POLITICAL DESIGN WORKSHOP

Trafó - House of Contemporary Arts

1094 Budapest, Liliom u. 41. Hungary.

POLITICAL DESIGN WORKSHOP 

Public presentations

25 FEB 2012.

workshop

Our political design workshop is being organized about the possibilities, resources and methods for the communication of political thinking, held by international designers and theoreticians. The aim of the workshop is to gain the theoretical and practical knowledge which helps to form opinions supporting human rights and franchise, and, that promotes social responsibility and solidarity. In the frame of the programme Trafó launches a public presentation and a talk. All are welcome!

Lecturers:

Sethu Das (Kerala, India) designer, co-founder of the Design & People collective

Yvonne P. Dorerer, architect, urban researcher, Professor for Cultural Studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf, focusing on the linkage of urban / spatial theories, gender studies, culture and contemporary art, and runs the „Office of Transdisciplinary Research and Cultural Production“ in Stuttgart

Erőss Nikolett curator & Sugár János artist

Keiko Sei (currently works in Thailand), media theorist, curator

Programme:

> 14.15 – 14.50 Introduction by Nikolett ERŐSS and János SUGÁR

> 15.00- 15.45 Keiko SEI: Political turmoil and Design - The Case Thailand

The new millennium has been the decade of political instability in Thailand. A business tycoon-turned Prime Minister was ousted after a series of rallies and the coup. The country has been divided into two camps that are known as yellow/multi-color shirts and red shirts. In this division the monarchy has been used for political manipulation and maneuver which is becoming more and more intense. Political design has flourished during this period, reflecting on characteristics of both camps, contributing to empower citizens’ movement, while swimming through the complex web of class society. Keiko Sei is going to present the recent examples of political design in Thailand.

> 15.50 - 16.35 Sethu DAS: Social and Political Change Through Design

*Design & People* identify how design can intervene to make a contribution to the on-going efforts to improve the lives of people disadvantaged by war, disability, and political and environmental conditions. We unite and encourage graphic, industrial and architectural designers to use their experience and skills in social and humanitarian projects. *Mission: Design For People In Need.*

> 16.40 – 17.25 Yvonne P. DORERER: The Art of Not Being Governed Like That

The conflicts about the railway and real estate project Stuttgart 21 and the formation of a resistance movement against this project have been the starting point to develop a new section within the exhibition RE-DESIGNING THE EAST Political Design in Asia and Europe by the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart shown from September 25, 2010 to January 2, 2011. This section The Art of Not Being Governed Like That, refering in its title to Michel Foucault, will be introduced and discussed in this presentation.

The presentations are followed by a public discussion, which can be continued in the frame of our workshop organized between 27th-29th February, 2012.

The presentations will be held in English.

Free entrance.

Supported by the ERSTE Stiftung, the EU Culture Programme 2007-2013 and the National Cultural Fund of Hungary. 

Gandhi Clan Blamed for Keeping India in Poverty

The Gandhi dynasty that has ruled India for most of the 64 years since independence has kept the world's largest democracy in poverty, leaders of a protest movement said on Monday as they prepared renewed rallies to target the government on corruption. A three-day fast led by 74-year-old activist Anna Hazare and a plan for thousands of people to picket the home of Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi on New Years Eve will be a test of strength for the anti-corruption movement that forced a government U-turn in the summer.

"India was not destined to be a poor country, India was destined to be a developed country but corruption has kept it poor," said Kiran Bedi, a member of Hazare's inner circle. "Who has exercised corruption? The party in power, and the party in power for the majority of the years has been the Congress party and in the Congress party, the Gandhi family."

India's fast-growing economy is Asia's third largest but many of the country's 1.2 billion people suffer from inadequate nutrition and have no electricity. Hazare plans to begin his hunger strike in Mumbai on Tuesday. Almost 100,000 people have signed up online to express support for a the three-day "fill the jails" protest picketing politicians homes and courting arrest. A fast led by Hazare in August brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets. After initially arresting him and dismissing him as an anarchist, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government caved in to his demands to quickly pass a tougher version of anti-graft legislation first proposed decades ago.

The protests also triggering an ongoing debate about the nature of India's democracy. Hazare's supporters say voting in elections must be supplemented by direct pressure on politicians, while traditional parties say the protests risk "mobocracy." "If hundreds of thousands of people coming onto the street can't get their government to hear their voices, there is something seriously wrong with the way our democracy is being implemented," close Hazare aide Arvind Kejriwal told Reuters.

Corruption scandals have tainted Singh's second term, with a multi-billion dollar telecom scam landing a former minister and other senior officials in jail. The focus on the Gandhi family drew criticism from the ruling Congress party, which accused the protesters of being a front for the opposition. Hazare and his aides have turned their fire on Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul ahead of five state elections in the next two months, accusing the family of amassing too much power and watering down a bill in Parliament for a powerful ombudsman to tackle graft. The protesters are pressuring Parliament to bring the federal police force under the remit of the ombudsman, along with other demands. Parliament is due to debate the bill on Tuesday. "There are one or two people in the ruling party who run the government and run the Parliament," this is not democracy, Kejriwal said.

Three of India's prime ministers since the end of colonial rule in 1947 have come from the family.

Sonia Gandhi is widely considered to be at least as powerful as Singh in the current government, and her son is being groomed to lead the country in the future. The Gandhis enjoy almost regal status, and direct criticism of them is rare outside of political campaigns. Rahul Gandhi is now running the party's campaign ahead of an election in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state, in February. Hazare threatens to campaign against Congress in Uttar Pradesh and four other state elections to be held in the next two months that will serve as a barometer of the government's support half way through its term. "The entire movement has raised very serious and fundamental issues about India's democracy," Kejriwal said. "Is it really by the people, of the people, for the people, or by the party high command, of the party high command, for the party high command?"

Design & People on Arundhati Roy

God of Small Criticisms 

One of the greatest achievements of Anna Hazare movement is that we finally got rid of West-influenced, English-speaking activists such as Arundhati Roy from the traditional leadership role a people's movement in India. Arundhati Roy criticises Kabir for accepting financial support from the Ford Foundation while forgetting the fact she was an integral part of the organising committee of World Social Forum in India sponsored the very same funding-agency.

If Anna has managed to unite the entire nation in less than thirty days, it is simply because he spoke the language of the ordinary Indians, not the language of the elite and the affluent class of this country. English was replaced with Hindi; babus with activists; hypocrisy with simplicity; cowardice with courage and finally — words with action. Victory or failure is not very important in struggles for the goodness of a nation.

(Design & People response to the joint statement issued by Arundhati Roy and The Hindu on Anna Hazare in a story titled "I'd rather not be Anna" published by The Hindu on August 21, 2011)

Occupy Coca-Cola Agitation!

Activists Occupy Coca-Cola Factory In Kerala
(By NAPM, December 17, 2011, Countercurrents.org)

New Delhi: About twenty two members of Plachimada Coca-Cola Virudha Samara Samithi and Plachimada solidarity forum including Vilayodi Venugopal, Sri NP Johnson, N Subramanyan, Fr Augustine, MN Giri, Sahadevan and others, walked in to the premises of the Coca Cola Factory in Kerala state, India and courted arrest. When produced the Magistrate ordered their release on furnishing personal bond but activists refused to take bail in protest against apathy on the part of state government and the delaying and subverting tactics in favour of Coca Cola. NAPM hails the action of these activists and salutes their courage for choosing to do this to bring home the dire need for quick passage of the ‘Plachimada Coca-Cola Victims' Relief and Compensation Claims Special Tribunal Bill, 2011.

It needs to be noted that based on the report submitted by Plachimada High Power Committee appointed by Goverment of Kerala, 'Plachimada Coca-Cola Victims' Relief and Compensation Claims Special Tribunal Bill, 2011' was passed by the Assembly on 24 February 2011. The Bill sent by the Governor of Kerala to the President via the central Ministry of Home Affairs on 30 March, and the Home Ministry in turn has sent it to various related ministries for their comments on 17 April. They were then supposed to forward the Bill to the President with the consolidated comments.

The decision to send the Bill to the President was taken by the State Law Department, although there was no issue of repugnance and hence there was no need for Presidential assent. There is no question of repugnance as the law deals, in its operative part, with entirely state subjects, namely, losses in agriculture, health care, animal husbandry, job loss and groundwater contamination.

Very recently, the Union government has referred the Bill back to State government but till date State Law Ministry has not done anything on this. We fail to understand this delay, when in the State as well as at the Centre Indian National Congress Party is in power in coalition. Is this delay part of a larger design? Is the government trying to serve the interests of the Coca Cola Corporation? It is extremely shameful that the governments at the State and Centre are neglecting the demands of the suffering communities and the elected Gram Sabha. We all know that continuous Satyagraha has been going on since earth day in 2002, which has now completed almost a decade. How long are they expected to wait ?

Amidst all this Kerala government is planning to give distribution rights to Coco-Cola for providing drinking water to government hospitals in Kerala. Union Minister of State for Food Shri KV Thomas declared that months back. It was after sustained people's movements and pressure from the groups across the country which forced the government to enact this special tribunal Bill. It is high time government brought this enactment to force and justice is done to the suffering communities and Coke is held responsible for their Corporate Crimes and made to pay for this. Our struggle to hold the corporations accountable will continue until justice is done to the people.

• People Who Mattered

Anna Hazare

By ISHAAN THAROORDec. 14, 2011, Time Magazine

It's hard to imagine this diminutive, celibate octogenarian being the dynamo behind an entire popular movement. But in India, Anna Hazare cut a Gandhian pose that transfixed the world's largest democracy and put its sitting government's feet to the fire. Hazare's repeated fasts against corruption attracted tens of thousands of supporters and paralyzed India's Parliament. While critics spy corruption within his own ranks and point to Hazare's ties to the Hindu right, his protest channeled the widespread exasperation and anger of India's rising middle class, frustrated with the age-old habits of graft that still dominate much of India's calcified bureaucracy. Corruption is endemic throughout Indian society, but high-profile scandals implicating key figures in the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meant much of Hazare's ire was directed at the top. A bill he and his supporters are pushing would install a national anti-corruption ombudsman that could even call the once immune Prime Minister into the dock. Hazare, a former military man who spent much of his life helping govern his tiny village in western India, summed up his 2011 in a recent interview with TIME: "I am still bemused as to how this all came about. A pauper living in a temple, who has no money, no power, no wealth; for him the entire country united and spoke in one voice."

"India's Best Hospitals" (The Week/HANSA Research)

Kindly see Kolkata section of the Survey. Kindly do not refer this list when in Emergency.

US-Australia Military Alliance: A New Threat to Asia

(Creative Resistance, November 17, 2011)

Mumbai: Running out of ideas to tackle the growing number of Occupy Wall Street protests back at home, the US President Barack Obama is now on a trip to the Big Brother country Australia with his new 'Asian Mission'. 

During his first official visit to Australia, Obama unveiled the American plans to deploy 2,500 US Marines in the Northern Territory in the next couple of years. This was declared during his meeting with the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Though Obama repeatedly said the "latest military ties between US and Australia are not aimed at China or India", it is evident that Washington is determined to teach its Asian 'allies' in the region a military lesson. 

While speaking to a small gathering of supporters, Sethu Das, Co-founder of Creative Resistance said "the deployment of American personnel in Australia is a bigger and serious threat to the Asian region than the threat by China. Unity among Asian nations seems to be the only way to deal with this new threat from the United States." He also added that "Pressure Groups in Asian countries particularly in India have already started campaigns to educate people about the growing threat from the presence of American military personnel and the need to secure peace and harmony in Asian region."

According to Wikipedia, the United States military is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world.

Another Koodankulam Plays Out in Kaiga

(By M Raghuram, DNA, November 6, 2011)

Even as the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is tottering to convince people living around the Kaiga Generating Station (KGS) about the safety issues at Kaiga, 30km from here, people in 20-odd villages around KGS are preparing to launch one of the largest anti-nuclear campaigns, in not just Karwar, but also in Yellapura, Joida, Honnavar, Ankola and Kumta. This is akin to how protest against Koodankulam nuclear plant gained momentum.

In a meeting held in Vajralli, Yellapur taluk, on Friday, representatives of more than 20 villages around KGS converged and voiced their support to the campaign. "We have already secured the support of 41 gram panchayats in Uttara Kannada, mainly in Karwar, Honnavar and Yellapura taluks, out of which 20 have attended the meeting and signed a declaration under the banner of 'Jagruta Janate Horata Samithi' (Action Committee of Awakened Citizens)". The National Health Survey around nuclear power generating stations has already indicated that people living in a 100-km radius are suffering a host of diseases, including cancer, owing to radiation, but KGS authorities are not ready to extend even basic medical facilities to these people, which is a total lack of concern towards the people who live around the KGS,” convenor of the committee, BG Hegade Gerala told DNA.

Nuclear power is cancerous: Pointing at a section of the people in the meeting, Hegade said, "All these people have come from Vajralli and neighbouring villages and each one of them have a cancer patient in their family, if not, they have children born with deformities. This region was full of greenery and sparkling water and perfect weather for healthy living, there is no other pollution but nuclear radiation, so the cause for such cancers and deformities can only be nuclear radiation." Uday Naik, vice-president of the Uttara Kannada Zilla Panchayat, has welcomed the fact that the people are dissenting. "We do not know if it was even safe to have two more units in Kaiga, after what happened in Japan."

At the meeting at Vajralli on Friday, it was decided to stall all permits and clearances that the Kaiga officials seek for the new units. "The village chiefs say that the panchayat raj institutions have the primary right to give permission to any construction. When we called the Kaiga officials to the meeting and give us the details and information about the two proposed units, they did not even care to attend the meeting," said Shyamnath Naik, a member of the Kadra Grama Panchayat.

This is the second cluster of villages that has raised a voice of dissent against the expansion. The previous meeting held in October at Mallapura had seen participation from 34 villages. "We will not give the KGS permits to take up any more construction in their premises and they should know that without the permission of the panchayats, they cannot take up any construction work even if it was for a high-profile project,” said the committee chief RT Bhat. Only last week, the villagers of Mallapura had raised the flag of dissent in a more vehement manner and had blocked the way of minister for fisheries and Karwar MLA, Anand Asnotikar, when he had come to inaugurate the Mallapuram Primary Health Centre. The PHC has not been inaugurated yet.

Kaiga officials, though worried about the developments, are trying to placate the villagers by pointing at the survey made by the National Disaster Management Authority.

Press Release on Kudankulam Nuclear Reactors

The Chairmen of Atomic Energy Commission and Nuclear Power Corporation told the media on 28th October at Mumbai that it is not possible to abandon the Nuclear Reactors under the construction at Kudankulam.  This amounts to warning the people that the safety of Kudankulam reactors will be in  jeopardy due to the blockades by the people who are agitating against the nuclear plants. The allegation that public agitations cause the nuclear plant to face the risk of being seriously damaged and thereby implying indirectly that it poses a threat to public safety is very misleading. Several nuclear power plants have been closed down in USA on the verge of their completion due to unresolved problems of safety and economic viability. In the wake of Fukushima explosion the German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to close down several reactors after realizing that nuclear safety is a myth. The Russian experts who enquired into the safety aspects of Russian nuclear plants in the aftermath of Fukushima reactor explosion concluded that the Russian nuclear reactors do not satisfy safety consideration in many respects and these findings forced people of South Tamil Nadu to agitate for abandonment of such reactors in Kudankulam.  The people anticipate that  failure of the reactors due to a maximum credible accident can result in economic damages worth about 60 lakhs crores of rupees and the death of several lakhs of people in southern parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu states.  The victims of Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan are claiming for compensation amounting to more than 3 lakh crores of rupees and the probability of this nuclear accident may render the Southern states virtually economically bankrupt.

The claim of the Atomic energy officials that they have done the hot run for the Kudankulam reactor and that they cannot go from a hot run to a freeze condition is tantamount to an undeclared nuclear war against the people of Southern districts of Tamilnadu and Kerala.  By conducting the hot run of the reactor they have just loaded the reactor with dummy fuel assemblies which have the same configuration as the real fuel assemblies excluding the enriched uranium fuel and hence the reactor has not gone critical and is not producing any power and hence there is no threat to public safety.  Hence the nuclear plant can be closed down without making any excuses. It is reported that there were more than 430 emergency shutdowns in 1987 in several nuclear plants in the United States and that there were about 500 violations of safety regulations in nuclear reactors in 37 states.  The contention of the officials that most of the fears of the local people are not based on scientific facts but on sentiment is wrong because the Chernobyl disaster and the Fukushima explosion proved without doubt that nuclear safety is a cent percent myth and that the nuclear plants are nothing more than silent killers of mankind and eco systems in the long run.  Even noble laureates who studied about nuclear safety in depth warned that nuclear plants can become nuclear bombs when there are mechanical, electrical or construction failures or human failures, man-made and natural disasters.

Infact the nuclear authorities in the United States prepared Disaster Management plans for the maximum credible accidents to implement remedial measures not only for the radioactive plume pathway zone of 16kms but also for the radioactive pollution Ingestion exposure zone of 80kms from the reactor site. The Kudankulam nuclear plant authorities have violated these standard safety procedures in case of Kudankulam nuclear plant accident with southerly wind direction and thereby lakhs of people of Tirunelveli city and district were not informed that they have to vacate their villages towns and cities within 24 hours of the nuclear accident and stay in distant safer places for about 20 years and return to their lands and houses after decontamination at an exorbitant cost.  If the accident occurs during Southeasterly winds several lakhs of people of Trivandrum city and other towns and villages will have to get evacuated within 24 hours of the nuclear accident and stay in safer places outside for a period of 20 years when they can return for reoccupying their native villages, towns and cities after decontamination of their lands at very expensive cost.  While the atomic energy officials are looking at safety of their reactors and components from the engineering safety point of view the environmentalists and social activists are looking into public safety from the probability of not only mechanical, electrical and operational failures but also from the unforeseen accidents due to internal sabotage, human errors, terrorist attacks, bombings and aeroplane crashes which cannot be always visualized in proper time and remedial measures cannot be taken to avert them.

Prof T Shivaji Rao,

Director, Center for Environemntal Studies,

GITAM University, Visakhapatnam-530045

Phone: 0891-2504902, 2738211

Mobile: 9949319038

Mobile of Personal Assistant: 9885324013

Amnesty calls on Canada to arrest Bush

 Amnesty International called on Canadian authorities Wednesday to arrest and prosecute George W Bush, saying the former US president authorized "torture" as he directed the US-led war on terror. Bush is expected to attend an economic summit in Surrey in Canada's westernmost British Columbia province on October 20.

Design & People against
the American occupation of
Iraq (March 2004)

London-based Amnesty made a case for Bush's legal responsibility for a series of human rights violations in a memorandum submitted last month to Canadian authorities but only now released to the media. "Canada is required by its international obligations to arrest and prosecute former president Bush given his responsibility for crimes under international law including torture," Amnesty's Susan Lee said in a statement. "As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring former president Bush to justice, the international community must step in. A failure by Canada to take action during his visit would violate the UN Convention Against Torture and demonstrate contempt for fundamental human rights." Lee said.


Amnesty, backed by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, says Bush authorized the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and "waterboarding" on detainees held in secret by the Central Intelligence Agency between 2002 and 2009. The detention program included "torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (such as being forced to stay for hours in painful positions and sleep deprivation), and enforced disappearances," it alleged.


Amnesty's memorandum cites several cases of alleged torture of individuals detained at the Guantanamo Bay naval facility, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, by the US military. They include that of Zayn al Abidin Muhammed Husayn (known as Abu Zubaydah) and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, both arrested in Pakistan, and subjected to at least 266 applications of waterboarding between them from 2002 to 2003, according to the CIA inspector general, cited by Amnesty. (AFP, Oct 12, 2011)

The Real Drama is in the Secrecy Games

(By TJS George, The New Indian Express, September 28, 2011)

There was panic in the Congress camp last week. Terror-stricken leaders were scampering about like a chicken that had its feathers plucked. The apparent reason was that one of their central pillars, P Chidambaram, was directly and officially named in the 2G spectrum scandal that has landed former minister A Raja in jail. Now Chidambaram is not exactly a popular mascot in Congress circles. An ambitious operator primarily concerned with his own power and prospects, he has more adversaries than admirers. So why did the party frantically rally around him when  a Pranab Mukherjee note to the Prime Minister blamed him for inaction? The talk is that Congress leaders were scared of Manmohan not being far behind if Chidambaram was caught. Not that Manmohan Singh is all that beloved a leader either. It is known that he carries little weight in the Government. Coalition partners mock him. Congress ministers themselves often ignore him. So the likelihood of the Prime Minister getting tarred by the spectrum scam cannot be the real reason for the panic among Congress bigwigs.

Then what? Logically, and if we  take Congress culture into account, the answer is embedded in another question: If Manmohan Singh is caught  in an untenable situation, can Sonia Gandhi be far behind? Now there you have the stuff that shakes empires. The remotest likelihood of damage to the edifice of holiness built around Sonia Gandhi would make Congressmen scamper about like a chicken with its head cut off.

Logic does put the Congress President in an uncomfortable position. Consider some recent developments. It  now stands proved that three successive sports ministers had opposed the appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as the Commonwealth Games boss. The Prime Minister overruled all of them and personally cleared Kalmadi’s appointment. Rather uncharacteristic of a play-safe Prime Minister. So what happened? It appears that Manmohan Singh overruled the entire governmental system in order to bow to a recommendation put up by a joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office named Pulok Chatterji. And who, pray, is Pulok Chatterji? The IAS officer most closely identified as Sonia Gandhi’s facilitator. Which means that the Kalmadi buck actually stopped at Sonia Gandhi’s desk.

Here’s another conundrum of our times. Suresh Kalmadi is in jail for taking money. Amar Singh is in jail for giving money. The conundrum is why would Amar Singh who was never a member of the Congress give money to buy votes in Parliament so that the Congress government could survive? Was he a fool to spend his money to let someone else benefit? That lends weight to Ram Jethmalani’s open statement in the Supreme Court that the money displayed in Parliament was paid not by Amar Singh but by Ahmed Patel. And who, pray, is Ahmed Patel? Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary. Where does the buck stop this time?

Speculation and all kinds of gossip flourish around Sonia Gandhi thanks to her own addiction to secrecy. The contrived drama about her surgery in America could not have happened in any other democracy. She controls the destiny of every Indian but no Indian has the right to know whether she is in a condition to do so. Citizens are only entitled to dry titbits dished out by Congress spokesmen trained not to speak a word beyond what they are told. They have not even told us what her ailment is. How  then do we believe what they say?  How do we know that she is really back in India? How do we know that she is cured when cures are rare in cancer cases? Photographs are strictly no-no, so how can we not believe that she has lost hair through chemotherapy? By hiding facts, they feed rumours. This is not privacy. This  is secrecy. Evidently Congressmen think that there are things about their ruling dynasty that must remain shrouded in secrecy. That is why they panic at the merest sign of a crack in the wall of secrecy. Unfortunately history shows us that walls crumble some day, somehow.

Water Purifiers Ineffective in Preventing Waterborne Diseases, Revealed through RTI

Dr Arvind Shenoy, senior chemical and consumer product researcher, had a hunch that Hindustan Unilever was making exaggerated claims about its Pureit water purifier. His suspicions were confirmed by the NIV which has threatened to take legal action if the company does not correct the advertising. That the giant multinational company Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has no qualms about misleading people to sell its product was exposed recently, thanks to the RTI Act. It has even been threatened with legal action for making tall claims that its water purifier 'Pureit' kills/removes one crore viruses in one litre of water.

The esteemed institution that has issued this warning to the company is the National Institute of Virology (NIV), which in its letter dated 2nd June has accused it of "twisting and misrepresenting facts". The facts pertain to a study conducted by the NIV "to evaluate the performance of domestic water purification units with respect to contaminating enteric viruses." HUL has, it seems, exaggerated by about 100 times the efficacy (of its water purifier) as tested by the NIV.

The letter written by Dr AC Mishra, director, NIV, on 2 June 2011 states: "It is brought to my attention that your company is advertising Pureit regularly on TV. The said advertisement is quoting explicitly NIV's report that the purifier kills one crore viruses in a litre of water. We have clearly reported in our paper that experiments were conducted using 0.67x105 Hepatitis E virus particles per litre of water. Hence, your advertisements are not based on facts. You are requested to refrain from twisting and misrepresenting the facts. Failing to take immediate corrective measures may force us to resort to legal action against your company."

Mumbai-based Dr Arvind Shenoy, a PhD in chemistry and a consumer product researcher, with 42 years of professional experience in consumer product testing, both chemical and microbiological, decided to invoke the RTI Act on this matter in October 2010. "It all began with their Rs1 crore safety challenge advertisement, in which the HUL proudly tom-tommed about a test report on eight domestic water purifiers by the NIV. According to HUL, the NIV report claimed that its Pureit water purifier, a gravity-fed water filtration device, was the only water purifier that "removed/killed more than one crore viruses from one litre of water (Ek Crore Virus Ek Litre Pani se Maarta Hai)," Dr Shenoy says.

He explains, "I felt an instant apprehension about HUL's advertising claims. Since NIV was a Government of India (GOI) institution, I sought information under the RTI Act, thrice in 2010. After five months of waiting (he got the information on 25 February 2011), I had all the information, which revealed what I had suspected all along! Indeed, HUL had misrepresented, twisted and blatantly lied to gullible consumers about the quality of the Pureit water purifier. The tone of the advertisements on HUL's Pureit now appears to be a calculated exercise in falsehood and deceit in order to coax as many consumers as possible to buy Pureit."

Strangely, NIV refused to take action against HUL, even after the RTI revelation. So, on 11 May 2011, Dr Shenoy wrote to Dr Vishwa Mohan Katoch, director general, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Delhi, informing him that "Unilever Limited also markets Pureit to Indonesia and Mexico, but, in these countries they don't make such tall claims of killing one crore viruses per litre, probably for the fear of the repercussions from their respective governments."

The RTI information revealed that HUL was making its water purifier appear 100 times more efficient than what was stated in the report. Dr Shenoy says, "the document procured under RTI makes it abundantly clear that the testing was done with only 0.67x10(5) Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) particles per litre of water and not one crore, that is 1x107 HEV particles per litre of water as claimed by HUL in its advertisements."

Asked whether the testing by NIV of the eight water purifier brands was sponsored, V Gopalkrishna, scientist and public information officer at NIV, stated that "it was not a sponsored testing" and that "it was an NIV supported activity". However, Dr Shenoy who has a copy of the test report that was published by NIV researchers in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and International Health, Vol 14, pages 1-7, 2009, suspects otherwise. This is because the brand Pureit has been mentioned in the published test report (4th sentence on page 889). Mentioning a brand in such an internationally reputed journal is a violation of the norms of the US EPA's international ethical and scientific protocol.

Dr Shenoy observes, "I noticed that, curiously, for reasons best known to NIV researchers, in their published test report study on eight water purifier units in the scientific journal, they have specifically mentioned Unit number eight as Pureit, a water purifier developed by Hindustan Lever Limited. This gives an impression that the study was conducted in NIV at the behest of the manufacturers of Hindustan Unilever. It is not ethical as per international research standards to mention the name of a brand and a company specifically; hence the suspicion."

According to information received through the RTI Act, NIV tested eight brands of water purifiers sold in India. The test report was written in the international journal by Vikram Verma and Vidya A Arankalle, both scientists at NIV. (Read the article, "Virological evaluation of domestic water purification devices commonly used in India emphasizes inadequate quality and need for virological standards", from the Journal of Tropical Medicine and International Health.

The units tested were: Unit 1 - Zero B, Unit 2 - Eureka Aqua Flow, Unit 3 - Orpat, Unit 4 - Krystalle, Unit 5 - Eureka Aquasure on Tap, Unit 6 - Anjali B-Free, Unit 7 - Aqua Plus (hollow fibre membrane), and Unit 8 - Pureit (from Hindustan Unilever).

By the way, the conclusions of the report should open the eyes of people as to how ineffective the water purifiers in India are. It says, "These same samples showed free and total chlorine levels that were adequate to ensure proper elimination of bacterial contaminants, but were unable to remove pathogenic viruses. These reports clearly document a definite need for a separate, well-defined virological standard for drinking water as well as for the evaluation of water treatment plants and domestic water purifiers.

"The minimum standards established by USEPA were not designed for developing countries where the microbiological quality of public water supply may not be as good as in developed countries. India and other developing countries should formulate their own standards and ensure strict adherence by all those concerned. This will help both manufacturers and consumers to be quality conscious with respect to drinking water, a basic need for every population and the major source of a variety of infectious diseases taking heavy toll every year in all the under-developed and developing countries.

"Similar study needs to be extended to the water treatment plants/systems used in villages, small cities and the metros to truly understand the quality of water made available to the people. It would be worthwhile judging the performance of the domestic units in field, i.e. houses, with respect to water quality, adherence to the recommended maintenance of the units, as well as time period of usage. We would like to point out here that we have evaluated one unit of each type. The batch-to-batch or unit-to-unit variation was not evaluated. This is a limitation of this study and needs to be extended to several units from one batch as well as different batches.

"In conclusion, our study suggests that even with the limitation of the study pointed out above, the results indicate that six of eight units tested (one unit/type) do not confirm to USEPA standards and emphasises the need for a definite national policy for the evaluation of such devices by the regulatory authorities as well as at factory level. Such an exercise will ensure availability of quality-assured domestic water purification units to the community, thereby reducing the burden of water-borne infections. It is desirable to set up our own national virological standards as well as evaluation of the protocol developed by us in several laboratories followed by strict adherence to the method accepted and approved by the regulatory authorities."

The point here to note is that although the NIV in its letter dated 2nd June has threatened legal action if HUL does not "immediately" rectify the false information, it is nearly two months but the NIV has not yet served even a legal notice to the multinational company. Does that speak loudly of NIV's intentions in conducting the test in the first place? As for Dr Shenoy, he wants HUL to publicly apologise. He has sent HUL a legal notice on 25 July 2011.

(Vinita Deshmukh is a senior editor, author and convener of Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She can be reached at vinitapune@gmail.com.)

Lessons Anna Has Taught

(By Aswini K Ray, The New Indian Express, September 2, 2011)

Peaceful mass movements around a popular single issue, insulated from political parties, has been a new experience to Indian democracy surprising all its stakeholders — government, Opposition, bureaucracy (especially police), media and academia. In fact, its scale, prolonged shared focus, and non-violence seems to have surprised even the activists, including its leadership, all unfamiliar with the logic of mass movements in India, as distinct from its recurrent violent political agitations. Their stereotypical initial responses showed it.

The government’s initial response was as against all Opposition-led agitations: to discredit its goals, methods and leadership till they boomeranged. Predictably, the police followed the script: dramatic arrest of the leader to provoke mob-violence and deal with it coercively as another law and order problem; this too misfired, and when the discredited police released the leader, it was faced with the most unfamiliar predicament of the prisoner refusing to be released, and worshipped by the prison staff, their families, and other prisoners, using the jail office to negotiate his own terms of release to emerge as a potential new mass leader of a widely-shared popular anguish who was largely following his instinctive moral judgments than any concerted political strategy. The masses found a new icon outside the targeted power-structure, including the Opposition, and the discredited section of ‘Macaulay’s Children’ in the media and the academia critical of the methods and sceptical about its goals. From a relatively obscure regional public figure, Anna Hazare suddenly emerged as a national leader being the closest approximation to the Gandhian legend to the present generation of the country. It became an all-class and cross-national movement against the Establishment, unlike the earlier ‘Bhoodan movement’ led by Vinobha Bhave which, though based on the Gandhian principle of non-violence, threatened the interests of the powerful landed aristocracy and alienated them. It was also refreshingly different from the Sarvodaya leader JP-led Nav Nirman Samity movement with its all-encompassing goal of an utopian “party-less democracy’ while targeting the Indira Gandhi-led Congress, thus limiting its salience within a section of people in Bihar and Gujarat.

Parliament, media and the intellectual community soon joined the initial bandwagon as a virtuous circle to help its emergence as a mass movement. Yet their initial responses, as in the case of some of the organisers, and many initial critics, showed their unfamiliarity with the momentum of a peaceful mass movement stridently resisting predictable attempts by various political parties and NGOs to hijack it. The excess histrionics of some organisers perhaps matched some of its critics’ charges of “blackmail” against the movement. But the more serious criticism stemmed from two arguments — that it was “unconstitutional” and hence “undemocratic” and the time given to Parliament to legislate on the ‘Jan Lokpal’ issue was unrealistically brief. Both are specious criticisms.

As for the second, many critical Bills have been passed in shorter times, often without quorum, thus violating the principle of ‘procedure established by law’ in the case of fundamental rights. For example, the 59th Constitutional Amendment (1988) allowing the imposition of Emergency in Punjab was passed without a quorum and in the absence of the necessary 2/3rd majority in Rajya Sabha; the amendment of the Indian Post Offices Act (1898), opposed by many parties, was passed in the Lok Sabha with only 20 members present, and in 40 minutes; in 1985, the extension of the ESMA (1980) was done in three hours, and in a lunch hour without quorum; in August 1985, amendment of the TADA was concluded in 59 minutes with 50 members; in 1987, the National Security Act was amended in 82 minutes by 100 members; in 1988, the Lok Sabha took 19 minutes to establish the Special Protection Group. More significantly, the endorsement of the IMF’s ‘conditionality’ clause to launch the ‘economic liberalisation’ agenda was passed by the minority government, and within one month of a general election in which no political party included it in their election manifesto.

The criticism of the movement being “undemocratic”, because it was “unconstitutional” stems from a conceptual mystification between the unconstitutional — as not being expressly provided for in the constitution but possibly implied — and the anti-constitutional, in the sense of being against the spirit of the constitution. In all democratic constitutions the concept of ‘implied powers’ not specifically codified is an accepted principle of jurisprudence; and in India, the Supreme Court judgment on the ‘basic structure’ underscored it. Consequently, even legally, except the ‘basic structure’ as defined by the apex court, all other provisions of the constitution are open to amendments by Parliament.

The liberal criticism of the mass movement as “blackmail” is based on the axiomatic assumption of India’s operational version of parliamentary democracy as a liberal democracy, because of its institutions of western liberal vintage. Empirically, in no non-western society, western liberal democratic institutions have been able to replicate an operational version of any of its original prototype. India is perhaps among the better case-studies of a democracy surviving through continuous innovations to suit local specificities, howsoever aberrant from its original inspiration.

That explains its many constitutional amendments, twice the number in 60 years than the US in over 200. India’s parliamentary and electoral procedures; its three-tier federal system, with variations of regional autonomy; its protective discrimination through reservation; above all, its secularism evolving from its western versions of the state being equidistant from its many religions towards being equally supportive of them with special provisions for minorities, separate civil codes, are creative operational innovations reinforcing its democratic continuity.

Parliament’s sensitive responses to mass movements incubated within the civil society underscores its structural democratic deficit and need for institutional reforms. Such responses, far from capitulation to ‘populist blackmail’ by Parliament reinforce its contested democratic legitimacy, because mass movements are different from pressure groups; and they are legitimate democratic upsurges within its political economy of economic liberalisation and democratic de-liberalisation. The lessons of the recent mass movement, may be useful for India’s political class, institutions of governance, as also its intellectual community still grappling with the problem of interpreting Indian democracy’s specificities with the concepts and categories of western liberal democracy.

Aswini K Ray is a retired professor of political science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Empowerment Is The Key

(By Mridula Garg, The Hindu, August 27, 2011)

What can explain the upsurge of support from the youth for Anna Hazare's movement? A sense of being part of history-in-the-making.

I must be one of the few survivors who were present at Gandhiji's daily evening prayer meetings in Birla Bhawan. I was there, exactly 10 years old, when the bomb blast took place in the meeting, a week before the assassination on January 30, 1948.

I also had the rare opportunity of filing past his cot, when he undertook his last fast unto death. It happened when India had already gained Independence. Yet the thrill was unmistakable and inimitable. I can still feel the hair-raising prickle of being part of something as unique, overwhelming and empowering as history in the making.

Empowerment! That was the key word. It magnified the thrill of being part of a crowd on the move; made it more intense and meaningful than the usual frenzy of participating in a rally or a mela. It is thrilling enough to be a part of the tumultuous festivities of Ganesh or Durga visarjan. (How cold the English translation, immersion, sounds in comparison.) Indians love festivals, crowds, noise, communal singing, dancing, eating or not eating, for that matter.

Whet the moral appetite

A fast can be thrilling too. Why else do so many of our festivals require fasting before gorging on the goodies? What can whet an appetite more than a moral fast before an equally moral feasting. It is no less breathtaking to be part of a rampaging mob, up against authority. But imagine how much more overpowering it would be to be part of a movement, neither frivolous like a mela nor unethical like a rioting mob.

There lies the answer to the riddle of the appeal of Anna Hazare's movement against corruption for the youth. Of course anyone and everyone from all walks of life is a victim of corruption in our country at many points of time; of course they have all learnt not only to grin and bear it but also allowed themselves to become part of the system and indulged in corrupt practices themselves; some in petty, others in hefty ways. And of course each and every one, from all rungs of the non-homogenous middle class to the multitude of the deprived mass hates it. One would much rather live in a corruption-free environment, where everyday things get done as a matter of course without petty humiliations and greasing of palms.

But the mass disapproval of corruption does not explain the mass convergence of a notoriously apathetic youth to a movement spearheaded by someone totally devoid of glamour and religious sanctity. It can be explained only by the sense of empowerment coupled with the thrill of being part of history-in-the-making bequeathed by it.

It is the second time since India became independent that the youth have had a chance to feel empowered in an ethical, moral and righteous manner. The first call came from Jayaprakash Narayan's total revolution in 1974-75. The declaration of Emergency sealed its fate. Though the country limped back to its pseudo democratic state a couple of years later, we never fully recovered from the warped psyche that had been moulded by cowardice, shame and humiliation of those fateful years of failure.

Now after a gap of 36 years, we feel empowered again as we partake of the thrill of being a participant in a fervent crowd rather than a vociferous or mute spectator. An added excitement comes from the sense of being righteous, moral and austere without the danger of being denounced as a fundamentalist or religious demagogue or of being beaten up or peppered with bullets.

Power and thrill

Who would want to forgo such a magnificent thrill! Certainly not the youth of India brought up for decades on extensive footage of Gandhi's mass non-violent movement, forcing the arrogant and exploitative Empire to its knees. The young have read about it, heard of it and seen it on the screen ad infinitum but never tasted its power and thrill, first hand. Now they can. What exquisite power something as simple as a Dandi March can bestow. A fasting Anna Hazare galloping ahead of the cops at Raj Ghat brought back memories of Gandhi scampering ahead of much younger men and women on the Dandi march; alas, seen only on the screen.

I was only nine when India became Independent but the memory of 1942 Quit India Movement and Bose's call, “Give me blood and I'll give you freedom” can still give me goose bumps as nothing has ever since. I had seen it, I had been part of it, in however small a way. But not they. Never they. Till now. How can you expect them to let this opportunity pass by?

With my first-hand experience of the bomb blast at Gandhi's prayer meeting and his last fast, not to say the earlier Quit India call, I had known the reason behind Anna's appeal from the first day.

But the full confirmation came this morning via the usually polite guard of my building. I requested him not to talk quite so loudly at four in the morning on his mobile under my bedroom window and he snapped back, “I am going for an-shun at Ramlila Maidan and that's that!” What sweet empowerment. “Go savour it as long as it lasts,” I said and withdrew.

Anna vs Dr Singh (Cartoon by Yesudasan)

Foreign Education Hindering PM's Understanding of India: Anna Hazare

New Delhi: Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, reformer Anna Hazare on Saturday said their "foreign education" was hindering their understanding of the nation. Meanwhile, activists held rallies and burnt copies of the government's Lokpal Bill in the national capital region.

"As they (Manmohan Singh and Sibal) received their education abroad, they have not been able to understand the workings of the country," Hazare told reporters in Jalgaon in Maharashtra.

Hazare is to go on an indefinite fast against the government's version of the Lokpal bill from Aug 16. Slamming the government's Lokpal Bill, Hazare said the government will either have to bring in a reformed version or step down. "All the citizens of this country have awakened and they want a strong Lokpal Bill. So, the government will have to bring in a reformed version of the bill soon or step down," said Hazare.

Hazare had earlier gone on a fast from April 5 to 9, which forced the government to include civil society members in the drafting committee of the bill. The joint-committee, however, was not successful in drafting a bill amicably as differences appeared over several issues. "Hazare will sit on an indefinite hunger strike from Aug 16 at Ramlila Maidan instead of Jantar Mantar. We have already received a no objection certificate (NOC) from Municipal Corporation of Delhi ( MCD)," Aswathi Muralidharan, member of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Parivartan, which is seeking support for the Jan Lokpal bill, told IANS. She also added that the Delhi Police is likely to grant permission to Hazare to sit on his fast at Ramlila ground, instead of Jantar Mantar.

However, Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said: "Nothing has been decided in this regard." Protesting against the bill, activists from the group India Against Corruption (IAC) held a car and bike rally in Ghaziabad, which was led by Lokpal bill joint drafting committee member Arvind Kejriwal.

In the capital, government's copies of the bill were burnt at Jamia Nagar in south Delhi, and Ajmeri Gate and Hauz Qazi chowk areas of old Delhi. The civil society members are opposing the Lokpal Bill presented by the government, calling it a toothless legislation. Among the points of contention are the non-inclusion of prime minister and judiciary under the Lokpal's ambit. The Lokpal Bill was introduced in parliament Thursday amid vehement protests from the opposition. The bill has been sent to a parliamentary standing committee.