes led most males to kill themselves whereas emotional and personal causes mainly drove women to end their lives. Sex wise figures show that the male-female ratio of suicide victims for 2007 was 65:35. However, the proportion of boys-girls suicide victims (upto 14 years was 48:52.

'Families Forge Certificates, RTE Scam Flourishes'

The Right to Education is not even a year old yet, but the whiff of a scam is already gathering steam in Karnataka. The schools in Karnataka say that families fake their income certificates which are generously issued by tahsildars to make themselves eligible for RTE, even as the really poor and the deserving are left out.

When G Venkatesh applied for his son's admission to a school in Bangalore North, he sought the 25 per cent quota under RTE. The income certificate issued by his village tahsildar, which he showed to the school, said that he earned Rs 16,000 a year. However, his rent agreement, which he gave as address proof, said that he paid a rent of Rs 2500 a month. That sums up to over Rs 25,000 annually.

Thippechittappa is another 'miracle' parent. He claims to earn just Rs 11,000 a year, but pays a rent of Rs 1,200 a month. That amounts to Rs 12,000 a year - a contradiction that the tahsildar chose to ignore.

Then there are parents like Shivakumar who earned Rs 60,000 in 2012 but whose income fell to just Rs 12,000 this year; KN Krishnamurthy who got two different income certificates within a span of ten days!

Private schools in Karnataka have protested to the government against undeserving families getting free education under the RTE. They blame the revenue department for the large scale faking of income certificates. Shivarame Gowda, the Chairman of the Karnataka Private School Joint Action Committee, said, "More than 60 to 70 per cent are fake certificates. Let them give their clearances. Those who are there with fake certificates, we are not giving seats."

The schools have handed over suspect documents of nearly 200 children to the government.
D Shashikumar, the Secretary of Blossoms School, said, "Other parents who have not got the seats, they are in dispute. They are showing the people. Those parents have houses, cars, get rental incomes. We are the really economically weaker sections. We have been cheated in this."

The Right to Education Act loosely defines how to identify eligible children. This loophole allows parents of well-off families to take advantage of free education in top schools. Anyone who is self-employed, who can't produce a salary slip, can get an income certificate from the tahsildar on his own claim, and an admission under the RTE quota, even as the government looks the other way.

GC Prakash, the Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore, said, "We can't say it's an irregularity. If there's a known source of income, you can assess it, like you can see the salary slips of government servants. However, if a real estate agent, for example, earns so much money, we can't assess his income. We'll ask revenue inspectors to check case by case."

Over a lakh seats are available under RTE in Karnataka, and even before the programme takes off in full swing, some government officials and parents have found ways of keeping the really deserving children out of the system.

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Mining In India Throws Up Numerous Problems

Mining is an ancient activity. It is so old that the Egyptian, Roman and Greek civilizations have practised it in their time. India is one of the leading countries in iron ore and coal mining. There are companies like Vedanta, Bharat Aluminium Company and Hindalco which are involved in mining activities. The industry contributes around 2.2% to 2.5% of the national GDP and provides jobs for around 700,000 individuals.

However, with the good, has also come the bad. Mining in India has seen a lot of scams and scandals such as illegal mining and improper coal allocation and is commonly referred to in India as ‘Coal-gate’. These issues are not just damaging the reputation of India as a business destination. It is also over exploiting the natural resources and hurting the fragile eco-system.

Mining Scams and Scandals Galore
The ‘Coal-gate’ scam is the latest in a long line of controversies in the mining industry. One of the other scams in the mining industry has been the illegal iron ore mining in Karnataka. In Bellary, Karnataka, iron ore is said to have been illegally mined after allegedly paying a small amount of royalty to the government. Justice Santosh Hegde, former Lokayukta of Karnataka, who was an anti-corruption ombudsman, brought this scam into the public eye. According to him, there has been illegal mining of about 35 lakh metric tonne in Karnataka alone, which amounts to around Rs. 1600 crore.

In Orissa, the problem is even greater. There is illegal mining in bauxite, iron ore, chromite and coal. It is one of the nation’s richest states in natural resources. This has caused excessive mining and thrown up problems with land rights for the locals. The opposition parties in Orissa claim that the scam is of the scale of about Rs. 250,000 crores.  The state government has however asked companies such as Tata Steel and Essel Mining among others, to pay Rs. 50,000 crore only for alleged illegal and excessive mining.

Apart from this there is illegal mining in Aravalli (Rajasthan), Goa and Madhya Pradesh. Revenue losses in Goa have been estimated to be around Rs. 3000 crores. Around 100,000 people have lost their source of livelihood in four talukas — Bicholim in north Goa, and Sattari, Sanguem and Quepem talukas in south Goa. Their farms have been destroyed by mining silt and water sources have been contaminated.

Former Union Minister of Communication and Information Technology, A Raja who was in jail due to the 2G spectrum scam and is currently out on bail, issued 169 environmental clearances for mines in Goa during his term as the Union Minister of State for Environment. Out of these, 15 clearances were for mines inside the Netravalli wildlife sanctuary in south Goa.

Environmental Damage by Mining
Mining results in erosion, creation of sinkholes, contamination of surface water, groundwater, soil, loss of biodiversity and this is just legal mining. Greenpeace says that bad mining practices can ignite coal fires, which can burn for decades, release fly ash and smoke laden with greenhouse gasses and toxic chemicals. It goes on to state that mining releases coal mine methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Coal dust inhalation causes black lung disease among miners and those who live nearby, and mine accidents kill thousands every year. Coal mining displaces whole communities, forced off their land by expanding mines, coal fires, subsidence and contaminated water supplies.

In Goa, illegal mining has caused irreparable damage to forests, agriculture, fisheries and water aquifers. People in the affected areas are also suffering from the adverse effects of air, noise and water pollution. In Caurem village in Quepem taluka in south Goa, for example, there are 2,000 families whose farms have been destroyed by illegal mines. The silt from mining has entered the fields. Local residents complain that they have no means of earning their living.

According to the Lok-Ayukta Report, there have been severe ecological changes due to illegal mining in Karnataka. Certain species of animals like the sloth bear have disappeared in the Bellary region. Medicinal plants from the area do not grow anymore. The rainfall pattern has changed in the Bellary district. It is reported that the entire area surrounding the mining area has little greenery and has no agricultural activity.

A Greenpeace report dated 1st August 2012 called “How Coal Mining is Trashing Tigerland”, states that coal mining is endangering the survival of the Royal Bengal Tiger in Central India. It says that approximately 30% of India's tigers are found in the Central Indian landscape forests. Coal mining and related infrastructure here will result in the destruction and fragmentation of forests, threatening both wildlife and forest dependent communities.

The way ahead
A scam which implicates the big-wigs is often pushed under the table, but whistleblowers such as Justice Hegde and Rajendra Dixit, who complained to the Madhya Pradesh Lok-Ayukta office, have made sure that it does not go unnoticed. As the demand for iron ore increased with the need for it in construction for Beijing Olympics in 2008, illegal mining started, to take advantage of the prices which were about $130 in the international market as compared to $17, the original price. Various commissions such as the Shah Commission in Goa, Union Government’s commission in Jharkhand and others have been announced to investigate the issue. But when the organizations meant to protect the ecosystem and the citizens, are working against them, can there be any solution?