KERALA HISTORY: Iconic sword is back home

For 150 years officials were clueless about its whereabouts

The sword of Velu Thampi Dalawa, a crusader against corruption, is back in Kerala after 150 years. The most prized sword that was kept at the National Museum in New Delhi was formally handed over to the State Cultural Minister, M. A. Baby, on June 20. The personal sword of Dalawa is now kept at Napier Museum in Thiruvananathapuram.

The iconic sword is placed inside a bullet-proof enclosure. Nine security cameras are constantly keeping an eye on all the visitors who flock to this area. A control room situated inside the Museum police station is monitoring the enclosure 24 x 7. Besides, some ten cops are guarding the priceless sword.

Playback singer K.J. Yesudas placed the sword inside the museum. Film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan and other senior politicians, including former chief minister Oommen Chandy, were also present on the spot.

Also, the government has unrolled an awareness campaign to educate the people about the role of Dalawa in the fight against British imperialism and corruption. School students are allowed free entry to the museum on all Sundays. Till now the response has been overwhelming as thousands have visited the museum with one intention: To have a look at the historic sword that had struck fear into enemies' hearts.

The movement to bring the sword back to the state gained momentum in 2009. The Department of History, University of Kerala, sought help from the National Museum in New Delhi to locate Dalawa's sword.

Their initial response was negative. The officials said 'there was no such sword at the museum.' But this didn't stop the officials from taking their cases to senior officials. And their persistent efforts yielded positive results as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also intervened in this matter. It was after this that the museum admitted that the sword was in its possession and thus handed it over to the state government.

SPORTS TRANSPARENCY: Fear of FIFA

FIFA needs to democratise itself

This FIFA World Cup should have come as a slap to all those skeptics who thought that an erstwhile apartheid-loving nation won't be able to pull off this mega sporting event well. Not only did South Africa pull off the game well but it also raised the global standards when it comes to hosting a mega sporting event like FIFA. South Africa took care of every possible measure in order to squeeze maximum economies out of this gaming event. From refurbishing and building new infrastructure to vacating slums ' almost all attributes under the sun were taken care of to make sure that the dividends of the game flow well even after the World Cup got over. But then, amidst all these romantic developments, it was someone else who ran away with big money, leaving pittance for the host country. The figures will prove that ' while FIFA made a whopping $3.2 billion as profit, it gave a trifle $80 million to the South African government, and that too because the amount was a guarantee.

FIFA is more than a century old organisation. Talking about big moolah, FIFA on an average generate revenues that is well above $1 billion per year and more than $4 billion in the World Cup year. A brief research would be enough to unearth the fact that most of revenues come from television and marketing rights, which are under direct control of FIFA. So much so that FIFA charges rent from the host country and does not pay taxes for revenues earned as it insists on having a 'Diplomatic status' (amendments allowing FIFA's activities as 'diplomatic' via the Revenues Law Amendment Act 20 of 2006, guaranteeing 17 provisions granting 'supportive financial environment' as well as various other free services, have been passed). Unlike the International Cricket Council (ICC), where the tenure of the President lasts on an average for 2.5 years, FIFA has no term limits (tenures average over 13 years). Moreover, FIFA allots tourism rights to its agent, Switzerland-based Match AG (the company is said to have family connections with heads of the FIFA body), without any bidding process. Match AG is reported to practice marking up of services charges and licensing fee and surcharge. Match AG is the official accommodation provider since the last six World Cups. All in all, FIFA retains on an average 95 per cent of total profits. In March this year, a UN human rights expert, Raquel Rolnik, said FIFA ignored clauses on adequate housing in the bid proposals and commented that the organisation should be "more transparent." In July, 2010, Transparency International pin-pointed FIFA being involved in multimillion dollar illegal transactions on account of broadcasting and TV rights. As per a recent article published in Forbes, "Executive power has remained with the president and his unaccountable cabinet of highly paid advisors, despite the 24-strong executive committee drawn from FIFA's member associations."

FIFA needs to understand that World Cup ' or for that matter soccer ' is not just a mega sporting event but a game that unites the world. History is testimony that the game played a major role in bridging the racial divide. FIFA should not dent a host country's development activities and burden them with exorbitant costs, especially in developing economies. Instead of asking countries to build new stadiums and infrastructure on their own cost, FIFA should productively engage member countries to invest in such capital expenditure in the host countries. Imagine the camaraderie that can be generated within even enemy countries by such a model through the world's greatest event.

Working CLASS BiteS the Dust

Role of Media in the moulding of youth

Informal sector is ill paid and deprived of social security

The unorganised sector in India is massive and suffers as massively due to almost 400 million disadvantaged people (more than 85 per cent of India's total workforce), according to Arjun Sengupta Committee report. The sector is devoid of any minimum wage clause, healthy working environment, basic amenities, sanitation' et al. According to National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) almost 80 per cent of the workforce in the informal sector cannot even earn Rs.20 in a day! Out of 400 million informal workers, 280 million work in the rural sector including 220 million in agriculture. A strong women workforce of 120 million exists; but the same is rising as poverty perchance is driving women to take up laborious and hazardous jobs!

An overwhelming 96 per cent of women work in the informal sector export processing zones, as construction labours or as agricultural workers; and are generally in the lowest end in the value chain. It is not only workers in the informal sector who are outside the purview of legal framework like Minimum Wages Act or Factories Act, but even organised sector employees with ever increasing outsourcing and diminishing state protection ' 28 million of them are without any job protection. An increasing number of employers (from mostly unorganised sectors; and some from organised too) take advantage of the lack of stringent laws and regulations and regularly bypass several employee rights and benefits in the form of provident fund, gratuity and maternal benefits. In spite of some progresses through NREGA, the same didn't ensure a bonhomie between employers and employees, as more and more workers post NREGA were literally thrown into the corridors of unorganised sector.

The dichotomy between the government policy of loosening control and subsidy on industries on one hand, and protecting employee's security on the other, ended up in a draft bill being churned out (to provide security to the unorganised sector workers) by the UPA government; this is expected to be tabled in this monsoon session of Parliament! However, the legislation has been criticised by the trade unions, who would be sitting ducks if the legislation were to be passed, as the concept of Worker's Facilitation Centre (propagated by the legislation; and to be run by NGOs) is bereft of a powerful collective bargaining mechanism.

It has to be accepted that blind dependence on GDP growth as the only indicator for social wellbeing is flawed, and so long as the majority of our workers suffer, India can never truly advance.

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