10 July world supplement

DT
VOL1, ISSUE 24 | Monday, july 10, 2017
World Tribune
Qatarstrophe
BIGstock
A family coup in Saudi
2 Arabia
3
Osama bin Laden’s son is
helping al-Qaeda stage a
comeback
Eye on polls in Gujarat, BJP set
to push backward classes Bill
7 in parliament

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DT
Analysis
Insight
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Monday, july 10, 2017
DT
The truth behind Qatar-Saudi crisis
• Tribune Desk
During the nearly four decades of
life of their bloc, the Arab states of
the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
have failed to attain their ideal of
political consistency and strategic
unity just like their pattern the European
Union.
Such a failure to achieve goal is
apparently observable as the members’
strategic interests conflict and
their political spats show face every
now and then. Their struggle for
seizing leadership of the bloc remains
standing and their national
economies, which are supposed to
be interwoven as a key feature of an
economic union, remain parted.
In the past few years, the deepest
political gap of the six-nation
Arab bloc was caused by differences
between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
It overshadowed the Arab council’s
all-out potentials, including its political
clout in the regional equations.
The division, additionally, has led to
a polarised GCC, with some member
states such as Bahrain and the UAE
fully supporting Riyadh’s approach
and others like Oman and Kuwait
standing by Qatar that comes against
the unilateral and overbearing policy
of Saudi Arabia.
In past few days, the tensions
set for new escalation as on June
5, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the
UAE, along with other countries out
of the bloc, severed diplomatic ties
with Doha by recalling ambassadors
and expelling Qatar’s, and also
suspend air, sea and land transport
with Qatar.
The fresh diplomatic spat called
attention of the political analysts,
pushing them to think that Doha is
now on the course to wholly separate
ways from Riyadh.
What are the drives of the new
crisis inside the GCC?
Doha–Riyadh ideological conflict
Although Saudi Arabia and Qatar
are Sunni states they have different
approaches to the sect. In fact,
each one of them wants to apply
and instill across the Muslim and
Arab nations its own interpretation
of the Islamic branch. The Saudi
leadership propagates the Wahhabi
ideology, which develops a narrow-viewed
version of the Islamic
life style. For example, it separates
men and women in public places
and also implements strict sharia
law, allowing tough judicial rulings.
It furthermore, does not recognise
real rights for other sects of Islam.
On the opposite side, Qatar stands
and supports the Muslim Brotherhood
that spreads almost across the
Arab world, has a broader view of
the religion, seeks more presence
for the women on the public stage,
and shows more respect for the other
sects of Islam like Shia.
Qatar-Saudi territorial disputes
The rifts over territories between
the two members of the Arab
council have a historical record. In
1992, Doha and Riyadh engaged in
armed border clashes. The kingdom
claimed ownership of 23 miles
of the Qatari south-eastern coasts.
The two neighbours temporarily
reached a deal in 1992 to refer to a
December 1965 border agreement
for de-escalation.
Another dispute point is Khafus
border region. Doha and Riyadh
have failed to settle the case since
1965. The area is crucial for the Qataris
since it links them to the UAE,
their largest trade partner. Riyadh’s
seizure of the area makes all of the
Qatari land roads lead to the Saudi
territory, which means Qatar needs
to pass through Saudi lands to access
the UAE.
Relations with Iran
Another issue standing as a polarising
factor inside the body of the
GCC is the failure by the member
states to adopt a unanimous approach
towards Iran. Saudi Arabia,
spearheading a camp against growing
Iranian influence in the region,
seeks to sever relations between
the GCC and Tehran and has recently
stepped up efforts to build
an anti-Iranian alliance of the Muslim
countries. The recent Riyadh
summit that participated by the US
President Donald Trump echoed
the Saudi anti-Tehran measures.
But Qatar, a country that tries to
adopt an independent policy expand
its influence on the regional
and global stage, has taken a friendly
stance towards Iran.
LIBYA
Four Arab states – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain
and Egypt – have sent Qatar a list of 13 demands it must meet
if it wants them to lift their diplomatic and economic sanctions
EGYPT
Gulf
Co-operation
Council: UAE,
Bahrain, Saudi
Arabia, Oman,
Kuwait, Qatar
Source: Associated Press
The openness towards Iran aims
on the one hand at serving Qatar’s
political and economic interests and
on the other hand at putting strains
on Saudi Arabia, an archival of Tehran
in the region. This comes while
Riyadh focuses on prohibiting Qatar’s
rise as a strong regional state
politically and economically that
can pose challenges to the Saudi ideal
of leadership of the Muslim world.
Differences over regional cases
Conflicting regional policies are
among the crisis-making factors in
Qatar-Saudi Arabia relations. The
rivalry, particularly after the 2011
Arab uprisings, surged between the
two sides who want to secure new
areas of influence regionally. The
major rivalry between the two Arab
SYRIA
IRAQ
SAUDI
ARABIA
KUWAIT
UAE
YEMEN
1 Shut down diplomatic posts in
Iran, expel any members of Iran’s
Revolutionary Guard and only
conduct trade with Iran that
complies with U.S. sanctions
2 Close a Turkish military base
3 Sever all ties with “terrorist
organizations” including Muslim
Brotherhood, Islamic State,
Al Qaeda and Hezbollah
IRAN
4 Stop funding any extremist
entities designated as terrorist
groups by four countries and U.S.
5 Hand over all individuals wanted
by four countries for terrorism
6 Shut down broadcaster
Al-Jazeera and its affiliate stations
7 Shut down news outlets that
Qatar funds, including Arabi21
and Middle East Eye
OMAN
states has been over hot regional
cases like Yemen, Syria, Bahrain,
and Egypt.
When Mohamed Morsi, a political
figure from the Muslim Brotherhood,
was elected as the president
of the post-revolution Egypt, Qatar
granted Cairo $2bn in cash aid.
On the opposite side, Saudi Arabia
gave $11bn to the Egyptian military
to remove the first democratically-elected
president of Egypt. Saudi
defeated Qatar in this game el-SISI
ousted Morsi in 2013 after a deadly
military coup.
Riyadh and Qatar have been
competing in Syria, too. Although
the two oil-rich states mobilised
their potentials to remove from
power the Syrian President Basher
al-Assad since 2011, they have
SAUDI
ARABIA
30km
20 miles
BAHRAIN
Doha
QATAR
8 Refuse to naturalise citizens from
four countries and expel those
currently on its territory
9 Provide detailed information
about opposition figures whom
Qatar has funded in four countries
10 Align itself politically,
economically and otherwise with
Gulf Co-operation Council
11 Pay unspecified sum in
compensation to four nations
for damage or costs incurred by
Qatar’s policies in recent years
12 Agree to all demands within 10
days or they will be considered void
13 Consent to be monitored for
compliance with demands, with
monthly reports in first year,
every three months next year,
then annually for 10 years
© GRAPHIC NEWS
been struggling to introduce their
own allied group as the leader of
the anti-Assad opposition camp.
The Saudi pressures removed Moaz
al-Khatib, the Qatari-backed president
of the National Coalition for
Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition
Forces, and replaced him with
Ahmad Jarba.
For conclusion, it can be noted
that despite all efforts to show off
unity, the Arab council’s members
remain divided in their bilateral
and multilateral ties. The divisions
sometimes even lead to efforts to
destabilise the opposite side and
even seek regime change. •
[This is an excerpt of a Libertyfighters
article, which can be found at http://bit.
ly/2sRusn8]
An image grab taken from a propaganda video released by Islamic State (IS) terrorists group, have shown children training for combat and performing executions
Can Islamic State’s indoctrinated kids be
saved from a future of violent jihad?
• Tribune Desk
The blue-eyed boy with the chubby
cheeks still talks about the after-school
movies he used to love
so much. This was three years ago,
when he was just 9 and living on
the outskirts of Raqqa, in northern
Syria. Sometimes, his father would
take him and his little brother to an
outdoor makeshift theatre. The films
varied, but the plot was always the
same: Black-clad members of the
Islamic State militant group (IS) “liberated”
cities from kuffar, or non-believers,
chopping off their heads in
bloody, righteous celebration. There
was no acting involved. The films
showed real events. “I thought,” the
boy recalls, “it would be fun to go to
jihad.” Today, the boy who asked to
be identified only as Mohammed,
lives with his uncle in the Turkish
town of Reyhanli. When we meet on
a cool evening in May in his uncle’s
tidy but crowded home, I am surprised
to hear that the violence in
those videos never frightened him.
“They are kuffar, and it is OK to kill
them,” he explains. Instead, he recalls
feeling “excited” as he watched
the action on screen or when he
spotted IS fighters patrolling the
streets of Raqqa, enforcing the exacting
dress codes and mosque attendance
mandated by their radical
interpretation of Islamic law.
The drift of Mohammed and his
two brothers toward IS worried his
uncle, who asked to be identified
only as Ra’ed, convinced the boys’
father to move with his family out
of Raqqa, the militant group’s main
stronghold in Syria, and into Turkey.
Today, Ra’ed and his own family
share their home with the three
boys- Mohammed, who is now 12,
10-year-old Ibrahim and 16-yearold
Salim and their parents. The
boys are studying in a Unicef-funded
school for Syrian refugees. Hoping
to shift their allegiance away
from violent jihad, Ra’ed bought
them iPads, has them pitch in at
his second-hand clothing shop and
tries to gently challenge their beliefs
about what it means to be a
good Muslim. But even after nine
months away from the jihadi group,
the boys still idolize the soldiers of
the self-styled caliphate. “They are
always yelling at me, ‘Why did you
bring us here?’” Ra’ed says. “It’s going
to take time. A brain is not like a
computer. Once it downloads information,
it cannot easily be erased.”
The propaganda
IS devoted extensive resources to
the indoctrination of children in its
territory, which at its peak, from
mid-2014 through 2015, spanned
roughly a third of Syria and Iraq and
was home to between 6m and 12m
civilians. Swiftly and methodically,
the group forced its curriculum
on schools and lured children to its
training camps with gifts and propaganda
videos. IS also captured the
children of its enemies, from Yazidis
to Christians, and brainwashed
many of them in training camps
before sending them off to battle as
soldiers or suicide bombers. Now, as
US-backed forces in Syria and Iraq
close in on the last IS strongholds,
the world is getting an increasingly
detailed look at the damage wrought
on a generation of youth. The first to
grapple with this damage are those
on the outskirts of IS’s collapsing
territory. Interviews with children
now living in southern Turkey and
northern Iraq who attended IS training
camps and schools, as well as
the therapists and security officials
scrambling to assess them, open a
rare window into the crisis.
In addition to being far behind in
their education, many of these children
are suffering from trauma and
other mental health issues. Some of
them also alarm authorities, and,
in some cases, their families, with
their extremist views and violent
behaviour. Liesbeth van der Heide,
an expert on the rehabilitation and
reintegration of terrorists at the International
Centre for Counter-Terrorism
in the Hague, says IS is a
much graver challenge than other
extremist groups that tried to radicalise
communities.
Slow poisoning education
When IS seized control of Mosul,
Iraq, and announced the establishment
of its caliphate in June
2014, Umar Aljbouri was working
there at a government-run institute
for women and children. The
civil servant continued reporting
to work each day as the militants
asserted their control over Mosul’s
nearly 2m inhabitants, one institution
at a time. Eventually, they shut
down his institute and instructed
Aljbouri to begin reporting to a
local elementary school that was
short of teachers. Though Aljbouri
had never taught, he was afraid to
object and agreed to attend mandatory
IS training courses for teachers.
There, he learned that teachers
and children of all ages were to be
separated by gender, and they were
to adhere to a strict Islamic dress
code. Many subjects that had been
taught, including history and literature,
were scrapped; mathematics,
Arabic and the study of Islam would
remain, but only according to IS’s
curriculum. Eventually, the group’s
office of education distributed IS
course materials and textbooks.
“IS’s curriculum was based on
extremist doctrine,” he says. “It was
inviting children to hate and kill
people from other religions. Even in
mathematics, instead of ‘1 apple + 2
apples = 3 apples,’ they would say,
‘1 bullet + 2 bullets = 3 bullets.’ Parents
were so worried.”The education
overhaul was part of a broader
indoctrination for children that IS
instituted in towns and cities across
its territory.
Mohammed Alhamed, an activist
tracking IS education in Syria,
says the group used schools to ease
children into the organisation. “IS
doesn’t force children to join them.
But they teach them their rules and
everything about jihad and the Islamic
State, and by the time they
are older, they want to join.” While
IS threatened parents who wouldn’t
send their children to school with
fines or lashings, it took a lighter approach
with its pupils. Mohammed,
the boy now in Reyhanli, attended
an IS-run school for two years
at a mosque in Raqqa. He says his
teachers never used corporal punishment
and treated students “really
nice. I liked them, and I liked
Islam. They said if you read the Koran,
you get prizes.”
Courtesy: NEWSWEEK
Rehabilitation
There have been small and sporadic
efforts to identify the young ones in
need of aid, but it is easy for parents
to keep these children in the shadows.
Some families who want help
for their radicalised children are reluctant
to seek it, fearing they will
be investigated and punished by
local security services. Others, like
Ra’ed, think they can manage the
problem on their own. The family
patriarch acknowledges that there
have been some missteps in his efforts
to rehabilitate his nephews.
Once, when Salim first arrived
from Raqqa, Ra’ed brought the teen
to a beach to challenge his deeply
conservative views about women.
Upon seeing women in bikinis, Salim
fumed that he should “behead
them and turn the sea red with their
blood.” When Ra’ed bought Ibrahim
an iPad, the boy instantly downloaded
war games. But he believes he is
slowly winning this war of hearts
and young minds. “They are all getting
better,” he insists. “It’s a different
lifestyle here, and bit by bit, they
are changing.” He is less optimistic,
though, about the children of IS sympathisers,
whom he sees from time
to time around Reyhanli. One recently
visited his second-hand clothing
shop. The boy erupted in rage
when his sister approached Ra’ed to
inquire about a size. “Why are you
talking to a man?” he screamed. “If
you have a question, you ask me,
and I ask him. I swear to God, I will
go back home and have your older
brother cut your head off.”As Ra’ed,
recounts the story, he shakes his
head. “Some of these children are
growing up with jihadist ideas. And
they will be a problem for the future
of the whole world.” •
[This is an excerpt of a Newsweek
article, which can be found at http://bit.
ly/2swCmhI]

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DT
Week in Review
Week in Review 5
DT
Monday, july 10, 2017
Stormy G20 summit ends
World leaders made concessions on trade and climate language to US President Donald Trump at the end
of the most fractious and riot-hit G20 summit ever, in exchange for preserving a fragile unity of the club of
major industrialised and emerging economies
AP
July 3
Venezuela opposition calls vote against crisis reforms
AFP
Venezuela’s opposition called Monday for a popular
vote on July 16 over the government’s constitutional
reforms which it brands a ploy to cling to
power in a deadly political crisis.
Opposition legislative speaker Julio Borges
said the opposition would stage a popular vote
against the plan to form an assembly to reform the
constitution.
“Let the people decide whether to reject or
refuse to acknowledge the constitutional assembly
that has been unconstitutionally called” by President
Nicolas Maduro, Borges said in a speech.
The socialist government last year resisted various
efforts by the center-right opposition to hold a
referendum on removing Maduro from power.
The opposition blames him for a desperate
economic crisis that has sparked deadly riots. He
says the chaos is a US-backed conspiracy.
July 4
US confirms North Korea ICBM launch
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson confirmed Tuesday that North
Korea has test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile for the
first time.
“The United States strongly condemns North Korea’s launch
of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Testing an ICBM represents
a new escalation of the threat to the United States, our allies and
partners, the region, and the world,” Tillerson said in a statement.
He added that the United States “will never accept a nuclear-armed
North Korea.”
The North’s possession of a working ICBM, a development that
President Donald Trump had vowed “won’t happen”, represents a
milestone for the Communist regime.
It could also radically alter the calculus for countries seeking to
thwart the military goals of the isolated state.
In his statement, Tillerson called the Pyongyang government “a
dangerous regime” and said the United States would seek “stronger
AFP
measures” at the UN Security Council to hold the North Koreans
accountable for the latest missile test.
July 5
Farc dissidents release UN
hostage in Colombia
AFP
Dissident Farc rebels in Colombia
have released unharmed a UN official
whom they kidnapped in May,
officials said on Wednesday.
“We are very grateful for the
decision to release him unharmed.
He is in good health,” said the director
of the UN Information Center in
Bogota, Helene Papper, identifying
the hostage as Colombian national
Harley Lopez.
“We are currently making all the
logistical arrangements to transfer
him to Bogota.”
The leftist Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (Farc) formally
completed a historic UN-supervised
disarmament process on June
27 under a peace accord with the
government.
Lopez, who works for the UN
Office on Crime and Drugs, was kidnapped
on May 3 in the southeastern
department of Guaviare while
on a tour to promote replacing coca
with legal crops.
An estimated 300 dissident
guerrillas are believed to be active in
Guaviare, Kyle Johnson, an analyst
with the International Crisis Group,
said after the kidnapping.
Colombia’s defense ministry
confirmed on Twitter that the
hostage had contacted his UN
bosses to inform them he had been
released.
Colombia is the world’s biggest
producer of cocaine, with an output
of 646 tonnes in 2015, according to
the United Nations.
Under the peace deal, the FARC
agreed to detach itself from the
cocaine business that helped finance
its five-decade-old armed struggle.
July 6
Flood death toll worsens in Assam
The death toll from worsening monsoon floods
in India’s Assam state has hit 18 with hundreds of
thousands in makeshift camps and no letup in the
deluge, officials said Thursday.
“Monsoons are still ongoing. There are fresh developments
every hour,” Rajib Prakash Barua, a senior
Assam State Disaster Management Authority official,
said as he confirmed the latest death on Wednesday.
The 18 people have died since the monsoons
started in the northeastern state in April, said Barua,
speaking from the state’s main city Guwahati.
“One person died yesterday, taking the overall
death toll in the last week to five. Most people died
either because of flooding or electrocution,” he added.
Officials say about 395,000 people have so
far been affected in 863 villages across Assam’s 15
districts.
July 7
122 countries adopt global treaty banning
nuclear weapons
AFP
AFP
A global treaty banning nuclear weapons was adopted at the United
Nations on Friday despite opposition from the United States, Britain,
France and other nuclear powers that boycotted negotiations.
The treaty was adopted by a vote of 122 in favour with one country,
Nato member The Netherlands voting against, while Singapore
abstained.
Loud applause and cheers broke out in the UN conference hall
following the vote that capped three weeks of negotiations on the
text providing for a total ban on developing, stockpiling or threatening
to use nuclear weapons.
Nuclear-armed states have dismissed the ban as unrealistic,
arguing it will have no impact on reducing the global stockpile of
15,000 atomic weapons.
None of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons took
part in the negotiations or the vote. Even Japan, the only country to
have suffered atomic attacks, boycotted the talks as did most Nato
countries.
July 8
Clashes as Kashmir marks key anniversary
Government forces threw tear gas and clashed with
stone-throwing protesters in Indian Kashmir on
Saturday, as the volatile Himalayan region marked the
anniversary of a hugely popular rebel leader’s death.
Thousands of troops have fanned out across Indian-administered
Kashmir, where authorities have imposed a
widespread curfew and cut off all internet services after
separatist leaders called for a week of demonstrations.
Disputed Kashmir has seen an explosion of protests
against Indian rule since government forces shot and
killed Burhan Wani a year ago.
The death of the charismatic 23-year-old sparked an
outpouring of grief and anger that spilled into the streets
and led to months of clashes with security forces.
Nearly 100 people died in the months that followed and
many more sustained serious eye injuries from the pellet
guns used by government forces to quell the protests.
July 9
3 tonnes of ivory seized in Vietnam
Vietnamese authorities have seized
nearly three tonnes of ivory hidden
among boxes of fruit, officials said
Sunday, the latest haul to spotlight
the country’s key role in the global
wildlife smuggling trade.
Police in the central province
of Thanh Hoa found 2.7 tonnes of
tusks inside cartons on the back
of a truck that was on its way to
Hanoi, according to a report on
their website.
State media said the elephant
AFP
tusks originated from South Africa.
The global trade in elephant ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989
after populations of the African giants dropped from millions in the mid-20th century to
around 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.
There are now believed to be some 415,000, with 30,000 illegally killed each year.
Prices for a kilogramme of ivory can reach as high as $1,100.
AFP

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Monday, july 10, 2017
DT
Facts
Insight
7
Monday, july 10, 2017
DT
As so-called Islamic State loses control of territory in Syria and Iraq,
violence by IS affiliates is surging on the other side of the world —
specifically in the Philippines and Indonesia
500 miles
800km
ACEH
ISLAMIC STATE AFFILIATES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
THAILAND
Indian
Ocean
Jakarta
C H I N A
South
China Sea
VIETNAM
MALAYSIA
SINGAPORE
PHILIPPINES
INDONESIA
JAVA
May 24: Double suicide bombing
in Jakarta claimed by IS
Poso
Abu Sayyaf: Leader of Mindanaobased
group, Isnilon
Hapilon (right) declares
allegiance to IS in 2014
and is subsequently
named group’s emir
in Southeast Asia
Jemaah Islamiyah: Group
dedicated to establishment of an
Islamic state in Southeast Asia.
Cells in Thailand, Singapore,
Malaysia and Philippines
Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid: Splinter
group of Jemaah Islamiyah – bases
across Indonesia including in Aceh,
Sulawesi and Java
Zamboanga
50 miles
80km
Maute group: Biggest
among IS affiliates.
Brothers Omarkhayam
and Abdullah Maute
(right) at forefront
of battle of Marawi
Sources: Global Security, Brookings Institution Pictures: Cebu City Police
May 24: IS raises its black flag
over Marawi. Up to 500 militants
from Abu Sayyaf and Maute
group involved in siege
Marawi City
MINDANAO
Zamboanga: US Marines and
special forces counter-terrorism base
SULAWESI
Pacific Ocean
PAPUA
NEW GUINEA
A U S T R A L I A
Bangsomoro Islamic
Freedom Fighters and
Ansar al-Khilafah
Philippines: Pro-IS
splinter groups of Moro
Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) in Mindanao. MILF signs
peace deal with government in 2014
Katibah Nusantara: Southeast
Asian combat unit in Syria has some
800-900 fighters – around 200 have
returned home
© GRAPHIC NEWS
Q&A
What is the Hebron
row?
The United Nations declared the Old City of Hebron a heritage
site on Friday, sparking Israeli fury and Palestinian
jubilation.
What is Hebron?
Hebron claims to be one of the world’s oldest cities, dating
from the chalcolithic period or more than 3,000 years BC.
Over the centuries, Romans, Jews, Crusaders, Mamluks
and the British have conquered the city, which today lies
in the southern part of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory
of the West Bank.
The city, which is holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians,
is the largest in the West Bank, with more than 200,000
Palestinians and a few hundred Israeli settlers.
What is the Old City row?
Israel seized the West Bank including Hebron in 1967 in a
move never recognised by the international community.
In the years after, a small community of Jewish settlers
moved into the area next to an important religious site,
protected by hundreds of Israeli soldiers.
All such settlements are considered illegal by the United
Nations, but Israel says there are thousands of years of
Jewish history in the city.
Jews had been living in Hebron decades before 1967
but were forced out after violent attacks by Palestinians
during the British Mandate, the most violent of which saw
67 Jews killed in a 1929 massacre.
What is the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the
Patriarchs?
At the centre of the dispute is the site known to Muslims
as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Tomb of the
Patriarchs.
Old Testament figures including Abraham are believed
to be buried there.
In 1994, Israeli-American Baruch Goldstein opened
fire on Muslims praying at the site, killing 29, before being
beaten to death by survivors.
The building is now split into two, with Muslims praying
at the mosque and Jews at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
Palestinians say the heavy Israeli military presence, including
a series of checkpoints, is degrading and point out
that parts of the city are off limits to them.
What was the vote?
The Palestinian-led move asked Unesco’s heritage committee
to recognise Hebron’s Old City as a protected heritage
site, while also referring to the city as “Islamic”.
Israel rejected the idea, with foreign ministry spokesman
Emmanuel Nahshon saying the Palestinians were
“trying to rewrite Jewish history and the history of the
region”.
The vote came only two months after Unesco passed a
separate resolution on Jerusalem, which Israel said denied
Jewish connection to the Western Wall, the holiest site
Jews are allowed to pray at.
What impact will the resolution have?
The effects on the ground are likely to be limited, with Israel
still maintaining military control over the area.
Israel’s ambassador to Unesco Carmel Shama Hacohen
laughed off the resolution on Friday, saying his plumbing
at home was more important.
But Alaa Shahin, from the Palestinian Hebron municipality,
said before the vote it could help encourage tourism.
He said Israel’s military had closed off much of the
Old City’s souq and the vote would provide backing to attempts
to prevent this.
“We’ll have a legal body at an international level that
will help our efforts to stop any attempts to destroy it,” he
said. •
Source: AFP
Eye on polls in Gujarat, Karnataka, BJP set to
push backward classes Bill in parliament
• Tribune Desk
FACTS
What is the new amendment
about?
The government seeks to repeal the
National Commission for Backward
Classes Act, 1993, and has introduced
The Constitution (123rd Amendment)
Bill, 2017, to accord constitutional status
to the National Commission for
Backward Classes (NCBC). The Bill,
passed by Lok Sabha on April 10, 2017
will insert Article 338B into the Constitution
after Articles 338 and 338A
which deal with the National Commissions
for Scheduled Castes (SC) and
Scheduled Tribes (ST) respectively.
The proposed Article 338B states:
“There shall be a Commission for the
socially and educationally backward
classes to be known as the National
Commission for Backward Classes.”
The government had earlier proposed
that a National Commission for Socially
and Educationally Backward Classes
should replace the NCBC; however, after
objections by OBC leaders, it decided
against a change of nomenclature.
How does making the NCBC a
constitutional body help?
Under the NCBC Act, the Commission
merely has the power to recommend
inclusion or exclusion of communities
in the Other Backward classes
(OBC). The new Bill, once passed by
Parliament, will allow it to look into
all matters regarding the welfare and
development of backward classes, as
well as to investigate complaints. Currently,
the Scheduled Castes Commission,
which looks into cases of atrocities
against Dalits, is also in charge of
hearing grievances from OBCs — which
mostly pertain to the non-implementation
of reservations in jobs and educational
institutes. The amended
Bill will give the Commission powers
equivalent to that of a civil court. It will
be able to summon any person, ask for
a document or public record, and receive
evidence on affidavits. Union and
state governments will have to consult
the Commission on all significant policy
matters affecting the socially and educationally
backward classes.
So why has the Bill become
contentious?
The Bill makes Parliament the final authority
on inclusion of communities in
the OBC list and, therefore, takes away
the authority of states which can now
send requests to the NCBC — which,
however, may or may not forward them
to the union government. Until now,
the NCBC’s recommendations with regard
to inclusions and exclusions in the
list are binding on the government. Lok
Sabha passed the Bill on April 10. However,
when it was placed before Rajya
Sabha, several members said such an
important constitutional amendment
could not be approved without proper
study. As per the demand of the Upper
House, the Bill was referred to a Select
Committee. The 25-member Committee,
headed by BJP member Bhupender
Yadav, will submit its report during
the Monsoon Session.
With crucial Assembly elections
coming up in Gujarat and Karnataka,
a Bill granting constitutional
status to the National Commission
for Backward Classes is high on the
agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata
Party in the monsoon session of
Parliament, which commences on
July 17.
The constitution amendment Bill
introducing a National Commission
for Socially and Educationally Backward
Classes in the Constitution was
passed by the Lok Sabha in April but
had to be referred to a select committee
after the numerically-stronger
Opposition parties in the Rajya
Sabha insisted that it be scrutinised
by a parliamentary panel.
After several rounds of discussions,
the select committee is set
to table the report in Parliament in
the monsoon session. The Bill is expected
to get smooth passage as all
political parties are in agreement on
the contents of the legislation. The Indian Prme MInister Narendra Modi greets supporters at an election campaign event
Bill will give the proposed commission
powers to redress the griev- ances of members of the backward classes on the same lines as those
enjoyed by the National Commission
for Scheduled Castes.
The constitution of a far more
empowered National Commission
for Backward Classes will undoubtedly
be a huge victory for the Narendra
Modi government and will
be showcased as such in the run-up
to the Assembly elections. Gujarat
goes to polls later this year. The
Karnataka elections are scheduled
for 2018 but media reports said the
state’s Congress chief minister, Siddaramaiah,
is in favour of advancing
it to December.
BJP’s outreach campaign
However, the BJP is not waiting for
the passage of the Bill to consolidate
its support among the backward
classes. The party has already
launched a nationwide campaign
to propagate the fact that it is the
Modi government that has ensured
that the backward classes get their
due rights. Union ministers and BJP
leaders have been traveling to various
states to get this message across
to the widest possible audience.
At the same time, the party is
also using every opportunity to
flay the Congress for holding up the
Bill in the Rajya Sabha and to paint
the main Opposition party as “anti-backward
classes”. A senior BJP
functionary said, “The Congress is
going to pay a heavy political price
for blocking the Bill.”
So, irrespective of the passage of
the Bill in the monsoon session, BJP
strategists have ensured that the
party gains either way.
The BJP’s outreach to the backward
classes has picked up pace
since it first succeeded in getting
their support in the 2014 Lok Sabha
polls. Modi’s projection as a backward
class leader had gone a long
way then in winning them over.
More recently, the BJP’s experiment
in Uttar Pradesh of accommodating
non-Yadav members of the backward
classes in its party structures
and giving them a large chunk of
tickets in the February-March Assembly
polls paid it rich political
dividends. The party swept the elections,
winning 312 of the 403 seats.
The BJP now intends to extend
this strategy across the country,
given that the backward classes
constitute over 50% of the population.
The party’s immediate focus
is on Gujarat and Karnataka, but it
also hopes to make big gains in the
southern states where the backward
classes play a crucial role in electoral
politics. Following up on its Uttar
Pradesh strategy, the BJP has identified
local-level Other Backward
Classes leaders in various states
while party president Amit Shah
has held a series of meetings with
them in states as diverse as Gujarat,
Telangana, Kerala and even Goa.
“We got a very good response in all
these states,” remarked a BJP leader.
The BJP is hoping that its focus
on the backward classes will help
it expand its footprint in the south,
where it is primarily viewed as a
Brahminical party confined to the
“Hindi cow belt”. Besides breaching
the regional divide, the BJP also
believes its backward classes card
will cut across religious lines and
that Pasmanda (backward) Muslims
will also gravitate towards the saffron
party.
AFP
Gujarat prestige battle
While the BJP goes full speed ahead
with its expansion plans, its first
priority is to win a landslide victory
in Gujarat, where it has been in
power for three terms. The upcoming
election is a battle of prestige
for Modi, who steered the party to
three successive wins as chief minister.
It is, therefore, critical that
the BJP gets a thumping majority
in his home state now that he is the
prime minister. The party is making
a special effort to win over the
backward classes in Gujarat (who
constitute nearly 60% of the state’s
population) as the powerful Patel
community, which had so far extended
unstinted support to Modi,
is now on the warpath, pressing
for reservation in educational institutions
and government jobs.
Similarly, there is anger brewing
among the Dalits following attacks
on them by cow protection vigilante
groups.
Focusing single-mindedly on
backward classes, the BJP has initiated
several measures over the past
three years to win them over. For
instance, it set up an Other Backward
Classes Morcha or wing in the
party in the run-up to elections in
Bihar in 2015. And at its national
executive meeting in Bhubaneswar
in April this year, it passed a resolution
that dwelt on Modi’s initiative
to set up a more powerful commission
for the backward classes. The
party has also given leaders from
this section prominent positions in
its various state units. •
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