Politics Sans Morality

Bir Devinder Singh

The unrest among different sections of the society and the bloodshed being indulged in violence engineered by terrorist outfits is a challenge that the leadership in our country faces today. It is indicative of a deep rooted malaise of intolerance. What breeds intolerance and who is responsible for this? Why the golden principles of democracy seem going asunder? Have the people lost faith in the values the democratic set up represents? The answer is certainly 'No'. One needs to think dispassionately with clinical precision.
    The fact that it is happening at a time when people at the top of our political pyramid are doubtlessly the gems of our times is all the more ironic. We have people leading the country who have demonstrated beyond even a whiff of doubt qualities of selflessness and monumental integrity.

The speech on the inauguration of the State of Nagaland on December 1, 1963 by late Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishanan, the second President of India, clearly lays down the ground rules of governance: "The rule of law and government by the consent of the governed are the essence of democracy. Government must be the custodian of the general welfare of the people and not of any special interest. The government must capture the hearts and the minds of the people…."  In the days of yore, our national leaders used to keep a direct line to the people, a direct channel of communication. They did not let the so-called "threat perceptions" to come between them and the people. Perhaps it was because of such an approach that the people also reciprocated. They would suffer the vagaries of nature to welcome their leaders, not because someone had organized and arranged a roadshow but because someone was out to get to know the people intimately.
Today, the leaders in top governmental posts are playing into the hands of such people who have established a proximity through shady methods but whom the people have not accepted because of their black deeds. These are the second rung leaders who have attained this position through "number two" deals in trade and business. They are looking for more comfortable abodes and are trying their hand at politics as their chosen vocation. They are throwing crores into the business of politics and are managing to get into state legislatures or the Parliament. Once there, the nexus between politics and money becomes only stronger. They become proxy for their feudal political bosses. Such an approach to politics isolates the teeming millions who were to be stakeholders in democracy.
The leaders on the top rung are thus lost to the people whom they govern. When people cry because of policies that inflict untold miseries on them, their voice does not even reach the political top hierarchy because the entire system of communication channels collapses by then.
 The above new class of neo-rich politicians is joined by the bureaucrats as well as people in the judiciary. Even the bureaucrats are being convicted for amassing ill-gotten wealth whereas the political leaders in the country who set the wheels of corruption into motion and make no secret of it by displaying the ill-gotten fortunes, go scot free.
If a whistle blower raises an alarm, more often than not it is the whistle blower himself who gets the stick, a tribute to the kind of pimping that has crept into the system. Even the charges as serious as wholesale massacre of minorities take decades to bring the perpetrators of such heinous crime to justice. Appallingly, the people going to the Courts in the hope for justice get judgments but not justice. Generations after generations feel trampled in their fight in the courts due to the snail-paced process of justice delivery system. Those who can manage money to pay the hefty fees of lawyers render the doctrine of "Equality before Law" redundant for the poor underprivileged classes in the country.
I wish there were no sympathizers for the demons of corruption but that seems to be a wishful thinking. The cancerous growth of corruption in the system has eaten up the vitals of all the three organs of the democratic government i.e. the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. Fortunately, the only silver lining exists due to the emergence of the fourth pillar - the Press. It has braved all allurements and maintained the confidence of the masses, fearlessly unearthing the scams and scandals paralyzing the working of the other three wings of the Government. The clean politics itself is becoming a utopian wish. The vitiated atmosphere all around makes the honest living a curse. The confluence of circumstances surrounding a common man has convinced the people that except money, no other consideration works for someone who has legitimate aspirations to play a role in politics. The things have now reached such a pass where the people have started hating the very term 'politician'. This clearly is the outcome of a vacuum between the people and their leaders. In this paradigm of politics without morality, we are seeing the emergence and empowerment of pseudo-leaders who are far removed from ground realities and are busy amassing wealth and comforts. Their pursuits are marked by insensitivity towards the concerns of their electorate.
Such a class of leaders has no qualms about the fact that they are facing trial for corruption charges in courts. Instead, they are happy to  attend such court hearings by arriving in chartered aircrafts. On display is not humility before law but the abundance of their resources. Rousing receptions that clearly take millions to be arranged have become the order of the day. That receptiosn mark the entry of the leader into the court premises or while he walks out after n'th such appearance says something about our politics.
 The first casualty in this entire scheme of things is the ground level worker, the first line of interaction of the party with the people. He has no contact with the top leader. He knows what's wrong but the channel through which that information was to flow upwards stands destroyed. The spirited workers of parties, all parties, feel cheated, disgruntled and starved of ideological living because their voice is lost in the din of these money minting political bosses.
 Names like that of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shashtri, Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad are invoked by those who do not even have a passing acquaintance with the ideals espoused by these leaders. The Mafiosi only besmirch the names of these saints by uttering them from their lips.
Every unrest in the country is viewed from a rather queer angle. Instead of looking at the root cause of the social problems, the neo rich politicians coin different and ready catch phrases that offer ready-made solutions to their bosses by dubbing unrests with clichéd terms like Naxalites, Maoists, Militancy etc.. This makes it possible to turn a blind eye without seeming even guilty for failure to comprehend the real cause of such unrests.
 Leaders have lost contact with the masses because of walls created by minions who have managed to become their lieutenants through unfair and unprincipled routes. Once the aspirations of the masses find no apt expression in the system of governance, they are propelled to adopt the last painful resort - violence.
 It is with much humility that I beg and solicit the kind indulgence of the leaders of the political parties to read the writing on the wall. It is possible for you to dust away this new class of neo-rich political feudals and put an end to political slavery. If you do not act now, even this option will be lost since these parasites are becoming increasingly strong. The leaders must realize that such a class of politicians is injecting the venom of hubris which is overwhelmingly present in their working attitude. A golden rule for any leader is to preserve his humility which is possible only in the field with the men one is privileged to lead. Give a sympathetic hearing to the critics within the party who take the cudgels to call a spade a spade. Hail those who call a spade a bloody shovel. Sometimes voice of dissent is motivated by the practical wisdom and manifestation of the conscience of the critic and does not always qualify to be treated within the parameters of contempt by the authorities that be.
If the most legitimate aspirations of people even after 60 years of independence remain unsatisfied, the nation may plunge headlong into civil war between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots". You will not even get to know the bitter realities gnawing away at the roots of the political system should you chose to listen and see only what is served through a system of sieves set up by political minions. Be bold, venture out and establish direct public contact. Out there are people dying to be heard.
The voice of disagreement is proving to be a curse for humble and committed workers in the present day political system. The sifting of information should be done at level of the people who are known for their integrity and not left to the interpretation of a coterie of vested interests who often gather around the leadership. It is time the humble workers are made part of the thought process as against the system of decision making where the politicians, the contractors, the bus permit wallah, the cement wallah, the sand quarrying syndicate and the liquor vend monolpolists sit together to decide how to make the state progress. Their idea of progress is not the people's idea of progress.
 When an individual blunders, it is unfortunate and it affects the fortunes of a family but when a leader as a ruler fails, his failure has the potential to adversely affect the future of the nation and such a failure becomes a national tragedy. We need to remedy the situation we are apprehending today. The morality and value system must find its due place in the stream of our polity. Otherwise, we are doomed today, and shall stay doomed tomorrow.

Politics Sans Morality

Bir Devinder Singh

The unrest among different sections of the society and the bloodshed being indulged in violence engineered by terrorist outfits is a challenge that the leadership in our country faces today. It is indicative of a deep rooted malaise of intolerance. What breeds intolerance and who is responsible for this? Why the golden principles of democracy seem going asunder? Have the people lost faith in the values the democratic set up represents? The answer is certainly 'No'. One needs to think dispassionately with clinical precision.
    The fact that it is happening at a time when people at the top of our political pyramid are doubtlessly the gems of our times is all the more ironic. We have people leading the country who have demonstrated beyond even a whiff of doubt qualities of selflessness and monumental integrity.

The speech on the inauguration of the State of Nagaland on December 1, 1963 by late Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishanan, the second President of India, clearly lays down the ground rules of governance: "The rule of law and government by the consent of the governed are the essence of democracy. Government must be the custodian of the general welfare of the people and not of any special interest. The government must capture the hearts and the minds of the people…."  In the days of yore, our national leaders used to keep a direct line to the people, a direct channel of communication. They did not let the so-called "threat perceptions" to come between them and the people. Perhaps it was because of such an approach that the people also reciprocated. They would suffer the vagaries of nature to welcome their leaders, not because someone had organized and arranged a roadshow but because someone was out to get to know the people intimately.
Today, the leaders in top governmental posts are playing into the hands of such people who have established a proximity through shady methods but whom the people have not accepted because of their black deeds. These are the second rung leaders who have attained this position through "number two" deals in trade and business. They are looking for more comfortable abodes and are trying their hand at politics as their chosen vocation. They are throwing crores into the business of politics and are managing to get into state legislatures or the Parliament. Once there, the nexus between politics and money becomes only stronger. They become proxy for their feudal political bosses. Such an approach to politics isolates the teeming millions who were to be stakeholders in democracy.
The leaders on the top rung are thus lost to the people whom they govern. When people cry because of policies that inflict untold miseries on them, their voice does not even reach the political top hierarchy because the entire system of communication channels collapses by then.
 The above new class of neo-rich politicians is joined by the bureaucrats as well as people in the judiciary. Even the bureaucrats are being convicted for amassing ill-gotten wealth whereas the political leaders in the country who set the wheels of corruption into motion and make no secret of it by displaying the ill-gotten fortunes, go scot free.
If a whistle blower raises an alarm, more often than not it is the whistle blower himself who gets the stick, a tribute to the kind of pimping that has crept into the system. Even the charges as serious as wholesale massacre of minorities take decades to bring the perpetrators of such heinous crime to justice. Appallingly, the people going to the Courts in the hope for justice get judgments but not justice. Generations after generations feel trampled in their fight in the courts due to the snail-paced process of justice delivery system. Those who can manage money to pay the hefty fees of lawyers render the doctrine of "Equality before Law" redundant for the poor underprivileged classes in the country.
I wish there were no sympathizers for the demons of corruption but that seems to be a wishful thinking. The cancerous growth of corruption in the system has eaten up the vitals of all the three organs of the democratic government i.e. the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. Fortunately, the only silver lining exists due to the emergence of the fourth pillar - the Press. It has braved all allurements and maintained the confidence of the masses, fearlessly unearthing the scams and scandals paralyzing the working of the other three wings of the Government. The clean politics itself is becoming a utopian wish. The vitiated atmosphere all around makes the honest living a curse. The confluence of circumstances surrounding a common man has convinced the people that except money, no other consideration works for someone who has legitimate aspirations to play a role in politics. The things have now reached such a pass where the people have started hating the very term 'politician'. This clearly is the outcome of a vacuum between the people and their leaders. In this paradigm of politics without morality, we are seeing the emergence and empowerment of pseudo-leaders who are far removed from ground realities and are busy amassing wealth and comforts. Their pursuits are marked by insensitivity towards the concerns of their electorate.
Such a class of leaders has no qualms about the fact that they are facing trial for corruption charges in courts. Instead, they are happy to  attend such court hearings by arriving in chartered aircrafts. On display is not humility before law but the abundance of their resources. Rousing receptions that clearly take millions to be arranged have become the order of the day. That receptiosn mark the entry of the leader into the court premises or while he walks out after n'th such appearance says something about our politics.
 The first casualty in this entire scheme of things is the ground level worker, the first line of interaction of the party with the people. He has no contact with the top leader. He knows what's wrong but the channel through which that information was to flow upwards stands destroyed. The spirited workers of parties, all parties, feel cheated, disgruntled and starved of ideological living because their voice is lost in the din of these money minting political bosses.
 Names like that of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shashtri, Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad are invoked by those who do not even have a passing acquaintance with the ideals espoused by these leaders. The Mafiosi only besmirch the names of these saints by uttering them from their lips.
Every unrest in the country is viewed from a rather queer angle. Instead of looking at the root cause of the social problems, the neo rich politicians coin different and ready catch phrases that offer ready-made solutions to their bosses by dubbing unrests with clichéd terms like Naxalites, Maoists, Militancy etc.. This makes it possible to turn a blind eye without seeming even guilty for failure to comprehend the real cause of such unrests.
 Leaders have lost contact with the masses because of walls created by minions who have managed to become their lieutenants through unfair and unprincipled routes. Once the aspirations of the masses find no apt expression in the system of governance, they are propelled to adopt the last painful resort - violence.
 It is with much humility that I beg and solicit the kind indulgence of the leaders of the political parties to read the writing on the wall. It is possible for you to dust away this new class of neo-rich political feudals and put an end to political slavery. If you do not act now, even this option will be lost since these parasites are becoming increasingly strong. The leaders must realize that such a class of politicians is injecting the venom of hubris which is overwhelmingly present in their working attitude. A golden rule for any leader is to preserve his humility which is possible only in the field with the men one is privileged to lead. Give a sympathetic hearing to the critics within the party who take the cudgels to call a spade a spade. Hail those who call a spade a bloody shovel. Sometimes voice of dissent is motivated by the practical wisdom and manifestation of the conscience of the critic and does not always qualify to be treated within the parameters of contempt by the authorities that be.
If the most legitimate aspirations of people even after 60 years of independence remain unsatisfied, the nation may plunge headlong into civil war between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots". You will not even get to know the bitter realities gnawing away at the roots of the political system should you chose to listen and see only what is served through a system of sieves set up by political minions. Be bold, venture out and establish direct public contact. Out there are people dying to be heard.
The voice of disagreement is proving to be a curse for humble and committed workers in the present day political system. The sifting of information should be done at level of the people who are known for their integrity and not left to the interpretation of a coterie of vested interests who often gather around the leadership. It is time the humble workers are made part of the thought process as against the system of decision making where the politicians, the contractors, the bus permit wallah, the cement wallah, the sand quarrying syndicate and the liquor vend monolpolists sit together to decide how to make the state progress. Their idea of progress is not the people's idea of progress.
 When an individual blunders, it is unfortunate and it affects the fortunes of a family but when a leader as a ruler fails, his failure has the potential to adversely affect the future of the nation and such a failure becomes a national tragedy. We need to remedy the situation we are apprehending today. The morality and value system must find its due place in the stream of our polity. Otherwise, we are doomed today, and shall stay doomed tomorrow.

Marching on Chandigarh

The insistence on holding protests at Matka Chowk can be explained by the fact that the activists are adamant that their voice is not meant for the dead at the cremation site but for the government, for the citizenry and for the media. They don't come to wake up the dead. They want to wake up the motionless apathetic rulers.


Nischay Pal

In their march to constantly shrink and eliminate any democratic spaces  for raising the people's voice, our democratically elected governments and administrations continuously try to push the boundaries.
The onslaught does not come only in the form of raising the heights of dams and drowning villages in reservoir waters, or beating people to pulp to get land for dream projects a la Nano at Nandigram. Such fights are being imposed on people in every state, town, village.
In Chandigarh, home to three governments besides being capital of Punjab and Haryana, farmers of neither state can come to protest that their legitimate, long pending demands were not even being considered properly.
But asking the farmers not to protest would have earned the Chandigarh administration the tag of being undemocratic. In these times of media-spinning and well-articulated attacks, the Chandigarh Administration has found a way to stiffle democratic voice of the farmers but this time with the help of the citizenry.
In the largely well educated and middle/upper middle class Chandigarh, it has hinged its entire line of argumentation about how the march of farmers through the heart of the city will spoil the beauty of the capital region, inconvenience the local population and creates traffic snarls, stoppages and blockade, lasting hours.

Chandigarh's media, whose bias is only too well known, has not much independent thought. (And we are only referring to the institutional stance, not that of reporters/journalists whose idea and views on the subject are much more progressive and diverse.) Most newspapers have taken the editorial line that the farmers and other interest groups must gather for any protests at the Sector 25 site earmarked by the administration for the purpose.
The Sector 25 site is next to a crematorium, completely removed from the daily life of the city, away from the eyes of the people. It is easier for farmers to gather there, raise slogans, and then disperse, without anyone noticing them. And the very purpose of protests is to pressurise the government through public exposure.
One would have thought that the point of public protest is that such a gathering or protest will expose before the people how the government has been wronging its own citizens. If such an exposure is to take place in an isolated place, next only to where the dead are burnt, which sensible human being expects the government to even listen, forget about being shamed?
Matka Chowk belongs as much to residents of Chandigarh as to every citizen of this country.

In a front page report in its city edition, the Hindustan Times said under the provocative and accusatory title 'They ran amok, now they're back', that the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) workers had "ransacked the city last year" and "will return for a similar protest on July 26."
In any other country, a journalist would have thought that he or she will be held responsible for deducing that the farmers were indeed guilty of a crime no less than ransacking the city last year. Ransacking the city?
The BKU activists have said that they are not prepared to accept that the rulers will decide where they should gather to raise a cry for justice. The fact that the administration has earmarked a far off place is a dead giveaway of the intentions: those who are crying for justice must not be seen or heard in public places that are too prominent.
There are also serious insinuations that the pro-activity of the Chandigarh administration and police is due to the pressure from a five star hotel near Matka Chowk that does not want milling crowds of rather shabbily dressed farmers to be seen from its windows.
The BKU leaders have clearly told the administration that the protesters will march from Sector 17 to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. On the other hand, the administration seems adamant on not allowing the marchers into the city except Sector 25.
Ram Niwas, UT Home Secretary, is taking the lead in this connection. Even last year, he had claimed that since demonstrators and protesters of the Bharti Kisan Union and PSEB employees had ran amok without any permission from the administration to hold a rally, the neighbouring states must intercept the movement of such demonstrators at the borders of Chandigarh.
The entire issue assumes a highly provocative context, considering that Punjab's rural folks backed the protests for trans5fer of Chandigarh to Punjab for decades. Political parties across the board pay lip service to Punjab's right over Chandigarh, but here are a bunch of officials who do not want to even allow protestors from Punjab into Chandigarh.
The violent scenes were witnessed only for a day in 2009 but the administration's move to shift out the protests pre-dates such scenes by several years. Even at Matka Chowk, one has seen the police unleashing water cannons and severe lathicharge on unarmed protesters. One can only imagine what will happen at an isolated place in Sector 25.
Clearly, Chandigarh seems to have been completely lost to Punjab. A local English daily wrote highly provocative anti-farmers' editorial, and strongly argued that protests must be confined away from the seat of power at the Secretariat and from the eyes of the general public. What the media, so eager to not allow the picture postcard beauty of Chandigarh to be spoiled even for a few hours, is failing to focus on are the reasons why thousands of farmers are forced to leave their villages to converge upon Chandigarh.
The right of the affected people, activists, farmers, teachers, labourers, unions and political parties to hold a dharna in front of the Secretariat or at Chandigarh's Matka Chowk or anywhere else cannot be taken away by the police or officialdom in the name of maintaining smooth traffic flow. If that is the reason, then there has to be a nationwide policy.
What the Chandigarh administration is saying is that citizens of Mohali or Kharar or Panchkula or any other place, for that matter, can be held to ransom but not those of Chandigarh. This is a dangerous argument, and hardly bodes well for the citizens of Chandigarh, who, one is sure, have far more progressive idea about democratic struggles.
That a section of the media is fully backing the police instead of the affected citizen asking for his rights has been lost on the politicians.
Unfortunately, Punjab's ruling Akali Dal has maintained a deafening silence on the issue of the police and the administration banning any protests in Chandigarh.
It may be mentioned that after last year's violence, the police had gone on a vengeance spree. Teams of Chandigarh police had raided many places in Punjab and had caught and arrested farmer leaders and embroiled them in petty multiple cases. The police were shameless to make clear that their strategy was to exhaust the leaders in getting bail for themselves in one after the other case.
Cases were registered against unnamed farmers for damaging public property, assault on public servants, attempt to murder and rioting.
In its highly provocative and one-sided editorial damning the farmers, The Tribune had then called the visibly poor protesting farmers a "a veritable mob" who, it said, "beat up the badly outnumbered police officials and commandos...teased women and caused mayhem."
Not even the newspapers' own reporters had reported any instance of farmers teasing women, and no newspaper has ever reported in the past protest groups indulging in such behavior. Clearly, the editorial betrayed a mindset: "Many of the protesters were heavily drunk and made a nuisance of themselves wherever they went. If this can happen in the capital of two states, Punjab and Haryana, and the UT, one can well imagine what havoc marauding mobs can cause in mofussil towns."
So what does such a section of the media think about the farmers in "mofussil towns"? That they tease women, drink and make a nuisance of themselves? Such is the media's understanding of our rural folk? The newspaper was angry that the protesters were allowed into the city and said "it was the administration’s duty to keep them away from the centre of the city."
"The organisers...must be given due punishment for this unpardonable act...it should not be too difficult to identify the actual criminals also and to punish them severely. If they get away with what they did, they can be depended on to repeat their activities. As it is, they have all been coming to Chandigarh way too often to disrupt normal activity and hold the capital to ransom at the slightest provocation."
In better evolved democracies, protests are allowed in places where perhaps the Chandigarh administration would have issued shoot at sight orders. It will be pretty sobering to note that at a time when the Chandigarh administration disallowed farmers or teachers to hold a protest at Matka Chowk, the French government chose to allow environmental activists to not only protest at the Eiffel Tower but to even add a nuclear hazard symbol right in the middle of a ring of golden European Union stars on the Eiffel Tower. The stars were sponsored by French state nuclear company Areva to mark France's term as EU president.
With the Punjab Governor losing charge, and a new generation of Punjabis never having heard 'Khiriya Phul Gulab Da, Chandigarh Punjab Da', one can well imagine the wages we will have to pay to raise a slogan near Matka Chowk. So much for having a capital! It is time the capital learnt a bit more about the mofussil towns.
The UT administration claims that it has made sure that the Sector 25 site has all arrangements for water and toilets for protesters. Could it be that our rulers are so dumb that they think farmers swoop down on Chandigarh every year for a sip of water, or to relieve themselves?
If the protesters are insisting on holding their rally in Sector 17, it is because they are adamant that their voice is not meant for the dead at the cremation site but for the government, for the citizenry and for such sections of the media. They don't come to wake up the dead. They want to wake up the motionless apathetic officialdom.
There are none so blind as those who won't see, and there are none so deaf as those who won't listen.
But there is no reason for those sworn to democratic struggles stop trying to make the blind see, the deaf hear and the prejudiced understand.

Punjab is committing suicide

Punjab Today editorial
from June 19-25, 2010 edition


On a day so important for Punjab because it was the anniversary of Operation Bluestar, the mass circulation Punjabi daily 'Ajit' published an editorial on environmental concerns. Though Dr Barjinder Singh Hamdard, who personally signed the editorial, did not explicitly say so, his choice of choosing to focus on the environment and poor health of Punjab's soil, water and air underlines some interlinkages that many simple minds miss. The reverse violence of Green Revolution that left in its wake unemployment, agri-stagnation, skewed development and poor social parametres formed a great component of the reasons behind the militancy years that Punjab suffered.
Within the next ten days, Dr Hamdard was back, editorially, penning yet another well argued missive on environment under the title "Sarkaran suchet hon" (Governments must stand aware). "The soil, that produces our food, has turned into poison....A sick mentality can only lead to a sick society," the editorial said.
On the same day, The Times of India carried a front page report titled "Parts of Malwa, Rajasthan drinking poison?" It revealed shocking discoveries by a German lab that had tested water samples from five villages near Fazilka. The intrepid reporter of The Times of India followed it up the next day with yet another mind-jolting report from Faridkot that revealed how even the milk that the kids are fed contains uranium traces, and doctors are now looking for solutions in camel milk.
Toxicity is all around us. It is in our food chain. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's hometown Muktsar has registered 1,074 deaths due to cancer between 2001 and November 2009 while 668 others are on their deathbed. Reports say in Lambi alone, the home constituency of Badal, 211 residents lost their lives and 164 got afflicted with cancer in the last eight years. In Gidderbaha, the constituency of finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, cancer cases are more a norm than exception.
These statistics are all from a health department survey report.
By the time scientists were fearing arsenic exposure, they are encountering uranium traces. Adults and children are suffering from cerebral palsy and mental retardation as a result.

When someone like Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal, himself a member of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), says that the Punjab government is drafting anti-pollution laws only on paper and not implementing, it is time to be scared.
When editors of mass circulation newspapers start hammering a point through signed editorials, and one after the other report shrieks about the slow suicide that Punjab is committing, there should be no reason why our people, our government, and our civil society should waste even a single day in trying to stem the tide. Deathly cyanide is flowing from factories from Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Phagwara into drinking water sources. Malwa is sick. Sewage and untreated industrial waste is flowing into the rivers we worship. It is akin to someone kicking the pooja thali as you say your prayers before your deity.
Piecemeal methods will not work anymore. We need to re-think our view of what is development. We need to return towards sustainable agriculture. We need to end the chemical, radiation and biological toxicity. We are committing highway theft and robbery on resources that legitimately belong to our future generations.
There are none so blind as those who won’t see. It is time we climbed atop rooftops and shouted our neighbours, our children, our government and ourselves into doing something about what we all know is killing us. We need to deal with this problem as we would have done with a highway robbery. You don’t wait to act when you know of a dacoit planning his next hit. Punjab’s air, soil and water deserve no less.

LATEST ISSUE OF PUNJAB TODAY BRINGS YOU THE
HIDDEN LAYERS IN THE PPSC SCAM


It's Ravi Sidhu all over again, and much more slush and dirt. Punjab Today raises serious questions about the PPSC SCAM in recruitments in which the Vigilance Bureau has indicted all seven members as guilty. But how is the recruitment of PCS officers connected to the scam? What has Punjab's high accident fatalities rate got to do with the scam? Punjab Today's cover story takes you into the layers of the scam even the Vigilance Bureau is not talking about.

In this season of Cricket World Cup, is it possible that you could have missed on a cricketing icon bigger than Sachin Tendulkar, or Kapil Dev, or, wonder of wonders, Ranjitsinh ji in whose name Ranji Trophy is established? Well, he was one of our top scorers, and he clean bowled Ranji many a time. So much so, that even Dr. B R Ambedkar considered him a hero during his youth. Congress presidents welcomed him. He helped Indian cricket take its first tentative but sure steps when British did not allow an Indian on the cricket ground. Punjab Today brings you the fascinating story of the man who had a deep connect with Punjab: he played in Maharaja of Patiala's team too. Read The Lost Icon in our latest issue.

Punjab Today also engages with the Deathly Tales From A Village in Haryana's Rewari, and asks whether only those are responsible who killed the Sikhs in Hondh-Chiller, or should we also look for the murderers who continued to assassinate the memory of the dead for more than a quarter century? The Assassins of Memories lurk around us.

But amid all this, there's some good news too. Good in a rather strange way. Punjab Government, eager to gather funds for our development, is now offering us all a drink, and forcibly. The government has taken a Sarkari Theka to ensure that we drink more, and anyone resisting be told clearly: It ain't easy to refuse a drink when the government becomes a saki. Read Sarkari Theka in the latest Punjab Today issue.

A top IAS officer, known for his efficiency & integrity clashed with his minister, and was shunted out of the department. Everyone must learn the right lessons from the episode, but is there a lesson for the officer too? Read our story on The Officer Who Dared To Say “No Minister”.

Also, Punjab Today brings you the hot & happening news from the world of media. Who has been transferred, who is being sacked & who is fighting whom? If he media tells you about everyone else, we’ll tell you about the media too.
This, and much more in the latest issue of Punjab Today. In case of any difficulty in procuring a copy of Punjab Today, please call +91.9814231777 or mail punjabtoday@gmail.com.

Best.
Kanwar Manjit Singh
Editor-in-Chief
Punjab Today
Punjab Today Bhawan
C-179, Focal Point, Patiala
Tel : 91.175.223.2382
Fax : 91.175.223.2381 www.punjabtoday.in
www.facebook.com/punjabtoday

LATEST ISSUE OF PUNJAB TODAY DRAGS TAHRIR SQUARE TO MATKA CHOWK

Upcoming issue of PUNJAB TODAY poses a simple question. Tell us what place are we talking about?

* Rampant Corruption * Massive Unemployment * Zooming Food Prices * Ban on Any Protests * Sales of Cars Up Four Times In Last 5 Years * Cheap Atta-Dal * Bigtime Claims About Growth Rates * A System Hijacked By Thugs

What Are We Talking About? Egypt, of course. Oh, you thought Punjab? Well, you could be right also.
AS IN EGYPT, SO IN PUNJAB. Read in the latest issue of PUNJAB TODAY, hitting newsstands TODAY, February 5, 2011. As millions are thronging the Tahrir Square in Cairo, pitching in even in the dead of the night, adamant on snatching Democracy from a Dictator, you cannot even ask for democracy from our so-called democratic rulers in any chowk in Punjab. Punjab has passed draconian Acts putting a ban on protests, and the state of affairs in Punjab is not very different for most people than what it is in Egypt. So, as you watch things coming to a boil in TUNISIA, YEMEN, EGYPT, think about it: Why Can’t Punjab Be Next?
Youth filled with rage, apathetic regimes, democracy gagged through draconian laws, corruption all around, leaders propped up by money & muscle power, talk of thousands of crores amidst rank poverty.
Enough is Enough is being heard in Cairo's chowks. It is very much the talk in Punjab too.

You can go to Tahrir Chowk and protest. You cannot do that in Matka Chowk in Chandigarh. That's democracy for you.

The latest issue also brings you the unholy secret pact between PAU, Ludhiana and Swiss-based food corporate Nestlé, something that has shocked activists around the country.

Do not miss the latest issue of PUNJAB TODAY for a report on the eyeball-to-eyeball direct confrontation between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and NAC head Sonia Gandhi over food. He has rejected her recommendations, she has rejected his bill, and now date of next clash has been set. This is The Real Roti Issue

PUNJAB TODAY also brings you how a conspiracy of silence has hit everyone after our expose of the huge blunder about Golden Temple Grand Plaza Entrance in which the award-winning model cleared by the SGPC, govt, top architects and IAS officers had the causeway on the wrong side and obliterated the Akal Takht.

Read also our reports on death row convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar being sent to mental asylum, the murderous attack on Shera and how the system works, a report on Mirchpur, on the white lies about the Black List and about the passing away of Bibi Joginder Kaur Tohra, with whose death the fragile link with another era has snapped when values and ethics mattered most in politics.

In case of any difficulty in procuring a copy of Punjab Today, please call +91.9814231777 or mail punjabtoday@gmail.com.