Above the fold: Top stories of the day
1. Census data show that Muslim population growth slowed more sharply than the growth rate of the Hindu population in the decade between 2001 and 2011.
2. The land ordinance may be allowed to lapse on August 31, allowing states to draft their own legislation, Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari indicated.
3. The government has told the Supreme Court that it has no details about 54 prisoners of war held in Pakistani jails after the conflicts of 1971 and 1965.
The Big Story: Reservation road
As the police detained Hardik Patel, convenor of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, for a few hours on Tuesday, Gujarat was plunged into chaos. After violence spread across the state, curfew was imposed on Mehsana district and Surat, while schools in Ahmedabad remain closed. Suddenly, Gujarat has a new "loh purush" to rival Narendra Modi, a 22-year-old commerce graduate who likes to pose with guns and claims to have modelled himself on Sardar Patel. A political nobody who has blindsided the state administration and become the face of an implausible demand: OBC status for the prosperous Patel community.
This claim for reservation is perhaps not rooted in backwardness and discrimination. Rather, it draws its energies from the frustrated ambitions of a new generation. Many of the college goers who attended the rally on Tuesday spoke of how an OBC with 70% got admission but a Patidar with 90% did not. It projected a community that is economically stable and wants to accumulate a new form of social capital that better jobs and education can guarantee, but is held back by the system. It is reminiscent, in some ways, of the Jat demand for OBC status in states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, where the community is largely rich and politically prominent. In this case, as one commentator pointed out, a demand for reservation may in fact speak of a disillusionment with caste-based reservation.
Does Hardik Patel's mobilisation have other political underpinnings? It has galvanised the Patidars, who have traditionally sided with the party in power at the Centre and been a reliable constituency for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat. The new agitation seems to be spreading the sentiment that the Patels have been abandoned by the government. "Why have we come to the streets now? It is because our own don’t care for us although they are in power,” said Hardik Patel at Tuesday's rally. Are these the first cracks in the BJP's formidable support base in Gujarat? The local elections, two months away, will bear evidence.
Politicking and Policying
1. Former Bihar Chief Minister Jiten Ram Manjhi has resigned from his legislative assembly seat to be anointed national president of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular).
2. Kashmiri leader Shabir Ahmad Shah has blamed Delhi for the failure of talks with Pakistan.
3. The falling rupee has driven up overseas airfares drastically.
4. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) is bidding for a pan-Naga Hoho, an independent body that would look after the interests of Nagas living outside a new integrated Naga area.
Punditry
1. Pratiksha Baxi in the Indian Express writes of how rape is still trivialised in the public sphere.
2. In the Telegraph, KP Nayar dwells fondly on the "golden era of" diplomacy with Pakistan, which spanned the PV Narasimha Rao years.
3. In the Hindu, GR Reddy calls the Centre's bluff on "special status" for states, pointing out how economic benefits have been minimal and dwindling over the years.
Don't Miss...
Urmi Chanda-Vaz's interview of Mugdha Karnik, the Marathi translator of The Lord of the Rings as her new project:
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1. Census data show that Muslim population growth slowed more sharply than the growth rate of the Hindu population in the decade between 2001 and 2011.
2. The land ordinance may be allowed to lapse on August 31, allowing states to draft their own legislation, Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari indicated.
3. The government has told the Supreme Court that it has no details about 54 prisoners of war held in Pakistani jails after the conflicts of 1971 and 1965.
The Big Story: Reservation road
As the police detained Hardik Patel, convenor of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, for a few hours on Tuesday, Gujarat was plunged into chaos. After violence spread across the state, curfew was imposed on Mehsana district and Surat, while schools in Ahmedabad remain closed. Suddenly, Gujarat has a new "loh purush" to rival Narendra Modi, a 22-year-old commerce graduate who likes to pose with guns and claims to have modelled himself on Sardar Patel. A political nobody who has blindsided the state administration and become the face of an implausible demand: OBC status for the prosperous Patel community.
This claim for reservation is perhaps not rooted in backwardness and discrimination. Rather, it draws its energies from the frustrated ambitions of a new generation. Many of the college goers who attended the rally on Tuesday spoke of how an OBC with 70% got admission but a Patidar with 90% did not. It projected a community that is economically stable and wants to accumulate a new form of social capital that better jobs and education can guarantee, but is held back by the system. It is reminiscent, in some ways, of the Jat demand for OBC status in states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, where the community is largely rich and politically prominent. In this case, as one commentator pointed out, a demand for reservation may in fact speak of a disillusionment with caste-based reservation.
Does Hardik Patel's mobilisation have other political underpinnings? It has galvanised the Patidars, who have traditionally sided with the party in power at the Centre and been a reliable constituency for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat. The new agitation seems to be spreading the sentiment that the Patels have been abandoned by the government. "Why have we come to the streets now? It is because our own don’t care for us although they are in power,” said Hardik Patel at Tuesday's rally. Are these the first cracks in the BJP's formidable support base in Gujarat? The local elections, two months away, will bear evidence.
Politicking and Policying
1. Former Bihar Chief Minister Jiten Ram Manjhi has resigned from his legislative assembly seat to be anointed national president of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular).
2. Kashmiri leader Shabir Ahmad Shah has blamed Delhi for the failure of talks with Pakistan.
3. The falling rupee has driven up overseas airfares drastically.
4. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) is bidding for a pan-Naga Hoho, an independent body that would look after the interests of Nagas living outside a new integrated Naga area.
Punditry
1. Pratiksha Baxi in the Indian Express writes of how rape is still trivialised in the public sphere.
2. In the Telegraph, KP Nayar dwells fondly on the "golden era of" diplomacy with Pakistan, which spanned the PV Narasimha Rao years.
3. In the Hindu, GR Reddy calls the Centre's bluff on "special status" for states, pointing out how economic benefits have been minimal and dwindling over the years.
Don't Miss...
Urmi Chanda-Vaz's interview of Mugdha Karnik, the Marathi translator of The Lord of the Rings as her new project:
"As a villain, Gollum is greatly detailed – but he has no shades of grey. He has become entirely evil, with no contradictions, even when he is debating with himself as Smeagol and Gollum. No other villain in LOTR can hold a candle to Gollum’s villainy. It was a tremendous pleasure translating Gollum into Marathi.
His monologues were particularly fun to translate – my precioussss! The translation of “preciouss!” was something I had trouble finalising. The exact equivalent Marathi word for “precious” would not yield the same stress and meaning. So I had to use another commonly used term of endearment along with the equivalent word."