Talking to reporters outside the House, Tejashwi Yadav said if the RJD is voted to power it will implement the domicile policy.
Patna: The Bihar government said on Friday that there is no need for 90% reservations for locals in government jobs and educational institutions.
Replying to a calling attention motion in the assembly, minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said 50% seats are reserved for people belonging to the SC, ST, OBC, EBC, and women of Backward Classes, while 10% seats are reserved for general category candidates from an economically backward section.
Thus, 60% of seats are reserved for the locals as per the provisions of the Bihar Reservation Act, 1992 that was amended in 2003, the minister said, adding that the rest is open for all candidates, and people from Bihar and all other states can compete for those.
“There is no requirement for extending reservation up to 90% for the local people,” he said.
Interjecting the minister’s reply, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav cited examples of several states, including neighbouring Jharkhand which has formulated a domicile policy to extend the reservation for its people to 100%.
Stating that 50% of people from Bihar migrate to other states for employment opportunities, Tejashwi demanded a domicile policy be implemented as it would help the state in preventing migration.
Yadav, the minister in-charge, said that “if we stop others, then other states too will follow the same… You (Tejashwi) give me in writing as to which state is giving how much reservation, the government will consider”.
Talking to reporters outside the House, Tejashwi Yadav said if the RJD is voted to power it will implement the domicile policy.
During the Question Hour, health minister Mangal Pandey announced that the process of appointment of 6,462 doctors will be completed by March in different hospitals of the state.
He said that it is the biggest-ever recruitment of doctors in the state after Independence.
Jakob Lindenthal not given any reason for non-renewal of visa. In December, he was told by the Bureau of Immigration to leave the country.
New Delhi: The Government of India has revoked the visa of Jakob Lindenthal, a German exchange student at IIT Madras who was in December told to leave the country for participating in anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests.
According to a report in the Indian Express, Lindenthal was informed by the Indian Embassy in Germany on February 8 that his visa has been cancelled. He told the newspaper that he was not given “any reason for the decision”.
A student of Technical University-Dresden (TUD), Lindenthal had joined IIT Madras as an exchange student in July 2019. He was studying in the physics department and was scheduled to complete his course in May this year.
In Germany, the Head of Press Office and Public Relations at TUD, Kim Magister, confirmed to the newspaper that the student’s visa has now indeed been cancelled. “Mr. Lindenthal’s visa has indeed now been officially cancelled, meaning that he is no longer able to travel to India to continue his student exchange. However, he was able to successfully complete one semester at the IIT Madras. For this period, he will receive a Transcript of Records from our partner university,” he told the newspaper through an email.
Magister added that the student’s expulsion has not affected the exchange programme. He, however, indicated that measures have been put in place to prevent similar episodes by stating that the TUD has now introduced workshops to “optimally prepare” students for such programmes.
Stating that Lindenthal would also present his experiences at these workshops, the official said: “The main objective is to raise awareness in our students regarding the understanding and the respect for regional particularities all over the world.”
Lindenthal ran into trouble with the authorities following his participation in an anti-CAA protest. During the protest on the campus, he was seen holding a placard that said, “1933-1945. We have been there”. This was in reference to the Nazi regime in Germany. He was also seen with another placard that read, “No Democracy without dissent”.
A number of universities across the country had witnessed a spontaneous outrage among the student community against the law which allowed Indian citizenship to only non-Muslims who faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Visa guidelines, however, bar participation of foreign students in such protests.
The Wire had in December reported how Lindenthal was asked to leave India by the Bureau of Immigration officials. He was then summoned to the BOI office in Chennai and questioned on several issues, ranging from his views on Indian politics to the anti-CAA protests.
He was then told that he would have to leave the country and reapply for a visa if he wanted to return. Though the student was offered legal support by the German Consulate, he decided to leave as he felt unsafe. At that time, Lindenthal had still to complete a semester of his exchange programme.
Meanwhile, responding to the latest development, IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi told the newspaper that “granting of visa is done by Immigration and the educational institute is not involved, except for giving the admission offer or invitation. If visa is granted the student or visitor comes, else they do not. This is the process followed everywhere.”
Earlier this week, a student from Bangladesh studying in the Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal also received a notice to leave the country, apparently after she posted photos of an anti-CAA protest on Facebook.
Lt. General Raj Kadyan’s skewered opinions on giving women permanent commission are not representative of the jawans and show that the problem lies at the upper echelons.
The jargon of an army man is often that of honour, respect and integrity. The institution epitomizes service above self and bravery. However, this emphasis on honour respect and bravery seems to slip away like a thinly veiled façade when the issue of inclusion of women in the army comes to the podium. And this is where toxic masculinity raises its ugly head.
An army, just like any other arm of a government, is but a reflection of the society it represents and just like the society, it is subject to social reform and change for the advancement of the society as a whole. However, it seems from the perspective of the top brass in the army, which is 100% male, by the way, the example of society is only to be invoked to keep the doors of equality shut on their female comrades. This is where Lt. Gen. Raj Kadyan’s skewered opinions are rooted.
Firstly, there is no argument as the issue is not of inducting women, which was done 26 years ago. So if anything, we have moved forward. Where does the question of jawans not accepting women come from? They have accepted women for over two decades, so why will they object to women having a permanent commission under their belt?
Describing the movie as being a ‘laboratory for social experimentation’ would have had any meaning back in the 90s, when women were being inducted. Gen Kadyan, the experiment has already been done and is successful in its hypotheses and with positive results.
That the prospect of women in commanding positions is troubling only shows a mind that would like to see women being subordinate or maybe equal. But accepting them to be above (even if only in rank) is like shaking the hornet’s nest. This clearly shows that the problem is not in the mentality of the jawan, but those at the higher echelons of the military.
The jawans come from the same society which accepts women as district magistrates or police officers and takes orders. I wonder what would have happened if all were to think in the same fashion and we would still be ruled by the upper caste. General, in rural India, there is a caste divide but it is up to the state to uphold equality. Imagine if someone were to argue, “Dalits should not be in places of power because Brahmins will not take orders.”
Police women march during India’s Republic Day parade in Chandigarh, January 26, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Ajay Verma
Across India, women toil in fields and in Uttarakhand, the state that I come from, women carry weight uphill while men bask in the sun. Yet it is the state with the largest representation in the armed forces. Studies have shown that women from the hills are the most hardworking and laborious of all working classes across the world.
However, debunking the narrative that Lt General Kadyan promotes, and the perception he is pushing that somehow his views are representative of the men and women of the armed forces is imperative.
Not all military men are sexist bigots. If this was the case, the struggle to open up combat roles for women in the Indian Air Force would have been even more Herculean. It is largely because of the massive support we got from our fellow officers, mostly male, that we were able to succeed in our battle. However, the men at the top of the pecking order are the ones still stuck with their caveman ideals and that is why getting women permanent commission as well as command roles is so important. Till women are not given leadership roles, the intent of the army to reform in this regard will always be lacking.
One would think that after 26 years of hearing the same justifications the old guard makes to keep women down, that I would have become used to it. But it feels like an old wound being reopened afresh every time. To be considered less than my fellow male officer just because of my gender, and not on my performance is something no one should have to deal with.
It is astounding that the army was able to hold out in brazen contempt of the order of the Delhi high court without having a single scientific or logic-based reason to do so.
The arguments come from this predetermined conclusion that the army is somehow above the ideals our constitution deems to fulfil. The makers of our constitution were fully aware of the ground realities of our nation’s society, its patriarchal and casteist nature. Yet they still chose to enshrine the ideals of an equal, free and liberated India.
Dr B.R. Ambedkar famously wrote:
“Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.”
Imagine if Ambedkar, along with the Constituent Assembly, shared the same weak resolve the top honchos of the military have. Who would want to live in such a dystopia? The imposition of constitutional morality is never popular, as can be seen from the opposition to the Hindu Marriage Act, the Hindu Succession Act and their successive recent amendments, along with contentious impositions like the Triple Talaq Act and the Sabrimala judgment.
All of these impositions are based on of Article 15 of the Constitution which states as follows:
15. Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. (1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
Thus, the Constitution obviously bars sexual discrimination by the government in the clearest terms. Even international law clearly states through the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), discrimination against women as “…any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.” By accepting the convention, states commit themselves to undertake a series of measures to end discrimination against women in all forms.
Supreme Court of India. Photo: PTI
The army is further bound by the Delhi high court’s Wg. Cdr. Anupama Joshi vs Union of India judgment. The Supreme Court in the case of Air India vs Nargesh Mirzaset aside the discriminatory employment rules for female flight attendants of Air India. While the court had been cautious to delve in the internal policies of the military, they have chosen at this juncture to break the glass ceiling,
This is the Army that fought the 1971 war under the prime ministership of Indra Gandhi, the same army that’s boasts of a caste and religion inclusive history. If the caste and religion of an officer don’t matter, why is their gender always called into question? Why are only women to be kept at the margins of the military?
Another point that Gen Kadyan makes is that women will not be able to survive the Herculean training regimen that male officers follow. Sir, let the women compete, and qualify only those who pass the standard. Provide them training. If they survive the regime, good. If not, too bad. If they ask for any shortcuts, do not, I repeat, do not give them this option. Let them compete on the same playing field. Do not give concessions, give them the choice to lead.
For the last time, judge them for their efficiency and not gender.
I rest my case.
Anupama Joshi retired as a Wing Commander in the India Air Force. She was the original petitioner in the Delhi high court’s judgment on granting permanent commission to women. Inputs for the article weer provided from Aaryaan Sadanand.
A fortnightly column from The Wire’s public editor.
Even while Delhi was consumed by the worst communal conflagration it has experienced in 36 years, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement of assurance to the country on Friday, February 28, after six days of violence had engulfed Delhi and whole neighbourboods had been consumed by murderous mobs; brutalized, burnt, and abandoned by residents fleeing in fear. It noted: “Only 12 police stations out of the 203 in Delhi (about 4.2% of the geographical area) have been affected by these riots, while normalcy and communal harmony has prevailed elsewhere in the national capital.”
It was an invitation to move on, pretend nothing serious has happened, just as the prime minister and his home minister have done. While Disney’s Hotstar, which promotes itself as “India’s largest premium streaming platform” took care to skip the John Oliver episode which criticised and poked fun at Prime Minister Modi (‘Why Hasn’t Hotstar Uploaded John Oliver’s Latest Show Criticising Modi and the CAA?’, February 26), the Union home minister even found time in this interregnum, to send out a message extolling V.D. Savarkar, who had with chilling clarity drawn up the template to achieve Hindutva nearly a century ago. He went on to address a rally in Bhubaneswar to defend the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) – the original instrument wielded in order to achieve precisely such communal polarising conflagrations. The editorial in The Wire (‘The BJP Has Wilfully Let Delhi Burn’, February 26), was upfront: “Nobody should be under any illusion that the Delhi communal riots of 2020 are not a product of deliberate attempts to polarise the country on religious grounds.”
This invitation to move on – extended to those of us not physically affected by the violence, who know that our roofs are intact and our doors still protect us, whose heads have not been beaten in with pipes, whose children continue to play before us, whose neighbourhoods buzz with everyday activity, whose livelihoods are secure – needs to be understood. We can only comprehend it in the fullness of its significance if we recall what happened in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002. There too, “normalcy and communal harmony” had prevailed in one half of the city, even while the other half – populated largely by Muslims – was left to be consumed by murderous mobs. Ahmedabad emerged from that interregnum a completely divided city, so riven that the nomenclature of ‘border’ seemed apt in describing the space that lay between the ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ parts of the city.
This is the “normalcy” that the Union home minister hopes to create for Delhi and by extension the entire country. Large sections of mainstream media are fully on board that project – and it is not just Hindutva platforms like OpIndia. Nothing illustrates this more than the calibrated manner in which the injuries found on the body of Ankit Sharma, an Intelligence Bureau security assistant, brutally murdered on February 26, was conveyed in television programme after television programme over the next two days. When a large and influential section of the media did this day in and day out in a tense scenario, where the death toll steadily rises, mosques get burned to the ground, where Hindutva mobs continue to scream the crassest of communal abuse and threats, this amounts to nothing but being deliberately, calculatedly, incendiary.
Media theorist Arvind Rajagopal in a 1997 analysis had written about how “television becomes a key locus of collective activity, albeit in a serialized and individuated fashion” and “comes to ‘stand for’ society and serves as a crucial ruse of consent”. Just one tweet from someone called ‘Rosy’, in response to Sudhir Chaudhury’s dangerously partisan report on Ankit Sharma, would indicate such causality: “Heart Wrenching The pogrоm & KiIIings of Hindus is typical of IsIamic Вrutаlity. Doctors who conducted Post Mortem on IB Officer Ankit Sharm’s body said they have never seen as many stаb wounds as they saw on his body #AnkitSharma#DelhiRiots2020#Delhigenocide (sic)”
Criminal gangs from both communities have wreaked their customary havoc under the gaze of the police, but such saturation coverage on just one killing of a person clearly identified as Hindu is that the equally condemnable murders of others who happen to bear names like Mohd Shabaan, Mubarak Ali, Ishtiyak Khan, gets erased and the impression grows that only Hindus were killed by rampaging Muslim rioters, when in fact this is far from the reality.
People leave their houses at Brij Puri area of northeast Delhi, February 28, 2020. Photo: PTI
This coverage would be better understood against the larger background of the systematic way the same media actors had worked to portray the anti-CAA protests as the trigger for the violence and then cite their false framing to claim that the violence on Delhi’s streets was between anti-CAA and pro-CAA forces.
In actual terms, there is no such thing as pro-CAA – it is only shorthand for pro-government. The Wire analysis, ‘Narendra Modi’s Reckless Politics Brings Mob Rule to New Delhi’ (February 28) reminds us that the 70 days of the anti-CAA protests were absolutely peaceful –“no mobs on the rampage, no stone pelting, no burning of shops and homes”, just people forced into a struggle they did not choose, in order to resist an ideologically driven measure that threatens their future.
Never has the country more needed principled guardians of institutions to help us negotiate our way through this diabolically designed maze. Among these guardians, I would count the humble reporter, who despite the clear and present danger they face carries on with their mandated task of bearing witness. The Wire story ‘Delhi Riots: Mosque Set on Fire in Ashok Nagar, Hanuman Flag Placed on Minaret’ (February 25) heard the shouts of “Jai Sri Ram” and “Hinduon ka Hindustan”, saw the burning of the Badi Masjid, noted the Hanuman flag placed on its minaret. Little wonder then that mobs who take care to break CCTV cameras before they launch their nefarious activities adopt a similar approach to reporters – beating, even shooting, them. The courage with which The Wire’s fearless Arfa Khanum Sherwani has carried on with her work despite the vilest threats and abuses thrown at her is a matter of collective pride for this portal (‘Global Scribes’ Body Asks BJP Leaders to Stop Online Harassment of The Wire’s Arfa Khanum Sherwani’, February 27). In fact, every journalist who bears the physical scars of their search for the true story needs to be seen as the unacknowledged custodian of the common good (‘Delhi Riots: Journalists Shot at, Punched, Asked to Prove Religion’, February 25). Each one of them contributes far more to society than do those over-paid anchors who whip up prime time confections of pure hate based on dictated recipes.
Women’s Day is a short spell away and it may be apt to repeat the words of Rose McGowan, the actress who was one of the first in a long line of women to call out Harvey Weinstein for being a sexual predator. Asked by the New York Times on the lasting impact of the experience she responded, “this is a story of us unraveling abuse of power. And I think that has to stop.”
One needs to hold on to that thought and remember that case (‘Harvey Weinstein Convicted of Sexual Assault, Acquitted of Being a Serial Predator’, February 24), when one considers the piece, ‘An Indian Leader in the Fight Against Climate Change’ (February 7), on the late R.K. Pachauri. It was met with immediate and unequivocal condemnation from readers in India and across the world. How could an article written in evident and deep admiration of a man who was, as it put it, “the only Indian to head an organisation that was awarded the Nobel Prize – the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change”, not mention, even in passing, even in the briefest, most casual way, that he had been accused by multiple women of sexual preying; that he had spent the last half-decade of his life battling – not climate change – but innumerable cases of sexual harassment.
It’s difficult to disagree with this assessment. Whitewashing Dr Pachauri, great scientist though he may have been, reflects a manifest tone-deafness to the crime of sexual harassment, which has survived over the millennia because of this refusal to perceive it as a crime, invisibilised and normalised as it has become through patriarchal privilege. It is also difficult to argue with Vrinda Grover, who was handling two of these cases, when she writes in that the author of this piece “was a long standing friend of RK Pachauri” and had “deposed as a witness in support of RK Pachauri in the defamation suit that he filed against me and the two other women. As an experienced journalist and guest writer, Jha ought to have disclosed this fact.”
The question, of course, is whether The Wire should have entertained this piece in the first place? The editors, in their response, maintain that “As a matter of editorial policy, the opinions expressed by opinion writers are their own.” This one can accept. After all, freedom of speech in published work hinges crucially on those who edit conforming to that important principle. However, every editor also enjoys the right of veto – cutting out is at least one part of the task of editing – which they should have exercised in this instance, but did not.
Rajendra K. Pachauri. Photo: Kris Krug/Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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After the pogrom
Responding to the communal violence that broke out in Delhi, Vijay G. Pradhan, a reader of The Wire and a senior advocate who had served as additional senior counsel for the erstwhile Srikrishna Commission that looked into the Bombay Riots of 1992/93, has an important suggestion. He wants The Wire to “forcefully highlight the necessity of referring the ongoing riots for a full-fledged inquiry, with comprehensive terms of reference, under the provisions of the Commission of Inquiry Act before a credible Supreme Court judge.
Of the total cases, 25 cases have been registered under the Arms Act, police said.
New Delhi: A total of 148 FIRs have been registered and 630 people have been either arrested or detained so far in connection with the northeast Delhi communal violence, the Delhi Police spokesperson said on Friday.
Delhi Police spokesperson Mandeep Singh Randhawa said forensic science laboratory (FSL) teams have been called in and the crime scenes are being revisited.
Of the total cases, 25 cases have been registered under the Arms Act, police said.
“The investigation is going on and we have called FSL teams. We are revisiting the scene of the crime. We are collecting footage and evidence. We have controlled the situation and it is heading towards normalcy. The deployment (of force) will remain in the areas along with senior officers. We have conducted around 400 meetings with aman (peace) committees,” Randhawa said.
The death toll in Delhi’s communal violence has gone up to 42. More than 250 people have been injured in communal clashes.
“We have seen that some hate videos are being circulated on social media. I want to appeal and warn people not to circulate these kinds of videos. We are closely monitoring social media and we will take legal actions. We are releasing a number through which people can register their complaint if they receive such kind of videos,” the PRO said.
If people come across any such hate material, they can complain at cyber helpline 155260, police said.
The areas mainly affected by the riots include Jafrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas, and Bhajanpura.
Director Anubhav Sinha delivers another movie that tries to disrupt Bollywood’s status quo-reverential stories.
Hindi cinema has been in love with status quo for long. Bollywood has protected, showcased, and celebrated it, mainly through the stories of affluent, caste Hindus. When a story is repeated for long, then it no longer remains a story, it becomes the story. But in the increasing herd of numerous soulless directors – especially over the last few years – at least one has found his sense of purpose, his soul: Anubhav Sinha.
His 2018 drama, Mulk, tackled Islamophobia. His Article 15 examined the caste divide. His latest, Thappad, starring Taapsee Pannu, is centred on the trauma and despair of a woman slapped by her husband. Religion, caste, and gender – Sinha is not just telling stories; he also seems to be telling a story about telling stories. These are not movies as much as confessions, an act of self-exoneration.
Further, his recent films, also well-made, are bigger than the subjects they portray. What’s initially striking about Thappad,too, is the small things it gets right. A story of a housewife, Amrita (or “Amu”), it understands a crucial facet of her life: the lyrical routine of everyday living.
The dawn breaks, a newspaper is lobbed to the front door, soon followed by two bottles of milk. She shuts the alarm, gets up, picks them up. Opens the balcony door, waters the plants, makes tea. Serves breakfast to her husband, sees him off, and hands him his wallet and bag. Even before her husband, Vikram (Pavail Gulati), has left for office – made himself ‘useful’ in the eyes of society – Amu has worked for at least a few hours: work that will not get recognition or reward. Work that is not even considered work.
Like the nature of that work, the film doesn’t make a big deal about those scenes – it simply repeats them as a matter of fact at least half-a-dozen times. So that we know, so that we realise. That is the best thing about Thappad: it shows us a reality, a story hidden in plain sight all along. A story so ubiquitous that we don’t even think of it as one.
The other impressive bit about the movie is its range of supporting characters, and how their stories feel similar. Besides the married couple, Thappad introduces us to Vikram’s mother (Tanvi Azmi); their house help (Geetika Vidya Ohlyan) and their neighbour (Dia Mirza); Amu’s mother (Ratna Pathak Shah) and father (Kumud Mishra); and her lawyer (Maya Sarao). All these characters have backstories and inner lives; some have conflicts, some regrets. In most Bollywood films, the hero’s story exists above – and often at the cost of – other stories. But in Thappad, a drama where a woman is the hero, there’s no self-absorption, only accommodation. The film smoothly cuts among these lives – each story provides an extra layer of meanings to a movie that, to begin with, has no dearth of them.
The central conflict appears early. Frustrated about an upcoming project, Vikram gets into an argument with his boss, and accidentally slaps Amu in an ongoing house party. There are no further arguments. The party goes on, and Amu retreats to her room. The next day, too, everything is disconcertingly… normal. Vikram comes to her, holds her hand, and says, “You know how things have been. I was so stressed last night.” He doesn’t say sorry. He then talks about himself. Amu keeps quiet.
Sinha then cuts to a conversation between the house help and her husband, “I don’t know why I get worried. Everyone slaps after all.” Later, with respect to his job, Vikram says, “Amu, I don’t want to stay in a place where I’m not valued” and on a subsequent evening, “Amu, I tell you. Put your bloody foot down in life.” It’s as if the film is unfolding in two parallel layers – one that is only accessible to Vikram and the other to Amu, to us.
By filming these scenes life-like, Sinha repeatedly arrives at a larger truth: that this is how it feels – a mundane reality that so many, including this writer, are often unaware of. A pattern that Bollywood – and this society itself – has repeated through the decades. What we experience throughout Thappad is not just heartbreak and compassion but something we’re not ordinarily used to: shame. That despite our ‘best intentions’ this happens, that you don’t really need to look or sound like a villain to be one yourself. Even when Amu moves to her house, she sees in her brother – dependent on his wife without appreciating her importance – shades of Vikram, perhaps shades of all men.
Thappad though isn’t a film that is cut from the same fabric of #AllMenTrash. Despite being alive to systems of oppression, it is gentle. It’s a film about muted grievances, yet it’s not angry. Not loud, yet holds its ground – and more importantly, doesn’t give anyone an easy pass or lowers the standards of acceptable behaviour.
Even one of the most likeable characters, Amu’s dad – a good husband, a good father, someone who makes chai for his wife every morning – is gently criticised by her towards the climax: that he never bothered to ask her what she wanted after marriage. We’re often indifferent to things that are so insignificant that they may as well not exist. Thappad, thus,is also a rumination on identity. Who do we see when we see Amu? A wife, a daughter-in-law, or a daughter? Or just… her? The movie isn’t a critique of a particular character but of a mindset. To watch Thappad is to feel culpable, to understand how, through ignorance and indifference, we’ve historically built structures of subjugation.
Thappad is made all the more poignant because of performances. Pannu, one of the best actors in Hindi cinema at the moment, is near-perfect to play a role like this. Through silence and contemplative gaze, Amu speaks a language of constant betrayal. Pannu, true to her forte, has the astonishing ability to switch gears – Amu shares a pleasant moment with her parents one moment, slips into a quasi-confrontational mode with Vikram the another. Gulati is an able foil. Vikram is not a likeable character, but Gulati almost always just undercuts his viciousness, makes him perfectly credible – a guy you could have known your entire life and found nothing wrong with him. Mishra turns in a memorable performance, too. His character, an empathetic man, is not the kind of father we often see in Hindi films. Besides, he adds gentle humour to the movie – one of the multiple ways in which Thappad upends our expectations.
It’s significant to remember that Thappad has released only eight months after Kabir Singh, a celebration of misogyny that was the second-highest grossing Bollywood film of last year. In the dark by-lanes of status quo-reverential Bollywood, Sinha has lit a match. Now it’s up to the audience whether it wants to see the light.
The report says the targeting of Muslims in Northeast Delhi “reminded one distinctly of the targeting of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and of Muslims in Gujarat 2002”.
New Delhi: Frantic phone calls to emergency ‘100’ number went unanswered for 48-72 hours and police personnel were missing when people needed them, a fact-finding report by a civil rights group based on eyewitness accounts from riot-hit northeast Delhi claimed on Friday.
The report, ‘Let Us Heal Our Dilli’, was released after a four-member team including Farah Naqvi, Sarojini N, Navsharan Singh, Naveen Chander visited some of the violence-hit areas.
The team visited Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Gokulpuri, Chaman Park, Shiv Vihar, Main Mustafabad, including Bhagirathi Vihar and Brijpuri.
It says the targeting of Muslims in Northeast Delhi “reminded one distinctly of the targeting of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and of Muslims in Gujarat 2002”. “The death toll is far less, but the targeting is truly frightening – where one shop is burnt, but the two adjacent shops on either side are not,” the report observes.
According to the report, residents of the affected areas did not get any help from the police during emergencies. They are also upset with the Delhi government for not standing with the victims and the Centre for the delayed deployment of security forces.
“Across the board, among Muslims and Hindus, there is enormous fury at the Delhi Police for just not being there when they were needed. People simply do not understand why. We heard repeatedly of frantic calls to the 100 line that went unanswered for 48-72 hours,” it said.
“We also heard (about people’s) anger at the AAP government for not being there on the ground to stand with the victims and vulnerable communities,” it said.
In Mustafabad, people said the Centre was busy with the visit of US President Donald Trump instead of ensuring early deployment of Army or police in the affected areas which would have saved lives and protected their properties, the report added.
The four-member team’s visit was intended to give a sense of the “man-made tragedy”, the report said.
The visit also sought to understand what survivors need most urgently so that collective pressure can be put on the government and administration, and also civil society and citizens across all divides could be mobilised to reach out and help the affected people, it said.
“Those who have lived through this targeted hate have lost their sense of security, peace and well-being. It will take years to rebuild these neighbourhoods,” it says.
Though the team did come across instances of Hindus bearing the brunt of the riots, the violence was “clearly and unambiguously focussed on Muslims”, the report alleged.
“Hindus have also been hit and suffered damage. In Brijpuri, there was damage to the houses. Shops and banquet halls were burnt. In Gokulpuri we saw burnt autorickshaws belonging to Hindus,” it said.
“Even after the attack, no one from the state or central government has reached out to victims. And it has been nearly 4 days now to (since) the first attack on Sunday (February 23). There was no relief effort. No food, no places for the displaced to stay, no one to call,” it claimed.
The death toll in the riots rose to 42 on Friday.
Read the full report below.
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LET US HEAL OUR DILLI
Eyewitness Report from North East Delhi
Date of visit: February 27, 2020
Team: Farah Naqvi, Sarojini N, Navsharan Singh, Naveen Chander
Areas/Mohallas visited: Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Gokulpuri, Chaman Park, Shiv Vihar, Main Mustafabad (including Bhagirathi Vihar, Brijpuri)
This visit was intended to give us a sense of what this man-made tragedy has meant inside affected mohallas, and what survivors need most urgently; so that we can put our collective might behind pressure on the government and administration, and also mobilize civil society and citizens across all divides, to reach out and help heal our beloved city.
MAIN OBSERVATIONS
We witnessed a human tragedy of enormous proportions, and feel the reports coming out have not done justice to the extent of the violence and its cost in terms of the emotional, psychological, and economic damage to survivors in Delhi. According to reports the death toll is currently up to 42. And those who have lived through this targeted hate, have lost their sense of security, peace and well-being. It will take years to rebuild these neighbourhoods.
The targeting of Muslims in North east Delhi reminded one distinctly of the targeting of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and of Muslims in Gujarat 2002. The death toll is far less, but the targeting is truly frightening – where one shop is burnt, but the two adjacent shops on either side are not. Roadside mazars are burnt, masjids in the interiors are burnt.
Our taxi driver, a 66 year old Sikh, was deeply pained at what he saw. He said the sight of these burnt buildings, motorbikes, cars and tyres really hurt him because it reminded him of 1984. He was proud of the fact that Gurudwaras across Delhi have opened their arms for all victims. We were also proud.
People – men and women – we met had tears and anger in their eyes. They have been rendered helpless, homeless and with no means of livelihood. Fear is everywhere – as we spoke to a group of young men on the road that divides Khajuri Khas and Chand Bagh, elderly residents came out and pleaded with us to move to safer inner lanes, because just 48 hours ago they had been at the receiving end of bullets fired from Bhajanpura, across the main road.
Men gathered around us, desperate for someone to bear witness. They showed us videos they had taken of the attack. One man in Mustafabad, trembling with emotion and colour rising on his face, kept telling us again and again of how they burnt his mosque and repeated many times, how safe ‘we’ have kept the temples in our neighbourhoods. Come and see them, he kept repeating.
The targeted damage to property and means of livelihood for people who live on the edge of survival is truly vile. Thelas burnt, small shops burnt, autorickshaws burnt, e-rickshaws burnt, a scrap market burnt. These are means of livelihood for some of India’s poorest people.
The targeting is clearly and unambiguously focussed on Muslims. Hindus have also been hit and suffered damage. In Brijpuri, there was a damage to the houses. Shops and banquet halls were burnt. In Gokulpuri we saw burnt autorickshaws belonging to Hindus.
In one case that we encountered, the attack on Hindu properties was by right-wing mobs themselves. An autorickshaw owner/driver, on the main road outside Gokulpuri flailed helplessly but angrily at the injustice of what happened to him – two of his autorickshaws which he proudly pointed out say ‘Jai Mata Di’ on the back, were burnt because in one of them he was ferrying Muslim passengers and the mob probably thought he was Muslim too. I am a Hindu! he kept saying. Even as he told us his story, his current passenger load consisted of one Hindu and two Muslim women in hijab. And even as he got out of his auto to tell us his tale, he simultaneously asked his two Muslim women passengers to stay back in the auto because, ‘time theek nahin hai’ (this is not a safe time).
All shop shutters in these areas are down. Nothing open. There are pockets of men on the streets, who emerge from narrow lanes, and go back when the police comes. One small kirana shop on the Mustafabad main street opened while we were there. It’s owner, a Hindu and his wife both said they were frightened, but said they trusted their Muslim neighbours, but not the police. He called the police number more times than he could count. He tried to show his phone to count his calls. He pointed to the CPRF jawan standing outside his store – and said this is why I have had the courage to open for a short while today.
We saw many journalists on the main shopping street of Mustafabad. The largest crowd of journalists was near the tri-junction of Shiv Vihar, Mahalaxmi Enclave and Babunagar (Mustafabad) where Hindu-Muslim populations meet, and there has been a lot of damage to Hindu shops and properties.
Government & Police
Across the board, among Muslims and Hindus, there is enormous fury at the Delhi Police for just not being there when they were needed. People simply do not understand why? We heard repeatedly of frantic calls to the 100 line that went unanswered, for 48-72 hours.
Everywhere we heard accounts of the police facilitating mobs. In one place as a police platoon arrived in police jeeps, we saw people run in the opposite direction. It is a force to be feared. There is zero trust.
We also heard anger at the AAP government for not being there, on the ground to stand with victims and vulnerable communities. “Matlab bharosa jeeta aur uske bad gira diya. Ghar ghar vote manga. Samajh lo – ek to white hai, aur ek kala hai. Kale wale ka samajh aata hai ki haan woh kaala hai! Ab white wala, kala kaam kar raha hai.” [verbatim as recorded in Chand Bagh]
In Mustafabad people were angry and said the central government was busy with the Trump visit instead of ensuring early deployment of army or police, which would have saved lives and protected their properties.
Even after the attack, no one from the state or central government has reached out to victims. And it has been nearly 4 days now, to the first attack on Sunday (Feb 23). There was NO relief effort. No food, no places for the displaced to stay, no one to call. At Chand Bagh, we were asked if awe could arrange food for 200 families of labourers being accommodated in a masjid.
We saw the RAF arrive in Chand Bagh. We also saw CRPF, BSF and ITBF jawans stationed or patrolling in large numbers in Mustafabad and in Gokulpuri. They told us they had arrived just yesterday evening (Feb 26).
We witnessed a BSF flag march close to sunset through the narrow lanes of Bhagirathi Vihar, a neighbourhood in Mustafabad, with a loudspeaker asking people to get off the streets and go home, but just behind the marching jawans were sloganeers shouting – Bharat Mata Ki Jai, CAA Zindabad, and NRC Zindabad. No one stopped the sloganeers.
Internal Displacement of India’s Poor
We witnessed in several places we visited (Chand Bagh, Mustafabad, Wazirabad Main Road) entire Muslim families, with children, walking rapidly on the road with their modest belongings tied up in bundles. In two families the main bread earners were daily wagers who have lived here in rented accommodation for the past 3-4 years. They were returning to their villages, in Bihar and in Bengal. The family from Bengal was going back to their village in Islampur (Uttar Dinajpur District). They said they were scared and their families back home were frantic that they would be labelled Bangladeshis. One family in Mustafabad was packed and standing on the road – the man told us he was taking his family back to Bareilly and he would return alone later.
Another family, clearly very poor, with rag-tag bundles on their heads or slung on their arms, women carrying small babies, were moving out of Chand Bagh to a relative’s home in the Jama Masjid area of Old Delhi. They felt that was safer.
In another neighbourhood, thousands of Muslims were forced to flee from Shiv Vihar, which has a mixed population. They are now being accommodated in shelters in the adjacent neighbourhoods of Chaman Park and Mustafabad, which are Muslim majority. We did not go inside Shiv Vihar but were told of both mosques burnt, many homes burnt and dead bodies.
In each place – Chand Bagh and Shiv Vihar – the figures of the displaced were given in the thousands (3000 – 5,000 rough estimate by people we spoke to).
We were also shown a photograph of Yusuf, missing from Gali # 14 in new Mustafabad (Chand Bagh area) for the past three days. No one knows where.
We estimate there has been massive internal displacement – the full extent needs to be urgently determined.
Silence over what took place in the last four days speak of divides in a neighbourhood that has already seen one death.
New Delhi: Late on February 26, day four of the communally targeted violence that ripped through north east Delhi, a video emerged on social media of a man lying on his stomach being beaten with stick by a group of men. The face of the man was not visible, the video had likely been taken from a window or terrace at least two floors above the narrow street where the violence was happening.
The beating was merciless and from the absolute lack of reaction from the victim, it was evident that he was at best unconscious.
The video was shared on pages that have systematically attempted to broker peace between communities in the time of the riots. They came with heavy trigger warnings. The location of the attack was mentioned as one “Gali no. 8” in Brahmpuri. The time, as 9 pm.
A day later, on February 27, there was little that Brahmpuri’s locals would agree to say on the alleged incident. What they did say or did not, however, went some way in offering a picture of a deeply divided neighbourhood.
Brahmpuri is one of the areas where heavy violence broke out almost immediately as reports began emerging of a riot-like scenario emerging in north east Delhi. On Monday, February 24, one Vinod Kumar was allegedly stoned to death while returning home with his son, Monu, who sustained serious injuries. Vinod was between 45 and 51 years old.
Monu spoke to several news outlets and said that not one person – either Hindu or Muslim – came out to help them when he knocked on successive doors in the neighbourhood after having been attacked.
It is unclear if the video could have shown Vinod and emerged much later than when the violence actually took place. The pages which shared it have not responded to queries yet.
Barricades
On Thursday, February 27, all entrances to Brahmpuri had paramilitary and Delhi police manning the entry and exit of vehicles. The autorickshaw which the correspondent took from Seelampur metro station to Brahmpuri ended at one such security forces’ outpost. On one side was Seelampur, on the other, Brahmpuri.
As is well known by now, Seelampur has emerged an exemplary locality where Hindus and Muslims have flat out refused to be drawn into the violence. The Wire‘s Srishti Srivastava, in her detailed report on the area, had noted how residents were consciously impervious to attempts to polarise them.
Those living on the cusp of Brahmpuri, however, live in a fear that is unique to their location.
Umar, Shoaib and Pratham, who are Seelampur neighbours.
Among them are 82-year-old Rashida, her daughter-in-law 35-year-old Mehrunissa, and their neighbour Rahul, a young father in his twenties who works at an MNC which gave him time off from work.
As neighbours who share a wall, the families are aware that Seelampur’s convenient location offers them refuge. “But my sisters and sisters-in-law who are young mothers in Golakpuri and Brahmpuri. They have been repeatedly calling me for help in procuring milk for their young children. There is no way I can go that side,” says Mehrunissa.
The two families watch the news all day but ask not to be photographed. They are, however, okay with their children featuring in photos.
Mehrunissa worries that her eldest son Umar’s Class 6 exams could be delayed. Umar himself is not affected. He plays cricket with neighbours.
Small and big lanes connect Brahmpuri to Seelampur and the sudden quiet of the latter is a palpable indicator of a shift in atmosphere. As is the mound of charred vehicles and the soot covered street.
Charred vehicles on Brahmpuri Road. Photo: Soumashree Sarkar
The driver of a ‘totorickshaw’ agrees to take the correspondent to Gali no. 8. “I feel bad charging you Rs 100 instead of the usual Rs 10, but safety, both mine and yours, makes this an expensive ride,” he says.
On either side of the main Brahmpuri Road are narrow lanes. All of them are barricaded by sheets of tin and lengths of bamboo. The barricades are firm and final, they, in fact, have no rudimentary gates either.
“On one side is Hindustan, on the other is Pakistan,” says the driver, who does not give out his name but says that he has spent his life on the streets of both ‘countries’.
Brahmpuri’s main road, dividing both communities and the neighbourhood. Photo: Soumashree Sarkar
A Hindu, he says, he can only travel through the ‘Hindu side’ of the street. Unwilling to spend more time on the main road, which is deserted with the exception of police and paramilitary personnel, he takes a detour through the Mouni Baba Mandir Road, which offers passage inside the ‘Hindu side’ through one un-barricaded lane.
“I have had to paste some stickers on the front of my vehicle to ensure my safety…We would play cricket here. And now look what has happened. The members of some communities like to stay inside their houses. The members of others like to spend their time on the streets. They are the ones who cause the problems,” he says.
Minutes later, he stops after being hailed by a woman in a headscarf and offers to drop her nearby free of cost.
Once firmly inside the ‘Hindu side,’ shops are open and large gatherings of men make it imperative for the vehicle to stop at several points in the narrow lane. Though the shops look full, the flow of food and necessities is affected under the circumstances, says the driver.
Inside Brahmpuri’s ‘Hindu side’.
At a place where there are saffron flags down a lane, the rickshaw driver says those where put up during Shiv Ratri and did not have anything to do with assertions of Hindutva.
On the ‘Hindu side’, at each barricade, are groups of men who refuse to speak or be photographed but question the correspondent on the news organisation she belongs to and intent.
Notably, all of them say nothing happened on the night of February 26. Even when asked about the video from Gali no. 8, and even at Gali no. 8 itself, men on the streets refuse to speak. A common refrain is “yahan kuchh nahin hua hain.”
At one point, a group asks the driver, who is known to them, to “get out” but the tone is not violent.
Brahmpuri’s many barricades. Photo: Soumashree Sarkar
The ‘Muslim side’ remained unchartered by the correspondent. If there were ways inside, then they remained, at best, a secret. At a particular barricade, a man who identified himself as Anwar, got off an auto with his family of three. All of them carried bags of food.
When asked how he planned to enter the lane, Anwar smiles and says he will see. Like in the ‘Hindu side’, the ‘Muslim side’ too has people on the immediate other side of their own barricades. But they refuse to speak.
The street in the middle is strewn with all manner of things, a lot of which is burned. Objects of particular ire were vehicles.
Burnt vehicles of Brahmpuri. Photo: Soumashree Sarkar
At several places on the main road was graffiti derogatory to Muslims. The Wire is choosing to withhold at least one photograph of abusive words written in English on a downed shop shutter.
Several shops on the main road were gutted and ransacked. It appeared that buildings on the main road had borne most of the brunt, with alleged firing, stone pelting and throwing of petrol bombs taking place from either side of the barricades.
Destroyed shops and buildings along the main road in Brahmpuri. Photo: Soumashree Sarkar
A particular three-storey building was entirely covered in soot, which had allegedly been set on fire on February 25.
On the ground floor was a lock and key shop which smelled strongly of burning metal, embers alive even on the afternoon of February 27. On the floor were mountains of keys and locks, some melded into others. The shelves were reduced to skeleton.s
Children, a man and three women were picking out what could be salvaged and putting them inside a sack.
Gutted lock and key shop in Brahmpuri. Photo: Soumashree Sarkar
At a particular point, the correspondent and another journalist were hailed by two men from the balcony of their house. Upon descending down the stairs, the men – one of whom claimed to be a Delhi Nagar Nigam pharmacist – said his motorcycle had been set on fire by Muslims. Beside his house was indeed a charred motorcycle.
The man’s motorcycle. Photo: Soumashree Sarkar
“I was not at home, but my children were. They recorded a video,” he said. In the video he then played on his phone – in full volume and in the presence of an ITBP officer – men wielding sticks are visible, but not much else.
There is no sign of a motorcycle being set on fire.
The men said they have been able to sleep better because of the security forces’ presence since February 25.
Northwards, towards Ghonda, ITBP men showed the correspondent and another journalist a bullet shell which they claimed had been fired from the ‘Muslim side’ and said the latter had been violent towards Hindus.
At Ghonda, however, there were no tin barricades. Amidst reports of a Muslim man having been shot dead by the ‘Hindu side’, men and women of both communities were eager to assert that efforts were being made to cut the tension down among people who have always lived together.
In these neighbourhoods, the lanes are serpentine and houses close enough to each other to block out the sun but offer opportunity for easy communication.
The violent riots in Delhi have killed 42 so far. Injuries have crossed 200.
In the video below, a Muslim man and the priest of a temple speak on their bond as food arrives for the neighbourhood from a gurudwara – in yet another example of the bonds that bind Delhi’s neighbourhoods.
Sharma agreed that the police seem scared of the BJP and intimidated by the government.
New Delhi: In an interview that will annoy the government and ruffle the feathers of the Delhi Police but strike a chord with the people of Delhi, Ajay Raj Sharma, former Commissioner of Police in Delhi and former Director General of the Border Security Force, has said that if he was Police Commissioner he would have immediately arrested Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra.
Sharma also fears that the Delhi Police are becoming communal. The videos of their behaviour during the riots, which are circulating on social media, clearly suggest this. He said Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik has faced a tough test but had failed to pass it. He said the police had not handled the Delhi riots effectively and accepts that the history of Delhi Police mishandling situations goes back at least as far as the December incidents in Jamia Millia Islamia, if not further.
In a 35-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Sharma began by saying that Justice K.M. Joseph was completely correct when he said in the Supreme Court on the February 26 that “lack of professionalism of the police is the main problem here”.
Sharma said that the police had allowed the situation to develop and become a riot. If they had acted earlier this could have been prevented. He said the first mistake made by the police was to permit the gathering at Shaheen Bagh to happen and then continue. He said this gathering was clearly a violation of the law. It occurred on public property and no one has a right to block roads and create inconvenience. If the police had acted on the very first day the Shaheen Bagh gathering began, a lot that thereafter followed could have been prevented.
However, it was what Sharma called the second mistake by the police that reveals how courageously outspoken he is. He said if he was Police Commissioner, he would have immediately arrested Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra. In the case of Thakur he would have been required to first inform the home ministry. In the case of Verma, he would have needed to inform the speaker of the House. However, in the case of Kapil Mishra there was no need to inform anyone.
Speaking about DCP (North East), Ved Prakash Surya, who was standing beside Kapil Mishra when Mishra indulged in inflammatory remarks, but did nothing to stop or restrain him, Sharma said that he would have immediately demanded an explanation from Surya and if it was not satisfactory he would have suspended him forthwith.
Sharma agreed that the police seem scared of the BJP and intimidated by the government. He said the failure of the police to tackle the riots effectively suggests they have come under damaging political influence.
Speaking about how the police in the Delhi high court responded to questions by Justice Muralidhar (then of the Delhi High Court) that they had not seen the inflammatory videos of hate speech by Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra, Sharma said this was clearly the wrong answer. Even if a specific individual or commissioner had not seen the videos clearly the rest of the force would have done so. He accepted the claim the police had not seen the videos meant the police had not spoken the truth to the Delhi High Court. Please see the interview for accurate details of this point.
Sharma said a communal riot was the second most important challenge a country could face after an enemy attack. He accepted that if the police had acted immediately on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, when violence was simmering in Jaffrabad, the riot could have been prevented. He said this was clearly negligence and accepted that it also suggested irresponsibility.
Questioned about the videos on social media, which show the police standing by and watching as rioters set muslim shops on fire or show the police themselves taunting muslims with lathis and asking them to sing ‘Jana Gana Mana’, Sharma said that although he had not seen these videos himself if they were accurate they clearly suggested the police in Delhi has become communal. He said this suggests there is a much deeper malaise affecting the Delhi Police.
Speaking about the present Police Commissioner, Amulya Patnaik, who retires on February 29, Sharma said that he faced a very tough test but had failed to pass it.
Speaking more generally about the leadership of the police, he said it seemed that they lack spine and moral character.
Sharma also accepted a point made by NSA Ajit Doval that people don’t “trust the men in uniform … people are doubting the capabilities and intentions of Delhi police.”
Sharma said recent months have been a very bad time for the Delhi Police. They did not handle the incidents in Jamia and JNU properly.
In part two of the interview (after the commercial break), Sharma says that the most important thing is to isolate police from political interference. He says this can be done by ensuring that when DGPs are chosen it’s from a list of three or four names and chief ministers are not permitted to appoint their favourites.
Secondly, every senior police officer should have a fixed tenure which can only be curtailed for very specific reasons. Sharma said if the so-called Prakash Singh guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in 2006 had been properly and effectively implemented it would have made a huge difference to the independence of the police force and its effectiveness.
Sharma said the second most important task to correct the malaise in the Delhi Police has to be tackled by the police itself but it does require political support. This is proper training and discipline. Most importantly, police constables, who man local police stations and are, therefore, the first point of contact of the people with the police, must be taught and trained to be friendly, efficient and polite. At this point he compared British policemen, who are called Bobbies, with Indian policemen who evoke suspicion and fear.
There’s a lot more in Ajay Raj Sharma’s courageously outspoken interview. The above is a paraphrased precis of some of the highlights. Many other points made by him – often as important – may not be included in this precis simply because they were not remembered at the time of writing. So please see the full interview below for its dramatic content.
He met President Ashraf Ghani and handed over to him a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
New Delhi: A day ahead of signing of a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Friday travelled to Kabul and conveyed to the top Afghan leadership India’s unstinted support to a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.
He met President Ashraf Ghani and handed over to him a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Shringla met Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Vice President-elect Amrullah Saleh, National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib and acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Haroon Chakhansuri and apprised them about India’s strong commitment for all-round development of Afghanistan.
(1/5) Deputy and Acting Foreign Minister Mohammad Haroon Chakhansuri met with Foreign Secretary of India Mr. Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla this afternoon.
At the outset, Mr. Shringla expressed congratulations for consolidation of Republic System and pic.twitter.com/TK1xRiLYU5
In a series of tweets, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar India stands with Afghanistan for strengthening national unity, territorial integrity, democracy, plurality and prosperity in the country and bringing an end to externally sponsored terrorism.
On Shringla’s meeting with Ghani, Kumar said the Afghan president appreciated India’s consistent support for democracy and constitutional order in Afghanistan.
Kumar said the foreign secretary had a meaningful exchange of views on the developments and peace efforts in Afghanistan with the leadership of the country.
“Foreign Secretary conveyed India’s support to government and people of Afghanistan in their efforts to bring peace and stability through an inclusive & Afghan-led, Afghan-owned & Afghan-controlled efforts,” he said.
The US and the Taliban are set to sign a peace deal at a ceremony in Doha on Saturday which will provide for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan nearly 18 years after their deployment in the country.
After Shringla’s meeting with Abdullah, Kumar tweeted: “They agreed that independent, sovereign, democratic, pluralistic and inclusive Afghanistan would promote peace and prosperity in the region.”
Foreign Secretary @HarshShringla called on First VP-elect @Amrullahsaleh2 and congratulated him. They discussed steps to strengthen bilateral strategic cooperation and the recent developments for bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan. @IndianEmbKabulpic.twitter.com/4oro47BhqF
He said Shringla conveyed India’s steadfast support for democracy, plurality, national cohesiveness and socio-economic development and enduring peace and stability in Afghanistan.
India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
In his meeting with Mohib, the foreign secretary praised the dedication and professionalism of the Afghan security forces in safeguarding Afghanistan’s territorial integrity under “very challenging circumstances”, Kumar said.
India’s Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran is slated to attend the ceremony where the US and Taliban will strike the peace deal.
It will be for the first time India will officially attend an event involving the Taliban.
India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
In a significant move, India had sent two former diplomats in “non-official” capacity to a conference on Afghan peace process in Moscow in November 2018.
The conference organised by Russia was attended by a high-level Taliban delegation, representatives of Afghanistan as well as from several other countries, including the US, Pakistan and China.
Major powers such as the US, Russia and Iran have been reaching out to the Taliban as part of efforts to push the stalled Afghan peace process.
India has been supporting a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan controlled.
India has also been maintaining that care should be taken to ensure that any such process does not lead to any “ungoverned spaces” where terrorists and their proxies can relocate.
Ahead of peace deal, India has conveyed to the US that pressure on Pakistan to crack down on terror networks operating from its soil must be kept up though Islamabad’s cooperation for peace in Afghanistan is crucial.
