Indian Press On Tablighi Jamaat, Secular Tradition And Clash Of Civilisations: New Age Islam's Selection, 12 November 2020
By New Age Islam Edit
Desk
12 November
2020
• Tablighi Jamaat Case And Indonesia: How
India's Domestic Politics Is Adversely Affecting Its Foreign Policy Agenda
By Ashutosh Nagda
• French State School Today Is An Incarnation
Of Its Secular Tradition
By Vijay Singh
• India Must Learn From France: Let Us Also
Fight Religious Extremism With Hard Secularism
By Rahul Shivshankar
• Clash Of Civilisations
By Julio Ribe
• Days Of Whines And Poses In America
By V Sudarshan
• Slow Justice
By S. Binodkumar Singh
• Biden Likely To Give India More Strategic
Space
By Yogesh Gupta
-----
Tablighi Jamaat Case And Indonesia: How India's
Domestic Politics Is Adversely Affecting Its Foreign Policy Agenda
By Ashutosh Nagda
November
07, 2020
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi shakes hand with Indonesian president Joko Widodo. AFP
----
In March
this year, the Government of India arrested several members of the Tablighi
Jamaat congregation for violating the COVID-19 lockdown guidelines. Out of the
3,500-plus Tablighi members that were booked, 751 were reported to be
Indonesian nationals.
According
to a recent report in The Wire, over the past eight months, the diplomats from
both countries have been trying hard to keep a lid on the possible consequences
of the arrests on the bilateral relations of India and Indonesia.
Since the
re-election of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2019, several of
its domestic political decisions — the abrogation of Article 370, the passing
of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the release of a redrawn Indian map,
amongst others — have had a negative spillover effect on India’s foreign
relations. The Tablighi Jamaat issue is another addition to this list, which
could have adverse ramifications on New Delhi-Jakarta bilateral relations.
Jakarta’s
compulsions
Since its
arrival in 2014, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put a
greater emphasis on its Act East Policy (AEP) and enhancing India's cooperation
with ASEAN countries. In this, Jakarta is a key gatekeeper given its status as
the largest economy of Southeast Asia as well as India’s largest trading
partner in the region.
Furthermore,
the two countries share common collaborative goals in the Indo-Pacific — a
centre of economic as well as geopolitical gravity in today's times. There is
also an upward curve in defence ties between the two countries as seen with the
Sabang Port joint development and the recent agreement between the respective
defence ministers "to expand defence ties and technology sharing".
Thus, irking Indonesia could cause a hindrance to India’s eastward act.
The arrest
of the Indonesian nationals was the second time that a diplomatic tussle had
arisen between New Delhi and Jakarta. Earlier in February, Indonesia's Foreign
Ministry had summoned India's Ambassador to Indonesia, Pradeep Rawat, to
discuss the Hindu-Muslim sectarian riots in New Delhi that had begun over the
contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Indonesia had been one of the
first countries to publicly and diplomatically raise concerns over the riots.
It is
imperative to note that Indonesia, with the world’s largest Muslim population,
has — in the last few years — witnessed a greater emphasis on the Islamic
identity in its polity. This re-emergence has seen a steady rise right from the
2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections, which were preceded by mass sectarian
mobilisations by Islamists against the then Jakarta governor.
This had a
trickle-down effect in and around the 2019 Presidential elections in the
country, wherein incumbent Jokowi partnered with Islamist allies as he joined
hands with the likes of Ma’ruf Amin (ex-head of Nahdlatul Ulama and the current
Vice President of Indonesia), Prabowo Subianto (presidential rival and current
defense minister) and the Muhammadiyah (supporters of Subianto’s candidature).
The summons
to India's ambassador in Indonesia had come amid a rising criticism and
condemnation of the Delhi riots from two both NU and Muhammadiyah, the largest
Muslim organisations in Indonesia.
The
appeasement of the Islamists before the elections had helped Jokowi get
re-elected as the President of Indonesia. He seemed to have had continued with
the appeasement in a bid to clear the pathway for his economic agenda also
known as Jokowinomics 2.0, the success of which was heavily dependent upon a
recently passed omnibus bill on job creation. This contentious bill was
overwhelmingly passed in the Indonesian parliament wherein Jokowi has managed
to cobble up an alliance that controls roughly 74 percent of the country's
parliament.
The bill,
whose passing and success has been noted as the real barometer of the success
of Jokowi’s agenda, has a long way to go. While the administration and the bill
face continuous opposition from labour unions and environmentalists, the
Indonesian President would like to avoid any political opposition (especially
from the Islamists) in the future. That can then distract the progress of these
reforms and thus affect Jokowi’s goal of being the country’s next "Father
of Development".
In this
context, any anti-Muslim measures or rhetoric by New Delhi and especially the
ones which target the Indonesians will have the scope of pushback from Jakarta.
While the recent pushbacks have been mild in diplomatic nature, the ones in the
future can ignite a major diplomatic as well as economic tussle between the two
countries.
A hit on
credibility
The
mechanism of a healthy bilateral relationship not only involves the head of
states and the respective governments, but also the population of the two
countries. In that regard, the credibility of a country plays a primary role.
The Tablighi Jamaat case seems to have dented New Delhi's credibility among
ASEAN countries, and especially within Indonesia.
According
to an ASEAN diplomatic source quoted in The Wire’s report, in the first few
weeks after the issue erupted, the ASEAN members "constantly wrote and
asked for information as per protocol" from the Indian Ministry of
External Affairs (MEA). “But, it was clear that they themselves did not have
anything to tell us,” the source added. This thus raises serious questions on
the diplomatic maneuverability of the MEA and the latter’s position in the
current Indian dispensation.
Further,
the report goes on to mention some important discrepancies between the Indian
and the Indonesian public statements on certain key events during this period.
In April,
the Prime Minister of India held a telephonic conversation with his Indonesian
counterpart. The official Indian read-out of the same mentioned that the
leaders “discussed issues related to their citizens present in each other’s
countries” without any mention of the Indonesian Tablighi Jamaat members. On
the other hand, while referring to the same conversation, the Indonesian
foreign minister told the local press that Jokowi had raised the issue of
Tablighi Jamaat congregation with Modi.
The report
notes two other instances — the ASEAN-India senior officials meeting of 15 July
and the ASEAN-India ministerial meeting of 12 September — when the Tablighi
Jamaat issue was informally discussed and not recorded in the official press
release and the chairman’s statement, respectively. While the sources cited in
the report confirmed the discussion of the issue in the 15 July meeting, the
Indonesian Foreign minister herself briefed the media about the appraisal of
the issue at the 12 September meeting.
This
sequence of events and the glaring differences between New Delhi’s
'tight-lipped' approach to Jakarta’s outspokenness hints at a possible hit to
the former’s credibility amongst the Indonesian public and the government.
Conclusion
India’s
domestic political compulsions and decisions in the last eighteen months have
invited an equal amount of flak and questions from the international community.
This, in turn, has led the conversation in Indian foreign policy. Thus it won’t
be wrong to say that New Delhi’s domestic political situation is affecting its
foreign policy agenda. The results of the same seem discouraging, to say the
least, and this has the potential to create a major foreign policy turmoil in
the coming years especially from the least expected corners such as Indonesia
and the ASEAN. If that happens, New Delhi may bid adieu to its eastward
ambitions.
https://www.firstpost.com/world/tablighi-jamaat-case-and-indonesia-how-indias-domestic-politics-is-adversely-affecting-its-foreign-policy-agenda-8985731.html
--------
French State School Today Is An Incarnation Of
It's Secular Tradition
By Vijay Singh
November 7,
2020
My first
brush with the French school system and the republican values it is meant to
incarnate — both tied to the recent gruesome beheading of a French
schoolteacher — was in the late 1980s. I was invited to France Culture, a radio
channel here, for my book La Nuit Poignardée (The Wounded Night) to discuss the
Punjab militancy in the 1980s. I was surprised to find two unusual guests with
me — two Sikh boys, 13 and 15 years old, who had hit the “unofficial” news for
being asked to refrain from coming to their state school in a turban. This was
in itself an offshoot of the ongoing debate on banning French Muslim girls from
attending schools in headscarves.
To put the
boys in the studio at ease, I asked one of them in Punjabi: “Veera, school vich
ki hoya si? (What happened at school?)” The boy didn’t answer, looking
embarrassed. I asked again. He twirled his lips and mumbled in the most native
French: “Chais pas, je ne parle pas le pendjabi, moi! (Sorry, I don’t speak
Punjabi!)” The boys looked so perfectly French that I wondered how on earth
they could be asked to remove their turban, which is almost a part of their
natural attire. I raised this issue the same night with two renowned French
women writers, who had come home to dinner. They didn’t know much about
turbans, but the discussion quickly switched to Muslim headscarves and they
became furious: “No way! No question of girls covering their heads. This is the
French republic, and they’ll do what it demands!”
These
incidents prodded me to dig into the historical making of the French secular
state school, and its uniqueness that the French are so proud of. Jules Ferry,
Minister of Public Instruction in 1882, was the first to create the state
school, which was to be mandatory, free and secular. Besides the French
Revolution’s cries of “liberty, equality and fraternity”, this school was also
a response to centuries of violent conflict between the state and the Catholic
church. The inchoate secularism of Ferry’s republican school was fortified in
1905, when a French law separated the church and the state, thus marking the
beginnings of French secularism (laïcité) in modern times. While citizens were
free to practise any religion in their personal lives, the state had now
declared itself to be free of any religion.
This
concept of French secularism evolved over the 20th century, giving French
citizens “freedom to believe or not to believe, to practice a religion, to be
atheist, agnostic or to be an adept of humanist philosophies, to change
religion or to cease to have any religion”. But while French secularism
guaranteed freedom of religion, it also conferred freedom vis-à-vis religions.
Freedom of thought, which derived from the freedom of conscience, gave the
freedom to criticise any idea, belief or opinion, subject to the only condition
that it did not incite hatred or violence.
French
state school today is an incarnation of this secular tradition, which was
further fortified in the face of new challenges posed by immigration, largely
from former French colonies. In 2004, another law was promulgated, banning
schoolchildren from wearing any overt signs or clothes that would betray their
religious affiliation. This was an effort to create a unique school space,
where everyone would look equal and “religiously anonymous” — no crosses, no
headscarves or burqas, no turbans, no Jewish kippahs (skullcaps). (The Sikh
boys come with hair-nets now.) The message was clear: School was meant to be a
temple of learning, where reason and rationality reigned.
This
secular outlook was strengthened by another constitutional right — the right to
freedom of expression. Macron said recently at the Panthéon: “Freedom of
expression is part of French heritage.” Armed with these two republican laws,
French schoolteachers today are thus actively encouraged to foster a fearless
spirit of inquiry, regardless of religion or any other hindrance. The
caricatures shown at the French school, thus, form a part of this tradition of
teaching and learning.
Freedom of
expression is a precious human right, and it must particularly be protected
today in the face of several democracies showing dangerous authoritarian trends
and democracy being a distant dream in several countries. But must freedom of
expression — or “secular expression” — not pause and review itself on that
invisible line where the principle of human respect begins? Won’t tolerance of
the other make the right of freedom of expression more dignified and
acceptable? Won’t, as Gandhi said, “an eye for an eye make the whole world
blind?”
Although President
Macron has made it amply clear that his fight is for a secular state and
against Islamic radicals, not Islam, the sad truth of our times is that the
world has changed, particularly since the first Gulf war (1990). Anger has got
internationalised, and social media has only been an accomplice in this
development. Emotional turmoil and “touchiness” has increased, and, in a world
where illegal arms are available for the asking, it’s become easy to pick up a
gun and shoot down whoever angered you. There’s a stench of revenge in the air
— both from the state and the angered people.
In France,
there are ominous internal realities, too. Demographics have changed. Ten per
cent of the population is Muslim. Amongst the school-going population, this
percentage, and the percentage of “believers”, is much greater. A majority of
Muslims less than 25 years place Islam before the Republic. Reportedly, many
schoolteachers are “Islamo-radicalised”. Several schoolchildren have refused to
observe a one-minute silence to mourn terrorism-related tragedies. Recent
showing of the caricatures, which seem to have become coterminous with the
French republic, have divided people into pro or anti-caricature.
Schoolteachers are at a loss of words to teach freedom of expression. Under
these conditions and in the interest of promoting social harmony, would it not
be wise, therefore, to re-read these precious lines?: “Before putting forward
any precept or maxim to your pupils, ask yourself if there is, to the best of
your knowledge, anyone who could be offended by your words. Ask yourself if
there is a single head of family of a pupil present in your class, be it only
one, who could refuse to give consent to what you are about to say. If yes,
abstain from saying it.” These are the words of none other than Jules Ferry,
the founder of the French state school, in his Lettre aux instituteurs (1883).
----
Vijay Singh is a journalist, writer and
filmmaker living in Paris.
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/france-secularism-emmanuel-macron-islamic-radicalism-6981220/
-----
India Must Learn From France: Let Us Also Fight
Religious Extremism With Hard Secularism
By Rahul Shivshankar
November 7,
2020
The
lifeblood of the modern French state has been violently extracted from the
veins of renaissance reactionaries who murdered for liberty, equality and
fraternity.
Since then,
aside from the egregious and unpardonable excesses of the colonial era, the
French state has by and large been an enthusiastic practitioner of secular
values. If it has erred in recent times, it has been towards a pedantic
secularism that has attracted controversy from avowed multiculturalists.
For
example, laws in France permit the government to deny requests for citizenship
to those who reject orders banning burqas on grounds of “lack of assimilation”.
Indians would be familiar with an incident not so long ago when laws were
invoked against turban-wearing Sikhs in France on the grounds that the head
gear militates against French mores of social cohesion. The ban led to fervent
protests in India that forced the Indian government of the day to raise the
issue discreetly with its French counterpart. The French government responded
by pointing out that turbans were allowed in public places but not in schools.
In a statement
that is still available on the French embassy website the French government
explains that the restrictions are in line with the “laws on laicite (the
French principle of separation between the state and religious institutions)
and practical solutions have been found to reconcile their (Sikh) religious
practice with the principles of the French Republic”. From all indications
French Sikhs seem to have understood this.
In France
then, the right to offend or be blasphemous is near absolute. The French believe
that, at their core, the tenets of religions could be naturally offensive to
the adherents of other faiths. In the French scheme it is therefore
inconceivable that a history teacher would have to pay for his life for an
alleged act of blasphemy. In fact a vast majority of French people view Samuel
Paty as an activist not a blasphemer. The history teacher’s decision to defy
the mullahs and show his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, during a
lesson on free speech, was a symbolic one in protest against the terror attack
on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for much the same reason.
It is in
this limited context then that French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to
end “Islamist separatism” in the country. Religious extremism is anathema to
secular democracy and Macron is only doing what every avowed secular-liberal
would do in a situation like this: fight weaponised obscurantism. For, there
can be no denying that only obscurantists among Muslims would take such an
extreme step as to decapitate a teacher for encouraging students to defend the
right to believe or not to believe.
It is
therefore surprising that Macron’s attack on “Islamist extremists”, not Islam,
has drawn such widespread criticism from around the world. Many Muslims have
taken to the streets in their respective countries to accuse Macron of
Islamophobia. Malaysian ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad in a 13-point harangue on
Twitter ominously called upon Muslims to slay millions of French people for the
massacres of the past. Worryingly, the demagogue found appreciation in some
circles, raising the spectre of violence.
Are the
shootings in Vienna and the French city of Lyon, or the attacks on Hindus in
Bangladesh, directly attributable to Mahathir Mohamad’s invocation? One hopes
not, but his absurd comments could open the floodgates for an unending cycle of
worldwide revanchist violence. Will he justify Christians suddenly deciding to
avenge unpunished attacks by Muslims in the past?
Beyond the
ludicrousness, Mahathir Mohamad and those who “liked” his tweet are only
betraying their poor understanding of the language of universal human rights.
The defence of human life, liberty and freedom of expression is a moral and
legal obligation of a rules-based society, not a phobia against Islam. Those
who are not able to comprehend this fact are only authorising bigotry of the
“other” side.
The Modi
government is right to have supported President Macron. Sections of the
opposition and disparate Muslim groups here in India, who are criticising Modi,
are undermining well-established constitutional values. Instead of letting vote
bank compulsions dictate their response, they would be better advised to demand
consistency. The response to Muslim communalism cannot be an aggravating Hindu
variant. There are vital lessons to be learnt from France, which is fighting
religious extremism with hard secularism.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/beyond-the-headline/india-must-learn-from-france-let-us-also-fight-religious-extremism-with-hard-secularism/
-----
Clash Of Civilisations
By Julio Ribeiro
Nov 06,
2020
The French
have always been irreverent about anything to do with religion. Perhaps this
almost national attitude to God and God’s attributes was a fallout of the
French Revolution. It is not surprising, therefore, that French President
Emmanuel Macron made an off-the-cuff statement that conveyed to the Islamic
world that the French government would uphold the right of its citizens to
dabble in cartoons of the Prophet.
The issue
arose because of the beheading of a Paris school teacher who had shown the
cartoons drawn in a popular French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, a publication that
specialises in political satire, to his pupils in a classroom. Ordinary Muslims
take umbrage to the depiction of their Prophet in picture form. Cartoons, of
course, are the worst form of picture depictions since the artist intends to
draw wry humour which fragile minds cannot stomach.
More than
any other religion in our universe, Islam smells apostasy and insult in any
rejection of its beliefs, however casual the intent of the culprit. In Muslim
nations, the apostate would be put to the sword. In non-Muslim countries like
France, the violent reactions of true believers would send out messages of dire
consequences. The beheadings in Paris and Nice and the stabbings in the latter
city were the responses of extremists who really believe that violent revenge
would win them grace in heaven!
What
brought me cause for joy and hope was a body of local believers calling
themselves ‘Muslims for Secular Democracy’, led by my friend Javed Anand,
husband of an even bigger friend, Teesta Setalvad, who in castigating the
beheading of the teacher, Samuel Paty, made secular liberals exult. Here, at
last, was a group of moderate and sensible Muslims that knows that no religion
and no God will condone the brutality of murder and mayhem.
The very
next day, to the consternation of the same secular liberals, thousands of
Muslim protesters took to the streets of our cities, condemning France and its
President for standing up to the legal rights of its citizens! Cinema houses in
France and other countries of Europe have often screened films debunking some
core beliefs of Christians regarding Jesus Christ, while hardcore Christians
protested peacefully outside. Peaceful protests are par for the course in
mature democracies.
France
enforces strict segregation of the Church from the State. In its schools,
religious symbols like crucifixes are not displayed. They are, in fact, not
permitted. In many Christian lands, the crucifix is prominently displayed above
hospital beds — but not in France or the Nordic countries which pride
themselves on their secularism.
In his
seminal work, The Clash of Civilisations, political scientist-cum-writer Samuel
Huntington had predicted that the North-South divide between democracy and
communism would be replaced by the East-West divide between the more populous
but economically backward Muslim countries of the East and the established
Christian-led economies of the West. The Islamic concept of a caliphate led to
the establishment of the ISIS which tried to conquer lands and cities with
economies based on oil revenues in Syria and Iraq and actually controlled vast
territories in those lands for a decade. It established its capital in the
Syrian city of Rakka, then under its control.
A French
journalist named Anna Erelle went undercover to befriend an Algerian-descended
ISIS emir or captain of French nationality. Her book Undercover Jihadi Bride
gives a fair account of the murders and beheadings ordered by ISIS forces in
and around Rakka in the decade before the organisation was ousted from the
Middle East and its caliph killed by the joint forces of Syria, Russia and the
US.
The
depredations linked to the ISIS should caution like-minded Islamic jihadist
adventurers from dreaming of the unattainable! But they continue to dream and
to feed on promises of rewards in the after-life made to them by semi-literate
mullahs. Lacking secular education and skills to compete in a secular
environment, they fall back on antiquated religious practices that can only
lead them to despair and from despair to crime and from crime to destruction.
Candidates
to avenge perceived wrongs are never wanting. I have seen this in the
Khalistani terrorist scene in Punjab. The emotional chord is one that is easily
touched. It leads soldiers of terror to self-destruct sooner or later.
The problem
with jihadi terrorism is that it transcends boundaries and even geographies.
The ISIS and the Al-Qaida attracted recruits from all over the Islamic world.
The ‘ummah’, the brotherhood, provided the cannon fodder from among the
gullible who were fired by visions of Islamic rule in the world, with the
Sharia law dictating how men must pray and dress and eat and how women should
be treated.
In India,
extreme elements of the Hindu right were disgusted with the terror strikes by
jihadists in a land that had been populated from times immemorial by the
Indo-Aryans and the people they had conquered but later assimilated into Aryan
society at lower graded levels. These disgruntled elements decided to take
matters in their own hands and give a befitting reply to their tormentors. But
they went about the riposte in a very amateurish manner, with the result that
they were soon discovered and put out of commission.
The moral
of the story is that the call to arms by extremist elements of any religious
persuasion will be answered by disgruntled young men who have smelt insult to
their religion and its culture. But those who answer the call will soon repent
because those who want to live peaceful and conventional lives outnumber them
by wide and convincing margins.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/clash-of-civilisations-166693
-----
Days Of Whines And Poses In America
By V Sudarshan
Nov 06, 2020
Consider
this enduring Texas poll scene from four days ago in the dying hours of the
presidential bid 2020: A Biden campaign bus is swarmed by dozens of cars flying
Trump-Pence flags boxed in, blocked, railroaded and prevented from going to its
campaign destination. Incumbent President Donald Trump tweets the video, which
goes viral, to his 88 million followers with a message: “Did you see how the
cars ‘escorted’ the bus? I love Texas!” You would be right in guessing where
the Texas electoral college votes are going when the Electoral College meets on
December 14, six days after December 8 when the results of the American
elections are expected to be finalised.
That is
still more than a month away. Between now and then, there could be many a slip
between the White House and ‘Sleepy’ Joe Biden. Even should he clinch that
magic 270 electoral votes unofficially, from the way Trump has been running
down the voting process, selectively, and from the increasing number of times
the Trump campaign is using the word ‘fraud’ and threatening to take the legal
way, federally and even nationally, to deny Biden victory, it looks as if
America is bracing for a bruising photo-finish.
This is
because Joe Biden has patently failed to demonstrate that he is by far and away
the clear winner the pollsters were predicting he was. This is also because
Donald Trump has proved to be more tenacious, if not more deeply rooted, in his
substantial electoral base than was presumed. At least in almost half of a
bitterly politically divided United States of America where the President
himself has led from the front in sowing divisiveness, distrust and plain
meanness all around. There has been a qualified sigh of relief that so far
there has been no violence considering the plywood drawbridges and other
defensive structures that have been erected in the business districts and shops
and stockpiling in American homes, not least of firearms. According to the New
York Times which quoted FBI data, Americans bought 15.1 million firearms in the
first seven months of this election year. This apparently represents a 91 per
cent jump over the same period in 2019. It is indisputably a symptom of anxiety
that Donald Trump has wantonly wrought in his presidential years, cheerleading
political hooliganism and plain bullying. It has also been evident that armed
militias have been seen in many of the rallies. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration
to say that some of the lines in the gun stores were about as long as the bread
lines in Nicolae Ceausescu’s Romania in the late eighties. It is frightening to
think that all it requires is a spark, a tiny spark, and so far, Trump has
shown no hesitancy in sparking. There is a whole laundry list, but you do get
the picture.
As Trump
called portions of the process, “a fraud on the American people,” “an
embarrassment to our country,” he claimed, “Frankly, we did win this election.”
And outlined his strategy, a threat to go to the US Supreme Court. The appeal
process has already begun in Pennsylvania and is likely to spread to other
states as well.
Biden’s
hopes of winning hinges now on Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes), Wisconsin
(10) and Michigan (16), which have been traditionally Democrat but swung to
Trump in 2016 and not by huge margins. North Carolina with 15 electoral votes
and Georgia, with 16, are the other two states where the results have yet to be
declared, are also too narrow to call, but were swinging imperceptibly towards
Trump. The postal ballots, which Trump has discredited, as well as the overseas
votes and the military votes have still to be counted. In America, it is manual
counting, not the EVMs. It remains to be seen how cleanly Biden prises the
remaining electoral votes out of this looming mess and how far the Republicans
go to back Trump in subverting the established processes. For now, the jury is
out. The point to note here is that even though the margins here in 2016 were
low, it has been an uphill task so far for Biden, even though he concentrated
his firepower here.
Trump hopes
to exploit the legal route because the Supreme Court is packed with Republican
nominees, six out of nine, and most of the legislatures in Michigan, North
Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are in firm Republican control. That
hasn’t changed with this election either. As Biden moves inexorably closer to
270, the Trump dirty tricks department will go into overdrive, playing with the
perceptions and emotions of his followers.
If Biden
emerges winner, then the transition remains. With a loose cannon in the waning
White House and a larger world that has changed dramatically in the Trump
years, there is residual scope for worry that Trump does not leave more mess
for Biden to clean up after him. The first is the big knock that the image of
America has taken.
What is
happening in the US now is no different from what a petulant authoritarian
figure from, say, Latin America did in in the eighties or an African despot who
steals an election or two. Indeed, by attempting to deny a complete accounting
of votes, how different is Trump from President Saddam whom Bush accused of
rigging the elections? Think also Robert Mugabe. Indeed, the American position
as a global leader has been substantially undermined by Trump himself. Already
that position stands considerably diminished and dented and some of his
alliances are under stress. Trump comes off as no different from Putin or even
Xi Jinping. What the 45th President of the US has managed to do is take the
sheen off the American model of democracy and bring it to the same level of
say, Gen Pervez Musharraf, stealing the government from Nawaz Sharif. But let’s
look at the bright side: The good news for India is, if Trump emerges out of
all this unscathed, we should not have to explain the arithmetic of election
results in, say, Jammu and Kashmir to the Americans anymore, if and when we get
around to it.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/days-of-whines-and-poses-in-america-166716
-----
Slow Justice
By S. Binodkumar Singh
November 9, 2020
On October
22, 2020, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) issued a death warrant
against Jatiya Party leader and former State Minister Syed Mohammad Qaiser over
crimes against humanity he committed during the Liberation War in 1971. The
death warrant was sent to the Dhaka Central Jail, Keraniganj, secretaries of
the Home Ministry and Law Ministry, and District Magistrate. However, Qaiser
was given 15 days to appeal the decision. Qaiser was sentenced to death on
December 23, 2014, when the prosecution proved seven charges against him. On
October 29, 2020, Qaiser filed a petition with the Appellate Division of the
Supreme Court seeking review of its verdict that upheld his death sentence. In
the review petition, Qaiser mentioned a total of 18 grounds for which the apex
court may consider his prayer. His lawyer Tanvir Ahmed Al Amin argued that
Qaiser was 82 years old and sick. He moves on a wheel chair. There is no
precedent of sentencing such an old sick man to death in the world, he said.
Qaiser is now in Keraniganj jail.
Thus far,
the War Crimes (WC) Trials, which began on March 25, 2010, have indicted 125
leaders, including 50 from the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI); 27 from the Muslim League
(ML); 11 from Nezam-e-Islami (NeI); five from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP); two each from the Jatiya Party (JP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP);
27 former Razakars; and one former Al-Badr member. Significantly, out of 125
leaders indicted, verdicts have been delivered against 95 accused, including 69
who have been sentenced to death, and 26 to imprisonment for life. The latest
verdict given by the ICT was on December 11, 2019, in which Abdus Sattar alias
Tipu Sultan (66) was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity during the
Liberation War of 1971. He was charged on August 8, 2018, with two counts of
crimes against humanity. The tribunal sentenced Sattar to death for abducting
Babar Mandal from Shaheb Bazar of Rajshshi city on September 26, 1971, taking
him to Shaheed Samsuzzoha Hall torture camp at Rajshashi University, torturing
him in confinement there, and shooting him to death at the killing ground in
the eastern side of the hall at midnight on September 27, 1971. He was also
sentenced to death for abducting 11 freedom fighters by attacking village
Talaimari, Boalia, Rajshahi on November 2, 1971, taking them to the same
torture camp of the Razakar force, torturing them in confinement there for two
days and shooting nine of them to death at the same killing ground on November
4, 1971. In 1971, he was a cadre of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student
wing of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), and joined the infamous Razakar force.
So far, six
of the 69 people who were awarded the death sentence have been hanged. On
September 3, 2016, JeI Central Executive member Mir Quasem Ali (63) was hanged
at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur District; on May 11, 2016, JeI Ameer
(Chief) Motiur Rahman Nizami (75) was executed at Dhaka Central Jail; on
November 22, 2015, JeI Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed (67) and
BNP Standing Committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury (66) were hanged
simultaneously at Dhaka Central Jail; on April 11, 2015, JeI Senior Assistant
Secretary General Mohammed Kamaruzzaman (63) was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail;
and on December 12, 2013, JeI Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Mollah
(65), who earned the nickname ‘Mirpurer Koshai (Butcher of Mirpur)’ was hanged
at Dhaka Central Jail. 32 others are absconding and another 31 cases are
currently pending with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile,
out of 26 persons who were awarded life sentences, five persons have already
died while serving their sentences – former JeI Ameer Ghulam Azam (91), who
died on October 23, 2014; former BNP Minister Abdul Alim (83), who died on
August 30, 2014; former JeI National Assembly member S.M. Yousuf Ali (83), who
died on November 17, 2016; former JeI member Gazi Abdul Mannan (88), who died
on December 19, 2016; and former ML member Mahidur Rahman (88), who died on May
21, 2018. 13 others were absconding and another eight were lodged in various
jails of the country. Verdicts against 31 accused are yet to be delivered.
Recalling
the support of the Government and people of India during the Bangladesh
Liberation War against Pakistan in 1971, Liberation War Affairs Minister
Mozammel Haque announced on August 6, 2020, that Bangladesh would construct a
monument in the memory of the Indian soldiers martyred in the Liberation War.
The Bangladesh Government has selected 3.5 acres of land at Ashuganj in
Brahmanbaia District bordering Agartala. The site selected has historic
significance as the Indian Army fought the Pakistanis in some decisive battles
in 1971, along with Bangladesh freedom fighters, at Ashuganj. Nearly 2,000
Indian soldiers were killed in the 1971 war against the Pakistan Army, to
liberate East Pakistan. According to the Bangladesh Government, as many as
1,984 Indian Army men were killed in the war. Earlier, on July 25, 2011,
Bangladesh conferred its highest state award, Bangladesh Swadhinata Sammanona
(Bangladesh Freedom Honour) to former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
posthumously for her outstanding contribution to the country's 1971 Liberation
War. Indira Gandhi made crucial contributions to the independence of
Bangladesh, travelling across the world to mobilize support for the people of East
Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh, amid a massive crackdown on civilians
by the Pakistan Army, and supporting the Mukti Bahini (Liberation Army) and
eventually injecting Indian Armed Forces to bring the Pakistani Forces to their
knees.
Significantly,
on August 9, 2020, at the 12th meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee
on the Liberation War Affairs Ministry, a six-member Parliamentary
Sub-Committee headed by Member of Parliament (MP) Shajahan Khan, was formed to
prepare lists of those who collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces
during the 1971 Liberation War. The other members of the Sub-Committee are
Liberation War Affairs Minister A.K.M. Mozammel Haque, Narsingdi MP Rajiuddin
Ahmed, Chandpur MP Rafiqul Islam Bir Uttam, Brahmanbaria MP AB Tajul Islam and
Chittagong MP Moslem Uddin Ahmed. The parliamentary team will work on enlisting
and publishing the lists of anti-Liberation forces, including the Jamaat-e
Islami, Razakars, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and the Peace Committee.
Further, on
August 27, 2020, Minister for Liberation War Affairs Haque and State Minister
for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak, jointly
inaugurated the digitization of 38 services of the Ministry of Liberation War
Affairs as part of the rapid digitization activities under the Government’s
“MyGov” platform at the conference hall of the Ministry of Liberation War
Affairs. By launching the digitized services, the service recipients of the
Ministry of Liberation War Affairs will be able to be included in the Gazette,
receive the freedom fighters’ honorarium, revise information on freedom fighter
certificates, and apply for any services related to payment, service progress,
submission of required documents and other related activities through five
access points. The access points of the services are MyGov Web, MyGov App, 333,
Union Digital Center and the Liberation War Affairs Ministry website.
However,
expressing frustration over the pending cases in the War Crimes' trials,
Shahriar Kabir, President of Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (Committee
for Resisting Killers and Collaborators of the Bangladesh Liberation War)
stated on October 24, 2020,
The ICT's
cases are not normal cases like any other offence; the appeal hearing was
stopped in the period of former Chief Justice Sinha and the appeals are still
in the same state. The Supreme Court has to hear the appeal with the highest
priority. We also suggested that the government follow other countries in the
world in this regard. If the appeals are stuck in the appellate division with a
backlog of other cases, they can hear appeals separately with the arrangement
of the ICT set-up.
The
achievements on the War Crimes Trials in Bangladesh are already remarkable.
Sheikh Hasina's Awami League-led Government has shown enormous courage in
pressing ahead with the War Crimes Trail reaffirming the Government's
determination to honour its 2008 General Election pledge to bring the War
Criminals of the 1971 genocide to justice. The Awami League is in its third
straight term in power and its landslide victory in 2008 was precipitated by an
election campaign where the war crimes trial was one of the top priorities.
However, as a number of cases remain pending with the Appellate Division of the
Supreme Court, the eventual conclusion of the trials and appeals is far from
over.
-----
S. Binodkumar Singh is a Research Associate,
Institute for Conflict Management
Source:
South Asia Intelligence Review
------
Biden Likely To Give India More Strategic Space
By Yogesh Gupta
Nov 12,
2020
JOSEPH
Biden Jr. will soon take over as the 46th President of the United States. There
is some consternation as many critics are not sure how the Joe Biden-Kamala
Harris duo will react to the human rights situation, particularly in Kashmir.
Also, that he will be ‘soft’ on China which may recoil on India in its current
military confrontation with that country.
Biden is a
seasoned and skilful politician, who for decades has served on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, including as its chair. Second, he is calm,
contemplative and a team leader who will listen to and go by the professional
advice of the US establishment — including the State, Defence, National and
Homeland Security, CIA, Trade and other departments. His long innings as the
Vice President in two terms of President Obama unambiguously authenticate this
view.
In an
article, Why America must lead again, in the Foreign Affairs journal in March
this year, Biden wrote that President Trump had diminished the credibility and
influence of the US by abdicating the American leadership, indulging in
ill-advised trade wars which had hurt its own consumers and undermining and
abandoning its allies which are America’s biggest strength.
The
post-Covid world will be very different from 2016 when the Obama-Biden duo
left. China’s economy has made huge strides during this period. However, much
of China’s economic growth is based on extensive use of unfair trade practices,
including denial of market access, stealing of foreign technologies, subsidies
to its state-owned industries and others.
China’s
swift growth has been accompanied by massive modernisation of its military,
including manufacture of fifth generation of fighter and stealth aircraft,
long- and medium-range missiles, hypersonic and artificial intelligence
(AI)-based weapons, destroyers and aircraft carriers.
Similarly,
China has made considerable progress in other emerging technologies like 5G,
quantum computing, new materials, robotics and space weapons. The rapidly growing
China is now challenging the economic and military pre-eminence of the US in
Asia. It has launched aggression against a number of countries allied or
getting closer to the US such as India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia and others
and is trying to divide the transatlantic alliance.
Biden has
said that he would constitute a “united front of the US, its allies and
partners to confront China’s abusive behaviour and human rights violations” and
“place US back at the head of the table” to mobilise collective action on
global threats. “When we join together with fellow democracies, our strength
more than doubles. China can’t afford to ignore more than half the global
economy,” he argued. Germany, France and leaders of the European Union have
welcomed Biden’s election promising to work together on China and other
challenges.
Though the
aggressive rhetoric of Trump administration may change as Biden seeks China’s
collaboration on climate change, non-proliferation and control of infectious
diseases, the US and its allies will take collective action against China’s
unfair trade policies, as per the Biden team. The US sanctions on export of
sensitive technologies to China are likely to continue.
In his
earlier avatars, Biden played an important role in the passage of the Indo-US
Civil Nuclear Deal in the Congress (2005) and later when the Obama
administration declared India as a ‘major defence partner’ (2016). With the
signing of Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), Communications
Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) and Basic Exchange and
Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation (BECA) recently, India has
established close linkages with the US security architecture. Its large growing
economy, professional armed forces and stout determination to resist China have
augmented its strategic value. In its pursuit of multipolar world, India can
play a critical role in checking the growth of China’s hegemony and its
domination of Asia.
Biden made
it clear in his Foreign Affairs essay that he would “fortify the USA’s
collective capabilities with democratic friends by reinvesting in its treaty
alliances with Australia, Japan, South Korea and deepening partnerships from
India to Indonesia to advance shared values in a region that will determine the
USA’s future.”
Biden has
promised to invest in improving America’s competitiveness, pull down trade
barriers, resist the slide towards protectionism and give more emphasis to fair
trade. Given the rising trade deficit and unemployment in the US, it is likely
that there will be some tough negotiations with India on issues such as high
tariffs, market access, levy of taxes on US technological giants like Amazon
and Google, but in an amicable manner without resorting to threats and tariffs.
On issues
relating to immigration, H1B visas and the studies of Indian students in US
universities, Biden is likely to be more positive though keeping in view
unemployment in his own country.
Some Biden
advisers have stated that he would raise human rights issues with India like
Obama. This will be more in the nature of a dialogue among friendly states and
would not be the main driver of his overall policy given New Delhi’s
sensitivities and the importance attached to strategic issues confronting the
two countries.
Biden has
stated that his administration would stand with India against the threats it
faces from its own region and along its borders. Given the above template, it
is likely that India would find greater resonance on Pakistan’s support of
terrorism, a continued US role in the fight against terror groups in
Afghanistan and on resuming a nuclear deal with Iran.
Similarly,
his stand on re-joining the Paris climate change agreement, convening a summit
of democracies to discuss issues of common interest, meetings of major carbon
emitters to reduce harmful emissions and control of infectious diseases would
be of considerable interest to India. Summing up, India is likely to get more
strategic space and a greater sympathetic understanding of its concerns from
the Biden administration than that of President Trump.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/biden-likely-to-give-india-more-strategic-space-169479
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