by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
When the Supreme Court excluded the “creamy layer”, or the well-off sections, among the backward castes from the benefits of reservations in its 1991 judgement, it had taken a logical step to ensure that the advantages of the quota system in the matter of social advancement were not enjoyed in perpetuity by the identified communities.
What the judicial pronouncement entailed was that once those who had suffered for centuries from the inequities of the caste system had been able to overcome much of their social disabilities via the officially sponsored affirmative action, they would lose their right for preferential treatment. The criterion for those who would be excluded from the benefits of the quota system was an annual income of Rs 100,000.
However, while deciding on the concept of the “creamy layer”, the judiciary does not seem to have taken into account the possibility of the intervention of the political class to circumvent the legal objective.
Over the years, the politicians across the board have succeeded in dodging the income limit by periodically increasing the quantum of the annual earnings of the backward castes from Rs 100,000 in 1993 to Rs 250,000 in 2004 to Rs 450,000 in 2008 to Rs 600,000 in 2013.
Clearly, to the political class, the creamy layer is an elastic concept which can keep on expanding with the express purpose of retaining within its fold even the affluent among the backward castes in order to make them eligible for reservations in employment and education.
Considering that the reservations were meant to be in force for only the first 10 years after Independence, there is little doubt that the present practice is a travesty of the original intent. As much is evident from the contention of the now-defunct National Commission for Backward Castes that the annual income should be Rs 15 lakh.
It not surprising, therefore, that the Narendra Modi government has decided to increase the annual income from the present Rs 600,000 to Rs 800,000. There will be no prizes for guessing that the amount will keep on increasing year after year and that being a part of the creamy layer will be an ever-receding goal for the backward castes.
By this token, no matter how high is the income of a backward caste person, he will always be poor in the government’s eyes — though not to his neighbours — and in need of clutches for securing jobs and education.
The reason for this oddity is the political need to secure votes even if the grant of such largesse means ignoring the concept of merit. However, it also boosts the caste system which is often deemed to be the bane of the Hindu social order.
The belief among the idealists at the dawn of Independence that the caste system will gradually wither away with the nation’s progress has proved to be a chimera.
As if to confirm this regressive trend, the Modi government is now contemplating identifying various sub-castes among the backwards for extending the benefits of reservations on the ground that the quotas have mostly been grabbed by the more dominant castes, such as the Yadavs in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
This slicing of the cake is an extension of the electoral policy which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) successfully pursued in Uttar Pradesh by courting the non-Yadav backward castes and the non-Jatav Dalits to wean them away from the Yadav-dominated Samajwadi Party and the Jatav-dominated Bahujan Samaj Party.
Ironically, it was to counter the caste card played by the Janata Dal leader and Prime Minister V.P. Singh in 1990 that BJP leader L.K. Advani embarked on his Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra to keep the party’s Hindu flock together.
Today, however, the BJP is playing the caste card with a vengeance to boost its political position. Its motivation is possibly all the stronger because of the knowledge that it will not get the Muslim vote. So, it has to try all the more to rope in the backward castes and add them to its tally of upper caste votes which the party believes are already in its bag.
In the process of wooing the backward castes, not only the age-old “varna vyavastha” or the caste system but also the concept of reservations is strengthened.
To make matters worse, since the number of government jobs is dwindling in a time of the free market, voices are bound to be raised for extending the quota system to the private sector, thereby ringing its death-knell where efficiency is concerned.
As these retrogressive steps are advocated and implemented, the “sabka vikas” or the agenda of development for all is bound to be hit.
Moreover, the calls that are sometimes given for dispensing with quotas, as by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, Mohan Bhagwat, are likely to be ignored. For those who see Hindu society through the lens of caste, all will be well in the foreseeable future.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Ram Puniyani
The decision to put a one day ban on Hindi NDTV, since withheld, came as a big jolt to the country. A major channel was asked to stop the broadcast. The charge was that its broadcast on Pathannkot revealed sensitive information regarding national security. On the same Pathankot issue this Government had allowed the Pakistan authorities to come to the same airport. The channel (Hindi NDTV) pleaded that its program was very balanced and nothing related to national security was relayed which was not on the public domain through other media. It is clear that NDTV Hindi in particular has been debating issues which are uncomfortable to this Government. Apparently the pressure of all round protests forced the Government to hold its decision for time being. The issue of Bharat mata ki jai, nationalism, the issues related to JNU and Hyderabad Central University (HCU), Una in particular, were debated in ways which critical of the ruling party.
Since this dispensation, Modi Sarkar, has come to power there is a qualitative change in the political scenario. Right at the beginning we witnessed many attacks on Churches. We saw the interference in the institutions of national importance like FTII, IITs, JNU and HCU among others. The incompetent persons with ‘right wing’ leaning were installed and have been brought in at most of these. The places of learning are a special target. The JNU was targeted labeling it as the den of anti nationals. A cooked up video was used to defame the student leaders of JNU, in HCU Rohith Vemula had to commit suicide. The growing intolerance led to returning of awards by luminaries of our society. The issue of beef was blown up to the sky; the emotive hysterical projections were propped up leading to the death of Mohammad Akhlaq, many other traders and later the dastardly attack on the dalits in Una in Gujarat. Many sections of media have been brow beating the liberals and secular elements while giving a free run to Hindu nationalists.
It is in this backdrop that the Bhopal encounter has taken place where eight Muslim youth alleged to be terrorists were killed in an extra judicial manner. The incident as it has been presented clearly shows that the version of the police has lots of holes in it. In JNU again one student Najeeb has been missing for last three weeks and his mother was manhandled by the police. Is it mere emergency, where such blatant violations of human and democratic rights are taking place? Emergency was a condemnable authoritarian regime where from the top a dictatorship was imposed. press censorship was brought in. Surely the present times are having lot of difference.
To begin with the dominance of corporate and doing away of the rights of workers and farmers along with undermining the schemes like MNREGA, Right to Food, Right to Health and Right to education show that the orientation of this Government is to ally with the big capital. The complimentary part of this phenomenon is the promotion of Hindu nationalism. Right from the word go; the sentence, ‘I am nationalist and I am born in a Hindu family’ by Modi set the tone of shape of things to come. With this the targeting of minorities, on the issue of Uniform Civil Code and beef is there. The ultra-nationalism is manifest in the handling of Kashmir and relations with Pakistan in particular. The use of Uri and consequent surgical strike to bloat the chest of this political dispensation is very much in the air. The permission of thousands of NGOs working in the social sector has been stopped on frivolous grounds. The attack on Pakistani artists is another instance where the sectarian nationalism is having an unrepentant march. It is to be remembered that we have a bilateral trade to the tune of thousands of crores with Pakistan. With China similar sentiments have been flashed by talking about boycott of Chinese goods, despite the fact that the contract of proposed Saradar Patel statue running in to thousands of crores has been given to China. The popular sentiments are being guided into negativity and hate towards neighboring countries, religious minorities and the human rights activists.
The stifling of democratic freedoms, welfare of the poor, the intimidation of minorities and human rights defenders is running parallel to the creation of mass hysteria and mobilization of masses to uphold the agenda of ruling party. Those questioning the state are being put in the dock. In a democracy it the state which is answerable to the people. Now this formula is being reversed. In democracy questioning the authorities is the bedrock of the Constitution. So something is seriously amiss, something which is more sinister than the emergency. Something which has deeper portents for the democracy is being legitimized and glorified by the ruling party and the parent organization of the ruling party.
So how does one characterize it is the matter not of mere academic concern. Recently CPM leader Prakash Karat had stated that the present dispensation is mere authoritarian and not fascist. The distinction between two has been a matter of historical debate. The main features of fascism has been centrality of state over people, overarching Leader, dominance of Corporate, doing away with rights of poor, targeting of minorities, ultra nationalism and aggressive policies towards the neighbors. The crucial point for those wanting to preserve the democracy and Indian Constitution is to build up social and political alliances, irrespective of some differences, to fight this raging politics of Hate, politics of sectarian nationalism.
During 1990s, BJP did project itself as a ‘Party with a Difference’, and that is so much true. It is the only party whose agenda is guided by the Hindu nationalist RSS, which rejects democracy and secularism as Western imports and wants to stick to the laws of Hindu Holy Scriptures. These scriptures are the same, one of which was burnt by Ambedkar as a mark of protest against its values of caste and gender hierarchy, values of Brahminism. Debates can continue but politics to defend Indian Constitution cannot wait!
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
New Delhi,(IANS) Delivering a warning to tax evaders to come clean on undisclosed income, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday held out the example of a retired fellow citizen who regularly contributes a part of his modest pension towards the government’s social development programmes.
“Particularly for those who have undisclosed income, I would like to present an example,” Modi said in his monthly “Mann ki Baat” radio address.
“Whether my words have any effect on tax evaders, the example of Chandrakant Kulkarni, whom I met in the smart cities event in Pune on Saturday will surely influence them,” Modi said.
He elaborated how Kulkarni, with a monthly pension of Rs 16,000, contributes Rs 5,000 every month towards the Clean India initiative.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Overseas
New Delhi: Alam and his family was very happy after he got a job visa (carpenter) for Saudi Arabia as his dream for ‘better future’ was about to realize. Even his agent booked a flight for him, but now his dream seems to be going to shatter due to inexplicable delay in the emigration clearance process. Alam is not alone. There are hundreds of Alam whose dream may shatter thanks to Modi’s Digital India.
It is also strange that the Ministry of External Affairs is not aware of the situation. When this correspondent asked the MEA spokesperson Mr Vikas Sawrup in his weekly briefing about this, he said he would find out the matter as right now he had no idea about it. He was told that PoE has stopped immigration clearance since May 3, and because of this as many as 300 job visa to gulf were cancelled.
It is poignant to mention that Alam has come from Bihar just 15 days ago as his agent promised that his emigration clearance would be done in a couple of days. However his vise was expired because of unexpected delay in emigration clearance.
It is to be noted that the ‘emigration clearance process’ is to be done within 24 hours as the rules of Emigration clearance issued by MEA (website) says “The Procedure for emigration clearance has been simplified. Emigration clearance to individuals is granted on the same day on which the application is made at any of the office of POE”. Even where the clearance is required for groups; it is to be given on the same day at all POE offices”.
Despite these clear rules, immigration clearance is taking more than 24 days.
There are over 6000 job seekers like Alam whose passports were stuck in the office of Protector of Emigrants New Delhi, many of them are at risk and their visa may expire.
When this correspondent tried to contact to concerned officers in the MEA on the issue, but none was available to comment or others feign ignorance about the issue.
While Mr. SIBI George (Joint Sec, MEA administration), Mr Hariharan Venkatachalam (Under Secratery, Protector of Emigrants flatly refused to talk on the issue.
Talking to Muslim Mirror, some registered agents, who submitted their clients’ passports for emigration clearance, blamed immigration officers for the present mess who recently took the charge. They particularly blamed Mr. Hariharan Venkattachalam who is the new Protector of Emigrants New Delhi.
They said it’s only in Delhi where agents have been facing such problems as they had never faced such a long and unnecessary delay in immigration clearance in the past.
‘I am in the business of recruitment of Indian workers to gulf countries for employment since 1994 and this is to inform you that for this purpose we have to take emigration clearance of emigrants from office of Protector of Emigrants New Delhi. Since 1994, I was submitting all required documents for emigration clearance in one working day before 1 PM and was getting the clearance same day or rejection of documents also same day with valid reason of rejection but since 7th May 2016 the new Protector of Emigrants New Delhi namely Hariharan Venkatachalam is not granting/giving emigration clearance before 16/24 days’ said an agent on the condition of anonymity.
‘Delay in recruitment procedure is maligning the Government of India’s reputation as well as the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi abroad’ said another agent.
Apart from cancellations of non-refundable air ticket and loss of money, many foreign employers are threatening to cancel visas and claiming the loss from Recruiting Agent and they are also threatening to divert the demand of workers from Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh etc.
On the other hand, financial loss of recruitment agent (RA) and loss of salaries for one month due to one month delay in Emigration clearance by PoE Delhi and also Loss of remittances to India.
There is unnecessary delay in a case of approx 4000- 6000 Emigration clearance which has been pending since 23/05/2016 to03/06/2016.
It is really a piquant situation, the PM is trying to create jobs and bring black money back to the country, while immigration officials are doing just opposite’ said one job seeker whose passport was stuck in PoE office.
Courtesy : Muslim Mirror
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli, In addition to the NGOs, including the one run by Teesta Setalvad, the saffron brotherhood’s new target is a formidable one – Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan.
Till now, the Hindutva camp hadn’t trained its guns on one so high who is not a politician. There is little doubt, however, that the Sangh Parivar’s motive is political.
The attack on Rajan is not a frontal one. It is a flanking movement with none other than the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha member, the perennially combative Subramanian Swamy, leading the charge.
It is not clear if the targeting of Rajan has the approval of the BJP’s top brass, for there are conflicting indications.
While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley disapproves of the personal nature of the attacks, he has been silent on the question of extending Rajan’s term beyond September considering that Swamy wants his immediate dismissal.
However, the problem with Swamy’s offensive – he has accused Rajan of acting at the behest US multinationals to damage the Indian small and medium industries – is that the voluble MP cannot always be taken seriously.
The reason is that he is a maverick to beat all mavericks. As a result, he is perceived of as something of a loose cannon who can go off at a tangent from his party’s line.
As much is clear from his earlier backing of the disgraced godman, Asaram Bapu, to the more recent call for building the Ram temple by the year-end, about which the BJP has been more than circumspect.
Moreover, he is supposed to have been elevated to the Rajya Sabha only to serve a specific purpose – that of needling the Nehru-Gandhis – and not open fire at random.
Swamy has been performing the first task with considerable zeal, pursuing the allegations against the Congress’s first family in the National Herald and AgustaWestland cases.
More recently, he has called upon the Enforcement Directorate to probe the supposed transgressions of the business deals of Robert Vadra, the first family’s son-in-law.
In the midst of these endeavours, the sudden turning of his attention to Rajan is surprising.
In view of the government’s eagerness to maintain friendly ties with the corporate sector, the latter’s unfavourable reaction to Swamy’s antics was only to be expected. The Confederation of Indian Industry has already expressed its displeasure.
None of this is unexpected, for Rajan is known to be a favourite of India Inc. and of the media, especially the financial newspapers.
Narendra Modi’s evasive statement on the issue – he told Wall Street Journal that Rajan’s tenure can be of no interest to the media – is unlikely to clear the scene.
In any event, Modi’s probable view is that nothing should be of interest to the media, which explains why he doesn’t hold any press conferences.
The hullabaloo created by Swamy appears to have persuaded Rajan to decide not to seek a second term although he has described the controversy as evidence of a “noisy” democracy and the “sign of its vibrancy”.
It is possible that Rajan’s observation about India being the king in a land of the blind hasn’t pleased the BJP.
Besides, he is something of an odd man out where the Hindutva camp is concerned, being a typical representative of the urbane, English-speaking, secular establishment that is vastly different from the Hindi-speaking, conservative-minded present-day rulers.
It is not impossible, therefore, that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s mentor, wants to see the back of him.
After all, the RSS has succeeded in placing its nominees in most of the institutions – the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the National Book Trust, the Film and Television Institute, the Central Board of Film Certification, and so on.
The objective behind all these appointments was, first, to find sinecures for its followers and, secondly, to peddle the pro-Hindu agenda. So, why should the RBI be left in the hands of a purported secularist?
It goes without saying, however, that if India Inc’s blue-eyed boy quits office, the initial effect on the market will be worrisome.
That is not something which Modi will appreciate. But he has generally had to walk a tight rope between the predilections of the RSS and his own more open-minded attitude. There has been a constant give-and-take between him and the Nagpur patriarchs in this respect.
In some matters, Modi has had the upper hand such as in persuading the saffron fundamentalists to go easy on their ghar wapsi and love jehad campaigns.
In others, he has given way to the RSS as, for instance, in the appointments of unworthy nominees to the ICHR and other institutions.
The Rajan affair will be a major test for Modi. Will he bow to the RSS or will he allow his pro-business instincts to prevail ?
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com <mailto:amulyaganguli@gmail.com>)
