Outstation members of Kohima are requested to arrange their own

Trump and Modi show U S president Donald Trump returned home on February 25 after a two-day hectic trip to India where both he and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi shared the limelight to showcase their personal rapport. There is no doubt that both seemed drawn to each other while they used the theatrics of diplomacy to strike a chord with their respective domestic audiences. Over the past 14 years India has hosted a US president three times, Pakistan has hosted none. President Donald Trump’s two-day visit further hardens the de-hyphenation of India from Pakistan in US foreign policy. The most dramatic manifestation of this break was George W. Bush’s civilian nuclear deal with India-- a deal Pakistan asked for and did not get. The last US President to make a state visit to Pakistan was George W. Bush in early March 2006, a trip that included India. Barack Obama never went there despite the fact that he visited India twice (2010 and 2015). This needs to be seen in the context of how India and the US have been drawn by common interests such as-- one that encompasses Pakistan agenda the concerns counterterrorism, China, and global issues such as trade and energy. The US is India’s second-largest trading partner after China, with annual bilateral trade going from $11bn in 1995 to $142bn in 2018, according to official US data. But the two countries have been wrangling over a trade deal as Trump pushed for more concessions from New Delhi. On the eve of his departure, Trump addressed a press conference where he was more concerned with maintaining the ‘feel-good’ factor. He showed his usual and bizarre grasp of issues at the press conference. When asked if he raised the issue of religious intolerance with Modi, the US president said he did and “the Indian prime minister was incredible in what he told me. He wants people to have religious freedom and very strongly.” The flowering of Trump’s admiration and affection for Modi appeared to resonate the packed schedule that took Trump to Modi’s home region, the Taj Mahal visit and the Rashtrapati banquet before leaving New Delhi. Trump left with no trade deal but happy to sell American military equipment already agreed upon earlier. One might ask “so what was the big deal, anyway?.” Even if the riots and mob violence were aberrations of embarrassments; yet these were no big deal for Donald Trump. He chose to look the other way and as the President of the world’s most powerful democracy, Trump did no justice to his nation. It may be noted that both are right-wing leaders whose pursuit of an Islamophobic agenda have been criticised - Trump for his Muslim ban and Modi for blocking naturalisation for Muslim immigrants and asylum seekers. The visit termed as ‘historic’ came against the backdrop of violence in Delhi outside but this and the CAA issue were ignored by Trump. Unlike Obama, who expressed deep concern over intolerance to other religious minorities, Trump cared more about having a trade deal with Modi. In the final analysis, the Trump and Modi show dominated the trip and it was disappointing that Trump, as the leader of the most powerful democracy, missed an opportunity to give his ‘good friend Modi’ the leader of the world’s largest democracy, friendly advice on how to treat all citizens equally, in true democratic spirit.

Daily Devotion

The Impoverished Ministry of Jesus Where then do You get that living water? —John 4:11 “The well is deep” — and even a great deal deeper than the Samaritan woman knew! (John 4:11). Think of the depths of human nature and human life; think of the depth of the “wells” in you. Have you been limiting, or impoverishing, the ministry of Jesus to the point that He is unable to work in your life? Suppose that you have a deep “well” of hurt and trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says to you, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:1). Would your response be to shrug your shoulders and say, “But, Lord, the well is too deep, and even You can’t draw up quietness and comfort out of it.” Actually, that is correct. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature— He brings them down from above. We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and also by saying, “Of course, I cannot expect God to do this particular thing.” The thing that approaches the very limits of His power is the very thing we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish and weaken His ministry in us the moment we forget He is almighty. The impoverishment is in us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus for Him to be our comforter or our sympathizer, but we refrain from approaching Him as our Almighty God.

The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying, “Of course, He can’t do anything about this.” We struggle to reach the bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting back, and saying, “It can’t be done.” You will know it can be done if you will look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.

The moral resistance to this brutalisation is feeble. And then there is the abdication of the state. Even as policeman themselves become victim of the games their masters play, there is no doubt that the state could have stopped the violence more quickly if it had wanted.

India is descending into a night of dread and despair. The ongoing riots in Delhi are not a tactical aberration, some absentminded lapse of attention. They have been in the making for a while, and represent the future that our ruling classes, with our aid and support, have imagined for us. The idea is to carpet bomb the Indian republic as we know it, and replace it with a regime that thrives on cruelty, fear, division and violence.

Even as the politics of revenge starts, it is important not to forget the dynamics that led up to this moment.

As was clear from the start, the purpose of the CAA was not to solve the problem of non-Muslims refugees from our neighbouring states. That objective could have been achieved by a bill that did not discriminate on the basis of religion and did not align religious identity with the prospects of citizenship. The assurances of delinking the NRC, CAA and NPR processes were never credibly made. The result was a civic cruelty of the worst kind, where millions of ordinary Indians, especially Muslims, were made uncertain about what this process meant for them. The spectre of camps is too hard to ignore.

The protests and violence could have been easily stopped, and still can be halted, if the government commits to legislation that does not discriminate, and a process that does not put the civic standing of anyone living in India at risk. The effect of the government’s refusal to do this was to humiliate minorities, and keep the issue on the boil.

The Supreme Court gave the cruelest blow of all. By refusing to send a clear signal on basic rights of habeas corpus, the checks against preventive detention, the court decimated the Constitution that binds us together. By systematically appearing to side with government on practically every issue, by delaying hearings on something as fundamental as discrimination, by genuflecting paeans to the Great Leader, it dashed all hopes of fair constitutional adjudication. Citizens had to turn to other non-violent means of civic protest.

These non-violent civic protests, spearheaded by women, minorities and students, resolutely stuck to a grammar of non-violence and constitutionalism. This was despite repeated provocation and the fact that it is legally difficult to protest in India.

There was some violence in states like UP. But that was used as a pretext to unleash an unprecedented reign of repression and cruelty by the government.

There was always the danger that long and sustained protests with no attempt at a dialogue open the way for radical elements to take over. In fact, the government was waiting for even the slightest hint of that radicalisation which leaders like Waris Pathan, or a gun-brandishing hothead would obligingly provide. But it is important to remember: The government uses the fear of radicalism as a pretext, far in excess of the reality of the phenomenon.

The real cruelty was the government’s strategy. In Delhi, the protests were allowed to continue in Shaheen Bagh, not because the government was soft.

It thought it could use the protest as pretext to consolidate majoritarian sentiment: Look at these minorities blocking roads and standing against Hindu rights, went the refrain. The BJP’s poisonous campaign during the Delhi election was a classic Catch 22. First, we discriminate. Then we make sure there is no institutional redress. If there is protest, we use it as further proof of the perfidy of minorities, intellectuals and other so-called anti-nationals. BJP leaders then call for violence to be unleashed, and when violence is unleashed, we blame them for violence. Never has a more diabolical moral circle been created.

Meanwhile, other institutions merrily failed us. So many brave reporters have put their lives on the line to bring us reports from the frontline. But the institution of the media failed to put the requisite pressure on the government.

They are too much in awe or too intimidated by the Home Minister to press basic questions of accountability. The Opposition parties have been like deer caught in a headlight at best, morally mendacious at worst. The Delhi CM is reduced to staging photo-ops at Rajghat; the rest of the Opposition seems to muster about as much energy as it takes to put out a tweet. It has more consultants than convictions or courage.

It is the first time in independent India that minorities cannot turn to any electoral formation or force to provide even basic protection. This is the depth of corrosion of normal politics. Such a deep political vacuum is bound to be filled by forces we cannot predict.

Meanwhile, so much of civil society resembles a scene of moral desolation. The casual legitimisation of violence against minorities and the inversion of all moral values is at an unprecedented level. People cheer as “Jai Shri Ram” has moved from being a call to piety to almost a call for killing. Someday a sociologist will have to decipher the phenomenon of hordes of young men now looking to feel alive, to get a sense of purpose, by participating in mayhem. Even apart from the communal angle, the availability of this mass of young men on the streets betokens a society that increasingly has little sense of its own future.

The national anthem is sung while brutal assaults take place, mosques nonchalantly “conquered”. And we are back to a barbarism where crowds threaten to strip you to ascertain if you have a right to any civic standing.

The purpose is to strip us of all the decencies of ordinary humanity; the only thing that matters will be the identity that can be inscribed on your body.

The moral resistance to this brutalisation is feeble. And then there is the abdication of the state. Even as policeman themselves become victim of the games their masters play, there is no doubt that the state could have stopped the violence more quickly if it had wanted. The Delhi violence will hopefully stop, but it is just an event in a larger chain. If the literature on riots is any guide, the Delhi riots look more like a prelude to a possible pogrom, or at least ghettoisation.

The state looks for a pretext to crack down; the crack down is disproportionately targeted at particular communities, especially their businesses; the police and political establishment are bystanders or egging on the violence.

The government can still do the right thing: Ensure fair law and order, and address the underlying anxiety it has itself produced. India will have to mobilise in full force to resist this brutalisation. Otherwise our republic will become what our rulers want it to be: A charnel house of rotted moralities, a nation that measures itself by the cruelties it can inflict. Pratap Bhanu Mehta The Delhi darkness

Reader’s note: Articles or letters published in any of the columns do not reflect the view of this newspaper nor that of the Editor in any manner. Reader’s Post Real life heroes Sir,

Real life heroes are not only who save lives but also who fights for people’s right. We are now seeing a little light in the darkness, and I hope you continue to keep the flame fighting for corruption. We the younger generation are having a high hope on the leader’s of today.

Manngam Konyak, St. John College T he cover page of the Time’s magazine with the portrait of Modi donned in a black Nehru coat with a saffron scarf was published on May 9, 2019. The article carried a compelling title which read as ‘INDIA’S DIVIDER IN CHIEF’. Shortly after it was published, it evoked widespread criticisms from the ruling party especially on Twitter with bots and fake handles of the ruling party making a scathing attack on the author as well as the magazine. But it managed to strike a chord with the many who have had enough with the supreme leader who absolutely had no remorse for the 2002 Godhra carnage and the incidents thereafter.

The BJP, a far right extremist party rose to power in 2014 riding on the waves of Modi and again in 2019 banking on pseudo-nationalism after the Balakot airstrike was conducted discreetly. Mr. Modi, the man solely responsible for the pogrom while he was still the Chief Minister of Gujarat was denied visa by the United States barring him from entering the country in 2005 for failing to thwart let alone condemn the 2002 incident.

The Godhra incident was a state-sponsored terrorism where the Muslims were selectively targeted, maimed, lynched and killed brutally. Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party which was in ruling at the state incited and instigated the Hindu fanatics and right wing fringe elements to launch assault on the Muslims.

The entire state-machinery was unleashed to aid the rioters to carry out the attack without any hindrance. Rajdeep Sardesai of India today in his book ‘How Modi won India, 2019’ writes, (quote) ‘Senior Gujarat journalist Rajiv Shah tells a story that perhaps best epitomizes the darker aspects of the Amit Shah persona. In mid-March 2002, barely weeks after the communal riots in which more than a thousand people lost their lives, Rajiv bumped into Shah as he was coming out of the chief minister’s office in Gandhinagar. Concerned about the spiraling violence, Rajiv opened up an informal conversation. ‘Why don’t you take the initiative to bring the communities together in Ahmedabad, especially in your Sarkhej constituency?’ he asked Shah. Sarkhej has a large Muslim population, most of which lives in the ghetto-like suburb of Juhapura. A series of mini-riots over the years had created an informal ‘border’ between the Hindu and Muslim dominated areas in the constituency. ‘Why are you so concerned over the rioting?’ was Shah’s sharp response. Rajiv was surprised by the reaction from the public representative but then explained that he had an apartment in Sarkhej and was anxious as violence still simmered in the region. ‘If you take the initiative and bring Hindu and Muslim leaders on one platform, I am sure the area will become tension-free,’ suggested Rajiv. Shah smiled knowingly and replied: ‘Which side of Sarkhej is your house situated, ours or theirs?’ When a mystified Rajiv gave the location, Shah responded instantly: ‘Don’t worry then, nothing will happen to your home. Whatever incidents take place, they will occur on the other side of the border.’ Rajiv was stunned by the insensitivity of the answer. ‘Here was my legislator, openly referring to the Hindu–Muslim divide in his area as if only one side has to be worried if there is a riot.’(unquote)

The same MoSha who was then the Chief Minister and the Home Minister of Gujarat state under whose patronage the massacre was carried out successfully has taken over New Delhi today as the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister respectively. History seems to be repeating itself and incidentally even the year! What started as a hate speech would later turn out to be a full-scale riot. BJP leaders have time and again raised provocative slogans against the Anti-CAA protestors. Kapil Mishra who unsuccessfully contested the Delhi Assembly elections on BJP ticket was the first to make the statement ‘Desh ke gadaaro ko goli maro’ (shoot the traitors of the country) in a Pro-CAA rally in the presence of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in December, 2019. The same was invoked by none other than the Minister of state for Finance Anuraq Thakur during the Delhi Assembly elections and further amplified by their ilks. There have been brutal attacks on educational institutions such as Jamia Milia University, Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University and even the students were not spared from the onslaught of the right wing elements.

The long tirade of the BJP leaders and the pliable institutions and media who have long forgotten to do their job properly have made the matter worse. The attack on Muslims in Delhi is the end result of the continued hate speech made by BJP leaders. The attack happened at a time when Trump made his maiden visit to India. ‘NaMoste Trump’ was the headline in all the Primetime news channels. There was little or no coverage of the carnage which took place just 15 kms from where POTUS and FLOTUS was staying. Modi was busy revelling with his friend Trump according him the same welcome during his visit to Houston September last.

There was no alacrity from the PMO or the Home Ministry to take stock of the situation. The police which falls directly under the command of the Union Home Ministry chose to be in nexus with the rioters since there was no direction from the high command. There has been a complete fallout of the state machinery. And just when there seemed to be a ray of hope in the form of Justice Muralidhar of Delhi HC who directed the registration of FIR against BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, Pravesh Verma and Abhay Verma for making hate speeches. The Modi govt which left no stones unturned to sabotage the prime institutions of this country has put a dent even in the judiciary. The careful timing to transfer Justice Muralidhar to Punjab and Haryana pretty much sums up the sinister design of the duo Modi-Shah. Modi who is known for his theatrics appeared after the dust settled down just like the police in the Bollywood movies and chose to make an appeal through Twitter only after the violence entered its 3rd day. The death toll now stands at 32 and counting while several hundreds are injured.

Mosques have been desecrated. There are stories of horror from every corner of NorthEast Delhi. The arson against the Muslims have been carried out systematically. The army has been called in though its already late. The situation in Delhi is still tense. There is miniscule effort to restore peace but there are qualms in the minds of everyone and the atmosphere will never be the same again. Even as I’m writing this piece on my way to Delhi. I fear what awaits me.

But can we put the blame squarely on Modi? In 2014, he promised to bring Gujarat Model to India. And he has fulfilled at least this one promise. What we’re witnessing today is the Gujarat model of 2002.

X Chophika Sumi, Pishikhu Village, Khaghaboto Area Divider in chief at it again!

On 25th February, I happened to come across a short article in Nagaland Post “Reader’s Post” entitled “Appeal to CM and Chairman NBCC” written by one Yohan JB from Medziphema questioning them whether Nagaland was still a Dry State.

It was a little bit funny but very true and meaningful, at least to me. I believe they might ignore his questions so I, as an elderly Naga, would like to share something on this. In 2016, a couple of months before my retirement, I went to Chennai on a one day official meeting where an old friend of mine who is much younger than me also came from Lucknow to attend the same meeting.

During lunch break, people started asking me about how it is to live in a Dry State, my friend from Lucknow who is also an occasional drinker like me said that his wife often pray to God to make his post get transferred to a dry State like Nagaland saying only something like that could cure him of his drinking habit.

Others too started asking me questions on this. I don’t know from where I got the idea but I suddenly dropped the cup of tea I was holding and let it fall on the floor. In the confusion, I excused myself and went to the washroom where I spent sometime playing a game on my mobile.

Luckily when I came out, the lunch break was over and the topic wasn’t discussed again. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if God answers the prayer of my friend’s wife, will she blame God or will she blame the Nagas once she finds out the truth of our namesake Dry State. The reality is Alcohol is available almost every where in Nagaland. The MC Rum which are given to horses and Mithuns in other states is the most consumed liquor in our State.

I am sure everyone will agree when I say that the Hornbill festival, during the nights are like a Drinking Festival.

Even most of the remote villages or towns in Nagaland have liquor home-shops where we can sit and drink or just buy so just imagine how many Check-Gates the concerned people must be crossing successfully while transporting it.

I feel it’s high time we must face reality. Once in a while we see pictures of seized alcohol along with some police personnels on the local dailies but that doesn’t stop the flow of alcohol, it only rises it’s price. “Dry State” has always been a failure. If we can’t win, accept our defeat and like Mr Yohan suggested in his point no. 2, allow the Nagas to consume less poisonous and better liquors and give license to young jobless Nagas to run these business. Otherwise let’s Fight Honestly. Tokavi Achumi, Kohima Let’s fight honestly