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L’affaire Khashoggi

Pen is mightier than the sword
It is the written word, even more than the spoken one, that scares AUTHORITARIAN regimes.
Killing Jamal and the details that we have out now is part of the game: regime wants to send out clear message to dissenters.
This murder will for time being send a wave of fear in the hearts and minds of dissenters.
Tokenism in reactions: The outrage is universal in the developed world, though the developing countries seem to have decided their own counsel.
The Bretton Woods institutions will still need Saudi funding.

Foreign policy is all about promoting national interest and that sentiment should have no place in it.

Mr. Trump: hundreds of billions worth of arms sales are on the line and that he is not prepared to put them in jeopardy.
Saudis & Iranians: unchecked support, financial and otherwise, by funding radical Sunni and Shia mosques in India.
This is reported to have been going on for decades, perhaps before Independence. Yet, successive governments have not found it possible to protest such behaviour which amounts to direct interference in India’s internal affairs and in radicalising sections of the Muslim community.

Dependence on West Asian energy sources
Side with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue
If India needs their oil, they also need to sell it.
For Yemen war, they need a big buyer.
The U.S., France, Russia all have only one interest in India: to sell their extremely expensive war material.
Mr. Trump, who advocates, for his country as well as for others, to follow the principle of ‘my country first’ would be the last to impose penalties on India in case we do something that might not fit in with his agenda, either vis-àvis Iran or Russia.
The principle of national interest can run into conflict with respect to other higher principles especially in democracies.
Thus, the Khashoggi affair might eventually result in action in the U.S. Congress which the President then will have no option but to abide by.
This is what happened in Congressional action against Russia and which Mr. Trump then had to follow.

Taliban surge

Sharply deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.
A year ago, the Kandahar Governor’s office had come under attack by militants, resulting in the death of a Deputy Governor, the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates and members of Parliament.

In recent years, the Taliban had shown its capability to infiltrate official meetings and attack any government building, notwithstanding claims by the authorities of heightened security.
Kandahar attack happened two days ahead of the much-delayed parliamentary election.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the American special envoy to Afghanistan, recently met Taliban representatives in Qatar.
Both the U.S. and Afghan forces appear to be clueless about how to stop the Taliban’s advances.

Keep the peace

There is little to be gained in this surcharged atmosphere in stoking further trouble or using religious sentiment for political purposes.
Whether one agrees with it or not, there is no dispute that the Supreme Court judgment allowing into the shrine the entry of all women, irrespective of their age, is the law of the land.
The State government has now declared that its protection is available only to genuine devotees and not those trying to make a statement.
Meanwhile, it is important that everyone works together to ensure that such fears are unfounded.

Statesmanship, not brinkmanship

Last week saw only 35.1% turnout for the entire State, with Kashmiri participation dropping to a low singledigit percentage.
Frustrated: not just by the government but by the entire system.
The trade-off between these two impulses has been always difficult to negotiate.
In fact, even the initial birth of the Kashmir insurgency in the late 1980s can be traced back to Indira Gandhi’s decision to adopt such a maximalist approach.
From the late 1970s, the Congress in the State began a steady campaign against the Abdullah government, accusing it of maladministration and corruption.
This long-running feud weakened the legitimacy of both parties, thus creating the space for extremism to grow.
Inspired by the 1979 Iranian revolution, Kashmiri fundamentalists had begun mobilising and the Abdullah-Congress fight allowed them to gain political traction.
The Muslim United Front, an alliance of Islamic right-wing parties, expanded its vote share from a mere 6.4% in 1983 to 32% in 1987, in the Valley. Finally recognising this reality, in 1986 Rajiv Gandhi reached another accord with Abdullah which made both parties allies. However, by now it was too late.
Today, the BJP government finds itself in a similar position, where its political strategy is eroding the long-term security of the State.
To make matters worse, unlike the Congress in the 1980s, the BJP is actually making political gains.
Sacrificing its short-term political gains, the BJP should look towards the long-term stability of the State by moderating its own political appetite.

Important News

61 dead as train mows down Dussehra crowd in Amritsar
When a train mowed down a crowd of Dussehra revellers that had spilled on to the railway track while watching the burning of a Ravana effigy.
As the effigy was set on fire amid bursting of firecrackers, people reportedly could not hear the sound of the oncoming train.

Two trains arrived from the opposite direction at the same time, giving little opportunity for the people to escape, officials said.
Student critical after being gang-raped
A Class IX student in Bihar’s Lakhisarai was charred badly after she fell on a live high-voltage wire while fleeing from the roof of a three-storey building, where she was gang-raped, the police said.
The girl, who was admitted to a hospital, is battling for her life.
Local police said the girl, who had gone along with one of her friends to see deities of Goddess Durga on Navmi (ninth day) of Dussehra festival on Thursday night, was instead taken by her friend to a rented accommodation in Santar locality where three youths were drinking liquor. They forced the girl to consume liquor and later allegedly gang-raped her.
“Liquor bottles, glasses and the girl’s garments have been recovered from the roof of the building…three persons, including the friend of the girl, have been taken into custody and are being interrogated,” Mr. Sharma said.
Ranil meets Doval, Rahul
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Friday, ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday afternoon.
Fines fail to deter stubble burning
Between September 27 and October 14, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) imposed ₹8,92,500 as fines — or “environmental compensation cess” as it is officially called — on farmers burning paddy stubble. However, they collected only ₹3,05,000, according to figures from the organisation.
Arunachal, Assam on alert after barrier breaches
The Arunachal Pradesh and Assam governments on Friday readied National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and SDRF teams in districts along the Siang and Brahmaputra rivers following a report from China via the Central Water Commission that the barrier formed on the Tsangpo upstream due to a landslide has breached about 5 p.m., discharging water at a speed of 18,000 cubic metres per second.
“We have instructed the authorities to be alert while rescue teams have been asked to be prepared, as the surge of water is expected to reach Assam in 24- 36 hours,” Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said.

Financial News

RBI Comes to Aid of NBFCs, Allows Banks to Lend More
The Reserve Bank of India relaxed liquidity norms to ease the strain in the financial markets and allowed more bank lending to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), which are facing asset-liability mismatches. It’s estimated the move could free up as much as ₹50,000 crore for lending to the sector as it grapples with refinancing maturing commercial paper and shortterm loans.