- Two inequalities
Faizan Mustafa says in his column for The Indian Express today that Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath’s talk of Dalit reservations in Jamia, AMU, misunderstands nature of minority institutions. The chief minister must be aware of the constitutional provision on the exemption of minority institutions from reservations. His purpose is simply to polarise and rally together upper caste Hindus.
But he does not appreciate that such reservations in minority institutions will eventually hurt the interests of upper caste Hindus who get the lion’s share of the general seats. Article 30 of the Indian Constitution permits religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer the educational institutions of their choice. Since minorities are defined at the state level, Yogi should know that Hindus, too, as a linguistic minority are entitled to Article 30 rights. A Hindi medium institution in Tamil Nadu established by the Hindus of UP will be a linguistic minority institution. Hindus are also a religious minority in a few states.
There is no Muslim reservation in AMU. It already has more than 45 per cent or so Hindus in its prestigious courses like medicine or engineering. If Yogi really cares for Dalits, let him force the BJP to implement Dalit reservations in the private sector. Meanwhile, let AMU and JMI make special efforts to increase SC/ST representation so that societal diversity is reflected in these institutions.
- Take flight: No one wants a Maharaja with sarkari strings attached
In his column for The Times of India, Jug Suraiya says Air India is like a spacious house you own where you’ve employed plenty of domestic staff. Now it’s become ruinously expensive to maintain. You’ve taken huge loans to keep the place going. When you put your house on the market you find no buyers. Because in your proposed deed of sale you insert a clause which says that even though you’re selling your house, you’ll still keep a 24% share in it.
This means you will not only continue to dictate how much domestic help must be employed by the new owner, but also reserve the right to interfere in the day-to-day running of the household. With such strings attached, it’s not surprising that you’ll find no takers for the house you want to sell. Like your imaginary house, Air India seems an attractive buy. It has a wide-ranging network and operating rights spanning the globe. It has a large fleet of aircraft.
Overstaffing and inefficient use of resources are the main reasons why Air India is a loss-making organisation. And it will remain a loss-making organisation if the government is allowed to have a say in how it’s run. That’s why no one wants to buy it.
- Narendra Modi is not strong like Indira Gandhi – and that’s a good thing
Arguing that India is best served by a ‘weak Modi’, Girish Shahane writes in his column for Scroll.in that for ruthlessness, in the contexts in which Modi might currently employ it, would cause much damage and provide few benefits.
There’s no doubt, however, that a united opposition would seriously threaten the ruling party’s power in next year’s general election, which keeps the issue relevant. My sense now is that Modi is no Indira Gandhi. While she embodied the maxim of speaking softly and carrying a big stick, he is a braggart and a bully, and we know braggarts and bullies seldom have the courage to follow through on threats. Modi has not even increased the growth rate of defence spending beyond what the previous administration established, something one would expect of any right-wing government.
We should be grateful, then, that Modi’s talk of a more muscular Kashmir policy is likely to remain just talk, in the manner of Make In India, Smart Cities, and the National Health Insurance Scheme.
- ‘Extraordinary’ Laws Are Becoming Central to the Politics of Repression in India
Rajshree Chandra writes in her column for The Wire that the latest victim of one of our most enduring, exceptional laws – the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) – are the arrests made in the context of caste-based violence in the Bhima Koregaon town of Maharashtra. Five months after the violence, the state police has shifted the focus of its investigation from Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide to a group of five social activists working with Dalits, Adivasis and political prisoners.
A key strategy of the Indian state in recent times has been to allege that such mobilisations are fragmenting the unity of the state. The new threat to the nation could be an advocate Galding – a lawyer who has been representing the most oppressed and marginalised in courts for the last 25 years or advocates like Upendra Nayak of Odisha, Murugan of Tamil Nadu and Satyendra Chaubey of Chhattisgarh. Common to all these people is that they seek to represent the interests and security of people who have been excluded from access to both rights and resources. And common to all is they were charged under one exceptional law or the other.
The “chronic crisis of national security” narrative becomes the justificatory premise for the deployment of exceptional laws like the UAPA that have poor safeguards against both misuse and misapplication. Rather than a tool to moderate political antagonism, they serve to strengthen the repressive arm of the state. Extraordinary laws become means to settle political scores, neuter political opposition, stifle political representation. The idiom of “exception” is fast becoming central to the politics of insecurity in India. This should deeply worry us.
- Delhi can’t carry on without acknowledging its greens
Laying emphasis on the hazardous pollution levels in Delhi and the immediate need to take corrective measures, Bharati Chaturvedi writes in her article for Hindustan Times that Delhi is going into decline. It’s unsafe to breathe its air, to drink its water and be on its roads. The latest news about the plans to cut 16,500 trees reveals what’s rotten. The city has continuously treated its greens as dispensable in their current form and amenable to re-engineering in the future. You can see the scars from each decade.
The 16,500 trees to be cut for a project compacting government accommodation and freeing land for commercial use aren’t the only trees in danger. About 2,000 trees will go to widen the Dhaula Kuan road to the airport. Several trees are routinely allowed to be cut. Some residents simply find them an obstruction and don’t want them, an active, tree-loving councillor from South Delhi told me. Even parks don’t plant shrubs, trees and hedges any more. The fact of being able to live in this giant city is made possible by the many natural elements that provide us succour. These have been considerably damaged, but Delhi (like other cities) needs to look ahead.
We need to reduce private vehicles and traffic density, to thwart specific infrastructure needs that require routine tree cutting while increasing pollution. Delhi’s Masterplan is also coming up for remaking. It’s a huge opportunity to rewrite the city’s future as a much more livable city, in the context of its carrying capacity. It must demarcate many more inviolate spaces, and disallow activities the city can’t nurture anymore. Delhi can’t carry on without acknowledging its greens. There is no other future available.