The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : People's commission on globalisation mooted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

People's commission on globalisation mooted

By Our Special Correspondent

MADURAI, MARCH 21. The formation of a People's Commission on Globalisation has been mooted by the Gandhi Peace Foundation to take stock of the impact of globalisation and structural reforms in the last decade.

Addressing Gandhian workers at a meeting organised at the Gandhi Museum here today to discuss the direction Gandhian constructive programmes should take in a changing scenario, Ravindra Varma, Chairman, Gandhi Peace Foundation, said the time had come to undertake an impartial assessment of whether globalisation had yielded expected results or created alarming problems. The commission should have eminent economists, jurists and academics, besides representatives of voluntary organisations.

Highlighting the need for a national debate on the forms of struggle to be adopted in a changing scenario, the former Union Minister pointed out that the contemporary forms of struggle had reached a stage of criticality for the survival of democracy, evolution of a better social order or for ensuring social justice and progress. He said those forms that were self-defeating and self-destructive should be eschewed. Struggles should secure solutions and justice without creating a state of anarchy.

Dr. Varma categorised `direct action' as armed struggles against an oppressive state and its armed forces, terrorist acts to achieve what was put forth as `legitimate' objectives or interests of a social group and non-violent movements. The adoption of violence as a means, he pointed out, led to a vicious cycle as the challengers as well as the state believed in legitimacy of violence and secrecy. Some new forms of non-violent struggles, he said, had led to violence, destruction of property, duress or extraction of consent and infringement on rights of others.

Bandhs and gheraos demonstrably and evidently vitiated the voluntary nature of the protest. Such new forms had begun to claim the halo or sanctity of non-violence, though they were condemned by the author of Satyagraha, Mahatma Gandhi. Yet another form of struggle was the "indecorous and disorderly behaviour, wilful violation of rules of conduct and defiance and denigration of authority" seen in the legislature.

He regretted that political parties and members did not resort to such practices of obstruction and self-denigration even during British rule. Dr. Varma said the time had come for a national dialogue on the question of "forms of struggle that we adopt." Gandhian workers from several parts of the country are taking part in the discussion that concludes on Tuesday.

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