Uniform Civil Code is Indian PM’s response to electoral rout
It confirms Narendra Modi will again use Hindu majoritarianism to win a third consecutive term in 2024 In a land where the most simple of marriage laws — that the bride must be 18 years of age — is defied by tens of millions every year, the uncommon hurry to enact a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for 1.30 billion Indians within this year, confirms the fears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will again use the Brahmastra, or divine weapon, of Hindu majoritarianism to win the 2024 general election, for a third consecutive term. In every election, since he used the formula to come to power in 2014, Modi has notched upsets, carrying the battle to the grassroots, seeing his opponents trying to ape him in several shades of Hindutva (hegemony of Hinduism) and fail. The Congress, even the left and the socialists in between, have discovered that soft Hindutva does not work when the real McCoy can be had for the asking. At its basest, this smoke and mirrors politics works by scaring the majority Hindus — close to 80 percent of the population — that they will be reduced to vassals of Muslims who once ravaged the land of its history and culture,
Manipur crisis part 3: How can the State watch while Manipur burns?
This is the third of our three-part series trying to observe the Manipur crisis from as many angles as possible. In this piece, the author argues that the first step would be to try to prevent more violence from taking place by exercising the writ of the State. The healing will come later, as it must. — ON April 27 a mob set on fire an open gym in Churachandpur district of Manipur, which was scheduled to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Manipur, N. Biren Singh the very next day. Meanwhile, on April 28, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum had called for a total shutdown in the district in protest against the eviction of Kuki tribal residents of K. Songjang village at the site of the Churachandpur–Khoupam protected forest area. Also read: Manipur crisis: Supreme Court expresses disappointment with HC, directs authorities to exercise “responsibility and restraint” On May 3, a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised by the All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) to protest against the demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list by the Meitei Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee (STDCM). In the judgment, delivered on March 27, the Manipur High Court approved the petition filed by the members of
Toxic agenda
No one should be shocked. This is just one more instance of the peddlers of Hindu supremacy being unscrupulous in the pursuit of their goals In February, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, had expressed his great joy at the revival of the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage in the locality of Tribeni in Hooghly district, West Bengal. At the time, Modi said, “[D]o you know why it is so special? It is special, since this practice has been revived after 700 years… Two years ago, the festival has been started again by the local people and through ‘Tribeni Kumbho Porichalona Shomiti’. I congratulate all the people associated with its organization. You are not only keeping alive a tradition, but are also protecting the cultural heritage of India.” (https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1902487) The historical fact is that there never was a Kumbh Mela at Tribeni, and the so-called ‘revival’ is based on falsified research. I say this with confidence since the source of this disinformation is a sentence in my doctoral dissertation at Oxford University that someone doctored and then circulated widely. My research focused on pilgrimage traditions in West Bengal and is available on the internet in digital form from the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Someone with
‘My Brother Was Beaten to Death on May 3. I Blame CM Biren Singh for the Manipur Violence’
Lamlamoi Gangte, who shared a neighbourhood with MC Mary Kom's brother and witnessed harrowing sights at Imphal on May 3, tells PM Modi, 'Like you, I am also Indian.' Moltheitampa (Churachandpur): Telling one’s own story is never easy. Particularly when you are living the trauma. So much has happened over the last few days with me and my family that if you were to ask me today’s date, I wouldn’t be able to remember it. So let me begin with what you would remember. You would remember celebrated boxer from Manipur, Mary Kom, pleading with the Prime Minister, the Union home minister and the Union defence minister on Twitter, on the morning of May 4, to save her state. She had tweeted, “My state is burning.” A night before, her brother Hupreng’s house was nearly burned down by a mob in the Games Village area of Imphal city. Her tears in the video, where she spoke of what was unfolding in her state were real. The danger for life and property to the tribals residing in the capital city had reached her brother’s door too. Hupreng has been my neighbour. The armed mob, hunting for property owned by Kuki-Zomi people in our colony situated in
Manipur violence portends fires in India’s tribal belt
The ruling BJP backs tribe status for the state’s Hindu Meitei but wants to deny it to tribal Christians in other states By all accounts, the violence in India’s northeastern state of Manipur has been a long time coming. If anything, the governments—both in the state and in New Delhi—led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took no steps to defuse tension or forestall violence. Manipur borders Myanmar and having a previous history of insurgencies has a heavy presence of the Indian army and paramilitary forces. It is also covered under the notorious Armed Forces Special Protection Act (AFSPA) which gives unfettered powers to the military and puts many of its actions, including the deaths of civilians at its hands, beyond the purview of the law. A conflict between two ethnic groups over constitutional status as tribes with reservations in jobs, education and elected bodies was allowed to turn anti-Christian. Christians, including Catholics, of all three or four communities in the region, the Meitei on the one hand and the Kukis, Hmars or Mizos, and Chins, on the other have been victims. The churches destroyed were creeping up towards the 100 mark as relief workers entered the troubled areas. Tens of thousands are homeless,
Justice Govind Mathur: The principles of democracy can’t be scarified at altar of majoritarianism
A protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, in December 2019. | Reuters Just yesterday, my daughter asked me if “democracy” alone might not have sufficed in the topic of today’s speech. Was it necessary to include “constitutional”? I thought that was a significant question. We need to understand why we must stress on the Constitution, and why our democracy rests on the Constitution. Some days ago, in January this year, the Vice President of India [Jagdeep Dhankar] stated during a meeting attended by presiding officers of state legislatures that the judiciary was intruding into the territory of the legislature. He commented on the verdict of a case that was adjudicated by the Supreme Court 48 years ago, that settled in law that the basic structure of the Constitution could not be changed. He mentioned that if the elected representatives of the people of India in Parliament wished to change the Constitution, then that ruling of 1973, the Kesavananda Bharati case could not be cited to deny them that right. He contended that such opposition to changing the Constitution was against the principle of democracy. The judiciary, in the opinion of the Vice President, was extending its reach by ruling thus. According to the
Rubber sap may fail to bond PM Modi with Indian Christians
Narendra Modi’s visit to the southern state of Kerala may let in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh fox in the church chicken coop Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi possibly saved a few thousand rupees in aviation fuel for his high-security airplane, mixing his election campaign trip to Kerala with an official visit to launch a ferry and a metro train. But his meeting in his hotel with a bunch of heads of the different Christian denominations in the southern state may not bring him the political dividend his Malayalam-speaking assistants have promised him. Mercifully for the church delegation, the Latin Catholic Archbishop Joseph Kalathiparambil carried with him a written memorandum listing, among other issues, the concerns of the larger Indian Church outside the tiny but populous state of Kerala. Before the meeting, the media had widely reported that the bishops, largely representing the central Kerala faithful, were especially going to voice the concerns of the economically elite plantation owners and big traders. These include the demand for the federal government’s base support prices for natural rubber, which often faces international market fluctuations resulting in big losses to plantations and rubber traders in Kerala and Chennai. The other demand which has hit the headlines is for
Christian persecution and human rights
Christians have traditionally adopted a posture of social leadership to the wider community in multiple ways. Education, medical care, social services, rural development, services to the hungry and poor, vocational training, community development, and a host of other development models were introduced by the church and its lay affiliates through Indian history. The post-independence model of community development adopted by the Government in 1952 when Five Year Plans were inaugurated by the Government had its origins in YMCA philosophy and ideology. One could reel off unending and vibrant specifics about Christian contribution to Indian society; the facts are astounding. Christians have imbibed the notion of ‘Antodya’ – welfare of the people in the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid. It is, therefore, a shocker that the persecution of Christians today is currently on overdrive countrywide despite its historical and continuing accomplishments in favour of the least and last of society. In 2014 the Ministry of Home Affairs reported a “steep 30 per cent rise in the number of communal violence incidents in 2013 as compared to 2012. Reported incidents of abuse carried out against Christians in India went up to 177 in 2015, and have, since, steadily escalated. Those figures have sharply
India’s new path to social equality disregards justice
The Indian constitution has been amended to accord special quotas for the poor among upper-caste people in an unjust manner In the past eight years during which the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been in power, the Supreme Court has mostly supported the government policies, leaving political observers worried and perplexed about the political and social road map India is traversing. They point to various legal victories the ruling party scored in India’s highest court, often the final arbitration point for vexatious and long-drawn legal cases, which have tremendous implications in a complex country like India. One such case that hits Christians in India coming from Dalit backgrounds was a legal challenge to the government denying them welfare benefits meant for all Dalit people, the socially poor across India. Dalit people among Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs get these benefits, but not Christians and Muslims because, according to the government, their religions do not follow caste. After some five decades of legal wrangling, and several commissions asserting that Dalit people among Christians and Muslims deserve these benefits because conversions failed to change their social status, India’s Supreme Court sought the government’s view on the subject last year. The government asked
Tribal factor at play ahead of crucial elections in India
More lip-service and tall poll promises await the nation’s tribal people Tribal factor at play ahead of crucial elections in India For the first time, tribal people in India are a much sought-after community as nine Indian states face elections this year, ahead of the crucial general election next year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a third term. Tribal people can tilt the balance in seven of the nine states going to the polls this year, including Christian-majority tribal states of Meghalaya and Nagaland. The other tribal heartland states that go to polls this year are Tripura and Mizoram along with Karnataka and Telangana. The term of legislatures in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan--the three other tribal stronghold states--are ending early next January and so elections are expected by the end of this year. Never in the poll history of India have tribal people enjoyed such limelight. Of the 543 seats in the national parliament, 131 seats or close to 25 percent seats have been reserved for tribal and Dalit people since 2008. Tribal people alone get 84 seats. Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated Droupadi Murmu — a woman from eastern India’s Santal tribe — as president last year, making her India’s
