Archive for September, 2010

The mess of the CommonWealth Games – grin and bear it ?

The mess related to the Commonwealth Games is now reaching a feverish pitch. There are just a few days left for the actual opening of the games, but the early contingent of delegates and officials from many countries are already here, and athletes from a number of countries are also expected to arrive within the next few days. So, one would expect everything to be ready and waiting for them, right ? Well, the sad reality is that we are pretty far away. A lot of the infrastructure work that was supposed to happen and complete in the months previous to the actual starting of the games did happen and get completed in time for the Commonwealth Games opening, but this was after a lot of pressure and concern. And the sad part is that some of the infrastructure is still not complete, or that the efforts put in to accelerate the completion of these projects could result in quality issues (manifested in some issues where we hear about false ceilings of stadium collapsing, or the pedestrian bridge near the Jawaharlal Lal Nehru stadium collapsing, or water leakages in the various stadium).
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Government bracing for trouble with the judgment in the Babri Masjid – Ram Janmabhoomi case due on the 24th of September

The Government is apprehensive of trouble on a large scale after the impending judgment by the Allahabad High Court on the Ayodhya dispute, to be delivered on the 24th of September. The dispute at Ayodhya is one of the most emotional issues that has shaken the country for a long time. The case has been pending for 60 years now, a huge time for a case of such significance to have remained pending. The dispute was raised soon after Independence, with idols being placed by some people at the site of the Babri Masjid, and that was when a court case was lodged. Ever since then, there was status quo, which was shaken when the Rajiv Gandhi government ordered the opening of the gates, and then a shilanayas of a proposed temple was allowed to happen in 1986. Combined with the regressive nature of the Government action in the Shah Bano case, the emotional appeal was ripe for politicization, and it led to a huge increase in the votes of the BJP.
Soon after, the BJP played a part in the organization of a movement towards the Ram Janmabhoomi site (the site where the Babri Masjid was apparently built under the rule of Babar, by destroying a temple that stood at the site, as a commemoration of the birth of Lord Ram at that exact site). However, what exactly happened, whether it was a conspiracy or an act by a passionate mob is still under investigation, but the effect was that in a matter of a few hours, a mob destroyed the more than 4 century old structure, and dealt a huge body blow to the law and order situation in the country. There were riots in many parts of the country, there was a police firing, and so on. More than a thousand people died in the violence, and it also led to the sacking of the BJP Governments in all the states that they were in power.
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The mess in Kashmir, and the Government being ineffective in doing anything to counter it

The current mess in Kashmir offers no easy option for the Government in terms of how to handle the situation, and bring the overall situation to the peace that was there just a few months ago. After a long period of time, the Indian Government was feeling happy about the situation in Kashmir. Tourists were arriving in droves, the local economy was working fine, security incidents were minimum in terms of attacks by terrorists (and the casualties in terms of deaths in violent incidents as well as in cross-fire between the security forces and the terrorists was at a minimum). Further, in the overall situation, the tolerance for using terrorism as a method of furthering their goals had gone out of style, and as a result, support structure and media support for the terrorist movement in Kashmir had been drastically reduced, giving the Government a big plus. Also, local elections had been held and there was enough participation by the local electorate that a claim of electoral boycott could not be sustained.
And then, everything turned upside down. There seems to have been a new strategy in place to bring the status of Kashmir back to a boil, using the weapon a public protest. Public protests can be very difficult to handle, since you are no longer dealing with terrorists whom you can attack with the full force of security weapons, and without too many political issues. In this case, the Government is dealing with normal citizens, with young men, with women, and with many others. They pelt stones at the security forces, target individual policemen, try to burn and destroy Government institutions, and in a case of what one would think to be suicidal actions, they target the barracks and the posts of the security services. And as a result, even though the state Government has tried to restrain the security forces from harsh action, the direct attacks on the security forces have resulted in firing.
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