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Indian Press On Interfaith Marriage and Pakistan's Dossier On Indian Terrorism: New Age Islam's Selection, 19 November 2020


By New Age Islam Edit Desk

19 November 2020

• Attacking Love: One Law For Interfaith Marriage, Another For Everyone Else, Whither Uniform Civil Code? 

 TOI Editorials

• Why Pakistan's Dossier On 'Indian Terrorism' Is Ultimately A Damp Squib

By Vivek Katju

• Pakistan’s Allegations At UN Are Laughable But India Can’t Take Them Lightly

By Tara Kartha

• Biden May Bode Well For Afghan Peace Process

By Lt Gen NPS Hira (Retd)

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Attacking Love: One Law For Interfaith Marriage, Another For Everyone Else, Whither Uniform Civil Code? 

TOI Editorials

November 19, 2020



Madhya Pradesh’s BJP government is tabling a bill to prosecute “love jihad”, a non-existent entity that also weighs heavily on the minds of other BJP state governments. The orchestrated thrust for such a law is surprising because central agencies haven’t detected a single love jihad case in the country. Hapless citizens must bear the cost of such unnecessary over-legislation, even now a prime underlying factor for poor governance in the country. Inclusive nationalism – or uniting the land and its people under one law, with the state not discriminating against citizens on grounds of region, religion, language, caste and sex – takes a beating here. In this regard, MP’s state sponsored discrimination directly challenges Article 15.

Far from BJP’s longstanding Uniform Civil Code promise, the love jihad legislative trajectory leads to a differentiated civil code. Where the Special Marriage Act invites Indians irrespective of religion to enter into a marital relationship, the MP bill frowns upon allowing the same right to interfaith couples. The interfaith couple, and a religious priest if theirs is a personal law marriage, must inform the district magistrate 30 days before the wedding. With offences being cognisable and non-bailable, attracting a five year jail term even for collaborators, the law will all but criminalise interfaith marriage.

A country aiming for a nation under one tax, one ration card, one civil and criminal code contradicts itself by herding citizens into religious ghettos, daring those who mingle with state sponsored harassment. Consenting adults having to contend with the state as gatekeeper and vetoholder in marriage, while being told in other contexts to become job creators and empowered citizens, betrays yet another contradiction. The new India is beginning to look like a really archaic India. Such laws will pose hurdles for New Delhi’s foreign policy as well. Unfavourable international attention stemming from discriminatory legislation with potential to fuel social conflict has grave reputational and soft power costs – recall CAA.

The Centre can, of course, reveal its hand when the bill comes to the stage of governor giving assent or referring to the President. The easiest course for Centre would be to reform the SMA’s convoluted provisions that force harried couples to take the easier route of religious marriages. Such a modernising move can end the love jihad conversation over religious conversion and earn the gratitude of lovestruck youngsters. And if all else fails there is the Supreme Court, which must act as the conscience keeper of the Constitution.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-editorials/attacking-love-one-law-for-interfaith-marriage-another-for-everyone-else-whither-uniform-civil-code/

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Why Pakistan's Dossier On 'Indian Terrorism' Is Ultimately A Damp Squib

By Vivek Katju

19 November 2020

Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and director-general of inter-services public relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar held a joint press conference on November 14 to reveal that a dossier had been put together containing what they claimed was evidence of Indian terrorism and other negative activities to damage Pakistan.

While the dossier was not released, its overview, key messages and salient features were conveyed to the media, verbally and in two documents.

These documents show that the dossier’s allegations are an attempt to give specificity to the charge that India has been promoting state terrorism in Pakistan through that country’s disaffected Pathan, Baloch and Muhajir groups. The allegations are full of shortcomings and without any credible proof. The dossier is also full of factual errors. This robs it of credibility, leave alone authority.

It would be, therefore, dismissed by the international community as one more amateurish effort to train the spotlight on India and away from Pakistan on terrorism. Indeed, the dossier will be counterproductive for it will poorly reflect on the ISI in the region and beyond.

Pakistan has chafed at having acquired the well-deserved reputation gradually over the past two decades as a principal centre of terrorism. There is no doubt that the international community considers it as such with the major western powers asking it regularly to control, if not eliminate, the terrorist groups that are based on its territory.

Though the situation was not always so. For instance, in the 1990s, the major powers, including the United States, were aware of the activities of Pakistani terrorist groups in India and Afghanistan but looked the other way. That emboldened Pakistan and also gave it the feeling that the international community had no objection to the activities of groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (which it promoted and controlled) against India.

Certainly, the fact that Delhi’s démarches to the major powers against Pakistan’s terrorism were consistently ignored showed that they simply did not care and even considered the use of the tanzeems as legitimate in pursuing its interests against India. This situation began to change only after 9/11.

Then, Pakistan’s connections with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which harboured al-Qaeda began to matter. The support of the Pakistani tanzeems to al-Qaeda began to hurt the interests of the West.

It’s at this time that what India had been saying all through the 1990s on the dangers posed by the Pakistani tanzeems began to be heard with at least partially open ears. However, as Pakistan’s cooperation in the war in Afghanistan was essential, the US and other western countries were unwilling to take a forceful stand on Pakistan’s terror against India. Privately, they made feeble noises on the issue to Pakistan. This was more to inform India that they had taken up the matter with Pakistan and nothing more.

It was only after the Mumbai terrorist attack of November 26, 2008, that the major countries realised that Pakistani terrorism put the Indian government under great pressure to take kinetic action. As open hostilities between neighbours would be obviously undesirable, the major powers began to put some pressure on Pakistan to curb the tanzeems. At the same time, they also began to publicly acknowledge the activities of these groups.

Yet Pakistan was able to take this in its stride for it did not materially impact on its cooperation with the western powers nor did the Pakistan army’s relations with the military establishments of the major powers suffer. There was an embarrassment to the army with the action against Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in May 2011, but that could not even remotely involve India. Hence, it did not purposefully seek to make allegations against India for fomenting terrorism in Pakistan.

Olive branch

Prime Minister Narendra Modi essentially pursued the path of peacemaking with Pakistan from May 2014 (when he assumed office) till December 2015 when he visited Lahore to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

The Pakistan army wanted to put an end to any peace-making opening and the Pathankot attack of January 2016 followed. Still Modi did not abandon the quest for peace for he allowed a Pakistan investigation team which included an ISI officer to visit India and go to Pathankot too.

However, when after the killing of Burhan Wani both the Pakistan army and Nawaz Sharif went full throttle on provoking Kashmiri opinion against the government, Modi went cold on Pakistan. This sentiment got consolidated after the Uri attack and the surgical strike response.

That response ensured that international opinion got more serious in asking Pakistan to control the tanzeems and abandon the use of terrorism. Of course, Pakistan was unwilling to do so.

Meanwhile, in March 2016, after abducting Kulbhushan Jadhav, Pakistan decided to use his so-called confessions to show the international community that India was not only undertaking espionage in Pakistan but using Balochi separatists to undertake terrorist acts. A high-profile press conference was held at which the Pakistan information minister and the DG ISPR gave details of what Jadhav had purportedly told them.

They named Indian intelligence officers and also National Security Advisor Ajit Doval as Jadhav’s handlers. In the International Court of Justice proceedings both in written and oral submissions Pakistan undertook crude and targeted propaganda against Indian intelligence officials and again specially focussed on Doval. All this was designed to impress international opinion that India was sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan. However, the major powers simply ignored these Pakistani endeavours and the dossiers that Pakistan reportedly gave them.

The February 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack by the Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Balakot aerial attack by India and Pakistan’s response led the western powers to realise that Pakistan’s pursuit of terrorism marked a dangerous escalation. Pressures on Pakistan to eliminate terrorist groups increased but Pakistan has resisted these pressures. The latest dossier is part of the response to the pressures.

It is part of the same chain of attempts at influencing international opinion against India and deflect attention from Pakistan.

It will not succeed not only because Pakistan’s credibility is very low but also because of its untenable contents. For instance, it claims that a cell was established in the R&AW “under the direct supervision of PM” to “undermine, delay and disrupt” CPEC projects and for this work US$ 500 million has been allocated. Any one with even a modicum of knowledge of how intelligence services work would know that elected prime ministers never directly supervise intelligence work. Besides to claim that so large an amount has been allotted is prima facie preposterous as is the claim that a militia of 700 persons has been raised to implement for the work.

There is repeated mention of how India is using Afghan soil to foment trouble in Balochistan.

The Indian embassy and consulates have been mentioned as coordinating such activities. These claims are bogus for in some cases the names of officers have been mentioned who do not exist and in other cases fingers have been pointed at ambassadors.

Having remained an ambassador himself and in Afghanistan this writer can authoritatively assert that no Indian ambassador involves himself in work of the kind alleged in the dossier.

This is simply not part of the Indian diplomatic tradition. What is interesting is that the names of the one ambassador who has been named has not been spelt correctly. This confirms the slipshod manner in which this dossier has been prepared.

Details of terrorist incidents are mentioned in the dossier. Of these the most serious was the Peshawar Army School massacre of December 2014 which took the lives of more than 130 children.

A man places a rose after lighting candles in front of portraits of the victims of the Taliban attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, during a candlelight vigil in Lahore December 19, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Mohsin Raza

A man places a rose after lighting candles in front of portraits of the victims of the Taliban attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, during a candlelight vigil in Lahore December 19, 2014. Photo: Reuters/Mohsin Raza

It is noteworthy that the dossier does not allege that India sponsored the attack but that Malik Faridoon who it is claimed to have been involved in the planning of the school attack went to the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad to celebrate. Thus, it is hinted that India was involved in the attack. This is an unwarranted and unsubstantiated inference which only shows that the bogus nature of the charges. It is also noteworthy that all the groups involved are Pakistani.

There is also an internal political objective that the dossier is meant to serve at this juncture. The army and Imran Khan have asserted that Nawaz Sharif is serving Indian interests and this dossier is meant to remind people that he is cohorts with a country which is sponsoring terror against Pakistan; thereby tarnishing his image further.

This dossier is, all in all, a damp squib. Pakistani attempts at targeting India on terrorism charges are futile. India must continue its pressure on Pakistan on terrorism directly and through the FATF which is entirely within the ambit of international law.

The world has come a long way from ignoring Pakistani terror to putting some pressure on it. This is resulting in Pakistan to blame India as a sponsor of terror. But except for a few of its cronies the world will simply laugh away Pakistani claims.

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Vivek Katju is a former Indian diplomat who served as India’s ambassador to Afghanistan and Myanmar, and as secretary, Ministry of External Affairs.

https://thewire.in/south-asia/pakistan-dossier-india-terrorism-fatf-raw-isi

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Pakistan’s Allegations At UN Are Laughable But India Can’t Take Them Lightly

By Tara Kartha

18 November, 2020

Pakistan is certainly on the war path, and not just on the Line of Control, where incidents of firing have escalated causing civilian deaths and forest fires even as  security forces noted a rise in infiltration. The Imran Khan government has resorted to making sweeping allegations against India, presenting dossiers to officials at the United Nations on alleged Indian assistance to terrorists and accusations of sabotaging the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. At one level, the charges are laughable. At another, it’s worth admitting that Pakistan is adept at spreading its allegations, particularly in the US. Ignoring this, as we usually do, may not be good enough. Mud sticks.

The brief to the envoys of the five permanent representatives to the UN Security Council, on alleged India-sponsored terrorism, occurred days after presenting dossiers directly to the UN Secretary General. Earlier, Pakistan was tom-tomming the compilation of yet another dossier covering ‘Indian action’ at three levels. First, it alleged that New Delhi supported and executed terror attacks in Pakistan and used its banks to finance terrorists. Second, it failed to punish perpetrators of terrorist attacks against minorities in India. Third, and most interesting of all, India was becoming a centre of terrorist activity. That’s quite a bagful of mischief.

There are other mischievous allegations, including one that India has set up a dedicated cell to counter the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), allotting PKR 80 billion (about Rs 37 billion) for the purpose. Cash-strapped intelligence agencies would have a fit. Other charges include making trouble in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Pakistan’s allegations  are hardly new, with Islamabad declaring for decades that India used dozens of embassies and consulates in Afghanistan for spawning terrorism against Pakistan. Former US ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson pointed out that India had four consulates, not 24; but that sober fact was lost in the noise. Under Prime Minister Imran Khan, this noise has gone up considerably, particularly after the appointment of his special adviser Moeed Yusuf, who, in an interview with an Indian channel, famously declared that he was ready with never-before-seen ‘evidence’ against India.

It is this ‘evidence’ that is now being shared. A briefing by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and DG ISPR Maj. Gen. BabarIftikhar made several allegations, peppered with ostensible ‘details’ to make the whole seem credible. One of these was that India has united several terrorist groups under the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan – whose spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan was allowed to ‘escape’ from army custody. It alleged that the act was masterminded by one “Colonel Rajesh” from the Indian embassy (there is a Brigadier and a Group Captain but no Colonel at the embassy), another Major Fermin Das (also untraceable), and a selection of RAW officials — all apparently working from consulates on Pakistan’s border (none, as US officials note). There’s more — camps in Dehradun for support to Altaf Hussain, the founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader, who last year requested PM Modi for some money to take Pakistan to the International Court of Justice; and a lot more in the same vein.

But as always, Islamabad is over-stretching itself. Both Moeed and the officials briefing the media accused India of the tragic attack in 2014 on an army school in Peshawar, where 132 children were killed; this after Pakistani authorities hanged the perpetrators (in 2015 and 2017). Killing women and children is not something India’s intelligence agency does, simply because no one would ever authorise it in a rather leaky democracy. But then Pakistan can’t be expected to understand that. Islamabad,  however, would do well to recall a series of attacks against schools in Afghanistan that began the same year. Such crimes perpetrated by the Taliban in Pakistan are hardly likely to have been forgotten.

Twisting financial probity

In its reported dossier, Pakistan has  cited the ongoing investigations by the Financial Crime Enforcement Network of the US Treasury Department to make its case that India is financing terrorism and is guilty of money laundering. Neither is true. The worldwide investigation has flagged thousands of transactions, including those of some 3,000 British companies and suspicious transactions from a Russian Oligarch that ended up with the ruling Conservative Party.

In India’s case, some 44 banks have been ‘red flagged’, including State Bank of India (SBI). None of these involve any evidence of wrongdoing, but are a directive for investigation. In other instances, individuals identified are already under probe, or under arrest. The whole thing is an exercise in financial probity, with hundreds of journalists also involved. Ironically, one such investigation includes a Pakistani financier who moved $14-15 billion annually for customers such as Dawood Ibrahim, the al-Qaeda, Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba among others.

Old and new charges

Then there are Islamabad’s now familiar charges that India has not acted against the accused in the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings case. That is not entirely true. The case, which dragged on for 12 years, ending in acquittal of all accused, is certainly a shameful indictment of the judicial and investigation prowess in India. But unlike Pakistan, the accused did not disappear, like Sajid Mir and others did in the Mumbai attacks case, but were arrested, with due trial process.

Finally, a new — and most interesting —  charge is the allegation that “India is emerging as a hotbed of UN designated terrorist organizations and posing a great risk to the region”. In this, Pakistan cites the presence in India of the Islamic State and the AQIS (al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) as evidence. This is sheer cheek, given that Asim Umar, the AQIS leader, is sheltered in Pakistan and even married there.

The recent busting of a module also showed strong connections to Rawalpindi. Then there is the Islamic State that has certainly made some limited inroad into parts of India. But as all agree, this is minimal given India’s large Muslim population, and even in Kashmir, where established jihadi groups wont give the IS or AQIS much leg-room.

But Pakistan’s flagging this needs to be dealt with through positive action. First, police forces  need to be a little more circumspect about tagging ‘Islamic State’ onto every troublemaker. And second, Prime Minister Modi’s message of  “reaching out” to Muslims needs to be implemented by his party leaders.

Meanwhile, it’s time to go on the offensive, using not mysterious allusions to sabotage and hidden camps, but simply showing up Pakistan for what it is – a highly unstable terrorist-ridden state, with a very uneasy head at the top.

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 Tara Kartha is former director, National Security Council Secretariat. Views are personal.

https://theprint.in/opinion/pakistans-allegations-at-un-are-laughable-but-india-cant-take-them-lightly/546814/

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Biden May Bode Well For Afghan Peace Process

By Lt Gen NPS Hira (Retd)

Nov 19, 2020

THE US will reduce the number of its troops in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500 by mid-January, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday. The Afghan peace process has not made any significant headway so far, except getting the warring groups to the negotiating table. The prime motivation for the US to get the Afghan government and the Taliban to talk was the election agenda of Trump. In the run-up to the elections, he went to the extent of making a statement that all US troops may be home before Christmas.

The withdrawal of US troops also fitted into Trump’s foreign policy in general, which was isolationist. It also made sense to Trump’s business instincts not to keep pouring US resources into a venture which in his perspective was nothing but loss-making. He is happy to cut out his losses and get out of Afghanistan. Trump had also chosen to abandon the good old policy of the US to promote democracies around the world. He is also not too concerned with the issue of human rights. Therefore, he does not mind the Taliban getting into a dominant position in the Afghanistan government, as long as the US troops can leave Afghanistan. His policies have been more focused on trade and economy. His emphatic effort to arm-twist President Ashraf Ghani to come to the negotiating table despite the fact that the Afghan government was not a signatory to the deal, was unfair to Ghani.

As far as the Taliban are concerned, it has been too happy to play Trump’s game because it has everything to gain by doing so. By giving a simple guarantee that the Taliban would ensure no attacks on the US or its interests from the soil of Afghanistan, Taliban could get an assurance from the US to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan. That is exactly what the Taliban had wanted all these years from the US. As far as the guarantee is concerned, Taliban may not be in a position to ensure it or it would blame any infringement of it, on the Islamic State or Al Qaeda. However, the Taliban’s rank and file may resist a deal which does not ensure implementation of the Sharia laws and dominance of Taliban in the future Afghan government structure. That is the reason why the Taliban has maintained a constant tempo of its operations against the Afghan forces throughout the peace process.

The outcome of the US elections has changed the situation for that country. Biden is likely to work towards US retaining its prominent position in the world. He will endeavour to promote a democratic government in Afghanistan, instead of a Taliban-dominated government. He is sensitive to human rights and would not like to allow a free run to the Taliban to violate the human rights of the Afghan people. Though he too has promised to the US people to get US troops home, he is unlikely to do so at a high cost, which was acceptable to Trump. He is also likely to listen to his military, which is of the opinion that the withdrawal of US troops in a hurry is squandering the gains made in the past.

It is fair to assume that Biden will attempt to strike a balance in his actions in keeping with all his priorities. Therefore, Biden’s nomination to the US presidency is bad news for the Taliban and good news for the Afghan people. At this stage, Taliban has two choices. The first is to pull its straps and continue to fight for as long as it takes to gain a dominant position. The second choice is a climbdown and to make reasonable compromises on its Islamic agenda. It is no secret that the Taliban too is tired of fighting and so are the Afghan people. It is noteworthy that in the month of September 2019, when Trump had sprung a surprise and put a stop to negotiations with the Taliban, it was seen to be much nervous. It could feel the ground slipping below its feet. The Afghan people too desire the Taliban to reach an agreement with the Afghan government, which would bring peace to the country. Further reduction of US troops at this stage is counter-productive as it emboldens the Taliban and makes Biden’s position difficult in handling the situation in future.

While the Taliban may try to put up a front to continue the fight, it too has realised that it may not be able to achieve a military victory in a reasonable time frame and that it cannot run Afghanistan without financial aid from the West. Afghanistan is strategically important to the United States. Biden is likely to force the Taliban to make difficult choices. He is likely to push the Taliban to once again feel the heat of US operations, if it does not fall in line with the US dictates. The nomination of Trump has emboldened Ghani as well as raised the morale of the Afghan National Army, which is now assured of a significant support from Biden as compared to Trump. Biden is unlikely to leave the Afghan people in a lurch because of his concerns for human rights and would endeavour to establish a democratic government in Afghanistan.

For India, it is a positive turn of events in Afghanistan. If a solution is to come about in the tenure of Biden, India is likely to see an Afghan government more inclined towards it than to Pakistan. India may have been somewhat subdued by the recent visit of Abdullah Abdullah, who privately conveyed to the Indian government to underplay its involvement in the peace process in Afghanistan. The reason for his doing so is the sharp reaction from Pakistan to any Indian moves in Afghanistan. Indeed, this is nothing new. Similar requests have come from the Afghan government in the past as well, but that is only a transitory factor. In the best of Afghan interests and our relations with Afghanistan, we need to manage this contradiction tactfully, as things are already looking up for Indian interests in Afghanistan. A solution is not around the corner and the new announcement of enhanced withdrawal has made the situation more difficult for Biden, but his election has gingered up the Afghan scenario in the right direction.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/biden-may-bode-well-for-afghan-peace-process-172431

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