Monday, October 31, 2011

Were U.S. Elections Sold to Corporations So Clarence Thomas Could Reward His Friends? | | AlterNet

Were U.S. Elections Sold to Corporations So Clarence Thomas Could Reward His Friends? | | AlterNet:
(the continuing presence of Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court undermines the very underpinnings of democracy. It's time for him to go.)

Monday, October 24, 2011

The Gaddafi paradox | The Asian Age

The Gaddafi paradox | The Asian Age
by Surendra Kumar Indian Ex-Ambassador to Libya

U.S., India and Higher Ed | Inside Higher Ed

U.S., India and Higher Ed | Inside Higher Ed
(Collaboration between US & India in Education - by Kaustuv Basu)

‘Gujarat police has lost all interest in work’ | The CSF

‘Gujarat police has lost all interest in work’ | The CSF
(Interview with former police chief Julio F. Ribeiro )

Friday, October 14, 2011

BEACON OF HOPE & LIGHT : U Sagayam

Under A Dangerous Motto


By refusing to take bribes, the Madurai collector has earned 18
transfers in 20 years, a modest house and bank balance and lots of
respect.

On a hot summer afternoon, on Madurai’s busy main road, the district
collector, U. Sagayam, saw a young man talking on a cellphone while
riding a motorbike. He asked his driver to wave the man down, got down
from his car and meted out instant punishment: plant 10 saplings
within 24 hours. Somewhat unconventional justice, some might say. But
that’s how Sagayam works.

‘Lanjam Thavirtthu, Nenjam Namartthu’ (Reject bribes, hold your head
high), says a board hanging above Sagayam’s chair in his modest
office. That’s the code he lives by, even if politicians are incensed
they cannot bend him their way—he’s been transferred 18 times in the
last 20 years—and has made enemies of both superiors and subordinates.
“I know I sit under a dangerous slogan and probably alienate people,”
he says. “But I have been the same Sagayam from Day 1. Standing up
against corruption is not for a season. Nor is it a fad. It’s
forever.”


Two years ago, as district collector of Namakkal, he voluntarily
declared his assets: a bank balance of Rs 7,172 and a house in
Madurai worth Rs 9 lakh. Once, when his baby daughter, Yalini, who had
breathing problems, was suddenly taken ill, he did not have the Rs
5,000 needed for admitting her to a private hospital. At that time he
was deputy commissioner (excise) in Coimbatore and there were 650
liquor licences to be given out. The going bribe for each was
rumoured to be Rs 10,000.


Sagayam started cleaning up Madurai the minute he landed here. The
main bus terminus at Mattuthavani looked more like a bazaar, with
shops all over the bus-shelters and no waiting place for passengers.
Even a police outpost had been turned into a shop. The system was
well-oiled with haftas to local politicians and policemen. Sagayam
quickly went through the rulebook, cited the relevant clauses and
cleaned up the entire area. But didn’t it hit poor shopkeepers who
lost their livelihood? “A violation is a violation,”
says Sagayam, “but we will help them rehabilitate.”



Nageshwaran, a taxi-driver and one of Sagayam’s many fans, says, “He’s
strict and hasn’t taken even ten paise in bribe during his career.
He’s like the upright collectors they show in some films, a real hero
with integrity.”

Sagayam’s masters degrees in social work and law come in useful in his
role as an administrator. He knows the rulebooks in detail and is not
afraid of using them, however powerful the opponent. No wonder then
that Sagayam’s career is marked with the scars of countless battles.


When errant village officers ganged up to get Sagayam transferred,
people protested and the order was rescinded.


When he was in Kanchipuram as revenue officer, he took on the sand
mafia, ordering them to stop dredging sand from the Palar riverbed.
Large-scale dredging had made the area flood-prone. The mafia sent
goons to assault Sagayam, but he did not budge and would not take back
the order. He also took on a mighty soft-drink mnc when a consumer
showed him a bottle with dirt floating in it. He sealed the bottling
unit and banned the sale of the soft drink in the city. In Chennai, he
locked horns with a restaurant chain and
recovered four acres valued at some Rs 200 crore.


Given such credentials, it wasn’t surprising for him to be picked by
the Election Commission to oversee elections in Madurai, as famous for
its temples as its political gods. During the last polls, Sagayam
took on M.K. Azhagiri, the local MP and son of former CM and DMK
supremo M. Karunanidhi. He conducted voter awareness campaigns in
colleges; the DMK petitioned the court twice, seeking to end what it
said was an attempt to influence voters, but the court demurred.
Sagayam’s wife Vimala has stood by him all these years but she was
rattled by some of the threats during the elections. “He always says
if you are right, nobody can hurt you,” she says. “But sometimes it
becomes difficult.”

Sagayam takes a hands-on approach to his work. He holds a Monday
‘durbar’, at which anyone can meet him with their complaints. During
tours of the district for review meetings and inspections, he will
suddenly stop a school bus to talk to children or duck into a school
to take a class. When students tell him they want to be IAS or IPS
officers, he asks, “It’s all well to say now that you’ll be honest,
but will you remain unbending about not taking bribes throughout your
career?”

Some months back, while driving to a village, he found a 92-year-old
woman cleaning rice. She said she had to work in order to eat. He
immediately sanctioned Rs 1,000 as old-age pension for her. When
60-year-old Vellamma met him during a tour of Uthappanaikkanoor
village this week and asked him to grant her a pension, he said, “I
can do that. But do you want me to send your son to jail too—for
abandoning you?” He said it with a smile, as a joke, but he has in
fact taken action against children who don’t take care of their aging
parents.

“I believe, as Mahatma Gandhi said, that India lives in her villages,”
says Sagayam, who also idolises Subhash Chandra Bose. His years as a
collector—he has slept overnight in village schools many times—have
convinced him to better the lot of villagers by strengthening the
village administrative officer (VAO) system. Many VAOs have never
visited villages and often stay miles away from where they should be,
in cities.

In Namakkal, his action against errant VAOs had them ganging up with
politicians to get him transferred. Over 5,000 villagers protested,
saying they wouldn’t let Sagayam go. The politicians had to retreat.

Sagayam says he learnt honesty on his mother’s knees. He is the
youngest of four sons of a farmer from Pudukottai. “Our adjoining
field had mango trees and my friends and I would pick the fallen
fruit,” he says. “But my mother made me throw the mangoes away, saying
I should enjoy only what is mine.” Now his daughter Yalini wants to
become a collector. When she has an argument with her brother Arun,
she asks her father, “Is he really your son? He just told a lie!”
Both of them are proud of their father. Recently, after a long time,
the Sagayam family went on a vacation to Kullu in Himachal Pradesh.
While visiting a gurudwara, a stranger came up to their father and
asked him, “Aren’t you IAS officer Mr Sagayam?” Yalini and Arun have
not stopped beaming.

You have not lived a perfect day even though you have earned your
money, unless you have done something for someone who will never be
able to repay you.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Monday, October 03, 2011

How Yoga Won the West - NYTimes.com

How Yoga Won the West - NYTimes.com:
Reference to Swami Vivekananda's 1892 trip

'via Blog this'

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
Arise Awake Stop not till the goal is reached. - Swami Vivekananda Swami ji is my inspiration, not as a monk but as a social reformer and for his universal-ism.