ITS A CLASS FOR ADULTS

A look inside Mississippi's only critical race theory class and an unlikely ally

By Giselle Rhoden, Nick Valencia and Jade Gordon, 
CNN - Yesterday

Three weeks ago, Brittany Murphree enrolled in Law 743, a unique class for the University of Mississippi. Despite the skepticism from fellow Republican friends and family, the second-year law student wanted to take the class "to see what it's all about."

"Honestly, I love it," Murphree told CNN. She feels very respected as a White, Republican student in a class on critical race theory, the first of which to be taught in the state of Mississippi.

Critical race theory (CRT) has become a political and social lightning rod with several states banning the concept in the last year. Educators insist that CRT is generally not included in grade school curriculum. The concept is usually taught in graduate-level courses like the one Murphree enrolled in this semester.

Yvette Butler, the professor of Law 743, said CRT was born from the legal academy in the 1980s to analyze and understand why racial inequality still exists despite the aftermath of the civil rights movement.

It acknowledges that racism is both systemic and institutional in American society and that White people have historically held racial power.

Murphree said many Republicans believe CRT is inherently designed to make White people the enemy, but she said she is learning the opposite. She said the class opened her eyes to new perspectives from a theoretical lens.

"We basically study different theories analyzing race and the law and how it applies to our country," she said. "I thought the whole class would be like criticizing White people, but we didn't really even mention White people."

'Another way of looking at the world'

Butler wants others to know her course is simply another class on theoretical framework. It's not meant to shame White people for the discrimination their ancestors may have inflicted on a marginalized group.

"The point isn't to focus on shame and the past," she said. "The point is to say, 'OK, all we want to do is reckon with how the law has been used to perpetuate inequality and how can we get creative about fixing that.'"

Law 743 is designed to give "a full picture of what racial inequality looks like," specifically from a law perspective, Butler said, and to have students think critically.

Her students learn about racial issues beyond just Black and White. Butler emphasizes how important it is for her law students to have access to all aspects of thought from a variety of viewpoints. Analyzing how the justice system has dealt with different marginalized groups is what her class intends to do, she said.


© CNN

Professor Yvette Butler teaches critical race theory at the University of Mississippi.

In the class, Butler often applies CRT to current events, such as the racial reckoning in the summer of 2020.

Those moments of racial injustice are the same events that Butler said furthered the backlash against CRT.


© CNN

University of Mississippi Law School Student Brittany Murphree

Last month, the Mississippi Senate passed Senate Bill 2113, a legislation banning CRT in K-12 schools. After many Black lawmakers walked out of the chamber, the bill passed 32-2 and is on its way to the House.

Mississippi State Sen. Republican Chris McDaniel -- who co-authored the bill -- said CRT promotes "victimhood" instead of student success.

"Here in Mississippi, we were thinking about a way that our children, particularly in K-12, were taught not to be victims but instead to be successful. We're trying to teach upward mobility and prosperity and empowering the individual," he said.

McDaniel wants students to be taught they are capable of anything, rather than be told racism does not allow for achievement. The senator also said the bill is an act that fights against racial inequality. Senate Bill 2113 bans the teaching of a superior and inferior race, gender, sex or ethnic group.

He said he still encourages schools to teach about the history of racism and discrimination in the United States.

"We're not trying to move away from the past or move away from those sins," he said, but "teaching that the sins of our past scar our entire future -- I don't believe that. I think that we're all capable of achieving anything despite our past."

History and other objective courses -- like mathematics -- are more important in the classroom in comparison to theoretical perspectives such as CRT, McDaniel said.

"Taxpayer dollars" and limited hours of teaching prioritize what needs to be taught to children, he told CNN.

Changing misconceptions

Professor Butler said CRT promotes a thorough education for students.

"In K-12, it wouldn't be an accurate representation of the world, cutting out key pieces of history from reconstruction to the civil rights movement or other places where people of color have been instrumental," she said.

She hopes that CRT can be used as an opportunity to expand student knowledge in pursuit of higher education. For now, Butler continues to teach Law 743 with that hope in mind.

Murphree said using what she has learned from this class will be crucial to opening a dialogue with other members of the Republican Party. CRT has been politicized by both parties, thus perpetuating vastly different views on the theory's implications.

As a Republican student studying CRT, Murphree wants to address the implicit biases and misunderstandings of systemic racism expressed by her party.

"I'm still Republican, like I honestly feel more enthused about being Republican," she said. "I really do believe that there are some things that go beyond party lines...I think that I wanna set an example to my party and be like 'we can still be Republican and think this class is OK.'"


© WLBT

Last month, Black lawmakers walk out as Mississippi Senate passes legislation described as a critical race theory bill.


© CNN

State Sen. Chris McDaniel said critical race theory promotes "victimhood" instead of student success.

HISTORY: SINDH BEFORE THE ARABS ARRIVED

Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh

Published February 6, 2022

The ruins of Alor, once a capital of the Buddhist kingdom; 

| Photos courtesy the writer

There are many facets of Sindh’s history that are shrouded in mystery. One such aspect is the era before the advent of Arab rule in 711, when the region was under Buddhist and Brahmin rule.

The limited scholarship that has been carried out on the subject portrays Sindh as a highly developed and prosperous society back then. Dutch scholar J. E. van Lohuizen-De Leeuw, in her 1981 essay ‘The Pre-Muslim Antiquities of Sind’, from the book Sind Through the Centuries, states: “Sind [sic] appears to have been a rich country in those days, materially rich due to its flourishing trade and culturally rich on account of its diversified religious patterns.”

An effort has been made here to draw a picture of Sindh during the interesting times of the 7th and early 8th century CE when, in a span of just 60 years, Sindh went through three great dynastic transitions, from Buddhist to Brahmin rule and then the Muslim conquest.

The Buddhist Rai Dynasty

The dawn of the seventh century saw the Buddhist Rai dynasty ruling Sindh for several generations. The region’s peace was stirred in 626 CE during the rule of Rai Seharas, when, “All of a sudden, an army of the king of Nimruz invaded his [Seharas’] country, entering Makran,” reads The Chachnama, the oldest multi-genre chronicle on the era. It was translated into English from Farsi by Mirza Kaleech Beg in 1900, under the title The Chachnama: An Ancient History of Sind.

Though Sindh’s army repulsed the attack, it lost its king in the battle. He was succeeded by his son Sahasi II, who ruled Sindh from 626 to 652 CE, according to Dr N.A. Baloch in his article ‘The Historical Sind Era’, published in Sind Through the Centuries.

What was Sindh like before the advent of Islam in the region in 711 CE? Who were the Buddhist and Brahmin dynasties that ruled in the 7th century, before they were displaced by the Arabs? Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh attempts to piece together a picture from the existing historical sources

It was around 642 CE when a Chinese pilgrim, Hsuan Tsang, visited Sindh and “found innumerable stupas” and “several hundred Sangharama occupied by about ten thousand monks,” states British historian John Keay in India: A History. Although Buddhism was the most dominant religion in Sindh, Hinduism had a presence too, with about “thirty Hindu temples.”

Speaking about people, the Chinese pilgrim observed that they “as whole were hardy and impulsive and their kingdom ... was famed for its cereal production, its livestock and its export of salt,” Keay quotes him.

The Earliest Portrait of a ‘Sindhi’

One of the most important relics from the Buddhist era was discovered from among the remains of a stupa near Mirpurkhas. About 18 centuries old, it is a plaque containing a man’s portrait, which most of the scholars believe was either that of the builder or donor of the temple. Thus, it is held by H.T. Lambrick, in his 1973 book Sindh Before the Muslim Conquest, as “the earliest known portrait of an individual inhabitant of Sindh: perhaps a prominent merchant of the second or third century AD [CE].”

Describing the portrait, Lambrick states: “The figure wears a waist cloth, a necklace and an elaborate headdress which may have been a wig. It was painted; the complexion was wheat-coloured, with black eyes, eyebrows and moustache. One hand holds a small lotus flower, the other is placed carefully on a fold of waistcloth, which we may suppose did duty as a purse.”

The Brahmin ‘Soft Coup’

During the closing years of Buddhist king Sahasi II’s 28-year-long rule, most of the affairs of state were entrusted to his most loyal Brahmin minister Chach. Chach originally came from a humble background, but earned the admiration and confidence of the king on account of his sheer merit, talent and hard work.

“Having the entire support and confidence of the king, his [Chach’s] personal authority over Sindh and its dependencies was absolute,” notes Lambrick.

Another person that enjoyed the confidence of the king was his young queen, Suhandi. “Sahasi [was] entirely under influence of his wife, who was evidently a woman of strong mind as well as of strong passions,” observes Lambrick.

An incident brought Chach and Suhandi closer to each other. Once, Chach wanted to see the king regarding an urgent state business. The king was resting in his palace with his queen. He granted audience to Chach in the presence of the queen, who “fell desperately in love with the handsome Brahmin,” writes Lambrick. Initially, Chach resisted Suhandi’s romantic overtures, citing his religious and moral limitations, but eventually he succumbed to the queen’s persuasions.

Lambrick’s map shows kingdom of Sindh circa 642 AD 

Apart from this romantic tale, there were the hard political realities which may have compelled the two to foster an alliance. King Sahasi was childless. Suhandi feared that, after his death, the kingdom would fall to his relatives, who would not only divest her of her property, but perhaps not even spare her life. Meanwhile, Chach realised that his position would be even more precarious than hers. Hence, the two may have formed an alliance to safeguard their personal interests.

The story goes that when the king fell terminally ill, with Chach’s help, Suhandi called the ailing king’s sympathisers and close relatives from the capital of Alor to the palace. There she detained them and they were all ultimately put to death. In their stead, Suhandi and Chach appointed courtesans who pledged their loyalty to the queen. Suhandi declared Chach as the king’s vicegerent during the king’s illness. After the king’s death, Suhandi married Chach, who ascended the throne, marking the transition from Buddhist to Brahmin rule in the region.

Though Alor had already been pacified, Chach’s assumption of power invoked rebellions from governors and attacks from neighbours. In these circumstances, Chach “had to prove his right to rule, and this took him two or three years,” writes Lambrick. During the process, “he won the capital and the metropolitan region by a mixture of force, fraud and the influence of his former master’s widow.”

Proto Pakistan?

The kingdom of Sindh during the 7th century AD, as shown in the map, comprised most of the Indus Valley, excluding its northern reaches. After ascending the throne, as Chach fought wars, he invented a novel way of demarcating his kingdom’s borders, by planting trees suitable to those environs.

“In the north, we learn, he [Chach] reached ‘Kashmir,’” observes Keay, based on the account given in The Chachnama. “Even if this meant not the Kashmir valley but Kashmir territory, which then extended down to the plains of the Punjab, he must have entered the Himalayan foothills, for he marked his frontier by planting a chinar, or plane tree, and a deodar, or Himalayan cedar; both native to the hills.”

“Heading west, he laid claim to Makran, the coastal region of Baluchistan [sic], where he planted date palms,” Keay continues. It was against this backdrop that “Chach’s kingdom lacked only the erstwhile Gandhara in the north-west to qualify as a proto-Pakistan,” Keay writes.

Internally, the kingdom was divided into four provinces ruled by governors, in addition to the central territory directly ruled by the monarch. The territories of two provinces comprised present-day Sindh, while the other two comprised what is now Punjab. The Sindh provinces were Brahminabad, which covered “central Sindh eastward of the Indus together with the whole of lower Sindh and possibly Cutch [sic],” and that of Sehwan (Siwistan) included “the modern districts of Larkana and Dadu, and possibly Las Bela,” notes Lambrick.

Among the Punjab provinces, the Askaland “corresponded broadly with Bahawalpur state and part of adjoining Punjab districts, and the Multan province would seem to have run up at least as far as the Salt Range, as it is said to have bordered in Kashmir,” Lambrick outlines.

The important cities included the capital Alor (near Sukkur), the port-city Debal (near modern-day Karachi), Nerun (Hyderabad), Brahminabad (in present Sanghar district), Sehwan and Multan.

Chach proved to be an able administrator and ruled the country for about 40 years. It may seem strange, but the Arab chroniclers of Chachnama valued him highly, prompting Keay to observe that “for an infidel, Chach would be rated highly by Muslim rulers.”

Chach’s Succession and Raja Dahar

Chach had two sons, Daharsiah and Dahar, from Queen Suhandi, and a daughter, Bai, from another wife. On Chach’s death, initially his brother Chandar succeeded him, but finally power was transferred to his youngest son, Dahar.

Dahar too was a brave man and an able administrator who ruled for about 13 years. However, his morality stood compromised when he reportedly ‘ceremoniously’ married his half-sister to evade an astrologer’s prediction, which said that his half-sister’s husband would rule his kingdom.

This immoral act on his part sent shockwaves across the kingdom and even his elder brother took up arms against him, leading an expedition against Dahar. But he fell ill and died encamped outside Dahar’s fort.

Commenting on this, prominent Hindu scholar Dayaram Gidumal, states in the introduction to Mirza Kaleech Beg’s English translation of The Chachnama: “The king [Dahar] was undoubtedly a greater sinner. It was he who, by the advice of a credulous minister, solemnised his marriage with his own sister, to prevent the working of a prediction. The marriage was not intended to be consummated and, as a matter of fact, it was not consummated; but [the] impious ceremony nevertheless alienated from Dahar not only his brother but all the best and bravest men in the land.”

The king’s alienation from the people played a key role in the Arab victory in 711 CE over Sindh, a land which had in the past repulsed several Arab attacks. This brought an end to the Brahmin dynasty and the power was transferred to the Arabs.

A note on the sources: Three main sources on the history of this period are the accounts rendered by Chinese and Arab travellers, archaeological discoveries and three books on the subject, namely The Chachnama, the Tarikh-e-Maasumi and the Tuhfatul-Kiram. The oldest amongst them is The Chachnama and various scholars have attached varying weightage to its contents.

The writer is former Vice-Chancellor of Sindh Madressatul Islam University and has served as a faculty-fellow/ Fulbright Scholar at American University, Washington DC. He tweets @DrMAliShaikh. He can be reached at drshaikhma@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, February 6th, 2022

Whither Anglo-Saxon nonsense?

Jawed Naqvi

February 8, 2022

THERE was this gangly gentleman, the sweet Mr Saleh, Egyptian translator at the Gulf News in Dubai who incessantly amused the morning meetings headed by the editor, Aziz Siddiqui, the late Pakistani scribe of leftist politics with an impish sense of humour. Turning over the pages of Al Bayan, Ittehad, Al Khaleej etc. to scour for Arabic news that the English-speaking journalists from Britain, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other places could find useful, Mr Saleh would almost without exception dismiss each page with a suspicious grunt: “Nonsense!”

One can imagine a similar reaction from President Putin, were he to scan the English media every morning, as he did the other day but with an added description. Responding to the UK’s accusation that Russia was plotting to replace the regime in Ukraine with a Moscow-friendly government, Mr Putin flicked off the question dismissively: “The Anglo-Saxon nonsense!”

You turn to the Chinese spokespersons and they would be scoffing at persistent Anglo-Saxon ‘plots’, one apparently currently on to disrupt the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The city is now unique in hosting both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Four miffed countries are diplomatically boycotting the Beijing show although their players are participating. Again, the churlish quartet baiting China comprises Anglo-Saxon nations — Australia, Britain, Canada and the US. What is their grouse? Human rights! One would take them seriously had they not been inflicting humanitarian catastrophes around the world. To cite just one, helping the daily dastardly bombings of a proud Yemeni people, killing, maiming, starving them callously, these sticklers for human rights.

Read more: Putin, Xi hail ‘no limits’ partnership, assail US policies

There’s a tendency one has noticed about the cultures, which Russia and China see as essentially Anglo-Saxon in nature. They love to turn a perfectly normal secular challenge to their authority into a communal, religious one. Behind all the fluff about Houthi religiosity that their media proclaim to give the conflict a religious colour, there’s the cold fact that Aden was the capital of the only Marxist government in the Arab world ever. That memory needs to be crushed.

The Anglo-Saxon powers turn a secular challenge to their authority into a communal, religious one.

Likewise, the Anglo-Saxons have led the complete destruction of a secular Iraq to produce clerical rule there. They destroyed the syncretic PLO to give the Palestinian struggle for self-determination a religious hue under Hamas. Gone are the fighting Christian Palestinians like George Habash and their supporters of other faiths, including the better-informed Jewish intellectuals. They turned a secular Libya into a religiously fractured wreck. And they raised and armed religious fanatics in Syria and Afghanistan to dismantle secular adversaries. Closer home, the Anglo-Saxon rulers used religion to divide and rule India, a ploy they had used to produce unending bad blood in Ireland. Their victims are still suffering the consequences of the perfidy.

Read more: Ahead of key polls, India's ruling BJP revives Hindu-Muslim dispute

Should their unwitting allies, say, Germany or France oppose their reckless quests, the Anglo-Saxon club could resort to cheap tricks, not least spying on them with sophisticated devices, as recently happened with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron. So the Anglo-Saxons belong to themselves, almost like a secret society. In fact, that is what they set out to be: The Five Eyes, a club of post-war snoops, exchanging notes and sharing them with each other, exclusively. If a British citizen has to be snooped on, as they did with Charlie Chaplin in the US, they would get the other to do the job so as not to break their own rules, keeping up the pretence of human rights.

Let’s step back. It’s 1980. Moscow was planning to host the Olympics when a call went out from Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Carter to boycott the Games. The Soviets had raided Afghanistan. And the British? Had they just recaptured the Falklands from the English Channel? And what were the Americans doing in 1980, ahead of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics they hosted? They were weighing their chances between two ‘defenders of human rights’, the Shah of Iran and the Shia clerics. The clerics sided with Ronald Reagan to extract revenge on Carter for daring to mount the ill-fated Dasht-i-Lut rescue operation to free American hostages in Tehran. What followed was the Iran-Contra arms deal with Reagan, the mascot of human rights defenders!

It was Sept 6, 1993. I was travelling to Beijing from the airport with a Chinese minder as part of Narasimha Rao’s media convoy. I asked my interlocutor whether the impressive display of flags and buntings was to welcome Rao. He said: “Sorry. This is for our Olympics campaign.” The Chinese were preparing to host the 2000 Olympics in 1993. Everyone was certain they would get it. The Chinese signed a deal with Rao apart from a landmark agreement on peace and tranquillity along their borders. They bought a bunch of buffaloes from India. The idea was to start a dairy programme, hitherto alien to Chinese culture, to welcome milk-guzzling foreign athletes. How did Sydney suddenly get that Olympic, leaving the Chinese delegates to clap politely at the decision? The Manchester votes were transferred at the last minute, in the third round of voting, to boost fellow Anglo-Saxon Australia. The world of sports was stumped. Human rights was the fronted issue to deprive Beijing of its due claim.

Did China then tweak its human rights policy to get the Olympics eventually, hosted so impressively too, to the chagrin of its detractors? There’s no answer to these questions. Now, President Macron appears to have seen through the “Anglo-Saxon nonsense” as he openly believes that Russia has a legitimate security concern in the Ukraine stand-off, and that it could be resolved peacefully. In the meantime, the US embassy is pressing its staff to leave Beijing citing rigorous anti-Covid measures, something the Chinese see as an attempt to disrupt the Winter Games. Like Mr Saleh, they too would be wondering when, if ever, the nonsense will stop.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2022

KASHMIR

ENVIRONMENT: CRACKING UNDER PRESSURE

Sajid Mir

Published February 6, 2022

Nuzhat Bibi, a walnut grower in Shahkot, Neelum Valley, packs dried walnuts |

 Photos by the writer

Marium Bibi, 50, has roots in the village of Bandi, in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Neelum Valley. This is where she was born, raised and got married. Now, a widow, she looks after her family of five. Cattle-keeping is the main source of livelihood for her. But, she also relies on seasonal farming. Since her childhood, she has been involved in walnut farming, like half the women in her community.

In her garden grow four walnut trees which yield the hard-shelled nut which she sells in the fall of every year. “For me, selling walnuts has remained a seasonal livelihood support, like other women in the area,” Marium says.

Bandi is one of the major walnut producing villages in the Neelum district, along with Leepa in Jhelum in Muzaffarabad Division. For generations, the superfood walnut has supported the local economy of these areas in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Every landowner, like Marium, grows walnut trees on their land and is engaged in walnut farming. The reason is simple. Local farmers say, once a walnut tree starts giving fruit, it requires no hard work at all. It is low maintenance and the trees require no special care.

A walnut tree begins to fruit after 10 years of planting and one tree can yield anywhere from 60 kgs to 80 kgs of nuts. Moreover, walnut plantation does not require any specific prerequisites, as other vegetation practices can be carried on simultaneously in the same farming area.

Growing organic walnuts at home has been an easy seasonal income for villagers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, especially its women. But climate change and lack of government attention are turning opportunity into a challenge

Mostly women are involved in walnut farming. Some pick the fruit from the trees themselves, dry them in their homes and sell them in the market, or they shell the nuts to be sold. Local contractors buy the nuts from the villagers or they outsource the fruit-picking as well. When the women are done with a hard day’s work, they gather in one of their homes for a chat, meanwhile shelling walnuts or sorting them to pass their evenings.

“Since I have to feed my family of five, I have to work hard during the off-season of walnuts to cover my losses. However, my seasonal earnings have also reduced from 50,000 rupees to 20,000 rupees in the last five years or so,” says Marium.

There is a general downturn in the walnut business.

Walnut farming supports families in Bandi and Leepa

The unusual phenomenon of rains over the last decade or so in Neelum and Jhelum during the fruit harvesting months of September and October has led to the quality of walnuts deteriorating. Dry fruit rates have dropped to a quarter of their price over the last 10 years, diminishing the source of earning for the farming population comprising some 30,000 families.

“With every passing year, the monsoon and post-monsoon rainfall is rising in the region, especially in the walnut districts of Neelum and Jhelum,” Khawaja Masood Iqbal, director at the Agriculture Research Department, Azad Kashmir, tells Eos. This is negatively affecting fruit productivity.

In AJK, harvesting of walnuts starts in the month of August and continues till the end of October. In the past, the dry weather during this period favoured the ripening of the walnuts, turning the walnut kernels white. In contrast, the recent heavy rainfalls during harvesting season raised humidity and that makes the kernels a substandard brown.

According to experts, another factor connected with changing weather is insect infestation and the spread of diseases on tree stems and kernels.

“We didn’t have insect infestation in walnut crops in the past,” says Zafar Jahangir, a Muzaffarabad-based agriculture scientist, “but they have become very common as they are getting a favourable environment due to changing climatic conditions. Stemborer [insects] destroy walnut tree stems while walnut weevil damages the fruit,” Jahangir tells Eos.

Damage to the crop is, of course, damage to the pocket. Profits are nosediving for farmers who are finding it a challenge to ensure kernel quality. For instance, the rate of the superior white kernels in the market is around 1,800 rupees per kg as compared to the brown- and grey-kernelled walnuts, priced at 700 rupees for the same weight.

Kashmir-produced walnuts are traded to other parts of Pakistan, mainly through Rawalpindi. “Our walnuts were exported to other countries not long ago,” Khalid Shah, a trader from Neelum, tells Eos. “However, due to the deteriorating quality of crops that are producing brown kernels, we are importing walnuts from China [for the last 8 to 10 years].” For Kashmiri traders, the arrival of Chinese walnuts in the Pakistani market has added to their problems.

According to Shah, there was strong competition for the organic Kashmiri walnuts in the market with the arrival of Chinese walnuts. The walnuts coming from China have soft shells and white kernels but locally grown walnuts are organic and are better in taste. Unfortunately, they are outnumbered by the Chinese nuts in volume.

Given these impediments in selling Kashmiri nuts, local landlords are losing interest in walnut cultivation, and that will severely hit local businesses, says Shah.

Raja Shafiq, another grower from Jhelum’s Leepa area, demands of the government to seriously look into the decline of walnut farming. “Our trees are getting sick now,” he says, “they are drying up. The government should help us get rid of the walnut tree diseases. It can play an important role in pest control, which will curb the loss to our business.”

Shafiq says, “The government’s help is our last hope. It can save the existing trees as well as enhance walnut cultivation in the Kashmir region, as it is a very low-investment plantation.”

The writer is a freelance environmental journalist based in Muzaffarabad. He tweets @sajidmir44

Published in Dawn, EOS, February 6th, 2022

PAKISTAN

Old wine in new bottles

Aqdas Afzal

RECENTLY, Pakistan’s first-ever national security policy was unfurled to much fanfare. The new policy, we are told, seeks to go beyond the guns-versus-butter trade-off model by connecting the attainment of security objectives to first enlarging the economic pie. In a sense, the national security policy en­­­d­­orses continued reliance on the Washington Con­sensus, or neoliberal policies on economic growth, so that the resulting increase in available resources can assist in strengthening security.

Not only is this idea not new, Pakistan’s reliance on neoliberal economic policies has largely failed in bringing about economic growth. Moreover, in addition to the failure to grow economically, almost all gains from stop-and-go growth have accrued to a small coterie in this country. While a sound economy is certainly important, the foundations of a secure and prosperous Pakistan can only be laid by strengthening political institutions like democracy.

The new security policy tells us that an inclusive economic growth model is the need of the hour. A cursory examination of previous vision statements released by different governments shows that this purported new focus on inclusive economic growth is not new. For instance, Pakistan 2025, a vision relea­sed in 2014, talked specifically about sustained, indi­g­­­enous and inclusive growth. As a matter of fact, Pakistan 2025 specifically traced the connection bet­w­­een per capita economic growth and defence agai­nst non-traditional threats like poverty and disease.

And, like the previous national visions in Pakistan, the new security policy borrows economic growth prescriptions out of the now defunct neoliberal playbook. The new security policy recommends standard neoliberal prescriptions of free markets, fiscal austerity, mobilising savings to increase investment, as well as finding ways to spur exports. The problem is that these neoliberal prescriptions have not worked in the past as Pakistan has not been able to see any meaningful increase in employment or exports. In a sense, Pakistan’s experience with growth has not been sustainable and instead of improving the standard of living, following neoliberal policies has only led to pernicious declines in the exchange rate thereby making everything expensive.

Following neoliberal policies has only led to pernicious declines in the exchange rate thereby making everything expensive.

The ideology of neoliberalism is the foundation of the Washington Consensus, which, in turn, encouraged IMF to impose rigorous conditions on borrower nations. One of the core precepts of neoliberalism focuses on keeping the state out of economic management. However, Covid-19 has brought the efficacy of using the state as an optimal tool for economic and social turnarounds into stark relief. Developed nations, in particular, have channelled massive support through state institutions in the wake of Covid-19. As of July 2021, total global fiscal support stood at $16 trillion.

At the same time, a very strong political challenge to the already crumbling neoliberal order is underway in South America. Chile, the veritable birth place of neoliberal policies, recently elected a leftist former student leader, thereby driving another nail in neoliberalism’s coffin. Some have argued that the sun is now finally setting on neoliberalism and the world is now moving into an era of neo-statism, where the state will play a significant and permanent role in economic and social policy for some time to come.

Given the failure of neoliberal policies in bringing about real inclusive economic growth and the advent of neo-statism necessitates a rethink with respect to the new security policy. It is clear that the state would need to play an important role in a re-examined security policy in order to provide direction and guidance towards inclusive economic growth. Moreover, a thorough, concerted and long-term programme of strengthening key state institutions needs to be undertaken. Some key state institutions besides the State Bank like the Higher Education Commission and Planning Commission will have to be given required technical resources and complete autonomy so that they can chart out an education and industrial policy for an inclusive economic transformation.

Read more: Why economists believe the SBP Act is not as bad as opposition parties perceive

A blind reliance on the state to address all issues is also problematic since states can be captured by vested interests. For this reason, where the state needs to take a driving seat in the economic and social transformation, the state must exhibit democratic hues working under and being accountable to Pakistani democracy.

In a sense, a democratic state must be placed at the centre of any new security policy in order to bring about the required social and economic transformation in Pakistan. Dani Rodrik, a leading development expert, has highlighted the institution of democracy as a ‘meta-institution’ that assists with the building of other good institutions. Rodrik cites a range of evidence to show that democracies enable high-quality growth — sustainable growth that improves living standards.

What this points out is that democracy must be the foundation or the starting point for a secure and prosperous Pakistan. For this reason, in order to improve various dimensions of the Pakistani democratic process, a new reform agenda needs to be launched so that democracy can become more representative, responsive, transparent and accountable. These reforms could entail moving from a plurality basis to a proptional representation basis. Perhaps, in order to safeguard minorities, the efficacy of quadratic voting needs to be assessed given that it allows for how strongly voters feel about particular issues. And, the feasibility of wholescale campaign finance legislation needs to be evaluated so that better leaders can be encouraged and incentivised to participate in the democratic process. Finally, it goes without saying that improving the quality of democracy will also prove salubrious for countering various ethnic and linguistic conflicts that exhibit centrifugal tendencies.

The new security policy seeks to address traditional and non-traditional threats facing Pakistan through neoliberal economic growth policies. It is old wine in a new bottle. Not only have these policies failed to deliver in the past, the world is now moving towards neo-statism where democratic states will become the engines of social and economic transformation. The journey to a secure and prosperous Pakistan must start with giving democracy the pride of place.

The writer completed his doctorate in economics on a Fulbright scholarship.

aqdas.afzal@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2022

Engage the Taliban

A.G. Noorani

Published February 12, 2022

The writer is an author and a lawyer based in Mumbai.

ANYONE who consults archival material of the sorry phase in Afghanistan’s international exertions, prior to America’s war on the hapless country, would be struck by the then Taliban’s regime’s sincere and dogged efforts for a dialogue with officials of the US State Department. Formulae for dealing with Osama bin Laden were on the cards. They were rudely, repeatedly snubbed.

There is a different situation today. But the Taliban who returned to power in 2021 have the same yearning for diplomatic recognition and dialogue with the great powers and some significant others. Once again, they are being ignored if not snubbed.

Right now, Afghanistan faces calamity on a massive scale that is unknown even to our South Asian subcontinent, used as it is to the harrowing saga of sheer destitution. Large parts of the country face virtual famine. No words need to be wasted on insecurity of life in vast areas. The new Taliban regime would and could have been rendered amenable to persuasion if its requests for diplomatic relations were accepted. It has, of course, a lot to answer for; especially in the realm of human rights, and in particular, women’s rights. Not surprisingly the standard bearer of human rights, the United States of America has turned a Nelson’s eye on happenings in states that are rich in oil.

The last century produced a hybrid animal in the realm of diplomacy — a diplomatic agent to conduct dialogue without formal recognition as an ambassador. He was a product of the First World War.

Pre-eminent among them was Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart. He described his ambiguities and turmoil later in his book Memoirs of a British Agent. That is just what he was dubbed — agent to the Czarist, Kerensky and Bolshevik regimes. He wrote: “…[T]he Foreign Office insisted on keeping my own position as vague as possible. If in the House of Commons some irate interventionist wished to know why in the name of decency the British Government maintained an official representative with a government of cut-throats, who boasted of their determination to destroy civilisation, Mr Balfour, the Foreign Secretary or his Under-Secretary would then reply quite truthfully that we had no official representative accredited to the Bolshevik Government.

“On the other hand, when some revolutionary-minded Liberal charged the British Government with the folly of not maintaining an accredited representative in Moscow in order to protect British interests and to assist the Bolsheviks in their struggle with German militarism, Mr Balfour would reply, with the same strict regard for the truth, that in Moscow we had a representative — an official with great experience of Russia — who was charged precisely with these duties.”

His task was to engage and report to London where sheer ignorance ruled the roost. “I could not share the general belief, stimulated by the opinion of nearly all the Russian experts in London that the Lenin regime could not last more than a few weeks and that then Russia would revert to Tsarism or a military dictatorship.

“Still less could I believe that the Russian peasant would return to the trenches. Russia was out of the war, Bolshevism would last — certainly as long as the war lasted. I deprecated as sheer folly our militarist propaganda, because it took no account of the war-weariness which had raised the Bolsheviks to the supreme power. In my opinion, we had to take the Bolshevik peace proposals seriously. Our policy should now aim at achieving an anti-German peace in Russia.

“Rather futilely I sought to combat the firmly rooted conviction that Lenin and Trotsky were Ger­man staff officers in disguise or at least service age­nts of German policy. I was more successful when I argued that it was madness not to establish some contact with the men who at that moment were controlling Russia’s destinies.”

This is an accurate description of almost all such situations as the American White Paper on relations with China reveals. Diplomats who spoke the truth then were dubbed fellow travellers by Senator McCarthy who dominated American’s political dialogue in those days. America and Chinese diplomats conducted long and very useful talks at Warsaw. In 1972, president Richard Nixon visited a country whose state and government his own government had not recognised. History has vindicated his bold step.

In the last century, a new form of dialogue came into being — secret diplomatic exchanges between spy chiefs of both sides with the advantage of deniability.

Afghanistan seeks an open dialogue with no peremptory demands on either side. The international community would gain and bring succour to Afghan lives by engaging with the Taliban. Both sides will profit thereby. And regional peace will be all the more secure for that.

Afghans protest US order to give $3.5bn to 9/11 victims, central banks demands reversal of decision

AP | Dawn.com | Naveed Siddiqui

Published February 12, 2022 

Afghan protesters hold placards and shout slogans against US during a protest condemning President Joe Biden's decision, in Kabul, Afghanistan. — AP

Demonstrators in Afghanistan’s capital on Saturday condemned US President Joe Biden’s order freeing up $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the US for families of America’s 9/11 victims — saying the money belongs to Afghans.

Protesters who gathered outside Kabul’s grand Eid Gah mosque asked America for financial compensation for the tens of thousands of Afghans killed during the last 20 years of war in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s central bank, known as Da Afghanistan Bank or DAB, also opposed the move, calling it "an injustice to the people of Afghanistan" and demanding that the decision be withdrawn.

"DAB considers the latest decision of [the] USA on blocking FX (foreign exchange) reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes [an] injustice to the people of Afghanistan and will never accept if the FX reserves of Afghanistan [are] paid [in] the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others, and wants the reversal of the decision and release of all FX reserves of Afghanistan," it said in a press release.

The bank said the "real owners" of the said assets were the people of Afghanistan.

"These reserves were not and [are] not the property of governments, parties and groups and [are] never used as per their demand and decisions," it added.

With regards to the management of the assets, the bank highlighted: "Considering the specified objectives, the FX reserves of Afghanistan is managed based on the international practices. [The] condition of these reserves are regularly and precisely monitored by DAB. A certain portion of these reserves [is] invested in the USA as per the accepted rules to be secure and be available to DAB for achieving the determined objectives."
'What about our Afghan people?'

Biden’s order, signed on Friday, allocates another $3.5bn in Afghan assets for humanitarian aid to a trust fund to be managed by the UN to provide aid to Afghans. The country’s economy is teetering on the brink of collapse after international money stopped coming into Afghanistan with the arrival in mid-August of the Taliban.

Read: UN warns of 'colossal' collapse of Afghan banking system

At the protest in Kabul, misspelled placards in English accused the US of being cruel and of stealing the money of Afghans.

“What about our Afghan people who gave many sacrifices and thousands of losses of lives?” asked the demonstration’s organiser, Abdul Rahman, a civil society activist.

Rahman said he planned to organise more demonstrations across the capital to protest Biden’s order. “This money belongs to the people of Afghanistan, not to the United States. This is the right of Afghans,” he said.

Torek Farhadi, a financial adviser to Afghanistan’s former US-backed government, questioned the UN managing Afghan Central Bank reserves. He said those funds are not meant for humanitarian aid but “to back up the country’s currency, help in monetary policy and manage the country’s balance of payment.”

He also questioned the legality of Biden’s order.

“These reserves belong to the people of Afghanistan, not the Taliban ... Biden’s decision is one-sided and does not match with international law,” said Farhadi. “No other country on earth makes such confiscation decisions about another country’s reserves.”

Afghanistan has about $9bn in assets overseas, including the $7bn in the United States. The rest is mostly in Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.
Condemnation on Twitter

Biden’s Friday order generated a social media storm with Twitter saying #USAstolemoneyfromafghan was trending among Afghans. Tweets repeatedly pointed out that the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals, not Afghans.

Taliban political spokesperson Mohammad Naeem accused the Biden administration in a tweet late on Friday of showing “the lowest level of humanity ... of a country and a nation.”

Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer at the American University in Afghanistan and a social activist, tweeted: “Let’s remind the world that #AfghansDidntCommit911 and that #BidenStealingAfgMoney!”

Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the US-based Wilson Centre, called Biden’s order to divert $3.5 billion away from Afghanistan “heartless.”

“It’s great that $3.5bn in new humanitarian aid for Afghanistan has been freed up. But to take another $3.5bn that belongs to the Afghan people, and divert it elsewhere — that is misguided and quite frankly heartless,” he tweeted.

Kugelman also said the opposition to Biden’s order crossed Afghanistan’s wide political divide.

“I can’t remember the last time so many people of such vastly different worldviews were so united over a US policy decision on Afghanistan,” he tweeted.
Pakistan's stance

Neighbouring Pakistan, which has been urging the world not to abandon Afghanistan, unfreeze its assets, and ensure the delivery of aid and assistance to the war-ravaged country that faces a humanitarian crisis, also issued a statement backing Afghanistan's call to receive all the funds.

"Over the past several months, Pakistan has been consistently emphasising the need for the international community to quickly act to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and to help revive the Afghan economy, as the two are inextricably linked. Finding ways to unfreeze Afghan foreign reserves urgently would help address the humanitarian and economic needs of the Afghan people," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

It added that "Pakistan’s principled position on the frozen Afghan foreign bank reserves remains that these are owned by the Afghan nation and these should be released. The utilisation of Afghan funds should be the sovereign decision of Afghanistan."

"The Afghan people are facing grave economic and humanitarian challenges and the international community must continue to play its important and constructive role in alleviating their sufferings. Time is of the essence," the FO concluded.

India has turned Muslims into a 'persecuted minority': Noam Chomsky

APP

Published February 12, 2022 -

World-renowned scholar, author and activist Noam Chomsky


Renowned scholar Professor Noam Chomsky on Thursday said that Islamophobia has taken a “most lethal form” in India, turning some 250 million Indian Muslims into a “persecuted minority”.

“The pathology of Islamophobia is growing throughout the West — it is taking its most lethal form in India,” the famed author and activist, who is also Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a video message to a webinar organised by the Indian American Muslim Council, a Washington-based advocacy organisation.

Apart from Chomsky, several other academics and activists took part in the webinar on “Worsening Hate Speech and Violence in India”.

Chomsky also said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist regime has sharply escalated the “crimes” in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK).


“The crimes in Kashmir have a long history,” he said, adding that the state was now a “brutally occupied territory and its military control in some ways is similar to occupied Palestine”.

The situation in South Asia, Chomsky said, was painful in particular not because of what was happening but because of what was not happening. There was, however, hope and opportunities to solve South Asian torment but not for long, he added.

Annapurna Menon, an Indian author and lecturer at the University of Westminster, urged the international community to focus on the status of press freedom in India as, under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, the situation has become a cause of concern.

“The situation on [the] ground is extremely alarming as four journalists have already been killed in 2022, simply for doing their job,” Menon said, adding journalists, especially women, have been exposed to all kinds of reprisals including harassment, illegal detention, police violence and sedition charges.

“The situation in IoK is even dire, where the journalists routinely face police questioning, ban on reporting, suspension of internet services and financial constraints in line with BJP’s recent ‘media policy’. The family of award-winning Srinagar-based photojournalist Masrat Zahra was subjected to harassment and intimidation by the Indian Police as a crackdown on the press in IoK continues to escalate," she said.

Fahad Shah, a renowned Kashmiri journalist who is the founder and editor of ‘‘The Kashmir Walla’’, was arrested recently by the police in Pulwama under terrorism and sedition laws, Menon pointed out. Similarly, Sajad Gul, another journalist of ‘‘The Kashmir Walla’’, was also arrested at the beginning of February 2022.

John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said the greatest threat to the Indian constitution was the promotion of majority religion by the Indian government at the expense of minorities.

“BJP and its affiliates are making hateful remarks against Muslims to gain Hindu vote around elections,” he said.

The BJP government had adopted laws and policies that systematically discriminate against religious minorities and other groups and it also stigmatises its critics, the HRW official said. He added the government enacted the ‘Citizenship Act’ to target the minorities, particularly Indian Muslims.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Tiktok, Sifton said, had failed to control hatred spread through their platforms.

The US Congress, he said, must weigh on the Indian government to convey their concerns vis-a-vis the violation of human and minority rights in India.

Angana Chatterji, an Indian anthropologist and scholar at Berkeley University, California, said prejudices embedded in the government of the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP had infiltrated independent institutions, such as the police and the courts, empowering nationalist groups to threaten, harass and attack religious minorities with impunity.

“Hindu spiritual leaders are involved in [the] ethnic cleansing of Muslims,” she said, adding BJP leaders and affiliated groups have long portrayed minority communities, especially Muslims, as a threat to national security and to the Hindu way of life. They had raised the bogey of “love jihad” claiming that Muslim men lure Hindu women into marriages to convert them to Islam, labelled Muslim immigrants as extremists and accused them of hurting Hindu sentiment over cow slaughter.

Since Yogi Adityanath became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in 2017, Chatterji said the culture of violence and impunity had taken root, pointing out that UP police had carried out hundreds of extra-judicial killings of suspected criminals belonging to minorities, particularly Muslims.

By the time protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill spilt out on the streets of UP in December 2019, the police manhandled protesters, behaved in a vulgar manner with women, arrested whomsoever it wanted and framed prominent activists in criminal cases, she said.

As hundreds of thousands of farmers of various faiths began protesting against the government’s new farm laws in November 2020, senior BJP leaders, their supporters on social media, and pro-government media blamed the Sikhs as ‘Khalistani terrorists’, Chatterji said.

February 23, 2022, marks the two year anniversary of the communal violence in Delhi that killed 53 people, 40 of them Muslim.

Harsh Mander, a former Indian civil servant and human rights activist, said that while Mahatma Gandhi upheld the principles of non-violence, the Hindu supremacist ideology was currently being propagated by Indian leaders.

“Hate crimes have increased by a thousandfold during [the] BJP regime,” he said. BJP stigmatises and openly incites crimes against minorities, even Mother Teresa had been vilified, he added.

Muslims, Mander said, were falsely projected as bigots, unpatriotic, Jihadis and oppressors, adding that even Modi followed some of the hate mongers and refused to denounce them.

IoK, he said, was the most militarised region of the world.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism 

Press in chains: Fear and trolling in Modi's 'new India'

Prime Minister Modi hates to be questioned and hates it even more when the media challenges his narrative.

Sanjay Kumar

Published February 10, 2022 - 

There is a saying in journalism: “If your mother says she loves you, question it.”

For journalists in India, this question has taken on a whole new meaning of late: does ‘Mother India’ still love a free press?

Nation states around the world have always had a precarious relationship with the media — often referred to as the fourth pillar of the state. Theoretically, a free press is one of the cornerstones of a vibrant democracy, acting as a watchdog against government excesses, holding the powerful accountable and giving a voice to the voiceless. It is for these very reasons that the state often finds itself at odds with the media.
Media in Modi’s ‘new India’

The current regime under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised the dream of a “new India”. Unfortunately, an independent media is not really invited to be part of this dream. In fact, the incumbent government shows a contempt towards a free press unlike that professed by any other government in India’s history.

There is good reason for this contempt and of course, it comes from the very top. Prime Minister Modi hates to be questioned and hates it even more when the media challenges his narrative.

This is why in the over seven years he has been in power, Modi — the leader of the largest democracy of the world, the leader of a party that claims to be the biggest in the world in terms of membership, the leader of a party that enjoys an overwhelming majority in parliament — has not addressed a single press conference.

Meanwhile, his interviews to ‘friendly’ media houses have reportedly all been fixed and aimed more at eulogising him, rather than asking him pressing questions.

Since 2014, Modi has also stopped including members of the mainstream media in his entourage when he travels abroad. Only a couple of agencies are allowed to travel with him while other journalists, who wish to cover his foreign visits, must do so independently. Unlike his predecessors, Modi has also never felt the need to inform the nation about the outcome of his foreign visits.
The trickle down effect

With the head of the state holding the media in such contempt, it is a no-brainer then that the press is in dire straits. To ensure its survival, a large section of the mainstream media has thus converted into torchbearers of the government’s majoritarian agenda. Those that have so far refused to conform find themselves at the receiving end of scathing attacks by government functionaries and troll armies.

The Press Club of India, a prestigious body of journalists, recently noted that the media today faces a higher level of threat to its existence than it has at any other time in the history of independent India. In a panel discussion to mark its founding day, members observed that the incumbent government was doing everything in its power to muzzle the media. At the same time, the journalists vowed to protect the rights of the media and in doing so, the country’s future.

A day before the event in January, the government banned a regional news channel, Media One, based in the southern state of Kerala, citing "security reasons". This is the second time in two years that the channel has been taken off air. The Malayali language station is known for journalistic endeavours that have often been critical of the ruling BJP government and its policies.

The situation is even more dire in Kashmir, where the government actually introduced a new media policy in January 2020, giving authorities more power to censor news in the region. According to New York-headquartered Human Rights Watch, "since 2019, journalists have been routinely summoned to police stations for questions on their work and their social media posts, threatened with jail if their work criticises the authorities, and pressured to self-censor".

In January, Sajad Gul — a 26-year-old student and trainee reporter with a local magazine The Kashmir Walla — was booked under a draconian law — the Public Safety Act — for sharing news that questioned the narrative of the local administration.

Gul had interviewed the family members of a man — described by the authorities as a militant — killed in an ‘encounter’. Officials accused him of broadcasting an “anti-government” story and not highlighting the “development work” being done in the region.

A month later on Feb 4, police arrested the editor-in-chief of Kashmir Walla, Fahad Shah, for allegedly sharing social media posts with "anti-national content" with "criminal intention" that aimed to disturb law and order.

Last month, the government also revoked the license of the Kashmir Press Club, depriving local journalists a space where they can exchange ideas and discuss the latest developments. Media persons across India expressed outrage at the blatant violation of journalists’ rights in Kashmir, but the government was unmoved.

There is also “simmering unrest” among journalists whose accreditation has not been renewed by the government. For the first time since the 1950s, the annual renewal of the press card issued to accredited journalists by the Press Information Bureau — an arm of the Information and Broadcasting ministry — has not taken place. The validity of the old card has simply been extended until April this year.

Meanwhile, the new accreditation policy announced a few days ago lays stringent conditions for journalists to follow. For example, a journalist may lose their accreditation if they “act in a manner which is prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement of an offence”.

In the first week of January, the Press Club of India penned a letter to the government, saying, “the move is heedlessly and needlessly aimed at suppressing coverage of news and views gathering”.

The letter, written on behalf of several journalists’ bodies, accused the government of trying to curtail press freedom and exert pressure on journalists. The same journalists, a month earlier, complained to the government about the curtailment of their rights to cover parliamentary proceedings. In fact, the kind of restrictions and limitations that have been imposed on media coverage of parliamentary proceedings, does not find any parallel in India’s history.
Survival of the ‘loyalists’

It’s not like the Modi regime doesn’t give weight to media coverage. They are, in fact, fully aware of the power of the narrative, which is why besides using several instruments to subjugate the mainstream media, the BJP has cultivated a symbiotic relationship with a large section of private media houses that are willing to do its bidding. The latter not only plays a proactive role in serving the government’s agenda, but also endeavours to silence any voices of dissent.

This ‘friendly’ media has effectively become an extended arm of the Hindu right wing and is working overtime to realise the divisive agenda of the ruling party, not just on the mainstream media, but on social media platforms too.

Through their actions, these media houses and individuals associated with them have created an atmosphere, wherein violence against the marginalised and members of religious minorities is portrayed as an act of nation building, where divisive politics and Islamophobia are normalised and where the systematic dumbing down and crushing of voices of the people of Kashmir is sold as a nationalist act.
Instruments of fear

Amid all this, independent journalists who show any spine are vilified and harassed through various instruments. Recently, Delhi-based online publication, The Wire, unearthed the use of a very sophisticated app — Tek Fog — being used by right wing Hindutva forces close to the BJP to hijack social media and WhatsApp platforms in order to amplify the ruling party's majoritarian propaganda.

The application, which is not available on any app stores, is used to artificially inflate the popularity of the BJP, manipulate public perception on social media platforms and troll female journalists having independent points of view.

Besides, the Modi regime has also been accused of using the Pegasus software — a military-grade spyware developed by an Israeli firm — to spy on journalists and opposition leaders. While the revelation about its use was followed by fervent denials from official quarters, it has instilled a sense of paranoia among journalists, many of whom no longer feel safe using their phones for news gathering purposes.

Such a systematic attack on free speech has never been witnessed in free India. The Modi government, which came to power through a popular mandate, has now become a danger to India’s civil society and threatens the very foundation and principles of democracy that have been sustaining the world's largest democracy for over 70 years.

And while the media has been its strongest target, the other three pillars also find themselves on shaky ground, raising worrying questions about the future of democracy in India.

Header illustration: Adapted from Shallu Narula/ Shutterstock.com

Sanjay Kumar is a New Delhi based journalist covering South Asia. A keen observer of politics in India and the subcontinent, Kumar in his 15 years of journalistic career has worked with both national and international media. A news reporter, columnist, commentator, producer and blogger, Kumar does not confine himself to one particular genre in journalism.

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

India's Hindu hardliners protest tweets by companies in support of Kashmir

Reuters

Published February 12, 2022 - 

An employee looks from behind a glass wall covered with stickers pasted by the activists of Bajrang Dal, a Hindu hardline group, at a Hyundai showroom during a protest over their Pakistani partners' tweet in support of occupied Kashmir, in Ahmedabad, India. — Reuters

An activist of Bajrang Dal, a Hindu hardline group, shouts slogans in front of a KIA Motors showroom during a protest over their Pakistani partners' tweet in support of occupied Kashmir, in Ahmedabad, India. — Reuters

Hundreds of Hindu nationalist protesters marched in the Indian state of Gujarat on Saturday, prompting the closure of stores owned by several multinational companies caught up in a furore over social media posts supporting occupied Kashmir.

The messages were posted last week by the Pakistani branches of firms including Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and fast food chains Domino's Pizza, Yum Brand Inc's Pizza Hut and KFC, which also operate in India.

They were issued by the companies on February 5 to coincide with Pakistan's Kashmir Solidarity Day, held annually to commemorate the sacrifices of Kashmiris struggling for self-determination, and caused anger among social media users in India.

“These companies cannot be doing business in India and at the same time supporting Pakistan's stand on Kashmir,” Dinesh Navadiya, national treasurer of Hindu nationalist organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), told Reuters during a protest in the city of Surat.

Shouting slogans such as “Kashmir is Ours” and wearing saffron scarves, more than 100 members of Bajrang Dal, another Hindu nationalist group, also joined the protest — one of several held in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Both the VHP and Bajrang Dal are linked to Modi's ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

The furore has highlighted the risks faced by companies operating in India and arch-rival Pakistan.

India claims Pakistan supports an armed insurrection against New Delhi's rule in occupied Kashmir that broke out in 1990. Pakistan denies the charge and says it only provides diplomatic and moral support for Kashmiri people.

“We protested peacefully against these companies for the tweets by their Pakistani affiliates in support of Kashmir,” said Hitendrasinh Rajput, spokesperson for the VHP's state unit in Gujarat's largest city of Ahmedabad.

“We want to make it clear to these companies and others that Kashmir is an inseparable part of India,” Rajput said.

Companies including Hyundai, Kia, Domino's Pizza, Yum Brand's Pizza Hut and KFC, Japan's Suzuki Motor, Honda Motor and Isuzu Motor issued apologies as criticism grew over the posts.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism