tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-201190362024-02-03T03:12:33.784+05:30BHASKARBHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.comBlogger1488125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-87592362648161966882020-09-29T12:54:00.000+05:302020-09-29T12:54:37.693+05:30<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">An event in the history of Malayalam television </span><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0d3WTxRmEcy8qnISXx64qmvHTa2Rn6XNnvx24nuPyFA9JEcVdITaLk4-No-wMHHkNrsNOtmbxfPkGpctOZK8z5sQZTFDHe8nlI_7zsGWDWXsptxTqpWGN0VVIh_9hWsl7XywF/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="620" height="369" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0d3WTxRmEcy8qnISXx64qmvHTa2Rn6XNnvx24nuPyFA9JEcVdITaLk4-No-wMHHkNrsNOtmbxfPkGpctOZK8z5sQZTFDHe8nlI_7zsGWDWXsptxTqpWGN0VVIh_9hWsl7XywF/w551-h369/image.png" width="551" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Sashi Kumar</i></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Tomorrow, September 30, marks the 25<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of Malayalam television channel Asianet’s first news telecast. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">That, incidentally, was also the first live newscast
by any private Indian channel. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Promoted by Sashi Kumar, former chief of Press
Trust of India’s TV division, Asianet began telecasts in August 1993. It was
the first private Indian channel to go on air. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Sashi Kumar had conceived Asianet satellite
operations as a PTI project. But the owners of PTI, who are all newspaper
owners, rejected it. He then quit PTI and promoted it, not in the original
form, but as a Malayalam satellite channel project. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The government did not permit uplinking from India at
that time. Sashi Kumar got over the problem with his uncle and co-promoter,
Reji Menon, a Moscow-based businessman, making arrangements with an outfit at
Subic Bay in the Philippines to uplink the programmes and with a Russian agency
to pick up up the signals and make them available in India.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">At least two private satellite channels, Zee in
Hindi and Sun in Tamil, began telecast of news bulletins before Asianet did. In
the absence of uplink facility, they recorded the bulletin ahead of the telecast
time and transmitted it through VSNL to
the uplink centre.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Sashi Kumar was of the view that a news bulletin
must be live. So he decided to send Asianet’s news readers to Subic Bay. The
bulletins prepared by the desk, based at Thiruvananthapuram, were telexed to
the studio at Subic Bay. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">After a brief inaugural ceremony at a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram, the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting,
P.M. Saeed, switched on a television a set and the face of A. Pramod, who was
at the Subic Bay studio, appeared on the screen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjop0y6b-rTE5k-ue3Pwy50fW3YhOC4zJ6VSLYYjgHkv-U2rI5jGNTtGEZfmAX_hpZLPTpw5PwBz3X3DO9Xp7ZKYI6SCjgYTNMG-eV_6wISaf_18nnPJuvu1kz0y-2aEODsCBhV/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="753" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjop0y6b-rTE5k-ue3Pwy50fW3YhOC4zJ6VSLYYjgHkv-U2rI5jGNTtGEZfmAX_hpZLPTpw5PwBz3X3DO9Xp7ZKYI6SCjgYTNMG-eV_6wISaf_18nnPJuvu1kz0y-2aEODsCBhV/w578-h375/image.png" width="578" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><i> Left: Screen image of A. Promod reading Asianet's first news bulletin on September 30,1995. Right: A recent picture of Promod, now Coordimnating Editor of Manorama News. ( Images Courtsey The News Minute)</i><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The 25 years that have passed since then have seen the
birth of many more channels and the death of some.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Reji Menon ousted Sashi Kumar and took control of
Asianet only to sell it to Rajiv
Chandrasesskhar, a Bangaluru-based businessman turned politician. He in turn
sold to Murdoch’s Star group all but the News Division. He is now a BJP MP and its official
spokesman.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Sashi Kumar went on to establish the Asian College
of Journalism in Chennai. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">A. Pramod, now better
known as Pramod Raman, is Coordinating Editor of Manorama News.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-74519002446994112162020-09-04T16:02:00.000+05:302020-09-04T16:02:15.536+05:30<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIaStNVeMd7McFGvuXcPekFHPylRWb6qMwLUs3bn6Zb4QgfHzHtmzQkOMz986Zq51kKfQKF3tTrXax2MsC-45Uq9NIi89Bb0S21Rkk0ePs9pr1cG7CwdGY9ygRs_ckFIpO4XdA/s800/Narayana+Guru+seated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="595" height="625" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIaStNVeMd7McFGvuXcPekFHPylRWb6qMwLUs3bn6Zb4QgfHzHtmzQkOMz986Zq51kKfQKF3tTrXax2MsC-45Uq9NIi89Bb0S21Rkk0ePs9pr1cG7CwdGY9ygRs_ckFIpO4XdA/w466-h625/Narayana+Guru+seated.jpg" width="466" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Sree Narayana Guuru</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Unmaking of Kerala’s Renaissance<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 0cm 1.0pt 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This
is a sequel to “The Pioneers of Kerala’s Renaissance,” posted here on September
2.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Efforts to undo the work of Sree Narayana Guru and
Mahatma Ayyankali began in their lifetime itself. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In keeping with the Guru’s all-embracing approach,
membership of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam was open to all. But
its functionaries by and large enrolled only members of the Ezhava community,
in which the Guru was born. It thus soon took the form of a caste organization
and limited its activities to promoting the interests of that community.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Guru disapproved of this approach and stayed
away from it. Subsequently he made a public announcement that he was removing the
Ypgam from his mind. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He said that because he was born in a particular
caste and religion, some people think he belongs to that caste and religion. He
had left caste and religion behind, and did not now belong to any caste or
religion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The concept of transcending caste and religion of
birth was something small minds nurtured on sectarianism could not even comprehend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Eminent Malayalam poet, N. Kumaran Asan, who was the
first General Secretary of the Yogam. wrote a poem deifying the Guru. In many
Ezhava homes his picture found a place in the prayer room. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After he dissociated himself from the Yogam, the
Guru devoted attention mainly to Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham, an order of
sanyasis, which he set up to continue his mission. He enrolled in the Sangham
members of all castes. They included several members of the Nair community, a Sudra group on which the
Brahmins had conferred upper caste status in recognition of its collaborative
role in enforcing the caste system in Kerala society, which bore the imprint of
Buddhist and Jain traditions, , probably around the 10<sup>th</sup> or 12<sup>th</sup>
century. One of them, Swami Sathyavrathan, was the Guru’s choice as his
successor. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sathyavrathan’s story is similar to that of St. Paul
who was a persecutor of Christians before he accepted Jesus as the saviour. Sathyavrathan
had led Nair brigades against Ezhavas seeking to assert their rights, but had a
change of heart and became a disciple of the Guru. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dalit boys from around his Ashram in Varkala were
among those whom he admitted to the order. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Casteism raised its ugly head in the Sangham too.
Disillusioned with it, he went away to Tamil Nadu but was persuaded by his
followers to return to Varkala. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Most of his life the Guru wore white dhoti and white
upper cloth. He switched to ochre robes in his last days. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr. P. Natarajan, who was a lay disciple in the
Guru’s lifetime, wanted to join the Sangham but was not accepted. He then formed
a new order, styled as Sree Narayana Gurukulam. It was from Nataraja Guru, as
he came to be known, that I learnt why he switch from white to ochre. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Guru had a lot of property in his name, all
gifts made by devotees and admirers. He wanted the property to go to the
Sangham. He was told that only if he was recognized as a sanyasi would the property
go the Sangham. There were court judgements laying down criteria for
determining if one is a sanyasi. One of them says a sanyasi is a habitual
bearer of ochre robes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Early stalwarts of the Yogam like T.K. Madhavan and
C. Kesavan became leaders of the Congress as it emrged as the spearhead of the
freedom movement. After the Guru’s
passing, the Dewan, C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar, weaned the Yogam’s leaders as well as
those of the Nair community’s Nair Service Society away from the Congress to
bolster the position of the Maharaja’s regime. When freedom came, realizing
they are on the wrong side of history, the NSS and the Yogam withdrew from the
political arena, leaving it to the Congress to look after their interests.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar damaged the Dalit movement too.
Ayyankali’s Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham was not a caste organization, but, as
its name suggests, a platform of all poor. His son-i-law, T.T. Kesava Sasthri,
whom the Dewan nominated to the State Assembly, floated a caste organization,
Pulaya Mahasabha. When Maharaja’s rule ended, it too switched allegiance to the
Congress. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When the Communist Party of India, recognizing the
influence of the caste organizations, deputed its members to capture them for the
party. E.M.S. Namboodiripad, who was tasked to woo the Yogakshema Sabha of the
Malayali Brahmin community, became its president. P. Gangadharan who was sent
to capture the SNDI Yogam failed in the mission. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While first the Dewan and then the Congress won the
loyalty of the leaders of the caste parties by offering loaves, the Ezhava and
Dalit masses, who were radicalized by the Sree Narayana and Ayyankali movements,
did not follow them. They lined up behind the Communist movement, which they
presumed were more likely to usher in the ideal society envisaged by the
renaissance leaders. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The CPI’s coming to power in 1957 in Kerala represents
the high point of the renaissance movement at the political level. The land and
education reform measures of the government appeared to fulfil the expectations
of the marginalized sections. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But that was not to be. Even before the two measures
could be implemented the government was brought down by an agitation in which
the leadership of caste organizations joined hands with the Congress. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In 1958, Namboodiripad, as Chief Minister, made a
daring frontal attack on reservation in the services, which was a major gain of
the renaissance movement. (Note that reservation was introduced in the princely
states before India became free, before the Constitution was gramed, and of
course before the Mandal Commission was even thought of.) An administrative reform committee with
Namboodirpad himself as the chairman came out with a report against
reservation, saying it destroys efficiency. (Note that this was after the
Constitution provided for reservation for socially and educationally backward
classes of people.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The rank and file of the CPI was unable to raise its
voice against Namboodiripad’s championing of caste supremacists’merit theory.
But he could not go ahead with the mischievous idea after K. Sukumaran, Editor
of Kerala Kaumudi, the only newspaper which
was friendly to the Communist government, blasted it in Namboodiripad’s
presence at a public meeting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sukumaran pointed out that the Namoodirpad committee,
which made the recommendation against reservation, did not have any one from
the main OBC groups (Ezhavas and Muslims) or the Dalit community. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After the Communist Party split, as leader of the CPM,
Nambiidiripad came up with the idea of economic reservation to vitiate the
system of reservation which was aimed at addressing social and educational backwardness.
The CPM accepted his line at the all-India
level, and it is now in force in Kerala.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The eligibility criteria laid down for economic
reservation lay bare the mischievous intent of the government. If one’s family
earns up to Rs 4 lakhs in a year and owns up to 2.5 acres (in a village) or 50
cents (in a city) one is still an upper caste poor! For all other purposes, one
is reckoned as poor if the family’s monthly income is below Rs, 1,059 (in rural
area) or Rs.1,286 (in urban area).<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-59528782450187069502020-09-02T09:42:00.001+05:302020-09-02T09:42:35.638+05:30<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ8XqCUrFadGOAeB4phnIPcfpDaqOsNk0Yo1IYSVu-T1JSvRYiHfULhkfnOyDnbjcYbbgEzlPQIEwBboC193wPK3jx2FqJYX5a0pPXqMPdGkoTfODRurBeXGyjrqTIv6kegvBL/s260/Sri+Narayana+Guru.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ8XqCUrFadGOAeB4phnIPcfpDaqOsNk0Yo1IYSVu-T1JSvRYiHfULhkfnOyDnbjcYbbgEzlPQIEwBboC193wPK3jx2FqJYX5a0pPXqMPdGkoTfODRurBeXGyjrqTIv6kegvBL/s0/Sri+Narayana+Guru.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Sri Narayana Guru</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc239Wy7fB2mLJShDCip6ylGG_nHBjq5ymAJADXj3WBlyjHmCBKSZ2cCZuEabigbWy4GReKuHiquZVhrnZt2jftl_MUD7gfAIXn9n31wuLt1v9vkUp3aU0k1d6FsU4JlhVs_QO/s386/Ayyankali+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc239Wy7fB2mLJShDCip6ylGG_nHBjq5ymAJADXj3WBlyjHmCBKSZ2cCZuEabigbWy4GReKuHiquZVhrnZt2jftl_MUD7gfAIXn9n31wuLt1v9vkUp3aU0k1d6FsU4JlhVs_QO/s0/Ayyankali+2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Mahatma Ayyankali </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Pioneers of Kerala’s
Renaissance</span></p></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Today, the fourth day of
Onam, is the birth anniversary of Narayana Guru, the tallest figure of the renaissance
movement, which put Kerala ahead of the rest of India in terms of social development.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">On this day in 1855 Nanu,
who in the fullness of time came to be revered as Sree Narayana Guru, was born in a backward
class family on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Eight years later, also
during the Onam season, a Dalit boy, Ayyanhali, was born at Venganoor, another village
near Thiruvananthapuram. He came to be hailed by Kerala’s dispossessed as a
Mahatma.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">After receiving a
traditional education, Nanu opted for a life of asceticism. At the age of 33,
he sent shock waves through the citadels of orthodoxy by picking up a stone
from a river bed, consecrating it as a Shiva idol and installing it in a
makeshift temple at Aruvippuram. While entry to temples under the control of
the Maharaja’s regime was limited to those in the higher echelons of the caste
hierarchy, this one was open to all, regardless of caste and creed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He hung a handwritten
placard with these words on a tree nearby: “This is a model place where all
live in fraternity without caste differences and religious hatred.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It later gained
recognition as the objective of the evolving Kerala renaissance. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Priesthood challenged
his right to consecrate an idol. He dismissed their objections, saying, “This
is our Shiva”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Later he built more
temples at various places in response to requests from people, whom caste
supremacists kept out of their temples. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Over the years he spelt
out the cardinal principles of his model state in a few aphorisms: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">--Ask not, Say not,
Think not Caste.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">-- One Caste, One
Religion, one God for mankind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">-- Whatever the
religion, one must be a good human being. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">-- Caste, religion,
dress, language - these should not divide human beings. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He explained the ‘one religion’
concept by pointing out that the essence of all religions is the same.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He urged the people to
get enlightened through education and prosper through agriculture and industry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">At the instance of Dr.
P. Palpu, a qualified medical professional who joined Mysore government service
after being denied a job in Travancore on grounds of caste, he set up the Sree
Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, with himself as President, to propagate his
ideals. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A special feature of the
Yogam’s second annual session held at Kollam in 1904 was an industrial
exhibition, said to be the third after those held in London and Paris in the 19<sup>th</sup>
century. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the Census Report of
1911 the Travancore government acknowledged the beneficial results of the
Guru’s social activities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Yogam leader T.K.
Madhavan was instrumental in persuading the Congress at its 1923 session at
Kakinada to organize a satyagraha to press the demand for throwing open the
roads around the Mahadeva temple at Vaikom to all. Members of the so-called
lower castes were not allowed to use those roads. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Gandhi visited Vaikom
during the satyagraha. On that visit, he also called on Narayana Guru at
Varkala. They spoke with the help of an interpreter. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The conversation began
with Gandhi asking if the Guru knew English, and his saying no. The Guru then
asked if the Mahatma knew Sanskrit, and he too said no.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">With large-scale
conversions to other faiths in the region in his mind, Gandhi asked whether the
Guru did not consider Hinduism sufficient for attaining salvation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Any religion is sufficient,” said the Guru.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">After Gandhi repeated
the question twice, the Guru gave him the answer he was angling for. “Hinduism
is also sufficient,” he said.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">While addressing a
public meeting at the Guru’s Ashram, Gandhi offered a facetious justification
for inequalities in society. Pointing to the leaves of a tree, he said, “Look
at those leaves. They are not all of the same size.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Speaking later, the Guru
said the leaves of all size will have the same taste,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> At Vaikon, for months three satyagrahis, one
Caste Hindu, one OBC man and one Dalit, courted arrest each day. The Maharaja’s
police and the temple high priest’s goons belaboured the OBC and Dalit
satyagrahis. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Akali Dal ran a
langar at the satyagraha camp.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The satyagraha ended
without a formal settlement. Once it ended and the police and the goons left,
the ban died a quiet death. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ayyankali had no formal
education, for there was no school he could go to. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In 1893at the age of 30,
he threw away the loin cloth the Dalits were required to wear and started dressing
the way members of the so-called upper castes did. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He bought a bullock cart
and rode in it through public thoroughfares defying the rule that barred
members of his community from using a vehicle. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">At a time when there
were no political parties or trade unions, Ayyankali oganized a strike by Dalit
farm workers in support of the demand for educational facilities for their
children. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Caste supremacists burnt
down a school set up for Dalits. When the Dewan ordered that Dalit children be
admitted to government schools, Caste Hindus threated to pull out their
children. The Dewan then instructed the teachers to continue work with only
Dalit students. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ayyankali told Gandhi he
wanted to see ten graduates in his community. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Naharaja’s
government nominated Ayyankali as a member of the State Assembly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">First-hand accounts of
foreigners testifying to the extremely cruel and oppressive conditions under
princely rule in the 19th century are available. Women of the so-called lower
castes were forced to go topless in public. The socially disadvantaged groups bore
the brunt of the tax burden. There was a breast ax on women and head tax on
men. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The first woman martyr
of the campaign for social justice was Nangeni of Cherthala who cut off a
breast and flung it at the tax collector. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">With the spread of
modern education, largely due to the efforts of Christian missionaries, campaigns
against atrocities began. They became widespread under the impact of the
movements of Narayana Guru and Mahatma Ayyankali.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The period also saw
reform movements among Christians and Muslims.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Kerala renaissance
movement was essentially the coming together of reform movements to create a
progressive society. The political parties
came later. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Thanks to the early
gains of the renaissance, Kerala provided the only Dalit woman member of the Constituent
Assembly, the first Dalit President and the first Dalit Chief Justice of India.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Like the Bengal
renaissance, which is sometimes referred to as the Indian renaissance, the
Kerala movement was sparked by the spread of English education. But, unlike in
Bengal, reform movements did not begin and end with the so-called upper castes
in Kerala. On the contrary, the movements
originated among the lower strata of society and travelled upwards. Within the
Hindu fold, the first stirrings started with the founding of Sri Narayana’s and
Ayyankali’s organizations. The Nairs and the Namboodiris mobilized themselves
later, realizing they would be left behind if they did not change their ways.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Today the Kerala
renaissance is in reverse gear. How that happened deserved to be dealt with at
some length. So it must wait. It will be
the subject of an article to follow. <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p><br /></p>BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-66663250701714110412020-07-05T18:28:00.000+05:302020-07-05T18:31:20.419+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h2 style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">The Wonder Girl of Coorg</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When I joined The Hindu as a trainee in 1952, its editorial department was as hierarchical as any government department. The first assignment of every newcomer was preparing the Today’s Engagements column of the next day’s City edition, drawing material from communications received from organizers of various public functions. The work would not take all of six hours. But since the trainee is not given any other work he would stretch it across the six-hour shift.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">On being relieved from the Today’s Engagements drudgery, the trainee gets the opportunity to edit copy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Initially he works at the Regional Desk, which handles reports from correspondents, who may be staffers or stringers, in the Southern states. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">One day, when I was handling news from the then states of Mysore and Coorg, I received a report from the Mercara (now Madikeri) correspondent which did not appear credible to me.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It said Dhanalakshmi, an 18-year-old girl, was not taking food or drinking water for some time. She was, however, able to do all the work a girl of her age normally does. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I had just completed a year as Editorial Trainee and become a probationary Sub-Editor. Someone at that level was not supposed to exercise judgment independently. So I conveyed my reservations about the report to C.R. Krishnaswamy, the seniormost of the three News Editors. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">“He is a good reporter,” said CRK. “The report must be correct. Give it.” </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I was disappointed with his ruling. If we believe the report must we not publish it prominently with a photograph of the girl, I asked him.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In those days, howsoever big a story, The Hindu gave it only single-column headlines. The big stories of the day will earn three-deck headlines, all in one column. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The report of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination too was subjected to the rigid single-column rule. However, the next day it was decided at the highest level to make a one-time exception and carry the report of the funeral with a banner headline. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I didn’t think Dhanalakshmi qualified for anything more than a single-column heading under the established rule. That was why I suggested using her photograph to give prominence to the report. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">CRK told me he would send a telegram to the correspondent asking for a photograph of the girl and we could use it with a follow-up story. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bowing to the News Editor’s decision, I edited the copy, and the report appeared in the next day’s edition. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Several Indian and foreign newspapers picked up the story. Among them was The Times of London.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Dhanalakshmi quickly achieved fame worldwide. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Mercara correspondent sent a photograph of her, and it was used it with a later report. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">People started going to Mercara to see the Wonder Girl. Among them were a few dignitaries, like A.S.P. Aiyar, ICS, a judge of the Madras High Court. A report quoted him as saying Dhanalakshmi had acquired a secret known to saints of old. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In the Lok Sabha, a member raised the issue during question hour. If the secret of Dhanalakshmi’s ability to live without eating was found the nation could solve the problem of food scarcity, he said. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said he would ask the Bangalore Medical College to look into the matter.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Accordingly, Dhanalakshmi was admitted to the Medical College hospital for observation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">One night the hospital authorities reported they had caught Dhanalakshmi’s brother while trying to smuggle food items into her room.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That was the end of the story of the Wonder Girl of Coorg. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I must say here I hold C.R. Krishnaswamy in high esteem. He came to the office every morning with a copy of the day’s paper marking all the mistakes he had noticed. Going through the marked paper daily was a g<span style="color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit;">reat learning experience. </span><span style="color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit;">In the case of the Wonder Girl he erred because of his immense trust in the reporter.</span></span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-70048064294222937072020-06-23T20:52:00.000+05:302020-06-23T21:01:12.058+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Waiting for A Miracle<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><img alt="LOURDES CATHEDRAL, THRISSUR" height="640" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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width="528" /></span></div>
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Lourdes Cathedral, Thrissur, Kerala<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was at the Ernakulam bus station to catch a bus to Aluva. I
had come to the town the previous day from Aluva, where I was on a holiday, to
meet some friends, and had been persuaded to spend the night there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=20119036" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=20119036" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=20119036" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=20119036" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Since it was Sunday morning, I didn’t expect the buses to be
crowded. But the first bus that pulled up was heavily packed. Since I had only
a short distance to travel, I boarded it anyway. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the animated conversation of the passengers I gathered
that they were from Pala and were going to Thrissur for a vision of the Virgin
Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">I then remembered that a few weeks ago, Deepika, the
Kottayam newspaper owned by the Catholic Church, had reported that the Virgin Mary
was appearing every month before two children at a church in Thrissur. The
report had mentioned the date of the next appearance too. I decided to go with
them to Thrissur to witness the miracle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When the bus reached Aluva, I did not get down. Instead I bought
a ticket to Thrissur.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was a college
student at that tme, not a journalist. But
it can be said that I already had a toehold in the press. My father was running
a Malayalam newspaper, Navabharatham, from Thiruvananthapuram. It had accepted
and published a short political article which I had mailed to it under an
assumed name and address. When Jawaharlal Nehru visited Thiruvananthapuram, I
had gone to the airport and the paper’s Chief Reporter had let me write the
report of the reception to the Prime Minister. When Deputy Prime Minister
Vallabhbhai Patel visited Kochi, my father asked me if I wold like to report the
event and I had covered his activities there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But I must confess I went to Thrissur with a sceptic’s mind,
not a journalist’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At Thrissur, all of us alighted from the bus. Being new to
the town, I decided to follow the group from Pala. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The courtyard of the Lourdes church was already full when we
reached. There were many women and children in the crowd. We were able to squeeze
ourselves in with some difficulty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Soon a priest, a girl and a boy appeared on the veranda on the
first floor of the two-storeyed building on the left side of the church.
Someone said the children with the priests were the ones before whom Virgin
Mary was appearing every month. All eyes turned towards them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They were looking at the distant sky. We kept turning our
eyes in the direction in which they were looking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The priest announced that the Mother will appear before the
children around one o'clock. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The sun’s colour was changing, someone in the crowd said.
All around him covered their eyes with the hands and tried to look at the
mid-day sun through their fingers. I saw no change of colour. But someone said
the sun had turned green. Some people around him endorsed the claim. When another person mentioned another colour
there were people to back that too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My reading outside the college textbooks in those days included
books on psychology. I decided to give my little knowledge of that subject a
try. The sun’s colour has changed to blue, I said. Some standing around me
readily endorsed that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I continued to play the game of changing colour of the sun
for a while. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Virgin Mary did not appear by 1 p.m.. But the priest
kept the flock’s hope of a miracle alive by repeatedly stating that the
children were saying the Mother would come. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Eventually, the priest announced that the children had been
informed that Mother would not be coming that day. The disappointed crowd of
devotees started melting away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Coming out of the church compound, tired after the long wait
and extremely hungry, I decided to get into a nearby eatery. When I put my hand
in the pocket of my kurta, my purse wasn’t there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While I was conducting my little experiment in psychology, a
pickpocket had practised a trick of his trade on me quite successfully! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I bought the bus ticket for the Aluva-Thrissur segment,
the conductor had given back some change. Instead of putting it in the purse, I had put it in the pocket. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I walked to the Thrissur railway station. I had to go to
Aluva, 60 kilometres away. From the fare chart displayed there, I gathered that
the change I was left with would take me only up to Chalakkudy, 30 kms away. I
bought a ticket to Chalakudy and got off the train there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I did not have the money to take any form of transport from
there to Aluva. So I started walking along the railway track towards Aluva. Shades
of night were falling fast when I reached Koratty Angadi station. I had covered
barely six kilometres. I reckoned it was risky to walk at night along the
unknown track. I sat down on a bench on the platform. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have not eaten anything the whole day and was very hungry.
But I did not ask anyone for help fearing I would be taken for a cheat. After
the day’s last train towards Aluva steamed off the station, I stretched myself
on the bench and soon fell asleep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It wasn’t dawn yet when noises at the station woke me up.
Apparently the first morning train was due and some passengers had come to
board it. I realised that I cannot walk all the way to Aluva on an empty
stomach. Reluctantly I walked up to the Station Master and told him my story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He told me he had seen me lying on the bench when he closed
the station the previous night. Shops in the area would not open so early and
there was no way he could get me something to eat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I told him if I could get to Aluva, I would have money for
my needs. Just then we heard the sound
of the approaching train. The Station Master gave me a ticket to Aluva.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Back in my room at the Aluva YMCA, I wrote the story of the
miracle that was not to be and mailed it to Navabharatham. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Two days later, I took a train to Koratty to pay the ticket
money and convince the Station Master that the youngster he had helped was not
a cheat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Someone else was sitting in the Station Master’s chair. I
told him I was looking for the person who was there two days ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh, you are looking for Balakrishna Menon. He was the
Relieving Station Master who came to hold charge when I went on leave. He left
when I returned from leave yesterday. i do not know where he has been posted
next.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have often wondered whether the failed Thrissur miracle was
part of an attempt to replicate the Lourdes miracle of 1858. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That year, in the small town of Lourdes in France, Bernadette,
a 14-year-old girl, reputedly had visions of the Virgin Mary on a few occasions.
The first appearance was when she and two other children went to the forest to
gather firewood. The Mother was wearing a white dress. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At the time of the last vision Bernadette asked her who she
was, and she reportedly said in the local tongue: “I am the Immaculate
Conception”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Catholic Church, which investigated the miracle,
concluded that Bernadette had visions of
the Virgin Mary. Not all people were in agreement about the vision, but once the
Pope accepted the divine miracle the controversy subsided. The Virgin Mary is
now known also as Our Lady of Lourdes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Barnadette was later canonised. Lourdes is now a pilgrimage
centre which attracts more than 5 million visitors a year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Lourdes church in Thrissur was built 27 years after the miracle
in the French town bearing that name. The failure of the 1950 miracle deprived Thrissur
of the opportunity to gain Lourdes-like fame. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Lourdes church, however, had the privilege of receiving
Pope John Paul II when he came to participate in the centenary celebrations of
the Diocese of Thrissur. When the Diocese became Archdiocese, the Lourdes church
became the Archbishop's cathedral.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-22645328470632813552020-06-23T19:54:00.001+05:302020-06-23T19:54:19.757+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 34px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
Need to be prepared for long haul on border</h1>
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<h3 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px;">
BRP Bhaskar</h3>
<a href="https://twitter.com/brpbhaskar" style="background-color: white; color: #272727; cursor: pointer; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">@brpbhaskar</a></div>
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<img alt="Ladakh-Indian-army" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/business/2020/6/22/ladakh-indian-army.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=254F92009783FCE2C072F450EB310D8D" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Picture used for illustrative purpose only.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></div>
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After a fierce physical fight on the undefined Ladakh border left many dead on both sides, India and China are trying to defuse the situation. The nasty clash, in which soldiers used rods, stones and bare hands, occurred even as talks were under way at the level of military commanders along the line of control, at the diplomatic level in the two national capitals and over the phone at the ministerial level. It may have been the result of premeditation at some level.<br /><br />The world learned with amusement about the primitive if savage encounter between soldiers of two countries with nuclear arms. They did not use firearms in view of a prior understanding which bars patrol parties from opening fire.<br /><br />There is a move to free soldiers from this restriction.<br /><br />India acknowledged the loss of 20 soldiers, including a Colonel, but did not say how many were missing. The Chinese later returned 10 Indian soldiers they had captured.<br /><br />China maintained total silence on its casualties. It did not even comment on reports which claimed that Chinese losses were heavier than India’s.<br /><br />The two governments sought to impress upon their peoples that the clash was provoked by the other side and that they had given a fitting reply.<br /><br />Both sides also sought to reassure their peoples that they would not concede even one inch of territory to the other.<br /><br />These declarations set the tone for putting aside the gory event as if it were just a bad dream. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told an all-party meeting that Chinese troops had neither entered Indian territory nor captured any Indian post. The meeting extended full support to the government on the border problem.<br /><br />However, some political leaders and commentators said Modi had endorsed the Chinese claim that Galwan Valley, where the clash occurred, was on their side of the LOC.<br /><br />Some viewed Modi’s words as indicative of his readiness to appease the Chinese. The Prime Minister’s office accused them of giving his words a mischievous interpretation.<br /><br />A media report said leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the power behind the Bharatiya Janata Party, were surprised by Modi’s statement but they had since been assured that the situation in that area was very much in India’s favour after the completion of a 60-metre-long bridge over Galwan River.<br /><br />Obviously Modi is operating on an extremely difficult political terrain.<br /><br />The mass media, especially the raucous television channels, are unabashed Modi devotees. But the guests on their discussion panels, particularly former army officers, often make things difficult for him with jingoistic remarks.<br /><br />The border flare-up has come at an inconvenient time for Modi and President Xi Jinping. Both leaders are facing difficulties at home. The corornavirus pandemic have dented their images.<br /><br />Some analysts have suggested that China may have activated the border issue as a diversion from the pandemic-related accusations against it and the trade dispute with the United States. The theory appears to be far-fetched as China cannot be unaware that such a diversion will only drive India closer to the US.<br /><br />The trouble on the border has cast a shadow on Sino-Indian economic ties. A few restaurants, mostly run by immigrants from Guangdong province, were the only signs of Chinese presence in India at the time of the 1962 war. They dropped ‘Chinese’ from their names to escape Indian fury.<br /><br />Now a campaign to boycott Chinese products, actively promoted by BJP leaders and possibly backed by the government, is on. Since the Indian market is flooded with Chinese products and it may not be easy to find affordable substitutes for them, many doubt if the campaign will succeed.<br /><br />China clearly is no hurry to settle the border dispute. This means India has to be ready for a long haul. <br /><br />Himal Southasia, a respected regional publication, recently quoted Arunabh Ghosh, a historian of modern China, as saying a glaring and embarrassing characteristic of the Indian strategic studies community is its illiteracy.<br /><br />He was alluding to the experts’ lack of knowledge of the Chinese language which makes them rely on Western sources for their understanding of China.<br /><br />Chinese scholarship on India is probably only marginally better, if at all.<br /><br />Army men tend to imagine they are the sole defenders of the nation’s borders. Crucial as their role is, they come in only as the last resort. Borders are best secured through good neighbourliness and robust diplomacy. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, June 23. 2020.<br /></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-50864599951417574022019-11-26T07:43:00.001+05:302019-11-26T07:43:21.102+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Educational institutions still held to ransom</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="Educational institutions still held to ransom" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/opinion/2019/11/25/india.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=A4FD2A4FD499BD0BAF4C170C3C071EB4" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Students chant slogans for the release of their classmates.</span></div>
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Wanton attacks on prestigious public educational institutions, which began soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government came to power five years ago, are continuing. However, there appears to be a change in the strategy behind them.<br /><br />Initially the attacks were led by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), student affiliate of the BJP’s ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.<br /><br />Lately the leadership of the effort has been assumed by members who have been moved into key positions in the administrative bodies of the institutions.<br /><br />The ABVP had played a big role in the growth of the Jana Sangh, the RSS’s first political vehicle, which merged its identity in the anti-Emergency coalition named the Janata Party, only to re-emerge later as the BJP.<br /><br />The ABVP was the moving force behind the student agitations of the 1970s in Gujarat and Bihar. These movements received the blessings of freedom-fighter and Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), who imagined they could be the spearhead of the “total revolution” he had in mind. <br /><br />JP’s endorsement enabled Jana Sangh leaders to earn respectability in the political arena which had eluded them in view of the party’s communal orientation.<br /><br />Objections from the Socialist component of the Janata mixture to their continued RSS association forced the erstwhile Jana Sangh members to pull out and work under the BJP banner. While the strength of the other Janata components declined gradually, the BJP grew and became the national alternative to the Congress.<br /><br />The two dirtiest words in the Hindutva lexicon are liberal and secular, the latter word often disdainfully rendered as ‘sickular’.<br /><br />The BJP’s allergy to institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) arises from its perception that they are breeding grounds of liberal and secular thought. The ABVP was unable to make much headway in these institutions.<br /><br />In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term, the main targets were the JNU, the IIT at Chennai and the Central University of Hyderabad.<br /><br />At JNU, the ABVP challenged the left-leaning bodies that controlled the elected Students Union. Police slapped sedition charges against a number of student leaders, including then JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, after the ABVP accused them of raising pro-freedom slogans.<br /><br />Najeeb Ahmed, a first year M.Sc (Biotechnology) student who disappeared after an assault by ABVP members three years ago, still remains untraced.<br /><br />At the Chennai IIT and UoH, the ABVP’s targets were Dalit students propagating the ideals of Dr BR Ambedkar, Dalit icon and chief architect of the Indian Constitution. The surcharged atmosphere in the UoH campus led to the suicide of Rohit Vemula, a Dalit scholar.<br /><br />Men placed by the BJP administration in key positions in institutions of higher learning are now the chief promoters of Hindutva’s objectives. <br /><br />Recent events suggest that the drive against the elite institutions is aimed at restricting the entry of students from the weaker sections of society.<br /><br />JNU Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar, himself a rural boy who made good, dismantled the inclusive and pluralistic policy which had enabled students from disadvantaged groups to access the institution.<br /><br />As a result, the number of students from families earning not more than Rs 6,000 a month dropped from 48.4 per cent in 2016-17 to 28.2 per cent in 2017-18 and that of students with a rural background from 25.7 per cent to 9.8 per cent.<br /><br />This year the JNU administration struck another blow on students by raising the hostel fees steeply. After the students protested, it offered to provide relief to those from families below the poverty line.<br /><br />The students rejected the offer. Some reports have suggested that as many as 40 per cent of the students may be forced to drop out if the fee hike is not rolled back.<br /><br />Shajahan Madampat, a social commentator, has accused the VC of building up an administrative team which is “said to be the who’s who of mediocrities in JNU’s otherwise outstanding academic community.”<br /><br />A JNU alumnus, he says some of those pliant men and women were his contemporaries and he is writing with some personal knowledge.<br /><br />The students’ agitation has split the faculty. The JNU Teachers Association, in talks with Central government officials, endorsed the students’ demand that the fee hike be rolled back. They also sought the VC’s resignation.<br /><br />Later over 100 faculty members issued a statement dissociating themselves from the association.<br /><br />Time is running out for the Centre to retrace its misguided social engineering project which is at work in JNU, realising it is harming the institution. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 26, 2019.</div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-56710801014934506962019-10-08T08:22:00.003+05:302019-10-08T08:22:55.244+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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How relevant are Gandhi’s teachings today?</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="Gandhi" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/opinion/2019/9/30/gandhi-2.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=5F28B4E0A415F1A9EE9282AB6A3E0F92" /><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As India and the world mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, which falls on Wednesday, it is not unreasonable to ask how relevant his teachings are today.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">He lived an epic life during which he grew from a rather unsuccessful lawyer to an unusual mass leader who electrified his followers to a point where many were willing to die for the cause of freedom and enraged his critics to a point where some of them conspired to kill him. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">When an assassin’s bullets felled Gandhi, Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds of his time, said, “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Gandhi’s transformation from lawyer to leader began in South Africa, where he had gone to do legal work for an Indian businessman. There he received a rude lesson in racism when he was bundled out of a First Class rail compartment because he wasn’t white.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">That experience cured him of the belief that his British education had made a difference to his racial status. But he remained an admirer of Britain and its ways.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">He organised Indian immigrants in South Africa and agitated peacefully for a fair deal. In the process, he became conscious of the religious, linguistic and cultural differences among Indians and the need to overcome them for effective joint action.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">All through his South African days Gandhi remained an admirer of the West. When a tribe took up arms against the whites, he offered to mobilise an Indian ambulance corps to serve wounded white soldiers. The South African government told him they already had an ambulance unit but the tribesmen had none and he should help them.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In his autobiography, My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi says he told the tribesmen that it was their good luck that the whites were ruling them!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">His unconventional agitations in Africa attracted Western media attention and information about them reached India, winning him many admirers before he returned home in 1915 at the age of 45. On meeting him, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore hailed him as a Mahatma (great soul) and adoring millions endorsed it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Notwithstanding Gandhi’s lack of sympathy for the aspirations of the blacks, Nelson Mandela in Africa and Martin Luther King Jr in America owned him up as their guide and endeavoured to follow the path of peace and non-violence he had shown.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">His faith in Western virtues still intact, the first thing Gandhi did on his return was to aid Britain’s World War I effort by helping in the army’s recruitment drive. He believed when the war ended a grateful Britain will reward India with the status of Dominion, which the white colonies had. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">About 1.3 million Indians saw active service during the war. They were deployed in Europe, Africa and Asia to defend Britain’s imperial interests. About 74,000 of them were killed.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Indian army played a critical role in Britain’s victory. But India did not become a Dominion. Instead, it saw an unprovoked firing on peaceful protesters in Jallianwala Bagh, near Amritsar, in which about 400 people were killed.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Gandhi called a nationwide strike to protest the massacre. The response it evoked proclaimed the emergence of a leader with an appeal across the country. Less than a decade after his return from Africa, he was the tallest leader of the Indian National Congress, which was spearheading the freedom movement. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Gandhi gave high priority to Hindu-Muslim amity but reluctantly acquiesced in the partition of the subcontinent. When communal riots broke out he devoted his energies to putting out the flames and restoring peace. That angered a Hindutva group and prompted it to plot his murder.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Gandhi took up the issue of caste discrimination but never rejected the concept of “Chaturvarnya” on which the inhuman system rests. In recent years Dalit groups in India and some black groups in Africa have re-evaluated Gandhi’s record in the light of the principle of equality.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In Gandhi’s time, environmental protection was not a live issue. But one of the popular slogans of the environment movement today is a Gandhi quote: “The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed.”</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party subscribes to the Hindutva ideology, today often invokes Gandhi’s name in his speeches. He also gives him credit for his government’s Swatch Bharat (Clean India) programme.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Some of Gandhi’s ideas certainly call for re-evaluation. Some others demand re-validation. These are processes that must go on.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Beneath the simplicity Gandhi projected was a complex personality. There is enough in his legacy for each gneration to find its own Gandhi, depending upon its interests.-n Gulf Today, Sharjah, September 30, 2019</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-865779050645847402019-10-08T08:02:00.003+05:302019-10-08T08:04:25.949+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The blessing and curse of real estate boom</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="The blessing and curse of real estate boom" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/opinion/2019/10/7/india-population.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=B68ADC3722B60909E572F74C0F10751D" /></div>
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<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">The impending demolition of four high-rise buildings with a few hundred posh apartments in the Kerala city of Kochi has brought to the fore the issue of unregulated urban growth across India. In the wake of globalisation, the country has been witnessing explosive growth of its centuries-old metropolitan cities and emergence of new urban conglomerates in many states.<br /><br />A century ago, as he emerged as the tallest leader of the freedom movement, Gandhi said, “India lives in the villages.” He constantly drew attention to the plight of the villagers. He discarded western clothes and wore loincloth to identify himself with them.<br /><br />The 2001 census, the first of this century, showed India was still predominantly rural with 74 per cent of the people living in more than 600,000 villages. At the next census in 2011, India was still rural, but the village population had come down to 69 per cent. Since then the pace of urbanisation has accelerated with the Central and state governments aiding the process.<br /><br />In 2015 the Centre announced a plan to build 100 “smart” cities in different states. Since it has provided little information on the progress of the project, it is not clear how many are taking shape and how smart they are.<br /><br />According to current official projections, the urban population will not exceed the rural population until 2050. However, the next census, due in 2021, may find many small states more urban than rural.<br /><br />The old cities have suffered enormously due to failure of the authorities to manage the problems of growth. The new ones are grappling with problems like pollution and poor infrastructure. From the 1970’s, the Centre enacted a series of laws to protect the environment and ensure that air and water are clean. Most states have been tardy in implementing them.<br /><br />The construction industry expanded rapidly as the breakup of joint families, increasing household income and aspirations of the rising middle class raised the demand for houses. In areas where there was scarcity of land, high-rise buildings started coming up.<br /><br />In 1994 the Centre made environmental impact assessment and environmental clearance for projects compulsory.<br /><br />In 2006, the Manmohan Singh government exempted township and area development projects covering less than 500,000 square metres from environmental impact assessment and construction projects of less than 20,000 square metres from environmental clearance.<br /><br />To speed up economic development, the Narendra Modi government diluted environment regulations further. This, coupled with corruption at the political and official levels, made it possible for unethical businessmen to flout laws with impunity.<br /><br />The modus operandi of colluding politicians and officials is to grant clearance for a project and issue notices later calling attention to violations of the law. The issue is then taken to the court where it remains long enough for the builders to complete the projects, taking advantage of the absence of orders staying the construction.<br /><br />In Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and other cities, many constructions were found to be in violation of the law but the authorities allowed the irregularities to be compounded on payment of a fee. Quite often the hardship that innocent flat buyers will suffer is cited to justify the lenient attitude towards offenders.<br /><br />In one Kerala case, the high court, while holding the construction violated the coastal zone management regulations, let the building stay, saying demolition may pose an even greater danger to the environment. The Supreme Court upheld the decision.<br /><br />However, when an identical case from Kerala reached the apex court later, it ordered demolition of the illegal constructions in which some 400 families had bought apartments.<br /><br />The state government and the apartment owners sought review of the decision but the court remained firm. Observations by the judges during the hearing indicated that their tough stand was based on the assertion by experts that the severe floods that hit Kerala and other states in recent years were a direct consequence of illegal constructions in environmentally sensitive areas. <br /><br /> A property brokerage firm which conducted a survey in nine cities found more than 400,000 flats in the “affordable segment” lying unsold. But, with the economy in the doldrums, the government believes it cannot afford to let the real estate sector slacken.<br /><br />Its market size was $ 120 billion in 2017. Industry spokesmen are looking forward to a new boom.<br /><br />Builders are reluctant to adopt green technology. Unless the government ensures that the growth target is achieved respecting the laws, the blessing of urban living will come with the curse of environmental degradation. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, October 8, 2018.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-14873141658436072682019-10-01T07:44:00.000+05:302019-10-01T07:44:23.262+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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How relevant are Gandhi’s teachings today?</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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As India and the world mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, which falls on Wednesday, it is not unreasonable to ask how relevant his teachings are today.<br /><br />He lived an epic life during which he grew from a rather unsuccessful lawyer to an unusual mass leader who electrified his followers to a point where many were willing to die for the cause of freedom and enraged his critics to a point where some of them conspired to kill him. <br /><br />When an assassin’s bullets felled Gandhi, Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds of his time, said, “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”<br /><br />Gandhi’s transformation from lawyer to leader began in South Africa, where he had gone to do legal work for an Indian businessman. There he received a rude lesson in racism when he was bundled out of a First Class rail compartment because he wasn’t white.<br /><br />That experience cured him of the belief that his British education had made a difference to his racial status. But he remained an admirer of Britain and its ways.<br /><br />He organised Indian immigrants in South Africa and agitated peacefully for a fair deal. In the process, he became conscious of the religious, linguistic and cultural differences among Indians and the need to overcome them for effective joint action.<br /><br />All through his South African days Gandhi remained an admirer of the West. When a tribe took up arms against the whites, he offered to mobilise an Indian ambulance corps to serve wounded white soldiers. The South African government told him they already had an ambulance unit but the tribesmen had none and he should help them.<br /><br />In his autobiography, My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi says he told the tribesmen that it was their good luck that the whites were ruling them!<br /><br />His unconventional agitations in Africa attracted Western media attention and information about them reached India, winning him many admirers before he returned home in 1915 at the age of 45. On meeting him, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore hailed him as a Mahatma (great soul) and adoring millions endorsed it.<br /><br />Notwithstanding Gandhi’s lack of sympathy for the aspirations of the blacks, Nelson Mandela in Africa and Martin Luther King Jr in America owned him up as their guide and endeavoured to follow the path of peace and non-violence he had shown.<br /><br />His faith in Western virtues still intact, the first thing Gandhi did on his return was to aid Britain’s World War I effort by helping in the army’s recruitment drive. He believed when the war ended a grateful Britain will reward India with the status of Dominion, which the white colonies had. <br /><br />About 1.3 million Indians saw active service during the war. They were deployed in Europe, Africa and Asia to defend Britain’s imperial interests. About 74,000 of them were killed.<br /><br />The Indian army played a critical role in Britain’s victory. But India did not become a Dominion. Instead, it saw an unprovoked firing on peaceful protesters in Jallianwala Bagh, near Amritsar, in which about 400 people were killed.<br /><br />Gandhi called a nationwide strike to protest the massacre. The response it evoked proclaimed the emergence of a leader with an appeal across the country. Less than a decade after his return from Africa, he was the tallest leader of the Indian National Congress, which was spearheading the freedom movement. <br /><br />Gandhi gave high priority to Hindu-Muslim amity but reluctantly acquiesced in the partition of the subcontinent. When communal riots broke out he devoted his energies to putting out the flames and restoring peace. That angered a Hindutva group and prompted it to plot his murder.<br /><br />Gandhi took up the issue of caste discrimination but never rejected the concept of “Chaturvarnya” on which the inhuman system rests. In recent years Dalit groups in India and some black groups in Africa have re-evaluated Gandhi’s record in the light of the principle of equality.<br /><br />In Gandhi’s time, environmental protection was not a live issue. But one of the popular slogans of the environment movement today is a Gandhi quote: “The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed.”<br /><br />Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party subscribes to the Hindutva ideology, today often invokes Gandhi’s name in his speeches. He also gives him credit for his government’s Swatch Bharat (Clean India) programme.<br /><br />Some of Gandhi’s ideas certainly call for re-evaluation. Some others demand re-validation. These are processes that must go on.<br /><br />Beneath the simplicity Gandhi projected was a complex personality. There is enough in his legacy for each generation to find its own Gandhi, depending upon its interests. -<i>-Gulf Today,</i> October 1, 2019.o</div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-63480537118619834302019-09-24T08:28:00.002+05:302019-09-24T08:28:38.297+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 34px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
Modi begins US visit with a PR victory</h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Donald Trump participates in the "Howdy Modi" event with Narendra Modi in Houston, Texas, US. Reuters</span></div>
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<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">The United States figures high up in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheme of things for more than one reason. Many Indian prime ministers began their term with a visit to the US with a view to improving bilateral relations which have been uneasy since the days of Non-alignment.<br /><br />An early cold-war era Secretary of State had called Non-alignment immoral. For Modi there was a very personal reason too. Years ago he had spent some time in the US, without attracting much attention, cultivating the rising Indian American community as a representative of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Today the RSS and its associates are the Indian NGOs that get the largest remittances from the US.<br /><br />After Modi became the Chief Minister of Gujarat and attracted widespread criticism for the anti-Muslim riots that rocked the state, the US refused him a visa. His 2014 visit as the Prime Minister was thus as much an occasion to live down a disrepute as one to work out a personal equation with the US leadership.<br /><br />He quickly made friends with President Barack Obama and was reputedly on first-name terms with him. Public relations experts of the two sides, working in tandem, pulled off a media coup and an op-ed under the joint byline of Barak Obama and Narendra Modi in a leading US newspaper.<br /><br />A highlight of that visit was a widely publicised rally at New York’s Madison Square where the Indian community gave him a tumultuous welcome. That set the pace for a new phase in Indo-American relations.<br /><br />Then came Donald Trump with whom Modi could relate more easily than with Obama. Apart from planned bilateral meetings the two had several opportunities to interact on the sidelines of multilateral meetings.<br /><br />Trump and Modi have been eager to raise the level of Indo-US strategic partnership to a new high. To give New Delhi a feeling that it has a high stake in its Asia Pacific pivot, Washington renamed the region Indo-Pacific. Modi has taken India closer to the US than ever before. But inherent clashes of interest and historical baggage have prevented the two leaders from moving as fast as they would like to.<br /><br />Recently a new hurdle came up in the form of a trade dispute. Officials burnt midnight oil to put it out of the way before Modi landed in the US. But it is not clear to what extent they succeeded.<br /><br />Since the Madison Square rally, spectacular Indian diaspora events have been a feature of Modi’s foreign travels. Visuals of the events transmitted home are used to boost his image.<br /><br />The Modi team planned for an audience of 50,000 Indians at the Houston event, named Howdy Modi. Trump’s presence enhanced its publicity value for Modi. Some foreign media reports said Trump played second fiddle to Modi at the event.<br /><br />For Trump, who is to seek re-election next year it provided an opportunity to appeal directly to the estimated 4.4 million people of Indian origin in the US. Modi and Trump, in their speeches, conveyed the impression that on the issue of terrorism they are on the same page. That there has been a convergence of their ideas on the issue in the recent past is not in doubt but it is too early to proclaim an identity of interests. <br /><br />While the event was on in Houston, in that city as well as several others there were protests by groups concerned over the unprecedented human rights violations in Kashmir. The media brouhaha over the Houston show enabled it to draw more public attention than the three major events at the United Nations which are what brought the Prime Minister to the US for a week.<br /><br />Apart from the annual UN General Assembly session, he is due to attend the Climate Action Summit and the Universal Healthcare meet, both convened by the UN Secretary General.<br /><br />Some reports have put the cost of the Houston extravaganza at Rs 1,400 billion. This huge investment brings no tangible benefit to either India or the US, unless the political dividends that will flow to Modi and Trump are treated as national gains.<br /><br />Writing on India’s warped priorities, the Washington Post observed that Modi, who admires the achievements of Indian Americans, has failed to grasp the basis of their success. It said they have thrived in America because it encourages free enterprise, embraces diversity and has a meritocratic culture. Under Modi, India had regressed on all three fronts, it added. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, September 24, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-53779295477005403722019-09-17T07:55:00.001+05:302019-09-17T07:55:09.434+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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More stimuli for growth, but it is still not enough</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Nirmala Sitharaman arraives at the Indian Parliament. File/ AFP</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman came up last weekend with a new stimulus package to arrest the worrisome slowdown of India’s economy. It was her third package in as many weeks.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">These packages testify to her determination to accelerate the growth rate to a level high enough to achieve the government’s ambitious goal of a $5 trillion economy by 2024. But is she on the right track?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Corporate India cheers every stimulus package but economic analysts remain sceptical about the adequacy of the measures announced so far. The first stimulus package aimed at reviving the automobile industry, which has been going through a slack period, and improving the investment climate.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The second package was designed to strengthen the banking sector which has been labouring under the weight of bad loans and gross mismanagement. It provided for merger of state-owned banks.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The new package contains a set of measures to boost exports and help revive the real estate sector which has been in the doldrums for some time. It envisages allocation of Rs 360 billion to Rs 680 billion as export credit to the priority sector.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The measures to help the real estate sector include relaxation of the guidelines regarding external commercial borrowing and allocation of Rs100 billion for what the Minister described as “last-mile funding”.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The government estimates that the latter scheme will help complete nearly 350,000 dwelling units in incomplete projects. Projects involved in bad loan cases or insolvency proceedings will not come under the scheme. This means a large number of middle income people who put in hard-earned money in such projects will not get the benefit of the scheme.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Like the earlier packages the latest one too has been formulated without taking into account the factors that led to the present situation. Many of the current ills of the economy are direct consequences of two decisions taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first term: demonetisation of high value currency notes and introduction of a goods and service tax regime.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Demonetisation was announced ignoring warnings by experts. From day one problems cropped up and the government found it necessary to amend the original notification repeatedly. It caused much personal hardship to ordinary people. Worse still, it ruined small and medium industries across the country.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The new GST regime was something that could not be put off indefinitely. The previous Congress-led government, headed by Manmohan Singh, was going slow on it in view of anticipated difficulties. Eager to impress all concerned with his zeal for reform Modi pushed the scheme through. It added to the woes of small and medium businesses.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The proclaimed objective of demonetisation was unearthing of black money believed to be held in high denomination notes. But it failed to reveal any huge stocks of hoarded money. The new GST regime was expected to raise tax collections substantially. This, too, did not materialise.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">These sad experiences do not seem to have persuaded the government to approach issues realistically. Typical of the superficial approach of the decision-makers is the Finance Minister’s attribution of the ills of the automobile industry to the millenials taking to online car hire operators.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">According to the skewed official data, the annual GDP growth rate is now five per cent and it needs to be pushed up to eight per cent to reach the target set for 2024. No one takes the official figures seriously any longer. Independent studies indicate the actual growth rate may be between three and four and a half per cent.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In that event the growth rate will have to be pushed up to at least ten per cent for Modi to end his second term with the image of the builder of a $5 trillion economy. Such growth as has been achieved has come without creating commensurate employment.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">At best the stimulus packages will help arrest loss of existing jobs. They will not create new jobs. Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman has been warning for at least a year that India is headed for mass unemployment. So far the warning has fallen on deaf years.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It is time for the government to go deep into the causes of the economic slowdown and devise measures that go beyond meeting the immediate needs of businessmen in distress. -<i>Gulf Today,</i> Sharjaah, September 17, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-31442409913200066072019-09-10T08:21:00.001+05:302019-09-10T08:21:25.768+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
Early signs of canker in constitutional system</h1>
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<h3 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px;">
BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="India Supreme Court" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/opinion/2019/9/9/india-supreme-court.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=8E047E8DF48E2C8C0FC101093A25F6BB" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">A man walks past the Supreme Court of India's building in New Delhi. Reuters</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The recent resignations of a few judges and bureaucrats deserve serious attention. They are early intimations of a canker in India’s constitutional order. Madras High Court Chief Justice Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilani reportedly put in her papers after the Supreme Court collegium rejected her plea to reconsider the decision to shift her to the Meghalaya High Court.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Madras court is one of the oldest and largest and the Meghalaya court one of the youngest and smallest.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The transfer does not involve demotion as the job title and the emoluments remain the same. However, in public perception conditioned by notions of hierarchy, it is a punishment as well as an insult.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The bureaucrats who resigned are young Indian Administrative Service officers Kannan Gopinathan and Sasikanth Senthil.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In interactions with the media, both cited curbs on freedoms as the reason for quitting. Kannan Gopinathan pointedly referred to the Kashmir situation. “There is a clear fascist onslaught,” said Sasikanth Senthil. The message they are sending out is: all is not well with the constitutional system.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Justice Tahilramani’s exit turns the spotlight once again on the working of the collegiums of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, comprising the Chief Justices and the four seniormost judges.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The collegiums are bodies not provided for in the Constitution. They were created by the apex court through judgments which materially altered the original scheme for appointment and transfer of judges of superior courts. The judgments shifted primacy in matters of appointments and transfers from the Executive to the Judiciary.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Soon after coming to power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushed through Parliament a law to create a judicial commission to select judges. The Supreme Court struck it down.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Subsequently, judicial appointments became a matter of contention with the Government asking the SC collegium to reconsider some of its recommendations. In most cases, the collegium reiterated its recommendations but in a few cases it revised them.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The collegiums are opaque bodies whose decisions are not backed by recorded reasons.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Justice Tahilramani was a judge of the Bombay High Court for 17 years during which she also acted as its Chief Justice. She was appointed Chief Justice of the Madras High Court in August last year.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">What prompted the SC collegium, which considered her suitable for the Madras post last year, to think of sending her to a much small court remains a mystery. Court-watchers have not been able to come up with anything which can even remotely cast doubts on her ability to head a large court.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The only possible reason that anyone has been able to find is her 2017 judgment in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case. It was one of the cases arising from the communal riots that rocked Gujarat when Modi was the Chief Minister. The Supreme Court had transferred it to Mumbai in the interests of fair trial.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The trial court awarded life sentences to 11 persons on rape charges but acquitted five police officers and two doctors who were charged with destroying evidence. On appeal, a bench headed by Justice Tahilramani confirmed the life sentences and overturned the acquittals.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">If Justice Tahilramani’s transfer is indeed connected with the Bilkis Bano verdict she is the second judge paying the price for the judgment in a Modi-era Gujarat case. The first was Justice Jayant Patel who resigned after two transfers within a year.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As acting Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court in 2011, Justice Patel had ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the 2004 killing of Ishrat Jehan, a teenage girl from Mumbai, and three men who the state police alleged were sent by Lashkar-e-Taiba to kill Modi.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The CBI found no evidence to link Ishrat with LeT. It charged several top police officers with killing the four in a fake encounter.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Another name which came up in that case was that of Amit Shah, who was a Minister in Modi’s Gujarat Cabinet. In May 2014, a few days ahead of Modi’s swearing-in as the Prime Minister, the CBI cleared Shah’s name. Subsequently the policemen were also discharged one after another. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Currently Union Home Minister and President of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Shah is the second most powerful man in India’s political establishment.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">There is no material in the public realm to justify the transfers of Justices Tahilramani and Jayant Patel in violation of guidelines laid down by the apex court in judgments previously.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">There is also no material to explain the curious coincidence of the collegium picking judges who have presumably incurred the political establishment’s displeasure for such transfers. `` Gulf Today, Sharjah, September 10, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-85651894377579102642019-09-03T08:03:00.001+05:302019-09-03T08:03:36.920+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
Kashmir: No light at the end of the tunnel</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="India-Kashmir" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/news/2019/6/6/india-kashmir.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=F439358666263107C063A6151AEA444A" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Protesters clash with police in Srinagar. File/ A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Tomorrow, September 4, Jammu and Kashmir completes one agonising month under the unprecedented lockdown imposed by the Centre to scotch protests against abrogation of the state’s special status under the Constitution and division into two Union Territories.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Home Minister Amit Shah, who piloted the legislative measures to give effect to the government’s decision, now mentions Kashmir in public utterances. They seem to believe the issue, which has aroused grave concern in India and abroad, will go away if they remain silent about it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Governor, Sat Pal Malik, who does the talking, comes up with inane remarks. J&K leaders in detention can get political mileage by staying in jail, he said last week. Currently J&K is in a limbo. It has practically ceased to be a state but the two proposed UTs will come into being only on October 31.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The administration has become a laughing stock, making claims that run counter to known facts. On several occasions it announced relaxation of restrictions only to reimpose them quickly as the situation threatened to get out of control. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The national media, especially TV channels, have been accepting the administration’s claims unquestioningly and publicising them. But nuggets from local reporters working for foreign media from behind the Iron Curtain indicate that the valley is once again going through days of stone-throwing by boys and firing of pellets by security personnel. Reports of torture have also surfaced.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Initially the administration said the lockdown had put an end to terrorism. Later it admitted there had been a couple of encounters between militants and security forces. Complaints by the family of a soldier from Tamil Nadu, who was killed in an encounter, suggest that, contrary to recent practice, bodies are not being sent home.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Casualties among combatants and civilians are not heavy. But the clampdown on information leaves the field open for rumour-mongers. The worst part of the prolonged lockdown, without a parallel even in the valley’s chequered history, is the enormous hardship caused by lack of food and medicine.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Kashmiris living elsewhere have complained that they are unable to contact parents or children who are in the valley. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, while speaking at an event last week, referred to the communication blackout and said when people stored everything in their hearts and were unable to tell anyone “it is the biggest punishment”.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">His statement raises the question whether the repressive measures also involve psychological warfare against the people.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Doctors at Srinagar’s main hospital have reported a spate of cases of anxiety, resulting from panic attacks. The worst-affected are children. The lockdown had a huge impact on their psyche, and it could turn them into persons with a negative mindset, a doctor said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">There are reports of security personnel picking up children from homes in midnight raids and leaving them a few days later as there was no evidence of their involvement in protests. The police routinely detain political leaders flying into Srinagar and pack them off by the next available flight. Obviously the administration does not want them to meet people and get firsthand information on the situation in the valley. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Centre appears to have lost its plot. The steps it took have no doubt strengthened its macho image among Hindutva elements. But it is unable to take any meaningful step to restore normalcy, and there is no sign of the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Hopes are now centred on the Supreme Court, which has before it more than a dozen petitions seeking restoration of the constitutional system in the state. The petitioners include political parties or their leaders as well as concerned citizens.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">When the first petitions came, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said he was inclined to give the government time to restore normalcy. Last week the court admitted a petition by Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor of the Kashmir Times, challenging the curbs on the media. It asked the Centre and the state to respond within a week.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The court allowed Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury to visit his party colleague and former J&K legislator Yusuf Tarigami, about whose safety he had voiced concern.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The court directed the government to allow Yechury to meet Tarigami. The police picked up Yechury from Srinagar airport and took him straight to Tarigami, who is detained in his own house. He was not allowed to contact anyone else during the visit.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The court later said a five-judge constitution bench will take up the petitions challenging abolition of the state’s special status in October. That means Kashmir may have no relief for another month. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, September 3, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-12218820936384872222019-08-20T07:23:00.001+05:302019-08-20T07:23:11.166+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
Modi’s population control talk raises concern</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="Modiâs population control talk raises concern" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/opinion/2019/8/19/narendra-modi-2.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=9A4AE2F8513CE0B9CE651D441F1B69D9" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Narendra Modi</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">On Independence Day Prime Minister Narendra Modi caused eyebrows to rise by stating in his address that the rate of growth of the country’s population is worrisome.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">At the last count in 2011 India’s population was about 1.25 billion. Modi’s foreboding is out of tune with the optimistic note of the Economic Survey his government placed before Parliament. It said population in the 0-19 age group had peaked and the total fertility rate was expected to fall below the replacement level by 2021.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">India had launched a family planning programme in the 1950s when there was acute food shortage and the population was growing at a higher rate than the economy.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">On a visit to Tokyo in 1969 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi told her Japanese counterpart Eisaku Sato about the efforts to check population growth. “I do not know if you are doing the right thing,” he said. “After the War we undertook a very successful birth control programme. We are now experiencing severe labour shortage.”</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The two leaders were looking at population from different angles. For Mrs Gandhi, saddled with a struggling economy, people meant mouths to feed. For Saito, presiding over a booming economy, people meant hands to work.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Except for a brief period during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, when her son, Sanjay, functioning as an extra-constitutional authority, promoted forced sterilisation, India’s population control programme, unlike China’s, was voluntary and did not involve penal provisions. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Once India became self-sufficient in food production, population control lost its sense of urgency. Successive governments cut budget allocations for family planning or diverted the funds to other programmes.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Census data testifies to a steady fall in the rate of growth of the population from 2.21 per cent a year in 1971-81 to 2.16 per cent in 1981-91, 1.97 per cent in 1991-2001 and 1.64 per cent in 2001-11. The next census is due only in 2021. But, in this year’s State of the World Population report, the UN said India’s growth rate fell to 1.2 per cent during 2010-2019.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Studies across the globe have established that population growth declines as education spreads and economic conditions improve. India’s own experience confirms this.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">With a large young population, resulting from the high growth rate of earlier decades, India is said to be in a position to get a demographic dividend in the current phase of speedy growth.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Prime Minister’s harking back to the population problem even as he talks of building a $5 trillion economy, therefore, came as a surprise.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">One possible explanation is that the source of his worry is the inability to create jobs for the new entrants to the workforce. Currently the country is experiencing jobless growth.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Another possibility is that, coming after the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, the population issue is a bogey raised to set the stage for the next part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindu rashtra (nation) project.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Modi spoke of population growth without mentioning any religious group. But the Shiv Sena, the BJP ally which shares its Hindutva ideology, immediately linked it to the growth of the Muslim population. Hindutva votaries have often kindled fears of the Muslim minority becoming the majority community in order to promote Hindu consolidation. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The 2011 census indicated that during the previous decade the Muslim population grew at 2.2 per cent a year and the Hindu population at 1.55 per cent. During this period the Hindu population fell from 80.45 per cent to 79.8 per cent and the Muslim population rose from 13.4 per cent to 14.2 per cent.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Citing these figures, some argued that eventually India will have a Muslim majority. They conveniently overlooked the fact that the Muslim growth rate was falling faster than the Hindu growth rate. Projections based on current trends indicate that, far from Muslims outnumbering Hindus, the Hindu and Muslim populations will stabilise in the 4:1 ratio by the middle of the century.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Speculative reports that Modi is planning legislation to enforce population control have engendered fears that, like Sanjay Gandhi’s Emergency exercise, it will be directed primarily against the minority community.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The southern states have already lowered the growth rate drastically. Kerala’s population growth during the 2001-11 decade was less than five per cent as against the national average of 17.7 per cent.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Any genuine population control programme must focus on the large Hindi heartland states, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, all of which recorded decadal growth rates above 20 per cent. ---Gulf Today, Sharjah, Augusr 20, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-15430956116787340592019-08-13T11:13:00.000+05:302019-08-13T11:13:13.499+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
The tale of Kashmir behind an iron curtain</h1>
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<h3 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px;">
BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="Kashmiris750" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/news/2019/8/5/kashmiris750.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=BB73332FB449336BD3DEAB78FA7CF74F" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">A week after the Indian government ordered a lockdown, imposed an indefinite curfew and detained several hundred leaders, including two former Chief Ministers, there is deep concern in Kashmir and the region over what is in store for its embattled people.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As the trouble-torn valley remained behind an iron curtain, the government pushed through the two houses of Parliament measures to dismantle the state, which has been at the centre of a dispute that led to three wars between India and Pakistan since their emergence as free nations in 1947.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">One law abrogated Articles 35-A and 370 of the Constitution of India which gave the state of Jammu & Kashmir a special status. This was a long-standing demand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and its predecessor, the Jana Sangh.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Article 35-A had protected a 1927 law which allowed only permanent residents of J&K to buy land in the state. Contrary to BJP claims, it protected the interests of all people of the state, not just those of the Muslims of the valley. Its abrogation opens the way for outsiders to grab land in the state.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Under Article 370, conceived as a temporary measure, the state’s concurrence was needed to extend to J&K laws enacted by Parliament. With its abolition the limited autonomy the state enjoyed has ended. Also, J&K’s separate constitution has ceased to exist.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">J&K was not the only state which had a special status in India. The Constitution still has a score of temporary or transitional provisions which grant special status to 10 other states.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Ironically, J&K loses its constitution and flag even as the Centre is thinking of allowing the predominantly tribal Nagaland state in the northeast the privilege of having a constitution, a flag and a passport of its own. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The most audacious part of the Centre’s scheme envisages extinction of the state of J&K, which was carved out of the defeated Sikh empire by one of its military commanders in 1848 with the blessings of the victorious British.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">J&K is comprised of three asymmetrical divisions — Muslim-majority Kashmir (area 15,948 sq km, population 6.91 million), Hindu-majority Jammu (area 25,293 sq km, population 5.35 million) and Buddhist-majority Ladakh (area 59,146 sq km, population 290,492).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">J&K is the only one of the 550-odd former princely states which is still intact.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">A bill passed into law last week provides for its bifurcation into the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh. The division will take effect on October 31.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Apparently this date has been chosen for effecting the change as, under a practice dating back to the Maharaja’s days, the J&K government will then be based not in Srinagar but in Jammu City, the winter capital.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Some Union Territories have elected legislatures, some others don’t. J&K will have one, but not Ladakh. Whether or not there is a legislature and an elected government, law and order in the UTs is the Centre’s responsibility and the police is under its control.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As removal of Articles 35-A and 370 figured in its election manifesto, the BJP believes it has the mandate to make these changes. However, the action lacks democratic credibility as there was no consultation with the affected people and the parliamentary proceedings were rushed through.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Ladakhi Buddhists, who felt J&K had neglected them, were demanding UT status for their region since long. They have welcomed the Centre’s decision. But the predominantly Shia Muslim population of Kargil district, which is part of Ladakh division, has opposed it.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Downgrading of residuary J&K to the status of UT is unjust and untenable as it curtails democratic rights its people have enjoyed so far.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In a broadcast, Modi said Assembly elections would be held in J&K and its status as state restored. However, he set no time-frame for it, and it is unlikely to happen soon.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">On Friday curfew was relaxed to permit the faithful to go to mosques for prayers. Officials said 18,000 people offered prayers at mosques in Srinagar. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">On Saturday, curbs in Jammu and in half of Kashmir were lifted to enable people to make Eid purchases. But few shops were open, and the curbs were quickly re-imposed in the valley. Officials said the situation in the valley, where about 700,000 troops are said to be stationed, was under control.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Supreme Court has before it two petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre’s action. It has set no dates for the hearing.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The test Kashmir poses to India is not whether it has the strength to hold down rebellious elements but whether it has the resilience to accommodate diversities. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, August 13, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-30311720314624235452019-08-02T09:53:00.002+05:302019-08-02T09:53:52.173+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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After the ICJ verdict in Kulbhushan Jadhav case, let diplomacy take over</h1>
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<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Amid Indian and Pakistani claims of victory in the International Court of Justice, the fate of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Naval commander, held for allegedly spying and aiding terrorism in Balochistan, is in limbo.<br /><br />The ICJ’s was a unanimous decision. It became a 15-1 verdict as the Pakistani judge dissented.<br /><br />It is customary for the world court to include in the bench a judge from each litigant country while hearing inter-state disputes.<br /><br />The verdict offered scope for both India and Pakistan to claim victory. India was happy as it saved Jadhav from the gallows, for the time being at any rate.<br /><br />Pakistan was happy too. Although the court held that the death sentence awarded to Jadhav by a military court was vitiated by Pakistan’s failure to respect the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Access, it afforded the country an opportunity to remedy the mistake and review the trial.<br /><br />India had raised objections to Jadhav’s trial by a military court and demanded that he be tried by a civil court under the normal law of the land. The ICJ did not accept this demand.<br /><br />This means there is nothing to prevent Pakistan from leaving it to the military court to review the trial.<br /><br />The Pakistan government has stated that it will provide consular access to Jadhav, as directed by the ICJ. It has also indicated that the review will be undertaken by the military court.<br /><br />The two governments’ claims of victory, accompanied by media fanfare, are aimed at impressing domestic audiences.<br /><br />After the ICJ verdict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Pakistan to release Jadhav forthwith. The demand, no doubt, echoes the wishes of all Indians. However, it was ill-timed as India had raised it in the ICJ without success.<br /><br />Former Minister Arun Jaitley, who is perhaps the best legal mind in the Modi camp, pointed out in a blog that the ICJ ruling was based on the principle that consular access is a basic human right and a conviction based on violation of basic human rights of the accused is not acceptable.<br /><br />One hopes this verdict will persuade the Modi government, which has been singling out human rights defenders for vexatious prosecution, inviting sharp criticism from the United Nations for gross violations of human rights, to be more mindful of the rights of the people, especially the minorities and the marginalised.<br /><br />One also hopes the governments of India and Pakistan realise that the Jadhav issue involves the fate of an individual who is entitled to human rights.<br /><br />Jadhav was tried by a Pakistan military court in secrecy. He was denied the right to be defended by an attorney of his choice.<br /><br />There is nothing in the public domain about the evidence the prosecution placed before the military court to substantiate the allegation that Jadhav was a spy and had aided terrorists in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.<br /><br />Thus, there is no material before the public to satisfy themselves about the justness of the court proceedings. Jaitley noted that the ICJ has stressed that the proposed review of the trial must be an effective one. It specifically enjoined upon Pakistan to take “all measures to provide for effective review and reconsideration, including, if necessary, by enacting appropriate legislation.”<br /><br />An effective review and reconsideration of the kind envisaged by the ICJ may well take a long time. Must India let Kulbhushan Jadhav rot in jail indefinitely while Pakistani authorities review and reconsider the case?<br /><br />There are many instances of nationals of one country found in the other being hauled to courts and sent to jail for violation of some law. Often they rot there even after they have completed the jail term awarded by courts because the two governments have forgotten them.<br /><br />All too often fishermen, carried away by winds or currents to the neighbouring country’s territorial waters, also land in jail and are forced to remain there for long periods as the governments take their own time to look into their cases.<br /><br />India and Pakistan must take note of the gross violation of human rights this entails, and, as civilised nations, evolve mechanisms to reduce the hardship of their nationals who fall into evil circumstances.<br /><br />Espionage cases, of curse, stand on a different footing. But, then, spying is a fact of life and those caught in the process are also entitled to basic human rights, as the ICJ has just underlined.<br /><br />The best course open in such cases is not that of law but that of diplomacy. Those who get caught should not be made hostages in political games meant to impress domestic supporters. --<i> Gulf Today</i>, Sharjah, August 2, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-44334850144677784492019-07-23T12:56:00.000+05:302019-07-23T12:56:11.426+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 46px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
Citizenship review a source of worry for minorities</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<span style="color: #272727; font-size: 12px;">ndian officials sort papers for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. File/ Reuters</span></div>
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<span style="color: #272727;">The sword of Damocles is hanging over the heads of minorities with the Indian government planning to extend to the entire country the scheme to draw up a National Register of Citizens. At present the scheme is confined to the eastern state of Assam.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">Influx into Assam from neighbouring states in search of livelihood began during the colonial period. There was large-scale migration to the state from Pakistan’s eastern wing (now Bangladesh) after Partition. This prompted India to enact a law styled as Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act in 1950.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">During the 1951 census, acting on a Home Ministry directive, enumerators recorded particulars of every resident of the state with a view to identifying illegal immigrants and prepared a National Register of Citizens (NRC) excluding them.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">It was a dubious exercise as regulations requiring passport and visa for travel between India and Pakistan did not come into force until October 1952. It was only in 1957 that the Foreigners Act of 1946 was amended to bring a Pakistani national within the definition of the term ‘foreigner’.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">The 1961 census report estimated that more than 2,200,000 people had entered Assam illegally over a decade. Identification and expulsion of illegal immigrants was one of the major demands of the All Assam Students Union and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad which launched an agitation that disrupted life in the state for six years from 1979. </span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">The Assam Accord, which the state government signed with AASU and AAGSP at the instance of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, provided for detection and expulsion of all those who entered the state illegally between January 1, 1966 and March 24, 1971.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">However, the process did not go beyond a pilot project aimed at updating the NRC in two small administrative units to help identify the illegal immigrants there.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">In 2013 the Supreme Court, acting on two writ petitions, ordered state-wide updating of the NRC. The process has been going on ever since under the court’s supervision.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;"> There have been charges that the updating process is vitiated by political and bureaucratic manipulation. As many as 3.6 million out of 4.1 million whose names were dropped from the NRC have appealed against their exclusion.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">The nation was shocked when Mohammad Sanaullah, a Kargil war veteran and recipient of the President’s Medal, was declared a foreigner and dragged to a detention centre in Assam recently. He languished there for a fortnight before the high court released him on bail, pending scrutiny of the issue of his citizenship. </span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">On the government’s own admission the NRC, as it now stands, leaves out many genuine names and includes many bogus names.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">The deadline the Supreme Court set for completing the process of updating the NRC expires on July 31. It is clear that the work cannot be finished by that date. Some 2.5 million people whose petitions against exclusion from NRC have sought extension of the deadline. It is for the apex court to take a call on the issue.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">According to a Congress MP, the vexatious citizenship issue has resulted in 57 suicides in the state so far.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">Even as Assam struggles to produce a clean NRC, Home Minister Amit Shah told Parliament that the government intends to extend the NRC nationwide to “wean out illegal immigrants from every inch of this country”. In its election manifesto, the Bharatiya Janata Party had said it would extend the NRC scheme to the other states in a phased manner. It views its mandate as popular approval for the idea. But illegal immigration was not a live issue in any state other than Assam and a nationwide NRC did not figure prominently even in the BJP’s election campaign anywhere.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">The BJP’s fascination for an all-India NRC cannot be divorced from its concept of India as a Hindu nation and its strategy of promoting communal polarisation to achieve that end. Quite naturally the move has caused unease in the minorities, particularly Muslims, who more often than not are Hindutva’s targets.</span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">The communal mindset behind the BJP’s approach to the citizenship issue is evident from its decision to accept all Hindus and Buddhists who came into India from the neighbouring countries. </span><br style="color: #272727;" /><br style="color: #272727;" /><span style="color: #272727;">It is not clear what the government proposes to do with those excluded from the NRC. The countries of their origin are not parties to the ongoing process and have no obligation to accept those declared illegal immigrants or their descendants. -<i>-Gulf Today</i>, Sharjah, July 23,2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-46748836855816347862019-07-09T10:26:00.002+05:302019-07-09T10:26:29.556+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Unruly BJP supporters ruin Modi’s image</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">BJP supporters celebrate their party's election victory in the 2019 general elections in India. File/Reuters</span></div>
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<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">ince becoming the Prime Minister five years ago Narendra Modi has been involved in a tireless round of foreign travels to win friends for the country and for himself. <br /><br />Just before this year’s election in which he led his Bharatiya Janata Party to a successive second term,<br /><br />The time has come for the party to consider whether imprudent utterances of its leaders and unruly ways of its rank and file are not negating the goodwill the Prime Minister is earning for the country.<br /><br />Last month the US State Department, in its annual International Religious Freedom report, said Hindu groups had used violence, intimidation and harassment against Muslims and Dalits to force a religion-based national identity.<br /><br />It linked the acts of violence, reported from different parts of the country, to inflammatory speeches of some senior BJP leaders and to government policies which interfere with the religious beliefs and practices of some groups.<br /><br />This was not the first time that the misdeeds of Hindu groups had invited criticism from abroad. In 2017, the US-based Pew Research Center, which surveyed conditions in 198 countries, ranked India the fourth worst in the world in religious intolerance, after Syria, Nigeria and Iraq.<br /><br />Last July, after 33 reported deaths in 70 mob attacks, the New York Times dubbed 2018 the Year of the Lynch Mob in PM Modi’s India. The critical remarks in the US official report upset the Modi establishment. Both the government and the party came up with responses, which were rather peevish. Neither was able to refute the contents of the report.<br /><br />The External Affairs Ministry rejected the report. This made little sense since the report was a public document issued under a US Congressional mandate and not a communication addressed to the Indian government.<br /><br />The Ministry said no foreign country had the right to criticise India’s record, overlooking the fact that the concept of sovereignty does not preclude nations from taking note of violations of human rights within each other’s borders. What’s more, external agencies often base their criticism primarily on reports originating from within a country.<br /><br />Earlier this year Aakar Patel, Executive Director of the India chapter of Amnesty International, said his organisation had recorded a disturbing number of hate crimes against marginalised groups in 2018. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, in her annual report released later, wrote: “We are receiving reports that indicate increasing harassment and targeting of minorities – in particular Muslims and people from historically disadvantaged groups, such as Dalits and Adivasis.” She added that narrow political agendas were marginalising vulnerable people in an already unequal society and warned that divisive policies could undermine India’s economic growth.<br /><br />The BJP’s response to the US report came from its media head Anil Baluni, MP, and was essentially a public relations exercise. He did not deny the reported cases of hate crime. He merely offered an alternative narrative.<br /><br />Ignoring the US report’s references to mob attacks in the wake of rumours about beef eating and killing of cows, Baluni said most of the violent incidents were the result of local disputes and the perpetrators were people with criminal mindsets.<br /><br />Whatever the motive behind the attacks, the assailants betrayed communal disposition in forcing the victims to shout slogans hailing a Hindu god. Sidestepping the charge about inflammatory speeches of BJP leaders, Baluni said the party was proud of its record in uplifting the living standards of all poor, underprivileged sections of the society, irrespective of faith and gender.<br /><br />He asserted that the basic presumption in the US report that there was a grand design behind the anti-minority violence was false and added India had deep-rooted democratic institutions, including a fiercely independent and pro-active judiciary which was quite capable of handling such disputes and punishing the guilty.<br /><br />This is a theoretical formulation which needs to be paired with the partisan role of the police, which have a critical role in the justice system. There have been instances of cops braving lynch mobs and rescuing the victims but they are exceptions rather than the rule.<br /><br />Instances of the BJP rewarding pedlars of hate are far too many for the party to carry conviction on its professed faith in the principle of inclusive development.<br /><br />The Prime Minister must rein in his belligerent supporters, in his own interest, before they cause more damage.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, July 9, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-87690942259956924752019-07-02T08:34:00.001+05:302019-07-02T08:34:26.315+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Leaderless Congress in India gropes in the dark</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Rahul Gandhi</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">More than a month after Congress President Rahul Gandhi offered his resignation, accepting moral responsibility for the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections, it remains leaderless. Although Gandhi turned down appeals to withdraw his resignation, efforts are still on to persuade him to stay on.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Some party leaders have mooted the idea of retaining him as President and appointing a Working President to hold the fort until he is ready to resume work. They have also proposed some names for the post but no consensus has emerged.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Working President concept is one which parties in India have invoked from time to time. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted party chief Amit Shah into the Cabinet as Home Minister the Bharatiya Janata Party has gone in for a Working President to reduce the burden on him.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Congress leadership appears to be oblivious of the damage being caused by the inordinate delay in filling the vacuum at the top. There is demoralisation at all levels in the party and it will not end until someone who can inspire workers at the grassroots level is in charge.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The next parliamentary elections are due only in 2024. But there is a lot to do for the party to redeem itself and perform well next time. The leaderless party is groping in the dark. It has not been able to assess the causes of the poll debacle let alone chart a next course of action. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The BJP against which it is pitted is battle-ready at all times. Its strength lies in the cadres of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh who can be deployed anywhere any time.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The BJP commands far more resources than the Congress. It is known to have used the services of several thousand paid workers in its successful campaign to seize power in the eastern state of Tripura, which was ruled by the cadre-based Communist Party of India (Marxist) continuously for a quarter century. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">To take on the BJP the Congress needs to strengthen its organisational base. When the party split in 1969, Indira Gandhi attracted a majority of the party’s rank and file, but in most states the organisation remained in the hands of leaders ranged against her.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Instead of building a new organisational network, she worked with handpicked state leaders, who derived strength from their proximity to her, and not from popular support. Her successors also failed to remedy the organisational weakness. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Over the years, the Congress’s base shrank as parties which articulated identity politics weaned away different caste and religious groups. While the BJP devised suitable strategies and overcame their challenge in the Hindi belt the Congress is yet to address the issue. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Today the Congress party’s main weakness is the lack of a coherent ideology. It has gone as far as it could by cashing in on the goodwill it enjoyed as the party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Clueless on the issue of ideology, the party’s old guard is seeking to mollify communally conditioned Hindus. Last week, Rajasthan’s Congress government registered a case against the sons of Pehlu Khan, who was lynched to death by a Hindutva mob two years ago, for cattle lifting. Anand Sharma, Deputy Leader of the Congress party in the Rajya Sabha, has said that the party lost the elections because of the surge of nationalist sentiments.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rahul Gandhi had survived the early Hindutva onslaught in the social media and emerged as Modi’s most powerful challenger before the Lok Sabha polls. The big mistake he made was to give the party’s old guard a big say in determining the poll strategy in the Hindi belt.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The soft Hindutva line which the old guard is pushing betrays ideological pauperism. If the Congress cannot stand up for secularism, it has no reason to exist. The battle for secularism has to be fought not in the social media but where lynch mobs are on a rampage. So far Congressmen have not reached out to the victims even in states where their party is in power.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Congress must learn some lessons from its own history. During the bloody days of the Partition riots Nehru kept the communal forces at bay not by pandering to majoritarian sentiments but by taking them head-on.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">“Success often goes to those who dare and act,” Nehru said. “It seldom goes to the timid.” These words which inspired earlier generations are still relevant. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, July 2, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-60513298452172350962019-06-25T07:38:00.001+05:302019-06-25T07:38:56.150+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Time to focus on quality of justice</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="Building of Indian Supreme Court." src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/opinion/2019/6/24/india-supreme-court.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=ECEF8E3A9C4ADBE62F2C6F5E8485F3D9" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">India's Supreme Court building. Reuters</span></div>
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<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">In two letters to the Prime Minister, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has proposed a set of measures to address India’s chronic problem of law’s delays.<br /><br />The measures include increasing the number of Supreme Court judges beyond the current sanctioned strength of 31, raising the retirement age of high court judges from 62 to 65 years, filling all vacancies in high courts and re-appointing retired judges of the superior courts on an ad hoc basis for short periods.<br /><br />These measures can be implemented speedily if the three limbs of the state, the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature, set their minds to the task.<br /><br />The Constitution empowers Parliament to fix the number of judges of the Supreme Court by law. The government is in a position to push a bill through both the houses of Parliament without much difficulty. A constitutional amendment is needed to raise the retirement age of high court judges. Marshalling the two-thirds majority needed for the purpose will not pose much of a problem.<br /><br />However, the issue of retirement age needs to be viewed in a broad context. The rise in life expectancy offers justification for the proposed measure. But, then, members of other services must also get its benefit.<br /><br />Justice Gogoi has not suggested revision of the retirement age of Supreme Court judges. This too has to be considered. Justice Gogoi’s proposals do not address the issue of delays in the lower courts, where the problem begins. They are designed to reduce delays in the superior courts, where, thanks to steps initiated earlier, the situation is showing signs of improvement.<br /><br />The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) puts the number of cases now pending in high courts at more than 4.4 million – 1.9 million civil cases, 1.2 million criminal cases and 1.3 million writ petitions. Last month the arrears dropped slightly with high courts disposing of 104,074 cases against new filings of 96,189.<br /><br />This is not to suggest that the issue of backlog in the superior courts can be put on the back burner. But the focus must shift to identifying the causes of delays and eliminating them.<br /><br />More than 30 million cases are pending in trial courts. The high human cost of delays at that level has not received adequate attention. Two-thirds of those in jails are “undertrial” prisoners. They are mostly poor and languish in jail for long periods.<br /><br />Callous procedures contribute the most to delays. Judicial officers liberally grant lawyers’ requests for adjournment. Rich and influential accused often raise peripheral issues in higher courts, stalling trial court proceedings for years.<br /><br />Delays in the lower courts can be reduced by streamlining the procedures. Presiding officers must set a realistic time-frame for the disposal of each case and stick to it. The Supreme Court is now functioning with the sanctioned strength of 31 judges. But high courts, which have a total sanctioned strength of 1,079, have only 680 judges.<br /><br />At least part of the responsibility for the delay in filling vacancies rests with the Supreme Court which arrogated to itself primacy in judicial appointments, disregarding the wishes of the makers of the Constitution and the established practice of the early decades of Independence.<br /><br />There is nothing in recent experience to show that the judges-appoint-judges system which the apex court brought into being has led to an improvement in the quality of the judges or of justice. The Supreme Court collegium recently rejected a name proposed for appointment as a judge of the Kerala High Court on the ground that the person’s income was low.<br /><br />The assumption that a high earner is less likely to be corrupt is questionable. Besides, the income bar may block the advance of persons belonging to the weaker sections of society whose income may be low as their clients are likely to be poor. <br /><br />The Supreme Court must re-visit the issue of appointment of judges and clear the way for the creation of a commission comprising respected jurists to recommend suitable candidates. Justice Gogoi recently set an unhealthy example by himself determining the course of a sexual harassment complaint levelled against him by a former court employee.<br /><br />The Supreme Court damaged its own credibility when it intervened in the case of leading civil society activists, whom the Maharashtra police had arrested from different states, and then withdrew. <br /><br />These events underscore the need for increased emphasis on the quality of justice. -- <i>Gulf Today</i>, Sharjah, June 25, 2019. </span><a class="tile-tag" href="https://www.gulftoday.ae/search-results?tag=d3c48afcf70945a88ef2297010d9b14a" style="align-items: center; background: rgb(150, 180, 50); border-radius: 20px; color: #1e87f0; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; margin: 10px 12px 10px 0px; padding: 4px 16px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;"><label style="color: white; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">Ind</label></a></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-57049298809844452262019-06-18T08:01:00.000+05:302019-06-18T08:01:09.365+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 46px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
Modi’s foreign policy challenges mount</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="Modi-750x450" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/news/2019/5/10/modi-750x450.ashx?h=450&la=en&w=750&hash=10A2D63F016297DF72B521AA58C9D9D9" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Narendra Modi</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">At Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inaugural five years ago, heads of governments of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) were the chief guests. At his second inaugural last month, the chief guests were heads of governments of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The BIMSTEC gambit’s significance lay in that it helped to cover up failure of the SAARC-centred efforts. It also helped to exclude Pakistan, as it is not a BIMSTEC member. The move displayed dexterity, a valuable quality in a quick-changing world.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">To reiterate continued interest in the neighbourhood, Modi began his second term with visits to the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Both countries had recently seen changes of government through elections in which, according to media reports, India’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing, took some interest.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Modi entered the global arena with a big handicap. Several countries, including the United States, had treated him as persona non grata and denied him visa to mark their disapproval of the communal riots in Gujarat under his watch.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">But no nation can refuse to deal with the head of government of a country of India’s size. Launching a campaign of personal diplomacy, Modi undertook more than 40 trips during which he visited 59 countries in six continents. He made many friends but it is unclear how many he influenced.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">He journeyed to the US and China five times, to Russia, Germany, Nepal and Singapore four times and to France, Japan and Sri Lanka thrice. Now new challenges are awaiting him. In his first term, he made the most investment in the US and travelled quite some distance with it on its Indo-Pacific pivot, aimed at restricting China’s influence. But Washington has created some problems for him.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Last year the US imposed a tariff of 25 per cent on steel and of 10 per cent on aluminium products. India’s exports of steel and aluminium products, worth about $1.5 billion a year, did not attract any levy earlier.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As attempts to resolve the issue through talks failed, India retaliated last week by hiking import duty on 28 US products, including almond, walnut and pulses. It also plans to raise the issue in the World Trade Organisation. Far more serious are the implications of the US sanctions regime which forced India to cut down oil imports from Iran, one of its major suppliers, and threatens to disrupt acquisition of military hardware from Russia, an important source of defence supplies since long.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The deterioration in US-Iran relations endangers Indian plans to access Afghanistan and the Central Asian states through the newly built Chabahar port, bypassing Pakistan. The focus of the conflict in the Middle East appears to be moving closer to home, and this adds to India’s worries.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">After US Presidents, Modi had the most direct contacts with Chinese President Xi Jinping.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Early in his first term, he named his National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to lead the negotiations with China on the border dispute which had led to a war in the 1960’s. There has been little progress in the talks as China is in no hurry.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In 2017 the Indian army intervened and stopped Chinese construction activity in a disputed area on its border with Bhutan. It could not, however, prevent the Chinese troops from digging in. China is annoyed with India’s refusal to join its Belt and Road Initiative. India is unhappy that some of its neighbours are becoming dependent on China, which has resources it cannot match.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Mutual suspicions inhibit the two countries from exploring the possibility of establishing a synergetic partnership with due regard for each other’s genuine concerns. The growing detente between China and Russia is another factor that must now go into foreign policy formulation, although experts are divided on how real is the threat it poses.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Modi has inducted S. Jayasankar, a career diplomat, who has served as ambassador in both China and the US, as the External Affairs Minister in place of Sushma Swaraj who opted out on health grounds. Earlier, as Foreign Secretary, Jayasankar had played a part in advancing Modi’s foreign policy ideas.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The chances are that, like Jawaharlal Nehru, Modi will remain his own foreign minister. His big disability in that role is an obsessive preoccupation with Pakistan, a hangover of his domestic politics which foreign exposure has not cured. --<i> Gulf Today</i>, Sharjah, June 18, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-87296130396640525532019-06-11T07:14:00.000+05:302019-06-11T07:14:13.090+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Decline and fall of the Left parties in India</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">CPI(M) leaders at the 22nd Congress of the CPI(M) in Hyderabad, India.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">After the recent Lok Sabha elections, there was much discussion in the media, both in India and abroad, often in hyperbolic terms, on the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the fall of the Congress party. But the dramatic change in the fortunes of the Left received scant attention.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></span><div style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 20px;">
<br />The Communist Party of India, the oldest of the Left parties, now in its 94th year, has just two seats in the new Lok Sabha. The breakaway CPI (Marxist), which outgrew the parent body and became the largest Left party, has three seats.<br /><br />Their combined tally of five is the lowest in the Left’s parliamentary history. Four of the five seats — two each of the CPI and the CPI (M) – were from Tamil Nadu, where both piggy-rode on the back of the regional major, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.<br /><br />The undivided CPI was the main opposition party in the first Lok Sabha, elected in 1952. It retained that position in the second and third Lok Sabhas too.<br /><br />The Left’s decline began with the CPI splitting in 1964 following the schism in the world Communist movement resulting from ideological differences between the Soviet and Chinese parties. One of the issues on which the two parties differed was the role of India’s ruling Congress party.<br /><br />Toeing the Soviet line, the CPI favoured cooperation with the Congress. A minority in the party’s central committee, which opposed the official line, walked out and formed the CPI (M).<br /><br />An intense struggle between the two factions to win over the party rank and file followed. The CPI (M), which branded the official group as rightist, earned the support of a majority of members in the party strongholds of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.<br /><br />Vigorous pursuit of their different lines landed the two parties in opposite political camps. The CPI became a supporter of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency regime. After the defeat of Rajiv Gandhi’s government, the CPI (M) and the BJP joined hands behind Prime Minister VP Singh to keep the Congress out.<br /><br />Both the parties lost ground nationally during this period. However, the CPI (M) was able to acquire a larger-than-life image due to its strong position in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura and the stellar role its General Secretary, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, played in the formation of non-Congress, non-BJP governments at a time of political instability.<br /><br />After the Emergency, the CPI ended its association with the Congress and became a junior partner of CPI (M)-led alliances in the three Left strongholds. However, the CPI (M) rebuffed its calls for reunification of the two parties.<br /><br />The CPI (M)’s days of glory ended when Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress ousted it in West Bengal where it was in power continuously for 33 years.<br /><br />Mamata Banerjee had broken away from the Congress and launched her own party as it was not receptive to her plea to adopt storm-arm tactics to counter the CPI(M)’s violent ways.<br /><br />Last year the BJP administered the next body blow to the CPI (M) by putting an end to its unbroken reign of 25 years in Tripura.<br /><br />That left the CPI (M) with a hold on power only in Kerala, where the Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front have been alternating in power for nearly four decades.<br /><br />In 2014 the CPI (M) won nine seats in the Lok Sabha — five from Kerala and two each from West Bengal and Tripura. The CPI’s lone Lok Sabha seat from Kerala gave the Left a two-digit figure.<br /><br />This year the two parties drew a blank in the erstwhile strongholds of West Bengal and Tripura. In Kerala, the CPI (M) managed to win one seat with a small margin. The UDF took the remaining 19 seats with wide margins.<br /><br />The CPI (M) central committee, which met during the weekend to review the election performance, failed to provide any rational explanation for its dismal showing.<br /><br />The party claims a tradition of self-critically examining its work and correcting mistakes. But in practice it has shied away from going into the causes of its continuous decline and confined its efforts to protect what is left of its turf.<br /><br />In a book published posthumously four years ago, Praful Bidwai, a journalist and political analyst, argued that the Left is indispensable for the health of Indian democracy. But the leadership of neither of the two parties appears to be in a position to make the Left relevant in the present context. --<i> Gulf Today</i>, Sharjah, June 11, 2019.</div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-55395269158521629832019-06-04T08:03:00.001+05:302019-06-04T08:03:10.873+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h1 style="color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 46px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
Congress in existential crisis after poll debacle</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
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<img alt="Rahul Gandhi " height="240" src="https://www.gulftoday.ae/-/media/gulf-today/images/articles/opinion/2019/6/3/rahul-gandhi-large.ashx?h=600&la=en&w=1600&hash=F4BB323676E3797159633D83B49A0B83" width="640" /></div>
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<span style="color: #272727; font-size: 12px;">Rahul Gandhi</span></div>
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<span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s resignation in the wake of the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections has landed the grand old party in a deep crisis.<br /><br />When he offered his resignation at the party working committee’s first meeting after the elections, colleagues saw it merely as a gesture in acknowledgment of moral responsibility and thought he could be persuaded to withdraw it.<br /><br />But he stood by the decision despite appeals by his mother, Sonia Gandhi, who is chairperson of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, as also leaders of UPA constituents.<br /><br />Later, however, he agreed to stay on for a month to give the party time to find a replacement for him.<br /><br />As putative successor of the Indian National Congress, which spearheaded the freedom movement, the party boasts of a history of 133 years, during which it faced and overcame many crises.<br /><br />The present crisis assumes an existential character as in the post-Independence period the party was overly dependent upon the Nehru-Gandhi family.<br /><br />Jawaharlal Nehru was party president for nine of his 17 years as Prime Minister and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, for seven of her 11 years. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, was Prime Minister for five years and party president for six and a half years.<br /><br />After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, the family stayed out of politics for seven years. His wife, Italian-born Sonia, accepted the post of president in response to insistent appeals by party leaders after it lost its primacy in the 1996 elections and faced the prospect of a split.<br /><br />She held the post for a record 19 years. During this period the party led two United Progressive Alliance governments with Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister.<br /><br />Rahul Gandhi entered the Congress leadership as General Secretary in 2007 and was appointed Vice-President in 2013. He succeeded his mother as president two years ago.<br /><br />Since coming to power in 2014, Narendra Modi has repeatedly called for a Congress-free India, viewing that party as the stumbling block in the way of the Bharatiya Janara Party’s goal of a Hindu nation.<br /><br />Following Rahul Gandhi’s decision to step down, the Congress has been getting a lot of gratuitous advice from friends and foes on how to move forward. <br /><br />UPA constituents want him to stay and lead the party and the alliance. Non-political do-gooders want the party to use the opportunity to free itself from the family which, they assume, is an albatross around its neck. <br /><br />They overlook the fact that the family, which had withdrawn from politics after two of its Prime Ministers were assassinated, returned at the party’s request. Today the party needs the family more than the family needs the party.<br /><br />While Rahul Gandhi, who emerged as Modi’s main challenger at the national level, could not prevent his return to power with an enhanced majority, he cannot be written off as a failure. In areas where the BJP and the Congress are the main contenders in elections, the former was able to maintain its primacy, despite loss of power to the latter in three states a few months earlier.<br /><br />Significantly, the Congress could maintain its vote share and raise its strength in the Lok Sabha from 44 to 52. The BJP made gains mostly at the expense of other parties.<br /><br />However, the strategy the Congress adopted under Rahul Gandhi is open to question. His bid to underline his Kashmiri Pandit ancestry and adoption of a soft line in the face of Hindutva violence did not enhance its appeal as a defender of Constitutional values. <br /><br />He made a fatal mistake in giving the party’s old guard, which is out of tune with current political realities, a big say in election matters in the crucial northern states. Also, he did not work hard enough for electoral adjustments with parties which could help make up for the decline in the Congress’s support among Dalits, other backward classes and minorities.<br /><br />Last week he said the party’s 52 members in the new Lok Sabha are enough to make the BJP jump every day. But the main battlefield where issues of democracy and secularism will be settled is the larger Indian society, not Parliament.<br /><br />Rahul Gandhi’s weaknesses and failings notwithstanding, the Congress does not appear to have a leader with better credentials than his to hold it together, build a young and forward-looking team and lead it in the fight to save secular democracy. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, June 4, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20119036.post-52428624375166397222019-05-26T09:50:00.001+05:302019-05-26T09:50:17.657+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: PensumPro, sans-serif; font-size: 46px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px;">
An impressive default victory for Modi</h1>
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BRP Bhaskar</h3>
<a href="https://twitter.com/brpbhaskar" style="background-color: white; color: #272727; cursor: pointer; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">@brpbhaskar</a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Narendra Modi. File</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">ithout delving deep into the voting figures, it can be safely asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a second term by default.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The National Democratic Alliance government which he headed had attracted charges of governance failure but he was the only contender for power who could carry conviction with the people about his ability to provide a stable administration.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The national electorate did not see either Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who led the United Progressive Alliance’s challenge to Modi and the NDA, nor any of the leaders of the small national and regional parties with prime ministerial ambitions as credible alternatives.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In the event, Modi led the BJP to an even more impressive victory than what the exit polls had forecast, winning 303 Lok Sabha seats, 21 more than its 2014 tally and 31 more than necessary for an absolute majority in the house.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Modi’s re-election bid was greatly aided by the failure of the alliance forged by Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party to contain the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest state.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In 2014 the NDA had won 73 of the state’s 80 seats. Though the BSP and the SP, which draw support primarily from the Dalits and the backward classes respectively, were said to have a combined vote share almost equal to the BJP’s, the NDA still bagged 62 seats.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Modi’s election campaign, which skirted governance issues, was rooted in the polarising Hindu nationalist narrative. It helped the BJP to retain much of the spectacular gains it had made in the north and the west in 2014.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In the east and the south it made enough fresh gains to more than offset the small losses in those regions. However it found two southern states, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, extremely hostile.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It could not win a single seat in these states, mainly because it is seen there as an upper caste party whose objectives run counter to the ideals of the powerful movements against caste supremacy which swept the region in the pre-Independence period.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">With allies bringing in 47 seats, the NDA total stands at 350, which is 12 short of the two-thirds majority needed to push constitutional amendments through the Lok Sabha. This means the BJP will find it difficult to go ahead with its objective of declaring India a Hindu nation. The Congress improved its position slightly, winning 52 seats against 44 it had got in 2014. Since this is less than one-tenth of the strength of the Lok Sabha, the party’s house leader will not get the status of Leader of the Opposition.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">While the BJP’s vote share increased from 31.3 per cent in 2014 to 36.5 per cent, the Congress party’s remained almost unchanged at 19.6 per cent.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It follows that the BJP made its gains at the expense of small national parties and regional parties, whose leaders were hoping for a hung Lok Sabha which will give them the opportunity to play an important role in the formation of an alternative government. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Five of the 13 who held the office of the Prime Minster before Narendra Modi were leaders of small parties propped up by uneasy coalitions. None of them could complete one year in office.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Having experienced stable coalitions for two decades, first under AB Vajayee (BJP) and then under Manmohan Singh (Congress) and Modi, the voters clearly did not want another phase of instability.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In Odisha, where elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Assembly were held simultaneously, the voters clearly signalled that they want the BJP to wield power at the Centre and the regional Biju Janata Dal in the state.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">They gave 13 of the state’s 21 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP but only 22 of the 146 Assembly seats. They voted BJD Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to power for a fifth successive term with an overwhelming majority in the Assembly.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The election saw a sharp decline in the influence of the Left parties. In West Bengal, where the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front for more than three decades before losing to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in 2011, they drew a blank.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The BJP raised its vote share in the state from 17.02 per cent in 2014 to 40.05 per cent and took 18 0f the 42 Lok Sabha seats. The Left parties’ vote share fell from 22.96 per cent to about seven per cent, indicating a massive shift of Left supporters to the Hindutva camp. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #272727; font-family: EuclidFlex, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Kerala, the only state where the Left now wields power, the Congress and its allies swept the polls, winning 19 of the 20 seats. -- Gulf Today, Sharjan, May 26, 2019.</span></div>
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BHASKARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15358610336955926132noreply@blogger.com0