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Journalism of Courage
Good morning,
Russia invades Ukraine
As a stunned world watched the Russian attack unfold in Ukraine and key US and European leaders condemned the invasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Russian President Vladimir Putin and “appealed for an immediate cessation of violence”. This is an important signal to the Western bloc which has been pressing on India to condemn the Russian action.
With Ukraine closing its airspace, the Ministry of External Affairs is sending teams “to the land borders… in Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic and Romania” to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals stranded in the country. Ukraine shares its western border with these countries, while Russia is attacking from the eastern side. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted that he had spoken to his counterparts in these four countries.
The operations in Ukraine mark a “regional conflict” and all other countries, including India, should continue to have normal relations with Moscow, Andrey A Klimov, an influential member of the upper house of the Russian Federation’s Parliament, and the head of the ruling United Russia party’s international affairs section, said. “We respect India as a sovereign state. We don’t want to involve anybody else in this conflict, it is a regional conflict,” Klimov told The Indian Express.
Hours after his country came under attack, Ukraine’s Ambassador to India, Igor Polikha, said Kyiv is “deeply dissatisfied” with India’s position on Russian aggression. While “pleading” for India’s support, he said “I don’t know how many world leaders (Russian President Vladimir) Putin may listen to but the status of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji makes me hopeful”. Referring to the large number of Indian students who study in medical colleges in Ukraine, Polikha said Indian intervention is also required for the safety of these Indian citizens.
Around 4:30 am Thursday, Animesh Kumar arrived in Kyiv to board his flight to Dubai. After a three-hour layover, he had another flight to Delhi. Finishing his security check, he stuffed his jacket into a bag at the last minute. Within minutes, he heard blasts and people around him were screaming and crying, and Kumar and the other Indian students had to run out into the extreme cold and keep going. Many Indian students stranded in Ukraine have the same story of anxiety and fear, as the escalating situation is hampering their access to basic things like food, water and money.
Must Read
With caste equations making Ayodhya a sticky wicket for the BJP, the RSS has hit the ground for the prestige contest in the town which lies at the heart of the Sangh Parivar’s Hindutva project. Apart from invoking the ongoing construction for a Ram temple, RSS workers are handing out to voters literature on the Yogi Adityanath government’s works as well as “Ram lalla’s prasad” and pouches of “raj-kan (soil)” from Ram Janmabhoomi.
With local development issues, caste equations and factionalism trumping grand national narratives, the ongoing UP Assembly polls are turning out to be an uphill battle for the BJP in some constituencies. For instance, in Gonda district’s seven Assembly constituencies, which the party had clinched in 2017, its fate seems uncertain this time around. At work is a mix of dissatisfaction, especially among Brahmins, against local strongman and BJP MP from Kaiserganj Lok Sabha constituency, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, plus Muslim vote consolidation in favour of the Samajwadi Party.
Come February 28, when 30 out of 60 constituencies of Manipur go to polls, taking on big players like the BJP and the Congress will be the little-known Kuki People Alliance (KPA), formed by two retired bureaucrats, a practising doctor and a lawyer. While it is unlikely to have much of an impact on the result, its formation is significant as it offers a political platform for the Kuki tribe,one of two major tribal groups residing in the hills of Manipur. While the Naga movement is the country’s longest-running insurgency, underground Kuki groups, too, have fought the Indian government for an ‘independent Kuki homeland’, spread across Manipur.
IIT Bombay professor Milind Sohoni writes on why lakhs of Indians go abroad to study: “There was and is a clear role for the elite central institutions, the IITs, the IISERs, JNU and others. They should look at the problems of the day, formalise them, and convert them into business models and job definitions which offer solutions that deliver value. They should then have supported local institutions and entrepreneurs in the deployment of these solutions. They have missed doing that.”
And Finally
When he first heard that Russia had invaded Ukraine, Tokyo Paralympics high jump bronze medallist Sharad Kumar feared for his long-time coach Nikitin. For Kumar, the city of Kharkiv, where explosions were heard soon after Putin’s ominous announcement, is like a second home. He trained with Nikitin for five years there, studied business management at its top institute, learnt Russian, made friends and even experienced the tension of pro-Russian unrest in the region. “I owe all my major medals to coach Nikitin and my training stint in Kharkiv,” he said.
Delhi Confidential: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who is on a five-day trip to the UAE, visited the Swami Narayan temple in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Impressed by the grandeur of the temple, Birla got a chance to meet the artisans who were involved in its construction. It was then that he realised that many of them were from his home state Rajasthan – from Bharatpur and Alwar regions.
In today’s episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast, we discuss the politics of poll-bound Manipur, right from the contentious merger agreement to the tenure of the BJP govt under CM N. Biren Singh.
Until tomorrow,
Rahel Philipose and Rounak Bagchi
