ASTEROID SHINES ‘TEN TIMES BRIGHTER THAN MOON’ IN ASTOUNDING FOOTAGE



The flash was approximately 10 times brighter than a full moon
Adam Smith@adamndsmith
3 days ago

A meteor crashed and burned in Earth’s atmosphere over the US and Canada, with astonishing footage by a 24-hour streaming camera.

Footage picked up by the live webcam service EarthCam shows an object passing by the CN tower in Toronto.

EarthCam

@EarthCam

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

Is it a meteor?

At the same moment in time, our cameras that face the CN tower in Toronto caught this object. We're not sure what it is or whether it is related. Follow the red circle and you tell us! Comment below! @TourCNTower

3:38 PM · Dec 2, 2020

162

101 people are Tweeting about this

The website tweeted a GIF of the fireball, which appeared with a huge flash of light, at the same moment as a bird flies past the tower. It is unclear if the two events are related.

“The flash was probably about 10 times brighter than the moer of Toronto residents saw the meteor at approximately noon local time on Wednesday, according to CTV News.
on, the full moon,” Dr Denis Vida, from the University of Western Ontario’s physics and astronomy department, said.

“At that moment the body either completely disintegrated or lost a lot of mass.”

At the same time, over 150 reports were made about a fireball seen at that time – although the average time of those sightings was in the evening, rather than in the middle of the day.

It is estimated that the meteror was the size of a basketball, entering the atmosphere at a 45-degree angle approximately 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of New York.

It was travelling at an estimated 100,000 kilometers (62,000 miles) an hour, but scientists are still unsure whether the rock made it to Earth.

A sonic boom was also heard across New York; For meteors, however, that’s comparatively slow. Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, told NBC that its slow entry speed suggests that it could have come from a larger asteroid.

“To have something so close to a major city, that's pretty rare,” Robert Lunsford, of the American Meteor Society, said.

Two weeks ago, another huge meteor was seen over the southern coast of Tasmania. The incredible footage shows its bright green debris, which shot over the research vessel Investigator.

A fireball that fell to Earth in 2018 was recently found to be containing “pristine extraterrestrial organic compounds” that could help tell us how life formed, according to scientists. 

ASTEROID SKIMMED PAST EARTH ON FRIDAY 13TH BUT WASN’T SPOTTED UNTIL NEXT DAY

Asteroid 2020 VT4 passed by the Earth as close as the International Space Station

Adam Smith@adamndsmith
3 days ago

A low-flying asteroid missed the Earth by only a few hundred miles on Friday the 13th – and was not noticed until the next day.

The asteroid, called 2020 VT4, was spotted 15 hours later by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System survey at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

It passed by our planet under 400 kilometers (240 miles) away, which is approximately the same distance that the International Space Station orbits Earth.

As such, asteroid- 2020 VT4 sets the record for the closest recorded non-meteroric asteroid pass of the Earth.

It was approximately six meters in diameter, flying over the South Pacific Ocean. Its encounter with the Earth “shortened its orbit, ensuring that this Earth-crosser will make more frequent close approaches”, Tony Dunn, who runs the website Orbit Simulator, tweeted. 

Should the asteroid have stuck the Earth, it would have burned up in its atmosphere leaving a meteoric trail behind it. Nasa says that it would require an asteroid larger than 25 meters but smaller than one kilometre to do local damage to the Earth.

However, an asteroid larger than one to two kilometres could have worldwide effects.

The record for an asteroid passing closest to the Earth was already broken once this year.

Asteroid 2020 QG came just 1,830 miles over the southern Indian Ocean on Sunday, according to Zwicky Transient Facility, a robotic camera that scans the sky in search of space phenomena.

That asteroid was also particularly small – approximately three to six meters across, which is roughly the size of a large car.

An object of that size passes close by the Earth approximately every year, but spotting them is challenging. Space agencies such as Nasa need to track these objects in case they come close enough to put the Earth in danger.

Asteroid- 2020 VT4 is also not the only space debris to pass by the Earth on a particularly unlucky day.

One asteroid, called Apophis, is approximately 300 meters in size making it comparable to the Eiffel Tower.

It is expected to pass close by the Earth on Friday the 13th, 2029, before returning again in 2068.

EU trade unions worried that Barnier is letting UK slash workers’ rights too far in Brexit deal

‘Ratchet clauses’ on labour standards could be dropped at UK insistence 

Jon Stone Policy Correspondent @joncstone 2 Hours Ago

BELGIUM-EU-BRITAIN-BREXIT-DIPLOMACY
(POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

European trade unions are worried that the UK will be able to undercut EU workers' rights under Brexit concessions being considered by Michel Barnier, The Independent has learned.

A letter from the general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) to Michel Barnier warns of "concern" that compromises on the so-called "level playing field" mean they are not "sufficiently robust" to protect workers.

The warning comes just 48 hours before the end of talks, with the possibility of a deal still unclear but both sides closing in on a common text.

Trade union officials in Brussels with their ear to the ground believe Mr Barnier's team has dropped insistence on a so-called "ratchet clause" that would ensure the UK keeps its labour, product, and environmental standards at the same level as the EU.

ThE EU had insisted on these clauses to prevent the UK from being able to undercut the EU in the future, but is now reportedly open to a simple "non-regression" clause that would provide less protection.

"We have learned with concern that of late the conversation around the level playing field (LPF) seem to have focused mainly on the issue of state aid regulation," Luca Visentini, the general secretary of the ETUC said in the 7 December letter, seen by The Independent.

"As for avoiding giving the UK an unfair competitive advantage on labour rights, there seems to be talks around a non-regression clause but not much around the concept of a ratchet clause to ensure the parties – and the UK in particular – continue in their path of upward convergence and uphold the highest standards."

He added: "If this is indeed the case, the ETUC shares the concern of those member states that do not believe the LPF guarantees are sufficiently robust to protect their business and workers from unfair competition.

"Equally, if the enforcement of the labour provisions consists exclusively of UK domestic enforcement of labour rights, workers in Europe would not be protected against the risk of downward pressure.

"The UK government has made no mystery of its intention to use regulatory sovereignty to regain competitiveness. As a result, workers in the EU would become vulnerable to undercutting."

Under the weaker "non-regression clause" model, both parties would simply agree to not reduce their workers' rights below their current level at the end of the transition period.

But a more powerful ratchet clause, which the EU was originally insisting on, would take into account future improvements in standards, and would see both sides pledge to upgrade theirs in tandem, albeit independently.

There would be a common forum for coordinating upgrades, and a dispute resolution mechanism if one side was seen to be dragging its feet.
The letter to Michel Barnier
(The Independent) CLICK ON TO ENLARGE

The "level playing field" for regulations and standards is one of the three remaining issues in regulations, alongside fishing rights and dispute resolution.

The ETUC is the largest European-level representative of trade unions and covers 89 trade union confederations in 39 different European countries. It is the European counterpart of the British TUC, which is a constituent member.

Mr Barnier told MEPs earlier on Monday that struggling trade negotiations will not continue past Wednesday, painting a gloomy picture of the "endgame" of talks

The deadline comes ahead of a summit of the 27 EU prime ministers and presidents in Brussels on Thursday. The meeting is widely seen as the last formal opportunity for the EU leaders to sign off an agreement.

Diplomats from EU member states say Mr Barnier was downbeat when he updated them earlier on Monday morning, dismissing reports that there had been a breakthrough on the issue of fishing.

He is said to have warned that the two sides were also still apart on the questions of governance, and of fair competition for British businesses – the two other longstanding sticking points.

The chief negotiator is said to have given the impression that the latter issue will be the hardest to overcome.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney told Irish public broadcaster RTE that Mr Barnier had given a “very gloomy" and "downbeat” assessment of the prospects of a deal.

“Having heard from Michel Barnier this morning, really the news is very downbeat. I would say he is very gloomy, and obviously very cautious about the ability to make progress today," he said.

"There was news last night on some media sources that there was a breakthrough on fishing. That is absolutely not the case from what we’re hearing this morning.

“There really was no progress made yesterday, that’s our understanding and so we’ve got to try to make a breakthrough at some point today, before the two principals, the Commission president and the prime minister speak later on this evening.

“Unfortunately, I’d like to be giving more positive news, but at the moment these negotiations seem stalled, and the barriers to progress are still very much in place."

Back in Westminster, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly insisted that a trade agreement was "nearly there" but warned that negotiators may not be successful in time.

Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU  Show all 66



"The vast majority of the elements of this agreement have been resolved and we're now hanging on a small number of important areas where we don't have agreement," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The lack of progress at the weekend is bad news for the prospects of avoiding a no-deal exit from the single market, which will happen automatically on 31 December if nothing is agreed by then.

Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen are set to talk again this evening over the telephone to take stock of whether negotiators have made any ground today.

A Downing Street spokesperson appeared to dispute the deadline, telling reporters in Westminster: “Time is obviously now in very short supply, and we are in the final stages, but we are prepared to negotiate for as long as we have time available if we think an agreement is still possible."

Pakistan asks India to ensure protection of Muslims

The Newspaper's Staff Reporter Updated 07 Dec 2020

Pakistan has urged the Indian government to ensure safety, security and protection of minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship. — File photo

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has urged the Indian government to ensure safety, security and protection of minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship, and fulfil its responsibilities under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments, including the recommendations of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

“Today is a sad reminder of the demolition of the historic Babri Masjid in India. On this day, 28 years ago, Hindu zealots of the RSS-inspired BJP, backed by the state apparatus, demolished the centuries-old mosque in Ayodhya in an abominable act of anti-Muslim frenzy and blatant violation of religious and international norms,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement on Sunday.

Pakistan also called upon the international community, the United Nations and relevant international organisations to play their role in preserving the Islamic heritage sites in India from the extremist ‘Hindutva’ regime and ensure protection of minorities in India.

The FO said that painful scenes of the demolition of Babri Mosque in 1992 still remained fresh in the minds of not only Muslims but all conscionable persons in the world.

Slams acquittal of criminals responsible for demolition of Babri Mosque

“The new illegitimate structure, which the Hindutva-driven BJP has campaigned for and is bent upon constructing as part of its agenda of converting India into a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, is a scar on the face of so-called ‘largest democracy’ in the world,” it added.

The statement said that flawed judgment of the Indian Supreme Court in the Babri Mosque case in November 2019 not only reflected the preponderance of faith over justice but also the growing majoritarianism in today’s India, where minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship, were increasingly under attack.

It said that the recent shameful acquittal of the criminals responsible for demolishing the Babri Mosque in 1992 represented another egregious travesty of justice.

The FO said the extreme haste in starting construction of a temple at the Babri Mosque site amidst the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic, anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act, the looming National Register of Citizens to disenfranchise Muslims, the targeted killings of Muslims in Delhi with state complicity in February 2020, and other anti-Muslim measures pointed to the fact how Muslims in India were being systematically demonised, dispossessed, marginalised and subjected to targeted violence.

It said that the OIC had passed numerous resolutions, condemning the odious act of demolishing the historic Mosque. “Recently, at the 47th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers held at Niamey, the OIC called upon the Indian government to take immediate steps to implement its commitment to reconstruct the Babri Mosque on its original site and to punish those responsible for its demolition, prevent the construction of temple on its site, take immediate steps to ensure the protection of the other 3,000 mosques, and ensure the safety and protection of the Muslims and Islamic holy sites throughout India,” read the statement.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2020

What PM Imran Khan and Hamza Ali Abbasi got wrong about family values in Pakistan
Women are routinely abused and silenced within 

our so called "family system".

So why is the PM calling it our strength?

Hamza Ali Abbasi's always been a big PM Imran Khan fan, so you can imagine the actor was over the moon when he got to sit down with the prime minister and pick his brain.

In the hour long interview, the duo's conversation was a little all over the place yet going around in circles as they spoke about the lasting effects of colonisation, the role of media in shaping the nation and accountability, among other things. But what grabbed our attention was the PTI chairman reiterating multiple times how Pakistan's strength is our family system.




"When I was growing up, Pakistan was heavily influenced by colonisation and the west. Previously, this strong hold was in the form of slavery but today, it is in the form of mental slavery," he said. "While you despise those who control you, in a way you also get influenced by them, looking up to them and wanting to be like them."

"Previously, the divorce rate abroad was 1 in 14, and 30 years later, it increased to 70%," he added a little later.

Speaking about a rising divorce rate in South Asian communities, Khan said the more we look towards the west and adopt their "immoral mannerisms", the more we'll see a ripple effect of that in our own society, chipping away at our traditional familial values and norms, which are supposedly so great.

Read: Imran Khan knows nothing about motherhood and feminism, so we wrote him a cheat sheet

Also read: PM Imran Khan says Aurat March is a result of cultural differences like it's a bad thing

While we as a country love pride themselves on our culture and the respect we have for the sanctity of marriage, we are often quick to forget that the entire arrangement is largely based on the sacrifices of women, who because of the stigma surrounding divorce, chose to suffer in silence for decades on end.

Twitter user Sundus Saleemi hit the nail on the head with this thread:










Many others chimed in, reminding Khan about all those marginalised by our so-called family system:













Here's hoping that those in charge of policy making, such as Khan, stop living in denial about what our culture has come to entail and start calling a spade a spade. Blaming the west for everything wrong in our own backyard won't do us any favours.

REIFICATION TIMES

“Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India”: A conversation with Dr. Ravinder Kaur

INDIA AS COMMODITY FETISH



In this conversation, The Polis Project’s Suchitra Vijayan and Vasundhara Sirnate, discuss Prof. Ravinder Kaur’s new book Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India. Prof Kaur walks us through the transformation of the Indian nation-state into a neoliberal business enterprise and theorizes the process of branding the nation-state through a rich visual archive of posters and advertising material. She articulates the connection between those early years of “India rising” rhetoric and aggressive push for globalization is largely responsible for the emergence of authoritarian populism under Modi. We explore the unintended political consequences of the corporatization of the State, what this means for the future.

By Suchitra Vijayan
23 September 2020

Branding India as an investment destination

In Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and the Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India, Ravinder Kaur explores how national identity and brand identities of nations have consolidated into a newer conception of the nation-state. In a seminal case study of India, Kaur’s book explores the emergent idea of India as an investment destination and how this image is a carefully crafted product of a sustained brand-building campaign which does not always reflect the complexities of politics on the ground in India.  

Excerpted from Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and the Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India by Ravinder Kaur, published by Stanford University Press, ©2020 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All Rights Reserved.

By Ravinder Kaur

14 October 2020

The path uphill from the WEF Convention Center toward the Promenade is dotted with landmarks such as the exclusive Hotel Belvedere, the Kirchner Museum, upmarket boutiques, and busy cafes. On this lively street, Cafè Schneider is ensconced to the left overlooking the mountain peaks. India Adda assembles annually in a specially marked area of Cafè Schneider, a nearly century-old cafe that ostentatiously describes itself as “die grand dame” of Davos coffeehouses, the old haunt of global celebrities and visitors in search of an authentic European coffeehouse experience.[i] Visitors to the India Adda can enter directly from the main street through a glass door decorated with giveaway signs of India—phool booti (flower) motifs in earthy deep-red hues framing the silhouettes of elephants dressed in ceremonial gear. A wooden sign at the entrance displays a graphic image of people holding hands in an ever-widening infinite circular loop. The inscription beneath the signboard reads “Adda—Join in the conversations on India, Widen your circle.”

 Listen: “Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India”: A conversation with Dr. Ravinder Kaur

That the idea of adda is meant to invoke an open, harmonious, and level playing field is evident at the entrance itself. The graphic image of human figures at the door joined together in a circle of friendship in a seemingly infinite loop signals unlimited possibilities and potentialities. This sense of openness was reinforced when I stepped inside the adda. Only later would I discover that the adda was actually split into two zones—andar (inside) and bahar (outside). The inside was the private space in which the minister of commerce or high-ranking bureaucrats from the Ministry of Commerce would meet potential investors. The outside was the public space in which the act of seeing and showing India would be rehearsed. I was in this public space where all visitors were invited to experience India. The  pièce de résistance in this spacious sitting area is a wall plastered with colorful imagery of New India on the ascent. The cheerful images, I was told by one of the organizers, were of ordinary Indians who have tasted the fruits of liberalization. To the left was an image of a young woman in what seemed like a university setting holding a smart tablet, Aakash ($35 only), developed and manufactured indigenously in India.[ii] And to the right was the image of a cheerful farmer atop a tractor in a mustard field, his arms suggestively stretched heavenward as if in the embrace of progress. The inscription beside him indicated that he was the beneficiary of an indigenously developed drip-irrigation kit for farmers ($160 only) that weaned him off his dependence on unreliable seasonal rains. In between these two images appeared a stylistically arranged bold sign announcing “India Adda” followed by this inscription:

The “adda” is the quintessential Indian hangout intricately woven into the country’s social fabric. This is where bonds are built, games are played and dreams are dreamt and shared.

Prior to its nineteenth-century recovery as a literary endeavor, the adda was associated with noisy, disruptive behavior of young men in the urban neighborhoods of Calcutta. The young men who gathered on rowak, the raised platforms built around houses, to hold their boisterous adda often caused discontent in the neighborhood, as middle-class residents viewed these gatherings as a threat to their respectability.[iii] The perceived negative consequences of adda … also extended to supposed idleness and useless talk among the young men. Dipesh Chakrabarty has shown how critical attitudes to adda were built not only on the capitalist colonial theme of the lazy native but also on preexisting notions of what work and idleness constituted.

In Davos, the adda is fully recovered from negative associations. Instead, it is pitched as “a cool way to project that we [Indians] are people who do business in a friendly, peaceful and non-threatening way,” which was an obvious allusion to its rival and neighbor, China.[iv] Aparna Dutta Sharma, the CEO of IBEF, told me that “adda offers a unique Indian experience of networking, making new friends, and creating new ideas.” The practice of adda was thus rearranged in a different species of global practice— of corporate networking, albeit with an Indian difference—considered fundamental and indispensable to business transactions. This unique Indian experience of networking is what the practice of adda was now mobilized toward. Consider this promotional invitation:

The Indian Adda at the World Economic Forum takes this concept of idea exchange and conversations to a different level. The Indian Adda is more than a physical space, it is a concept of sharing and communications—an ambience that encourages the free and frank exchange of views. It is meant for sharing. For networking. Or just for soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying Indian hospitality. Hope to see you there.[v]

Central to this shift is the art of conversation, which is now assigned a dramatically different function to perform.

Instead of being a sign of idleness or a waste of precious time, it has been transformed into a productive mode of labor as innovative ideation or even corporate- style brainstorming. To engage in conversations at the India Adda now is to engage in the profitable task of generating value for the nation.

In fact, the very capitalist notions of efficiency, production, and “time is money” are turned on their heads. The adda invites the captains of industry and top policy makers, highly esteemed individuals who barely have a minute to spare, to take time out and let go. In a 24-7 world constantly on the move, the most precious gift one can offer is the time to relax, to take a rare pause that promises to replenish one’s energy. Adda represents this global space of rejuvenation, and India is the large-hearted sponsor of such luxury. India, as the host of adda, positions itself as the chief patron of important exchanges in the global arena.

In this global translation, the adda was always carefully framed as more than a utilitarian tool for corporate networking. It was an authentic sign of Indianness, of its unique commercial culture. That the adda was a matter of the heart, an exclusive marker of Indian difference, and that India itself was a large-hearted nation were sentiments that were frequently articulated during my visit. For this claim to be effective, adda had to be reconceptualized as a metaphysical identity widely shared by Indians. Aparna Dutta Sharma cited the indelible “romance” of adda as the existential core of being Indian and, therefore, the perfect cultural frame to display India abroad.

The idea of adda is exactly the way it is, every nook and corner of India has an adda. Typically you see in a city like Bombay people pull out benches and sit down. It is like a nukkad [street corner] thing. Every nukkad will be dotted with benches and chairs. Invariably for all you may say, whether you are urbane or not urbane, an Indian is an Indian at heart. There are some things that are very close to you, things that are common—like spontaneity in India. India is innately about adda, chairs, and conversations. Adda provides an ambience and makes people comfortable.[vi]

In this reconceptualization, adda was taken very broadly to indicate any gathering in a public space—from a street corner or park to an open space in an urban neighborhood—that might potentially result in social interaction. Although comparisons with similar forms of socialization in the West—for example, salons and coffeehouse gatherings—are not explicitly made, it is quite clear that a relational Indian difference seeks to be created through the rhetorical deployment of emotions and spontaneity that places adda in the metaphysical domain and invests it with a greater emotive depth and substance. This notion of adda seems to invoke the idea of an ancient art of conversation in which even the unlettered are accomplished masters. The visions of chairs and benches being drawn to fill up street corners and of an unceasing public conversation conjure a sense of civic orderliness and passionate civility as naturally occurring features of India. Adda was thus positioned as a quintessential feature of India that is not only inextricably enmeshed in the social structure but also deeply inculcated with the very sense of being Indian. The key lay in the articulation of adda as a hangout, an easy and globally accessible term that instantly strikes a chord. It is defined as an open, playful space in which unrestricted imagination, ideas, and innovations take shape. This aspect of adda as an enabler of visionary ideas is crucial, as it helps establish innovation and imagination as natural parts of a playful Indian lifestyle. Implicit in this description is the nature of adda as an uncomplicated, democratic space in which people gather and partake in conversations.

This emphasis on openness, freedom, and a democratic ethos is entangled in the evolving narrative of New India as the “world’s fastest growing free market democracy.” To this end, the adda offered a theatrical performance of democracy…in a setting that is not the chaotic, dusty, noisy, and crowded space of India’s actual democracy.

Consider this official description:

Amongst the hubbub of conversations sparked by minds meeting across continents, relationships were renewed, fresh bonds were built, and the awareness spread that India means business. . . . And everyone who visited the India Adda went away with India’s message firmly etched in their minds. And in their hearts.[vii]

Note how the success of the adda is linked not only to its capacity to enhance India’s commercial value but also to its capacity to build affective connections. The invocation of “hearts” here raises the stakes…the adda is expected to activate a deeper sentimental commitment among foreign investors rather than a purely rational economic engagement prone to cycles of boom and bust. Brand India not only seeks global capital flows but also wants to be loved by its consumers.

This frequent weaving of affective language—of hearts, friendships, relationships, and hospitality—in the quest for foreign investments sometimes seems innocuous, inconsequential, or even misplaced. Yet it hints at a deliberate ambivalence, camouflage, or perhaps plain discomfort in the project of selling India to foreign investors. The reluctance to present adda as a purely instrumental space and yet being unable to fully integrate its non-instrumental implications is apparent. This probably stems from the ambiguities and splits inherent in the Indian difference that the adda is meant to signify in which soaring Indian culture seems to be constructed in opposition to Western materialism. In the ideal version of Indian hospitality—atithi devo bhave, the guest is akin to God—the presence of a guest is considered the true test of the host’s generosity and may even involve a degree of sacrifice, as the needs of the guest must assume priority.[viii] The very notion of atithi is derived from the negation of the Sanskrit word tithi, which literally means “time/date or some form of certainty.” This means that atithi by definition is someone whose arrival and departure is not predetermined and whose very presence may test the limits of the host’s benevolence. Thus, true hospitality is deemed to be that which does not enter the cycle of exchange and reciprocity and is offered without creating a sense of obligation.[ix] This idealized version of Indian hospitality, incidentally, underpins the internal marketing campaign within India— atithi devo bhave, launched by the Ministry of Tourism—that seeks to retrain the Indian opinion and reception of foreign tourists.[x] The performance of hospitality in India Adda is fraught with these inherent contradictions. The very objective of India Adda, to market India to a global audience, means that hospitality is offered in the distinct hope of getting profitable returns in the form of investments.[xi] The conflict in this project is inevitable—how does one perform the idealized version of Indian large-heartedness while pitching India as a commodity in the global marketplace?

[i] Already evident here is the language of commodity tradition that locates Café Schneider as Erlebnis rather than mere Erfahrung, to invoke the distinction made by Walter Benjamin. See Walter Benjamin, Lloyd Spencer, and Mark Harrington, “Central Park,” New German Critique 34 (Winter 1985): 49 ; and Schneider’s Davos, “ Das Schneider’s: Portrait,” accessed November 21, 2018, http://www.schneiders-davos.ch/schneiders/portrait.html

[ii] The images of Aakash were prominently displayed and circulated in Davos in 2012, creating a significant interest. Many visitors to the adda would ask to see a sample tablet, except that the tablet was unavailable. The tablet turned out to be a source of huge embarrassment for the human resources ministry, which had funded the project. Not only was the design found to be below par, but the capacity was too low for different functions to work. Moreover, the controversy around the manufacturing process has almost doomed the project of making low-cost tablets for schoolchildren in India.

[iii] Chakrabarty, “Adda, Calcutta,” 118.

[iv] Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of the Confederation of Indian Industries, quoted in Harish Damodaran, “‘Cool’ India Offers Inclusive Growth for All,” Hindu Business Line, Davos, January 26, 2011.

[v] IBEF, “India Davos,” India Brand Equity Foundation, accessed October 2, 2018, http://www.india-davos-blogs.ibef.org/India—Innovates

[vi] Aparna Dutta Sharma, interview by author, January 28, 2012. India Adda, Davos.

[vii] IBEF, “Brand India: At the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Meeting ” (Davos, January 27 – 30, 2013), 4, 16.

[viii] Government of India, Ministry of Tourism, Atithi Devo Bhave (Guest is God) campaign, 2010. See also the Incredible India video, accessed November 21, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMydmkiafTE

[ix] The discussion on dan (or the gift) here is instructive. For a true act of giving to take place, it must not entail return, exchange, or reciprocity. Otherwise the gift enters a cycle of commodity exchange and can no longer be deemed to be a pure gift. Derrida has dwelt on this impossibility of the gift at length. Similarly, Jonathan Parry and James Laidlaw have shown how the gift need not be reciprocal or nonalienated. See Jacques Derrida, Given Time 1: Counterfeit Money (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Jonathan Parry, “The Gift, the Indian Gift and ‘the Indian Gift,’” Man, New Series 21, no. 3 (1986): 453 – 73; James Laidlaw, “A Free Gift Makes No Friends,” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 6, no. 4 (2000): 617 – 34.

[x] This campaign was launched especially in anticipation of a major tourist influx during the Commonwealth Games in 2010. The idea was to professionalize the Indian tourist industry by training guides, drivers, hotel staff, and so on, on the ideals of Indian hospitality.

[xi] Pitching hospitality as a key cultural trait in tourism is indeed not unique to India. For a comparative perspective, see Andrew Shryock, “The New Jordanian Hospitality: House, Host and Guest in the Culture of Public Display,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 46, no. 1 (2004): 35 – 62.

Ravinder Kaur is Associate Professor of Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

"Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India": A conversation with Dr. Ravinder Kaur - The Polis Project, Inc

Railway unions extend support to farmers’ call for Bharat Bandh

The railway unions on Monday announced that their members will hold rallies and demonstrations on Tuesday in a show of solidarity with the farmers.

INDIA Updated: Dec 07, 2020

HT Correspondent
Hindustan Times, New Delhi

A long queue of tractors and trolleys of protesting farmers parked in the middle of the highway near Singhu (Delhi-Haryana) border in Sonipat district of Haryana on Monday. (Ravi Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Farmers demanding the repeal of three farms laws received a shot in the arm on Monday with two of the biggest unions of the national transporter-- The All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) and the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) – extending their support for Bharat Bandh on Tuesday.

The railway unions on Monday announced that their members will hold rallies and demonstrations on Tuesday in a show of solidarity with the farmers who have called the bandh.

All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) general secretary Shiva Gopal Mishra met the agitating farmers at Delhi’s Singhu border and assured them that members of the railway union are with them in their fight against the new agriculture laws.

“We have written to our affiliates all over the Indian Railways to extend support to the farmers in their struggle to achieve their genuine demands, on December 8, 2020 during Bharat Bandh’. I have already advised AIRF affiliates to organise agitation programmes, dharna, demonstrations and rallies during lunch hour against anti-farmer policies of the Government of India. I hope that the government will give cognizance to the genuine demands of the farmers and redress the same at the earliest,” he said in a statement.

M Raghavaiah, general secretary, NFIR in a statement appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept the demands of the farmers and said that the railway families are with the “annadatas” in their struggle against the anti-farm laws which are “detrimental to the farmer community of the nation”.

“The NFIR general secretary advised all its affiliate unions throughout the Indian Railways to conduct dharnas, rallies and demonstrations in solidarity with the farmers’ struggle and against anti-farmer decisions of the central government,” the statement said.

The two unions comprising nearly 13 lakh current railway employees and around 20 lakh retired employees, are the latest to show solidarity with agitating farmers. 

Support for farmers have also poured in from the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

The All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) has also extended its support.

“Earlier it was decided that the transport fraternity from Northern India will participate in the Bharat Bandh announced by farmers, but now it has been resolved in the meeting that transport associations and unions in other parts of the country will join the Bharat Bandh of farmers and voluntarily suspend their operations on December 8, 2020,” the AIMTC said in a statement.

Bandh (Devanagari: बंध) (literally: shutting down) is a form of protest used by political activists in South Asian countries such as India and Nepal. It is similar to a general strike. During a bandh, a political party or a community declare a general strike.^[1] For example, a Bharat bandh is a call for a bandh across India, and a bandh can also be called for an individual state or municipality.

India foreign minister to skip Canada-hosted Covid summit over Trudeau's comments: reports

CUTTING NOSE TO SPITE ONE'S FACE

Dawn.com 07 Dec 2020

Although the official reason provided to Canada for Jaishankar's (pictured) unavailability is a scheduling clash, local media reports suggest the external affairs minister's absence from the summit is a deliberate snub by India to express its displeasure over remarks by the Canadian prime minister . — AFP/File

Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will not attend a Canada-hosted virtual summit of foreign ministers to discuss common global strategy for the coronavirus pandemic in a show of displeasure over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent comments on the ongoing Indian farmers’ protests, multiple Indian media outlets reported on Monday.

Although the official reason provided to Canada for Jaishankar's unavailability is a scheduling clash, local media reports suggest the external affairs minister's absence from the summit is a deliberate snub by India to express its displeasure over remarks by the Canadian prime minister.

Trudeau, speaking to the Indian community last week in Canada, said that he was concerned about the farmers, most of them from the Sikh-dominated state of Indian Punjab, camped out on the outskirts of Delhi in a protest against farm reforms.

"I would be remiss if I didn’t start by recognising the news coming out of India about the protests by farmers. The situation is concerning, and we are all very worried about family and friends. I know that’s the reality for many of you," he had said.

Read: India's winter of discontent: Farmers rise up against Modi

That prompted a rebuke from India's foreign ministry, which termed these remarks as "unwarranted [interference], especially when pertaining to internal affairs of a democratic country".

This was later followed up by a formal protest with Canada’s ambassador to India where he was told the comments were an interference in its domestic affairs and would seriously hurt bilateral ties.

India and Canada have warm ties, but in recent years there has been concern in India that some Sikh leaders in Canada have ties to separatist groups hostile to India.

Canada is home to an influential Sikh community and Indian leaders say there are some fringe groups there that are still sympathetic to the cause of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan, carved out of India.

The Indian foreign ministry said comments made by Trudeau and other leaders had emboldened radical groups and they were a risk to its diplomatic staff based in Canada.

“We expect the Canadian government to ensure the fullest security of Indian diplomatic personnel and its political leaders to refrain from pronouncements that legitimise extremist activism,” it said.

Politicians from Australia, UK attend roundtable on whether India is becoming a fascist state

“I think people are realising that Hindutva is not Hinduism, it is fascism.”

AMRITA SINGH07 December 2020


On 26 November, India's Constitution Day, diasporic advocacy groups organised a roundtable on the question, "Is India becoming a fascist state?" The event was attended by politicians, researchers and activists from Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

On 1 December, the Indian foreign ministry reacted sharply to comments by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, calling the ongoing farmers’ protest in India a “concerning situation” and supporting their right to peaceful protest. The ministry said “such comments are unwarranted, especially when pertaining to the internal affairs of a democratic country.” On the same day, Janet Rice, an Australian senator, addressed the country’s parliament and called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh a “fascist organisation.” Five days earlier, on India’s Constitution Day, she attended a roundtable discussion on the question, “Is India becoming a fascist state?”

The roundtable was jointly organised by Amnesty International and Australia- and United States-based diasporic advocacy groups: Humanism Project, Hindus for Human Rights and the Indian American Muslim Council. David Shoebridge, a member of the New South Wales parliament—Australia has eight state-level parliaments—from the Australian Greens party, moderated the discussion. Shoebridge kicked off the session by asking if “values that are said to resonate with that liberal, democratic tradition of democracy and freedom of expression” were being upheld in India. “As friends of India, these are questions, I think, that we need to ask,” he said.

The roundtable was held over two panel discussions, the first one titled, “View from Academia and Civil Society,” had researchers and activists as speakers, and the second one on the “Role of the International Community,” included politicians from the United Kingdom and United States. The panellists discussed the activities of the Sangh Parivar—the RSS and its affiliates—and the Bharatiya Janata Party government helmed by Narendra Modi, as well as the challenges to dissent and free speech in India.

Suchitra Vijayan, the executive editor of the Polis Project—a US-based research and media organisation—provided context about the Sangh Parivar in the first panel. “The Sangh Parivar is modelled after the Italian fascists and the German Nazis,” she said. “It is wrong to assume that fascist tactics are only used in dictatorships, in totalitarian regimes,” Vijayan said. She cited the writing of Jason Stanley, a professor at Yale University and the author of How Fascism Works, which lays out various strategies used in fascist politics.

“These strategies include petitioning to a mythic past, reinvention of history, use of propaganda, creating a culture of anti-intellectualism, attacking universities and educational systems that might challenge their ideas,” Vijayan said, citing Stanley. “This is followed by constant repetition of the Hindu victimhood, obscuring law and order, and dismantling public welfare and unity. Eventually, with these techniques, fascist politics create a state of unreality in which conspiracy theories, fake news replaced reasonable debate.” She added, “In India, politicians employ these strategies regularly.” Based in the US, Vijayan said she was speaking “as a concerned Indian citizen who is watching her home being destroyed from afar.”

All panellists referred to the treatment meted out to marginalised communities since Modi came to power in 2014. “I feel the Modi government is intensifying efforts to portray religious minorities as enemies, as it moves rapidly towards an exclusivist Hindu Rashtra,” Raju Rajagopalan, a panellist and co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights—a US-based organisation that works on religious freedom—said. Anjali Arondekar, a co-director of the University of California’s Centre for South Asian Studies, highlighted that Dalit, Bahujan, Muslims and transgender communities are persecuted by the Hindu Right.

She began her address by stating, “For many scholars, such as myself, the question posed here, ‘Is India a fascist state,’ seems at this point to be a largely rhetorical question.” Arondekar, who is Bahujan and queer, also cautioned against blaming Modi and RSS for everything, emphasising that there was “continuity” in the actions of the Indian state. “I am a lower-caste person,” she said. “Talk to any lower-caste, Muslim person. These are not new stories.” Arondekar added, “When I was growing up, we referred to the Congress as the opposite of progress.”

Pieter Friedrich, an activist and author who was a part of the panel, spoke about the inroads that the RSS has made in other countries. Friedrich focused on the role of the Overseas Friends of BJP and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh—respectively, a foreign advocacy group with links to the BJP, and the RSS’s international wing. “Since Modi’s re-election, the OFBJP and the HSS have continued to promote and assist in the whitewashing of the pogrom-tainted Modi,” he said. He also brought up the fact that the Australian High Commissioner to India, Barry O’Farrell, met Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS’s chief, at the Sangh’s headquarters in Nagpur, in November this year. “That’s certainly an issue that moves the bar in the wrong direction,” Friedrich said.

According to Crikey, an Australia-based media outlet, the spokesperson for the country’s department of foreign affairs and trade said that the high commissioner “meets with a wide variety of social and political groupings as part of his role.” On 1 December, Rice spoke about the meeting between O’Farrell and Bhagwat in the country’s parliament. She said that the meeting was a “disgrace” and that Farrell should resign. During her speech, Rice identified the RSS as “a fascist organisation” and one that “rides roughshod over people’s human rights.” She added, “I’m keen to continue this discussion here in this parliament in the new year, because I believe that issues related to the erosion of human rights and democracy are things that needs to be drawn to people’s attention and for us to discuss here in this national parliament.”

The second panel of the roundtable discussed the matter of commenting on another country’s internal matters. Shaffaq Mohammed, a British politician who has served as a member of the European Parliament, noted that people who want to question the Modi government are told, “You are having a go at India,” or that these are “internal matters.” “Human rights, civil liberties need to be at the forefront,” Mohammed said. “We have to say—yes, we will applaud the good things that happen in India. But when there are issues, if you are a genuine friend of India, then you’ve got to challenge, you’ve got to question.” Mohammed added, “It is really important to say that the BJP and the RSS are not India.”

In January 2020, Mohammed had moved a resolution in the EU parliament against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. He was born in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and moved to the UK when he was four years old, but in India, the media coverage of Mohammed’s resolution focused on his Pakistani heritage. On 29 January, the EU parliament deferred the vote on the resolution till March, which never took place in the wake of the pandemic. But Mohammed emphasised the importance of addressing these issues at a global level. “The EU has a human-rights sub-committee, members from that were very much concerned around not just the CAA-NRC, but also what happened in August previously with the lockdown in Kashmir,” he said. Shoebridge, too, tabled a motion against the CAA in the New South Wales parliament in August this year.

Marie Newman, a Democrat who has been elected to the US House of Representatives this year, sent a video message noting the global rise in nationalism. “This tide that has turned in the US, it will affect other nations’ pastures around nationalism,” she added, referring to the recent presidential elections in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump.

It became clear from the roundtable that international mobilisation around the developments in India witnessed a sharp surge following the enactment of the CAA. The Humanism Project was among several advocacy and activist groups located abroad that were born out of the anti-CAA movement. Representatives of such groups from across the world told me about how they were organising to tackle Hindutva within India and abroad. Amrit Wilson, a founding member of the South Asia Solidarity group in the United Kingdom, told me, “This scale of churn has not been seen before.”

Ritumbra Manuvie, an Indian citizen based in the Netherlands, told me that she worked with a human-rights advocacy group called The London Story foundation, registered in The Hague and formed in the wake of the anti-CAA protests. Manuvie said that the foundation prepares reports to send to bodies such as EU parliamentary committees using “data from different organisations based in India who cannot do it themselves.”

Though the Humanism Project has previously collaborated with the Australian Greens about developments in India, Miraj Khan, a member of the project, was quick to dismiss any political affiliation. “We don’t have a political background,” she told me. “We don’t have an agenda … We are not benefitted financially.” Khan added that most of the Humanism Project’s members are not career activists, and that they have day jobs and volunteer on the side.

Speaking about why the Humanism Project was formed, Khan said, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. The only way a government can be held accountable is through free press, freedom of speech and expression. And all of that is being hampered.” Deepak Joshi, another member, said western governments also need to be held to account. “Many of them see India as a big market and don’t want to be on the wrong side of the Indian government,” he said. When asked about the response of other Australian parties to their advocacy, Joshi said, “We have been talking to them as well. We expect them to take our cause to various levels.”

The South Asian Solidarity group was formed in the 1980s, and has been campaigning about the dangers of Hindutva since Modi came to power, Wilson told me. She said that there is a “big lobby of the Hindutva groups” in the UK. “Modi wants a global community of Hindus who will support Hindutva,” she said, before adding, “I think people are realising that Hindutva is not Hinduism, it is fascism.”

AMRITA SINGH is an editorial fellow at The Caravan.

Watch: Protests in support of Indian farmers erupt in Canada, UK, Australia

People from across the globe have expressed solidarity with protesting Indian farmers.

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On Sunday, police also warned crowds gathered outside the India High Commission that they would be fined for breaking coronavirus restrictions.

Sikh Federation UK posted pictures online of big crowds in the capital as they protested against farming reforms in India.