Quad Core India's Draupadi Moment

www.afeias.com 1 IMPORTANT NEWSCLIPPINGS (08-10-20) Date: 08-10-20 Quad Core Time for Indo-Pacific security architecture to balance China TOI Editorials The second meeting of foreign ministers of the Quad grouping of countries – India, Japan, US and Australia – in Tokyo saw further movement towards formalisation of the platform in light of growing Chinese assertiveness. While US secretary of state Mike Pompeo called out China’s bullying tactics in the South and East China Seas, the Mekong, the Taiwan Strait, and in the Himalayas – a clear reference to the ongoing India-China border standoff – the other foreign ministers insisted on upholding international rules, respecting territorial integrity and maintaining freedom of navigation and overflight in the region. There’s no denying it is China’s aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region that is bringing the Quad nations together. For long it was believed that China’s rise would actually strengthen international rules and commerce in East Asia. While China’s economic rise has certainly given a fillip to regional economies, it is Beijing’s desire to rewrite the rules of engagement that is creating tensions. The Chinese leadership clearly believes that it can use the power differential it has come to acquire to browbeat neighbours and make strategic gains. This is precisely what we are witnessing with China ramming and sinking fishing boats belonging to other nations in the South China Sea, and PLA troops trying to nibble away Indian territory along the Himalayas. What’s needed therefore is an effective regional counterbalance to China. And this must be anchored by a credible security partnership. It is welcome that all the Quad members now have agreements among themselves that allow their militaries to access each other’s bases and coordinate closely. Stepping up such arrangements can be a low cost way of balancing Beijing, if the latter insists on building bases for its navy through the region. This arrangement needs to be expanded to other East Asian nations to create a platform that can resist China’s bullying, especially on the high seas. China does hold the strategic-security-economic advantage in one-on-one scenarios with most countries in the Indo-Pacific. Beijing’s insistence on bilateral dealings to resolve issues exemplifies this point. Which is why having a multilateral or plurilateral platform to counterbalance China is far more effective. And the Quad can be the nucleus of such a platform. If the Indo-Pacific is the future, it’s time the region gets a credible, rules based security architecture. Date: 08-10-20 India’s Draupadi Moment www.afeias.com 2 IMPORTANT NEWSCLIPPINGS (08-10-20) There have been many false starts. Don’t quell the outrage, act seriously against rape Ashwin Sanghi , [ The writer ia an author of bestselling works of fiction. ] India’s a country where soldiers chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ or ‘victory to mother India’ as their call to arms. Note the reference to a mother, rather different from the German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Slavic and Baltic notions of a ‘fatherland’. When environmental issues are discussed we talk about the effect of our actions on ‘mother nature’. When devotees take a dip in the Ganges, they’re symbolically being embraced in the loving arms of ‘Maa Ganga’. When we plant trees, we silently give thanks to ‘mother earth’. Hindi cinema’s 1957 production, ‘Mother India’, was one of the greatest hits ever and (adjusted for inflation) remains the second-highest grossing Indian film of all time. Twice a year, India celebrates Navratri – or the festival of nine nights – to mark the victory of the goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. Even in worship, Hindus chant ‘Jai Siya Ram’ or ‘Radhe Krishna’, always placing Sita and Radha before Ram and Krishna. So when one hears that a woman is raped every 16 minutes in India, it’s difficult to reconcile this shocking statistic with our presumed respect for Shakti, a tradition that can be traced back several millennia. In 2013, a joint team of Indian and American archaeologists carried out excavations in the Son valley of Madhya Pradesh. They found a circular platform with a triangular stone at its centre. The findings were estimated to be 11,000 years old. Imagine the surprise of the archaeological team when they found that Kol and Baiga tribals living in the neighbourhood continued to offer daily prayers to a similar triangular stone, representative of their mother goddess, Mai. Shakti is the energy at the very root of creation. Mothers give birth, thus Shakti is the energy that gives birth. Shakti inspires Shiva and it’s only when the two come together that creation, preservation and renewal are made possible. Ardhanarishvara, a Hindu representation of a half male and half female deity is symbolic of the equal importance assigned to both genders. But it’s becoming increasingly apparent that worshipping Shakti is limited to temples and prayers while we continue to denigrate the living Shakti in our lives. Sure, rape isn’t a modern problem. When the Goths ransacked Rome in the 5th century, St Augustine referred to wartime rape as an ‘ancient and customary evil’. The ancient Greeks thought of the act as ‘well within the rules of warfare’. Spanish conquistadors raped women of the Aztec Empire and Central America in thousands. Even as late as World War 2, over 20,000 women and girls were raped within the first few weeks of the Japanese occupation of the Chinese city of Nanking. Over 100,000 German women were raped by Soviet forces after the Battle of Berlin. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 saw thousands of Bangladeshi women tortured and raped by the West Pakistan forces. Nor is rape a particularly Indian problem. According to NCRB, India had a rape incidence rate of 5.2 cases per 100,000 people as of 2018. This pales in comparison to South Africa with a rate of 132.4, Sweden www.afeias.com 3 IMPORTANT NEWSCLIPPINGS (08-10-20) with 63.5 or even the US with 27.3. But one must remember that a vast majority of rapes go unreported in India, so the figures may not be strictly comparable. And it still begs the question, why is India perceived as a dangerous country for women? We can search for answers in patriarchy, skewed sex ratio, caste powerplay, religious and cultural misogyny. We can find historical reasons in Manusmriti, Kautilya’s Arthashastra, Islam’s Sharia or Macaulay’s puritanism. We can attempt to contextualise rape and sexual violence through the prism of religion, culture and history. But where would that get us? The 2012 gang-rape and murder of Nirbhaya made average Indians yearn for effective policing and efficient justice. But shouldn’t we be ashamed of the fact that it took eight years for four of the adult convicts to be hanged? Besides Nirbhaya, there have been numerous examples including those at Ajmer, Suryanelli, Mumbai’s Shakti Mills, Unnao, Kathua, Bikaner, Kamduni, Ranaghat, Williamnagar, Hyderabad and too many more to mention. There’s a strange pattern in these cases. First there’s outrage; selective leaks result in ghastly details of the crime; then social media descends into community blaming; candlelight vigils follow; politicians make vile statements; and the perpetrators are arrogant enough to believe that they can play the system. Of course, they’re not entirely wrong. Finally, the rape disappears from public memory. There are many things India can do to curb rape. The most obvious suggestions include a higher proportion of females in the police force, better police procedures and a quicker legal process. But at its core, rape is about exercising power over another. In India, the power balance has been tilted towards males in each era. This includes viewing females as property in the dharmashastras; recognising the husband’s sole authority over his wife’s body in Islam; or seeing rape through the lens of Victorian puritanism in the country’s penal code. This imbalance must be corrected through economic progress and education. Let India never forget the vow of Krishna to Draupadi when she narrated her humiliation at the hands of the Kauravas to him. “The heavens may tumble; the mountains may be razed; the oceans may dry like a corpse’s bones; earth herself may rupture, but I shall keep my oath to you. To avenge the crime against you, there will be a war to end all wars.” India’s moment to avenge Draupadi’s shame has arrived once again. Date: 08-10-20 For a GST Dispute Resolution Body ET Editorials The Centre should disburse the GST compensation cess it receives to the states on a real-time basis, abandoning the normal bimonthly schedule, given the current state of strained state government finances. Central devolutions would sharply decline due to the shortfall in tax revenues, and the increase www.afeias.com 4 IMPORTANT NEWSCLIPPINGS (08-10-20) in assorted cesses, the proceeds of which are not shared with the states. Opposition-ruled states have demanded, in addition to the release of the entire amount of GST compensation cess collected, immediate release of their share of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST). This, too, is perfectly justified. These monies belong to the states, and when the Centre holds back payment to the states, it behaves like big companies that delay payment to their small suppliers. About 10 states have rejected two options floated by the Centre of the states borrowing funds to compensate themselves for shortfall in GST collections, and want the Centre to borrow instead. They could explore legal options, if the GST Council fails to resolve the tussle over GST compensation in its meeting scheduled for October 12.

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