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Fighting terrorism Austerity measures in HP |
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‘Hinduising’ a secular society
The triumph of truth
Rise of the aspirational class
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Fighting terrorism The
reverberations of the Burdwan blast continue. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's initial inaction has cost her dear, even as she made the right noises subsequently, especially when National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met her. Merely admitting that the police in the state were lax when the incident happened on October 2 is not enough. The blame for the escape of Sheikh Kausar, the alleged mastermind, can be squarely laid at the doorstep of the state forces. The National Investigation Agency's report links those killed with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB), Bangladesh, and says that they had been making bombs at the location of the blast since 2011. As the investigation proceeds, more and more links begin to emerge between the terrorists and the political establishment. Potential embarrassment of foreign terrorists' activity aside, the fact is that West Bengal has long been associated with illegal activities, including bomb-making. Political activists of various hues had access to an arsenal of weapons, be it under the present government or the Left Front one that preceded it. The NIA has recovered other bombs from various places in Bengal and many of those arrested have links with JMB. There was obviously some movement of such bombs from West Bengal to Bangladesh and given the international ramifications of the problem, it is necessary for the state government and the Central agencies to work in concert. The Central agencies will need the support and intelligence inputs of the state body in their investigations. Politics needs to be set aside in this fight against terrorism. But it remains to be seen if the various players in West Bengal can rise to the challenge. Mamata Banerjee's government and the state police force will be expected to show their cooperation by taking concrete and effective measures in thwarting terrorism in the state.
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Austerity measures in HP This
time it is the government of Himachal Pradesh suggesting a ban on all foreign jaunts by politicians and bureaucrats, considering the grim financial health of the state. The suggestion has come from the Cabinet sub-committee on Resource
Mobilisation. Nothing new about such decisions; several other states have resolved to do the same. In June this year the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand insisted that foreign visits of Cabinet ministers or officials would be allowed only in case of necessity. But 'necessity' is a flexible term in the parlance of our governance; it can be twisted,
moulded, accommodated or abused, as the need be. The banal tradition of milking the state has been a norm among our netas and babus alike, answerability is an aberration, seldom observed by the ruling class. It's easy to announce resolves; the real challenge lies in moving beyond tokenism that people have grown accustomed to. Remember, the much-publicised travel of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi by a local train in Mumbai and later taking a ride in Delhi Metro. Or, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's reminder of code of ethics to all ministers and chief ministers, followed by her economy class travel to Mumbai. Growing cynicism about lack of accountability of the ruling class is strengthened by reports of stupendous amounts being spent by the cash-strapped ministries and PSUs, with no benefit to the state. The NRI investment pie eluded the Punjab government despite a record number of foreign trips by its ministers and bureaucrats. Another expertise developed by our politicians is to turn private trips into official ones, at times showing a medical tour, with a little support from the bureaucracy. All this abuse of public money by politicians and bureaucrats should end. Before clearing any proposal for foreign travel, the ministry concerned should demand a detailed report on what benefit the study tours etc. will bring to the community. They should also be asked to produce detailed reports on the outcome of learning from their previous trips abroad.
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Thought for the Day
I have tried to know absolutely nothing about a great many things, and I have succeeded fairly well. —
Robert Benchley
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The Kanya Mahavidyala, Jullundur IT is deeply gratifying to learn that His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor paid his second visit to that excellent and popular institution, the Kanya Mahavidyala of Jullunder on Wednesday morning. Accompanied by officials, he was received at the entrance by Lala Devraj, the founder, Diwan Badri Dass, M.A., President and staff. The girls entertained him with songs and Vedic hymns. He went round the Boarding House, the Widow's Home, and the Orphanage, and was pleased to see the improvements made since his last year's visit. Sir M. O'Dwyer spoke encouraging words to Punditta Savitri Devi, Honorary Principal. He gave rupees one hundred to the girls for sweetmeats.
British policy in respect of sugar trade THE announcement about the prevention of the indirect importation into England of German or Austrian sugar is of considerable interest to Indians. The Government have temporarily prohibited all importation of sugar with the object of preventing the efforts of Germany and Austria to convert their stocks into money. We cannot say whether the Government would have favoured this prohibition if Germany had not, by her thoughtless embargo on sugar export, at first foolishly endeavoured to kill British manufacturers which depend on cheap foreign sugar. But British statesmen have with foresight contrived a method of strangling an important German and Austrian industry by the enemy's own device. Knowing British manufacturers depend upon Germany and Austria for their raw material, Germany on the outbreak of the war, stopped the export of its sugar to neutral countries to prevent indirect supply of raw material to England.
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‘Hinduising’ a secular society By declaring that the Ram mandir would be built by 2019, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has rubbed salt into the wounds of Muslims. They have come to reconcile to the loss rather helplessly because they do not see any light at the end of the tunnel. With a small temple, which came up overnight on the site where Babri Masjid stood once, the chapter had been closed for the time being at least. But that does not seem to satisfy the Muslims, nor is it in their interest, as they perceive. The BJP, guided by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is trying to create the same atmosphere. The equivocal stand by the government on secularism has only helped the Hindutva elements. Prime Minister Narendra Modi could have done something positive to clear the vitiated atmosphere. But his party does not appear to do so because it’s paying dividends in keeping the society polarised. No outsider could interfere because the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh, did little to follow the Supreme Court's judgment which said that the status quo should be maintained. By ‘Hinduising’ a secular society, the integrity of the country has been put in danger. Religion can never integrate a nation as the example of Bangladesh cutting itself asunder from Pakistan shows. The imposition of Urdu forced the same Islamic East Pakistan to become independent, Sovereign Republic of Bangladesh. India has stayed as one country because the various cultural entities have not been disturbed. True, the Hindus are 80 per cent of the population. But the minority, the Muslims, have not been threatened except by a lunatic fringe. No doubt, the people would have secured more benefits in a leftist outfit. But the 25 years of Communist rule in West Bengal has given a fatal blow to the ideology because the government failed to give even basic education to its people. The educated Muslims were only 2.5 per cent even after the rule of the Communist regime of two and a half decades. If the RSS is really interested in Hindutva, it should be agitating for the rights of Dalits, who despite the discrimination it has forced, have remained in the fold of Hinduism. True, some have sought freedom through conversions to other religions. But they have only adversely affected the Muslim and Christian societies. The converts from among the Dalits face more or less the same discrimination in the religious society they joined. The RSS chief, claiming to be cushioning the Hindus, did not react to the burning of a Dalit because his goat strayed into the land of an upper caste member. Now that Modi has caught the imagination of the country, he should take up the cause of the Dalits and ask the upper castes to shed discrimination against them. I have not seen even a mild criticism from Modi or his ardent followers, who claim that they would build a future India which will know of no discrepancy. At least the burning of Dalits, if not the daily prejudice, should have been covered by the widely watched Doordarshan network. But it seems that the government itself doesn’t want to raise the pitch on this issue because it is dominated by the upper castes. Even otherwise, there seems to be an unwritten law which dictates that such stories should not be used. Surely, this does not constitute the freedom of the Press. The institutions in the country are languishing. Had the media, an important institution, been free, the RSS would not have dared to challenge the basic structure of the Constitution, which includes secularism. The RSS chief should realise that the core of Hinduism is a sense of accommodation and spirit of tolerance, not the division of society. The spread of the BJP is a point of concern because it still ignores the aspirations of Muslims. Modi's slogan of development has gone down well because it gives the hope of reducing, if not ousting, poverty. He has done well not to deviate from that path. Unfortunately, his regular contact with the RSS and that of his Man Friday Amit Shah, effaces even the wishful thinking that Modi would build a society without any prejudice or bias. Things would have been different if the demand by some liberal BJP men to severe all connections with the RSS had been implemented. Once this possibility was on the anvil when Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan was able to convince all top Jan Sangh leaders to dissolve the outfit and join the Janata Party. However, the old Jan Sangh members stayed constantly in touch with the RSS and this negated the very purpose. The liberal Atal Behari Vajpayee tried his best for terminating the relationship between the RSS and the Jan Sangh. He, however, succeeded only on paper because he could not dilute the loyalty of the old members. L.K. Advani was the one who founded the BJP because he thought that the old Jan Sangh members were not trusted any longer in the Janata Party. He was successful in building the party because JP had given credibility to the Jan Sangh members when he brought them into the Janata fold. By raising the Mandir issue, the RSS chief has only harmed the reputation of the BJP or, for that matter, Modi who is trying to give the impression that his party's agenda is development and not division. To the BJP's fortune, he is selling for the present and the party's real intent has receded into the background. And it is unfortunate that the secular parties are in disarray and do not give any hope of revival in the near future.
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The triumph of truth The next day I got a telephonic call from the Minister of State for PWD, who asked me strongly to reverse my decision. I informed him that reinstatement was not in my power and only the Chief Engineer was competent to do so. I tried to explain the background and reasons for taking the drastic action, but he felt annoyed and told me that "how will you feel if I suspend you?" The conversation definitely upset me. I immediately rushed to Chandigarh to apprise the Chief Engineer of the circumstance leading to the said action. The Chief Engineer appreciated the step to enforce the required quality in construction and discipline in working. He also advised me to meet the Cabinet Minister of PWD, which I did. The Cabinet Minister also understood the situation and consoled me not to worry and continue discharging my duty honestly. After about a month or so, the Minister of State fixed a site meeting at Ludhiana on the representation of some shopkeepers and traders who were being affected by the construction of the Millerganj railway over-bridge. In view of the suspension of the Junior Engineer it was natural for me to expect some "onslaught". I along with the Executive Engineer in charge of construction of the over-bridge prepared myself thoroughly on the subject to avoid any slip. The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and I explained the various technical requirements of road grades and the railway stipulation regarding the over-bridge. Over a cup of tea arranged by the traders, the minister took me aside and conveyed to me in a very conciliatory mood (to my surprise) that he was initially very much annoyed and dictated a note indicating his displeasure (not yet signed). I thanked him for giving me an opportunity to explain the full circumstances, which he listened patiently and it appeared that he was satisfied. I was happy and at home I told my wife that the "storm seems to be over" With the change of government, one day I received a letter (copy of the confidential letter written by the same Minister of State to the Secretary, P.W.D, appreciating my services and asking him to place the letter in my Annual Confidential Report file). I thought that ministers while relinquishing the job might be doing so to many officers of their departments. I rang up his private secretary and he informed me that the minister had written only one letter in my case. A couple of months later, I along with my family was travelling from Chandigarh to Ludhiana in my private car and suddenly one car overtook me and stopped in front of my car. I was surprised and happy to see the ex-Minister of State greeting me. He also made a request to visit his home nearby for a cup of tea. I could not oblige him due to the paucity of time but I was undoubtedly "overwhelmed".
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Rise of the aspirational class
Moments of victory are not often moments of great insight. When Narendra Modi swept Maharashtra and Haryana, his achievements were seen as historical, but such history is never analysed in depth, in a way that history and sociology meet. The media often gets caught in the magic of personalities, in the charisma of leadership or in the organisational genius of a few backroom boys. One hears of the decline of the Congress, the rise of Amit Shah, the tacit transformation of our electoral system into a presidential system. Modi is presented as the mover and the movement. Sociological forces Such an analysis lacks a political and a sociological backstage. I am not referring only to a conspiracy model of the RSS which some Left-liberals provide. I am talking of the wider sociological forces at play one has to ask. What are the deeper forces that throw up a character, a persona like Narendra Modi? He is a sociological phenomenon and needs to be seen as such. He is a part of a new aspirational class which arose after the slow death of socialism and the accelerated liberalisation of India. An aspirational class as it defines itself is a wish list. An aspirational class seeks mobility and dignity. Equality will come later. The only entitlement it seeks is the information, a lessening of bureaucracy around bank accounts, certificates, so it can enter the playing field on an even note.
Opportunities, not patronage In fact, an aspirational class is not the orthodox middle class which carries vestiges of socialism, as dole, or subsidy. It wants opportunities not patronage. Secondly, it wants mobility as speeded up access, a quicker entry into entitlements rather than rely on the patience of the ration-cards society. The aspirational class includes the small towns and the regions around it. It is a mentality rather than a status, a wish list, a strategy, a dream. It is more than a marketing target. It is a blend of citizenship and consumerism seeking completion. The aspiring class seeks inclusion, wagers on it but it is still processual. It has not arrived.
Realisation of a dream Narendra Modi’s story illustrates it. He is a chaiwala, self-made, treated with contempt by elites and yet confident of being included in them. Modi is a realisation of a dream, a statement of completed possibility and this is what aspiration seeks. An aspiring class, not the middle class, seeks the American dream of self-made men in India. An aspiring class realises caste and kinship can go this far, but one needs a second stage of self-propelled dreams to go further. Dream, inclusion and mobility create the aspirational class.
Markers of aspiration
It was this aspirational class which saw in Congress the old entitlement model. It was angry to see a family hypothecate a nation to itself. If one read the language of Priyanka or Rahul, one felt they were demanding payments from the nation for services rendered by family. The aspirational class wanted a level playing ground for achievers. Often the aspirational class is reduced to a small-town phenomena. It is much wider in its implications. A small town is a geographical ambit, an imagination. An aspirational class goes beyond a small-town mentality. It is true that Bollywood, from Amitabh to Javed Akhtar, has made a lot of small- town dreams. So have our marketing savants who see in the small town the vector for the dreams they are launching. An aspirational class includes the rural, the informal economy. It affects anyone who sees the future possibilities of the social system and its openness.
Rules of the game changed It is a class which recognises that the old rules of the game have changed, that India is no longer under the rule of Delhi or the domination of small clubs. In fact, it is interesting to see elite responses to such aspirational change. When a small committee is altered by Modi, the elite behaves as if it has been hit by an earthquake. Modi understands its fear and trembling because he is signalling that a lot of what was closed by the socialism or elitism of the Congress is up for grabs. As a result what Modi signals to aspirational groups is a need for organisational strategies beyond caste and kinship. He talks of reskilling, of a digital revolution as a part of this process.
The mobile & mall revolutions Aspiration was best seen in two processes. First, the mobile phone. The mobile phone is more important than the TV which is not easily accessible at the right time. I have seen domestic servants download films, stream it in so they can watch it at their own convenience. The mobile phone allows for possibilities that only an underclass can understand. Domestic servants use blank calls to set up their own code of messages. Nomadic workers searching for work often track it on the mobile phone. In fact, more than the old ration card, the mobile phone and the bank account are two entitlements of aspirational citizenship. The bank number allows you to access the rights of the system like a loan, while the phone number lets you play with the information you can access within the system.
End of scarcity Another major model is the mall. The mall, the modern jadughar gets its footfalls from the aspirational class. They sense new possibilities, new styles, the mimicry of brands, and the fact that desire can be both democratic and niched. The aspirational class is busy constructing itself as a discourse. It is malleable self which can be remade, put together. Brand displaces genealogy in the making of the self. Modi showed a whole country that a nukkad bully can be semiotically remade into a prime minister, a sedate statesman. To the aspirational class, the end of socialism came through the end of scarcity and the impatience with delay. All they wanted from democracy was speeded-up time. They will not wait for the entitlements of citizenships. Modi has offered the BJP as a mechanism of speed contrasting it with the Congress which had slowed opportunities down. Speed, movement mobility, efficiency become new critics which challenge the old systems as ascription.
Quest for a level playing field The search here is not for equality of opportunity but for an open playing field. The aspirational class realises that some are more equal than others but they know this need not be Orwellian. What they want is more opportunity, more mobility and what the city promises them is just that. New cities, some new technologies, the openness of market create a real world of opportunities. It is a world of tactics not of ideologies. This is what the younger India wants, a society unburdened by family and caste but open to individualism, role playing, peer-group interaction. Modi seeks to present this in a simplified form. Aspiration needs exemplars and every TV show or newspaper supplement has that. One must emphasise that mobility and desire need to be fragmented into a million micro worlds, where careers, entrepreneurship, governance, all work to create possibility of dream. They need a substrata of civic virtue in terms of cleanliness, punctuality, a simpler rule game and this Modi provides. A vote for Modi is a vote for this aspirational dream and it is this new aspirational democracy we need to understand.The aspirational class is thus an imagination, a wish, a dream of inclusion, an act of hope in the openness of the system. It has drifted away from socialism, a faith in the state as a wellbeing to an idea that individual mobility, achievement can change life chances. As a class, it hates failure and celebrates success. It has tremendous expectations from the Modi regime and in this lies both the hope and the danger. Hope can turn into bitterness. And celebration as a bouquet of wishes turn into a grenade of repressions. The regime has to think creatively about this class as it dreams new possibilities for democracy and market. This class has built Modi but in the future it can destroy
him.
— The writer calls himself a Social Sciences Nomad
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Moments
AFTER the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, the Muslims felt for the first time since Independence that they were a minority in the real sense. Partition, on the basis of religion, did not cast a shadow on their future. But the liberal era of Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian Constitution guaranteeing equality to all citizens saw the country through a period which otherwise could have been more violent and more divided, given the bloodshed that took place on both sides on the basis of religion. One million people were estimated to have been killed.
During
