Fighting Modi’s silent Emergency – Southasia Weekly #05
This week at Himal
In the second installment of State of Southasia, our podcast with top Southasian thinkers unpacking key issues facing the region, host Nayantara Narayanan speaks with Ayesha Siddiqa, a leading analyst of Pakistan’s military, about the recent election and the military establishment’s control over politics in the country. Among much else, Siddiqa highlights the implications of what appears to be growing public disaffection with the military. Stay tuned for new episodes of State of Southasia every four weeks.
Laxmi Murthy reviews recent books by Prabir Purkayastha, the founder of the online portal NewsClick and currently a prisoner of the Narendra Modi government in India. The books trace Purkayastha’s personal and political journeys, including his first incarceration in the 1970s during Indira Gandhi’s infamous Emergency. Purkayastha asks in one of his books, “Does Every Generation Have to Face an Emergency?” Laxmi writes that given the Modi government’s assault on Indian democracy, which has been described as a silent and undeclared second Emergency, it seems some generations have to face them twice over.
This week in Southasia
The Citizenship Amendment Act, electoral bonds and the politics of distraction
On 12 March, protests erupted in India after the government announced plans to implement the widely-criticised Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which is seen to be discriminatory against Muslims. While this news dominated headlines, some warned that other important stories were going under the radar.
On 11 March, the Supreme Court ordered the State Bank of India to disclose to the Election Commission by the next day the details of those who purchased electoral bonds, and to publish the full details on the SBI website by the end of this week. The ruling is a setback to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the main beneficiary of these bonds, which allowed for anonymous donations to political parties.
Separately, the resignation of Arun Goel, the second highest official at the Election Commission of India, was announced on 9 March. While there has been no official reason given for the departure (NDTV has cited differences with the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar) opposition parties have raised questions about Goel’s exit, particularly as it reduces the Election Commission to just one of the mandated three top officials ahead of the country’s national election, due in the coming months.
Pundits debated whether the government’s sudden move on the CAA was designed to create a distraction, with some urging readers to stay focused on the stories around electoral bonds. Others pointed out that the CAA was part of a broader strategy to marginalise the Muslim community on the part of the BJP. Implementing the CAA has also been a key campaign promise to BJP supporters.
Recent revelations show that the BJP had received INR 60.61 crores (over USD 7.2 billion) in electoral bonds, that 14 of the top 30 donors to the electoral bond scheme between 2019 and 2024 had faced action by central or state agencies, and that the donors included vaccine manufacturers, pharmaceutical and engineering companies who went on to win lucrative government contracts.
Elsewhere in Southasia 📡
India rejects a ‘diplomatic protest’ by China around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the disputed state of Arunachal Pradesh to inaugurate the Sela tunnel project, noting the state is an ‘integral and inalienable’ part of India.
Tibetans in exile mark the 65th National Uprising Day, commemorating the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, with marches in Delhi and Dharamshala in India, and numerous cities across the world, while calling on China to release thousands arrested for opposing a dam project that would submerge monasteries in Tibet’s Dege county.
Groups of Afghan women gather in private spaces in Takhar, Balkh and Mazar-i-Sharif to protest restrictions on women’s freedom on Women’s Day, despite Taliban crackdowns on protests
More than 60 people die due to flash floods, heavy rain and snow in Afghanistan in the last three weeks, the country’s disaster ministry announces on 13 March, while dwindling foreign aid impacts ability to respond to disasters
Bhutan’s recently elected Prime Minister Tsering Tobgay arrives in India on 5-day visit to discuss bilateral agreements, development and connectivity projects, and Bhutan-China boundary talks.
IMF reviewing final payment of Pakistan’s USD 3 billion bailout programme as the country seeks longer term funding
Indian delegation meets with Arakan Army representatives in Paletwa, Myanmar, to assess the stalled Kaladan Multi Modal Transport Project, while anti-junta groups continue to make gains in Rakhine and Chin states
Nepal’s prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal wins third vote of confidence in 14 months and forms new cabinet despite a narrow margin of victory indicating dwindling parliamentary support
India blocks access to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary on the killing of pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which Canada had earlier said can be traced back to the Indian government
Only in Southasia!
A couple of weeks ago, residents of Mumbai welcomed the opening of an ‘architectural marvel’ (as described by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Council.) The Gokhale bridge, which connects Andheri East and West, was thrown open to the public. The only problem was that there was a six-foot vertical gap between this bridge and the Barfiwala flyover, which it was designed to connect to.
This has sparked questions about whether commuters are expected to do a long jump in their vehicles. The response by administrators was that the height of one of the bridges had increased because of the railway lines running beneath it, and that a ramp would be constructed to connect the two roadways.
Meanwhile, Mumbai’s cartoonists were unsparing.
From the archive
Until the last Tibetan (April 2007)
This week, as Tibetans-in-exile marked the 65th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, Tenzing Sonam’s article is worth revisiting. Sonam unpacks the ‘split-personality’ approach of the Tibet movement, which often sees continued calls for a free Tibet even as Tibetans support the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way approach, which calls for autonomy within China. Sonam also contests the idea that independence can be achieved only through violent means. Given recent news reports of peaceful protests in Tibet around the construction of a dam, and waning global attention to rights violations in Tibet, this article remains especially relevant.