South Asian nations face a water crisis which poses a threat to agriculture and industries. Given its increasing influence, is India willing to become a provider of water security in the region?
On May 23, 2013, while speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the Indian National Defence University, Gurugram, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exuded confidence that India was well-positioned and willing “to become a net provider of security” in its immediate region and beyond. In 2015, the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), New Delhi, came out with an assessment report titled, India as a Security Provider. The report highlights India’s growing military capabilities and its proactive responses to the human and non-human threats to the littoral nations of the Indian Ocean, which corroborates the country’s image and positioning as a benign power and net security provider in the region. But the question here is: Is India also willing to play the role of net security provider when it comes to ensuring water security in the region? The above-mentioned IDSA report points out, “While traditional security threats limit India’s role; cooperation on non-traditional threats opens up a new opportunity for India to play a regional role.” Thus, it is a geostrategic imperative for India to focus on non-traditional security threats in the region emerging from sectors such as water and energy.
Today all the nations of South Asia face a water crisis in one form or another due to a range of factors — population growth, urbanisation, inefficient use, bad management and lack of governance, among others. The unfolding water crises pose a serious threat to sustainable development, agriculture and industries, poverty reduction and the ecosystem. Climate change has exacerbated the brewing water crises like never before. The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has termed climate change as “the most systematic threat to humankind.”
Water is a common resource and managing and governing it has always been a challenge at any scale, be it local or regional. A participatory robust institutional architecture for water governance is needed to manage and govern resources in a systematic and efficient way. Many of the important water bodies in South Asia are transboundary and thus their basins spread in more than one country. Integrated basin management would not be a reality without regional cooperation at the South Asian level.
Most of the water treaties in South Asia are bilateral in nature, which form the core of the South Asian political ecology of governance. Be it upper or lower riparian, nations in the region are apparently not content with the existing treaties. For example, India, an upper riparian nation, does not seem to be happy with the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan, a lower riparian nation in this case. Between Bangladesh, a low riparian nation and India, the Teesta river issue still remains unresolved, with Dhaka asking for an increase in water share. People in Nepal, an upper riparian nation, think water treaties with India produces environmental injustices to the riverine people of Koshi river. Along with this kind of political ecology of the region, the issue of sovereignty in South Asia is a very sensitive topic. South Asia represents a typical case of the Westphalian concept of sovereignty, where each nation has exclusive sovereignty over its territory and the natural resources, including water. No nation would like to be seen as compromising its sovereignty. However in reality, in the face of globalisation and trade integration, each nation is bargaining its sovereignty with the other nations and regional and international actors. These two factors — the existing South Asian political ecology and the power politics played out in the name of sovereignty — both hinder and open up opportunities for regional cooperation at the same time. Some may think that regional cooperation compromises on the sovereignty of a State. However, the notion of sovereignty can be broadened to accommodate and facilitate the idea of cooperation, which is not about imposing suzerainty of one nation on another.
India has been quite active in the region in terms of coming to the rescue of its neighbours when they are in trouble. A case in point is when Maldives faced a water crisis in December 2014, India launched Operation NEER to immediately provide Maldives with it. The people and the Government of Maldives were appreciative of India’s quick response and help. Having said that, one must be mindful that those were more of a response to a crisis that emerged and similar exercises could be useful to tackle future contingencies of that sort. However, water woes coupled with the effects of climate change have resulted in a distinct set of challenges that call for India’s proactive role in the South Asian region. What is required today is a continuous regional cooperation in providing water security, which is at present marred by the absence of an institutional architecture for water governance in South Asia.
India should play a lead role in institutionalising regional cooperation by establishing a robust architecture. It has already set an example with the launch of South Asian Satellite in 2017, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his tweet termed as a “symbol of South Asian cooperation” and “a journey to build the most advanced frontier” of regional cooperation and partnership. With India looking for a larger regional role, it cannot afford to be a security consumer. It has to metamorphose itself into a credible security provider. Benjamin Kienzle, a faculty member of Defence Studies at King’s College London, elucidates, “A security provider has a stronger interest in the immediate security of a third party, rather than in direct security gains for itself…the action of a security provider easily lead to a win-win situation…A security consumer, on the other hand, is primarily interested in its own security and is largely indistinct towards the security needs of third parties…In general, security consumers create easily win-lose situations…” Notwithstanding, he makes it clear that a security provider in no way compromises its own security interests.
Domestically India has made some progress to improve water governance. The then Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (now Ministry of Jal Shakti) constituted a committee led by Mihir Shah to suggest institutional reforms for water governance to deal with the water challenges that India faces in the 21st century. In July 2016, the Committee came out with a report titled, A 21st Century Institutional Architecture for India’s Water Reforms. The report makes a number of critical suggestions to strengthen the governance of India’s water resources. One of them is about its shape and structure. The report underlines that “polycentric governance regimes characterised by a distribution of power but effective coordination structures perform better.” Considering water as one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change, the report stressed that the ability to respond to it is strengthened by polycentric governance regimes.
The existing political ecology of South Asia makes the space of water resources a geopolitically contested zone. Governance is needed to protect the environment, to save the ecology and to manage water resources in an integrated and holistic manner. Polycentrism is inherent in South Asia and by default distribution of power is effected by the very nature of South Asian sovereignty. What is missing essentially is the effective coordination to realise and unlock water governance potential in the region. Effective coordination can be established only through a well-structured institutional architecture involving all the actors and stakeholders. With the emergence of non-State environmental actors and groups in the region, the role of governments has receded in water governance and self-organised governance networks have found prominence.
In their article “Reflections on Actor-Network Theory, Governance Networks, and Strategic Outcomes”, Ludmilla Meyer Montenegro and Sergio Bulgacov caution that, “self-organised governance networks can impede (policy) implementation…or they can enhance the efficiency of policy implementation…Thus, it is important to determine how these networks are formed, who forms them and how they function, since they have such direct impacts on governance. The more we know about networks, the better we understand governance dynamics and its relationships with the Government, informal mechanisms, and private actors.”
India should painstakingly study the governance networks that exist today in South Asia for conceptualising a regional institutional architecture for water governance in the region, to not repeat another SAARC which is failing under its burden.
(Writer: Sandeep Kumar dubey ; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
In times when the Government is talking about oppressed minorities in neighbouring nations, should we be harassing Tibetans who have sided with India even in difficult times?
India prides itself on its traditional systems of medicine that have now received the Government’s support, too. In a major push to the healthcare sector, a separate Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) was set up in November 2014 “to ensure the optimal development and propagation of AYUSH systems of healthcare.” It was earlier known as the department of Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISM&H). Its objective was to focus on the development of education and research in indigenous systems of medicine. Later, Sowa-Rigpa (the art of healing), a traditional Tibetan system of medicine practiced in the Himalayan belt, was added to it.
Men-Tsee-Khang, the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan Medical & Astro institute based in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, is the main training and research center for Sowa-Rigpa. The institute recently prepared a “precious pill” called the Chulen Rilbu, which could allegedly prevent the spread of infectious diseases, including the dreaded Coronavirus (a concerned Dalai Lama had earlier given mantras for the purpose).
It is in this background that a shocking incident took place last week in Dharamsala. Dr GD Gupta, the local chief medical officer, decided to stop the distribution of Chulen Rilbu that was being sold for `5 to those interested. Local authorities cited reports of public disturbance and commotion created by the public demand for the pill. Though the Rimsung Rilbu is distributed in other centers all over the country, it is true that there were long queues at Dharamsala.
On February 16, the CMO visited the McLeod Ganj branch of Men-Tsee-Khang and verbally issued orders to stop the sale of the pill. He even threatened the Tibetan institute that non-compliance may result in fines up to `10 lakh and closure of clinics. This, obviously, was not in the CMO’s power as the Ministry of AYUSH and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are two separate Government entities. Further, the CMO does not have the capacity to judge the potency of the pill, which needs to be used as an amulet (the smell prevents the infection, according to Tibetan doctors). Did the CMO then possess special competence in law and order problems to act?
Under pressure of insensible local authorities, Men-Tsee-Khang’s director, Tashi Tsering, had no choice but to issue a public notice, saying that the pill would not be sold at Tibetan clinics in Kangra district (it is still being sold in Delhi and elsewhere).
According to The Tibet Sun, Tashi maintained that the institute had never made any claim regarding the pill having properties to prevent contagious diseases. He said, “The pill having prophylactic properties is prepared as per formulations given in the ancient Buddhist texts and has been around for centuries.”
Many believe that the CMO’s actions were only an act of jealousy. Men-Tsee-Khang is a reputed institution established in 1916 in Tibet. It was re-established in Dharamshala by the Dalai Lama in 1961 and its main objective is to preserve, promote and practice Sowa-Rigpa.
Tibetan doctors are no quack. Dr Yeshi Dhonden, who recently passed away at the age of 92, was awarded the Padma Shri award by the President of India in 2018 for his contributions to Sowa-Rigpa. For years, Dr Dhonden served as Men-Tsee-Khang’s director and from 1963 to 1980 as personal physician to the Dalai Lama.
Sowa-Rigpa is today famed across the world. According to the AYUSH Ministry’s website, it is “one of the oldest, living and well documented medical tradition popular in the world. It is an ancient Indian medical system which was enriched in the entire Trans-Himalayan region.”
The medical treatise, the Gyud-chi or four tantras, written in Sanskrit, was enlarged between the 8th and 12th Century by scholars with inputs from China, Turkestan, Persia and Greece.
The implications of the threats uttered by the CMO are multiple. First, Sowa-Rigpa is popular all over the Himalayan belt, particularly in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh (Lahaul, Spiti and Kinnaur), West Bengal (Darjeeling and Kalimpong), Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. It is also practiced in countries like Bhutan, Mongolia and Russia. It is an insult to the beliefs of the populations of these areas.
The greatest irony is that China is extensively using this system in its fight against the dreaded Coronavirus. Xinhua, quoting an official in Qinghai province said: “Tibetan medicine has played an active role in the virus treatment.” The news agency said that the Chinese authorities are using Tibetan medicine “to help fight the Coronavirus in northwest China’s Qinghai province.”
Huang Licheng, an official with the provincial health commission, confirmed that “of Qinghai’s 18 confirmed cases, 17 have received treatment involving traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Tibetan medicine has played an active role in the treatment.”
The province has officially incorporated allopathic and TCM treatments since the outbreak: “TCM doctors heavily participated in rescue work, especially those practicing Tibetan medicine.”
Xinhua further reported: “The provincial hospital of Tibetan medicine produced a batch of anti-virus medications featuring Tibetan medicine, with 1,000 of them already sent to the front lines in Hubei Province.” It added that “local Tibetan medicine hospitals have also produced medications to prevent virus infection and distributed them to the public for free.”
There is another larger implication of the intolerant attitude of the authorities in Himachal Pradesh. One can understand that with this type of behaviour, more and more Tibetan refugees want to leave India. At a time when the Central Government is taking up the defence of the oppressed minorities in neighbouring countries, why harass the Tibetans, who since they left their country, have sided with India even in difficult times? Remember the Tibetan Special Frontiers Forces’ participation in the Liberation of Bangladesh in 1971?
The situation is already dismal. The Tibet Sun wrote: “The demographic landscape of the Tibetans in exile has drastically changed, with more than half the population shown by survey to have moved from India to Western countries.” At one point, more than 1,35,000 Tibetans lived in India. The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) recently confirmed that the number of Tibetans in India has reduced drastically (to 72,000 according to some sources).
Is it in India’s interests to antagonise a population, which already feels let down? No, it is not. Let us just hope that the local authorities will understand that, even if they are unable to grasp the larger political scenario, with China trying hard to attract the Tibetans back to Tibet.
(Writer: Claude Arpi ; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The heroic stories of tenacious rural women scripting tales of success are great signs of a brighter tomorrow in the villages of India
In the last two decades, the gender landscape in rural India has been slowly greening and women are now on the cusp of a powerful social and political revolution. The harbinger of this change is a unique policy experiment in village-level governance that has brought transformative results for the weakest of the weak and the poorest of the poor: The village women. In 1993, India introduced the Panchayati Raj Act, mandating a three-tiered structure of local governance at the village, block and district levels with reservation of one-third of all posts in gram panchayats (village councils) at the bottom tier of India’s decentralised governance system, for women. The vision was that these women-headed councils would bring greater transparency and better governance in their villages. It revitalised an age-old system of rural local Government whose name “panchayat” is drawn from Sanskrit, meaning the council of five wise men.
This new law was a step towards the fruition of Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams of village-level self-governance with gender justice as a key pillar. Gandhi believed that, if implemented correctly, the Panchayati Raj system would alleviate the alienation of the common people from governance and also preclude the external intervention of higher-level civic officials, who might not be familiar with the concerns of local people. Earlier politics was considered a foul word and women were expected to keep a hygienic distance from it. However, development scientists and social activists now acknowledge that the modern development paradigm has a political salience and politics underpins all facets of development. It is politics which is the firing engine for all the cylinders of development. It is true that political power needs to be sanitised and has to be reinforced with ethical underpinnings in order to make it more benevolent. This can come about only when more educated and development-oriented individuals embrace politics as a critical arena for innovation and change. Politics is the fulcrum of governance and unless the quality of political timber is improved, governance will continue to limp.
Experience of this social and political experiment has shown that women are not just equal to the task but orientate public-good provision more towards the preferences of their gender, namely more water, health and roads. Though less politically-savvy and often only semi-illiterate, these women had an advantage in being actively mentored by the district bureaucracy. Several NGOs also designed programmes for skilling them in governance. Women face a host of difficulties handling political power: Cultural norms, social hierarchies and patriarchal practices — which together tend to favour and attract men and discourage the participation of women.
Several women who started their political careers as self-described “rubber stamp” officials are now asking questions about Budget allocations. They stride about in Government offices with polished informality sharing their concerns with officials in tones of supportiveness and also assertiveness. They are successfully challenging the traditional village male elite by defying petrified social codes of female bias and are now powerful aspirational symbols and role models. Women leaders today are more than just mouthpieces for their politically-savvy husbands. For most of them, reserved posts offer the only real opportunity to bring change to their communities. When these seats are coupled with new skills — from public speaking to development planning to budget management — they are better prepared to deliver development to their societies and negotiate within the political space that has opened for them. However, the path they have trodden after the initial euphoria of winning the elections has not been easy. There have been growing pains and many early entrants retreated, never to emerge again. The avalanche of social and cultural mores rained heavily on them. Although the resistance is whittling down, it is clear that achieving gender equality in leadership will require sustained policy actions that favour women over a long time.
The vision is truly not as romantic as many would like us to believe. But, as women have shown, they have all that is needed to ride out these storms. The men know this very well but they don’t want to concede that women possess the ability to be the better halves because they are afraid of losing their last refuge, politics.
In the long-term, the journey is going to be harder and tougher than policy wonks can imagine. The wait could potentially be eternal. But if bureaucrats can muster the will, they can succeed. They know from past lessons that they have the tools and they need to vigorously back reforms that can engender greater empowerment for women. For sustainable change to happen, women need to actively compete in the present political game. Legislation and policy pronouncements seldom penetrate the surface of social and political barriers. They are ultimately impotent against the grid of the established power structures inherent in most rural households and villages.
The great strength of democracy, according to Amartya Sen, lies in that, “it gives people in need a voice and, by so doing, plays a protective role against so many different forms of political and economic abuse”. The Panchayati Raj is just a beginning; it is only one step on the way, but it is the right step on the right ladder.
These women are reconfiguring gender and social dynamics and have started exploring their wider responsibilities as stakeholders as citizens of a polity. However, decentralisation is not easy. The skill levels in impoverished communities are very low. And, in a country where democracy has been established in a top-down manner, a feudal mindset may still prevail. The people may not be aware that the Government should be accountable to the people — not the other way around.
A lot of positive changes are coming in the better-governed villages. There are still large swathes where discriminatory traditions continue to dominate. Several factors constrain the effective participation of women leaders. Some of these relate to a patriarchal culture, which neither sees women as political entities nor allows them to develop their potential. The same cultural standards also prohibit women from envisioning themselves as political entities. Other related factors that constrain participation are a lack of basic familiarity of women with political governance and absence of legal literacy. Women need to be given adequate advocacy tools strengthening democratic engagement and gain control over local resources and influence over local governance. Village assemblies are a critical participatory institution in providing equal access to all members of the community to the deliberations and negotiations in local governance; but elite control of these bodies has prevented functional democracy from taking roots. It has been found that the average participants in such village assemblies are the less-poor households with the participation of the poor dwindling over the years. This is the reason why, in several remote and tribal pockets, Panchayat Raj has failed to enhance the social outcomes for most citizens.
The social pecking order of villages cannot be overturned easily and several challenges remain to fuller empowerment. Legitimately-elected women representatives remain vulnerable to manipulation and harassment and are often reduced to mere proxies, while the real decision-making authority remains with their husbands or power brokers from higher castes. There are also instances where a woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or tribe has been elected as head of a panchayat but is at the mercy of her upper caste landlord in the village for her livelihood. In such cases, too, the reins of power and decision-making clearly lie elsewhere.
At the policy level, we must understand the structural impediments in the full evolution of Gram Panchayats as functional governance units remain. The Panchayati Raj Act created these bodies but did not endow them with various governance functions — like the financial authority on provision of education, health, sanitation and water. Instead the law simply enumerated the functions that could be transferred and left it to the State Legislature to devolve them. There has been very little devolution of authority and functions till now. Gram sabhas were expected to be the primary legislature of rural governance with responsibilities to catalyse local planning by conducting ‘needs assessment’ exercises and devising plans for development projects that would be aggregated at the panchayat level. When further aggregated and rationalised at the district level, these would become official inputs into the State Government’s annual budgeting process.
Gram sabhas did remain a pivotal institution in local planning; but had little real role in governance. Despite the noble intention, they have struggled to stay relevant. They continue to be plagued by low participation and frequent hijacking by influential interests and have not been able to mature into viable democratic units. The dip in popular participation and weak political will has had significant implications for the future of democratic decentralisation in India.
The heroic stories of tenacious women scripting tales of success are great signs of a brighter tomorrow. Women’s empowerment is a journey, not a fixed point that yields to simple policies.
(Writer: Moin Qazi ; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Though Pakistan is unlikely to openly promote cross-border terror as long as the sword of FATF continues to hang over it, Islamabad would continue to back terrorism clandestinely
Despite intensive lobbying by Islamabad and cosmetic measures to convince the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to take it off the grey list in which it was placed in June 2018, the international watchdog has once again placed Pakistan in the said list with a stern warning to be prepared to be placed in the blacklist if it does not complete the full action plan by June.
This was not the first time that Pakistan was being named and clubbed with countries like Ethiopia, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen. It had been similarly shamed in the past in 2008 and then again from 2012 to 2015. In June 2018, Pakistan was given an action plan, to be completed by October 2019, or face the risk of being blacklisted, the ultimate death knell for its shattered economy. The FATF’s reasoning is Pakistan’s “structural deficiencies” in anti-money laundering (AML) activities and combating financing of terrorism (CFT). However, Pakistan failed to implement the action plan to be able to negotiate an exit from the grey list. At the same time it successfully averted being Blacklisted with the support of China, Malaysia and Turkey and was given additional time to comply.
To understand the charter of FATF and why Pakistan is on its target list, it is necessary to understand the terms money laundering and terror financing. In simple terms, laundering pertains to disguising cash earned from a crime as funds earned through legitimate sources. The crime could be corruption, drug trafficking, fake currency, fraud or tax evasion. Terrorist financing involves collection of funds to support acts of terror or terrorist organisations. The key difference between the two is that, in money laundering, the source of funds has to be a crime. In the financing of terrorism, money may come from perfectly legitimate sources, such as donations from citizens, but the purpose has to be a crime. Pakistan has been charged with both and is accused of supporting terror groups like the Haqqani Network, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Toiba. Hizbul Mujahideen and the Taliban.
However, Islamabad denies this and plays the victim card. It quotes the Global Terrorism Index, 2017 by the Institute of Economics and Peace that ranks Pakistan as the fifth country most affected by terrorism, after Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Syria. Pakistan’s leadership feels that its placement in the grey list is far more political than financial. Nothing can be farther from the truth since Islamabad’s role as a fountainhead of terror has been exposed to the world on numerous occasions. Pakistan today is known the world over for not only producing global terrorists but also harbouring, training and financing various jihadi organisations, particularly those involved in cross-border terror against India and Afghanistan. Ever since its placement in the grey list, Pakistan has been seeing it as an attempt by the USA to put pressure on it to “do more” on issues related to terrorism, as had been openly demanded by the US President Donald Trump. Pakistan is also convinced that if the US can have it placed on the grey list, it can also make it easy for it to exit the list, if Islamabad is somehow able to contribute to American interests in the region. While it has been making cosmetic attempts to institute measures as per the plan of action suggested by the FATF, it has been concentrating more on lobbying and diplomacy to convince the US and other members through it, to remove it from the list of “not so good guys.”
In the absence of any visible and concrete measures to mend “structural deficiencies” in AML and CTF, it was widely believed that Pakistan would be blacklisted during its October 2019 plenary at the end of the 15-month notice. Due to its burgeoning debt and shattered economy Pakistan could ill-afford it. Pakistan was shocked when the FATF Asia-Pacific Group put it in the Blacklist in its meeting held in August 2019, when its members found that the country was non-compliant on 32 out of 40 parameters. Islamabad put its diplomatic machinery in action to garner the crucial three votes needed to prevent it from being blacklisted. With China in the chair, Pakistan felt assured of one vote. However, after Beijing agreed to list Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, it was widely believed that it would behave more maturely. But in the end China’s huge investment in Pakistan and the strategic relationship between the two nations tilted the balance in Islamabad’s favour. Ultimately, it succeeded in garnering the necessary three votes and continue in the grey list. Though it noted that Pakistan had addressed only five out of the 27 tasks given to it for AML and CTF, it asked Islamabad to act swiftly and complete the full action plan by February.
Since terrorism is an instrument of Pakistan’s national policy and the real power centre in the country is its Army which uses cross-border terrorism as part of its military strategy, it is well-nigh impossible for that country to divorce itself from terrorism. It once again doubled its lobbying and diplomatic efforts. Prime Minister Imran Khan dashed to the friendly member countries and the USA to garner support. This time it found the US to be more amenable than before, since it needed Pakistan’s assistance in Afghanistan and Iran. With China and the US on its side, Pakistan took a few measures including the arrest of Hafiz Saeed and custody of Azhar Masood. It got a shot in the arm when, during its three-day review meeting held in Beijing in January, the FATF noted that Pakistan had taken satisfactory steps against terror groups. It evaluated Islamabad’s compliance efforts in relation to AML and CTF as satisfactory. Member countries like the US, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand did not raise any concern this time. Pakistan’s game plan of successful lobbying at the cost of compliance was bearing fruit. The logic was simple. It was an election year in the USA and Trump needed Pakistan’s assistance. This appeared to have shaped the US’ stance to go soft on Pakistan during the February plenary in Paris. It accordingly convinced its allies and Pakistan, which was at one time facing the prospect of being blacklisted at the end of the October plenary, now began dreaming of an exit from the grey list also.
India, which knew the ground reality well as it has been the worst sufferer of Pak-sponsored terrorism, including money laundering and financing of the separatist movement in Kashmir, got a rude shock, as it was hoping that Pakistan would definitely be blacklisted. Having understood the US’ game plan, India began to act swiftly to minimise the danger by ensuring that Pakistan did not get off the grey list till its compliance was fully confirmed. New Delhi began to exert its influence to ensure that Pakistan was unable to garner the support of 15-16 member nations needed to remove it from the grey list. It provided dossiers and sufficient evidence to the FATF of Pakistan’s continued involvement in money laundering and terror financing. India was apprehensive that any such decision by the anti-terror body would provide oxygen to terrorist groups, leading to increase in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, where Pakistan is desperately trying to revive militancy.
India keenly participated in the FATF plenary held in Paris which culminated on February 21. In order to ease the pressure on itself from the anti-terror body, Pakistan sentenced Hafiz Saeed for two terror crimes with the sentence to run concurrently a week before the plenary. While the US expressed satisfaction, India questioned Pakistan’s intent by pointing out the timing of the sentence and the fact that it was subject to appeal in the higher court. India also raised questions about Azhar Masood, Lakhvi and Dawood Ibrahim, who continue to enjoy the patronage of the Pakistani Government and roam freely. India also exposed Pakistan’s lie that Azhar Masood was “missing” by providing evidence that he was under Pakistan military’s safe custody at Bhawalpur.
Another area of concern for New Delhi was the fake Indian currency racket being run by Pakistan, as its prime interest is to promote espionage, destabilise the economy and finance terror. Hence, India continued to insist on complete compliance with the FATF action plan.
While Pakistan will aim to exit the grey list at the earliest, India must continue to press for total compliance. Despite, the FATF observing that Pakistan had largely addressed 14 of 27 action items, with varying levels of progress made on the rest of the plan, it decided to keep it on the grey list till June.
India is certainly disappointed with the outcome and Pakistan will take satisfaction from the fact that it has succeeded in avoiding being on the Blacklist. But one thing is certain, its strategy of lobbying at the cost of action has suffered a major setback and it has failed yet again. It will continue on the FATF grey list with its resultant repercussions. India can heave a sigh of relief for now since Pakistan is unlikely to openly support and promote cross-border terror as long as the sword of FATF continues to hang over its head. However it would continue to fuel unrest and back terrorism clandestinely.
India not only needs to keep its eyes and ears open but simultaneously up the diplomatic offensive against Pakistan to expose it to the international community. The risk of being blacklisted in June may restrain Pakistan to some extent but the prospect of continued support from China, Turkey and Malaysia along with tacit support from the US will encourage it to yet again depend more on lobbying than action. In the ultimate analysis, India will have to sort out cross-border terror from Pakistan on its own.
(Writer: Anil Gupta; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
After peaceful protests, the violence over CAA shows how polarities have now been weaponised politically
An ominous situation has been allowed to develop yet again in the national capital, rendering it unsafe, giving an impression of a rage-filled India at a time when a presidential visit is under way. Delhi’s north-east is now the new battleground over the pros and cons of a new citizenship law and in just three days, more than 10 deaths have been reported, more than 100 have been injured and a reign of terror continues with incidents of stone-pelting, torching of vehicles and houses. Democratic dissent is allowed and Delhi has shown how to keep it peaceful despite sit-ins. The citizenship protesters, who began the stir over the imposed classification of identities, were consistent in their single-mindedness to effect a change in civic discourse. Their resilience is no doubt politically uncomfortable but has inflammatory potential, too, one that is being encashed by the politics of the day and being swiftly turned into a communal war. Claims and counter-claims have been made about the protests being manufactured but will the blame-game change anything on the ground or will it compel the Government to tamp down tension? One of the loudest messages from the Delhi Assembly elections, where the BJP suffered a severe jolt, was that Indian voters reward those leaders who shun divisive politics. But the steep loss hasn’t forced a rethink in the BJP, which is now encouraging rabble-rousers to go all out in defending the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which is pivoted on exclusion against the spirit of the Constitution, and though not in isolation, but in tandem with other profiling-based census, could legitimise the politics of otherisation. So there was Kapil Mishra, whose anti-CAA statements and videos did the rounds during the Delhi Assembly elections, egging on lumpens and encouraging hate rhetoric all over again. Such leaders have been so emboldened that they issued an ultimatum to the Delhi Police to clear the roads of anti-CAA protesters in the wake of Trump’s visit to India.
One expected the Delhi Police to recalibrate its approach in ensuring law and order but as has been the norm, it failed to restore calm. After a meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Home Minister Shah assured him of every help, since police comes under his Ministry, but didn’t do anything to rein in flagrant party cadres. With a huge mandate, Kejriwal should not bother about his administrative powers but must use the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) mohalla networks to address people’s concerns. That’s what is needed exactly till, of course, the Supreme Court takes the final call on the CAA. One hopes the national mindset isn’t poisoned till then.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The Sena doesn’t want to burn bridges with either its State allies or the Central BJP leadership
Ever since the Maharashtra Aghadi Government assumed power as an unlikely coalition of divergent ideologies — the Shiv Sena, the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress — there has been much speculation about its lastability. Particularly, the BJP, which lost out the power race despite being the single largest party because of its refusal to accommodate the Shiv Sena, leaves no opportunity to rile up the inherent tensions in the alliance. Which is why Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray’s flip-flop on some of the most contentious issues like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Population Register (NPR) feathers the split theory considering both the Congress and NCP are vociferously against them. But when both NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut have assured that the alliance government will last five years, it points to a rationalisation of politics at the grassroots level. So the three parties, realising each needs the other to stay relevant, have successfully dissociated the local contexts from the national one. And although they have been long-standing foes for over a quarter of a century over local issues, they are desperate to prop each other up to stay in governance.
The Shiv Sena, being ideologically on the Rightist end of the spectrum, cannot disown the moorings of what made it. It has already successfully rewired nationalism as a definition of Marathi pride. But not quite sure about its run in a convenient arrangement, it doesn’t want to exactly burn bridges with the top BJP leadership. To expect it to discard its Right-wing face completely would be wishful thinking. So though he had initial reservations on the CAA, Uddhav is siding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interpretation of it not being against Indian Muslims. The NCP and the Congress are against the exclusionary intent of the CAA, which violates the Constitutional guarantee of equality of all religions. Similarly, Uddhav, while vociferously opposing the profiling-based National Register of Citizens (NRC), is going soft on the NPR, although that is largely being seen as a precursor to the NRC. By walking the thin line, Uddhav is also publicising that he is with the Centre on issues that wouldn’t hurt his State. Also, he probably wants to peg the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) on development rather than bringing in the national debate on Hindutva versus secularism. The illusion of calm within the Aghadi was blown off earlier with the Sena favouring an NIA probe into the Elgar Parishad case and NCP-Congress expressing strong dissatisfaction over it. His visit to Ayodhya and the Veer Savarkar issue was hugely discomforting for his partners, too. But such uneasy equations will continue and each party will clench their teeth and fists, knowing the importance of keeping the Government intact. The Sena knows the role of the Congress and the NCP in getting it the chief ministership. The NCP knows it can encash its role as the mediator from both sides. Letting go of the Government and risking the desertion by its regional leadership are the last mistakes the Congress would want to commit. If the alliance is to stay though, it is in the best interest of all three parties to stick to the CMP and not peak out of turn. Else, they could fall to the hawkish plans of the BJP, which loses no opportunity to embarrass the Sena among its core voters. And if they do not budge, they will turn the BJP’s dream of the Aghadi crumbling under its own weight into a reality. Unless its back channel diplomacies are making the Sena leaders have second thoughts.
No matter what the FATF says, India has to develop its own dynamic on the war on terror at a time of shifting alliances
Just when all the lobbying by Pakistan seemed to have softened up deciding powers at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — the global watchdog that tracks terror-funding States and can disqualify them from global aid — they have held themselves back, and rightly so, keeping our neighbour in the grey list. Though we have been lobbying hard, and had even at one stage argued convincingly enough for Pakistan to be blacklisted, its all-weather friends, China, Turkey and Malaysia, brought it back from the brink. It needed the support of 13 countries to get out of the grey list, and though it has taken a few compliant correctives, they weren’t proof enough. It may have finally imprisoned the 26/11 mastermind of the Mumbai attacks Hafiz Saeed and even booked his charities through which he funded money but is yet to cap the money trail to other terrorists or prosecute the financiers. Besides, it could deliver only on 13 of the 29-point action plan it had promised to implement during the last session. It now must show improvements in the next four months. For India, this comes as a reprieve considering at the last regional meeting of the FATF, it was the lone voice of protest with the US, EU and even Japan appearing convinced about Pakistan’s efforts to curb terrorism. But the US, while endorsing India’s position on Kashmir at the UN and proscribing Jaish chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, is too invested in stitching up a deal with the Taliban before it exits Afghanistan. That explains the clean chit in Beijing and even the acknowledgement of Pakistan’s “great efforts” at course correction. The US also thinks that freezing aid to Pakistan might just aggravate the economic instability in the region and have a cascading impact on politics. The US also needs a trade deal with India, which is why it will not overtly hurt our position vis-a-vis the FATF. China, which is increasingly looking at a strategic partnership with India while being Pakistan’s ally, has devised its own workaround. It now wants a renegotiation of the FATF brief itself, saying the grouping had no business to blacklist nations but should help them counter terrorist funding and networks. India must realise that the shades of the FATF list mean nothing in terms of threat levels ever since the blacklist was diluted as a “call for action” and the grey list was downgraded to “other monitored jurisdictions.” Besides, the FATF has just put Pakistan on an extended timeline to fulfil the technical criteria and not been exactly censorious about it. For our neighbour, this means a radical overhaul of its terror economy as it has to show visible proof of penalties against terror-financing, including sanctions and controls on international transactions.
In the end, India must remember that global penalties won’t impact Pakistan’s proxy war with India. Even while staying on the FATF watch, there has been no cessation of terrorist infiltration into Kashmir. Pakistan will continue raising Kashmir. India has to evolve its own dynamic regarding terror instead of focussing solely on isolating it diplomatically. For the fluidity of geopolitics means that each nation would work out its tactical advantage in an evolving context and might not prioritise India’s concerns. And global politics is but transactional and revolving stakes mean shifting alliances.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
February 21 has a special significance for Bangladesh, which transcends its observance as the International Mother Language Day. On this day, Dhaka fought for Bangla’s recognition
February 21 has a significance for Bangladesh that transcends its observance as the International Mother Language Day. Every year from 1953, it has been observed in that country as the Bengali Language Martyrs’ Day or Language Martyrs’ Day in memory of four students — Rafiq, Barkat, Jabbar and Salam — killed in police firing on a peaceful demonstration in Dhaka on the same day in 1952. The demonstration, in turn, was a part of the historic language movement that, more than anything else, contributed to the rise of the liberation struggle, which culminated in Bangladesh’s emergence into freedom in 1971.
The language movement owes its origin to the Pakistan Government’s decision to have Urdu alone as the country’s State language. Its incipient stirrings followed the announcement by Pakistan Government’s Central Education Minister in late 1947 that Urdu would be the country’s only State language. A resolution seeking to make Bengali a language of the Constituent Assembly along with Urdu and English, was defeated on the first day of Session on February 23, 1948, thanks to bitter opposition by former Pakistan Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. A massive burst of anger exploded in what was then East Bengal, which was renamed East Pakistan in 1955 under former Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Bogra’s one-unit scheme, which also merged the four western provinces into a single unit, West Pakistan.
The anger spread and intensified following Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s visit to East Bengal from March 15 to 28, 1948, during which he reiterated his stand of Urdu being Pakistan’s sole State language and warned Bengalis about the activities of “subversive elements” bent on destroying Pakistan. A lull followed, only to be shattered by the interim report of the Constitutional Basic Principles Committee on September 28, 1950, which stated that Urdu would be Pakistan’s State language. The movement peaked after Nazimuddin, who became the Prime Minister following the assassination of the preceding incumbent, Liaquat Ali Khan, on October 16, 1951, read out from Jinnah’s speech in Dhaka saying that Urdu would be Pakistan’s sole State language. More, he denounced those who wanted Bengali to be a State language as “provincialists” and, as such, enemies of the Pakistani State.
A series of strikes and demonstrations that followed culminated in a general strike throughout East Bengal on February 21, 1952, the day when the four students were killed. Dhaka and many parts of East Bengal remained paralysed on the 22nd when two persons were killed in police firing and 45 injured in lathicharges and tear gassing by the police. The movement intensified throughout Bangladesh in the next few days, with shops and offices closed and train and steamer services paralysed and Dhaka seething in anger. Savage repression by the Government foiled the general strike called for in Dhaka on March 5, 1952. By then, however, the movement had spread to even the most remote reaches of Bangladesh and it had become clear that it was a matter of time before the Central Government accepted Bengali as a State language. This it did on April 19, 1954, when Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly decided that both Bengali and Urdu would become the country’s two State languages.
The installation of Bengali in its rightful place in Pakistan’s governance and public life was a historic victory for the people of East Bengal. It was, however, the immediate and most visible outcome of the language movement. Far more important was the latter’s identity-defining and transformative role in the history of East Bengal, leading to the eventual rise of the sovereign nation of Bangladesh. A mass movement involving almost every part of Bangladesh and every section of its population, it shaped the self-perception of the overwhelming majority of the people as Bengalis as well as Muslims and not — as immediately after India’s Partition — as Muslims above everything else. It also prompted the province’s rising middle class to identify itself passionately with Bengal’s rich, eclectic and liberal-humanist culture, which acted as a powerful countervailing force against the spread of fundamentalist Islamist doctrines in its ranks.
In terms of historical causation, however, the most important consequence was the feeling of self-confidence that victory in the language movement imparted to large sections of people in East Bengal. The increasing feeling that they could confront and defeat the rulers entrenched in Karachi and Islamabad did much to sustain their long resistance to the western wing’s efforts to economically exploit and politically subjugate them, of which the language policy was a part and which owed much to the composition of the country’s armed forces and bureaucracy.
The role of the Army was particularly important. It ruled the country from 1957 to 1968, 1977 to 1988 and then again from 1999, when General Pervez Musharraf captured power through a coup, to 2007, when he resigned as President to avoid impeachment. It has always called the shots even when a civilian Government has been in power. Almost wholly from the western wing, Army officers favoured the interests of the region and, as a hangover from the British period, looked down upon Bengalis as “non-martial.”
The bureaucracy, particularly the Civil Service of Pakistan, which wore the mantle of the erstwhile Indian Civil Service, was dominated by Urdu-speaking people from the western wing. Given the low competence level of Pakistani politicians, they exercised a disproportionate influence on making and implementing policies. People from East Bengal had little say.
An early indication of the intended shape of things to come was clear from the report of the Constitutional Basic Principles Committee, which besides saying that Urdu would be Pakistan’s State language, provided for a Constitution, which would neutralise the impact of East Bengal’s numerical superiority in the country’s politics, and put it under the western wing’s domination. It also sought to create a presidency vested with arbitrary powers, which made it easy for an incumbent to become a dictator. Widespread agitation postponed a decision on the report. Nevertheless, its contents as well as the Government’s language policy convinced an overwhelming majority of people in East Bengal that their Central Government was bent on dominating and exploiting them — a belief that was increasingly strengthened over time by the policies emanating from Karachi and Islamabad.
The rest, including the evolution of the resistance movement into a tidal wave for national liberation under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s leadership, India’s trouncing of Pakistan in the 1971war and Bangladesh’s emergence as a sovereign nation in the teeth of genocidal repression, is history.
(Writer: Hiranmay Karlekar; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Govt apathy and hopelessness have led many farm widows to take their lives. Just how many more suicides will it take for the State to take action?
Mudapu Yadamma, 38, is from Mallareddipalli village in Nalgonda district, Telangana. Two years ago, her husband, a farmer, committed suicide by consuming pesticide and left her with a debt of Rs 3.5 lakh. Kamatham Lakshmidevi, 31, is from Danduvaripalli village in Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh. She, too, was left with a debt of Rs 8 lakh after her husband, also a farmer, killed himself two years ago.
Vidya More, 38, is from Maharashtra. When her husband ended his life in 2012, his suicide was declared not eligible (as a farm suicide) thereby denying her the right to ex-gratia compensation.
They may live in different States but the fate of farm widows across the country is worryingly similar. Not only do farm widows suddenly become invisible to the State, they are ostracised by their families and are left to fend for themselves, especially when they are hounded to repay the debts taken by their farmer husbands. Latest statistics released by the Government show that 11,379 farmers killed themselves in India in 2016. In other words, there were 948 suicides every month or 31 growers committed suicide daily. One big reason for this was mounting debts. While the inability to pay back loans can be attributed to several reasons, including failed crops, the agrarian crisis and the unavailability of alternative opportunities for earning a livelihood, the burden of repaying the debts has fallen on their widows.
At present, there is no programme or policy that frees these farm widows from debts incurred by their husbands. The harrying by banks or moneylenders begins almost immediately after the husband’s death, leaving hardly any time for the widow to mourn her spouse.
The need to survive and look after her children pushes her to earn a living. But studies have shown that the woman farmer often adopts the same kind of farming as the deceased husband. She also resorts to the same practice of chemical-intensive and external-input-driven farming requiring investments and borrowing. But with women farmers not seen as credit-worthy and access to Government schemes and credit being limited, the situation can be so hopeless and dire that women farmers are often forced to take the same path as their husbands and end their lives. Women accounted for 8.6 per cent of farmer suicides in the country.
A prime cause has been the inadequate efforts by the Government to prevent farmer suicides coupled with insufficient and lopsided support to families affected by them, according to the Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM), an informal forum comprising 120 organisations of women farmers and civil society groups in 24 States working to secure rights of women growers.
Recent consultations on the “Status of Women Farmers in Farm Suicide Families” held by MAKAAM and UN Women also revealed that the lack of recognition by the Government of the deaths as farm suicides in many cases further exacerbated the conditions of the marginalised widows as the State refused to extend any support to them.
Korra Shanthi is one such victim of State apathy. A resident of Nalgonda district, Telangana, Shanthi and her husband were engaged in cultivation on leased land. When her husband ended his life in 2018, Shanthi was left with a debt of Rs 6 lakh. Although she applied for ex-gratia payment with the help of local activists, she has not received any money yet. Shanthi has been told that she is unlikely to receive it because her husband did not own any land in his name, making her ineligible for ex-gratia payment.
Since several State Government rules specify that only land owners and land title holders are considered as farmers while extending support to the suicide-affected family, those toiling on leased land fall through the cracks. With land ownership being the main criteria, tenant farmers and women farmers, especially farm widows who do not have land in their names, are not recognised as real farmers. Further, farmers who have borrowed from moneylenders also don’t get counted as eligible or genuine cases and their widows and families are denied compensation. “This is one of the biggest problems in Punjab,” contends 40-year-old Veerpal Kaur. A resident of Mansa district, Punjab, Kaur has witnessed the despair that led to her husband, father and father-in-law ending their lives. But their families were not considered eligible although the suicides were due to farm distress.
Lack of recognition is a major hurdle in the relief and rehabilitation of widows and their families. This is according to a MAKAAM study on the status of women in farm suicide-affected families in six States of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Punjab. One of the important findings was that in Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka, only those farmers who had institutional debt were considered as genuine and eligible for support, not those who ended their lives due to pressure from moneylenders.
Moreover, there was a wide variation in the relief and rehabilitation package given by these six States. The study showed that the criteria used to determine “farm suicides” were different across States and even within the relevant agencies like the police, agriculture and revenue departments.
According to MAKAAM’s Seema Kulkarni, even in the States where compensation was being paid, it was not uniform. “While Andhra Pradesh provides a compensation of Rs 7 lakh for each family, in Maharashtra, which has the largest number of farm suicides in the country, this is only Rs 2 lakh. In the case of Telangana, although its policy states a compensation of Rs 6 lakh, hardly any payment had been made since subsuming farm suicide cases into the Farmer Insurance scheme called Rythu Beema Padhakam”, says Kulkarni.
Of all the States, only Andhra Pradesh had a one-time settlement mechanism, (used in certain cases), to settle all outstanding institutional as well as private loans within Rs 1 lakh to liberate woman from never-ending debt. However, its use was limited.
The study also found that only Karnataka had a policy to support education of children from farm suicide families, including reimbursement of fee of those studying in private institutions. “However, even here, the implementation was poor and lacked coordination between different agencies, states”, Ashalatha Satyam of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, a MAKAAM partner.
She points out that such a policy does not exist in other States. This is why many widows in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had to pull out their children from schools. Although the Maharashtra Government had announced a support package related to education fee, nothing has been finalised so far.
In cases where land is in the name of the husband, wives have the opportunity to eke out a living once they are able to get it transferred in their name. But even here it is usually a long and uphill battle as relatives don’t want to give her the rightful share in the property. Lack of land ownership has forced most of the women to either become labourers or seek other means of employment, often at the cost of their safety. So, Mudapu Yadamma is dependent on wage labour to keep her three children in school since her in-laws are not prepared to give her a share in the family land. Kamatham Laxmidevi, too, was denied her share in the family land cultivated by her husband and does any work that helps her earn a living. Vidya More has taken up sewing and wage labour to make ends meet. But all this isn’t enough to repay the huge debts incurred by their husbands.
They are not the only ones struggling for survival and their rights. Hundreds of farm widows have fallen off the Government’s radar. Government apathy and hopelessness have led many to take their lives. This is not unknown to the political masters. Then what is the Government waiting for? Just how many more suicides will it take for it to take action?
(Writer: Swapna Majumdar; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
When teachers and spiritual leaders endorse myths around menstruation, policies don’t mean anything
For a Government which is prioritising menstrual health and hygiene as part of policy, its loyalist followers are harming it by perpetuating medieval myths around a biological process. And it comes as a huge shock when educators of a modern society — women at that — subject others to the cruellest form of mental and emotional trauma over something as natural as menstruation as was done recently in a college in Gujarat. Sixty eight students at a hostel in Bhuj were made to strip before teachers to prove that they were not menstruating. What led to this outrage was the fact that the girls, who are undergraduate students at the Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute (SSGI), run by the Swaminarayan sect, were flouting a set of preposterous rules set by the college for them to follow during their periods. The discriminatory and utterly humiliating diktat bars students from entering the college temple, kitchen or touching other girls. In the classroom, they are expected to sit on the last bench and at meal time they have to sit away from others like pariahs and clean their own dishes. Not just this, the hostel keeps a register on when the students get their periods over a two-month cycle. Quite understandably not one girl had entered her name in it. Ironically, after the traumatised students raised a hue and cry over this nightmarish incident, the Principal squarely blamed the students for not following the rules and thus bringing the outrage upon themselves. What made matters worse was the statement by Krushnaswarup Dasji, a religious leader, that menstruating women, who cooked for their husbands, would be reborn as dogs and men consuming such food would be reborn as bullocks! This beats all evolutionary theory and entrenches the worst superstition.
Such words, coming from people who wield influence over the minds of others, particularly in rural India, are disturbing due to the sheer lack of sensitivity and violation of human rights, apart from the fact that they perpetuate illogical beliefs. Myths and taboos surrounding menstruation have to be broken down and a scientific temper has to be developed before Government schemes, incentives, health workers and social organisations succeed in their efforts to improve the lot of women. Over 60,000 cases of cervical cancer deaths are reported every year, mostly due to poor menstrual hygiene. A whopping 23 million girls drop out of school annually. This in a country that has a temple dedicated to fertility.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
SC appoints mediators for shifting women-led protests on the CAA. Should the Govt not have done this instead?
In the end, the executive abdicated its responsibility and left it to the judiciary to tackle civil unrest in the country that has risen in opposition to its new profile-linked citizenship law. And the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court, had to intervene to settle the issue of moving protesters at Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of a relentless people’s struggle against a law that violates the Constitutional spirit of equality of all religions. Addressing a clutch of petitions against the protesters that were pushed in a surrogate manner, the court did not denounce their stance and upheld what it has before, that citizens have a democratic right to disagree and be heard. But considering the sit-in on a public road had stretched to over two months and was obstructing traffic and public convenience, the court said that the protest site should be relocated to avert a crisis. Yet it did not pare the protesters down with dictated choices of sites but sent in mediators to work out a deal. The Shaheen Bagh women, who have never refused a dialogue, had gone public with their desire to meet the Home Minister and Prime Minister, but it was the Government which did not honour the rules of civil engagement and instead demonised them as enemies of the State. Had it indeed mastered statecraft, it could have made a virtue of the negotiations, used them for explanatory propaganda on the new law and avoided a conflagration that ultimately burnt it badly. Now as many Shaheen Baghs and dissent movements have erupted across the country, will the Government squander away its political mandate as an administrator or create new binaries for electoral politics? Will it be a reconciler of diversity or just the interpreter of societal maladies?
There is nothing wrong with the BJP Government justifying its ideological pitch but when in governance, it cannot be seen as abetting a civil war. Particularly when the women-led protest at Shaheen Bagh swiftly turned into civil society’s spontaneous combustion and powered the Opposition. Primarily because the women of Shaheen Bagh had taken a high moral ground when they started out, reading the Preamble and positing themselves as citizens who shouldn’t be defined by exclusion as opposed to the establishment’s determination to brand them anti-Hindu. As all religions made common cause with them, the BJP turned them into a test case of nationalism, lionising them with its intolerance. So what began as an anti-establishment forum was needlessly elevated to a referendum on whether minority intrusion can disrupt a majority lives — in this case, blockade-hit Delhiites — on whether there was a mini-Pakistan that needs to be surgically cut out from the heart of the city. Clearly, the BJP is solely responsible for terming every democratic disagreement as a treacherous feat, even making its core voter deeply uncomfortable. Yes, the women blocked traffic because that’s the only way they could make people sit up but it was the BJP which gave shelf life to the sit-in, prolonging it for intended political gains, adamant in rejecting overtures and scoring a self-goal by weaponising it for the Delhi Assembly elections. Even the women pointed out that their protest was not a civic issue but a national one and, therefore, were unconcerned about the buzz around them. The Delhi voter, in the end, chose a “doing” Government rather than a “blaming” one. Had the BJP been smart, it could have attempted reconciliation talks. Considering the city-state’s law and order is a Central subject, it could have worked around the traffic mess. By engaging with the women, it would have not only demonstrated seriousness of intent, it could have been seen as an expert negotiator, one who attempted to clear misconceptions around the CAA. Clearly, the Government’s mishandling of Shaheen Bagh has blown up in its face and compelled it to eat humble pie. The Prime Minister had to clarify that CAA “does not affect Indian Muslims” and that there was no talk of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) yet. Home Minister Amit Shah had to simmer down on NRC after declaring in Parliament that every infiltrator would be thrown out and even admit that aggressive and polarising rhetoric had cost the BJP the Delhi election. It’s a different matter though that the National Population Register (NPR) can be used to harvest profile-based data still, something that the civil protest movements are now questioning, too. This has forced the Government to concede that respondents wouldn’t be needed to show any papers. It is in this sense that the Shaheen Bagh protests have been successful compared to other protests before; they have forced a systemic reaction. And with mini protests acquiring gale force, the Modi Government can no longer afford to be in a victim or petitioner mode. It cannot be a denier anymore, it has to seize the discourse. Or be horribly out of sync with what India wants.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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