Genocide of Children
Gaza's Ministry of Health on September 15 released a document containing the names and ages of Palestinians killed by Israel's assault since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, an incomplete list that nonetheless runs 649 pages—the first 14 of which are filled with the names of babies.

The list, published to the health ministry's Telegram account, is limited to those for whom Gaza officials had information—over 34,000 people—and the count stops on August 31. The current death toll, according to the ministry, is close to 42,000, but experts believe that figure is likely a gross undercount.

The new document is a testament to the devastating impact Israel's US-backed war has had on Gaza's population, particularly children. According to Gaza officials, children make up a third of those killed since October 7.

The Gaza Health Ministry's statistics are considered credible by independent watchdogs and have been cited internally by US officials, notwithstanding President Joe Biden's public questioning of the data

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote that the newly published list highlights "what differentiates Gaza".

"It's a genocide of children since their proportion is unprecedented," Parsi wrote, adding that the "US, UK, and Germany arm and support the genocide."
Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

Democracy shifted to Epistocracy?
Is India's democracy, the largest people's democracy in the world, limited to the political leaders in power? Various anti-people incidents attached to corruption, violence, threats, even murder, etc. vividly witness its limitation. The voice of people is being dishonoured and ignored in some cases, i.e., the recent incident of institutionalized brutal rape and murder of a trainee postgraduate lady doctor at R G Kar Medical College and hospital, Kolkata.

Many happenings and policies of the government remind ‘an old saying that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of the others. Or putting it another way: the best form of government is a benevolent and knowledgeable dictator, except for the problem of finding a good and wise leader. Whatever democracy’s strengths, they are relative, not absolute, and they are contingent on context—namely, the people being governed, the people governing, and the underlying institutions’.

It is evident that the majority of people in India are “rationally ignorant” about politics and public policy. They are satisfied with some incentive through acquiring low-cost information that is perceived to be relatively accurate. But the dictators of democracy from the ruling political party usually demand that they use mostly to prioritise people, ‘what they want’.

India’s democracy is limited and exploited by interest groups and politicians in opposition to a rationally ignorant general public. It has space for interest groups to engage in the political trade controlled and managed by politicians. The monopoly power within India’s ‘political markets and high transaction costs (preventing beneficial trades)’ are leading to political inefficiency. ‘In contrast, Wittman (1995) argues that democratic markets are generally “efficient” compared to other forms of governance, including economic markets’.
Populism, ‘a social and political response of ordinary people to cultural pressures and public policies’, in India’s democratic politics has been largely attached to, and it is a shortfall obviously because it is a drawback for effective self-governance—'from ignorance and envy to paranoia and xenophobia’. Populism has practically evil effects ‘to diminish civic and economic liberties, reducing self-governance’.

Indian democracy has been transferred to ‘Epistocracy’.
Harashankar Adhikary

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 14, Sep 29 - Oct 5, 2024