New Delhi: In The New York Times’ World newsletter, Alex Travelli writes about the “rebranding” of immigration to bring in foreign workers without running into the politics of immigration. As anti-immigration movements across the world pick up steam, labour mobility might be the better phrase, he writes.
“Migration once looked like the obvious solution. But across the developed world, the backlash to immigration has grown too big for any politician to ignore,” he writes.
“Indian policymakers think they have a way to square this circle. Over the past few years, the government has quietly signed at least 20 labor-mobility agreements with countries in Europe, East Asia and the Gulf. Then this month, it introduced an overseas mobility bill that tried to ensure Indian workers eventually return home.”
What migrant labourers will also be grappling with is the inevitability of returning home. Travelli met young Indians harbouring dreams of going abroad and saw Japanese being spoken by students in rural Rajasthan who knew “little to no English.”
“It was also striking that many of them seemed not to have gotten the memo that labor mobility means coming back to India,” he writes. “The real test will come in the next few years, when India’s first crop of exported workers completes its rotation, and we find out whether these ambitious young people, out in the world for the first time, can function like economical widgets, as intended.”
The BBC’s Soutik Biswas profiles Thuingaleng Muivah, India’s oldest rebel leader, who returned to his home village in Manipur after decades.
“Now 91, Mr Muivah is the general secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), or NSCN (I-M), the most powerful of the Naga insurgent factions that once fought the Indian state in one of Asia’s longest-running rebellions – though today the organisation is often regarded as a shadow of its former self,” says the BBC.
Back in 2010, Muivah attempted to return home but his entry into the state was blocked by the Manipur government, which cited the risk of “unrest” and “security concerns”.
“His return to his village is more personal than political – driven by a longing for home. His calls for a separate Naga flag and a constitution are expected, and they help keep him politically relevant. But the broader idea of ‘Greater Nagaland’ has largely faded over the years,” Pradip Phanjoubam, editor-in-chief of the Imphal Review of Arts and Politics, was quoted as saying.
While the demand for a separate state might have ebbed, Muivah was instrumental in creating a powerful and long-running resistance against the Indian state.
“By his teens, Muivah was already a Naga nationalist, singing ‘God Bless My Nagaland’ at school and questioning why his people lived in ‘humiliation’ under the colonial government. After studying at St Anthony’s College in Shillong and reading Marx, Hegel and Rousseau, he joined the Naga National Council (NNC) – the first political organisation of the Nagas to demand independence from India – in 1964,” says the report.
In the years since, Muivah has held over 600 talks with Delhi.
“I am very tired. I feel doubly tired because there seems to be no result coming out of the talks,” he said in 2006, according to the BBC.
Meanwhile, in the Financial Times’ India Business Briefing, Veena Venugopal writes, “Indian stock markets are nearing record highs, so why doesn’t it feel that way?”
The newsletter says that IPOs form the thrust of this boom, but the actual picture is slightly more complicated.
“Some 79 public offers hit the market in the first nine months of the year, raising more than $11bn. A clutch of big names are expected to go public before December, lifting hopes that the Indian IPO market will bag more than $20bn this year. But performance of the listed stocks have been less than stellar,” says the newsletter.
“Almost half the new listings are trading well below the price at which they debuted, and even big names like Tata Capital did not witness a big listing bump up.”
Canadian outlet Global News delves into the life of Moninder Singh, a separatist referred to as an “Canadian-born activist” who claims he is an “assassination target” of the Indian government. Singh says he feels “betrayed” by the Canadian government’s renewal of ties with India.
“India has still not publicly acknowledged its actions or promised to stop them, but the Carney government is nonetheless pushing to not only renew ties with New Delhi, but to deepen them,” says the report.
“I think the entire Sikh community, including myself, feel a sense of betrayal in this,” Singh tells Global News. “But I also feel that it’s a betrayal of all Canadians and what Canada stands for.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand defended the government’s stance, telling the Canadian newspaper that “Canada continues to raise these concerns with India”.
“She pointed to an ongoing RCMP investigation and the addition of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which India allegedly uses to commit violence in Canada, to the government’s list of terrorist organizations,” the report says.
The report says Singh is head of the Sikh Federation, a Canada-based organisation formed last year as a bulwark against “transnational repression and foreign interference targeting our community”. He rejects violence but believes in the “right to self-defence”, writes Global News.
The report also examines the renewal of ties between India and Canada.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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