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AADHIKARonline Brief Legal and publication notes
updated at 2200 Hrs GMT Saturday 23 June 2007
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AADHIKARonline publishing these editions of AADHIKARonline in specific support of the campaign against CrossRail hole Bill and in association with the movement for the defence of the community in the East End of London from the Brick Lane, Whitechapel and Stepney London E1 Area in the UK
The 5th edition of the day at 1845 Hrs GMT on Wednesday 27 June 2007 –
Khoodeelaar! No to CrossRail hole Bill
First comments on the new Gordon Brown administration - 2
London 2100 Hrs GMT Wednesday 27 June 2007
Muhammad Haque daily world [economic] commentary]
2100 Hrs GMT London Wednesday 27 June 2007
Gordon Brown is going to have to scrap the wasteful CrossRail hole plot. He must say No to Big Business especially as the Crossrail hole plotters typify some of the worst features of what Big Business does.
In saying No to the ‘Crossrail Bill’ as it is, Gordon Brown must be thinking about the serious implications for ‘British economy the investigation that has just been announced [acknowledged by the BBC on 27 June 2007] in the USA into the BAE system and its corruption in getting the Saudis to buy the British -made [BAE] weapons of mass destruction.
The Crossrail hole scheme is a fabricated one. It is not a transport panacea that the City of London conglomerates have been spinning it to be. There is no evidence that a single railway line, in a city with so many others, will solve the problems of transport that have been caused by the lack of performance on the other, the existing lines and networks. Crossrail also is a superfluous line, especially if the main alignment is taken into account.
What the existing railway systems and lines can deliver with improved quality on the stock cannot be matched by even a dozen liens like the Crossrail one as proposed. So Gordon Brown must look at alternatives and must do so before precious public resource is committed to be looted by Big Business.
In the course of this commentary, spread over the next 10 parts, I shall summarise the key flaws in the Crossrail hole Bill [the ‘CrossRail Bill’, now in the UK House of Commons].
As I have already shown there is not even a basic agreement amongst the touts and pluggers of Crossrail hole Bill as to what the cost is going to be. They cannot even agree on the nearest £Billions!
That shows just how crass, and brazen are the plotters who have taken the UK’s public resources for granted.
They think that the UK Treasury is ready and available to cough up anything between £8.7 Billion [Dan Milmo, the Guardian 4 June 2007] to £20Billion [as the current range of ’costs’ 'quoted' by various pluggers and spinmeisters for Big Business climaxes upto] for Big Business to loot and rob…
Gordon Brown must say No to them and demand instead a better plan that actually is based on the truth of what the existing transport situation is what the capacity of the economy is, what the transport NEEDS are.
What the economic demands are for the particualr s scheme that may be proposed and he must do so by listening to the people about whose needs and rights the scheme is going to have to be about.
Gordon Brown must also be aware of the damage that the Millennium Dome did.
Nit just the waste of more than £1Billion of public money but also the then still scheduled image of integrity that the Blair regime was flaunting as it colluded with Big Business plot to rob the public coffers of that huge sum…
There is also the matter of social justice and fairness…
How many people facing the bailiffs and prison and because of small amounts of debts and eventual ruination, would be spared the catastrophic ends if even a fraction of the sums wasted on the Millennium Dome were made available to cover the bills of those individual and families?
Imagine the staggering numbers of others who would be deprived of their lives chances if the Crassly conceived Crossrail hole Bill is allowed to be used to let the construction conglomerates have their hands on several
£Billions that belong to the people in the UK
[To be continued]
[Previous part]
The first test of Gordon Brown on his school motto will be seen soon. If he is as true as he said a few hours ago then he will scrap Crossrail. If he is a liar, he will pander to the liars who have been braying for CRASSrail. And today, Angie 'the David C-moron-clone' BRAY at the Greater London Awfulness has shown her own lack of intelligence by joining in the Lyinsgtyill BRAYING for CRASSrail. WE shall be saying a great deal about why and how Angie Bray is wrong to Bray for Crossrail. For now, we have told Gordon to scrap it. In the days to come, we shall show how the Tories are bound to sink down the CrossRail hole unless they show some intelligence and sense.View HERE the Khoodeelaar! Call to Gordon Brown to DROP Crossrail hole Bill, Now!
Khoodeelaar! tells Gordon Brown again: DO NOT listen to ‘Undone mayor’ Ken LYINGSTILL Livingstone – Scrap Crossrail hole Bill, start afresh and save any credibility you may have as a genuinely prudent manger of the UK economy as far as you can – Text of Khoodeelaar! open letter to Gordon Brown here shortly
Khoodeelaar! No to CrossRail hole Bill campaign, item by item response to the latest lying news statement issued by Crossrail hole plot-backer Ken Lyinsgtone ‘praising’ Gordon Brown – here soon
Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill – the campaign against CrossRail hole Bill Publishing programme during the next 48 hours
What did the community meeting backing Khoodeelaar! say to Tower Hamlets Council at the Brady Centre, Hanbury Street London E1 meeting held on Sunday 26 January 2006? - the full texts of the motion as put to the meeting by Khoodeelaar! organiser Muhammad Haque and an updated on what the Crossrail hole plot-backing Tower Hamlets Council has failed to do since that date - here during Wednesday 27 June 2007
What did the Tower Hamlets Councillors say on the satellite TV as broadcast in January 2006? How did the satellite TV programmes come about? - the new Khoodeelaar! campaign reports on the role of the 'ethnicity ,inked' media in the context of the campaign against the Crossrail hole Bill -Just how corrupt is the Tower Hamlets Council and how it is corrupting the community via the ethnicity linked corrupt media as based in Tower Hamlets
Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill
The Muhammad Haque daily [economic] commentary 2325 Hrs GMT London Tuesday 26 June 2007
– Gordon Brown MUST not commit political suicide by letting Big Business Loot the Uk public resource in return for short-term ‘electoral’ delusion – Continuing the Khoodeelaar! advice to Gordon Brown as he is widely expected to take over formally as the official occupant of the address of UK Prime Minister in a matter of hours – Gordon Brown will commit political suicide if he gives in to the pressures, being perpetrated by Big Busies and City of London interest who are falsely saying that without ingratiating himself to Big Business even more deeply than he has already done, Brown risks losing any snap general election that he may yet call . The calculations from the really Tory interests who control the Big Business agenda is that by pushing Brown into a corner – just as we have shown the Crossrail hole plotters were doing over the past months as they accelerated their own promotion of the so-called ‘South East’ economic factor – they will cause Brown to give away the remainder of the ‘family silver’ for Big Business to loot, thus bankrupting the remaining public resources …. The UK economy is not the prosperous one that even Brown promotes…
The level of personal and structural indebtedness as has been confirmed in the past 24 hours plaguing most families is so high that the bubble is expected to burst sooner than many pluggers of the ‘miracle’ persist in claiming it will do…
The propagandists in fact do not concede that the UK economic bubble will burst in the near future… The truth is that it may go burst far sooner than they have the intelligence or the honesty to admit. And it is the context of this bubble that Crossrail hole Bill is untenable and it must be scrapped…. For far too long the City of Lon don interest have promoted Crossrail hole plot as a bigger transport solution – and economic boom-maker than it ever could be .. As is seen in what the FT is going to do in its Wednesday editions …. In another piece promoting the City of London interests' desire for a Gordon Brown dependence on Big Business, the Financial Times [=FT] is again wrongly, falsely and untenably linking Crossrail to the future of the Uk economy…
What Big Business wants is to decimate the power that an able and independently active human resource unit can do for its own future… Autonomous individual human resources are not compatible with the exploitation agenda of Big Business… That is why they never stress the importance - let alone acknowledge the pivotal role - of creating the environment for growth in human resources… They do the opposite….. That is the way that Big Business, globalising exploiters and abusers of nature and natural resources have destroyed - and are destroying - the natural and national [in the plural] wealth for far too long…..
[To be continued]
East London’s answer to Glastonbury - The 'Lines of Hunger' Literature festival !
[continued] Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill Ken ‘Polashee’ Livingstone – an event of anti-Crossrail hole Literature and poetry reading 3 PM on Saturday 30 June 2007 – Venue and other details here shortly
Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill – planned march through Brick Lane – details here shortly
Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill – Open Letter to Gordon Brown – Texts follow here soon
Khoodeelaar! exposes Crossrail hole plotter Ken Livingstone’s collusion with the poverty-creation, that is DEGENERATION programme of the Tower Hamlets Council
Khoodeelaar! summary of legal claims against CrossRail hole-backer Christine Gilbert, Owen Whalley and others
Khoodeelaar! Latest legal action notice to Crossrail hole Bill Minister Douglas Alexander MP as served on Tuesday 26 June 2007
Breaking news and legal action programme updates
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AADHIKAROnline QUOTATION SERVICE
– the fact that we quote an externally published article or statement does not of itself mean at all that we agree with the views or the arguments. The quotation is made simply as a reference and solely for the purpose of relevant information in the context of our publication programme
AADHIKARonline quoting at 0350 Hrs GMT on Tuesday 26 June 2007 the full texts of the ‘FT’ [Financial Times, London] article published on 21 June 2007 by-lined to Michael Schabas, a director of Superlink, an alternative to the CrossRail scheme:
The Stansted solution
By Michael Schabas Published: June 21 2007 19:24 | Last updated: June 21 2007 19:24
London’s business leaders are hoping that one of Gordon Brown’s first acts as prime minister will be to fund the long-debated Crossrail scheme, a new railway linking Heathrow, the City and Canary Wharf. Estimated to cost £16bn, Crossrail is not cheap. With 40 railways already into London, one more railway cannot do much to relieve crowding for commuters. So why does business think Crossrail is so important?
Mostly, because it will link Heathrow – London’s global gateway – to the City. Heathrow Express runs only to Paddington and, to finish the trip, visitors face a slow Tube or taxi ride. Heathrow may be vital to the London economy but it now compares pretty poorly with European rivals, where passengers arrive in spacious terminals with fast, direct rail links to the city centre and often direct to nearby cities.
Yet Crossrail plans are to operate only slow, all-stations trains from Heathrow to the City. BAA, the airport owner, has refused to integrate Heathrow Express into the scheme, fearing that it would be degraded into a crowded commuter railway. So Crossrail will take only a few minutes off the journey from the City to the airport, compared with using the existing railways. If it is built as planned, the business leaders backing it will probably be disappointed when it opens.
Terminal Five will open next year and BAA plans to rebuild Terminal Two in time for the Olympics. So the in-airport experience may improve a little. But Heathrow has another problem. It has only two runways, compared with three (or more) at Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris Charles de Gaulle. Whenever weather causes delays, flights are backed up, connections are missed, fuel is wasted and pollution is increased. BAA’s answer is to build a third runway and a sixth terminal. The proposition may stack up financially, at least to BAA, but its chance of getting through the planning process in our lifetime seems remote.
The answer must be to develop Stansted as a true international hub. Already Stansted has flights to more than 200 destinations, although most are with short-haul budget airlines. There is room for a second, third or even a fourth runway and the terminals to match. The planning hurdles are not trivial, but surmountable. There are two problems, both soluble. First, Stansted is remote and, although there is a rail link to the City, it is unreliable and overcrowded. Stansted needs faster, better links to the West End and west London if it is to attract the premium business and connecting passengers long-haul flights usually need to be profitable. Second, BAA, as owner of Heathrow and Stansted (as well as Gatwick) has little incentive to develop Stansted as a true rival.
Twenty years ago the City of London was bursting at the seams. International banks could not find space and the planning process meant new buildings were constructed at a glacial pace. The answer was to develop Canary Wharf. Enabled by the Docklands Development Corporation, the Canadian developer Paul Reichmann had a vision of a new central business district. He took the lead in creating not only large, high-quality buildings but also the transport infrastructure, in particular the Docklands Light Railway and the Jubilee Line Extension, which was needed if the development was to succeed. Initially the City opposed Canary Wharf, seeing it as a rival that would steal some of a fixed “pie”. Yet with Canary Wharf now home to several of the world’s largest banks and even its largest law firm, the City and the West End are as healthy as ever.
The London air travel market is similarly large. Current plans are for Crossrail to end in the east at Shenfield and Abbey Wood, both fully developed residential areas. If, instead, it were extended from Canary Wharf to Stansted, it could attract long-haul flights and become a comprehensive alternative to Heathrow. Superlink, a group of senior railway industry executives who played vital roles developing the Jubilee Extension, Channel Tunnel Rail Link and Heathrow Express, has shown that this might be done for about £2bn.
There is no reason to expect BAA, as a monopolist, to expand Heathrow to get ahead of demand or to invest in Stansted if this divides rather than grows its market. Now is the time to open the market, putting Stansted into independent ownership, which would encourage development of the airport and the transport links it needs, in the same way that Mr Reichmann created a second City at Canary Wharf.
The writer, a director of Superlink, was vice-president for transport at O&Y Canary Wharf Developments 1988-1991
AADHIKARonline unquoting at 0350 Hrs GMT on Tuesday 26 June 2007 the full texts of the ‘FT’ [Financial Times, London] article published on 21 June 2007 by-lined to Michael Schabas, a director of Superlink, an alternative to the CrossRail scheme:
Muhammad Haque again exposing the CrossRail hole plotters’ lie that the plot would amount to ‘benefits’ to the East End of London.
The lie is lethal. Because this is the one that they have used to get the controlling clique on Tower Hamlets Council to spin locally for Crossrail in the Council’s touting role for Crossrail hole plot.
Of the 1000+ documentary references [created and published by the promoters of Crossrail] that the Khoodeelaar! campaign against Crossrail has checked as to what Crossrail is, there is NOT ONE in which the Crossrail hole plan is mainly described as being about bringing ANY benefits to the East End of London or indeed to ANY other part of London affected by Crossrail plan.
The ONLY and the CORE description of the Crossrail hole plan that is given in the overwhelming number of statements [issued by Michael Snyder for the City of London Corporation, for instance or by Jo Valentine, baroness of the pro-Crossrail lobby outfit 'London First'... and similar others] is that it is intended to link Canary Wharf, the City of London with Heathrow.
Khoodeelaar! has established in the 42 months of our campaign [which we began on 31 January 2004] against Crossrail that the pathetic references to the East End have been deliberately ADDED as a sheer spin, which is not based on any substance that is corroborated by the contents of the CrossRail hole scheme Bill [‘the Crossrail Bill’, now in the UK House of Commons].
The reason why we have been asking Tower Hamlets Council to scrap their deal with the Crossrail hole plot promoters is to do with the undeniable fact that the East End will lose out more than it will ever gain, even when the Crossrail hole plot is generously interpreted.
All students of economics know that demand has got to be real if the sort of massive public expenditure being lobbied for to create the supply of the Crossrail line is to be justified..
Where in the daily experience of the East End ordinary population is there any demand for such a scheme? And this is exactly the question that Gordon Brown has been asked and which is why he has been forced to concede that the Crossrail hole plot is not an ECIONOMIC priority.
Even in his speech last week to the City of London, Gordon Brown was forced to rely on the spin he knew he had to deploy as part of the presentation. But he could not give the commitment that the City wants.
Just as Ed Balls could not give the commitment that Big Business agent Ken Livingstone wanted a few months back when they staged one of those interminable stunts for the uneconomic plan. Just as the former chief executive of British Airways, Rod Eddington [whip had been asked by Gordon Brown as chancellor to investigate the UK transport crisis] could not endorse Crossrail as an ordinary economic solution to the real transport crisis that fetters London and the South East. In fact the line that Crossrail will bring thousands of jobs to the areas affected generally and to the East End of London was made by their spokesperson who appeared on the BBC TV Politics Show as shown on Sunday 26 March last year.
That man was referring to Canary Wharf, which is where one of the world's largest banks has just confirmed the sacking of at least 4000 employees! The 'alternative' to the Crossrail plan, the Superlink, has been referred to in the Financial Times in the last four days. In his comment ion Crossrail, Michael Schabas says that the present Crossrail plan is far too uneconomic and far too costly. The Khoodeelaar! campaign wants the East End to be economically viable.
Our start must be made with the use of existing human resources in the optimum way possible. Tower Hamlets Council is not doing this as the Local Education Authority. As has been again confirmed, Tower Hamlets is producing well under 40 percent GCSE achievers as opposed to over 50 per cent elsewhere. And Tower Hamlets is far below the UK national average on per capita performance in the context of per capital expenditure on the formally recorded and assessed pupils.. Only because money is spent does not mean it is translated into sustained and creative human ability.
For that, the Local Education Authority as well as the locally elected 'representatives' of the area must show that when they act in our name and about our area, they do so by possessing the recognition of the value and the potential of human beings. In Tower Hamlets, there is no evidence so far that those are recognized by 'our elected' local Council.
On 22 January 2006, more than 1000 people turned up to attend the Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill meeting at the Brady Centre in Hanbury Street [the street is the target of the Crossrail hole] .
There was no room to accommodate all who wanted to attend. Of those who did attend, ALL backed the motion that I put to the meeting demanding that Tower Hamlets Council pass at full Council an unequivocal motion saying No to Crossrail hole Bill.
The community is still waiting for the Council to carry out that very democratic and economically very sensible demand. The failure by the Council to date to pass that Motion shows the failure on the part of the controlling clique to recognize something very fundamental.
They do not behave with common sense and with ordinary rationality. That is why they are stuck on their backing for the crassly conceived Crossrail. And it shows in the crass way that the Council has failed to address the sustained evidence we have presented against the Council’s collusion with the Big Business Crossrail hole plot.
The Muhammad Haque daily world commentary against corruption and sleaze by holders of publicly paid for and publicly-legitimised positions of power at any level – as shown by the use of Christine Gilbert as tool for Big Business CrossRail hole plotters plan to displace the ordinary people of the East End of London borough of Tower Hamlets in London
0445 Hrs GMT London Monday 25 June 2007
Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill campaign - For 42 months, the Khoodeelaar! campaign against Crossrail hole-inviter Tower Hamlets Council has pointed out the fact that Christine Gilbert, [ensconced at 'OFSTED, the 'England schools and assorted other education agencies formal inspectorate' [which in itself has a great need to be constantly inspected and held to account for its own abysmal failures] for the past few months by the Blairing regime which was forced to concede that their use of her as the 'chief executive' in Tower Hamlets Council was proving far more disastrous than they had anticipated when they placed her there to do the 'job' of bringing in Big Business and other attackers to destroy the East End of London ... Khoodeelaar! campaign against CrossRail hole-inviter Tower Hamlets Council devised a detailed questionnaire for Christine Gilbert in February 2004 and along with the Committee for Bangladeshis' Rights in the UK [CBRUK] put to Christine Gilbert the very serious questions about the ICNCREASING deprivation [environment. economic, sociable educational and health] that would hit the Bangladeshis in the area targeted for the CrossRail hole, as well as hitting the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic community that existed in the area ... We showed that Christine Gilbert was part of a corrupt clique on the Council ... We showed that Christine Gilbert was 'advising' the rest of the clique top go ahead with the collusion with Big Business touts, agents and bribers who were operating the agenda of using 'CrossRail' as a thin end of the bigger wedge, that of physically displacing the main population in the Brick Lane, Whitechapel an d Stepney London E1 area ......We also showed that Christine Gilbert was failing in her legal duties to stop the corrupt clique..... All of the evidence linked with every single finding that we published was made known and pointed out...
Nobody, including the 'local paper' the 'East London Idiotiser' published any of that.
In fact, despite the fact that we gave all the contemporaneous and actual materials and documentation that had been put to Christine Gilbert, showing the fact and the extent of her central involvement in and her persistent and rampant collusion with the perpetrations of the illegalities and the undemocratic violations of the local community by Tower Hamlets Council, the decision-makers at the ‘East London Idiotiser’ went ahead and published as many as Four promotional profiles and pieces for Christine Gilbert.
They in effect praised her corruption and her cronyist operations . Khoodeelaar! campaign against Crossrail hole-backer Christine Gilbert filed the relevant complaints and analysis against the 'East London Idiotiser' and the evidence of that is still ready for formal progression to the courts – as we have pointed out and made clear at all stages.
Now, the ‘national’ ‘mainstream’ Daily Mail claims to be against cronyism and sleaze. So much so that they have published a number of pieces that amount to their calling Christine Gilbert corrupt!
We shall be extensively examining the contents and the 'reasons' and the implications of all the items as carried by the Daily Mail. Before we do so, we are asking viewers of our sites to look at what the main piece in the Daily Mail has said about the cronyist Christine Gilbert.
The Muhammad Haque daily world political commentary
0240 Hrs GMT London Monday 25 June 2007
Whoever gets to be the front person at the UK Treasury after the widely-expected move by Gordon Brown to the office of Prime Minister in two days’ time and following that whoever in fact gets to deliver the ‘Comprehensive Spending Review’ as scheduled to be published in a few weeks’ time, the fact remains that the ‘CSR’ will have been the product of Gordon Brown’s thinking [along with the usual teams of people that he would have used for the previous CSRs]. It follows therefore that the contents of that Review, which most of the Crossrail hole Bill touts are hyping up to include a clear commitment of public funding of the Big Business Looters’ charter [Crossrail Bill] – will be examined for clues and signs as to where Brown is taking the management and the direction of the UK society…. A reasonable enough picture was contained in a recent speech Brown delivered to or scripted for the ‘Green Alliance’. In the Brick Lane, Whitechapel and Stepney London E1 area and in the rest of ‘ordinary Tower Hamlets’, the script of that speech is quite relevant in context. In one part, Brown speaks of or in effect refers to all the key segments of the country – society, constitution, economy and the environment. Which is where the Khoodeelaar! Campaign against the Crossrail hole attacks on the East End has been active in… In months and even may be years to come, the campaign against Crossrail hole attacks is going to continue to have running and active relevance to all the segments and parts of the country … in fact and in principle…
It is utterly central to identify the words and the intentions of Gordon Brown, the so-called ‘Prime Minister in waiting’ before he ceases to be referred to in such a loaded way and gets the simpler style of being described just as the UK’s ‘Prime Minister’ – in order that we can stop his office being abused like Blair’s was with such horrendous long term and other terms of consequences for the worse for the world and for the society within the UKView Gordon Brown’s speech to the ‘Green Alliance’ by clicking on the web page link HERE
Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole bill campaign exposing the continuing crassness of the Crossrail hole plotters’ sums – the cost of the CrossRail hole plot is being cited to be anything between £8.7 Billion to £16 Billion – all in the same week!
Harriet Harm-one! She WILL NOT bring good let alone do good to the inner cities- we begin the expose on Harriet Harman and her totally untruthful lines uttered by her in the past four weeks
What did Frank Field say about Blair’s lack of intellectual rigour and Blair’s crude demand to be shown how to ‘cut welfare’ – We show the Blairing poverty-creation agenda at work in the Crossrail hole plot and why Crossrail hole plotter ‘Undone mayor’ Ken Livingstone is totally discredited by his craze for the Crossrail hole -
Khoodeelaar! AGAIN shows the sums which leave Gordon Brown with no option but to scrap the present Crossrail hole |Bill – and start from the scratch on meeting the transport needs of the UK economy -
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Khoodeelaar! – History against corrupting Big Business assault – From Polashee against the ‘Robert Clive East India Company’ in June 1757 to Brick Lane against Ken Livingstone’s Crossrail hole plot in June 2007
AADHIKARonline quoting from the internet resource, based in Bangladesh, called ‘Banglapedia’ on their online record on Siraj-ud-Daulah as accessed at 0500 Hrs GMT on 24 June 2007
AADHIKARonline have in the texts, changed the spelling in the English version of the Nawab’s name to more authentically reflect the original as pronounced in his family
“Siraj-ud-Daulah Nawab of Bengal. After the battle of PALASHI (23 June 1757) in which Siraj-ud-Daulah was defeated and subsequently murdered, the British became the virtual masters of Bengal, reducing the later nawabs to mere puppets in their hands. Mirza Muhammad Siraj-ud-Daulah was the grandson of Nawab ALIVARDI KHAN and son of AMINA BEGUM and ZAINUDDIN AHMAD KHAN.
He was born in 1733 and soon after his birth Alivardi Khan was appointed as the deputy governor of Bihar. So Siraj-ud-Daulah was regarded as a 'fortune child' in the family and his grandfather had special affection and favour for him. It is stated that Alivardi had given his heart to Siraj-ud-Daulah from the day of his birth and 'never kept him apart from himself'.
The old Nawab had Shiraj educated in his house. According to Muzaffarnamah of Karam Ali, Alivardi Khan tried to train him in the art of governance and other qualities that go with a crown prince. His general education was of formal type and perhaps not well calculated. Owing to ungrudging affection of the old nawab and flattery of his sycophant retinue he might have committed some excesses in his early years which Alivardi ignored. It may, however, be noted that Sirajuddaula was given the charge of the nawab's fleet at Dhaka while his younger brother Ikramuddaula commanded the army. Alivardi took young Siraj with him in his military campaigns against the Marathas in 1746.
Alivardi Khan celebrated Sirajuddaula's marriage with great pomp and grandeur. In May 1752, the nawab declared Sirajuddaula as his successor. On this occasion the European trading companies in Bengal also greeted him. During the closing years of his reign, premature death of some family members shattered Alivardi both mentally and physically and the old nawab died on 10 April 1756 at the age of eighty. Immediately before his death the nawab advised Siraj to strive for the suppression of the enemies (of the province) and devote himself to secure the well-being of the subjects by removing all evils and disorders. He implored Siraj to nurture the goodwill of the people and follow his (Alivardi's) footsteps. Luke Scrafton relates that Sirajuddaula swore on the Quran at the deathbed of his grandfather that he would not touch any intoxicating liquor in future and that he kept the promise ever after. Siraj ruled for little over one year (April 1756 to June 1757) and the Masnad of Bengal was full of thorns for him. During his short lived- administration the young nawab faced enemies from within the family as well as from out-side.
Sirajuddaula's nomination to the nawabship caused jealousy and enmity of GHASETI BEGUM (eldest sister of Siraj's mother), Raja RAJBALLABH, MIR JAFAR ALI KHAN and SHAWKAT JANG (Siraj's cousin). Ghaseti Begam possessed huge wealth, which was the source of her influence and strength. Apprehending serious opposition from her, Sirajuddaula seized her wealth from Motijheel Palace and placed her in confinement. The nawab also made certain changes in high government positions giving them to his own favourites. Mir Mardan was appointed Bakshi (Paymaster of the army) in place of Mir Jafar. Mohanlal was elevated to the post of peshkar of his Dewan Khana and he exercised great influence in the administration. Eventually Siraj suppressed Shaukat Jang, governor of Purnia, who was killed in a clash.
The accession of Sirajuddaula threatened the position of the dominant section of the ruling group in MURSHIDABAD, which was engaged in accumulation of wealth during the time of the earlier nawabs. With his assuming the reins of government, this group apprehended that he would be a danger to their continuous enjoyment of the sources of accumulation of wealth, as he was trying to raise another group to counterpoise the old one which usurped the power of the nawab to a great extent. Sirajuddaula's accession was a threat to the British also because he made it absolutely clear that unlike the previous nawabs he would not put up with the abuse of DASTAKs by the British and their illegal private trade. The threat came at a crucial time when the private trade of the Company's servants was facing a severe crisis.
Sirajuddaula had genuine grievances against the English EAST INDIA COMPANY. First of all he suspected the company's design against his succession and expressed his annoyance to the British in no uncertain terms. His charges against the company were, first, that they strengthened the fortification around the FORT WILLIAM without his approval; second, that they grossly abused the trade privileges granted to them by the Mughal rulers by which the government incurred heavy loss of customs duties; and third, that they gave shelter to his officers like Krisnadas, son of Rajballav who appropriated government funds. The nawab also informed them of his intention to forgive them if they removed his complaints and agreed to trade upon the same terms and conditions as they did in the time of MURSHID QULI KHAN. But the company practically showed no respect to the nawab's demands. On the other hand, governor GOGER DRAKE of the Calcutta Council insulted Naraigan Singh, nawab's special envoy to Fort William.
These events enraged the nawab and to retaliate he first captured the KASIMBAZAR factory and then attacked CALCUTTA and drove the English out. This attack led to the so-called BLACK HOLE INCIDENT. Following the nawab's action at Calcutta and arrival of reinforcement from Madras the TREATY OF ALINAGAR was signed between him and the English by which the nawab agreed to compensate the English their losses at Calcutta. But the English now became more arrogant. In fact reestablishment of the company's settlements in Bengal, after it's defeat at Calcutta, was possible only in two ways either to approach the nawab to forgive the company or to avenge the defeat by force. The English chose to avenge and in the garb of the peace treaty actual preparation for war began.
The English now turned to vigorous political and secret activities to destroy the French influence and to replace Sirajuddaula by a person entirely friendly to them. To this end the company successfully made a conspiracy against the nawab and enlisted the support of Mir Jafar, the JAGAT SHETH and other disaffected courtiers. When everything was finalised the company's forces under ROBERT CLIVE and CHARLES WATSON moved towards Murshidabad for a show down. The nawab met Clive at Palashi on 23 June 1757. The nawab was defeated in the battle that ensued and fled from the battlefield. On his way to Patna he was caught by a partisan of Mir Jafar and killed by an Iranian guard at the instance of Miran (son of Mir Jafar) on the night preceding 3 July 1757. In the mean time the company installed Mir Jafar as the new nawab of Bengal. Thus the English won the victory at Palashi not merely because of the strength of their forces but because of the strength of the conspiracy and the treason within Sirajuddaula's camp. The defeat of the nawab marked the beginning of the English ascendancy in Bengal and gradually the entire subcontinent surrendered its destiny to the East India Company.
Sirajuddaula was a victim of a conspiracy, engineered and encouraged by the British who roped in the disgruntled elements of the darbar in their 'project' of a coup. There is no denying that there was a simmering discontent in the nawab's court. But resentment against or dissatisfaction with the nawab might have created the necessary but not the sufficient condition for the hatching or the success of a conspiracy. The Palashi conspiracy took the final shape only under the aegis of the British and without their active involvement, it would not have matured enough to bring about the downfall of the nawab. Thus, Sirajuddaula had to go both for the benefit of the British and the ruling clique at Murshidabad. And hence the Palashi revolution in which Sirajuddaula was deposed and Mir Jafar installed.
It may be true that as a nawab, he was a little arrogant and perhaps also short-tempered. In other words, he had his limitations. His main shortcomings were his lack of firm resolution, his vacillation and above all his bewilderment when faced with a critical situation. But one has to remember that he was still a young man in his early twenties, not yet fully mature and quite a little 'intoxicated' with his power and position. His greatest mistake was that, in his inexperience, he tried to deal with all his opponents at the same time, without having recourse to necessary precautions that they could not combine against him. His failure to do so and his irresolution till the last moment brought about his downfall.
Sirajuddaula's limitations and his public and private character should be judged considering the environment he worked in and the cause he fought for and gave his life. A marked change in his character was noticeable after he had become the nawab. Alivardi's last advice might have acted as a great influencing factor on him. The verdict of history is that whatever might have been his fault, Sirajuddaula neither betrayed his master nor sold his country. 'The name of Sirajuddaula stands higher in the scale of honour than does the name of Clive. He was the only one of the principal actors who did not attempt to deceive'. [Sushil Chaudhury and KM Mohsin]
Bibliography BK Gupta, Sirajuddaulah and the East India Company, 1756-57, Leiden, 1962; Kalikankar Datta, Sirajuddaulah, Calcutta 1971; JN Sarkar (ed), The History of Bengal, II, Dhaka, 1972; AK Maitreya, Siraj-uddaula (in Bangla), Calcutta, 1304 BS; S Chaudhury, The Prelude to Empire: Plassey Revolution of 1757, New Delhi, 2000.”
Khoodeelaar! No to the history of the Crossrail hole plot - from 23 June 1757 to 23 June 2007
'East London's answer to Glastonbury' Brick Lane Literary Festival - 'Lines of Hunger....'
First reports on the ‘Lines of Hunger’ festival held at 1 o'clock on Saturday 23 June 2007 at the corner of Brick Lane and Hanbury Street London E1 UK
The key points made by Khoodeelaar! organiser Muhammad Haque when linking the ‘Undone Mayor’ Ken Livingstone’s current irrational craze for the Crossrail hole attack on the East End of London and the imperialist designs and corruption of Robert Clive who abused the hospitality of the people in the Bangladesh, India and Pakistan subcontinent in June 1757
included these
:
Like the East India company, the CrossRail hole company is engaged in deception and in lying about their intentions and
like the East India Company, the CRASSrail Company is engaged in trying to bribe some ‘locals’ so that the local community would be destroyed when the CrossRail company gets the ‘powers’ to destroy the local community
Like the East India Company, the Crossrail company is engaged in backing the corrupt elements on the local ‘council which as the ‘local education authority’ is admitted by all independent observers, including even the ‘mainstream’ news outlets in the Uk to be one of the worst local education authorities, allowing its schools to perform at such low levels that most of the youngsters and school leavers are being turned out of schools with no qualifications or low qualifications, which are then being
[To be continued]
From the Earlier editions of AADHIKAROnline, reporting on the ‘Lines of Hunger…’ Literary Festival held by Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole plot, commemorating the battle of Polashee on 23 June 1757 which marked the impoverishment by the ‘East India Company’ of Robert Clive of the region now made up by Bangladesh India and Pakistan …
The difference between this event and the Glastonbury festival is immense and relevant. The first difference is that unlike the overfed, the over-funded who were able to get into Glastonbury and ‘enjoy culture’, there are people in the inner cities for whom such pursuits are beyond their ability - the people whose ‘pleasure’ and more importantly whose right to even expect to have such pleasure, was being defended are the people who are the targets of the attacks. The attacks are represented in the Crossrail hole plot
The plot is controlled by the very big business and their backers and approvers and their beneficiaries who would be able to command a seat at the Glastonbury festival
the people in the east end of London generally – in common with the people in all other inner cities in Blaired Britain – would not have the luxury to even dream of spending the sort of money that the Glastonbury consumers can spend do spend and do so as a matter of course…
The reason, in particular for those who make up the community in Brick Lane, Whitechapel and Stepney London E1 area – the target of ‘undone mayor’ Ken Livingstone’s Crossrail hole attack - is mainly in the history of economic incapacitation, the educational underachievement, the social incohesion, the environmental deprivation that have been imposed on the same community.
Even before the population that makes up the community in the Brick Lane, Whitechapel and Stepney London E1 area, arrived and settled in the area, it had inherited the historic consequences of the massive and long term dislocation set in motion by the East India company on 23 June 1757.
The Khoodeelaar! campaign held the demonstration outside London’s ‘City Hall’ near the Tower of London on 19 June 2007. The occasion was a brief ‘celebration’ of the East India Company's ‘victory’ in 1757 against the ‘Nawab Shiraj Ud Daula’. As the City Hall is the HQ of ‘Undone mayor’ Ken Livingstone the Khoodeelaar! campaign demonstrated their condemnation of the role being played by Ken Livingstone in promoting the Crossrail hole plot against the East End of London.
The Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill demonstrators shouted slogans that made a direct policy link between the East India Company in 1757 and the Crossrail Company in 2007. Between Robert Clive of the East India Company and Ken Livingstone who as mayor is using the Crossrail Company [Cross London Rail Links] as the administrative tool for pushing for the Crossrail hole attacks on the East End of London.
[To be continued]
From the previous editions of AADHIKARonline
A Full report starting here at 2000 Hrs GMT on the Lines of Hunger’ literary event begun by Khoodeelaar! at 1200 Hrs GMT today the corner of Brick lane and Hanbury Street London E1
REMEMBERING the campaigners against the predecessors of ‘Undone mayor’ Ken Livingstone in pretensions 250 years ago – Time 1 PM [1200 Hrs GMT] Saturday 23 June 2007 Place corner of Brick Lane and Hanbury Street – More details in the evening on Friday
Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole – mobilising opposition to the massive Big Biasness Crossrail hole Bill attacks on the East End of London
Reporting and publication Programme of the Khoodeelaar! campaign against Crossrail hole Bill, during Thursday 21 June 2007
The Brick Lane, Whitechapel and Stepney London E1 Area campaign against the Crossrail hole plot Bill [the provision for digging a Crossrail hole and for destroying the existing community environment in Whitechapel and for causing serious damage to parts of Stepney are all contained in the draft piece of legislation in the Blared UK House of Commons. That draft piece is called ‘the Crossrail Bill’]
At last! The ‘authoritative voice of the British middle class’ or rather the ‘most powerful organ in print of Middle England’, the London Daily Mail, shows that it has, juts occasionally, the intellectual ability and the moral honesty to acknowledge wrongdoing that goes on against people every day by crooked cliques who wield control on local councils and local assemblies and, nay, even at OFSTED! It has taken the racist DAILY MAIL more than three years to admit what KHOODEELAAR! identified and published about Tower Hamlets CORRUPT Council and the ‘chief executive’ of the corrupt Council, ‘Christine Gilbert’ – an examination of Christine Gilbert’s record and of the racist backwardness of the Blaired British media – here shortly
How the Corrupt clique in Tower Hamlets CrossRail hole-inviting Council is SILL being allowed to get away with wanton robbery of the community’s rights – a report here soon
Khoodeelaar! Statement to CrossRail hole—backer Alan Johnson – the summary of the statement made to Johnson when Johnson staged a prancing stunt in the Brick Lane area on Wednesday 13 June 2007
Khoodeelaar! latest legal; demands as put to Crossrail hole Bill plot minister Douglas Alexander – texts here shortly
Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Tower Hamlets Council – text of the letter sent to Martin Smith ‘ successor’ to Christine Gilbert -
Khoodeelaar! campaign actions- Next Khoodeelaar! demo - details
Legal action and campaign Updates and breaking
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