Gandhiji Would Have Been at the Barricades
Columnist Tavleen Singh writes in The Indian Express that if Gandhi were alive today, “he would have certainly not approved of a law that specifically excludes Muslims.” She says that the manner in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have reacted to the CAA-NRC protests is unacceptable, and argues that it shatters Modi’s image as the man who would finally take India into the 21st century.
As someone who has openly supported Modi, I was appalled to hear him make that comment about how he could tell clearly from the clothes of the protesters who they were. He seems to be locked in an echo chamber in which the only voices he hears are those that tell him that the people opposing his ugly amendment to the citizenship law are Lutyens liberals, pseudo-secularists, urban Naxals, anti-nationals and hated ‘intellectuals’. If he steps out of this echo chamber he will see that they are mostly young people.Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express
The Unmaking of a Budget
In what could be described as a listicle written by a former Finance Minister, Congress leader P Chidambaram points out in The Indian Express the several measures proposed in the 2019-20 Union Budget that have been reversed by the government.
Budget 2019-20 is unique. I know of no-budget in recent memory where, after making the Budget, the Finance Minister consciously unmade the Budget. I made a list of proposals — highlighted in the Budget speech and whose virtues were proclaimed in the post-Budget interactions. Each one of them was reversed. Between February 1 and September 23, the Budget for 2019-20 was reduced to a pedestrian statement of dubious accounts.P Chidambaram in The Indian Express
The reversals and policy shifts listed out by Chidambaram include the ones on surcharge on capital gains for portfolio investors, the issues of overseas sovereign bonds, corporate tax cuts and angel tax, and the criminalisation of CSR violations by companies.
Out of My Mind: Govt Must Clarify, or Face Chaos
Meghnad Desai, in his column in The Indian Express, questions the combined implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and an exercise to determine the National Register of Citizens (NRC). For example, he asks the Indian government how exactly it plans to distinguish between a Bangladeshi Muslim refugee and a Bengali-speaking Indian Muslim.
For a certain generation of politicians, the Partition is still unfinished business. The young are bewildered. The two-nation theory means nothing to them. They want clarity not about the status of refugees but their own future. Is CAA just the first step to ‘othering’ all Indian Muslims? If that is not the government’s intention, it should clarify immediately and effectively. Or there will be chaos.Meghnad Desai in The Indian Express
BJP’s CAA-NRC Push Aimed at Bengali-Speaking Hindu Voters in Assam, Bengal
Veteran TV journalist Rajdeep Sardesai explains in his column in Hindustan Times why he believes that the BJP’s CAA-NRC agenda is motivated by the party’s desire to win state elections in Assam, and more importantly, in West Bengal one and a half years from now.
It is only to reach out to a Bengali-speaking Hindu voter — both in Assam and neighbouring Bengal — that the BJP has chosen to embrace a path that could lead to a dangerous communalisation of a long-simmering ethnic conflict. Assam and West Bengal have elections in April-May 2021. The fires in the rest of the country, in a sense, are only the fallout of a cynical political game that looks at Bengal 2021 as the next big battle to be won.Rajdeep Sardesai in Hindustan Times
Yaheen to Maar Kha Gaya Hindustan
In a biting piece in The Telegraph on the state of affairs in an India where dissenters are being beaten up, Sankarshan Thakur writes that “all this beating, it’s only in the national interest, bhai.”
You will know who they are. You have been told who they are. Those with the wrong names. Those who eat the wrong food. Those who say the wrong prayers. Those who pray to the wrong God. Those who have the wrong customs. Those who have the wrong festivals. Those who stay in the wrong places. Those who read the wrong books. Those who speak the wrong language. Those who wear the wrong clothes. Aaaaah! There. The wrong clothes, that’s the key; you can get them from the clothes they wear, and then you will know exactly who to beat.Sankarshan Thakur in The Telegraph
Don’t Expect Real Heroics From Our Reel Heroes
Sandip Roy writes in The Times of India about the dilemma faced by celebrities on whether to speak or not to speak about the political goings-on in the country, and argues why we must not mistake Bollywood stars for lodestars.
What does a star gain by speaking up? In 1976 when Kishore Kumar refused to become his master’s voice promoting Indira Gandhi’s programs during the Emergency, the Information & Broadcasting ministry banned his songs on AIR and Doordarshan. Now a ministry does not need to be so overt. There is a troll army that can be on the frontlines of attack as Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan learned after one off the cuff remark about intolerance. Aamir Khan’s advertising contract with Snapdeal was not renewed though the company refused to say whether it was linked to the controversy. But without taking anyone’s name former defence minister Manohar Parrikar said “If anyone speaks like this, he has to be taught a lesson of his life.”Sandip Roy in The Times of India
Comprehensive Abortion Care a Far Cry
In The New Indian Express, KG Suresh writes on the state of abortion care in India, and the stigma attached to abortions in rural and backward areas. He explains that a lack of awareness is prevalent even among frontline health workers, who have several misconceptions around abortion.
At a quiz conducted recently for state-level health communicators in Bihar, it was found that some were not aware that abortions were legal in India while some others thought a woman required the consent of her husband or father for aborting her foetus. In fact, some of them were not even aware of the difference between emergency contraception and abortion drugs. This was significant given the fact that Bihar with 1.25 million abortions annually accounted for a sizeable chunk of the 15.6 million abortions annually estimated in the country by Lancet, an international health journal. Neighbouring Uttar Pradesh reported 3.15 million abortions.KG Suresh in The New Indian Express
Forgotten Survivors and Mere Statistics
Shalini Langer writes in The Indian Express on the reportage of rape cases, and how the focus of media coverage can quickly shift away to more gruesome cases or other issues entirely.
The Rajasthan girl is forgotten already, just a mere statistic in our rape record, with only those now lingering in our memory whose details are more horrific than the others. As ordained by the courts, she is cloaked in silence — stripped off any detail of her existence, but for that act and the ‘victim’ tag. It is for her good, sure, but it also helps us sleep more peacefully, without any guilt triggered by the hint of an association. A reminder of a similar place, similar incident, a narrow escape perhaps? Like the others since ‘Nirbhaya’ (rendered ‘fearless’ in renaming because it sounded so good to our ears), like the Hyderabad woman who was set afire and prompted Andhra Pradesh’s ‘Disha Act’ (giving rape cases a ‘direction’?), the Rajasthan girl is being systematically erased.Shalini Langer in The Indian Express
Satire in the Age of Post-Truth
In an article in The Hindu, Akhil Sood contemplates how much more difficult it has become to do satire in a post-truth world where bizarre is the new normal. Though it may seem that the time is ripe for creating bitter satire, the genre itself is at a bit of a crossroads.
News stories today, the true ones, are just as silly and unbelievable as those on The Onion. “Not The Onion” has become a common refrain, a shorthand comment on a particularly outlandish story. And it’s getting steadily more farcical. Does chow mein cause rape? Does Sanskrit cure diabetes? Did Trump personally tackle IS leader al-Baghdadi and overpower him?Does satire really land then? It’s a creative challenge, one that is proving hard to navigate.Akhil Sood in The Hindu
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- Jamia Row: Dear Delhi Police, Here’s What You Could Have Done
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