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Four reasons why Vajpayee doesn't deserve Bharat Ratna

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The award is given in recognition of exceptional service rendered without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex. Our former prime minister doesn’t fulfil this criteria.

vajpayee

by MD Hussain Rahmani, DailyO

President Pranab Mukherjee has announced India’s highest civilian awards for former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and freedom fighter and scholar Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (posthumously). In the latter case, the present regime is extending its drive to appropriate historical icons.

As always, the first reactions came on Twitter. Noted historian Ramchandra Guha tweeted, “Giving Vajpayee a Bharat Ratna is fine, but one should not award it to people dead or long dead. Awarding Malaviya is a mistake. If Malaviya, why not give Tagore, Phule, Tilak, Gokhale, Vivekananda, Akbar, Shivaji, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Ashoka, Bharat Ratnas too?”

However, in my view, conferring the Bharat Ratna to Vajpayee raises more important questions. Here are four strong reasons of mine that weaken Vajpayee’s case for the prestigious award:

1. Bharat Ratna only for being a prime minister: While Bharat Ratna is an award for life-time service, it is only Vajpayee’s prime ministerial tenure that is being considered as exceptional and unblemished. Even as PM, some of his decisions were highly controversial. One was the famous surrender to the IC-814 hijackers and releasing dreaded terrorist Masood Azhar in return for the safety of the hostages. After the release, Azhar’s outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed, carried out several attacks on our country, including the attack on Parliament in 2001.

2. Architect of Babri Masjid demolition: Listen to his speech that he delivered on December 5, 1992 in Ayodhya. He is openly calling for the demolition of the disputed structure. Was it without distinction of race or religion? What happened after the demolition will always haunt us as it severely dented India’s pluralist nature and ethos.

3. Even his role during India’s freedom struggle has always been in question: His controversial confessional statement before a magistrate during the Quit India Movement in 1942 indicted two freedom fighters. This aspect of his life was even raised by some of his detractors in Parliament after he became PM in 1998.

4. Vajpayee’s communal rant: Contrary to his image as a moderate statesman, he spewed venom against the Muslim community during his speech at the BJP conclave in Goa, barely a few months after the 2002 Gujarat riots. This is what he said: “Wherever Muslims live, they don’t like to live in co-existence with others; they don’t like to mingle with others; and instead of propagating their ideas in a peaceful manner, they want to spread their faith by resorting to terror and threats.”

Do these comments reflect someone who deserves a Bharat Ratna?

Costa Rica is now running completely on renewable energy

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The country doesn’t need an ounce of coal or petroleum to keep the lights on.

Water is Costa Rica's largest source of energy.(Reuters/Juan Carlos Ulate)

Water is Costa Rica’s largest source of energy.(Reuters/Juan Carlos Ulate)

by Adam Epstein, QZ

Costa Rica is running without having to burn a single fossil fuel, and it’s been doing so for 75 straight days.

Thanks to some heavy rainfall this year, Costa Rica’s hydropower plants alone are generating nearly enough electricity to power the entire country. With a boost from geothermal, solar, and wind energy sources, the country doesn’t need an ounce of coal or petroleum to keep the lights on. Of course, the country has a lot of things going in its favor. Costa Rica is a small nation, has less than 5 million people, doesn’t have much of a manufacturing industry that would require a lot of energy, and is filled with volcanoes and other topographical features that lend themselves to renewable energy.

Nonetheless, it is both a noble and significant feat for a nation of any size to eschew fossil fuels completely.

Costa Rica is not the only place in the area committed to running on green energy. Bonaire, a Dutch island territory off the coast of Venezuela, operates at nearly 100% renewable energy, and will likely reach that milestone soon with the help of an unlikely energy source: algae.

Driven by China, global spending on renewable energy is on track for its first annual gain in three years (though it might not last). Iceland already gets all of its electricity from renewable energy sources, and about 85% of all its energy is produced by geothermal and hydropower sources. And three other European countries (Sweden, Bulgaria, and Estonia) have already hit their 2020 renewable energy goals.

Denmark, which gets 40% of its energy from wind, wants to ditch fossil fuels completely by 2050. The problem with operating completely on renewable energy, as some Danes have noted, is that fossil fuels are still needed as a backup plan if, for instance, there’s a stretch of time when the country hasn’t experienced enough wind or sunshine to power everything. But the rise of renewable energy has rendered many conventional power plants unprofitable, and owners of those plants are trying to close up shop.

In Costa Rica, a drought would seriously disrupt the country’s ability to generate electricity with water. That’s probably why its government approved a $958 million geothermal project. While that’s being funded largely by Japan and the European Investment Bank, Costa Rica has already been able to spend so much on renewable energy because it doesn’t need to spend anything on defense. The country hasn’t had a military since 1948.

A crash with no obvious cause: we must wait for answers from Germanwings black box

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Recovering the lost aircraft will be hampered by the terrain, snow and weather. EPA/Sebastien Nogier

Recovering the lost aircraft will be hampered by the terrain, snow and weather. EPA/Sebastien Nogier

by Kevin Byrne, The Conversation

An investigation has begun into the unexplained crash of Flight 4U9525, of budget airline Germanwings, which crashed into the Alps in southeastern France en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf with the loss of all 150 passengers and crew.

The aircraft descended from cruising height of 38,000ft to around 6,000ft in eight minutes before air traffic control lost contact just before 11am. According to witnesses who saw the aircraft descend, there was no sign of smoke or in-flight explosion, and weather at the time was good. The black box flight recorder has been found, and will reveal more in time.

Such incidents are actually quite rare in statistical terms. Flight 4U9525 appears to have involved a major malfunction of some kind as the aircraft was cruising, while the majority of accidents occur during take-off or landing. In fact most air accidents that involve fatalities also result in a large proportion of the passengers surviving because they occur nearer the ground, a fact that is not generally appreciated but sadly also not the case here.

The abrupt end of the aircraft’s flight path over the Alps. EPA/ZIPI

The aircraft: Airbus A320

The aircraft, an Airbus A320, is a model that is in great demand from all parts of the world, and its reputation for safety and reliability is unequalled. It is one of a smaller, single-aisled family that comprise the A318, A319, A320 and A321, and has been in production since the late 1980s, and sales of the updated models show little sign of decline.

The A320 family has an accident rate of 0.14 fatal crashes per million departures, which is considered excellent. The total number of accident fatalities is below 1,500, which good considering its two decade service history and that more than 6,000 are in daily use.

There have been some memorable A320 accidents; in June 1988 an Air France airliner crash landed in high trees while performing a fly-by-wire landing at the Mulhouse air display in France. Three of the 136 passengers on board died, and airliners are no longer permitted to perform at airshows with passengers on board.

In January 2009, in a remarkable piece of airmanship a US Airways A320 taking off from La Guardia in New York had a double engine failure from birdstrikes and subsequently glided to a perfect ditching in the River Hudson. Of the 155 people on board there was only a single serious injury.

In this case it’s been reported that the particular aircraft involved was 24 years old, with the aircraft having previously been in service with German national airline Lufthansa before being transferred to Germanwings, a Lufthansa subsidiary. While this may surprise some, there’s little doubt that its full service records will show it was airworthy before its final departure, and that all necessary servicing had been completed in the years since manufacture. European airspace and flights are heavily audited by the European Aviation Safety Agency and are considered very safe. Lufthansa operates 100 A320s, Germanwings 60.

The A320 family were among the first so-called “fly-by-wire” airliners, a great innovation when they first flew. In simple terms, the cables and pulleys connecting the moveable flight control surfaces (elevators, rudder and ailerons) to the pilots’ controls are replaced by electronic connections. These permit lighter pressure, swifter response, and better handling than previous manual systems, and do away with the image of “wrestling with the stick”. It’s now accepted that fly-by-wire technology, once the preserve of military aircraft, are perfectly safe for commercial use.

In-flight emergency

With regard to airborne emergencies it goes without saying that there are procedures for all eventualities, and that these are practised by aircrews on a very regular basis. In all cases, teaching on the impact of human factors dictates that one pilot physically flies the aircraft while another attempts to isolate or solve the problem using checklist procedures, and will advise the cabin crew and the air traffic authorities that an emergency exists.

So it’s puzzling to investigators that Flight 4U9525 issued no “mayday” distress call, as confirmed by France’s aviation authority despite earlier contradictory reports. This is unusual: if the situation was so catastrophic that it led to an immediate and rapid descent, for whatever reason, then possibly the aircraft or its communications systems had become disabled in some way. If it was cabin depressurisation that caused such a descent, each pilot has about 15 minutes of independent oxygen supply (the passengers have no more than 12 minutes’ worth).

It’s tragic that even at the low altitude of around 6,000ft that the aircraft was unable to avoid colliding into the lower slopes of the Alps, and that all on board perished. What remains certain is that the air accident investigators will piece together Flight 4U9525’s final moments to assemble a true picture of what happened in the run up to the crash in an effort to prevent its re-occurrence. Sad though these events are, commercial air travel remains the safest form of travel in the 21st century, and is likely to remain so.

Kevin Byrne is a Senior Lecturer in Aviation Management at Coventry University.

The Conversation

The death of 66A and the dawn of a new era of free speech jurisprudence

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66a it act

by Siddharth Narrain

It’s not often that India’s Supreme Court strikes down a law in its entirety as a violation of the free speech. But when it does, boy do you want to stand up and cheer. Before a packed courtroom, Justices Rohinton Nariman and G. Chelameswar, pronounced their judgment in Shreya Singhal & Ors. v. Union of India,, striking down, in its entirety, the controversial section 66A of the Information Technology Act in its entirety. The full text of the decision is not available yet. But Justice Nariman read out parts of the court decision, enough to give us a sense of what is to come.

Justice Nariman talking on behalf of the Bench, first referred to the Preamble of the Constitution that guarantees all citizens the liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship. He stressed that the liberty of expression was of paramount importance in our constitutional scheme. He then highlighted salient features of the judgment.

Para 13 deals with the distinction between ‘discussion’, ‘advocacy’ and ‘incitement’. As per the Supreme Court, mere discussion or advocacy of a cause, however unpopular, is protected by Article 19(1)a of the Constitution that guarantees the freedom of speech and expression. Only when speech reaches the level of incitement are 19(2) restrictions attracted. Justice Nariman noted that most of the arguments before the court revolved around the ‘public order’ restriction in 19(2), and therefore unless speech is of the variety that it tends to cause public disorder, it cannot be restricted. Thus the court has built on earlier case law like Ram Manohar Lohia andArup Bhuyan to strengthen and confirm the constitutional protection to speech.

The Court ruled that the public’s right to know was adversely impacted by section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which restricted information that could cause annoyance or was grossly offensive. The Court referred to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Holmes’ famous articulation of the market place of ideas, and said that in order for the state to restrict speech it has to meet the standard of incitement and causal link to the disturbance of public order.

The Court has pointed out section 66A did not make a distinction between mass dissemination and dissemination to one person. Justice Nariman said that the nexus between the message and action taken on the basis of the message was conspicuously absent. The language of section 66A did not require a proximate connection to public order, and instead criminalised mere annoyance.

Justice Nariman said that the language of 66A did not satisfy the “Clear and Present Danger Test” nor the “Tendency to Affect” Test, both of which the judgment elaborates on. Besides ‘public order’, section 66A does not satisfy any of the other terms of restriction provided in Article 19(2). The Court said that the Additional Solicitor General (representing the government) had asked the Bench to read these tests into into section 66A, but if they did so, this would amount to wholesale substitution of the law.

The Court ruled that the language of section 66A did not satisfy the test of vagueness- it did not lay down clearly defined lines thus not allowing for law enforcement to put persons on notice. “What may be offensive to one person is not offensive to another”, said Justice Nariman. The Court said that even the term “persistently” in section 66A was not clearly defined. Thus the section was rendered constitutionally vague. The Court observed that two U.K. judgments cited by the ASG illustrated how even judicially trained minds could differ on the meaning of ‘the term grossly offensive’.

Referring to the government’s argument that the possibility of abuse does not render a law invalid, the Court held that section 66A, which was otherwise invalid could not be saved by the ASG’s assurance that the law would be administered flawlessly. “Governments may come, and governments may go, but the law will remain”, observed the judges.

The judges relied on the Romesh Thapar case to address the issue of severability of the provision (i.e. whether one part of the section could be severed from the rest, but the section in its entirety would remain on the statute book). The Court held that section 66A does not fall within the subject matter of Article 19(2). “No part of the section is severable as the provision as a whole is unconstitutional”, said Justice Nariman.

The Court rejected the Article 14 argument put forward by the petitioners, who had argued that laws governing the regulation of the Internet should be on par with laws governing other media like print, broadcast etc. The Court said that section 66Bof the IT Act onwards did create separate standards for the regulation of the Internet.

The Court also struck down in its entirety section 118D of the Kerala Police Act, a provision similar to section 66A.

The Court, however, upheld the law related to blocking, section 69A, and the connected Rules, in its entirety. As for the Intermediary Rules, the court has upheld section 79 of the IT Act, and the Intermediary Rules subject to reading down both provisions to allow for a requirement whereby a court order is required before an intermediary is required to take down information of it was related to subject matter covered by Article 19(2). One has to read the judgment to see what the Court’s reasoning has been relating to the Blocking Rules and Intermediary Guidelines, as the judges did not elaborate on this in the courtroom.

The petitioners in this case included Shreya Singhal, Common Cause, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Dilip Kumar Tulsidas, the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, Mouthshut.Com, Tasleema Nasrin, Manoj Oswal, the Internet and Mobile Association of India and Anoop M.K. (For a more detailed account of their arguments in court see https://ccgnludelhi.wordpress.com/tag/section-66a/) This is a big moment for them, and an even bigger moment for all those who have been crying hoarse about draconian laws in this country that have stifled the liberty to speak one’s mind, to dissent, and to be creative without feeling that one’s hands have been handcuffed by the law.

Siddharth Narrain is a lawyer and legal researcher. This article first appeared on Kafila.org

Window of opportunity?: Stop mocking the ‘cheaters’ of Bihar

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bihar-exam

by Jitendra Kumar

All day today photographs of parents and guardians helping their wards to cheat were in circulation on social media and news sites. This has unleashed a wave of ridicule targeted at not only Bihar’s education system but also at students appearing for those exams, and generally Biharis across the country. The Bihari students have been silenced and shamed.

Fortunately or not, I’ve been a full time student at JNU, Jamia, DU, Himachal University, Magadh University and IGNOU too. Thus I’m neither impressed – nor aghast – when you show me the pictures suggesting only students from Bihar cheat. In fact these are the poor students who haven’t learned to use WiFi yet.

They are those unlucky students whose teacher guesses ten questions, of which any five are bound to make it to the question paper. But they are not those students for whom 30 marks are assigned for internal assessment. Their parents are still too ‘backward’ to put them in schools which only provide general marking. It is this ‘backwardness’ led by poverty which brings out the courage to clamber up the walls up to the fourth floor. Actually, it would be better to see these parents as the examinees. What prompts them to risk life and limb? The answer to this would never be published. The visuals of the ‘answer’ would never be published.

There might be several girls whose marriages are bundled with the fate of their marksheet. The government hardly provides any job opportunity, but if they manage to pass the examination, their chances of getting a decent and respectable bridegroom increases. Their parents are eager that their daughters pass the examination – they will have to manage less dowry. Every single additional mark managed by the girl would relieve the tension of her father in direct proportion. This daredevilry of the parents not only shows them helping to cheat but the necessity of a marksheet.

Thus the eagerness comes to climb up to the fourth floor. There might be several students who are not necessarily dumb but only higher marks can make them eligible to get their admissions in colleges or sit in competitive exams. Once they are out applying for their admissions, they have to compete equally with others coming from different schools, different background and different boards. This ‘different’ stands for privileged. When education is already sold out to private players, and seat availability in government colleges woefully less than required, can we blame the students?

Clearly, they are not the ones who can afford private collages or coaching centres like those in Kota. Thus the eagerness comes to climb up fourth floor. Sensational photographs definitely tickle us, but sadly there will be no visual archive of the way in which they live in temporary arrangements in cities for this exam. Up to ten students stay in one small room hired for examinations, bringing rice and other important items from their villages. Failing in these examinations scares them more than climbing up or the police’s lathi charge.

In any case, this education doesn’t provide them jobs necessarily but mere social status due to over-valorized Matric pass status. The risk is for that as well. Thus the eagerness to climb up to fourth floor. These people are definitely frightened of heights, police’s lathicharge and even a lock up in the worst scenario – but their children got a Siksha Mitra instead of a competent teacher. ‘Homework’ for them has implied helping their parents in household chores and earning extra income. In classes before lunch, most of them dream about the day’s menu of mid day meal. Thus these parents are not helping their children to cheat but trying to compensate for what they actually deserved, but never got.

A Tenth-pass certificate is not only a result of an examination but its a competition between those who have and those who don’t. And these parents are only too aware of that. Anyhow tomorrow, they have to compete on ‘equal’ terms with those who had better facilities, teachers, books, food with no worries.

In 1996, there was an attempt to scuttle down cheating attempts. Less than 15% pass results were published across Bihar. That also, mostly third division. Those third division passed students were cream of the society back then. But what happened later! Most of them were denied those opportunities in vacancies due to marks.

If I were one among those parents, I too would have climbed up to the top floor too for a better future for my child. When teachers to education ministers are devoid of ethics or empathy, don’t put the blame on children. They are only kids learning to survive.

Writer is a student of JNU and hails from Bihar.

Nandigram: Perfect example of disempowering empowered Women

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by Nisha Biswas

Nandigram-Women

Nandigram, a rural area with two community development blocks in Haldia subdivision of Purba Medinipur, is not known as such but is the name of historic resistance – struggle and the win of its people against the forcible acquisition of 10,000 acre land by the West Bengal government for proposed Chemical hub between 2007 to 2010. Since then Nandigram is inspiration for many agrarian and anti- land acquisition struggles. It was mainly due to Nandigram that the then UPA government was compelled to change SEZ and Land Acquisition Acts. The movement took the steam out of the more than three decades CPI(M) rule and TMC won the state assembly election in 2011 with unprecedented majority.

Women of Nandigram played a key role in its resistance movement. They were in the forefront. Supriya Jana lost her precious life in indiscriminate firing by police. As many as 17 women were raped, many were molested and around a hundred were injured. Women like, twice gang raped Radha Rani Ari, Tapasi Das whose thigh was almost sawed and had uterus hit when police opened fire on unarmed women and children and who still lives in perpetual pain, Swarnmoyee Das whole left elbow was so badly injured that it still remains badly injured, elderly Narmda Shee became the face of the Nandigram movement.

Their courage, energy and never dying attitude inspired many. It was the time to dream, time to hope, time to empower, time to live and time to die. They went all over the country to tell their tales. The then opposition party chief Ms Mamata Banerjee supported them and shrewdly snatched the credit. People of Nandigram in general and women in particular thought that she would bring the change that they had dared to dream. Riding on the waves of Singur and Nandigram movements she snatched power from CPI(M) and became Chief Minister of West Bengal on May 20, 2011.

A seven-member team of Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression, West Bengal (WSS, WB) visited Nandigram 4days ahead of observation of “Martyr’s Day”, observed on 14th March of each year to commemorate the historic struggle of Nandigram against land acquisition, this year.

What the team saw was terrible saddening and disturbing. That these women who were once the powerful leaders are today not only distressed but are also disempowered.

Now, they are nowhere in the leadership of Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), formed at the time of struggle. They are not even invited for BUPC meetings or on March 14 to observe Martyr’s Day. The leadership of BUPC did not know what happened to the cases that they filed against police and ruling party goons. On the other hand, in December 2013 CBI has instituted case against more than 30 men and women, including women who were severely injured/ raped for inciting violence and attacking the police and the CBI’s request for permission to initiate criminal proceeding against some police officials is still lying with the state government. The women, who not only suffered rape, bullet wounds and state terror but had remained in the fore front of the heroic struggle against forcible land acquisition, and were subsequently instrumental in unseating Left Front from power, have today been completely edged out of the political space.

Women like Tapasi Das and Swarnmoyee, who needed prolonged treatment and support for the disability caused by bullet injuries were left to fend for them selves. None of the women was awarded or given any job in recognition of their contribution to the movement. In rare cases men of the family are given some temporary job with Metro Rail, but women were just forgotten. Tapasi Das, who lives in continuous pain and is bed ridden for most of the time, is not provided any medical or emotional support. Local MP gives her Rs 1500.00 per month, out of which the courier pockets a hundred rupees, is not sufficient for her travelling to doctor’s chamber. Her family finances do not permit to consult a specialist.

A grand hospital built in the memory of martyrs and to take care of medical needs of the locality, is a picture of grim dereliction and waste. Main gates remained locked and the watchman’s assertion of doctor visiting once or twice a month remains questionable.

Radha Rani Ari, who travelled all over the country with Ms. Banerjee to narrate the barbaric sexual atrocities inflicted on her, recalls how in the run-up of assembly election she was much sought after by the present ruling party. Now that the TMC party of Ms Banerjee is firmly in power, she has been carelessly abandoned. She says “My body was like a property that would get votes” and that now very often she contemplates suicide. Angur Das, who was raped along with her two daughters, one married with two kids and the other unmarried at that time, is today a grim picture of neglect. She remembers the promise that marrying her daughter was party’s responsibility. Her all the three sons work in UP in a carpet factory. Elder daughter Kabita was not allowed to return to her marital home after this incident. Younger daughter Ganga’s well – being hangs on the thin thread of payment/nonpayment of hefty dowry agreed. Only three out of sixteen raped have received compensation of Rs 2.00 lakh.

Brute force of male domination has silenced women. All the rape accused, like Badal Garu, Kalia Garu, Rabin Das, etc., have retuned to their homes after spending years of exile to escape public wrath. Rumor is their rehabilitation has taken place after negotiation with BUPC (male) leadership. Garu clan lives in radha Rani’s area and is next-door neighbors of Angur Das. It makes women further insecure and adds to the reasons of their depression. These men are devoid of any remorse, and with the support of BUPC to whose leadership they had paid hefty fine, causes fear in these women. On confrontation, BUPC leaders tell them, “What is your problem?” They are not ready to understand that their problem is not only justice is not done; they are being humiliated every day. Even neighbours are now pointing fingers at the rape survivors.

Being the battleground that changed the political scenario of West Bengal and have caused major policy changes, Nandigram remains the very picture of neglect. Roads are the same picture of rejection, agriculture still remains single crop, ponds are not renovated and canals are yet to be dug, causing men-folk to migrate in search of work. Even MNREGA work is erratic.

Nandigram today is a sad picture of rejection. Women, who were the integral part of the movement and were at the forefront of the anti-acquistion stir that eventually catapulted the Trinamool Congress into power in West Bengal are now confined to their homes and are subjected to all kind of oppression.

Nisha Biswas is an activist based in Kolkata.

 

Holy cow-beef and Indian political games

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A group of lawyers in Chennai staging a ‘beef eating’ protest in the Madras High Court campus, in the wake of ban on cow slaughter by Maharashtra Government.

A group of lawyers in Chennai staging a ‘beef eating’ protest in the Madras High Court campus, in the wake of ban on cow slaughter by Maharashtra Government.

Can the dietary practices, the animal which is worshipped as a mother by section of population, be brought in on the political arena? While all this sounds surreal, its true as far as the role of cow is there in Indian political firmament. Recently Maharashtra Government got the Presidents assent to the bill “Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill 1995 which will now ban the slaughter of bulls and bullocks as well. The defaulters will face a prison term of five years and a fine of Rs. 10000. When I first read ‘Animal Preservation’ part of the title of the bill, I thought this is some bill related to all the animals which are used for human consumption or deals with the use of animals for different purposes by the society. Contrary to that it turned out that this applies only to Cow and its progeny. A decade ago I was shocked to read that one of the outstanding scholars of ancient Indian History Professor Dwijendra Nath Jha received regular threats on phone telling him not to publish his book, ‘Holy Cow Beef in Indian Dietary tradition’. This scholarly work traces the place of beef in Indian diet from centuries.

The idea is to target the minorities for beef eating, and cow slaughter. One recalls that one of the slogans which rent the air in the run up the 2014 General elections was “Modi ko matdan, gai ko jeevadan [Vote for Modi, give life to the cow], BJP ka sandesh, bachegi gai, bachega desh [BJP’s message, the cow will be saved, the country will be saved]”. This slogan was propped up ‘Cow Development Cell’ of BJP.

As such emotive-identity issues are the hall mark of the politics in the name of religion. BJP built itself up on another identity issue, that of Ram Temple. The cow has always been accompanying and a parallel issue for political mobilization by RSS-BJP. It has also been the point of triggering violence in many cases all through. With the formation of VHP by RSS in 1964, cow issue has been systematically propped up time and over again. Many a misconceptions about cow, beef eating have been constructed. Building of misconceptions has also been extended to the dietary habits of the ‘Muslim’ community in particular. The profession of section of Muslims, Kasai (butcher), those in the trade of beef selling has been brought in to the ‘Hate other’, ‘social common sense’ in particular. The result being that it is perceived at broad layers of society as if beef eating is compulsory for Muslims. The notion which has been popularized is that Cow is Holy for Hindus: Muslims kill her! The perception is that the Muslim invaders brought beef eating into India. These misconceptions are by now the part of ‘social common sense’ of the large number of people in the society.

All the components of this are myths and stereotypes have been constructed over a period of time. Time and over again one hears about some small communal violence, killing of dalits and traders of cows leading to communal polarization. Many a dalits dealing with cow hide have been killed in places like Gohana in Hariyana and the VHP leaders had justified such acts.

Contrary to this the beef eating and sacrifice of cows was prevalent here from Vedic period. The sacrifice of cows in the Yagnas (ritual around fire) is extensively mentioned in the scriptures. There is mention about beef eating in various books. There is a phrase in Taitreya Brahmin which states ‘Atho Annam Via Gau’ (Cow is in veritably food) Different gods are mentioned to be having their choices for particular type of cow flesh. Prof D. N. Jha quotes innumerable examples of this in his masterpiece.

The preaching of non violence in India came with the rise of agricultural society. Jainism called for total non violence, while Buddhism talked non-violence; preventing of wasteful animal sacrifice in particular. It was much later that Brahmanism picked up cow as a symbol for Brahmanism in response and as a reaction to non-violence of these religions. Since Brahmanism has asserted itself to be the Hinduism it projects as if Cow is holy for Hindus overall. The matter of fact is that many sections of society, more particularly Dalits and Tribal have been eating beef all through. It is another matter that lately with the rising assertion of Hindutva, many a communities which are dependent on beef as a rich and cheap source of protein are gradually being forced to either give it up or do a rethink on that.

In contrast to what is being asserted by BJP and company, Swami Vivekanand had a different take on the issue. He points out speaking to a large gathering in USA said: “You will be astonished if I tell you that, according to old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it.”

[Vivekananda speaking at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, USA (2 February 1900) on the theme of ‘Buddhistic India’, cited in Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol 3 (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1997), p. 536.]
This is corroborated by other research works sponsored by the Ramakrishna Mission established by Swami Vivekananda himself. One of these reads: “The Vedic Aryans, including the Brahmanas, ate fish, meat and even beef. A distinguished guest was honoured with beef served at a meal. Although the Vedic Aryans ate beef, milch cows were not killed. One of the words that designated cow was aghnya (what shall not be killed). But a guest was a goghna (one for whom a cow is killed). It is only bulls, barren cows and calves that were killed.”[C. Kunhan Raja, ‘Vedic Culture’, cited in the series, Suniti Kumar Chatterji and others (eds.), The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol 1 (Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission, 1993), 217.]

In response to this bill thousands of workers of Devnar abattoir (Mumbai), who will be losing their jobs came on the streets to protest against this move of the government (March 11). Many traders, from different religion also came to Azad Maidan in Mumbai to protest this communal act of the Maharashtra Government. In a PIL filed in the Bombay High Court the petitioner argues that this ban on beef infringes on the fundamental right of citizens to choose meat of their choice is fundamental. The hope is that the society overcomes such abuse of ‘identity issues’ for political goals and lets the people have their own choices in matters of food habits, and let those who are making their living from this trade do so peacefully.

 

What BJP did to hurt Muslims in Maharashtra

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The state decided not to convert the ordinance, allowing five per cent reservation in government jobs and education for Muslim backward classes, into a law.

Muslims-in-India

by Sanjay Nirupam

The Maharashtra government’s decision not to convert the ordinance passed by the previous Congress government, allowing five per cent reservation in government jobs and education for Muslim backward classes, into a law can best be described as obnoxious. The ordinance was promulgated towards the fag end of the previous government. The BJP-Shiv Sena government has allowed it to lapse.

Contrary to popular perception, the reservation was not for all Muslims in the state. It was meant only for the backward classes practising Islam. If backward classes in the Hindu religion can claim reservation, what is wrong if the same logic is applied to other religions?

It was not a political decision by the Congress government to offer such reservation just before the elections. The decision was taken after a fact-finding committee, on the lines of the Sachar Committee, submitted its report to the state government. The committee worked for almost eight years and after exhaustive consultations and discussion, it submitted a report on the plight of the most backward communities among Muslims. The government simply acted on the recommendations of the committee. Many have questioned why the government chose the ordinance way and promulgated it on the eve of elections. The fact remains that the study took several years and the government was running out of time.

The Indian Constitution doesn’t allow reservation on the basis of religion and the previous Maharashtra government did not violate the provisions of the Constitution. The five per cent quota was offered on the basis of caste, not on the basis of religion. The same ordinance also offered 16 per cent reservation for Marathas. Within days of it being promulgated, it was challenged in Mumbai High Court. The court rejected the Maratha reservation but upheld quota for Muslim backward classes. Interestingly, the BJP-Shiv Sena government went against that High court order and continued with reservation for Marathas.

The new government of Maharashtra has expressed helplessness saying that the ordinance died a natural death. But it is the responsibility of the government to re-enact an ordinance or convert it into a law. It was a deliberate failure on the part of the government. However, this is expected of the BJP which believes in communal and vindictive politics. The decision was taken only to hurt Muslims.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect our official policy or position. This article first appeared on DailyO.in.

Mob (in)Justice in Dimapur

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SYED FARID KHAN

by Parvin Sultana

Dimapur is regarded as the business capital of Nagaland, a state in the Northeastern region of India. This small town was jolted by a series of horrific incidents that took place on 5th March, 2015. A man accused of raping a college student was murdered by a mob. Videos of the 35 year old Syed Farid Khan being paraded naked and beaten to death became viral. His lifeless blood drenched body was then hanged.

A cursory look at the incident would make one feel that it is the justified outrage against the heinous crime of rape. But if one delves deeper one can see some other factors being at play. The accused is a Bengali speaking Muslim from the neighbouring state of Assam. Stories of him being an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh was doing the rounds. Ironically two of his brothers are serving in the Indian Army hence disproving these accusations. His father served in the Indian Air Force and one of his brothers lost life in the Kargil war. But the damage was already done. Despite being aware of the growing tension, administration did not put to rest such suspicions rather expressed their own doubt regarding the person’s nationality.

Outrage pore against such crime being committed by an ‘outsider’. When it became clear that the person is from Karimganj district of neighbouring state of Assam, the mob turned its ire against these people. This has threatened the lives of many people from Assam who are based in Nagaland for earning their livelihood.

There was already great discontent over the increasing population of alleged illegal migrants from Bangladesh in Nagaland. The influx of people from outside the state has deprived many natives of Nagaland of employment. Opportunities to start businesses have also shrunk and there is stiff competition from the said migrants. The combination of factors accounted for deep resentment against the ‘outsiders’ among the residents of Dimapur.

In a shameful failure of law and order situation, the security apparatus failed to anticipate such an attack when 10,000 people barged into the high security Dimapur Central Jail. Tragically a large number of women and children formed a part of the mob. The aim and intention of the mob was to clearly dispense instant justice and kill the accused. The only achievement of the police has been preventing the mob from hanging Khan’s body from the clock tower which is at the centre of the town.

The failure of the administration has emboldened the perpetrators of such vigilante justice. Leaving the women’s safety issue on the backburner they have turned their ire to people from other states who are there for their livelihood. While the murdered person’s brother accused that his brother was made a scapegoat, the incident needs to be seen closely.

While the Delhi gang rape brought the entire civil society out to launch a discourse at every level to ensure women’s security the recent incident points out where we are failing. More than India’s daughters it is about India’s sons who are not getting any concerted societal attention. The lynching points out that xenophobia and misogyny are not the monopoly of any religious or ethnic group. What the local Naga men opposed is not just rape as a heinous crime against women but rape by an outsider. The entire political discourse of the region is based on the ‘insider-outsider’ dichotomy. Secessionist movements couching xenophobia as the right to self-determination re-entrenches the hatred for non-natives.

The complicity of the administration is disturbing. The jail authorities according to a newspaper let the protestors inspect the crowded cells so that they could then identify the accused. And then the horror was unleashed. The mob lynching cannot be seen in isolation to the kind of problems the region is seething with. The incident must make one revisit certain issues. The region suffers from a number of secessionist movements. Those talking about autonomy want indigenous people to be safeguarded against migrants moving from other states.

A sparsely populated under developed region saw the massive flow of people from nearby areas. The shifting demography made the locals wary of becoming a minority in their own homeland. A competition for scarce resources and the people moving from outside having an edge over the locals made things worse. Despite having regulative rules like Inner Line Permit system which regulated the movement of people from outside into the states, they are not insulated from such movement. The development deficit, sub national politics, secessionist movements have together put in place an insider-outsider dichotomy. Every state of the region have time and again fallen victim to such conflicts based on who is a local and who is an outsider. While in Tripura, the indigenous people have been turned into a minority, Arunachal saw clashes of locals with environmental refugees of Chakma and Hajong community, Assam have been suffering bouts of violence in Bodo territorial council areas.

The situation has worsened with the frequent failure of law and order situation. Militants and insurgents have often taken the security agencies for a ride hampering lives and property of common people. In a similar trend there was a failure of administrative machinery when they could not stop a mob of executing an under trial person. Administration also failed in countering the rumours of the alleged accused of being an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh. This further instigated the mob’s anger against him.

But amidst the cacophony, the talk of the rape victim got lost. People seem to be divided in two camps- those who declared that an outsider have come and violated a local woman and hence needed to be taught a lesson and those who feel the woman have falsely accused the person of rape as medical tests show otherwise. One minority pitched against another leads to a loss of empathy for both. A Bengali Muslim accused of raping a Naga woman falls victim to the pent up anger of the locals’ against people from other regions.

This is not only a failure of administrative machinery but a failure of collective imagination which continues to see people in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’. With a violent history, violence seems to have seeped into the social spaces of the region as well. The government must relook at the federal set up and its exclusivist nature, the security scenario and address the genuine grievances of the people. The fears of indigenous people must be abated along with ensuring that Muslim minorities are not easily targeted as immigrants and harassed.

The writer is an Assistant Professor in Goalpara College of Assam. Her research interest includes Muslims in Assam, development and northeast, gender etc.

As ‘Jihadi John’ is unmasked, counter-terrorism tactics must also be unpicked

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The man believed to be Mohammed Emwazi. PA

The man believed to be Mohammed Emwazi. PA

by Alan Greene, The Conversation

The unmasking of Islamic State militant “Jihadi John” as Mohammed Emwazi, a 26-year-old man from London, has raised new questions about the UK’s approach to counter-terrorism. As the media searches through his past for clues to explain how a “polite, mild-mannered young man” ended up as the chilling figure in horrific execution videos, it was revealed that Emwazi was known to security services before he left the UK.

It has been reported that Emwazi claimed he was harassed by security services to the point of filing a complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission over his treatment.

He had claimed that he was questioned by police in Tanzania when trying to travel there on holiday and was subsequently flown to the Netherlands, where he was interrogated by an MI5 agent. Upon returning to the UK, he said he was monitored by police and was prevented from leaving the country on several occasions.

He said that the surveillance and restrictions placed on him prevented him from finding work and damaged his relationships.

It should be noted that his claims may have been false or exaggerated. But they nevertheless serve to highlight the potential for counter-terrorist measures to have counterproductive effects – particularly if they target a specific minority group.

Heavy hand

The UK has past experience of counter-terrorist measures doing more harm than good. In Northern Ireland, at the height of the Troubles, tactics like the erosion of procedural rights, the use of arrest powers for information gathering purposes, and the use of internment without trial were deployed almost exclusively against Catholics.

Rather than helping in the fight against the IRA, this further strained the relationship between the security services in Northern Ireland and the Catholic minority, making some people more sympathetic to the IRA’s cause.

Today, David Anderson, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, is also aware of the damaging effects of counter-terrorist powers. When tentatively proposing the reintroduction of powers to relocate people placed under government control orders, he also stressed the need to assist those subject to a forced relocation to be helped to find work, training and housing.

Unfortunately, the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act was subsequently passed in 2015, giving the government the power to relocate people, but without evidence of Anderson’s more holistic suggestions also being followed. People can therefore be moved away from their home and connections and be left to reconstruct their lives without assistance.

The UK is aware that terrorism cannot be defeated exclusively by locking up convicted or suspected terrorists or restricting their rights to liberty and privacy. This can be seen with the case of Brusthom Ziamani, a 19-year-old former Jehovah’s Witness and Muslim convert who was recently convicted of planning an attack similar to the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.

Prosecution and a prison sentence were the last resort for security services in this case. Prior to this, they had sought to enter Ziamini into the government’s PREVENT “de-radicalisation programme”. A difficulty with PREVENT, though, is that it operates in a way that requires trust between Muslim communities, and local authorities and the police. If this trust is damaged it can instead be seen as a vehicle for surveillance.

Good existing relationships between communities and public bodies therefore are vital. If these relationships are damaged, this strategy can run into difficulties. Take Project Champion in Birmingham, for example. This saw more than 200 security cameras set up in predominantly Muslim areas between 2010 and 2011 – leaving locals feeling victimised and threatening legal action. Breaches of trust like this may live long in the memories of communities.

No excuse

Of course, even if Emwazi felt ostracised and victimised, none of this condones, justifies or excuses his horrific actions. However, taking a heavy-handed approach causes problems for the people being monitored. And as much as we might rail against that resentment being used as justification for violence, we must also face up to the fact that it may simply not be productive for people to have their lives stunted by counter-terrorism efforts.

After appalling attacks such as the Charlie Hebdo murders in France, we must remember not to vilify an entire group of people. Indeed many, if not most of those most hurt by IS are Muslims themselves. Since 9/11, there has been a fivefold increase in deaths from terrorism and the Middle East is the area most affected.

We must be careful not to paint all individuals of a minority with the same brush when a terrorist attack happens or when one individual is named as a murderer. We must also realise that ostracising a minority group, while at the same time expecting them to “uphold British values”, is woefully contradictory.

Alan Greene is a Lecturer in Law at Durham University.

The Conversation

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