7/28/2019 How the blasphemy law is subverting Pakistans politics The Indian Express February E 090211

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TheIndianEXPRESSwww.indianexpress.com

12NEW DELHI I WEDNESDAY I FEBRUARY 9 I 2011

TheIndianEXPRESSBECAUSE THE TRUTH INVOLVES US ALL

THISis more serious than any

other scam in the country,

declared the Bombay highcourt as it responded to a PIL on the

Pune ULCRA scandal. Land meant

for the poor had allegedly been

stolen for commercial purposes in alongstanding deal between govern-

ment officials and property develop-

ers. We feel that this land irregular-

ity might be even bigger than theAdarsh housing society or the 2G

spectrum cases, it added.

Its not yet clear what the magni-

tude of the Pune swindle is . For thatmatter, even the dimensions of the

2G loss are not clear yet. Does the

honourable Bombay high court

have an estimate? Perhaps the courtwas using exaggeration as a device

to wrench much-needed attention

towards the issue. We know that

land remains one of the most unre-formed sectors, and that is a primary

avenue for rent-seeking. So the case

at hand could have beneficial reper-

cussions beyond Pune. But whyshould the highest courts in the land

seek to insinuate the magnitude of

a possible scandal to underline theimportance of scrupulous inquiry?

Why should the court, in fact,

appear to be second-guessing its

own final judgment by pronouncingon the scope of transgression? These

questions are important, because

the observations come amidst pop-

ular chatter that holds all accusedguilty that power is necessarily

corrupt and allows little patiencefor the detailed, deliberative pro-

cesses of the law to ascertain the

wrongdoing, its scope and its perpe-

trators. The judiciarys role is vitalin this process to hear arguments

from all sides and to appraise and

possibly guide the investigation in a

way that privileges evidence overassumption. That the courts do this

in cases of all transgressions, what-

ever their magnitude, is crucial to

the judiciarys credibility. As is thecare to set apart the institution from

the lynch mob because the moral

weight the judiciary carries can am-

plify another cycle of the mobs hys-teria. It is therefore unfortunate that

they are giving the impression of try-

ing to grab the headlines by off-the-

cuff observations, as in the SupremeCourts strong words about Vilasrao

Deshmukhs suitability for a cabinet

post, or the SCs interventions onthe place of international treaties in

following the black money trail.

The fact of such high-profile

cases coming under the scrutiny ofthe courts is proof that our institu-

tions matter. Not just the courts,

but others too, like the Comptrol-

ler and Auditor General. Demo-cracy is always a work in progress,

and they need to be mindful of

the little nuances that consolidate

their role instead of succumbing tothe temptations of attention-get-

ting, but ultimately self-defeating,

headline-grabs.

IN October last year, theministry of labour released the

results of its first large-scale

survey of employment and unem-ployment in India. The headline

number was this: 9.4 per cent of

Indias labour force is unemployed.

An enviable number by worldstandards in the middle of recession.

Except, of course, that number

means precisely nothing. The prob-

lem lies in figuring out exactly whocounts as unemployed. Given the

nature of our restrictions on em-

ployment, the difficulties involved

in expanding formal jobs bothbecause of various regulations that

limit enterprise size, and archaic

labour laws the traditional, West-

ern, notion of unemployment is ofonly limited use in India.

Economists studying India have

worried about this for decades.Unemployment, they have pointedout, is a luxury. To be able to be ac-

tively looking for a job requires you

to have a safety net social, state-

provided or kin-based that feedsand clothes you while you do so.

Enough Indians simply dont have

the resources to do that, and so they

arent unemployed. But they arentin the right jobs, either. Now comes

news that the ministry of labour

intends to expand their survey, ear-

lier conducted only in 300 districts,

to all 600-plus districts of the coun-

try. But if they wish to improve onthe twice-a-decade estimates pro-

vided by the National Sample Sur-

vey Organisation, there are a few

crucial changes they must make.First, they need to break out of the

template set by more formal mar-

kets. More crucial than that 9.4 per

cent number, for example, was thethrowaway line that the survey re-

sults show that 436 persons out of

1,000 persons are either employed

in seasonal or ad-hoc type of enter-prises. That may not be the fault of

the ministry, but it reveals that

expansion geographically shouldnot be prioritised over better survey

design. Last years report complains

that measures of employment/

unemployment which capture

intermittent unemployment andseasonality... could not be followed

due to a shorter survey period.

That needs fixing. The NSSO alsogives us data about how much

people earn from their jobs, and

whether it needs supplementing.

That, too, is essential to figuring outthe true nature of unemployment

and underemployment in India

an essential input for policy-making

that wishes to create space forIndias aspirational young people.

Higher hiresThe labour ministry must get better

data on the nature of Indians jobs

Dim halo THE merger of Chiran-jeevis Praja Rajyam Partywith the Congress is a mar-riage of convenience as bothparties were finding theirfuture bleak in AndhraPradesh (The halo effect, IE,February 8). It will spare thestate Congress embarrass-ment from JaganmohanReddy. In the long run, thismay psych up the Congress totake a stand on Telangana. Atthe same time, it may disturbthe power equations withinthe party. Chiranjeevis pres-ence in the party may alsomake Chief Minister KiranKumar Reddy feel overshad-owed. The halo effectdepends upon how the Con-gress handles the post-merger party dynamics.

Tarsem SinghNew Delhi

Insiders gains THIS refers to the editorialThe halo effect. BeyondChiranjeevis movie-starcharisma, expecting him tohelp the Congress in thesouth would be asking for the

moon. He is also up againstJaganmohan Reddy, who isstill riding a sympathy wave.Chiranjeevi knows it. That iswhy he merged his party withthe Congress rather thanoffering it support. He knowshe can gain more this way.

Bal GovindNoida

Save for growth THIS refers to the articleSpend, but not too much(IE, February 8). We need toget rid of the panic caused bythe global financial crisiswhich slowed us down. Thewriters diagnosis that publicspending is directed to createsupply rather than boostingdemand helps. The financeminister, in the coming bud-

get, should strive to increaseour propensity to save whichleads to an increased propen-sity to invest. The process ofcapital formation with a stresson human capital is needed intodays knowledge economy.

M.M. GoelKurukshetra

Farmers share THE forthcoming budgetpresents a golden opportu-nity to the UPA government tocorrect many economicwrongs. The focus should beon containing inflation. As faras food prices are concerned,the problem is more on thesupply side. The financeminister should provide ingre-dients in the budget to ensurean increased supply of neces-

sary agricultural products.The focus should not bemerely on installing andimproving rural infrastructurebut also on ensuring thatfarmers get a fair price. Therehas been a big gap betweenwhat the buyers pay andwhat the farmers get. This canalso address rural poverty.

Ketan K. ShahAhmedabad

Everybody does it IT is not palatable that aperson occupying the office ofthe CVC expected to weedout corruption shouldhimself seek protection, offer-ing such an argument (28%MPs face charges... why me:CVC to SC, IE, February 8).If an accused points out that

others have also committedcrimes, should no action betaken against him?

Mool Chand GuptaNew Delhi

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Letters to the

EDITOR

DAVID Cameronsspeech on state multi-culturalism at theMunich Conference has

evoked sharply contrasting res-ponses. Some see in the speech anattempt to rescue liberalism from itscounterfeit cousin, multiculturalism.Others see an enactment of the samenarrow politics that produced a cri-sis in many liberal societies in the firstplace. Whether the speech will turnout to be a clear statement of liberalprinciples or a provocative salvo inthe culture wars will be determinedmore by the course of Cameronspolitics than the speech itself. But it isimportant to be clear about the differ-ent issues at stake in the ideologicalpolemics over multiculturalism.

The contest between liberalismand multiculturalism was about therelationship between freedom anddiversity. Multiculturalism often fellinto three traps in the context of thisrelationship. First, it ignored the factthat equal freedom for all indivi-duals is the core value.

If a group can make the argumentthat no values and laws should beimposed on it, if it has not consentedto them, so can any individual withina group. So the rights of individualsare paramount; no collective identitycan override them. The burden ofjustification has to be met at theindividual level. If the range of free-dom expands, all kinds of diversitywill flourish anyway. But this will notnecessarily be the diversity of well-defined cultural groups. It will besomething that both draws upon cul-ture and subverts it at the same time.

From a distant, aestheticised,point of view, cultures and practicesform an extraordinary mosaic.From the practical point of view ofindividuals living within any of thesecultures, these cultures and prac-tices are horizons within which theyoperate. Even when not oppressive,these horizons might appear tothem as constraints.

It would be morally obtuse to say tothese individuals that they should goon living their cultures, just becausetheir not doing so might diminish theforms of diversity in the world. Inpractice, the imperatives of diversitycannot, at least prima facie, trump

the free choices of individuals.Second, instead of saying that your

identity should be irrelevant to citi-zenship and to the goods that thestate distributes, multiculturalismmade identities the axis of distribu-tion. The more identities become anaxis of distribution, the greater thechance of destructive group politics.

Third, looking at individualsthrough their group identity alsodiminishes them. We are alwaysmore than who we are; we canalways be different from what weare. But to excessively focus on indi-viduals as being of interest becausethey represent some group is todevalue individuals. Identity is a factabout us, but it should not definethe horizon of our possibilities.

The critique of multiculturalism is

welcome if it moves the discourseback from diversity to freedom,rescues distributive justice from beinghostage to identity politics, andliberates us from the tyranny ofcompulsory identities. But to makethis project politically compelling willrequire a much more sophisticatedpolitics than was evident inCamerons speech.

Cameron was compelling inpointing out that terror has beenlinked with more religions thanIslam. He was compelling in makingthe distinction between religion andextremist political projects associ-ated with religion. What many crit-ics missed was his defence of conser-vative expressions of religious piety,his veiled critique of things like head-scarf bans, something becoming

anathema in France and Switzer-land. In that sense, he was beingmore genuinely liberal than many ofhis European counterparts.

But liberal politics globally hasbeen curiously susceptible to beingtaken over by right-wing nationalists.

This is often because defendersof liberal values end up aligningthem with a particular way of life ornational identity. In India, for exam-ple, the debate over reforming per-sonal laws was often framed as beingabout national integration ratherthan about values of individualityand freedom.

In the British context, also, immi-grants were asked not just to espousecertain values, but to meet the bur-den of being British. Here liberalvalues were used instrumentally to

project a single, larger, collectiveidentity. It is important that defendersof liberal values do not get entangledin debates over benchmarkingnational identity as they have donein places like France and Germany.Liberals should be worried aboutany attempt to benchmark nationalidentity; such benchmarking dimin-ishes the force of liberalism.

The second trap is lack of vigilanceover double standards. There was aninstitutional context to the statesentanglement in group identities inBritain. Britain had an establishedChurch and had blasphemy laws onthe books. So the state could not, onprincipled grounds, deny forms ofstate recognition to other religions.

Another issue on double stan-dards is this. Cameron was entirely

right in pointing out two things. Thefirst is that extremist Islamic ideologyand the right-wing reaction to it inBritain are joined at the hip, as theyare in India, too. The second is thatthere is often partisanship in whichgroups are denounced more or areconsidered greater threats.

The aspect of the speech that waspotentially vague was the use of statepower to clamp down on extremistgroups. When state power should beused for clamping down is always achallenging question for liberals; aliberal society has to put up with a lotof offensive speech. But the chal-lenge that liberal states face is overtheir credibility in being impartial.Do prejudgments and prejudicemake these states more assiduouslypursue groups belonging to somecommunities than others?

In short, the future of liberalismwill depend not upon a philosophi-cal statement that all groups engagingin extremist speech be condemned; itwill depend upon the impartiality ofstate practice towards all citizens.

The truth is that we still dont fullyunderstand the circumstances underwhich there is a turn to extremism.In that sense, Camerons implicit di-agnosis that the turn to extremismwas fuelled by state multiculturalismseems quite premature. Multicultur-alism has its flaws. But it would befoolish for liberals to suppose thatsimply because state multicultural-ism failed, the answer must lie in amore muscular liberalism.

Liberal values are eminentlydefensible. But their realisation inpractice involves sensibly dealingwith complex layers of history, psy-chology and a sense of self. Multicul-turalism had its greatest resonance,not as a doctrine of justice or a statepolicy, but because it could, in princi-ple, open up spaces for the sort ofdialogue that would make us lessfearful of one another.

Cameron is right in thinking thatforms of identity politics are a dead-end; whether we can create an alter-native politics that is credible is still

an open question.

The writer is president, Centre forPolicy Research, Delhiexpress@expressindia.com

Liberal politics globally has been curiously susceptible tobeing taken over by right-wing nationalists. This is often

because defenders of liberal values end up aligningthem with a particular way of life or national identity.

The multi-individual societyThat liberals distrust

multiculturalism is natural.But they should beware

double standards

ABYEI, TEN thousand square kilometres of largely swamp and scrubbrush, with its 150,000 people, its militias of warring nomads andheavily armed villagers, is where Africa and the Arab world meet.

They do so most uneasily and at times bloodily. On the day SouthSudan formally announced the result of its January 9 poll, a 98.83per cent vote for secession by a third of the country from thenorth, Abyei, straddling their 1,250-mile still-disputed border,remains a running sore, one of the major unresolved legacies of

the unitary Sudan that may yet drag the country back to war.The overwhelming vote was no surprise, a hard-won chance to

put an end to years of ethnic and tribal conflict and repression of the south bythe largely Arab, Muslim north. Over three decades, until a precarious 2005peace deal, civil war had cost some two million lives. Along with the impres-sive result, the commitment... by Khartoum, in the guise of Sudans presi-

dent Omar Hassan al-Bashir, to accept the parting of the ways and to recog-nise the worlds newest state was welcome. But before southern Sudan, oneof the poorest places on earth, where more than three-quarters of adults

cannot read, formally declares its independence on July 9, it willagain have to test the limits of the goodwill and good faith of itsformer masters in the north on a number of issues.

Unable to agree on who could participate in the secessionreferendum in Abyei, both sides agreed to postpone the vote

there, while both insist the bitterly divided territory will remaintheirs. And although the landlocked south and Abyei are home

to most of the nations crucial oil wealth, the north expects to negotiate asubstantial share in the returns for pipeline access to the sea.

From a leader in The Irish Times

A running sore called AbyeiBefore formal independence, southern Sudan will again test the norths goodwill

PRINTLINE

ONJanuary 30, thousandsof people gathered inLahore at a rally ostensibly

arranged by the religious right, butwhich had the full support of cen-tre-right political parties. Thebanned Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)/Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) partici-pated, as did the Sipaha-e-SahabaPakistan (SSP), the Tehrik-e-Millat-

e-Jafariya, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI),the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl(JUI-F) as well as Imran KhansPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and vari-ous factions of the Pakistan MuslimLeague (PML-N, PML-Q, PML-Z). Their rallying call: a warning tothe government and all those seek-ing any amendment or repeal of thenotorious blasphemy laws.

In pre-Partition India, the Britishintroduced the blasphemy law intothe Penal Code in 1860 in order toprotect the religious sentiments ofthe minorities. But General Zia-ul-Haqs Pakistan did the exact oppo-site, through Section 295 C of thePakistan Penal Code: Whoever bywords, either spoken or written, orby visible representation or by anyimputation, innuendo, or insinua-tion, directly or indirectly, defilesthe sacred name of the Holy

Prophet Mohammed (peace beupon him) shall be punished withdeath, or imprisonment for life, andshall also be liable to fine.

By introducing the death penaltyfor blasphemy, General Zia offi-cially sanctified vigilante justice.Many people accused of blas-

phemy have lost their lives at thehands of religious fundamentalistswithout even a proper hearing in acourt of law; some others havebeen killed while on trial. The blas-phemy laws have not just been usedto ostracise the Ahmadis (a sect de-clared non-Muslim by Pakistansparliament in 1974) but Christiansand Muslims have also been vic-

timised under these black laws.Usually, the real reasons behindsuch accusations are property dis-putes, personal vendettas,family rivalry, and so on.

The blasphemy issue cameunder the spotlight once again last

year when a lower court in Pak-istan handed out a death sentenceto a Christian woman accused ofblasphemy. Aasia Bibi was thefirst woman to have been given adeath penalty under the blas-phemy laws. On November 20,2010, Punjab Governor SalmaanTaseer visited Aasia in jail whereshe filed a clemency petition for

President Zardari. All hell brokeloose after that.

The religious right started issu-ing fatwas against Taseer, andlabelled him a blasphemer. Ironi-cally, Taseers own party thePakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is-sued no statement to refute these

baseless accusations, thus isolatinghim. In fact, Prime Minister SyedYousaf Raza Gilani went so far asto say that since he is a descendantof Prophet Mohammed, he cannoteven think of changing theblasphemy laws.

Our political class has let usdown, particularly the PPP. In abid to appease the mullah

brigade, this party is repeating thesame mistakes its founder,Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, made in the1970s. In the end, the right-wingforces he appeased celebrated hisjudicial murder.

A recent blasphemy case high-

lights how preposterous this lawreally is. Syed Samiullah, a youngstudent, was arrested for writingsomething blasphemous in hisexam papers. Instead of gettingthe young lad professional psy-chiatric help, the professor whomarked his paper reported it tothe Intermediate Board. Sami isnow in jail and extremely fright-

ened. What is so sacred about aman-made law that penalises a17-year-old boy for writing someblasphemous sentences in hisexaminations? Yet the religiousright, with the support oftheir political allies, have nowsucceeded in ending all

debate on this issue.Pakistan is fast turning into a

country where it is difficult forliberals to voice their opinions. It isnot without reason then thatanalysts like Pervez Hoodbhoythink that a clerical tsunami is onthe cards. Every nook and corner ofour country has become a fatwafactory. Last week, a senator moved

a privilege motion against a femalehuman rights activist in the Senatebecause she had sent him a textmessage asking him to attend thechehlum of Shaheed SalmanTaseer. Senator Mandokhel saidthat calling a blasphemer amartyr was in itself blasphemy.That a senator should make suchabsurd remarks on the floor of theHouse shows where this country isheading.

Right-wing forces are strong andgetting stronger because of thecovert and overt support they havebeen getting from Pakistanspowerful military establishment fordecades. On the other hand, liberaland progressive voices are weakand disparate. But this is no time togive up. On the contrary, it is timeto fight back. The space that wehave unwittingly provided to the

religious and political bigots mustbe taken back. Otherwise, thefuture looks very bleak forPakistan.

The writer is op-ed editorof Daily Times, Lahore

express@expressindia.com

Last week, a senator moved a privilege motion againsta female human rights activist in the Senate becauseshe had sent him a text message asking him to attend

the chehlum of Shaheed Salman Taseer.

MEHMALSARFRAZ How the blasphemy law is subverting Pakistans politics

The true colour of bigotry

Bench isnt the studioJudges words carry immense weight.

Why each one needs to be used with care.

PRATAPBHANUMEHTA

FREEZE FRAME