In India to put an end to the cruel treatment meted out to working-bulls,

Ingrid E Newkirk took some time out to speak with Anu Gulmohar about her life's work as the Founder and President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

Meet Ingrid. A single child, she was extremely fond of the dog she grew up with, and considered him to be her brother. “He and I went everywhere together. We’d go to see our grandmother and both of us would get car-sick at the same time, and they would have to stop the car and let both of us out! We sometimes slept together, in my bed or in his big wicker basket. I knew what he was feeling and he knew what I was feeling,” she recalled to me. And then her family moved to India. She remembers the first time she ever ran to the rescue of an animal. Nine-year-old Ingrid saw a trembling bull, pulling a heavily loaded cart. As he got slower and slower, the owner pulled up the bull’s tail and rammed a stick into him. “The bull bellowed, but instead of running, which the man wanted him to do, the bull collapsed. Then the man got down from the cart and began beating the bull on the street. I ran as fast as I could, and even though I was just a little girl, I was completely outraged and grabbed the stick to stop him fr
om beating the bull. Then people came and took me back home,” Ingrid remembers. Her one regret: “I don’t know what happened to that bull in the end. And I’m sure it couldn’t have been good. I never forgot it because I know there are so many bulls in the same situation.”

Today, the world knows Ingrid E Newkirk as the Founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India and PETA affiliates worldwide. After having championed several causes of animals rights and proclaiming loud and clear across the world her organisation’s slogan – ‘animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment,’ – she recently returned to India to put an end to cruelty to working bulls. In Mumbai, bullocks are used to transport kerosene, and while on September 30, 2008, the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies banned their use for this purpose, it remains to be implemented. On November 12, 2010, Ingrid donated a diesel-powered "auto rickshaw" – fitted with an oil tank and provided free of charge by Piaggio – to the owner of a bullock-drawn cart in a ceremony near the Sewri Railway Station. The weary bullock was sent to a sanctuary operated by PETA's Animal Rahat rescue programme in Sangli. “The bullocks are really in slavery, they are being tyrannised,” said Ingrid. “
Today, I saw a bull unhitched from his cart while his man had gone to have lunch. The bull had a sore the size of a teapot on his hump, all red, oozing. The owner was going to return and put that wood shaft back on his hump, on that completely open sore. When they finish, what is the ‘thank you’ that they get?” cried Ingrid. “They’re put together in one truck and taken to the slaughter house. When they get to the slaughter house, it’s so horrific. They stand in their own blood, and they watch everybody else in front of them have their necks slit. There’s no kindness, they shove them down to the floor. They break their shoulder while they’re cutting their neck. What is this? This gentle, thoughtful animal, who’s already been castrated with no anaesthesia, who’s already had a ring put inside his nose, the yoke put on his back… it’s a horrifying life with a terrifying death in the end. Yet, it’s Nandi! We call them Gods! In a village in Jabalpur, a few days ago, I met a family who loved their bull and the grandm other cried because their bull was put down because he had a cancer and was in pain. And I said ‘why can’t everybody be like you?’ They loved that bull and they had a picture of themselves with the bull, and they had done what was right for the bull. The bull they have now is in beautiful condition. They don’t overload him, they don’t beat him,” said Ingrid, making a point that whilst the bulls are openly abused in the streets, there is a part of India where the Nandi is dearly loved and respected too.

“It’s illegal to have bulls pull oil carts. We may donate more auto-rickshaws. We thought, let’s kick it off, give it a headstart, and see how it goes from there. We’re working with the Ministry, we’re talking to the union, the union’s talking to the bull-cart owners, we want to talk to the petroleum people and say, ‘it’s illegal, it’s wrong, it’s a mess, it needs to change. Let’s do it now. Here’s a headstart’,” explains Ingrid.

Working to protect animals since 1972, Ingrid’s undying enthusiasm has led her organisation to valiantly fight to make right the several wrongs committed against animals. While her most satisfying campaign in her career remains stopping all car companies in the world from using animals for car crash tests and instead opting for robot-controlled mannequins, there have been numerous milestones in her career. “We do a lot of other work in India,” says Ingrid. “For example, we’re working to get lions and tigers out of the circus and that’s already successful. We’re very worried about the leather industry, because it’s a co-product of the meat industry, and again the manner in which the animals are killed is atrocious. The leather industry will not take any responsibility, so we do tell people, ‘don’t buy leather, don’t eat the animals, don’t wear the animals.’ Cosmetics or any household product tested on animals, in four months, will be illegal in the whole of Europe. In these tests, they pour the chemicals, shampoos, the oven cleaners, in the rabbit’s eyes, down the dog’s throat. In India we would like the same kind of arrangement. Exotic skins are a bit of a problem here too.” And just as celebrities around the world have supported the work they do, helped spread awareness about the cruelty suffered by animals, Indian stars too have been working with PETA. “It’s fine to be in a movie and everybody loves you, but do you have a heart? We have John Abraham from the beginning. He says, ‘Open the cage, let the birds fly free. Don’t keep birds in cages.’ Raveena Tandon helped us with the leather campaign. All the celebs help us with the 'Go Veg' campaign. When they speak, people listen. And they know how to act. They look good in the commercial; some of them are very funny and some of them are very beautiful, but all of them are beautiful inside,” says Ingrid.

Vegetarianism is among PETA’s pet projects, and several celebrities have come out to support this cause. While the slogan ‘Let vegetarianism grow on you’ is as eye-catching as the ladies decked up in leaves, we wondered if the campaigns worked for their own employees too. Are they all vegetarian? “Oh yes! They’re vegan! We don’t require it for people coming in, but once they come in and see what’s going on; they taste the delicious food, they know they won’t miss anything. We had this beautiful chocolate birthday cake with vanilla frosting last night and it was all vegan. And today we had banana flavoured soya milk. They realise that they’re healthier, and they’re not hurting animals in any way. I’ve hired meat-eaters and they’ve become vegans very quickly!” clucks Ingrid happily.

Ingrid doesn’t believe PETA needs to get as aggressive as Greenpeace to drive home their point. Yet she’s quite sure that there are many things still to do. “We’re still too small! We need everybody’s help.

We need volunteer help, we need money, we need more stars! We need every single person to take the veg pledge, and we’ll help them with the vegetarian starter kit, everything. The journey has been a steady growth, there are more young people coming in. But we need to grow more,” insists Ingrid.

Reinstating animals to their rightful place in the world, Ingrid perhaps revealed her life’s philosophy best as she spoke about her relationship as a child with her family dog. “I’ve always felt a part of the animal kingdom. I think we’re all animals, we’re all flesh and blood, and we all feel pain and joy and fear and loneliness and love, and we all want to be with our families. It’s all the same.” How long will it take for everyone to realise this? Your guess is as good as mine.

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Spending millions on state visits makes very less sense!

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Obama’s recent 10 days Asia visit attracted mammoth media attention and relatively similar criticism. If for some political pundits the tour was mere rhetoric and lip service, then another group of critics found it to be quite historical. Amidst all these, the issue of a huge amount of money spent on Obama’s visit received enough criticism. According to various media reports, the US spent a whopping $200 million per day on Obama's Asia tour to take care of the President’s security, stay and other aspects. The per day cost of this so-called peace visit is more than three times the money (read aid) declared by Obama to fight child labour in India. Prior to this, the most expensive visit by any US President was that of Bill Clinton, where the estimated expenditure was $10 million per day.

Expenditures incurred from State visits by heads of states have always made a huge dent in the economy and mostly proved to be less effective. The cost of the Pope's recent visit to the UK, in September 2010 is estimated to be $32.2 million was under huge protest by the people. Thus, on Pope’s visit to Germany, a German minister stated that “…it would have been cheaper to fly all the people to the Vatican and let the Vatican worry about the cost of security!” So much so that Spain saw a massive protest regarding the estimated €5 million worth visit of the Pope, especially when Spain is planning austerity measures to check the growing unemployment and other economic malaise. Moreover, the president of Philippines, Gloria Arroyo went on 81 foreign trips in her presidential term, one of the highest in recent times. This trip had cost the economy a whopping P1.45 billion in foreign travel expenses (from 2002 to 2007)! A study by the US National Taxpayers Union (NTU) on US presidential travels from 1953 to 2001 concluded that Jimmy Carter and Ford went abroad almost eight times a year during their terms.

The problem is not only about the expenditure incurred from such visits but also the way it is increasing. At a time when major economies are undergoing economic slowdown and finding it difficult to manage funds for social development and austerity measures, and also committing to donate 0.7 per cent of their GDP as aid, cost of visits is raising eyebrows. More so, because, it's taxpayers' money. Had the money spent on Obama's visit been invested in different projects, it would have created more jobs for Americans. While one cannot negate the importance of such visits in times of globalisation where a nation's policy has global influence, rising expenditure should not be overlooked.

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Decriminalising politics is imperative for a successful democracy

India’s democracy, despite being the largest in the world, is at stake. And criminals entering into politics is certainly adding to the woes of the already tainted national polity. Politicians with a criminal record is not a new phenomenon. But, there has been little progress in decriminalising the Indian polity especially looking at the recent Bihar Assembly election. 139 candidates participating in the 35 assembly constituencies have criminal records and 75 of them have serious criminal charges including murder or attempt to murder. Surprisingly, they got tickets from major parties. 65 per cent of RJD candidates have criminal cases against them followed by JD(U) (59 per cent) BJP (54 per cent), Congress (40 per cent) and BSP (40 per cent). Thisgives enough reasons to ponder over the issue.

The Bihar assembly election is not an isolated example. 206 members out of 403 who won the 2002 Uttar Pradesh assembly election had criminal backgrounds. More surprisingly, in its 2007 assembly election, 74 per cent of the candidates had criminal cases. Mafiosi like Arun Gawli, Hitendra Thakur and Pappu Kalani dominated the polity of Maharashtra for years. The situation at the national level is equally dreadful. As per Washington Times, in 2008, one-fourth of the 540 Indian Parliamentarians had criminal records. In 1996, there were 70 Parliamentarians and over 100 state assembly members with ‘criminal background.’ Shockingly, in the 2009 general elections, 43 MPs from BJP and 41 from Congress and 69 from other minor political parties are facing criminal cases against them. What is more shocking is that 19 BJP and 12 Congress newly elected MPs are having serious criminal charges against them.

Criminals entering into politics is a rare phenomenon in successful democracies. Why can't India stop criminals entering into politics? The Chances are rare unless strong measures are taken. India's strange laws do not allow undertrials to vote but allow even jailed politicians to contest in elections. A politician is barred from contesting elections only when guilt is established. There has also been lack of political will. However, Sonia Gandhi recently avowed, “We need to do more in contending with the influence of money and muscle power... We also need to build a consensus on how to prevent individuals with a criminal record from contesting elections." However, just a statement is certainly not enough. Such a strong decision needs greater commitments, political will and a strong leadership. Now the question is – can the current leadership deliver it? Obama has only termed India as 'the world's largest democracy'. Can we make it the most successful and transparent one?

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Brilliantly connects the universal themes of friendship and betrayal with the tech obsessed 21st Century generation

The Social Network: Life in bits and bytes

You would think that there wouldn’t be much to play around with in the telling of a straight forward tale of how another super geek invented the next big thing on the Internet. But “The Social Network,” which traces the founding story of Facebook (by miles the most popular social networking website), in the hands of two masterful craftsmen in director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, zings with emotional intensity and wry wit. It captures not only the characters and the emotions of those who were associated with Facebook but also the zeitgeist of a generation.

The origins of Facebook, it would appear, were mired in a lot of sex, lies and coding scripts. In the fall of 2003, Jessica Albright (Rooney Mara) breaks up with the socially awkward but brilliant Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), and an angry and inebriated Mark gets back to his dorm room desperately looking for something to take his mind off her. In a rage filled bout of coding he manages to hack into the online student directories of practically every Harvard dorm and uses the data to create Facemash.com, a website where the photos of two students can be compared by users to decide who’s hotter. The website goes viral, crashes servers at Harvard, and Mark has a brainwave about a social networking website. He discusses the idea with his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and gets him to financially support his newly launched website and thus is born the facebook.com. Things would have been pretty fine for Mark at this point had he not promised to help three other students – twins
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (Armie Hammer plays both) and Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) – with coding on a website with a similar idea. When thefacebook.com goes live, the twins are livid and finally sue Mark.

The story is told in flashback from the depositions in the cases against Zuckerberg in 2007, with a Rashomon like narrative device where parts of the story are recounted from different characters’ point of view. It works like a dream because all the while the tale keeps moving forward. The dialogue is sharp, biting and fast and the acting is brilliant. Eisenberg fantastically encapsulates the discomfort, disdain and the dislike the uber geek feels when dealing with mere mortals, while Andrew Garfield delivers a tour de force as the loyal and caring friend who becomes roadkill in Facebook’s rush towards the big time. But the one to watch out for is Justin Timberlake, who plays the role of maverick Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sean Parker (of ‘Napster’ fame) to perfection. As the man who drives the wedge between the friendship of Zuckerberg and Saverin, Parker’s role requires a certain sophistication and impishness and Timberlake nails it.

“The Social Network” does much more than just tell how Facebook came into being; it also poignantly illustrates the frustration of a whole generation in coming to terms with itself

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Heavy inflows of FII money, falling exports due to rising rupee, and widening current account deficit!

India is now walking on the same lane that once brought in the Asian financial crisis.

In July 1997 the South East Asian stock markets, especially South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines, which till then were on rampage, not only came to a screeching halt, but also entered into a prolonged phase of nightmare – better known as the Asian financial crisis. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which poured in a whopping $19.1 billion into the countries’ markets in 1996 and drove these markets to record highs, flew away overnight ruining the countries’ stock markets and economic stability. So much so that while the Thai stock market lost 75% of its value, the PSE Composite in Philippines fell by around 66%.

The scenario was more or less the same in January 2008, when the Indian benchmark index Sensex after scaling a historic high of 21,206 on January 10, dwindled down to 15,322 by January 22. This time the same FIIs, who from January 1 till January 16 had infused Rs 30.59 billion into the Indian stock markets, pulled out a nerve-wracking Rs 44.65 billion in just two days, January 17 and 18. And now, the Indian stock market has again become the purple cow for the FII group. As per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), net investments made by FIIs in the country’s equity markets has already gone past a mind-boggling Rs 1 trillion ($22 billion), pushing the market to the 21,000 level. What is most noticeable here is the way the FIIs have got hold of the nerve of the Indian market since the beginning of September 2010. Since then, while they have infused $17.3 billion, the Sensex has soared 16.5%. While industry mouthpieces like C. B. Bhave, Chairman SEBI, might not be overly worried about the situation, what cannot be ignored is the fact that while in 1996-97, India was fairly insulated from the global economy and even FII hot money vagaries, the situation is quite different currently. While the reasons for the sudden fall in the stock markets might be quite clear to industry players, a majority of global investors would fail to undertake a deeper analysis and could arbitrarily decrease the sovereign ratings for the nation – resulting in much collateral damage, international loan interest rates inclusive.

In fact, due to the increasing inflow of external capital and surging demand for the rupee, value of the domestic currency has risen sharply in terms of real effective exchange rate hurting the country’s exports. As for records, the rupee, which was trading at 47.08 against the greenback on August 31, surged almost 6% to 44.26 (as on November 8) on the back of heavy buying by the FIIs. Moreover, the strengthening of the rupee has allowed imports to surge 35.7% y-o-y in the second quarter as against a 21.7% y-o-y decline last year, pushing India’s trade deficit to rise by 33.5% to $34.2 billion in Q2FY’10 from $25.6 billion in the same quarter last fiscal. Though the exporters are now lobbying with the central bank to put a check on the rate hikes to somehow protect their competitiveness (a drop in the interest rate can put a pause to the capital inflow by reducing the difference between the prevailing near zero interest rates of the developed countries and the high interest rate of India), the Reserve Bank itself is in a helpless situation in its fight against inflation.

The RBI is currently increasing its base rates by around 25 to 50 basis points in almost every fiscal policy meeting to absorb the excess liquidity that was injected by the government to the economy earlier to lift the country’s GDP growth rate to over 8%. But in the process, it is drawing a higher inflow of foreign funds to the country’s economic system. As of now, the spread between India’s 10-year bonds and the US 10-year treasuries is standing at a record high of 5.7%, making India a hot destination for the overseas investors. In fact, considering the fact that RBI is still to reach to a peak in terms of interest rate hikes, India even stands as a better destination for FIIs as compared to other developing Asian markets where inflation is well under control and hence chances of rate hike is lesser than India.

On the other hand, such a rush of FIIs to invest in the Indian market has created another hassle for the apex bank. As Bodhi Ganguli, Economist, Moody’s Economy points out, “All foreign-currency purchases by the RBI will have to be fully sterilised now to prevent from adding excess liquidity to the domestic economy.” But then, considering that India’s foreign currency reserve has grown over 5% from $256 billion to $269 billion between August 27 and October 29, the job in the hands of RBI does not seem to be an easy one. And if the country’s Broad Money (M3) is an indicator to be considered, then RBI is certainly struggling on this front as India’s M3 has grown by nearly 4.1% during that period to Rs 60.68 trillion (October 22) from Rs 58.30 trillion (August 27).

However, for the time being, the country can be in solace as the Planning Commission is still confident that these inflows can be absorbed by the country’s huge current account deficit. But, for a long term benefit of the country’s economy, today, Indian regulators must let go of the short term market benefits and put a check on the hot money flow. Else, sooner or later, India will end up being the epicentre of yet another Asian financial crisis.

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Hundreds of thousand of people live stateless in enclaves on either sides of the Indo-Bangla border amid inhuman conditions

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The nowhere men

He's a real nowhere man/Sitting in his Nowhere Land/Making all his nowhere plans for nobody. Doesn't have a point of view/Knows not where he's going to/Isn't he a bit like you and me?- The Beatles

“Please don’t ask me what happened on the night of October 16, 2010. On that fateful night, hundreds of houses in my village of Garati were burnt down to ashes. I was just returning to my village after my day's work at a doctor’s pharmacy in the district town of Panchgarh in Bangladesh. I saw my brother Joshim Miyan’s house being torched. I was frantically shouting out the names of my brother, cousins and other family members. No one replied. Everyone was crying out the names of their own family members, people were running helter skelter for shelter. I ran too, I had to save myself. I don’t know how long I ran for. Someone told me all houses in my village were gutted and that Bangladeshi miscreants were roaming around with firearms. I did not have any clue about my two brothers and my old parents. People were running towards their agricultural fields with their children to escape the marauding miscreants. I took shelter on an open road in Bangladesh like some other villagers, we waited for dawn to arrive. It
was a horrible night,” says Hamidul Miyan. Hamidul is a resident of Garati village, which is one of the Indian enclaves within Bangladesh.

An enclave is a geographical territory which is completely surrounded by foreign land.

It is locally called chitmahal. “Chit” means a fragment and “Mahal” means land. Chitmahals are enclaves which are geographically separated from the mainland but still pay revenue to it.

Hamidul has come just on the other side of the Kurshahat border gate in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal with two other affected villagers from Garati, Asraful and Sirajul, to meet this reporter. They wanted to come to India to demand justice for the people of the Indian enclaves. But the Border Security Force (BSF) and the state administration will not allow them to come into India.

Hamidul is aghast at being treated as a foreigner even after 64 years of Independence. “It is very painful to live in the enclaves. We have no identity, we are neither Indian nor Bangladeshi. It is my own land but I can’t claim it, parents cannot fix marriages for their daughters, we can't apply for proper jobs. Tell me what will we do? Who is responsible for us leading lives led by prisoners,” asks the angry young man.

Hamidul is 28 years old, his father Samsul Miyan has been a resident of Garati from the pre-Independence times. Hamidul is known as a medic in his village. Actually, he is a helper of a doctor in Panchgarh, Bangladesh. He passed his 10th standard from a Bangladeshi school. It is very difficult for people of chitmahals to get access to education. They have to persuade Bangladeshi families to let them use their names as their parents for admission in Bangladeshi schools.

The mob, which torched and vandalised several houses inside the Indian enclave in Panchagarh district of Bangladesh, apparently did so in retaliation of the alleged killing of a Bangladeshi criminal, Ramjan Ali, on October 15.

Diptimaan Sengupta, assistant secretary of “Bharat Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Committee (BBEEC), told TSI, “We are working to spread awareness among people in enclaves on both sides of the border to stop illegal activities. You know, some miscreants take shelter in the enclave after the crime as the local administration can’t enter the foreign land. We have had reasonable success and crime in the enclaves has stooped to an all-time low.”

Sengupta continues, “That’s why the enclave people denied shelter to Ramjan Ali, a known Bangladeshi anti-social. Ramjan and his group then attacked the Garati people with arms. Now hundreds of people are living under the open sky, they have lost everything. We appealed to the West Bengal state administration to send relief material. They have sent some but not in sufficient quantity. The people from the Bangladeshi enclaves are also lending their helping hand to the people of Garati.”

BBEEC has just started a census in the Indo-Bangla enclaves, a first since 64 years of Independence. According to the organisation, the census report, apart from finding out the exact number of affected people, will also bring out the social problems, the economic situation and the health conditions of the people so that they can appeal for help of both the Indian and the Bangladeshi governments.

“We are extremely sympathetic to the problems of the people in the enclaves, people who are living in Bangladeshi enclaves in India and those who are living in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh. The people of Indian enclaves can’t come to India easily because they have to cross Bangladeshi area. So, they need permission from both the countries. After the Garati incident, we have sent relief materials to the affected people through BSF and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR),” are the kind words of Smaraki Mahapatra, the district magistrate of Cooch Behar.

Things have started looking up for residents of Bangladeshi enclaves in India. “For the last two years, we are not treated as badly as before. Now if we need to see a doctor, we can go to the Indian mainland for treatment. Two years back, this was just impossible, the police would arrest us immediately but thanks to BBEEC's intervention, a lot have changed,” says Saheb Ali, a resident of the Bangladeshi enclave of Puaatur Kutir within the district of Cooch Behar. Currently, Saheb is busy collecting relief materials from Bangladeshi enclaves to help the Garati Indian enclave people. According to him, people of the enclaves on both sides are suffering the same situation and an acute identity crisis.

According to an Oxfam study conducted back in 2002, there were 1,50,000 people in the Indian enclaves in Bangladesh. As many as 50,000 people migrated to the Indian mainland as they were evicted from the enclaves. Thus, hundreds of thousands of people are living as stateless along the Indo-Bangla border. Lack of political will to find an effective and permanent solution has made their lives more miserable than ever before.

Available sources indicate that 92 Bangladesh enclaves exist within India. The number of Indian enclaves within Bangladesh stands at 111. After the partition of India in 1947, Cooch Behar district was merged with India and Rangpur went to then East Pakistan which became Bangladesh in 1971. After the formation of Bangladesh, New Delhi and Dhaka signed an agreement in 1974 demarcating the land boundary between the countries. According to that, both the countries agreed to exchange the enclaves or at least provide each other easy access to the enclaves. But very little has materialised ever since. The people of the enclaves on both sides have been demanding corridors connecting their respective enclaves with the mainland. They think since India and Bangladesh are friendly countries, ordinary people should not face discrimination or harassment.

“The current estimate of the number of stateless people is about 15 million all over the world and a large number of them are Bengalis living in the enclaves on both sides of the Indo-Bangla border. We want immediate intervention of the relevant authorities to solve the problem,” says a passionate Sengupta.

Mahapatra conceded that residents on both sides have demanded merger of their enclaves with the host nations or at least easy access to each other's mainland territory. But since these matters are much beyond the purview of a district magistrate and rest with the respective Central governments, she could not elaborate on what follow-up actions have been taken on these demands.

Unlike The Beatles' nowhere man, the saga of these men and women is not so romantic and escapist. Their lives are hard, there is no yellow submarine to ride. Their nights are cold and no one wants to hold their hands.

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Hrithik Roshan on why 'Guzaarish' may be his best yet

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This is one of the happiest films that I have done

What drew you to "Guzaarish"?
I remember the day when Sanjay Leela Bhansali came to my house with this movie and while I was debating with him, I was very skeptical if I was evolved enough to take forth his vision and do justice to his creative genius or not… I was not sure. He took me through the film and in five minutes he made me laugh and cry and I heard myself say, ‘When do we start with this?’

You visited quite a few paraplegia patients… Was it your decision or was it Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s idea?
Oh, this decision would be the call for any actor… that’s what we’re paid for! It’s a huge responsibility when you’re doing a film like this, to portray the right spirit and the right mindset of a quadriplegic patient. Moreover, an actor’s biggest weapon is information without which one really can’t do much. So I set off on my journey to meet such people. Some of them are very good friends of mine today. This film has all shades… it’s dark, intense, tragic and yet puts a smile on your face.

Dark, intense and tragic films or superhero films, what do you enjoy doing more?
Let me make myself clear here: this is one of the happiest films that I have done. It is a character that smiles more than any other I have portrayed before. Ethan, my character, is the biggest and most powerful superhero that I’ve played. He can bring happiness into anyone’s life and that’s the spirit of the film.

You’ve worked with the finest directors in the industry. How was the experience with Sanjay Leela Bhansali?
With every journey comes a new world and I have to become a part of that world. With Sanjay Leela Bhansali I enjoyed the freedom I got as an actor, which I had never enjoyed in my life. I’d say he would just let me fly. There were times when I would come on the set and have some thoughts to add to the scene, but we were communicating at such a level that we never sat down and discussed it. So most of the time I would come in for a scene, he’d say action and then he would see what I had in mind for that scene in that shot which I gave. And this needs a lot of faith.

Share some memorable moments from the sets of “Guzaarish”…
Every day was fun. Sanjay Leela Bhansali is also the music director of the film, so every day he would come up with some new tune. There was always a guitar on the set and Aditya, who plays a very important role in the film, plays the guitar really well, so all the time we would sing and dance… Sometimes, Sanjay would also get up and show a step or two. A lot of his secrets were revealed including that he can dance, sing and make music. It was amazing.

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Subal Rai is 48 year old. A resident of Salbari chit number 37, an Indian enclave in Bangladesh, he fled to the Indian mainland. He was driven out from the village about ten years back. “We spent countless sleepless nights. Sometimes I took my children and wife to the agricultural field for a safe shelter as looting and rapes are regular occurrences in the enclaves. We had to hide our daughters and wives from the Bangladeshi miscreants. They would come and take away my crops in broad daylight, they would steal my cattle too. Then I took a decision to leave my own land and home. Those miscreants occupied my five acres of land. But the strange thing is that we are identified here as Bangladeshis or illegal migrants. Can you imagine that,” asks an aggrieved Subal.

Subal is not alone. Kanai Rai from Kajal Dighi chit, Chandmoni Rai from Kotbhajni chit, Chuni Rai from Khagrabari chit, Anarul Haque and Matiur Rahaman from Najirganj chit are among tens of thousands of Indian people who migrated from the Indian enclaves to the mainland. As per an Oxfam report, 50,000 people came to the Indian mainland after being evicted from the enclaves.

In the enclaves, most dwellers were agriculturists. After migrating to the Indian mainland, they have become daily wage earners. Thousands of such families live along the Teesta river canal in the districts of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in West Bengal. Most work as stone crushers on the river bed and earn very little.

Naren Rai is 56 and from the same enclave as Subal. He left for India in 1992. He is not at all surprised by the Garati incident. “This Garati incident is nothing new. We, the people from the enclaves, very well know the situation. Can you understand how painful it is to leave one's own home and own agricultural land? The day I left, Bangladeshi miscreants torched and vandalised our houses, we spent the night hiding in the fields. After that, they started looting the houses and raping the women. We, nearly 50 families, left our land and came to the mainland. For nearly three months, we lived on the platform of the Haldibari rail station. After that, I started to work as a daily wage labourer,” he lets out in one breath.

“We want voting rights, we want recognition as Indians,” says Sukhen Buskey who migrated from the Sakati chit in 1973. Till date, he has no ration card. Like other people who migrated from the enclaves, he has his land certificate from the Cooch Behar district administration as proof but is still not considered as Indian.

“From time to time, there has been an influx of residents of Indian enclaves into the Indian mainland. We refer to them as oustees who are deprived of all rights even though they no longer live in the enclaves,” said Arindam K. Sen, chairperson of APRICRO (Association for Protection of Citizen’s Rights for Indian Chitmahal Residents and Oustees), an organisation fighting for the rights of the chitmahal people.

Sen points out the destitution the oustees face and rampant police harassment. The organisation has repeatedly appealed to the Centre and the West Bengal government to empower these people with their due rights. But they have never received anything in reply.

Professor Partha Pratim Basu, professor of international relations at Jadavpur University, sounds out the red herring. He says, “These people are the victims of international politics. India should solve this problem in its own interest. If they are recognised as forced migrants, they will have to be accorded status of refugees and extended all benefits due to them. But the fact that they cross the international border complicates the situation and clouds their status. But the Indian government will have to classify them and provide them with a rehabilitation package. We have to remember that 50,000 was the number eight years back. In case we don't take stock now, the problem might grow to a different magnitude.”

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IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management