I would like to tell you a story. There was a father with 2 kinds of children. Some white and some black (fair and dark). He loved both of them. The white children he sent to schools, gave them opportunity to see and learn dance and music and cultivate arts and sciences. The black children were expected to do agriculture, tend to cattle, and do all the things necessary to sustain life. One day a rishi (who is like a consultant) came there and the family was very hospitable to him. In return, he decided to share a secret (as consultants tend to call their advice) with them.  He said that there is a mountain – Mandara parvat – and if they churned the sea using it then amrut – nectar or elixir of life – would come out. The children searched for the mountain and a long snake (seshu) to use it for churning. The fair siblings told the dark siblings that since the tail of the snake was long and more effort was needed they would handle that end. The innocent and trusting dark children held the head side of the snake while the white children held the tail side and churned the sea using the mountain. The snake spat venom killing several dark children. In the end, out came a pot of Amrut. Meanwhile the white children thought why should we give this to the dark brothers and consulted Vishnu to find a way of distributing amrut only to the fair children. Vishnu came in the guise of Mohini, an enchanting woman. While the dark children got intoxicated by her beauty, the white children knew Mohini was just a disguise. Mohini held two similar pots and distributed Amrut to the white brothers from one pot and liquor to the black brothers from the other.

By black or dark children I mean the tribals, the dalits, the farmers, the labouring and working classes.  I am using white and black (fair and dark) symbolically and not literally, so whatever color you may be please do not take offense.

The state of India consists of Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. For problems to be solved, laws have to be made, implemented and grievances addressed. All three branches together are supposed to address people's problems. While people elect the MLAs and MPs and thus appoint the ministers who are part of the legislature, they have no direct role in appointing the Executive or the Judiciary. If people go with a grievance to the MLA s/he can't say that they wont do anything, because we appoint the MLA – they will hear the people and may even make a call to the Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) to do something. However when you go to the MRO, they will tell in your face, don't waste our time. MRO who is part of the executive is not appointed by us and can't be removed by us. At least we can walk into an MRO office, but with the judiciary you need a law degree to approach the judge. Thus in the system of Legislature, Executive (that is supposed to implements laws by making rules and issuing orders) and Judiciary, common people can only influence the legislature as they elect and appoint it.

Thus you see that the legislature keeps offering solutions to people's problems in the form of laws. There are more than 165 welfare or reform laws made on land issue alone. Let us all applaud that. At the level of implementation, executive and judiciary, these laws are made ineffective. No matter which political party is elected, the state machinery for implementation stays the same. Thus no matter which party comes to power, people's problems which need all three branches to function properly, are not addressed. In fact the MLAs and MPs know that implementation of laws can be stopped.

Different political parties are like "Mohinis" with pleasing personality. But behind the mask of Mohini is the common driver that ensures that no matter which party is in power, the policies pursued are the same. If Shri Vishnu came as himself then he would have been recognized as someone who was with the devas (whites in the analogy), and hence had to come in a disguise to distribute the amrut. We have to see who is behind the disguise of Mohinis (political parties and state machinery) of the state.

To understand take the example of land reform laws. Every party who contested elections told the people that they’d distribute land to landless.   For this they make land reform (welfare) laws. Now he also have a law of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) which is taking land from small and marginal formers and handing over to rich, private corporations. Both are laws and have the same constitutional validity. But see the difference in their implementation. When they fist announced Land Reform laws they  promised to distribute nearly 20 lakhs acres in Andhra Pradesh. In the past 30 years, since the form the 1977,  only 5 lakh acres of land has been distributed to the poor and landless. In all of India they distributed  less then 2% of cultivable land to the poor. This falls far short of what was promised or targeted. However in just 2 years of the SEZ Act already 1-2 lakh hectare (significant percentage of target) have been acquired and given to powerful corporations. Why was the land reform Act not implemented at the same pace? How did the SEZ Act come about in the first place? For land reforms, there was mass demand from people of India, several activists took to the streets and protested for it. There was no such demand from people for the SEZs. Yet that is the one the executive is implementing whole-heartedly. Whom did the police side? The common people seeking land reforms were fired at and even killed. Are those seeking SEZs being fired at? Which side do the police, that is part of state machinery, take – of the ordinary people or vested interests?

The entire state machinery and political system is playing the role of Mohini, distributing the amrut/nectar to a few while depriving millions. At a fast rate, in front of our very eyes, the state is transferring resources like Mohini did, to a few. Land, minerals, all our natural resources are continuously being transferred to a few at a very fast rate by the state machinery. As people working with NGOs and movements, the good we are trying to do, is diluted and even reversed by this vast resource transfer, of which we should be aware of. Behind the pleasing guise of a democracy and welfare state –ie Mohini – that supposedly cares for the people, are the Multi National Corporations, powerful Indian corporations like the Reliance and the forces of globalization that are really running the state machinery. If they came as themselves and said they were primarily for the people and not for their own self-interest, then they would be recognized easily and we wouldn't be fooled. So they come in guise of Mohini, like political parties, who know that even if pro-people and anti-people laws are made, the Executive and judiciary is there to always ensure they are selectively implemented.

In the previous session there was a question of what the focus should be of different chapters of AID-India. Like AID-Chennai is focusing on education that different chapters should pick focus. May I suggest that no matter what we do as different people, organizations and chapters, a common thread that unifies us should be unmasking the Mohini, a goal towards which we strive in our own way in our work. It is in this overall big-picture aspect that we have a common vision and purpose, while working locally in whatever we choose to do or are doing, we carry this burning torch of exposing the system through our work.