A Calamity Foretold
At the Arth Cultural Fest held in Delhi, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi spoke on how the government failed to create an atmosphere of trust, one that provided information, awareness and room for debate to the people of Kashmir, before abrogating Article 370 and shutting down the internet.
P Chidambaram writes in The Indian Express, of the selfsame phenomenon of the government's refusal to engage with anti-CAA protesters.
There is growing suspicion that the BJP is working to a plan. Many suspect that the BJP wants people with different opinions to harden their positions, wants them to take to the streets, and wants the polarisation to be complete. This view may be harsh and not correct, but the government’s intransigence and refusal to engage with the protesters (not Muslims alone) deepen the suspicion.
Being Apolitical is No More an Option for Young Indians
The term ‘Orwellian’ refers not just to anything that is 'authoritarian'. It is the use of language and communication in a way that subverts one's ability to think for oneself. And so the danger exists even in a democratic society. Rega Jha's piece in her column in The Times of India is a call to arms for young India to express itself politically.
This does not mean the end of selfies or memes, but the beginning of a better understanding of one's role in society, or of a renewed political purpose. For this, she calls George Orwell to her aid.
There may be very little else that a mustachioed 43-year-old man in post-World War II Europe and a semi-permanently nightie-clad twenty-something woman in 2020 Mumbai have in common, but there’s now this: it’s starting to seem like nonsense to me too, George. We are politicized by violence. Orwell saw the brutality from up-close, from the trenches of a war. In 2020, we don’t need to go to war to see it — the bloodshed is home-delivered. Even those of us who don’t live in northeast Delhi heard gunshots ring off our phones and TVs this past week, and we watched people die, and we saw the screaming chaos of mothers and children trying to find places to hide.
The Police Have Lost Their Autonomy
Mark Tully shoots from the hip for Hindustan Times, on how the riots in Delhi are proof yet again that the police, far from functioning as an autonomous body in the interests of the public, is no more than a colonial force which serves the government.
He sifts through incidents from post-independent India, of the gross abuses of the police force, loss of credibility, and the historical, consistent apathy of the government towards criticism in this regard.
The most tragic outcome of the police handling of the anti-CAA protests has been the death of 42 people including two policemen. The most blatantly political police act was unnecessarily barricading roads to spread chaos for commuters, thus creating hostility to the Shaheen Bagh sit-in, giving the Bharatiya Janata Party its main issue in the Delhi election campaign.
Invoking Mandal for a Cause
Jogendra Nath Mandal's name has been used and abused often, by the BJP, BSP and a number of other parties, specifically to divide Dalit and Muslim votes. He is often called the Ambedkar of Pakistan. He was the first Chairman of Pakistan's constituent assembly, after partition. Three years later, in 1950, he publicly renounced his affiliation to Pakistan, thanks to his broken dream: an independent political space for Dalits.
As the BJP yet again invokes his name for a pro-CAA argument, T C A Raghavan writes in The Indian Express on this flawed, dangerous premise.
Mandal’s mentor Babasaheb Ambedkar resigned his Cabinet position in India the following year (1951). But the commonality ends there, as the Ambedkarite legacy remains a cornerstone of the Indian polity and its politics. Mandal on the other hand has retreated into becoming a more shadowy figure. The differences in the political structures of India and Pakistan account for this: There is no politics of diversity in Pakistan — minorities are not a political factor there, while in India they are.
A Safe Zone for Delta Farmers
The Thanjavur delta in Tamil Nadu is a hotbed. Its soil is phenomenally endowed for agriculture, making it the rice bowl of the state. Water sources are perennial. But beneath the surface, the land is also rich in hydrocarbons like coal, natural gas and oil. The area has now been declared a Protected Special Agricultural Zone by the current government.
T Ramakrishnan traces the history of interest and unrest in the area vis-a-vis hydrocarbons, in his column in The Hindu. He opines that while the government's move may be political, it is a ray of hope for the farmers of the delta. Yet, there is also a strong case for industrialization.
Notwithstanding the government’s “protective measure” for the Cauvery delta, it is common knowledge that the region is at a crossroads. Recurring problems over water availability, shrinking farm labour, growing presence of ageing farmers, changes in cultivation methods and lack of remunerative prices are looming large over the farm sector. Under such circumstances, questions do arise among experts and farmers as to whether it is advisable to hamper industrialisation in the region.
The BJP/India's Perception Problem
Roger Waters, John Cusack and John Oliver are the latest in a long, and growing, list of foreigners in the limelight, who have criticized India for the CAA, and the way it is dealing with dissent.
Chanakya, in his column for the Hindustan Times, argues that while the aforementioned names could be called niche celebrities in the subcontinent, the phenomenon of international criticism is something the country - specifically its government - must address on priority.
Sure, given the transience of attention spans and the overload of information, people may move on. But there’s also a chance of these issues becoming a cause celebre of choice among global business people, actors, musicians, TV anchors, politicians, perhaps even sportspeople. Even as it addresses international concerns — dismissing them outright won’t work — New Delhi should strive for a resolution to the underlying issues themselves. Specifically, it should focus on restarting the political process in Kashmir (and that includes releasing detained leaders) and work towards achieving closure on CAA.
Stuck in the 90s
Aditya Mani Jha in his column for The Hindu, bemoans Indian pop culture's problematic fetish for all things 90s.
From films like Chhichhore to the latest Netflix series Taj Mahal 1989, familiar tropes like Doordarshan, film roll cameras and year specific adverts cover up for what he believes is an important miss: the problems that shook the country at the time.
It makes one want to grab these filmmakers by their collars and ask: What about Babri Masjid? What about the rise of the BJP? Our collective indoctrination, the long road that has led India to the events of February 2020, may have started earlier but it kicked into overdrive in the 90s — to its credit, Taj Mahal at least tries to incorporate political violence in its plot (it fails miserably, that’s the only thing you need to know). But almost every period drama (Sacred Games, apart) glosses over all of this entirely and asks instead, “Melody itni chocolatey kyun hai?” Remember, collective amnesia goes a long way towards achieving collective apathy.
Prosperous, Harmonious Hindu Rashtra an Impossibility?
Chetan Bhagat writes for the Times of India on what he believes is a Hindu Rashtra, and why it is an impossibility.
In his trademark superfluous style, he flits between the need to focus on the economy, eschew the caste system, embrace modern scientific thinking, and hustle as a nation and as a team, since we “don't have oil”, or any other way to get rich.
While elite liberals may scoff at these ideas, it is important to understand the thinking of those who back them. Hindu Rashtra supporters feel Hinduism is an excellent, tolerant religion so a good base to govern a nation; India is effectively the only true home of Hindus, so India should adhere to it more; our ancient dietary, relationship and lifestyle advice is wonderful for everyone to follow anyway. After all, what is wrong in using a good code of life to govern ourselves? Well, the simple answer is that it is utopian to think a religion with wonderful rules will translate to wonderful execution of those rules by humans in power.
The Awakening of the Congress
Congress leaders have begun to voice their concerns over the party's state of affairs, and suggest counter-measures for an awakening. Shashi Tharoor, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and more recently and comprehensively, Manish Tewari has spoken in favor of an updated philosophy for the party, and to bridge the gap in perception between the economic liberalization it ushered in and implemented, and the rhetoric of socialism it speaks.
Karan Thapar in his column in the Hindustan Times, elucidates on the undeniable signs that point to an attempt by the party to awaken itself, and to revive.
However, it’s on how the Congress’ economic philosophy must change that Tewari is most forthright. The party ushered in economic liberalization in 1991, but continued with socialist rhetoric for the next three decades. Consequently, there’s a huge mismatch between the economic policies it implemented and the language it speaks. This must be bridged if the Congress is to appeal to millions of young Indians who are aspirational. I’m not sure how many Congressmen will endorse Tewari’s views although he makes a lot of sense. What’s more important is that his comments are an undeniable sign that the Congress is awakening and attempting to revive. I only hope this sleepyhead doesn’t doze off again.
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