Defeated Candidates On The National List; It Is No Sacrilege, Calm Down!

By Mohamed Faizal –August 26, 2015

Mohamed Faizal

Some of the candidates who were defeated in the recent parliamentary election have been appointed as MPs on the National List. This has created a bit of an uproar, particularly in the social media. The argument is that the holy clause concerning the appointment of National List MPs have been contravened. (Rather, the spirit of the sacred provision.) I don’t think any sacrilege has been committed. 

Put plainly – leaving out all the euphemism – provision for National List was made in the constitution to counteract the stupidity of the voters. It was to bring into parliament those high calibre candidates who the ignorant electorates would not send in. So, how exactly has the holy provision been violated? When the party leaders appointed the defeated candidates as MPs, they were acting with the spirit of the provision; they were bringing into parliament those, who the masses, in their absolute ignorance, had refused to elect. What the party leaders have done is just righting of a wrong. It is fully in the spirit of the holy provision. In any case, who are we to interpret the sacred provision? The understanding of the holy priests of democracy should, and it does, carry much heavier weight than the understanding of the laity, the voters.

When a candidate is defeated in an election, it doesn’t mean that he has now become unfit to become a member of parliament. Politicians and voters know this alike. If we thought a defeat in an election rendered a candidate unfit to rule, then politicians would not be allowing them to contest another election, and the voters would not be participating in an election where defeated candidates are fielded, let alone elect them. As we know too well, not only are the defeated candidates permitted to contest another election, the voters who defeated them in the previous elections have gleefully on numerous occasions elected them to parliament this time. Everyone believes that defeated candidates are not unfit to rule.                         Read More

After the Sri Lankan elections: Tamil nationalists support US-backed parties

By K. Nesan -26 August 2015

In the wake of the August 17 parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, Tamil nationalist parties are serving as key props for President Maithripala Sirisena in his attempt to install a new pro-US regime in Colombo.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has the third-largest faction in parliament, after the United National Party (UNP, 107 seats) and the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP, 96 seats). TNA leader Sampanthan had called on voters to elect at least 20 TNA legislators from the 29 seats in the Tamil-majority North and East of Sri Lanka. In the event, the TNA ended up winning only 16 seats. Fourteen were elected directly, and two were awarded on the basis of the party’s proportion of the national vote.

The TNA is aggressively backing Sirisena—who was installed in a US-backed regime change operation in the January 8 presidential elections—as he attempts to win over a faction of the SLFP to form a “national government” with the UNP. In one meeting, Sampanthan said: “We will support the National Government which would endorse the silent revolution of January 8th, the people’s mandate for a positive change in the country.”

Sampathan even shared a podium with Sirisena on August 23 in Sampoor, in the Eastern province. He praised Sirisena as a fighter for “truth, integrity, and justice,” adding: “I think it is my duty to ask him without any delay to concentrate on the Tamil issue.”

The TNA could emerge as a political linchpin of the new pro-US government. It would play a particularly important role if Sirisena faces difficulty in securing a coalition with the SLFP, as now seems to be the case, and the UNP is forced to govern with a narrow parliamentary majority.

The eagerness of the TNA to work with US imperialism testifies to the bankruptcy of Tamil nationalism. The TNA, supported by various smaller Tamil nationalist parties, is backing what would be a violently reactionary government in Colombo. Its main role would be to place Sri Lanka fully behind the US “pivot to Asia,” aimed at containing or waging war with China. It would also be tasked with implementing austerity measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

As for the TNA’s claim that the Sirisena government will resolve the Tamil question, in fact it is staffed by officials who played leading roles in the bloody offensive against the Tamils at the end of the civil war in 2009. That offensive ended in the massacre of tens of thousands of people, including many of the members of the Tamil-nationalist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The bourgeoisie is well aware of the explosive social tensions that are waiting to erupt, especially in the working class. Under these conditions, the role of the Tamil nationalists is to block opposition in the working class and oppressed masses to Sirisena.

The TNA’s election campaign centered on promoting illusions in the January 8 presidential elections as a “revolutionary” event that created democracy in Sri Lanka. Two days before the election, Sampanthan told a group of TNA supporters, “Maithiripala [Sirisena’s] faction [of the SLFP] will join the UNP to form a government on the 18th. The TNA is ready to extend its support to get a two-thirds majority for this government. If there is a government with a two-thirds majority, a new constitution would be drafted with utmost priority for a political solution for the Tamil people. … through this, an immediate solution would be arrived for the 65 years struggle of the Tamil people.”

The TNA avoided standing its own candidates in certain areas with Tamil populations, such as Colombo, to facilitate the victory of UNP-led forces. Sampanthan was confident that the UNP would win the elections. If they did, he said, it would be a “unique opportunity” for a political solution for the Tamil people.

This is a cruel political fraud. The Sri Lankan bourgeoisie has proven itself over decades of bloodshed incapable of resolving the ethnic divisions that beset the country. Indeed, the ruling elite in Colombo relies on stoking nationalist sentiment among both Tamils and Sinhalese to divide the working class.

Sirisena himself was a close associate of Rajapakse. He acted as defence minister during the last two weeks of the military onslaught in 2009 when the worst war crimes were committed. As for Wickremesinghe, he sanctioned the breaking of the “memorandum of understanding” signed between his government and the LTTE in 2002, restarting the war in 2006.

The Tamil nationalist parties represent a thin layer of the Tamil bourgeoisie that is hoping for an agreement with the Sinhala bourgeoisie that will allow them to exploit their “own” people.

Tamil workers and poor have nothing to gain from the “solutions” the TNA is proposing. The interests of Tamil workers can be advanced only through a political break with Tamil nationalism and a joint struggle against imperialism and austerity in solidarity with Sinhalese workers and oppressed masses.

The prospect of a united movement of the working class throughout Sri Lanka terrifies the Tamil nationalist parties as much as it does the UNP and the SLFP. There are clear signs that the Tamil nationalists have lost significant popular support in recent years. During the election campaign, the TNA was not able to attract crowds as it was in the past. Meetings were attended by a few hundred people, in some cases less than hundred. With more than 40,000 Tamils missing as a result of the brutal civil war, the “Association of parents and guardians of civilians arrested by Sri Lankan armed forces in North,” founded in 1997, called for a boycott of the elections.

It was under these conditions that other Tamil parties that advance a similar Tamil nationalist program—in particular, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) and the Crusaders for Democracy (CD)—stepped forward in an attempt to block popular opposition to the TNA’s bankrupt program. In the Jaffna district, the TNPF polled 15,022 votes, and the CD received 1,979. The CD ran only in the Jaffna district, declaring that it did not want to split the TNA vote elsewhere.

The TNPF and CD differ from the TNA primarily in their proposed negotiation tactics with the “international community”—that is, imperialism and the Indian bourgeoisie. They peddle the same illusions that the Tamil people can secure their interests by achieving a separate “traditional homeland” through a deal with the imperialist powers. The TPNF accuses the TNA of not “properly upholding the interests of the Tamils” in negotiations.

After the humiliating defeat of the LTTE in 2009, the TNA distanced itself from the LTTE’s demand for a tiny Tamil state in northeastern Sri Lanka. The TPNF and CD present themselves as the successors of the LTTE, promoting separatist sentiments. Nonetheless, their perspective of alignment on the demands of US imperialism and the IMF is not essentially different from the TNA.

After the elections, TNPF leader Gajendran Ponnambalam said his party would support the TNA “if they work towards a solution based on federalism and self-determination as mentioned in the TNA election manifesto.” He thus proposes to provide indirect support for the attempt to assemble a US-backed government in Colombo.

Putinization Has Been Stopped but Sri Lanka Needs a New Ideological Project

The possibility of the Rajapaksa-led opposition using Sinhalese communalism to unsettle and undermine the new government of moderates is actually very real

Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe, walks past former President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his swearing-in ceremony in Colombo on August 21, 2015. Shortly after the brief ceremony, a section of opposition MPs loyal to President Maithripala Sirisena’s SLFP entered into a formal agreement with Wickremasinghe’s United National Party to work together. Credit: Ishara K.

BY JAYADEVA UYANGODA ON 26/08/2015

The most important consequence of Sri Lanka’s recent parliamentary election is that voters have prevented the Putinization of their country and its politics.
Putinization Has Been Stopped but Sri Lanka Needs a New Ideological Project by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka’s New Directions After The Parliamentary Elections

By Siri Gamage –August 26, 2015 

Dr. Siri Gamage

Sri Lanka’s New Directions after the Parliamentary Elections: National Needs vs. International Dimension

Leaving aside the ongoing horse-trading going on for positions in the new ministries, appointment of defeated candidates to the national list by the party secretaries, and the concept of national government mooted by both the UNP and the SLFP leadership, there is no doubt that the country will experience a new direction in political, economic, diplomatic and other arenas in the near future. Political and civic forces that were behind the change initiated on January 8th and strengthened with the results of the parliamentary elections held this month –though at present are in a state of flux- are potent enough to introduce and implement policies and programs that are different from those implemented by the previous regime led by former President Mahinda Rajapakse. We are yet to get a feel for these new policies and programs. It is early days. However, it is possible to imagine the nature of foreign policy to be adopted by the new government and some of the policies as well as challenges facing the country and the new government. Election manifesto of the UNFGG led by the UNP provides some ideas in this connection.

Questions can however be raised about the directions in economic policy to be adopted by the new government. Is it going to be full-blown neoliberal, free-market driven policies similar to the Open Economy policies adopted by JR since 1977? Or is it a combination of a nationally focused policy with some encouragement given to indigenous industries, manufacturers, farmers and other entrepreneurs while pandering to the multinational corporations from the US, Europe, Australia and the Asian region? Is it going to be a Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysian style economic development where the local and international capital run the show or is it going to be an economic policy oriented toward a more sustainable development with a firm foot on the natural environment, local culture, needs of the population at large rather than the well-to-do segments of society- including those with close links to the Sri Lankan diaspora?                                            Read More  

CaFFE urges repeal of PTA

2015-08-26
The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) today urged the government to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) saying it was misused by the previous regime to suppress media and human rights activists in the country. 

CaFFE Executive Director Ranjith Keerthi Tennakoon said the Act was mainly implemented to curtail the freedom of the people. 

At a meeting with civil activists in Rajagiriya, Mr. Tennakoon said the Act was used to detain media personnel and several civil society activists without a time limit. 

“With the scourge of terrorism eradicated some six years ago, the implementation of the PTA is a great obstacle for the individual liberty. Our country has been accused of violating Human Rights by several groups. With a stable government in place, action should be taken to recind the PTA and re-establish a proper civil administration in the country so that people can live without fear,” he said. (Piyumi Fonseka) - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/84993/repeal-of-pta#sthash.OEpHxMbE.dpuf

UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS 

ISSUES OF GOVERNANCE 

MEDIA RELEASE - 26-08-2015

The outcome of the General Election held on August 17, and the victory secured by the United National Front for Good Governance led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe paves the way for democratic transition to take place in two key aspects of good governance. It will consolidate the shift away from a highly centralised structure in which the system of checks and balances was weakened to a more consensual and systemic mode of governance that followed the election of President Maithripala Sirisena in January. It will also consolidate the shift away from a militarised mindset within the government in which mistrust of ethnic and religious minorities was highlighted to a society that is multi-ethnic and multi-religious in its decision making and choices.

The National Peace Council also welcomes the prospect of a government of national unity to address the challenges of the future. The agreement signed by the two largest political parties, the UNP and SLFP after the elections, to work together for two years on identified areas of good governance including the safeguarding of fundamental freedoms and protection of the rights of women and children reflects the consensus that exists in society regarding good governance. However, we regret that the both the government and opposition did not live up to their commitments towards the empowerment of women in politics when they failed use their quotas in the national list to appoint women to parliament and instead appointed only two woman to the 29 positions. They failed to rectify the abysmally low representation of women in parliament which fell to 4 percent. Another priority area for reform would be in the area of inter-ethnic relations and the sharing of power between the ethnic majority and minorities.

The issue of ethnic nationalism continues to be alive in the country even though the inability of the defeated opposition parties to make it a winning formula at two successive elections suggests that it is receding as a force. The past ten years of UPFA rule was primarily based on ethnic nationalism with the general population being constantly exposed to a barrage of anti-minority propaganda. Therefore there is a need for the government to commence an immediate programme of public education on the issue of inter-ethnic relations and the options for a political solution that would address the roots of the conflict. This could be done alongside civil society organisations to prepare the ground for future reforms that are necessary to resolve the conflict in a sustainable and mutually acceptable manner.

Governing Council
The National Peace Council is an independent and non partisan organization that works towards a negotiated political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. It has a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka in which the freedom, human rights and democratic rights of all the communities are respected. The policy of the National Peace Council is determined by its Governing Council of 20 members who are drawn from diverse walks of life and belong to all the main ethnic and religious communities in the country.

A supreme irony

Rajapaksa indeed will be reduced to a mere bystander, as his once diehard stalwarts but now Ministers under Ranil Wickremesinghe hurl barbs and accusations across the floor of the House at their one time colleagues, but now members of the Opposition out of choice. Such are the vagaries of politics.

by Lalith Allahakkoon

( August 26, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is indeed a supreme irony that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has to contend with. Well entrenched in power following the war victory Rajapaksa virtually toyed with opposition political parties inveigling their members into the Government fold as a matter of course. A body blow was dealt to the UNP when he lured 18 of its members in one go, with perks of office in 2008.

Those who defected parroted the by then threadbare excuse of wanting to strengthen the hands of the President to develop the country post war. The next party to suffer was the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress whose members were bought over behind the backs of its leader Rauf Hakeem who too eventually gave in rather than suffer humiliation. In this manner Rajapaksa split and destroyed all political parties for acquiring the numbers for his earmarked project of passing the 18th Amendment to rule forever or at least till such time his progeny was of the right age to taker over the baton.

Events though have come full circle and the former President is today getting his comeuppance having to witness before his own eyes the UPFA/SLFP disintegrate and a sizable section of it joining the new Government.

A new Cabinet is to be sworn-in tomorrow that will comprise elected members of the SLFP (and possibly those who entered through the National List) in what is billed as a National Government. There are also to be Deputy Minister slots reserved for others. Rajapaksa and a group among the die hard members of his clique who promoted his come back has opted out and have vowed to remain in the Opposition as a separate group. Among those who will be given Cabinet portfolios are former General Secretaries of the UPFA and the SLFP both of whom were in the forefront of the Bring Back Mahinda campaign.

It will indeed be interesting to see how the defectors will now face Mahinda Rajapaksa who will be an Opposition back bencher (he has refused to be named Opposition Leader). It will be more interesting to see how those who once sat together at Opposition press briefings prior to the election to rave and rant against the maha benku bendumkara mankollaya (the Central Bank Treasury bond Highway robbery) will thrash out this issue, placed as they are in different camps. UNP members must be wearing wry smiles observing UPFA stalwarts and their former General Secretary going for each others’ jugular over the National List appointments and will also be rubbing their hands together with glee on seeing Wimal Weerawansa who seemed inseparable from Susil Premajayantha in their joint bid to make Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister accusing the latter of cutting ‘deals’ to obtain a Cabinet portfolio in the new Government.

Rajapaksa indeed will be reduced to a mere bystander, as his once diehard stalwarts but now Ministers under Ranil Wickremesinghe hurl barbs and accusations across the floor of the House at their one time colleagues, but now members of the Opposition out of choice. Such are the vagaries of politics.

The UNP though should be vigilant. These one time MR loyalists may now be in their camp, but care should be exercised to ensure that there won’t be any sabotage by those ensconced in Ministerial office from the Opposition. The UNP hierarchy should come to terms with the fact that the National Government is only for a two year duration although there is agreement to extend this period by consensus. We are here not suggesting that deliberate attempts will be made by some holding Ministerial office to slow down work or delay projects under their Ministries in order to attract public criticism towards the new Government. At the same time one should also not lose sight of the fact that the ultimate goal of any political party is to wield power some day. The UNP is only all too well aware of the manoeuvring skills of Mahinda Rajapaksa and should prepare for this.

Hence Ministry Secretaries who are the real ‘implementing officers’ should be told to be extra vigilant to ensure no sabotage takes place. Now, with the formation of a National Government collective responsibility of the Cabinet should be enforced strictly. There can be no criticism of the Prime Minister as happened in the recent past where SLFP MPs who were doled out Ministerial office went onto accuse the Prime Minister of various wrong doings. The UNP will also do well to ensure no vital information within Cabinet is passed on to the MR camp to be exploited. All Ministers should fall in line and do the PM’s bidding. There can be no factions based on party lines if the National Government concept is to succeed. Those of the Opposition who were on the war path with the PM but now inducted into Cabinet should act with responsibility. It is a supreme irony indeed that a vociferous Opposition MP who offered the PM a bottle of poison at a press briefing just before the election, inviting him to commit suicide, will soon be part of the National Government and made to serve under the very Prime Minister he invited to self destruct.

( The writer is the editor of Daily News, Colombo, in where this piece was originally appeared)

Ranil to entrust the chicken coop to Marapone? anti corrupt organizations urge public to agitate against it

(Lanka-e-News- 26.Aug.2015, 6.30PM) During the 100 days interim government period , when the government of good governance was making attempts to expose the mega corupt and perfidious activities of the Rajapakse era and apprehend the culprits , it is no secret to all those who were opposed to corruption , frauds and robbery of state assets that it was a former defense minister , an ex Attorney general (AG) and president counsel Thilak  Janaka Marapone alias Thilak Marapone who took the initiative secretly to save and protect those Rajapakse crooks and criminals involved in those traitorous activities lured by Marapone’s avarice for filthy lucre offered to him lavishly by these brigands. Undoubtedly Marapone is a notorious wolf in black coat !

Now this betrayer has been appointed as an M.P. through its  national list, and speculations are rife that he is going to be made the minister of law and order. Following this rumor, the anti corrupt organizations are getting ready to agitate strongly against this move.

It is a well and widely known fact that in the recent past during the 100 days program , Marapone made many painstaking efforts via phone calls to police officers as well as got directly involved in surreptitious  activities to save the crooks, corrupt and criminals despite the fact that many police officers did not heed him. As a last resort  he teamed up with the AG and sought every illicit avenue to make a success of his attempts to achieve his diabolic, villainous  unpatriotic goals.

Hence these anti corrupt organizations that  are fully aware of Marapone and his ‘dirty games’ and also know fully well what evil  fate will befall the  law and order in the country if Marapone who is himself a crooked ,corrupt ,criminal is entrusted with the task of  controlling  the police force. 

The anti corrupt organizations are of the view that if Marapone is given in charge of the police force ,P.M. Ranil Wickremesinghe  who is reputed as a man with a clean suit may have to remove that suit, for Marapone the man in the black suit cum  black coated shark is certainly not only going to blacken the P.M.’s clean suit but also smear his reputation. It will be  akin to entrusting the hen coop to a starving  wolf..These organizations are urging the public therefore to agitate against this appointment . 

They are also requesting the public to send sms messages to the P.M.’s secretary at phone No. 077 411 7826 protesting against Marapone being appointed as minister in charge of law and public order

---------------------------
by     (2015-08-26 13:23:02)

What Did Sri Lankan Voters Just Say?

By Nilkamal Gunewardena –August 26, 2015

Nilkamal Gunewardena

Sri Lankan voters have given a mandate to UNP led UNFGG to continue with the Good Governance culture which was ushered in January 2015 and the party received 5,098,927 votes (45.66%) and UPFA 4,732,669 (42.38%) won 106 parliamentary seats and 95 respectively at the General Election held in August 2015, TNA received 515,963 (4.62%) and 16 seats JVP 543,944 (4.87%) and 6 seats in the 225 seat legislature. Decline in UPFA vote base at General Election 2015 from January 2015 Presidential election is in excess of 1 Mn. votes (18%). At the 2010 Parliamentary elections UPFA received 4,846,388 (60.3%) votes and 144 seats UNP 2,357,057 (29.34%) and 60 seats, MR was not a candidate at this election.

UPFA was unable to enhance its vote base from 2010 in-spite of registered voters increasing by 956,190 in 2015 and MR being a contestant. UNP led alliance more than doubled its share of votes (116%) in comparison with it’s General Election 2010 vote bank. This is a clear indication that people opted for a change that could provide sustainable economic development and durable peace.

Seven key Electoral Districts comprising Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Kurunegala, Galle, Ratnapura elect 95 MPs out of 196 MPs and of them, the most strategically important Electoral Districts to influence the electoral outcome of a party at a General Election are Colombo, Gampaha and Kurunegala. Colombo and Gampaha Electoral Districts were won by UNFGG while Kurunegala was won by UPFA. Turnout at the elections was at a high level as 77.66 % of registered voters cast their votes in comparison with previous General Elections. (2010 – 61.26%) which indicates that the public interest in the outcome of the election was equally high.

The vote share for UPFA in 5 electoral districts namely Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Moneragala and Ratnapura exceeded 50% of valid votes as against the vote share for UNFGG in 7 electoral districts namely Colombo, Kandy, Matale, N’ Eliya, Puttalam, Polonnaruwa and Kegalle exceeded 50% of valid votes. Winning Margins of UPFA were considerably slashed at times by more than 20% in some electoral districts.

Read More

The U.N.’s Investigation Wars

An FP investigation shows how a bitter internal fight is making it harder for the U.N. to police its own crimes, from corruption to sexual abuse.




BY COLUM LYNCH-AUGUST 26, 2015

Carman Lapointe, a Canadian national who serves as the United Nations’ internal corruption watchdog, marched into the office of the U.N. secretary-general’s chief of staff, Susana Malcorra, this past January with a provocative request. The U.N. Investigations Division, which she oversees, had grown so consumed by interoffice backbiting and score-settling, Lapointe claimed, that she wanted to shut it down and rebuild it from scratch.

The U.N.’s Investigation Wars by Thavam Ratna

Western complicity in Yemen genocide met with media silence

Published time: 24 Aug, 2015 11:21Edited time: 26 Aug, 2015 10:49

In the latest atrocity in Yemen, Saudi warplanes bombed a residential area, killing at least 65 people. Most of the victims are reported to be civilians from the Salah district of Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city.

The apparent war crime committed has tragically become an almost daily occurrence during five months of relentless aerial bombardment of Yemen by a Western-backed coalition of foreign powers.

Western Complicity in Yemen Genocide Met With Media Silence by Thavam Ratna

Three killed in Gujarat as Modi urges calm

A man on a scooter stands next to burning vehicles after the clashes between the police and protesters in Ahmedabad, August 26, 2015.

BY RUPAM JAIN NAIR-Wed Aug 26, 2015

At least three people were killed in clashes between police and protesters in Gujarat on Wednesday after a huge rally by a powerful clan demanding more government jobs and college places.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for calm after a curfew was imposed and a unit of the army deployed in the state he ran for more than a decade before leading his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to victory in last year's election.

"I appeal to the people of Gujarat to maintain peace. Violence will never achieve anything," Modi said in a statement broadcast on television.

Slideshow: Gujarat's Patels protest for OBC status, click here
At least half a million members of the Patidar, or Patel, community rallied on Tuesday in the city of Ahmedabad to demand changes to policies that, they argue, unfairly favour groups at the lower end of India's social order.Police officer Ramesh Chavda said three people across the state were shot dead by police. Four protesters were critically wounded in clashes, he said.

Clashes broke out after the arrest of the movement's leader, 21-year-old activist Hardik Patel, prompting police to fire tear gas and to baton-charge protesters.

"They have burnt down nine police stations and over three dozen buses," P.C. Thakur, Gujarat's top police officer, told Reuters earlier. "We had to impose a curfew to control the clashes."

The Patels, a wealthy business community in India and overseas, have been a driving force in the economy, dominating the thriving diamond trade, oil processing and textiles.

But they say that caste-based reservations deprive them of opportunities. They insist the government should put an end to affirmative action policies that favour Muslims, low-caste Hindus and Other Backward Classes - a collective term covering socially and educationally deprived groups.

Commuters ride their motocycles next to the wreckage of a bus that was burnt in the clashes between the police and protesters in Ahmedabad, August 26, 2015. REUTERS/Amit Dave

"We are upper caste but we are victims of reservation," Hardik Patel said. "If the constitution of India guarantees equal rights to all, then why is the government failing to implement it?"

Caste-based reservations have always been a sensitive issue in India, used often as a tool for what is called vote-bank politics.

Modi said in a speech in May that India must overcome its caste-based divisions.

Caste politics are likely to play a role in a forthcoming election in Bihar, whose chief minister belongs to the Patel community and has sympathised with the Gujarat protesters.The BJP is targeting gains in Bihar, home to one in 12 Indians, to boost its representation in Rajya Sabha where it lacks the majority it needs to pass economic reforms.

(Editing by Douglas Busvine and Nick Macfie)

Palestinian journalist recalls torture by Syrian jailers

Mohammad Saba’aneh

25 August 2015

A Palestinian journalist was shocked when more than a dozen Syrian security officers showed up to arrest him in July 2013. They approached his table at a Damascus bar, yanked him from his seat and dragged him to a police car.

The journalist, who asked not to be named due to ongoing safety concerns, believes he was targeted because he had opposed the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

“I was shocked – all these soldiers just for me,” said the journalist, who lived in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. “I had only participated in civilian protests; it was civil resistance. We just expressed our opinions.”

Along with many other Yarmouk-based activists, he had taken part in a number of demonstrations. The protests had run from the time the uprising against Assad began in March 2011 until more recent years, when many residents of the camp were protesting the Syrian army’s siege of Yarmouk.

The journalist, who is now 32, was taken to a nearby police station, where he was beaten and questioned for hours. He was jailed in a small room in a basement with more than 100 other prisoners, who were forced to sit side-by-side in only their underwear.

“I imagine Syrian prisons are the worst prisons in the world,” he recalled. “There was one bathroom for all of us and only one water faucet — for bathing, for drinking, for everything.”

“Of course, there was violence, hitting, torture… during the interrogations,” he said. “They would beat me and curse at me, trying to get information from me — about my work as a journalist. But everything I’d written about Syria wasn’t published in my name, so they had nothing on me.”

Writing as a freelance contributor for several Arabic-language publications, he was also a regular contributor to a journal close to a leftist Palestinian faction. While covering stories on Palestine, he says, he used his real name.

However, when he wrote critical analysis and opinion pieces supporting the uprising in Syria, he used a pen name.

“I had a script and I stuck to it,” he explained. “I said ‘I support the regime and that the regime supports Palestine more than anyone else.’ One of them [prison guards] stomped on my face repeatedly. But no matter how much they beat me I kept saying the same thing. I think that’s why I survived. I’m so lucky.”

Weight loss

For two and a half months, he remained behind bars, often getting sick from the poor conditions and the dirty water and food. “Throwing up, diarrhea — the last day before I was released I had to go to the bathroom 23 times. I was very sick,” he said.

“My mother didn’t recognize me because I had lost so much weight,” he recalled, adding that a doctor later told him he had been suffering from severe skin and stomach infections.

Fearing the possibility of rearrest, he was eventually smuggled out of the country and into Lebanon. He has been unable to obtain a residency permit from Lebanese authorities, who impose strict restrictions on Palestinian refugees, including banning them from more than 70 professions.

The journalist now lives in Shatila, an overcrowded Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. His family has fled Yarmouk to another area near Damascus.

Around 260,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria have been described as “internally displaced” by the UN.

The total number of Palestinian refugees in Syria had stood at 560,000 a few years ago. Yet it has now been reduced to 480,000 — with 95 percent of those remaining in need of humanitarian assistance.

Jordan effectively sealed its borders to Palestinian refugees from Syria early in the civil war, with Lebanon doing so in May this year.

No escape

Yarmouk, south of Damasccus, has been largely destroyed. Once home to 150,000 Palestinians and Syrians, the number inhabitants fell to 18,000 earlier this year.

In April, Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, launched an offensive on Yarmouk and took over some 90 percent of the camp.

After battling with Palestinian factions in the camp, most Islamic State fighters eventually withdrew to the surrounding areas. The group still maintains a presence in Yarmouk, however.

According to the UK-based Action Group for Palestinians in Syria, nearly 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in Syria’s civil war. Meanwhile, at least 943 Palestinians are detained in Syrian prisons and another 277 are believed to have been abducted.

Yet that number is likely much higher because many families of detainees are scared to speak out, according to Wesam Sabaaneh, coordinator at the Jafra Foundation for Relief and Youth Development, a group that works with Palestinian refugees in Syria.

“Palestinians in Syria suffer badly when we are targeted — we are already refugees,” Sabaaneh told The Electronic Intifada. “There is almost no escape from Syria when Lebanon and Jordan shut the borders on us.”

Patrick O. Strickland is an independent journalist and regular contributor to The Electronic Intifada. Website:www.postrickland.com. Twitter: @PStrickland.

Iranian exiles embrace Israel’s drive against nuclear deal 

Well-supported Iranian commentators in US peddle misinformation and distortions with little heed to how that helps ordinary compatriots still in Iran 

Muhammad Sahimi-Wednesday 26 August 2015

Ever since the Vienna nuclear agreement between Iran and P5+1 - the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany - was announced on 14 July, the opponents of the agreement have been waging a war against it.

Iranian Exiles Embrace Israel’s Drive Against Nuclear Deal by Thavam Ratna