Dawn Editorials (with Summary and Vocabulary)

 

DAWN EDITORIALS

February 6, 2024 (Tuesday)

Day’s Vocabulary

  • Fracas.         a noisy disturbance or quarrel
  • Jostling.      push, elbow, or bump against (someone) roughly, typically in a crowd
  • Vagaries.    an unexpected and inexplicable change in a situation or in someone's behavior
  • Rout. a disorderly retreat of defeated troops
  • Purvey.        provide or supply (food, drink, or other goods) as one's business
  • Usurped.     take (a position of power or importance) illegally or by force
  • Parvenue.   a person of obscure origin who has gained wealth, influence, or celebrity
  • Voluble.      (of a person) talking fluently, readily, or incessantly
  • Conflating.            combine (two or more texts, ideas, etc.) into one
  • Spurious.   not being what it purports to be; false or fake
  • Rejuvenate.           give new energy or vigor to; revitalize
  • Bereft.          deprived of or lacking (something)
  • Scrupulous.          (of a person or process) diligent, thorough, and extremely attentive to details
  • Unfettered.            unrestrained or uninhibited
  • Aspersions.           an attack on the reputation or integrity of someone or something

Aspirants unlimited

Summary

  • Political families are increasingly jockeying for control within parties, leading to conflicts and defections. This is due to limited party tickets and growing pressure from within families as they expand.
  • This "dynastic politics" creates resentment at the constituency level, as established families block opportunities for newcomers. This was seen in the Multan by-election loss and the Dar family's departure from PML-N.
  • Political parties need to address this issue by distributing power more broadly, potentially through empowered local governments. This would create more positions and satisfy more stakeholders.
  • Younger politicians recognize the problem, but it's unclear if party leaders will enact necessary changes.

Article

THIS is one election where it has been more difficult than usual to keep track of candidates switching sides and parties.

Even so, a recent induction into Jahangir Khan Tareen’s IPP was surprising. Ayesha Rajab Ali who was till recently in the PML-N and even a member of the 2018 parliament on a reserved seat met Tareen and joined the IPP. Surprising to say the least, for this is really not the moment to leave Noon and join IPP, even though JKT appears confident that his party will be working with the PML-N, post-election. The happy ending is now a foregone conclusion.

However, local constituency-level politics are behind this decision. Ayesha Rajab Ali parted ways with the PML-N some weeks ago because the party gave the ticket to her brother-in-law over her son. The party ticket had gone to her brother-in-law after the death of her husband, a decision the party repeated for 2024. Ayesha Rajab Ali, who felt her son should have inherited the father’s political slot, announced her departure from the PML-N and has since joined IPP.

This is not the only such incident; where families who dominate constituencies for a party will face opposition from within, when one generation replaces another and the aspirants or contenders for tickets proliferate. And this is evident in the PML-N this time around as the PTI, the other contender in Punjab, has already lost many of its electables.

One of the most unexpected fights that broke out during this election cycle was the public falling out between the two PML-N heavyweights in Narowal. Home to two National Assembly (NA) seats, the area is dominated by Ahsan Iqbal and Daniyal Aziz.

While the former has been with the PML-N since the 1990s, Aziz joined the party later but had been close to the party leadership for which he paid the price in the shape of disqualification before the 2018 election.

As families grow, the infighting over constituencies will increase.

According to media reports, the fracas broke out because Iqbal was interested in the party ticket for a provincial assembly seat which fell under the NA seat of Aziz while the latter wanted his say in the people chosen for these seats. As the jostling for the tickets grew, so did the verbal duelling.

Aziz’s public criticism of Iqbal ended with him losing the party ticket. He is now contesting the seat as an independent candidate and faces a PML-N candidate. On the other hand, Iqbal was awarded the provincial assembly ticket he wanted — originally for his son though he is now contesting on it himself.

While this story has been highlighted in the media, few ever explained why Iqbal wanted a provincial assembly ticket in Aziz’s constituency rather than one which fell under his own NA constituency. According to journalists from Narowal, the provincial seats in his constituency are already occupied by close colleagues and relatives who cannot be displaced. Hence, he looked to the other constituency.

The two are very different examples but both reflect the jostling and conflicts which arise due to limited party tickets and the growing pressure from political families. Indeed, this is not a new phenomenon: over decades, many families have arrived at a point where different members are now part of different parties come election time.

Take the Khar family in Muzaffargarh or the Leghari family in D.G. Khan. Until recently, the Leghari family had one branch (Farooq Leghari’s sons) in PML-N while Jaffer Leghari and his son-in-law Mohsin Leghari were associated with the PTI.

Another manifestation of this is the excessive domination of one family over a party and an area. Consider Multan where the Gilani and Qureshi families are contesting on multiple seats in the city. And in Lahore, the Sharif family is contesting on four seats, which is one reason Pervez Malik’s family, old and valued PML-N stalwarts, who had contested and won from the city in 2018, are not in the election fray this time.

The point here is that with time, as families grow, the infighting over constituencies will increase; multiple candidates will also mean further fragmentation of the biradari or family vote, which once was consolidated or centralised enough to secure political victories.

But more important is the growing resentment from below. As families dominate party tickets and constituencies, there is little room for vertical growth for those who may over time aspire to party tickets. This is also a major reason for the growing resentment against what is seen as ‘dynastic’ rule at the constituency level.

Indeed, while the national press tends to focus on dynastic rule at the national level, politicians are aware that there is considerable resentment towards dynasties at the constituency level because of the glass ceiling it has created. This is seen to be one reason Meher Bano Qureshi lost an NA by-election in Multan in 2022.

Of course, this is at one level part of an organic process. As families grow and aspirants from within reduce their vote bank, it will provide space for newcomers to come into the field.

More importantly though, it is also an issue for political parties to recognise and address, if they don’t want to continue to lose candidates and influence.

For instance, the Dar family in Sialkot parted ways with the PML-N because it was not able to give them a ticket and thus the PTI’s roots were established in the city. Since then, it has become a force to be reckoned with, not just because of Imran Khan’s popularity but also because of the effort put in by the Dar family.

Political parties have to not just recognise but also distribute power in a way to create more space for more entrants. Empowered local governments is one option. It will increase the number of positions a political party can distribute in a particular region, and hence keep multiple political stakeholders satisfied.

This is recognised by the younger generation of politicians, across the board. Whether the leaderships prove far-sighted enough to push this change through is another matter.

Looking for signs of a Modi wave

Summary

  • Historical examples of unexpected electoral outcomes in India, including defeats of prominent leaders like Indira Gandhi and A.B. Vajpayee, highlight the unpredictability of Indian politics.
  • The author questions the existence of a "Modi wave" in India, suggesting that personal biases and media consumption habits might influence perceptions of political trends.
  • Observations about the lack of visible signs of a saffron wave (associated with BJP) in India, despite claims made by supporters.
  • Doubts raised about the validity of recent electoral victories attributed to BJP, suggesting potential rigging or manipulation.
  • Concerns expressed over communal tensions and religious polarization in India, particularly in the context of recent temple constructions and mosque demolitions.
  • Analysis of BJP's political strategies, including inducements for defection and alliances, and opposition responses.
  • Skepticism regarding the significance of BJP's electoral performance and the potential for opposition coalition-building to challenge its dominance.
  • Historical parallels drawn with Hitler's electoral support in Germany to caution against underestimating the impact of BJP's electoral base.

Article

THE moments come to mind when tutored political perceptions got laid low by the electoral vagaries of India. Indira Gandhi didn’t foresee the rout she faced when calling the 1977 elections, believing she had tamed the opposition with her whip hand.

Rajiv Gandhi, with a record 400-plus seats in the 1984 Lok Sabha, never hoped to sit in the opposition as he did in 1989. A.B. Vajpayee’s ‘India Shining’ gambit in 2004 looked totally invincible but ate dust, and Manmohan Singh returned for a surprise second term in 2009, undermining nationalist narratives of failing to challenge Pakistan on the Mumbai carnage of November 2008. Could the so-called Modi wave be different to what one keeps hearing from harassed friends?

Yes, one has studiously shunned Indian news channels in recent years because they only purvey unadulterated hate. And there haven’t been the usual visits to Delhi’s Khan Market, usurped by parvenue shoppers, a voluble base of the new crop of BJP’s urban feel-good supporters.

One wonders whether not watching TV news and not visiting Khan Market impedes the view of a saffron wave in India. It remains invisible to some, just the same. For, if indeed a surge exists, where is it to be found other than where the staged and co-opted TV cameras take us?

Some friends would say that shunning TV news is akin to the ostrich-dodging reality. A cartoonist may have come closer to the truth. “This priest looks familiar,” says a man to another, observing a bare-chested, dhoti-clad fellow running helter-skelter with a sandalwood mark on the forehead. “He’s no priest. He’s a TV anchor,” came the reply.

Where else has the Modi wave been spotted? Was it evident in the mayoral elections that even neutral observers say were rigged by the BJP last week against a joint candidature of the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress party in Chandigarh? Or was the fervour revealed in the somersault the Bihar chief minister took to court the BJP, because the opposition didn’t tap him as probable prime ministerial candidate?

There’s a risk of conflating common opportunism and desperate rigging in an innocent mayoral election as signs of a wave, silent or raging.

Was there a wave in Chhattisgarh or Rajasthan or even Madhya Pradesh for the BJP or against the Congress recently? Then how did so many opinion polls miss it? Does a difference of three per cent votes count as a wave? Let’s accept it. Changes can happen quietly, unannounced and that’s something we could discuss about the elections due in May. Which means the door for a shock verdict remains open?

Several friends — Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist — have been feeling low after watching the massively televised inauguration of the new temple to Lord Ram in Ayodhya last month. Hundreds of thousands are visiting the temple every day, notes an anxious anchor of an otherwise courageous news portal.

Liking Ram means loving Modi? The anchor would remember the times when hundreds of thousands sat religiously glued to Doordarshan’s Ramayana serial every Sunday morning in the 1980s, including in Lahore. A friend, who has earned respect in the trade union movement over decades, seemed overwhelmed by the surge in saffron flags and slogan-shouting hordes in the neighbourhood, magnified by openly right-wing TV anchors.

Was there a wave in Chhattisgarh or Rajasthan or even Madhya Pradesh for the BJP or against the Congress recently?

The 78-year-old says he is happy not to be around for too long to see the decimation of the India he loved and nurtured. Another friend of about similar age was on Facebook to announce his trauma. The malaise seems widespread, and the victims are mostly blameless even if their perception of reality is conditioned by their daily intake of toxicity whether through TV or at the club.

The housing society where Mani Shankar Aiyar’s daughter staged a fast to protest the Ayodhya event wants the family to move out. Pervasive communalism is no wave. Delhi authorities demolished a 700-year-old mosque last week. In any country that cares for architecture as heritage, the mosque would have been revered as a symbol of Hindu and Muslim artisanship.

Does the demolition signal a wave? The Babri Masjid was demolished criminally. The supreme court said so. Then, for reasons not very clear, the site of the razed mosque was handed to a religious body to build a temple on.

The prime minister of India hijacked the verdict favouring a trust. He rushed to inaugurate an incomplete temple to time with the polls, something the high priests of Hinduism have questioned. We saw Amitabh Bachchan and Mukesh Ambani in a queue of the well-heeled from Mumbai greeting the prime minister with folded hands at the Ayodhya event. A wave?

The BJP had established its rule in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and some other smaller states, by inducing defections. Now Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, says he has resisted pressure to join the BJP to evade arrest on spurious charges in what resembles raids on other opposition leaders to muster a majority.

The tribal chief minister of Jharkhand was arrested without a hearing from the supreme court in a 2009 land deal he denies any knowledge of. He, too, was under pressure to defect but promises to take the BJP head-on. Were Modi really confident of winning, the opposition demand to use ballot paper instead of the disputed EVMs would not be an issue.

The BJP holds sway in the cow belt, which can’t be taken for granted. In vote-rich Uttar Pradesh, it would struggle if Dalit leader Mayawati joins the INDIA alliance. Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh saw the BJP evicting Congress with small margins, not a wave, reason enough for Hindutva hordes to return to the mosque-temple disputes in Mathura and Varanasi.

Modi must create a wave where none exists. The opposition on its part needs to coalesce and not be chuffed over the humble-looking 37pc votes Mr Modi commands. The German opposition had misread Hitler’s 37pc.

Poll manifestos

Summary

  • The upcoming elections may be among the most rigged, potentially resulting in a weak government lacking a strong mandate.
    • Opinion polls suggest a hung assembly.
  • Manifestos of major parties like PTI, PML-N, and PPP lack strong ideas and focus more on catchy slogans and patronage.
    • However, manifestos have improved in length, presentation, and coverage compared to 2018.
  • PTI's manifesto is the longest and most comprehensive despite facing a state crackdown.
  • PML-N's manifesto is the shortest, with much focus on large Sharif photos and lacking in-depth analysis of issues.
  • All three manifestos fail to provide concrete economic strategies and lack strong economic teams.
  • The manifestos overlook significant issues like insecurity due to terrorism and societal extremism.
  • Small leftist parties offer detailed analysis of root causes of deprivation but have minimal impact due to limited resources.
  • There's concern over the potential for a weak and rigged government lacking a mandate to challenge elite-dominated systems.

Article

ELECTIONS can rejuvenate nations if they are fair, parties present strong ideas and teams to the masses competitively and the winners have a strong mandate to take the country forward. Thursday’s polls may be among our most rigged, more so after Imran Khan’s dubious convictions last week. Opinion polls suggest a hung assembly. Thus, we may have a rigged and weak new government. This leaves the issue of whether parties have strong ideas and teams.

To convince discerning voters, party manifestos must present an in-depth analysis of why people suffer on account of major issues and the best way of addressing them permanently. In the current scenario, where we face huge economic and security challenges and, with the rest of the world, the impact of climate change, there must be a special focus on these areas. I reviewed the 2024 manifestos of the PTI, PML-N and PPP on such key points. All three were issued days before the elections, reflecting the limited role ideas play in our polls as against catchy slogans and patronage flows. But all are better than their 2018 iterations in terms of length, presentation and coverage. This is especially credible for the PTI, which has the longest and most comprehensive one, despite the state crackdown it faces.

The shortest is the PML-N’s, much of it wasted on large Sharif photos. It is bereft of any in-depth analysis of the root causes of our long-term or current problems, jumping straight into sectoral promises. The PTI’s and PPP’s contain preambles that mention inequities as a root cause of our problems and reflect on our economic and security problems. As expected, the PTI’s reflects heavy religious ideology, but without linking it to concrete policies. The PPP’s reflects no ideology despite its pro-poor rhetoric, its socialist origins nixed long ago.

The PPP’s is the weakest on concrete economic ideas. It promises the sky on increasing income, social services and housing, and aims to increase investment and tax revenues for this purpose. But it hardly contains any concrete ideas on how it would do so. The other two present more meso-level concrete ideas in some economic areas. The PML-N talks rightly of merging investment, industries and commerce to create a ministry of economy, which must also include planning and IT. The PTI and PML-N both have some concrete proposals for exports, investment, industry, etc. However, they fall short of a new and coherent economic strategy that can remove the threat of default and high inflation to attain sustainable and equitable progress. All three lack strong economic teams to translate ideas into successful strategies. The PTI has lost its capacity due to the crackdown it faces, while PML-N has alienated talent by its family-centric politics.

Ideas play a limited role in the manifestos of the three main parties.

The three say little on our second biggest threat, insecurity due to terrorism by TTP and Baloch militants, or their root causes such as societal extremism and genuine Baloch complaints. The PPP talks of its Balochistan package that proved inadequate even the last time. But there is little talk by the parties on solving Baloch complaints or talking to Baloch groups or ending societal extremism. On the mother of all our problems — civilian supremacy — the PML-N has removed the mild talk of its 2018 manifesto but now PTI includes it mildly. Our Constitution needs an overhaul as many anomalies have been unearthed in it in recent years. But the three only mention limited changes. Lack of space does not let me review the other areas in their manifestos. Readers must read them to form informed views.

If the larger parties lack strong ideas, what is the alternative? The manifestos of small leftist outfits like the Awami Workers Party, National Democratic Move­ment and Haqooq-i-Khalq party provide detailed analysis of the root causes of deprivation due to inequities embedded in capitalism. But as small and new parties with limited resources, they need more time to develop concrete ideas and field large numbers of candidates who can win. So, their impact on these polls will be minimal, though I will still vote for them. Readers are encouraged to look more closely at such parties.

Thus, we may get a weak and rigged new regime that lacks strong ideas and teams and is heavily dependent on the security establishment and other elites. It will lack the strong links to or mandate from the masses to challenge elites and make fundamental changes in our elite-dominated political and economic order. So, we may go from one weak and rigged hybrid regime to another that adds to our mounting problems and kicks the can further into the future. This cannot go on forever and ultimately there may be a crash landing.

Will of the people

Summary

  • Dictators often hold disdain for politicians and question the judgment of the masses.
  • Undemocratic interventions are often justified with reasons like political and economic stability or good governance.
  • The crackdown on political parties violates constitutional rights, such as the right to form and function as a political party.
  • There have been unjust detentions ofPTI members, with no detention orders upheld as lawful.
  • The Supreme Court decision regarding PTI's election symbol undermines the electoral process and hurts voters.
  • Recent convictions before the elections raise concerns about fair trials and the weaponization of justice.
  • There is a call for people to vote despite attempts to instill fear and disenfranchise voters.

Article

IN his autobiography Friends Not Masters, Ayub Khan wrote “our people are mostly uneducated and our politicians not so scrupulous. The people are capable of doing great things, but they can also be easily misled. Unfettered democracy can, therefore, prove dangerous”. As is the case with most dictators, the field marshal held deep disdain for politicians, as well as the judgement of the masses.

This utterly misguided narrative carries on, the essence of which is that the people simply do not know what is good for them.

Historically, those interfering in the democratic process always find a justification, ie, political and economic stability, good governance, peace and order, or the ‘genius’ of the people. Every supposed ‘reason’ is a cover for undemocratic interventions, whether overt or covert.

There is no past wrong which justifies the dismantling going on today. The Constitution guarantees that every citizen shall have the right to form or be a member of a political party. The courts have held that the right to form a political party includes the right to function as a political party. In violation of these rights, across provinces, there has been a crackdown on PTI workers. Attempts have been made to disrupt the election campaign of PTI candidates. Even virtual events have been met with internet disruption.

There is no past wrong which justifies the present dismantling.

The maintenance of public order laws have been used to keep politicians in custody. In the detailed judgement setting aside various detention orders, Justice Babar Sattar observed that between May and September 2023, the “overwhelming majority” of detainees were either leaders or members of the PTI. “Of the detention orders that were challenged before Islamabad High Court, not one order has been upheld as having been passed in accordance with law,” per Justice Sattar. Not one detention order. Either the deputy commissioner would withdraw the detention order, or the court would set it aside, or the detention period would lapse.

For anyone living in Pakistan this past year, it would be no surprise that the ECP took particular interest in the PTI’s intra-party elections. The Peshawar High Court rightly restored PTI’s election symbol, and held that the ECP could not question the intra-party election process. Instead of accepting the decision of the Peshawar High Court, the ECP was so determined that it took the matter right up to the Supreme Court.

Then, in a quest to supposedly uphold democracy within political parties, the Supreme Court was seen to undermine the electoral process in the country. It found that PTI failed to hold intra-party elections, and would, therefore, lose its election symbol. The most inexplicable part of this decision was that the law does not expressly contemplate depriving a political party of its election symbol on account of intra-party elections. This decision has done nothing except hurt the ordinary voter. This was not a case about an individual or a political party, it was about the disenfranchisement of millions of voters. Weeks after this regrettable decision, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah was entirely correct in holding, “electoral laws must be interpreted in favour of enfranchisement rather than disenfranchisement”.

Mere days before the elections, convictions in one case after another are being announced. In the cipher case, Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi were denied the right to be represented by the counsel of their choice, and, instead, represented by state counsel. In the Toshakhana reference, the judge closed the right to cross-examine witnesses. At the heart of a fair trial is the right to be represented by the counsel of one’s choice, and to properly defend oneself. Hearings have been conducted well past court hours, and the great urgency with which these convictions are being announced is beyond any reasonable justification. It is clear that there has been no fair, impartial process in these cases.

The conviction in the ‘unlawful marriage’ case manifests the tragic extent of the weaponisation of justice. Unjustifiable aspersions have been cast on a woman’s character, and individuals have been forced into a courtroom to defend private decisions they made. The decision attacks the right to dignity, which the Constitution and the Supreme Court distinctly provide is an absolute right. There can be no restrictions on the right to dignity.

Those adamant on overriding the will of the people continue with their dismantling, instil fear, mock the voter, and make it seem that it is not worth one’s while to exercise their right to vote. But everyone must cast their vote on Feb 8. It is the day the people have a chance to make their voice heard, and for the future of our country, it is something we must all do.

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