As the Kashmir Valley marks two months of its lockdown, with journalists protesting at the Srinagar press club and political leaders still under detention, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus now is on how to best govern the soon-to-be Union Territory.
In his cabinet meetings, sources say, Modi talked about dredging the Dal Lake in Srinagar and returning it to its pristine shape and size. Remember the photo of the PM sailing away into the blue waters of Dal Lake when he visited Kashmir earlier this year?
Well, none other than former Jammu and Kashmir governor N.N. Vohra had sent out an SOS to the Indian Navy in 2018 to help with the Dal Lake, whose size has come down from 22 sq km to 10 sq km because of untreated sewage and pollution.
Modi seems to be deeply concerned with improving the lives of Kashmiris. He has the support of a vast majority of Kashmiris who are quite fed up with the dynastic rule of the Abdullahs and the Muftis – problem is, that it’s difficult to build political leadership when you have incarcerated everyone, even if reports now state that leaders in the Valley will soon be released on a “case-by-case” basis.
This is the remarkable thing about Modi. On the one hand, he has tweeted fulsome praise for the Vande Bharat Express, a “Navratri gift for my brothers and sisters in Jammu as well as devotees of Maa Vaishno Devi,” because the people of J&K must benefit from governance largesse.
On the other hand, he has delegated political control of lockdown J&K to Home minister Amit Shah, while security issues are managed by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
Also read: Modi’s international activism apart, India’s new govt will have foreign policy challenges
Enter Sheikh Hasina
But something else has been happening in Delhi this week, and briefly on Thursday evening, as the wind, rain and storm lashed Delhi, a curtain briefly parted at the Bangladesh High Commission. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was in town and in the sanctum sanctorum of her dining room there were a few very special guests over for dinner.
There was Ram Madhav, the powerful BJP general secretary in charge of the northeast; Tathagata Roy, the outspoken governor of Tripura; Biplab Deb, the chief minister of Tripura; Ghulam Nabi Azad, senior Congress leader; Hasina’s powerful international affairs adviser Gowher Rizvi; Bangladesh’s high commissioner to India Muazzem Ali. And at the head of the table, Hasina herself.
Hasina had a very congenial meeting with Modi in New York last week at the margins of the UN General Assembly and is meeting him in Delhi too. Modi has told Hasina that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is an “internal matter” and that she needn’t worry too much about it.
Bangladeshis also don’t seem that concerned over Amit Shah’s remarks in the run-up to the elections that all Bangladeshi infiltrators will be thrown into the Bay of Bengal like “deemak” (termites). The Bangladeshis, comfortable in the widespread acknowledgement that their growth rates are the highest in Asia, are putting Shah’s comments down to election rhetoric. Moreover, most on the NRC Assam list, ironically, are Hindus not Muslims.
But what happens when Shah repeats his inflammatory statements across the country, especially in West Bengal? It worries not just the Bengal BJP, as this article in ThePrint shows, but it may also begin to concern the prime minister.
Also read: Bangladesh is booming and here’s why — PM Sheikh Hasina explains
Rise of Rajnath
Enter Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also a former president of the BJP. Over the last week, Rajnath has been playing his protector-of-the-nation role to the hilt. He will fly a Rafale sortie in Paris in the coming week – on Dussehra, no less – where he is going to receive the first batch of Rafales, he has fired a medium machine gun onboard INS Vikramaditya and flown the indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft Tejas.
Is Rajnath Singh being propped up as a counter to Amit Shah? BJP sources pooh-pooh the very thought, but in any Delhi Durbar, signals are everything. The mild-mannered Rajnath Singh was very quiet during the first Modi tenure, but in recent weeks has acquired a much more active social media handle. (He’s still not as good as the PM, though.)
Modi knows and Hasina knows that there’s no question of throwing even one Bangladeshi out of the country – in any case, Hasina believes there are none. Can Amit Shah seriously carry a campaign of vilifying Bangladeshis across the country when his own Prime Minister wants a better relationship with Bangladesh?
In this way, west Bengal and Assam will be Muslim majority states within few decades. and then another Kashmir liberation movement will start.
Bangladesh will keep on dumping their illiterates on India and still they will deny. And India will accept all this garbage. Bangladesh cannot say a word against the Arabs who regularly deport illegal Bangladeshis.
Bangladesh’s per capita income is $ 1,750, Assam’s $ 1,200. Eastern UP would be about $600. How can we call any living creature – much less a human being – “ garbage “ ? That strikes at the roots of our great religion, our civilisational ethos.
There is difference between a unwanted refugee entering your house and a PM who is very friendly to your country is coming offically to your country. If you remove your tainted glasses, you can easily see the difference.
Oh. I started reading this article without noticing the name of the author and half way through was wondering how Kumar Ketkar has switched to writing on foreign affairs. After I finished, I looked up for the author and lo and behold, I was not totally wrong. The author is indeed from the the illustrious quartet of ThePrint- Kumar, Jyoti, Vij and Naynima Bose. No further comments are warranted, particularly when you also notice Ashok’s comment!! However, to give due credit to Jyoti, she has correctly observed that Rajnath Singh is changing his profile after he watched Amit Shah pilot Kashmir bill in Lok Sabha. Hopefully, Rajnath will achieve to do lot more as Defence Minister than as Home Minister in next 5 years and prove his utility.
Aap toh column padhne ka kasht karte hain. I simply read the heading, the name of the columnist, the blurb, and my comment is ready …
Ha ha ha same here
?
Stating that Amit Shah victimises Bangladeshis is proof that Jyoti Malhotra has gone insane. Shekhar Gupta should sack her. With such journalists ThePrint will go down the drain.
If Modi promised Hasina that there is nothing to worry about NRC and everything is right, that means the whole exercise of NRC is just a political jimmick and none of those 19lakh people who are left out of NRC list will be pushed to Bangladesh and there is no plan at all beyond NRC. Citizens of this country are utterly stupid across the socio economic classes.
One likes Raksha Mantriji’s Top Gun avatar, complete with aviator sun glasses. Also quite trim and fit.
Now this article will be printed in the Dawn
Actually I was very happy to see Ms Nayanima Basu’s column reprinted in Dawn. Read it regularly to get a sense of how things look from the Pakistani perspective. There was a time when media in both countries spoke of Aman ki Asha.
How does it really matter you bloody fool?