by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Manik Sarkar (file photo)
By Sujit Chakraborty,
Agartala : Manik Sarkar, who has been Chief Minister of Tripura for the past 20 years and is attempting a fifth term, has accused the Modi government of being in cahoots with the separatist tribal party, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), and declares that the people of the northeastern state will fight “tooth and nail” to prevent its division.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership is using the terror collaborator IPFT as hunting cocks and plotting multi-faceted conspiracies against the Left Front government in Tripura,” Sarkar told IANS in an interview ahead of the February 18 assembly polls.
Sarkar, 69, has accused the BJP-led central government of putting up an economic blockade against the Left Front government in Tripura, and of all the top leaders of the saffron party and central ministers, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “pouncing on the state like eagles” in order to oust the Left from power.
“As part of their conspiracy, a series of meetings was held between the IPFT leaders and government officials, Minister in the PMO Jitendra Singh, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and finally with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi — but everything was kept secret and nothing was shared about these meetings with the state government,” said Sarkar, who has been in power since 1998.
On the IPFT’s demand for a separate state, the Chief Minister said that “the people of Tripura will fight tooth and nail to thwart the division of Tripura”.
He said that Tripura’s post-independence history has been “marked by ethnic peace and amity and even though fissiparous forces tried to disturb peace for a brief while, Tripura maintained perfect ethnic harmony”.
“When terrorist outfits realised that their demand of ‘Sovereign Tripura’ would never be accomplished, then the IPFT raised the separate state demand to drive a wedge between tribals and non-tribals,” said Sarkar.
Sarkar, who has termed the poll tie-up between the BJP and IPFT an “unholy alliance”, said it was aimed at dividing Tripura. “But we will not let this happen.”
“Despite being a national party, the BJP has no policy — or it would not forge an alliance with IPFT,” said the Chief Minister, adding that the tribal party was “destroying the future of the tribals”.
“The IPFT, with support from BJP, is trying to remove Tripura’s name from history. So long as Left parties are in the state this detrimental plan would not be allowed to happen,” he stated.
Since 2009, the IPFT has been agitating for upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) into a separate tribal state. Most major political parties, including the CPI-M, Congress, BJP and other tribal-based parties, have rejected the demand, saying it is not practical to divide the small state which has a population of around four million.
Attacking the Modi government, Sarkar said: “Every month four to five central ministers would be visiting Tripura. After holding meetings with us and state officials, and voicing appreciation at the state government’s achievements, these central ministers would go to the BJP office here or address party meetings where they would make slanderous speeches against my government. When our officials write to the Centre telling them about the reality, it just keeps mum.”
Taking on the Prime Minister, he said that Modi during his election campaign accused the Tripura government of not having spent central funds. “But the central government itself has either reduced or stopped funding to the state under many schemes and projects, including MGNREGA,” Sarkar said.
Sarkar, a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Politburo member, claimed that the Centre has “not been providing the Rs 1,700 crore-Rs 2,000 crore” due to the state every year. “They have also been ignoring our appeals and letters in this regard,” he added.
Among India’s Left leaders Sarkar is one of the main faces and key political figures. Tripura has been ruled by the Left Front since 1978 with a five-year break between 1988 and 1993, when the Congress and its tribal party ally Tripura Upajati Juba Samity were in power.
The Chief Minister said that Prime Minister Modi and the BJP should first implement their 2014 poll pledges, and then raise fingers against the Left Front government, which he said has drawn the attention of the entire country for its good governance and also won many national awards.
“The BJP leadership, after having failed to create anarchy, tried to promulgate President’s Rule in Tripura. It motivated the IPFT to blockade the state’s vital National Highway and lone railway line, like in Manipur, and it also directed officials not to release the due central funds. All this is besides the continued malicious campaign against the Left leadership,” he added.
“The Narendra Modi government’s policies and the activities of the BJP workers have created a deep crisis for the entire country, and led to panic among the minorities and others,” Sarkar said.
Sarkar said his government had made school education free and students get their text books free of cost on the day the results of their annual exams are declared. “In terms of education we have moved far ahead, and Tripura is a leading state not only in education but in all indexes of human development.”
The Manik Sarkar government — in a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country — has launched more than 30 social pensions and schemes from its own funds to benefit over 400,000 people belonging to all sections.
Sarkar, who has been in the election fray since 1981, has been elected to the state assembly six times — in 1981 (by-polls), 1983, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013. He is seeking re-election in the February 18 polls from the Dhanpur (western Tripura) assembly constituency for the fifth consecutive time.
(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Rahul Jain
By Vatsal Srivastava,
New Delhi : Whether you believe in cryptocurrencies or not, the asset class has gained a lot of traction and acceptability among market participants. India is becoming one of the biggest trading hubs of cryptos and things will only get bigger once policymakers lay out a clear regulatory framework for this space.
Like equities, investors in the crypto space must understand what they are buying into and what value/utility proposition the digital tokens hold in the long term, says Rahul Raj, Co-founder and CEO of Koinex, India’s leading cryptocurrency exchange. Excerpts from an interview:
Q: Your thoughts on what the Finance Minister said about cryptocurrencies in his budget speech: Do you think he has killed India’s cryptocurrency party?
A: The Finance Minister’s comments were leaning towards the need for a regulated framework for the digital currency ecosystem, rather than a complete ban. This was corroborated by Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Garg in his statement about India hoping to roll out a regulatory framework before the end of this fiscal year. The government, in fact, has replaced the idiom cryptocurrency with crypto-assets, referring to possibly treating it as a commodity under SEBI guidelines. The government is focused on mitigating all possible illegal financing activities which could revolve around Bitcoin and we are in agreement with this thought. It is important to build a robust and comprehensive framework to regulate this space.
Q: Jaitley said India wants to promote the use of blockchain technology but reaffirmed a negative view on crypto-assets. Do you feel that thinking of blockchain independently of cryptocurrency transactions is redundant at the moment?
A: Blockchain technology is a huge technological breakthrough and is evolving every day. If you see how blockchain functions, it is by design, applicable across sectors that use recording and updating of data. So applications of a transactional nature will always be one of the foremost users of this technology — and so we do see crypto-assets as being an integral part of the blockchain universe. However, the technology will also find relevance in various other industries, including advertising, retail and social media, and government sectors like property office, electorate office, judiciary, etc.
Q: Many Indians are trading on your exchange. On some days, volumes in Ripple are the 20th largest globally, according to coinmarketcap.com. What makes you bullish about the future?
A: As per industry sleuths, in the last 18-24 months, $3.5 billion of trade volumes have been recorded in India. It accounts for over 10 percent of the global Bitcoin trading volumes. With the conversations regarding the regulatory roadmap going forward, we are optimistic about the market and find a scalable business opportunity as a lot more participation is expected on the retail front.
Q: While registering on Koinex, there is a thorough KYC process. What challenges do you see going ahead, especially with respect to your payment partners?
A: We were the first open-book, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange (launched in August 2017). We were also the first to deploy a thorough KYC system… We need users to upload their PAN details, Aadhaar details, and their picture (which is verified using image mapping). Our payment systems were running smoothly, but we did face a few hiccups in the light of the recent apprehensions of the government. But we hope that when policymakers lay out a clear regulatory framework, the financial institutions will be open to partner with us. In terms of what more can be done, there can be a multi-tiered KYC process where we can categorise users in different groups such as HNIs, high traders or politically-exposed individuals. We have also launched our Koinex app to help users trade on the go.
Q: Do you see a good level of coordination between, say, the IT department, the RBI and the Finance Ministry when it comes to formulation of policy?
A: Absolutely. A committee was formed in December which includes members from all of the above. We are sure that all stakeholders will be involved after this committee releases its report on the cryptocurrency landscape in India, with its suggestions. We believe there will be a democratic process and there will be a public and industry opinion on the framework such that every stakeholder’s interests are best represented.
Q: The most iconic exchange in the world has launched Bitcoin futures in Chicago. Ethereum Exchange Traded Notes are being traded by institutional money on the Stockholm NASDAQ. Do you see crypto futures being traded in India?
A: Crypto-assets are still in their nascent stage in India and so it will be some time before we match up with the regulated markets. These are derivative products which need even more regulation. Derivative products are one step further than trading the asset itself.
Q: What security measures you have put in place to avoid a large-scale hack?
A: Most exchanges store their crypto pool offline in hardware wallets and it is not connected to the internet and hence is safe. We also administer traditional web layer security and blockchain security which armours the system from perils of session hijackings, SQL injections and DDoS attacks. We also have complete monitoring of all events and activities on the platform along with full record of this on a minute level. Koinex is India’s first multi-currency exchange with an open-book ledger format; in a short time the company grew to be one of the largest trading portals by volume. One of the key reasons for its success is the cutting-edge technology, proprietary trading engine, wallet and platform architectures, grade A security, user-centric UI/UX and tonnes of user-demanded features that makes it seamless for the users.
Q: Do you plan on introducing more products such as alt coins?
A: Yes, we always are looking at enhancing our product offerings, but these launches are strategic. A lot of due diligence is done on which new products to launch. We have a robust internal framework of many evaluation parameters to determine the relevance of the product in the market. The parameters include details of the parent company, the tech platform, acceptance, market cap, volumes, investor-backing, etc. Once the coin manages to score satisfactory results on these parameters we consider it for a launch.
Q: When do you think the market will be mature enough to take fiat, ie. the Indian Rupee, out of the picture? Do you believe if you offer XRP/BTC, there will still be substantial demand?
A: Crypto to crypto exchanges exist in overseas markets and this is something we will like to introduce as our users mature and the market gets bigger.
Q: What about the arbitrage opportunities that exist between domestic exchanges (like, say, BTC Zebpay and Koinex) as well as the price differential that exists between international markets and India?
A: Every exchange is a local market and thus illiquidity can lead to different prices. Arbitrage opportunities do exist. We want to make it clear that all the bids and asks you see in the publicly available order book are our users’, and we do not do any market-making or proprietary trading. The pricing mechanism is efficient and driven only by supply and demand dynamics. On the point about the premium of domestic crypto prices over the international dollar price, we can again attribute that to strong demand for these assets.
Q: The stance on the crypto universe seems too binary: Either people are for it or massively against it. What is your long-term structural view in this space?
A: Every new disruptive technology or innovation faces strong opposition because, as a society, we are averse to change. Technology will always be a step ahead because innovation comes first, followed by regulation. But like all other transformational technology, be it World Wide Web or artificial intelligence, even blockchain technology will bring a paradigm shift in our ecosystem. It is here to stay. Blockchain technology offers a transparent, secure and efficient peer-to-peer value transaction proposition and will eventually attain mainstream acceptance.
(Vatsal Srivastava is a Consulting Editor with IANS and a blockchain enthusiast. He can be reached at vatsal.sriv@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Shashi Tharoor
By Sarwar Kashani,
New Delhi : Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP and former Minister of State for External Affairs, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought “dynamism” to India’s foreign policy but lacks consistency in the country’s neighbourhood strategy.
In an interview with IANS, Tharoor particularly mentioned Pakistan and China in the light of the unending cross-border exchange of fire and the Doklam standoff, saying it has mostly been a flip-flop approach while dealing with the two immediate neighbours of India that belies the Prime Minister’s “neighborhood first” policy on geoeconomics and geopolitics.
He also said the reduction of foreign policy into “PR and marketing” exercises by the government didn’t bode well for India’s substantive status in the world.
“Modi has brought a lot of energy and dynamism to the conduct of (the country’s) foreign policy. He travels tirelessly and all of this is good. He makes a very energetic impression wherever he goes. That is the positive side,” Tharoor said, counting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s achievements on the foreign front.
He noted that “another positive” was the fact that many of the foreign policy initiatives of India that pre-date Modi continue under the government.
But, Tharoor said, there were areas where “we have concerns”.
“One is the complete incoherence of policy on Pakistan where he has veered up and down, and repeatedly up and down in a way that is not just confusing but bewildering,” he said, noting how a “saree-shawl diplomacy” and attending wedding and birthday celebrations have ended up in a complete “cold war” situation between the two countries.
Tharoor said that, on the one hand, while Modi keeps repeating that there would be no engagement with Pakistan till cross-border terror is stopped, on the other, “suddenly, unexpectedly announcements are made that the NSAs met in Bangkok”.
In the last two years, he said, ithings have become “worse”, referring to the increased number of terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
And, despite that, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart Nasir Khan Janjua in Bangkok again on December 25 last year, he said.
“We have seen, sadly, an increase in terror incidents… All of this suggest to me that there is a certain lack of stability and coherence in India’s Pakistan policy that really bodes ill.”
The second aspect of the concern, he said, was about the failure of the government to level with the Indian people on foreign policy issues.
“There is this reduction of foreign policy to PR and marketing which we have seen on the domestic issues. In domestic issues it does less harm, in foreign policy it does more harm because it affects India’s substantive place in the world and also the security of Indians.
He referred to the Doklam stand-off with China “where the whole disengagement was spun as a huge diplomatic victory”.
“It turns out that Chinese have moved only 200 metres away and they have reinforced themselves to an extraordinary extent on the same plateau so that tomorrow whenever snows melt, if we want to move, we will be in no condition to resist without provoking a war.”
He said the September 2016 “surgical strikes” against terror launch pads in Pakistan were also made into “a big triumph having neutralised terrorism.
“And terrorism has actually increased since then. So has the number of cross-border infiltration deaths…”
Tharoor said it was the duty of any Indian government to be honest with its people. “We worry about this over-emphasis on spin and under-emphasis on being straight with the public.”
(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at sarwar.k@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews, Politics
Sheila Dikshit
By Sarwar Kashani,
New Delhi : Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is not averse to returning to active politics if her party asks her because the time is ripe for the Congress to bounce back as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s credibility has hit “rock bottom” due to the “all-talk, no-action” politics of the BJP government.
But the 80-year-old Congress politician does “not have the confidence” to say if her party can beat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) riding a Modi wave in the 2019 general election.
“I don’t have the confidence to give you the answer on this. The Congress knows it well; its leader (President Rahul Gandhi) knows it well. Rahul is doing as much as he can and as much as is possible,” Dikshit told IANS in reply to a question on the Congress’ chances in the next Lok Sabha elections.
She, however, said if the Congress talked about real issues and didn’t get lured by the BJP’s Hindutva agenda, it can stage a comeback.
“We have to talk about issues, the aspirations of people that the Modi government has failed to address, failed to meet. People are suffering because of rising prices, people find it difficult to buy fuel, there are no jobs, India’s growth is declining… These should be our political planks.
“We have to scrutinise the promises made by the BJP and seek answers from Prime Minister Modi on why he has failed to keep them.”
She said BJP’s Hindutva narrative may no longer be saleable to the electorate of India because “by now they must have understood that Modi is all talk and no action”.
“Modi’s and the BJP’s credibility has hit rock bottom… it is shaken. The BJP has not delivered on its election promises. Mere foreign visits (by the Prime Minister) don’t bring jobs, don’t bring growth. The country has not progressed. In fact, it is on a regressive path. We will have to counter that,” the three-time Delhi Chief Minister said.
Asked if she was ready to return to active politics after she withdrew her nomination as the Congress’ chief ministerial face in last year’s Uttar Pradesh elections, Dikshit said: “I am ready, but am not seeking any role. I am underlining the word seeking. I am ready to take any role if the party asks me to.”
She said she withdrew from the Uttar Pradesh elections only after the Congress allied with the Samajwadi Party much against her wish.
“There was a mismatch. We fought elections with a slogan ’27 saal UP behaal’ (27 years of Uttar Pradesh’s sorry state). It was a reference to the number of years that the state remained in the hands of non-Congress governments, including the Samajwadi Party. However, the alliance contradicted the slogan and I voluntarily announced that I am stepping down.”
About Delhi politics, she said she won’t mind either returning to the capital where incumbent Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has also failed to keep the promises he made before coming to power.
She, however, regretted how “we underestimated” Kejriwal when he was debutting as a politician in Delhi and thought he won’t make unrealistic promises for contesting elections.
“Kejriwal made promises that he cannot keep because an elected government in Delhi has limited powers. He made promises without understanding the realities of Delhi’s limited statehood and today you see people are realising it. I am not sure if people at the grassroots level have understood it, but I know he (Kejriwal) won’t be able to do much about it.”
Having grown and lived most of her life in Delhi, Dikshit, who is largely credited with transforming the capital during her 15-year rule, said it “of course hurts” to see the city called unsafe for women or the crime capital of India.
She has penned a 175-page autobiography “Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life” (published by Bloomsbury India), recalling her childhood days cycling around the city in a carefree manner.
“The times were also such that it never occurred to my parents that something could go wrong if we were left largely to our own devices,” she recalls in the book, wishing if only those days of innocence could return and children of Delhi could be safe and carefree.
“Rape was not talked about, at least in our family and in our circle. We didn’t know what it was. In fact, I didn’t know what rape was until after many years of my marriage when I read about it. That was the age of innocence, those were times of innocence,” she said.
(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at sarwar.k@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews, Politics
By Sarwar Kashani and V.S. Chandrasekar,
New Delhi : The BJP government is looking to make a “major assault” on the Constitution if the ruling party gets a majority in both the Houses of Parliament, says Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who feels the attack on various constitutional provisions, like Article 370 on Kashmir and secularism, will be part of attempts to create a “Hindu rashtra” (nation).
Tharoor, a second-time Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, also feels that the Congress and like-minded secular parties should come together on a common platform to resist the Hindutva onslaught in the next Lok Sabha elections. Even the Left parties could come on that platform post elections if necessary, according to him.
“I think a lot of their real agenda is waiting for the time when they have both Houses under their control. And once they do, I think you can certainly look to a major assault on the Constitution. Then the question is, will the Supreme Court stand by the basic structure doctrine and interpret it to include these principles of equality, freedom of religion, freedom of worship, non-discrimination, etc., which would make it impossible to reduce the Constitution to the document of a religiously-derived majoritarianism,” Tharoor told IANS in an interview.
He recalled that during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee a constitution review committee was formed under former Supreme Court judge M.N. Venkatachaliah, but it didn’t work on the idea of a Hindu rashtra.
But, Tharoor said, it seems a committee under K.N. Govindacharya, an ideologue of the Rashtriya Swayamseval Sangh (RSS), is working for the present dispensation, according to media reports and interviews, which have never been challenged. Govindacharya has already talked with some candour to journalists about what he is trying to do.
“He says socialism, secularism, all that will have to go. If they are embarking on such a project, I think they are quite serious about it. The only thing is that they probably felt this would be too much of a risk to be taken on in the first term, unless they also have a majority in the Rajya Sabha.”
Tharoor said the BJP doesn’t have a two-thirds majority now because almost no other party is going to go along with its approach.
“So, I think they were really hoping, and perhaps unrealistically hoping, to consolidate two-thirds majority in both Houses and then go for the kill. Rather than fighting the battle prematurely, when they could lose.”
Meanwhile, he said, the BJP did some “test-drives” like the triple talaq bill as one way of trying to get an issue that they believe will both be dog-whistle at their hardcore base and at the same time test their strength on an issue of religious significance.
“But once they get two-thirds in both Houses, I do believe the Constitution, including Article 370 on Kashmir… on the Hindu rashtra concept, on use of words socialism, secularism, all of these would be up for grabs. There is little doubt about it.”
He said he was surprised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi prescribing that Jana Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s ideology is the one those in the ruling party should follow, as it was the same Upadhyaya who said the Constitution should be torn up because it is full of imported ideas.
At the same time, the Prime Minister said the Constitution is the holy book for him, Tharoor said.
Asked if Modi should not be holding this view because he is occupying high office, the Congress leader said: “That will be terrific, I think, if the Prime Minister were to say ‘I admire many things about Upadhyaya, but I don’t agree with him on the Constitution’.”
In the context of his latest book “Why I am a Hindu” (Aleph), Tharoor was asked whether he would like his party to counter the BJP on the lines of what he had written about Hinduism and Hindutva. He replied he would not like to overemphasise on this issue because of the inherent strength of Hinduism.
“In other words, while we were behaving like we were good people who worshipped in private but thought it unseemly to demonstrate our faith in public, they (the BJP) were the ones ostentatiously being religious and saying to their voters ‘see, we are Hindus like you and you should vote for us and those are godless secularists’.
“So, by Rahul Gandhi going to temples in Gujarat and so on, what is he saying: He is saying they go to temples, we also go to temples. So, let’s neutralise our issues. Now let’s talk about vikaas, talk about development, let’s talk about whether your life has become better in five years of the BJP ruling you.”
Tharoor said ultimately the key political arguments ought to be that these people made all sorts of promises five years ago that they have not fulfilled.
“And to my mind, politically, that is the most powerful argument that we can make — are you better off than you were four years ago or five years ago? And if not why do you want to vote for them again? You think about the price of your gas cylinder. You think about whether you’ve got a job. You think about whether you’ve been able to afford to pay for petrol or diesel at the pump even though world prices dropped for four years.”
Asked about who should be the Congress’ allies in the next Lok Sabha elections, Tharoor said it was too early and wrong because he is not in a position to speak about it.
“I would say there would be states where there would be straight fight between us and the BJP, and alliances would be of less consequence. But we may still have an alliance for the sake of opposition unity.
“But there would be other states where regional parties would be more powerful electorally than we are, and where we may have to reconcile ourselves either by allying with them or, if necessary, tying up a post-electionsalliance.”
Asked if the Congress would ally with the Left post-elections, he said: “They will, certainly. As far as the CPI-M is concerned, they have already announced they will not ally with the Congress and now we have the final decision to be made by their Congress. If that is confirmed by the party congress, then we will only see post-election (alliance).”
Asked what prompted him to write his latest book, Tharoor said he had been playing around with the idea 20 years ago “in the context of the Babri Masjid demolition”.
“The idea to do a full book on the subject became more urgent and compelling because of the extent to which Hindutva has tried to make the issue of the Hindu face front and centre in our public discourse.”
But the real trigger was the way Hinduism was being abused and to counter that abuse.
“You know, when you have been abused as I have been on social media and so on… as ‘anti-Hindu’ and you always thought of yourself as a decent human being within the Hindu faith. What do they mean by anti-Hindu? How can I be anti-myself?
“My father was a very devoted Hindu. Am I anti him? My father was in every respect a profoundly sort of convinced practitioner and believer of Hinduism. And yet the way he brought us up was one of such respect for other faith and such willingness to accept the ideas and sacred objects of other faiths.”
(Sarwar Kashani and V.S. Chandrasekar can be contacted at sarwar.k@ians.in and chandru.v@ians.in )
—IANS
