A direct link between Gaza 2018 and Haryana 2024
A direct link between Gaza 2018 and Haryana 2024
Also, how Sachin Tendulkar is helping whitewash Modi's crimes in Kashmir.
The genocide is still unfolding in Gaza, and there is no ceasefire or respite in sight.
Around 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombardments since October 7.
Those who remain in Rafah, in southern Gaza, are hanging by a thread as the attacks continue and starvation looms.
Fundraisers for those who are trying to pay their way out of Gaza has become routine as the conditions become ever more surreal.
And as the days go by, India’s complicity in the genocide only seems to grow.
Recent developments
Over the weekend, the India Hate Lab group based in DC released a report in which it detailed the rise of hate crimes in India. The report found that Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza energized hate crimes in India. The report said that between October 7 – December 31, there were 41 incidents of hate speech or 20% of hate speech against Indian Muslims that mentioned the war. More on this story in Al Jazeera.
In February, it was revealed that Israel received Indian-made combat drones. The Hermes 900 drones - made in a factory in Hyderabad, India - will join Israel’s existing fleet of combat drones. The drones are made in a joint venture between Adani and Elbit Systems, Israel's largest weapons manufacturer. They will almost certainly make their way to Gaza.
It is important to note that these developments come as other countries begin moving towards a possible arms embargo on Israel. For instance, Japanese arms companies have ended their MoUs with Elbit Systems. And a Dutch high court banned the Netherlands from continuing its export of F-35 parts to Israel, given the context in Gaza. More on this story in Middle East Eye.
Workers with the Water Transport Workers Federation of India said they would not load any ships with weapons that were headed to Israel. This is important and a crucial act of solidarity by these workers who operate in 11 major ports across India. Please note: this does not mean that all potential traffic will be blocked. There are a dozen other ports in India run by Adani. Adani also owns the Haifa Port in Israel. More on this story in Middle East Eye.
Other essential reading: in Jacobin
Israeli-tactics in Haryana
While India continues to show support for Israel in the international arena, its replication of tactics in India itself only appears to be accelerating.
Earlier in February, tens of thousands of Indian farmers in Haryana & Punjab began a march to Delhi to demand minimum prices for their produce. They are also asking for the government to waive loans.
The farmers were met with extraordinary violence from police and paramilitary forces in Haryana. Indian forces in the state fired rubber bullets, iron-plated pellets (which blinded three farmers) and deployed drones to fire tear gas on the striking farmers. It became the first state in India to deploy drones in this manner.
Recalling that the first country to use drones to fire tear gas was Israel in 2018, during the Great March of Return Protests in Gaza, I decided to investigate the possible links between Haryana and Israel.
The paper trail is quite extraordinary:
The Haryana government including a delegation from the police traveled to Israel during the Great March of Return protests to learn Israeli tactics (including the use of drones) in both creating a database of protesters and as a method of “crowd control”
The Haryana government asked Israeli weapon manufacturers and cyber security firms to invest in Haryana
On their return they decided to implement the lessons learnt from Israeli police
Haryana set up the first public owned company focusing on drones in 2021
Israeli investments in Haryana are higher than other states in India
India-Israel have a tech hub in Haryana that encourages collaboration between counterparts in both countries
Haryana is now one of the states sending workers to Israel to replace Palestinian workers.
The full story is here.
Sachin Tendulkar poses with Hindu nationalist imperial map in Kashmir
Over the past several days, videos and images of Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in Kashmir have been circulating over social media and ultimately in the Indian press.
Here’s Sachin looking out at the snowcapped mountains; here is the little master playing cricket with ‘locals’ and the Indian Army in Gulmarg; here is India’s most famous cricketer visiting a para-cricketer in Kashmir and gifting him a bat; and finally - here is the God of Cricket calling Kashmir the closest place to Heaven.
It all seems like a “harmless holiday” in Kashmir.
But let’s look at the details.
First, if you’re Indian, there is no such thing as a “harmless holiday” in Kashmir.
It is inconceivable that one can extricate the Indian occupation from tourism. Indian-occupied Kashmir is the world’s most militarised zone, with approximately one armed official for every 10 or 12 civilians.
In other words, it’s seems a tad twisted to be holidaying where the population has a permanent gun to their head.
Second, in several photos, Sachin is seen wearing camouflage cargo pants.
He is dressed like a soldier and therefore locates himself as part of the army.
So even if you disagree that Indians can’t be tourists in Kashmir, here, he is literally identifying himself with the army, which is precisely my point. They are one and the same.
Third, it seems quite convenient that he would choose to go to Kashmir at this point, just a few months before the Indian general election. Maybe he finally got some time off after playing cricket for several decades, one might say.
True, it’s possible.
Or, maybe he is helping promote “normalcy” in Kashmir? Maybe he is helping depict Narendra Modi’s political project in Kashmir as a success?
"“How many of you have been exposed to vacation videos from Sachin Tendulkar in the last 25 years? The answer is none. He is supposed to be an intensely private man,” one commentator wrote on X.
“Why then, one might ask, are we getting so many from his Kashmir trip? Linked to Elections 2024 and Article 370?” the commentator added.
The comment seems quite on point.
Then there are these images, shared via a video by Sachin on Twitter.
Here’s Sachin posing with his family and the Indian armed forces with a map of Akhand Bharat, or Undivided India, in the background. This is a colonial and imperial map of the Hindu nationalist imagination that considers all of South Asia as Hindu India.
Then when you add the fact that Sachin was recently appointed as a “National Icon” by the Election Commission of India - as a figure to encourage voter participation, then the vacation becomes a lot more murky.
While its unclear if batting for Modi is part of the deal to partner with the Election Commission of India, his efforts have already been put to good use.
Here’s a BJP member of parliament using the Sachin’s presence in Kashmir to promote Modi’s success in Kashmir.
And then there’s the obvious.
Consider how Sachin over the past several years has revealed himself to be quite a coyote.
His silence and so-called neutrality on matters of social, political and economic importance is well known, but it is his actions over the past few years that has revealed him as a stooge of a raging nationalism that has gripped the country.
Here’s Sachin telling the world to steer clear from criticizing Delhi over the farmer’s protests in 2021.
Earlier this year, he accepted an invite to attend the inauguration of the Ram Temple. He described it as a “special experience” and “a historic day”.
Sachin’s “vacay” in Kashmir comes amidst an intense crackdown on journalism, civil society and human rights in the valley. As Sachin parades with the army as a “icon” of Indian democracy, police are going door to door and collecting the most private of details from Kashmiris.
Kashmir has become a Gestapo state, but you wouldn’t know it, given the boyish grins from the Little Master.
As Vaibhav Vats wrote in his terrific essay on Sachin in The Caravan in 2021:
“Before the stark fault lines of our present time, it was harder to see what appears now with increasing clarity, that Tendulkar also shares the worst traits of the Indian middle-class: its indifference to the general good, its lack of commitment to the values of human rights and democracy, and its intellectual vacuousness.”
Touchè.