Yoga works where bribes failed in bringing ex-Maoist out of Indian jungle



RANCHI // The Indian government has been trying for years to lure Communist rebels into giving up their guns with promises of cash and other incentives, but for one man it was yoga rather than money that finally brought him out of the jungle.

Ramendra Singh sat in Bokaro police station in the state of Jharkhand. Not long ago, when he was still a sub-zonal commander of the Communist Party of India, this would have been the heart of the enemy's lair.

But now the police bring him tea and biscuits, and he talks not of Communist rhetoric, but of the virtues of meditation and breathing exercises.

"It has brought me peace of mind. I had a lot of mental trauma for many years," he said.

Last summer, Mr Singh, 42, abandoned his fugitive existence as a Maoist insurgent in the forests of eastern India and joined the state's surrender programme. He cannot be photographed because he is a marked man among his former comrades.

He had been underground with the armed rebels for 13 years, serving mainly as an ideologue, moving from camp to camp, schooling lower cadres in the teachings of Marx, Lenin and Mao.

"I joined the movement because I believed that they were the party to improve the economic, social and political situation of the poor in this country," he said. "I thought, 'The people will get land, there will be proper grain distribution systems and minimum wages for labourers.'"

But Mr Singh grew disillusioned with the day-to-day reality of the insurgency.

"Within six months to a year, I started to question the road I had taken. The party claimed to be the saviours of the poor but it's a joke. There are rules, but nobody is sticking to them."

Mr Singh was based in Bihar and Jharkhand, two neighbouring states where the Maoist movement is known to have degenerated into corruption and criminality to a much greater extent than other parts of the country. As well as extorting huge levies from businesses and mining operations, he says the Maoists often failed to live up to their Communist ideals. "There was a lot less control of the movement than is often presented," he said. "The party would order the redistribution of a rich man's land to the poor farmers, but the local commanders would simply take 5 lakh rupees [Dh36,731] and let him carry on as before.

"The Maoists also ruled on local disputes. They were the final arbiter, so they would just take bribes and rule in favour of whoever gave the most money."

Getting out of the movement was difficult, however. Mr Singh had been openly working with radical left-wing groups since the late 1980s and police had lodged 17 cases against him even before he went underground. He attempted to leave twice in the early 2000s only to be pressured back into the movement by the party.

This changed with a chance encounter in 2008 with a teacher from the Art of Living Foundation, an international yoga and meditation organisation that claims to have 300 million followers around the world.

"This teacher had been travelling through the jungle and came to the village where I was recovering from a sickness. I was very fed up at the time and he suggested I give up violence," said Mr Singh.

"After five days, some [Maoist] squad members came and threatened to kill him, but in that time, he taught me Sudarshan breathing exercises. I told him about my legal problems and that I was a fugitive, and the teacher said he would try to help."

Mr Singh found solace in the foundation's yoga and meditation regime and in 2009 he travelled in disguise to Bangalore to meet its spiritual leader, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

It was the foundation that mediated with the police on Ramendra's behalf and paved the way for his surrender last August. Jharkhand has one of the most generous surrender packages in the country, with mid-level members such as Ramendra receiving 250,000 rupees (Dh20,500), as well as a home in the city and school places for their children.

However, the package has had minimal effect. From about 6,000 armed cadres spread across the various left-wing insurgent groups in Jharkhand, only 30 have surrendered in the past year.

Part of the problem is the sluggish response of the local government. As with many others who have surrendered, Ramendra has only received the first 50,000 rupees of his rehabilitation package, which comes from the police. The remainder is due to come in monthly instalments from the government but has yet to begin almost a year after his surrender.

For his long-suffering family, the financial difficulties are a small price to pay for having him home.

"After he left, we would see him only every couple of years in secret meetings in the forest," said his 16-year-old son, who cannot be named for security reasons. "The police would come and threaten us and we would be scared every time we heard of police operations against the Maoists.

"We face problems now because the government is not paying the money, but we are not angry with them. We are just happy to have our father home."

Police privately concede their frustration at the government's failure to properly implement the surrender package, which has been in place since early 2009. But they say the criminalisation of left-wing groups mean many more individuals are keen to return to mainstream society.

Even Maoist sympathisers agree that the movement is degenerating. One human rights activist in Jharkhand with close connections to the Maoist leadership said controlling the greed of mid-ranking leaders was the biggest challenge faced by the movement. He described a typical scenario faced by the party. "You get people who were previously paid around 500 rupees per month in their job," he said. "They join the movement for one reason or another and become useful to the party as a good organiser, so they are given a job collecting levies from government officials and local businesses. Suddenly they are controlling 50 million rupees instead of 500 rupees.

"Their whole life they have been treated like a stray dog. Suddenly, they are being treated with respect and saluted wherever they go. Their ego explodes. These people are very hard to control."

Mr Singh said he did not regret his time in the underground, despite the corruption he saw, but he did realise the effect it had on his family life.

"I did it with passion and heart and for a purpose. I never thought of my family at the time. I saw it as the sacrifice I had to make.

"But in the end I felt cheated and now I have come out, I feel sad for the time I missed with my children."

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Crops that could be introduced to the UAE

1: Quinoa 

2. Bathua 

3. Amaranth 

4. Pearl and finger millet 

5. Sorghum

Results

Stage 7:

1. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal - 3:18:29

2. Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - same time

3. Phil Bauhaus (GER) Bahrain Victorious

4. Michael Morkov (DEN) Deceuninck-QuickStep

5. Cees Bol (NED) Team DSM

General Classification:

1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 24:00:28

2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:35

3. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:02

4. Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:42

5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Director: Magizh Thirumeni

Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra

Rating: 4/5

 

What is Genes in Space?

Genes in Space is an annual competition first launched by the UAE Space Agency, The National and Boeing in 2015.

It challenges school pupils to design experiments to be conducted in space and it aims to encourage future talent for the UAE’s fledgling space industry. It is the first of its kind in the UAE and, as well as encouraging talent, it also aims to raise interest and awareness among the general population about space exploration. 

BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES

Friday (UAE kick-off times)

Borussia Dortmund v Paderborn (11.30pm)

Saturday 

Bayer Leverkusen v SC Freiburg (6.30pm)

Werder Bremen v Schalke (6.30pm)

Union Berlin v Borussia Monchengladbach (6.30pm)

Eintracht Frankfurt v Wolfsburg (6.30pm)

Fortuna Dusseldof v  Bayern Munich (6.30pm)

RB Leipzig v Cologne (9.30pm)

Sunday

Augsburg v Hertha Berlin (6.30pm)

Hoffenheim v Mainz (9pm)

 

 

 

 

 

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

England v South Africa Test series:

First Test: at Lord's, England won by 211 runs

Second Test: at Trent Bridge, South Africa won by 340 runs

Third Test: at The Oval, July 27-31

Fourth Test: at Old Trafford, August 4-8

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