Honouring The Word
What is a leader’s word to the people worth? Gopalkrishna Gandhi attempts to answer this question in his succinct column in The Telegraph. To that end, he identifies three instances in India’s post-1947 history where the State’s word was clearly given; in two cases, it was kept (including a tricky situation with Pakistan in 1948) and in the third case, it was not. Gandhi then proceeds to highlight two major promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and wonders if he can at all muster Sardar Patel’s sense of honour, if not Nehru’s, and keep his word?
Addressing a gathering of Christian leaders at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, in February 2015, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, extolled the 2008 inter-faith ‘Hague Declaration’ on human rights and announced: “[S]peaking for India, and for my government, I declare that my government stands by every word of the above declaration. My government will ensure that there is complete freedom of faith and that everyone has the undeniable right to retain or adopt the religion of his or her choice without coercion or undue influence. My government will not allow any religious group, belonging to the majority or the minority, to incite hatred against others, overtly or covertly. Mine will be a government that gives equal respect to all religions.”
Fifth Column: Good Speech, But Not Enough
Tavleen Singh has a confession to make. In her weekly column in Indian Express, she has often criticised PM Modi for not publicly denouncing lynchings in the name of gau raksha, but now that he did speak out against it last week, Singh wonders if it’ll have any effect. After all, cow vigilantes see themselves as a part of political movement to ‘save India’ from Muslims and not for a second as criminals. In her mind, strict law enforcement is the only way forward: like fast-track courts for rapists, cow vigilantes should be dealt with the same urgency going forward.
The Prime Minister said last week that nobody had the right to take the law into his own hands. So what he needs to do now is investigate why it is mostly in states ruled by BJP chief ministers that we have seen so many incidents of cow vigilantism. Could it be that the rule of law is no longer respected or feared in these states because of some secret pact that allows killers to believe that they can get away with murder? Or could it be that law enforcement in India has always permitted political criminals to get away with crimes that ordinary criminals would be jailed for?
The India I Love and Will Always be Proud of Appears to Have Receded
Karan Thapar is “confused, shaken and upset” and so he puts pen to paper in Hindustan Times to work out his fears. Throughout his life, his central idea of India was based on unity in diversity. That’s what he was taught to take pride in growing up– India’s varied communities, cultures, languages and regions that somehow always came together vibrantly. But now, things are changing and Thapar can’t seem to come to terms with the daily violence against minorities across the country. What does this add up to? What does this suggest about India or what India is becoming? “These are troubling questions and I don’t have the answers”, he solemnly confesses.
These days, it seems, that invisible binding thread is coming loose. The sense of being one – though we are different in look and language, faith and fortune – is weakening. The feeling of being united is fracturing as the assertion of different identities seems more important. Or else how do you explain the murder of a 15-year-old boy on a suburban train because his fellow passengers were provoked by his Muslim appearance? Or the lynching of a local police officer on the most holy night of Ramadan by a mob comprising his own kith and kin? Or repeated vicious attacks on men lawfully transporting cattle on the unverified suspicion they could slaughter them? Or decisions that people who won’t say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ or choose to applaud a Pakistani cricket victory are guilty of sedition?
BJP Summoned the Gau Raksha Genie, Now it Must Bottle It
The recent nation-wide protests ‘Not In My Name’ against lynchings by gau rakshaks has given Aakar Patel hope. Writing for The Times of India, he draws a comparison between similar protests by the American youth which resulted in the end of the Vietnam War and the recent protests in India, concluding that democracies can self-correct only under public pressure and activism. Patel then lists out a few pressing issues unfolding in the country including the relentless purchase of weapons systems and atrocities in Kashmir. “Many things in India are waiting to be resisted”, he reminds us.
My view on this is boring: no Indian needs to die over cattle, whether as victim or martyr. The PM can reduce the violence if not put an end to it by ordering his party to stop pushing the cattle slaughter issue. That’s it. His party summoned the genie out, the data is absolutely transparent here, and it is directly responsible for bottling it up again. If he refuses to do this, he should remember that the killings are happening, whether he sees it that way or not, in his name.
The Liberals Flaunting ‘Not In My Name’ Placards Got it Wrong
Swapan Dasgupta is here to argue the other side of the argument in his column in The Times of India: the ‘Not in My Name’ protests across India last week against the killing of a young Muslim boy were nothing but an “extravagant display of rootless cosmopolitanism”. With a small disclaimer on how the protests were heartening nevertheless, Dasgupta goes on to say that focussing on food freedom and selective indignation against Modi may prove self-defeating for the “liberal brigade”. In fact, he goes one step further and labels the protests as “emotional treachery” against India.
To develop a critique of the Modi government is legitimate. However, this exercise has degenerated into a show of social disdain for both Modi and the ‘Hindu’ trappings of the BJP. The more the liberal brigade paints Modi and his ‘bhakts’ as crude, neo-literate, insular vegetarians preoccupied with Ram, Hanuman and gau mata, the more will be its disconnect from a popular culture firmly centred on Hindu symbolism.
GST Rollout: Get Set for Turbulence
Writing on the rollout of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the Indian Express, P Chidambaram says that while the basic idea behind it is unarguably virtuous, GST’s several design flaws resulting from forced political compromises has given us an imperfect taxation system. For starters, GST should have been under one standard tax rate under one unified authority and should have limited the powers of tax administrators and eliminated classification disputes (‘ ‘Is KitKat chocolate or biscuit?’), Chidambaram explains, suggesting perhaps a trial run would have helped.
However, he ends with a poignant viewpoint on this new era of taxation that has been ushered in: “Anyway, we have a baby. It is not a bonny baby, it has some birth defects, it must be carefully nurtured, but it is our baby and let me therefore welcome the new baby.” That’s the spirit.
GST should have been given a trial run of two months before it was finally rolled out, but it was not. Every tax official who will administer GST at the state or central level should have been directed to spend two weeks working in the office of a small or medium business and actually ‘filing’ mock returns and ‘paying’ the calculated tax. During the trial period, the GST Network (GSTN) should have been tested in actual conditions and the glitches, if any, removed. The trial run would have boosted the confidence of businesses that they would be able to cope with the new regime. Of course that would have meant a short deferment of the final rollout of GST, but a stubborn government refused to pay heed to well-intentioned advice from many quarters.
Out of my Mind: The Last Frontier
As Meira Kumar and Ram Nath Kovind compete for the post of India’s President, the significance of two Dalits even fighting that fight is not lost on Meghnad Desai. In Indian Express, he acknowledges India has come a long way, but reckons there are miles to go before we sleep. Two final frontiers need to be crossed: first, the split Muslim vote needs to be unified by a “Kanshi Ram for Muslims”; and second, a single party for women and by women needs to be created to undo their grave neglect, Desai writes.
Many further boundaries remain to be crossed. The most obvious is the position of Muslims as a minority. Whatever the slogan of secularism did, it did not relieve the deep social and economic deprivation of the Muslims, as the Sachar panel report demonstrated. Muslims are not a homogenous community as Dalits are despite the many jatis among them. Muslims in the Hindi heartland are different from those in the South or in the Northeast.
Save the Integrity of the Civil Service
This June, a group of retired and prominent civil servants penned an open letter to PM Modi criticising “a rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism, which do not allow for reasoned debate, discussion and dissent”. As noteworthy as that is, lawyer A G Noorani wishes such public spirited persons would devote some time to the state of the civil service in India. Writing for The Asian Age, he points out that it is through pliant civil servants that politicians succeed in their communal and corrupt agendas. Appointments, transfers and suspensions of civil servants often happen at the behest of politicians from leading parties. Noorani opines that it is about time civil servants should take clue from UK’s Civil Service Code and come together to draw up an exhaustive set of reforms and document abuses of power faced by civil servants.
Two in particular merit priority because they lie at the core of the problem, are illegal and are susceptible to reform. One is arbitrary transfer; not seldom at the prodding of a legislator from the ruling party. A judgment by justice Markandey Katju of the Allahabad High Court in May 1997, stated: “[T]ransfers and postings should be solely in the hands of senior officers of the service concerned and should not be at the behest of, or on the dictates of politicians”. The distinguished former civil servant Braj Kumar Nehru, who served as Indian high commissioner to the UK, wrote in his memoirs: “I also studied the organisation of the Home Civil Service and how it was that in spite of a vigorous democracy the civil service had retained its independence in that it was guided by the rules and the law and not by the whims and wishes of transient ministers.
Inside Track: Flying Phobia
To end your rainy Sunday morning on a lighter note, here’s Coomi Kapoor with her weekly report on the going ons within the hallowed halls of the Parliament in Indian Express. Keep an eye out for Amit Shah’s nervous superstitions, PM Modi defending Major Gogoi for using a human shield in front of a US delegation and Omita Paul’s – secretary to Pranab Mukherjeee – sprawling mansion(s) in picturesque Uttarakhand.
Union Minister of Water Resources Uma Bharti has a fear of flying and avoids taking flights whenever she can. Within the country she generally travels by train or road. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Bharti to fly to Tel Aviv as part of the preparations for his trip to Israel on July 4. Five Central ministers visited Israel to prepare the groundwork and finalise joint agreements. Bharti suggested to the PMO that the secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources should go in her place.But the suggestion was vetoed, since it was a ministerial-level delegation. On the day of the flight, three officials and two state government ministers were set to board the aircraft. Bharti’s staff had got her boarding card issued and checked in four pieces of luggage. But Bharti did not show up. She was on her way to the airport when she suddenly told the driver to take her to All India Institute of Medical Sciences instead as she was having difficulty breathing.
From The Quint:
- Operation Falcon: When Gen Sundarji Took the Chinese By Surprise
- PM’s Rap Against Cow Vigilantism Admits Polarisation Went Too Far
- Riled by India’s Roadblock, China Turns the Screws in Sikkim
- Modi’s US Visit: Painful Concessions, Yet PM Played His Cards Well
- Ballabhgarh Lynching: Lack of Political Will Failed the Minorities
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