Outlook – July 20, 2019

A THICKENING MEDIA QUARANTINE

T

HE first term of the Modi government

was about systematic media isolation. The

second promises to be no different. The signs

emerge from the finance ministry of Nirmala

Sitharaman. Journalists were informed polite­

ly that the customary two­month quarantine

clamped on North Block preceding the pres­

entation of the Budget has not been vacated

yet. Prior appointment is mandatory even for

journalists accredited by the Press Informa­

tion Bureau. Speculation swirled that other

ministries are expected to replicate the

media quarantine. This surprises many jour­

nalists, because a fawning media toeing the

government line has been a mark of our times.

A

200­year­old love

poem has riled up

the education ministry of

Myanmar. But it’s not the

depiction of romance that’s

bothersome; it’s the allu­

sions to smoking. Present

of a Cheroot, a poem in

the Class­8 curriculum,

is about a woman

making cheroots

for her faraway

lover. The

government

feared that the passion­

sufffused verses would

encourage impressionable

children to smoke.Tobacco

use leads to an estimat­

ed 65,000 deaths a year.

Regardless, the decision

caused an uproar.

A startled govern­

ment rel ented

and added the

poem to the

Class­10 curri­

culum instead.

A

letter from a 32­year­

old woman has put

the Indian Railways in a

fix. She asked for family

pension after the death of

her father, a retired official,

in 2017. The pro blem? She

underwent a sex­change

operation years ago.

While sons over of 25 are

not eligible for pension,

unmarried or divorced

dependent daughters are

after the death of the emp­

loyee’s wife. The woman

said she was “living the life

of a woman” even before

her father passed away and

was an unmarried depend­

ent daughter. The request

has no precedent; not

quite sure how to respond

to, has passed on the letter

to the central government.

M

USLIMS had been the target of attack from sections

in Europe since 2015. As large numbers of refugees

from North Africa and West Asia arrived in the continent,

there had been a related rise in Islamophobia. But a new

EU report now reveals that Jews have also been at the

receiving end of a wave of anti-semitism in recent years.

Anti-semitism has been an inherent part of European

hist ory; in the 20th century it led to the Holocaust and death

of around six million innocent Jews. But as the European

nations rose from the ashes of World War II, it seemed that

Europeans had been able to successfully bury their past.

However, the adverse effect of globalisation that led to a

socio-economic crisis in many countries in the West had also

opened up new fissures, bringing anti-semitism to the fore.

According to a new report issued by the European Union,

nearly half of young Jewish Europeans have considered

moving away from their home

countries out of fear for their

safety amid a rise in anti-semitic

incidents on the continent.

The report found that 80 per

cent of the people surveyed con-

sider anti-semitism to be a prob-

lem in their countries and almost

half had experienced at least one

incident in the preceding year.

The report, compiled by the

Institute for Jewish Policy Res-

earch, was based on a survey of

more than 2,700 Jewish Europe-

ans between the ages of 16 and

34 living in 12 European Union member states.

The report said young Jewish Europeans perceive the

frequency of these incidents to be increasing.

“Many see anti-semitism in the media, in political life

and on the street, and almost all see it online and on social

media—it is in these contexts that most consider it to be

an existing and growing problem,” the report reads.

The Washington Post says western Europe in particular

has grappled with a number of high-profile incidents of

anti-semitism recently. Vandals painted swastikas on nearly

100 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in France in February.

British police launched a probe into anti-semitic speech

among some members of the Labour Party in May. And a

government minister in Germany warned Jewish men not to

wear the traditional kippah cap in public amid a spike in hate

crimes. Around one million Jewish people live in Europe.

Michael O’Flaherty, director of the European Union Agency

for Fundamental Rights, says: “These findings make for grim

reading. We must fight anti-semitism more effectively by

tackling it at its roots, no matter how difficult that is.”

An Old European Malady

According to a

EU report,

half of young

Jewish

Europeans are

thinking of

emigrating

amidst an

alarming rise

in anti-semitic

incidents.

THE RAILWAYS’ SEX-Y DILEMMA

LOVE THAT SMELLS OF SMOKE

22 July 2019 OUTLOOK 9