A draconian law
UNDER Narendra Modi’s watch, there is little doubt that the country is being transformed into a Hindu rashtra, where minority communities are relegated to the margins of society, if accepted at all.
For with the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the BJP-led government in New Delhi has sent another signal — loud and clear — that Muslims are not welcome in Modi’s India.
Under the law, which still has to pass through India’s upper house, non-Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh will be able to acquire Indian citizenship more easily.
Hindu nationalist supporters of the controversial bill have said the law will allow minorities ‘persecuted’ in these countries to find refuge in India. However, this move is hardly inspired by humanitarian concerns and smacks of Islamophobia and communalism.
The BJP seems very concerned about non-Muslim communities in South Asia, yet it is doing all it can to make the lives of Indian Muslims miserable.
This is only the latest in a series of moves the Indian government — now firmly carrying out the agenda of the Sangh Parivar — has made to marginalise and exclude Muslims from mainstream India.
The government has stood by as barbarians have hunted down and lynched Muslims suspected of transporting or eating beef; the annulment of India-held Kashmir’s special status is also part of this sinister agenda.
Moreover, a new ‘citizenship register’, under which people have to prove their antecedents, and already being enforced in Assam, may be used to cancel the citizenship of Indian Muslims if the BJP has its way.
Many sections of Indian society have criticised these moves, particularly the new citizenship bill, for contravening India’s supposedly secular character.
However the BJP, power drunk and with the support of far-right Hindu groups, knows that it can bulldoze these laws through parliament in the hope of achieving its dream of a Hindu India.
For India’s Muslims, these are troubling times.
People whose roots lie in India and who have lived in that land for centuries may now be declared aliens if the shock troops of Hindutva have their way.
With these ominous moves, the BJP is paving the way for making millions of Indian Muslims stateless — outsiders in their own land.
It seems the RSS ideologues that are running India, who are huge fans of Israel and whose ideological forefathers were smitten by Europe’s 20th-century fascists, are now employing the ‘best practices’ of both influences to do away with India’s Muslims.
These condemnable actions should be noted by countries around the world.
There have always been forces in India struggling to remove the veneer of secularism that previous dispensations there sought to promote. With the BJP’s rise to power, it seems that the communal beast has been set free.
Sporting success
PAKISTAN’S impressive showing at the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal, where the national sports contingent has won more than 130 medals, has done much to lift the pall of gloom that had descended on the country’s sports scene for the past decade and a half. The question has been asked many times: what went wrong in a nation that had in previous years enjoyed tremendous success in cricket, hockey, squash, snooker, boxing, athletics and table tennis? Sports in the country has witnessed regression, controversy and abysmal campaigns, especially at mega events such as the Olympics, Asian Games, World Cups, Commonwealth Games, etc at least since the start of the millennium. But the latest edition of the South Asian Games has showcased Pakistan’s potential, with the country’s sportspersons collecting a handsome share of medals in the martial arts, shooting, weightlifting, wrestling, swimming, athletics, squash, javelin throw, boxing, etc. Led by the brilliant Arshad Nadeem who won the men’s javelin throw to qualify directly for the 2020 Olympics, Pakistan’s men and women athletes have consistently performed well in Kathmandu to prove that the country is brimming with outstanding talent
Having said that, neither the government, nor the parent sports bodies, nor the private sector can take the credit. The government has been completely oblivious to the sporting woes of athletes and players in the country, and has done nothing to establish financial support or create a conducive environment or robust infrastructure. In fact, parent bodies such as the Pakistan Olympics Association and Pakistan Sports Board have been embroiled in ugly tussles which have harmed sports in the country. Pakistan’s demographics point to an advantage that is waiting to be tapped. There is a huge young population whose energy and ambition can be channelled towards sporting accomplishments. But sadly, there have been no long-term training programmes to groom sportspersons for national or international events, simply because the momentum for any long-term programme to reach fruition is often stymied by power struggles, corruption and nepotism. Regretfully, the private sector too has focused all its resources and energies on promoting cricket which has also been experiencing a downward spiral of late. To break the logjam, a transformational agenda has to emerge. Of course, there are no quick fixes, and reforms could take a decade to show results. But with the right people at the helm, Pakistan’s ambition to become a sporting nation could be put back on track.
Reviving student unions
ON Monday, Sindh took another decisive step towards restoring normality on its campuses. In a move to revive student unions that had been banned during the Zia era, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s cabinet has cleared the draft of the Sindh Students Union Act, 2019, for further input by stakeholders. The law, which came about as a consequence of a resolution in the Sindh Assembly in November, is extremely important not just for the province but for the whole country. The prolonged clamour for reviving unions has turned into a strong slogan in recent times. The pressure to deliver has been that much greater on political parties and politicians known for their vows and promises to live by the tenets of democracy. The PPP government in Sindh might realise now that true success and vindication in this case lies not just in the restoration of the unions but in a revival that leads to the establishment of empowered elected units on campuses that are capable of playing an effective role on behalf of the student community.
But even as it seeks to promote the active participation of students on the threshold of adulthood, the draft tries to curb some aspects of campus life. True, some caution is always advisable in all endeavours. But in this instance, the proposed restrictions go beyond what is reasonable, to a point where they threaten to defeat the very purpose of having a union. The desire expressed in the original draft to keep the students away from politics may have been dictated by bad experiences of the past, but it is akin to a suggestion which allows enthusiasts to have a Basant festival without kite-flying. The idea is to expose young, educated souls to all manner of opinion and thought to help them gain a mature perspective on how to go about living their lives. The Sindh Students Union Act, 2019, needs quite a lot of rethinking before it can pass the test.