Category Archives: Law

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Education, Government, Identities, Language, Law, Media politics, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Who’s Afraid of JNU? Or, The Sedition That Wasn’t: Sania Hashmi

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This is a guest post by SANIA HASHMI

JNU Sedition

Over the past couple of days, Zee News has been declaring to the world that Lance Naik Hanumanthappa died because he’d rather not breathe the same air as we at JNU do. That this statement is the worst possible trivialisation of a martyr’s death which is being exploited for petty sensationalism by our own version of the fourth estate is a separate issue, too nerve-wracking to be given precedence over the tragedy that unfolded in our campus yesterday with the arrest of our democratically-elected President Kanhaiya Kumar. A Zee News screen grab showed the word ‘Deshdrohi’ in 72-pt screeching yellow font pasted across Kanhaiya’s unsuspecting face. What was his fault? As an eyewitness from ground zero who was present at Sabarmati at the time of the protest, let me begin by answering the obvious questions that despite the numerous clarifications on part of the students and the JNUSU on social media and elsewhere are meeting deaf ears. It is interesting how despite being told that the Students Union and the student body in general had nothing to do with it and have in no uncertain terms condemned any alleged slogan against our country, the trolls are still putting decibels to shame with the very same questions. And no, I am not just talking about Nupur Sharma. So yes, let me begin by putting a few things on record in respect of Kanhaiya’s arrest. Did Kanhaiya organise the event? NO. Did he raise anti-India slogans? NO. Did he hail Pakistan? NO. Did he intervene to prevent ABVP-instigated violence in his capacity as the President? YES. Has he been vocal against the brahmanical tyranny of the RSS? YES. Has he been tirelessly fighting for the Rohith Vemulas of this world? YES. Has he been a torchbearer for students’ rights across the country? YES. Is this why you have arrested him? Is this your justice? If this struggle for a just society is anti-national in your eyes, we all plead guilty! If this is your witch-hunt for people who cannot conform to your ideological blinkers, we all plead guilty! If we must be party to the violent hooliganism of the ABVP in order to be called patriotic, rest assured, we all plead guilty!

WATCH KANHAIYA KUMAR’S SPEECH HOURS BEFORE HIS ARREST TO SEE WHAT THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA CONSIDERS ANTI-NATIONAL. Clearly, Kumar’s fault was that he said in this speech that he doesn’t need the RSS’s certificate to be called a nationalist.

Continue reading Who’s Afraid of JNU? Or, The Sedition That Wasn’t: Sania Hashmi →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Culture, Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Government, Images, Law, Metropolis, Politics, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Tibetan Artists Silenced at Dhaka Art Summit: Ahmad Ibrahim

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This is a guest post by AHMAD IBRAHIM

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These pictures, which depict blank walls, are symbolic of the attack. Pictures of the original art cannot be shared due to copyright issues.

On the 7th of February, Tibetan artist Nortse and Indian artists Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam had their photographs and art installations removed at the behest of the Chinese ambassador to Dhaka from the Dhaka Art Summit taking place in Shilpakala Academy in the capital of Bangladesh. The art project by Nortse was titled Prayer Wheel, Big Brother and Automan (2007) which showed the artist don traditional Tibetan clothes along with modern objects to show the surveillance that marks their lives. .Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam produced a piece called “Last Words”, which consists of five facsmilies of five last messages written by the self-immolators in Tibet, along with their English translations. Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam depicted Tibetan monks in the act of self-immolation as a way of political and religious protest against the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese government. At the end of the 6th of February, both artists were still depicted on the walls of the Art Summit. On the 7th, what greeted the visitors and patrons were blank stretches of white wall with white frames. It was as if the works had never existed. This is not the first time the Chinese government has tried to shut down political art work that aims to show the real face of Chinese occupation of Tibet. What is even more reprehensible is that it happened inside the walls of an institution that was proclaiming itself to be a haven of bold art and artistic expression. That the Chinese government could go to such lengths to silence an exhibition happening thousands of miles away shows the depth of their oppression over an entire country. Since February 2009, 142 Tibetans have self-immolated in their homeland, 120 dying from their actions.

A link to Tenzing Sonam’s twitter:

A Facebook link to a picture when the exhibit was still standing. 

Ahmad Ibrahim is a Dhaka based journalist.

Debates, Law

Vocabulary of justice and being

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After the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in Suresh Kumar Koushal v. Naz Foundation (2014) overruling the Delhi High Court’s decision, the National University of Juridical Sciences brought out a special law review issue assessing the judgment. Prof. M.P. Singh, the constitutional scholar and former vice chancellor of the university, wrote an article praising the judgment for its judicial restraint, in which he described the use of constitutional litigation by sexual minorities as a case of “misplaced hope in courts”. Prof. Singh prefaced his article with a cautionary extract from Judge Learned Hand that warns us against “placing our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes”. Prof. Singh similarly suggests that what activists ought to do is to educate legislators rather than pin their hopes on the judiciary. Underlying these opinions seemed to be an unwritten rule of an economy of hope (that one could have a little but not too much of it) but the essential trait of hope is that it is greedy sentiment that demands the impossible, and the Naz judgment with its rich evocation of dignity, liberty and equality had already proven that we could not just demand but hope for the impossible.

Continue reading Vocabulary of justice and being →

Bad ideas, Government, Law, Left watch

Before I Speak of the Stars…Ravi Sinha

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Guest Post by Ravi Sinha

Let me speak first of Rohith Chakravarthi Vemula. I never met him. I wish I had, although that would have made me hardly any worthier of speaking about him. Had I met him, I would have come to know that I shared with him a passion for science, nature and stars. I would like to think that he would have found in me, despite my being from another generation, a comrade-in-arms and a fellow campaigner for a better world. Perhaps I would have also recognized a few of the scars left over from a childhood spent in poverty. But, there, the similarities would have ended.

We were born in the same country but at two different locations in the social universe. Distances separating these locations are not traversable – reason enough for this universe to collapse. Instead collapsed this remarkable young man who longed to be “treated as a mind” – “a glorious thing made up of stardust” – and who did not wish to be “reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility…to a vote…to a number…to a thing”. He was crushed under the weight of a millennial civilization. His end was precipitated by the malignant political forces ready to use state power to banish all reason and every shred of freedom from modern institutions and public sphere. He may have chosen the mode and the time of his death but it was an instance of a death foretold. In choosing death he has challenged the powers-that-be in a manner and with a force that no demons of deception, no army of liars and no battery of ministers can defend against. Continue reading Before I Speak of the Stars…Ravi Sinha →

Bad ideas, Debates, Law, Right watch

मालदा के कालियाचक की हिंसा ,  हिन्‍दू-मुसलमानों के बीच हिंसा नहीं

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कालियाचक के दौरे के बाद जेजेएसएस की टीम की शुरुआती रिपोर्ट

Guest Post by Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan (JJSS)

मालदा के कालियाचक में 3 जनवरी को हुई हिंसा, साम्‍प्रदायिक हिंसा नहीं दिखती है। इसे मुसलमानों का हिन्‍दुओं पर आक्रमण भी नहीं कहा जा सकता है। यह जुलूस में शामिल होने आए हजारों लोगों में से कुछ सौ अपराधिक प्रवृत्ति के लोगों का पुलिस प्रशासन पर हमला था। इसकी जद में कुछ हिन्‍दुओं के घर और दुकान भी आ गए। गोली लगने से एक युवक जख्‍मी भी हुआ। ये पूरी घटना शर्मनाक और निंदनीय है। ऐसी घटनाओं का फायदा उठाकर दो समुदायों के बीच नफरत और गलतफहमी पैदा की जा सकती है। यह राय मालदा के कालियाचक गई जन जागरण शक्ति संगठन (जेजेएसएस) की पड़ताल टीम की है।

हिन्‍दू महासभा के कथित नेता कमलेश तिवारी के पैगम्‍बर हजरत मोहम्‍मद के बारे में दिए गए विवादास्‍पद बयान का विरोध देश के कई कोने में हो रहा है। इसी सिलसिले में मालदा के कालियाचक में 3 जनवरी को कई इस्‍लामी संगठनों ने मिलकर एक विरोध सभा का आयोजन किया। इसी सभा के दौरान कालियाचक में हिंसा हुई। इस हिंसा को मीडिया खासकर इलेक्‍ट्रॉनिक मीडिया ने जिस रूप में पेश किया,  वह काफी चिंताजनक दिख रहा है। इस पर जिस तरह की बातें हो रही हैं, वह भी काफी चिंताजनक हैं। Continue reading मालदा के कालियाचक की हिंसा ,  हिन्‍दू-मुसलमानों के बीच हिंसा नहीं →

Excavation, Government, Law, Scams

Survey Report on Losses Sustained during Chennai Floods: Concerned Citizens and Activist Groups

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Guest Post on Chennai floods by CONCERNED CITIZENS AND ACTIVIST GROUPS  

[Earlier today we had published a post on the Chennai floods. The following is a report of a Survey on losses sustained during the floods, conducted by Arunodhaya: Centre for Street and Working Children; Bhavani Raman; Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG); Karen Coelho, Kavin Malar; Krishnaveni; Madhumita Dutta; Vettiver Collective; Prem Revathi; Priti Narayan; Students of Madras Christian College; TN Labour blog; and V. Geetha]

Sample Survey of Losses Sustained During Chennai Floods

With special reference to losses and damages of possessions, loss of workdays and damage to homes

January 2016

Executive summary

A group of concerned citizens involved in relief work post-Chennai floods, 20015 undertook a sample survey of 610 households (including migrants) across the city to assess losses suffered/damages incurred to homes, goods, occupational tools and also to get an idea of loss of working days. The purpose of this survey was to identify the exact quantum of losses sustained by the population and to direct government to compensate the populace for damages/loss accruing on account of the floods.

  • Places surveyed: Eekaduthangal, Jaffarkhanpet, Saidpet, Kotturpuram (Adyar flood plains), Mudichur (badly affected suburb), Semmencheri, Perumbakkam (resettlement/new housing tenements for low-income groups), Kodungaiyur, Ponneri (outlying suburbs with poor infrastructural developments.
  • More than 95% of people surveyed had not received warnings about impending flooding.
  • Inhabitants of over 85% of households surveyed have lost 25-40 working days and concomitant wages, ranging from Rs 250-500/per day.
  • Almost all households had lost or were left with irretrievably damaged certificates, household articles, including fridge, washing machine, grinder, mixers, lights, fans, stoves, tools of trade, children’s books, cycles and in some cases bikes and scooters.
  • Total losses sustained by households range from Rs 75,000 (including wages lost and cost of damage to homes) to Rs 50,000.

Continue reading Survey Report on Losses Sustained during Chennai Floods: Concerned Citizens and Activist Groups →

Bad ideas, Government, Law, Politics, Violence/Conflict

अता मोहम्मद खान के लिए दो मिनट का मौन

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एक ‘कब्र खोदनेवाले’ के जनाज़े में इतने लोग शायद पहले कभी नहीं जुटे हों। अलबत्ता पिछले दिनों जब 75 साल की उम्र में अटटा मोहम्मद खान का इन्तक़ाल हुआ, तब यही नज़ारा दिख रहा था।
उत्तरी कश्मीर के सीमावर्ती शहर उरी के चहाल बिम्बयार गांव के निवासी रहे अटटा मोहम्मद खान ने अपने घर में ही अंतिम सांस ली थी। लम्बे समय से वह अस्थमा से पीड़ित थे। सोचने की बात थी कि ऐसे शख्स के लिए इतने सारे लोग क्यों मातम में थे ?
असल बात यह है कि वह कोई मामूली ‘कब्र खोदनेवाले’ नहीं थे। वह कश्मीर के रक्तरंजित इतिहास के एक ऐसे साक्षी थे, जिन्होंने अपनी रेगिस्तानी आंखों में बहुत कुछ समेट कर रखा था। वह कश्मीर की सिविल सोसायटी में चर्चित चेहरा थे, जबसे उन्होंने सूबे में फैली अचिन्हित कब्रों (unmarked graves) को ढंूढने में इन संस्थाओं की सहायता की थी। और जब हुक्मरानों की तरफ से बुलावा आया तो किसी से बिना डरे खुल कर वह सबकुछ बयां किया था। कुछ साल पहले राजधानी से निकलने वाले एक अंग्रेजी अख़बार /’Tragedies buried in Kashmir’  , मेल टुडे ने 28 मार्च, 2008/ ने जब कश्मीर में दफनायी गयी इन तमाम त्रासदियांे को उकेरना चाहा, तो अनाम, अचिन्हित कब्रों की अपनी रिपोर्ट में अट्टा मोहम्मद खान से भी की गुफतगू शामिल थी। वर्ष 2013 में उन्होंने अपना बयान निबंधों की एक किताब में दर्ज किया था, जिसका संकलन स्थानीय पत्रकार फहद शाह ने किया था।

Continue reading अता मोहम्मद खान के लिए दो मिनट का मौन →

Education, Law

Constitutionalising the Administration of Higher Educational Institutions – An Important Supreme Court Decision: Aradhya Sethia

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Guest Post by ARADHYA SETHIA

The Supreme Court bench comprising of Justice Chelameshwar and Justice Sapre delivered a judgment, which will have a widespread impact on governance of higher education in India – Dr. Janet Jayapaul v. SRM University, in continuation of their “penchant” for education, recently reflected in Haryana Panchayati Rajdecision, delivered by this very bench.

By holding that a deemed university is ‘state’ under Article 12 of the Constitution of India, courts have opened the doors for application of even ‘vertical’ fundamental rights to these institutions. For an outsider to the practice of law, it may sound like an issue of mere technicality and semantics wrapped up in legal jargon. However, this case has a great potential in playing a very important role in infusing constitutional values in administration of these educational institutions. The issues such as gender discrimination, curbing of freedom of speech, right to privacy, etc. within the college environment are no more merely questions of propriety and culture, but also amenable to a claim in a court of law. Therefore, the outcome of this semantic exercise is very real, not just for the purposes of immediate case that the court was involved with, but for long-term educational reform in India. Continue reading Constitutionalising the Administration of Higher Educational Institutions – An Important Supreme Court Decision: Aradhya Sethia →

Bad ideas, Government, Law, Right watch

Letter against Dismissal of Prof Sandeep Pandey

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sandeeppandeyGuest Post : Letter from Ex-Students of Banaras Hindu University against the dismissal of Prof Sandeep Pandey from IIT-BHU for wider endorsement

To

Prof. Girish Chandra Tripathi

Vice Chancellor

Banaras Hindu University

Varanasi – 221005, U.P.

Dear Sir,

We, the ex-students of Banaras Hindu University, and other concerned citizens, are writing to you to express our deep worry about removal of visiting professor Sandeep Pandey allegedly for his “anti-national activities”. He had been teaching a few branches of chemical engineering and a development studies course at the Indian Institute of Technology-BHU for two-and-a half years. Prof. Pandey is also a renowned social activist and a Magsaysay award winner. Continue reading Letter against Dismissal of Prof Sandeep Pandey →

Bad ideas, Government, Law, Politics, Right watch

गाय के नाम पर जनतंत्र वध

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हिंगोनिया गोशाला, जयपुर के प्रभारी मोहिउद्दीन चिंतित हैं। जयपुर म्युनिसिपल कॉरपोरेशन द्वारा संचालित इस गोशाला में नौ हजार से अधिक गायें रखी गई हैं। इनमें 30 से 40 गायें लगभग हर रोज मर रही हैं, मगर कोई देखने वाला नहीं है। वहां न इनके खाने-पीने का सही साधन है, न ही बीमार गायों के इलाज का कोई उपाय। लिहाजा, 200 से अधिक कर्मचारियों वाली इस गोशाला में गायों की मौत पर काबू नहीं हो पा रहा है। वैसे, एक अखबार के मुताबिक अप्रैल में अकेले जयपुर शहर में हर रोज 90 गायों की मृत्यु हुई, जिनकी लाशें हिंगोनिया भेज दी गईं।

याद रहे, राजस्थान देश का पहला राज्य है जहां स्वतंत्र गोपालन मंत्रालय की स्थापना की गई है। लेकिन जयपुर में प्रति माह 2,700 गायों की मौत के बावजूद इस मसले पर मंत्री महोदय कुछ भी कर नहीं पाए। दरअसल असली मामला बजट का है। मोदी सरकार ने सामाजिक क्षेत्रों की सब्सिडी में जबर्दस्त कटौती की है, जिसका असर पशुपालन, डेयरी तथा मत्स्यपालन विभाग पर भी पड़ा है। पिछले साल की तुलना में इस साल 30 फीसदी की कटौती की गई है। Continue reading गाय के नाम पर जनतंत्र वध →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Government, Law, Left watch, Media politics, Metropolis, Politics, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

More than 500 jhuggis demolished in Shakur Basti, slum dwellers left on their own to grapple with bone chilling winter.

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Report by BIGUL MAZDOOR DASTA

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More than 500 jhuggis have been demolished by the Railways in Shakur Basti, Delhi. The demolition took place on last Saturday leading to the death of a six month old child, leaving many injured and an odd 10,000 people homeless in the chilling Delhi winters. The Railway minters Suresh Prabhu is allegedly shocked and unaware. Mr Kejriwal took to twitter to condemn the demolition. Ajay Maken of congress too condemned the demolition. On Monday Rahul Gandhi briefly visited the razed down site where once the shanties stood and thats that! All these electoral political parties have even made what is a tragedy and a very difficult time for the slum dwellers an opportunity of mud slinging onto each other which also doesn’t come as a surprise.

Continue reading More than 500 jhuggis demolished in Shakur Basti, slum dwellers left on their own to grapple with bone chilling winter. →

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

Simply for Making Speeches Some Go to Jail in Kerala: Nasarudheen Mannarkkad

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This is a Guest post by NASARUDHEEN MANNARKKAD

In a democracy, it is beyond argument that court procedures should  be accountable and transparent. If the courts start to give its verdicts relying upon the false made up stories of police and the media influenced by its own make-believe ‘public opinion’, that spells disaster for democracy. There is nothing more dangerous than a manipulated and biased court verdict and that can be fatal to the public trust in the judiciary, which is the only claim for an unelected body to be credible before the nation. Continue reading Simply for Making Speeches Some Go to Jail in Kerala: Nasarudheen Mannarkkad →

Debates, Everyday Life, Law, Sex

The Pocso Act: A Quick Review: Srishti Agnihotri and Minakshi Das

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Guest post by SRISHTI AGNIHOTRI and MINAKSHI DAS

On the 30th of November 2015, Shri Rajiv Chandrashekhar, a Member of Parliament, spoke at an Open House on ‘Why we need to start talking about Child Sexual Abuse and protect our children’. With the enactment of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in 2012, and rising awareness among civil society groups, there is an unprecedented momentum regarding protecting our children from sexual abuse. Issues that were earlier being brushed under the carpet, are now being openly addressed. We thought this was a good time to talk about the progress of the POCSO Act. Has it lived up to its promise? What more do we need to do to make this legislation effective in the fight against sexual violence?

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (‘POCSO Act’) was enacted in the year 2012 with the aim to protect children from sexual offences, such as, sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography. This Act also provides for the establishment of special courts for trial of child sexual abuse matters. In the past decade, India has recorded an alarmingly high level of sexual assault cases on children. While, the Government of India has made a sincere attempt to address the issue of sexual exploitation of children through the POCSO Act, the impact of the legislation remains to be seen. Continue reading The Pocso Act: A Quick Review: Srishti Agnihotri and Minakshi Das →

Capitalism, Law, Technology

In solidarity with Library Genesis and Sci-Hub

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Please share widely

http://custodians.online/

A Letter in solidarity with Library genesis and Sci-Hub

In Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s tale the Little Prince meets a businessman who accumulates stars with the sole purpose of being able to buy more stars. The Little Prince is perplexed. He owns only a flower, which he waters every day. Three volcanoes, which he cleans every week. “It is of some use to my volcanoes, and it is of some use to my flower, that I own them,” he says, “but you are of no use to the stars that you own”.

Continue reading In solidarity with Library Genesis and Sci-Hub →

Bad ideas, Everyday Life, Government, Law

Happy Constitution Day. Yet, India is where some are forced to eat cow dung

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(First published in http://www.catchnews.com)

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Mujadpur, a village in Haryana’s Hisar district,  which has been in the news recently for what the government  lexicon calls ‘dalit atrocities’, involving murders and ‘suicides’.

Recently, it was hit by another such incident, albeit of a less fatal nature: Members of the Jat community thrashed a dalit man called Ramdhari and his family members and stuffed cow dung in his mouth. Reportedly, Ramdhari installed a statue of BR Ambedkar in his house and that provoked the upper caste Jats.

The irony of this cannot be emphasised enough.

One does not know whether in an area dominated by the Jats, Ramdhari’s perpetrators have been arrested under provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act (1989) or not.

Or has the incident been explained away in the light of some vague personal animosity, which is what happened when two children in Sunped were recently killed by throwing of inflammable material in their house by dominant castes.

As the nation begins another series of grand celebrations, this time to celebrate the contributions of BR Ambedkar, the plight of a dalit family for merely installing his statue stares at us in our eyes. It is symptomatic of the gap between the principles and values on which the Constitution is based and the situation on the ground.

Read the full text of the article here. 

Culture, Debates, Feminism, Law, Sex

Two Trees Don’t Make a Forest: Leave KOL Alone

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The latest assault on the Kiss Of Love movement, the last in the long list of assaults against its activists over the past one year in Kerala, involves the arrest of two former KOL activists, Rahul Pasupalan and Resmi Nair, over sex trafficking charges. While the media has been mixing up this case with that of a pedophilia FB page in a rather unwarranted way , the media has been screaming about the pair’s connection with KOL and some reports almost imply that their actions were because of their associations with KOL. Others, including the arch-conservative newspapers, have asked whether the KOL was a cover for sex work markets! Continue reading Two Trees Don’t Make a Forest: Leave KOL Alone →

Culture, Feminism, Genders, Government, Identities, Law, Politics

So that the Beating of Your Heart Kills No One: Statement of the First ICGE, Thiruvananthapuram

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Below is the joint statement issued by the International Conference on Gender Equality that concluded today at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, organised by the Gender Park,  supported by the Department of Social Justice, Government of Kerala. The Gender Park represents a unique attempt to address gender inequality — understood in non-binary, inclusive terms — through skill-building and entrepreneurial innovation. It is refreshingly free from the burden of cultural ageing that is ubiquitous in Kerala now, and has a very young, dynamic team. The theme of the conference was ‘Gender, Governance, and Inclusion’, and that was not lip-service, as the statement clearly shows. The Statement embodies a vision that seeks to bring back questions of gender freedom and equality back into the heart of development interventions, but speaks of all marginalized genders, and not just women.

The Kerala Government’s Transgender Policy, pioneered by the Department of Social Justice was released the conference and transgender people were a major presence at all sessions. Speaking at the occasion, Kerala’s Minister for Social Justice, M K Muneer, declared that he would monitor the implementation of the policy personally and also fight to end Section 377 on all platforms of the government and outside, at state and national levels. 

Their remarkable interventions worked magic: if the pressure of neoliberal discourse is to continuously tie all development to the imperatives of market-led growth and gesture to its Promised Never-Never Land, transgender people’s questions cut through such instrumentalism to join it again with freedom and equality … and the  aesthetic in the fullest sense of the world. For the aesthetic does involve a heightened attention to the sensuous and to rhythm, to difference and to fit, to the entire range of kaleidoscopic formations! 

And it brought back into the heart of development, Love. Love as understood and celebrated by Alice Walker: 

love is not concerned/with who you pray to/or where you slept/the night you ran away/from home/love is concerned/that the beating of your heart/should kill no one.

Continue reading So that the Beating of Your Heart Kills No One: Statement of the First ICGE, Thiruvananthapuram →

Capitalism, Centre watch, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Excavation, Government, Language, Law, Metropolis, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Which COURT of Justice for Vinay Sirohi?

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Yesterday, in a corner of Delhi-NCR known as Keshopur, a 22-year old sewage worker breathed his last, a final tortured breath inhaled inside a part of the vast network of sewage pipelines that map the city in their own cartography of waste. The pipeline was owned by the Delhi Jal Board, so its function was not simply to transport sewage, but to transform it into potable water through a portion of the pipeline that resembles a septic tank – a portion known as the ‘digester’.

djb_body_759
The portion of the pipeline containing Vinay Sirohi’s body. Courtesy Indian Express online edition.

That Vinay Sirohi, 22-year old contract worker with the Delhi Jal Board, who got married last year and had taken up part-time employment to help him get through college, lost his life in a part of the sewage pipeline called the ‘digester’ imparts something so grotesquely apposite to this tragedy that one almost doesn’t want to think about it. One often doesn’t, of course. One has the option of of flipping the page of the newspaper, of resting one’s eyes on more life-affirming images – English Premier League, Bollywood, Modi-Cameron Cameron-araderie…even Kejriwal’s homely navy-blue sweater and baggy trousers are a pleasant distraction. Anything that tells us that life as it was meant to be – humans wearing a clean sweater and trousers with a sofa to sit on after their stomachs and minds are fed and sated – is better than the thought of a body inside a pipe under the city. When I tried to save the image that you see above, the caption read djb_body_759. I don’t want to think about what that caption means. Does it mean the 759th body found inside the DJB’s sewage network? Does it mean the 759th body to have been recovered by the police this year, 2015? Does it mean the 759th body to have died in sewage pipelines across the country, or ever?

Continue reading Which COURT of Justice for Vinay Sirohi? →

Everyday Life, Law

Aadhar Card- is it an intrusion into privacy? Mrinal Sharma

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Guest Post by MRINAL SHARMA

The Supreme Court passed an order dated 11th August 2015 declaring that it is not mandatory for the citizens to obtain Unique Identity Number popularly known as Aadhar Card. This order was passed in the light of the petitions which arose against the interim orderpassed by the Supreme Court in September 2013, which stated that ‘no person should suffer for not getting the Aadhaar card in spite of the fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory.’ The petitioners contended that the Aadhar Card scheme involved collection of personal information of the citizens including fingerprints and iris scan, which is capable of being misused. Though the Apex Court’s order declared that the production of Aadhar card is not necessary to draw benefits vested to the citizens (except for getting PDS, kerosene and LPG distribution) butthe court didn’t answer two crucial questions involved in the matter at hand, which it referred to a larger bench of at least 5 judges to decide. One, whether the information collected under this scheme invades person’s right to privacy and two, whether right to privacy is a fundamental right? However judgment of the larger bench is still awaited, I would like to address the two issues that are posted to the larger bench. Continue reading Aadhar Card- is it an intrusion into privacy? Mrinal Sharma →

Centre watch, Culture, Debates, Identities, Law

Statement by Academics Against Intolerance

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In light of the recent spate of killings of noted writers and intellectuals M M Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, and Narendra Dabholkar, and the Dadri lynching incident followed by forced nation-wide attempts at cultural policing, we feel that the current political dispensation headed by the Prime Minister is mandating an atmosphere of violence and fear. Continue reading Statement by Academics Against Intolerance →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Ecology/Environment, Education, Law, Movements

The Move to Professionalise Research: Aswathy Senan

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This is a guest post by ASWATHY SENAN

Researchers all over the country are protesting the move by the UGC to scrap the non-NET fellowship and students have gathered in hundreds to resume their agitation at the UGC office through OccupyUGC. it appears that one should be clear about what the student reaction means: it is much more than as a demand for monetary benefits. The student mobilization happened after the committee that met at the UGC office in Delhi to discuss and increase the non-NET fellowship, decided to scrap it. Following the protests that lasted through the nights from 21 October, the Minister of Human Resources Development tweeted that the fellowship shall be continued leaving out one crucial detail: its availability to new students. This decision to end all financial support of researchers doing their MPhil and PhD until they qualify NET or JRF is a huge threat for the research community in India as this is a clear move to professionalise research and make it a mere add on to teaching career. Continue reading The Move to Professionalise Research: Aswathy Senan →