Be patient with Sri Lankan govt.: Modi to Tamil leaders

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Sri Lanka on Friday.

MEERA SRINIVASAN-JAFFNA, March 14, 2015

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Sri Lanka’s Tamils to be patient with the new government in Colombo, The Hindu learns from sources.

He met senior leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) — the main party representing the island’s northern Tamils — in Colombo on Friday.

Pointing to the “beginning of change” in the country following the victory of President Maithripala Sirisena in the January elections, Mr. Modi reportedly said the TNA should “help that change take place,” and not derail the process.

Mr. Modi urged the TNA to ensure that the party spoke in one voice, asking its “think tank” to come up with a different strategy to engage with the newly-formed government, TNA sources said.

Speaking to The Hindu, TNA spokesperson Suresh Premachandran said: “We brought up the issue of private land in Army control and the release of political prisoners. Mr. Modi told us that he had raised the issues with President Sirisena, and that he had assured to do the needful.”

“Excellent speech”

Commenting on the Indian Prime Minister’s speech in Parliament earlier on Friday, TNA parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran said Mr. Modi made a an “excellent speech” with a strong case for greater devolution in a manner that was not “overbearing”.

“I am firm believer in cooperative federalism,” Mr. Modi said in his address.

Mr. Modi’s meeting with the TNA delegation — the second since their last meeting in August 2014 in New Delhi — was held on the eve of the PM’s visit to the island’s Tamil-majority Northern Province.

Jaffna visit

Mr. Modi, on Saturday, will become the first Indian Prime Minister and the third Indian leader to visit Jaffna, after Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Gandhi -- who was in Sri Lanka in 1927 to raise funds for India’s poor — arrived in Jaffna on November 26, according to Sri Lankan historian Santasilan Kadirgamar’s book on the ‘The Jaffna Youth Congress’. He was greeted by a huge crowd at the Jaffna station, whose restoration was recently completed after it was destroyed during the war. Gandhi had taken the train from Colombo and returned to India by sea from Talaimannar – an option the two governments are considering reviving. Nehru was in Jaffna in 1931 along with Indira Gandhi — a teenager then — and was received by the Jaffna Youth Congress.

'India Corner'

On Saturday, after offering prayers at the ancient city of Anuradhapura in the North Central Province Mr. Modi will go to Talaimannar — the closest point to India — to flag off the last leg of railway services in the Northern Province, restored by IRCON.

He will then proceed to Jaffna, to inaugurate an ‘India Corner’ in the Jaffna Public library, and lay the foundation stone for the Jaffna Cultural Centre being built with Indian assistance. The ‘India Corner’ seeks to be a space where material on India and the links between the two countries will be archived and preserved, sources said.

Mr. Modi will also meet beneficiaries of the Indian housing scheme — India is funding a project to build 50,000 homes for families displaced by the war — in Ilavalai, about 15 km from Jaffna town.

The 13th Amendment: Is It The Best Model To Share Power?

By Dinesh D. Dodamgoda -March 14, 2015 

Dinesh Dodamgoda

As soon as Mr. Maithripala Sirisena became the President of Sri Lanka, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the British Tamil Forum (BTF) issued statements and reminded President-elect the need to “urgently” address the minority’s concerns. BTFstated that only a political solution recognising the right to self-determination of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka can address core issues of autonomy to the Tamil people,de-militarisation of the Tamil areas and cooperation with the UNHRS’s international inquiry.

The TNA and the BTF statements indicate a solution that aims at sharing power on the basis of the principle of “territoriality”. Territoriality uses geographical areas to create and administer autonomous regions. The principle of territorial power sharing was initially recommended as a second tier of government by the Donoughmore Commissioners in 1928. However, it was recommended not to address Tamil nationalist concerns, yet to bring structural changes to the constitution to reduce the level of centralisation that the British rulers used in order to consolidate the power of the colonial state.

Territoriality in SL

The principle of territoriality was adopted to guide negotiations on power-sharing between the Centre and the ‘national areas’ of the Tamils by the Federal party (FP) in the mid-1950s to claim ‘separate historical past’ of the Tamils that the FP claimed. After several unsuccessful attempts in 1957, 1960 and 1964-65, a second tier of government was adopted by the introduction of District Councils in 1981 as a result of negotiations between the United National Party (UNP) government and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the successor of the FP.

After the riots in 1983, the TULF and the Indian government insisted in abandoning the District Council system in order to bring a larger administrative system, the provincial councils in 1987. The Provincial Council system was adopted and incorporated as the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution of 1978 as a result of pressure from the Indian government. The provincial councils were modelled on the power of the states of the Indian Union, yet preserved the Sri Lankan unitary system.Read More

Tamils in Canada urge Modi to pressure Sri Lanka

Mar 13, 2015

TORONTO: Welcoming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Colombo, a leading Tamil group in Canada ? home to the largest Tamil diaspora outside Sri Lanka ? has urged him to put pressure on new President Maithiripala Sirisena to resolve the dragging ethnic issue. 

"By undertaking (the first bilateral) visit after 28 years by an Indian leader to Sri Lanka, Modi has shown his personal commitment to resolving the issues faced by the people in Sri Lanka, particularly the Tamils in the north and east," the Canadian Tamil Congress said in a statement. 

"Given the recent change of leadership in Sri Lanka, Modi's timely visit could serve as a meaningful step towards bringing lasting peace in Sri Lanka, especially since his visit will include a trip to the Northern Province, something no previous Indian prime minister has done," it said. 

The group said Sri Lanka has consistently ignored calls by human rights organisations to allow the return of Tamil refugees, restore their lands, release detainees and end demilitarization of the north and east. 

"But we are hopeful this important and timely visit by Modi will help expedite the early resolution of the needs of Tamil people in Sri Lanka and hopefully contribute towards rebuilding war-torn areas," it said. 

Welcoming Sirisena's steps towards reconciliation by visiting the northeast and replacing military officials with civilian governors, the statement said: "But the real work surrounding accountability and justice for mass crimes committed during the war have not yet been addressed." 

The Canadian Tamil Congress said the present situation provided a unique opportunity to bring about a lasting political solution to the Sri Lankan crisis. 

"We request Prime Minister Modi to urge the Sri Lankan government to embrace this opportunity and engage the elected Tamil representatives from TNA (Tamil National Alliance). 

"We also hope that Modi and Sirisena can use this opportunity to come to a viable solution for the fishermen's issue in a manner that can be reasonable to all parties involved in the conflict." 

Sri Lanka routinely arrests fishermen from India for intruding into Sri Lankan water. Indian authorities too arrest Sri Lankan fishermen. This has often led to conflict ? and occasionally resulted in deaths. 

There are over 300,000 Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada - their largest concentration outside Sri Lanka. 

J’pura Uni Study Board Requests Explanation Into Namal’s Dodgy PhD Attempt

March 14, 2015 
The Study Board of the Jayawardenapura University has requested the Post Graduate Faculty to submit an explanation on the dubious procedure that was followed, which deemed Rajapaksa ‘prince’ Namal eligible to follow the university’s PhD program.

Namal

At a discussion on Namal Rajapaksa’s dodgy PhD attempt during last month’s meeting of the Study Board, it had been pointed out that the procedure followed, which authorized him to enter the PhD program has led to many questions within the university protocols.

According to the Study Board meeting held in early 2010, in considering the request made by NR to follow a PhD program, it had been noted that he possesses a LLB degree from the London University. But he hadn’t fulfilled the MA qualifications and had therefore been advised to register for the MA Qualifying examination.

As reported by Colombo Telegraph earlier, although some of the Study Board members had requested the university administration to check into the authenticity of the LLB certificate submitted by the candidate, the efforts had been blocked by Criminology Department Head and the former Vice Chancellor, Dr. NLA Karunarathne who was a staunch supporter of former Higher Education Minister SB Dissanayake and the Rajapaksa regime. Namal was due to carry out his PhD studies under the supervision of the former Vice Chancellor and Prof M W Jayasundara, the Dean of the Criminology Department.

The Study Board members had also specifically raised concerns over the academic duration of his LLB, which is a primary requirement to pursue a Masters’ Degree but that request too had been rejected.

Documents submitted to the Study Board on NR’s request to enroll in the PhD program reveals that he had successfully completed the MAQ, which had been specially arranged for him and that afterwards he was made eligible for the registration for the Masters Degree program in 2010. However, in quite an abrupt manner, NR had been upgraded to a PhD level from the MA level in 2013.

Related stories;

Modi’s visit, a ‘channel change’ from the Central Bank’s bondgate fiasco 

Prime Minister Modi and President Sirisena

by RajanPhilips-March 14, 2015, 6:50 pm

Changing the channel in North American parlance means a government, or political organization, trying to inject a positive news story in the media to divert public attention from a negative news story that is dominating the news channels. So Modi’s visit was a channel changing opportunity after the UNP section of the yahapalanaya government had gone and bought itself a bondgate, courtesy of the Central Bank. In his address to parliament, Prime Minister Modi appealed to the government, and to the country, for "an early and full implementation of the 13th Amendment and going beyond it". Prime Minister Modi will also be visiting Jaffna on this trip, the first Indian Prime Minister to do so. In his meeting with the TNA leaders in Colombo, he advised them to work positively to facilitate the ‘change’ that has begun in Sri Lanka under President Sirisena. He asked the TNA ‘think tank’ to come up with new strategies for engaging the government. He is also reported to have told them not to ‘derail the process’, which is good advice and one that he should more appropriately offer in Jaffna to the resolution-happy Northern Provincial Council.

India is also hitching these political appeals to economic and cultural initiatives in the South, North, East and West of the island. A common feature of the two meetings in Delhi and in Colombo between Prime Minister Modi and President Sirisena was the emphasis on trade and economic agreements and initiatives between the two countries. These are welcome changes that the new government in Colombo should take advantage of. The question is whether the yahapalanaya government is steady and stable enough to take advantage of these initiatives in fulfilling its own 100-day agenda it promised to the people. While it has restored Sri Lanka’s friendly relations with India and reputation internationally, the new government is not navigating the domestic political waters quite as well.

Goodbye Port City, Hello Central Bank

Present day politics is all about optics. In the business of good governance, if there is something more important than not doing the wrong thing, it is not being seen or perceived to be doing the wrong thing. And in both optics and substance, the new government has got into a self-destructing - one step forward and two step backward – political trot. After managing to put Port City on hold, the government has gone and bought itself a bondgate at the Central Bank (after Nixon’s Watergate, any government scandal anywhere is now ‘gate’ tagged). When Basil Rajapaksa and his ilk began plotting the impeachment of Chief Justice Shiranee Bandaranayaka, President Rajapksa is said to have remarked, "this could come back to hurt us." It took a while, but retribution did come, and it came with vengeance. If and when the new government that benefitted from that wave of retribution gets its own comeuppance, government leaders can rue the ‘bondgate’ scandal sprung by the Central Bank as being one of the triggers of its downfall. Quite apart from the technical and evidentiary determination whether or not any bond trader did receive and benefit from inside information, the political judgement in the appointment of the Central Bank governor was questionable from the very beginning. Even now, rather than cutting itself loose from the bondgate scandal by asking the technically highly qualified but politically toxic governor to kindly vacate his post, the government is trying to save face by appointing a committee that has no credibility with anybody.

The people defeated the Rajapaksas to punish them for their corruption and family bandyism. They will not tolerate the new government shifting gears to do favours to fair-weather political friends instead of family members. There is a perception that Prime Minister Wickremasinghe is trying to continue from where he left as Prime Minister in 2004, and that, if correct, would be a huge mistake. In addition, bringing the Central Bank under the Prime Minister’s portfolio and appointing a governor from outside the Bank without an open and competitive selection process is not consistent with the expectations of good governance, but a continuation of Rajapaksa governance. The proposed 19th Amendment provides for the establishment of a Constitutional Council that is to be tasked, among other things, with making recommendations for and/or approvals of a host senior state and judicial officials, including the Chief Justice, the Auditor General, the Election Commissioner, etc. In the draft amendment, the Governor of the Central Bank is not included in the list of appointments under the purview of the Constitutional Council. Perhaps, it is time to add the Central Bank Governor’s appointment to the Council’s list.

What is new?

One step forward and more than two steps backward – is what the people are seeing in the new government’s investigation of its predecessor over widespread allegations of bribery, corruption and other criminal activities. It takes time and due process to identify and prosecute the perpetrators. People get that, but what they do not get is why the police should be asking political leaders for permission to arrest somebody. No one should be arrested on political orders, nor should anybody be not arrested for political expediency. There have also been news reports that a former Attorney General and a Minister in the present government have told lawyers in the Attorney General’s Department to ‘go slow’ on the investigations against specific individuals. In a not so strange twist, the SLFP parliamentarians are said to be complaining that the UNP ministers are not moving aggressively in investigating the Rajapaksas. Could it be that the SLFP parliamentarians are opposed to an early election in order to complete the investigations against the Rajapaksas, while the UNP is insisting on dissolving parliament on April 23 to scupper the investigations and even trigger a split in the SLFP? Either way, such machinations are not in keeping with the promises and expectations of good governance.

Take the dissolution dance. The President went out of his way to consult with the Commissioner of Elections and the Surveyor General about expediting electoral delimitation to conduct the next parliamentary under a new system of election laws. Their consensus is that rather than dissolving parliament on April 23 and having elections under the current PR/preferential system which nobody likes, just by postponing everything by a month or so the elections could be held under a new system. Give the President credit for trying to reach a compromise, even though, along Sobitha Thero and others, I would still argue that the current parliament should be allowed to complete its term ending in April 2016. That will also give time to make progress in at least implementing 13A, even if not going beyond it. Making early progress on 13A and implementing the LLRC recommendations would be helpful when Sri Lanka has to again stand before UNHRC in Geneva, in September 2015.

But what does the UNP Working Committee do after the President’s positive intervention? It resolves unanimously that parliament shall be dissolved on April 23, for elections in June this year. It may not have been intended as a snub to the President, but what was the point in passing a resolution that will have no effect on the President, or the Parliament, unless the Working Committee was taking a leaf from the Northern Provincial Council’s enthusiasm for resolutions? The SLFP group in parliament is starting its own game of constitutional hide and seek. It is fair for the SLFP to insist that electoral reforms should be in place before the next election, but it would be farfetched for that Party to come forward with its own constitutional proposals now after following the Rajapaksas for ten years without taking any constitutional initiative whatsoever except passing the wretched 18th Amendment.

So what is new? What is new and what is different is the purpose and persistence that is being demonstrated by the JVP and the JHU, who unlike the UNPers and the SLFPers have no skeletons to hide and have no IOUs to (dis)honour. What is also new and different is that President Maithripala Sirisena, unlike his predecessors, seems sincere and honest in his determination to keep the promises he made to the people en route to his victory on January 8. He will increasingly find himself to be at odds with both the SLFP and UNP parliamentarians, and to overcome their petty machinations he will have to rely on the political energies of the JVP and the JHU in the south, and the TNA in the north. Occasionally, he will have to directly connect with the people over the heads of the parliamentarians.

Gota to be arrested under money laundering Act on charges of earning colossal sale of weapons to International terrorists

(Lanka-e-News -14.March.2-15, 9.30PM) The former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse is to be arrested on charges under the money laundering Act by the CID. The latter is on the verge of arresting him. While ostensibly running a legally established security establishment   , colossal weapon deals have been transacted, and via illicit routes, weapons of the Sri Lankan government  have been sold to terrorist organizations world wide . The proceeds  of these sales amounting to many billions of rupees in foreign exchange have been appropriated for his personal use by Gotabaya without crediting to the joint fund of the government, based on information that have come to light following invstigations.

Already the necessary instructions have been obtained by the CID from the attorney general’s (AG) department towards this arrest , informed sources from within the  AG’s department revealed. Rathna Lanka establishment which are the operators while showing   they are   fully affiliated to the defense ministry of the government has earned huge sums of foreign exchange  in billions thereby . Gotabaya Rajapakse had used most of these monies and distributed them among his close friends and himself.  There is copious and cogent evidence bearing testimony to these crimes committed by Gotabaya which information the CID had already unearthed. 

All these clandestine deals have been done sans transparency and according to Gotabaya’s whims and fancies. Although Gotabaya had tried to show that this establishment had the legal authority of the government , according to the chiefs of the Auditor general’s department and the AG’s department this establishment had been run ostensibly as a government Institution by Gotabaya , when it was truly a private establishment of his.

If such an establishment is to be run dealing in foreign exchange it must have the parliamentary approval via an enactment . However Rathna establishment has no such approval or legal cover .Besides all these financial  transactions have been done outside the government’s joint fund. The amounts involved are in many billions..!

Simultaneously with these  exposures of Gotabaya’s dealings with leading terrorist organizations world wide , and sea pirates internationally , the Interpol too has launched investigations into this. The Interpol had sought the assistance of the Sri Lanka government towards this .

The CID had requested the advice of the AG’’s department to arrest ex defense secretary Gotabaya and the main suspects in this colossal foreign exchange and money laundering racket , and on the AG’s instructions they are to be arrested next week , inside sources of the CID disclosed.

Incidentally , it is Lanka e news always first with the news and best with the views which  gave a comprehensive report on Gotabaya’s illicit clandestine international weapon transactions , long before these discoveries that are being reported now.

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by     (2015-03-14 16:04:05)

Gang Rape Of 16 Year-Old In Wanni: Police Investigations Commence

March 14, 2015

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) has commenced investigations into the gang rape of a 16-year old girl – who subsequently fell ill and died- in Wanni, following media reports and an online petition that was initiated due to the inaction of the law enforcement authorities over the incident.

Rosy Senanayake

Children’s Affairs State Minister Rosy Senanayakereleasing an update on her official Facebook page over the incident said the NCPA Chairman has notified her that a Police Officer form the NCPA has already visited the Mankulam area and is currently monitoring and helping the Police investigation.

The Karadanayagakulam Police, which holds jurisdiction over the investigation, has taken steps to record a statement from the grandmother and it has been revealed that the doctor who performed the autopsy has concluded there were physical signs of rape.

According to Minister Senanayake, the Police are yet to receive the Coroner’s full postmortem report. However, in what has been submitted to the Police, the cause of death has been stated as a ‘natural death’ further noting that ‘cause of death cannot be given – further investigation necessary, samples were taken.’

Meanwhile, the motion submitted by the Karadanayagakulam Police to the Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon to exhume the body to be sent to the Colombo JMO for the autopsy, was refused and the Police was instead instructed to submit the full postmortem report on the next Court date which falls on March 30.

Minister Senanayake further states that the NCPA OIC too is due to visit the Manklulam area to ensure necessary steps are implemented to carry out the investigation and added depending on the report, the NCPA will be taken steps to write to the DIG – Crimes on Monday to request him to directly monitor the investigation and to request the Attorney general to assist and advice in the investigation.

The 16-year old victim is an orphan and had been living with her grandmother and her siblings in Mannakkulam – a village located between Mankulam and Karadanayagakulam. She had suddenly fallen ill and hospitalized, and according to media reports it was then the grandmother had been informed by the doctor that she has been brutally gang-raped by not less than three men’. While in hospital, the victim had abruptly died and media reports also claimed when the incident was reported in media, the grandmother was threatened by the Police to state she died due to a mental illness.

A media operation to estrange the President and the Prime Minister

 

 Saturday, 14 March 2015

A media operation to estrange President Maithripala and Prime Minister Ranil Wicramasinghe has been started. The objective of this media operation is to disunite the President and the Prime minister thereby halving the national government and breaking the Good Governance.

The pro Rajapaksa journalists have already started the preliminary meetings for this intrugue. It was decided, to give wide publicity for statements given by for Ven. Athuruliye Rathna, Champika Ranawaka, Rajitha Senarathna and Anura Disanayake against UNP and Prime Minister Ranil Wicramasinghe in national newspapers. Meantime to similarly publish statements of UNP ministers and Mp’s against the government.

Besides this there are efforts to give a wide publicity and broadcast for interviews given by the above ministers in the Island, Lakbima, Rivira and national newspapers and criticize the president and the prime minister. It is decided to give the same publicity given to a national politician to a local body politician who criticize the prime minister and the president through national newspapers.

Ex-Sea Tiger Leader released on bail

March 13, 2015

The former leader of the LTTE Women’s Sea Tiger Wing, Jeyaganesh Murugesu Pakeerathy, who was arrested at the airport last week while attempting to leave the country for France, has been released on bail by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court.

Producing her before the country when the case was taken up today, the Terrorism Investigations Division (TID) said that indictments will be filed against Pakeerathy and therefore the Attorney General had instructed for her to be released on bail until then.

She was ordered released on a personal bail of Rs 200,000 by Colombo Additional Magistrate Aruni Attigala. However, Pakeerathy was ordered to hand over her passport to the court and appear before a police station once a week.

The 41-year-old suspect is the wife of Subramaniyam Jeyaganesh alias Samiraj, a key figure in the leadership of the LTTE organization and one of the principal fund raisers operating from Europe.

Following information received that Mrs Jeyaganesh was in the country, officers of the Terrorism Investigations Division (TID) had launched investigations to arrest her.

A team of TID officers managed to apprehend the suspect last Monday (March 2) after she arrived at the airport to board a flight back to France.

Murugesu Pakeerathy had served at the leader of the LTTE Women’s Sea Tiger Wing from 1997 – 2000 and left the country for France in 2005.

She had returned to the island on February 09, 2015 and had been residing in the Paranthan area in Dharmapuram.

Old habit made Chinese deputy ambassador reprimand Sujeewa! 

 Friday, 13 March 2015

The argument between the deputy ambassador at the Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka and justice deputy minister Sujeewa Senasinghe, which has reached controversial proportions among the local and foreign diplomats, is nothing new, say knowledgeable sources.

Officials of the Chinese embassy in Colombo were used to giving instructions and reprimanding ministers and MPs of the former Rajapaksa regime for the past decade. That old habit made the deputy ambassador call the deputy justice minister and express his displeasure over remarks he has made to a television channel.

That is a blatant violation of the diplomatic principles to oppose a politician’s right to express opinion. Officials of the Chinese embassy had been violating this principle in the past as they had controlled the politicians and officials in the country through various means. The deputy ambassador committed this mistake, forgetting that there is a new government in Sri Lanka now.

After remembering that a new government is in power, the Chinese deputy ambassador sent four SMS messages to deputy minister Senasinghe’s mobile phone, withdrawing his criticism and tendering an apology. Had that happened in any other country, the diplomat should have been recalled to China within 24 hours. But, the absence of such a recall makes it clear that the Chinese foreign ministry has thought that no such measure was needed as per Sri Lanka’s conduct, said the sources.

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Sujeewa receives a weird call from the chinese embassy

Video: We Have Already Located Rajapaksas’ Stolen Assets Worth Few Billion: Mangala

March 14, 2015

Minister Mangala Samaraweera says that stolen assets of the Rajapaksas, worth a few billion have already been located.

Mangala Samaraweera -Minister of External Affairs

In an interview with The Hindu, Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera made these remarks as he spoke of the new government seeking assistance from several countries and various international agencies in locating the stolen assets of the Rajapaksas.

“We have located a few billion already but it’s not as easy to get to those through an internal mechanism. . .,”he says adding the new government has requested the help of India as well as several other countries to SL in the process.

While stating that no one would stop former President Mahinda Rajapaksa from returning to politics if he wishes to do so, Minister Samaraweera said the new government is however duty bound by the mandate they received to look into the allegations of the grave corruption charges against MR and his family.

“That is why we have already got the services of some international organizations including the World Bank who have experiences in Tunisia and elsewhere in recovering stolen assets of the government. We are now going after Rajapaksas’ stolen assets because most of the money is hidden away internationally,” he said.

The Bengal Famine: How the British engineered the worst genocide in human history for profit

Rakhi Chakraborty | August 15, 2014

“I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    -Winston Churchill

The British had a ruthless economic agenda when it came to operating in India and that did not include empathy for native citizens. Under the British Raj, India suffered countless famines. But the worst hit was Bengal. The first of these was in 1770, followed by severe ones in 1783, 1866, 1873, 1892, 1897 and lastly 1943-44. Previously, when famines had hit the country, indigenous rulers were quick with useful responses to avert major disasters. After the advent of the British, most of the famines were a consequence of monsoonal delays along with the exploitation of the country’s natural resources by the British for their own financial gain. Yet they did little to acknowledge the havoc these actions wrought. If anything, they were irritated at the inconveniences in taxing the famines brought about.

Image source

The first of these famines was in 1770 and was ghastly brutal. The first signs indicating the coming of such a huge famine manifested in 1769 and the famine itself went on till 1773. It killed approximately 10 million people, millions more than the Jews incarcerated during the Second World War. It wiped out one third the population of Bengal. John Fiske, in his book “The Unseen World”, wrote that the famine of 1770 in Bengal was far deadlier than the Black Plague that terrorized Europe in the fourteenth century. Under the Mughal rule, peasants were required to pay a tribute of 10-15 per cent of their cash harvest. This ensured a comfortable treasury for the rulers and a wide net of safety for the peasants in case the weather did not hold for future harvests. In 1765 the Treaty of Allahabad was signed and East India Company took over the task of collecting the tributes from the then Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. Overnight the tributes, the British insisted on calling them tributes and not taxes for reasons of suppressing rebellion, increased to 50 percent. The peasants were not even aware that the money had changed hands. They paid, still believing that it went to the Emperor.

Image source

Partial failure of crop was quite a regular occurrence in the Indian peasant’s life. That is why the surplus stock, which remained after paying the tributes, was so important to their livelihood. But with the increased taxation, this surplus deteriorated rapidly. When partial failure of crops came in 1768, this safety net was no longer in place. The rains of 1769 were dismal and herein the first signs of the terrible draught began to appear. The famine occurred mainly in the modern states of West Bengal and Bihar but also hit Orissa, Jharkhand and Bangladesh. Bengal was, of course, the worst hit. Among the worst affected areas were Birbum and Murshidabad in Bengal. Thousands depopulated the area in hopes of finding sustenance elsewhere, only to die of starvation later on. Those who stayed on perished nonetheless. Huge acres of farmland were abandoned. Wilderness started to thrive here, resulting in deep and inhabitable jungle areas. Tirhut, Champaran and Bettiah in Bihar were similarly affected in Bihar.

Prior to this, whenever the possibility of a famine had emerged, the Indian rulers would waive their taxes and see compensatory measures, such as irrigation, instituted to provide as much relief as possible to the stricken farmers. The colonial rulers continued to ignore any warnings that came their way regarding the famine, although starvation had set in from early 1770. Then the deaths started in 1771. That year, the company raised the land tax to 60 per cent in order to recompense themselves for the lost lives of so many peasants. Fewer peasants resulted in less crops that in turn meant less revenue. Hence the ones who did not yet succumb to the famine had to pay double the tax so as to ensure that the British treasury did not suffer any losses during this travesty.

After taking over from the Mughal rulers, the British had issued widespread orders for cash crops to be cultivated. These were intended to be exported. Thus farmers who were used to growing paddy and vegetables were now being forced to cultivate indigo, poppy and other such items that yielded a high market value for them but could be of no relief to a population starved of food. There was no backup of edible crops in case of a famine. The natural causes that had contributed to the draught were commonplace. It was the single minded motive for profit that wrought about the devastating consequences. No relief measure was provided for those affected. Rather, as mentioned above, taxation was increased to make up for any shortfall in revenue. What is more ironic is that the East India Company generated a profited higher in 1771 than they did in 1768.

Image source

Although the starved populace of Bengal did not know it yet, this was just the first of the umpteen famines, caused solely by the motive for profit, that was to slash across the country side. Although all these massacres were deadly in their own right, the deadliest one to occur after 1771 was in 1943 when three million people died and others resorted to eating grass and human flesh in order to survive.

Image source

Winston Churchill, the hallowed British War prime minister who saved Europe from a monster like Hitler was disturbingly callous about the roaring famine that was swallowing Bengal’s population. He casually diverted the supplies of medical aid and food that was being dispatched to the starving victims to the already well supplied soldiers of Europe. When entreated upon he said, “Famine or no famine, Indians will breed like rabbits.” The Delhi Government sent a telegram painting to him a picture of the horrible devastation and the number of people who had died. His only response was, “Then why hasn’t Gandhi died yet?”

Winston Churchill: Image Source

Image source

This Independence Day it is worthwhile to remember that the riches of the west were built on the graves of the East. While we honour the brave freedom fighters (as we should), it is victims like these, the ones sacrificed without a moment’s thought, who paid the ultimate price. Shed a tear in their memory and strive to make the most of this hard won independence that we take for granted today. Pledge to stand up those whose voice the world refuses to hear because they are too lowly to matter. To be free is a great privilege. But as a great superhero once said, “With great freedom comes great responsibility.”