All posts by Shivam Vij

Shivam Vij is a writer and journalist based in New Delhi.
Capitalism, Centre watch, Government, Images, Media politics, Movements

News TV – Caught Between an Anna and a Hard Place: Abhishek Upadhyay

7 Comments

Guest post by ABHISHEK UPADHYAY

Taken in August 2011 at around 2 am one morning at Ramlila Maidan, this photo shows a news TV cameraperson taking sleeping on his chair.

Anna Hazare has returned with his protests and fasting. Should the media, particularly news TV, be more circumspect this time?

Is it time for the media to learn from the Ramlila Maidan experience in August, or should news channels stick to their earlier editorial line of broadcasting the Anna movement in great detail? Back in August, news TV broadcasted Anna’s “satyagrah” allegedly at the expense of the government. The stage is set again, the jury is out. Continue reading News TV – Caught Between an Anna and a Hard Place: Abhishek Upadhyay →

Bad ideas, Empire/ Imperialism, Identities, Media politics, Mirror Worlds

Happy 100 Years of the Delhi Durbar

Leave a comment

The Delhi media celebrated on 11 December the above event, which took place on 11 December 1911. The Delhi media will celebrate anything that is worth celebrating, and everything that is not worth celebrating. Someone just has to set the alarm bells and hours of programming, reams of newsprint will be dedicated to an orgy of unthinking celebration. The only thing other than Celebration that sells is Outrage.

Sohail Hashmi has written on Kafila about why 11 December could not be the centennial of “New Delhi” but only the Delhi Durbar. That was only one problem with the Celebrations; here are some more.

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Mirror Worlds, Violence/Conflict

Three Years After 26/11: Raza Rumi

5 Comments

Guest post by RAZA RUMI

As a Pakistani it is difficult for me to talk about the ghastly attacks on Mumbai three years ago and the response of its vibrant citizens. This is not simply due to the nationality of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. What happened in Mumbai was a sad reminder of how easy it has become for a handful of militants to wreak havoc, to hold an entire city hostage and undermine humanity. A vast majority of Pakistanis felt the pain and condemned the Mumbai attacks; targeting innocent civilians is heinous and unacceptable.

The Mumbai attacks changed the atmosphere created by President Asif Ali Zardari’s unprecedented offers of peace and cooperation. A few weeks before the carnage in Mumbai, Mr Zardari made historic remarks in a conclave organised by an Indian newspaper, which represented a consensus within Pakistan’s political class: “I do not feel threatened by India and India should not feel threatened from us… today we have a Parliament which is already pre-agreed upon a friendly relationship with India. In spite of our disputes, we have a great future together.” Mr Zardari also declared that Pakistan will not be the first country to use its nuclear weapons, thus altering a carefully constructed Pakistani nuclear doctrine of first-use. Continue reading Three Years After 26/11: Raza Rumi →

Culture, Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Mirror Worlds, Violence/Conflict

Shahid in Srinagar: Arif Ayaz Parrey

Leave a comment

Guest post by ARIF AYAZ PARREY

Photo by Muhabit-ul-Haq / TheKashmirWalla.com

I must go back briefly to a place I have loved
to tell you those you will efface I have loved [i]

Exactly ten years after he left us, Aga Shahid Ali returned to his Kashmir. A couple of days earlier, many parts of the valley were blessed with the season’s first snowfall, signalling an end to Harud, the autumn season in Kashmir, and ushering in Wande, the winter. The sky over Srinagar was overcast too, as it has been for the past few days, maybe because this year Moharram has been particularly demanding, with mourners not being allowed to mourn because “the processions might be used by separatists to whip up anti-India sentiments”. The reason for the ban is announced from the same bureaucratic offices which, during the summer, employ the entire state machinery to ensure that people from the plains can climb up the mountains into a cave where Amarnath wants to spend some private time with Parvati so that he can explain to her the mysteries of immortality (Which must include, one would like to presume, the secrets of the longevity of a fragile mountain ecology.) Some like to define this variance in state policy and practice as “secularism”. The connection between the tyranny of Karbala and the present-day Kashmir is firmly established, once again. Continue reading Shahid in Srinagar: Arif Ayaz Parrey →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Frontiers, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

Parveena Ahangar rejects CNN-IBN’s nomination for ‘Indian of the Year 2011’

20 Comments

This press release has been issued by the PARVEENA AHANGAR-led ASSOCIATION OF PARENTS FOR DISAPPEARED PERSONS

Srinagar, December 10, 2011:  On this ‘International Human Rights Day’, December 10, 2011, the APDP (Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons), Srinagar, wishes to state that there is something obscene and perverse in the manner the CNN-IBN has nominated our organization for the ‘Indian of the Year 2011’ award. Sometimes, human rights can be violated by merely mocking those who struggle for human rights. Continue reading Parveena Ahangar rejects CNN-IBN’s nomination for ‘Indian of the Year 2011’ →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Government, Law, Politics

The Absurd Tyranny of iSibal: Vrinda Gopinath

13 Comments

Guest post by VRINDA GOPINATH

by Hemant Morparia

Well, Information and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal’s prickly suggestion to pre-screen content on social networks like Google, Facebook and Twitter, has invited such derision from the internet world that it has given him a tag to his name – Idiot Sibal. For iSibal, it’s not his status on Facebook that should bother him, but the ruinous unmasking of the minister in status-anxiety New Delhi. Sibal, after all, prides himself in belonging to the elite movers and shakers of the Capital – educated, connected, and gold card holder of the Stephen’s Old Boys Network. For the status seekers, this is a world of privilege and entitlement, cosmopolitanism and tolerance.

Now you would wonder what came over the blue-stockinged Technology Minister to make such an ill-thought out statement. Sibal’s liberal snobbery is not always what it seems to be, for there is a lurking autocratic and despotic streak, even archaic at times, that has surfaced time and again. And it is this aspect that has largely been ignored in the bedlam over his latest decree to social network companies.

Continue reading The Absurd Tyranny of iSibal: Vrinda Gopinath →

Centre watch, Empire/ Imperialism, Government, Law, Movements, Violence/Conflict

Nationwide opposition to the government’s refusal to a peaceful fast in support of Irom Sharmila: NAPM

2 Comments

Press release issued today by the NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS

New Delhi, December 10 : For some months now, Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign (SSSC) has been spreading the word about Irom Sharmila and her struggle across the nation and beyond.

Started only by few organizations, campaign has now received support over more than 80 organizations and movements and thousands of supporters. Campaign has reached in almost every state of India and even outside. Campaign has organized various programs including its famous Nationwide Signature Campaign, Sri Nagar- Imphal Save Sharmila Jan Karwan in October and Ahemdabad- Srinagar Jattha in November this year. Continue reading Nationwide opposition to the government’s refusal to a peaceful fast in support of Irom Sharmila: NAPM →

Bad ideas, Everyday Life, Excavation, Government, Law

Shivraj Patil hath no mercy! Why could he not pardon an old, ailing Ram Kumar?: PUCL

13 Comments
This statement has ben issued by the PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES

Ram Kumar died of cancer in Jaipur Central Jail, waiting for the Governor to grant him mercy and Dr. Khalil Chishty waits in Ajmer Jail while his file sits with the Governor for several weeks now!

The Governor of Rajasthan Sh. Shivraj Patil’s attitude towards exercising his powers of granting mercy to convicted prisoners is absolutely negative. Article 161 of the Constitution of India confers “on the Governor of a State the right to grant pardons, remissions, reprieves or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the State extends.” Continue reading Shivraj Patil hath no mercy! Why could he not pardon an old, ailing Ram Kumar?: PUCL →

Centre watch, Identities, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Jagdish Tytler will not attend the Maulana Mohd. Ali Jauhar Award ceremony

2 Comments
M. Saleem addressing the Maulana Jauhar Award ceremony at IICC in Delhi on 10 December 2011

Update on 11 December:

Twocircles.net reports:

“Zafar Agha was replaced by ex-MP and senior Journalist Santosh Bharatiya. However, M Saleem claimed that Sanjeev Bhatt could not attend the programme due to time constraint and the award may be given to him some other time. While referring to Santosh Bhartiya, being awarded in place of Zafar Agha, M. Saleem said that he has been nominated for the award and nobody has been replaced for the same. The organizer kept totally mum about both Zafar Agha and Jagdish Tytler. ” [Link]

*

On 3 December, an open letter signed by some of us, and posted here on Kafila, had appealed to seven distinguished individuals to not accept the Maulana Mohd. Ali Johar Award, to be given on 10 December at the India Islamic Cultural Centre. We had reasoned that since the eighth awardee was Jagdish Tytler, they should not share an award and a platform with someone accused of organising mass murder of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984.

Yesterday evening, the general secretary of the Maulana Jauhar Academy, M. Saleem, emailed one of the signatories, Mahtab Alam. The email contained a scanned copy of a letter sent by Jagdish Tytler to M Saleem, which said that Tytler would not attend the award ceremony so as to not embarrass the the other awardees and the organisers, because of this boycott campaign. He, however, stressed on his innocence in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, and, notably, did not say that he would not accept the award. He would only not attend the ceremony. M. Saleem has also not announced whether he is withdrawing his decision to give the award to Mr Tytler. For more details on what has transpired in the last few days, please see Mahtab Alam’s article, Beware of the Sarkari Musalmaan.

Given below is the final list of 150 names who signed the original appeal.  Continue reading Jagdish Tytler will not attend the Maulana Mohd. Ali Jauhar Award ceremony →

Identities, Mirror Worlds, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Harvard does the right thing: drops Subramanian Swamy

10 Comments

The Harvard Crimson reports:

Faculty members chose to remove two summer economics courses at the Summer School taught by Subramanian Swamy, a controversial Indian political figure. Over the summer, Swamy published an op-ed that advocated for the destruction of hundreds of Indian mosques and the disenfranchisement of non-Hindus in India.

Chief Information Officer for the University Anne H. Margulies concluded the meeting by updating faculty on the newly-created Harvard University Information Technology system and its future vision, which included greater collaboration with the library and further digital pedagogy. [Link]

Although DNA never apologised for publishing “How to wipe out Islamic terror,” Swamy’s hate-filled column, (and Kapil Sibal thinks Facebook will cause riots), Harvard University has done the right thing. Continue reading Harvard does the right thing: drops Subramanian Swamy →

Centre watch, Identities, Politics, Right watch

Beware of the Sarkari Musalmaan: Mahtab Alam

17 Comments

Guest post by MAHTAB ALAM

In the current issue of the English fortnightly, Milli Gazette (1-15 December), it is reported that on 10 December 2011, former union minister Jagdish Tytler will be awarded with seven others in a function at India Islamic Culture Centre, Delhi, by Maulana Mohammad Jauhar Ali Academy. The other names were those of Dr. S Y Quraishi, Chief Election Commissioner of India; Sanjeev Bhat, Indian Police Service officer (Gujarat); senior journalist Zafar Agha; Mohd. Najeeb Ashraf Chaudhri, chief income tax commissioner; Maulana Mohd. Haseeb Siddiqui, chairman of the Deoband Nagar Palika Parishad; Nusrat Gwalliori, a Delhi-based Urdu poet, and  Begum Rehana AR Andre, a social activist and educationist based in Mumbai.

The award has been named after Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, a key figure of the Indian freedom movement, a leader of the Khilafat movement and one of the founders of Jamia Millia Islamia, a prestigious central university in Delhi. The award is given on his birth anniversary every year. Though the reasons for honouring these people were not mentioned in the Milli Gazette report, the Academy’s general secretary explained that every year, the academy honours individuals in recognition of their extra-ordinary contribution in the field of journalism, politics, social service and so on. This year they  chose Jagdish Tytler for his contribution to politics! Continue reading Beware of the Sarkari Musalmaan: Mahtab Alam →

Everyday Life, Genders, Metropolis, Movements

A woman in Delhi Metro, two women in a bus

18 Comments

Many years ago, I was travelling in a DTC bus – or was it a private-run Blueline? – in which the usual sense of calm-with-commotion was disturbed by a sudden act of strategic, small-scale violence, followed by a moment of stunned silence, then some bickering.

Two women were travelling in a bus full of men, and one of them had slapped a man. The man tried to argue and claim innocence, but to no avail. It was obvious to everyone in the bus that the woman would not slap him without a reason. He must have molested her. Most passengers watched silently, eager to closely observe the tamasha so they could relate it to others, like I’m doing now. But quite a few voiced their support of the women, and the bus conductor asked the man in question to get down at the next stop, returning his entire fare. Continue reading A woman in Delhi Metro, two women in a bus →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Everyday Life, Government, Law, Media politics, Politics

What Kapil Sibal does not understand: the internet

23 Comments

A  few days ago a friend asked me if I knew someone who had the ability and inclination to help out a certain department of the central government with using social media. My friend did not name who the prospective employer was, but clearly, with even Digvijay Singh on Twitter, the Congress party is worried about social media. No surprise that this should happen in a year when the UPA government’s popularity has taken a nose-dive.

The New York Times revealed on 5 December that Kapil Sibal summoned Facebook officials and showed them a Facebook page that allegedly maligned Congress president Sonia Gandhi and said that this was unacceptable. While HRD officials refused to reveal much in that NYT copy, they must have realised that shit has hit the fan, because the next morning’s Indian Express the spin doctoring was clear: there was now a mention of allegedly derogatory pictures of Prophet Mohammed along with the Prime Minister and the Congress President (who are no doubt as sacred in his books as Prophet Mohammed).By the time he held his press conference yesterday, it became about things that Hurt Our Religious Sentiments. On the 19th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition, it is very interesting to see a Congress minister using religion to cover up power politics.  Continue reading What Kapil Sibal does not understand: the internet →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Countryside, Ecology/Environment

Mining Poisons South Goa Waters: Devidas Gaonkar

1 Comment

A Video Volunteers story on mining in Goa:

Salaulim reservoir, situated in the Sanguem taluka, is the largest dam in Goa. It supplies water to almost entire South Goa, comprising 55% of the state’s population. Although Devidas’s video mentions that there are 8 mines that operate near Salaulim, other sources suggest that there are as many as 15 mining leases within the catchment of the reservoir. This proves to be a grave danger to the dam, the water that flows through it, as well as the people who consume this water.

Continue reading Mining Poisons South Goa Waters: Devidas Gaonkar →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Government, Law

Kapil Sibal is an Idiot

136 Comments

I urge you to write KAPIL SIBAL IS AN IDIOT as your Facebook status message, use the hashtag #IdiotKapilSibal on Twitter, and write a blog post with the above title, because there may soon be a day when he may prevent you from doing so.

The New York Times reports:

The Indian government has asked Internet companies and social media sites like Facebook to prescreen user content from India and to remove disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content before it goes online, three executives in the information technology industry say.

Top officials from the Indian units of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook are meeting with Kapil Sibal, India’s acting telecommunications minister, on Monday afternoon to discuss the issue, say two executives of Internet companies. The executives asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media on the issue.

[…]

About six weeks ago, Mr. Sibal called legal representatives from the top Internet service providers and Facebook into his New Delhi office, said one of the executives who was briefed on the meeting.

At the meeting, Mr. Sibal showed attendees a Facebook page that maligned the Congress Party’s president, Sonia Gandhi.  “This is unacceptable,” he told attendees, the executive said, and he asked them to find a way to monitor what is posted on their sites. [Link]

Continue reading Kapil Sibal is an Idiot →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Countryside, Ecology/Environment, Empire/ Imperialism, Movements

Release Abhay Sahoo Now: People’s Union for Civil Liberties

2 Comments

This press release comes from the PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES

Bhubhaneshwar / Delhi
5th December, 2011
PRESS RELEASE

• Appeal to the Odisha Government to withdraw the frivolous cases and RELEASE ABHAY SAHOO NOW!

• WITHDRAW ALL THE CRIMINAL CASES LODGED AGAINST THE ANTI POSCO ACTIVISTS and put a stop to repressive measures.

• PUCL APPEALS TO OTHER ORGANISATIONS TO COME TO TOGETHER AND INITIATE A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE RELEASE OF ABHAY SAHOO AND SUPPORT OF THE POSCO PRATIRODH SANGRAM SAMITI.

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, represented by its National Secretary Kavita Srivastava and Odisha Convenor, Pramodini Pradhan visited the area in and around Dhinkia Panchayat in Jagatsinghpur district on 1st December, 2011, where the struggle against the proposed POSCO steel plant is taking place for the last seven years. We also went to Choudwar Jail in Cuttack District on 2nd December, 2011 to meet Mr Abhay Sahoo the leader of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangharsh Samiti, who has been arrested against FIRs motivated by the administration under sections causing sexual assault, wrongfully confining somebody and causing atrocities under the SC & ST Act. Continue reading Release Abhay Sahoo Now: People’s Union for Civil Liberties →

Bad ideas, Debates, Excavation, Frontiers, Identities, Language, Mirror Worlds

Hindi and Urdu: Sa’adat Hasan Manto

8 Comments

This is MUHAMMAD UMAR MEMON‘s translation of an article by SA’ADAT HASAN MANTO. The translation first appeared in The Annual of Urdu Studies.

The Hindi-Urdu dispute has been raging for some time now. Maulvi Abdul Haq Sahib, Dr Tara Singh and Mahatma Gandhi know what there is to know about this dispute. For me, though, it has so far remained incomprehensible. Try as hard as I might, I just haven’t been able to understand. Why are Hindus wasting their time supporting Hindi, and why are Muslims so beside themselves over their preservation of Urdu? A language is not made, it makes itself. And no amount of human effort can ever kill a language. When I tried to write something about this current hot issue, I ended up with the following long conversation:

Munshi Narain Parshad:  Iqbal Sahib, are you going to drink this soda water?

Mirza Muhammad Iqbal: Yes, I am.

Munshi: Why dont you drink lemon?

Iqbal: No particular reason. I just like soda water. At our house, everyone likes to drink it.

Munshi: In other words, you hate lemon. Continue reading Hindi and Urdu: Sa’adat Hasan Manto →

Bad ideas, Identities, Right watch

Oxford University Members Demand that OUP-India Stand by Ramanujan Essay

4 Comments

Shahid Amin has earlier written about the role of the Oxford University Press (India) in the censorship of AK Ramanjuan’s essay on the Ramayana. This press release, signed by a group of Indian scholars at Oxford University, comes to us via Agrima Bhasin.

Press Statement
Oxford, England
Date: 30 November 2011

A petition by members of Oxford University has condemned Oxford University Press (OUP) India’s unflattering role and its deafening silence on the controversy surrounding Delhi University’s recent decision to drop A.K. Ramanujan’s essay (Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation). This petition has gained the abounding support of Oxford intelligentsia across 15 departments and 20 constituent colleges. Signatories include distinguished faculty members, senior academics and students.

In 2008 OUP India unceremoniously decided to stop publication of the only two books (Paula Richman’s Many Ramayanas and Vinay Dharwadker’s The Collected Essays of A.K. Ramanujan) containing Ramanujan’s essay. This happened to coincide with legal proceedings instituted inter alia against OUP India by fringe religious and cultural groups. OUP India’s prolonged subsequent silence on this matter lent widespread credence to the contention that OUP India caved in to external pressure thereby compromising its stated goals of “…[furthering] excellence in research, scholarship… by publishing worldwide.”

Continue reading Oxford University Members Demand that OUP-India Stand by Ramanujan Essay →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Identities, Politics, Violence/Conflict

An appeal to seven distinguished individuals to decline the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award

104 Comments

You can add your name to this appeal in the comments section.

Delhi, 3 December 2011

According to a news report in the Milli Gazette of 1 December 2011, Jagdish Tytler, an accused in the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984, will be awarded the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award on 10 December 2011 at the India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi. Seven others will share this award. The undersigned appeal to the other seven awardees to not accept the award as a mark of protest against honouring Mr Tytler, whose contribution in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom has been recorded by several fact-finding reports, including those by PUCL and PUDR.

The seven names are:

Continue reading An appeal to seven distinguished individuals to decline the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Award →

Capitalism, Centre watch, Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Government, Mirror Worlds, Movements

The need to influence the trajectory of one’s own life: Ruchi Gupta

6 Comments

Guest post by RUCHI GUPTA

The Arab Spring demonstrations in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Morocco were hailed in much of the democratic world. However the Occupy Wall Street protests, which till date have spread to 100 cities in the United States and 1500 globally have met with mixed response.

The Arab people are fighting for democracy, and thus their resistance must be respected and supported. But the OWS folks, proudly leaderless and having framed no concrete demands are vulnerable to all manner of criticism, even from those expected to be supportive. Bill Keller, the former editor of arguably one of the most influential newspapers in the world, the ostensibly liberal, New York Times derides,  “the Occupiers have been pandered to (“Love your energy!”); patronized (“Here, I’ve drafted you a list of demands …”); co-opted by unions, celebrities and activists for various causes; demonized by the right; arrested and tear-gassed in some cities; and taken lightly by the likes of me”.

However the uprisings in the Arab nations, the OWS demonstrations and even the wave of anti-corruption protests that swept India this year are all ultimately an expression of people’s resistance to disenfranchisement. Whether it’s those fighting for democracy or those who find themselves powerless in face of a system that’s been hijacked by the illegitimate nexus between the financial and political elite (the metaphorical 1%), the underlying sentiment is a demand for fair play and the right of self-determination. Continue reading The need to influence the trajectory of one’s own life: Ruchi Gupta →

Centre watch, Government, Mirror Worlds, Politics

Pakistan 2012 – We Must Learn from History: Raza Rumi

2 Comments

Guest post by RAZA RUMI

Iskander Mirza, Pakistan’s President between 1956 and ’58, is remarked to have said that democracy was ‘unsuited’ to the genius of the Pakistani people. Decades later, similar questions about democratic form of governance are being raised in Pakistan. Take any TV show, read the multitude of op-eds, or more worryingly, check what the youth have to say on Facebook or Twitter. The parameters of debate remain the same.

The urban Pakistani’s disdain for the ‘illiterate’, ‘rural’ politicians and their ability to rule the country is a long-running theme. More importantly, the duality of civil-military rule has generated a peculiar discourse: the weak and corrupt ‘civilians’ compromise national security as opposed to authoritarian regimes which guard ‘ideological’ and geographical borders of the country. Continue reading Pakistan 2012 – We Must Learn from History: Raza Rumi →