Category Archives: Right watch

Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Academics protest Rohith Vemula’s death

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Statement by concerned scholars

The suicide of Rohith Vemula is now the subject of a ridiculous inquiry to be conducted by a Committee set up by Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. The real reason and the politics behind it are clear to those who are willing to open their eyes. As academics, we are concerned that such a situation should prevail in Universities, and wish to register our protest.

Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai was to be screened at the University of Hyderabad. The action was planned by the Ambedkar Students’ Association. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, student goons of the RSS, used force to try and halt this. Dalit students were subjected to verbal abuse as well as physical force. As a result of agitations the ABVP had to apologise in writing. This was what caused such tremendous heartburn to the Hindutva forces. While the screening of Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai has taken place in various parts of the country, and has also given rise to conflicts in various parts of the country, it is in UoH alone that the consequences turned so aggressive with full participation of the top echelons of the University. The new Vice Chancellor, Appa Rao Podile, had five PhD students suspended. They were subjected to social ostracism as well. Thrown out of hostel, debarred from entering library, administrative spaces, they were hounded in a way that no administration has hounded any upper caste student in our memory. It is also reported that an MHRD letter designated them anti-national for opposing the hanging of Yakub Memon. The MHRD, today  proclaiming autonomy of Universities, was goading UoH through several letters to take action against the ASA. Rohith had even written a letter to the Vice Chancellor a couple of weeks ago, where he suggested the University provide means of committing suicide to Dalit students. Even after this the authorities did nothing. And after the suicide, the police acted in a brutal and shameless manner, grabbing the body of Rohith and disposing of it in secrecy instead of handing it over to his relatives. 

Continue reading Academics protest Rohith Vemula’s death →

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 →

Culture, Debates, Everyday Life, Excavation, Frontiers, Identities, Images, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

The Need for Black-South Asian Solidarity: Lavanya Nott

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This is a guest post by LAVANYA NOTT

In February 2013, George Zimmerman, a 28-year old neighbourhood watch coordinator in Sanford, Florida, stalked and fatally shot 17-year old unarmed Trayvon Martin, an African-American high school student. In July of that year, Zimmerman was acquitted of his crime.

On August 9, 2014, unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown was shot several times by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri after Brown stole several packs of cigarillos from a neighbourhood store. In late November of that same year, a grand jury did not indict Wilson of his crime.

The Black Lives Matter movement began after Zimmerman’s acquital, and the Ferguson non-indictment saw the movement surge forward, with thousands of citizens taking to the streets all over the United States in protest. In the months that followed, the movement gained rapid momentum, spurred on by yet another non-indictment—that of a White police officer in Staten Island who put 43-year-old Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in broad daylight, without provocation. His death was ruled by a medical examiner as a homicide, but his killer Daniel Pantaleo escaped indictment.

In mid-September 2015, Mohammad Akhlaq’s house in Dadri was broken into, his family attacked, and his life taken by a rampaging mob of RSS workers who were responding to a rumor that Akhlaq killed a cow and subsequently consumed its meat on Eid.

Less than a month later, a gang of upper-caste Rajputs set fire to the house of a sleeping Dalit family, killing two-year-old Vaibhav and his nine-month-old sister Divya. This attack, in BJP-ruled Faridabad, was set against the backdrop of a long-standing caste-related dispute between the Dalit and Rajput communities in the city.

Continue reading The Need for Black-South Asian Solidarity: Lavanya Nott →

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, Capitalism, Empire/ Imperialism, Government, Identities, Right watch

तूफानों की जिद देखने का वक्त़

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(‘नवउदारवाद के दौर में हिन्दुत्व’ विषय पर अहमदाबाद में प्रस्तुत व्याख्यान का संशोधित एवं विस्तारित रूप)

‘आम लोग धर्म को सच मानते हैं, समझदार लोग झूठ मानते हैं और शासक लोग उपयोगी समझते हैं।’

– सेनेका / ईसापूर्व 4 वर्ष से ईसवी 65 तक/

..अपनों के बीच होने की एक सुविधा यह होती है कि आप इस बात से निश्चिंत रहते हैं कि किसी प्रतिकूल वातावरण का सामना नहीं करना पड़ेगा, जो सवाल भी पूछे जाएंगे या जो बातें भी कहीं जाएंगी वह भी अपने ही दायरे की होंगी। मगर फिलवक्त़ मैं अपने आप को एक अलग तरह की मुश्किल से घिरा पा रहा हूं।

मुश्किल यह है कि जिस मसले पर – ‘नवउदारवाद के दौर में हिन्दुत्व’ -बात करनी है उस मसले को सदन में बैठे हर व्यक्ति ने ‘सुना है, धुना है और गुना है’। और खासकर जो नौजवान बैठे हैं, – जिनकी पैदाइश सम्भवतः बाबरी मस्जिद विध्वंस और उसके पहले लागू किए जा रहे ‘नए आर्थिक सुधारों’ के दौर में हुई थी – उनको फोकस करें तो कह सकते हैं कि उनकी सियासी जिन्दगी की शुरूआत से ही यह दोनों लब्ज और उससे जुड़ी तमाम बातें महाभारत के अभिमन्यु की तरह उनके साथ रही हैं।

निश्चित ही ऐसे वक्त़ उलझनसी हो जाती है कि कहां से शुरू किया जाए।  Continue reading तूफानों की जिद देखने का वक्त़ →

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

IMG_20151214_095246

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, Government, Identities, Right watch

डा अम्बेडकर के नये मुरीद

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selfie with ambedkar

(Image : Courtesy – http://www.tehelka.com)

शोषित-उत्पीड़ित अवाम के महान सपूत बाबासाहब डा भीमराव अम्बेडकर की 125 जयन्ति के बहाने देश के पैमाने पर जगह जगह आयोजन चल रहे हैं। इसमें कोई दोराय नहीं कि वक्त़ बीतने के साथ उनका नाम और शोहरत बढ़ती जा रही है और ऐसे तमाम लोग एवं संगठन भी जिन्होंने उनके जीते जी उनके कामों का माखौल उड़ाया, उनसे दूरी बनाए रखी और उनके गुजरने के बाद भी उनके विचारों के प्रतिकूल काम करते रहे, अब उनकी बढ़ती लोकप्रियता को भुनाने के लिए तथा दलित-शोषित अवाम के बीच नयी पैठ जमाने के लिए उनके मुरीद बनते दिख रहे हैं।

ऐसी ताकतों में सबसे आगे है हिन्दुत्व ब्रिगेड के संगठन, जो पूरी योजना के साथ अपने अनुशासित कहे जानेवाली कार्यकर्ताओं की टीम के साथ उतरे हैं और डा अम्बेडकर – जिन्होंने हिन्दु धर्म की आन्तरिक बर्बरताओं के खिलाफ वैचारिक संघर्ष एवं व्यापक जनान्दोलनों में पहल ली, जिन्होंने 1935 में येवला के सम्मेलन में ऐलान किया कि मैं भले ही हिन्दु पैदा हुआ, मगर हिन्दू के तौर पर मरूंगा नहीं और अपनी मौत के कुछ समय पहले बौद्ध धर्म का स्वीकार किया /1956/ और जो ‘हिन्दु राज’ के खतरे के प्रति अपने अनुयायियों को एवं अन्य जनता को बार बार आगाह करते रहे, उन्हें हिन्दू समाज सुधारक के रूप में गढ़ने में लगे हैं। राष्टीय स्वयंसेवक संघ (RSS) के मुखिया जनाब मोहन भागवत ने कानपुर की एक सभा में यहां तक दावा किया कि वह ‘संघ की विचारधारा में यकीन रखते थे’ और हिन्दु धर्म को चाहते थे।

इन संगठनों की कोशिश यह भी है कि तमाम दलित जातियां – जिन्हें मनुवाद की व्यवस्था में तमाम मानवीय हकों से भी वंचित रखा गया – उन्हें यह कह कर अपने में मिला लिया जाए कि उनकी मौजूदा स्थितियों के लिए ‘बाहरी आक्रमण’ अर्थात इस्लाम जिम्मेदार है। गौरतलब है कि मई 2014 के चुनावों में भाजपा को मिली ‘ऐतिहासिक जीत’ के बाद जितनी तेजी के साथ इस मोर्चे पर काम चल रहा है, उसे समझने की जरूरत है।

प्रस्तुत है दो पुस्तिकाओं का एक सेट: पहली पुस्तिका का शीर्षक है ‘ंहेडगेवार-गोलवलकर बनाम अम्बेडकर’ ( http://www.isd.net.in/Publication/Booklet/2015/Booklet-66.pdf) और दूसरी पुस्तिका का शीर्षक है ‘ हमारे लिए अम्बेडकर’। (http://www.isd.net.in/Publication/Booklet/2015/Booklet-67.pdf)

पहली पुस्तिका में जहां संघ परिवार तथा अन्य हिन्दुत्ववादी संगठनों द्वारा डा अम्बेडकर को समाहित करने, दलित जातियों को मुसलमानों के खिलाफ खड़ा करने, भक्ति आन्दोलन के महान संत रविदास के हिन्दूकरण तथा छुआछूत की जड़े आदि मसलों पर चर्चा की गयी है। वहीं दूसरी पुस्तिका में दलित आन्दोलन के अवसरवाद, साम्प्रदायिकता की समस्या की भौतिक जड़ें आदि मसलों पर बात की गयी है। इस पुस्तिका के अन्तिम अध्याय ‘डा अम्बेडकर से नयी मुलाक़ात का वक्त़’ में परिवर्तनकामी ताकतों के लिए डा अम्बेडकर की विरासत के मायनों पर चर्चा की गयी है।

Identities, Politics, Right watch

Observing Human Rights by Defending Food Rights of Dalit-Bahujans and Muslims: Sudarshan, Osmania University

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Guest post courtesy DALIT CAMERA

[On 10th December 2015 Osmania University students celebrated Beef festival to mark Human Rights Day in a novel fashion. BJP MLA Raja Singh few days before stated he would kill or get killed to protect the cow. It is strange because the Osmania Uuniversity students had only said they would eat beef which is already available in the market, they never said they would kill cow, but the BJP/VHP was spreading rumours that OU students are killing cow. Print and Electronic media gave a full coverage for the BJP/VHP activists). With threats pouring in from different corners (Police, Judiciary, Administration) OU students organized the Beef festival, and in their support EFLU, TU, UoH organized beef festival. Most importantly TVV organization ate beef in Delhi Red Fort.

Why did OU students hold the Beef festival? Here we present an interview of Sudarshan, key organizer of the Beef Festival in OU for the larger public. The interview was conducted and transcribed by Dharma Teja.]

Continue reading Observing Human Rights by Defending Food Rights of Dalit-Bahujans and Muslims: Sudarshan, Osmania University →

Politics, Right watch

Free to question India’s imperfections: Laila Tyabji

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LAILA TYABJI in The Business Standard

Never in my 68 years have I thought for even a milli-second of living anywhere else except India. Not even when, in the wake of the Ayodhya agitation, I received a stream of poisonous hate mails and a packet of turds (in a mithai box!!) I love the multilayered multiplicity of India, its synergies & paradoxes, its many diverging & converging cultural streams, its colour & chaos, the hit-and-miss judaad of past and present, malls and mandirs, East and West; its unexpected but inherent certainties…. In any case, good or bad, it is MY country.

So it feels strange to be told, when I critically question any aspect, that I should go live somewhere else – Pakistan for instance. I am utterly amazed that Aamir Khan’s confession of momentary vulnerability should be termed a “moral offence” by no less a person than MJ Akbar! I used to so admire the reasoned clarity of his writing.

I have always over-used adjectives. My English teacher would red-pencil an acerbic commentary. A rebuke I secretly courted was “oxymoron”. I loved its sound as well as its meaning – two adjectives contradicting each other.

These days I am being turned into an oxymoron myself! “Indian Muslim” is an identity increasingly open to suspicion by self-proclaimed ‘patriots’; one’s own patriotism needing constant justification plus a certificate that one doesn’t eat beef or critique the nation. That a well-known Sadhvi can dub Shahrukh Khan a Pakistani agent and not be arrested for libel, instead accruing a trail of approving social media comments, or the Culture Minister awards A P J Abdul Kalam the accolade of being a good man “despite being a Muslim” is not exactly a comfortable feeling. That someone can be lynched to death for having meat in his fridge is even more eery. Continue reading Free to question India’s imperfections: Laila Tyabji →

Bad ideas, Politics, Right watch

Davids Versus Goliath – How Yogi Adityanath had to ‘Go Back’ to …..(err not Pakistan but) Gorakhpur

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Displaying IMG_20151119_172721574.jpgDisplaying IMG_20151119_172721574.jpgThe Pandal was ready.

The Sainiks with their saffron bandanas  – who were scattered here and there – were eagerly waiting to listen to another fiery call from their Senapati.

Time was already running out but the ‘Star Speaker’ was nowhere to be seen.

Little did they knew that their Senapati had already made an about turn and was headed back home as the district administration had ‘advised’ him against entering the district and was told that he would face ‘legal action if he dares to do so.’

For Yogi Adityanath, the firebrand MP of BJP, who is widely known for his controversial statements as well as  acts and who every other day asks dissenters to ‘go to Pakistan’ , it was his comeuppance moment when he was rather forced to ‘go back’ to Gorakhpur. And all his plans to be the star speaker at the inaugural function of Students Union of Allahabad University – once called ‘Oxford of the East’ – lay shattered. Continue reading Davids Versus Goliath – How Yogi Adityanath had to ‘Go Back’ to …..(err not Pakistan but) Gorakhpur →

Bad ideas, Right watch

Vande Mataram?

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jaipur-cow-759

An art installation ‘The Bovine Divine’ by artists Anish Ahluwalia and Chintan Upadhyay was taken down by the police at Jaipur Art Summit

The artists were taken to the police station and held for two hours.

[Correction: The art work was by Siddhartha Kararwal. Anish and Chintan are Sandarbh coordinators. But they were the ones talking to the cops and who were eventually taken to the police station.]

After the cow made of styrofoam was taken down, it was “worshipped and garlanded by a group of protesters”.

While the artists said they wanted to show what eating plastic does to cows, the SHO of Bajaj Nagar Police Station, Mahendra Gupta, was deeply disapproving.

“The way the cow was hanging in the air”, he reportedly frowned, “it was only sending a negative message.”

Read the full story at Indian Express.

Capitalism, Centre watch, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Images, Language, Left watch, Media politics, Metropolis, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Scams

We agree passionately: one world, one struggle, education is not for sale!

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Dangerous Vandals, Goths and Visigoths: Students Demanding the Impossible at #OccupyUGC
Dangerous Vandals, Goths and Visigoths: Students Demanding the Impossible at #OccupyUGC

The Occupy UGC movement looks irrelevant or ridiculous to the middle and upper classes in India because it can be made to appear so by the media. Not surprisingly, television channels and leading dailies either ignored the protests altogether, or worse, focused on the apparently far more *critical* issue of the “vandalism” and “disfigurement” of the ITO metro station by the protesting students. Times of India said they were “brazening it out” after their acts of vandalism, and on social media including Kafila, these student vandals have been additionally belittled by some as misguided pawns in the hands of an apparent conglomerate of ambitious lefty professors from JNU! Basically, anything but a legitimate set of demands, some of which this poster from the movement tries to explain…

Dekh Bhai UGC
Translation: Look here UGC, if you don’t give us the scholarship, I will face marriage pressure, but you will have to face the pressure of the entire student population!!

(Incidentally, it was this image that was painted on the walls of the ITO metro station. Personally I found it cheerful).

Anyway, as Camalita Naicker reminded us in her excellent article on South Africa here on Kafila, student protests against rising student fees and shrinking scholarships and fellowships are no flash in the pan but a burgeoning worldwide phenomenon cutting across political affiliations. This is because you don’t need to be a leftist to understand that in contemporary conditions, pursuing a higher education is both the only guarantee to economic security, and the one thing that may be denied to you if you are from the wrong side of the tracks. 

We post below statements from #OccupyUGC and #Occupy SOAS in support of each other. These have been sent to us by Akash Bhattacharya, research scholar in history at JNU.

Continue reading We agree passionately: one world, one struggle, education is not for sale! →

Bad ideas, Government, Right watch, Theory, Violence/Conflict

गांधी से नफरत, गोडसे से प्यार

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 देश विभाजन के काफी पहले ही गांधीजी को मारने की साजिश रची गई थी।

( Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images,  Courtesy – blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

हिन्दू महासभा ने 15 नवंबर को बलिदान दिवस मनाने का फैसला किया है। इस दिन महात्मा गांधी के हत्यारे नाथूराम गोडसे को फांसी हुई थी। पिछले साल हिन्दू महासभा ने देश भर में नाथूराम गोडसे के मंदिरों का निर्माण करने का ऐलान किया था। काफी हो-हल्ला मचने के बाद यह अभियान रुक गया। इस बार केंद्र सरकार हिन्दू महासभा के प्रति क्या रुख अख्तियार करती है, यह देखना दिलचस्प रहेगा। महात्मा गांधी की हत्या को लेकर एक बात अक्सर कही जाती है कि नाथूराम गोडसे गांधीजी से नाराज था, क्योंकि गांधीजी ने देश का बंटवारा होने दिया और वह पाकिस्तान को पचपन करोड़ रुपये देने की बात किया करते थे।                                                                                                                                              

दरअसल इन दो तथ्यों की आड़ में उस लंबी साजिश पर पर्दा डाला जाता है जो हिन्दूवादी संगठनों ने रची थी। सचाई यह है कि गांधीजी को मारने की कोशिशें विभाजन के काफी पहले से शुरू हो गई थीं। आखिरी ‘सफल’ कोशिश के पहले उन पर चार बार हमले के प्रयास किए गए। चुन्नी भाई वैद्य जैसे सर्वोदयी के मुताबिक हिन्दूवादी संगठनों ने कुल छह बार उन्हें मारने की कोशिश की, जब न पाकिस्तान अस्तित्व में था और न ही पचपन करोड़ का मसला आया था। पिछले दिनों गांधीजी की हत्या पर ‘बियॉन्ड डाउट: ए डॉशियर ऑन गांधीज असेसिनेशन’ नाम से लेखों का संकलन (संपादन: तीस्ता सीतलवाड) प्रकाशित हुआ है, जो इस मामले की कई पर्ते खोलता है। Continue reading गांधी से नफरत, गोडसे से प्यार →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Countryside, Government, Identities, Images, Language, Politics, Right watch

Yes, the Biharis chose Mud over the Lotus. Get Over It.

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It is not difficult to imagine some of the reactions to the sweeping victory for the Grand Alliance in Bihar. All those who have spent a lifetime thinking of Bihar as the worst kind of social, economic and political cesspool in the country, all those who shudder at the sight of Lalu Prasad Yadav and amuse themselves with jokes about his rustic origins and his apparently appalling antics, all those who are charmed by the hologram charm of our current PM – all those have found the best kind of alibi to explain the result of November 8th. As Prem Panicker has noted on Twitter, the sum total of their reactions is – “Illiterate Biharis deserve this”. A particularly pee-yellow variant of this jaundiced view of the lower castes and classes was given (and mysteriously withdrawn later) by one Sonam who goes by the handle #Asyounotwish on Twitter:

Thank you Bihar for choosing mud over lotus. You deserve to stay rickshaw walas.

It’s perfect – for the thousands of Sonams out there, Lalu and Bihar are made for each other in a kind of self-limiting loop, and we can return to our economically dynamic, socially vibrant and thankfully un-Bihari Indian lives. Another joke that is doing the rounds:

Wife: Ever been to Bihar?

Husband: No

Wife: Moving there?

Husband: No

Wife: Relatives fighting elections?

Husband: No

Wife: Then give me the damn remote…

Continue reading Yes, the Biharis chose Mud over the Lotus. Get Over It. →

Politics, Right watch

Modi Not Welcome!

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Modi-House-of-Commons

At 9 p.m. on Sunday, Nov 8, 2015, a massive projection of Narendra Modi holding a sword in one hand and a shield with the Oum symbol with a swastika superimposed appeared on the Houses of Parliament next to the iconic Big Ben. Above it were the words Modi Not Welcome. It was the most high profile message from the campaigners of the Modi Not Welcome organisations which have come together as the Awaaz Network.

Read full report in Caravan Daily News.

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Government, Politics, Right watch

How the Hindutva Propaganda Machine Manufactures Lies

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Did you know that the return of awards by writers, film-makers and scientists was a plot hatched jointly by the United States of America, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? Well, if you did not, you will probably not ever understand why the ‘tolerant’ multitude that turned out at Anupam Kher’s March for India rally today, could so vilely abuse and attack NDTV’s Bhairavi Singh and Aaj Tak’s Mousmi Singh. After all, it is one thing for the netas to simulate their anger and laughter on TV channels and elsewhere, but how do you actually get ordinary people to go crazy? How and why does the ordinary Hindutva footsoldier act the way he or she does? Basically, he (and occasionally, she) is made to believe things that most people would know to be false. So why does as innocuous an act as the returning of awards by writers become such a big threat to India’s position in the world and to the very existence of the government of the day? Well, because, it is not a simple matter of some writers acting out of their conscience but already a part of an international conspiracy plotted by the US-Saudi Arabia-Pakistan nexus!

Defenders of the great tradition of tolerance, image courtesy Saikat Datta
Defenders of the great tradition of tolerance, image courtesy Saikat Datta

Published below is the text of a note that has been circulating over different social media platforms. We have left the typographical and printing errors as they are in the original. Paranoid in its content, it is also illustrative of the way the RSS ‘rumour-machine’ works to produce lies. In earlier days, it used to start circulating from the morning shakhas via the shakha participants. Nowadays it moves from one social media platform to another, with lightning speed. Continue reading How the Hindutva Propaganda Machine Manufactures Lies →

Culture, Debates, Right watch

जो पहले नहीं हुआ: किशोर कुमार

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Guest Post by KISHORE KUMAR

लगभग चालीस लेखकों के पुरुस्कार लौटाने के बाद अब फिल्म निर्देशकों ने भी पुरुस्कार लौटने शुरू कर दिए. यह पुरुस्कार बढती असहनशीलता और अभिव्यक्ति की स्वंत्रता के दमन के विरोध में लौटाए जा रहे हैं.

बी.जे.पी की राय में यह राजनीति से प्रेरित कदम है और यह सब बी.जे.पी के खिलाफ हो रही साजिश का हिस्सा है. बी.जे.पी के अनुसार आज कुछ ऐसा नया नहीं हुआ जो पहले ना हुआ हो और इन लोगों ने उस समय यह पुरूस्कार वापस क्यों नहीं लौटाए? बी.जे.पी. के अनुसार पुरुस्कार लौटना छदम धर्मनिरपेक्ष लोगों का नाटक है और  असहनशीलता इतनी नहीं बढ़ी और माहौल इतना ख़राब नहीं हुआ कि इतना शोर मचाया जाए. Continue reading जो पहले नहीं हुआ: किशोर कुमार →

Bad ideas, Right watch

My name is Ajmal: Ajmal Khan A.T.

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Guest Post by AJMAL KHAN A.T.

What is your name?

Ajmal,

Ohh…Ajmal Kasab?

No, I smile.

This is a familiar exchange for me, not to mention my friends often  calling out to me,  hey, Kasab!

I noticed this started  in Mumbai post 26/11, of course.

But there are other instances.  Once, while I was traveling by train from Mumbai to Kerala, a man who was in his mid 50s with whom I was sharing a seat, asked while I was about to get down at the Calicut railway station, ‘boy what is your name?’ I replied – my name is Ajmal. A cute little boy, around 9 years old, who was traveling with him, responded with  Ajmal Kasab?

I somehow managed to smile and say, no my dear. I got down at my station. Continue reading My name is Ajmal: Ajmal Khan A.T. →

Countryside, Debates, Politics, Right watch

Why the Ban on Cow Slaughter is not Just Anti-Farmer but Anti-Cow as Well: Sagari R Ramdas

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SAGARI R. RAMDAS writes in The Wire:

The recent killings of Mohammad Akhlaq, Noman and Zahid Ahmad Bhatt on the claim that they were slaughtering cows is not only an attack on the right to life, livelihood and diverse food cultures but an assault on the entire agrarian economy.

The cynical fetishisation of cows by Hindutva politicians is not only profoundly anti-farmer but, paradoxically, also anti-cow.

What these bigots fail to realise is that the cow will survive only if there are pro-active measures to support multiple-produce based cattle production systems, where animals have economic roles. The system must produce a combination of milk, beef, draught work, manure and hide, as has been the case in the rain-fed food farming agriculture systems of the sub-continent over the centuries.

In meat production systems – whether meat from cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goat, pigs or poultry – it is the female which is reared carefully in large numbers to reproduce future generations, and the male that goes to slaughter. It is only the sick, old, infertile and non-lactating female that is sold for slaughter. In every society where beef consumption is not politicised, farmers known that eating the female bovine as a primary source of meat will compromise future production, and hence they are rarely consumed.

Read the rest of this article here.

Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Protest the communally motivated murder of Yakub Shaikh in Mumbai!

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A CALL FOR PROTEST on 29th October 2015 outside Toyota Shinrai, Cotton Green, Mumbai.

On 29th September at 2:30 pm,  a day after Dadri lynching in Uttar Pradesh, Yakub Shaikh, a worker at the Toyota Shinrai workshop cum showroom at Cotton Green, Mumbai, was brutally murdered at his workplace. The murder took place as a result of some of his co-workers forcefully inserting an air pipe at 140 PSI pressure into his rectum. His organs burst open leading to what must have been a painful but instant death. The gruesome `lynching’ was sought to be suppressed by the management and co-employees at the showroom.

His family was misinformed throughout, the various versions of the death being told  to them as “heart attack”, food poisoning, medicine overdose and finally “a prank”, by the company and police. The two CCTV cameras covering the spot of murder were reported by the Toyota Shinrai management to police as having been out of service for months, whereas a close inspection shows that they have been tampered with and damaged very recently. Clearly there seems to be an unholy nexus between the police and the Toyota company.

The police have recorded the statement of an 18-year old temporary worker as the complainant and registered an FIR in his name. Why wasn’t the  management made the complainant? In a large workplace where 40-50 people work, why were the statements of co workers not recorded? The single witness / complainant is likely to  turn hostile at any moment. Why have the police refused to accept the version from the victim’s family? Why has the management given different versions of the death to the family? Why the management wanted to give a false story of heart attack, and why the police ACP was trying to do a negotiation for 3 lakhs? Why was there a delay in doing post mortem? The management’ s false heart attack story and the delay in deciding on post mortem itself warranted demand for charging/implicating the management in covering-up/destroying evidence, if not conspiracy with the murderers.  Does not a single arrest to such a gruesome murder point to a conspiracy and a deliberate attempt by the police to shield the Toyota Company and the other accomplices to the murder? Throughout, the police have taken every possible step to silence the victim’s family.

A fact-finding team of lawyers and activists from various organizations have submitted a report after their own investigation that a minimum of 5-6 people were involved in pinning down Yakub Shaikh and inserting the air pipe into his rectum. It is clearly a case of pre-planned murder. The murder also happened a day after the Dadri lynching soon after Eid and Yakub Shaikh had been threatened for having eaten `meat’.

A month after the murder of Yakub Shaikh, the police and management are singing in chorus that Yakub was killed because of a prank that misfired. We concerned citizens strongly condemn the murder and demand that the officials of Toyota Shinrai showroom along with the employees responsible for the murder be booked and justice be given to the family of Yakub Shaikh.

We appeal  to all democratic citizens, trade unionists and secular activists to gather in large numbers at 5 pm on Thursday, 29th October . We will gather at Lal Maidan and from there we will proceed to Toyota Shinrai as a sign of protest against the gruesome murder of Yakub Shaikh to demand justice for the victim and his family.

CPDR, BBA, JKA and concerned citizens.