Imperial Intent: Destroying India’s Farm Sector

Colin Todhunter

Agriculture in India is at a crossroads. Indeed, given that over 60 per cent of the country’s 1.3-billion-plus population still make a living from agriculture (directly or indirectly), what is at stake is the future of India. Unscrupulous interests are intent on destroying India’s indigenous agri-food sector and recasting it in their own image. Farmers are rising up in protest.

To appreciate what is happening to agriculture and farmers in India, we must first understand how the development paradigm has been subverted. Development used to be about breaking with colonial exploitation and radically redefining power structures. Today, neoliberal dogma masquerades as economic theory and the subsequent deregulation of international capital ensures giant transnational conglomerates are able to ride roughshod over national sovereignty.

The deregulation of international capital flows has turned the planet into a free-for-all bonanza for the world’s richest capitalists. Under the post-World-War Two Bretton Woods monetary regime, governments could to a large extent run their own macroeconomic policy without having to constantly seek market confidence or worry about capital flight. However, the deregulation of global capital movement has increased levels of dependency of nation states on capital markets and the elite interests who control them.

Globalisation

The dominant narrative calls this ‘globalisation’, a euphemism for a predatory neoliberal capitalism based on endless profit growth, crises of overproduction, overaccumulation and market saturation and a need to constantly seek out and exploit new, untapped (foreign) markets to maintain profitability.

In India, we can see the implications very clearly. Instead of pursuing a path of democratic development, India has chosen (or has been coerced) to submit to the regime of foreign finance, awaiting signals on how much it can spend, giving up any pretence of economic sovereignty and leaving the space open for private capital to move in on and capture markets.

India’s agri-food sector has indeed been flung open, making it ripe for takeover. The country has borrowed more money from the World Bank than any other country in that institution’s history. Back in the 1990s, the World Bank directed India to implement market reforms that would result in the displacement of 400 million people from the countryside. Moreover, the World Bank’s ‘Enabling the Business of Agriculture’ directives entail opening up markets to Western agribusiness and their fertilisers, pesticides, weedicides and patented seeds and compel farmers to work to supply transnational corporate global supply chains.

The aim is to let powerful corporations take control under the guise of ‘market reforms’. The very transnational corporations that receive massive taxpayer subsidies, manipulate markets, write trade agreements and institute a regime of intellectual property rights, thereby indicating that the ‘free’ market only exists in the warped delusions of those who churn out clichés about ‘price discovery’ and the sanctity of ‘the market’.

What could this mean for India? We only have to look at the business model that keeps these companies in profit in the US: an industrialised system that relies on massive taxpayer subsidies and has destroyed many small-scale farmers’ livelihoods.

The fact that US agriculture now employs a tiny fraction of the population serves as a stark reminder for what is in store for Indian farmers. Agribusiness companies’ taxpayer-subsidised business models are based on overproduction and dumping on the world market to depress prices and rob farmers elsewhere of the ability to cover the costs of production. The result is huge returns and depressed farmer incomes.

Indian agriculture is to be wholly commercialised with large-scale, mechanised (monocrop) enterprises replacing family-run farms that help sustain hundreds of millions of rural livelihoods while feeding the masses.

India’s agrarian base is being uprooted, the very foundation of the country, its (food and non-food) cultural traditions, communities and rural economy. When agri-food corporations like Bayer (and previously Monsanto) or Reliance say they need to expand the use of GMOs under the guise of feeding a burgeoning population or to ‘modernise’ the sector, they are trying to justify their real objective: displacing independent cultivators, food processors and ‘mom and pop’ retailers and capturing the entire sector to boost their bottom line.

Indian agriculture has witnessed gross underinvestment over the years, whereby it is now wrongly depicted as a basket case and underperforming and ripe for a sell off to those very interests who had a stake in its underinvestment.

Today, we hear much talk of ‘foreign direct investment’ and making India ‘business friendly’, but behind the benign-sounding jargon lies the hard-nosed approach of modern-day capitalism that is no less brutal for Indian farmers than early industrial capitalism was for English peasants whose access to their productive means was stolen and who were then compelled to work in factories.

The intention is for India’s displaced cultivators to be retrained to work as cheap labour in the West’s offshored plants, even though nowhere near the numbers of jobs necessary are being created and that under the World Economic Forum’s ‘great reset’ human labour is to be largely replaced by artificial intelligence-driven technology under the guise of a ‘4th Industrial Revolution’.

As independent cultivators are bankrupted, the aim is that land will eventually be amalgamated to facilitate large-scale industrial cultivation. Those who remain in farming will be absorbed into corporate supply chains and squeezed as they work on contracts dictated by large agribusiness and chain retailers.

Cocktail of deception

A 2016 UN report said that by 2030, Delhi’s population will be 37 million.

One of the report’s principal authors, Felix Creutzig, said:

“The emerging mega-cities will rely increasingly on industrial-scale agricultural and supermarket chains, crowding out local food chains.”

The drive is to entrench industrial agriculture, commercialise the countryside and to replace small-scale farming, the backbone of food production in India. It could mean hundreds of millions of former rural dwellers without any work. And given the trajectory the country seems to be on, it does not take much to imagine a countryside with vast swathes of chemically-drenched monocrop fields containing genetically modified plants and soils rapidly degrading to become a mere repository for a chemical cocktail of proprietary biocides.

Transnational corporate-backed front groups are also hard at work behind the scenes. According to a September 2019 report in the New York Times, ‘A Shadowy Industry Group Shapes Food Policy Around the World’, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) has been quietly infiltrating government health and nutrition bodies. The article lays bare ILSI’s influence on the shaping of high-level food policy globally, not least in India.

ILSI helps to shape narratives and policies that sanction the roll out of processed foods containing high levels of fat, sugar and salt. In India, ILSI’s expanding influence coincides with mounting rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Accused of being little more than a front group for its 400 corporate members that provide its $17 million budget, ILSI’s members include Coca-Cola, DuPont, PepsiCo, General Mills and Danone. The report says ILSI has received more than $2 million from chemical companies, among them Monsanto. In 2016, a UN committee issued a ruling that glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup, was “probably not carcinogenic,” contradicting an earlier report by the WHO’s cancer agency. The committee was led by two ILSI officials.

From India to China, whether it has involved warning labels on unhealthy packaged food or shaping anti-obesity education campaigns that stress physical activity and divert attention from the role of food corporations, prominent figures with close ties to the corridors of power have been co-opted to influence policy in order to boost the interests of agri-food corporations.

Whether through IMF-World Bank structural adjustment programmes, as occurred in Africa, trade agreements like NAFTA and its impact on Mexico, the co-option of policy bodies at national and international levels or deregulated global trade rules, the outcome has been similar across the world: poor and less diverse diets and illnesses, resulting from the displacement of traditional, indigenous agriculture by a corporatised model centred on unregulated global markets and transnational monopolies.

For all the discussion in India about loan waivers for farmers and raising their income levels – as valid as this is – the core problems affecting agriculture remain.

Financialisation

Recent developments will merely serve to accelerate what is happening. For example, the Karnataka Land Reform Act will make it easier for business to purchase agricultural land, resulting in increased landlessness and urban migration.

Eventually, as a fully incorporated ‘asset’ of global capitalism, India could see private equity funds – pools of money that use pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowment funds and investments from governments, banks, insurance companies and high net worth individuals – being injected into the agriculture sector. A recent article on the grain.org website notes how across the world this money is being used to lease or buy up farms on the cheap and aggregate them into large-scale, US-style grain and soybean concerns.

This process of ‘financialisation’ is shifting power to remote board rooms occupied by people with no connection to farming and who are merely in it to make money. These funds tend to invest for a 10-15 year period, resulting in handsome returns for investors but can leave a trail of long-term environmental and social devastation and serve to undermine local and regional food insecurity.

This financialisation of agriculture perpetuates a model of commercialised, globalised farming that serves the interests of the agrochemical and seed giants, including one of the world’s biggest companies, Cargill, which is involved in almost every aspect of global agribusiness.

Cargill trades in purchasing and distributing various agricultural commodities, raises livestock and produces animal feed as well as food ingredients for application in processed foods and industrial use. Cargill also has a large financial services arm, which manages financial risks in the commodity markets for the company. This includes Black River Asset Management, a hedge fund with about $10 billion of assets and liabilities.

A recent article on the Unearthed website accused Cargill and its 14 billionaire owners of profiting from the use of child labour, rain forest destruction, the devastation of ancestral lands, the spread of pesticide use and pollution, contaminated food, antibiotic resistance and general health and environmental degradation.

While this model of corporate agriculture is highly financially lucrative for rich investors and billionaire owners, is this the type of ‘development’ – are these the types of companies –  that will benefit hundreds of millions involved in India’s agri-food sector or the country’s 1.3-billion-plus consumers and their health?

Farm bills and post-COVID

As we witness the undermining of the Agricultural Produce Market Committees or mandis, part of an ongoing process to dismantle India’s public distribution system and price support mechanisms for farmers, it is little wonder that massive protests by farmers have been taking place in the country.

Recent legislation based on three important farm bills are aimed at imposing the shock therapy of neoliberalism on the sector, finally clearing the way to restructure the agri-food sector for the benefit of large commodity traders and other (international) corporations: smallholder farmers will go to the wall in a landscape of ‘get big or get out’, mirroring the US model of food cultivation and retail.

This represents a final death knell for indigenous agriculture in India. The legislation will mean that mandis – state-run market locations for farmers to sell their agricultural produce via auction to traders – can be bypassed, allowing farmers to sell to private players elsewhere (physically and online), thereby undermining the regulatory role of the public sector. In trade areas open to the private sector, no fees will be levied (fees levied in mandis go to the states and, in principle, are used to enhance market infrastructure to help farmers).

This could incentivise the corporate sector operating outside of the mandis to (initially at least) offer better prices to farmers; however, as the mandi system is run down completely, these corporations will monopolise trade, capture the sector and dictate prices to farmers.

Another outcome could see the largely unregulated storage of produce and speculation, opening the farming sector to a free-for-all profiteering payday for the big players and jeopardising food security. The government will no longer regulate and make key produce available to consumers at fair prices. This policy ground has been ceded to market players – again under the pretence of ‘letting the market decide’ through ‘price discovery’.

The legislation will enable transnational agri-food corporations like Cargill and Walmart and India’s billionaire capitalists Gautam Adani (agribusiness conglomerate) and Mukesh Ambini (Reliance retail chain) to decide on what is to be cultivated at what price, how much of it is to be cultivated within India and how it is to be produced and processed.  Industrial agriculture will be the norm with all the devastating health, social and environmental costs that the model brings with it.

Of course, many millions have already been displaced from the Indian countryside and have had to seek work in the cities. And if the coronavirus-related lockdown has indicated anything, it is that many of these ‘migrant workers’ have failed to gain a secure foothold and were compelled to return ‘home’ to their villages. Their lives are defined by low pay and insecurity after 30 years of neoliberal ‘reforms’.

Today, there is talk of farmerless farms being manned by driverless machines and monitored by drones with lab-based food becoming the norm.  One may speculate what this could mean: commodity crops from patented GM seeds doused with chemicals and cultivated for industrial ‘biomatter’ to be processed by biotech companies and constituted into something resembling food.

Post-COVID, the World Bank talks about helping countries get back on track in return for structural reforms. Are even more smallholder Indian farmers to be displaced from their land in return for individual debt relief and universal basic income? The displacement of these farmers and the subsequent destruction of rural communities and their cultures was something the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation once called for and cynically termed “land mobility”.

It raises the question: what does the future hold for the hundreds of millions of others who will be victims of the dispossessive policies of an elite group of powerful interests?

The various lockdowns around the globe have already exposed the fragility of the global food system, dominated by long-line supply chains and global conglomerates. What we have seen underscores the need for a radical transformation of the prevailing globalised food regime which must be founded on localisation and food sovereignty and challenges dependency on global conglomerates and distant volatile commodity markets.

Indo–Pak Tension: can it be mitigated?

Amir Mohammad Sayem

In recent years, tensions mounted between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers in South Asia. The 2016 Uri attack, the 2019 Pulwama attack on a convoy of vehicles carrying Indian security personnel on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber that led to deaths of 46, and the retaliatory Balakot airstrikes by the Indian air force can be specially noted here. In February 2019, both countries augmented military strengths and exchanged mortar fires along the Line of Control and air patrol for days, and threatened to go to war against each other. Many in India, Pakistan and elsewhere raised a serious concern straight away on whether there could be a large-scale military war.

In actual fact, such a possibility cannot be discarded altogether because India and Pakistan which have around 140 and 160 nuclear warheads respectively — or, less than two percent of global nuclear arsenal in total — are in troublesome relations since the partition of the then Indian sub-continent in 1947. The first ever conflict happened at the time of the partition. Tensions later increased between the two South Asian neigbhouring countries that led to loss of countless lives and brought many other negative impacts. Up until now, several major wars such as the 1947-48 war, the 1965 war and the 1999 Kargil war occurred between the two nuclear armed rivals. In addition to the mentioned recent conflicts, many small–scale conflicts almost frequently take place in the bordering areas.

Diverse unresolved problems such as border dispute, religious tensions and/or terror controversy, Kashmir problem, water-sharing dispute and rising geo-political rivalry of both countries in Afghanistan as well as influence of other countries may also increase such a possibility — at least somewhat. But religious and the Kashmir issues are historically rendered as two main problems. The 1947-1948 communal riots emerged between Hindus and Muslims just prior to the religion based controversial partition of the sub-continent. Since then, religion has been playing pivotal roles to heightened tensions in different forms, even if large scale communal riots are absent at this moment; as is criticized, non-state actors have brought the two countries to the verge of war in 2001-02 and 2008. Also, dispute over the Jammu and Kashmir always puts significant threats to peace between the countries.

But it is, on the contrary, undeniable that any large scale war, considered to be devastating, is not desired between two nuclear powers by any means. As it is predicted by a group of researchers led by Toon, any Indo-Pak nuclear war, if somehow occurs, could directly lead to deaths of 125 million people of the two countries and would launch some 5 million tons of soot toward the stratosphere; also, firestorms following the bombings would take more than a decade for temperatures and precipitation to come back to normal level. Even a limited nuclear war can cause unprecedented planet-wide food shortages and probable starvation lasting more than a decade. Devastation of war can presumably reach to other countries of the region and beyond, even if others remain uninvolved with the conflicts.

A crucial question may relevantly be raised: is it really possible to reduce tensions between the two nuclear armed rivals in South Asia? It may be, in my opinion, difficult, even if possibility remains too. In reality, India and Pakistan have been unable to resolve tensions and develop a good neighbourly relationship in the last 65 years of independence. Of course, there are many bilateral and multi-lateral treaties and agreements aiming at reduction of tensions and improvement of relations, but a lack of trust and confidence to each other — caused by wars, clashes and geo-political rivalry — often makes it hard to reduce tensions and improve relations. Rising nationalism of India and influence of military in Pakistan are also significant barriers to making any successful attempt for mitigation of disputes.

Of different bilateral efforts made by the neighbouring India and Pakistan, the 1972 Shimla Treaty, the 1988 Non-Nuclear Aggression Agreement, and the 1999 Lahore Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) are obviously promising. But the Shimla Treaty, which had potential to establish peaceful relations and resolve bilateral disputes by peaceful dialogue and mutual co-operation, has not resulted in any desired outcomes. In spite of the fact that the proposed confidence-building measures within the 1999 Lahore MoU, rendered as a crucial Indo-Pakistani attempt to deal with bilateral problems and to explore steps to reduce tensions, were taken into account when the composite dialogue restarted in 2004, there is, in effect, no discernible forward movement in the bilateral talks at present.

Yet, the positive side is that two states are strengthening relations in recent years, although slowly. Indeed, India and Pakistan are moving toward a more cooperative rivalry — usually rendered as a state in which the enemy countries develop a level of mutual cooperation that makes them able to resolve disputes ahead of spiraling into war — from traditional rivalry, despite the fact that such a position is yet to come to a matured and effectual stage. But, in my opinion, both countries need to continue mutual efforts based on earlier treaties including the Lahore MoU — or, based on dispute resolution oriented more effective new treaties or agreements — to avoid significant disputes that can escalate into conflict in the future, even if the possibility of a war is very low at this time.

As it seems, leaders of India and Pakistan are unwilling to wage a nuclear war but development of a system to effectively manage rivalry and prevention of the rivalry from devolving into war requires further roles. Despite some recent events such as India’s initiative for regional cooperation during the pandemic and Pakistan’s sending back of an Indian pilot after the 2020 air strikes are politically optimistic, there is no alternative to institutionalized mechanism and continued dialogues between the countries at least at the government level — instead of crisis-based efforts — for any desired outcomes, given the extent of dispute and its dimensions. I believe that it is possible to mitigate bilateral disputes without affecting geopolitical interests, if leaders are earnest and have commitment.

Of course, the SAARC, which aims at promoting welfare of the peoples of South Asia and strengthening regional cooperation on diverse fronts including economic and socio-cultural, may help reduce tensions and improve relations between India and Pakistan. But this promising forum is almost inactive mainly because of political differences among member states; more relevantly, the SAARC charter excludes bilateral and contentious issues from discussion. Consequently, it becomes difficult for the regional forum to help mitigate disputes, even if it has high potential. To make it more effective for its contribution to the reduction of disputes, discussion on some contentious issues, especially which have regional impacts, may be, in my opinion, allowed at least to a certain extent.

Covid Response Marred Badly by Corruption in Health Systems

Bharat Dogra

There are increasing apprehensions worldwide that the ability to minimize pandemic related distress and damage is being compromised seriously by widespread corrupt practices at various levels. Several warnings have being voiced already that this is leading to very heavy costs and even loss of precious human lives.

In order to appreciate how heavy  such costs can be, some key information about the tainting of health systems by corruption even before the advent of Covid-19 can be useful. It is shocking to know that even in pre-Covid times corruption was responsible at least partially for about 140000 child deaths in the age-group up to 5 years. Infant and child mortality in countries having high levels of corruption has been found to be at least twice as high in countries with high levels of corruption compared to infant and child mortality in countries with low levels of corruption. The financial costs of health fraud and corruption have been estimated at a whopping $  455 billion  in the most widely cited study on this issue. Even this may be an underestimate as another study of fraud costs in the health system of just one country the USA estimated this to be $100 billion and $170 billion. ( All these are estimates based on various well-regarded studies quoted in a book of the National Science Academy of the USA titled Crossing the Global Quality Chasm : Improving Health Care Worldwide).

It was in this pre-existing situation of high and widespread prevalence of corruption in the world health systems that the Covid pandemic struck in 2020. Predictably, when the corrupt elements were already so strongly entrenched they also had a strong tendency to use  the new situation to their further advantage by using their old tricks (and learning a few new ones as well). As a report of Transparency International, ( U.K, branch) titled ‘Corruption and Covid-19’ ( hereafter referred to as the TI report ) has so aptly observed, “ Supply chain shortages, the need for a rapid response and the general disruption caused by the pandemic have made governments, public sector procurement  and business easy targets for those who would exploit the crisis for personal gain.”

In these conditions, the TI report notes, in many countries normal oversight in the health procurement process was bypassed in the name of expediency and decisions were made without ensuring transparency . The first antibody tests the UK government bought in bulk were found to be so unreliable   that they were unusable.  Other equipment also proved to be substandard. Brazil, the USA, Slovenia, Bosnia and Romania  were among those several countries where lucrative contracts were awarded to the well-connected, potentially to the detriment of those with more expertise. In the UK, the TI Report notes, in some cases even businesses with no expertise at all were given million pound orders.

In fact the influence of corruption goes beyond such contracts. As the TI report tells us, some businesses have seized on  the crisis to attempt to aggressively influence decisions governments are taking on wider issues. “ The  disruption caused by COVID-19 combined with the need for swift decision has created the perfect conditions for these irresponsible lobbying practices to thrive.”

The TI Report notes with concern that now involved in the race for vaccines and treatments for Covid too many pharmaceutical companies  and public research bodies are already notorious for failure to publish full results and lack of transparency in their data, creating opportunities for data manipulation which in turn can put the public at risk.

A German organization NEMEXIS conducted a study of Covid related corruption in 58 countries, covering 76 per cent of world population, based mainly on responses from anti-fraud activists. This study found corruption in purchase of Personal Protective Equipment ( PPE) to be most prevalent—this was reported from 81 per cent of the countries covered in this survey. Apart from the loss to scarce budgets, any compromise of quality of PPE caused by corruption is of course of even greater concern compared to the direct budget loss. This can also be stated in the context of purchase of other equipment regarding which too corrupt practices were reported in the majority of countries covered by the NEMEXIS survey,

Perhaps the most disturbing finding of this survey is that respondents linked fraud and corruption to suspected deaths in one-third of the countries covered by the survey. In one fourth of the countries early warning whistleblowers ( who tried to expose corruption) had suffered. What is no less disturbing is the expressed  view of as many as 80 per cent of the respondents of this study that they consider the impact of fraud and corruption on their health system to be very important or  important—in fact 59 per cent said this is very important while 21 per cent said that this is important.

In another study the Lawyers’ Council for Civil and Economic Rights ( New York City Bar and Cyrus K. Vance Centre for International Justice) has stated that government contracts for the corona-virus response have been riddled with irregularities in dozens of countries.

Clearly corruption in Covid related matters can prove very costly in various ways, including loss of precious human lives. In the case of the health systems of a developed country like the U.K. this corruption has been found to be very extensive by various studies and investigations already, and one shudders to think  what is the real situation in those  regions ( such as South Asia) where levels of corruption in health systems in normal times had been found to be much, much higher. There has been a lot of sporadic evidence based on real horror stories but this needs to be brought together by better organized investigations. Certainly there is a very strong case, as a pointed out in the studies quoted above, for strengthening anti-corruption measures and protection of whistleblowers.

Reforms Which Can Help to Improve Crop Procurement Significantly

Bharat Dogra

Procurement of various crops from farmers at a fair price by the government is an integral part of the farm and food system of India. This can be reformed in various ways—reducing costs while improving income of farmers and overall food security.

When various crops are being harvested in a village, the government should procure a part of the staple food crops right there in the village at a fair and just price. This procurement should be enough to meet the needs of various staple foods by the public distribution system and nutrition schemes ( ICDS or anganwadi, mid-day meals, sabla scheme for adolescent girls etc. ) of the village community.  The purchase should be somewhat in excess of exact need to provide for an  emergency stock right within the village.

Small farmers should  get priority. A higher premium payment should be made for healthy food grown using organic/natural methods and avoiding dangerous chemicals etc. The payment to farmers at a fair price should be made immediately. As a wide diversity of staple food crops will be purchased this will lead to the farmers being encouraged to grow diversity of food crops in mixed farming systems.

Nutrition schemes need not just one or two time purchase but also continuing year round purchase of milk, milk products, vegetables, fruits, eggs etc. Hence at the time of two main harvests there will be heavy procurement, but much smaller procurement will continue throughout the year, through the agency of a government procurement representative in the village, which can be a self-help group of women working at a low margin for the benefit of the entire village.

This will help to ensure good quality , high nutrition food for nutrition schemes and public distribution system as farmers are likely to be more conscious of food safety and quality while meeting the needs of their own village.  Farmers, particularly small farmers will be saved the bother to rush to mandis immediately after harvesting. Some cash they receive right in the village will enable farmers to sell their remaining crop in a more relaxed way.

Storages will be created in the village with government help and there will be storage also for any sudden need or emergency. This arrangement is also much in accordance with the concept of lowering food miles , or the concept that food consumption should be close to food production whenever possible, avoiding unnecessary transport costs and the use of fossil fuels associated with this. Higher costs of centralized storage will also be avoided in this scheme.

This scheme inevitably leads to several food processing activities starting right within the village. This also is very good and can lead the wider shift to village-level processing of food and other crops ( such as cotton) much along Gandhian lines.

This will be very good for the village, but in addition this will be good from the point of view of reducing costs of the government as well. They will not have to arrange for transport of food to the village.

As far as the remaining crop is concerned, some of this can be purchased later by the government for meeting urban needs and buffer stock needs, and some can be sold elsewhere. In case of bumper surplus crop, the government can also purchase some food for sending food free to famine affected parts of the world.

The concepts of regional balance in farm development, prioritization of mixed farming systems for meeting local staple food needs, avoiding monocultures, self-reliance of rural  communities, eco-friendly low cost farming are all integral to this thinking of reforms in the procurement sector.

Let Millions of Kitchen-Gardens Bloom

Bharat Dogra

While issues relating to farmers are being discussed widely these days, we need to also discuss issues concerning landless farmer households. The fact that the landless also need to be provided at least small plots of cultivation land had a lot of acceptance till the not-too-distant past. Around this acceptance policies were framed, legislations were enacted and special drives for providing land to the landless were launched from time-to-time. It is a measure of the changes that have taken place in recent times that hardly anyone  in the union government and most state governments even talks about all this these days.

Even in these adverse conditions, it is very important to keep alive the idea of land reforms and land for the landless. Hence a beginning can perhaps be made by promoting the idea of kitchen gardens for landless households. Briefly this means that all landless households should  have secure homestead rights of course in the village and attached to this should be the right to cultivate a little land near their homes and hamlets in their village, with mutual co-operation and also making use of the waste kitchen water and compostable wastes. These kitchen gardens can be used to grow a diversity of foods with emphasis on highly nutritious ones like green leafy vegetables. Organic methods should be used for this and purchase of external industrial inputs should be avoided as much as possible, keeping costs at lowest levels. The government can help by giving a small grant per kitchen garden and also giving prizes for the most creative such efforts in a panchayat. Poultry and animal husbandry can also be encouraged alongside.

Of course the detailed form this concept takes will depend on  housing, location of hamlet of landless households and other very local factors and a highly decentralized, local-specific approach is needed. Many creative possibilities will emerge in the process of consultations and implementation.

Needless to add,  this is envisaged as only one very limited aspect of land rights and possibilities of wider land reforms , including the concept of a minimum land holding, remain open.

Similarly the concept of kitchen gardens is relevant for other rural poor households also, not just those who are entirely landless. In fact this concept  is very relevant even for urban poor households who can meet their need for very nutritious and fresh, organic vegetables from even small kitchen gardens to some extent. Space is a more limiting constraint in an urban   settlement compared to a rural settlement but, as they say, where there is a will there is a way. Sometimes very productive and creative use can be made even of very small patches of land or terrace. This keeps the urban migrant in touch with plants and greenery, and this itself is a contribution in addition to some availability of nutritious vegetables, a flower or two also peeping from here and there.

The entire work of creating kitchen gardens in small vacant places is so creative and can bring so much cheerfulness and happiness that this itself may be a good enough reason for promoting this all over the country, but in addition, let us re-emphasize, the contribution to nutrition and health of the poorest households can also be at an important level.

Can Critical Pedagogy be a sustainable solution for sexual violence?

G Sumedha Syam

In 2012, the spirit of India was violently shaken by the heinous Delhi gang rape. People took to the streets demanding justice for the girl we named Nirbhaya – “the fearless”. The Government amended the rape law bringing in a stricter, more formidable Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 (Nirbhaya Act) on laws related to sexual offences. In 2019, according to the National Crime Bureau, India recorded 88 rape cases per day, an increase from the 68 cases in 2012. And these are just the rapes that are on record. The only thing that has changed from then to now is the increasing brutality of the crime and the sheer brazenness of the perpetrator.

Currently, there has been a disturbingly increasing trend of sexual violence against women and children. And the reaction to these crimes by the media, Government and even common public has become a repetition. Media covers the entire incident in a way that serves their best interests. The Government pushes forth a tougher law, or not. We rage, protest, demand, debate and then forget. We are happy with the quick-action solutions – Public execution of the perpetrator, better implementation of existing laws, women calling out their harassers, women learning self-defence etc. These measures are more visible and pacify the mobs baying for blood, but they are short term.

The problem is deeply rooted in our social fabric, in our patriarchal psyche.

To date, a victim is blamed and shamed; there are doubts cast on her character. If she is someone who has behaved outside the accepted society approved gender roles, we say, she was asking for it. Women are not meant to stay out late. Better yet, they should stay at home. Be seen, not heard. Never raise their voice. Dress appropriately. Marry when told, to whomsoever told. All this can only change with an attitude transformation, a cultural and social shift. What we require is a change of the mindset. Which is why we the current education system should be different.

Role of Education:

Having a higher skill set pays more is an accepted, proven norm. So, we acquire academic degrees, move to better-paying jobs, toil day and night to advance to even higher-paying positions, and ensure our next generation follows the same path for a better life. The cycle continues. In all this time, do we ever wonder if this is what life has to offer?

The current system of education is sterile; it does not answer any of the existential questions we have. It does not go beyond marks, percentages, acquiring skills and competencies. It does not teach us how to live or navigate life or develop social and political consciousness.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, after whom Teacher’s Day is observed once said:

“The aim of education is not the acquisition of information although important, or acquisition of technical skills, though essential in modern society, but the development of that bent of mind, that attitude of reason, that spirit of democracy which will make us responsible citizens”

The existing educational system needs to undergo a massive change. Critical pedagogy is the need of the hour. School curriculum cannot stay away from subjects that address topics of patriarchy, discrimination, gender, feudalism, intolerance and liberty. Children should be taught to critically examine the existing socio-economic differences, their reasons, culture and gender conformations and their end goals.

Education is a very powerful, personal, social and transformative tool, provided we transform education itself. Meaning, literacy or education is useless if it does not help us read and define our world and reality, and do something about it. It should teach us to become good citizens. Boys must learn to treat women as equal people, share housework, be respectful, and share public spaces. Patriarchy is a villain and has no place in a democracy. This country needs a paradigm shift, and education is the route to it.

Coming back to the actual topic, sexual violence against women cannot be resolved by short term solutions. The existing legal and security measures even if tightened would not be enough. About one-third of our total population is in schooling stage and spend a significant time in their lives getting educated. Education, therefore, should be looked at as comprehensive long-lasting way forward for social and cultural transformation. As a citizen, our duty should be to demand the Government through mass mobilisation and political discourse the need to change the current quality of education.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change, you want to see”.

So, we try. One step at a time. One day at a time.

Criminalize Marital Rape in India: Marriage is not a License to Rape

Anirudh Pratap Singh

“When a stranger does it, he doesn’t know me, I don’t know him. He’s not doing it to me as a person, personally. With your husband, it becomes personal. You say, this man knows me. He knows my feelings. He knows me intimately and then to do this to me – it’s such a personal abuse.”1

Gravity of Domestic Violence Against Women

Domestic violence in India has always remained an entrenched problem, and it has only been exacerbated in the recent years. About 70% of women in India are victims of domestic violence. National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) ‘Crime in India’ 2019 report was highly worrisome, yet not startling. As per the report, in India, a woman is raped every sixteen minutes, and every four minutes, she experiences cruelty at the hands of her in-laws.2 An estimated 99.1% of sexual violence cases are unreported, and in most such instances, the perpetrator is the husband of the victim. The average Indian woman is 17 times more likely to face sexual violence from her husband than from others.3 In spite of the recent amendments in the criminal law, the various laws meant to protect women from domestic violence and sexual assault have largely remained ineffective. But what happens, when laws that are meant to thwart crimes, provide a safeguard to the culprits and endanger the victims?!

What is Marital Rape?

The aforementioned paradox is not mere fiction but exists as a reality in the Indian Penal Code. One of the most horrifying and repressive issues with the Indian legal regime is that marital rape is perfectly legal. Marital rape, the act of forcing your spouse into having sex without proper consent, is an unjust yet not uncommon way to degrade and disempower women. Today, it has been impeached in more than 100 countries but unfortunately, India is one of the only 36 countries where marital rape is still not criminalized and is untouched by the legislature due to the patriarchal approach that permeates our society.4 In 2013, the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) recommended that the Indian government should criminalize marital rapes.5 The JS Verma committee set up in the aftermath of nationwide protests over the December 16, 2012 gang rape case had also recommended the same.6

In spite of such developments and decries from the advocates, activists and international bodies, rape laws in our country continue with the patriarchal outlook of considering women to be the property of men post marriage, with no autonomy or agency over their bodies. They deny married women equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Indian constitution. Lawmakers fail to understand that a marriage should not be viewed as a license for a husband to forcibly rape his wife with impunity. A married woman has the same right to control her own body as does an unmarried woman.

Legal stance on Marital Rape

The concept of marital rape in India is the epitome of what we call an ‘implied consent’. Marriage between a man and a woman here implies that both have consented to sexual intercourse and it cannot be otherwise. The Indian Penal Code, 1860 also communicates the same. Section 375 defines the offence of rape with the help of six descriptions. One of the exceptions to this offence is “Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape”. However, the ‘United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women’ defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.”7  Section 375 (Exception) of Indian Penal Code is inconsistent with and violative of these principles and Article 1 of CEDAW. Further, the Supreme Court has included sanctity of women, and freedom to make choices related to sexual activity under the ambit of Article 21. Therefore, this exception clause is violative of Article 14 and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, since it is arbitrary and violates the Right to Life of married women.

Essentially, Section 375 (Exception) creates a classification not only between consent given by a married and unmarried woman, but also between married females below 15 years of age and over 15 years old. Such a classification does not pass the test of ‘intelligible differentia’ and is, therefore, prima facie in contravention to the Right to Equality enshrined under Article 14. In 2017, a PIL was filed by ‘Independent Thought’, an NGO, challenging this unintelligible classification and claiming that married women over 15 years of age should also be afforded this protection. The Supreme Court concurred with these averments to some extent and extended the age limit in Section 375 from 15 years to 18 years.

The Need of the Hour

The above judgment was only a small step towards the incumbent need to strike down the legalization of marital rape. It is high time that the legislature should take cognizance of this legal infirmity and bring marital rape within the purview of rape laws by eliminating Section 375 (Exception) of IPC. By removing this law, women will be safer from abusive spouses, can receive the help needed to recover from marital rape, and can save themselves from domestic violence and sexual abuse. Indian women deserve to be treated equally to men, and an individual’s human rights do not deserve to be ignored by anyone, including by their spouse.

Rape is rape, irrespective of the identity of the perpetrator, and age of the survivor. A woman who is raped by a stranger, lives with a memory of a horrible attack; a woman who is raped by her husband lives with her rapist. Our current laws are ancient and there is a dire need to amend them in accordance with the contemporary times. It is intriguing and frustrating to find that our penal laws which are nothing but the handiwork of Britishers have by and large remained untouched even after 73 years of independence. On the other hand, the English laws have been amended and marital rape was criminalized way back in 1991. The government has so far not shown an active interest in remedying this problem, and if one is to take a cue from the existing state of affairs, criminalization of marital rape seems nothing more than a wishful dream. One can only strive to highlight the need of the hour and hope for a sooner realization of this dream!

New Zealand’s border restrictions leave thousands of students stranded

Tom Peters

Thousands of international students, many of whom have spent tens of thousands of dollars to study in New Zealand, and have received study visas, have been unable to enter the country since it imposed draconian border restrictions in March.

They are among thousands of people with visas, entitling them to live in New Zealand, who remain stranded overseas. Hundreds of migrant workers have protested in India, demanding the same treatment as NZ residents and citizens, tens of thousands of whom have been able to return and spend two weeks in hotels that are serving as quarantine facilities.

Following the October 17 election, the state agency Education NZ told the Labour Party government the country’s border closure “has been the longest and most restrictive in the world,” and could impact tertiary institutions financially. Universities NZ said last month there were 5,200 students enrolled in New Zealand who had been stuck offshore all year. Several universities are likely to cut more jobs next year, due to the decline in revenue.

Social media meme highlighting the inadequacy of online learning options for international students stuck outside New Zealand

The government has announced that it will allow entry to just 250 overseas postgraduate students, most of whom will arrive in the New Year. On December 3, however, Education Minister Chris Hipkins told Radio NZ it was unlikely the borders would open to significant numbers of foreign students for another 12 to 18 months.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers are similarly stranded, with no idea when they will be able to come to New Zealand. Their lives are in limbo, they are unable to find work and in severe financial distress. Some have been separated from their family members in New Zealand.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government, which is being glorified in the world’s media for its “historic” ethnic and gender diversity, has in fact actively discriminated against immigrants and scapegoated them for the economic crisis.

Until December, migrants on temporary visas who lost their jobs were not eligible for unemployment benefits, forced instead to rely on food parcels and other emergency relief. Former foreign minister Winston Peters, from the right-wing nationalist NZ First Party, declared that they should “go home” as the country would not support them. Tens of thousands of migrants who have applied for permanent residency are facing interminable delays from Immigration New Zealand (INZ).

The World Socialist Web Site spoke with Tincy, from India, who helped organise a petition with nearly 600 signatures to the New Zealand parliament “to allow international students with valid visas, who have already paid their 2020 study fees, to enter New Zealand and pursue their studies.”

Tincy had received a student visa and paid to study coding at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) in the South Island, when the border closed in late March. Her brother and sister-in-law are already living and working in New Zealand. She had taken out an education loan from a bank in December 2019, pledging her house, as well as gold, which had been a wedding gift, as collateral.

She has been unable to find work this year because employers “are asking for at least six months, one or two-year contracts. Most of the students have been forced into this situation because they resigned from their jobs [to go to NZ]. Some still have to feed their family and they are in such a pathetic situation. I got married in 2019, and after six months we planned to move and start a family, we were thinking about having a baby.” These plans are now on hold.

Rally by migrants in New Delhi in November demanding right to return to New Zealand

Tincy explained that many students were being forced to rely on their families for accommodation and other support, placing immense strain on their relationships. “We paid fees, and our future is in someone else’s hands,” Tincy said.

She said students were sending emails “on a daily basis” to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) “begging them for some kind of update.” The only reply is an automated message saying that the border remains closed. Some students were reluctant to speak out, even to “ask the government what will happen; they are scared that if they say something the government is going to reject their visa.”

“At least the government should consider the people who paid their fees in the beginning of 2020 and have a valid visa. We are really struggling. We have a career gap and a financial crisis; we are going through depression.

“One of my friends resigned from my company to go overseas to the UK. In the coming April he’s going to finish his studies; he’s paid his tuition fees back and he’s looking after his family, and I am still waiting,” she said.

Emil, who had been accepted into an early childhood education course at New Zealand Tertiary College in Christchurch, has been stuck in India all year and reliant on his parents for support. He told the WSWS he had borrowed approximately $30,500 to pay his fees and would have to pay interest on the loan. International students have to pay unsubsidised fees, which can be three times what domestic students pay.

“I don’t know how much longer I can hold on,” he said. “The bank may be asking me to return the money soon, because they have issued the money for international education, but the purpose [of the loan] hasn’t been met.”

Emil had been accepted into Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University and Madras Christian College, but had decided to go to New Zealand instead to study to become a teacher. He has been unable to find work this year because employers were asking for a long-term contract.

“My neighbours, other family members are all asking when I will do something. I don’t have any answer for them. I can’t plan anything, I can’t do anything. International students are truly an important part of the economy of New Zealand, and [the government] is not giving us any consideration,” he said. “They are not concerned about our money, they’re not concerned about our time. Many of us have lost our jobs. It’s a burden on us.”

Emil also criticised the lack of any information from INZ. “We are ready to quarantine for 14 days or 28 days, we can pay for that,” he said. He said he was still hoping to come to New Zealand, but because of his experience this year he advised other international students to choose a different country.

Germany: Coronavirus pandemic exacerbates social inequality

Elisabeth Zimmermann

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio on December 14, German Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) boasted, “I’ve never seen an economic stimulus program that worked so precisely as it has this year.”

From the standpoint of Germany’s big companies and banks that received hundreds of billions of euros from the government, as well as the rich and super-rich who continued to increase their wealth during the pandemic, Altmaier is undoubtedly right. The Dax index neared an all-time high of 13,565 points on December 16—the same day the COVID-19 death toll in Germany reached a new high of nearly 1,000 victims.

According to the Global Wealth Report issued by Credit Suisse in October, the number of millionaires in Germany has increased by 58,000 so far this year, while the number of billionaires rose from 114 to 119, with assets totaling $594.9 billion, compared to just over $500 billion in March 2019 (latter figures from the consulting firm PwC and the Swiss bank UBS).

Crowd at a food bank in Munich

The situation is very different for broad layers of the working class, especially if they work in low-wage jobs. They receive no support from the government and face high income losses and the loss of their jobs.

An Economic and Social Science Institute (WSI) report by the trade union-sponsored Hans Böckler Foundation sheds light on the income losses these workers have suffered in recent months.

The report is titled “Income Inequality Exacerbated by Corona Crisis.” It is based on the testimony of more than 6,100 workers and job seekers who were surveyed online for information about their situation during April, June and November. According to the December 14 press release, “The panel survey provides a representative picture of the labour force in Germany with regard to the characteristics of gender, age, education and federal state.”

Seventy percent of respondents expressed concerns about their health in November (58 percent in June) and 90 percent were concerned about growing social divisions (84 percent in June). The number of working people who have lost income due to the pandemic has continued to rise with workers on low incomes particularly at risk.

In the November survey, 40 percent of respondents reported current or previous income losses, up from 32 percent in June; 53 percent of those surveyed with a net income of less than €1,500 per month suffered income losses (43 percent in June). Forty-one percent of those earning between €900 and €1,500 suffered income losses as did 49 percent of those with incomes below €900. Of the respondents with a net income of up to €2,000, one in three suffered a loss of income.

The WSI report concludes that people who were already earning very little were particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Younger respondents, the self-employed and freelancers in particular suffered high losses of income. Workers in the hospitality industry were hit especially hard, as were low-wage, temporary workers, and workers on short term contracts. They are most likely to lose their jobs or fall below the subsistence level.

A major reason for the sharp drop in income is the massive expansion of short-time working. In April, the proportion of workers on short-time working was around 18 percent. This corresponds to 6 million employees paying social security contributions. Once again, those with net incomes of between €900 and €1,500 were particularly affected, (22.8 percent), followed by those with net incomes of €1,500 to €2,000 (22.1 percent).

The WSI report points out that the incomes of the lowest paid decile (tenth) had already fallen before the onset of the coronavirus crisis. Their incomes were lower in 2017 (the last year for which figures are available) than in 2010. The situation is not much better for the second lowest income decile and these two groups are now the most affected by income losses.

Even middle-income earners, who have seen income gains in recent years, are losing ground and the WSI study suggests that social inequality in Germany will continue to increase this year.

The “Discussion and Conclusion” section of the report reads: “This development in incomes will probably also be reflected in the distribution of wealth. Already today, wealth is distributed much more unequally than income, with the richest 1 percent of the population owning 35 percent of total wealth. Most of this wealth (40 percent) comes from business assets and from non-owner-occupied real estate (25 percent) and is thus invested in income-generating assets such as rentals and businesses.”

In its conclusion, the authors of the study list a series of demands, such as an increase in short-time working allowances and an increase in the minimum wage to at least €12. It currently stands at €9.35 gross per hour and is not due to rise to €10.45 until July 2022. The study also recommends that the low-wage sector be limited, childcare provision improved and many other measures.

Directing these demands at the government, however, is totally misplaced. For decades, every federal government, regardless of its political composition, has led an offensive against the working class. The SPD-Green government, which governed from 1998 to 2005, was responsible for the creation of a huge low-wage sector with its Agenda policy and Hartz-IV laws. At the time, these measures were supported by the trade unions, which own the Hans Böckler Foundation. Every subsequent government has intensified attacks on the working class and wiped out a vast portion of the social gains won by workers in the post-war period.

The current governing coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD is pursuing a reckless and criminal policy in the pandemic. Although tens of thousands are infected and hundreds die every day, it refuses to organise a full lockdown and close non-essential businesses with a guarantee of full pay and compensation for affected workers and small businesses.

Most of the low-wage workers particularly affected—those employed in logistics, public transport, deliveries, Amazon workers, as well as health care and food shop workers, have no choice. They cannot work at home and must either go to work and risk their health and lives or face financial ruin.

The priorities of the German government and the ruling elite were also evident in the recently approved budget. The defence budget will increase by a further €1.3 billion next year to €46.93 billion while the budget for education and research is to be cut by €70 million to €20.24 billion. The budget for labour and social affairs is to be slashed by €5.7 billion and the budget for health by €5.95 billion—another massive assault on the livelihoods of the working class.

In factories and workplaces across the country the trade unions and corporate boards are working hand in hand to implement huge attacks on jobs and working conditions, first and foremost in the auto and its supply industries, at Lufthansa and in many other sectors. In all of these cases the pandemic is being used as a pretext to push ahead with long-prepared attacks on the working class.

Sri Lankan government detains young Muslim poet on bogus charges

S. Jayanth

Ahnaf Jazeem, a 25-year-old Sri Lankan poet, remains in jail without charge after being falsely accused, by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on May 16, of promoting Muslim extremism. He is being held under Sri Lanka’s draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

A scheduled December 8 court hearing was postponed until March 2021 on the pretext of concerns about COVID-19 infection. Ahnaf’s continuing incarceration is, in fact, part of the Rajapakse government’s ongoing anti-Muslim witchhunt and attacks on freedom of expression.

The PTA, which allows the authorities to detain anyone for months without charge, and to use confessions extracted under torture as evidence in the courts, was widely used during Sri Lanka’s 30-year communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE).

Ahnaf Jazeem (Facebook Photo)

Thousands of Tamil youth in the north, east and south of the country were arrested and detained as LTTE suspects during the conflict. While hundreds remain imprisoned, many were “disappeared” after being arrested.

The CID is attempting to link the poet, whose pen name is Mannaramudhu Ahnaf, to last year’s Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and hotels by an ISIS-linked extremist group. The bombings killed 269 people and injured hundreds more.

The CID has alleged that one of his poetry books— Navarasam (Nine different moods)—demonstrates that he supports terrorism. These claims are false. In fact, the book promotes peace and ethnic unity, and is hostile towards the murderous policies of ISIS, declaring that it has no connection with Islam.

One of the poems, entitled Uruvakku (Mould), condemns armed violence and suggests that words and writing are weapons—i.e., that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Mandrak kavi (Forum Poet), another poem, denounces ISIS as scoundrels. Others oppose the US-led imperialist wars in the Middle East and artistically, and with great sympathy, voice concern about the plight of refugees who have lost their lives while crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Following an order from the Fort Magistrates’ Court in Colombo, some of Ahnaf’s poetry was sent to child psychiatrists at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital, a premier hospital for children. This was necessary, police claimed, because he had circulated his book to the children. The poems, which were not written in simple language, but in traditional style, were translated word-for-word, and, on the basis of these inadequate translations, deemed to be harmful.

According to the DailyFT, the report presented to the court declared that the book “incites violence, arouses sexual feelings, promotes suicide, glorifies death, talks of perceived injustice against Muslims across the world, and incites hatred against the perpetrators of violence in some of the poems.”

Ahnaf Jazeem reading a poem (YouTube)

However, in another poem, which he published on his blog the day after the Easter attacks, Ahnaf bluntly, and in clear language, condemns the attacks and ISIS, whilst expressing solidarity with their victims. The CID, however, purposely ignored this poem.

Ahnaf is originally from Silavathurai in the northern district of Mannar and was undertaking tuition at the School of Excellence in Madurankuli at Puttalam district, when he was arrested. The school, which is owned by the Save the Pearl charity organisation, is being investigated by the CID, which is attempting to link it to the Easter attacks, or for promoting Muslim extremism in Sri Lanka.

Prominent lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah, an associate of Save the Pearl and a human rights activist, has been detained under PTA laws since April this year. He has denied any connection to the bomb attacks and has filed a writ against being prevented from meeting with his legal counsel.

Human rights organisations in Sri Lanka and internationally have condemned Hizbullah’s jailing and demanded his immediate release. While he has been imprisoned for more than nine months, the police have not filed any charges against him.

It is not clear how many others remain in custody over the terror bombings. Many public figures, including former government minister Rishad Bathiudeen and his brother Riyad Bathiudeen, have been detained. Both were later bailed.

Clear evidence, however, has revealed that former leaders of the previous government, along with the military and police hierarchy, were given intelligence warnings in advance of Easter Sunday. Political leaders forewarned included then President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the parliamentary opposition chief. They took no action and allowed the attacks to take place, in order to stampede developing class struggles.

The Colombo media continues to use the terror bombings to stir up anti-Muslim sentiment, as does President Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who made it central to his election campaign, and that of his brother Prime Minister Mahinda. This hysterical anti-Tamil propaganda is being endorsed by the opposition parties and utilised to divide and weaken the working class.

The Rajapakse government is deliberately promoting divisive communalism and anti-democratic attacks on writers as it confronts rising working-class struggles against its big business policies, its grossly inadequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic and moves towards a military-based presidential dictatorship.

Ahnaf, whose incarceration only came to light in September, after his poem was used in Hizbullah’s case, is the latest victim of the government’s anti-Muslim witchhunt. The young poet is from a poor family, whose seven members are dependent on meagre earnings from casual jobs and small-scale cultivation. They cannot afford to hire a lawyer, let alone visit Ahnaf in prison.

Ahnaf’s family has not been informed about his current location, the prison conditions he faces or anything about his legal situation. Last week he was allowed to phone his parents for a few minutes, to tell them that he was okay and to find out how they were.