The Canadian Parvasi - Issue105

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The International News Weekly Edit 06 August 02, 2019 | Toronto The w w w . canadianparv asi. c o m Publisher & CEO Associate Editor Editor (India) Online Graphic Designer Official Photographer Contact Editorial Sales Rajinder Saini Meenakshi Saini Gursheesh Kshitiz Dalal Naveen Bashir Nasir editor@canadianparvasi.com sales@canadianparvasi.com Make It Win-Win Personal laws permitting triple talaq had to go but criminalising it spawns new injustices The passage of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill criminalising instant oral talaq in the Rajya Sabha fulfils a BJP electoral promise. The party’s Hindutva base and even a number of Muslims opposed to the writ of religious leaders and personal laws reigning supreme in their community have welcomed the moment. By prescribing three years imprisonment for Muslim men who pronounce the talaq-e-biddat, the law sticks out with rough edges for treating divorce as a criminal offence. From a system which gave archaic personal laws a long rope for decades to now criminalising practices like triple talaq that it fostered, India is veritably swinging between extremes. The old order had to change, but it is unfortunate that the new law failed to strike a balance. Personal laws gave religious leaders disproportionate influence and denied many people, especially women, the benefits of living in a free society and under meaningful protection of the s tate. By overriding personal laws, government is indeed doing Muslim women a world of good but in failing to treat triple talaq as a civil offence, as in any other messy divorce case, it may conceivably end up doing more harm than good to the woman. A legal challenge in Supreme Court is certain to raise issues like proportionality: whether the severity of punishment befits the seriousness of the crime and whether there are less onerous ways of achieving the legislation’s goals. In a sense the social and political cost of not having a Uniform Civil Code, which would have been in tune with the secular ethos of the country, is showing. From Congress “appeasement” of minorities – or to be more precise clerics within minority communities in the hope they would deliver a “vote bank” – the pendulum has now swung to the other extreme where, under a Hindutva-oriented government, the law appears to have a punitive edge for Muslim men. In a contrary scenario, a UCC would have united the country in true fashion where citizens irrespective of religion would follow the same laws for marriage, divorce, succession, etc. This government has a manifesto that promises UCC and a mandate that can make it happen. It must bite the bullet while earning trust by upholding, rather than debunking, other aspects of secularism as well. TNN Give Rivers More Space To avoid frequent flooding havoc, India must regulate construction on floodplains Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar Last week, the Ulhas River on the outskirts of Mumbai burst its banks, swamping the land around it, including local housing estates, and stranding the passengers of the Mahalaxmi Express. The flood should not have surprised anyone: Much of the region’s exurban growth has been in townships along the Ulhas, with little regard for the integrity of the river system. India has made progress on many aspects of flood disaster management in the past decade, notably in warnings and evacuation, as we saw earlier this year when Odisha moved a million people to safety ahead of Cyclone Fani. But the country needs to catch up on a critical measure, one that is taking on greater urgency with climate change: the regulation of development on floodplains. This regulatory gap persists despite the urging of various agencies and parliamentary committees over 45 years, and for obvious reasons: developable land, especially around growing cities, is precious. If one were to quantify the true costs of real estate development in flood-prone areas, however, that calculus might be different. Reckless construction over wetlands, floodplains, or riverbeds – natural features that absorb and mitigate heavy rainfall or a river’s overflow – helped cause or aggravate the floods in Mumbai in 2005 and 2017, Uttarakhand in 2013, Srinagar in 2014, Chennai in 2015 and Kerala in 2018. (Paved areas elevate flood risk by reducing absorption of water into the ground and increasing runoff.) In three of those flood events – Kochi, Chennai, Mumbai – airports, a critical piece of infrastructure, were closed for days because they were located on a floodplain, or even across the river itself. The short-sightedness of those decisions seems remarkable given how well known the concept of floodplain protection is, not just in traditional community practice but modern hydrology. In 1975, the Central Water Commission prepared a model bill for floodplain zoning and sent it to the states to enact and implement (rivers are state subjects). Only three states – Manipur, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand – have enacted such legislations so far, and even in these states, implementation is virtually absent. This regulatory shortfall is no secret. The National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) Flood Guidelines observe that “the reluctance of states to enact zoning has led to increase in encroachment on floodplains, sometimes authorised and duly approved by planning authorities.” Another push for a floodplain policy came in 2016 when draft River Regulation Zone Rules, formulated with the help of independent experts, were circulated by the ministry of environment, forests, and climate change (MoEFCC). The rules proposed demarcation of active floodplains, high flood lines, and high to low impact zones, and then limiting development within these zones. What would such limits look like? NDMA’s guidelines suggest prohibiting vital public infrastructure in the most flood-prone areas along rivers. UN guidelines on flood management call for “wise use” of floodplains. They suggest wetlands, agriculture and green reserves along water courses that will not only act as buffers against flood but nurse fisheries and enable storage and recharge of groundwater. In less risky zones, building codes would be needed to reduce flood damage to homes. The MoEFCC’s draft river rules were opposed by many states, presumably because of the political and practical challenges of implementing them in heavily populated areas with lots of rivers. Local community participation can help overcome some of those challenges. So will flood hazard mapping and publication. Imagine if builders were forced to publicise the flood risk rating of their projects along with carpet area and parking. Globally, the rise in extreme events is forcing a rethink on flood management. Floods are the most common kind of disaster, accounting for 47% of worldwide disasters in 2006- 15, up from 40% in 1996-2005, according to the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. One 2017 analysis suggests that 4.48 million Indians are exposed to riverine floods, the highest in the world. In the US, which has long managed floods through hazard mapping and public insurance – cover is mandatory for mortgages in 100-year flood zones – rising risk is pushing up premiums. The World Meteorological Organisation now promotes integrated flood management that includes land use planning in its arsenal of anti-flood measures. And in Europe, a 2007 directive is encouraging countries to expand beyond the traditional flood control of dams and dykes to include more natural measures, including restoring floodplains to “give rivers more space”. That would require seeing rivers not as static channels – as many of India’s urban waterfront projects seem to be doing – and more as dynamic systems in which riverbanks and floodplains are not treated as real estate but as elbow room for the river, allowing it to expand and contract over the seasons. Such a rethink does not seem to be happening in India, or at least not fast enough. Despite the lessons of past floods, Maharashtra deleted its River Regulation Zone policy in 2015 – a decision now being protested by residents near the Ulhas River – and decided to build a new airport in Navi Mumbai on low-lying land. Nationally the relaxation of coastal regulation zone (CRZ) rules allows more risk to accumulate in coastal areas which face the additional threat of sea level rise. Preserving natural land use – forests, river banks, wetlands – is often painted as antithetical to development, a false dichotomy that is not only outdated but dangerous in an age of extreme weather. Climate change is showing us the economic costs of ignoring the environment, the limits to our ability to bind and control nature, and the advantages of working with natural systems rather than against them. Source Credit: This article was first published in The Times of India. 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The International News Weekly world August 02, 2019 | Toronto 07 US slaps sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif WASHINGTON : In an unprecedented move, the United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on the ground that he acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Iranian Supreme Leader. “This action represents another step toward denying the Iranian regime the resources to enable terror and oppress the Iranian people,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is in Thailand, said in a statement soon after the Department of Treasury announced the designation of the Iranian foreign minister. Instead of using Iran’s precious resources to invest in the brave and rightfully proud people of Iran, the Iranian regime facilitates and supports terrorism, jails and tortures innocent Iranians, fuels foreign conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and, in recent weeks has expanded its nuclear programme, he said. “Foreign Minister Zarif, a senior regime official and apologist, has for years now been complicit in these malign activities,” Pompeo said alleging that the Iranian Foreign Ministry is not merely the diplomatic arm of the Islamic Republic but also a means of advancing many of the Supreme Leader’s destabilising policies. “Foreign Minister Zarif and the Foreign Ministry he runs take their direction from the Supreme Leader and his office. Foreign Minister Zarif is a key enabler of Ayatollah Khamenei’s policies throughout the region and around the world. The designation of Javad Zarif today reflects this reality,” Pompeo said. Under the sanctions, all property and interests in property of Zarif that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons must be blocked. It also generally prohibit all dealings by US persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons. A senior administration official, however, did not respond to questions on the properties of Zarif, if any in the US. The Treasury said any foreign financial institution that knowingly conducts or facilitates a significant transaction for or on behalf of Zarif could be subject to US correspondent account or payablethrough sanctions. “Javad Zarif implements the reckless agenda of the Iran’s Supreme Leader and is the regime’s primary spokesperson around the world. The United States is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime that its recent behaviour is completely unacceptable,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “At the same time, the Iranian regime denies Iranian citizens’ access to social media, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif spreads the regime’s propaganda and disinformation around the world through these mediums,” Mnuchin said. Senator Marco Rubio supported the decision to impose sanctions to block any US-based assets of Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. “That said, I’m very concerned that the Administration just renewed controversial sanctions waivers that are allowing Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime and other foreign countries not only to continue assisting the Iranian regime’s expansion of nuclear infrastructure, but also to keep the flawed Iran nuclear deal on life support,” Rubio said. “The Iranian regime blatantly violated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action by concealing from international inspectors its dangerous atomic archive for rapid nuclear weaponisation, and it continues to violate the deal by escalating its uranium enrichment activities. The right response here is to continue maximizing international pressure against the Iranian regime—not to ease it,” he said. China orders ‘halal’ eateries to take down Arabic, Muslim symbols Beijing : Authorities in the Chinese capital have ordered halal restaurants and food stalls to remove Arabic script and symbols associated with Islam from their signs, part of an expanding national effort to “Sinicize” its Muslim population. Employees at 11 restaurants and shops in Beijing selling halal products and visited by Reuters in recent days said officials had told them to remove images associated with Islam, such as the crescent moon and the word “halal” written in Arabic, from signs. Government workers from various offices told one manager of a Beijing noodle shop to cover up the “halal” in Arabic on his shop’s sign, and then watched him do it. “They said this is foreign culture and you should use more Chinese culture,” said the manager, who, like all restaurant owners and employees who spoke to Reuters, declined to give his name due to the sensitivity of the issue. The campaign against Arabic script and Islamic images marks a new phase of a drive that has gained momentum since 2016, aimed at ensuring religions conform with mainstream Chinese culture. The campaign has included the removal of Middle Eastern-style domes on many mosques around the country in favour of Chinese-style pagodas. China, home to 20 million Muslims, officially guarantees freedom of religion, but the government has campaigned to bring the faithful into line with Communist Party ideology. It’s not just Muslims who have come under scrutiny. Authorities have shut down many underground Christian churches, and torn down crosses of some churches deemed illegal by the government. But Muslims have come in for particular attention since a riot in 2009 between mostly Muslim Uighur people and majority Han Chinese in the far western region of Xinjiang, home to the Uighur minority. Spasms of ethnic violence followed, and some Uighurs, chafing at government controls, carried out knife and crude bomb attacks in public areas and against the police and other authorities. In response, China launched what it described as a crackdown on terrorism in Xinjiang. Now, it is facing intense criticism from Western nations and rights groups over its policies, in particular mass detentions and surveillance of Uighurs and other Muslims there. The government says its actions in Xinjiang are necessary to stamp out religious extremism. Officials have warned about creeping Islamisation, and have extended tighter controls over other Muslim minorities. ‘New normal’ Analysts say the ruling Communist Party is concerned that foreign influences can make religious groups difficult to control. “Arabic is seen as a foreign language and knowledge of it is now seen as something outside of the control of the state,” said Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Washington who studies Xinjiang. “It is also seen as connected to international forms of piety, or in the eyes of state authorities, religious extremism. They want Islam in China to operate primarily through Chinese language,” he said. Kelly Hammond, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas who studies Muslims of the Hui minority in China, said the measures were part of a “drive to create a new normal” Beijing is home to at least 1,000 halal shops and restaurants, according to the Meituan Dianping food delivery app, spread across the city’s historic Muslim quarter as well as in other neighbourhoods. It was not clear if every such restaurant in Beijing has been told to cover Arabic script and Muslim symbols. One manager at a restaurant still displaying Arabic said he’d been ordered to remove it but was waiting for his new signs. Several bigger shops visited by Reuters replaced their signs with the Chinese term for halal — “qing zhen” — while others merely covered up the Arabic and Islamic imagery with tape or stickers. The Beijing government’s Committee on Ethnicity and Religious affairs declined to comment, saying the order regarding halal restaurants was a national directive. Zha Xi, an official from the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, told Reuters on Thursday that China’s constitution protects the legitimate rights and interests of all minority groups. He declined to give details on the national directive cited by Beijing’s ethnicity and relgiious affairs committee. “Currently, our country’s halal food regulation is managed locally, every local government’s relevant department administers it according to the local dietary habits and customs,” he said, referring further questions on the matter to the Beijing committee. While most shopkeepers interviewed by Reuters said they did not mind replacing their signs, some said it confused their customers and an employee at a halal butcher shop accused authorities of “erasing” Muslim culture.
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