The Big Story: Diplomatic downturn
The Indian government has reportedly "downgraded" Pakistan to a "no school-going mission". Staff members of the Indian High Commission will be required to take their children out of schools in Pakistan and send them out of the country. Voices from government claimed the decision had been taken over a year ago, after a terror attack on a Peshawar school killed 144 children, and that several countries had made Pakistan a no school-going mission. But perhaps it is no coincidence that the decision has been made public now, after a fortnight of tension between the two countries.
Ever since Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed by security forces in Kashmir on July 8, unleashing a flood of protest in the Valley, India and Pakistan have been locked in a war of words. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed shock at Wani's death, raised concerns about human rights violations by Indian security forces and added, for good measure, that he was "waiting for the day when Kashmir becomes Pakistan". External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj declared that Kashmir would never be part of Pakistan, Home Minister Rajnath Singh warned the Sharif administration against interfering in India's internal matters and member of Parliament MJ Akbar delivered a rousing Lok Sabha speech about the "existential fight" over Kashmir. The new bitterness has started spreading to other issues, with Pakistan approaching the Permanent Court of Arbitration over the Indus waters dispute.
The leaderships of both countries have allowed the situation to escalate alarmingly fast, both are guilty of irresponsible posturing that cannot yield any solutions. If India now wants its diplomatic downgrade to be seen as a genuine security measure and not an act of acrimony, it needs to turn down the surrounding noise.
Political pickings
1. The Bharatiya Janata Party's minority morcha chief in Aligarh has accused party colleagues of fuelling tensions between Hindus and Muslims in the city.
2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi credits President Pranab Mukherjee for guiding him "like a guardian".
3. The Supreme Court has refused to lower qualifying marks for Scheduled Caste candidates aspiring to be judges in Haryana.
4. Central Reserve Police Force chief Durga Prasad claimed he felt "very sorry" for youth in Kashmir but pellet gun use would continue.
Punditry
1. In the Indian Express, Sanjay Kumar argues that the BJP's apathy to Dalits in Gujarat may cost it dear in other states.
2. In the Telegraph, Prabhat Patnaik on how gobalisation has disenfranchised peasants, agricultural labourers and petty producers.
3. In the Hindu, Partha Sen on how the inflation targeting recommended by the Urjit Patel committee is drawn from a foreign context and needs to be modified for India.
Giggles
Don't Miss...
Menaka Rao on how our abortion laws make no room for rape victims:
Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, abortion is not a right. It is the discretion of the doctor to give a woman an abortion, if he or she deems fit.
The 44-year-old law allows abortion for women only if the doctors are of the opinion, taken in “good faith” that continuing the pregnancy involves substantial risks for the physical and mental health of the mother or the foetus has serious anomalies.
The conditions considered to be a grave injury to the mental health of a pregnant woman is a pregnancy caused by rape, or a contraception failure for a married woman (it does not take into account contraception failures for pregnant unmarried women).
The Jashpur case should have fit the bill as a case for abortion as prescribed by this law. Yet the woman was denied an speedy abortion. Instead she was tied in bureaucratic knots that are completely unwarranted as per the law.
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