Indian Press on Allahabad HC Judgement on Love Jihad, Nagrota Link and Trumpism : New Age Islam's Selection, 25 November 2020
By New Age Islam Edit
Desk
25 November
2020
• Freedom Of Choice: Allahabad HC Dismisses
Case Alleging Love Jihad
Editorial, The Daily Pioneer
• Desperation Within Pakistan
By Harsha Kakar
• A Pervasive Darkness
By S. Binodkumar Singh
• The Nagrota Link
By Bhopinder Singh
• Trump, A Master Of Mass Disorientation, Is
Gone. But Has Trumpism?
By Inderjeet Parmar
-----
Freedom Of Choice: Allahabad HC Dismisses Case
Alleging Love Jihad
Editorial, The Daily Pioneer
25 November
2020
Allahabad
HC dismisses case alleging love jihad, upholds the right to personal liberty of
mature adults but UP pushes ordinance
Unfortunately,
it is left to the courts these days to defend personal liberties of citizens.
For politics brazenly tramples them. And given the implications of proposed
legislations by certain State Governments to criminalise inter-faith marriages,
ostensibly to stop conversions in the guise of love, the Allahabad High Court
did some tough talking. Denouncing a
previous single-judge bench decision that declared religious conversions only
for the sake of marriage as unacceptable, it said such a ruling was “bad in
law” because it overrides the right to life and personal liberty of mature
adults.
Defending
the marriage of a Hindu girl to marry a Muslim man, who converted to Islam
voluntarily and whose parents filed the case, the Bench made it clear that two
mature individuals were entitled to a freedom of choice under Article 21 of the
Constitution. No doubt the court foresaw what attributing ulterior motives to
every inter-faith relationship and subjecting each to societal perception could
do. For example, even if the partners were to choose conversions on their own,
could their disagreeing and vindictive families stop them with a new love jihad
law? The court even warned how such obstructive norms on inter-religious
marriages could affect “unity in diversity.”
And then
came its most scathing observation that targeted the Islamophobia implicit in
all such proposed legislations: “We fail to understand that if the law permits
two persons even of the same sex to live together peacefully, then neither any
individual nor a family, nor even the State can have an objection to the
relationship of two major individuals who out of their own free will are living
together.” And by consistently highlighting that adults were entitled to live
free without being monitored by societal malice, the court sought to douse the
fire around the growing love jihad campaign. Of course, the ruling did not
deter the Yogi Adityanath Government from issuing a punishing ordinance the
same day to check forced conversions and marriages based on them.
The worst
affected will be women, who continue to fight against and are killed by the
devil called family or community honour, the terms of which are framed for the
convenience of a patriarchal society. If as an adult, she loses the right to
choose her kind of life, nothing could be more disempowering. And laws on love
jihad anyway are built on the assumption of young women being impressionable
than decisive. For example, both the UP ordinance and the Madhya Pradesh
Government’s Dharma Swatantrya Bill 2020, make coercing an individual into
marriage a punishable offence, non-bailable in nature, deserving of a five-year
rigorous punishment.
Question is
how would you prove coercion if the girl in question is already hostage to her
dissenting family and cowering in fear? How would she give her independent
opinion? This is why the Supreme Court in the Kerala love jihad case separated
the 24-year-old girl from both her family and husband before respecting her
choice. The Kerala High Court had handed over Hadiya’s guardianship to her
parents, who locked her down for 11 months and discontinued her studies at a
college in Salem, fearing her husband Shafin was indoctrinating her. The apex
court appropriately prioritised individual freedom of an adult while separating
the particularities of whether all of her choices were born of her freewill or
were they imposed, given her supposed “conversion”, or indeed if she had the
ecosystem to decide for herself, free of pressure and insinuation. That’s why
it freed Hadiya from her parents, even kept her away from her husband. And in
the end found that her relationship was genuine. It proved that the rights of
two adult people to be together cannot be infringed upon on the ground of
societal taboos, an alleged threat perception or external bogeyism. But even if
the court respects the couple’s choice, where is the security guarantee? For
example, the UP ordinance says that in case someone wishes to convert after
marriage voluntarily, s/he will have to apply to the district magistrate two
months in advance.
In MP, that sanction has to be taken from a
collector. In a society that is yet to come out of the revenge code of honour
killings, would not a public declaration of love and conversion invite a
hitback? We just saw the backlash following an advertisement campaign by a
jewellery brand of an inter-faith marriage, where none of the partners were
shown as changing their religion. If that had to be taken down, imagine what
could happen to two people making independent choices. It is not that there
aren’t laws against forced conversions. Section 366 of the Indian Penal Code
criminalises any act of kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to marry by
force and punishes such an act with imprisonment for up to ten years.
Besides,
according to the Government’s own admission in Parliament, the term “love
jihad” had not been defined under any law and no case had been reported or
registered by any Central agency. Where then is the need for a law in the first
place? Also, doesn’t a love jihad law go against the grain of the BJP’s pet
agenda of the Uniform Civil Code, which would bring all inter-faith marriages
under a common set of rules? Of course, nobody wants to see reason when the politics of polarisation has completely taken
over the collective mindspace. Even now, inter-faith marriages are few and far
between.
According
to the India Human Development Survey, only about five per cent of all
marriages are inter-caste and inter-faith relations are even fewer. A 2016
survey by Social Attitudes Research for India (SARI) found that the majority of
respondents opposed inter-caste and inter-religious marriages. In Delhi, about
60 per cent of both Hindus and Muslims were against them. Then there are legal
challenges for ordinary couples trying to get a marriage registered under the
Special Marriage Act, with courts insisting on all sorts of conditions. Love is
never under discussion.
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/columnists/freedom-of-choice.html
------
Desperation within Pakistan
By Harsha Kakar
November
24, 2020
The
encounter last week where four Pakistani terrorists were eliminated at Nagrota
while attempting to infiltrate into the valley from Samba with large quantities
of arms and ammunition is an indicator of increasing desperation within
Pakistan. Surge in ceasefire violations, targeting Indian civilian population
in Uri and Tangdar, increased attempts at infiltration, all of them failing,
has added to their desperation. They see their Kashmir strategy going up in
smoke.
As per
reports only 20-25 Pakistantrained terrorists have managed to infiltrate into
the valley this year. Most of them have been killed, leaving most terrorist
groups leaderless. Total terrorists eliminated this year has crossed the 200
mark, most being locals. With no funds being transferred through hawala,
overground workers have failed to provoke violence or incite fresh recruits
needed to keep terrorism alive. Violence in support of terrorists trapped in
encounters has receded. Even areas which were pro-Pakistan are now witnessing a
change.
Pakistan
released a dossier blaming India for supporting terrorism within their country.
This was aimed at enhancing pressure on India but has failed. In the dossier,
it blames India for ceasefire violations and targeting of civilians. It was
hoping that Chinese actions in Ladakh would push India on the defensive, but
that too failed adding to their woes. India has not only held the Chinese at
bay but gained advantage by securing the Kailash Ridge. To display its
confidence, India is not rushing for talks nor accepting limited withdrawal
with China and is prepared to continue with the standoff through the winter.
There is no
doubt that Pakistan is aware that time for infiltration in the valley is fast
running out as the winter is setting in. With snow falling, tracking terrorists
becomes easier. Hard Indian retaliation targeting terrorist camps and
supporting Pakistan posts, with attendant collateral damage has pushed Pakistan
to the brink. They are unwilling to risk any major operation which could lead
to an Indian counterstrike.
Any
counterstrike on Pakistan would adversely impact the power and control of the
Pakistan army, which is already facing intense internal pressure from the
People’s Democratic Movement and other rising protests across the country.
There are demands from every quarter for the army to return to the barracks,
which it has so far managed to stall. In case it is embarrassed by an Indian
strike, it would either be compelled to counter or face internal political
humiliation. Comments by Ayaz Sadiq, in the national assembly, projecting panic
within the Pakistani military and political leadership after the Balakote
strike continue to haunt the Pakistani leadership.
Aware that
it can no longer play the nuclear card, the deep state is being careful in its
approach. It has realised that its global support base has reduced with even
close allies including Saudi Arabia and UAE singing the Indian song. China is
already stalled in Ladakh and would be unwilling to enhance pressure to support
Pakistan. Economically, Pakistan is in dire states. Its oil reserves cannot
even sustain a few days of operations. The same is the state with its
ammunition stocks.
What is
hurting Pakistan even more is the announcement of the District Development
Council (DDC) elections in Kashmir. The announcement of elections displays the
confidence within the Indian government that the situation is near normal and
terrorism is on the wane. To add to Pakistan’s woes is that their favourite
proxy, the Hurriyat, is currently in a state of near collapse, with no ability
to either enforce violence, protests or bandhs. Its silence since the
abrogation of article 370 indicates this.
Increased
surrenders of local terrorists, their reduced lifespan after joining terrorist
groups and shortage of arms and ammunition available to them in the valley
displays Pakistan’s failing strategy. Its attempts to employ drones to drop
weapons in the region have met with limited success. Narcoterrorism is equally
ineffective as monitoring is effective.
To add to
Pakistan’s misery are the conditions created by the central government leading
to the participation of all major political parties in the forthcoming DDC
elections. The PAGD (Political Alliance for Gupkar Declaration), a grouping of
11 valley based political parties have realised that if they do not
participate, they would lose control of the state to the BJP ending their
political future.
While the
PAGD continues to rant about restoration of article 370, this election would
determine their fate. The elections, if conducted smoothly and without
terrorist strikes, would be a battle between the BJP and all other political
parties. For the globe, it would display return of democratic process in the
valley and still Pakistan’s cries of resistance and forced incarceration of the
region.
Victory by
the BJP would indicate that the population has rejected Pakistan and accepted
abrogation of Article 370. It would end Pakistan’s claim to the region as also
prove that the valley is peaceful, and the population unwilling to support
terrorism. This scenario is a nightmare for Pakistan. Hence, it would make
every attempt to stall the elections. The latest encounter is a desperate
attempt by Pakistan to push in terrorists to disrupt the peaceful election
process currently underway.
The Indian
government needs to act and ensure failure of Pakistan’s designs. Security to
candidates, an action already being implemented, greater vigilance along the
LOC and the IB, detailed checking of vehicles moving into the region,
accompanied by strong retaliation to Pakistan ceasefire violations must be
adopted. The fact that the terrorists eliminated last week had infiltrated
through the IB in the Samba sector is indicative of Pakistan exploiting weak
spots, which need to be strengthened.
The next
few weeks are testing times. If India is to change the global narrative on
Kashmir, then these elections must be conducted smoothly and without violence.
Pakistan would make every attempt to disrupt the same as their Kashmir strategy
depends on violence, intimidation and terrorism, all of which are waning. The
game is on and India cannot afford to lose. It has gained the upper hand and it
must ensure it does not lose it.
------
Harsha Kakar is a retired Major-General of the
Indian Army.
https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/desperation-within-pakistan-1502936886.html
-----
A Pervasive Darkness
By S. Binodkumar Singh
November
23, 2020
On November
21, 2020, eight civilians were killed and another 31 were injured in a series
of rocket attacks in Kabul city. The Interior Affairs Ministry said 23 rockets
were fired on different parts of Kabul.
On November
18, 2020, seven civilians were killed and six were injured in a Taliban mortar
attack in the Taloka area in Kunduz city (Kunduz Province).
On November
10, 2020 the Taliban shot and killed three civilians while they were praying in
a mosque in the Faizabad District of Jowzjan Province. On the same day, a
mortar fired by the Taliban landed in a house in Zari District, Kandahar
Province, killing four women.
On November
8, 2020, eight civilians were killed and seven were injured after three mortars
fired by Taliban hit residential houses in the Naw Abad area in Ghazni city.
Data
released by the Ministries of Defense and Interior Affairs on November 20,
2020, revealed that, over the preceding six months, the Taliban has carried
attacks, including 50 suicide attacks, across the country, in which 1,210
civilians have been killed. Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior
Affairs, disclosed, “1,210 civilians were martyred and 2,500 more were wounded
in Taliban attacks”.
According
to 49th Quarterly Report of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction (SIGAR), released on October 30, 2020, at least 2,561 civilian
casualties were reported between July 1 and September 30, 2020, which included
876 deaths and 1,685 injuries. The report noted that, in line with the
continued rise in violence, this quarter’s (July 1–September 30) casualties
increased by 43 per cent, compared to preceding quarter (April 1–June 30, 2020)
which had recorded 2,085 civilian casualties, including 1,374 deaths and 711
injuries. The report further observed that 83 per cent of latest quarter’s
civilian casualties were attributed to anti-Government forces (40 per cent to
unknown insurgents, 38 per cent to the Taliban, three per cent to the Islamic
State and two per cent to the Haqqani Network), roughly the same proportions as
preceding quarter’s breakdown. The remaining eight per cent were attributed to
pro-Government forces.
The United
Nations Assistance Mission’s (UNAMA’s) Third Quarter Report on Protection of
Civilians in Armed Conflict: 2020 (Afghanistan), stated that a total of 29,626
civilians had been killed between January 1, 2009, and September 30, 2020,
mostly by Islamist militants with linkages to Al Qaeda.
Highlighting
the increased attacks on civilians by the Taliban, Amrullah Saleh, the First
Vice President, noted, on November 11, 2020, “The Taliban have decided to
target civil society, its members and organizations in Afghanistan’s major
cities, who are among the soft targets.”
The Islamic
State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP), which is continuously suffering major
battlefield losses, also continues to target civilians. UNAMA’s Third Quarter
Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: 2020 (Afghanistan) noted
that IS-KP was responsible for 392 casualties (132 killed and 260 injured)
between January 1 and September 30. UNAMA’s Annual Report 2020, released in
February 2020, attributed 1,223 civilian casualties to IS-KP in 2019; 1,871 in
2018; and 843 in 2017. Some of the prominent attacks by the IS-KP in 2020
included:
November 2:
22 people were killed and another 40 were injured when IS-KP militants stormed
Kabul University during a book fair.
October 24:
30 civilians, mostly students, were killed when a suicide bomber detonated
himself in the Pul-e-Khoshk area of Dasht-e-Barchi, a Shia dominated
neighbourhood in Kabul city. The IS-KP claimed the attack.
March 25,
2020: 25 civilians belonging to the minority Sikh community were killed in an
attack on Shor Bazar Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) in Kabul. IS-KP claimed
responsibility for the attack.
Civilians
have also been the victims of collateral damage in the 'war'. According to
UNAMA's latest report covering the period between January 1 and September 30,
the Afghan National Security Forces were responsible for 1,376 casualties (466
killed and 910 injured) during this period, almost 23 per cent of the total
casualties (5,939). International Forces assisting the Afghan Forces were
responsible for 113 civilian casualties (83 killed and 30 injured), i.e. two
per cent. Crossfire between the terrorists and the Security Forces resulted in
849 civilian casualties (237 killed and 612 injured).
Deborah
Lyons, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, noted,
The peace
talks will need some time to help deliver peace. But all parties can
immediately prioritize discussions and take urgent, and frankly overdue,
additional steps to stem the terrible harm to civilians. New thinking and
concrete action towards safeguarding civilian life will not only save thousands
of families from suffering and grief but it can also help lessen recriminations
and, instead, bolster confidence and trust among negotiators.
Notably,
the Taliban has not reduced violence even after the signing of the US-Taliban
agreement on February 28, 2020, in Doha, Qatar, and initiating direct talks
with the Afghanistan Government on September 12. Security Forces also continue
to face violence. According to partial data collected by the Institute for
Conflict Management, at least 7,000 Afghan National Defence Security Force
(ANDSF) personnel have been killed across the country since the signing of the
ceasefire (data till November 22, 2020).
Highlighting
the increased violence, President Ashraf Ghani while addressing the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization Summit through a video conference on November 10,
2020, observed, “the violence by the Taliban has increased substantially.”
Similarly, Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the High Council for National
Reconciliation, on November 10, 2020, stated that “the scale of war and
violence has expanded… At the same time, the two sides are in talks. You might
ask what these negotiations mean in the view of the current situation in the
country.”
Violence
remains high in Afghanistan despite purported peace process ongoing in Doha
between negotiating teams of the Afghan Government and the Taliban. As violence
surges in Afghanistan, the international community needs to recommit its
support for the Afghan people to end the war and building a better future with
stability, sound governance and greater economic opportunities, objectives that
the Taliban has demonstrated visible contempt for.
---
S. Binodkumar Singh is a Research Associate,
Institute for Conflict Management
South Asia
Intelligence Review
-----
The Nagrota Link
By Bhopinder Singh
25 November
2020
Connecting
the dots between Pakistan and the Nagrota encounter is crucial to deny
Islamabad a convenient plank of dismissing it as a local expression of animus
The
lacklustre township of Nagrota, just outside the unplanned concrete of Jammu
city, was once best-known for housing the largest military corps in the world,
White Knights Corps or the XVI Corps, as also for rehabilitating fleeing
Kashmiri Pandit migrants from the Valley. The small garrison town snakes around
the lifeline of the Jammu-Kashmir highway, which connects the Jammu plains to
the Kashmir valley, bisected by the Pir Panjal ranges and the minor Trikuta
mountains, which harbour the Vaishno Devi shrine in one of its heights, along
with the Nagrota dwelling, in its foothills. Another 54 km down the same road
is the Indian Army’s Northern Command headquarters at Udhampur.
The
conspicuous presence of the Indian military in this township, barely 40 km from
the nearest Pakistan border, as also its service mandate of overseeing
operations along the “live”, strategic and frequently contested Line of Control
(LoC) with Pakistan, has drawn unwarranted attention of those who seek to
create terror and violence, as per the direction of their handlers across the
LoC. Four years ago, terror had struck Nagrota as heavily-armed terrorists had
sneaked across the border and fired indiscriminately at the sentries guarding
the resident 116 Medium Regiment. A hostage-like drama had ensued and by the
time the situation was neutralised, seven Indian soldiers and three terrorists
were killed. All indications at the Nagrota site had pointed to the role of the
terror organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammed, as notes recovered from the slain
terrorists pointed to the involvement of the so-called “Afzal Guru Squad.” The
said group had earlier carried out similar terror attacks at Pathankot,
Baramulla, Uri and so on. Last year this group was responsible for a deadly
strike, involving at least 350 kg of explosives at Pulwama, which had killed 40
Indian security personnel – this provocation had led to the reciprocal Balakote
airstrike by the Indian Air Force. Last week, Jaish-e-Mohammed resurfaced again
when four of its terrorists were killed in a fierce encounter on the
Jammu-Srinagar highway, at Nagrota again.
What is
significant is the irrefutable Pakistan hand in the latest encounter, as the
Bhawalpur-based jihadist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, owes its genesis and
sustenance to the Pakistani establishment or the Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI).
At an
oversimplified level, there is also a turf war among the competing insurgent
groups in the Kashmir Valley, where the once predominantly local
“pro-independence” groups have been marginalised and it is only those with
State support from across the LoC for being “pro-Pakistan” (or at an even more
extremist level, the pan Islamic Caliphate-seeking groups), who have managed to
hold sway. Jaish-e-Mohammed has the notoriety of having Masood Azhar as its
ideologue and leader, who has been declared an international terrorist by the
United Nations Security Council. He also infamously and incredulously got
support from China, which vetoed moves to put him on the UNSC sanctions
committee on “technical grounds” and even posited the flimsier excuse of “lack
of evidence.” The realpolitik of Pakistan and China in supporting
Jaish-e-Mohammed aside, which brooks no morality or consistency in
international affairs (hence the perennial struggle for Pakistan in avoiding
getting “blacklisted” by the international watchdog agency, FATF, for
sponsoring terror), the outfit is banned by UN and almost all Western and even
Islamic countries like UAE. Owing to global pressure, Pakistan was forced into
the sham of banning the same though the group kept renaming itself as
Tehrik-ul-Furqan, then Khuddam ul-Islam, then Al-Rehmat Trust and, so on and so
forth. Amid all pressures, Masood Azhar remained loyal to the Pakistan “Deep
State” and it paid him back by allowing a free run to his group’s operations
and machinations in Kashmir. Temporary “protective custody” enforced on Azhar
from time-to-time has impressed no one, and his ability to sustain his operational
capabilities in Jammu & Kashmir points to the continued handiwork of the
Pakistani establishment, solely and wholly.
The latest
Nagrota incident reeks of the scale, sophistication and brazenness of Pakistani
complicity. The sheer cache of arms from the terrorists (11 AK-47, three
pistols, 29 grenades, six UBGLs, mobile devices and so on) and the subsequent
unearthing of a 150-metre long tunnel in the nearby Samba area for the
facilitation of the cross-border movement, is impossible without State support.
The construction of this tunnel has all the hallmarks of engineering
complexities (at least 25-30 metres deep and almost 2.5 metress wide) and
facilitation, which could not have been arranged without the acquiescence and
material support from the nearby Pakistani posts of Rajab Sahid and Asif Sahib.
The presence of the protective Sarkanada (elephant grass) on the Pakistani side
of the tunnel to hide the literal spade work is self-explanatory. To suggest
ignorance or naivete in overlooking the efforts and time to construct such a
sized tunnel and arrange for the disposal of the dug-out soil without its
discovery by the Pakistani patrol and posts, is unthinkable. Rightfully, an
indignant New Delhi summoned the Pakistan charge d’affaires with incriminating
evidence towards a “major attack to destabilise the peace and security.” This
was expectedly denied by the Pakistani Foreign Office, as it has done for
decades even though it has earned international ignominy as the “nursery” for
global terror.
Importantly,
India has dialled up the charges against Pakistan, with the Prime Minister
himself tweeting about the incident. This escalation is timely as neighbouring
Afghanistan is imploding with terror unleashed by the Pakistan-supported
Taliban and the situation is expected to worsen. Pakistan should be disallowed
the window of transition between the changing US administrations to further its
nefarious designs, especially as Donald Trump has given it the long rope in
order to fulfil his personal commitment of troops withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Nailing Pakistan and “naming and shaming” is the key to ensure that the global
pressure does not wane. Connecting the dots between Jaish-e-Mohammed and the
Nagrota encounter is crucial to deny Islamabad the convenient postulation of
Nagrota as a local expression of animus. Pakistan has been and continues to be
the singular source of armed terror in Kashmir – Nagrota has proved this yet
again.
----
Bhopinder Singh, a military veter-an, is a
former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands)
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/columnists/the-nagrota-link.html
------
Trump, a Master of Mass Disorientation, Is
Gone. But Has Trumpism?
By Inderjeet Parmar
25 November
2020
Just over a
week ago, there was dancing in the streets of Washington, D.C., as tens of
thousands of angry Donald Trump supporters called multiple rallies in support
of their wronged Great Leader who continues baselessly to claim the election
was ‘stolen’ due to a massive national conspiracy.
This
movement has wind in its sails as the ‘stab-in-the-back’ lie is believed by 70%
of Republican voters. Trump, a modern master of mass disorientation, has no
plans to depart the national scene anytime soon. He is deconstructing the state
and American society. Joe Biden’s victory has dented and slowed that programme,
but Trumpism threatens to roil on for some time to come. The return to normalcy
which so many long for will require the patience of saints, and the political
mobilisation of millions.
Joe Biden
and Kamala Harris. Photo: Reuters
America’s
Trump trauma/love affair continues without end; the defeated president refuses
to concede to president-elect Joseph Biden, even as his own General Services
Administration belatedly accepted an “apparent” Biden-Harris win due to “the
law” and “facts”. Stubborn things, facts.
Kunal Kamra
and the Elasticity of Justice
Yet,
Trump’s legal cases in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia
continue despite lack of evidence. The courts have thrown out dozens of
baseless complaints of conspiracies and election fraud; law firms that Trump
hired are jumping ship; Republican judges, among others, disloyal in Trump’s
eyes, but loyal to their basic commitment to the rule of law and empirical
evidence, are demonstrating their independence.
The judge
in Michigan virtually accused Trump of trying to disenfranchise the entire
state’s electorate and steal the election. Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy
Giuliani, who knows how to avoid charges of perjury, did not dare claim in a
Pennsylvania court that the GOP case was based on hard evidence of election
fraud.
Meanwhile,
the head of federal election security was fired for declaring the 2020 poll as
the most secure in US history. Chris Krebs’s evidence-based declaration has no
place in Trump’s fact-free assumption of total victory.
The GOP
leadership is still backing Trump’s rhetorical-legal challenges even in Georgia
where the Republican secretary of state has defended the robustness of the
count, and the result certified. The appeasement of the far-right President
Trump by mainstream conservative GOP has allowed him free rein to sow
confusion, disorientation and chaos, and threatens to not only continue to
disrupt the transition to a Biden presidency but to so further divide and
polarise America as to make it ungovernable.
Some
serious analysts suggest that Trump is still engaging in a coup attempt,
however incompetently, and must be stopped. Trump’s failing state programme –
or deconstruction of the administrative state – continues apace.
What is Trump
doing?
Either he
is planning to remain in the office via a possible, but increasingly unlikely
successful legal challenge including at the Supreme Court, or he is planning to
remain a GOP candidate in 2024 by riling up his loyal voters, or he wishes to
become a GOP kingmaker. Either way, the GOP leadership is enabling him for now
probably to ease him from office and hope that he will campaign hard till the
January 2021 elections for the two open US Senate seats in Georgia.
People
react as they watch a speech by Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Joe Biden
in Times Square after news media announced he has won the 2020 U.S.
presidential election in Manhattan, New York, US November 7, 2020. Photo:
Reuters/Caitlin Ochs
Defeat in
Georgia would mean a 50-50 split in the Senate, with vice president-elect
Kamala Harris with the casting vote. But the GOP leadership – especially those
who have their own eyes on a 2024 run for the White House – like Ted Cruz,
Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, among others – do not want to provoke a Trumpian
backlash. Trump’s 74 million votes in the election provides him with a powerful
voice in intra- and inter-party politics. And it is not likely that Trump will
disappear from the political scene after Biden’s inauguration: it is widely
believed that Trump aims to take to the airwaves via a TV network affiliation,
minister to his cult-like followers, and continue to be the glue that binds
together the far and fascistic Right.
I say
cult-like but that might be a tad lazy.
His voters
are undoubtedly devoted to their candidate. One cannot really argue with the 74
million votes he won, an increase of around 11 million over his 2016 tally.
Biden had to beat all presidential election records – almost 80 million votes –
to win the election, including a higher proportion of the vote than president
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1932 record.
But in the end, it was a relatively small number of votes in a handful
of states that swung the election to the Democrat veteran.
Yet an
interesting report by the Brookings Institution after the election gives
credence to the ‘cult-like’ following claim. Brookings tallied the number of
counties across America that each candidate won, and calculated the proportion
of US economic activity those counties represented. They found that Trump won
around 2500 counties, while Biden won 477. This is not especially surprising as
Democratic voters are packed into densely populated big towns and cities,
metropolitan areas. Trump’s voters are overwhelmingly white, live in sparsely
populated rural America and smaller, especially de-industrialised towns.
According to the Brookings study, Trump’s swathe of counties represents a mere
30% of US economic activity while Biden’s 477 counties account for the
remaining 70%.
Despite the
popular imagery of MAGA-hat wearing, flag-waving aggressive Trumpsters, large
numbers of the counties Trump won can only be described as communities of
despair – rife with high rates of depression, suicide, drug and alcohol
addiction, domestic and police violence. The report says:
“2020’s map
continues to reflect a striking split between the large, dense, metropolitan
counties that voted Democratic and the mostly exurban, small-town, or rural
counties that voted Republican. Blue and
red America reflect two very different economies: one oriented to diverse,
often college-educated workers in professional and digital services
occupations, and the other whiter, less-educated, and more dependent on
“traditional” industries”.
A
demonstrator waves an American flag during a protest against racial inequality
in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in
New York City, New York, US June 9, 2020. Picture taken June 9, 2020. Photo:
Reuters
Of course,
it’s more complex than that (there’s plenty of depression, suicide and police
violence in America’s cities – but the
bigger point is made: there are economic, geographical, and racial divisions in
the American electorate that demonstrate a deep schism, rupture, in the social
fabric.
Add to that
the rival sources of news, Fox for Republicans and CNN, MSNBC, ABC, etc., for
Democrats, and there appear near-unbridgeable rifts in the American society.
The mental maps occupied by American voters amplify the other divisions.
Mentally, they appear to live in different countries, in different realities,
believing different truths.
Which all
means that Trump is likely to remain a viable political candidacy, strategy and
style: plutocratic, authoritarian, populist, racist, post-truth, aggressive,
and hostile to democracy.
Meanwhile,
the Democrats are busy preparing for power, appointing their transition teams
and landing teams for January 20, 2021, even as the Trump administration does
its level best to sabotage the transition. Yet, the Democratic party’s own
factionalism is growing between the Right and Left in the apparent absence of a
common enemy, and as Biden courts ‘moderate’ Republicans. It also remains an
open question whether the Democrats can satisfy demands from millennials,
anti-racists, and workers impacted by the pandemic, let alone control the
politics of street protests.
The US
domestic landscape remains explosive and volatile, reflecting a fundamentally
divided society. The resurgent extreme Right remains galvanised by opposition
to what they perceive as an illegitimate Biden presidency. And they will likely
form even stronger international links and programmes, promoting conspiracy
theories and supporting political intimidation and violence. Their violence at
home intensified this year with encouragement from the White House.
America’s
allies remain deeply concerned: the unpredictability, unreliability and
disruptions of Trumpism were extreme, but there’s little chance of a return to
a mythical golden age of ‘normalcy’. Nevertheless, due to the courts, state and
county-level election officials, and the sheer weight of popular opinion, the
US political system appears to have squeaked through a major stress test.
-----
Inderjeet Parmar is professor of international
politics at City, University of London, and visiting professor at LSE IDEAS
(the LSE’s foreign policy think tank).
https://thewire.in/world/trump-a-master-of-mass-disorientation-is-gone-but-has-trumpism
-----
URL: https://newageislam.com/indian-press/indian-press-allahabad-hc-judgement/d/123568
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic
Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism