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The unseemly haste and rough manner in which Prime Minister Modi and his Communications Ministry rushed through the Telecommunications Bill in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha not only reveals their muscular, majoritarian psyche but also the regime’s apathy towards (or fear of) debate.
Now that as many as 14 Lok Sabha MPs, including senior ones like DMK’s Kanimozhi and Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien, have all been suspended, let’s get the facts clear. They were all protesting vociferously against the Union home minister’s failure to ensure security of parliament on December 13. The Bharatiya Janata Party MP who was responsible for permitting those who burst tear-gas canisters in the Lok Sabha is scot free till the time of writing. The irony is, however, that 15 Opposition MPs were punished, on the majorityparty BJP’s resolution, for shouting heated slogans (defying the chair) and demanding that the prime minister or the home minister explain to parliament why the major security lapse happened.
As we head to the last day of Navratri it may be good to observe how Hinduism brought together dissimilar customs and rituals in harmony and mutual respect — with no single theme thrusting itself on any. All Hindus agree on the same nine days and ten nights in autumn, but after that, the observances in different regions contrast quite a lot — as the ‘local’ adjusts itself within the ‘universal’.
Durga in her present form incorporates different streams, like Simha Vahini (the goddess who rides the lion), the Mahishasura Mardini (one who slays the Buffalo-Demon) and the Dashabhuja or ten-armed goddess. They evolved in different stages and ages.
It took everyone by surprise when Narendra Modi, who never spares a trick to ‘elevate’ his standing, decided to deliberately ‘downgrade’ his social status and assert forcefully and unambiguously that he belongs to a socioeconomically backward caste. After years of studied silence on his caste status, Modi decided to claim the OBC mantle and attacked the Congress mercilessly for “hating” him for it.
Some MPs say that a bulletin must have been issued but most of us seem to have missed it, if at all one was sent. Thus, till the afternoon before, no one knew for sure whether the entire apparatus of the parliament of India would shift, lock, stock and barrel, to the reportedly-swank new building next door on September 19.
There is no doubt that the increasing politicisation of the bureaucracy has been corroding, for quite some time, the pillars on which fair and efficient administration rest. The pains taken by the founding fathers of our constitution to protect and insulate the civil service from political interference had ensured a large degree of neutrality, for several decades — except perhaps during the Emergency. What is more important is that it created a culture of looking down at any suspiciously close liaison between politicians and bureaucrats (for mutual personal gain) to be illicit and adulterous.
As the Modi government’s much-hyped ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ ( immortal celebration of our independence) gathers momentum, one is likely to fall prey to two impressions that are sought to be conveyed. The first is that the present regime is more firmly wedded to the principles of nationalism than others and the second is the utter devotion with which it remembers the nation’s struggle for independence.
The suspension of Professor KS James, Director of the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) appears unwarranted, mischievous, and quite untenable. By shooting the messenger, the Narendra Modi government has also sent a message – the Centre does not want to face any reality.
Few can deny that India is seared right through, over several vexing issues, among which is whether the two sacred epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are actually history or just myths. There is hardly any middle ground, as rationalists and left- liberals are absolutely certain that the epics are only myths, while a large section of Hindus refuse to believe they are not historical.
Five months ago, on January 16, 2023, The Wire published an article on How in First Eight Years of Modi Government, Nearly Rs 12 Lakh Crore ‘Disappeared'. The humongous amount of Rs 12 lakh crore was calculated partly on the basis of actual numbers revealed by the government in parliament for five of the ‘eight-year period’ and on extrapolations and estimates where actual figures were not available.
Narendra Modi is in a hurry to tattoo his signature right across the chest of Delhi even after his costly gambit of redoing an already splendid Central Vista (Rajpath) flopped at the box-office. He had blocked the central artery of Delhi for almost three years, dug all around, pumped tonnes of pollutants into the city’s notoriously noxious air, sent traffic haywire, and blown up some 700 crore rupees. But when the new ‘Kartavya Path’ was inaugurated with orchestrated flourish, even the moles of the area yawned and went back to their burrows around the Boat Club.
The BBC’s telecast in January immediately triggered highly inflammable memories of communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, when Narendra Modi was the chief minister. These wounds were just too raw to be touched, even after Modi’s professionals had adroitly managed to cover them up, with the assistance of several legal eagles and the indulgence of judicial officials and those even higher up. Modi has been pronounced “not guilty” on certain specific narrow charges, for the present and to the extent possible, but many other questions continue to fly, all around, thick and fiery. This riot, in which over a thousand people – mainly Muslims – were slaughtered simply refuses to behave and lie still in its grave.
Having watched Narendra Modi for nine years, of which more than two were spent “in his government” – as head of a national organisation – I can state with certainty that every action of his has an ulterior motive of helping someone make huge profits. I guess these crony capitalists, in turn, look after Modi’s needs. But what is more important is how the state machinery is calibrated to suit the requirements of these beneficiaries
May Day was not born in the Soviet Union — but in Capitalist America, to become a universal symbol of the rights and might of the working class. On the 1st of May 1886, the American Federations of Labour organised large assemblies of workers in Chicago and other parts of the USA.
For a government that constantly measures the ‘productivity’ of parliament in terms of hours or minutes wasted in non legislative business, this Budget session that has just ended ‘sine die’ would normally have been really heart-breaking. Data just released shows that Lok Sabha’s productivity had fallen from 83.8% in the first part of the Budget session that ended in February to just 5.29% in the second part in March-April. Over 96 hours and 13 minutes were lost to disruptions in the Lok Sabha, while they claimed 103 hours and 30 minutes in the Rajya Sabha. Whatever Modi and his captive media may propagate, Houses of parliament are not some sort of industrial assembly lines of production where machines and numbers matter the most. What is not noticed is despite its apparent futility, this latter part of the Budget session has been extremely productive in bringing the Opposition together.
Seventy-three years may not be enough to pronounce a judgement on whether parliamentary democracy has worked in India or not. In a democracy, it is the lowest common denominator that prevails, and hence, it is futile to accept only Pericleses in the rough and tumble of the demos. But it is this same Indian parliament that has managed, without doubt, to bring together under one roof, into some sort of dialogue, the incredibly diverse peoples, ethnicities, and religious denominations. Issues are settled in Sansad through debate – sometimes, a bit too loudly. But let us not forget that some of today’s participants had once favoured the gun rather than talk. In just seven decades, governments and the parliament have, indeed, succeeded in cooling off numerous intractable sectarian and secessionist passions. The first election to the Lower House (Lok Sabha) will go down in history as one of those wonders that only Indians are capable of demonstrating – maybe once or twice in a century.
The nomination of Indian-American businessman Ajay Banga as president of the World Bank has drawn praise and support from Nobel Laureates to global philanthropists and other personalities. Banga was nominated to the post by United States President Joe Biden on February 24.
It can be debated whether India qualifies as the world’s leader (“Vishwaguru”), or is home to the world’s longest queue – around 810 million – for free foodgrains. But some Indians have made it really big – overseas. They are the stuff of legends that struggling middle-class parents dream of as they hound their own children towards success.
The government’s concern at the circulation of patently false news items is quite understandable as there is a noticeable rise in the visibility of such items circulating on the social media. In fact, 2023 is the tenth year since this new weapon was added to the arsenal of India’s major political parties. These items stir up emotions, for or against the regime, and whip up rage at perceived attacks and insults on one’s religion. There are clear reasons to assume that several hordes of people or teams must be working overtime to disseminate them in order to raise the temperature in people’s minds with these distortions of the truth.
1. Three fourth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions result from burning of fossil fuels for energy and everyone agrees that the world must rid itself of these fossil fuels that endanger human and other forms of life. Half a century ago, we were told to produce energy at any cost, but in this century, the mission is to move to cleaner renewable energy resources. The important question now is by when will we be able to use only or mainly renewable resources for energy generation. By we, I refer to both India and the world, but in this talk we shall restrict ourselves only to India.
There are reasons to believe that some 12 lakh crore rupees have been systematically siphoned off from banks in the first 8 years of Narendra Modi’s rule — mainly by big corporate borrowers,. This was/is done quite ‘legitimately’ by taking loans for units and then getting them written off as unrecoverable non-performing assets (NPAs) The scale of that is 4 to 6 times higher than the internationally accepted norm. Obviously such a massive but smooth operation is simply not possible without complete political backing. Every GM, ED or CMD of a bank knows that when he is told by someone representing the core of political power “to lend to X”, he jolly well does it.