📰 UIDAI seeks indemnity from Data Bill
It was implementation of Aadhaar that first triggered the data privacy debate
•The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has asked for exemption from the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Law. In an interaction with the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Data Protection Bill 2019 on Thursday at its office in Bengaluru, UIDAI functionaries said the authority is already being governed by the Aadhaar Act and there cannot be duplicity of laws.
•Ironically, it was making Aadhaar compulsory for many key services including the banks that first triggered the data privacy debate. The genesis of this Bill lies in the report prepared by a Committee of Experts headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna. The committee was constituted by the government in the course of hearings before the Supreme Court in the right to privacy case ( Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India ).
•The Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill 2019 has a contentious section 35, which invokes “sovereignty and integrity of India,” “public order”, “friendly relations with foreign states” and “security of the state” to give powers to the Central government to suspend all or any of the provisions of this Act for government agencies.
•The UIDAI during the interaction with the Joint Parliamentary Committee, sources said, demanded that it should get a blanket exemption from the act under this section. It further argued that it already is being governed by the Aadhaar Act and the PDP bill could be counter productive.
•The 2019 Bill already has clauses which are open to interpretation. As Prasanth Sugathan, Legal Director, Software Freedom Law Centre pointed out, “Section 12 of 2019 Bill gives UIDAI some leeway from the rigours of the Bill as it enables for processing data for provision of a service or benefit to the data principal. However, even then prior notice has to be given.”
•Sources indicate that UIDAI might not be the only one to seek exemption. “Our fear is that the Bill, if implemented in the present form, may create two distinct ecosystems. One with the government agencies who will be completely out of the ambit of the law, giving them complete freedom to deal with the personal data. And the second will be private data fiduciaries who will have to deal with every letter in the law,” one of the members said. The committee is on a tour to meet various data fiduciaries for a last round of discussion on “operational issues” in the implementation of the law. The panel which has already got five extensions has to submit its report at the upcoming session of Parliament.
COVID-19, trade, climate change and security relations were discussed
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held wide-ranging talks with the top leaders of the European Union here during which the two sides discussed deepening the India-EU friendship, particularly in areas such as political and security relations, trade, culture and the environment.
•Prime Minister Modi, who arrived here earlier in the day to participate in the G20 Summit, began his official engagements in Rome with a “productive interaction” with President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
•Later, Mr.Modi described his meeting with the EU leaders on the sidelines of the 16th G20 Summit here as “wonderful”. "Wonderful meeting with @EU_Commission President @vonderleyen and @eucopresident Charles Michel. We had wide-ranging talks on deepening the India-EU friendship, particularly in areas such as trade, commerce, culture and the environment,” Mr.Modi tweeted after the meeting.
•In a tweet, European Council President Michel said India has a key role to play in green transition."India has a key role to play in green transition. We discussed global health and fighting the pandemic, the strong EU-India Strategic Partnership, the situation in Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific,” he said, amid China creating tensions in the region.
•European Commission President Leyen said it was “good to meet” Prime Minister Modi. "Good to meet @narendramodi. Our strategic agenda is on the right track. We agreed that our trade negotiators will start to work. We‘ll deepen our cooperation on climate including on innovation & technology. Looking forward to cooperating in the Indo-Pacific,” she said in a tweet.
•She also congratulated India for its “excellent progress” on vaccination and for resuming the export of vaccines. “We need to join forces to help vaccinate the world and beat the global pandemic,” Ms. Leyen said. Her remarks came as India achieved a major milestone in its vaccination programme.
•After their meeting, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that a number of key issues were discussed. “An extensive discussion covering trade & investment ties, climate change, COVID-19, global & regional developments,” Mr.Bagchi tweeted. They also reviewed India-EU cooperation in covering political and security relations, trade and investment as well as the Roadmap 2025 agreed at the last India-EU Summit.
•In a press release, the MEA stated that they “recalled their productive virtual engagements in the form of India-EU Leaders’ meeting in the form of EU+27 in May 2021 and 15th India-EU Summit in July, 2020.”
📰 Nationwide Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine drive launched
Pneumonia a leading cause of death among children under-5 years old, says Mandaviya
•Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya launched a nationwide expansion of Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) under the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) as a part of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, here on Friday.
•He also released communication and awareness packages on PCV to create awareness. They will be shared with all the States/Union Territories for further adaptation and utilisation.
•It was for the first time in the country that PCV would be available for universal use. Pneumonia was a leading cause of death among children under five, globally and in India, he said.
•“Pneumonia caused by pneumococcus is the most common cause of severe pneumonia in children. Around 16% of deaths in children occur due to pneumonia in India. The nationwide roll-out of PCV will reduce child mortality by around 60%”, he stated.
‘Children are future’
•Highlighting the importance of healthy children in a country’s growth, productivity and development, he pointed out that children were the future of the country and ‘it is our responsibility to provide them a healthy life’.
•“Mission Indradhanush, launched by the Prime Minister, is one such endeavour in this regard. The vision of ‘Sabko vaccine, muft vaccine’ by the Prime Minister is guiding the COVID-19 vaccination programme and it has ensured that the eligible population gets access to the vaccines across the country,” he noted. The launch of PCV would further ensure healthy growth and development of children, besides reducing child mortality, he added.
•The UIP is one of the largest public health programmes targeting close to 26.7 million newborns and 29 million pregnant women annually.
📰 No money left in MGNREGA coffers; 21 States in the red
States creating artificial demand, says official; workers pushed into ‘forced labour’ by delayed payments, say activists
•The Centre’s flagship rural employment scheme has run out of funds halfway through the financial year, and supplementary budgetary allocations will not come to the rescue for at least another month when the next Parliamentary session begins. According to its own financial statement, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme shows a negative net balance of ₹8,686 crore.
•This means that payments for MGNREGA workers as well as material costs will be delayed, unless States dip into their own funds. Activists say the Centre is condemning workers to “forced labour” by delaying wage payments at a time of economic distress. However, the Centre is now accusing many States of “artificially creating demand” for work on the ground.
•The MGNREGA is a demand driven scheme, guaranteeing 100 days of unskilled work to any rural household that wants it. During last year’s COVID-19 lockdown, the scheme was ultimately given its highest budget of ₹1.11 lakh crore and provided a critical lifeline for a record 11 crore workers.
•However, the scheme’s 2021-22 budget was set at just ₹73,000 crore, with the Centre arguing that the nationwide lockdown was over and that supplementary budgetary allocations would be available if money ran out. As on October 29, the total expenditure including payments due had already reached ₹79,810 crore, pushing the scheme into the red. Already, 21 States show a negative net balance, with Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal faring the worst.
•“We are facing a situation of MGNREGA closing down halfway through the year. Who is going to absorb the cost? The poorest and most vulnerable communities who have already been crushed by the pandemic’s impact,” said Nikhil Dey, a founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. He cited a 2016 judgement of the Supreme Court, which described pending wage payments under MGNREGA as “a clear constitutional breach committed by the State” and “a modern form of begar”.
•“The Government of India is, on the face of it, pushing crores of people into forced labour, as held by the SC,” added Mr. Dey.
•“It is somewhat early this year [to run out of funds],” admitted a senior official of the Rural Development Ministry, who did not wish to be named. “People will continue to get work. Only thing that might happen is that the payment will only be made once funds are available. But many States can provide temporary funds out of their own kitty and then once the fund is available, it can be reimbursed [by the Centre].”
•The official blamed State governments for the current situation. “My apprehension is that the States are using it not as a demand driven scheme, but as a supply led scheme. The States are asking their field authorities to artificially create demand,” said the official. “The nature of the scheme is that once people turn up and demand jobs, then the demand is provided. It’s not that someone in the administrative hierarchy organises work and then asks people to join. That is what is happening in many States,” added the official.
•Activists say the exact opposite is happening on the ground. MGNREGA data shows that 13% of households who demanded work under the scheme were not provided work. “Even these figures are underestimates, as only demand that is registered in the system is included. Many workers are simply turned away by officials when they demand work, without their demand being registered at all,” said Vijay Ram, a researcher with People’s Action for Employment Guarantee.
•“When there is no money, State governments tend to stop generating work. In fact, there is an artificial squeezing of demand,” said Mr. Dey.
📰 In India, the steady subversion of equality
The sharp turns away from democracy seen recently in the country must jolt citizens into stopping the descent
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi has loudly reiterated India’s embrace of democracy internationally, hailed its ‘diversity’ when abroad and is seeking India’s relevance as an ally of the West on ‘democratic values’. Therefore, it is imperative to measure the distance between today’s India and democratic values.
•The central edifice of a democracy, or what makes it a revolutionary idea, is equality, or that it accords an equal status to all its people. But the E-word is in rapid remission. A commitment to all being equal as a desired ideal — even if not fully realised in reality — accorded India its sheen and power in the past. India now, from being a truly remarkable case of composite nationalism, appears happy to huddle in that corner of the room which many of its neighbours occupy.
Faith as differentiator
•The promise of the far-sighted Indian Constitution was of equal rights to all. If any benefit was accorded to smaller groups, religious or linguistic minorities or Dalits, it was in order to achieve substantive equality. This cut across all markers of identity — colour, race, language, faith, caste, region or food. But faith seems to have increasingly emerged as a visible differentiator between citizens. It must be recognised that laws — and not just the spirit — are in the process of being rewritten in India.
•First and foremost, the basis of citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, allowing for non-Muslims from three countries to fast-track their citizenship, was the most serious push to introduce religion into citizenship.
•Second in terms of marital choices, laws in the country in States where the national ruling party holds sway have drawn harsh attention on inter-faith couples. Imaginary fears of a ‘love-jihad’, the basis for new legislations have meant that inter-faith marriages are seen as crimes unless proven otherwise. The Gujarat law criminalising inter-faith marriages has been called out by the Gujarat High Court, but the ordinance introduced in Uttar Pradesh (Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020), which is now a law, till July, saw 63 FIRs filed against it, and 80 people arrested among 162 people who were booked, the majority being Muslim. A similar law in Madhya Pradesh has a similar trajectory, and a differential impact on Muslims, emphasising the rapid unspooling of the E-word. In terms of personal law, only Muslim men divorcing their wives through the triple talaq, now outlawed by the Supreme Court, is deemed a criminal act; not so for men of other faiths.
Drastic changes
•Third, food has been criminalised. Stringent laws on cattle end up penalising those who have a certain diet, namely beef. The mood in the country created and abetted by people close to the powers that be, has led to lynchings. IndiaSpend has recorded bovine-related hate violence since 2010 and concluded that 98% of these attacks occurred post-May 2014, after the Bharatiya Janata Party assumed office. State governments and the Union government have mostly ignored the Supreme Court’s directions in 2018 to set up fast track courts, advice to take steps to stop hate messages on social media, or compensation to victims, or bringing in an anti-mob lynching law.
•Fourth, consider the Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act, popularly known as the Disturbed Areas Act, which circumscribes where one can reside. Brought in an atmosphere where there was communal rioting and forced displacement, to ostensibly protect communities from distress sales, the twist accorded to it over the years firmly makes the forced separation of communities evident. Vijay Rupani, till recently the Chief Minister of Gujarat, said in an interview on July 27, 2019; “A Hindu selling property to a Muslim is not okay. A Muslim selling property to a Hindu is also not okay.” He added, “We have set this rule in areas where there have been riots to tell them (Muslims) that they must buy property in their own areas.”
Hostile environment
•That the environment in even the informal sector where minorities sought refuge in vocations to battle the prejudices of the formal sector is now curdling, is clear from recent studies on the subject. The linkages between those wielding extraordinary power in high offices with those making vicious noise on social media, and with the violent mobs on the ground trying to shut down Muslim businesses — or attack vegetable sellers or bangle sellers to prevent them to operate — are becoming more explicit by the day. It is old hat to say that several purveyors of hate are “proud to be followed by the Prime Minister” on social media. But even that is just the tip of the iceberg.
•Those in power actively support and reward those who head mobs, raise slogans or demonstrate hate enough to shut down cities and regular life. Ministers garland them and the anti-minority hate spewed by them is a CV building exercise for better political prospects within the ruling party. The Member of Parliament representing Bhopal, Pragya Thakur, a public defender of the Mahatma’s assassin, is only one of the many who exemplify the career path available to those who sharply denounce amity or calls for harmony.
•Scholars like Thomas Blom Hansen and Paul Brass have unhesitatingly pointed to the role of violence that has historically been acceptable in Indian society and politics. The stark difference between now and a few decades ago is a difference in top leaders being silent at important moments when mob violence is reported prominently. Dissenters are sought to be marked out “by their clothes” as the Prime Minister said infamously in December 2019 about those protesting the discriminatory citizenship laws. Far from discouraging those indulging in hate speech, they are given a place in the party hierarchy.
•The line was drawn simply but sharply by no less a person than Sardar Patel on September 11, 1948 when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was banned after the Mahatma’s assassination. Patel wrote to the RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar, that he had no problem with the Sangh indulging in activities organising or benefiting Hindus, but had a problem with actions that were aimed at solely spreading anti-Muslim hate — “All their speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organize for their protection.”
Exclusive entitlement
•There was clearly a sentiment in Indian society and politics that wanted a country in the mirror image of Pakistan, as one for a Hindu majority. This view did not want to better the lives of Hindus. This was about claiming that those adhering to one religion have exclusive entitlement to Indianhood. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an organisation very much in the family of the ruling party, rubbishes the idea of the mosaic that India is, when its secretary-general, Milind Parande said on September 7, 2021, that “the very idea of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb (term used to denote the coming together fusion of Hindu and Muslim cultures in the country), is irrelevant. What exists is one culture, and the rest can simply merge into it. The Hindu cause must be prime.” Statements like these to denigrate the idea of India as a shared palette are never denounced by those in power. In fact, increasingly, there is little to distinguish these from statements of those in power and wielding authority representing the Indian state. The seriousness of what is afoot must be acknowledged.
The backbone
•Scholars like Christophe Jaffrelot have pointed out that there will not be a seamless transition to an “ethnic democracy”. There is no smooth path towards a ‘Category two’ or diminished citizenship status for large numbers of people who deviate from a prescribed cultural path. The Indian nation is one formed on the promise of shared and participatory kinship, which recognised Indian nationalism as being distinct from the faith you practised at home. Prioritising any one identity will have disastrous consequences and history provides enough evidence of this. Rwanda, South Africa or Germany are reminders that the E-word is as much a pragmatic consideration as it is a normative ideal.
•India was proud of its hallowed constitutional precepts. More so as it was in a region which has seen a precipitous slide; Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Myanmar prioritised one ethnicity/religion and defined belonging and nationhood in the narrowest sense possible. But differences between them and India are fast fading and not merely due to hotheads or mobs on the street. The formal ruling establishment, with its silences, utterances and formalising of new laws and norms, is indistinguishable with the ideas guiding mobs. The mobs read together with actions of the Union government and that of State governments mark a sharp turn away from the democracy India claims it is. That must jolt us into recognising the distance we have already travelled down the wrong path. That may be the first step to try to wrest the descent into the darkness of an apartheid state.
