GM crops

Won just the battle and not the war yet

Bt brinjal has been put in cold storage for now. The danger has not passed as yet but is only deferred. The democratic pressure from the farmers and environmentalists has proved to be stronger than the monetary pressure from the ‘Moath ka Saudagars’ – ‘Merchants of death – American Bt companies’, but we can not say ‘sense has prevailed’, as it is only a temporary reprieve. Farmers have just won round one.

I have a basic question. ‘Who told the Government that there is any shortage of brinjal? And where is the need to introduce a higher yielding [effectively] variety of brinjal? Brinjal is ‘one of the’ if not ‘the’ cheapest vegetable in the market and again ‘one of the’ if not ‘the’ most abundantly available item in the market [may be next only to cell phones] in a country of shortages. Supply and demand theory wants us to believe that prices fall when supply is high and demand is low. The farmers get a very poor price for brinjal. Increasing yield [even by improving pest resistance] will only lower the prices further though there can be no two opinions about improving pest resistance. If the Government could care, they should help the farmers to get better price for brinjal, as also all the other farm produce instead of driving them to suicide by forcing them to sell for a minimum support price which is much lower than the average cost of production. They have to fix a fair remunerative price for all agro products.

But looking at it politically, many amongst us have been dreaming of India becoming a superpower. The testing of ‘Nuclear weapon’ did not make us a superpower. The wiping out of negative BOP [Balance of payment] and building a huge ‘Forex’ reserve [read Dollars], did not make us a superpower. Striking the nuclear deal with US did not make us a superpower either. In fact these things only made us a virtual slave to US. The rejection of pressure from the US to commercialise Bt brinjal has made us stand tall and we can now claim to be a superpower capable of standing up to them. Hats off to the farmers and environmentalists! It may be short live like our No 1 status in test cricket. How one wonders sense had prevailed during the ‘nuclear deal drama’ in 2008 too, when the whole country except the two hundred and odd [‘Rs 25 crore’] MPs, were against it but the American nuclear lobby prevailed instead of sense, then.

Introduction of Bt cotton resulted in the death of more than 300,000 farmers in India in recent times. It is actually Genocide going by the numbers. The case of cotton was at least indirect. The farmers lured in to cultivating Bt cotton dreaming of high yield, lost heavily due to high cost and poor yield and consequently they committed suicide by consuming pesticide. Introduction of GM vegetables will expose the entire population – not just the farmers – to the dangerous consequences of GM crops directly. This will be much worse than the havoc caused by pesticides through food/ water [mainly bottled mineral water] and atmospheric pollution. The consequences will be unimaginable – death toll will be not in thousands or lacs but a billion plus. This will be manifolds worse than the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US. GM crops will also pollute the atmosphere and water like pesticides, apart from directly poisoning the food, causing deceases hitherto unknown. This is also the creation of the ‘Moath ka Soudagars’ – merchants of death – Americans, as the weapons of mass destruction – nuclear, biological, chemical weapons as well as the Cola drinks and cell phones [I call colas liquid bomb and cell phones electronic bomb] – which are already at work trying to render not only humanity but all forms of life extinct on this beautiful planet. Acidic Colas are dissolving the teeth and bones, the cell phones are virtual micro wave ovens baking not only the cells of human beings, but also animals and plants, rendering them prone to cancers, mutations and mutilations. They are affecting not only the users, but the non users as well like passive smoking. GM crop is nothing short of a biological or a genetic weapon – a bio or a geno bomb.

It is time to replace ‘Science’ with ‘Con Science’ [conscience].

Even if the farming community resists cultivating the branded GM crops, the hawks will push it through the unbranded seeds market. Hence, the farmers should buy seeds from their fellow farmers – certified personally and not by any corporate/ government agencies – to ensure that the seed is not a GM/ Bt one. The consumers on their part should avoid buying the GM products even if it is cheaper, looks more attractive and has longer shelf life. Our own history has shown that when the consumer decides to say ‘No’ even the mighty empires have to bow out and Manmohan, Monsanto and the other MNs [multi nationals] are not any bigger than the then ‘British Empire’. ‘MN’ sounds like Yaman – God of death – in Tamil. True – the above MNs do ring the death knell.

In India, rural population is 70 percent and they largely depend on agriculture. They constitute the majority of the voters. Any attempt to manipulate the rural economy, culture etc. not for their welfare but to placate the appetite of their foreign masters, will boomerang on the politicians one day. The so called economic reforms were introduced by the duo of Narasimha Rao and Manmohan singh much against the verdict of 1991 elections, which was won on the promise of continuing the policies of Jawaharlal and to some extent Indira. It was a total betrayal. The reforms were not intended for the good of the masses but only the MNCs and foreign powers – US to be specific. The electorate promptly showed Congress the doors at the earliest opportunity in 1996 elections and the 100 year old party was thrown in to oblivion. The genocide by 300,000 farmers is the direct result of the reforms – surrender to US. Earlier Indira tried to gag democracy in 1975 and the electorate threw her out in 1977 elections. Democracy is still vibrant though limping in India. The rulers have to do what is good for the people whom they claim to represent and not their maters across the globe.

‘Defiling the Mahatma and Deifying his Assassin’

‘Defiling the Mahatma and Deifying his Assassin’

Albert Einstein said “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one ever walked in flesh and blood on earth”. Some others predicted, a hundred years hence people will build temples everywhere for him and pray. Whom were they talking about? The one and only Gandhi the Mahatma! And what did he actually do to deserve these words?

I for one would pick his warning “Nature has enough for everybody’s need but, not enough for anybody’s greed” as his greatest realization and contribution to the war torn world. Analyze any issue and it will boil down to the havoc caused by greed and/or welfare achieved by the non greedy/selfless. He said these words a good hundred years before phrases like environmental degradation, global warming were even coined and entered the vocabulary of common people, nearly half a century before the worst ever crime was unleashed on the humanity – the dropping of ‘Atom Bombs’ on the innocents citizens after the war had already ended. It does not refer to environmental issues alone. It is all encompassing, the very way of life. Replacing the word Nature by ‘God’, it represents the whole gamut of religion. It is the essence of Vedas and Bhagawath Geetha. In Tamil we say ‘Manh aasai, Pon aasai, Penh aasai’ are the reasons for all sufferings of mankind.

Wars are results of greed. War cannot end war. The analogy of a thorn to remove another does not apply here. End of one war is just the seed for the next and more deadly war. Truth is need, untruth is greed. Freedom is the need of all but slavery is due to the greed of some. Terrorism cropped as a reaction to the greed of some – mainly US – to control the world. Terrorists have killed much fewer [few thousands] than the US military [few millions]. No amount of arming can put an end to terrorism. Only stopping harming can do that. Socialism is the need of all. Capitalism [call it market economy if you don’t like the old world word] is the result of greed. Idea of ‘superpower’ emanates out of greed of some to control others. Idea of ‘subeeksha’ emanates out of concern for all. ‘Sarvodhaya’ targets to achieve ‘subeeksha. Vegetarianism is the need, while Meat eating is greed.    

When someone asked me what is ‘Gandhiam’ [Gandhism or whatever] I said ‘I can write volumes about it, or an article running to pages or just tell in a single word ‘Naermai’ – honesty or forthrightness. Practice of ‘Naermai’ in thought, word and deed is Gandhiam, nothing more and nothing less’.  

‘He practiced what he preached’ is the common refrain. In fact not just practiced in personal life, he proved it is possible to practice truth and nonviolence in political/public life too. In fact this makes him stand out even among the greats ‘Buddha, Jesus and Gandhi’. Truth applied to humanity’s struggle against social evils, injustice and atrocities, took the shape of ‘Sathyagraha’ – nonviolent struggle using only truth as the weapon, not to coerce the enemy but to convince the opponent by self suffering.  

When India joined the devils band wagon by testing the nuclear device, I noted ‘The history of the world is clearly on cross roads now. We have to choose between violent annihilation of biological matter on this planet and peaceful perpetuation of life. Violence has been the way of politics all these ages, until Mahatma Gandhi gave us the tool of Nonviolence. The future story of the world can be written only with Nonviolence, as otherwise the humanity will not exist to record it. We have to reverse this madness of misuse of science and replace it with con-science (conscience)’. 

Not just India, the whole world has accepted him as the greatest advocate of peaceful coexistence. He is much above Bharath Rathnas and Nobels. He was much above the religions of the world.  The post ‘Hiroshima – Nagazaki world’ has not yet been shattered in to tiny fragments mainly because of the efforts by his followers – Rajaji, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajaji’s son Narasimhan, Vijalakshmi Pandit and others at the UN and other forums, in spite of holding more than 20000 bombs, each many folds more powerful than the ‘Little Boys’.

He gave a voice to the down trodden – the dalits – calling them Harijans. The word untouchability has vanished from our memory and vocabulary now thanks only to him. It was nothing short of a miracle that the scourge of untouchabilty, a few thousand years old practice in India, was eradicated by him practically single handedly, not by any power of administration but by Atma Sakthi – fasting and driving the message in to the hearts of the caste Hindus. His contribution to the emancipation of women is unparalleled. He re established the pride to the workers, craftsmen and even scavengers. Even saints and religious heads recognized him as the greatest saint – they called him ‘Gandhi Baba’.      

 

Now some disparate elements have gathered the courage to deify the one who assassinated this ‘Avathara Purusha’ whom many regard as the greatest person ever to have lived on earth, if not as an Avathara – incarnation of the lord [as I do]. They want to erect thousands of statues for the murderer. The communal forces among a great people are turning to be another ‘Taliban’. Afghanis Taliban destroyed the statue of another ‘Avatara Purusha’ – the Buddha – and now the Indian and unfortunately Hindu version of Taliban is erecting statues for Nathuram Godse – mind you, it will not stop with that, it will only be followed by destroying the statues, memorials and other memorabilia of the Mahatma.

Even using his name for the ‘Pravasi Bharathiya Divas’ is belittling him. NRI’s haven’t gone out to bring glory or wealth for India. If they do that it is just incidental. It is to satisfy their own self interests that they go out [run away from their mother, father and mother land] that too after being born here, fed and educated here at our [RI’s] cost. The very celebration of ‘Pravasi Bharathiya Divas’ is unfair and an insult to the Indians living back home. Using Gandhi’s name for this is detestable and deplorable to say the least.

Not just erase his memory; they are in fact trying to destroy the very essence of Hinduism/ Sanathana dharma in the name of protecting and fostering it. You can convert a person from one religion to another. But Sanathana dharma is not a religion. It is a way of life. Everyone living by a set of social rules – dos and don’ts – is a member of ‘Sanathana Dharma’. You cannot convert a Sanathana dharmi in to a Sanathana dharmi. The others who don’t live by rules including these elements are not even human to say the least. You have to only try to convert – humanize – them.  

Some people are trying to justify Godse based on incorrect understanding of the history. They say Gandhi betrayed us by agreeing to partition India. What a travesty of truth. First of all there was nothing like India before 15^th Aug 1947. It was a subcontinent of hundreds of kingdoms and a large patch of the British Empire. The idea of ‘India’ as a nation came in to being thanks only to the stalwarts of freedom struggle – Gokhale, Thilak, Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Bose, Azad and others. They worked for coalescing the bits and pieces in to a nation. Gandhi declared ‘You can partition India only over my dead body. You have Hindus and Muslim living in every village. How can you partition each and every village?’ The idea of partition was the poison sown by the British in the minds of some greedy Muslim leaders. Even today almost every Muslim living in India is proud of being an Indian and would only like to remain here and not defect to Pakistan. Only when Nehru, Patel and others argued that ‘the situation is going out of control – due to the direct action launched by Jinnah where scores of Hindus and as a reaction Muslims were getting slaughtered’ and ‘if we miss this opportunity, we may never get independence in the near future, let us at least retain the portion other than Pakistan as prescribed by Jinnah’, did he submit to the reality of the situation very reluctantly though. May be Godseyers would have been happy if Gandhi had laid down his life then as he declared earlier. They are repenting now as the blame for Gandhi’s death has fallen on Godse and RSS. We should also not discount the fact that the very formation and activities of RSS trying to make the nation a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ gave a major impetus to the Islamic faction in Congress to form the ‘Muslim league’ and demand ‘Pakistan’ and the British used the opportunity to drive a wedge.  

Godseyers feel he delivered a judgment on Gandhi. Even God [call him by any name] would not dare delivering such a judgment on such a person. Even the learned British Judge stood up in reverence when Gandhi was brought in as an accused in a case. Going by the rules in vogue, he pronounced a six year internment for Gandhi and added ‘if His Majesty [the King] decides to reduce the sentence, no one will be happier than I’. 

Tales of his detractors turning followers after direct encounters with him are aplenty. They are talking of conversions now. The greatest convertor of all times was/is not the evangelists of Christianity or the marauders/invaders of Islam. Mahatma Gandhi converted the out castes – Daliths who were in a huge majority – in to Hindus, by convincing the Hindu stalwarts to allow them in to Temples – using no violence nor promise of benefits, but just recognition as equals. Followers of Hinduism then were only a fraction of what it is today in percentage terms. He has done more to Hinduism than all these hinduthwa forces put together. His transforming the out castes in to religious Hindus is the greatest act of social transformation in the world.    

Godse was just the ante thesis of Gandhi in every respect. I have been saying, ‘Life on earth is just a question of compromise. One’s biography is only the chain of compromises he makes. Given an opportunity everyone would like to keep sleeping. But the reality of having got to eat to live, earn to be able to eat and so on make us compromise and get up, work and earn. If you compromise untruth to uphold truth you become a Gandhi and if you compromise truth for untruth you become a Godse. Every one of us is a mix of these two extremes’. 

Gandhians have been put in to a dilemma now. Should they not protest installation of Godse’s statues? If they remain silent, will it not be construed as approval or as their weakness? Should they not try to bring Godseyers to their senses? Should they not contest Godseyers’ view, which for sure is not good for the humanity? Gandhians should not entertain any malice against them. However, should they not use their Gandhian inclination to guide the misguided? Did not Gandhiji suggest resisting nonviolently social evils, injustice and atrocities? He said Satyagraha does not mean remaining passive. It is only resisting nonviolently using Satya as the tool. Instead of coercing the opponent, a Satyagrahi tries to convince the opponent by his own suffering. Satyagraha is not cowardice. It requires extreme courage to practice it and so on. 

Showing resentment in Gandhian ways – human chain with covered mouth, silent rallies, candle light gatherings and most appropriately with a mass fast on Gandhi’s martyrdom day – when they are planning to assassinate/obliterate his memory too, may be in order.

Not only the avowed Gandhians, humanity as a whole should rise to stop this sinister design to defile the idea of Gandhi and deify his assassin. Will they or won’t they? Only they can decide.

We may think, ‘only those who have sacrificed their pleasures, wealth or life for the sake of others are revered. Even if a thousand statues are erected for Godse, he will never be revered’. But these are days when villains, anti social elements, criminals and even convicts are revered by the ignorant. Have we fallen from Gandhian era in to Godsean era – only time can tell.  

K. Raja Rajan

[Technologist by qualification, Farmer by option and Gandhian by conviction]

President

Gandhian Initiative for Social Transformation 

Email:  rajarajank53@gmail.com  &    letsbelldcat@gmail.com

Ph: 9444160839