Thursday, March 31, 2011

Importance of Learning English as Second Language

Early days 

According to the census of 1971 the literacy rate of West Bengal was 38.86 percent (Office of the Registrar General, India). Children living in the rural areas and belonging to the marginalized section of the society did not go to schools. Education was primarily restricted to the urban and semi urban areas and was the privilege of the moneyed section. The have-nots had no access to education. The education policy being followed before 1977 had no commitment towards mass education. When the Left Front government came to power in 1977 one of the biggest challenges it faced was to restore some semblance of normalcy in the world of education and to improve upon the rate of literacy.


Importance of teaching in mother tongue

To achieve this Herculean task the government decided, after thorough research and extensive study, to do away with teaching of English in the primary levels. It was decided that students would be taught English from class VI onwards. This particular decision of the government has met with criticism and ridicule down the years. In this article we would like to highlight the reasons why the government took this particular decision.
In an education system riddled with inequities, language can be an obstacle that comes in the way of learning. Educationists, the world over, agree that it is best to teach in the child’s mother tongue. Besides the three states of Mizoram, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir which use English, all the other states of our country use the regional language as the medium of instruction.

Countries like Japan, China, France and Germany have been able to progress without the help of English. But, it is the legacy of colonialism, which has stood in the way of Bengalis respecting themselves.

Udaya Narayana Singh, director of Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, says that internationally, experiments by experts have pointed to the fact that one learns best through one's mother tongue. Singh cautions, that when English is the medium of instruction, many children could get "thrown out of the system" if they have not been exposed to the language in domains such as homes or playgrounds. He points to a study conducted in Nepal by Nepalese Scholar K P Malla on the high dropout rates in higher secondary schools. According to the study, English as a medium of instruction was in itself such a frightening prospect for many of the students that they chose to drop out of schools. Closer home in Hyderabad, pass percentages in areas dominated by the Muslim community (such as Old City) point to the fact that many of the children — who are more conversant in Urdu — drop out because the medium of instruction is Telugu.

The National Policy on Education, 1968, clearly states: the energetic development of Indian Languages and literature is a sine qua non for educational and cultural development. Unless this is done, the creative energies of the people will not be released, standards of education will not improve, knowledge will not spread to the people and the gulf between the intelligentsia and masses will remain if not widen further. Urgent steps should now be taken to adapt them as media of education at the university stage. Seconding this educationist A. K Jalaluddin notes that if children learn in English, they are often not exposed to the literature in their mother tongue. "A major part of the linguistic experience comes from literature," he emphasizes.

In 1864 the US Congress prohibited native American children from receiving instructions in their own language. Seventy years later, the verdict of Congress was defeated and receiving instructions in one’s own mother tongue was accepted as a basic human right. In fact, the United Nations General Assembly Convention of 1989 clearly stated that a child’s education should be directed towards developing his / her cultural identity. Article 30 also furthered the cause by stating that children had the right to use their ethnic language. The imposition of foreign languages for written communication within the systems of education and administration creates unnecessary barriers to the participation of a large part, often a majority, of the population (Bamgbose, 2000, Ouane 2003). United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have encouraged mother tongue instruction since 1953.

There is a large body of research to show that the development of personal and social literacy is greatly impeded by the fact that literacy is promoted in an official language that is seldom spoken and even less frequently written, thereby excluding a large proportion of the population from participation in literacy based social activities (Fagerberg – Diallo 2001, Lopez 2001, Prah 2001). Literacy training in a language in which learners have no competence condemns a majority of children to failure ( Heugh 2005, Alidou and Brock-Utne 2005, Brock_Utne and Alidou 2005 ). Being taught in a language other than one’s mother tongue results in resistance by learners. Signs of resistance can be high illiteracy rates due to low attendance rates, high drop out rates, high repetition rates and low performance in exams. Success in learning enhances self-esteem and motivation to attend school. Stress and anxiety are detrimental to learning.

According to Noam Chomsky (1951) all children do have equal degree of competence in their mother tongue and they are perfect in using it. A child acquires his or her first language without any formal instruction, even without knowing himself/herself that he or she is learning a language. Even the parents and the members in his/her surroundings do not care that the child is learning a language. He learns the language comfortably and swiftly and becomes a full-fledged member of his or her speaking community.

We can safely say that in our country English is the language of the elite. So, forcing all the minorities to learn in such medium is no more than curtailing their fundamental rights. If a nation believes in social inclusion mother tongue instruction can be the best means for incorporating minority groups because ‘a language can become or be made a focus of loyalty for a minority community that thinks itself suppressed, persecuted, or subjected to administration’ (Britannica, 2005).

According to UNESCO report (2007) mother tongue instruction is also important for promoting gender equality and social inclusion. The researches show that girls stay in school longer and more girls enroll in school when they can learn in a language that is familiar to them. Similarly, researches in Africa and Latin America have found that girls, who learn in familiar languages stay in school longer, are more likely to be identified as good students, and do better in achievement tests than girls who do not get home language instruction. Girls prefer to be taught in their mother tongue in their early years because they have less contact with the people who speak other language. This is especially applicable for girls of minorities and indigenous communities. So using their language as the medium of instruction might increase their enrollment rate.

Ying Lao and Stephen Krashen (1999) who carried out a research in China reported that, ‘in spite of the initial opposition from parents, students, teachers and administrators mother-tongue teaching has provided a positive, non-threatening learning environment for students. Students in Chinese-medium programs appear to be more active, appear to learn more subject matter, enjoy school more, and are improving in English’.

“If children of aadibasi/janajati had the opportunity to learn, read and write in their own language, it would help reduce the dropout of aadibasi/janajati children from the schools” (Limbu 2003). One of the biggest obstacles to Education for All remains in place: the use of foreign language for teaching and learning (UNESCO 2007).

As stated above forcing children to learn a new language before they can learn anything else creates an educational handicap that should be avoided. Use of the home language in school increases parents’ participation and influence. The parents are happy when their children use their mother tongue in learning new knowledge because their identity largely lies in the language used by their ancestors. Moreover, the parents are likely to help their children if they acquire education in their mother tongue.

The most significant merit of mother tongue instruction is that once a child can read and write one language, the skills are transferred to other languages (UNESCO 2007).

Myths busted

The fear of English is one major reason for the large number of dropouts from primary classes, particularly in the villages. Several national education commissions headed by Zakir Hussain, Radhakrishnan and D M Kothari, have recommended the study of English only after primary level.

Studies have shown that adolescents are in many ways better at learning a new language than children, except in the area of pronunciation. This is probably because they are already literate in their first language and can use some of their knowledge about language and language learning.

One researcher (T. Scovel, 1999 The Younger The Better Myth and Bilingual Education) talks of the dangers of double semi-lingualism for early learners of a second language; i.e. the child does not develop full proficiency in either of the two languages. Current research says that the best age to start learning a second language is early adolescence, so about 11-13.

Experimental research in which children have been compared to adults in second language learning has consistently demonstrated the inferiority of young children. Even when the method of teaching appears to favor learning in children, they perform more poorly than do adolescents and adults (e.g., Asher & Price, 1967).

A study of 17,000 British children learning French in a school context indicated that, after five years of exposure, children who had begun French instruction at age eleven were more successful language learners than children who had begun at eight years of age (Stern, Burstall, & Harley, 1975). The investigators in this study, the largest single study of children learning a second language in a formal classroom setting, concluded that older children are better second language learners than are younger ones.

Similar results have been found by other studies by European investigators--studies of Swedish children learning English (Gorosch & Axelsson, 1964), of Swiss children learning French (Buehler, 1972), and of Danish children learning English (Florander & Jansen, 1968).

French immersion programs in Canada, where English-speaking children in late immersion programs (in which the second language is introduced in grades seven or eight) have been found to perform just as well (or better) on tests of French language proficiency as children who began their immersion experience at kindergarten or grade one (Genesee, 1981, 1987).

National Policy on second language instruction after independence

  • Committee on Secondary Education in India, 1948 (the so-called Tara Chand Committee), recommends that, “The teaching of the Federal language should be started at the end of the Junior Basic stage”.
  • The first syllabus for the Primary schools published by the Directorate of Education, West Bengal in 1950, contains no agendum of teaching a second language till class V.
  • The first school Education Committee ( President Rai Harendranath Chaudhuri ) of 1948 decided that “ English should not be taught in the primary classes [ I- V] ”.
  • The Himangshu Bimal Mazumdar Commission, set up during the Congress government in 1974, had suggested abolition of English from the primary level. The committee submitted its report in 1979 and its recommendations were implemented by the Left Front government from 1982.

These arguments should be enough to silence the detractors who have been screaming themselves hoarse that the abolition of English from the primary level has harmed two generations of students in West Bengal. On the contrary, the introduction of mother tongue as the medium of instruction has been an enabling factor to increase the rate of literacy from 38.86 percent in 1971 to 68.64 percent in 2001. Education has reached the masses and is no longer the sole prerogative of the privileged section of the society. This has led to the empowerment of women and other vulnerable section of the society. Mother tongue instruction has proved to be the vehicle for social integration and a means for reducing social stratification. So-called standard language is the language of elites. Mother tongue instruction is better for creating social equality. It helps in preserving cultural diversity and helps to promote gender equality by empowering women of underprivileged groups. High literacy rate has ensured low infant mortality and drop in child marriages. A substantial percentage of women have become economically self sufficient ensuring an improvement in the quality of life both in the urban and rural areas. And all this has been possible because education was imparted in a language that made it interesting to all sections of the society.

Reasons for re-introducing English at the primary level

Fishman says, “Languages are rarely acquired for their own sake. They are acquired as keys to other things that are desired. ” A similar statement has also been made by Traunmuller who says; “…… a second language will be learned if and only if the presumptive learner estimates the advantages of knowing that language to be higher than the costs.”

The One-Man Committee on English in Primary Education (1998), headed by Prof. Pabitra Sarkar, observes that land reforms, distribution of vested lands to the landless cultivators, fixation and revision of the minimum daily wages for the labourers, decentralisation of administration through the panchayats, expansion and improvement of surface communications and transport, opportunities of education made more plentiful have all contributed to the burgeoning of the middle-class. These neo-middle class as also the aspirants expected their children to rise up the social ladder, and English is perceived as a tool for this ascent. This led to a demand for teaching English from the lower classes.

The other reasons which led to the re-introduction of English from the primary level are the introduction of Information Technology and rapid computerization which led to the demand in the number of English knowing employees. Moreover, Computer, as a subject was introduced from lower classes which made introducing English from the primary level very important.

Bangla and Bangaliana

Bengali is steadily losing ground to English. A generation of Bengalis from Kolkata, sent to English-medium schools, has grown up without much knowledge of Bengali. It will be interesting to survey how many young Bengalis going to English-medium schools know the Bengali alphabet well! Many read Satyajit Ray’s Feluda series in English translation. The vast repository of Bengali literature is out of bounds for many of this generation. Even in social dos, Bengali and Bengaliana seem to lose out to English. What is captivating is the fact that no one has till date ever made a demand to make Bengali compulsory in the English-medium schools from class I. No political party has ever called a bandh on this issue. Is it because parents are indulgent if their child is not very fluent in Bengali? Being fluent in English is more fashionable than being fluent in Bengali. So no hue and cry is made to force the government to compel these English-medium schools to teach Bengali.

Along with increasing influence of globalisation the number of language in the world is decreasing dramatically. Graddol (2007) states, that the number of languages in the 15th century was more than 14,000. This number has now fallen to only 6000. What is worrying is that “90 percent of these are in some danger of falling into disuse” (Educational Encyclopedia 2000). Now the question is would we allow Bengali to be a part of that 90 percent? Should we preserve linguistic diversity or let the homogenization of language in the name of globalisation? It is time to ponder.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Rural Development in West Bengal – Panchayati Raj

The most outstanding contribution of the Left Front government has been the introduction of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in West Bengal. Panchayati Raj Institutions – the grass-roots units of self-government – have been proclaimed as the vehicles of socio-economic transformation in rural India. The pro-poor orientation and ideological commitment of the ruling Left Front government are said to have precipitated rural development more successfully in West Bengal than elsewhere in India. Panchayats have changed the face of the state of West Bengal. There has been all round development of the rural population. The villages have got an institution of their own which transformed their standard of living to a higher level under the present Left Front regime. The three tier Panchayat Raj Institutions are directed to alleviation of poverty and rural development.

West Bengal is one of the forerunners in installing a 3-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions for rural local governance in India. The present generation Panchayats in the state started its journey in 1978 under the aegis of a new act, The West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973, 15 years ahead of the 73rd and 74th Amendment of the Constitution of India, passed in 1993. Ever since their inception, the state has demonstrated strong commitment to rural decentralization by ensuring regular elections to Panchayats and entrusting them with increasing responsibility of implementing various rural development programmes. The state also ensured adequate representation of the socially backward classes – Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women for their involvement in the process of socio-economic development.
Direct elections to all the three tiers were made mandatory through universal adult franchise. It was mandated that elections would be held at regular intervals without any discretionary power of any authority to postpone such elections indefinitely.

The Panchayat election in 1978 was a trendsetter, as it broke new grounds in two areas. First, for the first time in the country the political parties were allowed to contest elections to Panchayats openly with their party symbols. Secondly, direct elections were held to all the three tiers. In another way also the Panchayats set up in 1978 were different from those of the rest of the country. Those who came to the leadership of these bodies through elections did not belong to the traditional upper stratum of the rural society. The new leadership came largely from the class of middle peasantry and professional groups like school teachers.
Initially the PRIs played significant roles in education and mass education extension, health support, both curative and preventive including environmental sanitation, supply of drinking water, agriculture, irrigation, animal resources development, village plantation, cottage industry and social welfare. With passage of time the role of Panchayat has been further expanded and its functional area has been increasingly extended to include additional activities. All poverty alleviation programmes sponsored by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, have been assigned to the Panchayat Institutions. In any programme or scheme for extending any benefit to the weaker section including Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Panchayats, even when it is not implementing the scheme, has been assigned the role of selection of sites and of beneficiaries relating to such schemes. The Panchayats play a very significant role in supporting the State initiative in improving nutrition of children and mothers and are taking initiative of their own for raising nutrition level of the poorer people. 

In the State level, Panchayats & Rural Development Department of the Government of West Bengal is the Nodal Agency for Implementation; Supervision & Monitoring of the major poverty alleviation programmes in the rural areas of the State and at the District-level, Zilla Parishad is the implementing agency for the same. 

Under three-tier system of democratic decentralization, Zilla Parishad is the apex body at the district level followed by Panchayat Samitis at Block level as second-tier and Gram Panchayats, the third-tier.

District Wise Block and Gram Panchayats

Sl. No.
District No. of Blocks / Panchayat
Samitis No. of Gram
Panchayats
1
Bankura
22
190
2
Birbhum
19
167
3
Burdwan
31
277
4
Coochbehar
12
128
5
Dakshin Dinajpur
8
65
6
Darjeeling
8
112
7
Hoogly
18
210
8
Howrah
14
157
9
Jalpaiguri
13
146
10
Malda
15
146
11
Murshidabad
26
254
12
Nadia
17
187
13
24 Parganas (N)
22
200
14
Paschim Midnapore
29
290
15
Purba Midnapore
25
223
16
Purulia
20
170
17
Siliguri
4
22
18
24 Parganas (S)
29
312
19
Uttar Pradesh
9
98
Total
341
3354

A malicious campaign is being carried out by vested interests saying that the incumbent Left Front government has not done anything substantial for the rural poor. These fascist forces are trying to mislead the people into believing that the Left Front government does not believe in democracy and has been trying to strangle democracy in the state. Nothing can be further from the truth. One of the first things that the Left Front did, after assuming power in 1978, was to institute Panchayati Raj Institutions. We need to remember that the opposition has amongst its fold a very prominent leader who, during his tenure as the Minister in Charge of Municipal Affairs between 1972 and 1977, had summarily dismissed the then Communist Party led Kolkata Municipal Corporation. So the people of West Bengal must very prudently elect their next government. They need to decide whether they would want to enjoy their democratic rights as they have been doing for the last 34 years or they want to plunge the state to the dark days of early and mid 1970s. Would we want some draconian law or the whim of an individual do away with all the good work that has been done since 1978 through the Panchayati Raj Institutions ? We need to pause and ponder and then decide in favour of democracy and decentralisation of power. We need to allow the government to carry on with the excellent work that was begun 33 years ago. We do not want an autocratic regime which will run the State from within the four walls of the Writers’ Building.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

মার্কিন খেলা ফাঁস দূতাবাসের বার্তায়, বেছে বেছে মার্কিনপন্থীদের মন্ত্রী করেছেন মনমোহন

ভারতের মন্ত্রিসভায় রদবদল হচ্ছে, খুশি হচ্ছে মার্কিন প্রশাসন। কোন কোন মন্ত্রী ‘মার্কিনপন্থী’, কে কে মন্ত্রী হওয়ায় আমেরিকার লাভ হবে, স্পষ্ট জানানো হচ্ছে নয়াদিল্লির মার্কিন দূতাবাস থেকে।

এমন যে হচ্ছে, তার ইঙ্গিত ছিলোই। এখন ‘উইকিলিকস’ দিল্লির মার্কিন দূতাবাস থেকে ওয়াশিংটনকে পাঠানো বার্তা ফাঁস করে তার প্রমাণ দিনের আলোয় এনে দিয়েছে। এই বার্তা বা কেবলস এখন ভারতের সংবাদমাধ্যমের হাতে এসে পৌঁছেছে। মঙ্গলবার তার কিছু অংশ প্রকাশিত হয়েছে। সেখানেই দেখা যাচ্ছে, ২০০৬-র জানুয়ারি মাসে ইউ পি এ মন্ত্রিসভায় যে রদবদল হয়েছিল, তা মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের স্বার্থ রক্ষা করেছে। পেট্রোলিয়াম দপ্তরের মন্ত্রী মণিশঙ্কর আয়ারকে সরিয়ে দেওয়া হয় ইরানের সঙ্গে পাইপলাইন চুক্তি নিয়ে এগোনোর ফলে। তার বদলে ওই দপ্তরে আনা হয় মুরলী দেওরাকে, যাঁকে মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রদূত বলছেন ‘মার্কিনপন্থী’। ভারত-আমেরিকা সংসদীয় ফোরামের সাতজনকে মন্ত্রী করা হয়, এমন সাতজন যাঁরা ‘প্রকাশ্যেই মার্কিন রণনীতির পক্ষে সওয়াল করে থাকেন’। ওই রদবদল সম্পর্কে মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রদূত ডেভিড মালফোর্ড তাঁর ঊর্ধ্বতনদের জানাচ্ছেন, ‘ভারত-মার্কিন সম্পর্ককে দ্রুত এগিয়ে নিয়ে যাওয়া নিশ্চিত করার প্রত্যয় নিয়েই’ এই পরিবর্তন করা হয়েছে।

ইউ পি এ সরকার তৈরি হয় ২০০৪-এ। বামপন্থীদের চাপের মুখে থাকা ওই সরকার এমন কিছু পদক্ষেপ নিতে বাধ্য হয় যা নয়া উদারনীতির রথকে শ্লথ করে দেয়। একই সঙ্গে মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সঙ্গে ঘনিষ্ঠ রাজনৈতিক-সামরিক সম্পর্ক তৈরির যে প্রক্রিয়া এন ডি এ সরকার শুরু করেছিল, তা-ও শ্লথ হবার আশঙ্কা দেখা দিয়েছিল। ২০০৬-র ২৮শে জানুয়ারি কেন্দ্রীয় মন্ত্রিসভার রদবদল বামপন্থীরা-সহ অনেকের মনেই প্রশ্ন তুলেছিল। সচেতনভাবেই মার্কিন-মুখী, তথাকথিত সংস্কারমুখী অভিমুখ জোরদার করার লক্ষ্য নিয়েই ওই রদবদল করা হয়েছে বলে অভিযোগও উঠেছিল। বিশেষ করে ইরানের বিরুদ্ধে ভারতকে দাঁড় করানোর চেষ্টা চলছে, সেই কারণেই চাপের মুখে ইরানের সঙ্গে পাইপলাইনের কোনো চুক্তি যেন না হয় তার চেষ্টা চলছে এই অভিযোগও উঠেছিল। সেই পাইপলাইনের জোরালো সমর্থক মণিশঙ্কর আইয়ারকে পেট্রোলিয়াম মন্ত্রক থেকে সরিয়ে দেওয়া হয়। এখন দেখা যাচ্ছে, অভিযোগ সঠিক। মার্কিন প্রভাব কতটা ক্রিয়াশীল ছিলো, তার প্রমাণ দিল্লির রাষ্ট্রদূতের পাঠানো কেবলসের ছত্রে ছত্রে।

কী বার্তা পাঠিয়েছিলেন ডেভিড মালফোর্ড? ২০০৬-র ৩০শে জানুয়ারি পাঠানো কেবলসের (৫১০৮৮: গোপন) কিছু উদ্ধৃতি:

-ইউ পি এ’র ২৮শে জানুয়ারি মন্ত্রিসভার রদবদল ভারত-মার্কিন সম্পর্ককে দ্রুত এগিয়ে নিয়ে যাওয়া নিশ্চিত করার প্রত্যয় নিয়েই।

-বিতর্কিত ও ইরানের পাইপলাইনের সওয়ালকারী মণিশঙ্কর আইয়ারের বদলে মার্কিনপন্থী মুরলী দেওরাকে নিয়ে আসা হয়েছে। আইয়ার মার্কিন-বিরোধিতা করতেন। তাঁর সঙ্গে দীর্ঘদিন ধরে দূতাবাসের সম্পর্ক আছে। দেওরা ভারত-মার্কিন সম্পর্ক জোরদার করার অগ্রণী সমর্থক। দেওরা গান্ধী পরিবারের অনুগামী, মুম্বাইয়ের ধনী শিল্পপতি এবং রিলায়েন্সের সঙ্গে তাঁর দীর্ঘদিনের সম্পর্ক। রিলায়েন্সের তেলের ব্যবসায় তাঁর উল্লেখযোগ্য শেয়ার আছে।

-গ্যাস অথরিটিতে আমাদের সূত্র জানাচ্ছে আইয়ার ইরান-পাকিস্তান-ভারত পাইপলাইনের হয়ে কথা বলে প্রধানমন্ত্রীর দপ্তরকেও বিপদে ফেলে দিয়েছিলেন।

-আমাদের স্ট্র্যাটেজিক সম্পর্কের হয়ে দীর্ঘদিন ধরে কথা বলছেন এবং ভারত-আমেরিকা সংসদীয় ফোরামের সাত জনকে মন্ত্রী করা হয়েছে।

-আমাদের প্রাথমিক মূল্যায়ন হলো শক্তি সংক্রান্ত মন্ত্রকে নতুন তিন মন্ত্রী নিয়োগ মার্কিন সরকারের স্বার্থের পক্ষে ভালো। মার্কিন-মুখী পরিবর্তন হলো।

- এই রদবদল মার্কিন সরকারের পক্ষে অনেক সুসংবাদ বহন করে এনেছে। সাইফুদ্দিন সোজ, আনন্দ শর্মা, অশ্বিনী কুমার, কপিল সিবাল, মুরলী দেওরার জোরদার মার্কিনপন্থী রেকর্ড রয়েছে। মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রপতির ভারত সফরের আগে এই বার্তা দেওয়া হলো।

-মন্ত্রিসভার রদবদলের মার্কিনপন্থী ঝোঁক অস্বীকার করা যাবে না। বামপন্থীরা এতে ক্রুদ্ধ হয়েছেন। তাঁরা মনে করছেন এটি খোলাখুলি যুদ্ধের আমন্ত্রণ। বামপন্থীরা মনে করছেন কংগ্রেস মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের কাছে মাথা নিচু করছেন। এর ফলে তাঁরা আরো ক্ষুব্ধ হয়ে আরো অসহযোগিতা করবে। বামপন্থীদের সঙ্গে কংগ্রেসের দ্বন্দ্ব বাড়ছে এবং আরো সংঘাতের সম্ভাবনা বাড়ছে।

মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রদূতের এই ধারণাটি পরে সত্যি প্রমাণিত হয়েছে। পরমাণু চুক্তিকে কেন্দ্র করে বামপন্থীদের বিরোধিতা তুঙ্গে ওঠে। বামপন্থীরা বারংবার অভিযোগ করছিলেন, মার্কিন চাপে এমনকি দেশের বিদেশনীতি নির্ধারিত হচ্ছে। এখন দেখা যাচ্ছে, মালফোর্ড ২০০৬-র শুরুতেই বার্তা পাঠাচ্ছেন মনমোহন সরকারের কাজে ‘আমাদের বিদেশ মন্ত্রক’ (মার্কিন বিদেশ মন্ত্রক) খুশি। বামপন্থীদের অভিযোগ এখন প্রমাণিত।

স্বাভাবিকভাবেই এই দলিল ফাঁস হওয়ায় অস্বস্তিতে মনমোহন সরকার। কংগ্রেসের পক্ষ থেকে এই সংবাদের বিশ্বাসযোগ্যতা নিয়ে প্রশ্ন তোলা ছাড়া কিছুই করার ছিলো না। যদিও বিশ্বজুড়েই উইকিলিকসের ফাঁস করা তথ্য নিয়ে রাজনৈতিক শোরগোল চলছে।


মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রদূত ডেভিড মালফোর্ডের পাঠানো কেবল।


Source: Ganashakti, 15th March 2011

Monday, March 14, 2011

Honesty As Defined By TMC-Congress

The inhabitants of Gunrajpur village in Swarupnagar block in North 24 Parganas cannot stop wondering at the marvelous work being done by their Trinamul Congress – Congress alliance run panchayat. It was with very high hopes that they had elected this alliance. They had dreams of a better life, an improved standard of living. The panchayat has indeed done something which is really out of the ordinary. Even though not an ounce of soil has been dug Rs. 7 lakh has been spent on digging not one, not two but four ponds ! Isn’t this spectacular ! 

This piece of invaluable information was uploaded on the official website of the Department of Panchayats and Rural Development, West Bengal, based on the information provided by the Govindpur panchayat.

Mariful Biswas, Jamaludin Mufat, Riwajul Sardar and Atiwar Rahman who have been shown as the owners of the four ponds are inhabitants of Gunrajpur village. These four villagers have themselves informed that not even an ounce of soil has been dug.

The website goes on to provide more such marvelous information. The panchayat has achieved one outstanding feat after another. They have claimed to have covered every single widow in the village under the widow pension scheme. Every homeless has been provided shelter under the Indira Awas Yojona.

The real fact of the matter is that the claims made by the TMC – Congress run Govindpur panchayat is not being backed by the villagers of Gunrajpur. Even though no digging has happened it has been claimed that four ponds have been dug and the money has been usurped. And the money shown as spent is no small amount – it is Rs. 7 lakh.

Money allotted under the Indira Awas Yojona was also usurped by the members of the panchayat. These members did not stop at this. They stooped even lower. Muslim women whose husbands were still alive were shown as widows and the money allotted under the widow pension scheme was wrongfully appropriated.

When the villagers decided to lodge a complaint with the Block Development Officer (BDO) against this misappropriation of government fund meant for the welfare of the marginalised, they were intimidated by the workers and supporters of TMC and Congress. The hapless villagers have lodged a complaint with the Swarupnagar Police Station against the Congress and TMC leaders.

Is this the change that the people of West Bengal want? Can this alliance, which is promising to bring about “proportion” in the state, be trusted with the administration of the state? An alliance as corrupt as this will wreck havoc if they are brought to power. The state exchequer will be plundered by these people for whom politics is not for the welfare of the people at large, but it is for their own narrow interest. Instead of bringing relief to the life of the down-trodden they will line their own pockets. We the people of West Bengal must, therefore, decide what is good for us. It is time we decided how and by whom we want to be governed. We must decide whether we will allow a bunch of power-hungry and corrupt politicians to rule over us.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Nepotism - The Trinamool Congress Way

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is an Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on August 25, 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage of Rs. 100 per day. It is considered by many to be one of the major reasons for the re-election of the UPA in the general election of 2009. The scheme has become so successful that many state governments have projected to the people this scheme as their own. So much so that the scheme, which was originally called National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, had to be renamed to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

The Trinamool Congress Party and its leader, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, have an uncanny aptitude in emulating what other political parties have done, especially if the latter has reaped electoral gains from it. Therefore, it is little wonder that the party, after gaining the reins of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, would introduce a scheme very similar to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The motive behind this is definitely not reaching out to the urban poor but to encash on its vote-catching abilities before the crucial Assembly elections.

So the TMC-run Kolkata Municipal Corporation board did not have the patience to wait for the completion of the BPL list. Imitating the central scheme, the civic body introduced the 100-day work scheme for BPL families in December 2010. KMC did not take the trouble of specifying clearly that only those from BPL families can register. Neither did it issue instructions that only unemployed youth could register.

This instance of bad administration and lack of planning has allowed the likes of Rohit Mondol, a TMC supporter, to take wrongful advantage of the scheme. Rohit, a 27 year old from Bansdroni, is a driver by profession with a monthly earning of Rs. 4000. This young man was taken by a TMC leader to the local councilor who got him enrolled under the “right to work” scheme. So, apart from his salary, Rohit earns Rs. 100 per day for the work he does under the scheme. That works out to an income of Rs. 10,000 a year over and above the annual salary of Rs. 48,000 plus a Rs. 4,000 bonus (equal to a month’s pay) he earns as a driver.

Neither is Rohit’s family in poverty nor does it figure in the BPL list. But then the scheme was not formulated to benefit the marginalised, it was introduced to benefit those who support TMC. A very clear case of NEPOTISM. The money, Rs. 25 crore, has been granted by the state government to implement the scheme in all 141 wards.

Mamata Banerjee alleges at every single meeting of hers that the CPI(M) indulges in nepotism. She has, on a number of occasions promised that if she is voted to power she would work for “everyone” without making any distinction between supporters of different political parties. But once again she has proved that whatever she says has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Because she does not believe in practicing what she preaches. She has two set of principles – one that she espouses in her public meetings and one that she privately follows and instructs her sycophants to follow. Incidents like these expose the REAL Mamata Banerjee who is forever advocating the causes of maa mati manush. She is out to use the gullible people of Bengal in pursuing her personal dream.

Ms. Banerjee is keen to portray herself as an able administrator and a person with a vision. The way the KMC has been functioning ever since the change of guard does not speak well about her administrative skills or her vision. (It is well known by all that every single decision taken by KMC has her approval or rather taken by her and then passed on to the Mayor, Sovon Chatterjee.) She speaks about “Administrative Reforms” that she will bring about if made the Chief Minister. Now the question is why doesn’t she bring those reforms in KMC? What has happened to that vision that she talks about when addressing the elites of Bengal? Or, is it plain and simple nepotism, the politics of rewarding those who have shed their sweat for the party?

She is neither an able administrator nor is she above petty party politics. She is only an able rabble rouser. In a very sly way Mamata Banerjee is using the money received from the state government to further her own cause. A lie is being spread in a planned way to fool the people of Bengal.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Aam Admi Taken for a Ride in Union Budget 2011-12

The words “aam admi” has been used by the Congress–led UPA to death. Everything that they do they do it for the aam admi. At least that is what they claim. And why not, it has helped them win elections, not once but twice.

Interestingly, the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, while delivering the budget speech in Parliament, mentioned aam admi only once. May be it was his way of signaling to the aam admi that this budget would not champion their causes, rather it would look after the interests of the corporate world and its denizens. It was a warning sign that UPA II was abandoning its aam admi agenda.

At a time when food inflation hovered around 15 percent, the annual inflation of primary articles stood at 15.77 percent and the fuel price index was 12.14 percent the Finance Minister presented the Union Budget of 2011-12 which is, at best, unimaginative and totally ignored the problems faced by the people and the economy. The common man is at his wit’s end to make ends meet. In this backdrop the Finance Minister announced an enormous slash of Rs. 20,000 crore in fuel, fertilizer and food subsidy, the three ingredients whose price rise hits the aam admi the hardest. The fact that this government is not serious about addressing the issue of food security is amply proved by the reduction of food subsidy by Rs. 27 crore. These announcements unveil the anti – poor face of the UPA II.

Through his budget speech the Finance Minister has given a message of the Government’s policy of patronizing the corporates, traders and speculators. Under the guise of augmenting food storage capacity cold chains and storage facilities have been provided infrastructure status knowing fully well that these post harvest storage facilities would be illegally used by the hoarders to artificially hike the food grain prices.

Even though the Finance Minister has admitted that more than 40 million tonnes of food grains are stored with the government ( which is much above the buffer stock norm ), the latter has no plans to propose any step to distribute the surplus grains at reduced prices through the Public Distribution System. The nation had watched aghast on national television millions of tonnes of food grains rotting out in the open. Even then the government declined to distribute those rotting grains amongst the overwhelming number of poor who survive on less than Rs. 20 per day (according to the Arjun Sengupta report). The argument put forward then was that free distribution of food grains would bring down prices which would discourage farmers from growing food crops.

The budgetary provisions, for agriculture, have remained much below the requirement and actually marked a decline both as proportion to overall budgetary expenditure and as percentage of GDP. Despite a target of 4 percent growth in agriculture the agricultural growth rate has hung around 2 percent on average. In such a disturbing scenario it is shocking that the budget provision for the Agriculture Department has been cut from last year. This may be because the poor, illiterate farmers living in the remotest parts of India do not follow the Union Budget and are, therefore, oblivious to the malevolent policies of the central government.

The budgetary decision to reduce direct tax to the tune of Rs. 11,500 crore while increasing the burden of indirect tax by Rs. 11,300 crore is another dubious decision of the government. This single decision exposes UPA II’s bias against the aam admi. Though surcharge on corporate taxes has been reduced the custom and excise duties on crude oil and petroleum products have remain unchanged. Crude oil price has shot up alarmingly in the international market. With excise and custom duties remaining unchanged the government allows itself the opportunity to raise the petroleum product price at regular intervals.

It appears that the only agenda of the government is to reduce subsidies, through direct and indirect means, on essentials like food, kerosene, diesel, LPG, fertilizers etc. all items that touch the lives of the aam admi.

The budget has failed miserably to declare any single concrete step for recovering black money as well as huge tax arrears, both within and outside the country. Not much has been said about containing tax evasion and other forms of tax leakages. When the country is reeling under one multi-crore scam after another, involving ministers and other senior officials of the government, the Finance Minister did not say much other than to pay lip service about probity in public life.

Social inclusion and equity remained small ticket add-ons in the Budget where the poor have been left out. The MGNREGA scheme, which was till last year tom-tommed as testimony of UPA’s concern for the aam admi because of its multi-thousand crore allocation fund, has lost its sheen. It found only a passing mention in the Finance Minister’s speech. Outlay to MGNREGA scheme has been frozen at Rs. 40,000 crore, despite the fact that wage hike would entail higher expenditure. It seems that the flagship scheme has run its course of yielding political dividend. So concern for aam admi can take a walk!

The budget for the rural self employment scheme, SGSY, has come down by Rs. 28 crores. The demands of the urban poor have been ignored and the much awaited urban employment guarantee scheme has not been announced.

During UPA I there was a lot of talk about opening up the banking and insurance sectors to foreign capital. But at that time the Congress-led UPA had to depend on the Left parties for their survival. And the Left ensured that the government could not go ahead with its malicious plans. As a result when the whole world was staggering under massive recession India remained insulated. The pangs of recession were not felt by us.

The announcement of impending legislations directed at liberalizing the sensitive financial sectors like insurance, banking and pension funds is meant to appease foreign finance capital. Individual foreign investors can now invest directly in Indian mutual funds which would facilitate the flow of speculative finance into the economy. The common man who toils all his life and puts aside his life’s savings in the banks or brings out insurance to tide over his old age will be hit the hardest when another recession hits the financial sector.

Union Budget 2011-12 reflects continuity of the same neo-liberal, corporate captive, anti-people policies spreading miseries for the millions to benefit the creamy layer who comprise of about 5 percent of our society. This budget will also benefit the foreign investors. But, sadly, it has very little for the teeming millions of the country who toil tirelessly to arrange one square meal a day. With no elections coming up in the next couple of years aam admi has been obliterated to cater to the interests of the handful.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Mamata Banerjee Leads Indian Railways to Bankruptcy

The pet rhetoric of the Trinamul Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee, and of her lieutenants has been bad governance or lack of governance of the Left Front government. She is joined by her intellectual friends in denouncing the incumbent government. She has been promising good governance to the people of West Bengal if she is elected as the Chief Minister. She has promised to bring about “administrative reforms”. Now the question is should we believe her when she says that she will provide us with a better and more efficient administration? Her sycophants say that she should be given a chance to prove her mettle. Can we, the people of Bengal, take that risk?

Not after seeing what she has done to the railways in the nineteen months that she has been at the helm of affairs at the Rail Bhavan. All the leading national newspapers and magazines are saying in unison that the railways are in the doldrums, “bankrupt” to be precise. The railway, under her, has gone completely off-track and is headed towards a sudden decline.

Indian Railways Operating Ratio (OR), which is an indicator of efficiency, has already crossed 95 percent, higher than the budget estimate of 92 percent. It is likely to be highest in recent times. This means that the Railways would be spending more than Rs. 95 to earn every Rs. 100. The best OR in recent times was in 2007-08 when it spent as little as Rs. 75.9 to earn Rs.100. The Railways reserves are at its lowest in recent years at Rs. 5,000 crore. But this does not stop the irrepressible minister from announcing one project after another involving a few thousand crores.

During the year 2007-08 the cumulative cash surpluses of the Railways before dividend had amounted to Rs. 68,778 crore. The cash surplus has been projected at a meager Rs. 1,328 crore in the Rail Budget for 2010-11. Mamata Banerjee has very deftly managed to reduce the impressive cash surplus to this paltry amount. The situation is so dire that the Railways had tried to get a five year waiver of dividend starting 2009-10. And let us not forget that when Ms. Banerjee was the Railway Minister during the NDA regime she had demanded a similar waiver. So much for her efficiency as an able administrator!

In the year 2010-11 the Railways had sought a Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) of Rs. 15,875 crore. This time they have asked to double the GBS to Rs. 39,600 crore. As per the latest official data the expenditures have gone up by Rs. 1.330 crore while the earnings are down by Rs. 1,142 crore taking the net deficit to Rs. 2,500 crore.

The Minister, has very stubbornly, refused to raise the passenger fares because she does not want to burden the common man. How is the common man affected if the fares of the elite classes of long distance trains are raised is beyond the understanding of the ordinary citizens. If the GBS demanded by her is granted by the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, he would realize it by taxing the aam aadmi. While she does not want to burden her maa mati manus by increasing fares to improve the financial condition of the railways, she cares two hoots if they have to pay additional tax to support her populist budget before the Assembly elections. So desperate is she to grab THE CHAIR.

In the last Union Budget, Banerjee virtually starved the two critical reserves of the Railways - the Development Fund and the Depreciation Reserve Fund – used to purchase and upgrade assets and improve passenger amenities. This definitely is a sign of a bleeding organization. Yet, Ms. Banerjee has gone ahead and announced a revamp of the Kolkata Metro network at a cost of Rs. 11,000 crore.

Mamata Banerjee cannot but blame herself for driving the organization in the red. She has stubbornly refused to raise passenger fares for suburban sections and lower classes on long-distance trains even as the losses from passenger operations were projected to zoom to Rs. 19,120 crore in 2009-10. However, this has not discouraged her from announcing a spate of new trains, thus adding to the losses. Even though she had promised 1,000 km of new lines every year, she has not been able to deliver even 10 percent of that. This should warn us all not to believe any of the promises made by her to the people of Bengal. She is out to take every one for a ride just to realize her dream of sitting on the Chief Minister’s chair. She is a confused person who is driven by just one aim. Therefore, her priorities are all misplaced. She talks a lot about vision but lacks it the most. She has a slapdash approach towards running her ministry. She can only think of her short-term gains and is unmindful of its ramifications on the country.
Source: The Hindu

Ms. Banerjee is well-known for doing her own thing. She rarely, if not never, takes any advice even if it is from the Prime Minister, or the Finance Minister or the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. In the run-up to the last budget the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, had raised objections to several projects since she had not got the mandatory clearance from the Planning Commission. But that did not stop her from going ahead and laying the foundation stones for those projects. Everything to garner votes in order to become the Chief Minister.

We, the thinking people of West Bengal, will have to see through the game plans of the TMC leader who also happens to be a Cabinet Minister. She has played havoc with the railways in just nineteen months. Should we allow her to do the same with our state? It is time we pondered on this.


Source: Indian Express, India Today, Business Line, Economic Times