Should we fear for India's democracy?

[Mian]

Weeks before the general elections in India, opinion polls were already showing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a fair chance of returning to office. He was riding on the crest of militaristic nationalism which gripped the nation after the military escalation with Pakistan in February.

But few had expected the tidal wave with which Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the opposition aside to win a second term. The official results released on May 23 revealed that the ruling party had gone beyond even what Modi and his most-trusted aide and party president, Amit Shah, had set as a goal: going above the 300 mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Parliament.

The BJP, along with allied parties, won 353 seats, paving the way for Modi to become the first prime minister in decades to return to government with another majority after completing his entire tenure in office.

With this electoral victory, the prime minister has not only secured another term in which once again he will pay little heed to coalition partners but has also won a popular mandate to push forward with his politics of Hindu nationalism.

At this point, there is sufficient ground for trepidation over what awaits India.

In March, Sakshi Maharaj, one of the saffron-clad BJP legislators representing the fringe section of the Hindu right-wing, made an ominous declaration.

"Modi is a tsunami that has brought awakening in the country. I believe there would be no elections in 2024 after this election is done," he said.

Some have taken this statement to mean that in the coming five years Modi will consolidate power to the point where no other political power would manage to dethrone him. It has stirred fears that the BJP could consider pursuing changes in the law to jettison the parliamentary system, replacing it with a non-elective one.

Although Maharaj's declaration was put down by the majority of BJP's leaders as a rambling of an oddball, it still reflects the wide political ambitions of the ruling party.

At this point, fears about the future of Indian democracy appear justified and there are at least three reasons why.

First, Modi has made it clear that he would not rein in the Hindu far right. The BJP not only renominated Maharaj and a number of others like him who have a penchant for particularly toxic statements, but it also fielded a candidate who is currently facing "terrorism" charges.

Pragya Thakur, who is accused of organising the Malegaon bombing of 2008, ran in Madhya Pradesh state and won, becoming the first Indian MP facing "terror" charges to secure a seat in parliament. Despite nation-wide outrage, BJP's senior leaders, including Modi, defended their decision to nominate her.

Thakur proceeded to embarrass them by glorifying the right-wing assassin of Mahatma Gandhi and Modi will have to decide in the coming days whether to expel her from the party or not. Inaction against her would suggest the party leadership speaks with a forked tongue and will continue promoting far-right activists into its second term.

The second reason for concern over Modi's scale of victory is that the BJP does not have a good record of preserving the integrity of democratic institutions. During his first term, there have been a number of infringements against the judiciary and law enforcement. Judges and investigators have publicly complained about growing chaos within the system and increasing political pressure.

Modi has also made clear his exasperation with institutions, especially constitutional watchdogs, if they stand in the way of the executive's unbridled powers. With an excessively centralised system of administration, introduced in 2014 and likely to be entrenched even further, there are worries that the checks and balances in the Indian democratic system would be weakened.

The future of the electoral process is also under question at the moment. During this election season, the election commission also came under the spotlight; by the time the vote concluded, it had become as much the subject of media reports, as political leaders and parties.

The third reason for apprehension over the future health of Indian democracy stems from Modi's ideological roots and links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the BJP, which Modi was a member of for years. The RSS runs on the principle of "ek chalak anuvartitva", Sanskrit for "follow one leader", and eschews democratic principles.

Modi is also a follower of RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya, whose treatise, Integral Humanism, is one of the philosophical guidebooks of the party. In his thesis, Upadhyaya emphasised the need to Indianise "western concepts of the nation, western secularism, western democracy". Although he accepted political dialogue within the framework of Indian democracy, he wrote that "if we carry it to the other extreme, it could prove troublesome."

All three factors - the promotion of the Hindu far right, the subversion of democratic institutions and the subscription to undemocratic ideology - will play an important role in the likely transformation of the country towards an authoritarian ethnic democracy under Modi's second tenure. Those who will suffer the most in the process will be the minorities and disadvantaged groups.

Although sectarian strife is not new in India, since Modi took power in 2014, attacks - both rhetorical and physical - against religious minorities have intensified and have further alienated them from the state. Muslims, in particular, have increasingly become a target, as BJP's Hindu nationalist stance has fuelled Islamophobia and encouraged "cow vigilantism" and conspiracy theories about "love jihad".

Unsurprisingly, the BJP has not felt the need to provide political space or representation to Muslims; its strategy so far has been to politically bypass them and not recognise them as a distinct demographic group.

As Modi presses forward with majoritarian policies shaped by his Hindu nationalist views, multi-ethnic India will become increasingly divided. Attempts to homogenise the nation and secure the dominance of the Hindu majority and by extension, the BJP will have disastrous effects for the future of the biggest democracy on Earth.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/o...ra-modi-sweeping-victory-190525104312697.html

--Writer is a hindu indian journalist

 

[Syed1]

Aray [MENTION=142451]Mian[/MENTION] sahab ap?


Welcome back. Lagta tha kay tabdeeli kay tsunami mein ap saath beh gaye

 

[Mian]

Aray [MENTION=142451]Mian[/MENTION] sahab ap?


Welcome back. Lagta tha kay tabdeeli kay tsunami mein ap saath beh gaye

Nae i am still alive syed bhai and back for the worldcup

 

[PakLFC]

India should fear it's democracy. Nothing for Pak to fear, if they want a terrorist PM than that is their business.

 

[WebGuru]

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/o...ra-modi-sweeping-victory-190525104312697.html

--Writer is a hindu indian journalist

An eye opener...

 

[Technics 1210]

Yes and no.

No, from an outside perspective. No nation outside of India would care if India was self-imploding.

Yes, from religious minorities/lower castes within India perspective.

 

[Markhor]

Should also worry for American democracy, Israeli democracy, Turkish democracy, Hungary's democracy, Italy's democracy, Brazil's democracy...

Hard right wingers are dominating global politics. Sad to see.

 

[from_da_lost_dim3nsion]

Should also worry for American democracy, Israeli democracy, Turkish democracy, Hungary's democracy, Italy's democracy, Brazil's democracy...

Hard right wingers are dominating global politics. Sad to see.

Seems like an end of globalism . The pendulum is swinging back

 

[WebGuru]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">An Indian election where an <a href="https://twitter.com/AtishiAAP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AtishiAAP</a> despite her super work in education comes third in the election and a terror accused Pragya Thakur wins must ask some searching questions of what is the future of electoral democracy. Do elections ‘reward’ lowest common denominator?</p>— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) <a href="https://twitter.com/sardesairajdeep/status/1132320865754988545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Did they disable the comments on Al Jazeera website? It used to get spammed big time by the saffron cyber brigade, I think the poor Arabs must have got a harsh reality check on what Indians think of them.

 

[cricketjoshila]

Is Al Jazeera afraid of the democracy in Qatar?

 

[sjahmed23]

Seems like an end of globalism . The pendulum is swinging back

India has benefitted the most from globalism along with China. Its about time that comes to an end.

 

[ahmedzee]

Leaders are reflection of their people. If Indian public selected a war monger img terrorist as their leader, then that shows the ideology of a common man/woman.

 

[Angrez Pakistani]

Should fear for our own first.

 

[gazza619]

I can see war soon. That is Modi’s agenda.

 

[Pete Rose]

I can see war soon. That is Modi’s agenda.

I don’t know if war is on the agenda. Maybe when re-election comes around.
But India is at interesting juncture internally and externally. The internal stuff has been discussed already, it’s the external stuff that will go a long way in figuring out what happens to India. They have a balancing act between Russia and China on one side and USA on the other. And between Iran and the Gulf States.


For Pakistan the key focus should be development, and nothing else.
The thing that unites both countries is that the fruits of growth at unevenly distributed in society.

 

[jeetu]

Funny article , pretty much similar fear mongering stuff were circulating 4 years back. Personally i don't see a difference between Jinnah and Modi. Both used religious violence to gain power. However Modi is proving to be best PM for India in decades. Unless a better PM candidates comes along Indian public will continue voting for him.

 

[MP2011]

However Modi is proving to be best PM for India in decades.

Yeah, true. Everything is going so well in India, everyone is happy, India shining!

 

[cricketjoshila]

Yeah, true. Everything is going so well in India, everyone is happy, India shining!

The voters proved it with their votes.

 

[Abdullah719]

India’s Democratic Processes ‘on a Path of Steep Decline’: Report

New Delhi: India is on the verge of losing its status as a democracy due to the severely shrinking of space for the media, civil society and the opposition under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, the 2020 ‘Democracy Report’ by the Sweden-based V-Dem Institute has observed.

Set up in 2014, V-Dem is an independent research institute based at the University of Gothenburg, and has published a data-heavy worldwide democracy report each year since 2017. As the name suggests, these reports look at the status of democracies in countries around the world. The institute calls itself the world’s largest data collection project on democracy.

The 2020 report, titled ‘Autocratisation Surges – Resistance Grows’, begins with figures that point to the fact that globally, the spirit of democracy is on the decline.

For the first time since 2001, autocracies are in the majority and comprise 92 countries that are home to 54% of the global population, notes the report.

It says that major G20 nations and all regions of the world are now part of the “third wave of autocratisation” which is affecting major economies with sizeable populations, like India, Brazil, the US and Turkey. “India has continued on a path of steep decline, to the extent it has almost lost its status as a democracy,” the preface to the report mentions.

Attacks on freedom of expression and media freedom are now affecting 31 countries, compared to 19 two years ago. In addition, academic freedom has registered an average decline of 13% in autocratising countries (one of which is India) over the last 10 years, and the right to peaceful assembly and protest has declined by 14% on average in such countries.

The report is unsparing in its reflection of the fact that the slide into autocratisation is a worldwide phenomenon, affecting absolutely all regions. “Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where a greater share of the population is still being affected by democratisation rather than autocratisation,” it notes.

The report uses a method of population weightage (that measures average democracy levels by population size, that is, how many people are affected) to arrive at a Liberal Democracy Index (LDI). This index combines measures of the quality of elections, suffrage, freedom of expression and the media, freedom of association and civil society, checks on the executive, and the rule of law. The report charts in great detail the methods employed in positing figures on this index.

India, the report finds, is the largest country verging towards a system of autocracy in terms of population.

The report lists the top 10 regressing countries by magnitude of change on the LDI over the past 10 years. As may be seen in the table below, India is still listed as an electoral democracy. But the report warns that the signs of deterioration are evident.

As with Hungary, Poland, and Brazil, the report states that the developments in India suggest that the “first steps of autocratisation involve eliminating media freedom and curtailing civil society.”

The report cites “…the dive in press freedom along with increasing repression of civil society in India associated with the current Hindu-nationalist regime of Prime Minister Narendra Modi” to illustrate this.

Declining press freedom in India is often in the news with the increased slapping of charges (ranging from sedition to defamation) against journalists, along with increased litigation against news reports and those who write them. Several international bodies have urged for the Modi’s government’s lenience in this regard.

Meanwhile, a Central ‘index monitoring cell’ has been tasked with examining the whys and hows of India’s poor ranking on global press freedom indices and its recommendations are expected shortly.

India’s environment of media repression bears striking similarity with a paragraph in the report on Hungary, which the V-Dem Institute recognises as a country with the most extreme case of democratic regression in recent times.

As a reflection of the growing acceptance of authoritarianism in global politics, the report mentions time and again that Hungary is the first member of the European Union ever to host an electoral authoritarian regime. Viktor Orbán, who is increasingly named alongside the triumvirate of Modi, Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro as an illustration of undemocratic leaders, has brought laws to foster a media landscape that does not even allow reports on Greta Thunberg.

The report, which has gained traction on social media now, was originally published in March 2020, just as the peaceful anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests across India were forced to withdraw from the streets and move online due to restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It does not take into account fresh human rights violations and further attacks on press freedom during the lockdown and afterwards, or the numerous cases filed against anti-CAA protestors in recent months.

Major pillars of Indian democracy, including parliamentary procedures, the removal of question hour in houses of parliament, and the independence of the judiciary have come into question in the time that has passed since the publishing of the report.

Significantly, one of the first photographs used in the report is that of a woman in a burqa in India, holding up a placard that says, “We want democracy, not dictatorship.”

This is not the first time India’s democracy has been called into question by an international watchdog. For instance, in the 2019 Democracy Index released this January, India slipped by 10 ranks to the 51st position – a big downgrade. The report was prepared by the intelligence unit of The Economist Group.

The Index categorised India under “flawed democracies” which is defined as countries that hold free and fair elections and where basic civil liberties are respected, but have significantly weak governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation.

https://thewire.in/rights/india-democracy-shrinking-media-v-dem-report

 

[MP2011]

Since they are getting votes, democracy must be healthy in India!

 

[Itachi]

Since they are getting votes, democracy must be healthy in India!

Is loksabha and state assembly representative NOT voted by Indian population? Is there instances made where constitution ammendment has been made where an elected member has tried to change how selection process works?

If not, democracy is healthy in India.

Rest of the metrices mentioned in the article, has nothing to do with democracy. It can occur in any system be it monarchy, feudalism, democracy or any other system.

 

[CricketCartoons]

Since they are getting votes, democracy must be healthy in India!

democracy has never been healthy in india. Only now that pseudos are out of power are they finding flaws in democracy.

first past the post system means people don't get to choose the candidate they like.
You can get majority seats with only 30% of total votes.
Your elected representative has no freedom in parliament, and can be expelled if doesn't follow the party whip.
people have no say in any decision making, except during casting votes.
judiciary is very slow and common person avoids seeking justice as even the most high profile cases take years for completion.

tell me, when was democracy ever healthy? Good that pseudos are waking up from slumber.

 

[MP2011]

Is loksabha and state assembly representative NOT voted by Indian population? Is there instances made where constitution ammendment has been made where an elected member has tried to change how selection process works?

If not, democracy is healthy in India.

Rest of the metrices mentioned in the article, has nothing to do with democracy. It can occur in any system be it monarchy, feudalism, democracy or any other system.

Good if you trust all is well with our democracy.

My whole point was just because someone was voted in by due process, doesn't mean everything is hunky dory with our democracy.

Indira Gandhi too subverted democracy by imposing emergency, didn't she? By your definition, she too was elected democratically!

Congress fell so many state governments by misusing article 356 during their reign. But they were democratically elected, weren't they? Just because someone is democratically elected doesn't give them right to use it as per their whims and fancies.

Rajiv Gandhi had such a brute majority of 400+ seats in '84 LS. Does that justify his subsequent actions in Shahbano case & others?

AFAIK, democracy was one parameter on which we were being adjudged by the world. If an international watchdog is downgrading our standing then there must be some solid pointers they would've seen which some of us may not have noticed due to our biases.

What ulterior motive do you think a Sweden based organisation would have to downgrade our ranking? I for one, would always look to rectify our own faults before shooting the messenger which many of us may do post this degrade.

 

[CricketCartoons]

Good if you trust all is well with our democracy.

When was the democracy healthy? Do you have courage for discussion or only good for throwing insults at others?

 

[OMB]

Residents of India’s Lakshadweep islands resent gov’t’s new moves

Anger and fear in the Arabian Sea islands with 97 percent Muslims, whose administrator plans slew of measures that threaten livelihood and ecology.

A series of regulations proposed by an administrator belonging to India’s governing party in a set of islands in the Arabian Sea has caused widespread resentment and fear among its residents.

Lakshadweep is an idyllic archipelago of 36 islands – 10 of them inhabited – spread over a 32-square-kilometre area in the sea, about 200 km off the southwestern coast of the Indian Peninsula.

Residents in the smallest among India’s eight “Union Territories” (UTs), with a population of 65,000 people – 97 percent of them Muslims – are fearful of a series of moves by its right-wing administrator appointed by the federal government.

Praful Khoda Patel, who belongs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is the first non-bureaucrat administrator of the Lakshadweep Islands. Patel once served as the home minister of Gujarat state when Modi was its chief minister.

Since he took over the Lakshadweep administration in December last year, Patel has pushed through a slew of new laws and regulations without consulting locally elected representatives in India’s only Muslim-majority territory apart from Indian-administered Kashmir.

Residents say the proposals threaten their livelihoods, land ownership, culture and even the fragile ecology of the tropical islands.

The controversial proposals range from a ban on beef, disqualification of people with more than two children who wish to contest the village council elections, to taking over land belonging to the locals for the purpose of development without safeguarding the interests of the landowners.

While the proposals are currently being considered by the federal home ministry, several opposition parties, including the Congress, are demanding they should be dropped and the 63-year-old administrator recalled.

Threats to land rights and jobs
The most controversial legislation introduced by Patel is the Draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation 2021, which would allow the administration to acquire the land of residents to build highways, railway lines and other infrastructure projects.

There are plans to build roads “as wide as 15 metres”, but locals say Lakshadweep does not need highways, and that such projects will damage the islands’ fragile ecology.

“There is no scope or need for bigger roads,” Abdul Kader, president of Kavaratti village council, told Al Jazeera.

The size of Lakshadweep’s largest island, Androth, is just 4.9 square kilometres.

Dr Muneer Manikfan, a diabetologist who is also the vice chairman of Minicoy local council, an island close to the Maldives, said the draft proposal’s idea of an “area with bad layout or obsolete development” is arbitrary.

“The administration can publish a development plan for an area irrespective of whether the area is populated or not. People can be relocated to anywhere the administration likes,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The local community will forever have to live in fear of their property being taken over by the administration anytime.”

Even if permission is granted for development, the draft in some cases says the maximum period allowed will be three years. That means an islander can make her house standing for only three years. Then the fate of her building is at the mercy of the authority.

“If we need to construct an additional bedroom, say, for our children’s marriage, we can’t. For a 1000-square-feet house, the additional structure shouldn’t be more than 100 square feet,” says activist Cheriya Koya.
“When they send a notice to pull down the whole building by a set date, we have to do it at our expense or else we will have to pay 200,000 Indian rupees ($2,750) as penalty and 20,000 ($275) rupees for each day if we delay.”

Section 72 of the draft Planning and Development Authority proposal allows the administration to evict a person from a property that “he is not entitled to occupy”. Manikfan says the section infringes on one’s right to property.

Worse, the draft law denies protection granted to the Scheduled Tribes – the islands’ indigenous people – by the constitution and violates the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

Muslims in Lakshadweep, classified as a Scheduled Tribe, are one of the rarest Muslim groups in India to be granted reserved quota in government jobs and seats at educational institutions run by the state.

Residents say the Lakshadweep administration also aims to usurp the local executive powers of the elected village and district councils.

The elected council representatives will not be able to make decisions on many issues that directly affect people such as healthcare, agriculture, education, and animal husbandry and fisheries, as these subjects would come under the direct control of the administration if the proposal is accepted.

A government employee who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity said about 500 casual and contractual workers employed in various government offices lost their job after the new administration took over.
Lakshadweep’s government-run tourism body, Society for Promotion of Nature Tourism and Sports (SPORTS), alone terminated nearly 200 contractual staff in February.

“They want to fill those vacancies with labourers brought in by the contractors from outside,” the employee said.

Residents also say a number of dairy farms have been closed and their cattle auctioned off, citing non-feasibility. They allege that Patel’s plan is to bring in a dairy giant based in Gujarat to set up its retail outlets across the islands.

Beef ban and alcohol permit
Patel has also proposed a ban on the sale of beef and the slaughter of cows, calves, bulls and steers, in line with Hindu beliefs.

According to Lakshadweep Animal Preservation Regulation, 2021, no person can directly or indirectly sell, transport, offer for sale, or buy beef or beef products in any form anywhere in the Muslim-majority islands, with violators facing up to 10 years in jail.

A section of upper-caste Hindus considers the cow a sacred animal, whose slaughter is banned in many states across India. Cow slaughter is one of the right-wing BJP’s main populist planks.
According to another proposal, non-vegetarian food options on the menus of “anganwadi” (neighbourhood) state-run preschool childcare centres could also be removed, while the administration has banned beef from the midday meals provided to schoolchildren.

Recently, the administration shut down dozens of “anganwadi” pre-schools.

Patel is also planning to permit the opening of liquor bars and shops, claiming the move will boost tourism on the islands, which are currently a non-alcoholic zone due to their Muslim population.

Resorts on Lakshadweep’s inhabited islands cannot supply liquor, which is allowed only at resorts on the uninhabited island of Bangaram.

Manikfan says liquor is not “socially acceptable and culturally desirable” for Lakshadweep.

Detention without trial despite low crime rate
Patel has also introduced a Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation, 2021, which empowers the administration to hold anyone in detention without trial for up to one year. The detention could be extended if the administration wishes so.

The bill has angered the locals in Lakshadweep, which has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. Residents say there is no need for such a “draconian” legislation.

So why has such a harsh law been introduced? “To jail the people who criticise the administrator and his plans,” says activist Hussain Shah.

One of Patel’s earliest actions included booking criminal cases against three people, including local Congress leader MA Atta for putting up a banner in Kavaratti, the capital island of Lakshadweep, criticising the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act passed by Modi’s government in 2019.

The law fast-tracks nationality for non-Muslim minorities from neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but excludes Muslims, a step often compared with former US President Donald Trump’s controversial Muslim ban.

From COVID-free to 7,500 cases
Lakshadweep had remained coronavirus-free throughout 2020 because of the strict protocol necessitated by its poor health infrastructure with just three hospitals for the 10 inhabited islands.

People bound for the islands had to be quarantined for seven days in the Indian mainland – in Kochi, Kozhikode or Mangalore cities – under the administration’s supervision before boarding a ship or flying.

Even after reaching Lakshadweep, they were asked to remain in quarantine for another seven days.

But Patel is accused of exacerbating the COVID-19 crisis in Lakshadweep after he changed the protocol in January by allowing anyone entry into the islands with a negative RT-PCR report obtained 48 hours before their travel.

A week after the rules were changed, the territory reported its first coronavirus case on January 17. Until Friday, the island had recorded close to 7,500 total cases, with nearly 30 deaths.

‘Patel has a few companies in mind’
Meanwhile, a clamour to scrap the legislation proposed by Patel and remove him from his position grows louder across India.

Elamaram Kareem, a member of parliament from the Community Party of India (Marxist), blamed Patel for the spread of the coronavirus on the islands in his letter to President Ramnath Kovind and demanded the “anti-people” proposals be rejected.

In his letter, Kareem said the standard operating procedure (SOP) in force in the Union Territory to curtail the spread of COVID-19 was unilaterally changed by Patel.

“This unplanned and unscientific altering of the SOP has led to the current surge in COVID cases in Lakshadweep, where there was not even a single case reported in the year 2020,” he wrote.

“New regulations, including a ban on the slaughter, transport, selling and buying of beef, are an onslaught on the people. Hundreds of casual and contract laborers working under different departments have lost their jobs.”

Kareem said Patel’s aim is to hand over the territory of Lakshadweep to people close to the administration.

“These measures were proposed so the land and resources of the islands could be handed over to the corporate sector,” he told Anadolu news agency.

“Many big corporations have been eyeing the land here and want to set up their businesses here. The administrator wants to hand over the valuable lands to them. He is furthering the business interests of people on the mainland.”

AP Abdullakutty, BJP’s national vice president who is also in charge of Lakshadweep, denied the allegations.

“People are protesting mainly against the new rules of the administrator. But no new rules have been implemented. Only a proposal on building rules regulations was made, which will be discussed with locals before submitting it to the government,” he said.

But Lakshadweep’s member of parliament, PP Mohammed Faisal, said Patel “has a few companies in mind and he is trying to provide land to them”.

“That’s why he is taking such measures,” he said. “The drafts under the consideration of the Home Ministry should be scrapped, as people are against them. Twelve draft notifications are in the queue. People aren’t in a position to respond to them. They’re not in a position to move out.”

Neighbouring Kerala state’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and KC Venugopal, a Congress member of parliament, have also opposed Patel’s decisions. Vijayan said Patel’s actions pose a “grave threat to the life and culture of the people of Lakshadweep”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2021/5/28/residents-of-indias-lakshadweep-resent-bjp-administrators-moves?__twitter_impression=true

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Beef bans imposed on islands which are 97% Muslim.


This must be the nationalism that the secular hindutvas keep telling us about.

 

[cricketjoshila]

Beef bans imposed on islands which are 97% Muslim.


This must be the nationalism that the secular hindutvas keep telling us about.

Why did they ban Alcohol? Why are they protesting its unbanning?

The person who talked about cow slaughter ban was Mahatma Gandhi. Thats why cow slaughter ban is mentioned in the directive principles of the constitution.

Its amusing to read posts of people originating from Pakistan talk about secularism.

 

[gani999]

Beef bans imposed on islands which are 97% Muslim.


This must be the nationalism that the secular hindutvas keep telling us about.

Well there are 97% muslim enclaves in a country ruled by hindutvas, so I don't see what the problem is?

 

[Third_Umpire]

Labels mean nothing.

India is a democratic country, and has elected a Hindu fascist to power via a democratic process. Where does that leave you.

 

[cricketjoshila]

Labels mean nothing.

India is a democratic country, and has elected a Hindu fascist to power via a democratic process. Where does that leave you.

Fascist? According to whom?

 

[Itachi]

Labels mean nothing.

India is a democratic country, and has elected a Hindu fascist to power via a democratic process. Where does that leave you.

Lets take it one by one:

mention the characteristics of fascism in bullet points and will put a tick mark if it matches. up for it?

 

[PakLFC]

Modi being Indian PM is brilliant for Pak. No reason why Pak should be fearful when Modi is doing an awesome job in destroying India. Democracy or fascism i care little about it as long as Modi is in charge all is all good for Pak! It should be the good Indian's who should be worried sick not anyone else.

 

[finalfantasy7]

Lets take it one by one:

mention the characteristics of fascism in bullet points and will put a tick mark if it matches. up for it?

this sums it up really:

Detention without trial despite low crime rate
Patel has also introduced a Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation, 2021, which empowers the administration to hold anyone in detention without trial for up to one year. The detention could be extended if the administration wishes so.

The bill has angered the locals in Lakshadweep, which has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. Residents say there is no need for such a “draconian” legislation.

So why has such a harsh law been introduced? “To jail the people who criticise the administrator and his plans,” says activist Hussain Shah.

One of Patel’s earliest actions included booking criminal cases against three people, including local Congress leader MA Atta for putting up a banner in Kavaratti, the capital island of Lakshadweep, criticising the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act passed by Modi’s government in 2019.

The law fast-tracks nationality for non-Muslim minorities from neighboring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but excludes Muslims, a step often compared with former US President Donald Trump’s controversial Muslim ban.

 

[Itachi]

this sums it up really:

Detention without trial despite low crime rate
Patel has also introduced a Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation, 2021, which empowers the administration to hold anyone in detention without trial for up to one year. The detention could be extended if the administration wishes so.

The bill has angered the locals in Lakshadweep, which has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. Residents say there is no need for such a “draconian” legislation.

So why has such a harsh law been introduced? “To jail the people who criticise the administrator and his plans,” says activist Hussain Shah.

One of Patel’s earliest actions included booking criminal cases against three people, including local Congress leader MA Atta for putting up a banner in Kavaratti, the capital island of Lakshadweep, criticising the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act passed by Modi’s government in 2019.

The law fast-tracks nationality for non-Muslim minorities from neighboring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but excludes Muslims, a step often compared with former US President Donald Trump’s controversial Muslim ban.

It's a bill, not an act.

In the existing framework, point towards the fascist elements.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Well there are 97% muslim enclaves in a country ruled by hindutvas, so I don't see what the problem is?

The 97% population of these islands have no problem with hindutvas eating daal or lettuce, they would not interfere in their dietary preference, they would just like to eat what they prefer in secular india.

 

[cricketjoshila]

The 97% population of these islands have no problem with hindutvas eating daal or lettuce, they would not interfere in their dietary preference, they would just like to eat what they prefer in secular india.

Why ban alcohol then?

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Why ban alcohol then?

Who carries the overriding authority in these 97% Muslim regions? First let us determine that, only then will talk of bans be relevant.

 

[street cricketer]

Why ban alcohol then?

The same reason why beef is banned in India. In an ideal secular state, neither beef nor alcohol should be banned by the state as the state should have no business dealing with religion.

But India follows a sham secularism model which operates on essentially the motto - you don't disrespect my beliefs and I won't disrespect yours. So muslims have to refrain from eating beef in many regions in India for fear of disrespecting the hindu sentiments. So I don't see a problem in us hindus abstaining from alcohol in Lakshwadeep so as not to disrespect the muslim sentiments of the island population. Fair play no?

 

[Hornbill]

Residents of India’s Lakshadweep islands resent gov’t’s new moves

Anger and fear in the Arabian Sea islands with 97 percent Muslims, whose administrator plans slew of measures that threaten livelihood and ecology.

A series of regulations proposed by an administrator belonging to India’s governing party in a set of islands in the Arabian Sea has caused widespread resentment and fear among its residents.

Lakshadweep is an idyllic archipelago of 36 islands – 10 of them inhabited – spread over a 32-square-kilometre area in the sea, about 200 km off the southwestern coast of the Indian Peninsula.

Residents in the smallest among India’s eight “Union Territories” (UTs), with a population of 65,000 people – 97 percent of them Muslims – are fearful of a series of moves by its right-wing administrator appointed by the federal government.

Praful Khoda Patel, who belongs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is the first non-bureaucrat administrator of the Lakshadweep Islands. Patel once served as the home minister of Gujarat state when Modi was its chief minister.

Since he took over the Lakshadweep administration in December last year, Patel has pushed through a slew of new laws and regulations without consulting locally elected representatives in India’s only Muslim-majority territory apart from Indian-administered Kashmir.

Residents say the proposals threaten their livelihoods, land ownership, culture and even the fragile ecology of the tropical islands.

The controversial proposals range from a ban on beef, disqualification of people with more than two children who wish to contest the village council elections, to taking over land belonging to the locals for the purpose of development without safeguarding the interests of the landowners.

While the proposals are currently being considered by the federal home ministry, several opposition parties, including the Congress, are demanding they should be dropped and the 63-year-old administrator recalled.

Threats to land rights and jobs
The most controversial legislation introduced by Patel is the Draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation 2021, which would allow the administration to acquire the land of residents to build highways, railway lines and other infrastructure projects.

There are plans to build roads “as wide as 15 metres”, but locals say Lakshadweep does not need highways, and that such projects will damage the islands’ fragile ecology.

“There is no scope or need for bigger roads,” Abdul Kader, president of Kavaratti village council, told Al Jazeera.

The size of Lakshadweep’s largest island, Androth, is just 4.9 square kilometres.

Dr Muneer Manikfan, a diabetologist who is also the vice chairman of Minicoy local council, an island close to the Maldives, said the draft proposal’s idea of an “area with bad layout or obsolete development” is arbitrary.

“The administration can publish a development plan for an area irrespective of whether the area is populated or not. People can be relocated to anywhere the administration likes,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The local community will forever have to live in fear of their property being taken over by the administration anytime.”

Even if permission is granted for development, the draft in some cases says the maximum period allowed will be three years. That means an islander can make her house standing for only three years. Then the fate of her building is at the mercy of the authority.

“If we need to construct an additional bedroom, say, for our children’s marriage, we can’t. For a 1000-square-feet house, the additional structure shouldn’t be more than 100 square feet,” says activist Cheriya Koya.
“When they send a notice to pull down the whole building by a set date, we have to do it at our expense or else we will have to pay 200,000 Indian rupees ($2,750) as penalty and 20,000 ($275) rupees for each day if we delay.”

Section 72 of the draft Planning and Development Authority proposal allows the administration to evict a person from a property that “he is not entitled to occupy”. Manikfan says the section infringes on one’s right to property.

Worse, the draft law denies protection granted to the Scheduled Tribes – the islands’ indigenous people – by the constitution and violates the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

Muslims in Lakshadweep, classified as a Scheduled Tribe, are one of the rarest Muslim groups in India to be granted reserved quota in government jobs and seats at educational institutions run by the state.

Residents say the Lakshadweep administration also aims to usurp the local executive powers of the elected village and district councils.

The elected council representatives will not be able to make decisions on many issues that directly affect people such as healthcare, agriculture, education, and animal husbandry and fisheries, as these subjects would come under the direct control of the administration if the proposal is accepted.

A government employee who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity said about 500 casual and contractual workers employed in various government offices lost their job after the new administration took over.
Lakshadweep’s government-run tourism body, Society for Promotion of Nature Tourism and Sports (SPORTS), alone terminated nearly 200 contractual staff in February.

“They want to fill those vacancies with labourers brought in by the contractors from outside,” the employee said.

Residents also say a number of dairy farms have been closed and their cattle auctioned off, citing non-feasibility. They allege that Patel’s plan is to bring in a dairy giant based in Gujarat to set up its retail outlets across the islands.

Beef ban and alcohol permit
Patel has also proposed a ban on the sale of beef and the slaughter of cows, calves, bulls and steers, in line with Hindu beliefs.

According to Lakshadweep Animal Preservation Regulation, 2021, no person can directly or indirectly sell, transport, offer for sale, or buy beef or beef products in any form anywhere in the Muslim-majority islands, with violators facing up to 10 years in jail.

A section of upper-caste Hindus considers the cow a sacred animal, whose slaughter is banned in many states across India. Cow slaughter is one of the right-wing BJP’s main populist planks.
According to another proposal, non-vegetarian food options on the menus of “anganwadi” (neighbourhood) state-run preschool childcare centres could also be removed, while the administration has banned beef from the midday meals provided to schoolchildren.

Recently, the administration shut down dozens of “anganwadi” pre-schools.

Patel is also planning to permit the opening of liquor bars and shops, claiming the move will boost tourism on the islands, which are currently a non-alcoholic zone due to their Muslim population.

Resorts on Lakshadweep’s inhabited islands cannot supply liquor, which is allowed only at resorts on the uninhabited island of Bangaram.

Manikfan says liquor is not “socially acceptable and culturally desirable” for Lakshadweep.

Detention without trial despite low crime rate
Patel has also introduced a Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation, 2021, which empowers the administration to hold anyone in detention without trial for up to one year. The detention could be extended if the administration wishes so.

The bill has angered the locals in Lakshadweep, which has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. Residents say there is no need for such a “draconian” legislation.

So why has such a harsh law been introduced? “To jail the people who criticise the administrator and his plans,” says activist Hussain Shah.

One of Patel’s earliest actions included booking criminal cases against three people, including local Congress leader MA Atta for putting up a banner in Kavaratti, the capital island of Lakshadweep, criticising the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act passed by Modi’s government in 2019.

The law fast-tracks nationality for non-Muslim minorities from neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but excludes Muslims, a step often compared with former US President Donald Trump’s controversial Muslim ban.

From COVID-free to 7,500 cases
Lakshadweep had remained coronavirus-free throughout 2020 because of the strict protocol necessitated by its poor health infrastructure with just three hospitals for the 10 inhabited islands.

People bound for the islands had to be quarantined for seven days in the Indian mainland – in Kochi, Kozhikode or Mangalore cities – under the administration’s supervision before boarding a ship or flying.

Even after reaching Lakshadweep, they were asked to remain in quarantine for another seven days.

But Patel is accused of exacerbating the COVID-19 crisis in Lakshadweep after he changed the protocol in January by allowing anyone entry into the islands with a negative RT-PCR report obtained 48 hours before their travel.

A week after the rules were changed, the territory reported its first coronavirus case on January 17. Until Friday, the island had recorded close to 7,500 total cases, with nearly 30 deaths.

‘Patel has a few companies in mind’
Meanwhile, a clamour to scrap the legislation proposed by Patel and remove him from his position grows louder across India.

Elamaram Kareem, a member of parliament from the Community Party of India (Marxist), blamed Patel for the spread of the coronavirus on the islands in his letter to President Ramnath Kovind and demanded the “anti-people” proposals be rejected.

In his letter, Kareem said the standard operating procedure (SOP) in force in the Union Territory to curtail the spread of COVID-19 was unilaterally changed by Patel.

“This unplanned and unscientific altering of the SOP has led to the current surge in COVID cases in Lakshadweep, where there was not even a single case reported in the year 2020,” he wrote.

“New regulations, including a ban on the slaughter, transport, selling and buying of beef, are an onslaught on the people. Hundreds of casual and contract laborers working under different departments have lost their jobs.”

Kareem said Patel’s aim is to hand over the territory of Lakshadweep to people close to the administration.

“These measures were proposed so the land and resources of the islands could be handed over to the corporate sector,” he told Anadolu news agency.

“Many big corporations have been eyeing the land here and want to set up their businesses here. The administrator wants to hand over the valuable lands to them. He is furthering the business interests of people on the mainland.”

AP Abdullakutty, BJP’s national vice president who is also in charge of Lakshadweep, denied the allegations.

“People are protesting mainly against the new rules of the administrator. But no new rules have been implemented. Only a proposal on building rules regulations was made, which will be discussed with locals before submitting it to the government,” he said.

But Lakshadweep’s member of parliament, PP Mohammed Faisal, said Patel “has a few companies in mind and he is trying to provide land to them”.

“That’s why he is taking such measures,” he said. “The drafts under the consideration of the Home Ministry should be scrapped, as people are against them. Twelve draft notifications are in the queue. People aren’t in a position to respond to them. They’re not in a position to move out.”

Neighbouring Kerala state’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and KC Venugopal, a Congress member of parliament, have also opposed Patel’s decisions. Vijayan said Patel’s actions pose a “grave threat to the life and culture of the people of Lakshadweep”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2021/5/28/residents-of-indias-lakshadweep-resent-bjp-administrators-moves?__twitter_impression=true

Puppet modi will do anything to please his paymasters, bhakths won't get a single penny but satisfaction of bringing muslims across the country under the control of hindutva is enough for them.

 

[gani999]

The same reason why beef is banned in India. In an ideal secular state, neither beef nor alcohol should be banned by the state as the state should have no business dealing with religion.

But India follows a sham secularism model which operates on essentially the motto - you don't disrespect my beliefs and I won't disrespect yours. So muslims have to refrain from eating beef in many regions in India for fear of disrespecting the hindu sentiments. So I don't see a problem in us hindus abstaining from alcohol in Lakshwadeep so as not to disrespect the muslim sentiments of the island population. Fair play no?

In parts of muslim-dominated Kerala they don't allow restaurants to serve food, even to non-muslims, during ramadan. Enough fair play for you?

 

[street cricketer]

In parts of muslim-dominated Kerala they don't allow restaurants to serve food, even to non-muslims, during ramadan. Enough fair play for you?

Fair play if they're the owners of the restaurant. I mean, it's their wish when to open and when to close.

 

[OMB]

'Was meant to suppress freedom movement': SC asks Centre why it's not getting rid of sedition law

The effect of Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code is that instead of one tree, the entire forest gets cut, the CJI commented, questioning the Centre whether there is any necessity of the provision after 73 years of Independence.

Terming sedition law "colonial', the Supreme Court on Thursday expressed concern over the misuse of the law and asked the Centre why it has not got rid of the law, which was originally meant to "suppress freedom movement" at a time when several old laws have been repealed.

A bench headed by Chief justice N V Ramana said the main concern was about the "misuse of law". The bench was hearing a plea by former army officer Major-General S G Vombatkere (Retd) who challenged the Constitutional validity of section 124 A (sedition) of the IPC on grounds that it causes a "chilling effect" on speech. The sedition law also curbs freedom of speech, the plea said.

The sedition law was meant to suppress the freedom movement and was used by the Britishers to silence Mahatma Gandhi and others, the court noted to which attorney general KK Venugopal said some guidelines may be laid down to curb misuse of sedition law.

"If we go see history of charging of this section, the enormous power of this section can be compared to a carpenter being a saw to make an item, who uses it to cut the entire forest instead of a tree. That's the effect of this provision," the CJI said. He also clarified that he is not blaming any government for the misuse of the provision.

According to Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code, whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government estab*lished by law in [India] shall be punished with [im*prisonment for life], to which fine may be added, or with impris*onment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.

The offence is not bailable. In 1962, the Supreme Court had upheld the law in Kedar Nath Yadav versus the State of Bihar.

The Supreme Court is hearing a clutch of applications challenging the constitutional validity of this IPC section. But what makes this plea by the Army veteran different from others is that it prays to quash all complaints under this law. The petition said when the law was upheld in 1962, the definition of fundamental rights was different. Now it needs a relook, the petitioner said.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/was-meant-to-suppress-freedom-movement-sc-asks-centre-why-it-s-not-getting-rid-of-sedition-law-101626331466118.html