Out of My Mind: A Bloodless Revolution
“How do you amend an unwritten Constitution?” wonders Meghnad Desai at the outset of his column for the Indian Express. He charts the journey of the Brexit deal in the British Parliament so far, recalling how Prime Minister Theresa May has been defeated thrice over her principal proposal in the House of Commons; despite this, she cannot be made to resign or call an election, as in previous days, because of the Fixed Terms Parliament Act. Yet now, after centuries, the ‘backbencher’, as Desai puts it, has managed to wrest control:
“The Bill had to be passed by the House of Lords. Again the procedure had to be amended for the House of Lords to admit a private members’ (backbencher) Bill to be debated at all in a short time. Every Bill has a Second reading, a Committee stage, then Report, and then Third Reading. The House of Lords had procedural wrangles all day on Thursday April 5 but got to the Second Reading by the evening and finished by midnight.Then on Monday all the other stages were completed and Royal Assent was given late in the night. The Commons then passed the Bill, which had to be introduced from the Executive, implementing the backbench Bill, and it passed by a large majority. Parliament has asserted its power against the Executive. This will change British politics forever.”
History Headline: 1971 and Now, a Tale of Slogans
Zoya Hasan, in her Sunday column for the Indian Express, ruminates on the trend of catchy and pithy slogans that have, for decades, become the call of elections in India. She remembers, particularly, the 1971 Congress party slogan of Garibi Hatao – especially since it is reflected in the current Congress slogan of ‘Garibi par vaar, bahattar hazaar’. The Congress has vowed to give up to Rs 72,000 to 20% of the poorest Indian households and, while this is a tall order, Hasan believes it could be a game-changer, just like Indira Gandhi’s 1971 slogan and its thought.
Indira’s Garibi Hatao in the 1971 election was especially popular; it had great resonance across the nation, and was able to secure a landslide victory for the Congress. The promise evoked an outpouring of enthusiasm among large sections of the people, including those who had been alienated from the party. Its impact was captured in the banner headlines published by newspapers of that period: ‘Poll Campaign Begins with a Mighty Flourish’, ‘Indira Storms Citadels of Congress (O)’, ‘New Congress Set for Landslide Win: First Results Show Inroads into Opposition Areas’, etc. (The Times of India, January-March, 1971.)
A Little Bit of NYAY: Congress’s Welfare Scheme is Morally Ambiguous, Fiscally Ruinous and Impractical
Chetan Bhagat, in his column ‘The Underage Optimist’ for The Times of India, lambasts the Congress NYAY scheme (Nyuntam Aay Yojana) or Minimum Wage Scheme, that promises up to Rs 72,000 a year for 20% of India’s poorest families, on both the moral and economic front. While this much money, Bhagat reasons, can pull people out of poverty, ensuring better education, food, shelter, etc, he believes it could be morally problematic since it could create a sense of entitlement and disrupt the labour market. It also aims to use taxpayer money to create a huge subsidy, and many taxpayers may not be ready for this. Economically, Bhagat outlines:
“You don’t need to be an economics major to figure out that paying 5 crore families Rs 72,000 a year will cost a lot. Multiply these two numbers and you get a total of Rs 3.6 lakh crore. That’s a massive amount of money even at the central government budget level. It’s roughly a fifth of the Centre’s share of tax revenues (Rs 18 lakh crore). Already, the central government spends more than it earns (the deficit) and these additional costs will throw our budgets further out of whack.”
Women Must Choose Merit Over Reservations
Lalita Panicker, in her column for the Hindustan Times, reflects on the Women’s Reservation Bill that has now been thrown around for decades, without actually coming to fruition. This time, both the Congress and BJP had promised to implement it, which made the situation unique – but as Panicker points out, there is no evidence to suggest it will actually come to pass with only the Rajya Sabha having passed it so far. The promise of 33% seats being reserved in the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha, Panicker outlines, has had several arguments against it:
“Some politicians, male of course, argue that this will only benefit the female relatives of powerful male Members of Parliament. Fair enough, it probably would and, even without any reservation, relatives get a foot in the door much easier and faster. Yet another smart deflecting ploy is to say that this Bill is not enough, the quota must be for 50% to reflect the percentage of women who need affirmative action. The main parties have also always argued that coalition compulsions prevented them so far from pushing the bill through.”
Fifth Column: An Election Diary
Tavleen Singh, in her column for the Indian Express on Sunday, attempts to make a case for Modi on the developmental front, in the current elections of 2019. She charts his trajectory through her own trajectory of visits to a village called Jayapur that Narendra Modi adopted when he was elected from Varanasi. The first time she’d been there three years ago, Singh had noted its squalor – just like neighbouring villages – but that the main road was in the process of being paved, and there was a new ATM. The second time, she said, the road had been paved and there were “signs that Swachh Bharat had made an impact”. Singh also claims that the Hindutva argument brought against Modi exists only “on Twitter”:
“The pradhan of Jayapur, Srinarain Patel, lives in a large two-storied house. When I asked what changes the village had seen since Modi adopted it, he said the village had been transformed. “We have two banks, a post-office, piped water in our homes, 22 hours of electricity, there are toilets in every house. But the journey of development is unending so we would now like to see more paved roads in the village.” Later, I talked to other residents of Jayapur and can report that I did not hear the word Hindutva mentioned once. There is more Hindutva on Twitter than in rural India, and those who plan to vote for Modi again say that it is because he has delivered on ‘vikas’.”
Inside Track: Sub-editor Needed
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Coomi Kapoor’s Sunday column for the Indian Express revolves around her advertising for a job opening, particularly a sub-editor, at the English daily ‘Sub-editor needed’, however, is only her plaintive plea that the BJP hire one, and quickly, judging by its manifesto for the 2019 elections. Apart from its gross grammatical errors, she reflects particularly on the sentence – “We have made strict provisions for transferring the laws in order to commit crimes against women.’’ Kapoor also reflects on the blog that LK Advani penned on the eve of the BJP’s foundation day, claiming it was a major embarrassment for the party:
“The blog, implicitly criticising the party bosses for undermining of the BJP’s value system and not upholding constitutional norms, was a source of considerable embarrassment. Visitors to the 91-year-old founder of the BJP doubt that Advani was in a position to write the piece solo. The needle of suspicion about the ghost writer is on a journalist who frequently visits his home and has in the past written speeches for both Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He recently authored an article in a newspaper praising the Congress manifesto and is a contributor to The National Herald.”
Across the Aisle: A Tale of Two Manifestos
P Chidambaram, in his Sunday column ‘Across the Aisle’ for the Indian Express, highlights the many problems with the BJP manifesto vis-a-vis the Congress one, claiming that while the latter is a people-sourced one, the former has a Modi-centric approach. The Congress manifesto, Chidambaram asserts, is the talk of the town and that even PM Modi cannot make a speech without referring to it. The BJP one, however, the columnist points out, is replete with factual errors:
“*50 crore Indians got health insurance thanks to Ayushman Bharat (Fact: Ayushman Bharat covers only hospitalisation and only 10,59,693 beneficiaries have been hospitalised and treated under the scheme till February 4, 2019)... *It is now possible for youngsters from smaller towns to become entrepreneurs thanks to Mudra Yojana (Fact: The average size of the Mudra loan is Rs 47,575 and it would be a major miracle if that loan can create even one job).”
Dilli Ka Babu: Corruption Dilemma
Dilip Cherian, among other things, reflects on an “unusual” problem in his Sunday column for The Asian Age. He writes of former IPS officer Mayank Jain, who he claims has put the Madhya Pradesh government and the central government in a bind. Five years after being suspended by the MP Lokayukta special police establishment officials in a disproportionate assets case, the corruption watchdog has ruled that there is “insufficient evidence” to prosecute him. However, with Jain having been forcibly retired last August, how will one restore him to power? Cherian leads directly from this dilemma to a customs one, highlighting the role of coin officers in detecting smuggling:
“In the past, customs authorities in India have detected a few cases of smuggling to and from China. Coin officers have been posted in several countries, including Nepal, Singapore, Brussels, the US and the UK, to help Indian authorities check smuggling, sources say. The selection process involves concurrence by the ministry of external affairs and final approval by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-headed appointments committee of the Cabinet, they said. A high-level committee comprising the chairperson, two members of the central board of indirect taxes and customs (CBIC) and the director general of DRI will interview the officers. The CBIC will then recommend a panel of three officers for each post to the finance minister before it is forwarded to the ministry of external affairs for its concurrence followed by reference to the appointments committee of the Cabinet for final approval.”
Jallianwala Bagh: Revisiting the 'Tipping Point' Under British Rule
Ramachandra Guha, in his column for The Telegraph, solemnly remembers the Jallianwala Bagh massacre exactly a hundred years since it occurred, on 13 April 1913, when a British brigadier-general Reginald Dyer opened fire on close to 500 people in Jallianwala Bagh, near the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The massacre, which horrified public imagination, inspired a series of books, and Guha talks about one particular book called Martyrdom to Freedom: 100 Years of Jallianwala Bagh. This one, he believes, is made particularly poignant by an interview of the veteran historian of modern Punjab, VN Datta, by his daughter Nonica Datta.
“In this interview, he (V.N. Datta) remarks: ‘You have to think of the circumstances which led to Dyer’s action. After the victory in the First World War, British confidence was at its peak and they were emboldened to act as they pleased.’ Datta continues: ‘Remember, Dyer had already dispersed a riot in Delhi and his training at the North West Frontier came in handy… [In Jallianwala Bagh] Dyer was directing these troops up and down, straight, right and left, near the well. He knew what he was doing.’”
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