Atal Bihari Vajpayee – TheNewsHub https://thenewshub.in Thu, 17 Oct 2024 09:56:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 This mandate is against New Delhi’s unilateral changes in Jammu and Kashmir since 2019: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq https://thenewshub.in/2024/10/17/this-mandate-is-against-new-delhis-unilateral-changes-in-jammu-and-kashmir-since-2019-mirwaiz-umar-farooq/ https://thenewshub.in/2024/10/17/this-mandate-is-against-new-delhis-unilateral-changes-in-jammu-and-kashmir-since-2019-mirwaiz-umar-farooq/?noamp=mobile#respond Thu, 17 Oct 2024 09:56:26 +0000 https://thenewshub.in/2024/10/17/this-mandate-is-against-new-delhis-unilateral-changes-in-jammu-and-kashmir-since-2019-mirwaiz-umar-farooq/

LISTEN | Amit Baruah in conversation with Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq says this election was a vote against the BJP and the policies of Narendra Modi’s government. 
| Video Credit:
 Interview by Amit Baruah; Editing by Samson Ronald K.; Supervising producer: Jinoy Jose P.

Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the religious head of Kashmiri Muslims, talks to Amit Baruah in this episode of the Frontline Conversations podcast at his home in Nigeen, Srinagar. After years of house arrest, he shares his views on Kashmir’s current situation and its future. The Mirwaiz discusses the recent elections in Kashmir, calling them a “consolidated ballot” against the changes made by New Delhi since 2019. He says people voted to show they reject these changes, not because they’re happy with the “Naya Kashmir” idea. He talks about how the BJP government’s actions have affected Kashmir.

The Mirwaiz believes that removing Article 370 hasn’t solved any problems. Instead, he thinks it has made the Kashmir issue more international, with China now involved because of Ladakh. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq compares the current BJP government with Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time. He remembers Vajpayee’s efforts to solve the Kashmir issue “within the ambit of insaniyat” (humanity). The Mirwaiz sees the current government’s approach as very different, saying it wants to “finish the identity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).”

Amit Baruah is a senior journalist.

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This mandate is against the unilateral changes initiated by New Delhi after 2019: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq https://thenewshub.in/2024/10/15/this-mandate-is-against-the-unilateral-changes-initiated-by-new-delhi-after-2019-mirwaiz-umar-farooq/ https://thenewshub.in/2024/10/15/this-mandate-is-against-the-unilateral-changes-initiated-by-new-delhi-after-2019-mirwaiz-umar-farooq/?noamp=mobile#respond Tue, 15 Oct 2024 10:46:12 +0000 https://thenewshub.in/2024/10/15/this-mandate-is-against-the-unilateral-changes-initiated-by-new-delhi-after-2019-mirwaiz-umar-farooq/

Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the religious head of Kashmiri Muslims, talks to Amit Baruah in this episode of the Frontline Conversations podcast at his home in Nigeen, Srinagar. After years of house arrest, he shares his views on Kashmir’s current situation and its future. The Mirwaiz discusses the recent elections in Kashmir, calling them a “consolidated ballot” against the changes made by New Delhi since 2019. He says people voted to show they reject these changes, not because they’re happy with the “Naya Kashmir” idea. He talks about how the BJP government’s actions have affected Kashmir.

The Mirwaiz believes that removing Article 370 hasn’t solved any problems. Instead, he thinks it has made the Kashmir issue more international, with China now involved because of Ladakh. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq compares the current BJP government with Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time. He remembers Vajpayee’s efforts to solve the Kashmir issue “within the ambit of insaniyat” (humanity). The Mirwaiz sees the current government’s approach as very different, saying it wants to “finish the identity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).”

LISTEN |

Amit Baruah in conversation with Mirwaiz Umar Farooq about the recently-concluded Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir.
| Video Credit:
Interview by Amit Baruah; Editing by Samson Ronald K.; Supervising producer: Jinoy Jose P.

Edited transcript of the podcast:


In your sermon on Friday (October 11, 2024), you referred to a consolidated ballot being cast by the people of Kashmir. Could you explain what you mean by that?


You have to understand the context of these elections. Although Hurriyat has always maintained that elections, civic elections, and the overall Kashmir issue are two different things, it’s true that in the past, the Hurriyat Conference used to boycott the elections. This was because New Delhi often highlighted these elections as an alternative to a political solution or settlement of Kashmir. That’s why we used to distance ourselves from this process. We used to say that elections can be for governance, for “sadak, bijli, paani” (roads, electricity, water), but elections cannot substitute for a conflict management process.

Although this election is also for the civic legislature, I think the focus has shifted completely after the post-2019 situation. This mandate or voting pattern shown by the people is a clear indication that it’s a mandate against the unilateral changes initiated by New Delhi after 2019. It’s rejecting the impression that the government of India is giving—that post-2019, some “Naya Kashmir” (New Kashmir) has been developed and people are satisfied and happy with what’s going on on the ground.

People felt it was important to send a consolidated message by voting for one party. This might not have been the best choice given NC’s past, but given the present situation, people thought it better to consolidate behind one party. This party can, to some extent, try to reverse this process of disempowerment which has happened over the last five to six years.

It was a voice against the fact that people have been disempowered. People are concerned about their land rights, jobs, and their cultural and religious identity. There has been an overall assault on every aspect of Kashmiri life over the last five to six years. This time, the election was more about Kashmiris giving a united message to New Delhi that we reject those unilateral changes. It’s a vote against the BJP and against the policies of the Narendra Modi government.


There were other candidates who pretended to be separatists as well, and they were roundly rejected, as was the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party).


I think the PDP’s rejection is obviously because of their alliance with the BJP in 2014. People feel that this party is responsible for bringing the BJP into Kashmir politics. There was anger against that.

Regarding other parties, there was an impression among the people that suddenly we saw so many players coming into the electoral arena. It felt at times that there were more candidates than voters. People thought it was some sort of ploy on the part of New Delhi to consolidate the mandate in Jammu and completely disintegrate the mandate in the Valley, creating division within the community here.

Look at what happened post-elections—the way five more council Members were introduced in the Assembly, the gerrymandering of constituencies. The people of Kashmir were aware of what games New Delhi is playing.

It’s very clear that, to a large extent, people believe the National Conference (NC) is mainly responsible for the problems in Jammu and Kashmir since 1947. But if you ask me why they voted for NC, I think right now people felt they had to choose a lesser evil. Even the NC wasn’t expecting to get so many seats on their own.

The vote this time defines people’s anger. It also puts the NC in a position where they can’t undermine the people’s mandate. They have a clear mandate on what issues they have to take up with the Central government—the issues of Article 370, Article 35A, identity issues, land, jobs, statehood, and all those constitutional commitments that New Delhi had made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. So I think this time, the election was quite different compared to the usual sadak, bijli, paani issues.

Also Read | Kashmir’s guarded optimism 


What is your assessment of the events of August 5, 2019? What was the driving force? And after that, also the changes in the Assembly? Was the objective to get a Chief Minister from outside the valley? Or is there an ideological underpinning that drives the BJP and RSS?


If you look at the focus of the BJP, they’ve always claimed that Article 370 has been responsible for separatism. But I don’t understand this; there’s absolutely no link between Article 370 and the separatist movement or the people’s movement. The youth who died, even the people who took up arms or went to jail, were not concerned about Article 370 because that was never their agenda.

We understand why BJP was projecting it as something significant. They were trying to give an impression to the rest of India that because of Article 370, Kashmir had a separate constitution and separate legislation. Although all those things were already diluted completely by the Congress and the National Conference, only a skeleton remained. They were trying to give this impression of Ek Pradhan, Ek Nishan, Ek Samvidhan (One Prime Minister, One Flag, One Constitution), that Kashmir is somehow special and not fully integrated into India.

Article 370 was already hollowed out. I think they used it to give an impression that removing it would integrate Kashmiris into mainstream India, which obviously is not the case. That’s what we’ve been saying—as long as the erstwhile State of J&K, including Ladakh, Azad Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan, remains divided, the situation won’t change.

Whatever the BJP aims to do or intends to sell, the fact remains that as long as there is one area with Pakistan, one area with India, and now post-2019, one area effectively with China (referring to Ladakh), the issue remains internationalised. China has also condemned India’s unilateral decision. So, contrary to the BJP’s belief that they’ve made it an internal matter, we believe they’ve internationalised it further. China was not a player before; now they’re a direct player because they control a territory of J&K.


How would you assess a Prime Minister like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was also from the BJP, compared to Mr. Narendra Modi and his policies? You were all part of a process at that time. So how do you see it? Are these two different BJPs, or is it one BJP which didn’t have a majority then, and now is far more strengthened and has more authority?


To be honest, I don’t think that even if Vajpayee had the majority, he would have gone the way Mr. Modi has. I think Vajpayee, despite whatever differences we might have had regarding his role with Babri Masjid and other issues, to some extent understood that this problem is a legacy of the past that we have to address.

I remember meeting Vajpayee when he was Prime Minister. I was very young, probably in the late 1990s. We had gone to see him with Professor Sahib, and he said two things I remember. He said, “Is gutthi ko suljhana hai” (We must resolve this knot). He even said, “Agar hume alag bhi hona hai, to bhai ke tarah hona hai, dushman ke tarah nahi” (Even if we have to separate, we’ll do so as brothers, not as enemies).

When he became the Prime Minister, he understood that there had to be an internal process with the people of Kashmir and an external process with Pakistan. That’s why he took that bus trip to Pakistan. Unfortunately, issues like Kargil happened after that, which shouldn’t have.

I think the old BJP understood that there’s a political dimension, a human dimension, and a historical dimension to this whole problem, and that’s where they wanted to move forward. For example, I remember we were talking about the Constitution, and we were of the view that there should be unconditional talks. Vajpayee was also of this view. When the question of “within the constitution or outside the constitution” came up, he coined the term “within the ambit of insaniyat” (humanity). He said we would talk within the ambit of humanity, and that settled the discourse completely. It addressed all reservations.


Now, how do you see the BJP?


I think it’s completely different now. They want to completely finish the identity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. They don’t realise that Kashmir is the only Muslim-dominated State. We are watching what’s happening with the rest of the Muslims in India as well over the last five years—the way their houses are being bulldozed, what’s happening in UP [Uttar Pradesh], what’s happening with madrasahs, what’s happening with the Waqf, the JPC [Joint Parliamentary Committee], and everything.

The people of Kashmir are more wary today. During the Congress or Vajpayee’s time, at least there was a secular India we were looking at. Now it’s a completely Hinduized and Hindutva India we’re looking at. So how can we expect Kashmiris to feel closer to New Delhi compared to before, given their current policies?

There is strong resentment in Kashmir regarding policies towards Muslims and how minorities are being treated. Jammu and Kashmir people are very politically aware because we live in a conflict, we are part of a conflict. People are looking at what’s happening in India, in the Parliament, in the streets of UP and other places.

Even for the Parliament, they connected Ladakh with some other seats. The whole exercise seems to be about how the Muslim vote could be limited and the other vote could be strengthened. I think this communal politics is a very dangerous game which the BJP is playing with J&K.

Muslim devotees gathered while Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, released after four years of house arrest, delivered the sermon at Jamia Masjid in downtown Srinagar on September 22, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
NISSAR AHMAD


What is your sense of how this government will fare, given that its powers are severely impaired and the Centre is very much strengthened?


I think it will be a constant struggle for them to do anything on the ground. Even Class IV employees (meaning peons and such) are now under the Central government’s control. People understand what motive the BJP has vis-à-vis Jammu and Kashmir and where they come from. But I think to some extent, at least now that people have chosen these representatives, there will be some resistance. Until now, it was completely one-way; there was no setup, no authority, no framework.

I feel the BJP has to see beyond electoral gains and benefits. In terms of India’s interest and national interest, I don’t think what they’re doing in Kashmir or Jammu and Kashmir is helping their national cause. On one hand, India’s concept is to integrate everyone, but on the other hand, they’re completely isolating a state, isolating a population.

I believe that the gap between New Delhi and Srinagar has widened more compared to the times when there was militancy and violence on the ground. Today, I’m sorry to say this, but there is hate because of what the state of India is doing in Kashmir.

The sad part is, I’m not talking about only Congress, but other parties as well. It seems all the regional parties, all the other parties, nobody’s questioning anything on Kashmir. Even parties like Aam Aadmi Party, who earlier spoke about Article 370, are now silent.


So you think that this government will have to tread very carefully in Srinagar?


I think so. I think it’s not going to be easy for them because people have expectations. We see what’s happening in Delhi with [Arvind] Kejriwal, [Manish] Sisodia, and others protesting on the streets every day. I think, at least in Kashmir, there will be some resistance to Central policies.

Also Read | Can you have peace minus the people?: Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami


You were in detention for a long time. You were not allowed to even go to the Jama Masjid to deliver your sermon. So what is the situation now?


Since August 4, 2019, till September of 2023, for four and a half years, I was completely under house arrest. This arrest was completely arbitrary and illegal. There was no case, nothing at all. They would just block my gate and not let anybody in. Anyway, we went to the court, and that process started. Now, relatively, I’m able to move. But again, from time to time, it’s completely at their beck and call. Anytime they can block my gate, anytime they’ll tell me that I’m not allowed to move out. So there is no guarantee.

Previously, I would give programs. We had religious programs, social programs, and political programs. Now it’s very limited because many of the Hurriyat constituents have been banned post-2019. Structurally, the Hurriyat is weakened, but I think emotionally and as far as the aspirational point of Kashmir is concerned, Hurriyat will be there. Hurriyat is not a party, it’s a concept. In the 1930s, it was the Muslim Conference, then it was Mahaz-e-Rai Shumari, then it was others, and it was Sheikh Abdullah at one time. So it keeps on changing. Maybe they might demolish the structure of the Hurriyat, but the sentiment of the Hurriyat is not going to be destroyed because there is a genuine feeling among the people that this problem has to be addressed once and for all—its political dimension, human dimension.

I’ve been limited because I was not allowed to meet the press also. Even now, I’m sure if you had come with a camera, they would not have allowed you here. My movements are very monitored. They say I have security threats and concerns, but if there are security threats and concerns for everybody, everybody else moves. But I’m asked to stay at home. So there’s obviously more to it. They want me to be more confined to my house.

But anyway, wherever I get a chance, we are talking. We are giving this message that look, even last Friday, I said that the way in which we are projected by New Delhi, by the BJP—as separatists, as anti-India—is sad. I said that we believe that it is in the national interest of the people of India to address this problem. So who is anti-national? We don’t want violence, we don’t want our youth to pick up guns. We don’t want them to get consumed in the violence or the conflict. But we do want this problem to have a fair closure.

This is the third or fourth generation which is dealing with this issue. As long as one part is with India and one with Pakistan, this issue will remain alive. Whatever internal changes they might make, whatever structural changes they might make, the problem is still very much there. This problem is not going to go unless we devise a mechanism.

That’s why we remind Mr. Modi from time to time that you had a mechanism where you were talking, you were addressing the issue. We had reached some conclusions. We were talking about soft borders, bus services, trade, an end to militancy, end to violence. I think that is something that maybe, if not from this BJP, but maybe after that, whichever dispensation comes, and I hope the regional parties and other parties also realise that unilateral actions won’t solve the issue. Despite India-Pakistan bilateral talks, unilateral changes were made.


What you are saying is that when the bilateral process has not worked, how…


Exactly, how will Kashmiris accept that?

Amit Baruah is a senior journalist and author of Dateline Islamabad. He has reported from Delhi, Colombo, Islamabad, and Southeast Asia.

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India needs to engage with Bangladesh much more proactively: Sudeep Chakravarti https://thenewshub.in/2024/09/16/india-needs-to-engage-with-bangladesh-much-more-proactively-sudeep-chakravarti-2/ https://thenewshub.in/2024/09/16/india-needs-to-engage-with-bangladesh-much-more-proactively-sudeep-chakravarti-2/?noamp=mobile#respond Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:34:43 +0000 https://thenewshub.in/2024/09/16/india-needs-to-engage-with-bangladesh-much-more-proactively-sudeep-chakravarti-2/

The prolific author Sudeep Chakravarti’s 10th book, Fallen City, is about Delhi, where two children, Geeta and Sanjay, were brutally murdered in 1978. He places the crime in a socio-political context. Chakravarti’s own life is as interesting as his work and he has just emerged after three years in Dhaka, where he set up a South Asia study department at a university. In an interview with Frontline, he speaks about his latest book, Bangladesh’s transformation over the years, the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the recent spate of violence against the nation’s Hindus, the protests in Kolkata, and more. Edited excerpts:


This could be the rare Indian book told through crime because it reenacts the murder of two children in Delhi’s Ridge area, which shocked the country. Eventually, it was a senseless killing and we never quite understand why it happened. It is disturbing. We are living in an age when there is a lot of true crime on Netflix for example. The name Billa Ranga is even today, associated with terrible criminals. They were eventually hanged. But their story is the randomness of the violence that struck me.


You are absolutely right. It translates to the nation. I think one of the reasons why we were transfixed as teenagers at that time is they [the children] were people like us, middle-class kids, who were trying to get ahead in life, doing interesting things, aspiring to get into what was being built to us at that point of time, not in 2024, but back in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, as the symbol of brave new India emerged; and these bright young kids are brutally taken away from society. It horrified people, it shocked people because of the sheer brutality of it and the sheer senselessness of it. And it also, I think, came at a certain time in India’s dark arc, or Delhi’s dark arc.

That arc for me began with 1975, the beginning, the imposition of the Emergency, then the cessation of the Emergency, the Opposition coming into play, the fall of the Congress empire, the Gandhi empire, the generation of the Janata government, the strange goings-on, like the hard Hindu right, conservative right being a part of a coalition government with a left-of-centre coalition. Billa and Ranga emerged as hyphenated villains. And ironically their names continue to capture us to this day even though we tend to forget about Geeta and Sanjay. So, in a way, it was paying homage to people of my generation. Dreams that were taken away so brutally. It gave me an opportunity to talk about something that could be described as a true crime but interweave it with the socio-political environment and actually the mood of the moment.

Also Read | Time for a turnaround in Bangladesh


You have researched the newspapers, and spoken to top-notch journalists. What were the events happening simultaneously as the crime took place? Atal Bihari Vajpayee goes on to address the protesters at the Delhi boat club and he is hit with stones. Would you just tell us about that?


Indeed. And, remarkably, most people do not realise that Vajpayee was a member of the Janata government. I spent months delving through archives looking through newspapers, clippings, and microfilmspools. To come to Vajpayee’s incident, it was remarkable that he took it upon himself because even then he was an affable guy. He wanted to speak and he wanted to calm things down. He saw his role as a diplomat, the chief diplomat for India, but also in a way a chief diplomat for the government.

Interview with Sudeep Chakravarti

In an interview with Frontline, author Sudeep Chakravarti speaks about his latest book, Bangladesh’s transformation over the years, the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the recent spate of violence against the nation’s Hindus, the protests in Kolkata, and more. In an interview with Frontline, author Sudeep Chakravarti speaks about his latest book, Bangladesh’s transformation over the years, the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the recent spate of violence against the nation’s Hindus, the protests in Kolkata, and more.
| Video Credit:
Frontline


You have written multiple books. One of your books, which I liked, was Red Sun about the Naxal movement. You have written books on the Northeast, on Bengal, and the Battle of Plassey. But your life’s journey has involved an amazing amount of travel. And you have spent the last three years in Bangladesh. You were there when Sheikh Hasina was deposed.


I have a great engagement with Bangladesh. When I was there in the early 90s, I was one of the few people who believed in the idea of South Asia. So, the magazine I was with at the time, India Today, let me travel all over South Asia. I have actually seen the transition of Bangladesh over the past 30 years—from a military dictatorship into a democracy. I interviewed Sheikh Hasina when she was the leader of the Opposition, a very different Sheikh Hasina then: she went from being a very sharp, approachable leader of the Opposition to an autocratic premier of a country where she lived in an ivory tower. I had the good fortune to travel across Bangladesh and even interview people who are considered to be hardcore ultra conservative Islamists like Ghulam Azam.

I’ve seen Bangladesh go from a conservative phase to a self-professedly liberal, secular phase, which became conservative in its own right because the Awami League became more and more autocratic and the leaders became more and more autocratic. So, you have the irony of a democracy becoming an autocracy over time. And Sheikh Hasina was a symbol of that. I think it is necessary to explore this.


At the same time, Bangladesh was doing so well on development indices.


It did. I always describe it to my students and also when I write to speak, as inequity. You have a situation where Bangladesh, like India, has tremendously positive growth. Its infrastructure has grown by leaps and bounds. It is a forward-looking country, economically, and socially, in many indices, including human resources. In many ways, it may be a more equitable society than India. And yet, because of the political command and control, you effectively have had for the last 10 years, an increasingly autocratic and self-isolating power structure.

Many institutions, political institutions, judicial institutions, and policing institutions in Bangladesh, were weakened on account of this autocracy. And Sheikh Hasina was at the apex. And so, the economic progress, unfortunately, because of nepotism and cronyism, you had growth at certain levels. But I would describe it as a comet: the comet was the growth invited to the growth party, but not the tail of the comet. There was a disconnect, so there was great resentment because there was inflation and corruption. Tens of billions of dollars are being taken away from Bangladesh by crony capitalism. So, Bangladesh was inherently weakened from within, by the autocracy, by the kleptocracy.


Since you were in Dhaka recently, were Hindus specifically targeted in the violence that unfolded?


I did not feel insecure, but maybe because I am trained as a journalist, so I don’t feel that way when I am out. I am just, sort of, personalising it to tell you that I did not feel insecure at any point in time, but that doesn’t mean that others did not. So, there were instances of Hindus being attacked. Also, like in East Pakistan’s [present day Bangladesh] history and Bangladesh’s history, minorities in general have been attacked from time to time. Whenever there has been a political dislocation, which has let loose the dogs of war, in anarchy, people who can leverage command and control, will always try to go and grab whatever power they possibly can.

So, this is a classic case of a repeat, if you will. It’s happened several times in Bangladesh’s existence. It happened in East Pakistan’s history when there was political anarchy and there have been political transitions, typically the minorities were attacked. They were attacked this time also because there was a power vacuum, but they were absolutely not attacked to the level at which the Indian media were dog-whistling. The whole episode was completely blown out of proportion and I imagine this is a mixture of misinformation riding on disinformation. I want to categorically state this.

There should not be any confusion about that. By then, the interim government was in power. They were neighbourhood watches being kept in Dhaka when instances of temples were attacked, some Hindu businesses were attacked, and some shops were burned. Nobody is denying this. But you had Hindu organisations in Bangladesh beseeching Hindu organisations in India saying, will you please let us be Hindus in Bangladesh because we are quite alright, thank you very much. We do not need your help. That is number one. Number two, I have seen, and Bangladesh has seen that it is not a perfect situation and it is not safe for anybody, including the Hindus.

Neither is Bangladesh entirely safe right now because of this vulnerable situation, this transitional situation for Muslims of Bangladesh too. Because anarchy affects everybody. The true stories that have not been played up, amped up as much in the Indian media, for obvious reasons perhaps, is that you had Jamaat people, neighbourhood watches, and standing guard. It happened in 1984 in Delhi, where neighbourhood watches to protect Sikh families.


Some of the disturbing images included Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s and Rabindranath Tagore’s statues being brought down. Tagore’s “Amar Sonar Bangla” is the national anthem. Do you think all of that will change in the future? Do you think they might even have a new national anthem?


I don’t think they would have a new national anthem, because there has been a pushback. All across Bangladesh, people gathered on the streets to sing Amar Sonar... Cultural activists, and sculptors, pooled resources, and they went and with their own hands, fixed as many statues as they could of Tagore. Bangladesh has a very fond space for him.


The Bangladesh story is, of course, eternal, since you are a Bengali and you have written a book called The Bengalis.


I have survived both Bengals—Bengalis in India and overseas, and I’ve also survived Bengalis in Bangladesh. And the book contains all of them.


Soon after the events in Bangladesh, which all of us in India followed, we saw this protest coming out in Kolkata. Indeed, in the beginning, there was some superficial commentary that Bengalis, this side, got instigated by the protests, but it has obviously taken a life of its own. Do you think that what hashappened in India is entirely different?


No. I think the outrage or the atrocity in Arjun Hospital in Kolkata happened around the time that the protest movement and the killings had peaked in Bangladesh. And the hasty departure of Sheikh Hasina coincided with that. So, I think the public mood in Bangladesh did spill over, I think, inspirational, if you will, to Kolkata, and to other parts of Bengal and in many ways, across India, because there was outrage. But I think it has taken on a life of its own. But it was for different reasons altogether. That actually brings us back to the loop of a fallen city where we are outraged over crimes against women.

And, of course, that was Geeta and Sanjay, a boy, too. But repeatedly, we have Nirbhaya here. We have Tilottama in Kolkata. We seem to be outraged over these grotesque atrocities being perpetrated. And it is 45 years since Geeta and Sanjay Chopra’s death several years since Nirbhaya, and several years since a Netflix series on Nirbhaya, and so many unspoken and unheralded atrocities across India. It is just a shame and a tragedy that the criminal justice system of India, in all these decades, has not been able to keep pace with the needs of security of the women and children and the citizenry of India. I mean, that is a tragic deficit. And I don’t know how we can overcome this.


Bangladesh and Bengal: How different are they?


Very similar, and yet very different. I cooked up a term for it. I call it “Banglasphere”. That is my definition of wherever Bengalis live. So Bangladesh is part of Banglasphere, and so is West Bengal. But I think this. They are very distinct entities. Many people in West Bengal either do not get or do not wish to acknowledge that Bengalis in Bangladesh are Bengalis too. That you have an entity, you have a Bangladeshi life of its own, that you have the fact that the country is called Bangladesh, the land of the Bengalis.

Also Read | Bangladesh: Modi government’s diplomacy debacle


Where is the better Bengali literature coming out of? Is Bangladesh vibrant?


Bangladesh considers itself to be a repository of Bengali culture, of the Bengali language. You have the Bangla Academy in Dhaka. You have high-quality literature coming out of Bangladesh. There is a peculiarity in Bangladeshi literature. They love the short story form. So, there is a lot of the writing that comes out of Bangladesh, in terms of fictional writing, there’s a lot of poetry, like in West Bengal, but there is a remarkable volume of short stories.


Tell us about this demand to get Sheikh Hasina back.


Right now, I think there is going to be a kind of diplomatic chess game going on where because India gave shelter to Sheikh Hasina as a great friend and ally, which is all well and fine, but you do need to keep in mind the repercussions of that. I might use the fact that Sheik Hasina continues to be in India as a diplomatic lever to gain diplomatic concessions for Bangladesh, which is, I think, quite the right thing to do because many extant issues were dampened during her premiership: for instance, the sharing of river water. 54 rivers from India flow into Bangladesh. It is not just the Ganga and the Brahmaputra: 52 other rivers also decant into Bangladesh. We need to sort that out.

There needs to be a river water commission, like the Mekong River Commission between India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. That needs to happen. It was completely stalled. Mamata Banerjee needs to get her act together and not stall an agreement over the Teesta to save her vote bank in north Bengal. I think the stakes are too high right now. And for national interest, India needs to be engaging with Bangladesh much more proactively than it has been.

To my mind, they’ve been treating Bangladesh like many other countries of South Asia. And I’ve written this and spoken about it frequently as a zamindari. India is the zamindar and South Asia is the zamindari. There has been, even with outreach and with regional outreach, a tendency to overreach as well. And I think it is no coincidence that you have had senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs make damage control visits to the Maldives, make damage control visits to Nepal.


Damage control visits to Bangladesh. I am sure they will get down to it.


That needs to happen.

Saba Naqvi is a Delhi-based journalist and author of four books who writes on politics and identity issues.

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Is Modi past his best? https://thenewshub.in/2024/09/15/is-modi-past-his-best/ https://thenewshub.in/2024/09/15/is-modi-past-his-best/?noamp=mobile#respond Sun, 15 Sep 2024 04:55:00 +0000 https://thenewshub.in/2024/09/15/is-modi-past-his-best/

Narendra Modi is not the kind of figure who will quietly sail into the sunset. On September 17, he turned 74, giving him one more year before the informal retirement age he himself set for members of the BJP. During the course of the Lok Sabha election earlier this year, it was passionately reiterated that Modi was exceptional (the leader himself suggested that he was perhaps even non-biological) and that, therefore, the retirement age did not apply to him.

The number, however, hangs in the air. The RSS, which had once pushed the same idea of voluntary retirement for the first generation of BJP leaders, particularly L.K. Advani, is not entirely enamoured of Modi these days and sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat recently made one of his cryptic statements: “No one should consider themselves god….”

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first Prime Minister from the BJP, chose to fade away from active politics after the National Demoractic Alliance’s defeat in 2004, but Advani ignored the RSS and stubbornly stayed on. In 2013, the entire Sangh Parivar and the BJP rallied around Modi as the prime ministerial candidate and Advani’s primacy ended.

In those nine years, from 2004 to 2013, Advani was frequently mocked, critiqued, and ignored. Modi is still in power, but he has transited to leading a coalition government. While not as much as Advani, he too is indeed being slighted by the RSS chief occasionally and is increasingly critiqued by both insiders and the commentariat. Since June 4, the day the Lok Sabha election results were announced, Modi has not managed one of those staged moments when he would go on stage and people would watch riveted. If anything, audiences are bored, as illustrated by data that show a decline in viewership for his speeches on YouTube and in listener numbers for his Mann ki Baat.

Also Read | BJP is discovering that its prized defectors may be more liability than asset

Modi is fundamentally different from Advani: he has built a personality cult as opposed to building a movement and a party. Advani nurtured many next-generation figures in the BJP and actually propelled Vajpayee as the more acceptable face for a coalition. Modi has diminished all other power centres and built the I, me, myself aura that is proving difficult in a coalition era. That is showing in multiple ways: in having to send the Waqf (Amendment) Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee and in having to withdraw the Broadcast Services (Regulation) Bill and the proposal for lateral entry to the IAS.

The winds of change are being seen in the States as well. As the Centre’s pincer grip has loosened, the BJP has had to deal with divisions within its State units such as in Uttar Pradesh. The upcoming round of Assembly elections is yielding evidence that the BJP has transitioned to an era where the “Absolute Leader” is not so strong and local aspirations can come to the fore despite the Delhi writ. In Haryana, the announcement of candidates for the October 5 election triggered a string of resignations and protests. More chaos followed, this time in election-bound Jammu and Kashmir, where the BJP first announced and then rescinded a list of 44 candidates. In an odd way, these are all signs of health in a democracy. Equally, they illustrate that Modi is perhaps no longer the strongman he once was in the BJP.

Highlights
  • Since June 4, the day the Lok Sabha election results were announced, Modi has not managed one of those staged moments when he would go on stage and people would watch riveted.
  • The grandiose slogans of “Modi ki Guarantee” and “Modi Hai to Mumkin Hai” have been forgotten like the faded posters of the prime ministerial visage from the much-hyped G20 summit held in Delhi last year.
  • The audiences are bored, as illustrated by data that show a decline in viewership for his speeches on YouTube and in listener numbers for his Mann ki Baat.

The grandiose slogans of “Modi ki Guarantee” and “Modi Hai to Mumkin Hai” have been forgotten like the faded posters of the prime ministerial visage from the much-hyped G20 summit held in Delhi last year. Still, what the BJP and Modi do indeed have going for them is the loyalty of a section of the broadcast media. This helps them in narrative creation and gives them the capacity to defame opponents. The 2024 electoral setback for the BJP has not resulted in greater balance in news coverage, but in some instances at least, there is among anchors, many of whom rose in the age of Hindutva and are tethered to the regime, a greater anxiety to support Modi.

Television channels, therefore, focus on the protests after the rape and murder of a doctor in opposition-ruled West Bengal but will not spend any time on the violence and more serious civil war that has gone on for over a year now in BJP-ruled Manipur. Sections of the broadcast media will also ignore the poor safety record of the Railways in the Modi era but will bring focus on the Railways if a BJP-ruled State provides a narrative of deliberate sabotage by alleged Muslims and even coin the phrase “rail jehad”.

The “news” as disseminated by these channels is clearly designed to never focus on the ruling party’s failings and to hysterically magnify anything that may be a lapse or can be made to look like one by an opposition figure. Every word of Rahul Gandhi’s is picked upon, the AAP is irremediably bad, and the Trinamool Congress is currently enemy number one. These are currently the top hates of TV channels in the Hindi belt where the BJP is most rooted. The propaganda wing of the BJP is therefore still operating at full throttle in broadcast media and social media.

Also Read | Can the BJP recover in Uttar Pradesh?

The Modi regime in its third term may have compromised on issues such as the Broadcast Bill and might occasionally reach out to the opposition. But there is one issue on which it will not budge: any questioning or examination of the Adani Group, whose rise in fortune has paralleled Modi’s national ascendance. The chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Madhabi Buch, has been mired in controversies that raise serious conflict of interest concerns and even suggest outright corruption, charges that need to be investigated. Yet, asking the SEBI chief to resign is apparently out of the question. SEBI was tasked with examining Gautam Adani’s extraordinary growth in the Modi era by means that would be deemed questionable in other countries, and it found no wrongdoing. The SEBI chief reports to the Finance Minister, who in turn reports to the Prime Minister.

Many years ago, when he was Chief Minister, this columnist was one of the journalists who surrounded Modi during a national executive meet of the BJP. When he was asked some questions, he responded by saying in one instance that “some people now say that Modi creates the clouds and the cloudburst”. The “non-biological” theme therefore was not born in 2024. In 2024, it can be said that as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, there is an ill wind blowing and the monsoon has unleashed a downpour. The new Parliament building and the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, both mega projects associated with Modi, have seen embarrassing water leakage and seepage issues. Worse, a giant statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji inaugurated by him nine months ago in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra collapsed, forcing even the strongman to apologise, obviously in the light of the upcoming election. Sure, the ruling BJP coalition is comfortable in terms of the arithmetic, but the chemistry around the Prime Minister has changed. 

Saba Naqvi is a Delhi-based journalist and author of four books who writes on politics and identity issues.

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