Chennai: Slapping cases and arresting dissenters has become the order of the day under the present AIADMK government. Particularly, activists, men and women who fight against Vedanta’s Sterlite copper plant in Tuticorin and the eight-lane Salem-Chennai green corridor project are bestowed with generous amount of ‘false’ cases. 

For instances five persons who were granted bail by Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Friday have a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 90 cases filed against them for confronting Sterlite. The modus operandi adopted by the police against them is;  slap fresh cases against each person who comes out on bail and send them to jail again. The police freely use the stringent Goondas Act and National Security Act (NSA) as a weapon of repression against the dissenters while the government continues to brand all the people who are against the government as ‘naxalites’, says advocate Jim Raj Milton S, of People’s Right Protection Center. He noted that an atmosphere has been created by the government such that the pro-Sterlite propaganda videos are doing rounds on social media and statements of Sterlite Copper’s chief executive officer P.Ramanath gets coverage in mainstream newspapers while the voice of the dissenters were repressed.

At least 40 anti-Sterlite protesters were arrested by the police including two advocates. While one got bail the other Hari Raghavan is still in jail with a total of 93 cases slapped against him, Milton said.

The state government, according to Lena Kumar of May 17 Movement, has booked P.Maniyarasan of Thamizh Thesiya Periyakkam (TTP) for a speech he made way back in October 29, 1991 and an arrest warrant has been issued against him. Similarly the state government has gone on appeal in a higher court in a case which dates back to 1988 against Pozhilan of Tamizhaga Makkal Munnani (TMM) in which he was acquitted by a lower court.

Environmental lawyer D.Nagasaila told Mirror that during a panel discussion held in Chennai on Friday in which Sterlite CEO Ramanath participated she made it clear that it’s unfair from the part of the state government and Sterlite to keep on arresting people and creating a climate of fear and terror. 

“In Tuticorin the suffering of the people is real. The problem is just there. There is no point in circumventing the issue by accusing some external elements or naxalites,” she said.

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Some Facts:

*Bangladesh had its last major cyclone in 2007.  

*Santa Cruz in Mumbai recorded very heavy rainfall of 994 mm in 2005 while Colaba received only 10 percent of that amount of rain on the same day.

The Chennai-based, self-taught weatherman Pradeep John has such countless information stacked up with him, if not for lack of time, he would apprise anyone seeking information on weather on captivating facets of nature.

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Some take away from a conversation with Pradeep John (his blog: tamilnaduweatherman.com):

Weather is unpredictable.

It’s perilous to predict rains and cyclones.

It would be too haughty to pinpoint a specific reason like climate change, El 

Nino factor et al for the quirks of nature.

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His Life

The winds called him. He followed. This is Pradeep John’s story of romance with monsoon.

For this weatherman the curious affair with rains began with a cyclonic storm which swept Chennai on October 1994. It was northeast monsoon season.  Pradeep, 12 then a class VII student, was asleep. His father Ramachandran, a government servant, mother Monickarasi and brother Dileep Daniel were in the house. It was around 1 am when the sound of heavy rains pounding on concrete and howling winds, followed by power outage roused him from sleep.

Pradeep remembers rain and winds raging throughout the night. A holiday was declared for schools next day. The streets were water-logged. Trees were uprooted; in his own yard a drumstick tree which he was fond of was not spared by the winds either.

Pradeep later learnt that the wind speed on that night was somewhere around 100 km per hour. The city on a single day recorded a rainfall of over 250 mm.

That stormy October night stirred his curiosity  and drew him towards observing and studying rain and wind patterns.

Pradeep recalls he used to dig pits near his house. When it rains he used to check how much water gets collected in them. Such small experiments, observations, extensive reading of weather reports published in newspapers and experience turned him into a self-taught and acclaimed weatherman.

The next copious rains which was etched in his memory, Pradeep remembers, was in 1996. It was southwest monsoon season. The city recorded 700 mm rainfall on a single day; the highest amount of rainfall recorded by the city in the last 200 years.

The young Pradeep consistently and carefully read the weather forecasts published with MSLP (Mean Sea-Level Pressure Analysis) in an English daily. He saved the paper cuttings of the forecasts.

“Note that was a time when there was no television or computers in our houses. All that we had was a radio,” Pradeep recalls.

Naturally he was interested in Geography. But his parents wanted him to study engineering. So he did BE Computer Science course in a city college. His brother went on to do MBBS course.

Pradeep says that till the year 2005-06 he didn’t have much knowledge about weather prediction.

He started blogging in 2008. By 2015 he had friends such as K.Eshan Ahmed of KEA Weather Blog in Chennai and Rajesh Kapadia of (Vagaries of the Weather blog) Mumbai. A senior blogger Rajesh Kapadia was in fact like a mentor to him, says Pradeep.  Between 2008 to 2014 they were constantly in touch. They shared information mutually. They used to chat or call over phone to clarify their doubts and discuss the weatherpatterns.

Pradeep lately tries to juggle his profession, he holds a managerial post at Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited (TNUIFSL) and his passion, as a weather blogger. There is lot of stress as well, he says. 

“But I enjoy it,” he quickly says.

 “At the end of the day it’s not about the number of blogs I come out with. But the way I am able to stay positively connected with people. I’m there for people who seek credible information,” he says.

One of his priorities is to bust myths and fake news that keeps flooding social media. People do get panicky by such fake news and keeps calling him.

Pradeep doesn’t stop short of merely updating weather report. He chips in with other information such as reservoir level etc, to keep the people informed.

Pradeep John lives with his wife Hannah Shalini and daughter Laura, who is studying class II. Whether Laura is interested in what her father is involved in? 

"She watches clouds sometimes. But only to the extent whether it would rain and there will be a holiday for schools. She is only in class II, he points out.

 Ends

Rahul Gandhi gains confidence, rain barbs at Modi, winks. 

But will it win election for the opposition?

Although Rahul Gandhi’s sterling speech, which could have come packed with more precision and depth, and extreme dramatics seem to have done justice to the position taken by the Congress party in the no-trust motion- to highlight Modi government’s failure to deliver on its promises, it still left one skeptic whether this will do to deal with the Amit Shah+Narendra Modi-led BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

There is some truth when Modi said ‘Congress has no confidence in itself.’ It’s clear that Modi has identified the weakness of the opposition as he once again invoked ‘instability’ factor. “Its lack of confidence was leading Congress to create uncertainty and instability.”

” If you don’t believe in people, you will find yourself on the run,” is something the prime minister should be reminding himself standing before a mirror. The PM’s post is not Modi’s preserve either.

To believe in Swachh Bharat and other trash schemes of his government is asking much.

The four year Modi rule has clearly established his despotic face. People should have by now realized that the ‘son of a poor mother’ is a serious threat to the country’s unity and integrity.

However Rahul Gandhi should realize that raining barbs is no big deal. Winning election is. As the BJP juggernaut, despite its awful performance, moves forward Rahul Gandhi need a well worked out game plan and a strong and united opposition to stop it.

First and foremost he should right away undertake the huge task of forging an across the spectrum opposition unity. The absence of a senior leader to lead the opposition in the crucial election ahead is badly felt.

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Poet Donald Hall is dead. He was 89...

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/06/24/donald-hall-former-poet-laureate/hGJudegZ2p6DkzIshiWvpO/story.html

In photos: On board the ‘Aquarius’

https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/06/11/album/1528712031_037913.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_CC#foto_gal_4

Gonzalo Melchor Five Poems of Ángel González

http://cordite.org.au/translations/melchor-gonzalez/

There is poetry in soccer, say for instance, as demonstrated by the Spanish side which won the 2010 FIFA world cup.
Politics, in contrast, has become a kind of free-for-all wrestling match. Unfortunately, the politics which exists today is that as defined by Machiavelli, whether we like it or not.

According to Machiavelli, if as a ruler you accept that your every action must pass moral scrutiny, you will without fail be defeated by an opponent who submits to no such moral test. To hold on to power, you have not only to master the crafts of deception and treachery but to be prepared to use them where necessary. This we see passionately adhered to by Amit Shah and Narendra Modi.

As a result, with no possibility of fair play, we are left with an AIADMK, a DMK or a TTV Dinakaran while in the Centre, a congress or BJP (one being none the better than other) to choose from...

Hence we wake up to the reality of a Dinakaran victory in R.K.Nagar.

(Machiavelli quote from J.M.Coetzeee’s Diary of a Bad Year).

I feel leaders who are capable of taking on the likes of Modi and Amit Shah are the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav and M.Karunanidhi.  People who are pinning their faith on Rahul Gandhi, it seems, are only day-dreaming.  Rahul Gandhi perhaps would do for the kind of V.P.Singh, but that’s different era. We cannot dream of it today.

I see no silver lining (excluding Jignesh Mevani etc) or consoling traits in today’s poll results.

p.s., civility not while fighting the forces hell-bent on diving the country.

BJP takes gujarat. hope we have no doubt about it? coming as it does after the disastrous demonetisation and GST, among other factors, the BJP has reason to celebrate. The saffron party did ride on the shoulder's of lies and a deceptive campaign...
The BJP would feel emboldened now to carry on with its divisive agenda as the clueless opposition continues to fumble. The congress setback perhaps illustrates the sloppiness of its strategy as it set out to face Modi-Shah duo in their den.
On the other side there is more noise -- self-congratulatory, defensive, condoning voices in favour of the congress and Rahul Gandhi-- that hardly makes sense. An undue haste in giving certificate of efficiency to the young leader is quite visible. But that can wait.

We need to keep in mind that gloating over despite the congress defeat in Gujarat would mean, quite again, lessons not learnt.
(meanwhile hope Prakash Karat is celebrating!).
After the bihar victory in 2015, this certainly is an ongoing descent for the congress-led opposition and unfortunately for the country.

p.s., if the opposition is not willing to bury its differences and get together Gujarat is most likely to repeat itself in the future.

This is how it is!

A mother holding her little daughter’s hand waiting to cross the road. The child in white and green uniform is on her way to a government school in Salem. The mother who is taking her to school cherishes a lot of dreams relating to her child’s future. She should be careful… She will look left and right and right and left before crossing, the highway teeming with traffic, to the other side safely with her daughter.

The mother has to work hard to keep things going for them. She will make sacrifices. She wouldn’t trust her husband.  She should be careful.

The child will grow up to be a woman. She might perhaps do well in her studies, get a job, stand on her own legs (as they say) and choose her own man as life partner as against the wishes of her parents.

The mother might then feel let down. She would challenge her daughter's choice. The daughter would resist... 

The world will try to find scapegoats, point fingers, accuse one of them of being cruel, heartless...  There is no point in it all (though easier said than done). Still there is no point. This is how nature works.

Sing paeans to power or face the music.

In a crackdown on satire, another instance of state trying to bulldoze criticism, silencing dissent; Tirunelveli police arrested a cartoonist Bala for his work lampooning the indifference of the State which  led a family of four self-immolate recently at the Tirunelveli collectorate.

 The family was incessantly harassed by a loan shark despite repeated complaints lodged with the authorities resulting in the rural laborer killing himself, his wife and two daughters.

The cartoon in question, an upshot of frustration caused by the incident, depicts chief minister Edappadi  Palaniswamy, Tirunelveli district collector Sandeep Nanduri and superintendent of police P.Arun Sakthi Kumar, trying to cover up their private parts with a wad of currency notes while a child is ablaze in front of them.

The cartoonist was booked under section 501 (printing on engraving matter known to be defamatory) of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form).  

While Bala is out on bail now it's worth noting that this isn’t the first instance of gagging of free speech witnessed by the state. The message the rulers and their sidekicks seem to be sending out is: don’t call out the vain emperor with no clothes. Sing paeans to power or face the music.

A Green Salute for Self-Confidence!

Activism proclaims self-confidence as it makes it from Silent Valley to Athirappilly.

Translated from Civic Chandran’s piece in Malayalam in Patabhedam.

The Kerala electricity minister M.M.Mani still keeps on reiterating that the Athirappilly hydroelectric project will be accomplished.  He gets chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan undiscerning signature of approval.

Making a case for consensus is the former chief minister.  Amid this a movement which was spearheading the struggle against the project decides to call off its dissent and disband the movement.

Contending that no struggles against the dam anymore but, for river conservation.

What a farce bro? How can activists surrender? Voluntarily scatter and walk away at a time when the struggle demands augmentation?   This climax puzzles the traditional resistance movements. At the least shouldn’t the struggle go on till the revolution? Isn’t activists born to intone Inquilab.

It was in this context a recap becomes necessary to understand the change of tidings beginning from the Save Silent Valley movement until the Athirapilly anti-dam protests.  The old silent valley agitators still grieve that even struggles that are doomed need foot soldiers.

 Meanwhile resistances in Kerala have seen several successes, and many still continue in a bid to achieve the purpose for which they were launched.  The nuclear power projects in Kothamangalam and Peringome were shelved. The Coca Cola company dropped its Plachimada operations and left the place for better.  The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation will not anymore dare to dump wastes at the heart of Vilappilsala with the help of the army. In the film industry the monopoly of ‘Amma’ was challenged by a group of smart damsels. Further has there been a period in contemporary history of the state when women shed self-restraint thrust upon them by the society and went on to provoke families, streets and campuses? Similar is the case of movements which sprang up and flourished without any support from mainstream political parties.

Coming back to Athirappilly struggle, the protesters had ensured that the falls and the Chalakudy River are safe. Besides the tribal people with know-how of forest act and the traders and local people have thrown in their lot with the struggle, since Athirappilly being a tourist centre and they are dependent on it. There have been studies on economical and ecological consequences of the project and the courts and offices were swarmed with petitions against the dam. This was supplemented by an ecologically conscious new generation. Only after instilling self-confidence to the struggle so that it cannot be derailed by a Mani or Pinarayi Vijayan that the movement was disbanded. If not everybody was certain, Latha, Ravi, Mohandas and their friends are in no doubt that a dam across Chalakudy river or Athirappilly is not anymore possible.

Someone will sit somewhere and annoy. Assuming that some drooped coconut will fall on their head so that they can whine, run around and perform `thiruvathira.’ Comrade this isn’t activism. Activism is not dancing to tune of the enemy. We decide the agenda of activism. We are going to function as per our own agenda.  Activists no longer wish to continue as rabbits in the compound of a blacksmith.

In a war of unequal’s, guerilla warfare takes the side of the deprived. It is not when the enemy intends, but when the people does that people agitate. It is not as per the wish of the enemy but as decided by the people that they will protest.  For the self-confidence gained by activism, a Green Salute!

Ends

O.V.Vijayan's Saffron.

(29 September 2017)

O.V.Vijayan, I think, made sure that Ravi wears saffron dhoti, belonging to a Swamini of an ashrama as he leaves his past behind on his journey toward  his `inn’, the village called Khasak.(Was the author aware that `Appu-Killis’ will later on brand him a `RSS man?’). Vijayan also sees to it that the books Ravi carries are `pulp and scripture. ‘

Vijayan perhaps didn’t want his protagonist to be an ‘intellectual.’  Ravi would have passed that phase eons ago…

ENDS.