Women should be encouraged to take a greater role in counterterrorism efforts as women and girls are disproportionately affected by terrorist violence. This was the message brought home in a speech by Sarah Sewall, US under-secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, at a recent gathering. She was speaking about the critical importance of including countering violent extremism (CVE) in the agenda for Women, Peace and Security (WPS) programs that exist in many countries.

As Sewall noted: “In too many areas around the world, violent extremists threaten generations of hard-won progress for women and vulnerable minorities. To defend that progress—and to prevent a reversion of what Secretary [of State John] Kerry calls ’medieval thinking’—we must defeat violent extremism.”

She pointed to the grim reality that while military force is effective in defeating terrorists, “it cannot defeat terrorism.” Sewall called for increased funding to strengthen the capacity of “local voices of tolerance and inclusion.” She was concerned with the ability of military power to diminish “underlying grievances” that lead to growing extremist threats.

The role of WPS actors globally, including efforts by the private sector, foundations and nongovernmental organizations, is crucial to addressing marginalized and at-risk communities. Threats from extremists have become so transnational that Sewall believes “we cannot reduce extremist violence without women.”

TERRORISM, COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND MOROCCO

In this regard, she made specific reference to an initiative in Morocco. “In Morocco, we’ll help women’s groups speak out against violent ideologies. And in the Morocco program, it’s not just inclusion as process. We’ll make sure that women are not only included in trainings, but also the substance—for example, by ensuring that trainings include a focus on the specific factors that can drive women to terrorist groups. We’ll be sure that women are included in our baseline data, analysis and metrics to evaluate impact. We’re hopeful this North Africa pilot will lead to best practices as we mainstream gender in our CVE programming.”

This initiative—and others like it, including the well-regarded training of imams, both Moroccan and foreign, and women and men religious counselors—brings together a whole society solution to attacking the spread of terrorist ideology. The under-secretary was quite blunt in her assessment of the challenges ahead.

RECOGNIZING THE THREAT OF WOMEN TERRORISTS

“Violent extremists threaten everything the women’s community has worked to achieve. So let’s work together on behalf of this fundamental truth—defeating violent extremism is essential to women’s empowerment, and women’s empowerment is fundamental to defeating violent extremism.”

The recent arrests in the so-called “Notre Dame plot,” an attack against a police station in Mombasa, Kenya, and the increasing numbers of women identified as “warriors” on radical websites increasingly challenge counterterrorism officials to forge effective countermeasures.

In Paris, the latest information is that it was a Paris train station, not Notre Dame, that was the target. The four women charged with terrorism have been on the watch lists of the French government and were apprehended quickly when the owner of the car containing the gas cylinders was identified as the father of one of the women arrested. The four have been hailed as warriors by various jihadi websites.

In the Kenya attack, Reuters reported “that three women wearing hijabs snuck into a police station under the pretext of reporting a stolen phone, then stabbed a local officer and set fire to the building with a petrol bomb before all the three were shot dead.” The attack could have been much worse, as Kenyan authorities also recovered an unexploded suicide vest, two bullet-proof jackets and an unused petrol bomb from the dead suspects.

It is suspected that women are directed more toward suicide attacks because those do not require the same rigorous military-level skills and training available to men.

This chilling reality, reminiscent of women resistance fighters in the Algerian War for Independence and female bombers (mostly brain-washed girls) used by Boko Haram and the Viet Cong (separated by 60 years, yet still a potent reality), is reflected in several articles in The Independent, which further reinforce heightened concerns with women terrorist cells.

Based on existing research, women are taking a much more visible role in attacks against civilian and military targets because their physical appearance is perceived as less threatening. This leads to the British experience that, according to recent data, more women were arrested on terrorism charges year-on-year from 2014 to 2015.

Under-Secretary Sewall called on WPS organizations around the world to take a leadership role in integrating CVE into their programs. She stressed that: “In high policy discussion and advocacy, in field work and programming, in mentorship and capacity-building—there are countless opportunities for the WPS community to advance its central objective through CVE. CVE needs your help—your issue advocacy, your expertise, your sustained engagement on this agenda.”

It is a call to action that underscores the centrality of women in promoting security and stability.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

Photo Credit: Narvikk

Disclaimer : The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Newslaundry.com. Newslaundry.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.

Over the last few months, the innards of Dalit oppression in Gujarat have been spilled open all over the state and its stink has travelled far and wide.

Vashram Sarvaiya and his three brothers were flogged by gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) in Saurashtra’s Una Taluka on July 11 for skinning a cow. This was later proven to be baseless and the police complicit in the lie. Soon, rallies and protest marches took the shape of the ten-day long Dalit Asmita Yatra which concluded at Una on August 15. There, the community vowed to abandon the profession of skinning carcasses.

On the day of the flogging, a gang of cow vigilantes, who had started from Una taluka, were joined by another group of workers from Samter village – based on the bank of Raval river. Neither the gau rakshaks nor the Dalits from the village could recall who exactly started the rumour about the “skinning” of cows in Mota Samdhiyala. However, they do remember that when the cow vigilantes from Una reached Samter, people from nearby Vyajpur and Nantej village were already part of the mob. This means not only Samter but other villages too were mobilised for action.

The mob headed straight to the tannery between Mota Samadhiyala and Bedia. The clash, and resulting riots triggered the Dalit rights movement across Gujarat.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which took over the investigation of the flogging from the Gujarat Police, found that police officials involved in the case had fudged facts. They also found the unholy nexus between the gau rakshaks and the police. Forty three accused, including four policemen, have been arrested. While the Sarvaiya family has identified all 39 of the accused involved in the flogging, families of the accused have a differing variation of the events.

Sarvaiya family still awaits justice

Vashram, his younger brother Ramesh (23), and his two cousins Ashok (20) and Bechar (30) were skinning carcases in the village tannery when they were apprehended by gau rakshaks. His father Balubhai Sarvaiya said, that the attack continued for more than an hour, and the numbers of assaulters and witnesses kept increasing.

“We were even beaten up by the cow vigilantes inside the police station,” Vashram told Newslaundry. He added, “we have identified all 39 accused who were involved in the flogging…I am yet to get justice.”

Sustenance remains a concern as the Sarvaiyas are yet to find a an alternate way to earn a living. Currently, the entire family is solely dependent on the compensatory money that they received from the government and support from the community.

While Vashram is focused on the CID investigation, his father Balubhai is eyeing the ongoing Dalit movement. “Till the government create job opportunities for Dalit boys and we get land, the movement must go on. It’s for the good of our community,” said Balubhai.

Version of families of those arrested

Youth from Samter joined the gau rakshaks on the day of flogging. Later, on August 15 people from Samter allegedly stone-pelted Dalit protestors who were returning from the Una Dalit Ashmita Yatra.

Over ten of the accused involved in flogging, identified by the Sarvaiyas, are from Samter. “There were two Dalits youths too who were involved in beating that day. Police didn’t arrest them,” Balubhai Gohel told Newslaundry. According to the families of those arrested, the investigative agency has been unfair to them.

While those like Vipul Yadav claim that his brother was wrongly picked by the police, others argue that everyone present the venue had thrashed the “perpetrators” so why pick a handful. They are still firm on their stand, that is, Sarvaiyas had killed cow – a myth which has been already busted by the CID.

Meanwhile, the political analysts sitting in Delhi speculate that the movement might thwart the prospects of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2017 assembly election in Gujarat. The handfull of upper caste villagers that we spoke to, on asked about the Dalit movement reply “Ye sab raj karan se ho raha hai (These are politically motivated movement).” A few have even declared the movement an attack by the the BJP’s political opposition.

 His open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the alleged “fabrication of news” by the Hindi language news channel India TV to favour the PM triggered the hashtag #IndiaTVExposed on social media. Along with outrage and support, came a scathing response from the channel’s managing editor, Ajit Anjum accusing him of negligence and impropriety.

But the man at the eye of the storm, the channel’s former senior correspondent, Imran Shaikh, says that he holds no grudges against the channel, nor is he fishing for a job there. All he wants, he says, is an audience with the PM to discuss the ways seniors at the channel allegedly pressurised him to tweak news in favour of the PM.

In a conversation with Newslaundry, Shaikh said, “I have no grudge against India TV or its editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma, but I want to make sure that the PM knows about it.”

On October 10, Shaikh posted pictures of the letter he had sent to the PM on his Facebook page. He captioned it “When We Confuse Between ‘What is Right’ or ‘What is Trend’, I think we have to Choose ‘What is Right’. so i choose it and share my opinion with #PmoIndia. please read it and share it. Thanx everyone for support [sic]”.

The next day, Anjum posted a long riposte on his Facebook page in both Hindi and English. The post, that the channel’s branch head Faizal Islam declared was the channel’s official stance on the issue, was divided into six points.

Anjum claimed that there were several issues with Shaikh’s performance at India TV, following which he was warned both verbally and in writing. He was accused of negligence and improper behaviour. The channel claims that there are records of these warnings. He was suspended for two days last year, following which Shaikh sent a notice levelling charges of harassment against three senior colleagues. And perhaps most damningly of all, he had left India TV more than a year before he sent the letter.

Anjum wrote, “The very fact, that he levelled such an allegation a year after quitting the channel, indicates that some vested interests have used him as a pawn in a nefarious game or his intentions are suspect.”

Responding to these allegations, Shaikh told Newslaundry, “When I was not fabricating news in favour of PM Modi, they started targeting me even in my daily news coverage. In all my eight years of service with India TV, there have been no complaints against me. Though I was covering crime and local stories, I was assigned political stories from time to time. I was being systematically targeted by three immediate seniors Rahul Chaudhary, Faizal Islam and Jay Prakash Singh, and the channel is still defending them.”

When asked for specific examples or instances where he was asked to “fabricate news” to favour the PM, he said he had all the “evidences”, but would only show them to Modi. Asked why he waited so long, he said, “I was summoning up the courage to write to the PM. The PM is the highest authority in the country, he is not my friend. It is a big decision.”

He said he had even written to Sharma asking him for a meeting. “I wanted to tell him about the problems in the daily functioning of the channel, but haven’t heard from him since.” He said he had tweeted at Sharma, asking for a fair investigation into the allegations.

Shaikh is not currently employed with any media house. He has found it difficult to find work as he believes his image has been maligned, owing to his unceremonious exit from the channel. He has even filed a case of defamation against Chaudhary, Islam, and Singh, suing them for a nominal compensation of Re 1. All he wants, he says, is an apology from the channel. “I am not asking them for a job.”

Islam, who Shaikh has named as one of his harassers told Newslaundry, “I was deputed to Mumbai a year ago, and I can say that there were issues with his performance. Rest has been said in the company’s official response.”

This is not the first instance of a reporter pointing fingers at the practices at India TV. In 2014, former reporter with the channel, Tanu Sharma attempted suicide inside the office citing harassment.

Ask anyone who’s been keeping an eye on the Nobel prizes for literature — no one thought Bob Dylan would get the award before Haruki Murakami. Yet again, all those who have kept ready their paeans to Murakami’s surreal and insightful prose returned that document to the folder titled “Definitely, Maybe” even as they perhaps heaved a sigh of relief. In contrast to all those occasions when the winner’s name has journalists turning to Google for some clue about what the Nobel awardee has written and where they’re from, this year’s prize winner is someone whom everyone knows. While some, like authors Irvine Welsh and Hari Kunzru have minor conniptions that Dylan has won the Nobel, the man who has been the voice of every generation since the 1960s has joined an elite list. From being a scrawny fringe element to a bard, then an icon, Bob Dylan is now a bona fide poet courtesy the Nobel.

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, Dylan has been one of the most influential musical figures of our times. Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Sara Danius said Dylan was awarded the Nobel prize for literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. Danius also compared Dylan to Homer and Sappho. Dylan is the first American since Toni Morrison to win the Nobel prize for literature. He joins George Bernard Shaw as a Nobel laureate who is also an Oscar winner. Dylan is the second songwriter to win the Nobel for literature (Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore was also a songwriter, as the 1600-odd Rabindra Sangeet attest).

In his eccentric and charming memoir Chronicles, Dylan wrote, “I really was never any more than what I was – a folk musician who gazed into the gray mist with tear-blinded eyes and made up songs that floated in a luminous haze.” Those songs have been touchstones for at least three generations of folk and alternative music fans. While announcing the award, Danius quoted one of Dylan’s best-known phrases: “The times they are a-changin'”. It was a disappointingly predictable pick from a treasury of lyrics and quotable quotes that have expressed disenchantment and protest with unusual poignancy.

Dylan’s songs have often been full of sound and fury, like “Hurricane”.

“How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool’s hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed
To live in a land 
Where justice is a game…”.

Then there are others that seem incoherent when you consider them closely. After all, what exactly does he mean when he sings,

Now your dancing child with his Chinese suit
He spoke to me, I took his flute
No, I wasn’t very cute to him, was I?
But I did it, because he lied and
Because he took you for a ride
And because time was on his side and
Because I want you.

In one interview, Dylan said his lyrics made no sense, which is evidently one link to which the Nobel Twitter feed will not linking. He also said he had no interest in being a bard of his times. “All I’d ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities,” he wrote in Chronicles. “I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of.”

And yet, for all these admissions and denials, there are the songs that Dylan has sung that still resonate with such anger, cynicism and despair that they continue to feel relevant in the present. Listen, and you can feel the melancholy and exhaustion of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”; the desperation in “All Along the Watchtower”; that spark of hope in “Shelter From the Storm”. He’s created anthems in songs like “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, “Mr Tambourine Man”, “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35”. Across the world, Dylan’s songs have been the soundtrack to growing up and realising just how skewed the world is, and how little sense it makes. In the way he shape-shifted and defied conventions of how a singer should look and sound, Dylan inspired people. That, along with his curious wordplay, made him a legend long before the Swedish Academy’s acknowledgement of his genius.

Whether Dylan deserves the Nobel or not is a debate that will continue to rage on the internet and in drawing rooms in the coming days. His nomination stokes back to life the age-old question of what distinguishes “high art” from “popular culture”, and the function of awards. Is the Nobel supposed to shine a light on a voice that hasn’t been heard enough, make us familiar with a name that looks strange and a culture that isn’t omnipresent? If it picks a name that’s popular, is that an instance of the Nobel being versatile? Should the Swedish Academy be concerned about whether it has been able to ‘trend’ on social media?

Whatever the expectations of the Nobel and the Swedish Academy, it’s a good time to listen to Blonde on Blonde or Hard Rain while reading Chronicles. Better yet, watch Todd Haynes’s brilliant film, I’m Not There, which was based on Dylan’s many avatars and has one of Cate Blanchett’s most spectacular performances. And imagine the Swedish Academy’s jury listening to the complete works of Bob Dylan. If there was any doubt that the 21st century is the age of the hipster, let it rest today with this win for the Granddaddy of Hipsterdom.

Last week, after running promos all day of an interview with Congress minister P Chidambaram by journalist Barkha Dutt, NDTV ultimately decided not to broadcast it. Instead, what we saw on the screen was a graphic plate declaring “India above politics” which was followed by the statement “NDTV will not air any remarks that risk security for political advantage”. And, of course, this was not taken well by the minister. In an interview given by the former Finance Minister to the Indian Express on October 12, he stated that “Indian media must be fiercely loyal to freedom of the media.”

But is this the first time that the media had to toe the line or crawled when it was asked to bend? Does Chidambaram mean to imply that during the Congress’ or the UPA’s time, there were never any restrictions placed on media’s freedom?

We think differently. Watch what Abhinandan Sekhri has to say in this
new episode of NL Tippani.

The Swedish Academy has decided to expand the definition of literature, and awarded the Nobel Prize to legendary American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Not everyone’s happy, though. The most acerbic reaction of ’em all came from Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh of Trainspotting fame, who tweeted: “I’m a Dylan fan, but this is an ill conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies.” Saying “This feels like the lamest Nobel win since they gave it to Obama for not being Bush”, British Indian novelist Hari Kunzru went on to voice his grievances on behalf of the literary world via an elaborate Twitter thread. There were, of course, many who felt Dylan deserved the honour — Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, Barack Obama. We at Newslaundry feel it is the perfect opportunity to pay tribute to the former Victoria’s Secret brand ambassador.

Dear NL Hafta Team,

Introduction and how I got addicted to NL- My name is Adithya Vadapalli. I first came across News Laundry when I saw Karan Thapar’s interview on “Can You Take It”. However, I really good hooked on it during my masters. (oh… I forgot to mention I hold a masters from the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science and am now pursuing a PhD in Theoretical Computer Science at Indiana University, Bloomingtion, United States; thought it was customary for readers to flaunt their degrees :P). In any case, one of my lab mates would keep laughing in the lab watching some YouTube videos. It was of course disturbing and annoying, so asked him what it was. He then told me about this show by Madhu Trehan called Clothsline. I thought if someone instead of working in the lab is watching this online show then it must be worth a try. After that I got hooked on it. I watched every episode of Clothsline, Can You Take It, I Agree and a couple of episodes of the Cleaners (I loved the one on section 377); of course I am regular for NL Hafta! I have been listening to it since the 30th episode. Now about the subscription part – I recently subscribed to NL through Paypal (payed in USD). However, I have a complaint. I did not get any confirmation from you guys yet. I am not really sure what the problem is.

News Laundry and the Aam Aadmi Party : An interesting parallel – As I had stated earlier in the e-mail, I started following NL in 2013 – it was about the same time the AAP was formed. During that time I used to observe a very interesting parallel between the AAP and NL and I think and hope Abhinandan would appreciate this parallel. Like AAP was giving an alternative to the ‘dirty’ politics, I felt that NL was giving an alternative to the ‘dirty’ news. People in AAP would call every other party a’dalaal’ or a ‘chor’ and in NL, shows like Chothsline would make satirical comments about other news organizations – I agree no one in NL used the kind of crass and uncouth language the AAP guys used. AAP was fighting for funds, so was NL and so is NL. Both AAP and NL seemed to be against big corporate houses, especially the Ambanis and the Adanis. Thus NL for me was AAP of News Media. However now I don’t see it so much that way and I feel AAP and NL have now taken divergent paths. While NL has kept away from the temptation of being a ‘yet another media outfit’, probably that cannot be said about AAP anymore. I wonder what did NL do right and AAP wrong. Probably the biggest difference is that becoming the number one news organization has never been the goal of NL which keeps it away from treading the path of other traditional media. The thirst to win every election at any cost is killing the very idea AAP. It is important to remember that just like the kind of food people love to eat need to be the best for them, the kind of party maximum people vote need not be doing the best for the nation and the kind of news maximum people consume need not be the best form of journalism. Secondly, NL unlike AAP never had the holier than though attitude. Finally in AAP there was a personality cult and gradually AAP and Kejriwal became equivalent. NL could have also fallen in this trap. However, NL seems to have produced many capable people and there is no dearth of independent opinion; Hafta is big proof. There is no one face/ideology of NL which is amazing. This is my reading of why AAP and NL are now in divergent paths. Does this parallel make any sense to you guys or is it just in my head? What do you think, Abhinandan?

Madhu – My Hero! – Madhu, you are my hero – (I am not your fan; just an admirer, I know you don’t like it when people become fans!). There is no doubt Madhu Trehan is my all time favorite. Madhu should go down as one of the great journalists India ever had. The fact that she has not won a single Padma award despite being so accomplished is a testimony to her journalistic greatness. In the last week’s Hafta there was a reader who said that he for a very long time knew Madhu as Dr. Trehan’s wife who happened to be a journalist. Call it my ignorance, but for me it has been an opposite experience. I got to know about Dr. Trehan as Madhu’s husband and only later did I find out that he is such a great and well renowned Heart Surgeon.

In fact I YouTube search “Madhu Trehan” so many times just to see if some new interview or talk by her is online. I thus found her interview with RS TV; Her interview along with Naresh Trehan with Karan Thapar, etc. etc.. The reason I admire her so much is that she has thought so deeply about journalism. Her interview with her namesake Kishwer was an excellent example. That interview had so many lessons about professional journalistic ethics. I also loved her interview with Kuldip Nayar. She is typically not afraid to ask the so called ‘politcally incorrect’ questions. For instance – she asked Nayar about his old Muslim friend for whom Nayar had tatooed a muslim symbol on his hand, but that friend refused to have Om tatooed. In that sense she is a true liberal where she attacks the bigotry residing in Hinduism about also calls out other religions (example with Arun Shouri). My views almost every time (in fact every time align with hers)!

Her recent interview with Amitabh Bacchan was a bit of disappointment though. I would have expected her ask about what he thought about people calling out his open letter for inherent misogyny but that was missing in the interview.

Manisha – she seems to have the potential to be the next Madhu Trehan. I am a cricket nut. So – I can’t stop myself from giving this analogy. If Madhu is Sachin Tendulkar, Manisha is what Virat Kohli was a couple of years back. 😛 There are many occasions when I don’t agree with her views but I like the cogent arguments she gives. She like Madhu seems to think very deeply about journalism and about journalistic ethics and is always committed to them. This is what I truly love about her.

Abhinandan – No doubt the best interviewer in the country. In fact Madhu and Abhinandan are the two best interviewers in the country. But both are good for different types of interviews. Madhu is outstanding when the conversation is broad and it is about something in the past. For instance her interview with Chitra on Bofors is absolutely fantastic – The breadth for her knowledge is amazing and that’s her strength. Abhinandan on the other hand is brilliant on issue specific interviews. He really goes into the depth of the issue, gives complete time for the interviewee to respond and nails him on this answers in a very polite yet stern manner – that for me is genius. Example: his interview with Dinanath Batra, the Lawyer in Nirbhaya case Manohar Lal Sharma, the Mullah in Cleaners episode on 377 and also Ashish Khetan. I think the only aberration is his interview with Tavleen Singh.

Anand – It is fantastic to have a person from Science in the panel. I loved his piece on the Chemistry Nobel Prize. He should really write more science related articles.

Dipanjana – Initially I did not like here too much. She came across as a bit snobbish. Over time I got used to her presence and now I actually like her in the panel. They way she hosted the previous Hafta was amazing. I especially loved the way she read the letters (I hope if this letter is read, it is read by her).

A few word of praise for the concept – For me the purpose of NL Hafta has never been to get the news. I think it is not a great source for news per se. However, where it is absolutely amazing is that it is a platform where everyone puts their biases on the table. Now I know Abhinand is not a left-wing loonie as I thought he was once upon a time. In fact, he is almost center and sometimes even centre right (especially when the topic is Pakistan). And conversely Anand is not a complete right-winger as once I thought he was. When the reader knows the biases it is much easier for him/her to read the articles without getting exasperated and calling them names! I really think all the so-called celeb journalists like Rajeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Karan Thapar, Rahul Kanwal, Ravish Kumar etc. should be invited to your show sometimes and we should know what they think about some really specific issues.

The discussions on the NL Hafta are top-rate. Yes, it is like a drawing room conversation – but top rate drawing room conversation. It is fantastic to have a diverse panel with different opinions. In this regard the concept of NL-Hafta is brilliant. I am not aware of any other news organisation in the world where all the editors and the people involved sit together and put their views and biases on the table. In this respect it is a pioneering idea. Because unbiased journalism is a myth. What one needs is biased journalism with un-hidden biases.

Finally, it would be really cool if you could start a Hindi version of your website and incentives some very good Hindi journalists in print to write for you. I am sure, there are many who would be willing to do so – given that there are so many stories which main stream media would be unwilling to publish. Try roping in Ravish Kumar – my 2nd Hero after Madhu Trehan!! 😛

with kind regards,

Adithya Vadapalli

This article is made possible because of Newslaundry's subscribers.Click here and Pay To Keep News Free

Hello hello to you all from a double subscriber (I hope Dipanjona reads in her Awful-and-awesome style).

I wanted to write so many times to the nlhafta team specially whenever I happened to strongly disagreed with the views expressed but every time my anger subsided and procrastination took over and I even missed the golden chance to participate in your 50th episode simply out of laziness.

But this time it’s not the anger or disagreement which motivated me but the fear that Dipanjana’s job depended on at least one subscription, therefore although I already am a subscriber for past many months I subscribed once more from a different account.

Needless to say I really loved Dipanjana’s sophisticated and classy presentation of nlhafta and it was a fresh change from raw and youthful style of Abhinandan, I suggest you both should take turns, Dipanjana’s voice and style really suits nlhafta and this week the discussion was very mature, meaty and with very few diversions and  attempts at humor which many a time derail the tempo.

Now to the criticism which I wanted to convey for a very long time

Regarding Madhu, I really love her interviews specially the one with another Madhu and Katju, clothesline is one thing for which I wait desperately apart from game of thrones episodes. But it’s disappointing that she has been taken in by pseudoscience specially when it comes to homeopathy and other such loony ideas, I suggest she read few books by The Amazing Randi and Michael Shermer. Also please read Better Angles of our Nature by Steven Pinker.

Professor Ranganathan is my obvious favorite since I am also a fellow scientist (recently submitted my thesis in field of  protein biophysical chemistry from IISc) and a classical liberal (not the left loony regressive type). Even though I sometimes think he deviates from classical liberalism due to widespread PC culture. And also many a times when he gets cornered by  Abhinandan’s arguments ( for example on use of data and free enterprise) he doesn’t realize Abhinandan is using strawmen.

I wish there could be mosaic of Prof Ranganathan and Dipanjana where her nerdiness, class and wit combines with scepticism and classical liberalism of Professor.  Also at the risk of being called sexist, Depanjana is really beautiful I hope you do some video content also.

Abhinandan reminds of my younger self (I am just 30 years old), and really loved his roast by Tavleen Singh, I implore you all to call her on hafta. I agree on many issues with Abhinandan sometimes even when they are related to Kejriwal. I especially admire his understanding of Islam, freedom of speech, conflict of interest and death penalty but I think on merit he is not only wrong but doesn’t even know how misguided is he; I suggest he read works of Thomas Sowell.

I like the refreshing opinions of the younger one of the nlhafta team but I think the naivety of Manisha comes from emotional and Marxist bias, I hope as she grows up she realizes the importance of data and real world, as the saying goes If you’re not a socialist in your 20s, you have no heart; if you are a socialist after your 20s, you have no head.

In the end would like to thank Kartik Nijhawan who makes this hafta possible, he has done a remarkable job.

Once again thank you all for creating such novel content I am waiting desperately for your subscriber only content, I also suggest please give all the references and source material you would use for in-depth program I am sure many people including me would even pay separately for that content.

Likhesh Sharma

Molecular Biophysics Unit
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore

This article is made possible because of Newslaundry's subscribers.Click here and Pay To Keep News Free

Hello NL team (minus Mr. Sekhri),

It was refreshing not served an overdose of ‘mufatkhoro’ due to the absence of the almighty Mr. Sekhri (though the song selection was obviously below the set standards, again due to the absence of the same member).

Yes, I am a subscriber (mentioned in my last email, which was conveniently skipped due to its critical content, I suppose). Anyway, I hope you read this one, regardless of whether it will be read on the Hafta or not.

Firstly, Abhinandan was away attending a meeting held in Spain by your ‘Primary Investors’, you mentioned. Who are these primary investors? I thought its us- the common Janta, not the Aam Aasim, who pay for the news (though still not enough). Are there some corporate sponsors behind the curtains that we are not aware of? I really hope not.

Secondly, a suggestion for your upcoming show- let’s talk about. If you think it’s important- please do a show on the doctors’ life in Indian hospitals- especially the ones not at the top. I am not saying to go for health sector in general- which will take up an entire new show (not just an episode). For some reason (most likely of not being a vote bank), we are never shown in a good light. Always treated as a greedy blood sucking pest.
Their never-ending education, its depressive phases, their first witnessed injustices at work (against patients and against themselves), the ‘compulsory’ rural job and their exodus from the country with such lack of doctors.
My 2 cents (I can give more info/ people’s contacts) go like this:
– Why are the govt trained MBBS are the only ones required to go to rural areas (with terrible infrastructure and support staff) and why shouldn’t the IITs and IIMs (also the govt trained engineers/lawyers or even the sloganeering JNU people) be asked to do a compulsory rural stint?
After all, these are the ones who can create a supporting milieu in the rural India for a good healthcare system to flourish. We are just flogging a dead horse the present way.

– No one whosoever (including you guys) talk about any assault on a doctor/nurse/ wardboy unless a backward class or a pregnant nurse is at the receiving end (or unless it’s to bring down a politician).

– There’s a lot of talk about communication skills between a doctor and a patient. And we doctors get blamed for faring poorly in that area.

I agree that it’s critically important but sometimes it’s not feasible (e.g communication can’t happen between a blood-thirsty crowd, mostly angry towards the healthcare system in general, and a cowering doctor trying to find a way to save his life).

I am in no way justifying my own exit from this system (I have dutifully served my rural service, btw). I really hope that somebody someday covers it- before the profession officially goes bankrupt of minds due to the mounting negatives stacked against it in the present day India.

Another advise will be to not go and talk only to the seniors in this field- it’s mainly the juniors who bear most of the brunt here.

Thanks,
Rahul Pandey.

(P.s. Do I need to get a second Game-Changer subscription within a month to be able to convince you guys to cover this topic? I really won’t mind since the common people are totally unaware of the entire scene and behind the scenes of this matter.)

What makes you an anti-national? Eating beef? Asking the government for details on the surgical strike? Or running an interview with the opposition leader? Recently, NDTV chose to ride the nationalistic wave, along with other channels, and dropped Barkha Dutt’s interview with former home & finance minister P Chidambaram declaring: ‘India above politics’. Hartosh Singh Bal, political editor of The Caravan, joins this episode of Hafta and tells us why news organisations taking such a stance is dangerous for journalism. Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan, Anand Ranganathan and Manisha Pande along with our guest discuss why media is not wrong in asking for details of the surgical strike. They also discuss if debates on triple talaq should be separated from the one on Uniform Civil Code. All this & a lot more on this episode of NL Hafta.

For reference:

1. A Review of #NLHafta from Adithya Vadapalli, Likhesh Sharma and Rahul Pandey
2. Vice special report: Fighting ISIS
3. Time: How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet
4. Newslaundry: NDTV Pulls Down Former Navy Chief’s ‘Explosive’ Interview
5. Bob Dylan – Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
6. Newslaundry: World’s End – Part 1
7. Newslaundry: World’s End – Part 2
8. FiveThirtyEight: Election Update: Women Are Defeating Donald Trump
9. Hartosh Singh Bal’s piece: The Demon Of Terror Lies Within, And Is Being Fed By Those In Power
10. Quanta Magazine
11. Vanity Fair: AMERICA THE BANANA REPUBLIC

Listen to NL Hafta on iTunes here and Stitcher here

“Aye Uri Uri Uri,” a song from the Bollywood film Saathiya, was sung by Adnan Sami, a Pakistani-born-Indian singer. In the wake of the Uri attacks, the song title could also refer to Karan Johar, or KJo’s, dreams of laughing all the way to the bank. A fortnight before the scheduled release of his latest directorial venture, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, the Cinema Owners Exhibitors Association of India (COEAI) has decided to boycott movies which have the involvement of any Pakistani artistes or technicians with immediate effect. FYI, Karan Johar’s film, which stars Fawad Khan, is supposed to release on October 28.

“It was decided that keeping in mind the patriotic feelings and national interest, we have requested all member exhibitors to refrain from screening movies which have involvement of any Pakistani artiste, technician, director or music director,” said COEAI president Nitin Datar in a statement after a meeting of the association’s members today. “We are also in the process of requesting other associations connected with the film industry to support the sentiments in the best interest of our nation.”

Not sure how thoroughly or far down the line of people involved in the making of a movie this ban extended to, Newslaundry got in touch with COEAI for details. Viras Vatcha, the association’s deputy president, told us that the boycott applies to “financiers, producers and whoever is associated with the film industry and has a Pakistani touch or whatever you call it.” We don’t actually know what to call it.

Trying to determine what a Pakistani touch meant, we were told: “If somebody’s silent about it [their Pakistani identity] and we don’t get to know it, it’s a different issue altogether,” said Vatcha. On the use of songs such as Sare Jahaan Se Achcha, penned in British India by Muhammad Iqbal who died a Pakistani, Vatcha does not feel there is any issue. “Back then, there was united India and no Pakistan – you are not comparing apples to apples but apples to oranges,” he said. What about songs of artistes such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan? “Whatever is in the past, you cannot undo.” he said.

As for why a boycott of an Indian made, Indian financed movie, “As citizens of this country, this is the least we can do,” said Vatcha. “Also, there are several other reasons, like the safety and security of the cinema halls as well as the patrons who are visiting them.”

The boycott is likely to have limited impact. COEAI has approximately 500 members drawn from four states – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa. Barring a few multiplexes, most members are single-screen theatres. The decision to boycott movies with Pakistani involvement was taken by a majority vote at a meeting of its 25-member executive committee today. “It (the decision) is not an order but a request,” said Vatcha. “Ultimately, the individual decision should count, but they should behave in a responsible way.”

Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA), which has passed a resolution to ban Pakistani artistes from the industry till India-Pakistan relations improve, criticised COEAI’s decision, saying the films which have already completed production should not be targeted. “We stick to our stand, We feel films that are completed shouldn’t be banned,” TP Aggarwal, IMPPA president, was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India (PTI).

Interestingly, soon after the COEAI decision, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs clarified that the Indian government has no problem in issuing visa to any Pakistani artiste. “If a person applies for visa and he fulfils the conditions, he gets it. It’s not that we don’t have to issue visa to Pakistani nationals,” a Home Ministry official was quoted as saying by news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

I wish I could go back to the day in 2014 when I first saw the music video “Love Charger”.

It was thrilling: I saw a rotund, hairy man who looked like Gimli from the Lord of the Rings in a costume best described as Shaktimaan-meets-Earth, Wind & Fire, singing to an audience that looked like they were pasted in from some other video, wailing with intensity that I was his “love charzerrrr”.

See, I love B movies. I love silly YouTube videos. I know my Gunda from my Khooni Dracula, and my Bhim Niroula from my Venu Mallesh. I’m aware that part of my interest in them feeds a mean, class-driven impulse; that the so-bad-its-good appeal is because I see them aiming for sophistication, and failing at it. But I also genuinely love some of the people who have achieved YouTube infamy, like Jacintha Morris for her sharp observations and for singing about an oppressively judgmental society in “Suzann Sinner”, or Taher Shah for allowing himself be to vain about his long, wavy hair and for wearing a tiara and long purple robe.

I felt fondness for the man in “Love Charger” for being in a flashy multi-coloured outfit that didn’t disguise his extremely hairy upper arms, or a bejewelled headpiece over his long, flowing hair. I adored him for (what I saw as) extending the boundaries of masculinity. But all that was before Messenger of God came out.

When I first read about a new movie in 2015 called Messenger of God and recognised its hero as being Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan, the man from “Love Charger”, I excitedly went to look him up. My glee was short-lived: I immediately found Neha Dixit’s 2009 profile on him in Tehelka, in which she reported on his violent reputation and closeness to the militant Gurjant Singh Rajasthani of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). Ram Rahim came to power at the Dera Sacha Sauda, a Sikh religious sect in Sirsa, Punjab in 1990 and took on the title of Hazoor Maharaj Sant Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh after Rajasthani put a bullet into the forehead of his predecessor.

Dixit also wrote that alleged malpractices at the Dera were exposed in 2002 after a woman wrote anonymously to the Prime Minister, accusing Ram Rahim of rape and mass-scale sexual exploitation. “There are 35 to 40 girls here who have compromised themselves at the Dera. We appear to be devis, but are treated like prostitutes. […]My life is in danger, so I will not reveal my name,” she wrote.

Ram Rahim has since become an accused in the murder of the woman’s brother in July 2002, “allegedly for carrying her letter to the PM,” and has an ongoing rape case against him involving two victims. (A fortnight ago, the Supreme Court stayed proceedings in the rape trial for a few days.) Apart from rape and murder, Ram Rahim is accused of ordering the castration of 400 of his followers.

Knowing this, the trailer for Messenger of God, reeking of megalomania and machismo and hero-worship, didn’t seem so funny, never mind the crazy costumes and stunts and terrible production quality that was evident right from the trailer (the kind of stuff that usually reels me in). Then came MSG 2: The Messenger, in which Ram Rahim battled Adivasis who were “neither man nor animal”, but “shaitan”. Said ‘evil’ spear-wielding Adivasis looked like they’d been rubbed with mud and charcoal to darken their skin and wore animal-print loincloths. I was horrified by the trailer, not least because it reminded me of the terrible casteism and racism of Bahubali, in which the hypermasculine hero fights a similarly blackened, supposedly barbaric people.

MSG: The Lion Heart, which released last weekend, promised nothing less than a battle with aliens. But I cannot describe the rage I felt when the film began, sitting in a Bangalore theatre amidst a sea of men. The movie starts with a ridiculous scene purportedly at the India-Pakistan border, where Ram Rahim kills all the Pakistani soldiers, and then the film flashes back 300 years to Ram Rahim playing the commander of an army that slaughters Muslim soldiers (whose leader wants to rape a group of Hindu women). Even with swords that looked like they were made of cardboard, gooey fake blood and acting that wouldn’t have cut it in a junior school play, it was a horrifying scene to watch for the sheer hatred directed at them. And it’s scary that this blatant communalism sailed past the Censor Board.

Later, when the film showed a group of Muslim men (we are supposed to know they are Muslim because they wear skull-caps, sport kohl, and attempt terrible impressions of B-grade villains) manhandling a bunch of pure white cows, Ram Rahim saves the cows and sends the Muslims running in terror. It isn’t clear in the film whether the Muslims and aliens are separate villains, or if the Muslims are actually aliens in disguise. But given the reality of the Dadri lynching and the current attacks on Dalits and Muslims over beef across the country, giggling at a film like this, even scornfully, is impossible.

Moreover, Ram Rahim, alleged rapist in real life, announces in MSG: The Lion Heart that he will do anything to protect his two sisters. They are supposed to be able warriors, but they still need their brother to save them (and are always on either side of him but two steps behind, so they don’t hog the camera). In the scene where he tells his wife that he will give up his life to save women (he’s the “rakshak” of not just his country, but the whole world, we are constantly reminded), she is sitting at his feet, dutifully massaging his legs. Even before the film showed us a Bahubali-inspired waterfall in one scene, its gross machismo and hero-worship had all fallen into place. That the film is advertised as a ‘baap-beti jodi’ (the film is co-directed by his daughter Honeypreet) and includes his female relatives does nothing to redeem it.

Reviewers of MSG: The Lion Heart have laughed at its tackiness, much in the way the media laughed at Taher Shah’s latest song “Angel”. Few flagged the Muslim-hating and Hindutva-glorifying stuff, choosing to see Ram Rahim and his film as objects of ridicule instead. Barely any reportage on the film refers to the cases of rape and murder against him. Or to the fact that in February this year, comedian Kiku Sharda was arrested merely for mocking him.

With MSG: The Lion Heart, I didn’t care about the blinged-out costumes, or the soundtrack ripped off in parts from Game of Thrones, or the film set that looked like Bangalore’s Kemp Fort, or Ram Rahim’s wig of cascading curls, or even the fact that the hair on his upper arms and chest had been neatly shaved off in the third movie. The undisguised Islamophobia, the chanting of Ram-Ram and Om and Mahabharat references (so puzzling because Ram Rahim is Sikh), the disgusting, unabashed patriarchy hiding behind the fig leaf of ‘women’s empowerment’, are terrifying reminders of the world I currently live in.

In the way that we can choose to laugh at Baba Ramdev — fellow member of the Extremely Hairy Club — showing us his butt on the cover of India Today instead of paying attention to his multi-crore business expansion, in the way we chose to laugh at Donald Trump rather than take his political ambition seriously, we can choose to laugh at Ram Rahim’s clothes and pronunciation and delusions of grandeur and forget the allegations of criminal activity against him. But I believe treating Ram Rahim as a furrier version of Taher Shah won’t cut it.

Disclaimer : The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Newslaundry.com. Newslaundry.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.

The common Indian is a god-fearing and court-fearing person. Even the most powerful politicians are made to kneel before gods and the Gandhari of the Indian Justice system alike. Any criticism against either is done behind closed doors and whispered conspiratorially. Our judiciary (much like religion) is considered to be a (terrifying) shadow that follows our legislature everywhere and keeps it in check.

The confidence that people have in the judiciary seems to be extremely high — until they themselves have to go to court and ask for justice. Step into a chaotic court and this confidence in the country’s justice system simply erodes. The process is broken, long and expensive. Judges tend to give strange judgments like this recent one by the Supreme Court that said “a sex worker cannot file a case alleging rape if her customers refused to pay her”. Or this one where it upheld the constitutional validity of criminal defamation.

I’m just going to come out and say it: our judicial system is out of touch with reality. It is time to seriously think of reform. But the real tragedy is that any attempt to do so is being thwarted by the judiciary itself.

Way back in August 2014, in the wee little days of the Narendra Modi government, a bill was brought in that would dramatically change the ways our judges are appointed. It was called the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and was one of the first items on the legislative agenda of this government. It was a small attempt to reform our judicial system and change it for the better. But then, in October 2015, the judiciary stepped in and killed it.

This week’s column is about a grand battle between the two pillars of our democracy: the Legislature and the Judiciary, with the NJAC as its centrepiece.

Once upon a time…

There were three friends: Neta, Babu and Judge.

All three had expertise in different areas, so they banded together and decided to start an enterprise. Neta was a good leader and was therefore to take all the difficult decisions. Babu was good with management and was tasked with executing Neta’s decisions. Judge was good at problem solving, so he was supposed to make sure the customers were getting their due and treated fairly by the enterprise. Judge was also tasked with the onerous job of keeping Neta and Babu in check, in case they took weird decisions.

All of these functions were written down in a document which all of them agreed to and signed. Sort of like a constitution, which fleshed out the functioning of the enterprise and defined their roles.

The enterprise became bigger, more complex; the problems compounded. Yet, it functioned, somehow. The customers were more or less happy because the three friends worked as a team (most of the time) and delivered what was expected of them.

One day, Neta made a decision to enter the business of producing and selling booze. Babu was ordered to buy distilleries and set up shops to sell the product. Judge, who was a teetotaller, was not happy.

Judge: “Aie Neta, stop this nonsense. Booze is harmful and not fit for human consumption. Babu, I order you to stop whatever you are doing.”

Neta: “Harmful? Maybe! But so many of our customers enjoy drinking. Our profits will go batshit crazy. It’s a hot product, dear Judge. Babu, don’t listen to him, continue what you were doing.”

Babu: “Uhh… make a decision guys. I’m floating around in the void without a purpose here.”

Judge: “Stop!”

Neta: “Don’t stop!”

Judge: “Screw you!”

Neta: “Screw YOO!”

Babu: “…”

As often happens, disagreements led to bitterness and conflict. So Neta decided to change the rules of the game. He tried to fire Judge by changing the constitution. Neta declared that he would be the one who will appoint a new person to replace Judge.

Neta: “You’re holding me back bro. It’s time for us to grow. So you have to go. It’s time I took complete control over the enterprise. So… Bye!”

Judge: “Nope. Not happening. You tend to make stupid decisions and you need me to reign you in. I’m not going anywhere. The changes you made to the constitution are unconstitutional!”

Neta: “Uhh… That’s kind of a paradox, no?”

Judge: “It sure is, boy! Now go sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done!”

In this crazy situation, the number of customer complaints before Judge kept piling up without any resolution. The enterprise was in deep, deep trouble.

This is what is happening right now with our great democrazy.

Three Pillars

We have all learnt in our bachpan that our democracy is made up of three pillars: Legislature, Judiciary and Executive. They are all supposed to keep a check on each other so that they serve citizens efficiently. There are numerous cases where the Parliament passed laws, ordered the Bureaucrats to roll ‘em out, but the Judges stepped in and struck down that law.

So there are these big questions that needs to be answered:

• Which is the more powerful pillar?
• Is there such a thing as a ‘final decision’?
• Should the Legislature have ultimate power?
• Should the Judiciary have complete power to overrule the Legislature?
• Should the Legislature be allowed to appoint judges?

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government tried to answer the last question in August 2014 when they brought in the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). The point of the legislation was that the Parliament would be given the power to appoint judges.

“I HAVE THE POWER!”

Before we get into this law, we must talk about how judges were appointed before this epic intervention.

The Collegium

Collegium system is a process where a committee of the Chief Justice of India, four senior judges of the Supreme Court and three members of a high court (in case of appointments in the said high courts) take decisions related to appointments and transfer of judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts. What’s interesting is that this is a system that has been setup by the Judiciary themselves through three crucial judgments called the “Three Judge Cases”.

In other words, this system is not defined in our constitution!

The Three Judge Cases say:

• The court ruled that no other branch of the state – including the legislature and the executive – would have any say in the appointment of judges. (1981)
• The court went on to create the collegium system to appoint judges. (1993)
• Ex-President KR Narayanan, the supremest of them all, questioned the validity of the collegium system, which was struck down in the third case. (1998)

Simply put, the problem with this system is a paradox: “Who will judge the judges?”

The collegium has led to nepotism, corruption and just plain douchebaggery when appointments are made. The process is a closed system, super non-transparent and nobody really knows why a particular person was appointed. There have been numerous cases where people with better qualifications and better track records have been sidelined to make way for someone incompetent.

There have been numerous attempts to challenge the collegium, but every darn time the Supreme Court has struck it down. Then along came the present government and its attempt to scrap the collegium by passing the NJAC Bill, 2014. Parliament is supreme and can make changes in the constitution. So by that logic, it should be able to change the functioning of the judiciary too, right? RIGHT?

Apparently, no.

National Judicial Appointments Commission

The NJAC, passed by Parliament on August 14, 2014 with an insane majority, replaces the Collegium with a new commission. The Bill then became an Act. The new Act laid down the composition and functioning of the new appointments commission:

• From the Judiciary, there would be the Chief Justice and two judges of the Supreme Court.
• From the Legislature, there would be two eminent personalities and the Law minister.
• They would together take a call on the appointment of judges.
• In turn, the two eminent personalities would be picked by the PM, the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.

The composition of the NJAC was supposed to be a three-versus-three situation. There has been an attempt to balance out how much say the legislature and judiciary have. The simple reason being that it would be dangerous for our Netas to take over the appointments completely. Then there would be judges appointed who favour the current government, which would be kinda counterproductive.

The proposed NJAC was a sort of a compromise — both Parliament and the Court would have a say in appointments. It was a fine balancing act, which would give much joy to the country!

But the Supreme Court was not happy. On October 16, 2015, it declared the NJAC as unconstitutional and stuck it down, reverting to the old collegium system. The court said that the political element would destroy judicial independence. It also agreed to review the collegium system and accepted that it is flawed. In other words, the whole reform died a quiet death.

The Big Questions Remain

People might argue that our Parliament today is full of crooks. That we can’t trust our elected representatives with such a big task like judicial appointments. But this argument becomes ‘moo’ if you think long term.

Do you believe that our Parliament will *always* be full of crooks? Surely, there is hope, that sometime in the future we would get an efficient bunch of people within that circular building. At that point of time, would you then be able to trust the Parliament to be the most powerful pillar of the three?

Elected representatives are the voice of the people and Parliament is a process in continuity. The government is a creature of the legislature, not the other way round. Members of Parliament, they come and go, but the pillars they remain!

And it’s about time the will of the people reigns supreme.

I leave you with the Good People of PRS Legislative to explain the more technical aspects of the (now dead) National Judicial Appointments Bill, 2014.

Disclaimer : The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Newslaundry.com. Newslaundry.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.

In all the political and security-related heat, dust and noise that has been generated over the disturbances in Kashmir, the single most sinister development – the emergence of ‘child agitators’, or if you will, ‘Child Soldiers’, most of them teenagers and some in their pre-teens – seems to have somehow got side-lined. The pernicious phenomenon of Child Soldiers is neither new nor unique to Kashmir – it has manifested itself in many conflict theatres around the world, including Sierra Leone, Congo, Somalia, Syria (ISIS), Pakistan (most suicide bombers were teenagers). But wherever it has manifested, it has had devastating consequences for the society’s equilibrium and coherence. Not just Kashmir but also rest of India will pay a very heavy price in the not too distant a future if this issue isn’t addressed with the sensitivity, seriousness and sincerity it deserves. And yet, the entire issue has been reduced to anecdotal narration instead of having become a matter of central concern for both state and society.

The first time I heard of this phenomenon was at a round table discussion in Delhi where a senior Kashmiri journalist narrated, with a mix of horror and admiration, the story of a ‘checkpoint’ manned by 12-14 year old kids who were stopping all movement on the road. When they learned of a family travelling for Haj, they requested them to pray for their ‘shahadat’ (martyrdom). Another anecdote was about a particularly desperate family pleading with one of the kids (of around 12 years) to let them pass, he said he would need the nod of his ‘commander’ who was a 14 year old kid! Since then, there are any number of accounts of these ‘child soldiers’ who are beyond everyone’s control and have, in a sense, redefined the state of unrest in the Valley. Stories that evoke memories of the Cultural Revolution in China are now fairly common place in Kashmir, the only difference being that the Red Guards were under control of Mao and his coterie while in Kashmir the kids are pretty much running amok. They are assaulting teachers, browbeating officials, extorting money from traders, and deciding who gets to travel past their checkpoint and who must turn back. While many of these kids allegedly are getting paid for doing what they are doing, there doesn’t seem to be any real command and control system guiding them. There are also reports that many of these kids are junkies and get their high from opioid based cough syrups, which they sometimes buy from the proceeds of the money they get and often just snatch from local chemists.

The separatist leaders, whose own kids go to elite schools and are mostly kept out of harm’s way, are not just pretty blasé about this phenomenon but are actually quite encouraging it. Some of them, even as they publicly rave and rant about deaths in police firing, are in private quite smug over the deaths of kids – most of whom were not as innocent as they were made out to be and were in fact involved in launching murderous assaults on security force personnel when they fell to police firing – because that keeps the cycle of violence in play. In any case, these separatists no longer call the shots on the streets of Kashmir. But even if they did call the shots, it would be quite pointless to expect them to make any positive or sensible contribution to prevent kids from taking to streets. What is of greater concern is the dumbed-down, self-serving and rather lazy analysis of the phenomenon by allegedly seasoned observers of Kashmir. Essentially, they explain this phenomenon by saying that these are children of conflict. Asides of the fact that in India in general and in Kashmir in particular, there is no culture of doing serious psychological and sociological study of conflict and violence and how it impacts society – much of what passes off as serious analysis is really nothing more than anecdotes, stories and observations often tainted by ideological predilection of the narrator – the facts also don’t support the theory of children on conflict.

Kids who are 14-15 year today were born around the turn of the century, and the pre-teens even later. This means that most of these kids were around 2-3 years old around 2004, the year from which violence levels fell steeply year after year until 2015-16 when they started to rise once again but still remains far below the violence levels of the preceding decade. Clearly, if there are any children of conflict they are the ones who were either born in the 1990s or were growing up in those years, and not the ones born in the early 2000’s who grew up at a time of relative peace. In other words, more than being children of conflict, these kids are victims of conditioning (at the level of family, a sample of which comes from videos doing rounds on social media showing toddlers shouting slogans and behaving as ‘mujahids’) and indoctrination at the level of society, mosques and even schools. Many of these kids come from less than privileged backgrounds and live in a social milieu where peer pressure, braggadocio and faux bravado coupled with inadequate parental supervision or control pushes them along the path of violence to earn social respect and acceptability. While kids manning the barricades mouth the slogans of ‘Azadi’ and strut about like soldiers, it is too much to expect a 12 or 15 year old to understand the connotations of that term, much less be able to articulate the concept with any degree of coherence and clarity.

The separatists and their sympathisers and supporters are quick to point to these child soldiers as a sign of how even kids have risen up against India, but more discerning sections of the Kashmiri population see this as a societal breakdown and fear the short, medium and long term consequences of this phenomenon if it is not addressed and arrested. There is also a loathing developing against the high-handedness of these child soldiers who insult, even beat, elders. From a security point of view, this is an extremely dangerous development because it is precisely such kids who in other parts of the world have become suicide bombers. Jihadist terror outfits find these kids excellent cannon fodder. For the army and police officers, these kids create a serious dilemma. It is one thing for the security forces to fight terrorists who attack them and quite another for them to take on and fire on kids even if they are part of or leading a murderous mob. In the long term, unless weaned away from the destructive path they have embarked upon, these kids will become an even bigger security threat than what they are now. The bottom-line is that neither Kashmir nor India can afford to lose the GenNext of Kashmir to the fires of jihadist separatism.

The big challenge before the state and society is how to deradicalise these children. Arresting them and putting them through the mill is hardly an answer. In fact, many of these kids who have been picked up by the police and kept for a few days in police stations have come out even more hardened. The juvenile justice program is totally ill-equipped to tackle this problem. This means that something more innovative and effective will have to be considered. One such suggestion (from journalist Praveen Swami) is to pull these kids along with their families out of the environment in which they are caught and put them in rehabilitative facilities located within Kashmir for a few years. The kids can then be put through proper schooling and counselling and the parents can be given some employment or imparted some skills which help them once they go back home.

Clearly, the situation as it exists on ground in Kashmir cannot be allowed to fester endlessly. Ignoring or underplaying the phenomenon of child soldiers will only imperil security of the state and stability of society in the future. Instead of waiting for greater virulence to erupt in the months and years ahead, it would make more sense to start taking corrective measures and do whatever it takes to pre-empt the approaching tempest.

Disclaimer : The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Newslaundry.com. Newslaundry.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Thailand’s military government to lift a blanket censorship order on television news broadcasters imposed in the wake of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s death yesterday.

According to local news reports, all television news channels including foreign broadcasters were blocked and replaced with Royal Household Bureau footage eulogizing the Thai king. Local media were also barred from using Facebook live indefinitely, according to reports. Bhumibol, the world’s longest-serving monarch at the time of his death, reigned for 70 consecutive years.

Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said that broadcasting would return to normal at midnight after the mandated broadcast of the king’s coffin procession this afternoon. The government had planned to impose the ban for a full month but revoked the censorship order after complaints from local stations, the reports said.

“While CPJ sympathizes with the Thai people over the passing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, we lament that the government has resorted to crude censorship at this sensitive time,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “We urge military authorities to follow through on their promise to lift the ban and allow all journalists to report on this important story without threat or harassment.”

Sansern said that local television stations will be barred for a month from airing entertainment programs such as game shows and soap operas during a military-enforced period of national mourning. Thailand’s junta, installed in a May 2014 coup, has enforced broad media censorship directives, outlined in orders No. 97/2557 and No. 103/2557, that bar reporting that could “create confusion, instigate unrest, or deepen divisions among people” or is “malicious” or “misleading” about the military regime or its actions, CPJ research shows.

In July, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission was empowered to shutter media outlets, without the right of appeal, for reasons of national security. Under executive order 41/2559, the commission can block any broadcast news or information it deems “detrimental to the political system, or [that] may destabilize national stability or damage the moral values of the people,” reports said. Those powers have been used to pressure news stations to censor and suspend critical broadcasters, CPJ research shows.

Disclaimer : The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Newslaundry.com. Newslaundry.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.

Image Credit: Orbitcollection/Twitter

Although the state-wide Maratha silent rallies have been large and peaceful, the absence of a clear roadmap to achieving their goals and the lack of a single leader has resulted in simmering frustration among the people. Initially protesting the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kopardi in July 13, the rally also saw the community demand reservation for Marathas and a scrapping of the atrocities act, among other things. Adding to this is the fact that most of farmers who have committed suicide in the state are Marathas. The rallies, most ranging from 1-10 lakh people, popularly known as ‘Maratha Kranti muk Morcha’ or Silent Maratha revolution March, will culminate on October 25 in Nagpur. However, there are allegations of these rallies have an innate anti-Dalit undertone.

As now things stand, the state of Maharashtra is truly at a tipping point. Reports on attacks on Dalits followed the allegations of a 5-year old girl being molested on October 11 in Anjani village in Nashik district, saw a curfew in as many as eight villages. In a first, the government blocked internet services in these villages in the wake of violent protests. A criminal write petition filed in the Bombay High Court by Babybai Shinde states that her children were assaulted but the police did not even share a copy of the FIR. The petition alleges that the police are not registering any another complaint. The High court, in response, has asked the state government to check whether an FIR has been lodged or not. Although there is no direct involvement of the Maratha Morcha in this incident, that no major leaders have acknowledged and condemned the attack is telling.

The Maratha rallies have been successful on two counts: They have showcased their strength in numbers by taking to the streets and secondly they have brought to fore the demands and plights of farmers. The cautious and sympathetic reactions from all political parties who are getting extremely nervous about the fallout from the Mocha is testimonial of this. That also explains why parties are blaming each other for the plight of the Marathas.

SC And the ST (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act – The bone of contention

But reservation for Marathas and farmer’s issues are not the only priority demands. There is a widespread belief among the Marathas that the SC And the ST (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is being misused by Dalits and schedule tribes against them in villages. Three of the accused in the Kopardi rape and murder are reportedly backward communities.

Marathas, who often form the dominant group in the village structure and as a result are politically powerful, are accusing the numerically smaller Scheduled Castes and tribes of threatening them with fake atrocities cases. Statistically, there is no data to suggest that the law is being misused grossly. Traditionally, it is rare to find arrests in atrocity cases as more often than not FIRs are simply not registered. The Nashik incident proves this point. The court had to intervene and take the police to task for not filing an FIR. The Maratha Morcha needs to take a stand and denounce the acts of violence being done in their name.

The National Crime Record Bureau data as per 2010 shows the abysmally low conviction rate in the cases filed under this law. A below 3% conviction in the state of Maharashtra should have automatically meant that there should have been an outrage about the travesty of justice. In this, Maharashtra was worse than even the so called BIMARU states.

Some aggressive Marathas like Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Member of parliament Udayanraje Bhosale believes so and have called for a complete repeal of the atrocity act while others like Sharad Pawar have asked for amendments and stricter punishment for those who misuse it. This is despite the fact that filing false cases is already punishable under the IPC.

The only way to include more castes in the reservations quota is to expand the total quota to above the limit through a constitutional amendment, as was done by the Tamil Nadu government, which has 69 per cent reservations. The implementation of the Swaminathan Iyer commission and issues revolving fair price forward produce is comparatively easier to accomplish than the issue of reservation and amendments to the atrocity act. Sadly, there are enough people who would be happy to incite Marathas against the Dalits and vice-versa to avoid looking at the more serious questions related to famers and the call for Maratha reservation.
Maratha-Kunbi relation

The Marathas also have another concern — confusion over whether the Kunabi and Maratha castes are same. The Kunabi community is on the OBC list but Marathas are not. Some Marathas do not want that association, as they say Shivaji Maharaja was a Kshtriya. But scholar and author Sadanand More says that Maratha and Kunabi are the same. If a person lifts a plough then he is a Kunbi and as he raises a sword, a Maratha.

The need of the hour is for the Maratha and Dalit leadership to come together and issue joint statements for peace and harmony. The Marathas must realise that their enemy are not Dalits or OBCs or the reservation given to them but the establishment and social systems that have prevented their overall progress. It is important that Maratha leaders such as More and Bharat Patankar come forward and guide the movement. Dalits protestors too must also stop their counter-protests in support of the atrocity act – even Prakash Ambedkar, has warned that they are counter-productive.

As the Maratha Mocha culminates in Nagpur this month, it must condemn violence and disavow the vitriolic whatsapp groups that have sprung up, spreading venom against Dalits while claiming to speak for the Morcha. Recently, the police arrested seven people, including the administrator of such a group for “promoting disharmony” in the wake of Nashik.

The Maratha agitation is at the crossroads. If the energy is channelized correctly, it will be revolutionary, If not, it could seriously jeopardize the communal harmony of the state.

Disclaimer : The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Newslaundry.com. Newslaundry.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.

The murder of Monika Ghurde in Goa last week had more than one victim. As news of the gruesome act spread, peppered with many salacious details, single urban women under fire from well meaning friends and family, became collateral damage. It recalled the murders of lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha and artist Hema Upadhyay under similar circumstances, murders reeking of revenge and power, ostensibly a result of their liberal lifestyles and devil may care attitudes. Fathers who worried about their single daughters living by themselves exhorted them to be careful. Women who lived alone— divorced, single, separated, widowed—started conversations they never wanted to. How to look out for themselves and each other? How to be more careful?

Is there ever a time, though, that women are not careful? Armed with cellphones programmed to speed dial, keys handy at all time, pepper spray on shoot mode, looking over their shoulder at frequent intervals, they are on high alert all the time. The fear quotient peaks after sunset, as if the darkness of the night, not the darkness of the heart, is responsible for the danger that looms. Being careful they seek the company of other people whenever possible, take cabs instead of public transport even when they can’t afford it, and text the number to a friend. Fear is their natural instinct, deeply programmed in their genes, a friend that they hope will keep them safe.

And yet these women who have elevated carefulness to a finely honed craft, are told their efforts are not enough. Eternal vigilance means not just changing their routines but their very inner selves. Because Pallavi’s and Monika’s were not crimes of passion, but acts of revenge by men who felt slighted, when the power equations shifted. When women, a species they had always controlled, had the temerity to order them about.

Urban women do this every day without thought. It comes naturally to them, an aggressiveness and loud voice born out of confidence in their abilities and out of necessity to deal with men who would otherwise ignore their instructions. They loudly berate the invariably late television technician or water purifier maintenance man for wasting their working day. The idea of a woman at work is of course a concept entirely alien to the said man, for whom a woman’s place is in the home. They fight with the rickshaw driver publicly, sometimes with expletives thrown in, when he overcharges or takes a wrong route, which is often. They rage at the watchman for sleeping on duty, not ready to accept the fact that all watchmen consider sleep as one of the perks of a boring, underpaid job.

To other women, these rants seem completely reasonable, a professional telling another to up their game, get the job right, or leave. However, to the men it is directed at, men with fragile egos already bruised by class difference, men forced to bear the brunt of the rages of their male superiors without any avenue of retaliation, these are ravings of what they imagine is a mad woman. To them the confidence the woman seeks to project is arrogance. And to the men in her life, well meaning, but with perhaps greater empathy towards the fragile masculinity of the male help she rages at, it is yet another opportunity to counsel carefulness.

Being careful now involves more than a change in routine. It is not the darkness outside that she has to worry about anymore, but the one within. It means questioning her very sense of self, accepting that her actions, not society’s diktats are at fault. It means changing the core of her character, not for anything as lofty as self-actualization, but to cater to the patriarchal mindset of those she fears could be her aggressors. Safety lies now in curbing her natural anger and flashing a demure smile. Safety lies in letting ignorance be, not pushing back against a particular errant individual, for the entire system is rigged against her. Safety lies in not holding a man under her accountable for his unprofessional conduct, never complaining, sacking or even threatening to do so.

For these men hold the trump card. They know where she lives.

What Monika and Pallavi had in common, apart from their unconventional relationship choices (Monika was separated, Pallavi had a live-in boyfriend), is the fact that they dared to have a voice, to complain against their murderers. That was their undoing, for the men they complained about were men unused to women like them. Independent women, who came home when they wanted, spoke as they pleased and slept with whomever they chose. Modern women who had managed to shrug off the cloak of patriarchy in their own families, but could hardly wall themselves off from the rest of society where they were seen as outliers. This particular type of woman deserved revenge, thought these men, and meticulously planned it.

Monika’s attacker lay in wait for her on the terrace for two whole days, before entering her flat and extracting what he thought was his due. Pallavi’s murderer brought a knife fifteen days in advance, and on the night of the killing, staged a power outage to steal her keys and gain access to her home. These were no crimes of passion, committed in a burst of anger, but well thought out attacks where these women paid for their freedom with their lives. And their murderers were no hardened criminals or serial offenders, but victims of a toxic masculinity channeled to uncontrollable rage.

The honour killings of women for transgressing family and clan norms come from this same mindset of women not staying within the prescribed boundaries. As do the many acid attacks that are acts of revenge by insecure men for rejections, real or perceived. The perpetrators see their actions as righteous and bear no traces of guilt. But the scars these cause the women both physical, as in the case of the victims of acid attacks, and mental for the ones that survive, never go away. Scars that remind the woman that it is her actions, not that of her attackers, her being her natural self, that is the root cause of her trauma.

It is all very well in all these cases to say that the victims must not be blamed, that clothes or lifestyles don’t matter, but scores of women changing their very character, means that in the end the onus is upon them. Drilling it into women again and again to be careful, every time incidents like the ones above occur, is how our victim blaming culture works. In an ideal world, a rape prevention campaign would be aimed at rapists, rather than exhorting already hyper vigilant women to be more careful. It would mean teaching men about consent, about raising them without entitlement, never ever saying men will be men.

Instead women are advised to speak softly. Smile more, for they look better when they smile, they are told, better a not so subtle code for non-threatening. And so women are forever prepared to be pleasant even in the face of danger. Making infinite adjustments to make others feel comfortable. Smiling through their rage at the refrigerator repairman who was supposed to arrive hours ago. Overcompensating the lazy security guard with a Diwali bonus bestowed with cheery greetings. It is a posturing that they are getting used to, always ready to perform with the strength and skill born out of experience.

Giving up the resistance of their younger selves and staying silent may appear to be the easier choice, but it is not. While it may lend an illusion of safety, women learn to hate themselves for what they see as their complicity in perpetuating patriarchal attitudes, for they know deep down that their silence is endorsement.

As they start conversations with each other, identifying themselves as a heterogeneous group of unsafe women, checking up on each others’ whereabouts, as phones ping in the darkness of the night flashing Uber driver details and safety message updates, woman are losing more than just the justifiable anger they are entitled to. With each ping comes a corresponding loss—of spontaneity, of freedom, of the very concept of carefreeness.

Disclaimer : The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Newslaundry.com. Newslaundry.com does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.

Live from New Jersey, on Saturday night, Donald Trump claimed he is “a big fan of Hindu”. For a fleeting moment, we were stumped. After all, The Hindu is often perceived as tilting towards the Left. How is it, then, that Trump, whose presidential campaign has brought the Right-wing fringe into the mainstream, is a big fan? As it turned out, the Republican candidate was simply referring to India and not to the newspaper.

At Edison’s New Jersey Convention and Expo Center, Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC) hosted “Humanity United Against Terror”, a charity event for the benefit of “victims of terror throughout the world with particular emphasis on Kashmiri Pundits and Hindu refugees from Bangladesh”. It’s about an hour from Asbury Park, immortalised in the title of Bruce Springsteen’s debut album.

For decades, the heartland rocker has been the voice of blue collar White Americans, many of whom, in a strange turn of irony, have now gravitated towards Trump.

Springsteen’s Born in the USA has been co-opted by many conservative politicians – most famously Ronald Reagan, which elicited a response from ‘The Boss’.

At Saturday’s charity event, the misunderstood anthem made an appearance, not the first time it has been used at a Trump rally. Springsteen, needless to say, didn’t – as far as the Republican nominee is concerned, Springsteen has made his views clear, most recently in a recent interview to Rolling Stone, in which the singer-songwriter said “the republic is under siege by a moron.” 

For the RHC, though, it is Trump who is ‘The Boss’, never mind allegations of sexual assault. The coalition’s founder-chairman, Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar, shrugged it off as “locker room banter” while talking to Indian news channels like NDTV and CNN-News18. It was the same line of defence as Trump himself, who gave the explanation to multiple media outlets. The one to India’s very own Times Now, though, was overshadowed by the interviewer, Newsmobile editor-in-chief Saurabh Shukla, calling Trump a “real man” twice.

That wasn’t the only occasion when the American presidential nominee was trumped by someone from India – or as Trump likes to call it, Hindu. At RHC’s charity event, Trump was the keynote speaker. The star attractions, though, were celebrities from Bollywood and further down south — including but not limited to Prabhu Deva, Malaika Arora and Shriya Saran. The song and dance included two grooving couples being ‘rescued’ by ‘Navy Seals’ from ‘Jihadists’ wielding lightsabers (Jedi green and not Dark Side red for some reason), and a Michael Jackson impersonator, apart from Born in the USA. And there were videos by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Anupam Kher, the latter on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits.

We at Newslaundry were curious about what the celebrity participants thought about Trump’s political views – on immigration, on Muslims, on women. What did they feel about being part of the event in the light of the recent sexual assault controversy? What about Kher, who was not in attendance – did he give his consent for his video to be used? We tried to get in touch with the actor but could not get through. This piece will be  updated once we get a response from him.

Those at the event and in Twitter, could not get enough of the bizarre. There was, of course, Trump on a lotus – red, white and blue, not saffron. There were flyers accusing Hillary Clinton, Sonia Gandhi and NGOs for trying to pin the blame for the 2002 Gujarat riots on Narendra Modi but finding buffalo bones instead of mass graves; one of the sources mentioned is NewsX. There were placards saying: “Trump for faster green cards”. And then there was Trump, shifting India’s Parliament to Mumbai.

At least he didn’t Bangalore it.

This week, Abhinandan Sekhri gives his tippani on Saurabh Shukla, the Times Now gold standard for “Manly” journalism.The first thing they teach you at journalism school is how to ask hard hitting questions. But preface them with a wildly inappropriate compliment before segueing your way into them. The second thing they teach you, presumably, is to fact check. Not sure if you’ve nailed the interview you’ve just conducted? Conduct a follow up interview to discuss the first one. Trumpet your excellence.