Reads Like A Constitutional Crisis

Thank you, PTI, for an excellent report on our great prime minister Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi’s speech at the opening of a conference of tribal development ministers; and thank you, Mint, for publishing this in full. At a time when our poor forest dwellers are up in revolt, this speech is a historic document.

Before getting into what Chacha said, let us look at what appears at the bottom of this report, which is what the tribal affairs minister said:

Tribal affairs minister Kantilal Bhuria, in his address, said there was need for bringing amendment in forest laws and pointed that “innocent” tribals are now taking route to the naxalism as hundreds of them are being “harrassed” under the Forest Act.

Now, let us look at what Chacha said towards the middle of his address:

Singh said administrative machinery in some of such areas is “either weak or virtually non-existent”, the “heavy hand of criminal justice system has become a source of harassment and exploitation” and over the years, a large number of cases have been registered against the tribals…

THIS IS A PREDATORY STATE

Q. E. D.

Chacha goes on to damn his Chacha State further:

“It is clear that we need to reflect on how to improve the laws and mechanisms through which we provide compensation to displaced tribals. The tribals must benefit from the projects for which they have been displaced,” the Prime Minister said.

This is their misuse of “eminent domain.” This is “legal plunder.” This is barbarism – the disrespect for Property. This is Predation.

Our great Chacha, of course, will try and plug in his State “education” at every opportunity, so here is what he said on that:

“The lack of quality education and vocational opportunities for tribals need immediate attention.”

Actually, they can distil mahua; they can brew handia; they can also play their jungle drums; they can dance. Inside the Palamau National Park, now in Jharkhand, an important centre of the Maoist-Naxal uprising, where I lived in 1982, I found that tribal communities were shunning State schools, preferring missionary schools. This applied not only to primary schools, but also to “adult education.”

At this point, let us look at how Chacha began his great speech:

In a clear message to Maoists, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said no sustained economic activity is possible under the shadow of gun in tribal areas where decades of alienation is taking a “dangerous” turn.

He said there has been a “systemic failure” in giving tribals a stake in the modern economic processes and emphasised that the “systematic exploitation and social and economic abuse of our tribal communities can no longer be tolerated.”

Now, do you see why there is a mass uprising in our jungles? They have taken to arms to battle the lawless guns of The Chacha State. It is our The State that is “lawless.” Not these tribals.

Chacha speaks of a solution: The “distribution of land titles.” My suggestion is that our tribals set up local governments and issue themselves their own land titles that are freely transferable and, without which, no land transfers are possible. They must issue themselves gun licenses as well.

Anyway, gotta end this post now. My new-found chillum-yaar, Bablu Das, is coming with some local ganja for me. He is a most peculiar fellow, this Bablu, a property dealer without property. Yes, he survives by arranging rentals and sales of titled properties in Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi. But he lives in Tughlaqabad, in a typical New Delhi slum, where he, and millions like him, possess no property titles.

All these dispossessed people of our cities must join cause with the Maoists and Naxalites from our deep and dark jungles – and the great cause must be Property.

And Liberty.

Magna Carta time, folks.