Sond condemns SAD chief's remarks

Ludhiana: AAP leader and cabinet minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond Sunday strongly condemned the statement of Akali Dal chief
Sukhbir Singh Badal
about only a CM who wields a 'danda' can solve people's problems.
In a press meet here, Sond said, "Our CM
Bhagwant Mann
uses the danda against drug traffickers, land mafia, and gangsters, while Sukhbir Badal used it against common people. Mann takes action against anyone who attempts to disturb the law and order of Punjab."
He further said, "The Akali Dal has been reduced to just three seats, and even those seats are slipping away from them because the Akali Dal used the danda against Sikh sangat seeking justice, against teachers, and against unemployed youth."
Sond asked, "What was the fault of those people in Behbal Kalan who were shot during your regime? Was it not under your govt that the sacrilege of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji happened? You admitted your mistakes at Shri Akal Takht Sahib."
He said Sukhbir Badal spared nothing, and played with the faith of millions. "People thought he changed after apologising, but he didn't. To further his political gains, he removed a capable jathedar in the middle of the night and replaced them with their loyal ones. Does Badal think Punjab's people do not understand all this?"

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Book excerpt: How the global story of caste activism began in Marathwada

CASTE BOOK , SURAJ YENGDE , SURAJ MILIND YENGDE , NEW BOOK , NONFICTION , INDIAN WRITING , INDIAN NONFICTION : Nanded, my hometown in Marathwada, has been home to one of the most radical forms of Dalit politics for over a hundred years. The Arya Samaj, the Hindu reform movement, established one of its earliest centres in Marathwada. Fearing Muslim influence on the subaltern castes, the Arya Samaj started to reconvert the latter by offering janeu, the sacred thread. However, this was not looked upon favourably by non-Dalit villagers, who by way of punishment forcibly tattooed Dalit converts with hot iron rods. Marathwada has also seen a significant presence of Sikhs, Nanded being an important holy place for the Sikh religion. The radical message of mystics and spiritual teachers like Kabir, Raidas, Nanak and Gobind was carried by practitioners of the Sikh faith. In particular, the vision of society that Kabir and Raidas preached found especial resonance among the Dalits of Marathwada. Also read: 'Something like Truth': Staging four monologues around truth and justice Following in this tradition, Marathwada Dalits carved out for themselves a political space, whose potential for mobilization and receptivity to radical ideas were noticed by B.R. Ambedkar. Issues around land, education and sovereignty were all highly politicized in Marathwada. Those who rejected their oppression as lower castes looked for ways of fighting back. To them, Ambedkar-led politics seemed like a promising avenue. In particular, Mahars (a caste of Dalits) in my region gave their allegiance to Ambedkar. Though Ambedkar was yet to visit them, they had heard about him and his voluminous writings. He came from their caste-community and had a national as well as international appeal. Dalit leaders from the wider Telugu-, Marathi- and Kannada-speaking regions, such as Bhagya Reddy Varma, B.S. Venkat Rao and B. Shyam Sundar, eventually joined Ambedkar and worked under his leadership. My district and region were one of many centres of radical politics. Nanded's representative to India's independent parliament in 1957 belonged to a crop of radical Dalit politicians: Harihar Rao Sonule was our statement of our collective belief in constitutional promise. He was one of the early batch of Dalit MPs from the All India Scheduled Caste Federation who were intent on gaining rights for Dalits in the newly independent country. In our house in Janta Colony, Ambedkar Nagar, Nanded, my father listened to the morning Marathi news on DD Sahyadri—a government-owned satellite TV station. We had a black-and-white 14-inch television set made by a Videocon company. Each morning the same ritual was followed as I prepared for school. One day in 1997 my father held me and made me watch the TV: Kofi Annan was being elected as the secretary general of the United Nations Organization. My father called it Oono—UNO. He wanted me to register that a Black man had ascended to the topmost position of an inter-governmental body, never mind that Annan originally came from the crop of Ghanaian elites. My father perhaps wanted me to see that the UN and other international bodies could not only be accessible to native elites the world over, but could be a space even of Dalit politics. When the Taliban blew up statues of the Buddha, he and his associates protested by petitioning the UN—in a letter written in Marathi. Years later, when I was an intern at the UN's human rights office in Geneva, I was dismayed by its sheer inability to provide nonpolitical solutions to issues of the day…. In the United States, the Dalit cause was taken up by the coordinated efforts of professional class Dalits who had settled there. Their activism began with protests against atrocities within India and led to attempts to hold the Indian state accountable by placing the issue of caste on the agendas of US political and policy circles. Later, activists like Laxmi Berwa and Yogesh Varhade took the UN route that their predecessors like B.R. Ambedkar, N. Rajbhoj and Bhagwan Das had followed. Solidarity represents one way of connecting the Dalit movement with a larger cause. But the desire for international solidarity did not significantly influence the activities of Dalits in India. Their work evolved in response to the radical shifts of Cold War-era politics. The movement was split between left and right. Some aligned with a nativist theory of liberation, while others drew on the left's internationalism. One faction was led by Namdeo Dhasal, the well-known leftist Panther. Left-wing savarna scholars wrote extensively about Dhasal and promoted his image. Raja Dhale, on the other hand, who led the other faction, was primarily known to circles of academics and writers because of his distance from leftist politics. Later he became so disillusioned with the Panthers' leadership that he left and pursued a career in a political party run by Ambedkar's grandson, only to end up dismayed by it. A vast number of Dalit Mahars who identified with Ambedkar and Buddhism embraced Dhale. My father was an associate of his in Nanded and was particularly interested in Dhale's literary activities. They remained friends. My name Surudhay—kindhearted—was given me by Dhale. However, because it was often mispronounced, I shortened the name to Suraj. When I was a student leader in Nanded, I invited Dhale to visit the university and deliver a lecture. He came and the old cadres packed the hall. He spoke but it wasn't an impressive speech. When my father passed away, Dhale paid a visit to my home. I was in South Africa; I rang him to thank him for the visit. In his usual way, Dhale said that he had not done anything extraordinary. 'Milind was my associate, and I paid a visit" was his response. Dhale was known to call a spade a spade. He restricted himself to the activism of literature. He read many books. Whenever my father visited Mumbai, he would seek an audience with Dhale. I recall once we spent an entire day in Vikhroli, the area where Dhale lived. Years later when I was studying to become a scholar, I sought an audience with Dhale. He refused. He said that, like me, he had little time available; it was better that we should not impose ourselves on each other's time. His response made me feel he had become rude and bitter as an old man. A few years later when I spent about eight months in India, I realized why he had spoken in this way. In India, a meeting can easily last several hours. Dhale was also in a hurry to finish what he was writing—as he indicated to me. Also read: A new anthology of writings from south Asia celebrates marginalised voices Over the years, as my name became known in academic and literary circles, reports about me must have come to the attention of Dhale, for he commented to my cousin Nitin that 'Suraj has now become an important person". When Dhale died, the national media reached out to me to write an obituary. I was on the way to deliver a series of talks in Kolhapur. But I asked people to send me some books on Dhale and some of his original writings. I wrote the article on my journey from Aurangabad to Kolhapur, two sites driven by Ambedkar's politics. Dhale was widely read. He was among the first Dalits in the movement to actively pursue Black literature. In his young days, he dabbled in translating Black poets into Marathi. There are many such anecdotes about my father—who was my primary interlocutor to this history—and Dhale that touch my thinking and practice. The global story of caste or the story of global castes thus begins with my experience of growing up as a Dalit. It's also a story of Marathwada, India, which had the audacity to connect with the larger world. That is why the Dalit-Black nexus, which started as an investigation of literature and experience in Marathwada, became a precursor to the formation of an active political solidarity. Excerpted from 'Caste: A Global Story' with permission from Penguin Random House India. The book will be available around 30 June.

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5 hours ago

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In his first few weeks at the helm of affairs, Prime Minister Mark Carney has seemingly been able to reset ties with New Delhi, which had been downgraded with the expulsion and withdrawal of respective High Commissioners around eight months ago. And that is why the reset of India-Canada ties is ThePrint Newsmaker of the Week. After the high of 2015, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was feted by his then-Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper, the relationship completely unravelled under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who sought his 15 seconds of fame by cratering ties with India to protect his own government in September 2023, undoing over two decades of careful diplomacy. New Delhi: The Carney-Modi meet earlier this week signalled a rapprochement between India and Canada, two countries inextricably linked due to the large Indian community in Canada. 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There was no off-ramp for either New Delhi or Ottawa to de-escalate the diplomatic tension, especially as Trudeau's domestic struggles by then were an instrument of foreign policy. By October 2024, ties had effectively been snapped, with India expelling six Canadian diplomats, while withdrawing its High Commissioner and five other diplomats from Canada. Trudeau's minority government, being propped up by the New Democratic Party (NDP), supported Sikh separatists to wield large influence on Ottawa's foreign policy vis-a-vis its ties with India. The NDP at the time was led by Jagmeet Singh, who had in the past indicated support for Sikh separatism. In 2017, he had refused to link Sikh extremists to the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, which left 329 people dead. For New Delhi, these separatists being given space in Canada to promote and fundraise their anti-India plank had real security ramifications – concerns that Ottawa ignored. Carney's approach to this has been to leave the matter of Nijjar's killing and associated irritants to the law enforcement agencies of the two countries, a measure welcomed by New Delhi. Modi's dash to Alberta further indicated the interest in both India and Canada to reset ties in an increasingly unstable world. With the return of Donald Trump to the White House, and the collapse of the NDP, ties between India and Canada were finally given the space for a reset. Also read: Collapse of Jagmeet Singh-led NDP & the waning political clout of Sikh separatists in Canada Trump and the waning star of Sikh separatists Trump's return upended the politics of Canada. For Canadians, the rupture in ties with the US, which accounts for over 70 per cent of Canada's trade, became an existential crisis. If elections were to be held in January 2025, the Conservative Party led by Pierre Poilievre was set to win a large majority, while the Liberal Party led by Trudeau would have potentially collapsed to its lows of 2011. However, Trudeau's resignation and Carney's rise gave the Liberals, which has governed Canada for large parts of the 20th century, a chance to rise in the polls. The question at the time was no longer just the domestic situation in Canada — the affordability crisis or immigration — but rather who would be the better candidate to handle Trump. Poilievre, who ran a Trump-esque campaign, saw his favourability drop in the polls. The Liberals rose, while the NDP support collapsed. With the Liberals winning a large number of seats, a few short of the majority, it meant they no longer had to rely on the NDP to govern the country. From 24 seats in the House of Commons, the NDP fell to 7, which helped stem the power of Sikh separatist groups in the Canadian parliament. The Conservative Party, looking to build a big tent, had sought votes from the Sikh separatists as well. But it seems all that was for nought. In this scenario, Carney, who was elevated to a saviour-like status, has been able to make a break from having domestic vote banks influence foreign policy. For Canada, the need of the hour is to diversify itself from the US. Carney, earlier this month, announced his intention to boost Canada's defence spending, while promising to reduce Ottawa's strategic dependence on the US. The two factors – the collapse of the Sikh separatist leaning parties and the return of Trump – has led to a retooling in Ottawa's approach to New Delhi. The current Liberal cabinet has a number of faces from Trudeau's government. Melanie Joly, who as foreign minister under Trudeau led the charge against India, retains her government role under Carney. Chrystia Freeland, the former deputy prime minister in the previous government, has returned with an important role in Carney's cabinet. However, despite continuity in members, Carney has been able to stamp his authority on foreign policy, with Anita Anand appointed as the new foreign minister, who spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar within days of her appointment. The challenges Ottawa faces has allowed it to approach New Delhi more effectively, and return a sense of maturity to India-Canada ties. However, as politics is never static, the Sikh separatists may rise again in Canadian politics, but maybe at least this time, the irritants would be dealt with at the appropriate levels, without the need for political brinkmanship from either administration. Views are personal. (Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)