22 NEWS Talking points
THE WEEK 10 August 2019It was clear last weekend
that “something
extraordinary” was
about to happen, said
Catherine Philp in The
Times.An “unprece-
dented lockdown”had
put Indian-administered
Jammu and Kashmir’s 12
million residents on notice:
as thousands of troops
moved in, tourists and
pilgrims were “abruptly
evacuated”, schools
closed, meetings banned and phone and internet
services cut. Only on Monday did it become
obvious just how extraordinary the unfurling
events in the troubled Himalayan region would
prove to be, said Adam Withnall in The
Independent. The security crackdown was
merely the preamble to the yet more “dramatic”
announcement that India’s ruling party, the BJP,
plans to revoke Article 370, the crucial law
which for decades has guaranteed “special
constitutional status” to the Hindu-dominated
country’s only Muslim-majority state.The revocation of Article 370 represents a
“major tipping point” for one of the world’s
most highly militarised areas, said Michael
Kugelman in Foreign Policy. Dispute over
control of the divided state of Kashmir dates
back more than 70 years to when India and
Pakistan became free from British rule; in the
1990s and 2000s, conflict between the two
countries over the region resulted in morethan 41,000 deaths, and
it remains the primary
source of tension between
the neighbouring nuclear
powers to this day. Since
1949, however, Article
370 has ensured at least
that the part of Kashmir
administered by India
was able to maintain its
autonomy on all matters
apart from foreign affairs,
defence and national
security–effectively
guaranteeing its distinctive Muslim character by
preventing outsiders from buying property, and
by reserving government jobs and university
places for local families.This early-term move by India’s newly re-elected
prime minister, Narendra Modi, will certainly
burnish his reputation asa“populist
strongman”, said Ben Farmer in The Daily
Telegraph–the Hindu nationalists who make
up the bulk of his support have long argued
that Kashmir’s special status has held back its
development. But at what cost was this decision
made, asked The New York Times. Coming just
months afterasuicide bomber killed more than
40 Indian paramilitaries in Kashmir, the BJP’s
“incendiary” actions in encouraging an influx
of Hindus to the region can only further
inflame tensions. With bloodshed “all but
certain”, it is now up to the rest of the world to
urgently prevent “India’s folly” from escalating
into a“perilous and unpredictable” crisis.Pick of the week’sGossipKashmir: India turns the screw“Onlyafew years ago London and Dublin
were congratulating each other on forginganew
golden age in Anglo-Irish relations,” said The
Economist. “Brexit has put paid to that.”
Following his appointment as Prime Minster,
it took Boris Johnson almostaweek to place a
call to his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar. And
when the two men did finally talk, it was clear
that there was no meeting of minds. Johnson
insisted that the Irish backstop–the default
provision, agreed by Theresa May, that would
keep the UK inside the EU customs union until
alternative means of avoidingahard border in
Ireland were agreed–had to go. Varadkar, for
his part, was equally adamant that the backstop
had to stay.The Government and the Tory press would have
you believe that the looming no-deal exit on 31
October is “all Dublin’s fault”, said Ben Kelly in
The Independent. If only Varadkar were not so
stubborn about the backstop, they cry, we could
reachadeal. But Varadkar is not being
unreasonable in wanting to protect the open
Irish border. The backstop is “a unique solution
to aunique problem, and there is no other way
of solving the complexities that Brexit throws
up”. Johnson and his team don’t appreciate
how fragile the Irish peace process still is, said
Dearbhail McDonald in The Guardian. They’rerecklessly endangering it in their blind pursuit of
Brexit. David Yelland, the former editor of The
Sun, revealed last week that he was shocked
when, at two recent dinners, “Tories of
influence” told him that Varadkar “isn’t bright”
and that “the Irish will blink”. Their views, he
said, were “anti-Irish” and “dangerous”.Dublin hasn’t been that friendly itself, said
Eoghan Harris in The Irish Independent.
Varadkar’s “media cheerleaders” have been
indulging in plenty of “Brit-bashing” while
protecting his backstop from scrutiny. When
ano-deal Brexit happens in October, how will
these people justify the “monstrous mendacity”
they’ve peddled to the Irish people: “that the
backstop would preventahard border, when
clearly it is going to cause one”. We could have
saved ourselvesalot of bother by “accepting the
British pledge not to put up physical structures
and persuading the EU to let us bin the backstop
so that the British could leave with goodwill”.
Varadkar’s predecessor as Taoiseach, Enda
Kenny, took “a notably more pragmatic
approach” to the border issue, said Jenny
McCartney in The Sunday Times. But London
has exacerbated tensions by failing to show
more sensitivity to Irish concerns. Both sides
now need to accept that they are in this together,
and “give pragmatism another go”.The Irish border: who will blink first?Protesters in Pakistan burning posters of ModiOliver StoneaskedVladimir
Putinto be his daughter’s
godfather, according to a
transcript ofaconversation
released last month. The
film director was interview-
ing the Russian president
when Putin mentioned the
Russian Orthodox tradition
that you can’t refuse a
request to beagodparent.
Stone responded by asking
him to take on the role for
his 22-year-old daughter.
“Does she want to become
an Orthodox Christian?”
Putin asked, to which Stone
replied, “We’ll make her
that.” The conversation then
moved on to “homosexual
propaganda”.“By the time we got to
Woodstock, we were half a
million strong,” sangJoni
Mitchell(pictured) in one
of her most famous songs –
but she didn’t actually show
up at the festival. She was
waiting for her flight at
LaGuardia airport when
her managerDavid Geffen
readanewspaper headline
–“40,000 People Sitting in
Mud”–and decided to
cancel. “I thought, ‘No way
amIgoing to Woodstock!’
–and Joni andIwent back
and watched it on television.
She wrote the song in my
apartment on 59th Street.”In 2009,Griff Rhys Jones
was onayacht in the
Galápagos Islands when
it caught fire. “We jumped
into the water and swam
forabuoy, which we hung
onto, apparently surrounded
by hammerhead sharks,” he
told the Daily Mail. “Some
people were very stoic,
some emotional–but I
got quite cross.” Why?
“BecauseIwas in the
middle of shark-infested
waters andIdidn’t have a
television crew with me!”