January 2025 Archives

How Nehru’s 1924 Report on Sambhal Violence Was Distorted by Adityanath

Following the recent Sambhal violence, some news channels dug out the 1924 report by Nehru and selectively quoted from it to justify the initiatives of some Hindus going to court. The contents of that report was presented in a twisted manner to defend Adityanath.

It is quite perplexing that a 12-page report prepared by Jawaharlal Nehru 100 years back on September 12, 1924, on the Hindu-Muslim trouble which occurred during the Mohurrum procession at Sambhal was recently presented on several ‘Godi’ media channels by distorting its contents.

That report was prepared on the instructions of Mahatma Gandhi and submitted to him by Nehru.

The deliberate misrepresentation of that report after 100 years was done to justify Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s support to some Hindu leaders moving a local court in November 2024 for a survey of the 500-year-old Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal built on a ground which had ruins of a Hindu temple allegedly demolished during the Mughal period.

It is worthwhile to recall that the said local court very inexplicably gave an ex parte order on November 19, 2024, for survey without hearing the respondents representing the mosque, and the same day the Adityanath’s administrative apparatus with unprecedented alacrity went ahead for a survey with heavy police protection.

The court order did not take into account the Places of Religious Worship Act, 1991, which prohibits any alteration of the shrines as it existed on August 15, 1947. While the survey was done without any untoward incident, the local administration very strangely came forward to do a second survey in the early morning of November 24, 2024, accompanied by people shouting the “Jai Shree Ram” slogan.

Muslims gathered to protest against the abrupt second survey without giving any notice and five of them lost their lives allegedly due to police firing.

Also read: ‘Nothing Provocative About Jai Shri Ram’: Adityanath Shifts Blame in Sambhal, Bahraich Violence

The matter was raised by Samajwadi Party members in the UP assembly. They accused the Adityanath government of pushing Sambhal into communal violence as part of a pre-planned conspiracy for political gains.

In response, the chief minister, inter alia, said, “…only the traditions of Ram, Krishna and Buddha would govern the country and not those of Babur and Aurangzeb.”

“Will you,” he asked the opposition benches, “uphold the legacy of invaders, or the traditions of Ram, Krishna, and Buddha?”

Later, in January this year, he said that any disputed structure should not be called a mosque and the Muslim community should “in the most respectful manner” hand over the Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal to Hindus if scriptural and archaeological evidence show that a Hari Har temple dedicated to Kalki existed at the site before the mosque was built.

He also asked the Muslims to “accept their mistakes” regarding the alleged demolition of a Hari Har temple in Sambhal more than five centuries ago.

It is against that backdrop some channels dug out the aforementioned 1924 report of Nehru and selectively quoted from it to justify the initiatives of some Hindus going to court. The contents of that report was presented in a twisted manner to defend Adityanath for pointing fingers at the Muslims.

Therefore, it is of paramount importance to put the report and its findings in proper perspective and appreciate how Nehru, 100 years back, very dispassionately studied the Hindu-Muslim trouble in Sambhal after hearing both sides.

Published in Volume 2 of the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, the report gave an account of the Hindu-Muslim conflict in Sambhal without any involvement of the British regime or any of its officials.

How the report is being used to serve BJP’s religious polarisation agenda

The findings of the report stand in sharp contrast to the recent violence in Sambhal which was triggered by state agencies, such as the lower court, which gave a unilateral decision for the survey of the mosque, and the state machinery, which executed it without factoring in the sensitivities of Muslims.

In the very beginning of the 1924 report, Nehru wrote that people of both the communities of Sambhal were preparing to move the court to file a criminal case and so they were afraid of saying or doing anything which might prejudice the matter.

Nehru admitted that it was extraordinarily difficult to get at the truth. However, he also observed, “Prima facie the Hindus are aggrieved party”.

“Two of their temples,” the report stated, “have been desecrated and idols have been broken; a number of them have been badly beaten and still bear the marks of injury. They accused the Muslims for their premeditated attack, exaggerated instances of their cruelty and implicated in the riot every Mohamadan of repute. The Mohamadans, on the other hand, argued that the Hindus provoked Muslims by playing music and singing on a large scale when the Tazias were taken out.”

Nehru did not hesitate to mention that “…there was considerable amount of hard lying on both the sides.” He admitted, “A quiet enquiry conducted by some little known person would perhaps be helpful in elucidating some doubtful points.”

In contrast to Adityanath’s definitive assertion that the Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal was built 500 years ago by demolishing a Hari Har temple, Nehru in his 1924 report, stated, “It (Sambhal) was an important place in the Hindu period and Prithvi Raj built a fine temple which it is said was subsequently converted into the principal mosque of the city.”

He added, “It is full of teerth and sacred wells. It is said that the next avatar will come from Sambhal.”

He prefixed his remarks using the words “It is said” – something that says how cautious and probabilistic he was while noting on communally sensitive matters.

Also read: ‘Making Sambhal Into Ayodhya’: Why a Police Outpost Near the Jama Masjid Is Concerning

There is also a reference in Nehru’s report to the establishment of a Hindu Sabha which started a litigation to recover temple properties of Sambhal misappropriated by both the Hindus and Muslims. It succeeded in many cases, chiefly against the latter. Those initiatives of the Sabha were a source of resentment among Muslims.

Nehru’s report had observed that due to the overwhelmingly large population of Muslims in Sambhal in 1924, almost all officials of the town including SDO, tahsildar and police inspectors were Muslims and because of complaints of the Hindus against those postings, a Hindu official was sent as SDO that year.

This caused resentment among Muslims.

In 2024, the Mohurrum procession coincided with the organisation of a Hindu Mela. The SDO, a Hindu, ordered that no music would be played at the time of the mourning procession associated with Mohurrum. However, the Muslims complained that music was played when the mourning procession was underway.

Hindus denied these allegations and took a stand that only conch shells were blown in the temple. They also alleged that to defame the Hindu SDO, Muslims made wild allegations and started attacking the Hindus in the Mela.

The conflict between Hindus and Muslims in 1924 were also centred around the differences arising out of organising the mela and Mohurrum procession. The magistrate had appealed for a compromise between the two communities and even a conciliation board of Hindus and Muslims was formed for resolution.

However, it failed to bring them together as Muslims insisted that there should be no case filed against them and Hindus rejected that stand.

Nevertheless, in 1924, it is understood that the state authorities tried for a compromise. Switch to 2024-25 – the chief minister is openly exacerbating the conflict.

The 1924 conflict in Sambhal was never about the status of the 500-year-old Shahi Jama Masjid as it is being made now. It is indeed a pity that Nehru’s report on Sambhal violence has been grossly distorted and misrepresented to aid and abate the religious polarisation by the current BJP regime in UP.

Gandhi, in fact, sat in a 21-day fast in 1924 to restore communal harmony and Hindu-Muslim unity after he got that report from Nehru. It is instructive that in his article titled Gulbarga Gone Mad, published in Young India magazine on August 28, 1924, Gandhi referred to communal violence in several places including Sambhal and appealed people of all faiths to live in amity by eschewing ill will.

He wrote, “Yours is a golden opportunity, if you desire amity between the two communities. In the light of what seems to have happened at Amethi, Shambhar (Sambhal), and Gulbarga, it is doubly your duty to solve the question…..You have therefore noble traditions behind you. You can turn your quarrels to a good account by closing the ranks and establishing a heart-friendship that will not break under any strain whatsoever.”

He concluded the article by saying, “The Hindu- Muslim question is the question on a proper solution of which hangs the destiny of India in the immediate future.”

Those words uttered by Gandhi 100 years back assume greater significance in 2025 to defend the idea of India and promote communal harmony being endangered by those controlling the state apparatus anchored in religious polarisation.

S.N. Sahu served as an officer on special duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan.

Maha Kumbh Diary: A Day After the Stampede

Trains have been cancelled and exit routes, blocked.

Prayagraj: A day after the stampede at the Maha Kumbh, the city and the Mela have come to a stand still. Many of the the devotees are now trapped within the mela, as most exit routes are still cordoned off by police.

There is talk of traffic jams along the Shashtri Bridge going towards Varanasi. Some people have been stuck there for five hours and say that they have managed to cover only 15-20 odd kilometres in this time.

There are also reports of blockages on various state borders and state highways leading to Prayagraj. There were blockages reported in Varanasi, Chanduli, and Ayodhya. A massive traffic build-up was also reported by travellers on the Chhattisgarh and Bihar borders.

Major trains including the Vande Bharat to Prayagraj have been cancelled or rescheduled. This has led to significant worry as people try to leave the city.

The morning of January 30 saw passengers stranded within the Mela too. I spoke with a group leaving on a truck because they could not find any other transport. “We had been trying to leave the mela grounds since 7 am,” said Ram Chand Kol, from Mirzapur.

The Maha Kumbh Mela on January 30, 2025. Photo: Indra Shekhar Singh.

By mid-day only the old Naini Bridge was operational, while the other bridges across the Ganga and Yamuna were blocked.

There is hardly any public transport within the mela. Private vehicles are banned, and there are no e-rickshaws running to carry passengers to the exit points. Only a handful of the 28 pontoon bridges still remain open to the common people.

I spoke with a groups of women from Madhya Pradesh who said they had witnessed the stampede. “We are lucky to be alive, but all our money and bags are lost. How will he get back home?” Rita, 55, from Satna, said.

Another group of seven from Odisha was beginning the long walk of around 15 kms to the Prayagraj Junction. “We had reserved tickets for yesterday, but we couldn’t reach the station. At the station, there was a lot of chaos also. We will try again to board a train; if we fail we will sleep near the station,” Rajesh Mohapatra, from Cuttack, said.

“People are leaving at 4 pm for 12 am trains, and yet there is no guarantee they will make to the train. This is a mess,” he added.

I spoke with Brij Singh, a local, who explained that it took him two hours to reach his home in the city.

High inflation spikes

While people are scrambling to get out of the mela, food prices within it have skyrocketed. Most of the small vendors are running out of supplies like milk, flour, and sugar, due to the police cordons and traffic jams.

Over the past two days, the quality of the food has drastically dropped and prices are steeply rising. Potatoes for example are selling at over Rs 60 a kilo. Onions and tomatoes are over Rs 100. Milk is being sold at Rs 180 for a packet.

Tea stalls around the area have shut shop.

The Maha Kumbh Mela on January 30, 2025. Photo: Indra Shekhar Singh.

Changes

After the massive stampede, a physical inquiry has been ordered. Rumours also have it that the government will revise the casualty list.

The common folk are hanging by a thread. The best thing the administrators can do is ensure people are not stuck in the mela. Exit routes should be cleared up and priority should be given to people leaving. Additionally, food rations should be bought in the mela area to control inflation too.

Trump and Modi: Why a Fragile India Should Be Uneasy

India as a global south nation and a foundational member of BRICS stands at the forked end of the road.

That India lacks vision to make the most of the once-in-a-century global geopolitical opportunity to improve lives of its 80 crore (800 million) poor people was apparent by its reactive foreign policy observed on a single day: January 27. This day, a full week after his inauguration, US President Donald Trump, on India’s request, spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This was a clear indication that for Trump, India was important but not a high priority in his second term which promises to be as disruptive as his first one.

In his first term, by banning Chinese Huawei from the US market in 2017, and by naming China and Russia as US’s pacing competitor and a revisionist power respectively in his 2018 national security strategy, Trump declared trade war on China and the need to strengthen US’s military power in the Asia Pacific – he re-named the US Pacific Command the Indo Pacific Command in May 2018 to give centrality to India.

In his present term, he intends to actualise his election campaign slogan of Make America Great Again (MAGA) by isolationism and ending forever wars. Isolationism does not mean the US will withdraw from the world, but that it will concentrate on freeing western hemisphere (Canada, Greenland, and Latin America) of Chinese and Russian influence, and by building national power (the sum of innovation, manufacturing, deterrence and war fighting capabilities) which has declined relatively against China. And, ending the wars in Ukraine and West Asia would allow the US to focus on its top priority, MAGA.

The issue where Trump has yet not shown his hand is the security competition in the Indo-Pacific against China, where India has a major role in the Indian Ocean region. For India, this is hugely troubling as the Modi government has aligned its national strategy with the US. Believing that the US will remain the single greatest power in the foreseeable future, India formulated its two-pronged approach to handle China’s rise: One, by not normalising ties with China, India wants to tell its domestic audience that it is capable of regional geopolitical competition with China since both nations are rising in stature. And two, it hopes to get technological support from the US and its allies for building its national power.

This dependence on the US had created unease, if not outright panic, in the Modi government. What if Trump, unlike the Biden administration, decides to go slow on the security competition by not provoking China on Taiwan and South China Sea, two issues which could escalate beyond the grey zone operations?

Since Trump prefers dealmaking and tariff threats to security competition which could lead to wars, there is good reason for the Modi government to review its foreign policy afresh with China. This, it hesitates to do. After all, it will be tough justifying normalisation of ties with China when it continues to occupy Indian territory in east Ladakh.

The external affairs minister S. Jaishankar visited the US twice within a month. He went in December to meet with the Trump transition team for perhaps an invite for the prime minister to attend Trump inauguration, failing which for himself to attend the inauguration as the special envoy of the prime minister. The Modi government’s message which Jaishankar delivered to the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, following the Trump inauguration betrayed extreme anxiety. At a time when the world, especially US’s allies were sizing up Trump’s agenda, Jaishankar told Rubio that India wanted to take the bilateral relationship to greater heights with bolder and bigger steps. Such a cart blanche amounted to offering strategic loyalty to the US.

An image posted on X by US secretary of state Marco Rubio. Photo: X/@secrubio

On the other hand, India decided to move towards normalisation of relations with China. So, with India agreeing to Chinese demand of direct flights between the two countries after a gap of five years, Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, breaking diplomatic protocol, met the visiting Indian foreign secretary, Vikram Misri on January 27.

However, the problem is that India, accustomed to colonial statecraft, has failed to understand Chinese statecraft based on its civilisational wisdom. Unlike the US and western nations’ – and consequently Indian – statecraft which is zero-sum implying either you are a friend or an enemy, Chinese statecraft assesses a nation as a friend or a potential friend. It does not believe in having an enemy.

And, if China’s red line is crossed, it first tries to even things by grey zone operation, as it did in Galwan. When India refused to undo its new maps which showed Aksai Chin as part of Ladakh union territory, to make sure that a new normal was not created, China did incursions and moved the PLA close to its 1959 claim line at most places on the LAC in east Ladakh. Moreover, since India claimed Aksai Chin, it claimed the whole of Ladakh.

Strategic dependence

To comprehend the hollowness of Modi government’s strategic autonomy, there is a need to understand the evolving world order. In the present multipolar world, each nation, big and small, has liberty to consider itself a pole so long as the big picture is clear. The big picture is that instead of one great power (the US in the unipolar world), today there are three great powers – the US, China and Russia. Between them, there are two totally opposite global governance systems which are being nudged towards stability by the great powers with the help of AI (Artificial Intelligence is a technology of technologies, meaning it is applicable to all emerging technologies) and emerging technologies. So, whichever great power’s (or powers in the case of China and Russia since their global visions are aligned) AI and emerging technologies standards are accepted by majority of nations, that global governance model would prevail to deliver prosperity, or in the US’s language, would win the global geopolitical race to become the sole great power.

Now, which nation qualifies to be called a great power?

One which has the capability to influence events anywhere in the world. Since such nations cannot be intimidated by any another nation, they alone can exercise strategic autonomy in their foreign policy. India, lacking requisite hard power (technological, economic and military powers) necessary to qualify as a great power is dependent on them for crafting its foreign policy. For instance, at the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024, prime minister Modi emphasised the need for trade in local currency amongst member nations. However, once Trump threatened 100% tariff on BRICS members not trading in US dollar, India, a founding member of BRICS, did a somersault committing itself to trade only in dollar.

The good news for India is that the global geopolitics have shifted from trans-Atlantic to Indo Pacific primarily owing to the spectacular rise of China as well as a few developing nations including India. So, instead of being a regional power removed from the core of global geopolitics, India (given its geography, huge market and potential), for the first time since Independence, is being sought by all three great powers to fulfil their vision. Choosing the right global governance model which helps India’s poor is what New Delhi’s vision should be.

One governance model led by the US believes in balance of power politics, sees security as zero-sum game, where the US has formulated and is the custodian of the rules-based order (outside the UN) with rules not defined. The US considers the world has entered a second Cold War (between the US and China) which it can win by its two big strengths: its military power and supremacy of its currency, which perpetuates the dollar payment system worldwide. While what winning means is not known, the focus is that China should not be allowed to leapfrog the US into the fourth industrial revolution which is about AI and emerging technologies with implications for national security. The US’s allies of the first Cold War called the Global North comprising 20% of world population follow this model.

The other model, supported by China and Russia, is about delivering connectivity, development and prosperity. Working under the UN with the concept of indivisible security and respect for all nations, it has no hierarchical structure since neither great power has sought a leadership role. Comprising 80% of the world population called the Global South, most of these nations are onboard China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Those still outside it are keen to benefit from UN’ 17 sustainable development goals which are supported by China’s Global Development Initiative.

Moreover, to use the US’s terminology, while China has already won the fourth industrial revolution race, the US, global north nations and India have not accepted the monumental change. For example, the shift from unipolar to multipolar world happened in 2010 when the US’ Obama administration announced the ‘pivot to Asia’ and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to meet the Chinese military and economic challenge, but it was seven years later in 2017 that the Trump administration acknowledged the arrival of multipolar world. Similarly, China has outdone the US in numerous emerging technologies and plans to take them to many global south nations through the second phase of the BRI. While the first phase was physical connectivity, the second phase is about cyberspace hardware and software connectivity. It will be a few years before this truth dawns on the industrialised world.

Consider the reality: China, with 31.6% of global share, is the leader in low-cost high-quality manufacturing. The US is a distant second at 16%, and India’s share is merely 2.9%. China leads the world in high-speed rails, international infrastructure building, shipbuilding, 5.5G or 5G advanced, fourth generation nuclear reactors, fusion power generation, renewable energy, long distance power transmission and sustainable building. It is a leader in space, cyber, electronic warfare, quantum technologies, biotechnology and has demonstrated leadership in AI by its recent DeepSeek R1 open-source low-cost foundational model which resulted in the US stock market losing US $ 1 trillion in one day. The fate of Trump’s ambitious US $ 500 billion Stargate project is in jeopardy. Above all, China is ahead of the US in AI applications which are at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bishkek in 2019. Photo: PIB

Moreover, based on Xi Jinping’s ‘new productive forces’ which is the continuation of the 2015-2025 ‘Made in China’ programme, China has committed US $ 137 billion over five years to focus on key areas of AI-driven robotics, bio-manufacturing, advanced materials and low altitude economy. The latter involves all airborne economic activity one kilometre above earth using drones and flying cars. China aims to build US $ 230 billion low altitude economy by 2030.

The key difference between the two governance models is that the one led by the US favours de-globalisation and de-coupling from China’s supply chains while the Chinese and Russian model supports globalisation. This will lead to splinternet (breaking of the internet) into two, led by the US and Chinese emerging technologies, making digital trade between the two models difficult since there would be compatibility problems with technologies based on different standards. Most of all, while China, a leader in blockchain technologies had in 2010 started the use of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in a few key cities and plans to take it to the BRI nations, president Trump has banned use of CBDC and instead prefers trade in cryptocurrency barred in China.

A visionless policy

Amongst all this, India wants to be close to the US and the Global North. It believes that with a multi-aligned foreign policy (vishwa bandhu), it can be in QUAD and BRICS at the same time. Moreover, as a global south nation, it wants to be the bridge between the Global South and the Global North. With BRICS having overtaken the G-7 in GDP and with the future of G-20 uncertain in the world split between the two global governance models, India, given its total dependence on foreign hardware and with growing digitisation in trade and commerce, will realise in a few years that it has irretrievably lost the opportunity to make use of its geopolitical advantage in its foreign policy. It will not be long before India’s BRICS membership will be called out by member states desirous of displacing (not replacing) the US dollar by multi-currency trade.

The fragility of Modi government’s visionless foreign policy can be seen by recent Trump’s tariff threat to India and China. India has started working furtively on a plan to do more imports from the US (in commodities India may not need like Whiskey) and to cut tariff on exports to the US. Chinese analysts, on the other hand, have said that US’ tariff threat would impact it more than China since the latter has adequate economic resilience to weather US’ threats of trade and tariff wars. Thus, at a time when the US allies are standing up to Trump’s tariff threats and imperialist designs to grab Greenland, Modi is determined to cozy up to Trump. Since attending the planned QUAD summit in India is not a priority for Trump, Modi has decided to visit the US in February with Trump telling him that India should buy more US security equipment, never mind if it is needed or is operationally sensible. The US wants to progressively wean India away from its dependence on Russian military equipment which is one of the key objectives of the US-India Defense Cooperation Act that was moved in the Congress in July 2024 by the then senator Marco Rubio.

Given the above, it will be fair to say that Trump’s disruptive foreign policy will keep the Global North, the western hemisphere, NATO and the European Union destabilised. This will allow space to China and Russia to stabilise their connectivity vision in the Global South, especially in Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and ASEAN where China intends to take the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) to a higher level with industrial internet. This will also help steady the new global institutions like BRICS, SCO, New Development Bank and so on. Once the Global South gets stabilised by the end of Trump’s term in office, these nations will push for reforms of the UN and Bretton Woods institutions to meet the new global reality.

India as a global south nation and a foundational member of BRICS stands at the forked end of the road. It could use this geopolitical opportunity to integrate wholeheartedly with the Global South institutions. This option will allow peace and stability on the two military lines (with China and Pakistan) critical for development and deterrence. The challenge here is to accept that the time to compete with China is over. Instead, India needs to compete with itself by cooperation with China and Russia.

Or it could continue riding the bumpy US bandwagon in the hope that the world recognises India as a major power, and its visionless foreign policy as strategic autonomy. Unfortunately, having emerged from the dark centuries of colonialism, most Global South nations no longer wear blinkers.

The Scrapping of the Separate Railway Budget is a Colossal Disaster

The Railways’ financial autonomy has ended but so has the hitherto intensive public scrutiny of its finances.

In the last few years, the Indian Railways (IR), with a distinguished lineage of over 170 years, have undergone devastating root-and-branch changes in policy, organisation and operations, most of which defy logic and reasoning. A bizarre ‘Mohammed bin Tughlaqi’ obsession to do things out-of-the-box has resulted in the carpet-bombing of time-tested systems that have sustained IR for decades. One such – the subsuming of the Railway budget into the General budget in 2017 – has got to be among the more illogical decisions of a foolhardy government.

Even before Independence, there was the definitive conviction that to effectively perform its ordained role as the country’s prime transportation mode and propellant of economic growth, the Railways needed to be independent, nimble-footed in decision-making and insulated from the rigid bureaucratic practices that typify governmental functioning. IR was slotted as a commercial entity and the funds allocated to the Railways were seen as a loan in perpetuity for which dividend was paid on the capital invested by the government.

But in one fell blow, IR was divested of its financial autonomy and independent functioning by merging the Railway budget with the Union budget. The payment of dividend was abolished and the Railways demoted in status and treated like any other government department.

Was there a method in the madness? Was the jettisoning of the Railway budget a deliberate subterfuge to cover up the faltering performance of the Narendra Modi government in 2014-16 after all its tall promises? And to dilute accountability and do as it pleases without any public scrutiny? Mind you, the Railway budget was an open book that enabled the members of parliament to oversee the financial performance and other aspects of railway working in detail.

Also read: Budget 2025 Must Ensure Higher Investment in Agriculture and Rural Development

Annual appraisal reports on safety, finance and projects were presented to parliament and the harried railway minister was constantly in the eye of the storm, explaining and defending railway performance. All that oversight is in the past. Now the Railways is a part-time job for its minister. And members of parliament remain blissfully ignorant or uncaring of the havoc being wreaked on the Railways.

The Railways’ financial autonomy has ended but so has the hitherto intensive public scrutiny of its finances. Camouflaged within the humongous General budget, the Railways’ profligacy is now unchecked, because of which the premier transportation organisation has turned loss-making since 2016 despite massive injection of funds, unremitting traffic demand and unprecedented industrial peace.

The profligacy and wastage are stunning. A prime example of an unaccountable railway management going berserk is the reckless spending on frenetic electrification of the entire broad-gauge system without proper cost-benefit analysis, a costly prodigality that has aptly been termed “the demonetisation moment” by an anguished colleague, the late Ravi Babu. The most serious fallout of this ill-conceived project is that thousands of diesel locomotives and their extensive support infrastructure, including a state-of-the-art diesel shed commissioned in 2017 have become infructuous or require conversion to electric, another exorbitant exercise.

There is little doubt that the scrapping of the Railway budget and the consequent absence of public surveillance, have adversely affected safety which continues to be compromised due to the neglect of core areas such as the maintenance and replacement of worn-out assets, timely replenishment of safety category staff, modernising safety infrastructure, and narrowing the unholy gap between precept and practice. It should worry the Railway management that even today, if the railway staff decide to “work to rule”, the system will grind to a halt. The massive infusion of contract labour has resulted in acute shortage of skilled manpower in the technical maintenance categories, further impacting safety.

Also read: Budget 2025: ‘MGNREGA Is Essential for the Economy, Govt Shouldn’t Use it in Opportunistic Ways’

With hardly any monitoring of the allocations for safety, it is no surprise that the allotment of funds to the critical Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF) which is used for replenishing operating assets, have been steadily dwindling from a level of over Rs 8,000 crore in 2013-14 to a mere Rs 200 crore in 2020-21 and finally to zero in 2021-22. This cavalier attitude towards budgeting for safety is happening at a time when, as per CAG estimates, assets worth Rs 95,000 crore were due for replacement up to 2020-21.

This government has clearly lost sight of IR’s corporate mission “to provide safe, affordable, customer-focussed and environmentally sustainable transportation.” An example of the uncaring elitist mindset of this regime is the appalling fact that in a country where over 90% of people can afford to travel only second class, this regime’s preponderant focus on Vande Bharat and air-conditioned services has resulted in the Indian Railways carrying one billion – yes, one billion – fewer passengers in the second class, non-suburban segment in the year 2022-23 as compared to 2011-12. A brutal capitalistic ethic reigns behind the veneer of sab ka saath, sabka vishwas.

All in all, the scrapping of the separate Railway budget has been an unmitigated disaster.

Mathew John is a former civil servant.

This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.

Netanyahu To Be First Foreign Leader To Visit Trump

The meeting comes as a ceasefire deal between Israel and the militant group Hamas in Gaza holds for a second week.

US President Donald Trump has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit him next week, with the visit due on February 4, both Netanyahu and the White House said.

The visit would make Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the first foreign leader to visit Trump since his inauguration last week.

What do we know about the visit?

The White House letter shared by Netanyahu’s office, dated Tuesday, said “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries.”

The meeting comes as a ceasefire deal between Israel and the militant group Hamas in Gaza holds for a second week, coupled with the gradual release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the Hamas October 7 terror attacks, which killed 1,200, with around 250 more taken hostage.

Israel responded with an air and ground offensive that stretched for the next 15 months. Health authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza say over 47,000 Palestinians were killed, with women and children making up more than half the toll.

Netanyahu’s visit comes amid preparations to enter the second phase of the ceasefire, which aims to end the war altogether.

Trump this week suggested that Egypt and Jordan should take in the Palestinians in Gaza, at least on a temporary basis, so that “we just clean out that whole thing.”

The statements sent shockwaves in the region, amid fears that Palestinians would be indefinitely displaced again similarly to what happened in 1948, which Arabs call Nakba, or catastrophe.

Cairo, Amman and the Palestinians swiftly rejected the suggestion, but Trump raised it again, suggesting he could make Egypt and Jordan come round.

Palestinians were also allowed this week to return to northern Gaza, the region most badly damaged by the Israeli operations, for the first time since the early weeks of the war.

Over 375,000 Palestinians crossed into northern Gaza since Monday morning, the United Nations said on Tuesday, making up over a third of the million people who fled the region during the early days of the war.

Returnees celebrated and expressed their gratitude in comments to media outlets, despite coming back to mostly rubble where their homes once stood.

Congress tries to sanction ICC

Meanwhile in the US, Congress tried and failed to pass a bill that could have sanctioned the ICC over the arrest warrant issued for the Israeli prime minister and his former defense minister.

The bill, dubbed the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act,” would have sanctioned any foreigner who investigates, arrests, detains or prosecutes US citizens or those of an allied country, including Israel, who are not members of the court.

The bill had passed in the House of Representatives earlier this month with 243 votes in favor and 140 against. Forty-five Democrats were among those voting in favor.

In the Senate, however, only 54 voted in favor, with 45 voting against, standing short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill. Though the Democrats were in favor of much of the bill, they thought it was overall too broad.

The US is not a state party to the Rome Statute which founded the ICC.

This article was originally published on DW.

‘Fed up of Seeking Compliance’: SC Bans Manual Scavenging in 6 Metro Cities

The court directed the chief executive officer of each metropolitan city to file a precise affidavit by February 13.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (January 29) came down heavily on the Union government over ambiguity in eradication of manual scavenging in the country and passed an order banning the practice in six metropolitan cities.

Referring to the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, the top court remarked that it was “fed up” with seeking compliance which remains merely academic in nature, LiveLaw reported.

“Therefore, we hereby order manual sewer cleaning and manual scavenging shall be stopped in all top metropolitan cities as follows: Metropolitan city of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad,” the court order read.

The court directed the chief executive officer, or an officer of equivalent designation, of each metropolitan city to file a precise affidavit by February 13 with details on how and when the practice is stopped in their city.

The court’s order has come in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Balram Singh, who raised issues regarding the 1993 Act and how it has remained unimplemented.

“Can we say it today that manual scavenging from today onwards is banned?…We are fed up of order. We are directing. Either do it or face consequences,” the court said.

State inaction

On December 11 last year, a bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar had directed the Union government to call a meeting of the Central Monitoring Committee along with the respective states’ stakeholders within two weeks to assess the extent of compliance with the court’s October 2023 order.

Based on the 2023 order, the Union government had filed a status report which the court had found to be “not encouraging at all”.

On Wednesday, the Union government filed a fresh affidavit stating that 456 of the 775 districts in the country no longer practiced manual scavenging. When Justice Kumar asked how the NCT Delhi has performed, it was informed that it has not complied with the order, LiveLaw reported.

Also read: Manhole Cover: A Symbol of How the Most Suppressed Sections Were Dealt With in the Last Decade

Amicus curiae and senior advocate K. Parameshar said that the data presented an “erroneous picture” as some districts had not constituted a committee mandated by the law, while others had provided data prior to the committees’ establishment.

Parameshar said that the central committee had last met on October 19, 2024. The states and Union Territories were asked to constitute a committee and conduct a national survey of manual scavengers which is yet to be completed, he added.

In its October 2023 order, the court had asked all states and UTs to ensure that their guidelines and frameworks reflected those of the Union government. “All States and Union Territories are likewise, directed to ensure that all departments, agencies, corporations and other agencies (by whatever name called) ensure that guidelines and directions framed by the Union are embodied in their own guidelines and directions; the states are specifically directed to ensure that such directions are applicable to all municipalities, and local bodies functioning within their territories,” the order read.

Parameshar said that these guidelines were not in place till date.

‘Motivated sewer entry professionals’

Senior advocate Jayna Kothari questioned the Union government’s affidavit citing cases where a person had to enter a sewer if it was too small to be cleaned in other ways. “They have stated ‘motivated sewer entry professionals’ [in their affidavit]. Is this what we call humans who are being killed?” Kothari asked.

Additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati responded that all states were not in a position to eradicate the practice and that is why the court’s order was to be implemented in a graded manner.

Justice Kumar said that unless manual scavenging is completely eradicated, persons will be compelled to enter the sewer and if he does so, he must have all adequate equipment.

Scrambled Priorities? Maharashtra Scraps Egg Funding for Midday Meals

Rights activists involved in the Right to Food campaign have repeatedly pointed out that eggs can help improve the nutritional status of children.

New Delhi: In a recent move, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday (January 28) has announced that it will no longer provide funding for eggs and sugar in midday meal programmes for government-run schools, Hindustan Times reported.

In November 2023, the government had decided to provide students with one egg per week to combat protein deficiency, with the option to opt for fruit instead of eggs. However, following protests from right-wing groups, the policy was modified in January 2024 to exclude schools where at least 40% of parents opposed the serving of eggs.

Now, according to a government resolution, schools that wish to continue providing eggs to their students will have to generate funds through public contributions. The resolution also states that schools must arrange funds for sugar and eggs through public contributions if they want to serve optional dishes like egg pulao and sweet treats.

The state government had allocated Rs 50 crore annually to provide eggs to 24 lakh school children. However, the revised meal plan will now focus on ten different dishes that can be prepared using existing funds, the report added.

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The midday meal programme, now known as the PM POSHAN scheme, is a centrally sponsored initiative that provides one hot cooked meal per day to students in government and government-aided schools. While the Union government funds the majority of the programme, state governments and Union Territories bear 40% of the cost and are responsible for implementing the programme.

A wrong move?

In an article published on The Wire in 2023, health researchers Dr. Sylvia Karpagam and Siddharth Joshi had mentioned, “Given that eggs are one of the most nutritionally dense foods containing good quality, bioavailable and digestible protein as well as nutrients such as folate, zinc, Vitamins A, B12 etc., their nutritional value was never in doubt.”

Further, this article written in the context of the Karnataka government continuing to provide eggs to students despite opposition underlined the “Brahminical conceptions of purity and impurity” behind the anti-egg campaign.

“In spite of demonstrable evidence that inclusion of eggs is a necessary nutritional intervention, which is both culturally acceptable and also brings in much-required diversity to the mid-day meals, their distribution in the scheme is being obstructed by ideological barriers rooted in Brahmanical conceptions of purity and impurity of food practices. By sticking to the decision of providing eggs in midday meal, Karnataka has hesitantly joined its southern neighbours in challenging Brahminical cultural hegemony on defining food as pure and impure, one hopes that it stays that way,” the authors wrote.

Rights activists involved in the Right to Food campaign have repeatedly pointed out that eggs can help improve the nutritional status of children and is particularly important since the prevalence of “nutritional deficiency, stunting, underweight and other kinds of health issues is higher in the children belonging to marginalised communities”.

Also read: We’re Still Asking the Wrong Question About Food Insecurity in India

“One must recognise that the problem is not just the absence of eggs from the menu at schools and anganwadis. The menu lacks diversity in the form of milk, dairy, vegetables, fats/oils, pulses and legumes in many of the States. The prevalence of nutritional deficiency, stunting, underweight and other kinds of health issues is higher in the children belonging to marginalised communities. Due to the vicious combination of malnutrition and illness, the children and families of these communities are the most vulnerable without the intervention of the state. Eggs in these scenarios can tilt the nutritional status of a child and would help gaining essential nutrients in fighting malnutrition and ill health conditions. Eggs provide many of the nutritional needs including good quality proteins, minerals, vitamins and fats. They are easy to cook, not prone to adulteration and pilferage like other foods and contribute to increasing school attendance,” the campaign had said in a 2021 press release.

Besides the nutrition factor, eggs are easier to handle as they have a longer shelf-life and are more convenient to stock particularly in rural areas, economist Reetika Khera wrote on Scroll. “Consider the following advantages of eggs: they have a longer shelf-life than milk or bananas. In rural areas, with decentralised kitchens and where refrigeration facilities are non-existent, this is a pretty useful thing. Eggs cannot be diluted or adulterated like milk or dals. Equally important, as Arti Ahuja (the IAS officer who brought the Integrated Child Development Services to life in Odisha) pointed out, provision of eggs can be monitored easily. Even a child can tell you whether she got her full quota of eggs, so corruption is easier to control.”

India Needs to Raise a Stink About its Sewers

At the core of this problem is the notion of casteism, which has been associated with sewage for centuries and prevents the consuming class and its representatives from viewing this issue as an engineering problem to solve.

The Census of 2011 estimated that only 35% of the then 100 million Indian urban households were connected to a sewage system of any kind, implying that India had no visibility on the onward movement of sewage beyond the toilets in most urban households. This was over and above the sewage emitted from the nearly 140 million rural households, the status of which was equally opaque. One and a half decades later and without a new census, we can only conjecture if the needle has shifted substantially on this count.

Let us assume reasonably, based on markers like the growth of non-agri commerce and housing, that since 2011, urbanisation would have grown around 30%. In that case, the current sewage generated from the households in class 1 cities (468 with a population of more than 100,000 as per census of 2011) and class 2 cities (3,744 with a population of more than 50,000 as per census of 2011) in India would stand at more than 33,000 million litres per day (MLD). Against this generated sewage in urban India, the total existing installed capacity of sewage treatment plants (STPs) is a meagre 6,190 MLD, with an additional 1,743 MLD capacity still under-development. Taking both into account, India’s sewage processing capacity stands at an abysmal 24% of the total sewage generated in urban India alone, and the less said about rural India, the better.

Differently put, the Indian state’s sewage processing capacity is at the same level as our literacy and electricity penetration in the early decades after independence.

We can shun this severe lack of sewage infrastructure as a handicap of a developing nation that needs to prioritise roads, trains and airports, but being a 60% private consumption-led economy that likes to flex its economic might among the top five nations on the planet, India needs to confront the reality that when this large an economy is enticed with consumption-led growth, the aftermath of that consumption also grows proportionally. The growth of malls, hotels, private hospitals, eateries, banquet halls, condominiums, factories, offices, quick commerce and food deliveries cannot happen sans the accompanying waste. Yet it is precisely this point about sewage infrastructure that India’s polity has consistently overlooked.

In the Union budget of 2023 for instance, road infrastructure was assigned an eye-watering Rs 2.7 lakh crores, whereas sewage infrastructure was clubbed with drinking water and received an allocation of Rs 60,000 crores under one scheme and Rs 80,000 crores under another.

Sewage lines within slum settlements. Photo: Jignesh Mistry.

Even state governments appear to have this scornful attitude towards sewage infrastructure. Still, it seems that the more you ignore sewage, the more it will force you to take heed. Precisely for this reason, it is disfiguring India’s water bodies with faecal contamination, causing excessive algae growth, foul odour and ecological degradation. Dumping of untreated sewage is stressing public health and exacerbating the pollution crisis. People living on the margins particularly in slums and low-income housing clusters bear the brunt of this in the form of contaminated drinking water and vector diseases.

This issue has consistently and repeatedly featured in most cases of pollution heard by the judiciary across the country. For instance, while hearing a matter relating to the implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 in Delhi, the Supreme Court in January of this year observed that it is unacceptable that 3,000 tonnes of solid waste remained untreated in the national capital daily and that the government has no resolution planned before 2027. Similarly, in a recent report of the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board, it said that the water in the Ganga at Haridwar was found to be unfit for drinking. Ironically, Haridwar is the first city through which the river enters the plains and one of the holiest of cities for Hindus. Such hard evidence on record is an admission of the helplessness of the state that stands idly by and stares at the lack of sewage infrastructure for handing the collection, processing and recycling of human waste.

But chronic under-investment in sewage infrastructure is just one part of India’s miserable record with sewage. India also does not have an institutional framework to manage whatever minuscule infrastructure that it has managed to install till date. Anywhere between 25-30% of India’s installed sewage treatment plant (STP) capacity at any point in time lies defunct for the want of maintenance, funds, spare parts or human capability. Such an abysmal rate of downtime of its sewage infrastructure exists for the want of an institutional mechanism that can lay down guidelines for technology, operating procedures and training of human talent to manage these STPs.

India also does not have a working model that defines financial and operating principles. For instance, once STPs are installed, how should these operate at high up-times? What happens when there are breakdowns? What is the budget needed to operate these STPs and under what heads should it be allocated? What is the measurement and monitoring system for these STPs? How many engineers and technicians are required to run them? What should their qualifications be? Do we have a pipeline of environmental and sanitation engineers and technicians to manage these STPs? What will be the onward movement of sludge and water from these STPs? What is the mitigation system in the cases of lapses? All these questions may sound commonsensical for any engineering intervention, but in the lack of it, the Indian state pulls such stunts that would be hilarious if the subject matter was anything other than sewage. In a recent revelation in Gurugram Municipal Corporation, it was found that an electrical engineer hired to run the electricity infrastructure of the city was tasked to run the city’s STPs because the necessary talent needed to run STPs was not on the rolls.

In a one-of-its-kind study conducted by IIT Rourkee in 2023 on the Ganga water sewage treatment plant, it was found that the sludge had a high potential to be used as fertilizer and bricks, after treatment for heavy metals, nitrogen and phosphorous. The study stated that this sludge could be classified into Class A and Class B as per the norms established by United States Environment Protection Agency. While Class A sludge is safe to be used as fertilizer for edible crops, Class B is unsafe for such use. Most of the sludge found was Class B. This is the conclusion of a study on only one cluster. Now imagine the scientific research and investigation needed for 33,000 MLD of sewage in the whole of urban India.

Recycling of sludge cannot be pursued in any seriousness in the absence of this kind of precise and comprehensive data on sludge. At present, India does not even have a scientific hypothesis that can be used to create a framework for managing the onward movement of sludge from the installed STPs.

India needs to urgently increase the funding allocation for building sewage infrastructure, just to catch up. This means nearly Rs 1 lakh crores towards asset building alone, not accounting for the land and the pipeline it will require, and another Rs 25,000 crores of annual allocation towards operating costs, merely to bridge the sewage management deficit in urban India. India needs a sewage management board, much on the lines of water and electricity boards as part of the state’s capacity to ensure direction setting and compliance. In the absence of such boards, we lack a baseline definition of optimum penetration and types of STPs required. It should be the responsibility of such boards to determine the types of STPs (mix of off-grid micro STPs versus an industrial scale integrated set-up) on the basis of the population density, source of sewage and urbanisation plans.

India also needs an institutional intervention to train technical manpower to be sanitation experts who should be running these STPs, conducting scientific research and establishing forward linkages for recycled water and sludge. The gap in such expertise of the Indian state towards managing STPs is what has hitherto prevented the private sector from loosening its purse strings and investing in this sector with gusto. India needs to shed biases it has for STP infrastructure and must learn the lesson that a “world class” sewage infrastructure’s multiplier effect is at par with all other infra themes, if not better, on human development and ecological indicators like learning, mother and child health, productivity, and soil and water health.

A sewage worker with no protective gear. Photo: Flickr/International Labour Organization (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

But as straight forward as it may sound, it is a flight of fantasy, sadly, because the subject of sewage is an orphan in the current scheme of infrastructure expansions envisaged for the country. It has been expelled from the blue-eyed club of glittering airports, swanky bullet trains, zipping highways and the hosting of the Olympics. No nationalist desires India to become the world-beaters on STPs, when selfies with a human congregation on the banks of a polluted river can satiate their chest thumping urges. The fabled “middle class” has checked into condominiums and bought themselves out of this crisis. At the core of all of this is the notion of casteism, which has been associated with sewage for centuries and prevents the consuming class and its representatives from viewing this issue as an exciting engineering problem to solve. Casteism tricks them into viewing it as an issue of impurity for which a class of people are divinely ordained to handle.

This explains society’s callous attitude towards the countless accidents and deaths of sanitation workers who go down into the sewers to keep them running, and the ease with which we live in the presence of unappetising visuals and contaminated surroundings.

Make no mistake, one less aerobridge at the airport, one less lane on the motorway, one less statue of a leader or one less air-conditioned train on the track will not take away from development claims by 2047, but without the treatment of most of the human excreta that India generates, no modicum of development claim will ever stick.

Ankur Bisen is the author of Wasted: The Messy Story of Sanitation in India, A Manifesto for Change (Macmillan, 2019). The author is on X: @AnkurBisen1

‘On All Fronts, Economy Not in Great Shape’: Modi Govt’s Former Chief Economic Advisor

Arvind Subramanian says that to tackle the problem the government needs to change its ‘DNA and instincts’.

The first Chief Economic Advisor of the Modi government, Arvind Subramanian, who served from 2014 to 2018, has said, 48 hours before the budget is delivered on February 1, that “on all fronts, the economy is not in great shape”.

He says there is no doubt that the economy is slowing down and this is not a short-term slow down but structural.

Subramanian adds that to tackle the problem the government needs to change its “DNA and instincts” because the government’s handling of the economy is the problem.

Subramanian identified three areas where this change is most required. They are: the national champions policy which the government is pursuing, the weaponisation of the state in all its different aspects and the policy of protectionism. As he put it, “a deeper recalibration of policy is needed…the government needs to go back to the drawing board and accept that what it’s doing hasn’t worked”. In other words, the current model of handling the economy is not working.

Subramanian, who is at present a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC, said that unless the government can rethink its handling of the economy it’s not plausible to believe that India can become Viksit Bharat and a developed country by 2047.

Asked if there was a danger India could become old before it becomes rich, Subramanian said the real danger he sees is that India could become old before it becomes a credible middle income country with a per capita income of $5,000. At the moment India’s per capita income is $2,500 – $2,600.

NBDSA Directs News18 To Remove Interview With ‘Godman’ Over Factual Inaccuracies

In an interview with a self-styled godman, the News18 anchor can be seen asking if the adulteration in the Tirupati laddu was a conspiracy against the Hindu community.

New Delhi: The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) has directed News18 Rajasthan to remove an interview about the Tirupati laddu controversy within seven days from its channel for violating its guidelines.

In an interview with a self-styled godman, ‘Swami Dipankar’, the News18 anchor can be seen asking if the adulteration in the Tirupati laddu was a conspiracy against the Hindu community.

While directing the removal of the interview, the NBDSA said, “..the broadcaster should adhere to the specific guidelines covering Reportage, under which ‘Facts should be clearly distinguishable from, and not be mixed-up with opinion, analysis and comment’ while discussing any subject.”

In his complaint, activist Indrajeet Ghorpade had questioned News18 “as to why it was spreading fake news that animal fat in the Tirupati temple laddu is a Congress Party conspiracy”. Saying that it went against accuracy, objectivity, neutrality and fairness, the activist had requested the news channel to remove the broadcast and publish a clarification.

In its response to the complaint, News18 said that it had revised the title of the interview and its thumbnail of its own volition.

Pointing out a discrepancy, the NBDSA said, “While the title of the impugned broadcast ‘Tirupati Laddu Animal Fat Row: Tirupati Ke Prasad Mein Beef, Congress Ka Badha Shadyantra’ had been revised to ‘Tirupati Laddu Animal Fat Row: Tirupati Ke Prasad Mein Beef, Kya Bole Swami Dipankar? | N18V’ as stated by the broadcaster in its response, the broadcast itself had not been revised.”

The regulatory body questioned the overall tone of the programme which seemed to be “less about seeking accountability or the ghee adulteration” and instead provided “the interviewee with a platform to expound his views on the Sanatan Dharma, which was a deviation from the intended subject for the interview.”

It also said that contrary to News18’s claims that the programme had been removed, the broadcast was still available on its channel and asked it to remove it within seven days from its order dated Jan 28, 2025

The video was available on News18’s YouTube channel at the time of publication.