Category Archives: Democracy

Anti Muslim violence after June 4th election results: APCR

Report prepared by Association for Protection of Civil Rights

Although the BJP came back with a much reduced majority (or perhaps because of that) the agenda of anti Muslim violence has been ramped up.  We, the people of India, who restored the dignity of the Constitution, must continue to bear witness, continue to fight against the hate filled politics of Hindu Rashtra, continue to assert  – Not in My Name.

Sab yaad rakha jayega, as the poet Aamir Aziz says.

We will remember these names, and the names of thousands of Muslims killed by lynch mobs, who have had their livelihoods destroyed, whose faith has been insulted, who suffer imprisonment without any basis till today.

Sab yaad rakha jayega.

There has been total of eight lynching incidents after the results of the General Elections were announced on June 4, 2024.

  • Twenty-three-year-old Salman Vohra, who had gone to watch a cricket tournament match in Chikhodra, Gujarat on 22 June, was mercilessly beaten to death by a group of men.
  • Three Muslim men, residents of Uttar Pradesh, were brutally attacked by a Hindutva mob in Chattisgarh’s Raipur on 7 June. Saddam Qureshi and his cousin Chand Miya Khan (23), both from Saharanpur district, and Guddu Khan (35) from Shamli district, were transporting cattle when they were allegedly chased by a mob in Raipur; two died on the spot, while one died after 10 days.

Continue reading Anti Muslim violence after June 4th election results: APCR

How Women Were Publicly Humiliated in a Programme in India and Nobody Protested

Israel’s unending war against Palestine – with due support from the Western World – is widely known.

Less known is the fact that representatives of extreme patriarchal Judaism have unleashed a war of a different kind against women. (1)

With their growing ascent in social life their emphasis has been increasingly on segregation of women in public domain….including their being bundled to the back side of public transport buses. (2)

Much has already been written about situation of women in Muslim majority countries.

Right from they being denied right to education, one can cite numerous examples about the laws and customs which prohibit or restrict their participation in education, job or other professions or they being prohibited from mixed gatherings. (3)

India, which claims itself to be a tolerant country – which is celebrating 75 years of its ushering into Republic this year… had a glimpse of what it means to be women in a set up dominated by extreme patriarchal notions. ( Read the full article here :https://countercurrents.org/2024/07/how-women-were-publicly-humiliated-in-a-programme-in-india-and-nobody-protested/)

Return of the ‘Urban Naxal’ Bogey

What does it portend for the unfolding struggle to save the Constitution and reinvigorate democracy?

Despotic kings or autocratic leaders share one thing in common. They have an uncanny ability to live in their bubbles or not learning from the immediate or past history at their own peril.

Narendra Damodardas Modi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Pracharak (propagandist), who famously declared during elections held for the 18th Lok Sabha that he was ‘non-biological’, looks no different. He has returned as the Prime Minister of India – for the third time, albeit with a reduced majority and with support from mercurial allies. Yet, he still wants to believe that nothing has changed. The oath taking ceremony, where (barring Pakistan) leaders of other neighbouring countries were invited, looked like a coronation of sorts.

Much on the lines of a king from a literary fairy tale written by a legendary Danish author, he is going about his business with usual élan.

( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/return-urban-naxal-bogey)

Elections 2024 – After the Euphoria, What Next?

Representational image. Women voters in queue, image courtesy Hindustan Times

A Turning Point

We have all been justly euphoric since 4 June 2024 as results started pouring in, especially since the non-biological being himself was trailing behind the Congress candidate Ajay Rai for quite some time. If the claim made in a video of a hardcore BJP worker Ujjwal Kumar from Banaras is to be believed, they – the unsung workers – had to arrange for ‘extra votes’ to ensure that ‘he’ wins. Regardless of whether his claim is correct, we kept up our euphoria even as the ECI website stopped updating counting figures and reports kept coming in from different constituencies in UP and some other places that INDIA alliance candidates were being forcibly declared lost after having won.

Continue reading Elections 2024 – After the Euphoria, What Next?

‘Decoding the Verdict’ : Prof Zoya Hasan and Dr Ajay Gudavarthy

Democracy Dialogues Series 32

Theme : ‘Decoding the Verdict’

Continue reading ‘Decoding the Verdict’ : Prof Zoya Hasan and Dr Ajay Gudavarthy

‘Waterloo’ in Ayodhya : Who Is Stigmatising Hindus Now ?

The debacle faced by BJP at Ayodhya-Faizabad is a big loss of face for the party and the broader Sangh Parivar.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

– George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.

Zor ka Jhataka Dheere Se Lage‘ (roughly translated ‘powerful jolt felt lightly’)

The catch line of a song – or perhaps a famous ad campaign – very well describes the reverses faced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently held Lok Sabha elections.

Continue reading ‘Waterloo’ in Ayodhya : Who Is Stigmatising Hindus Now ?

Stop ‘Pooja Archana’, Bow Before Preamble in Court Premises

Towards 75 years of adopting the Constitution, it is time for a new beginning.

‘Secularism is the religion of humanity …. It is a protest against theological oppression, against ecclesiastical tyranny, against being the serf, the subject or slave of any phantom, or of the priest of any phantom. “

– Robert Green Ingersoll

Simple ideas are perhaps the most difficult to implement.

For a country of around 1.4 billion, which has witnessed internecine violence on religious lines at the time of Independence, and which has turned a new leaf by adopting a Constitution based on secularism, which abhorred even mentioning the word God, why it is still difficult to avoid religious rituals in public domain, at least in the precincts of the courts?

Continue reading Stop ‘Pooja Archana’, Bow Before Preamble in Court Premises

When a State Breaks Its Own Laws !

The model of vigilante justice, i.e, bulldozer politics, by the State itself is a phenomenon that has gained fresh legitimacy during the past decade under Modi.

Under what law can they demolish a house for an offence that hasn’t been proved?”

  • Former SC Justice Madan Lokur.

..police cannot, “under the guise of investigation”, bulldoze anyone’s house without permission, and if such practices continue then “nobody is safe in this country” ..: “Show me from any criminal jurisprudence that for investigating the crime, the police, without any order, can uproot a person, apply a bulldozer. .”

There are interventions of courts which are considered to be ‘breaking new grounds’.

The Gauhati High Court’s judgement in the ‘illegal demolitions’ at Salonabari (May 2022) was one such occasion.

The two-judge bench of the high court led by Chief Justice RM Chhaya and Justice Soumitra Saikia had come down heavily on the demolitions executed without following any procedure and declared such actions ‘illegal’ and compared the police actions akin to a ‘gang war’ and ordered compensation to the victims as well as actions against guilty officials.

Two years later, this issue was again before high courts recently, as the affected families had approached it for the government’s dilly dallying on compensation and actions against officials.

Much water has flown down the Brahmaputra and its tributary rivers during this period. ( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/when-state-breaks-its-own-laws)

Towards a ‘Suitable’ Ambedkar and a ‘New’ Dalit ! 

How Ten Years of Modi Regime Has Undermined Constitutional Rights to Dalits

Image courtesy: Wikimedia commons

If the fundamental rights are opposed by the community, no Law, no Parliament, no Judiciary can guarantee them in the real sense of the word”,..“What is the use of fundamental rights to the Negro in America, to the Jews in Germany and to the untouchables in India. As Burke said there is no method found for punishing the multitude’

– Ambedkar

Introduction

Within less than a fortnight we will have a new government in power.

Indian people normally make a judicious choice while electing their representatives, their government and this year won’t be different.

One can recall their wisdom when their united resistance helped unseat Indira Gandhi regime after the emergency (1977) or their concerted action could overthrow the Vajpayi government ( 2004) despite the much hyped ‘India Shining’ rhetoric pushed by it.

Today also ground currents definitely suggest change is in the air.

People’s desire to defeat the Republic of Hate which is pushed before them and regain their Republic of Hope seems overwhelming. 

As already expressed by scholars, political activists, concerned citizens, if the elections remain free and fair, if the various guardrails of democracy can remain true to their mandate , we will have real ‘Acche Din‘ waiting for us.

It is an opportune time to look back and see how this much trumpeted regime fared in the last decade in various aspects of India’s society and state.

It is opportune to see how the ‘New India’ – which we have supposedly ushered in – has fared via-v-vis Dalits. What follows is not an exhaustive picture of the last decade of Modi rule but a cursory glance at the issue at hand.

Perhaps it would be opportune to begin with RSS Supremo Mohan Bhagwat’s interview in the wee hours of Modi’s reign as PM. ( Read the full article here : https://countercurrents.org/2024/05/towards-a-suitable-ambedkar-and-a-new-dalit-how-ten-years-of-modi-regime-has-undermined-constitutional-rights-to-dalits/

How BJP Covers Betrayals in Glory

The Right-wing party has been justifying and legitimising Mir Jafar, Mir Sadiq and associates, while demonising Siraj-ud-Daulah and Tipu Sultan.

The tomb of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Elections to the 18th Lok Sabha have broken records in many ways.

Right from the arrests of Opposition leaders on the eve of elections, the spinelessness shown by the Election Commission (EC) to the open mouthing of hateful speeches targeting a community by top members of the ruling dispensation, to complete metamorphosis of the mainstream media into a cheerleader of the government, all such signs are ominous for the future of democracy in the country.

May be one should add to it the open justification by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of the betrayal by the likes of Mir Jafar and his associates like Raja Krishnachandra Roy, Jagat Seth, Omi Chand — which lead to defeat of the Siraj-ud-Daulah (1733-July 2,1757), the last independent Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey, which ultimately opened the gates of conquest of the rest of India by the Britishers.

If 2019 elections are still remembered because BJP had fielded candidates who were accused of involved in terrorist acts, the 2024 elections would also be remembered how they helped betrayals covered in glory. ( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/how-bjp-covers-betrayals-glory)


( For a Hindi version of this article access this link : https://thewirehindi.com/275497/west-bengal-bjp-amrita-roy-battle-of-plassy-krishnanagar-loksabha/)

The Political Economy of New India : Dr Parakala Prabhakar

Democracy Dialogues Lecture 31 :

Speaker: 

Dr Parakala Prabhakar

Author, economist and public intellectual

Theme :

The Political Economy of New India

Time : 

6 PM (IST), Sunday, 26 th May 2024

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85326195073?pwd=UE4yeGxaU1RLWkhJMWZTTG1aamZIZz09

Meeting ID: 853 2619 5073
Passcode: 134090

The lecture will also be livestreamed on facebook :  facebook.com/newsocialistinitiative.nsi

About the Speaker and His Talk :

Dr. Parakala Prabhakar, is an author, economist, and public intellectual.
He  served as Communications Advisor, held a cabinet rank position in Andhra Pradesh Government between July 2014 and June 2018. He was also a former spokesman and one of the founding general secretaries of Praja Rajyam Party.

For several years he presented a current affairs discussion programme on television channels of Andhra Pradesh. His programmes included Pratidhwani on ETV2 and Namaste Andhra Pradesh on NTV  .

His book of essays ‘The Crooked Timber of New India : Essays on a Republic in Crisis‘ was widely discussed.

Dr Parakala completed his doctorate from the London School of Economics. He did his Master of Arts (M.A.) and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.

About the Talk :

Relentless in exposing the sinister nature of the communal politics of the current ruling dispensation and meticulous in exposing the voodoo economic policies pursued by them which are disastrous to the Indian economy, Dr Parakala Prabhakar is going to speak on ‘The Political Economy of New India’ in this lecture.

बढ़ती जनसंख्या का डर: असलियत और फसाना

May 11, 2024

आधा ज्ञान या आधी जानकारी हमेशा ही खतरनाक साबित होती है।

2021 की जनगणना तक करने में फिसड्डी साबित हो चुकी मोदी सरकार की इकोनॉमिक एडवाइजरी काउंसिल की तरफ से चुनावों  के ऐन बीच जारी आंकड़े शायद यही कहानी कहते हैं। इस रिपोर्ट के जरिए 1951 से 2015 के कालखंड के दौरान विभिन्न समुदायों की आबादी में हुए परिवर्तनों के आंकड़े पेश किए गए, जिसमें हिन्दुओं, जैनियों तथा अन्य धार्मिक अल्पसंख्यकों की आबादी मे कुल गिरावट देखने को मिली है, जबकि मुसलमानों की आबादी बढ़ी है। और इस रिपोर्ट को लेकर सत्ताधारी पार्टी के प्रवक्ताओं ने तथा मुख्यधारा के गोदी चैनलों ने जनसंख्या का हौवा दिखाते हुए बहस भी छेड़ने की कोशिश की ।

पीटीआई की तरफ से जारी यह आंकड़े इस प्रकार थे:

वर्ष 1951 से 2015 के बीच जहां हिन्दुओं की आबादी में 7.8 फीसदी की घटोत्तरी हुई वहीं मुसलमानों की आबादी 43.1 फीसदी बढ़ी। अगर हम आंकड़ों का ब्रेकअप करें तो 1950 में जहां आबादी में हिन्दुओं की तादाद 84.68 फीसदी थी तो वह 2015 में 78.06 फीसदी तक पहुंची थी , जबकि मुसलमानों की आबादी जहां 1950 में कुल आबादी का 9.84 फीसदी थी तो 2015 में वह 14.09 फीसदी तक पहुंची। भारत के जैन समुदाय के बारे में भी बताया गया कि उनकी आबादी देश की कुल आबादी के 0.45 फीसदी से लेकर 0.36 फीसदी तक कम हुई है।

पुराने आंकड़े-नया रंगरोगन ?

सबसे पहली बात यह है कि इकोनॉमिक एडवाइजरी काउंसिल की तरफ से जारी इन आंकड़ों  में नया कुछ नहीं है। 2011 तक जो जनगणना का सिलसिला विधिवत चला है, उसके बाद यह आंकड़े पहले से ही चर्चा में रहे हैं। ( Read the full article here : https://janchowk.com/beech-bahas/fear-of-increasing-population-reality-and-trap/)

The Unending Discomfort of RSS With the Constitution

The Vajpayee government tried to change the Constitution, but lost in 2004. We must be vigilant, as a similar chorus is being raised again by Hindutva Supremacist forces.

..make India an independent sovereign republic and guarantee and secure for all the people of India social, economic and political justice; equality of status and  opportunities and equality before law; and fundamental freedoms—of speech,  expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action—subject to law and public morality;

and also ensure that

adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed and other backward classes.

(Excerpts of Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly, moved by Pandit Nehru on December 13, 1946 and adopted unanimously by the Constituent Assembly on January 22, 1947)

It was just another press conference in the national capital.

The only difference was that it was held at the house of a member of Parliament belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party then…

This was on December 25, 1992. Less than three weeks before India had witnessed one of its deeply troubling, disturbing moment in its history where a mosque, which stood for more than 500 years, had been demolished by a horde of people who had gathered there from different parts of the Country, mobilised by the forces of Hindutva supremacism.

..Swami Muktanand and Vamdeo Maharaj, who were closely associated with the Ram Mandir movement (India Today, January 31, 1993) addressed the press meet.

This Constitution is anti Hindu‘ and needs to be rejected.”We have no faith in country’s laws‘ and ‘Sadhus are above the law of the land‘.’

..The press meet ended rather abruptly.

Journalists, who had gathered there to hear something about the movement, felt cheated that what unfolded there was an anti-climax.

Little did they have a premonition that the press meet was just an opening shot and more was coming. ( Read the full text here : https://www.newsclick.in/unending-discomfort-rss-constitution)

भारतीय संविधान और हिंदुत्व के पैरोकारों की अंतहीन बेचैनी

लोकसभा चुनाव के प्रचार के कई भाजपा नेता संविधान बदलने के लिए बहुमत हासिल करने की बात दोहरा चुके हैं. उनके ये बयान नए नहीं हैं, बल्कि संघ परिवार के उनके पूर्वजों द्वारा भारतीय संविधान के प्रति समय-समय पर ज़ाहिर किए गए ऐतराज़ और इसे बदलने की इच्छा की तस्दीक करते हैं.

कुछ तारीखें हर जम्हूरियत की तवारीख में सदा के लिए अंकित हो जाती हैं.

6 दिसंबर 1992 ऐसी ही एक तारीख है. इस घटना के तीन सप्ताह के अंदर दिल्ली में एक प्रेस सम्मेलन हुआ था. 25 दिसंबर 1992 को स्वामी मुक्तानंद और वामदेव महाराज, जो राम मंदिर आंदोलन से क़रीब से जुड़े थे, उन्होंने मौजूदा संविधान को बदलने की बात छेड़ दी और कहा कि यह संविधान ‘हिंदू विरोधी है’. (इंडिया टुडे, 31 जनवरी 1993 )

एक सप्ताह बाद 1 जनवरी 1993 को स्वामी मुक्तानंद के नाम से हिंदूवादी संगठनों की तरफ से एक श्वेत पत्र जारी किया गया, जिसमें भारतीय संविधान को ‘हिंदू विरोधी’ घोषित किया गया था. श्वेत पत्र के कवर पेज पर दो प्रश्न पूछे गए थे: एक, ‘भारत की एकता, बंधुत्व और सांप्रदायिक सद्भाव को नष्ट किसने किया?’ और ‘ किसने भुखमरी, गरीबी, भ्रष्टाचार और अधर्म फैलाया ?’

श्वेत पत्र का शीर्षक इस प्रश्न का जवाब दे रहा था , ‘वर्तमान इंडियन संविधान’!

( Read the full text here : https://thewirehindi.com/273053/bjp-rss-and-their-desire-to-change-indian-constitution/)

In New India, No Ambedkar Readings ?

How a Central university is being allowed to humiliate/ stigmatise Ambedkar and a conspiracy of silence still pervades it.

Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtra is again in the news for wrong reasons. It has been more than around four months that a unique initiative of doing readings from Ambedkar has been forcibly stopped, show-cause notices being issued and even punitive action being taken against Dalit teachers, but there is no murmur of protest about it and despite being in the know of these developments, the top bosses of the UGC or University Grants Commission are silent over it.

Stop readings on Ambedkar in open in University Campus, it could endanger the “safety and health of (participating) students and reputation of the university

The news of this unbelievable diktat by an educational institution remained dormant for a day.

Expectedly, the tremendous nationwide uproar about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election speech in Banswara, which is considered his most ‘divisive’ in last 30 years, overshadowed other similar urgent issues.

The institution under scanner for this diktat to teachers is Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtraa Central university. You would recall that some time ago, this institution had similarly attracted eyeballs when a team of Hindi research scholars from China had visited it. A visit that was followed by this team’s meeting with RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) leaders at their headquarters in Nagpur.

What is rather troubling to note is that it has been more than four months that this unique experiment of doing readings from Ambedkar, in open, which was an initiative undertaken by the Dalit teachers of the vishwidyalaya, under the informal group called Ambedkar Study Circle India, stands forcibly stopped, show-cause notices being issued to teachers involved and even punitive action taken against three of them, but a conspiracy of silence has pervaded it.

What must have prompted this action by the University administration against the teachers, who were were just following the UGC recommended Code of Professional Ethics?  ( Please read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/new-india-no-ambedkar-readings)

Nari Shakti – A report card for the 2024 Elections: Bahutva Karnataka

Statement released by Bahutva Karnataka, a forum of concerned citizens and organisations


“Nari Shakti” was invoked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ in 2022. Since then it has been highlighted as an important plank by the BJP. This report looks at how women have fared over the last decade and outcomes of key women focused initiatives.

Violence against Women

Claim: Women’s security will be given more priority (BJP Manifesto, 2019).

“India has been shamed by a string of high-profile rapes and sexual attacks on women….Our heads hang in shame when we hear about rapes….Why can’t we prevent this?”

–   Narendra Modi, 2014

“Women security is UP government’s top priority

  • CM Yogi Adityanath

Reality: Crimes against women and sexual violence have increased in 10 Years of Modi Rule Continue reading Nari Shakti – A report card for the 2024 Elections: Bahutva Karnataka

But what about Love? Hyderabad and the 2024 Elections PART II: R. Umamaheshwari

Guest Post by R UMAMAHESHWARI

Second part of a two part article. Part I A City Built on Love can be found here.

A wedding party travelling by night depicting Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah of Golconda (r.1580-1612) bringing home his bride, the beautiful Hindu dancing-girl Bhagmati. (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)

Compared to the more complicated record of the last Nizam of Hyderabad, the popular memory of Mohammad Quli Qutb Shah continues to be one associated with love.

It was Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah who sincerely prayed for his city, his Fakhunda Buniyad (the city with fortunate foundations) or Bhagnagar – “mera shahar logan su mamur kar, rakhyan jun tun darya mein min ya sami” (fill my city with people, as you would a river with fish). And he did not pray for only certain species or kinds of fish.

And so, we now have Greater Hyderabad, starting from that one prayer. He ruled from 1565 to 1611 over the kingdom of Golconda – for 31 years and died at the age of 46. He built the capital city of Hyderabad and many architectural wonders, the most famous among them being Charminar (1591), the Jami (Mecca) Masjid (1597), and the Darush Shifa (1595) – which housed a Unani hospital, many gardens, palaces and so forth.

Muhammad Quli also poured his heart out in other ways, such as in ghazals, Marsiya (elegy), Rekhti (“women expressing sentiments for men in a language exclusively spoken by them”), and so on. Some of these (as recorded in the book by Narendra Luther, Prince, Poet, Lover, Builder Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, The Founder of Hyderabad, Publications Division, Government of India, 1991), being relevant to the times, are reproduced below. Continue reading But what about Love? Hyderabad and the 2024 Elections PART II: R. Umamaheshwari

A City built on Love – Hyderabad and the 2024 elections PART I: R. Umamaheshwari

Guest post by R UMAMAHESHWARI.

First part of a two part article. Part II But What About Love? is available here.

[From a painting (artist not mentioned) in Narendra Luther, Prince, Poet, Lover, Builder Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, The Founder of Hyderabad, Publications Division, Government of India, 1991]

Backdrop

This is a two-part article on the current electoral battle for the Hyderabad constituency between what is ostensibly being perceived (in some circles) as a contest between majority and minority fundamentalism, represented by BJP’s Madhavi Latha and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi, respectively. But this is a staid and limited perspective. More to it lies in its history being re-configured in a linear and straitjacketed manner by the Hindutva politics, to the exclusion of all else. Hence, this essay is in two parts: the present electoral contest set in context and second part (the final word) being that which always troubles Hindutva: Inter-faith Love, plural histories, of what made the city which is now contested, yet again.

Part 1 – Setting the Context

The entire stretch of Hyderabad between Golconda and Malakpet, approximately 20-25 kms, on the southern bank of the now slushy Musi River, is perceived as the ‘old’ city. The term itself has a relatively new genesis. Roughly 5 kilometers of road divides Charminar (in the ‘old’) from Abids (a commercial hub in the ‘new’ city), 5 kms from Golconda (in the ‘old’) to Mehdipatnam (in the new) and around 4 kms from Malakpet to Koti.

There are 16 revenue mandals in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad area, 6 of which are in the old city. These are – Charminar, Bandlaguda, Bahadurpura, Sayeedabad, Asifnagar and Golconda. Back in 2004, 500 of the 811 notified slums (of the 1800 squatter settlements) were in the old city.  Their numbers seem to have increased in recent times. Continue reading A City built on Love – Hyderabad and the 2024 elections PART I: R. Umamaheshwari

What is stopping the Government from Scrapping the Agnipath Scheme?

..‘Agnipath’ Still Simmers ..

‘The anger and anxieties over ‘Agnipath’ scheme – have not died down.

Gone is the period of open protests by youth and students and other ordinary people which rocked when the scheme was hastily announced (June 2022).

It does not mean that the youth are now happy about this scheme.

In an ambience of rising unemployment how is it possible to be happy about the fact that “[d]ue to the implementation of the Agniveer scheme, around 1.5 lakh candidates selected for the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy between 2019 and 2022 were allegedly denied joining.( 2)and all future possibilities of such an employment being closed forever.

Anyone who is keen to know how Agnipath has literally ‘destroyed’ thousands of jobs in military can take a tour of Kuchman City in Nagour ( Rajasthan) once a hub of more than 200 defence coaching academies preparing students from Rajasthan, Haryana and neighbouring parts of Western UP for entrance exams in Military..

…The anger and discontent of the Youth will continue to harm the ruling dispensation – whatever gloss they try to apply over the scheme. 

( Read the complete article here : https://countercurrents.org/2024/04/what-is-stopping-the-government-from-scrapping-the-agnipath-scheme/)

Secularism in a Religious Mode ?-  Gandhi’s Practice during Partition : Prof Sucheta Mahajan

Democracy Dialogues Lecture 30 :

Speaker: 

Professor Sucheta Mahajan

Centre for Historical Studies, JNU ( retd)

Date: Sunday, 28 th April, at 6 PM (IST)

Theme :

‘Secularism in a Religious Mode ?-  Gandhi’s Practice during Partition ‘

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The lecture will be live on facebook.com/newsocialistinitiative.nsi

Abstract :

The talk looks at the practice of Gandhi in his struggle against communalism in the years leading up to Partition. 

This is a hugely controversial subject with polarised positions taken by his followers and critics. 

The perspective of the talk emerges from Gandhi’s oft quoted but not heeded statement, My Life is My Message. The talk is a reading of a life text in this sense: Gandhi’s mission in Noakhali to mend the social fabric torn by communal riots and spread of communal ideology.

Gandhi’s search for a way out may offer some insights to those sharing his concern for a secular, plural society and polity today.

About the Speaker :

Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, till the end of February 2023, Professor Mahajan has been visiting professor and Fellow at different International and National  Institutions.

She was member of the prestigious international research projects such as SPECTRESS and CHCI-MELLON Crises of Democracy, Global Humanities Institute. She has authored and edited many books on India’s Independence Struggle, Partition, Challenge of Communalism, Composite Culture etc

Publications :

Towards Freedom: Documents on the Movement for Independence in India, 1947, Parts One
and Two, (edited and with an Introduction) OUP, 2013 and 2015.
Education for Social Change: MVF and Child Labour, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2008.
RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi- The Hindu Communal Project (with
Aditya and Mridula Mukherjee) Sage Publications, 2008.
Composite Culture in a Multi-Cultural Society (Co-edited with Bipan Chandra), Pearson India & National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2006. 
Rites of Passage, A Civil Servant Remembers: H.M. Patel, (ed.), Rupa & Co., New Delhi,2005.
Independence and Partition: The Erosion of Colonial Power in India, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2000. 

 

Militarising Minds, Hindutvaising the Nation | Training Future Military Leaders Imbued in Hindutva Supremacism?

How the policy of PPP (Public Private Partnership) Model in Sainik Schools is counter to all Constitutional principles and values

Representation Image

In a controversial and much reviled decision, the union government under prime minister, Narendra Modi “decided” to hand over “67 per cent of Sainik Schools to the Sangh Parivar (and its allied organisations who are self-acclaimed majoritarian and unconstitutional), BJP Politicians and allies. This investigation was undertaken by meticulous examination by the Reporter’s Collective and became public on April 3, 2024. This piece looks at the gross implications of this move.

“It’s the day of resurrection…”:

Swami Avdheshanand Giri after Pran Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya[1]


1.  A Memorial For a Supremo

‘Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir’ Shikarpur Tehsil, Bulandshahr.

It was October 2020 when a Sainik School for boys was inaugurated in Shikarpur Tehsil of Bulandshahr District.[2] Right from Indresh Kumar, or Ram Lal, to Mahant of Junagarh Avadheshanand Giri, a seer supposed to be close to the proponents of Hindutva, many leading lights of the RSS and its frontal organisations or co-travellers of their ideology attended the high profile function.

The event made headlines for several reasons:

One, it was called the ‘first Sainik School of RSS’.

Two, a whooping sum of Rs 40 crores was supposed to be spent over it – thanks to the largesse extended by the union (Modi) government.

Thirdly, it was one of those rare occasions when RSS had moved beyond its founder member Dr Hedgewar to build memorials. Remember Rajendra Singh alias Rajju Bhaiya (1922-2003) was the first non-Brahmin and non-Maharashtrian Supremo of RSS from 1994-2000.  This Sainik School is located in the same place where he (Raju Bhaiya) was born.

Normally, an idea to start a school is met with jubilation. This one however had the opposite effect.  There were voices of concern raised by educationists, social activists as well as political leaders,

The added concern was that Vidya Bharati, the education wing of the RSS – which already runs 20,000 schools across India – would now also be running this military school although there was a clarification that this Army School will follow the CBSE curriculum and will have classes running from Class 6 to Class 12.

The same Vidya Bharatii (of the RSS’) whose stated mission is  

“To develop a National System of Education which would help building a generation of young men and women that is committed to Hindutva and infused with patriotic fervour”. [3]

Questioning the whooping sum of Rs 40 crores which would be spent over it, Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the Samajwadi {arty (SP) and former Chief Minister of UP, had, at the time, underlined that since we already have enough such institutions “[r]un by the government so where is the need for RSS to run its own army school,”[4]

He did not hide his apprehensions about what curriculum be taught there.

“RSS apparently wanted to serve its political purpose by opening the army school where the students will “probably be taught lessons in mob lynching and disrupting social harmony”.[5]

The concern expressed by many about this project could not be brushed aside easily. It is a different matter that in today’s mediatised world, things move with such a speed that the issue of a RSS run military school , the RBSVM – Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir – and the attendant furore soon died down. Little did anyone carry the premonition that the founding of RBSVM was just a trailer of what lay in store: asli film abhi baaki thi‘.

( Read the full article here : https://sabrangindia.in/militarising-minds-hindutvaising-the-nation-training-future-military-leaders-imbued-in-hindutva-supremacism/)