📰 Hasina inaugurates nuclear power plant construction
Rooppur plant to add 2,400 MW of power by 2024
•Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday inaugurated construction work on the much-awaited Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Ishwardi, located in the western part of the country.
•The plant is expected to add 2,400 MW of electricity to the national grid by 2024, helping the country meet its increasing demand for electricity. The mega project is being implemented by state-run Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission with financial and technological support from Russia through its state nuclear agency, Rosatom. Russian company JSC Atomstroyexport had signed a general contract for construction of the plant in December 2015. The company has 68 months following the inauguration ceremony to complete its construction work.
India to participate?
•Also, there is a possibility of India participating in the project, a Rosatom official said on Thursday.
•“There is room for cooperation and there is a possibility of India to participate. There was an initiative to have a trilateral document and we supported that document. No document is signed yet and it is under negotiation,” said the official.
•Though India cannot directly take part in the construction of nuclear power plants — as it is not a member of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group — it has signed individual agreements with Bangladesh and Russia.
📰 Doklam is in our area, says China
•The Chinese military on Thursday hinted at maintaining sizeable presence of its troops near the area of Doklam standoff during winter, asserting that the region is in Chinese territory.
•India and China resolved the 73-day tense standoff on August 28 at Doklam after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stopped building a strategic road close to India’s narrow Chicken Neck area connecting north-eastern States.
•Bhutan also claims the Doklam area to be its part.
•India objected to the road building by the PLA, saying that it endangered the security of the narrow corridor.
•According to official accounts, both China and India in the past used to withdraw troops from the advanced regions of that area during the winter which is harsh.
📰 Delhi tops metros in crime against women
•Despite the marginal dip it witnessed in crime against women, Delhi continued to record the highest number of such cases in 2016 among metropolitan cities, according to the latest data released by National Crime Records Bureau on Thursday.
•The city ranked no. 1 in terms of crime rate that accounts for 33.1% share among metropolitan cities when it comes to women’s safety.
•Delhi accounted for the maximum number of rape cases among 19 major cities, at 40%. The figures for ‘cruelty by husband and his relatives’ and ‘dowry deaths’ stood respectively at 29% each.
•Overall, crimes against women in Delhi only marginally decreased from 17,222 cases in 2015 to 15,310 in 2016.
•In year 2016, Delhi accounted 2,155 cases of rape, 669 cases of stalking and 41 cases of voyeurism, followed by Mumbai where 359 cases of stalking and 28 cases of voyeurism were reported.
•“We have introduced e-FIR and always convert complaints into FIR for proper action. The last three years’ figures reflect that there is a continuous downfall in cases of crime against women in the city. And women’s safety is top priority for Delhi police,” said Deependra Pathak, spokesperson of Delhi Police.
📰 Spurt in rape cases, with M.P., U.P. leading the table
In a first, data of fake notes included in NCRB report
•There was an increase of 2.6% in crimes in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on Thursday.
•Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of heinous crimes such as murder and those against women in 2016. For the first time, the NCRB included data on the seizure of fake Indian currency notes in its report.
•In 2016, a total of 2,81,839 fake notes with a face value of ₹15,92,50,181 were seized. Around 40% of these fake notes were seized from Delhi, followed by Gujarat (39,725 notes with a face value of ₹2,37,24,050) and West Bengal (32,869 notes having a face value of ₹2,32,95,800).
•Rape cases recorded an increase of 12.4% from 34,651 cases in 2015 to 38,947 in 2016. Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh reported the maximum cases of rape at 4,882 (12.5%) and 4,816 (12.4%), followed by Maharashtra 4,189 cases (10.7%), the data, released by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, showed.
•Uttar Pradesh registered 14.5% (49,262) of the total cases of crime against women, followed by West Bengal 9.6% (32,513 cases) in 2016.
•Cases of crime against women have reported an increase of 2.9% in 2016 over 2015. Majority of these cases were reported under the heads of cruelty by husband or his relatives (32%), assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty (25%), kidnapping and abduction of women (19%), and rape (11.5%).
•U.P. recorded 9.5 % of the total cases of crimes registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), followed by Madhya Pradesh (8.9 %), Maharashtra (8.8 %) and Kerala (8.7%).
•Joint Director in the NCRB Surendra Panwar said a total of 48,31,515 cognisable crimes comprising 29,75,711 Indian Penal Code crimes and 18,55,804 special and local laws crimes were reported in 2016, showing an increase of 2.6% over 2015 (47,10,676 cases).
•The total number of crimes against children in 2016 was 1,06,958, which is 13.6% more than 2015 (94,172 cases).
Juveniles
•Cases reported under juveniles in conflict with the law have shown a mixed trend for the past three years with the decline of 13.1 % in 2015 (33,433 cases) over 2014 (38,455 cases), followed by an increase of 7.2 % in 2016 (35,849) over 2015.
•A total of 7,369 cases (20.6 %) under juveniles in conflict with the law were reported in Madhya Pradesh, followed by 6,606 cases (18.4 %) in Maharashtra.
Atrocities against SCs, STs
•Atrocities against Scheduled Castes have increased by 5.5 % (40,801 cases) in 2016 over 2015 (38,670 cases). Uttar Pradesh (10,426 cases) reported the highest number of cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes, accounting for 25.6 % of total cases, followed by Bihar with 14 % (5,701 cases) and Rajasthan with 12.6 % (5,134 cases) in 2016.
•Atrocities against Scheduled Tribes have increased by 4.7 % in 2016 (6,568 cases) over 2015 (6,276 cases). Madhya Pradesh (1,823 cases) reported the highest number of cases of atrocities against Scheduled Tribes accounting for 27.8 % of total such cases, followed by Rajasthan 18.2 % (1,195 cases) and Odisha 10.4 % (681 cases) in 2016, according to the NCRB data.
Riots
•The cases of riots reported in 2016 were down by 5% compared to 2015. A total of 61,974 cases of riots and group clashes took place in the country in 2016 compared to 65,255 the previous year. The highest - 11,617 cases - were registered in Bihar, 8,018 in Uttar Pradesh and 7,898 in Maharashtra.
Custodial deaths
•As many as 60 cases of custodial deaths or disappearance from lock-ups were reported in 2016 of which 12 were in Maharashtra, nine each in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, five in Madhya Pradesh, four in Punjab, three each in Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh and two in Rajasthan.
•A total of 32 people also died or disappeared in the country last year while they were under the remand of the police. These included six each in Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, four in Maharashtra and two each in Assam, Gujarat, Haryana and Tamil Nadu.
📰 Protecting children from ‘abduction’
Children suffer when cross-border marriages break up
•Over three crore Indians living abroad have cross-border marriages. When such a diverse family unit breaks down, children suffer as they are dragged into an international legal battle between their parents. The Law Commission of India, led by Justice B.S. Chauhan, a former Supreme Court judge, describes inter-spousal child removal as one of the most unfortunate outcomes of such break ups. Children are “abducted” by one parent and taken to a country with a different culture. This can be traumatic as they are also cut off from the other parent. The Protection of Children (Inter-Country Removal and Retention) Bill, 2016 seeks to address the issue.
•The Commission’s draft is in consonance with the principles of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, 1980, which seeks to protect a child from the harmful effect of wrongful removal and secure prompt return and reintegration of the child in an environment of his/her ‘habitual residence’.The Bill defines ‘wrongful removal or retention’ as an act in breach of custody to a person or an institution or any other body under the law of the country in which the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal or retention. The Commission proposes to apply the law to those wrongfully removed or retained children in India who have not completed 16 years.
•The Bill recommends the setting up of a Central Authority tasked with discovering the whereabouts of the child. The Authority will further act to prevent harm to the child, secure the voluntary return of the child to his or her habitual residence, exchange information relating to the child with the appropriate authorities of the contracting state, institute judicial proceedings in the High Court concerned to secure the return of the child, provide free legal aid advice, and make administrative arrangements for the return of the child.
•The court can order the return of a child who has been wrongfully removed or retained in India and if a period of one year has not elapsed from the date of removal or retention. However, the one-year cap is not final. The court can order return if it is established that the child is not settled in his/her new environment. It can refuse to order return if returning would expose the child to harm or if the child, on attaining an age and level of maturity, refuses to go back, among other conditions.
📰 Many cybercrime cases not investigated
Charge sheets filed in only 30% cases reported in 2016, shows NCRB data
•More than 12,000 incidents of cybercrime were reported in 2016, but nearly the same number of such crimes carried forward from the previous years had not been investigated, the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) said.
•In 2016, 12,317 such incidents were reported and in 2015 the figure stood at 11,592, a jump of 6.3%.
•Only in 30% cases reported in 2016, the police or the investigating agency filed a charge sheet. In absolute numbers, 7,990 persons were arrested for the crimes, which included 147 women and charge sheets were filed against 4,913 accused.
•Illegal gain (5,987 incidents) and revenge (1,056) were the two top motives that accounted for cybercrimes. Sexual exploitation (686), insulting the modesty of women (569) and causing disrepute (448) constituted 13% of the crimes.
•There were 40 cases that were done with a “political” motive and 14 cases pertained to sale and purchase of illegal drugs. There were 149 cases of inciting crimes against a community and three cases of inciting hate crimes against the country.
•Of the 829 persons arrested for transmission of obscene and sexually explicit content, charge sheets were filed only against 484.
•Uttar Pradesh with 2,639 cases reported the highest number of incidents accounting for 21.4%, followed by Maharashtra with 2,380, Karnataka 1,101 and Rajasthan 941cases.
•There were 6,818 cases registered under various sections of the Information Technology Act that pertains to sending offensive and false information.
Crimes against State
•Tamil Nadu topped the list when it came to booking people for committing crimes against the State, which includes cases of sedition. Of the 6,986 cases registered in 2016, 1,827 or 26% cases were reported from Tamil Nadu, followed by U.P. 1,414, Haryana 1,286 and Assam 343 cases. While 35 cases of sedition were reported in 2016, there were 31 cases related to imputation and assertions prejudicial to national integration.
•Under the Official Secrets Act, 30 cases were reported and 922 cases were registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In 2016, the police across India were investigating 12,637 cases of crimes against the State, of this 5,651 had been pending since 2015.
•Meghalaya with 42 cases registered the most number of cases under Sections pertaining to sedition and waging war against the country.
📰 GDP growth rebounds to 6.3% in September quarter
Recovers from 5.7% in last quarter; Infrastructure output grew 4.7% in October from a year ago, driven by higher refinery production.
•India’s economy regained momentum in the September quarter as the manufacturing sector shrugged off any teething impact from the July 1 implementation of the Goods and Services Tax to propel gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 6.3%.
•GDP growth recovered in the second fiscal quarter from a three-year low of 5.7% in the preceding three-month period, while Gross Value Added (GVA) growth accelerated to 6.1% from 5.6% in the first quarter, according to official data released by the government on Thursday.
•“The GDP figure for Q2 at constant prices is 6.3% versus 7.5% in the second quarter of the previous financial year,” TCA Anant, Chief Statistician of India and Secretary to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, said at a press conference. “This reversal... in the trend is very encouraging.”
•GDP growth for the first half of the financial year (April-September) was 6% compared with 7.7% in the year-earlier period. GVA growth was at 5.8% compared with 7.2% over the same period.
•“This indicates that perhaps the impact of demonetisation and GST is now behind us and hopefully in the coming quarters we can look for an upward trajectory,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. “The most significant aspect is that this quarter’s positive result has been impacted significantly by growth in manufacturing,” he added.
•The manufacturing sector expanded by 7% in the quarter, a robust acceleration from 1.2% in the first quarter. Still, the pace was slower than the 7.7% seen in the second quarter of 2016-2017. Other sectors that witnessed growth of more than 6% were electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services, and trade, hotels, transport and communication services related to broadcasting.
•“The latest set of numbers on growth... show that activity levels were recovering from the disruption caused in the first quarter,” Anis Chakravarty, lead economist, Deloitte India, wrote in a note, adding that the break-up showed improved performance by manufacturing that could have possibly been affected by the implementation of the GST. “High frequency indicators such as auto sales suggest that demand has recovered since then and manufacturing could see better numbers in the quarters ahead,” Mr. Chakravarty wrote.
‘Agriculture a concern’
•Agriculture, however, remained a cause for concern.
•“The sector that has performed worse is agriculture, which grew at 1.7%,” Mr. Anant said.
•“The performance in the agriculture sector has been held up by the non-crop sector. This year’s crop production, while higher than the five-year average, is lower than last year, which saw a strong growth.”
•The agriculture sector grew by 2.3% in the first quarter, and by 4.1% in the year-earlier period.
•Mr. Jaitley also highlighted the uptick in gross fixed capital formation, which grew by 4.7% in the second quarter compared with 1.6% in the first quarter.
•This improvement, the Finance Minister said, reflected a revival in investment levels.
•Experts are, however, pointing to the slowdown in the services sector, especially finance, transport, and hotels, all of which saw growth slowing in the second quarter compared with the first quarter.
•“The possible causes could be the larger working capital requirements faced by services sector (especially export- oriented ones) and teething process issues post-GST implementation,” Ranen Banerjee, Partner - Public Finance and Economics, at PwC India said.
📰 ‘Services, agri slowdown, a concern’
Setbacks in agriculture can have cascading effect on inflation, says Assocham
•While the rebound in GDP growth in the second quarter can act as a ‘confidence booster’ for the economy, the slowdown in the services sector, including finance, transport and hotels, as well as in agriculture is cause for concern, according to industry bodies and consultants.
•Ranen Banerjee, partner (public finance and economics), PwC India, said in a statement, “the GDP numbers for Q2 are not surprising and it is on expected lines given the re-stocking in manufacturing that has taken place in this quarter post the GST roll out.
•“We are, however, still experiencing slowdown in the services sector including finance, transport and hotels.”
GST effect on services
•Possible causes for the slowdown include the larger working capital requirements faced by the services sector (especially export-oriented ones) and teething process issues post-GST implementation, he said. “We also possibly need to examine whether the 3 percentage point increase in tax rate on services — from an effective 15% pre-GST to 18% under GST — is causing some demand side impact. We will need to wait for Q3 and Q4 GDP numbers to be able to comment on this more conclusively,” he added.
•Assocham secretary general D.S. Rawat said, “... agriculture remains an area of concern with a mere 1.7% in the second quarter against 2.3% in the previous quarter. Setbacks in the agri performance can have a cascading impact on consumer inflation.” Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII, said, “The rebound in GDP growth to 6.3%, after the uninspiring performance of the previous quarter is noteworthy and a great confidence booster.”
•The revival of the GDP growth print reinforces the perception that the economy is on a robust recovery phase and the short-term disruptions caused by demonetisation and GST are behind us, he added.
•“What is encouraging is that manufacturing has emerged as a key driver of growth indicating that firms have started restocking and recovery is taking shape. Gross fixed capital formation has also picked up from last year’s lacklustre pace,” he said.
•Pankaj Patel, president, FICCI, said, “The monetary policy announcement next week will be a perfect timing to give another shot to boost the sentiment. Also, the government should look at further consolidating its reform agenda in the Union Budget to be announced two months from now to give further boost to investment.”
•Vaibhav Agrawal, Head of Research, Angel Broking, said in a statement: “With the lower base of third and fourth quarter and with ongoing recovery, we believe that second half GDP numbers are likely to be far better than first half and we believe that FY18 GDP growth is likely to be around 7%.”
📰 Some animals are more equal than others
It is time we gave priority to animals on the basis of the threat perception
•When a tiger dies in a national park, it makes it to the front pages of newspapers, and bureaucrats and animal lovers go into a huddle to avert another tiger death. There is similar concern over the death and destruction of habitats of other large mammals like elephants, rhinos, leopards and snow leopards because they attract tourists and bring in revenue. These larger-than-life species are also our window to the outside world.
The forgotten ones
•However, several smaller species die, or are near extinction, or are threatened in India. These include the the Great Indian Bustard, the house sparrow, the shy Indian pangolin, the caracal, the slender loris and the star tortoise, which do not evoke the same public outcry or action. The National Board for Wildlife in 2012 identified more than 15 species, including the magnificent Hangul of Kashmir and the Barasingha of Madhya Pradesh, as critically endangered.
•Are we suffering from what M.K. Ranjitsinh, one of India’s leading authorities on wildlife, calls mega species myopia? No one wants to remove the tiger from its exalted position as the first among equals. It is true that in protecting the tiger we are protecting an ecosystem. The big cat dominates the high grasslands. But what about the animals in the dry grasslands, the mountains? It is true that excellent conservation work has led to greater siting of the snow leopard in the snowy reaches of Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, but should not this support extend to its prey base and the less glamorous species of the region?
•The hog deer, which are prolific breeders, were the principal food of the tiger in the grasslands of Corbett National Park in the sixties. There was an abundance of them and it was a major species of the park, vital for the survival of the tiger. Now there may be just 20 of them in Corbett and no one seems concerned. Though the preferred food of the tiger is the chital, there were not enough of them in the sixties to provide sustenance for the tiger, so the focus was on the hog deer.
•One of the rarest species and undoubtedly one of the most endangered is the Great Indian Bustard, which is the State bird of Rajasthan. Endemic to Jaisalmer and Pokhran, its habitat was severely damaged by the nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998. Their numbers may be down to 60 in their home turf, says Mr. Ranjitsinh. In Gujarat, not a single adult male has been sited. In the Naliya area of Kutch, the last bastion of the bustard in the State, power lines are pushing out the bird. In Maharashtra too, they are missing. The world population of the bird may be just 80.
•The mouse deer (scientific name Chevrotain) is a miniature, just a foot high and tiptoes like a ballerina. It can be found in the Sal forests of south India, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. Mouse deer meat is said to be delectable and before the Wildlife Act came into existence, it cost thrice the price of any other meat. The mouse deer raises its young in the hollow of the fallen Sal, but unfortunately these trees are used as fuel wood.
•The caracal has disappeared from the Kuno sanctuary of Madhya Pradesh. However, there are records of it being seen in Ranthambore in Rajasthan and in Kutch, Gujarat. It is feared that the Malabar civet cat may have gone into extinction.
Traded or killed
•The pangolin, which can be found all over India, seems doomed because its scales, which are said to have medicinal value and are more expensive than gold, are sheared ruthlessly. Its meat too is in demand in China. Illegal trade continues not just in parts where there are tigers but also in parts where there are musk deer, otter, mongoose and other animals.
•The slender loris, a nocturnal animal found in the Western Ghats, and the tortoise are traded in the pet market.
•Now with reports of nomadic Gujjars making forays into Dachigam, the Hangul, the only deer species of its kind, is down to around 200. Manipur’s State animal, the brow-antlered deer or Sangai, which lives on the floating morass of Loktak Lake, is also fighting for survival with numbers down to around 200. However, with Sangai festivals and Sangai tour services, Manipur is going all out to protect them.
•With so many small animals on the verge of extinction, it is time we gave priority to animals on the basis of the threat perception to them. Today, we have the expertise to save them but lack the political will. They are perched on a precipice and unless we act, they will become as dead as the dodo.
📰 Dealing with data
Public inputs are vital in framing a robust law to protect individual data
•The dawn of the information age opened up great opportunities for the beneficial use of data. It also enhanced the perils of unregulated and arbitrary use of personal data. Unauthorised leaks, hacking and other cyber crimes have rendered data bases vulnerable. But it is the conflict between the massive scope for progress provided by the digital era and the fear of loss of individual autonomy that is foregrounded in any debates about data protection laws. It is against this backdrop that the White Paper made public by the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee to elicit views from the public on the shape and substance of a comprehensive data protection law assumes significance. To some, in this era of Big Data analytics and automated, algorithm-based processing of zettabytes of information, the fear that their personal data may be unprotected may conjure up visions of a dystopian world in which individual liberties are compromised. Therefore, it would be appropriate to draw up a law using the rights-based approach of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, 2016, in which data protection is comprehensive and exemptions limited. Some may prefer the American model in which the norms are stringent for government departments processing personal information, while private entities have to abide by the norms of giving notice and receiving consent. An enlightened citizenry will only help itself in participating in the search for a good data protection framework.
•India does not have a separate law for data protection, though Section 43A of the Information Technology Act provides a measure of legal protection of personal information. In 2012, the Justice A.P. Shah Committee recommended a set of principles for a legal framework for protecting privacy. Drawn from OECD guidelines, these principles were centred on sufficient notice and disclosure to citizens when data are collected, limitations on data collection and use, and norms related to data security and accountability. The Srikrishna Committee has also flagged seven major principles. It wants the law to be technology-agnostic and enshrine the principle of informed consent. It favours data minimisation and accountability of those who process and control data. It privileges a holistic approach as the law would apply to both government and private entities, but with “differential obligations”. This is where the law requires careful drafting and strictly defined concepts. It is legitimate to collect personal data in the public interest, but this information should be protected and used only for the purposes it was collected. Above all, the law must provide for a suitably empowered statutory authority to enforce its promised protection to citizens’ data.
📰 Such a strange silence: India's stand on the Rohingya crisis
India’s reticence on the Rohingya crisis undermines its democracy and global standing
•The Pope has been in South Asia this week, with the focus of his stops in Bangladesh and Myanmar on the reconciliation and rehabilitation of more than 836,000 Rohingya (including 623,000 since August, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration) who have fled gruesome violence in Myanmar.
Flurry of diplomatic activity
•The Pope is by no means alone. In the past month, the U.S. sent Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Myanmar, while a senior State Department team as well as the British and Canadian international development ministers travelled to Rohingya camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar. Singapore’s Foreign Minister has made trips to Naypyidaw and Dhaka, exploring a role for ASEAN countries to help in the crisis. And earlier this month, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali took the European Union’s Foreign Affairs High Representative along with the German, Swedish and Japanese Foreign Ministers for a survey of the refugee camps. No Indian leader has, however, visited them.
•In a rare shift of position from not involving itself in the internal politics of another country, China decided to play a mediatory role in the issue, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi went to Dhaka to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on November 18, and then to Naypyidaw to meet President Htin Kyaw. Within days, Bangladesh and Myanmar announced an agreement to begin the repatriation of Rohingya refugees back to Rakhine province in about two months, as part of what Mr. Wang called a three-phase solution. It is significant that within the same week, Myanmar Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing visited China for more talks on the Rohingya crisis, while the country’s other power centre, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, is now headed to Beijing for three days.
Biggest nation, smallest voice
•In this flurry of diplomatic activity, it would be natural to ask why India has been so soft-footed and silent in comparison. As the subcontinent’s biggest nation, neighbour to both Bangladesh and Myanmar, as well as the country most likely to be affected if the numbers of Rohingya refugees continue to grow, India in fact should be showing the most initiative in this crisis. Instead, through a series of blunders that began with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own visit to Myanmar, India has allowed its voice to be muffled. Even as hundreds of thousands were fleeing violence at home, Mr. Modi refused to refer to the Rohingya in his press statements in Naypyidaw in early September. Nor did India refer to anything other than the terror strike by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army while discussing the violence in Rakhine. It wasn’t until two days later, and after some prodding from Ms. Hasina, that the Indian foreign office even issued a statement of concern over the refugee crisis that had reached alarming proportions, something the U.S. has now called a clear case of “ethnic cleansing”. Moreover, in Bali, India refused to endorse a 50-nation parliamentarian conference’s declaration because it referenced the Rohingya. Every other South Asian country, including Buddhist-majority Bhutan and Sri Lanka, endorsed the Bali declaration.
•Later in September, the government began to dispatch humanitarian aid in an operation rather grandly named “Operation Insaniyat (Humanity)”, but was only one of several countries including the U.S., Turkey, Azerbaijan, Malaysia and others to do so. The government’s consignment to Myanmar of a mere 3,000 “family bags” last week also slipped notice given the large numbers of those displaced inside Rakhine and in desperate need of assistance. The Indian effort, coupled with Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Bangladesh, where she didn’t even spare time for a trip to the camps, stands out not just in stark contrast to other nations, but to India’s own record. In every way, the Rohingya crisis is mammoth, with around a million men, women and children in Bangladesh and Myanmar living perilously. India, which has a tradition of rushing humanitarian aid and medical assistance, doctors and volunteers to other nations — for example, after the 2004 tsunami, the 2008 Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar, and the 2015
Nepal earthquake — has been seen to visibly hold back during the Rohingya crisis.
Position at the UN
•Meanwhile, at the UN too, India’s voice has been consistently muted, ceding space to other countries to take the lead on the issue. The U.K., for example, hosted a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with Myanmar’s National Security Adviser and Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister, attended by senior officials from Indonesia, Turkey, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and the U.S. At the UNGA’s Third Committee vote, India abstained on a resolution calling for an end to military action, one of 26 abstentions on the proposal to send a UN fact-finding mission to Myanmar — 135 countries voted in favour of the resolution. While India’s vote is consistent with its position on interventionist resolutions, it doesn’t mark itself out for principled leadership of any kind. If anything, the votes have had a bearing on India’s standing in Bangladesh, one of its closest allies in the region, whose leadership is struggling to cope with the flow of refugees as Ms. Hasina braces for a tough election next year.
•In short, all of India’s actions since the outbreak of this round of violence in Myanmar have negated its position as a regional, subcontinental and Asian leader. Regaining that stature will require a more proactive stance in being part of the solution to the crisis.
•To begin with, the impression that the government’s decision to push out nearly 40,000 Rohingya living in India since 2012 is guided by its domestic political compulsions is not conducive to India’s international ambitions. Therefore, it may be necessary for India to put its own concerns about repatriation on hold until it is able to work with both Bangladesh and Myanmar on the issue, preferably in a trilateral format. This should have been easier for India than for China, given it already works with them on regional issues as a part of BIMSTEC.
Spell out the refugee policy
•The government must also iron out internal contradictions on India’s refugee policy. Even though it is not a signatory to any UN refugee convention, India has a proud tradition of giving a home to neighbours in distress: from Tibetans in 1960s to East Pakistanis in the 1970s, from Sri Lankans in the 1980s to the Afghans in the 1990s. More recently, the Modi government even changed its long-term visa rules to help minorities fleeing violence from neighbouring Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. If India now says it cannot help Rohingya, who are a minority in Myanmar, it is either saying that Rohingya are not Myanmarese or that Myanmar is not a neighbour, both of which contradict previous positions. The government’s argument in court that Rohingya refugees pose a terrorist threat wasn’t used for Sri Lankans or Afghans. India also has a unique position as a country that is home to every religion practised in the region and must play to this strength.
•For all these reasons, India, which has high stakes in global and regional governance, must ensure its voice is heard on the Rohingya crisis. Mumbling as part of a chorus while one of the biggest human tragedies is unfolding across two of India’s borders does not behove a nation with global leadership aspirations. Those questioning India’s push for a Security Council seat have often cited its record as a fence sitter at the UN. All those critics must be silenced now by clarity in India’s position on an issue where abstentions cannot suffice.
