SACW - 22 Dec 2016 | Pakistan: Labour leaders seek probe /India: Bhopal Disaster - 32 Years On; How to resist 'Adhaar' / UK: Sharia debate / US Tech workers refuse profiling database /

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at gmail.com
Wed Dec 21 11:37:03 EST 2016


South Asia Citizens Wire - 22 Dec 2016 - No. 2922 
[via South Asia Citizens Web - sacw.net since 1996]

Contents:
1. Pakistan: Labour movement leaders seek probe into activities of Sindh Employees Social Security Institution and the Sindh Works Welfare Board - selected news reports
2. US Software Designers And Tech Workers Take A Pledge To Refuse Creation Of Databases For Government To Target Individuals Based On Race, Religion, Or National Origin
3. India: What Can Citizens Do To Resist Violations Of The Supreme Court Orders On 'Aadhaar' Or UID | Anupam Saraph
4. India: 15 December 2016 Forest Rights Rally Held In New Delhi - Photos And Press Release
5. India: Bhopal Industrial Disaster - 32 Years On
6. India: West Bengal lags in efforts to wipe out witch-hunting
7. The Sharia debate in the UK: who will listen to our voices? | Pragna Patel
8. Recent On Communalism Watch:
  - India: Amid Huge Criticism Kerala Police Finally Drop Sedition Charges Against Writer
  - National Anthem in Cinema Houses
  - Savitri Devi who worshipped Hitler as an avatar of Vishnu are inspiring the US alt-right
  - India top court confirms only Sikh Air Force personnel can sport beards and NOT Muslims
  - India - Thugs in Karnataka - Mob of linguistic chauvinists assault man for speaking in English
  - India: Failure of secular parties in Kerala to condemn censorship of art has allowed communal outfits to gain traction
  - Publication Announcement: Splintered Justice - Living the Horror of Mass Communal Violence in Bhagalpur and Gujarat
  - India: Modi govt assault on NGO funding contiinues - Foreign funding licence cancelled for ANHAD
  - The Sharia debate in the UK: who will listen to our voices? (Pragna Patel)
  - India: The Three NGOs whose licence has been cancelled after first being renewed by Govt should sue the government and seek damages
  - 'Fashwave': synth music co-opted by the far right (Michael Hann in The Guardian)
  - Letter to India's Home Minister regarding Pakistan, RSS And Democratic Secular India (Shamsiul Islam)
  - India: CPM points at RSS growth under Mamata govt in West Bengal
  - India: RSS holding meetings with BJP to strategise for UP Assembly elections of 2017
  - Hurt sentiment News: Upset Hindus Actively at work in the US

::: URLs & FULL TEXT :::
9. Pakistani birds caught up in international intrigue | Pamela Constable
10. Bangladesh: Where do the boys go? | SN Rasul
11. Pakistan: A never-never land for naris | Veengas
12. India:: Weapon of Mass Digitisation: PM Modi's Gambit Has Nothing To Do With Black Money | Aseem Shrivastava
13. Punjab’s Dalits and politics of patronage | Pritam Singh
14. Indian lessons - Populism after Trump | Mukul Kesavan
15. India: Leading by Example | Mukul Dube
16. India: Hindi Song Parody on Demonetisation: जाने वो कैसे लोग हैं जिनको बैंक से कैश मिला
17. Dileep Padgaonkar: A sparkling journalist who lived his life without fuss | Anikendra Nath Sen
18. Here’s why science declined in India | Jayant V Narlikar
19. USA: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims | Tracey Lien and Melissa Etehad
20. It Can Happen Here! Why Donald Trump Affects Us All | Michèle Auga
21. This Is What Could Happen to Reproductive Rights Under the Trump Administration - It’s going to be ugly | Rebecca Grant
22. Here’s what dogs see when they watch television | Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas
23. In secular France, Catholic conservatism makes a comeback | James McAuley
24. The condition of labour and democracy under the state of emergency in Turkey | Mehmet Erman Erol
25. Bargaining Away Justice: India, Pakistan, and the International Politics of Impunity for the Bangladesh Genocide | Gary J. Bass
26. Infantilization of Women in Punjab’s Left: Nikita Azad
27. India - Modi's note ban: How BJP is struggling to defend its reckless boss | Bharat Bhushan 
28. Paul Flewers And John Mcilroy (Editors), 1956: John Saville, EP Thompson And The Reasoner 
29. Both a Fish and an Ichthyologist: On Viktor Shklovsky’s Diverse Achievement | Adrian Nathan West

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1. PAKISTAN: LABOUR MOVEMENT LEADERS SEEK PROBE INTO ACTIVITIES OF SINDH EMPLOYEES SOCIAL SECURITY INSTITUTION AND THE SINDH WORKS WELFARE BOARD - SELECTED NEWS REPORTS
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Leaders of trade unions and labour associations lamented on Tuesday that provincial labour adviser Saeed Ghani, on court orders, had been restrained by the government from exercising any executive authority in the affairs of the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution (SESSI)
http://sacw.net/article13057.html

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2. US SOFTWARE DESIGNERS AND TECH WORKERS TAKE A PLEDGE TO REFUSE CREATION OF DATABASES FOR GOVERNMENT TO TARGET INDIVIDUALS BASED ON RACE, RELIGION, OR NATIONAL ORIGIN
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A shinning example of socially concerned new working class. Hundreds of Tech workers in the US pledge not to help create databases for retention of data based on race, religion, nationality etc to target them for possible deportations.
http://sacw.net/article13058.html

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3. INDIA: WHAT CAN CITIZENS DO TO RESIST VIOLATIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT ORDERS ON AADHAAR OR UID | Anupam Saraph
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The Supreme Court of India has time and again restricted use of unique identification (UID) number or Aadhaar to public distribution system (PDS) Scheme, the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), National Social Assistance Programme (Old Age Pensions, Widow Pensions, Disability Pensions), Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasised that the UID number where permitted “is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by the Court one way or the other“
http://www.sacw.net/article13064.html

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4. INDIA: 15 DECEMBER 2016 FOREST RIGHTS RALLY HELD IN NEW DELHI - PHOTOS AND PRESS RELEASE
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Forest rights activists, people’s movements and farmer’s unions from Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Assam and Andhra Pradesh converged at Jantar Mantar to mark 10 years of the enactment of the Scheduled Tribe and other Forest Dwellers, Recognition of Forest Rights Act, 2006. A press release from Bhumi Adhikar Andolan Photos of the event (by Mukul Dube) are posted here
http://sacw.net/article13061.html

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5. INDIA: BHOPAL INDUSTRIAL DISASTER - 32 YEARS ON
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Photos and documentation from Bhopal medical appeal and link to a recent (dec 2016) article in the media
http://sacw.net/article13060.html

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6. INDIA: WEST BENGAL LAGS IN EFFORTS TO WIPE OUT WITCH-HUNTING | Kavitha Shanmugham
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September 12, 2015, was a black night for Moyna Murmu, a woman in her mid-forties. The residents of Salboni village, West Midnapore, dragged her to the ojha (witch doctor), holding her responsible for her sister-in-law’s cancer. They believed she had used jaadu-tona to make her sister-in-law sick. To remove the evil spirit inside her, Moyna was severely beaten, her clothes torn off and she was nearly raped by the witch doctor. Moyna managed to escape and went to the police who failed to take any action. On a lawyer’s advice, she and her husband gathered their tattered pride to file a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court (CHC) against police inaction in the area and the need for a law to prevent horrific crimes such as witch-hunting.
http://sacw.net/article13041.html

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7. THE SHARIA DEBATE IN THE UK: WHO WILL LISTEN TO OUR VOICES? | Pragna Patel
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 Over 300 abused women have signed a statement opposing Sharia courts and religious bodies, warning of the growing threat to their rights and to their collective struggles for security and independence.
http://sacw.net/article13059.html

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8. RECENT ON COMMUNALISM WATCH:
======================================== 
  - India: Amid Huge Criticism Kerala Police Finally Drop Sedition Charges Against Writer
  - National Anthem in Cinema Houses
  - Savitri Devi who worshipped Hitler as an avatar of Vishnu are inspiring the US alt-right
  - India top court confirms only Sikh Air Force personnel can sport beards and NOT Muslims
  - India - Thugs in Karnataka - Mob of linguistic chauvinists assault man for speaking in English
  - India: Failure of secular parties in Kerala to condemn censorship of art has allowed communal outfits to gain traction
  - Publication Announcement: Splintered Justice - Living the Horror of Mass Communal Violence in Bhagalpur and Gujarat
  - India: Modi govt assault on NGO funding contiinues - Foreign funding licence cancelled for ANHAD
  - The Sharia debate in the UK: who will listen to our voices? (Pragna Patel)
  - India: The Three NGOs whose licence has been cancelled after first being renewed by Govt should sue the government and seek damages
  - 'Fashwave': synth music co-opted by the far right (Michael Hann in The Guardian)
  - Letter to India's Home Minister regarding Pakistan, RSS And Democratic Secular India (Shamsiul Islam)
  - India: CPM points at RSS growth under Mamata govt in West Bengal
  - India: RSS holding meetings with BJP to strategise for UP Assembly elections of 2017
  - Hurt sentiment News: Upset Hindus Actively at work in the US

 -> available via: http://communalism.blogspot.com/
 
::: URLs & FULL TEXT :::

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9. PAKISTANI BIRDS CAUGHT UP IN INTERNATIONAL INTRIGUE
by Pamela Constable
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(The Washington Post, December 11, 2016)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — If any further proof were needed that geopolitical intrigue can stalk the humblest of Pakistan’s inhabitants, consider the recent cases of two Pakistani birds.

The first is a pigeon, a species that people all over the country raise on their rooftops as a simple, inexpensive pleasure and a brief escape from their daily struggles with poverty, corruption and clogged streets below. 

Some weeks ago, tensions were running especially high between Pakistan and its perennial rival India. The source was Kashmir, the disputed border region where Muslim protesters were blinded by pellet guns and Indian soldiers were burned to death in a late-night attack by insurgents. 

Into the fog of belligerent rhetoric between the nuclear powers wandered a white pigeon, which was caught and caged by Indian security forces in a border district adjoining Kashmir. 

According to Indian news agencies, the bird was suspected of having “Pakistani links” and was carrying a warning message for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The arresting officer posed with his feathered prisoner, and the image soon circulated on social media. 

About the same time, Indian authorities in Kashmir said that they had also discovered 150 dehydrated pigeons stuffed into a car and that they suspected that the birds were smuggled for purposes of espionage. An official was quoted as saying that the pigeons had suspicious multicolored rings attached to their feet. All were turned over to an animal welfare agency while police investigated the case. 

Irfan Husain, a columnist for Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, suggested that the avian seizures were a sign that India remains “a deeply insecure country” despite its large size, rapidly growing economy and military might.

“I realize I am sticking my neck out,” he wrote, “but would the Indian authorities please set the poor captive pigeon free?”

No such outcry has been raised about the potential plight of another bird in Pakistan, the houbara bustard (chlamydotis undulata), a gray-speckled, pheasantlike creature mostly found in North Africa. In Pakistan, this rare variety of bustard is considered an endangered species, and hunting it is banned in some regions.

This past week, the bustard, too, ran afoul of international politics, this time at the hands of Pakistan’s friends. Parties of Middle Eastern royals often bring trained falcons to hunt smaller birds in Pakistan’s northern mountains and southern deserts. For years, among their favorite targets have been bustards.

Last year, wildlife groups petitioned Pakistani courts to ban bustard-hunting, and the Supreme Court granted their request. But the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appealed, arguing that the ban had “adversely affected the country’s diplomatic ties with the Middle Eastern countries” and noting that hunts by “foreign dignitaries also bring in considerable funds.” 

One of the Sharif government’s closest allies is Qatar, and last month, a Qatari prince came to the prime minister’s rescue in a corruption case before the Supreme Court, where political opponents have accused him of hiding assets abroad, including a group of luxury apartments in London.

Sharif, who has vowed to resign if found guilty, said he had broken no laws but was struggling to explain how his family acquired the apartments without a money trail or tax bill. Suddenly, the prince provided a letter stating that his family gave them to the Sharifs as part of an old business settlement.

This past week, a Qatari prince from the same family was issued a special permit to hunt 100 bustards in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. According to Dawn, the province’s wildlife conservator objected, saying the bird was a protected species. The matter has not been resolved, but the paper reported that another Qatari royal had recently “faced some resistance” while attempting to hunt bustards in Balochistan province.

“He immediately called the prime minister on the phone,” Dawn reported Sunday, “and things were sorted out.”

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10. BANGLADESH: WHERE DO THE BOYS GO?
SN Rasul
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(Dhaka Tribune, December 13, 2016)

Too many young men end up taking the path of militancy

The problem with security is that, given enough time, it will start to wane.

Whereas walking into Bashundhara City used to involve putting my bag on the counter, it being opened and thoroughly checked, my person given an equally thorough pat-down, cigarettes and lighters inadmissible, it is now a cursory spank on the butt and a grunt. I suspect it is the same in most places.

We are meant to follow patterns and act accordingly. So, when something breaks that pattern, such as the Holey Artisan attack, our danger signals tingle, our panic buttons are pressed, we unsheathe our swords in defence. But, when nothing happens for, say, six months, our minds automatically recognise a new pattern and we relax, we give in to the way our world starts to become as it used to be: We re-holster our guns.

And militants know this.

For the last two weeks, an increasing number of boys have been going missing throughout the country, much in the same way the attackers of Holey did. Some from here, some from there. A few NSU students, of course; one from cantonment; one who works for the National Curriculum and Textbook Board.

Police thinks militancy is again on the rise. Is this what the terrorists do, wait for the panic to die down, and then start recruiting again? And, after Kallyanpur, and after killing Tamim Chowdhury, the apparent emir of Bangladeshi IS, after statements which implied that terrorism had, in fact, been rooted out, why does this continue to happen?

Is it because the government’s insistence that these people are under the influence of the JMB doesn’t ring true? Is it because, that a show of success which prevents the public from panic, in the short-term, is much more important to the government than actual long-term solutions to the problem of terrorism?

To understand why so many young men decide to take the path towards militancy requires a socio-political understanding that the government seems to lack. It requires a true understanding of the culture that has been allowed to fester in Bangladesh.

If one thinks that the Holey Attack is not related to the killing of the Santals, or the burning of the Hindus, or the way Rohingyas are oftentimes treated, they’d be wrong. These are all connected by the thread of difference and sectarianism; if not in law, then in spirit.

    Not only does Bangladesh need a socio-political overhaul (if it so desires to attain liberal-democratic values), it requires an education system that allows for doubt, critical thinking

Bangladesh’s proud history of pseudo-secularism is as much as myth as the fictional universe of current secular values perpetrated by the governmental narrative and under-the-gun editorials by the media.

Like all of history of all the lands in all the world, the persecuted have become the persecutors. And the circle will continue.

The problem lies in the undeniable fact that most people in Bangladesh, the ones who will not end up reading this piece in this paper, have no false notions with regards to the religio-ethnic identity of their country: Bengali Muslims. They do not care, or they do not know, or they do not recognise the technicalities of the Bangladeshi constitution which allow for equality and freedom of religion.

This is further the case amongst boys in their late teens and late 20s; they are surrounded by a populace who do not validate the feelings of disenfranchised loneliness and sexual frustration that they so desire. The only time they get it is when they give in to fundamentalist narratives woven out of the theocratic ideals of a few religious leaders funded by Wahhabi agenda.

The validation is two-fold: Society recognises their attempt at “goodness.” The recruiters, be they IS or JMB, recognise their value to the cause, provide them with purpose, and offer up eternal happiness and 72 virgins (to quote the popular notion). If given a choice between pure satisfaction and continued frustration, which would you choose?

Would you have the knowledge required to understand the difference? And, even if you did, could you take the less violent route?

Most people in the country do, despite their common attachment to the religion. They recognise the Western imperialism, the frustratingly one-sided Western narrative, but an inherent moral code kicks in, thankfully.

But if most of the populace continues to attach itself to an interpretation that is potentially violent and disastrous, and when our government and police forces also buy into it to varying extents, why wouldn’t young boys be given the free space and time where they are heavily susceptible to the influences of militant recruiters?

Not only does Bangladesh need a socio-political overhaul (if it so desires to attain liberal-democratic values), it requires an education system that allows for doubt, critical thinking, and the questioning of the very basis on which not only faith was founded, but the very identity of the nation.

Otherwise, the minds that come out of the schools only mould to a shape that is ripe for the plucking, and their hands, ready to be armed with a trigger that could potentially blow our world to smithereens.

SN Rasul is a Sub-Editor at the Dhaka Tribune. Follow him @snrasul.


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11. PAKISTAN: A NEVER-NEVER LAND FOR NARIS
by Veengas
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http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/a-never-never-land-for-naris/

TFT Issue: 09 Dec 2016

Sindh criminalises forced conversions but will it be able to enforce the new law to protect Hindu girls?

The irony of reporting on a new law to protect Hindu girls, or naris as they say in Sindhi, from forced conversions is that it is virtually impossible to ask any of them how they feel about it. The accolades may be pouring in for MPA Nand Kumar Goklani who pursued the legislation, but the Rinkle Kumaris of Sindh are silent. Perhaps one can only take comfort that the State has taken an important first step to protect its minorities. The law applies not just to Hindus, but to Christians and any other minority, indeed any form of forced religious conversion.

It took the Sindh government roughly three years to make the law. The Pakistan Muslim League-N, PML-Functional, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Pakistan Peoples Party agreed to pass it. Indeed, the PPP had been working on a forced conversion bill for which it had formed a committee, including the late Justice (r) Rana Bhagwandas, Justice (r) Majida Rizvi and Special Assistant Dr Khatumal Jeewan, in 2013. Finally, though, the PML-F’s Nand Kumar tabled it on November 24, 2016 and it was passed. The Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Act 2015 now just awaits the governor’s signature.

A draft of the bill, which was acquired by The Friday Times and is not available online till it is officially an Act, starts off by saying that it recognises a person’s right to freely choose their religion and practice it and that forced conversions are “an abhorrent, violent offence”. It speaks of the freedom to choose who you wish to marry. It makes forced conversion a crime.

The law says that anyone who forcefully converts a person can be punished a minimum of five years and a maximum of life imprisonment. They have to pay the victim a fine. Offences under this law are cognizable, which means the police do not need a warrant to make an arrest. They are non-bailable and non-compoundable.

Significantly, the new law says that no one can be deemed to have changed their religion until they are 18 years of age (have reached the age of majority). It will not be accepted as having taken place if the person is a minor or under 18. “You need to be 18 to get an ID card, driving license and vote,” says Pakistan Hindu Council’s Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a PML-N MNA. “It only made sense that you be that age if you decide to change your religion.” His reasoning is backed by Justice (r) Majida Rizvi. “When you have an age limitation for marriage, to vote and other things, then why not an age limitation on conversion?” she asks. “A mature mental process develops after 18 years of age.”

Having a minimum age bar also helps protect young girls from forced marriages, which needed to be tackled. “The age limitation of 18 years helps us save our young girls,” says Asad Iqbal Butt of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Minor Hindu girls have been abducted and converted to Islam and married off or raped or treated as unpaid domestic labour. “We are astonished why underaged or young girls convert to Islam—why do they not convert 80 year old ladies or elderly men?” he asks.

    We are astonished why underaged or young girls convert to Islam-why do they not convert 80 year old ladies or elderly men, asks HRCP’s Asad Butt

Another salient feature of the new law is that it says that if a forced conversion is suspected, the court will give the person 21 days to make their final decision before pursuing a case. This has been mostly welcomed by Hindus but lawyer Kalpana Devi, who worked on a draft of the bill, feels it is still too short a time. She had recommended three months in government-funded safehouses under the supervision of a committee comprising members of civil society, the SHO or DC of the area. She argues that any parties to the conflict should be allowed to meet the person and later let them decide what religion they want to choose.

Prior to the law, it used to be that the victim’s family registered a police report or FIR, saying the girl has been abducted or raped. But then the abductor filed a counter FIR, on behalf of the girl, accusing the family of harassment. The girl would be brought to court and asked to testify—but herein lay the rub. If she was not separated from her ‘abductor’ it was impossible to rule out coercion or threats.

Thus, the new law is geared towards enforcing the principle of freedom to choose in all aspects of these cases. This is why shelters or child protection institutions play an important role in ensuring an independent decision is made and not one under duress. The law even says that if anyone discloses the location of a victim at a darul aman, they can be held in contempt of court and punished as it sees fit. It has empowered the victims by saying that they must give their consent in writing to be allowed to meet their parents, guardians, husband, intended bridegroom or in-laws if they are in a shelter.

Courts have to hear petitions by victims (or anyone they authorise to represent them) within a week. If anyone has been forced into marriage after a conversion, the court can fast-track their divorce with their consent and if the person they accuse is found guilty.

Forced conversions hit the headlines in 2012 with the cases of three Hindu girls—Rinkle Kumari, Asha Kumari and Lata Kumari. According to one side of the story, they were kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and married Muslims. The matter went to the Supreme Court and the girls were told to decide their future themselves. They chose to stay with their husbands. This raised two uncomfortable debates: how widespread was the phenomenon and how could one tell if the girl had converted of her own free will or had been coerced?

Reliable or centralised government or independent data is scant on forced conversions making it hard to understand the volume of cases. At one end of the spectrum it is said to be such a menace in Sindh’s countryside that families have left the country to protect their children. In 2012, Ravi Shankar, writing in The Indian Express, said that, according to Delhi’s Foreigners Regional Registration Office, until mid-2011, “around 10 families would migrate to India in a month. In 2012, the figure is 400”. In 2014, PML-N MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani told the National Assembly that around 5,000 Hindus are migrating from Pakistan to India every year.

In Sindh, where 97% of Pakistan’s Hindus live, some major shrines and madrassas are the centre of this activity. For example, Jamia Binoria Madrassa in S.I.T.E., Karachi is believed to have set up a department for new Muslims (conversions) after the Rinkle Kumari case because it was inundated by questions from the media. Jamia Binoria’s data says that from April 2010 to June 2016 it oversaw the conversions of the following people: 152 Christians, 147 Hindus, one atheist, two Buddhists, five Ahmadis, one Ismaili and one Kalaash person. The data on conversions of Christians, in particular, shows that many girls were from Punjab. The Movement for Solidarity and Peace puts the number at 1,000 Christian and Hindu women every year. From 2012 to 2015, 67 Hindu girl kidnapping cases were reported in Sindhi newspapers. “Many cases are not reported in the media,” says Dr Khatumal Jeewan. None of this data could be independently verified.

The media has been divided. One section, of mostly Muslim reporters, claim that the numbers are exaggerated. The other insists that the phenomenon is underreported. In 2012, The Express Tribune interviewed a Deen Mohammad Shaikh in Matli who claims he has converted 108,000 people to Islam since 1989, the year he left his birth religion of Hinduism behind. Madrassa Baitul Islam, a Deobandi seminary in Matli, maintains a log of conversions, the same newspaper reported. Its first entry is dated November 1, 2009 and by the end of 2011, it went up to the 428th Hindu converted to Islam.

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf MNA, Lal Chand Malhi, says his area, Umerkot, is plagued by these forced conversions. He feels vindicated by the new law and points out that it admits the conversions were long ignored. “Today it is accepted that yes, our society has a problem.” It has been a long time coming, for many Hindus. “We [non-Muslims] have been demanding legislation to protect us,” adds M. Parkash Mahtani, an activist on minority rights. Activist Jai Parkash Moorani says that they have been demanding this legislation since the time of former dictator Zia ul Haq, when religious extremism reared its head. In fact, it is only this year that Hindus even got a law that allowed them to register their marriages. With the success of the passage of the bill in Sindh, the clamour has grown for legislation in other provinces. “A bill against forced conversions must be passed by the federal government and then across the country,” says activist Anjum James Paul, from Punjab. “It would be great if the Punjab Assembly brings this bill because the Sindh Assembly does not have hardliners like it does.” Pakistan Hindu Council’s Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a PML-N MNA, is committed to pursuing this law in the National Assembly.

When the noise dies down, the real question will be implementation of the law. Lawyer Kalpana Devi understands that only a robust judiciary and police force can keep an eye on these cases and enforce the implementation of the law in letter and spirit. But the reality is that faith in the system is weak. “Muslim men cannot marry a second time unless their wife allows them,” she says by way of argument. “Tell me, how many women have registered FIRs against their husbands [for marrying a second time]? The reason is that our citizens have lost faith in the system and that they will get justice. The bill is a good step but we need to act on it.”

It is already receiving opposition from the religious right. And to understand their viewpoint, PML-N MNA Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani highlights the language surrounding the issue. “Clerics who perform conversions to Islam call us ‘infidels’,” he says. “Take for instance Bharchundi Sharif Dargah which has a conversion certificate written in Sindhi that says, ‘Muslim nari khe kafiroon khaan bacharon aahe’ which means ‘Protect this new Muslim girl from kafirs’.”

The concept of infidel or kafir runs deep in this equation. For example, once girls are forced to convert, they are not allowed to go back to see their parents. The clerics give the reason that as the parents, who are Hindus, are ‘kafirs’, the girl has left that religion and life and cannot mingle with them any more. The problem is that then the convert’s parents have no idea where their child is. These girls almost disappear. For instance, no one knows where Rinkle Kumari, Asha Kumari, Sunita Meghwar, Manishar Kumari, Nanjo Bheel and Poonam are since they converted.

They have even been restricted from meeting family while they were at shelters.

At that difficult time when the authorities have been involved and the girls were sent to shelters, they were still not allowed to meet their parents in many cases. Dr. Khatumal Jeewan, the Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Minority Affairs, gives the example of the Anjali Kumari case in 2014. She was sent to a shelter because she was a minor and the court did not accept her marriage. But they could not send back her to her parents as she had converted to Islam. “She was allowed to meet [Bharchundi Sharif dargah’s] Mian Mithoo’s men but she was not allowed to meet her parents,” he says. “Her father was refused and even our female minister was refused a meeting. Therefore, we are considering shelters by the Sindh Minority Ministry to provide a safe and free atmosphere to people who want to change their religion.” Hindu families are generally not keen on the shelter houses. Some said that their girl goes in with a simple dupatta over her head and emerges in a niqab or abaya, which for them is difficult to see and quite worrisome.

The name that keeps surfacing in these high-profile cases at least is that of the shrine at Daharki’s Bharchundi Sharif. Dawn reported in 2014 that its madressah has converted 150 men and women in the past three years. “The Bharchundi Sharif empire flourishes on the conversion of juvenile or teenage girls,” says Marvi Sirmed, who writes on human rights and followed the Rinkle Kumari case. “Those who have been visiting Bharchundi Sharif know that they are more focused on girls’ conversion than boys’. The concept behind it is almost similar to the ‘love jihad’ concept that has recently been chattered about in international media. They ‘target’ adolescent girls for this because the lack of exposure and dreams for a good future coupled with the preaching powers of clerics inspire many young girls.” Mian Mithoo and his religious group, who are associated with the Bharchundi Sharif dargah, took Rinkle Kumari and Naveed Shah in a car and drove around the small city Daharki chanting, “Islam ji fateh” or ‘victory for Islam’ which is the kind of thing that increases the fear among Hindus, says her uncle Raj Kumar. This just encourages extremists to kidnap young Hindu girls.

There are many reasons for these forced conversions. According to Sirmed, there have been cases in which the girls (especially from the downtrodden Hindu scheduled castes) were kidnapped and raped but when the perpetrator was caught, he started saying that he had converted her. “The girl is threatened with her family’s murder,” adds Sirmed. “In some cases, the girls were told their entire neighbourhood would be torched if they did not take it silently. She is then taken in as a new bride who is mostly used for domestic chores for free.”

In other cases, the girls just cave to incessant preaching. They are told that if they convert they will be making their lives better, their marriage prospects will improve and they will get better homes. “Most girls fall for it and discover only after the conversion that they have fallen into an abyss when they are not allowed to visit their parents on the pretext that a Muslim woman doesn’t meet with kafirs,” says Sirmed. This has been common in all forced conversion cases. “The girls ultimately have to go silent because they are told that if they go back to the life of kufr, the only consequence of that is death because that’s the punishment for those who show their back to Islam.”

Sirmed adds a third category of forced conversion which is showing up more in urban areas and in upper caste, richer Hindu families. In the course of pursuing their education or careers, they meet Muslim men and fall in love and convert to marry. “This kind of interfaith marriage is grossly unpopular not only among Muslims but among the Hindu Brahmins and other upper caste Hindus,” she says. But because they are a minority, they cannot take extreme steps or take the law into their own hands, as with karo kari cases. “The easiest way is to start making a noise about forced conversions. In most cases in this category, the girls do not complain of being harassed or threatened by Muslims. Rather, they feel unsafe with their parents. This is quite rare, but this category does exist.”

The religious right has reacted badly to the law even though Islam is against forced conversions. It seems to be lost on them that the law doesn’t ban conversions, but sets a minimum age bar, lawyer Naeem Asgher Tarar has pointed out in another newspaper. Maulana Samiul Haq, who is the head of Madrassa Haqqani, had interpreted the law as banning conversions, which it does not. Jama’at-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq wanted the law taken back, saying that it went against the Shariah and Constitution. The Jamiat Ulema-e-islam said the same thing. Jamia Binoria’s Mufti Muhammad Naeem opposes having a minimum age as he felt it was against Shariah law. “If there is any kind of forced conversion then our system has its law,” he said. When asked what that law is, he only repeated that a system exists and they will never accept any age limitation on conversion.

Allam Domki of the Majlis Wahdat ul Muslimeen, Sindh said: “Our religion opposes any use of force. Indeed, I hate using the word minority. These [non-Muslims] are our equal brothers. Yes they are facing a problem and it should be solved.” He said he would be willing to talk about it with anyone but the government has set an age limitation which is against their religion because girls become mature at nine and boys at 15. Therefore how can we can accept it? When asked how a girl of nine could understand Islam, he had no answer. Then he added that they opposed any criminal act but as Muslims, they cannot accept the government’s age limit.

The Hindus were well aware that the law will be controversial and attract opposition. But as Dr Khatumal puts it, quite simple, we are living in a new world order. Surely the fundamental rights of the freedom to choose one’s faith and who one marries should be the bedrock of society justice. And in this day and age, is there really any argument that children should be protected from coercion and early marriage?

With writing by Mahim Maher

Veengas is a journalist based in Karachi 

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12. INDIA:: WEAPON OF MASS DIGITISATION: PM MODI'S GAMBIT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BLACK MONEY
by Aseem Shrivastava
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(Catchnews.com - 18 December 2016)

One of the least noticed features of the introduction of economic reforms in India 25 years ago was the manner in which addressing a short-term payments crisis on the country's external accounts became a pretext for the government to introduce - without any debate befitting a supposedly democratic society - sweeping, long-term changes.

One need not be a votary of the license-permit raj to have observed the stealthy manner in which international financial institutions dictated the key policy shifts of the next decade of what (inappropriately) came to be called "liberalisation" ('corporatisation' would be a more accurate description). It permanently changed the very character of Indian economy and society, not to forget the ongoing devastation of the country's ecology.

Unemployment remains huge, inequalities have risen alarmingly in this past generation and, ominously, over 400,000 farmers have committed suicide. The last fallout being a direct consequence of the open-economy agriculture dictated by the agreements under WTO.
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Meanwhile, more than 4,000 multinational corporations are doing lucrative business in India today. Whatever else they may have achieved, the stealth reforms since 1991 have certainly gold-plated their way.
Digital coercion: Stealth Reforms 2.0

PM Narendra Modi's recent demonetisation call - shrouded in high executive secrecy - is deeply reminiscent of the manner in which the reform era began in 1991.

Its long-term significance in terms of digitising the Indian economy in the global corporate interest should not be underestimated. Its far-reaching implications are likely to last much longer than the man who brought it about.

Those running the larger world have a keen grasp of how policies favourable to their interests can be enacted through Indian leaders, ever conscious of their global ratings, no less than of their domestic popularity.

It is slowly dawning on a few waking heads that Modi has not acted as a cashless solipsist in a country that runs mostly on cash.

There are forces much more powerful than him who have successfully utilised his impatient political opportunism, his high office and his inflated popular image to push through the demonetisation of currency notes of the highest denominations, ostensibly aimed at removing black money, a shortage of cash in the country.

Their aim? To nudge, and shove where necessary, Indians well beyond the aspirational classes to end their digital deprivation and begin making payments for their transactions electronically.

According to research conducted by the Boston Consulting Group there is an annual jackpot of $500 billion (a quarter of India's GDP) waiting to be made within the next five years in the digital payments industry. But this is only if millions can be persuaded to abandon cash as the preferred mode of daily transactions.

Even if the top half of the Indian population can be drawn into the digital net, there are big fortunes to be made. The bottom half can be ignored, unless they become politically restless and vocal.
What lies beneath?

Events of big consequence in history are polysemic in their significance. Whatever his own motivations might have been, in effect, Modi has been prompted by the globally-agile digital finance companies to demonetise and drain the liquidity out of the banks (damaging banking as we have known it), effectively compelling hundreds of millions to go digital.

The recapitalisation of Indian banks is temporary and incidental. Indian banking is all set for a disruption. The digital disruption of banking is as inevitable as of media and retail have been in the past.

Digital payments are a possible threat to traditional banking everywhere now (as this McKinsey report makes clear).

Once digital payments banks have taken over, banking would reach almost every Indian in the next decade (or so we are told) and the mobile would have become a virtual ATM. Airtel will go where ICICI cannot.
Who makes the most?

A handsome share of this digital booty is likely to accrue to the already wealthy. Two days after the announcement of demonetisation on 8 November, an important business event took place.

Jio Payments Bank, a "first-of-its-kind" joint PPP venture between Reliance Industries and State Bank of India, was incorporated.

It aimed to marry Jio's mobile subscriber base and SBI's vast national database to build a formidable distribution network and grow into what is likely to be one of India's largest companies in the future.

Reliance has already invested over $20 billion in 4G infrastructure. It is obviously quite sure of making good on the huge investment.

Jio Payments Bank is one of the several other banks slated to occupy the digital payments platform in India. Others in the Fintech game with Jio are Airtel Payments Bank, Paytm Payments Bank, India Post Payments Bank, NSDL Payments Bank, Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank, Fino PayTech, and Vodafone m-pesa.

These entities have globally dispersed ownerships, though their promoters are Indian.

Recently, IT billionaire Nandan Nilekani, one of the architects of Aadhaar, and now one of Modi's consultants, drew attention to the merits of the digital transformation of banking by pointing to the key breakthrough of a 'unified payment interface' (UPI) launched by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan before he left his job.

UPI greatly simplifies the transfer of money by consumers. Nilekani argues that this will "shift the business models in banking from low-volume, high-value, high-cost and high fees, to high-volume, low-value, low-cost and no fees".

There is a strong constituency both in the corporate sector and the government which believes it thus has the "solution" to financial exclusion. The expected windfall of profits is incidental, of course.
Go digital India

Modi has always been a digital enthusiast. With the creation of more than 250 million Jan Dhan bank accounts for the hitherto financially excluded, and its huge promotion of the Aadhaar card (a creation of the UPA government before him) as a means for accessing financial services and the transfer of subsidies - all that the Modi government thinks it now needs in order to push the Indian economy towards cashlessness is a mobile-mediated digital payment system.

To its thinking, Jan Dhan and Aadhaar-linked mobile payment (JAM) will achieve the desired goal of digital villages - where mobiles are already available on EMIs. Just like most of India skipped land-line telephones to acquire mobiles, it is believed that there is no longer any need for physical bank branches across the country. Mobile phones will be enough.

Small wonder then, that the government's Niti Aayog has been cooking up schemes to financially "incentivise" digital payments in grassroots India, long accustomed to cash.

The prime minister's pro-poor rhetoric at his public rallies notwithstanding, it is perfectly clear what this government's actual priorities are. If some of the poor can also be seen to benefit, all the merrier.

Cashlessness ("less-cash" for the time being) has from the beginning been the unstatable long-term goal of the plank of policies of which demonetisation is likely to be the first.

The full digitisation of the economy is the greater goal. The process may take 10-20 years in all, but the globally-agile plutocrats have made a daring start in (a napping) India.

'Black money' (or busting terrorist financial plans) was just the excuse/pretext to usher in digital coercion. It is hardly the main goal.

Cashlessness will make even plastic obsolete. In addition to working as a virtual ATM, the mobile will work as a debit (and in favourable circumstances in the future, a credit) card too.

What Modi and the digital payments artists in India are doing is completely in line with the recent World Bank line for developing countries).

A World Bank Press Release approvingly quotes the CEO of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: "Governments have to take the lead and drive digital financial development forward...We need governments to establish the vision, the digital platforms and the regulatory assurance to pull the hundreds of millions of currently excluded people into full participation in the modern economy." (Bill Gates has himself offered an enthusiastic endorsement of demonetisation).

And governments are doing just that.
Is this really about black money?

Nobody - beginning with the previous Governor of the RBI - with any knowledge or experience ever believed that demonetisation would put an end to black money, even temporarily.

The very fact that - half-way into the 50 days the prime minister had asked for - most of the demonetised currency is already back in bank deposits, is a tribute to the resilience of laundering habits in the country.

If the isolation of black money was the main goal of demonetisation, as the government has repeatedly been telling the people, it is failing miserably. Another few weeks will make the picture perfectly clear.

It is the drive towards a cashless economy which is likely to outlast the hunt for black money (which can resume its journey after a gap with the help of the new currency notes).

The assumption, all along, is that digitising the economy would enable a full record of transactions, robbing the cash-driven parallel economy of its informal, invisible power.

Formalisation of economy in this manner, we are told, will somehow make human economic behaviour more honest.

In fact, a claim could be made quite convincingly that digitisation might ultimately greatly increase the scale and impenetrability of the black economy. Technology is not known to impart a conscience to human beings, somehow rendering them more honest, even if it sometimes appears to make cheating difficult for small thieves in the short-run.

In a time of digital opacity, the risks are particularly high. Don't believe this author, just go and speak to regulators anywhere who have to deal with the mounting menace of offshore banking where astronomical fortunes casually evade the hawk eye of governments across the world.

The sums involved make the black money the prime minister has gone after in his stentorian moral crusade seem like bashful pennies.
Changing goal posts

In fact, it is worth asking him why he has so far failed to take any action against the large unaccounted fortunes hidden in offshore accounts, which appear to be the final destination of much of the wealth spirited away from the country.

Unsurprisingly, the frequency with which the prime minister has mentioned "black money" or "fake notes" has declined sharply if one tracks his speeches through the month of November.

At the same time, the objective of moving India towards "cashless" digital payments has been heard much more frequently in his speeches. The goal-posts have shifted noticeably to prepare the public for what is to come, especially after the patience of the anguished public wears thin after the promised day of reckoning, 30 December.

The popular appeal of demonetisation - and the reason why Modi Sarkaar still survives despite the criminal disruption of the Indian economy - rests on the government's claim that it will put an end to black money in the country.

If things had been presented to the public the other way around, and the government had been up front about the objective of achieving a cashless India (the removal of black money being but a secondary goal), there is little doubt that the policy would have been immediately unpopular.

As things are laid out, it will take a while for the public to see through the rhetoric of patriotism. This is how stealth reforms are meant to take effect. Meanwhile, just like in 1991, the economy is subject to fait accompli policy-making, digital coercion being a necessary part of the bargain.

Aseem Shrivastava is a Delhi-based ecological economist and writer. He is the author (with Ashish Kothari) of Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India (Penguin Viking, Delhi, 2012).
First published: 18 December 2016

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13. PUNJAB’S DALITS AND POLITICS OF PATRONAGE | Pritam Singh
========================================
(The Tribune - Dec 16, 2016)

The share of Dalits in the population of Punjab is higher than in any other state. What distinguishes Punjab's story of failed Dalit mobilisation from UP's successful model of Dalit mobilisation is the fractured nature of Dalit identity and consolidation in Punjab

SUFI singer Hans Raj Hans joining the Bharatiya Janata Party does appear to be a surprise on the face of it. He was brought recently into the Congress party fold by Captain Amarinder Singh with fanfare. If we take a long-term historical and sociological look at Dalit politics in Punjab, it is not a surprise at all. It follows the usual pattern of accommodating leading Dalit figures into the State’s mainstream political parties. So far this process of accommodation had been confined to the two main historical contenders for hegemony in Punjab politics, that is the  Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Indian National Congress. Now, the BJP has joined in.  This process of accommodation seems to sit very uncomfortably with the sociological reality of the Dalits' numerical space in Punjab's population. The share of Dalits in Punjab population is higher than in any other state. The Dalits in some of the other states are more organised.
In Maharashtra, the imprint of  B.R. Ambedkar in giving birth to the Dalit-oriented Republican Party of India is visible. Similarly, Kanshi Ram's disciple Mayawati has made the Bahujan Samaj Party a powerful player in UP politics. Both Amdedkar and Kanshi Ram had a special relationship with Punjab. After Ambedkar realised that there was no possibility of Dalit liberation from caste hierarchy and the consequent oppression by remaining within the fold of Hindu religion, he thought of adopting and recommending to his followers Sikhism. This appeal of Sikhism for him was because theoretically, the Sikh religion in its theology was free from caste considerations. Also, it was indigenous to India, unlike Islam and Christianity. The latter were also caste free but were seen, in popular imagination, linked with origins outside India.  Ambedkar came to Punjab to meet the Sikh leadership and got one of his close family members admitted to Khalsa College, Amritsar to enable him to get a first-hand experience of Sikh society. 

He also commissioned a survey in Punjab villages, where Sikhism seemed to thrive to understand the nature of practical functioning of Sikh society. Ambedkar was highly disappointed. The upper caste (Khatri-Jat) Sikh leadership, instead of welcoming Ambedkar's gesture of showing respect to the teachings of the Sikh gurus, felt threatened by the possibility of a huge number of Dalits entering the Sikh fold. His disappointment was reinforced by the results of his survey in rural Sikh society. It showed widespread practice of caste discrimination against the Dalits. Amdedkar then took refuge in Buddhism. A historical possibility of great potential was lost. Kanshi Ram was born in Punjab but instead of finding political success here, he found it in Uttar Pradesh.  His successor Mayawati has converted the successful Dalit mobilisation into making the Dalit-based BSP one of the chief contenders for political power in UP.  

The share of Dalits in the population of Maharashtra and UP is significantly less than that in Punjab. What distinguishes Punjab's story of failed Dalit mobilisation from UP's successful model and, to a lesser extent, from the Maharashtra model is the fractured nature of Dalit identity and consolidation in Punjab. There are internal differences within the Dalits in UP and Maharashtra too but these are nowhere close to the depth and scale of these internal cleavages among Punjabi Dalits. Punjabi Dalits are, at one level, fractured by Balmiki and Ravidassia differences which have religious tones. The Balmikis are considered close to the Hindus and the Ravidassias close to the Sikhs. There are problems in these perceived relationships too. Further, Ravidassias or chamars consider their main occupation (leather work) and the caste associated with this  as superior to the main occupation (cleaning) and the caste associated with it, the Balmikis. Ravidassias, though considered close to Sikhism because the bani of  Guru Ravi Das has the honour of being included in Guru Granth Sahib, ironically consider themselves superior to Mazhabi Sikhs. This is because of the perceived caste category with which the Mazhabi Sikhs are associated. Apart from these caste hierarchical cleavages between Ravidassias and Balmikis, the superior economic conditions of the former in comparison with the Balmikis further create tensions in building a unified Dalit identity and mobilisation.  Ravidassias are educationally more advanced than the Balmikis. Due to this relative advantage, they are also more successful entrepreneurs and  go abroad. 

This superior economic condition of the Ravidassias is purely a regional dimension, and has nothing to do with their caste. They come from the Doaba region, while the Mazhabi Sikhs mostly come from the Malwa region. The Doaba region was historically more advanced educationally than Malwa. This enabled the people of Doaba region to be the first to take advantage of migration to the rich advanced countries in the West.  The Jats of Doaba region were also historically more educated than the Jats of the Malwa region due to this regional differentiation which has nothing to do with caste. 

The relative backwardness of Balmikis is seen by them as a result of the Ravidassias taking all the advantages of reservations. This perception further creates mistrust between these two major caste groups of the Dalits. The leadership of the two principal political parties in Punjab — SAD and Congress — have taken advantage of these inner differences within the Dalits though it is difficult to say whether they have consciously exacerbated them.  They have used these differences to offer important party, legislative and government positions to the prominent members of these caste groups to advance their own political agendas. This accommodation mechanism, while placating the leaders of these oppressed caste groups, has acted as a dissipating factor in forging a common unified Dalit identity. 

The Left leadership of Punjab has also failed the Dalits mainly because the Left has not recognised the debilitating character of caste oppression. It has tended to look upon caste as a hindrance to class solidarity. However, in practice caste and class are deeply enmeshed with each other. 

One can only hope that the new generations of educated Dalits in Punjab are able to liberate themselves from the patronising accommodation that is tantalisingly thrown at them by the upper-caste leadership of mainstream political parties. They must work to resolve their inner cleavages and create the foundations for a genuine egalitarian politics in Punjab. The land of the Gurus demands nothing less than this.


The writer is Professor of Economics at Oxford Brookes University, UK

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14. INDIAN LESSONS - POPULISM AFTER TRUMP | Mukul Kesavan
========================================
(Indian Express - 12 December 2016)
What does the debate about the global resurgence of right-wing populism look like from New Delhi? The eruptions of liberal despair after Brexit and Trump's triumph have drawn 'I-told-you-sos' from both the Left and Right. Both sides have scolded liberals for two connected failures: one, for being blind to the economic stagnation and decline endured by silent working-class majorities and two, for replacing the traditional progressive solidarity with working people with multiculturalism and minority politics designed to create a rainbow coalition.

Like all political generalizations, these criticisms are overstated but they need serious consideration; which is to say, they need to be examined without the easy consolations of sarcasm and snobbery. The notion that it's the stupidity and bigotry of the half-educated that stop them from understanding what's good for them is a useful example of liberal superciliousness. In Britain this summer, Remainer conversations were disfigured by precisely this sort of exasperated contempt.

The main point that critics like John Gray, the conservative English philosopher, make is that liberals or progressives, call them what you will, allowed themselves to be co-opted by something called neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism is the belief that open markets and the free movement of capital and labour will combine with liberal, rights-based democracy to create a stable, peaceful and prosperous international order. This, argue critics from both Left and Right, was always nonsense because this ideologically-driven globalization created a small international elite of winners (that storied one per cent) and a large rump of permanent losers. The triumphalism that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union transformed the pillars of international capitalism, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Atlanticist powers that ran them, into crusading doctors determined to administer their cleansing neo-liberal enemas to every country too weak to resist their ministrations.

This cure very nearly destroyed post-Soviet Russia. It helped prepare the ground for a kleptocracy ruled by an authoritarian who used the economic destruction and geopolitical humiliation visited upon Russia by the Nato powers to build a revanchist nationalism fuelled by resentment and bigotry. It did destroy the Middle East in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq. Iraq, Libya and Syria were serially sacrificed on the altar of democracy and the war against its sworn enemy, Islamist terror. There's a symbolic tidiness to the fact that Paul Wolfowitz, the arch-ideologue behind the invasion of Iraq, was made the president of the World Bank afterwards, fusing in one body the failed economic and political dogmas of neo-liberalism.

Discredited abroad by the disaster in the Middle East, neo-liberalism (indistinguishable from its twin, neo-conservatism) was discredited in its Anglo-American home by the Great Recession of 2008. This meltdown made the economic prospects of working class communities in the 'rust belt' in the United States and in the northeast of England seem even bleaker than they had before, leaving them ripe for mobilization by right-wing populists like Nigel Farage and Donald Trump. This line of argument can be extended with minor variations to other European countries where the political centre of gravity has moved to the right: Hungary, Italy, Poland, Austria and France. Gray has for some years now, been an advocate of Brexit, arguing that the European Union is the perfect example of the failure of the economic integration advocated by neo-liberals. Working-class communities at the receiving end of economic liberalization do not want their factories disappearing abroad and resent the fact that they have to compete for the jobs that remain with foreigners. Gray argues that this is not xenophobia - though it can be harnessed as such by politicians - but rational self-interest. He chides liberals for stigmatizing popular feeling born of first-hand experience as right-wing populism: why, he asks rhetorically, does an electorate become a racist mob when it returns answers that liberals don't like?

There are many objections to be made to this seven-league-boots style of argumentation, the most obvious being that the margins for Brexit and Trump were so small that they can scarcely sustain the weight of these generalizations. Multiculturalists and the rainbow-coalition wallahs could (and do) point out that that the Republican Party has systematically cultivated a white rump as its base for decades, and therefore to assign Trump's win to working-class discontent and not to a racist mobilization is simply to give the white working class and its prejudices a pass routinely denied to others. The Economist might argue that the case against a globalized economy is just wrong and point to the hundreds of millions that have been lifted out of poverty by free markets and ability of capital to cross borders. People on the left, the world over, will point to the fact that theirs was the original critique of finance capitalism, that they were the prophets in the wilderness years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, who cried themselves hoarse warning that the collapse of capitalism was nigh.

These responses make serious points but they sound plaintive and unpersuasive. The doomsayers of the Left might have been right but since the Soviet Union collapsed and took Marxism with it, the Left has failed to produce an agenda for popular mobilization. Bernie Sanders's barnstorming campaign and Occupy Wall Street were important movements, but the centrist political establishment of the Democratic Party succeeded in defeating and co-opting them. Sanders might have been on to something but he lost and lined up behind Hillary, effectively neutering the Democratic Party's ability to channel middle America's insurgency. If white Americans were as racist as the Left claimed, how did Obama achieve the approval levels he did at the tail end of his presidency? As for The Economist's use of China as a defence of globalization, Gray points out that China succeeded because it was the only one of the great powers that had a rational (that is, achievable) sense of what it wanted from the international order. This was foreign capital and foreign markets; it did not include liberal democracy or the free movement of people. China has less than 1,500 naturalized citizens. China didn't drink the Kool-Aid; the Atlanticists did.

Gray sees Trump's election, Brexit and (as he sees it) the imminent break-up of the EU as a return to an older global arrangement: the inauguration of an era of Great Power rivalry based on realism in foreign policy and measured protectionism for the management of national economies. It is a pragmatic view of the world, self-congratulatory in its detachment, but it's worth our attention, coming as it does from a man who opposed the West's intervention in Iraq, and who, in his book, False Dawn, pointed to the fragility of global capitalism a decade before the near-collapse of the world economy, and who foretold Brexit and the Trump triumph before they happened. (Gray is also something of an ideological chameleon, having serially supported Labour, Thatcher and New Labour before arriving at his present anti-globalist stance.)

What relevance does this explanation of the West's recent past have for us? Gray's most pertinent thesis is that when the middle classes and the poor are disoriented by the upheavals of economic liberalization, they turn to the right for consolation, not the left, because the Right has always had at its ideological core, the idea of the People as a beleaguered community that needs to be protected from predators both within and without. The Left, hamstrung by its rhetorical internationalism and its concern for minorities, seems less attentive, less willing to invoke a People, lest it call forth a monster.

Desi liberals knowingly tell their foreign friends that Trump's victory and the progressive hysteria that followed filled them with déjà vu. They had been here before, in 2014, when Narendra Modi won an absolute majority. They are wrong; Narendra Modi is not Donald Trump. Modi comes out of the mainstream of Hindu nationalism and its institutions; he isn't a maverick outsider. Perhaps our maverick populist lies further down the road.

What if our resident sorcerer, having made our money disappear, fails to complete his trick? If demonetization permanently damages the economy and creates widespread discontent, by the time the next election comes around the principal beneficiaries mightn't be the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party opposition, but some unforeseen Trump-like figure from the right who moves to annex the BJP in the name of a new, more fiercely majoritarian agenda. He would have to be a recognizable face and a pan-Indian brand. He would boast of his success as a self-made man able to purge a corrupt system from outside. He would have the money to underwrite his political ambitions. He would be Hindi-speaking, more saffron than Modi, more bearded, and, most importantly, more telegenic. He would, in short, look remarkably like Baba Ramdev.

Here's a man who is the face of a company estimated to be worth billions of dollars, a saffron sant whose image is plastered all over Patanjali's products, whose television audience via devotional channels like Aastha rivals Trump's television presence, whose political ambitions are obvious to anyone who has followed his career. When a journalist friend of mine mooted this nightmare scenario, I thought he was insane. After Trump and post-demonetization, this future, or one like it, no longer seems impossible.

Jayalalithaa's death is a good moment to think about what a secular populism looks like. The traditions of welfare and affirmative action inaugurated by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and MGR and carried forward by Jayalalithaa, helped Tamil Nadu achieve high scores on the United Nations human development index. Routinely rubbished by economists and pundits, this 'populism' helped educate its people and empower its women without noticeably compromising Tamil Nadu's economic performance relative to India's other states. More to the point, it helped these Dravida parties consolidate political constituencies. There's much in Dravida politics to criticize, but their ability to mobilize electoral majorities that aren't majoritarian, isn't one of them. Given our Modi-fied present and a future where political babalog are routed by juggernaut babas, the liberal-Left in India had better embrace populism, instead of disdaining it.

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15. INDIA: LEADING BY EXAMPLE
by Mukul Dube
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(Mainstream Weekly, December 10, 2016)

Throughout history, it has been held that leaders should lead by example. In the military, the officer is expected to set an example of bravery and good soldiering. In society in general, the expectation is that if the leader does good things, the people too will do good things.

In today’s India, however, our leaders lead only by command and set an extraordinarily bad example. If Modi is taken to be the ideal, the exemplar, then the poorest of his followers should have many, many suits of expensive clothes which they should change several times a day. If Jaitley is the exemplar, then India’s people should all possess enormous sums of money in cash.

In a country the vast majority of whose people are poor, a display of wealth by its leaders is not just unseemly but obscene. It stinks of the worst kinds of social organisation, in which royalty and aristocracy are far above the ordinary people.

I have no doubt that Modi’s followers are proud of the fact that their leader wears expensive clothes which are beyond their reach, that his Italian eye-glasses are the most expensive made anywhere, and that he rubs shoulders with the wealthiest capitalists in the country.

In this adulation the principle of equality is thrown to the winds. Modi’s followers do not realise that Indian democracy, which provided the mechanism by which Modi rose to the top, is severely undermined by his vulgar display of pelf. They do not realise that the suit which had his name all over it was laughed at by the whole world.

That the leader mixes with the Tatas and the Ambanis certainly does not impart any eminence to him. All it means is that the capitalists find it necessary to cultivate the man so that they get cheap land and mining rights, usually going against the laws of the land, and so that they get State assistance in pushing back the rights of the workers. It is more than likely that in private they laugh at the buffoon who insists on embracing not just them but also the world’s leaders in order to create an aura of camaraderie and intimacy.

India’s present prime minister rose to that position because 31 per cent of India’s voters voted for him in 2014. We do not know the income distribution within that 31 per cent, but it is not difficult to conclude that the bulk of the 69 per cent who did not vote for him are poor people. But let us concede that there were many poor people in the 31 per cent also. Do these poor people who voted for the successful candidate not see that he is doing all in his power to ensure their continued exploitation and dispossession? Has even the disaster of demonetisation failed to open their eyes? Across the land, the common people have been standing for hours so that they can get their hands on their own money. Labourers and small vendors are the worst sufferers.

For some days there have been advertisements on the radio, repeated all day long, issued “in the public interest by the Government of India”, pushing the use of mobile phones for making payments and transferring money. Can anyone in their right mind even imagine a rural land-less labourer having a bank account and a mobile phone? Can electronic payments buy articles of food worth ten or fifteen rupees? Has a phone been invented which can spit out paper or metallic currency?

It is telling that when it became clear that the recent demonetisation had created chaos, Modi’s rhetoric switched abruptly from growth to development and repeated claims that his move would benefit the poor and the farmer. How long will we quietly swallow such deceptions as “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana”? Can we not see that in the very name of this scheme there is nothing but self promotion and a wholly false gesture towards the poor?

How long will bogus promises continue to blind us to reality? How long can we afford to follow the example of this lying leader?

[also available at: http://www.sacw.net/article13047.html]

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16. India: Hindi Song Parody on Demonetisation: जाने वो कैसे लोग हैं जिनको बैंक से कैश मिला
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https://youtu.be/wUlPXUkaiN0

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17. DILEEP PADGAONKAR: A SPARKLING JOURNALIST WHO LIVED HIS LIFE WITHOUT FUSS
by Anikendra Nath Sen
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(The Hindustan Times - Nov 26, 2016)

Padgaonkar passed away at a private hospital in Pune where he was brought in a critical condition last week. (AP)

Dileep Padgaonkar went very much the way he lived his life, quietly and without any fuss. To say that India has lost one of its most sparkling journalistic talents is to diminish his many talents and the myriad dimensions of his personality. For me, this is a huge personal loss as we have been friends virtually all our adult lives. We got particularly close after I began working with him in the Times of India, first putting together the Sunday Times of India and then as Resident Editor of the Times of India in the early nineties, but our friendship which began well before lasted till his all too early exit from this world on Friday, November 25, 2016. He was my closest friends and a great mentor to my sons.

Read: Dileep Padgaonkar, journalist and Kashmir peace interlocutor, dies at 72

For those who did not know him or know much about him, he began as a cub reporter at the age of 24 in what was then called the Pune Herald. Over a “couple of stiff ones” of an evening he recalled his great scoop that traced the antecedents of one Dr Stephen Ward to Pune. Ward was a key figure in the celebrated “Christine Keeler” sexcapade case that brought down the government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963. The scoop brought the then sensational Blitz weekly to Dileep’s doorstep, in the shape of one Captain Colabavala investigative journalist par excellance who eventually parted with a 100 rupee note, a princely sum in those days and now once again in high demand. He told me: “My old school friend Farook Dhondy found out and we first drove around in Colabavala’s ship sized American convertible astounding Poonaites all round and then proceeded to drink and eat our way through most of that 100 Rupees.” That was Dileep all round.

After his doctorate from the Sorbonne in June 1968, he joined the Times of India as its Paris correspondent, from where he chronicled the epoch-making May ’68 Movement that spread swiftly through all of Europe---East and West. With a few years between us and then unknown to each other Dileep and I were witness to a world in joyful ferment often with tragic endings be it anti-Vietnam war protests worldwide or Naxlaites being shot dead in fake encounters in India.

Dileep took off from Times of India to serve a stint at Unesco (1978-86) --- first in Bangkok and later at the HQ in Paris. A close aide to Unesco’s colourful secretary general, Amadou-Mahtar M’bow, he was instrumental in setting up the controversial non-aligned newspool much despised by some Western powers and embraced warmly by newly emerging nations.

He returned to the Times of India in 1986 and became its editor two years later. As editor, he presided over what was arguably India’s finest editorial team, representing viewpoints that encompassed virtually every conceivable political, economic and indeed philosophical angle. The Times saw great changes in this period including the introduction of the Sunday Times, a second section covering lighter areas and so on.

Dileep and some of us left the Times in 1994 in a restless search to do something of our own and that naturally in journalism. We did a lot of television for Doordarshan in our early days as a fledgling media venture. We had adventures galore producing a breakfast show in Kashmiri with Kashmiris in Srinagar. The adventures continued in Nepal and Mauritius with three newspapers in English, Nepali and French. A Legion d’Honneur (France’s highest civilian award) he floored everybody in Mauritius with his many different accents in French. With a pretence of contempt on his face he told me the French-speaking “aristocracy” in Mauritius were nothing more than provincial Bretons who fled during the French Revolution and never returned long enough to acquire the unparalleled (for him) qualities of modern France. He deliberately spoke to them in the slang spoken only by people in Paris.

Dileep was twice selected to examine the issues affecting Jammu and Kashmir, once in a team headed by Ram Jethmalani when Atal Behari Vajpayee was PM and later in 2010 in a three-member panel of interlocutors. Sadly the recommendations of the latter which entailed full-fledged devolution of powers, especially financial, right down to the Panchayat level all over the state, was not implemented either by the UPA government nor the present BJP-led one. But then that’s the way of all governments.

He and I along with others set up our own independent media venture in 1994 and it was his presence that saw us through difficult days. The success of our venture is a testimony to his efforts and inputs through all these years.

I have rarely come across anyone with such a vast and eclectic taste in reading. His fluency in French meant he could read most of the original works of France’s great thinkers in their language. He was a personal friend of some of the greatest thinkers of our time like Andre Malraux, Isaiah Berlin and Claude Levi Strauss. His friends among academia, the world of film, gastronomy and politics are too vast for me to enumerate. His knowledge of music too was stupendous. His ability to mimic in a variety of languages and accents used to keep us in stitches in our evenings all over from Delhi to Kathmandu to Rose Hill in Mauritius and Bangkok in Thailand! My colleagues and I were the privileged few who enjoyed the wit and humour of Dileep Padgaonkar, a rare honour since oftentimes he maintained a poker faced solemnity before the outside world.

One of the things that bound us was a common love for food. Dileep was ever in search of that elusive recipe and it was his plan to create a map of India based on dals, achars-murabbas and papads, similar to the wine and cheese maps of France. Food was a subject which fascinated him and about which he would speak with rare eloquence. For a man who had eaten at the high table of the finest gourmet chefs in Europe, he could be remarkably simple in his taste on occasion. Much of our time before we visited each other would be spent on discussing where to eat to which Dileep would add his dazzling knowledge of the right wine pairing.

Writing on someone with whom I had made many plans, most of them impractical but enjoyable to discuss, like buying land on an island in a river in Goa and waking up to the bicycle bell of the daily fish seller is the most painful task for me on this most difficult of days in my life. Dileep was a raconteur extraordinaire and his stories enthralled his peers and juniors alike. His vast knowledge of Hindustani classical music, he was a fine singer, and intimacy with the Vedas earned him unlikely admirers across the globe. Yet, he was a secularist to the core, a person who understood the real meaning of Hinduism so unlike the interpretations by so-called scholars we hear and see today. He had a magnificent sense of humour and his seemingly laconic manner hid a deep concern on a gamut of issues ranging from the rise of the far right across the world to the growing alienation of Kashmir against which he fought so hard to be heard.

Both journalism and public life had a lot more to gain from Dileep Padgaonkar but that is not to be. I can see him in my mind’s eye, ever the Francophile, with his jaunty beret and omnipresent muffler, sometimes replaced by a Peshwa pagdi or a Rana topi, his favourite books clutched in one hand. Well Dileep, au revoir till we meet again drink in hand, song on lip and mischievous glint in eye!

Anikendra Nath (Badshah) Sen is chairman, Asia Pacific Communication Associates and a senior journalist 

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18. HERE’S WHY SCIENCE DECLINED IN INDIA | Jayant V Narlikar
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(The Asian Age - December 14, 2016)

The book was translated in Arabic and was highly regarded even by those outside the subcontinent.

A look at the history of science shows that it flourished in India up to about a millennium ago, at which time it languished in Europe. However, this situation changed and one finds that the progress of science slowed down in India while it began to grow faster in Europe. Why did it happen?

There are numerous reasons for this reversal. They have been discussed and debated extensively by scientists and sociologists of science. Many reasons are usually given, but we will highlight one that may also have a bearing on the present question of why science is not a popular subject amongst schoolchildren in India. That reason is the lack of experimentation as part of learning science.

It goes without saying that the growth in our understanding of science is linked up with the role of experiments. A scientist may be stimulated to solve a riddle posed by nature. While observing certain phenomenon he may wish to find out why it progresses in a particular way. What are the controlling factors? What will happen if any of them undergo a change? Experiments give him the clue to these questions and through them he will get a far better understanding of the physical process under observation. Without such studies, the scientist will not get a proper clue to the answer he is looking for.

If, as the story goes, Isaac Newton, sitting under an apple tree, thought of gravitation when an apple fell on him, the real enlightenment came to him by studying how planets go round the Sun, how the Moon orbits round the Earth, how comets move, etc. Numerous experiments with electricity and magnetism enabled the scientists to put together an elegant set of equations that describe the observed phenomena related to these subjects.

Looking back at the history of science shows us starkly how the experimental part was missing in India. Writing in the Indian Journal of the History of Science, Professor D.P. Roy from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research highlights this fact. Indeed, doyens of Indian science, like Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray and Meghnad Saha had worried over this issue a good deal.

The science of chemistry, for example, grew out of the early interest and work on alchemy. Chinese scholar and tourist Hsuan Tsang has recorded that in India there was a famous Buddhist alchemist called Nagarjuna. His influence was considerable and probably thanks to his influence the universities of Nalanda and Vikramasila continued for several centuries to teach alchemy. After the destruction by Bakhtiyar Khilji the alchemists fled to Tibet and the Deccan. From this source eventually Indian chemistry developed. But this development was away from the recognised and respected topics the intellectuals liked to talk about.

Metallurgy was another practical science that flourished around 500-1,000 AD. The famous pillar near the Qutub Minar in Delhi dates back to 400 AD. Made largely of iron, the material is rust resistant. How did the makers of the pillar manage to make an alloy with 98 per cent iron that did not rust? Why did the technological knowhow not survive? Studies of our ancient heritage show that frequent attacks by invaders like Ghaznavi and Ghori destroyed the iron industry. Although revived in a low key during the Mughal period, its death knell came when the British started exporting iron ore to plants in Britain rather than use it for making finished products in India as part of helping their own industry at the cost of Indian industry.

Ayurveda has also an interesting history as explored by experts in modern medicine. The two ancient manuscripts relevant to the medical developments are the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita dealing respectively with medicine and surgery. The Charaka Samhita is encyclopaedic in its description of different aspects of medical science and dates back to the first century AD. It had wide influence extending beyond the Indian subcontinent and by 2-3 centuries AD it was translated into Persian, Arabic and Tibetan. Sushruta Samhita on the other hand deals with many different types of surgery. Apart from operating procedures, it also describes the many different types of instruments used. The details seem to be compiled by a Buddhist “hands on experimentalist” rather than a theoretical scholar. The book was translated in Arabic and was highly regarded even by those outside the subcontinent.

Despite the popularity of Sushruta Samhita, the contemporary social stigma attached to blood, dead body or dissection meant that the higher caste members of the society kept away from surgery. The procedures described by Sushruta were therefore acted on by people who were denied access to higher education. As such, any intellectual advance of surgical science was stopped. Rather, it remained frozen at the level when Sushruta described it.

The example of plastic surgery illustrates the situation. Since punishment in the form of cutting the nose was common, there were cases for plastic surgery to restore the nose by adding skin from the forehead. This procedure was used not by brahmin doctors of Ayurveda but by “Koomar” caste men who, however, followed the prescribed procedure without knowing the rationale or theory behind it. Officials of the East India Company came to know of this practice and they arranged to study it. They discovered that the procedure was unknown in Europe and seemed to work well. This was an example of what later came to be known as plastic surgery.

But the worrying aspect of this episode is that it shows how experimental procedures that are so important for the growth of science carried a stigma for the intellectuals of Indian society. This could be one of the reasons why science declined in India and had to be revived in the colonial era.

Reverting to modern times, we find that in our schools experimentation is in low key, if present at all, as part of science teaching. The ideal situation of children learning through experiments performed by them is rare. In some cases the teacher may perform the experiment watched by the class while in many cases the children simply memorise the description of an experiment without watching a real one. It is not surprising that they miss the thrill of doing an experiment and learning the facts themselves. This image of science through rote learning naturally makes it a subject to be avoided!

The writer, a renowned astrophysicist, is professor emeritus at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune University. He was Cambridge University’s Senior Wrangler in Maths in 1959.

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19. USA: TECH WORKERS PLEDGE TO NEVER BUILD A DATABASE OF MUSLIMS
by Tracey Lien and Melissa Etehad
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(Los Angeles Times - December 14, 2016)

When asked a year ago on the campaign trail whether he thought that the United States should create a database of Muslims in the country, Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC News: “Oh, I would certainly implement that — absolutely."

On Tuesday, hundreds of members of the technology industry weighed in on whether they would help build such a database. The answer? Absolutely not.

By Wednesday afternoon more than 640 software engineers, designers, business executives and data processing personnel from U.S. firms such as Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Mozilla and Palantir Technologies had signed a pledge “choosing to stand in solidarity with Muslim Americans, immigrants, and all people whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by the incoming administration’s proposed data collection policies."

As part of the pledge, the individuals promised, among other things, to:

    Refuse to participate in the creation of databases that would allow the government to target individuals based on race, religion or national origin
    Advocate within their organizations to minimize data collection that would facilitate ethnic or religious targeting
    Responsibly destroy high-risk data sets and backups
    Resign from their organization if ordered to build such a database

With the signing of the pledge — reportedly a grass-roots initiative led by engineers at Wave and Slack — the tech industry is drawing battle lines, said Kresta Daly, a civil rights and criminal defense attorney based in Sacramento.

When employers see that their workers are openly unwilling to cooperate, “it makes it difficult for a process like that to move forward,” she said. 

Trump reaches out to Silicon Valley

It’s unclear whether the incoming government will lean on the tech sector to build such databases, or if it will even make good on its promise to bar Muslims from entering the country.

In the weeks following Trump’s victory, the president-elect’s team backtracked on his earlier statements, saying that he had never advocated for "any registry or system that tracks individuals based on their religion." However, Trump’s website is still calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” — a proposal that, if implemented, could rely on such a database.

The U.S. government has been known to pressure the technology industry for help — whether it was asking Microsoft to help the National Security Agency circumvent encryption on Outlook.com Web chats or the FBI demanding that Apple help unlock the iPhone of one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack (Microsoft complied; Apple refused).

Daly believes that building any such database would need the help of popular social networks, which collect troves of user data. Those signing the pledge hope to hedge against that. 

Whether such a pledge will have material effect on the creation of a Muslim database is still unknown, though. The signatories represent only a tiny fraction of the number of people who work for big tech firms (Google alone has nearly 60,000 employees), and most tech executives have stayed mum on the topic. 

The only high-profile tech firm to have spoken out against working with the government to surveil its users is Twitter, with its general manager of data and solutions writing on Nov. 22: "We prohibit developers… from allowing law enforcement — or any other entity — to use Twitter data for surveillance purposes. Period."

Facebook, which initially declined to comment, issued a statement Wednesday saying it had not been asked to build a Muslim registry, “and of course we would not do so.”

Twitter won kudos from civil rights activists for being the first to speak up on its position, but its outright refusal to work on a Muslim database may have cost the company some standing with the Trump administration. Trump invited tech executives such as Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Alphabet’s Larry Page, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella to join him on Wednesday in New York for a technology summit, but Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey was absent, despite the president-elect being an avid user of the platform.

Politico attributes the snub to Twitter’s refusal to allow the Trump campaign to disseminate a #CrookedHillary emoji. Republican National Committee communications director Sean Spicer told MSNBC said Twitter’s omission was because “the conference table was only so big.” In his conversation with tech leaders, Trump suggested that PayPal co-founder and transition team advisor Peter Thiel helped cull the list of invitees by rejecting firms that were “too small.”

Pledge signatories are hoping that the noise they’re now making will make keep their company leaders from agreeing to create such a database if the Trump administration requests one.

"I believe the indirect effects of this pledge may be even more powerful than the direct effects," Valerie Aurora, a programmer who signed the pledge, said in a blog post on her website. "In my experience, tech company executives will pay close attention to any cause powerful enough to get tech workers to pledge solidarity with each other and with the most vulnerable in society.”

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20. IT CAN HAPPEN HERE! WHY DONALD TRUMP AFFECTS US ALL
by Michèle Auga
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(Social Europe - 15 December 2016)

In his 2004 novel The Plot against America, Philip Roth invoked the spectre of a fascist regime in the United States of America. Squarely in the tradition of counter-factual narrative Roth asks: what if? What if not Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but Hitler fan and airflight pioneer Charles Lindbergh, courted by Goebbels, had made it to the White House as the thirty-third US President? Many in conservative circles at the time thought that would be a good idea…

Hitherto, to a European observer such a scenario would have seemed far-fetched. Roth’s historiography in that case would have been just a fantasy. Although, to be sure, we – and our parents’ generation of 1968 – nurtured our anti-Americanism, our easy criticisms focused less on possible fascist structures and rather on the excrescences of American finance capitalism, commerce and consumerism. Like no other country the US lent itself as a screen on which we could project our struggle with modernity. At least on this question there was always unanimity within the German right and left: on one side of the Big Pond the German “nook” with its romantic notion of “community” and, on the other, the “Wild West”, the multi-ethnic society in which people are already under siege from random cultural exchange, GM food and the omnipotence of the markets – something which, apparently, is still in store for a Europe badly shaken by globalisation and migration. The “Great Satan” served as the explanation for every ill and thus anti-Americanism became an “ideological all-purpose explanatory model” (Tobias Jaecker). So far, so unsatisfactory. But is the latest expression of Transatlantic friction – Donald Trump – solely an American phenomenon?

The impositions of modernity are increasing on both sides of the Atlantic. Inequality, fears of loss among the middle class and terror are shaping life in the whole Western world. The 24-hour media presence whips up global news to a frenetic tempo. It is all-pervasive. At the same time, our belief in the narrative of progress that has prevailed hitherto is fading. People are compelled to live with ambivalences and contradictions, whether they want to or not.

A feeling of uncertainty sets the tone, not freedom. What was certain to previous generations –being able to work one’s way up by one’s own efforts – no longer applies. At the same time, we feel betrayed: the blessings and promises of salvation on which our Western worldview is founded are no longer being redeemed. The narrative of democracy and the market economy is the worst for wear. Nothing applies any more ideologically or politically. Welcome to postmodernity! Postmodern politics can mean many things: Angela Merkel, hipsters, that anything is possible, a loss of any ideological positioning,, an absolute self-focus where everything is narcissistically directed towards me and to nothing less. The collective no longer has (to have) any expectations of me.

Also “Europe”, once the promise of more prosperity for all, is now giving rise to contradictions that in their everyday lives many people simply regard as insoluble. Democracy and social participation are no longer on the same page. Even worse, public spaces in which hitherto we could move freely have become diffused into a grey zone because of fears of terror and violence.

This development, which has occurred in all Western countries and not only since the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis in 2008, has given rise to one “seducer of the people” after another. Only one country so far had remained unsullied by a successful right- or left-wing populist: the USA.

What is new, then, about the Trump phenomenon? In fact, not much. Why should US society react any differently to the upheavals of globalisation than European ones? “Make America great again” is an advertising slogan for a broad stratum of narcissistic and aggrieved Americans, who no longer understand the world. Are we to demand more forbearance from an unemployed American family man in Detroit, who has to manage without the blessings of a German or a Swedish welfare state, because he is American? Are a disenchantment with politics and loss of confidence in “the powers that be” to be expected more of a war widow in Texas? Is the mixture of growing inequality and absolute political stagnation in the no-go areas of New Orleans more bearable than in a French banlieu? And however lowly one’s station, in the past one was still an American, a citizen of the “greatest Goddam country in the world”.

After the Grand Old Party had won a majority in the Senate, Congress practically shut up shop. Political rifts became deeper. Democracy does not function without consent, however, and in the US that consent has not existed for years. What use is democracy if it literally, as in Detroit, turns off the water? What use is democracy if it shamelessly favours the rich? The land of unlimited opportunity became a poverty trap for many Americans.

It wasn’t Donald Trump who pointed out this betrayal in the primaries, but rather Bernie Sanders. He cut broad swathes into Hillary Clinton’s election programme. After her encounter with her rival, Clinton had to position herself much further to the left than many had expected. As if she had taken a crash-course in fiscal stimulus theory, she explained that she wanted to use the first 100 days of her period of office for “the greatest investment in new jobs since the Second World War” and to put money into the dilapidated US transport infrastructure.

But it’s Donald Trump who has perfected the art of riding the wave of postmodern politics. Under its aegis he has broken with everything that has held true so far: morality, social values, traditions. His waves have broken over prevailing taboos and absolutes alike. He alone has dared to go so far out on a limb, and then wait for the next media wave, counting on the slogan “Make America great again” to enable him to ride it successfully once again. This approach represents a closed loop and is perfectly logical, given that where postmodernity has elevated relativity to the highest principle it makes its arbitrariness unassailable. It recognises nothing as absolute, nothing as totalitarian. When everything is possible and everything is true, social norms or morality no longer apply, because lies go with the territory and even violence (against political opponents) or terror (with the help of nuclear weapons) are no obstacle to a Donald Trump. And isn’t that what has made him a winner?

Not only America, but also Europe urgently needs a new social cement, a transatlantic bridge built on pillars that represent freedom, security and the empowerment of every member of our society to participate in it. Strong public institutions could form the framework of such a bridge. Frameworks of rules have to be put together, but not only for the global financial markets or world trade. Only together can we rid the world of the brutalisations of modernity and postmodernity. Obligations, humanity, empathy, plurality, norms and solidarity must (again) become our frame of reference. There is a difference between good and evil, between truth and lies, and making this self-evident again will be the fresh elixir of life for our democracies.

Around 75 years before Philip Roth, another writer, the great American social critic and 1930 Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis, in his novel It Can’t Happen Here, described a fascist takeover in Washington. Maybe Donald Trump is the last warning shot for us all and on both sides of the Atlantic: such things can and do happen here!

Michèle Auga is the Head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Department for Western Europe and North America at FES Headquarters in Berlin. Prior to this she was the Executive Director of FES New York - a liaison office to the United Nations.

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21. THIS IS WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION - It’s going to be ugly.
by Rebecca Grant
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(The Nation - 14 December 2016)

The election of Donald Trump has forced American women to reckon with a future in which the “tyranny of reproduction” looms large. This fearful vision of the future is simultaneously a plunge into the past, into the world before legal abortion and prescription birth control when to have sex was to tempt fate and unwanted pregnancies could feel like fatal mistakes.

The question surrounding the impending Trump-Pence administration is not if its members will attempt to erode women’s rights and encroach on their bodily autonomy—it’s when, how, and in what order. Organizations that promote reproductive rights are preparing for the onslaught to come, sifting through the barrage of gynophobic bombast to identify the most serious risks and plan accordingly.

From overturning Roe V. Wade to upticks in clinic violence, there are a range of concerns that leading reproductive rights organizations cite as their top priorities.

The Three Branches

Trump has said that overturning Roe v. Wade would “happen automatically” if he was elected and that the legality of abortion would go back to the states. Pence, a lifelong opponent of reproductive rights, has said that a Trump-Pence administration would consign the historic ruling to the “ash heap of history.” With one Supreme Court vacancy to fill, and possibly more to come, this may not be an empty threat.

“Donald Trump has the opportunity to nominate a regressive justice who will roll back progress on reproductive freedom, and it’s possible he will get SCOTUS appointments beyond this one,” said Kaylie Hanson Long, national communications director for NARAL. “The list of names he has suggested is really scary.”

Take, for example, short list pick William Pryor of Alabama, who has described abortion as murder and Roe v. Wade as “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history.”

While the Supreme Court vacancy represents a widely held point of concern, not all reproductive rights advocates think SCOTUS could or would overturn the decision.

“Despite what Trump said about Roe being overturned and the VP-Elect’s position on abortion, we know that the Court has upheld the right to abortion for over 40 years,” said Amanda Allen, the Senior State Legislative Counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “The Constitution does not permit states to say, ‘Okay, you can just access this Constitutional right elsewhere.’”

However, even without a Supreme Court bench stacked against abortion, President Trump will have plenty of opportunities to restrict reproductive rights in the lower courts. Kierra Johnson, the Executive Director of URGE, said this is one of her gravest concerns—and one of the most overlooked.

“It’s not the sexiest topic, but the issue of judicial appointments deserves some real attention,” Johnson said. “It’s easy to forget that the President also appoints federal judges, potentially hundreds of them. These judges will have an impact long after the next election. Right now, many state level abortion restrictions are moving through the courts or are currently being blocked by a federal judge. New judges that are hostile to abortion rights could have a chilling effect on places where it is already difficult to get an abortion.”

Conservative-dominated legislatures—at the federal, state, and local levels—are also a top concern of reproductive rights organizations, who are worried about the bills lawmakers will attempt to push through under the reign of Trump.

“We are keeping an eye on the 20 week ban—It’s a bill that has come up in multiple congresses and Donald Trump is on record as supporting it,” said Hanson Long. “Of course, we know that this bill would have the effect of restricting a woman’s healthcare in some of the most complex healthcare situations imaginable.”

In addition to the legislatures and the courts, reproductive-rights advocates say that Trump’s cabinet and administrative picks—to entities like the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the Food and Drug Administration—will have a drastic impact on women’s lives. These appointees will be able to hack away at reproductive rights through their dominion over issues like whether telemedicine is available to people in rural areas, whether or not students have access to medically accurate sexual health education, and the labeling of medication abortions.

Tom Price, Trump’s pick to lead the HHS, raises a cacophony of alarm bells. This is a man who participated in efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, who co-sponsored an extreme “personhood” bill and the 2015 Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act—a 20-week abortion ban based on junk science. He is also a fierce opponent of the Affordable Care Act and its birth-control benefit, which requires insurers to cover FDA-approved contraceptive methods.

“Tom Price poses a grave threat to women’s health in this country,” said Cecile Richards, president of  the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement. “From his plan to take no-copay birth control away from 55 million women and allow insurance companies to charge women more for the same health coverage, to his opposition to safe and legal abortion, Price could take women back decades.”

Cutting Off Funding

The prime directive of the anti-abortion movement is, of course, to eliminate abortion. Evidence shows that easy access to free birth control dramatically reduces abortion rates. And yet, the politicians most vociferously endeavoring to restrict abortion are also working to pulverize pathways to affordable birth control. Trump and his ilk want to “repeal and replace” the ACA, and Pence has made defunding Planned Parenthood, by cutting off Title X family planning funding, a personal crusade. These actions would not only throttle access to contraception and abortion, but also to other critical services that help prevent negative health outcomes, such as as cervical cancer, HIV and other STIs, infertility, and preterm and low-birth-weights.

“When women lose access to affordable, reliable reproductive-health care, they not only experience higher rates of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, but they lose the ability to make to make informed decisions about their reproductive lives,” said Katey Zeh, the board chair of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. “Creating a family is sacred work that requires thoughtful decision-making.”

Dismantling the ACA, cutting Title X funding, and codifying the Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal Medicaid funding for abortion services (except in extreme cases), will have a disproportionate effect on members of marginalized populations, who don’t have hundreds of dollars on hand to shell out for reproductive-health services. In the case of abortion, these measures would render it inaccessible to all but the most privileged women—those who can afford the procedure, cover necessary travel expenses and logistics, take time off work, and/or secure childcare. Thus the burden of enduring unwanted pregnancies and supporting unplanned-for children will overwhelmingly land onto those who are already the most vulnerable.

“When politicians deny coverage of abortion care, the harm falls hardest on those who can’t go to another state to get the care they need—such as families with low incomes, people of color, immigrant women, and youth,” said Jessica González-Rojas, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. “Latinas and other women of color are more likely to experience unintended pregnancy, and less likely to be able to pay for an abortion out of pocket, since systemic barriers, such as the wage gap, hinder Latinas’ ability to be in charge of their reproductive decisions.”

Without Title X funding, many clinics will have to close. This will make it harder for women to get contraception, and if they get pregnant, harder to get an abortion. Renee Bracey Sherman, Senior Public Affairs Manager of the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), said that clinic closures cause increased wait times at remaining clinics, which can push patients later into their pregnancies. This means fewer clinics can see them, as well as more complex procedures and increased costs.

“As abortion access continues to be eroded, people are finding ways to self-induce their abortions,” she said. “There’s no such thing as no abortion. There’s simply safe, and unsafe abortion, or legal and criminal abortion. And we’re at the point in which states are making abortion extremely inaccessible, then criminalizing people for attempting to get health care.”

A Climate of Hostility

The criminalization of pregnant women is a worrying trend that’s been gaining ground in states over the past few years, and reproductive-rights groups anticipate this trend will accelerate under Trump’s rule.

“In several states, women, particularly women of color, have been arrested for or on suspicion of self-inducing their abortions, or after a miscarriage,” Bracey Sherman said. “No one should feel unsafe or risk arrest simply for seeking an abortion. It’s clear that under a Trump administration, he will stop at nothing to inflict the cruelest punishment on people seeking abortions, just as he promised while running.”

While Trump retreated from his statement that women who get illegal abortions should be punished, his and Pence’s anti-abortion rhetoric puts American women at risk by exacerbating the stigma that already pervades reproductive healthcare and by setting a national tone that will embolden politicians who seek to strip away women’s rights.

“Having people at all levels of government who are anti-choice may give a lot of people in state legislatures even more permission to introduce incredibly extreme anti-choice bills,” said Hanson Long, of NARAL. “And if you assume that there are anti-choice justices at different levels, there may be a better chance that even the most extreme anti-choice bills could stay on the books.”

The permissiveness and extreme rhetoric is also likely to embolden abortion opponents, who may channel that acceptance of extremism into violence against women and providers.

“We do constant surveying and have seen that the harassment and threats towards clinics have increased in the past two years,” said Ellie Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “The extremism of the positions these politicians have put forth is fostering a climate of violence, as is the attitude that women don’t count.”

These are just a few in the ever-lengthening catalog of risks that the Trump-Pence administration threatens to inflict on women and their families, but members of the reproductive-rights community, as well as millions of women who did not vote for Trump and his regressive, incoherent vision of what America should be, refuse to go back.

========================================
22. HERE’S WHAT DOGS SEE WHEN THEY WATCH TELEVISION
by Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas
========================================
(The Conversation - September 8, 2016)

Dog owners often notice their pets watching televisions, computer screens and tablets. But what is going on in their pooch’s head? Indeed, by tracking their vision using similar methods used on humans, research has found that domestic dogs do prefer certain images and videos.

This research indicates that dogs have a preference towards watching other canines – but our studies have also discovered that sound often initially attracts dogs towards television and other devices. Favoured sounds include dogs barking and whining, people giving dog-friendly commands and praise, and the noise of toys squeaking.

How dogs watch TV is very different to the way humans do, however. Instead of sitting still, dogs will often approach the screen to get a closer look, and walk repeatedly between their owner and the television. They are essentially fidgety, interactive viewers.

What dogs can see on the screen is also different to humans. Dogs have dichromatic vision – they have two types of colour receptor cells and see colour within two spectrums of light: blue and yellow. The use of colour within media is very important for dogs and explains why canine TV channel, DogTV prioritises these colours in its programming. Dogs’ eyes are also more sensitive to movement and vets suspect that the improved flicker rate that has come from the shift from standard to high definition television has allowed dogs to better perceive media shown on TV.
But do they enjoy it?

Multiple screens have also been used in research to see whether dogs can pick what to watch. Early research has shown that when presented with three screens, dogs are unable to decide, instead preferring to watch one screen no matter what is on it. This has still to be tested with two screens, and possibly more than three.
Oh, just let me watch … Shutterstock

While science has shown that dogs can engage with television and that they prefer certain programmes, it has yet to delve into the complex question of whether they actually enjoy it. We as humans will often watch distressing footage or videos that make us feel a range of emotions, from distress to anger and horror. It’s not always because it makes us feel good. We just don’t know whether similar factors motivate dogs to watch.

What a dog does engage with, however, differs from dog to dog, depending on their personality, experience and preference. This is speculated to be influenced by what their owner watches, with dogs following their human’s gaze and other communication signals, such as gestures and head turns.

Dogs, unlike humans, will also often have very short interactions, often under three seconds, with the media, preferring to glance at the TV rather than focus on it like humans. Research has found that even with media specifically designed for dogs, they will still spend the majority of their time watching nothing at all. The ideal television for dogs, therefore, should contain lots of snippets rather than long storytelling scenarios.

But while dogs have their own TV channel, and have been shown to prefer to watch other dogs through short interactions with specially coloured programmes, many mysteries remain. Nevertheless, technology has the potential to provide entertainment for domestic canines, improving the welfare of dogs left home alone and in kennels. Just don’t expect a doggie version of the Radio Times just yet.

========================================
23. IN SECULAR FRANCE, CATHOLIC CONSERVATISM MAKES A COMEBACK
by James McAuley
========================================
(The Washington Post,  December 8, 2016)

CHARTRES, France — For many French voters, François Fillon is more than a leading contender for president in next year’s elections: He is viewed as a crusader in the throes of a holy war.

When Fillon handily won both rounds of France’s conservative primaries last month, he campaigned mostly on a genteel conservatism of economic restructuring and strengthened national security. But in a country that firmly defines itself as “secular” in its constitution, Fillon’s unexpected victory represented an astonishing prospect: the political reawakening of Catholic France after decades of slumber.

As right-wing and populist leaders across Europe — such as Viktor Orban in Hungary and Marine Le Pen in France — increasingly turn toward Christian values, Fillon has ignited a wave of nostalgia for a nation of traditional families and quaint village churches. It is a nation that he and many of his supporters say is under siege from the dual threats of multiculturalism and Islamist terrorism. As evidence, conservatives cite the slaying of an 85-year-old village priest in July by Islamic State-inspired militants, explaining it as an assault on the essence of France.

Fillon, the presidential nominee of the center-right party now known as the Republicans, has repeatedly pledged to defend “family values” — which has often translated into staunch opposition to same-sex marriage and, lately, to adoption by same-sex parents. When the fervent Roman Catholic responds to terrorist violence, he often does so in the lofty language of religious rapture. The war against the Islamic State, he wrote in his recent book, is “a battle of the end times,” sounded with “trumpets of the apocalypse.”

In short, what he promises is a return to his nation’s roots. And in his eyes, those roots are fundamentally Catholic.

Although France is renowned for strict prohibitions on religious displays in public spaces — notably on certain types of veils worn by many Muslim women — it is also a country of some 45,000 Catholic churches and one whose public holidays are almost exclusively Christian in origin. France does not keep statistics on race or religion, but a vast majority of its citizens are said to be either practicing Catholics or agnostics from Catholic backgrounds.

Some insist that France would not exist without the Catholic Church: The nation’s oft-invoked creation myth begins, after all, with the baptism of Clovis I, who united the kingdom of the Franks in the 6th century. And if the French Revolution of 1789 sought to banish religion from public life, it never eradicated religion from private life.

“We have a secular state but not a secular society,” said Matthieu Rougé, pastor of Paris’s St. Ferdinand des Ternes Catholic Church and an expert in political theology.

“The majority of the French are recognized as cultural Catholics. They may have studied in a Catholic school, they marry in churches, and they baptize their children. They are Catholic,” he said. “All our streets, the names of our towns and villages — everything is related in some way to the Catholic faith.”

In provincial towns like Chartres — and in Fillon’s native northwest region — that ancient relationship is apparent everywhere. Anchored by a majestic medieval cathedral, Chartres is home to a relic said to be the tunic that the Virgin Mary wore at the birth of Jesus. In a country where a majority of the public opposed the “burkini” on grounds that it violated secular values, this fragment of cloth draws thousands of pilgrims every year.

Voters in Chartres said Fillon appealed to them because he defended Catholic virtues that, in their eyes, France has forgotten as it has evolved into an increasingly diverse and cosmopolitan society.

“Mr. Fillon is a true Catholic, a man of tradition and rooted to the place he is from,” said Odile Steinmetz, 82, a retiree and practicing Catholic, who voted for him in both of the primary rounds.

Philippe and Sandrine Mathieu, 51 and 41, respectively, work in a framing shop near Chartres Cathedral. Although they described themselves as non-practicing Catholics, both said Fillon’s Catholic identity appealed to them at least as much as their perception of his seriousness.

“For 20, 30 years, there’s no social cohesion in France,” said Philippe Mathieu. “We’ve lost our values.”

Asked to define these values, Sandrine Mathieu explained that they had sent their children to local Catholic schools instead of public schools because “there they say, ‘Bonjour, madame.’ ”

These sentiments, analysts say, suggest the emergence of a new French conservatism increasingly focused on the concept of patrimony, an amorphous sense of cultural inheritance largely unrelated to matters of policy or the economy.

“These voters consider themselves as legitimate defenders,” said Denis Pelletier, a historian who specializes in Catholicism. “They are defending France. There is economic liberalism there, but mostly there are traditional family values, authority and a sense of the moral order.”

Members of the clergy explain this increasing embrace of religion in the context of recent terrorist attacks, which they say have drawn many secular French Catholics back into churches for the first time in years.

“In a moment of uncertainty,” said Pierre Durieux, an official in the Catholic diocese of Lyon, “the Christian faith becomes a source of solace for so many. The church is a community that allows people to continue to explore their strong emotions, confront their fears, through ritual and prayer.”

For Steinmetz in Chartres, the church is the last line of defense in France’s war on terrorism.

“With Daesh,” she said, using an alternate name for the Islamic State, “we have to take back our country and guard its Catholic values. Because they want to kill us all.”

 James McAuley is a reporter based in Paris.

========================================
24. THE CONDITION OF LABOUR AND DEMOCRACY UNDER THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IN TURKEY
by Mehmet Erman Erol
========================================
(Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute - 16 December 2016)

Turkey’s AKP government is using the state of emergency to curtail labour rights and introduce regressive economic reforms

Following the failed coup on 15 July by supporters of the Gülenist movement within the army, Turkey’s ruling political Islamist AKP government introduced a state of emergency with an ‘aim of taking swift and effective steps required to eliminate the threat against the democracy, rule of law and the rights and freedoms of the citizens’. The government declared that the state of emergency was ‘not against the people, but against the state’. Initially announced for three months but extended for another three months until January 20th 2017, President Erdoğan has now implied it could be extended further.

In contrast to the government’s ostensible aims, the picture since the announcement of the state of emergency is quite bleak for Turkey’s ‘democracy, rule of law and the rights and freedoms of its citizens’. On the night of the coup attempt, President Erdoğan called the developments a ‘gift from God’ as they would provide justification and legitimacy for restructuring the state and society and achieving his ‘high political goals’. Under the state of emergency, the AKP rules by decree and the role of parliament has been undermined further.  Governmental decrees have been used to cleanse dissidents from state cadres and silence opposition forces; not only the putschists.  Such decisions are final: the Consitutional Court has declared it will not audit these decrees so any reversals are at the government’s mercy.  Within this political context, the ultimate aim of President Erdoğan is to ‘constitutionalise’ this de facto situation and introduce an executive presidency where he, in his words, can run the country like a business and supplant the ‘many-voiced’ parliamentary system.

Since the declaration of the state of emergency, violations of basic rights have been widespread: from arbitrary dismissals to torture claims and the further narrowing of press freedom and freedom of expression. Many dissident journalists and writers have been arrested and the leaders (including MPs and mayors) of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party have also been arrested and are in prison. The government is debating re-introducing the death penalty and an ultra-nationalist and extremely authoritarian discourse confronts critical thinking and dissident voices.

Within this authoritarian political climate state-labour relations are also being significantly restructured. Over 100,000 public sector workers (teachers, academics, judges, civil servants, army and police staff) were dismissed in the purge that followed the coup. These dismissals targeted not only the putschists or alleged followers of Gülen, but included members of the unions organised under the left-wing Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions (KESK).  Approximately 10,000 teachers who are members of the left-wing Education and Science Workers Union (Eğitim-Sen) were also dismissed; only half were allowed to return to duty recently. The government has started to hire new teachers to fill vacant posts, however newly hired teachers are being employed on temporary contracts, rather than on a permanent basis like their dismissed predecessors.  This paves the way for further precariousness in the education sector.  In the university sector, many signatories of the ‘infamous’ ‘Academics for Peace’ declaration from earlier this year have also been sacked.

Since the announcement of the state of emergency, workers’ protests across Turkey have been confronted with intensified police repression, detention, and arbitrary actions by employers  that rely on the current ‘securitised’ atmosphere.  Furthermore, the government has introduced regulations on labour relations via statutory decrees which have nothing to do with the underlying reasons behind the state of emergency.  For example, decree No. 678 issued on 22 November means that strikes in public transportation in metropolitan municipalities and the banking sector can be ‘postponed’ by the government, if they are deemed threatening to ‘general health’ and ‘national security’ and, in the banking sector, if they are threatening ‘economic and financial stability’. This shows how workers’ rights are being subordinated to profitability and financial accumulation imperatives in the banking sector via the force of the state of emergency.

Moreover, the term ‘postponement’ is dubious because it really means the cancellation of the strike. Under the current legislation, the strike can be postponed for 60 days, but is not automatically permitted again after that period.  For this to happen, the administrative jurisdiction needs to inhibit or cancel the government’s decision; otherwise, postponement means indefinite cancellation.  We also have to note that just before decree 678 was issued there was a significant strike by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality public transport workers which lasted for 8 days (8-16 November) and involved 340 workers. The AKP government did not lose any time in preventing such a thing happening again and did not hesitate to do so using its state of emergency powers.

The ban on strikes in metropolitan municipality public transport services and the banking sector was first imposed by union legislation of the military dictatorship of the 1980s and was kept in new legislation introduced by the AKP in 2012. The Constitutional Court found this to be against constitutional rights in 2014 and lifted the ban.  Now, however, as mentioned earlier, the very same court has decided not to audit governmental decrees issued under the state of emergency.  This means the Constitutional Court is effectively allowing the AKP to make regulations against its previous verdicts in a situation where there are now no legal channels to reverse decisions like this.

There have also been important developments in economic policy since the failed coup attempt, with detrimental effects on labour. The already fragile economy was showing signs of serious stagnation and contraction following the coup.  The Turkish Lira has constantly lost value and hit record lows since then and this has been combined with ratings cuts from credit rating agencies. Official unemployment increased to 11.3 per cent and there was a sharp decline in industrial production. Finally, it was revealed that the Turkish economy contracted for the first time since 2009, in Q3 of 2016.

One of the early responses of the AKP government to these developments was to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund in order to fund the ‘big projects’ of the government; the reality was that Turkey – having current account and budget deficits – had no material basis to create such a fund which would otherwise inescapably entail transfers from labour to capital in various ways (such as revenues drawn from privatisation and the Unemployment Insurance Fund). The Sovereign Wealth Fund will also operate without parliamentary scrutiny and audits by the Turkish Court of Accounts.  Another measure has been to introduce a new compulsory private pension system for wage earners, which paves the way for privatisation in the pension system. Government officials argue that this will help increase low-level savings in the economy; however, the reason why savings are low is because wages have been stagnant.  Many workers increasingly rely  on debt to compensate stagnant wages (the household debt to disposable income ratio increased to over 50 per cent in 2014, from 7.5 per cent in 2003). In the wake of the coup and against a backdrop of decreasing demand, the government has loosened constraints on borrowing for households and extended repayment periods for credit cards and consumer loans, thus encouraging further financialisation and greater indebtedness. More recently, the Economic Coordination Council declared new measures in order to remove barriers to accumulation which were welcomed by business.

In general, these changes to economic policy have not been made through governmental decrees.  Yet the government has been able to make them because the general authoritarian atmosphere serves to reduce societal, political and legal challenges. Management of the economy was highly insulated from democratic pressures and interventions even before the state of emergency thanks to the technocratic-authoritarian restructuring of the early 2000s. However, the state of emergency further strengthened this de-democratised structure and functions to limit opposition to this economic restructuring.

Overall, then, the picture for labour and democracy in Turkey since July is bleak. Workers’ and unions’ rights are being curtailed, whilst under the cover of the state of emergency the government is regressively restructuring the economy, with the burden being placed upon workers.  It is highly uncertain about what will happen beyond 20 January, but what is clear so far is that the experience of democratic forces in Turkish society under the state of emergency has proved to be very painful indeed.

[Mehmet Erman Erol, Research Fellow, Ordu University, Turkey]

========================================
25. BARGAINING AWAY JUSTICE: INDIA, PAKISTAN, AND THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICS OF IMPUNITY FOR THE BANGLADESH GENOCIDE
Gary J. Bass
========================================
 International Security
Fall 2016, Vol. 41, No. 2, Pages 140-187
(doi:10.1162/ISEC_a_00258)

Gary J. Bass is Professor of Politics and International Affairs in the Politics Department and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

This article expands the study of the politics of international criminal justice, restoring the crucial but overlooked case of Bangladesh, today the largest population confronting the aftermath of genocide. Bangladesh is one of the most important cases where the prosecution of war criminals was foiled, resulting in a disturbing impunity for one of the bloodiest incidents of the Cold War. Using unexplored declassified Indian government documents from archives in Delhi, this article uses detailed process-tracing to reveal for the first time why India and Bangladesh abandoned their plans to put accused Pakistani war criminals on trial after the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. In the face of Pakistani defiance, the Indian and Bangladeshi governments reluctantly bargained away justice in order to pursue their national security, with peacemaking with Pakistan proving more important than war crimes trials. This episode furthers the general understanding of both the causes and results of impunity for mass atrocities, while extending the study of international justice into Asia. Bangladesh's tragic experience shows the primacy of international security, while also tentatively suggesting that even when amnesty is necessary for peacemaking, it can leave a toxic legacy for future politics.
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/ISEC_a_00258#.WFTSioVa_C8

========================================
26. INFANTILIZATION OF WOMEN IN PUNJAB’S LEFT: Nikita Azad
========================================
I would like to focus on THE left, specifically, Punjab’s left since that is where I have been working for the last three and a half years. The observations and analysis stem from my personal experiences as well as that of other women comrades. I am not going to point out the faults in a particular organization, but only comment on and cite the lack of feminist political consciousness in left circles of the area.
https://kafila.online/2016/12/16/infantilization-of-women-in-punjabs-left-nikita-azad/

========================================
27. INDIA - MODI'S NOTE BAN: HOW BJP IS STRUGGLING TO DEFEND ITS RECKLESS BOSS | Bharat Bhushan 
========================================
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is suddenly wary of its electoral prospects in Uttar Pradesh. Before demonetisation, it was supremely confident of victory and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rallies drew enthusiastic crowds.
http://www.catchnews.com/politics-news/modi-s-note-ban-how-bjp-is-struggling-to-defend-its-reckless-boss-1482244887.html

========================================
28. PAUL FLEWERS AND JOHN MCILROY (EDITORS), 1956: JOHN SAVILLE, EP THOMPSON AND THE REASONER 
(Merlin Press, pp 450, £20).
========================================
When Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin in his ‘Secret Speech’ in 1956 the leaders of the Communist Party of Great Britain attempted to deal with an unprecedented and unwelcome situation by carrying on as best as normal. Many party members were not satisfied with their prevarications, and one result was The Reasoner, a substantial duplicated magazine produced by party historians John Saville and EP Thompson. The three issues of The Reasoner gave an outlet to critical party members’ feelings; for the leadership this was mutinous behaviour. Dismayed by the party leaders’ endorsement of the Soviet invasion of Hungary, Saville and Thompson, along with thousands of others, resigned their party membership.

Although The Reasoner has been mentioned in many historical studies, its text has never been republished until now. This book reproduces all three issues, together with key CPGB statements on the issues that the magazine raised. John McIlroy has provided an extensive introduction that investigates the history of intellectuals within the CPGB and an essay that analyses the political evolution of John Saville, and Paul Flewers has provided an essay that assesses EP Thompson’s views on Stalinism and the Soviet experience.

Contents

1.  Preface
2.  Chronology
3.  John McIlroy, Communist Intellectuals and 1956: John Saville, Edward Thompson and The Reasoner
4.  Documents I — Harry Pollitt, Rajani Palme Dutt, George Matthews, John Saville, EP Thompson, Derek Kartun, CPGB Political Committee
5.  The Reasoner, No 1
6.  The Reasoner, No 2
7.  Documents II — CPGB Political and Executive Committee on The Reasoner
8.  The Reasoner, No 3
9.  Ronald Meek, The Marxist-Leninist’s Song
10.  John McIlroy, John Saville and Stalinism: An Exploration
11.  Paul Flewers, E P Thompson and the Soviet Experience
12.  Index

Paul Flewers is the author of The New Civilisation? Understanding Stalin’s Soviet Union 1929-1941.

John McIlroy is a Professor of Employment Relations at Middlesex University Business School.

Publisher’s website http://www.merlinpress.co.uk/acatalog/1956.html

========================================
29. BOTH A FISH AND AN ICHTHYOLOGIST: ON VIKTOR SHKLOVSKY’S DIVERSE ACHIEVEMENT
by Adrian Nathan West
========================================
[. . .] Shklovsky, who asserted in the Technique of Writing Craft — a 1927 manual for proletarian would-be authors — that “there are no clear demarcations between imaginative literature and what we call non-fiction,” composed novels, memoirs, film scripts, and essays that put the very notion of genre into question. Viktor Shklovsky: A Reader, thoughtfully translated and edited by Alexandra Berlina, is a valiant reminder of the extraordinary versatility, humor, brilliance, and sensitivity the Formalist label has come to conceal. […]
https://tinyurl.com/zv3r3h4


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