Opinions and Editorials

How can we forget Gujarat 2002? – By Ajaz Ashraf (Sep 11, 2012, Hindustan Times)

The judgement of the special court in Ahmedabad convicting 32 people for their role in the Naroda-Patiya massacre should help heal the wounds of the Muslim community. It should also bolster their resolve to secure justice through methods neither illegal nor destructive. Yet the verdict is not likely to diminish the fear the community has about majority communalism, nor persuade them to believe that the horror of Gujarat will never revisit them. These divergent implications of the verdict were reflected through two unconnected occurrences on the day of the verdict. Naroda-Patiya rejoiced at the long spell of imprisonment the convicted were to now languish in. Outside it, in India and abroad, netizens were excitedly logging in to ask questions to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who was to answer them, live, through the Google Plus Hangout. The dense traffic crashed its website, delaying the programme. The overwhelming response to Modi demonstrates the enduring romance between him and sections of society, particularly the middle class.

For Muslims, though, this romance was yet another proof of inadequate empathy in the majority community for the suffering Muslims endured in Gujarat, the horrific stories of which inculcated in the community a deep fear about its future. Their collective memory of 2002 is revived every time an opinion poll shows Modi leading the pack of prime ministerial candidates in the 2014 election. Nor can they fathom those who praise Modi’s style of governance even though it was under his watch a state pogrom, camouflaged as spontaneous riots, was launched against them. The massive mandate Modi received in two successive assembly elections perplexes Muslims into asking: why hasn’t the violence of 2002 repulsed the Hindu supporters of Modi?

This question is linked to the idea of justice that is too expansive for the court to accommodate. There is no denying that the Naroda-Patiya judgement upholds the principle of deterrence. You could even say that the severity of the judgement is retributive. Special court judge Jyotsna Yagnik alluded to these two principles, declaring that she had refrained from sentencing the culprits to death only because of the global trend against it. Yet even death penalty to them may not have completely satisfied Muslims. This is because what they subconsciously desire is restorative justice, a veritable return to the ideal of communal harmony, a consensus that the riots of 2002 had violated the collective conscience of the nation.

This idea of justice presupposes a shared idea of what constitutes collective conscience, actions deemed violative of it, and willingness among transgressors, and their silent supporters, to accept their responsibility, preferably even atone for it. Indeed, the very nature of restorative justice makes it imperative that the impulse for it should emanate from society. No doubt Muslims admire civil society activists who waged a relentless battle to secure judicial justice for the Gujarat victims. Yet they are dismayed at the orchestrated campaign to project Modi as the prime ministerial candidate. For them, Modi was and still remains the face of terror they first countenanced through the nightmare of 2002. The endeavour to project him as a possible PM consequently persuades Muslims to believe that there is as yet no societal consensus that the Gujarat riots violated the nation’s collective conscience, particularly as he has adamantly refused to apologise for them.

This is also why they become perturbed on hearing industrialists sing paeans to the development Modi has ushered in. Much of it is a case of myth-making. Economist Abusaleh Shariff has demonstrated that in 10 years ending March 2010, Gujarat received foreign direct investment worth Rs. 28,000 crore, as against Maharashtra’s Rs. 1.75 lakh crore and Delhi’s Rs. 1.02 lakh crore. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the only states which have hunger levels higher than Gujarat. The state’s development is historical, as is its poor human development indicators. Yet, Modi appropriates credit for the former and furnishes pathetic explanations for the latter. For the myth of Modi to flourish, it is concomitant for people to stifle the periodic admonitions of collective conscience delivered through civil society activism and judicial verdicts. To Muslims, though, it appears that the brutality of 2002 doesn’t constitute a violation of the collective conscience serious enough to dissuade the nation to turn against the man who dreams of becoming the PM. It is this form of justice Muslims prefer, than what the judiciary can dispense.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/928279.aspx

SEE ALSO:

• Gujarat Victims Great Fight Back – By Syed Ali Mujtaba (Sep 10, 2012, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/mujtaba100912.htm
• Monsoon justice for Modi’s Gujarat – By Aijaz Zaka Syed (Sep 11, 2012, Twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2012sep11/monsoon_justice_modi%E2%80%99s_gujarat.html
• Triumph of justice – By Anupama Katakam (Sep 8, 2012, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl2918/stories/20120921291812800.htm
• Tehelka Expose helped in nailing Amit Shah – By Tehelka Bureau (Sep 4, 2012, Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/story_main53.asp?filename=Ws040912tehelka.asp

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Hindutva Chauvinism and Patriarchy in Gujarat – By Archana Prasad (Sep 9, 2012, Peoples Democracy)

On August 29, 2012 the Washington Post published Narendra Modi’s now famous statement that the increasing rates of malnutrition in Gujarat could be attributed to the beauty conscious middle class girls and dieting habits. He also reiterated that he “would not apologise for the Gujarat violence (2002)”. A day later Maya Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi and 27 others were convicted for the Naroda Patiya massacre in the 2002 Gujarat genocide. The witnesses deposing before the courts emphasised on the mass atrocities against Muslim women and children, thus, highlighting the nature of the conviction. In the same week, the RSS weekly Panchjanya (August 25, 2012) also reported a comment by Shanta Akka, the newly appointed president of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, who stated that the events in Assam were representative of the “evil designs” (rakshasi sanskriti) against Indian culture and therefore it was necessary that the forces of Hinduism be advanced. These seemingly unrelated incidents are bound together by an understanding that women and their organisations are carriers of the Hindutva ideology and the vision of a Hindu Rashtra that forms the basis of the Gujarat model of development. Here women become both, agents of Hindutva politics, as well as targets of violence perpetrated by Sangh Parivar organisations.

The main convict in the Naroda Patiya massacre, Mayaben Kodnani was the minister for women and child development and was forced to resign after she was charge sheeted in the Naroda Patiya case. A medical doctor by training Mayaben has been an active member of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the women’s wing of the RSS and the primary organisation training women to become carriers of the Hindutva ideology. Formed in 1936 by Lakshmibai Kelkar, the Samiti describes itself as a “a cultural organisation of Hindu Women” whose main objective is to make women realise that they are “the foundation pillars of the nation taking into account their capacity to mould the family”. The nation is “Bharat” whose concept is based on “bonds of love and affection” and nationhood which is synonymous with “Hindutwa” (sic). Thus the ideal woman and enlightened mother who in her capacity as a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother is “strong physically, mentally, intellectually and spiritually” so that she can defend the nation and “create a deep sense of devotion and pride for nation, religion and culture”. This is achieved through Rashtradharma, the core of which is the Hindu way of living. As Shanta Akka, the current chief of the Samiti in her speech on August 20, 2012, explains “we have also forgotten our fundamental life style due to this excessive propagandist approach adopted by them (the foreigners). Hence our mission is to reverse this trend and restore our fundamental lifestyle which gave more importance to the inner beauty than the beauty of the body”. The core concept of enlightened motherhood imagines a national division of labour where women play a subordinated and traditional role of mothers and defenders of the faith.

The main task of the sevikas is to transform this idea into an organisation and a political programme that supports the plans of the larger Sangh Parivar. This is achieved through military and ideological training in 5215 daily shakhas that are run through 835 centres in the country. These shakhas respond to calls of the Sangh and multiply the Parivar through multiple organisations, especially since the late 1980s. Thus Sadhavi Rithambara, a sevika by training, founded the Durga Vahini which played an active role in the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. As reported, about 55,000 Durga Vahini people were active in the campaign with women from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh leading the charge. The organisational skills of the sevikas have also been in evidence in the Gujarat riots of 2002. Thus Mayaben Kodnani, a trained and active sevika, has been described by Special Court as the “kingpin of the Gujarat riots” who instigated and provided leadership to the rioters. In its final sentencing order the court also states that Kodnani was “immensely favoured by the then investigation agencies” who attempted to influence all victims to ensure that her “involvement does not come on the books”. Hence it is quite clear that the Sangh Parivar unsuccessfully worked in tandem with the state government to ensure that this sevika was safe from the due process of law. In this sense, the training of the sevikas and their socialisation as agents of Hindutva has been crucial in supporting the Modi and his cover up of the role of the government in the 2002 genocide.

Thus, Mayaben Kodnani represents the Sangh’s incorporation of women into its agenda of building a Hindu Rashtra. By the same measure the atrocities perpetrated on Muslim women by the Hindutva brigade in 2002 can also be seen as the ugly expression of Hindutva’s patriarchal identity. Eye witness accounts of the Naroda Patiya victims clearly indicate the organised and systematic way in which women were targeted after “exciting speeches by Mayaben Kodnani”. The first incident destroying the Noorani Mosque on February 28, 2012 was inspired by her and thereafter several witnesses have recorded that she moved about with different male mobs urging them to “finish off the miyans”. She distributed swords, kerosene and other weapons which were common instruments of molestation and assault in the massacre. This political support emboldened the mobs and inspired them to perpetrate the most brutal and worst crimes on women. That the crime was organised and perpetrated by leading functionaries of the Sangh Parivar is narrated by the courageous witnesses of the Naroda Patiya massacre. In her testimony, Reshmabanu Nadimbhai Sayid (witness 142) records how her pregnant sister, Kausharbanu was pulled away by leading Bajrang Dal activists, Suresh Langda and Bhawani Singh, who took out the unborn foetus splitting her abdomen by a sword. Both were then burnt alive.

Another gruesome tale is told by Naimuddin Ibrahim Shaikh (witness 148) who witnessed the gang rape of his wife Zarina. He says that the mob cut off both the hands of his wife with a sword, stripped her till the she was totally naked. In another testimony, Siddiquebhai Alabaksh Mansuri (witness 236) illustrated that Mayaben led a mob that burnt women and children alive. These medieval means and methods of attack displayed a sense of helplessness of the Muslim women victims, and a sense of dominating power of the male Hindutva brigade. The Naroda Patiya judgement and its evidences may take many months to analyse, but they have given a window of opportunity to democratic women’s organisations. The absence of a strong democratic women’s movement has resulted in tragic consequences for the women of Naroda Patiya. But their courage has also highlighted the need for exposing the fascist and patriarchal character of Modi’s social and political programme. The expansion of the democratic women’s movement in this region is an urgent need and mass mobilisations need to reach out to all classes of women, especially with the impending Gujarat elections. This will help in countering the hegemonic influence of organisations like the Rashtra Sevika Samiti who are playing a crucial role in the communal polarisation of women.

http://pd.cpim.org/2012/0909_pd/09092012_19.html

SEE ALSO:

• Modi-fication needed – Editorial (Aug 30, 2012, Hindustan Times)
  http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/922021.aspx
• Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar: A tale of two friends – By Premkumar Mani (Sep 3, 2012, Twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2012sep03/narendra_modi_and_nitish_kumar_tale_two_friends.html
• The sinful chariot – By Pravin Mishra (Sep 12, 2012, Ahmedabad Mirror)
  http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=78&contentid=20120912201209120122453311116c25b

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Re-thinking Hindus and Muslims – By Sagarika Ghose (Sep 12, 2012, IBN)

Old ghosts have a way of re-appearing. Manmohan Singh has warned senior police officers that the communal situation has become dangerous and “miscreants” are using social media to provoke religious hostility between communities. The Assam riots and subsequent exodus showed that the phantoms of religious polarisation are stalking us once again. It was social media and bulk smses that led to that exodus of thousands of north easterners from metros. There is constant outrage at “Muslim appeasement” among “nationalist Hindus” on social media. Social media also disseminated morphed images that contributed to almost twenty thousand Muslims congregating in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan. Clearly the role of social media in mobilising thousands and whipping up extreme religious sentiments, particularly among youth, cannot be ignored. Now a terror plot supposedly centred in Bangalore has led to the arrests of 17 young Muslimmen, among them, a journalist, a chartered accountant and a DRDO employee. One of them apparently plotted to kill a “Hindu right wing” journalist, active onTwitter. Already in Bareilly, there have been 5 communal riots in 75 days. MIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi has spoken of a “third wave of radicalisation” of Muslims. VHP leader Praveen Togadia has written to the prime minister saying Rohingya Muslims have “infiltrated” up to New Delhi with the help of local Muslims.

As a high stakes general election draws near, on both sides of the religious divide,those who see political gain in religious polarisation just be becoming active again. Muslim rage and Hindu hate are feeding off each other. As mirrored in social media, there is competitive radicalisation of youths in both communities. Fringe groups, spoiling for street battles, are waiting for opportunities. These are assertive angry times. As the economy contracts, the potential for massive social turmoil increases and the appeal of religious hotheads grows. The law has punished Maya Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi for their role in the Gujarat riots, but the sad reality of Gujarati society as written about insightfully by Vadodara-based academic JS Bandukwala is a total lack of any reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims, ghettoization, continuation of hatred and prejudice, in fact a religious apartheid. The Hindu-Muslim relationship desperately craves a modern new direction, away from both the language of quotas and the language of conflict. After all, “appeasement” and “communalism” are words born in the last century.

Muslim victimhood drags at the feet of the community, bringing protestors out in thousands only against attacks on religious identity. Leadership by clerics has meant there are no similarly passionate agitations against educational backwardness or plight of women. A perpetual sense of separateness means that Muslims have not yet built alliances with other minorities. AUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal has been accused of creating a fear psychosis around identity to build his party. To not see the Muslims-in-India glass as half full, to fail to recognise a growing secularised ethos in which even Hindu nationalists will confess to being fans of Shah Rukh Khan, is to ignore the many small successes of secular India. Yet a modern political leadership that shuns quotas on the one hand and extremist rhetoric on the other, is still missing. The fact that the Congress promise of 9 per cent Muslim sub-quota brought no rewards in the UP polls, shows that quota politics maybe exhausted. Just as quota politics needs to end, politics of prejudice needs to be junked too. Although it claims to have already done so, the BJP needs to give up on identity politics. In a fast changing world, slogans of “minority appeasement” will anyway soon pass their sell by date.

The BJP must now become a secular conservative movement like the UK has. This means locating right wing ideology not in religion but in a movement that favours fiscal consolidation, encourages individual responsibility, supports private investment and generally believes there should be less government involvement in all walks of life. Rising above identity politics, this movement should differentiate itself from a Left-of-centre, subsidies inclined Congress and bury its Babur ki aulad complex. Mohan Bhagwat recently said the RSS is not the HR manager of the BJP; but the RSS is the guiding force of the Sangh whose cadres and foot soldiers (if not leaders) still mobilise primarily on an anti-Muslim platform and historical vendettas against Islam. Trapped in the politics of quotas or the communal riot, politicians are not inclined to provide any leadership on how the Hindu Muslim relationship can be managed in a situation of competitive assertiveness in a new India. The two main political parties still define their identities not on competing visions of governancebut on sectarian stances on minorities. For them minorities remain a cultural/ideological issue, not a governance issue centred on justice and impartiality from police and judiciary. Assam Chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s assertion that Assam’s Muslim population is growing because Muslims breed more than Hindus, shows that politicians do not have a new vision of co-existence.

Politicians will fight their narrow battles, but as a society we need to take the lead in staring down the bloodthirsty ghosts that regularly haunt us. The Hindutva movement has undoubtedly forced a re-think on “official secularism”. Argument and counter argument about uniform civil code, Kashmir, Babri Masjid are by no means settled. Former Bengal cop Nazrul Islam’s book Musalman der karaniya (What Should The Muslims Do) may have become controversial, yet it is precisely a fearless open debate, free of mutual suspicion,that will keep religious hatred at bay. Religious pride may be increasing on both sides but “proud Muslims” and “proud Hindus” of India must make a common covenant with modernity. They must refuse to be provoked by divisive campaigns and be unafraid to re-start the Hindu Muslim dialogue as argumentative Indians. For this, the Hindu must first shed his prejudice, and the Muslim his anger.

http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/sagarikaghose/223/63894/rethinking-hindus-and-muslims.html

SEE ALSO:

• Identity, Community, and Conflict: A Survey of Issues and Analyses – By N Jayaram (Sep 22, 2012, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/survey/identity-community-and-conflict.html

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A fairer share – By A.K. Verma (Sep 12, 2012, Indian Express)

When Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party took over the reins of government in Uttar Pradesh, it boasted of heavy Muslim support, discomfiting the outgoing BSP. Sixty nine Muslims from various parties were elected to the UP assembly. Yet, questions have often been raised about the inadequacy of Muslim representation in UP politics. However, recent municipal elections for 630 nagar nigams, nagar palika parishads and nagar panchayats in UP, held over June and July, demolish this perception. Not only have Muslims been well represented in all municipal bodies, their presence is proportionately greater than their share in the state’s population, which is 18.5 per cent.

In fact, the proportion of Muslim MLAs and MPs in UP has always exceeded their share in the population. Some suggest that they have been used as votebanks by parties that espouse the “Muslim cause”. However, the political empowerment of Muslims in urban and semi-urban areas, evident in the 2012 municipal elections, punctures this votebank theory. The State Election Commission does not provide any data on the basis of religion, but it has put the names of all the 12,000-odd elected representatives of 630 civic bodies on its website. Scanning the lists, one finds that out of 11,816 seats, Muslims have won 3,681, that is, 31.15 per cent of the seats. This is a striking jump, compared to the 17.12 per cent share of Muslims in the UP assembly elections in 2012 and the 8.75 per cent share in the parliamentary elections of 2009.

This increased representation of Muslims is not confined to any one region of UP. Rohilkhand, with a 34 per cent Muslim population, tops the list with 53.5 per cent Muslim representation in various municipal bodies. This is followed by Awadh, west UP, east UP and east UP (north). Even in Bundelkhand with 6.69 per cent, and the Doab with 11.2 per cent Muslim populations, the Muslim share in civic bodies is higher, at 8.87 per cent and 15.62 per cent respectively. If we look at specific civic bodies, the trend is mirrored – there there are 88 per cent Muslim members in Mubarakpur (Azamgarh) and Kakrala (Badayun) nagar palika parishads, and 93 per cent Muslim members in Kheri (Lakhimpur) and Kithor (Meerut) nagar panchayats. These four places represent different regions – east UP, Rohilkhand, Awadh and west UP, respectively. This holds true of other sub-regions too.

One explanation for this expanded Muslim representation is that in urban and semi-urban areas, Muslims tend to cluster around a few pockets. But how did this grassroots upsurge of Muslim representation happen without parties like the SP and the BSP, which have vigorously championed the Muslim cause, but which did not participate in these polls? Is this an indication of the Muslim community’s growing autonomy vis-à-vis political parties? The SP contingent in the Lok Sabha did not contain a single Muslim MP in 2009, despite massive Muslim support for the party. Some Muslim parties, such as the Peace Party and the Qaumi Ekta Dal, have tried to take advantage of this fact and fared well in some pockets of east UP and the Terai belt, but they have yet to become real players in state politics. And yet, it is clear that Muslims are now confidently taking to political contests without the aid of political parties.

Why is this increased Muslim representation in civic government not being replicated in assembly and parliamentary elections? Most assembly and parliamentary constituencies have a mix of rural and urban areas, and Muslim localities in rural areas may not be populated densely enough to give Muslim contestants an edge on the basis of community support. They have to reach out to the entire electorate, in which political parties play a crucial role. The rising number and growing clout of Muslims in urban government have the potential to genuinely improve their lives. This grassroots empowerment will achieve more than anything the Akhilesh Yadav government promises about acting on the Ranganath Mishra commission and the Sachar committee’s recommendations. Now, we must watch how these Muslim-dominant civic bodies function.

www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1001172/

SEE ALSO:

• Reservation In Promotion Needed To Ensure Representation In Governance Structure – By Vidya Bhushan Rawat (Sep 6, 2012, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/rawat060912.htm
• Promoting justice – By P.S. Krishnan (Sep 8, 2012, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl2918/stories/stories/20120921291810700.htm

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Sedition? Seriously? – Editorial (Sep 11, 2012, The Hindu)

“Take again Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code,” Jawaharlal Nehru said during a parliamentary debate centred around freedom of speech in 1951. “Now as far as I am concerned that particular Section is highly objectionable and obnoxious and it should have no place…in any body of laws that we might pass. The sooner we get rid of it the better.” Ironically, the sedition clause not only remains on the statute book but is used periodically against human rights activists, journalists and intellectuals. The latest victim of this anachronistic colonial era law, for which the maximum punishment is life imprisonment, is a young cartoonist, arrested for no more than lampooning the corrupt and venal state of affairs in the country. Even if one were to admit, for the sake of argument, that some may find his work offensive or in bad taste, it is bizarre and unpardonable that he should be put behind bars on charges that include exciting “disaffection” towards or bringing “hatred and contempt” against the government.

The use of sedition to silence speech has a long and infamous history in this country. When Mahatma Gandhi was charged with exciting disaffection in 1922, he pleaded guilty, saying cheekily that “affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law.” Prosecuted twice, Bal Gangadhar Tilak sought to know whether he was guilty of sedition against the colonial government or India’s people. Recently, the sedition law was misapplied to convict civil rights activist Binayak Sen and register a case against writer Arundhati Roy and others for speeches they made on Kashmir.

While upholding the sedition law, the Supreme Court said it should apply only to cases where an accused person intended to create public disorder or incite violence (Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar). However, in carrying out arrests and slapping charges, the police and their political masters have rarely, if ever, respected this restriction. In the wake of the ruling against Binayak Sen, Veerappa Moily, then Law Minister, had announced there was a need to review the sedition law.

With the continuing misuse of the law, however, there is only one reasonable course: scrap it at once, and quickly. It is no accident that the other charges against cartoonist Aseem Trivedi are the controversial ‘hate’ and ‘insult’ provisions in the Information Technology Act and the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act. What constitutes an insult, what causes offence, and what can be construed as hate are deeply subjective issues. This ambiguity gives governments the legal handle to exercise an insidious form of censorship and control that goes well beyond the “reasonable restrictions” on free speech that the Constitution allows.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article3882414.ece

SEE ALSO:

• ‘If Speaking The Truth Is Sedition, Then I Am Guilty’ – By Aseem Trivedi (Sep 10, 2012, Outlook)
  http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282245
• Aseem Trivedi’s arrest shows how colonial-era sedition laws lend themselves to abuse – Editorial (Sep 11, 2012, Times of India)
  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/16341516.cms
• Sovereignty in India has historically been seen as belonging not to the people but to the State – By Ashok Malik (Sep 22, 2012, Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/story_main53.asp?filename=Op220912EDITOR_CUT.asp
• Criminalising Dissent: Consequences of UAPA – By Anushka Singh (Sep 22, 2012, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2012_47/38/Criminalising_Dissent.pdf

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The Invisible Dead – By Revati Laul and Anil Mishra (Sep 22, 2012, Tehelka)

Anthony Khujur was only 24 when he succumbed to cerebral malaria. His mother Dilo Bai’s staccato narrative, punctured with sobs, tells how doctors did not diagnose the problem that caused his death on 24 August. For his family, Anthony will ever be missed; for the state of Chhattisgarh, he is not even a statistic. Officially there have been no malaria deaths in 2012. Anthony Khujur has slipped between the cracks. He is one of Chhattisgarh’s invisible dead. Anthony lived in the very green village, Ghutrapara, in north Chhattisgarh. This is not the part of Chhattisgarh that makes it to national headlines. It has no Maoist insurgency and is located in a relatively prosperous district called Sarguja. Ambikapur, the biggest town in the district and not far from Ghutrapara, is a busy trading centre connected by a clear, straight road to Anthony’s village. There is even a practising doctor – Dr Santosh Singh, with an MBBS degree – in the adjoining village, barely a 10-minute walk away. In short, this is not Chhattisgarh’s heart of darkness.

Dr Singh said he’d been treating Anthony for malaria every year for as long as he could remember. This year too, he saw Anthony, treated him and apparently the patient had recovered. A month later, however, he fell ill again. This time his family did not take him back to Dr Singh. When Anthony’s condition worsened, he was taken to the Mission Hospital in Ambikapur where he died. His mother said they had no idea malaria was still lurking in his body. He was being treated for secondary diseases – jaundice and typhoid that stemmed from the original malaria condition. That’s why Anthony is a non-statistic. Malaria is not just a seasonal predicament in Chhattisgarh. It is its secret epidemic, and kills many more people than the Maoist insurgency. Deliberately or otherwise, everybody is blind to it. So was TEHELKA till 15 June, when this magazine lost one of its own – and an anonymous, unknown health crisis began to haunt us.

Tarun Sehrawat was 23, and excited to be on assignment in Chhattisgarh. It was a high-risk assignment, he was accompanying reporter Tusha Mittal into the jungles of Abujmarh in the Bastar region in south Chhattisgarh. This was the inner core of the red zone in the state and a dense and sparsely inhabited forest that, it is said, even Akbar’s army and British surveyors had left alone. Tarun expected to face danger from Maoists. What got him, however, was a more insidious and much more silent enemy. Tarun returned from Abujmarh and a week later, he developed a fever and soon developed jaundice and typhoid. As his friends and family watched, bewildered, he slid into a coma. A month-and-a-half later, at Medanta in Gurgaon, among India’s best equipped hospitals, doctors finally took him off life support. He had recovered from the malaria. But suddenly, he was hit by a massive brain haemorrhage. Just like that, he was gone.

In the Greek epics, the clue was a ball of wool that Theseus took with him as he entered the labyrinth, rolling it out gradually to help him retrace his steps after he had killed the monster. After Tarun’s death, his colleagues at TEHELKA were left on the other side of the labyrinth, wondering what mysteries and what monsters lived inside, what conditions made malaria and other fevers like the one Tarun suffered from, such a killer. For Tarun’s sake, it was important to enter the labyrinth and interrogate that monster. We owed him that much. The maze of statistics surrounding malaria in Chhattisgarh is caught in a snare of lies and Stalinist statistics. Falciparum malaria is known all over the world to kill between 1-3 percent of its patients. In the UK, for instance, the Journal of Infection recorded in 2007 that 1 percent of those infected with falciparum malaria had died – that’s 10 of the 1,500 infected. Perplexingly, Chhattisgarh’s reports seem to defy all medical odds. According to data sent to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in New Delhi, 1,90,590 people had malaria in Chhattisgarh in 2007. Of these cases, 1,44,766 cases – 75 percent – were falciparum. Bizarrely there were only three recorded deaths – making for a death rate of 0.00002 percent.

Since the official data can’t be relied on, people working on malaria in the state have had to find other ways of estimating the size of the problem. The State Health Resource Centre for Chhattisgarh, an autonomous public body, relies on another statistic: the Annual Parasite Index (API), which measures the number of people affected in thousands. If an area has an API measure of over five, that’s five deaths in a 1,000 people, then by WHO standards it is considered an epidemic. In Chhattisgarh, the API for malaria is above five in 79 of the 146 blocks across the state. In the forests of Dantewada – 42 blocks have an API of over 10. In some it’s over 100. The worst affected areas are not just in the Bastar forests, but equally in the comparatively tranquil north. Here the defunct public health system cannot hide behind the conflict. Dr Yogesh Jain runs a non-profit health centre on the outskirts of Bilaspur in the north. His patients are largely tribal poor from the surrounding forests and malaria is a huge concern. In 2010, his centre, the Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS), mapped the cases in just one of the 10 blocks in Bilaspur – an area called Konta. Dr Jain and his colleagues counted more than 100 malaria deaths in just that one block. In all 10 blocks, he deduced, there would be at least a 1,000 deaths that year. The official figure for that entire district was just nine.…

http://tehelka.com/story_main53.asp?filename=Ne220912Coverstory.asp

SEE ALSO:

• The DIY Maoist Manual – By Toral Varia Deshpande (Sep 8, 2012, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282110

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