My Opinion

On Sunday (January 12), thousands of aspirants for the Bihar Police constable entrance exams flocked to railway stations, forced their way into reserved compartments of trains and travelled on rooftops to reach their examination centres. Near Hajipur , they stoned the Delhi-bound Guwahati Rajdhani Express and blocked rail and road traffic, alleging that there were no trains to travel to Bettiah and Motihari, where the exam centres were located.

India TV in its programme ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ showed videos of students clinging on to the engines and doors of overcrowded coaches. Hundreds of them were sitting on rooftops. Railway officials who arrived at the scene with police force tried to unload the aspirants who were clinging to the engine of the train. Hundreds of exam aspirants were stranded on railway platforms as there were no trains available.

In the last one year, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has done a lot to improve the working of Indian Railways. He had promised a day ago that the railways would run high speed trains on most of the routes and passenger amenities would be improved. Goyal may have to do some rethink after seeing these visuals of overcrowded trains in Bihar. He would definitely understand the scale and scope of his Herculean task.

There is no denying the fact that there has been overall improvement in train services and maintenance of railway stations. Wi-fi facilities have been provided at nearly 100 stations and anti-collision devices have been installed in several trains to avoid disasters. Trains are, more of less, running on time and the number of general coaches has been increased.

In spite of all these steps, if candidates travel by clinging to engines and doors of coaches, the system needs to be held accountable. The dates for Bihar Police constable entrance exams were common knowledge and Bihar police could have informed the railways in advance so that the railways could have arranged special trains for the candidates. But this was not done and the result is there for all of us to see.

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A special investigation team of Delhi Police on Friday disclosed names of nine student activists, who they alleged had indulged in violence in the JNU campus. These included the JNU students union president Aishe Ghosh. Of them, seven are from Left groups and the remaining two are from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

Looking at the videos and sequence of events, it is amply clear that this was not merely a fight between student activists but was an outcome of political group rivalry. To sum up, Left student groups had started an agitation against hike in hostel fees and later it took the shape of political rivalry.

The Left student activists, who had launched the agitation in October, did not want regular classes to be resumed in the campus at any cost, because their agitation would have fizzled out. The JNU administration initiated registration for winter session last month. Despite resistance from Left activists, more than 3,000 students enrolled for registration. ABVP activists were persuading most of the students to enrol for registration so that the Left student movement could be weakened.

The tension began when Left activists stopped pro-ABVP students from taking part in registration process. They bashed up some of the students and broke the university server thus disrupting the entire process. This was followed by attack from masked students and this attack was repulsed from the other side. To sum up, hooliganism took place from both sides and masked goons were brought in by both camps. The main issue was not about hike in hostel fees, but the question of political dominance.

Now that the SIT inquiry by Delhi Police is on, we hope more persons involved in violence would be identified. However the moot question remains: why do such incidents of violence take place in JNU alone? There are more than 900 universities in India, but why do we hear slogans like ‘Bharat tere tukde hongey’ and ‘azadi’ in JNU alone? Who are those people who retain supremacy in JNU? Time to ponder.

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There were two major developments in Kashmir valley on Thursday. Fifteen foreign envoys, including US ambassador to India Kenneth Juster, visited Srinagar and met with politicians, army officers and members of civil society to discuss the present situation in the Valley, and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti expelled eight party leaders for ‘engaging with the government.

It was the first official trip by diplomats to Kashmir after the historic August 5 repeal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcation of the the state into two union territories. Politicians in the Valley who met the diplomats included former minister Syed Altaf Bukhari and Majid Padder (both PDP), and Shoaib Lone and Hilal Shah (both Congress).

In the evening, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, though under house arrest, announced through her Twitter handle that she has expelled eight party leaders for what she called ‘engaging with the government’.

The eight leaders are Dilawar Mir, Rafi Ahmed Mir, Zaffar Iqbal, Abdul Majeed Padrroo, Raja Manzoor Khan, Javaid Hussain Baig, Qamar Hussain and Abdul Rahim Rather. These were the leaders who had met the Lt. Governor G. C. Murmu on Tuesday.

However, a senior PDP leader former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig hit out at Mehbooba saying it was her ‘provocative’ remark that ‘no one would be left to hold the tricolour in the Valley, if Article 370 was removed’ that led to the bifurcation of Jammu & Kashmir. Baig said, ‘the statement should not have been made. If J&K has to live together and if we have to bat for our rights, we have to talk with decency and humility’.

Baig also said, ”we cannot get anything by browbeating and threatening Modiji, Home Minister or NSA. As citizens of India, we should put before them our grievances and our problems with humility’.

It is a fact that there has been no bloodshed in the Valley after Article 370 was revoked and not a single citizen died at the hands of security forces. I would rather say the citizens in the Valley played a greater role than the security forces in maintaining peace. Nothing of the sort like ‘rivers of blood will flow’ happened after revocation of Article 370 as leaders like Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti had warned ominously.

The people of the valley have given their reply to Mehbooba Mufti. Five months have elapsed since the revocation of Article 370, cellphone and SMS services have been resumed, leaders are being released from detention in phases.

It would be better if the Centre decides to resume internet services in the Valley. Internet services are an essential part of daily life. Students need internet to study, traders need internet for trade, and tourists find it difficult to book hotel rooms in the absence of internet. The government has to bear the burden of fall in revenue because of loss of trade. Resumption of internet services in the Valley is the need of the hour.

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Iran on Wednesday fired 22 ballistic missiles at two American bases inside Iraq causing structural damage, but there were no reports of casualties. Hours later a Ukrainian airliner carrying 176 people crashed soon after take off from Tehran airport killing everyone on board. It is unclear what caused this disaster as there were contradictory statements from different sources.

Most of the airlines have suspended their flights over Iranian airspace and crude prices are spiralling. While Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei described the missile attacks as “a slap” on the US, the American President Donald Trump in a televised speech on Wednesday night claimed that “Iran appears to be standing down”. Trump however vowed that as long as he was President, he would never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

In our show “Aaj Ki Baat” on Wednesday night, we had shown a video clip, in which Trump had said in 2011 that the then US President Barack Obama “in order to get re-elected will start a war with Iran”. Now, the boot is on the other foot.

Watching the video, one can easily understand why Trump ordered the assassination of Iran’s Maj. Gen. Qasim Suleimani. I remember, in 1998, the then US President Bill Clinton was facing impeachment charges in the US Congress and he had then ordered the army to attack Iraq. The demand for impeachment was soon overshadowed by news of attack on Iraq.

Similarly, in 2012, when Obama was preparing for re-election, it was Trump who alleged that Obama may attack Iran in order to win the re-election. Now that Trump may face impeachment charges, one does not need rocket science to understand why the US President initiated escalation of tension with Iran.

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After a long wait of more than seven years, the death warrants to execute all four convicts in the infamous 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape murder case were issued by a Delhi court on Tuesday. The four rapist-killers will be hanged till death on January 22 at 7 am inside Tihar jail. .

Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora, in his order, wrote, “…when reasonable time and opportunity has been afforded to them, there is nothing to delay passing of orders on the application seeking issuance of death warrants”.

The four convicts have still two weeks’ time to file curative petition in Supreme Court or send mercy plea to the President.

Nirbhaya case is a perfect example of how it is difficult to mete out swift punishment to perpetrators of gruesome acts. All the four convicts had committed the heinous crime, all the facts were established beyond doubt, right from the lower court to the apex court, and yet the delay.

Details of this gruesome crime are such that could unnerve even the hardened criminals. There were witnesses and evidences. There was tremendous pressure for justice from all sections of society. Delhi police, on its part, did not make any delay in investigation, and yet it took seven years for the death warrants to be signed.

Questions now do arise in our minds what may be happening to the rape victims and their families, who faced similar gruesome crimes, but their cases did not get wide publicity. These families have no support from the general public nor any big lawyers to fight their cases. They have been making rounds of the courts for many years. When will they get justice?

Justice for Nirbhaya alone will not do. The entire criminal jurisprudence system will have to be modified in a manner so that the families of victims will not have to wait long, while convicts take undue advantage of the system and spend time at leisure inside jails.

Of course, the execution of four convicts in Nirbhaya case will surely send a strong message and strike fear in the minds of criminals, but it is also a fact that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. Nirbhaya’s parents got justice after making rounds of courts for seven years. You would be surprised to know that there are nearly 2,000 similar cases of gangrape languishing in law courts for more than 10 years.

According to National Crime Records Bureau, 67 convicts were given death sentence in heinous rape cases during the last two years, but not a single convict has been hanged.

It would be wrong to blame the court alone. The fault lies in the entire criminal jurisprudence system. Posts of judges are lying vacant right from lower to higher courts, there is lack of infrastructure for courts, and for a country of 1.3 billion people, we have only seven forensic labs.

Blaming the judiciary alone won’t do. We have to bring swift changes for the better in the entire system. It is only then that thousands of innocent victims like Nirbhaya will get justice at the earliest and rapists will have to think twice before they commit such heinous acts.

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A group of goons, armed with iron rods, went on a rampage on Sunday night inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus and attacked and terrorized students in their hostels for about half an hour. During the three hours of terror, the students, most of them female, locked themselves up inside their hostels. The goons hit and wounded several students and ransacked the campus. They later slipped away in full gaze of Delhi police, which was awaiting permission from the JNU administration to enter the campus.

Images of bleeding students and broken glasspanes have caused nationwide outrage, and on Monday, the Left and the BJP leaders blamed each other for the attack. Leftists allege that the attackers belonged to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), student wing of RSS, and ABVP leaders allege that the masked goons were brought in by the Left to terrorize the students.

I fail to understand what one would gain by terrorizing students. The main question that arises is: how the goons made their entry, who called them in , and whether they were JNU students or not. Delhi Police claims to have identified some of the goons but is unwilling to reveal their identities now. Police have taken away all CCTV footage from the campus and are investigating all videos and several WhatsApp conversations that took place during that time.

I can only say, whatever happened in JNU on Sunday night has brought a bad name to India. People across the world are viewing videos of how the goons went on the rampage. These goons and their collaborators inside JNU have left a black spot on the image of Indian universities, and it will take years to wipe them off.

The issue is not going to end easily. There were protests on Monday by students in Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Assam, Hyderabad, AMU, Agra, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Chennai, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Puducherry and even abroad in London, Oxford, Sussex, Columbia University and Nepal.

I have no hesitation in saying that Congress and Left parties are behind most of the protests that took place in India. These two political parties have quite a large base in these universities. For the last several weeks, these parties used to stage student protests in Jamia Millia Islamia and AMU on the issue of CAA and NRC, and now, after this rampage in JNU, they have got another issue in their hands.

One thing to note: when Delhi Police entered Jamia after stone pelting by protesters last month, these parties questioned how police entered the campus without permission, and now that goons went on rampage inside JNU, they are now questioning why police stood silently and helped the masked goons escape. There is a popular song from a Hindi movie: “yeh public hai sab jaanti hai” (the common people know everything). After watching all these, I feel sad over how we are wasting our time and energy over non-issues.

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India TV in its ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ show on Thursday night telecast video of what the then Home Minister P. Chidambaram had said about National Population Register 2010. In the NPR form, there was clear mention about nationality status and the entire process involved collection of biometric details of all residents in India.

On Thursday, Chidambaram clarified that the information that was being collected for NPR “related to residency, and not citizenship”. But the PIB press release and NPR 2010 form tell a different story. The NPR 2010 instructions were more stringent compared to what Home Minister Amit Shah has planned for NPR 2020. Shah has clarified that no biometric particulars will be collected.

Chidambaram’s video and NPR 2010 form make it amply clear that the Congress-led UPA government had planned a major process for identifying illegal migrants and this was a prelude to preparing National Register of Citizens based on biometric particulars in order to check the background of each and every citizen. The only difference is that nobody at that time doubted the motives of the Congress party, nor did anybody raise questions.

But presently, an atmosphere has been created throughout the country in which people have started doubting the motives of the Modi government. People are now more prone to believe in baseless rumours and to accept half-baked information as gospel truth. Nobody wants to delve deep into facts. Fear has been created in the minds of Muslims that they would have to submit proof of their citizenship and that they would be thrown out of the country if they failed to submit proof.

It is this fear that is forcing people to come out on to the streets to take part in protests and demonstrations. Political parties which had been traditionally considering Muslims as their vote banks are trying to take undue advantage of the situation.

It is not that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not try to remove misgivings and fears in the minds of minorities. Time and again, he has spoken clearly about Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens. Modi has clearly said that Muslims need not worry at all, but fear mongers are having a hey day inciting people to protest against CAA, NRC and now, NPR.

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In a strong attack on anti-CAA protesters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called on citizens to protect public properties from being vandalized during protests. Modi questioned how anybody can justify the manner in which public properties were destroyed by protesters. “Whatever was torched, was it not for the use of their children?”, he asked.

It is now almost common to see protesters damaging railway tracks and setting fire to buses and police vehicles during violent protests. Nobody stops rioters from doing this because people in general do not consider public property as national property. We have to bring a change in mindsets. Public properties are created with our own taxes and for our own benefit. Damaging public property is akin to damaging one’s own property.

All those miscreants who damaged public properties must be severely dealt with. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has taken the initiative in this regard. Authorities have started identifying miscreants who have damaged public properties. Their pictures are being flashed and most of them have now gone underground to evade the hands of law.

Such miscreants must be identified and legal processes must be initiated to seize their properties to compensate for the losses they have inflicted on public property. Such action will act as a deterrence for such miscreants from repeating similar acts in future and there would be fear of law in the minds of rioters. Care must be taken to ensure that innocent citizens are not harassed by police and not subjected to police excesses.

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The Union Cabinet on Tuesday decided to initiate the process for preparing National Population Register, which is considered a prelude to 2021 Census which is now due. Home Minister Amit Shah in an interview clarified that the NPR process has nothing to do with National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Amit Shah sought to remove confusions that have been created in the minds of people. He said, NPR is only part of the process of Census that is carried out every 10 years. Asked whether the Centre would use the information collected during NPR for NRC, Shah said that there was a different law for carrying out census, which has nothing to do with citizenship law. He said, there would be a different law for NRC.

The Home Minister explained that the NPR will be prepared to enable the government to formulate different schemes for the poor and under privileged. He pointed out that the process for NPR had been initiated during the Congress-led UPA rule. He said, he would personally speak to the chief ministers of West Bengal and Kerala, who have opposed NPR.

Asked whether initiating the NPR process was a right step in view of nationwide protests against NRC, Shah said, the process had already begun and the notification has already been issued on July 31 this year. He said, all the state governments have already given their consent for NPR, and if it would have been delayed, the census work in 2021 would have lagged behind, because door-to-door mapping exercise will have to begin from April, 2020.

Amit Shah clarified that the NPR process was a Constitutional requirement and it was not part of BJP’s political agenda. Throughout his interview, the Home Minister refrained from making remarks against opposition parties. This is a welcome step. Let us hope that political parties and anti-CAA and anti-NRC activists will understand this and cooperate in carrying out the NPR process.

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On Monday, BJP lost the Jharkhand assembly polls to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance that included Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal. The JMM-led alliance won 47 out of a total of 81 seats and Hemant Soren is set to become the next chief minister, replacing Raghubar Das.

There were eight assembly elections in India since December last year, and the BJP managed to hold on to only one state, Haryana, after patching up a post-poll alliance with Dushyant Chautala’s party. BJP could have retained Maharashtra had Shiv Sena not switched camps after the polls to join hands with NCP and Congress. Jharkhand is the fifth state that BJP has lost in the last one year.

Let us assess what happened in Jharkhand.

Nearly six months ago, the BJP had swept the Lok Sabha polls in Jharkhand, winning 12 of the state’s 14 LS seats with a 51 per cent vote share. The party had won 57 of the total 81 assembly segments six months ago, but in the assembly polls this time, the party could manage to win only 25 seats with 34 pc votes, and lost the single largest party status to JMM, which won 30 seats.

Three important reasons were behind BJP’s defeat.

Firstly, as in other states, the party ignored its allies like AJSU in Jharkhand and finally opted to go alone. On the other hand, the JMM forged a strong alliance with Congress and RJD, and prevented anti-BJP votes from being divided. BJP got 34 pc votes, AJSU got 9 pc votes, while the JMM-led coalition got nearly 36 pc votes.

Secondly, several senior BJP leaders quit their parent party. Radhakrishna Kishore joined the AJSU, while another senior leader Saryu Rai raised the banner of revolt against Chief Minister Raghubar Das and defeated him from Jamshedpur East seat. The main grouse of the senior BJP leaders was that the party leadership ignored them and gave away tickets to defectors who had joined the party recently.

Thirdly, BJP committed mistake in projecting a non-Adivasi as its chief ministerial candidate. Adivasis constitute more than 26 pc of the state’s electorate and there are 28 seats reserved for tribals. Adivasi leaders in BJP had complained to the leadership that the tribals were unhappy with the chief minister and considered him as anti-tribal. Nobody paid attention to the words of tribal BJP leaders. Party leaders in Jharkhand say that the leadership reposed too much trust in the chief minister, and the consequences are there for all to see. The BJP lost the fifth state in the last one year.

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Eleven people were killed and many injured in violent anti-CAA protests that rocked several cities of Uttar Pradesh on Friday. UP Police however put the death toll at six. In Delhi, there was peaceful protest near Jama Masjid but the day ended with arson and stone pelting near Daryaganj.

In order to stop rumours from spreading, the UP government snapped internet services in 21 districts, including Lucknow and Varanasi. Incidents of violence were also reported from Jabalpur (MP) and Vadodara (Gujarat).

Most of the violent anti-CAA protests that took place in UP on Friday were in pockets considered as strongholds of Samajwadi Party. BSP supremo Mayawati had said earlier in the day that her partymen would protest peacefully unlike other parties who indulge in stone pelting and vandalism.

The death of people in police firing in UP is saddening, but there is need for immediate action against political leaders who are fanning and inciting protests.

I would like to appreciate Delhi Police for its efforts to ensure peace during Friday protests near Jama Masjid. Not a single stone was thrown, and the protesters dispersed after appeals from local Muslim clerics. In the evening, a car was set on fire in Daryaganj, and I have been told by local Muslim leaders that some outsiders had come to the locality to carry out this act of arson.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi in a video message on Friday said that “people’s apprehensions are real and legitimate”. Drawing a parallel with demonetization, Sonia Gandhi said CAA will force all individuals to stand in queues to prove their and their ancestor’s citizenship while the NRC would target the poor. Her words were echoed by her daughter Priyanka Vadra who made it a rich versus poor issue and said that poor people would be hard hit while trying to prove their citizenship.

The fear that Priyanka Vadra has aroused in the minds of Muslims, is exactly the same that is being spread among the Muslims during the last two weeks.

The Home Ministry got its act together only after several days to admit this sense of fear, and it had to issue a clarification on Friday that only a document mentioning date of birth and place of birth would be sufficient to prove one’s citizenship. This includes Aadhar card, PAN card, school leaving certificate or the like. There will be no need to submit birth certificates of individuals or their parents. Those who do not have these documents can submit affidavit from any member of their community. If either of the parents is an Indian, the child shall be considered an Indian citizen.

These clarifications are helpful, but there appears to be a huge trust deficit between the Muslims and the government. A sense of confidence will have to be created in the minds of people so that they can trust the government’s assurances. The average Muslim is watching this entire exercise with suspicion, and it is this which has became a fertile ground for interested political groups to play with people’s emotions.

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I respect West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as a political fighter. Presently, she articulates the voice of the opposition. As a strong opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she has every right to put forth her views courageously.

On Thursday, while addressing a rally in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee demanded a United Nations-monitored referendum on the CAA and NRC issues. The Trinamool Congress chief should know that the entire world respects India’s democratic institutions. For the chief minister of a state to demand a UN-monitored referendum on a bill passed by both Houses of Parliament, is, to say the least, preposterous and unfortunate.

As far as Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens are concerned, there are questions in the minds of common people, which require answers. People are asking whether only Muslims will be asked to submit documents to prove their citizenship and other communities will be exempted. The answer is: the NRC draft is not yet ready and if, at all, it is implemented, it shall apply to everybody irrespective of language, caste or communities.

Questions are being asked whether people will be asked to submit documents prior to 1971. I posed this question to the government at senior levels, and the reply was, no. The pre-1971 documents were sought only in the case of Assam, because the cut-off date of 1971 was set in the Assam Accord. For the rest of the country, the voter identity card or similar document will be sufficient. No document relating to parents or grandparents will be asked for.

So, there is nothing to worry. Your voter I-Card, passport, driving license, ration card, High School certificate or any other similar document will be sufficient to prove your citizenship.

I will now point out to some of the unfortunate incidents that are taking place in the name of anti-CAA protests.

In Ahmedabad on Thursday, a mob attacked some policemen, and when a policeman fell while boarding a police bus, he was beaten up badly by an unruly mob. Can anybody justify such action in the name of protest? If police takes action in the form of lathicharge or firing or by using force, will their action not be justified? Will those activists who are supporting anti-CAA protests defend such mob attacks on a policeman? Or will the policeman, who became the target of the mob, be held responsible, and the action by the mob will be justified? I must add that 7 Muslims came forward and saved the cops from stone pelters. They had to try hard as no one was ready to listen to a sane voice.

These are searching questions that need to be answered. The answers are vital to the very existence of our democracy.

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