Editorials - 25-06-2022

The death of a student in a village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu has heightened fears of caste conflict. Udhav Naig reports on the incident and explains why, across the region, the issue of caste identifiers has school authorities and the administration on the edge

A month after a Thevar boy was allegedly killed by a Scheduled Caste boy in a Government Higher Secondary School, fear was still palpable in Adaichani, a quiet village in the picturesque Ambasamudram Taluk of Tirunelveli district. The houses in the Dalit neighbourhood of the village in Tamil Nadu, which are lined with tiled roofs, are basic. Most of the residents are labourers with modest means. They hope that the younger generation will get a shot at a better life. They equally dread the possibility of an explosion of caste violence.

The incident occurred on April 25. M. Selva Suriya, a Thevar boy studying in Class 12, was allegedly attacked by a teenager belonging to the Arundhathiyar community along with two Muslim boys of Class 11. While the Thevars are a socially and politically dominant Other Backward Classes community, the Arundhathiyars are among the most disadvantaged within the SCs spread across western and southern Tamil Nadu. Selva Suriya, who had suffered a serious injury on his head, was treated in a hospital for five days for internal haemorrhage. He died after failing to respond to the treatment. While the two Muslim boys are out on bail, the Arundhathiyar boy is in a juvenile home.

In filmmaker Vetrimaaran’s 2019 hit,Asuran , adapted from the bookVekkai by Poomani, Sivasamy, played by Dhanush, flees his village with his son to save the child from a retaliatory attack by a landlord from a dominant caste. In a similar vein, some parents of Arundhathiyar boys in Adaichani village have sent their children away to other villages. Others who continue to send their children to school said they live with the constant fear that they may have to pay the price for the Thevar boy’s death. The history of caste violence in southern Tamil Nadu shows that the apprehension of an eye-for-an-eye payback prevails in these areas. “They will definitely seek revenge,” an activist feared.

“Sending the boys away is not an overreaction,” said a relative of the accused in this case. “We hear all kinds of rumours. Recently, we heard that they (the Thevars) are going to attack our village after the Rekla race (a century-old bull-cart race). Students are receiving threats on WhatsApp. We cannot ignore them as just rumours.”

Caste animosity and a death

The provocation for the latest fight, many suggested, was a ‘caste thread’. Selva Suriya, who had allegedly always been heckling the Arundhathiyar boy, had apparently objected to him wearing a caste thread on his wrist. The caste thread is worn by several dominant OBC and SC communities on their wrists to signify their sociopolitical identities. Over the years, many other SC groups have also started wearing these caste threads.

The animosity between Selva Suriya, who many described as boisterous, and the Arundhathiyar boy had apparently been growing over time. But Selva Suriya's grieving mother, Uchimahali, denied these accounts. She held that her son would never have caused any kind of hostility between students of different caste groups in school.

The school authorities and management refused to speak about the case. However, one staff member said that there had been an altercation between Selva Suriya and the other group a few days before the fateful incident. “It probably happened on a Saturday somewhere outside the school premises. None of the students told us about it. We could have done something had we known,” he said.

Uchimahali said that the school authorities had never alerted her about the disciplinary issues they had with her son. “Not once did the school tell us about the fights he was [allegedly] involved in,” she said. “They say the problem was because of the caste thread. On that day, I heard, the teacher had shouted at him and had asked him to leave the class. He had gone to the restroom in the afternoon. The boys in the restroom had assumed that he had come to pick up a fight with them and pushed him to the floor. Two of them climbed on top of him and one of them hit him with a ‘cudappah’ stone. They took him to a clinic where he was given first aid. The doctors there suggested that he should be taken to Ambai GH (General Hospital). There his wound was stitched up. Then he was taken to the police station,” said Uchimahali, recollecting all that she had heard from her son’s friends and the school authorities. She said she met her injured son at the police station and took him home. Later, she and her husband rushed him to hospital realising that he needed more treatment.

“But we don’t know exactly what happened. There are cameras everywhere in the school. But they say that a particular camera (which could have captured the fight between the students) wasn’t working. We haven’t seen the video,” she said.

Uchimahali accused the school authorities of not administering proper first aid treatment to the injured boy and not informing her in time about the incident. “The incident happened in the afternoon, but we went to the Tirunelveli Medical College and Hospital only at 11 p.m.,” she said.

A long-festering rivalry

Incidentally, Sekar (name changed), the uncle of the accused, with whom the boy has been staying after the death of his parents, was also upset about the missing video. “I think there were two groups in school: one of that Thevar boy and two Konar boys and the other of our boy along with two other Muslim boys. The school has cameras inside. If four people were involved in the incident, the camera should have captured the whole incident, right? The school authorities are covering it up saying they don’t have the footage,” he alleged.

Sekar said the incident did not happen just because of the caste thread, and that hostility between the two groups had been simmering for a while. “The Thevar boy was said to be unruly. He had joined this government school from another school because the other school had some disciplinary issues with him,” he said.

Uchimahali denied this claim. “He moved to the government school from a private school because we couldn’t afford the fees given my husband’s meagre monthly income,” she said.

The father of another Arundhathiyar boy in the village, who studies in the same school, said that the video evidence from the school was crucial as it would reveal the caste atrocities against the young boy.

Sekar said, “Selva Suriya had apparently thrown dirty water at our boy from the plate on which he ate. We need to see the video evidence from the CCTV cameras. We don’t know what exactly happened.” He also denied that Arundhathiyar boys wore caste threads in the village, but could not confirm that the boys did not wear them in school. “We don’t let them do that when they are here,” he said.

Sekar also believed that Selva Suriya first threw a stone against his nephew after which the Arundhathiyar boy used the same stone to get back at him. “The other side (Thevars) have money, political clout and muscle. So, whatever they say becomes the truth.”

Sekar said that though Selva Suriya’s mother had urged the school authorities to prevent caste issues in school, people of the dominant caste who were standing outside the gate were “loudly” demanding that the Arundhathiyars pay for what had happened.

While the uncle of the Arundhathiyar boy said that the situation has become less tense two months since the incident, police personnel continue to be stationed in the Arundhathiyar quarters of Adachani. Selvaraj, a resident of the village, said his son had to go to school with police protection to write the exam after the incident. While the police were cooperative, there was uncertainty about what may happen when police protection is withdrawn, he said.

The staff in the school were equally concerned about their safety. One of them said, “Some are saying that they (Thevars) could attack the school teachers as well for allowing this to happen. We did everything in our power to prevent these caste issues from erupting in school. Around five teachers, including the headmistress, would stand near the gate and check every student for caste threads, chains and so on, and would make them remove these accessories. Despite our efforts, students would smuggle these accessories inside to show off. What happened was unfortunate. The students have come back to school after COVID-19 [closures] and it has become difficult to enforce discipline in school.”

Activists said that the whole incident is being conveniently reduced to a conflict over a caste thread, when the underlying reason was the assertion of identity by the SCs in ways similar to how OBCs asserted their identities in the past. This assertion, they said, has become the flashpoint for conflict.

Asserting caste identity

Apart from caste threads, chains and T-shirts printed with the photos of leaders and icons are also common indicators of caste identity. Sometimes, so are electric poles in the villages. In Thevar neighbourhoods, poles are painted yellow and red. In Dalit neighbourhoods, they are painted blue and red in areas where the Paraiyars live, and red and green in areas where the Devendra Kula Vellalars live. Threads, bands, chains, T-shirts and other caste-related accessories are available in shops in small and big townsWhile several dominant OBC communities exhibit their identity in public through caste organisations, flags, political leaders, colours, and by invoking celebrity icons, SC communities have also begun doing the same using their own flags, colours, icons and organisations. For instance, if Thevars celebrate Muthuramalinga Thevar and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as their icons, Devendra Kula Vellalars Immanuel Sekaran and the Arundhathiyars celebrate Madurai Veeran. Such assertion of caste identity by the SCs has often led to reprisal and conflict.

The strong Dalit uprising in Tamil Nadu in the 1990s saw influential SC political leaders and political parties emerging from the most prominent SC communities: the Devendra Kula Vellalars, the Paraiyars and the Arundhathiyars. While the Dravidian and Left movements in Tamil Nadu helped push back against Brahmin domination in all spheres, political parties, including the two main Dravidian parties, have not adequately addressed the conflict between the socially and politically dominant OBCs and the SCs, especially in the southern districts, experts argued.

The dominant OBC communities such as Vanniyars in the northern districts, Gounders in the western districts, Thevars in the southern districts, and sometimes other OBC communities have had frequent conflicts with SC groups such as Paraiyars who are spread across Tamil Nadu; Arundhathiyars, who are concentrated in the western and southern parts of the State; and Devendra Kula Vellalars in southern Tamil Nadu.

Socially, politically and numerically dominant castes in each district are neatly accommodated by the two major political parties in the State – the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. As a result, SCs are not provided adequate representation and a share in power. They are often overlooked for plum ministerial portfolios in the State government, said Dalit activists and members of political parties.

Human rights activist Murugan Kanna, who was formerly with the Left student and youth movement, said that the colours of the flags and the public icons of SCs have always irritated the dominant castes and the upper castes. “They are unable to tolerate the fact that a Dalit is now raising flags and shouting slogans when he was previously servile with folded hands,” he said.

Kanna said that tension over a caste thread led to a murder in 1999: “A student named Esakki Raja was murdered at the Tirunelveli bus stand. He was wearing a green-red caste thread and was murdered by people from the Maravar caste (OBCs). After that, another boy named Venkatesh was murdered in November 2016 in a school for the same reason. At Pallikottai village in Tirunelveli, a young autorickshaw driver was murdered by minors in 2018 for exhibiting Devendra Kula Vellalar colours – green and red – and a picture of Immanuel Sekaran on his auto. So, it is not just about the caste thread. In the 1990s, it was about flags; now it has moved to caste threads. When Venkatesh died, there was a big protest over the murder. People surrounded the hospital and refused to take the body. When the district administration urged us to talk it out, we put forth many demands.” One of the demands was that the district administration set up monitoring committees in schools to instil discipline among students and stop the culture of caste-based identification in schools. Physical education teachers were put in charge of these committees in schools across Tirunelveli, and of holding parent-teacher meetings to resolve such issues, he said.

Kanna added that SC students also face issues on their way to school. “In the bus, they face issues when they want a song played from actor Prashanth or actor Vikram's movies as non-Dalits want to play songs from the movies of actors who are from their caste. Issues arise when songs that invoke caste pride are played,” he said.

Following caste rules

Several young people from K. Paraipatti, a village in Usilampatti in Madurai, said that while they freely mingle with students from other castes, it is common to form groups with people from the same caste, exhibit caste identity and identify with those from the same community. This is a place where the All-India Forward Bloc, a party with which the Thevar icon Muthuramalinga Thevar was associated, continues to be relevant.

“We are brought up in a culture where it is impossible to not follow these caste rules. Though we are told in schools and colleges that caste and religion do not matter, it is not possible for me to not follow those rules. We are taught that we can ascertain a person’s caste based on many factors. A caste thread is one of them,” said a young college student. Other ways of ascertaining a person's caste include figuring out which actor they like, which Gods they worship, which village they come from, and how they dress, he said. “We are all inspired by the culture and fashion statements made by the celebrities of our caste. For instance, the Pullingo culture (a popular sub-culture of north Chennai where young people with coloured hair participate in street races) has been embraced by the SC youth in our colleges as well,” he said.

Similarly, the young people of the Yadava, Nadar and a few other OBC communities wear threads/bands in certain colours. The borders of their dhotis also have these colours. In past instances, it was observed that caste-based groups had a significant role to play in encouraging, promoting and prescribing to students what accessories they should wear in schools and colleges in the Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Thoothukudi districts. In turn, teenagers have enjoyed the backing of members of their caste outfits to establish themselves as “dons” on school campuses and even settle scores outside school.

These fights over playing film songs in buses and wearing caste threads have often spilt onto the streets. There have been fist fights at the bus terminals of Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai in the past.

Seeking protection

Following Selva Suriya's death, Tirunelveli District Collector V. Vishnu has asked the heads of all educational institutions to convene the School Advisory and Management Committee to ensure that the norms laid down by the Department of School Education are enforced. These include removing bands and threads, ensuring that students have proper haircuts and wear the appropriate attire and prohibiting the use of mobile phones on school premises.

Following this incident, Muslims too grew concerned after sustained efforts were made by a few religious outfits in the region to paint this as an attack by Muslim boys on a Hindu. The police swiftly clarified through WhatsApp that the crime had no religious motive. This message was widely shared in the area. The Arundhathiyars in Adaichani wondered how long they would need protection from law enforcement agencies and the State administration.

While the parents of both Selva Suriya and the three accused are seeking answers about what exactly happened in school that day, the Arundhathiyars in Adaichani demanded to know how long they need to live in fear. "We got independence from the British, but not from them (caste Hindus). They still want to dominate us," said Sekar.

(With inputs from P. Sudhakar)



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In many ways, the new ‘pink tide’ points to a different Left, as Gustavo Petro’s election in Colombia shows

It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Gustavo Petro’s election as the President of Colombia. For the first time in the two centuries of the independent history of the region’s third largest country (in terms of population) , the Left has reached the Casa de Nariño, the presidential palace in Bogotá. It has done so with the highest number of votes of any President (more than 11 million), and after an election with the highest electoral participation rate (58%). This is also with the overwhelming support of the country’s youth. It has also brought to the vice-presidency, for the first time, an Afro-Colombian woman, Francia Márquez, an environmental activist from Cauca, one of Colombia’s poorest and most marginalised areas.

A similarity

Colombia’s unique history, which inspired the magical realism genre in Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel García Márquez, makes it stand out on Latin America’s vast and colourful canvas. The same goes for Mr. Petro’s condition as a former urban guerrilla, a member of M-19, a group that wrought much havoc in a country marked by the dubious distinction of having had the longest armed conflict in the world — that between another guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the Colombian government, from the 1960s to 2016. In another sense, though, the story of Mr. Petro’s election and the challenges he faces once he takes office on August 7, are not too different from that of several other countries in the rest of the region.

Fallout of the pandemic

Mr. Petro’s victory comes in the wake of those of Gabriel Boric in Chile, Xiomara Castro in the Honduras, Luis Arce in Bolivia, Pedro Castillo in Peru and the earlier victories by Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico and Alberto Fernández in Argentina, all broadly on the Left of the political spectrum. Polls indicate there is a good chance former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will win Brazil’s presidential elections in October, which would turn this shift into a wave. Most of these leaders have come to power propelled by the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the region, by far the worst affected by the virus, with 30% of the world’s deaths from it, and 8% of the world’s population. The epic mismanagement of the pandemic by often denialist incumbent right-wing governments, of which Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro (the country had close to 7,00,000 deaths), is Exhibit A, had much to do with it.

This has also led to what the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has referred to as the region’s worst crisis in 120 years, as the economy contracted by 7% in 2020, twice the rate of the global GDP. A country like Chile, the most developed in the region, and for long the best performing economy, is projected to grow 1.4% in 2022 and 0.1% in 2023, which reveals much about the depth of this crisis in a region that swings, seamlessly, from one “lost decade” to another.

Does this herald a new “pink tide” in Latin America, similar to the one that came to the fore in the first decade of the new century (only to peter out in the second)? Riding on the commodities boom super-cycle (2003-2013), that period brought prosperity, poverty reduction and some progress towards greater income inequality in the world’s most unequal region. Leaders such as Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet in Chile, and Tabaré Vázquez and José (“Pepe”) Mujica in Uruguay showed that it was possible to be on the Left and establish progressive social programmes, while also being fiscally responsible and keeping the house in order. It also led to a flourishing of regional cooperation, with the creation of entities such as the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Pacific Alliance. In 2012, the troika of CELAC Foreign Ministers (those of Chile, Cuba and Venezuela did something unthinkable today) — held dialogues with China and with India in Beijing and in New Delhi, respectively.

Bogota’s agenda

Are we likely to see something similar in years to come? In other words, are we at the beginning of another “political cycle”, marked by the ascendancy of the Left? Yes, the Left is back. The question is, what kind of Left, and how long will it last?

In many ways, this is a different Left. Mr. Petro, 62, an economist, and a former mayor of Bogotá, is especially attuned to the environmental challenge. His agenda includes weaning Colombia away from its dependence on fossil fuels such as oil and coal (40% of the country’s export revenues come from oil), stopping fracking (a technique used in natural gas and petroleum production), and moving towards an energy transition. Mr. Boric, the Chilean leader, favours gender issues and gender equality (his Cabinet has a larger number of women than men), as well as the rights of indigenous peoples, and has stressed the need to move towards the equivalent of a European welfare state, in another country with some of the highest indices of income inequality in the region, where 10% of the population earns 60% of the country’s income (Chile, like Colombia, has a very unequal income distribution). The issues in Honduras, which former President Juan Orlando Hernández (now under arrest in the United States) built into the Americas’ first narco-state, are of a different sort. Its new President, Xiomara Castro, has her hands full in trying to dismantle the corrupt state apparatus she inherited, to deal with drug trafficking, and to control the endemic violence that earned San Pedro Sula, one of the cities in the Honduras, the title of “murder capital of the world”.

In addition to a more favourable international environment, an advantage enjoyed by the previous “pink tide”, was continuity. The Workers Party ruled Brazil for 13 years. The Concertación did so in Chile for 20 years in a row, and then had another go with Michelle Bachelet´s second term (2014-2018) for another four. The Kirchners in Argentina ruled for 12 years. Evo Morales in Bolivia was in power for 13 years, Rafael Correa in Ecuador for 10, and the Frente Amplio in Uruguay did so from 2005-2020. It is a different political environment now; anti-incumbency feelings reign, and the “throw the rascals out” sentiment after merely one term is on the ascendancy.

Ambitious reform programmes without (in most cases) parliamentary majorities, under severe fiscal constraints and a turbulent international environment do not, as a rule, make for a promising combination for incoming governments. A silver lining may be rising commodity prices (which have lifted Colombia’s GDP growth forecast for 2022 to 6.1%), but in several cases they tend to set each other off.

Mr. Petro has referred to his interest in working together with Lula’s Brazil and Boric’s Chile, highlighting a key area where these incoming governments may make quick progress. A first cut at creating a political coordination entity in South America, one that will have learned the lessons from the ultimate failure of UNASUR, should be a priority.

On Active Non-Alignment

As a Second Cold War raises its ugly head, the notion of Active Non-Alignment, which takes a page from India’s concept set forth by Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1950s, but adapts it to the realities of the 21st century, has triggered widespread interest in academic and policy-making circles. It may provide a useful guide to channel the foreign policies of Latin American nations, at a time of a changing international system, and as the region’s need to re-establish its presence in world affairs is especially urgent.

Jorge Heine is a Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University, and a former Chilean Ambassador to India. His most recent book, with Carlos Fortin and

Carlos Ominami, is ‘Active Non-Alignment and Latin America: A Doctrine for the New Century’



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The new National Mobile Monitoring Software application has problems that are clearly eroding the right to work

In May 2021, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) launched the National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) app, a new application meant for “improving citizen oversight and increasing transparency” in National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) works. It is to be deployed by NREGA Mates, local women at the panchayat level who are selected and trained to monitor NREGA worksites. The main feature of the app is the real-time, photographed, geo-tagged attendance of every worker to be taken once in each half of the day. We spoke to Mates, NREGA workers, and activists across multiple States to understand their experience of the app.

Conditions affecting workers

While such an app may be useful in monitoring the attendance of workers who have fixed work timings, in most States, NREGA wages are calculated based on the amount of work done each day, and workers do not need to commit to fixed hours. This flexibility has been key to NREGA’s widespread demand. However, marking attendance on the app mandates that workers are at the worksite the entire day. This causes significant difficulty for NREGA workers.

Priya Devi from Rajasthan finishes her NREGA work by 9 a.m., and then sets up a stall in the local haat to sell the produce she grows in her kitchen garden. Since the introduction of the NMMS app, she either needs to be present at the worksite all day or travel twice to mark her attendance. Ms. Devi expressed concern about losing customers at her stall in her absence. Another worker from Andhra Pradesh said her daughter was now missing school frequently because she had to take over some of her mother’s chores.

NREGA has historically had a higher proportion of women workers (54.7% in FY 2021-22) and has been pivotal in changing working conditions for women in rural areas. Due to the traditional burden of household chores and care work on women, the app is likely to disproportionately affect women workers. The conditions for registering NREGA attendance on the app put them in a dilemma where they may end up foregoing NREGA work. Such a sentiment was echoed (to us) by many women workers across the country. Priya Devi, for instance, is afraid she will have to choose between the two — committing to NREGA work that occupies her full day, or staying at the market.

Other challenges

There are challenges of implementation with the NMMS as well. A stable network is a must for real-time monitoring; unfortunately, it remains patchy in much of rural India. This could lead to workers not being able to mark their attendance, and consequently lose a day of wages. Workers in Kerala and Jharkhand are already facing problems in uploading their attendance on the app due to network problems. Further, a recent NewsClick report has also highlighted the problems faced by differently-abled NREGA workers from Tamil Nadu in marking their attendance on the app.

The app has adversely impacted NREGA Mates as well. The role of a Mate was conceptualised as an opportunity to empower local women to manage attendance and work measurement in their panchayat. But now, to be a Mate, one needs to have a smartphone. This new condition disqualifies thousands of women who do not own smartphones from becoming Mates. Already women from Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh have reported being passed over for selection as Mates for this very reason. Now, smartphone-owning men are likely to be given preference as Mates. Alternatively, women could become proxy Mates — officially registered, but deferring to men who work and get paid. Many selected Mates also reported that they had not been given proper training in using the app. This could lead to errors in recording workers’ attendance, that ultimately results in delayed or non-payments.

Errors in pilot process

The app had been launched on a pilot basis last year, with States using it voluntarily. Officials and activists confirmed these implementation errors had been evident throughout the pilot process. However, there is no information available publicly about the errors found and measures taken to address them. Our Right To Information applications have also not yielded any satisfactory responses. Despite the persistent errors, on May 13, 2022, the MoRD released a circular announcing that NMMS would now be mandatory for all NREGA worksites employing more than 20 workers, with no option for manual attendance other than in exceptional circumstances. Within a week of the mandate, many States submitted complaints and reports of the same errors that were seen during the pilot stage. The MoRD is yet to offer any solutions, reassurances, or even a response.

No physical records

Beyond the problems in implementation, the intended purpose of such an application, and its effectiveness remain unclear. The app claims to “increase citizen oversight” by “bringing more transparency and ensuring proper monitoring of the schemes, besides potentially enabling processing payments faster”. However, it appears to be doing exactly the opposite. With no physical attendance records signed by workers anymore, workers have no proof of their attendance and work done. In the district of West Singhbhum, Jharkhand, workers reported having worked on a NREGA project, the attendance records of which do not exist on the NREGA website. Since there are no physical records the workers can use as evidence, they have no way of proving their attendance, and will consequently lose out on pay for two full weeks of work. This is a clear erosion of the transparency and citizen oversight the app claims to improve.

Corruption has been a rising problem in NREGA, with funds being siphoned off by faking attendance records. While ostensibly the NMMS’s focus on real-time, geo-tagged attendance could be one way of addressing this corruption, the MoRD has not provided much clarity on either the magnitude of this corruption or the manner in which the NMMS addresses it. There are no parameters established to assess the app’s performance, either on transparency, or on quicker processed payments.

Strengthen social audits

Instead of focusing on this app or introducing other complex technological reforms, we strongly believe social audits must be strengthened. Social audits are citizen-centric institutions, where the citizens of the panchayat have a direct role and say in how NREGA functions in their panchayat. Audits have worked well in the past, allowing the local rights holders to be invested in decisions, and hold the administration accountable themselves. But instead of strengthening citizen-centric institutions such as social audit units and gram sabhas, the MoRD seems keener on introducing technological reforms that can be complex to understand and fundamentally inaccessible for workers.

It seems ironic that an application meant to improve citizen oversight and transparency was implemented with no consultation and discussion with NREGA workers, functionaries, or government field officials. The NMMS is consequently blind to the actual functioning of NREGA on the ground. The MoRD’s habit of passing reforms with no stakeholder consultation does not fall in line with the principles of transparency and citizen-participation enshrined in NREGA. The NMMS has very clear problems that will make it increasingly difficult for workers to continue working under NREGA, eroding the right to work that underwrites the NREGA Act.

Chakradhar Buddha and Laavanya Tamang are affiliated with LibTech India



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HC relief may not prevent marginalisationof O. Panneerselvam in the AIADMK

A pre-dawn court order may have granted temporary relief to AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam from being stripped of his part in the party’s joint leadership, but it is doubtful if his isolation can be prevented for long. It may only be a matter of time before the 50-year-old party comes under the full control of co-cordinator and Mr. Panneerselvam’s partner-turned-rival Edappadi K. Palaniswami. What has divided them now is possibly that Mr. Palaniswami seems to have greater support among legislators and district secretaries, and his camp has begun to feel that Mr. Panneerselvam is enjoying disproportionate clout in the party’s affairs. At a General Council (GC) meeting on Thursday, it was expected that the party’s by-laws would be changed to abolish the current ‘dual leadership’ (coordinators), and restore the post of general secretary as the sole seat of power. An attempt to obtain a restraining order against the meeting failed before a single judge, but the Panneerselvam camp managed to get the Chief Justice’s permission to move a midnight appeal before a Bench. Passing orders at around 4.30 a.m., the Bench restrained the GC from making any decision other than upon the 23 items on the agenda that had the approval of both coordinators. That they had agreed on a set of resolutions was used to make aprima facie case for an interim order against any other decision being made, scuttling plans for an impromptu discussion or decision on the leadership question.

A question arises over the need for the eleventh-hour judicial intervention. Any likely prejudice could always have been subsequently remedied if it truly went against the party majority view. It is doubtful whether a leader can seek a restraint on a majority-backed decision by which he would be possibly aggrieved. Even though a dual leadership system is in place, it is difficult to contend that nothing that lacks the approval of both leaders can be decided by the party’s apex decision-making body. After all, it was this body that abolished the general secretary’s post in 2017 and created the posts of two coordinators. It had also changed the ‘unamendable’ rule that the general secretary should be elected by all the primary members. In 2021, the party’s executive committee again amended the by-laws to the effect that the primary members would now elect the two coordinators jointly by a single vote. Mr. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami were jointly elected in a subsequent election. One of the resolutions ultimately not taken up at the GC meeting was to ratify this decision. The effect of non-ratification on the party’s affairs remains to be seen, but it is clear that Mr. Panneerselvam’s options are limited to either playing a subordinate role or striking it out on his own.



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BRICS countries have shown they can cooperate where their interests align

The 14th BRICS Summit, which concluded on June 24, revealed much about the grouping of five emerging nations. That this bloc of five disparate countries has not only made it to its 14th summit, but has been able to demonstrate some concrete, albeit modest, outcomes of cooperation, such as the emergence of the New Development Bank (NDB), suggests there remains a strong convergence of interests amid undeniable differences. Indeed, ever since the first summit in Yekaterinburg in 2009, BRICS has had more than its fair share of naysayers, particularly in the West, and has been derided as a talk shop. In his address to the summit on June 23, which was hosted by China this year and held virtually, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the binding glue as “a similar approach to global governance”. That approach, according to the lengthy joint Beijing Declaration that followed, was premised on “making instruments of global governance more inclusive, representative and participatory”.

That is certainly a laudable goal. However, the NDB, which has since its launch in 2015 funded around $30 billion worth of projects in emerging nations, still remains for the grouping an isolated example of their common interests translating into tangible outcomes. That points to another summit take-away: despite a tall agenda, the bloc remains constrained by differences. For instance, on two key issues for the grouping — UN reforms and terrorism — members India and China have found themselves on opposing sides of the debate. India and Brazil have made common cause on pushing for an expanded UN Security Council, yet China has suggested it is not in favour of a permanent seat for India. On terrorism, the recent blocking by China of an attempt by India to sanction the LeT terrorist, Abdul Rehman Makki, at the UNSC sanctions committee, served as a reminder of contrasting approaches. Indeed, those two different approaches found mention in the Beijing Declaration, which acknowledged both India’s concerns on a lack of transparency at the sanctions committee and Chinese claims, seemingly driven by the desire to shield Pakistan, that these cases amounted to “politicisation”. On Ukraine, the bloc affirmed a commitment to respect sovereignty, despite Russia’s actions, and stopped short of condemning NATO, as Russia and China have done, reflecting different views within BRICS. These differences certainly cast doubt on the bloc’s loftier goals of reorienting the global order. They do not, however, suggest that the BRICS countries cannot cooperate on issues where interests align, whether in financing projects, as the NDB has done, working on climate change, as India and China have continued to do despite the LAC crisis, or even on space cooperation, where the five countries have agreed to create a joint constellation of remote sensing satellites.



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In unshackling workers from their many roles — primary caregiver, family breadwinner or young entrepreneur-in-need-of-a-breakthrough — it provides them with a space they are in control of.

The West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) has introduced Happy Works, a co-working space in Kolkata’s growing commercial hub, New Town. At affordable rates of Rs 30 for 90 minutes and Rs 20 for each additional hour thereafter, these seven-days-a-week 9am-to-8pm work-pod clusters are witnessing a surge in the number of working mothers, young entrepreneurs and freelance workers looking to nurture a professional space distinct from the blurriness of working from home, steep-on-the-pocket office rentals or the HR-controlled regimes of traditional workspaces.

While co-working spaces in urban metropolises are no novelty, these are mostly private sector initiatives looking to break the ennui of standard office experiences. They often come at a restrictive cost, limiting the experience to those who can afford it rather than those who may be in need of it. HIDCO’s venture indicates both a welcome change in the state government’s attitude to commerce and an acknowledgement that, in the post-Covid era, the future of work includes flexibility, especially when the workers are juggling many roles.

The co-working manifesto is built on the premise of sustainability. It places the interest of the worker at the heart of the enterprise — an idea increasingly lost on corporations chasing profits. In unshackling workers from their many roles — primary caregiver, family breadwinner or young entrepreneur-in-need-of-a-breakthrough — it provides them with a space they are in control of. In much the same way as a city allows people a chance to reimagine their identities without the cloying intimacy of familiar spaces, these co-working spaces let users choose their degrees of interaction with other occupants while working at their own pace. The result can be greater productivity, unlikely collaborations and a spontaneous sense of community. Democratising these spaces through affordable pricing is, therefore, a pragmatic step towards a happy, healthy and more inclusive workforce.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on June 25, 2022 under the title ‘The new workplace’.



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Yet, the debate around the unqualified right to bear arms has once again underlined the divides in the US political system, including in the judiciary. Over three-fourths of all homicides in the US are a result of gun violence.

The bipartisan support in the US Senate for the passage of the most significant gun control legislation in three decades is historic by any measure. As many as 15 Republican senators voted to override the filibuster and pass the law in the 100-member Senate. The bill is likely to sail through Congress, where the Democrats currently have a majority. Just a month after 19 students and two teachers were killed in a shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the law provides for stricter background and mental health checks and encourages states to prevent people considered as threats from possessing firearms. Given how polarising an issue the right to bear arms is in the US, the law represents a win for the Biden Administration. Yet, on the same day as the deadlock was overcome in the Senate, a verdict by the US Supreme Court and political responses to the law show that the issue is far from being laid to rest.

By a majority of 6-3, the Supreme Court struck down New York’s “proper cause” requirement. Proper cause rules limit who can carry a gun in public spaces — in essence, to obtain a licence, one must demonstrate an actual need of a gun for self-defence. Versions of “proper cause”, in fact, are part of gun laws in many countries, including India. The court’s decision was split along political lines, with liberal judges forming the minority, dissenting opinion and conservatives upholding the absolute right to bear arms. On the other hand, the bill passed by the Senate is being called out as weak by many Democrats for failing to ban assault rifles and other military-grade weapons. That many on the right are still wary of being seen as “anti-Second Amendment” is illustrated by the fact that of the 15 Republicans that voted for the law, only three are up for re-election in November.

One of Joe Biden’s assets, when he was a presidential candidate, was his record of having built bipartisan consensus in his long years as a senior legislator. The passage of the gun control law will certainly strengthen that reputation. Yet, the debate around the unqualified right to bear arms has once again underlined the divides in the US political system, including in the judiciary. Over three-fourths of all homicides in the US are a result of gun violence. The public outcry after Uvalde may have forced some concessions and compromise from the Republicans. But whether this is a political success that can be built on will likely be guided by the results of the mid-term elections, more than the compelling imperative of public safety.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on June 25, 2022 under the title ‘No silver bullet’.



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If a CMIE can survey over 2,36,000 households thrice every year, there is no reason why the National Statistical Office cannot do a CES, which is based on a more comprehensive questionnaire, at least annually, even with a smaller sample size.

The Narendra Modi government is set to launch a new household consumer expenditure survey (CES) from July. The exercise is welcome — in fact, long overdue. The CES, covering some 1.2 lakh rural and 84,000 urban households, is supposed to be conducted every five years. The last two such nationwide sample surveys were carried out in 2011-12 and 2017-18. Unfortunately, the results of the 2017-18 survey were not released on grounds of unexplained “data quality issues”. Effectively, it means there is no official data after 2011-12 for estimating poverty lines and ratios, based on consumption spending below a certain level and the percentage of households falling within that deprivation threshold. Many would rightly argue that high growth rates and government welfare programmes have little meaning, especially in a country like India, if these do not result in reducing poverty. Without data, it’s difficult to gauge whether this is happening at all, leave alone at an accelerated pace.

The current data vacuum is in contrast to 2011-2, when there was a surfeit of information from the decennial Census and the Rural Development Ministry’s Socio Economic and Caste Census. The latter data was, in fact, key to the identification of beneficiaries under the Modi government’s own successful schemes — be it rural housing and toilets or providing free LPG and electricity connections. Data-driven policy-making is vital to other areas as well: For instance, is consumption of foods rich in proteins (milk, pulses, eggs and meat) and micro-nutrients (fruits and vegetables) growing at the same rate as in the previous decade? Only the CES can give satisfactory answers to this question, which also matters for making future demand projections, crop planning and dietary diversification interventions. With Covid’s shadow falling behind, the next one-and-a-half years or so should hopefully yield a wealth of information from both the CES and the Census to guide policymakers and researchers, currently reliant on private data providers such as the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and NielsenIQ.

While the CES’s launch is timely, the government should move to doing surveys on a more regular basis. The existing quinquennial framework and waiting for “normal” years makes no sense. Such years have become increasingly rare in India, where the recent period has seen disruptions owing to demonetisation, GST, Covid and the Ukraine war-induced commodity price shock. Since government decision-making has to be dynamic and responsive to changing ground situations, the data has to keep flowing. If a CMIE can survey over 2,36,000 households thrice every year, there is no reason why the National Statistical Office cannot do a CES, which is based on a more comprehensive questionnaire, at least annually, even with a smaller sample size.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on June 25, 2022 under the title ‘Let there be data’.



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A similar neutrality was observed by Tara Singh who had occupied the Speaker’s chair when the election of deputy speaker was held.

The Bhajan Lal Government established its majority on the floor of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha when the Congress-I nominees, Tara Singh and Ved Pal, were elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively, on the first day of its session. The Government won in the double trial of strength by 48 votes to 40. The Pro-tem Speaker, Ishwar Singh, a Congress-I member who conducted the Speaker’s election, did not cast his vote. A similar neutrality was observed by
Tara Singh who had occupied the Speaker’s chair when the election of deputy speaker was held.

Assassination Attempt

A textile mill worker, Digambar Ramachandra Kumthekar, 23, tried to shoot the Chief Minister, Babasaheb Bhosale, at Dadar in the heart of Bombay but did not succeed in his bid as his country-made pistol failed to go off. The police security staff immediately overpowered him and seized his weapon which was hidden in a polythene bag. Briefing newsmen at the Mantralaya, Shrikant Jichkar, Minister of State for Home said the accused had been on strike but had resumed work on May 3. The worker has told the police that he has no links with any union.

The Israeli Invasion

Israeli tank columns overran a major Syrian strong-point on the Beirut-Damascus highway in Lebanon’s central mountains and cut off Syrian garrisons dug in east of the beleaguered Lebanese capital, Lebanese state television reported. Israeli fighter-bombers teamed with naval gunboats in a day-long bombardment of Palestinian guerrilla fortifications on west Beirut’s sea-front boulevard near the just-evacuated American and British embassies and around the paralysed Beirut airport. The police said at least 17 persons were killed and 39 wounded.



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Sameer Barde writes: For the players, the industry and government, the need of the hour is to acknowledge the significance of responsible gaming and develop a regulatory framework defined by progressive policies

Online gaming has swiftly emerged as the most engaging form of entertainment in India owing to younger demographics, increased internet penetration, and affordable smartphones. Evolving technologies resulting in immersive experiences have led more people to adopt this new form of entertainment instead of the passive ones.

The popularity of online gaming including e-sports, online casual games and real money gaming can be gauged readily with the industry growing at a rate of about 35 per cent in 2019-20, outpacing OTT, television, and social media platforms. Propelled by the mobile-first phenomenon and around 420 million gamers already active, online gaming is disrupting conventional forms of entertainment.

Like any social change and most new technologies, the industry has been functioning under the weight of societal ramifications and perceptual ambiguity — online real money gaming is often confused with gambling. Whilst games of skill (fantasy chess, bridge, rummy, and poker) are legal and protected under the Constitution, games of chance (roulette, teen patti, and dice) are essentially about gambling and hence deemed illegal.

As per the Indian Constitution, gambling is classified under the State List. States have the power to regulate or prohibit such activity. Failing to distinguish between online skill-based gaming and gambling, some states have either placed restrictions or buried the sunrise sector under regulatory ambivalence.

This is unfortunate given that “games of skill” are legitimate business activities protected under Article 19(1)(g) of the Indian Constitution as per the rulings of the Supreme Court and several High Courts till date. These rulings have also emphasised a clear distinction between “games of skill” and “games of chance.”

Last year, the Tamil Nadu government amended the Tamil Nadu Gaming and Police Laws, 1930 banning online games. The ordinance banned all forms of online gaming and stated that “games of mere skill if played for wager, bet, money or other stakes” cannot be allowed in the state. The Madras High Court, however, struck down the law in August 2021 observing that a complete ban was unconstitutional. The Court also acknowledged that a game involving substantial skill would not amount to gambling. It also protected online gaming and the nuances surrounding it, thus, clearing the ambiguity between gaming and gambling as well as the legal status of online skill games in India.

The government recently constituted a four-member committee to examine issues related to online gaming and make recommendations for the promulgation of an ordinance to regulate the sector. Constituted against the backdrop of reports on unfortunate instances of people indulging in irresponsible gaming, the committee will examine the ways to identify the online games which are addictive and suggest whether these games really involve skills or mere tricks. It will also study the algorithms of online games to ascertain whether they can be tweaked to the benefit of online gaming companies.

This initiative is certainly a welcome one and demonstrates the government’s progressive intent to protect the interests of the players. However, to really protect players, the regulatory muddle needs a comprehensive review. The way forward is to formulate a structured gaming law that allows players to enjoy the thrills of online gaming responsibly, safely, transparently and securely.

For the players, the industry and government, the need of the hour is to acknowledge the significance of responsible gaming and develop a regulatory framework defined by progressive policies to monitor and mitigate the possibility of irresponsible gaming. Attempts to solve the potential issues with bans will only result in players migrating from legitimate online skill-based operators to fly-by-night operators and lead to uncontrolled illegal activities, inadvertently compounding the problem the government is seeking to address.

Regulation and responsible gaming will provide players with a secure and trustworthy environment. Combining responsible gaming elements with effective policies and recommendation services would aid in defining a strategy centred on ensuring player protection and increasing stakeholders’ awareness and education. While keeping responsible gaming and self-regulation at its core, EGF has already designed and implemented our own code of conduct that requires operators to have features like KYC, SSL level encryption, risk-flagging mechanisms, daily and monthly restrictions, self-exclusion, and so on, to provide a secure user with an experience that cultivates healthy gaming habits and encourages appropriate gaming behaviour.

Globally, gaming is a well-regulated industry, and many countries, including the UK, US, and EU, have regulations in place to ensure that players enjoy this form of entertainment responsibly. Studying these global best practices would help in creating a gaming law that protects players, encourages responsible gaming, and assists legitimate operators while weeding out those who break the law.

The online gaming industry is committed to providing expertise and cooperation to the government in developing an effective regulatory framework for the sector. In view of this, a dialogue between the government and the industry is urgently needed to discuss the ground realities such as how the industry operates, available safety measures, and how it can be enhanced to develop a standard system that will establish a regulated industry while encouraging responsible gaming.

This column first appeared in the print edition on June 25, 2022 under the title ‘Notes from a binge-watcher’. The writer is CEO, E-Gaming Federation



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Menaka Guruswamy writes: Buying cheap oil is only a temporary solution to our long-term fuel needs. What the invasion of Ukraine has taught us is that we need to be more self-reliant and have in-house energy sources

The cold reality of modern life is that more than love, crude oil makes the world go round. Crude is the raw natural resource extracted from the earth, subsequently refined into widely used products like petroleum, jet fuel and heating oils. The price of crude impacts the cost of essential goods like food and clothing – since every good that we access daily has been transported long distances.

A significant fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been the rising cost of petroleum. Russia is the world’s largest exporter of oil products to global markets, and the second largest exporter of crude oil behind Saudi Arabia. About 60 per cent of Russia’s oil exports go to Europe and another 20 per cent to China.

In response to the invasion, Western countries, including the United States and Europe, have imposed an array of sanctions against Russia. Europe and the United States have seen the price of oil steadily rise after they reduced their purchases from Russia. Today, gasoline costs a historic high of almost $5 a gallon in the US, up almost 50 per cent since last year. President Joe Biden has been forced to consider a gas tax holiday in light of the rising discontent amongst the American public, even though taxes constitute about a third of the price of gas.

India on the other hand has chosen a different route. We are the third-largest importer and consumer of oil in the world and have increased our purchase of Russian oil to cope with rising oil prices elsewhere. This week the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times both reported on India emerging as a major buyer of Russian oil. According to the Wall Street Journal, India has increased imports of Russian crude more than 25-fold since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022. As of June 1, 2022, India is importing an average of a million barrels a day. We are also refining crude oil or turning it into products like jet fuel and diesel and selling it to Europe and other nations. Importing Russian crude also helps us curb inflation that has been made worse by rising fuel prices. Procuring discounted Russian oil is an effort by the government to bring down prices and halt the decline in the value of the Indian rupee which has now crossed Rs 78 to the dollar – up from an average of Rs 73.93 last year.

India’s behaviour is governed by our best interest, which is the most important element of any astute foreign and economic policy. We have historically imported oil and crude from Iran, Iraq and Russia, countries that have been precariously placed either due to war and/or sanctions.

For now, Russia has been able to take the sting out of the sanctions by selling crude, oil and coal at reasonable prices in greater volumes to newer bulk buyers like India, to combat Europe trying to wean itself off Russian crude. In May, China’s imports of Russian oil rose 28 per cent. While Europe’s Russian crude purchases fell by 5,54,000 barrels a day, Asia’s consumption rose by 5,03,000 barrels. Hence Russia has not suffered a significant loss in terms of crude oil sales.

At present, the European Union has imposed a partial embargo on the purchase and import of Russian oil. However, the West plans to introduce more comprehensive sanctions. The sanctions announced include a ban on seaborne import of Russian crude oil by December 5, 2022, and a ban on petroleum product imports as of February 5, 2023. The European Union has also announced a ban against insuring ships carrying Russian oil, to commence this December. Countries like India, China and Turkey that are increasing their oil purchases from Russia have six months to find a work-around to the insurance ban by using non-European insurance companies. As the Wall Street Journal reports, European companies own most of the ships carrying Russian oil to India. These insurance sanctions will impact the companies that own these ships as well. It remains to be seen what impact all of this will have on both the global economy in general and the Russian economy in particular.

While we await the full impact of the sanctions on Russian crude, one must consider the changed global realpolitik. China has risen as a superpower, while the two Cold War powerhouses, Russia and the United States, have been dramatically altered. Some might say they are in decline. The United States faces deep social divisions within the country and may be entering a recession. While Russia has been able to absorb the impact of these sanctions for now, it is unclear how it will weather the full force of the response package planned by the West.

However, this ability to buy cheap Russian crude may only be a temporary solution to our long-term fuel needs. Apart from geopolitical changes in the world indicating the rise of China, there is a major change: Electric vehicles and electric batteries substituting for non-renewable resources like petroleum and diesel.

As I have written in a previous column (‘Driving a new world order’, IE, October 31, 2021), there is a concentration of battery factories /suppliers in China and South Korea. We may have been able to buy cheaper crude from Russia and tide through this “crude storm”. India cannot afford to be dependent on an unhindered supply of electric batteries from China, given geopolitical considerations and border disputes between the two nations. To weather the new electric era that will no doubt be dotted with territorial wars and national security concerns, India would do well to preempt shortages in the arena – by putting in place factories which will build the electric batteries that will power our futures. What the invasion of Ukraine has taught us is that we need to be more self-reliant and have in-house energy sources.

The writer is a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India



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Sanjay Patil writes: For now, it is crucial to see whether the Sena can revive its very idea and ideology and garner support from its grassroot Sainiks to keep itself relevant in the state's political canvas

With each passing day, Shiv Sena leader and cabinet minister Eknath Shinde’s rebellion, with a large number of MLAs from Maharashtra’s ruling party, seems to be growing in magnitude. What seemed like an internal skirmish at first has now become high-voltage political drama, pointing towards a deep-rooted crisis in the state government led by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), and more significantly in the internal working of the Shiv Sena.

The crisis is neither a complete surprise nor a recent phenomenon in the Shiv Sena. It is an outcome of some of the key challenges that the party has been facing over the last decade in general and during its tenure as part of the MVA in particular. I want to look at three such key challenges here: The fizzling out of the “idea of Sena”, BJP’s aggressive attempts to reclaim power in the state, and the disagreements between the alliance partners in the MVA.

When Uddhav Thackeray took over the reins of the Shiv Sena during the 1990s, he brought about a substantial transformation in the party’s working. Despite being Bal Thackeray’s son and heir, Uddhav’s style of leadership is distinctly different from his late father’s. A large part of the success the Shiv Sena got as a movement and party in the initial years stemmed from Bal Thackeray’s charismatic leadership, his aggressive stance and his emphasis on actionism. Uddhav’s ways were more systematic and moderate and, unlike Bal Thackeray, he did not manage to project himself as a mass leader.

The very idea of the Sena, which relied heavily on violence, street politics and espousal of aggressive nativism and Hindutva through the party’s grassroot network of shakhas began fizzling out with Uddhav stepping in. Old Shiv Sainiks, who were trained to do things on the ground rather than think and deliberate, struggled to find relevance in the Sena’s changing avatar. The conflict between the old and new Sena that stems from this confrontation of ideas, ideologies and leadership traits only grew with time. It became a key reason for the likes of Shinde to publicly express their discontent with the party they once identified with.

The induction of Aaditya Thackeray and the young and elite men and women who entered with him ruffled some old feathers and underlined the sentiment that the Sena was changing. Sena’s internal demography has changed substantially since then as English-speaking, affluent people gain prominence in day-to-day decision-making, as opposed to the ordinary Sainiks working at the shakha level in Mumbai and elsewhere. This has two ramifications. One, senior leaders find their position weakened within the organisation and two, at the grassroots, with the decreasing autonomy and power to shakhas, local networks of brokerage and patronage are affected, causing distress among party workers. Even as Aaditya attempted to put governance first while tackling fundamental issues of health, education and environment, his failure to convey his ideas at the grassroots seems to have led to a further disconnect between the old and new Sena.

The Sena’s decision to become a part of the MVA government in 2019, parting ways with saffron partner BJP, created further resentment among its senior leaders. Even with Uddhav Thackeray at the helm as chief minister, there has been growing anger among Sena leaders as they allege that the NCP and the Congress got a larger share of the pie. There was a feeling that power-sharing was unfair, with the NCP getting to keep some of the prominent portfolios such as Home and Finance. Eknath Shinde, in particular, faced a big blow after Uddhav Thackeray decided to take up the chief ministerial role while retaining his post as Sena Pramukh, thus closing all doors for Shinde’s further elevation within the party and government.

Uddhav’s elevation as CM also made him even more inaccessible for Sena leaders and grassroot Shiv Sainiks, mainly because he was engaged in handling the catastrophic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic for a substantial period of his tenure. The disconnect has been particularly felt by leaders from rural and mofussil areas of Maharashtra who now claim that they were supported by Shinde as they could not reach the Thackerays when they needed them most. Shinde seems to have systematically tapped into this anxiety and strengthened his own support base by combining street politics and optics. His espousal of late Anand Dighe, a popular Sena leader from Thane and the recent release of ‘Dharmaveer’, a film that glorifies the life and politics of Dighe, seem like conscious attempts to create this narrative of old vs new Sena. His rebellion seems to be an attempt to challenge the dominance of the Thackeray brand and appropriate the symbols of Shiv Sena, with the BJP’s strong support.

In the last two years, the BJP has made conscious attempts to tap into the insecurities of Sena leaders and aid its aggressive attempts to reclaim power in Maharashtra. Like in many other parts of the country, its alleged use of central agencies to further this agenda seems to play a key role even in the case of the recent Sena rebellion. Among those who have joined the rebel camp are Pratap Sarnaik, who was recently under the ED scanner in connection with a money laundering case and Yamini Jadhav, the wife of Yashwant Jadhav, former Sena corporator and four-time chairman of the Standing Committee of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, who was summoned by the ED earlier this year in a Foreign Exchange Management Act violation case. Even as most MLAs claim that they want the Sena to go with the BJP because of the Hindutva factor, the security that comes along with such a deal seems to be a key determinant in their decision to join the Shinde fold.

Very soon, we will know whether Shinde’s rebellion is powerful enough to topple the government and snatch power from the Uddhav-led Sena. For now, it is crucial to see whether the Sena can revive its very idea and ideology and garner support from its grassroot Sainiks to keep itself relevant in the state’s political canvas. The scenes outside Matoshree when Uddhav Thackeray moved his base there from his official residence on Wednesday, sent a clear message: Whether the government stays in power or not, the idea of the Sena is too strong to be uprooted overnight.

The writer is a researcher at the University of Mumbai. His doctoral work looks at the journey of Shiv Sena between 1985 and 2022



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Shailesh Poddar writes: After Nupur Sharma row, there was violent speech and fear-mongering against protesters. But protests against Agnipath did not provoke a similar anger or fear

Written by Shailesh Poddar

After violence put the streets of Ranchi in a chokehold on June 10 in response to former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s statements about the Prophet, several protestors were jailed and their names displayed, albeit momentarily, in an act of public shaming. Two of the young protestors were killed. One was 15 years old.

As the curfew lifted and the internet flickered back on, I was introduced to the family of one of the arrested, a 19-year-old Muslim boy who was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. The family of six sat with their faces drooping in their small two-bedroom home, tucked into one of the narrow lanes spiralling out from Ranchi’s famous Bada Talab. I listened to their anger, and their sense of humiliation, while thinking about the next steps in securing bail for the young boy.

I asked a colleague, a Muslim advocate practising in Ranchi’s Civil Court who also conducts clerical tasks, to apply for certified copies of the FIR needed for the bail application. He came back, disturbed: “The court staff was not behaving well. You should ask a Hindu advocate to do this”.

I approached another advocate, a Hindu this time. While discussing the details, I asked him to make sure the filing does not cost too much, as the client cannot afford to pay. “If the client can’t afford to pay, then why did he pelt stones?” he asked.

Having grown up in Ranchi and now practising in the High Court, I thought I was well-prepared for the onslaught of hateful comments in the aftermath of the recent violence. But the vitriol against Muslims that I witnessed during this period reached a new level. Not just on WhatsApp, but out loud and in public, there were calls for violence. Many demanded arrests, citing the UP government as a model example.

In all these Islamophobic statements, I noticed that the justification for violent speech came from arguments of self-defence. Indeed, scholars have noted how hate speech has increasingly begun to take the form of “fear speech”. Dutch legal scholar Antoine Buyse, who coined the term, argues that “…speech directed at stigmatising another group may pave the way for violence (hate speech), but it is fear speech that is a much stronger indicator of impending violence. This is true especially when speech takes the form of instilling fear that the other group is out to strike one’s own group with violence, possibly even with the aim of extermination (existential fear).”

Scholar Kiran Garimella corroborated Buyse’s theory in the Indian context with a groundbreaking analysis of around 27,000 WhatsApp messages in political groups. Almost 8,000 of these posts expressed some form of fear speech, which had a wider reach and longer lifetime than non-fear speech messages. “Fear speech messages use various events and symbols to create the illusion of fear among the reader about a target community … Fear speech messages clearly fit into a set of topics relating to aggression, crime, and, violence showcasing Muslims as criminals and using dehumanising representations of them.”

That same justification of fear and self-defence was missing when, no less than a week later, the government’s announcement of the Agnipath Scheme sparked nationwide protests with excessive damage to public property. In fact, violent speech against the protestors was entirely absent. The timing provided a stark juxtaposition as I listened to those around me. Only a few days ago, those who were pleading for “bulldozer action” to be imported to Jharkhand were strangely quiet. The hate and the anger dissipated.

On June 22, when I went to visit the 19-year-old Muslim boy arrested in the first protests, I listened to him describe how a commute home from his work at a bike showroom turned into a not-so-average day.

I was left wondering who feared him, who hated him, and whose speech mattered.

The writer is a Ranchi-based advocate



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Bhupender Yadav writes: Concerns being raised over disbanded soldiers being left jobless and education-less are unfounded

In July, the armed forces will begin the all-important task of recruiting India’s Agniveers, who have been envisaged as the backbone of our combat units. We, however, live in times where the nature of combat has transformed beyond recognition. The nation faces threats not just from land, water and the sky but also from cybertech, the internet of military things and artificial intelligence. There is, therefore, a need for a better equipped and more prepared military.

To that end, one of the purposes of the Agnipath Yojana is to lower the median age of our personnel. The need for it was felt after the 1962 war with China. Decades later, the Kargil Review Committee also highlighted the same. The issue, however, remained unaddressed until a reform-oriented and reform-committed government assumed office.

In the Indian Army today, only 19 per cent of the personnel are below 25 years of age and a whopping 19 per cent are in the age group of 36-40. Since both China and Pakistan have mountainous terrain, units with a lower age profile will perform better in such areas.

The scheme aims to enrol Agniveers, between the ages of 17.5 years and 23 years, for four years. After the completion of these four years, 25 per cent of them will be retained or re-enlisted in the regular cadre while the remaining 75 per cent will be demobilised with an exit package of nearly Rs 12 lakh.

It is agonising to notice that the Opposition wants to spread misinformation about a scheme aimed at increasing India’s defence preparedness. In the backdrop of this concerted effort to oppose for the sake of opposing, it is important to clear the air.

On June 14, when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced the scheme, he added that a lot of announcements with regards to the Agnipath Yojana would follow in the days ahead. But the Opposition fuelled protests.

Meanwhile, the Centre and many BJP-ruled states have announced schemes that will address the concerns of our youth aspiring to join the forces. The government will also help the disbanded Agniveers to start the next phase with bank loans, which will be extended to them on priority. A proposal to reserve 10 per cent of the job vacancies in the Union Ministry of Defence for Agniveers meeting the eligibility criterion has also been approved. This reservation will be implemented in the Indian Coast Guard, defence civilian posts and all 16 Defence Public Sector Undertakings. This is in addition to the existing reservation for ex-servicemen. The Ministry of Home Affairs has also announced schemes to ensure that the Agniveers get opportunities to remain in the nation’s service beyond the four years they serve under the Agnipath Scheme. It has announced a 10 per cent reservation as well as an upper age limit relaxation for Agniveers for recruitment in the Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles. The upper age limit for the CAPFs — Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and the National Security Guard (NSG), Special Protection Group (SPG) — will be 26 years. The first batch of Agniveers will avail relaxation of five years beyond the upper age limit of 23 – in other words, this limit would be 28 years for them. This has been done to factor in the two years lost by the youth when recruitments were stopped due to the Covid pandemic.

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) has announced six service avenues for a smooth transition of the Agniveers in various roles of the Merchant Navy after their stint in the Indian Navy.

The concerns being raised over young men being left jobless and education-less are also unfounded because the National Institute of Open Schooling has announced it will institute a special programme in consultation with defence authorities to enable Agniveers to further their education and obtain a Class XII pass certificate. Customised courses will be developed for this purpose. The Ministry of Education has decided to launch a three-year skill-based bachelor’s degree programme for serving defence personnel that will recognise the training they have received during stint time in the armed forces. Several states, including Assam, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, have announced preferential recruitment of Agniveers in their police forces.

An increasing number of corporate houses have expressed willingness to hire decommissioned Agniveers believing in the fact that the discipline and skills they gain in the four years will make them eminently employable.

The Agnipath Yojana will help us nurture disciplined and dedicated youth with the potential to serve the paramilitary forces, security establishments, private sector organisations or other civilian establishments with distinction. Many among them will, of course, go on to serve the country’s defence forces beyond their four years as Agniveers. The scheme will help in the skill enhancement of many of the youth in rural areas. After their four-year stint in the Army, the Agniveers would have a world of opportunities awaiting them.

Those serving in the defence forces are the real heroes of Maa Bharti. Leaving them in the lurch is out of the question. The Narendra Modi government remains committed to fulfilling its reform agenda for all sectors including defence. As the PM said, reforms may appear unpleasant temporarily but they are beneficial over time. The path of reforms takes us towards new targets. It is time to dispel myths and clear rumours and welcome the new dawn in the country’s defence forces.

Yadav is Union Cabinet Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change; and Labour & Employment. He is the co-author of The Rise of the BJP



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Women’s rights that are decades in the making can disappear overnight, was the sinking feeling across the world yesterday when the US Supreme Court overruled the 1973 Roe vs Wade decision and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. At the level of US healthcare it will have a swift impact on the ground, with around half the states in the country expected to now ban all or most abortions. In political terms, it means a great setback for Biden’s presidency and a proportionate affirmation of Trump’s. The conservative movement will be very grateful for his judicial appointments that have enabled their wish-fulfilment. But above all what this is is a serious setback for the movement for women’s bodily autonomy, and for the larger idea that she gets to make decisions about herself.

It is worth noting that half a century ago when American women won the right to abortion, only 20% of those aged between 25-34 were without a child as compared to 52% today, only 11% of those between 25-44 had a college degree as compared to 41% today, and only 17% of jobs in management for people aged 16-44 were held by women as compared to 45% today. Reproductive freedoms are deeply linked to economic freedoms.

In the US itself the months to come will see legislative fightback against yesterday’s decision. But however dreadful the world feels about the US situation right now, the overall trend of liberalising abortion laws from developed to developing countries will not be impacted. In India neither is this a political issue nor is any conservative judicial revisiting of abortion rights on the table. It is nonetheless a cautionary tale on not taking any assaults on women’s rights lightly, for they can really snowball into society-wide tragedies.



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A recent find of copper weapons in rural UP experts trace back to an age contemporaneous with the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) has sent ripples of excitement among those who follow the material evidence of India’s rich past. IVC, a bronze age marvel, is perhaps still the acme of the 162-year-old Archaeological Survey of India’s work. And its lessons remain relevant to ASI today.

ASI describes the maintenance of ancient monuments as its prime concern. There are 3,693 monuments under its ambit. Important as this task is, it’s worth asking if the current prioritisation has an adverse impact on its excavation activity. This is where the IVC chapter gains salience. Historian Nayanjot Lahiri observed that when ASI connected the dots and publicised the antiquity of IVC in 1924, it had a positive spin-off on funding. For 2022-23, ASI’s budgetary allocation is an underwhelming Rs 1,080 crore. Given the richness of many cultures that lie buried, a couple of exciting excavations could nudge GoI to set aside more.

Two changes will help the cause of excavations. GoI has tried different schemes to draw in more private funding into preserving monuments, without loosening ASI’s control over the core areas. It’s an approach that can free ASI resources. Advent of technology such as light detection and ranging change the economics of excavations. If deployed well, newer technology may well lead to another IVC-like moment.



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In a welcome move, the government has announced the deployment of a technical team to the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, to ensure effective delivery of humanitarian assistance.

This marks the return of Indian diplomats to the embassy in Kabul for the very first time since the Taliban takeover in August last year. And it should be the beginning of full resumption of our diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. True, there is still the matter of whether or not to recognise the Taliban regime.

But the fact of the matter is that the Islamists are in charge in Afghanistan today. And India has rightly begun engaging the Taliban at the official level. Therefore, it makes immense strategic sense to reactive our embassy in Kabul. Not doing so will only aid Pakistan and China, and undermine Indian strategic interests in Afghanistan.

That said, this is a risk given our history with the Taliban and Pakistan’s influence over the Islamist group. But unless we take that risk, we will jeopardise all the development work we have done in Afghanistan over the last two decades.

We also need to retain the immense goodwill that we have created among the Afghan people. Plus, if India sees itself as a regional power, it can’t just sit back and let the chips fall where they may.

Pakistan and China will run away with Afghanistan in that case. Thus, India needs to be bold here and return to Afghanistan.



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As women get back into the workforce in towns and cities, with the pandemic hopefully receding, the accessibility to safe public transport spells the freedom to choose livelihoods. Buses, the predominant mode of public transport for women in larger cities, are overcrowded, inadequate, and often unsafe for women. In rural areas, women are left to their own devices or have to depend on male family members for transport, something that is not readily available.

Sonal Shah, founder of the social enterprise, The Urban Catalysts, says that women bear a disproportionate burden of gender-blind transport systems, especially resource-poor women.

Research by the enterprise shows that women tend to spend a higher proportion of their income on transport than men. Any woman who has travelled in a bus will attest to the fact that seats reserved for women are often occupied by men who refuse to vacate them. Sexual harassment also holds women back, in addition to issues like infrequent bus schedules catering to women’s travel destinations, availability of real-time information as women may not have access to smartphones, accessible, well-lit pedestrian walkways, safe crossings, and lighting at bus stops. The lack of safe public transport prevents women from accessing all the employment opportunities that may be available, especially jobs which involve late hours.

In a recent study conducted by the social enterprise Safetipin in Bhopal, Gwalior and Jodhpur, 95% of the women respondents felt unsafe while using public transport, and 29% said that they had experienced sexual harassment in public transport in the past year. The lack of safe mobility choices impacts women’s access to opportunities. Girls are often forced to drop out of higher education and women take up low-paying jobs near their homes due to fear of sexual harassment in public transport. Women resort to strategies such as travelling in groups and avoiding certain routes.

With unpaid household chores and care work being disproportionately shouldered by women, they will tend to work closer to home or opt out of the workforce. Ajmeri, a domestic worker in the National Capital Region, says that with little to no public transport from her semi-slum dwelling, she has to walk to work in inclement weather and risk her personal safety in the evening.

Kalpana Viswanath, co-founder of Safetipin, says that safe public spaces and mobility are central to ensure that women enjoy their “right to the city”. We need public transport that acknowledges and responds to the everyday travel needs of women.

Initiatives such as travel subsidies could help informal women workers. The Karnataka government’s construction welfare board provides free annual bus passes for 1,000 workers, including 200 women workers. A free bus pass would enable saving up to 12,600 in a year per person. This practice could be extended across India, as all the states have welfare boards.

However, women vendors say buses don’t stop for them as there is resistance to their boarding with their goods. A redesign of women-only bus operations with a large fleet of smaller buses that have drop-off points close to women’s travel destinations may improve ridership and accessibility.

Sonal Shah argues that, “Cities need to collect gender-disaggregated data on women’s mobility, travel behaviour, the experience of safety, sexual harassment, and infrastructure and service issues related to public transport to address this more effectively.” Inclusive access to mobility must consider a rights-based issue, rather than a protection-based one.

lalita.panicker@hindustantimes.com

The views expressed are personal



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Summer is said to be the silly season in Britain. With Parliament in recess, schools and universities closed, and people on holiday, newspapers and television scramble for stories to cover. So, the silliest things make it to the headlines. Now, we don’t have a specific silly season, possibly because our life approximates the ludicrous most of the time! But a little bit of silliness can always lift the spirits. So that’s how I’ll continue.

My dear friend Bambi has sent me a list of strenuous activities that actually don’t require much physical effort. When you don’t know what to do, try one of these — beating around the bush, jumping to conclusions, climbing up the wall, swallowing your pride, passing the buck, throwing your weight around, dragging your heels, pushing your luck, bending over backwards, eating crow, setting the ball rolling, going over the edge, picking up the pieces, and, something we all do, making mountains out of molehills.

Of Bambi’s list, my favourites are: Jumping on the bandwagon, running around in circles, blowing your own trumpet, adding fuel to fire, opening a can of worms, and putting your foot in your mouth. Some of this I do frequently!

The Washington Post runs an annual neologism contest. It’s one I follow assiduously. It comes up with very similar results. They ask readers to suggest alternative meanings for words of common usage. Some of the winners are truly clever, even witty.

Coffee has become “the person upon whom one coughs”; flabbergasted transforms into “being appalled over how much weight you’ve gained”; willy-nilly, as you may expect, was translated as “impotent”; whilst lymph was understood as “walking with a lisp”. Again, my favourite is balderdash, which has been interpreted as “a rapidly receding hairline”, and rectitude which has been deemed to be “the dignified bearing adopted by a proctologist”.

In contrast to The Washington Post, attempts are often made to create new portmanteau words which are submitted to the Oxford English Dictionary for inclusion. I’m not sure they will get accepted, but they’re amusing to peruse. Here are some of the better ones: Errorist (someone who repeatedly makes mistakes); askhole (someone who constantly asks for advice but ignores it); nonversation (a worthless conversation); textpectation (the anticipation one feels when awaiting a response to a text message); destinesia (when you get to where you were intending to go but forget why you wanted to go there in the first place); unkeyboardinated (when you lack physical and mental coordination and, therefore, cannot type without repeatedly making mistakes); cellfish (people who continuously talk on their cell phone oblivious of others around them); and, my favourite, deja poop (the feeling the same shit keeps happening).

If, like me, silliness amuses you, then there’s nothing to beat what I’m told is called The Drunk Poem. It’s a delightful verse, or do I mean worse? Read it slowly and carefully. It’s almost onomatopoeic. It starts relatively easily but, as the influence of alcohol progresses, the words change mischievously. You can sense the spirit taking hold of the poetry. But I think you’ll still get the meaning of what this poor drunken sod is trying to say:

Starkle, starkle, little twink,

Who the hell are you I think.

I’m not under what you call,

The alcofluence of incohol.

I’m just a little slort of sheep,

I’m not drunk like thinkle peep.

I don’t know who is me yet,

But the drunker I stand here the

longer I get.

So just give me one more fink to

drill my cup,

Cause I got all day sober to

Sunday up.

Let me end with “hic”. What’s more to say?

Karan Thapar is the author of Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story

The views expressed are personal



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Any change in government in Islamabad is usually followed by a shuffle in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s (PoK)’s political set-up. This reflects the absence of autonomy in the territory, which Pakistan otherwise claims to be azad or independent. This drama was re-enacted in April after Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan lost power in Pakistan.

The last election in PoK in July 2021 brought to power a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) government headed by Abdul Qayyum Khan Niazi. PTI, which is headed by Imran Khan, replaced the previous government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) headed by Raja Farouk Haider.

Days after Imran Khan’s ouster, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas took over as PM of PoK, replacing Niazi. However, there was a curious twist. The no-confidence motion (NCM) against Niazi was brought by his own party members.

The drama in PoK began soon after Shehbaz Sharif was elected as Pakistan’s PM on April 11. Three days later, Niazi sacked five cabinet ministers. This triggered the NCM, and Ilyas, also from PTI, took over. Was this change brought about with the blessings of Imran Khan – an intra-party change brought about with the concurrence of the party leader? A vote on the floor of the legislature is an unusual route to do so. A party leader, who had just lost power at the federal level, is unlikely to initiate such an NCM, which could result in the loss of his regional fiefdom.

If Khan did not initiate the move, where did the impulse for change come from? The election or selection of PM of PoK is not possible without a nod from the army. But the army was avoiding a change in the sensitive area, which could damage the narrative that the problem lies on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC). Any change of the figurehead without changing the party equation is the least cost option. Ilyas got 33 votes in the 53-member assembly session, boycotted by the 19 opposition members from Pakistan People’s Party and PML-N.

Changing a government via a vote in the assembly seems legitimate in a democracy, but PoK has a different arrangement. Under the original Interim Constitution Act of 1974, all the important legislative and executive powers were vested in a council headed by Pakistan’s PM. This was criticised as rule by proxy by Islamabad.

Under the 13th amendment of the “interim” constitution in 2018, the council was relegated to an advisory role. Instead of transferring its powers to the elected assembly, Pakistan assumed direct legislative authority on 32 subjects. The elected assembly needs Pakistan’s approval for legislating even on the remaining 22 subjects.

It is interesting that the 13th amendment of PoK’s “interim” constitution was made a year before the revocation of Article 370 by the Government of India. While Pakistan has always exercised absolute powers over and within PoK, the 13th amendment made a subtle, yet far-reaching change. Earlier, Islamabad enjoyed powers behind a charade of autonomy for the territory. Now, it has assumed those powers directly within the territory.

PoK is effectively integrated in Pakistan, not only in terms of the constitutional compact of powers, but through political control. It is Pakistan’s mainstream parties that have formed governments in PoK in successive “elections”. The hold of regional or “Kashmiri” political parties has progressively diminished. The Muslim Conference, which had supported the demand for PoK to join Pakistan in 1947, has only one member in the 53-seat legislature. The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, which supports the “independence” option, is not even allowed to participate in elections. Azadi (freedom) has no place in azad (free) Kashmir, and is only encouraged on the Indian side of the LoC.

The PoK drama may soon be followed in Gilgit-Baltistan. The efforts to unseat the sitting chief minister Khalid Khurshid, a PTI member, began in April. Recently, the CM insisted that his convoy was targeted by the Punjab Police, while they were proceeding to attend a rally in Islamabad. He survived, but his political survival is uncertain.

DP Srivastava is former ambassador and author of the book, Forgotten Kashmir: The Other Side of the Line of Control

The views expressed are personal



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The year is 1966. As the biggest city of a young state born just six years before, erstwhile Bombay is in churn. Waves of capital washing ashore cannot keep pace with the hordes of young men arriving at the city’s gates from the hinterlands in search of jobs. The first post-Independence generation is reaching adulthood, unmoored by the freedom struggle and wary about their future in a socialist-leaning economy. Many are anxious that “outsiders” are better educated or work for lesser pay, thereby beating them in the employment market. Into this ferment, one rainy June morning, was born the Shiv Sena. Anchored by the charismatic but militant personality of Bal Thackeray, a cartoonist and journalist, the Sena quickly achieved success in the city and later, the state, by reinforcing Maratha pride, giving Maharashtra its first non-Congress chief minister (CM) in 1995.

Fifty-six years on, and a decade after Thackeray’s death, the Sena faces an existential crisis with the largest rebellion – on three separate occasions earlier, top leaders have left the party, but none since the death of Bal Thackeray – it has ever suffered. With 38 of its 55 legislators deserting CM Uddhav Thackeray and backing urban development minister Eknath Shinde, the party is in freefall and the coalition government it heads on the brink of collapse. Irrespective of the direction this crisis takes – it will likely end up before the courts, unless Uddhav works out a truce, creates enough pressure on the rebels for some of them to return to the fold, or resigns – it is clear that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the coalition that was forged purely as a political checkmate to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is on borrowed time. It is also clear that no matter who is left in charge of the Sena, Thackeray or Shinde, the tumult will mark the beginning of a new phase for the party, if it survives at all.

There are several immediate reasons for the turmoil, but at its root are two contradictions, electoral and ideological. To understand this, one has to go back to 2014 – the first election the Sena faced without its charismatic founder, and the first that its erstwhile junior partner the BJP did with its own charismatic new leader Narendra Modi. Contrary to speculation, the death of the senior Thackeray provided little emotional boost to the Sena, and the party only saw a modest three percentage point rise in its vote share. Modi’s campaigning, on the other hand, propelled the BJP to register a 14 percentage point increase in its vote share and nearly triple its seat tally. Suddenly, the crown of Maharashtra’s Hindu samrat, or emperor, passed on from the Thackeray family to Modi, whose appeal could sway communities that had remained cold to the Sena’s militant ways. It marked the end of the Shiv Sena’s reign as the big brother of the saffron alliance in Maharashtra. It inaugurated a period of unrest in the coalition – the Sena left, came back, and then left again – but the underlying anxiety about Hindutva, and whether the Sena could take on the BJP on what was once its own turf, was never resolved. Uddhav’s decision to insist on the CM’s chair in 2019 and his walking out of the alliance can be understood in this context – the Sena was feeling squeezed as a more stridently Hindutva party was taking the ideological plank away from the Thackerays, limiting their base to Mumbai-Thane, the Konkan coast, and pockets in Aurangabad.

This ideological crisis coincided with an electoral stalemate for the party that grew out of low-income, Maratha-dominated suburbs of Mumbai and Thane, and struggled to grow in the interior districts, especially in regions where a presence was not already established during the Bal Thackeray years. Uddhav’s attempts to carve out his own ideological space (by breaking ties with the BJP) ironically created more problems for the Sena worker, who found it difficult to reconcile decades of enmity with the Congress-NCP. It also did not give the party a foothold in the countryside where the Congress-NCP was dominant, and the BJP was rapidly growing. This problem was evident in the 60-odd seats where the three MVA partners were in direct contest before October 2019.

The Sena’s response to the dual contradiction was to lower the pitch on Hindutva and dial up its development and governance agenda. As this rebellion shows, the strategy was devoid of both mass connect – the core Sena voter’s concerns about hardline ideology and everyday livelihood didn’t square with the more urbane image projected by the newer crop of leaders who sought to gain elite approval and intra-party appeal, with the old guard feeling abandoned by newer leaders and alienated by the perceived abandonment of the street-fighter mode. Combined with the demands of an extreme alliance, the rebels felt that the NCP was able to strengthen its organisation through distribution of posts in state-run corporations and government bodies and the constant aggression of the BJP, which was not above nudging central agencies to create pressure on the unwieldy alliance, and it became a political tinderbox that exploded on Monday.

Despite the fluidity in the political situation now, the Sena’s attrition will transform Maharashtra’s politics. The clear benefactor is the BJP, which has not only avenged its humiliation post the 2019 polls but has also emerged as the de-facto Hindutva mainstay in the state. It is now in a position to either absorb the rebel leaders or snatch Sena strongholds in the next election with the Thackerays likely to be bogged down in protecting their fief in Mumbai (Thane will be difficult given Shinde’s hold on local men and corporators). The NCP should also be in a relative position of strength, having used two years to strengthen its cadre, place key office-bearers in plum posts, and nurture its citadel of western Maharashtra, and parts of Marathwada and north Maharashtra.

For national politics, it leaves a lesson and a question. It shows that for political parties, organisational strength should be valued above everything else (especially for outfits challenging the BJP). The shakha and vibhag in the Sena functioned well under the aadesh (order) culture of Bal Thackeray, who created an aura of mystique and power. Uddhav’s public office removed the mystique, and later his isolation – he blamed poor health and the rebels blamed a coterie of leaders – meant that the organisation wilted under the pressure of expectation.

But it also underlines the dilemma of regional parties, which have often shown more electoral effectiveness in taking on the BJP than the Congress but also grapple with the decision of whether to be co-opted by the national hegemon or oppose it. As the experience of Nitish Kumar and now, Uddhav Thackeray shows, either choice can be thorny – the BJP’s political machine may eat up political and ideological oxygen while in alliance but facing it as an adversary can decimate the party. For a resource-starved Opposition that is staring at losing control of India’s richest state two years before the general elections, these questions will be crucial if it wants to put up a fight in 2024.

But ultimately, politics is about people. And the Sena’s crisis will have no bigger imprint than in the place where it all began – Mumbai. For almost half a century, 227 Sena shakhas have quasi governed the city, acting as a local government to solve citizens’ problems, or as lobby groups helping constituents get admission into school or secure a government job. As the node of civic, cultural and social life in large swathes of the city, especially its cramped chawls and sprawling slums, the shakha ran on the implicit diktat of the most important political address in the city – Matoshree in Bandra East. But with the Sena wobbling, Matoshree in hushed despair, and rebels eyeing party corporators, is India’s financial capital headed for yet another round of churn? Whether the Sena survives or reinvents itself, it now seems that the era of authority inaugurated that wet June morning in 1966 is coming to an end.

letters@hindustantimes.com



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Embattled Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray must be ruing the day he agreed to gift the home ministry to the Nationalist Congress party two years ago during their negotiations on distribution of portfolios. As a result, Mr Thackeray was not privy to inputs from the intelligence agencies which reporting directly to the home minister, NCP’s Dilip Walse-Patil. According to a section of leaders in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government Mr Thackeray evinced little interest in getting regular briefings from Mr Walse-Patil as he had cut himself off from his ministerial and party colleagues by cocooning himself in his chief ministerial bungalow. On the other hand, some maintain that intelligence agencies had been negligent as they were in the dark when a large number of Shiv Sena rebels were spirited away from Mumbai to Surat. There is also a view that the home minister did not take the inputs from the agencies seriously and consequently did not inform Mr Thackeray about these developments. Then there are still others who believe that Mr Walse-Patil deliberately withheld this information from Mr Thackeray, a sign of growing tension between the Shiv Sena and the NCP. Whatever the case may be, this entire episode is a sad reflection on the NCP minister’s handling of his portfolio and Mr Thackeray’s standoffish style of functioning.

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Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party named Draupadi Murmu as its presidential candidate, there have been murmurs in the Opposition camp that it might be a good idea if Yashwant Sinha, its nominee for the top post, offers to step aside in her favour. These doubters feel that it would send out a wrong signal if they oppose the election of the country’s first woman tribal President. The numbers were always stacked against the Opposition but it nevertheless decided to field a candidate to make a political statement. But this purpose has been roundly defeated with Ms Murmu’s candidature. As far as political messaging goes, the BJP’s woman tribal candidate has far more to offer in comparison to Mr Sinha whose caste credentials just do not match up. Mr Sinha’s wife also admitted in a media interview that the BJP candidate is a good choice while maintaining that the opposition lacked the numbers to get Mr Sinha elected. In fact, Mr Sinha cannot even depend on his son Jayant Sinha for his vote as he is a BJP MP.

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The communication and publicity department of the Congress is set to witness wide-ranging changes after former minister Jairam Ramesh replaced Randeep Surjewala as its new boss. The overhaul has already begun with party spokespersons Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate being given charge of the publicity and social media departments, respectively. There is also a buzz that Praveen Chakravarty, currently handling data analytics for the Congress, is on his way out and that party spokesperson Gourav Vallabh is being considered for this job. Then there is talk that the number of spokespersons and television panelists, which currently number around 50, on the Congress list is to be pared to make it more manageable. Mediapersons on the Congress beat have already noticed some changes in the functioning of the communication department. Soon after taking over, Mr Ramesh put out a statement providing details of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s medical condition. He also released the party chief’s letter seeking more time from the Enforcement Directorate which wants to question her in connection with the National Herald case. Such transparency is unheard of in the Congress.

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When Charanjit Singh Channi was appointed Punjab chief minister, Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi had announced with grand flourish that he was the state’s first dalit chief minister. However, the Congress’s favourite chief minister has disappeared after the party’s shock defeat in the Assembly elections. Worse still, Mr Channi himself lost both his seats. The party has forgotten him while Mr Channi has gone underground. He has tweeted sporadically — the last was to condole the killing of Sidhu Moosewala — but has maintained a studied silence on the Gandhi family. While every party leader and worker was vying to demonstrate his or her loyalty when Rahul Gandhi was being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate, there was no word from Mr Channi who, according to Rahul, shed tears when he was elevated as chief minister. Last heard, he had gone abroad for the treatment of a “neurological” ailment.

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Dramatic scenes were witnessed at the Congress headquarters on Akbar Road last week when the party’s senior leaders and workers were out in full strength to show solidarity with Rahul Gandhi who was questioned for five days by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the National Herald case. There was no dearth of Congress members who battled the cops during that period, making sure that their presence was captured by television cameras. While this tamasha was in full play during the day, the “demonstrators” would disappear as the afternoon wore on. In fact, not a single Congress member could be spotted on days when Rahul Gandhi left the Enforcement Directorate late at night.



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Social media has recently emerged as “Villain No. 1” in the eyes of governments all over the world especially when it comes to a question of “protest” against or “dissent” from them. The UP police blamed the use of WhatsApp for the mobilising of the anti-Agnipath agitation. It was the same during the Shaheen Bagh movement and the nationwide farmers’ stir.

But it is not always about politics. Last week, following the death of 22-year-old wrestler Hana Kimura, Japan declared online humiliation a punishable offence. Kimura took her life due to bullying on the Internet over her role in Netflix’s Terrace House. The incident reminded me of the suicide of the teenage son of an acquaintance. I still remember his remark made with a blank look on the face: “I lost my son to social media.” His son had been waging a lonely online battle to prove that being a Muslim does not place him in the category of being ‘anti-national’.

Social media, with its own pros and cons, pluses and minuses, has become a ‘one more shot’ addiction. It is a space ruled by the ‘selfish giant(s)’ of the Oscar Wilde story who show off the bounties of their garden to viewers.

No doubt, social media can emerge as “Hero No. 1”, too, playing a role in organising an Arab Spring, a #BlackLivesMatter or a #MeToo, leading to “E-Democracy From Below” as Jay G. Blumler and Stephen Coleman have dreamt of. Could it give rise to a ‘digital democracy’ for the Facebook generation? On occasions, it has provided a perfect platform for collective grassroots action beyond mediums controlled by the Establishment.

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But shrewd as they are, political leaders have usurped the power of social media. They have embarked on a journey to use different social media platforms to spread their various narratives amongst people. This happened especially after the success of the Five Star Movement in 2009. The anti-establishment, pro-people, environmentalist Five Star Movement was the first political party to use social media to reach its voters. Engaging direct participation from citizens, Beppe Grillo, its founder, used his blog set up in 2005 asking supporters to adopt social media to hold local meetings. No wonder, the use of social media by the BJP in the 2014 general elections yielded profuse dividends but have turned Twitter and Facebook into battlegrounds.

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Can we really afford to ignore the impact of social media? Is there any aspect of our life that has remained untouched by its presence? We are watching housewives doing their daily chores (while their own work is being done by a domestic help or lying there unattended), and we are hooked on seeing slim, young Korean girls polishing off tonnes of food in mukbang videos (secretly envying them and wondering “how could they”), listening to various religious sermons spitting spite and fulfilling political agendas, and puffing up our chests and filling our vanity boxes with alt-truths and fake news from WhatsApp University, considering ourselves well-informed, nay erudite.

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Is it any wonder that within no time we have had songs such as “Follow Me”, “Hit Me on Twitter”, “Follow U on Twitter” filling the ether waves? What’s more, with the present figure of 376.1 million social media users in India in 2020, we are expected to cross 448 million by 2023. In number of Instagram users, India is second only to the US and it ranks third among TikTok users. So what if we have finished at the bottom of the Environment Performance Index-2022 released recently by the World Bank? Please don’t bother us with such trivial issues. We are busy waging a war of words on Twitter to earn the coveted title of patriot or radical.

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As far as I am concerned, I have enjoyed an on-again-off-again relationship with social media. During this time, I have also observed situations which have convinced me as to its pervasive reach, and influence. For instance, my domestic help, who is unlettered, I overheard saying on the mobile, “No I wasn’t invited but I came to know about her marriage on Facebook.” It was a “statue” moment for me which you can blame on my absence on Facebook/Instagram, etc., at the time.

Its potential benefits notwithstanding, social media has opened up a world of opposites, a binary dunia, this or that, devta or rakshas, Right or Left, hot or not, nationalist or anti-national. There is no middle path, no pause left to breathe and consider. The word ‘social’ has acquired a new meaning — navel-gazing and isolation. The race is now on to win online friends and followers. That has become another marker of success. A number of actors have recently complained of not getting roles because of less numbers of followers. The selfie culture has opened a Pandora’s Box of insecurities while having a social media presence has become a major obsession for the younger generation.

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In a way, the real ‘candies’ of life are ‘crushed’ under its wheels. There are so many Angry Birds out there. We have become children in the playing field — are you on my side or not? No? Not talking to you! Period!



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In 1997, I wrote a book called The Great Indian Middle Class, which was brilliantly translated into Hindi by Abhay Dubey, with the title Bharatiya Madhya Varg Ki Ajeeb Dastaan. Both books were the subject of much discussion, and I have remained since then a close observer of this remarkable class, which has shown great energy, survival instincts, capacity for hard work, and entrepreneurial brilliance.   

What does the middle class want today? Its size and prosperity have increased exponentially over the years, and it is today the only true pan-Indian class. Firstly, the middle class wants economic growth. It wants more of the good life, more jobs, better salaries, business opportunities, greater consumer options, easy credit, low prices, world class educational institutions and a booming stock exchange. Post the economic liberalisation of 1991, it has progressively enjoyed these dividends. Today, the Indian middle class must rank as one of the most aspirational classes in the world. Ye dil maange more!

If it gets these goodies, it is not particularly finicky about how. It likes democracy as a theoretical construct, but only if it subserves its own interests. That is why it is sometimes taken in by demagogues who promise to cater to its wants. When Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency in 1975, the middle class (initially) was her biggest support. Its members were not opposed to a bit of danda rule, where the unwashed masses could be ‘taught’ to behave better, and only rebelled when the danda threatened to hit them as well. The same applies with bulldozers. They are seen as symbols of a ‘strong’ ruler, until they begin to demolish middle class homes, which cannot but happen once governments get used to taking the law in their own hands.

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In this sense, the middle class knows instinctively when things are beginning to unravel. Of course, it is insular and preabsorbed in its own priorities. A foreigner once told me that he was surprised how an educated middle class person in India seemed to almost not notice an abject slum right next to displays of great wealth. The poor are necessary, but largely for their services, after which they should preferably be out of sight, as gated communities mushrooming all over the country ensure. But at the same time, the middle class does not want the numbers of the poor to swell uncontrollably, for this will inevitably threaten its own security.  

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The middle class is predominantly religious, but it does not like endemic social instability caused by religion. For instance, many Hindus have legitimate grievances about the appeasement of minorities for vote bank politics, and want these to be rectified. But if turmoil due to unending religious extremism hurts the middle class’s economic interests, it can say: enough is enough. It may surprise readers that at the height of the Ram Mandir Ayodhya agitation in 1992, the city’s Hindu traders once went on strike to protest that their dhanda is suffering as a result of the repeated agitations.

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Nor does the middle class want religion to become prescriptive. Hindus like to be religious, but don’t want self-anointed thekedars of Hinduism to tell them what to eat, what to drink, when to pray and what to wear. Hindu women, in particular, are incensed when told who to meet, how to dress, where to be seen and to be alright with being frowned upon when they do not wear a bindi or sindoor, to conform to some male chauvinist’s image of the chaste Hindu nari.

The middle class does not like insecurity and breakdown of law and order. It needs a certain predictability of coordinates to pursue its interests. If there are riots in any one part of the country, the pervasive outreach of the media brings them right to the homes of all middle class people. If warring groups take to the streets, transport, communication, business, shops, professions, safety, security and education of all middle class persons is threatened.  

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For this reason, the middle class is against extremism of all kinds, Hindu and Muslim included. It is not jihadi by temperament. It likes nationalism, and prides itself on being patriotic, but it is wary of hypernationalism, where anyone who disagrees is automatically labelled anti-national. This is especially so when it begins to realise that ultra-nationalism is being used as an excuse to deflect attention from some of the real issues that concern it, such as jobs and inflation.

Its behaviour may seem mercurial, but there is a message even in that seeming waywardness. Large numbers of it flocked to see the film Kashmir Files, but even larger numbers stayed away from Samrat Prithviraj, although both films have certain obvious thematic overlaps. The middle class knows its mind — and its priorities — and is seldom willing to be taken for granted.

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Today, the middle class sees some of its dreams under siege.

According to the Pew Research 2021, the core middle class has shrunk from 99 million in 2020 to 66 million in 2021. Demonetisation and Covid have taken their toll. Those with jobs are facing a pay cut, others face retrenchment, and new jobs are disappearing. With inflation at new highs, incomes are shrinking, savings falling, and quality of life suffering. The rich have become richer; now, the top one per cent owns 73 per cent of national wealth. The poor are multiplying; those earning less than $2 a day rose from 59 million in 2020 to 134 million in 2021.

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Caught between the rich and the poor, the middle class is hurting. It is not a disloyal class. But it is as quickly seduced by the leader who comes as a knight in shining armour promising to do its bidding, as it is disillusioned by that very leader when those promises do not fructify.

What is the Great Indian Middle Class thinking today? That is an important question, because what it thinks today shapes national public opinion tomorrow.



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