📰 Centre steps in to halt boundary row
•The Union Home Ministry has asked Assam and Mizoram to maintain peace and display “no aggressive posturing” after violent clashes took place on the border between the two States on Saturday night. Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla reviewed the situation on Monday.
The withdrawn Tanishq commercial is a victim of an unrepresentative exclusivism that fosters old social orthodoxies
•A new front has opened in the culture wars occurring in India. After silencing academics and print journalists, conquering TV news channels, maligning the Mumbai film industry, the trolls have made advertising the new battlefield. The release of the Tata-owned Tanishq advertisement was followed by a manic backlash with complaints about hurt Hindu sentiment, threats of violence, and its abrupt withdrawal. These threats were not empty; showrooms in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were visited by goons demanding a written apology.
Message and the attack
•What is the advertisement trying to communicate and what is hurtful about it? An affluent Muslim family is seen organising a baby shower for their Hindu daughter-in-law. Marriage brings unanticipated tensions for the families of the couple, and a particularly profound disturbance in the life of the woman who often moves into the home of her husband. Without an entire network of support led by the husband and the mother-in-law, this transition is painful. In the advertisement, the Muslim mother-in-law arranges a Hindu ritual, affectionately puts her arm around her surprised daughter-in-law and says that the custom of loving a daughter far outweighs the demands of religious tradition.
•Playing upon vile communal instincts, the trolls attacked it for its ‘secular’ message. One extremist reason they offer is “love jihad”, allegedly a design to marry Hindu women with the sole objective of multiplying Muslim numbers and change India’s demography. This is why these marriages, they say, are not a personal or family matter but concern the community, and offend its morality. This intolerance of Hindu-Muslim marriage is entirely politically constructed. Instances abound of such marriages being turned into hell, at least in the initial years, by politically encouraged intolerance. The trolling must be seen in the context of a long-standing practice of politically triggered harassment of inter-religious couples.
•A less hysterical reason is embedded in the assumption that the compatibility of two individuals due to their class, education and temperament is trumped by the natural incompatibility between a Hindu and a Muslim. This explains the social wrath against inter-faith marriages, particularly between Hindu women and Muslim men. There is something in this argument: if conversion and a change of the bride’s name is made a condition of inter-religious marriages, then an objection against it is understandable. But this is not always true. In any case, this advertisement emphasises that the young woman remains a Hindu. This should take the wind out of the sails of the objector. If it does not, it is because of a third reason: the impregnable belief that inter-religious marriages go against incontestable social norms. Thus, for one ‘realist analyst’, the advertisement proves the disconnect of secular elites from Indian social norms. How unrealistic to expect that Indians will tolerate inter-religious marriage, when social norms do not permit even inter-caste marriages within Hindus, Muslims or Christians?
•Moreover, inter-faith marriages are never arranged. The advertisement then appears to celebrate not only communal harmony but ‘love marriage’, individual choice, and the new egalitarian family that respects the distinctive identity and wishes of women. This provides an additional ground for conservative anger. Covertly, the trolls prey upon social anxieties surrounding the young falling in love, rebelling against the rigid traditions of community, and giving women equal respect. The backlash against inter-faith marriages comes from communalism’s juxtaposition with this asphyxiating conservatism.
At odds with reality
•This deeply conservative general portrayal of Indians is a simplistic myth, at odds with the ever-changing, equally Indian social reality. Large towns and cities generate conditions for a partial collapse of the old community-dominated order. Public transport, the work-place, restaurants, malls, educational institutions — all facilitate and encourage inter-caste and inter-religious intermingling. This real and virtual proximity generates conflict as well as opportunity for friendship that can transform into love and even marriage no matter how much it enrages the socially orthodox and intolerant. No society has ever managed to completely control the emotional life of individuals. ‘Love marriages’ have a long ancestry. Even the Dharamshastras acknowledge and endorse love marriage at least for the Kshatriyas — the Gandharva Vivaha. The epics speak of Kshatriya women choosing their husbands too. Indian films build upon such long standing socio-mythical archetypes and frequently support individual choice and love as the only basis for marriage. Given this counter-current against caste and community-based arranged marriages, is it surprising that the young dream of falling in love and marrying the person of their choice?
Not a general trait
•Moreover, the older generation is not as stubborn as is assumed. At least in metropolitan cities, the initial period of social boycott and disapproval gives way to acceptance, forgiveness, accommodation and reconciliation, particularly after couples have children. Many understand that beyond a point they cannot impose their own will on consenting adults. To ignore this fact portrays Indians as unalterable, heartless bigots for whom traditional custom has insuperable priority over love, which is an inaccurate depiction. A fanatical commitment to religious dogma may be common among habitual haters of other communities but this a hardly a general trait of all Indians.
•In short, social intolerance of inter-religious marriages exists but is exaggerated by the trolls. What then is the springboard of this intolerance and hostility? This is driven by the ambition of new power elites out to displace older ones. A minority within the majority community is forcing itself on everyone by claiming to be the voice of the people. It uses the rhetoric of ‘the people’, because in democracy, anyone who claims the backing of the larger number gains social and political power. If mass opinion matters, large political benefits can be had from passing off a sectarian view as mass opinion. If a choice is to be made between curbing the voice of corporates or of “the people”, as one television commentator put it, one must curb corporate voice. In reality, this wrath and hate is manufactured by a predominantly, male-dominated discourse of new elites with a surfeit of power and money. Love jihad is part of this discourse.
There are two stories
•In this polarised climate, it takes courage by a commercial enterprise to convey a message of understanding, acceptance, love and communal harmony. Instead of supporting it, most electronic and social media have openly chastised this effort. The Indian state has stood by passively; at best as a silent witness and at worse as irresponsibly backing the disruptors
•Much is at stake in India today. Not just communal harmony but also individual freedom, gender equality, and freedom of speech, besides economic freedom and equality. Capitalist markets have many drawbacks but they allow buying and selling irrespective of a person’s religion, ideology, race, colour and sexual preferences. The withdrawal of the advertisement undermines principles of freedom and equality associated with a safe business environment.
•It is not true that all Indians are resistant to social change or that Hindus are inveterate Muslim-haters. Ground reports on ordinary people tell two stories, not one as the trolls and their followers would have us believe.
📰 The sorry plight of the Andhra Pradesh higher judiciary
The letter of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister cannot be brushed aside as interference with judicial independence
•The High Court of Andhra Pradesh has seen many a legal gem and it is unfortunate that today, one of the three organs of the state, the executive, appears to have lost faith in the judiciary and the very same High Court. Who can forget Justice Koka Subba Rao who was the first Chief Justice and later went on to become the ninth Chief Justice of India in 1966? Or that Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy was the beacon for other High Courts?
The two sides
•Against such a backdrop, the letter by the Chief Minister of the State of Andhra Pradesh to the Chief Justice of India, with allegations against a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court of India is cause for concern.
•While some could argue that the executive could have a grudge against the judiciary and that the grievance aired by the Chief Minister of the State could be a reflection of this, at the same time, one cannot gloss over whatever the High Court has done. The Chief Minister’s allegation is that the High Court is being controlled by loyalists of his predecessor in office and political rival, passing orders against his regime and its actions. From the High Court’s point of view, the State police is reluctant to take action against those carrying on an online campaign against the court.
•The orders passed by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh are disturbing. For example, the order gagging the press and directing the media (print, electronic, and social media) to take down whatever has already been published is quite strange since this protects not only the petitioner, the former Advocate General, but also the others named or not named in the First Information Report (FIR). Those named in the FIR, other than the former Advocate General, are not even aggrieved as they did not approach the court for similar relief. But the gag-and-take-down order protects them too, without their being parties to the proceedings.
•This makes the writ petition a proxy litigation, filed not only on behalf of the petitioner, but also on behalf of all others. Considering the high profile of two persons named in the FIR who were not before the court, the stay of investigation, the stay of arrest of all those named and not named in the FIR, and the direction issued to the media not to publish and to take down whatever has already been published is shocking and the government is justified in making a grievance out of it.
One that is self-inflicted
•But the damage caused by the High Court to its own reputation by something done on the administrative side is even more shocking. In a writ petition filed by the BC, SC, ST and Minority Student Federation seeking certain reliefs in the wake of the unfortunate death of the then Registrar General of the High Court, the court filed a counter affidavit.
•Paragraph 13 of the counter affidavit contained allegations as though the writ petition was engineered, at the behest of the State Government, by a former Acting Chief Justice of the combined High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, who now holds office as Chairman of the Fee Fixation Committee for professional colleges. Had it been filed by any other party, paragraph 13 would have provoked the High Court to come down heavily on such a party. It reads as follows: ‘13. As per the preliminary objections, it is clear that this petition is filed by a political person to political gain and to malign the High Court. In this sequel it is relevant that former Justice V. Eshwaraiah, who was appointed as chairman of the A.P. Higher Education Regulatory Committee and chairman of the BC Association, has also submitted a complaint with the same allegations to the President of India referred herein above against the Chief Justice. His appointment on the said post was made by the State Government as per the recommendation (September 4, 2019) issuing notification in the second week of September 2019. The said recommendation was after the recommendation to appoint a regular Chief Justice of High Court of Andhra Pradesh on August 22, 2019 by the collegium of the Supreme Court. Thus, his appointment is under persuasion of the State Government to favour him. On having achieved his desire of appointment after post retirement, he wants to support the State Government under the cover of BC Association maligning the High Court... In fact, the State government is not happily accepting the verdicts of the High Court given in various cases against them. ... however, unscrupulous comments degrading the image of the institution are floated in social media by various persons, including the sitting Member of Parliament, the Speaker of the Assembly on which suo motu contempt proceedings have been initiated. Therefore, in view of the preliminary objections and the above facts, filing of this petition is mala fide and to achieve the oblique intention.’
•That the High Court, in a counter affidavit to a writ petition, can: attack the State Government as being hostile; attack a former Acting Chief Justice as the person behind a litigation, and attack the senior-most serving judge of the very same High Court for obliging the State Government and recommending the name of the former Acting Chief Justice for appointment as the Fee Fixation Committee, is unthinkable.
•The statement now made by the Chief Minister that the High Court is being used and manipulated to trample on the democratically elected government has to be seen in the context of the High Court’s own stand in a counter affidavit filed in a writ petition that the State Government is hostile to the court.
•The issue did not end at that. In the writ petition, an application was filed by a subordinate judicial officer, who is now under suspension pending disciplinary proceedings, seeking intervention. In his intervention application, the judicial officer has claimed that the former Acting Chief Justice of the combined High court of Judicature at Hyderabad, whose name was dragged in by the High Court in its counter affidavit, made a call to him offering help in the departmental enquiries pending against him.
•The intervention application was accompanied by the transcript of the telephonic conversation he purportedly had. According to this transcript, the former Acting Chief Justice confessed to him that he had engineered the writ petition filed by the BC, SC, ST and Minority Student Federation.
‘Hold an inquiry’
•After the filing of this intervention application by the suspended judicial officer, the case took an interesting turn. The High Court filed an application for deletion of paragraph 13 of the original counter affidavit, in which the court had alleged that the writ petition was engineered by the former Acting Chief Justice at the behest of the State government.
•Thereafter, a Division Bench specially constituted for the purpose took note of the contents of the intervention application and passed an order on August 13, 2020 holding that the conversation whose transcript was produced as a document along with a pen drive, prima facie disclosed a conspiracy against the Chief Justice of the High Court and the senior most Judge of the Supreme Court. After so holding, the Andhra Pradesh High Court passed an order to the following effect: ‘In view of the law discussed above in various judgments referred supra, this court while exercising power of judicial review under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, more particularly, while deciding a public interest litigation, procedural technicalities will not come in the way. Hence, we find that it is a fit case to order enquiry to find out the authenticity/genuineness of the conversation contained in the pen drive. Therefore, we request Justice R.V. Raveendran, retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India, to hold an inquiry to find out the authenticity/genuineness of the conversation, contained in the pen drive, with regard to the plot designed against the Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh and being designed against senior most sitting judges of the Supreme Court and undisclosed interest of third parties. Registry is directed to obtain the consent of Justice R.V. Raveendran, retired judge of Supreme Court and provide necessary assistance. The inquiry is limited to find out the authenticity/genuineness of the conversation and third party interest behind the plot.’
•It is clear that all is not well with the higher judiciary in the State of Andhra Pradesh. The letter of the Chief Minister of the State cannot be seen in isolation and it cannot be brushed aside as interference with the independence of the judiciary.
📰 Many gains in fighting HIV
There is a reduction in new HIV infections among children and in AIDS-related deaths in India
•In this challenging moment when we are confronted with one of the biggest health emergencies in our history, the COVID-19 pandemic, we find our strength in the gains we are making despite this disruption.
Steps forward
•The newly released 2019 HIV estimates by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)/Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the technical support of UNAIDS tell us that there has been a 66.1% reduction in new HIV infections among children and a 65.3% reduction in AIDS-related deaths in India over a nine-year period. The number of pregnant women living with HIV has reduced from 31,000 in 2010 to 20,000 in 2019. Overall, antenatal coverage has expanded, and HIV testing has increased over time and within target range. Treatment coverage has also expanded.
•Under the leadership of NACO, a ‘Fast-Tracking of EMTCT (elimination of mother-to-child transmission) strategy-cum-action plan’ was outlined by June 2019, in the run-up towards December 2020: the deadline to achieve EMTCT. The plan entailed mobilisation and reinforcement of all national, State and partners’ collective efforts — in a strategic manner, with district-level focus, and considering latest evidence — so that the States/Union Territories and the country as a whole achieve the EMTCT goal. Additionally, in March 2020, we began efforts to minimise challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
•From 2010 to 2019, India made important progress in reducing the HIV impact on children through prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This was done through education and communication programmes; increased access to HIV services with innovative delivery mechanisms for HIV testing (community-based testing, partner testing or index testing); counselling and care; and treatment and follow-ups. India made HIV testing for all pregnant women free and HIV treatment is offered the same way nationwide without cost to pregnant mothers living with HIV through the national ‘treat all’ policy.
•Cognisant of the challenge of diagnosing 20,000 pregnant women living with HIV in an estimated 30 million pregnancies annually in India, for two years UNICEF has worked with the World Health Organization and NACO to identify high burden districts (in terms of density of pregnant women living with HIV) as the last mile towards disease elimination.
•Since 2002, when the EMTCT of HIV programmes or prevention of parent-to-child transmission of HIV were launched in India, a series of policy, programmatic and implementation strategies were rolled out so that all pregnant women can access free HIV testing along with other services at antenatal clinics, and free treatment regimens for life to prevent HIV transmission from mothers to babies. This has been made possible in government health centres and grass-root level workers through village health and nutrition days and other grass-roots events under the National Health Mission.
•Indeed, the approach being promoted by UNICEF in focusing attention and resources in high burden districts is supported by the HIV strategic information division of NACO and UNAIDS to better understand the locations and populations most HIV affected, so that technical support and HIV services can be directed towards these areas.
Still a long way to go
•However, there remains a need for increased treatment saturation coverage and for early HIV testing and treatment initiation to become the normal. While periodic monitoring of the data and reviews are the mainstay of the programme response, by 2019 it was very evident to all the stakeholders that while there are successes, we have a long way to go towards the final targets.
•Using data-driven and decision-making approaches, we are certain that AIDS will no longer be a public health threat for children in India by the end 2030, if not before.
