THE VIOLENT HEART OF INDIAN POLITICS
The Law of Force is a critique of the illiberal forces that dominate our everyday life and politics. These forces began to make themselves felt in the 1980s and 1990s – regional movements, the empowerment of lower caste communities but also Hindu nationalism – and reflected the underside of Indian politics. Theirs was a politics of passion claiming to represent hitherto voiceless majorities. This language of strength was based on a belief in the moral right of electoral majorities, and in violence as a legitimate expression of political will. Hansen discusses the discrepancy between the liberal language of rights in the Constitution and the violent ways in which the ‘force of law’ is visited upon nonelite Indians. He argues that a new sense of hurt has facilitated the rise of a politics of passion that has made the mobilization of public anger into an effective means of political expression.
SINGAPORE: A 39-year-old Indian-origin woman and her British husband were jailed in Singapore on Friday for breaking the country’s quarantine rules so that they could spend time together in a hotel room.
Agatha Maghesh Eyamalai was jailed for a week. Her British husband Nigel Skea, 52, was sentenced to two weeks’ jail and slapped with a fine of 1,000 Singapore dollars ($752).
In September, Nigel conspired with Eyamalai, his then-fiancee, to meet in a room at a hotel where he was serving a stayhome notice after arriving in Singapore from London.
Both Skea and Eyamalai had pleaded guilty earlier this month. Skea admitted to two charges of exposing others to risk of infection by leaving his hotel room while on stay-home notice and failing to wear a mask. Eyamalai, who subsequently married Skea, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring with Skea to breach his stayhome notice.