Articles by K Ravi Raman

The article investigates the ongoing tussle between the central government and the Government of Kerala regarding the leasing of the Thiruvananthapuram airport to the private sector. It traces the genesis of the problem and the rationale of the state government demand for a role in the management of the airport.

The tragic events at Muthanga in Kerala earlier this year were a culmination of adivasi frustrations over the failure of successive governments in the state to restore adivasi land despite several judicial directives and the existence of laws enacted for the purpose, such as the KSA Act of 1975. Instead attempts were made to amend the act which was later wholly repealed. The protest of the adivasis at Muthanga met with brutal repression by the government. But chastened by the public anger at the police action, the government now remains immobilised in the face of a series of fresh land occupations by adivasis in the Kerala part of the Western Ghats. If the government were to handover the land in Muthanga to the adivasis and make other lands available to landless adivasi families and bring all adivasi regions under Schedule V of Article 244 which provides for participatory self-rule and autonomy, it would herald a new era in adivasi history.

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For over 25 years, the agitation waged over the restoration of alienated tribal land in Kerala had languished as successive state governments chose to ignore several court directives. Yet the unusual mode of struggle waged recently by the ADSS drew unprecedented tribal support. The negotiations that followed with the state government broke new ground as well, as the adivasis sought concessions that marked a departure from previously legislated acts.

It Means THE illustration: a well-dressed young man intently gazing at the computer screen. The bold caption: "I was studying and I wanted to make money fast. So I became a stock broker's assistant". The full-page advertisement of the Cochin Stock Exchange (CSE) which appeared in leading news dailies proceeds to narrate the story of a man who found his own career. Like other unemployed "youths of Kerala, he had mailed a thousand applications for jobs, all in vain. But his visit to the CSE provided the lucky turn. The young man became a sub-broker, started distributing application forms for new issues; began to earn a steady income through commissions; bought a motorbike, set up an office; became an authorised assistant and finally a broker, 'bought a car, built a house, married a lovely girl'. The advertisement ends with an appeal to 'create an investing revolution in Kerala instead of ones we are used to'.