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When the UAE leader “asked US to bomb al-Jazeera”

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"We do not promote the idea of press freedom. What we talk about is responsibility in speech": UAE Ambassador to Moscow


Mohamed bin Zayed: reportedly asked General Tommy Franks to bomb TV station

Of the 13 demands made by Saudi Arabia and the UEA in their ultimatum to Qatar, the one causing most consternation internationally is the call for al-Jazeera to be shut down. On Wednesday, the BBC's renowned World Affairs Editor, John Simpson, and David Kaye, the UN's Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, were the latest to object.

Simpson said closure of Qatar-based broadcaster would be "serious step backwards for the whole world" and Kaye said it would be a "major blow against media pluralism".
For the Saudis and Emiratis, though, its closure would be a step towards more "responsible" journalism.  “We do not claim to have press freedom," Omar Ghobash, the UAE's ambassador to Moscow told the Guardian. "We do not promote the idea of press freedom. What we talk about is responsibility in speech."

The Emiratis – as a leaked diplomatic cable shows – have had al-Jazeera in their sights for years, and shutting it down is not the most drastic solution they have ever contemplated.
In 2001, shortly before the start of the Afghan war, Qatar's emir complained to Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's president, about Mohammed bin Zayed, one of the sheikh's sons.

According to the emir, Mohammed bin Zayed – who at the time was chief of staff of the Emirati armed forces – had asked Tommy Franks, the American general in charge of CENTCOM, to bomb al-Jazeera.

Sheikh Zayed is said to have responded to the emir's complaint with the derisive reply: "Do you blame him?" 

Mohammed bin Zayed's desire to bomb al-Jazeera – or rather, to have the Americans bomb it for him – doesn't seem to have harmed his career. Today, MBZ (as he is widely known) is Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE's armed forces. Along with the Saudi Crown Prince, he is also seen as one of the key figures leading the current feud with Qatar.

The story of the Qatari emir's complaint was recounted by MBZ himself during a meeting in January 2003 with the State Department's Director of Policy Planning, Richard Haass. Describing other parts of their conversation, the leaked diplomatic cable says:

"MBZ noted that public opinion in the Arab world would be containable provided military action [the invasion of Iraq] was short and decisive.  Keeping Israeli PM Ariel Sharon in his box was also important.  

"Returning to a common theme in his discussions with visiting US officials, MBZ emphasised the importance of reining in the Doha-based al-Jazeera satellite network prior to any military action.  He recommended against sending in journalists with war fighters – at least in the beginning – as the prospect of televising scenes of civilian casualties was just too risky.  

"MBZ said it was a mystery to him why the Qataris continued to inflame public opinion via JSC [Jazeera Satellite Channel] and suggested that the US use its weight to pressure Doha." 

Whether at the behest of MBZ or not, the Americans did subsequently bomb al-Jazeera (twice) – though not its Doha headquarters. In 2001, during the Afghan war, an American missile destroyed the station's office in Kabul. In 2003, during the Iraq war, another American missile hit al-Jazeera's office in Baghdad, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub.

Courtesy: al-bab.com

India: From Democracy to a Banana Republic

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The cow protection movement's original intent was only to embarrass the government according to Verghese Kurien

gaurakshak

BJP under Modi government had pushed its core Hindutva agenda to the limits,  veteran LK Advani’s main agenda of Ram Mandir was not enough for NDA II, Cow politics was raised vehemently and cow vigilantes groups were backed by BJP and grew since as early as 2009.

The then Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi not only talked about cow protection but he went further ahead and started campaign against Buffalo Meat (Pink Revolution). The campaign against Pink Revolution had drastic affect in Uttar Pradesh after BJP came in power and the present UP CM Yogi Adityanath began crackdown on so-called illegal slaughterhouses. Thousands of people have got unemployed, businesses related to buffalo meat and leather has been down to almost zero.MS Golwalkar, the RSS chief between 1940 and 1973, was the brain behind the cow protection movement in the 1960s. The government set up a committee to consider the demand of a nationwide ban on cow slaughter. The committee lasted twelve years. In that period, Golwalkar became friends with one of the committee members, Verghese Kurien, known as the ‘Milkman of India’.

 

Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma visited Bisada village in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh to pay his respects to Mohammed Akhlaq’s murder accused Ravin Sisodia’s body and family. Sharma, who is Lok Sabha MP for the local constituency, tweeted images of himself at the gathering om 7th Oct 2016.

Kurien opposed the ban on cow slaughter for economic reasons — the dairy business needs to get rid of old and unhealthy cows. In his autobiography, Kurien revealed Golwalkar’s real reason for the cow protection movement.

Kurien quoted Golwakar as saying he started the cow protection movement only to embarrass the government. He went around India collecting a million signatures for his petition, and saw in a village in UP a woman who went from house to house in the scorching heat to get more signatures.

Kurien quotes Golwalkar, “This is when I realized that the woman was actually doing it for her cow, which was her bread and butter, and I realized how much potential the cow has… I saw that the cow has potential to unify the country — she symbolizes the culture of Bharat… you agree with me to ban cow slaughter on this committee and I promise you, five years from that date, I will have united the country. What I’m trying to tell you is that I’m not a fool, I’m not a fanatic. I’m just cold-blooded about this. I want to use the cow to bring out our Indianness, So please cooperate with me on this.”

But the stringent and hardcore cow protection campaign of Sangh Parivar led by BJP under Narendra Modi leadership has turned into nightmare for Indians, especially for Minorities who are being lynched in public without any one coming forward to protect them.

Below is the timeline of incidents related to Gau Rakshaks since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister and BJP’s drive for hardcore cow protection

March 4 2015: Maharashtra banned beef; anyone found in possession or sale would face five years of jail and a ₹10,000 fine. While a 1976 law prevented the slaughter of cows in Maharashtra, the new Act banned the slaughter of bulls as well as bullocks.

March 16 2015: Haryana passed a stringent bill banning the sale of beef. The law mandated five years of rigorous imprisonment for selling beef — same as that in Maharashtra — and a fine of up to ₹50,000.

May 30 2015 : Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, 60, was killed in Birloka , in Khimsar tehsil of Nagaur district, Rajasthan after rumours spread that he had killed 200 cows for a feast. Pictures of carcasses were spread on social media. Young men gathered in the thousands in the fields of Kumhari village and brutally murdered him.

August 29 2015: Residents of Chilla village, near east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, clashed with four truck drivers night who were reportedly transferring buffaloes to a slaughter house in Gazipur.

September 28 2015: A mob lynched Mohammed Akhlaque in Bisada village, Dadri, on allegations of killing a cow and consuming its meat on Eid.

October 1 2015: Six students of Sree Kerala Varma College in Thrissur, Kerala, were suspended for organising a beef fest on campus to protest against the Dadri lynching.

October 6 2015: A cattle trader in Karnataka had a narrow escape after Bajrang Dal activists attacked him with metal rods on a rumour about a stolen cow.

October 9 2015: A mob went on a rampage following rumours that a cow had been slaughtered in Mainpuri district in UP.

October 9 2015: A petrol bomb attack on a Srinagar-bound truck left three men — two Kashmiris and a policeman — battling burn injuries (one of them died later). The truck was set on fire allegedly by rightwing activists in Jammu’s Udhampur district.

October 16 2015: A village mob lynched a man in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh for alleged cattle smuggling.

October 19 2015: Hindu hardliners threw black ink at J&K MLA Engineer Rashid in Delhi. He was thrashed earlier for holding a beef party in Srinagar.

December 3 2015: Violent clashes broke out in Haryana’s Palwal district when villagers stopped a truck allegedly carrying cow meat.

January 13 2016: Cow protection group attacked a couple at Khirkiya railway station in Madhya Pradesh over allegations that they were carrying beef.

March 18 2016: Two Muslim cattle-traders, including a 15-year-old, were beaten and hanged from a tree in Jharkhand’s Latehar district. Five suspects, including a member of a local gau raksha vigilante group, were later arrested.

April 2 2016: Mustain Abbas was killed, allegedly by Gau Raksha Dal members in Kurukshetra, Haryana while he was transporting a buffalo. The High Court of Punjab and Haryana ordered CBI to probe the murder on May 9.

May 6 2016: The Bombay High Court ruled that it will no longer be illegal to consume or keep imported beef but upheld the Maharashtra government’s ban on slaughter of cows and bullocks.

June 2 2016 : A mob of cow protection activists brutally assaulted alledged cattle smugglers in Rajasthan’s Pratapgarh, they took pictures of his naked body after he fell unconscious from brutality.

June 10 2016: Two ‘beef transporters’ were beaten up and force-fed cow dung allegedly by the Gurgaon Gau Raksha Dal in Haryana.

July 10 2016: Bajrang Dal members brutally attacked a Dalit family in Koppa in Karnataka, claiming there was beef inside their house.

July 11 2016: Seven members of a Dalit family were beaten up by about 35 gau rakshaks for skinning a dead cow in Una, in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district.

July 26 2016: Two Muslim women were beaten up at Mandsaur railway station in Madhya Pradesh on suspicion of carrying beef.

July 30 2016: A mob attacked the house of a Muslim family on suspicion of cow slaughter in UP’s Muzaffarnagar district.

August 5 2016: Two Dalits thrashed for refusing to remove dead bodies of cows in Lucknow. The Dalit workers were on protest against the growing attacks on community since Una, Gujarat attack.

August 18 2016 : BJP worker Praveen Poojary Killed by Hindu right-wing organisation over cow smuggling suspicion in Udupi, Karnataka.

August 24 2016 : In Mewat, Haryana 10 members of Gau Raksha killed a Muslim couple in their 30s, Rasheedan and Ibrahim, Two other members of their family, Ayesha and Jafruddin, were seriously injured.

September 18 2016 : Mohammad Ayub Mev 25-year-old was thrashed brutally by cow vigilantes after his pick up truck carrying bullock and calf met with an accident in which the calf died. He later died in hospital due to critical injuries.

March 18 2017 : Hotel Hayat Rabbani in Jaipur sealed by Nagar Nigam after one Kamala Didi of Gau Raksha Dal accused they were feeding beef to cows and organizing beef party in Hotel , they thrashed Qasim ,19 year old helper who was later arrested by Police.

March 22 2017 : Several Meat shops torched and vandalised by cow vigilantes group in Hathras District of U.P. right after BJP coming into power .

March 24 2017 : 12 Slaughterhouses sealed alleging to be without permit across Uttar Pradesh after Yogi Adityanath took the charge as Chief Minister of UP.

March 27 2017 :  Seven people, allegedly from a vigilante group, have been arrested for attacking and trying to sexually harass women at a house in Tellar village of Karkala, Udupi, Karnataka. The vigilante group members had entered the victim’s house as they suspected that cattle was being slaughtered illegally.

April 1 2017 :  Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister Raman Singh claimed will hang those who kill cows in his state.

April 4 2017 : 55 years old Dairy Farmer Pehlu Khan died in Alwar, Rajasthan after brutally beaten by cow vigilantes belonging to Hindu Right Wing organisations along with 5 other companions. He was transporting milch cows bought from Jaipur Animal fair to his home town Mewat District in Haryana.

April 12, 2017: 60 years old man was tied to tree and brutally beaten over alleged cow smuggling in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.

April 21, 2017: A nine-year-old girl along with four of her family members were attacked by self-proclaimed ‘gau rakshaks’ (cow vigilante) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district, four accused arrested.

April 23, 2017: The Delhi Police Monday arrested PFA office-bearer named Gaurav Guptathe case related to the assault of three youths by some people allegedly belonging to animal welfare group People For Animals (PFA).

May 4, 2017: Gau rakshaks attack two Hindu men on suspicion of being Muslim cow smugglers in Greater Noida.

12 May, 2017:  Gau rakshaks thrashed five people who were allegedly caught slaughtering a buffalo illegally inside the premises of a private dairy in the Gandhi Park area of the city in Delhi.

13 May, 2017:  Gau-Rakshaks cornered a man and started thrashing him ruthlessly, accusing him of beating a cow in Bhopal. The victim is said to have sustained severe injuries after the incident and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

25 May, 2017: A group of self-proclaimed ‘gau rakshaks’ created mayhem at the Bhubaneswar railway station on Wednesday, attacking two persons who were legally transporting 20 milch cows. No arrests have been made so far.

26 May, 2017: Gau Rakshaks’ In Malegaon Beat Up Two Meat Traders, Force Them To Chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’

2 June, 2017: Haryana: Gau rakshaks attacked youth with knife infront of police in Gohana.

12 June, 2017: Mob of at least 50 people intercepted five trucks near Rajasthan’s Barmer attacking drivers and attempting to set fire to the vehicles carrying cows purchased by Tamil Nadu government under a project to protect cows.

22 June, 2017: 15 years old Muslim teenager Junaid was stabbed to death while 3 of his brothers injured on a local train in Haryana after a mob accused them as beef eaters.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

Me, The Muslim

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Today I stand at a pass. Intensely patriotic and intensely bitter. The fear has disappeared to be replaced by an anger. 

Born to an army officer, and living the '71 war at Udhampur as a 4 year old, very close to the action – means one cut one's teeth on patriotism. I always thought I could kill for my country. I still think I can. I would rather not kill however. 

Life was simple for me till 1993 – till I was caught in the Bombay riots. I had seen them in Allahabad before. But not so close up. I had a gun go off a couple of feet near me. Saw enough blood. And burning vehicles. And suddenly I was a second class citizen. I will never forget a day after the riots had simmered down.

The bus conductor shouted at a man in a skull cap and short-changed him. His wife tugged at his sleeves and he let it go. There were expletives to follow when the couple got off. I had to now fear for being a Muslim. Ask any Muslim who lived through that period. And I did not even know how to be one. Never did. The primal fear matured and became chronic over the years. The housing refused. The slights. All very base and crude. All very common.

Today I stand at a pass. Intensely patriotic and intensely bitter. The fear has disappeared to be replaced by an anger. 

Bal Thakeray was given a state funeral. An MP (member of parliament) attended the funeral of the murderer of Akhlaque. The litany of things to get angry at is endless. 

I might be a rationalist, a humanist, an atheist, but I am a Muslim. They are my people. I am considered one of them. That is my identity. I am an Indian Muslim. I might believe I am a world citizen but that hardly matters. 

And I am angry for the Indian Muslims. I have sometimes wondered how easy it would be to convert people into terrorists. I can rationalise my anger. Not all can. Indoctrination does not take place in any madarssa or some hole in the wall. It takes place on the streets. It takes place in offices. In courtrooms. It takes place in plain view. And not by any Muslims. 

At this stage I have no faith in the state. Zilch. Not even the judiciary. Just people. They are what is left of my country for me. The seculars. And I know they are in a minority. They are also prosecuted and hounded. But then I know how to belong to a minority. I have lived and prospered so far amongst these friends. For I know not one communal amongst them. And they have too. You can live life as a Muslim in India. Just have a lot of friends. Secular friends. May their tribe grow. 

Here is to my friends. My India. The one I love.

#ILoveMyIndia

PS. Do not ask me how I feel for our children. For them to be considered prey. To be objects of hate the moment they are born. We can leave that heartbreak out. I wish they were not born to us. For their sakes.

Thousands March in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow & Other Centres, Express Outrage Against Lynch and Bloodshed

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In Delhi, activists, academics, journalists and politicians walked in to the protest # Not In My Name. It culminated into a protest Music Concert.

  
Image Courtesy: Dhruv Sangari, FB


Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times

                                                                                      
    
Image Courtesy: FB

In Mumbai, actors Konkana Sen, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin, Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi and many others braved the heavy rains to attend the protest. It rained and pured except for a brief lull of 35 minutes during the two hour protest but the 400 plus band of supporters stood in the rain, at the Carter Road promenade and protested.  In Lucknow, protesters are seen sporting black armbands. In Kolkatta activists and celebrities like Aparna Sen were seen together, protesting in anger and outrage.


Kolkatta, FB Image


Hyderabad, FB Image


Lucknow, FB

    

   
Yousuf Saeed, FB                                                                                         FB

 

Muslim Dairy Owner Thrashed. Believed Dead, House Set on Fire on ‘Suspicion’ of Cow Slaughter: Jharkand

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Muslim dairy owner, Ansari, beaten up, and is now believed to be dead after his house set on fire in Jharkhand on suspicion of cow slaughter. The incident is the latest in a string of attacks, largely against Muslim and Dalits, reported from across the country in the name of cow protection.

The Indian Express and the Hindustan Times had reported the attack but the latest news coming in to Sabrangindia is that though 'he was supposed to have been removed to a safer location', he is in fact no more. The police claimed that 30 police personnel were injured as a frenzied crowd of around 1,000, including some self-appointed cow protectors, laid siege to 55-year-old Usman Ansari’s house in Giridih district’s Bariabad on Tuesday afternoon. According to the police version, Usman Ansari at Beria Hatiatand village in Deori area, nearly 200 km from Ranchi, was brutally attacked on Tuesday, June 27 after some people spotted the carcass of a cow.

But Tanveer Ahmed, senior activist from Ranchi told Sabrangindia that the victim Usman Ansari is feared dead though the police claims he has been moved to a 'safe location.' ADG (Operations) RK Mullick told the Indian Express that “The mob was highly charged and nearly 50 of our men sustained injuries in the stone-pelting. The situation has been brought under control,”  Over 200 security personnel, including senior officers, have been deployed at the spot.

   

The incident is the latest in a string of attacks, extremely vicious largely against Muslim and Dalits, reported from across the country in the name of cow protection.
Junaid, a Haryana teenager was lynched allegedly by his co-passengers in a train on June 22 after an argument. The crowd allegedly called him and his two brothers, who were injured, as beef-eaters.The Centre has restricted cattle trade and several BJP-ruled states have come up with stringent punishment for smuggling or slaughtering cows, considered holy by Hindus.
The opposition and right activists have accused the BJP of pursuing the Hindutva agenda of its ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Singh and targeting Muslims and Dalits through its cattle-trade rules.

Jharkand has seen a spate of brutal killings, lynchings since March 2016 when Mazlum Ansari and his nephew Imtiyaz were lynched and hung to die. Thereafter too there have been a series of attacks, assaults and killings. The last one was last friday after the Alvida Namaz on the Friday before Eid, on June 23 when 24 year old Mohammad Salman was allegedly shot dead by a posse of policeman. One arms guard is even under arrest after confessing to the crime. The National Commission of Minorities (NCM) even brought out a report on the deep rooted communal polarisation in Jharkand, even within the police force after the Latehar hangings.

In early April 2017, a Maulvi was brutally assaulted at Kodarma and thereafter in May 2017 rumours of child lifting had left many Muslims and some Hindus dead.

Protest the Unmaking of India: Writers Protest

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Nayantara Sahgal

"This is Hindutva's version of the Nazi 'final solution' for the Jews, but a cleverer version."
The Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha were twin souls. Both wanted a divided India. Jinnah achieved his desire in 1947. The followers of Golwalkar and Savarkar are now busy fulfilling theirs. The massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 gave the green light for Muslim-killing across the nation. The message was: it is all right to kill Muslims, better still to lynch them. Lynch mobs armed with knives now rule highways, stop trucks, board trains, break into houses. This is Hindutva's version of the Nazi "final solution" for the Jews, but a cleverer version. Liquidating a community en masse is not a good idea. It attracts worldwide condemnation. So do it in stages, here and there, individual murders that will soon be forgotten. Hindutva has converted this country into a hell where Indians are no longer safe from other Indians. An ideology that has not seen fit to check the blood thirst of its followers has lost the right to call itself Hindu.

This horror is compounded by blatant hypocrisy. Loud proclamations about wiping out Islamic terror are made at home and abroad, but Hindutva terror flourishes. Terror is inhuman in any circumstance, no matter who commits it, and this applies to the brutal lynching of Ayub Pandit, a policeman on duty, by fellow Kashmiris. Kashmir, so long a civilised example to the rest of India, should mourn this tragedy and reject violence as a solution to problems.

 

MSC Satya Sai, From the SAHMAT exhibition on The Making of India, 2004, Image courtesy SAHMAT.

Adil Jussawalla

"Whether the killers are two or three individuals or part of a mob, their rage can't erupt without being fed by a manufactured fear of 'the other'."
‘Who are those "kuch log" who have chosen to spread fear and hatred among communities?' asks Rajdeep Sardesai in an article. Who indeed are they who brutally killed defenceless Junaid? Whether the killers are two or three individuals or part of a mob, their rage can't erupt without being fed by a manufactured fear of 'the other'. It's a cowardly fear that's spreading across the nation, and our hope, perhaps our only hope, is to fight it, not succumb to it.
 

Keki Daruwalla

“…the names of Akhlaque Ahmed and Junaid will go down in history as black marks against the current establishment.”
As a former Law officer, I can say confidently say that lynching signals a complete breakdown of both law and order. One of the state's main functions is to uphold law and maintain order. Regrettably right wing politicos, both within the government and without, have let us down. The lynch gangs think they have the government behind them, and the implicit sanction of the lumpen elements of the majority community at large. The right wing does not realise that the names of Akhlaque Ahmed and Junaid will go down in history as black marks against the current establishment.

 
Jerry Pinto

“Vigilantism can only result in the brutalisation of our public sphere…”
We all have the right to walk the streets and expect the law to protect us. We all have the right to expect that we will reach home safe and sound and if we are suspected of wrongdoing, we have the right to be taken to the police station. Vigilantism can only result in the brutalisation of our public sphere; and of us all, those who wield its terrible weapon included.
 

Chaman Lal

“It is a continuation of the violent Hindutva project…”
The latest incident of lynching of a 16-year-old old student, Junaid, by a Hindutva-charged mob is deeply disturbing. It is a continuation of the violent Hindutva project despite the resistance of civil society. Our writers / cultural activists’ protest by award wapsi has been ridiculed rather than appreciated as the best possible protest in a democracy. We need to appeal to the  community of writers around the world as was done during the Franco regime in Spain in 1937. People, including writers, must come forward and join mass protests everywhere in the world to pressurise the fascist regime of India to take action against such mobs, and desist from patronising and defending them in the name of the Cow!
 

Danish Husain

“This is a battle… for appropriating everything this country stands for…” 
This is a battle for resources, for appropriating everything this country stands for; and the RSS-BJP is doing it in the ugliest way — by dividing this country, and excluding any and everyone who do not believe in their regressive, bigotry-laden ideas.
 

Ganesh Devy

“…shocking, brutal, most unfortunate for a civilized nation.”
 

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

Modi and Trump – Politics of Hate and Jingoism Meet in US

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Narendra Modi's meeting with Donald Trump was nothing more than a publicity stunt.


Image Courtesy: Carlos Barria/Reuters

India's Narendra Modi  is back in Washington, DC. In India , the prime minister is known for his travels around the world. He is rarely home. No amount of chaos in the country, not even the epidemic of violence against oppressed castes and Muslims by lynch mobs, could keep Mr Modi home. He has more important concerns than the turmoil experienced by his citizens.

Meeting US President Donald Trump  is an important sign of being a world leader. Modi's base – which sees him as a strong man – is enamoured by the idea of their leader sitting with Trump. After all, they are both strong men who have nothing but contempt for weakness. Both easily shrug off domestic chaos. Both leave details to others to care for. They see themselves as visionaries, as a new breed of nationalists who represent the hatred of large sections of their citizenry. It is hate that brought them both to power. It is hate that anchors their agenda.

For nine years – from 2005 to 2014 – Modi was banned from entering the United States . Allegations of his complicity in the 2002 pogroms against Muslims in his home state of Gujarat drew a sharp response from the US government. It decided to deny him a visa, a policy that was overturned when Modi became prime minister.

He visited the US in 2014  and had a private dinner with then US President Barack Obama  at the White House. It was full-scale rehabilitation. Modi then returned each year – holding a public meeting at Facebook's headquarters in 2015 and addressing a joint session of the US Congress in 2016. The current visit is his fourth since he won the Indian general election in 2014.

Both Obama and Trump have been eager to fete Modi. They have recognised that in the current political climate in India, he and his political party – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – are going to be around for a while and will perhaps win the 2019 elections as well. From the US perspective, Modi has to be engaged, so the allegations of his complicity in the Gujarat riots  are irrelevant. Pragmatism means that morality can be set aside.
 

The politics of hate and the economy of weapons

Not only do Modi and Trump lead movements anchored in hate, but they also appeal to an old-fashioned form of nationalism. Both tell their people that policies are all about getting the best deal possible. And this is where both men will face problems. Despite all the warm words about a new Indo-US arrangement over the past two decades, great divergences exist over actual policies.

Indian governments since 1991 sold out their agrarian sector to US-based agro-businesses, leading to great agrarian distress. The subsequent financial pressure on small farms and various environmental catastrophes led to more than 300,000 farmers  committing suicide. 

What Modi can do for Trump is buy more US weapons. 

The pushback against these gifts to US agro-business means that Modi cannot bend further to please the Trump administration's trade ambitions. Nor would Modi's Make In India  initiative go well with a long-standing US desire to open India's markets to US retail giants such as Walmart. 

Modi would like to do all he can to please the Americans, but he would be met with a million mutinies within his own governing bloc if he does so. Nationalism is a curious device. It can easily give you votes, but it also raises the expectations of your voters.
But what Modi can do for Trump is buy more US weapons. India is the world's largest importer of weapons, while the US is the world's largest seller of weapons.

It is of course a vulgarity that India – where 50 percent of the population lives in deprivation – spends so much of its budget on weapons. But today it is how the government chooses its priorities – ignoring the pressing needs of its population in order to service Western arms dealers.

Nationalism is no enemy to defence spending. Just before Modi's trip to the US, his government sealed a deal to buy 22 US Predator drones at a price of $2bn. Trump surely liked that. He likes to brag about such deals. That it will be the impoverished Indian population paying for it is irrelevant to both heads of state. How 22 drones will help alleviate poverty is something that no reporter could have asked them at their joint news conference. Such a question would have been too vulgar.
But apart from this arms deal that came before Modi arrived in the US, little else was accomplished during Modi's visit.

During his meeting with Trump, Modi avoided explaining how his protectionist policies would accommodate balancing the trade deficit between the US and India. Trump, on the other hand, dodged the question on pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, which Modi so adamantly supports.

The two men – pickled in the politics of hate – got to know one another and nothing more.

There was a great deal of back-slapping, mutual praise and displays of machismo. There was a great deal of bragging and making big promises.

This is something that Modi and Trump share: empty rhetoric delivered with no care that policies will not follow. Drama is everything. Publicity matters the most.

A modified version of this article was originally published in Al Jazeera.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

 

Memories Buried Deep have come back to Haunt Me: Aruna Roy

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I was born a year before independence, and my parents and I lived in Delhi. I still bear the scars of those memories of partition- the brutality of killings , hatred, anguish and my father's fearless forays and his confrontation of the mobs, my mother's anxieties ….. household stories for me. When I was 3 I saw pictures of the holocaust. The two horrors were born of genocidal politics. 

Aruna Roy

 
I do not know how  my generation can be quiet, and party to a politics born of hate and revenge, it has seen a lot. No matter how we judge Gandhi today, let us not forget that he stood fearlessly, daring to bring reason to this madness. He died for it. Today those who tacitly approved of the assassination rule us. 
 
We have to fight harder than ever to get sanity back. This is not a BJP vs Congress debate, or a 1984 vs 2002 argument. All genocidal killings have to be condemned. We have to speak for compassion, humanity and for India. It is the land of the Buddha and of seers and poets, of Kabir, the sufis, bhakti poetry , of Ramana and Ramakrishna, of Moinudding Chisthi and guru Nanak, its also the land where Thomas the apostle landed fleeing from persecution in the 1st century, where the Zoroastrians found shelter. It is also the land which gave space to Ramaswami Naicker, the whole stream of questioning caste, Phule and Ambedkar.
 
The persistent attacks are more than worrying. I see in these actions  a baiting of the Muslims, to provoke them to retaliate ; so that once some are provoked, we can bring in the bogey of Islamic terrorism to manage a huge concerted attack. This will lead to a state of permanent violence and the India we know will soon disintegrate in every way, which way. In short I am worried and very anxious. 
 

My bottom line is that I am not willing to keep quiet where my principles and my country are being torn asunder. I will speak and do whatever I can. I am glad that this group exists, amongst others, and a realisation is dawning on us that every voice matters – small or big, from wherever it may come – to bring sanity back to our battered public life and space.

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