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Publisher's Note:
We at Siliconeer have always championed the role of science and technology and its role in improving the quality of life. India’s breathtaking strides in information technology is something we have taken pride in celebrating.
However, technology is only a tool. Just how well it does — or doesn’t — serve society is defined by how society decides to use it, and that in turn depends on what values guide society itself.
The continuing fallout from the world’s greatest industrial disaster this month in 1984 in India’s Bhopal is a harrowing and outrageous example of how science and technology, with potential to make our lives better, became a terrifying hazard. This particular witches’ brew is the result of science married to unbridled corporate greed, as our cover feature explains. Bhopal was supposed to benefit from state-of-the-art technology; Union Carbide’s malfeasance proves that at the end of the day only social justice can guarantee social benefits from scientific advance.
This issue also carries a touching tribute to Bangladeshi Priscilla Raj, an associate with the British Channel Four television team who has been jailed by Dhaka. Chitra Aiyer, an Indian American of Tamil descent, puts a poignant, human face on the ugliness of government repression, and her article is a refreshing example of South Asian camaraderie all too rare in today’s political and nationalist schisms.
Activist and educator Angana Chatterjee calls U.S.-based India Relief and Education Fund a front for the Sangh Parivar’s prejudiced agenda; IDRF denies that charge. However, with top U.S. academics publicly joining in a campaign against the non-profit, IDRF has its work cut out.
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Main Feature
Die Another Day
Bhopal’s Killing Fields – By Indira Singh
Decades after the world’s largest industrial disaster claimed 8,000 deaths in three days this month in 1984, Union Carbide’s killing fields continue to claim new victims as the multinational’s new owner Dow continues to shirk responsibility, writes Indira Singh.
Only last month secret papers belonging to the multinational Union Carbide, (now acquired by Dow Chemical) obtained by a legal “discovery” process during an ongoing class action suit in New York brought against the company by Bhopal survivors, revealed for the first time how Carbide had employed comprehensive double standards in the design, maintenance and operations of its plant in Bhopal, India — which became the site of the world’s largest industrial massacre in 1984, during which 8,000 people perished within the first three days.
The papers (http://www.bhopal.net/poisonpapers.html), which have never before been made public, clearly show that right from the beginning, the company imposed cost-cutting on its Indian subsidiary. To satisfy the number-crunchers, the company used inferior technology in Bhopal, failed to train its workers, took no remedial action when repeatedly warned that the plant was unsafe, provided inadequate waste disposal facilities, heavily contaminated the soil and water within the plant, knew that its poisons would spread beyond its boundaries, and for ten years knew the danger to local drinking water, yet issued no warning and did nothing to stop it.
From the day that Union Carbide set foot in Bhopal, it let loose poisons that are still flowing, still bleaching the life from the local communities — in the ravaged lungs of its 1984 methyl-isocyanate victims; in the breast milk of women who live near the plant and were not warned that their water was being poisoned; in the aquifer itself, deep underground, and massively difficult to restore; and in the bile of local government officials whom, as we now know, the corporation regarded with contempt, and who were made to look like monkeys by its trickery.
Near the close of 2002, eighteen years after the disaster caused by the Bhopal factory, it is estimated that one person dies each day from the after-effects of gas poisoning. As you read this, twenty thousand people local to the Bhopal factory, seventy percent gas affected, too poor to live anywhere else, are being drip-fed volatile organic chemicals and mercury from their tube wells.
Carbide promised state-of-the-art, delivered state-of-the-ark
Under the terms of Union Carbide’s contract with the Madhya Pradesh government, the factory was supposed to embody state-of-the-art science. Union Carbide led the Indian authorities and public to believe that the Bhopal factory shared identical technology with their MIC plant at Institute, West Virginia. The documents tell a different story. (http://www.bhopal.net/unproventechnology.html) They show that Carbide installed inferior systems in Bhopal, knowing they were untested in service and likely to cause production difficulties, delays and problems.
The fatal MIC production unit was built to circumvent a government ruling limiting foreign equity in Indian enterprises, except in cases where foreign technology was indispensable. Carbide had been formulating its Sevin pesticide, using MIC imported from the U.S. But any fool could do that. So the company decided to manufacture MIC in Bhopal. This would enable them to slide through the loophole. The new MIC unit was deliberately under-funded, to fulfil only the minimum requirement. No thought was given to potential risks to the heavily populated communities next door, but Carbide, which was determined “not to accept any conditions which would dilute our equity under 51%,” ended up retaining 50.9% of Union Carbide India Limited.
Here is the critical issue: groundwater pollution, waste disposal systems were different in the U.S. and India. Bhopal’s effluent was not, as at Institute, purified until it was clean enough to be discharged to a river. The company just shoved it all into huge “solar evaporation ponds,” despite being warned by their own experts that a rupture of the liners would pose a serious threat to ground water. To prevent this, new ponds would need to be dug every two or three years. Of course they were not. It was not long before the existing ponds were leaking.
Before the gas leaked in December 1984, the supposedly state-of-the-art factory was in a bad way. Pipes and metalwork were corroding, valves were leaking. Gauges did not work. Waste was piled high. Union members complained about hazardous working conditions, but nothing was done.
An operational safety survey conducted by U.S. Carbide engineers in May 1982 reported: “The house keeping in and around the entire (Sevin) area was found to be poor. The Napthol spillage is difficult to control but the general pile of old oily drums, old pipe, pools of oil on ground etc., create unnecessary fire and access problems.” The same report, commenting on the Bhopal factory as a whole, went on to warn of the potential for “a major toxic release.”
As a result of this report, safety changes were made at the company’s U.S. plant in Institute, West Virginia. Nothing was done in Bhopal.
Certain union members, who were by now convinced that the factory was a time bomb, warned a journalist, Rajkumar Keswani. He wrote an article pleading, “Please Save this City.” (Rawat Weekly, September 1982) Still nothing was done. The following month the factory leaked a combination of methyl-isocyanate (which two years later would kill thousands), hydrochloric acid and chloroform. The cloud drifted beyond the factory into the local community. There were no deaths and management proclaimed that it had been a trifling affair and that the factory was safe. The outraged unions took it upon themselves to make posters in Hindi which they distributed throughout the community:
“Beware of fatal accidents: Loves of thousands of workers and citizens in danger because of poisonous gas. Spurt of accidents in factory, safety measures deficient.”
As the union continued to issue warnings and management continued to ignore them, Keswani continued his lone crusade, writing further articles with such grimly prophetic titles as “Bhopal Sitting on Top of a Volcano” and “If You Do Not Understand This You Will Be Wiped Out.” Five months before the tragedy, he wrote his final article: “Bhopal on the Brink of a Disaster.”
Since the accident in 1984, time has stood still in the Bhopal factory. Many things are just as they were on “that night.” In the MIC control room, the pressure gauge of tank 610 is still jammed on overload. Papers litter the floor. Outside, wind and weather are patiently destroying what is left of the plant. Structures are rusting and giving way. A tank has rotted, discharging a slide of reddish brown Sevin in huge rock-like lumps, onto the ground. If this were to catch fire it would release MIC, the gas that did the killing in 1984. And there have already been two major fires at the factory inside the last three years, the last stopping 100 yards from the decaying toxic piles due to a saving wind.
Carbide said our water was safe, they already knew it was poisoned.
The first fears about water contamination began long before the 1984 disaster, when cattle died after drinking from the solar evaporation ponds. By the late eighties, people living in the bastis near the factory knew that something was seriously wrong with their drinking wells. The water in them had begun to smell horrid and taste worse. It caused a burning sensation in the mouth.
People were getting ill. The symptoms associated with drinking the contaminated water include abdominal pain, skin lesions, dizziness, vomiting, constipation, indigestion, and burning sensations in the chest and stomach. The majority of children in the Atal-Ayub Nagar community are today born seriously underweight, weak, with discoloured skin, as well as suffering from other multi-systemic health problems. Women complain of suppression of lactation and some stop lactating within one month of giving birth. Which is just as well, because a 2002 fact finding report (http://www.bhopal.net/documentlibrary/survivingbhopal.doc) by the independent scientific agency Shristi found traces of mercury and organochlorines in the breast milk of nursing mothers living here.
Thirteen years ago the Bhopal Group for Information & Action took water samples and sent them for analysis to the Citizens Laboratory in Boston, U.S. By 15 May 1990 the news was out. Dichlorobenzene and trichlorobenzene had been found in the water. The former causes anaemia, skin lesions, appetite loss, damage to liver and changes in blood and the latter changes in liver, kidneys and adrenal glands. (Source, U.S. Environment Protection Agency)
Questions were asked at Union Carbide’s May Annual General Meeting and the local manager in India, Subimal Bose, soon began to feel the heat. He dashed off a letter to Babulal Gaur, then Gas Relief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, quoting a 1990 study by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, an agency that had been called in by the state government. Union Carbide knew the minister would accept NEERI’s report and was content to let him believe it.
“We believe the conclusion of their study is that no contamination of soil and ground water was observed...,” the company said.
Next Bose lashed out at the survivors’ organisations who had collected their own water samples and found the di- and tri-chlorobenzenes.
“We strongly feel that the press reports circulated in the newspapers are mischievous and meant to cause panic in the minds of the citizens of Bhopal. We feel this situation requires immediate clarification by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in order ... to avoid any unnecessary agitation by interested parties.”
Carbide did not tell Minister Gaur two important things. First, it privately knew the NEERI data was worthless. Second, it had known for almost a year that the soil and water at the plant were massively polluted. Water samples taken from pits near the boundary of the factory produced “instant 100 percent mortality” in fish. It would not take a genius to realise that the ground water, and therefore drinking water wells on the other side of the boundary, were threatened.
Despite all it knew, Union Carbide was still claiming as late as 1997 that local drinking water was safe — a claim for which it was privately rebuked by its consultant, Arthur D. Little, promulgators of the sabotage-by-a-single-disgruntled-worker public relations diversion.
Carbide promised to clean up, then cleared off and said “it’s your problem”
Almost from the day of the accident, Union Carbide was desperate to rid itself of its embarrassing Bhopal factory. There was a snag. The terms of the lease required the land to be thoroughly cleaned and detoxified before it could be handed back to the lessor, the government of Madhya Pradesh.
Carbide and its proxy Eveready Industries, continued to control the site until 1998. During that time they tried to effect a cosmetic clean up — just enough to fool the state government into thinking the place was safe. Then they could hand it over.
Only cheap, quick methods were considered. All were inherently dangerous. Incinerating the Napthol and Sevin tars would have spread toxic smoke over the same neighbourhoods whose water was being poisoned, but was at one point strongly recommended. Burial in a landfill created from one of the solar evaporation ponds — this had been discussed in 1993 and rejected because one of Carbide’s own experts warned that that hydraulic pressure could cause the liner to split. There was a suggestion to mix it with clean topsoil in an effort to dilute the poisons, then growing crops on top (bon appetit!). Even more bizarre was the idea of baking the toxic sludge into bricks, which would presumably be used to build homes.
Meanwhile state government officials were growing impatient to know when the promised clean up would actually happen. Carbide pumped all the wastes into one of the solar ponds, wrapped it in a thin liner, bulldozed soil over the top and told the state government that this was enough, that all was well, problem solved. If the state government did not like it, Carbide (by this time renamed Eveready) would simply wash its hands of the whole business. Poison? What poison? The lease was duly relinquished.
No attempt had been made to protect the ground water, or clean up wells, or remove chemicals lying around in drums, or pick up wastes spilled on the ground. Waking up at last to the toxic chaos Carbide had created and left behind, the state government begged a court to force Union Carbide to pay for cleaning-up the mess.
But it was too late. Carbide no longer had any assets in India, and not the slightest intention of turning up in any court proceedings. In the nicest possible way, it told the Madhya Pradesh government to go f*** itself.
The company ceased to be the occupier of the site on and from 9.7.98. The state government as the rightful occupier of the premises and having full knowledge of the status of the site is expected to do whatever is required to be done in regard to the site.
If no one else will stop our water being poisoned, we’ll have to do it ourselves.
In 1999 Greenpeace tested soil and water in and around the plant. Levels of mercury and other toxic substances were alarming (in one place the mercury level was six million times higher than expected). Cancer- and birth-defect-causing chemicals were found in drinking water.
To the people of areas like Jayaprakash Nagar and Atal-Ayub Nagar, this is like being attacked twice. Many lost family members on that night in 1984, too terrible to remember. The chemicals corroding their bodies have anyway made each hour of life a struggle with chronic pain and the terror of an unknown disease. Now the same factory again endangers their lives, and their children’s lives.
On Monday, Nov. 2, 2002, under the banner of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, a large group of local people entered the factory to begin a citizen’s clean-up. With them were 30 foreign decontamination experts, among them Greenpeace members from 16 countries and local people who had been specially trained in waste disposal.
The plan was to pack the loose chemicals into drums, store the drums safely in a warehouse on the site, and hand the key to the authorities.
The team was professionally trained and organised into four groups, each with a specific task. They wore biochemical suits and breathing apparatus. Planning was meticulous. The ICJB organisers had made models of the plant to help explain to local people what was being done and why. There were even kites for the children — red diamonds bearing the Dow logo and the legend “Life Poisoned Daily.”
People had been inside the plant about 45 minutes when the riot police turned up with their rifles and lathis. With them came reserve inspector P.S. Chouhan, who told the crowd, fatuously, that the activists were “Hindu fundamentalists,” come to stir up trouble between the communities. Not so, the people informed him, we are Hindus and Muslims together. The crowd began chanting “We are humans, we are Indians.”
Watch the ICJB video at www.bhopal.net/bhopal.mov. It’s a long download, but worth the wait. You will hear the strangely uplifting cry of “Jhadoo Maro Dow Ko!” (Hit Dow with a Broom!) and see Champa Devi Shukla, from whose broom Dow’s European CEO Respini recently fled, leading the chanting. You will see Chouhan enter camera left, barge his way towards Rashida Bi and push her over. After this, the police swarm all over, arresting people. Cut to inside a police van where a clean-up team member is thrown. Chouhan waddles in and throws vicious punches at our friend’s head (perhaps the fool thought he couldn’t be seen). Then the video cuts back to the chanting group. We see an activist being dragged away and Chouhan kicking him in the back. Then slapping another.
The police confiscated all the team’s equipment. One wonders whether they even snatched the kites from the hands of small children to parade as “evidence.” About 70 people were arrested and taken to the city’s Shahjahanabad police station, outside which a crowd of about 500 survivors soon gathered to demand their release. All 70 were eventually charged with criminal trespass. It was later that police chief Arun Pratap Singh announced the additional charge of rioting.
“Let’s make the survivors pay for clean up!”
It is tragic when those who are supposed to protect us do just the opposite. There was talk in June this year from the Indian government of using the undistributed $280 million out of the $470 million settlement fund intended for gas victims, to pay for cleaning up the factory. It makes the blood run cold just to think of it.
Lurking behind all of this is Union Carbide, now part of Dow Chemical of DDT, napalm, and dioxin fame. A month before the idea was mooted by Indian officials, Dow’s CEO Michael Parker had suggested the very same to a survivors’ delegation impertinent enough to attend Dow’s annual shareholder meeting.
What, in any case, has emerged from Union Carbide’s “poison papers” is a crime far more wicked than environmental pollution. Union Carbide knew in 1989 that water from its plant had caused instant 100% mortality among fish. Barbed wire fences and cement walls don’t go deep enough to stop underground seepage. What sort of human beings continued to assure people that their drinking water was safe, while knowing all along that poisons were slowly killing them? What kind of people are also comfortable knowing that the people they were allowing to be poisoned were the very same people whose lives their 1984 gas leak had already devastated?
This time there was no accident. The decision to hide the true situation from local people and from the Madhya Pradesh government was cold, deliberate and pre-meditated.
When even one person can be shown to have died from drinking water poisoned by Union Carbide’s plant, this becomes a case of murder. When a corporation commits cold, premeditated and remorseless murder, not only should its top executives be charged with that crime, but the company itself should be condemned to death — the revocation of its charter.
And when people try to stop murder, they should be helped, not beaten with sticks and boots and fists.
Join Us in Helping Mehboob Bi
The $100 author fee for this article is being donated to Bhopal gas disaster survivor Mehboob Bi, whom the author first met three years ago. Mehboob Bi has so far lost eight members of her family to the gas, including her one and a half year old son on the night itself, and her much loved husband after 14 years of dreadful suffering. During the course of her husband’s illness Mehboob Bi amassed debts of 25,000 rupees, causing her to lose their family home. “He used to say to me ‘don’t spend this money on my illness, I’m going to die anyway. Keep it. There’ll be nobody to look after you when I’m gone.’ And he was right – he left me all alone.”
Chand Mia, Mehboob Bi’s husband, had been a worker at the Carbide plant. There was no compensation from the company for what had happened to him. After losing her house, Mehboob Bi, her two remaining daughters, two sons and mother, moved to a hovel on the margins of the community. The structure sits on land that the locals use as a toilet. A huge sewage channel runs right behind the house. For six months the house had no roof. Mehboob Bi is the sole breadwinner, earning 1 rupee per sweater that she stitches. “I lost my husband, I lost my house and property, I lost my money — look, look at my condition. Sometimes we sleep only with a glass of water. If my hands and feet work I earn and we eat our roti (bread) or else we eat nothing.”
Three months ago Mehboob Bi’s mother died, after eighteen years of breathlessness and mental illness. “I am waiting, beta (daughter), I am just waiting to goÖ I am so tired. But who will look after these children? The debt collectors will tear them apart. The least I can do is spare them from debt, before I go.”
Mehboob Bi’s debt amounts to a little more than $500.
If you can help with this in any way, please send a donation to Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA), 49 Powell Street #500, San Francisco, CA 94102. Please make your check out to PANNA, and indicate “Mehboob Bi - Bhopal Tragedy” in the notes. Or call (1) 415.981.1771 x349 to make a donation by credit card. PANNA is the fiscal sponsor for and a member of the ICJB coalition. PANNA is a registered non-profit and donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
Interested readers will find Web links to more information and supporting documents on our online edition at www.siliconeer.com. Readers can find more information on the campaign at the Web site www.bhopal.net
– Indira Singh, a freelance writer
who lives in the United Kingdom,
is volunteer editor of www.bhopal.net.
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Infotech India
Piracy Hits Revenue
About Rs. 338 billion was lost in revenue during the last three years due to software piracy, the Lok Sabha was informed Dec. 4.
These figures were according to NASSCOM estimates, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sanjay Paswan said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
Detailing the measures taken by the government to curtail software piracy, he said the intellectual property rights of software was covered under Copyright Act, violation of which attracts both “fine and punishment.”
Besides, the Information Technology Act was expected to deal with software piracy, as also the Enforcement Advisory Council which reviews the progress of enforcement of the Copyright Act.
To another question, Paswan said a proposal to rationalize service charges under the Software Technology Park scheme was under consideration.
Oracle to Recruit 1,500
Buoyed by its current business growth in India, Oracle Corporation Dec. 2 said it will recruit about 1,500 IT professionals in India by the end of the next calendar year.
“We have currently 2,500 people on our rolls and based on our current capacity and growth rate, we will increase it to 4,000 by the end of the next calendar year,” Keith Budge, Oracle’s regional managing director for South Asia told reporters in Kolkata.
Budge, who was speaking on the sidelines of Infocom 2002, said the new recruitments would be for both software developers as well as service people.
Oracle’s operations in India were wide, starting from development centre, customer support, back office to internal people at Bangalore and the establishment of a front office at Hyderabad, he said.
That the country was on Oracle’s priority list could be gauged from the fact that of the four major software development centers worldwide, one was in Bangalore, a city in south India, Budge said.
IT Hub in Navi Mumbai
Software giant Wipro Dec. 3 said it was partnering with City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra to transform Navi Mumbai into a preferred destination for IT companies.
Wipro will implement the module of SAP along with SAP’s real estate module, a company statement said in Bangalore. Implementation of the real estate module of SAP was the first of its kind done for a government agency, the statement said.
Wipro, it said, would also implement the geographical information system for CIDCO which would help it and its customers view data online when it was working on its housing projects.
The customer management, data warehousing and HR modules of SAP for CIDCO would also be implemented as part of the project, the statement said.
New UNIX Servers
Strengthening its UNIX server portfolio, Hewlett-Packard India Dec. 3 introduced 05 series, a new range of servers spanning from 1 to 8 processors running the HP-UX operating environment.
The two new servers unveiled are: rp2405 and rp5405, and senior company executives said the 05 series servers deliver the “most comprehensive enterprise-class high availability” in the UNIX market.
They told reporters in Bangalore that designed for departmental and data centre environments, the new servers deliver a combination of enterprise-class performance, availability, manageability and investment protection with reduced start-up costs for low total cost of ownership.
According to Pallab Talukdar, director of business critical systems, enterprise systems group, HP-India, the series supports state-of-the-art core high availability technologies, such as dynamic processor and memory resilience, memory chip spare, as well as integration of HP MC/Serviceguard with business applications.
The new servers, a company release said, also include “unparalleled manageability capabilities for optimizing the management of multiple applications with dynamic partitioning and goal-based HP Workload Manager software.”
The prices range from Rs. 280,000 to Rs 8.90,000 for rp2405 and Rs 1.42 million to Rs. 2.9 million for rp5405, it said.
Precision Workstations
Dell Nov. 27 introduced Dell Precision 650 and 450 workstations that incorporate Intel’s new 7505 chipset for Intel Dual Xeon processor technology.
Along with the recently launched Dell Precision 350, (with support for single processor Intel Pentium 4), these products offer customers a “new generation of high-performance desktop workstations,” a Dell release said in Bangalore.
“Our Dell Precision workstations are designed to meet the complicated performance needs of our customers in areas like computer-aided design and digital creation,” said K.S. Vishwanath, managing director of Dell India. “These three new workstations and our mobile Dell Precision M50 give customers a full range of certified and supported hardware,” he said.
“The Dell Precision 650 and 450 support the latest advances in dual processor Xeon architecture that enable a 533 MHz front side bus, AGP 8X graphics, Hyper-Threading Technology and Dual PCI expansion featuring 64-bit PCI-X,” it was stated.
Logica Wins Deal
Logica Dec. 2 announced in Bangalore that it had signed a deal worth $9 million to implement the Real Time Gross Settlement System and the Scripless Securities Settlement System for the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
“The overall system will enable banks and financial institutions to make secure, high-value, inter-bank payments virtually instantaneously across the country, and also to deal in real-time trading and settlement of government securities,” a Logica release said.
According to CBSL, with this RTGS initiative, it planned to implement a world-class national payments infrastructure for Sri Lanka.
State-of-the Art Radar
The Defense Research and Development Organization has developed a lightweight battery-powered radar to detect infiltration on the borders.
The all-weather electronic short-range battlefield surveillance radar, called BFSR-SR, was capable of spotting infiltration of enemy troops in a specified sector while scanning for multiple targets, a DRDO release said Dec. 1 in Allahabad.
It was capable of detecting, tracking and assisting in identification of moving targets, the release said.
The radar system, weighing 27 kg, could be carried by two soldiers and set up for use within six minutes to meet the speed and requirement of the users.
It has a detection range of up to 500 meters for a crawling man, two km for a walking man, five km for a group of people or light vehicles and eight km for heavy vehicles.
The radar was equipped with built-in software to detect and track movement of flying helicopters as well, the release said.
The multi-purpose utility of the equipment was approved by the Army during a recent drill in plains and mountains, it said.
The equipment could also be used for surveillance in big industrial units, defense installations and airports, the release added.
NIIT Outreach
NIIT Dec. 2 kicked off a mass computer literacy program in Tamil Nadu on the occasion of World Computer Literacy Day, offering among other things free computer education to disabled, underprivileged children, government school principals, teachers and students and the state legislators.
Formally launching the program, IT Minister Jayakumar said computer literacy was fast spreading in the entire state both in the urban and rural areas thanks to the initiatives taken by the government.
He said over Rs. 1.10 billion was being spent on the ongoing computer education program in over 1,900 government higher secondary schools in the state.
Speaking on the occasion, P.H. Rao, managing director of Bharti Mobinet, said his company would be coming out with SMS facility in eight Indian languages in Tamil Nadu soon, adding that the company had plans to provide exclusive SMS mobile handsets to 100 physically handicapped in the state every year.
NIIT’s mass computer literacy program, launched all over the country Dec. 2, aimed at initiating at least 200,000 people into the world of computers, company vice-president Sudha Raju said.
Debit Cards
Public sector Dena Bank is to come out with free international debit cards for its customers by early January, bank chairman and managing director A. G. Joshi said in Chennai Nov. 28.
“The idea is to introduce debit cards to begin with and the same would be converted into a debit-cum-ATM card for all regular customers subsequently,” he said after inaugurating the bank’s third ATM facility in the city.
Joshi said the bank’s ATMs would go up from the present 43 to 100 by March 31 next. The bank which had its own interconnecting switch was in talks with other banks for sharing its ATMs with them as a better business proposition.
In Chennai, where the bank already had three ATMs, would be adding another three in the current fiscal, he said adding that the bank had completely utilized the Rs. 760 million availed from World Bank for technology upgradation.
The bank proposed to spend another Rs. 800 million in the next one year for computerization and technology upgradation, Joshi said. Of the total 1,135 branches of the bank, 758 had already been computerized covering around 80 per cent of the total business of the bank.
The multi-branch banking facility of the bank presently enabled customers to have access to their accounts from any of its 182 network connected branches at 39 centers across the country, he said.
Wipro Center in Finland
Software giant Wipro Nov. 29 announced the opening of its new development center in Finland, its first in the Nordic countries.
Wipro is the first technology company to invest in Finland, a company statement said.
The opening of the center in Tampere is part of an agreement on the expansion and diversification of bilateral economic cooperation which the Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade Jari Vilen signed with the Indian government on his recent trip, it said.
The center, the statement said, would complement Wipro’s services by addressing issues which need local presence. Typically, it said, Wipro conducts 70 percent of its work for European customers in India and the other 30 percent at more local development centers.
Apart from Tampere, there are two other European development centers in Kiel, Germany, and Reading, Britain, it noted.
Sudip Nandy, head of Wipro EMEA, said the northern European investment was the first of its kind from an India-based IT services company and said it was part of the company strategy to offer a global execution model by combining a next door presence with the cost savings associated with India.
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An Ode for Priscilla
A Prisoner of Conscience – By Chitra Aiyar
Bangladeshi Priscilla Raj has been jailed for helping two Western journalists working on a TV documentary for Britain’s Channel Four. Dhaka has made dark, vague charges about “anti-state activities,” but Chitra Aiyar argues nothing could be further than the truth.
At the end of November, I was approached by an acquain-tance who was planning on visiting Bangladesh in December for some research work. He wanted some recommendations — places to visit, people to see. I told him that if he really wanted to learn about Bangladesh in a short three-week period, he definitely needed to meet one person — my closest friend in Bangladesh, a woman who is a sister to me, Priscilla Raj. A day later, I received an email from a friend in Bangladesh, informing me about the detention of the Channel 4 journalists. And to my shock and horror, I learned that Priscilla was being detained with them.
In December, 1999, I arrived in Bangladesh as a Fulbright Scholar to research Bangladesh’s success in providing primary education to poor, rural girls. My first priority was to learn Bangla and I went looking for a teacher. Someone recommended Priscilla Raj and I went to meet her. At that point, I knew the alphabet and basic reading and writing and felt fairly proud of myself at what I considered to be my fast progress. I met Priscilla at Alliance Francaise and from there we walked to the Art College and Dhaka University. Everywhere we went, Priscilla knew people and our lesson was constantly interrupted by friends coming for a chat. At the end of a few hours, I was extremely excited. I told Priscilla that I was thrilled for her to be my teacher, but even more thrilled to have my first Bangladeshi friend. Priscilla was less enthusiastic. She told me she wanted to think about whether or not she wanted to have me as a student; she wanted to know how serious I was about learning Bangla and how serious my interest was in Bangladesh.
I came to Bangladesh determined to do my best to live like a local. Yet, I was lonely when I first arrived and there initially was a temptation to live the expatriate life in Banani or Gulshan, spending nights at the American Club discussing “development.” And then I met Priscilla and I knew that she would refuse to have me as a student if I lived life in Bangladesh as a foreigner. So I moved into a simple flat on the outskirts of Dhanmondi near Jigatala — a flat with no overhead fan, no refrigerator, no telephone, no television. People asked me how I managed and I said that I wanted to learn about Bangladesh.
After that first lesson, I stayed up all night trying to improve my Bangla. Priscilla accepted me as her student, but she was a strict taskmaster. More than teaching me Bangla, Priscilla taught me about Bangladesh, and what it means to love Bangladesh. With Priscilla, I went to Shaheed Minar at midnight to pay my respects to the martyrs and in her mother’s dining room, I learned to appreciate a good meal of bhat, dal, and mach (rice, lentils and fish). I learned to sing Rabindra Sangeet and the songs of Lalon.
As my research on BRAC schools progressed, I began to think about writing a book. Although my Bangla had developed, it was not proficient enough to conduct in-depth interviews. And Priscilla began to work as my interpreter. I do not know much about the Channel 4 journalists, but I know they were lucky to have Priscilla translating for them. Priscilla would carefully tape-record her interviews and transcribe them word for word. When I wanted to ask questions which she felt were too simple or would offend the interviewee, she would explain to me that my questions were inappropriate. There were definitely times when I felt frustrated with Priscilla; I thought she was being too critical of me. I wanted some quick simple answers, some good quote I could just insert into a chapter, but Priscilla would speak to people for a long time, making sure she understood all the facts, all the different sides of the story. Priscilla is committed to telling the truth, to getting the full story. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read in some newspapers that Priscilla is part of a propaganda scheme operated by foreigners to make Bangladesh look bad.
I know Priscilla Raj and I know her love for her country. I know her irritation with me when I would be lazy and speak to her in English instead of Bangla. Or her frustration with any generalization I made about Bangladesh. I remember riding in rickshaws through villages and Priscilla identifying all the different trees, flowers, and birds we saw and making sure I knew their correct Bangla names. I remember her constant lectures about the importance of knowing your culture and your history.
Many people I met in Bangladesh had pride in their country. There is a beauty in the kind of nationalism that you find in Bangladesh. At least that is how I tried to explain to my South Indian family in the U.S. that I wanted to spend a year in Bangladesh. But the fierce pride that Priscilla has is unique — her idealism and enduring commitment to the upliftment of her country is a rare precious quality that should be safeguarded rather than questioned.
Anyone who knows Priscilla knows that she is always working on a number of projects. Once she interviewed some girls who had been lost their garment factory jobs due to their youth. They were supposed to be in vocational school, but the plan had fallen through. Priscilla convinced a friend who ran an electronics factory to provide training and jobs for six girls. In the evenings, Priscilla would sit with her mother’s servant-maid, Sharmin, teaching her to read and to do math so that she could sit for her class exams. Anyone who knows Priscilla knows that she will walk for hours without tiring. After long days of fieldwork, I would collapse on the floor, exhausted, but Priscilla would always be in action; cooking in the kitchen, painting a picture, or singing beautiful Rabindersangeet while cleaning the house. I always felt a bit lazy in her presence and I am still trying to live up to the standard she set.
I spent this past summer in my mother country, India, in Tamil Nadu. About a week before I was scheduled to depart, I felt something calling me to Bangladesh. So I took the 36-hour train ride from Chennai to Kolkata and crossed the border by jeep and then traveled from the border to Dhaka by bus. At the border, I was stopped because my American passport stood out among the Bangladeshi and Indian passports. The guards asked me if I was Bangalee. I said no, I was a Tamilian Indian, born in America, but with my heart in Bangladesh. I said I was dreaming of some good bhat dal and mach and the best place in the world to eat that meal was at my friend Priscilla’s house in Dhaka. And so I spent a whirlwind 48 hours in Bangladesh, at Priscilla’s place, comfortable to be back at home.
I love Bangladesh — I love the green of the villages, the friendliness of the people, the brilliance of the monsoon, and the art, music, and poetry that pervades daily life. After spending a year and a half in Bangladesh, I behave like a public relations officer with my family in the U.S. and India. I try to convince everyone I know to travel to Bangladesh and witness the beauty of the country firsthand. It pains me when I read articles that paint Bangladesh in a bad light.
I know Priscilla well and I know that she would not knowingly participate in any anti-state activities. Her loyalty to her country is unquestionable. If she was serving as the translator to the Channel Four reporters, be assured that she was making sure that the foreigners received all the facts about the situation.
I know that Priscilla has been detained and denied contact with her family and her lawyers. I urge the concerned authorities to please grant her the basic rights under the Bangladesh Constitution.
HELP PRISCILLA AND HER ASSOCIATES
Join Drishtipat’s campaign in support of jailed journalists. The U.S.-based Bangladeshi human rights activist group Drishtipat has started a petition campaign to express “concern at the latest clampdown by our government on press freedom” following the arrest of two foreign journalists and their two Bangladeshi associates.
British reporter Zaiba Malik, Italian Bruno Sorrentino and their two Bangladeshi associates, Priscilla Raj and Saleem Samad, have been held by the Bangladesh government. You can join their petition campaign by visiting http://www.petitiononline.com/dp002/petition.html. For more information on Drishtipat visit www.drishtipat.org
Post Script:
On December 3rd, I was shocked to read in a Bangladeshi newspaper that Priscilla had signed a confessional statement. I was confused at behavior that I would never expect from Priscilla and I prayed that her confession was not induced through torture. Unfortunately, my prayers proved futile. On December 5th, when Priscilla was finally permitted to meet with her lawyers, she told them that she had been subjected to interrogation and electric shocks. Her lawyers could see the marks on her arms and legs where the electric shocks had been applied. It is the biggest holiday in Bangladesh today, Eid, and Priscilla remains in detention. I urge everyone who reads this to take action on her behalf. You can find out more information on the case at www.drishtipat.org.
Chitra Aiyar, a Fulbright Scholar
in Bangladesh from 1999 to 2001,
is currently attending law school in New York City.
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Unholy Alliance
IDRF & Hindutva – By Angana Chatterji
Hindutva-driven extremism is an assault on tolerance and democracy, and the India Development and Relief Fund is complicit, writes Angana Chatterji.
Majoritarian communalism and religious intolerance holds captive human rights in South Asia. Shared commitments to democracy and civil liberties do not yet connect us as nations. It is, instead, repressive forces of religious nationalism and cultural intolerance that incapacitate nation building in the region. In Pakistan, draconian blasphemy laws persecute minorities and appease Islamic fundamentalists. In Sri Lanka, inequities of religion and ethnicity haunt Sinhalese, Tamil Hindus and Muslims. In Bangladesh, enduring conflicts brutalize minority Hindus and Christians. In India, the fascistic ascent of Hindutva ravages society.
Tolerance and inclusion is the sine qua non of Indian democracy. Hindu extremists contend that national commitments to secular religious tolerance have been a tactic for undermining the “truth” of India as a pure, glorious and exclusively Hindu tradition and culture. This “truth” demands an unquestioning commitment to India as a Hindu nation. The Hindutva, Hindu supremacist, movement uses the vehicle of the state to cement Hindu religious majoritarianism into the foundation of a national culture. Such enterprise rewards the dominant community and is intolerant of minority groups and faiths. Hindutva understands itself as “secular,” in that it is not based on faith, but the conversion of faith into culture. It declares tolerance for minority faiths to be “pseudo-secularism.” It undermines the cultural and religious profusion that is central to conceiving the nation, and asserting the separation of religion and state.
The contradictions between Hinduism and Hindutva must be emphasized. Hinduism is an ancient religion. Hindutva is the utilization of Hinduism to foment a supremacist movement. Hindutva, like other extremist movements, uses terror to dominate. Non and dissenting Hindus are perceived as threats to the unity of the nation. Hindutva is supported by organizations that fund raise abroad. The India Development Relief Fund is one such registered charity in the Untied States that sustains the Sangh Parivar, the network of Hindutva organizations. IDRF was established in 1989, ostensibly to fundraise for organizations in India that assist in development and tribal well-being. IDRF has emphatically maintained that it has no connections with the Sangh Parivar. A scrutiny of financial records, and the profile, actions and associations of the organization disclose instead IDRF’s intimate connections to the Parivar. The Parivar uses religion as a nationalistic weapon to empower the Hindutva movement. IDRF, through its relationship with the Sangh, fortifies the hatred and violence that divides India.
The use of force is not restricted to Hindu extremists. The Indian State is vigilant in policing and repressing oppositional activities, especially those of minority communities. The Government of India introduced the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, a security law that empowers the state to torture and detain political opponents, revoke civil liberties, and suppress actions it deems threatening to the nation. Yet the national government tolerated the Sangh Parivar’s crimes in Gujarat this year. The Citizens Tribunal on Gujarat has held the Sangh Parivar co-responsible for the orchestrated post-Godhra massacre of Muslims. It must be incumbent on IDRF to prove that it is not in support of such depravity. In a climate where Hindutva is sanctioned and vindicated by an increasing army of henchmen and the state, it is imperative that citizens speak out against the collaboration between government and Parivar organizations in the promulgation of terror. Citizens’ initiatives must demand accountability of international groups that finance the apparatus of Hindutva.
It is deceptive for IDRF to claim on its Web site that it raises money to “serve economically and socially disadvantaged people irrespective of caste, sect, region or religion,” and utilize such funds in a sectarian manner. IDRF has raised about 5.5 million dollars during the past decade. Nearly 69 percent of IDRF’s funds go to organizations in adivasi (tribal) and rural areas. A large segment is allocated for educational projects of Hinduization, the disintegration of adivasi (and other non Hindu) cultures through their incorporation into Hindutva. Sewa Bharti, an associate of the Sangh, funded by IDRF, organized a Hindu Sangam in Madhya Pradesh in January 2002. The Citizens Tribunal has charged that such efforts facilitated the mobilization of adivasis against other minorities in Gujarat. Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad and Vivekananda Kendra, funded by IDRF, were both held complicit in the communalization of adivasis. The sporadic participation of Hinduized adivasi and Dalit communities in the brutalization of Muslims was a sad and unexpected distinction of the recent violence in Gujarat. Divide and conquer, effectively realized. IDRF has been conspicuously silent about Gujarat, Godhra and after, and did not raise funds in support of the victims.
Development is critical to India’s empowerment. It cannot be undertaken by organizations that promote hate. IDRF allocates 80 percent of its funds to Sangh Parivar organizations and those affiliated or controlled by them. Of the 67 IDRF affiliate organizations, 52 are associated with the Sangh. Secular freedoms confirm the right to proselytize, but do not permit the use of religion or culture to cultivate hate. IDRF does not directly orchestrate campaigns of violence. IDRF’s funding to Sangh organizations aids the spread of the ideology and practice of Hindutva. Such activity produces the very conditions for social violence that are detrimental to India’s national interest.
The practice of conscience, not of genocide, must determine who belongs to a nation. India is made most vulnerable by the Hindutva movement’s xenophobic commitments to tear apart the promises of history. In Gujarat, a fetus of an unborn Muslim, carved from a pregnant woman’s stomach, was tossed in the air. Triumphant annihilation, reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Tomorrow as a day of justice and peace is made impossible. The state of the nation demands sustained interventions in dissent of religious extremism. It is irrelevant to claim innocence. Until we prevent rape, horror, and unnecessary death in the name of nation building, history will find us complicit. Amidst the complex desires that fuel India’s becoming, habitual contempt for minorities must not power our future. Nor must we allow religion to be held captive to violent nationalist agendas.
MORE INFORMATION ON THE CAMPAIGN
“The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate,” a loose organization of predominantly Indian Americans, has launched “Project Saffron Dollar to bring an end to the electronic collection and transfer of funds from the U.S. to organizations that spread sectarian hatred in India.” It says U.S.-based non-profit India Development and Relief Fund is complicit in promoting the Sangh Parivar’s agenda, and backs its allegations with a detailed report, “The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva,” prepared by Mumbai-based Sabrang Communications and France-based South Asia Citizens Web.
Interested readers can find more information about The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate at www.stopfundinghate.org and can look at “The Foreign Exchange of Hate” report at www.stopfundinghate.org/sacw/
Angana Chatterji is a professor of
social and cultural anthropology
at the California Institute of Integral
Studies in San Francisco.
A Leftist Canard
IDRF Responds – By Mukund M. Kute
IDRF’s Mukund M. Kute says the campaign against India Development and Relief Fund is untenable and made by communist activists.
We’re not saying IDRF is directly involved in communal violence,” Angana Chatterji, one of the authors of the report, has said. “We’re saying that IDRF supports a movement that provokes communal violence.”
This statement by Angana Chatterji is an admission that they have no proof that can prove beyond reasonable doubt the charges leveled in their report.
Faced with the hard scrutiny, these communist activists probably realized that if they continue to harp on untenable charges on IDRF, they would loose whatever little advantage of first strike they enjoyed so far. When challenged with facts, leftists usually throw another set of charges. Without falling for this trap however, let’s see why they retracted the charge of funding hate and violence.
Funding Hate? Since they don’t have even a shred of direct evidence, the report used a convenient formula. First, link as many IDRF NGOs to Sangh Parivar as possible by hook or crook. Second, use unsubstantiated and re-circulated media reports as an evidence to prove that Sangh Parivar spreads hate.
What are the facts? IDRF NGOs are legally operating and have never been banned. They have been approved by governments but never have been held guilty by any court or judicial commission for crimes like spreading hate or inciting violence. So where is proof? See now the lies. The report willfully misleads when it claimed that the Madhya Pradesh government revoked the license of IDRF’s NGO Sewa Bharti. Sewa Bharati of MP never lost its license. The report further hides the fact that so called RSS-affiliated NGOs (e.g. Jnanprabodhini, Seva Bharati, Aparna etc.) have also been supported by their favorite charities like ASHA, AID and Maharashtra Foundation. Many of IDRF’s NGOs have received numerous awards e.g. Bharat Vikas Parishad by the Andhra Government, Sewa Bharati by MAMATA Health institute, Swaroopwardhinee by FIE Foundation, Ramakrishna Mission by UNESCO, Aparna by WHO and many more.
Links with RSS Does Not Prove Any Wrong Doing. Yes, many IDRF-supported NGOs are run by people inspired by RSS zeal of selfless humanitarian service. But, do we see any evidence in this report of any wrong doings by IDRF NGOs that (a) funds are diverted to RSS, VHP or Bajrang Dal or (b) funds are used for inciting violence? Not even iota of evidence has been given. The fact is, IDRF never gave any funds to RSS, VHP or Bajrang Dal. Sorry folks, naming few IDRF volunteers with RSS background or showing IDRF’s Web site links found on Web sites of other organizations cannot be taken as an evidence of any wrongdoing. In-depth information on humanitarian projects of so-called RSS-affiliated NGOs has been always there on IDRF’s Web site.
Data Cooking, a Favorite Leftist Weapon. To cover the flimsy nature of evidence on first two counts, the report cooks data using perfected formula. First, label as many IDRF NGOs as “religious” or RSS-affiliated as possible by hook or crook. Second, ignore the documented project objectives found on IDRF’s website and re-label them as “Hinduisation” “Shuddhi/reconversion” or “religious.”
So the report writers list even Christian organization like Miraj Medical Center as RSS-affiliated. In the same convoluted way, organizations like Aparna that fights AIDS is listed as religious NGOs. Organizations like Krishi Prayog Parivar that encourages organic farming are labeled as engaged in RSS activities. Regarding many IDRF NGOs rated R/H by the report writers, no information is available online, to establish, even prima facie, that they are really RSS-affiliated. Let alone prove that they are spreading “hate.”
IDRF never funded any project that involves religious reconversion/shuddhi. These are false charges. At the same time, projects providing non-formal education wherein the syllabus includes reading/writing languages, mathematics, general knowledge, science, health education, handicrafts, physical exercises like yoga, village sports etc., have been cunningly labeled as “Hinduisation” because it includes small parts like teaching moral values, respecting the elders, saying prayers etc.
Sectarian Charity? Essential condition of receiving IDRF funds is that the NGOs must not discriminate because of religion, caste or race of the beneficiary. When IDRF donated funds to help 911/WTC victims or when IDRF sent funds to Army Welfare Fund to help families of fallen soldiers, it did so without any discrimination towards the Sikh, Muslim or Christian victims. In Orissa and Gujarat Earthquake relief operation, IDRF NGOs helped people from all faiths without any bias. Numerous NGOs runs by Christian, Jain, Sikh, and Muslims are supported by IDRF. Schools runs by IDRF NGOs (e.g. Swaroopwardhinee, Saraswati Shishu Mandirs) benefit Muslims, Hindus and other minority students alike.
In their desperate effort to prove IDRF as a sectarian organization, the report shows total economy with truth with their charge that IDRF helped Hindu riot victims from Bangladesh.
It is a fact that IDRF does not conduct relief operations during any riot because of communally charged atmosphere prevalent for weeks and other practical difficulties.
Now that Angana Chatterji has leveled a new charge on IDRF, let us ask her to come up with any evidence or just shut up. IDRF and its NGOs enjoy a good standing with IRS and Indian government agencies.
Interested readers can find more information about IDRF at their Web site at www.idrf.org.
– Mukund M. Kute is east zone media
coordinator for the India Development and Relief Fund.
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Academics Against IDRF
U.S. Professors’ Petition
The following petition signed by 250 U.S. college faculty urges corporations to end matching funds to the India Development Relief Fund:
We the undersigned South Asia faculty and South Asian studies scholars write in support of the conclusions reached by the report on the “Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva” and ending corporate sponsorship of the India Development Relief Fund (IDRF) and its associated Sangh Parivar charities. We encourage corporate accountability from companies like CISCO, Sun, Oracle, PayPal and AOL Time Warner.
Funds to the IDRF are being channeled to support sectarian organizations that have been linked to the Sangh Parivar’s platform of communal hate and violence in India. We believe it is important to let the business community and South Asian community at large know that those of us in universities who are entrusted with educating South Asian youth do not support the violent sectarian activiti |
