Violence of Naxals: Will it End?

Its with the deep pain I find myself helpless when we talk about the poor tribals and central India. The Naxals and Maoist engaged in war with Indian establishment has been violently attacking the civil population. Either they have lost the mandate and resorted to futile effort to conduct unsuccessful revolution. In case they tend to send a message to Government of India, this is clear, they do not want any intervention in their areas, neither they are ready to negotiate. The failure of security forces in tacking with the issues is due to lack of understanding of the forces regarding the nature and terrain of the areas and people. The civil population, what so ever little support recieved from the India is being taken away by such attacks which does not match with the ideals set in free India. We know this fact those who have got benefits of growth would not like these acts of violence and should law act strictly.

Naxals or Maoist by such attack is hampering the little support the tribals were recieving from the urban middle class in eastern India. The intellectuals who were ready to participate in discussion between the parties are no longer would be interested in such a dialogue which starts from discussion on innocent blood bath from both the sides. Who assumes that demands would be heard? A huge supression from the state is awaited which would harm the larger interest of tribals in central India. The mass migration of tribals would escalate given the rising violence in the districts affected. But where this would lead the tribal population in 21st century? Will it end?

War from Jungle to Streets in Naxal Areas

The todays attack on the moving train by the Naxal elements, is an direct assault on the establishment to listen to their demands. The confrontation between the state and naxals are far from direct. While the operations are carried out in Jungles the naxals are present in main stream sections of railways and communication lines. The killing and massacare by the naxals or the maoist are serious blow to the operational preparedness of the security agencies. This act requires serious condemnation of the naxals by one and all. This not the way revolution happens, there is wrong notion of hope which comes from sudden change in the system. We need to follow the middle path of dialogue with institutions and accept the democratic set up of the country. Yes! the rights of common people needs to be provided with in the constitutional frameworks.

Why should they kill the fellow citizens? Do they want everybody to support such killing? For the sake of poor tribals, peaseants, artisans and forest dwellers, please abstain from such acts. This is unaccebtable to any citizen of free India, we will not be able to answer our future generations incase these actions by violent groups are stopped. In close reaction, many innocent lives are lost in present attack on the railway facilities, and more would loose incase government forces retaliates. God! this not what we have been looking into in the name of egalitarian societies.

Use of force to engage the ideology are now thing of past and such tactics often backfires in the modern world. Maoist, is suited to this kind of inhuman actions would never be able to achieve their idea of society. Nothing comes without a cost, but this does not go well with the governments, security agencies are not prepared except some small success, they have failed the citizens of country during last six months.

Green Eminent Joins the Map Window Team

Map Window has accepted the participation of Mr. Shashikant Kumar, Director, Green Eminent as member of the user and development team. We would be supporting and getting support from the Map Window global development team for the customized solutions for the Geographical Information System software in regional languages of India. There is an emerging need to develop and propogate the desktop applications concerning the mapping community.

We would be happy to get your opinion on the Open Source community and do visit the web site
http://www.mapwindow.org/team.php to know more about the Map Window Community.

Green Eminent : Working on Open Source GIS Team

We at Green Eminent with our Geomatics Consulting group have desired to work on the FOSS and Open Source Teams for the develoment of GIS and Image Processing Tools, specifically for the low end client groups. Often the proprietory software developed by the companies still available at prohibitive cost and rigid in its structure. Softwares like Open Geo, Map Window, GRASS++, etc are devloping and contributing well for the progress of geo sciences.

Our experience with the Indian Geomatics developers have very positive about the access and availability of the tools required by the low end users specifically researchers, institutions and NGOs. They cannot afford to bear the high cost of proprietary softwares, claiming the project life cycles meant for the civil society.

We would appreciate fellow Geoinformatics -Geosciences professionals to team up here to support good efforts globally and have some collective benefits (non commercial) in development.

A Violent Peoples Struggle in Central India

The central India is rocked again by the violent attack on the public infrastructure and present system of governance. The massive movement of people with arms in central India, has made Indian government position a similar to civil war, so why not declare it. You have people taken arms against state, which is termed as 'terrorist' by the cheif minister of democratically elected state government. No doubt state is harmed by repeated attack on the civilian population who are supporters of the current establishment. Its unfortunate that people have to take arms in their hand to ask for fruits of 'economic growth'. The repeated failure of government and attitude of officials towards the people has led to such a situation. Its not what the government could not provide to them, but they are against the policy of government which takes away what ever little resources they possesed.

The young generations in the cities of India, those who supported in the popular governments of leading political parties are unable to understand the sudden violent killing by the armed people in the central India. The people who are engaged in the violence are aligned to method which they had learned from ages. They had never been under any government, during Mughals, British or present Indian governments. Neither the governments bother them to distrub their social and ecological character, till the demand for forest and water resources compelled the governments to take possession of these resources for the larger benefits state.

This resource capturing by the government through legislation has alineated a large number of people who often did not thought about what exists beyond their natural limits. Its understanfing of this thought which is missing in the present generations. Often they try to equate the peoples taking arms to that of terrorists in J&K and Punjab. The people who are fighting demand a system acceptable to them, what this can be? Whose ideology they follow? etc is the task of intellectuals to dwell. The governments need to understand the situation from the prespective of the development verses rights of these people.

The killing by the armed people of the civilians cannot be justified, but by labelling thems as thugs and goons are not proper when state knows the extent of the problem and mass character of this armed struggle (235 districts and nearly 1.0 million population are actively supporting the cause in five to eight states of country).

The conflict situation in the central India is spreading towards east, west and south of India wherein the people have started asking for their rights and questioning the easy flow of finance and natural resources to large corporate bodies. This alarming situation when there is knowledge that its the failure of state and system of governence which has resulted in such violent peoples struggle in Central India.

What is lagging with Indian leadership?

This is answer to a question posed in a discussion forum, I responded there and thought to share with our readers too...
Rational approach in governance was instituted with the Constitution of Republic of India which inspires and runs the individual, communities and institutions. The Constitution does not guarantee development (if we agree with its meaning) but ensures equal opportunity for all segments of India. Leadership excels where there is natural following due to its inherent capacity to lead the masses towards collective goals. The value system inculcated by the societies also encourages leaderships which take it forward to agreed path of development. It is not that leaders can go against the treaded path by the society, otherwise they would be reformers, and a path not chosen by many cannot be taken up by the governance system. It has to come from within to effective and result oriented implementation for running the systems in place. Any revolutionary ideas (which a leader often tries), would take a mass movement form which would always be anti establishment. While putting for the object of persuasion of ideas the leaders also provide a middle path for negotiation. Thus the answer lies in whether leaders are calling for a change in the system (long term), improve the system (middle term) or manage the system (short term). The pro and anti people concept is true only when after a period of time the systems remain unchanged with the changing times. The society moves ahead, not the system, it retains the character which looses its sense with progress of time. People who always try to find the gaps in the system to safeguard their individual, community and societal interest tend to get opposition from those who are left out. This is what has happened in the development discourse - areas, regions and people have been left out of 'development' because of lack of leaders from their areas and communities. The concept of nationalism is missing for the internal dialogue, yes it is there in context of international issues or national posers before the outsiders. Internal divisions and diversity gets support from the leaders who takes the benefit of 'their' people and looses national character inviting further dissatisfaction from the large people who are outside 'their' idea of leadership whom they are leading. Post independence, we have leaders leading the individual groups (caste, class, religions) not the nation. With the 73rd and 74th amendments to our Constitution, local governance has received lots of policy and financial support. But the local bodies lack the leaders who would like to remain at the 'same level governance' for a longer period of time. With the careerist politicians moving from village to block to district - state and central politics it is very difficult for them to lead the same crowd towards a common goal. This changing priority and jobs of the leaders (political) often does not allow them to lead from the front. Reformers must start with a level where improvements in the systems are required, say, at the village and city level, how community participation is ensured? Our governance system does not have ample scope for such participation at formal level. At the informal level only promises are made with little impact. Huge sums of money have been spent on numerous schemes often granted by central and state governments (where are people then). Who decides for whom? Government officials, local MP/MLA, Planners and economists? Method of development needs to be evolved and understood before we strike at the right end. People-Government relationships are often least understood because politicians neither represent either of them fully. It is where they stand makes the choice of governance easier. This is true from MP to Sarpanch. Till they realize ‘for what they stand for and whom they are answerable’, where is the scope of collective learning and implementation.

Spatial Identities and Cities

Fresh with the morning sun a city looks up to you for hope and desire stored in the streets, lanes and by lanes. The days starts slowly till streets begun to rupture and noise full due to numerious modern 'engines' or psudo growth of humans. The run for the job, school, colleges, offices and business brightens the city sky, with the enormous reflections of buildings, cars and other moving objects. The hustle of the city dwellers catches up with the mid day and smells of various kinds enters nostrils of those who are outside and struggling with the heat. The indoor beings of the city, though are still cocconed in their nests like houses, whereas the workmens like honeybee collect the rewards to build and sustain their 'concrete' honeycomb. Thats' the life we are living, where city is alive as an natural organism eating the truckloads of the materials brought into its cityscape.
You gain some of your identities and often loose many in the race for surving in the cities you tend to call your own. People gel and tends to miss their cities, as their own organ are attached and mesmerised by its graduar. No matter how big or small cities you might be living into there is sense of ownership and plenty of dejection from the its life. We are puzzled daily, and often enquire about the shifts in the physical changes occuring around us. Even after living in cities half of our lives we find changes still new to us, which keeps fellow citizens cling to it.

As urban planners, architects, designers and administrators, we are overwhelmed by the responsibility we often rarely realise to maintain and enrich the living city. How do we do it? Whether we have spaces for all its citizenery? Whether our city godfathers run the city or people? Who owns and why do people throw others out of city? Do we have some sense and sensibilities in listening to sincere look of aged, children, women and poor? We know a lot of questions remains unanswered and many cannot be posed to right group.

50 years of Gujarat and end of simplicity

Gujarat has just begun to celebrate the Golden Jublee, by raising columns of dust in the not so sporting Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad. A few musing must be found to understand the real show of governance in Gujarat. People in Ahmedabad celebrated Gujarat's Golden Jublee were diffrent then those who got chance to stay in some functions in other towns. There is joy of reaching the stage with support from the national government. The state has managed to exhibit extra ordenary symptoms of development in metros, left are those who are in the small and medium towns and villages. Gujarat's statehood, was indeed fought in urban India, unlike the rural Gujarat which majorily fought for the Independent India.

The large part of state remained aloof albeit those in the seat of power to share the symbolic traditional celebration of Swarnim Gujarat. The way things were planned and put forward has not gone well with everybody. The excessive control and non transparent approach to celebrations, the people's eagerness to participation has dried. Lets hope coming months 'Swar' do not vanish away from celebrations.

Those who are politicians, government officials, public institutions and some industrial bodies are bound to show strength in this hour of need. Missing were the people who really wanted to celebrate in manner different then others. The people were busy enjoying holidays and weekends whereas the government machinery was busy in garnering support for the events.

The simplicity of Mahatma in Gujarat has been taken over the lavish and pomptous show by ruling party. The Swarnim Gujarat show was fragmented on party lines and two leading parties are not agreeing in the way to go ahead. This is not good for the future. Mahatma 'Mandir' would be built during 2010-11 would be used to propogate the Vibrant (industrial) Gujarat 2011, encouraging MNC, and large corporate bodies to negotiate business which would alien to majority of people. Of course people would be getting employed as wage labourer. Government its custodian and guard has left them to take care of their economies in the 21st century. The vanishing peoples power has encouraged the 'modern' rulers to negotiate with external elements all in the name of democracy and socialism.

What makes people keep quiet then? A divided society, a fragmented mandate and disjointed politics would not result a strong and foresighted Gujarat but a meak and obidiant faithful citizens.