Opinions and Editorials

Little resonance for Hindutva – Editorial (Aug 26, 2013, Hindustan Times)

Over the last few days, the yesteryear poster boys of Hindutva, Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia, realised not only their fading appeal but also the increasing irrelevance of a confrontational topic that they dust off occasionally – the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. The people of Uttar Pradesh cold shouldered the renewed efforts to bring the temple back to the forefront of the national agenda – which, is now preoccupied with a flailing economy. The absence of any significant mass support for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) yatra around Ayodhya is reassuring. It shows that the people have evolved from the days of the early 1990s when communal confrontations shook the very foundations of India. The younger generation, which is demanding better governance from our politicians, is not easily swayed by cynical politics. But this reading of the situation must not make us complacent.

The VHP’s plans for Ayodhya, far from being an act of piety, are clearly designed for political ends. The BJP, an associate of the Sangh parivar along with the VHP, may still be tempted to fall back on some identity politics as the 2014 election nears. A huge increase in its UP tally is essential for the BJP to stay in the reckoning to form a government at the Centre. If the political climate in the country polarises into a binary situation, based on the single question of whether you are for Narendra Modi or against him, the possibility of religious mobilisation becomes more possible. While we cannot fault the administrative measures taken by the Samajwadi Party-led government in UP to avoid a showdown, the diatribe that is sought to be built by its leaders is a worrisome sign. The high decibel cacophony involving the BJP and the SP leaders in the state evokes the dark memories of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when both parties sought to gain from religious polarisation.

The last decade has been relatively calm in UP in terms of the communal situation, but the last 18 months have been troublesome. Ever since the current government led by Akhilesh Yadav took office, there have been nearly 150 communal clashes in the state. At least a dozen of them have been serious. An ongoing cow protection movement in the state has been a major source of friction in the state. Altogether, the situation in UP has never been worse in the last decade. So while we certainly have reasons to be proud that divisive politics is not easy to sell to India’s younger generation, we must constantly be aware of the tenuous nature of our social harmony. While the state must take strong administrative measures to ensure that hate is not propagated, the responsibility is more on our political parties to desist from disharmonious mobilisation, howsoever tempting that may be. Given the grave challenges that India faces to bring back the economy on track, we can ill-afford such social tensions now.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1113368.aspx

SEE ALSO:

• Playing politics – Editorial (Aug 26, 2013, The Hindu)
  http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/playing-politics/article5062023.ece
• The Togadia-Modi dynamic – By Aditi Phadnis (Aug 30, 2013, Business Standard)
  http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/the-togadia-modi-dynamic-113083001197_1.html

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‘If My Wife And I Had Not Been Present There, We Would Never Have Believed Our Own Daughter’ – By Priyanka Dubey (Sep 2, 2013, Tehelka)

…In the past ten days, they have undergone a lot of mental agony. On the night of 15 August, their daughter was allegedly raped by their godman in Jodhpur. After filing a complaint in Delhi on 20 August and getting a medical checkup of Roshni done, they went to Jodhpur for a judicial enquiry after which they returned to Shahjahanpur. According to a neighbour, Kishan Agarwal, some reporters from the electronic media asked him inappropriate questions. Without his permission, a microphone was clipped on his collar and before he could realise what was happening, he was on television. “As it is, the family had not recovered from the shock,” claims Kishan, “and then this incident happened. It distressed him so much that he refuses to meet the media. But after receiving a written request from TEHELKA, he agreed to meet our correspondent.

The family stays on the first floor of the house in the backyard of the compound. As we enter the drawing room, we see Dharam Singh, a 50-year-old man, dressed in a soiled kurta-pyjama. He is crying as he talks to someone on the phone. In a heavy voice, he pleads on the phone, “No… no matter what happens now, I will not take back the case. Our condition is very bad. My wife and daughter both are very ill. If he is not sent to jail and roams around free, he will keep threatening us. We are under a lot of pressure. The police have not even arrested him yet. After what he did to our daughter, how can I take my complaint back?” Meanwhile, his relatives tell us that he has been receiving phone calls not only from acquaintances and ‘well-wishers’, but also from ministers and intermediaries. They added that officials from the ashram tried to threaten the family using their younger son. His son studied at the Chhindwara Gurukul run by the Asaram Trust, where his daughter used to study too. The ashram authorities refused to allow him to leave. After a prolonged struggle, he got a ‘Transfer Certificate’ from the ashram on 26 August and was handed over to them.

The assault has not only scarred the family physically and emotionally, but has also left their religious belief shaken. Here’s an account in his own words. On how he came to know of Asaram Bapu: ‘In the beginning we didn’t have anything. Then I started a small transport business. It grew steadily. About 10 years ago, I came to know of Asaram. There is something about him that wins the hearts of the people, mesmerises them. We fell for his charm and my family and I became his devotees. We were among the earliest devotees from Shahjahanpur. We made him popular here. We had such deep faith in him that we even constructed an ashram for him on 7 acres of land in Tilhad district some 8 or 10 kilometers from here. We handed the land over to his son Sai Narayan. Selflessly, I spent lakhs on this man. And today he is trying to lure us with money. He says, “Take money and forget about the case.” The way he has bought everyone, he wants to buy me too.

On what happened to his daughter: ‘She had been studying in Asaram’s Chhindwara Gurukul for the past five years. My younger son also studied there. There was never any issue. Everything being said about Roshni’s health is false. She has always been perfectly healthy. But for no reason, they started her treatment. My daughter told me that she didn’t have any problem, but suddenly the Gurukul sevikas told her that she was under the influence of spirits. They told me that she would have to perform a puja for one whole night. They took her away and at night, four or five of them sat around her in a hall. They made her recite the mahamrityunjay mantra. She told me later how she had got a headache after that. The next day we received a call from the Ashram informing us that our daughter was unwell. The sevikas told us that only Asaram Bapu could heal her. We were told to meet Asaram on 15 August in his Jodhpur ashram. My wife and I reached Chhindwara and took our daughter along with us to Jodhpur.’

‘We were told to go there at night on 15 August. Behind the Manai Ashram of Jodhpur there are some cottages. Asaram had called us there. When we reached there, he told us to meditate by looking into his eyes. We were overjoyed that someone people crave to meet is asking us to look into his eyes. But now I know that it was just a plot to hypnotize us. He asked us to leave our daughter as he was going perform some incantations on her to cure her. We told him it was late and we had no place to go. Moreover, we did not want to leave our daughter alone. So he told us we could rest in the hut next door, while he attended to our daughter. We worshipped him like God and trusted him so we went to the other cottage leaving our daughter with him. Even then we were reciting his bhajans. When Roshni returned after about one-and-a-half hour later, she was crying. When I asked what had happened, she asked to leave immediately. I got suspicious. When we reached home, I told my wife to ask her what happened there. After much insistence, she told her that when we had left, Asaram took her to another room from a door at the back. There, Asaram told her that he would heal her and that she was going to become a great orator. Then he asked her to remove her clothes and raped her. He threatened her that if she told anybody about it, her family would face the consequences. Had Roshni told me there, I would have picked a stone and hit Asaram with it. There wasn’t even much security there. He destroyed the life and honour of our daughter. We will never forgive him.” …

http://www.tehelka.com/if-my-wife-and-i-had-not-been-present-there-we-would-never-have-believed-our-own-daughter-2/?singlepage=1#

SEE ALSO:

• Laws twisted at will – Editorial (Aug 31, 2013, DNA India)
  http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/1882286/editorial-dna-edit-laws-twisted-at-will
• The Saint And His Taint – By Jay Mazoomdaar (Sep 7, 2013, Tehelka)
  http://www.tehelka.com/the-saint-and-his-taint/?singlepage=1
• The self-styled gurus – By Sunita Aron (Aug 27, 2013, Hindustan Times)
  http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/hindi-heartland/2013/08/27/the-self-styled-gurus/
• Why India Need A Federal Law Against ‘Miraculous Claims’ Of God Men – By Vidya Bhushan Rawat (Sep 2, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/rawat020913.htm

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Bit Players’ Scripts – By Prarthna Gahilote (Sep 9, 2013, Outlook)

A lot of hope was rekindled in the BJP two months back when it decided to muzzle all dissidence and present a united face for electioneering. The monsoon session infused fresh energy: BJP parliamentarians found enough ammunition to attack the government on issues of corruption, the worsening state of the economy and matters of national security. With the Lok Sabha polls barely nine months away, the downslide of the UPA (despite the little boost provided by the passage of the Food Security Bill) must become the BJP’s surest bet to turn up trumps. But there may still be a long distance for the party to travel between building itself as the only alternative, cobbling up the required numbers and managing both the strident voices keen to project the BJP as a one-man—that is, Modi—show and the vocal doubters. While some senior leaders in the BJP are wont to periodically voice doubts, more or less subtly, over projecting one leader as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 polls, the worry over the issue has spilled over even to the RSS headquarters. The Sangh is likely to discuss the matter threadbare in Delhi next week, when it congregates in the capital for a high-level meeting.

Sources confirm that senior leaders at the Sangh headquarters in Nagpur have been deep in discussion about Modi’s conduct and the current tone and tenor of the cadre support for him. Nearly two months after Modi was declared the chief of the campaign committee, Sangh leaders are debating if the Modimania that seemed to have enthused and fired both the BJP and the RSS cadre in June is just as crackling now. The RSS senses a dent in the surface. A senior pracharak voices the doubt: “What was the need for Modiji to do a US presidential campaign-style retort to the prime minister’s speech? If (Sitaram) Kesriji was called a man in a hurry, will this not make Modiji look like a man in a hurry? The sense of disappointment is not just limited to us but can be seen in the cadre as well. Modiji’s two recent speeches, first in Hyderabad and then in Bhuj, haven’t gone down well.” Many in the BJP also agree with this view, calling Modi’s efforts an “unnecessary petty exercise.” Modi’s August 15 speech not just found a veiled criticism from party veteran L.K. Advani but even alliance partner Shiv Sena. …

This quietly critical assessment of Modi in action from within the BJP and the NDA is the reason the shrill clamour on the ‘Modi for PM’ front from Bihar two weeks back gave party president Rajnath Singh a real scare. Faithfuls from the state, convinced that it was time to play the Modi card fully, adopted a resolution at the Bodh Gaya state executive meeting that Modi be declared the prime ministerial candidate. It was led by Sushil Modi, former deputy chief minister, and came like a bolt from the blue. For the Delhi leadership, the Bihar unit’s demand was not just ill-timed but could cause trouble. Explains a highly placed source, “The central leadership had no idea this was being planned. We were shocked. Rajnathji was under tremendous pressure to immediately quell all speculation.” So, Sushil Modi received a sharp reprimand from Rajnath who reiterated that the “decision rests with the parliamentary board.” …

The party’s hopes hinge on ‘harvest states’ like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, representing about a 100 seats. The electoral arithmetic in the states is not a dead cert, though. In many ways, the BJP’s performance in the assembly polls will be seen as reflecting on Modi as the man anointed to lead the party in the general elections. For Modi, therefore, there is much at stake here. With three of the four major assembly (Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh) polls looking dicey for the BJP, lack of allies at the national level and the absence of an absolute electoral calculus may finally prevent Modi from conjuring the magic that he has so far promised. ‘Should Modi fail to deliver’ is the thought that’s lending strength to the perpetual intrigue and individual aspirations of Modi’s erstwhile rivals in Delhi. Among those who stand prominent as possible challengers are party chief Rajnath Singh, L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. For now, aligned with Modi, Rajnath not only nurses a quiet prime ministerial ambition but has also positioned himself as one of the three leaders in the party (Jaitley and Modi being the other two) who should remain relevant in party affairs in the months to come.

Set against this scenario, the BJP seems caught between a rock and a hard place. There are some in the BJP who argue that Modi’s ambition for 2014 actually stems from the realisation that this would be his last chance to push himself centrestage. A senior leader says, “Modi knows that the numbers will fall short. The effort therefore is not so much to grab 7 Race Course but to strengthen his own position, capture the party in Delhi and then purge it.” If that be true, the future will be shaky for a party heavily dependent on cult creation.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?287610

SEE ALSO:

• Modi Goes To London – By Subhash Gatade (Sep 1, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/gatade010913.htm
• In the name of development – By Anupama Katakam (Sep 6, 2013, Frontline)
  http://www.frontline.in/the-nation/in-the-name-of-development/article5038195.ece
• ‘Modi Thinks I’m Another Medha Patkar’ – Kanubhai Kalsaria tells Outlook (Sep 2, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?287500

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Anatomy of Terror Trials – By Manisha Sethi (Sep 2, 2013, Twocircles.net)

This case is fairly representative of the manner in which UAPA cases are framed and prosecuted. Elusiveness of charges is matched only by infirmity of evidences. Media trials, which link the accused to acts of terror they are not even formally charged with, are conducted; and bail applications rejected repeatedly. The prosecution hopes till the last moment that no one will miss the required sanction. Only, not all are as lucky as these men from Kota. An Ujjain court ruled that lack of credible independent witnesses would not come in the way of its war against terror because. The desire to uphold national security can sometimes outweigh the commitment to rule of law and justice.

Some would argue that framing of innocents in false charges is a result of the law’s gross misuse by police. That law, any law, by itself is simply an instrument that is abused by biased, ignorant, ill intentioned policemen—implying that there are possible good uses to which UAPA could be employed. But look a little more closely: at the heart of UAPA are the twin arteries of membership (of unlawful organizations) and conspiracy (of furthering the activities of the unlawful organization). Both, membership to an organization that no longer exists legally, and nebulous charges of conspiracy are notoriously difficult to pin down. Any surprise then that Khandwa police in its most high profile operation yet ‘seized’ membership forms of SIMI – duly filled in by the accused – conveniently lying around their homes? That seized literature constitutes the bulk of evidence of conspiracy? The courts found Maoist literature apparently seized from Seema Azad and Vishwavijay sufficient basis to hand out life sentences to the couple. Binayak Sen’s conviction by the Chhattisgarh sessions court also hinged on the recovery of magazines and pamphlets from his house, all of which were freely available.

Each amendment has brought into the ambit of ‘unlawful’ an ever-growing circle of acts and actors, strengthening the subjective basis of its application, virtually creating a suspicion state. Opposing POTA introduced by the NDA government, S. Jaipal Reddy had laid out four grounds of objection to the legislation: “First, it is destructive of the basic democratic liberties; second, it has been demonstrated empirically in our own country that this a remedy worse than the malady; third, it has been prompted, by malignant political motives; and fourth, it jettisons the basic established principles of criminal jurisprudence without a necessary protective shield.” However, the Parliament attack weathered away the resistance to this draconian law – and almost as a replay, the Mumbai attack in November 2008 drummed up support for a tough law against terror in the form of amended UAPA.

Short of admitting confession as evidence – much to the chagrin of Advani – the new, improved UAPA 2008 looked remarkably similar to TADA (which incidentally P. Chiadambaram had inaugurated in 1987 as Minister of State for Home). It extended the period of remand to 180 days while rendering the bail provisions extremely stringent. Appealing to his colleagues to pass the amended bill without insisting on a referral to the Standing Committee, PC assured them that Parliament could “revisit the Bills and make the improvements in course of time”. Indeed, he promised, “If any improvements have to be done, we can always come back and look at the Bill when we meet again in February.” The Parliament has only returned to the law to add more muscle to it.

Having already included terror funding and holding of terror camps as offences in UAPA 2008 (and voila you will suddenly find these charges surfacing in the FIRs—but again with the sketchiest possible details), the Parliament in its last session explicitly incorporated economic offences under the definition of terrorist acts. Amendment of section 15 now declares the production, distribution of “high quality counterfeit currency” as a terrorist offence, and not simply a financial one that was up till now dealt with under sections 489B, 489C, 489D of the IPC. Punjab Police’s partiality towards TADA’s powerful provisions, or Maharashtra police’s quick recourse to MCOCA over ordinary criminal law, has been too well documented to not know that police favour draconian laws when they are available. …

http://twocircles.net/2013sep02/anatomy_terror_trials.html

SEE ALSO:

• India needs fast-track courts to deal with terror cases – Editorial (Aug 30, 2013, Times of India)
  http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-30/times-view/41617540_1_terror-cases-fast-track-courts-fast-track-courts
• Study on communal bias of police in Karnataka – By Shabeer K. (Aug 20, 2013, twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2013aug20/study_communal_bias_police_karnataka.html
• To Serve & Protect – By Nishita Jha (Sep 7, 2013, Tehelka)
  http://www.tehelka.com/to-serve-protect/
• Kandhamal Carnage: Aftermath – By Ram Puniyani (Aug 15, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani150813.htm

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Women, Safety, and the City of Mumbai – By Sameera Khan (Sep 7, 2013, EPW)

Why Mumbai?” Eight years ago, while researching women’s presence in the public space in Mumbai, my colleagues and I “Were often asked with much bewilderment, “But why are you studying Bombay/Mumbai?” For Mumbai has always been recognised as that affable Indian city where women seem to have it all. Certainly when compared to other Indian metros, women in Mumbai are privileged in their access to public space. In most areas of the city, a woman hailing a cab alone at 10 pm, for example, is fairly acceptable. A woman out on a work assignment in central Mumbai would undoubtedly be considered secure. But regrettably in more recent years, this taken-for-granted safety of women in public has taken a beating. Few now care to ask us, “Why Mumbai?”

The recent gang rape of a young photojournalist (while her male colleague was assaulted and tied up) out for a work assignment on the evening of 22 August 2013 in the abandoned Shakti Mills compound in Mahalaxmi, an area in the centre of the city, has got everyone suitably outraged, but it is unquestionably not the first violent assault of its kind. From 853 recorded incidents of crime against women in 2001 to 1,781 such cases in 2012, Mumbai’s contribution to crimes against women, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, now stands a little over 5% of the national total. When compared to Delhi (City), its favourite jousting partner, which now accounts for over 13% of total crimes against women, Mumbai may seem relatively safer. But the country’s commercial capital has recorded 649 rapes (registered under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code – IPC) and 1,652 cases of molestation (registered under Section 354 of the IPC) in the last three years. Mumbai runs neck-to-neck with Delhi in molestation cases (or assaults on women with the intent to “outrage her modesty”, as the law puts it) with a 13% rise in their number in 2012.

In the last year, crimes against women have piled up fast. On 18 August, a 24-year-old American woman had her face, neck, and arms slashed with a blade on a local train; in late July a nurse was molested in a local train; and in May a masked man flung acid on a woman who was starting a new job in the city. In November 2012, a Spanish woman was raped in her apartment by a robber; the same month another woman had some chemical flung on her face by a former boyfriend; and in August 2012 a lawyer was murdered by the security guard of her building. The list of rapes, molestations, and acid attacks goes on and on. These are public incidents (private or domestic violence, according to the NCRB, is higher) that have been recorded by the police. The bulk of assaults remain unregistered. As investigations into the Shakti Mills gang-rape case now show, the same five men possibly raped at least four women rag-pickers weeks before they assaulted the journalist. It is no surprise that those women did not report the rapes – in the work they do they are usually harassed by the authorities, and to trust law enforcers to protect them must have seemed rather hopeless.

Besides the horrific fact that this probably emboldened these men to continue raping other women, the wider concern is whether we (I mean the city, police, and the media) would have been similarly enraged and out on the streets if the rape victims had been poor women. Recall that a similar sort of outrage was expressed when a middle-class college girl was raped by a policeman on Marine Drive in April 2005, but that it was missing when a teenage rag-picker was raped, also by a policeman, near the airport only six months later. It does seem that crimes against the bodies of middle-class women, especially those committed by lower-class men, receive more attention and rouse our anger than crimes against others. The questions less asked when we straighten up with pride about Mumbai and its relative friendliness to women is, “What made Mumbai safe?” and its converse, “What has changed that it no longer feels so comfortable?” …

Working women have been a part of Mumbai’s fabric for so long that it is hard to remember a time when the ladies compartments on local trains was not filled to overflowing or when many women had to battle to get into so many all-male bastions of work. This includes the media, which with the gang rape of one of its own fraternity, has been stunned into realising that it probably needs to agitate more strongly for a safer city for all. Finally, there are other changes that have also had implications for women’s safety. The insane real estate market keeps the wealthy in “the city” and throws out others to less-developed suburbs and satellite areas, and the worn-out infrastructure and an aged transportation network get less attention than they deserve. 4 Negotiating cities undoubtedly involves an element of risk. But that risk should not be forced on citizens because the city did not put infrastructure and systems in place to help them. This includes round-the-clock transportation all days of the week, public toilets that are open at all times, optimal street lighting, and policemen on duty whose jobs are not to send home a woman at 10 pm so that she may be “safer” (she may not be), but to ensure that she can stay out because they will make sure the street is safe.5 Curbing the everyday harassment women suffer on the street has to be a priority. …

http://www.epw.in/commentary/women-safety-and-city-mumbai.html

SEE ALSO:

• Sexual Assault On Women: Two Cases, Where The Victims Denied Justice – By Forum Against Oppression of Women (Sep 1, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/faow010913.htm
• Crime and Safety – Editorial (Sep 7, 2013, EPW)
  http://www.epw.in/editorials/crime-and-safety.html
• Our Own Space – By Anita Pratap & Others (Sep 9, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?287639

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Employing Muslims in security forces is beneficial in more ways than one – Editorial (Aug 23, 2013, Times of India)

Several government reports and independent studies have indicated that historically Muslims, who constitute about 14% of the population, have been significantly under-represented across ministries and departments, especially in India’s security agencies and paramilitary forces. This could be due to a complex of factors, ranging from discrimination against Muslims to insufficient propensity within the community to come forward and capitalise on the opportunities offered by a modern economy. It’s heartening, therefore, that the share of Muslims in government jobs shot up from 6.93% in 2006-07 to over 10% in 2010-11, according to the latest NSSO data.

This could be a sign of increasing aspiration among India’s Muslims, but credit should also go to a central directive to states to take targeted steps to recruit from the minority pool. This rise from the bottom of the pile is undoubtedly a sign of greater inclusiveness and minority trust and confidence in institutions. Last year’s appointment of Syed Ibrahim as Intelligence Bureaudirector showed that minorities are making slow but steady progress even though economic growth has declined of late because of drifting governance.

While NSSO data indicate that the access of Muslims to more public sector jobs has increased, greater efforts still need to be made to recruit them in central paramilitary and police forces where they have been historically discriminated against. By adopting a general process — rather than a parti-cularistic, quota-system approach — of recruitment, sufficient minority presence in national security organisations will ensure more efficient investigation and fair treatment of riots cases, besides paving the way for effective intelligence gathering in the fight against terrorism. Above all, an equitable distribution of Muslims in the police forces will help accomplish the aims of community policing and within-organisation sensitisation.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-23/edit-page/41437539_1_muslims-security-forces-paramilitary-forces

SEE ALSO:

• Development of Muslims: Comparing Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh in the early 2000s – By Kancha Ilaiah (Sep 7, 2013, EPW)
  http://www.epw.in/notes/development-muslims.html
• Personal laws: A reality check – By Vibhuti Patel (Sep 6, 2013, Frontline)
  http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/personal-laws-a-reality-check/article5037670.ece
• Socio-economic Profile of Muslims in Maharashtra – By Vibhuti Patel (Sep 7, 2013, EPW)
  http://www.epw.in/notes/socio-economic-profile-muslims-maharashtra.html

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