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Notes from South Asia: Introductory Post (With News/Pieces from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-11-03
Hello everyone. I am Indian and for the past year and a half, I have been sharing news and thoughts from South Asia in APR, Caribbean Matters, and Black Kos. As per Ms. Dee’s (Ms. Denise Oliver Velez) advice, I have decided to start a weekly round up starting today named: Notes from South Asia. It will post every Friday mid-afternoon or evening my time. That is, it would be ready for you by Thursday midnight or Friday morning.
Why this series?
Why am I doing this? Why do I think that it is important for you to know stories from rest of the world including South Asia?
There are multiple reasons, but we will focus on two.
The United States has a huge impact on the world by means of both its foreign policy and its economic might (which are interlinked). If you do not consider that when you vote, your foreign and trade policies would continue to be divorced from the needs of the rest of the world and thus, hurt us. It is not something we enjoy. The US foreign policy has a strong impact on the domestic environment you, especially the Black and brown people but not just them, experience. This is both because: Many of those Black and brown people or their ancestors are from these regions; and the lack of thought given to, for example, how Brazilian beef industry of which US is a consumer affects the environment, how American drug companies such as Pfizer operate in Africa, or how the Biden administration is being friendly with a majoritarian regime in India that is decimating our environmental regulations, leads to detrimental effects for you even if you are not Black, brown, or indigenous. Plus, if you are labour, the lack of attention given to the rights of labour in the ‘developing countries’ leads to suffering for labour in your country too.
I hope with these two reasons I have established why it is important for US residents and citizens to have an idea about the world outside US and Western Europe. This understanding should not be just from the Western point of view. If all you listen to is your own point of view, then it is very likely that you would reinforce the injustices and inequalities that are already there in the world as you have been doing for decades now. Through either ignorance or disinterest.
Thus I come here and share.
On the series
The series will include news, opinions pieces, history and other matters of interest from South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and occasionally, Myanmar (because they are our neighbour even if they fall under South East Asia). Because I am Indian, India is really large, and going through an authoritarian takeover at the moment, Indian stories are likely to feature in pretty much every installment. Along with that, I will add news from a couple of the other countries from the above list in each post thus cycling through the rest of the countries of the region.
Onward to today’s post then.
Today, I will cover news and opinions from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Note: The news/pieces may be familiar to those who read my comments in APR. So, feel free to skip.
India
As you might know, India is in the midst of a fascist and majoritarian take over from the Hindu right under the Hindu Supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). On that front, here are some major news items.
1. The Union government under BJP has been using the central (federal) investigation agencies to go after opposition politicians (and dissenters and activists but that is for another time). I am linking to the Hindu editorial since it has history as well.
The ED in the excerpt below is Enforcement Directorate. BJP has sent them, an organisation that tackles corruption in government, after opposition politicians in, at present, Rajasthan, a poll-bound state ruled by an opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC).
The BJP’s claim that all ED actions are purely to root out corruption could have been taken at face value only if they were even-handed and impartial. The pattern of action and inaction by the ED leaves no scope for any such inference. The ED’s enthusiasm in pursuing political corruption fluctuates. It is also too much of a coincidence that the ED suspects corruption only in Opposition-ruled States and among leaders opposed to the BJP. Few would accept an argument, if at all the BJP or the ED is making one, that there is no corruption in States ruled by the party or by its leaders. The BJP has been the only beneficiary of large-scale defections of elected representatives in recent years. No one can argue that agencies should not do their job and enforce the law. But both governance and democracy are undermined when the rule of law is weaponised against political opponents, When action against political players is taken in the midst of an election, it could potentially tilt the scales. The current legal regime for fighting corruption — and also the one against terrorism for that matter — is fast degenerating into an arbitrary internment of those who are inconvenient for the ruling party. This needs to end.
2. The opposition politicians and journalists have received alerts from Apple saying they are the target of state sponsored spying. They have accused the Indian government of being the state behind the attack. Again, I am sharing the Hindu edit because it contains history.
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