The Norm of the Patriarch

March 4, 2012

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During middle of February 2012, BJP ruled Karnatka’s two ministers, Laxman Savadi and C C Patil were watching the porn clip on the mobile belonging to another minister Krishna Palemar. All three had to resign the job and BJP huddled in to a Chintan baithak (Meeting for Introspection) to do the damage control. Whether these BJP ministers are also RSS trained swayamsevaks, like most top functionaries of BJP are, is not known. But surely these porn watching ministers do come under the broad umbrella of RSS combine, popularly known as Sangh Parviar.

There are many other incidents about those in the ambit of RSS combine, in incidents which involve gender related issues. By now the aggression of Pramod Mutalik’s Sri Ram Sene attacking and humiliating the girls in a pub is too well known. Mutalik is a RSS trained person. He joined RSS in 1975 and became convener Bajrang Dal for South India in 2004. He also helped BJP’s election campaigns. Later he joined Shiv Sena before forming his own Sri Ram Sene. The attacks on those celebrating Valentine day, by Shiv Sena, Sri Ram Sene and other groups who are fellow travelers of RSS politics is a sort of annual ritual.

Many of these elements have been attacking Muslim boys who were found conversing with Hindu girls. In Gujarat, Babu Bajrangi, who was very active in Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom, who was caught in the Tehelka sting operation boasting about playing the ‘One day match’, killing the Muslims, was also the leader of a squad which was intimidating the couples in the parks. The most systematic attempt to combine gender issues, patriarchal norms with anti Muslim tirade manifested in the form of the propaganda about ‘Love Jihad’, a hoax deliberately floated to browbeat Muslim youth has been seen in many a places particularly in Kerala. As per this propaganda Muslim youth are being given money and training to lure way Hindu girls with the aim of increasing Muslim population.

The pathological dislike for the girls trying to get autonomy in choosing their life partners is being opposed in many a ways. The couples meeting the in the public places are advised to abhor love marriage and to go for the partners selected by their parents. As a counter to Valentine day celebration, Asaram Bapu suggested the celebration of Matri Pitru day (Parents Day) on that day (14th February, the Valentine Day) and the BJP ruled Chhattisgarh Government has implemented this wish of Asaram Bapu and Matri Pitru day was observed in Chattisgarh this year. To cap it all the norms, morality and values followed by RSS combine were most in display in response to the statement of the Hyderabad police Chief Dinesh Reddy’s statement. Mr. Reddy (Dec 2011) linked the rape cases with the dress of women. Not the first time any police person or many others have said a similar thing. The difference this time was that when Mr. Reddy was being criticized for his crass statement, he received support from the un-expected or rather expected quarter of one women’s organization. This women’s organization happens to be Rashtra Sevika Samiti, an organization subordinate to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). While most of the incitements which have been observed are a manifestation of perverted sense of morality, a medieval mind set, the Rashtra Sevika Samiti’s support to Mr. Reddy in linking up women’s dress with rape, in turn holding them responsible for the crimes done against them, is very revealing.

The likes of Babu Bajrangi, Promod Mutalik may be dismissed as fringe elements, despite their association with RSS or its affiliates, and the porn clip watching BJP ministers may not be an exception in doing such a thing. But in the case of Rashtra Sevika Samiti’s action the attitude of RSS ideology toward women becomes more than explicit. RSS is an exclusively male organization. In 1936 Laxmibai Kelkar, a woman related to RSS members’ family, approached the then Sarsanghchalsk and asked permission to join the RSS. She was declined the membership on the ground that RSS is only for men. She was advised to start Rashtra Sevika Samiti instead. The nomenclature of the two organizations is very interesting. The dominating male organization has the word Swayam (self), while in the name of women’s organization the word Swayam (self) is missing, showing their subordinate position.

This deep adherence to patriarchy dictated by RSS keeps coming to surface time and over again. In the decade of 1980s the then BJP’s Vice President Vijaya Raje Schindia had supported the women committing Sati (self immolation by woman after husbands’ death), in response to the Roopaknwar Sati case. She asserted that Sati is a great glorious Hindu tradition. She also said that to commit sati, is the right of Hindu women. Somehow she herself never exercised this right herself!

Another major leader of BJP, Mridula Sinha, belonging to BJP Mahila Morcha (BJP Women’s Wing) had in an interview given to the Savvy Magazine in 1994 defended the wife beating and dowry. She said that women should not work outside unless there is a dire financial crisis’ in the family. The major ideologues of Sangh combine have talked gloriously about Manu Smiriti, the tome which ordains the caste system and subordinate position of women. The open preaching of patriarchal values is a core agenda of most of the communal organizations, irrespective of to whichever religion they belong to. RSS combine exemplifies it to the hilt, starting from its nomenclature to the ideology and practices undertaken by this multi headed hydra. In these matters the attitude of other fundamentalist organizations, deriving their legitimacy from Islam or Christianity may not be much different and they may hold hands together on such issues, the way they stood together on the issue of same sex relationships.

Our society during the period of 1950-1970s saw the strengthening of the process of caste and gender transformation. The period from 1980s has been a sort of reversal of the healthy elements of the process of social change. This reversal of the process of social transformation is an accompaniment of the rise of politics in the name of religion, the politics of RSS in India. While porn watching BJP ministers may not be the only ones’ in doing what they did, there is a need to look at the attitude to gender which is on display due to the politics of RSS, the Hindutva.

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News Network
March 27,2024

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New Delhi, Mar 27: The government has objected strongly to remarks by a US State Department spokesperson on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest last week in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam.

The External Affairs Ministry summoned Gloria Berbena, the US' Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, to a 40-minute meet at its office in Delhi on Wednesday afternoon. In a brief statement released shortly afterwards, the MEA warned of "unhealthy precedents and against "unwarranted aspersions".

"States are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others, and this responsibility is even more so in case of fellow democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents," the External Affairs Ministry said.

"India's legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted," the statement stressed.

On Tuesday the US State Department said it is monitoring reports of Mr Kejriwal's arrest, and called on New Delhi to ensure "a fair and timely legal process" for the jailed Aam Aadmi Party leader.

The US State Department's comments came, in turn, days after Germany's Foreign Office stressed that Mr Kejriwal, like any other Indian citizen facing charges, is entitled to a fair and impartial trial.

The Indian government reacted strongly to the comment, summoning the German envoy and labelling the Foreign Office spokesperson's remark "blatant interference in internal matters".

"We see such remarks as interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary," the External Affairs Ministry said, "Biased assumptions are most unwarranted."

Asked about India's protest to Germany, the State Department spokesperson told Reuters, "We refer you to the German Foreign Ministry for comment on their discussions with the Indian government."

Earlier this month the Modi government also took exception to comments by its counterpart on the changes to the citizenship law, calling them out as "misplaced, misinformed, and unwarranted".

Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate last week in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam that has roiled his AAP and provoked furious protests from the opposition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Mr Kejriwal was this week sent to jail till March 28.

The Enforcement Directorate believes the now-scrapped liquor policy provided an impossibly high profit margin of 185 per cent for retailers and 12 per cent for wholesalers. Of the latter, six per cent - over ₹ 600 crore - were bribes and the money was allegedly used to fund the AAP's poll campaigns.

The ED has labelled the Chief Minister as a key conspirator in this case, but Mr Kejriwal and party colleagues arrested in this matter - ex-Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, and former Health Minister Satyendar Jain - have all denied the charges.

The AAP and the opposition have hit out at the BJP-led central government for using central agencies, like the ED, to target rivals and critics before the general election. The AAP has criticised Mr Kejriwal's arrest on grounds it was timed to interfere with his plans to campaign for the party.

The BJP has dismissed claims it uses central agencies as described by the opposition.

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News Network
March 21,2024

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New Delhi: India has now become more unequal in terms of wealth concentration than the British colonial period as income and wealth of the top 1% of the country’s population have hit historical highs, according to a paper released by World Inequality Lab.

By 2022-23, the top 1 per cent income share in India was 22.6 per cent and the top 1 per cent wealth share rose to 40.1 per cent, with India’s top 1 per cent income share among the very highest in the world, higher than even South Africa, Brazil and the US.

Co-authored by economists Nitin Kumar Bharti, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, and Anmol Somanchi, the paper stated that the “Billionaire Raj” headed by “India’s modern bourgeoisie” is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces. 

The paper said there is evidence to suggest the Indian tax system might be “regressive when viewed from the lens of net wealth”. A restructuring of the tax code is needed, the paper said, adding that a levy of a “super tax” of 2 per cent on the net wealth of 167 wealthiest families would yield 0.5 per cent of national income in revenues and create space for investments.

“A restructuring of the tax code to account for both income and wealth, and broad-based public investments in health, education and nutrition are needed to enable the average Indian, and not just the elites, to meaningfully benefit from the ongoing wave of globalisation. Besides serving as a tool to fight inequality, a “super tax” of 2% on the net wealth of the 167 wealthiest families in 2022-23 would yield 0.5% of national income in revenues and create valuable fiscal space to facilitate such investments,” the paper said. 

The paper has analysed data based on the annual tax tabulations published by the Indian income tax authorities to extract the distribution of top income earners between 1922-2020.

The share of national income going to the top 10 per cent fell from 37 per cent in 1951 to 30 per cent by 1982 after which it began steadily rising. From the early 1990s onwards, the top 10 per cent share increased substantially over the next three decades, nearly touching 60 per cent in the most recent years, the paper said. This compares with the bottom 50 per cent getting only 15 per cent of India’s national income in 2022-23.

 The top 1 per cent earn on average Rs 5.3 million, 23 times the average Indian (Rs 0.23 million). Average incomes for the bottom 50 per cent and the middle 40 per cent stood at Rs 71,000 (0.3 times national average) and Rs 1,65,000 (0.7 times national average), respectively.
The richest, nearly 10,000 individuals (of 92 million Indian adults) earn on average Rs 480 million (2,069 times the average Indian). “To get a sense of just how skewed the distribution is, one would have to be at nearly the 90th percentile to earn the average income in India,” the paper said.

In 2022, just the top 0.1 per cent in India earned nearly 10 per cent of the national income, while the top 0.01 per cent earned 4.3 per cent share of the national income and top 0.001 per cent earned 2.1 per cent of the national income.

Enlisting the probable reasons for sharp rise in top 1 per cent income shares, the paper said public and private sector wage growth could have played a part till the late 1990s, adding that there are good reasons to believe capital incomes likely played a role in subsequent years. For the shares of the bottom 50 per cent and middle 40 per cent remaining depressed, the paper said, the primary reason has been the lack of quality broad-based education, focused on the masses and not just the elites.

“One reason to be concerned with such high levels of inequality is that extreme concentration of incomes and wealth is likely to facilitate disproportionate influence on society and government. This is even more so in contexts with weak democratic institutions. After largely being a role model among post-colonial nations in this regard, the integrity of various key institutions in India appears to have been compromised in recent years. This makes the possibility of India’s slide towards plutocracy even more real. If only for this reason, income and wealth inequality in India must be closely tracked and challenged,” it said.

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News Network
March 14,2024

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The high-level committee on simultaneous elections, chaired by Ram Nath Kovind, on Thursday met President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted its report on 'One Nation, One Election'. The report comprises 18,626 pages.

Home Minister Amit Shah was also present at Rashtrapati Bhawan when Kovind led panel submitted the report.

"Simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies can be held in first step, followed by local body polls within 100 days in second step," reported PTI quoting the panel.

"Synchronised polls for all three tiers of government to improve governance architecture, in line with quest of aspirational India," it added.

The report has been submitted 191 days after the constitution of the panel on September 2, 2023.

It's further reported that the proposal also puts focus on having a singular electoral roll for holding Lok Sabha, state assembly and local body polls.

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