New push to Hindutava – By Kuldip Nayar (Jun 14, 2013, Deccan Herald)

It has introduced pure communalism to the soft Hindutava that prevailed so far. By appointing the hardliner Narendra Modi, Gujarat chief minister, the panel chief for the 2014 Parliament election, the party has dropped every bit of ambiguity over secularism. It is stark Hinduism for all to see. Apparently, the old leadership resisted the decision. Senior leader L K Advani had even submitted his resignation from all the posts he held in the party. Yet the irresponsible younger cadre was in no mood to accommodate the sober point of view. For them, a sharper communal politics was the minimum. Advani had reportedly warned behind the walls that Modi was not a proper person for India. The atmosphere may become more bitter when the BJP propagates the Hindu Rashtriya openly. True, the concept goes against the very grain of the constitution which wanted the country a secular democratic republic. But the BJP has found no benefit from it. In the future, the very word, secularism, will come under different interpretations.

Therefore, Modi’s acceptance speech was understandably vehement against the Congress, the largest political party which has come to be associated with secularism. He wants the party to disappear from the scene so that there is no confusion between the BJP, a Hindu outfit, and the Congress, with secular credentials. This may or may not happen but the BJP has embarked upon the task of wiping the slate clean with no mention of secularism whatsoever. Since independence, even long before it, the freedom struggle was based on the idea of an independent India which would know no difference on the basis of community or caste. The leaders immersed in that struggle agreed to India’s partition but not to the thesis that the religion could be mixed with politics. Secularism is thus the corner stone of the structure that India has tried to raise after partition. It has not been an ideal effort. Yet it has kept the country together, with no recurring example of communal divide.

In the process, the nation has also come to recognise the distance between the communal forces and the secular elements. It has resulted in a healthy development: secular political parties have generally kept away from the BJP to stall its installation at the Centre. The induction of Modi may not defeat the process. But it will definitely confuse the Hindus who, leave some apart, are animated with cosmopolitan thoughts. They stopped the BJP winning in the last two parliamentary election because when the time for casting votes came, they put their weight behind the liberal forces which has kept the country more or less midway, neither left or right. The danger of its going right has increased now. RSS, which has initiated and supported Modi sees in him someone nearer to their ideology of Hindutava and anti-Muslim. Real Modi was, however, exposed when he blessed the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat a decade ago. Not a word of regret even after years only underlines his anti-Muslim thinking. How can India have a person like him as the prime minister?

The repercussions of such a person at the helm of BJP, not possessing even a semblance of liberalism, can be dangerous. Obsessed with driving a wedge between Hindus and Muslims, he can vitiate the young mind. Liberalism or idealism already receding to the background, bigotism and the extremism will go to allocate what is left of the composite culture. When I was India’s High Commissioner at London, prime minister Margret Thatcher asked me the secret of India staying together for centuries. I told her that we did not believe that the country was divided into black and white. We believed that there was a vast grey area. We went on expanding that area. That was our secularism. Modi will make black further bleak and shut every opening for the grey area to expand. In the last few decades, the BJP has purveyed the impression that it is looking for a space that will give it an image of being right of Right, that of pro-Hindu but not of extremist. Modi will stop such an ideology developing. It will be saffron all the way.

The BJP has foolishly come to realize that it would have to sharpen difference with the Muslims to look different. It believes that if there is any time to play the Hindu card, it is now. This is a wrong thinking, leaving no space for even small gestures for conciliation. The greatest benefit of Modi’s importance will be to the Congress.Not that it is intrinsically secular but it has the reputation of being so. The Muslim electorate, nearly 15 per cent, will move towards the Congress and adversely affect large parties like of Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi party, which has a large Muslim following in UP. The party’s image is also secular. The Congress will gain because the next election is not that of state Assembly but of Parliament. The Muslims, know the importance. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the BJP’s allies, may still part company with the party. The real loss is that of the Indian nation. At a time when it looks that the various elements have found their identity within the country, Modi’s image of parochialism comes in the open. The idea of India will be jeopardised. It is a pity that the country will be unsettling when it is settling down to an ideology which may not be purely secular but does not disturb people of different faiths to live a life of their own in their own way.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/338578/push-hindutava.html

SEE ALSO:

• Hindutva to Moditva – By Kancha Ilaiah (Jun 17, 2013, Deccan Chronicle)
  http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130617/commentary-columnists/commentary/hindutva-moditva
• The Screenplay Is From Nagpur – By Prarthna Gahilote (Jun 24, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?286140
• RSS throws Modi dice – By Seema Mustafa (Jun 13, 2013, Statesman)
  http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=460864&catid=39
• Caught in the Middle – By Soroor Ahmed (Jun 13, 2013, The Telegraph)
  http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130613/jsp/opinion/story_16998818.jsp

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Narendra Modi On Sardar Patel: Putting Goebbels To Shame – By Shamsul Islam (Jun 13, 2013, Countercurrents)

Gujarat Chief Minister and Hindutva icon Narendra Modi, while inaugurating an all-India conference on livestock and dairy development on June 11, 2013 in Gandhinagar, announced a nation-wide campaign to collect small pieces of iron from farmers and use them to build a ‘Statue of Unity’ in memory of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first interior minister of independent India in Nehru’s cabinet. He announced, “On the day of Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary on October 31, 2013, we will launch a nation-wide campaign, covering more than five lakh villages throughout the country, to collect small pieces of iron of any tool used by farmers from each village, that will be used in the building of the statue.” This ‘Statue of Unity’ is to be the tallest statue on Earth: the 182 metres (392 feet) tall statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – the Iron Man – will be built opposite the Sardar Sarovar Dam over the Narmada river in south Gujarat.

Modi lamented the fact that architect of modern India, “Sardar Patel brought the nation together. But gradually his memories are fading away” and went on to declare that “to reinvigorate his memory and as a fitting tribute to the Iron Man of India, we are building this statue, which will be double in height than the Statue of Liberty in New York.” He also reminded the audience that “Sardar Patel was also a farmer who was instrumental in bringing farmers into the freedom struggle.” This grandiose project of Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, who is an RSS whole-timer, raises a few pertinent issues. He was inaugurating a national conference on livestock and dairying, both of which are passing through a very critical phase due to famine, corporatization of agricultural land and high costs. The well-being of livestock and dairying is essentially connected with the well-being of farmers.

According to official data, in the last one decade, on an average, one Indian farmer committed suicide every 40 minutes due to debt, sub-standard seeds/manure, high costs and scarcity of water, to name only few of the endless problems. In the same decade millions of head of cattle have perished due to famine, shrinking pasture lands and handing over fertile lands to business houses and builder mafias. Dairy products have become luxury items beyond the reach of common Indians. India leads the world in having the largest number of under-nourished children and women. Shockingly, Modi had no comments on this worsening scenario. Modi’s love for Sardar Patel is intriguing for many reasons. Patel was a Congress leader who, inspired by Gandhi’s principle of non-violence, led a great and very powerful movement of farmers at Bardoli taluka in 1928. This is known as the Bardoli Satyagraha and the then pro-British English Press described it as “Bolshevism in Bardoli” and Patel as its “Lenin.”

Patel was awarded the title ‘Sardar’ after this heroic struggle. This peasants’ movement started against the extortionate lagan imposed by the British rulers and landlords and selling of large tracts of agricultural land to moneybags of Bombay. Sardar Patel led the movement but he had devoted Congressmen/women workers, both Hindus & Muslims, like Imam Saheb Abdul Kadir, Uttamchand Deepchand Shah, Mohanlal Kameshwar Pandya, Bhaktiba Desai, Darbar Gopaldas Desai, Meethubehn Petit, Jugatrambhai Dave, Surajbehn Mehta, Umar Sobani and Phoolchand Kavi, who challenged the colonial masters and their henchmen at the ground level. One important fact to be noted is that the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS, which existed during this period, kept aloof from this historical struggle. Modi’s co-option of Patel, who was a prominent Congress leader of the anti-British freedom struggle, is part of a ploy of the Hindutva camp to be seen as part of the freedom movement despite having betrayed it. This kind of co-option game is likely to succeed, as the Congress as a party has become indifferent to its anti-colonial legacy.

Dead persons do not speak, and Sardar Patel cannot appear to put across the truth. However, contemporary documents show that Modi’s and the Hindutva camp’s love for Sardar Patel is based on lies. Sardar Patel hated Hindutva politics and was the person who imposed the first ban on the RSS. … Despite all these facts, Narendra Modi claims to love Sardar Patel. It only shows that Modi has no qualms about resorting to deceits for selfish gains. Sardar Patel is a ready-made heroic figure. Modi does not have to manufacture him. He and the RSS have only to hide the fact that the man was opposed to their organization and had acted against it, and then, by what can only be called theft, proceed to make him one of their own. This defiance of historical fact is characteristic of the strategy of the Hindutva camp. Goebbels is dead, long live Modi.

http://www.countercurrents.org/islam130613.htm

SEE ALSO:

• Factions Within RSS-BJP Muddy Modi’s Elevation – By Rana Ayyub (Jun 13, 2013, Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/factions-within-rss-bjp-muddy-modis-elevation/
• Saviour for a party bereft of ideas – By Shiv Visvanathan (Jun 11, 2013, The Hindu)
  http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/saviour-for-a-party-bereft-of-ideas/article4802142.ece
• Modi versus Mahatma – By Aijaz Zaka Syed (Jun 16, 2013, Twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2013jun16/modi_versus_mahatma.html
• The Politics of a Development Strategy – By Prabhat Patnaik (Jun 16, 2013, Peoples Democracy)
  http://pd.cpim.org/2013/0616_pd/06162013_2.html

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Whither Justice: Fabricated Cases And State – By Ram Puniyani (Jun 15, 2013, Countercurrents)

Rihai Manch, a forum for getting justice to the falsely implicated youth in the cases of acts of terror has currently (June 2013), held a protest Dharna (sit in) to demand the arrest of police and IB officials responsible for the death of Maulana Khalid Mujahid, to implement the R.D. Nimesh Commission report and to release the innocent Muslim youth implicated in acts of terror. This campaign is getting broader support from more human rights groups and affected community. This is the major effort by a civic society group to democratically protest against the insensitive and biased state machinery, to pressurize it to come to the path of justice.

The Samajvadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav Government in UP, had earlier claimed to be the major champion of the cause of Muslims, to the extent that the main leader of this party Mulayam Singh Yadav was derogatorily called Mulla Mulayam. But as he came to power last time also during his regime many a communal episodes, violence, took place under the very nose of the Government. Currently also Akhilesh Yadav’s regime is marked by over 27 episodes of major riots. On the top of that this Government in its election promise had said that the innocents, implicated in the acts of terror will be released. On the contrary, the death of Maulana Khalid Mujahid in the police custody has raised sufficient doubts about the intentions of the Government.

Even R.D. Nimesh Commission report was kept in the cold storage from last one year, and now when it has been released finally, the government is refraining from taking action, hiding behind the argument that it will be discussed in future Assembly session before action is taken on the report. As such Government has full prerogative to take action at Cabinet level. People fear that this commission report may also face the same fate as the other commission reports, which are generally put on the backburner or put in the cold storage. Ashsish Khaitan, one of the journalists with dogged determination, sensitivity and honesty, has floated a portal, Gulail (Slingshot) to highlight the investigative reports related to the framing of innocents by authorities. Many an officers have falsely implicated innocents, despite knowing the truth, to enhance their own career prospects or to due to the biases which have gripped the large sections of the law enforcement agencies. These agencies regard that only youth from one religious community are responsible for the acts of terror.

Khiatan also opines that putting forward the truth of such cases is also not of much use; as in such cases reports of honest investigations are overshadowed by the biased reporting and opinions in the print, T.V. and social media. He is pinning his hopes on judiciary and the people’s campaigns for getting justice. The ongoing dharna in UP is drawing the attention of the social groups and is being sustained for over two weeks by the social activists and the pained and anguished community, whose young ones’ are being incarcerated and have to suffer not only the future career prospects but have also to get the blame, which ostracize them from social life. In this direction various efforts have been undertaken in the past but after temporary response and restraint the investigation agencies lapse in to their usual prejudiced actions.

Not only can this be seen in the case of UP, but overall one sees the wide gulf between the promises and actual actions of the so called ‘secular parties’. While in Maharashtra the Congress coalition came to power with the promise of implementing Shrikrishna Commission report of 92-93 riots, after coming to power on this promise it put forward the usual excuses and the guilty police officers and political leadership continued to be in their positions of power despite sufficient proof of their involvement in instigating and participating in the riots., As for as justice to the victims and action against the guilty is concerned Samajvadi Party seems to be no different. The R.D. Nimesh Commission has given the full truth based on which it can proceed to punish the guilty police officers, but that’s what is being avoided. The credentials of so called secular parties are more are less similar, be it the Congress or be it the Samajvadi Party, they have very opportunistic attitude as far as the justice to minorities is concerned. While communal parties are out to do away with the rights of minorities and deny them justice through and through, these so called secular parties have dual character. They promise and are unable to deliver as their calculations are built around the vote bank politics. …

http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani150613.htm

SEE ALSO:

• Muslims that ‘minority politics’ left behind – By Khalid Anis Ansari (Jun 17, 2013, The Hindu)
  http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/muslims-that-minority-politics-left-behind/article4820565.ece

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Flawed vision – By Venkitesh Ramakrishnan (Jun 28, 2013, Frontline)

The strategies adopted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government throughout its nine years in power to combat the guerilla tactics and growing political influence of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) have been characterised by ad hoc and ill-planned security initiatives. These initiatives have time and again fallen flat, underscoring the absence of a larger political vision to take on left-wing extremism (LWE).

The gruesome attack by Maoist insurgents on a convoy of Congress leaders and workers at Darbha Ghati in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar division on May 25 and the developments before and after the attack have once again highlighted the confusion in the ruling dispensation on the question of combating insurgency. In fact, the situation in the context of the May 25 incident is far more complicated than before on account of a combination of political, administrative and security matters.

This is so because the Darbha Ghati incident has not only brought up questions about the efficacy of the anti-LWE security machinery and its evaluation at the administrative level but raised pointed queries about the collusion of segments of mainstream political leaders with the Maoists in perpetrating such acts of violence. Consequently, the topmost leadership of the Congress, the principal constituent of the UPA, has been compelled to launch its unpublicised internal probe into the incident, focussing primarily on the collusion angle. Given the track record of the Congress in the past nine years, this initiative may not result in altering the leadership’s vague perceptions about combating LWE.

The biggest question, according to a senior security specialist who was part of the highly successful counterterrorism operations in Tripura, which shares its border with Bangladesh, during the late 1990s, is whether the security machinery, the administration and the political leadership can make realistic, fact-oriented and level-headed assessments about the situation on the ground and advance commensurate action on the basis of this assessment.

http://www.frontline.in/social-issues/flawed-vision/article4799766.ece

SEE ALSO:

• The Maoist menace – By Harsh V Pant (Jun 5, 2013, Deccan Herald)
  http://www.deccanherald.com/content/336661/maoist-menace.html
• Unending Spiral Of Violence: Darbha – By The People’s Union for Democratic Rights (Jun 1, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/pudr010613.htm
• After The Massacre, A Party Split Wide Open – By Ajit Sahi (Jun 22, 2013, Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/after-the-massacre-a-party-split-wide-open/
• A Fallujah-Bastar Road – By Anand Patwardhan (Jun 24, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?286117

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CIC’s Nudge – Editorial (Jun 22, 2013, Economic &Political Weekly)

The Central Information Commission (CIC) ruling that all political parties are public authorities under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and that those currently designated as national parties should not only appoint mandatory information authorities but also disclose information under relevant sections of the Act within six weeks is a landmark decision. It has, not surprisingly, visibly shaken some political parties. It has also divided public opinion about its implications. The practical difficulties of implementing the order notwithstanding, studies on party democracy, regulation and finance inform us that there is considerable merit in the spirit of the ruling. The general atmosphere which probably encouraged the CIC intervention may have been, as has been correctly observed, a result of a pervasive climate of distrust of political parties in general and politicians specifically. Yet, this widespread trust deficit is not something specific to India but is shared with most other democracies where large proportions of the citizenry find political parties more corrupt as compared to other institutions. Consequently, the demands for greater and constant public scrutiny of politicians and political parties have been steadily rising.

The new institutional literature in political science informs us that regulation can be used to manoeuvre political parties to successfully serve societal needs and public interest. Most recently, the European Union (EU) was involved in a long-drawn-out discussion on regulating the functioning of European political parties. In this connection, the Giannakou report of the European parliament not only covered funding aspects but also examined issues relating to internal party democracy. In the academic literature, the calls for greater transparency, accountability and consequently regulation and scrutiny of political parties have been advanced primarily on three grounds. The first could be called the public good argument. From a distinctively anti-party tradition, there has been a complete reversal in the discourse in party studies. E E Schattschneider’s much-cited assertion that “modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of political parties” is emblematic of the central position of parties in representative democracies today. Parties are, in this public good perspective, seen as necessary and vital institutions in a democracy which not only link citizens to the government but also provide them an important space to express their opinions and interests.

This argument is amply evident in the CIC order in numerous places where it recognises the critical role of parties and their remarkable impact on the lives of citizens. The ruling echoes Schattschneider when it says, “no political party, no democracy” and then goes on to place high expectations on political parties. In its understanding, parties are not only the “building blocks of a constitutional democracy” but the “lifeblood of our polity”. Furthermore, the CIC also earnestly holds that parties are “engaged in performing a public duty”. Implicitly, the CIC believes it is this public good or duty that allows parties to receive public funding. The order, drawing from various judicial pronouncements, argues that government funding, albeit indirectly in the form of subsidised land and building, income tax exemptions, free airtime on All India Radio and Doordarshan during elections and so on, supposedly helps achieve a “felt need of a section of the public or to secure larger societal goals”. Consequently, it is the same public good that expects political parties to exercise greater transparency in their functioning.

The equality and fairness argument is the second reason often advanced in favour of greater regulation of political parties. The literature notes that regulation of party functioning will allow for greater transparency which not only ensures fair competition between different parties but also helps maintain a level playing field. The third reason is that openness in political parties increases the confidence and trust of the people in public institutions, and consequently strengthens democracy and reinforces the legitimacy of the system. At the same time it is held that regulation also checks misuse/abuse of power and helps maintain the integrity of the democratic process. The concerns that the provisions of the RTI Act could be used unfairly by rivals and that providing information may take up substantial resources in terms of staff and time need to be addressed. The “substantive public interest” criterion could be used to open up specific areas and sectors to greater public scrutiny. This could include finances, membership registers and the constitution, and rules and regulations. It should be made mandatory for political parties to provide requisite information in these three areas in an intelligible form on a regular basis. The Election Commission could become the repository of this data, freeing parties from any so-called unfair use of the RTI.

The answers to questions as to what political parties are, what they are expected to do, and how they are managed have not only varied from society to society and also from time to time but there have also been different voices within a society. There are clearly no objective answers. Every system needs to evolve according to its own requirements and build rules and regulations which would define the role and contribution of political parties. The spirit of the CIC ruling is only a gentle nudge towards possibly renewing our democratic commitment and cleansing its fabric. Even if this order is not agreeable in its present form, the idea of greater public accountability of the financing and functioning of political parties is one whose time has come.

http://www.epw.in/editorials/cics-nudge.html

SEE ALSO:

• CIC vs parties – V. Venkatesan (Jun 28, 2013, Frontline)
  http://www.frontline.in/the-nation/cic-vs-parties/article4794591.ece

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On rape, from silence to justice – By Jonathan Derby (Jun 15, 2013, The Hindu)

Recently, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released its annual Crime in India report for 2012. It reported 24,923 police-registered rape cases across India, a slight increase of three per cent compared to last year. In Delhi city, the increase was much sharper: there were 585 reported rapes, an increase of 29.1 per cent from last year. No doubt in the coming days, headlines will exclaim a rise in rape across India, especially in Delhi. Perhaps they will report that Delhi remains the rape capital of India. While this may or may not be true, these types of headlines do not tell the full story. Yes, rapes reported to police have increased. But it is wrong to assume that more reported rapes mean actual rapes have increased too. In India, as is the case across the world, sexual assaults reported to police reflect “the tip of the iceberg” of the reality of sexual assault beneath society’s cold, murky waters.

Frankly speaking, in a country with 1.2 billion people, the NCRB’s statistic on reported rape cases is a very low number. In contrast, a 2007 Ministry of Women and Child Development study surveyed 12,447 children across 13 States in India. The study revealed that 20.9 per cent of the children surveyed had suffered severe forms of sexual abuse, which includes sexual assault, making a child fondle private parts, making a child exhibit private body parts and being photographed in the nude. Given that children comprise more than one-third of India’s population, you begin to understand the tremendous gap between reported and actual incidents of sexual assault across all sectors of society. This gap points to a culture of silence that resists reporting, or even acknowledging, that sexual assault has occurred.

Keeping this in mind, there is a more hopeful way to look at the higher reported rapes in 2012: more victims and their families overcame the pressure to keep quiet about sexual abuse. They preferred justice to silence. The media plays a powerful role in changing this culture of silence towards sexual abuse. For example, the media’s focused coverage on the rape and eventual murder of the 23 year-old physiotherapy student on December 16, 2012 keyed massive public outcries, which pressured the government to strengthen sexual assault laws. As a result, the government enacted the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, which broadens the definition of rape, increases protection for rape victims and makes punishments harsher. In the same way, if the media responsibly highlights the wrongs of sexual assault and the importance of acknowledging that it occurred, more victims will be encouraged to demand justice. But this leads to another problem.

One fact safely drawn from the NCRB’s statistic on reported rapes is that more rape cases are entering India’s criminal justice system. It is a system overburdened and ill-equipped to effectively investigate and adjudicate its cases, which results in weak police investigation, long delays for courts to complete trials, low conviction rates and insensitive treatment of victims. In fact, according to the NCRB, in 2012 there was only a 23.3 per cent conviction rate for rape cases in India. Making matters worse, a large number of “elopement cases” clogs the criminal justice system: cases where a young girl and boy fall in love and run away together. The girl’s unhappy parents file kidnapping charges, police track down the wayward couple, and the parents compel their daughter to claim she was raped. Generally speaking, elopement cases become apparent soon after they are reported to police.

An organisation called Counsel to Secure Justice conducted an informal study on rape cases in Delhi that analysed over 350 rape trial judgments from 2011. Interestingly, nearly one-third of the cases it analysed were elopement cases. The average case took approximately 32 months to wind its way through the criminal justice system and reach judgment. Not surprisingly, these cases had a less than an eight per cent conviction rate. The victim girl, who is the key witness in the case, would often recant her story when she testified, destroying the case. Ultimately, extensive media coverage and strong laws do not mean much if victims who report sexual assault have no faith in the system that delivers justice. The media should look more deeply into the NCRB statistics and report on stories that prevent justice; the stories to which the statistics point. That way, the media can pressure the government to ensure that the criminal justice system works for victims who have the courage to report sexual assault crimes. They can play an invaluable role in breaking down the culture of silence that shrouds sexual abuse.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/on-rape-from-silence-to-justice/article4815055.ece

SEE ALSO:

• Workplace Sexual Harassment: The Way Things Are – By Naina Kapur (Jun 15, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/commentary/workplace-sexual-harassment.html

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