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Transgender Welfare Board formed in Maharashtra

To ensure better educational and skill development opportunities for third gender, the Maharashtra government has formed a Transgender Welfare Board in the state.  The Board will provide formal education, employment opportunities, conduct health programmes and give legal help to the community. Maharashtra Social Justice Minister Rajkumar Badole recently held a meeting in Mantralaya for the setting up of the transgender welfare board.  

Badole said transgenders are neglected in society and there were misunderstandings pertaining to the community among people. “Hence, they are discriminated against. This keeps the community away from the development process. The state government has accepted guardianship of this community and we will protect their rights,” Badole said.

“We have set up the transgender welfare board which will take effective measures for the upliftment of the community and allow them to live with respect in society,” he said.

He said the TWB will give members of the community identity cards which will help them obtain education, adding that they would be given scholarships for Class X exams.

The board would implement skill development programmes to help educated transgenders get jobs, he said.

JKLF Chief Yaseen Malik detained ahead of a crucial hearing on Article 35-A in SC

Kashmiri separatist leader and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chief Yaseen Malik was detained by the police on Friday night. It is reported that he has been taken to the Kothibagh Police Station.

Amid indications of a wider crackdown on separatists in Jammu and Kashmir, Police and paramilitary forces have been put on high alert. The action comes eight days after a suicide attack by a Pakistan trained Kashmiri terrorist on a convoy in Pulwama district in which 40 CRPF personnel lost their lives.

Malik’s detention comes ahead of a crucial hearing on Article 35-A in Supreme Court which is likely to take place on Monday (February 25). The article, incorporated into the Indian Constitution in 1954, grants special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir.

It’s high time India reviews the discriminatory Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan

The heavily lopsided Indus Water Treaty (IWT) favours Pakistan by allowing it to use 80.52% water from the Indus basin while India gets a meagre 19.48% river waters. It’s time to renegotiate this treaty.

Our recalcitrant western neighbour Pakistan  is no ordinary nation state and its abnormal behaviour is a trait too deeply entrenched. It is every sense of the word an abnormal phenomenon and all attempts to deal with it in normal manner have failed. The abnormalities in Pakistan’s behaviour and conduct springs from its thought that people like Maulana Masood Azhar of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) are assets, and not a serious liability for the country. Assets useful against India, and the assets which give it a weightage beyond conventional means.

JeM had masterminded the attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 giving a serious setback to any progress in bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan. It was also behind the Uri attack and the most recent Pulwama attack. 

Unfortunately, these terrorist attacks together have now come to define the Indo-Pak relations. For some time in the foreseeable future too, these attacks will remain the touchstone of Pakistan’s behaviour towards us.

Pakistan has consistently behaved in very obnoxious ways vis-a-vis India and we have condoned it too often. The attack in Pulwama on February 14, 2019, has finally led us to change our behaviour and treat it differently. The ramifications of the Pulwama attack will be far and wide. The time is here and now we need to treat it as an abnormal entity and calibrate our response accordingly.

Pakistan is in dire straits economically and is barely able to keep itself afloat on borrowed money. It bears mention here that its economy is basically agrarian and provides sustenance to a large section of its population in Punjab as also Sindh, two of its main provinces. Its dependence on agriculture is presently more than ever before.

It is here that Indus Water Treaty (IWT) signed in September 1960 can come in handy for pursuing Indian interests. It bears mention here that under this treaty, brokered by the World Bank, India gets only 19.48% of the Indus basin waters and 80.52% are given to Pakistan as its share.

On the face of it, Indus Water Treaty (IWT) appears as a treaty heavily loaded in favour of Pakistan and yet India has honoured it diligently all these years. Despite this obvious fact, it is often that Pakistan makes noises about India violating this unequal treaty.

It is a treaty which needs to be negotiated afresh with Pakistan, and India should pitch for a larger share of the waters of the Indus basin rivers. Times have changed and this treaty needs to be reopened for a more equitable distribution of these waters. All these years since 1960, when it was signed, the treaty clauses have remained static. The demand of new dynamics of bilateral relations and changing realities is that this treaty should be considered dynamic.

Incidentally, there is no provision in the IWT for its unilateral scrapping, either by India or Pakistan. Keeping that in mind, it is imperative that the World Bank be asked for its intervention to renegotiate it. Since India is committed to a global order, and is a responsible member of the global community, it should not do anything regarding the IWT unilaterally.

India needs to carefully evaluate the emerging international order, existing international law and see how Pakistan can be brought to table for its renegotiations. It can be expected that Pakistan will try its best to stall renegotiations of the treaty since it is overwhelming in its favour. But that should not deter us from repeatedly asking for it to be renegotiated.

During past few months, the Central government has allocated funds for better utilisation of the waters of River Ravi. This will become possible by taking up the stalled Shahpur Kandi Project. It has also taken steps to ensure that over 530 million acre feet (MAF) waters of the Ujh river are diverted and stopped from going to Pakistan. These two projects, together, are going to reduce the flow of waters to Pakistan’s Punjab province which lie south of Rivers Ravi and Ujh. Under the Indus Water Treaty, these rivers have been allocated for use by India and for the last seven decades their waters were going to Pakistan because we were unable to build enough storage capacity.

Dredging of the Wullar lake to restore it to the size it had in September 1960 is something that doesn’t constitute any breach of the IWT and that needs to be taken up on priority. On August 27, 2012, terrorists had attacked the lake dredging site at Adipora village. This led to the project being stalled and there were hardly any attempts to revive it after that.

This dredging will be hugely beneficial to India and help in what is being referred to as the Tulbul navigation project. Besides, dredging will also augment the holding capacity of the lake and improve the water discharge in Jhelum river during lean winter periods that can help generation of power in Uri-I and Uri-II projects. This is a project that needs to be taken up on top priority and pushed ahead, regardless of opposition by Pakistan. Of course, other than Pakistan, its lackeys in the Kashmir Valley can also be expected to make noises in its support.

Kashmir is not a soldier’s battleground alone

India needs a coherent Pakistan policy to strengthen response by our armed forces at the tactical, operational and strategic levels.

The dastardly suicide attack by a Jaish-e-Mohammad trained Kashmiri terrorist in Pulwama that killed 40 CRPF personnel has once again made us realise the presence of a terrorist state in the neighborhood. In less than 24-hours after this gruesome attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Indian Army has been given a ‘free hand’ to decide the place and time of retribution. His announcement has been widely interpreted as a tough stance against Pakistan and a precursor of ‘big’ steps that India will take in the near future to give a befitting reply to Pakistan. However, it remains unclear how army would be able to effectively exercise a ‘free hand’, in the absence of a coherent policy to deal with our hostile neighbor that is fuelling terrorism in Kashmir?

The series of attacks by Pak-trained terrorists during the last two years and their modus operandi signifies the revival of what was taking place in the 1990s. The deadly decade of 90s saw large scale recruitment of local youths by Pakistani terror groups to be used as frontline fighters. A similar trend could be seen emerging during the last four years. However, New Delhi’s response to it remained less than what was required — in substance and in intensity. What further weakened government’s response to Pakistan’s activities in Kashmir was the incompatible alliance with PDP, which somehow managed to continue for three years and lasted till June 2018. During this period there was a spurt in infiltration across border, and ceasefire violations, attacks and terror funding continued unabated. There was a visible rise in radicalisation and local recruitment in the Valley by Pakistan based terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

A major deficiency in India’s approach towards Pakistan has been the conspicuous absence of a coherent Pakistan policy, while, our hostile neighbour has a major policy advantage when it comes to Kashmir. Pakistan’s policy towards India has been to keep India involved with low-intensity conflict in the Kashmir Valley and destabalise the region by deliberately fuelling insurgency and terrorism. Pakistan not only has a policy in place, it has also developed and activated a sinister network of terror groups to put in action this policy. For this, Islamabad has used Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) as a launch pad to wage a proxy war against India. It is sustained by providing weapons and financial assistance to locally recruited terrorists and by stoking anti-India sentiments among the people through false propaganda. Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI provides financial and other support to separatist leaders in Kashmir, to ensure they carry on anti-India propaganda in the country, thus making Kashmir valley an ideal hunting ground for pro-Pakistan outfits looking to recruit potential terrorists.

During the last four years, we could never optimally utilize our diplomatic, administrative and armed machinery for a focused policy objective towards the enemy state. From the surprise landing of PM Modi in Lahore, and allowing a Pakistani investigating team to visit the Pathankot air base to Uri terror attack and the subsequent much-hyped and politicized surgical strikes – ‘weakness’ of India’s approach towards Pakistan was glaringly visible. With the Pulwama attack India has learnt the hard lesson and it’s high time an actionable policy is put in place to deal with Pakistan at tactical, operational and strategic levels.

First and foremost India needs to strengthen its intelligence network, inter-agency coordination, as well as timeliness and credibility of its intelligence inputs. Pulwama attack is a major intelligence failure, something which India can’t afford to repeat. The policy should also spell out what to do with Pakistan during peace time and in case of a terror attack, thus an effective crisis management plan is required and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) be developed. Diplomatically, India needs to strengthen relations with like-minded countries on the issue of terrorism, and build pressure globally to declare Pakistan a terrorist state, as it supports international terrorism strategically and systematically. An important part of the policy should be multi-pronged engagement with Kashmiris and discrediting in a sustained manner the propaganda of separatists and pro-Pakistan activists and a section of media in Kashmir and the rest of India.

Our armed forces will be able to exercise their ‘free hand’ more swiftly and strategically, if backed by a strong policy and action plan, which will eventually ensure that India “speaks to Pakistan in the language it understood”.

Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi’s AAP govt in a fix over OP Chautala’s remission plea

OP Chautala’s release plea is a classic case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t for the Delhi’s AAP government. Political analysts believe that whether Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP recommends release, or the detention of OP Chautala, there will always be a political risk to AAP-JJP alliance in the state of Haryana.

Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s application in the Delhi High Court for his early release from jail has put the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a dilemma. OP Chautala, 83, who is serving a 10-year jail term in Haryana’s JBT (junior basic trained) Teachers’ Recruitment Scam along with his elder son Ajay Singh Chautala and 53 others, had approached the Delhi High Court on February 19, 2019 to seek directions for his release from prison in accordance with the Union government’s remission policy of July 18, 2018. This policy giving special remission to certain categories. While hearing this case, the Delhi High Court bench consisting of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Pareek Jalan asked Delhi’s AAP government to decide the premature release plea of Chautala within four weeks.

Chautala has contended that keeping in mind his 83 years age, disability and the period of seven years (out of ten) that he has already spent in jail, his premature release application may be considered.

Delhi government’s counsel Rahul Mehra opposed Chautala’s plea on the ground that he (Chautala) was convicted for corruption which was a serious offence.

But Chautala’s advocate Amit Sahni pleaded: “Chautala was convicted for 10 years under the Indian Penal Code and 7 years under the Prevention of Corruption Act. He has already undergone the sentence awarded under the Prevention of Corruption Act and also has a permanent disability of 60% (as on April 2013) and later has undergone implantation of pacemaker in June 2013. The disability is progressive and at present it is more than 70% and he fulfills the conditions laid in two clauses of the said notification. His age is 83, which itself is sufficient to consider releasing him by giving benefit of the notification.”

OP Chautala’s release plea is a classic case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t for the Delhi’s AAP government. Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP was hopeful of a tie-up with recently floated Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). The political outfit JJP has been formed by OP Chautala’s own grandsons who, ironically, are opposed to his own INLD (Indian National Lok Dal).

Political analysts believe that whether Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP recommends release or the detention of OP Chautala, there will always be a political risk to AAP-JJP alliance in the state of Haryana. If Delhi government gives positive recommendations and Chautala gets out of jail, he will certainly re-energize the sagging spirits of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and galvanize its workers which will mar the winning chances of AAP-JJP alliance in Haryana.

However, if Arvind Kejriwal’s government turns down the release plea, it will undoubtedly create anger and resentment towards AAP-JJP political alliance and result in a sympathy wave for INLD among Jat voters of Haryana. Already there’s resentment in rural areas against the Delhi government’s alleged decision to obstruct Chautala’s furlough application which became evident during Jind by-elections on January 28, 2019. The by-elections saw mass transfer of INLD votes to the BJP to obstruct AAP-JJP alliance from winning. The AAP-JJP candidate Digvijay Singh Chautala, a rebel from INLD lost the Jind by-elections decisively.

AAP’s decision to turn down OP Chautala’s release plea will also force the INLD leadership to forge a tie-up with BJP or in case of a failure of any alliance with BJP, they may again motivate INLD voters to transfer their votes to BJP instead of supporting the AAP-JJP combine.

The INLD party leaders had publicised during Jind by-elections that AAP-JJP alliance had obstructed the furlough of their ex-Chief Minister of Haryana O P Chautala to keep him away from the elections. They alleged that initially, the INLD chief was to be released on furlough on January 22, ahead of Jind by-poll. However, the release was postponed to January 29, that is, after the elections with the condition that he shall not attend any political meeting and shall not indulge in political activities during the period of furlough.

Attacking the JJP and AAP and accusing the former Haryana Chief Minister O P Chautala’s own grandson, Member of Parliament Dushyant Chautala, of back stabbing his own grandfather the state INLD president Ashok Arora  had alleged, “It is clear that AAP government in Delhi along with Dushyant and Digvijay have played a role in denial of furlough. They have stooped to a new low by doing this.”

Political pundits of Haryana are convinced that whatever maybe Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP’s decision about early release of OP Chautala, it will surely have a long term impact on INLD and also on AAP-JJP alliance future in Haryana.

What is the Union government’s Remission Policy of July 18, 2018?

As part of commemoration of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the following categories of prisoners will be considered for special remission and released in three phases.

(a) Women convicts of 55 years of age and above, who have completed 50% of their actual sentence period.

(b) Transgender convicts of 55 years of age and above, who have completed 50% of their actual sentence period.

(c) Male convicts of 60 years of age and above, who have completed 50% of their actual sentence period.

(d) Physically challenged/disabled convicts with 70% disability and more who have completed 50% of their actual sentence period.

(e) Terminally ill convicts.

(f) Convicted prisoners who have completed two-third (66%) of their actual sentence period.       

Special remission will not be given to prisoners who have been convicted for an offence for which the sentence is — sentence of death or where death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment; cases of convicts involved in serious and heinous crimes like dowry death, rape, human trafficking and convicted under POTA, UAPA, TADA, FICN, POCSO Act, Money Laundering, FEMA, NDPS, Prevention of Corruption Act, etc.

In Phase-l, the prisoners will be released on 2nd October, 2018 (Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi), in Phase-ll prisoners will be released on 10th April, 2019 (Anniversary of Champaran Satyagrah) and in Phase-Ill, prisoners will be released on 2nd October 2019 (Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi).

CBI Issues Lookout Circular against former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar

The Central Bureau of Investigation has issued a lookout circular against former ICICI Bank chief executive Chanda Kochhar. Immigration authorities at all airports and entry-exit points across the country have been alerted by CBO to inform it if Kochhar tries to leave the country.

Last month, the CBI had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon managing director Venugopal Dhoot, over allegations of irregularities in providing loans to Videocon Group when Chanda Kochhar was heading the private sector bank. CBI is currently further examining the evidence in the case. Lookout circular has also been revived against her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon managing director Venugopal Dhoot.

Chanda Kochhar, 56, had quit as CEO and managing director of ICICI Bank in October last year over allegations that she favoured Videocon Group.

How Pakistan makes effective use of social media to mobilise Kashmiri youth

Social media is overwhelming the lives of people across the world, young and old, big and small, educated and less educated, all can be seen bent over their smartphones and viewing content of their choice. Kashmir is no different except for the fact that most of the content viewed over there is propagandist in nature and posted by Pakistanis and other enemies of the Kashmiri people, with the specific purpose of causing dissension and discord.

The advent of social media as a potent tool came about in 2015 when a photograph of 11 terrorists operating in Kashmir was posted on various social media forums. This was the time when the number of smartphone users in Kashmir had witnessed a quantum jump, especially so, among the youth. The poster boy of this group was Burhan Wani who went on to become the social media face of the terrorist movement.

Burhan Wani’s value for his Pakistani masters were not his skills as a so-called Mujahid; rather it was his ability to attract more and more Kashmiri youth into the fold of terrorism and for this he was used to the hilt. This exposure triggered a man-hunt which led to his killing by the security forces in July 2016. His death led to another spate of vitriolic and propagandist social media content. Many local youth joined in as terrorists simply to post their selfies, pictures and online videos on social media, giving a huge boost to recruitment of locals into the terrorist fold.

The Pakistani propaganda machinery fully understood the bonanza that had fallen in their lap and exploited it to the hilt. Sophisticated content was generated and continues to be generated to radicalise vulnerable boys, create a false sense of bravado and a certain romanticism for the gun. Anti-India activities and terrorism are made to appear legitimate even as the potential recruits are projected as the victims of Indian state and saviours of Kashmir. Unfortunately, a segment of the youth, however small, falls for this perversity without realising the self-destructive consequences. 

Some take to stone pelting which is also an activity given due cognizance in the propaganda content.

Today, there’s a whole army of content providers on the Internet sitting in Pakistan and creating propaganda content meant to increase the threshold of radicalisation and hate mongering. It has very aptly been defined as the “weaponisation of social media.” The idea is not only to lure the local youth of Kashmir on to the path of violence but also to reach out to the rest of the world. The 24×7 online activity reaches out to millions across the world every day. The security forces operating in Kashmir, especially the Indian Army, are the main target of this jaundiced campaign. It also covers incidents of unrest in India by blowing them out of proportion, speaks of persecution of minorities and other forms of so-called atrocity especially in Kashmir, it ridicules Indian government and the Armed Forces. All of this is done through posters, cartoons, videos and articles where the truth is morphed and concocted to give it the desired treatment.

Social media is being used in support of terrorist and disruptive activities. As soon as a counter-terrorist operation is launched, word is spread through social media, mainly WhatsApp, for people to gather at the site to disrupt the proceeding with stone pelting, sloganeering and even physical intervention. For the obnoxious activity of stone pelting, crowds are collected at designated areas and made to melt out with equal alacrity with exit routes being posted online. Separatist leaders use social media extensively to give their illegal calls for Bandhs (lockouts), Hartals (strikes) and marches etc. Threats to the people to discourage them from voting in elections or from attending recruitment rallies of security forces and other such progressive activities are posted on social media.

Spread of fake news is yet another area where the social media is being used extensively. With no accountability it becomes the most apt platform to raise passions with exaggerated reports. The basic objective is to create a sense of insecurity and mistrust against the Indian state and the people of the country in the minds of the Kashmiris’.

Attempts are being made by Indian agencies to curb such activities, some are successful and for others alternatives are found by the enemy. Facebook has been censoring posts and user accounts, but whenever one profile is shut many others come up. Indian government blocked internet in Kashmir for five months in 2016 but the people including the terror groups and even government employees resorted to the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to overcome the restriction.

Modern technology tools are double-edged weapons! Social media and the attendant technology is being used by security forces to track down terrorists. This along with human intelligence (which is a predominant factor), is responsible for the conduct of incisive information based counter-terrorist operations that are being conducted by security forces with great success. Social media is also being used by terrorists for their personal vendettas with each other and the attendant friction tends to weaken their movement. Zakir Musa, a terrorist who followed the Islamic State ideology used social media to threaten beheading of the separatists if they did not desist from speaking of a secular freedom movement. Musa was later eliminated by the security forces but the fissures in the organisation were there for all to see. It is for this reason the some terrorist commanders in recent times have been passing diktats to their cadre to desist from the use of smart phones.

Curbing the social media is neither feasible nor productive as a counter measure. What is required is creation of awareness among the people to not get swayed by the content that is posted with an evil anti-India intent by the enemy. The space occupied by the perpetrators of propaganda has to be neutralised by creation of an equally potent nationalist space. The government will need to come up with the credible responses in this direction.

SC orders eviction of more than 10 lakh forest dwellers in next five months

The Supreme Court has given the nod to evict more than ten lakh tribal and Adivasi families living in forests. The three-judge member, comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Navin Sinha and Indrani Banerjee, gave the states time till July 27 and directed the governments to evict all those whose claims were rejected. “In case the eviction is not carried out, as aforesaid, the matter would be viewed seriously by this court,” the order said, while adding that states explain why no eviction was taken place so far, in spite of the

The order was passed on a PIL which challenged the validity of the Forest Rights Act, passed in 2006 to give back to traditional forest dwellers their right to access, manage and govern forests. Around 11,72,931 land ownership claims made by Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers under the Forest Rights Act have been rejected, according to affidavits filed by states in the apex court.

As per the Act, forest dwellers living on forest land for at least three generations prior to December 31, 2005, are eligible for land rights. The apex court has asked 17 state governments to carry out the eviction process.  Out of the 17 states, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Odisha comprise 20 per cent of the total claims for land ownership.

Chris Hemsworth to play Hulk Hogan in new Netflix film

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, who rose to prominence playing Kim Hyde in the Australian TV series Home and Away, is all set to portray wrestling legend Hulk Hogan in a biographical drama for Netflix. The film will be directed by “Hangover” maker Todd Phillips.

The film is expected to look into Hogan’s rise from the Florida wrestling circuit to becoming the face of the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s where he squared off with villain Andre the Giant.  At his peak, Hogan graced the covers of magazines and headlined a Saturday morning cartoon. The term “Hulkamania” was coined in 1984, with Hogan referring to his legions of fans as “Hulkamaniacs” during interviews.

The project will be produced by Michael Sugar through his Sugar23’s first-look Netflix deal along with Joint Efforts’ Phillips and Bradley Cooper, Eric Bischoff, and Hemsworth.

No water from Ravi, Beas and Sutlej to Pakistan

The government has decided to stop India’s share of water that flows to Pakistan and divert water from eastern rivers to people in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, said Nitin Gadkari, Water Resources, Shipping, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister, on Thursday. These eastern rivers are Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.

“Under the leadership of Hon’ble PM Sri @narendramodi ji, Our Govt. has decided to stop our share of water which used to flow to Pakistan. We will divert water from Eastern rivers and supply it to our people in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab,” Gadkari said in a tweet.

The decision comes after the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel. The attack was carried out by Pakistan based terror group JEM.