The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Woman Faces 5 Years over Photo Likening Army Garb to Suu Kyi’s Dress
- Burma Army Troops Clash with TNLA in Northern Shan
- Burmese Student Wins Research Award at AIDS Conference
- No Longer Unlawful, Ethnic Armed Groups Meet President to Demand Assurances
- KNU Gets Front Page Treatment Ahead of Ceasefire Signing
- Nepal’s New Premier Names Protest Group Leaders as Deputies
- Indonesia Tries 7 Suspected Militants over IS Links
- Battling for India’s Soul, State by State
| Woman Faces 5 Years over Photo Likening Army Garb to Suu Kyi’s Dress Posted: 13 Oct 2015 05:20 AM PDT  An image posted to Chaw Sandi Tun's Facebook page has caused controversy. (Photo: Chaw Sandi Tun / Facebook) PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Division — A young woman was brought to trial in Irrawaddy Division on Tuesday after sharing a satirical post on social media deemed to be insulting to Burma's military. Twenty-five-year-old Chaw Sandi Tun, also known as Chit Thami, last week took to Facebook to share a digitally photo collage of Aung San Suu Kyi wearing a green traditional htamein, Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and other military service personnel donning newly redesigned uniforms. The post compared the new military garb to the apparel of the renowned opposition leader, who chairs the National League for Democracy (NLD) and once served nearly two decades of house arrest under the former military junta. A text transposed on the image read: "[They] like the color of the longyi of Aunti Suu [Aung San Suu Kyi], so they had it tailored and are now wearing it." The image hit a nerve in Burma's conservative society, where it is considered an insult to imply that a man would wear htamein, the woman's version of the traditional Burmese sarong known as longyi. A Burma Army general staff officer, Lt-Col Kyaw Htin of the Southwest Command in Pathein, filed the suit against Chaw Sandi Tun on Oct. 12 under article 34 (d) of Burma's Electronic Transactions Law. The vague provision, which carries penalties of up to five years in prison, outlaws altering digital information in such a way that would defame "any organization or any person." After her arrest on Monday evening at a meditation center in Rangoon, Chaw Sandi Tun was taken to the Maubin police station where she has since been in custody. She was brought to trial at noon on Tuesday and will return on Oct. 27, according to a member of the local students' union that is assisting her case. Chaw Sandi Tun, who earned a Bachelor's degree in technology, is a former member of the Maubinn District Students' Union and took part in student demonstrations against a new National Education Law earlier this year in Irrawaddy Division. She has since resigned from the students' union and joined the local chapter of the NLD, and now works on the party's election campaign. The head of the Maubin Police Force, Pol-Lt Thein AUng, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that he could not provide any comment or further clarification about the case because he didn't get permission." Chaw Sandi Tun is at least the second person to be arrested this year after sharing a satirical online post viewed as critical of the military. In February, police arrested Aung Nay Myo, a freelance photographer in Monywa, after he posted a satirical photo on his Facebook page that reportedly mocked Burmese officials. He was released after three days of interrogation. The post Woman Faces 5 Years over Photo Likening Army Garb to Suu Kyi's Dress appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Burma Army Troops Clash with TNLA in Northern Shan Posted: 13 Oct 2015 05:11 AM PDT  A Burma Army soldier above the road between Lashio and Muse. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Fighting broke out between the Burma Army and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in five separate locations on Monday, according to sources from the ethnic insurgent force. Tar Bone Kyaw, the TNLA's general secretary, told The Irrawaddy the clashes occurred at Nansang, Mongmit and Kutkai townships in areas under the armed group's control. He claimed TNLA troops had killed 10 Burma Army troops, with a further two civilians portering for the military wounded in the attacks. "We have had more fighting in our control area, despite ordering our troops to avoid fighting because the election is coming," he said. "But their troops were chasing our troops, and a fight broke out." Eight ethnic armed groups will sign a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government in Naypyidaw on Thursday. The TNLA, an armed group drawn from the ethnic Palaung population of Shan State, was blocked by the government from participating in the ceasefire accord, along with Kokang rebels from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army. Tar Bone Kyaw told The Irrawaddy that yesterday's engagements brought the total number of clashes between the TNLA and the Burma Army to 10 so far in October. There were 18 clashes between the two forces in September. Attempts by the Myanmar Peace Centre to broker bilateral ceasefire talks between the TNLA and the Burmese government, the first since October 2013, have foundered in recent months. The post Burma Army Troops Clash with TNLA in Northern Shan appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Burmese Student Wins Research Award at AIDS Conference Posted: 13 Oct 2015 04:14 AM PDT  Khine Soe Lin, second from left, (Photo: Supplied) RANGOON — A Burmese student completing his second graduate degree at Melbourne University has been presented with an award at the 2015 Australasian AIDS Conference, held last month in the Australian city of Brisbane. Khine Soe Lin, a public health practitioner and epidemiology student, received the Runner Up Poster Presentation Award for his research, 'Identities in Motion: Cyberspace and Myanmar Men Having Sex with Men.' "The other three papers all related to biomedical research. My paper, however, focused on using social networks to disseminate health knowledge among the general public. That's why I think that I won one of the awards, because my research is close to the daily lives of the many people connected in this digital age that we live in," Khine Soe Lin told The Irrawaddy. Khine Soe Lin's paper explores how men having sex with men (MSM) create identities through lived and mediated realities via online social networks. His research concluded that social networks could be appropriate channels for social and health programs targeting members of Burma's LGBT community. "Starting around Myanmar society had an increase in social media usage," he said. "The reason why I focused my research on MSM is they are always living in hiding in this society because of discrimination." "My research found that we can indeed use social networks to share health knowledge and to create psychosocial support without revealing the identities of people who might want to protect confidentiality, including drug users, sex workers, and LGBTQ citizens," he added. Khine Soe Lin worked as a public health practitioner with the United Nations and international NGOs before moving to Melbourne to continue his studies. The post Burmese Student Wins Research Award at AIDS Conference appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| No Longer Unlawful, Ethnic Armed Groups Meet President to Demand Assurances Posted: 13 Oct 2015 03:26 AM PDT  Burma's President Thein Sein meets with representatives of ethnic armed groups in Naypyidaw on Oct. 13, 2015. (Photo: Hla Maung Shwe / Facebook) NAYPYIDAW — Two days before inking a long-awaited ceasefire agreement, representatives of two major ethnic armed groups met with President Thein Sein on Tuesday to discuss the implications of their recent removal from Burma's roster of unlawful organizations. Delegates from the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) met to discuss the executive order and emphasize that it must apply to both their political organizations and their armed wings, should culminate in the release of all members imprisoned under the Unlawful Associations Act and an immediate cessation of hostilities. On Monday, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the KNU, RCSS and the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) had been removed from the government's list of unlawful associations. The latter two were also removed from a list of terrorist groups. KNU secretary Kwe Htoo Win told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the group wanted to "make sure" the order would apply to the groups' militants as well as political leaders, and that representatives conveyed the necessity of easing the current conflict "in every region after signing [a ceasefire agreement], so that the pact will be meaningful." The date has been set to Oct. 15, when eight ethnic armed groups will convene in the capital Naypyidaw to sign what has been referred to as a nationwide ceasefire agreement, though about half of the ethnic stakeholders in Burma's protracted peace process will abstain. Conflict continues in parts of Kachin and Shan states, and the dominant ethnic organizations in both areas—the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP)—will not be party to the pact. Prominent politicians will also be absent from Thursday's signing ceremony, most notable opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) will be represented at the event by spokesperson Win Htein. Shan leader Khun Tu Oo and Arakan State's Aye Thar Aung have also declined an invitation to sign as witnesses. The ceremony will carry on nonetheless, with more than 20 domestic witnesses and six international observers from the United Nations, European Union, China, India, Japan and Thailand. The government had initially invited some 1,100 signatories, witnesses and observers from political parties and diplomatic missions to attend the ceremony, according to Hla Maung Shwe, an official at the government-affiliated Myanmar Peace Center (MPC). Key issues discussed on Tuesday were whether representatives of ethnic armed groups could attend the ceremony in their respective military uniforms, the release of political prisoners and the retention of rebel bases in non-government controlled areas. Regarding ethnic armed group uniforms, which the government had previously said it would prohibit at the signing, Kwe Htoo Win said "the President has agreed to let them" don their respective attire. The release of political prisoners could prove tough to resolve, as a number of the affected armed groups still do not have an accurate list of how many people had been arrested for unlawful association with their groups. Col. Sai La, a spokesperson for the RCSS, said his group would collaborate with organizations representing prisoners of conscience to establish ha complete list and petition for their amnesty. At present, some 96 political prisoners are currently in detention, three of whom were sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for associating with the ABSDF. The group's vice chairman, Myo Win, said the ceasefire accord to be signed on Thursday stipulates that all political detainees—those arrested for unlawful association as well as those currently facing trial for demonstrations against a new National Education Law—must be swiftly released. The RCSS spokesperson said the group also discussed maintaining its military bases in 16 townships and the opportunity to establish additional liaison offices in Shan State to better facilitate conflict resolution. Sai La said the president "said he had ordered ground forces to cooperate." Both the RCSS and the ABSDF said they were previously unaware that they were even included on a list of terrorist groups, but welcomed their removal from both designations. The revocation of unlawful status would likely make a major impact on their partnerships with other stakeholders in the peace process, the ABSDF's Myo Win said, as they would "not need to worry about dealing with us as an unlawful association anymore." Both groups—KNU and RCSS—were represented at Tuesday's meeting with Thein Sein. In addition to spokesmen Kwe Htoo Win and Sai La, RCSS Brig-Gen Pao Khay and KNU chairman Mutu Sae Poe were also in attendance. The post No Longer Unlawful, Ethnic Armed Groups Meet President to Demand Assurances appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| KNU Gets Front Page Treatment Ahead of Ceasefire Signing Posted: 13 Oct 2015 03:19 AM PDT  Karen National Union representatives meet with President Thein Sein in Naypyidaw on Monday. (Photo: Hmuu Zaw / Facebook) "Karen in Capital," read the front page headline in Tuesday's edition of the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar, accompanied by a photograph of Karen National Union (KNU) representatives, including chairman Mutu Sae Poe, in Naypyidaw on Monday. The story's prominent placement is perhaps indicative of the government's determination to stress the significance of a pending nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) which the KNU, alongside seven other armed groups, have pledged to sign at a ceremony scheduled to take place in Naypyidaw on Thursday. Representatives from all eight groups are now in the capital ahead of the signing. On Monday, the government removed three armed groups, the KNU, the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), from its list of unlawful organizations. Officials said the five other groups set to sign the ceasefire accord on Thursday are not listed by the government as unlawful organizations. The decision of Burma's oldest ethnic armed group, the KNU, to sign the accord has been a controversial one, with the group's senior leadership divided on the issue. Broader opposition to the signing also emerged earlier this month with the release of a joint-statement, signed by more than 40 ethnic Karen civil society organizations, accusing the KNU of making an "undemocratic" decision. Although senior leaders of the KNU will attend Thursday's signing ceremony, the group's vice-chairperson Naw Zipporah Sein, who was also head of the ethnics' negotiating bloc known as the Senior Delegation, turned down an invitation to attend from the government's chief peace negotiation Aung Min. Speaking with The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Naw Zipporah Sein said she was not prepared to attend while fierce fighting continued in Kachin and Shan states. "My opinion is: I will sign [the NCA] only when the guns are silent. I'm not courageous enough to attend the ceremony and celebrate the signing while fighting is still going on and even escalating. If I attended the ceremony, I would feel like I was going to celebrate the ongoing offensives," she said. Major ethnic armed groups, including the Kachin Independence Organization, the Shan State Army-North and the New Mon State Party, have withheld support for the ceasefire until it is inclusive of all armed groups. Asked about the prominent coverage afforded the KNU in Tuesday's Global New Light of Myanmar, Zipporah Sein said that winning the signature of the Karen rebel group was a political coup for Naypyidaw. "For them [the government], it is historic," she said. "Politically, they will get a very good image. So of course they highlighted it." During the colonial period, ethnic Karen were favored by the British to serve in the armed forces, a fact that ramped up ethnic tensions with the Burman majority. The KNU took up arms against the central government shortly after Burma gained independence in 1948, beginning one of the longest running insurgencies in the region. The post KNU Gets Front Page Treatment Ahead of Ceasefire Signing appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Nepal’s New Premier Names Protest Group Leaders as Deputies Posted: 12 Oct 2015 10:27 PM PDT  Nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav (third from left) administers the oath of office to the country's newly elected deputy prime ministers Kamal Bahadur Thapa (sixth from left) and Bijay Kumar Gachchedar (right). (Photo: Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters) KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal's new prime minister appointed two deputy premiers on Monday, including an ethnic community leader who has rallied hundreds of protesters in blocking fuel and goods shipments from India for weeks and plunged the Himalayan nation into a fuel crisis. Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli appeared to be reaching out to the protesters by choosing Madhesi group leader Bijaya Gachchedar as one of his deputies, though his Madhesi People's Rights Forum is not the main Madhesi group involved in the protests. That group, called the United Democratic Madhesi Front, has vowed to continue the protests at the main border crossing through which India sends most of its trade to Nepal. Oli also appointed Hindu nationalist Kamal Thapa as a deputy premier. Thapa's party has protested the constitution adopted two weeks ago because it wants the secular country to be restored as a Hindu state. Soon after taking the oath of office, Gachchedar told reporters that he joined the government to help resolve the protests in southern Nepal. "The issues, differences and demands of the Madhesi and other groups will be resolved by adjusting the states through amendments in the constitution," Gachchedar said adding the government would get the support of all political parties to make the changes. Oli was sworn in by President Ram Baran Yadav a day after he was elected in Parliament with support from smaller parties. In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday the US "encourages all political stakeholders to fully engage in a democratic process that accommodates the aspirations of all Nepalis." The protests by the Madhesis and other ethnic groups in the south for weeks have disrupted cross-border traffic, causing a severe fuel shortage. India, which has close ties to the Madhesis, denies there is a blockade and says drivers are afraid to enter Nepal, though Nepal says there is no trouble at many crossings. Scores of trucks, including fuel tankers, entered Nepal on Sunday and Monday from two borders points in southwestern Nepal, but the borders at south and southeast Nepal remained blocked. Home Ministry spokesman Laxmi Dhakal said there were no problems in most of the border points but was unable to explain why border officials on the Indian side were stopping trucks and then letting some pass. The constitution divides Nepal into seven new states, with some borders slicing through the Madhesis' ancestral homeland in the southern plains. The Madhesis, along with several other small ethnic groups, want the states to be larger and to be given more autonomy over local matters. Talks last week between the government and protesters made little progress. The post Nepal's New Premier Names Protest Group Leaders as Deputies appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Indonesia Tries 7 Suspected Militants over IS Links Posted: 12 Oct 2015 10:18 PM PDT  Indonesian policemen in Jakarta on Aug 20. (Photo: Beawiharta / Reuters) JAKARTA — Indonesia began trials Monday of seven men on charges of conspiring with terrorists and recruiting for militant groups in the Mideast, including the Islamic State, which has an estimated hundreds of Indonesians as members. The government has outlawed the Islamic State group and spoken forcefully against it, as have mainstream religious groups in the world’s largest Muslim nation. One fear is that militants who travel abroad will return home and conduct terrorist acts in Indonesia. The West Jakarta District Court began separate trials for Ahmad Junaedi, Ridwan Sungkar, Helmi Muhammad Alamudi and Abdul Hakim, as well as two others who helped them go to Syria to join Islamic State jihadists. The seventh, Tuah Febriwansyah—also known as Fachry—is accused of actively spreading IS propaganda through his own radical website and posting violent videos of terrorism activities on the Internet, including a video showing militants in Syria giving military-style training to Indonesian children. The seven men being tried, aged 32 to 51, were arrested in police raids in late March and early April in the capital, Jakarta, and East Java’s Malang town. State prosecutor Anita Dewayani told the court that Junaedi, Sungkar, Alamudi and Hakim attended jihadist training organized by IS in Syria, pledged allegiance to the group’s leader Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi, and fought with the group for up to seven months. “Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has been declared as a terrorist group by the United States and Indonesia,” Dewayani said, “The defendants deliberately conspired with the group in Syria, spread hatred and even join in wars with them to revenge the deaths of Islamic fighters.” If found guilty, the seven defendants would face up to 20 years in prison under Indonesia’s anti-terror law. Indonesian authorities estimate over 600 Indonesians have joined the Islamic State in Syria or Iraq. For the first time since the 1990s and the Afghan jihad, Indonesians, Malaysians and other extremists in Southeast Asia are traveling abroad in an organized fashion to join a global militant movement, picking up battlefield skills and militant contacts. Security officials fear they could take part in terrorism on their return to Southeast Asia, as those trained in Afghanistan did in attacks such as the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people. Radicals at home also could heed the Islamic State group’s exhortations to carry out revenge attacks on Western targets. In response to the threat posed by foreign fighters, the UN Security Council last year adopted a resolution demanding member states prevent the recruitment and travel of people to join militant organizations like the Islamic State group. After the charges against the seven defendants were read, the panel of three judges adjourned the trial until next Tuesday. The trial of another suspect, Muhammad Amin Mude, started last week, and five more are due to begin in coming weeks. The post Indonesia Tries 7 Suspected Militants over IS Links appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Battling for India’s Soul, State by State Posted: 12 Oct 2015 10:03 PM PDT  Mohan Bhagwat, chief of Indian Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), attends the World Hindu Congress 2014 conference in New Delhi November 21, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) KOLKATA — An ascendant Hindu nationalist group wants minority Muslims and Christians to accept that India is a nation of Hindus, and is pushing some of them to convert. An election in the volatile state of West Bengal has become a prime target in its game plan. The group's strategy: To spread its Hindu-first ideology to all corners of India by propelling the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power in as many states as possible. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) provided the foot soldiers in last year's landslide general election victory by Modi, who joined the movement in his youth. Winning states like West Bengal, outside the ruling party's traditional strongholds, would give Modi greater control over the upper house of parliament, which would put him in a better position to push through key policies. The game plan of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in the minority in the upper house, is to govern 20 of India's 31 regional legislative assemblies over the next four years, top party sources said. It currently controls or shares power in 11. Interviews with more than two dozen RSS and BJP officials and rare access to closed RSS meetings reveal a two-stage strategy—electoral victory at the national level, which has been achieved in the lower house of parliament, followed by similar success at the state level. "We would want the BJP to win all the state elections because only then can significant social, political and cultural changes take place in this country," RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told Reuters. "The 2014 election victory should be seen as the starting point of a long term mission." Policy Influence What also emerges is the impact the RSS is having on government rhetoric and decisions. Once scorned as a right-wing fringe group, the RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP. The Modi government has appointed RSS sympathizers to prominent positions in recent months. This includes the chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India, the chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research and a board member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Most of the ministers in the federal cabinet had their political consciousness shaped by the RSS and its affiliates. Modi spent his formative years as a full-time volunteer in the group, which he credits for his work ethic, discipline and success. BJP President Amit Shah and seven members of Modi's cabinet also joined the RSS in their youth. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was once an RSS official and went on to lead the BJP, is now pushing for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter. The government has also taken up other issues dear to the RSS, like the search for the lost Saraswati River. Government archaeologists have been ordered to search for the river, mentioned in ancient Hindu texts. RSS members believe proof of its existence would bolster the group's narrative of a Hindu-dominated golden age in India prior to invasions by Muslims and Christians. A close aide to the prime minister affirmed Modi's commitment to the group and its vision. The prime minister, he said, is "viewed as the RSS worker who will take bullets in the chest to protect the RSS. He believes that it is the finest institution, a think tank and an organization that has the power to change India." India's Glory Days What is unfolding is a battle for the soul of India. Since independence in 1947, Indian politics has been dominated by the Congress party and its leftist offshoots. They have espoused a secular, multi-faith vision of the nation. Hindus are the majority, but roughly 14 percent of India's 1.2 billion people are Muslim. The RSS was founded in 1925 as an anti-colonial organization. It promotes a fundamentally different vision that draws on a mix of Hindu legends and ancient Indian history, when the subcontinent was home to some of the world's most advanced civilizations. According to this narrative, India's glory days ended after it was invaded—beginning in the 8th century—by Muslims and then Christians, who converted the Hindu inhabitants. The RSS believes that if all Indians were to acknowledge and accept that ancient Hindu identity as theirs, it would unify the country, offer the best defense against any future aggressors and head off separatist movements. "Hindustan means land of Hindus," RSS General Secretary Suresh "Bhaiyyaji" Joshi told Reuters, using the old Mughal Persian name for India. "So anyone living here is automatically a Hindu first." The RSS has been banned four times since its inception, once after a former member of the group assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. That attack came after the RSS accused Gandhi of appeasing Muslims at a time when Pakistan, an all-Muslim nation, was being carved out of India. The ban was later lifted in the absence of any evidence the group planned the attack. New Strategy Until a few years ago, the RSS had focused on achieving its vision of a Hindu nation from outside the electoral realm. RSS volunteers would meet weekly at thousands of shakhas, or branches, around the country to talk about Hinduism and civic duty, and practice martial exercises and discipline. Those interested in electoral politics traditionally migrated to the BJP and its predecessor, Jan Sangh, which shared much of the RSS' ideology. That changed in July 2013. At a meeting in Amravati in the western state of Maharashtra, RSS leaders decided it was time for the group to start using its network to more systematically help the BJP come to power, according to Ramapada Pal, the RSS chief preacher for West Bengal and Odisha states. His account was confirmed by several other RSS and BJP leaders who attended the meeting. One speaker helped convince those resisting the change by acknowledging that politics was dirty, like a "toilet," but that it was for the RSS to clean up the mess, Pal said. After the Amravati meeting, BJP president Shah enlisted an army of RSS volunteers in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, to campaign for the BJP in the federal elections of 2014. The state is electorally important, accounting for 80 of 543 elected seats in the lower house of parliament. Each RSS volunteer was given a page from the electoral rolls containing about 100 names. The volunteers, called "panna prabharis," or in-charge of a page, had to persuade voters who were vacillating to back the BJP, and then escort them to the polls. The BJP won 71 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh—a record for the party. Now, the RSS and BJP are hoping to replicate the Uttar Pradesh playbook in state elections. Bihar, an impoverished eastern state that is currently governed by a coalition of BJP rivals, started voting in a state election on Monday. RSS volunteers have run a grassroots campaign in the state. Acid Test But the acid test for the RSS-BJP alliance will be next year's elections in West Bengal, a state where the BJP is traditionally weak and which for decades was ruled by an alliance headed by Communist parties. RSS officials have met at least five times this year with BJP President Shah, who many credit as the architect of Modi's election triumph, to coordinate political strategy in West Bengal, said a party official present at the meetings in New Delhi and Kolkata. The BJP did not win a single seat in the last election for the 290-seat state assembly in 2011. Shah described West Bengal as a gateway to forging political control in India's northeastern states that border China, senior party official Sidharth Nath Singh quoted the BJP president as saying in a meeting. Shah also agreed to grant RSS leaders a say in the selection of senior members of the BJP's state organization, Singh said. Shah did not respond to requests for an interview and did not answer questions sent to his office. Modi's office also did not respond to questions for this article. In April, the RSS was deeply engaged in the municipal election campaign in West Bengal. For the first time, the BJP fielded candidates for every seat in the local elections. It more than quadrupled its seats in the vote, albeit from a low base—from 16 to 74 out of a total of 1,943. When the leader of the party in West Bengal is chosen for the state elections, that person could be from the BJP or the RSS, said Kailash Vijayvargia, who was appointed in July to manage the BJP's political expansion in West Bengal. It needs to be someone who can fight against "appeasing Muslims" and against "allowing Islamic terror groups to flourish in our country," he said. Religious Rioting Communal violence is never far from the surface in places like West Bengal. Some of the worst religious rioting in Indian history followed the partitioning of British India into predominantly Hindu West Bengal and Muslim East Bengal, which in 1971 became the new country of Bangladesh. More recently, Hindu-Muslim riots erupted in West Bengal in 2007, 2010 and 2013. In the months after Modi's victory, leaders of hardline Hindu groups launched a drive to have India officially declared a nation of Hindus. They also stepped up a campaign against what they called "Love Jihad"—a term used to describe what they claimed was an Islamist strategy to convert Hindu women through seduction, marriage and money. And they began a push to convert Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, through a purification ritual called "ghar vapsi," or "homecoming," a concept central to the RSS since its founding. Cow slaughter, another touchstone issue for the RSS and the source of many lethal riots, has again shaken India this month after a Muslim man was lynched near Delhi on suspicion he had killed a cow, an animal holy to many Hindus. His death at the hands of a Hindu mob was deemed "an accident" by Modi's culture minister. Modi has been criticized for giving hardliners a free rein, but their zeal has also caused him headaches. After meeting the prime minister in January in New Delhi, US President Barack Obama urged India not to stray from its constitutional commitment to allow people to freely "profess, practice and propagate" religion. Economic Reforms In the upper house of parliament, opposition lawmakers have tied up Modi's economic proposals, including a tax overhaul and a land reform bill, in some cases with debates over the religious controversies. Modi and the RSS share a long-term vision of making India the world's leading power but they don't always see eye-to-eye on how to get there. Modi has at times asked lawmakers from his party and RSS members to stop promoting controversial issues such as religious conversions. He wants to keep the focus on economic reforms. There are some signs that Modi would like to be less dependent on the RSS at the ballot box. The BJP has launched its own online membership drive, aiming to enroll 5 million new members, which would lessen its dependence on the RSS at election time. Every evening, Shah checks the membership numbers. Even when he is traveling, one party official is expected to text him the number by 6:30 pm, a close aide told Reuters. At an early September meeting in New Delhi organized by the RSS and attended by Modi, however, relations appeared harmonious. Senior government ministers presented their plans and were quizzed about the steps they were taking in their respective ministries, according to two federal ministers who were both present. Two long-awaited government plans were discussed that had strong RSS backing—the launch of a sovereign gold bond and improved pension rights for retired army personnel. Shortly afterwards, the government publicly unveiled them. The post Battling for India's Soul, State by State appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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