Readers' Forum
“Marxist’s mini memoir”
I commend Parsiana for sending copies of the magazine to Kobad Ghandy, the Marxist ideolog who is incarcerated in Tihar jail, Delhi.
I am appalled at the treatment being meted out to this brilliant man. He has been in jail since 2009, yet, as per the item "Marxist’s mini memoir” (Events and Personalities, Parsiana, September 7, 2013), charges have still not been framed against him! I understand that Ghandy has supported the Naxalite movement in India since 1972. To opine on this facet of his life, it is worthwhile to consider certain cold facts.
I am the founder and managing trustee of an organization that works to end human hunger in India. Hunger kills over 24,000 people every day, of which 16,000 are Indians who die unnoticed and unacknowledged. In this, the most basic of human development indices, India is the worst nation in the entire world. Human hunger is measured by the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), the number of deaths of infants below the age of two for every 1,000 live births.
As part of my work, I have often traversed the entire length and breadth of our country. I have observed that all government health agencies like public health centers have been instructed not to reveal the malnutrition related figures for their constituents. Much effort and coaxing is required to obtain these. While various poverty alleviation schemes are available, the funds do not trickle down to the poorest of the poor. The reason: a corrupt and colluding bureaucracy. From the top-most politician to the local bank officer, all have their hand in the poor man’s till. All the hungry are ready to work: they do not want charity. All they seek is an opportunity to work with dignity. Sadly, our heartless system just does not allow it. Instead, a rapacious and inhuman cartel of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen continues to plunder common resources as if they were their own personal property.
It is with these facts in mind that an opinion on Ghandy, and indeed the Naxalite movement, may be formed.
Another prominent leader of this movement, Dr Binayak Sen, was arrested on charges of sedition but was released after a brief incarceration when an angry howl of protest ensued. In contrast, Ghandy has been languishing without so much as charges being framed against him for four years. Not a single Parsi lawyer has supported him, though the community has so many legal luminaries, even in Delhi.
I request these able lawyers to consider taking up Ghandy’s brief. He is talented. He returned to serve his country shunning the lure of power and pelf in lands of greater opportunity. This was surely a noble, indeed a typically Zoroastrian thing to do. Could they therefore rise to the occasion and bail Ghandy out?
MALCOLM R. PRINTER
malcolmrprinter@gmail.com
I am appalled at the treatment being meted out to this brilliant man. He has been in jail since 2009, yet, as per the item "Marxist’s mini memoir” (Events and Personalities, Parsiana, September 7, 2013), charges have still not been framed against him! I understand that Ghandy has supported the Naxalite movement in India since 1972. To opine on this facet of his life, it is worthwhile to consider certain cold facts.
I am the founder and managing trustee of an organization that works to end human hunger in India. Hunger kills over 24,000 people every day, of which 16,000 are Indians who die unnoticed and unacknowledged. In this, the most basic of human development indices, India is the worst nation in the entire world. Human hunger is measured by the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), the number of deaths of infants below the age of two for every 1,000 live births.
As part of my work, I have often traversed the entire length and breadth of our country. I have observed that all government health agencies like public health centers have been instructed not to reveal the malnutrition related figures for their constituents. Much effort and coaxing is required to obtain these. While various poverty alleviation schemes are available, the funds do not trickle down to the poorest of the poor. The reason: a corrupt and colluding bureaucracy. From the top-most politician to the local bank officer, all have their hand in the poor man’s till. All the hungry are ready to work: they do not want charity. All they seek is an opportunity to work with dignity. Sadly, our heartless system just does not allow it. Instead, a rapacious and inhuman cartel of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen continues to plunder common resources as if they were their own personal property.
It is with these facts in mind that an opinion on Ghandy, and indeed the Naxalite movement, may be formed.
Another prominent leader of this movement, Dr Binayak Sen, was arrested on charges of sedition but was released after a brief incarceration when an angry howl of protest ensued. In contrast, Ghandy has been languishing without so much as charges being framed against him for four years. Not a single Parsi lawyer has supported him, though the community has so many legal luminaries, even in Delhi.
I request these able lawyers to consider taking up Ghandy’s brief. He is talented. He returned to serve his country shunning the lure of power and pelf in lands of greater opportunity. This was surely a noble, indeed a typically Zoroastrian thing to do. Could they therefore rise to the occasion and bail Ghandy out?
MALCOLM R. PRINTER
malcolmrprinter@gmail.com
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