INDIA HONOUR KILLING: A real crime!

Prof Rajita Chaudhuri follow some off-beat trends like organizing make up sessions

Supporting honour killings is most shameful

India is clearly burning. From terrorism, internal instability, and the separatist elements' movement to the price rise and much more, the country has more reasons to worry about today than ever before. However, behind all these, the issue that is silently becoming a grave concern is honour killing. It is such a concern not because it kills 100 people every year, but because it shows the primitive mindsets we still carry. During the last few months, incidents of honour killing have grabbed enough space in Indian media. The issue got special attention with the inhuman punishment that one girl Imrana was given. She was set on fire inside her house by her brothers because she was accused of befriending Irfan, before she was finally rescued by neighbours. The most recent case of honour killing that has garnered enough attention concerned the deaths of Monica, her husband Kuldeep and cousin Shobha by her own brother and his friends Mandeep Nagar, Nakul Khari and Ankit Chaudhury. Even on July 5, when the media was busy covering the "Bharat bandh" and its consequences, three cases were reported in a leading English daily. Uttam Kumar and Anju, who met at Safdarjung Hospital and wanted to marry against their families' wishes, were ruthlessly murdered allegedly by Anju's family members. Umesh and Jyoti who got married against their families' permission in Delhi, reported that Jyoti's family has allegedly beaten up Umesh's father and had threatened to kill the couple. Two more teenagers in love were allegedly tortured to death for breaking barriers of religion in Fatehabad district of Haryana.

Although, the issue of honour killings is a big concern globally, especially in the Middle East, Europe and South Asia, it is unique in India. A country with huge diversity in terms of caste, creed, community and religion is bound to experience resistance when it comes to inter-caste or inter-religion marriages. Surprisingly, honour killings are rare in South India, Maharashtra and Gujarat. What is more surprising is that no honour killing has been reported over the last 100 years in West Bengal, perhaps, because of the teachings, hard work and contributions of reformists like Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Vidyasagar and Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Only northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Bihar and parts of UP witness severe cases of honour killing. Reasons are diverse. Strong community sense of Jat, Gujjar and other communities and insecurity of keeping their race pure and separated is one of them. Poor representation of women at local level and women's negligible engagement in socio-economic development is the other. Religion is another prominent reason behind such brutal killings. Over 100 killings take place every year in India as against over 5,000 globally. Surprisingly, honour killings have increased in educated and rich families indicating that it is not a result of poverty and illiteracy. The increase in the income and migration to metro cities is leading young people to find their partners by themselves rather than going by their parents' choice. This is threatening the social trend that the parents have inherited since years.

India has no specific laws to deal with honour killings. Though the government has promised that it will pass a Bill in the Monsoon Session, little has been undertaken at the policy level to curb this heinous crime. This also needs stronger participation of government and the NGOs. More importantly, the constructive engagement of the community is very much required!

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Left isn't right

IIPM Prof Arindam Chaudhuri on Our Parliament and Parliamentarians' Work

Its 'secular tactics' may not save LDF from an imminent electoral rout. The 'tactical policies' it adopted in the last elections will return to haunt the front, writes K. Sunilkumar

Left parties, especially Communist Party of India (Marxist), always flaunt their 'secular' credentials. In every election in Kerala, the main leftist propaganda is that they never dilute their anti-communal stance.

But the people of Kerala cannot forget the image of Abdul Nasar Madani, chairman of People's Democratic Party (PDP), sharing the Left Democratic Front (LDF) campaign platform in Ponnani with CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. It was a joint 'secular' campaign for Dr. Hussain Randathani, the Independent candidate of the LDF in the last Lok Sabha election. Madani was imprisoned for eight years in connection with the Coimbatore blast that occurred on February 14, 1998. He is now listed as the 31st accused in the Bangalore blast case. Madani's party whole-heartedly supported LDF in the election and campaigned for the victory of Left candidates. But Madani was not alone in his support for the comrades. Indian National League (INL), which broke away from Indian Union Muslim League, has had an informal alliance with LDF for 14 years. Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim 'fundamentalist' organisation (as portrayed by the CPM leaders) also supported the left 'secularists'.

Moreover, the Sunni Muslim organisation led by Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliar, an orthodox leader who publicly opposes the entry of women into politics and even education for Muslim girls, clandestinely helped the leftists in Kerala. This 'secular circus' was played out with an eye on a possible victory in some Lok Sabha seats in Malabar area.

Kerala Congress (J), led by P. J. Joseph, infamous in a case of molestation on board an aircraft, represented the Christian sections in the state. Unfortunately, voters sabotaged these calculations. LDF could win only three of the 20 Lok Sabha seats. Within the next six months, in byelections to three Assembly seats, voters rejected LDF's 'secular agenda' yet again. These electoral setbacks and pressures from in and outside the CPM forced the party to alter its election tactics and strategies. Factional fights in the party and the departure of allies from the Front have severely trimmed the LDF. The Janata Dal (S) led by M.P. Veerendra Kumar, a theoretician of anti-globalisation politics, broke away from the alliance thanks to differences with the CPM leadership during the Lok Sabha elections. The party has now joined the United Democratic Front (UDF), which favours globalisation.

A few days ago, Kerala Congress (Joseph) walked out of LDF and merged with Kerala Congress (Mani), led by K. M. Mani, a senior political leader in Kerala. KC (M) is a UDF constituent. INL has also snapped its ties with LDF and is now in negotiations for return to the mother organisation, IUML, the second largest party in UDF. Following the Central leadership's inference that the alliance with Madani had damaged the party's image in the LS polls, CPM has been showing disenchantment with it.

After police action during an agitation against mass eviction for a four-lane road to Kinaloor (Kozhikode) organised by Solidarity (youth organisation of Jamaat-e-Islami) and political parleys with Muslim League leaders, the Jamaat has turned into a 'class enemy' for the Marxists. Now CPM and LDF are trying to make new allies to cover the losses and improve their prospects in the coming elections. Two crucial polls are ahead for the Kerala CPM and LDF in the next 11 months.

As Muslim and Christian minority parties shun the comrades, the latter have begun to move in the opposite direction and are wooing Hindu votes. CPM has already started its new strategic shift to woo some major communities in the Hindu fold. The party leadership has started a blame game against minority organisations and are molly-coddling Hindu outfits like NSS and SNDP.

An indication of this shift is evident from statements and writings of top leaders of the party. The first shot was fired by from Pinarayi Vijayan through his categorical allegation that Christian bishops were responsible for scuttling the merger of Kerala Congress factions. And V. S. Achuthanandan, chief minister of Kerala, jumped to the conclusion that 'Muslim and Christian communalism is on the rise in the state.' He accused the Congress of backing such communal elements.

Congress and UDF leaders have alleged that Achuthanandan and CPM are trying to play the Hindu card for the next election. K.M. Mani, leader of Kerala Congress, has questioned the CM's statement on legal grounds because 'it is against certain communities.' Senior Congress leader and Union overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi, too, alleged that the CM's statement blaming the Congress for the growth of Muslim and Christian communalism was "a political ploy to appease the majority community and the RSS'.

After the CPM politburo issued a clarification in this regard, the party's stand vis-a-vis this new strategy was finally out in the open.

'The politburo noted that various communal and caste forces are being mobilised against the LDF government. These forces are sought to be consolidated behind the Congress-led UDF. The increasing intervention of religious and communal bodies in politics does not augur well for the secular polity in Kerala,' said the politburo statement issued after its meeting held in Delhi on June 5 and 6.

According to some political observers, the shift in the CPM stand is a move to make new alliances or whip up Hindu sentiments against the minorities. 'In the last two decades, CPM has tried to woo minorities in the state. They succeeded to some extent. But after the last Lok Sabha elections proved that it cannot derive any gains from the minorities, the party began to woo Hindus,' says B.R.P. Bhaskar.

He also argues that the CPM in Kerala is a party that is dominated by Hindu members. 'The minority population in the state is 44 per cent, but only 20 per cent of CPM's membership is made up of people belonging to the minority communities,' Bhaskar explains.

The Sangh Parivar, especially BJP, which has been trying to make headway in Kerala politics, have also come out strongly against at the new 'duplicitous' strategy of the CPM. 'Christian and Muslim fanatics who stood with CPM for a while ditched them at a time when they were needed the most. All of a sudden, the leftist forces are now desperately trying to project themselves as the sole secular face in a bid to win back the trust of the Hindu voter,' Haindava Keralam, a pro-Hindu website, recently wrote.

However, political observers in the state believe that the new 'secular tactics' may not save LDF from an imminent electroal rout. The 'tactical policies' that it adopted in the last elections are still quite fresh in the minds of the people and these memories are likely to return to haunt the Kerala Marxists and their allies in an election that, like the recent municipal polls in West Bengal, will be a litmus test.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Economy: Is us facing great depression

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American families are about to lose unemployment benefits, health insurance, or both

Paul Krugman Economist and NYT Columnist

What's the greatest threat to our still-fragile economic recovery? Dangers abound, of course. But what I currently find most ominous is the spread of a destructive idea: The view that now, less than a year into a weak recovery from the worst slump since World War II, is the time for policymakers to stop helping the jobless and start inflicting pain.

When the financial crisis first struck, most of the world's policymakers responded appropriately, cutting interest rates and allowing deficits to rise. And by doing the right thing, by applying the lessons learned from the 1930s, they managed to limit the damage: It was terrible, but it wasn't a second Great Depression.

Now, however, demands that governments switch from supporting their economies to punishing them have been proliferating in op-eds, speeches and reports from international organisations. Indeed, the idea that what depressed economies really need is even more suffering seems to be the new conventional wisdom, which John Kenneth Galbraith famously defined as 'the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability.'

The extent to which inflicting economic pain has become the accepted thing was driven home to me by the latest report on the economic outlook from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an influential Paris-based think tank supported by the governments of the world's advanced economies. The OECD is a deeply cautious organisation; what it says at any given time virtually defines that moment's conventional wisdom. And what the OECD is saying right now is that policymakers should stop promoting economic recovery and instead begin raising interest rates and slashing spending.

What's particularly remarkable about this recommendation is that it seems disconnected not only from the real needs of the world economy, but from the organisation's own economic projections. Thus, the OECD declares that interest rates in the United States and other nations should rise sharply over the next year and a half, so as to head off inflation. Yet inflation is low and declining, and the OECD's own forecasts show no hint of an inflationary threat. So why raise rates? The answer, as best I can make it out, is that the organisation believes that we must worry about the chance that markets might start expecting inflation, even though they shouldn't and currently don't: We must guard against 'the possibility that longer-term inflation expectations could become unanchored in the OECD economies, contrary to what is assumed in the central projection.'

A similar argument is used to justify fiscal austerity. Both textbook economics and experience say that slashing spending when you're still suffering from high unemployment is a really bad idea ' not only does it deepen the slump, but it does little to improve the budget outlook, because much of what governments save by spending less they lose as a weaker economy depresses tax receipts. And the OECD predicts that high unemployment will persist for years. Nonetheless, the organisation demands both that governments cancel any further plans for economic stimulus and that they begin 'fiscal consolidation' next year.

Why do this? Again, to give markets something they shouldn't want and currently don't. Right now, investors don't seem at all worried about the solvency of the U.S. government; the interest rates on federal bonds are near historic lows. And even if markets were worried about U.S. fiscal prospects, spending cuts in the face of a depressed economy would do little to improve those prospects. But cut we must, says the OECD, because inadequate consolidation efforts 'would risk adverse reactions in financial markets.'

The best summary I've seen of all this comes from Martin Wolf of The Financial Times, who describes the new conventional wisdom as being that 'giving the markets what we think they may want in future ' even though they show little sign of insisting on it now ' should be the ruling idea in policy.' Put that way, it sounds crazy. Yet it's a view that's spreading. And it's already having ugly consequences. Last week conservative members of the House, invoking the new deficit fears, scaled back a bill extending aid to the long-term unemployed ' and the Senate left town without acting on even the inadequate measures that remained. As a result, many American families are about to lose unemployment benefits, health insurance, or both ' and as these families are forced to slash spending, they will endanger the jobs of many more. And that's just the beginning. Even conventional wisdom says that the responsible thing is to make the unemployed suffer. And while the benefits from inflicting pain are an illusion, the pain itself will be too real.


An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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The bone of contention

IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri: The New Age Woman

My recent columns might suggest that I have become a bit of a grave-hugger but fear not dear reader, it is but chance and coincidence that this piece follows the one that went before. But here’s a letter that I just had to deliver…

To the Nobel Committee (And whoever else cares to listen)

Dear people of the Prize, greetings from the land of the dead…

I’ve been dead for long… one month and seventy four years to the day, to be precise. And yet, not a day slips by when I don’t toss and turn whatever remains of me in my grave… for I just can’t RIP.

Homes, towns, barracks and borders rest in easy peace because of me, and yet I know no peace… for here I lie, all forgotten in my grave.

I concede I was no statesman, no diplomat of name, who flew around the world, brokering war and peace. I admit I was no evangelical do-gooder trying to heal the world nor fought for the rights of those wronged, and yet I feel that the “the world’s most prestigious prize” – the Nobel Peace Prize could’ve been mine.

You sneer and snigger and wonder why I, Max Von Stephanitz, a veterinary student and a mere captain in the king’s cavalry, ought to be rewarded thus for the fact that I bred a dog… but my word, what a dog!

Rural Germany of that time had a variety of intelligent canines, some herding sheep, others protecting homes. While each had its strengths, I wondered if I could blend all these qualities to create a super dog. With my experience in veterinary sciences I set about the task of unifying these varied breeds and creating what came to be known as the Deutscher Schaferhund or The German Shepherd Dog - a task that in terms of vision and difficulty rivaled Bismarck’s attempts to unify Germany.

Once the breed had been created, it was a picture of beauty and strength, and loyalty, devotion and intelligence that was supreme amongst the canine race. The first registered GSD was a dog called Hektor (later renamed Horand) and he epitomised all these qualities. The GSD was a companion and a colleague that shepherds were glad to have by their side.

However with the Industrial Revolution, the sheep and their pastures disappeared and even this great super dog started losing relevance in the rapidly developing industrial economy of Germany. It was at that point that I realised that the GSD, with its versatile intelligence and tremendous physical capabilities, could be just as much of a trusted ally in the city. And so, I recommended the breed to the local police force. Here the breed’s ‘kampftrieb’, its desire and ability to be protective of those and that it considered its own and that acute ability to use its nose and have the steadfast courage to follow the scent to the ends of the earth made the GSD into an instant hit. Police stations around the country wanted them. I was thrilled with the success of my dogs. But a dark cloud loomed over Europe. The First World War erupted in the summer of 1914 and yet, even this unfortunate event couldn’t blight the glory of the GSD. The dog was an able comrade for soldiers in battle, as a sentry, as a search and rescue dog who sought and saved wounded soldiers and as a brave messenger who let neither bullet nor shrapnel deter it from its mission. And before you point a finger at me for seeking a ‘Peace Prize’ for creating a war weapon, keep in mind that the GSD was committed to saving lives not taking them… a canine version of the Red-Cross.

Like Bob, for instance… Germans Shepherds won numerous gallantry awards but even amongst them, Bob was special. During the war, many wounded soldiers would’ve bled to death or of their wounds if Bob hadn’t found them in the dead of night. Red Cross volunteers would search through the night but they could never be sure that they had rescued all from amongst the corpses. That’s when Bob would be pressed into action and this big German Shepherd, regardless of the soldier’s nationality, would find the wounded that the volunteers had missed, thus saving countless lives.

The GSD won fans across nations and enemy lines. And soon it became the most popular breed in the world. I was elated and I died a happy man.

From my final resting place, I observed the rise and rise of the GSD. It has busted crime by capturing drug smugglers; become eyes for the blind and ears for the deaf and given them freedom and independence; protected homes and people from violent crime; kept our streets safe by sniffing out criminals and acting as a deterrent; rescued sleeping families from poisonous gasses and fires; saved lives and limbs of men women and children from Afghanistan to Angola by detecting bombs, explosives and land-mines around the world, making our world a safer place for you and your children and rescued people buried rubble.

Tell me Committee, aren’t these achievements comparable even to an alarmist IPCC, a two week old American President, a scam riddled UN or the contributions of leaders with blood on their hands like Kissinger and Arafat. And just in case you are considering, I know that you don’t dole out posthumous prizes. But you see I’m not asking for it for myself. You could give it to the SV(Society for the GSD). It would mean a lot to the people and their dogs who took man’s best friend and made it better…

Until then I’ll haunt these halls, watching you as you anoint others and suffering silently in my grave, along with those thousands of GSDs who died violent deaths so that you may live and know peace…

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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ROBIN HOOD MARKETERS

Though all their efforts, both in terms of branding and advertising, might bear fruits, the key to long term success for an NGO is still held by the level of transparency it maintains in its operations. Anibrata Pramanik, Network Co-ordinator, Griha Adhikar Mancha (a Kolkata-based NGO) explains, “If we are not transparent, we can not function at all. True governance, transparency and accountability are our main flanks.” In fact, going a step further, NGOs are now increasingly adopting new transparency measures like social accounting and audit to establish higher credibility. So much so that over 240 NGOs have published their annual reports for the last year, and all these were actually published voluntarily. As per Sanjay Patra, Director, Financial Management Services Foundation, “Governance is another issue that plays a critical role. Earlier governance was not given much importance, but the time has changed. Today an NGO can also promote itself in terms of having good governance.”

Despite all, there are still many who believe that if NGOs go down the marketing path, they will lose contact with the grassroots in favour of formulating strategies and campaigns, which are geared towards the country’s middle classes. “NGOs should stick to their roots and do what they do best – focus on empowering the disenfranchised, and encourage mass mobilisation to hold the government to account,” says Nicola Macnaughton, a volunteer with Voluntary Service Overseas (an international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries) in her blog. This perhaps might be the reason that many NGOs in India still shy away from using marketing tools due to its links with capitalism. Still, one cannot deny the fact that most of them are now increasingly drawing on marketing techniques, be it paid advertising, branding, celebrity endorsement programmes, and audience profiling, to project their messages and to raise funds.

As more NGOs mushroom within the country, the time has arrived when a mere tag that one is operating in the social sector is not enough for subsistence. This clearly calls for the creation of a positioning statement (both in the minds of the donors and the beneficiaries), be it in terms of branding, recall, transparency, or governance. And that can only come if these modern day Robin Hoods start embracing innovative marketing tools in their fund raising strategies and acting more like cutthroat marketing corporations than like pure and simple social service organisations. Clearly, Sisters of Charity – however committed – is not necessarily an example of what other NGOs today wish to become. A war was never won on an empty stomach... neither was social transformation.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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