Suresh Prabhu Inaugurates Agartala-Delhi Broad Gauge Rail Line

The foundation stone for the much awaited railway track to link Agartala to Akhoura in Bangladesh was laid.

The foundation stone for the much awaited railway track to link Agartala to Akhoura in Bangladesh was laid.

The new Tripura Sundari Express from Agartala to New Delhi, during its flag inauguration ceremony. Credit: PTI

The new Tripura Sundari Express from Agartala to New Delhi, during its flag inauguration ceremony. Credit: PTI

Agartala: Tripura entered the broad gauge railway map of the country today with union railway minister Suresh Prabhu inaugurating the Agartala-New Delhi ‘Tripura Sundari Express’.

The foundation stone for the much awaited railway track to link Agartala to Akhoura in Bangladesh was jointly laid at the programme by Prabhu and his Bangladeshi counterpart Mujibul Haque.

‘Tripura Sundari Express’ will run once a week, on Sundays, and reach New Delhi in 47 hours after travelling via Guwahati and New Jalpaiguri. Rs 968 crore was spent for the Agartala-Delhi rail link.

Addressing the gathering, Prabhu said a regular train service between Agartala and Kolkata will start next month. “Kolkata is the cultural capital of the country and Tripura has a long historic connection with it,” he said.

On the Agartala-Akhoura railway link, Prabhu said it would be part of the trans-Asian rail connectivity.

“We are committed to bring connectivity with Bangladesh. The relation between India and Bangladesh is very cordial and they (Bangladesh) are cooperative in our initiative,” he said.

The rail track here would be extended to Sabroom, the southern-most town in Tripura, which is only 75 km from the Chittagong port in Bangladesh.

“Chittagong port is the best port in Asia. We want to connect an Indian railways track with Chittagong port through Sabroom,” Prabhu said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, is very keen to make the northeast region a tourist hub.

“We want to develop railway network in the entire northeast and want to make it a tourist hub. We want to bring Bangladesh into the same tourist circuit,” Prabhu said.

Speaking at the function, Haque said “We always respect the people of India for giving us support and shelter during our Liberation Movement. We want people-to-people contact. Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked me to convey our love and respect to the people of India”.

Bangladesh has now decided to launch a new train between Khulna and Kolkata in addition to the Maitri Express train that plies between Dhaka and Kolkata.

Minister of state for railways Rajen Gohain said all northeast state capitals will be linked with railways by 2020 and work is already on in Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar and members of his cabinet were present at the programme.

Acquisition of land for the Agartala-Akhoura rail link has already started and Rs 580 crore have been released from the ministry. The laying the 15.054 rail track will be completed by 2017. Of the total track, only five km will be on the Indian side and the rest in Bangladesh.

The agreement between the two countries on the rail link was signed during Hasina’s visit to New Delhi in January 2010.

One Woman Dead, Three Hospitalised in Texas Shooting

Police released a statement on Twitter saying both locations were secured.

Credit: Twitter

Credit: Twitter

Austin: One woman was killed and three people were hospitalised with bullet wounds in overnight shooting incidents in the Texas capital of Austin, emergency officials said on social media early on Sunday.

Austin police said in a message on Twitter there had been “separate shootings within the same area” of the city’s downtown, adding, “Both scenes are secure at this time.”

The Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services agency said on Twitter that one woman had been killed and two other women and one man taken to hospital with gunshot wounds.

A fourth person was also hurt but declined medical treatment, according to the social media post from the agency.

An Austin police representative declined in an email to immediately provide further details.

The shootings follow several major acts of gun violence in the US over the past several weeks.

On June 12, a gunman who sympathised with Islamist extremist groups killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

On July 7, a US military veteran shot and killed five police officers in Dallas in the deadliest day for US law enforcement since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Just over a week later another gunman killed three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Both attackers were killed by police.

Austin has a population of more than 900,000.

Hong Kong Bans Pro-Independence Candidate From Upcoming Election

Chan Ho-tin, who refused to sign a document that stated that Hong Kong is an ‘inalienable’ part of China, was disqualified from elections.

Pro-independence protesters carry placard and flags during a pro-democracy march on the day marking the 19th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to Chinese sovereignty from British rule, in Hong Kong July 1, 2016. Bobby Yip, Reuters/Files

Pro-independence protesters carry placard and flags during a pro-democracy march on the day marking the 19th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to Chinese sovereignty from British rule, in Hong Kong July 1, 2016.            Credit: Bobby Yip, Reuters/Files

Hong Kong: A member of the proindependence Hong Kong National Party has been disqualified from running in next month’s legislative council elections after he declined to sign a controversial new form saying the city is an ‘inalienable’ part of China.

Chan Ho-tin received an email from the Electoral Affairs Commission on Saturday which said his application to join the election had been ‘invalidated’, fuelling speculation that others who hold proindependence views also could be disqualified.

“The National Party is honoured to become the first party to be banned from joining a democratic election by the government due to political difference,” the party wrote on its Facebook page.

The requirement that candidates pledge that the former British colony is part of China, and that advocating independence could make them ineligible to stand for election, is the latest in a series of issues that have raised concern about what many people in Hong Kong see as mainland China’s increasing control.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a ‘one country, two systems’ formula meant to guarantee the financial hub’s considerable freedoms and separate laws.

But China’s refusal to allow unfettered democracy in next year’s election for the city’s leader triggered pro-democracy protests in 2014, and spurred worries about the city’s future.

A series of issues since then has compounded those fears.

The government issued a statement saying it agreed to and supported the decision to disqualify Chan.

The activist is one of a number of proindependence candidates who refused to sign the recently introduced additional declaration form.

Previously, candidates only needed to pledge to uphold Hong Kong laws.

A Hong Kong court declined to rule on Wednesday on a challenge filed by activist politicians to the new rule.

About 100 people joined a rally on Saturday night to support Chan.

(Reuters) 

Newly Empowered Farmers Ruined by South Africa’s Drought

Commercial Black farmers are suffering losses and becoming dependent on drought assistance. Experts believe that rainfall now won’t salvage the situation.

south-africa-drought-640-629x420

A programme supporting emerging women small-scale farmers has been hit hard by the drought. Here a crop of peppers and tomatoes at a school farming scheme at Risenga Primary School, in Giyani, Limpopo province, wilts in the sun. Credit: Desmond Latham/IPS

Capetown:  Almost half a decade of drought across most of South Africa has led to small towns in crisis and food imports for the first time in over 20 years, as well as severely hampering the government’s planned land redistribution programme.

It’s the cost of food in an economic downturn that has been the immediate effect. But hidden from view is a growing social crisis as farmers retrench their workforce and the new class of black commercial farmers has been rocked by the drought. Also hidden from many is the effect on small towns across the north of the country in particular, which are now reporting business closures, growing unemployment and social instability.

According to emerging black farmers, the record high temperates and dry conditions of the last few years has led to an upsurge in bankruptcy cases and forced many off their newly redistributed farmland. While some have managed to take out loans to fund the capital-intensive commercial farming requirements, others aren’t so lucky. Even large-scale commercial farmers are now unable to service their debt.

“It’s terrible, terrible, terrible,” said African Association of Farmers business development strategist, Thomas Pitso Sekhoto.

“Now it’s going to be worse because of the winter, there’s no food at all, we didn’t even plant in the last season. It’s a cruel twist of fate, it’s affected us badly. Those who bought land for themselves as black farmers, those who took out bonds, it’s going to be tough,” he said. “It’s a serious setback to black farmers in South Africa – there’s no future if things are going to go like this.”

Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) farming systems analyst, Divan van der Westhuizen, says these farmers had already been struggling with increased costs and lower production.

“The depreciation of the rand has a strong correlation on the landed price of fertiliser and oil-based products. Year-on-year there’s an increase of 11%on fertiliser and 10% on fuel,” he said.

“From the drought perspective, it’s tough. The North West of the country was affected by drought conditions for the past four to five years, now production is down and costs are up,” said van der Westuizen. “Even if rains fall now, from a cash flow perspective it won’t be sufficient to cover the shortfall.”

Agriculture development specialists say support for the sector has been limited. The largest agricultural organisation in South Africa, AgriSA, has reported that its office has been inundated with calls for drought relief assistance. Over 3,000 emerging farmers (most of whom are black) and nearly 13,000 commercial farmers have received drought assistance.

“More and more highly productive and successful commercial farmers are struggling to make ends meet,” said CEO Omri van Zyl. “We appeal to government for assistance as these farmers have played a crucial role to produce food on a large scale. It’s especially farmers in parts of the Northern Cape, Free State and North West, Eastern Cape and Western Cape that face a severe crisis currently and who are in desperate need for financial assistance” he said.

Government ploughed millions of dollars into a drought relief programme early in 2016. But the support dried up in February. Now Sekhoto said his farm is in the grip of what could be a terminal cycle.

“There’s nothing. I will be honest with you. If you can’t help yourself, you can’t help your neighbour. The only income I had was when I sold my cattle. The banks have closed shop. While the white commercial farmers here have tried to help, they’ve also had to retrench, cut staff.”

Business in small towns in the North West province and parts of the Free State are shuttering with reports that up 20% of all small businesses closed their doors in the first quarter of 2016.

While farmers and businesses suffer, South Africa’s urban population has also felt the full effects of the drought. Some towns such as Vryheid in KwaZulu Natal province are using water tankers as their town dam dried up. Food prices have risen exponentially, said Grain SA senior economist Corne Louw.

“Normally, we’re a surplus producer and exporter of maize, but because of the drought we’ve had to import 3.7 million tonnes in the last year,” he said. “Records show that the driest year since 1904 was 2015/16 so it’s breaking records in various areas. If you compare the price of white maize to what it was a year ago, it is 35% up year-on-year.”

In Limpopo province, an Oxfam and Earthlife Africa community gardening project has found itself facing serious headwinds as the drought continues. Limpopo is one of the provinces that was most severely affected by drought, making it difficult for smallholder farmers to grow and harvest their crops.

“Right now we get water from two boreholes, but it’s not enough to feed the school and the garden,” said Tracy Motshabi, a community gardener at Risenga Primary School, Giyani, Limpopo.

“Because of the drought, our efforts in the gardens are not being seen because of the water scarcity. There is not enough water for irrigation,” said Nosipho Memeza, a Community Working Group (CWG) member at Founders Educare Preschool in Makhaza, Western Cape.

Heavy rainfall was reported in late July 2016 across most of South Africa, but it’s come too late to save many of these small farmers. There may be some relief, however. Meteorologists at WeatherSA believe this year’s rainy season, which begins in December, could be wetter than normal. However, that may be too late for thousands of small farmers in the country.

This story was first published in the Inter Press Service News Agency. Read the original story here. 

 

The Sixth Dimension of War: A Battle For the Mind

The art of war has transformed from causing physical damage to assets to the manipulation of minds and the battlefield is now open to anyone with access to the internet.

The art of war has transformed from causing physical damage to assets to the manipulation of minds and the battlefield is now open to anyone with access to the internet.

'Uncle Sam' recruiting poster from the Second World War. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

‘Uncle Sam’ recruiting poster from the Second World War. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Warfare has been a quintessential element of humanity. More contenders fighting for less resources has been the definition of war (as indeed also the raison de’etre of business). Starting from land, warfare evolved across different theatres. As humans became capable of building sea faring vessels, the theatre moved into oceans.

The First World War debuted the third dimension with aircrafts used for reconnaissance and during the Second World War it was in the form of weapon platforms, bombers, logistic supply chains and of course as a thermonuclear delivery vehicle. During the cold war, conflict propelled into the next dimension as the superpowers fought to dominate outer space and finally the 20th century witnessed advent of cyberspace as the fifth dimension of war.

Warfare evolved along two vectors. The first was technological development within the dimension, for example, swords and spears gave way to muskets, rifles and machine guns. Horses and chariots were replaced by vehicles and tanks and so on. The second vector was an orbit shift from one dimension to the other. This necessitated changes in the very doctrine of warfare itself. For example, in land warfare, it was possible for the supreme commander to give out detailed orders and micromanage the campaign, requiring his subordinates to report progress and review plans at every stage.

The organisation structure was typified by a minority of brain and a majority of brawn, and orders were expected to be obeyed in set piece battles. But when the theatre shifted to the sea, the supreme commander could only give general orders to his admirals who sailed away for years and would have to be empowered to take decisions best suiting the circumstances. Similarly, an armada would require every ship’s captain to be trained to assume orders in the absence of orders. Every ship would also require technical expertise of engineers, signalmen, doctors and a full complement of second tier leadership.

Similar doctrinal changes were needed when the aerial dimension evolved, wherein all aspects of strategy, operations and tactics needed to be redeveloped from ground up. In no previous doctrine would so few personnel cause an effect so disproportionate to their numerical strength. So whether it was a crew of the Superfortress bomber dropping nuclear payloads in Japan, or pin point interdiction of key enemy leaders by drones over the middle-eastern theatre, air doctrine rewrote the rules of the game.

Star Wars – as weaponisation of outer space was known – transcended limitations of Earth itself. Space platforms could now assist conventional warfare (like satellites that would aid communication or navigation of conventional forces – or hinder those very capabilities of the adversary) or act as weapons in their own right – with the ability to destroy targets in space or earth.

The most recent theatre of war is cyberspace – also known as the fifth dimension and here is where things start getting out of hand.

The first four dimensions of war have some similarities and familiar structures. All four dimensions are based on kinetic energy, that is, they fundamentally destroy assets – in the form of people or infrastructure. All four dimensions are either state owned or state controllable. Even sophisticated non-state players like LTTE or ISIS haven’t managed meaningful capability in sea, air or space. But the fifth dimension of cyberspace changes these fundamentals in three distinct ways.

Firstly, cyberspace capability is not just the prerogative of the state. As a matter of fact, non-state players are often as good, if not better in this dimension. The US’ frustrating inability to ‘shut down’ exploitation of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook by ISIS is a case in point. Even authoritarian governments like China or North Korea struggle to control the fifth dimension. This is the uncontrollable and a lawless space where ‘good guys’ are playing quintessential catch-up.

Secondly, the fifth dimension changes the traditional threat maps which were drawn based on conventional power. The punching capability of a warring nation had direct correlation with its military and economic might. So Indian defence analysts would assess China with its scores of divisions, powerful air force and multitude of naval vessels as the primary threat and Pakistan came second and so on.

But when it comes to the fifth dimension, size and budgets don’t really matter that much. For instance, despite thousands of cyber-warriors on their rolls, US and China have a relatively small group of a few hundred extremely talented nerds who form the core of their cyber offensive and defensive capability. This analogy is true even in software development companies which may have thousands of ‘coders’ but only a handful of truly gifted software engineers. Now, even countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or Iran can develop capabilities that can match global or regional superpowers. It’s a question of focus, not funds.

Lastly and most dangerously – the fifth dimension acts as a foundation for a more sinister sixth dimension. The battle for the mind.

There is an important military term called the ‘Ground of Tactical Importance’ or GTI for short. The textbook definition of GTI is a piece of land, the loss of which renders a defender incapable of fighting a successful defensive battle. In conventional war, the GTI would be a feature dominating the entire theatre; for example Normandy beachheads during the D-Day landings, or key mountain peaks during Kargil operations. These were physical features which could be defended or attacked with kinetic energy.

The traditional concept of operations in cyberspace has essentially been degradation or denial of service of the adversary’s communication, energy or essential services grid. The Stuxnet virus which deteriorated Iran’s nuclear capability or degradation of Georgia’s communication backbone during the Russian offensive are examples. But the sixth dimension does not seek to degrade the adversary’s network. Instead it leverages and rides on it.

In 2012, Facebook conducted a highly controversial psychological experiment involving 700,000 users. Facebook manipulated their feeds, so that half the group would receive positive news and the other half negative news. Unsurprisingly and disturbingly, this experiment proved that social media feeds affect the psychological and physiological state of the target audience, without the latter realising that they were being manipulated. Such experiments have now been weaponised.

This is why terror organisations and state players use social media and personal messaging services to attack their adversary’s very will to fight. The Indian populace and especially its security forces have been subjected to systematic psychological operations wherein propaganda, morphed pictures, fake videos, phony news and incorrect information is being used to create fear, panic, dissent, parochialism and schisms. Ruptures are being driven between bureaucracy, political leadership, armed forces, junior and senior officers, veterans’ versus serving soldiers etc., through a deliberate campaign right under our noses.

Narratives leveraging sophistry pit various instruments of the government against each other. They compare compensation and perks of bureaucrats with that of the security forces suggesting antipathy of the former towards the latter. Similarly, morphed pictures are used to exaggerate crowds of protesters, or atrocities allegedly committed by state forces. In an era when readers seldom care about veracity before forwarding; specious narratives shape opinions and undermine morale with no cognisance to reality. Lies are literally travelling around the world before truth is able to put on its shoes. Or in our case, even appreciate the need to shift doctrines and prepare for the battle for the mind.

There is a saying that generals fight the last war. Sadly there is some truth to it. Thanks to the mettle of our junior leaders and soldiers, troops with inferior technology or outdated tactics may still be able to win, but if troops are made to fight with outdated doctrines, they are being set up for failure. Unfortunately our leaders seem to be fighting the next war not only with the last war’s weapons and tactics, but also the last war’s doctrines.

The author is the former CEO of NATGRID and Group President of Reliance Industries. 

When Women Sang in the Age of Steam

Making use of popular Bhojpuri folksongs, we enter into the rich social and gendered world of women; a world that was woven around sexuality and migration. 

Making use of popular Bhojpuri folksongs, we enter into the rich social and gendered world of women; a world that was woven around sexuality and migration.

Credit: Nick/Flickr CC BY 2.0

Credit: Nick/Flickr CC BY 2.0

From being purabiya peasants employed in both the Mughal and the English East India Company armies, male migrants from rural Uttar Pradesh and Bihar became the predominant labouring pool in the expanding second capital of the British Empire by the 19th century. It was neither Delhi nor Bombay – where in recent years they have become the target of cultural and political vendetta – that they went to; they migrated instead to Kalkatwa (Calcutta then, Kolkata now) to work in jute mills, as domestic servants and as urban coolies. A large number also went to the Caribbean to work as indentured labour on sugar plantations.

Those who have read Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies would remember the journey of Dheeti, the female character who escaped the hardships of rural life in the Bhojpuri belt of North India by boarding a girmitiya ship. But many other nameless Dheetis remained in their villages.

We know a good deal about male migration, both historically and otherwise, but less about how the relationships between mobile men and immobile women were structured. It is true that women were not mobile, but they were not insular or static. The mobility around them was reshaping their lives. Mills and plantations came up; steamships and railways shortened distances between their villages and big cities. As trains bewildered Apu and Durga in Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali, so too did they anonymous thousands of men and women.

The new sawatiya

Words and actions of great men are bound to be repeated time and again: in spite of travelling the whole country on a third class railway carriage, Mahatma Gandhi bitterly opposed railways as a symbol of modern, imported technology. The men and women who made Gandhi the Mahatma nevertheless thought otherwise.

A crowd greets Gandhi as he alights at a station. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A crowd greets Gandhi as he alights at a station. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In their world of text and imagination, the dhuwan-gaadi (steam engine) was an object of wonder and marvel. Had the government head master, Ambika Vyas Dutt, managed to show his poem to Queen Victoria, he would have secured an invitation to her garden tea party.

रानी विक्टोरिया के राज बड़ा भारी रामा ।
फइल गईले सब सन्सरवा रे हरी ।।
जहाँ देखो तहाँ चले धुआँकस रामा ।
चाँरो ओर लागल बाटे तरवा रे हरी ।।

The rule of Queen Victoria is full of wonders,
It has extended all around the world;
Wherever you look the railways are running,
Everywhere there are telegraph wires.

The ordinary female subjects of the Victorian Indian empire, however, were not so pleased. Going purab (east) was as much an opportunity as a cause for separation. The new means of transport – steamships and railways – became the sawatiya (the second wife), while money was the real culprit. The black marvel had its dark side.

रेलिया हो गईले सवतिया हो ।
पिया के ले गईले ना ।।
उहि देसवा रगूँनवा पिया के ले गईले ना ।
उहि देसवा बँगलवा पिया के ले गईले ना ।।

रेलिया ना बैरी, जहजिया ना बैरी ।
पैसवा बैरी ना ।।
देसवा देसवा भरमावे ।
उहे पैसवा बैरी ना ।।

Railways have become a co-wife,
It has taken away my beloved;
It has taken my beloved to Rangoon,
It has taken my beloved to Bengal.

Neither the railways nor the steamships,
The real enemy is money;
It forces to wander from one to another country,
The real enemy is money.

The song ends on a touching note of affection and love. She is willing to suffer, to survive on very little, but not ready to let him go.

भूखिया ना लागे, पियसिया ना लागे ।
हमको मोहिया लागे ना ।।
तोहरि देख के सूरतिया ।
हमको मोहिया लागे ना ।।

सेर भर सगिया बरिस दिन खइबे ।
पिया के जाई देबो ना ।।

I don’t feel no hunger, no thirst,
I just feel a swelling affection;
When I see your face,
I just feel the deep affection.

This world of migration and separation, of mills and railways, paralleled the expanding world of print. The mofussil (countryside) literati who composed these songs were incorporating new elements to reflect the social realities of their times. The oral culture of folksongs overlapped with the printed song and chapbooks to create what Francesca Orsini, a leading scholar in this field, has called a “new hybrid taste”. Entertainment and pleasure came together to highlight the woes of migrant men and left-behind women.

The text of these songs is never fixed. Their flexibility allows them to incorporate newer elements. The relevance of this song is still maintained, as Malini Awasthi’s rendition of a slightly different version of the same song shows.

The wife in exile

बजी जब रेल की सीटी, सजन की याद आती है ।
When the train’s whistle sounds, I think of my beloved.

Sita accompanied Ram in exile for 14 years. The metaphor of 14 years of separation is strikingly similar in Bhojpuri songs, but unlike Sita the Bhojpuriya women did not accompany their men. The men migrated to the city, but it was their wives who, ironically, experienced an ‘exile’ in the villages.

In these songs, women adopt three strategies to hold back their men and convince them to stay. They cook food (जेवना), offer Ganga water and promise physical intimacy (सेजिया). Some of these songs are conversational; the wife uses all three of the above but the man keeps repeating: “All this is very sweet, my love; please wake me up at four in the morning/I have to leave by a freight train”. The whistle inevitably meant the end of intimacy and the beginning of longing.

There are hardly any songs in which the men agreed not to go. The inevitability of migration for men was clearly spelled out. The onus of pleading was unambiguously fixed on the women.

She is insecure; she is sad. She displays unflinching dedication and love for her migrating husband. She conjures up excuses: the purab is venomous, it will kill her beloved. She is scared that a beautiful Bengali woman (सुन्नरी बँगलिनिया) will seduce her man. He will stop sending her money. He will forget to ask about her well-being.

It is not only the emotional outpour that these songs depict; they also create and portray the image of an ideal, loyal wife. For male poets, authors and composers it was important to depict her physical and sexual vulnerability. Her sexuality is both an element of entertainment and an aspect to control.

जेकर जबान झूठ, ओकर करार का?
जेकर पिया परदेस, ओकर श्रृंगार का?

What worth is promise to those who lie?
What worth is adoration to those whose men are in foreign lands?

Sexual transgressions

Emotion is strongly attached to ideas about the body. The denial of shringaar is essentially the denial of a playful indulgent life. In exile, renunciation is the way to live.

However, there is always a lurking possibility of woman sexual transgressing in the absence of their husbands. Ideas of loyalty are tied to physical beauty. This comes out clearly in a song in which a woman is willing to let her man bring a sawatiya home, but only if she is barren, ugly and dark. Normatively, procreation is an important function of Hindu marriages and hence the wife’s approval on the grounds of infertility is not a big surprise. The continuing strange fascination of Indian society in skin colour as a marker of beauty, reflected now in whitening creams, helps us understand the presence of dark skin in this list.

The reference to the body, however, is rather bold. Being jealous of the Bengali women, she questions her husband: why did he bring her a sawatiya in spite of her having an attractive body (सोटा अईसन देह ).

The invocation of an attractive body is expressive of how conjugal intimacy was at stake for migrating families. But it also shows how the onus to save the conjugality largely rested upon women. A flight of imagination does raise a question: do so called Bhojpuri B grade films that cater to the male gaze represent refracted historical continuity of how sexuality and the body have been depicted in these folksongs?

बलिया टिसनिया पर जेवना बनावत रहिली ।
कि रही रही के जीयरा घबराला बलमवा ।।
एक ता हम गोरी रहिली, दूसरे जवान रहिली ।
तेसरे जोवनवा के जारी, बलमवा तेरे बिना ।।

I was preparing food on the Balia railway station,
And I was feeling restless in between;
First of all, I am fair, and second, young,
Third was the thrust of my youthfulness in your absence, my beloved

In these folksongs, moral and sexual slips appear as a reality and not just poetic imagination. But it is the wife who has to prove her innocence. When the husband returns, his mother and sisters complain about his wife’s conduct. Similar to Sita, these exiled women are also asked to give an agni pariksha.

The migrant male, on the other hand, is naive, even innocent. Even in his pardesi sexual liaisons, it is the Bengali woman who is scheming to trap the paatar balamwa (thin husband). He is not portrayed as an active agent of his own sexual desire.

Modernity and desire

Pangs of separation are not the only mood that is captured in these folksongs. It is blended with a sense of curiosity. The purab is venomous but it does invoke desire. Mobility is slowly churning the world of immobile women.

पूरब पूरब हम ढ़ेर दिन से सुनतनी ।
पूरब के लोग कईसन होला रे बलमवा ।।

I have been hearing about Purab since ages,
My beloved, tell me how the people over there are.

The seasonality of migration meant that at some point men did return to their homes. The journey back home was a moment of joy and union. People moved with ideas and imagination, with goods and commodities. The metropolitan culture rode back the same wheels that took the men away.

The ‘imagined city’ sparked delight and desire; it helped women visualise the potential for transforming their men. One very beautiful song tells us what women expected their men to be on their return.

रेलगाड़ी से उतरा बलमवा बदल लेते ।
यदि काला होता बदल लेते ।
गोरा छैला ना बदला जाए ।।

I would have exchanged my man, who has alighted from the train,
Had he been dark, I would have exchanged,
The fair dandy is too tempting to replace.

धोती वाला होता बदल लेते ।
सूट वाला ना बदला जाए ।।

Had he been dhoti wearing, I would have exchanged,
The suit wearing is too tempting to replace.

छड़ी वाला होता बदल लेते ।
घड़ी वाला ना बदला जाए ।।

Had he been with walking stick, I would have exchanged,
The watch wearing is too tempting to replace.

चप्पल वाला होता बदल लेते ।
बूट वाला ना बदला जाए ।।

Had he been in floaters, I would have exchanged,
The one in boots is too tempting to replace.

Rahul Gandhi, with his jibe of suit boot ki sarkar, accused the current government of being anti-poor. Almost a hundred years ago, for these people, suit, boot and watch symbolised the acquisition of new forms of modernity. The above jhumar (songs sung at weddings) celebrated the ‘new man’ as much as it adoringly mocked him. A nice contemporary parallel for imagining the setting is the famous song of ‘Taar Bijli Se Patle Hamare Piya‘ sung by the famous Bhojpuri singer Sharda Sinha from the movie Gangs of Wasseypore 2.

Women also desired objects for themselves. They asked their men what they would bring on their return. There was a world beyond the fear of sawatiya.

पूरब जाईब सईयाँ का हो ले आईब?
सासुजी के नथिया, ननदजी गुंजेसरी ।
तोहरा के ले आइबो धनिया, लिलरा के टिकुली ।।

When you go east, what will you bring for me?
For mother-in-law a nose ring, for sister-in-law gunjesri (a kind of an ornament)
For you my wife, I will get tikulee (bindi worn on the forehead)

Very proudly, the wife claims,

टूटी जईहे नथिया, चटकी जईहे गुंजेसरी ।
गजब , गजब करे मोरे लिलरा के टिकुली ।।

The nose ring will break and the gunjesri will crack,
But the tikulee does wonders on my forehead.

Saris, jewellery and other objects related to the body and beauty once again show how central conjugality was in conceptualising the migrant family. The family at times also became the centre of feud. Gifts became a reason for jealousy. In another folksong, the man returns to his home with food, sweets and paan for his wife. Out of jealousy, she is abused by her mother- and sister-in-law. The song ends with the husband consoling his wife in bed.

Subject and author

The question of agency and representation is tricky. The authors of these songs were usually male, most probably not those who migrated but those who were part of the growing neo-literate mofussil class. With the commercial expansion of printing, they saw a new possibility in writing and entertaining the public.

From this perspective, the depiction of a loyal, idealised wife reveals the anxiety of the migrant male community. These songs can be read against the grain suggesting that the male authorship created a hidden subjecthood of the migrant male, who was anxious and suspicious of his wife.

But in such fluid mediums as folksongs, which borrow on established genres and tweak words and phrases to reflect contemporary reality, the issues of authenticity and intention become difficult to establish. Do these songs represent women’s feelings or male projections? Do they tell us about how women saw their lives spent in separation or how men imagined and desired their women to lead their lives? Who is in ‘exile’ here; the one serving in the karkhanas of Calcutta or the one waiting for her man to return? And who breaches the line of loyal conjugality? The men who were “lured” by Bengali women or the women in the villages whose joban threatened to betray the loyalty?

Perhaps looking at folksongs alone cannot give us any clear answers to these questions. But they do provide an alternative way to look into the rich and complex social world of migration. A world that is not frozen in the past but is constantly relived by hundreds and thousands even now. A world in which capital, technology and the state are ever present, but whose pulsating reality is made up of relationships based on love, agony, separation, jealousy and desire – strong personal and social ties.

In the telling reality of migration that is nationally and internationally either described as a ‘crisis’ or an ‘opportunity’, this narrative presents a historical look at one group – Bhojpuri women – who remained immobile in the world that moved along the swirls and jolts of the dhuwan-gaadi.

Note: These songs have been personally collected by the author and also taken from different volumes of Bhojpuri songs edited by Krishnadev Upadhayaya and Ravishankar Upadhayaya. English translations are by the author.

Nitin Sinha is a senior research fellow at ZMO (Centre for Modern Oriental Studies), Berlin

The Facebook-Kashmir Blocks: Technical Errors, Editorial Mistakes and Invisible Censorship Galore

The experiences of those who were restricting from sharing information on Facebook offer insight into how social media giants act as a final arbiter of what is appropriate and what is not.

The experiences of those who were restricted from sharing information on Facebook offer insight into how social media giants act as a final arbiter of what is appropriate and what is not.

The blocking mechanism that Facebook put in for Kashmir content. Credit: Screenshot, The Wire

The blocking mechanism that Facebook put in for Kashmir content. Credit: Screenshot, The Wire

New Delhi: Over the past month, residents of Jammu and Kashmir have been cut off from mobile internet services, regular internet access and, for three days, even daily newspapers, after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in a gun battle with security forces sparked a period of tension and violence for the conflict-stricken state.

Far away from the J&K region, from London to California, a group of nearly 30 academics, activists and journalists found that their ability to discuss and share information regarding the happenings in Kashmir on Facebook was similarly curtailed. Over the past three weeks, Facebook’s global content moderation team, led by policy head Monika Bikert, has kicked into overdrive: deleting swathes of posts that apparently violated the company’s ‘community standards‘, handing out temporary account bans and restricting the reach of certain Facebook communities.

“The entire experience has generated anxiety and a feeling of being bullied,” said Dibyesh Anand, professor of international relations at the University of Westminster, whose account was blocked for two days over the last two weeks.

This isn’t the first time Facebook’s team has waded into a politically controversial situation: Just in the last month, the company has blocked posts that link to the leaked trove of hacked e-mails from the Democratic National Committee while blocking several Arab atheist community groups over alleged anti-Islam speech in late June.

The replies Facebook inevitably gives are boilerplate responses that refer to the company’s community standards pages, technical errors, or, in some cases, an editorial cock-up by a member of its content moderation team.

In order to better understand this opaque process – that has significant implications for freedom of speech, online activism and public discourse – The Wire spoke to a number of academics and activists who had their Facebook posts deleted and accounts blocked over the past two weeks.

Although their accounts do not point definitively towards fault on Facebook’s part, their separate experiences offer insights in to the way social media giants view politically controversial material, the way they hand out punishments and – disturbingly – how they act as a final arbiter of what is appropriate and what is not.

Anti-community standards

1) Tamoghna Halder, PhD student, University of California – Davis.

Halder’s case borders on the extreme. Not only has he been blocked from posting on Facebook five times since July 2015, the time period in which he is restricted from posting increased with each subsequent block. His experience also presents a unique example as he has been blocked from posting for both Kashmir content as well content from the Kangla protest in Manipur.

“I got blocked for the first time on 15th July, at noon, for 24 hours, for posting a photo of the Kangla protest. When I came back, before I could post anything, I was blocked again for 24 hours on account of an image of Kashmir graffiti which I had taken from Google that I had posted earlier,” he said.

After receiving another three-day ban for re-uploading the Kangla protest photo, he was handed another 7-day blocking episode for uploading three images of Kashmir graffiti (July 20th – July 27th). After coming back on July 27th he re-uploaded an album of Kashmir graffiti and received a 30-day block period (up to August 27).

“I am still under the ban for another 28 days. I currently can’t do any activity other than reading messages and accepting friend requests. I can’t share or comment,” Halder said.

2) Arif Ayaz Parrey, senior sub-editor, Centre for Science and Environment

Parrey’s account was blocked on July 26, slightly before noon. Unlike Halder, his account was completely disabled three times over the last four days.

“I was chatting on FB messenger with a friend when I was suddenly logged out. When I tried to log back in, it said my account had been disabled. I was shocked of course, but tried to remain calm and send Facebook my proof of identity as requested,” Parrey said.

His account was restored by the company within an hour after being taken down, but he was also informed that a Facebook page (Kashmir Solidarity Network) for which he was an administrator had been taken down. Other administrators of the same Facebook page apparently also had their accounts blocked.

The same evening, around 7 pm, his account was disabled for a second time but only for a few minutes. After logging back in, Facebook told him that a link that he had posted was removed and that he was banned from posting and commenting for 24 hours.

The link in question is from the Kashmir Reader and is a report of how a group of Hizbul Mujahideen militants have started distributing posters in the likeness of Wani, stating that their mission would continue. When Parrey tried posting the same link again, he was blocked from commenting on Facebook for another 24 hours; a block that has yet to be lifted.

Over the past few days, Parrey has posted a number of links about the violence and turmoil in Kashmir, most of which have to do with the violence being committed in the region with some reports referring to the consequences of pellet guns used by Indian security forces.

3) Dibyesh Anand, professor of international relations, University of Westminster

Anand’s first post, which talked of the “Kashmiri self-determination movement” and the alleged double-standards of many Indian Hindus, was taken down on July 12 and he was blocked from posting on Facebook for 24 hours. After his block ended, he received a message from Facebook that apologised and said that his post had “accidentally been removed” by a member of their team.

FBapology

After that on July 15, another of his posts was blocked and he received another posting ban for 24 hours. After that ban ended, on July 19 he received yet another message from the Facebook content moderation team that apologised for his post removal and ban.

“At the very least, Facebook should know that even if we are treated as ‘customers’, we cannot be taken for granted nor can we be bullied. By focusing on specific demands, we are giving FB the opportunity to come clean about its stance on censorship of posts highlighting state atrocities in Kashmir,” said Anand, referring to an online petition he and his fellow supporters have launched.

4) Sanjay Kak, Documentary Film-Maker

Sanjay Kak is a film-maker who is widely known for his 2007 film called Jashn-e-Azadi, a documentary about conflict in the Kashmir Valley and the “Kashmiri freedom movement”.

The circumstances surrounding Kak’s account ban — which happened for two days from July 26th to July 28th — are equally unique. The post that Kak believes led to his ban, was an anecdote that he posted on Facebook ok July 9th. The post itself is about the general atmosphere in Kashmir in the aftermath of Burhan Wani’s funeral; a policeman refuses to let a civilian pass through a barricade saying that “today is the day that Burhan Wani was martyred”.

Kak however suspects that this post was brought to the attention of Facebook after journalist Rahul Pandita referenced it in an article for Firstpost. “The twist is that barely an hour after it appeared online, my FB account was deactivated, and remained so for two days,” Kak said in a Facebook post.

“Since Mr. Pandita is a journalist of some experience I have no doubt that it was not his intention to bring this unwanted attention to my FB account.  But sadly we live in times where a careless, unsubstantiated allegation, emanating from a somewhat reductionist reading of a complex anecdote, does end up in harassing people. (And lets face it, FB being blocked does only qualify as harassment. Its not physical violence).”

Lessons on censorship

There are a few curious patterns that can be gleaned from these incidents. First, it’s possible to posit that Facebook and other social media giants have a number of factors or criteria that go into handing out bans on posting content; a principle that a number of social media spam analysts confirmed to The Wire as “being natural”.

In the case of Parrey, most the administrators of the Kashmir Solidarity Network Facebook group received bans on posting content, some of which were revoked after they “confirmed their identity” to Facebook by uploading a few documents. It could be possible that profiles like Parrey are flagged because of their association with a blocked Facebook page: The Wire tested posting the link that Facebook had warned Parrey about and was not stopped from posting or blocked afterwards as a result; there does not appear to be a site-wide ban on that specific Kashmir Reader report.

The content posted by Anand, along with other prominent personalities such as documentary film-maker Sanjay Kak, appear to have largely been removed “by mistake”. While Anand received an apology indicating that his posts had been removed mistakenly by a member of Facebook’s content moderation team, another Facebook source The Wire spoke to said that Kak’s case was also a “technical error”.

That Facebook’s process for moderating content, and upholding its community standards, has flaws is obvious. For a vast majority of their work, as the company states, they rely on user reports after which content is removed both algorithmically and by human intervention.

It is this human intervention, by Facebook’s content moderation team, that is troubling. When asked to comment for this story, a Facebook spokesperson sent an emailed statement: “Our community standards prohibit content that praises or supports terrorists, terrorist organizations or terrorism, and we remove it as soon as we’re made aware of it.  We welcome discussion on these subjects but any terrorist content has to be clearly put in a context which condemns these organisations or their violent activities.”

The last sentence of the company’s statement is particularly chilling because, as evidenced by the apology Anand received, at the end of the day Facebook’s global team exercises a certain amount of editorial judgment and in the case of Kashmir content, all posts need to be “put in a context that condemns these [terrorist] organisations or their violent activities”.

Who determines this sort of context? How do they do it? The editorial judgement required here inevitably creates a structure of black box censorship and raises a number of obvious questions: How many Indians or Pakistanis are on Facebook’s global community standards team? How does one make sure that they don’t delete posts based on their own biases? This was an issue that cropped up earlier this year during the Facebook trending news controversy.

In a press conference on Saturday, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs voiced these concerns by publicly stating – without adducing any evidence, however – that Facebook’s Kashmir censorship was being manipulated by “employees from India or other nationals of Indian origin”.

Facebook insists that it has a “global team” for upholding its community standards, with a few sources telling The Wire that the team is “significantly diverse”. According to people with direct knowledge of the matter, Facebook is removing any online content that expresses support for groups that are involved in Kashmiri militancy violence or criminal behaviour in the region. Any posts that support Burhan Wani or leaders of similar organisations or which condone their violent activities will be removed quickly.

Content, however, that falls in between these two and is difficult to categorise might fall through the cracks as seen in the case of Anand or Kak. Facebook follows up on the removal of this content with apologies or refers to them as technical mistakes: posts that were flagged by users and removed by a member of Facebook’s team in error.

There is little doubt Facebook’s policies need to improve, but even if some amount of bias goes into the moderation process, the real question is whether anything can be done about it.

Featured image credit: Reuters

Why India Needs to Seriously Push Its ‘Study in India’ Initiative

A larger presence of foreign students in a country is not only reflective of a nation’s ‘soft power’ but also augments it.

A larger presence of foreign students in a country is not only reflective of a nation’s ‘soft power’ but also augments it.

Students from various college at the US Embassy, New Delhi, 2010. Credit: usembassynewdelhi/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Students from various colleges at the US Embassy, New Delhi, 2010. Credit: usembassynewdelhi/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

This is the first of a two-part essay on ‘Study in India’.

According to a report on foreign students at India’s colleges and universities, their numbers fell by 6% in 2013-2014 to 31,126. Many newspapers headlined this decline even though the data is two years old. Curiously, less than a year ago, at least one newspaper quoted a 2014 report of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) that ‘India is gradually emerging as a preferred destination for foreign students, particularly from the South Asian region.’ It also noted an increase in the numbers of international students to 31,120 in 2011-2012, which was 20% more than the previous year.

The purpose behind citing the numbers above, however, is not to highlight an increase or decline in the numbers of international students in India. In fact, the numbers seem to indicate that their growth has been flat over the past five years or so rather than going clearly in one direction or the other. The more interesting aspect of these numbers is how low they are considering that there are 757 universities, 38,056 colleges and 11,922 stand-alone institutions in the country (AISHE 2014-2015); and we have the second-largest population of higher education students in the world. In fact, India is projected to become home to the world’s largest population of college-aged students – 119 million – by 2025.

What is also remarkable about these numbers is that the number of Indian studying abroad – approximately 360,000 – is nearly ten times higher than the number of international students at Indian universities; and globally, over the past decade or so, there has been a significant increase in the numbers of students choosing to study abroad. In 2000, 2 million students travelled abroad to study; in 2013, the numbers had reached 4.1 million.

Given the low numbers of foreign students in India while their numbers are growing worldwide, the question is whether the Indian government should become more interested in attracting international students. Indeed it is or at least seems to be, with the MHRD under former minister Smriti Irani taking some preliminary steps to prepare a ‘Study in India’ initiative. The logical next question is whether the government and India’s universities can take concrete measures to make India more appealing for foreign students.

International students in China and India

Before taking up the issues raised above, a brief comparison with China is useful not only to appreciate the contrast between the two countries with respect to foreign students but also the opportunities and gains we can expect from larger numbers of international students.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the total number of Indian students in the US shot up from 148,360 in March 2015 to 194,438 in March 2016, an increase of over 31 per cent. According to data from the Indian Students Mobility Report 2016, 360,000 Indians study abroad at key destinations in North America, Europe and elsewhere. While China is way ahead with 700,000 students abroad, the rate of growth in the number of Indian students heading to foreign shores suggests that India may overtake China in the coming years. What is also interesting is that while Indian students, along with those from China and South Korea, make up for the bulk of international students in the US, a large number of South Koreans are turning to China for higher education. The numbers of American students in China too has also grown substantially to 24,000. In fact, the number of Indian students in China has also increased by 50% between 2010 and 2014, from less than 10,000 students to more than 13,500 students. Recent estimates put the number of international students in China at 377,000, the third highest number of international students in the world during 2014, behind only the US and the UK. Note that the gap between the number of students heading abroad and the numbers coming in to study in China is quite small in comparison to India.

Yes, geographical proximity and/or cost of education count among the key factors that have increasingly attracted more foreign students to China. However, it is also true that, unlike India, the economic and military rise of China has been accompanied by a surge in the rise of world-class universities which dominated the BRICS & Emerging Economies rankings 2016. China has also opened its doors to Western universities, and while this arrangement is not without its problems and controversies, it has allowed China to project itself as an emerging powerhouse in higher education, especially in an Asian context. According to Carly Minsky of Times Higher Education (THE), “the dominance of China’s universities in the BRICS & Emerging Economies rankings 2016 highlights a wider trend for international students to consider China’s top institutions alongside leading universities elsewhere in the world.”

The contrast with India is stark. Students from even the South Asian region do not seem to have much interest in studying at our universities. Statistically, neighbouring countries such as Nepal are the largest suppliers of foreign students to India but their overall numbers are quite small. Bureaucratic and other hurdles are among the many key factors that discourage students, from neighbouring countries and elsewhere, from seeking to study in India. In comparison to China, the quality of education at our universities also dissuades international students. Finally, we do not even seem to have a strategy in place to woo international students.

So, a second dismal aspect of foreign students in India, other than the fact that their numbers are very low, is that our universities do not attract many students from even the neighbouring countries, which are all poorer countries and with higher education systems that are mostly in worse shape than ours. Geographical proximity and the relatively low costs of education clearly do not matter as much as we might imagine.

Why international students?

Should countries such as India even be concerned about the low numbers of foreign students and consider measures to increase their numbers? Why bother at all?

The reasons why several countries around the world actively seek international students are many though the reasons vary in importance for them. It may be useful for India to consider the benefits of hosting more international students than less based on the experience of other countries, including China.

For many Western countries such as the US, the UK and Australia, one of the many immediate and measurable benefits from large numbers of international students is economic. International students contribute billions of dollars to these countries and because many of them stay behind to work and live there, they continue to contribute to the host country as skilled workers. In 2015, international students contributed more than $30.5 billion to the US economy. Similarly, in the UK, According to the Impact of Universities on the UK Economy (March 2016), the higher education sector in the UK generated over £73.11 billion of output and 757,268 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs throughout the economy via direct and secondary or multiplier effects. Higher education institutions in London, which has more top-ranked universities than any other city in the world, contributed a net economic benefit of $3.5 billion to the UK economy. In sum, as a headline put it: ‘International students bring money, skills and jobs’.

Direct and indirect economic benefits apart, foreign students bring social and cultural benefits to the host nation. Such benefits are hard to measure but widely-acknowledged as important for the host university and the immediate community. A 2015 article in the Atlantic largely agreed with a report by the International Institute of Education (IIE) that:

The presence of international students in American schools provides U.S. students with exposure to different cultures and ideas enlivening classroom discussions with their perspectives and experiences. This exposure also has practical value, especially when only a fraction of American college students study abroad; sitting in a classroom with a Brazilian or a Saudi might be the only exchange that Americans students have with people from other countries and the only opportunity to develop skills critical to a globalized workforce.

Now, for developing countries such as India, economic benefits aside, other kinds of gains from international students may not be taken into consideration by policymakers. International students from some countries may even be considered a problem from a national security perspective. However, what we need to appreciate is that India as an emerging world power, certainly as a regional power, must utilise all means possible to nurture and further close ties with its neighbours as well as other countries. India’s economic and military power may impress but is also considered a threat and is therefore inadequate for maintaining good relations with neighbouring countries. Encouraging a larger number of students from South Asian countries, even offering them generous incentives to study in India, would help strengthen ties between India and its neighbours and enhance India’s image and influence.

As I discuss in the next part of the article, a larger presence of foreign students in a country is not only reflective of a nation’s ‘soft power’ but augments it. While democracy, diversity and culture (including movies and music) are all important contributors to our soft power, a robust higher education sector which attracts students from abroad could become terrifically important for the same reason, particularly in the current era where the knowledge sector is more valued globally than ever before. Just as the incredible success of Indians abroad in a variety of professions has done wonders to our image, a more dynamic and qualitatively superior higher education sector could do more, probably much more.

Pushkar is an assistant professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani-Goa.

Erdogan to Close Military Schools to Reduce Army Influence

Suspecting rival Fethullah Gulen’s influence through military schools. the Turkish president wants to reduce the power of the army.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the audience as he visits the Turkish police special forces base damaged by fighting during a coup attempt in Ankara, Turkey, July 29, 2016. Kayhan Ozer/Courtesy of Presidential Palace via Reuters/Files

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the audience as he visits the Turkish police special forces base damaged by fighting during a coup attempt in Ankara, Turkey, July 29, 2016. Credit: Kayhan Ozer/Courtesy of Presidential Palace via Reuters/Files

Ankara: Turkey will shut down its military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the defence minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday in a move designed to bring the military under tighter government control after a failed coup.

The changes, some of which Erdogan said would likely be announced in the government’s official gazette by Sunday, come after more than 1,700 military personnel were dishonourably discharged this week for their role in the abortive July 15-16 putsch.

Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, told Reuters in an interview last week that the military, NATO’s second-biggest, needed ‘fresh blood’. The dishonourable discharges included around 40% of Turkey’s admirals and generals.

Turkey accuses US-based Islamic cleric, Fethullah Gulen, of orchestrating the putsch, in which a faction of the military commandeered tanks, helicopters and fighter jets had attempted to topple the government. Erdogan has said 237 people were killed and more than 2,100 wounded.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US for years, denies the charge and has condemned the coup. So far, more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and schools have been either detained, removed or suspended over suspected links with Gulen.

Turkey’s Western allies condemned the attempted putsch, but have been rattled by the scale of the resulting crackdown.

“Our armed forces will be much stronger with the latest decree we are preparing. Our force commanders will report to the defence minister,” Erdogan said in an interview on Saturday with A Haber, a private broadcaster.

Military schools will be shut down… We will establish a national defence university.”

He also said he wanted the national intelligence agency and the chief of general staff, the most senior military officer, to report directly to the presidency: moves that would require a constitutional change and therefore the backing of opposition parties.

Both the general staff and the intelligence agency now report to the prime minister’s office. Putting them under the president’s overall direction would be in line with Erdogan‘s push for a new constitution centred on a strong executive presidency.

Erdogan also said that a total of 10,137 people have been formally arrested following the coup.

Military stretched

The shake-up comes as Turkey’s military – long seen as the guardians of the secular republic – is already stretched by violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast, and ISIS attacks on its border with Syria.

The army killed 35 Kurdish militants after they attempted to storm a base in the southeastern Hakkari province early on Saturday, military officials said.

Erdogan said he planned to thin the numbers of the gendarmerie security forces widely used in the fight against Kurdish militants in the southeast, although he said they would become more effective with better weaponry and he promised to continue the fight against Kurdish insurgents.

Separately, the head of the pro-Kurdish opposition told Reuters that the government’s chance to revive a wrecked peace process with Kurdish rebels has been missed as Erdogan taps nationalist sentiment to consolidate support.

State-run Anadolu Agency reported that 758 soldiers were released on the recommendation of prosecutors after giving testimony, and the move was agreed by a judge.

Another 231 soldiers remain in custody, it said.

‘Shameful’

Erdogan, meanwhile, has said it was ‘shameful’ that Western countries showed more interest in the fate of the plotters than in standing with a fellow NATO member and has upbraided Western leaders for not visiting after the putsch. US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Joseph Dunford, a top military official, is due to visit Turkey on Sunday.

In an unexpected move, Erdogan said late on Friday that as a one-off gesture, he would drop all lawsuits filed against people for insulting him. He said the decision was triggered by feelings of ‘unity’ against the coup attempt.

It could also be aimed at silencing his Western critics. Prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases against people for insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014, the justice minister said earlier this year. Those targeted include journalists, cartoonists and even children.

It was not immediately clear whether Erdogan would also drop his legal action against German comedian Jan Boehmermann, who earlier this year recited a poem on television suggesting Erdogan engaged in bestiality and watched child pornography, prompting the president to file a complaint with German prosecutors that he had been insulted.

European leaders worry that their differences with Erdogan could prompt him to retaliate and put an end to a historic deal, agreed in March, to stem the wave of migrants to Europe.

“The success of the pact so far is fragile. President Erdogan has several times hinted he wants to terminate the agreement,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told Austria’s Kurier newspaper in an interview, when asked if the pact could fall apart.

Erdogan criticised the European Council and the European Union, which Turkey aspires to be a part of, for failing to visit to offer condolences, saying their criticism was ‘shameful’.

Erdogan has called on Washington to extradite Gulen. Turkish officials have suggested the US could extradite him based on strong suspicion, while President Barack Obama last week insisted Turkey must first present evidence of Gulen’s alleged complicity.

Court reporters

On Saturday, 56 employees of Turkey’s constitutional court were suspended from their jobs as part of the investigation into the alleged coup, private broadcaster Haberturk TV reported.

Among those, more than 20 court reporters were detained, it reported.

The number of public sector workers removed from their posts since the coup attempt is now more than 66,000, including some 43,000 people in education, Anadolu reported on Friday.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said more than 18,000 people had been detained over the failed coup, and that 50,000 passports had been cancelled. The labour ministry said it was investigating 1,300 staff over their possible involvement.

Erdogan has said that Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a ‘parallel state’ that aimed to take over the country.

The government is now going after Gulen’s network of schools and other institutions abroad. Since the coup, Somalia has shut two schools and a hospital believed to have links to Gulen, and other governments have received similar requests from Ankara, although not all have been willing to comply.

(Reuters)

Peace Talks With Yemen Houthi Rebels Extended By a Week Says UN Envoy

The 16-month-old conflict that has killed more than 6,400 people, was being negotiated over a long period, and has been extended further by a week.

U.N. special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed leaves after a meeting with Houthi movement officials in Sanaa, Yemen July 14, 2016. Khaled Abdullah, Reuters/Files

UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed leaves after a meeting with Houthi movement officials in Sanaa, Yemen July 14, 2016. Credit: Khaled Abdullah, Reuters/Files

Cairo: Talks aimed at ending Yemen‘s war, which had appeared on the brink of collapse after a major disagreement between the government and its Houthi militia foes, have been extended by a week, the UN envoy to Yemen said on Sunday.

“We hope that the delegations can utilise this remaining week to achieve progress on the path towards peace,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said in a statement, adding his thanks to Kuwait for agreeing to host the talks for the additional period.

The slow-moving negotiations are aimed at ending a 16-month-old conflict that has killed more than 6,400 people, nearly half of them civilians, and displaced more than 2.5 million.

A truce that began in April has slowed the momentum of fighting, but violence continues almost daily.

On Friday, the delegation of the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said it planned to pull out of the talks on Saturday.

The move was in apparent protest at the announcement by Houthi rebels and their allies in the General People’s Congress (GPC), the political party of militarily powerful former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, that they had decided to form a political council to unilaterally rule the country.

Cheikh Ahmed said on Thursday the move gravely violated UN Security Council Resolution 2216, which calls on the Houthis “to refrain from further unilateral actions that could undermine the political transition in Yemen“.

But on Saturday afternoon, Cheikh Ahmed said on his Twitter account that he had met both delegations, and “suggested a one-week extension to the talks and a framework for a solution to the crisis in Yemen“. His announcement of the extension of the talks followed a few hours later.

In one of the worst flare ups in fighting since peace talks began, warplanes of a Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government bombed Houthi fighters from Yemen seeking to infiltrate Saudi Arabia on Saturday, killing tens of Houthi militiamen, security sources said.

Yemen‘s Houthi-run state news agency, Saba, said Houthi forces had fired missiles at Saudi targets in response.

(Reuters)