বিভাগ/বিষয় নিরপেক্ষ

সুপারিশকৃত লিন্ক: সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫

আজকের লিন্ক

মুক্তাঙ্গন-এ উপরোক্ত শিরোনামের নিয়মিত এই সিরিজটিতে থাকছে দেশী বিদেশী পত্রপত্রিকা, ব্লগ ও গবেষণাপত্র থেকে পাঠক সুপারিশকৃত ওয়েবলিন্কের তালিকা। কী ধরণের বিষয়বস্তুর উপর লিন্ক সুপারিশ করা যাবে তার কোনো নির্দিষ্ট নিয়ম, মানদণ্ড বা সময়কাল নেই। পুরো ইন্টারনেট থেকে যা কিছু গুরত্বপূর্ণ, জরুরি, মজার বা আগ্রহোদ্দীপক মনে করবেন পাঠকরা, তা-ই তাঁরা মন্তব্য আকারে উল্লেখ করতে পারেন এখানে।
ধন্যবাদ।

আজকের লিন্ক

এখানে থাকছে দেশী বিদেশী পত্রপত্রিকা, ব্লগ ও গবেষণাপত্র থেকে পাঠক সুপারিশকৃত ওয়েবলিন্কের তালিকা। পুরো ইন্টারনেট থেকে যা কিছু গুরত্বপূর্ণ, জরুরি, মজার বা আগ্রহোদ্দীপক মনে করবেন পাঠকরা, তা-ই সুপারিশ করুন এখানে। ধন্যবাদ।

৫৯ comments

  1. মাসুদ করিম - ১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৪:৪১ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    পাক পরমাণু কেন্দ্র গুঁড়িয়েই দিতেন ইন্দিরা

    তখন ১৯৮০। জরুরি অবস্থার শেষে গদিচ্যুত হওয়ার অধ্যায়কে পেছনে ফেলে বিপুল জনরায়ে তখতে ফিরেছেন ইন্দিরা গান্ধী। ক্ষমতায় এসে প্রথমেই প্রতিবেশী পাকিস্তানের পরমাণু শক্তিধর হওয়ার স্বপ্নকে উপড়ে ফেলতে চেয়েছিলেন শ্রীমতী গান্ধী। পাকিস্তানের পরমাণু গবেষণা কেন্দ্র গুঁড়িয়ে দেওয়ার কথাও ভেবেছিলেন। পাকিস্তান তখন পরমাণু শক্তি পরীক্ষা–নিরীক্ষা করছে, পরিকাঠামো তৈরি করেছে। ওই পর্যন্তই। সি আই এ–প্রকাশিত কিছু ফাইল‍ তেমনই তথ্য দিচ্ছে। ১৯৮১–র ৮ সেপ্টেম্বর ‘ইন্ডিয়াজ রি–অ্যাকশন‍ টু নিউক্লিয়ার ডেভেলপমেন্টস ইন পাকিস্তান’ শীর্ষক ফাইল অনুযায়ী তখন পাকিস্তানকে এফ–১৬ যুদ্ধবিমান দেওয়ার চূড়ান্ত পর্যায়ে ছিল আমেরিকা। ওই বিষয়ে ১২ পাতার একটি নথি পোস্ট করা হয়েছে সি আই এ–র ওয়েবসাইটে। এই জুনে। সেই নথি বলছে, ইন্দিরা গান্ধী নেতৃত্বাধীন তৎকালীন ভারত সরকার পাকিস্তানের পরমাণু অভিযানে যথেষ্ট উদ্বিগ্ন ছিল। তাদের এমনও ধারণা ছিল যে আর মাত্র কয়েক ধাপ এগোলেই পরমাণু বোমা হাতে এসে যাবে পাকিস্তানের। একই ধারণা ছিল আমেরিকারও। সি আই এ–র রিপোর্ট বলছে, ‘ভারতের উদ্বেগ বাড়তে থাকলে আর দু–তিন সপ্তাহের মধ্যে প্রধানমন্ত্রী গান্ধী পাকিস্তানের বিরুদ্ধে কড়া পদক্ষেপ নিতেই পারেন। এমনও হতে পারে যে ওদের বিরুদ্ধে যুদ্ধে যাবে ভারত। অথবা পাকিস্তানের পারমাণবিক উচ্চাকাঙ্ক্ষা একেবারে মূলেই গুঁড়িয়ে দেবে ভারত!’ বস্তুত, ১৯৮১–তে ওই রিপোর্ট তৈরি হওয়া পর্যন্ত তেমন কোনও সিদ্ধান্তই নেননি ভারতের তৎকালীন প্রধানমন্ত্রী। রিপোর্টে জানা যায় যে ওই সময়ে প্লুটোনিয়াম এবং ইউরেনিয়াম নিয়ে জোর পরীক্ষা চালাচ্ছিল পাকিস্তান। পরমাণু বোমা তৈরিতে এগুলোই ছিল তাদের মাল–মশলা। তার খবর পেয়ে ভারতকেও তৈরি থাকার নির্দেশ দেন শ্রীমতী গান্ধী। ভারতের গবেষক, বিজ্ঞানীরা পরমাণু পরীক্ষা–নিরীক্ষার সবুজ সঙ্কেত পান। ওই বছর ফেব্রুয়ারিতে থর মরুভূমিতে পরীক্ষামূলক বিস্ফোরণের তোড়জোড় করতে বলা হয় অল্পদিনের নোটিসে। সেইমতো মে–র মধ্যে ৪০ কিলোটন‍ শক্তির পরীক্ষামূলক পরমাণু বিস্ফোরণের জন্য তৈরি হয় থর। পাকিস্তান পরীক্ষা চালানোর এক সপ্তাহের পর একই ধরনের পরীক্ষা করে তাক লাগিয়ে দেবে ভারত। ইন্দিরা গান্ধীর পরিকল্পনা ছিল তেমনই। তবে কিছুদিনের মধে‍্যই ভারত সরকার সব দিক যাচাই করে বুঝতে পারে, পাকিস্তান পরীক্ষামূলক পরমাণু বিস্ফোরণ চালালেও ভারতের তাতে আশঙ্কার কারণ নেই। বরং ভারত বাড়তি তৎপরতা দেখালে তাতে দেশের ভাবমূর্তি নষ্ট হতে পারে। এর পর ‘ওয়েট অ্যান্ড ওয়াচ পলিসি’ অর্থাৎ রয়েসয়ে পদক্ষেপ নেওয়ার সিদ্ধান্ত নেন ইন্দিরা। বলছে সি আই এ–র সেই রিপোর্ট।

  2. মাসুদ করিম - ১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৮:৪৭ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Bangladesh, Myanmar launch coordinated drive against Arakan rebels

    Bangladesh and Myanmar have launched a coordinated security clampdown against rebel Arakan Army, while authorities called out army troops to join hands with paramilitary border guards Bandarban after a skirmish in the rugged southeastern hills, officials said Monday.

    They said Myanmar troops launched a simultaneous drive on the borders as Bangladesh army joined hands with the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) against the Burmese separatist group who appeared to be operating from the frontiers of the two countries.

    “The Myanmar force’s has also launched the drive against the Arakan Army in their territories along the border while the Bangladesh army and BGB are carrying out the clampdown since Thursday,” BGB’s sector commander in Bandarban Colonel SM Waliur Rahman told a news briefing at his office.

    He added that the Myanmar force’s action came in line with a call of BGB chief Major General Aziz Ahmed after the Mynmar’s rebel group attacked a camp of the Bangladeshi border guards on Wednesday, a day after BGB forces seized 15 Arabian horses belonged to the group, a BSS report said.

    Officials earlier said the so-called Arakan Army attacked BGB’s Baramadak camp firing some 20 rocket launchers while the border guards immediately retaliated with identical weapons though no casualty was reported during the skirmish.

    They said the rebel group used for their movement transporting weapons and other hardware.

    The incident prompted Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and senior army and security officials to visit the scene and order the army-BGB clampdown against the outfit.

    Officials said the joint drive so far saw the arrest of four operatives of the outfit or their aides while the Bangladesh security forces continued to look for more members of the outlawed group.

    “We have decided to continue our joint drive (army-BGB campaign) until September 6,” the BGB sector commander said.

    The others who visited the scene after the skirmish included Principal Staff Officer to the Prime Minister’s office Lieutenant General Mainul Islam, BGB’s director general Major General Aziz Ahmed, army’s Chittagong area commander Major General Sharifur Rahman, BGB’s Chittagong region commander Brigadier General Habibul Karim, army’s Bandarban region commander Brigadier General Nakib Ahmed Chowdhury.

  3. মাসুদ করিম - ১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৮:৫৭ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    মিখাইলকে খুনের চক্রান্তেও অভিযুক্ত ইন্দ্রাণী

    এতদিন যাঁর খোঁজ পাওয়া যায়নি, শিনা এবং মিখাইল বরার বাবা বলে যাঁর পরিচিতি, ইন্দ্রাণীর সেই প্রাক্তন স্বামী সিদ্ধার্থ দাসের গতিবিধির হদিশ পাওয়া গেল। সিদ্ধার্থ দাস হঠাৎ বাংলাদেশে চলে গেছেন। যেদিন শিনা বরার রহস্যমৃতু‍্যর গোপন খবর এসেছিল পুলিসের কাছে, তার ঠিক দু’দিন আগে। এর এক সপ্তাহের মাথাতেই গ্রেপ্তার হন ইন্দ্রাণী। যদিও আসামের করিমগঞ্জনিবাসী সিদ্ধার্থর সঙ্গে মু্ম্বইবাসী পিটার মুখার্জির স্ত্রীর ১০ বছর কোনও সম্পর্ক নেই। কিন্তু ছেলেমেয়েদের খোঁজ কি রাখতেন বাবা? তিনি কি জেনেছিলেন শিনার খুন হওয়ার কথা? আঁচ করেছিলেন মিখাইলের জীবনও বিপন্ন? তিনিই কি মুম্বই পুলিসের সেই গোপন সূত্র, যাঁর থেকে খবর পেয়ে ইন্দ্রাণীর গাড়ির চালক শ্যাম রায়ের পেছনে লোক লাগিয়েছিল পুলিস? করিমগঞ্জের বনমালী রোডে দাস পরিবারের প্রতিবেশীরা জানাচ্ছেন, আচমকা বাংলাদেশ রওনা হওয়ার আগে সিদ্ধার্থ তাঁর এখনকার স্ত্রী এবং সন্তানদের পশ্চিমবঙ্গের দুর্গাপুরে নিজের ভাই জয়ন্ত দাসের বাড়িতে পাঠিয়ে দিয়েছেন। সিদ্ধার্থ দাসের ব্যবসা আসাম থেকে কলকাতা আর শিলঙে কাঠ এবং কাঠের আসবাবপত্র চালান দেওয়ার। ব্যবসার কাজে তাঁর বাংলাদেশ যাওয়ার দরকার পড়ে না। সিদ্ধার্থ গিয়েছেনও একটু বাঁকাপথে। করিমগঞ্জ–সিলেট সীমান্তের সুতারকান্দি থেকে কুশিয়ারা নদী পেরিয়ে। তাঁকে যেতে সাহায্য করেছেন যিনি, সেই আবদুল আবেদ ১১ বছর আগে মিজোরামে এক ব্যাঙ্ক ডাকাতির আসামি।
    বিকল্প ছক
    পুলিস জানাচ্ছে, শিনাকে খুন করার একাধিক পরিকল্পনা ছকে রেখেছিলেন ইন্দ্রাণী মুখার্জি আর সঞ্জীব খান্না। শেষ পর্যন্ত যদিও গাড়ির মধ্যে গলা টিপে মারারই সিদ্ধান্ত হয়। কিন্তু তার আগে সঞ্জীবের পরামর্শ ছিল, রাহুল আর শিনার মুম্বইয়ের ফ্ল্যাটে খুন করা হোক শিনাকে। তখন ইন্দ্রাণী বলেন, তার থেকে তাঁদের ওরলির বাড়িতেই খুন করলে হয়। কারণ, পিটার তখন বিধিকে নিয়ে

    বিদেশে। বাড়ি ফাঁকা। শুনতে শুনতে গা শিউরে উঠছে পোড়খাওয়া গোয়েন্দাদেরও, কিন্তু এতটাই ঠান্ডা মাথায় নিজের মেয়েকে খুন করার ছক করেছিলেন ইন্দ্রাণী। একাধিক বিকল্প ভেবে রেখেছিলেন, তার মধ্যে থেকে সব থেকে নিখুঁত পরিকল্পনাটাই কার্যকর করা হয়েছিল, কিন্তু শেষরক্ষা হল না। রবিবার সঞ্জীব এবং ইন্দ্রাণীর গাড়ির চালক শ্যাম রায়কে রায়গড় নিয়ে গিয়ে খুনের ঘটনার যে পুনর্নির্মাণ হয়েছে, তার থেকে সবকিছুই এখন পুলিসের জানা। শুধু স্বীকার করছেন না ইন্দ্রাণী।
    রাহুল–শিনার ফ্ল্যাটে খুন করার প্রস্তাব দিয়েছিলেন সঞ্জীব, যাতে খুনের দায় গিয়ে পড়ে রাহুলের ঘরে। কিন্তু ওখানে কেউ তাঁদেরকে দেখে ফেললে ফেঁসে যাবেন, সেই ভয়ে প্রস্তাবটি খারিজ করেন ইন্দ্রাণী। তার থেকে ওরলিতে নিজেদের ফ্ল্যাটে শিনাকে ডেকে পাঠানোটা সহজ, বলেন তিনি। কিন্তু আপত্তি করেন সঞ্জীব। কারণ, সেক্ষেত্রে ইন্দ্রাণী কিছুতেই পুলিসের জেরা এড়াতে পারবেন না। ফলে রায়গড়ের জঙ্গলের পরিকল্পনা চূড়ান্ত হয়। পুলিস আদালতকে জানিয়েছে, ইন্দ্রাণী এবং সঞ্জীবের মধ্যে এই গোটা আলোচনাই হয়েছে অনলাইনে। খুনের আগের দিন ইন্দ্রাণী তাঁর ড্রাইভার শ্যামকে নিয়ে ইস্টার্ন এক্সপ্রেস হাইওয়ে ধরে রায়গড়ের দিকে গিয়ে দেখে আসেন এলাকাটা। কলকাতায় ফোন করেন সঞ্জীবকে। সাত মিনিট কথা হয় দু’জনের। ওরলির হিলটপ হোটেলে সঞ্জীবের জন্যে ঘর বুক করেন।
    পুনর্নির্মাণ
    ২৪ এপ্রিল ২০১২ কলকাতা থেকে দুপুরের ফ্লাইটে মুম্বই পৌঁছন সঞ্জীব। ট্যাক্সি নিয়ে হিলটপ হোটেল পৌঁছন। বিকেলের মধ্যে তিনবার ইন্দ্রাণীর সঙ্গে ফোনে কথা হয় তাঁর। সন্ধে ৬টা। সঞ্জীবকে হিলটপ থেকে গাড়িতে তোলেন ইন্দ্রাণী। ৬টা ৪৫। বান্দ্রার লিঙ্কিং রোডে শিনার জন্যে অপেক্ষায় ইন্দ্রাণীরা। ৭টা ০৩। শিনা এসে গাড়িতে বসেন। শ্যাম রায়কে নভি মুম্বইয়ের দিকে যাওয়ার নির্দেশ দেওয়া হয়। ৮টা ২৭। ইস্টার্ন এক্সপ্রেস হাইওয়ে। ইন্দ্রাণী গাড়ি দাঁড় করাতে বলেন শ্যামকে। পেছনের সিটে ঘুমের ওষুধ মেশানো জল খেয়ে শিনা ততক্ষণে বেঁহুশ। শ্যাম জানত না। রাস্তার ধারে গাড়ি রেখে একটু দূরে সরে গিয়েছিল প্রস্রাব করার জন্য। সঞ্জীব গলা টিপে মারেন শিনাকে। কোনও দরকার ছিল না, তবু ইন্দ্রাণী ধরে রেখেছিলেন অচৈতন্য মেয়ের দুই হাত।
    আদালতে
    পুলিস লকআপে ইন্দ্রাণী মুখার্জির মানবাধিকার লঙ্ঘিত হচ্ছে বলে সোমবার জামিনের আবেদন করেন আইনজীবীরা। গ্রেপ্তার হওয়ার পর এদিনই প্রথম শিনা বরা হত্যা মামলার তিন অভিযুক্ত ইন্দ্রাণী মুখার্জি, সঞ্জীব খান্না এবং শ্যাম রায়কে আদালতে হাজির করেছিল পুলিস। কৌতূহলী জনতা এবং মিডিয়ার নজর এড়াতে তিনজনেরই মুখ ঢাকা ছিল। বান্দ্রা নগর দায়রা আদালতের মুখ্য বিচারপতি এস এম চান্দগাড়ে নির্দেশ দিলেন তিন অভিযুক্তেরই মুখের ঢাকা সরিয়ে দিতে। মার মুখ দেখে ভরা কোর্টরুমে বসে ঝরঝরিয়ে কেঁদে ফেলেন বিধি খান্না। ইন্দ্রাণী আর সঞ্জীব খান্নার কিশোরী কন্যা, পরে যাকে দত্তক নিয়েছিলেন পিটার মুখার্জি। মেয়ের দিকে একবার তাকিয়ে দেখেন ইন্দ্রাণী, কিন্তু কোনও ভাবান্তর হয়নি। বড় মেয়ে শিনাকে খুনের দায়ে অভিযুক্ত ইন্দ্রাণীর বিরুদ্ধে সোমবার ছেলে মিখাইল বরা–কে খুনের চেষ্টার অভিযোগে বাড়তি দুটি আইনি ধারা যোগ করা হয়েছে। খুনের চেষ্টা (৩০৭) এবং বিষ প্রয়োগ (৩২৮)। তিন অভিযুক্তেরই পুলিস হেফাজতের মেয়াদ এদিন ৫ সেপ্টেম্বর পর্যন্ত বাড়িয়ে দিল আদালত। এই মামলায় আরও কয়েকজন গ্রেপ্তার হতে পারে, আদালতকে জানিয়েছে পুলিস।
    ইন্দ্রাণীর আইনজীবীরা এদিন অভিযোগ করেছেন, পুলিস হেফাজতে তাঁদের মক্কেলকে ৮০–৯০ ঘণ্টা ধরে লাগাতার জেরা করা হচ্ছে, এমনকী শারীরিক নিগ্রহও চলছে। ইন্দ্রাণীর সঙ্গে যখন খার থানায় প্রথমবার দেখা করতে যান আইনজীবীরা, তখন নাকি তাঁর মুখ ফোলা ছিল, কাটা–ছেঁড়ার দাগও ছিল মুখে। পুলিসের উপস্থিতি ছাড়া তাঁকে আইনজীবীদের সঙ্গে কথা বলতে দেওয়া হচ্ছে না। এক মিনিটের জন্যেও তাঁদের সঙ্গে একান্তে কথা বলতে দেওয়া হয়নি ইন্দ্রাণীকে, অভিযোগ আইনজীবীদের। দেখা করতে দেওয়া হচ্ছে না পরিবারের লোকেদের সঙ্গেও।
    যদিও আগের দিনই শোনা গিয়েছিল, পিটার মুখার্জি থানার লক আপে গিয়ে প্রায় ২০ মিনিট নিভৃতে কথা বলেছেন স্ত্রীর সঙ্গে। তার আগেই তিনি গিয়েছিলেন পুলিস ক্লাবে, কয়েকজন পুরনো বন্ধুর সঙ্গে দেখা করতে। সেই বন্ধুদের মধ্যে শিনা বরা হত্যা মামলার তদন্তের দায়িত্বে থাকা এক পদস্থ পুলিস অফিসারও নাকি ছিলেন। খার থানা সূত্রের খবর, তার পর থেকেই জেরার সময় চূড়ান্ত অসহযোগিতা করছেন ইন্দ্রাণী।
    এদিন সরকার পক্ষের আইনজীবী আদালতকে বলেছেন, ইন্দ্রাণীকে যেন বাড়ি থেকে খাবার এনে খাওয়ানোর অনুমতি না দেওয়া হয়। কারণ তাঁর খাবারে কেউ বিষ মিশিয়ে দিতে পারে! পুলিসের এই বক্তব্য খারিজ করে দেয় আদালত। এই সওয়াল জবাব চলার সময় ইন্দ্রাণী হঠাৎ অসুস্থ হয়ে পড়েন। কিছুক্ষণ পর নিজেই সামলে ওঠেন। ইন্দ্রাণী এবং সঞ্জীব খান্নার আইনজীবীরা জামিনের আবেদন করার সময় বলার চেষ্টা করেন, সংবাদমাধ্যম এই তদন্তের খবর বেশি রাখছে পুলিসের থেকে। বস্তুত ফরেনসিক রিপোর্টের জন্য অপেক্ষা করা ছাড়া এখন আর কিছু করার নেই। তাই ওঁদের বিচারবিভাগীয় হেফাজতে পাঠিয়ে দেওয়াই শ্রেয়। কিন্তু আদালত আমল দেয়নি।

  4. মাসুদ করিম - ১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:০৩ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Murder in the Academy: MM Kalburgi’s Dangerous Literary Studies

    The esteemed literary scholar M M Kalburgi was shot dead outside his home in Dharwad today, producing a wave of speculation on the identity and motive of his killers. Kalburgi died in hospital after being shot at close range by two assailants, who arrived at his doorstep at 9 am on Sunday morning.

    Gatherings to condole his death, and demand justice for his murder, took place across Karnataka including at the Town Hall in Bengaluru, where outrage over the crime was mixed with ambivalence over who might be behind it.

    At the Town Hall, many supporters had turned their suspicion on unspecified right-wing forces, and some were already comparing Kalburgi’s murder with those of the rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare in Maharashtra. Others present cautioned against jumping to any conclusions.

    The context of Kalburgi’s life’s work – and the likely context of his death – is the fraught cultural politics of the Lingayat community in Karnataka. Kalburgi, a former vice-chancellor of Kannada University, was a progressive voice among the Lingayats, the middle-caste group that dominates state politics.

    The Lingayats originated as a social movement led by the 12th century philosopher Basava. The founding literature of the movement is in the form of vachana verses, of which Kalburgi, as a scholar of Old Kannada, was a leading authority. As a result, Kalburgi’s work had implications not only for the theology of the Lingayat establishment, but for its enormous political and financial power.

    Kalburgi frequently riled the Lingayat orthodoxy, most memorably in 1989, when he completed a study of the vachanas of Neelambika, Basava’s second wife. Kalburgi linked them to a minor myth in which Basava, unable to refuse anything to a supplicant, gave away his second wife to a Jangama sanyasi. According to Kalburgi, Neelambika’s own vachanas suggest that she and Basava did indeed cease their conjugal relationship. Another controversial claim was about the virgin birth of his nephew, Channa Basavanna, who took over the leadership of the movement. Conservative Lingayats were outraged and Kalburgi received death threats; eventually, he was forced to apologise and retract his statements.

    More recently, Kalburgi has declared that the Lingayats cannot be called Hindus – attracting the hostility of the RSS (the Lingayat vote was crucial to the election of the first BJP government in Karnataka in 2004, and its first chief minister, BS Yeddyurappa, was a Lingayat). In June last year, Kalburgi dismissed the sanctity of religious idols, which brought protestors from the Bajrang Dal and VHP to his doorstep. Kalburgi was placed under police protection.

    At the Town Hall, some speakers referred to posts on Facebook and Twitter, posted by activists of the Bajrang Dal right after the news came out, which openly celebrated Kalburgi’s murder.

    But according to professor K M Marulsidappa, Kalburgi’s murder is less likely to implicate conventional Hindutva groups, and more likely to involve the fine rivalries and high political stakes within Lingayat caste politics.

    Speaking to The Wire, Marulsidappa explained that Kalburgi’s work had touched on sensitive questions that divide mainstream Lingayats from the minor subsect of Virashaivas, who believe that their tradition precedes Basava – and blame him for the degradation of the movement. The Virashaiva community is led by the Jangama priesthood from five seats, the panchapeetha. Kalburgi’s work had provoked intense hostility from Jangamas and extremist factions behind them.

    Marulsidappa pointed out that Kalburgi’s murder followed the murder of Linganna Satyampete, a journalist believed to be Kalburgi’s disciple and supporter in the district of Gulbarga (Kalbargi’s surname is derived from the name of the area). Satyampete’s body was found semi-naked in a drain in Gulbarga town on July 26, 2012. He was also a fierce critic of conservative elements in the Lingayat mathas (religious schools), whom he accused of abandoning the true spirit of the vachanas.

    The scholar M. Chidananda Murthy, seen as a conservative rival of Kalburgi’s within the community, also spoke at the Town Hall meeting. He said he had often disagreed with Kalburgi but never lost respect for him.

    M S Asha, who is currently editing a translation of Kalburgi’s writing, told The Wire that she had spoken to him the previous morning. They chatted about his play on Basava, The Fall of Kalyana, translated by M C Prakash; Kalburgi mentioned a critic’s comment , comparing the play to a verse drama by T S Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral.

    He also discussed his next work, which would examine the disappearance of women writers from the Kannada canon between the 12th and 16th centuries, that is, in the period that the vachana tradition was suppressed and the priestly class established its hegemony among Lingayats.

    Kalburgi was a key organiser of the Dharwad Sahitya Sambramha, or the Dharward Lit Fest. As an example of his liberal mind, Asha said, he invited the controversial right-wing author Bhyrappa to the festival. “When everyone questioned him, his only answer was – ‘He is a writer too’.”

    The overarching concern expressed at the Town Hall in Bengaluru was that a culture of lethal violence might overwhelm the hallowed culture of discussion and questioning in Lingayat society. Indeed, one of the first victims of the temptation to violence was Basava himself – martyred at the end of the celebrated period of social reform, when he was thought to have gone too far by marrying a Brahmin girl to a Dalit boy. One protestor on the Town Hall steps had evidently thought of this: “Yesterday Basavanna”, his sign read, “Today Kalburgi.”

  5. মাসুদ করিম - ১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১:৩১ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Emerging markets: Fixing a broken model

    As exports slow and foreign capital takes flight, developing nations must act to avert a crisis

    Just under six years ago, Brazil’s economy was in such robust shape that The Economist published a cover illustration showing the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro blasting off like a rocket. Not only were wealthy Brazilians enjoying the boom; stores selling white goods were springing up in the favelas, while budget airlines found new customers among the former poor. The “country of the future”, it seemed, was finally attaining its destiny.

    But the rocket has now crashed to earth. Brazil’s economy, which expanded at 7.6 per cent in 2010, is on course to shrink by at least 2 per cent this year. A trade surplus of $20bn in 2010 has become a deficit of $40bn in the 12 months to July. Job creation — 2m in 2010 — has turned to job destruction running at 150,000 a month.

    Although several of Brazil’s problems are self-inflicted, they are also symptomatic of a broader malaise afflicting almost all emerging markets. Export-driven growth has collapsed. A credit-fuelled consumer boom has run its course, while corporate and sovereign debt levels have surged. Foreign capital, which so recently flooded in, is cascading out as emerging market currencies tumble along with commodity prices.

    So serious are these frailties that a growing number of economists and investors see a fundamental reversal of fortune for emerging market countries. The dynamic economic models that allowed developing nations to haul the world back to growth after the 2008-09 financial crisis are breaking down — and threatening to drag the world back towards recession.

    “The growth models are challenged overall and exhausted in some countries,” says Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser to Allianz, and chair of US President Barack Obama’s Global Development Council. “It is not just that emerging market growth has slowed . . . the weakness in emerging markets disrupts the economies of the west and makes its challenges harder to face.”

    Neil Shearing, chief emerging market economist at Capital Economics, sees a similar problem. “The models of growth that served the largest emerging markets so well over the past decade have broken,” he says, naming the powerful Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries as examples.

    China has become too reliant on investment and exports, he says, while failing to give sufficient support to consumer spending. Brazil has had almost the opposite experience, becoming too reliant on consumer spending at the expense of savings and investment. Russia is over-reliant on oil, while in India red tape and bureaucracy weigh heavily on investment and productivity.

    Such shortcomings did not appear so critical when supplies of capital were abundant; generous inflows of funds offset a multitude of sins in debt-laden emerging markets. But following the US Federal Reserve’s cessation of its “quantitative easing” monetary programme last year, the growth in dollar liquidity has slowed. The Fed’s preoccupation with when to raise interest rates is adding to the turbulence.

    “The emerging market model is predicated on capital inflows but the cycle is now turning because US dollar liquidity growth is slowing,” says Atul Lele, chief investment officer at Deltec International Group, an asset management company. “This is pretty close to a crisis and it is going to get worse.”

    A real economy problem

    The deepening malaise afflicting emerging markets — which account for 38 per cent of global gross domestic product in nominal terms and 52 per cent when calculated by purchasing power parity — derives primarily from real economic deficiencies rather than financial market stresses. For example, China’s waning growth trajectory, which has sapped global demand for commodities, is the product of Beijing’s ongoing transition from an outworn growth model that relied on investment in factories, property and infrastructure.

    “Chinese policymakers accept that slower growth is a necessary consequence of their effort to rebalance the economy,” says David Lubin, head of emerging markets economics at Citi. “But that creates a problem for other developing countries, who had benefited from rapid, investment-led growth in China. Chinese growth now is neither rapid nor investment-led,” he added.

    The result of these shocks is seen in dwindling growth. Oxford Economics, an advisory firm focused on economic forecasting, estimates that GDP growth this year in emerging markets will fall to 3.6 per cent, the lowest level since 2001, excluding the crisis year of 2009.

    However, Oxford Economics estimates that if “real” growth in China is assumed to be 4 per cent this year — rather than the official 7 per cent — then overall emerging market growth for 2015 would fall to 2.7 per cent, the slowest since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis (excluding 2009). Oxford Economics is one of several research groups that estimates current Chinese growth at around 4 per cent.

    “This slowdown means an important prop for world growth has been knocked away, especially as emerging markets comprise a bigger share of the world economy than they did 15 years ago,” says Adam Slater, economist at Oxford Economics. Mr Slater says that if a 4 per cent rate for China is assumed and GDP growth continues to subside in some developing nations this year, then “it is quite possible the number could end up below 2 per cent”. This, he says, would represent a lower level of global growth than in 2001-02, when the US was in mild recession.

    Trade blow

    One of the main dynamics behind the downdraught is world trade. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, emerging market vigour added more than 8 percentage points to the growth in trade. However, in the first two quarters of this year emerging markets became a net detractor to global trade growth for the first time since the crisis, according to Oxford Economics.

    At least part of the reason behind the waning trade performance is a vicious circle of cause and effect. Usually, the depreciation of a country’s currency helps to boost its exports by making them cheaper, but this relationship appears to have broken down this year, according to FT research, which compared the changes in value of 107 emerging market currencies with their trade volumes the following year.

    The analysis found that while the sharp depreciations in most emerging market currencies have done nothing to boost exports, they have crimped imports because a depreciating currency makes imports more expensive. For every 1 per cent a currency depreciated against the US dollar, import volumes fell 0.5 per cent on average, the FT study found.

    Brazilian import volumes for the past three months are falling at a pace of 13 per cent year on year, according to estimates from Capital Economics, following a 37 per cent collapse in the value of the real over the past 12 months. Russia, South Africa and Venezuela have also seen imports fall in the wake of plummeting currencies. This phenomenon has deprived emerging market governments of the ability to export their way out of trouble, leaving commodity-exporting countries in particular at the mercy of currency tailwinds and plunging export revenues.

    “The current environment is a perfect storm for those commodity exporting, current account deficit runners mostly to be found in South America, Africa and Indonesia,” says Michael Power, a strategist at Investec. “It could get worse before it improves. Hefty cuts in commodity production capacity are needed before a degree of equilibrium will return.”

    The differential between those countries that rely on manufacturing and those that depend on commodity exports can be seen in the average return on equity by companies included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. RoE measures how much profit a company makes as a percentage of shareholder equity. Overall, the RoE of companies included in the MSCI EM Index has declined from 18.36 per cent in October 2008 to around 11 per cent, according to research conducted by Ecstrat, an asset allocation consultancy.

    In commodity exporting countries, the decline is much more pronounced. For Brazilian companies, the RoE is down to 4.2 per cent from 21.9 per cent in late 2008, for Peruvian companies it is down to 12.3 per cent from 31 per cent and for Russian companies it is down to 7.1 per cent from 23.2 per cent.

    By contrast, the RoE in manufacturing oriented Taiwan and Sri Lanka has risen since late 2008, while in South Korea it has moderated only slightly.

    Underpinning such weaknesses is a cascade of capital gushing out of emerging economies as currencies slump in value against the dollar and the expectation of a tightening in the Fed’s monetary policy, which is expected to make US dollar-denominated investments attractive relative to those in emerging markets. Total net capital outflows from the 19 largest emerging market economies reached $940bn in the 13 months to the end of July, almost double the net $480bn that flowed out over three quarters during the 2008-09 financial crisis, according to NN Investment Partners, an investment bank.

    Other analysts, adjusting for fluctuations in exchange rates, estimate capital outflows at much less than $940bn, but the picture is obscured by a lack of clarity in national data on the composition of foreign exchange reserves. Nevertheless, says Maarten-Jan Bakkum, senior emerging market strategist at NN Investment Partners, “these outflows have much further to go”.

    Mr Lele identifies a dynamic under which capital outflows and declining exports create downward pressure on currencies, which then depreciate against the US dollar, increasing the cost of servicing foreign currency debts for emerging market companies. “The next shoe to drop will be defaults on emerging market corporate debt,” he says.

    Can crisis be averted?

    But although the distress in emerging markets is intensifying, it would be rash to assume that a crisis is inevitable. Some emerging markets have the option to push through urgent structural reforms to cut bureaucracy, boost the private sectors’ role in the economy and provide incentives for employers. Other relatively strong economies — including China, India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and others — have some latitude to boost fiscal spending to drive growth.

    The need for new infrastructure, especially in India, China, most of sub-Saharan Africa and much of Latin America, is clear. Multilateral organisations including the new Chinese-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank are able to step up their programmes.

    Mr El-Erian identifies four potential growth drivers: a return to pro-growth reforms; dealing with pockets of financial excess, such as in China; improving the composition of the demand side of the economy; and bolstering the global financial architecture. But, he says, it is important for the west to realise that emerging market distress is not merely a developing world problem. Developed and developing world fortunes are so interlinked that the demise of one is sure to bring down the other.

    Western policymakers, Mr El-Erian says, are like worried housebuyers. “It used to be that (they) worried only about the house, while the neighbourhood was fine. Now they have to worry about both.”

  6. মাসুদ করিম - ২ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১২:৪৮ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Regional connectivity and Bangladesh

    South Asia, described as one of the least economically integrated regions of the world, is also one of the most disconnected regions where political boundaries essentially serve as physical barriers to trade, and movement of vehicles and people. Despite having a forum for regional cooperation, cross-country regulation and logistical barriers greatly detract trade and investment in a region that constitutes around 9.0 per cent of the global economy.

    For the past 25 years, notwithstanding the liberalisation efforts in trade under South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), intra-regional trade has not inched higher than 5.0 per cent of total trade of the region with the rest of the world. In addition, intra-regional investment is miniscule at under 1.0 per cent. Most empirical evidence highlights the fact that trade logistic costs are more of a trade barrier than tariffs.

    South Asia is characterised by two completely land-locked countries (Nepal and Bhutan) and largely land-locked regions, such as North East India (NEI). Lack of transit through India prevents the landlocked countries of Bhutan and Nepal from accessing Bangladeshi seaports. Similarly, India faces serious constraints in establishing a proper road network and smooth flow of cargo and passenger traffic with its northeastern states as Bangladesh stands in the middle, with the virtual absence of modern internationally recognised protocols for movement of passenger and cargo across borders. Currently, the narrow Siliguri Corridor (also known as Chicken’s Neck) serves as the connection between mainland India and NEI.

    All that could become a thing of the past thanks to the signing of the recent Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India Motor Vehicle Agreement (BBINMVA). This agreement paves the way for closer economic integration of a region that has hitherto remained disintegrated with fragmented road and rail infrastructure defined by political boundaries rather than economic necessities. With this agreement, it is expected that there will be free movement of goods and passengers among these four countries that will not only facilitate trade but also foster better economic and political relations.

    Although freedom of transit has been chartered by several international conventions, there are obvious challenges and concerns for the host country. Since goods in transit cannot be subjected to customs duties, there is always a possibility of these goods being diverted to the market in the host country without being duly taxed. This requires security measures to be put in place which often hinders the flow of transit traffic. Managing cross-border corridors, especially with limited capacity of officials and lack of automation processes poses an immense challenge. Then there is the question of infrastructure. Heavy transit traffic can potentially damage roads, bridges, and other physical infrastructures. There are also externalities of transit traffic in the form of increased probability of accidents, congestion and environmental damage.

    Preliminary estimates, however, suggest that the benefits from the BBINMVA are likely to be substantial for Bangladesh. In addition to enhanced connectivity, Bangladesh will benefit from a much better utilisation of its port facilities, reduced trade costs with India, Nepal, and Bhutan, resulting in higher volume of trade, and an opportunity to upgrade its transport network financed by user charges. Despite these benefits, the issue of user charges usually takes precedence over other pertinent issues during talks of transit in the socio-political sphere. Most of the discussion and debate is based on confused thinking about rent-seeking behaviour owing to location and geography and disregard for international conventions. As Bangladesh, along with the other countries, prepare multilateral protocols and formalises the MVA, it is important to gain a clearer understanding of user charges in relation to transit and explore the different possibilities.

    Fees based purely on providing transit are prohibited by international conventions. However, there are genuine administrative and auxiliary costs for the host country that stem from providing transit facilities. As such, user charges to recover these costs are sanctioned. The imposition of user charges for transit is not unprecedented. Several countries in Western Europe have introduced transit charges that yield a sizeable revenue which are subsequently used for improving infrastructure. Some countries have imposed charges based on emissions and size of transit vehicles as measured by the number of axles. Many Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand also levy toll charges on transit traffic, which is directly connected to distance travelled. The widespread levy of transit charges provides numerous examples for Bangladesh to draw from.

    Before user charges can be calculated, an estimation of the volume of transit traffic is in order. Various studies have explored this issue, coming up with different figures. Experts conclude that even with a downward bias, volume of transit traffic to and from NEI via Bangladesh would initially be about 17.39 million tonnes, with a 2.0 per cent annual growth rate. The opening up of Mongla and Chittagong seaports along with newer road and rail routes will further increase transit flow.

    Such a large volume of traffic has enormous revenue implications for Bangladesh. In order to capitalise on transit, road user charges should be imposed to recover costs of administration and use of services. These charges will cover various external costs associated with transit that were mentioned earlier. Although Bangladesh has instruments for road transport taxes and charges, they do not contribute to the efficiency of road use because the cost recovery is not linked to road usage. This is because heavy vehicles like trucks and buses, which cause the most damage, are not charged accordingly. This underlines the need to implement proper road user charges consistent with efficient management and proper maintenance of road infrastructure. An efficient charging system should also differentiate between heavy vehicles based on loaded mass and axle configuration.

    Several studies have attempted to estimate road user charges for Bangladesh transit. A report by strategic advisors Castalia to the World Bank in 2010 calculates transit cost for a truck over the 495 kilometres (km) of the Asian Highway 1 route that starts from the Benapole border in Paschim Bangla and ends at the Tamabil border in Sylhet (Table-1).

    The transit fee includes charges for capital, operation and maintenance costs. Capital charge covers the cost of acquiring the right of way and civil works. The operating and maintenance costs include routine maintenance, periodic maintenance, rehabilitation, and traffic control and enforcement. Incorporating all these costs, the total transit fee comes to around $56 per trip. The study also estimates costs avoided by Indian trucks as they avail transit opportunities. Taking into account the transit fee and related tolls, savings could amount to a significant $102 per trip. Although administrative expenses and border processing will reduce some of those savings, transit traffic would still be left with a substantial amount of savings.

    In the light of these benefits accrued by countries availing transit facilities, there have been calls to implement user charges that reflect a share of the benefits. However, such charges are akin to pure transit fees prohibited by international convention. International conventions also define rights and obligations in matters of sharing common resources, such as water, air, land and sea routes to prevent rent-seeking behaviour based on favourable geography. Even though the issue of transit charges generate heated political debates, Bangladesh should abide by international best practices and implement user charges that reflect genuine costs of providing transit facilities.

    BBINMVA thus opens up numerous opportunities for Bangladesh in the form of increased connectivity, higher utilisation of seaports, and potential revenue gains. As the world moves towards greater economic integration, the initiation of the MVA is a step forward for the economies involved. The onus is now on the concerned authorities to devise protocols and transit charges to maximise gains from this agreement. With the formalisation of the MVA, it is expected that trade transaction costs will be significantly reduced in this sub-region, thus working as a catalyst for stimulating intra-regional trade and investment.

  7. মাসুদ করিম - ২ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৪:০৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Doctor for the poor no more

    He was affectionately called “Daktar Bhai” (doctor brother). Rightly so, because he served them for decades in a Tangail village, thousands of miles away from home, to live up to his childhood promise to help the helpless.

    But the doctor for the poor is no more. He died yesterday afternoon, aged 75.

    “Our Daktar Bhai died around 2:15pm. He was suffering from Pulmonary Hypertension,” said Noor Amin Ratan, a close aide of Dr Edric Baker and an assistant director (programme) of Kailakuri Health Care Centre founded by the doctor.

    He left behind his mother, four brothers and two sisters in New Zealand and thousands of poor patients in Tangail to mourn his death.

    After the news of his death broke, hundreds of villagers, many in tears, went to the centre to pay their last respect. It was an area in mourning.

    In a rare example of love and sacrifice, the lifelong bachelor had been treating poor patients in Madhupur reserved forest area in Tangail for the last three decades almost for free.

    The New Zealander set up a healthcare centre at Kailakuri village of the union in 1983 and had been giving treatment and medicine to the locals.

    For checkups, he used to charge Tk 5 from patients living within three kilometres of the centre and Tk 10 from those living beyond. After checkups, patients would get the required medicine from the centre whether they could pay or not.

    The money to run the centre used to come from private donors and friends and family members in the US, the UK and his home country.

    In an interview with The Daily Star in September 2011, he said he chose Bangladesh to realise his dream because the people here were “really good” and they did not get healthcare due to poverty. “I’ve chosen this country in order to give them a little health support.”

    Born into a noble family in 1941, Baker obtained his MBBS degree from Otego Medical College at Dunedin in New Zealand in 1965.

    He then joined a government medical team and served in war-ravaged Vietnam till 1975. He then went to Australia and England and took several courses on child health.

    Baker came to Bangladesh in 1979 and joined a Christian mission hospital in Meherpur. Two years later, he moved to Kumudini Hospital in Mirzapur where he worked for eight months.

    He then joined a clinic run by the Church of Bangladesh at Thanarbaid of Madhupur upazila in 1983 but soon realised that he needed to learn Bangla if he really wanted to understand his patients, many of them indigenous people. In a year, he learned to communicate in Bangla and over the years became fluent.

    Finally in 1996, he set up the Kailakuri Health Care Centre where he died yesterday. It is also where he will be laid to eternal rest today according to his last wish.

    When this newspaper interviewed him in 2011, he was already ill. Between May and September that year, he had undergone two surgeries.

    Back then, he said he was waiting for a successor. “Many students get MBBS degrees in the country every year. I’m waiting for one of them to come and take the responsibility to provide treatment to the poor in the area.”

    No one has come yet.

  8. মাসুদ করিম - ৬ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৯:৪৬ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    peter custers

    Peter Custers holds an M.A. in international law from Leiden University, the Netherlands (1970). He subsequently followed a three-year course in international relations at the Johns Hopkins University, in Washington D.C.. He obtained his Ph.D. in sociology from the Catholic University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands (1995).

    In the first part of the 1970s, after Bangladesh gained its political independence, he gathered first-hand experience in grassroots’ peasant organizing, while stationed in Bangladesh as leading Dutch journalist, writing for both Dutch and international newspapers and magazines. During the 1980s, he actively participated in the Dutch peace movement against the threat of nuclear war.

    Over the last twenty years, Custers has led or helped initiate a variety of international campaigns on Southern causes, while lobbying actively towards the European Parliament and other Brussels-based European institutions. Such as: the international campaign questioning the World Bank-coordinated ‘Flood Action Plan’ (FAP), Bangladesh (1991-1997), and the campaign on trade liberalization and Africa (i.e. on ‘EPAs’)(2004-2007).

    In 2007/2008, Custers was an affiliated fellow, researching on religious tolerance and the history of Bangladesh, at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, the Netherlands. In 2010, he was granted an award as Human Rights’ Defender and Friend of Bangladesh, by the country’s current government. Presently, he is working as Special European Correspondent of the Bengali language daily Prothom Alo, and as International Columnist of the English language newspaper The Daily Star, Bangladesh.

    Custers’ original theoretical study Questioning Globalized Militarism (Tulika, New Delhi/Merlin Press, London, 2007) covers both the production and exportation of arms and nuclear production in its broadest sense (i.e. civilian plus military). The study was prefaced and hailed for its innovative significance by the world-renowned Egyptian economist Samir Amin.

    For questions, criticisms, comments or requests to (re)publish any of Custers’ writings, please communicate via the contact page of this site.

    I can’t believe Dr Peter Custers is no more. I only met him twice in my life and what a fine human being I had the chance to interact with : M Sanjeeb Hossain

  9. মাসুদ করিম - ৭ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:৫০ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Archival footage captures the 1965 India-Pakistan war

    As the Indian government commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war with Pakistan, we take a unique look back at the conflict with the help of several films from British Pathe, which has one of the world’s largest newsreel archives.

    These newsreels, which were once played in movie theatres around the world before the main feature, capture different aspects of the war in their grainy black-and-white footage.

    Take a look at India preparing for the war, the views of various leaders on the conflict and the aftermath of the fighting.

    The 17-day war caused thousands of casualties on both sides and witnessed the largest tank battle since World War II.

    The hostilities ended after a ceasefire was declared following intervention by the Soviet Union and the US and the issuance of the Tashkent Declaration.

    India and Pakistan both claimed victory. Most neutral assessments agree India had the upper hand over Pakistan when the ceasefire was declared.

    ‘History in Pakistan has been badly treated’

    With Pakistan just two days away from observing Defence Day and marking the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war, historian and political economist Dr S. Akbar Zaidi dispelled ‘the victory myth’, saying that there can be no a bigger lie, as Pakistan lost terribly.

    People are unaware of this fact because the history that is taught in Pakistan is from an ideological viewpoint, said Dr Zaidi during his thought-provoking lecture titled ‘Questioning Pakistan’s history’. “Students are not taught the history of the people of Pakistan rather it is focused on the making of Pakistan,” he said.

    The event was organised by the Faculty of Social Sciences, Karachi University.

    Dr Zaidi who also teaches history at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, began his lecture by raising a couple of questions: what is Pakistan’s history and is there a need to question Pakistan’s history. And when was Pakistan formed? Aug 14, 1947 or Aug 15, 1947? For him the fact we are still talking about historical events 68 years later that are apparently settled is interesting. “These events and questions have not been settled. They are constantly being reinterpreted, this is because history does not die, it keeps reliving by questioning facts and truths.”

    Coming to the question when was Pakistan created, he said one obvious answer is it did so on Aug 14, 1947 but he read out an excerpt from a Pakistan Studies textbook in which it was claimed it came into being in 712AD when the Arabs came to Sindh and Multan. “This is utter rubbish!” he exclaimed, rejecting the textbook account. He said the first interaction with Muslims and Arabs occurred in Kerala in South India for trading purposes.

    Some historians claim the genesis of Pakistan lie in the Delhi Sultanate or the Mughal Empire. He, however, reminded everyone that the India as we know today did not exist during the Mughal era. It was during the 19th century the concept of nation-state was formed. There are others who state Sir Syed Ahmed Khan laid the foundation for Pakistan. Dr Zaidi felt this statement was partially true, because Sir Syed always maintained that Muslims should get their rights but he had also said: “Hindus and Muslims are the two eyes of the beautiful bride that is Hindustan. Weakness of any of them will spoil the beauty of the bride.”

    The 1940 Pakistan Resolution called for the recognition of Muslims within Hindustan and not for a separate entity, Dr Zaidi added.

    Social history

    He then led the debate towards the questions: “Is the history of Pakistan, a history of the people of Pakistan or is it the making of Pakistan?”As far as he knew everyone is taught a history that includes the Mughals, freedom movement, the Quaid-i-Azam leading the All India Muslim League etc but was completely unaware about the history of the Baloch and the Pakhtun. “I cannot understand Pakistan’s history without knowing the history of the Baloch, Pakhtun, Punjab, Shah Abdul Latif and his relationship with the land.”

    He said he was ashamed as a Karachiite that he had been unaware of Sindh’s history. It was important to know about indigenous histories because the “issues we are confronted with, we would have a better understanding in dealing with them”. He gave the example of East Pakistan to illustrate this point. “East Pakistan has been erased from memory. The Bengalis of East Pakistan have been reduced to they were traitors, India interfered and East Pakistan decided to separate. But what about Pakistan Army’s role in its separation?”

    According to Dr Zaidi, history in Pakistan has been badly treated due to several reasons. Students are forced to study history or Pakistan Studies as a compulsory subject and hence the focus is just to pass the exam and get over with it. It is focused on rulers and generals and not on the social history. He highlighted another important reason for history getting a step-motherly treatment, citing that it is a subject that is taken when a student is unable to get admission in other departments in universities.

    A robust question and answer session followed the talk during which students and teachers wanted to know why they were being taught distorted version of history, why the contribution of religious minorities to cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar was not mentioned in their textbooks, why does one have to wear separate identities and how can identification crisis be resolved to make Pakistan into one nation.

    Dr Zaidi responded to these queries, explaining that Parsis and Hindus contributed hugely in the educational development of Karachi and in a similar manner the Sikhs in Punjab. “History in Pakistan is taught from an ideological viewpoint. Pakistan needs to be seen as a geographical entity.”

    Referring to the distorted history, he said: “With the celebration of the victory in the 1965 war round the corner, there can be no bigger lie that Pakistan won the war. We lost terribly in the 1965 war.”

    He appealed to the attendees to read Shuja Nawaz’s book Crossed Swords that exposed the reality of the war.

    As for wearing separate identities, he replied there was no need to do so. “I can be a Sindhi, Hindu and Pakistani simultaneously.” He added that the diversity of nations should be acknowledged, since nationalities could not be imposed on people.

    Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2015

    Gibraltar, Grand Slam and war

    This isn’t a week for civilians. Wars old and new will be celebrated and much made of the abilities and wisdom of the Great Protectors. Which is fine, really. What’s a week between friends.

    Especially if there’s not much good to say. 1965 was a bad idea taken to perfection, all three stages of it. First came Gibraltar, that silliness of sending irregulars and radicalised civilians over into India-held Kashmir to foment revolution.

    When revolution didn’t show up, we got into the busi­ness of Grand Slam — sending regular army troops over to wrest a bit of India-held Kashmir and win that most lusted after of victories, a strategic one.
    We don’t have to rely on uninformed opinion, because there is a uniformed one available.

    Then came actual war across the border, for which we were somehow unprepared and scrambled to fight to a stalemate because the Indians were a bunch of reluctant invaders.

    Told you, it’s not a week for civilians. Luckily, we don’t have to rely on uninformed opinion, because there is a uniformed one available.

    An eminent one — dripping with medals, reached the highest offices, tasked to write the official tale of 1965 and took two decades to do it. But then he got the funny idea of publishing his 650-page report, which was promptly banned by the army and never heard of again.

    It’s a good week to remember the forgotten. Coming to you from a dusty shelf, the words of Lt Gen (retd) Mahmud Ahmed from a tome rather unassumingly and modestly titled History of the Indo-Pak War — 1965.

    Tell us, General, what was Operation Gibraltar all about?

    “The military aim of launching the guerrilla operations was threefold. Firstly, disrupt Indian civil and military control of the State. Secondly, to encourage, assist and direct an armed revolt by the people of Kashmir against Indian military occupation, and thirdly, to created conditions for an advance by the Azad Kashmir forces into the heart of occupied Kashmir and eventual liberation of IHK.”

    So, how’d it go?

    “The intelligence directorates were unable to provide any worthwhile intelligence to 12 Division for the guerrilla operations. Each commander of the Gibraltar Forces was given a few names of collaborators whom they were able to contact after infiltration into inside Indian Held Kashmir but their reliability was uncertain. In fact, none came forth to help the guerrilla forces. Therefore, despite undetected infiltration across the Cease Fire Line, all the Gibraltar Forces, with the exception of Ghaznavi, ran into trouble at the very outset of their operations.”

    Then what, General?

    “In the event, the Gibraltar Forces were unable to initiate any large scale uprisings in IHK as was visualised or hoped. Instead, the Indian Army in Kashmir retaliated violently resulting in the loss of some valuable territory. Undismayed by these losses, [Maj Gen Akhtar Hussain Malik, commander of 12 Division] was able to convince GHQ that the time for the attack he had envisaged through the Munawwar Gap was indeed opportune since the bulk of the Indian Army in IHK was committed in the retaliatory operations in addition to its involvement in counter-insurgency measures. A reluctant GHQ was thus compelled to act in accordance with Gen Akhtar’s proposal by sheer force of circumstances rather than by sound professional reasoning which demanded logical military contingency preparations from the very moment when the decision to launch Operation Gibraltar was first taken.”

    How’d one screw-up, Gibraltar, lead to an even bigger cock-up, Grand Slam?

    “If anything, the limited guerrilla operation [Gibraltar] served as pinpricks to rouse a slumbering giant as it were, though India initially went into action almost reluctantly with a self-imposed restraint of confining its attacks to the upper parts of Kashmir. Operation Grand Slam was a logical move after the failure of the guerrilla operations.”

    Civilian note: Mahmud doesn’t think Grand Slam was a bad idea. He thinks it was not ambitious enough — the army should have gone for Jammu and created a giant Punjabi pincer to gobble up the Indian armed forces. Total victory could have been ours! Oh, generals.

    So, err, what happened next?

    “The Pakistani high command considered the international boundary with India and the Working Boundary with the State of Jammu and Kashmir inviolable and expected its Indian counterpart also to regard it as such. From the inviolability of the international boundary sprang the policy of ‘no provocation’. Having had all defence works dismantled and the mines removed as part of the Kutch agreement, the GHQ forbade occupation of defences along the Punjab border on the eve of Operation Grand Slam to avoid provoking India into launching an offensive across the international boundary.”

    You’re saying we left ourselves open to invasion, General?

    “It is a matter of great irony that despite its forward assembly the Pakistan Army still managed to allow itself to be surprised by the Indian attack on 6 September 1965! The Indian build-up (as reaction to Operation Grand Slam), of which there were clear indications since 3 or 4 September, was somehow not taken note of. It was only after listening to an All India Radio broadcast in the evening of 4 September that the Pakistan C-in-C, Gen Muhammad Musa, reached the conclusion that Indian intentions were hostile. Then too the GHQ sent a rather ambiguous signal message to the formations.”

    But the fight was heroic, yes?

    “Apart from the sheer number of tanks involved, it is well worth asking if the armoured battles were really great by any standard? The fact is both sides lacked skill in handling armour at the operation level.”

    In the end, we did get something out of it, right? Right?

    “In the case of Pakistan, if it was solution of Kashmir, then we failed; if it was merely to defreeze the issue, then the means employed and risks taken were grossly disproportionate to the results achieved. In the bargain, we got a war which we perhaps did not want and could have avoided.”

    So there it is. An official history by an official general in a proper book with maps and diagrams. But who needs history when we’ve got a war to celebrate.

    Pakistan commentators question country’s 1965 war claims

    As Pakistan commemorates the 1965 war with India on Sunday, several commentators have rubbished the theory that the country emerged victorious in the conflict triggered by Islamabad’s decision to send infiltrators into Jammu and Kashmir to spark an uprising.

    Historian S Akbar Zaidi dispelled “the victory myth” during an event in Karachi on Friday, saying there could be no a bigger lie as Pakistan lost terribly, the Dawn newspaper reported.

    People were unaware of this because the history taught in Pakistan is from an ideological viewpoint, Zaidi said while speaking on the theme “Questioning Pakistan’s history”.

    Referring to the distorted history being taught to students, he said: “With the celebration of the victory in the 1965 war round the corner, there can be no bigger lie (than) that Pakistan won the war. We lost terribly in the 1965 war.”

    He asked people to read security analyst Shuja Nawaz’s book “Crossed Swords”, which exposed the reality of the war.

    Nawaz is the brother of Gen Asif Nawaz, who died in mysterious circumstances in 1993 while serving as the Pakistan Army chief. Though his death was attributed to a heart attack, reports have suggested he was poisoned. The book “Crossed Swords” gives an inside account of numerous operations the Pakistan Army was involved in.

    Zaidi also spoke of the need to question Pakistan’s history, including the reason why the country was formed. “These events and questions have not been settled. They are constantly being reinterpreted, this is because history does not die, it keeps reliving by questioning facts and truths.”

    He also referred to East Pakistan, which broke away after the 1971 war with India to become Bangladesh, and said: “East Pakistan has been erased from memory. The Bengalis of East Pakistan have been reduced to traitors. India interfered and East Pakistan decided to separate. But what about Pakistan Army’s role in its separation?”

    Prominent commentator Cyril Almeida referred to former ISI chief Lt Gen (retired) Mahmud Ahmed’s book “History of the Indo-Pak War – 1965”, which states Pakistan launched “Operation Gibraltar” by sending infiltrators to Jammu and Kashmir to foment an “armed revolt”.

    “The intelligence directorates were unable to provide any worthwhile intelligence to 12 Division for the guerrilla operations… In fact, none came forth (in Jammu and Kashmir) to help the guerrilla forces. Therefore, despite undetected infiltration across the Cease Fire Line, all the Gibraltar Forces…ran into trouble at the very outset of their operations,” Mahmud wrote.

    Operation Gibraltar did not lead to any large-scale uprisings and the Indian Army “retaliated violently resulting in the loss of some valuable territory”. The Pakistan Army then launched “Operation Grand Slam” by sending regular troops into Jammu and Kashmir but was surprised when Indian forces attacked on September 6, 1965, Mahmud wrote.

    “In the case of Pakistan, if it was solution of Kashmir, then we failed; if it was merely to defreeze the issue, then the means employed and risks taken were grossly disproportionate to the results achieved. In the bargain, we got a war which we perhaps did not want and could have avoided,” Mahmud concluded in his book.

    Literary notes: The 1965 war and Pakistani Urdu literature

    The quote “the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton” may be apocryphal, but it does underscore the importance of character-building the educational institutions of a nation are supposed to do.

    The character of a nation is reflected in its soldiers. So it is not only the soldiers that fight a war, but it is the nation as well.

    And the soldiers fight for what they love, as G.K. Chesterton has put it “the true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him”.

    Reciprocally, individuals, including poets, writers and intellectuals, put their weight behind the soldiers fighting for them.

    Even in modern-day wars, intellectuals support the soldiers fighting for them and the examples abound.

    When the United States joined in the First World War, for instance, the public sentiments quickly turned in favour of US intervention, backed by the intellectuals and philosophers such as John Dewey, and even the ones with the leftist leanings echoed the nationalist feelings.

    American intellectuals like Randolph Bourne, who wrote against US going to war, were far and few between (Bourne had his own reasons, right or wrong, but at least he was not influenced by foreign-funded NGOs, unlike some of our intellectuals). The American and western journalists “embedded” with the forces fighting against Saddam Hussein were supporting their national interests, conveniently forgetting things like impartiality and the standards of objective reporting.

    The 1965 Indo-Pakistani war saw an overwhelming support for the Pakistani armed forces from the Pakistani nation and everyone stood behind them (for they were the very people the true soldiers loved and fought for).

    This included poets, writers, journalists and intellectuals. The Indian attack, wrote Dr Waheed Qureshi, bolstered a true sense of unity among the Pakistanis, which was hitherto not as deep as one would have desired. The introvert writers, romantic poets and the intellectuals who used to ask ‘should a writer be loyal to the country’ began reassessing their noncommittal stance.

    The 1965 war jolted even the writers who were associated with Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq and, as Shahzad Manzar has put it, were not convinced of the theories of utility or commitment in literature. Such literary circles feel, generally, that creative literature must dissociate itself from social or political ideologies and also from what may be perceived as ‘useful’.

    The great aspect of the brief war was, Shahzad Manzar adds, that it caused to bring to surface suddenly an acute sense of patriotism among all and sundry. The petty differences were forgotten at once and we emerged as one, united nation.

    The whole nation was in a trance-like condition, general public as well as our creative writers and poets. Even poets and writers connected with Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq and progressive literary movement penned many literary pieces portraying the sentiments that had gripped the entire nation. The literature created during and after the 1965 war reflected an unprecedented flair and it strikes a chord with readers even today.

    But it is a fact that it was the poets and song writers who led the way. Supported fully by Radio Pakistan, the poets helped lift the spirits of the nation and infuse a deep sense of commitment and loyalty to the motherland.

    It is not possible to enlist here the large number of song-writers, but some of the Urdu poets whose songs reverberate in the memory of nation included, among others, Ehsan Danish, Rasees Amrohvi, Masroor Anwer, Fayyaz Hashmi, Hafeez Hosh­yarpuri, Soofi Tabassum, Jame­eluddin Aali and Himayat Ali Shaer.

    Aside from the emotional war songs, many of which simply fall in the category of propaganda, some poems with profound meaning and lasting beauty were composed.

    Some of such poems were penned, according to some researchers, by Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Naeem Siddiqi, Jeelani Kamran, Majeed Amjad, Muneer Niazi, Safdar Mir, Qateel Shifai, Shaurish Kashmiri, Farigh Bukhari, Shaer Lukhnavi, Ada Jafri, Amjad Islam Amjad, Sehba Akhter, Saqi Javed, Jafer Tahir, Mukhtar Siddiqi, Ahmed Faraz, and many others.

    Dr Tahira Nayyar has mentioned in her thesis that even a romantic genre such as ghazal could not remain aloof and was taken in with the wave of patriotism that was sweeping all over. Traces of such emotions can be found in some ghazals of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Faraz and Mahir-ul-Qadri.

    Some critics believe that Pakistani Urdu fiction could not come up on the occasion as forcefully as did Urdu poetry. But it is a fact that Urdu short story writers contributed their bit.

    And one should not forget that, according to Shahzad Manzar, novel and short stories — unlike poems and songs — require a plot, characters, certain descriptive style and a story-like narrative and it is never easy to hastily put all these things together with a certain point of view and commitment.

    Despite all this, a large number of Urdu short stories were written on the theme and events of 1965 war, albeit some of them read like reportage or sound like slogan-chanting. The short story writers who wrote some moving pieces on the topic included Intizar Hussain, Altaf Fatima, Masood Mufti and some others. In 1969, Masood Mufti published Rag-e-sang, a collection of short stories exclusively capturing the essence of the sacrifices and emotions of his fellow countrymen.

    In the aftermath of war, newspapers and literary magazines published special issues on 1965 war and put together many important literary pieces written against the backdrop of the war.

    Some of these literary magazines include Nuqoosh, Naqsh, Funoon, Adabi dunya, Saqi, Afkaar and Khatoon-i-Pakistan. And hardly any newspaper or magazine was there that did not publish an editorial or two on the war.

    It is a fact that the 1965 war created a new sensibility in Pakistan’s Urdu literature. The intellectual circles were beset with new questions. Some of these issues were related to the creation of Pakistan, Pakistan as a geographical and ideological entity, writers’ commitment to the state (not the government) and Pakistani nationalism.

    Ahmed Javed once wrote that 1965 war worked as a psychological catharsis for the nation. The issues such the definition of Pakistan ideology and Pakistani culture were raised and many books and articles were written as to what constitutes Pakistani culture and what do we mean when we say Pakistaniyat.

    The study of literary and intellectual aspects of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war as reflected in Pakistani Urdu literature is indeed a topic fit for a PhD dissertation.

  10. মাসুদ করিম - ৭ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৯:৫৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Everyone in the US and Australia owes $12,000 in CO2 emissions

    If you live in the US or Australia, then between 1990 and 2013 you accumulated a debt of more than U$12,000. People in the UK are doing a bit better, racking up about US$4000 in debt over that time.

    This isn’t about overspending on credit cards, but about damage done to our atmosphere. If we think of the atmosphere as a limited resource to be shared equally by all, then those who pollute more than their fair share – that is, more than the global average – can be said to be in “emissions debt”. Conversely, those who pollute less are in “emissions credit”.

    Damon Matthews from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, adopted this view of the atmosphere and calculated how every country stands.

    He found that the US, for example, had over-polluted by a massive 100.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide between 1990 and 2013 – amounting to 300 tonnes per person. That’s about as much as is produced by driving a family car from Los Angeles to New York and back about 150 times.

    And according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, each tonne of carbon dioxide produced today has a social cost of about $40, so the overall debt per person is US$12,000.

    Creditors

    The developing nations pollute less than the global average and so end up as creditors. For example, on average each of India’s 1.2 billion people has accumulated an emissions credit of 63 tonnes, worth US$2500.

    China, too, is a creditor – to the tune of 8.5 billion tonnes of CO2 – but has started to eat into that as it now emits more carbon dioxide per head of population than the global average.

    Matthews got broadly similar results for the US, UK and China when he carried out a separate analysis including other greenhouse gases and the impact of land-use changes such as deforestation. He also expressed the debts and credits in terms of each country’s contribution to global warming.

    According to Matthews, 1990 was chosen as the starting point partly because this was when global emissions figures started to become widely available. It was also roughly when the science of climate change became well established enough that it began to make sense to talk of responsibility and accountability, he says.

    In the run-up to the UN climate summit in Paris, these sorts of calculations take on new significance.

    Owning up

    “It is important to acknowledge and own up to how much we in the developed world have over-contributed to historical climate changes,” Matthews says. He says the numbers could be used as a starting point to decide how much rich nations should contribute to the Green Climate Fund, used to help poor nations adapt to climate change.

    But will the climate negotiators pay any notice?

    “Having followed the negotiations for 20 years I can tell you now the parties will not accept a neat allocation of responsibility based on this kind of metric, although I think this is one of the fairest,” says Robyn Eckersley at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

    Eckersley says each country pushes for a particular metric that downplays their own responsibility. But that doesn’t make the analysis pointless, she adds.

    “They help society look more critically at what each country is doing and how they are hiding behind their cherry-picked metrics. That’s a really useful function,” she says. “These kinds of documents make it easier for people to judge contributions and raise these issues at a national level.”

  11. মাসুদ করিম - ৮ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:১৬ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Why You Hate Google’s New Logo

    At the Forty-second Street F station, in Manhattan, in a mosaic of a stone wall dripping with overgrown vines and flowers, there’s an eerily provocative Jung quotation: “Nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose.” That’s how I feel about history and modernity as represented by serif and sans-serif typefaces: elegant, organic curves and feet versus spareness and “clean lines.” Whenever a brand wants to freshen itself up, you start hearing talk about “clean lines,” as if a few gorgeous, old-fashioned letters were keeping us in the Dark Ages. Google’s new logo, announced and unveiled this week, is the latest victim. Its old logo’s typeface—reminiscent of literature, newspapers, printing—had a reassuring hint of history, paying its respects to what it had come to improve upon and replace. The letters’ literary old serifs were subtly authoritative: the sturdy, handsome “G,” the stately, appealing little “oo,” the typewriterish, lovable “g,” the elegant “l,” the thoughtful “e.”

    The new logo retains the rainbow of colors but sheds the grownup curlicues: it now evokes children’s refrigerator magnets, McDonald’s French fries, Comic Sans. Google took something we trusted and filed off its dignity. Now, in its place, we have an insipid “G,” an owl-eyed “oo,” a schoolroom “g,” a ho-hum “l,” and a demented, showboating “e.” I don’t want to think about that “e” ever again. But what choice do I have? Google—beneficent overlord, Big Brother, whatever you want to call it—is at the center of our lives. Now it has symbolically diluted our trust, which it originally had for all the right reasons.

    Before Google, the word that sounded like “google” meant a few things. The first was googol, a number famously named by a child—an impossibly big thing to imagine, a one with a hundred zeroes, a blend of math and precocity and whimsy, with a name to match. (If you were a kid who knew other nerdy kids, they might get worked up about the immensity of something and say things like “a googolplex, a googolplex, infinity!”) The other Google was this guy in a top hat, from the comic strip “Barney Google and Snuffy Smith.” He had a song, too, and goo-goo-googly eyes. Google, googol, or googly—everything that sounded like “google” was funny and innocent, tied to childhood and imagination.

    When Google first appeared, in the late nineties, it distinguished itself with a combination of intelligence and friendliness. Other search-engine sites were as cluttered and garbagey visually as they were inefficient functionally, simultaneously trying to sell and inform and bamboozle. AOL, with its goofy mailbox, bulky structure, and overpriced hand-holding service for the terrified, was obviously up to no good. Others—Yahoo!, HotBot, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, and so on—seemed well intentioned but were harder to parse. Google’s design, in comparison, was a revelation. It had true confidence. It didn’t need to pretend to be the post office or a butler. The white glow of a clean, bare screen, the brightly colored, old-fashioned letters, the name that came from math and whimsy—it was all very promising, and its brilliance spoke for itself. The logo was a key part of this. The design, like the site, didn’t patronize or manipulate—it said, Relax, we’re reasonable geniuses, the smartest possible combination of man and machine. Let us find what you need.

    Google was an exhilarating miracle. Search results were fast, accurate, and well-prioritized; overnight, the Internet went from being a dizzying galaxy of data to a giant, well-catalogued library: a logical, coherent place. We were so grateful to be living in its world. We needed a leader to guide us into the future, and Google was it. It was like the Brooklyn Bridge, a welcome triumph of creativity and engineering.

    There was a time when I clicked on Google’s sponsored links, above the search results, so I could help give money to Google. This is still my instinct, and I have to remind myself not to. Sometime around 2002, my friend Alice dressed as the Google logo for Halloween, complete with a button that said “I’m feeling lucky.” (She claims not to remember this, but I’m confident that if Gmail had existed then, I could prove it.) When Google introduced Gmail, in 2004, we were all thrilled that we’d now be able to take advantage of its elegant intelligence in the realm of e-mail, which, at the time, for most, consisted of some combination of clunky work-e-mail services and a junky, bulky Web-based service like Hotmail. But we were also freaked out, a bit, by the Orwellian announcement that Google would harvest our messages’ words to generate targeted advertising. Alice and I sportingly tried to prompt it in our very first Gmail messages to each other, mentioning spaceships, ice cream, owls, and Hawaii, in an effort to generate those ads.

    We no longer need to worry about such prompts. Now Google is so smart and powerful, across so many platforms—Androids, a translation service, Chrome, Maps, Earth, self-driving cars, our collective brain—that our trust, our connection to that first thrilling moment, that gratitude and excitement, should be essential to maintain. You’d think the company would get that, and that rebranding, generally, feels suspicious. When I see that shifty new rainbow-colored “G” bookmarked on my toolbar, I recoil with mild distrust, thinking of when Philip Morris became Altria—No cigarettes here, see? Just rainbows!—or when British Petroleum suggested we think of it as Beyond Petroleum, or when the Bush Administration would name something Freedom.

    Google, in the announcement, describes the change as part of “a new logo and identity family” for use on “even the tiniest screens.” But would a few serifs have been so cumbersome? We don’t instinctively care about the brand unity Google wants to achieve with its new mega-company, Alphabet, of which it is now a part. Especially because Alphabet takes our most elementally wonderful general-use word—the name of the components of language itself—and reassigns it, like the words tweet, twitter, vine, facebook, friend, and so on, into a branded realm. In Larry Page’s letter explaining it to us, Alphabet is illustrated with a bunch of kids’ building blocks. Operation Childlike Innocence, Phase One.

    We loved the old logo, and we loved what Google was. Whatever it’s up to, whatever its intentions, Google should want to keep our love. So in the name of love, Google, give us back our serifs. Let this sans-serif building-block refrigerator-magnet silliness be the New Coke to your Coke, the Qwikster to your Netflix, the Freedom Tower to your One World Trade. Go back to your beautiful old serifs, and we’ll be that much likelier to let your self-driving cars drive us around.

    Google’s look, evolved

    Google has changed a lot over the past 17 years—from the range of our products to the evolution of their look and feel. And today we’re changing things up once again:

    So why are we doing this now? Once upon a time, Google was one destination that you reached from one device: a desktop PC. These days, people interact with Google products across many different platforms, apps and devices—sometimes all in a single day. You expect Google to help you whenever and wherever you need it, whether it’s on your mobile phone, TV, watch, the dashboard in your car, and yes, even a desktop! Today we’re introducing a new logo and identity family that reflects this reality and shows you when the Google magic is working for you, even on the tiniest screens. As you’ll see, we’ve taken the Google logo and branding, which were originally built for a single desktop browser page, and updated them for a world of seamless computing across an endless number of devices and different kinds of inputs (such as tap, type and talk). It doesn’t simply tell you that you’re using Google, but also shows you how Google is working for you. For example, new elements like a colorful Google mic help you identify and interact with Google whether you’re talking, tapping or typing. Meanwhile, we’re bidding adieu to the little blue “g” icon and replacing it with a four-color “G” that matches the logo.

    This isn’t the first time we’ve changed our look and it probably won’t be the last, but we think today’s update is a great reflection of all the ways Google works for you across Search, Maps, Gmail, Chrome and many others. We think we’ve taken the best of Google (simple, uncluttered, colorful, friendly), and recast it not just for the Google of today, but for the Google of the future. You’ll see the new design roll out across our products soon. Hope you enjoy it!

  12. মাসুদ করিম - ৮ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৫:৩২ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Asylum’s Dark Side: The Deadly Business of Human Smuggling

    Every day, thousands of refugees entrust their lives to human smugglers as they make their way to Europe — and many of them die en route. The smugglers, meanwhile, are making handsome profits, and aren’t particularly concerned about safety. By SPIEGEL Staff

    He’s a car freak, his mother says. A tinkerer, a hobby mechanic. His wife and daughter saw him as a good husband and father, even if he was seldom at home. For the rest of Europe, though, Metodi G., who goes by Mitko, is the man partially responsible for the deaths of 71 refugees.

    Mitko is a smuggler of humans.

    Five days after a truck was found on the A4 highway in Austria with 71 dead bodies inside, Mitko’s mother invites us into her living room in Lom, a town in northwestern Bulgaria. Her son, along with four additional suspects, has been in pre-trial detention for the last several days. He insists he is innocent, but the situation doesn’t look good for him.

    His mother serves coffee and says that Mitko never would have wanted people to die. She says she hasn’t seen her son for quite some time, but she is of course aware that many people in the area are involved in the lucrative refugee business. It’s no wonder, she says, that poor Bulgarians are helping refugees across Europe’s borders. The Syrians, in particular, she says, are well-off people. “They have the money to pay for such trips.”

    Seventy-one people who sought to flee war and suffering, but died shortly before reaching their destination. Fifty-nine men, eight women, three boys and a one-and-a-half year old girl, all suffocated. They didn’t die somewhere in the Mediterranean, but in the heart of Europe. They were found on the side of the highway just 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Vienna.

    The decomposing bodies were found in a Volvo refrigerator truck that had once been used to transport frozen chicken meat. On Thursday, Aug. 27, an employee of ASFiNAG, the Austrian motorway operator, found the truck on the shoulder of the highway, parked as though it had broken down.

    The site soon became Ground Zero for Europe’s refugee catastrophe. The horror was suddenly close by and palpable — and if there is any kind of a silver lining in this horrific incident, it is this: Europe may finally be waking up from its torpor.

    Every day, people are dying because of the policy that refugees must first get to Europe before they can apply for asylum. And because of the fact that they are required to remain in the country where they fill out their application and are not allowed to travel further. It is a situation that human smugglers have found to be extremely profitable and one that enables them to charge €300 ($335) to €400 per head for the trip from Budapest to Vienna in a jam-packed truck even though a train ticket doesn’t even cost €50.

    Oversight and Stupidity

    Refugees are dying because Europe is failing. But the drama continues. One week after the catastrophe on the A4 in Austria, a new batch of horrific images has emerged, this time of a Syrian boy lying dead on a beach. He drowned while attempting to cross the water from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos. His family, too, had put their fates in the hands of human smugglers.

    These tragedies serve to illustrate just how great is the desperation gripping the refugees — and how irrepressible is the greed of those in whom they entrust their fates. There are several indications that the deaths of the 71 people inside the truck were not the result of a planned crime but that it was probably the result of an oversight, of stupidity. But it could happen again at any time; that is the incident’s uncomfortable lesson. At least if nothing changes.

    Thousands of people continue to cross into Europe every day. In just the first eight months of this year, almost a quarter of a million people crossed the sea to Greece, including young men, families, pregnant women and children from Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan and elsewhere. Many are fleeing from bombs and terrorism — and they are prepared to use the last of their money and to entrust their lives to people they don’t know.

    In the end, during recent days at least, they get stuck at Keleti Station in Budapest where Hungarian authorities have prevented them from boarding trains to continue their journeys westward. Some refugees have made signs reading: “We love to go to Germany.” At some point, someone starts chanting the German chancellor’s name, quietly at first before getting louder and louder. “An-ge-la! An-ge-la!” Those who pay particularly close attention to the calls for help are waiting outside, next to taxis and minibuses. They are the true profiteers of Europe’s refugee drama.

    The trip from Syria to Germany currently costs at least €2,500 per person, with the human smuggling market likely worth several hundred million euros per year. The organization The Migrant’s Files, a consortium of journalists from over 15 European countries, estimates that migrants have paid smugglers around €16 billion since the year 2000. Those who profit include recruiters, boat captains, middlemen, people who rent out illegal apartments, scouts and money launderers. There are big fish and small fish — and men like Metodi G. from Bulgaria. They are the logisticians of the shadows. They find ways where there should be none.

    Fertile Soil

    The rise of the smugglers to central figures in the refugee drama is a direct result of the EU’s failure to adequately address the crisis. Europe still has no plan or strategy for dealing with the rising numbers of refugees. Instead, they blame each other for the humanitarian disaster that has slowly moved from Europe’s periphery to its heart.

    The political chaos provides fertile soil for the smugglers because they, in contrast to Europe’s leaders, have a plan. They transport their clients along three main routes: across the Mediterranean from North Africa to Italy or Spain; across the eastern land-route from Turkey via Bulgaria; and across the Western Balkans from Greece, via Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary. Currently, that route is favored because the borders in Macedonia and Serbia are porous and the officials there overwhelmed. In comparison with the eastern route, it is expensive, but the route across Bulgaria became less attractive after Sofia sent 1,500 police to fortify the border with Turkey. The story of Metodi G. shows how tempting it is for young men to make money out of the chaos that reigns in the Western Balkans.

    Metodi grew up in the Roma quarter of Lom, a desolate Bulgarian town of 24,000. Cars, mobile homes and minivans sit rusting on the side of the sandy road that leads to his family’s house. Garbage lies about on the road and a group of men is slaughtering a pig. It is one of the poorest regions in the EU, and it is here that smugglers recruit their helpers. Many of the drivers who cart migrants and refugees on the Serbian and Hungarian portions of their journey come from here. At least three of the five suspects currently behind bars in connection with the 71 deaths in Austria call the region home. They are from Lom, Archar and Brusartsi — rural, decaying places at the fringe of Europe.

    Metodi was a quiet boy, his family says. He left school after the 10th grade, began buying cars, fixing them up, and reselling them. “Just like everyone here,” says his mother Goranka from the sofa. Mitko, 29, is the oldest of her three sons. “He’s well-meaning and generous, but he has always been a bit lazy.” Her husband is a construction worker, as are her two younger sons. The family has a total of €500 at its disposal each month.

    Goranka shows pictures of family excursions and celebrations, her sons with a cake and a tricycle. Mitko was shy, she says, but apparently he was well-suited for the transportation industry. He began working as a driver almost immediately upon receiving his license. Perhaps it was a kind of escapist reflex. Initially, he drove workers from Bulgaria to Italy and Germany for €100 each. He ate and slept in the car and drove fast. In Bulgaria, he soon began racking up speeding tickets and didn’t always pay his fines, leading to the loss of his license. When it began looking like he might have to go to jail for eight months, his wife, Velichta T. explains, he left Lom.

    The Suspects

    He drew the attention of authorities in Germany as well. Six years ago, he allegedly robbed a gas station in Bochum, getting away with €1,000. Twice, he was caught driving without a license by police in Bavaria. Later, he joined the smuggling business. On July 25, it is thought that he was in a truck carrying 38 refugees that was pulled over in Bavaria. Metodi fled and public prosecutors opened up an investigation.

    The evidence points to Metodi G. being a small-time criminal, but it seems doubtful that he played a leading role in the smuggling business. Investigators believe that he was not among his group’s leaders. His mother says she knows nothing about any of it. A week ago Friday, he called to tell his mother that he had been arrested and was in jail in Budapest. She had long ago stopped asking her son how he earned his money. Mitko’s wife says she read somewhere that there are diamonds in Syria.

    Samsooryamal L., who goes by Samsoor, is another of the suspects. He’s from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and lives in Budapest. He is thought to be the leader of the smuggling group, and he too has been arrested. German authorities also have a file on Samsoor, who police in Bremen determined to be staying in the country illegally. He is married to a Hungarian woman, which is likely how he got a residence permit for Hungary. He, too, insists that he is innocent.

    Samsoor wasn’t particularly secretive. His Facebook page contains dozens of photos showing a slender man of 28 with a well-kept beard. In the images, he is standing in front of a BMW sedan or on Margaret Island in the middle of Budapest.

    Kassim S., 50 — a Bulgarian with roots in Lebanon — was also taken into custody. The truck’s registration is in his name and he is listed as its owner. On Facebook and Badoo, photos show him smiling with his granddaughter. In his profiles, he writes that he is from the Lebanese city of Tyros.

    At the end of last week, investigators searched his apartment on the fourth floor of an old residential building in the government district of Budapest. Neighbors recognized photos of Kassim S. and say he had just moved in a few months before and that he had spoken very loudly on the telephone. Samsoor L. is thought to have visited him there.

    Kassim S. was involved in the car business, buying and selling used vehicles from a lot in Linz. He registered the truck where the refugees died on Aug. 25 in Hungary. The logo of the Slovakian chicken firm Hyza was still on the truck.

    Investigators believe the journey that ended in death was the first time the smuggler group had used the Hyza truck. They have also been able to identify other minivans and small trucks that the group is thought to have purchased. It looks as though the smugglers had planned to establish a fleet of trucks plying the Budapest-Vienna route. Refugees in Austria have since contacted police and said that they, too, had been transported to Austria inside a refrigerated truck with the Hyza logo on the side. Some said that they had fainted during the journey and that there had not been sufficient fresh air. Police are now looking for the other vehicles belonging to the group.

    A Bit More than an Hour

    German authorities are also familiar with Kassim S., whose name has been linked to several different investigations into refugee smuggling. Investigators believe he was involved in the acquisition of the vehicles, though he also maintains his innocence.

    But somebody has to be guilty — someone who shut the two doors behind the 71 men, women and children. The truck was outfitted with a Carrier refrigeration unit, which can lower temperatures to minus 20 degrees Celsius, but only if the cargo area is hermetically sealed.

    As soon as the doors were shut, the world for the 71 people inside shrank down to just 15 square meters (160 square feet), enough room to stand, but not enough to move around. It was not possible to open the doors from the inside and the truck was apparently wrapped with wire as well. An adult breaths roughly six liters of air a minute and the cargo area held roughly 45 cubic meters of air. The 71 people locked inside had about an hour, maybe a bit more.

    Not much about the victims is known. Investigators say that their teeth indicate that they come from prosperous backgrounds and a dozen of them were carrying Syrian papers.

    The trip from Syria to Western Europe leads over plains, through forests, cities and towns. It is a 3,000- to 4,000-kilometer stretch of torture in boats, buses, trains and by foot — under barbed wire, over walls and across the sea. The smugglers on the Balkan section of the journey operate not unlike travel agencies and range from well-organized concerns to smaller agencies to individual service providers. They sell all-inclusive packages with restful nights in hotels for the more prosperous refugees or charge by the journey segment for those watching their money. For many of the refugees, the trip begins in Istanbul, perhaps even with a man named Yasin.

    Yasin, 28, is from Damascus and speaks surprisingly openly about his job. He is sitting in a teahouse in the Istanbul working-class quarter of Aksaray where those looking for asylum often make their first contacts with smugglers. Yasin’s job is that of recruiting customers, particularly fellow Syrians, on the streets, in Internet cafés or other places where Syrians hang out. Once he gains a refugee’s trust, he makes an offer.

    Yasin worked as an IT expert in Syria before fleeing to Istanbul one-and-a-half years ago. He wears a jersey brandishing the name of the Fenerbahce football team, has short, black hair and is unshaven. Early during his stay in Istanbul, he washed dishes before finding work with a smuggling ring through a friend. Yasin’s network offers both the Western Balkan route as well as the Eastern Balkan route and charges $500 per person to be driven across the Turkish-Bulgarian border in a minivan. The trip across the Aegean in a rubber dinghy costs $1,000 while the same trip in a more solid craft costs $3,000. Those wishing to continue onward, to Germany for example, have to pay another $4,000. An airplane ticket to Frankfurt, complete with falsified papers, can be had for $15,000.

    ‘Safe Transfer’

    Smugglers don’t just look for potential customers on the streets, but also hang out in social networks and operate Facebook pages with names like “Smuggle to Europe” and “As an Illegal to Sweden.” One man, who calls himself Abu Ali, writes: “You can’t get to Europe for less.” Another talks about offering a “safe transfer” from Egypt to Italy for $2,500. Some even post their mobile phone numbers.

    Yasin has never met those who are higher up in the hierarchy. His boss employs dozens of recruiters, financiers, drivers and guards, not just in Turkey, but also in Greece and other Balkan countries. One Turkish police officer who has been investigating the scene for years says that the smuggling business inside Turkey is controlled by just a few groups, with their leaders being Turks or Kurds. They hire people like Yasin to do the dirty work.

    In Izmir, the scene is allegedly controlled by a Turkish-German — a middle-aged man whose underlings call him “The Whale.” The Whale once served one year in jail in Germany for selling cars illegally and then became involved in the smuggling business once he returned to Turkey. His network now extends all the way to Germany while in Izmir, he owns restaurants, office buildings and hotels.

    Yasin’s job is done as soon as the deal is made. He then passes the customers on to a financier, who takes care of the money transfer via the so-called hawala system. The advantage of this informal money transfer system is that no banks or overseers ever find out about it. Smuggling rings operate at least three hawala offices in Aksaray, with branches in cities like Izmir, Bodrum and Mersin. The offices usually tend to be money exchange booths, but sometimes they are maintained in jewelry stores or telephone centers. They are given Muslim names such as “Al Rasheed.”

    The system is based on trust. The refugees deposit the agreed upon sum in one of the offices, along with a commission of around $20. In exchange, they are given a sheet of paper with a numeric code that they are instructed to provide to their smugglers when they arrive at their destination. The aim is to prevent drivers from abandoning refugees before they reach their ultimate destination — and to prevent drivers from stealing from their bosses.

    From Istanbul, many travel to Bodrum, the Aegean coastal city in Turkey that has become a hub for both smugglers and refugees. The Greek island of Kos is located just a few miles offshore, and small-scale smugglers, especially, have taken over the business on the Turkish side. For between €500 and €1,000, their customers are loaded onto rubber dinghies and left to paddle their way to Europe. As many as 70 passengers are packed into boats that are only five meters (16 feet) long. Bodrum is the gateway to the Western Balkan route.

    Turkish police patrol the coastal stretch nightly, on both water and land, but without much success. Bodrum’s small-scale smugglers have developed a system to avoid detection. They comb the beach, walking between sun loungers and umbrellas; they position themselves on jetties and constantly assess the situation. They talk frequently with each other by phone and, as soon as the coast is clear, they launch as many as 15 boats towards Kos in one go. This safety in numbers approach increases the chances that many will make it. The week before last alone, the coast guard rescued more than 2,160 people from the water.

    As dawn breaks, shoes, socks and empty water bottles can be found along the beach, evidence of what happened the night before when the refugees climbed barefoot into the dinghies and began the journey to Europe.

    Growing Risks

    Indications of just how big the smuggling industry has become can also be found in Istanbul, Belgrade and Budapest. With the number of customers growing, the smugglers’ business model is also evolving. The boats and trucks being used are getting bigger, as are the risks smugglers are willing to take to transport their customers.

    So far, the business has largely attracted petty criminals in Turkey and the Balkans. The number of tightly organized networks is relatively small, although they do exist. After all, if you want to get rich exploiting poverty, fear and war, it is necessary to have a network of people on several continents who are intelligent, unscrupulous, ambitious and have the ability to plan precisely. You have to be a person like Ermias Ghermay.

    Ghermay, who is originally from Ethiopia, is a middle-aged man who speaks Arabic, English, French and Italian. He lives in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. Italian prosecutors suspect he’s one of the big fish in the Mediterranean business. They believe Ghermay is responsible for the mass transport of refugees from Libya and allege that he has smuggled as many as 15,000 people from Africa to Europe through Italy. His organization is thought to generate annual revenue in the millions.

    Findings by Italian investigators provide detailed insights into the system Ghermay has developed to profit from war and displacement. His specialty are all-inclusive trips, with the cost per person, per stage of the trip at between $2,000 and $2,500, payable before the start of each leg. Italian prosecutors investigated for around two years, monitoring telephone calls and conducting surveillance on intermediaries. Close to two dozen helpers have been arrested, but their boss remains a free man in Tripoli, where he is believed to be living under the protection of Libyan militias.

    Still, it doesn’t appear that there are any mafia leaders in the smuggling scene with the decades of experience of the type often seen in the international drug trade. German security agencies believe that smugglers and their helpers are themselves often former refugees who got stuck somewhere as they were trying to flee — in addition to the local criminals with whom they have established contact. And although the refugees do represent a source of income, that money is then distributed among many people. Analysis of wiretapped communications between smugglers didn’t turn up evidence of any kind of distinctive network. It appears that Ermias Ghermay is more the exception than the rule.

    For most refugees, the trip continues from Greece through Macedonia — often by bus or train, but sometimes on foot. Many have a long list of telephone numbers for different smugglers, with contacts in every country. Similar lists were found in the pockets of the dead in Parndorf.

    The Hotel Mr. President

    The Western Balkan route continues northward to the Serbian capital of Belgrade, a sprawl of gray buildings and cement. Right at the central train station, not far from the Danube River, the four-star Hotel Mr. President has become the unofficial headquarters of the influx of refugees.

    Many refugees are staying at the Mr. President, at least the more prosperous among them, before they continue their journeys to Austria, Germany, Belgium or the Netherlands. They sleep in rooms in which oil portraits of Vladimir Putin, Lenin, Ronald Reagan and other past and present world leaders hang above the beds. There are a total of 61 rooms spread out over seven floors.

    But the truly powerful men here can be found sitting in chairs in front of the entrance talking on the phone. They wear Hawaii shirts open at the neck and fanny packs. Each man has three mobile phones, headphones in their ears and a charger on the table in front of them. The Hotel Mr. President is their headquarters. All the men speak Arabic. Refugees pay up to €1,500 to be smuggled through the stretch of forest a little less than 200 kilometers away from here that borders Hungary.

    Only a few weeks ago, the price of the trip from Belgrade to the Hungarian border had been a maximum of €300, but the prices have since exploded. There aren’t enough cars available to do the job and there are simply too many refugees.

    Last Wednesday night, around 60 refugees could be found waiting in front of the hotel with backpacks. Shortly before they departed, the smuggling bosses drove up in a Porsche Cayenne and a ruby-colored Porsche Panamera sedan. They sat down on chairs at the hotel café, pleased with how business was running. Here at the Mr. President, both rich and poor refugees are united, often in the same vehicles that will take them to Europe.

    Two Syrians explain that every refugee knows that the Hotel Mr. President is the staging ground for getting to the EU. Often, recruiters approach new arrivals soon after they cross into Serbia from Macedonia, telling them that they can help get them to Belgrade and later to Budapest.

    A whistle hisses through the air. It’s coming from one of the men with the fanny packs. Around 60 men get up and follow him through Belgrade’s central station. Small trucks and vans are waiting for them at the other side of the station. The men climb in and the vehicles drive away.

    Razor Wire

    The Balkans end, and the EU begins, amid corn fields, and it is exactly here, at the Hungarian-Serb border, that Hungary’s government wants to stop the flow of migrants — all the trucks and vans coming from the Hotel Mr. President. For weeks now, border patrol guards have been erecting a 175-kilometer border fence made up of three layers of razor wire. It had been planned as a bulwark against the influx of refugees from the south. The government plans to build a solid, four-meter-high (13 feet) fence soon, but until then it will have to rely on the razor wire. That, though, isn’t working.

    Some areas are impossible to fence, like the tracks on the Szeged-Subotica train line that leads through the Hungarian border town of Röszke. From here, it is only two hours by car to Belgrade, and the refugees come when it gets dark. They walk across the border between Serbia and Hungary as if it didn’t exist — young men with backpacks, elderly people, families with children, emaciated figures, most of them Syrians.

    A week ago Saturday, some 3,080 refugees crossed the border, followed by 2,890 on Sunday and 1,797 on Monday. No one is doing anything to stop them because there are far too many. The smugglers in Röszke are recognizable by the code words they use. “Arabic, Arabic?” they call out under the cover of darkness.

    Two women in white tank tops can be seen standing at a truck stop on the lookout for police. Some low-rider Audis with tinted windows pull up. Standing between them are bald-headed Roma men waiting for potential customers. One of the smugglers says the driver can only take the refugees as far as Budapest. The trip costs between €200 and €300, and the traffickers can earn several thousand euros a day.

    The trip up north with the refugees goes fast from here, over well-built roads and the M5 highway. The drive goes past poppy fields and dried up sunflowers, roadside motels with rooms for eight euros, wind turbines, the Paradiso chain of bordellos and a border sign with the circle of EU gold stars. The trip from Röszke to the rest stop near Parndorf is close to 400 kilometers.

    Three-quarters of an hour from Parndorf, Gerald Tatzgern is sitting on the second floor of the Austrian criminal police office in Vienna. As leader of the Taskforce Human Trafficking and Smuggling, he is the country’s most important investigator when it comes to the fight against smuggling groups, both large and small. The most difficult cases end up on his desk, and he knows the route to Serbia, and the Hotel Mr. President in Belgrade, extremely well. The father of three children, Tatzgern is 47-years-old and speaks rapidly and precisely in a friendly tone.

    He and his officers are doing what they can to prevent the kind of disasters like the one that played out on the A4. Indeed, just two hours before our meeting, which took place at the beginning of last week, they arrested an additional suspect in the case, he says. Tatzgern is well acquainted with the Western Balkans smuggling scene, describing it as a chaotic mix of small-time criminals, regional groups and a few organized networks with up to 200 members. Regarding their profits, he says they are “absolutely comparable to the drug trade.”

    Brutal Recklessness

    He tells the story of one network that he and his people found in Turkey way back in 1994 after the deaths of five Tamils. Although he knows who is responsible, he says, the network’s leader remains free and is still active in the smuggling scene in Turkey. Tatzgern says the man has contacts within the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in addition to Turkish political and business leaders.

    Tatzgern is a pragmatist: He sees the world as it is and not how it could be. Paradoxically, he notes, it is safer for refugees to choose a well-organized smuggling group. “The mafia, at least, has more know-how and not this brutal recklessness, which costs human lives in the end.”

    That brutal recklessness, though, is everywhere and disasters can happen at any time. Indeed, the refugee drama that is currently taking place, after all, is made up of countless moments of fear and unimaginable risk. In hostels and temporary shelters, it seems that everybody has such stories to tell.

    Among them are three Syrians who were part of a group of 50 refugees shut into a minibus, not unlike the 71 from the end of August. They were lucky: They were able to cut a hole in the roof with a knife and escape. Then there is the story told by Reza Golshir of Iran and Majid Khan from Pakistan. They met their smuggler, a man from Turkey, in Belgrade. For $300, he promised to take them to Vienna in a Mercedes with just five passengers. Ultimately, though, the smugglers packed 30 men, women and a few children into a small truck that was lined with plastic. They were able to free themselves with the help of a screwdriver they found in the cargo bay. The next day, they were back in Belgrade — $300 poorer, but alive.

    The trip through the Balkans is full of such moments, and not everyone comes away unscathed. Refugee shelters along the route are full of people with broken bones, oozing infections and bloody cuts. But they are unfazed and will continue trying to reach Austria, Germany, Sweden or Great Britain. Those who have escaped the bombs of Aleppo of the violence of Sudan, Somalia or Afghanistan — those who have crossed the Mediterranean and walked through Macedonia on foot — are not going to be held up by a couple of rolls of barbed wire.

    Higher Prices

    They are propelled by hope and desperation, and they need help for such a journey — and the smugglers offer that assistance. Even if Hungary seals up its border as it has repeatedly threatened to do, the smugglers will simply find another route, via Croatia, for example, or through Slovenia. They may also refocus their attentions on the route across the Mediterranean to Italy. Politicians, of course, will continue to try to stop them, not least because the recently declared war on smugglers gives the impression that Europe’s leaders are actually doing something.

    But for as long as war rages on in Syria and Iraq, as long as poverty and conflict remain a fact of life just outside Europe’s borders, the smugglers will continue to ply their trade. And, like the drug war before it, the war against human-trafficking is likely to have one effect above all else: higher prices for customers.

    The Balkan Route comes to an end in Bavaria — and it has become the end of the road for many a smuggler as well. The state is currently holding over 730 suspected smugglers in pre-trial detention, with more being arrested almost daily. The judiciary is struggling under the strain and the jails are full. Viorel C., from Romania, is one of 28 suspected smugglers being held at the Würzburg prison. He is suspected of having driven nine Syrians in a VW bus from Budapest to Passau.

    Speaking in his cell, C. says his superiors promised to pay him €500 for the trip, adding that he only wanted to earn a bit of money. “Instead, I have lost everything,” he says. If he’s lucky, he’ll get a suspended sentence. His defense attorney says that, as a rule, the courts are only making drivers serve prison time if they were carrying more than 20 refugees.

    People like C. are recruited in Hungary and are given strict instructions. They are told not to stop until they get to the first German city after the border. Then, they are told to let everyone out and return to Budapest immediately. The periodic loss of drivers and vehicles is calculated into the prices they charge — such losses can hardly be avoided. But when someone like C. gets caught and locked up, someone else simply steps into his spot. There are many more like him.

    Photo Gallery: Heading West

    শরণার্থী পশ্চিমে

    • মাসুদ করিম - ১৫ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (২:২০ অপরাহ্ণ)

      Video: On board a smugglers’ boat

      A France 2 TV crew joined Iraqi and Syrian refugees on a crossing over the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos organised by armed people smugglers.

      France 2 reporter Franck Geneauzeau was allowed on board by the smugglers and given permission to film the trip, on which the dozens of passengers had paid 2,000 euros each (and 1,000 for the children).

      Geneauzeau boarded at an undisclosed point in southern Turkey. The boat and its crew continued along the coast to a secret pick-up point where the migrants were waiting.

      The smugglers help the families, some with children as young as two months old, wade through the water to the boat. Others are forced off to help push the boat after it becomes grounded by the weight of passengers.

      At least one smuggler brandishes a weapon to show these people just who is in charge.

      Then the smuggler who has been piloting the boat assigns one of the migrants to take the wheel, and dives off. His job is done and he and his colleagues can count their cash. The migrants are no longer their problem.

      As the journey proceeds into the night, the relief on the boat is palpable. Many pray, others congratulate each other. It is ten kilometres to the Greek island of Lesbos.

      And then the engine, which has been spewing noxious fumes, stops.

      The only lights are from Geneauzeau’s camera and a few mobile phones.

      The migrants’ relief has turned to despair, and the passengers have to be shouted at to stop moving around the boat, which is rocking dangerously in the water.

      Geneauzeau uses his satellite phone to call for rescue, and later a small Greek fishing boat arrives, having been alerted by the coast guard.

      With agonising slowness, the Greek vessel tows the overloaded and rickety migrant ship towards Lesbos.

      Migrant Ibra tells Geneauzeau: “You understand why we are going here? Our government lets us die, but your government takes care of you.”

  13. মাসুদ করিম - ৮ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৮:১৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

    The Bangkok bombers reportedly never met in person—they planned the attack on WhatsApp

    Governments and civilians in the US, UK, and elsewhere are engaged in a debate over how to balance privacy with national security, especially when it comes to encrypted chat apps. The terrorist attacks in Bangkok might add more ammunition to the hawkish camp’s arsenal.

    According to Thai media outlet The Nation, the instigators coordinated the bombing through WhatsApp, and never actually met in person. While the exact culprits’ exact whereabouts as they planned the attack remain unknown, at least one detained suspect hails from China, and is of the Uighur ethnic minority located in the country’s northwest, the Bangkok Post reports.

    This would not be the first time that WhatsApp has allegedly been used to coordinate terror. Earlier in June, Belgian authorities detained 16 people allegedly affiliated with jihadist groups in Chechnya and Syria. According to the BBC, domestic police tracked down the suspects by working with the US to monitor messages exchanged on WhatsApp. WhatsApp was also shut down in the Indian state of Gujarat last month after deadly riots there.

    Chat apps are generally more difficult to trace than text messages and phone calls, which the US National Security Agency collected by the hundreds of millions in its global sweep. This is due to a combination of legal and technical complications. WhatsApp is probably the world’s most ubiquitous chat app, but it’s far from the most private.

    Apple’s iMessage, for example and other lesser-known apps, employ what’s known as end-to-end encryption—a method of communication that renders messages viewable only to the sender and receiver. WhatsApp started implementing end-to-end encryption in November 2014, but the rollout remains partial—according an engineer responsible for the project, bringing the tech to such a massive, scattered user base requires significant time. This means that governments and hackers can intercept messages relatively easily, as long as they are targeting users unaffected by the encryption.

    Despite these issues, the app’s very popularity—it is used by 900 million people every month, globally—means that it is almost inevitable that it would be involved in some sort of coordinated, public event. We’ve reached out to WhatsApp to ask for more information about their encryption and privacy policies but have yet to hear back.

    The arrests in Belgium highlight how state authorities, at least in public, tend to frame security and privacy as a trade-off. If Thai authorities had been on the watch for terrorist activity, the hawks might argue, they could have tracked down the instigators before they acted.

    Of course, many average citizens and tech firms are balking at handing over their and their customers information. Apple and Microsoft have been fighting government pressures to hand over user data, or in some cases, cease to implement end-to-end encryption, the New York Times reports.

    The WhatsApp connection also points to a puzzling quirk in China’s ever-puzzling internet. Despite being a foreign social app owned by Facebook, WhatsApp remains completely usable from China, readily available in China’s app stores and works without a hitch, while messengers like Japan’s Line and Korea’s KakaoTalk have been swatted. If these terrorist attacks were in fact conducted by Chinese users, WhatsApp could face similar fate.

  14. মাসুদ করিম - ৮ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৮:৪২ অপরাহ্ণ)

    The Rise of the Lone Wolf Terrorist

    Ottawa shooting appears to be the latest in a series of attacks carried out by individuals with no clear link to terrorist groups

    The shooting death of a Canadian soldier outside Parliament in Ottawa, by a suspect named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau who was then killed inside the building, appears to be the latest in a series of “lone wolf” attacks inspired by radical Islam.

    Wednesday’s attack happened two days after authorities said Martin Rouleau-Couture drove his car into two military members, killing one before he was fatally shot by police, and a month after Alton Nolen beheaded a co-worker in Nebraska. All three appeared to be recent converts to Islam.

    There is no official confirmation that any of these attacks are considered to be direct retaliation for the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) but Canada’s Public Safety Minister, Steven Blaney, described the violent actions of Rouleau as “clearly linked to terrorist ideology”.

    The country raised its terror alert from low to medium last Friday not because of a specific threat but in response to an increase in online “general chatter” from extremist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. A few weeks ago, ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, released a video calling for more individual acts of violence against soldiers and civilians in “countries that entered into a coalition” against the group, encouraging ISIS supporters to “kill them wherever you find them.”

    However, the roots of the lone wolf phenomenon go back further than this appeal. “It’s obvious that lone wolf terrorism has increased in the past few years, but that was already the case before ISIS came into existence.” says Peter Neumann, Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence in London. “It was adopted as a deliberate strategy by al-Qaeda in the late 2000s” and was repeatedly encouraged by Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical preacher based in Yemen, who wrote in the online al-Qaeda magazine Inspire: “It is better to support the prophet by attacking those who slander him than it is to travel to land of Jihad like Iraq or Afghanistan.” Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.

    Timeline of Lone Wolf Terrorist Attacks

    June 2009: Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad shoots and kills a soldier outside Arkansas recruiting station, claiming retribution for the killing of Muslims by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    November 2009: U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan kills 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, saying he was driven by a hatred of American military action in the Muslim world.

    February 2010: U.S. Pilot Andrew Joseph Stack III deliberately crashes his aircraft into a building in Austin, Texas, killing himself and one other. He posted a suicide note expressing displeasure with the “greed” of the U.S. government.

    March 2011: Frankfurt airport shooting of two U.S. Airmen by Arid Uka, a devout Muslim who says he was radicalized by jihadist propaganda videos.

    July 2011: Norwegian extremist Anders Breivik kills 77 people in a bomb attack in Oslo and a shooting spree on the island of Utøya to highlight his far-right beliefs.

    March 2012: Mohammed Merah kills seven people (including three soldiers) in Toulouse, France. Merah said he was inspired by al-Qaeda.

    April 2013: Dzhokar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev kill 3 people, injure more than 260 at the Boston Marathon. Dzhokar said the brothers were motivated by extremist Islamist beliefs.

    May 2013: Two British-born converts to Islam, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale attack and kill a British soldier in London.

    May 2014: Mehdi Nemmouche opens fire at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in the center of Brussels, killing 4 people. He is believed to have spent over a year in Syria with radical Islamists.

    September 2014: An Oklahoma man with a criminal history, Alton Nolen, beheads a female co-worker after being fired. Authorities said Nolen had recently converted to Islam.

    October 2014 : Canadian soldier dies in a hit-and-run in Quebec by Martin Rouleau-Couture. Two days later, another Canadian soldier is shot dead in Ottawa, allegedly by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a man with a criminal record. Reports say both terrorists had recently converted to Islam.

    ISIS has had a different approach as it wanted to recruit people to fight in Syria and Iraq. “It wasn’t about attacking the West, it was about building the Islamic State,” says Neumann. Now, U.S.-led air strikes mean that “it is yet again this old narrative of the West versus Islam,” he adds. While the group seeks direct confrontation with the West, it’s difficult to attack them in Iraq and Syria, since ground troops are not present. ISIS now thinks “the way to terrorize the West is asymmetrically: to strike out through individuals inside of Western countries and show the public the terrible price that they have to pay for the West’s involvement” in the conflict, Neumann continues.

    Jamie Bartlett, head of the Violence and Extremism Program at London-based think tank Demos, believes that “the internet in the last few years has both increased the possibilities and the likelihood of lone-wolf terrorism.” He says it has made it a great deal simpler for one individual to learn about radical ideologies as well as acquire skills like bomb-making, lowering the barrier to participation in a broader, global network of extremism: “Terrorists usually operate within a group, even if only a very small group, but it’s far easier now to be able to go it entirely alone.”

    Neumann says that lone wolves are more likely to suffer from social isolation and mental health problems than “normal” terrorists. This can make them harder to detect than groups. “This will undoubtedly be one of the lures of the tactic,” says Matthew Francis, a researcher on radicalization and extremism at Lancaster University in the U.K.

    Speaking about the Canadian car killing case earlier this week, Superintendent Martine Fontaine of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said “it’s very difficult to know exactly what an individual is planning to do before a crime is committed. We cannot arrest someone for thinking radical thoughts; it’s not a crime in Canada.” As well as trying to prevent their citizens from joining extremist groups like ISIS abroad, Western governments now also face another dilemma when dealing with the threat of home-grown terrorism. Canadian authorities suspected Rouleau of becoming radicalized and the police seized his passport when he tried to leave for Syria. Zehaf-Bibeau, the suspected killer in Wednesday’s Ottawa attack, intended to travel abroad but was stopped and had his passport confiscated. “Often people’s decisions to fight at home comes from being stopped going to fight elsewhere,” says Francis. Neumann adds that lone-wolf attacks appeal not only to returnees — those who have come back from fighting alongside ISIS — but also “fanboys,” or those who would like to join the ISIS community but who have, for one reason or another, not made it to the battlefield.

    Nevertheless, experts agree that most lone wolves are unlikely to kill large numbers of people. “The only lone wolf who killed a lot of people was not a jihadist,” says Neumann. “It was Anders Breivik in 2011 in Norway, who was very sophisticated, a good planner. He acted all on his own and pulled off a massive operation killing 77 people,” he adds. “Typically, lone wolves do one attack, killing one or two people, because they do not have the expertise or sophistication.” Moreover, Bartlett suggests a rise in lone wolf acts can be seen to represent an increased success in counterterrorism operations. As a result of increased intelligence work in stopping larger, plots like 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings, he says, terrorist groups are “limited to conducting attacks that require very little training, very little preparation, very little communication.”

    Yet while lone wolves may not pose the same kind of threat as those who organized attacks like 9/11, Neumann says their acts “have a profound effect in terms of the psychological impact on a society, creating tension, polarization and terror in societies.” Since even a very limited act of violence has the capacity to create terror, lone wolf terrorists represent a different challenge altogether for Western authorities from the terrorist cell plotting spectacular attacks.

    Lone-wolf terrorists, starved for attention, often reveal their plans well before an attack

    Even among attention-starved, isolated murderous fanatics, the warning signs are there.

    Since Sept. 11, 2001, 76% of lone-wolf terrorists have publicly revealed their plans in the weeks and hours before an attack, according to the “largest and most comprehensive database ever created on lone-wolf terrorism” in the US.

    This is among a number of “signatures,” identified by researchers Mark Hamm and Ramon Spaaj in a report (pdf), which analyzed 98 cases of lone-wolf terrorism in America between 1940 and 2013. Lone wolfs—examples include Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 and injured 30 in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, the Boston Marathon bombings, and the recently-foiled French train terror attack—often publicly shared their plans through e-mails, text messages, Facebook, Twitter, and even podcasts.

    For example, Paul Ciancia, who killed one TSA officer and wounded five bystanders in 2013, sent a number of texts to his brother before the mass shooting at Los Angeles International Airport in which he said he was thinking of taking his own life. His brother informed local police immediately, and the LAPD arrived at Ciancia’s apartment six minutes later, but were too late to prevent the shooting.

    Post-9/11, lone wolfs were found to broadcast their intent more than once as they wanted to gain recognition for their cause. The researchers argue that law enforcement should focus on these public declarations, instead of the attacker’s underlying grievances, to best address the dangers presented by lone-wolf terrorism, which they defined as follows:

    Lone-wolf terrorism is political violence perpetrated by individuals who act alone; who do not belong to an organized terrorist group or network; who act without the direct influence of a leader or hierarchy; and whose tactics and methods are conceived and directed by the individual without any direct outside command or direction.

    They found most such single attackers are unemployed, single white males with a criminal record. Compared to members of terrorist organizations, such as Al Qaeda and ISIL, lone wolfs are older, less educated, and more likely to have a mental illness.

    According to researchers, lone-wolf terrorism is undergoing two important changes. Uniformed police and military personal have become a primary target and high-velocity firearms are now the weapons of choice. Prior to 9/11, lone-wolf terrorists didn’t attack a single member of the US military.

    But in terms of lethality, the data indicates that single attackers are not on the rise in America.

    • মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৬:৩৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

      Al Qaeda chief urges lone wolf attacks, militant unity

      Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on young Muslim men in the United States and other Western countries to carry out attacks inside there and urged greater unity between militants.

      “I call on all Muslims who can harm the countries of the crusader coalition not to hesitate. We must now focus on moving the war to the heart of the homes and cities of the crusader West and specifically America,” he said in an audio recording posted online on Sunday, referring to nations making up the Western-led coalition in Iraq and Syria.

      He suggested Muslim youth in the West take the Tsarnaev and Kouachi brothers, who carried out the Boston marathon bombings and Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris respectively, and others as examples to follow.

      It was not clear when the recording was made but references to former Taliban leader Mullah Mohamed Omar as being alive suggest it is at least two months old. Omar’s death was announced by Afghanistan’s government in late July.

      Zawahri reiterated his position on Islamic State, repeating what he said in a recording posted on Wednesday – that he viewed the group’s claim to be a caliphate as illegitimate but would join them in fighting Western and secular forces in Iraq and Syria.

      Former Egyptian doctor Zawahri urged unity between Islamist militant factions in Syria and Iraq, where a Western-led coalition is bombing Islamic State targets, but recognised it would he be difficult. He called for the formation of an independent sharia court to settle disputes.

  15. মাসুদ করিম - ৯ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:১৮ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Elizabeth’s era: the long goodbye of the City stockbroker

    A dull but dependable existence has been threatened by a revolution in the Square Mile

    The continuity provided by Elizabeth II’s record-breaking reign is in sharp contrast to the reinvention of the City of London since her coronation in 1953. In that time trading has digitised, foreign capital has flooded in and the stereotypical City gent has lost his respectability, even as his earnings have soared.

    When comedian Michael Palin depicted The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker in a 1972 television sketch, his caricature of an uptight, bowler-hatted man would have been recognisable to Britons in the interwar years, let alone the 1950s.

    “It was an authoritarian place,” says historian David Kynaston of the Square Mile. “The governor of the Bank of England ran it like the headmaster of public school.”

    The chairman of Lloyds remarked that managing a clearing bank was like driving a car capable of 80mph in obedience with a 20mph speed limit.

    Sir Geoffrey Owen, a fellow at the London School of Economics, started his career in 1958 in the features department of the Financial Times, which he later edited. The City back then was “a gentlemanly place” he recalls, dominated by “old-established merchant banks like Rothschild, Barings and Kleinwort Benson,” whose relationships with big British companies were unshakeable.

    But by the 1960s the fissures were appearing — even if the television comedy show Monty Python could still raise a laugh a decade later with the notion of a dull-as-ditchwater stockbroker coming under attack, albeit from a spear-throwing tribesman, a rampant Frankenstein and artillery fire rather than today’s rulebook-wielding regulator.

    The introduction by the US of a withholding tax on foreign securities purchases in 1963 spawned the offshore London “Euromarkets” in bonds and loans. The investment bankers at the centre of this revolution were a diverse new breed including Swiss Svengalis, cockney traders and hard-nosed ex-Wall Streeters.

    At the same time the relationship between the old City and British industry was under pressure in an era dominated by Labour governments, Sir Geoffrey recalls. In 1973 the “oil shock” — an embargo of the west by Gulf producers — triggered a market rout. A banking crisis shook public faith further. By 1975, the Queen Mother was praying at Sandringham for stability, one of the few instances of the Royal family taking a greater interest in the stock market than in horseracing.

    Since 1953, there have been roughly five equity market cycles and four banking crises. Experts will quibble over exact numbers. They can agree, however, that one structural shift matters disproportionately: Margaret Thatcher’s liberalisation of the stock market, culminating in the Big Bang in 1986.

    The separation of broking and “jobbing”, a form of market-making, was abolished. Fixed commissions were consigned to the dustbin. Share dealing moved from a physical trading floor to blinking computer screens. Stuffy broking and merchant banking partnerships, where promotion depended on a candidate’s DNA rather than on his P&L, were bought out by foreign banks, most of them from the US.

    The reforms reflected the Conservative prime minister’s enthusiasm for “American-style capitalism”, according to Sir Geoffrey, who said: “From the late Eighties onwards the concept of maximising shareholder value . . . meant the motivations of people changed.”

    White socks, shoulderpads and two-bottle lunches fell from grace. But laisser faire capitalism, fuelled by globalisation, remained on a tear in the City until it hit the buffers of the 2008 banking crisis. Light-touch regulation, to extend the motoring metaphor, had made it possible for bank bosses to accelerate to 120mph at the wheel of institutions dangerous at anything over 60mph.

    Subsequent bailouts, at Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, led to a regulatory crackdown that is only starting to ease today. The accusation that the City fails to support industry has new currency, according to Sir Geoffrey, and is epitomised in the policies of Labour’s left-wing leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn.

    At one level, the more things change, the more they stay the same. City wheeler-dealers have cut a raffish dash since the 17th century. Market cycles are always with us. But there have been three inescapable secular shifts during the reign of a queen who has restricted her involvement in London’s financial district to opening an office block or two and wondering, with shaming simplicity, why economists failed to foresee the credit crunch.

    The bulk of capital handled by the Square Mile is now foreign. The stock market, the flagship exchange of yore, is shrinking in relative terms as shares are replaced with debt. And trading decisions, as well as trades themselves, are increasingly made by machines.

    If the life of the City stockbroker is no longer dull, it may partly be because he is facing extinction.

  16. মাসুদ করিম - ৯ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৬:৩১ অপরাহ্ণ)

    এতটা আশা করিনি!

    Bangkok blast leader fled to Bangladesh on Chinese passport: Police

    The man Thai police believe masterminded last month’s deadly Bangkok bombing fled to Bangladesh the day before the attack and travelled on a Chinese passport, officials said on Wednesday (Sept 9).

    The man emerged as a key suspect in the Aug 17 bombing following interrogation this week of one of two foreigners being held, who police say admitted to giving a backpack with explosives to a man they are certain was the bomber.

    The suspect told police a man called “Izan” played a lead role and assigned responsibilities to others plotters during a Bangkok meeting.

    “This man called Izan – and I don’t know if this is his real name – is a very important person in this network,” deputy police chief Chakthip Chaijinda told Reuters.

    “I don’t know what his nationality is … Let’s just say Izan is one of the foremost wanted individuals.”

    No group has claimed responsibility for the blast at the Erawan Shrine, a tourist attraction close to hotels and shopping malls. Twenty people were killed, including 14 foreign tourists.

    Chakthip said police would be coordinating with Bangladeshi counterparts where the suspected leader had travelled on Aug. 16. An immigration official said he had used a Chinese passport, but it was not known if it was authentic.

    A K M Shahidul Hoque, inspector general of Bangladesh police, told Reuters he was unaware of the new development.

    Thai police are no closer to establishing a motive for the bombing after weeks of conflicting theories and false leads.

    Arrest warrants have been issued for 11 suspects, but only two have been detained following raids that uncovered bomb-making materials.

    National police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang reiterated the attack was “not an act of international terrorism”.

    The most progress has been a suspect admitting to delivering a backpack to a man caught on security footage leaving it at the shrine before the blast.

    Police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said his testimony revealed the mastermind had given directions to others using the instant messaging platform Whatsapp, but suspects’ phones had left no trail.

    Prawut said the perpetrators may have been human traffickers and the Chinese passport used by one suspect, which gave the western region of Xinjiang as birthplace, was likely to be genuine.

    The use of Chinese passports has raised speculation the attackers could be sympathisers of Uighur Muslims from Xinjiang, who complain of persecution.

    Thailand in July forcibly returned 109 Uighurs to China, which denies persecuting the community.

    Seven of those killed in the blast were from mainland China and Hong Kong.

    এ সম্পর্কিত : Is China’s homegrown terrorism problem behind the Bangkok bombing? ও Bangkok blast: 6 theories on who is responsible for the attack

    • মাসুদ করিম - ১০ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (২:২৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

      Bangkok blast suspect bribed his way into Thailand: Police

      A key suspect in last month’s deadly Bangkok blast paid a US$600 (S$850) bribe to illegally enter Thailand, police said on Thursday (Sept 10), highlighting widespread corruption at the kingdom’s borders.

      Adem Karadag, one of two foreigners arrested in connection with the Aug 17 attack, was detained at a flat in eastern Bangkok late last month.

      Police say he was found in possession of bomb-making paraphernalia and dozens of fake Turkish passports.

      Karadag’s role has not been explained by police, but say they now know more about how he came to be in Thailand.

      “The first man (Karadag) said he travelled through Vietnam to a neighbouring country where he then paid for transportation,” police chief Somyot Poompanmoung told reporters, without specifying which neighbouring country.

      “At the Thai border he paid US$600 (to cross into Thailand),” he added, without revealing the identity of the official who took the bribe.

      A second man, Yusufu Mieraili, was detained two days later on the border with Cambodia.

      He was allegedly found in possession of a Chinese passport which police believe is genuine.

      Police say Mieraili has confessed to delivering the backpack bomb to another man who left it at the Erawan Shrine minutes before the explosion.

      Thailand is a notorious sanctuary for on-the-run foreigners and visa over-stayers, with officials often willing to take a bribe to turn a blind eye to illegality.

      In recent days Somyot, himself a former deputy commander with immigration police, has railed against the ease of buying off border officials.

      “I cannot ignore this problem because I feel ashamed,” he told reporters on Wednesday as he called on the junta to help him clamp down on corrupt border officials.

      Although Somyot did not confirm which country Karadag entered from, it is likely to be Laos or Cambodia, both of which sit between Thailand and Vietnam.

      Since the bombing at least six police officers have been removed from their posts bordering Cambodia where Mieraili was apprehended after they reportedly took bribes to let people pass.

      Somyot raised eyebrows shortly after Karadag’s arrest when he announced that he was awarding his own officers a reward of some US$84,000 for making their first arrest in the case. At the time Karadag had not even been charged.

      Mystery still surrounds the motive of the group accused of being responsible for the August 17 bombing that left 20 people dead in the heart of Bangkok and rocked Thailand’s key tourist industry.

      Analysts have suggested a link with Muslim Uighur militants or their supporters, possibly enraged by Thailand’s deportation of scores of the minority to their Chinese homeland earlier this summer.

      In recent days Thai media have focused on a suspected mastermind identified as “Izan” or “Ishan” who reportedly orchestrated the bombing and fled the country before the attack.

      Police on Thursday confirmed the man was a suspect but played down his status.

      “Do not conclude Ishan was a big fish,” Somyot said. “You might be surprised.”

  17. মাসুদ করিম - ৯ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৬:৫৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Nehru asked Indians to give jewellery to fund the 1962 war – and some of it is still in RBI

    In September 8, 1962, Chinese troops attempted an incursion into Indian territory by surrounding Dhola in Assam. In what would be the first major incident leading up to the war, 60 people from the People’s Liberation Army crossed the Line of Actual Control and began occupying the posts dominated by Indian territory. The next day on September 9, an operation code named “leghorn” was launched by India to evict Chinese troops “by force if necessary”.

    Two months later, the Chinese military attacked India with full force in what would become the 1962 war, where a bumbling leadership in New Delhi performed disastrously. From the region of Chushul in Ladakh to Walong in the north-eastern part of India, Chinese troops dominated the war from all sides. Woefully unprepared and even underfunded, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru turned to his countrymen for support.

    Propaganda ads like the one above were broadcast to help foster a sense of solidarity with the troops fighting in the Himalayas, calling on the women of India to give their jewellery to the cause. Nehru also asked people to donate money and woolens.

    According to Rediff, in Rajasthan, close to 250 families from Village Bardhana Khurd, decided to send one son from each family into the army. It is estimated that more than $220 million were collected in cash for the Defence of India Fund. The prime minister’s daughter Indira Gandhi herself donated gold to the effort.

    The films division propaganda ad shown above in fact even promised victory if gold was donated to the effort – a guarantee that would turn out to be completely misguided, despite the huge amounts of cash and jewelry that ended up being donated. And it was never clear exactly how useful the donation effort ended up being, though the cash alleviated major budgetary concerns. The solidarity efforts ended up having other effects too: A secession movement in Tamil Nadu was quickly quelled, trade unions cancelled all strikes and the National Integration Council said that the war had brought India together so well that it could disband itself.

    India lost the 1962 war, with the conflict actually ending thanks to a unilateral withdrawal by Beijing. The full analysis of what went wrong however has yet to be made public. And there’s some other interesting fallout to the massive donation drive that came during the war: According to Observer Research Foundation Distinguished Fellow Manoj Joshi, many gold ornaments and jewellery donated then to Defence of India Fund still lie forgotten in the vaults of the Reserve Bank of India today.

  18. মাসুদ করিম - ১০ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৩:৩০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    New species of extinct human found in cave may rewrite history

    Thousands of bones of Homo naledi recovered in South Africa’s chamber of secrets show unique features – and may be the relics of an ancient burial site

    ONE thousand four hundred bones, 140 teeth, belonging to at least 15 individual skeletons – and that’s just what was recovered in a single short field session.

    The early human fossil record isn’t normally this rich. For a century, palaeoanthropologists have generally learned to make do with slim pickings – part of a face here, a jawbone fragment there. Now, from the depths of a cave in South Africa, has come a monster cache of hominin bones from a previously unknown early species of our own genus, Homo.

    “It’s unique,” says Fred Spoor at University College London, who has seen casts of some of the finds.

    The sheer number of bones and their location hint at something even more astonishing: the bodies they belonged to appear to have been left deliberately in the cave. This has never been seen before in such a primitive human, and could have big implications for understanding the origins of modern human behaviour (see “Did ancient hominins bury their dead?“).

    The first signs that something unusual was unfolding came in October 2013, when Lee Berger at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, advertised for people with good archaeological skills and a lack of claustrophobia to come forward. The successful applicants flew to South Africa a few weeks later to help remove hominin bones and teeth from the cramped Dinaledi chamber in a cave system a few tens of kilometres from Johannesburg (see diagram).

    There are still thousands more remains in the cave, according to Berger. “Once we realised the full potential, we decided the best thing to do was to lock down the site, and engage the entire community to make a decision on what to do there next,” he says.

    But what has been recovered so far tells an extraordinary tale. The species the bones belonged to had a unique mix of characteristics. Look at its pelvis or shoulders, says Berger, and you would think it was an apelike Australopithecus, which appeared in Africa about 4 million years ago and is thought to be an ancestor of Homo. But look at its foot and you could think it belonged to our species, which appeared just 200,000 years ago.

    Its skull, though, makes clear that the brain was less than half the size of ours, and more like that of some species of Homo that lived about 2 million years ago.

    “It doesn’t look a lot like us,” says Berger. Even so, he and his colleagues think that, on balance, the features of the skull, hands and teeth mean the new species probably does belong in our genus. They have named it Homo naledi (eLife, DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09560).

    Its anatomy suggests it is one of the earliest members of our genus to evolve, but frustratingly, we don’t yet know exactly how old the skeletons are. They might turn out to be 2 or 3 million years old, dating back to the time when Homo first came on the scene.

    But even if they prove to be much younger – 100,000 years old, say – that would be significant, says Berger. It would make them a human version of the coelacanth, he says: an ancient species that survived, unchanged, into essentially modern times. “Whatever the age, it’s exciting.”

    The team refers to the fossils’ mixture of features as “anatomical mosaic”. We have previously seen such a mosaic in Australopithecus sediba, a 2-million-year-old hominin that Berger and his colleagues excavated in 2008 from the Malapa cave, a few kilometres away. “Naledi is almost the mirror of sediba,” says Berger. “Almost everywhere in the sediba skeleton where you see primitive features, in naledi you see derived features. And almost everywhere that sediba is derived, naledi is primitive.”

    Although it was just about possible to dismiss A. sediba, with its assortment of ancient and modern features, as a quirk of human evolution, the new find hints that such “mosaicism” is not the exception in early humans but the rule, says Berger.

    But Spoor says H. naledi could really be a localised exception. “If you have lots of bones scattered all across East Africa, that might actually give you a better indication of what’s going on in terms of human evolution over a widespread region,” he says.

    Not that this viewpoint diminishes the importance of the find. “The contribution of these fossils is fantastic,” says Spoor. “I don’t think many people will have a problem with the interpretation: it’s a new species and I think it does belong in the genus Homo.”

    Inevitably, though, there are dissenting views. “To me, having studied virtually the entire human fossil record, the specimens lumped together as Homo naledi represent two cranial morphs,” says Jeffrey Schwartz at the University of Pittsburgh in Philadelphia.

    Ian Tattersall at the American Museum of Natural History in New York shares that view. Last month, he and Schwartz wrote an article calling for researchers to think carefully about classifying new fossils as belonging to Homo.

    As for the Dinaledi finds, Schwartz and Tattersall point out that although the foreheads of some of the new skulls are gently sloped, one skull has a taller forehead with a distinct brow ridge – suggesting two species are present. “Putting these fossils in the genus Homo adds to the lack of clarity in trying to sort out human evolution,” says Schwartz. Berger disagrees, saying this can be explained by differences between males and females of the same species.

    Either way, all can agree that the new find is a remarkable addition to the human fossil record. “This is an amazing assemblage of fossils that should keep paleoanthropology buzzing for a long time,” says Tattersall.

    Dean Falk at Florida State University in Tallahassee is especially excited by the fact that Berger’s team has produced a cast of Homo naledi‘s small brain. Images of it hint at interesting features close to one brain region associated with speech in modern humans, she says.

    Berger says it’s possible that for the first time, we have found another creature not that closely related to us, yet with a cognitive ability “different but essentially equal to ours”.

    The find is also a reminder that the fossil record still has rich treasures to offer, he says. “This stuff is still out there, and it’s out there in abundance.”

    Did ancient hominins bury their dead?

    The discovery of more than 1500 fossilised human bones and teeth in one place is unusual (see main story), but what’s missing from the site is also extraordinary. Besides a few rodent fossils and the remains of an owl that probably fell into the Dinaledi chamber by mistake, there are no other vertebrate species present. How so?

    Lee Berger at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and his colleagues looked at various explanations. Carnivores could have brought the human remains to the chamber, but there are no gnaw marks, and it’s rare for just one species to be targeted.

    The ancient humans could have fallen in by accident – but few would wander deep enough into the caves to stumble upon the chamber’s entrance. What’s more, the remains include those of infants, making this idea even more implausible.

    Only one scenario works, they say: Homo naledi deliberately disposed of its dead in the chamber. Perhaps the bodies were gently dropped down the shaft (see diagram) which researchers squeezed through to recover the bones (eLife, DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09561).

    There are precedents for this. At Sima de los Huesos in the Atapuerca mountains of Spain, for example, 28 hominin skeletons were recovered from a deep pit. But these hominins were big-brained – they looked and behaved rather like us. H. naledi had a brain less than half the size of ours.

    “It’s fair to say that naledi individuals recognised their own mortality and the other self that comes with death,” says Berger. The find is likely to “squash the sacred cow” that this sort of behaviour requires a big brain, he says.

    Key human fossil discoveries

    With a discovery of a new early human, we look back at major finds that defined our understanding of human evolution

    The history of early human fossil finds is a long and messy one, and as the new Homo naledi find shows, it remains a work in progress. The sheer number of H. naledi bones and teeth found is remarkable, as often fossils are just tiny fragments of the skeleton.

    Here’s a timeline of some key finds and what they taught us about our deep past.

    1829 First Neanderthal bones are discovered in what is now Belgium. Subsequently we learned that Neanderthals lived alongside our species, looked a little like us and even interbred with our species

    1891 The first H. erectus fossils are found in Java. We now think the species appeared at least 2 million years ago in Africa and, again, looked distinctly human

    1924 The discovery of the first Australopithecus remains in South Africa shifts the focus of study to Africa. Clearly more primitive than humans, australopiths appeared about 4 million years ago and walked on two legs, although they also had large teeth, small brains and long arms like those of apes

    1960 Excavations in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania reveal a possible Australopith-human halfway house – a species later named H. habilis, with a small brain but a skeleton slightly more human-like than an australopith. It appeared a little over 2 million years ago

    1974 The now famous Lucy skeleton is found in Ethiopia, later dated to around 3.2 million years. It remains arguably the most famous Australopithecus ever found

    2008 Astonishingly well preserved 2-million-year-old australopith remains, later named A. sediba, are found in a cave in South Africa. Controversially, some see the species as a better “missing link” to our genus than H. habilis

    2015 A jawbone unearthed in Ethiopia could, some suggest, be the oldest fossil of our Homo genus. The find narrows down the transition from Australopithecus to Homo to around 2.8 to 3 million years ago

    National Geographic: New Human Ancestor Discovered: Homo naledi (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)

  19. মাসুদ করিম - ১০ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৭:১১ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Irma Stern ‘masterpiece’ used as kitchen notice board sells for nearly £1 million

    A “masterpiece” by Irma Stern found being used as a kitchen pin board has sold at auction for nearly a million pounds.

    Arab in Black by the famous South African artist sold for £842,000 at a Bonhams sale of South African art in London.

    The artwork was discovered hanging in a London kitchen being used as a noticeboard by owners who had no idea of its true value.

    The piece has huge historical significance having been donated by Stern to raise money for Nelson Mandela’s trial for treason in the 1960s.

    “This powerful image from Stern’s highly regarded Zanzibar period, is one of the artist’s finest works,” said Hannah O’Leary, Bonhams head of South African art.

    “It also has a fascinating past – from an important role in the political history of South Africa to its recent fate as a notice board in a modest London apartment.”

    The painting’s original owner was art collector and Woolworth’s heiress Betty Suzman.

    “In the 1970s, it came to Britain when the buyer emigrated to the UK and was subsequently bequeathed to the current owner. For many years, Arab in Black hung in a London flat and was used as a notice board,” O’Leary said.

    “I was undertaking a routine valuation when I spotted this masterpiece hanging in the kitchen covered in letters, postcards and bills,” said.

    The 1939 painting provided a key part of Mandela’s defence fund when he was handed a life sentence for treason.

    Giles Peppiatt, director of Bonhams South African art department, told reporters following the discovery in July that its owners were “shocked” and “astonished”.

    “They loved the painting and they knew it had some value but they had no idea it was such an important work.”

    “In some ways they are very sorry to see it go, but it would be a great luxury to keep a million-pound painting hanging on a kitchen wall.”

    Stern’s art has been rising in popularity and value recently and another of her paintings, Bahora Girl, also from the artist’s time in Zanzibar, selling at Bonhams for £2.4 million.

  20. মাসুদ করিম - ১২ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (২:১২ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Open for business

    The Bookshop in Delhi’s Jor Bagh, a window to the pre-Kindle world, makes a compelling case for book stores

    A lone customer steps in. Miles Davis is gently filling the hushed corners. The doorman stands erect at his post in a brown safari suit, and an elegant woman sits at the counter. She is surrounded by books—on shelves, in display cabinets, stack after inviting stack.

    This is The Bookshop, an institution as genteel as its posh address. Jor Bagh Market is that rare place in the Capital that shunned the rat race to become a bazaar. Urban freneticism is not allowed here. Big cars glide over speed breakers. Presswallas iron clothes under giant trees. The stillness is broken briefly by laughter from the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya school nearby.

    The surrounding bungalows stand aloof under a canopy of trees, shielded by hedges. Most of the shops are nearly as old as the market that has been around for almost 65 years. Kim Brothers is known for custom-made shoes. One grocer discreetly stocks DVDs of films that one might choose not to watch with the family. For a long time, a dry-cleaner’s shop displayed the notice, “Clothes Made to Order Over Night For The Hurry People”.

    And then there is The Bookshop, a sanctuary for those who love the written word and the printed page. This refuge was founded in 1970 by Kanwarjit Singh Dhingra, known to friends and customers as “KD”. A few years ago, The New York Times described it as “perhaps the coziest bookstore in the country”.

    KD died of cancer last year at the age of 73, but the little shop continues his passionate undertaking. The new torch-bearer is the woman sitting at the counter. She now calls herself Nini KD Singh, having taken on her husband’s initials “so that KD continues to live on with me”. She is waiting for the humid spell to end so that she can organize author conversations in the park outside.

    While KD was running the shop, Nini remained in the background. “People miss KD and want me as their connection,” she says.

    The first few months as proprietress were painful. Customers would ask for KD, looking forward to a discussion on a variety of writers and novels in his balmy voice. Every time, Nini would have to share her loss.

    The Bookshop has the vibe of a global village. Emmy award-winning author Geoffrey Ward says, “During our annual trips to Delhi over the past 30 years or so, The Bookshop has meant the world to me and to my wife, Diane.” The New York-based writer shared a love for jazz with KD. “We never felt we were fully back in India until we had walked in through the door and been met with KD’s warm greeting, as though 11 months hadn’t passed since we had last seen one another.”

    At a time when Delhi has lost enough independent book stores to warrant a special tomb, KD has become the subject of wistful talk.

    “KD Singh…,” muses author Arundhati Roy, one of the book store’s many faithfuls. “I will always remember the sheer joy of seeing him smile the day The God Of Small Things arrived in The Bookshop. He had ordered cartons and cartons of copies. He greeted me with his naughty smile and his standard salutation, a line of dialogue from (the film) In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones— “Hi Sir, I’m so confused, pata nahi kuch samajh mein nahi aa raha hai what to do….” He used to keep video tapes in The Bookshop years ago, and colluded with us, me and Pradip, in the small matter of stocking copies of our own film, which technically belonged to (state TV channel) Doordarshan. I miss him…”

    The novelist is referring to a film she scripted and acted in, and which was directed by her husband Pradip Krishen (in 1989). The book store she is referring to is the second outlet KD set up in nearby Khan Market in 1982. The more famous of The Bookshops, that outlet shut down in 2006 after a rent dispute.

    Now yet another Delhi book store is set to close. The eclectic Fact & Fiction started almost 30 years ago, inspired by The Bookshop. Ajit Vikram Singh, its owner, frequented KD’s Jor Bagh store as a college boy. “I wanted to open a bookshop just like KD’s…. It was there that I first met writers like Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut and Jerzy Kosinski.”

    In a note posted in August on the website DailyO, Vikram Singh highlighted the inability of local book stores to survive “in this current environment of reduced retail sale and high rentals”. It triggered an outpouring of emotion on social networking sites.

    KD was also the guiding spirit behind another great Delhi book store. He helped launch The Bookworm in Connaught Place—it was loved for its collections of film studies and its spiral staircase to a mezzanine filled with coffee-table books.

    Not many know of The Bookshop as a one-time publisher, but KD brought out film-maker Pamela Rook’s poetry collection in 1984. Final Exposure copies are still available in the poetry section, priced at Rs.30 each.

    The day after Fact & Fiction announced its impending closure, The Bookshop posted on its Facebook page: “This is too sad. We feel alone today.”

    The solitude is likely to grow. Independent book stores have been downing shutters for a few years now. In Connaught Place, The Bookworm shut down in 2008, the New Book Depot in 2012, and ED Galgotia & Sons Book Sellers emptied its shelves earlier this year. In Khan Market, Tharia Ram & Sons closed almost 15 years ago. The Yodakin in Hauz Khas Village shut down in 2013. Spell & Bound book store and Timeless Art Book Studio in south Delhi will soon be shutting down. Mumbai has also suffered the loss of local bookshops, including the New & Second Hand Bookshop and Danai Book Shop. The lights have also been switched off in book stores in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

    Will The Bookshop survive?

    The popular villain in the saga of book stores worldwide is online sellers. Two years ago, France even passed a law to ensure that online book prices were higher than those charged by independent book stores.

    In Delhi, however, the needle of suspicion points elsewhere. “It’s not shopping websites that scare us but the rent,” says Sonal Narain, a long-time employee who is now Nini’s business partner at The Bookshop. “If that goes up, we’ll have to shut down.”

    This is not a pressure felt by Internet-based booksellers. Their businesses can be located far away from cities. If the owner of the warehouse raises the rent, the stock is simply relocated to a cheaper region outside city limits. Customers don’t care if their books come from Haryana one month and from Uttar Pradesh the next.

    While customers love the low prices that online sellers can provide, they come with a hidden penalty. With the loss of local bookshops comes the loss of a literary community. Without local shops, there are no author salons, no browsing with tea in hand, no discussions in book aisles on the relative merits of William Dalrymple and Ramachandra Guha. Without local shops, there are no spiral staircases.

    Many book stores in Delhi, including The Bookshop, sit in commercial spaces where they pay low rents that were set decades ago. The crisis comes to a head when landlords try to raise the rent to the market rate.

    One family-owned book store in Delhi that is lucky enough to stand on its own property is Bahrisons Booksellers in Khan Market. Unsurprisingly, it exudes a rare confidence in these tough times.

    Bahrisons has an extensive, friendly staff, and is always crowded. Navigating between Romance and Erotica, you might find yourself rubbing shoulders with a celebrity TV news presenter or cabinet minister. Its no-nonsense owner, Anuj Bahri Malhotra, says his fellow book- store owners have to accept the high rents as part of their monthly costs. His father, he acknowledges, demonstrated great foresight in making the bookshop rent-proof by buying the land, a decision that entailed great sacrifice at the time, including the sale of family jewellery.

    Thankfully, The Bookshop’s story did not end with KD. In fact, the shop stayed open even on the day he died, though it closed early at 5pm. The next day, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia was spotted at The Bookshop, holding a stack of coffee-table books.

    A section of the political circle often hangs out at The Bookshop. Senior Congress leader Karan Singh comes every week; pausing in front of the graphic novels, he often shakes his head disapprovingly and murmurs, “Tch tch, why will anybody read this?”

    “Once, many years ago, I accompanied V.S. Naipaul to The Bookshop in Jor Bagh where he encountered (politician and writer) Maneka Gandhi,” says writer Namita Gokhale. “Sir Vidia told her that he admired her writing. Maneka looked quite startled!”

    The Bookshop cemented its reputation in the 24 years its branch enjoyed in the more popular Khan Market. It was in that outlet that Salman Rushdie signed copies of his newly published Midnight’s Children. It also had one of the Capital’s best collections of English films and Western classical music.

    The Khan Market store was also popular with young men keen to get a glimpse of KD’s eldest daughter, the beautiful Rachna. “She used to sit (behind the counter) in the afternoons,” says Vivek Menon, founder and chief executive officer of the non-profit Wildlife Trust of India. Rachna is now married to publisher David Davidar.

    When the Khan Market store announced its closure, customers scrawled on the walls, “Please don’t go. Khan Market won’t be the same without you!” Today, a Swarovski showroom stands in its place, gems of wisdom and sparkling wit replaced by crystal jewellery.

    The original Bookshop in Jor Bagh could meet the same fate. And Delhi would lose another beloved book store, another literary salon.

    On a recent morning at The Bookshop, Narain could be overheard denouncing modern Indian fiction to Raghu Karnad, who was signing copies of his new work, Farthest Field. A college-going assistant, Sugandh Chaturvedi, who works there in the afternoons, is often seen reading Marcel Proust’s seven-volume novel. Nini herself has tips on almost every novel you ask for.

    She says a number of people visited The Bookshop after news about the closure of Fact & Fiction came out. They asked her hesitantly if she too planned to close down. “A shiver runs down my spine each time this question is put to me,” she says. “I always reply that we are here as long as you support us.”

    Narain, though, regrets the lack of support from publishers and distributors. Book stores like theirs are forced to stock what the big players believe will sell. While this may work well for chain or online book stores, she feels independent ones are defined by their collections, which are curated carefully and not necessarily defined by mass appeal.

    The number of daily visitors to The Bookshop is barely more than 15, and not all, of course, buy books. Bahrisons Booksellers sees around 200 visitors daily.

    Sometimes, says Nini, hours pass without a single visitor. While that certainly makes The Bookshop a perfect urban oasis, a loyalist would be justified in worrying about its survival.

    *****

    Its closure would mark the end of an era in Delhi. For the shop and the city are entwined in each other’s stories. KD’s own life was a glimpse into the privileged world of a highly Anglicized Delhi that is beginning to disappear. Born in 1941 into a business family in Amritsar, he graduated from Delhi University’s (DU’s) Hindu College. After working briefly at a family owned factory that manufactured Olympus cameras, he opened a delicatessen with friend Kuldeep Shankar in Jor Bagh Market.

    Steak House was perhaps the first Delhi store to stock imported cheese and meat cuts. KD, however, could never bring himself to enjoy dealing with raw meat. As a foretaste of things to come, he installed a book-spinner in the meat shop, stacking it with the season’s best-sellers.

    This was about the time that KD was dating an army officer’s daughter. He would pick her up after classes from DU’s Lady Shri Ram College in a chauffeur-driven Ambassador and they would drive to Connaught Place restaurants such as Volga or Gaylord, both of which closed long ago.

    KD and Nini married in 1967. They opened The Bookshop in 1970. Nini remembers her husband single-handedly arranging all the books. When he was done, the two of them waltzed between shelves that smelled of wood polish.

    It was a dreamy opening scene. The new book stores may not be able to compete with this but they are fast weaving their own tales. Some of India’s most famous writers and publishers now meet to discuss book proposals at the Café Turtle in Khan Market, a restaurant that is run in partnership with Full Circle Bookstore, where novels are stacked alongside scented body lotion. The book-store’s staff does, however, make the effort to understand the individual tastes of regulars.

    The relatively new Oxford Bookstore in Connaught Place has pulled in crowds with an unending series of readings and launches. As with Full Circle, Oxford merges into its tea lounge, Cha Bar, hoping to encourage people to cross over.

    I ask Nini about the future of The Bookshop. The mother of three and grandmother of four takes a long time to answer. “I’m not thinking far ahead. Sonal helps me,” she says, referring to her colleague, who runs the show during the first half of the day. “You see, it started as KD’s and my bookshop and that’s what it is….”

    It is a quarter past seven in the evening. Doorman Sohan Singh switches off the air conditioner. Nini turns off the credit card machine, picks up her handbag, takes one last look around and turns off the lamps one by one.

    The next morning, at 10am, Narain arrives to open the shop. Nini walks in an hour later and sits down on a moora with a novel. Wynton Marsalis’ Quintet In Paris is playing. It’s a new day at The Bookshop.

    THREE NEW FIGHTERS

    Independent book stores that have opened in Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru in the last three years:

    Bookworm, Kolkata

    It opened last year in the genteel New Alipore neighbourhood. Inaugurated by actor Rituparna Sengupta, the book store has two other outlets. The newest addition is managed by the charming Correena Anthony. A bookshop veteran, she has worked at the legendary Oxford Bookstore on Park Street. The Store Bookworm comes with an eatery called The Coffee Den. “Book stores are not profitable ventures,” says owner Sanjib Dutta. “It’s just that I love bookshops.” He says he opened his book store in New Alipore because it’s a posh area and he hopes to get more customers.

    Trilogy, Mumbai

    It was started in December by a husband and wife team—Ahalya Naidu, an independent books editor, and Meethil Momaya, a professional wildlife photographer. Built on the first floor of a former mill in Lower Parel, it is spacious but quirky. It also has a library with a varied selection. The place is flooded with natural light all day. The windows offer views of giant ‘peepal’ and banyan trees.

    The owners curate books on a variety of themes, with a focus on new, lesser-known authors. “We are not a market-driven store,” says Naidu. “We are trying to build a place where we can offer books that should discover a good readership.” The husband-wife team is friendly, always ready with helpful suggestions. The only other staff is cleaner Roshan Mogre. Regulars get free coffee and cookies.

    Lightroom Bookstore, Bengaluru

    Opened in 2013, it specializes in children’s books produced by mainstream as well as independent publishers. The founder, Aashti Mudnani, used to work in an art gallery. She manages the place with two colleagues.

    The shop’s address could prove to be a liability since Cooke Town is a sleepy little neighbourhood in the city’s cantonment. The number of daily visitors rarely crosses five, but the monthly storytelling events pull in as many as 50 people, although not all go home with books.

    “The first few months were encouraging but I’m feeling a squeeze since April this year,” says Mudnani. “I don’t have deep pockets. If the situation persists, I may have to take a decision by February next year.” She confesses unhesitatingly that she is no good at marketing but acknowledges “tremendous community support”.

  21. মাসুদ করিম - ১২ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (২:২৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

    একটি সুররিয়াল অভিজ্ঞতা

    ১.

    ৩০ আগস্ট দিনটি যে অন্য রকম একটি দিন হবে সেদিন সকালবেলা আমি সেটি একেবারেই অনুমান করতে পারিনি। ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরকে সরিয়ে দেওয়ার জন্যে আমাদের বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের শিক্ষকেরা প্রায় চার মাস ধরে আন্দোলন করছেন। খুবই নিরামিষ ধরনের আন্দোলন, নিজেদের পদ থেকে পদত্যাগ করে সিঁড়ির ওপর তারা চুপচাপ বসে থাকেন।

    এই দেশে অনেক বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে অনেক বার ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরকে সরিয়ে দেওয়ার আন্দোলন হয়েছে। খুব দ্রুত ফল পাবার জন্যে ক্লাস-পরীক্ষা বন্ধ করে দেওয়া হয়, ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরের বাসার পানি-ইলেকট্রিসিটির লাইন কেটে দেওয়া হয় এবং তাঁকে ঘরের ভেতর আটকে রেখে দেওয়া হয়। বিষয়টা অমানবিক। জাহাঙ্গীরনগর বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে এ রকম একটা ঘটনার সমালোচনা করে আমি একটা লেখা লিখেছিলাম বলে আমাকে সেই বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের আন্দোলনরত শিক্ষকদের অনেক গালমন্দ শুনতে হয়েছিল।

    যাই হোক, আমাদের বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের শিক্ষকেরা তার মাঝে গেলেন না। ভাইস চ্যান্সেলের কথা দিয়েছেন দুই মাস পরে নিজে থেকে চলে যাবেন, সেটা বিশ্বাস করে অপেক্ষা করতে থাকলেন এবং দুই মাস পর আবিস্কার করলেন, ‘কেউ কথা রাখে না’! কাজেই তারা প্রতিবাদ করে সিঁড়ির ওপর বসে থাকেন এবং মাঝে মাঝে গরম বক্তৃতা দেন।

    ৩০ আগস্ট সিঁড়ির ওপর বসে থাকতে গিয়ে তারা আবিস্কার করলেন, সেখানে প্রায় ভোররাত থেকে ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেরা বসে আছে। শিক্ষক হয়ে তারা তো আর ছাত্রদের সঙ্গে ধাক্কাধাক্কি করতে পারেন না। তাই ব্যানারটা হাতে নিয়ে রাস্তার মাঝে দাঁড়িয়ে রইলেন। ভোরবেলা যেহেতু অন্য শিক্ষকেরা আসতে পারবেন না, তাই কী হয় দেখার জন্য আমি তাদের সঙ্গে গিয়ে ফ্ল্যাগ পোস্টের বেদিতে বসে রইলাম।

    ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেরা স্লোগান দিতে লাগল, ‘জয় বাংলা’। স্লোগানটা শুনতে আমার ভালোই লাগে। কিন্তু ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরের কিছু হলে তারা কীভাবে আগুন জ্বালিয়ে দেবে কিংবা আন্দোলনরত শিক্ষকদের জামায়াতের দালাল বলে গালি দিয়ে কীভাবে তাদের হুঁশিয়ার করে দেওয়া হবে সেই স্লোগানগুলো শুনে আমি একটু অস্বস্তি অনুভব করছিলাম। তবে আমি কোনো দুশ্চিন্তা অনুভব করিনি, কারণ প্রচুর পুলিশ আছে। তার চাইতেও বড় কথা, প্রক্টর আছেন, ছাত্র কল্যাণ উপদেষ্টা আছেন, ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরের পক্ষে কাজ করে যাচ্ছেন সে রকম সব বড় বড় শিক্ষকেরা আছেন। এত জন সব গুরুত্বপূর্ণ শিক্ষকদের সামনে ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেরা নিশ্চয়ই আর যাই করুক, শিক্ষকদের উপর হামলা করবে না।

    আমি মোটামুটি নিশ্চিন্ত মনে বেদির উপর বসে একটা কাগজ বের করে চিঠি লিখতে বসেছি। অনেক দিন ধরে পরিকল্পনা করে রেখেছিলাম আমাদের শিক্ষামন্ত্রীকে একটা ব্যক্তিগত চিঠি লিখব। সেখানে তাকে বলব, আমাদের বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের সমস্যা মেটানোর জন্যে তিনি যে স্থানীয় আওয়ামী লীগের নেতাদের সঙ্গে শলাপরামর্শ করেছেন, সেই কাজটা ঠিক হয়নি। একটা পাবলিক বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় যেদিন থেকে স্থানীয় রাজনৈতিক নেতাদের কথা শুনে পরিচালনা করা শুরু হয়, মোটামুটি নিশ্চিতভাবে বলা যায়, সেইদিন থেকে বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়টির মৃত্যু ঘটে যায়।

    আমি যখন চিঠির আধাআধি লিখেছি, তখন হঠাৎ করে ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেদের মাঝে এক ধরনের উত্তেজনা লক্ষ্য করলাম। উত্তেজনার কারণটা বোঝার জন্য আমি রাস্তার দিকে তাকিয়ে দেখি, ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরের গাড়ি থেমেছে, তিনি গাড়ি থেকে বের হলেন। আন্দোলনরত শিক্ষকেরা ব্যানার হাতে পথ বন্ধ করে দাঁড়িয়ে আছেন। তাদের সাথে কথা বলার কোনো চেষ্টা না করে তিনি পাশ কাটিয়ে এগিয়ে গেলেন। তার চারপাশে অসংখ্য ছাত্রলীগের কর্মী। তারা রীতিমতো কমান্ডো স্টাইলে অল্প কয়জন শিক্ষকদের উড়িয়ে দিয়ে ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরকে বিল্ডিংয়ের ভেতর নিয়ে গেল। এক ধরনের হুটোপুটি হইচই চেঁচামেচি। কী হচ্ছে আমি কিছুই বুঝতে পারছি না।

    বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের প্রক্টর, ছাত্র কল্যাণ উপদেষ্টা এবং অন্য সবাই চুপচাপ দাঁড়িয়ে পুরো ব্যাপারটি ঘটতে দিলেন। অল্প কয়জন বয়স্ক শিক্ষক, তার মাঝে মহিলাও আছেন, তাদের হামলা করেছে অসংখ্য কমবয়সী তরুণ। পুলিশ ছোটাছুটি করছে, কিন্তু নিশ্চিতভাবেই তাদের উপর আদেশ দেওয়া আছে ছাত্রলীগকে তাদের কমান্ডো মিশন সফল করতে দিতে। তারা সেটা করতে দিলেন।

    আমি পাথরের মতো বসে থেকে পুরো ব্যাপারটি দেখলাম। কোনো সাংবাদিক বা টেলিভিশন ক্যামেরা নেই, ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেরা সেই সুযোগটি গ্রহণ করল। তারা এবারে শিক্ষকদের হাত থেকে ব্যানারটি কেড়ে নিতে তাদের উপর হামলা করল। অল্প কয়জন বয়স্ক শিক্ষক, অসংখ্য তেজী ছাত্রলীগের সাথে কেমন করে পারবে? তারা শিক্ষকদের নাস্তানাবুদ করে ব্যানার কেড়ে নিতে তাদের উপর হামলা করল। আমার কাছে মনে হল, আমি একটি সুররিয়াল দৃশ্য দেখছি। এর মাঝে কোনটি বাস্তব কোনটি পরাবাস্তব এবং কোনটি অবাস্তব, আমি আলাদা করতে পারছি না।

    দীর্ঘ সময় ছাত্রলীগের কর্মীরা শিক্ষকদের উপর হামলা করে গেল এবং বলা যায় আমি তখন আমার জীবনের সবচেয়ে হৃদয়বিদারক দৃশ্যটি দেখতে পেলাম। ছাত্রদের হাতে শিক্ষকদের নিগৃহীত হওয়ার দৃশ্যটি নিশ্চয়ই অত্যন্ত চমকপ্রদ। কারণ প্রক্টর, ছাত্র কল্যাণ উপদেষ্টা এবং অন্যান্য শিক্ষকেরা একবারও ছাত্রদের নিবৃত্ত করার চেষ্টা করলেন না। আমি এক ধরনের বিস্ময় নিয়ে দেখলাম, মানুষ যেভাবে সার্কাস দেখে তারা সবাই ঘুরে ঘুরে সেই সার্কাসটি দেখে গেলেন।

    এই শিক্ষকেরা কেউ কিন্তু আমাদের দূরের মানুষ নন, তারা সবাই আমার খুব কাছের মানুষ। আমরা দীর্ঘদিন পাশাপাশি বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের কাজ করেছি। গণিত অলিম্পিয়াড করতে সারা দেশে ঘুরে বেড়িয়েছি। এক গাড়িতে করে ঢাকা গিয়েছি, ফিরে এসেছি। গাড়ি অ্যাকসিডেন্টে পড়েছি। জামায়াত-বিএনপির দুঃসহ সময়ে আমরা ‘টুইসডে আড্ডা’র প্রচলন করেছি। সেখানে একসাথে রাজা-উজির মেরেছি। আমাদের আপনজন অসুস্থ হলে তারা হাসপাতালে দিনের পর দিন বসে থেকেছেন। তাদের পরিবারের কেউ অসুস্থ হলে আমরা তাকে দেখতে গিয়েছি। ছেলেমেয়ের বিয়েতে গিয়েছি।

    এখন তারা অনেক দূরের মানুষ। বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের ক্যাম্পাসে তাদের সাথে দেখা হলে তারা না দেখার ভান করে চলে যান। আগে হোক পরে হোক, বর্তমান ভাইস চ্যান্সেলর একদিন চলে যাবেন, আমরা সব শিক্ষকেরা থাকব। আমাদের ভেতরে যে বিশাল দূরত্ব তৈরি হয়েছে সেই দূরত্ব নিয়ে একটি বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় কেমন করে চলবে?

    খবর পেয়ে এক সময় সাংবাদিকেরা টেলিভিশন ক্যামেরা নিয়ে আসতে শুরু করলেন। ততক্ষণে যা ঘটার ঘটে গেছে। ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেদের স্লোগান ছাড়া আর কিছু নেই। ক্ষুব্ধ শিক্ষকেরা তাদের ক্রুদ্ধ প্রতিক্রিয়ার কথা জানালেন। স্লোগানের কারণে সেগুলোও চাপা পড়ার উপক্রম হল।

    আমি তখনও একই জায়গায় বসে আছি। মাঝে মাঝেই আকাশ ভেঙে বৃষ্টি পড়ছে। বৃষ্টি আমার খুব প্রিয়, আমি চুপচাপ সেই বৃষ্টিতে বসে রইলাম। কী করব বুঝতে পারছি না। সাংবাদিকেরা ঘুরেফিরে আমার কাছে এসে আমার বক্তব্য শুনতে চাইলেন। আমি তাদের বললাম, ‘আমার বলার কিছু নেই। আমি শুধু একজন দর্শক। শিক্ষকদের এই আন্দোলনে আমার কোনো ভূমিকা নেই, তাদের জন্যে সহমর্মিতা জানানো ছাড়া আমি কিছু করিনি’। তারপরও সাংবাদিকেরা ঘুরেফিরে আমার কাছে ফিরে এলেন; বললেন, ‘আপনি এখানে বসে থেকে সব দেখেছেন, আপনার কিছু একটা বলতে হবে’।

    আমি বাধ্য হয়ে তখন তাদের সাথে কথা বললাম। যতদূর মনে পড়ে শেষ বাক্যটি ছিল এ রকম, ‘আমি আজকে যাদের দেখেছি, তাদের একজনও যদি সত্যি সত্যি আমাদের ছাত্র হয়ে থাকে, তাহলে আমাদের গলায় দড়ি দেওয়া উচিত’। আমার এই কথাটির কারণে অনেকেই মনে খুব কষ্ট পেয়েছেন। এখন বুঝতে পারছি, এ রকম একটি কঠিন কথা বলা মোটেই ঠিক হয়নি।

    সারাটি দিন খুব মন খারাপ ছিল। আমাদের নিজেদের ছাত্ররা তাদের শিক্ষকের উপর এভাবে হামলা করবে এটি আমি নিজের চোখে না দেখলে কখনও বিশ্বাস করতাম না। নিজেকে সান্তনা দিয়ে বোঝালাম, এই হৃদয়বিদারক ঘটনার হয়তো একটা ভালো দিক আছে। আন্দোলন করা শিক্ষকেরা যে বিষয়টা প্রমাণ করার চেষ্টা করেছেন, সেটি এখন নিজে থেকে প্রমাণিত হয়ে গেল। যখন সবাই দেখবে, একজন ভাইস চ্যান্সেলর তার চেয়ারে বসে থাকা নিশ্চিত করতে ছাত্রলীগের মাস্তানদের দিয়ে তাদের শিক্ষকদের উপর হামলা করান, তখন সবাই নিশ্চয়ই আসল ব্যাপারটা বুঝে ফেলবে। সরকার নিশ্চয়ই এ রকম একজন ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরকে দায়িত্বে রাখতে চাইবে না। আন্দোলনরত শিক্ষকরা যেটি চাইছেন, স্বাভাবিকভাবেই সেটি ঘটে যাবে।

    মজার ব্যাপার হল, আমি প্রথমে খবর পেলাম ভাইস চ্যান্সেলর হামলাকারী ছাত্রদের ধন্যবাদ জানালেন বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে শিক্ষার পরিবেশ ফিরিয়ে আনার জন্যে। আমার জন্যে আরও বিস্ময় অপেক্ষা করছিল। খবর পেলাম মাননীয় শিক্ষামন্ত্রী কোনো একটা সভায় ছাত্রলীগের কর্মীদের আচরণের জন্যে দুঃখ প্রকাশ করার সাথে সাথে বলেছেন, ‘ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরের উপর শিক্ষকদের হামলা করার কাজটি মোটেও উচিৎ কাজ হয়নি’।

    শুনে আমি আকাশ থেকে পড়লাম। এই দেশের একজন শিক্ষামন্ত্রী সত্যি সত্যি বিশ্বাস করেন যে, অসংখ্য মারমুখো ছাত্রলীগের কর্মীদের মাঝখানে বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের কয়েকজন বয়স্ক শিক্ষক-শিক্ষিকার পক্ষে ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরের উপর হামলা করা সম্ভব? শিক্ষামন্ত্রীর কথা শুনে আমি হাসব নাকি গলা ছেড়ে কাঁদব বুঝতে পারিনি।

    দেশের একজন শিক্ষামন্ত্রী কীভাবে এ রকম আজগুবি একটা বিষয় বিশ্বাস করতে পারেন সেটা অবশ্যি আমি পরদিন ভোরবেলাতেই বুঝতে পেরেছিলাম। অনলাইনে খবরটি নিশ্চয়ই আগেই ছাপা হয়েছে, আমি দেখিনি। সারা দেশের সকল পত্রপত্রিকা যখন ছাত্রলীগের এই হামলার নিন্দা করে খবর ছাপিয়েছে, সকল টিভি চ্যানেল যখন খুব গুরুত্ব দিয়ে খবরটি প্রচার করেছে, তখন ‘প্রথম আলো’ তাদের খবরের শিরোনাম করেছে এভাবে: ‘ছাত্রলীগের হাতে শিক্ষক এবং শিক্ষকের হাতে উপাচার্য লাঞ্ছিত’।

    ‘প্রথম আলো’ এই দেশের মূলধারার পত্রিকা। এই দেশের মূলধারার অনেক মানুষ এই পত্রিকা পড়েন, তাদের সার্কুলেশন বিশাল। কাজেই ঘটনার পরের দিন বাংলাদেশের অসংখ্য মানুষ জেনে গেলেন বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের শিক্ষকেরা এতই নিকৃষ্ট শ্রেণির প্রজাতি যে, তারা ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরকে লাঞ্ছনা করতে সংকোচ বোধ করেন না। ‘প্রথম আলো’র ইতিহাসে এই প্রথমবার ছাত্রলীগের দুস্কর্মের বর্ণনা ‘হা বিতং’ করে ছাপা হল না!

    মনে আছে, আমি তখন মনে মনে খুব লম্বা একটা দীর্ঘশ্বাস ফেলেছিলাম। কারণ সত্যিকারের ঘটনাটি যখন ঘটে তখন সেখানে কোনো সাংবাদিক বা টেলিভিশন ক্যামেরা ছিল না। কাজেই যার যা ইচ্ছে তাই বলতে পারবে আর সেই কথা বিশ্বাস করে যার যা ইচ্ছে তাই লিখে বসে থাকতে পারবে। ঘটনার প্রতিবাদ করে কোনো লাভ নেই। অন্যায় কিছু ঘটলে সংবাদপত্রের মাধ্যমে তার প্রতিবাদ করা হয়। একটা সংবাদপত্র যখন অন্যায় করে তখন হঠাৎ করে তার প্রতিবাদ করার কোনো জায়গা থাকে না।

    ‘ধর্মের কল বাতাসে নড়ে’ বলে একটা কথা আছে। আমি কথাটাকে আগে গুরুত্ব দিইনি। কিন্তু হঠাৎ করে দেখতে পেলাম, বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের ধর্মের কলটি বাতাসে নড়তে শুরু করেছে! কয়েক বছর আগে আমরা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের নানা জায়গায় সিসিটিভি বসিয়েছিলাম। তার ফুটেজ বের করে আমরা হঠাৎ করে সেখানে পুরো ঘটনার একটা ভিডিও পেয়ে গেলাম। সেখানে অন্য অনেক কিছুর সাথে দেখা গেল, ছাত্রলীগের কর্মীরা একজন অধ্যাপকের দুই হাত ধরে রেখেছে এবং স্বয়ং ভাইস চ্যান্সেলর সেই অধ্যাপকের কলার ধরে ধাক্কাধাক্কি করছেন। শুধু তাই নয়, সেই অধ্যাপককে ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেরা আক্ষরিক অর্থে ছুঁড়ে ফেলে দিয়েছে এবং আরেকজন শিক্ষক সময়মতো তার মাথাটা ধরে না ফেললে কী হত আমরা এখনও জানি না।

    সিসিটিভির সেই ফুটেজ কতজন দেখেছে জানা নেই। মাননীয় শিক্ষামন্ত্রী দেখার সুযোগ পেয়েছেন কিনা কিংবা দেখে থাকলে বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের শিক্ষকদের সম্পর্কে তার মনোভাবের পরিবর্তন করেছেন কিনা আমার জানার কৌতূহল ছিল।

    ভাইস চ্যান্সেলর শুরুতে ছাত্রলীগের দুর্বৃত্তদের ‘সচেতন শিক্ষার্থী’ হিসেবে প্রশংসা করে থাকলেও মাননীয় প্রধানমন্ত্রী তাদেরকে সরাসরি ‘আগাছা’ হিসেবে উপড়ে ফেলার পরামর্শ দিলেন। কেন্দ্রীয় ছাত্রলীগ তিনজনকে বহিস্কার করল। চক্ষুলজ্জার খাতিরে ভাইস চ্যান্সেলরও চারজনকে বহিস্কার করলেন। তারা অবশ্যি নিয়মিত পরীক্ষা দিয়ে যাচ্ছে। দেশের কাছে অন্তত একটি বিষয় জানানো সম্ভব হল, সত্যি সত্যি ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেরা তাদের শিক্ষকদের উপর হামলা করেছিল।

    আমার একটিই প্রশ্ন: কেন করেছিল? মজার ব্যাপার হল, সেটি নিয়ে কারও মাথাব্যথা নেই। ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেরা ঘোরতর অন্যায় করেছিল, তাদেরকে শাস্তি দিতে হবে, সেটাই হয়ে গেল মূল বিষয়। শিক্ষকদের এই নিরামিষ ধরনের গান্ধীবাদী আন্দোলনের সাথে আমি সেভাবে যুক্ত ছিলাম না। শুধু একদিন দূর থেকে বসে দেখার চেষ্টা করে সারাজীবনের জন্যে একটা ভয়ংকর অভিজ্ঞতা নিয়ে এসেছি। আমার বাসায় টেলিভিশন নেই, আমি ফেসবুক করি না। কাজেই বিষয়টি নিয়ে কী ধরনের আলোড়ন হয়েছে আমি জানি না। কিন্তু পরের দিন ঢাকা থেকে অনেককেই সিলেটে চলে আসতে দেখে একটু আঁচ করতে পেরেছিলাম।

    সাংবাদিকেরা আমার পিছু ছাড়েন না এবং আমি তোতা পাখির মতো শুধু একটা কথাই বলে গেছি: ‘ছাত্রলীগের কর্মীরা যে অন্যায় করেছে, তার থেকে একশ গুণ বেশি অন্যায় করেছে যারা তাদের ব্যবহার করেছে তারা। কাজেই মূল অপরাধীর শাস্তি না দিয়ে শুধুমাত্র ছাত্রলীগের ছেলেদের শাস্তি দিলে প্রকৃত অপরাধীর শাস্তি দেওয়া হবে না’। আমি মোটামুটি বিস্ময় নিয়ে আবিষ্কার করলাম, পেছন থেকে গডফাদাররা কী করেছে সেটি নিয়ে কারও মাথাব্যথা নেই। সামনাসামনি লাঠিয়াল বাহিনী কী করেছে সেটি নিয়ে সবার একমাত্র মাথাব্যথা!

    যাই হোক, এই নিরামিষ আন্দোলনে শিক্ষকরা যেহেতু কখনও ক্লাস-পরীক্ষা বন্ধ করেননি, তাই ছাত্রেরা কোনোভাবেই ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত হয়নি, সে কারণে তাদের সেটা নিয়ে কোনো মাথাব্যথা ছিল না। কিন্তু যখন শিক্ষকরা ছাত্রলীগের কর্মীদের হাতে নিগৃহীত হলেন তারা হঠাৎ করে নড়েচড়ে বসেছে। একজন ছাত্র কখনও তার শিক্ষকের অপমান সহ্য করে না। কাজেই খুব স্বাভাবিকভাবেই তারা ক্ষুব্ধ হয়ে বের হয়ে এসেছে। তারা কী করবে আমাদের জানা নেই। তাই সামনের দিনগুলোতে এই বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের কপালে কী আছে আমরা কেউ জানি না।

    শুধু একটা বিষয় জানি, এই বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে নানা দলের নানা মতের শিক্ষকরা পাশাপাশি থাকতেন, এখন তাদের ভেতর যোজন যোজন দূরত্ব। আমি কখনও এ রকম বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের স্বপ্ন দেখিনি।

    ২.

    ৩০ আগস্ট যখন ছাত্রলীগের ছাত্ররা শিক্ষকদের উপর হামলা করেছে, আমি তখন হতবাক হয়ে কাছাকাছি একটা জায়গায় বসেছিলাম। মাঝে মাঝে আঝোর ধারায় বৃষ্টি হয়েছে, আমি একা একা সেই বৃষ্টিতে বসে থেকেছি। প্রশ্ন ফাঁস নিয়ে প্রতিবাদ করার সময় আমি একদিন শহীদ মিনারে বসেছিলাম, সেদিনও এভাবে বৃষ্টি হয়েছিল। আমি বৃষ্টি ভালোবাসি, তাই মনে হয় বৃষ্টিও আমাকে ভালোবাসে।

    যাই হোক, আমার সেই একাকী বৃষ্টিতে ভিজে ঝড়ো কাক হয়ে থাকার ছবিটি মনে হয় ব্যাপকভাবে প্রচার হয়েছে এবং কোনো একটা অজ্ঞাত কারণে সবার মনে খুব দাগ কেটেছে। ‘ডেইলি স্টার’ পত্রিকার প্রথম পৃষ্ঠাতেও আমার সেই বিপর্যস্ত ভঙ্গিতে বসে থাকার ছবিটি ছাপা হয়েছে এবং সত্যি কথা বলতে কী, সেই ছবি দেখে আমি নিজেও চমকে উঠেছিলাম।

    এর পর আমি সারা দেশের অসংখ্য মানুষের কাছ থেকে সমবেদনার সাড়া পেয়েছি। আমি জানি, আমি অসংখ্য মানুষের চক্ষুশুল, সেটি আমাকে বিন্দুমাত্র বিচলিত করে না। কারণ আমি তাদের বিপরীতে এই দেশের অসংখ্য মানুষ, বিশেষ করে তরুণ প্রজন্ম এবং শিশু-কিশোরের ভালোবাসা পেয়েছি। আমি তাদের সবাইকে জানাতে চাই, এই দেশ, দেশের মানুষ নিয়ে আমার ভেতরে কোনো হতাশা নেই। আমি মোটেও হতোদ্যম নই, আমি নিজেকে কখনও পরাজিত একজন মানুষ ভাবি না। আমার সেই বিপর্যস্ত ঝড়ো কাকের ছবি দেখে কেউ যেন ভুল না বুঝে।

    বেঁচে থাকতে হলে মাঝে মাঝে ঝড়-ঝাপটা সইতে হয়। কিন্তু সেই ঝড়-ঝাপটার কারণে একজন মানুষ কখনও ভেঙে পড়ে না। কী কারণ জানা নেই, আমি এই দেশের অসংখ্য মানুষের ভালোবাসা পেয়েছি। সেই ভালোবাসা আমি কীভাবে তাদের ফিরিয়ে দেব ভেবে কুল পাই না।

    আমার মনে হয় না এই বাংলাদেশে আমার চাইতে আশাবাদী কেউ আছে, কিংবা আমার চাইতে আনন্দে কেউ আছে!

  22. মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (২:৫১ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ১০ বছর পর কিবরিয়া হত্যার বিচার শুরু

    শাহ এ এম এস কিবরিয়া হত্যাকাণ্ডের দশ বছর পর খালেদা জিয়ার সাবেক রাজনৈতিক সচিব হারিছ চৌধুরী, সাবেক স্বরাষ্ট্র প্রতিমন্ত্রী লুৎফুজ্জামান বাবর, সিলেটের বরখাস্ত মেয়র আরিফুল হক চৌধুরীসহ ৩২ আসামির বিচার শুরুর আদেশ দিয়েছে আদালত।

    সিলেট বিভাগীয় দ্রুত বিচার ট্রাইব্যুনালের বিচারক মকবুল আহসান রোববার এ মামলার আসামিদের বিরুদ্ধে অভিযোগ গঠন করে সাক্ষ্য শুরুর নির্দেশ দেন।

    ট্রাইব্যুনালের বিশেষ পিপি অ্যাডভোকেট কিশোর কুমার কর জানান, আসামিদের মধ্যে গ্রেপ্তার ১৪ জন ও জামিনে থাকা আটজনের উপস্থিতিতে আদালত অভিযোগ গঠনের আদেশ দেন।

    ২০০৫ সালের ২৭ জানুয়ারি হবিগঞ্জের বৈদ্যের বাজারে জনসভায় গ্রেনেড হামলায় আওয়ামী লীগ নেতা শাহ এএমএস কিবরিয়াসহ পাঁচজন নিহত হন। ১৯৯৬-২০০১ মেয়াদে আওয়ামী লীগ সরকারের সময় অর্থমন্ত্রী ছিলেন কিবরিয়া।

    হবিগঞ্জ জেলা আওয়ামী লীগের সাধারণ সম্পাদক আবদুল মজিদ খান ওই রাতেই হত্যা ও বিস্ফোরক আইনে দুটি মামলা দায়ের করেন।

    তিন দফা তদন্তের পর এ মামলার তদন্ত কর্মকর্তা সিআইডির সিলেট অঞ্চলের সহকারী পুলিশ সুপার মেহেরুন নেছা পারুল ২০১৪ সালের ২১ ডিসেম্বর আরিফুল, গউছ এবং সাবেক প্রধানমন্ত্রী খালেদা জিয়ার রাজনৈতিক সচিব হারিছ চৌধুরীসহ ১১ জনের নাম যোগ করে মোট ৩২ জনের বিরুদ্ধে সম্পূরক অভিযোগপত্র দেন।

    এরপর আরিফুল ও গউছ আদালতে আত্মসমর্পণ করে জামিন চাইলে বিচারক তা নাকচ করে তাদের কারাগারে পাঠান। সরকার তাদের মেয়র পদ থেকে সাময়িক বরখাস্ত করে।

    হবিগঞ্জের জেলা ও দায়রা জজ মো. আতাবুল্লাহ মামলাটি বিচারের জন্য গত ১১ জুন দ্রুত বিচার ট্রাইব্যুনালে পাঠিয়ে দেন। সেখানেই এ মামলার বিচার হবে।

  23. মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (২:৫৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Barind tract needs conservation Agri technology, say experts

    Time has come for wide-ranging and sustainable expansion and promotion of conservation agriculture (CA) based technologies in the drought-prone Barind tract to protect its soil health from further degradation, agricultural scientists and researchers in a discussion here said.

    They viewed principles of conservation agriculture are use of reduced tillage, retention of some amounts of residues in the field, optimum use of natural resources, sustainable and profitable crop diversification and its rotation and judicious use of fertilisers and pesticides.

    The technology could be the effective means of utilizing the minimum amount of water for crop establishment like avoiding paddling operation in present context of climate change especially unpredictable rainfall, unusual drought and other natural calamities.

    Field level agricultural officials and staffs are the key players to reach the modern technologies to the farmers’ doorsteps so that they are habituated to promote those successfully.

    The observations came at a two-day planning workshop styled “Promotion of Conservation Agriculture Technologies in Drought-prone Barind Tract” concluded at the seminar room of Regional Wheat Research Center (RWRC) in Rajshahi city Friday.

    RWRC organised the workshop in association with Sustainable Resilient Farming System Intensification (SRFSI) project. Director (Research) of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute Dr Jalal Uddin addressed the discussion as chief guest with Chief Scientific Officer Dr ASM Mahbubur Rahman Khan in the chair.

    Principal Scientific Officers Dr Shafiqul Islam and Dr Ilias Hossain, Senior Scientific Officer Nur-E-Alam Siddiqui and Scientific Officer Zahedul Islam also spoke.

    During his keynote-paper presentation, Dr Ilias Hossain said raised-beds technology facilitate sowing without waste of time allowing crop growth to better match water availability.

    Under the conventional system, the single largest constraint requires planting of wheat in the country late in winter, leading to a poor yield. Bed planting improves water distribution and irrigation efficiency, gives better results in using fertilisers and pesticides and reduces weed infestation and crop lodging. It saves crops from disturbance from rats, Dr Hossain said.

    The pattern helps farmers save 30 percent irrigation water and 30 to 40 percent of seeds and fertilisers.

    He said some proven benefits of the conservation agriculture-based machinery such as power tiller operated seeder (PTOS) and bed former or planters are included early planting, increased yields, reduce production costs and water requirement and help improve the environment by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions.

    International donor organisations should support such kind of need-oriented agricultural activity for its large-scale promotion which needs supply of need-based adequate machineries.

  24. মাসুদ করিম - ১৩ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৪:২৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Welcome to Moreh, Manipur town challenged by history, identity

    The M on the ‘Indo-Yanmar Friendship Bridge’ board was missing at Gate Number 2. Shops selling clothes, cosmetics and groceries punctuated the narrow road leading up to it. Lanes branched off into smaller ‘bastis’, muddy and wet after early morning rain. And people – old women balancing sacks on their head, younger men with big packets – casually walked across a gate, occasionally putting their acquisitions through an X-Ray machine, often just nodding at the security personnel and passing by.

    Across the gate was Myanmar’s Namphalong bazaar.

    The Myanmarese security asked for an identity card and breezily let me in, with a cautionary note that I should not stray too far in. One official shook his head when I began taking shots from my phone camera- but another, his senior sitting at the back of the immigration outpost, waved me off.

    Prakash Bhattarai was sitting in front of a sports shop. Bhattarai was a Nepali surname, I was excited to find someone with links to my own country, and we began speaking in Nepali. His family had been in Burma for generations. He was too far removed from his place of origin to know much about it, except that he had a distant aunt back there. 70 percent of the bazaar, he said, was controlled by people of Nepali-origin. The market had over 1300 shops, and three kilometres down was Tamu, a bigger trading hub.

    A few others joined us. They talked about the upcoming elections in Myanmar, where Aung San Suu Kyi’s party would challenge the military backed party. She had tremendous support in the urban centres, including Namphalong, they said. “But 25 percent of the house is reserved for the military. They still run the country,” said Mangal Acharya, who owned a knife shop next door.

    We turned to how business was faring.

    Bhattarai and Acharya were not happy. “There are too many bandhs on the Indian side. Fewer customers are coming. Our big buyers are the Biharis but they have not come in two months. They also have a lot of money left to pay here.” Bhattarai said that clothes and shoes in the market came from Yunnan in China – but there was now a worrying trend of Indians making direct purchases from units in China while using Myanmarese intermediaries and giving them a cut. “It works out cheaper for them. But we lose out money.”

    His unhappiness was shared by K Balasubramaniam.

    Moreh could pass off as just another small market town in India. Yet, one could not but feel overwhelmed here – the eastern-most frontier of India, a trading point connecting South and South East Asia, a site witness to devastating wars and long insurgencies, a town central to the dreams of a continent reconnecting with itself through modern infrastructure.

    Balasubramaniam was a member of the Border Trade Chamber of Commerce, and ran a money exchange shop. As he took a wad of notes for a customer, he said Indian currency was valid for three kilometres into ‘Burma’ – the neighbour is still referred to by its old name – and Kyat was legitimate in the Moreh bazaar. The market had about 200 shops, and was a three hour drive from the Manipur state capital of Imphal.

    “This bandh has crippled movement. If a Burmese party asks us for goods, we cannot guarantee its delivery. And if we cannot do that, what’s the point in taking the order?” He gave a sense of the goods traded. While Myanmarese usually asked for textile items, life-saving drugs, cosmetics, food items including pickles and biscuits, and lungis, the Indian side procured commodities like clothes, pulses, and electronics. “Most of the goods coming in from there are Chinese. It is just routed through Burma.”

    Moreh-Tamu is the ground zero of the economic transactions that will mark the future of Asian economic integration. A proposed Trans-Asian Highway will pass through the towns. The force of the market is such that the lull in the trade is probably temporary. Business will bounce back.

    What is more significant was the reason for which the bandhs had been called which had harmed business- three bills passed in Manipur assembly. And underlying the bills were fundamental questions. What kind of society did Manipur want to be? What kind of economy and polity did it want to have? Was it ready to embrace the world or is it retreating and becoming insular even as it stood at the cusp of a transformative Asian project?

    The mutual anxieties

    Back in Imphal, I went to the meet leaders of the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS), an umbrella civil society body that had led an agitation to demand strict regulation of entry for outsiders in the state.

    Khomdram Ratan was working in the basement of the office of the National Identity Protection Committee at Keishampat Junction. Images of Manipuri icons were framed on the wall. An elder gentleman, Arambam Lokendra, accompanied them. Lokendra was an advisor to the group and the ideologue of the movement. A retired academic and civil society leader, he had led a delegation to PM Manmohan Singh when the agitation against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act was at its peak in the state ten years ago. Little had come of it and the state remained subject to AFSPA. We sat around a table and sipped juice.

    Lokendra and Rattan cited population figures which have now become conventional wisdom in the state to paint a picture of growing demographic imbalance. Manipur’s population had grown from 5 lakhs in 1948 to 28 lakhs in 2011; its rate of population growth was higher than that of average rate of growth in India; and how – and this is the most potent tool in their messaging – the migrant population had grown from 2719 people in 1948 to 10 lakh now, a ‘400-times increase’, and so in the next 70 years, it could reach as high as 40 crore. Population figures are from the census, but the breakup of the ‘outsiders’ is an estimate of Manipur’s civil society outfits, and remains deeply contested.

    The government bowed to their demands and passed three bills.

    The Protection of Manipur People Bill stipulates that only those whose names were registered in official records in 1951 would be considered Manipuris. Everyone else would have to register with a newly-established Directorate and get a pass, which would be valid for six months subject to extension. The Directorate would also keep track of tenants. An amendment to the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act now held that any land transaction in the state which involved a non-Manipuri would only go through with the approval of the state cabinet.

    Meitei activists were pleased with the passage of the bills – they hoped it would allow them to protect their ‘identity, culture, traditional values and livelihood’. But it provoked a fierce backlash from tribal groups in the hills, who saw it as a move to disenfranchise them and a conspiracy to take over their land. Nine people were killed in protests on August 31st and September 1st in Churachandpur. And when I was up at the border, the hills were in the middle of a 60 hour shutdown.

    But it was not just the tribals who were unhappy. In the strikingly diverse town of Moreh, and the bazaars of Imphal, the Tamils, Bengalis, Marwaris, Nepalis, Punjabis were insecure, for they perceived it as a threat to their very survival.

    Thangal Bazaar is Imphal’s most iconic old market. Brahmananda Gupta had come in 1977 from Rajasthan to settle here. I met him and his son, Kamlesh, at their clothes shop at a corner of the market and asked them how they saw the agitation for ILP. “Earlier, I thought this was my home. But they have now made us realise that we are outsiders. The mahaul, environment, is not friendly anymore. There is no apnapan, solidarity and belonging.”

    Slightly irritated now, Gupta added, “Manipuris should remember they are in thousands in cities like Delhi and Mumbai and Bangalore. What if others start doing to them what they are doing to us?”

    Just the previous night, Bihar politician Pappu Yadav’s party men had stopped trains passing through the state and harassed Manipuri travellers – this was meant to be revenge for the treatment that had been supposedly meted out to Biharis in Manipur. Gupta seemed to have little sympathy for Biharis in general (‘they are lower-class, come here and marry and then run off, leaving their women’), but added this was an indication of the backlash.

    Gupta had sent his other children – one daughter and one son – outside the state, and was planning to send Kamlesh off too, after he finished his M.Com. “There is no point in staying here anymore.”

    This was a refrain I was to hear from many traders in the bazaar. Very few of their children lived in the state anymore.

    A Sikh shopkeeper down the road was reluctant to speak, fearing reprisal, but called another friend of his from an adjacent shop.

    He refused to give his name to me, but spoke in Bengali-accented-Hindi. “They have always hated us, but this hate has increased. I don’t understand why. We are not competing for any government jobs, government contracts. We just have these small businesses which they do not do themselves. What opportunity have we taken?”

    As we stood outside a Marwari eatery, he added, ‘The UGs are behind this. Their ultimate aim is to throw out all Indians and secede.” UGs, in popular Manipur lexicon, refer to the multiple underground-outfits in the state demanding secession, many of which operate from across the border in Myanmar. As a journalist from ‘mainland India’ with north Indian looks, he probably saw me as a sympathiser and said, “See, this is not one state – but three states, of the Meiti-dominated valley, the Naga dominated hill districts, and the Kuki dominated hill districts. Tribals have already opposed the bills. We should all work with the tribals against these Meiteis.”

    I went back to Lokendra and Rattan, who were categorical this was not about hating any community.

    Rattan said he had met representatives of different communities in the state and assured them that no harm would come to them. “In the two month agitation, not one outsider was touched. This is not a communal movement. These bills do not have any retrospective effect. We have not said anything about sending people back. We will continue to respect them.” Rattan also said while UGs may have ‘sympathies’, there was no direct link or support from them.

    Lokendra pointed to three issues which had made Meiteis insecure.

    The economic structures, he argued, were being controlled by ‘Indian merchants, traders’ – this included exports and import of goods, supply chains, markets. If earlier, migrants could be accommodated, there was now a contentious economy, with competition between ‘those who came from outside and the indigenous communities’ for land, for resources and jobs.

    The JCILPS had also spoken of how outsiders had taken over labour force. But if Manipuris were complaining about lack of opportunities, why did they not fill in these positions? The committee members were candid. “The outsiders are more hard working; they can sustain grueling lifestyles; they have the ability to save and send back; they are more technically adaptable,” admitted Lokendra.

    And finally, what worried them the most however was that the influence of the outsiders had increased over ‘political structures and political decision-making’ in the state.

    Where history meets the present

    ‘Many Meitei interlocutors had recommended a book shop in the town. As I was browsing through the collection, a young man came over to chat.
    He did not want to be named either, and argued the 1951 cut-off to define who is a Manipuri and who is not was deeply unreasonable. “They say show you were in the official records in 1951. Does anyone in Delhi, in Mumbai, in big cities also have papers from 1951? How do they expect me to have a record from that year?”

    Did the Meitei agitation not violate the principle of free movement of citizens? What was this seemingly arbitrary 1951 cutoff?

    The JCILPS leaders insisted I must understand the context first. Manipur could not be treated as just another state in India; there were past circumstances which had to be taken into account. History weighed heavily as they explained their case.

    Lokendra spoke about Manipur’s independent past, its pluralism and its willingness to absorb people both from the east and the west in pre-colonial times. Since 1901, he said, Manipur had a permit system and issued passports to foreigners. In 1949, the state merged with India – this is the merger multiple Manipur secessionist groups hold as illegal, done under duress, and forms the basis of the insurgencies that continue to rage in the state.

    “In 1950, the Chief Commissioner, Himmat Singh, abolished the permit system, saying that think of your rights and entitlements as Indians first and Manipuris second. He said using the term foreigners was discriminatory. He arbitrarily removed the system even though he had no authority to do it.”

    It was in this backdrop and growing ‘influx of outsiders’ that student movement in the state began an ‘anti foreigner’ agitation in 1980. It culminated in an agreement with the ruling Congress government that the state would identify ‘foreigners’ and even deport them. Foreigners were to be identified on the basis of 1951 official records. This agreement however, the JCILPS claims, was never implemented. In 1994, when the state was under President’s Rule, a similar agreement was signed. It too was not implemented. All this while, outsider population had increased, and it was time to act.

    A protectionist turn

    That was history, this is the present, and there is a future. Would Manipur allow past grievances to hold it back? I asked the activists whether Manipur wanted to engage with the rest of India and the world or not? At a time when states were competing for investment internally, would this kind of insularity and attitude not hurt Manipur economy? If it was the lack of opportunities that was driving the agitation, how would these opportunities be created by turning back at the outside world?

    Shanata Nahakpam had been sitting with us and was working on his laptop. He now turned around and rejected my assertion. “No one is stopping the process of change.” He had studied outside – in Chandigarh, and in Melbourne, and had returned home to set up a food processing industry. “We understand the need for investment. Three or four telecom companies were set up here, and it must have created 10,000 jobs. All we are saying is we need some regulation. We cannot assume when outside firms come in, it will all be good.”

    I had met Babloo Loitongbam, a human rights activist, the previous day, and posed the same question to him – about how Manipur would take advantage of being at the hub of a new and connected Asia if it turned inwards. Loitongbam argued that it was precisely because of the change that was in the offing that regulation was needed.

    He was well aware of the possibilities and spoke of how in a few years, Manipuris will travel far more easily to Mandalay, to Bangkok, to China, and to reach out to the world. “It will change our orientation of who we are, where we belong. This idea of living in isolation is not possible. The neighbours will come. But the question is will you allow them into your courtyard, into your drawing-room, or will you let them into your kitchen and into your bedroom? It cannot be a free-for-all.”

    There were structures of disadvantage that indigenous people suffered from, and they needed protection, he said. “Once the trans-Asian highway comes in, locals won’t be able to retain their land. It will be sold like vegetables, and we will not have the resources. And it is not just Indians, but also others. We will all be reduced to chowkidars in some factory opened up by a Singaporean.”

    It had not been easy for the Manipur government to bow down to the agitators, especially because they had been wooing investors and knew it would not send a positive message. The state was also ruled by Congress – it is not easy for a national party to push regulation measures for those from outside the state, for the party could well pay costs elsewhere in the country for the move.

    But there could well have been a cynical calculation once the protests escalated. While the assembly had passed the bills, the Governor had not given his assent. The joke in Imphal political circles is that the government was now in a sweet spot – it had defused the protests, and could now palm off the blame on Delhi if it did not agree to the bills.

    Gaikhangam Gangmei is among the state’s most powerful politicians. He is the deputy chief minister and home minister, as well as the president of the Congress unit. We met at his office in the old secretariat, with a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi in the backdrop.

    He clarified the bills would not hamper movement of Indian citizens, but would regulate it. “Also remember this is a border state. We have to take precautions against the possibility of infiltration from neighbouring countries. The regulation is for everyone’s safety. It will not affect private enterprises, for we know that we cannot deliver without their participation.”

    When I pushed him a bit on this turn to insularity that seemed to be define the mood among the valley’s intellectuals and students, Gaikhangam was candid, “There are certain psychological barriers. We will have to convince the local people slowly that nothing wrong will happen. There have to be visible development measures.”

    Another top government official, who was from outside the state but had worked with the top political leadership closely, cautioned me from jumping to any hasty conclusions. “The problem with Delhi’s policy here is we all come from outside and want to tell Manipuris what is best for them. What is best for Bengaluru may not be best for Imphal. There is a certain pace at which people want change; this is a different society; it has its own history. We cannot impose one model of development on them. Let them arrive at their own conclusions.”

    Back in Moreh, Balasubramaniam, who is also the general secretary of the Tamil Sangam, a local community organisation, said he had been born in the small bazaar.

    His family lived in Burma, but like hundreds of thousands of other Indians, had left the country during the Second World War. “My parents went back to Chennai. But they did not like it. They wanted to return to the same region, the same climate, same culture, and similar people, and so came to Moreh. Trade here was illegal till 1995 and it was on the initiative of the Tamils that it got formalised.” Moreh and Manipur, he said, are home for him. “I have known nothing else.”

    How Manipur balances the aspirations of Rattan, the ideological beliefs of Lokendra, the fear of Loitongbam of being subsumed under ruthless capital, and the hopes of young Meiteis who feel that opportunities are being wrestled away from them with the insecurities and anger of Gupta and the anonymous shopkeepers of Thangal bazaar, the hurt felt by Balasubramaniam, the state’s own rich history of pluralism and migration, and the economic opportunities about to arrive will determine the future of the region.

    I had strolled back across the border.

  25. মাসুদ করিম - ১৪ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৭:১৩ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Nepal Rejects Proposal to Make It a Hindu Nation

    Nepal’s Constituent Assembly today rejected calls to remove the key term secularism from the new Constitution and revert the Himalayan nation to a Hindu state, triggering protests by Hindu activists.

    As the Constituent Assembly resumed voting on individual articles of the Constitution draft, more than two-thirds of the lawmakers rejected the amendment proposal to make Nepal a Hindu state and reaffirmed that it will remain a secular nation.

    The proposal was made by Rastirya Prajatantra Party Nepal or National Democratic Party Nepal, a pro-Hindu group, which demanded that secularism be removed from the Constitution in the Article 4 and Hindu state be mentioned instead.

    After Assembly Chairman Subas Chandra Nembang announced that the proposal has been rejected, Rastirya Prajatantra Party’s Kamal Thapa demanded split voting, the Himalayan Times reported.

    Thapa’s proposal for a vote received the support of only 21 lawmakers in the 601-seat Constituent Assembly. As the CA Rules requires 61 persons to begin the split voting, the voting was not done.

    The erstwhile Hindu state, Nepal was declared a secular state in 2007 after the success of the People’s Movement of 2006.

    During a public opinion collection held in July, majority of the people preferred the word ‘Hindu’ or ‘religious freedom’ instead of using the term ‘secularism’.

    Protesting the rejection of the proposal, a group of Hindu activists carrying yellow and saffron flags clashed with security personnel at New Baneshwar area in the capital.

    The clash erupted after police used force to disperse the agitating activists who tried to enter the prohibitory area near the Constituent Assembly building.

    They wanted to march towards the Assembly, demanding that Nepal be acknowledged as Hindu state in the new constitution.

    The protesters attacked passing vehicles, including one of the United Nations.

    Nepal yesterday entered the final phase of promulgating its new Constitution with the three major parties going ahead with clause-wise voting on the final draft of the statute despite a boycott by Madhesi parties and violent protests that have claimed nearly 40 lives.

    The Madhesi parties are protesting against the seven province model of the federal structure as proposed by the major political parties.

    Southern Nepal has witnessed turmoil since lawmakers from major political parties struck a breakthrough deal on August 15 to divide the country into seven provinces.

  26. মাসুদ করিম - ১৪ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৭:৩২ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Selling China’s ‘new normal’ story to the world

    Beijing needs to reassure the world of its new economic strategy to restore investor confidence

    One of the most frequently heard terms in global capital markets this year must be the “new normal”, which generally refers to how China plans to deal with its slower economic growth and avoid a hard landing that could have a negative impact on world economies.

    The real challenge for Beijing, however, is how to explain the “new normal” story well.

    Premier Li Keqiang was undoubtedly the most widely anticipated speaker at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) China-focused annual conference in Dalian last week, dubbed by the media as the “Summer Davos”.

    Li, in his nearly hour-long speech, tried to explain China’s “new normal” story from every possible positive angle that he could think of, from innovation and technology to how to upgrade China’s manufacturing level in cooperation with global partners and investors.

    Economists, foreign government officials and senior executives from the event organiser WEF, praised China’s economic success, particularly after Li’s speech.

    Privately, many China watchers said Li sounded more sincere than he had done at the same event last year as he acknowledged the difficulties China faces in its economic development while also trying to promote solutions and opportunities.

    This year’s World Economic Forum came at a very challenging time as Beijing is fighting battles on multiple economic fronts – from striving to reign in China’s increasing stock market volatility to defending the valuation of its currency.

    As such, for Li, the forum provided a perfect opportunity to engage directly with the rest of the world to explain the “new normal” story better in the hope Beijing can regain the confidence of global investors and to reduce unnecessary miscommunication and distrust with different stakeholders.

    However, Beijing should have done a much better and more timely job explaining its “new normal” story.

    Slow response in crisis management, partly thanks to collaborative governance that the Politburo, China’s highest-level policy decision-making body, now tries to rely on, and several policy missteps due to underestimating global market reactions, should be blamed for the lack of confidence in China’s “new normal” story in recent months.

    Chinese leaders should be fully aware that to convince the rest of the world to believe the “new normal” story is far more important than what they will actually do with the “new normal”.

    The world is so well connected these days that you just can’t “close the door and make a good car alone”, as the old Chinese saying goes.

    From that point of view, there are still lots of things that Li needs to say and do.

  27. মাসুদ করিম - ১৪ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:২৯ অপরাহ্ণ)

    প্রতিবন্ধী ক্রিকেট: বাংলাদেশকে এগিয়ে রাখছেন ইংল্যান্ড অধিনায়ক

    শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধীদের আইসিআরসি আন্তর্জাতিক টি-টোয়েন্টি টুর্নামেন্টে ইংল্যান্ডের পেসার ক্যালাম ফ্লিন যখন প্রথম বলটি ছোড়ার জন্য ছোটেন, তার কানে ভেসে আসে স্বাগতিক ভক্তদের গর্জন বাংলাদেশ.. বাংলাদেশ.. বাংলাদেশ।

    অলরাউন্ডার ফ্লিন জানান, গত দেড় দশক ধরে ইংল্যান্ডে শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধীদের ক্রিকেট চললেও এমন অভিজ্ঞতা কখনও হয়নি তাদের।

    প্রথমবারের মতো আয়োজিত পাঁচ জাতি টুর্নামেন্টের শিরোপা জেতে ইংল্যান্ড। ২ সেপ্টেম্বর টুর্নামেন্ট শুরু হওয়ার কথা থাকলেও খেলা শুরু হয় ৪ সেপ্টেম্বর থেকে। নিজেদের প্রথম ম্যাচে স্বাগতিক বাংলাদেশের কাছে হারে ইংল্যান্ড।

    ভারত, পাকিস্তান, বাংলাদেশ, আফগানিস্তান ও ইংল্যান্ডকে নিয়ে হয়ে যাওয়া টুর্নামেন্ট আয়োজন করে আন্তর্জাতিক রেড ক্রস কমিটি (আইসিআরসি)।

    পাকিস্তানকে হারিয়ে শিরোপা জেতা ইংল্যান্ডের অধিনায়ক ইয়ান নাইন টুর্নামেন্টের মিডিয়া পার্টনার বিডিনিউজ টোয়েন্টিফোর ডটকমকে বলেন “টুর্নামেন্টে চমৎকার অভিজ্ঞতা হয়েছে।”

    টুর্নামেন্টের শুরুতেই বাজে অভিজ্ঞতা হয় ইসিবির শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধী বিভাগের প্রধান ইয়ান মার্টিনের। কোনো র‍্যাম্প না থাকায় টুর্নামেন্টের উদ্বোধনী অনুষ্ঠানে শের-ই-বাংলা জাতীয় ক্রিকেট স্টেডিয়ামে ঢুকতে পারেননি হুইল চেয়ারে চলাফেরা করা এই ক্রিকেট কর্মকর্তা।

    “আতিথেয়তার দিক থেকে সবাই (খেলোয়াড়রা) খুবই সন্তুষ্ট এবং নিজেদের খুব গ্রহণযোগ্য মনে করেছে। সবাই এসে ওদের সঙ্গে ছবি তুলেছে এবং অটোগ্রাফ নিয়েছে।”

    দেশে ফিরে যাওয়ার আগে ইংল্যান্ডের শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধী ক্রিকেট দল গত শুক্রবার বারিধারায় ব্রিটিশ হাই কমিশন অ্যামেনিটিস সেন্টার পরিদর্শন করে। এ সময় অধিনায়ক নাইন, সহ-অধিনায়ক ফ্লিন ও টপ অর্ডার ব্যাটসম্যান ম্যাট ব্লামায়ার বিডিনিউজ টোয়েন্টিফোর ডটকমকে নিজেদের অভিজ্ঞতার কথা জানান।

    ইসিবির শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধী বিভাগ বাংলাদেশ ক্রিকেট বোর্ডকে এই টুর্নামেন্টের জন্য তাদের শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধী ক্রিকেট দল গঠনে সহায়তা করে। যুক্তরাজ্য সরকার সাভারে সেন্টার ফর দ্য রিহ্যাবিলিটেশন অব দ্য প্যারালাইজড প্রকল্পে সহায়তা করছে।

    জন্মগত বিকৃতির জন্য মাত্র ১৬ মাস বয়সে অস্ত্রোপচারে পা হারানো নাইন জানান, আজ তারা যে পর্যায়ে তাতে পৌঁছাতে ১০ থেকে ১৫ বছর সময় লেগেছে। তিনি মনে করেন, ইংল্যান্ডের চেয়ে বাংলাদেশ অনেক বেশি সম্ভাবনাময়।

    ইংল্যান্ড অধিনায়কের দাদা, বাবা, চাচা, ভাইয়েরা সবাই ক্রিকেট খেলেছেন, তাই ক্রিকেট খেলার স্বপ্নটা বুকে জায়গা করে নিতে বেশি সময় নেয়নি। এমনকি পা হারানোর আগেই ব্যাট হাতে নেন নাইন।

    নাইনের পরিবারই ছিল তার অনুপ্রেরণা। উচ্চ প্রযুক্তির সুবিধা থাকায় নিজেদের সৌভাগ্যবান মনে করেন তিনি, “আমাদের (বাংলাদেশের চেয়ে) দুই ধাপ বেশি সুবিধা রয়েছে। কিন্তু বাংলাদেশ, ভারত, পাকিস্তান ও আফগানিস্তানের চেয়ে আমাদের জনসংখ্যা কম হওয়াটা অসুবিধাও বটে।”

    বিসিবির দল গঠনের জন্য হওয়া ট্যালেন্ট হান্টে শতাধিক খেলোয়াড় আসেন বলে জানান নাইন। তবে খেলার জন্য তাদের মাত্র ২৫ জনের ব্যাপারে সুপারিশ করে তারা, “এটাই পার্থক্য। আমাদের চেয়ে আপনাদের ১০ গুণ বেশি জনসংখ্যা রয়েছে।”

    ইংল্যান্ডের অধিনায়ক জানান, বাংলাদেশের সমর্থকরা যে ‘গর্জন’ করেছেন তার কোনো অভিজ্ঞতাই ছিল না তাদের, “সাত/আট মাসের মধ্যে আপনারা একটি দল পেয়েছেন যারা এই টুর্নামেন্টে প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বীতা গড়েছে। ওদের আরও ছয় মাস সময় দেওয়া হলে ওরা আরও ভালো হয়ে উঠবে।”

    অধিনায়কের সঙ্গে একমত সহ-অধিনায়ক ফ্লিন, “এমনকি তিন বছর আগেও আমরা এমন একটি টুর্নামেন্টের কথা স্বপ্নেও ভাবতাম না। আমরা এতে অবাক হয়েছি। প্রতিটি ম্যাচ ছিল প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বিতাপূর্ণ। আমরা ভালো ক্রিকেট খেলেছি, মানসম্পন্ন ক্রিকেট খেলেছি।”

    ‘বোন ক্যান্সার’-এর জন্য ২০০৯ সালে ডান পায়ের হাঁটু পুনর্গঠন করতে হয় ফ্লিনকে। টাইটানিয়ামের হাঁটু লাগিয়ে খেলছেন তিনি। ক্রিকেটকে ভালোবাসেন ফ্লিন, স্বপ্ন দেখেন দেশের হয়ে প্রথম শতক করার।

    টপ অর্ডার ব্যাটসম্যান ম্যাথিউ শিল্প দুর্ঘটনায় পড়েন ২০০৯ সালে। তাই বাঁ পায়ের হাঁটুর নিচ থেকে কেটে ফেলতে হয়। তিনি জানান, তারা শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধী দল হলেও প্রতিবন্ধকতা তাদের ভাবনাতেও আসে না।

    “আমার প্রথম দুবাই সফরে আমি যখন ক্রিজে যাই সেটাই ছিল আমার সেরা ক্রিকেটীয় স্মৃতি”, চোখে জল নিয়ে বলেন ম্যাথিউ। তিনি অনুভব করেন সেই দুর্ঘটনার পর পাঁচ বছরে কোথায় পৌঁছেছেন।

    “মানুষ যখন শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধী ক্রিকেটের কথা ভাবে তারা টেনিস বল বা কোনো নরম বলের কথা ভাবে। খুব একটা মানসম্পন্ন হবে বলে (তারা) ভাবে না। এই টুর্নামেন্ট ছিল খুবই আলাদা.. টুর্নামেন্টের খেলাগুলোর দিকে একবার শুধু তাকান।”

    আইসিআরসি আগামী দিনেও এই টুর্নামেন্ট আয়োজনের কথা ভাবছে। সেখানে ইংল্যান্ডের অধিনায়ক আরও বেশি দলের অংশগ্রহণের প্রত্যাশা করছেন, “বাংলাদেশে আসাটা আমরা সবাই উপভোগ করেছি। আমরা অস্ট্রেলিয়া, নিউ জিল্যান্ড এবং ক্যারিবিয়ানেও যেতে চাইবো। আইসিসিকে এগিয়ে আনতে হবে এবং ক্রিকেটকে একত্রিত করতে হবে।”

    নাইন দ্বি-পাক্ষিক সিরিজও দেখতে চান। বাংলাদেশ টেলিভিশন টুর্নামেন্টের খেলা সরাসরি সম্প্রচার করে। টিভিতে শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধীদের খেলা সরাসরি দেখানোয় খুশি ইংল্যান্ডের অধিনায়ক।

    “আমরা চাই, মানুষ না বলুক এটা শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধীদের ক্রিকেট। বলুক এটা খুব ভালো ক্রিকেট এবং ওরা শারীরিক প্রতিবন্ধী। আপনার প্রতিবন্ধকতা আসবে পরে।”

    “আপনি যদি খেলাগুলোর হাইলাইটস দেখেন, দেখবেন এটা (শারীরিকভাবে সক্ষমদের ক্রিকেটের সঙ্গে) তুলনীয়।”

  28. মাসুদ করিম - ১৫ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১১:৩৮ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Behind Singapore Ruling Party’s Victory, a Rising Star

    Singapore’s ruling party is celebrating a resounding re-election victory, thanks partly to its economic Tsar, an ethnic Tamil politician whose voter appeal poses an awkward question for its leaders: can a non-Chinese ever become prime minister?

    As the People’s Action Party (PAP) settles down to another five years in power, the guessing game of who will succeed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has begun – and the name of Tharman Shanmugaratnam keeps coming up.

    The odds of Shanmugaratnam, who is deputy prime minister and finance minister, making it to the top job should be long.

    All three of Singapore’s prime ministers to date have been of Chinese origin and, in a country where three-quarters of the residents are ethnic Chinese, it would be hard to break that tradition. Just one in 10 Singaporeans can, like Shanmugaratnam, trace their roots back to South Asia.

    PAP officials declined to comment on the question of who will come after Lee, 63, who has hinted that he may step down by 2020, because it is a sensitive subject in a party that is in any case instinctively secretive.

    Lee has said that the chances of a non-Chinese becoming prime minister are better for the new generation of leaders but a lack of Mandarin, widely spoken here, could be a problem.

    For some Singaporeans, though, the idea is as outlandish as a non-Malay prime minister in Malaysia or an Indonesian from outside the political heartland of Java becoming president.

    In a book published two years before his death this year, Lee Kuan Yew, Lee’s father and the deeply respected first prime minister of this tropical city-state, listed four ethnic Chinese men as the new generation of up-and-coming leaders.

    Still, Shanmugaratnam’s hustings performance in the run-up to last week’s election was so impressive that even an opposition candidate, Paul Tambyah of the Singapore Democratic Party, openly longed for him to lead a grand coalition of parties.

    “People would like to see Tharman around to set the tone for a new PAP leadership,” said Catherine Lim, a long-time political commentator and critic of Lee Kuan Yew.

    “It’s time now for a completely different one, and the only person whom I can think of to set that tone convincingly and who can appeal to Singaporeans across ethnic groups would be Mr Tharman,” she said.

    Shanmugaratnam, 58, said in July he was not keen on the prime minister’s job, though he expected Singapore to have a leader from one of its minority ethnic groups at some point.

    He was not available to comment for this article.

    A Transitional Prime Minister?

    The PAP won almost 70 percent of the popular vote in the election, a stunning recovery from its record low of 60.1 percent in 2011. In his own district, Shanmugaratnam led a handful of lawmakers to a win with about 80 percent of the vote.

    Analysts say that rebound was helped by a wave of patriotism after the death of Lee Kuan Yew and independent Singapore’s 50th birthday celebrations, but also by a slight shift from unbridled capitalism to Western welfarism that was led by Shanmugaratnam.

    In his campaign speeches, Shanmugaratnam pressed the right buttons for an electorate that has in recent years begun to question the hard-nosed growth-at-all-costs policies of the PAP that left many marginalised and struggling to make ends meet.

    In a calm baritone and with his trademark avuncular style, he crunched numbers to show how social welfare is working.

    He also explained changes the PAP has embraced after 50 years of unbroken rule, but conceded still more were needed.

    “It used to be a top-down government, often quite heavy-handed,” he told one rally. “It’s no longer that way … Strong leadership is listening, engaging, moving with people.”

    Shanmugaratnam spoke some Mandarin on the campaign, and when he quoted from an ancient Chinese poem at one rally the crowd exploded with cheers.

    He was educated at the London School of Economics, Cambridge and Harvard, and spent most of his career at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the island state’s central bank and financial regulator.

    He got into a legal tangle in the 1990s when he was fined for failing to protect the secrecy of official information after economic data was published in a newspaper ahead of its release. Shanmugaratnam had pleaded not guilty.

    He is also well known on international circuits: a darling of international investors, he was appointed chairman of the International Monetary Fund’s policy steering committee in 2011.

    Eugene Tan, a law professor at Singapore Management University and a political commentator, said one obstacle for Shanmugaratnam is that he is seen as part of the prime minister’s generation, when perhaps ideally a new generation would be coming forward.

    “However, if it is assessed that a transitional prime minister is needed while the fourth generation is ready to take over, then … Tharman is well-positioned to step up,” Tan said.

  29. মাসুদ করিম - ১৫ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১১:৫৮ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Photographer documents India’s forgotten yet still remarkable water stepwells

    India is well-known for monuments like the Taj Mahal. But there’s another category of local architecture that might not be as famous, and that is currently being threatened by the growing water crisis in India: the magnificent stepwell. Many of these centuries-old subterranean structures — originally built as large-scale water cisterns to store monsoon rainwaters for later use — have fallen into disuse and disrepair, due to water tables being over-pumped to depletion, and the introduction of modern plumbing.

    Nevertheless, many of these neglected stepwells are masterpieces of engineering and beauty. Aiming to spread a greater global awareness to help preserve them, Chicago-based journalist Victoria Lautman took several years to travel the country, photographing dozens of these awe-inspiring structures. Lautman, who specializes in art history and archeology, writes passionately about them in a post on ArchDaily, noting their millennia-old cultural and spiritual significance:

    By the 19th-century, several thousand stepwells in varying degrees of grandeur are estimated to have been built throughout India, in cities, villages, and eventually also in private gardens where they’re known as “retreat wells”. But stepwells also proliferated along crucial, remote trade routes where travelers and pilgrims could park their animals and take shelter in covered arcades. They were the ultimate public monuments, available to both genders, every religion, seemingly anyone at all but for the lowest-caste Hindu. It was considered extremely meritorious to commission a stepwell, an earthbound bastion against Eternity, and it’s believed that a quarter of these wealthy or powerful philanthropists were female. Considering that fetching water was (and is still) assigned to women, the stepwells would have provided a reprieve in otherwise regimented lives, and gathering down in the village vav was surely an important social activity.

    As for the current state of stepwells, a hand-full are in relatively decent condition, particularly those few where tourists might materialize. But for most, the prevailing condition is simply deplorable due to a host of reasons. For one, under the British Raj, stepwells were deemed unhygienic breeding grounds for disease and parasites and were consequently barricaded, filled in, or otherwise destroyed. “Modern” substitutes like village taps, plumbing, and water tanks also eliminated the physical need for stepwells, if not the social and spiritual aspects. As obsolescence set in, stepwells were ignored by their communities, became garbage dumps and latrines, while others were repurposed as storage areas, mined for their stone, or just left to decay.

    Then there are stepwells like this “Queen’s Well,” (Rani ki vav in Patan, Gujarat) which was buried in mud and silt for almost a thousand years, probably due to its immense size (210 feet long by 65 wide) and recently designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

    These remarkable structures are great examples of traditional methods of water conservation, and are an admirable part of India’s heritage, and should be preserved somehow. In the future, Lautman hopes to produce a book on stepwells, and is now in the process of finding a publisher.

    You can find out more or contact her via Victoria Lautman.

    Subterranean Ghosts: India's Vanishing Stepwells Beyond the Taj Mahal: Non-tourist India - Victoria Lautman

  30. মাসুদ করিম - ১৫ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৭:১০ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Is China Serious About Its New State-Owned Enterprise Reforms?

    China’s State Council has issued new guidelines for state-owned enterprises, but will they matter?

    In the latest top-down measure to restore confidence in an economy that appears to be faltering, Chinese leaders unveiled the details of a new set of guidelines to reform state-owned enterprises (SOEs). According to China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency, China “will modernize SOEs, enhance state assets management, promote mixed ownership and prevent the erosion of state assets.” Along with a set of short-term, stopgap policy measures to restore investor confidence in the wake of equity market volatility in July and August, the new SOE guidelines appear to be aimed at much-needed longer term structural change.

    SOE reform has been something foreign investors have been wanting to see for some time. Two years ago, in the lead-up to China’s economic policy-focused Third Plenum, there was considerable hope that SOE reform would feature at the top of Xi Jinping’s economic policy agenda. Unfortunately, the Party fell short of comprehensive SOE reform at the time. The issue has never been an easy one for the Party leadership to pursue, given powerful vested interests in the existing SOE structure. With Xi’s power now consolidated and the stock market’s volatility still reverberating across the country, it makes sense that the State Council (the country’s cabinet, responsible for policy) would announce SOE reform measures now.

    To be sure, nothing about the newly announced reforms suggests that we’re about to witness a revolution in SOE structure or a move toward radical privatization. Instead, what we have is a five-year road map for modest reform. “The guidelines suggest that by 2020, the goals in all the main reform areas should be accomplished, constituting a system that is more suitable to the nation’s socialist-market economy,” Xinhua notes. Echoing some of the language used by the country’s Central Bank when it allowed the yuan to devalue, Xinhua notes that the “SOE system should be more modernized and market-oriented.”

    In the Chinese economy, SOEs are far from a fringe sector. The Financial Times notes that China has more than 155,000 SOEs which, in cumulative, employ tens of millions of Chinese. The reason SOEs have come to be the target of so much foreign investor frustration is because, by their very nature, SOEs are plagued by inefficient management, aversion toward innovation, and moral hazard. The new reforms will hopefully address these shortcomings.

    The new guidelines, Xinhua reports, state that the government will encourage SOEs to eventually “go public” though “no specific timetable will be set.” Additionally, “SOEs will also be allowed to experiment with selling shares to their employees.” These provisions hearken positively for longer-term structural SOE reform and appear to address recommendations that foreign investors have proffered for a few years now.

    Skeptics may read the announcement of the new guidelines, particularly given their timing, as an attempt to signal reform without necessarily pursuing it. After this summer’s volatility, confidence in China’s continuing growth and short-term economic health has been shaken worldwide. By issuing these guidelines, the State Council could be sending investors another signal that it is taking structural reform seriously. For the skeptics, they’ll believe the sort of SOE reforms these guidelines promise when they see it. One hopes that China will move toward implementation sooner rather than later.

  31. মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:৫২ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    নেতাজির রহস‍্য

    তাইহোকু বিমান দুর্ঘটনায় নেতাজি সুভাষচন্দ্র বসু মারা গেছেন, এ কথা বহু মানুষ বিশ্বাস করেননি। তঁার ফিরে আসার নানা গল্পও কোনও দিন বাস্তব হয়ে ওঠেনি। তারপর কয়েক দশক কেটে গেছে। এতদিন পর আবার নতুন করে তঁার তাইহোকু–উত্তর জীবন নিয়ে নানা কাহিনী সামনে আসতে শুরু করেছে। যেমন একটি ইংরেজি চ‍্যানেল নথি ঘেঁটে বলছে, ইংল‍্যান্ড–আমেরিকা বিশ্বাস করত দক্ষিণ–পূর্ব এশিয়ার বিভিন্ন দেশে কমিউনিস্ট বিপ্লবের পেছনে নেতাজির হাত রয়েছে। সেখানেই শেষ নয়, তঁাদের আশঙ্কা ছিল, রাশিয়ায় বসে নেতাজি ভারতে ফিরে বিপ্লব করার প্রস্তুতি নিচ্ছেন। আর তাই তঁাদের গোয়েন্দারা তঁাকে খুঁজে বেড়িয়েছেন বহু বছর। পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সরকার নেতাজি সংক্রান্ত ৬৪টি ফাইল প্রকাশ করতে চলেছে ১৮ সেপ্টেম্বর। স্বভাবতই আগুনে আবার ঘি পড়েছে। আরও অনেক ফাইল অবশ‍্য এখনও বন্দী থেকে যাবে দিল্লি ও মস্কোর মহাফেজখানাগুলিতে। স্রেফ ৬৪ ফাইল এশিয়ার সব থেকে বড় মৃত্যু–রহসে‍্যর ওপর থেকে পর্দা কতটা তুলবে তা নিশ্চিত নয়। তবে নিশ্চিতভাবেই বাকি ফাইল প্রকাশ‍্যে আনার দাবি এরপর আরও জোরদার হবে। ১১৮ বছর আগে যঁার জন্ম হয়েছিল, তিনি কোনওভাবেই এখন আর বিপজ্জনক ব‍্যক্তি হতে পারেন না। সে–সময়ের ‘যুদ্ধপরাধী’ কথাটার এখন আর কোনও ব‍্যঞ্জনা নেই। আর যে দেশে তিনি আশ্রয় নিয়েছিলেন বলে ইংল‍্যান্ড–আমেরিকা বিশ্বাস করত সেই সোভিয়েত ইউনিয়নেরও এখন কোনও অস্তিত্ব নেই। কাজেই সম্পকের্র অবনতির তত্ত্বও আর ধেঁাপে টেকে না। সোভিয়েত রািশয়ার সঙ্গে এদেশের যে দলের ঘনিঠ সম্পর্ক ছিল সেই সি পি আইয়ের পুরনো নেতাদের অনেকেই নিশ্চিত ছিলেন যে, নেতাজি রাশিয়ায় ছিলেন এবং সেদেশের জেলে তঁার মৃত‍্যু হয়েছিল। সোভিয়েত নেতাদের সঙ্গে মতানৈক‍্যের কারণেই তঁাকে স্তালিনের আমলে জেলে যেতে হয়েছিল। এই কথাটাই রাশিয়া ও ভারতের নেতারা গোপন রাখতে চেয়েছিলেন। এই সব কথা সত‍্যি কি না তা জানা যাবে রাশিয়ার মহাফেজখানার ফাইলগুলি প্রকাশ করা হলে।

    পশ্চিমি দুনিয়ার গোয়েন্দারা কিন্তু ছয়ের দশক পর্যন্ত খুঁজে বেড়িয়েছেন সেই ব‍্যক্তিকে, যঁাকে তঁারা ‘চন্দ্র বোস’ বলে উল্লেখ করতেন। ব্রিটিশ সরকার মনে করত, নেতাজি ঠিক একসময় প্রকাশ্যে আসবেন। নথি ঘেঁটে একটি ইংরেজি চ্যানেলের দাবি, ১৯৪৯ সালে নেতাজির পরিবারকে একটি চিঠি দিয়েছিল ব্রিটেনের তথ্য–সম্প্রচার মন্ত্রক। চিঠির মূল বক্তব্য, নেতাজি এখনও জীবিত এবং গোয়েন্দারা তা নিয়ে তদম্ত করছেন। ব্রিটেন সরকার এবং তুরস্কের ব্রিটিশ দূতাবাসের মধ্যে কিছু গোপন চিঠি চালাচালি হয়। তাতেই জানা গিয়েছিল, আমেরিকারও ধারণা, দক্ষিণ-পূর্ব এশিয়ায় ছিলেন নেতাজি। ভারতের মাও-সে-তুং হয়ে ওঠার জন‍্য তিনি রাশিয়ায় প্রশিক্ষিত হয়েছেন বলেও তঁারা বিশ্বাস করতেন। কারণ, তঁারাও জানতেন, ওই বিমান–দুর্ঘটনার গল্প বিশ্বাসযোগ‍্য নয়। তঁার ‘মৃত্যু’র কথা প্রথম জানিয়েছিলেন তঁার নিজস্ব নিরাপত্তারক্ষী হাবিবুর রহমান। অদ্ভুতভাবে তিনি ছাড়া আর কোনও সূত্রেই এর প্রমাণ পাওয়া যায়নি। এমনকি পরবর্তীকালে তাইহোকু বিমানবন্দরে ওই বিমান–দুর্ঘটনার কোনও রেকর্ড পাওয়া যায়নি। নেতাজির ডেথ সার্টিফিকেট অনেক বছর পরে তৈরি করা হয়েছিল। যে ডাক্তার ওই সার্টিফিকেটে সই করেছিলেন, তিনি মুখার্জি কমিশনের সামনে এই ঘটনার কোনও ব‍্যাখ‍্যা দিতে পারেননি। অন‍্যদিকে, মমতা ব‍্যানার্জি কলকাতায় এই ৬৪ ফাইল প্রকাশ করে ভবিষ‍্যতে বাকি সব ফাইল খোলায় অগ্রণী হয়ে থাকলেন।

    • মাসুদ করিম - ১৯ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১:১০ অপরাহ্ণ)

      স্বাধীনতার পরেও ভারতে নেতাজি?

      তাইহোকুর বিতর্কিত বিমান দুর্ঘটনার পরেও নেতাজি যে জীবিত ছিলেন সেই উল্লেখ রয়েছে গোয়েন্দা রিপোর্টে। এমনকী স্বাধীনতার পরে নেতাজি ভারতে ঢুকেছেন বলে ব্রিটিশ গোয়েন্দা রিপোর্টও প্রকাশে‍্য এল। এই দুটি ফাইলই শরৎচন্দ্র বসু সম্পাদিত দ‍্য নেশন পত্রিকার প্রথম পাতার সুপার লিড খবরকে সমর্থন করল। শুক্রবার কলকাতা পুলিসের মানিকতলার সংগ্রহশালায় রাজ‍্য সরকারের কাছে রক্ষিত ৬৪টি ফাইল প্রকাশে‍্য আসে। ফাইলগুলিতে ১২ হাজার ৭৪৪ পাতার নথি রয়েছে। এদিন‍ ফাইল প্রকাশে‍্য আসার পর নেশন পত্রিকার সেই সত‍্যতা নিয়ে আনন্দ প্রকাশ করে বসু পরিবারের দুই সদস‍্য চন্দ্রনাথ বসু এবং জয়ন্তী বসু রক্ষিত বললেন, তখন নেশন পত্রিকার হেডিংয়ে পরিষ্কার লেখা ছিল ‘সুভাষচন্দ্র বোস ইন রেড চায়না’। জয়ন্তী বোস রক্ষিত অশোকনাথ বসুর কন‍্যা। খনি রসায়নবিদ অশোকনাথ বসুর ধানবাদের বাংলো থেকেই ১৯৪১ সালের ১৮ জানুয়ারি গভীর রাতে সুভাষচন্দ্র বসু ওরফে আফগানবেশী জিয়াউদ্দিন খান পেশোয়ার যাওয়ার জন‍্য ট্রেন ধরেছিলেন। এদিন ফাইলগুলি প্রকাশ হওয়ার পর ঘণ্টা দেড়েক বসু পরিবারের সদস‍্যদেরই শুধু ফাইলগুলি দেখতে দেওয়া হয়। সেই সময় পুলিসের এই সংগ্রহশালার ভেতর অপ্রীতিকর পরিস্থিতির সৃষ্টি হয়। ৬৪টি ফাইলের ডিজিটালাইজড সিডি প্রথমে কৃষ্ণা বসু পরে চন্দ্রনাথ বসুর হাতে তুলে দেওয়া হয় কলকাতা পুলিসের পক্ষ থেকে। সংগ্রহশালার ভেতরেও কৃষ্ণা বসু কিছুটা বাড়তি গুরুত্ব পাচ্ছিলেন। তখন চন্দ্রনাথ বসু ও চিত্রা বসু ক্ষুব্ধ স্বরে চিৎকার করে বলতে থাকেন, এই সেদিন পর্যন্ত যাঁরা রেনকোজি মন্দিরে রক্ষিত চিতাভস্মকে সুভাষচন্দ্র বসুর বলে চালাতে চাইত, তাঁরা কেন এখানে এত গুরুত্ব পাচ্ছে। কৃষ্ণা বসু পুলিসি নিরাপত্তা নিয়ে সেখান থেকে চলে যান। যাওয়ার আগে পুলিস রেজিস্টারে লিখে যান, গোপন ৬৪টি ফাইল প্রকাশের জন‍্য মমতা ও পুলিসকে ধন‍্যবাদ। সাংবাদিকদের বলে যান, ৭০ বছর আগের ব‍্যাপার। নেতাজি রিসার্চ ব‍ু‍্যরো এর মধে‍্য অনেক কিছুই মানুষের নজরে এনেছে। আবার অনেক কিছু এখন নজরে এল। ভাল ভাবে ফাইলগুলো পড়ে দেখতে হবে। বিশেষ করে শিশির বসু ও অমিয়নাথ বসুর ওপর কেন ভারতীয় গোয়েন্দারা স্বাধীন ভারতেও নজরদারি করত। বসু পরিবারের সদস‍্যরা স্পষ্টত েয দু’ভাগ সেটা এখানে স্পষ্ট হয়ে গেল। এক দিকে কৃষ্ণা বসু ও তাঁর সন্তানরা। যাঁদের তত্ত্বাবধানে আছে নেতাজি রিসার্চ বু‍্যরো। আরেক দিকে বসু পরিবারের বাকি সদস‍্যরা। চন্দ্রনাথ বসু, চিত্রা বসু, মাধুরী বসুর নেতৃত্বে যাঁরা কয়েক বছর ধরে মুখার্জি কমিশনের রিপোর্টকে গুরুত্ব দিয়ে দেশে–বিদেশে রক্ষিত নেতাজি সম্পর্কিত যাবতীয় গোপন ফাইল প্রকাশে‍্য আনার জন‍্য কেন্দ্র ও বিভিন্ন রাজ‍্য সরকারের কাছে দাবি জানিয়ে আসছে। সেই দাবিতে প্রথম সাড়া দিল পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সরকার। ৬৪টি গোপন ফাইল প্রকাশে‍্য এল। প্রকাশে‍্য আসার সঙ্গে সঙ্গেই বেশ কয়েকটি ব‍্যাপারে কেন্দ্রের কাছে তদন্তের দাবি জানাবেন বলে জানান চন্দ্রনাথ বসু।
      অন্তর্ধান ফাইলের বাকি পাতা কোথায়?
      নেতাজির অন্তর্ধান সম্পর্কিত একটি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ফাইলের প্রথম পাতাটি আছে শুধু। বাকি ফাইলটি গেল কোথায়? অভিযোগ উঠেছে বিধানচন্দ্র রায় মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রী থাকাকালীন ভারতের প্রধানমন্ত্রী জওহরলাল নেহরু রেনকোজির চিতাভস্ম এনে পশ্চিমবঙ্গে রাখার উদে‍্যাগ নিতে বলেছিলেন। এবং তা বেশ উৎসব, অনুষ্ঠানের মধে‍্য দিয়ে। চন্দ্রনাথ বসু বললেন বিধান রায় তখন নেহরুকে জানিয়ে দেন, এ রাজে‍্যর মানুষদের মনের যা অবস্থা তাতে ও–সব করলে বিপদ হবে। শোনা যাচ্ছে এই ফাইলটিতেই ছিল সে–সব নথি। সিদ্ধার্থশঙ্কর রায় মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রী থাকাকালীন প্রথম পাতাটি ছাড়া বাকি ফাইলটি পুড়িয়ে ফেলা হয়। এর প্রতিলিপি অবশ‍্যই কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের কাছে আছে। এটা তদন্ত সাপেক্ষ।
      অমিয়নাথের ওপর ১৪ গোয়েন্দার নজর
      অমিয়নাথ বসুর ওপর সম্পূর্ণ আলাদা ফাইল। চন্দ্রনাথ বললেন আমার বাবা অমিয়নাথ বসু কেমব্রিজে অর্থনীতি পড়তেন, পরে ব‍্যারিস্টার হন। এমনকী নেহরুজির অনুরোধে ইন্দিরা গান্ধীকে অক্সফোর্ড, কেমব্রিজে প্রবেশিকা পরীক্ষার প্রশিক্ষণও দিয়েছিলেন। তাঁর ওপর কেন আলাদা করে নজরদারি? শুধু তাই নয়, ফাইলে আছে ১৪ জন গোয়েন্দা নিয়মিত তাঁর ওপর নজরদারি করতেন।
      ১৯৪৮ সালে নেতাজি ভারতে?
      ব্রিটিশ, মার্কিন গোয়েন্দাদের যৌথ রিপোর্ট একটি ফাইলে পরিষ্কার বলছে ১৯৪৮ সালে নেতাজি শুধু জীবিতই নন, তিনি সম্ভবত ভারতে প্রবেশ করেছেন। এর থেকেই তো বোঝা যায় নেহরু সরকারের সন্দেহ ছিল, অমিয়নাথ বসুর সঙ্গে নেতাজি যোগাযোগ রাখছেন। কেন স্বাধীন ভারতের একজন সাংসদ এবং ব‍্যারিস্টারের ওপর এরকম গোয়েন্দা নজরদারি রাখা হয়েছিল? সেটা আলাদা করে তদন্ত করার জন‍্য মোদি সরকারের কাছে দাবি জানাব।
      চীনে নেতাজি, চীনাদের ওপর তাই বিশেষ নজর
      বসু পরিবারের বেশ কয়েকজন সদসে‍্যর নজরে এসেছে একটি চৈনিক ফাইল। কয়েকজন চীনা শিক্ষাবিদ, যাঁরা এদেশে কিছু গবেষণামূলক কােজর জন‍্য এসেছিলেন তাঁদের ওপর বিশেষ নজরদারি রাখা হয়েছিল এবং চীনে ফেরত পাঠিয়ে দেওয়া হয়। স্বাধীনতার পরেও চীনে নেতাজির উপস্থিতির জন‍্যই কলকাতায় আসা চীনা শিক্ষাবিদদের ওপর বিশেষ নজরদারি রাখা হত বলে মনে হচ্ছে। বেশির ভাগ ফাইলের ওপরই আই এন এ (ইন্ডিয়ান ন‍্যাশনাল আর্মি) লেখা। আজাদ হিন্দ ফৌজের কিংবা সশস্ত্র সংগ্রামীদের বোমা তৈরির ব‍্যাপারে সহযোগিতা করছে বলে আচার্য প্রফুল্লচন্দ্র রায়ের বেঙ্গল কেমিক‍্যালের ওপর কুনজর ছিল ব্রিটিশ সরকারের। বেঙ্গল কেমিক‍্যালের ওপর আলাদা ফাইলই আছে। একটি ফাইলের নাম কন্ট‍্যাক্ট অফ বোস ফ‍্যামিলি উইথ জাপ কনসুলেট। জাপানিদের যোগাযোগ রাখার জন‍্যই শরৎচন্দ্র বসুকে দ্বিতীয়বার জেলে পাঠানো হয়। শুধু শরৎচন্দ্র বসুর ওপর বেশ কয়েকটি ফাইল আছে। ১৯৩৯ সালের কৃষক সমাবেশ কিংবা ১৯৪০ সালের বাংলার বাইরে ছাত্র আন্দোলন, আলাদা ফাইল। তখনকার দিনে বিদেশি রেডিও স্টেশন ধরার জন‍্য অনেকের বাড়িতেই শক্তিশালী অয়‍্যারলেস রিসিভিং সেট থাকত। সেটার জন‍্য আলাদা লাইসেন্স নিতে হত। তাঁদের ওপরও নজরদারির ফাইল আছে। নেতাজির পরিবারের কয়েকজনকে এ ধরনের সেট ব‍্যবহারের জন‍্য গ্রেপ্তারও করা হয়েছিল। যাঁরা ভাবছিলেন, এই ৬৪টি ফাইলের মধে‍্য তেমন কিছু নেই, তাঁরা যে কত ভুল করেছেন সেটা আগামী সোমবার থেকে যখন সাধারণ মানুষরা যখন প্রবেশাধিকার পাবেন তখন টের পাবেন।

      সত‍্য প্রকাশ করুক কেন্দ্র: মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রী

      সত‍্য প্রকাশ একদিন হবেই। কেন্দ্রের উচিত এরপর তাদের কাছে আছে এমন সব ফাইলই প্রকাশ করে দেওয়া। মানুষ জানুক কোনটা ঠিক, কোনটা বেঠিক। নেতাজি সংক্রান্ত গোপন ফাইল প্রকাশে‍্য আসার পর অল্প সময়ের জন‍্য কিছু নথি ঘেঁটে এমনটাই মত মুখমন্ত্রী মমতা ব‍্যানার্জির। সাধারণ মানুষের ধারণা ছিল ১৯৪৫ সালের পরও নেতাজি বেঁচেছিলেন। গোপন নথি প্রকাশে‍্য আসতে শুরু করায় সেই ধারণা আরও জোরালো হল। মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রী বলেন, ১৯৪৫ সালের পরও নেতাজি সুভাষ বেঁচে আছেন এমন নথি আমাদের পুলিস সংগ্রহশালায় প্রকাশিত হল। আরও অনেক বিতর্কিত বিষয় জানা যাবে, গবেষণা হবে। যাই হোক, সত‍্য বেরিয়ে আসবেই। মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রী বলেন, ভারত এখন স্বাধীন। স্বাধীনতার ৬৮ ‍বছর পরেও আমার দেশের স্বাধীনতা সংগ্রামী বিষয়ক নথি প্রকাশ করলে অন‍্য দেশের সঙ্গে সম্পর্ক খারাপ হবে, এটা আমি মনে করি না। তা হলে গান্ধীজি, ভগৎ সিং, লাজপত রায়, আম্বেদকর নিয়েও অনেক নথি প্রকাশ করা যেত না। এটা খুবই বেদনার যে, ১৯৪৫ সালের পর নেতাজি সুভাষচন্দ্র বসুর কী হল, তা এখনও জানা গেল না। আমাদের কাছে তাঁর সম্পর্কে যা নথি ছিল, তা আমরা সবই প্রকাশ করে দিয়েছি। এই সব নথি যে এ রাজে‍্য আছে, সেটাই এতদিন জানতাম না। আমরা চাই কেন্দ্র দ্রুত এই সংক্রান্ত গোপন ফাইল প্রকাশ করে দিক। এ নিয়ে দরকারে আমরা কেন্দ্রের পাশে থাকব। কেউ কেউ বলছেন এতে নাকি আইন–শৃঙ্খলার সমস‍্যা দেখা দেবে। আমরা সেটা মনে করি না। আইন–শৃঙ্খলাহীন রাজ‍্য তো এটা নয়। সব রকম পরিস্থিতি আমরা মোকাবিলা করতে পারি। প্রশ্ন ছিল, স্বাধীনতার এত বছর পরও কেন বসু পরিবারের লোকদের ওপর এত কড়া নজরদারি। মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রীর জবাব, এটা খুব ক্রিটিকাল প্রশ্ন। এ নিয়ে বিস্তারিত মন্তব‍্য আমি করতে চাই না। শুধু বলব, এটি খুবই দুর্ভাগ‍্যজনক। নেতাজি গবেষকদের দাবি, কেন্দ্রের কাছে অন্তত ১৫০টি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ গোপন ফাইল আছে। সেটা প্রকাশ করার ব‍্যাপারে এর আগেও এন ডি এ সরকার পিছিয়ে গিয়েছিল। বলেছিল, এর ফলে নাকি আন্তর্জাতিক স্তরে বিভিন্ন দেশের সঙ্গে ভারতের সম্পর্কের অবনতি ঘটবে। মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রী বলেন, স্বাধীনতার আগে এবং স্বাধীনতার ঠিক পরে ভারতের যে অবস্থা ছিল সেখান থেকে ভারত আজ অনেক উন্নত ও শক্তিশালী দেশ। এ দেশের স্বাধীনতা, সার্বভৌমত্বের জন‍্য নেতাজি কিংবা তাঁর মত যাঁরা সারা জীবন উৎসর্গ করেছেন তাঁদের সম্পর্কে গোপন নথি আবার কী? সব কিছু জানার অধিকার স্বাধীন দেশের মানুষের আছে। এটা আমরা প্রকাশ করলাম। এটা ভবিষ‍্যতের শুরু।
      ফরওয়ার্ড ব্লকের দাবি
      রাজ‍্য সরকার নেতাজি সংক্রান্ত ফাইল প্রকাশ করায় স্বাগত জানিয়েছে ফরওয়ার্ড ব্লক। পাশাপাশি দাবি করেছে কেন্দ্র সরকার এবার নেতাজি সংক্রান্ত ফাইল প্রকাশ করুক। শুক্রবার এক বিবৃতিতে ফরওয়ার্ড ব্লকের সাধারণ সম্পাদক দেবব্রত বিশ্বাস বলেছেন, রাজ‍্য সরকার ফাইলগুলি এমন জায়গায় রাখুক, যাতে সাধারণ মানুষ,গবেষকরা দেখতেপান। তাদের দাবি এই ফাইলগুলি প্রকাশ করে দিয়েছে স্বাধীন ভারতে নেতাজিকে দূরে রাখতে এটা ছিল কংগ্রেসের ষড়যন্ত্র। ফরওয়ার্ড ব্লক দাবি করেছে কেন্দ্র এবার তাদের কাছে থাকা নেতাজি সম্পর্কিত ১৩৫টি ফাইল প্রকাশ করুক।

      • মাসুদ করিম - ১৯ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১:২৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

        Rare footage of the Japanese occupation of the Andamans during World War II

        The Andamans were the only part of India actually controlled by the Indian National Army. But the brutality of the Japanese occupiers earned Subash Chandra Bose the wrath of residents.

        Today, Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh will be the chief patron at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battles of Imphal and Kohima, when Allied troops – mainly Indian – drove back the Japanese army from India’s borders. The battle was among the key events of World War II, helping change the fortunes of the Allies.

        But though the Japanese were beaten back from the northeastern border, few people remember that the East Asian nation actually managed to capture one part of India and to hold on to it until 1945. As a result, seven decades after the conflict ended, WWII bunkers are still a common sight along the beaches of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, the site of a murky episode in Indian history.

        As it turns out, the Andaman Islands were the only part of India that was actually controlled by the Indian National Army, the liberation force headed by Subash Chandra Bose. But its administration over the islands was only nominal. In reality, power was exercised by the Japanese forces – so brutally that they caused the residents of the islands to develop a deep hatred both for the Japanese and Bose’s army.

        The Japanese sailed into Port Blair in March 1942, shortly after the fall of Rangoon earlier that month. They faced little resistance from the small local garrison and enrolled the Indian soldiers into the INA. But things soon turned sour. As Jayant Dasgupta recounts in his book Japanese in Andaman & Nicobar Islands: Red Sun over Black Water, several residents were executed on charges of spying, local women were forced into sexual slavery and hundreds were rounded up to provide forced labour for an airstrip and other projects.

        Bose visited Port Blair to raise the tricolour and technically take charge of the islands in December 1943, renaming the Andamans “Shahid Dweep” (Martyr Island) and the Nicobars “Swaraj Dweep” (Self-Rule Island). Locals are said to have told him about the atrocities that had been meted out on them, only to be ignored, earning him their wrath.

        Anger with the Japanese grew more intense as the months passed and food became scarce. Starvation became widespread and hundreds of people are thought to have been deported to an uninhabited island to grow food. Many perished. It is estimated that 2,000 Indians died as a result of Japan’s occupation of the Andamans.

        The Allies finally recaptured the islands in October 1945.

  32. মাসুদ করিম - ১৬ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৭:২৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Unmasking terrorists in Bangladesh

    Jamaat-e-Islami disguises its violent extremism with political legitimacy

    The dreaded Islamic State has redrawn sovereign borders in the sands of the Middle East and North Africa, and the threat it and other terrorist organizations pose around the world is serious and growing. To confront and defeat these international terrorists, top U.S. lawmakers and executive branch officials have been working overtime to find new allies and strategies.

    One Muslim nation, Bangladesh, can be relied on to stand tall against homegrown and foreign-produced terrorists. As a proud ally of the United States, Bangladesh is widely viewed as a secular, democratic model for all of South Asia and a stalwart in the war against the scourge of terror. A primary perpetrator of terrorism in Bangladesh is the radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.

    Police in Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka recently raided a second-floor apartment and discovered 20 crudely assembled explosive devices, 25 bamboo bludgeons and extremist literature linked to Jamaat-e-Islami. Police described the bombs as “very powerful,” and that, sadly, was typical. Such homemade explosives have long been a hallmark of Jamaat-e-Islami’s terror attacks.

    According to authorities, the devices were specifically designed to inflict severe injury on innocent citizens who work for humble wages in the ready-made garment industry. The timing of the attack, police said, was, ironically, the Islamic holiday Eid-ul-Azha, the Festival of Sacrifice.

    Targeting peaceful civilian populations is nothing new for Jamaat-e-Islami, which has frequently and ruthlessly engendered violence against leaders of opposing political parties, Hindu minorities and security forces ever since Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971. During that bloody conflict, members of Jamaat collaborated with Pakistani soldiers to slaughter an estimated 3 million people, rape 200,000 women and force the exodus of tens of millions.

    The recently foiled terror plot follows a wave of extremist violence that has rankled Bangladesh in recent years. The hacking deaths of four secular bloggers made international headlines and many close observers of Bangladesh were not surprised to learn that most the slain bloggers had written in favor of capital punishment for Jamaat-e-Islami leaders convicted of war crimes by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). In recent years, Jamaat-e-Islami has ramped up its terror activities in response to the ICT’s rulings, setting off hundreds of bombs across the country. Children as well as adults have been killed as a result.

    Thirteen Jamaat leaders have been detained in connection with the recently found explosives, including two former high-ranking members of Parliament. Local media have reported that the former MPs were, in effect, running the party at the time. If true, the incident provides additional evidence that Bangladesh is grappling with a resurgent, radical, terrorist organization that is masquerading as a legitimate political party.

    This upswing in extremist violence is all the more troubling because it coincides with the expansion of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. Last September, in a 55-minute video circulated on the Internet, the nominal head of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called on Bangladeshis to “raise the flag of jihad” across South Asia. The government of Bangladesh is trying to make sure this doesn’t happen.

    Jamaat’s leadership makes no attempt to mask its organization’s aims. It and its partners have enticed young “student” recruits and seek to establish an Islamic theocratic state in Bangladesh. Like al Qaeda, with which it continues to collaborate, Jamaat has proven that it will do so by any means available.

    The United States and other western nations need a stable, terror-free South Asia. Bangladesh stands as a beacon for the region in this regard — peaceful and democratic, governed by secular laws. A strong, thriving Bangladesh should be central to U.S. foreign policy in the region because it enhances national security and economic interests. As a result, the United States should not hesitate to call Jamaat-e-Islami what it is — a foreign terrorist organization.

  33. মাসুদ করিম - ১৭ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:৩৫ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    ‘উগ্রপন্থা দমনে ক্যামেরনের তৎপরতা চান হাসিনা’

    যুক্তরাজ্যে থেকে বাংলাদেশে জঙ্গি তৎপরতায় মদদ দেওয়ার ঘটনা প্রকাশের প্রেক্ষাপটে উগ্রপন্থা দমনে ব্রিটিশ প্রধানমন্ত্রী ডেভিড ক্যামেরনের আরও সক্রিয়তা প্রত্যাশা করেছেন বাংলাদেশের প্রধানমন্ত্রী শেখ হাসিনা।

    যুক্তরাজ্যের প্রভাবশালী দৈনিক গার্ডিয়ানে বাংলাদেশে ধর্মীয় উগ্রপন্থিদের তৎপরতা এবং এর পেছনে ইউরোপ-আমেরিকা ফেরতদের ভূমিকা তুলে ধরে বুধবার একটি প্রতিবেদন প্রকাশ হয়েছে।

    এতে বাংলাদেশের প্রধানমন্ত্রী ছাড়াও রাজনীতিবিদ, মৌলবাদবিরোধী আন্দোলনের কর্মী ও নিরাপত্তা বিশেষজ্ঞের বক্তব্য তুলে ধরা হয়েছে।

    ঢাকার নিরাপত্তা ও গোয়েন্দা বিশেষজ্ঞদের বরাত দিয়ে প্রতিবেদনে বলা হয়, ব্রিটিশ জিহাদিরা বাংলাদেশে মৌলবাদের উত্থানের জন্য হুমকি হয়ে দেখা দিয়েছে। তরুণ ধর্মীয় মৌলবাদীদের তারা আইএসের প্রতি সহানুভূতিশীল করে তুলছে।

    “ব্রিটেনের বাঙালি কম্যুনিটিগুলো থেকে উগ্রবাদে অর্থায়নকারী ও লোক সংগ্রহকারীরা স্থানীয়দের আন্তর্জাতিক জিহাদে অংশ নিতে উৎসাহ জোগাচ্ছে এবং সালাফি গোষ্ঠীগুলোতে বাংলাদেশিদের সংখ্যা বাড়ছে।”

    এ বিষয়ে গার্ডিয়ানকে শেখ হাসিনা বলেন, “মাঠ পর্যায়ে ব্রিটিশ সরকারের আরও উদ্যোগ নেওয়া উচিত। পূর্ব লন্ডনে জামায়াতের বড় ধরনের প্রভাব রয়েছে। এটা সত্য। তারা টাকা সংগ্রহ করছে, তারা টাকা পাঠাচ্ছে।”

    সম্প্রতি ব্লগার হত্যায় ব্রিটিশ নাগরিক তৌহিদুর রহমানকে ঢাকা থেকে গ্রেপ্তার করা হয়। তৌহিদুর নিষিদ্ধ জঙ্গি সংগঠন আনসারুল্লাহ বাংলা টিমের অর্থের জোগানদাতা এবং ব্লগার অভিজিৎ ও অনন্ত হত্যার মূল পরিকল্পনাকারী বলে দাবি করেছে আইনশৃঙ্খলা বাহিনী।

    এছাড়া জেএমবি, ইসলামিক স্টেট ও একিউআইএস (আল কায়েদার ভারতীয় উপমহাদেশ শাখা) সংশ্লিষ্ট আরও বেশ কয়েকজন ব্রিটিশ বাংলাদেশির কথা সাম্প্রতিক মাসগুলোতে সামনে এসেছে।

    সর্বশেষ গত মাসে সিরিয়ায় যুক্তরাষ্ট্র ও যুক্তরাজ্যের ড্রোন হামলায় নিহত আইএস সদস্য রুহুল আমিন ও রেয়াদ খান ব্রিটিশ বাংলাদেশি বলে গণমাধ্যমের খবর।

    গার্ডিয়ানের প্রতিবেদনে বলা হয়, নিম্ন মধ্য আয়ের ১৬ কোটি মানুষের বাংলাদেশ ক্রমশ উগ্রপন্থিদের জন্য ‘ঊর্বর’ ভূমিতে পরিণত হতে চলেছে বলে নিরাপত্তা বিশ্লেষক, গোয়েন্দা বিশেষজ্ঞ ও সাবেক কর্মকর্তারা আশঙ্কা প্রকাশ করেছেন।
    নাম প্রকাশে অনিচ্ছুক সাবেক এক সেনা গোয়েন্দা বিশেষজ্ঞকে উদ্ধৃত করে এতে বলা হয়, “বাংলাদেশের উপর আইএসের নজর রয়েছে। সিরিয়া ও ইরাকে আইএসের পক্ষে লড়াই করতে যাওয়া বাংলাদেশির সংখ্যা ৩০ জনের মতো।

    “ভারত থেকে আইএসআইএসে যাওয়ার ট্রানজিট রুটও হয়ে উঠছে বাংলাদেশ। জঙ্গিবাদে লোক সংগ্রহ করতে ব্রিটেন থেকে আসা বাংলাদেশি বংশোদ্ভূতদের সংখ্যাও বাড়ছে।”

    নিরাপত্তা নিয়ে কর্মরত একটি এনজিওর পরিচালক বলেছেন, “বাংলাদেশজুড়ে মৌলবাদীদের অনেকগুলো শক্তিশালী পকেট রয়েছে। অনেক তরুণ আছে যাদের কোনো চাকরি নেই বা কোনো সম্ভাবনা নেই। তাদের একমাত্র অভিজ্ঞতা মাদ্রাসা ও মসজিদ। গ্রামাঞ্চলে তাদের সোশ্যাল মিডিয়ায় প্রবেশের সুযোগও নেই। এরা ব্যবহৃত হতে চায়। তাই খুব সহজেই তাদের নিজেদের কাজে লাগানো যায়।

    যুক্তরাজ্য থেকে যখন বাঙালিরা আসে তখন তাদের পক্ষে এদের নিয়ন্ত্রণ করা খুব সহজ হয়ে পড়ে বলে তিনি মনে করছেন।

    “জিহাদে লোক সংগ্রহকারীরা লন্ডন থেকে আসছে, জার্মানি থেকে আসছে, যুক্তরাষ্ট্র থেকে আসছে। তারা শিক্ষিত, তারা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়েও গিয়েছেন, তাই তারা বেশি পরিশীলিত।”

    এছাড়া জামায়াতে ইসলামীর নির্বাচন কমিশনের নিবন্ধন বাতিলও মৌলবাদের জন্য ক্ষেত্র তৈরি করেছে বলে মনে করেন তিনি।

    গার্ডিয়ানের প্রতিবেদনে বলা হয়, সন্ত্রাসবাদের বিরুদ্ধে বাংলাদেশ সরকারের কঠোর অবস্থানের সমর্থন জানিয়ে আসছে যুক্তরাষ্ট্র ও যুক্তরাজ্য। এর বাইরে তরুণ প্রজন্মের একটি বড় অংশের মৌলবাদের দিকে ঝুঁকে পড়ার বিষয়টি নজরের বাইরে রাখছে তারা।

    বিভিন্ন মানবাধিকার সংগঠনের পক্ষ থেকে সমালোচনা এলেও সন্ত্রাসবাদের বিরুদ্ধে ‘জিরো টলারেন্স’ নীতিতে অনড় শেখ হাসিনা।

    বাংলাদেশে আইনশৃঙ্খলা পরিস্থিতি নিয়ন্ত্রণে রয়েছে বলেও বলছেন তিনি।

    “একটি ধর্মনিরপেক্ষ সমাজ রক্ষায় আমরা লড়াই করছি। আমরা যদি ব্যর্থ হই তাহলে আমরা বিশ্ব সন্ত্রাসবাদের কেন্দ্রে পরিণত হব।

    “মৌলবাদী গ্রুপগুলো চেষ্টা করছে। এতে কোনো সন্দেহ নেই। এবং কিছু লোক তাদের উৎসাহ দেওয়ার চেষ্টা করছে। তবে আমরা পরিস্থিতি নিয়ন্ত্রণ করেছি।”

    তবে পশ্চিম থেকে বাংলাদেশে মৌলবাদী চিন্তাধারার বিস্তৃতি ঠেকাতে আন্তর্জাতিক সহযোগিতা প্রয়োজন বলে মনে করেন শেখ হাসিনা।

    “নিশ্চিতভাবেই আমরা অন্যান্য সব দেশ থেকে সহযোগিতা চাই। তাদের খুব সতর্ক হওয়া উচিত যাতে অবৈধ অর্থ বা অস্ত্র বা সন্ত্রাসীরা অন্য কোনো দেশে সমস্যা সৃষ্টির সুযোগ নিতে না পারে।”
    পূর্ব লন্ডনের বাঙালি কম্যুনিটির সঙ্গে জামায়াতে ইসলামীর সম্পর্ক সুপ্রতিষ্ঠিত মন্তব্য করে এর পক্ষে যুদ্ধাপরাধে মৃত্যুদণ্ডপ্রাপ্ত দেলাওয়ার হোসাইন সাঈদীর মতো জামায়াত নেতাদের সেখানে বক্তব্য দেওয়ার কথা বলা হয়েছে।

    ইহুদি-মুসলিম ‘ইন্টারফেইথ’ সংগঠন স্ট্যান্ড ফর পিসের বক্তব্য অনুযায়ী, “পূর্ব লন্ডন মসজিদ ও ইসলামিক ফোরাম অফ ইউরোপ-দুটোই ব্রিটেনে জামায়াতের সংগঠকরা চালায়। উভয় প্রতিষ্ঠানই ব্যাপকভাবে জামায়াতে ইসলামীর প্রতিষ্ঠাতা ও তাত্ত্বিক গুরু সৈয়দ আবুল আলা মওদুদীর লেখার প্রচার চালায়।”

    ব্লগার হত্যায় তৌহিদুরকে গ্রেপ্তারের আগে গত বছর সামিউন রহমান নামে এক ব্রিটিশ বাংলাদেশিকে গ্রেপ্তার করে পুলিশ। আইএসের এজেন্ট হিসেবে তিনি ঢাকা ও সিলেটে ওই জঙ্গি গোষ্ঠীর পক্ষে লোক জোগাড়ের চেষ্টা করছিলেন বলে পুলিশ বলছে।

    এছাড়া যুক্তরাষ্ট্র ও যুক্তরাজ্যসহ বিভিন্ন দেশে কার্যক্রম পরিচালনাকারী হিযবুত তাহরিরও বাংলাদেশে উগ্রপন্থার উত্থানে কাজ করছে বলে গোয়েন্দা বিশেষজ্ঞের বরাত দিয়ে গার্ডিয়ানের প্রতিবেদনে বলা হয়েছে।

    “হিযবুত একটি খেলাফত চায়। তারা আইএসআইএসের একটি প্রদেশ বা স্টেট হতে চায়। হিযবুত কর্মীরা মধ্যবিত্ত বা উচ্চ মধ্যবিত্ত শ্রেণির, তারা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে লেখাপড়া করা, ব্রিটেন ও যুক্তরাষ্ট্রে তাদের সংখ্যা বাড়ছে। তাদের একটি বড় সংখ্যায় নারী কর্মী আছে-তারা সবাই স্কার্ফ পরে।”

  34. মাসুদ করিম - ১৭ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:৪৬ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Nepal’s Parliament Passes New Constitution

    Nepal’s Constituent Assembly today overwhelmingly approved a new constitution after seven years of painstaking efforts and deliberations, splitting the country into seven federal provinces.

    Constituent Assembly Chairman Subash Nemwang announced the charter was passed by a 507-25 vote in the 601-seat assembly after the voting. Lawmakers raised their hands in celebration after the announcement was made.

    Now, the bill will become Nepal’s new charter once the lawmakers sign and the CA Chairperson authenticates it.

    The constitution was pushed through the assembly despite protests by ethnic minority groups. It will split Nepal into seven federal provinces. Some ethnic groups have opposed the makeup, borders and size of the provinces.

    When put to split voting after the endorsement of individual articles and schedules, the entire Revised Bill garnered support from 507 out of 532 lawmakers who were present in the parliament.

    The lawmakers from Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN- Maoist supported the draft constitution.

    The voting was boycotted by smaller opposition parties.

    As many as 25 lawmakers belonging to pro-Hindu and pro-monarchist Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal cast their vote against the bill. Most of the Madhes-based parties, whose combined strength is 60, boycotted the voting process.

    After announcing the result of the voting, Nembang asked the lawmakers to sign on the dossiers on Friday.

    The government is planning to declare public holiday on September 20 and 21 to celebrate the occasion. Major ruling parties have directed their cadres and supporters to lit colourful lights on September 20 to celebrate the occasion.

    In the CA meeting scheduled for September 20, President Ram Baran Yadav will announce the promulgation of new constitution through the sovereign body elected by the people.

    Nepal was declared a secular state in 2006 after the end of decade-long civil war between Maoist insurgents and the state that claimed nearly 16,000 lives.

    A CA was elected in 2008 after the abolishment of the Himalayan country’s 240-year-old Hindu monarchy, but it could not finish its task despite four extensions.

    Subsequently, a second CA was elected in 2013 which deliberated the draft constitution for over two years.

    The drafting process was accelerated after the deadly-quake of April 12 that claimed more than 9,000 lives in the country of of 28 million people.

    • মাসুদ করিম - ২০ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৮:১৬ অপরাহ্ণ)

      [Special editorial] A delicate balance

      We are relieved to have new constitution but would like to see a larger ownership

      With the constitution at hand, the narrative now needs to focus on how to improve this document to ensure maximum political ownership. While the constitution has its flaws, as we have pointed out in our numerous editorials, it is nevertheless a document that has been endorsed by the country’s sovereign Constituent Assembly.
      There are some positives. It institutionalises many progressive gains and caps a long struggle to have a constitution written by an elected body, rather than through a committee of experts. Republicanism, federalism and secularism are now irreversibly established as fundamental principles in a new Nepal. This is no mean feat.
      We recognise that thousands have fought hard, and many have died, in an effort to get their voices reflected in the constitution. It is true that many of their demands still remain to be addressed, as we have noted here week after week and often several times a week these last few years.
      Yet we call on the dissenting parties and groups to accept ownership of the constitution while maintaining their reservations and choosing to fight their battle another day. We urge them to see this as an incremental battle that needs to be continued peacefully—which will enable them to keep their moral high ground.
      Our message to the major parties that stood firmly in favour of the current CA timeline remains consistent, and is now even more urgent: the onus now lies on the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) to redouble their efforts to reach out to the disgruntled parties and groups. Show humility; major parties need not display triumphalism; they need to instead communicate to the dissenters that no one has won and none has lost; that they remain open for negotiations; let’s accept the fact that the new constitution hasn’t been able to carry all sections of the society. The marginalised groups, the Dalits, Madhesis, Tharus and tens of thousands of women feel cheated by their male party leaders.
      But it’s the Tarai that worries us most. Even Tharu/Madhesi moderates were shocked to see that the three parties had chosen to ignore their calls to hold off the CA process for a while as a symbol of respect for the protests and dissent. The government’s decision yesterday to provide Rs1 million to each of the 40 families who lost their kin in the recent unrest in Tarai is a positive move, but the major parties could have done still more to reach out to the estranged constituencies.
      A large section in the Tarai is deeply suspicious of Kathmandu. They lament the fact that Kathmandu remains insular to voices from the Tarai, where 40 people died in the recent protests, a toll higher than that of the second Jana Andolan, which toppled the royal regime.
      No one disputes the fact that the constitution was long overdue. Many people now feel a huge sense of relief that a page has been turned on what has been a very difficult chapter in the country’s modern history. But that is only half the story. History will also hold to account the parties and their leaders on whether they were able to deliver a durable constitution. Were they able to assure the country’s population that the new constitution embodies their aspirations? That, more than anything else, will be the biggest test of the new constitution and the people who made it possible.
      Many still see the new constitution as a continuation of the hill-centric regime—not of an inclusive, tolerant and vibrant modern democracy and a dream for a new Nepal that drew tens of thousands of young and no-so-young Nepalis, men and women, Pahades and Madhesis to the streets in the 2006 mass movement. That’s where they feel let down by the new constitution.
      If these feelings continue, it will only serve to widen the gap between the political classes in Kathmandu and the minority groups on the ground. As the sentiments change, so will the narrative, thus hardening attitudes irreversibly. This will be a dangerous slippery slope. Kathmandu’s political leadership should seek to reverse the trend by reaching out with genuine intent for a compromise, not with perfunctory tokenism.
      Those who argue that numerical strength in the CA alone makes the process legitimate need to be more careful. World history offers numerous instances when the complacency of majoritarianism and hubris brought on by political power have resulted in irreparable losses for nations.
      We hope that won’t happen here, as we sit at the cusp of a new dawn. We would like to see saner voices and moderates prevail in the parties and outside in these deeply polarised times. In the end, only a politically stable Nepal will be able to deliver on what every nation strives for: socioeconomic transformation and justice.

      • মাসুদ করিম - ২১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১১:০৪ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

        Nepal’s new constitution comes into force on Sunday, but minorities say it privileges Hindus

        The new statute claims to enshrine secularism but states that it will protect Sanatan religion culture.

        The upper-caste leaders crafting Nepal’s constitution – to come into force 5 pm on Sunday – have included provisions on secularism that leave room for future conflicts over religion, lawyers warn. The new constitution says Nepal will be a secular state, but goes on to define secularism as the “protection of Sanatan religion culture, as well as cultural and religious freedom”.

        “Sanatan religion, in Nepal’s context, is interpreted as Hinduism, which has influenced Nepali law and governance,” said Sapana Pradhan Malla, a lawyer who has been active in exposing the constitutional provisions that discriminate against women – including a separate unequal provision for men and women on passing citizenship to their children.

        Secularism has long been demanded by Nepal’s religious minorities – including Buddhists, Christian, Muslims, and nature worshippers, as well as indigenous groups some of whose cultural traditions have been criminalised by laws based on Hinduism.

        An example is the Muluki Ain, the criminal code, which criminalises killing cows.

        “The Muluki Ain has a maximum sentence of 12 years for killing a cow, even though cow meat is required for cultural practices of some groups like the Kirats,” said Shankar Limbu, a lawyer. According to research carried out by Limbu’s organisation, the Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Groups, there are more than 150 people currently in prison for killing cows or consuming cow meat.

        Just like homicide

        “Our laws say we treat cow killing with the same seriousness as homicide,” said Police Inspector Rupak Khadka, speaking from the District Police Office in Sindhupalchowk, a district that has a large number Tamangs, as well as Dalits, who consume cows. The animal also holds an exalted position as the “national animal” in the new constitution.

        Nepal has been a Hindu country since Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered dozens of principalities in the rugged mountains to form the modern Nepali state in the 18th century. He expelled Christian missionaries from the country and declared Nepal “a real Hindustan”. The first legal code, the Muluki Ain, was based on Hindu rules of crimes and punishment, and institutionalised discrimination based on caste and ethnicity. Punishment for a crime depended on the offender’s position in the caste hierarchy.

        After the Maoist war and indigenous movements in the last decades, Nepal was declared secular in the Interim Constitution of 2007. The first draft of the constitution released last month for public consultation, too, was clear about Nepal’s secular status. However, after protests from Hindu nationalist groups and parties that want to restore Hinduism as the national religion, the upper caste leaders drafting the constitution decided to include the definition of secular that, in effect, contradicts the meaning of secular to mean the protection of Hinduism. The Maoists, who form the third largest party in the Constituent Assembly that will be disbanded with the promulgation of the constitution on September 20, did not oppose the move.

        A long history of struggle

        For indigenous and religious minority groups, who see secularism as a key foundation for inclusive democracy, the distortion is a nullification of decades of political mobilisation to ensure the Nepali state treats all religions, castes, and ethnicities equally.

        “The idea of secularism is meant to separate state from religions, and is meant to protect religious minorities, instead it has been defined to protect the dominant religion,” said Malla. “The state should either be separate from all religions, or treat all religions equally.”

        The provisions on secularism are a recipe for future conflict. According to a youth leader and assistant pastor at Ananta Jeevan Protestant Church in Kathmandu, it means that the state is biased toward one religion over the others, which could disrupt religious harmony. Malla shares the view, given that the state has given itself the role of protecting the historically dominant religion ‒ Hinduism ‒ based on which upper caste people have been practicing various forms of discrimination against women, Dalit and indigenous groups.

        Anti-woman possibilities

        Malla added that discrimination and exploitation could be justified with the pro-Hindu definition of secularism. For example, according to Hindu tradition married daughters are no longer part of the parent’s family: a sentiment that has seeped into the Inheritance Law, where married women are denied parental property.

        Some of the consequences of ambiguity surrounding secularism could be redressed by another article in the constitution, on the Right Against Exploitation, which states exploitation based on caste, religion, ethnicity and tradition is punishable. But which articles and clause will be paramount, and how the contradictory language on secularism is resolved will depend on the Supreme Court, the body ultimately responsible for interpreting the constitution.

        However, for those most disadvantaged by the Hindu character of the state, the proviso is a disappointment. According to Anita Pariyar, a Constituent Assembly member and Dalit leader, the way secularism has been defined has satisfied neither the group that wants Hindu hegemony, nor the secularists.

        “For Dalits, this is especially ominous,” Pariyay said. “Dalits have been discriminated against for centuries. Dalits are forbidden to enter temples according to Hindu tradition. So in protecting Hindu religion and tradition, discrimination based on Hinduism will continue.”

    • মাসুদ করিম - ২২ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:৪৯ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

      [Constitution special] Don’t talk, just listen

      Whatever happens in the coming days, amendments or protests, Kathmandu needs to learn to listen
      Pranaya SJB Rana, Kathmandu

      I am a Chhetri man, born and raised in Kathmandu. Today, the new constitution of the Federal Republic of Nepal will be officially promulgated and it is my constitution—it has been drafted by people who share my gender, my complexion, my language, my customs, my religion and my traditions. It is a document that preserves my standing in society. It takes pains to ensure that my kind, we Bahun-Chhetri men, will not lose much, if anything. And it sends a message to those pesky Madhesis, Tharus, Janajatis and women—all those who oppose this ‘historic’ ‘epoch-making’ document—that we will prevail, whether by ballot or by bullet.
      On that vaunted public sphere that is Facebook, there is triumph, a sense of victory for having persevered against those who would try to derail us. There is a very real geist present, that of a battle won. We the winners and they—the protesters who are against the constitution—the losers. After all, we tried to reason with them, but they just wouldn’t listen. We invited them for talks but they never sat down with us. Of course, we had armed policemen, ready with their tear gas, their rubber bullets and their live ammunition, but that, of course, was just for our protection.

      Winners and losers

      By all accounts, I should be ecstatic.
      But there is little euphoria. Unlike most of my acquaintances on social media, instead of joy and celebration, there is only a deep unease and a sense of foreboding. There have been more than 40 deaths in the Madhes, of both protesters and security forces. Half of the country has been shut down for weeks. There are still curfews in place. And yet, the constitution was issued in Kathmandu amid a flurry of handshakes between ageing men in daura-suruwals and Dhaka topis. Once again, it is as if Kathmandu is all of Nepal and the Madhes might as well be Syria or Kosovo.
      On social media, among those who would call themselves ‘liberal’, the tone is both triumphalist and defensive. It celebrates the ‘historic’ constitution with the caveat that the document is not set in stone and that it can be amended. Certainly, it could’ve been amended even before it was passed. But that wasn’t allowed. The party whips saw to that.
      This triumph has been a long time coming. Ever since the protests started in the Madhes and the Far West, Kathmandu has treated them with deep suspicion. Despite media images of thousands of people on the streets of Tarai in protest, there are those who refuse to believe that this is a legitimate protest from legitimate citizens. The Madhesis are being misled by opportunistic leaders, or they are being instigated by Indians from across the border, or the favourite refrain, they are ‘uneducated’. There is little attempt to listen and try to understand why so many would want to march on the streets when there is a very real chance that they might be shot.
      Instead, everything is taken personally—“I am not anti-Madhes”, “I didn’t oppress you”, “I didn’t call you dhoti”. The distinction that the Madhesis are opposed to the state, not individuals, is lost. And that is because our, we Kathmandu elites’, identification with the state is complete and total. The state has always been there for us. It is at our beck and call. We can march into any government office and know that the man (and it is always a man) behind the desk will speak our language and understand what we want. We can rest easy knowing that the police will never call us dhoti or Madhise or Bhote. We are the state and when it is opposed, so are we.

      Know your privilege

      Because Kathmandu is so divorced from the rest of the country, we have the privilege of sitting back and allowing things to take their course. We can celebrate the constitution because we have something to celebrate. We find it difficult to identify with those in the Madhes because we have never lived the lives they have. Our privileges have insulated us from everything that they go through. Empathy is one thing, experience is another. And it is just so hard to admit that one is privileged. It means coming to terms with the unpleasant fact that perhaps it is not our innate talents that have gotten us to where we are. It is difficult to believe that we had a head start when we’ve already won the race. So we choose denial. No, they must be wrong. Their grievances are illegitimate. Structural inequalities don’t exist anymore because now, there are no seats in the Lok Sewa reserved for us.
      And we actively seek out faults in others. They’re lazy, they’re uneducated, they’re violent, they hate us when we’ve never hurt them. And when that doesn’t work, we choose to patronise them, treat them like children with no minds of their own. Poor Madhesis, they’re just misled. We, with our degrees from foreign universities, talk down to them in English from our op-ed pages. We delude ourselves into thinking that they don’t understand what federalism entails. And when they write to us, outraged and angry, we dismiss them as the ramblings of the ignorant. We accuse them of wanting to break up Nepal—the Nepal they’ve never really gotten to know because this Nepal sees them as Indians.
      This is a malaise that infects everyone from the top rung leaders of this country to the ‘educated’ upper and upper-middle class. Those who’ve gone to school in America post Facebook links about how #Blacklivesmatter, but back home in Nepal, the quiet comfort of Kathmandu cannot be shaken by protests because Madhesi lives don’t matter. It is a symptom of a small privileged population that continues to see itself as the custodian of democratic values and the harbinger of anything progressive. Kathmandu’s elite young people have benefitted so much from a rigged system that they will do anything in their power to maintain that stranglehold.

      Just listen

      The approach then is of excessive benevolence and magnanimity. Kathmandu is the benefactor and the Madhesis, Tharus supplicants. And if they finally come to talk, first, we make them beg and then we talk over them and down to them. At first, there is the patronising ‘Tharus are not violent people, they must’ve been instigated to do this’ and then ‘You were misled by your leaders’. When that doesn’t work, the bigotry comes to the fore, ‘You are violent people’, ‘You want to break up Nepal’. And then the admonishments that dangle ‘being Nepali’ as if it is a gift to be given away. The age of hectoring from a bully pulpit is past. Whatever happens in the coming days, amendments or more protests, Kathmandu needs to learn to listen.

    • মাসুদ করিম - ২৫ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৭:০০ অপরাহ্ণ)

      The day after

      We again urge major parties to reach out to opposing parties and groups

      The new constitution has finally been promulgated. The president’s historic announcement in the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Sunday established Nepal as a federal democratic republic. This brings to an end a difficult and protracted political transition that started with the 12-point agreement way back in November 2005. This period saw the underground Maoist party join the political mainstream, the fall of the feudal monarchy, CA elections and, now, finally the constitution written by an elected body—a first for Nepal.
      Indeed, the new constitution has its flaws, as we have pointed out repeatedly in our editorials. We are worried that the polarisation seems to have deepened with all Madhes-based parties keeping out of the CA process, including Bijaya Gachhadar’s Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Loktantrik that had earlier supported the 16-point agreement that helped expedite the stalled constitution project. We have also noted the international community’s response on the new constitution and New Delhi’s lukewarm response to it. Yes, we are deeply disappointed with the three major parties’ failure to take on board the broader sections of the Nepali population ourselves. But Delhi would do well not to be seen as crossing the red line to meet its objective. It could box itself in a difficult position and see it lose its diplomatic leverage against certain parties and sections of the polarized society.
      Nepali actors have their task cut out. The major parties need to urgently reach out to the disgruntled parties and groups and do all they can to regain their confidence. The Madhesi and Tharu groups have made their discontent clear through protests that continue to take place across the Tarai.
      The disenchantment against the political class runs beyond the minority communities. There are vast numbers of people in the earthquake-affected regions who remain more concerned about their livelihood and safety than the constitution.
      On the day the constitution was promulgated, this group of people probably paid more attention to another bit of news: two of the major parties—CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist)—had scuppered the reconstruction bill in Parliament, thus causing yet another indefinite delay to the reconstruction effort. While some people applauded the ability of the politicians to come to a compromise on the constitution, others are more concerned with the utter irresponsibility these same politicians have continued to demonstrate with regard to people who have been affected by the earthquake.
      It is clear that the two major parties deliberately stalled the formation of the Reconstruction Authority. These parties expect that they will soon come to power, and believe that they can take advantage of the reconstruction process to benefit themselves once that happens. They are much keener to see the election of KP Oli as prime minister and the formation of a new government before dealing with the reconstruction money. Within the Maoist party, there is a long queue of senior leaders who want to become ministers in the new government. It is likely that a situation will be created where Govinda Pokharel will no longer be able to continue as CEO of the Reconstruction Authority.
      Not for the first time, a major reconstruction process has become a victim of the severe politicisation. In fact, the effect has been even worse than was initially expected. Many people thought that the parties would compete to gain access to the reconstruction money once it arrived and then siphon off large sums for their own benefit. But the competition has been so intense that the parties have not even been able to agree on arrangements enabling them to receive the $4 billion pledged by donors. This has led to paralysis, and not a single dollar of the pledged money has been received almost three months after the quake. And rubbing salt into the victims’ wounds, the government seems intent on preventing nongovernmental organisations from providing reconstruction support as well. It hardly needs to be said that the actions of the parties are a dire dereliction of duty. If the reconstruction bill cannot be passed soon, immediate steps need to be taken to ensure alternative arrangements to start the reconstruction process.

      • মাসুদ করিম - ২৮ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৯:৪৩ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

        We made mistakes on constitution, admits Nepal Maoist ideologue

        Key Nepali Maoist leader and former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai on Wednesday admitted to many mistakes – from the side of Nepali political leaders, including his party, and India – in the constitution drafting process in Nepal, which has triggered a political crisis and upset Nepal-India ties.

        In an exclusive interview to Hindustan Times, Bhattarai declared he too will join the movement of Madhesis, Tharus and other hill ethnic groups for justice and an amendment is necessary to address their concerns.

        The Maoist leader slammed a section of his own party leadership – hinting at chairman Prachanda without naming him – for not standing strongly by the agenda of rights for the oppressed they had raised in the ‘People’s War’.

        India’s management weakness

        Bhattarai, who was also the chair of the key Constituent Assembly committee on political dialogue which resolved disputes, said, “Both internal and external players should have anticipated the problems in time, and communicated and coordinated better.”

        Bhattarai’s assessment of India’s role was mixed. Appreciating Delhi for its support to the peace process, he said there was a ‘management problem’ and that India did not ‘convey and manage its concerns in time’. He also spoke of ‘mixed signals, probably because of multiple channels’. India has made its displeasure at the constitution known.

        The Maoist leader seemed to share India’s views on need for a broad-based constitution, of taking into account Madhesi and Tharu concerns, and the need for an amendment but cautioned that the perception there could be a blockade would be ‘counter productive.’ Delhi has indicated that the security situation at the border could disrupt supplies.

        Legitimate demands

        Bhattarai said the demands of the socially marginalised and excluded groups like Tarai’s Madhesis and Tharus are legitimate. The groups have asked for political representation and constituency delimitation according to population, commitment to proportionate inclusion in state organs and revision in federal boundaries to have largely plains-only provinces.

        He emphasised that this should not be viewed as a hill-plains divide. “Nepal has three main social groups – hill Arya Khas or upper castes; hill Janjatis and Madhesis – in almost equal numbers. “Hill Arya khas elite is showing arrogance and chauvinism and is trying to bypass other two social groups,” he said.

        Critical of Maoist leadership

        Listing out the mistakes from the domestic side, the Maoist ideologue said, “As chairman of the CA political dialogue committee and the coordinator of a special committee which included four party chairmen, I said we should meet the Madhesi and Tharu demands unilaterally without waiting for talks. This was before the vote began in the CA on the draft. The other leaders did not accept it and it precipitated the situation.” The other leaders included his chairman, Prachanda.

        Admitting that the Maoist leadership made a mistake he said: “We registered a note of dissent on many of these issues but we should have insisted on it more strongly. Our party did not play the role it should have. A section of the leadership went back on the agenda.”

        The Maoist decision to break ranks with excluded groups and join conservative ruling parties was the game-changer, which led to the rapid constitution promulgation.

        Bhattarai himself participated in the process on grounds that this institutionalised a federal democratic republic and his belief in a constitution through a CA but expressed his reservations and did not celebrate the promulgation.

        On the future of the Maoists, he said that now that one phase of the struggle was over, a section of the leadership wanted to ‘get coopted into the system, practice ultranationalist politics’. This appeared like a direct attack on Prachanda, who has raised the rhetoric against India recently.

        Federal map and future

        Bhattarai said the core dispute on federalism was around three districts in the Far East Tarai and two districts in the far west Tarai. And even on that, Madhesis may have accepted only parts of two districts in the east and Tharus would have accepted if parts of one district in the west were added to a Tharu-dominated province.

        “But vested interests of a few leaders prevailed”, hinting at UML chairman KP Oli and NC’s Krishna Prasad Sitaula in the east and Former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba in the west.

        For the future, Bhattarai said there was no alternative to a sustained movement, to force an amendment of the constitution to correct these issues. “Madhesi and Tharu comrades of the party are in the movement in the Tarai already. The Magars have also been unfairly treated as their cluster has been divided. I plan to visit these regions to express solidarity.”

        The end of the Nepali Maoists in sight as Baburam Bhattarai resigns

        Manushi Yami Bhattarai was in a jeep up in Gharwal on Saturday afternoon when she got a call from her father, the Maoist ideologue and Nepal’s former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. He told her did not want her to get a shock after hearing from other sources – and broke the news. He would, in a few hours, quit the Maoist party and resign from parliament.

        Manushi was stunned. The Maoist party was not just a regular party for the Bhattarai family – it was their life. The family was underground through the years of the Maoist insurgency, moving around small towns and big cities in India and sporadically spending time in base areas in Nepal, living separately to avoid to being spotted. Her mother, Hisila Yami, was a prominent leader and a former minister. Manushi herself took on other identities when she went to small schools in the Indian hills, and college in Delhi and had been active in student politics. This was a big moment.

        Bhattarai called a press conference on Saturday afternoon and announced he was quitting the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), a force he had helped build, as well as resigning from Parliament. He said an era had ended with the Constitution, but he was deeply regretful that Madhesi and Tharu concerns had not been addressed. A Constitution through the CA had been a political line he had pushed but the fact that half the country was not celebrating the promulgation had dampened the occasion.

        An academic revolutionary

        Bhattarai is one of the most striking figures of Nepali politics; his story is the story of the last twenty years of Nepali history.

        Bhattarai got increasingly radicalised during his time in India, while studying in Chandigarh and later in Delhi’s JNU, when he saw the state of Nepali workers in India. He organised the students and working class, got involved with Nepali extreme left platforms back home against an autocratic monarchy, even as he finished a PhD on Nepal’s underdevelopment in the 80s.

        While Bhattarai participated in the 1990 movement for the restoration of democracy, he and his then party objected to the Constitution that emerged as a compromise between the king and democratic parties. Instead, they demanded that the Constitution must be drafted by a Constituent Assembly and monarchy be given no space.

        Subsequently, Bhattarai joined another radical left party led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’. The two men together decided to launch a People’s War in 1996. Its political and economic rationale was laid out by Bhattarai in a seminal text where he documented how Nepal was ‘semi colonial’- under the political and economic grip of India – and ‘semi feudal’, and only a revolution could liberate the oppressed.

        Such a political project was dismissed as a fantasy in a post Cold War World but it came rather close to fruition.

        Prachanda was undoubtedly the mass charismatic figure, the organisation builder, the supreme leader and the man who commanded the loyalty of the Maoist fighters on the ground. But Bhattarai was the political mind who drew up the party documents, conceived of the need to expand the party base by including the issues of oppressed ‘nationalities’ or ethnic minorities and Madhesi, and build relationships with those outside the party fold in the media, civil society and international community. The two men had more than their share of tensions, but recognised they complemented each other.

        The party grew, but Bhattarai was the first to recognise that a traditional style communist republic was not feasible, and war alone would not lead to the republican political transformation he sought in Nepal. Even as large sections of his party, including Prachanda, flirted with the idea of allying with an autocratic monarch, Bhattarai pushed the line of a ‘democratic republic’ – the party would give up the war, adopt Constitution through a CA as its primary line and republic as its core goal. In this quest, he deepened relations with other parliamentary parties and India.

        When the king took over absolute power, and Maoist suffered a military setback, Prachanda came around to this view. And the roots of a peace process were planted.

        This much can be said with reasonable certainty. If Nepal was able to arrive at a peace settlement and manage a respectable political deal to end the conflict, Bhattarai deserved a large path of the credit for conceiving it.

        Turbulent peace

        A new phase began as the party emerged overground. Bhattarai was now key to building relations with the international community. He helped draft the peace accord and the interim Constitution of 2007. In 2008, Maoists won a surprise victory and Bhattarai became the finance minister and won accolades for his performance.

        But there was another ideological battle to wage. One section of the Maoists may have entered the peace process, but still entertained hopes of a ‘people’s revolt’ and mass uprising to establish hegemonic rule. They saw India as the main enemy and adopted an ultranationalist rhetoric. They wanted to get rid of the CA and engineer a regime crisis or a regime takeover. Prachanda often flirted with this school of thought – and his attempt to sack the army chief in 2009, which led to the collapse of the Maoist government, was an attempt to cater to this constituency.

        But Bhattarai could see the pitfalls of this approach. He disagreed with the ultranationalist line – for he saw the future of Nepal in good ties with India. He was committed to peace along the lines of a Constitution – for he saw this as the way to create an inclusive political order and then work on economic prosperity with equity. For a substantial part of the last decade, Bhattarai fought the adventurists in his own party – and tried to get Prachanda on board.

        Eventually, he succeeded and even became the Prime Minister with the support of the Madhesi parties. The peace process – integration and rehabilitation of former combatants – was concluded under him. But the CA failed to draft a Constitution and he resigned to pave the way for a neutral election government.

        The resentment and future

        The Maoists did badly in the second CA elections. But Bhattarai managed to become the chair of the critical CA committee on political dialogue, with all top leaders as members. This was a unique vantage point to manage the Constitutional process.

        The Constitutional debates in Nepal deepened over the past year on both process – issues like form of government and federalism – and substance – whether to go consensually or two thirds majority. The Maoists and Madhesis were in an alliance and pushed the consensus route. But a deadlock persisted.

        The earthquake changed everything. Prachanda used the tragedy to alter his politics, broke the alliance with the Madhesi parties and signed on to a political deal where the question of federal demarcation was postponed. Bhattarai too was an active part of this deal. He later claimed in a conversation with HT that he had held out till the end, and wanted to bring the Madhesi parties on board – but was overruled. The fear that the Constitution itself would get jeopardised prevented him from pushing harder.

        In fact, this has been Bhattarai’s argument for the past month. As the Constitutional process moved forward, he – as the head of the key CA political committee – actively participated in it. Yet, he expressed reservations at the nature of the Constitution which entrenched elite rule and discriminated against Tharus. Madhesis, women, Dalits and other groups.

        I asked him repeatedly in this period why he was not asserting himself vocally. Bhattarai felt that as someone who had pushed the CA line, he could not be seen as preventing its success or walk out at the climax. The fear that he would be held responsible if something went wrong may have also weighed on him, since he was at the helm when the CA-1 had failed. He also thought it was important to institutionalise the republic and secularism. Marginalised groups did not buy the argument.

        Bhattarai did not celebrate when the Constitution was promulgated even though Prachanda said it was Deepawali. He told HT on Wednesday many mistakes had been committed – including by his party for not standing up for the agenda of the marginalised as strongly as it should have. Bhattarai wanted to visit Janakpur in Madhes to express solidarity but Madhesi parties told him he would be greeted with deep hostility, for he was seen as a part of the bloc of leaders which had signed the Constitution and even pushed its adoption, the regrets notwithstanding. If he wanted to come, he should quit the party. Bhattarai’s support base also comes from the Madhesi MPs in his party who were angry at Prachanda’s stance.

        The immediate crisis has of course come in the backdrop of Bhattarai’s long running tensions with Prachanda – who last week told an interview only he knew how he had ‘tolerated’ Bhattarai for 30 years. Prachanda appeared to view Bhattarai as someone with a superiority complex because of his education but little political weight; the latter viewed Prachanda as a petty pragmatist an opportunist with no ideological spine. But both also needed each other. And it was a remarkable competitive-collaborative partnership as long as it lasted.

        It also comes in the backdrop of Bhattarai floating a debate about the need for a ‘new force’ – for he strongly feels that the relevance of the Maoists as it exists is now over, especially with the end of the CA. Inclusive democracy and economic prosperity are his new slogans. During a recent visit to Delhi, Bhattarai made it a point to meet Arvind Kejriwal to think of ways of doing alternative politics.

        Bhattarai’s decision also comes in the backdrop of a fresh debate on nationalism in Nepal, on the question of relations with India. Bhattarai believes in resisting Indian overreach, and at the press conference, criticised any unannounced blockade by Delhi to push its views on the Constitution. But he is also committed to ‘progressive nationalism’ rather than jingoistic and hypocritical nationalism that pervades much of Nepali political rhetoric where politicians abuse India in public and seek favours in private.

        Quitting a party and setting afresh is not easy for any leader. Bhattarai’s decision is also at a time when Nepali politics and society is deeply polarised – and it is both a challenge and opportunity for him to become a bridge. But the real historical significance of Bhattarai’s decision is that an era has ended in Nepali politics. The Maoist party, as we have known, is over.

  35. মাসুদ করিম - ১৭ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১১:১৮ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    With Official Help, Radical Buddhists Target Muslim Businesses

    Last year a Muslim businessman called Lwin Tun set up a factory in Labutta, a town in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta. He spent $330,000 on buildings and cooling systems, but couldn’t buy the product his factory was meant to process: meat.

    That’s because Labutta’s seven cattle slaughterhouses, also Muslim-owned, had suddenly gone out of business. In January 2014 they had tried to renew their licenses, but local authorities had already sold them to an association led by members of the radical Buddhist group Ma Ba Tha.

    The Muslim slaughterhouses went bust—and so, after just three months, did Lwin Tun’s meat-processing factory.

    Burma’s Muslim minority make up about 5 percent of the country’s predominantly Buddhist population and Muslims living in the delta rely heavily on the slaughterhouse business and the beef trade.

    Religious tensions simmered in Burma for almost half a century of military rule, boiling over in 2012, just a year after a semi-civilian government took power.

    Now Muslim businesses have become the target of anti-Islamic sentiment propagated by radical Buddhists who have found a powerful voice in Burma’s more open political landscape.

    Since late 2013, a campaign supported by Ma Ba Tha has forced dozens of Muslim-owned slaughterhouses and beef-processing facilities across the Irrawaddy Division to shut down, with thousands of cows seized from their Muslim owners, a Myanmar Now investigation has found.

    Other Muslims whose businesses have survived have watched their incomes plummet.

    Government documents obtained by Myanmar Now and interviews with officials show that Irrawaddy Division’s top officials supported the campaign against Muslim slaughterhouses.

    Radical Buddhist activists also received government permission to transport hundreds of seized cows to Arakan State in western Burma, the scene of violence between Arakanese Buddhists and mostly stateless Rohingya Muslims.

    There, they donated the animals to Buddhists who have resettled from eastern Bangladesh.

    Lwin Tun, 49, also has interests in construction, real estate and hotels in the delta and in the commercial capital Rangoon. But thanks to Ma Ba Tha, he said, his business prospects in Labutta look bleak.

    “Campaign activities calling for a boycott of Muslim-owned businesses have been going on in the town,” he said. “Pamphlets are being handed out. Police know about it, but they don’t take action.”

    Religious Freedom

    The campaign against the slaughterhouses and beef trade threatens both livelihoods and religious freedoms, Muslims told Myanmar Now. The shortage of cattle and tightening of government restrictions prevented Muslim communities in the delta from celebrating last year’s Eid al-Adha festival, where cows are slaughtered in accordance with Islamic tradition.

    “This activity constitutes a direct violation of our fundamental religious rights,” said Al Haji Aye Lwin, chief convener of Rangoon’s Islamic Centre. “I estimate (Muslim) businesses in general are losing about 30 percent of their profits.”

    Kyaw Sein Win, a spokesman for Ma Ba Tha at its Rangoon headquarters, said saving lives was central to Buddhist philosophy.

    “We are not deliberately targeting (Muslim) businesses. They would kill animals as they believe this is how they gain merit. That’s the main difference between us and them,” he told Myanmar Now in a phone interview.

    Burma has seen a rise in sectarian tension and anti-Muslim rhetoricled by nationalist Buddhist movements since 2011, when the military handed power to a nominally civilian government made up of former generals. The country’s faltering democratic transition will take its next step with elections on Nov. 8, the first in decades to be contested by all main opposition parties.

    Ma Ba Tha, also known as the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, has gained prominence in Burma’s nascent democracy. It was founded in June 2013, following outbreaks of violence between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012.

    The group says Burma and Buddhism are under threat from Islam and has managed to get four so-called “Race and Religion” bills—seemingly designed to discriminate against Muslims—supported by Union Parliament. On September 14, the group began a series of celebrations in Rangoon and a number of towns to mark the success of their campaign.

    At the closing of its second convention in June, which the group said was attended by 6,800 monks and laymen, Ma Ba Tha released a statement saying it would call on the government to ban Muslims from slaughtering animals during religious events.

    Critics of Ma Ba Tha say their activities are not representative of all Buddhist clergy in Burma, which is 250,000 strong according to government data. Within the monks’ order, known as the Sangha, concern has been raised that Ma Ba Tha’s policies do not reflect the essence of Buddhism.

    ‘Practising to Cut Our Throats’

    Supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi say the nationalist campaign is being used by the military-linked elite to attack her and her National League for Democracy party during a crucial election year. Monks associated with Ma Ba Tha have publicly accused the NLD of failing to protect Buddhism.

    While calls for a boycott of Muslim-owned businesses have been less effective in big cities, the anti-slaughtering campaign, drawing on a traditional Buddhist abhorrence of killing cows, has resonated with Buddhists in the Irrawaddy Delta.

    Here, among an expanse of paddies and waterways where most of Burma’s rice is grown, tens of thousands of Muslims, mostly town-based traders, live among some six million rice farmers—most of them Buddhists.

    Burmese farmers traditionally keep cows and bullocks as draft animals and only sell them to slaughterhouses to raise quick cash to pay for a wedding or medical treatment. The Ma Ba Tha-backed campaign has not called on farmers to stop selling their cattle, but instead has taken over slaughterhouse licenses.

    In 2014, Ma Ba Tha monks in the Irrawaddy delta formed Jivitadana Thetkal (“Save and Rescue Lives”), appealing to monasteries in Irrawaddy Division to each raise about $100 from their congregation and donate it to buying up licenses.

    Ma Ba Tha’s spokesman Kyaw Sein Win said: “We support this campaign by Jivitadana Thetkal… Most of the monks in the Jivitadana Thetkal campaign are members of Ma Ba Tha but we don’t give any direct instructions from the headquarters.”

    Radical Buddhist monks have delivered fiery sermons in delta villages to spread the idea that cattle-slaughtering was an affront to Buddhism and part of an Islamic plot to exterminate cattle.

    “It’s time to be alert,” warn the lyrics of a song played at such events. “Buddhist monks and lay people, be no longer passive. If you are, our race and religion will cease to exist.”

    Pyinyeinda, 65, is one of dozens of abbots in Irrawaddy Division who has come out in support of the campaign.

    “Our region is faced with the risk of losing all its cattle. The kalars have killed thousands of them,” said Pyinyeinda, a monk in Athoke, using a derogatory term for people of Indian heritage. “Do you know why? They are practising how to cut our throats.”

    Government Cooperation

    Ma Ba Tha representatives said they have raised enough funds to buy up licenses across all 26 townships in Irrawaddy Division, and they sometimes received government support for their plan.

    Sitting at a desk piled with books for teaching children about Ma Ba Tha, Irrawaddy Division Chief Minister Thein Aung told Myanmar Now he had approved a 50 percent discount on licenses sold to the group, and supported their raids.

    “As a Buddhist, I don’t approve of cattle slaughtering. Therefore, I complied with the requests of the monks leading this campaign. I have favoured them to get the slaughter licenses,” said the former general who was appointed as chief minister by President Thein Sein in 2011.

    He said his office sends “special teams” to make arrests if campaigners provide tip-offs about supposed violations of slaughterhouse licenses by business owners.

    In several delta townships, such as in Labutta, Ma Ba Tha members said they managed to buy up all licenses and put local Muslim-owned slaughterhouses out of business.

    In Pantanaw Township, campaigners raised about $15,000 in donations to obtain all four slaughter licenses in 2013 at a 50 percent discount, according to Kumara, a high-profile nationalist monk from Pantanaw who is a Ma Ba Tha central committee member.

    Kumara said some 80 cows were saved as a result. He said his group continued to receive discounts—this time 30 percent—for their successful bids on licenses in 2014 and 2015.

    A government document obtained by Myanmar Now, marked “secret” and signed by Irrawaddy Division Secretary Aye Kyaw on behalf of Thein Aung in November 2014, mentions that Ma Ba Tha successfully “bid on slaughter licenses in 15 townships.”

    In other areas, Ma Ba Tha members began to monitor and raid Muslim-owned slaughterhouses and cattle transport, claiming violations of license terms that limit how many animals can be killed.

    The 2014 government document instructs administrative officials in all 26 townships to cooperate with Ma Ba Tha members who monitor slaughterhouses. The letter urges monks to refrain from getting directly involved in these activities.

    Night Raids

    In small towns and villages dotted around the Irrawaddy delta, few people venture out when darkness falls over the vast expanse of paddy fields and zigzagging waterways. But in Kyonpyaw Township, some 150 kilometers west of Rangoon, Win Shwe, a local Ma Ba Tha secretary, and a group of monks and laymen have been active at night.

    In 2014, the group raised about $25,000 through public donations to buy up six slaughter licenses, but the most expensive license in the town remained out of their reach. So they decided to establish that the slaughterhouse was violating its license conditions.

    “That slaughter house was allowed to butcher only a single cow a day. If we saw some suspicious signs such as more cows being dragged inside, then we would run into the building from our hiding place and check what was going on,” he said during an interview at a local cafe.

    “In our first two raids we found that more cows than legally permitted were being killed. So we pressured the municipal department to blacklist the Muslim owner. He was finally blacklisted and ordered to close down his slaughterhouse,” Win Shwe said proudly.

    Campaigners such as Win Shwe appeared motivated by a mix of Buddhist beliefs, traditional veneration of cows, prejudice against Muslims, and a desire to fight government corruption.

    The vigilante raids highlight the complex relationship between Burmese authorities and Buddhist nationalist groups, which sometimes appear to have support from the government, while at other times are at odds with it.

    Protecting the ‘Western Gate’

    Win Shwe and his colleagues claimed that more than 4,000 live cattle had been seized in the delta since early 2014. Many were subsequently donated as draft animals to poor Irrawaddy Division farmers on condition they would not be killed or sold.

    But in mid-2014, according to documents obtained by Myanmar Now, campaigners received government approval for a new plan that involved sending cattle seized in the delta to Buddhist communities in Maungdaw Township, around 500km away.

    Impoverished Maungdaw, the westernmost town of Burma, is situated on the Burma-Bangladesh border in northern Arakan State, where Muslims outnumber Buddhist Arakanese.

    The border, which Ma Ba Tha likes to call the country’s ‘Western Gate’, has been under strict government control.

    In the past couple of years, hundreds of ethnic Arakanese who were living in eastern Bangladesh have resettled on the Burmese side of the border, according to media reports. Meanwhile, the authorities use the term Bengali to refer to the Rohingya, implying they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

    Authorities have sent these Buddhists to live in “model villages” in Maungdaw, in what appears to be an attempt to increase the Buddhist population.

    In a letter dated Aug. 26, 2014, Irrawaddy Division authorities notified various townships that they had approved a request by the Young Men’s Buddhist Association in Rangoon to gather 100 bovines and ship them from the delta’s Maubin port to Maungdaw.

    Win Shwe said this was “to protect the Western Gate against the influx of Muslims”.

    He provided Myanmar Now with photos and a video recording of a Sept. 4 ceremony where monks, Arakan State officials and senior military officers attended an event to donate the cattle to Buddhist villagers in Maungdaw.

    Sein Aung, who said he is a Buddhist Arakanese and a former military intelligence officer, heads the Shwepyithar Township branch office of the Young Men’s Buddhist Association in Rangoon.

    He said he helped to ship cattle seized by Win Shwe’s Ma Ba Tha branch to Maungdaw using Thuriya Sandar Win shipping company in Rangoon, adding that he had coordinated the plan with Arakan State authorities and Zaw Aye Maung, the Rangoon Division Minister for Arakanese ethnic affairs. In a phone interview, Zaw Aye Maung confirmed this.

    “If we don’t have the Western Gate the mainland will be flooded with Bengalis [Muslims from Bangladesh],” said Sein Aung, sitting in an office lavishly decorated with nationalist materials, including flags bearing Buddhist swastikas.

    Reputation

    Sean Turnell, an economics professor at Sydney’s Macquarie University, said the Ma Ba Tha boycott affecting Muslim businesses harmed Burma’s international image among potential investors who are concerned about political instability.

    “On a smaller scale, it seems all sorts of businesses are being impacted, from small shops, transport operators, to moneylenders,” he said.

    A Muslim restaurant owner in the delta town of Kyaunggon said his income had dropped from about $100 to $20 per day following the boycott, and a Muslim neighbour had closed his restaurant and left.

    The man, who asked not to be named, said he could no longer supply halal beef to his customers.

    “You can’t buy beef in the whole Irrawaddy Division. If you want to eat halal beef you have to ask someone to bring it down from Rangoon,” he said in a whisper.

    In front of his restaurant hung ahuge poster with an image of a cow and a verse glorifying the animal’s mythical role as “mother” to mankind, presumably put there by Ma Ba Tha sympathisers.

    Most Muslims living in the Irrawaddy delta dare not speak out against the campaign for fear of provoking Ma Ba Tha’s ire. Some said the Muslim community can only lie low, hoping the current wave of fervent Buddhist nationalism subsides.

    “We have no other country to flee to,” said Khin Maung, the leader of a mosque in Kyaunggon. “We are all born and raised here.”

  36. মাসুদ করিম - ২০ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:৩১ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    The VAT fiasco

    When the World Bank withdrew its proposed funding of $1.2 billion for the construction of Padma Bridge alleging ‘corruption conspiracy’ at the high level of the government, the latter responded by promising the people that the bridge would be built with our own resources. Some journalists asked me at that time if this was possible. It apparently did not please them when I said we could build not one but several Padma Bridges with our own resources. But there was a trade-off: if we did so, other projects would have to be shelved and more resources raised in taxes. There was also a strong likelihood that ‘corruption conspiracy’ could turn into actual corruption, and consequently there could be cost overruns. According to a recent report in this newspaper, the initial cost estimate of Padma Bridge at about Tk.100 billion has been revised upward to nearly Tk. 290 billion. It is safe to assume that it will rise further, perhaps in excess of Tk. 500 billion by the time it is completed. This is more than twice the estimate of the World Bank.

    This type of cost overruns and outright defalcation of money from state- owned banks have put great pressure on the exchequer which is presided over by the Finance Minister. Unable to contain runaway costs, which could hit at the power base of the government, he has been forced to attempt to increase revenue. Many charges and fees have been reportedly increased many fold. The Minister is trying his best to widen the tax net for both income tax and value added tax (VAT). It looks like he widened it a little too much when he included the private universities and got entangled in it.

    Although nominally non-profit organisations, the private universities are known to be money-making machines that are capitalising on the extreme keenness of the young people and their parents for higher and better education to charge very high fees. The minister probably wanted a share of the creamy private university pie. But since these are non-profit organizsations, they pay only 15 per cent as income tax when other non-listed enterprises pay much higher tax. They are presumably not exempt from VAT. So the minister decided to impose VAT on them. What he did not anticipate is the backlash from the student community as well as the powerful owners of these universities, many of whom have very strong ties with the ruling party. It was swift in coming.

    Predictably the owners strongly criticised the imposition of VAT. The students on their part poured out on the streets virtually choking much of the traffic in Dhaka. What happened next revealed the extent to which the minister was out of touch with reality. First, he said why students who spend Tk. 1000 a day should not be able to pay an additional Tk. 75 in VAT. Then he said something that was not expected of a Finance Minister who often wore the tag of an ‘economist’. He said that the VAT would be collected from the universities; the students would not have to pay. Most surprisingly he let the Prime Minister to assert the same in the parliament.

    One of the lessons of introductory public economics is that any tax on commodities (whether goods or services) will be shifted to the final consumers either wholly or partially. VAT, as it is collected in the country, is a tax on commodities. When the Minister said that the VAT on private universities would be collected from the universities, he perhaps meant it literally. VAT is indeed paid (or collected) by the producers or sellers. What he completely missed is that the produces are not passive takers of the tax burden; they simply pass it on to the buyers by jacking up their prices.

    The students knew it and they were not fooled by the assurances of the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister or the owners that the universities would pay the tax. They continued with their agitation that brought Dhaka to a standstill. The agitation also spread to other cities including Chittagong.

    The government is already at loggerheads with the teachers of the public universities over the new pay scale. It is also bracing for protests of college and school teachers and lower order government employees over the same issue. The massive show of force by the private university students spooked the government to retreat; it withdrew its decision to impose VAT on private universities only a few days after the Finance Minister had boldly asserted that the tax would not be withdrawn.

    The government had its nose rubbed in the dirt over the VAT affair. It could be avoided. Instead, the Finance Minister stoked it. By design or failure, the government has encouraged the development of a dual education system: one supported by the government and the other self funded (private). In the higher education sector, more than half the students are supposedly in private institutions. While the students at the public universities receive education virtually free (and a large number also get accommodation virtually free), the private university students are forced to pay an enormous amount of money for education. Not only that the government does not spend any resources on these students, the Finance Minister heartlessly commented that if they could pay the fees, they should also pay additional amount in tax to the government. The comment betrays the mindset of a person surrounded by people of wealth, who can meet any cost by abusing their privileged positions. The minister has embarrassed the government, and if he continues he is likely to do so again in the future. Perhaps he should listen to the advice of the federation of the public university teachers associations.

    If the government was really keen to tax the high profit of the private universities and colleges, it would have had broad-based popular support for the measure since neither the efficiency nor the equity principle of taxation would be violated. These institutions can hardly be called non-profit just because they do not distribute profit as dividends. There are many ways to kill a cat. An investigative audit should bring out any oddities.

    A non-profit organisation has a connotation of being a charity. It is not very clear why private universities or medical colleges should be regarded as non-profit organisations; clearly these are not charities. Many other institutions, such as private schools, clinics and hospitals also provide more essential services to the public even though they are profit-making business organisations. The government could examine the legal feasibility of either changing their registration from non-profit organisations to some taxable entity or amend the non-profit organisation law to permit it to levy fees or contributions on them.

    The University Grants Commission could limit any extravagant remuneration or fees the owners charge to universities for whatever services they provide contrary to the principles of charity. There would be then less public concern about the functioning of the private educational institutions regardless of whatever profit they may earn. The owners may also be partial to changing into profit-making organisations as they could set any fees that the market would bear and appropriate the profits.

  37. মাসুদ করিম - ২০ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:৫৭ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    BBs second strategic plan targets inclusive growth

    The Bangladesh Bank (BB) launched Saturday its second Strategic Plan (2015-2019) that, it expects, would contribute to the task of achieving sustainable and inclusive growth and maintaining financial stability.

    BB governor Dr. Atiur Rahman formally unveiled the five-year plan at the bank’s training academy at Mirpur.

    The plan, he said, will help the bank uphold its mandate as a central bank of the country and achieve Vision 2021 of the government as well.

    The Strategic Plan is crafted with 14 strategic goals and 395 key performance indicators, said the governor adding it will lead to emergence of a ‘forward-looking, proactive and responsive’ central bank and give it an international standard. The goals will be reached through a total of 105 objectives, which would essentially be attained by 320 action plans in the medium and long run.

    “We want to make the BB the bank of all central banks,” said the governor adding that it has already become the role model in financial inclusion and sustainable financing in the international arena within a span of only five years.

    The Bangladesh Bank Governor asked all the banks to prepare their own strategic plans to make their services more proactive and responsive and thus support socially responsible and environment friendly sustainable development initiatives.

    The central bank formulated its first five-year strategic plan in 2010 to support sustainable economic growth reinforcing a dynamic, efficient and resilient financial system combined with large-scale digitisation process. “Amid the growing complexities of financial industry in the last couple of years, the Bangladesh economy was confronted by a number of global and economic challenges. Nevertheless, significant achievements were made in financial sector as a result of commendable efforts by the BB,” said the governor.

    Dr. Rahman pointed out that the BB was highly praised for its role in promoting mobile financial services, and other inclusive financial activities such as school banking, women empowerment and promotion of agriculture and SMEs.

    “Bangladesh enjoys the position of having the world’s second largest mobile banking services,” said Dr Atiur adding: “We will soon occupy the first position.”

    “We are trying to create a new trend in the banking sector of the country with a combination of new concepts, technology and human participation,” he added.

    Dwelling on the country’ macro-economic stability, the BB governor said the country maintains a constant 6.0 plus GDP growth but inflation is still low because of prudent monetary policy. Remittance is one of the biggest contributors to the country’s growth, he said, adding that the forex reserve also crossed US$ 26.0 billion that can cover the country’s 7 and half months’ import bill.

    Replying to critics, the governor said the government is constructing the Padma Bridge from its own resources. “The Bangladesh Bank will always be there with the government in implementing any infrastructure project if necessary. The BB can easily spend US$ 6-7 billion from its reserve if it serves the interest of people.”

    Held at the auditorium of the Bangladesh Bank Training Academy (BBTA), the meeting was also addressed, among others, by Bangladesh Bank (BB) Deputy Governors Abu Hena Moh. Razee Hasan and SK Sur Chowdhury and Executive Director Md. Ahsan Ullah. Presided over by Deputy Governor Nazneen Sultana, the programme was moderated by management consultant Jahangir Kabir.

    The programme was attended by a large number of Managing Directors (MDs) and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of various banks and financial institutions as well as academics and researchers.

  38. মাসুদ করিম - ২০ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১১:২০ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Bangladesh Not Waiting for the World to Save Us

    In just a few weeks, the world will adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For my country, Bangladesh, the goal of combatting climate change and its impacts is crucial, as we are on the frontline of this global threat.

    Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world (1,218 people per sq km), with the lowest quantity of per-capita arable land (0.05 hectares). Although we made considerable progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), climate change in the form of extreme-weather events, tidal surges, and erratic rainfall has negatively impacted agricultural production, industrial development and social structures.

    This can create millions of environmental refugees, even though Bangladesh’s contribution to climate change in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions is negligible. And the situation will worsen without urgent action. Studies estimate that a meter rise in sea level would submerge one fifth of the country, displacing over 30 million people. Mass migration to cities is inevitable, impacting livelihoods, biodiversity, food, water, sanitation and basic infrastructure.

    That is why we are keen to see the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the upcoming climate agreement in Paris, adopted and moving into implementation. But Bangladesh has not been sitting around waiting for the world to save us. We are fighting for our own future, albeit with limited resources and technologies.

    In 2011, we amended the constitution to protect and improve the environment and preserve and safeguard natural resources, biodiversity, wetlands, forests and wildlife for present and future citizens. In line with this policy, at least eight new laws were enacted or amended since 2009 to preserve forestlands in the country. Forest coverage rose to 17.08 percent in 2014-15 from a mere seven to eight percent in 2005-06, thanks to the introduction of initiatives such as the Social Afforestation Programme, which ensures people’s participation in planting and raising trees in every available space, both urban and rural. Currently, more than 120 million saplings are raised and distributed every year among the people, compared to 40 million in 2001-2006.

    Bangladesh was the first developing nation to create a Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan. From 2009-2010 to 2014-15, the government allocated Tk 30.30 billion (US$ 385 million) to our climate-change trust fund. All of our activities have been targeted toward adaptation to environmental changes with a view to protecting human lives from floods and hurricanes, and protecting the environment from pollution caused by rapid urbanization and unsustainable industrialization.

    There are so many examples of specific actions we undertook as part of our policy framework. We have built about four million solar-home systems in off-grid areas and 1.5 million improved cook stoves to decrease indoor air pollution.

    We created the Coastal Greenbelt Project to protect the southern part of Bangladesh, which is surrounded by the Bay of Bengal, from cyclones. Dense forest covers along the coastline, particularly mangroves, form an effective buffer. By boosting this cover, we helped reduce the death toll to about 200 from the hurricanes Aila in 2009 and Mahasen in 2013 combined, compared to 140,000 in a single cyclone in 1991.

    We have also made remarkable progress in food production. Bangladesh has become a food-exporting country from a food-importing country over the last six years. Our scientists have developed almost 200 varieties of crops that are resilient to changing climactic conditions and techniques to grow crops in less fertile soil. Rice production was 33.30 million metric tons in 2008-09. It was 38.34 million metric tons in 2013-14.

    Despite these efforts, climate change continues to affect the lives and livelihoods of millions in our unique and active delta. This year, we experienced 50 percent more rainfall than average, inundating vast areas of the country and damaging crops. Climate change may threaten our wheat and major rice-crop (Boro) production. Studies suggest that two to three percent of our Gross Domestic Product may be wiped out because of climate change.

    We cannot do it alone, which is why we need the international community to stand up for nations such as ours through the SDGs and the climate-change process. In order to address climate change, a critical balance between adaptation (adjusting to the impacts of climate change) and mitigation (reducing the scale of climate change) will have to be maintained. The pledges on reducing emissions submitted for the Paris climate meeting must be measurable and verifiable. The world should pay attention to carbon budgeting and de-carbonization pathways. For adaptation planning, adequate and predictable financing is essential.

    Bangladesh has been leading by example, and we are ready to share our experiences on climate resilience with rest of the world. I hope that the United Nations Environment Programme honouring me with the Champions of the Earth award this year will draw attention to Bangladesh’s efforts, which show that we can make a difference, and encourage developed nations to bring their resources to bear on the greatest challenge of our time.

    This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post, “What’s Working: Sustainable Development Goals,” in conjunction with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The proposed set of milestones will be the subject of discussion at the UN General Assembly meeting on Sept. 25-27, 2015 in New York. The goals, which will replace the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015), cover 17 key areas of development — including poverty, hunger, health, education, and gender equality, among many others. As part of The Huffington Post’s commitment to solutions-oriented journalism, this What’s Working SDG blog series will focus on one goal every weekday in September. This post addresses Goal 13.

  39. মাসুদ করিম - ২০ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১২:২৩ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Traffic management in Mirpur area in a mess

    The traffic system in city’s Mirpur area has virtually collapsed in recent times largely due to unplanned development works round the year and indifference on the part of on-duty traffic police.

    It takes almost an hour to reach Mirpur-10 from Mirpur-12 and vice-versa. The traffic congestion from Kalshi Road crossing to Senpara has taken a permanent shape recently due to the soil tests being conducted for the metro-rail project.

    This correspondent found that one relevant agency has dug up the road at three points at Mirpur-10 circle, creating a long tailback. Although there is enough space for movement, the traffic police’s mismanagement makes the vehicles wait in a long queues for hours.

    The traffic authority, however, blamed the inadequate road space for the traffic congestions. But urban planners while differing with the views of police blame inefficiency, mismanagement and ad-hoc solution for the traffic problems.

    Talking to the FE, a staffer of Swadhin Express Samiullah Ratan said it takes them an hour to reach Mirpur-10 from Mirpur Section-12, three and a half hours to reach Babubazar an hour to cross 32 kms and reach Mawa.

    Sujon, another staffer of Haji Paribahan plying between Mirpur-12 and Motijheel, said about 900 new transports were added by 12 companies after the construction of Kalshi Road. Each company has minimum 50 buses.

    Commuters and transport workers said it took three hours to reach Motijheel from Mirpur-12 even on Fridays. Half of the time is spent to reach Taltola of Agargaon from Mirpur-12, a distance of hardly 6 kms.

    Nazrul Islam, a private service holder, said if he hires a CNG-auto-rickshaw from Mirpur original 10 at 8:30 am to reach his office at Dhanmondi 27, it takes an hour to reach Taltola. The rest of the distance, it takes only 10-15 minutes.

    According to experts, the transport system of Dhaka is predominantly road based and non-motorised transport (mainly rickshaws) has a substantial share.

    Dhaka’s road network is nearly 3,000 kms (of which 200 kms primary, 110 kms secondary, 50 kms feeder and 2,640 kms narrow roads).

    It represents the proportion of road surface to built-up area hardly 7.0 per cent as against 25 per cent recommended for a modern city. Only 400km footpath is available for pedestrians of which 40 per cent are being occupied illegally by vendors and others.

    The primary mode of transport is about one-third (34 per cent) using rickshaws, almost half (44 per cent) using transit/buses; and nearly a quarter (22 per cent) comprised of walk (14 per cent) and non-transit motorised (8 per cent) modes (STP, 2005).

    Additional commissioner of traffic Khondoker Golam Faruk told the FE Saturday that it may not be possible to free the residents of Mirpur free from present sufferings created out of traffic congestion.

    “The city has a road capacity of accommodating only 200,000 vehicles whereas 900,000 motorised and 900,000 non-motorised vehicles ply here every day. In such situation, if you even increase traffic manpower from 1,000 to 10,000, you will not be able to manage the situation,” he said.

    Mr Faruk said Dhaka has a road network of 7.0 per cent against the recommended 25 per cent and of the 7.0 per cent, buses can ply only on 12 per cent roads which means the city has been overburdened with rickshaws.

    Regarding the long waiting time at some of the signals, he said traffic police have to keep vehicles at some points for a longer time for road management.

    Eminent architect and urban planner Iqbal Habib differed with the police official and said traffic management is an engineering and planning-related issue which has to be solved with proper planning and engineering.

    The authority tries to resolve the overall traffic related problems on an ad hoc basis without proper planning, correct data and information, he added.

    “It is correct that we have insufficient road network in Dhaka. But road scarcity is not only the problem for traffic congestion,” said Iqbal Habib, adding: “We have to decide who will be primary users of these roads, 8.0 per cent private cars or 34 per cent passengers of mass transport.”

    He said the mass transport system must be refurbished where mass transport will get top priority.

    “Whatever road we have, we have to ensure maximum use of it for the majority of people,” said the joint secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA). – See more at: http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/09/20/108688#sthash.moJgv0Wv.dpuf

    • মাসুদ করিম - ২১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১১:২৩ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

      DNCC mayor ‘helpless’ dealing with traffic

      Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Annisul Huq expressed his helplessness on Sunday in addressing the multidimensional and ailing situation relating to the city’s traffic congestion.

      Terming the state of Dhaka’s traffic system an ailing patient in the intensive care unit of a hospital, the DNCC mayor said he is, as if, its doctor without studying medical science.

      He, however, said: “But the patient must be alive. We can’t keep researching while the patient is dying. We must do something to this effect.”

      Mr Annisul made the observation at a roundtable where urban planners, architects, transport operators and traffic officials raised a number of factors and suggestions relating to the city’s nagging traffic congestion.

      The DNCC in association with Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB), Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) and Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) organised the roundtable titled “Traffic Congestion in Dhaka: Strategies and Solutions” at a city hotel.

      Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader was present at the event as the chief guest where LGRD state minister Mashiur Rahman Ranga also spoke as the special guest.

      The DNCC mayor said the city corporation has measured the present situation of the road stretching from Gazipur to Saatrasta in Tejgaon over the last three months and found five points like Jashimuddin, Kakoli and Mohakhali intersections where they planned to build U-loop experimentally.

      “And we want to see progress of the trial by May next year,” he said.

      He also sought some 1.5 kilometres of government space in Mohakhali for the sake of the experiment.

      The discussants at the roundtable said the capital’s traffic system continues to get worse mainly due to the failure of authorities concerned to cope with the situation.

      They said both parts of Dhaka city corporations did not evict hawkers from roads and footpaths while traffic officials failed to enforce traffic rules and BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) is giving registration of new vehicles without considering capacity of the capital’s existing road infrastructure.

      At the same time, Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) failed to introduce sufficient public transports for commuters while various service providing agencies often dig the roads haphazardly, causing traffic congestion.

      They pinpointed a host of factors causing such gridlock. They include heavy pressure of private cars, haphazard construction works, illegal parking and drivers’ apathy to follow traffic rules.

      Poor traffic management, unplanned urbanisation and road networking, Dhaka-based economic activities, transport mismanagement and many other things were also held responsible for terrible tailbacks that heavily cost all sections of people on a regular basis.

      They also cautioned that the city’s overall traffic system might collapse in months ahead unless the authorities concerned do not come up with short-term measures alongside medium and long-term initiatives to face the possible challenges.

      According to them, the start of metro rail construction works from early next year coupled with the ongoing Malibagh-Mouchak-Shantinagar flyover development activities are set to contribute further to the city’s already nagging traffic situation.

      Speaking on the occasion, Dr Shamsul Hoque, BUET professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, said road network of the capital has not developed following any plan; rather it has evolved haphazardly.

      Over the years, as a symptom-oriented reactive measure roads were improved and built only to meet short-term needs. As a result, road network does not show any regular pattern like grid and radical, which are very effective from traffic circulation and management point of view, he said.

      He said Dhaka city has not got any urban artery nor any functional continuous primary road in the east-west direction. “Moreover due to faulty roadway geometry and labour configuration as well as high density of signalised junction of the existing road network, travel time is unusually very high,” he said.

      He said the authority should immediately replace private cars by buses that carry more commuters and should concentrate more on proper use of the existing road infrastructure instead of going for building fresh roads.

      BUET Professor and transportation and traffic system expert Moazzem Hossain said markets, high-rise commercial buildings, educational institutions were built without any service road and enough parking space, contributing further to the civic pains like traffic jam.

      At the same time, the capital’s insufficient road infrastructure, which is only 2.5 per cent of the city against the average demand of 25 per cent, has been squeezing gradually because of illegal parking, illegal occupation of footpaths and loading and unloading of goods, he said.

      Architect Tanvir Nawaz said dedicated bus lanes with a franchising bus route system can improve the situation a bit.

      Terming private cars as one of the main reasons behind the gridlock, he said cars occupy more than 70 per cent of the roads carrying only 7-8 per cent of the commuters.

      “But the number of buses that carry increased number of passengers went down to 4,000 in 2015 against 7,500 in 2009,” he said.

      IEB President Dr Engr Shamim Z Basunia said the authority should immediately concentrate on rapid execution of Moghbazar-Malibagh-Shantinagar flyover within December next as the metro-rail construction works would start from January next year.

      “So, some of the main roads need to be suspended because of the construction works. If it is not possible to open the flyover project for traffic by the coming December, then what would happen? The capital’s overall traffic system will collapse,” he said.

      DSCC Mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon mentioned that concentrating on the overall traffic system would hardly bring any desired outcome about the city’s traffic congestion; rather the approach should be to go for road by road planning.

      “We have to find out a way-out of the situation with immediate and short-term planning as the situation is turning worse day by day,” he said adding that the people now want to see action towards the problem not discussion or planning.

      Speaking as the chief guest, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader called upon the mayors of taking any decision with respect to the traffic jam with boldness and firmness as there are many influential quarters still active to create obstacles in executing their decisions.

      The minister also agreed to hand over those public lands for the works and suggested the mayors not to show any soft corner to any quarter in executing some measures like banning rickshaws and eviction of hawkers.

      According to the BRTA statistics, there are some 0.85 million registered vehicles in the capital that include 0.35 million motorbikes, 0.3 million cars, microbuses and jeeps and 22,000 buses.

      General Secretary of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Samity Khandoker Enayetullah, BRTA Director Bijoy Bhushan Paul and urban planner Ekbal Habib, among others, spoke in the roundtable.

  40. মাসুদ করিম - ২০ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১২:২৮ অপরাহ্ণ)

    ‘কেন তুমি’ – কবি শামসুর রাহমান এর একটি অপ্রকাশিত কবিতা

    ১৯৭২ সালে শামসুর রাহমান-এর রচিত ‘কেন তুমি’ কবিতাটি আমার কাছে দীর্ঘদিন সংগ্রহে ছিলো। ১৯৭২ সালে কার্জন হল প্রাঙ্গণে আমাদের প্রাণরসায়ন বিভাগের সামনে ১৬ ডিসেম্বর বিজয় দিবস উদযাপন অনুষ্ঠানে আমি কবিতাটি আবৃত্তি করেছিলাম। যারা সক্রিয়ভাবে মুক্তিযুদ্ধে অংশ নিতে পারেনি বলে আত্মগ্লানি ও হতাশায় নিমজ্জিত ছিলো, তাদের উদ্দেশ্যে তিনি এই কবিতাটি লিখেছিলেন। আমাদের মস্তিষ্কের ধূসর স্মৃতি কোষে নানা তথ্য আমরা সঞ্চয় করে রাখতে পারি। সেই ৭২ সালে আবৃত্তির জন্য কবিতাটি মুখস্ত করেছিলাম। পরে ৭৫ পরবর্তী প্রায় ৫ বছর কারাবাসকালে স্মৃতিকোষ থেকে কবিতাটি মনে করে বারবার আবৃত্তি করেছি।

    সম্ভবত ২০০৩ সালের বাঙলা একাডেমীর বইমেলায় গিয়েছি, সাথে আমার স্ত্রী কল্পনা ও মেয়ে দীপান্বিতা। শামসুর রাহমানের শ্রেষ্ঠ কবিতা বইটি দেখে কিনলাম। উদ্দেশ্য সেই ৭২ সালে লেখা কবির কবিতা ‘কেন তুমি’ খুঁজে পাওয়া। বাসায় এসে পুরো বই খুঁজলাম, ভারী অবাক হলাম ! শ্রেষ্ঠ কবিতা সংকলনে আমি খুঁজে পেলাম না এই কবিতাটি। এতো ভালো একটি কবিতা শ্রেষ্ঠ কবিতা সংকলনে স্থান পেলো না ! কবির বাসার ফোন নাম্বার সংগ্রহ করে ফোন করলাম কবি পত্নী ফোন ধরে বললেন কবি দেশের বাইরে চিকিৎসার জন্য গেছেন, সপ্তাহখানিক পরেই ফিরবেন। সময় অনুযায়ী সপ্তাহখানিক পরে এক শুক্রবার সকালে ফোন করলাম, কবিকে পেলাম; তিনি বললেন চলে আসুন। পরিবারের সবাইকে নিয়ে কবির শ্যামলীর বাসায় গেলাম। সাথে নিয়ে গেছি আমার সংগ্রহে থাকা কবিতাখানি। কুশল বিনিময়ের পর আমার আসল উদ্দেশের কথা জানালাম কবিকে। তাঁর হাতে কবিতাখানি দিতেই তিনি বললেন, ‘এই কবিতা কোথায় ছিলো এতো দিন? আমি মনে করেছিলাম হারিয়ে ফেলেছি। এই কবিতা আমার কোনো কবিতার বইতেও নেই।’

    এই হলো শামসুর রাহমান, বাঙলাদেশের প্রধান কবি।

    শুভ জন্মদিন, বাংলাদেশ। জয় বাংলা।

    কেন তুমি

    কেন তুমি মুখ নিচু করে থাকো সারাক্ষণ

    কেন লোকলোচনের অন্তরালে থাকতে চাও

    তোমার কিসের লজ্জা

    কোন পাপবোধে আজকাল তোমাকে ওমন দীন ছায়াছন্ন করে রাখে

    কেন তুমি ম্লান মুখচোরা হয়ে রইবে সর্বদাই

    না বললেও বুঝি, গলায় কলস বেঁধে

    ভয়ানক নদীর গহনে চলে যেতে চাও তুমি

    অথবা হঠাৎ

    আগুনে ঝাঁপিয়ে পড়ে ভষ্ম হতে চাও

    কিংবা ভয়প্রদায়িনী আঁধারে ঘুমের বড়ি খেয়ে

    অনরোলা ক্রুর যন্ত্রণার থেকে মুক্তি পেতে চাও

    জানি, তুমি পিপাসার্ত পথিকের মুখে

    কখনো পারনি দিতে এক ফোঁটা জলও

    ক্ষুধার্তের ভিড় তোমার দরজা থেকে ফিরে গেছে

    কিংবা হায়

    ঝুলিয়ে হারমোনিয়াম সুর পরায়ন গলায়

    বন্যার্তের জন্য চাঁদা তোলা হলো না তোমাকে দিয়ে

    ক্যাম্পে আহত ব্যক্তির ক্ষঁতে কোনদিন বাঁধনি ব্যান্ডেজ

    পাতনি মাইন ব্রিজে, উড়াওনি কনভয়

    দুর্দার গ্রেনেড ছুড়ে ফ্রগম্যান সেজে বঙ্গোপসাগরে

    পারনিকো ক্ষিপ্ত ডোবাতে জাহাজ

    কিংবা দখলদার সৈনিকের বুকে বন্দুকের নল চেপে

    তার বুক ঝাঁঝড়া করে দেয়া সাধ্যাতিত জেনেও ছিলে মুখ ঢেকে অন্ধকারে একা

    কতদিন স্পষ্টত তোমারই চোখের সম্মুখে শিশু হারিয়েছে প্রাণ,

    নারী তার সলাজ আরক্ত মাধুরিমা, তুমি কাকতাড়ুয়ার ভূমিকাও করনি পালন

    না! তুমি আঁধার নিবাসে মুখ রেখো না লুকিয়ে

    আর থেকো না অমন নতজানু হয়ে

    যেমন ভয়ার্ত পাপী ধর্মযাজকের প্রকোষ্ঠের সম্মুখে

    একাকী হাঁটু গেড়ে বসে কাঁপায় অধর

    বরং সহজ হও

    সমুন্নত হোক গ্রীবা মরালের মতো আবার মোহন অহংকারে

    হে আমার কবিতা কল্পনা লতা তুমি

    ধিক্কারে ঘৃণায় ক্ষোভে কখনো যেয়ো না বনবাসে

    ভয়ানক মারের সাগরে ভেলা যে ভাসিয়ে ছিলে

    ছিলে আমার হৃদয়ে, ছিলে সর্বদায়

    তার নিভৃত মাইফেলে সন্ত্রাসের প্রহরে প্রহরে

    তাই হে আমার সিন্ডারেলা

    বেলা-অবেলায় তোমারই উদ্দেশে শ্লোকরাজি আজও করি উচ্চারণ

    তোমারই উদ্দেশে কেমন পুষ্পিত হয় অলৌকিক জমিজমা কিছু

    শূন্যতায় গাঢ় আর চৈতন্যের মধুচন্দ্রিমায়।

  41. মাসুদ করিম - ২১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:৩২ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    Tsipras returns to power with clear election win

    Alexis Tsipras returned to power on Sunday after SYRIZA scored a convincing electoral win that allowed the prime-minister-in-waiting to renew the alliance with Independent Greeks and its leader Panos Kammenos.

    With 70 percent of the votes counted, SYRIZA had 35.43 percent. This would give the leftist party 144 seats in Parliament. New Democracy followed with 28.29 percent, despite the fact that opinion polls had indicated the conservatives would challenge SYRIZA for first spot.

    Golden Dawn was in third with just over 7 percent, followed by PASOK on 6.38, the Communist Party on 5.47, Potami on 4, Independent Greeks on 3.65 and the Union of Centrists on 3.38.

    Popular Unity, formed by SYRIZA rebels in August, looked like it would fail to make it into Parliament after garnering 2.84 percent of the vote.

    The alliance between SYRIZA and Independent Greeks was expected to have 154 out of the 300 seats in Parliament.

    Addressing a large crowd in central Athens, Tsipras said he felt “vindicated” as Greeks had given him a mandate to “keep fighting inside and outside the country.” He referred to a “crystal-clear mandate” to purge the Greek system of “vulgarity and corruption.”

    “This victory belongs to the people and to those who dream of a better tomorrow which we’ll achieve through hard work,” he said. “We will continue, with Panos Kammenos, under the banner of honesty,”

    Tsipras said, as the leader of Independent Greeks (ANEL) beamed on stage next to him.

    New Democracy leader Evangelos Meimarakis had conceded defeat early in the evening as, with 20 percent of the vote counted, SYRIZA had secured a clear lead of over 7 percent. “We fought the election battle with seriousness and dignity,” Meimarakis said.

    He added that ND will remain “a pillar of stability,” declaring that those who had wanted to “demolish” the party had been proved wrong. “New Democracy is neither demolished nor finished; it is a pillar of stability,” he said, adding that “internal party issues” will be discussed in good time, an apparent reference to ND’s leadership.

    Meimarakis called on Tsipras to move quickly to form a coalition. “I congratulate him and urge him to create the government which is needed and come to Parliament.”

    Earlier in the night Kammenos referred to a “patriotic vote of confidence in tomorrow…despite the relentless war against our party.” “From tomorrow morning, with Tsipras as prime minister, we’ll move forward to form a new coalition,” he said. In a fierce dig at pollsters who had consistently predicted that his party would fail to enter Parliament, Kammenos referred to “hired killers.”

    With centrist Potami on course to garner around 4 percent of the national vote, 6 percent below the party’s self-proclaimed target, party leader Stavros Theodorakis was visibly disappointed. “We believed that the country could change course but it appears that we are returning to January,” Theodorakis told reporters.

    “Potami is very far from its goals,” he said, conceding that, particularly in the provinces, Potami had been “unable to convey his message.” “We will be present, in opposition of course,” to keep the country on course, he said. He said Potami would not cooperate in a coalition that did not allow it to “shape” decisions and the course of governance.

    PASOK appeared set to boost its presence in Parliament after campaigning jointly with Democratic Left. In comments to reporters last night, PASOK leader Fofi Gennimata referred to “a new dynamic.” Those who had predicted the annihilation of PASOK were proved woefully wrong, she said. “SYRIZA and Tsipras have the duty to secure a coalition for the next four years,” she said, adding that “from tonight all democratic parties must face their responsibilities.”

    Neofascist Golden Dawn appeared to have retained its third place, on around 7 percent of the vote. In a statement, party leader Nikos Michaloliakos said GD’s “victory” was particularly significant as “we had an entire system against us.”

    Panayiotis Lafazanis, whose party seemed unlikely to pass the 3 percent threshold to enter Parliament, said Popular Unity had given a “dignified and beautiful struggle” without the support of the mainstream media. He also referred to “a memorandum Armageddon” lying ahead for Greeks.

    Former parliamentary speaker Zoe Constantopoulou, who ran on Popular Unity’s ticket, referred to a record abstention rate of around 45 percent, noting that Parliament “doesn’t represent more than 50 percent of Greeks.” “We can be proud that we gave a struggle against the powers and for the people,” she said.

    The Communist Party (KKE) fared considerably better than Popular Unity, who had appealed several times to KKE for a joint campaign. “KKE will remain opposed to any government that seeks to enforce the barbaric memorandum,” Dimitris Koutsoumbas said, referring to Greece’s third bailout.

    Parliament appeared set to receive an eighth member with Vassilis Leventis’s Union of Centrists well above the threshold. Leventis referred to a “victory of the young” as exit polls suggested that a significant percentage of Greeks aged between 18 and 25 voted for him.

  42. মাসুদ করিম - ২১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১১:৫০ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    ডালমিয়ার জীবনাবসান

    ডাক্তাররা সময় দিয়েছিলেন ৭২ ঘণ্টা। কিন্তু তা কাটার আগেই জীবনযুদ্ধে হার স্বীকার করে নিলেন তিনি। রবিবার রাত ৮টা ৪০ মিনিটে জীবনাবসান হল ভারতীয় ক্রিকেটের দক্ষ প্রশাসক জগমোহন ডালমিয়ার। মৃতু‍্যকালে বয়স হয়েছিল ৭৫ বছর। ভারতীয় ক্রিকেটে এক যুগের অবসান। বি সি সি আই সভাপতি হিসেবেই বিদায় নিলেন ‘জগুদা’। গত বৃহস্পতিবার রাতে বাড়িতেই বুকে ব্যথা অনুভব করেন তি‍নি। শুরু হয়ে যায় শ্বাসকষ্ট। পরিবারের লোকেরা তাঁকে ভর্তি করেন বি এম বিড়লা হাসপাতালে। আই সি ইউ–তে রাখা হয়। গঠন করা হয় পাঁচ সদসে‍্যর মেডিক্যাল বোর্ড। একটু একটু করে চিকিৎসায় সাড়া দিচ্ছিলেন ডালমিয়া। রবিবার বিকেলেও হাসপাতাল সূত্রে জানানো হয়, তাঁর অবস্থা স্থিতিশীল। তবে কিছুটা ঝুঁকি নিয়েই ডাঃ অনিল মিশ্রর নেতৃত্বে চিকিৎসকেরা ডালমিয়ার বুকে স্টেন্ট বসান। জানানো হয়, ভয়ের কিছু েনই। এমনকি রাত ৮টা নাগাদ হাসপাতালে উপস্থিত অনেকেই নিজেদের বাড়ির উদ্দেশে রওনা হয়ে যান। কিন্তু পরিস্থিতি পাল্টে যায় কিছুক্ষণের মধে‍্যই। চিকিৎসকদের সব চেষ্টা ব্যর্থ করে দিয়ে চিরঘুমের দেশে চলে যান ভারতীয় এবং বিশ্ব–ক্রিকেটের এক বর্ণময় ক্রিকেট প্রশাসক।

    মুহূর্তে বাংলা এবং জাতীয় টেলিভিশনের পর্দায় ভেসে ওঠে ব্রেকিং নিউজ। জগমোহন ডালমিয়া আর নেই। তৈরি হয় তীব্র শোকের আবহ। সি এ বি–র কর্তারা দ্রুত চলে আসেন হাসপাতালে। হঠাৎই এমন অপ্রত্যাশিত খবরে চমকে ওঠেন সকলেই। কেউই মেনে নিতে পারছিলেন না ডালমিয়ার মৃতু‍্যর খবর। হাসপাতালে পরিবেশ ক্রমশ ভারী হয়ে উঠতে থাকে। একে একে হাজির হন কর্তা থেকে রাজনীতিকরা। চলে আসেন মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা ব‍্যানার্জি। সৌরভ গাঙ্গুলি, বিশ্বরূপ দে–রাও চলে আসেন। সবার সঙ্গে আলোচনা করে নেন মুখ্যমন্ত্রী। চিত্রপরিচালক ঋতুপর্ণ ঘোষ প্রয়াত হওয়ার পর যে শীতাতপ নিয়ন্ত্রিত বিশেষ কফিনে তাঁকে রাখার ব্যবস্থা হয়েছিল, সেই বিশেষ কফিন আনার ব্যবস্থা করেন মুখ্যমন্ত্রী। হাসপাতালেই পরে সাংবাদিক সম্মেলনে জগমোহন ডা‍লমিয়ার মৃতু‍্যতে গভীর শোক প্রকাশ করেন মমতা ব‍্যানার্জি। শোক প্রকাশ করে বার্তা পাঠিয়েছেন রাষ্ট্রপতি প্রণব মুখার্জি, প্রধানমন্ত্রী নরেন্দ্র মোদি, রাজ্যপাল কেশরীনাথ ত্রিপাঠী, লোকসভার প্রাক্তন অধ্যক্ষ সোমনাথ চট্টোপাধ্যায়, শচী‍ন তেন্ডুলকার, বোর্ড সচিব অনুরাগ ঠাকুর। আমেরিকা থেকে শোকবার্তা পাঠান সুনীল গাভাসকার। এরই মধে‍্য হাসপাতালে চলে আসেন রাজে‍্যর ভারপ্রাপ্ত ক্রীড়ামন্ত্রী অরূপ বিশ্বাস, নগরোন্নয়নমন্ত্রী ফিরহাদ হাকিম, মেয়র শোভন চ‍্যাটার্জি, মুকুল রায়, চিত্রক মিত্র, সুব্রত দত্ত, বাবলু কোলে, সুবীর গাঙ্গুলি, প্রাক্তন ক্রিকেটার রণদেব বসু, জয়দীপ মুখার্জি, মহিলা ক্রিকেটার ঝুলন গোস্বামী প্রমুখ।

    মৃতু‍্যর পর হাসপাতালে ডালমিয়ার দেহ ঘিরে বসে ছিলেন তাঁর পরিবারের সদস‍্যরা। প্রতে‍্যকেই শোকাহত। তাঁদের পাশে সারাক্ষণ ছিলেন সৌরভ গাঙ্গুলি। নিচে সব কিছুর তদারকি করছিলেন বিশ্বরূপ দে। ডালমিয়ার বাড়ি এবং হাসপাতালের মধে‍্য যোগাযোগ রেখে চলেছিলেন ফিরহাদ হাকিম। রাতে আবার আসেন মুখ্যমন্ত্রী। তি‍নি জানিয়ে দেন‍, পূর্ণ রাষ্ট্রীয় মর্যাদায় শেষকৃত্য সম্পন্ন হবে জগমোহন ডালমিয়ার। সোমবার বেলা ১২টা থেকে বিকেল ৪টে পর্যন্ত ইডেনে শায়িত থাকবে তাঁর মরদেহ, সাধারণের শ্রদ্ধাজ্ঞাপনের জন্য। ক্লাব হাউসের দুটো ড্রেসিংরুমের সামনে যে লন রয়েছে, সেখানেই শায়িত থাকবেন ডালমিয়া। বিকেল ৩টেয় ইডেনেই তাঁকে গান স্যালুট দেওয়া হবে বলে জানিয়েছেন মুখ্যমন্ত্রী। ৪টের পর দেহ নিয়ে যাওয়া হবে কেওড়াতলা শ্মশানে। রবিবারের রাত যখন গড়িয়ে সোমবারে পড়েছে, তখনই ১২টা ৫ মিনিট নাগাদ হাসপাতা‍ল থেকে বের করে আনা হয় সাদা চাদরে ঢাকা ডালমিয়ার দেহ। ছিলেন মুখ্যমন্ত্রী, সৌরভ গাঙ্গুলি, বিশ্বরূপ দে এবং ডালমিয়া–পুত্র অভিষেক। শবগাড়িতে ছিলেন বিশ্বরূপ এবং অভিষেক। সেই গাড়ি যখন ১০, আলিপুরের উদ্দেশে রওনা দেয়, সঙ্গী হয় মুখ্যমন্ত্রীর কনভয়। ডালমিয়ার বাড়ি থেকে বেরিয়ে দৃশ্যতই বিধ্বস্ত সৌরভ জানিয়ে দেন, তিনি একেবারেই কথা বলার মতো অবস্থায় নেই।

    সোমবার ডালমিয়ার অন্তে‍্যষ্টিতে যোগ দিতে উঠে আসছে প্রায় গোটা বোর্ড। মৃতু‍্যর পর তিনিই যেন মিলিয়ে দিলেন শাসক, বিরোধী— সব গোষ্ঠীকে। অতীতে যখনই বোর্ড রাজনীতি সঙ্কটের গোলকধাঁধায় তলিয়ে যেতে বসেছে, উদ্ধারকর্তা হিসেবে উঠে এসেছে জগমোহন ডালমিয়ার নাম। তাই ‘জগুদা’কে শেষ শ্রদ্ধা জানাতে আসছেন এন শ্রীনিবাসন, শশাঙ্ক মনোহর, শারদ পাওয়ার, ব্রিজেশ প্যাটেল, রবি শাস্ত্রী, অনুরাগ ঠাকুর, রাজীব শুক্লারা। আসার কথা বিরাট কোহলিরও।

    সর্বভারতীয় ফুটবল ফেডারেশনের সিনিয়র ভাইস প্রেসিডেন্ট সুব্রত দত্তের বাবা বিশ্বনাথ দত্তের সঙ্গে ডালমিয়ার ছিল মধুর সম্পর্ক। বলা যায়, গুরু–শিষ‍্য সম্পর্ক। ১৯৮৬–১৯৯১ পর্যন্ত সি এ বি সভাপতি ছিলেন বিশ্বনাথ। ’৯২–তে সেই চেয়ারেই বসেন ডালমিয়া। বিশ্বনাথ দত্ত এখন ৯০ পেরিয়েছেন। বাড়িতে বসে টেলিভিশনের পর্দায় দেখেছেন ডালমিয়ার মৃতু‍্যর খবর। দেখেই অসুস্থ হয়ে পড়েন বিশ্বনাথ। ঘরের দরজা–জানলা বন্ধ করে দেন। মানতে পারেননি ডালমিয়ার মৃতু‍্যর খবর। যেমন পারেননি তাঁর পরিবারের সদস্যরাও। রবিবার ডালমিয়ার বুকে স্টেন্ট বসানোর পর যখন স্ত্রী, ছেলে, মেয়ে দেখা করতে যান, প্রতে‍্যকের সঙ্গেই বেশ ভালভাবে কথা বলেন ডালমিয়া। হাসিখুশিই ছিলেন। কন্যা বৈশাল‍ী জানান, ‘বাবা বলেছিল, জামা–কাপড় নিয়ে আসতে। সুস্থ হয়ে বাড়ি ফিরতে চেয়েছিল তাড়াতাড়ি। বলছিল, হাসপাতালে থাকতে ভাল লাগছে না।’ রাতে বাবার মরদেহ নিয়ে বাড়ি ফেরার পর বৈশালী এবং অভিষেক দু’জনেই জানান, হঠাৎ করেই আই সি ইউ–র দরজা বন্ধ করে দেওয়া হয়। অভিষেক জানতে পারেন, বাবার বুকে পাম্প করা হচ্ছে। তিনি ডেকে পাঠান বিশ্বরূপকে। তার পরই জানানো হয়, ডালমিয়ার মৃতু‍্যর খবর। চিকিৎসকেরা জানান, স্টমাকে ব্যাপক রক্তক্ষরণ হওয়ার জ‍‍ন‍্যই মৃতু‍্য হয়েছে ডালমিয়ার। কিন্তু অভিষেকের বক্তব্য, বাবার আলসারের কোনও লক্ষণই জানা ছিল না। ফলে ডালমিয়ার চিকিৎসা নিয়ে সন্দেহ থেকেই গেল পরিবারের। চিরবিদায় নেওয়ার আগে চক্ষুদান করে গেছেন জগমোহ‍ন ডালমিয়া।

    জগমোহন ডালমিয়া মারা গেছেন

    ভারতীয় ক্রিকেট বোর্ডের (বিসিসিআই) প্রধান জগমোহন ডালমিয়া কলকাতায় মারা গেছেন।

    গত বৃহস্পতিবার হার্ট অ্যাটাক হওয়ার পর বিএম বিরলা হার্ট রিসার্চ ইনস্টিটিউটে ৭৫ বছর বয়সী এই ক্রিকেট সংগঠককে ভর্তি করা হয়।

    হাসপাতাল সূত্রের বরাত দিয়ে ভারতীয় সংবাদমাধ্যম জানায়, রোববার সন্ধ্যায় মারা গেছেন আন্তর্জাতিক ক্রিকেট কাউন্সিলের (আইসিসি) সাবেক প্রধান ডালমিয়া।

    এক টুইটার বার্তায় তার মৃত্যুতে শোক জানিয়েছে বিসিসিআই।

    প্রবীণ ক্রিকেট সংগঠকের শরীর শনিবারই কেবল একটু ভালো ছিল। তার চিকিৎসকরা সংবাদমাধ্যমকে জানিয়েছিলেন, বিসিসিআই প্রধানের অবস্থা স্থিতিশীল রয়েছে। তারা এও জানিয়েছিলেন, তাকে এখনও নিবিড় পর্যবেক্ষণে থাকতে হবে।

    গত মার্চে তৃতীয় মেয়াদে বিসিসিআইয়ের সভাপতি হওয়া ডালমিয়ার স্বাস্থ্য নিয়ে গত কিছু দিন ধরেই শঙ্কা ছিল।

    আইসিসির তৃতীয় প্রেসিডেন্ট ছিলেন ডালমিয়া। দায়িত্বে ছিলেন ১৯৯৭ থেকে ২০০০ সাল পর্যন্ত। ক্রিকেটের বিশ্বায়নের অন্যতম স্বপ্নদ্রষ্টা মনে করা হয় তাকে। ক্রিকেটকে বিশ্বজনীন খেলায় রূপ দিতে নিয়েছিলেন অনেক উদ্যোগ।

    তার নানা উদ্যোগ ও দূরদর্শিতায় সেই সময় ক্রিকেটের বাণিজ্যিক প্রসার ছুঁয়েছিল নতুন উচ্চতা।

    বাংলাদেশ ক্রিকেটের বড় বন্ধু মনে করা হতো ডালমিয়াকে। বাংলাদেশে ক্রিকেটের প্রথম বিশ্বআসর আয়োজন সম্ভব হয়েছিল তার দায়িত্বের সময়ই, ১৯৯৮ সালের মিনি বিশ্বকাপ।

    প্রশ্নবিদ্ধ পারফরম্যান্স, উপযুক্ত অবকাঠামো ও আরও অনেক কিছুর ঘাটতি থাকার পরও যে বাংলাদেশ ২০০০ সালে টেস্ট স্ট্যাটাস পেয়েছিল, সেটির পেছনেও বড় অবদান ছিল ডালমিয়ার।

    Jagmohan Dalmiya (1940-2015)

    The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) expresses deep sadness at the passing away of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Jagmohan Dalmiya.

    BCB President Nazmul Hassan, MP said that Mr. Dalmiya’s demise is a tragic loss for Bangladesh’s cricket fraternity: “With the passing away of Jagmohan Dalmiya, Bangladesh Cricket has lost a true friend and a genuine well-wisher.

    “We are forever grateful for the assistance and warmth received from Mr. Dalmiya in taking cricket forward in Bangladesh. It is also apt to say that Bangladesh’s elevation to Test Status in many ways was a result of his farsightedness and wholehearted support.

    “World cricket will sorely miss his dynamism, leadership and vision. His glittering legacy in cricket administration however, will live on.

    “On behalf of the Directors of BCB, I extend our profound sympathies to the family of Mr. Dalmiya. The BCB stands by the BCCI in this time of grief for Indian Cricket.”

    Jagmohan Dalmiya passed away today (Sunday) in Kolkata, India. He was 75 years old.

    In a mark of respect to Mr. Dalmiya, cricketers and officials will observe a minute’s silence and wear black arm band tomorrow (Monday) before the start of the fourth day’s play in matches of the 17th National Cricket League (NCL) at Fatullah, Bogra, Khulna and Rajshahi. At the funeral of Mr Dalmiya on Monday, a BCB delegation is expected to represent the President who is currently out of the country.

    • মাসুদ করিম - ২২ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:২১ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

      ‘বাংলাদেশের ক্রিকেটে ডালমিয়ার ছিল অগাধ বিশ্বাস’

      সাবেক বিসিবি প্রধান সাবের হোসেন চৌধুরী বলেছেন, আজকের বাংলাদেশ যে পারফরম্যান্স দেখাচ্ছে, সেটির স্বপ্ন বহু বছর আগেই দেখেছিলেন জগমোহন ডালমিয়া। আর সেই সময়ের বিসিবি সাধারণ সম্পাদক সৈয়দ আশরাফুল হক বলেছেন, বাংলাদেশের ক্রিকেটে ডালমিয়ার ছিল অগাধ বিশ্বাস।

      রোববার সন্ধ্যায় কলকাতায় মারা যান বিসিসিআই প্রধান ও সাবেক আইসিসি প্রধান জগমোহন ডালমিয়া। বাংলাদেশ ক্রিকেটের অকৃত্রিম এক বন্ধুকে হারিয়ে শোকে মূহ্যমান বাংলাদেশের ক্রিকেটাঙ্গন। বিসিবির সাবেক প্রধান সাবের হোসেন চৌধুরী ও সাবেক সাধারণ সম্পাদক সৈয়দ আশরাফুল হককে আবেগ একটু বেশিই ছুঁয়ে যাচ্ছে। বাংলাদেশের টেস্ট মর্যাদা পাওয়া নিয়ে দুজনই ঘনিষ্ঠভাবে কাজ করেছিলেন ডালমিয়ার সঙ্গে।

      শোকাচ্ছন্ন দুজনই ফিরে তাকালেন সেই দিনগুলোতে, সৈয়দ আশরাফুল হক যেসব দিনকে বলছেন, “সোনালি দিন!”

      সাবের হোসেন চৌধুরী

      বাংলাদেশ ক্রিকেটের জন্য দুর্বলতা উনার সবসময়ই ছিল, আমরা সবাই সেটা অনুভব করতে পারতাম। পশ্চিমবঙ্গের মানুষ ছিলেন তো, বাংলাদেশে ক্রিকেটের যে দীর্ঘদিনের সংস্কৃতি এবং মানুষের যে আবেগ-আগ্রহ এবং স্পন্সরশিপের যে বিপুল সম্ভাবনা; এসব কিন্তু তিনি তখনই অনুধাবন করতে পেরেছিলেন। সেটাকে উনি পুরোপুরি কাজে লাগিয়েছেন।

      উনার যে বিশ্বায়নের স্বপ্ন, সেটার সঙ্গে বাংলাদেশ ক্রিকেটের স্বপ্নকে উনি জুড়ে দিয়েছিলেন। বাংলাদেশের পারফরম্যান্সে আমরা আজকে যেটা দেখছি, উনি সেটা বহু বছর আগেই উপলব্ধি করতে পেরেছিলেন যে, বাংলাদেশ বড় একটা ক্রিকেটীয় শক্তি হতে পারে।

      আমাদের টেস্ট স্ট্যাটাস পাওয়াটা ছিল আসলে অনেকগুলো পদক্ষেপের ফল। আমরা সেটা ধাপে ধাপে অর্জন করেছি। প্রেক্ষাপটটা এজন্য বলছি যে প্রতিটি পদক্ষেপে ডালমিয়া সম্পৃক্ত ছিলেন।

      প্রথম পদক্ষেপ ছিল এসিসির একটি সনদ পাওয়া। আমরা যেহেতু আইসিসির পূর্ণ সদস্যপদ পাচ্ছি, সেখানে আমরা যে অঞ্চলের সদস্য, তাদের সমর্থন না পেলে তো স্বীকৃতিটা মিলত না। এসিসির সমর্থনটা উনি দারুণ ভাবে ব্যবস্থা করেছিলেন।
      দুই নম্বর হচ্ছে, ঢাকাকে কিভাবে আন্তর্জাতিক ক্রিকেট ভেন্যু হসেবে প্রতিষ্ঠা করতে পারি, সেটা ছিল স্ট্র্যাটেজির বড় একটা অংশ। ১৯৯৮ সালে বাংলাদেশে মিনি বিশ্বকাপ হয়েছিল, পরে যেটা আইসিসি চ্যাম্পিয়ন্স ট্রফি হয়েছে। বাংলাদেশে তখন বন্যা, দেশের অনেক অংশ পানির নিচে। বাংলাদেশে টুর্নামেন্ট হবে কিনা, তা নিয়ে বড় সংশয় দেখা দিয়েছিল। টুর্নামেন্টের আয়োজক হওয়া এবং পরে সেটা ধরে রাখায় ডালমিয়ার যে সমর্থন ছিল, সেটা বলে শেষ হওয়ার নয়।

      তিন নম্বর, উনি বিশ্বায়নের স্বপ্ন দেখেছিলেন। ক্রিকেটকে বিশ্বময় ছড়িয়ে দিতে চেয়েছিলেন। আমরা কিন্তু সেই প্রেক্ষাপটের সুযোগ নিয়ে টেস্ট স্ট্যাটাসের আবেদন করলাম। উনি যদি বিশ্বায়নকে প্রতিষ্ঠা করতে না পারতেন, তাহলে বাংলাদেশ নিয়েও আমরা এগুতে পারতাম না।

      সহযোগী দেশগুলোকে সমন্বিত করতে সহযোগিতা করেছিলেন তিনি। আমি প্রথম যখন আইসিসিতে যাই, তখন তিনজন সদস্য আমরা আইসিসি বোর্ডে পাঠাতে পারতাম। এটা উনার কারণেই সম্ভব হয়েছিল। উনার কথা ছিল, আইসিসি বোর্ডে সহযোগী দেশগুলোরও বক্তব্য থাকা উচিত। রাজস্ব ভাগাভাগিতে সহযোগী দেশগুলোকেও বড় অঙ্কের অর্থ দেওয়ার ব্যবস্থা করেছিলেন ডালমিয়া।

      ডালমিয়া শুধু আমাদের টেস্ট মর্যাদা অজনের ক্ষেত্রে নয়, অর্জনের পরে খুবই অল্প সময়ের মধ্যে ভারতকে আমাদের এখানে পাঠিয়ে আমাদের টেস্ট অভিষেক করিয়েছেন। উনি প্রতিটি জাযগায় সহায়হতা করেছেন। সাম্প্রতিক সময়ের কথাও যদি বলি, কিছুদিন আগেও আইসিসিতে ভারতের যিনি প্রতিনিধি ছিলেন, তার সঙ্গে একটা ইস্যু হলো। তখন বলাবলি হচ্ছিলো যে, ভারত এখানে আসবে না। তখন কিন্তু ডালমিয়া ব্যবস্থা নিয়েছেন। আমি উনাকে ফোন করেছিলাম। উনি বললেন, “তুমি কোনো চিন্তাই করো না”।

      বাংলাদেশের প্রতি উনার সমর্থনটা অসাধারণ। ১৯৯৬ সালে যেমন ছিল, ২০১৫ সালেও তাই। প্রচণ্ডভাবে বিশ্বাসী ছিলেন বাংলাদেশ ক্রিকেটের প্রতি। সবসময় বলতেন, ‘একদিন বাংলাদেশ জ্বলে উঠবে। বড় শক্তি হয়ে উঠবে।’ সবাই যখন আমাদের সমালোচনা করত, উনি বলতেন, ‘বাংলাদেশ একদিন জেতা শুরু করলে জিততে থাকবে।’

      একটা সময়, যখন বাংলাদেশের পাশে দাঁড়ানোর লোক কম ছিল, তখন থেকেই তিনি আমাদের পাশে ছিলেন, একবারও সরে যাননি। বাংলাদেশ ক্রিকেটের ভিত্তিটা তৈরি করার ক্ষেত্রে সহযোগিতা করেছেন তিনি, পরে ভিত্তিটা জোড়ালোও করেছেন।

      উনার যে সবচেয়ে বড় দুটি অর্জন, সেটা আমরা কতটুকু ধরে রাখতে পারলাম? এসিসির ঐক্য উনি দারুণভাবে প্রতিষ্ঠা করেছিলেন। ১৯৯৮ সালে আমরা বাংলাদেশে ইন্ডিপেন্ডেন্স কাপ করলাম। বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা নিয়ে ভারত-পাকিস্তান লড়াই করল পক্ষে-বিপক্ষে, সেই দুই দেশকেই বাংলাদেশের ইন্ডিপেন্ডেন্স কাপে এনেছিলেন উনি। তার জিনিয়াসের এটা একটা প্রমাণ। তারপর, ২০১১ সালের বিশ্বকাপ অস্ট্রেলিয়া-নিউ জিল্যান্ডে হওয়ার কথা ছিল। ২০০০ সালে দুবাইতে বসে আমরা ঠিক করি যে, বিশ্বকাপটা এশিয়াতে আনব। সেটাই হয়েছে। এশিয়ার সেই ঐক্য কিন্ত পরবর্তীতে নেতত্বে যারা এসেছেন, তারা ধরে রাখতে পারেননি। আর এর ফলে বিশ্ব ক্রিকেটও দুর্বল হয়েছে।
      উনার আরেকটা চিন্তা ছিল বিশ্বায়নের। অথচ ক্রিকেট এখন সংকুচিত হয়ে যাচ্ছে। অন্যান্য সব বিশ্ব খেলায় সর্বোচ্চ পর্যায়ে দলের সংখ্যা বাড়ছে, আর ক্রিকেটে কমছে। ডালমিয়া, ড. আলি ব্যাখার, জন অ্যান্ডারসন, এহসান মানি, ডেনিস রিচার্ড, তারা ক্রিকেটকে নিয়ে যে চিন্তা করতেন, পরবর্তীতে যারা এসেছেন, তারা ক্রিকেটকে উল্টো পথে টেনেছেন।

      সৈয়দ আশরাফুল হক:

      ১৯৭৯ সালে প্রথম উনার সঙ্গে পরিচয়। ভারতে গিয়েছিলাম। পরিচয় দেওয়ার পর প্রথম যেটা বললেন, ‘ওহ, তুমিই বাংলাদেশের প্রথম আন্তর্জাতিক ম্যাচ জয়ের নায়ক!’ ওই বছরই আইসিসি ট্রফিতে ফিজিকে হারিয়েছিলাম আমরা, আমি ৭ উইকেট নিয়েছিলাম। তিনি ওসব জানতেন। মানে সেই সময় থেকেই বাংলাদেশের ক্রিকেটের খোঁজ-খবর রাখতেন।

      পরে আস্তে আস্তে আমরা খুব ভালো বন্ধু হয়ে উঠি। ১৯৮৩ সালে সিএবি (ক্রিকেট অ্যাসোসিয়েশন অব বেঙ্গল) দলটাকে আমরা এখানে দাওয়াত দিলাম। উনি দলের সঙ্গে এলেন। সম্পর্ক আরও ভালো হলো। আইসিসি প্রেসিডেন্সি নির্বাচনে উনি আমাকে ক্যাম্পেইন ম্যানেজার বানালেন। উনার খুব ঘনিষ্ঠ ছিলাম। ১৯৯৬ সালে বিশ্বকাপের বিডের সময়ও বলেছিলেন, ‘তোমাকে আমাদের প্রয়োজন। সহযোগী দেশগুলোকে পাশে চাই আমি, যেটার ব্যবস্থা তুমি করতে পারবে।’

      ১৯৯৬ সালের বিশ্বকাপে কলকাতায় উদ্বোধনী অনুষ্ঠান থেকে শুরু করে সেমি-ফাইনালের অনেক দায়িত্বে ছিলাম। পরে আইসিসি প্রধান হলেন। তখন সহযোগী দেশগুলোর জন্য বরাদ্দ ছিল ৭৫ হাজার ডলার। আমি বললাম ‘জগুদা, এটা ১ লাখ করে দেন।’ উনি বললেন ‘তুমি যখন বললে, করে দিলাম।’
      আমাদের টেস্ট স্ট্যাটাস পাওয়ায় উনার অনেক বড় অবদান ছিল। ১৯৯৭ সালে প্রথম আবেদন করি। তখন তো আমাদের দেশের ক্রিকেটে বলতে গেলে তেমন কিছুই ছিল না। টেস্ট খেলা তখনও অনেক দূরের স্বপ্ন। কিন্তু ডালমিয়া বলেছিলেন, ‘আবেদন করে রাখো। বিবেচনা করা হবে।’

      ১৯৯৮ সালে আমরা এখানে মিনি বিশ্বকাপ করতে পারলাম শুধু তার জন্য। এত বড় একটা ইভেন্ট সহযোগী দেশকে আর কে দিত!

      সবসময় পাশে দাঁড়াতেন আমাদের। আইসিসি প্রেসিডেন্টের হওয়ার কথা তো নিরপেক্ষ। কিন্তু উনি সবাইকে আলাদা আলাদা করে ব্যক্তিগতভাবে বলে দিতেন আমাদেরকে সমর্থন করতে। আমাদের ওপর অনেক বিশ্বাস ছিল তার। আমাদের ক্রিকেটের ওপর ছিল অগাধ বিশ্বাস।

      উনি স্বপ্ন দেখেছিলেন ক্রিকেট পুরো বিশ্বজুড়ে ছড়িয়ে পড়বে। ক্রিকেটের বাণিজ্যিক প্রসারটাও উনার হাত ধরেই হয়েছে। ক্রিকেটকে জনপ্রিয় করে তুলেছিলেন তিনিই।

    • মাসুদ করিম - ২২ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১:৪৩ অপরাহ্ণ)

      Brusque & ruthless, Jagmohan Dalmiya lifted the game of Cricket

      Many players said in their messages that Jagmohan Dalmiya was a player’s man. No administrator can ask for a better compliment.

      Jagmohan Dalmiya wore safari suits, large spectacles and always had his hair slicked back. In the cliché-ridden world of Hindi cinema, that was what the bad industrialist wore. But Dalmiya loved Indian cricket and Indian cricketers deeply. That latter combination wasn’t as prevalent as you’d like to believe it should be.

      And he was tough. He read the fine print in contracts and exploited it for the benefit of Indian cricket and its finances. It meant he was always prepared and, while I was never in any negotiating room with him, those who were often talked about being befuddled by something that came from left field. The marketing head of one of India’s biggest sponsors once told me that you had to fight tooth and nail with him on contracts but, she added with a smile, once you did that, he respected you!

      Much has been written about his role in the 1987 World Cup. India had no choice but to get it right given the bad blood that had accompanied its exit from England that believed it had a right to host it every time. The India of 1987 was incomparable to the India of 2015. Hotels were limited and sometimes basic. There was only one airline and it was both arrogant and inefficient. And there were people waiting for the tournament to fail. It didn’t. It was a high point in the running of Indian cricket.

      But his finest hour came in 1993 when he took on the establishment over the awarding of television rights. A year and a half earlier, South Africa had come to India as part of a dramatic re-entry into international cricket. Ali Bacher of what was then the newly formed United Cricket Board of South Africa, asked Dalmiya how much India wanted in terms of television rights. Remember, this was only 24 years ago but the BCCI wasn’t aware that it could be paid for television rights. Unaware of what constituted a good amount, they asked the UCBSA to make an offer. What came in reply was several times higher than they would have been happy with. Out of this ignorance came a plan to revolutionise the finances of Indian cricket. And in Inderjit Bindra, Dalmiya found a soulmate and a fighter.

      It was also the time that Doordarshan demanded a production fee from the BCCI on the basis that if they didn’t cover international matches, there would be no revenue from the advertising boards around the boundary. Dalmiya and Bindra sold the rights instead to TWI, the television arm of the giant sports marketing firm IMG. It set off a debate, and a major legal battle, on who owned the air-waves. It was ugly on the ground but the duo stuck to their guns. As late as 1994, there were two crews flying around the country. Two sets of cameramen for every position, two sets of commentators, two sets of equipment and two Russian made Ilyushin aircraft flying everyone around the country. It was the tenacity of Dalmiya and Bindra, and a landmark judgement, that opened the airwaves to all and the rights to Indian cricket began to be sold for amounts that would have been considered unthinkable. Those two unlocked the value of Indian cricket.

      In time to come, Dalmiya would revolutionise the earning capacity of the International Cricket Council. The old establishment could never come to terms with his direct, often blunt, style of functioning but he was too sharp for them. I don’t think he ever received credit for what he did there, and if there was any at all, it was grudgingly accorded. Part of it could be because he played a political masterstroke in getting the 1996 World Cup back to India using the votes that the associate members had. I believe that while 1983 revolutionised Indian cricket, 1987 allowed Indians to see the best in the world, it was 1996 that changed the commercial landscape of Indian cricket.

      I was in Kolkata for the opening ceremony when it became clear that Australia and the West Indies wouldn’t play in Sri Lanka. A couple of quick meetings later, another masterstroke appeared. Dalmiya announced that a combined Indian and Pakistani team would play in Sri Lanka to show solidarity and to prove that it was safe to play there. Not even the absence of a passport with one of the players could come in the way of that visit and that strong message. It was another outstanding World Cup.

      An unfortunate fallout

      Sadly Dalmiya and Bindra were to fall out rather spectacularly some years later. Both loved Indian cricket dearly and the Eden Gardens and a new stadium in Mohali were the new homes of Indian cricket for a while. Together they were a formidable unit, capable of thinking big and executing big. Much has happened since but I have little doubt that Inderjit Singh Bindra will recall those days and that friendship with some pride.

      Dalmiya’s political acumen was to win him most elections he contested and it would, in the late evening of his life, bring him back as a consensus candidate amongst all those that had, at some time, been his bitter opponents. He was that kind of person!

      The relationship between player and administrator is, at the best of times, turbulent. On Dalmiya’s passing, many players said in their messages that he was a player’s man. No administrator can ask for a better compliment. He might have been brusque, politically savvy and often ruthless but he lifted Indian cricket. And the current generation of players must be thankful for that.

  43. মাসুদ করিম - ২১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৫:৪৭ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Riddle of the Ages Solved: Where Did the Philistines Come From?

    Anomalous discoveries in southern Turkey now explained: The Philistine ‘Sea Peoples’ didn’t invade Kunulua, they lived there.

    As civilization collapsed 3,200 years ago, the Sea People – of whom the Philistines were but one – arose, seemingly sweeping away all that stood before them. Now we know where they came from, and it’s not what scholars thought.

    Back then, the mighty Hittite kingdom spanned much of the territory known today as Turkey and Syria. Then, as the Late Bronze Age graduated into the Iron Age I, around 1177 BCE, the entire civilization of the Mediterranean and the Near East collapsed – and the “Sea Peoples,” including the Philistines, ascended.

    Until now, the “Sea Peoples Invasion” theory postulated that the Philistines arose and swept over the region from a base in the Aegean. But recent discoveries at a remote archaeological site in southeast Turkey indicate that the Philistines were already there as the great civilizations collapsed. Amidst the thunderous implosion around them, the Philistines somehow thrived – and supplanted the Hittite rule in that area, apparently making it their home base.

    This unexpected conclusion is supported by new explanations of anomalies found at Tel Tayinat, an archaeological site in the Amuq plain, which spans the border of modern Syria and Turkey.

    Not the Sea People we thought

    Until recently, it was assumed that the site was Hittite because of its location, and that after their empire collapsed its residents evolved into the “neo-Hittite” culture which continued using the ancient names, artistic styles and symbols of the Hittites. Who exactly the “neo-Hittites” of Kunulua were remained a mystery – until now. They were, archaeologists are starting to believe, the Philistines.

    The new theory that Tel Tayinat was a Philistine capital arose from anomalous pottery findings and other oddities found in excavations headed by Prof. Timothy Harrison of the Toronto University’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations.

    The Philistines were one of many groups referred to in ancient records as the “Sea Peoples”. As listed on the mortuary temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu, they included the Danian, Ekwesh, Lukka, Shekelesh, Sherden, Teresh, Tjeker, Weshwesh and the “Peleset” – “Plishtim” in Hebrew, or, the Philistines.

    One reason Tel Tayinat had been assumed to be Hittite is its inland location, some 25 kilometers distance from the Mediterranean shore. The Philistines, who had famously plagued the peoples around the Mediterranean basin, had been thought to mainly stick to coastal areas.

    The first anomaly that in retrospect argued Kunulua was Philistine city was vast amounts of unique pottery called Late Helladic IIIC ware (or Mycenean IIIC ware) – which is one of the markers of the Philistines, and is found in abundance in other Philistine sites, in Israel in particular. The original excavation of Tel Tayinat in the early 1900s had uncovered layers of this stuff, but no one knew what to make of it. Some suggested the Hittite inhabitants had imported it as a luxury good.

    Other distinct Philistine markers found in large amounts in Iron Age levels at Tel Tayinat including unperforated cylindrical loom weights.

    Mere “international trade” by Hittites couldn’t explain the sheer amounts of these items and pottery remains found at Tel Tayinat and its surroundings. Petrographic analyses proved that this pottery was actually locally made and was used for a different way of food preparation by the locals.

    A mysterious king and a mistake

    More than one inscription found at Tel Tayinat, written in the Luwian language used by the Hittites, referred to a mysterious “King Taita”, ruler of “Walistin” or “Patin”; and an earlier find in Hamath, Syria spoke of a King Taita of “Walistin.”

    No one had ever heard of him. It seemed a new kingdom with a new and powerful king was being uncovered at Tel Tayinat.

    A breakthrough came while excavating the temple dedicated to the storm god Adda or Hadad in Aleppo, Syria, in 2003: Kay Kohlmayer, the site’s director, found a relief and dedicatory inscription to “Taita, King and hero of Patastini” and another to “Taita, conqueror of Carchemish”. Taita had restored this ancient temple and had a dedicatory inscription made of his great achievements.

    Based on this new discovery, the reinterpretation of one Luwian hieroglyphic sign and the amassing archaeological evidence John David Hawkins, a Luwian expert, thinks that everybody had been reading these inscriptions wrong, and that the ‘W’ sound should in fact be read as a ‘P’ making Walistin, Palistin, “Patasatini” should be read as “Palasatini” or “Palastin”. That would correspond with the ancient Egyptian mention of “Peleset” as one of the ten Sea People groups.

    In fact, the Hittitologist Prof. Itamar Singer had long thought the Sea Peoples – or at least some of them – came from western Anatolia. There just wasn’t enough evidence to prove him right, until now.

    “Around 1100 BCE, there are indications of a larger political integration of north Syria under the rule of King Taitas,” says Prof. Gunnar Lehmann of Ben Gurion University, who recently conducted a major survey of coastal sites in Turkey. “The inscriptions and the monuments of this king are all written in Luwian hieroglyphs, his reliefs are neo-Hittite but the pottery is Aegeanizing,” meaning shows Aegean influences “It would be very strange indeed if what we have at Tayinat wasn’t [a Philistine hub].”

    Rather than the “Sea Peoples Invasion” theory, Toronto’s Harrison suspects that over time, Philistines migrated in small numbers to the area, and assimilated with the locals. Their arrival was a complex scenario, he says, not some Hollywood movie-type blitz.

    Afterthought: Prophet Isaiah and a smoking gun

    Not only was the homeland of the Philistines found in Tayinat. So, possibly, was evidence of the historic veracity of the Prophet Isaiah.

    In 2012, the University of Toronto team uncovered the top half of a buried life-size statue of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma. A Luwian inscription on the statue’s back recounts his exploits, linking him with a ‘Patinian’ king who fought against the onslaught of Assyria’s Shalmaneser III in 858 BCE.

    It was common for Hittites to have colossal statues guarding the entrances to cities. But when the Assyrians conquered the area in 738 BCE, they would bury sacred items, such as this statue.

    Scholars have long suspected that Prophet Isaiah’s oracle against Assyria (“Is not Calno as Carchemish?… As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols,” Isaiah 10:9-10) alludes to the Assyrian destruction of Kunulua. The buried statue of Suppiluliuma may actually be the physical manifestation of this historic event.

    Anomalous discoveries in southern Turkey now explained: The Philistine 'Sea Peoples' didn't invade Kunulua, they lived there

  44. মাসুদ করিম - ২১ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (৭:১৫ অপরাহ্ণ)

    Russian Meddling in Syria Drives Netanyahu to Moscow

    Aside from reducing risk of unwanted clash between Israeli and Russian fighter jets, PM’s visit should be seen in a wider context of tensions between Moscow and Washington.

    The immediate reason for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Moscow on Monday is increased Russian military involvement in Syria.

    On Sunday, the first satellite photos were released from the air base that Russia is building on the Alawite strip of coast in northern Syria near Latakia. Netanyahu, who in an unusual step is taking Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi, with him and, at the last minute, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, will devote much of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to preventing direct friction between Israel and Russia in the north.

    The aircraft photographed in northern Syria are Sukhoi 27s. Their main mission, according to experts on the Russian Air Force, is to ensure aerial superiority, not bombardment. That underscores the assessment that Russia has not sent its forces to the region just to fight Islamic State, which is what Russia stresses in justifying its new military deployment, but that Moscow wants to establish a more significant presence. Anti-aircraft batteries will apparently also be deployed to protect the base, as well as a small number of ground forces, tanks, APCs, and a special low-profile unit, in what is reminiscent of Russia’s conduct in the war in Ukraine.

    But beyond reducing the risk of an unwanted clash between Israeli and Russian fighter jets over Syria or Lebanon, it seems that the visit should be seen in a wider context of tensions between Moscow and Washington.

    And although Netanyahu only last week said “commentators” were wrong when they warned of a collapse of ties between Israel and the United States in light of the Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu’s current visit to Moscow could be seen as an Israeli jab at Washington. The visit seems to reflect Netanyahu’s lack of faith in the ability or the intent of the United States to protect Israel’s security interests.

    The visit cannot be considered good news in Washington, which led a campaign of condemnation and sanctions against Moscow over its involvement in the war in Ukraine last summer. (Israel did not take a position on that conflict and was duly rewarded by Russia which issued a moderate response to Israel’s actions in the war on Gaza shortly thereafter.)

    The turning point in Russia’s policy in Syria can be traced to about a month ago. It’s interesting that it was a report from Israel — Yedioth Ahronoth’s report on the deployment of Russian fighter jets in northern Syria — that brought the issue to the attention of the world media. A few days later the American media began talking about it. It looks like Jerusalem is encouraging the publication of reports public of developments that would force the United States to intervene. But this time, Netanyahu is adding his high-profile visit to Russia.

    Security sources in Israel who are knowledgeable about preparations for the visit said that Israel wants to ensure that Russian planes will not restrict the Israel Air Force’s freedom of movement on the northern border and will not lead to accidents or aerial battles. To this end, there will be an attempt to set rules of caution and perhaps a coordination procedure. Israel will also tell Russia that it would only consider intervening in Syria if red lines are crossed — namely, terror against Israel from Syrian territory, or an attempt to move advanced weaponry from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    These two red lines are connected to Russia. Most of the advanced arms Syria is getting are Russian. And with regard to terror, Israel is concerned over the third member of the partnership keeping Assad’s regime alive — Iran. Last year there was a series of attacks in the enclave still held by Assad’s forces in the northern end of the Syrian border with Israel in the Golan Heights. It is reasonable to assume that Israel will ask for Russia’s help in reining in attacks led by Iran from the border in the Golan.

    Another question preoccupying Israel involves the fate of the hundreds of thousands of Druze in the Jabal al-Druze region near the border with Jordan. The Druze have in recent months been trying to distance themselves from Assad’s regime, threatened as they are from east and west by Sunni rebel forces.

    Israel has in the past asked the United States to help protect the Druze in light of concern by Druze in Israel and in the Golan Heights for their brethren in Syria. A similar request might be addressed to Putin.

    In an article this week in the magazine Foreign Affairs, the Israeli scholar Dr. Dima Adamsky describes Russia’s current policy in the region as a new and expanded version of Soviet intervention for Egypt during the War of Attrition, 45 years ago.

    Adamsky, of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, writes that the operation was considered a success because the contingent of forces and adviser it sent saved the Egyptian regime and deterred Israel. According to Adamsky, Russia’s new assertiveness in the Middle East serves its supreme goal: attaining regional status parallel to that of the United States, in addition to secondary goals such as creating a buffer zone against jihadists that could strike Russia from the south.

    Russia, Adamsky writes, sees the Arab Spring five years ago as the result of mistaken American Middle Eastern policy and the upheaval in the region almost directly hurt Russian interests when it led to the toppling of Gadhafi’s regime in Libya and endangered Assad’s regime.

    Russia is also working on improving ties with Sunni countries – Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. Russia played an important role in the agreement two years ago on the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria and to a certain extent also helped put together the Iranian nuclear agreement in Vienna.

    Russia hopes to parlay its renewed ties with Egypt and Syria into arms deals and economic contracts with countries in the region. In Moscow, Netanyahu and Eizenkot will be meeting a major player in the region, who long ago stopped making do with playing second fiddle to the United States.

  45. মাসুদ করিম - ২৩ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০১৫ (১০:৩৯ পূর্বাহ্ণ)

    জরুরি অবস্থায় সায় ছিল সঙ্ঘের

    ইন্দিরা গান্ধীর জরুরি অবস্থা জারির পদক্ষেপে সায় ছিল আর এস এসের। জরুরি অবস্থার পর ১৯৭৭–এর লোকসভা ভোটেও কংগ্রেসের সমর্থন ছিল ইন্দিরার প্রতি। সঙ্ঘের শীর্ষ পদে তখন বালাসাহেব দেওরস। ইন্দিরা গান্ধীর সঙ্গে যোগাযোগও গড়ে তুলেছিলেন তিনি। যদিও সঙ্ঘের ঘনিষ্ঠ হিসেবে পরিচিত হতে আগ্রহী ছিলেন না ইন্দিরা। এসব তথ‍্য সামনে নিয়ে এলেন দেশের প্রাক্তন গোয়েন্দা প্রধান টি ভি রাজেশ্বর। জরুরি অবস্থা জারির সময় তিনি ছিলে আই বি–র উপ–প্রধান পদে। অবসরের পর পশ্চিমবঙ্গ–সহ কয়েকটি রাজে‍্যর রাজ‍্যপাল পদে কাজ করেছেন রাজেশ্বর রাও। সম্প্রতি প্রকাশিত হয়েছে তাঁর বই ‘দ‍্য ক্রুশিয়াল ইয়ারস’। প্রাক্তন গোয়োন্দা কর্তার এই বইয়ের নানা তথ্য অস্বস্তিতে ফেলছে অনেককেই। সঙ্ঘকেও।এক টিভি অনুষ্ঠানে তিনি বেশ জোরের সঙ্গেই বললেন, স্বরাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রক বা আই বি–র সঙ্গে কোনও রকম শলামর্শ না করেই ১৯৭৫–এ হঠাৎ জরুরি অবস্থা জারি করে দেন প্রধানমন্ত্রী ইন্দিরা গান্ধী। রেডিওতে এই ঘোষণা শুনে অবাক হয়ে গিয়েছিলেন তিনি। সিদ্ধার্থশঙ্কর রায় ওই সময় পশ্চিমবঙ্গের মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রী। তিনিই ইন্দিরাকে জরুরি অবস্থা জারির পরামর্শ দিয়েছিলেন, এই তথ‍্য সমর্থন করেন রাজেশ্বর। আর জানান, আর এস এস জরুরি অবস্থা জারিকে সমর্থনই করেছিল। দেশে শৃঙ্খলা কায়েম করার যুক্তিতে কড়া পদক্ষেপের প্রতি সমর্থন ছিল তাদের। তখনকার সঙ্ঘপ্রধান বালাসাহেব দেওরস প্রধানমন্ত্রীর বাড়ির সঙ্গে চুপিচুপি কিছুটা যোগাযোগও গড়ে তোলেন। ইন্দিরার কনিষ্ঠ পুত্র সঞ্জয় গান্ধীর তখন বিরাট দাপট। ইন্দিরা এবং সঞ্জয়ের সঙ্গে দেখা করতে চেয়েছিলেন দেওরস। কিন্তু ইন্দিরা এতে সায় দেননি। সঙ্ঘের ঘনিষ্ঠ হিসেবে পরিচিত হতে আপত্তি ছিল ইন্দিরার। এখানেই শেষ নয়, জরুরি অবস্থার পর লোকসভার ভোটেও ‘সুনির্দিষ্টভাবেই’ কংগ্রেসের প্রতি সমর্থন জানিয়েছিল আর এস এস, দাবি রাজেশ্বরের। এটি বেশ অবাক করার মতো খবরই। কেন না, সঙ্ঘের রাজনৈতিক প্রতিষ্ঠান হিসেবে পরিচিত জনসঙ্ঘ (বি জে পি–র পূর্বসূরি)–এর অনেক নেতাই জরুরি অবস্থার সময় জেলে গেছেন। ’৭৭–র ভোটে জয়প্রকাশ নারায়ণের ডাকে একজোট হয়ে জনতা পর্টি তৈরি করে ইন্দিরাকে হঠানোর লড়াইয়ে নামেন তাঁর। টিভি সাক্ষাৎকারে বিষয়টি নিয়ে প্রশ্ন করা হলে, রাজেশ্বর নিজের দাবিতেই অটল থাকেন। বলেন, ইন্দিরা এবং সঞ্জয়ের সঙ্গে দেখা করতে চাওয়ার অর্থ ওটাই ছিল। রাজেশ্বর জানিয়েছেন, জরুরি অবস্থা জারির পর কাকে কাকে গ্রেপ্তার করা হবে, তার একটি তালিকা প্রস্তুত হয় প্রধানমন্ত্রীর বাড়িতে। বিভিন্ন রাজে‍্যর মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রীদের তা জানানো হয়। কয়েকজন মুখ‍্যমন্ত্রীকে উড়িয়ে দিল্লিতে এনে হাতে তুলে দেওয়া হয় সেই তালিকা। ইন্দিরা গান্ধী নিজে, বা সঞ্জয় গান্ধী সেই তালিকা তুলে দিয়েছিলেন। প্রশাসনের ভূমিকা এতে বিশেষ ছিল না। রাজেশ্বরের দাবি, জরুরি অবস্থার সময় দেশে কী হচ্ছে না হচ্ছে, তা ইন্দিরা গান্ধী জানতেন। আই বি তাঁকে নিয়মিত সব জানাত। কিন্তু বিষয়গুলির প্রভাব বা প্রতিক্রিয়া কতটা গুরুতর , তা হয়তো ইন্দিরা বুঝতে পারেননি। তাঁর বইয়ে এক জায়গায় রাজেশ্বর লিখেছেন, জরুরি অবস্থা জারির মাস ছয়েক বাদে তা প্রত্যাহারের পরামর্শ দিয়েছিল আই বি। এই নিয়ে প্রশ্ন করা হলে প্রাক্তন গোয়েন্দাকর্তা বলেন, প্রাথমিকভাবে এতে সায়ও ছিল ইন্দিরা গান্ধীর। কিন্তু সঞ্জয় গান্ধীর আপত্তি ছিল। বিরাট ক্ষমতাধর হয়ে উঠেছিলেন তখন সঞ্জয়। এর পরিণতি সম্ভবত আঁচ করতে পারেননি ইন্দিরা। রাজেশ্বর জানান, বিভিন্ন ব্যক্তি, এমন কি অনেক কংগ্রেস নেতার ওপরও নজরদারি চালাতেন ইন্দিরা। কাজে লাগাতেন র এবং আই বি–কে। তা সত্ত্বেও রাজেশ্বরের মতে, ইন্দিরা গান্ধী ছিলেন একজন ‘অসাধারণ’ প্রধানমন্ত্রী। এই ‘অসাধারণ’ প্রধানমন্ত্রীকে ঘিরে একটি অস্বস্তিকর প্রসঙ্গও কিন্তু এনে েফলেছেন রাজেশ্বর তাঁর বইয়ে। সেটি হল জওহরলাল নেহরুর ব্যক্তিগত সচিব এম ও মাথাইয়ের বইয়ের এক ‘হারানো অধ‍্যায়ের’ প্রসঙ্গ। ‘রেমিনিসেন্সেস অব নেহরু এজ’ নামে একটি বই লিখেছিলেন মাথাই। বইয়ের ২৯ নম্বর অধ্যায়টি শেষ মুহূর্তে তুলে নেওয়া হয়েছিল। অধ্যায়টির শিরোনাম ছিল ‘শি’। ১৫৩ পাতায় প্রকাশকের একটি নোট রয়েছে। তাতে জানানো হয়, লেখক ডি এইচ লরেন্সের ভঙ্গিতে অবারিতভাবে তাঁর ব্যক্তিগত অভিজ্ঞতার কথা লিখেছিলেন এই অধ‍্যায়ে। কিন্তু শেষ মুহূর্তে তিনি এটি তুলে নিতে চেয়েছেন। এই নিয়ে কিছুটা শোরগোল হয় এক সময়। ইন্দিরা গান্ধীর সঙ্গে সম্পর্কের কথাই ওই অধ্যায়ে লিখেছিলেন মাথাই, এরকমই বিশ্বাস অনেকের। মাথাই নিজে বলেছিলেন, না, তেমন কোনও অধ্যায় আসলে ছিল না। কিন্তু রাজেশ্বর লিখেছেন, সেই হারানো অধ্যায়ের পান্ডুলিপি তিনি পেয়েছিলেন। ১৯৮১ সালে মাথাইয়ের মৃতু‍্যর পর চেন্নাইয়ে সেটি তাঁর হাতে দেন তামিলনাড়ুর তখনকার মুখ্যমন্ত্রী এম জি রামচন্দ্রন। তিনি সেটি তুলে দেন ইন্দিরা গান্ধীর হাতে। না, কী আছে ওতে, তা পড়ে দেখেননি রাজেশ্বর।

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