Above the fold: Top stories of the day
1. Bihar goes into its last phase of polls today, with the Grand Alliance looking hopeful.
2. The Maldives have declared a state of emergency.
3. A day after Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya attacked Shah Rukh Khan for his remarks on intolerance, BJP MP Yogi Adityanath compared the actor to Hafiz Saeed, alleged mastermind of 26/11.
The Big Story: EC versus cow
In a first, the Election Commission has laid down pre-emptive restrictions on political advertisements in newspapers. Parties, candidates, organisations and even individuals in Bihar have been directed not to publish political advertisements till November 5, unless they are certified by the state election machinery. Newspapers have been instructed not to publish uncertified advertisements. The EC was stirred into action after four Hindi newspapers in Bihar carried an allegedly polarising ad by the Bharatiya Janata Party, showing a woman hugging a cow. In the text of the advertisement, the BJP accusingly cites statements on beef made by Grand Alliance leaders. The word "beef" is highlighted in red.
These bitterly fought assembly polls have tested the limits of the election watchdog, forcing it to examine the strength of its regulatory powers and plug the loopholes as best it can. For instance, the certification of ads had previously been limited to the audio-visual media. But Tuesday's curbs come at the end of a long learning curve for the commission. In the early phases of the election, the EC had been nonplussed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in Bihar while certain regions went into polls. The existing laws forbid campaigning in poll areas 48 hours before elections start. But they do not account for the fact that areas going to the polls can also watch television coverage of campaigns in other regions. The last few days have seen the EC shower show-cause notices on all parties concerned, for making polarising speeches.
Ideally, the regulatory drift should have been the other way. The EC should have been able to ease its controls and step back as the parties of a mature democracy learnt to engage in healthy debate and contest as adversaries who respect each other. But the Bihar campaign shows the fissures in our polity now run so deep that a rational conversation on substantive issues has become impossible. And our squabbling parties cannot function without the offices of a fussy class monitor.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
Rohan Venkataramakrishnan points out there is little difference between the banned poll advertisements and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speeches in Bihar.
Politicking and policying
1. India has taken Nepal to the United Nations Human Rights Council, expressing concern over the “lack of political progress” and incidents of “violence, extra-judicial killings and ethnic discrimination”.
2. TS Thakur is to be the next chief justice of India, signalling that seniority remains the main concern for the revived collegium for judicial appointments.
3. The Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan plans to purge school textbooks of stories by Urdu writers and narratives revolving around Muslim characters.
Punditry
1. In the Hindu, Madhav Chandavarkar weighs the case for legal checks on political vandalism.
2. In the Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta explores the Congress's struggle to come up with a credible stand on intolerance.
3. In the Business Standard, AV Rajwade on the need for a more balanced external account.
Don't Miss...
Kalpana Sharma interviews Germaine Greer:
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1. Bihar goes into its last phase of polls today, with the Grand Alliance looking hopeful.
2. The Maldives have declared a state of emergency.
3. A day after Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya attacked Shah Rukh Khan for his remarks on intolerance, BJP MP Yogi Adityanath compared the actor to Hafiz Saeed, alleged mastermind of 26/11.
The Big Story: EC versus cow
In a first, the Election Commission has laid down pre-emptive restrictions on political advertisements in newspapers. Parties, candidates, organisations and even individuals in Bihar have been directed not to publish political advertisements till November 5, unless they are certified by the state election machinery. Newspapers have been instructed not to publish uncertified advertisements. The EC was stirred into action after four Hindi newspapers in Bihar carried an allegedly polarising ad by the Bharatiya Janata Party, showing a woman hugging a cow. In the text of the advertisement, the BJP accusingly cites statements on beef made by Grand Alliance leaders. The word "beef" is highlighted in red.
These bitterly fought assembly polls have tested the limits of the election watchdog, forcing it to examine the strength of its regulatory powers and plug the loopholes as best it can. For instance, the certification of ads had previously been limited to the audio-visual media. But Tuesday's curbs come at the end of a long learning curve for the commission. In the early phases of the election, the EC had been nonplussed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in Bihar while certain regions went into polls. The existing laws forbid campaigning in poll areas 48 hours before elections start. But they do not account for the fact that areas going to the polls can also watch television coverage of campaigns in other regions. The last few days have seen the EC shower show-cause notices on all parties concerned, for making polarising speeches.
Ideally, the regulatory drift should have been the other way. The EC should have been able to ease its controls and step back as the parties of a mature democracy learnt to engage in healthy debate and contest as adversaries who respect each other. But the Bihar campaign shows the fissures in our polity now run so deep that a rational conversation on substantive issues has become impossible. And our squabbling parties cannot function without the offices of a fussy class monitor.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
Rohan Venkataramakrishnan points out there is little difference between the banned poll advertisements and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speeches in Bihar.
Politicking and policying
1. India has taken Nepal to the United Nations Human Rights Council, expressing concern over the “lack of political progress” and incidents of “violence, extra-judicial killings and ethnic discrimination”.
2. TS Thakur is to be the next chief justice of India, signalling that seniority remains the main concern for the revived collegium for judicial appointments.
3. The Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan plans to purge school textbooks of stories by Urdu writers and narratives revolving around Muslim characters.
Punditry
1. In the Hindu, Madhav Chandavarkar weighs the case for legal checks on political vandalism.
2. In the Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta explores the Congress's struggle to come up with a credible stand on intolerance.
3. In the Business Standard, AV Rajwade on the need for a more balanced external account.
Don't Miss...
Kalpana Sharma interviews Germaine Greer:
"She has declared that she is a “liberation feminist” and not an “equality feminist”. Why this binary?
“They’re fundamentally different. Equality is a conservative aim. It means you have an idea of what you want for women, which is what men have got. But what have men got? They’ve got the corporate world. They’ve got the competition. They’ve got the corporate structure that gives you one top honcho, and everyone else struggling to get up there and falling by the wayside. In the corporate world, every man is a loser. Because that’s the way it’s constructed. In the end it’s the corporation that wins. Now a woman can go into the corporation and become a corporation man. Mrs Thatcher did that. Worked pretty well. And she’s the most bellicose, war-like leader we’ve ever had. And guilty of a war crime in the Falklands war.”
Greer is especially critical of the idea of representation of women in everything – corporate boardrooms, the armed forces, other professions. “For example, in England we hear all the time how women have to be introduced to the boardroom. How the boardroom must be 30% female and you think, why 30%? What’s so holy about 30%?”
What’s the point of such representation if it does not lead to any change, she asks. “There is actually no point. It becomes window dressing. You look feminist because you’ve got women doing things. But they’re not doing anything for women. If they were to upset the priorities of the corporation, they wouldn’t be there.”"
