BBC4 Beyond Belief: Ambedkar

Ernie Rea and guests discuss B.R. Ambedkar's role in forming modern India.

It's 70 years since the new country of Pakistan was born; followed the next day by an independent India. There can be few who are unaware of the seminal role played by Mahtama Gandhi in the struggle for independence. Much less known is Dr B.R Ambedkar. Many would argue that his contribution was every bit as important. Ambedkar was the country's first Law Minister and he was the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. He was a Dalit - or Untouchable - and he had a major falling out with Gandhi on how the problem of Untouchability should be dealt with.

Joining Ernie to discuss Ambedkar and his Legacy are Dr. Ananya Vajpeyi, Fellow and Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi; Santosh Dass, President of the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations and Vice Chair of the Anti Caste Alliance; and William Gould, Professor of Indian History at Leeds University.

listen to the podcast

The Atlantic: How Trump's Reaction to Charlottesville Threatens the GOP

Trump’s election “may be one of the most costly presidential victories in history for a political party, because [it is leaving] a crimson stain on the party,” said Peter Wehner, the former director of strategic planning in the George W. Bush White House. “I don’t think it … will be easy to get away from.” [...]

But Trump’s belligerent response to the unrest in Virginia has detonated this slowly burning fuse. His pointed refusal to unambiguously condemn the white-supremacist and neo-Nazi groups who gathered there may crystallize, in a way no policy debate could, the picture of him as racially and culturally biased, particularly among younger voters. “The truth is, I bet that Millennials have not paid that much attention to the policy stuff he’s done,” said Andrew Baumann, a Democratic pollster who has extensively surveyed the generation. “But I think Charlottesville is a whole different thing. This is a watershed moment.”

The president’s reaction to Charlottesville closely followed the template he established for dealing with white supremacist David Duke during the 2016 GOP primaries. In late February of that year, Trump refused to directly disavow Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, when pressed by Jake Tapper during a CNN interview held two days before the largest concentration of Southern primaries. Only after those states had voted, and white nationalists had exulted in Trump’s evasive initial response, did the presidential contender explicitly renounce Duke’s support. [...]

Because Trump retains some irreducible support among younger whites, particularly those without college degrees, Baumann said the Charlottesville firestorm would likely do more to harden, rather than expand, that Millennial resistance. “I think he’s really cemented these views of Millennials, and I have a hard time believing there is much he can do to reverse that,” Baumann said. [...]

In a measure of the growing headwinds the party could face, Kristen Soltis Anderson, a prominent Republican pollster who has written a book on Millennials, told me this week that the absence of effective resistance from party leaders or voters to Trump’s posture has left her increasingly pessimistic the GOP can set a direction that will appeal to young people like her.

read the article

Haaretz: Israel Under Trump: Welcome to the New Home of Nazi Denial

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained silence over the U.S. president’s having equated neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members with the leftist counterprotesters who came under deadly attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, the prime minister’s hand-picked communications minister declared that Israel’s relations with the White House take precedence over condemning Nazis. [...]

“We need to condemn anti-Semitism and any trace of Nazism, and I will do what I can as a minister to stop its spread,” said Kara. “But Trump is the best U.S. leader Israel has ever had. His relations with the prime minister of Israel are wonderful, and after enduring the terrible years of Obama, Trump is the unquestioned leader of the free world, and we must not accept anyone harming him.”

Even for Israel, where Beyond Belief is another name for the place all of us live in all the time, there seems something impossible, something bordering on science fiction, about this country lending a home to, well, Nazi denial. [...]

And this is the same Richard Spencer who praised Trump for aiding in the “de-Judaification” of the Holocaust by omitting any mention of Jews from his statement marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. [...]

But the interview was far from the only instance of an abhorrent phenomenon in an Israel under the influence of Donald Trump. It is the rise of Nazi denial – the desire among certain political and media figures associated with Netanyahu to curry favor with the U.S. president by downplaying or dismissing the dangers of the KKK, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists who took part in the violence in Charlottesville.

read the article 

Bloomberg: Key Republican Calls for ‘Radical Changes’ in Trump's Presidency

“We’re at a point where there needs to be radical changes take place at the White House itself. It has to happen,” Senator Bob Corker told local reporters in his home state of Tennessee. “I think the president needs to take stock of the role that he plays in our nation and move beyond himself -- move way beyond himself -- and move to a place where daily he’s waking up thinking about what is best for the nation.” [...]

Their remarks are some of the strongest Republican backlash to Trump’s suggestions that both sides bear blame in the Charlottesville incident. Several other Republicans have called on Trump to make a clearer denunciation of white supremacist groups, but many GOP leaders have remained silent on the president’s remarks.

Corker’s criticisms are particularly notable because he has previously been a Trump ally and met with him before his inauguration to discuss the possibility of becoming secretary of State. [...]

The reluctance of GOP leaders to confront Trump directly is the latest sign they remain unwilling to challenge even the president’s most controversial remarks and comes despite growing concern among Republicans that their party’s brand could suffer permanent damage from the backlash. [....]

Corker’s relationship with Trump goes back to the election, when the senator campaigned with the president and was said to have been vetted as a potential running mate. Corker also served as a member of the president’s national security advisory committee. He has continued to offer Trump advice on foreign policy.

read the article and watch the clip

Vox: After Charlottesville, how do we cover an immoral president?