Change the System, Not Women
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres analyses the inequality faced by women in his column in Hindustan Times. What’s striking is the correlation he makes between violence in society and the way it treats its women. Also, that the gender pay gap is but a symptom of what he considers the gender 'power gap'. He calls for a systemic change, a transformation of power from being male-oriented to gender equal.
In so doing, he believes we will move closer to finding solutions to today's intractable problems.
“Digital technology is another case in point. The lack of gender balance in universities, start-ups and Silicon Valleys of our world is deeply worrying. These tech hubs are shaping the societies and economies of the future; we cannot allow them to entrench and exacerbate male dominance...It is time to stop trying to change women, and to start changing the systems that prevent them from achieving their potential.”
Corona Scare Reveals India's Irrational Side
Anne Applebaum writes in The Atlantic that a society's response to a crisis, reveals how dysfunctional or proactive it is. Taking off on this basic, yet important observation, Sandip Roy snips through the government's trust deficit, fear mongering, and unscientific 'cow' claims, in his Paper Cut column for The Times of India.
His argument that the blunders of the government in dealing with COVID-19 continue to overshadow genuine scientific breakthroughs and real medical achievements, is hard to counter.
“Harsh Vardhan, the health minister and a medical doctor, has been the government’s face in the corona response. He has asked people to follow basic hygiene, said all passengers arriving on international flights would undergo screening and medical facilities of the “highest order” would be available for patients who require isolation, all sensible measures. Unfortunately, this is the same doctor who advised people to eat carrots as Delhi pollution peaked to a three-year high and quoted fake news about Stephen Hawking saying the Vedas had a theory superior to Einstein’s. That tweet stands without retraction or apology.”
Manipur's Women Warriors
Lourembam Ongbi Nganbi writes in The Indian Express about how the women of Manipur have led protests against oppressive regimes in the region since time immemorial. From defying the tyranny of the British, to the continued struggle against AFSPA, CAA and the Framework Agreement, Manipur's women continue to face impossible odds, to take to the streets in protest.
Justice is a far cry for the victims and survivors of heinous crimes: rape, mutilation, ethnic cleansing, murders without trials. Yet, the women of Manipur rise, as an inspiration for the rest of India, in continual protest.
“Manipuri women have been at the forefront of our region’s struggles. In our folklores, Queen Longthoingambi, Moirang Thoibi (princess of Moirang, in Bishnupur district) and other contemporary women have protected the land, daring death. It is a shame that in a democratic country like India, people are being killed. The accounts of my fellow women protesting against the Indian military will go down in history in golden ink. We cannot eat or sleep amidst the wailing of orphans and widows. We are ready to face the Army and government even if we lose our lives.”
On Dangerously Naive Narratives Post Delhi Riots
Swapan Dasgupta, in his column Right and Wrong in The Times of India, notes with a degree of alarm, the complete lack of public accountability in the media and among the politicians, for peddling lopsided narratives.
This, he believes, has resulted in perceiving the anti-CAA protests, as an uprising of Muslims against the government, when in fact the protests were not communal, and the effects of the riots in all communities were equally gruesome.
“Earlier, there had been attempts to provoke the government into removing the Muslim matrons and clearing Shaheen Bagh. This included inflammatory speeches by hotheads that were quite in contrast to the picture of pained constitutionalism the protesters sought to convey. Certainly, images of the police forcibly removing elderly ladies from a protest venue would have been terrible for any government. When the government opted instead to let the protesters tire themselves out or be thrown out by the Supreme Court, did the threat to settle the CAA on the streets find its expression in the Delhi riots?”
Preventing a Calamity
P Chidambaram writes for Across the Aisle, in The Indian Express, on the many ramifications of the Indian government's lack of initiative, in dealing with the COVID-19. In fact, he lists out ten actionable 'commandments' that the government must follow, to contain the situation and its impending consequences to the economy of the nation, and its people.
He observes, rather cheekily, that regardless of whether the government chooses to follow these suggestions, all that the general public can do, is wash their hands, and keep their fingers crossed.
“The first task in the nationwide battle against a dreaded disease is to maintain social harmony and peace. What is the government doing to put the recent bitterness behind us and involve all communities in combating the disease? More than ever before, we need friends and trading partners. Our economy has slowed down sharply — from 8 per cent to 4.7 percent in just seven quarters. Estimate of world economic growth in 2020 has been revised from 2.9 percent to 2.4 percent and may decline further if coronavirus disrupts more production and supply lines.”
Why Arvind Kejriwal is Wrong on Kanhaiya Kumar
Karan Thapar's piece in Hindustan Times dives deep into what constitutes sedition, and how Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is wrong in allowing the police to take action and persecute... erm, prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar. This, despite advice to do the contrary from multiple quarters.
Did Kanhaiya Kumar shout Bharat tere tukde honge, inshallah inshallah? That is not the right question. The question – as Karan Thapar observes – is if it amounts to sedition.
“Now, it’s quite possible Kejriwal is ignorant of the actual status of the law of sedition. After all, he is a politician and not a lawyer. That’s why he has ,legal advisers. But rather than accept, he chose to ignore the advice of his own government’s legal counsel. Not because he had reasons to disagree, but on very different grounds. Raghav Chadha, the Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson, gave this explanation. The government, he said: ‘As a matter of policy and as a matter of principle does not and has not intervened in any of such cases.’”
The Anti-Influencers Who Can't Sell a Thing!
Social media influencers know what will sell, and how to get you to buy it. Anti-influencers are those who are immune to their charms, and who are invariably attracted to the fringes that offer no benefits. In a light-hearted yet well-researched piece in The Times of India, Amulya Gopalakrishnan makes the case for those with a hatke sartorial sense, and unconventional tastes, typically for products on the verge of being taken off the shelves. After all, as she writes, Andaz Apna Apna was trashed on release, only to become a cult hit decades later!
“Occasionally, time and the judgments of posterity might vindicate us. Take the 1987 Hollywood movie Ishtar, famous for being the worst film ever made — an expensive fiasco, a commercial failure, a critical write-off. But some people — guess who — liked it. A few decades later, it was rehabilitated in the New Yorker as a masterwork, one of the “most original, audacious and inventive movies” of modern times. Same with the movie Andaz Apna Apna, which only became a cult watch many years after.”
Help Women Riot Victims Overcome the Trauma
Lalita Panicker, in her article for Hindustan Times, observes astutely, that women suffer disproportionately in conflict situations and their aftermath. Verbal abuse, sexual abuse and assault, the burden of fending for the family after the death of the sole breadwinner, depression; all of these are serious issues that require attention, and counselling. And yet, even well-meaning civic groups and NGOs satisfy themselves with providing food, shelter and medicines, in make-shift camps.
“The phrase “return to normalcy” is being bandied around a lot in the context of the riot-affected areas in Delhi. It sounds soothing, comforting, almost as though normalcy has returned as soon as the overt violence has ended. While no one is unaffected by a communal riot, this is not a situation where things become normal quickly. In fact, in this uncertain milieu, it is women who face a much greater burden of fear and trauma, faced as they are with loss on multiple levels.”
Caste is Behind the Hindu-Muslim Riot Binary
Suraj Yengde, in his sharp piece in The Indian Express, shines an equally critical lens at the government, and the liberal/radical activists alike, who he believes foray into occasional protests. He accuses liberals of exhibiting casteism and ignoring Ambedkarite organisations. He further elaborates on a disturbing fact, which is that liberal groups who are anti-Hindutva, are not necessarily anti-caste!
“Many are still downplaying the Delhi riot as an affliction of Hindutva or Hindu-Muslim binaries. It is neither. It is not religious but caste tensions that encourage such treacherous acts. The Muslim groups who are now cornering the government are not a part of the fight against caste-based violence. Indian Mussalmans, like Christians and Buddhists, have to fix their caste problem. If not, the mute victims will be poor, Dalit converts.”
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