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From a porcupine to a tiger – Advent of Modi sarkar

Reports

laveeshsharma

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5 June 2020

From a porcupine to a tiger – Advent of Modi sarkar

If a single image catches India’s strategic style in the past, it was that of a porcupine – vegetarian, slow-footed and prickly. The famous defensiveness of the porcupine became the hallmark of India’s approach to the world. India used to put up its sharp quills to ward off the threats. The quills symbolised the principles of fairness, justice and equality as defence against what India saw an unacceptable demand from the international system. India, it was widely believed at home and abroad, would not seek opportunities or be opportunistic in pursuit of its national interests (Srivastava, 2006). An unstable domestic government can seldom be decisive let alone shape up its foreign policy. However, the May of 2014 ushered in an new era in Indian politics as well as in International affairs, as Mr. Narendra Modi took the centre-seat of Prime Minister.

A significant first step had been the presence of SAARC leaders at the swearing-in ceremony of the new Indian government, which pervaded a sense of the Modi diplomacy. Within a month of assuming the PM’s office, Modi government had faced its very first obstacle, that of the extraction of overseas Indians in Iraq the consequence of the ISIS invasion[1], followed by the Libyan civil war[2] that saw hundreds being rescued back to India, and the extraction of persons of other nationalities from Yemen under Operation Raahat[3], heaped global praise toward the Modi government. The Modi regime since has established a brand India that is approachable over social media, re. the Former External Affairs Minister Late Ms. Sushma Swaraj’s swift response to overseas Indian citizens in distress that sometimes rivalled the time it took to deliver a pizza. The consistent improvement in ease of doing business rankings added to this image, the U.N.’s recognition of International Day of Yoga and additionally India’s initiation of the International Solar Alliance instituted soft diplomacy while India’s firmness to stand by its neighbour, Bhutan (which was also PM Modi’s first foreign trip since swearing-in) in response to the Chinese incursion at Doklam pass, exhibited a rather firm and resolute chair of power in New Delhi. To its neighbourhood in South Asia the government suggested they had a new partner in New Delhi, a partner they could rely and count on. This was furthered when Sri Lanka reeling from the ballooning debt of Chinese development loans had to lease off its Hambantota Port on a 99-year lease, in a bid to check the Chinese influence, Indian government secured the lease to the Hambantota Airport through buying off Sri Lanka’s debt to China.

The Operation Maitri carried out in Nepal in response to the devastating earthquake within a record response of 15 minutes[4], attempted to establish India’s prowess in managing natural disasters and its capability and willingness to shoulder regional responsibilities. The Modi diplomacy has shaped up from having noteworthy gestures like photo-ops and engagement of Twitter diplomacy as was evident post his big win in 2014. Mr. Modi has for long been an active proponent of using social media having had his presence as far back as 2007. He has made his presence felt even on Chinese social media microblogging website Weibo, the Twitter equivalent and amassed thousands of followers the same day.

The PM is perhaps among the few Heads of State who have permeated the language barriers on social media choosing to communicate in Heads of State’s local language, for instance choosing Hebrew while interacting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. His sense of making effective meaningful relationships has ever so often been, striking a personal chord with the leaders he’d visit; side-lining the protocols, extending a personal welcome to the visiting Heads of State that more often than not resulted in a positive fruitful public relations exercise. In a day and age of real-time news these gestures haven’t gone unnoticed. Derek Willis of New York Times mentions, during PM Modi’s 2014 visit to the United States, the turnout at the Madison Square Garden was a testament to his appeal online and off; his visit to the States that included a private dinner with Former President Obama had its own hashtag: #ModiInAmerica (Willis, 2014).

Much like revival in foreign affairs, reformation of economy was backed up by the hard-nosed stance toward economic rejuvenation. The passage of the Goods and Services Tax[1], initially implemented rather hastily with confusions cropping out from businesses both small and big, was followed by introduction of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 that essentially put big company promoters to account in an event of defaulting on payments and put the company to financially sound owners in order to restructure its debts. The improvement in welfare delivery mechanisms, the direct benefit transfers that for long became victim of pilferage was helped by the NDA government’s resolve enabled by the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme that allowed 50 crore people to open bank accounts injecting Rs.3 trillion crore worth of deposits[2], the beneficiaries of which are also entitled to an accident insurance cover and life insurance.

The controversial move of demonetisation that many well-known economic pundits had revolted on and heavily criticized was in fact a sleeper hit. According to a speech by Former Finance Minister Late Mr. Arun Jaitley to the Parliament, the data presented to the house reflected numerous large volume deposits exceeding Rs.80 lakhs that were made into 1.48 lakh accounts, with an average deposit of Rs.3.31 crore accounting to around Rs.5 trillion (Jagdish Bhagwati, 2017). According to a November 2018 report[1] by investment firm, Omidyar Network and the Boston Consulting Group, “India has leapfrogged 2.5 years ahead on the digital payment curve post-demonetisation in 2016”. The report in increase of tax-payers according to Income Tax department reflected an increase of 37%. According to S.P. Singh, partner Deloitte India, the rise in number of taxpayers since 2014 can be attributed to demonetisation, the data with tax authorities and the move toward digital assessment[1]. Several cases emerged in 2020 wherein businessman have disclosed a lower income to IT but deposited crores of cash during demonetisation period.

The Modi government has established a brand India, enveloping components of economy, diplomacy, revival of foreign affairs and a clean-up of corrupt-ridden governance of the past; dispensed from an establishment with little obligation to coalition partners that enjoys mandate and confidence of the citizenry of India. The active engagement of PMO in thwarting challenges posed by natural disasters or providing relief to its South Asian neighbours has catapulted India as a big brother that the smaller nations can look up to. Amid the COVID-19 crisis India immediately launched Operation Sanjeevani that delivered 6.2 tonnes of essential commodities like medicines and hospital consumables. During this ongoing crisis the government took the lead on supplying the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine among other essential drugs (like paracetamol) to 55 countries[1], among which figures countries like the U.S., Israel, the UAE and Brazil, making India the global reliable supplier of medicines during this humanitarian crisis.

The Modi cabinet has shone a new light on the brand India, that is no more a slow-footed porcupine but rather a fierce adroit tiger.

[1] Exports approved to South Asian nations- Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar; African nations – Zimbabwe, Kenya, Niger, Mali, Republic of Congo; European nations – France, the Netherlands and the UK; other nations – Kazakhstan, Armenia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Ukraine, Oman, Colombia and the Bahamas.

[1] Remya Nair, “Number of crorepati taxpayers surges 68% in 3 years: CBDT”, https://www.livemint.com/Politics/wP9wtYdOiFHRlSJfUVTs1I/Number-of-crorepatis-has-risen-by-60-in-India-CBDT.html

[1] Ibid

[1] Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an indirect tax that has subsumed all indirect taxes into one bracket.

[2] Rajeev Mantri , “Modi deserves a second term based on record”, https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/modi-deserves-a-second-term-based-on-his-economic-record/story-ZGrnjngNUdZuG6hVYZ9CXL.html

[1] Daniel P George, “46 Kerala nurses trapped in Iraq crossfire”, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/46-Kerala-nurses-trapped-in-Iraq-crossfire/articleshow/36734251.cms

[2] 200 more Indian evacuated from Libya, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/200-more-Indians-evacuated-from-Libya/articleshow/39848755.cms

[3] Operation Raahat – On April 6th 2015, 23 countries requested Indian assistance in evacuating their citizens from Yemen; https://twitter.com/MEAIndia/status/585045912294043648

[4] Operation Maitri, https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/operation-maitriindias-earthquake-relief-and-rescue-mission-in-nepal-250702-2015-04-29

Has social service become a way of conversion?

Prabhas Shakya

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5 June 2020

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Has social service become a way of conversion?

Social service or helping a helpless person is an act that has no connection with any particular religion or community. Whoever wants to serve the society in a selfless spirit whatever their religion maybe, can do it. But in the last few years, it is seen that social service is also becoming a tactic to convert people. Specifically, the Christian missionaries are front runners in this practice. They use this method in two ways. The first method is to project their religion as the savior of poor and helpless in order to convince them for conversion and secondly they provide financial help to the needy. They use social service as a cover to hide their fraudulent immoral converting practices. It’s not a sudden thing that Christian missionaries go to an area and start providing service and help. This is a very well planned practice. First, a region is selected where most of the people are backward and poor, where majority belongs to SCs and STs, as it is easy for them to incite these people against their own religion. Then these “Jesus Salesmen” start to sell their religion. Providing financial assistance is not a bad thing at all but when it is done to convert people, it becomes wrong. It becomes a false allurement given to them to get them converted. This is immoral.

Religious conversion is one’s personal matter but only if one’s decision to get converted is only due to his attraction towards the religion or it’s religious philosophy. If his decision is shaped by his poor financial condition or he aims to achieve a better living standard by conversion, it becomes barter through religion rather than ‘freedom to choose religion’ or ‘Social Service’. We have hundreds of examples in which missionaries and organizations tried to take advantage of the helplessness of the people and to convert them by preying them into the false trap of social service.

Pandita Ramabai, a Brahman converted to Christianity after being widowed at an early age, started an organisation ‘Shanti Sadan’ in Mumbai in 1889. It was a school for high caste widows. It was found that she carried out proselytization in that school. She is called Social Reformer by the feminists. During the 1896 famine in Maharashtra, she housed a few thousand orphan girls and widows. They were later baptized(preached Christianity) and converted to Christianity. Proselytising during the time of natural calamity is a well known missionary activity. Ramabai was probably the first missionary in India to apply this tactic successfully. ^[1]

Christian Missionaries blackmail vulnerable people to choose between being able to follow their traditions and being able to feed their family. In desperate times, many people convert. During any deep problem in life, people become more religious. At this time vulnerables are preached about Jesus. They are given financial aid also, as evangelical army has multi-billion dollar resources.

During the Kerala floods in 2018, a Christian preacher Lazarus Mohan blamed Hindu rituals (mainly Moorthipooja) responsible for the floods in Kerala.^[2] Attacking the traditions of others and praising Jesus as a sole savior is a well nourished tool, used by missionaries to convert people when they are in a deep distress and hoping for any divine help.

Pointing out the helplessness of other religions, Christian missionaries stress on Jesus and Christianity. Missionaries were busy in selling Jesus during Nepal Earthquakes in 2015 too.^[3]

In December 2004, a deadly Tsunami broke out in Indian Ocean, near Sumatra. Over 2,30,000 people lost lives in it across 14 countries. In India more than 18,000 people lost lives, above 8000 lives were lost in TamilNadu.^[4] Christian missionaries use the immense human tragedy for their advantage. This Tsunami also brought an opportunity for them. In Indonesia, western Christian groups reached for proselytization. Local Muslims opposed it. American evangelist Mark Kosinski said, “These people need food but they also need Jesus. God is trying to awaken people and help them realize salvation is in Christ.” Missionary group tried to fly hundreds of children to Christian orphanage, where they baptized (preached Christianity) them.^[5]

In TamilNadu also, this Tsunami was used as an opportunity for conversion. Lazarus Mohan, a powerful Christian preacher, called Idolatory (Moorthipooja) a Sin that brought curses and disasters to the nation. He said, instead of worshipping Jesus, people worship demons and evil spirits (he was pointing to Hindu Gods clearly). The legends of St. Thomas’s miracles were unleashed and a story was circulated titled ‘How Tsunami waves did not touch santhome cathedral’.^[6] This fraud was circulated by Jesus Salesmen in order to prey people for conversion.

In the coastal village Akkaraipettai, an evangelical group ‘Gospel for Asia’ and their associates ‘Believers Church’ had set up an orphanage illegally. CD Suriyakala, a professor at Sathyabama university (Chennai) discovered that 108 children, mainly Hindus, had been taken to the orphanage and compelled to recite Christian prayers six times a day. KP Yohannan, the founder president of GFA, proudly admitted that 14,500 missionaries had distributed Bibles and pamphlets to Tsunami victims.^[7]

Yazidi people in Iraq lived in mountains near the border with Turkey. ISIS forced them to flee, that made missionary work much easier. From the reports which came from Iraq in 2015, we find that the tactic of social service was used there also to convert the Yazidi people. Vian Dakhil, the only Yazidi member of Iraqi Parliament told the reporters of a news agency that –“Attached with humanitarian aids they distributed Bible and pamphlets containing information about Christianity.” Christian groups inside the Yazidi camps were working to persuade Yazidis to convert to Christianity. This incident is not just about religious conversions, it’s a clear attack on a culture.^[8]

During 2004 Tsunami, In Moraketiya (Sri Lanka) many evangelists tried to convert people in a relief camp. They gave gifts to children to grab both the attention and affection of the residents of the relief camp. They tried to convince the people to convert to Christianity by showing them drama related to Jesus’s life. This seems like an ordinary attempt to convert as these groups usually do in every place they visit. But here in Sri Lanka, it can have very serious consequences. Because Sri Lanka is an orthodox Buddhist country and these incidents can change the perspective of Buddhists towards Christians and it will affect the lives of Sri Lankan Christians who are 7 percent of Sri Lanka’s total population.^[9]

‘Religion and social service’ or ‘Social service by religious institutions and organizations’ has a very long history. In Indian culture, social service was never done for conversion. It is always done for a good cause. In India, Temples are providing food daily for the needy. The caste of Men, Women, Children benefited by this does not matter to them. There is never a sense of conversion in the social service provided by the Temples. Social service has a very wide meaning. Limiting it to just as a way to convert is not fair at all. During the time of Kerala floods, during the cyclone disaster in Odisha recently, RSS swayamsevaks served people selflessly and tirelessly. They didn’t asked the religion of the victim of calamity nor they tried to proselytize anyone.

As the whole world is badly affected by Covid-19, this brings the golden opportunity for Christian missionaries to convert people. Many people lost their jobs, their earnings, their savings. They are out of money and hope as well. Missionaries are expert in utilizing such opportunities. There would be a massive conversion work going on all over the India, by providing fianancial aid and moral help.

As we have seen, many countries around the world are hit by these missionary activities. Providing help and service in the time of distress is always welcome. Temples and Gurudwaras provide food and shelter to needy without asking their religion or trying to convert them. Why can’t churches do so? Why missionaries need to convert people for providing help and service? Can social service not be done without conversion?

Definitely it can be done. Temples, Gurudwaras and organizations like RSS are doing it without proselytizing, then why missionaries don’t do it that way? This question needs to be answered.

[We, Prabhas(2^nd Year) and Shivansh(1^st Year) are Under Graduate students of History(Honors) at KiroriMal College, Delhi University. ]

References :

Tiananmen massacre to communist attacks on Indian people: A saga of hate, hypocrisy and violence

shubhkirti

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5 June 2020

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Tiananmen massacre to communist attacks on Indian people: A saga of hate, hypocrisy and violence

Communist China had to develop artificial, coercion based and politically monolithic society. This was, since the first day, a humongous task. Given the credentials of communism in Soviet Russia, China knew that propaganda, bloodshed and suppression will be inevitable. Ironically, humans long for freedom. This is the basic fault with communist ideology. Tiananmen Square massacre was the result of this dilemma and incompatibility. Thousands of students were killed in broad daylight to achieve ‘death-like sameness’, indigenous culture, human values, dissenting voices were mulled to achieve and survive an artificial, incompetent and undemocratic socio political system.

Violence and communism are united at the elemental level. From China to India, the inability to comprehend social life and democratic functioning of the political system compels communists to validate violence. At every step of evolution, communism requires blood. Tiananmen is a testimony to this. Thanks to modern technology and human rights, the assault on people do not go unnoticed, be it china or JNU. Recently radical groups’ masquandering as students lead a violent streak on common students of the university who were against the lockdown and wanted to register for the next semester.

Tiananmen Massacre

Thirty one years have passed since the crime against humanity was perpetrated at the Tiananmen Square. What happened on 4^th of June in 1989 can/should not be seen in isolation. It was well prepared plan from the communist party of China. According to a report in South China Morning Post, Deng Xiaoping and other Communist Party leaders believed the protests to be an existential political threat and agreed to use coercive measures. The State Council declared martial law on May 20 and placed more than 300,000 troops on streets of Beijing. The armed soldiers moved inside the capital city and advanced into central parts of Beijing on the city’s major thorough fares in the early morning hours of June 4, killing both demonstrators and bystanders in the process.

Most of these protesters were university students. These students were killed because they were demanding democracy, pro people reforms and awakening of consciousness. Every year the Chinese government shows its gratitude to the forces for their sacrifice but they have tried their best to wipe out the history of the massacre from their history. However, the images of heinous crime committed by communist government cannot be erased from the minds human race. Whatever little information could come out from the grab of communist, was enough to leave the global community awestruck. One question that is crucial to ask is, what happened after the barbaric attempt of silencing the protestors was over? Where did the protesters or supporters of the protest go? Did Chinese government silenced all of them through this one heinous act or the act followed even in the aftermath? The answer lies in the fact that Chinese Communist Party sees the 1989 pro democracy protests as an existential threat for them. So they do not let any voice raise in any form, they ruthlessly silence any slightly budding pro protest voice. According to Human Rights Watch, which has published a document based on 30 years of close observation of post Tiananmen massacre, the Chinese Communist Party never tolerates any political opposition on the name of free speech and democracy, if it has Tiananmen in the backdrop. There have been several incidents where victims of Tiananmen tried to make political parties. They were sentenced to be jailed for at least 10 years. China Social Democratic Party, China Freedom and Democratic Party are among such examples of first half of 90s.

The international community has constantly raised this as a crime but communists in India find it comfortable to stay silent. This is because they are hand in glove with communist china. They too believe in violence, in radicalization, in creating chaos and above all they too are murderers. CPI(M) resolution adopted at the 14th congress- Madras, in (January 3-9) 1992. Celebrating the Chinese revolution and calling it a historic triumph, it stated- Chinese revolution “was source of great inspiration that galvanized the struggles of the peoples of the colonial countries for their Liberation”. The same CPIM in its 20th congress document- “Resolution on some Ideological issues”, downplayed the Tiananmen Massacre by calling it an “internal turmoil” in China and instead of calling it a massacre, called it “Tiananmen square development”

Tiananmen remains one of the most sensitive and taboo subjects in China today, banned from both academic and popular realms. Even the actual number of deaths from the military crackdown remains unknown. Every year on the anniversary of June 4, the government intensifies its control, and citizens who commemorate the events are put under various forms of surveillance. The Tiananmen Mothers are prohibited from openly mourning family members who died in the massacre, and exiles are prohibited from returning home, even for a parent’s funeral. Many older supporters of the movement, leading liberal intellectuals in the 1980s, died in exile.

SILENCE OF THE SOLD

A few years ago China hosted the Olympics. Apart from architecturally marvellous infrastructures there was one more thing that grabbed attention of visitors. The slogan of the event, “A country of dreams. One world, one dream. Civilization and harmony.” A news reporter, Amit Sengupta who was there to cover the event stood in front of a board, staring at the slogan. He was diving into the past of his university times, when he was a student at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He remembers the night of 4^th June, 1989 in the university. He shares his memoir, “The students’ union at the time was led by the students’ wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which backed the Tiananmen Square Massacre and glorified the Chinese regime led by Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng. They termed the students as “CIA lackeys, juvenile delinquents, and bourgeois reactionaries,” among other clichéd communist abuses. They even claimed that the massacre and the clampdown simply did not happen: that it was all manufactured, a figment of biased imagination of the Western media.”

Unfortunately, The Indian political system has been significantly influenced by communist intellectuals who are committed to ideology and not people. For their selective myopia, Tiananmen massacre does not even exist. For them, the patronage received by CPC is handsome enough to ignore the value of human life. This does not stop here, in an attempt to create a chaotic, ideologically motivated and democratically destructive force they have marginalized a public university to the verge of alienation from the Indian society. JNU has become an epicenter of “protest as a business” where left leaning intellectuals criticize everything under the sun but keep black hole type silence on war against people and their human rights in china.

In an interview with journalist Barkha Dutt, Sitaram Yechury recalls: “When I entered St. Stephens, you had on the chappel written, CHAIRMAN MAO IS OUR CHAIRMAN. 13 students were expelled. Those were the Great Maoist of the time. Some of them are eminent academicians today”. These enemies of the people support radical Bolshevik jihad and manufacture vulnerable groups of individuals as intellectual Fidayeens and attack the people. Interestingly enough, they often succeed because of the patronage and propaganda. India shall do away with such vultures at the earliest. Decoding their modus operandi has become essential as Indian people are actively engaging in self dependence and this will not go down well with the communists in India.

Rakesh Batbyal in his book ‘JNU: The Making of a University’ presents the plot of JNUSU election of 1989. He writes that there were two events running in the backdrop of the elections, one, Polish revolution and second, the Tiananmen massacre. The established leftist organisations SFI and AISF could not manage to win the election that year. This happened for the first time in history of JNU. Even though the communist ideology was dissolved in air of JNU of that time, it is remarkable that core communist parties could not win the election after supporting the massacre of Tiananmen. It was this space of morality that portrays the space for ethical political forces. Today, when Hong Kong is struggling for their autonomy against China, when Uighur voices are being silenced, when indigenous culture of Tibet is being vanished, the least we must do is to ask questions to the communists of India is this, ‘what stops them to criticize the heinous crime committed by Communist Party of China?’ Why is it that they cry the song of democracy everywhere but become silent on autocratic regime of China? We need to ask these questions because (if) communism is an ideology, it indeed has a bloodshed genealogy.

Authors: Subh kirti& Prashant Vats Shahi
Subh Kirti is a PhD research scholar at CES, SIS, JNU.
Prashant Vats Shahi is a PhD research scholar at
CEAS, SIS, JNU.

[World Environment Day] Agroforestry for better economy, ecology & biodiversity #ForNature

Opinions

Priyanka Dalal

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5 June 2020

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[World Environment Day] Agroforestry for better economy, ecology & biodiversity #ForNature

This year’s World Environment Day is themed around Biodiversity because it is an urgent and existential concern. “Recent events, from bushfires in Brazil, the United States, and Australia to locust infestations across East Africa – and now, a global disease pandemic – demonstrate the interdependence of humans and the webs of life, in which they exist.” (says the UN)

India, with its many biodiversity hotspots, has to also tussle with the economic challenges ahead of it especially now in this COVID-19 era. How does one prioritize between the economic and ecological concerns? Isn’t a slew of human population in objectional states of poverty an environmental matter too?

In my volunteering activities at Isha Foundation, I perused a few agroforestry stories in one of their blogs. It piqued my interest and so I interacted with a few farming experts on-ground from Tamil Nadu.

As I find out more, I am left feeling puzzled. Because it seems they have found a superb solution to the economic and environmental threats facing the country – Agroforestry!

Here’s Why Agroforestry Can Significantly Impact the Climate Change Threat

Boost Farmer Income: The trees are valuable assets, they significantly improve the farmer’s income.

Significant Environment Contribution: The trees will take many years to mature. During these years, they will contribute significantly to the environment. It’s literally a win-win for everyone from what I understand.

Felling of these trees help save the forests: Of course, eventually, the trees may be cut off….. BUT this timber generation actually helps dense forests thrive! Here’s how: Forest departments are always planting new trees in scrub (sparse) forests and barren lands to increase forest cover. However, before these plantations mature into a thriving forest they are felled due to biomass requirements – timber, grazing and such. Agroforestry can assuage this biomass need and thus, reduce the pressure on forest department’s plantation efforts. (This was the most surprising impact of agroforestry to my urban understanding.)

“The advantage of agro-forestry is that on one hand it increases tree cover due to tree-planting on private land and, on the other it reduces pressure on the scrub forests resulting in their improvement and eventual promotion into forest with higher crown density.” ~Dipak Sarmah, a retired IFS officer (source)

Farmers become passionate tree-growers: As Dipakji mentions, agroforestry does indeed increase the tree cover. Especially, since the trees will take years to mature. Moreover, the benefits of income and soil / water benefits will ensure that farmers will ensure they have trees on their farm in maximum capacity feasible.

So what are the issues with agroforestry? Why isn’t it being adopted rapidly across the country?

I ask RP Ganesan, a farmer friend and Isha agro movement volunteer from Hosur, Tamil Nadu.

Paraphrasing him, it is largely the tedious government rules and regulations that makes agroforestry difficult. Horticultural practices of cultivating mango, coconut and other such plantations have clearer laws and can become a profitable business. However, timber agroforestry can become a hassle due to many archaic and complex rules.

Moreover, such restrictive practices towards timber agroforestry are seen to have an adverse impact on biodiversity as well. A key example being Sandalwood trees, which was made a “royal tree” by Tipu Sultan in the 17th century. These age-old restrictions on owning, growing, harvesting sandalwood are being lifted bit by bit but the tree is already scarce, farmers are scared to cultivate it and there is a strong smuggling racket around them.

Such restrictions not only curtail farmer earnings, but also endanger the trees, create a smuggling nexus and adversely impact biodiversity.

Mr Ganesan requests, “To remove hurdles and facilitate timber tree growing farmers with loans, drip irrigation, selling and promoting eco-friendly wood, Govt of India should create a Timber Development Board under agriculture ministry, as agroforestry had been added into their mandate by cabinet secretariat in 2017”

Niti Aayog reforms 2016 mentioned,

“All tree species grown in farm land shall be free from felling and transit regulations”

But these policy changes are yet to trickle down to the farmer in full measure.

Hopefully, now with the mounting climate disasters and focus on AtmaNirbharta or Make in India, we will seriously relook at the agroforestry norms and scale up timber cultivation. To reduce the timber import, ensure significant income boost for the farmers and increase the biodiversity of our country.

George Floyd and India

Reports

kriti

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5 June 2020

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Last week saw a shocking incident where a man named George Floyd, 46 was mercilessly choked by a police officer in Minneapolis, USA. Watching the video was uncomfortable and reflected an ugly truth which people usually don’t want to face. The video went viral, and so were reactions.

Black Lives Matter started trending on social media. In no time, protests started everywhere in the world. Soon mob became violent and started vandalizing the property. Police cars were burned, property damaged. In one strange video a woman pooped on a police car. Then came another video where a local ‘Target’ store was targeted and people looted the store. Then a nike store went through the same ordeal and later a Louis Vuitton store too was emptied by the hoarders. Looting mainly increased when the president of the United States warned the hoarders against it.

From breaking public properties, mob moved to breaking any property that irked them. In one incident, the mob beat a man who tried to defend his store from the attack. In another, a white woman stood in fear when a mob started to break the things with sticks around her, leaving her terrified, offering no room to escape. In a very sad incident, a 77-year old retired police officer who happened to be black as well was attacked because he was trying to interrupt when the angry mob decided to damage another property. Irony died just there. Not completely though.

As it always happens with modern and English speaking, cool Indians especially Bollywood celebrities, also started to feel sad about George Floyd’s death. When there is nothing wrong with being empathetic, these people conveniently forgot to express any remorse or sadness over the lynching of two Sadhus in Palgarh, Maharashtra, where they all live. After the brutal murder of two sadhus in Palgarh, two more sadhus were killed in Nanded, Maharashtra but still not even a single word or tweet came from otherwise ‘sensitive and woke’ celebrities.

Ironically, Huma Qureshi is a brand ambassador of Lotus whitening cream, Ileana D’cruz endorses Pond’s white beauty cream and Kiara Advani gives her friend a Pond’s white beauty cream in another advertisement too. Kareena Kapoor performed on ‘fevicol se’ song where she calls herself ‘butter’ and her sister Karishma has also done her fair share of ‘beauty cream’ advertisements mainly Pond’s beauty cream and Olay total effects cream. Hence their concern for George Floyd is tailored, not from heart. How is it possible that everyone shares the same screenshot, same worded tweets at the same time?

Ashok Swain, who is a professor in Sweden’s Uppsala’s University was upset that such protest doesn’t happen in India, so did another ‘journalist’ Rana Ayyub. Instead of showing solidarity with a man who lost his life, these opportunists are provoking vandalism and mayhem in India too. This is the problem with such protests. Everyone tries to take advantage of someone else’s life and that is why ‘Every life matters’ and not every tragedy should be milked.

Peace.

बौद्ध मत की वो बातें, जो बताई नहीं जाती

Satyavrat

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5 June 2020

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अक्सर दक्षिणपंथियों की बातों को आईटी सेल और whatsapp university की कह कर नकार दिया जाता है. एक ही आरोप कि इसका कोई तथ्य नहीं है. ये बात अलग है कि अक्सर ऐसा कहने वाले अपनी हर बकवास को ऐसे बताते है कि समस्त संसार के जितने भी तत्व है, उनका कोई ज्ञाता है तो वे ही है. कॉमरेडों ने प्रपंच कर-करके भारत की संस्कृति को बहुत नीचा दिखाया है. इस कड़ी में उन्होंने जो सबसे खतरनाक काम किया है, वह है बौद्धों और हिन्दुओं के बीच खाई बनाने का काम. यह काम आज भी चल रहा है और बहुत तेजी से चल रहा है. मैकाले और मार्क्स के मानस पुत्र और पुत्रियों ने बौद्ध मत को हिन्दू मत के विपरीत लाकर ऐसे खड़ा कर दिया, जैसे 71 के युद्ध में भारत और पाकिस्तान की सेनाएं थी. मैं कॉमरेड नहीं हूँ, इसलिए पूर्णतया सक्षम होते हुए भी मैं प्रपंच नहीं करूँगा. इसी कारण मैं यह नहीं कह सकता कि बौद्ध मत और हिन्दू मत में कोई अंतर नहीं है. बहुत अंतर है पर वो अंतर उतना ही है जितना कोहली और सचिन में है. मैं इस लेख में बौद्ध मत के ही एक विचार को सबके समाने लाना चाहता हूँ.

बौद्धों का ब्रह्माण्ड

बौद्ध मत के अनुसार ब्रह्माण्ड का कोई एकमात्र रचियता नहीं है. हिन्दू मत ब्रह्म को ही ब्रह्माण्ड का रचियता मानता है. पर वेदों में एक श्लोक मिलता है, जिसमें इस पर भी संदेह किया जाता है. वो संदेह संदेह कम एक अन्य विचार अधिक है. बौद्ध मत ब्रह्माण्ड को आदि-अनंत घोषित करते है. इसे भी पूर्णतया हर आस्थावान हिन्दू मानता है. बौद्ध मत पुनर्जन्म में पूर्ण आस्था रखता है और इस पुनर्जन्म के च्रक से बचने का मार्ग निर्वाण को बताता है. जिसे हम मोक्ष कहते है, उसे वो निर्वाण कहते है.

पर असली बात तो अब शुरू होती है. बौद्ध मत धरती पर एक सुमेरु पर्वत के होने का वर्णन करते है. उस सुमेरु पर्वत के ऊपर 6 स्वर्ग है. जो सबसे नीचे है, वहां पर रहते है चार राजा जो चारों दिशाओं के रक्षक है. शिखर पर जो स्वर्ग है, वहां पर रहते है देवता. जी हां, देवता ही रहते है. अगला प्रश्न मन में आता है कि कौन से देवता रहते है?

इसका उत्तर है कि उस स्वर्ग में तैतीस देवता रहते है. इन तैतीस देवताओं का राजा है इंद्र. आपने सही पढ़ा है. इंद्र ही उन तैतीस देवताओं के राजा है, जो स्वर्ग में निवास करते है. ये सारी बातें बौद्ध मत की ही हो रही है. महात्मा बुद्ध ने वेदों को नकार दिया था पर वेदों में जिस देवता का सबसे अधिक उल्लेख है, उसे ही बौद्धों ने स्वर्ग का राजा बना दिया. सनातन मत में तैतीस कोटि अर्थात तैतीस तरह के देवता होते है. सनातन मत के ही अनुसार इंद्र उनके राजा है. उसी सुमेरु पर्वत की परछाई जहाँ पड़ती है, वहां रहते है असुर. वही असुर जिन्हें इंद्र ने स्वर्ग से भगाया था. ट्विटर पर ट्रेंड भले ही एक दो दिन में बदल जाते हो पर कॉमरेडों और तथाकथित नवबौद्धों ने जो घातक ट्रेंड चलाया है, वो बदलता दिख नहीं रहा. और, ये ट्रेंड है असुरों और राक्षसों को मूलनिवासी मानना. पर यहाँ तो कुछ और ही हो रहा है. यहाँ तो वास्तविक बौद्ध स्वयं कह रहे है कि असुरों को देवराज इंद्र ने स्वर्ग से भगाया है. इन असुरों की कहीं भी प्रशंसा नहीं की गई है.

इन स्वर्गों में रहने वाले अन्य देवताओं का जन्म भी मनुष्यों की तरह शारीरिक संबंध बनाने से ही होता है. पर कुछ का ऐसा मत है कि देवी-देवताओं के आलिंगन, हाथ पकड़ने से और केवल देख लेने भर से भी नया जन्म हो जाता है. इसी तरह का वर्णन तो संनातन ग्रंथों (जिन्हें आप हिन्दू ग्रंथ कह सकते है) में भी मिलता है. अक्सर ऐसे प्रसंगों के माध्यम से आम हिन्दू का उपहास भी किया जाता है पर बौद्ध मत में भी ये बातें लिखी है, इसके बारें में नहीं बताया जाता. यहाँ तक कि इन देवताओं का जन्म गर्भ से नहीं होता, ये तो देवों के अंक(गोद) में ही पाँच वर्ष के हो प्रकट हो जाते है.

जो शायरी गुलजार और ग़ालिब ने कभी नहीं कही, वो भी सोशल मीडिया पर उन्हीं की हो जाती है. उसी तरह आचार्य चाणक्य ने भी जो बात कभी नहीं कही, फेसबुक पर वो भी ऊँगली दिखाते हुए उन्हीं की हो जाती है. यही स्थिति महात्मा बुद्ध और बौद्ध मत की कर दी गई है. कोई कॉमरेड और नवबौद्ध आपको देवराज इंद्र से जुड़ी हुई ये बातें नहीं बताएगा. वास्तविकता तो यह है कि बौद्ध ग्रंथों में देवराज इंद्र का उतना ही वर्णन है, जितना हिन्दू ग्रंथों में मिलता है. मैंने इस लेख में इंद्र का पूरा वर्णन नहीं किया है पर इतना अवश्य कर दिया है कि आप उस प्रोपेगंडा को समझ सके. मेरी इच्छा यह है कि बौद्ध मत से जुड़ी हुई ऐसी और भी बातें जो कॉमरेड और नवबौद्ध आपको नहीं बताना चाहते है, उन्हें मैं लेखों के माध्यम से बाहर लाऊँ. अगर भगवान बुद्ध की कृपा रही तो मैं इसमें सफल भी हो जाऊंगा. अगले लेख में भी ब्रह्माण्ड का ही वर्णन होगा. बुद्धं शरणं गच्छामि.

ओड़िशा में मोदी लोकप्रिय, भाजपा अप्रिय: समीक्षा जरूरी

Debadatta Rath

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5 June 2020

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ओड़िशा में मोदी लोकप्रिय, भाजपा अप्रिय: समीक्षा जरूरी

भुवनेश्वर: सी- वोटर द्वारा किया गया एक सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार, प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी को लोकप्रियता में 65% समर्थन प्राप्त है। रिसर्च फर्म C Voter ने “सबसे बड़ा, निश्चित और स्वतंत्र सर्वेक्षण,” स्टेट ऑफ द नेशन 2020: मई “कहे जाने वाले इस सर्वेक्षण का आयोजन किया। इसके तहत देश के प्रत्येक राज्य और केंद्र शासित प्रदेश के 3,000 से अधिक लोगों की प्रतिक्रियाओं को लिया गया।

नरेंद्र मोदी, जिन्होंने हाल ही में अपने दूसरे कार्यकाल की पहली वर्षगांठ मनाई, सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार उन्हें 65.69% वोट मिले। देश में मतदान किए गए लोगों की कुल संख्या में से, 58.36% प्रधानमंत्री मोदी के प्रदर्शन से बहुत संतुष्ट थे। जबकि 24.4% लोग थोड़े संतुष्ट, और शेष 16.71% मोदी की कामकाज से असंतुष्ट थे। नरेंद्र मोदी शीर्ष पद की दौड़ में एक स्पष्ट पसंदीदा नेता के रूप में उभरे हैं। पोल के मुताबिक, कांग्रेस के पूर्व अध्यक्ष राहुल गांधी और प्रधानमंत्री मोदी के तुलना में 66.2% लोगों ने मोदी के पक्ष में मतदान किया, जबकि राहुल गांधी केवल 23.11% लोगों के बीच लोकप्रिय विकल्प थे।

मोदी की लोकप्रियता पर सर्वेक्षण में ओड़िशा की सबसे बड़ी हिस्सेदारी रही। ओड़िशा के लोगों ने मोदी के प्रदर्शन के लिए मोदी को अधिकतम 95.6% अंक दिए हैं। इसके बाद हिमाचल प्रदेश 93.95% और छत्तीसगढ़ 92.73% अंक दिए। इसी तरह, आंध्र प्रदेश के लोगों नें 83.6%, झारखंड 92.97%, कर्नाटक 82.56%, गुजरात 76.42%, असम 74.59%, तेलंगाना 71.51 और महाराष्ट्र के लोगों नें 71.48% अंक दिया। दो दक्षिण भारतीय राज्यों तमिलनाडु के लोगों नें 32.15% और केरल के लोगों नें 32.89% के साथ, मोदी को वहां सबसे कम अंक मिले।

मोदी को अपने गृह राज्य गुजरात और अन्य भाजपा शासित राज्यों की तुलना में ओड़िशा के लोगों से मोदी कहीं अधिक समर्थन हासिल किए। दूसरे शब्दों में सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार, इस बात के प्रमाण हैं कि मोदी देश के बाकी हिस्सों की तुलना में ओड़िशा में अधिक लोकप्रिय हैं। तो सवाल यह है, चुनावों के दौरान यह लोकप्रियता और ओड़िशा के लोगों का मोदी के प्रति प्यार कहां गया? क्यों भाजपा ओड़िशा में विफल रही? क्या, ओड़िशा के मुख्यमंत्री नवीन पटनायक ओड़िशा में बहुत ज्यादा लोकप्रिय है, और उनका कोई विकल्प नहीं है? या, फिर ओड़िशा भाजपा का अत्यन्त अक्षम और कमजोर नेतृत्व है? चापुलिस करके पदाधिकारी बने हुए नेताओं के कारण ओड़िशा में भाजपा का यह दुर्दशा है, या फिर मिश्रण के नाम पर भाजपा में अपमिश्रण का यह परिणाम है? या, फिर मूल संगठन बिचारधारा से हटकर और स्वामी स्वर्गीय लक्षमणानंद सरस्वती जी महाराज के साथ ओड़िशा भाजपा द्वारा किया गया प्रतारणा के कारण स्वर्गीय स्वामी जी का अभिषाप का यह परिणाम है? इसका तर्जमा होना जरुरी है।

Post-pandemic urbanization: Sick cities battling the Corona virus pandemic

Reports

Meera VM

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5 June 2020

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Post-pandemic urbanization: Sick cities battling the Corona virus pandemic

The Covid-19 or Coronavirus epidemic that started in China in early 2020 turned into a global health pandemic within few weeks. As the basic interactive nature of the city is very conducive to the spread of the virus, the pandemic has also turned into an urban crisis. At the same time, as a requirement for social distancing norms, a new way of living with remote working, distant learning, eCommerce etc. is questioning the tenets of ‘the City’. Given the urban nature of the pandemic, there is a need to rethink ‘the City’. We are responding to the pandemic with emergency measures at present and not much can be done from the spatial design point of view immediately. However, if social distancing will be the norm in future, architects and urban planners must plan the buildings, spaces and cities differently to make them resilient to tackle such pandemics and disasters.

Eminent urban experts, Dr Alexander Jachnow and Ar Sulakshana Mahajan joined me to analyse the link between the spread of the Covid-19 or Coronavirus pandemic and Cities. Dr Alexander Jachnow is Head of Urban Strategies and Planning department at IHS (Institute for Housing Studies & Urban Development) of Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is engaged globally in advisory and research on urban development and sustainability. He is also a consultant to the Kerala Government to prepare the disaster management framework for the state. Ar Sulakshana Mahajan is a senior urban planner and researcher based in Mumbai, India. She was a consultant Urban Planner at MTSU (Mumbai Transformation Support Unit). She has carried out research on Housing, Transport, Planning and Governance. She is a popular column writer and has authored several books on urban planning in Marathi. Though the topic is vast, the discussion was limited to the spatial dimensions of the Coronavirus pandemic. While Dr Jachnow discussed urbanization in principle, Ar Mahajan reflected on Mumbai (India) in the Corona crisis. The key questions discussed were: How does the structure of cities play a role in spreading the disease? How Covid-19 is impacting the cities and tenets of ‘the City’? What kind of recovery plan is required for the cities? Here are the excerpts of the discussion.

Discussion

The ongoing Covid-19 epidemic started in China in early 2020 and started spreading across the world, especially in urban areas. Within a few weeks i.e. around mid-March, the epidemic turned into an unprecedented global health pandemic. There is no vaccination or medication available at present and the only response to the highly infectious Coronavirus is ‘to not interact’ or social distancing. The pandemic has turned into an urban crisis as the very ‘interactive’ nature of the city is conducive to the spread of the virus. Today, urban areas are hotspots of the Corona-crisis with approximately 95% of the total cases. Urbanization, especially in developing nations is in distress because social distancing and hygiene are privileges in the overcrowded, highly dense cities with large informal settlements.

Epidemiologists predict that, like other contagions, the Covid19 will also be cyclic and we will have continued ‘social distancing’ till the vaccination for the Covid19 is available and widespread. Besides, humans are too much interacting lately with protected wildlife and there is a higher chance that there will be more viruses like the Coronavirus. There is a debate if social distancing is the best response because we cannot live in isolation for the rest of our lives and not interact anymore. We cannot lockdown the cities every time a new virus emerges, and if there is no vaccine. However, you cannot let the population interact and be exposed to the virus!

The subsequent lockdowns in many countries have severely affected economic activities, jobs, and livelihoods of many. It has also paralysed global supply chains of goods and services. The world has not taken sufficient care of economic resilience. Even the rich European nations have proved to be vulnerable to economic shocks because of their dependence on the global provision of goods, especially from China. This has in turn negatively impacted the global economy. The present need for social distancing has pushed the people to replace the physical interactions with information technology-based remote interactions. People have shifted to remote working, distant learning, e-commerce, home delivery of food etc. With the possibility of this to continue beyond the pandemic, basic tenets of the cities are being questioned.

Pandemic and the city

According to Dr Jachnow, Cities and big human settlements have always been attractive to humans because they want to interact, to have a social life, not necessarily for functionality or economic reasons. The City is not a mere necessity to be in, it is a choice to be in.

The dis-jointing of the space-activity is happening much before the pandemic. It has made the world more globalized, but it has not reduced the importance of cities. This phenomenon is known as sticky places in slippery space. Besides, the younger generation is always using technology for social, professional and all kinds of interactions regardless of the pandemic. However, if cities lose their agglomeration benefits in future, and everyone starts living and building everywhere, that resulting sprawl, that ‘flat human settlements’ will seriously affect our lives and sustainability. Because humans still need water, electricity, transport Systems, all kinds of services and amenities, and the city is the most sustainable form facilitating all these human needs. As a recovery plan, there is a need to make the cities resilient to tackle pandemics and disasters in future. We are responding to the pandemic with emergency measures and not much can be done from the spatial design point of view at present. However, if social distancing will be the norm in future, architects and urban planners must plan the cities and spaces differently.

Dr Jachnow suggests that as a response to the Coronavirus pandemic, cities can adopt an approach like Sweden. Different groups of people have different vulnerabilities to the virus. Older people are much more vulnerable to Coronavirus than the young. Cities can be planned to segregate these two groups, their living spaces, movement corridors, transport, vehicles etc. However, when the interactivity is the strength and beauty of the city, this kind of exclusionary planning may have social and psychological impacts. Space planning can also be done in such a way that there are one and a half meters between people, that there are fewer interactions and less physical contact. Super-markets can be designed such that any two persons at the same time cannot walk together in the same aisle. Instead of an open office model, office spaces with cubicles, with more sheltered spaces can be planned. Planning for social distancing will also require scaling down the footfall in the congregation spaces like stadia, transport stations, vehicles, theatres, art galleries, public spaces etc.

According to Dr Jachnow, it will be difficult to implement a one and a half meters’ distance in the multi-million cities of the world. In such cities viz. New York or Mumbai, even the public transports have daily ridership in millions (5M in case of Mumbai). These cities work very efficiently because they allow large population and economic activities in comparatively small spaces. Hence, limiting the population in these cities may not be an option. But, more people in limited space also bring risks along. Dr Jachnow warns that planning for social distancing will have social and economic consequences. Spaces will be revalued, and it will have an impact on the whole economy of space. Social distancing may result in more privatized and exclusionary planning barring accesses to many disadvantaged groups. The privileged people with money, influence or the resources will benefit the most from reduced access to space. The major issue of urban poverty is not food or income but the deprivation from access. Unequal cities limit the poor from accessing services, education, hospitals etc. Peripheral informal settlements do not have access to many urban services just because of mere distances. Thus, there cannot be an obvious or ubiquitous solution to the urban problem of the pandemic.

Mumbai and urban factors

Ar Mahajan says that this pandemic will have a quite different impact on India. Having a social distancing norm is almost impossible in extremely crowded and high-density cities like Mumbai. Mumbai has a high population density as well as crowding. It is always being argued that densities do not matter if the development is high-rises with more built-up spaces per person. However, people staying in such high-rise come down via lifts, go shopping and use semi-public and public spaces. So, even if they have more private space in the house, public and semi-public spaces will be still crowded. Besides, the poor can’t even afford private space in Mumbai.

Mumbai is the linear city, historically concentrated in a small island. It is a port city, a state capital, and a commercial hub, and it is getting more and more economic activities. Policymakers tried to stop migration to Mumbai but never succeeded. At present, Mumbai densities are very high, nearly 12 million people live in a geographical area of 437 sq. km. and a habitable area of 120 sq. km. Besides, Mumbai has very less open space per person, less than 12 square meters. People hardly have open spaces around the buildings, and comparatively, there are very few playgrounds. Housing densities are extremely high in some areas of Mumbai, sometimes as high as 900 houses per hectare which are more than even Hong Kong. Ten people are living in 100-200 square feet houses with hardly any space or ventilation. There are a huge number of TB cases in such settlements and these are not informal buildings, these are formal settlements, multi-storeyed buildings constructed as public housing. There are many health issues in Mumbai. The Intriguing part is that people have more trust in modern medicine and medical services, but planning and architectural issues which are solutions to avoid crowding in houses etc have been neglected so far.

This pandemic proves that too much density is not good for anyone, not even for rich people. Pandemic like this does not discriminate, nothing can protect even rich people from getting affected. Ar Mahajan hopes that at least now, authorities managing the city of Mumbai will acknowledge that densities do matter! They will change their attitude, their understanding of density, and attitude towards poor people and their housing needs.

According to Dr Jachnow, too many densities are not good from the present health perspective, but too little densities, the sprawl is unsustainable environmentally and does not have agglomeration benefits. However, it is not up to planners to define ‘good’ density, the decisions about densities don’t happen on drawing boards, densities are defined by the land value, culture, and many other things.

Transforming public transport to social distancing norms is a big concern, especially in the cities like Mumbai where nearly 5 Million people travel daily in overcrowded local railways. Ar Mahajan reiterates that for sustainable planning, public transport is a must even during the pandemic. You need to transform public transport for less density, more efficiency and speed. Planners need to think of innovative ways of design of public transport. Mumbai per se and many cities in India have limited space for private transport, many people cannot afford cars, and even if they can afford, there is no space for cars. In Mumbai, many people travel around 40-50-kilometre and spend two hours each way, every day. Planners need to think about spatial planning and travelling distances from house to many other services should be managed within short distances.

Ar Mahajan argues that a lack of understanding of architects, planners and policymakers about urban processes is the major cause of the present pathetic state of Indian cities. Urban planning and architecture are two different kinds of professions and architects do not necessarily understand the scale and complexities of cities. Policymakers and architects are concerned only for per capita built-up space. They are not convinced that urban planning and urban density norms are important. Instead of evidence-based planning, architects & planners sometimes resort to ad hoc decisions. For example, planners in India try to copy from Western Countries like Skywalks etc without realizing its practicality. The result is that people cannot climb on the skywalks and many skywalks are empty. Wrong decisions making and prioritization under political pressures of different groups and different at different times is one of the main lacunas of the urban planning profession.

Dr Jachnow warns that a large population is also a liability in managing such pandemics. In the past, having more children was a necessity due to socio-economic reasons and short life expectancies. However, with medical advancements and better life expectancies, similar population growth is not required anymore. Yet the world population is growing exponentially and today there are seven billion humans on the planet. It’s a big disadvantage to have unmanageable population growth. It is a big disadvantage economically, socially, in terms of densities, use of space, land values, access to land, access to housing etc. Policymakers need to rethink their population story at least from now onwards.

Global urban thinkers

Researchers across the globe are exploring various dimensions of the pandemic including the spatial dimension. Urban experts are looking at the pandemic as an opportunity to remake the ‘city’, to fix some chronic problems of urbanization. Numerous organizations and urbanists researching into impacts of Covid-19 on cities include Council of Architecture India (COA), the ace organization controlling India’s architectural profession; Multilateral organizations like United Nations’ Habitat, the World Bank; Research organizations like CityLab, Observers Research Foundation (ORF) India, IIED, Academician Richard Florida, and some more.

UN Habitat’s Covid-19 response plan focuses on long term measures like policy, institutional framework, and capacity building of local governments and communities, especially slums. Specific measures include providing handwashing & sanitation facilities to the slums, mobile medical facilities, and temporary shelters for social distancing. City Lab, Florida and others insist on opening the streets to the people, increasing widths of sidewalks, bike-friendly cities, more open spaces etc. and also urban food gardens given the experience of food and essential supplies shortage during the pandemic.

Almost all the experts are talking about short term measures like urban tech, personal safety gears (mask, PPEs etc), access to handwashing, access control & scanning, space dividers, retrofitting of spaces etc. Some are predicting changes in the house plan of providing the handwashing facility and bathroom near the entrance and bringing back the vestibule! Most of them think that scaling down the occupant load or the number of users in congregation spaces, public transport & aeroplanes etc. is inevitable. COA advises avoiding public transport. Experts discussed the possibility of adopting these interventions by cities, especially megacities like Mumbai, Delhi, or New York for that matter.

According to Dr Jachnow, City Lab is promoting the idea of a sustainable city, whereas UN-Habitat propagates the sustainable city as a response to the pandemic. However, the intervention which is relevant for a city may not be equally good enough for another. It is possible to implement all or many interventions by a city in its urban space.

Understanding the diversity of cities is more important than trying to streamline them and have the same. Rather than mere physicality of a city, planners should understand flows and the interactions and the need for dynamics in a city.

Ar Mahajan underlines the difference in approaches of the CityLab and Council of Architecture. While appreciating CityLab for its sustainable approach, she criticizes the Council for its elitist views that people at Council do not think beyond the architectural projects and consider private transport as an answer to everything. They forget that cities operate on a large scale. They are happy to show big cars in front of their architectural fantasies and prefer widening of the roads at the cost of curtailing the footpaths. She advises COA to rather adopt a holistic view of urban problems and educate their architects on the issues of planning.

Further research & Closing comments

While talking about the further research on the post-pandemic recovery of cities, Dr Jachnow suggests looking into the lockdown or isolation facilities for different communities of different sizes. E.g. a European family of 3-4 people or Indian group of 10-15 people a household in Mumbai. The challenge would be to design the facility to isolate physically while maintaining communication. Ar Mahajan suggests retrofitting of a dilapidated residential building in Mumbai for social distancing.

Dr Jachnow is disappointed that people are reluctant to learn anything from the disasters especially if it requires significant mind change. While working on the recovery plan after Nepal Earthquake (2015), he observed that, instead of building safer and resilient architecture, people build floor taller houses very quickly which are more unsustainable, unsafe and a lot more vulnerable to earthquakes than before. Even after having a first-hand experience of surviving the devastating earthquake, they hardly learned anything. They thought that the next earthquake would happen only after 100 years or so, and they need not bother for now.

Ar Mahajan agrees! In 2005, 26 July, huge floods happened in Mumbai, and many people lost their lives within a few hours. But the people and decision-makers did not learn from the disasters and in the last 15 years, it has been business as usual. However, according to Ar Mahajan, the ongoing pandemic has shaken humanity to the core and people have changed their mindset within a short time. In the last decades of the 21^st century, during the AIDS outbreak, many migrated back to their villages carrying AIDS along. Then no one assured them any help, neither tried to stop them. Today, the same people who were vehemently opposing migrants, are urging the migrants to not leave the city, assuring medical and other kinds of help just to stop the spread of the disease to rural India. Ar Mahajan is hopeful that after this pandemic, policymakers will learn to take the planners’ advice seriously

Author: Prof. Meera VM (Urban Management, Urban Economic Development & Resilience Expert)

Why only certain lives matter?

ankit

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5 June 2020

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It is no surprise that when #BlackLivesMatter movement in US turned into massive rioting and looting, the hypocrites in India took it as an opportunity to unleash another attack on the silent majority by linking it with all kinds of #XLivesMatter where X would be anything and everything that can be used to further the propagandas of pseudo-liberalism and leftist narrative in India.

Ohh, so campaign amount has arrived. pic.twitter.com/E0mUnP0C9M
— Manpu (@ipunamchoudhary) June 2, 2020

A Twitter user calling out the hypocrisy of an organized PR campaign being run on social media

Suddenly every life started mattering except the Hindu lives, the life of a community facing cultural and political invasion for centuries. First, black lives in US were absurdly equated to Muslim and Dalits in India accusing Hindus of false white-nationalists like supremacy. PR campaigns are being run paying Bollywood celebrities and social media influencers to reinstate in young minds guilt against their own roots. So-called intellectuals and journalists have openly wished for similar rioting in India. The voices begging for #AllLivesMatter are being shamed for demanding ‘equality’ while the voices selectively targeting and defending the communities are being hailed as ‘heroes’. Ironically, these heroes are nowhere to be seen when cities are burnt and vandalized, harming ALL not just some X, Y, and Zs, except when they are themselves terrorizing the streets.

More often than not such protests are staged by anti-establishment groups, funded by opposition, hostile foreign governments, insurgents, and terrorist organizations to create civil war. And then we have keyboard warriors who not only remain selectively quiet but also feel proud about large scale destruction everywhere except their neighborhoods, mob lynchings of everyone but not the members of the communities who are their ‘friends of convenience’. They are so used to getting privileges in the name of victimhood that they are ready to support anarchy if that is what it takes.

Snapshot of violence during the siege of several areas in Delhi including Seelampur-Jaffrabad and Shaheen Bagh by anti-CAA rioters — Snapshot of violence during *the siege of several areas in Delhi including Seelampur-Jaffrabad and Shaheen Bagh by anti-CAA rioters*
(Image source: https://swarajyamag.com/politics/explained-northeast-delhi-riots-from-terror-hotbed-and-influx-of-bangladeshi-illegals-to-70-day-siege-and-economic-chaos)

In true sense #NoLivesMatter to such opportunist vultures who are constantly on look-out for free passes for riots, murders, rapes, robbery, and civil unrest. Any issue which suits their agenda of gaining public sympathy for political and economic freebies becomes their own for the time being. The number of Blacks killing Blacks or Blacks killing Whites in America, for instance, is far higher than statistic of Whites killing Blacks, but that becomes immaterial as long as our communists get to demean the majority community in India for a single unrelated crime miles away.

Examples of what lives have mattered in India in the recent past:
#AfzalGuru’sLifeMattered and matters till day in JNU (what if he was an enemy of India)
#RohitVemula’sLifeMattered (because a lady who locked horns with Congress prince had become the new HRD minister)
#RiyazNaikoo’sLifeMattered (because keeping terror aside, he was a maths teacher)
But,
#PalgharSadhu’sLifeDidn’tMatter (because a failed CM is somehow the best CM in the galaxy)
#KamleshTiwari’sLifeDidn’tMatter (because he was just a Hindu)
#AnkitSharma’sLifeDidn’tMatter (because he was murdered by a party’s illegal Bangladeshi votebank)

Youth Congress workers slaughtered a cow in Kannur in full view of the public
(Image source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/youth-congress-workers-slaughter-cow-in-kerala-market-animal-activists-cry-foul/story-MW0w6xgd17R15CEBrjMAoN.html)

Similarly,
#JalikattuBullLivesMatter (how dare Tamilians celebrate their tradition)
#DiwaliBirds&DogsLivesMatter (just like Karwa Chauth is regressive but Burqa is not)
#UttarakhandHorseLivesMatter (because the state is BJP ruled)
But somehow,
#CowLivesDon’tMatter (because cow is sanghi)
#GoatLivesDon’tMatter (because Eid is sacred)
#Birds&DogsLivesDon’tMatter (because Christmas and New Year need firecrackers)
#ElephantLivesDon’tMatter (because it’s in God’s own country of 10000% literacy)

Brutal lynching of sadhus in Maharashtra allegedly due to religious profiling
(Image Source: https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/why-the-palghar-lynching-case-cannot-be-left-with-the-maharashtra-cid)

Flagbearers of equality have problem with #AllLivesMatter because it exposes their hypocrisy, because it deprives them of any chance to partake and support crime under the garb of being innocent victims, because it helps them build a narrative of oppression, because it derides their motive of securing preferential treatment.

India, too, like any other country has seen injustice, violence, and riots. Know that these have been perpetrated on and by multiple communities and not just the one targeted for hypothetical intolerance on a daily basis (surprising many, a sincere look at data will reveal truth which won’t be tolerated by our ‘oppressed rioters’). Popular media is so busy whitewashing the crimes leftist groups and hounding right-wing that they end up putting under the carpet the genuine cases from all the communities which actually deserve justice – this is the ACTUAL PROBLEM unlike a call for equality via #AllLIvesMatter. But, sadly, today ONLY CERTAIN lives matter because 2014 wasn’t favorable and India was ‘supposedly’ a living paradise before then.

SATYAN NASTI PARO DHARMA: An answer to Fatima Khan

Opinions

Ashish Purushottam

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5 June 2020

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SATYAN NASTI PARO DHARMA: An answer to Fatima Khan

Before commencing, I have a disclaimer to extract, I don’t consider myself as a forensic expert. However, by degree, I am a forensic scientist and if I have interpreted Section 45 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872 rightly, I qualify to be called an Expert before the hon’ble Court of Law. But the subject upon which I am writing is a labyrinth in Toto, at least for me. Hence, my contextual understanding of the subject matter can be questioned. My naïve objections can be superseded and logical conclusions can be rejected by suggesting a better conclusion based upon the refined facts. But, as the topic that I want to touch upon is largely scientific in nature, and being a professional it is my rightful duty that my interferences must be based on solid backing of irrefutable evidence, in properly maintained ‘chain’, which can be reproduced again and again.

But even then, few of the jury may reject my opinion, but even if you feel, I am wrong, please indulge with me for next few minutes and later on you can quote me another ‘Bhakt’, an upper caste RSS guy who wears Hindutva on his sleeves and hence reject my opinion partially or fully but here I implore your kind indulgence. The subject upon which I am writing is little provocative or even rhetoric and I am well aware of the downside risk that few of my fellow readers may be yelled- up and some self-styled woke liberal or self-proclaimed left-intellectual (for few of whom I do have deep respect) even can try to manhandle me, digitally or physically. But the subject matter upon which I am writing as a student of science with all the systematic citation backed by verifiable proofs is open to interpretation, debate and at times discourse by my learned readers.

For the Truth we told, this is a subject of Grey but I am not a fan of grey. I prefer things in Binary: Black or White! But it’s not that I hate the Grey but I know this grey, in venturing into it and believing in it has given mankind only and only violence and misery. Here I talk about Grey of a reportage published in over-the-top media house “The Print” with title ‘Forensic expert in Gujarat riots case, SC lawyer among 6 who handed Shah Delhi riots report’ by author named Fatima Khan.

Again, if you are not from a science background in general and forensic science background in particular, I would like to give a brief introduction to what Forensics Science is. In simplest connotation, Forensic Science is application of the Science to the Law for Criminal Administration. But, based upon my experience, I came to know, Forensic Science is not a grey subject but it’s an Art as well with many shades of grey. For a novice, it may be sounding oxymoron but it’s what it is- Forensic Science is Science as well as Art. You might be wondering, why I am deliberating upon the different contours of forensic Science while taking the risk to confuse you if It’s Science or an Art. For Qualifying it to be Science, it must be objective in nature and as we know in Arts, there is room for Subjectivity as it lies with Forensic Scientist and also with many opinion of an expert wherein one has to conclude the case (or at times no conclusion at all) based upon a range of evidences-Explicit, Implicit, Scientific, Physical, Digital Circumstantial, Corroborative etc.

I am not sure if so-called Journalists of “The Print” has follow professional ethics or not but as a Forensics, we firmly resolve to adhere to certain well-established scientific standards. But unlike some journalists who love conspiracy theories and are above questioning, immune to cross-examination, a forensic expert is subject to merciless cross-examination, Interventions during disposal of evidence or opinion and at many times had to recall its opinion before honorable Court of law. Hence, an expert is expected to strive for respect, understanding and credibility before the court of law. Independencey, Non- partisan, prolonged image of neutrality, impartiality and objectivity are desirable attributes of a Forensic Expert.

A noted French Medico- Legal Expert, Dr. P.C.H. Brouardel sums up the role of an expert as “If the law has made you a witness, remain a man of science; you have no victim to avenge or guilty or innocent person to ruin or save. You must bear testimony within the limits of science”. In other words, the sole obligation of a forensic expert is to represent truth, as she/he sees it, addicting nothing, withholding nothing and Distorting nothing. However, as I said, by degree I am a forensic scientist hence by nature we believe in being Practical in life. In practicality, no one is neutral per-Se, If I claim myself to be Neutral, I am another hypocrite trying to impose my moral superiority over my audience. Neutrality is a sham concept used by people of vested interest to impose moral superiority many times. Being human, we all are biased- Politically, Culturally, Socially and so on. I am also biased, but biased for facts, Truth and objectivity and I firmly believe in dictum: “SATYAN NASTI PARO DHARMA”. Hence, it instigated me to write this article.

Now coming to the central argument of the debate– what constitutes a piece of writing as Reportage and what is opinion? But as I put a disclaimer, I have a natural inclination for binary hence is for reportage. A Journalist with high professional ethics puts reportage into binary form with little bit of shade of Black and little bit shades of white, hence neutrality is maintained. There is a second class of people, who are called opinion sellers and they sell shades of grey. An Opinion seller or maker is one who perceives any news or reportage from their point of view/ or from the lens of grey shed and put a commentary on it based on their biases, affection or affiliation not to mention many are only armchair journalist or activist with many sheds of grey hence there is ample room for subjectivity how they interpret any news or any subject – Black, White or with different shades of grey with click-bait headlines. In this great chicken game of contemporary journalism, many a times opinion is masqueraded as reportage and many a reportage are masqueraded as opinion. But I said, I am not into journalism hence you may question or reject my understating of the same. If I read the Tea Leaves Right, Fatima Khan ‘s aforementioned article is full of inherent biases, Preconceived notion based on whims and fancies and its full with sheds of grey. Let’s explore upon how, in next few paragraphs:

1. Clickbait Headline

The Print: Forensic expert in Gujarat riots case, SC lawyer among 6 who handed Shah Delhi riots report

Prima-facie and superficially it seems another headline but what catches my eye was the use of few words: Forensic Expert in Gujarat Riot case.

Fact – Gujarat Riot was communal one, Amit Shah was then Home Minister of the affected state and alleged to have played a role in it but the CBI court exonerated him. Not to mention the name of PM Narendra Modi who was given clean chit in the similar matter by the Apex court. But what I mentioned here is a well-known fact and I am not concerned with it. Here I want to bring in notice how bad imagination works. If I am correctly reading the headline, I am forced to draw a corollary.

Scenario 1: Gujrat Riots 2002: Narendra Modi CM, Amit Shah HM but based on Forensic report (not to mention other evidence), charges upon them quashed.
Scenario 2: Delhi Riots, 2020: Narendra Modi PM, Amit Shah union HM. Here no charges against them but the Forensic Evidence as disposed by Fact finding have same person on board who handled Gujarat riot back in 2002. what a Parallel!

Inferences: Crypto-coded language used by writer is indicative of the fact that the involved forensic expert is biased, his report can be directed against one community and union HM is probably a partition. But here, the writer either forgot to mention that Fact Finders are from Non- Government agencies and it is the discretion of HM to accept such reports or Reject the same based on his wisdom. I hope she will come out with charge sheet by Delhi Police on the role of a few members from one particular party and community. But again, Charge sheet or Investigation report filed by police is not the last word on any case, but it is decided by the court of law if it’s maintainable based on few doctrines of Judiciaries like res ipsa loquitur or not. But the timing of the said reportage is something strange to me. Just after one day, Delhi Police filled its own changeset with clear mention of a few names and evidence thereof.

Intended Motives (?) – Before court trial, start Media trail of the case, try to dilute the gravity of crime against humanity by drawing a corollary or conspiracy theory- Forensic expert in Gujarat riots case, Ishrat Jahan encounter case etc is the same who is braining report in Delhi riot case and the same was accepted by union Home Minister so if in future some adverse judgement comes against a certain group of people from particular community , consider it as Government agencies /Institutions are biased and the Justice is being suffered hence try to start a protest or even try to Import some mayhem from the current US Riots into India. But I wish, I am wrong in reading the Tea Leaves Right, But God forbid if it is so, I see a Doomsday in coming months in India like one triggered by the death of Jorge Floyd in the US. Right to protest is acceptable in any democracy but not the mindless violence which I can sense coming to India in next few months. Violence has become a low-risk high-return adventure with zero consequences. If something sinister is cooking into mind of anti- social elements backed by few fake intellectuals in India It is high time to invert this equation: turn violence into a high-risk low-return misadventure with serious consequences.

2. The Print: The forensic expert and an ‘NIA prosecutor’

Both the person is said to be working in sync with state agencies since a long time in the said report. Personally, I got a few chances to meet Dr. Dogra and is widely accepted as a Doyens, the stalwarts in Forensic Fraternity. His acumen of the subject matter is of Gold standards. But my work is not to defend any person but to abide by the professional ethics which was echoed by Dr, Dogra himself. Quoting him gives me Goosebump:

“I didn’t see them as high-profile cases. A prime minister dying or a beggar dying — it’s all the same for me, they are my patients”
“It may be surprising to people that I associated myself with the report, but I went to the field and we wrote what we saw. For me, there is nothing politically charged or communally charged in the report”

I refrain from commenting on the statement of commuter expert named Mr. Arora as I don’t feel to carry enough knowledge on how to scan through the entirety of the internet to connect the dots of a crime. Better sense prevails, don’t try to be an expert of everything.

Facts- As mentioned in paraphernalia of this article, we forensics as a professional don’t look into what a caste an accused carry or from which religion or region she or he is but we see an accused in Black or white with no shed of grey and work for ultimate goal- to bring in truth backed by irrefutable evidences followed by an objective interpretation.

Inferences- Everyone who is “Right” is always “Wrong”. Here, the writer tried to question the impeccability of the Experts only because they said they handled a few cases wherein Amit Shah or Namenda Modi’s Name was dragged.

Intended Motive(s): Based upon this notion, it is ethically correct to discard any such report, investigation report, decision by Courts (like Ram Mandir decision of recent past) or any such thing which doesn’t suits your narrative or start protesting that there is ‘state sponsored discrimination ‘against a set of people from certain Ideology or from certain community. If it’s not giving you any brownie try to Instigate protest using crypto-coded language or opinion or may even try to import violence of the US into India. God save India!

3. The Print: Report relies on website OpIndia

As per author, the fact-finding team dig into authentic news sources which can be corroborated and the most-cited news website in the fact-finding report is OpIndia, which has been cited 20 times in the 70-page long report.

Facts- The news reportage is admissible before the court of Law and it is considered hearsay or at times corroborate evidence. Hence if any Investigation report has mention of such reportage, there is no harm and it is on the wisdom of the court to decide the case based on merit of the content and context of the case.

Inference- Here comes the question of Moral Superiority, as something is Published on some news media channel of Over-the-Top news providers from certain ideological inclination, try to reject it without giving due consideration to the merit of the case and outrightly reject such reportage. Interestingly, many times such news reports are helpful in unfolding the jigsaw puzzle of many cases and based on report of such cases , an Investigator can gain the knowledge of Date or Place of Crime, the Accused, Nature of Crime, or the Vehicle, or weapon involved etc in alleged crime.

4. The Print: Draupadi Trust

As per the report, one Important member of the fact-finding team is Neera Mishra who runs an organisation called “Draupadi Trust”. The trust works on “vedic principles and philosophy” to create a “better understanding of ancient Indian culture.

Fact- A trust working for Vedic Darshan/ Indic philosophy with credibility can have any number of photos or Videos of any eminent person in public service and it doesn’t make them partisan.

Inference: Draupadi Trust is portrayed as inclined to one particular Ideology as it contains some video or photographs of some eminent person like Dr. Subramanian Swamy (The Print report identifies him as “controversial BJP leader”) Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat, President Ram Nath Kovind, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh etc.

But by going through the same logic, I find news reports of Fatima Khan as biased as she comes from one particular community and is working for The Print, whose founder’s Political orientation is no secret. It sounds injustice to her and The Print, but its the logic which is being portrayed into the report in crypto-coded language. The Judiciary, State Agencies like CBI, NIA or Police force, FSLs etc enjoy a lot of trust among common people and if not, there will be large scale chaos in society. In the last couple of years there are continuous attempts to scandalizes or question on wisdom of involved people in many cases or upon many decisions which are taken by large benches of the Apex court or High Courts by unanimous consensus but still if a group of people don’t find such verdict suitable to their narrative, they start questioning upon the authority itself which is more likely to erode faith of common people on authority and likely chances are there, it may be manipulated to Instigate violence in India.

I wish new age journalists would start developing a better understanding of nuances of Reportage in Black and white and Opinion with multiple shades of grey written in crypto-coded language. In anticipation of many Solicited or unsolicited suggestions on my opinion.