Category Archives: Right watch

Bad ideas, Government, Right watch

After Dr Binayak Sen, now Dr Saibal Jana – Sign Petition for His immediate Release

2 Comments

Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh  - Immediate Release Dr Sibal Jana

Dear all

Dr Saibal Jana, chief physician of Shaheed Hospital at Dalli Rajhara,
Chhattisgarh has been arrested. He was picked up late at night by
Chhattisgarh police. The hospital was founded Chhattisgarh Mukti
Morcha led by Late Shankar Guha Niyogi and run by money collected from
the workers of the area. Dr. Jena’s arrest comes close on the heels of
the acid attack on Soni Sori and harrassment of her relatives.

Dr.Saibal Jana was arrested in a case related to the police firing on
agitating workers of the Bhilai Industrial Area on 1 July, 1992. Dr
Jana was, on that day, among the team of doctors providing medical
assistance to trade union activists of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha
who were injured. We believe that Dr Jana’s arrest in this case, after
a gap of 24 years, is motivated by sheer vendetta against him by BJP
led Raman Singh government, that has an ideological hatred of anyone
who stands up for the democratic rights of workers, farmers and
ordinary Indian citizens.

PL SIGN PETITION
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Dr_Raman_Singh_Chief_Minister_Chhattisgarh_Immediate_release_of_DrSaibal_Jana/

Government, Politics, Right watch

Intimidation of Pushp Sharma and the future of Indian democracy

7 Comments

Freelance journalist Pushp Sharma, who broke the story that AYUSH Ministry, which promotes traditional medicine systems, does not hire Muslims for short-term positions as trainers for World Yoga Day as it is against government policy, was taken in by the police for questioning on March 15th. He was released at night after interrogation, and asked to report again to the police station on the 16th.

The AYUSH Ministry had filed a formal complaint with the Delhi Police asking them to probe the alleged ‘fake’ response to an RTI query on which Sharma based his story.

The Milli Gazette which published the story, and Sharma himself, stand by the story.

For the story with updates, see this story in Huffington Post.

For an interview with Sharma just before he was taken in for questioning, see Sabrang.

After his temporary release last evening, Sharma wrote a letter to his readers in which he said that he had told the police that the internationally accepted procedure if a news story was contested, was for those challenging the veracity of the story to send the relevant documents. These documents are cross checked, and if the story turns out to be wrong, then a correction and apology are published.

Why is the AYUSH Ministry not releasing documents that prove Sharma’s claim to be false? Why has a journalist been handed over to the tender mercies of the Delhi Police, simply for writing a story? At the police station, he says, “I heard just abuses, and shouts and allegations, like: who is behind you and what is your motive?”

If the AYUSH Ministry believes that its credibility is dented by the “fake” RTI response, it needs to demonstrate that in fact it has not followed such a policy. For instance, release the original pages of the file that Sharma has allegedly falsified. There are legal routes to follow in the case of defamation, setting the police on a journalist who wrote an inconvenient story is unacceptable. It has never happened before that an RTI user has been put through police interrogation like this, says a story in The Wire. The story also says:

Meanwhile, Zafarul Islam Khan, editor of Milli Gazette – which ran Pushp Sharma’s story, told The Wire that while he had read in some newspapers about his newspaper being charged under Section 153-A of the IPC for promoting hatred among communities and Section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), he has neither received notice of this or a call from the police.

An overall atmosphere of intimidation and suppression of criticism of discriminatory policies of the government is being put in place. The portents are grim.

Culture, Education, Feminism, Government, Media politics, Right watch

Academics Worldwide Against the Vilification of Nivedita Menon

15 Comments

[Expressions of support from scholars wanting to sign on are continuing to pour in. We will therefore be continuously adding the names as they come in and keep updating the statement. – AN] 

VICIOUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST FEMINIST SCHOLAR

We, the undersigned, wish to express our shock and indignation at the vicious right wing media campaign conducted over the past few days against well-known feminist scholar and Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Nivedita Menon. This media campaign mischievously decontextualizes her lecture at the public teach-in programme in JNU with the use of selective clips and inflammatory commentary. The television channel Zee has led the main campaign by branding Professor Menon as ‘anti-national’ and instigating viewers to take action. Such branding is tantamount to a television channel acting as both judge and jury, and directly placing an individual’s rights and safety under threat.

The use of television media to attack intellectuals and instigate vigilante action is a feature of authoritarian regimes worldwide.  Similar tendencies are visible in recent months in India. Singling out individuals and creating a mass-frenzy against them by using the medium of TV is a dangerous trend that directly incites and encourages violence. This is a deep disregard for any process of law. We saw Zee TV do this earlier when doctored videos became the basis of arrest and harassment of JNU students. In this case, Twitter and social media campaigns have followed attacks on Professor Menon, demanding the framing of sedition charges against her and wielding open threats of rape. Most disturbingly, there are media reports of police complaints filed by interested parties demanding ‘action’ against Professor Menon.

Professor Menon is a renowned scholar and feminist thinker; her texts are used in university syllabi worldwide. As a prominent scholar and activist she has intervened in academic and public debates for decades. Professor Menon has also been known as an inspiring teacher for thirty years, guiding generations of students who now work in India and abroad. She has never shied away from intellectual debate in academic and public forums, passionately intervening in debates on feminism and social theory. This is the first time that her own freedom to articulate her ideas has been so viciously attacked in an orchestrated media campaign.

The freedom to articulate ideas is the basis of a university. When opinions voiced in a public lecture by an academic are made part of a selective media campaign that seeks not to debate but simply to malign, both democracy and the university are under threat. What is under question are not just Professor Menon’s ideas but also the very freedom for academics and citizens. We condemn this media campaign and associated threats, urging all academics and intellectuals to stand with Professor Menon at this time.

We call on the Vice Chancellor of JNU to swiftly defend Professor Menon from such attacks and protect the sanctity of university debate. We urge the JNU administration to stand by its faculty’s right to hold individual opinions and condemn all efforts to diminish this. We call on the university to immediately ensure that freedoms that form its very academic basis are not eroded in this moment. We call further for every censure and action against the unlawful actions of the television channels in question. Finally, we urge all well wishers of a democratic India to stand by Professor Menon for their own freedoms, and not just hers. Continue reading Academics Worldwide Against the Vilification of Nivedita Menon →

Bad ideas, Debates, Government, Politics, Right watch

पहले वे यहुदियों के लिए आये ..

1 Comment
पेड़ खामोश होना चाहते हैं
मगर हवाएं हैं कि रूकती नहीं हैं
-जोस मारिया सिसोन
(फिलीपिनो इन्कलाबी एवं कवि)
क्या हमारे वक्त़ के तमाम अग्रणी बुद्धिजीवी, जो असहमति के आवाज़ों के पक्षधर रहते आए हैं, बरबस अवकाश पर चले गए हैं – अब जबकि कन्हैया कुमार जेल से बाहर निकल कर आया है ? या वह सोच रहे हैं कि जो तूफां उठा है वह अपने आप थम जाएगा।
दरअसल जिस किसी ने हमारे समय की दो बेहद उम्दा शख्सियतों – प्रोफेसर निवेदिता मेनन और गौहर रज़ा – के खिलाफ चल रही सार्वजनिक कुत्साप्रचार एवं धमकियों की मुहिम को नज़दीकी से देखा है, और उसके बाद भी जिस तरह की चुप्पी सामने आ रही है (भले ही एकाध-दो बयान जारी हुए हों या कुछ प्रतिबद्ध लेखको के लेख इधर उधर कहीं वेबपत्रिकाओं में नज़र आए हों ) उसे देखते हुए यही बात कही जा सकती है। प्रोफेसर निवेदिता मेनन को इस तरह निशाना बनाया गया है कि सन्दर्भ से काट कर उनके व्याख्यानों के चुनिन्दा उद्धरणों को सोशल मीडिया पर प्रसारित करके उन्हें ‘एण्टी नेशनल’ अर्थात राष्ट्रद्रोही साबित किया जा सके जबकि गौहर रज़ा पर गाज़ इसलिए गिरी है कि उन्होंने दिल्ली में आयोजित भारत-पाक मुशायरे में – जिसे शंकर शाद मुशायरा के तौर पर जाना जाता है –  न केवल शिरकत की बल्कि वहां धर्म और राजनीति के खतरनाक संश्रय पर  जो कविता पढ़ी, वह शायद ‘भक्तों’ को नागवार गुजरी है।

Continue reading पहले वे यहुदियों के लिए आये .. →

Bad ideas, Debates, Education, Government, Law, Media politics, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Statement in Support of Nivedita Menon and Gauhar Raza

25 Comments

We, the undersigned, unequivocally condemn the unwarranted attacks against Prof. Nivedita Menon by Zee News and IBN 7 and Mr. Gauhar Raza by Zee News. Prof. Menon is an acclaimed political scientist and writer whose work and integrity are respected all over the world. Her contributions to the women’s movement and gender justice through her writing and participation have been very significant.   Mr. Raza is a reputed scientist, poet and filmmaker, who has worked in a sustained way for peace and amity. The two channels have engaged in irresponsible and unethical attacks based on video clips taken out of context, creating an atmosphere of threat, intimidation and incitement to violence. Three false cases have been filed against Prof. Menon in this media-created environment of shrill jingoism. We request the Press Council of India and the Broadcast Association to take necessary action against these channels for their unacceptable and unlawful reportage. We also demand that the two channels issue a public apology for their relentless and defamatory attacks against Prof. Menon and Mr. Raza.

Continue reading Statement in Support of Nivedita Menon and Gauhar Raza →

Bad ideas, Government, Politics, Right watch

Then They Came For ..

3 Comments

Tree Wants to be Calm
But Wind Will Not Stop !
-Jose Maria Sison
( Filipino Revolutionary and Poet)

Whether all the leading public intellectuals of our times have suddenly decided to go for a break – now that Kanhaiya Kumar is out of jail – or are thinking that the impending storm would peter away on its own. Anyone who has closely followed the public hounding of two of the finest human beings of our times – Prof Nivedita Menon and Gauhar Raza – and the silence which has followed with it ( barring a statement signed by many and few articles here and there on some webmagazines ) would understand what does that mean. While Prof Menon is being targetted because of airing of selective quotes from one of her lectures, Gauhar has been put under the scanner because of his participation in Indo-Pak mushaira. It is clear that one of his poems – focussing on the dangerous cocktail of religion and politics – which he recited there, has infuriated them. Continue reading Then They Came For .. →

Culture, Feminism, Media politics, Politics, Right watch, Sex, Violence/Conflict

The Nation’s Orgiastic Fantasy and the Politics of ‘Nationalist’ Anger

4 Comments

The Mise en Scene

The Nationalist is angry. He wants to kill, maim and rape for his Mother’s honour. From the lawyer criminal who has a Rs 45 lakh fraud case against him to the extortionist television anchor – all are bellowing with rage. Another anchor, Mr Nation himself, whose publicly declared annual salary is Rs 5 crores, is suddenly choking with emotion at the death of the hapless army jawan, Hanumanthappa (who earned less than 120th of Mr Nation’s monthly salary and for whom the Nation never shed a tear till this collective arousal). Blood lust has taken over the land. In this scenario, the hysterical television anchor takes on the role of a lynch mob instigator and the cheer leader combined into one. He exhorts while the lynch-mob runs amok threatening, attacking and  demanding that all anti-nationals – students, teachers and intellectuals in general –  be shot, killed or sent to Pakistan. We have seen, as a consequence, all manner of angry nationalists offering prize money – Rs 5 lakhs for cutting Kanhaiya Kumar’s tongue and Rs 11 lakhs for killing him. More recently, he has been issued another death threat along with an ultimatum to leave Delhi by the end of March. Fellow Kafila-ite and feminist scholar Nivedita Menon has, for the last few weeks, been openly threatened with nationalist rape and more.

The Nation’s collective fantasy is orgiastic. And the current object of this collective fantasy is Jawaharlal Nehru University. Witness the BJP MLA who spends his free time (which is perhaps most of his time), not  only showering money on  dancing  girls, but even more, fantasizing about the orgy that he believes is JNU. According to The Indian Express:

In perhaps the most bizarre comments on the JNU controversy so far, BJP MLA from Ramgarh in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, Gyandev Ahuja, on Monday said that daily 50,000 pieces of bones, 3,000 used condoms, 500 used abortion injections, 10,000 cigarette “pieces”, among other things, are found at JNU, where girls and boys dance naked at cultural programmes.

Continue reading The Nation’s Orgiastic Fantasy and the Politics of ‘Nationalist’ Anger →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Government, Images, Language, Law, Media politics, Politics, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

When Crime Becomes Ordinary, Ordinary Life Will be Criminalised

17 Comments
  1. Zee News Anchor Sudhir Chaudhary whose heart beats for India tried to extort 100 crores from the Jindals, remember? No, no, please, kindly, take a few minutes to watch this, at least until 3.55.

 

 

  1. This is a photo comparing Chaudhary with that the whistleblower in the Vyapam scam, who exposed a long-running case of serious corruption by the state and political parties which has involved the murders of over 45 individuals! The current government is providing Chaudhary X category security while with this cycle-borne ‘security’ the Vyapam whistleblower has survived 14 attacks on his life.
main-qimg-ce1f1542701c71d0da51f68ad43ecab8
Courtesy: Quora.com

Continue reading When Crime Becomes Ordinary, Ordinary Life Will be Criminalised →

Debates, Education, Right watch

Look who’s calling us anti-national! The pleasant antecedents of Sudhir Chaudhary and journalistic ethics of IBN 7

36 Comments

[An edited version of this post has been published in Scroll.in with a more extensive set of links. I recommend reading it here.]

Sudhir Chaudhary of Zee News has been spewing venom at students and teachers of JNU for some time now, and I have been informed by concerned friends that over the last two days there has been a concerted campaign against me personally. Since I do not watch “news” on a channel that brazenly doctors videos and seems ignorant of minimum levels of journalistic ethics, I am relying on links sent to me by well wishers.

Last evening I believe a clip from a video made in 2014 was circulated, in which I am heard saying that Hinduism is the world’s most violent religion, because its very foundation is the caste system.

I am told that Sudhir Chaudhary challenged me to prove the video was doctored. I am certainly not going to engage with an alleged criminal extortionist (more about his pleasant antecedents in a bit), but here let me say that the clip I have seen circulating on twitter which I assume is the one on Zee, is not doctored, but it is massively decontextualized. I post below the link to the entire event – which was not a classroom lecture, but a political meeting organized by a student group in 2014 after the Kiss of Love protest was attacked in Delhi by Sanghis.

In Part I of this post I will deal with that video, and in Part II with Sudhir Chaudhury and IBN7. Continue reading Look who’s calling us anti-national! The pleasant antecedents of Sudhir Chaudhary and journalistic ethics of IBN 7 →

Bad ideas, Government, Identities, Right watch

हममें से देशद्रोही कौन नहीं है?

Leave a comment

P

राष्ट्रवाद या यूं कहें कि ऑफिशियल राष्ट्रवाद इन दिनों सुर्खियों में है. एक तरफ ‘भारत माता की जय’ का नारा लगाते हुए और दूसरे ही सुर में मां-बहनों के नाम अपशब्दों की बौछार करते हुए लंपटों के गिरोह हर स्वतंत्रमना व्यक्ति को लातों-मुक्कों से, या जैसा कि बीते दिनों इलाहाबाद की कचहरी में देखने को मिला, लोग लाठियों की मार से राष्ट्रवाद का असली मतलब समझा रहे हैं. शांतिपूर्ण प्रदर्शनकारियों पर टूट पड़ते दिख रहे इन निक्करधारी गिरोहों के साथ जगह-जगह खाकी वर्दीधारियों की भी मौन सहमति नजर आ रही है. और दिख रहा है कि आप अगर किसी को मार भी डालें और सफाई में यह कह दें कि वह पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद कह रहा था तो उसे माफ कर दिया जाएगा.

विडंबना ही है कि इन दिनों देश की किस्मत के आका कहे जाने वाले लोग नकली ट्वीट की बैसाखी के सहारे ऐसे तमाम उत्पातों, उपद्रवों और उद्दंडता को वैधता का जामा पहनाते नजर आ रहे हैं. आए दिन हो रही संविधान की इस खुल्लमखुल्ला अनदेखी को लेकर संविधान को सबसे पवित्र किताब का दर्जा देने वाले वजीर-ए-आजम मोदी भी अपना मौन बनाए हुए हैं. अंधराष्ट्रवाद की आंधी चलाने की तेज होती कोशिशों को देखते हुए बरबस राजेश जोशी की बहुचर्चित कविता की पंक्तियां साकार होती दिख रही हैं कि ‘जो इस कोलाहल में शामिल नहीं होंगे मारे जाएंगे.’

(Read the rest of the article here : http://tehelkahindi.com/who-is-not-anti-national-among-us-opinion-by-social-scientist-subhash-gatade/?singlepage=1)

Debates, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India: Simar Singh

1 Comment

Guest Post by SIMAR SINGH

Honourable Prime Minister of India,

I am fifteen years old, and I’m not an anti-nationalist, but I believe that having an opinion that differs from that of the state isn’t a crime.

I’m not an anti-nationalist, but I believe that physical and verbal abuse by lawyers against the accused in a courtroom in the presence of the police is a defamation of our legal system and violation of the Right to Fair Trial as stated in the Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I’m not an anti-nationalist, but I believe that verbal harassment of an accused on National Television in the name of Media Trial is unjustified. I don’t know journalism or media better than those running the news provision system of our country but what I do know is that each journalist or media personnel or any human being for the matter of fact is subjected to converse or debate with another human being with a certain decency and a sense of respect towards other’s opinion. Defamation of an accused by a journalist by labelling him/her as an anti-nationalist and calling them a shame to the nation is a violation of the article 41 of the Norms of Journalism Conduct published by the Press Council of India in 2010 and a threat to one’s dignity and public image. Continue reading Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India: Simar Singh →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Education, Government, Law, Right watch

Several Counts of Anti-Nationalism and Zero Counts of Sedition! Kanad Bagchi

1 Comment

This is a guest post by KANAD BAGCHI

The Supreme Court has time and again emphasized the significance of adducing reasons while rendering administrative and judicial orders. Indeed, a reasoned opinion is arguably the fullest expression of the principle of audialterampartem and is a sine quo non in the dispensation of justice. It appears, one might argue, that the Delhi High Court (hereinafter ‘Court’) in its order granting interim bail to Kanhaiya seems to have taken the dictate of the Supreme Court rather earnestly in what was, needless to say, a very ‘detailed’ and ‘incisive’ analysis of the bail application.

While poetic prose is neither repugnant nor unknown to our Court’s jurisprudence, and the present order is yet another captivating addition to that, it is when prose and poesy subsumes legal reasoning, one begins to wonder whether the rule of law would be better served without it. It is more worrisome however, when the judiciary sidesteps its role from enforcing a strict interpretation of criminal law in an attempt at articulating its own perceived sense of nationalism, loyalty and allegiance, wholly divorced from the Constitution and the laws.

Continue reading Several Counts of Anti-Nationalism and Zero Counts of Sedition! Kanad Bagchi →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Education, Identities, Law, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Encounters With the State and Other Comedies: Asmit Pathare

Leave a comment

This is a guest post by ASMIT PATHARE

In response to JNUSU’s call for observing 2nd March as International Day of Protest and to demand justice for Rohith Vemula and the release of the then three arrested students, numerous organisations decided to gather outside Dadar station (E) and carry out a peaceful protest. Among them were All India Students’ Association (AISA), All India Students’ Federation (AISF), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), All India Youth Federation (AIYF), University Committee for Democracy and Equality (UCDE) and others. The protest was supposed to begin at 5pm. Continue reading Encounters With the State and Other Comedies: Asmit Pathare →

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

St Louis Universities Stand With JNU: A Statement

Leave a comment

 

Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) in New Delhi, India, was arrested on Feb 10 on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy. Kanhaiya was present at a meeting on the evening of Feb 9, where incendiary slogans were allegedly raised. Seven other students were also charged. Mr. Kumar is not accused of raising the slogans; indeed the identity of the person(s) who raised the slogans remains a mystery. Charging a student leader for sedition for another’s mere sloganeering is prima facie absurd. Further, the assault of Mr. Kumar, other students and faculty, and even journalists, in court premises by lawyers and others sympathetic to the government, do not inspire confidence in a fair judicial process. Continue reading St Louis Universities Stand With JNU: A Statement →

Bad ideas, Debates, Politics, Right watch

Betrayal at Midnight – Review of ‘Muslims against Partition’ : Guest Post by Karthik Venkatesh

5 Comments

Guest Post by Karthik Venkatesh

Muslims Against Partition — Revisiting the legacy of Allah Bakhsh and other patriotic Muslims

Freedom at midnight put some people in a spot – those Muslims who chose to stay back in India and did not opt for Pakistan. Pakistan was always conceived as a nation that would be created in areas where Muslims were in a majority in undivided India i.e., the north-western portion and a part of the eastern portion. It was difficult to visualize how all of India’s Muslims would be accommodated there because the reality was that Muslims were and are found in every nook and corner in this country. How then was Pakistan going to fulfill its purpose? It clearly could not. Recognizing this and recognizing the danger to those Muslims who could not go to the ‘promised land’, many Muslim leaders opposed the creation of Pakistan. Muslims against Partition by Shamsul Islam (Pharos Media, 2015) is their story. It details how such leaders were in effect betrayed after having striving unreservedly for a united India. Continue reading Betrayal at Midnight – Review of ‘Muslims against Partition’ : Guest Post by Karthik Venkatesh →

Countryside, Culture, Debates, Government, Identities, Language, Law, Movements, Politics, Right watch

Sedition is a Shade of Grey or, Bharat Mata’s Smothering Embrace: Ankur Tamuliphukan and Gaurav Rajkhowa

Leave a comment

The dominant narrative around the recent JNU incident has been that the unwarranted police action and the concerted acts of violence, incitement and misinformation that followed are all part of a determined push by the saffron brigade. After love jihad and beef, the story has it, it is “sedition” and “Pakistani agent” this time—we are living in a state of undeclared emergency. A sense of disbelief and apocalyptic doom seem to underpin these sentiments, along with a nostalgic optimism for a quick return to harmony and normalcy. But such things have happened far too many times, and far too often for us to harbour such illusions. For what we are going through is in effect a recalibration of that normalcy.

To read political slogans literally is an absurdity. But in the hands of the present government, it is a calculated absurdity that reads “Bharat ki barbadi…” as armed conspiracy against the state. The variables are many—arrests, fake tweets, rampaging lawyers, patriotic house-owners and now, open calls for murder. But the calculus resolves itself into the same formula every time: national/anti-national.

At the outset, the opposition to the attack on the university campus seems to have coalesced around two points—first, maintaining a safe distance from the “anti-India” slogans raised at the meeting; and second, showing themselves as the real nationalists, standing against the saffron thugs in patriot’s disguise. Partly in response to a vicious media campaign, videos of “real nationalist” speeches at the protest venue are being posted on social media everyday. We are told at length about the “real” Indian behind the deshdrohi, his credentials, and how he wants his India to be. Things reached a disturbing pitch when spokespersons of the traditional Left went on record to express their displeasure at the real culprits not being caught. Without doubt, the saffron brigade cannot be allowed the prerogative of deciding what “the nation” means. But why do so from the flimsy ramparts of sedition? Continue reading Sedition is a Shade of Grey or, Bharat Mata’s Smothering Embrace: Ankur Tamuliphukan and Gaurav Rajkhowa →

Bad ideas, Debates, Government, Right watch

Hate as Harmony – Law and Order under Saffrons

Leave a comment

 

 

Muslims were equated to “demons” and “descendants of Ravana”, and warned of a “final battle”, as the Sangh Parivar held a condolence meeting here for VHP worker Arun Mahaur, who was killed last week allegedly by some Muslim youths. Among those present on the dais were Union Minister of State, HRD, and BJP Agra MP Ram Shankar Katheria as well as the BJP’s Fatehpur Sikri MP Babu Lal, apart from other party local leaders, who joined in the threats to Muslims. Speaker after speaker urged Hindus to “corner Muslims and destroy the demons (rakshas)”, while declaring that “all preparations” had been made to effect “badla (revenge)” before the 13th-day death rituals for Mahaur.

(http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/muslims-warned-of-final-battle-at-sangh-meet-mos-katheria-says-weve-to-show-our-strength/#sthash.ZBMcpoFo.dpuf)

 

What does someone do in the winter of one’s own life when you discover that the values you cherished, the principles for which you fought for have suddenly lost their meaning and the world  before you is turning upside down ?

Perhaps you express your anguish to your near and dear ones or write a letter about the deteriorating situation around you in your favourite newspaper or as a last resort appeal to the custodians of the constitution that how you are ‘forced to hang your head in shame’.

Admiral Ramdas, who has served Indian Military for more than four decades and has remained socially active since then, followed his voice of conscience. Continue reading Hate as Harmony – Law and Order under Saffrons →

Government, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Who were the masked slogan shouting men at JNU? Does the Delhi Police know?

5 Comments

Police plan Big-Brother cameras for JNU, we have learnt. A senior police official told The Telegraph that this measure would help in identifying

students who often raise anti-national slogans and stage protests. It will also help us in preventing clashes among students belonging to different ideologies – the Left, the far-Left and the ABVP.

Remember, dear citizens, the police were actually present at the event at JNU on February 9th. We will return to this point, but they don’t really need CCTV surveillance, they are physically present on JNU campus in civilian clothes, and with JNU ID.

This,  also recollect, is the very same police force that stood by while a mob attacked JNU students and faculty and assaulted Kanhaiya at Patiala House; the same police who cannot arrest the man who publicly, with name and phone number, offered a reward for killing Kanhaiya – they “booked him for defacing property”, and will “analyse the poster carefully” before deciding whether other provisions of the IPC apply.

When all the evidence is available – the name, picture and phone number of a man who issues a death threat, he cannot be booked for anything more serious than the actual pasting of the poster on walls, because “the posters have to be analysed”.

Violence unfolds before their very eyes, and the Delhi Police cannot act.

These guys need CCTV surveillance?

This entirely compliant police force, now acting as the private army of the BJP, is concerned about preventing clashes in JNU, which has never ever had violent clashes, when it cannot carry out the normal functions of a police force anywhere else in the city.

So what will a CCTV system establish that the Delhi Police don’t already know?

Consider the following facts, and do come to your own conclusions. We have. Continue reading Who were the masked slogan shouting men at JNU? Does the Delhi Police know? →

Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Another patriotic song to counter ‘Mere desh ki dharti’

8 Comments

Justice Pratibha Rani began her bail order on Kanhaiya Kumar with the patriotic song “Mere desh ki dharti”, an upbeat celebration of the beautiful land that yields gold and pearls. Her judgement was emotional about the soldiers who give their lives so that the rest of us can be safe.

Here is another sort of patriotic song from another Hindi film, which Justice Pratibha Rani might connect to. This haunting song about the futility of war also goes out to all those who say it is insulting to the armed forces to raise our voices against widespread militarization of the Indian subcontinent.

The refrain of the song is – “Ask the departing solider, where do you go?” It talks about death and destruction, of weeping women and hungry children. The poet is Makhdoom Mohiuddin (a communist and a Muslim – anti-national on two counts). Whose wars do these men fight?

Would we all be safer, including our soldiers, if the elites of neighbouring countries and a global military industrial complex did not have immense stakes in keeping tensions running high?

Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Right watch, Sex

Sex workers demand Azadi from ‘Goddess’ Durga: Veshya Anyay Mutki Parishad, Muskan and Sangram

2 Comments

Guest Post by Veshya Anyay Mutki Parishad, Muskan and Sangram

Dear Students of JNU,

Salute! Jai Bhim! Laal salam! We will win this war against sedition! March 3rd, International Sex Workers Rights Day, Zindabad!

We write from the sex worker’s rights movement to hail your struggle and to add to the discourse you have sparked. We would like to discuss why using the term sex worker in the alleged pamphlet in JNU on Mahishasura Martydom Day is a concept fraught with the Whore Stigma. The use of the politically correct sex worker instead of the commonly used `prostitute’ does not take away from the fact that it is used to depict an insalubrious deed. The use of this term has only led to more misunderstandings of the term itself.

Sex worker is the term used by the sex worker’s rights movement in order to claim dignity to the work adults do consensually by providing sexual services for money. The sex workers use this term to give dignity to those that exchange sexual services for money but the use here is to supposedly strip the `goddess’ in this instance, of any dignity. The term since then has taken a life of its own. From a politically correct term it is now being used to describe anti-nationals, anti-goddesses even anti- patriarchy! But the thinly veiled contempt for the sex worker is huge in every utterance, from the Hindu Goddess Durga to the `anti-national’ women students in JNU. Continue reading Sex workers demand Azadi from ‘Goddess’ Durga: Veshya Anyay Mutki Parishad, Muskan and Sangram →

Culture, Debates, Education, Right watch

A historian’s response to the petition against Sheldon Pollock: Janaki Nair

8 Comments

Guest post by JANAKI NAIR

spine-details-vertical

A petition, signed by 132 “academics” asking Rohan Murty and Narayan Murthy to dismiss Prof Sheldon Pollock from his role as Editor of the Murty Classical Library Series, is receiving attention that the signatories did not anticipate.  I put the word “academics” in quotes because the commitment of the signatories to an academic evaluation of Sheldon Pollock’s intellectual leadership is nowhere in evidence, since a quotation from Pollock was changed mid-way through the signature campaign. Nor does it seem as if the signatories have ever held any one of the hot- pink,  beautifully produced volumes in their hands, where   as much attention has been paid to looks and fonts,  as to the quality of translations.

Had they done so, they too would have appreciated the significance of this effort, in bringing to the wider reading public the oceans of literary texts and traditions, in a mind-boggling array of languages,  from a period covering two and a half millenia.  The individual translators and editors are among the best in the field. Thanks to this series, so many more Indians and others will learn of the sheer beauty and anguish of Punna, a  Therigatha poet (translated from Pali, 3rd century BCE).  People of the south will hear the voice of Bulle Shah, translated from Punjabi, and those from other parts of India will read Allasani Peddanna, translated from Telugu.  True we will miss the mellifluous chanting, or the energetic sounds of performance: for now, we will have to make do with the books on hand. Continue reading A historian’s response to the petition against Sheldon Pollock: Janaki Nair →