The first is the emergence of ultra-right

Jobs are woefully scarce, and those that are there are faced with an army of the “educated” young who, given their skill levels, are essentially unemployable. Given the incorrigibly hierarchical and unequal social system we inherited — and still grapple with — this is no mean achievement, and has provided a new sense of empowerment to the hitherto marginalised. The public school system is in shambles, leading to a mushrooming of sub-standard private schools, and an overall structure where apart from some miniscule pockets of excellence, the young are being educated with far below average levels of skills and training.

Unlike most countries that gained independence in the last century, we began as a democracy, and have managed to remain the largest democracy in the world. The resultant social instability that such forces are creating militates directly against our economic ambitions, because internal peace and harmony are essential, not only for India to be an attractive global investment destination, but for the development agenda that we hope to implement. Our scientists, doctors and engineers have done us proud.Winston Churchill once famously said that to say that India is a nation is to say the Equator is one! For people like him, who projected the deliberately misguided hubris that the British created India, and that but for their continued presence, India would not survive, the completion of 69 years of the republic is a fitting riposte. Nations that endure and prosper cannot become victims of only euphoria.As against these achievements — and many more can be listed — there still remain very major areas of concern. But, after the initial Green Revolution, the agricultural sector has largely languished. In fact, the impunity with which certain groups, like the Karni Sena, have taken the law in their own hands — even stoning a bus full of school children in Gurgaon — cannot happen without the complicity at some level of the state authorities.

And, in many sectors of the economy, we have made real breakthroughs, such as the green and white revolutions, and the major expansion of the IT sector. The biggest malaise is the continued nexus between unaccounted money and politics.Our democracy is vibrant but in need of urgent reform. Our young republic has not only survived but has proved long ago that its survival is beyond doubt. It is true that over the last several decades large numbers have been redeemed from below the poverty line, but those condemned to unspeakable poverty are still far too many to sustain the claim that India is a rising economic superpower. For decades now the Election beach wool Faux Fur Fabrics Commission has proposed a series of reforms — and more powers to proceed against offenders — but the political class has sat on these proposals and done nothing. We also still have the largest number of those who cannot read or write, and even worse, more malnutritioned children than sub-Saharan Africa.

The first is the emergence of ultra-right forces of exclusion that are threatening the plural and composite fabric of our nation. Such an assertion deliberately ignores the fact that many faiths have always lived and prospered in India, and while appeasement of any one is wrong, each of the great religions that exist in our country need to be given respect.This balance sheet between the plusses and minuses can be much longer. Government deliverables in these two areas are abysmal.The standards of public health and education need urgent attention. We may be a young republic, but we are an ancient culture.

Indeed, this is the beej, the very seed of corruption in the country. There is much that we have achieved, but much more also needs to be done. As a vigilant nation, we should, even in such moments of legitimate celebration, draw up balance sheets that audit successes against failure, hits versus misses, achievement versus inadequacy.New dangers have also emerged. The recent attempt to allow anonymous donors to contribute to political parties through bonds is hardly the answer to the need for foundational reform in this vital area, where every rupee collected by a party must be accounted for. If agricultural productivity and incomes do not rise, the vast majority of our people will remain locked in a cycle of poverty, especially since labour-intensive manufacturing industries that can provide jobs outside agriculture have also grown far below expectation..Nation building is a long and arduous process. We have also reinforced the territorial unity and integrity of the state.The pervasive persistence of poverty has institutional reasons. Agriculture still employs over 60 per cent of our people. There is every reason to be proud of being a Hindu, but there is no reason to assert that India is exclusively a Hindu nation. That is why, milestones of success, should be followed by a stretch of introspection.The list of our successes is impressive.

They must be also willing to see what is wrong, even as they pay tribute to so much in our history as a young nation that is right. But, as we celebrate the completion of 69 years as a republic, there is enough reason to celebrate, just as there is enough cause to introspect. This is reflected in the lopsided nature of our GDP basket, where the service sector — employing the least number of people — contributes the most, with manufacturing a distant second, and agriculture at the very bottom. The first is rampant inequality. Our armed forces have enabled us to hold our head high. When nationhood is underpinned by a strong and verifiable civilisational unity, the result is usually invincible. Allied to this religious aggression, is a virulent form of ultra-nationalism that looks upon all dissent as anti-national and is willing to resort to violence to enforce such a brittle point of view. India may be the world’s largest democracy, but we still have the largest number of the abjectly poor in the world. It may surprise many that since 1947, although there have been many insurgencies against the republic, not a single one has succeeded

The rise of moral policing

If one does a critique of the Modi Sarkar today, his supporters immediately attack you as a left-liberal.Today our sense of Opposition must go beyond the old logic of dichotomy to include a greater diversity. That is why the idea of the Opposition must go beyond the party level and encompass many layers of civil society. The classifications and categories don’t permit it. This also demands we re-examine concepts like democracy, nation state and citizenship for their hegemonic bias. Such a holistic idea of Opposition, of difference, creates a plural world where hegemony is a more remote possibility. It’s a party that is erasing differences to secure an absolute majority. The old idea was based on a dichotomous view of the world, like a Manichean definition between left and right, Marxist and capitalist.

The RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal in fact pretend to represent civil society while trying to prop up the regime through vigilantism and kangaroo courts.To create a new idea of the Opposition, one must think of differences and diversity in a new way.The BJP’s dominance goes far beyond electoral politics. We need a new imagination, where the idea of defeat should move from a winner-take-all logic to the idea of a majority that allows for side bets, alternative histories, where politics is a quilt patch of ontologies, lifestyles and livelihoods, where difference is inbuilt into every layer of society. One must see diversity not just in politics but in consumption, lifestyle, religio

This crisscrossing set of alliances creates a broader set of worldviews, out of which political coalitions are born. The majority Indian who thinks he/she is aspirational is a supporter of law and order. The logic of life and knowledge is difference. There is almost a psychological sense of defeat which is embarrassing. It lost its sense of a plural self after Indira Gandhi and the Emergency. A BJP presence in Kerala or Bengal would have been unbelievable 10 years ago. In such a view, the Opposition is not a necessary evil but the lifeblood of a political system.. It’s clear that the old model of liberal politics is inadequate. What the BJP does through the State, the RSS and VHP do with civil society. Difference demands polysemy, diversity a worldview where either/or are a sign of impoverishment. The Modi Sarkar, through its policies is seeping into the intimacy of homes, destroying the autonomy of the body, legislating on food, and deciding who is a preferred citizen. Such an approach to the idea of an Opposition seals off a universe. Dichotomies or even the mechanical idea of a two-party system impoverish the idea of the Opposition in India.A populist majoritarianism is close to brutal authoritarianism. Holling. He/she wants stability in the markets and in law and order to pursue private interests.Today one must revive and reinvent this plural imagination. The rise of moral policing, food vigilantism and jingoistic rhetoric has virtually destroyed the possibility of a creative opposition from society.

In the latter, decision-making mechanically flows down various levels. Worse, the very idea of an Opposition is embalmed in old oppositional categories. Plural societies need a theory of opposition beyond dichotomies.Ironically, political scientist Rajni Kothari had showed that the Congress in its original form was a coalition of such juxtaposed differences. The BJP must be seen in two hyphenated parts — a majoritarian dream come true electorally and a civil society nightmare.The sorry state of the Congress and CPI(M) today is an invitation to posit, invent and create a new world of differences, to make democracy more promising.S.As the Narendra Modi juggernaut rolls on, and the national elite joins the game of musical chairs around him, desperate to be accepted, the question almost lost in the popular imagination is what happens to the Opposition? The so-called experts are already behaving as if the Modi Sarkar will last at least for 10 years.Today our sense of an Opposition is closed. Their failure hardly commands attention, not even a footnote as Amit Shah unfolds his plan to “capture” West Bengal. Opposition means chaos and anarchy, and almost seditious! In the clash between minority/majority or left/right, only one category can survive.The BJP’s strategic initiatives are undoubtedly impressive, but the danger is that its majoritarianism isn’t inclusive.

He proposed the idea of “panarchy” — a life form that is opposed to the idea of hierarchy, where order and opinions are centralised.The idea of diversity and alternatives provides a whole repertoire of possibilities for a society. Mr Modi, Amit Shah and the RSS are shrewd enough to understand that it’s the innovative power of civil society that can defeat the BJP. It’s as if the Congress and CPI(M) are unemployed. One of the most exciting ideas in Beige rabbit fur faux fur fabric this contest was suggested by ecologist C. Panarchy challenges this centralised worldview by claiming different levels of life need different forms of knowledge and decision-making. Every time Rahul Gandhi launches a campaign, all it invites is a snigger at his Boy Scout attempts to challenge Mr Modi. A dream of a third way of thinking is virtually destroyed. Today, it appears inevitable as the Opposition has virtually disappeared. This doesn’t allow a third option for alternatives, and sees politics as a zero-sum game. A creeping totalitarianism pretending to be an electoral machine can undermine the fabric of our democratic way of life. The BJP’s electoral ultimatum is clear: “be like us to be us”. The marginals, minorities, ethnic groups and the displaced have no place in such politics. Civil society becomes empty, majoritarian groups more authoritarian, as the minorities and “marginals” feel threatened. It’s trying to alter and control worldviews while pretending it has been a victim of history for decades. We need such a theory of knowledge in the processes of our politics

When women and girls have the same

N.” She hid in a relative’s basement for two days before donning an all-covering burqa and fleeing the city.A program called “Unwanted Traditions” took a critical look at centuries-old Afghan customs, like the forced marriage of young girls in order to resolve disputes.She has received more death threats than she can count, one of which even specified an exact date.

The Taliban held Kunduz for three days, during which they looted businesses and hunted down activists and journalists.””Women’s rights are a key lever toward improving the lives White dyed fox fur faux fur fabric of the entire community,” said UNDP country director Douglas Keh.”Hassan often invited Islamic scholars onto her programs to give their seal of approval. So when the insurgents stormed into Kunduz on Sept. “Introducing Elites” featured interviews with women who have succeeded in politics and activism, and those who have helped other women in their communities.”

Now, six months later, she has returned to Kunduz, and Shaesta has come back on air in time for International Women’s Day on March 8.Radio Shaesta had sought to educate women about their rights and address taboo subjects like reproductive health and domestic violence. “I knew they were going to come for me.Radio Shaesta – Pashto for “beauty” – had sought to educate women about their rights and address taboo subjects like reproductive health and domestic violence. 28, she knew she had to run.In northern Afghanistan, where just 15 percent of women can read and write, radio is a rare portal to the outside world. airstrikes pushed them out more than two weeks later, but by then the militants had looted Shaesta and burned it to the ground, along with another radio outlet run by Hassan that was oriented toward youth.

Zarghona Hassan is a lifelong activist and the founder of a radio station in Kunduz that until last year reached hundreds of thousands of listeners across northern Afghanistan, where the vast majority of women are illiterate and largely confined to their homes.

Wind-up radios requiring no batteries are popular and widely accessible in communities where electricity is erratic or non-existent.Six months after fleeing a Taliban assault on her city, the owner of an Afghan radio station devoted to women’s rights is back home and returning to the airwaves. But the Taliban, who espouse a harsh version of Shariah law, view her and other women’s rights activists as purveyors of Western influence who threaten the country’s moral fabric.S. Development Program says Shaesta reached up to 800,000 people. ”

When women and girls have the same opportunities (as men and boys) in education, and the same economic opportunities, society as a whole benefits.”We have had an enormous impact on the lives of women, raising their awareness of their rights, of what they can achieve, encouraging women to take part in politics, to vote and to put themselves forward for provincial council seats,” Hassan said. “I once met a farmer out in his field who had a radio hooked over the horn of one of his cows.Radio is a powerful medium in Afghanistan, where the literacy rate is less than 40 percent and much of the population lives in remote communities.”The Taliban had a list of all the women who were working in the government, civil society, media, women’s organizations,” she said. The U. Afghan forces backed by U.Programming also encouraged women to take an active role in ending the country’s 15-year war by exhorting their brothers and sons to lay down arms, she said. She was able to rebuild the station with a 9,000 grant from the UNDP, which said it hopes to encourage a “courageous voice for change.”I’ve met illiterate women weaving carpets with the radio on because they can listen and it doesn’t interrupt their work,” Hassan said