CPI mum on Lok Sabha candidates for TN

The Communist Party of India (CPI) remains tight lipped on its candidates in Tamil Nadu for the general elections this year. Speaking to the Daily Word, the party’s assistant secretary C. Mahendran said it would be unethical to leak the list before coming to an understanding with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The AIADMK is the Left’s main ally, in Tamil Nadu for the elections.

The Party has announced that it would be contesting from 50 seats all over the country. The first list of 33 candidates has been released. The lists for Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are to be announced after consulting local allies.

CPI’s main left front ally, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will be contesting for 80 parliamentary seats.

Refusing to talk about ideological differences between the AIADMK and the CPI, Mahendran said that the objective was to form a government without the Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The AIADMK has not been participating in the agitation, of which the CPI is a part, against the conflict in Sri Lanka. R. Thirumalai, state secretary of the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), the party’s student wing, said, “Alliance partners may not be of the same opinion. The Congress led government is supplying arms to Sri Lanka.”

The CPI(M) is also not part of the agitation. “The CPI(M) stand is wrong. They have failed to understand the emotions of the people for Sri Lankan Tamils,” said Thirumalai.

Mahendran emphasized that his party has no electoral understanding with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). “The BSP has a policy of no pre-poll alliances, hence we are not having any seat adjustments with the BSP,” he added. The CPI and CPI(M) are fielding 8 and 6 candidates, respectively, from BSP ruled Uttar Pradesh. CPI’s Atul Anjan is contesting from Ghosi.

Thirumalai explained that though some of the party’s supporters may temporarily shift to the BSP, they would come back to the party in the long run. “The party will continue to be the vanguard of the downtrodden,” he added.

Autos fight bikes for parking space

Parking space on Usman Road is a scarce commodity due to thousands of shoppers that throng its huge retail outlets. The area below the half-year old Usman Road flyover has provided succour to vehicle owners. This area is also used by auto-rickshaw drivers who woo customers at the entrances of shops. The quest for parking space is now a contest between non-commercial vehicles and auto-rickshaws.

The situation is manageable on weekdays but fights over parking space can get ugly on weekends. “Auto men refuse to let us take out our bikes from below the flyover. They claim the area opposite Saravana Stores as theirs, though it is for two-wheeler parking,” says Raja, an IT professional from Perambur.

On condition of anonymity, an auto- driver points to a line of autos occupying the entire parking space opposite Saravana Stores. “They are T- Nagar autos. They even chase us away.” This driver is from Egmore but comes to Theagaraya Nagar for business.

He says that autos aren’t allowed to park on Usman Road, though it’s good for business. They flee when the police raids or they are fined Rs. 100. This reporter witnessed a traffic head-constable on duty, not bothered about auto-rickshaws parked under the flyover.

Stands allotted for all major auto-rickshaw driver unions are almost empty, as all the autos stand on the road, to solicit customers. Two wheeler and car owners struggle to park or take out their vehicles, as many auto-rickshaw drivers leave their vehicles unattended and blocking movement.

According to G. Suresh, traffic sub- inspector at Mambalam police station, the area under the flyover is a no-parking zone. “As per a Supreme Court directive, no vehicle can be allowed to park there. It is a security risk. Anyone can leave a bomb in the vehicles and go.”

Usman Road is a sea of humanity during weekends and festivals and the flyover has a constant flow of traffic. Any explosion in this area would be devastating.

Suresh says that since the shop owners have not provided parking space, the police is forced to relax enforcement of the directive. “We regularly seize autos violating rules,” he says.

There are 45 traffic police personnel in Mambalam, an area which has a very high flow of traffic. Suresh says that despite paucity of staff, they try their best to keep traffic flowing in the worst of conditions, like peak hours, festivals, rallies and so on.

Many prominent retail outlets on Usman road are in violation of building norms. On 31 October 2006, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority had cautioned seven establishments on this road for improper construction. These establishments had illegally added several storeys to their palace-like shops.

A fire that broke out in Saravana Stores on 1 September, last year, exposed the lack of safety measures taken by the owners.

Despite the government regularizing many such violations, shops have not even spared their basements for their customers’ vehicles. Apart from the fight for space between autos and others, this carelessness by the shops, increase the vulnerability of the city to terrorist attacks.

Into the great wide open

If you want to go to Pulicat, also known as Pazhaverkaadu, do not go online. The transport, tourism and forest department websites, of Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh have nothing to offer.

Pulicat Lake is a backwater on the Andhra-Tamil Nadu border, 90 km from Chennai. Most of it is in Ponneri taluk of Thiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu. It is known for Flamingoes, Painted Storks and Pelicans. The route is motorable, as most of it is on National Highway 5.

It is on route 58C of the state’s transport corporation. Five buses go there from 8.15 a.m. to 8.45 p.m. One can also go to neighbouring Ponneri town by bus or train, and take a connecting bus from there. Public transport from Chennai and back only costs Rs. 28.

On Sunday morning, the 15th of February, The 8.15 bus pulled out of the Koyambedu bus terminus with the mild golden sun and thin mist creeping through its windows. The noise of vehicles horns and the smell of petrol fumes fade away as the driver changes gear and darts onto NH5. Dry wild grass lines the highway. The drowsy muffled roar of the bus has caressed most passengers into blissful slumber. The bliss does not last.

An infant sitting beside me wakes up to a distant hammering of an engine piston. The hammering gets louder and soon a rapture of hammering roars past the bus. Men in grey t- shirts race along NH5 on beautifully painted and polished Yezdi motorcycles, with the words “Roaring Riders” emblazoned on their backs. Gazing at the bikes riding off into the horizon, the young father of the infant turns away from his wife and smiles, slowly.

After Ponneri, the bus turns right onto State Highway-104. The road gets bumpier and a lady vomits out of the window. State transport buses desperately need to be cleansed. Ground nut shells and dirt are all over and betel spitting colours the windows.

At 10.40 a.m. the bus reaches Pazhaverkaadu bus stand which is in a garbage dump cum open toilet, opposite the 400-year-old dutch cemetery. The smell of dry fish overwhelms me.

The cemetery’s entrance is a stone arch with skeletons sculpted on both sides and a skull on top. A haunting air prevails in the cemetery. A beggar lies drunk under the dome of a mausoleum. Another beggar, who looks like Hagrid from Hogwarts, melts way behind a tomb. There are 20-feet-tall pyramids atop two tombs. Graves bear coats of arms of Dutch nobility.

The Dutch Fort Geldria at Pulicat, traded with the East Indies, from 1606 to 1690 A.D. Locally woven coloured (check-pattern) handkerchiefs and lungies were the chief items of trade, apart from medicinal herbs, silk, diamonds, spices and donkeys, procured from the hinterland. Only ruins of this fort exist.

The town is quite dirty and there are no public toilets. Avoiding restaurants is advisable. If hunger overpowers you, the safest cooked meal is Sambar rice at Jamaal’s.

SH104 ends at a jetty-under-construction on the Buckingham Canal. The place is filled with blue metal and rusty iron rods. The earth is carpeted with shiny silver fish, drying under the blinding sun. The Yezdis of the Roaring Riders line the entrance of the jetty.

Boats offer to take groups of people around the million-year-old lake, for Rs. 500. I choose to walk along its banks to reach the sea.

A tall fair chap wearing a Roaring Rider t-shirt stands beside a petty shop in the shade. He looks like Aurobindo Ghosh. He is Sachi, moderator of the riders.

“We are a club of Yezdi and Java riders from in and around Chennai. We ride to places near Chennai, once a month, besides meeting at 7.30 every Sunday morning on Elliots Beach. There are a 157 of us,” says Sachi.

The riders are a colourful bunch wearing hats and stylish helmets. They offer me a banana which energises me for the walk ahead.

I pass through quiet streets lined with trees until a reach a quieter bank of the lake. I only see the cloudless grayish blue sky above and hear bay lashing in the distance, behind the row of palm trees that appear like matchsticks. Tom Petty’s song “Into the Great Wide Open, Under them skies of blue” plays in my head. The mind is clear and the joy of escaping Chennai lifts my heart.

Three young men appear with a packet of ‘Hide n Seek’ biscuits and bananas. They jump into a boat. One of them puts the rotor in the water and spins the engine into throttle with a thin jute rope. Thick black diesel fumes burst out and they roar off into the lake. They wave me goodbye. I walk on.

The bank is never ending and I decide to walk across the lake at a point where the remains of some old concrete cylinders stretch across to the other bank. My feet sink into the clay. With each step, black earth mixes with the transparent water, like rain clouds appearing on a white sky. The water is shimmers in the sunlight. Little balloon like organisms dot the brownish-yellow bed of the lake. A stork trots gracefully beside me as I struggle through the clay. A mild breeze cajoles me on and I reach the bank.

I stumble through a small settlement. A huge Peepal tree growing on top of a ruined Hindu shrine marks the entrance of the settlement. There is a lot of construction activity. A worker hums a hypnotic tune, while two little boys lie in a concrete basin flying a kite.

As I sneak out my camera, some kids in the distance yell out “Police!” The boys in the basin scoot across the sands, into the settlement. “I’m not a cop,” I shout back. They slowly come back and pose for the camera. I move on along the shore.

Villagers catch fish with little bags woven with palm leaves. The bags are immersed in the water. The fish slip into them and the water drains out. This lunch time activity goes as I continue to seek the sea like a deer thirsting for water. I reach the Arni River which is too deep to be crossed on foot.

The earth is caked with salt. There is a burnt cactus beside me. I am dying of hunger and thirst. I contemplate whether to eat red berries growing off a shrub, as a Grey Heron comes and perches on it. My slippers are pierced with thorns and I turn back, defeated.

I walk in the shallower part of the river to cool my feet. Weeds below crunch under my toes. I reach the settlement. Wade waist deep through the lake and find my way back to town.

As I stagger back to civilization, I see an old temple which looked like a piece of the Angkor Vat. The concrete entrance to the temple which led to its iron-studded gate and coconut trees all around is like a scene from ‘Apocalypse now.’

D. R. Mani, the caretaker shows me around. “This temple was built during Krishnadevaraya’s reign. It was closed for a hundred years. I git the jungle around it cleared 15 days back and held Poojas. We plan to hold a temple festival soon,” he says.

The Adinarayana Perumal temple is awe inspiring. It is made of brick and supported by rock pillars. There is a shrine inside this complex which is a chariot carved in stone. Mani shows me an inscription, on a rock beam supporting the ceiling of the chariot. The script looks like ancient Telugu. “This is a mystery,” he says, pointing towards it. “I cannot understand it. If someone from the archaeological department could come make sense of it, we will be satisfied.”

I thank him and rush to the bus stand. I pass through neat rows of streets populated by muslims, said to be of Arab descent. It is 3 p.m. and everything here is closed. I get a bus to Ponneri and eat to my hearts content.

There aren’t any buses to Chennai, so I decide to take a train. People around ask my to walk to the railway tracks and keep walking on then till I reach Ponneri railway station. I stumble along the tracks with unburnt diesel of the trains sticking to my toes. Finally, beyond the glare of the blazing sun, I see Ponneri railway station.

Advani riding on the Tiger's back?

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani’s veiled demand for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka during a Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) led fast in Chennai on Friday has surprised political pundits. Advani, who has consistently opposed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants the issue to be resolved through negotiated political settlement and not by "brutal use of force".

During the BJP-led-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime, Advani, then home minister, opposed the former defence minister George Fernandes, over his support to the LTTE. Fernandes was even asked not to host Tamil nationalist leader P. Nedumaran or other LTTE supporters.

Advani’s new stance has upset conservative politicians like Subramanian Swamy of the Janata Party. Swamy said that Advani's statement at the fast was not in line with BJP's zero tolerance policy on terrorism. Swamy who is believed to be supportive of BJP’s ideology, said that there can't be any talks with Tamil Tigers and India must support the government of Sri Lanka in eliminating the LTTE.

During the release of the Tamil edition of BJP leader Narendra Modi’s quotes on education yesterday, Thuglak editor, Cho Ramaswamy, criticized Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for demanding a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Cho compared Eelam to Kashmir implying that India should oppose secessionism in both.

The crowd, largely of BJP supporters erupted in defiance, forcing the police to intervene to maintain order. Advani seems to have recognised this latent pan-Tamil solidarity even in his party supporters in Tamil Nadu.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), which is close to the BJP, has long been trying to project the Sri Lankan conflict as a Buddhist genocide of Hindus in Lanka. Even the LTTE attempted to enforce a traditional Tamil dress code for women, in the late 1990s, in areas they controlled. The LTTE brand of nationalism, thus appeals to a section of the Hindu right.

Left without an alliance partner in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, Advani has joined the bandwagon of politicians attempting to ride on a wave of sympathy for Sri Lankan Tamils caught in the crossfire between the LTTE and Sri Lankan forces. He is also attempting to get close to subtle Tamil chauvinists like Vijaykanth in order to bolster support for his party in the General elections.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has promised to field three “forward community” candidates from Tamil Nadu in these elections. Currently Jayalalithaa and S. V. Sekhar, both of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), are the only Brahmin members of the states legislative assembly. None of Tamil Nadu’s Members of Parliament are Brahmin. Brahmins are a little more than three per cent of the state’s population and are considered BJP’s core vote bank in the state.

Brahmin leaders like S. V. Sekhar are getting close to the BSP, whose ranks have swelled with defectors from the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a pro-LTTE party. The BSP’s Tamil Nadu and Puducherry units are openly supporting the LTTE in their rallies.

The BJP is attempting to mobilize the Hindu vote bank on this issue. During a protest in Coimbatore on January 30th, against the killing of Tamil Hindus in Sri Lanka, BJP leader S. R. Sekhar was quoted saying, “"The BJP is the only party, which is viewing it as a Hindu problem. The whole nation will be responding. The Central Government is not responding because they are thinking it's a Tamil problem alone.”

The BJP is clearly interested in exploiting the Sri Lankan Tamil issue for national mobilization, something the other national parties have failed to do.

An IT worker's story

Com. "Olba", a friend of mine, published this in a workers' fortnightly in Faridabad. In this article, she writes of her experiences in India Inc. and about the prospects of organising IT workers. She works for an IT company in Delhi.

Lal Salaam Com. "Olba" ! ! !

Reservations to end in IITs, NITs, AIIMS, JIPMER etc

The ruling classes have moved to consolidate and legitimise their casteist hegemony over premier educational institutes by trying to abolish reservation of teaching posts. Soon it will follow even for students. The only Dalits in IIT will then be conservancy staff.

This calls for a Dravida Kazhagam style violent agitation, which rid Guindy Engineering College, AC Tech and other colleges in Tamil Nadu from upper caste hegemony in the 70s.

What I fail to understand is why is the Congress hell-bent on committing political suicide before the General elections?