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Hanging Tale of Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s Death Sentence

Nilesh Kunwar
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Hanging Tale of Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s Death Sentence

The Pakistan Army, which always believed that it owned the country is visibly upset today and it has good reasons for this, because what till yesterday was considered to be something unimaginable has actually started happening. The first blow to the army’s unqualified supremacy was dealt by a three-member bench headed by Pakistan’s Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa last month when it struck down the government order granting a three-year service extension to army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa. The second (and much bigger) shocker came just two days ago when a special court found former army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf guilty of ‘high treason’ and sentenced him to death.

That the Pakistan Army would not allow the judiciary to threaten its absolute authority was a foregone conclusion and the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release after Gen. Musharraf’s conviction says as much. In fact, by stating that “…The due legal process seems to have been including constitution of special court, denial of fundamental right of self defence, undertaking individual specific proceedings and concluding the case in haste,” it is apparent that the Pakistan Army has been so rattled by the court judgment that it has acted rather irresponsibly by casting very serious aspersions of judicial negligence and impropriety, which amounts to contempt of court.

Furthermore, by mentioning that “Armed Forces of Pakistan expect that justice will be dispensed in line with Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” the ISPR has on its own determined that the sentence passed by the special court is extrajudicial, which again is outright contempt of court. What makes this statement weirder is that the ISPR has limited the expectation–that justice will be dispensed in line with Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan– to the armed forces of Pakistan only. Doesn’t each and every Pakistani also expect the same?

So, why this unwarranted show of camaraderie, unless ISPR intentionally mentioned this to discreetly convey to the judiciary that it needs to make amends to this verdict as the army is very upset with the sentence awarded to its former chief!

The ISPR’s press release has a hilarious side too. It presupposes that Gen Musharraf “can surely never be a traitor” since he has been an “ex-army chief, Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee and President of Pakistan, who has served the country for over 40 years (and) fought wars for the defence of the country.” Now, if Pakistan Army considers an officer’s rank and service profile as the barometer of his loyalty, then why has a military court awarded life sentence to Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Javed Iqbal Awan for having been involved in espionage activities?

Lt. Gen. Awan’s service profile too is equally impressive. He has been an instructor both in Pakistan Military Academy as well as Command and Staff College and commanded the prestigious Rawalpindi-based 111 Brigade (often referred to as the ‘coup brigade’), an infantry Division and the Bahawalpur Corps. Besides being Colonel Commandant of Frontier Force Regiment, he also held the prestigious appointments of Director General Military Operations (DGMO) at General Headquarters, Rawalpindi. He has the distinction of having attended the US Army War College course in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He too has fought wars for the defence of Pakistan.

So, if Musharraf’s service profile precludes his being a “traitor,” then why hasn’t this same yardstick been applied to Lt. Gen. Awan?

With the army in full control in Pakistan, there’s just no chance that Gen. Musharraf would ever be sent to the gallows. On the contrary, Rawalpindi will go to any extent to ensure that the courts ultimately dismiss the high treason case against their former chief even it amounts to interfering with the judiciary (which is a reality that Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of Islamabad High Court had revealed when he said that “Their (ISI) personnel get benches formed at their will.”

Even Gen. Musharraf has himself admitted during a TV interview that when he was placed on the exit control list, it was the army “pressure” on the government and judiciary that enabled him to leave the country. So there’s no reason to expect that Rawalpindi won’t bail him out yet once again!

Postscript– In his address during the ‘Defence and Martyr’s Day’ ceremony at GHQ Rawalpindi last year, Gen. Bajwa had said, “Democracy cannot blossom without observing the democratic traditions in true spirit and without the strengthening of institutions.” Just last month, during the corps commanders conference held when Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUIF) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was holding a sit-in outside the Federal Capital, the army chief once again reiterated that “Pakistan Army as organ of the state will continue to support national institutions as and when asked as per constitution.”

So, now that the judiciary in Pakistan has refused to toe the army’s line and is dispensing justice purely on merits of the case, what needs to be seen is whether Gen. Bajwa will walk his moral talk about strengthening and supporting institutional integrity!

Algeria Uprising and its Limited Horizon

Taha Lemkhir
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Algeria Uprising and its Limited Horizon

When the Algerian Interior Minister, in a recent televised communique to the nation threatened the protesters who reject the disputed presidential elections,  as, inter alia, “homosexuals” and “abnormal people,” the public were indeed outraged for what they perceived as an unforgivable insult to their dignity. But that reaction, from a different perspective, highlighted how a large swath of the population think in a negative way of homosexuals and other groups with unconventional sexual orientation. Some still uphold that homosexuals deserve no less than capital punishment as the Islamic jurisprudence clearly states. Some schools within the four Sunni schools of Islamic Jurisprudence even specify that homosexuals should be thrown from a high building. A practice carried out faithfully by ISIS within the region it had once controlled in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

The Minister of Interior, Salah Eddine Dahmoune, also made reference in his utterance to what he termed “abnormal people” which, according to the local and regional political discourse, usually refers to secular and “Westernized minds” who are regarded by the mainstream as heretics and outcasts for not endorsing Sharia Law. That statement and the peculiar language it made use of, is not an improvised angry reaction of a regime beginning to lose patience and thus resorting to casting aspersions on dissidents. Instead, it is seemingly a deliberate and conscious move as to convey a message of assurance ‘to whom it may concern’ about the side the regime is actually taking. And with other references through the statement to some influential Islamic ulema, like the Salafist scholar Abdelhamid Ben Badis, instead of Rousseau or Sartre as one might expect from a marked francophone bureaucracy, the Interior Minister steered the regime clear of the camp of La Laïcité (secularism) that once the army was one of its main pillars in the old days following the independence and specifically through the decade-long civil war of the 1990s. That reactionary attitude of the Algerian military regime came last in a series of attacks against plurality and religious freedom, such as the shutdown of an alarming number of churches, and the arrest of “41 people in recent days for waving the flag of the Amazigh community at demonstrations across the country or simply for having it in their possession,” according to a report by Amnesty International.

Algerians with their national flag during a protest earlier this year. (File Photo: Reuters)

However, the minister’s statement, if anything, reflects a deep understanding of Algerian society and its internal dynamics—that has undergone fundamental changes throughout the decades since the independence in 1962–where Islamist ideology and medieval values—which replaced Capital of Marx and the Arab nationalism of the 20th century—now form the main source from where the young population seeks its political meaning, its perception of reality and prospect of the future.

One of the main causes of the repetitive failures of popular uprisings across the MENA (Middle east North Africa) region lies not in the regimes’ ability to manipulate, plot, reorganize their cards and reinstate in place their cronies to preserve power—but essentially in the palpable lack of a mature political vision, a real philosophy of change that has always accompanied the profound and popular movements in modern history. There is an alarming absence of charismatic figures and cultivated leaders who can muster hundreds of thousands and expound in the clearest terms how they envision a future society, its political system, the main socio-political issues revolving around education, women’s status and freedom of conscience and expression, et cetera. And if we imagined ourselves in an Orwellian Farm we would say a rebellion in the absence of boars and porkers. Simply put, there is almost nothing to offer as the society has become intellectually hollowed.

Unlike the iconic figures of the 1960-70s where universities and trade unions were proliferating eloquent orators and well-read speakers along the left-right spectrum, both men and women—today fundamentalism and social conservatism has dashed the individual ability to be creative and innovative in communicating deep ideas and elaborated political messages, and making good use of the visual art through the exhibition of political artworks, thought-provoking posters, and deep-meaning slogans. The main slogans of the uprisings throughout the Arab world remain extremely basic.

42 weeks into the Algerian hirak, or the movement in Arabic, and still hasn’t yet been able to produce such outstanding figures with whom it can exhibit itself to the outside world and have a face-to-face debate with the ruling military junta, thus creating a vacuum to be only capitalized on by the old guard.

Algerians have been taking to the streets qualifying Friday (like their counterparts across the region) as the preferable day for protesting specifically for its religious significance, and to stress practically that the movement is in no way in favour of the jurisprudential concept of separating the Mosque and the State if not reinforcing an already existing formal relationship between the two—as the crowds pour directly from Friday sermons on to the political street. If that was the goal, the regime is all but ready to sacrifice all that remain in his old secular reservoir.

Pakistan’s sinister game to devour occupied territories of J&K

Jaibans Singh
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Pakistan’s sinister game to devour occupied territories of J&K

Raja Farooq Haider Khan, the puppet prime minister of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) recently said that, “I may be the last prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).” AJK is the fallacious name that has been given to such territories of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir that have remained under illegal occupation of Pakistan since India’s independence.

Pakistan cleverly and maliciously divided the occupied territories into two parts to ensure better control. The part contiguous to Poonch and Kashmir Valley, comprising of Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Kotli etc, which had a population of Kashmiris, Sikhs and others was named AJK. The much bigger part comprising of Gilgit and Baltistan, which had a predominant Shia population having affinity with the people of Kargil, was named Northern Areas.

AJK, as the name suggests, was projected by Pakistan as a separate state with its own President and Prime Minister running an autonomous government. In actuality the region was administered by the federal government through a draconian Ministry of Kashmir Affairs which held all financial, judicial and administrative powers. The local administration and its heads were mere puppets. It is not without reason that the AJK government was always from the party that was ruling Pakistan, such is the level of rigging that is carried out during the sham elections. Raja Farooq Haider Khan belongs to the PML(N) which was in power in Pakistan in 2016 when elections were held in this so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Prime Minister Imran Khan is now waiting for an opportunity to dislodge him.

Pakistan has played a very duplicitous and immoral game in the Northern Areas. It made out a case that these people would have an option to decide whether they would like to go with India or with Pakistan or remain independent. Till such time that a decision came by, they would remain under administrative control of Pakistan. So Northern Areas are directly controlled by Pakistan. It treats these areas like a colony and has illegally given away huge areas in the Shaksgam Valley to China and has also built the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) illegally through this area. In recent times Pakistan has been immorally trying to amalgamate the Northern Areas as a sixth Province of the country after renaming it as Gilgit-Baltistan. It has not been able to do so due to massive protests by the people and international pressure built through the diaspora.

Now, it seems that Pakistan has opened a can of worms in this so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) as well. The statement made by the puppet prime minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan gives an indication of plans being afoot to devour this region also. Another indicator that things are not well came in the form of a notification by the puppet government of AJK in which the AJK Management Board has been renamed as J&K Administrative Service. The PM has asked for immediate withdrawal of notification and issue of apology, but the damage has already been done.

The result is widespread panic in the region. Opposition leaders in so-called AJK have asked for clarification from the puppet prime minister and transparency in whatever happens further. Latif Akbar, leader of the Pakistan People’s Party that is presently in opposition has said that the statement of the prime minister was, “poisonous for the entire Kashmiri Nation,” since it would lead to a permanent division of the region and would amount to treachery by Pakistan with the people of Kashmir who have made many sacrifices for the cause. Latif also demanded that the Prime Minister convene an All Party Conference (APC) to address the development and discuss counter measures.

The panic reaction of the locals is quite understandable since such a move will strip the region of its very identity, however fragile it may be. There have been protests but the same have been brutally suppressed by the Pakistan Army. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of the Pakistan Army continues to have an iron grip on the affairs in the region. 

PM Imran Khan has been under pressure to act against India. Not many are satisfied with his measures and have started raising questions. This could well be his method to remove the heat from himself.

Strategic experts in India have also expressed concern since the move comes across as a tit-for-tat measure to counter India’s very righteous and constitutional reorganisation of its state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. Experts are of the view that the Pakistan Army Chief, Gen. Qamar Bajwa, wishes to gain complete legislative control of the occupied territories and then convert the Line of Control (LOC) into a permanent border. Such a move will put restrictions on Indian military action across the LOC since it would amount to breaching the sovereignty of the neighbouring country. He will, however, continue with nefarious terrorist activities and Proxy War against India as before. In other words, Pakistan fears the possibility of getting into an open conflict with India which may entail some strategic setbacks for the country and also loss of face, something that it’s grappling with after the Uri Surgical strike and the Balakot Air Strike.

India is quite clear that the occupied territories are an unfinished agenda of the partition and they have to be taken back at the earliest. India’s determination is reflected by the map that the country has issued after the creation of two regional Union Territories. The map shows POK areas with the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan with the Union Territory of Ladakh. “POK is part of India and we expect one day we will have physical jurisdiction over it,” is an emphatic statement recently made by the Indian Union Minister for External Affairs, Dr. S. Jaishankar.

Pakistan is already facing huge financial, political and internal security challenges. Its beleaguered government is in no position to play dubious games in the occupied territories. The backlash may be such that the government is unable to control. I hope that better sense will prevail before it’s too late for them.

NCLAT restores Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of Tata Group

News Intervention Bureau
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NCLAT restores Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of Tata Group

In a big decision with major ramifications to the Tata Group, the former ousted executive chairman of the Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry has been reinstated to the post by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday. The NCLAT has ruled that the appointment of N Chandrasekaran, the current chairman, was illegal.

The decision also throws questions on the company’s corporate governance standards.

However the Tatas would get four weeks to file an appeal. Mistry’s reinstatement will kick in only after four weeks.

Mistry, who took over as the sixth chairman of Tata Sons after Ratan Tata, was removed all of a sudden in October 2016.

Since then the two have been entangled in a legal battle. 

Balochistan Massacre: When world doesn’t care about human rights violations

Nilesh Kunwar
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Balochistan Massacre: When world doesn’t care about human rights violations

On December 9, Pakistani security forces set free four Balochi women whom they had picked up from their homes in Awaran district on November 30. But the real reason behind this release wasn’t compassion or magnanimity by the government of Pakistan on the eve of International Human Rights Day 2019. It was only because Sardar Akhtar Mengal, the chief of Balochistan National Party (Mengal) that is a coalition partner of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, had personally intervened and sent out an unambiguous warning that “We do not see the point of being a partner of this government if it refuses to address our genuine concerns.”

These four women were indeed very lucky because Balochistan is infamous for what Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organisation (UNPO) refers to Pakistan’s “kill and dump” policy and this traumatising phrase is no exaggeration. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)-2013 report states that there are “credible reports of continued serious human rights violations, including (enforced) disappearances of people, arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings.” The same things are echoed in Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2019 on Pakistan, which observes that “During counter-terrorism operations, Pakistani security forces often are responsible for serious human rights violations including torture, enforced disappearances, detention without charge, and extrajudicial killings, according to Pakistan human rights defenders and defense lawyers.”

Unfortunately, human rights violations by Pakistani security forces and law enforcement agencies operating in Balochistan are neither rare aberrations nor restricted to lower echelons within the establishment. Au contraire, the 2019 HRW report notes that “counter-terrorism laws also continue to be misused as an instrument of political coercion. Authorities do not allow independent monitoring of trials in military courts and many defendants are denied the right to a fair trial.” The report presents a harrowing picture by stating that “…From the public point of view, enforced disappearances is still the biggest issue in Balochistan. Incidents of disappearance continue unabated and, in most cases, victims’ families are afraid of communicating their cases to the authorities. The fact that Dr Abdul Malik Baloch who was the Chief Minister of Balochistan from 2013 to 2015 has gone on record to say that “When the army is attacked, it will hit back,” just goes to prove how formidable and vengeful Pakistan’s deep state is!

Another insight into how well entrenched and institutionalised human rights violations are in Balochistan can be gauged from HRW’s Pakistan report 2011. In it there is a mention of 76 year old Secretary General of the Baloch Republican Party Bashir Azeem who during his “unacknowledged detention” was told by a Pakistani official that, “Even if the President or Chief Justice tells us to release you, we won’t. We can torture you, or kill you, or keep you for years at our will. It is only the Army Chief and the (ISI) Chief that we obey!” This report also notes that “These (enforced) disappearances take place in a province in which armed militants, particularly Baloch nationalist armed groups, have attacked security forces and military bases throughout the province” and this makes it evident that Pakistan Army is using the strategy of ‘enforced disappearances’ both to deter attacks and as an institutionalised form of vendetta!

Baloch women protest against the "kill and dump" policy of Pakistan Army.
Baloch women protest against the “kill and dump” policy of Pakistan Army.

One of the most disturbing instances of ‘enforced disappearance’ came to light in January 2014 when a shepherd stumbled upon a mass grave in Totak area of Khuzdar district in Balochistan, which according to media reports contained about 100 dead bodies. The judicial inquiry that probed this case not only gave the Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies a clean chit but also failed to identify the killers. The pathetic part is that instead of displaying investigative and deductive skills, the judicial inquiry admitted that it had arrived at its conclusion just because “No one has recorded any statement against the armed forces and security agencies.” No wonder Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Chairperson Ms. Zohra Yusuf told reporters that “The government has also not allowed the HRCP mission to visit the site, despite several written and verbal requests” and attacked the government by calling this “just another” judicial report. Eight years have gone by, but the perpetrators who murdered the Balochis whose remains were found in the mass grave have not yet been identified and the reason is not hard to guess!

A report published by BBC News in 2016 contains shocking data of ‘kill and dump’ incidents. A few of these are:

  • Pakistan’s Federal Ministry of Human Rights has confirmed that at least 936 dead bodies have been found in Balochistan since 2011.
  • The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) has recorded 1,200 cases of “dumped bodies,” but this list is not exhaustive as it does not include people who have been victims of ‘enforced disappearances” and whose remains haven’t yet been found.
  • A political activist named Jalil Reki, who lived in the Saryab neighbourhood of Quetta was arrested from his residence in 2009. No one knew where he was taken but two years later, his bullet ridden body with fractured arms and cigarette burns on his back were found in Mand area (near the Iranian border) which is at a distance of more than 1000 km from Quetta (from where he was arrested)!

Balochistan has been bleeding continuously for the last seven decades but the world doesn’t seem to have either the time or inclination to do something to ameliorate the sufferings of its oppressed people who are hapless victims of state-sponsored terrorism. By resorting to aerial bombardment of Balochi settlements, the Pakistan Army has declared an all-out war against its own people while its complicity in orchestrating ‘enforced disappearances’ and active pursuance of the ‘kill and dump’ policy is in gross violation of human rights and international law.

The mission statement of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is “to work for the protection of all human rights for all people” and while doing so, “give priority to addressing the most pressing human rights violations, both acute and chronic, particularly those that put life in imminent peril.” So, any further inaction on the part of the international community in forcing Pakistan Army to end atrocities on innocent civilians in Balochistan will only make the OHCHR defunct! The whole world accepts that instances of ‘enforced disappearances’ as well as ‘kill and dump’ cases are common place in Balochistan, but yet, these unspeakable atrocities have failed to stir the collective conscience of the international community and this is shameful.

How many more people must die in Balochistan before the OHCHR wakes up to this humungous human tragedy?

Postscript- In his tweet to the ‘umma’ (entire Muslim community), Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote “On international Human Rights Day, Muslims need to remember that the message of equality, justice & protection of human rights for all was given more than 1,400 years ago by our Prophet (PBUH).” Whereas this reminder is a very noble gesture, but the question everyone would like to ask PM Imran Khan is, “In Balochistan, when will the Pakistan Army start following the message of justice and protection of human rights given by the Prophet (PBUH)?

Balochistan needs to fight Pakistan with collective force: Dr. Allah Nazar

News Intervention Bureau
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Balochistan needs to fight Pakistan with collective force: Dr. Allah Nazar


Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch, pro-independence leader of Balochistan, has condemned the kidnapping of Baloch women from Quetta and said that the occupying state of Pakistan is targeting the Baloch women after facing defeat at the hands of Baloch freedom fighters. “Pakistan is committing war crimes in broad daylight and before the eyes of the world. We do not ask our enemy to release the freedom fighters and political workers, but we have always said that the world should bind Pakistan to respect the laws of war. We have repeatedly appealed to the world to force Pakistan to abide by the laws of war, but in return, we are getting our women, children and the elderly abducted and killed by Pakistan’s armed forces,” Dr Allah Nazar Baloch said in a statement. 

He further added, “The kidnapping and disappearance of women, little children and the Baloch elderly from Quetta is a clear sign of the continuation of the collective punishment policy by Pakistan through guns which shows its utter disregard for international laws of war.” Dr Allah Nazar further explained: “When we talk of any law, it should not be limited to the creation of the law, but it is the creators’ responsibility to enforce it. Similarly, when we talk of war laws or United Nations’ conventions, it is the UN’s responsibility to bind the signatories to enforce those laws. But surprisingly, the international community with regard to Pakistan, including the United Nations, is clearly oblivious of its duties, which is costing the Baloch people with their lives, livelihood and honor.” He added that under the policy of collective punishment, not only women from different areas are taken away from their homes but they also suffer the torture at secret prisons for a long time. Occasionally a few are released, and in most cases, they are kept as prisoners forever.

Seven year old Amin (son of Haji Dost Ali Bugti), Izzaton Bibi (daughter of Malha Bugti), Murad Khatoon (daughter of Nizgho Bugti), Mahnaz Bibi (daughter of Fareed Bugti), 60-year-old Haji Dost Ali (son of Malook Bugti) and 80-year-old Farid Bugti were abducted and their only crime was that they were Baloch. “Being a Baloch is a crime punishable by death and torture in Pakistani military camps according to the constitution of Pakistan. Sadly we use the term “missing person” while knowing clearly where the people really are. We have to stop using such words. Because all people with brains have no doubt that they are imprisoned in the illegal slaughterhouses of the Pakistani Army. And only those people can know what they are enduring in those dungeons,” the statement from Dr Allah Nazar reads further.

He asserted, “The kidnapping of women and children is a policy of collective punishment. Under this policy Pakistan is trying to crush the Baloch national movement forever by destroying the Baloch nation. Thousands of Baloch have gone missing in the hands of Pakistan and thousands have already been martyred. Women, children and the unarmed people are protected under every law of the world in any situation. But Pakistan is an unnatural state which is based on lies. That is why the Baloch have to fight against the brutality of Pakistan with collective force.”

Dr Allah Nazar Baloch’s statement further adds: “Pakistan neither has its own culture nor any specific identity. Also till date we have not seen any historical or any great personality in Pakistan who has supported the truth against its state policies. Ironically, whom they call a great leader was a salaried professional lawyer of the Baloch state who deceived his client and issued a decree to occupy Balochistan. It is merely wishful thinking to hope for justice from such a state. It is the responsibility of the international community to take practical steps to keep Pakistan at bay from committing obvious war crimes in Balochistan.” 

National Broadband Mission launched; All villages in the country will be covered by 2022

News Intervention Bureau
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National Broadband Mission launched; All villages in the country will be covered by 2022

The Minister for Communications, Law & Justice and Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that the National Broadband Mission is to fulfill all aspirations of the people and enables fast track growth of digital communication infrastructure. He was addressing the gathering after launching the National Broadband Mission (NBM). The Minister of State for Communications, Human Resources Development and Electronics & Information Technology, Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, the Secretary (Telecom), Anshu Prakash and other senior officials were present on the occasion. A large number of representatives from the telecom industry, officers from various Ministries of the Government of India, various State Governments and senior officers of the Department of Telecommunications participated in the event.

Ravi Shankar Prasad also launched the Logo of the NBM, and a  Booklet on this occasion.

The vision of the NBM is to fast track growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide, facilitate digital empowerment and inclusion and provide affordable and universal access of broadband for all. Some of the objectives of the Mission which is structured with strong emphasis on the three principles of universality, affordability and quality are:

  • Broadband access to all villages by 2022
  • Facilitate universal and equitable access to broadband services for across the country and especially in rural and remote areas
  • Laying of incremental 30 lakhs route km of Optical Fiber Cable and increase in tower density from 0.42 to 1.0 tower per thousand of population by 2024
  • Significantly improve quality of services for mobile and internet
  • Develop innovative implementation models for Right of Way (RoW) and to work with States/UTs for having consistent policies pertaining to expansion of digital infrastructure including for RoW approvals required for laying of OFC
  • Develop a Broadband Readiness Index (BRI) to measure the availability of digital communications infrastructure and conducive policy ecosystem within a State/UT.
  • Creation of a digital fiber map of the Digital Communications network and infrastructure, including Optical Fiber Cables and Towers, across the country
  • Investment from stakeholders of USD 100 billion (Rs 7 Lakh Crore) including Rs 70,000 crore from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)
  • Address policy and regulatory changes required to accelerate the expansion and creation of digital infrastructure and services
  • Work with all stakeholders including the concerned Ministries / Departments/ Agencies, and Ministry of Finance, for enabling investments for the Mission

Veteran actor Shriram Lagoo passes away at 92

News Intervention Bureau
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Veteran actor Shriram Lagoo passes away at 92

Versatile actor and one of the biggest faces of the Marathi theatre Shriram Lagoo passed away on Tuesday in Pune. He acted in over 200 films including Hindi and Marathi films as well as Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati plays, and directed over 20 Marathi plays. He was considered one of greatest actors of Marathi stage during the second half of twentieth century. He was also very vocal and active in furthering progressive and rational social causes.

Shriram Lagoo was born in Satara district, Maharashtra to Balakrishna Chintaman Lagoo and Satyabhama Lagoo, and was the eldest of four children. After receiving a degree in medicines from the University of Mumbai in the fifties, Lagoo practiced as a doctor for some years before totally devoting his life to plays and films.  Infact he started acting in plays while attending the Medical College. Once bitten by theatre bug, he continued his dramatic activity through a group “Progressive Dramatic Association”, which he started with like-minded senior friends like Bhalba Kelkar.

He started his career as actor in films with projects like Aahat, Pinjra, Mere Saath Chal and Samna. These films released in the early seventies but made filmmakers realise Lagoo’s talent as a character artist. During the eighties and nineties, he became a very familiar face for the viewers of Hindi and Marathi cinema as he acted in more than five dozen films during this period. He started taking up less projects after 1990 but was very active on the theatre front.

He earned many awards during his long career. In 1978, he received Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his work in Gharaonda. He was also a recipient of the Kalidas Samman in 1997. He was given the Master Dinanath Mangeshkar Smruti Pratisthan in 2006. He was given the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2010.

Dr. Lagoo also wrote a book, an autobiography titled Lamaan, which means “the carrier of goods”.

Philosophical and Historical Foundations of American Secularism 14 – Constitutionally Wrought Freethought

Scott Douglas Jacobsen
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Philosophical and Historical Foundations of American Secularism 14 – Constitutionally Wrought Freethought

Dr. Herb Silverman is the Founder of the Secular Coalition for America, the Founder of the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, and the Founder of the Atheist/Humanist Alliance student group at the College of Charleston. He authored Complex variables (1975), Candidate Without a Prayer: An Autobiography of a Jewish Atheist in the Bible Belt (2012) and An Atheist Stranger in a Strange Religious Land: Selected Writings from the Bible Belt (2017). He co-authored The Fundamentals of Extremism: The Christian Right in America (2003) with Kimberley Blaker and Edward S. Buckner, Complex Variables with Applications (2007) with Saminathan Ponnusamy, and Short Reflections on Secularism (2019).

Here we talk about the American Constitution.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When we look at the well-made human document called the American Constitution, some questions arise for the freethought community, potentially, or, at least, some in it. What parts before amendments best exemplify freethought and secularism? What amendments improve upon the original document in terms of the specific content of secularism and the freethinking ability of individual citizens?

Dr. Herb Silverman: The framers of the United States Constitution wanted no part of the religious intolerance, holy wars, and bloodshed they saw in Europe. In declaring independence from England, Americans also rejected the claim by kings, crowned by bishops, that they had been vested with a God-given authority to rule through “divine right.”

The U.S. framers wisely established the first government in history to separate religion and government. They formed a secularnation whose authority rests with “We the People” (the first three words of the U.S. Constitution) and not with “Thou the Deity.” They created a Constitution in which the government acknowledged no gods, the better to ensure freedom of conscience. We the people are free to worship one, many, or no gods. As Thomas Jefferson said, “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

There are only two references to religion in the U.S. Constitution, and both are exclusionary. One is in Article 6: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” I know Article 6 quite well. When I discovered in 1990 that our South Carolina state constitution prohibited atheists from holding public office, an obvious violation of Article 6, I challenged that provision in the state constitution by running for governor as “the candidate without a prayer.” In 1997 I won a unanimous decision in the South Carolina Supreme Court, invalidating the unconstitutional provision and recognizing that atheists have the right to hold public office in South Carolina.

The other exclusionary mention of religion is in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This guarantees the right to practice any religion or no religion. The federal government cannot favor one religion over another, or believers over non-believers. No one’s religious liberty is threatened when the wall of separation between religion and government is kept strong.

As wonderful as the U.S. Constitution is, no American would call it an infallible document, as some claim about the Bible. The framers understood the need for future changes in the Constitution, and set forth mechanisms for change through amendments. Scientific and humanistic advances make it desirable to incorporate new information and adjust our worldview and behavior. The Constitution condoned slavery until the 13th Amendment ended it in 1865. Women were not granted the right to vote until 1920 when the 19th Amendment passed. On the other hand, the unamended Bible written by misogynistic men condones slavery. You will also not find any support in the Bible for respecting people who have different or no religious beliefs.

While the U.S. federal government was never considered to be a Christian nation, initially there was no prohibition against states establishing their own state churches. Some early state constitutions limited public office to Christians—or even to the correct Christian denomination. Such provisions represented a more intolerant time in our history. States with government-favored religions gradually began moving toward separating religion and government. The 14th Amendment, passed in 1868, ended state-sponsored religion.

Those who claim the United States is a Christian nation need to read the Constitution. You will not find the words Christian, Jesus, or God in it. Our framers were careful and thoughtful writers. Had they wanted a Christian nation, it seems highly unlikely that they would somehow have forgotten to include their Christian intentions in the supreme law of the land. In 1797, the Treaty of Tripoli was ratified unanimously by the United States Senate. This trade treaty stated in part: “The government of the United States is notin any sense founded on the Christian religion.” I wonder what part of “not” those who believe we are a Christian nation don’t understand.

Nevertheless, Christian-nation advocates continually try chipping away the “secular,” often with symbols like “In God We Trust” and “One Nation Under God.” They also try to legislate the posting of the Ten Commandments on public buildings. Most Americans believe that the Ten Commandments are among the finest guidelines for a virtuous life. Interestingly, hardly anyone can actually state them all. So I will, along with my commentary.

The First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” conflicts with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion—the right to worship one, several, or no gods. The next three Commandments (no graven images, not taking God’s name in vain, keeping the Sabbath day holy) refer to specific kinds of worship directed toward a God who punishes several generations of children if their fathers do not worship appropriately. These first four commandments are religious edicts that have nothing to do with moral or ethical behavior. They describe how to worship and pay homage to a jealous and vindictive God.

The Fifth Commandment, about honoring parents, should not be so unconditional as to condone child abuse. There is no commandment about parents honoring their children or treating them humanely. 

The next four commandments (proscriptions against murder, adultery, stealing, and lying) obviously have merit, and existed in cultures long before these commandments appeared in Exodus 20. Yet even these are open to interpretation. Is abortion murder? What about euthanasia? War? Capital punishment? Reasonable people can disagree and respect other opinions, unless convinced they are acting as God’s messenger.

The Tenth Commandment, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, wife, slaves, ox, donkey, or any other property,” condones slavery and treating women as property.

The Ten Commandments, meant to be the cornerstone of an ethical and moral life, are notable for what they omit. Why not condemn slavery, racism, sexual assault, child and spouse abuse, and torture? Most people could come up with a better set of rules to live by.

I propose a simple solution that both honors our democratic principles and reminds us of the curbs on governmental abuse of power. Why don’t we display our American Bill of Rights on public buildings? We would still be posting ten, and we Americans can all support and celebrate these ten. Or can we?

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Silverman.

Photo by John Bakator on Unsplash

Bangladesh Liberation: Let’s travel again on Jessore Road

Shantanu Guha Ray
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Bangladesh Liberation: Let’s travel again on Jessore Road

Mohan Guruswamy, fondly called India’s Benjamin Button, reminded India it is time the nation celebrates its greatest military victory after World WarII – the war against Pakistan in 1971 and the birth of Bangladesh.

Guruswamy wrote on December 16, 2019, on Facebook, around the time boisterous students took to streets across India to fight cops and protest against what many claim is the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). he said India lost an estimated 3400 soldiers, and another 4,000 were wounded in the war against Pakistan. India took 93,000 prisoners, very few know that the rifle and bayonet at the Amar Jawan memorial – many call it the India Gate memorial – in the heart of the Indian Capital belong to an unknown Indian soldier who died in Jessore town that lies close to the Bangladesh border in Bengal. It was 48 years ago, India under Indira Gandhi displayed courage and defied both Washington – then ruled by US President Richard M Nixon and the UN – and led India to its greatest victory in less than a fortnight. Atal Behari Vajpayee called her a Durga, the ten hand goddess who rides a tiger and slays demons. Strangely, very few in India remember Vijay Diwas. At an internal class XII examination in the Indian Capital, students drew blank — nearly 98% in the class — when asked about Vijay Diwas.

Several thousands of people were displaced across Bangladesh before the Indo-Pak war started on December 3, 1971.

And now, Anam Zakaria’s brilliantly researched book, appropriately titled 1971, has hit the stands and offers a great opportunity for many to revisit those days of blood, horror and death, mostly in the country’s eastern sector. The book will help Indians understand how the war was fought and eventually won. Zakaria writes how Indian soldiers fought a two-front conventional military engagement under the leadership of the redoubtable Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. And let’s not forget, reminds Zakaria, how Manekshaw staved off repeated demands for an immediate war in early 1971 despite the situation turning very, very tense and grim in East Pakistan. The big boss of the Indian Army reminded politicians of his demand for more cash for defence and argued a war in the summer of April and May will destroy all standing wheat crop in Western India and the nation could plunge into a food crisis and that a war in June-August would cause trouble for moving troops due to floods in Eastern India and East Pakistan. The war finally broke out on December 3, 1971.

People from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) fleeing away from their homes to escape the atrocities committed by Pakistan Army.

Manekshaw’s restraint worked, the book explains how, India gained both tactical advantage and was able to explain to the world the situation in East Pakistan where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the current Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina Wajed, was illegally denied his electoral victory in 1970 by Pakistan’s ruling coterie influenced by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Thanks to interviews Zakaria conducted with witnesses and victims, the book explains how the crisis hit a point of no return in March 1971. The Pakistan Army unleashed a reign of terror on the hapless Bengalis, an estimated one million crossed over to Bengal. The eventual figure is over 10 million, the influx denting the economy of the state beyond control.

I remembered having read a British Broadcasting Corporation report on an article that was published on June 13, 1971 in UK’s Sunday Times exposing the brutality of the Pakistani Army in East Pakistan. The Sunday Times copy – written by Anthony Mascarenhas – was described by the BBC as one of the most influential pieces of South Asian journalism of the past half century. The Bangladesh government says an estimated three million lost their lives. And there’s little doubt, claimed the BBC,  that Mascarenhas’ reportage played its part in ending the war, helped turn world opinion against Pakistan and encouraged India to play a decisive role.

Pakistan’s Lt. Gen. Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi (right) surrenders to India after losing the 1971 Indo-Pak War. Lt Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora (left) received command of entire Pakistan’s Armed Forces in Bangladesh.

Zakaria’s book needs to be read in the same perspective because she travelled both to Lahore and Dhaka to understand the impact of the war. This is a brilliant effort, unlike those who write it from the eyes of either Dhaka or Islamabad and mess up the whole narrative. I liked the chapter when Zakaria brilliantly interviews students and asks them about the war and those deaths. All remembered, it seemed (to me) many wanted to move on in life because the war was nearly five decades old and that some were . Some in Bangladesh even discussed cricket and blamed India for being arrogant, and denying Bangladesh waters of the Teesta river. Some even blamed India (read BCCI) for not allowing Indian cricketers play in the Bangladesh cricket leagues. Time and again in the book the author displayed her grasp over the subject, I have a feeling it helped her because she was born and groomed in Lahore and understood the sensitivities of the people of Pakistan and Bangladesh. 

Zakaria worked like a very good reporter.

Many Zakaria interviewed for the book admitted that the conflict was sparked by elections, which were won by the Awami League, an East Pakistani party, which wanted greater autonomy for the region. The book also highlights a very important fact: That many Bengalis were convinced that West Pakistan was deliberately blocking their ambitions. The Army launched a pre-emptive strike against the Awami League on March 25, 1971. Some of the supporters of the Awami League, the country’s intelligentsia and the Hindu community – it made up about 20 percent of the province’s 75 million people – were also targeted.

One of the fascinating chapters of the book is the one titled Pakistan’s War where the author combines grit, determination and knowledge to pen reactions of those who followed the war as civilians and also members of the Pakistani army. For an author it’s important to dig. I liked her interview with an army major who said something interesting, and something that flows much against the tide. That the first fireworks started when the Mukti Bahini opened fire on the soldiers from the Jagannath Hall of the Dhaka University and then, in retaliation, the soldiers opened fire which was “excessive”. And then, the retired major told Zakaria: “The firing had to be excessive under those circumstances.” 

If the book is about war, both sides must find mention. 

I think it would be a great project if Zakaria travels through the Jessore road once again and reaches the crowded Bangladesh city. She could do a great film on what could be called The Journey In Reverse. Let this book be a standard manual in all Indian universities. All we need is to get some Vice Chancellors push their pens and open files so that the students can also read this very, very brilliant book.

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