THE RECENT COMMUNAL BLOODLETTING IN the National Capital Territory of Delhi, facilitated by sections of the government machinery, has finally made the international community wake up and question the powers that be about accountability. For the first time since India’s Independence, a United Nations body has chosen to intervene forcefully on a domestic human rights issue. U.N. bodies, including the Security Council, did not raise a hue and cry when in August 2019 the Narendra Modi government at the Centre abrogated Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and turned the Kashmir Valley into a virtual open-air prison. But the nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Population Register and the violence unleashed by the state and the foot soldiers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have been the last straw for theU.N.High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) and other international organisations.
In early March, Michelle Bachelet, the UNHCHR chief, announced that the U.N. body was submitting an amicus curiae intervention in India’s Supreme Court. The court is hearing a petition by the retired diplomat Deb Mukherjee and others challenging the constitutional validity of the CAA. Mukherjee had served as India’s Ambassador to Bangladesh and Nepal and has an abiding affection for the region and its people. Michelle Bachelet had served two terms as Chile’s President. A socialist, she fled Chile when the country was taken over by the brutal military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s. Her father, an air force general, was arrested and tortured by the Pinochet regime. He died in prison.
This story is from the March 27, 2020 edition of FRONTLINE.
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This story is from the March 27, 2020 edition of FRONTLINE.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
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.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
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.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
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. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
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.
