📰 Modi-Xi meet flags ‘forward looking’ ties, border peace
Talks underscored the need to avoid recurrence of Doklam-type crisis
•Looking beyond the Doklam crisis, India and China on Tuesday decided to open a new “forward looking” round of engagement, anchored by fresh mechanisms to ensure calm at the borders.
•With the recently resolved standoff in the Sikkim sector as the touchstone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping, during their one-on-one meeting, agreed to establish new ways to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
CBMs at border
•From foreign secretary S. Jaishankar’s brief interaction with the media after the meeting, it appeared that the focus of the bilateral was on border Confidence Building Measures (CBMs), rather than fresh ideas to resolve the festering boundary dispute between the two countries.
•Analysts say that it remains to be seen whether the “constructive start” at Xiamen, will yield “solid anchorage” capable of withstanding the regional headwinds that India and China are likely to encounter in the future, as they deepen their ties in the Indian Ocean and the Asia-Pacific.
•The meeting between the two leaders took place after a Monday joint statement from the BRICS summit, which for the first time pointed to a convergence between India and China on international terrorism.
‘Strong contact’
•Mr. Jaishankar said the two leaders agreed that efforts should be made to ensure that “defence and security (personnel) must maintain strong contact and cooperation” at the borders. In a veiled reference to the Doklam face-off, he stressed that regular contacts at the frontiers were necessary to “ensure that [the] sort of situation which happened recently should not recur.”
📰 SC likely to hear curative pleas against Sec 377 on September 8
•The Supreme Court is likely to hear curative petitions against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial era provision criminalising consensual sexual acts of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) adults in private, on September 8.
•On February 2, 2016, a Bench led by the then Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur had indicated that the petitions need to be referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench for a possible back-to-roots, in-depth hearing.
•A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur and Justices Anil R. Dave and J.S. Khehar gave credence to arguments that the threat imposed by Section 377 amounts to denial of the rights to privacy and dignity and results in gross miscarriage of justice.
•The fight against Section 377 got a major boost when a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, while upholding the right to privacy as a fundamental right intrinsic to life and liberty, ripped apart a 2014 judgment dismissing the case against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private.
•The nine-judge Bench, on August 28, observed that the chilling effect of Section 377 “poses a grave danger to the unhindered fulfilment of one’s sexual orientation, as an element of privacy and dignity.”
•In separate judgments, the Constitution Bench led by then Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar concluded that the 2014 verdict by a two-judge Bench of the apex court pandered to a “majoritarian” view to turn down the LGBT community their inherent fundamental rights of life, personal liberty, equality and gender discrimination.
•The 2014 judgment's view that “a miniscule fraction of the country’s population constitutes lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transgenders” was not a sustainable basis to deny the right to privacy, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud observed in his judgment.
•The curative petitions were the last stand for the over a decade-old legal fight for LGBT rights.
•The Review Bench of the Supreme Court, in January 2014, had agreed with its original appeal judgment on December 11, 2013, setting aside the historic and globally accepted verdict of the Delhi High Court. The High Court had declared Section 377 unconstitutional, and said it was in violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution.
•The High Court, led by its then Chief Justice A.P. Shah, had read down Section 377 to apply only to non-consensual, penile, non-vaginal sex, and sexual acts by adults with minors.
•The petitioners have contended that homosexuality was not a mental disorder, but a normal and natural variant of human sexuality.
📰 Modi suggests 10 ‘noble commitments’ for global transformation
PM raises terror issue again at the BRICS forum.
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday again raised the issue of terrorism at a BRICS forum here while suggesting 10 commitments to be made by the five-member bloc for their role in global transformation.
•Modi made the remarks at the Dialogue of Emerging Markets and Developing Countries in the course of the 9th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit here a day after thebloc named Pakistan-based terror groupsincluding the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad in its joint declaration.
Suggesting the 10 commitments, he said:
•“Creating a safer world by organised and coordinated action on at least three issues: counter-terrorism, cyber security and disaster management.” He also said that the bedrock of India’s development agenda laid in the notion of “sabka saath, sabka vikaas” (collective effort, inclusive growth). Stating that India has mapped each of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to its own development programmes and scheme, he said: “Our programmes are geared to accomplish these priority goals in a time-bound manner.
•“To cite just one example, our three-pronged approach of providing a bank account to the unbanked, providing a biometric identity to all, and using innovative mobile governance solutions, has enabled direct benefit transfers to almost 360 million people for the first time.”
•The Prime Minister called for creating a greener world by taking concerted action on countering climate change, through initiatives such as the India-initiated International Solar Alliance.
•Another suggestion was for creating an enabled world by sharing and deploying suitable technologies to enhance efficiency, economy and effectiveness.
•Reiterating his vision for a digital economic and financial system, Mr. Modi called for creating an inclusive world “by economic mainstreaming of our people including in the banking and financial system”.
•“Creating a digital world by bridging the digital divide within and outside our economies.
•“Creating a skilled world by giving future-ready skills to millions of our youth.”
•Mr.Modi also called for creating a healthier world by cooperating in research and development to eradicate diseases, and enabling affordable health care for all.
•In creating an equitable world, he said the BRICS nations should provide equality of opportunity to all, particularly through gender equality.
•In terms of a connected world, he suggested enabling of free flow of goods, persons and services.
•He also called for creating a harmonious world “by promoting ideologies, practices, and heritage that are centred on peaceful coexistence and living in harmony with nature”.
•“Through these agenda points, and action on them, we will be contributing directly to the welfare of the global community in addition to welfare of our own people.
•“And in this, India stands ready as a willing and committed partner to enhance cooperation and support each other’s national efforts,” Mr. Modi added.
Modi, Xi discuss border issue
•Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday discussed their border row, a week after the resolution of the two-month-long military stand-off at Doklam.
📰 India to flag worry on pace of services talks at RCEP
Irked by slow progress, even as goods trade talks move fast
•At the forthcoming ministerial-level meeting on the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) involving 16 Asia-Pacific nations, India will raise concerns regarding the ‘slow’ pace of negotiations on services trade liberalisation as opposed to ‘higher priority’ being accorded to commitments to open up goods trade in the region.
•The mega-FTA is known in official parlance as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). It involves the 10-member ASEAN bloc and its six FTA partners including India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
‘First for new Minister’
•Official sources said the new commerce minister Suresh Prabhu will be representing India during the fifth RCEP Ministerial Meeting, which is slated to be held on September 10 in Manila on the sidelines of the ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and related meetings with ASEAN’s major trading partners. This would be Mr. Prabhu’s first major international trade meeting as the new commerce minister.
•India is learnt to be upset that other RCEP nations seem to be focused more on “extracting as much (binding commitments) as possible on eliminating tariffs to open up goods trade”, instead of sticking to the RCEP ‘Guiding Principles and Objectives’ which state that the “negotiations on trade in goods, trade in services, investment and other areas will be conducted in parallel to ensure a comprehensive and balanced outcome.”
•The sources said India will “talk tough and state that any more discussions” on opening up goods trade will be only after ensuring that negotiations on services trade liberalisation “catch up” with talks on goods trade. India is keen that in return for agreeing to open up goods trade (where most RCEP nations have an advantage), other member nations must commit to substantial liberalisation of services trade – including on easing norms on movement of professionals and skilled workers across borders for short-term work.
•India is seeking support for its proposal on an ‘RCEP Travel Card’ for the purpose. India is relatively strong in services with its vast pool of professionals.
📰 ‘Undersea line from Iran to port cheap gas’
Proposed 1,300-km line can save $1 billion annually; will avoid Pakistani waters
•A 1,300-km undersea pipeline from Iran, avoiding Pakistani waters, can bring natural gas from the Persian Gulf to India at rates less than the price of LNG available in the spot market, proponents of the pipeline said on Tuesday.
•Releasing a study on the Iran-India gas pipeline, former oil secretary T.N.R. Rao said natural gas imported through the more than $4-billion line would cost $5-5.50 per million British thermal unit at the Indian coast, cheaper than the rate at which some of the domestic fields supply gas.
•Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, imported through ships costs about $7.50 per million British thermal unit.
‘Via Oman to Porbandar’
•Mr. Rao, who is the chairman of the advisory board of South Asia Gas Enterprise Pvt. Ltd. (SAGE) — the firm wanting to lay the undersea line — said the pipeline can first travel to Oman, and then onwards to Porbandar in the state of Gujarat.
•According to the study, “The cost of landed gas through an undersea pipeline will be at least $2 cheaper than importing LNG, saving about $1 billion annually.” South Asia Gas Enterprise wants the Indian Government to support the pipeline and help buyers enter into contract.
•The pipeline is planned to carry 31.5 million standard cubic meters gas per day and will be built in two years from the date of necessary approvals and a gas sale and purchase agreement (GSPA) being signed.
•The subsea pipeline is being seen as an alternative to the on-land, Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline. New Delhi has not been participating in talks on the 1,036-km Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline since 2007 citing security and commercial concerns. But, it has never officially pulled out of the $7.6 billion project.
📰 Back on track
India and China must address bilateral issues in a sustainable way, pursuing the BRICS spirit
•By putting up a united front at the BRICS summit, and proposing a revival of the Panchsheel principles of peaceful cooperation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have signalled they are trying to put the bitterness of the past few months behind them. The tenor of the meetings between the two leaders was particularly remarkable given that the long Doklam military stand-off was resolved just a week ago. In fact, their agreement that Doklam-like situations must not recur is an indication that India and China are looking for new mechanisms to strengthen the border defence agreements that have held in the past. It is also significant that both countries expressed similar views about resisting economic protectionism of the kind that the Trump administration in the U.S. has been espousing; the BRICS countries have together committed to an “open and inclusive” multilateral trading system. Another area of welcome consonance was the North Korean nuclear tests. All five countries, Brazil, Russia and South Africa being the other three, condemned them unequivocally, while advocating dialogue and not the use of force. The messaging that emanated from both the Indian and Chinese delegations at Xiamen smoothed the interactions between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi, and allowed for a productive BRICS declaration that belied fears that bilateral tensions would overtake multilateral concerns. The government’s determination to hush any triumphalism over the Doklam outcome certainly helped. China’s nod to the inclusion of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed among the terrorist groups threatening regional stability, and its choosing not to speak of the contentious Belt and Road Initiative at the summit suggested it was heeding India’s concerns.
•With the BRICS meet concluded, it is doubly important that Indian and Chinese officials re-engage in a sustained manner to address all areas of discord which led to the charged situation at Doklam. They must, for starters, review where the border defence standard operating procedures failed. Second, the two countries must convene the delayed meeting of the Special Representatives, and add the latest claims and counter-claims over the Sikkim boundary and the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction to the agenda for discussions. It is necessary to see that the much-acclaimed BRICS language on terrorist groups like the LeT and JeM is translated into actionable points as a show of good faith. Beijing will have an early opportunity to do so in October when the issue of designating JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist comes up at the UN Security Council and when the UN’s Financial Action Task Force takes stock of Pakistan’s actions against the LeT. It is imperative that the gains of the BRICS summit in terms of the India-China bilateral atmospherics are optimised.
📰 There is a Rohingya in all of us
By contemplating deportation of the hapless refugees, India undermines itself
•The timing could not have been more immaculately disastrous. At a time when Rohingya are being forced to flee the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, in the Supreme Court this week the Centre refused to revise its stand on deporting Rohinya immigrants in India. It was in effect adhering to its position taken on August 9, when the Minister of State for Home Affairs informed Parliament that 40,000 Rohingya were to be deported. With that, the idea of India, the India of democracy and hospitality disappeared in a single stroke. A dream of India disappeared in a single moment. The marginal life of the Rohingya became a greater nightmare. The Government of India has returned to an idea of hard state, dropping its dreams of compassion, care and civility. Behind the tragedy of the decision will be a nit-picking bureaucracy and the security think tanks, convinced that an aspirational India does not need a defeated people like the Rohingya.
Most persecuted minority
•In many ways, the Rohingya represent “the last man” of international society that Gandhi talked about. They are the world’s most persecuted minority. They are Muslims, belonging to the Sunni sect, scattered mainly over the Rakhine state of Myanmar. Harassed by the Myanmar Army and forced to serve as slave labour, they have also been systematically persecuted by the Buddhist majority. The persecution of the Rohingya also highlights the silence of Aung San Suu Kyi, destroying another myth of ethics and human rights. A woman whose campaign for human rights won her the Peace Nobel now stands embarrassingly silent in case her broader political strategies are affected. The dispensability of the Rohingya is clear and so is the callousness of the nation state. India can no longer criticise the West for being hostile to Syrian and Sudanese refugees.
•One thing is clear. No Nehruvian state, or even regime of Indira Gandhi, would have made such a decision. Both upheld the principle of hospitality, of the openness of borders. Jawaharlal Nehru was open to Tibet and courageously invited the Dalai Lama to make a home here, and Indira Gandhi played host to refugees from the then East Pakistan, ignoring the threats of tough people such as Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon.
•The Rohingya situation has been bleak for years. The turning point was the attitude of the Burmese military junta which cracked down on them in 1982, contending that Rohingya as late comers were not part of the original ancestors of Burmese society. Denied an autonomous cultural status, they lost all claims to the entitlements of citizenship. They were denied not only access to health, education but also any claim to the idea of citizenship.
A slow exodus
•Persecuted by the army and the Buddhist majority, they began a slow exodus over India, Bangladesh, spreading to States such as Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, moving as far as Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Their exodus has once again a cynical side to it as agents arranged for their travel. These touts of international suffering arranged for their travel at exorbitant rates. The Rohingya became temporary boat people as Bangladesh shut its borders on them piously condemning them as drug peddlers. The Rohingya then attempted to cross into Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia only to realise that fellow Islamic nations had little sympathy for them. The no-welcome sign was clear and categorical. Each state would react piously, claiming to have fulfilled its humanitarian quota. It was also realistically clear that unlike the Syrians, the Rohingya, as a tiny speck of the refugee population would hardly be front page news for a sufficient length of time. At the most their memories would survive in a few PhD theses in international relations. The refugee has always been an enticing topic for PhDs.
•In fact, Pope Francis’s statement that the “campaign of terror” against the Rohingya must cease fell on deaf ears. Sadly, India missed the leadership and compassion of a Mother Teresa. She would have stepped out and offered some care and relief to them, stirring the Indian middle class into some acts of caring.
•The odd thing is that the genocide, the vulnerability of such a people is often lost in bureaucratic issues of legal and political status. It is not clear whether Rohingya are refugees or illegal migrants. As refugees they are entitled to some care; as illegal migrants they become subject to harassment and exploitation. Refugees become a target for an informal economy of bonded labour.
•Union Home Minister Kiren Rijiju already sounded the warning signals in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha. He was clear that the Rohingya were illegal migrants. He was cited as claiming in an interview that the Rohingya “have no basis to live here. Anybody who is an illegal migrant will be deported.” Yet one wonders whether in terms of humanitarian law and the conventions of the UN, Mr. Rijiju is right. This is a group that is threatened with continuous persecution, whose homes are unsafe, whose livelihoods have been destroyed. To be forced to return to Myanmar would only subject them to harassment, ethnic persecution and a genocidal future.
Being human
•One is grateful that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which often plays the Rip Van Winkle of human rights, responded quickly. On August 18, it issued a notice to the government over its plan to deport Rohingya staying illegally in India, asking the government to report in four weeks.
•The Commission added hopefully that the Supreme Court had declared that fundamental rights are applicable to all regardless of whether they are citizens of India. Yet such appeals to rights and humanitarianism cut little ice in today’s bureaucracy which is obsessed with security issues and content to raise the bogey of terrorism and law and order when it comes to such a helpless people. The NHRC came up with a memorable line that Rohingya refugees “are no doubt foreign nationals but they are human beings.”
•It is clear that the everydayness of Rohingya life must be miserable. They face the challenge of survival and the prospect of persecution if they return to Myanmar. One need not hide under legal excuses. What India confronts is a case of ethics, a challenge to its understanding of citizenship and freedom. If we abandon the Rohingya, we abandon the idea of India as a home of refugees and hospitality. A country which offered a home to the Parsis, the Tibetans, the Afghans and the Jews cannot turn a little minority of helpless people back. One hopes civil society protests, challenging the indifference of the state. It is not just a question of saving a beleaguered people, it is question of saving the soul of India. The idea of India is being threatened today. Should civil society remain mute and indifferent? There is a Rohingya in all of us.
