A Letter From Bharat
Tavleen Singh writes in The Indian Express about how media fails to cover so many important stories if the crisis is not in a metro or a prominent city, thus ignoring the extreme impact felt by rural India. She writes that while media can push for immediate solutions, the press has been insensitive to the problems faced by majority of the Indians.
In the aftermath of the cyclone, without phones, emails and digital newspapers, I have found time to dwell on the absurdity of political leaders and high officials sitting in distant cities deciding the future of people who live in what can only be described as another country. I have always sneered at the distinction people make between India and Bharat but have discovered the hard way that the distinction is real. And, now I have to end because the Internet has returned on account of some ‘jugaad’ by my local service provider but he tells me he is not sure how long it will stay. It really is time for our politicians and high officials to rediscover what life is like in the backwaters of the ‘real India.’
‘Getting Growth Back Not Difficult’
If getting growth back was not so difficult, then why did the government let the GDP slide in 2017-18?, asks P Chidambaram in his column in The Indian Express. He elaborated that while PM Modi believes in intent, inclusion, infrastructure, investment and innovation, if ‘income,’ is missing, there can’t be growth. It is income that will revive demand, which can spur production and create jobs and invite investment, which will eventually improve the economy.
Surely, the PM knows that the growth rate of 3.1 per cent in Q4 of 2019-20 was the lowest since Q3 of 2002-03, when BJP was in power. Also, that the growth rate of 4.2 per cent for the year 2019-20 was the lowest in 17 years. Not even the 2008 international financial crisis caused such a hit on India’s growth rate. The FM is often quoted as ridiculing the UPA’s performance in 2012-13 and 2013-14, deliberately ignoring the numbers put out officially by the CSO: 5.2 per cent in 2011-12, (I returned as FM on August 1, 2012), 5.5 per cent in 2012-13 and 6.4 per cent in 2013-14 (see graph). To remind the FM again, the UPA handed over an economy on the upswing to the NDA.
A Mouthful of Hate
The news of a pregnant elephant that died in Kerala, after she ate a fruit that was stuffed with explosives, allegedly left by some locals, has got rumour mills working overtime spreading misinformation. Upala Sen writes in Hindustan Times about how instead of empathy and compassion, politicians and people resorted to bickering over geography, demography and other nitty-gritty details.
The explosion and death elicited blame, more blame, FIRs to counter the blame. Then came the hackers, followed by the who’s who, avenging spirits all. The spins continued and fake news of other holier and equally injured animals was shared many times over. Hate sputtered and social media crackled. The air swirled with words like “nab”, “punish”, “arrest”, and the Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar insisted that it is not in Indian culture to feed firecrackers and kill.
What Wasn’t Written
Sankarshan Thakur writes that PM Modi in his letter to Indians upon completion of one year in his second tenure, has missed out to mention about the not-very achchhe din, how lies and prejudice has been fed to the people, pellet-gunned Kashmir, autonomy of the Election Commission and the banking system, how a terror-accused is now a Parliamentarian and people have been discriminated based on food, faith, religion and caste. He writes in The Telegraph about how this has led to a toxic propaganda that has created so much disinformation that is of ‘both Nazi and Soviet grade.’
It does not tell you how small all of that has rendered India’s perception abroad. It does not tell you the poor notice the ruling confederacy routinely earns for its bully mien. It does not tell you how pitifully friendless India has become in its own neighbourhood, and how ineffectual. It does not tell you that hyper-chested ultra-nationalism has not secured the nation’s borders any more than they were; the fabled stare was of dubious effect, it scared nobody off their bellicose intentions along our frontiers. Not the Pakistanis. Not the Chinese. Not the Nepalese. There are far too many things that letter does not tell you than there is space to accommodate here. It does not, for instance, tell you of the inept and heartless handling of the health and humanitarian crisis which has now risen to our gills. But that story is on the front pages.
The Last Socialist?
Meghnad Desai reminisces about George Fernandes, who was brave to lead the railway workers’ national strike which infuriated Indira Gandhi who imposed Emergency, which he also stood up against. If he were alive or someone like him held the torch to lead the way in today’s ‘sorry state of India,’ he writes in The Indian Express, the plight of migrant informal sector workers would not have been so tragic.
Early on, the package announced made sure that the public sector and government employees would be protected. Dearness allowances postponed but not reduced. No one thought of the millions outside the ‘Socialist enclave.’ Indeed, in discussing the plight of the economy even last July in the First Budget of the new government, there was more worry about boosting sales of Maruti cars, providing credit to the middle class to buy consumer durables, and cutting corporation taxes and income taxes for the minority who pay it. If the total amount in Non-Performing Assets of public sector banks had been distributed to the crores too poor to pay income-tax, let alone afford a loan from the nationalised banks, their life would have improved. Banks were not nationalised to benefit the poor.
COVID-19 Will Lead to a New Federal Compact
Lockdown 1.0 saw the states extending their complete support and encouragement to the centre’s order for a shutdown, the treatment protocol and other processes, writes Chanakya in Hindustan Times. However, by the third phase of the lockdown, the centre has pulled up some of the severely affected states for inadequate testing, gaps in the contact tracing process, and this has been perceived as centre deflecting blame for its own shortcomings. Now, the core of the state-centre tussle has become all about political credit and blame.
The return to political competitiveness is not necessarily negative. It is through contestation that democracy evolves and decisions get better. But partisan politics has adverse effects too, particularly when the nation needs to battle the crisis as one. What is, however, clear is that this competition, in the wake of the pandemic, will inaugurate a new phase of Indian federalism. The new balance of power between the Centre and states is not yet clear, but can be the most important political fallout of the crisis.
Inside Track: No House Calls
Coomi Kapoor writes in The Indian Express about how during this crisis when it is imperative to hold key meetings so that there is no delay in Parliamentary sessions, an invite by the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on home affairs to do this via video conferencing was turned down citing security issues. She also writes about the Doklam standoff, how Mamata Banerjee had to invite PM Modi to visit cyclone-hit West Bengal, Prashant Kishor joining the DMK to improve the party president Stalin’s political avatar and relations with China.
Even Britain’s venerable House of Commons, on which our Parliament is modeled, conducted a virtual session because of the pandemic, with 120 MPs participating through a Zoom platform. Parliaments across the world have adopted such strategies. But Sharma’s proposal was scuttled claiming that it would violate the secrecy of the committee’s proceedings. Strangely, this constraint did not prevent BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi from summoning a virtual meeting of the salaries and allowances committee to take a decision on a 30 per cent allowance cut just before the lockdown. An early session of Parliament to discuss the prevailing crisis in the country is surely imperative in these troubled times.
Create Opportunities for Migrants Back Home
Now with migrant workers back in their villages due to the pandemic, their options to earn are limited to agricultural labour or to work under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), writes Mark Tully. In a column in Hindustan Times, he urges MGNREGS to upgrade and widen its scope, to create jobs. Boosting crafts which provides the second-largest source of livelihood in India, can pump a steady income into even the most remote parts of the country, he suggested.
Fifty per cent of artisans are women. Crafts create little or no carbon footprint. They preserve an important element of India’s traditional culture. Unfortunately, however, they have been ignored by economists. No reliable database of craft activities has been created. Mahatma Gandhi recognised this neglect of artisans as a problem and said that if recognition and encouragement were not forthcoming, we would be guilty of strangling them with our own hands. Giving the prestigious CD Deshmukh lecture at Delhi’s India International Centre, Ashoke Chatterjee, former executive director of the National Institute of Design and adviser to the Crafts Council of India, said, “This lack of awareness has meant that the development of crafts has not been given any priority.”
It Is a Society's Reaction to Crime That Defines It
Anand Neelakantan writes about how in a time when people’s collective indifference and hostility at the plight of the voiceless in the country has led to so much racism and discrimination, it is refreshing to watch US defy bigotry and stand for humanity. In a column in The New Indian Express, he writes that while discussing the racism in US is alright, it is imperative to remember and act upon the same practice that is done in our country in the name of caste and religion for countless years.
When was the last time Indians did the same for someone beaten up, shot dead or lynched for belonging to the wrong caste, wrong religion, having wrong food choices or to the wrong gender? Teaching others a lesson is reason enough for us to justify anything. Bigotry has gone mainstream and many so-called educated have started wearing their prejudices like a badge of honour. The poor gets beaten up for no reason other than they were migrating from cruel and indifferent cities to the safety of their villages.
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