All posts by Shivam Vij

Shivam Vij is a writer and journalist based in New Delhi.
Media politics, Right watch

About Warped Minds

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Update: See this FAQ by Sundeep Dougal.

Guest post by DILIP D’SOUZA

All over again, timed with the run up to voting, there’s plenty of uproar over Gujarat. A Times of India journalist called Dhananjay Mahapatra wrote a report (NGOs, Teesta spiced up Gujarat riot incidents: SIT, April 14) which casts doubt on a number of aspects of the violence in Gujarat in 2002.

In his report, Mahapatra mentions the Special Investigation Team that has been looking into the violence. On April 13, writes Mahapatra, “the SIT led by former CBI Director RK Raghavan told the Supreme Court on Monday that [Teesta Setalvad] exaggerated macabre tales of wanton killings.” (Note the impression he gives that Raghavan himself was in Court on Monday to say this). Mahapatra’s report also tells us several things that Gujarat counsel Mukul Rohatgi said in Court. Continue reading About Warped Minds →

Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Media politics

A sham called election reporting

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A ‘Kashmiri’ ‘Gurjar’ ‘Muslim’ is contesting the Dausa Lok Sabha seat. As an independent. For the simple reason that after delimitation, Dausa became a reserved constituency. Rerseved for the Scheduled Tribes. Meenas are ST’s. Gurjars wanted to be ST’s. Not only didn’t they not get that, they were deprived of Dausa, where the feudal PIlots had been Gurjar kings.

So someone thought of this simple idea: get a Kashmiri Gurjar. Kashmiri Gurjars are ST’s.

That candidate is campaigning around Dausa, and I gather that even the Brahmins of the area are supporting him! Him! A Kashmiri Muslim Gurjar! Continue reading A sham called election reporting →

Debates, Frontiers, Government

Obama and the End of Other Dreams?

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poar01_obama0803

This guest post comes to us from NISSIM MANNATHUKKAREN

And I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Continue reading Obama and the End of Other Dreams? →

Identities, Politics

Why you should Caste your vote

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Someone called “Dr Known” has sent Kafila, via our Contact page, this interesting email. I’m posting this here only because I found it interesting; posting does not necessarily constitute agreement. Or disagreement :)

Since Hinduism is based on CASTE hierarchies, it intrinsically breeds HATRED among Indians.

Hence,

* You must VOTE for candidates from your CASTE only.

* Only he can and will UNDERSTAND your culture and IMPROVE your socio-economic status.

* And do not worry if he is CORRUPT.

* You must vote him till 85% of all registered marriages in India are INTER-CASTE or INTER-FAITH.

This is the only way to STOP dis-integration of India.

Politics

Mayawati’s India

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1
(Largely ignored by the media, the BSP recently released a tract that says what the BSP’s India would be like should Mayawati become prime minister. Considering that there is such wide interest and curiosity about the BSP and its politics these days, I am posting the full text of this “appeal”. Disclaimer: I am posting this here for information, debate and discussion and the act of posting this here should not be construed as my endorsement or otherwise of this manifesto-but-not-manifesto. – Shivam Vij)

Jai Bhim !                                                                               Jai Bharat !!

Bahujan Samaj Party

” APPEAL”

For

Lok Sabha General Elections -2009

Brothers and Sisters,  Continue reading Mayawati’s India →

Right watch

Arise, awake, the people who run Facebook

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From: Nisha Susan
Date: Sat, Apr 11, 2009
Subject: Pink Chaddi vandalised and taken over Continue reading Arise, awake, the people who run Facebook →

Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Frontiers

That day in 2003

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Look who’s blogging at GVO. Salam Pax.

Centre watch, Excavation, Law, Violence/Conflict

Report on the Batla House ‘encounter’

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The Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Group has released a report on the Batla House ‘encounter’ which they have requested Kafila to put up.

You can read the report below, and also download it from here.

You can find all of Kafila’s posts on the Batla House incident here.

Synopsis:
This report is based on police statements, press reports, testimonies of families and friends of the accused and other documentary evidence. It highlights the numerous contradictions in the police version(s) about the ‘encounter’ and the accusations.

Continue reading Report on the Batla House ‘encounter’ →

Bad ideas, Debates, Genders, Violence/Conflict

Where have they disappeared?

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Aman Kachroo is not the first teen to die of ragging. But there is one curious first: this time the death has not led to any ‘public debate’.

This time the defenders of ragging are silent. Who knows, maybe some of them have changed their views and are now lighting candles at Jantar Mantar. There are no TV debates calling ragging fun. This time no one is arguing that a murder case should not be used to defame the socially productive ‘tradition’ of ragging. This time nobody is asking how boys will become men unless they are ragged, and nobody is calling the victims sissies.

What has changed? Continue reading Where have they disappeared? →

Bad ideas, Frontiers, Right watch

Omid Reza Misayafi

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omid

Omid Reza Misayafi was a blogger.

That is not why he has lost his life in prison.

It’s because of what he wrote.

Law

In the Supreme Court of the Indian Blogosphere

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(I had written this article after the Supreme Court’s refusal to quash a defamation case in a Thane court against a student-blogger in Kerala, Ajith D. A shorter version was offered to a newspaper which refused to publish it. So finally I’m posting it here. For a better context, please see Lawrence Liang‘s posts on the subject. Whatever is written below is without prejudice against any of the parties named. For the history of the Shiv Sena encounter with Orkut, I am graetful to Gaurav Mishra for this excellent article.)

If you search “Shiv Sena” on just the communities section of the social networking site Orkut, you get 244 results. There are love-Shiv Sena and hate-Shiva Sena communities (essentially discussion boards), but my favourite is one called “Shiv Sena v/s Anti SS” which seeks to sort out differences between “sainiks and anti-sainkis”. It further states, “If anyone posts hurting a fellow member, that post will be deleted. There must be some amount of respect towards fellow members. The owner being Anti shiv sena will debate for Anti SS.” The community was started by “Madhushree It takes courage to be true.” and has 111 members at the time of writing. Continue reading In the Supreme Court of the Indian Blogosphere →

Frontiers, Law, Movements

‘Lahoris woke up and joined their son’

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What a moment it is, what a moment it must be. Ordinary people on the streets of Lahore on Sunday, countless thousands of them, have forced the Pakistani government to re-instate the deposed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. What a moment of hope in a country the rest of the world believes is about to ‘implode’. What a resurrection of yourself, Mian Sa’ab, who will now remember how unpopular you were when Mush had ousted you!

Here’s an extremely illuminating account of what happened in Lahore, an anonymous account circulating on some mailing lists. This is apart from some excellent citizen reportage on Twitter by Pakistanis.

The Army, the Presidency, the Americans and the Prime Minister, were all ready to throw peanuts at Nawaz Sharif. The assessment was that 500 will reach constitution avenue (read Salman Taseer). In Pindi, we had halwa puri at a friends house today. A PPP friend who knew my passion for the CJ, at 11-00 am said, looking at me, “Yar Imran, there is a bigger long march in my house than in Lahore.” A PML N friend told me from Lahore, “Punjabis dont get out in the face of danda. The long march will fail.” Continue reading ‘Lahoris woke up and joined their son’ →

Law

And then Suresh Sankhyan wanted to do the post-mortem

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amank1
Aman Satya Kachroo, left-most, in his school days. Photo by Vaibhav Chhabra via Facebook

Before he died of brain haemorrhage (and not cardiac arrest as the papers incorrectly claimed), Aman Satya Kachroo wrote a note about who beat him up. In the note he named the four accused who are all now in jail. The note reads like a dying declaration and is signed by 12 witnesses. It seems unlikely that even one of the 12 witnesses will have the courage to say in court that they saw the lynching happening before their eyes. Even as they came down to Gurgaon for the cremation, they must have been getting calls from their parents, ‘Beta, just say you didn’t see anything. Why get into these court hassles and potential threats from the families of the accused?’ Continue reading And then Suresh Sankhyan wanted to do the post-mortem →

Countryside, Everyday Life, Identities

Smile Pinki, Pinki Sonkar

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If you’ve recovered from your Post-Slumdog Stress Disorder, may I dare to write a short post about Smile Pinki, the short documentary that also won an Oscar and that is also set in India? Continue reading Smile Pinki, Pinki Sonkar →

Law

Why Aman Kachroo’s won’t be the last ragging death, and what his family should do

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thumbcms1Update 2: And then Suresh Sankhyan wanted to do the post-mortem

*

Update: Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, who is I think the amicus curae in the ongoing case, says he will ask the Supreme Court to take note of the case and charge the Principal and Vice-Chancellor with “contempt, inaction, negligence and failure.” But who will charge whom for lack of implementation of the SC orders on ragging?And Himachal Pradesh has an anti-ragging ordinance too. (The ordinance had expired in 1998 1992, I gather, as it had not been turned into a law within six months)

*

I don’t know why this report does not use the word lynching, because that is what seems to have happened at the Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, Tanda. Continue reading Why Aman Kachroo’s won’t be the last ragging death, and what his family should do →

Bad ideas, Media politics, Technology

Fifteen Reasons Why Your Rant is Not Even a Good Rant

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‘In the wake’, as journalistic cliches go, of the Pink Chaddi campaign there’s a curious phenomenon of the Pink Chaddi campaigners finding more critics than those who went to a pub to and beat up women to get prime time attention. The latest is an article that, yawn, critiques internet activism as an echo chamber of the elite.

Since all that it does is nit-picking about online activism in India, it may not be a bad idea to do some similar frisking of the article itself. Continue reading Fifteen Reasons Why Your Rant is Not Even a Good Rant →

Law, Metropolis

The Survey Unfolds

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Guest post by SHVETA SARDA

lnjp1

Between 26 February, when it started and 6 March, yesterday, the survey of 220 houses has been completed in LNJP. There are roughly 1000 houses left to be covered. From the groundwork done end of last week by a group young women and men residents of LNJP, documents of many have been put in order, and the encounter with the survey teams this past week was much more confident. Continue reading The Survey Unfolds →

Media politics

How ‘news’ became ‘interesting’

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Our friend, like all stringers, would send Lucknow a lot of stories but all would go waste. A story a month, at the most, just a thousand bucks. Something interesting, get something interesting, the input editor on the other side of the mobile phone would say. Continue reading How ‘news’ became ‘interesting’ →

Metropolis

The Survey Begins

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Guest post by SHVETA SARDA

LNJP is an old settlement at the edge of old Delhi, opposite Turkhman Gate, beside the LNJP hospital, from which it gets its name. It began to be settled in the late ’60s, and is now home to about 12000 people. With the planned changes in the city ahead of the Commonwealth Games, LNJP, one of the oldest and last surviving settlements, has also now been earmarked for eviction and demolition.

The survey that precedes demolition has begun in LNJP. A survey is conducted by representatives from the Slum Department of the Municipal Corporation, to produce knowledge about the settlement to be demolished, in order to ascertain how many of its residents are eligible for resettlement. According to a Central Government order of 2000, all those who have lived in a settlement since before 1998 are eligible for resettlement; those who have lived there since before 1990 will be allotted plots of 18 sq m, and those who settled there between 1990 and 1998 will be alloted 12.5 sq m. Continue reading The Survey Begins →

Law

When it’s not defamation

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In the context of the ongoing discussion on defamation and the Indian internet space, it may be useful to point out that an act of criticism has ten defences before it can be called defamation and the speaker/writer be sentenced to simple imprisonment for two years. Continue reading When it’s not defamation →

Culture, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

SS Stormtroopers attack OBCs celebrating Shiv Jayanti

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(Apologies for posting a mere press release, but it’s something important and yet I don’t think it will be ‘interesting’ enough for the ‘national’ media to pick up. This is not to take sides at all, because there are no sides to take.)

RASHTRIYA SAMAJ PAKSH

PRESS RELEASE

Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, Shiv Jayanti meeting attacked by Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai

The Shiv Sena once again proves that it is a Brahmanical party by attacking OBC’s

Mumbai – February 23, 2009

A meeting that was organized by the activists of the Kurla unit of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh (RSP) was attacked by Shiv Sainiks. The SS storm troopers, numbering 50, unleashed their fury on the meeting, shouting slogans, attacking the people and throwing chairs. The very fact that the Shiv Sainiks attacked Shiv Jayanti celebrations organized by the OBC (Other Backward Caste) activists, namely the Dhangar community (Shepherds) has once again exposed the Manuwadi – Brahmanical character of the Shiv Sena. Continue reading SS Stormtroopers attack OBCs celebrating Shiv Jayanti →