Let there be copious tolerance, beginning with Onam

By O.J.George

Onam, that feisty festival of Malayalis worldwide, is in, with Thiruonam being celebrated on Wednesday.

Every Malayali knows that Onam denotes plenitude, an excess of everything, no shortage of anything.

If the legends are to be believed, we are setting right a wrong committed against the great demon king, Mahabali, for a day. Mahabali granted a boon, and he kept his word, went down to the nether world in keeping with his tradition of truth, fairness, justice and all.

Let us for a moment think about justice, fair play, and righteousness to rule all over us.

We are plentiful with earthly possessions, and ostentations are overtaking us. But are we tolerant of others’ views and dealings?

Let there be opulence of ideas, thinking, and let variety, which is the spice of life, be encouraged.

Protection of goons and criminals is going to be the single dirtiest trait in Keralascope. It is second only to the copious gulping of so-called foreign liquor. There is nothing foreign or alien about the inebriating liquor.

One should not call it not only intoxicating liquor, but liver-dissolving liquor. Water, spirit, colour and unhealthy substances constitute the so-called Indian-Made-Foreign Liquor.

There is a poromboke cluster of line houses near my residence. Not a single male adult can walk steady because of his habit of liquor gulping. Before he sets out for a coolie work, he has to drink the stuff. “ I need two large, Sir”, he said before starting his daily work. He would not take anything less than Rs 300 a day as wage earner. Much of it is spent on liquor and possibly drugs.

Men of his ilk will wither away within a few years.

Criminal hide-outs are plenty among such habitations, which are congenial for anti-social elements to flourish there.

Coming to Onam thoughts, should we make a decision not to harm another being for temporary gains? I know several people, particularly those who have been adorning seats of decision making, doing wrongs against others for no gain. I can understand, don’t condone, someone taking decisions for selfish gains, but there are a lot who make life miserable for others, osensibly for no benefit. The ilk of Timon of Athens are flourishing.

Then, should we emulate those occupying powerful positions just for some gains? No, one can go against unfair practices, fight against injustice.

There is no thrill in going with the majority, if they are rank worthless beings.

Onam musings should make us cultivate a lot of ideas, even clashes of ideas, thoughts, dissemination of pearls of wisdom. There is nothing much in physical ostentation, the mind should be noble.

A moral lesson should be drawn from Muthoot Paul M George incident
By O J George
The murder of Muthoot Paul M George, allegedly in a premeditated quotation killing act, is gruesome and that is unbearable for the family of the deceased.

A common man who has come across the news of the cowardly act does feel a sense of loss. One can, then, imagine the sense of loss of the family, to whom he was a scion.

All the same, the circumstances which led to the tragic and horrible end should be an eye-opener to those who retain goons to achieve their ends.

Criminals are there for fleecing the retainer as much as they can. They have no love left for those who pay up money for them. It is an issue of one rupee more for them from a different customer.

There is another dimension to the tendency to rope in gangs, which feel eulogized for getting things done in an illegal way. They think themselves the most powerful. If they have political power with them, they are definitely the kings.

The politicians who use them cannot go against them, for their previous wrong-doings would come to the fore, once they go against the very gangs which worked for them.

When business houses and enterprises get things done the quick and mortal way, the legal and constitutional realm gets eroded. Who will go to courts if people can get things done with the help of a few goons, and that too quite quickly.

This also calls for speedy dispensation of justice, otherwise even the judges and the jury will lose their importance.

Political parties should make a decision. Maybe they can win temporarily using goons for a purpose, but the practice will recoil on them one time or the other.

The incidents like the murder of Muthoot Paul M George should come out with all its details so that this would act as a moral lesson for the society.

I salute those who exposed the murder of BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, involvement of his son Rahul Mahajan in drug incidents, the death of the private secretary of Pramod Mahajan in drug consumption, the break-up of the marriage of Rahul Mahajan because of his drug abuse habit and the like.

This acted as a moral lesson and the BJP did not suffer anything on account of the expose.

Business tycoons, industrial houses and big fish should not hobnob with goons. They can very well establish a security set-up in a genuine way. When thousands of trained ex-servicemen and others are available in the country, why should they go after goons?

Perhaps the government should come to the aid of private business houses and tycoons in setting up efficient security regimen.

Free-for-all for goons in Kerala?

BY O J George

No amount of defence against it, people are disgusted with the zenith of goonda raj prevailing in Kerala.At no time, had there been such perversity of non-adherence to law as grievous as now.

Paul M George, a scion of the Muthoot family which has contributed to the economy of the country in a big way, has been murdered in cold blood.

The latest version of the police seems to simply write it off as an altercation between Paul George and a quotation gang of goons at the dead of night.

Paul George was travelling with other dreaded goons, apparently Omprakash and Rajesh Puthenpalam.Earlier, it was believed that both were in police custody.

Now it appears Omprakash is at large and the police has issued a look-out notice for him in connection with other cases.The murder incident unfolds scenes of a play within a play.

Paul George travels with deadly goons. The car driven by Paul George hits a motor-cycle. Paul George speeds off. At that point a gang blocks the car of Paul George arguing about the bike-hit incident.

Due to provocation, the gang members hack Paul George to death.The car driven by Paul George was not his, it was that of a goonda.

Paul George’s car came to the scene a little later, driven by his driver. The driver had gone to fetch the key of the guest house of Paul George.It was found by the driver, after he left Paul George, that the key was actually at the guest house itself. That means there was no need for the driver to leave Paul George to fetch the keys.

Coming back, the driver finds Paul George and another man, Manu lying in a pool of blood. There were two others there. The wounded persons were put in Paul George’s car and taken to Alappuzha medical college hospital.

The goonda’s car was driven off and the occupants left without attending to the wounded persons, including Paul George.

That car was abandoned at Chavara where people got suspicious and alerted the police. A gang came there in the guise of motor mechanics and took away the bags and other things in the car, in the presence of the police.

It is evident the case is being over-simplified to denote that the murder was the result of an altercation. Goons cannot survive if they would not get protection from the ruling echelons. Various political entities use them for various purposes.

Therefore, they cannot be touched. Any number of alibi would be found to fetch an escape route for them.Whatever it is, the situation in Kerala is not wholesome for anyone.

That an industrialist can be done to death in such simplicity does not augur well for the rule of law of the state.

Let the fresh faces bring in much-needed changes in the VS ministry

O.J.George
Thiruvananthapuram: Chingom 1, the first day of the first month of the Malayalam calendar year, could prove to be a bonanza for the LDF ministry in Kerala.

Three persons are being sworn in, with the thinking that freshness would endear the V.S.Achuthanandan ministry to the people. P.J.Joseph has been the most experienced minister in the Achuthanandan Cabinet.

In 2007, he demitted office saying he would be back with his innocence cleared in court. He is taking the oath at the Raj Bhavan tomorrow.The stand-in minister, Mons Joseph, has resigned saying he is giving in to the decision of the party. He has been lucky, to become a minister for one thing, and to continue this long for another.

Just because Finance Minister Thomas Isaac was indulgent only to him among the Kerala Congress representatives, he could see a lot of roads bitumenised.When the money is there even officials could do the work. Of course, there has been no dearth of announcements, like the vision of undertaking Rs 55,000 crore work by 2050 or so.

At the last moment, he hastened to order work worth a 1,000 crore.It would be worth probing why money was not forthcoming during the earlier stint of P.J.Joseph and subsequent term of T.U.Kuruvilla.P J Joseph will not speak out, I am sure.

A lot of people, within and outside, saw to it that Joseph was kept out. Now the court has cleared him, no one can deny him the post due to him.Also there was a concerted effort to keep him out of politics. The polity would have lost a man of accomplishments, experience and knowledge, particularly in the green world. Such cruelty be not inflicted on any human being.Kadannappally Ramachandran is going to be the second minister-to-be. Four decades of his political life had not fetched him a ministership as yet.

And he had not bargained for it either. Now there were several persons asking why he is not being given a post. Even M.P.Veerendrakumar was kind enough to speak in favour of him.

It was good that no one opposed his ministership at the LDF level.Jose Thettayil, the third nominee, is lucky. He has been strongly recommended by Pinarayi Vijayan. Even the Janata Dal leadership did not have much choice.His selection by the party was only a procedural formality.

And Janata Dal cannot have much bargaining power, as the stronger section has left the LDF bandwagon.And what is wrong with Janata Dal having a different person as its minister? Mathew T Thomas himself has agreed to it.

All of them would be ministers at 11.30 am at the Raj Bhavan tomorrow.Let there be fresh attempts to implement Smart City, Vizhinjam port and the like. The collective wisdom may bring in good.

Americans are a scared lot; so they bully innocent people

By O.J.George

The Americans are a sacred lot after 9/11/2001.The general history of the Americans is that they took wars to distant places.

Forget about their war of independence and Lincoln’s war to fetch freedom for the slaves.Otherwise, they would bomb Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and now Pakistan.They had never dreamt that someone would take the war to their homeland, particularly after the world became unipolar.

The Al-Qaeda used American resources like pilot training facilities to fine-tune their suicidal attacks against the heart of America.For sometime, the all powerful George Bush, Jr, was hiding somewhere.

Perhaps, the-then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has to be congratulated on his infusing a semblance of courage to even Bush then.Later actions of the Americans, in the name of war on terrorism, smacked of overcaution arising from fright.A recall of September 11 would be justified.

The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001.On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners.

The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings.Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others.

The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C.The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C.There were no survivors from any of the flights.

It is assumed that the fourth plane was headed towards the White House, luckily the terrorists’ plan was foiled by the passengers.In total 2,974 victims and the 19 hijackers died in the attacks.The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 90 different countries.

The United States responded to the attacks by launching a "War on Terrorism"; invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harboured al-Qaeda terrorists; and invading Iraq to dispose of Saddam Hussein and Iraq's supposed stock of weapons of mass destruction.However, with the exception of chemical weapon traces left over from the Iran-Iraq War, no such weapons have been found.

The US also enacted the USA PATRIOT Act, while many other countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers.Some American stock exchanges stayed closed for the rest of the week following the attack, and posted enormous losses upon reopening, especially in the airline and insurance industries.

The destruction of billions of dollars worth of office space caused serious damage to the economy of Lower Manhattan.The damage to the Pentagon was cleared and repaired within a year, and the Pentagon Memorial was built on the site.The rebuilding process has started on the World Trade Center site.

In 2006 a new office tower was completed on the site of 7 World Trade Center.The 1 World Trade Center is currently under construction at the site and at 1,776 ft (541 m) upon completion in 2011, will become one of the tallest buildings in North America.

Three more towers were originally expected to be built between 2007 and 2012 on the site.No doubt the Yankees’ ego has been crushed. Now they are acting in panic by questioning, frisking and segregating anyone who they think are suspects.

And if there is a Muslim word attached to the name, all hell would break loose. Continental Airlines was not satisfied when Abdul Kalam said he is former President of India.

Now Shah Rukh Khan has been given a shot. Earlier, Kamal Hasan, Malayalam actor Mammootty etc were given the same sort of treatment.George Fernandez, wearing his kurta pyjama, in his capacity as the Defence Minister of India ,was frisked.

Frightened Americans don’t care how the victims feel humiliated. Would they ill-treat Barack Hussein Obama after his Presidency because he sports the word Hussein? Perhaps a little bit of tit-for-tat should be in place to see whether the Americans stop bullying gentlemen on the premise of security check.

The paradox is that those responsible for unleashing the attacks on the Americans are safely hauled up in some holes or crevices with all facilities, in Afghanistan or Pakistan, while innocent people pay the price for their unjustified acts.

Farmers may turn refugees in a big way; help them

By O.J.George
When farmers’ suicide cases were mounting in Maharashtra, particularly in the Vidarbha region, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala etc, I noted a comment made by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

He said something like this. The economy would be dependent on the farm sector for some more time. Those days, the IT sector was in the heydays.

What I feel is, farm sector holding the cards of the economy or life matrix in India would not be for some more time, but for all times to come.

No administrator can ignore roughly 70 per cent of the population making a livelihood from farm operations.

When the livelihood was not forthcoming thousands of farmers took away their own lives.

The corporatisation of farming operations would only drive out the farmers from their means of livelihood.

Agribusiness is the catchword in the corporate sector. In the globalised set-up, governments are prepared to give any amount of assistance to agribusiness.

The thinking is that group farming, leasing of farms, direct procurement of farm products etc would make farming operations profitable.

In effect, these measures would kill subsistence farming of our traditional ryots who would all be driven out from their farmland.

According to one study, about 400 million farmers would be offloaded from their traditional farming operations by 2015, and they would become farmer refugees.

Think of the situation, the comined population of UK, France and Germany is only 200 million. Double the figure would be agricultural refugees who may migrate to cities for some sort of livelihood. Would the cities be able to absorb these refugees as well, when these are already struggling to wipe out the urban slums?

The attempt may be to transform the prevalent food chain replacing traditional farming with the agribusiness.

European Union has been providing massive levels of subsidy to its farmers. Even then the number of farmers are decreasing. Even in the US, there are only an estimated number of seven lakh farmers; of course they use hi-tech equipment for undertaking farm operations.

We wail about free trade agreement with the Asean nations and demand inclusion of more items in the negative list. But that is only a temporary measure. Anyway after 2013, the situation would be level playing. There would be zero duty. We have to prepare ourselves now itself.

There may be zero duty structure, but there is nothing blocking the government from giving indirect assistance to farmers. Banks should be told to offload plenty of money to farmers. Even if there is default in repayment, the same should be borne by the government.

Totally ignoring the farm sector and bringing in agribusiness will not solve the problem, the essential thing is to keep people to maintain at least subsistence level farming, even as all measures are sought to increase production.

Gods should not be looted like this, guard their jewels

By O.J.George

Gods should not be left to fend for themselves like this. Temples are holy places for all God-believers. Forget about whether one is minority or majority.

Gods are adorned with invaluable jewels. No one had the courage to touch temple wealth in olden days. For a curse was attached to anyone snatching away the wealth of the Gods.

Now-a-days, there are people who would do anything, even steal the crown, the embellishments, the jewels and even the principal idols of Gods themselves.

One could see in English films scenes where deadly cobras were kept near valuable diamonds etc so that thieves would not think of taking them away. In the present times, they would not only remove the diamonds or jewels, but also they would hoodwink the hooded slitherers and sell them to drug manufacturers for their venom.

Sir, something is amiss in the safety and security set-up in our state. Maybe, there are specialist thieves who have arrived from neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. They may be trained to strike with ease and slip away with the booty.

Chain snatching incidents are a regular feature now-a-days. Youths roam around on motorcycles and simply snatch gold chains from the necks of unsuspecting women.

Bank vaults are pillaged, houses are burgled, whatever is worth is cornered and rushed off.

It seems ferocious dogs should be reared by devaswoms to guard temple wealth. No one can shirk the responsibility of guarding the life and property of not only men and women but also the spirits. Otherwise, they would strike with double-edged weapons on the most unguarded moment.

Father Badal Chief Minister, son Badal Deputy Chief Minister

By O.J.George

There is nothing constitutionally wrong in the father remaining the Chief Minister and the son being the executive officer in the capacity as Deputy Chief Minister.

Does it have any unethical principles involved? No one can be sure. In developed democratic countries, perhaps the people may not like this sort of serving the people.

In the US, one cannot be President for more than two terms of four years each. Otherwise William Jefferson Clinton, Jr, ie our Bill Clinton, may have continued as President for many more terms.

See the ease with which he secured the release of two journalist girls from the clutches of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, who was overpowered by Bill’s charm.

The latest report is that Kim had tried to do away with those who disclosed his fathering a child through his first love. Everything has been kept secret. What sort of a father he is who would not take care of his children, legal or illegal?

Barack Obama cannot be President after 2016, howsoever popular he could be.

In Russia also, there is such a provision. But Vladimir Putin was not to be cowed down. He saw to the coronation of his acolyte Dmitri Medvedev as the President who nominated our man Putin as the Prime Minister.

Maybe, after Dmitri completes one term, Putin may come back as all-powerful President again.

Let us come to Badals. Father Prakash Singh Badal is Chief Minister of Punjab. Son Sukhbir Singh Badal has been Deputy Chief Minister even as he was not a member of the legislature. After six months, constitutionally, one cannot remain a minister without being a member of the House.

So Sukhbir Singh Badal resigned. But that was not the end of it. Sukhbir has got himself elected from the Jalalabad Assembly constituency and he is Deputy Chief Minister again.

Well, that cannot be dismissed as a Punjabi style. Tamil Nadu has Kalaignar Dr Muthuvel Karunanidhi as Chief Minister even as M.Stalin, his son through the first wife is Deputy Chief Minister.

Kalaignar’s son M.Azhagiri (lately he has changed his name as Alagiri so that North Indians can pronounce his name correctly) through his second wife is Union Cabinet Minister. Kanimozhi, daughter through the third wife, is only an MP.

Go to Jammu and Kashmir. Father Farooq Abdullah is Union Cabinet Minister, while son Omar Abdullah is the Chief Minister of J and K.

Sometimes I think, suppose this should have happened to the Nehru family now, for example, Sonia Gandhi becomes the Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi become ministers, all hell would have broken loose.

Our democracy is still fragile. Let those who can muster people’s mandate rule over us. But let them work for a welfare state under which even as progress and enrichment ensue, poverty should be eliminated in toto.

Spend more and claim Central assistance for natural calamities

By O J George

We should find proper ambience to fetch more assistance from the Centre to deal with disasters, natural calamities and the fury of the elements.

Often what happens is we blame the Centre and its team which tour the state for assessing the damages for getting nothing.

The Central ministers and the Central team members are guided by the norms prescribed by the finance commission.

The states have been given a permanent allocation from the National Contingency and Calamity Fund for dealing with disasters and fury of the elements.

When the Centre looks at the amount given to the states, it always happens that the funds would still be remaining unspent in the account.

Often, this is a technical surplus. The settlement of accounts is reckoned on the basis of utilisation certificates. Such certificates would be issued by the local fund audit or AG after lapse of much time. Till then, even the amount spent would remain technically unspent.

This technical surplus fund availability is being bandied about by the officials before the Central ministers.

There is another problem in the states. The officials follow the guidelines in letter and spirit. There appears to be a direction to the effect that there should be a percentage of the fund kept as unspent balance. The officials do not have the courage to go overboard.

It is here that the State cabinet can take bold decisions. Spend as much money as it can possibly garner from various sources and convince the Centre and its team that the losses are grave.

Usually the State finance minister would be tardy in issuing largesse to deal with any eventuality. The minimal norm is the golden rule for the finance ministers and their officials.

Surplus funds are aplenty in co-operative banks. Take those funds out temporarily and compensate for the losses in disasters and natural calamities. If we overspend, the Centre cannot deny more funds.The Centre will not give anything if the state has funds in the account.

There can be a spirited movement to put pressure on the finance commissions from time to time to rewrite the unrealistic norms. Kerala’s peculiarities, terrain dangers, need for special schemes etc should be highlighted in practicable terms.

This time, the state has demanded grant of Rs 269 crore as Central assistance. The state government has granted an additional amount of Rs 25 crore lately, Revenue Minister K.P.Rajendran has pointed out.

There is a conducive atmosphere at the Centre for securing assistance, if Kerala goes about the task diligently.