Saffronisation: Deconstructing its religious identit y

Sa f f r o n i s at i o n is not a policy of indianization, but a mere game of power politics played by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a political wing of the right-wing extremist organization rashtriya swayamsevak sangh (rss) the policy of saffronisation or neologisms like Hindu rashtriya and akhand Bharat are a mere tool for legitimizing its violent acts and atrocities and its power in the state as the saviour of Hindus in india the BJP has gotten into power with this extremist approach and has turned india from the largest secular democracy to a saffronized state dictated by Hindu fundamentalists saffronisation is a policy inspired by the word ‘saffron’ which is worn by hardcore Hindu extremists it is a policy of redefining india according to the Hindu cul- ture or specifically the norms followed by the rss this policy of saffronizing india has covered almost all aspects of india the current BJP government under PM Modi is saffronizing the media, education, public spaces, nationalism, and overall the people’s brain with its political rhetoric and media discourse all these activities are being used to legitimize their rule and to keep their sole identity alive to remain in power BJP leaders are of the opinion that modifying india’s schoolbooks and educational system is not an act of saffronization, but instead it is an indianization of education, liberating it from the colonialist viewpoint of the West nevertheless, the change is based on a greater emphasis on the Hindu identity and principles this point of view can be seen in rss s ideology, which is mainly shaped by Dinanath Batra, former secretary of Vidya Bharati (a school supported by rss) He has proposed to take out from the curriculum Mirza Ghalib’s couplets an extract from the autobiography of artist Maqbool fida Husain, to remove the statement about Mughal Emperor akbar s sulh-i-Kul policy that speaks of the equality of all religions in the eyes of God, and even a statement of PM Manmohan singh that condemns acts of violence against sikhs these ideas demonstrate how the concept of “western influence” is being used to generate a leading discourse based on the beliefs of the rss, making schools their recruitment and training centres

Ever since the BJP took power, there has been an observable saffronisation of the Bollywood industry a plethora of movies depicting Hindu rulers of the past have been produced, often manipulating history in order to glorify them this has resulted in the formation of a Hindu vs Muslim binary opposition helping to accomplish the objectives of the rss the level of sensitivity of this topic can be seen through the riots caused by the controversy surrounding the movie Padmaavat and Deepika Padukone’s saffron-coloured dress in Pathaan these controversies are proof of the great impact that Bollywood has on people s minds the BJP is taking advantage of this by using Bollywood as a platform to create hardcore Hindu extremists and further fulfill their agenda the BJP has also tried to saffronize the public spaces by renaming the existing roads, railway stations and airports named after the Muslim ruler to the Hindu ideologues in order to raise the Hindu identity among Hindu extremists Examples of this saffronisation can be found in the renaming of aurangzeb road to a P J abdul Kalam’, a pro-BJP former President of india, in 2015, and the renaming of ‘Mughalsarai Junction rail-

The RSS is trying to create a Hindu nation based on Hindu cultural superiority by using political rhetoric and media discourse, and by the illtreatment of Muslims and other minorities. In deconstructing the fascist ideologies of Mussolini, Hitler, and Modi, one similarity that is eminent is the struggle for power. Indeed, the policy of saffronisation is nothing but power politics way station’ to ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’, a right-wing Hindu ideologue india has been the site of numerous violent events particularly targeting Muslims, and also Dalits, and sikhs With 24 out of 29 states banning cow slaughter, the BJP has been implementing Hindu nationalist policies which disregard other religious traditions this has been seen in the criminalization of interfaith relationships (Love Jihad) and the wearing of hijabs People have been killed for the possession of beef and there have been reports of caste-based violence against Dalits, such as rapes, and the ritual of sidi where they have to pierce their flesh and tie themselves to a wooden pole the Gujarat Massacre, where the Modi-led government and the rss committed an atrocious act of violence against Muslims, has only served to increase Hindu extremism in india the fascist regime of the BJP is trying to redefine the nationalism of india based on religion as a Hindu nation and creating a binary opposition this fascist agenda has its roots in the fascism practised by Mussolini in italy and Hitler in Germany which was based on creating a nation based on their extremist political rhetoric, the superiority of their nation and culture, and the extermination of a large number of Jews these ideas are also fascinating to the rss, and the policies of the rss can be viewed as a reflection of the fascist ideals of Mussolini and Hitler the rss is trying to create a Hindu nation based on Hindu cultural superiority by using political rhetoric and media discourse and by the ill-treatment of Muslims and other minorities in deconstructing the fascist ideologies of Mussolini, Hitler, and Modi, one similarity that is eminent is the struggle for power indeed the policy of saffronisation is nothing but power politics it is a question of survival for them to keep this extremist right-wing approach alive for keeping themselves in power

The writer can be reached at muhammadshahbazrajper135@gmail com

S e n d y o u r l e t t e r s t o : L e t t e r s t o E d i t o r, Pakistan today, 4 - S h a a re y F a t i m a J i n n a h L a h o re P a k i s t a n E - m a i l : l e t t e r s @ p a k i s t a n t o d a y c o m p k L e t t e r s s h o u l d b e a d d re s s e d t o Pakistan today e x c l u s i v e l y

Privatisation surely is not the solution

it has become customary for our econo- mic wizards to suggest privatisation of industries and institutions as a panacea for the nation s economic woes former finance minister Miftah ismail is one of them who recently endorsed privatisa-tion and termed it a saviour for the rather wobbling economy in his opinion education and health sectors should be outsourced and the public be compensated with subsidised education and health through vouchers or insurance if this is done, what is the guarantee that such subsidies and vouchers would not be exclusive for a particular class having the desired political loyalty? Moreover, who will ensure transparency in the disburse-ment of these subsidies and vouchers?

the minister also favours privatisation of the national airline as well as electricity and natural gas distribution and supply companies, calling them a burden on the national exchequer they may all be a burden on the feeble economy but when a part of our body does not work it is not cut away from the body; it is rather cured or managed Likewise, when the parents reach an age when they stop benefiting us, they are not, and should never be alienated He has also advocated establishing major private-sector hospitals in different cities as a means to providing healthcare to the masses this really challenges one’s intellect are the existing private hospitals in the country providing healthcare facilities to the poor or are they exclusively meant for the rich?

M o r e j o i n t e x e r c i s e s ?

Even as Myanmar carries out joint border patrolling with Bangladesh, it supplies weapons to destabilize it

SufIAN SIddIque

Ajoint military exercise was conducted by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Myanmar Border Guard force (BGP) at naf river in teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, this week

BGB teknaf 2 Battalion Commander Lt Col sheikh Khalid Mohammad iftekhar gave this information in a press release it is said that in order to effectively secure the BangladeshMyanmar Border, a joint patrol started at the naf river at the zero line of the border following all the protocols of border management around 9:30 am the 12-member BGB patrol team was led by teknaf battalion Co Colonel sheikh and 12 members of BGP led the patrol team led by BGP Mongdu no 1 branch captain Lt Col Ye Y show Colonel Khalid said that joint patrolling had been suspended for almost three years from March 2020 due to the outbreak of covid-19 worldwide and the situation on the Myanmar border since July 2022, which was adversely affecting border management in this context, with the efforts of the border guard forces of both countries, it was decided to start this joint patrol with the consent of both countries in the BGBBGP battalion commanders flag meeting on october 30 the border guards of both countries started joint patrolling operations the BGB Co also said that a courtesy meeting was held at the Co level during the joint exercise it was said in the meeting that as a result of the joint patrolling, full control of the respective border guard forces will be established on the islands in the naf river located along the border and which were used as shelters for smuggling or criminal gangs the joint patrolling will continue in the future as well it is strongly hoped that the border forces of both the countries will thus be able to keep their own borders safe by cont in this regard, Bangladesh Home Minister asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said rohingya would not be only Bangladesh’s challenge the whole world will be challenged the rohingya left everything and came to Bangladesh so they could be tempted by any temptation for that, they can become victims of international terrorists

Kamal said that three groups of rohingyas are causing the recent clashes at the tumbru border with various incitements the rohingyas who have taken refuge in Bangladesh are creating chaos there are three-four groups among the rohingyas some are engaging in yaba business some are fighting themselves Kamal also said that the law-and-order forces have been put on the highest alert x c i t i n g b o r d E r s i t u at i o n: if the active insurgents among the rohingya who have taken refuge in Bangladesh cannot be controlled now then the border situation and its sovereignty may be threatened, apart from the overall security system in their opinion, the country is creating instability on the border as part of various conspiracies with Myanmar and Bangladesh to prevent the repatriation of rohingyas by proving them terrorists the Myanmar army is supplying heavy weapons including grenades to some rohingya terrorists in addition to drugs

Law enforcement agencies are also worried about the use of sophisticated grenades by these terrorists after the use of sophisticated weapons like the M-16 and aK-47 according to the information provided by them multiple clashes and shootings have occurred between two groups fighting to maintain their supremacy in multiple shelter camps in Ukhia in four months at least 23 people died 10 of them are rohingya apart from this, 37 people were abducted from Ukhia alone in the last four months among them 11 people were rescued by law-and-order forces the rest had to be ransomed the abductees are 17 rohingya and 20 locals the rohingya terrorists hiding in the Ukhia-teknaf shelter camp of Cox’s Bazar are using sophisticated weapons to increase their firepower rohingya leaders are being targeted and killed 23 people have been killed in the last four months in the camp recently, a talented intelligence officer was killed by rohingya terrorists during a drug and weapons recovery operation the question of the locals is, where do they get weapons in protected areas like camps? there is no good answer Horrible crimes like drug and human trafficking worth hundreds of crores of takas are taking place in the camps Heinous acts like human and women trafficking have been going on for the last few years it is feared that the violence may spread if they are not brought under control now, the country’s sovereignty may be threatened on January 17, during the search of BGB’s hideout of drug dealers on Palang Khali border of Ukhia Upazila, drug kingpin and terrorist nabi Hossain Bahini fired over 200 rounds at BGB BGB fired back in selfdefence However, there were no casualties on the other hand, members of the armed group rohingya salvation army (arsa) and members of rohingya solidarity organization (rso) clashed at the zero line of the tumbru border at around 6 am last Wednesday Houses of rohingyas were set on fire from Wednesday afternoon the shooting continued until 9 pm

O n t h e o n e h a n d , t h e M ya n m a r g ov e r n m e n t c o n t i n u e s t o d i s c u s s t h e r e p a t r i a t i o n o f t h e R o h i n g ya s , w h i l e o n t h e o t h e r, t h e c a m p s a r e b e i n g s y s t e m a t i c a l ly d i s r u p t e d w i t h t h e h e l p o f t e r ro r i s t s t h e r e . I n p a r t i c u l a r, t h e a l l e g a t i o n s o f d i r e c t c o o p e r a t i o n w i t h A R S A a n d N a b i H u s s a i n fo rc e s a r e l o n g - s t a n d i n g .

More than 10 were injured 4200 rohingyas of 621 families lived in this camp on the zero line of tumbru border the residents of the border area said that they are living miserable days Habiba Begum (45), a resident of the Ghumdhum Konapara rohingya refugee camp said that one-third of the rohingya s homes had been burnt down as a result, many have taken refuge in two schools Habiba Begum said, “i don t know where my three sons are now according to the information of the law enforcement agencies, the law enforcement agencies have been shaken since the recent recovery of a grenade from the house of nabi Hussain, the rohingya terrorist who is being talked about from Bali Khali camp in Ukhia since the recovery of the grenade, the panic in the camp is increasing in this regard the sHo Ukhia sheikh Mohammad ali said that the green grenade found in the rohingya settlement is similar to argus grenade on investigation the police came to know that the grenade belonged to the nabi force arrested and injured during the incident, nabi is one of the accomplices of rohingya terrorist nabi Hussain so, to know how the grenade came to his house, Mohammad nabi would be remanded and questioned said the sHo in this direction, after the recovery of grenades, several reliable sources claim that there are hundreds of grenades and a large number of sophisticated weapons in totardia secret hideout on the border, which is said to be nabi Hussain’s base from there the weapons were taken to different camps the grenades are claimed to be made in Myanmar the alleged arsa members are also not lagging behind in collecting weapons they have also stockpiled weapons by setting up bases on the border with the cooperation of Myanmar there are allegations that some actors are providing heavy weapons including grenades to the rohingya terrorists as part of various conspiracies, along with drugs, to create instability in Bangladesh Myanmar wants to block the repatriation of rohingyas by proving them terrorists security agencies monitoring rohingya terrorists have information that nabi Hussain and arsa have been supplied by the Myanmar army with a large number of Myanmar-made grenades as well as heavy weapons one nabi Hussain has hundreds of grenades in his hands, and is able to carry out large-scale attacks in and outside the camp an intelligence agency source confirmed that the matter has already been reported to the highest level of the government on the one hand the Myanmar government continues to discuss the repatriation of the rohingyas, while on the other, the camps are being systematically disrupted with the help of terrorists there in particular, the allegations of direct cooperation with arsa and nabi Hussain forces are long-standing the main goal of some actors is to destabilize the camps and portray the rohingya as terrorists through killings between the two groups Because of this rohingya terrorists can come and go in Myanmar without any hindrance the writer is a freelance columnist

With suggestions like these, we should all be actually grateful to the former finance minister for not suggesting the privatisation of defence services, police and courts in a recent statement, Balochistan chief minister said the province had spent about rs40 billion on security matters should we consider that as a burden as well, and think in terms of outsourcing security affairs? Mass-scale outsourcing of public-sector industries, institutions and services is surly not the solution Even if all state institutions are privatised, our economic wizards have little idea how to use the billions of dollars they think the country will earn by selling off the proverbial family silver

Besides, there is no guarantee that these billions of dollars would not be plundered the only possible solution to the crises is good governance impartial accounta-bility, transparency and the rule of law in the country and, critically, all these need to be done on a sustained basis without which there is no hope of things ever going steady for the country

Biogas as a solution to energy challenge

a f t E r electricity loadshedding in the summer shortage of natural gas for heating homes in these harsh winters is the new crisis people across the country have been facing Pakistan is not alone in facing a severe energy crisis as the rest of the world especially Europe is also suffering from gas shortages for various reasons, the most relevant currently being the lack of natural gas supply from russia owing to its war with Ukraine Pakistanis however are no strangers to the shortage of natural gas especially in winters, as gas loadshedding has been a norm in large parts of the country for as long as anyone can remember But this year the gas situation is perhaps the worst, with gas loadshedding in cities and areas that had never suffered on this count in the past although households, commercial establishments and government offices have adopted renewable energy sources, like solar panels, in recent years, special attention needs to be given to what could be a ‘gold mine’ when it comes to natural gas the natural gas, more commonly known as sui gas in Pakistan, is essentially methane in its composition this methane is currently available in multiple forms, including liquefied natural gas (LnG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), compressed natural gas (CnG) and natural gas the least used option is that of biogas at the government level, it is practically nonexistent Methane produced from biodegra-dable sources is a practical solution to our crisis, as animal dung, or manure, is produced abundantly every day, and so far its only practical use is as a natural fertiliser Biogas in other countries is currently being used for multiple purposes, from producing electricity to heating homes in Pakistan, the alternative Energy Development Board (aEDB) does recognise biomass as a source to produce electricity but biogas as a source of heating and cooking has still not been developed the way it should have been though individual and financially well-off cattle farmers are using biogas in a captive sense we need to give special attention to this source of energy for domestic and industrial use the policymakers need to work on this project so that biogas can be used as a viable alternative energy source in addition to natural gas whose reserves have been diminishing in the country Biogas can be produced at a low cost compared to imported gas, and this can also address the shortfall in the winters

ABDUL MOIZ ISLAMABAD

Slap in the face

t H E recent decision to allow a rapist to go unpunished after he married his victim is a slap in the face of human rights a local jirga facilitated an out-of-court settlement between the families of the victim and the offender this settlement is a clear reflection of the deep-rooted patriarchal mindset of society Women are often treated like subjects with no voice or choice the ruling is a step backwards in terms of ensuring justice, and a step forward in normalising the rape culture this is an absurd development, especially in the context of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where women’s lives are often controlled by their male guardians under the pretext of socio-religious obligations another serious issue faced by the rape survivors is the social stigma that forces them to stay quiet about the heinous crime the situation is alarming as, according to recent reports a woman is raped in Pakistan every two hours More than 21,000 women were reported to have been raped in just last four years and the unreported cases outnumbered the reported ones the patriarchal mindset prevailing in all sections of society cannot be turned overnight, but providing justice to the victim is essential under all circumstances

PR e S I D e N T Putin’s declaration of partial mobilisation is a sign of the utter failure of Russia s Ukraine strategy since February’s invasion

That Putin waited so long before declaring mobilisation is partly because it involves an implicit recognition of this failure and of the fact that the “special military operation is in fact a full-scale war, which Russia seems to be losing It is also because he feared – rightly – a backlash from the Russian public his regime is now in serious danger Another major defeat would most probably bring it down

What could be much more dangerous than the mobilisation itself is the combination of this announcement with the decision to hold referendums in the eastern Donbas (recognised as independent by Russia in February), and the other territories occupied by Russian forces during the invasion

The key question is not the results of the “votes” on joining Russia themselves, which are a foregone conclusion, but whether the Russian government and parliament move immediately to annex these territories If they do, it will be a sign that Moscow has given up any hope of peace and is ready to fight on indefinitely; for this annexation could never be accepted by Ukraine or the west and be part of any agreed settlement

The very best that could be hoped for in Ukraine will then be a series of unstable ceasefires punctuated by war as has been the case in Kashmir for the past 75 years

It will become apparent within the next week whether this is in fact Moscow s intention, or whether the referendums are instead a move to create bargaining chips for future negotiation It should be remembered that the Donbas separatist republics declared independence from Ukraine in 2014, but it was only eight years later, on the eve of war this February, that Moscow officially recognised their independence In the meantime, Moscow negotiated with Ukraine and the west on the return of these territories to Ukraine with guarantees of full autonomy, under the Minsk II agreement of 2015

This time, too, the referendums may be a threat to annex if the west does not seek a compromise, rather than a prelude to immediate annexation Some hope that this may be the case was given by Putin’s approving reference in his speech last week to Ukraine’s peace offer of March which included a treaty of neutrality and a shelving of the territorial disputes for future negotiation The reasons for the collapse of those peace negotiations are highly disputed, but in Russia s version of events it was the west that blocked them and Ukraine that abandoned them

The reasons why Moscow might want a

PAST COVERT OPS AND SABOTAGE PROVIDE CLUES TO THE APPARENTLY DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF NORD STREAM PIPELINES its last sails ceasefire are obvious Putin’s original plan, to capture Kyiv and turn Ukraine into a client state, failed utterly The fall-back plan, to capture the Russian-speaking areas of the east and south was fought to a standstill far short of many of its key goals, and is now in serious danger of being rolled back by Ukrainian counteroffensives Putin’s regime has been badly shaken by its defeat in Kharkiv province If Ukraine were to drive Russia from Kherson or large parts of the Donbas, Putin’s survival in power would be in question

It’s clear that europe itself wouldn’t benefit from that Nor does it benefit at all from any of its own anti-Russian sanctions But who gave Brussels that idea, to harm its own economy in the first place?

If there is no ceasefire or peace negotiations, Russia does have means of serious escalation It could defend the remaining occupied territories, while vastly intensifying attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure that have already begun If Russia does annex the occupied territories, then it is possible that Putin may threaten nuclear strikes to defend what Moscow would then define as Russian sovereign territory As the Biden administration makes it increasingly obvious that it is changing the US one China policy, Russia can also hope that in response China will greatly increase military and financial aid

In the meantime, as we are already seeing, unrest in Russian society is bound to grow This discontent is compounded by a mixture – often present at the same time in the minds of Russians – of opposition to the war itself and fury at the incompetence of its conduct by Putin and his entourage

If this continues, then a coup against Putin will become a real possibility

This would not necessarily be violent, and might indeed not appear publicly at all Instead, a delegation of establishment figures would go to Putin and tell him that, to preserve the regime itself, it is necessary for him (and a few other top figures implicated in military failure, such as the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu) to step down, in return for guarantees of immunity from prosecution and security of property Something not unlike this happened when Yeltsin handed over power to Putin in 1999

Members of the Russian establishment w h o t o o k s u c h a s t e p w o u l d b e r u n n i n g g r a v e r i s k s : f o r t h e m s e l v e s p e r s o n a l l y i f t h e m o v e f a i l e d , b u t a l s o f o r t h e R u s s i a n establishment and Russia itself if a change of leadership led to a split in the elite, political chaos and a radical weakening of the central state

They would therefore most probably need some assurance that if Putin could be removed, the west would be prepared to offer his successor a deal that would allow the new government to claim some measure of Russian success otherwise ruling over a weakened state and military, and faced with what Russians would view as western demands for unconditional surrender the new government would assume the catastrophic burden of Weimar German democracy after the first world war permanently branded as the regime of surrender and national humiliation looking at this prospect a successor to Putin would very likely blame him personally for everything that has gone wrong in Ukraine while answering growing calls by Russian hardliners to declare complete national mobilisation and greatly intensify the war This could spread the war beyond Ukraine’s borders If we wish to avoid this prospect, there is still time for the west to take up Putin s implicit offer of talks; but not much time

Anatol Lieven is director of the Eurasia programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

SP e C U l AT I o N abounds since both Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, designed to carry cheap Russian gas to europe, were damaged this week in what officials widely describe as deliberate acts of sabotage Who could be responsible? Incidents buried in the past may provide a clue

Speculation abounds and typically in a direction colored by the preexisting biases of the person speculating – which is hardly helpful let’s start with the end result and work backwards The outcome ultimately means that europe s economic impetus for ever seeking peace with Russia has been seriously undermined, if not literally destroyed Someone has taken it upon themselves to demolish the remaining bridges between the two Until now there was always a chance of reconciliation

Russian President Vladimir Putin said himself recently that all the eU needed to do to pull itself out of its self-imposed energy crisis was to push the button on its gas supply from Russia and drop the anti-Russian sanctions that prevent it from doing so

People in the streets of German cities protesting against Berlin s blind following of Brussels’ anti-Russia sanctions also knew that was the answer But now that option has been taken off the table The eU is now adrift amid a deepening energy crisis and someone burned

At the onset of the Ukrainian conflict it was Washington that egged on the eU to mirror measures that Washington itself had adopted in an effort to deprive Moscow of revenues to fuel its interests and objectives in Ukraine The problem is that the eU’s economy was far more entwined with Russia s than America’s Any sense that US President Joe Biden and his administration may have given eU leaders, that they d be there to help the bloc soften the blow of its self-sacrificial sanctions, has since been replaced by a harsh, pragmatic reality US shale executives have explained to Western media that they simply lack the capacity to ramp up production for europe’s winter crunch, even amid the growing rationing, deindustrialization, and risk of blackouts

So, pressure has recently been increasing on eU member states to achieve a rapid diplomatic peaceful resolution But any reconnection of Nord Stream gas would have been a blow to US economic ambitions, which eventually include turning the eU into a dependent liquefied natural gas client To that end, US officials have even tried to market their natural gas in the past as “freedom molecules ” in contrast to the “authoritarian” Russian gas Biden himself said of Nord Stream 2 during a press conference on February 7 before the Ukraine conflict had even popped off, that we will bring an end to it, despite it being out of American control But even long before that, the US was sanctioning and bullying european companies into halting construction on Nord Stream 2 under the pretext of saving europe from Russia It’s worth noting that europe didn’t really have problems with Russia this century until the US decided to make Ukraine an outpost for the State Department Not only did Gazprom, Russia’s stateowned operator of the pipeline persist against all odds to finish it, but it’s really the only leverage that Moscow has in europe Attributing to Moscow the recent sabotage of their own economic interests in europe seems absurd

The damage done to the pipelines now means that to prevent them from being completely filled with sea water and destroyed, Russia is forced to keep pumping gas through them and into the sea at their own expense What exactly does Moscow gain from any of this? Conversely, what does Washington gain? Nothing less than Brussels’ full dependence, which proved elusive when europe could split its interests between the east and west As for who possesses the technical ability to execute underwater pipeline sabotage, both Russia and the US do Much has been made in the past of the potential for cutting undersea cables – defined as an act of war by UK defense chief Admiral Sir Tony Radakin The US actually has a history in such operations, having tapped into undersea cables to spy on the Soviet Union in the 1970s operation Ivy Bells according to public records about operation Ivy Bells Washington also has sabotaged Soviet gas pipelines before albeit indirectly – according to Thomas C Reed, a former Air Force secretary who served on the National Security Council in 1982 when then-US President Ronald Reagan allegedly approved a plan for the CIA to sabotage components of a pipeline operated by the Soviet Union The objective was to prevent Western europe from importing natural gas from the Soviets Sound familiar?

Time and inquiry will uncover the culprit eventually – if we’re lucky eU officials are vowing to get to the bottom of it “All available information indicates leaks are the result of a deliberate act Deliberate disruption of european energy infrastructure is utterly unacceptable and will be met with a robust and united response Tweeted the bloc’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell Perhaps investigators could pay a visit to Radoslaw Sikorski european Parliament member and former Polish foreign minister, who tweeted a photo of the disaster aftermath along with the note Thank you USA

But if it indeed turns out that Washington committed what some consider to be an act of war against europe s economy will Brussels have the heart to really confront it? or will Brussels continue to find justifications to remain complicit in its own demise?

Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist and host of independently produced talk-shows in French and English

IndIan ExprEss E d i to r i a l

Th e Supreme Court has delivered a seminal judgment that could have a significant impact in enlarging and expanding women’s reproductive rights in the country The apex court bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and AS Bopanna said that all women whether married or in consensual relationships, and including “persons other than cis-gender women are entitled to seek an abortion within 20-24 weeks of the pregnancy The bench was hearing the case of a 25-year-old unmarried woman, whose plea for termination of her pregnancy in the 24th week was turned down by a division bench of the Delhi high Court on the ground that the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003, did not extend to unmarried women in consensual relationships

In a country where the woman’s body has, more often than not, been a site of the patriarchy index the Supreme Court’s recognition of her right to equality and, equally significantly to her agency and choice is momentous In recent times, in comparison to many other countries, including the US where the landmark Roe vs Wade judgment granting constitutional validity to the right to abort was recently overturned abortion laws in India have moved in a more progressive direction, but much more needs to be done Under Section 312 of the Indian

Penal Code, 1860, abortion remains a criminal offence to which the MTP Act provides exceptions, and, even within the wider ambit of the much-needed recent amendments to the law, it continues to adhere to hetero-patriarchal structures that make the approval of others integral to abortion-related services and do not recognise a broader gender spectrum Five decades after the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act was passed in 1971, the MTP (Amendment) Act, 2021, introduced crucial and welcome changes, including the right to terminate unwanted pregnancies caused by contraceptive failure Now, in calling for a less restrictive and more “purposive interpretation” of the amendments and seeking to further free them from social conservatism, the Supreme Court on Thursday has opened up valuable room for greater freedom

The support of the law is only the first step in what is in reality a harrowing fight for reproductive and bodily autonomy on the ground, but it is crucial Notably the SC judgment talks of familial and conjugal violence, including women who conceive out of marital rape among those who can seek termination of pregnancy within the specified period While the judgment specifies its validity only within the purview of the MTP (Amendment) Act, it remains to be seen how this will be implemented given that marital rape is still not a criminal offence in India Yet, in its recognition of every woman as the arbiter of her own body and in respecting her right to choose, Thursday’s judgment is important and laudable