Mohammad Jamil
While speaking at a discussion on “Global Inequality: Causes and Consequences” at the Azim Premji University, renowned economist and Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz believed India had much to do to improve its image abroad. Last week, during a media interaction, Mr. Stiglitz said: “The crackdown on NGOs and harassment of students – particularly the slapping of sedition charges against students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – had put India in a small club of authoritarian countries.” With India showing growing inequality, Mr. Stiglitz warned that a situation, where the rich one per cent see tremendous growth while the rest see stagnating incomes, will eventually lead to leaders such as (Republican Presidential candidate) Donald Trump thriving. To tackle economic inequality, he said there needs to be high growth and continuation and strengthening of welfare programs such as NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in India.
Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to 42 countries during the last two years, he failed to impress them with the result that Nuclear Suppliers Group refused to give membership to India. Analysts did not believe his claim of 8 per cent economic growth and said that figures were fudged. They reckon that till the time there is repression in dozens of northern states and Indian Held Kashmir, there would remain threat of backlash. India’s small neighbors are also wary of India’s hegemonic designs and regret apathy of international community, as it does not exert enough pressure to wean India off its nefarious designs. There were scenes of mayhem in parts of southern Indian-administered Kashmir after Indian forces opened fire on thousands of protesters, killing at least eight civilians and wounding scores of others during a mass funeral for a slain liberation fighter.
Shiv Murari Sahai, a top Indian police official, told a press conference on Saturday that eight people from south Kashmir district were killed during protests, including that of one youth who drowned in a river after being chased by para-military forces. Tens of thousands of people defied a curfew in parts of Kashmir on Saturday to pay homage to liberation commander Burwan Wani, that resulted in clashes with police and paramilitary. Wani was shot dead along with two other fighters by security forces and police in Bumdoora village on Friday, 85 km south of Srinagar, prompting mass mourning across the valley. Addressing the mourners, Muzaffar Ahmed Wani, the father of Burhan appealed to people not to damage public property. “You can mourn the death of my son Burhan but don’t cause damage to public property. It is our own property and we should not harm it.”
Earlier, thousands of armed police and paramilitary soldiers in riot gear fanned out across most towns and villages. They laid razor wire and erected steel barricades on the streets and drove through neighborhoods, warning residents to stay indoors. Wani, in his early 20s, had become the iconic face of Kashmiri resistance over the last five years. As the son of a school principal, he is widely credited for reviving armed resistance in Kashmir, using social media like Facebook to reach out to young Kashmiri men. Khurram Parvez, program director of Jammu Kashmir Coalition for Civil Society (JKCCS) in Srinagar, described Burhan’s death as an extra-judicial killing, saying that Indian government made no attempt to arrest him, adding “he joined because he was humiliated on the streets, his brother was tortured, this is where his resentment for the Indian government came from, and this is why Kashmiri’s identified with him.”
