📰 Misogyny in a modern idiom
The attacks on girls and women every day are symptomatic of a deep malaise
•Where curriculum designers fear to tread, film directors take relaxed, bold strides. Few will consider ghosts and witchcraft as suitable topics for a textbook. Killing of women on the suspicion that they are practising witchcraft occasionally figures in the news. Such episodes may be on the decline, but witches and ghosts continue to shape the deeper layers of the collective social mind.
The power of ‘Stree’
•The idea that women have secret powers which they are prone to using for evil purposes, including revenge, is common enough to make the recent film Streesuccessful at the box office. It deals with witchcraft in a comic mode without trivialising it. It frames witchcraft in a modern idiom, using it to throw light on gender disparity and injustice. It is a remarkable achievement in that it entertains without demeaning the subject as a sign of backwardness.
•The core theme of Stree is the fear of women. Several men participate in the story, and they all come across as being scared of a woman who happens to be a ghost. This rare portrayal of male behaviour points towards the roots of misogyny. When secretly held fear is mixed with desire, it results in loathing. Fantasy of sexual conquest by brute force is often a logical product of this mixture of emotions.
A new social reality
•Stree has come at a time when a sick ethos pervades many parts of India. This ethos is marked by the everydayness of rape. Over five years ago, after the so-named ‘Nirbhaya’ episode, criminal laws and procedures were revised, raising the hope of containing crimes against girls and women. That hope has receded even as rape has become routinised. Every morning, numerous incidents of rape are reported in newspapers. Many of these incidents involve young men getting together to rape a woman. The term ‘gang-rape’ is used for such incidents, the word ‘gang’ suggesting an organised, well-planned crime. This usage conceals the spontaneity and speed with which those who commit the crime came together when they spot a potential victim.
•The idea of noticing an opportunity to rape together reflects an awful reality. The police can hardly cope with this kind of commonplace social reality. The new commonplace status of rape, including collective rape, as a crime that can occur anywhere, any time, is what distinguishes the current cultural landscape. Conquest over a woman forms the central theme of this cultural condition. Even if the victim is a child, the sense of conquest over her remains relevant to understanding the new male perspective.
•Stree acquires its unique relevance from this larger, sinister milieu. It wraps the roots of misogyny in a ghost story. The story is located in Chanderi, the little town of Madhya Pradesh famous for its silk saris. A female ghost visits the population annually and abducts men, leaving their clothes behind. Inscriptions on doors asking the ghost to come ‘tomorrow’ and wearing women’s dress are among the tricks that the menfolk try for protection from the ghost. They are ultimately rescued when a young ladies’ tailor agrees to serve as a medium to confront the ghost. The woman who persuades and prepares him has studied witchcraft and aspires to gain the powers of the ghost.
Rich narrative
•The narrative is rich with layers of meaning and possibilities of multiple interpretations. Its theme and message remain paradoxical but the intent is clear: to generate a discourse around the fear of women. That indeed is the heart of misogyny. The psychoanalyst, Sudhir Kakar, had indicated as much in his classic on childhood in India, The Inner World.
•The core analysis Mr. Kakar offers in this book focusses on the upbringing of the male child. Psychoanalytic insight combined with an examination of myths and folklore demonstrates how sons end up, by the time they become adults, feeling hopelessly dependent on their mother who, at a deep layer locked in early childhood memories, frightens them. The son’s early experience also impairs his ability to relate to women as equals. Perceptions of women as a danger nourish the mythology of celibacy at one level and cultivate a general distrust of women at another.
•Although Stree does not directly deal with violence against women, it gives plenty of clues about its origins. The language and lore of the world of young men come across as entertainment, but it also reveals how distant their constructions are from real girls and women. Belief in women’s evil powers drives the story to a satisfying end where the townsmen put up a statue with the inscription, ‘Protect us, O Stree’. Underneath this message lies the fear that the female ghost might continue if greater respect is not shown to women.
Disconnect in the classroom
•Matters that this film manages to talk about cannot be imagined in a classroom at school or college. Educational institutions usually deal with gender issues in a textbook mode, preaching equality and mythologising modernity. In the typical ethos of a social science classroom, no engagement is possible with male attitudes towards women either. Nor can the terror internalised by girls at an early age be acknowledged and discussed. Lessons on gender disparity mention prejudices and stereotypes, but they seldom include the ones embedded in religious practices and festive rituals.
•After a typical gender sensitivity workshop, everyone feels content and pleased. No attempt is made to examine why aggression and violence against women are increasing despite the growth of education.
•While education has improved the distribution of eligibility and job opportunities for women, it has made little impact on male aggression and self-righteousness. The potential that education has for improving male sanity has been severely hampered by the unprecedented and easy access provided by digital devices to pornography, including child pornography. The situation is quite dire. A helpline was set up by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) as a facility for children who have been abused. It was inundated by callers looking for pornography. Apparently, the state apparatus has no immediate answers to offer for a social phenomenon growing at a wild pace.
📰 Oldest friends: India and Russia
India needs to stand firm on its deep engagement with Russia in coming months
•India-Russia summits have traditionally been short on time and ceremony and big on productivity. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 22-hour visit to Delhi last week was no exception. On Friday, the two countries announced a number of agreements, including a $5.43 billion S-400 Triumf missile system deal, a space cooperation arrangement to put an Indian in space, and an action plan for a new nuclear plant. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Putin also addressed a business summit, in an attempt to diversify ties and increase bilateral trade, currently below $10 billion. Much of the fresh momentum in bilateral engagement will come from the energy sector. Though the two sides didn’t announce an agreement between ONGC Videsh and Gazprom as expected, several billions of dollars worth of investment and energy deals are in the pipeline. Significantly, the agreements discussed during Mr. Putin’s visit have geopolitical implications. The signing of the S-400 air defence system deal, for instance, is of far greater consequence than its size. It denotes India’s desire to deepen defence cooperation with Russia; also that it is prepared to do this despite U.S. warnings that the deal could attract sanctions. That this deal comes just a month after India signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) for better interoperability with the U.S. military is a sign that India will not be forced or even persuaded into putting all its eggs in one strategic basket.
•New Delhi’s assertion of “strategic autonomy” and desire for multipolarity will be seriously tested in the coming months. For one, it chose to sign the S-400 deal, but resisted concluding other major defence deals with Russia on helicopters, stealth frigates and assault rifles, which Moscow will no doubt push for. More defence deals with Russia will make it increasingly difficult for the U.S. to give India a waiver from sanctions under CAATSA, its legislation aimed at curtailing defence and energy dealings with Russia, Iran and North Korea. Washington has already reacted to the S-400 deal, making it clear that any waiver will not be on a “country” basis, but on a “transaction-by-transaction” basis. In any case, accepting a waiver will implicitly commit India to reducing its intake of Russian military hardware. Both on CAATSA and on the U.S.’s proposed sanctions on Iran that go into force on November 4, India will need to make some tough decisions. It is one thing to reinforce long-standing and close friendships as Mr. Modi did during his annual summit with the Russian President this month, and with the Iranian President earlier this year, or with the U.S. President last year — the situation can be much more complex when friends expect you to choose between them.
📰 Too easily offended: the Konark temple case
The Konark temple case shows some penal provisions are handy tools of harassment
•The Supreme Court’s observations, while denying bail to defence analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, to the effect that he incited religious feelings in a video posted on social media, were out of place in what was a bail hearing. Such endorsement by the Court, which observed that Mr. Iyer-Mitra would be “safer in jail”, in response to his counsel’s plea that he feared for his life, was less than appropriate. Sending someone to the “safety” of a prison is no answer to questions raised by a prosecution under stringent laws that involve restrictions on free speech on grounds of maintaining public order and tranquillity. In a video post against the backdrop of the Konark temple, Mr. Iyer-Mitra had made some comments that were clearly satirical in nature. While it is entirely possible that his remarks offended some people, it is laughable to assume his intent was to sow discord or create religious enmity. The State police contended otherwise, charging him with outraging or wounding religious feelings and, quite mystifyingly, alleging that his remarks were directed against the “Odiya people”. On cue, the Odisha Assembly is now probing whether his satirical jokes constitute a breach of privilege of the House. Mr. Iyer-Mitra’s arrest in New Delhi by a police team from Odisha for his comments and some other tweets is another instance of the rampant misuse of two sections of the Indian Penal Code — 153A and 295A — on the charges of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion. However, a magistrate denied the police permission to take him to Odisha on transit remand, and instead granted him limited bail until September 28 on the condition that he join the investigation by that date. His petition for regular bail has now been rejected by the Supreme Court.
•The entire episode flags a larger concern: provisions that ought to be invoked only under serious circumstances — a grave threat to public order and tranquillity, for instance, or, in the case of Section 295A, when a purported insult to religion has been done with malicious and deliberate intent — are being misused in a routine manner. When the onus is on the prosecution to show there was criminal intent either to provoke disharmony or deliberately offend religious sensibilities, it is simply wrong to invoke these sections for everything that someone finds objectionable. Irreverence or even bad taste is not a crime. A mere response suffices; the use of prosecution and arrest are unjustifiable. Such an attitude will only make for an intolerant society consisting of easily offended individuals. In a mature democracy, the casual resort to criminal prosecution for perceived insults to either a religion or a class of society ought to be actively discouraged. In fact, the case must serve as yet another prompt to begin the process of reading down Sections 153A and 295A.
📰 Air Force Day: MiG-29 gets upgrade; gains in lethality, ferocity
The fighter plane has the capability of taking off vertically, which has “increased the IAF’s power a lot”, says Flight Lieutenant Karan Kohli
•The India Air Force’s beast — MiG-29 — has gained in strength and ferocity after an upgrade, giving the force which is battling a shortage of fighter aircraft a much-needed boost, according to officials.
•The Russian origin aircraft, now capable of effecting mid-air refuelling, is compatible with latest missiles and can launch multi-dimensional attacks, Flight Lieutenant Karan Kohli, who is deployed at Adampur Air Force Station, said.
•Even in the previous ‘legacy version’, the aircraft played an important role as the Indian Air Force (IAF) stamped its supremacy over the Pakistani force during the Kargil War of 1999.
•Last week, the upgraded MiG-29 showcased its combat capabilities at Admapur Air Force Station. The country will celebrate the Air Force Day on October 8.
‘Capable to give befitting response’
•“With the upgrade, as compared to previous ‘legacy version’ of the MiG-29 bought under emergency clause in early 1980s, the fighter jets are capable to give befitting response,” said an official, requesting anonymity, when asked about any possible two-front war with China and Pakistan.
•Flt. Lt. Kohli said that upgraded MiG-29 also has Multi-Functional Display (MFD) screen.
•On September 12, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa had said the force was reeling under a severe shortage of fighter aircraft. The IAF chief had said the force currently has 31 squadrons of fighter jets against the sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons.
•“Even when we do have 42 squadrons, we will be below the combined numbers of two of our regional adversaries,” he had said.
•The strategically important Adampur Air Force Station, which is around 100 km from Pakistan and 250 km away from China borders, is now equipped with upgraded MiG-29.
•The IAF has three squadrons of MiG-29 fighter jets in operation, two of them at the Adampur Air Force Station. One squadron comprises 16-18 aircraft.
Upgraded with latest features
•Flt. Lt. Kohli said that the force now has a combat aircraft which is flexible and can manoeuvre every situation so that IAF pilots can change their position and strike the enemy.
•He also said that the fighter plane has the capability of taking off vertically, which has “increased the IAF’s power a lot”.
•The upgraded MiG-29 aircraft can take off within five minutes of spotting a hostile jet trying to enter the Indian airspace and destroy it, he said.
•“With air-to-air refuelling feature, the upgraded MiG-29 can cover larger distance as compared to the previous legacy aircraft and destroy the enemy,” said another IAF officer, who did not wish to be named, on the two-front war possibility.
•“With the upgraded version, the range of aircraft has improved a lot. Moreover, in the legacy aircraft, we were restricted to the certain dimension, but we can now do air-to-air, air-to-ground and anti-shipping operation,” said a pilot who flies MiG aircraft.
•The upgraded MiG-29 has all latest features, including a glass cockpit having digital screens. Old instruments in the legacy version of MiG-29 have been replaced with modern ones, Flt. Lt. Kohli added.
•In the 1999 Kargil War, the Adampur station played an important role in destroying enemy fortifications located at heights of 15,000 feet and above. In the 1971 war also, the Adampur base was an operationally dynamic base for the air campaign against Pakistan.
•In the 1965 Indo-Pak war too, Adampur proved to be nemesis for the Pakistani misadventures as several squadrons inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy.
📰 India best for investments: PM
Modi hopes the country will become engine of world economic growth
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Uttarakhand’s first investors summit on Sunday, saying India is the ideal investment destination in the world today with major social and economic changes sweeping the country.
•Addressing top business leaders and industrial houses at “Destination Uttarakhand: Investors Summit 2018”, Mr. Modi said the country was passing through an era of unprecedented social and economic changes, and expressed confidence that in the coming decades, India would become the engine of world economic growth.
Demographic dividend
•“Fiscal deficit has come down, the rate of inflation has come down. The middle class is growing and the country is full of demographic dividend. “In the past four years, the State and Central governments together have taken over 10,000 measures, which have helped the country improve its position in the ease-of-doing-business rankings by 42 points,” Mr. Modi said, describing the current times as the best for investors in the country.
•The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was the biggest tax reform in the country post-Independence, which had turned the country into a single market, he said.
Infrastructure growth
•Highlighting the rapid growth in the infrastructure sector, the Prime Minister said 10,000 km of highways had been built, which was double in comparison with what was done by earlier governments.
•The aviation sector was growing at a record speed with 100 new airports and helipads coming up across the country. Tier II and III cities were getting air connectivity. With the high-speed rail projects and metro lines in various cities and the Centre’s policy of housing for all, power for all, fuel for all and banking for all, scenario of an ideal investment destination became complete, Mr. Modi said.
•“My message to investors is make in India but not just for Indians but for the whole world,” he said.
•The Prime Minister said schemes such as Ayushman Bharat would provide health insurance coverage to a huge population and it would also open up huge opportunities for investors in the health sector.
•Describing Uttarakhand as a shining jewel in the crown of emerging new India, Mr. Modi extended an invitation to top industrial houses to invest in the State.
📰 Shifting the burden of shame
In its choice for Peace Prize this year, the Nobel Committee has empowered the narrative against sexual crimes
•In conferring the 2018 Peace prize, jointly, to Nadia Murad, a former sex slave of the Islamic State (IS), and Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynaecological surgeon who helps raped war survivors, the Nobel Committee has placed itself at the centre of the raging #MeToo movement by calling for a change in the narrative to shift the burden of shame away from survivors of sexual crimes.
•Dr. Mukwege, who has been treating patients as young as 2 and as old as 70 who have been brutalised by soldiers and guerrillas, has been an outspoken activist calling for an end to using women’s bodies as weapons in war. But in baring her face to the world, Ms. Murad has made it impossible to look away from the suffering of sexual survivors in conflicts. Ms. Murad, now 25, was barely out of her teens when she, along with some 3,000 other women of the minority Yazidi community in Iraq, were taken away as sex slaves by the IS. In her book, The Last Girl, Ms. Murad describes not just the abject cruelty and complete violation that the IS inflicted on their sex slaves but also the efficient bureaucracy that was set up in order to reward their fighters with access to women’s bodies as well as prevent the escape of the slaves.
Murad’s story
•Until the IS arrived, Ms. Murad lived in Kocho, a village of Yazidis, off the valley of the Sinjar mountains, the centre of the community. Yazidism is an ancient monotheistic religion, with an oral history that predates Islam. There are only about a million Yazidis now, with conversion into the religion not accepted. Yazidis have been persecuted several times in history, including by the Ottomans and Saddam Hussein’s Baathists. When the IS took control over Mosul and established its Caliphate, it declared Yazidis, who do not have a holy book, to be Kuffar, non-believers, making it legal to murder Yazidi men who refused to convert to Islam and enslave the women. The IS has elaborate written protocols on the buying, selling and care of these slaves (sabaya), including complex valuation models such as what made a girl more or less valuable, which fighters would get a sabiya as an incentive and who would have to pay.
•Ms. Murad describes her ordeal without flinching — the brutality, the gang rapes as punishments for trying to escape, and sometimes even the bewildering romance that older men tried to infuse into their relationships with young slaves, dressing them up and posing for photographs as though with a partner or spouse. Ms. Murad was moved from house to house, city to city, as she was bought and sold several times, her value decreasing with each transaction. At one point, she was even held in a room at a check point, available to any IS fighter who happened to pass by.
•She managed to escape, eventually, through a combination of grit and luck, and was ultimately reunited with the parts of her family that remained. In what has been described as a genocide, the men in the village were shot dead minutes before young women were taken as slaves and the older women killed. Ms. Murad lost her mother and several siblings. However, returning women weren’t usually received very well. Virginity is highly valued in the community and the shame of the crimes done to them cling to the survivors.
•It is here that Ms. Murad truly found her courage. While in the refugee camp, and more vociferously after she arrived in Germany, she decided to speak out about the crime, to flash a light on the violence that was inflicted on them, instead of internalising the shame for things that were no fault of survivors. She recounted her experiences in great detail all the way up to the United Nations and in doing so, to a large extent, helped lift the cloak of shame from the bodies of the survivors and lay it instead on the shoulders of the perpetrators.
Another time and account
•Putting her face to the story makes Ms. Murad’s experiences real and indisputable. In another account of wartime rapes, a journalist wrote an anonymous account of the eight weeks, from April to June 1945, when Russian soldiers took control of Berlin. The book, called A Woman in Berlin, recounts, in a rather calm manner, the terror of anticipating that Russian soldiers would violate women in their own homes, and the rather practical way in which the women dealt with life when that fear became a reality. They bargained with the soldiers for rations, cigarettes and even protection from other soldiers. The book caused outrage when it was published as having “besmirched the honour of German women”, and immediate efforts focussed on uncovering the identity of the author or proving it to be a false account.
•Ms. Murad leaves no one with that choice. In videos of her talks, she stands diminutive, yet firm, her long dark hair framing her fragile face. It is impossible to deny the truth of her experience. It cannot be easy for her. Ms. Murad asserts that each time she recounts her story, she has to relive it. But in hearing her, believing her, and now in honouring her, the message that goes to the survivors of sexual violence everywhere is certainly that while they have to deal with the burden of their memory, they can at least shed the weight of its shame.
📰 Banks to continue Aadhaar enrolment
Supreme Court order has no impact, says UIDAI.
•Banks and post offices will continue to enrol people for Aadhaar and update their data, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has said.
•The Supreme Court has only ruled that Aadhaar is not mandatory for opening bank accounts, but the norms set for banks and post offices to undertake enrolment and update will stay as these are different from authentication services, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Chief Executive Officer of the UIDAI, said.
Vital role
•“As Aadhaar is going to be used in the offline mode for opening bank accounts and other services, and because the use of Aadhaar in Direct Benefit Transfer and PAN-Income Tax returns has also been held constitutional, the role of banks is going to be vital in the entire Aadhaar ecosystem. So, Aadhaar enrolment and update undertaken by banks and post offices will continue as it was being done before,” Mr. Pandey said.
•He was responding to a question whether the UIDAI would review its plans for these centres now that bank accounts do not need Aadhaar authentication.
•“More than 60-70 crore people have Aadhaar as their only identity proof; so voluntary offline usage will continue. Both banks and post offices have set up 13,000 centres each. We will keep opening more centres, depending on the need,” he said.
•Similarly, for now there is no change or review in the norms put by the UIDAI for banks to carry out enrolment and updation activities, he said.
•UIDAI has said that service providers can use offline verification tools like eAadhaar and QR (Quick Response) code that leverage Aadhaar without authentication, any access to biometrics, or revealing the 12-digit number.
•UIDAI believes that this would mean that individuals will continue to need services such as enrolment and updation, if they want to use Aadhaar based offline modes.
•The Aadhaar-issuing body also plans to create awareness around these offline verification methods, starting with an active engagement with technology industry here this week.
•In a recent verdict with far-reaching consequences, the Supreme Court had upheld the constitutional validity of ‘Aadhaar’ but limited the scope of the controversial biometric identity project, ruling it is not mandatory for bank accounts, mobile connections or school admissions.
•Holding there was nothing in the Aadhaar Act that violates right to privacy of an individual, the five-judge constitution bench in a 4 to 1 verdict cleared the use of Aadhaar (world’s largest biometric ID programme) for welfare schemes.
•The court held Aadhaar will remain mandatory for filing of Income Tax (IT) returns and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN) but struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 that permitted private entities like telecom companies or other corporate to avail of the biometric Aadhaar data.
