Sunday 24 January 2016

Haves and Have-nots

Rohith Vemula's suicide is turning out to be the Rajeev Goswami moment for the Dalit students. The analogy may sound sacrilegious as Rohith and Rajeev espoused diametrically opposite causes, however, they have one thing in common. They both ceased being mere statistic and found their way to the viewfinder of national media and had long shelf lives in public discourse.

For the sake of post-Mandal generation a quick recap. The graphic picture of Rajeev Goswami, a Delhi University student, committing self immolation during an anti-Mandal rally in Delhi in 1990 made him the face of anti-quota agitation.

Back in 1990s the mass media mainly consisted of newspapers and magazines; 24/7 news channels was still few years away, and internet, video platforms like Youtube were still in the realm of science fiction.

Barring some niche publications such as Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) and Mainstream all the popular newspapers and magazines came down heavily against Mandal Commission findings, which advocated reservation for Other Backward Communities, and the then prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh.

The mainstream media, led by India Today and Indian Express (under Arun Shourie), converged to the singular narrative that reservations kill efficiency in government departments and drain nation's precious resources. Moreover, they argued it was being cornered by a select section among the beneficiaries. Anyone with a differing view had no platform to express - websites, blog posts were still eons away. Their only solace were the niche publications, whose reach was very limited.

Now with Vemula's death the pendulum has swung to the opposite direction. His death has become a rallying cry to highlight the plight of Dalit students in particular and treatment of Dalits by our society in general. Many other instances of suicides by Dalit students, following harassment by classmates and professors at prestigious institutes like IIT Rorkee and AIIMS have come to light. For some Dalits it has now become a 'coming out' moment by revealing their caste, something they had kept tightly under wraps for years.  

Thankfully this time the mainstream media's bias was not as pronounced as in 1990, there is much more diversity and heterogeneity over the issue. Views favouring quota for Dalits and other backward classes are appearing in popular publications, though sometimes with a disclaimer (the views expressed are personal and not that of the publication) and there are many bloggers and independent writers concerned about the plight of Dalits.

However internet trolls against reservation quota, who were quite active in various social media forums, are now working overtime. Even before this issue broke out there was always a steady supply of jokes and memes lampooning reservations and making it appear that those who got college admission or jobs due to quota were dunces and free loaders. After Vemula's death they are now busy digging 'facts' to cast aspersions on his caste. Since his father belongs to an OBC caste and his mother an SC, they have got a toehold to play on. However the fact that Vemula got admission based on merit has taken a lot of wind out of their sails.

But surprisingly the political section that got the most exposed and discredited out of this controversy was not the right wing casteists (their regressive views were quite well known), but the Left parties whose claims of being inclusive rung hollow. Vemula was himself a SFI activist and got disillusioned and joined Ambedkar Students Association (ASA). He had wryly claimed the Leftists may have discarded religion, but not caste!!

While the Vemula struggle was hogging national headlines, Chitralekha a Dalit woman auto driver from Kannur in Kerala was waging a low profile battle by going on an indefinite strike in front of the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. She has been waging a lonely battle for a decade against the alleged caste and gender 'intolerance' of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers in Kannur. The CPM-affiliated Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU) workers had prevented her from plying her autorickshaw and even burnt down her vehicle.

Hence it is no wonder that Dalits feel cold shouldered by most mainstream parties, even those professing to be progressive, and float Dalit specific outfits like ASA to fight for their causes.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Monday 11 January 2016

Train of Hope

A heartwarming story of a train stopping at a nondescript railway station in Japan just to help a girl passenger reach her school has become a social media sensation. The train stops at Kami-Shirataki railway station located near the girl’s house once in morning and in evening to help her commute to school. She is the lone passenger from that station to commute in that train.

It is reported that the train will not stop at the station, located in hinterlands of the Hokkaido island, after March, once she finishes her schooling. But there are some skeptics who have dismissed it as a PR gimmick and pointed out that the plan to take off stoppage at Kami-Shirataki has more to do with the ending of fiscal year in March, than the girl’s academic year.

However, the very fact that a government could ensure that a train stops at a station just to provide last mile connectivity to a student, is something that sounds too good to be true in these parts, where mai baap syndrome reigns supreme and railway ministries always took the cake. Raiilway ministers, irrespective of the government in power, have always been ardent practitioners of this art, with the order of priority being self interest followed by electoral arithmetic.

Railway budgets have always been used as a platform to dole out new trains, railway lines to keep their own constituency or the state in good humour, with little regard to feasibility, overall health of the railways or needs and aspirations of people residing in other parts of the country. Moreover sundry MPs and MLAs too have wielded the levers of power to introduce new train stops or divert the route mainly to fulfil their own pet agendas. 

A very glaring perversion of the above Japanese story happened in the early nineties in our country, when Jaffer Sharief was the Railway Minister. He introduced Lalbagh Express from Bangalore to Chennai with just one stop at Katpadi. The train timings were such that it helped a student commute daily from Bangalore to Christian Medical College at Vellore near Katpadi. And that student happened to be none other than the minister's own daughter!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat