MANY GOVERNMENTS AROUND THE WORLD have been using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to intensify crackdowns on human rights and peaceful protests. The Indian government, unfortunately, is no exception. The Narendra Modi government has been using the national lockdown to move against people involved in peaceful protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Delhi, and there have been some arrests. A first information report (FIR) was registered against Delhi Minorities Commission Chairman Zafarul Islam Khan on April 30 for sedition and for promoting enmity between groups on the basis of religion, race, and place of birth. The charges were based on a social media post by Khan.
Many countries are freeing political prisoners and even common criminals temporarily to prevent the spread of the pandemic in overcrowded prisons. The Indian authorities, however, are showing no such considerations. Kashmiri politicians and intellectuals accused of sedition continue to be incarcerated, many of them in places far from home.
U.N. WARNING
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet issued a statement in late April calling on governments to ensure that human rights were not violated “under the guise of exceptional or emergency measures” to combat the pandemic. “Emergency powers should not be a weapon government can wield to quash dissent, control the population, and even perpetuate their time in power. They should be used to effectively deal with the pandemic—nothing more, nothing less,” Bachelet said. She emphasised that the restrictions imposed should be “necessary, proportionate and non-discriminatory”.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 22, 2020 من FRONTLINE.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 22, 2020 من FRONTLINE.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
Job Offers Withdrawn, Internships Now Unpaid
Engineering and business school graduates stare at a bleak future as job offers are withdrawn or revised, while delays in joining dates add to the climate of uncertainty.
In search of a road map
It is now increasingly clear that the government did not think through and provide for the consequences of the lockdown.
Clueless captain
As the nation longs for relief from the pandemic and the economic misery caused by an ill-planned lockdown, the government prefers symbolism over substance, exposing its lack of meaningful leadership.
RISING TREND
There are no signs of any let-up in the COVID case numbers well into the third phase of the lockdown even as issues of violation of physical distancing norms, mistreatment of front-line health workers, inadequate public health infrastructure and increasing distress among the poor come to the fore in most States, besides of course the low testing numbers and haphazard screening and isolation of suspect cases.
Dystopian pipe dream
The reluctance of the Narendra Modi regime to extend fiscal support to those in real need of help during a prolonged lockdown suggests that it is promoting further concentration of capital. Dire consequences await the economy and the polity.
