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The Hindu
21 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Nationalism as spectacle
The recent inauguration of the Chenab railway bridge by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is emblematic of India's new politics of imagery. Hailed as the world's highest rail arch, the bridge leaps across a chasm in Jammu and Kashmir, its elegance rendered into nationalist spectacle. The plan to display it on the Independence Day invitation card signals that infrastructural grandeur is the foremost motif of the republic — and the citizen is invited not to traverse or question but to behold and admire it. A society wracked by inequity and developmental deficits celebrates nationhood in the form of engineered titans: the world's tallest statue, the longest railway bridge, the widest expressway. These achievements are feted in lavish state ceremonies, nationalist rhetoric, and media blitzes designed to inspire awe. But how does grandeur rather than inclusion become the idiom of national pride? Symbols of exclusion India's fondness for gigantism is not accidental. The very size of the project is its message. When the Statue of Unity rose from the banks of the Narmada, it wasn't just a work of art or a tribute to a statesman: it was a declaration writ large in stone and steel of a Hindu-first narrative, with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel recast as a symbol of unity against imagined internal foes. The mythos that envelopes such projects smothers questions of distributive justice. Who benefits when governments spend astronomical sums on such initiatives? Whose aspirations do they serve and silence? Every engineering marvel draws on a carefully curated past. In India, the current government's embrace of large-scale building projects is paralleled by its project to rewrite history. The ambition is not just to fill skylines but to repopulate the national imagination with icons drawn solely from a few mythologies. The making of nation states often involves tearing down colonial-era symbols, recasting historical figures, and erecting new ones that embody the prevailing ideology. But what is striking about contemporary India is the scale and ferocity with which these projects have been pursued, and the drive to anchor national belonging in visual monumental forms. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor is more than a series of temples and walkways, for example: it's a literal and figurative reclamation, in a city perceived to be the civilisational heart of the Hindu polity. Here, engineering prowess is being marshalled to announce who belongs and who doesn't. Of course, nation-building has always produced spectacle. The Eiffel Tower, the Hoover Dam, and the Great Wall have all served to bind citizens to an idea greater than themselves. But in India's nationalism, the spectacle operates with a particular logic: it's a sign of progress but also asserts dominance. The Statue of Unity gleams while local Adivasi communities, displaced from their ancestral lands, watch with little say in the project that now overshadows them. Expressways, while useful, are undertaken with a gusto that often mocks the villages flanking them awaiting clean water and toilets. The new India is not a place where the peripheries are uplifted to the centre but where a singular vision radiates outwards, flattening multitudes in its path. Engineering in particular lends itself seamlessly to this ideological programme because of the language of precision that engineering projects embody. Concrete, steel, and glass can be measured, weighed, and installed. Their timelines, costs, and visual impact can be displayed as evidence of political will and executive competence. In an era in which governance is increasingly judged on optics rather than outcomes, every new temple or monument becomes testament to the regime's 'can do' spirit. This is not empowerment. Even when prosperity is in the offing, the benefits of such projects rarely flow equitably. Mega-dams inundate villages; stadiums rise while informal settlements are razed; and metro lines are built with scant regard for labour conditions or environmental consequences. Government efforts to bore tunnels through the Himalayan frontier — the world's youngest, arguably most fragile mountains — are presented as triumphs of ingenuity and grit, shrinking distances and fortifying borders. Yet the scenes of excavation mask the scarring of ecologically fragile mountainsides, the uprooting of Indigenous communities, and the haste of it all that mocks environmental and social consent. There is little room here for participatory democracy. These impulses are most apparent in the erasure of marginal communities and alternative histories from the landscape of the new nation. Large engineering projects have become instruments of progress and of recalibration, of crafting a physical and symbolic order that must be admired and obeyed. Legal processes are twisted to fast-track construction. Public consultations are perfunctory and often organised long after decisions have been made. This is the grammar of the prevailing nationalism — a style that grants primacy to order, magnitude, and uniformity and disdains the messy business of democracy. Serving communities India's earliest engineering masterworks — stepwells, ancient irrigation systems, and the Mughal gardens — served communities, not just sovereigns. Identity and inclusion need not be strangers to national achievement. Success can also be measured in the lives touched, the voices heard, and the spaces opened to everyone. Yet India's nationalism seems to fear such a reckoning, and no wonder: no monument can command loyalty in perpetuity if those on whom it is built remain strangers to its promise.
The Star
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
‘I saw a ship dropping many people into the sea': India accused of returning Rohingya refugees to Myanmar
BENGALURU: Fisherman Nye Nge Soe was returning from a night's work to his village in Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, when he saw dark figures bobbing among the waves about 50m from the shore. 'It was almost 1am. From my boat, I saw a ship dropping many people into the sea. I could hear them shouting,' said Nye Nge Soe, 22, describing events on the night of May 8 on the phone to The Straits Times. 'They had life jackets, but the water is 2m deep there. There were old people and women who could not swim. 'A ship crew (from our village) threw them a long rope. I watched the people swim to the shore holding this rope,' he said. It was only in the light of dawn that Nye Nge Soe realised that the people they had rescued were Rohingya – an ethnic Muslim minority group in Myanmar. As the villagers gave the new arrivals meals, water and dry clothes, the refugees told them that they had been deported from India. In the same week that India was exchanging fire with Pakistan on the western border, its government deported at least 40 Rohingya refugees from May 6 to 9 from its eastern coast into Myanmar. The United Nations has launched an inquiry into reports that the refugees were forced off an Indian Navy vessel and into the Andaman Sea, which it called 'unconscionable' and 'an affront to human decency'. Around the same time, India also 'pushed back' another 50 Rohingya men and women from the north-eastern state of Assam into Bangladesh. This means that instead of formal repatriation, they were sent walking across the border. The UN and global refugee rights organisations have urged India to stop deporting Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, where they face life threats, persecution and ethnic cleansing. Many Rohingyas fled a brutal crackdown by Myanmar's military in 2017 – atrocities rooted in decades of state repression and discrimination that rendered them stateless by denying them citizenship. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas fled Myanmar in waves, before and after the military's violent 2017 'clearance operations', which saw their largest exodus as about 700,000 sought refuge in Bangladesh, which borders Myanmar. An estimated 40,000 Rohingya people live in India. Analysts say that India is undertaking these elaborate, sweeping actions against Rohingya refugees as part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) hard political stance against 'illegal Muslim immigrants' that has borne electoral dividends for the Hindu-first party. 'The Indian government's political narrative clubs Rohingya refugees from Myanmar with undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh, who have religious and linguistic similarities but little else, into one subgroup of unwanted immigrants,' said policy analyst Angshuman Choudhury, who is a joint doctoral candidate researching Myanmar at the National University of Singapore and King's College, London. India's Ministry of Home Affairs did not respond to ST's queries. Although India is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said India's 'cruel actions' violate the international legal principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits states from returning individuals to a territory where they face threats to their lives or freedom. Two relatives of Rohingya deportees have filed urgent petitions in India's Supreme Court to cease such deportations, but the judges dismissed them as lacking evidence. One judge said that claims that the refugees were dropped in the sea were 'fanciful'. But Myanmar locals and the authorities confirmed the allegations. Aung Kyaw Moe, the deputy minister for human rights in Myanmar's in-exile elected government, the National Unity Government (NUG), told ST that '40 Rohingya refugees from India were deported and thrown along the coastal side of southern Myanmar. They landed on May 9 in Myanmar territory'. He shared a list of 40 names of Rohingya deportees in Myanmar. ST found that 37 matched a list of 43 names submitted in the Supreme Court petitions. All confirmed deportees held refugee identification documents issued by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, which guarantees basic human rights and certifies that the individual is verified. Thirteen of the deportees are women. Most of the deported men are in their twenties. ST was asked not to reveal the name of the village where the Rohingya landed, given security concerns. All the Rohingya people ST spoke to asked not to be identified, fearing deportation. Half the Rohingya refugees in India – around 20,000 – are registered with the UNHCR. Most of them live in poor Delhi neighbourhoods, while an unknown number are held indefinitely in detention centres. The Indian government severely restricts their mobility, shelter and livelihood, but courts allow the refugees to access basic education and healthcare guaranteed to the Indian poor. Priyali Sur, whose non-profit The Azadi Project gives skills training to refugee women, said: 'Since February, Rohingya refugees in Delhi have faced increasing police harassment in the name of verification. 'During these police crackdowns, racial slurs are hurled, the refugees are questioned about whether they are Bangladeshi immigrants and detained arbitrarily, violating their rights.' On May 6, the police reportedly rounded up dozens of Rohingya men and women from Hastsal, Vikaspuri and Okhla neighbourhoods in New Delhi to resubmit their biometric details. But instead of being verified and sent back home, the refugees were detained overnight in several police stations. A community leader in Vikaspuri said that '50-60 policemen came in many vans, forcing us to drop everything and go with them for document verification'. Others alleged that the police beat them, abusing them as 'ghuspetiya', a Hindi word for infiltrator that BJP leaders often use. Mohammad, a 25-year-old Rohingya man, was in a Delhi hospital with his wife who had just miscarried, when his parents and two brothers were detained. He shared with ST several photos and hurried voice messages his brothers had shared from the police van, before their phones were confiscated. On May 7, at least 40 detainees were flown to the Indian union territory of Andaman Islands, then forcibly taken in a naval vessel to south Myanmar and dropped in the sea to swim ashore. Non-profit Fortify Rights, which works on human rights in Myanmar, reported that in an audio recording of a call made to his relatives in India, a Rohingya deportee said that they were 'blindfolded and handcuffed' on the ship. In Myanmar, the rescued Rohingya borrowed phones from villagers and called relatives in India. Their worst nightmare – being back in Myanmar – had come true. 'Tonight, the Indian Navy left us in the middle of the water near Mandalay sea… We might get caught by the military,' a man's quivering voice tells a woman in an audio recording of a call ST heard. In another call recording, a father asks his son, barely 20, if he is okay. When the young man mumbles a response, his mother shouts: 'Don't cry!' Mohammad said: 'My brother said that the navy had asked if they wanted to be sent to Myanmar or Indonesia. All of them had begged to be sent anywhere but Myanmar, where death is sure. And still, Myanmar is where they threw them.' On May 9, Myanmar fishermen handed the Rohingya refugees over to representatives of the NUG, a coalition of ousted democratically elected lawmakers and parliamentarians that was established in the wake of the February 2021 military coup. Aung Kyaw Moe said that the refugees are 'now with the People's Defence Force, who are among several groups that work with the NUG to fight the junta'. Myanmar faces an ongoing civil war, with several armed groups fighting the military junta since the coup. 'Myanmar is an active war zone now, and not safe. The Rohingya have been pushed back to a war zone that they had escaped from. It's inhumane of India to do this,' Aung Kyaw Moe added. The UNHCR's global spokesperson said it has sought further information from the Indian authorities on unconfirmed reports about the detention of Rohingya refugees in Delhi, 'while seeking assurances that refugees and asylum seekers not be returned to a situation where their life or freedom may be at risk'. Apart from the 50 Rohingya people sent by foot into Bangladesh, at least 118 Bangladeshi immigrants were pushed into Bangladesh, confirmed Debabrata Saikia, Assam's leader of the opposition and legislator of Nazira border constituency. All including the Rohingya people were inmates of the Matia detention centre in Assam. 'It was so secretive that even the local district administration was not aware of the deportation,' Saikia said. Bangladeshi media reported that the Border Guard Bangladesh had on May 7 detained at least 123 individuals, including Rohingya and Bengali-speaking individuals. In a May 8 letter, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry called on India to immediately stop 'pushing in people across the border', warning that it posed risks to security and undermined existing bilateral frameworks. But on May 11, the chief minister of the BJP-led Assam government Himanta Biswa Sarma boasted about the 'push back' as a new operation of the government of India. 'Earlier, we used to arrest 1,000-1,500 foreigners,' he said, without providing details. 'They would be sent to jails, and then produced before a court of law. Now, we have decided that we will not bring them into our country, and will push them back.' Choudhury said the BJP leader's eagerness to 'proudly announce this direct, extra-legal deportation as a new innovation' was an attempt to project itself 'as a party that is proactive in the pushing out of undesirable foreigners'. Previous governments in Assam have been known to push back Bangladeshi immigrants, but in smaller numbers. The BJP governments in Delhi and Assam had pledged to throw out illegal immigrants, whom they hold responsible for crimes and loss of jobs, despite there being no evidence for these claims. Assam and the northern state of Bihar will face state elections later in 2025. 'There is great political premium in rounding up so-called illegal immigrants and sending them out,' Choudhury said. 'Where will I be safe?' 'Most Rohingya refugees in India and Bangladesh don't expect citizenship here. They just want a safe place as they await resettlement through the UNHCR in countries like the US, Britain and Europe that have refugee laws,' said Ravi Hemadri, founder of Development and Justice Initiative, a UN partner agency that works with refugees. But after the detentions and deportations, Rohingya refugees, especially in BJP-led regions like Jammu, Delhi, Gujarat and Rajasthan, fear more crackdowns. Some of their landlords are also now forcing them to vacate. A Rohingya student in his twenties who was to sit a 12th class computing exam in May said that he is hiding in a south Indian city under a non-BJP government after the Delhi police burst into his best friend's room at 3am and detained him. S, 26, a resident living in a refugee settlement in Jammu in northern India, has been sleepless since her parents and brothers, aged 18 and 20, were deported to Myanmar. 'Just like that, my whole family is gone. How are they? Are they dead? Alive? Are they in trouble with the military? I can't bear it any more,' S said, sobbing over the phone. To add to her anxiety, India's Ministry of Home Affairs has set a 30-day deadline in May for all states to verify the credentials of people suspected to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar who claim to be Indian citizens. If their documents are not verified, they will face deportation. S said that India had deported her family to Myanmar despite having verified refugee cards and never claiming to be Indian citizens. She now fears the same fate. 'I would rather die than return to the horrors in Myanmar. But if no one wants us – not Myanmar, not Bangladesh, not India – where will I go?' she asked. - The Straits Times/ANN
Straits Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
‘I saw a ship dropping many people into the sea': India accused of deporting Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar
'I saw a ship dropping many people into the sea': India accused of returning Rohingya refugees to Myanmar – Fisherman Nye Nge Soe was returning from a night's work to his village in Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, when he saw dark figures bobbing among the waves about 50m from the shore. 'It was almost 1am. From my boat, I saw a ship dropping many people into the sea. I could hear them shouting,' said Mr Nye Nge Soe , 22, describing events on the night of May 8 on the phone to The Straits Times. 'They had life jackets, but the water is 2m deep there. There were old people and women who could not swim. 'A ship crew (from our village) threw them a long rope. I watched the people swim to the shore holding this rope,' he said. It was only in the light of dawn that Mr Nye Nge Soe realised that the people they had rescued were Rohingya – an ethnic Muslim minority group in Myanmar. As the villagers gave the new arrivals meals, water and dry clothes, the refugees told them that they had been deported from India. In the same week that India was exchanging fire with Pakistan on the western border, its government deported at least 40 Rohingya refugees from May 6 to 9 from its eastern coast into Myanmar. UN urges India to stop deportations The United Nations has launched an inquiry into reports that the refugees were forced off an Indian Navy vessel and into the Andaman Sea, which it called 'unconscionable' and 'an affront to human decency'. Around the same time, India also 'pushed back' another 50 Rohingya men and women from the north-eastern state of Assam into Bangladesh. This means that instead of formal repatriation, they were sent walking across the border. The UN and global refugee rights organisations have urged India to stop deporting Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, where they face life threats, persecution and ethnic cleansing. Many Rohingyas fled a brutal crackdown by Myanmar's military in 2017 – atrocities rooted in decades of state repression and discrimination that rendered them stateless by denying them citizenship. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas fled Myanmar in waves, before and after the military's violent 2017 'clearance operations', which saw their largest exodus as about 700,000 sought refuge in Bangladesh, which borders Myanmar. An estimated 40,000 Rohingya people live in India. Analysts say that India is undertaking these elaborate, sweeping actions against Rohingya refugees as part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) hard political stance against 'illegal Muslim immigrants' that has borne electoral dividends for the Hindu-first party. 'The Indian government's political narrative clubs Rohingya refugees from Myanmar with undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh, who have religious and linguistic similarities but little else, into one subgroup of unwanted immigrants,' said policy analyst Angshuman Choudhury, who is a joint doctoral candidate researching Myanmar at the National University of Singapore and King's College, London. India's Ministry of Home Affairs did not respond to ST's queries. Although India is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, Mr Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said India's 'cruel actions' violate the international legal principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits states from returning individuals to a territory where they face threats to their lives or freedom. Two relatives of Rohingya deportees have filed urgent petitions in India's Supreme Court to cease such deportations, but the judges dismissed them as lacking evidence. One judge said that claims that the refugees were dropped in the sea were 'fanciful'. But Myanmar locals and the authorities confirmed the allegations . Mr Aung Kyaw Moe, the deputy minister for human rights in Myanmar's in-exile elected government, the National Unity Government (NUG), told ST that '40 Rohingya refugees from India were deported and thrown along the coastal side of southern Myanmar. They landed on May 9 in Myanmar territory'. He shared a list of 40 names of Rohingya deportees in Myanmar. ST found that 37 matched a list of 43 names submitted in the Supreme Court petitions. All confirmed deportees held refugee identification documents issued by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which guarantees basic human rights and certifies that the individual is verified. Thirteen of the deportees are women. Most of the deported men are in their twenties. ST was asked not to reveal the name of the village where the Rohingya landed, given security concerns. All the Rohingya people ST spoke to asked not to be identified, fearing deportation. 'Anywhere but Myanmar' Half the Rohingya refugees in India – around 20,000 – are registered with the UNHCR. Most of them live in poor Delhi neighbourhoods, while an unknown number are held indefinitely in detention centres. The Indian government severely restricts their mobility, shelter and livelihood, but courts allow refugees to access basic education and healthcare guaranteed to the Indian poor. Ms Priyali Sur, whose non-profit The Azadi Project gives skills training to refugee women, said: 'Since February, Rohingya refugees in Delhi have faced increasing police harassment in the name of verification. 'During these police crackdowns, racial slurs are hurled, the refugees are questioned about whether they are Bangladeshi immigrants, and detained arbitrarily, violating their rights.' On May 6, the police reportedly rounded up dozens of Rohingya men and women from Hastsal, Vikaspuri and Okhla neighbourhoods in New Delhi to resubmit their biometric details. But instead of being verified and sent back home, the refugees were detained overnight in several police stations. A community leader in Vikaspuri said that '50-60 policemen came in many vans, forcing us to drop everything and go with them for document verification'. Others alleged that the police beat them, abusing them as 'ghuspetiya', a Hindi word for infiltrator that BJP leaders often use. Mr Mohammad, a 25-year-old Rohingya man, was in a Delhi hospital with his wife who had just miscarried, when his parents and two brothers were detained. He shared with ST several photos and hurried voice messages his brothers had shared from the police van, before their phones were confiscated. On May 7, at least 40 detainees were flown to the Indian union territory of Andaman Islands, then forcibly taken in a naval vessel to south Myanmar and dropped in the sea to swim ashore. Non-profit Fortify Rights, which works on human rights in Myanmar, reported that in an audio recording of a call made to his relatives in India, a Rohingya deportee said that they were 'blindfolded and handcuffed' on the ship. In Myanmar, the rescued Rohingya borrowed phones from villagers and called relatives in India. Their worst nightmare – being back in Myanmar – had come true. 'Tonight, the Indian Navy left us in the middle of the water near Mandalay sea… We might get caught by the military,' a man's quivering voice told a woman in a call whose audio recording ST has heard. In another call recording, a father asks his son, barely 20, if he is okay. When the young man mumbles a response, his mother shouts: 'Don't cry!' A view of the Rohingya refugee slum at Kanchan Kunj in Delhi. The camp, which is home to some 260-odd Rohingya refugees, has been destroyed twice in a blaze that some believe may have been acts of arson. PHOTO: ST FILE Mr Mohammad said: 'My brother said that the navy had asked if they wanted to be sent to Myanmar or Indonesia. All of them had begged to be sent anywhere but Myanmar, where death is sure. And still, Myanmar is where they threw them.' On May 9, Myanmar fishermen handed the Rohingya refugees over to representatives of the NUG, a coalition of ousted democratically elected lawmakers and parliamentarians that was established in the wake of the February 2021 military coup. Mr Aung Kyaw Moe said that the refugees are 'now with the People's Defence Force, who are among several groups that work with the NUG to fight the junta'. Myanmar faces an ongoing civil war, with several armed groups fighting the military junta since the coup. 'Myanmar is an active war zone now, and not safe. The Rohingya have been pushed back to a war zone that they had escaped from. It's inhumane of India to do this,' Mr Aung Kyaw Moe added. The UNHCR's global spokesperson said that it has sought further information from the Indian authorities on unconfirmed reports about the detention of Rohingya refugees in Delhi, 'while seeking assurances that refugees and asylum seekers not be returned to a situation where their life or freedom may be at risk'. BJP's 'push back' operation seen as vote game Apart from the 50 Rohingya people sent by foot into Bangladesh, at least 118 Bangladeshi immigrants were pushed into Bangladesh, confirmed Mr Debabrata Saikia, Assam's leader of the opposition and legislator of Nazira border constituency. All including the Rohingya people were inmates of the Matia detention centre in Assam. 'It was so secretive that even the local district administration was not aware of the deportation,' Mr Saikia said. Bangladeshi media reported that the Border Guard Bangladesh had on May 7 detained at least 123 individuals, including Rohingya and Bengali-speaking individuals. In a May 8 letter, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry called on India to immediately stop 'pushing in people across the border', warning that it posed risks to security and undermined existing bilateral frameworks. But on May 11, the chief minister of the BJP-led Assam government Himanta Biswa Sarma boasted about the 'push back' as a new operation of the government of India. 'Earlier, we used to arrest 1,000-1,500 foreigners,' he said, without providing details. 'They would be sent to jails, and then produced before a court of law. Now, we have decided that we will not bring them into our country, and will push them back.' Mr Choudhury said the BJP leader's eagerness to 'proudly announce this direct, extra-legal deportation as a new innovation' was an attempt to project itself 'as a party that is proactive in the pushing out of undesirable foreigners'. Previous governments in Assam have been known to push back Bangladeshi immigrants, but in smaller numbers. The BJP governments in Delhi and Assam had pledged to throw out illegal immigrants, whom they hold responsible for crimes and loss of jobs, despite there being no evidence for these claims. Assam and the northern state of Bihar will face state elections later in 2025. 'There is great political premium in rounding up so-called illegal immigrants and sending them out,' Mr Choudhury said. 'Where will I be safe?' 'M ost Rohingya refugees in India and Bangladesh don't expect citizenship here. They just want a safe place as they await resettlement through the UNHCR in countries like the US, Britain and Europe that have refugee laws,' said Mr Ravi Hemadri, founder of Development and Justice Initiative, a UN partner agency that works with refugees. But after the detentions and deportations, Rohingya refugees, especially in BJP-led regions like Jammu, Delhi, Gujarat and Rajasthan, fear more crackdowns. Some of their landlords are also now forcing them to vacate. A Rohingya student in his twenties who was to sit a 12th class computing exam in May said that he is hiding in a south Indian city under a non-BJP government after the Delhi police burst into his best friend's room at 3am and detained him. Mrs S, 26, a resident living in a refugee settlement in Jammu in northern India, has been sleepless since her parents and brothers, aged 18 and 20, were deported to Myanmar. ' Just like that, my whole family is gone. How are they? Are they dead? Alive? Are they in trouble with the military? I can't bear it any more,' Mrs S said, sobbing over the phone. To add to her anxiety, India's Ministry of Home Affairs has set a 30-day deadline in May for all states to verify the credentials of people suspected to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar who claim to be Indian citizens. If their documents are not verified, they will face deportation. Mrs S said that India had deported her family to Myanmar despite having verified refugee cards and never claiming to be Indian citizens. She now fears the same fate. 'I would rather die than return to the horrors in Myanmar. But if no one wants us – not Myanmar, not Bangladesh, not India -- where will I go?' she asked. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Khaleej Times
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
Dismay over top Indian award for firebrand spiritual leader
A firebrand nun accused of helping incite a mob that demolished a centuries-old mosque has been granted a top Indian government award, in a decision greeted with dismay by critics. Sadhvi Ritambhara once faced criminal charges for facilitating the destruction of the medieval-era Babri Masjid in 1992, which sparked religious riots that killed 2,000 people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a sprawling temple last year built on the ground where the mosque once stood, a reflection of the triumph of his assertive brand of Hindu-first politics. His government announced on Sunday it had decided to award Ritambhara the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honour, for her "contributions to social work". "It embodies the ideology and the views of the government and at the same time diminishes the value of the awards," veteran journalist Hartosh Singh Bal told AFP. Lawyer and civil rights activist Prashant Bhushan said on social media the award showed that India's civilian honours system had "degenerated to a political farce under the Modi regime". The mosque's demolition was a cause celebre among Ritambhara and other Hindu activists, who claimed it was built on the birthplace of the deity Ram. Her speeches denouncing the mosque were widely disseminated on cassette tape in the years before its destruction. Ritambhara, 61, also cheered on a crowd of thousands of Hindu volunteers outside the structure on the day it was torn apart, brick by brick. A commission investigating the Babri Masjid's demolition described her as among the people responsible for taking the country "to the brink of communal discord". She was briefly jailed after the demolition but, after years of delay, she was acquitted of all charges by a special court in 2020. The saffron-clad nun now runs a network of shelters for abandoned women and orphans. Kanchan Gupta, an adviser to the Indian government, said in response to the award announcement that her charity work was "at once inspirational and humbling". Ritambhara is also the founder of a women's Hindu group known as the Army of Durga, named after a fierce Hindu goddess renowned for fighting evil. Women enlisted in the group are provided military-style combat training.
Khaleej Times
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
Dismay greets firebrand Indian nun's top award
A firebrand nun accused of helping incite a mob that demolished a centuries-old mosque has been granted a top Indian government award, in a decision greeted with dismay by critics. Sadhvi Ritambhara once faced criminal charges for facilitating the destruction of the medieval-era Babri Masjid in 1992, which sparked religious riots that killed 2,000 people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a sprawling temple last year built on the ground where the mosque once stood, a reflection of the triumph of his assertive brand of Hindu-first politics. His government announced on Sunday it had decided to award Ritambhara the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honour, for her "contributions to social work". "It embodies the ideology and the views of the government and at the same time diminishes the value of the awards," veteran journalist Hartosh Singh Bal told AFP. Lawyer and civil rights activist Prashant Bhushan said on social media the award showed that India's civilian honours system had "degenerated to a political farce under the Modi regime". The mosque's demolition was a cause celebre among Ritambhara and other Hindu activists, who claimed it was built on the birthplace of the deity Ram. Her speeches denouncing the mosque were widely disseminated on cassette tape in the years before its destruction. Ritambhara, 61, also cheered on a crowd of thousands of Hindu volunteers outside the structure on the day it was torn apart, brick by brick. A commission investigating the Babri Masjid's demolition described her as among the people responsible for taking the country "to the brink of communal discord". She was briefly jailed after the demolition but, after years of delay, she was acquitted of all charges by a special court in 2020. The saffron-clad nun now runs a network of shelters for abandoned women and orphans. Kanchan Gupta, an adviser to the Indian government, said in response to the award announcement that her charity work was "at once inspirational and humbling". Ritambhara is also the founder of a women's Hindu group known as the Army of Durga, named after a fierce Hindu goddess renowned for fighting evil. Women enlisted in the group are provided military-style combat training.
