Showing posts with label CONSTITUTION. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CONSTITUTION. Show all posts

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Securing the Rights of Tamils: Six Arguments Tamils Must Start Avoiding Now


Hello World,

The entire nation is reeling under the clutches of a fascist right-wing regime since 2014 and the developments so far has been disastrous for the entire population. While the racist right-wing supporters disagree with any of the criticism, the more pressing issue on hand is the inability of the general population to differentiate stupidity from facts. 

My focus is more asserted when it comes to the same inability of my fellow Tamils. When I put together my observations of the arguments my fellow Tamils presented, I see an alarmingly dangerous trend of Tamils skipping the essentials in arguments. The way I see it, it is the inability to establish a negotiation table and debate the needs that is keeping Tamils away from securing their rights. Here, I present my observations of the Six Arguments that we Tamils must avoid so, in the long run we evolve as a community of levelheaded individuals who can stand up for themselves and secure the rights they truly deserve.

Before we begin, I think, setting up the context for this discussion to put things in perspective is in order. We need to start somewhere, and I am not attracted towards anything beyond the Graham’s Hierarchy of Arguments (or Disagreement) for a valid starting point. The western thinking hats is another approach I wouldn’t discount but for the purposes of this discussion, I believe Graham’s Hierarchy does the job of taking us to a relevant ground zero. We might as well begin.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Graham%27s_Hierarchy_of_Disagreement.svg

Refuting the central point, which in other words, disproving the basic premise with facts remains the highest form of argument as per Graham’s hierarchy given above.

Since we are discussing how Tamils can enhance their opportunities to debate right and secure their rights, Tamils who do not read and/or write English are ineludible. My observations indicate that those Tamils who are not very comfortable understanding English tend to ignore anything and everything in English and in the process become easy victims of schemes targeted against them as most of its details is not available in any language other than English. This, therefore, demands that in all fairness we present at least one helping hand to integrate the Tamils who are not necessarily comfortable with English content. I had made a crude attempt at translating the Graham’s Hierarchy of Arguments (Disagreements) here:



Graham’s Hierarchy of Arguments does present the crux of the discussion and clearly indicates what needs to be prioritized over the others. Our focus, however, is to investigate what we need to stop doing.

1. Never Ending Trip to the Next Station

If that is the case, then this is even better. Do you know that?

When we train ourselves to not tolerate loss, we grow ourselves a handicap of avoiding all circumstances that we perceive as a potential ‘loss.’ The consequence is that we gain a new habit of skipping the games we are not sure about winning. When this translates into our response to any argument, what we deliver is a brand-new argument instead of a counter to the one we are facing. What ensues is a never-ending loop of us saying something different from the other person migrating from argument to argument to find the one where the other debater doesn’t say anything.

2. Perception of 'No Counter' as a WIN

I shut them up. It means I put them in place and therefore I win.

The absence of a counter argument is not always a consequence of a better argument. It is also a case of the other debater choosing not to respond to stupidity. If it is a genuine case of the other debater not knowing much, he/she would ask probing questions to better understand the premise and the details. Perceiving silence as a ‘give up’ indicates the inability to identify the best option by eliminating the less relevant. It also means there is a lack of ability to investigate one’s own faults. Both inabilities are built on the core inability of not being able to reason with anything. People also refuse to debate a real logic within a creative bubble. There will remain no point in building an argument within a made-up story. The entire argument will be a waste of everyone’s time. When the rights of real people are in danger, why on earth should anyone be debating creative compositions?

3. Consideration of Everything as a Reason

As per Your Words, I am Right

A very popular one, especially among enthusiastic eleven year old’s. However, as grim as it may seem, this nonsense gets indoctrinated at a very tender age and for many of us, it becomes a habit that never leaves. We adults need to use our basic cognitive abilities to come up with logic and reason to support what we say. It is ok to feel the urge to claim us being right about something, but we need to allow our neurons to do their job, however uneasy it may seem to be. Not claiming being right is way better than saying ‘As per your words, I am right.’ This form of argument lets the other person know that we lack the abilities of a thirteen-year-old and our core specialization is restricted to that of an eleven year old. No offence intended towards the eleven year old's. Also, when we use what others are saying as the basis, we are rendering ourselves vulnerable to what we perceive as popular opinion. In such circumstances, as long as we are convinced with something as a popular opinion, we stop arguing and submit. 

4. The Idea of Everyone Saying It

Everyone believes and accepts this except a few. So, this must be true.

Do you remember ‘sati’? A religion driven tradition of burning women along with their dead husbands used to exist in this part of the world. At that time, everyone believed it, accepted and did say, “That’s the tradition we follow.” Succumbing to this perceived-mass-approval psychology renders our cognitive abilities stunted to say the least. When the understanding becomes ingrained into one’s personality, their ability to argue becomes stunted too. If we allow ourselves to fall into this perceived-mass-approval trend, we force ourselves to believe in this mirage that dictates the idea of falling in line with everything that appeals to us as ‘what everyone agrees with.’ Our argument in that mode will almost always be driven by conformity as opposed to the otherwise original way driven by reason and logic backed by facts. By looking for what everyone else is saying, we are essentially showing ourselves out of the argument.

5. Passion for the Absence of a Popular Acknowledgement

There is no report indicating or saying the same. Therefore, this view needs to be ignored.

Remaining in an argument is elementary and that makes it top priority if there is an intent of arriving at a conclusion. Please note, solution and conclusion are very different entities. As for this discussion, we will keep ourselves to the conclusion as the argument remains the means to that. When we build an argument, be it the initiation or the counter, if we must rely on exclusion of a denial as the basis for approval, we are committing ourselves to the converse of the perceived-mass-approval psychological trends. While this is at one end of the stupidity spectrum, what lies at the other end is even more deeply disturbing. If someone is insistent on extending such a debate, then that is an indication of two possibilities; One being the deliberate intent to distract attention towards insignificance (as a means of short-term escape) and the other being outright stupidity. The world can do without both.

6. Reliance on the Studies that Don’t Exist

Studies show that meat eaters are rude. Yeah, that’s how it is.

The world can also do without the studies that don’t exist. How will food choices define the personality of a human being? Basing an opinion on a study is increasingly becoming a popular trend and every time someone starts their argument with the phrase ‘studies suggest” the immediate response is almost always an approval. However, nobody seems to be asking what study is being referred to and who documented it under what circumstances and for what objective. The consequence of this trend is that arguments are being framed based on unnamed studies being the facts behind them. When we use such a secretive study that we haven’t seen and/or verified, we train ourselves to become victims of deliberate fake arguments thrown at us. When someone with real intent of preventing an argument from proceeding further, they would likely use this tactic and if we remain conditioned in this regard, we will silently accept it, not realizing, we have been sidelined on purpose. Try looking up the recent ongoing efforts to rewrite our history and you will see the development of such studies to be shown when anyone might ask for the study that supports a crooked view. When someone is trying to rewrite history, their ulterior motive is to establish a specific hold over cultures. When we hold on to the argument pattern of relying on studies, we remain ineligible to counter such arguments aiming at establishing a uniform culture, destroying many in the process.

6. Everything as a Consequence of Culture

This is what we were doing thousands of years ago. Therefore, this is best for us and this must remain a standard for all.

Culture is a consequence. It is as simple as that. That precisely is also why cultures tend to evolve over time. This ends up rendering rights as wrongs and those important as insignificant, among the other million possible changes, all over time. One example is public transport rendering caste-based hatred insignificant (to a very large extent). Once upon a time people of a certain class/group would only be allowed to travel together on the bullock carts or even sit together on the bench at a tea shop. In came the buses, trams and trains and now we sit based on the seat number our ticket says and not based on ethnic or economic class definitions. This brings us to the point where we must realize that presenting an argument based on culture should accommodate a fair element of ambiguity and variance, failing which the argument becomes insignificant. Remember, slavery, sati, female infanticide and racism were part of the culture, and sadly some of these persist in many parts of the world including Tamilnadu. However, they cannot be accepted as a consequence of culture for further social, legal and political conformity. Building arguments justifying opinions and actions in today’s time referring to culture can be dangerous, especially when we argue in defense of what is against the concept of humanity. Such an argument presenting the idea of something being right on account of it being the consequence of culture indicates the lack of ability to reason on the basis of facts from the past and their validity within the society with respect to which the argument is primarily being built. The consequence of this broken argument format is that the victims can easily be convinced with anything as long as the argument refers to culture, irrespective of it being real and/or logical. Looking at this from the other direction, when we rely on cultural definition for support of our opinion, we open the door for any counter opinion which can easily be floated as ‘also based on culture’ and as long as the counter argument refers to a claim of a superior culture, then we are forced to stand down. We don’t have to and we shouldn’t. However, it is impossible if we remain in approval of such an argument based exclusively based on an illusionary cultural consequence.

How Tamils Remain at the Losing End

Since we have accommodated diverse cultures along with ourselves, we have benefitted by learning from the diversity and have been contributing to the cultures which have mingled with us all along. The southern half of India is way better economically in comparison to the northern half and diversity is the main reason for this. However, every contribution comes at a set of costs, some of which are overhead. One of those, in this case, is that, we now have, staunch supporters of inhuman policies and practices largely lobbying for the implementation of the right-wing propaganda. The consequence is that their efforts take away the rights of people in many circumstances and almost always, it is the Tamil right that gets dropped, ignored or outright violated. That is not the problem though. Please do not mistake this for a reason to develop any retaliatory hatred. Hate, be it preemptive or retaliatory, is not going to deliver any value. The problem I am referring to is the rising trend of silence against such efforts that do not care about violating the rights of Tamils. Those who remain silent are either open supporters of the Hindutva right wing or those who have the habit of building insignificant arguments mentioned above. This section of the population includes Tamils as well.

Setting Up The Right Markers for Historical Epochs 

Anytime in the far future, say 100 years from now, for instance, the welfare of Tamils will remain dependent on relevant political and intellectual history of Tamils taken up from select historical epochs. Given the current rise of the right wing hindutva propaganda, it is about time we Tamils establish a few such relevant epochs, the political and social responses of which will come up during the recall in the far future, hopefully enabling us to stand up for our rights including our strong resolve to protect those around us irrespective of them being Tamil or not. We need to exist and we need to remain protected from danger to be in a state of well being that can allow us to pursue the safety of all those around us as dictated by our Thirukural in the phrase ‘Pirappokkum Ella Uyirukum.’ However, we can only exist and remain in good well being when we establish the right formats of political and intellectual history which in other terms translates to what we do right now. There is no better time than now, to set the epochs right for the future.

Tamils need to counter the right wing hindutva terrorism head on and it cannot happen without debating the making and workings of the right wing. The Tamil proletariat is slowly succumbing to organized economic exploitation and cultural oppression by anti-Tamil entities ranging across segments. That being said, I would gently remind my fellow Tamils that the Tamil and non-Tamil bourgeoisie that is silently tolerating the said economic exploitation and cultural oppression of the Tamil proletariat remain the stronger source of evil as they remain in close proximity to us, most of them being amongst us as well. Just because they speak Tamil doesn’t mean they have to care for Tamil and in many cases, much to my surprise, those who are Tamil themselves remain ignorant of the violation of the rights of Tamils.

I am not sure what will bring the real issues to the attention of people. Nobody seems to care when North Madras is suffering. Should Nanganallur also burn before people agree that we have a problem at hand? May be Mylapore, Mandaveli and Mambalam can get added to such a disaster and then people start noticing the violation of Tamil rights. This is a violent thought but inevitable now. However, I do not see this as a reasonable basis for any further statement. Again, I am not sure if such an argument is even valid in the first place.

That precisely is my point at this juncture. We Tamils need to form the right arguments and we need to revisit our methods of argument to begin with. The Tamil proletariat has to understand that the ownership of Tamilnadu is slowly leaving the Tamils as the very basis of political constitution which might support the safety of Tamils is slowly succumbing to the competition of the right wing propaganda and much worse, the Tamil and Non-Tamil bourgeoisie is tolerating it. This brings up the question of why a common, collective ownership of Tamilnadu cannot be established with the inclusion of Tamils in a state of equality, despite the Tamils being open to non-Tamil cultures?

The answer could me many and in many perspectives. What remains unchanged is that we Tamils are failing to raise the right questions as we are failing to build the right arguments. While there can be a million ways to form the right argument, at this juncture, we need to stop building the wrong arguments. What I have here are merely six such arguments Tamils should stop using in order to create an atmosphere for any possible solution. Solutions are possible when we have the appropriate conclusions. Appropriate conclusions are only possible when they are derived from relevant, correct arguments. Given the current circumstances, there is a dearth of appropriate conclusions and therefore there is no atmosphere for any solution for Tamils and Tamilnadu.

Tamils need to argue hard and fast to secure their rights and it is more of a negotiation in the democratic context. For any such negotiation to sustain, there needs to be a negotiation table with one seat for the Tamils. If Tamils are going to leave the negotiation table as a result of incorrect arguments they place or the perception of the non-existent win in the argument, then the other party need not worry about building their side of the argument. Tamils’ ignorance must come to a hard stop and it must happen now. The question then remains:

Can the Tamil proletariat’s fight for their rights, though greatly undermined, yet a form of resurrection of Tamil Marai as prescribed by Thirukural, pass on strongly from the intelligent minority to the ignorant majority within Tamilnadu, in the form of strong, relevant arguments?

Regards,



Friday, November 15, 2019

Revival of Manusmrithi Based Governance: Mechanics of the Organized Death of Indian Democracy

Hello World,



It is about time we recognized what kind of governance is presiding over India since 2014.

The government under Modi is what can be called Manusmrithi Based Governance.

In most circumstances, this will be denied. However, this is the fact. 

Here’s how it is:

Right wing thinkers of the past (we are talking in decades into the past) have successfully convinced their supporters that Manusmrithi is the culture we need and it got corrupted over time and it needs to be installed in a revised format.

We all know that manusmrithi is the root cause of so much social evil we have today including the caste system. Modi supporters will quickly jump the gun and say it is not. Well, the fact is that the top-most varna and the top-most caste are both Brahman! You do the math.

The right wing thinkers have devised a new way of implementing manusmrithi and here’s how they see it:
The one who gets education must not have control of the government and that of wealth. The one who gets the control of government must not have education and wealth. The one who gets wealth must not get education and control in government. The one who does not get all the three must serve the remaining 3 groups. The one who must get education is Brahman. The one who must get wealth is vaisya. The one who must control government is Kshatriya. The one serving these three is Sudra.

This nonsense is being implemented in India as we speak.
Look up NEET exam, rising fees in educational institutions and the increasing restrictions for scholarships across the universities. This is to make sure NOT ALL ARE EDUCATED AND THE ONES DESERVING EDUCATION ALONE GET IT.

Here are some instances to support:





Look up the budget documents, especially the government funding/investments into Non-Banking Financial Corporations and private banks in general. Government has been pumping money into lesser know mostly west/north-west based banking institutions [read vaisya groups] and the cost of finance [interest rates] have been going up. Notice that the eligibility for benefits and relaxations in loan interest rates ensure only a fraction of the population are eligible for loans be it for home or car. This is to make sure NOT ALL GET ACCESS TO WEALTH/MONEY EXCEPT THE ONES DESERVING THE SAME BY VIRTUE OF THEIR BIRTH.

Here's an instance to notice:



Look up caste based political strategies where the current government is partnering with regional political groups and you will notice that their first choice of political partners, members, allies are caste groups which claim to be WARRIOR CLANS [read kshatriya]. Look up which caste groups they choose as regional/local party leadership roles and you will see the castes which claim superiority in the region by the nature of their ancestors being kings and warriors or their advisers. This is to make sure NOT ALL GROUPS OF CITIZENS HAVE A REPRESENTATION IN THE GOVERNMENT EXCEPT THOSE WHO, BY BIRTH, ARE WARRIOR CLANS OR RELATED TO RULING DYNASTIES.

Here are some instances to notice:





Look up how benefits for minorities are either cancelled, reduced or restricted since 2014. For example the educational scholarships for dalits [refer to the entire sc/st/obc/bc/mbc sections and the story remains the same] have been reduced or restricted. Look up how many minorities are included in the government’s line up of officers/ministers/bureaucrats and you will notice that minorities are either completely absent or in the single digits to show a mere presence. Look up who are denied access to public wells, public schools, public medical camps and you will see a trend of minorities being banned out of social/government institutions. Also look up the cases of reservation being denied deliberately for minorities against the constitution. This is to ensure NOT ALL MINORITIES GET ACCESS TO EDUCATION/WEALTH/GOVERNMENT SO THEY REMAIN IN A POSITION OF DEPENDENCY OWING TO WHICH THEY HAVE TO OFFER THEIR SUBSERVIENCE TO THE OTHER 3 GROUPS FOR THEIR SURVIVAL.






Please do not believe anything I write here without you personally verifying it. You need to look up multiple news items and search for specific information. Once you are done, look up RSS archives and read what the senior right wing thinkers have spoken many decades ago. You will need to consciously piece together what you see happening since 2014 along with what was said many years ago in RSS camps/meetings/propaganda.

When you do this exercise, you will see that the government under the control of Modi Gang is implementing a Manusmrithi-based-design irrespective of its consequences as they believe it is their god’s word and it represents their ONE COUNTRY-ONE RELIGION-ONE CULTURE-ONE CODE philosophy. For them hindu is a nationality and people practicing other religions are also hindus by nationality. A Indian christian to them is a Hindu Christian and so on!

This might sound ridiculous if you are reading this for the first time but I would humbly request you to read RSS archives. Read what the right wing thinkers had to say and think how much brain damage is behind the government since 2014!
If such is the state of the government, irrespective of who runs it, the country will have 60% of population reeling under poverty and going to sleep without food every day. Why do you think is the MSME sector not able to access loans? Why do you think is the auto industry crashing? Why do you think the unemployment is rising?

All these troubles are not because the government is anti-people. It is because the government is Pro-Manusmrithi. The goverment being ANTI-PEOPLE is a mere consequence but the government being PRO-MANUSMRITHI is the real causation!!

Read the RSS archives and you will see how they have justified this nonsense. One explanation says when the population was small, evaluating everyone by GUNA was simple and as the population grew, it became difficult and so the simpler way of classifying humans BY BIRTH [in the family of someone who already got classified as per guna] became a consequence. Indirectly, the right wing fools have been declaring that the caste system and the discrimination are nothing but an OBVIOUS BUT INSIGNIFICANT SIDE-EFFECT OF WRONGLY INTERPRETING THE MANUSMRITHI!!!!

For those who do not have the patience, here are small instances of rss idiocracy:



Source: http://www.archivesofrss.org/Speeches-and-articles.aspx 

This nation is under the clutches of the fools who believe in such hindutva nonsense. This nation therefore is supposed to suffer like it is doing right now!

The question: AT WHAT POINT DO WE ADMIT?

So, summing up, we shouldn’t be surprised that our fellow citizens are dying out of hunger and poverty. The damage is comprehensive, diverse and growing as we speak. It involves both loss of life and property.

It is a case of the revival of Manusmrithi based governance in India and this is how our democracy is progressing with its slow and organised death.

Image Sources: The respective media outlets as mentioned in the images. These are screenshots of the respective web pages as mentioned in them. 

Regards,


Saturday, February 3, 2018

ECONOMIC WAR ON THOSE WHO CRITICIZE: THE 'CASHEW-AL' WAY

Hello World,

While I am preparing my next vomit on Arthashastra, I went through the 2018 Budget documents and I have an observation to share with you. Let’s get started.

We will begin with an exhibit:

The 2018-Budget proposes to reduce the customs duty for the import of cashew nuts by 50%. What used to be 5% is going to become 2.5%. Cashew is high value crop and 50% slash is a significant gain and this is expected to make the import of cashew from international markets into our country much cheaper than what it used to be.



Usually, when two countries agree to help each other economically, they ease the selling of each others’ products and services in their respective territories. Also, when the nation needs a raw material for a specific product which also has to be affordable to the citizens, the administration usually relaxes the import duties and enables the market players to take advantage of the margins.

In an effort to understand the story behind I googled to find who the top producers of cashew nuts are. 

Fun fact: We are one of the top-3 producers!

Here’s a set of screenshots to indicate that:





I started wondering why cashew imports need to be relaxed in a country which is already in the top-3 producers list. The reasons are simple:

If cashew imports are relaxed:

  1. The local producers will have to face international competition and might not necessarily win the price war. 
  2. The local farming economy will face the brunt given that they are already producing the some of the major quantities, globally.

I wanted to know how big the local cashew farming economy existed and I landed at this:



So, 5 out of 7 states in the Top-6 Cashew Producers List are Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka. The others marked as top producers are West Bengal, Jharkand and Maharashtra.

If I look closely, most of these states have political rhetoric strongly criticising the current central administration and the political party that is running it. In essence, what I see is an economic war being waged against states who are not willing to collaborate with the political party running the central administration right now.

I might be wrong but here’s my set of questions:

Why is that cashew is the only agri-produce whose import duty is slashed by 50%? 

How come the crop which comes from select states with a similar political rhetoric can be imported for cheap? 

Is this an economic war against the farmers of the regions where political ideologies don’t necessarily match with that of the current central administration?
While I pondered this, scrolling through the budget document, I came across this:



National program from the central budget aiming at air pollution is something that needs to be lauded with a open heart. Such programs make the place a bit better for future generations. In this case the program directly aims at reducing the loss to the agricultural-economy as a result of air pollution.

However, why do such ambitious programs exclusively cover select states from the country?

This to me means that, the air-pollution-driven death and health hazards faced by citizens from the other states of this country is perfectly ok. 

The priority is just those states which face the MOST POLLUTION. You see, pollution is not bad. MOST POLLUTION is alone bad. Only those who face MOST POLLUTION are superior humans and deserving citizens for a centre-driven program. This is how the best brains work in this country as of now and I cannot imagine of an award that I can recommend the brains who voted these neuro-superior-homo-sapiens who are deeply passionate about protecting just those superior humans who face the MOST POLLUTION in this country.

For some reason, the states who stand to face the economic brunt of cashew imports do not match or even come close to the states included in the air pollution program. 

So some states can have cleaner air and no competition from foreign agri products while others can breathe more monoxides and eat unsold cashews until death. 

The reality might be something very different from the grim picture I paint here. 

The questions are: 

Is it, really?

At What point do we admit the fact as a fact?



Best regards,