On a wintry February evening, along a narrow road leading to a village nestled in the East Khasi Hills in India’s north-east, some children are playfully running around with branches of dry trees. A bunch of Khasi children fire-fighters watch on, as the flames erupt in a slash and burn episode. Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, Author provided
Smoke hangs in the cold air. Around another winding turn on the road, a fire in the forest comes into sight. A local farmer is burning the undergrowth of the land he owns, employing the traditional slash-and-burn cultivation method. This method, also known as swidden agriculture is referred to locally as jhum cultivation and has been prevalent across South and Southeast Asia for centuries.
The dry winter months of January, February and March sees scores of such fires crackling their way through forests, across all states of north-east India.
This fire-fallow farming method helps fix potash in the soil, thereby increasing its fertility. As I stop to watch the fire spread through the forest undergrowth, a spectacular sight, the children come and join me. Only later do I realise that they were not just playing around, they were there as fire-fighters.
Somewhere in the Khasi Hills, bordering Bangladesh, smoke envelops the forest. Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, Author provided
I asked the farmer about his land. He explained that he plans to grow pineapples after the soil is prepared. The pineapples of Meghalaya are one of the sweetest and juiciest in northeast India. This forest land lies along an arterial road connecting villages near the border with Bangladesh. Livelihoods in these villages are sustained by farming privately owned plots of land or community-owned forests adjoining the village. The major crops are betel nuts and leaves, pineapple, jackfruit, oranges, bay leaves, bamboo, tapioca and honey.
As the fire quickly spread through the forest, the farmer called upon the children to begin their fire-fighting activities. The goal is not to allow the fire to spread to the adjoining plot of land. The children get busy brandishing the branches they had been playing with at the edge of the plot. They rush into small nooks and corners to effectively contain the fire and put it out.
The children assigned with firefighting tasks, watch patiently as the fire spreads. Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, Author provided
The fire controlled, the land is spread with ash and dotted with embers emanating smoke. Not too dangerous an activity for children to perform? I ask the farmer. He shrugs, saying that it is normal. The children need to learn the ways of the forest, of preparing the land for cultivation. They need to know how to conserve water in the dry season and deal with turbulent streams in the monsoon, manage fire and be aware of its implications, and assess wind directions from an early age.
He explains that his community, the War-Khasi, a sub-tribe of the Khasi, has lived off the land for time immemorial.
Their traditional knowledge systems and means of farming have to be passed on to the next generation. The children are experts at their task and seem to be enjoying the fire-fighting.
As the fire reaches the edge, some try taking photographs with mobile phones. Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, Author provided
Central government agencies and the state government departments concerned with agriculture have been waging a war against such practices. International agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are pushing local governments to regulate the practice.
Pilot projects have been initiated to counsel farmers to alternate management of farming practices, for example using conservation agriculture in neighbouring Nagaland.
But when I ask about the government’s policy, the farmer points out that this is the only method he knows, and that it has stood the test of time.
The children get on with their frantic brandishing task to prevent the fire from spreading further. Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman
In 2010, Yale anthropologist and South-East Asian specialist James Scott argued that the “art of not being governed”, has been integral to the communities of north-east India for centuries. Scott wrote that such upland hill communities had long managed to remain “ungoverned”, avoid taxes, and escape slavery and indentured labour conditions.
Under this system, jhum was one of the preferred mechanisms to keep people moving from one part of their hills to another. This allowed such hill communities to skirt around land tenure systems and effectively kept governance and the state at bay.
In the present day, however, communities do not move as much, and the intervening cycles of cultivating the same plot of land has become shorter. The traditional practice of slash and burn continues to be employed, even if not many crops are planted in the same plot of land.
In this instance, the farmer explains that he will grow mostly pineapples, which will be interspersed with betel nut, jackfruit and bay leaf trees. There will be broom grass as well in his land, which he does not need to grow, and which is an intensely invasive species. He laments that it consumes a lot of water and degrades the land faster, but is a very lucrative cash crop in the region, used to make brooms.
The children manage to get into small nooks and corners to extinguish the fire. Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, Author provided
Slowly but surely, because of a rise in the demands and pressures of the market economy and greater market connectivity, monoculture – only growing one crop – has become the norm on many plots of land, badly affecting biodiversity.
Elsewhere in north-east India, the state of Mizoram has seen the slow and steady march of oil palm plantations. The state government supports such programmes under its New Land Use Policy.
Kolasib in north Mizoram was declared an “oil palm district” in 2014. Monocultures such as rubber and other cash crops have been promoted in the hill areas by various land use schemes of the government over the past decade.
This will have a direct impact on small hill communities and local food diversity and sustainability. It is important to assess the impact of the loss of slash-and-burn method of cultivation on indigenous cultures, livelihoods and on the larger environment.
James Scott points out that swidden cultivation is on the decline across South and Southeast Asia. However, we need to examine the stories of the existence of such fire-fallow methods. Can the slash-and-burn methods continue to exist and prosper, and under what conditions? What would the future hold for such farm practices? The clash between traditional knowledge systems and modern land governance systems could prevent the sharing of knowledge between generations, and the symbiotic link that locals have with their ecology and environment.
A community-based understanding of ecology and environment is needed to bring environmental politics and developmental debates in north-east India back to the people. For now, fires continue to rage among competing development models over what constitutes long-term sustainability.
The day after, the forest land cleared and prepared for the next cropping cycle. Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, Author provided
In June last year, Rajini Krish (real name Muthu Krishnan) met Radhika Vemula, mother of Rohith Vemula and inspiration for all of us in the struggle for social justice and inclusive campuses. He recalls his meeting with Rohith Vemula and highlights the relentless struggle. We are reproducing his writing from his personal blog: DALITerature
It was 2 p.m in the afternoon, and, as usual, I was in the library. That day I was fasting with my brothers Mir and John. I was thinking of participating in a relay hunger strike with our professors at the velivada. Arpita had told me that Radhika amma is coming to support the relay hunger strike of Professors Rathnam and Tathagata. I do not know why, I strongly felt that I should meet Radhika amma that day. For the past six months she has been besieged with all kinds of challenges. Problems with health and the opposition from the government and the party in power. It was the 153rd day and I have been sleeping less and less. I have been disturbed with the memories of our beloved, “special guy” like Sudipto says, Mr. Rohith Vemula Chakravarthy. I try to spend all the time reading and learning to write in English. And sometimes work to implement the decisions of the JAC – UOH.
On June 17. The same date (January) Rohith went to the stars. I stepped out of the HCU main gate and parked my cycle at the bus stop. The site for the relay hunger strike was situated right in front of the substitute main gate. As far as I remember, the gate was never opened. Slowly I walked towards velivada. To the left there was a tiny platform on which the people supporting the hunger strike sat. Professor Ramudu, who had just resigned from an administrative post, was among them. First, I wished all of them with a smile. Then I looked at the unopened main gate, it was surrounded by unwanted plants, and went inside the tent. Along with the relay hunger strike banner, a blue coloured poster was hanging with slogans “Arrest Apparao Podile” and “Revoke Illegal Suspension” and “Apply SC/ST PoA Act” etc. Everybody sat on a jute mat. There was no power for audio facilities, so the organizers managed to take it from Prof. Joby’s Wagon R battery. The cable from the car went above the jute mat.
Radhika amma, mother of Rohith anna, was sitting there, but there was no space next to her. I awaited for five minutes and chatted with Ramji and Raja anna. Ratnam sir and Tathagat sir were engaged in a discussion with some social organization leaders from outside, about the future plan of action. Both the professors were wearing a blue coloured T-shirt, Ambedkar’s face sketched on it in white color, which amma offered them to wear. Ratnam sir was explaining everything in English, and in Telugu for Radhika amma. By that time I found a place near Radhika amma, I sat along with her.
For few minutes I was admiring amma. What if she was my mother. Amma was sitting sideways, with her right hand on the chin. She was keenly listening to Ratnam sir’s speech. She was wearing a saree with a mix of black, light green and white colours, with black dots and a design of white flowers. Her hair had a lot of newly grown white hair. She was wearing red color bangles on her hands. In front of her there was a garland, which they offered for hunger strike participants. It was the fourth day of relay hunger strike after the suspension of two faculties. While looking at her tired tailoring foot, I asked amma, “How is your health amma? Did you come from Guntur?”. She said “yes babu”. Then she asked me “Have you met Rohith?”
I said “Yes amma, I met him one day before his demise.” It was around 8.PM. Rohith was sitting on the cement bench that is now on the left side of the velivada. One of the tent ropes is tied to the corner of that bench. He was looking at his mobile phone. We used to call each other Anna. We both asked each other, “Anna, have you had dinner?” Rohith said, “I will have it later anna”. He was wearing a blue and grey coloured jerkin. After that we spoke about the movement and he said “Our first stage of democratic protest is vellivada, later we will go for hunger strike etc.” I said, “Then I will also join with you anna, and he said “Thank you, anna”. I said goodnight and left.
The next day I was sitting at the shop com and from there I saw the Health Centre ambulance entering into the C hostel road. I thought somebody might have had some serious health problem. Thereafter I have seen two Innova police cars. Then I thought may be there was a clash. But suddenly a mob rushed towards the C hostel road and towards the NRS hostel. Then our friends thought that somebody might have attempted suicide. Two of my friends went on the bike to check out. They came with the sad news that Rohith killed himself. Then we all went to the NRS hostel, where we saw Rohith’s body on the freezer.
I did not want to hurt her by recalling Rohith’s memories. I remembered myself with Rohith. I met Rohith six times. First time, I met Rohith at the south-campus shop com during a protest rally from the north campus. He was wearing a light gray color shirt, while me and prashanth was in a black shirt. He was enthusiastically raising slogans. That time I wondered why I never raised slogans. May be the language barrier, I told myself. But I was amazed with his leadership skills.
Second time I met Rohith was near the NRS mess on the way to Dickens room. Rohith was coming from opposite side. “Anna, very soon we are going to organize a GBM, so please do come and bring our friends. And take some responsible post this time,” he told me. I said, “Anna, our people are working hard but why are we not winning?”. I remembered the 2013 Students Union elections. Rohith said, “No anna, this time surely we are going to win. We will continue our hard work, and our life is always a struggle. People are watching who is really helping the student community.” That was the time the ASA fought for early entrance examination and had debated with the VC to bring out the waiting list candidates for admission. It was exactly three months before the victory of Vincent Benny as the President of the Students Union in 2014.
The third time I met Rohith was at the Masjid Banda roundabout with brother Ramji. Rohith and I smiled at each other. He said, “Anna, tomorrow we have a GBM, so please come. The last time you did not come”. I said, “It is ok anna, you seniors decide, I will accept and agree whatever the decision”. Rohith said, “No, no anna, this time we have changed the approach. Everybody should participate and we will democratically elect our association body, please come”. But there was a rumour I heard from people that many of them and me too,wanted brother Ramji as the ASA president. I simply congratulated brother Ramji and left from there.
After that for quite a long time I did not meet Rohith. I was busy with my course work and semester exams. I was not even aware of their suspension. Meanwhile I met brother Seshu at the SSB canteen while he was having breakfast. I asked seshu anna, “Why are you having breakfast here anna? Is the mess card closed or you got up late?” Then Seshu Anna told me, “Arey, we got suspended, you don’t know?” He told me the names of the other four suspended brothers. After a week, one day before the “Occupy HCU admin”, I was going to the library via shop com. From velivada, Prasanth called me first. Sunkanna and Vijay anna were sitting on the bench nearby. Rohith was sitting inside the vellivada. Munna was standing next to him. Munna gave me a bunch of pamphlets to distribute in the library. First time I had seen the name in black bold letters: “Joint Action Committee For Social Justice”. I told Munna that we don’t need so many for the library. I took some pamphlets and I was not really interested. Suddenly Rohith said, “Anna, we have to struggle wholeheartedly, otherwise we cannot revoke this illegal suspension.” Immediately I took some more pamphlets and on the way I read it and distributed those in the library and the reading room. That was the fourth time I met Rohith.
After a fortnight, I was coming to my room from the library, around 11.45 pm. On the way to my hostel, I crossed shopcom, and from the road I saw two guys sleeping inside the velivada. There was no light at the shopcom. But there was a ray of light coming from the ATM that covered the shop com. I went to the velivada and found Seshu anna and Rohith sleeping. Those two were struggling with mosquitoes. Seshu anna was fully covered with bed sheet, while Rohith was not. Rohith slightly moved his body, and slapped the mosquito on his left face and arms. Rohith was trying to find who I am, three time he looked at me and the last time he silently whispered, “goodnight”, and I too wished the same and went away.
The sixth time was also the last time I had met him. At least once everyday I remember this. And I can feel the pain of an innocent mother. Because my mother used to say, “For our community, boys are the wealth. They are going to study and earn and help, not only their family but our community as a whole.”Dear anti-nationals, this country killed the son of an innocent mother. They said “Bharat Mata has lost her son”. But they hurt the mother by questioning her caste and identity. Can she really support their nationalism after this injustice?
Dear anti-nationals, let me tell you, one day this nation’s leader is going to sell all. Just for a selfie and for a standing ovation from the outsiders. Hundreds and hundreds of Dappa Rao’s are going to kill thousands of Rohiths and they are going to say, “He/She was a gifted student”. All the intellectuals from the marginalised communities will get arrested just for mocking fictional characters. At the same time, all the leading national institutes will be headed by people who cannot even clear the 10th standard exam. These people claim dissenters as anti-nationals and seditious. They are going to kill many Rohiths, like us, just for eating beef, for being rational, for being intellectually productive for the country. But we are the real sons of this land and after we are all killed, there will be no nation.
What are you waiting for to support an innocent mother?
Let us all, students from all over the world, become Radhika amma’s Rohith by supporting this anti-caste movement. Let us fight together to help the helpless mother. The mother of this universe.
Is the recent judgment an implication of thought policing?
Interviewed by Pranjal , Produced by Newsclick Production
Newsclick spoke to Gautam Navlakha on the recent court judgment which convicted Professor G.N. Saibaba and 5 others for alleged links with Maoists. The 6 were booked under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The UAPA has proven to be a deeply regressive legislation that has, and will continue to be used to promulgate police abuse of civil rights of Indian citizens. According to Gautam Navlakha, the arrest of Prof. Saibaba just on the basis of his ideology is a ban on ideas and is thought policing.
The new government in Punjab, which takes oath on March 16, 2017, faces multiple challenges in the state, with slow economic growth, high youth unemployment, high drug addiction among youth, and large dropouts before secondary school.
Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh addresses a press conference after his party won the assembly elections with 77 out of 117 seats, up from 46 in 2012.
On March 11, 2017, the Congress party led by Captain Amarinder Singh won the Punjab elections with 77 out of 117 seats, up from 46 in 2012. Seats won by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the party in power from 2012-17, reduced from 56 to 15.
In 2014-15, Punjab had a per capita income of Rs 96,638, which is likely to increase 5% to Rs 101,498 in 2015-16, according to advance estimates, but this rise does not reflect a host of economic and social problems, as IndiaSpendreported in January 2017.
As the new Congress government takes charge, here is a look at some of the major issues in Punjab, India’s 11th richest state, and the solutions laid out by the Congress in its election manifesto.
Slow agricultural growth
The rate of agriculture growth in the state declined over nine years, from 0.95% in 2005-06 to -3.4% in 2014-15, according to Punjab government data, affecting 6.3 million people of the working population engaged in agriculture, according to the 2011 Census.
Although Punjab is likely to have recorded a higher agricultural growth rate in 2015-16 than the national agricultural growth rate, average farm sizes have fallen from 3.9 hectares to 3.7 hectares over five years from 2005-06 to 2010-11, according to 2010-11 Agricultural Census data. Many youth are no longer interested in farming, as this 2016 study in the Asia Pacific Journal of Research observed.
Lack of research and development and the inability to exploit irrigation facilities and boost yields are issues that lead to agriculture to grow slower than it could, according to the Economic Survey 2015-16 of Punjab.
What the manifesto said” For higher agricultural growth, the Congress manifesto said it would continue to provide free power to farmers, improve agricultural product markets, support the development of new high-yielding varieties of seeds, improve the canal irrigation system, incentivise farmers to invest in crop diversification, promote food processing industries, set up modern warehouses for produce, cold storage and better transport infrastructure for agricultural produce.
The manifesto also proposes several other programs, including a direct transfer of agricultural subsidies to reduce leakage, and increasing compensation for crop failure to Rs 20,000 per acre.
High youth unemployment
In Punjab, the unemployment rate among youth–the proportion of the labour force between 18 and 29 years that is unemployed–is 16.6% while the Indian average is 10.2%. Punjab also has India’s eighth-highest rural youth unemployment rate.
Increasing mechanisation of agriculture and the lack of required skills to work in information technology firms have left Punjab’s rural educated youth in a limbo, according to this 2014 paper by the Economic and Political Weekly.
As many as 18,770 factories closed between 2007 and 2014, when the SAD was in power, the Hindustan Times reported on February 3, 2014, quoting right-to-information data obtained by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Samiti (Punjab state congress committee): 8,053 factories closed in Amritsar, and no new industries were started in Tarn Taran, Moga, Rupar and Mansa districts, according to the data.
Increasing subsidies–and hence a shortage of money for government investment–has been cited as a key reason for Punjab’s declining growth rate, according to this 2012 commentary by the CATO Institute, an American think tank based in Washington DC.
Populist policies, such as free electricity to farmers, could also be responsible for slowdowns, the Wall Street Journalreported in May 2011. The Congress manifesto said it would continue to provide free electricity to farmers.
Inflated land prices due to restrictive laws, neglect of higher education due to emphasis on agriculture, investment rates below the national average since the 1990s and corruption are other reasons for slow industrial growth in Punjab, according to this 2012 paper by the CATO Institute.
What the manifesto said: The Congress manifesto said the government will provide ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgaar’, a job in every household. For this, it proposes to revive small and medium scale industrial clusters such as hosiery, textiles, sports goods, electronics, wood work, electrical, hand-tools, light machinery parts, while aggressively pursuing global and domestic investors to set up units in Punjab. The manifesto said the government would select companies based on the employment opportunities for the youth of Punjab.
It also promises an unemployment allowance of Rs 2,500 per month to all unemployed, until these jobs can be created.
To attract industry, the manifesto promises electricity at Rs 5 per unit, subsidised water and a sewerage facility. It also suggests a revamp of the excise, taxation policy, and administration to check corruption.
Deep and spiralling drug problem
There are nearly 230,000 opioid dependent and 860,000 opioid users in Punjab, according to the 2015 Punjab Opioid Dependence Survey, conducted by researchers from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Society of Promotion of Youth and Masses, a non-profit working towards prevention of drug abuse.
While 80% of addicts tried to quit, no more than 35% received professional help. Opioid dependents spent Rs 1,400 per day on drugs or an estimated Rs 7,575 crore state-wide every year, and drug use is linked with poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, as IndiaSpend reported in February 2017.
What the manifesto said: The Congress manifesto suggests a ‘Zero tolerance policy’. It proposes ‘permanent cure, perfect rehabilitation’ through a new legislation for the speedy trial of those who engage in the drug trade, and confiscation of their property, along with a policy of rehabilitation for those who ‘have been wrecked by this evil’. Anyone who registers themselves at a district de-addiction centre will be treated free of cost, and receive training so that they can earn their livelihood.
It also proposes to increase economic productivity with higher investment to create large-scale employment for youngsters. Finally, it proposes an overhaul of the education policy so that the youth can benefit from India’s growing economy.
The neglect of primary education, and Punjab’s drop-out problem
Female literacy rate increased 11 percentage points from 70.7% in 2011 to 81.4% in 2015-16, according to data from the National Family Health Survey, 2015-16. The male literacy rate saw a slower growth of seven percentage points, from 80.4% in 2011 to 87.5% in 2015-16.
But even though literacy and the general education budget rose, the average annual dropout rate at the primary level increased, from 1.3% in 2014-15 to 3.1% in 2015-16, according to District Information for System Education (DISE) data.
In Punjab, 84% of primary-age students were enrolled in primary school in 2015-16, but only half (51.6%) of secondary-age school students were enrolled in secondary school, according to the DISE data.
Though learning levels in the state are higher than many other Indian states, many students are left behind, and others don’t learn at the grade level. For instance, in 2016, in rural Punjab, less than half (48.7%) of grade III children surveyed in households could subtract, while as few as 35.2% could read a grade II level text.
Lack of classrooms, over-congestion of present ones and unavailability of basic electricity or drinking water are some reasons as to why students dropped out or cut classes, the Indian Express reported in May 2016.
What the manifesto said: The Congress manifesto lays out several provisions for improving education in the state, including spending 6% of the state’s gross domestic product on education, emphasis on early childhood care and education, promoting quality education, a digital education program, recruiting teachers in sufficient numbers, reducing their time spent on non-teaching related tasks, and providing free transportation to school for all students.
Weak healthcare system, low coverage of health insurance
Punjab faces a double burden of obesity and poor nutrition. Obesity among men (27.8%) and women (31.3%) increased by 5.6 and 1.4 percentage points, respectively, in the decade to 2015, putting more people than ever at risk of different non-communicable diseases, a situation the state’s healthcare system appears unprepared to deal with.
Simultaneously, the proportion of anaemic men doubled between 2005 (13.6%) and 2015 (25.9%), and anaemic women went up from 38% to 53.5%.
Wasting (low weight-for-height) among children has increased from 9.2% in 2005 to 15.6% in 2015, and one in four children is still stunted (low height-for-age), according to an analysis of the latest government data, by the Observer Research Foundation in February 2017.
Vacancies and absenteeism at Punjab’s public-health facilities make it difficult to improve health status through publicly provided healthcare, according to this 2014 Princeton University study. As a result, dependence on private healthcare facilities is high–83% for outpatient and 66% for inpatient–leading to Punjab having the highest average medical expenditure per episode of hospital admission in India.
What the manifesto said: The Congress manifesto promises compulsory health insurance for all, with premiums borne by the state government for those below 18 years and those above 60 years.
It also promises that primary and community health centres would be developed as multi-speciality hospitals with adequate medical and non-medical staff, while proposing to hire doctors every year to avoid a shortfall.
We welcome feedback. Please write to respond@indiaspend.org. We reserve the right to edit responses for language and grammar.
Mayawati, supremo of the Bahujan Samaj Party, has, after her party’s sub-par seat wins in the recently concluded elections to the UP state assembly, publicly voiced her suspicion of India’s electronic voting machines.
So has the Aam Aadmi Party, which was given a decent probability to notch its first win to a “proper” state assembly in Punjab. They have been warning about the possibility of EVM-tempering for a few months now.
With almost no exception, the mainstream news media, has condemned these suspicions as the habitual rants of sore losers. Even “neutral” commentators and those seen to be critical of Narendra Modi have made it a point to question the timing of the suspicions. “Why now, why not in all these years when other parties were winning elections through votes counted by the same EVMs?”, it’s being asked,
It’s good to be not let prejudice overcome objectivity. Being forgotten, however is the is the cold fact that no party has been so vociferous in its condemnation of India’s voting machines as the BJP.
In the late 2000s, a BJP-sponsored campaign, using local and foreign experts, custom-built NGOs and ‘think-tanks’ such as the Vivekananda Foundation. had highlighted the vulnerability of India’s EVMs to tampering, fraud and manipulation.
Part of the campaign was the book, “ Democracy At Risk! Can We Trust Our Electronic Voting Machines?”, authored by GVL Narasimha Rao with a foreword by LK Advani, and appreciative messages by Chandra Babu Naidu and voting systems expert Prof David Dill of Stanford University
The book is centred around a research paper by Hari Prasad, Rop Gonggrijp and J. Alex Halderman
Wikipedia lists Rop Gonggrijp as a hacker and founder of XS4ALL, a Dutch internet services provider that sponsors and hosts the sites of many free software projects, like Python, Squirrelmail and Debian.
Alex Halderman is Professor of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Michigan, specialising in computer privacy and security,
And Hari Prasad? He is founder of NetIndia. a Hyderabad-based “IP Surveillance & Streaming Systems & Solutions” company .
Hari Prasad was arrested in August 2010 for allegedly stealing an EVM from the Mumbai Collector’s office..Hari Prasad said that the EVM was given to him by an anonymous source to test for security vulnerabilities. It was accepted by one and all, including the EC, that the EVM he and the other experts took apart was 100% genuine.
Among his vocal and ferocious defenders was Subramanian Swamy.
Hari Prasad’s mug shot is also present on the home page of VeTA,
The home page of VeTA, www.indianevm.com. describes VeTA as “an independent national level Citizens’ Forum for promoting Verifiability, Transparency and Accountability in Indian Elections. The Forum is a civil society initiative involving some of the best known computer experts, political scientists, public activists, administrators, academicians, legal professionals etc.”
Hari Prasad is listed on the site as the Technical Coordinator of VeTA.
VeTA is headed by GVL Narasimha Rao, a current BJP spokesperson.
Bottomline: If there is one party in India that has a first hand understanding of the vulnerability of our EVMs, it is the BJP, because senior members of the party have been closely involved with the ‘expert’ who managed to steal, according to the EC, an original EVM.
To be fair to the BJP, they took their job of being India’s main opposition party in Parliament seriously. They went to town with their findings. Subsequently, the Supreme Court, in 2012, directed the EC to upgrade the EVMs to include a paper trail. The Court’s exact words: “From the materials placed by both the sides, we are satisfied that the “paper trail” is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections. The confidence of the voters in the EVMs can be achieved only with the introduction of the “paper trail”. EVMs with VVPAT system ensure the accuracy of the voting system. With an intent to have fullest transparency in the system and to restore the confidence of the voters, it is necessary to set up EVMs with VVPAT system because vote is nothing but an act of expression which has immense importance in democratic system.” https://indiankanoon.org/doc/113840870/
GVL Naramsimha Rao had stated in his book that “the distrust among political leaders of all hues in voting machines is so high that most losers are wondering if they had been unfairly defeated in polls. It is about time India shunned paperless voting to make its election outcomes verifiable and auditable.”
In LS2104, VVPATs were piloted in 8 of 543 constituencies. No complaints were reported. In one of them, Mizoram, an independent won
The recently held Punjab assembly elections saw VVPATs used in 33 of the 117 constituencies. Reports were that 35% paper-trail machines encounter technical snags
VVPATs were reported to have been used in all of Goa’s assembly constituencies. .No gripes reported there.
It is being hoped that, at the very least, VVPATs will be used in the coming Delhi municipal elections.
Will the VVPATs make our election outcomes more verifiable and auditable? If one goes by the concerns originally raised by the BJP in 2010, no.
According to Wikipedia,
The introduction of malicious software into a VVPAT system can cause it to intentionally misrecord the voter’s selections. This attack could minimize detection by manipulating only a small percentage of the votes or for only lesser known races.
Another security concern is that a VVPAT could print while no voter is observing the paper trail, a form of ballot stuffing. Even if additional votes were discovered through matching to the voters list, it would be impossible to identify legitimate ballots from fraudulent ballots.
Alternatively the printer could invalidate the printed record after the voter leaves and print a new fraudulent ballot. These ballots would be undetectable as invalidated ballots are quite common during elections.]Also, VVPAT systems that are technically able to reverse the paper feed could be open to manipulated software overwriting or altering the VVPAT after the voter checks it.
Most important, while VVPAT is designed to serve as a check on DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) vote recorders, it relies on the same proprietary programming and electronics to produce the audit trail.
With the EC refusing to move from its old position of getting the manufacturers ECIL and BEL to self-certify the old EVMs as well the recently introduced VVPATs, it seems that the only way to get India’s voting system to be audited and tested is through the courts and public demonstrations.
Now that the BJP is comfortably in government, it has no incentive to restart old fights. Its control over a none-secure system, the vulnerabilities of which it knows too well, gives it a competitive advantage. The Congress and the other major parties, especially the regional parties, either do not have the stomach for a fight or have made peace with whatever crumbs are thrown their way.
That leaves the AAP, the TMC, the communist parties to speak up. If they don’t, it up to us citizens. Our democratic freedoms, which our founding fathers fought so hard to win and establish, cannot be held hostage to any party, ideology, or “constitutional authority”
Bastar Solidarity Network, Mumbai organised the book release of “Bearing Witness:Sexual Violence in South Chhatisgarh” on 10th March 2017. The book has been brought out by Women against Sexual violence and State repression (WSS).
Dr. Ilina Sen, academician and activist released the book. While releasing the book she said that it would be naive to examine cases of violence in South Chhatisgarh independent of the resource presence there. Mineral deposits in the state, in most cases, intersect with traditional settlements of adivasis, and therefore places their eviction by the state, as an inevitable. The adivasis, in most of these cases, have displayed enormous courage, resisting the corporations, the governments and the vigilante groups. Hence the unforeseen and totally unjust presence and multiplication of violence. We have some of the richest corporations of the world—international as well as national—allying with the governments to annihilate the people and their ways of life. There are multiple forms of resistance that includes cultural forms as well, through which the people speak for themselves. The alliance between the corporations and the state and central governments is now quite obvious, and the onus is on all of us to critique, resist and extend solidarities towards the people.
Pushpa Rokde, who works with the Dainik Prakhar Samachar in Chhatisgarh is the only adivasi woman journalist from Bastar. She was one of the firsts to report the cases of rapes and atrocities by security forces in Bijapur in 2015. She spoke about the challenges of being an adivasi and a journalist. She spoke about how the state and the police view her as being pro maoist or going to meet maoists whenever she goes in the interior areas of Chhatisgarh to cover stories. She mentioned how the situation has deteriorated due to increasing numbers of fake encounters. Because of this fear, she said that men were afraid of taking ailing women to hospitals for fear of being killed midway. She said that Adivasis are truthful and have called encounters fake only when innocent people were killed. She said that the state has intimidated those journalists who have chosen to speak the truth.
Shreya K, a WSS activist, placed sexual violence within the larger history of violence of all forms in Chhattisgarh, which peaked between 2005 and 2009 where the Salwa Judum was in active operation. She asserted the presence of a pattern in terms of specific acts—unwanted touch on various body parts and especially sexual organs, pilfering of chickens, taking away money and so on—in areas filled with security forces. The incoming of forces has been continuing in newer forms post the Supreme Court banishment of the Salwa Judum, therefore contributing towards the manifold increase in multifarious instances of violence and sexual assault in particular. It has to be noted, she said, that one could derive identical patterns if one were to examine three factors in the state—the flow of government forces, constancy of violence and the presence of natural resources eyed by mining corporations. We’ve always been able to read the presence of sexual violence into incidents of warfare—where the inequality of power across spectrums are maximum, making justice an almost impossible end. Instances of sexual violence are seldom reported (due to the insistence of taboos), and if reported, the due process is seldom begun. Shreya spoke poignantly about the emotional and physical pain many victims she’d met had suffered, and one of the most important acts we could do, she said, is to bear witness, and hence the launch of the book.
Adv. Yug Mohit Choudhary, human rights lawyer, underlined the vulnerabilities to which people working in the state of Chhattisgarh— lawyers, journalists, academicians—are exposed, certainly caused by the absence of the rule of law. The instances of injustice and violence seems to be ever present in the state—and bearing witness to these events of urgency is a duty we all are responsible to. He examined an event that occurred in a village called Sarkeguda, in Chhattisgarh, in particular—where 17 villagers were killed by CRPF forces on 28 June 2012. The case, after analyses reveals stark violation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s)—wherein there are evidences of gunshots at the back, head injuries, bodies shot when they were kneeling and incise wounds—which clearly indicate possible torture and fictitious encounters. The case is still undergoing a Judicial Commission Enquiry, awaiting justice, he said. He ended by highlighting that there is consistent lying from the side of the state, and this denial of truth seems to be the status quo. We should, he said, together think of strategies as a collective—to give and bear witness.
The three speakers were followed by the presentation of a few video documents from the state—recorded in 2016—recording state violence against the adivasis in Chhattisgarh, collected by Women Against Sexual Violence and Repression (WSS).
A photo exhibition on Bastar by renowned photographer Javed Iqbal was exhibited on the occasion. This was followed by a question-answer session with the speakers, and the session ended with a few cultural programme.
The 2017 Dutch election has taken on a significance for the international media that we haven’t seen for a long time here in the Netherlands.
Yves Herman/Reuters
Placed in the context of other European elections in France and Germany this spring and summer, the elections in the Netherlands are now often perceived as the first step in a populist revolution which has been shaking up Europe and the rest of the Western world.
In the wake of the Brexit referendum and Trump’s unexpected victory in the United States, populism now seems destined to conquer Europe’s mainland, starting with the Netherlands.
But all this analysis comes as somewhat of a surprise for the Dutch. There is no reason for us to talk about a new populist revolution at all. Ever since Pim Fortuyn’s revolt in the early 2000s, we have become all too familiar with the problems and anxieties of populism.
How Pim Fortuyn changed politics for good
Fortuyn, an openly gay sociology professor and publicist, rocked the boat of Dutch politics significantly more than the current representative of populism, Geert Wilders, is expected to do this time around.
Fortuyn ran on an anti-Islam, anti-immigrant platform. He claimed that Islam presented a threat to Western values of openness and liberalism, and wanted to restrict all immigration to the Netherlands.
He was killed on the campaign trail in May 2002 just days before the election. His assassin, Volkert van der Graaf, was an animal rights activist, who said he feared the effect Fortuyn would have on minorities in the country.
Fortuyn transformed Dutch politics. Paul Vreeker/Reuters
Fortuyn’s party, List Pim Fortuyn (LPF), went on to win 26 of the 150 available seats in the May 2002 elections, more than 17% of the electoral vote and enough to form a coalition with the Christian Democratic Appeal and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy. But the government of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was very short lived, mainly because of internal frictions in the LPF.
Fortuyn and the LPD broke open the political system with a force that still baffles Dutch political scientists and commentators.
At the time there was no indication that the centrist parties which had been in power for eight years, a coalition of social democrats and liberals (the Purple Coalition), were headed for a major defeat.
And the populist wave did not subside with the demise of the LPF – Wilders, a former conservative parliamentarian, has picked up where Fortuyn and his friends left off.
21st century populism
The central themes of the early 21st century right-wing populism of Fortuyn and Wilders have been fierce criticism of the political elite (usually portrayed as left-wing) combined with a steady flow of anti-Islam rhetoric and anti-EU sentiment.
Geert Wilders has repeatedly courted controversy, with his 2008 film Fitna, which compared Islam to Nazism, and a recent trial over his call to reduce the number of Moroccans in the Netherlands, expressed during a party rally just before the 2012 election, for which he was found guilty but not punished.
Look what the cat dragged in. Dylan Martinez/Reuters
To acknowledge the fact that populism has been around in the Netherlands for quite a while already is not to underestimate its profound influence. As well as the far-right, it also affected some centrist parties, such as the and the Christian Democrats and People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.
The famous Dutch tolerance and progressiveness, if ever it existed, has turned into intolerance and a prolonged and painstaking search for Dutch identity.
Public debate has taken a nasty turn, blaming and shaming “foreigners”, Muslims mostly, but also the elite and Europe for the problems people experience. This opened up tensions and rifts which had previously been covered by a soft blanket of “political correctness”, which used to be regarded as civilised behaviour but is now seen as treason and deceitfulness.
Wilders’s first taste of power
Wilders has played a role in the Dutch government before. He won 24 seats (16%) in 2010, which gave him a role as a minor partner supporting a coalition between the Christian Democrats and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy in the first cabinet of Mark Rutte. In 2012, Wilders refused to accept major budget cuts which the cabinet had to take in order to meet EU requirements. The government collapsed.
Since 2012, another Purple Coalition between the Labour Party and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy has been in power, headed again by Rutte. The current government can claim credit for financial and economic measures which helped the Dutch economy through the recent economic crisis.
But both parties, especially the Labour Party, are probably going to be punished by voters for the austerity measures they imposed on welfare and health care, as well as raising the retirement age from 65 to 67.
What to expect in 2017
This time around we can expect success, again, for Geert Wilders, despite the fact that his numbers in the polls have been dropping slowly since early January. The Dutch electoral system’s threshold of 0.7% makes it very open to new parties, so we may see a few new right-wing parties getting some seats alongside Wilders.
A low election threshold means more right-wing minor parties could gain seats among a crowded field. Dylan Martinez/Reuters
Wilders’s success however is not going to bring him into government, because none of the other centrist parties wants to collaborate with him. Another condoning role for Wilders in a right-wing coalition is highly improbable; everyone remembers the debacle of the first Rutte cabinet, when Wilders backed away from his responsibility to the government.
A left-wing coalition is also highly improbable, because even the most flattering polls show a collection of left-wing parties falling short of a majority.
The Christian Democrats, recovering from the 2012 debacle, have already made it clear they will not get on board with a left-wing coalition. So, the remaining centrist parties will have to build a new coalition which will probably take a considerable amount of time to materialise.
The new nostalgia
Most scholars tend to interpret populism as a reaction to increasing inequality in the Netherlands, both in terms of income and of education. However, the Netherlands is still one of the most egalitarian countries in the world, and the rift between levels of education is not a new phenomenon either.
The so-called “losers of globalisation” are not the only ones who vote for Wilders these days. Nor do these voters in many cases seriously believe that Wilders should rule the country. What matters is that he is tapping into the anxieties of many voters. It is better to see these rifts and the turbulent public debate as the right-wing of the country calling to be heard and taken seriously. It involves people who don’t believe that things are going to get better. They long for the return to an imaginary former Dutch culture in which migrants, minorities and women don’t challenge the status quo and where the debate about blackface is not, as they see it, undermining Dutch culture.
Nostalgia is what moves them into the belief that new Dutch dikes are needed: to keep an ever-more-threatening outside world out of this low country.
After Uttar Pradesh election results, Muslim community debates whether their very presence in the political arena has become problematic for Hindus.
Manan Vatsyayana/AFP
Four months before the Uttar Pradesh election results sent Muslims in India reeling in shock, former Rajya Sabha MP Mohammed Adeeb delivered a speech in Lucknow, which, in hindsight, might be called prescient.
“If Muslims don’t wish to have the status of slaves, if they don’t want India to become a Hindu rashtra, they will have to keep away from electoral politics for a while and, instead, concentrate on education,” Adeeb told an audience comprising mostly members of the Aligarh Muslim University’s Old Boys Association.
It isn’t that Adeeb wanted Muslims to keep away from voting. His aim was to have Muslim intellectuals rethink the idea of contesting elections, of disabusing them of the notion that it is they who decide which party comes to power in Uttar Pradesh.
Adeeb’s suggestion, that is contrary to popular wisdom, had his audience gasping. This prompted him to explain his suggestion in greater detail.
“We Muslims chose in 1947 not to live in the Muslim rashtra of Pakistan,” he said. “It is now the turn of Hindus to decide whether they want India to become a Hindu rashtra or remain secular. Muslims should understand that their very presence in the electoral fray leads to a communal polarisation. Why?”
Not one to mince words, Adeeb answered his question himself.
“A segment of Hindus hates the very sight of Muslims,” he said. “Their icon is Narendra Modi. But 75% of Hindus are secular. Let them fight out over the kind of India they want. Muslim candidates have become a red rag to even secular Hindus who rally behind the Bharatiya Janata Party, turning every election into a Hindu-Muslim one.”
(Photo credit: Reuters).
Later in the day, Adeeb met Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was in Lucknow. To Adeeb, Azad asked, “Why did you deliver such a speech?”
It was now Azad’s turn to get a mouthful from Adeeb. He recalled asking Azad: “What kind of secularism is that which relies on 20% of Muslim votes? The Bahujan Samaj Party gets a percentage of it, as do the Samajwadi Party and the Congress.”
At this, Azad invited Adeeb, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, to join the Congress. Adeeb rebuffed the offer saying, “First get the secular Hindus together before asking me to join.”
Spectre of a Hindu rashtra
A day after the Uttar Pradesh election results sent a shockwave through the Muslim community, Adeeb was brimming with anger. He said, “Syed Ahmed Bukhari [the so-called Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid] came to me with a question: ‘Why aren’t political parties courting me for Muslim votes?’ I advised him to remain quiet, to not interfere in politics.” Nevertheless, Bukhari went on to announce that Muslims should vote the Bahujan Samaj Party.
“Look at the results,” Adeeb said angrily. “But for Jatavs, Yadavs, and a segment of Jats, most Hindus voted [for] the Bharatiya Janata Party.” His anger soon segued into grief and he began to sob, “I am an old man. I don’t want to die in a Hindu rashtra.”
Though Adeeb has been nudging Muslims to rethink their political role through articles in Urdu newspapers, the churn among them has only just begun. It is undeniably in response to the anxiety and fear gripping them at the BJP’s thumping victory in this politically crucial state.
After all, Uttar Pradesh is the site where the Hindutva pet projects of cow-vigilantism, love jihad, and ghar wapsi have been executed with utmost ferocity. All these come in the backdrop of the grisly 2013 riots of Muzaffarnagar, which further widened the Hindu-Muslim divide inherited from the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the 1990s and even earlier, from Partition. Between these two cataclysmic events, separated by 45 years, Uttar Pradesh witnessed manifold riots, each shackling the future to the blood-soaked past.
I spoke to around 15 Muslims, not all quoted here, each of whom introspected deeply. So forbidding does the future appear to them that none even alluded to the steep decline in the number of Muslim MLAs, down from the high of 69 elected in 2012 to just 24 in the new Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
A relative holds a photograph of Mohammad Akhlaq in the village of Bisada near Delhi. Akhlaq was lynched by a mob in September 2015 after rumours that he had eaten beef. (Photo credit: AFP).
They, in their own ways, echoed Adeeb, saying that the decline in representation of Muslims was preferable to having the Sangh Parivar rule over them with the spectre of Hindutva looming.
“Muslims need to become like the Parsis or, better still, behave the way the Chinese Indians do in Kolkata,” said poet Munawwar Rana. “They focus on dentistry or [their] shoe business, go out to vote on polling day and return to work.”
He continued: “And Muslims?” They hold meetings at night, cook deghs (huge vessels) of biryani, and work themselves into a frenzy. “They think the burden of secularism rests on their shoulders,” said Rana. “Educate your people and make them self-reliant.” Readers would think Adeeb, Rana and others are poor losers, not generous enough to credit the BJP’s overwhelming victory in Uttar Pradesh to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development programme. In that case readers should listen to Sudhir Panwar, the Samajwadi Party candidate from Thana Bhawan in West Uttar Pradesh, who wrote for Scroll.in last week on the communal polarisation he experienced during his campaign.
In Thana Bhawan, there were four principal candidates – Suresh Rana, accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, stood on the BJP ticket; Javed Rao on the Rashtriya Lok Dal’s; Abdul Rao Waris on the Bahujan Samaj Party’s, and Panwar on the Samajwadi Party’s. It was thought that the anger of Jats against the BJP would prevent voting on religious lines in an area where the Muslim-Hindu divide runs deep.
This perhaps prompted Rana to play the Hindu card, and the Muslims who were more inclined to the Rashtriya Lok Dal switched their votes to the Bahujan Samaj Party, believing that its Dalit votes would enhance the party’s heft to snatch Thana Bhawan.
Communal polarisation
Sample how different villages voted along communal lines.
In the Rajput-dominated Hiranwada, the Bahujan Samaj Party bagged 14 votes, the Rashtriya Lok Dal not a single vote, the Samajwadi Party seven, and the Bharatiya Janata Party a whopping 790.
In Bhandoda, a village where the Brahmins are landowners and also dominate its demography, followed by Dalits, the Bahujan Samaj Party secured 156 votes, the Rashtriya Lok Dal zero, the Samajwadi Party nine, and the Bharatiya Janata Party 570.
In the Muslim-dominated Jalalabad, the Bahujan Samaj Party received 453 votes, the Rashtriya Lok Dal 15, the Samajwadi Party 6 and the Bharatiya Janata Party 23.
In Pindora, where Jats are 35% and Muslims around 30% of the population, the Bahujan Samaj Party polled 33 votes, the Rashtriya Lok Dal 482, the Samajwadi Party 33, and the Bharatiya Janata Party 278, most of which is said to have come from the lower economically backward castes.
In Devipura, where the Kashyaps are numerous, the Bahujan Samaj Party got 86 votes, the Rashtriya Lok Dal 42, the Samajwadi Party 1 and the Bharatiya Janata Party 433.
In Oudri village, where the Jatavs are in the majority, the Bahujan Samaj Party bagged 343 votes, the Rashtriya Lok Dal 15, the Samajwadi Party 12, and the Bharatiya Janata Party 22.
This voting pattern was replicated in village after village. Broadly, the Jat votes split between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the Muslim votes consolidated behind the Bahujan Samaj Party, with the Samajwadi Party getting a slim share in it, the Jatavs stood solidly behind the Bahujan Samaj Party, and all others simply crossed over to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP’s Suresh Rana won the election from Thana Bhawan.
“Can you call this election?” asked Panwar rhetorically. “It is Hindu-Muslim war through the EVM [Electronic Voting Machine].” Panwar went on to echo Adeeb: “I feel extremely sad when I say that Muslims will have to keep away from contesting elections. This seems to be the only way of ensuring that elections don’t turn into a Hindu-Muslim one.”
The Bahujan Samaj Party’s Waris differed. “Is it even practical?” he asked. “But yes, Muslims should keep a low profile.”
Women in Kairana village queue to cast their vote during the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on February 11. (Photo credit: Reuters).
Hindu anger against Muslims
For sure, Muslims feel that the binary of secularism-communalism has put them in a bind. Lawyer Mohd Shoaib, who heads the Muslim Rihai Manch, pointed to the irony of it. “For 70 years, we Muslims have fought against communalism,” he said. “But it has, nevertheless, grown by 70 times.”
Indeed, those with historical perspective think Uttar Pradesh of 2017 mirrors the political ambience that existed there between 1938 and 1946 – a seemingly unbridgeable Hindu-Muslim divide, a horrifyingly communalised public discourse, and a contest for power based on mobilisation along religious lines.
Among them is Mohammad Sajjad, professor of history at Aligarh Muslim University. “The 69 MLAs in the last Assembly was bound to, and did, raise eyebrows,” he said.
But what irks Hindus even more is that Muslims constitute nearly one-third of all members in panchayats and local urban bodies. “It is they who have become a sore point with Hindus,” said Sajjad. “When they see Muslim panchayat members become examples of the rags-to-riches story, the majority community feels aggrieved. It is not that Hindu panchayat members are less corrupt. But every third panchayat member being Muslim has given credibility to the narrative that Muslims are being favoured.”
The Hindu angst against Muslim empowerment is also on account of both the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party being popularly perceived to be indifferent to the aspirations of certain subaltern social groups. For instance, it is this indifference that has led to non-Jatav Dalits and most backward castes, clubbed under the Other Backward Classes for reservations, to leave the Bahujan Samaj Party, as non-Yadav middle castes have left the Samajwadi Party. They did so in response to Mayawati turning hers into primarily the party of Jatavs, and the Samajwadi Party pursuing the Yadavisation of the administration.
“These aspirational Hindu groups are angry with the SP [Samajwadi Party] and the BSP [Bahujan Samaj Party],” said Sajjad. “Their anger against them also turned into anger against Muslims.” This is because it is popularly felt that the support of Muslims to the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party brings them to power, turning these parties callously indifferent to the aspirations of other groups.
It is to neutralise the efficacy of Muslim votes, and also to teach their parties of choice a lesson, that these aspirational groups have flocked to the BJP. “This is why the very presence of Muslims in the political arena has become problematic for Hindus,” Sajjad said.
So then, should Muslims take Adeeb’s cue and retreat from the political arena or at least keep a low profile?
Sajjad replied, “Go ahead and vote the party of your choice. But after that, play the role of a citizen. If people don’t get electricity, protest with others. You can’t be forgiving of those for whom you voted only because they can keep the BJP out of power. This is what angers aspirational Hindu social groups.”
(Photo credit: PTI).
Indeed, it does seem a travesty of justice and democracy that Muslims should rally behind the Samajwadi Party in Muzaffarnagar after the riots there. Or that they voted for the Bahujan Samaj Party in Thana Bhawan in such large numbers even though Mayawati didn’t even care to visit the Muslim families who suffered unduly during the riots.
Introspection and self-criticism
Like Sajjad’s, most narratives of Muslims have a strong element of self-criticism. Almost all vented their ire against Muslim clerics. Did they have to direct Muslims which party they should vote for? Didn’t they know their recklessness would trigger a Hindu polarisation?
Unable to fathom their irresponsible behaviour, some plump for conspiracy theories. It therefore doesn’t come as a surprise to hear Obaidullah Nasir, editor of the Urdu newspaper Avadhnama, say, “They take money from the Bharatiya Janata Party to create confusion among Muslims. I got abused for writing this. But how else can you explain their decision to go public with their instructions to Muslims?”
Poet Ameer Imam, who teaches in a college in the Muslim-dominated Sambhal constituency, said, “Muslims will have to tell the maulanas that their services are required in mosques, not in politics. When Muslims applaud their rabble rousers, can they complain against those in the BJP?”
To this, add another question: When Mayawati spoke of Dalit-Muslim unity, didn’t Muslims think it would invite a Hindu backlash?
(Photo credit: PTI).
Most will assume, as I did too, that Muslims fear the communal cauldron that Uttar Pradesh has become will be kept on the boil. But this is not what worries them. Not because they think the Bharatiya Janata Party in power will change its stripes, but because they fear Muslims will feel so cowered that they will recoil, and live in submission. “Our agony arises from being reduced to second-class citizens, of becoming politically irrelevant,” said journalist Asif Burney.
True, members of the Muslim community are doing a reality-check and are willing to emerge from the fantasy world in which they thought that they decided which party won an election. The Uttar Pradesh results have rudely awakened them to the reality of being a minority, of gradually being reduced to political insignificance, and their status as an equal citizen – at least in their imagination – challenged and on the way to being undermined.
But this does not mean they wish to enter yet another world of fantasy, which journalist and Union minister MJ Akbar held out to them in the piece he penned for the Times of India on March 12. Akbar wrote,
“…[T]his election was not about religion; it was about India, and the elimination of its inherited curse, poverty. It was about good governance.”
One of those whom I spoke to laughed uproariously on hearing me repeat Akbar’s lines. So you can say that with them believing their future is darkled, Muslims at least haven’t lost their humour.
Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist in Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, has as its backdrop the demolition of the Babri Masjid. It is available in bookstores.
