Indian Express Editorial Analysis
05 November 2020

1) Republic of Police-

GS 2- Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

 


CONTEXT:

  1. The arrest of television anchor and editor-in-chief of Republic Television Arnab Goswami for alleged abetment(pushing) to suicide in a case of allegedly unpaid bills bears all the hallmarks of the Maharashtra police force going out of its way to target the channel.
  2. This appears to be a proxy battle between the BJP and the Shiv Sena-led Mahavikas Aghadi government.

 

 

 

ANY NEW EVIDENCE:

  1. Goswami has been arrested in a case in which the Maharashtra police had filed a closure report last year citing lack of evidence, when the BJP was still in power.
  2. Since then, what seems to have changed is this-
    a) From baiting(taunting) the state government on the migrant crisis,
    b) to alleging a communal angle in the lynching of three men in Palghar district,
    c) to accusing the Mumbai police commissioner and the Maharashtra chief minister of collusion in an alleged cover-up of the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case,
    d) Goswami has left no opportunity to target the Uddhav Thackeray government and, in the process, kept little daylight between himself and the BJP.
  3. While there could be disagreement with Goswami’s journalism and his penchant(liking) for becoming the watchdog on behalf of the establishment and the powerful, the Maharashtra police needs to explain several things.
  4. What new evidence did it find in the 2018 suicide case that warranted Goswami’s immediate arrest?
  5. Why this made-for-camera show of intimidation(fear) when a mere summons(calling) would have served the purpose?
  6. The build-up, including the case against Republic TV for an alleged TRP scam, the FIRs naming several in Republic’s newsroom, all reinforce(strengthens) the suspicion that the police is marching to the tune of political vendetta(revenge).
  7. The alacrity(liveliness) with which several members of the Union Cabinet — from the Home Minister down — have come out in support of Goswami, only confirms how the political battle lines have been drawn in this case.
  8. Their outrage is selective. It does not extend to journalists being picked up and slapped with draconian(harsh) laws of sedition or UAPA in other states, especially BJP-ruled governments.
  9. Even so, it is heartening to see this stellar(impressive) turnout in defence of a democratic ideal.

 

FURTHER POLARISATION:

  1. The entire episode reflects poorly on the Shiv Sena-led ruling coalition in Maharashtra.
  2. In times when spaces for dissent are shrinking and freedom of speech needs safeguarding, the government of an important Opposition-ruled state had the opportunity to project itself as less thin-skinned(rigid) and vindictive.
  3. Instead, as this paper has reported, the Maharashtra police has registered several FIRs against social media trolls after the Rajput suicide, also arresting four persons in these cases.
  4. All this can only add to the polarisation(division) of the public space, and further shrink(reduce) the middle ground, where independent journalism thrives.
  5. This should worry not just journalists, but all citizens who have stakes in a media that informs without taking sides, holds the powerful to account, speaks for the weak and those without a voice.

 

CONCLUSION:

Storming of TV anchor Arnab Goswami’s house by Maharashtra Police threatens all media, saner voices in state government must stand up.

 

 

2) Just like corn-

GS 3- Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers

 


CONTEXT:

  1. Bihar’s agricultural potential has never been in doubt.
  2. Its fertile alluvial soils and abundant water resources from the Ganga and tributary rivers — Sone, Gandak, Burhi Gandak/Bagmati, Kosi and Mahananda — have always made it the perfect destination for India’s second Green Revolution.
  3. The state hasn’t quite delivered on the promise, though glimpses of what it can do can be seen, for instance, in maize.
  4. Bihar today produces nearly a fourth of the country’s maize, with its average yields over twice the national average.
  5. Many farmers, especially in the Kosi-Seemanchal belt, harvest 50 quintals or more per acre, which is comparable to that in the US Midwest corn heartland.

 

 

 

CORN REVOLUTION:

  1. Bihar’s corn revolution has been entirely a private sector-led one.
  2. The credit for it goes mainly to multinational seed companies which introduced the cultivation of single-cross maize hybrids.
  3. They, along with large trading firms and feed millers, recognised the potential of planting these during the rabi winter-spring season, when the mild temperatures with clear skies, absence of flooding and low pest/disease infestation were conducive for high yields.
  4. Moreover, this crop could be harvested during April-June, when there was no corn available from the rest of India or even South America.
  5. Bihar’s farmers took to rabi maize in a big way from the early-2000s. But it isn’t just corn.
  6. The state’s other agriculture success stories, be it litchi or makhana (fox nut), have also been largely private enterprise-scripted.
  7. And all this has done without any minimum support price-based procurement or functional APMC (agricultural produce market committee) mandis that farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh take for granted.

AFFORDABLE ELECTRICITY:

  1. The government, the one taking over after the current Assembly elections, can do much more.
  2. Bihar’s rural roads (sadak) have certainly improved in the last two decades.
  3. But this is not so with bijli and paani (electricity and water). These may be available for homes, but not in farms.
  4. Without three-phase power supply, farmers use diesel pumps for irrigation, which is expensive and also leads to poor harnessing of the state’s rich groundwater aquifers.
  5. The next government should focus on affordable electricity not just for LED bulbs and fans, but also to power tube-wells, milking machines and bulk coolers.
  6. Farmers also need markets; dismantling the monopoly APMC mandis does not mean shutting them down.

 

CONCLUSION:

Bihar desperately needs jobs and incomes. Agriculture can create plenty, both on and off farms.

 

 

3) Caste of Crime-

GS 2- Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

 


CONTEXT:

  1. The rape and the subsequent death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras has created a political and ideological struggle in India.
  2. Both the Supreme Court and Allahabad High Court have also taken the matter seriously.
  3. However, the governments in Uttar Pradesh and at the Centre have shown their caste bias.
  4. How does the caste background of a women who gets raped and murdered by men from different caste backgrounds, decide the response of the state?
  5. The answer to this question reveals much about the nature of the Indian state.

 

 

CASTE BIAS:

  1. The Hathras victim is not only a Dalit but also from a very poor background. The alleged rapists are Kshatriya (Rajput or Thakur) village youth.
  2. Since Yogi Adityanath also belongs to the same caste, and has much power concentrated in his hands, the state machinery was quickly galvanised to defend the accused.
  3. The entire effort of the state machinery from top to bottom was to appease Yogi and his community.
  4. The machinery played a proactive role to cover up the crime and wash away the evidence.
  5. The police, civil administration and medical system tried to show that the Dalit woman’s rape was no rape, her murder was no murder.

 

 

 

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

  1. Burning the victim’s corpse at 2.30 am without informing her parents or community leaders is to wipe out the evidence of rape and murder.
  2. Burning the body would burn the evidence forever. The so-called Hindu tradition of burning the dead body was used to wipe out any future risk to the state and the accused in this case.
  3. Look at the other case in Telangana. The woman, who was allegedly raped and murdered, was a Reddy (landed Shudra caste) and a veterinary doctor with a strong base in the local community.
  4. The community responded and moved the state apparatus to punish the alleged rapists with great alacrity(liveliness). The Reddys of Telangana have significant power — the state is headed by a Velama leader, K Chandrasekhar Rao.
  5. The police (the system was not involved here as the alleged rapists burnt the dead body themselves) immediately after the gang rape and murder took an unbelievable step.
  6. What did they do? They just killed the accused in a so-called “encounter”, exactly at the same place where the accused killed her and burnt her body.
  7. The third major gang rape was the Delhi December 2012 case. The Hathras case took place in a small UP village and the other rape happened in Hyderabad city, but the 2012 rape took place in Delhi, the country’s capital.
  8. She was from a Bhumihar (upper caste) family, with an educational background in physiotherapy.
  9. The entire middle-class youth shook up the UPA government after that incident. She was rushed to Singapore for treatment by the state, yet she died.
  10. The Nirbhaya Act was passed and the rapists were hanged, though after a long time. The state fought her case without much hassle(trouble).
  11. These three cases illustrate that the Indian state still operates on the fundamental principle of varna dharma. A Dalit woman’s body and sexuality are of no worth.
  12. A Dalit woman is treated as Dalit by the state, even after rape and murder.

 

CASTE CULTURE DIFFERENCE:

  1. After 70 years of a modern, secular and democratic constitutional government, the character of the responses by the Yogi Adityanath government, the Chandrashekhar Rao government and the Delhi government paint a picture of brazen caste-cultural differences.
  2. The judiciary, police and the medical systems, too, seem to follow the state in this regard.
  3. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath are core leaders of the larger “family” of the RSS and BJP. The PM did not make any policy statement after the series of rapes in the country.
  4. CM Adityanath seems to have commanded the state to operate on varna dharmic lines. Where does the nation go from here?
  5. For the last 95 years (it was founded in 1925), the RSS has been propagating that all castes are part of the larger Hindu fold (which means all castes and cultures are of the same family).
  6. But if we examine the literature and activities of the RSS for the last 95 years, their focus on the protection of women, even what they call Hindu women (all castes), finds much less priority than cow protection.
  7. They have not produced any literature to tell people how they would abolish(end) caste and untouchability.

 

CONCLUSION:

  1. India is being watched by the world on the cultural front as well.
  2. If cultural nationalism is the RSS/BJP’s main agenda, how does the nation get out of the rape culture and how will the RSS bring about human equality is a critical cultural question.