The Wire Talks

There are established procedures to identify and return undocumented migrants from one country to another. It has to be done keeping in mind their dignity, says Vivek Katju, a former Indian diplomat, in this podcast interview with Sidharth Bhatia.    He emphasised twice that he was “disappointed in Jaishankar’s statement” in Parliament explaining the manner in which the migrants were sent was according to American procedures. India too has a Standard Operating Procedure in taking back its nationals once they are identified. Jaishankar talked about the American SOPs, “why did he not talk about Indian ones?”   Katju says the restraints on them were not necessary and generally “military aircraft was not used, they are very uncomfortable”.   Modi is visiting the US at a time when the Washington DC was “quite unsettled”. He would be discussing all manner of subjects, including tariffs and also the migrants. He says countries have various ways to put their point across. According to him Modi is not a confrontational kind of person. He says India did not have the leverage that Canada, Mexico and China had. “But we should never be a pushover,” he emphatically says.

The Aadhaar card, which was to be only for smooth transfer of welfare benefits, is now asked for all kinds of things, from opening bank accounts to getting a SIM card. And it has led to many problems since the first enrolment, 15 years ago.   Usha Ramanathan, a legal researcher who was among those who warned of some its dangers, says that it is creating a digital economy that is for the benefit of business.    While other resources, such as land or water, are tangible and can be contested, data is not. People willingly give their information as long they get convenience in return, she says to Sidharth Bhatia in a podcast interview. But they also give away their privacy. The result is surveillance on every aspect of their lives, she says.   She says the marginalised suffer the most since they lose benefits because of problems such as change of fingerprints, misspelling of names and so on. And there is nowhere to turn for help.

After his inauguration, many of US President Donald Trump’s announcements and executive orders have caused fear and anxiety among applicants and holders of the H1B visas. Of particular concern is the ending of citizenship by birthright, though this particular provision has been stayed by the courts. Indians have a particular interest because they hold the maximum number of H1B visas.   Duriya Dhinojwala, who practices law with a special focus on immigration issues, talks about some of these complex questions in this podcast interview with Sidharth Bhatia.   For one thing, she says the H1B programme still goes strong and the birthright citizenship condition has not been halted – “so please talk to your physician before you rush into a decision”. She explains that not winning the H1B lottery is not the end of the world – there are many other ways to reapply.   She also explains in detail the issue of undocumented migrants that the US wants to send back.   The bigger problem, she says, is that the green card backlog for Indians is long and is growing and the Indian government should discuss that with the Trump administration.

The Indian Constitution came into effect on January 26, 1950 and Republic Day is a commemoration of that. The framers of the Constitution gave the nation a document that had the vision to guide matters of the Indian state.   Many questions have been raised about the Constitution – some members of the BJP want to remove the words secular and socialist because they were not in the original document. “It would have superfluous to add the words then,” says veteran constitutional lawyer Raju Ramchandran in this podcast discussion with Sidharth Bhatia. “It was obvious from the document that it would be a welfare state and a secular state,” he says.   Ramachandran says the One Nation One Election idea “militates against federalism” because it “subordinates the rights against the states”. He rejects the idea that it would save money: “In fact it will be more expensive, with the cost of additional manpower, EVMs etc.”   On the threats against the Constitution being changed, he says citizens – and more importantly, courts – should be vigilant against any such attempt.

Can the world ever be the same after Israel’s brutal, non-stop bombing of Gaza? That is the question author Pankaj Mishra writes about in his latest book, The World After Gaza. Mishra’s well researched book explodes several myths, not least being that Israel was formed in 1948 to provide a safe place for survivors of the Holocaust. On the contrary, he writes, the survivors who did move there were treated badly by the European Jews. Most Jews who moved there were from the Arab countries who knew little about the Holocaust. In his interview with Sidharth Bhatia, Mishra also talks about how Western countries have backed Israel fully, allowing it to get away with a lot – and this will have long term consequences.