Yashwant Sinha is a worried man these days. He is apprehensive of his leader Narendra Modi being taken for a ride by the Congress party. He says that the Congress party is laying a trap for him, a trap of the binary of Communalism and Secularism and fears that his upward looking Narendra Modi might fall in it. So, well wisher that he is of Narendra Bhai, he wants to alert him: do not get entangled in the conspiracy of the wily Congress. He appeals to Narendra Modi to stick to people’s issues and not let the political discourse shift to the terrain of the Secularism versus Communalism debate. Continue reading The BJP’s very own Stalin
Category Archives: Bad ideas
The media monster of the juvenile offender: Enakshi Ganguly and Anant Asthana
This is a guest post by ENAKSHI GANGULY and ANANT ASTHANA
July 17 was an important day. Supreme Court announced its judgment refusing to interfere with the Juvenile Justice Act. This was with respect to the eight petitions that were filed in the wake of the alleged involvement of a juvenile in the rape and murder of a 23 year young girl on December 16, 2012. The boy, who was found to be below 18 years, was described by the media as the most heinous of the rapists, a monster and a beast, and even the main accused—and this even before the police had filed the charge –sheets based on statements of the witnesses and evidence gathered. Should there be a fair judicial process that decides the case based on scrutiny of relevant facts or should we let media undertake a trial? Continue reading The media monster of the juvenile offender: Enakshi Ganguly and Anant Asthana
Fear and the Predicament Facing Muslims in Sri Lanka
A Muslim lecturer friend some time ago described a troubling moment. The incident took place when he pulled into the parking lot of a supermarket with his wife few weeks ago. As they got out of the car, a group of men standing by first stared at his wife, who was wearing a headscarf, and then looked intently at him. In a split second, his day was disturbed; he reflected on this moment for quite some time. Was this a harmless gaze or did it reflect a change in attitude towards Muslims? My friend described his own reaction to that momentary stare as one that brought on fear. What did he fear? And why?
The Muslim community is in a state of fear in Sri Lanka. That is what many Muslim intellectuals, activists and community leaders have been saying in recent months at various forums. Do they fear the fringe groups mobilising Sinhala Buddhist nationalism against the Muslim community? Or is it the reception of anti-Muslim rhetoric by broader sections of the Sinhala community? Or is this fear rooted in the support given to such extreme forces by the ruling regime? Or is it fear of the Sri Lankan state itself, responsible for the security of its Muslim citizenry? Continue reading Fear and the Predicament Facing Muslims in Sri Lanka
Kathikudam – Rabid War on the People: Faizi S
Shri Oomen Chandi
Chief Minister of Kerala
Dear Shri Oomen Chandi,
I am shocked to hear from colleagues in Kathikoodam of the brutal attack by the police on the people peacefully removing the illegally laid effluent pipe of the Nitta Gelatin Company. The people were discharging the legal responsibility of removing the pipe laid through a private citizen’s land without his consent and through the Panchayat land against the order of the Panchayat. While it was the natural duty of the police to support the Panchayat and the people in enforcing the Panchayati Raj Act of Kerala, they launched a rabid war on the people. Continue reading Kathikudam – Rabid War on the People: Faizi S
We do not want to see a repeat-performance of Muthanga: Appeal against Police Violence at Kathikudam
[When he finished recounting a glorious story of struggle by fisher folk against an obnoxious, oppressive feudal lord in a coastal village in Kerala, a senior activist told me: “But we can’t rest … the places where the poor live in Kerala are being taken over again … this time to be waste-dumps of the rich. This village can’t be an exception.” He was referring to the heavy pollution caused by the high-end pleasure resorts mushrooming around the village. Indeed, in all districts of Kerala, local struggles are becoming all the more frequent against the pillage of the earth to satisfy consumerist greed of the predatory rich and the shameless dumping of waste in areas where the poor live. The people of Kathikudam have been fighting a long battle — not just against the Nitta Gelatine factory’s heavily polluting practices which have nearly destroyed the Chalakudi river, wetlands in the area, extracting a huge toll on animal, and plant life in the region and causing immense difficulties to local people there. They are also condemning the company’s stealthy attempts to dump waste in distant border adivasi areas. Yesterday the police unleashed bestial violence against protestors, which has been widely condemned in the state.
Below is an appeal in protest signed by concerned intellectuals and activists. If the present UDF government considers itself to be above being a bunch of wheeler-dealers whose sole interest is grabbing the crumbs that fall from the table of predatory capital, they must act decisively and justly against this wanton disrespect to democracy on the part of the police they control. Those who wish to endorse the appeal may please indicate so in the comments]
We, the undersigned, are shocked to hear and read about the unfortunate and avoidable response of the police in the handling of the peaceful protest against thee pollution by Nitta Gelatin Company Limited has been creating in the village of Kathikudam in Thrissur District of Kerala.
The police attack on the protest has been brutal and the violence is against the people of the village who have been denied justice in the wake of insufferable pollution, which has been causing severe damage to the air, water, soil and agriculture of this region for three decades. This is what prompted the protestors to take action in the form of removing the pipe that carries effluents to the river. Continue reading We do not want to see a repeat-performance of Muthanga: Appeal against Police Violence at Kathikudam
Still No Justice for Khalid Mujahid : Country Be Not Proud !
Lucknow, July 19: Frustrated with the continuation of Rihai Manch’s indefinite dharna demanding justice for Khalid Mujahid, the Uttar Pradesh government last night removed the tent at dharna site, forcing the protestors into the open sun. Today braving incessant rain, the rights activists continued their protest.
Rihai Manch started the dharna on 20th May, demanding arrest of the officers named accused by Mujahid’s family in the FIR and action on the recommendation of the RD Nimesh Commission. Mujahid was killed in police custody on 18th May. He was abducted by police in Dec. 2007 and later implicated in a terror case. The RD Nimesh Commission appointed by the previous state government of Mayawati declared Mujahid’s arrest as fake and illegal.
(http://muslimmirror.com/eng/up-govt-removes-tent-rihai-manch-continues-dharna-under-open-sky/)
Wily strategists meet their nemesis at relative strangers hands. This old dictum is getting once again vindicated in the supposed ‘heartland’ of India namely UP.
A dead Khalid Mujahid, who lies buried in his native village, is proving to be the undoing of the mighty Mulayam Singh Yadav ‘led’ government. It has been more than two months that Khalid Mujahid – who along with Tariq Qasmi was languishing in jail for more than five years, for a ‘crime’ he never committed, as proved by the state government appointed Nimesh commission itself – died a mysterious death in police custody, (18 th May 2013) but this issue is still hogging headlines in a section of the regional media. Continue reading Still No Justice for Khalid Mujahid : Country Be Not Proud !
Pabnava to Natham: Whatever Happened to the Struggle for Annihilation of Caste!
Dalit residents of Pabnava, district Kaithal, Haryana would never be able to forget this year’s birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The intervening nights of April 13 and 14 would forever remain etched on their minds. They still shiver when they remember how a four hundred strong mob of the local landowning community called Ror Marathas, armed with spears, batons and other sharp edged weapons, attacked the basti and ransacked more than 200 houses and left 6 dalits injured. It was supposedly to avenge the ‘dishonour’ wrought on them by a dalit youth who had dared to marry one of ‘their girls’.
To quote Raji, one of the victims, ‘..they came like a tornado’.
One could easily notice simmering tension in the village since a few days, as news had come in that Meena (21) daughter of an influential Ror Maratha from the village called Pirthi Singh had married a dalit boy Suryakant s/o Mahendra Pal and had eloped with him. Continue reading Pabnava to Natham: Whatever Happened to the Struggle for Annihilation of Caste!
The David Headley Lies Continue: There is Nothing ‘New’ About It
This release from the JUSTICE FOR ISHRAT JAHAN CAMPAIGN comes to us via Manisha Sethi.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” This is a quote often misattributed to the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. So widely is it believed to have been the key to Goebbelsian propaganda that it often employed by those whose politics is inspired by Goebbels’s Feuhrer.
This is exactly what we are seeing in this frenzied rush to pronounce Ishrat Jahan as a Lashkar operative by a section of media and commentators friendly to the ‘IB sources’.
Knowing full well that CBI’s mandate is only to enquire into the nature of the encounter – to probe whether Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in cold blood – and realizing increasingly that the CBI investigation is leading to the unraveling of a plot so sordid that serious questions are going to be raised about the manner in which certain elements within the IB and agencies cynically used national security issues for vested interests, there is an attempt to pop up red herrings. False questions, planted stories, lies, fabrications – anything that will take the focus away from the guilt of those who conspired to abduct, drug and kill a teenaged college girl.
Continue reading The David Headley Lies Continue: There is Nothing ‘New’ About It
The BJP’s 2014 bid: A state-wise look and three key states where Modi may be risking party fortunes : Manish Dubey
This is a guest post by MANISH DUBEY: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lacks effective presence in several States, including large ones such as Andhra Pradesh (AP), Kerala, Tamil Nadu (TN) and West Bengal (WB) and others in the North-east (NE) barring Assam to an extent, and is unlikely to mount a credible challenge in the 168 Lok Sabha (LS) seats these account for. Its 2014 tally from these States will remain in the lower single digits, as it was in 2004 and 2009. Odisha and Punjab, with 34 LS seats between them, are unlikely to add substantially to the party’s tally either. In Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Indian National Congress (INC) are better entrenched. In Punjab, seat sharing arrangements with the locally dominant partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)- Badal, will limit potential (individual) pickings for the party. Pickings are also likely to be limited from Jharkhand (14 LS seats) where besides the INC, a number of regional parties, each with strong local bases and candidates, would be in the fray. Till recently, even Karnataka (28 LS seats) would not have provided much hope but things may look up a trifle with Yeddyurappa reportedly negotiating a return or at least some kind of electoral understanding.
The small States and UTs, i.e., those with 10 LS seats or lesser, account for 40 LS seats and the BJP has a mixed LS election record on these, a record much dependent its performance in Delhi’s 7 LS seats. Of the 284 LS seats (over half the 543 LS seats) accounted for by all the above mentioned States and UTs, a realistic tally for the BJP would be about 40, similar to that of the LS elections of 2004 (40 LS seats, including 18 from Karnataka) and 2009 (again 40 LS seats, including 19 from Karnataka) with potential gains in some places offset by a reduced tally in Karnataka (Yeddyurappa’s return or even an electoral understanding with him will reverse the misfortune of the recent Assembly elections only partly for the BJP). No Narendra Modi Magic is likely to boost the BJP’s tally here given mainly the state of the party itself. Continue reading The BJP’s 2014 bid: A state-wise look and three key states where Modi may be risking party fortunes : Manish Dubey
The shameful role of the Indian Supreme Court in the Emergency of 1975: Rajinder Sachar
This guest post by RAJINDAR SACHAR comes to us via the PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES.
Nations which do not remember their immediate past are in danger of repeating their tragic mistakes. This thought came to me on June 26th, 2013 (the Emergency day of 1975) when on random questioning of age group of 35 in the country (who are said to make up about half the population) I found that most of them did not know of any particular significance of the day – and more tragic, fairly large number of people above the age of 35 fared no better. Continue reading The shameful role of the Indian Supreme Court in the Emergency of 1975: Rajinder Sachar
पाकिस्तानी गाली नहीं है : अपूर्वानंद
लखनऊ के बारहवीं कक्षा के एक छात्र आदित्य ठाकुर ने हाल में विदेश मंत्रालय के सचिव को हाल में एक पत्र लिखकर तकलीफ जताई है कि भारत का संचार तंत्र , विशेषकर टेलिविज़न पड़ोसी मुल्कों के खिलाफ नफरत का प्रचार करता है. आदित्य ने यह पत्र ‘इंडिया न्यूज़’ नामक टी. वी. चैनल के एक कार्यक्रम से दुखी होकर लिखना तय किया. कार्यक्रम पाकिस्तान में पोलियो की बीमारी की समस्या पर केंद्रित था. ऊपरी तौर पर एक गंभीर मसले पर चर्चा करने के लिए बनाए इस कार्यक्रम का शीर्षक था, ‘लंगड़ा पाकिस्तान’. आदित्य ने लिखा है पूरा कार्यक्रम पाकिस्तान के बारे में प्रचलित ‘स्टीरियोटाइप’, उसके प्रति अपमानजनक और सनसनीखेज प्रसंगों से भरा पड़ा था.रिपोर्ट लगातार पाकिस्तान को ‘दुनिया को तबाह करने के सपने देखने वाला’ कह कर संबोधित कर रही थी. ‘बम का क्या करोगे पाकिस्तान , खाओगे?’ और ‘दो बूँद से मत डरो पाकिस्तान’ जैसे संवादों से कार्यक्रम की पाकिस्तान के प्रति घृणा जाहिर थी. Continue reading पाकिस्तानी गाली नहीं है : अपूर्वानंद
In Memory of a Puppy/ Ek Pillay Ki Yaad Mein
We’re singing Holi songs: Inayat Anaita Sabhikhi
Guest post by INAYAT ANAITA SABHIKHI: CGNet Swara is a voice based portal, where stories reported by citizen journalists are available for playback online on their website or through a regular mobile phone. By dialing the CGNet number, you can either record a message or listen to the previous four messages recorded on the server. This is primarily operating in the Central Gondwana region, a tribal belt in central India known to be economically and socially disadvantaged.
A reporter for CGNet Swara
The idea behind this, as explained by its founder, Shubhranshu Choudhury in this TEDx talk is to democratise the use of media. It is an attempt to combat the neglect and skewed approach of mainstream media towards this entire region and its people. Continue reading We’re singing Holi songs: Inayat Anaita Sabhikhi
Economic Democratisation in Sri Lanka
Even as there are important debates on a political solution to the national question, militarisation, Sinhala Buddhist nationalist mobilisation and authoritarianism, Sri Lanka is also going through a major neoliberal economic transformation. A recently formed Collective for Economic Democratisation has been engaging such matters through a political economic lens. Their recent editorial is on the political economy of devolution even as there is a major debate underway in Sri Lanka on the question of the powers to the provinces and a political solution. Their earlier editorial is on the rising costs of neoliberal policies in Sri Lanka. They have also published commentaries on urbanisation including on Colombo as a world-class city and the World Bank’s urbanisation policies in Sri Lanka. The website of the Collective for Economic Democratisation is also a useful resource of economic news and developments.
Lies, Damn Lies and NaMo – Why I do not support Modi and why you shouldn’t either: M Akhil
Guest Post by M AKHIL: Listen to the flourish. The stage is set, the side-kicks are in place and the sycophants are scampering tirelessly to welcome their emperor. Narendra Modi has started his journey to the high seat of Indraprastha.
Curiously enough, his current ride is being celebrated as a victory lap by his ardent supporters. A bit too quick, don’t you think? Especially for a man who was only a few years ago, in terrible danger of being convicted for one of the most gruesome state-sponsored genocides in the history of independent India. Of course, he hasn’t been convicted yet, but many of his ministers and close aides have been. Babu Bajrangi’s confessions on record must be more than enough proof for Modi’s culpability. 1 Alas! Facts get twisted in the most unimaginable ways as they threaten to blow away an edifice carefully built by a dominant plutocracy with immense help from the ‘State-Temple-Corporate Complex’. 2 Here, I shall attempt to bust the Modi bubble which is being ridiculously pumped up by the holy nexus, even as you are reading this. After all, the BJP is possibly the party with the highest following among Indian netizens and the online publicity team of the current supremo is meticulous. An alternative view will be stark, but hopefully it will serve as food for thought for those among us getting nauseated by the dominant narrative. Continue reading Lies, Damn Lies and NaMo – Why I do not support Modi and why you shouldn’t either: M Akhil
आत्मा से मुठभेड़ की चुनौती: अपूर्वानंद
इशरत जहाँ एक उन्नीस साल की लड़की थी जब वह मारी गई.शायद उसके बारे में इसके अलावा इस निश्चितता के साथ हम कुछ और कभी नहीं जान पाएंगे. इसकी वजह सिर्फ यह है कि जिन्हें इस देश में सच का पता लगाने का काम दिया गया है वे एक लंबे अरसे से झूठ को सच की तरह पेश करने का आसान रास्ता चुनने के आदी हो गए हैं. उनके इस मिथ्याचार पर कभी सवाल न खड़ा किया जा सके इसका सबसे अच्छा तरीका है राष्ट्र रक्षक की अपनी छवि का दुरुपयोग निस्संकोच करना. जो राष्ट्र की रक्षा करता है उसे उसकी रक्षा के लिए किसी को मात्र संदेह के आधार पर मार डालने का हक है, यह हमारे देश का सहज बोध है. सिर्फ अशिक्षितों का नहीं, उसने कहीं ज़्यादा राजनीति शास्त्र की किताबों से नागरिक अधिकारों का ज्ञान प्राप्त किए हुए स्नातकों का. उन सबका जिन्हें देश की जनता के पैसे से संविधान की हिफ़ाजत के लिए अलग-अलग काम सौंपे जाते हैं. और भी साफ़ कर लें, इन स्नातकों में भी उनका जो प्रशासनिक और पुलिस अधिकारी हैं, जासूसी के अलग-अलग महकमों से जुड़े ऑफिसर हैं, जिनकी असली पहचान कभी उजागर नहीं हो पाती. अगर दूसरे मुल्क में वे पकड़े जाएं तो वही देश उनसे हाथ धो लेता है जिसकी सुरक्षा में वे अपनी असली पहचान छिपाए फिरते हैं.
क्या कोई यह कहने की हिमाकत कर सकता है कि राष्ट्र-राज्य के खिलाफ साजिशें नहीं होतीं, कि राष्ट्र-विरोधी शक्तियों का अस्तित्व ही नहीं! यह बिलकुल अलग बात है कि राष्ट्र विरोधी का बिल्ला किन पर आसानी चस्पां किया जा सकता है और किन पर वह बिलकुल चिपकता ही नहीं. मसलन, इस्लामी राष्ट्र का तस्सवुर धर्मनिरपेक्ष भारतीय राष्ट्र के बिलकुल खिलाफ है, क्या इसके लिए किसी अतिरिक्त व्याख्या की आवश्यकता है? लेकिन यह समझना और समझाना टेढ़ी खीर है कि हिन्दू राष्ट्र की कल्पना भी उतनी ही राष्ट्रविरोधी है! आज से बीस साल पहले और आज भी खालिस्तान का ख़याल इस्लामी राष्ट्र जितना ही राष्ट्र विरोधी माना जाता था. Continue reading आत्मा से मुठभेड़ की चुनौती: अपूर्वानंद
Ishrat Jahan, Narendra Modi and the IB: How Not to be Non-Non Terrorist
The CBI charge-sheet in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case and its aftermath has led the BJP and supporters of Narendra Modi (within and without the Intelligence Bureau) to discover the joys of time travel. Apparently, David Coleman Headley’s testimony in 2010 (which says that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative) has given the Gujarat police officials a means to tell us why they killed Ishrat Jahan in 2004. Or, following on from Shivam Vij’s recent tweets, we could say: “The IB says that Headley says that Ishrat Jahan was a non-non terrorist…”
We will discuss more about this heady Headley testimony and ‘non-non terrorism’ later, but for now, let us admit that the secret of how a statement in the future can influence the unfolding an event six years in the past is known only to those who are partisan to Mr. Modi and his party. It is not for nothing that they call him a Yug Purush (‘The Man of Time’)- all times, past, present and future, can do his bidding, or so thinks the BJP. Continue reading Ishrat Jahan, Narendra Modi and the IB: How Not to be Non-Non Terrorist
Bodhgaya Bomb Blasts : Moving Beyond the ‘Usual Suspects’
I.
Encore!
Mr Praveen Swamy has ‘discovered’ the ‘usual suspects’ once again.
Narrating .'[t]he same old, depressing story of incompetence and apathy’ behind the Bodh Gaya bombings he has shared with the readers how “[I]ndia’s police and intelligence services knew there were plots to attack the temple.” and how “.. jihadists quite publicly announced they intended to attack Buddhist targets. ..From January, government sources have told Firstpost, the Intelligence Bureau had issued several warnings pointing to heightened risks to Buddhist religious targets in India, as a consequence of anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar.” [FirstPost]
Of course, after giving enough hints about who the perpetrators could be, he has been careful enough to add – supposedly to maintain objectivity of his profession that: Continue reading Bodhgaya Bomb Blasts : Moving Beyond the ‘Usual Suspects’
IB says Headley says it’s too hot…
…CBI says it’s the humidity.
While the implausibility of David Headley having named Ishrat Jahan as an LeT operative has already been called out, there’s another problem here. How does anyone cross-check IB’s claim considering none of us has access to Headley?
In other words, the IB can make any insinuation and say Headley said it and we’ll have to believe at as truth.
This is apart from the fact that the judicial process in the news is not about whether or not Ishrat Jahan was an LeT terrorist. It’s about whether she was murdered in cold blood by Gujarat police. To that extent the IB does have a point in arguing that it cannot be blamed for how a state government interprets its inputs. Technically, the IB cannot be held responsible for murder by Gujarat police. But does that mean the IB cannot or should not be held accountable for what inputs it sends across?
Anyway, I posted a series of satirical tweets the other day making fun of the use of David Headley to justify the murder of Ishrat Jahan. Here are some of them.
Hindustan Times continues IB’s campaign to vilify Ishrat Jahan: Justice for Ishrat Jahan Campaign
On 2nd July, Hindustan Times Delhi edition carried a story with the headline “Ishrat Jahan has links with Kashmir Separatists”. The content of the story contradicted this sensational claim. Even more stunningly, the same story, sans this malicious headline, appeared in the Ahmedabad edition of the newspaper. Originally a story by the paper’s Ahmedabad correspondent, Mahesh Langa, Delhi-based correspondent Abhishek Saran added his byline and headline in the Delhi edition. It was clear what his contribution to the story was.
A letter by Shamima Kauser’s lawyer Vrinda Grover to Hindustan Times forced them to withdraw the headline and print a correction the following day. Continue reading Hindustan Times continues IB’s campaign to vilify Ishrat Jahan: Justice for Ishrat Jahan Campaign
DU’s FYUP shall only increase chaos: Abha Dev Habib
Guest post by ABHA DEV HABIB: Delhi University has been in a state of utter chaos and confusion ever since admissions to the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) started with the announcement of the first cut-off list on 27 June 2013. For the first time windows were closed before time on the aspirants because of over admissions in various courses across colleges. Colleges could not have broken the rules in this manner without the backing of the DU administration. Students and parents knocked on every door including the Vice Chancellor’s but without any effect. Demanding justice, parents and students staged a dharna in one of the colleges – this too fell on deaf years. This was bound to happen with the situation of lawlessness at the University increasing day by day. The DU administration, with the support of the Government, has assumed a role beyond the bounds of rule books. Continue reading DU’s FYUP shall only increase chaos: Abha Dev Habib
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 