War crimes of Srilankan army against Tamil people and Indian media's support to the Srilankan Government

Main stream media and news print agencies such as THE HINDU, INDIAN EXPRESS, NDTV and DINAMALAR etc are still lending a helping hand to the Lankan government by publishing articles in support of the Lankan government. The main stream media is one sided and is continually keeping the people of Tamilnadu and India in dark by hiding the war crimes of the Lankan army against the innocent Tamil people in refugee camps. Although fault lie on both the Lankan and LTTE sides, lakhs of innocent Tamil people were made to pay a big price for this bloody war. Even during the war or be it now the main stream media systematically black out the Human rights violations news that is still prevalent in IDP (internally displaced people (Tamil)) camps run under the Lankan army. According to the Human rights watch more than 1 Lakh 20 thousand Tamil people were brutally killed by the Lankan army with the support of India (primarily) and China. One need not be a Tamil to condemn this war crime but all real Human beings irrespective of the religion, geographical location would/should condemn this war crime.

I am writing this because I got shocked and emotionally moved after seeing the Channel 4 documentary film, “Srilankan killing fields” that was telecasted last week in Headlines Today news channel. I feel ashamed to say we live in a civilized society/world.

In this post I would like to share my mail sent to THE HINDU and Col.Hari, Chief of the Intelligence unit of the Indian peace keeping force (IPKF) in response to his article "The moment of truth for the LTTE". At that time the civil war between the Srilankan government and the LTTE was fought fiercely. Also during that period the main stream media in India are busy in hiding the true facts of the bloody war. They did not point out the human rights violation of the Lankan army instead they published what the Lankan government has told them.

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reg:The article in The Hindu

Saturday, 7 February, 2009 1:22 AM

From:

"selva sharma"

View contact details

To:

colhari@yahoo.com

Respected sir, I read your article "The moment of truth for the LTTE" in Hindu news paper dated feb 5,2009.I accept your views regarding LTTE's systematic elimination of Tamil leaders to an extent. But apart from that your article is completely baseless and one sided.LTTE alone cannot be blamed for the civil war, indeed the majority sinhalas and the political parties representing the sinhalas only paved the way for the formation of an extremist LTTE organization. Tamils in ceylon first fought for their rights peacefully. But the sinhala political parties used the ethnic tension to their advantage for political gains and power. Right from the independence srilnakan government are one sided and sponsored many riots against Tamils in Srilanka. You haven't mention these facts in any part of your article! Some Government sponsored violence in Srilanka: *Gal oya riots 1956 *1958 riots *1977 riots *Jaffna library burning 1981 *Black july 1983. The war in lanka will definitely end within few weeks from now, LTTE will be defeated. But the question is will the Tamils in Srilanka be granted equal rights? I am sure that the Srilankan government do nothing for the empowerment of Tamils. This fact is evident by seeing the killing of innocent Tamils even in so called safe zones by the Srilankan army. History shows that Srilankan government is always against ethnic Tamils. "However,The LTTE started dissipating its goodwill in India when it colluded with its "sworn sinhala enemy" R.Premadasa to get the Indian forces off its back and send them out of Srilanka...." The above said lines in the article are true to some extent. But one also needs to concede the grave human rights violation committed by the IPKF in Srilanka. Valvettiturai massacre, Jaffna teaching hospital massacre are some examples. But sir as an head of intelligence of IPKF you should have conceded your failure in Jaffna football ground massacre of our fellow countrymen. Also one logical question arises sir, What is the need for the Indian government to supply weapons to this Sinhala government which is virtually against India in all aspects right from the India-China war, India-Pakistan wars. Also even our enemy Pakistan never shoots at the Indian fishermen, if they accidentally cross the fishing border. But the so called close ally of India, Srilanka has so far killed more than 600 Tamil fishermen. What does the Indian navy and government did to save my State's fishermen. Had the Pakistan has done this kind of act i am sure our country would have fought a war with Pakistan. No writer in this print media raised this kind of questions till now. Regards, A.Selvasharma, M.Sc.Chemisrty, Department of Chemistry, Bharathiar university Tamilnadu.

The reply to the above mail from Col.Hari was mere “Thanks for your feedbacks”. I sent a modified mail to THE HINDU too but it never got published.

I am sharing this mail and views because many innocent Children, Women and Men are brutally killed everyday all around the world in the name of war against terrorism. Its high time we all must and should join hands in condemning violence or army action against innocent people wheather it happens in our country or in Palestine, Sudan Afghanistan, Srilanka or Pakistan. I also request you to dedicate some time for the social issues and spread awareness among many educated (there are many educated illiterates in India!) and uneducated persons. Changes don't happen in a day. But if we don't start today, change may never happen. After all Revolutions don’t happen within a day…….!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

India third 'snoopiest' country: Google Transparency Report.The GOI have requested Google to censor the internet contents/opinions of many users who speak against the Indian government. Even dictatorship countries haven't placed such a number of censor requests to the Google. So its clear that the government of India is keeping an eye on its internet users and with the help of Google, GOI have accquired the internet users privacy details to intimidate them. The important fact is that the Indian government seek censorship to political views,hate speech,Government Criticism etc.It is clear that We don’t have freedom of speech here in India when it comes to government criticism in key issues.

DISCLOSURE:

Hence I hereby declare that the above article is My personal opinion and it is not being copied from any other Internet/anti-India websites.

An unattended questionnaire on caste in cash rich Indian cricket

Sudipta Sengupta,

Delhi: B P Baloo, a Dalit cricketer, earned glory for India during the pre-independence period. But, the issue is why there are not many players from lower castes in the Indian team.

BABAJI PALWANKAR BALOO: not many cricket fans will be aware of this name. And, if I go ahead with this article without giving a brief background about him, then perhaps it will sound like talking in the national language of Timbaktoo. So, let me start with a brief introduction of Baloo.

He was a left-arm orthodox spinner, who played cricket for India from 1906 to 1920. Born in Dharwad in Karnataka, he was perhaps the first Dalit cricketer of India. With an exceptional ability to turn the ball both ways he managed to claim 179 wickets in his career. Now, for all those who are wondering what is so special about this cricketer from the Chamar caste, let me remind them that this was the time when caste discrimination was predominant in India. This was also the time when the British ruled the Indians and in many areas ‘dogs and Indians were not allowed’.

However, it was the sheer talent of Baloo that never allowed the upper castes to dominate him. Most of us are aware of the fact that Vinoo Mankad claimed 100 wickets in 1946 in England. But, we might not know that Baloo achieved the same feat in 1911 when he toured England. He ended the year with a total of 114 wickets at an average of 18.84.

Can you imagine a Dalit cricketer in the pre-independence era going to England and beating the English batsmen in their own game? Also, do not forget to take into account the limitations of training and grooming available in India compared to what the English got, who started playing the game much before us. Many believe that Baloo was an inspiration for Dr B R Ambedkar.

The name of Baloo, however, is not new to many. The author Ramchandra Guha has written a famous book A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History on Baloo’s life. Another author, Boria Majumdar, has also covered the player’s life well in his writings.

Many questions came to my mind about Balo and caste in Indian cricket. In fact, I would have loved to get answers for some of my questions mentioned below from either Guha or Majumdar. But it is my bad luck that none of them were available for an interview with a citizen journalist. Hence, I pass on the entire set of unanswered questions to the intelligent web community.

Here they follow.

Question 1: Babaji Palwankar Baloo, played in 1906. He was a good player. But, amazingly, till date we can hardly count any other Dalit cricketer in the Indian cricket team. Is it because Dalits are still financially weak and cannot pay to get groomed for the competitive selection process or is there a hidden social bias against them?

Question 2 (a): Unlike old days when cricket field was a forte of the city-dwelling rich and mighty, we have seen a number of star cricketers emerging from smaller cities in recent days, namely Mahendra Singh Dhoni from Jharkhand, R P Singh from Rai Bareilly, etc. Even the ones coming from cities belong to the lower class. Does it show a shift in the Indian cricket from big cities to small towns and across classes? What effect does it have on the caste composition of the team?

(b): Is there a regional trend in caste in cricket? The cricketers from the south – Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and V V S Laxman – and Maharashtra – Sachin Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar – are Brahmins and urban. The cricketers from the north – Virendra Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh – and smaller towns are either lower or middle caste Hindus or non-Hinus. Is caste hierarchy more rigidly placed in the south?

Question 3: All selectors in Tamil Nadu Cricket Board are Brahmins, and the most recent player to emerge from the state is Murli Karthik, who is also a Brahmin. Does it reflect a caste bias in cricket?

Question 4: Is it a mere coincidence that Sunil Gavaskar, Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Kumble, Tendulkar, Laxman and many other stalwarts of the Indian cricket are Brahmins?

Question 5: Everytime there is a small town guy displacing a big-city Brahmin from a position of prominence, the Brahmin lobby in cricket gets furious. Sunil Gavaskar could not digest the success of Kapil Dev. Tendulakar had problems with Sehwag taking his opener’s slot. The initial success of Harbhajan Singh displaced Kumble from the team in situations where only one spinner is required, and it created some murmers of discontent in the Karnataka cricketing lobby. Is this cold war castist in character?

Question 6: What can be the future trends in Indian cricket team with respect to caste and class of players across regions?

Question 7: Some writers have pointed out Baloo inspired Ambedkar, something that Ambedkar has acknowledged. Can there be more Ambedkars if there are more Baloos?

I will like to put a disclaimer here that my intentions are neither to engage the fanatic cricket fans in a brainless debate nor to point a finger to the worthiness of any of the big cricketers I have named. Rather, with this article, I just want to dig into the truth and find out if India is really free of caste bias. If yes, then why is it that the eleven-member team of our most popular sport is not big enough to fit in a Dalit member? Or, does the problem lie somewhere else?

Land mark verdict by the Supreme court of India

In a landmark verdict the supreme court of India have ordered the Chattisgarh government and Union government to end salwa judum.

What is/Who are SALWA JUDUM,SPO,KOYA COMMONDOS?

SALWA JUDUM,SPO (special police officers),KOYA COMMONDOS is an armed group formed by the pro capitalistic Indian/state government comprising of young, barely literate and poorly trained innocent tribals to fight the Maoists/Naxalites in six northern states of India.

Why Human rights activists and people are against SALWA JUDUM,SPO,KOYA COMMONDOS?

SPO's were given power to execute innocent people without any law.This has resulted in several Human rights violation in tribal region.The sufferings of the innocent Tribal people due to the lawless violence of state supported SPO's is higher when compared to that of the Maoists.

Why the Government itself employing the innocent tribal youths against the Moists instead of the police and army?

Its very simple the Government does not have the will power to sacrifice its own police in combating the Maoists. Instead they are using innocent tribal youths as "cannon fodder" for the state.

Also the government does this type of strategy to evacuate the tribal people from the mineral rich forest areas so that it can be handedover to big corporate houses such as TATA,Reliance,Vedanta,Mittal steels,POSCO. (Remember the theme of hollywood movie,AVATAR).Thus in the name of curbing Maoists violence, the Indian government is supporting the big corporates. .

What the Supreme Court said in its judgment?

The supreme court of India in its judgment statement state that, "Laws cannot remain silent when the canons roar"

The court also made the link between the state's illegal counter-insurgency strategy (Salwa judam) and the wider "Neoliberal' approach being followed by the government at the central and state levels.” The Salwa judum is the illegimate product of a system that sees nothing wrong in giving tax breaks to the rich and guns to the poor to fight each other"


IMPORTANT NOTE:

India third 'snoopiest' country: Google Transparency Report.The GOI have requested Google to censor the internet contents/opinions of many users who speak against the Indian government. Even dictatorship countries haven't placed such a number of censor requests to the Google. So its clear that the government of India is keeping an eye on its internet users and with the help of Google, GOI have accquired the internet users privacy details to intimidate them. The important fact is that the Indian government seek censorship to political views,hate speech,Government Criticism etc.It is clear that We the Indians don’t have freedom of speech here in India when it comes to government criticism in key issues.

DISCLOSURE:

Hence I hereby declare that the above article is My personal opinion and it is not being copied from any other Internet/anti-India websites. The excerpts of the Supreme Court Judgments are taken from The HINDU news paper.