Author: cprindia

With growing tensions between India and China, which reached a critically low point with the prolonged military stand-off at Doklam in the summer of 2017, the ‘informal’ summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping held on 27-28 April, 2018, raised considerable interest. Especially since Jinping invited Modi to his hometown in China in an unprecedented manner. CPR faculty analyse the summit and the way forward in the curated media commentary below.

• Shyam Saran writes in the Scroll that the summit indicates that ‘Doklam may have triggered a rethink on India-China relations going beyond tactical compulsions.’ According to Saran, even though the summit is a response to ‘growing uncertainty in both the regional geopolitical landscape in Asia and the world’, it is only likely to provide a ‘brief breathing space’ to India, unless India builds up her economic and military abilities rapidly.
• Zorawar Daulet Singh published a series of articles and appeared in media interviews on the summit. In The Hindu, he writes that the summit is ‘a mutual recognition in both India and China that a posture of hostility has undermined their interests.’ He reiterates this in an interview for The Wire, also unpacking in detail how the geopolitical uncertainty negatively impacted both countries at different levels spurring this course correction, even though it may not mean the end of all hostilities. He also made a television appearance on CGTN America, one of the international language channels run by Chinese state broadcaster, and wrote in Hindi in Live Hindustan.
• G Parthasarathy writes in The Hindu Business Line that the Wuhan summit has come in the wake of growing international pressures on China, and India must use the opportunity to resolve border issues and secure market access, while continuing to strengthen its military preparedness.

The Narendra Modi government recently delivered the 2019 interim budget. As the last budget before the Lok Sabha elections, it included various pre-poll promises and big announcements such as a pension programme for workers, an income support scheme for farmers and tax rebate for middle class taxpayers. While the budget was criticised for being populist, it is also necessary to examine how it impacts key areas of concern such as health, unemployment, and education, especially in a post-demonetisation and GST economy. In this curated media commentary below, CPR faculty analyse the 2019 Interim Budget.

• Yamini Aiyar comments in the ‘Hindustan Times ’ on the politics of the interim budget 2019 and the long term implications of the shift towards income transfers as a model for welfare.
• Avani Kapur of the Accountability Initiative  at CPR writes in ‘IndiaSpend ’ that a look at the government’s financial commitments to the social sector suggests that ‘it still has no clear idea on how to realise its vision.’ Kapur compares allocations for flagship welfare schemes between 2018-19 and the latest interim budget and finds that rural development, health and maternal welfare schemes have been underfunded. She further reiterates this in ‘Deccan Herald ’ highlighting that ‘the Budget speech also made no mention of education.’ Kapur writes in ‘ThePrint ’ that despite a focus on rural development, allocations in this area saw a marginal increase. She also appeared on an interview with ‘The Wire ’ discussing the health budget and how Ayushman Bharat got a silent boost.
• Kiran Bhatty writes in ‘The Wire ’ about how how critical areas of education and unemployment were left out of the interim budget. She highlights how the vision of the government ‘systematically excludes the poorest and most marginalised and avoids confronting one of the biggest crisis in the economy: that of employment and the employability (and education) of the youth.’

The Upper and Lower Houses of the Indian Parliament recently passed the The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). The Bill seeks to fast track citizenship for persons belonging to specified minority communities, namely Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians from a specified list of neighbours – Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The passing of the Bill led to protests across the country, particularly in the northeast. In this curated media commentary below, scholars at CPR unpack the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), examine reasons behind why it is being met by such opposition and shed light on what the Act means for notions of citizenship and who is an ‘Indian’.

• Assam, Northeast India and the ‘unfinished business’ of Partition by Sanjib Baruah

Sanjib Baruah writes in Frontline about how the CAB marks a historic departure from India’s long-standing disavowal of the Two Nation Theory – the narrative behind the creation of Pakistan. Baruah highlights that the CAB radically changes the meaning of Indian citizenship and introduces a distinction between Hindu and Muslim immigrants crossing Partition borders.

• Could CAB Trauma Have Been Avoided Through Sustained Dialogue? by Sanjoy Hazarika

Sanjoy Hazarika writes in The Quint about how the CAB’s ad hoc approach ignores complexities, calling for introspection, immense patience and dialogue. Hazarika underscores that the Bill ‘scraps’ the 1985 Assam Accord, an agreement that brought an end to a six-year agitation, which had taken thousands of lives, disrupted the economy, and toppled several state governments.

• CAB’s Can Of Worms Has Left Even Hindus Unsure Of Their Future by Sanjoy Hazarika

Sanjoy Hazarika writes in Outlook India about why Assam and adjoining states in the northeast have erupted in protest against the CAB. Hazarika points that much anger was simmering after the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam turned up an ‘excluded list’ of 1.9 million (majority of whom were Hindu and remain unsure of their future). The CAB appeared to be dismissive of Assam’s concerns with several fearing that granting citizenship to people who have come illegally over the decades from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan could change the state’s demography. Hazarika questions the possibility of the CAB triggering violence against minority groups in other countries whom India seeks to protect, highlighting that ‘asserting the trinity of liberty, equality and inclusivity could help even at this very late hour’.

• Assam and the CAB: Go beyond damage control, listen to the people by Sanjoy Hazarika

Sanjoy Hazarika writes in CNBCTV18 analysing the situation in Assam. He points that while the CAB and NRC are different exercises and will be rolled out that way in other parts of the country – the same isn’t true for Assam or other northeastern states. Hazarika writes that ‘the doors to dialogue must be kept open and those opposing the government and its plans must do so peacefully, constitutionally and democratically’.

• BJP’s hegemony and party structure spark concerns. But its power is fragile by Neelanjan Sircar

Neelanjan Sircar writes in Hindustan Times about the similarities between today’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress under Indira Gandhi in the 60s and 70s. Sircar highlights that while the BJP looks like it will be in control for the foreseeable future, politics can change in a moment’s time, with one rarely seeing the downfall coming. He writes, ‘when people are angry and frustrated enough, no amount of social control can hem them in’.

• In defence of Indian secularism by Yamini Aiyar

Yamini Aiyar writes in Hindustan Times about how India is weakened when secularism is threatened, threatening the country’s multiple identities. She writes, ‘the real challenge that protests and resistance to the CAA and NRC face today is that they are bereft of a vocabulary to defend secularism’s cause even though it is the threat to secularism that sparked these protests’. Aiyar stresses on the urgent need for India to wrest and reclaim secularism, anchoring it in a new vocabulary that redeems its credibility.

• The citizenship bill must be opposed by Yamini Aiyar

In October 2019, Yamini Aiyar wrote in Hindustan Times about how given the import of the CAB, real resistance to the Bill necessitates a robust defence of secularism. She highlights that the failure of the Opposition to mobilise political resistance to the CAB is worrying, and has pushed secularism to the margins of our polity.

• Protesters’ fears about CAA founded on history, accumulated experience by Sanjib Baruah

Sanjib Baruah writes in Indian Express about the experiences of other countries that had, in the past, adopted an ideology-driven refugee policy. Baruah however laments that ‘our country’s current snap, uninformed, and policy-illiterate style of law-making does not allow for learning from the experience of others’. He states that those protesting against the law have just fears founded on history and past accumulated experience.

• How Democratic Processes Damage Citizenship Rights by Shylashri Shankar

Shylashri Shankar writes in Open, The Magazine how the CAA-NRC combine inflicts a deep wound on the Constitution’s fabric. She illustrates how the threat of these moves could play out by creating a fear psychosis among document-less Muslim citizens of India about their citizenship rights and about their ability to remain in their religion.

• Pak can leverage India’s citizenship move by G Parthasarathy

G Parthasarathy writes in The Hindu Business Line about how Pakistan can use the CAA to run down India in neighbouring Islamic countries and across its Indian Ocean neighbourhood. He highlights the need to acknowledge the adverse criticism from the media, think tanks and civil society organisations from across the world on developments in India, cautioning that ‘we should not take all criticism abroad as being deliberately, or maliciously, hostile’. He further stresses on the importance of ensuring that the population along the north-eastern borders are at peace with themselves and the rest of the country.

Citizenship (Amendment) Act: Some facts vs Mythbusters by Sanjoy Hazarika

Sanjoy Hazarika writes in The Economic Times about how answers given in government statements regarding the CAA have only muddled waters. While the government’s effort at reaching out those opposing the legislation is important, Hazarika writes, ‘this should have been done much earlier, when the build-up of support and opposition to the Act was clear’.

• [WATCH]: The Big Picture | Why is the Northeast angry? featuring Sanjoy Hazarika

In an episode of The Big Picture by Hindustan Times, Sanjoy Hazarika highlights reasons behind why the CAA has been met with sharp resentment in the northeast.

• [WATCH]: Government Clampdown on Protests: Intolerance of Dissent? featuring Yamini Aiyar

In an episode of The Big Fight by NDTV, Yamini Aiyar analyses the goverment’s reaction to the protests against the CAA and NRC. She highlights that the state as an entity has always had a monopoly over violence but India holds on to its democracy very closely and dearly, and hence whenever the state pushes the envelope and uses violence, people come out on the street to protect their rights. Aiyar says that this is a testament to both democracy and to the insecurity of the state. She further cautions that playing with the secular core of the country will result in deep division.

• [INTERVIEW]: ‘The core problem, the core challenge is in Assam’ featuring Sanjoy Hazarika

In an interview with Rediff.com, Sanjoy Hazarika sheds light on the fears of the northeast with respect to the CAA. Hazarika says, ‘the reaction to CAA is the resentment of people that they really have not been consulted on this, that their concerns have not been taken into consideration’. He further says that the government must never close the door on dialogue.

• The assertion of Indian federalism gives hope by Yamini Aiyar

Yamini Aiyar writes in Hindustan Times several states are opposing the CAA, thus taking a stand against the BJP’s majoritarian push. She calls the protests against the CAA-NRC combine ‘a reclamation of India’s pluralism’ and highlights that ‘it is through this reclamation that India’s federal aspiration is witnessing a resurgence.’ Aiyar however cautions that these early signs of resurgence must be viewed with cautious optimism. She analyses that the BJP is likely to harden its ideological stance and deepen its centralising instincts in the fiscal and administrative arena, leaving states with little room for manoeuvre, given the resistance it is facing. Further, ‘states will have to take a principled stance against the BJP’s attempts to consolidate majoritarian identity, and articulate a convincing ideological alternative anchored in federalism and secularism even as it risks vote banks.’

• An (Un)Enlightened Sadhguru in King Modi’s Court by Rajshree Chandra

Rajshree Chandra writes in The Wire about Jaggi Vasudev Sadhguru’s defence of the CAA-NRC combine. She highlights that his speech contained several untruths and writes ‘he missed facts, history and law, and he missed their connections. But above all he missed what he beseeches us all to have – compassion.’ Chandra goes on to explain why the CAA and the NRC are discriminatory and highlights, ‘for someone who understands the law so insufficiently, Sadhguru really treads where angels fear to tread.’

• Fragmented Identities: (Re)living the ‘Partition’ Today by Asaf Ali Lone

Asaf Ali Lone writes in The Wire, examining the CAA-NRC combine through the lens of urbanisation, highlighting the intersection between identity, spaces, religion and politics. He writes, ‘the processes of ‘partition’ are witnessed in the everyday life of the ordinary Muslim resident of the city when a building, street, language, ritual or attire becomes associated exclusively with Muslim identity’. Lone highlights how the CAA and the NRC represent the lethal move to make India a Hindu rashtra, by weeding out Muslims. He further writes, that much depends on the ‘Hindu’ majority – whether it will say yes to a majoritarian consensus or not as the state cannot rule without it.

• India belongs to all by Shyam Saran

Shyam Saran writes in The Tribune about how the constitutional benchmarks India had set for itself are being questioned, derided and violated. He highlights that the CAA ‘announces an imagining of India starkly different from what the Constitution envisioned.’ Saran writes that ‘the alternative imagining of India is a country that privileges the adherents of the Hindu faith. It is based on the as yet untested assumption that an overarching Hindu identity, ranging across sectarian, caste, regional and linguistic differences can be constructed on a Hindu-Muslim binary.’ He highlights that government action must imbibe the spirit of the Indian Constitution, in the same spirit as the government’s slogan of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’.

• The cost of the protests — for the BJP, and the State by Neelanjan Sircar

Neelanjan Sircar writes in Hindustan Times how the protests against the CAA-NRC combine have crossed a threshold and acquired a mass character, which will lead to an  economic impact, raising problems for the BJP. He highlights how Internet shutdowns and curfews cripple basic economic activities. Additionally, the costs of stationing police, paramilitary and military forces are very high. Sircar also points to the indirect costs that are more severe, which include a decrease in investments due to an unfavourable sentiment. He writes, ‘the ruling dispensation will need to start negotiating with its citizens, rather than ramming through big bang reforms, backed by repression.’

• Should look Indian, too by Shyam Saran

Shyam Saran writes in The Tribune about the incident in the Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh, where an official demanded ‘citizenship certificates’ of two young applicants as he thought they ‘looked Nepali’ and hence may not be Indian citizens. He observes that the citizenship prerequisite is being taken to an absurd level. Saran highlights that the State, in a democracy, has no right to make its citizens abject supplicants for what is their inherent right and thus cannot, in effect, put in place a system which in its practice puts the burden of proving citizenship on the citizen himself. He calls this an abdication of responsibility by the State. Saran calls for a genuine dialogue between the government and political parties, civil society, students and other segments of society to understand the widespread concerns that the recent legislation.

• CAA-led narrative on religious persecution ignores political specificity, nuance in neighbourhood by Sanjib Baruah

Sanjib Baruah writes in Indian Express about how ‘India’s new official narrative is, at complete variance with the understanding that has informed Indian foreign policy so far.’ He questions why India even bothered to intervene in the war of liberation if Hindus were equally persecuted in East Pakistan/Bangladesh both before and after it broke away from Pakistan. Baruah highlights that is not surprising that people in all three CAA-covered countries — including leaders of minority organisations — reject the new Indian narrative.

• Indians are reclaiming, and redefining, the idea of secularism by Yamini Aiyar

Yamini Aiyar writes in Hindustan Times about how through the protests against the CAA, secularism has found its way back into the public discourse as a constitutional value worth fighting for. She illustrates how ordinary individuals are finding ways to articulate what secularism means to them, on Delhi’s streets, giving the word a more robust meaning, one that has deep roots in everyday Indian life. Aiyar questions whether this spontaneous, protest-led reclamation of secularism holds the possibility of translating into a new politics, in the long term, especially given the failure of the Opposition to generate a new discourse around secularism and democracy. She writes, ‘what we are witnessing today is democracy in its truest sense. It may not disrupt the status quo immediately, but it holds the promise of a better future.’

• Love and Resistance in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh by Sharonee Dasgupta and Fathima M

Sharonee Dasgupta and Fathima M write in The Daily Star, an account of their visit to Shaheen Bagh, a place that has become synonymous with resistance against the CAA-NRC combine.They write, ‘the most striking feature is perhaps the peaceful nature of the protests. Women there are well-informed about what they want and they stick to it. Their fight is with the ideology of fascism, not with individuals.’ Dasgupta and Fathima highlight how Shaheen Bagh will be remembered for its strength, tolerance and the subversion of stereotypes associated with minorities. Calling their trip educational and an eye-opening experience, they point out that it was a fierce reminder of the tenets of our constitution and the strength of our womenfolk.

The final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam was published in August this year. The objective of the list was to identify illegal immigrants in the state. On publication, it was discovered that nearly 2 million people have been excluded from the list, thus making them vulnerable to the threat of statelessness.

Scholars at CPR have closely followed the NRC exercise and analysed its implications. In July 2018, Honorary Research Professor, Sanjoy Hazarika, wrote in Economic & Political Weekly, about defining citizenship in Assam. He points that the publication of the NRC is unlikely to resolve the controversy over illegal immigration from Bangladesh, which spans over four decades. His article can be read here.

In the curated analysis below, CPR scholars unpack the implications of this exercise, raising critical questions about citizenship, rights and the role of bureaucracy:

• Remaking the idea of an Indian citizen by Yamini Aiyar

Yamini Aiyar writes in Hindustan Times about how the NRC has brought to light the challenges to the ‘construction of citizenship in contemporary India.’ Aiyar highlights that the NRC ‘is illustrative of the ways in which the politics of religion has increasingly begun to intersect with institutional processes to shape understandings of who is a ‘legal’ citizen.’ She states that the flawed NRC process has provided the political fuel to push the demand for The Citizenship Amendment Bill, a bill that can have dangerous consequences as it fundamentally remakes citizenship in India.

• How NRC is legitimising exclusion by Yamini Aiyar

In August 2018, Yamini Aiyar wrote in Hindustan Times about how the State’s excessive reliance on papers and documents for proving citizenship has become an instrument of state coercion and politically driven exclusion. Aiyar highlights how a combination of bureaucratic failure and vulnerability to corruption, made the NRC exercise arbitrary and disempowering.

• [WATCH]: National Register of Citizens: What it means for India | The Big Picture

Yamini Aiyar also appeared on an episode of Hindustan Times’ The Big Picture to discuss the various facets of the NRC exercise, including questions about the idea of Indian citizenship, politics of religion, judicial intervention and bureaucratic capacity.

• A more precarious citizenship by Sanjib Baruah

Sanjib Baruah writes in The Indian Express about how ‘defining hundreds and thousands of people living in the country as non-citizens will create a new form of precarious citizenship — people with fewer rights and entitlements.’ Baruah highlights that while India is unlikely to deport those who fail the NRC test, creation of such a citizenship is ‘uncharted and potentially dangerous territory for a democracy.’

• In Assam, basic dignity at stake by Sanjoy Hazarika

Sanjoy Hazarika writes in The Hindu about concerns over how the State government plans to solve the issue of stateless citizens after the NRC exercise. He questions if there is a detailed process in place while such individuals apply to tribunals and courts for relief, and how the government will deal with those who are declared non-citizens, especially if Bangladesh refuses to take them. Hazarika highlights that the basic dignity of the weak, voiceless and vulnerable is at stake, pointing out that ‘many of those who are off the list are poor, cannot afford lawyers and may not even know of their right to legal aid.’

• Untangling the knot of citizenship by Sanjoy Hazarika

In July 2018, Sanjoy Hazarika wrote in The Tribune about the implications of the NRC exercise post the publication of the second draft list. Hazarika highlights that ‘the Centre and the state have become unnerved by the specter of looming statelessness that they have neither the skills, understanding or will to deal with.’

• India’s citizenship question and the never-ending Assam imbroglio by Sanjoy Hazarika

Sanjoy Hazarika writes in Al Jazeera about how the campaign to update the NRC has upset everyone, including its proponents. He sheds light on the challenges that those who will have to seek legal recourse due to exclusion from the list will face, highlighting, ‘this is a thankless and frightening prospect of prolonged litigation for even the well-to-do, which a large number of those off the NRC are not. How will they sustain their lives and families, not just the litigation?’

On the request of the Udaipur district administration, the Accountability Initiative at the Centre for Policy Research undertook a sample survey of recently declared and verified Open Defecation Free (ODF) Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the district, in 2017. The study found significant gaps in the processes involved in achieving ODF, and resultantly found less than 100% toilet coverage and even lower usage, bringing into question the veracity of the ODF status.

While there have been a number of recent studies seeking to understand the status of sanitation in India, relatively fewer studies attempt to examine the processes involved in declaring villages or GPs as ODF. This study aimed at filling this lacuna by undertaking a detailed process evaluation of the recent sanitation efforts in Udaipur.

The study was conducted in a limited setting, and was designed to be representative only of the ODF GPs in Udaipur. However, the structural and systemic infirmities in the bureaucratic apparatus are not unique only to Udaipur administration. With Rs 30,973 crores allocated to rural sanitation by Government of India and over 4 lakh villages having been declared ODF, these findings therefore assume a national significance, especially as the Swachh Bharat Mission Period draws to a close. At the very least, it evidences the need to conduct similar assessments in other parts of the country, which have seen rapid ODF declarations since 2014.

The full case study can be accessed here.

People facing/likely to face the negative impacts of land use change may not communicate their grievances immediately. When these impacts are communicated to the project entity or the media or the government and collective action is taken towards addressing the impacts, they become cases of conflicts. The strategies that communities deploy during the course of a conflict could range from a single one-time action for a single remedy to engaging with multiple strategies for one or different remedies.  For instance, an affected community may choose to go to court to seek directions for increasing compensations or addressing pollution harms. Another group of affected people may approach one government agency for addressing water contamination and/or take to the streets to resist additional acquisition of land and/or engage the media to create awareness about the loss of livelihoods. These can take place all at the same time or at different stages of the conflict and the project. Below is a tabular synthesis of key strategies used in the 75 cases of conflicts, as reported in the media, analysed for each of the study countries- India, Indonesia and Myanmar.

* T: Total number of cases in which a particular remedy has been used; S: Used singly; C: Used in combination

The above analysis makes it clear that most often communities deploy multiple strategies. Presented below are examples of how these strategies have been used in the three countries. The examples demonstrate that there are only a few instances when a strategy can be linked with a clear success. Most often they stop short at certain interim outcomes such as an inquiry or an investigation or they start to head towards a specific outcome only to be turned around at a later stage.

Protests

India: The proposed amendments to the new 2013 Land Acquisition Act in December 2014 led to a nationwide farmers’ protest in India. In August 2015, in light of protests and ahead of the Bihar state elections, the government of India held back the proposed amendments and referred the matter to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).

Myanmar: In Shan State in 2016, 100 farmers from Ye Pu village in Taunggyi planted on 2,000 acres of confiscated land. Between 2010 and 2015, despite the land being confiscated the farmers were allowed to plant on the land on a payment of 10,000 Kyats per acre. In May 2016, the farmers were asked to sign documents transferring the land to the army. These 100 farmers didn’t sign the document and continued planting. The army filed a lawsuit against them for trespassing.

Litigation

Indonesia: Responding to a civil suit, the Bandung administrative court decided in April 2017 that expansion plans for the Cirebon coal-fired power plant in West Java were in violation of the local spatial planning law. The court ordered the project’s environmental license to be revoked.

India: A case against the Parsa East Ketan Besan (PEKB) coal mine was filed before the National Green Tribunal, the special court for environmental cases, and a judgment suspending the forest diversion approval was given. This was challenged by the operating company before the Supreme Court, where the court allowed mining to continue even as the environment ministry was to review its recommendation. The matter has been subjudice since 2014.

Administrative complaints and appeals

Indonesia: In the case of BNJM coalmine in East Barito in Central Kalimantan, the local environment agency on request from communities, collected samples from the river being polluted by the mine refuse. However, this was done after the community of Lalap and Bentont villages had filed multiple complaints with photographs and media reports on the siltation of the river. In this case, strong evidence of the violation of environment laws helped in getting the government to take action.

India: In the case of the proposal to construct the Tadadi port in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, local villagers and environmentalists primarily engaged with the District Collector and the regulatory institutions to influence the decision on whether the port should be granted approval. Although the environment ministry’s expert committee recommended approval in December 2016, the project had not been issued a formal clearance letter and has not initiated construction activity.

International Redress

Myanmar: Thilawa is one of the few projects from the delta region in which international redress has been tried. The Thilawa Social Development Group (TSDG) contacted the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) seeking rehabilitation and relocation facilities as per its guidelines. In response, JICA increased the compensation and improved facilities at the relocation site. Although the relocation site still falls short on many of JICA’s own prescriptions, the efforts resulted in certain corrections.

Indonesia: An example of seeking international redress is the case of Batang Thermal Power Plant. In December 2016, the community approached the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the key financer with a petition against the plant. In response, the JBIC visited the site and met with the community but claimed that there was no evidence supporting people’s complaints.

Media campaigns/reporting

Indonesia: Media reporting has always been seen in combination with more than one strategy. Because of constant media scrutiny of Batang Thermal Power Plant and Jakarta Bay Reclamation Project along with the protests against the two, the work on the projects has been slow.

India: This has been an important strategy for affected people, especially when they are working with national and international NGOs and researchers. Two prominent examples of this are visible in the strategies used to address conflicts in the Vedanta bauxite mine in Niyamgiri, Odisha and the actions against setting up of the coal mine in Mahan, Madhya Pradesh. Local struggles were supported by national and international media reporting and public campaigns seeking support against setting up of these projects.

Myanmar: Both the local and international media have kept the issue of land confiscations alive. Big cases such as the Letpadaung mine and Myitsone dam and campaigns against the thermal power projects have been on the radar of the media. Media has been key in influencing certain court cases as well.

While these are only a few strategies, affected communities combine these with several other strategies. Political advocacy, participation in administrative procedure such as public hearings, approaching the project owner, are other ways to seek redress. The study, Understanding Land Conversion, Social Impacts and Legal Remedies in Asia, through the country reports, provides an extensive account of how and when each of the strategies has been used. Through the case studies it tries to explore the question of why certain strategies are chosen and how factors such as stage of the conflict, desired remedies, communities’ capacity and agency and political and policy developments influence this choice.

This is the second blog based on the study carried out by the CPR-Namati Environmental Justice Program, and supported by a grant from IDRC, Canada.

The other pieces in the series can be accessed below:

• Understanding the Impacts of Land Use Change
• Understanding the Outcomes and Remedies sought for impacts of Land Use Change
• Detailed Studies of cases of Land Use Change Conflicts: Part I
• Detailed Studies of cases of Land Use Change Conflicts: Part II

The current government’s steady push on digitising governance follows decades of such interventions. A new Accountability India series chronicles the experiences of former senior bureaucrat TR Raghunanandan on what it has taken to implement a system-wide change, and where the gaps have been.

• In ‘Wither, e-Governance’, Raghunanandan asks the crucial question of whether innovations in e-Governance will indeed make the government more responsive and accountable to the people.
• In the second part of the series, he talks about the introduction of desktop computers in government offices and how the transition began with only some officials understanding the full potential of this new technology in increasing efficiency. In ‘Spreading Spreadsheets’, he goes on to recount the value of spreadsheets in removing red tape and easy access to data. Yet, nearly three decades later, the large majority of people in the government have not taken to such innovative tools.
• In ‘MISRA – and the era of cute acronyms’, Raghunanandan recounts his experience of reforming land records in Karnataka using MISRA, an interface he and his team created. At the time, reporting protocols of land administration had begun to fail. Less attention paid to the daily tasks of land record maintenance, coupled with staff shortages and the expansion of welfare responsibilities, was beginning to weaken the land records system. The resultant confusion and uncertainties about land ownership had the potential to derail the entire economic base for the rural economy. As a solution, Raghunandan and team established a computer-aided system that would completely replace the manual system that was in place.
• In another experience, he discusses his stint with the tobacco board and how the computer operator was key to the integrity of the system which set quotas and imposed upper limits on what a farmer could sell. It took very little time for computer operators to hack the software. Then, for a price, farmers who exceeded quotas would be able to sell their extra tobacco.
• Thus, while establishing good e-Governance infrastructure is essential, the human capital that goes in maintenance and implementation cannot be overlooked. As Raghunanandan points out in his next blog ‘’Grasp’ing the Zilla Parishad’, the champions of e-Governance move on even before the systems they develop are entrenched in government processes.
• He closes the series with a thought provoking look on the dichotomy in the government’s enthusiasm for e-Governance in ‘Attitudes that block e-governance’. He asks if the government is a lot more cautious when it comes to transparent service delivery while this is not the case when making transactions from the citizens to government (such as tax paying) easier.