Mueller flashes some cards in Russia probe, but hides his hand

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has operated more like a complex financial fraud investigation than a racketeering investigation or counterintelligence operation. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

By Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky-December 8 at 2:28 PM

A 55-page flurry of court filings shows just how deeply the investigations surrounding President Trump have gone, scrutinizing secret Russian contacts, hush money meetings and a tangle of lies designed to conceal those activities.

But for all the cards special counsel Robert S. Mueller III played Friday, it’s still not clear what else he holds, or when he will put them on the table.

“The recent court filings by Mueller’s team are more revealing by what they did not include than by what they did,” said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice.

[New Mueller filings directly implicate the president]

On Saturday morning, Trump again seized on the lack of public conclusions about his conduct to declare his innocence.

“NO COLLUSION!” he tweeted. “Time for the Witch Hunt to END!”

 

Federal prosecutors filed new court papers on Dec. 7 that revealed a previously unreported contact from a Russian to Trump’s inner circle during the campaign. (Melissa Macaya , Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

Mueller’s continued silence on the big question that he still must answer — whether any Trump associates conspired with the Kremlin to interfere in the 2016 election — does not mean Trump and those who were around him are in the clear.

“Like any skilled prosecutor, Mueller is playing out his hand very strategically, showing only those cards that he needs to reveal to take the investigation to the next step,” Mintz said.

While Mueller has repeatedly encountered lying witnesses — Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos — the court cases of those defendants keep pointing to an underlying strength of the special counsel’s investigation: the ability to get incriminating emails, documents and bank records.

In that sense, Mueller’s probe to date has operated more like a complex financial fraud investigation than a racketeering probe or a counterintelligence operation because, even when a witness lies to him, Mueller has the receipts to win convictions.

[Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress]

Over three court filings submitted in two federal courts Friday in Trump-related cases, Mueller and prosecutors in New York and Washington offered tantalizing glimpses into what they have found.

Two of the filings were made in advance of Cohen’s sentencing, scheduled for Wednesday in New York. The third filing came in the case of Manafort, whom prosecutors have accused of breaking the terms of a plea deal by lying to them about key details, including his interactions with unidentified Trump administration officials as recently as this year.

In one of the filings, the Justice Department formally said Trump coordinated and directed Cohen to violate campaign finance laws. Cohen has admitted arranging hush money payments during the 2016 election for two women who had claimed to have had trysts with Trump.

The court filings describe an August 2014 meeting between Trump, Cohen and the head of a national tabloid in which they discussed buying the stories of any women who might come forward to describe sexual relationships with Trump, so the rights to those stories “could be purchased and ‘killed.’ ” The unidentified head of the tabloid, identified as “Chairman 1,” is David Pecker of the National Enquirer, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

Cohen also admitted, according to the court papers, to previously undisclosed attempts to forge a political relationship with Russia during the election — though, in those instances, the efforts do not appear to have come to fruition.

In September 2015, Cohen suggested in a radio interview that Trump might meet with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin. Though Cohen once said that suggestion was spontaneous and unplanned, he “admitted that this account was false and that he had in fact conferred with (Trump) about contacting the Russian government before reaching out to gauge Russia’s interest in such a meeting,” according to one filing.

Then, in November 2015, “Cohen received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level,’ ” according to a filing from Mueller’s office. The person repeatedly tried to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin, but Cohen “did not follow up on the invitation,” because he was working at the time on a potential real estate deal in Moscow with another intermediary with contacts in the Russian government.

Former federal prosecutor Randall D. Eliason said the filings were notable for “the increasing evidence of ties to Russia and possible coverups.” While it is impossible to say yet whether those will amount to a larger criminal conspiracy, Eliason said, they could at the very least form the basis of a politically damaging report, or produce other charges against key people in Trump’s orbit for lying to investigators.

“I think it’s entirely possible that Mueller ends up concluding that there were all these contacts with Russia that were some combination of unwise or naive or reckless or unpatriotic, but maybe not criminal, so that’s in a report, and then the crimes are the cover ups,” Eliason said. “Then you’ve got political implications. Even if the stuff wasn’t criminal, then presumably there are political implications for all the Russian ties. But who knows? Mueller is running such a tight ship, until something happens you don’t know it’s going to happen.”

Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said she was struck by federal prosecutors in New York accusing Trump of directing Cohen to pay women for their silence about their alleged affairs. Cohen has admitted the payments violated campaign finance laws.

“They’re not going to say that unless they believe it to be corroborated,” McQuade said. “That’s only a crime if you can show that President Trump knew that was unlawful, but I don’t know that it takes too many steps to get there.”

McQuade said she was also intrigued by the details Mueller revealed about Cohen’s cooperation.

Mueller’s memo, for example, said Cohen “described the circumstances of preparing and circulating” his false congressional testimony about a Trump Tower project in Moscow.

“With whom did he circulate it and, if it was false, was he working with others to coordinate their stories?” McQuade asked.

By leaving all these clues in public, Mueller is ensuring that everything he has found will one day be revealed by increasing the pressure on the attorney general or Congress to release details when the probe is complete, McQuade said.

“This does cause the public, I would hope, to demand to know the whole story at some point,” McQuade said.

Paris is Burning

France is one of the world’s most beautiful nations. There are special inspectors for rivers and streams to ensure their cleanliness and ecology. Pensions are generous and often available to those over 60.

by Eric S. Margolis  ( December 9, 2018, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian)- Dec 9, 2018

Dec 9, 2018

France is under siege. Some 90,000 security forces are being deployed across France with particular attention to always combustible Paris and Marseilles. Armored vehicles are moving into the capital. Certain military units are on high alert.

The storm that is hitting France came out of what looked like a clear blue sky. The angry demonstrators, known as ‘gilets jaunes’ (yellow jackets), for the warning vests all motorists must keep in their cars, inundated Paris last weekend in peaceful protests over the government’s planned increases in fuel prices, which were already among Europe’s highest.

As too often in France, violent vandals known as ‘the breakers,’ infiltrated the demonstrators and sought to put the most beautiful parts of Paris to the sack. I watched with horror as the magnificent Arc de Triomphe, France’s premier war memorial, was befouled by spray-can graffiti. The majestic Champs Élysée was ravaged by hoodlums, who smashed showroom windows, burned cars, looted luxury stores and set scores of fires.

For people like me who love and esteem France, it was like seeing your mother or daughter being raped by barbarians. The forces of order in France were overwhelmed and outpaced by the fast-moving bands of ‘breakers.’ Media called them anarchists of far right and far left. But anarchists have at least political philosophy. We remember how the Spanish anarchist POUM ruled Barcelona during that nation’s bloody civil war.

The vandals who attacked Paris and other French cities had no philosophy. They were simply scum of the gutter reveling in an orgy of burning and looting. These sewer rats poured out of the back alleys and bleak, suburban housing projects, garbed in masks, goggles, iron bars and jars of gasoline. They are the frightening, violent underclass that has plagued French cities since the Middle Ages.

President Emmanuel Macron appears to have ordered his police forces to go easy on the ‘breakers’ as well as the peaceful yellow jackets. This allowed the rioters and vandals to run amok and overwhelm the police. More of the same impends for this weekend. This was a mistake.

The French Army should have been called in to protect monuments and key thoroughfares. Army troops already patrol airports, train stations and important tourist locations like the Eiffel Tower and Louvre Museum. They should be heavily reinforced. More important, anyone setting fires, as happened last weekend, is a dangerous criminal and should be shot on sight by the police or army. Arson is not a democratic right. It’s a grave crime.

However, the ‘yellow jackets’ should not be confused with the breakers. What we are seeing is a justified national revolt in France against impossibly high taxes that were ignited by the unwise fuel price increases. After the riots, the price hikes were hastily eliminated. This was a necessary move, but it also undermined the authority of President Macron, whose popularity rating was at rock bottom even before the uprising.

The underlying problem is that France’s taxes are far too high. France has the highest taxes in Europe, almost 50% of gross domestic product, and twice those of the United States. But the French at least get their money’s worth from their sky-high taxes. Historic buildings are lovingly maintained; France’s rail system is splendid – when not on strike. Medicine is top drawer though hospitals need more funding. Streets are clean, highways in top shape.

France is one of the world’s most beautiful nations. There are special inspectors for rivers and streams to ensure their cleanliness and ecology. Pensions are generous and often available to those over 60.

Education is ‘par excellence.’ French high school graduates are often better educated than American university graduates.

It’s superb, but unaffordable. The fuel price increases were the proverbial straw that broke the French camel’s back. Taxes are just too high compared to incomes. Besides, French are being nibbled to death by swarms of taxes that lurk almost everywhere.

King Louis XVI faced the same fiscal problem and lost his head as a result. President Macron, a former Rothschild banker, now faces the angry bourgeoisie and mobs of gutter vandals calling for his head.

With the departure of the UK from the EU and the end of Angela Merkel’s long tenure in Germany, it appeared that Macron would become Europe’s leader. Now, there is even talk of a coup in Paris. Mon dieu!

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2018

After years in jail without trial or hope, Syria’s hunger strikers fight for justice

Political prisoners forgotten by the world protest on behalf of hundreds of thousands detained or ‘disappeared’
 Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, centre, is widely accepted to have won the country’s civil war. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Bethan McKernan-Sat 8 Dec 2018 10.51 GMT

In the shaky mobile phone video, around a dozen men with grim faces stand in silence, their arms above their heads holding placards. The corridor’s yellow light reveals exposed wires and damp, peeling paint.

The protesters are detainees at Hama central prison: some were arrested during Syria’s peaceful Arab Spring protests in 2011 and have been held without trial since.

“We have been imprisoned for many long years in the darkness of detention cells, breathing in and breathing out agony,” one says, reading from a piece of paper explaining the decision for a hunger strike. “We are exhausted. We have the right to live and for our story to be taken seriously.” The powerful message is a rare glimpse into the invisible world of Syria’s hundreds of thousands of political prisoners. In Hama central prison around 200 men have now entered their third week of hunger strike in protest against their continued detention – and a decision to transfer 11 prisoners to Damascus’s infamous Sednaya prison, described by rights group Amnesty International as a “slaughterhouse”.

If sent to Sednaya, the 11 are as good as “dead men walking,” said Mustafa, a local activist, who added that relatives have gathered outside Hama police station in solidarity protests. “Please, all human beings, all Syrians, I am not a terrorist. I never held a weapon, I just participated in a demonstration for freedom,” one hunger striking detainee said in a WhatsApp voice note. “We spent years in Sednaya and now they want to send us back to execute us. We did no wrong to the Syrian people, from any background or sects. Listen to our voices. Listen just for once.”

After almost eight years of fighting that have ripped the country apart, the international community has for the most part accepted that president Bashar al-Assad has won Syria’s war.

Without accountability or justice for the estimated 80,000 people who have been forcibly disappeared, tortured and murdered in government prisons, however, any eventual peace agreement in the complex conflict will be no more than a plaster covering a open wound. “The detention issue in Syria is a very difficult one,” said Sara Kayyali, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. “People have now been in prison for years with no sentences, no lawyers, no prospect for release. These detainees in Hama very rightly feel that their fate is being ignored by the world.”

Hama central prison, a civilian facility supposed to be more humane than notorious intelligence detention centres and Sednaya, has been a hotbed of resistance since 2012, when a riot led to prisoners taking guards and members of the administration hostage. Negotiations for hearings and better conditions have failed time and again, leading to fresh riots and intermittent hunger strikes.

The new hunger strike is being held in protest at the decision of a military judge last month to send 11 men back to Sednaya and try another 68, including minors, in what detainees feared would lead to lengthy sentences and the death penalty. They are calling for a general amnesty.

Since the summer Damascus has issued a flurry of hundreds of belated death certificates for the disappeared. Many have taken the official acknowledgement as a sign that at this late stage of the war, Assad no longer fears repercussions – either at home or from the international community – in admitting that so many opposition members have died in state custody.

Damascus, along with neighbouring Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, tired of shouldering the burden of large refugee populations, is now insisting that it is safe for Syrians to return home to “the nation’s embrace”.

Despite the strident promises of amnesty and reconciliation, however, new evidence is emerging that in areas recently retaken by the government from Sunni rebel forces, dozens of opposition figures and those who defected from the Syrian army are being disappeared. Their numbers add to the thousands who already languish in Assad’s prisons unlikely to see a fair trial and stoke the anger of Syrians who feel betrayed by Western partners who encouraged them to stand up to the regime.

Inside Hama central prison, inmates are weakening from a diet of water, sometimes taken with salt or sugar. Posts in support have flooded Syrian social media. “The Syrian revolution is strong,” one supporter wrote. “May God protect you”.

U.N. Body Declares Famine Conditions in Parts of Yemen

World Food Program report expected to further erode support in Washington for Saudi bombings in Yemen.

Pro-government fighters give food to Yemeni children on Jan. 26, 2017. (Saleh al-Obeidi/AFP/Getty Images)

BY ROBBIE GRAMER, COLUM LYNCH-

 DECEMBER 5, 2018, 7:40 PM

The World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization have officially determined that 73,000 Yemeni civilians in rebel-controlled cities are enduring famine conditions, according to two diplomatic sources.

The figures, which appear in a report to be released Thursday, highlight the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian conditions brought about by a four-year-old conflict that has pitted a U.S.-backed Saudi coalition against a Shiite insurgency led by Houthi separatists who receive some support from Iran. While international aid agencies have long warned of severe hunger in Yemen, a full-blown famine will only be declared if 20 percent of the population of any town or district in the country of 28 million experiences severe hunger.

Eight towns and cities, including Hajjah and Taiz, that are controlled by the Houthis have been hardest-hit by what United Nations relief officials believe is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. But the number fall well short of the 20 percent required for a formal declaration of famine. For instance, more than 32,000 people face famine-like conditions in Hajjah and Taiz, a tiny fraction of the two cities’ combined population of 5.5 million. But more than 3.3 million people there are facing a serious food crisis.

A Saudi-led blockade has transformed Yemen, already the poorest country in the Middle East before the war began, into an economic and humanitarian disaster zone—and fueled the humanitarian crisis.
But the conditions in Houthi towns have been worsened by the separatists’ refusal to permit the distribution of food parcels for children, according to one diplomatic source. Houthis seek to pressure families to bring their starving children to rebel-controlled hospitals, where they receive money from international organizations.

About 2 million children under the age of 5 are severely malnourished in Houthi-controlled areas, and as many as 400,000 children could face starvation if assistance cannot be distributed to them. A recent report from the international aid group Save the Children concluded some 85,000 children have died from starvation since the war began.

Aid organizations say the situation is getting more dire as the war drags on. “Millions are without enough to eat, clean water to drink, and other basics like health care,” said Scott Paul, an expert on Yemen with the humanitarian organization Oxfam America. “Continued fighting continues to claim lives, spread fear, and limit who can afford basic necessities.”

The conflict has also sparked a fierce political debate in Washington over the Trump administration’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition in Yemen fighting the Houthi rebels. The coalition has faced criticism for indiscriminately bombing civilian targets, worsening the country’s humanitarian emergency.

A rare alliance of hard-line conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats has advanced a resolution calling for the end to U.S. involvement in the war, which consists of providing arms, intelligence, and logistical support for the Saudi-led coalition. The next vote to advance the resolution, which has important legal implications for the U.S. Congress’s authority over the government’s ability to deploy the military to war zones, could be voted on as soon as Thursday,
Senate aides tell Foreign Policy. The Trump administration staunchly opposes the resolution, arguing the United States is not directly involved in the conflict and civilian casualties would be worse without U.S. support. Officials also say it is a key battleground for confronting Iran’s regional sway.
The murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for theWashington Post and prominent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has added scrutiny and anger among lawmakers over the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October. While CIA assessments leaked to the press say the crown prince is implicated in his murder, U.S. President Donald Trump and his deputies have publicly defended Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. ties with Riyadh. Trump and other senior administration officials condemned Khashoggi’s murder and have announced sanctions against 17 Saudi officials involved in the incident. The list of officials does not include the crown prince.

Neo-Nazis push Israel’s bogus anti-Semitism definition at EU

Austria’s far-right interior minister Herbert Kickl rubber-stamped Israel’s misleading “working definition” of anti-Semitism in Brussels. (eu2018at)

Asa Winstanley -7 December 2018

A new European Union declaration could make it harder to criticize Israel as a racist state without being dubbed an anti-Semite.

Politicians in Brussels on Thursday rubber-stamped the document.

The declaration asks all EU governments to “endorse the non-legally binding working definition of anti-Semitism employed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.”

The move, passed by EU member states’ home affairs ministers, has already been condemned by a number of Israeli and French academics.

The declaration was spearheaded by Austria, whose coalition government includes ministers who are members of a neo-Nazi party.

The EU meeting that formally adopted the declaration on Thursday included several ministers from a number of right-wing parties which have encouraged anti-Jewish bigotry.

Austria’s interior minister Herbert Kickl was one of them.

He is from the Freedom Party, an anti-Muslim organization led by neo-Nazi Heinz-Christian Strache (now the vice-chancellor of Austria).

Kickl was accused of Nazi language in January, when he called for authorities “to concentrate asylum seekers in one place.”

His language seemed deliberately calculated to invoke the Holocaust – albeit this time primarily targeting Muslim asylum seekers.

Bogus definition

As long reported by The Electronic Intifada, the IHRA “working definition” was conceived as a powerful, Israel-backed method to stifle criticism of the state and its crimes against Palestinians.
Israel and its lobby groups have been laying on immense pressure all over Europe in the last two years for it to be adopted.

The “working definition” has been condemned by numerous Palestinian trade unions and other civil society groups, as well as by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK and trade unions from all over Europe.

As the website EUobserver reported last week, Israeli embassies routinely “refer to the IHRA definition” when they file formal diplomatic complaints against EU criticisms of Israeli war crimes in Palestine. Such criticisms are toothless, considering that the EU often enables Israel’s crimes.

In the UK, Israel lobby groups successfully pressured the opposition Labour Party to adopt the “working definition.”

But even that was not enough, and a great media stink was made about the party’s initial reluctance to adopt all the accompanying “examples” that that IHRA’s document claims are anti-Semitic.
Several of these 11 “examples” mention Israel.

One even mischaracterizes the simple act of stating the fact that Israel is an institutionally racist state – “a racist endeavor” in IHRA parlance – as an example of “anti-Semitism.”

Austria has already endorsed the “working definition” and, as EUobserver reported, its coalition government led the push for the declaration.

Austrian neo-Nazis

Currently holding the EU’s rotating presidency, Austria had invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take part in a Vienna conference last month.

The declaration approved by the EU was drafted during that conference, which targeted anti-Zionism. Netanyahu had agreed to attend the conference but canceled because of instability in his coalition government.

Austria wanted an even more extreme version, and one of its earlier drafts called on EU states to adopt the definition “including illustrating examples.”

This was taken out of the final declaration, which describes the definition as “non-legally binding.”

This disingenuous phrase is used in the IHRA document itself. In reality though, the definition is constantly used to police speech critical of Israel.

Events this year in the UK’s Labour Party illustrate that more than ever.

As part of the years-long, manufactured anti-Semitism “crisis” engineered by critics of the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Israel lobby groups demanded the party also adopt the IHRA’s 11 “examples” of anti-Semitism.

Labour’s ruling national executive capitulated to this pressure in September. But that has only encouraged the witch-hunters, who continue trying to punish elected representatives critical of Israel.
Media hysteria over the “crisis” has led to a witch hunt targeting left-wing and pro-Palestinian Labour activists.

The hysteria has spilled over from the Labour Party to wider society.

The “working definition” is now being used to push people out of their jobs.

Suspended for calling Israel racist

Paul Jonson, an employee of Dudley Council near Birmingham, was suspended from his job in October after he helped organize a protest against a local member of parliament Ian Austin – an outspoken promoter of Israeli propaganda.

What was Jonson’s “crime”? Posting on Facebook the phrase “stand with Palestine, Israel is a racist endeavor” as part of his promotion of the protest.

A campaigner with local Palestine solidarity groups, Jonson told The Electronic Intifada that council bosses have cited the IHRA “working definition” – which the local authority has adopted – as justification for his suspension.

The council’s chief executive told a local paper in October that Jonson was under investigation.

Jonson told The Electronic Intifada that the paper’s headline about his “suspension” was the first he’d heard of it.

Up until then, managers had assured him he was not suspended, and they were only making preliminary discussions about a complaint received from the Campaign Against Antisemitism – a misleadingly titled anti-Palestinian propaganda group.

He says that up until then, he’d only been told to “refrain from work until further notice.”

But the same day the story was leaked to the press, managers brought him in for another meeting and then suspended him.

Jonson suspects Ian Austin was behind the complaint. The MP is a patron of the group which lodged it.

Local trade unionists have called for Jonson to be reinstated, as has the left-wing group Jewish Voice for Labour.

A petition calling for his reinstatement has now gathered more than 600 signatures.

Want to grow your business? Support local social causes

Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan helped grow the company significantly in 2016. Source: Unilever - Twitter

 7th December 2018

THE impact of weaving a social conscience into brand messaging is nothing new in the world of business. It has long been proven that consumers prefer brands that are ethical and support important causes. But which causes a company chooses to stand for can make a big difference, depending on where they’re advertising.

A new report from market researcher Kantar found 90 percent of consumers in Asia want brands to get involved in the issues they care about. While social engagement used to be a bonus and unique selling point, it has now become an expected norm amongst consumers.

SEE ALSO: These are Asia’s favourite brands in 2018

Broad global issues still hold some sway with consumers, but going local with their messaging paid off the most for companies advertising in Asia. The less publicised, local issues resonated better with consumers in the region than global issues pushed by traditional media and big international brands, the research found.

While climate change and gender equality were the two high-profile issues most likely to be seen by people, causes closer to home mattered most to them personally. In all countries across Asia, top topics of concern were health and wellbeing and ending poverty.

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In emerging markets, issues such as quality education and hunger also proved popular. While decent work and economic growth resonated in developed markets.

Companies that manage to perfect their social messaging are reaping the rewards as more than 60 percent of those questioned said they were willing to pay more for products with sustainable credentials.

SEE ALSO: Wage transparency works: Tackling the gender pay gap

This has been demonstrated in the bottom line of companies such as Unilever, whose sustainable living brand grew more than 50 percent faster than the rest of the business and accounted for 60 percent of growth in 2016.

However, companies need to be aware that consumers are quick to see through an opportunistic marketing campaign. Authenticity is key as consumers remained sceptical of brands that purportedly supported social causes while engaging in unsustainable business practices.

Consumers’ scepticism about brands social messaging varied across Asia Pacific. Only 33 percent of Australians felt that brands were able to authentically engage with issues, in comparison to India where 74 percent perceived it as trustworthy brand activity.

Former Brexit Secretary attacks May’s deal

8 Dec 2018
Norway Plus? More like EU-minus. That was the somewhat ‘inside Brexit’ barb from David Davis towards his former cabinet colleague Amber Rudd. He poured cold water on her suggestion that Britain could pursue a Norway-style deal and accept freedom of movement as part of membership of the single market and customs union.

Ahead of a meeting with Tory activists in Birmingham, he also warned the Prime Minister that the question was not whether, but how her deal would be defeated in the Commons.

As election nears, religious tensions surge in an Indian village

A relative of Yogesh Raj, a Hindu activist, cries after Raj got arrested for leading the protests in which two people died on Monday, in Nayabans village in Bulandshahr district, Uttar Pradesh, India December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Krishna N. Das-DECEMBER 8, 2018

NAYABANS, India (Reuters) - Nayabans isn’t remarkable as northern Indian villages go. Sugar cane grows in surrounding fields, women carry animal feed in bullock carts through narrow lanes, people chatter outside a store, and cows loiter.

But this week, the village in Uttar Pradesh state became a symbol of the deepening communal divide in India as some Hindu men from the area complained they had seen a group of Muslims slaughtering cows in a mango orchard a couple of miles away.

That infuriated Hindus, who regard the cow as a sacred animal. Anger against Muslims turned into outrage that police had not stopped an illegal practise, and a Hindu mob blocked a highway, threw stones, burned vehicles and eventually two people were shot and killed - including a police officer.

The events throw a spotlight on the religious strains in places like Nayabans since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power at the national level in 2014 and in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Tensions are ratcheting up ahead of the next general election, due to be held by May.

The BJP said it was “bizarre” to assume the party would benefit from any religious disharmony, dismissing suggestions that its supporters were largely responsible for the tensions.

“In a large country like India nobody can ensure that nothing will go wrong, but it’s our responsibility to maintain law and order and we understand that,” party spokesman Gopal Krishna Agarwal said. “But people are trying to politicize these issues.”

Nayabans, just about three hour’s drive from Delhi, has about 400 Muslims out of a population of 4,000, the rest are Hindu. Relations between the communities began deteriorating around the Muslim holy month of Ramadan last year when Hindus in the village demanded that loudspeakers used to call for prayer at a makeshift mosque be removed, local Muslims said.

“For 40 years mikes were used in the mosque, calls for prayer were made five times a day, but no one objected,” said Waseem Khan, a 28-year-old Muslim community leader in Nayabans.

“We resisted initially but then we thought it’s better to live in peace then create a dispute over a mike,” he said. “We don’t want to give them a chance to fan communal tensions.”

Reuters spoke with more than a dozen Muslims from the village but except for Khan, no one else wanted to be named for fear of angering the Hindu population.

Several among a group of Muslim women and girls standing outside the mosque said they have been living in fear since the BJP came to power in the state in 2017.

They said that Hindu groups now hold provocative processions through the village during every Hindu festival, loudspeakers blaring, something that used to happen rarely before. They said they felt “terrorised” by Hindu activists.

“While passing through our areas during their religious rallies, they chant ‘Pakistan murdabad’ (down with Pakistan) as if we have some connection to Pakistan just because we are Muslims,” Khan said.

HINDU PRIEST CHIEF MINISTER

The subcontinent was divided into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India at the time of independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

During the violence on Monday, many Muslims in Nayabans locked themselves in their homes fearing attacks. Some who had attended a three-day Muslim religious congregation some miles away stayed outside the area that night to avoid making themselves targets for the mob.

Muslim villagers say they are particularly fearful of the top elected official in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is a Hindu priest and senior BJP figure. Hindu hardliners started asserting themselves more in the village after he was elected, they say.

Uttar Pradesh sends 80 lawmakers to the lower house of parliament, the largest of any state in the country.

Considered the county’s political crucible, it has also been the scene for spiralling Hindu-Muslim tensions.

Adityanath said the lead up to the rioting in Nayabans was a “big conspiracy”, but did not elaborate.
In the only statement from his office on the incident, Adityanath ordered police to arrest those directly or indirectly involved in the slaughter of cows and made no mention of the death of the police inspector. He announced 1 million rupees ($14,110) as compensation for the family of the other dead man, a local who is among those accused by police for the violence.

Both men were Hindus and died of bullet wounds, although police said it was not yet clear who shot whom.

Police say they have arrested up to five people for the cow slaughter but have not given their religion. Locals say all the arrested people are Muslims. Four Hindu men have been arrested for the violence leading to the deaths.

“All invidious elements who may have conspired to vitiate the situation will be exposed through a fair and transparent investigation,” Anand Kumar, the second highest police official in Uttar Pradesh, told Reuters.

Asked if there was any bias against Muslims, Uttar Pradesh government spokesman Sidharth Nath Singh - who is also the state’s health minister - told Reuters: “We believe in equality and our motto is sabka saath, sabka vikas”, using a Hindi phrase often used by Modi that means “collective effort, inclusive growth”.

RELATIVE HARMONY

The two communities in Nayabans have lived in relative harmony for years, residents from both groups said.

But now Hindus in the village, who mostly say they support Yogi, accuse the Muslims of trying to turn themselves into the victims when they weren’t.

“Can’t believe they are raising our processions with journalists!” said Daulat, a Hindu daily wage labourer who goes by one name. “They are making it a Hindu-Muslim issue, we are not. Their people have been accused of killing cows, so they are playing the victim.”

At a middle school, metres from the police outpost near where the two men got killed, two women teachers, sitting on a veranda soaking in the winter sun, said its 66 students stopped coming for classes in the first few days after the violence.

“We worship cows and their slaughter can’t be accepted,” said one of the teachers, Uma Rani. “Two Hindus died here but nothing happened to the cow killers.”

Both teachers were Hindus.

Political analysts say relations between the two communities are likely to stay tense ahead of the national vote, particularly in polarised states such as Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP made a near-clean sweep in Uttar Pradesh in 2014, helping Modi win the country’s biggest parliamentary mandate in three decades, but pollsters predict a tighter contest next year because of a lack of jobs and low farm prices.

“Facing economic headwinds and lacklustre job growth, Modi will rally his conservative base by selectively resorting to Hindu nationalism,” global security consultancy Stratfor said last month.

Muslims say they increasingly feel like second-class citizens in their own country.

“The BJP will definitely benefit from such incidents,” said Tahir Saifi, a Muslim community leader a few miles from the area of violence who supports a regional opposition party in Uttar Pradesh. “They want all Hindus to unite, and when religion comes into the picture, other issues like development take a back seat.”

Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Edited by Martin Howell and Raju Gopalakrishnan

Interview: Rise and Rise of Urban Naxal in India

Terrorism has to be seen from two perspectives. One is the spreading of terror and fear among people by the use of violent methods of every kind, resorted to by armed groups who organise themselves and who disregard the law. 

Romila Thapar said 

by Ziya Us Salam-Dec 9, 2018

Dec 9, 2018

( December 9, 2018, Chennai, Courtesy: Front Line India)

The term “urban naxal” was once used during peasant protests against the state. Today, it is used almost as a slur on those who ask uncomfortable questions of the state. The same fate meets those authors and poets who refuse to sing hosannas to state power. It is easy to dub them anti-national, too, in an age when everybody is expected to eat only what a certain group of people permits. The distinguished academic, historian-activist Romila Thapar is known for her fearless insubordination when faced with the repressive organs of the state. Earlier this year, she spoke out against the arrest of five human rights activists when the media, and some organs of the state, dubbed them urban naxals. Earlier, she fought the saffronisation of history, arguing that content is being changed to suit the mindset of a certain section of the majority religion.

Today, she is as determined as ever to fight for the right to free space, dialogue, debate and even dissent. “Quitting is not an option,” she says with confidence, but adds, “The younger lot has to take over. It is their life; their generation should be concerned. It is the next generation and the generation after that which will be impacted enormously. On a broader scale one has to shake that generation. Ask them, ‘Why are you silent?’ They feel if they have a job, everything is all right. That attitude has to go. At another level, one has to fight on, believing that it [state’s repression] is not going to last.”

She answered a few questions for Frontline, India.

When was the expression “urban naxal” first used?

I don’t know when the term was invented, but it has come into circulation with the arrest of the five activists [in August]. The term is something of an oxymoron, indicating that the persons who invented it and use it have little understanding of what is meant by urbanism or by naxal. The Naxalbari movement was rooted in organising peasant protests and that of Adivasi societies and seldom had urban areas as the centre of its activity. Even today, wherever it is active, it is in peasant and tribal societies that are impoverished. Few slums in the cities lend themselves to naxal activity. To speak then of urban naxals as distinct from naxals is somewhat meaningless.

If the reference is to urban dwellers who are concerned about the problems in these areas or who are liberals or leftists in their thinking, even then it is an inappropriate term since they themselves are not naxals. But inexactitude is an old habit of those that now readily use this term. It was the same story earlier, and continues, when everybody and anybody who did not agree with their views were called Commies and Marxists by them and their trolls, irrespective of what might be the actual activities and writing of people so called.

For some people, even meaningless terms can have a pretence of meaning since they become euphemisms for abuse and are used as such. In this case, for those who use urban naxal as an expression of hostility and contempt, it refers to Indian liberals whose liberal thinking is anathema to the ruling party and its supporters.

On the other hand, the definition can be deliberately left meaningless and confusing. This enables those in authority to define it the way they wish to and to cover a multitude of activities. Its meaninglessness reflects back on its users because there are plenty of Indian liberals who have turned it into a joke. It would certainly be a joke if it did not also carry a threat.

What is the threat?

It is now possible for those in authority—the administration and police and those controlling political power—to arbitrarily accuse the people they choose to of being urban naxals. They then assume that the people so described can be arrested and thrown into prison, with no proven evidence and on charges that are hardly credible, as in the case of the activists recently arrested.

Why do we overlook the distinction that has been made between armed struggle against the government and the expression of dissent?

The distinction is very important and those who have made a serious study of naxalism and Maoism do make such a distinction. To confuse the two is again deliberate because it allows the authorities to extend the reach of their control over people to a far greater extent than is normally conceded.

The attempt to disallow dissent has been going on for the last few years. At one obvious visible level, it takes the form of lynching those transporting cows or wearing the kind of headgear more frequently worn by Muslims, or that of killing young people in inter-caste and inter-religious marriages. This is then justified by stating that these and similar activities are contrary to the caste rules and customs of certain religious communities. Therefore, those who act in this way are expressing dissent against these customs and against the communities and organisations that observe these customs.

But nowadays a certain kind of writing, too, is dubbed anti-national.

Writings that supports discussion and debate and may critique authority are dubbed anti-national, and their authors treated as suspect. One of the institutions that have been attacked because they asserted their right to dissent are of course universities. Their autonomy is being removed in a variety of ways, to the point of making them ineffective as institutions meant to advance knowledge. The two basic functions of education—teaching students how to question existing knowledge and exposing them to the widest possible range of argument and reading—are being whittled away. In the rewriting of textbooks, the attempt is to change the content of what is to be taught. The excuse is that the existing texts hurt the religious sentiments of particular religious groups, generally Hindu. There is little concern that this kind of objection is a belittling of a powerful religion that does not require these petty attempts in its defence. What is really at stake is not the religion so much as groups of people using religion to unnecessarily flex their muscles.

Will the elections in the near future also have a role to play in the attempts being made to control dissent?

Now with [the general] election round the corner, the allowing of dissent will in all likelihood be further curtailed. Charges of sedition and anti-nationalism have been around for a while as a way of preventing dissent. Now a wider group of targets are being brought into range with an all-encompassing label, urban naxal, which can be applied to anyone for any reason. It is meant to suggest that such people are sympathetic to terrorists carrying out subterranean anti-national activities. If there are so many urban naxals as defined by those who are using the term to describe others, then isn’t it time to ask the question, why are there so many of them? What is the reason that Indian society has so many dissidents? The existence of dissent in any society cannot be dismissed arbitrarily. It requires to be explained no matter how embarrassing it may be for those who would prefer to make it disappear.

How important is terrorism to the definition of dissent?

Terrorism is present in many parts of the world, and we are no exception. It can be, and often is, a scapegoat for or a deviation from governmental policies either perceived as not having succeeded or actually not having done so as earlier proclaimed and anticipated. Terrorism then becomes the explanation for these failures or becomes the deviation that is required to keep people from asking questions about the failures. This is an obvious and simple answer as an initial explanation, but the existence of terrorism is of course a far more complex matter.

Terrorism has to be seen from two perspectives. One is the spreading of terror and fear among people by the use of violent methods of every kind, resorted to by armed groups who organise themselves and who disregard the law. They may have any of many agendas: political, social, economic, religious or a combination of some of these. Another way of increasing a fear of terrorism is through violence. This is also known to be used against the citizen by those who, according to the Constitution, should be protecting the citizen. Agencies of the state spreading terror are only too familiar from history. But in our times this is more recognisable. We have spoken up against it since the time of Independence and incidents of its increase cannot be ignored.

Another perspective comes from asking why there is terrorist activity in a particular area. Frequently, the reason is that such an area has experienced problems of not being properly represented or economic impoverishment or corrupt administration or where caste and religious conflicts are allowed to continue, if not encouraged. The basic question is whether the proper development of the area with a guarantee of the human rights as required by the Constitution is prevalent or not. Generally, in such areas these rights and the institutions that go with them are either not easily visible even if they exist in however perfunctory a manner or are generally not functioning.

Rather than encouraging serious debates on why such a situation has arisen and how it can be set right and discussions between those who analyse it and those who are involved in its administration, the matter is described largely as a law and order problem and treated as such. Up to a point, it does become a law and order problem, but that is not the basic reason for this condition to prevail. The solution then resorted to most frequently is seen to be the accelerating of control over these societies and curbing their activities. Those persons who are trying to ensure that these societies and other societies in a similar condition have some access to human rights and social justice, which are essential to bringing them out of the cage of terror, are also the ones that are now labelled urban naxals.