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Time of India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Anbumani calls on Ramadoss, attempts to break the ice in vain
VILLUPURAM: PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss called on his father and party founder S Ramadoss at the Thailapuram farmhouse on Thursday in an apparent effort to end the cold war between the two and resolve the ongoing issues between them. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes. However, political observers believed that the meeting did not resolve the issues between the father and son, as neither met the press, hinting that they had not reached an amicable solution for reconciliation. 'The much-awaited meeting has not yielded any fruitful results so far. We have to wait for a couple of days to learn what transpired between the two. Chinna Ayya (Anbumani) and his daughter visited Ayya (Ramadoss). They were closeted for about 45 minutes. Chinna Ayya's elder sister (Gandhimathi) also reached the farmhouse and joined the meeting just five minutes before they concluded the discussions. We have no clue what they discussed, but as usual, the media started speculating,' said a party source. Gandhimathi is the mother of Mukundan, who was appointed as the party's youth wing president despite stiff opposition from Anbumani in December last year. Mikundan has denounced his position a few days ago following the spat between Ramadoss and Anbumani. In a surprise development, Thuglak magazine editor and auditor S Gurumurthy, a pro-BJP political commentator, called on Ramadoss at his farmhouse on Thursday ahead of Union home minister Amit Shah's visit. Gurumurthy's visit was regarded as an attempt to insist that Ramadoss continue in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and face the assembly polls next year in the state. The visit comes after Ramadoss, while lashing out at his son a few days ago, had openly said he was not in favour of joining NDA for the 2024 parliamentary polls but was forced to do so following pressure from Anbumani and Sowmiya Anbumani. Ramadoss had earlier demoted his son from the post of president to working president, sparking a war between them. The father and son rift widened further after they held separate meetings with the party's top functionaries over the past few days to gain control over the party. Anbumani, while speaking to the party functionaries in Chennai on Wednesday night, termed party secretary Anbalagan a traitor for attempting to destroy the party.
The Hindu
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Political Line newsletter: Clarity and nuance in war
War brings clarity, though it might also lead to erosion of all nuances. In the ongoing discussions in India on the conflict with Pakistan, some points are notable, and of long-term consequence. Indian thinking needs to have clarity and nuance, both at once, though that is not an easy task. First of all, there is an explicit announcement by the BJP-led Central government that India is a multi-religious and pluralistic country, and that is a fundamental distinction it has with Pakistan. Pakistan was founded on the principle that nationhood is defined by religion, and Muslims and Hindus cannot be part of the same nation. History has proven, many times over, that religious nationalism is limited even in its best phases, and can turn dangerous and destabilising any time. A look around India's own neighbourhood is instructive. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are examples of religious and linguistic chauvinism wreaking social and political havoc. Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir said, almost as a prelude to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, that his country ought to continue to teach its new generation that Hindus and Muslims cannot be part of the same nation. In stark contrast, Indian officials, civilian and military ones, underscored the principle that India is democratic and pluralistic during their briefings on the conflict. The Indian political leadership spoke about unity and harmony, though it avoided any direct reference to the religious pluralism of the country. A second point that was evident during the last few days is the dangers of a jingoistic media and a warmongering and myopic strategic community. The paradox is that those who were self-proclaimed supporters of the BJP and its government did the maximum damage to India's standing and its point of view in the last few weeks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his first address to the nation after the conflict began, underscored the two pillars of India's mature and democratic statesmanship — strength and restraint. A strong nation decides when to strike, and it also decides when to stop. But restraint has become such a sullied word that pro-BJP anchors and many supporters of the party would not accept ceasefire as a sensible conclusion to the conflict. This leads us to a more fundamental question — the desirable nature and extent of public discussions on policy, particularly on security issues. A society cannot be democratic if it does not have discussions on state policy; but if those discussions are hijacked by ill-informed TRP chasers, no sensible policy can ever be pursued. People on the right and the left have only one frame of reference — how can India be even more strident in national security matters. The Centre has to work on building a national strategic culture, which combines India's idea of the self, and its approach to pursuing progress and defending itself from dangers. The first and the most essential step in this direction is to insulate national security conversations from domestic politics. If sensitive security issues, internal and external, are put in the centre of electioneering, that would be a race to the bottom. Common sense will be replaced by competitive jingoism, and the outcomes will be detrimental. The government will be hamstrung. The third point is that the government and the public should become more aware of how India relates to Pakistan. If India is a luxury car gliding through a busy crossroads, Pakistan is a deranged drifter looking for an opportunity to throw a stone. Now, this leaves India in a typical dilemma — whether to try to settle the nuisance once and forever or try to avoid all contact. Not an easy choice, but to stop your car and engage with a street hooligan is not exactly wise. He has stones, and a can of kerosene; you have a luxury car, and a place to go to. 'Tit for tat' and 'an eye for an eye' are very catchy slogans, but what India does should be decided by its strategic objectives. Least of all, it should be dictated by some slogans that might animate an election rally somewhere. Federalism Tract: Notes on Indian Diversity Power of the unelected A recent Supreme Court judgment had prescribed time limits for the President and Governors in the exercise of various options they have in dealing with a Bill passed by a State Assembly. In essence, the court sought to uphold the law-making powers of State Assemblies, and curtailed the arbitrary powers of Governors and the President to undermine it. Now, the President has taken up the issue again with the Supreme Court through a Presidential Reference. Birth stories Uneven population growth across States is one reason for regional disparity across India, and often the source of disputes and conflicts. Recent data show that birth rates in Tamil Nadu, Delhi, and Kerala are declining at twice the rate of the national average, whereas States such as Rajasthan and Bihar have rates higher than the national average. Rallying behind the flag The flare-up on the India-Pakistan front has led to a change in the posturing of many political actors, and a notable one was of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. By walking 3.8 km in the heat of Chennai, in a rally to express solidarity with the Indian armed forces, the CM sought to place himself firmly in the nationalist camp in the midst of many conflicts with the Centre on State autonomy, powers, and rights.
The Print
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Print
Dear Shekhar Gupta, don't fear caste census. Let it prove private sector has no caste inequality
Gupta's approach can be loosely described as non-interventionist liberalism — a position characteristic of libertarianism. But we need not split ideological hairs here. Suffice it to say, Gupta has raised similar arguments for a free market in the past, and is a nostalgic supporter of the long-obsolete Swatantra Party. In that sense, Shekhar Gupta is courageous to have stuck to his guns. Gupta argues that caste enumeration will inevitably snowball into caste-based welfarism, eventually culminating in private sector reservations. According to his ideal schema for progress, none of this is optimal. An unintended consequence of the BJP's continuous hegemony is that it has flattened divisions between opposition intellectuals. Unlike two decades ago, very few commentators have directly opposed the recent announcement of caste enumeration alongside the census. Instead, they are reduced to clamouring about technicalities. The pro-BJP intelligentsia, meanwhile, toes the party line anyway. Yet in the case of caste enumeration, to borrow the words of Argentinian President Javier Milei — himself a libertarian — the argument is 'using a noble cause to protect caste interests.' Milei has persistently used 'caste' as a metaphor for a closed group of Argentine elites — unlike India, where caste is real. Still, the essence of Milei's 'anti-caste' campaign applies: caste domination and market liberty are fundamentally contradictory. In India, an unregulated capitalist economy does little more than reproduce feudal regulations. Also read: Caste census is a bad idea whose time has come. Much worse lies ahead Markets don't erase caste—they repackage it A study published just last month found little evidence that lower castes — Dalits and OBCs, Hindu and Muslim — have been freed from caste-based occupations. It identified the 'inter-generational predominance of Hindu general castes in Grade A and B service sector jobs, business, and trading' in Uttar Pradesh. Nominal freedom matters little to this huge population still under the 'despotism of custom', as John Stuart Mill would put it. 'Oh, Uttar Pradesh,' sighs the reader. Sadly, this is not confined to a single state. Fed up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tea-seller stories, Mallikarjun Kharge once reminded him during a campaign speech that even if his family had a tea stall, no one would have drunk from it. Kharge is from Karnataka. CPI(M) MP K Radhakrishnan has previously narrated how a Dalit started a soda manufacturing company in Kottayam, Kerala, and it was silently boycotted. Indeed, researcher and public policy professor Aseem Prakash's work, based on interviews with several Dalit entrepreneurs, shows that the relationship between caste and capitalism does not operate on abstract notions of merit and efficiency. It is deeply embedded in social relationships, not governed by the impersonal contracts typical of modern market ideals. Similarly, Barbara Harriss-White argues that caste networks play a crucial role in regulating business — networks that upper castes exploit most effectively. Meanwhile, the occupational ties of Dalits are reinforced by their concentration at the lowest rungs in stigmatised industries such as those leatherwork, cleaning, brick kilns, and the waste economy. The literature on this is not abundant, but it is conclusive. This reflects a pattern not of exclusion but of 'adverse or unfavourable inclusion,' as Aseem Prakash would call it — where Dalits participate in the market on unequal terms, shaped by enduring caste hierarchies. In Western liberal societies, non-aggression may be interchangeable with non-interference, since the state is often the most aggressive actor. But the social condition of Dalits offers a counterexample. For them, protection comes through intervention; non-intervention means everyday aggression from the rest of caste society. David Mosse, drawing on several ethnographies, argues that caste identity continues to shape modern urban job opportunities in often subtle and hard-to-detect ways. Individuals migrating from stagnating agricultural sectors are sorted into jobs by skill, insecurity, danger, toxicity, and status — gradients deeply informed by caste. This likely holds true for many OBCs, but current data leaves a vacuum by focusing solely on two poles of the labour-capital relationship, and does not include the majority of OBCs. Which rational capitalist cannot see that this is an inefficient use of human capital? Also read: Bihar census identified the privileged and under-privileged castes. Go national now Free markets need state intervention to break caste Market liberty can indeed be a positive force — in societies that have overcome feudal overgrowth. But in societies still governed by caste norms and customs, freeing the market from state regulation achieves the opposite of liberty. The idea of the free market holds that the state should intervene as little as possible — but emphasis must be placed as much on 'possible' as on 'little.' A just state would find it impossible not to intervene against caste norms. Intervention to establish individual rights and personal sovereignty is what actually enables freer market access. The liberal philosopher John Locke offers a justification for such acts: a legitimate government is allowed to redirect private property for public use. This is the doctrine of eminent domain. We already have a tried and tested instrument to counter caste-based oligopoly: reservations. They are not ideal, but they are the least-worst option — and they work. Reservations in private education and eventually in organised, white-collar private-sector jobs would be inconvenient in the short term and benefit only a small share of SCs, STs, and OBCs. Yet they provide a good way to integrate these backward groups into the capitalist economy. It would be cruel to ask them to wait for public-sector expansion or rely solely on intermittent appeals for greater inclusivity from the organised private sector. Without a constitutional mandate, such incorporation is unlikely. Seventy years have passed without much inclusivity; the problem won't resolve itself one fine morning. For the state to intervene — or for capitalists to correct course — we need data. Caste enumeration could lay the groundwork for study and gradual reform in the private sector, but only if it counts all castes, including the privileged ones, and collects economic data as well. Christopher Hitchens once quipped, 'A serious ruling class will not lie to itself in its own statistics.' It shouldn't suppress data either. Gupta assumes, even before the census is conducted, that the data will fuel demands for private sector reservation. We would be glad if the census proves otherwise — that India is already caste-equitised. Sociological data, in itself, hasn't plunged any country into crisis. Nor has caste data in the three Indian states that collected it. It is thus prudent to take a leap in good faith than to make a priori assumptions about the outcome. In fact, with or without a caste census, there is libertarian logic in implementing private sector reservations. Principled liberals should be calling for it — it is, after all, in the 'national interest' — incidentally, the title of Gupta's column in ThePrint. This article is in response to ThePrint Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta's National Interest column published on 3 May 2025. Sumit Samos is an MSc graduate from Oxford University. He tweets @SumitSamos. Arjun Ramachandran is a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad. He tweets @___arjun______. Views are personal. (Edited by Prashant)
The Hindu
06-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Mysuru jail warder arrested for recording ‘abusive' video against Siddaramaiah
A warder at the Mysuru Central Jail has been arrested for allegedly recording an 'abusive' video against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and sharing it on social media. Additional Superintendent of Police C. Mallik said the accused warder, Madhu Kumar, has been arrested by the Bettadapura police in Periyapatna in Mysuru district. He will be questioned and handed over to the jurisdictional police on Wednesday. Earlier, Chief Superintendent of Mysuru Central Jail P.S. Ramesh said the warder had been suspended for his alleged misconduct. 'He was suspended on Monday, pending departmental inquiry,' he said. The warder, an ex-army personnel, who is aged around 45, had joined the service in 2018. He had served for about four years after completing two years of training. Meanwhile, the video sparked outrage among the Congress workers, who gathered outside the Mysuru jail premises on Tuesday and staged a protest. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) spokesperson M. Lakshman, who led the protest, said the Congress workers had gathered to express their 'hurt and anguish' over the 'obscene language' the warder used against the Chief Minister. Even though the jail authorities had suspended the warder for 'misconduct', Mr. Lakshman said it was not enough. An FIR should be registered against him, and he should be arrested forthwith, the spokesperson said. In a letter addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), Mysuru city, Mr. Lakshman said the warder had referred to Mr. Siddaramaiah's warning to a police official in Belagavi recently before abusing the Chief Minister in the singular. He alleged that the warder had spoken ill about the Chief Minister's wife while also offending the Muslim community on social media platforms to provoke communal disturbances. The warder's 'unparliamentary' utterances in the five-minute-long video not only violated the Karnataka State Civil Services (Conduct) Rules 2021, but also disturbed peace in the society, he said, urging the police to register an FIR and arrest him. Speaking to reporters outside the Mysuru jail premises, Mr. Lakshman said the social media accounts of the accused warder were replete with pro-BJP and pro-RSS posts. His social media posts seek to target Congress leaders, Muslims, and Dalits, he alleged. The KPCC spokesperson suspected that the BJP was behind such persons. 'The language used against the Chief Minister has hurt the Congress workers tremendously. Do not test our patience,' Mr. Lakshman warned. The Congress workers have also planned a massive protest outside the city Police Commissioner's office in Mysuru on Wednesday at 3 p.m. to condemn the incident.
New Indian Express
28-04-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah loses temper, raises hand as if to slap senior cop at Belagavi rally
BELAGAVI: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lost his temper and raised his hand to slap a senior police officer while he was addressing a Congress rally against the Centre's policies in Belagavi on Monday. The CM lost his temper when a group of BJP women activists stormed the venue, shouting slogans against him and the Congress party while waving black flags during his rally speech. After BJP activists disrupted his speech, causing confusion and a brief halt to the event, an angry Siddaramaiah asked, 'Who is the SP of Belagavi and why did he allow BJP workers into a Congress rally?' He called Dharwad's Additional Superintendent of Police, Narayan Baramani, who was on duty at the spot, to come to the stage and raised his hand as if to slap him. Baramani, in charge of security at the event's main stage, was caught off-guard when the CM lost his temper and stepped back as the CM raised his hand at him. Later, speaking to TNIE, Baramani said he was assigned to manage the stage and was unaware of the situation in the crowd, where a group of BJP activists raised slogans against the CM. Several pro-BJP activists and leaders questioned Siddaramaiah's anger towards a senior police officer on a public stage, calling it unfair for the CM to behave in such a manner. Some netizens also criticised the CM on social media for his conduct. BJP activists taken into custody The police detained the women protesters and escorted them out of the venue. The situation escalated outside when Congress workers surrounded the police vehicles carrying the detained BJP activists. A heated argument broke out between the Congress workers and the police, leading to further delays. To disperse the crowd and ensure the safe movement of the detainees, the police had to resort to a lathi charge. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar, and other leaders reportedly expressed their displeasure over the security lapse. Senior police officials at the venue faced sharp criticism from Congress leaders for failing to prevent the breach. Despite the disruption, the convention resumed after a brief interruption, with Congress leaders reaffirming their commitment to protecting the Constitution and criticising the central government's handling of inflation and public issues.
