My holiday giving

I usually stay silent and anonymous (if possible) about my donations. I wanted to change that to encourage others to donate as well. It is not that these organizations need my endorsement. I am a nobody and some of these organizations are super-huge. I am hoping there is a chance that you might be encouraged to give as well. The organizations I gave to:

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) I am a big fan of the ACLU and I am inspired by their commitment to civil liberties guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Safeguarding our rights doesn’t come easy and thanks to the ACLU for fighting on our behalf. Recently, the ACLU lost its single largest funding source, David Gelbaum. Mr. Gelbaum has given the ACLU $ 94 million in the past five years ($ 300 million to other organizations). He has run into some personal financial issues and the ACLU is looking for support everywhere they can to bridge this funding gap. The ACLU needs your help. Please help them out, if you can. Cool fact: Because of my donation, I became a card-carrying member of the ACLU.

Vibha Every year, a large part of my small charitable giving goes to Vibha. Vibha’s vision is to “ensure that every underprivileged child attains his or her right to education, health and opportunity.” I am a volunteer with this organization. We’d really appreciate your help. Vibha supports some fantastic grass roots level projects. I will mention one here. Sikshana is an organization that has the potential to revive the quality of the primary school system in Karnataka. They reach over 25,000 children from 216 primary schools (there are close to 50000 public primary schools in Karnataka). Sikshana’s methodology is scalable and at some point the government will hopefully adopt their approach. Please donate generously to Vibha to support projects like Sikshana.

People’s Union for Civil Liberties The PUCL is India’s equivalent of the ACLU. They are not as organized as the ACLU, which is the way things usually are, in India. They do fight for the same cause, which is especially harder in India, where civil liberties are not well-protected by the Constitution or the courts.

National Federation of the Blind (NFB) The NFB supports education, research and technology programs offered to the blind.

Wikipedia If you are reading this, you have an internet connection, and you know of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is run by a non-profit that relies on donations to keep the website running. I am sure you don’t want to see it go away.

India’s police state in Manipur

I very briefly mentioned about Indian Government atrocities in Manipur, while talking about the abject state of civil liberties in India.

On July 23rd this year calm unarmed Chongkam Sanjit, a 27-year old was murdered by Manipur police. Here are a series of pictures that document Sanjit’s murder. Shoma Chaudhury’s excellent story from a month ago goes over the history of violent state overreach in Manipur. CNN-IBN has an educative news story on the same issue.

Manipur’s story seems to like that of Blackwater in Iraq. Only that it is by India’s own government on its own people.

PS: I have written several posts where I have complained about India’s media and CNN-IBN. I have to give them their due for this story and others by Arjit Sen. Good reporting.

Is Indian outrage over Khan’s questioning justified?

A couple of days ago, the leading news story in all of India’s news channels was that of actor Shahrukh Khan being questioned by US Customs and Border Protection at Newark Airport. A brouhaha was raised (I can’t tell by whom). But from this screenshot from NDTV, one might conclude that the entire country is up in arms. (That’s a different topic for another day). Famous Indians on twitter were surely expressing their displeasure. Shashi Tharoor tweeted

This also happens to 100s of innocent Muslims daily who don’t have 1 billion ppl to stand up for them. Raises real qsns abt US procedures

I am not sure if means the billion comes because he is Indian or because he is Shahrukh Khan? Then we have our bone-headed Union Cabinet Minister Ms. Ambika Soni who wants a tit-for-tat

I have always felt – even when I was frisked there – that the way they frisk us we should do the same for them here

Yeah, right. This is how a Union Minister wants to organize our security apparatus — to spite people.

I am bewildered by these folks’ (and new channels) reactions. And I am still trying to figure out what exactly outrages them. Is it the fact that an Indian star was stopped, or is it the fact that an Indian was stopped, or that the US government is (only) alleged to have resorted to racial profiling at its borders? After all, SRK was still not yet inside the US when he was stopped. Visiting the US is after all a privilege (not a right) and the CBP is well within its rights and duties to check who they let in.

And which country have these folks been living in all along? My friends tell me several stories of being stopped by police within Indian territory. I too have an incident where I had my civil liberties violated. I was travelling in a cab in Chennai. A cop stopped the vehicle and shined a torch light into the car to see what’s inside and then let us go. He violated my right to privacy. Now, your reaction on hearing about this incident will likely be one of ridicule. “Keep all your privacy, 4th amendment stuff in the US. This is India.” If that is your reaction, I have made my point.

Where where these folks when recently the story broke, of a young unarmed man shot by police while being detained by them? The news channel websites did not have such elaborate coverage. A year ago, the Andra Pradesh government admitted to torturing Muslim youths. No one seemed to care. Recently, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing abuses by Indian Police. Not a sound was heard from India’s political class. Don’t know if there are 1 billion ppl or the government that represents them standing behind these victims.

Indians are silent about such violations of civil liberties and even abuses and murders by government officials within India, but raise a hue and cry when one was merely stopped not within the US, but at its borders. Fascinating.

I have to mention how Shahrukh Khan has conducted himself. In a dignified manner he answered in an interview

They said my name was common. I was too polite to ask, ‘common to what?’