If people perceive that violence in society has a state sanction, only strong antidote, not mere words of denial, can remove the fear.
A new mother in the family is particular about sending her three-year-old daughter to pre-school, stuffing her up with layered clothing. The frocks are not safe at school. Or innocent enough for predators. Infant rapes in the school premises have been reported with all too much frequency to fuel her anxieties. Then there’s the shadow of child-lifters prowling around everywhere.
Until sometime ago, we would look forward to Eid to demand home-cooked, love-laden and very motherly kebabs of our colleagues coming back from their towns by Shatabdis. The killing of Junaid, who was stabbed to death on a train by cow vigilantes claiming he was carrying beef in his tiffin carrier and not normal meat which he insisted, changed everything. They do not want to draw attention to themselves with their casseroles while travelling and risk their lives as distrustful vigilantes could be lurking anywhere. But they do not want to upset us either. So the tradition continues with just a box of home-made sweets, very neutral and yes, very sweet.
It’s 9.30 pm and a woman executive is toggling with the idea of dialling a taxi aggregator or trading waiting hours for the safety of an office drop. There was a time when she wouldn’t have stopped to think about swiping that app but what if she were waylaid on that deserted approach road that had to be negotiated before she entered the safety of her gated community?
A youth in Bihar’s Muzaffarnagar district is lynched for stealing a cellphone, a crime for which he had been booked earlier by cops. This time locals decided to teach him a lesson without waiting for the police or handing the thief over to them.
Our society is living in a fear psychosis, becoming fragile, frazzled and confused. And it is kicking out with the only “off with your head” pandemic of a solution in protecting itself. Violence is then seen as an affirmative action, one that is a legitimate solution to an imagined problem that a societal architecture is not designed for. It is ironic that this negative emotion happens to have us in its grip at a time when we believe that we are more empowered, knowledgeable and connected to each other. Technological evolution, we have reckoned, has already made us supra human beings. Or is it that the bubble of our acquired abilities is feeding our egoism over enlightenment and breeding a new class system? It would be easy to narrow down this induced fear to the political dynamics of the time, no matter what the colour of ideology, but there is a far deeper systemic malaise at play here. One that goes beyond just political protectionism and posturing. Remember, politics grows on the bedrock of societal maladies.
So who are fear mongers that have spawned angry lynch mobs and muscular vigilantes? You cannot pinpoint anyone in the crowd. Rumour is a faceless monster that strikes almost gutturally and insidiously to establish its standout value. Perhaps, we weren’t aware of the impact that digital classlessness would have in the real world. With a platform large enough to accommodate every shade of opinion, intelligent and stupid, no doubt there has been an attempted equilibrium of individual expressions. But like in society, power play came with the numbers of likes, shares, forwards, endorsements and followers. It was not just enough to be an individual with an identity, hunting for your space and gathering opinions to yourself. You had to be a chieftain of a digital tribe with a sameness of subscribed ideas. The heftier the beehive mentality, the easier it was to declare a perceived mass mindset and opinion that sadly marketers and brand players relied upon to create value and capital — social, economical, political and importantly, credible.
That has been our undoing and cost us logic, reason, understanding and compassion. Memes, that we so love to begin our day with, are far more dangerous than cruise missiles. For, according to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, a meme is an idea, behaviour or reaction to a stimulus that spreads from person to person within a culture of mimicry, much like a self-replicating gene that can mutate horrendously. In all this newness of a world driven by imposed intelligence, we forget that human civilisation is older than the digital one and it is perhaps the latter that needs to ride out its own stages of evolution. We ought to make that distinction, fast and furiously. And we do not need to subject ourselves to its medievalism and let it play out with renewed vigour in civil society structures. Yet sadly, that replication is exactly what has happened.
Fear of the “otherness” has been a unifying tool like no other. The more you believe it, the more likely you are to feel insecure singly and inclined to be drawn to a mindset that manifests itself through a united and aggressive counter response and safety of numbers. As part of a venting mob, a human’s bestial instincts are primed and inflamed, the psychological equivalent to a pack of wolves. Research has proved this insane predatory instinct. And the best part is that there is not one single person or cause that you can attribute the agency to. A judicial inquiry cannot pinpoint a perpetrator, simply because everyone can pass the buck to the next man standing, much like the forwards rolling on social media, and absolve himself or herself of social responsibility. This anonymity sadly guarantees their infallibility. If the victim is in the clear, then it is the failure of the law and order machinery. If the victim is dead, then it is easily the politicians who have fomented polarities with their gangs, never mind that they cannot galvanise a mob of hundreds at an instant unless the hit-back conditions are latent in a community. Anybody can be a scapegoat.
Political establishments across the world have, therefore, used baser emotions to foist a mob that will dispense and justify violence as an elaborate and pointed system of a corrective, which in turn will create a series of crises to divert eyeballs from existing ones. So, if it is racism in the West, in the Indian context these base emotions are being used to consolidate majoritarian mindsets whether relating to gender, class or faith; the “other” being defined as a threat to be kept under check and reminded of its subservience. For the minority, coping with fear has its own pocket riots or simple transmission of ideas that coalesce into vicious, radical “revenge” hits. Societally, violence of the gruesome kind is the expression of a refusal to accommodate assertive and empowered groups be it women or so-called lower castes. They are easily consigned to being collateral damage in the tussle for supremacy of the established order.
The problem with our modern lynch mob phenomenon is that it is not just seen as popular exasperation or rebellion against a failed state but as an extra-judicial adjunct of the establishment. One needs to only look back at the administrative responses that have been delayed at best, reactive on a medium scale and silence at worse. Despite attempts to give teeth to several laws and bringing in new ones, crimes against women, children and lower castes are going up undeterred. Societal violence cannot at any scale be seen as having state sanction and if such a perception is gaining ground, mere denials and words won’t do. Only strong counter-measures can calm fears. For the lies are dangerously on the precipice of becoming truths.
Writer: Rinku Ghosh
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Misogynistic violence in India is a fact which is undoubtedly wide-spreading. Any context-free comparisons for this are unsupportive and unhelpful.
There is absolutely no doubt that misogynistic violence against women in India is unfortunately quite widespread. But global comparisons on women’s safety are odious when context-free and unhelpful in presenting the correct picture. The poll published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Tuesday which has found prominent coverage in Indian news media outlets clearly falls in that latter category. Naming India as the ‘most dangerous country in the world for women’, which newspapers were quick to point out made it more dangerous than even Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia and Saudi Arabia to name the next four countries on the list, certainly caught eye-balls. Before we dissect the ‘findings’ of the survey, a word on the methodology. A total of 548 ‘global experts’ on women’s issues, 43 of whom are based in India, were asked questions relating to the risks faced by women in six areas: Healthcare, access to economic resources and discrimination, customary practices, sexual violence and human trafficking. India fared worst of all countries included in the survey on the issues of human trafficking, sexual violence and customary (religious/cultural/tribal) practices. In effect, we have the opinion of 43 people, experts though they may well be, to paint India a country as more dangerous for women than:
Of course, the levels of violence against women in India are unacceptable and ingrained misogyny results in discrimination and atrocities at various levels. As a non-theocratic, democratic, inclusive state with some of the strongest laws specifically protecting women’s rights apart from ensuring individual freedoms which, however, are routinely undermined by the inability of the state apparatus to effectively implement them as well as our inequitable social structures and the regressive aspects of our ancient civilizational tradition, we have a long way to go. But spare us this load of comparative rubbish.
Writer: Pioneer
Courtesy: The Pioneer
British Historians created the narrative that the civilization of the Indian subcontinent was backward, knowledge of culture, language, mathematics, medicine were only given to the ethnic population by the Aryan hordes ,who came from Europe and the steppes of Central Asia and conquered and settled here 1,500 BCE onwards. They also claimed that it was the British who “lifted us partially out of our miserable existence”! However, in the last decade,a very bright bunch of engineers, mathematicians, oceanographers, geneticists, geologists, bureaucrats and economists have stepped up to support the complex and often unrecognized work of our Archaeologists. I wish to acknowledge this very talented groups work (Nilesh Oak, Raj Vedam, Sanjeev Sanyal, Dr. Meenakshi Jain, Dr. Upinder Singh, Dr. Niraj Rai, C.R.Rao, S.M. Rao, Vasant Shinde, Sanjay Dixit , A.R. Chavda,SrikantTalegiri and many others). They have put forth very compelling evidence from multiple disciplines of science and mathematics to force a change in how our history needs to be rewritten, thereby restoring our faith in our cultural lineage and heritage.
To gain clarity we need to understand if there was any proof of the following:
Let’s put this to the test of evidence that has emerged since 2,000CE.
Scientific Findings related to History of the Indian Subcontinent since 2,000 CE
Now let us demolish the myth of the “Aryans'' who overran the ethnic population forcing them to migrate to South India. The Aryans “supposedly” wrote the Vedas after 1,500 BCE, introduced an advanced language called Sanskrit, and implemented the caste system. “The Aryans introduced agriculture, culture and trade to a primitive society”. This was the theory propounded by British employed historians like Mills and Max Mueller.
Thismanipulation of Indian history was prompted by the time-line of the Anglican Church which had 3,000 BCE as the timeline for Noah’s Ark, the destruction of the world and recreation thereafter. So how could they record a civilization in existence in continuity before and after3,000 BCE invalidating their own stated beliefs based on the Revelations which stated that God destroyed all living creatures other than on Noah’s Ark? This would have eliminated their positioning as a Superior race!
They propounded the postulate that the Aryans wrote the Vedas and the followers of Vedic practices evolved as Hindus and were essentially raiders and plunderers. This justified their act that Islamic raiders had subdued the Aryan raiders, and that they (the British) had come to civilize both. Unfortunately,no explanations were ever provided as to how these fierce bands of Aryan warriors and their chariots crossed the Hindukush and Himalayan mountains, when centuries later Hannibal failed to successfully cross the much lower Alps!
Reverting to scientific evidence and conclusions:
Archeological evidence proves the following:
The deathblow to the “Aryan theory” comes from the genetics studies done under Dr. Niraj Rai. The conclusions are:
In a further study covering 10,000 samples across India, the team concluded that the R1a gene, the main Haplos in Europe is present all over India. Yet the diversity present in India in this group is 4 times that of Europe.They have timed that this R1a gene has existed in India since 15,500 BCE whilst the oldest samples in Europe date back to 9,000 BCE. Until the Europeans find a sample that predates 15,500 BCE, we have to conclude that they have Indian ancestors and that there was an outward migration from the Indian subcontinent. It also demolishes the concept of Dravidians (Aravindan), as all Indians have a common gene pool and can be classified the same as Aryan, Dravidian or simply Indian.
Premendra Priyadarshi has established that the 12,000-year-old genome of mice originated from India, and mice are found all over the world. Now mice follow grain. It implies that trade with multiple global cities and empires existed, and grain was exported from the Indian subcontinent.
It is recorded in the Rig Veda that the Anu and Druhu tribes migrated from the Punjab area towards Gandhara and onwards around 9,000 BCE. It has been analyzed that the Kushans and Scythians had the R1a gene, implying their ancestors migrated from the Indian region, and then came back to conquer parts of India. They carried their language with them and perhaps came back with a more mature language (Dr. Meenakshi Jain). Similar genetics are found in the Mittani and the Kassites in what is Syria today. They had Vedic names, used Vedic Gods like Indra, Varun and Marut. Incidentally Neferitti, one of the most famous Egyptian queens, was the daughter of a Mittani king.
As Indian citizens we can now understand that British and Islamic writers in times gone by would write the perspective of the conqueror. We can also understand that Chinese travelers would write the perspective of the empire that was hosting their trip. Should our understanding of our own past continue to be based on what we now know as distorted representations? Our present day government must update our history based on facts that are emerging. Lessons from history can only be learnt if
recorded history is factually accurate. We owe that to ourselves.
“Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late.” – William Shakespeare
This quote is brought to life by two young students of DPS RK Puram, AADYA GOSAIN and SAISHA ARORA, who have managed to make the best out of their time during this lock down. While other kids wile away their hours by playing games and binge-watching shows, Aadya and Saisha deserve a round of applause for what they have managed to do. Aspiring to be role models for their peers, they decided to use their time, when they do not have to attend online classes, in a more productive manner.
One fine day, they were contacted by a Designer Charu Arora, who had created a new night-wear collection and wished for the girls to model for the upcoming photoshoot. The girls made sure that this new venture, as exciting as it is, did not interfere with their studies by organising the shoot on a Saturday. This was their first professional shoot and considering how successful it went, there is no stopping these two fierce young girls from achieving what they wish to. At this period, wherein we are confined to our houses with not much to do, most of us have decided to just kick back and relax, but these two young-lings have proven that just because everyone around you is having a good time chilling, does not mean that you are entitled to that as well. The grind does not stop for those who wish to succeed.
It goes on to show that if you have the passion and the drive to make your vision come true, the world is yours, as long as you are willing to invest your blood, sweat and tears into it.
Led by Priyanka, the UP Congress put the SP and BSP to shame when it questioned Adityanath about the crumbling law and order situation in the State and the plight of migrant labourers
Priyanka has stolen the thunder from Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati,” a Samajwadi Party (SP) lawmaker said on telephone. “Everyone is now talking about the Congress Party and Priyanka. Today, the Muslims are more inclined towards the Congress than the Samajwadi Party,” he said.
The lawmaker, who was a Minister during the Akhilesh Yadav regime, was reacting to the political developments in Uttar Pradesh (UP), including the proactive stand taken by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in politics. There were unofficial reports doing the rounds that Priyanka might shift her base to Lucknow from Delhi and people were raving about how she had picked up the gauntlet thrown by Chief Minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath on the law and order issue in the State.
Recent developments have changed the political spectrum of UP. Particularly after a highly politically-connected ganglord killed eight policemen in a village in Kanpur. The incident raised a big question mark on Adityanath’s much-publicised encounters to eliminate local mafia and ganglords. He had even claimed that criminals would be sent to jail or to the house of Yamraj (the Hindu deity of death and justice) if they raise their heads. Despite such major claims by the CM, Vikas Dubey not only survived but also flourished.
Congress leaders were the first to question the UP Government on the issue of law and order. Numerically, the Congress is as small a party as the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party in the UP State Assembly, with just five lawmakers. But, led by Priyanka, the Congress put big parties like the SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to shame when it questioned Yogi Adityanath time and again about the crumbling law and order situation in the State and the plight of migrant labourers, who are being denied work under different Government schemes.
The three parties — the Congress, SP and BSP — enjoy a strange relationship. In the past, they had entered into alliances with one another on many occasions. During the last Assembly election in 2017 the Congress and the SP contested together with the tagline “Do ladke (two boys)” while the SP forged an alliance with the BSP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Despite having a working relationship with each other, the three parties have failed to come together post-Covid-19. Last month when Congress national president Sonia Gandhi called an all-party meeting to chalk out a strategy against the Narendra Modi Government, both Akhilesh and Mayawati preferred to give it a skip.
No explanation was given about missing the meeting and it raised many eyebrows. The question asked was whether it was a political compulsion or a backdoor manoeuvre by the BJP which kept the SP and the BSP away from the meeting? One SP legislator was quoted as saying,“The SP would not go with Sonia because the Congress put up missing Member of Parliament (MP) posters in Azamgarh”, Akhilesh Yadav’s parliamentary constituency.
The developments show that there’s more to this than meets the eye. Sample this: BSP supremo Mayawati was caustic against the Congress when Priyanka offered 1,000 buses to the UP Government to ferry migrant workers to their native places. Her statements reflected the words of BJP leaders. She attacked the Congress for not taking care of migrant workers in its own States — a replication of statements by BJP spokespersons. Priyanka retorted that some political parties were acting as spokespersons of the BJP — an obvious reference to Mayawati. With the rise in Priyanka’s stature, Mayawati feels insecure. She had been the only major woman leader in UP for a quarter of a century. But now she is being challenged by Priyanka. Second, the BSP and the Congress’ vote banks overlap. Dalits and Muslims helped the BSP score 10 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, up from zero in 2014. The Congress hopes to dent these votebanks, which earlier supported it.
Ditto is the case with Akhilesh Yadav. There is a fear in his mind that the Congress’ rise and the popularity of Priyanka among the masses may lead to the downfall of the SP. Of late, he has started virtual meetings with party workers in an attempt to set his house in order. The SP also hit the streets last week on the issue of rise in prices of petrol and diesel, just to keep his party workers involved.
There is a belief in political circles that the BJP wants the emergence of the Congress in the State so that there is trifurcation in the Opposition. This will come in handy during the elections because the BJP is comfortable when it is pitted against a divided house.
An advocate in the Supreme Court Vishwanath Chaturvedi says the Modi Government is using the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to put a leash on the SP and Mayawati. “Do not forget, both Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family are facing CBI enquiries. The CBI is sitting tight on the probes and one signal from Amit Shah could prove detrimental for both these leaders,” he says. SP patriarch Mulayam and his family are facing a Disproportionate Assets (DA) case. The Supreme Court (SC) had ordered a CBI inquiry on March 1, 2007 into the alleged accumulation of DAs by the Yadav family, on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Vishwanath Chaturvedi. The agency filed a status report in 2007 alleging that the Yadavs had Rs 2.63 crore worth of assets which were disproportionate to their declared sources of income, between 1993 and 2005. Of this nearly Rs 1.4 crore is in the name of Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple.
Chaturvedi claims that the CBI had filed a false report in the SC, that it had submitted a final report to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). But when a Right to Information (RTI) application was filed, the CVC said that no final report was submitted to it. As per Chaturvedi, the case against Mulayam and his family is still alive and the CBI is delaying the legal process for obvious reasons.
Same is the case with Mayawati. The CBI had launched a probe into alleged irregularities in the sale of 21 State-owned sugar mills under the Mayawati-led BSP Government in 2010-11. According to a report released by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the exercise caused a loss of Rs 1,179 crore to the State. On April 27, 2019, the CBI filed a case against Mayawati. Yogi Adityanath had on April 12 recommended a CBI probe following the CAG’s disclosure.
Political observers say that it seems like the SP and the BSP are dancing to the tune of the BJP. Till now, the CBI has not moved an inch in Mayawati’s case while in Mulayam’s case, too, the federal Intelligence agency is yet to submit an application in the apex court. If both Mulayam and Mayawati refuse to dance to the BJP’s tune, the Prime Minister will unleash the CBI against them. In the last one year, Priyanka has tried to make the fight one-on-one in UP, which has made Yogi Adityanath nervous.
In July 2019, she staged a protest at Chunar Fort when she went to meet the victims of the July 17 massacre in which 10 tribals were shot dead by the Gram Pradhan (village head) and his cohorts in a village in Sonbhadra over a land deal. Priyanka stayed put in Chunar Fort, forcing the administration to bring the family members of the victims there and let them meet her.
The attack on the BJP was so fierce that the Yogi Government pulled out all records to show that the land deal was carried out during the Congress’ rule. However, the BJP could not shirk responsibility for the murders of the 10 tribals. Extensive damage was done to the image of the UP Government by this incident.
Priyanka again visited UP — this time in February when the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) agitation was at its peak. She met the anti-CAA protesters in Bijnor and Azamgarh — the parliamentary constituency of Akhilesh — and also visited the residence of former IPS officer SR Darapuri, who was arrested during an anti-CAA protest in Lucknow.
In Bijnor she thundered, “Kisi ko Bhartiyata ka pramaan maangne ki ijazat nahi hai (no one has the right to ask for proof of Indianness).” While in Azamgarh, she held a roadshow, driving home the point that people living in India are Indians and they do not need to prove that by showing documents.
Bijnor is considered the citadel of the BSP. Mayawati had won the Lok Sabha election for the first time in 1989 from Bijnor, while in seven Assembly seats the BSP had always maintained an upper hand. In 2019, the BSP won the Lok Sabha seat in Bijnor, too. So, it was a masterstroke by Priyanka to hold rallies and meetings in Bijnor and Azamgarh, both, challenging the SP and BSP leaders on their turf. Thus, the rise of Priyanka has pushed both the SP and the BSP towards the BJP. They would prefer to dance to Modi’s tune rather than strengthening Opposition unity.
(Writer: Biswajeet Banerjee; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The writing on the wall is clear. The paradigms of not only growth and welfare but of survival and safety have to be rewritten
The last 13 weeks or so have been exceptional and unprecedented in experience, reflection and all that goes with it. The dominant theme has been of worry, anxiety and the strange feeling of helplessness, should one be unfortunate enough to be infected with the Coronavirus. The fear of the unknown, coupled with the pressure of several confusing containment operations, cushioned marginally by some precautions, can be a very difficult process to go through. That may be another story for a different day.
The coping experience is yet to be clearly comprehended to be articulated here. A reflection on the time frame mentioned above triggers some thoughts which are a potpourri of notions and emotions, sometimes verging on exasperation. There have been a spate of webinars and obviously this has lubricated the business of communication platforms. They have seldom had it so good. The disinfectant and the medical palliatives industry is booming, the latter particularly on the promises of increasing immunity and giving reserves to combat the dreaded disease. Both the narratives are inductive and in the absence of anything better, rule the roost.
The pharmaceutical industry is much in demand and reportedly the top bosses of the Ministry concerned were working 24×7 to keep the supply chain moving, specially for the export of some formulations. News channels and various media reports have it that the US had mopped up the entire batch of the current global production of Remdesivir. There was a concurrent protest on such matters, because the fear was that other formulations, when perfected for use, may have a similar fate. During this pandemic, one is truly trying to find a response for the unknown and the unpredictable lay of the land. One can only hope for luck.
It is no secret that the global economy has taken one of its worst beatings on all the conventional parameters of economic worth: Output, income and employment. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its sister institutions are not yet out of a job. The World Bank still has its pretensions. This is one area where the Chinese are still to catch up. The parallel institutions they tried to set up as alternatives don’t seem to be firing even on two cylinders. Perhaps the Chinese obsession with creating its 21st century version of the Silk Route, with the Chinese economy being the hub of world economic operations, seems to be the undermining of their efforts.
The Indian economy still seems to be faithful to the traditional platform of sticking to bailouts, doles and largesse. For the economic strategic thinkers, who control this country’s State-oriented growth processes, 2020 could just as well be 2008. The comfort of such thoughts is almost incredibly unreal and yet it can create the happy feeling of “something is being done.”
For those who can see, the writing on the wall is clear. The paradigms of not only growth and welfare but of survival and safety have to be rewritten. Doing a cadence count with rising tariffs and surcharges alternately (and sometimes together) on petrol and diesel does seem to have exhausted its potential.
Yet the conventional economist knows that to be in business he must always tell a story of growth. The present one is that the recovery for 2021 will be 5.8 per cent. The repetitive accuracy of decimal precision these calculations always achieve is amazing. The unhappy sequence that some economists talk of, namely the cycle of contraction, recession and depression, is taken up only by the fringe elements. It’s not even fashionable to debate it anymore. Confidence is rarely sighted. And not enough thought is being given to structural shifts the firms need to be considering.
For that matter, even household behaviour does not seem to have change enough with the times. Many in the household set-up are practicing decontamination and hope to protect themselves from the virus. It is not quite registering that this may need to become the new algorithm. There is a good case for doing so.
The kind of vegetable shopping which takes place, even in normal times, in the filthy cradles near drains in parts of some cities like Mumbai, needs to be stopped once and for all. Hygiene cannot be only a contagion-specific behaviour. A more hygienic and enduring supply chain of daily goods needs to be put in
place for households and this cannot be a Covid-19-based effort alone.
With the disruption of aggregate demands and weaknesses in conventional sources of supply, there was never a better time to recast the survival safety net of human efforts in many parts of India. Deliberately, no claims are being made to an all-India model. That’s because the Indian economy is far too variegated for a one-size-fits-all model. If the current health emergency leavened by economic disruption can impact the structure of demand, reform of capital flow would follow. Commodity prices could be redesigned and an overall more stable platform of everyday operations — both corporate and domestic — could follow.
(Writer: Vinayshil Gautam; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Yet again, speculations have started over elections. They had persisted for four years — on whether or not the Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections would be held simultaneously. Recently, the Uttar Pradesh Government sent its consent to the Central Government on ‘one nation, one election’. The UP Government had formed a committee under the chairmanship of its minister, Sidharth Nath Singh, and it gave its go-ahead for simultaneous elections. The committee also recommended holding local body elections along with the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
Now, questions are being raised over whether elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan — which are scheduled at the end of the year — will be held. Many experts say elections in these States might be postponed. Then there are some who are asking if the Lok Sabha Elections will be held earlier. Some say Narendra Modi and Amit Shah could go for the LS polls at the end of this year.
So, the Assembly Elections in three States might be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. This is a fact that no Government wants to keep its power at stake even for one day. Even if the BJP doesn’t perform well in the three States, it will have at least six months. This is not necessary that if the party doesn’t perform well in the States, it will not perform well at the Centre either. In 2003 and 2008, the BJP had fared well in the States, but had lost at the Centre.
If the Government takes a decision to defer elections in the three States, then President’s rule will have to be imposed and that will have to be ratified by both Houses of Parliament. In this process, the Government might face problems in the Rajya Sabha. Of course, the BJP can take risk if the party wins the election of Vice-Chairman of the Upper House.
Political churning in UP
The SP and BSP are going to sacrifice their interests to give a big jolt to the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, where there are 80 Lok Sabha seats. Akhilesh Yadav has said that he is ready to give the ‘big brother’ status to the BSP in the Lok Sabha Elections. In one sense, he made it clear that the BSP would be fighting on more seats. It is being said that the SP will get more seats in the Assembly polls.
According to the buzz, the BSP will be fighting on half of the Lok Sabha seats ie 40 seats. This is also decided that the BSP will fight on almost all the reserved seats. The remaining 40 seats will be distributed amongst the SP, Congress, and RLD. Probably, the SP will be fighting on 30 seats, the Congress on seven, and the RLD will get only three seats. The Congress is pressing for 10 seats, but will settle for five to seven also. The SP will also not face any problem in leaving these many seats. This is a fact that the SP hasn’t fought in Amethi and Raebareli seats for years. This time, the party will not field its candidate on two or three more seats.
Ajit Singh will pose the real problem, though. If he presses for the five seats he had won in 2009, then things could get tough for other parties. He could also join hands with the BJP. On the other hand, there are rumours that the Congress will fight alone, and this strategy will be used to cut into the BJP’s votes.
Though Akhilesh has agreed to give more seats to the BSP, the SP leaders are still apprehensive. They think that Mayawati can do the same with the SP as she had done with the BJP. This must be noted that in the Nineties, Mayawati had devised a formula of six months with the BJP. But after running the Government for the first six months, she was not ready to hand over the power to the BJP. That is why the SP leaders want the seat-sharing formula for the Assembly polls to be fixed beforehand. Though it is highly unlikely that the BSP will abide by that formula even after agreeing to it in principle.
PRANAB FAMILY’S FUTURE
There are many speculations over the status of Pranab Mukherjee’s family after he visited the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. As soon as he decided to go there, social media was abuzz with the news that his daughter Sarmishtha would be joining the BJP, forcing her to issue a clarification. After that, rumours started on Pranab’s MP son Abhijit, with some saying that he would join the TMC. Now, the family is giving clarifications on Abhijit.
These two rumours, that originated on social media, were picked up by mainstream media, especially TV channels. One news channel put the future strategy of Sarmishtha on air in detail. However, sources close to the family say that neither is Sarmishtha going to the BJP nor is Abhijit headed towards the TMC. Some time ago, Sarmishtha had got an offer from the TMC. This is being said that before the last Rajya Sabha election, Mamata Banerjee had told Sarmishtha that she would be sent to the Rajya Sabha if she joins her party, but Sarmishtha denied. That is why, one of her close aides says that when she didn’t join the TMC at that time, why would she join the BJP now?
As far as Abhijit is concerned, he is an MP from Jangipur seat, which he has won twice. His seat lies in the stronghold area of State Congress President, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. After assurance from Adhir Ranjan, Pranab had fought from this seat and the former had worked hard for the latter’s victory. Abhijit’s victory is also dependent on Adhir. If he goes to the TMC, victory from this seat will be difficult. Abhijit can win from this seat even when the Congress is in a bad situation. That is why it is almost certain that Pranab’s daughter and son will remain with the Congress.
AKHILESH’S TARNISHED IMAGE
Either the family members of Akhilesh Yadav or his personal staffers have made blunders while vacating his bungalow and that will cost dear to his image. Akhilesh himself has erred, and he will have to bear the brunt along with the Opposition. When the Supreme Court had ordered former CMs of the State to vacate their bungalows, Akhilesh had gone to court and demanded two years, which elicited critical reactions from the media. The BJP supporters said Akhilesh wants two years to vacate his bungalow, and he wishes that Modi should change the country in five years!
However, while he sought two years from the court on various pretexts, he also started vacating the bungalow in the meantime. It was said that substantial damage had been done to the bungalow property, including to the tiles and water taps, the pictures of which were splashed all over the media. Now, the SP is giving clarifications over the matter.
Earlier, it was being said that this was the Government’s strategy, and the government machinery had excavated the bungalow when Akhilesh vacated it. After that, Akhilesh said he was ready to give money for all the things which had disappeared from the bungalow. But this is a fact that this news has made a dent into his image, especially among youths.
Writer: Hari shankar vyas
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of. Seek help if you must. Help others when you can
We are living in troubled times. The Coronavirus-induced lockdown and the subsequent economic distress caused due to it has led to bank accounts being drained and previously high-flying careers falling down in the dumps. The emergence of social distancing has meant that for several people, their highly interactive and gregarious life has come to a crashing halt. It is understandable that such a sudden pause, whether it is of incomes or social life, can lead to mental health issues and, thus, suicides and other forms of self-harm. Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s tragic death isn’t the first self-inflicted one of a celebrity during the lockdown. His passing away though is by far and away the most high-profile. It is impossible to know which demons in his head made him take such a step but one should be grateful not just for his career but also that in death, he has shone a light on mental health.
Unfortunately, in India, as a society, we have ignored the perils of poor mental health for far too long. The societal stigma associated with this disorder is overbearing. This makes it impossible for people, particularly those in high-profile industries such as the entertainment industry, to see a doctor as the rumour mill would go into overdrive. In this respect, India fares a lot worse than Western countries, where visiting psychiatrists is an accepted fact of life even though that does not stop those looking to self-harm. To top it all, in India there’s a severe shortage of mental health professionals. But as parents, siblings, friends and colleagues, it is imperative for each and every one of us to keep an eye out on others. Unfortunately, we live in times when relationships have become extremely transactional, not just in the entertainment industry but in other fields as well. Cyber-bullying, too, is rampant on social media, which often drives those, who are not as strong as others, to thoughts of self-harm. Thus, technology companies, especially Facebook and Twitter, have a responsibility towards checking the menace of bullying. If we fall as a child, our parents are there to pick us up. The problem is that we will continue to fall as adults. It is contingent on each of us to pick up those who slip. We should hope that there are those who will help us if we fall as well. Beating up those, who ask for help, is not a solution. Encourage them to seek help and talk to those you can help.
(Courtesy: EDITORIAL – The Pioneer)
If India’s road to economic recovery and self-reliance is predicated on widening the by lanes of the ‘local’, how do we mobilise our universities to contribute to the mission?
In April, even as the country was in the grip of the global pandemic, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) wrote to universities around the country, urging them to study India’s response to the Spanish Flu and to identify those strategies from 1918 that might be replicated in the lockdown-exit plan. Further, the MHRD exhorted universities to set up dedicated research teams to survey the neighbouring villages for their awareness of Covid-19.
In spite of being sincere and noble, these directives tend to underscore, quite unintentionally, a couple of chronic oversights that our institutions have historically suffered from. Perhaps more so now, than in 1918. However, the contemporary clamour over the imperatives of online teaching, calls for technological upgradation of academic institutions, debates about equal access to e-learning portals and the long-term feasibility of such a learning model, given the low-to-moderate success of India’s already sizable distant learning programmes, have completely drowned out these other questions of greater import.
As our economy limps back to its routine after undergoing an extended hard lock down from March 25, what precise roles and tasks should we delegate to our universities and research institutes? If India’s road to economic recovery and self-reliance is predicated on widening the by lanes of the “local”, how do we mobilise our universities to contribute to the mission? Perhaps an honest acknowledgment of our shortcomings would be a useful plank to take off from. Of the two aforementioned instructions sent by the MHRD, the first draws upon an assumption that the older city universities, such as those in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Banaras, would have archives detailing the colonial administration’s handling of the Spanish Flu epidemic.
Admittedly, as a people, we aren’t too good at record-keeping. In spite of the annual reports and the college magazines, our educational institutions haven’t really fared too well when it comes to documenting their own activities and achievements, let alone those of the Government and such. It is only in the last five or six years — thanks to the compulsion of submitting detailed reports to various accreditation bodies — that the process of meticulous documentation and archiving has come into effect.
The second directive, at least in theory, seeks to alert academic and research institutions to their own geo-cultural location. We must be candid in admitting that in a bid to have an exceedingly “national” character, Indian universities have often ignored the uniqueness of their respective locations. This oversight is more pronounced in the Central universities. An engagement with the local — its needs, its history, its practices as well as its knowledge traditions — if harnessed well, would have reaped great dividends. Unfortunately, this remains a major omission both in syllabi and institutional outlook. Before we assign responsibilities to our universities and seek to realign their priorities, we must address both of the aforementioned concerns. Further, we must begin by asking as to what it is that the “local” needs the most in these tumultuous times and in the uncertain future that we anticipate with much trepidation.
Here, the experience of Hollywood, probably one of the most spontaneous-yet-organised industries in the world, has an important lesson for us. Prior to the outbreak of the Spanish Flu, the business of movie-making in the US thrived on a partnership of sorts between film-makers and independent exhibitors. The family-run “mom-and-pop” theatres, which had mushroomed throughout the US, had propelled the small-time local exhibitors on a somewhat level playing field with the big city-based producers.
However, once the prolonged lock down threw the subsistence economy of these theatres into a spin, a man named Adolph Zukor, a Hungarian-American film producer, started preying on their vulnerability and launched a vicious acquisition drive. He bullied the theatre owners into selling off their assets at throwaway prices and established a total monopoly by extending his control over every link in the business chain. Zukor succeeded in altering forever the participative character of the American film industry and turning it into a highly centralised trade that refused to factor in spaces outside Los Angeles. This structure of production and control that was set in place during the pandemic and has produced the likes of Harvey Weinstein remains virtually untouched till date.
As India aims for economic recovery through strategies of self-reliance and power to the small and cottage businesses, it must remain vigilant of such predatory monopolising tendencies. We need to guard our at-risk local players against hawkish forces that threatened to render them inconsequential. This has to be done through a combination of financial assistance and skill up-gradation. While the Government has announced a detailed economic package, a road map for recalibrating the retreating workforce towards the needs of the rural economy remains to be thrashed out.
It is precisely in this context that the role of universities in Post-Covid India may be best framed. Universities must start by identifying problems specific to the workforce and businesses around their locations, devise contingency measures to help them survive the immediate crisis and, in the long run, find ways to enable them to contribute robustly to our economic revival. To this effect, the following suggestions may be of interest. First, the massive labour movement in the weeks following the lock down has propelled back into the limelight certain constituents of our economy that were becoming increasing invisible. After decades of focus on heavy industries, mega infrastructure projects, IT hubs and the service sector, we are once again looking at the rural economy and agriculture.
Under the circumstances, it is important that our universities, agricultural research institutes and departments of agriculture, horticulture and botany leverage their research output to the local farmers. This, in turn, would entail training a batch of individuals from the nearby villages who, by virtue of being familiar with both scientific terminologies and the local idiom, can establish a bridge between researchers at a regional centre and the farming community that thrives in its vicinity.
A successful model for such an enterprise has already been put in place by an Odisha-based organisation called Back to Village (B2V). Through its chain of Unnat Krishi Kendras, which provide scientific training to young farmers and college graduates with roots in the villages, B2V has succeeded in establishing a dialogue among universities, researchers and farmers. It will be expected of the universities to find ways to open up such knowledge traffic and further diversify the scope of their outreach to other aspects of the agricultural economy such as food processing, packaging, warehousing, transportation and so on.
Second, universities must try to read the sociology of the regional economy by extensively mapping and documenting local business trends, practices, market orientations and gaps in the production chain. Besides being of immense value to policymakers, both at times of crisis (the current one and in the future) and otherwise, such data would embolden the universities themselves to launch short-term skill enhancement courses, bearing in mind the specific needs of the local workforce. Easing age-restriction and other admission-linked eligibilities will promote learning opportunities outside the curriculum and extend them to those learners, who aren’t necessarily a part of the regular academic programmes. This will go a long way in empowering the migrant population that has swarmed backed to the villages and is now staring at joblessness and a bleak future.
Third, on the strength of the aforementioned data, each university must endeavour to establish at least one centre dedicated exclusively to local history, trends and resources. For example, universities in States like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh can establish centres for the promotion of the tribal economy, while those in Punjab and Haryana can focus on sports. By providing market linkages, devising strategies for product-promotion, organising trader-policymaker meets and continuously leveraging their in-house research findings, such centres may trigger new business trends that would be naturally sustainable and might even prevent large-scale migration to urban centres once the pandemic ends.
However, in a bid to become “vocal for local”, institutions must not end up usurping the local’s right to speak for itself. Mechanisms for routine interactions with stakeholders from the local community and factoring in their feedback while assigning research goals must be institutionalised. If we must speak for the local, it is imperative that we know its language too. Then and only then can we move towards a resurgent India that is truly self-reliant.
(Writer: Gautam Choubey; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The number of Gir lions has gone up by 29 per cent but with a shrinking habitat, man-animal conflicts remain a challenge
If there has been one silver lining through the dark clouds of the pandemic, it has been of the resurgence and healing of nature. Now there is more good news on that front. The numbers of the majestic Asiatic Lion, which was once threatened by extinction, are up by almost 29 per cent in Gujarat’s Gir forest. Geographically, too, the distribution area is up by 36 per cent. Their numbers have now risen to an estimated 674 in protected areas and agro-pastoral landscapes of Saurashtra, over an expanse of about 30,000 sq km. Although lions have been increasing steadily from 523 in 2015, they have also fallen victim to human-animal conflict, partly due to the fragmentation of their habitat and encroachment. This had resulted in them spilling out of their ranges and almost co-habiting with villagers, letting go of their feline aggression for a tamer behaviour. More lions had been straying into human settlements in the absence of a transit corridor to an alternative home. Sometimes, they were run over by trains. Then some of them fell prey to Canine Distemper Virus (CDV), protozoa infections and territorial fights because of the shrinking forest. But since then conservation efforts have been stepped up through community participation, technological mapping, habitat management, encouraging prey base, minimising human-lion conflict and better healthcare, including import of CDV vaccines. So now there are 161 males, 260 females, 45 sub-adult males, 49 sub-adult females, 22 unidentified and 137 cubs. However, even as there is reason to celebrate every big cat birth and survival, this also makes us confront the age-old questions of the sustainability of such large carnivore populations. Since the protected area and agro-pastoral landscapes are at maximum capacity already, it is only a matter of time before the lions wander farther off in search of roaming territory. How will the community deal with a growing population of carnivores given the fact that the 2015 census clearly shows that the lion population grew by 126 per cent outside the Gir Protected Area? Till now, Gujarat has been handling this efficiently by letting the lions prey on livestock and compensating the farmers promptly. But is this a permanent solution? Because, according to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the number of villages where lions kill livestock is increasing by about 100 each year. So if the authorities don’t revise the compensation rates in keeping with the current market price of cattle, and if they fail to give the money promptly, then the farmers will lose patience and we will again be left with a major man-animal conflict on our hands. Also, wildlife experts say that increased interaction between humans and the big cats is very detrimental for the latter as they learn to live in human settlements and turn into scavengers rather than hunters.
So the Government needs to create more lion-safe areas, if not protected ones. The WII’s Lion Ecology Project has charted forest patches where lionesses can rear cubs and hunt for them. These should be legally protected against conversion into agricultural land or development zones. There is need to build overpasses or underpasses where railway tracks cut through habitats, allowing the animals the right of way safely. And some relocation sites should be planned in contiguity with neighbouring State reserves if we want to swell our pride.
(Courtesy: EDITOR,The Pioneer)
China’s recent actions at the LAC have only gone to prove the long-term and diverse strategies that the nation follows
China is doing what it does best — confuse and confound. Its recent actions have only gone to prove the long-term and diverse strategies that the nation follows. It began with the sequential escalation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at Naku La in Sikkim and then at Pangong Tso in Ladakh. This has been followed by a face-off at the Galwan Valley in the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector of the LAC in Ladakh. The activities, with soldiers engaged on three border points, have the potential to escalate due to the intrinsic linkages between and the changed circumstances of the present clashes from the earlier incidents. There were also some indirect actions on both sides that have been in focus like the objection by Nepal to the development and inauguration of the road from Dharchula to Lipulekh pass in Uttarakhand. This is despite an agreement between India and China to have trade across the pass in the tri-junction of Nepal-India-China. Beijing accepted the pass as one of the commercial and cultural transit points with India under its 1954 Peace and Tranquility Agreement. This was reiterated when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China in 2015. The route has deep-rooted spiritual and civilisational significance for India. In contrast, the recent broadcasting of weather reports of Gilgit-Baltistan on Indian news channels and the pre-conditions set for Foreign Direct Investment in segments of the Indian economy have definitely upped the ante for the Chinese.
The three sectors where India and China have recurrence of disputes are in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Ladakh. The Arunachal sector is largely dormant despite China’s claim to the entire State. The Sikkim sector is strategic as any Chinese road and infrastructure development in its proximity can threaten the narrow Siliguri Corridor which is the gateway from India to the seven States of North-East India. The Doklam stand-off for 73 days from June to August 2017 amply demonstrated the strategic relevance of this sector.
It is in the Ladakh sector that the geo-strategic implications of the face-off and incursions assume significance. The Chinese have made an immense investment of $62 billion in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. Recent assertions by India on its right to Gilgit- Baltistan through which the CPEC passes on its way to the Karakoram Pass in the Shaksgam valley (illegally conceded by Pakistan to China) have obviously rocked the boat. China does not make short-term tactical moves without a long-term plan which may unfold in the winter when terrain and weather put India at a disadvantage. Unlike Doklam, where the Chinese movement was restricted to the single track which they were trying to develop along a narrow valley, in Ladakh the LAC is open and rugged. There are various “disputed areas” and “areas of differing perceptions” from the DBO in the north to Fukche in the south (the point of entry of the Indus river from Tibet to India). The scene of the recent scuffle has been on the banks of the Pangong Tso Lake. Its centrality to the entire LAC in Ladakh and proximity to the Spanggur Gap and Chushul make the south bank of the lake a secure flank for large-scale moves by the Chinese. Hence, it holds operational importance to both armies.
The western Ladakh region of DBO provides a buffer against Chinese direct access to Shaksgam valley and the Siachen heights. India therefore, strongly holds on to DBO. Here the Galwan valley has witnessed similar stand-offs in the past with Chinese encampments detected far inside the alignment of the LAC into the valley. Strong deployments along the Line of Control (LoC) at Kargil and Drass opposite Pakistan have also to be maintained by India at all times. Reinforcements and additional forces will perforce have to be moved into Ladakh mostly from the plains and will require acclimatisation to operate in high-altitude areas of 11,000 to 16,000 feet. Logistics and sustenance of forces are a key factor, especially in Ladakh.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) forces involved in the skirmishes are not their regular army but the Border Defence Regiments (BDR) backed by PLA garrisons and camps with acclimatised troops along the Chinese East-West Highway. In contrast, Indian regular troops get sucked in as reinforcements and readjustments of command and control are necessitated as the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force (ITBP) readjusts from its border posts held in peacetime.
Hence, two imperatives for the Department of Military Affairs and Ministry of Defence to resolve in the present will be in the fields of command and control of border management forces and logistic preparedness. The office of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is best suited to resolve intra-service coordination of both areas as also inter-ministerial resolution of the command and control lacunae of forces on the LAC. India’s approach must include a myriad of agencies and all elements of national power. The annual defence allocations have been shrinking regularly (experts say the percentage available for modernisation has shrunk from 40 per cent to almost 32 per cent) and cannot sustain the human and equipment inventory needed to effectively deter China. In such a situation and in the post-Corona reduced resource basket, the prioritisation of requirements rather than a dilution of weapon qualitative requirements, is recommended. There must be a push towards operationalising the Rohtang tunnel to full capacity especially in view of logistic sustenance and troop reinforcements for the road closed period starting in November.
(Writer: Amrit Pal Singh; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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