The Big Story: Unhappy Republic

Another year, another Republic Day went off reasonably well just about everywhere except Assam and Manipur. Two years ago, the annual event meant to commemorate India adopting its constitution saw blasts in both Manipur and Assam. Although there were no casualties, the blasts served as a reminder that not everybody is happy to be in the Republic. The 2017 Republic Day was much the same. Seven low-intensity blasts were set off in Manipur and Assam, causing no deaths, but reminding authorities and the wider public that the insurgency continues.

While the Republic Day blasts may have been mostly harmless, at least in terms of physical damage, they came just days after two jawans and two militants were killed in an ambush of a tourist convoy near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. The attack triggered a red alert ahead of the Republic Day celebrations which thankfully went off without any casualties. But the deaths of the jawans also served to remind us that, according to NDTV, 71 soldiers have been killed in attacks in the North East since 2015, when a collective of northeast militant groups, known as the United Liberation Front of Western South Asia, came into existence.

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Following the Republic Day blasts, Assam Chief Minister Sarbanananda Sonowal insisted that the government would continue its fight against insurgents, saying the people of Assam were united in their desire for peace. Manipur, which has seen much turmoil over the last few months thanks to an economic blockade, continued with its Republic Day commemoration, but normalcy remains an alien concept.

There is much to untangle when it comes to conflicts in the North East, many of which are now clearly spilling into each other as the collective of militant groups suggest. The deaths of soldiers, especially in an attack on a tourist convoy, remind us of how unstable the region still is. And the economic blockade is a useful way to drive home the fact that the lack of a solution affects ordinary people the most.

Peace talks and attempts to break stalemates in the states have had different degrees of success, although most efforts have ended in limbo. Local and national politics play into this with the Bharatiya Janata Party-run Centre, for example, is believed to be reluctant to help the Congress-run Manipur government, which in turn is said to be unflinching in its approach to Naga rebels. Meanwhile, a time of blockades and attacks allow those who traffic in smuggled goods and extortion to thrive.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power with grand promises of ensuring India moves forward from the “Look East” policy towards an “Act East” one. But before even getting there, the country has to ensure its own citizens in the North East are being given due consideration, with efforts to bring peace. Manipur’s upcoming elections are unlikely to get much attention outside the North East, seeing as they come alongside the big prize in Uttar Pradesh. But they do offer an opportunity for a useful discussion on the concerns of insurgency and how governments intend to deal with them – a conversation that India badly needs to have.

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Punditry

  1. “Policy must be tested on the actual effects it has on the people, not only on the nobility of the policymaker’s intentions,” writes Anup Bhambhani in Outlook, saying government have to fully justify any distress, and cannot use populations as guinea pigs.
  2. A leader in Mint says the proposed tax on cash transactions over Rs 50,000 is a non-starter, and argues that India needs better digital infrastructure, not a fiscal push toward digital payments.
  3. By ensuring that the use of ordinances can be challenged in court, the Supreme Court has put a check on a power “rampantly abused by the executive,” writes Suhrith Parthasarathy in the Hindu.
  4. A look back at the Bhuj earthquake, 16 years ago, also reminds us that our response to disasters is highly technical and does not provide for social exclusion and the poor, writes Sanjeev Kumar in the Indian Express.


Giggles

Don’t miss

Aarefa Johari’s new series looks at well-intentioned laws governing crimes against women and children, and how these tend to be awfully implemented. The first piece, on how an ill-equipped child welfare system fails victims, is here. The second piece covers the miserable operations of child welfare committees, which are supposed to ensure the system runs smoothly.

The condition of child welfare committees across India also reveals the government’s glaring neglect of infrastructure in matters concerning vulnerable children.

The committee sittings, for instance, are supposed to be as child-friendly as possible, and the model rules of the Juvenile Justice Act list out a series of well-thought-out parameters to ensure that. These include explaining the proceedings to children, seating them at the same level as committee members, ensuring the police personnel who are present are not in their uniforms, and conducting the sittings in a well-lit room with toys and attractive pictures. Most importantly, the sittings are meant to be held close to childcare facilities, ideally rotating from one shelter home to another, so that the committee can inspect the homes as well.

In practice, however, many sittings are held in government offices far away from shelter homes, so that children are forced to travel for hearings. In many districts, the sessions are conducted in tiny rooms where children and family members are often forced to stand at the door. The children are also made to sit on the floor while the committee members sit on chairs. And there is a general lack of privacy.