Category Archives: Right watch

Right watch, Violence/Conflict

अकोट में साम्‍प्रदायिक हिंसा: एक पूर्व नियोजित साजिश

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Guest post by Sharad Jaiswal, Amir Ajani and others

DSC0036223 नवम्‍बर, वर्धा से गये एक जांचदल, जिसमें महात्‍मा गांधी अंतरराष्‍ट्रीय हिंदी विश्‍वविद्यालय के अध्‍यापक, छात्र, वर्धा के सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता और पत्रकार सम्मिलित थे, ने अकोट (जिला अकोला) का दौरा किया। पिछले 23 अक्‍टूबर को अकोट ताल्‍लुका में साम्‍प्रदायिक हिंसा की घटना हुई थी जिसमें 4 लोग मारे गये थे एवं कई लोग घायल हुए थे। मुस्लिम समुदाय के 22 घरों को आग के हवाले कर दिया गया था और लगभग 25 दुकानों को जलाया गया था। मरने वालों में सभी निम्‍नमध्‍यवर्गीय पृष्‍ठभूमि से थे।

साम्‍प्रदायिक हिंसा की पृष्‍ठभूमि :

साम्‍प्रदायिक हिंसा की पृष्‍ठभूमि 19 अक्‍टूबर को तैयार की जाती है। पूरे अकोट ताल्‍लुके में 65 मंडल देवी के लगाये गये थे। प्रत्‍येक मंडल का संबंध किसी न किसी जातीय समाज से रहता है। मसलन माली समाज, कुनबी समाज, धोबी समाज आदि। धोबी और भोई समाज के एक मंडल, जिसके कर्ताधर्ता बजरंग दल, शिवसेना, विश्‍व हिंदू परिषद के लोग थे, के पास से निकलते हुए एक मुस्लिम बच्‍चे ने गलती से वहाँ पर थूक दिया। उसके साथ उसका हमउम्र दोस्‍त भी था। उसका थूक देवी की प्रतिमा को छुआ तक नहीं लेकिन पर्दे पर उसके कुछ छींटे जरूर पड़े। उस बच्‍चे को मंडल के लोगों ने पकड़ लिया और उसकी पिटाई करने के बाद वहीं पर बैठा लिया। इतनी देर में जब कुछ शोर-शराबा हुआ तो लोगों की भीड़ वहाँ पर एकत्र हुई और मामले को समझने के लिए शोएब नाम का व्‍यक्ति भी वहाँ पर पहुँचा और उसने कुछ हस्‍तक्षेप भी किया और मंडल के लोगों को समझाने की भी कोशिश की। उसने बच्‍चे की उम्र का भी हवाला दिया। बच्‍चे की उम्र 7-8 साल की थी। मंडल के लोगों की तरफ से यह भी कहा गया कि आज ये देवी की प्रतिमा पर थूक रहे हैं कल हमारे मुँह पर थूकेंगे। बहरहाल शोएब ने किसी तरह से मामले को शांत कराया और बच्‍चे को मंडल के लोगों से मुक्‍त कराया। इस घटना की चर्चा लगभग आधे घण्‍टे के बाद आस-पास के इलाके में फैल चुकी थी। एजाज नामक टेलर जिसकी घटना स्‍थल से कुछ दूर पर ही दुकान थी मंडल के लोगों के पास आया और उसने जानना चाहा कि मामला क्‍या है और उसके बाद वह भी लौटकर अपनी दुकान पर वापस आ गया। Continue reading अकोट में साम्‍प्रदायिक हिंसा: एक पूर्व नियोजित साजिश →

Bad ideas, Right watch

Shield of Barbarism by Nagarjun

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Nagarjun was an avant-garde poet of Resistance in Hindi. His poem, in Tarun Bhartiya‘s translation along with the original, can be read as an obituary 42 years after it was written.

Bal Thackeray ! Bal Thackeray!

At his fascist gods’

Beck and call Thackeray

O be careful, here he comes Bal Thackeray

All agreeing, how shall we crawl Thackeray

Hide, don’t you dare look away

In smart Shiv Sena Uniform – making music hall Thackeray Continue reading Shield of Barbarism by Nagarjun →

Law, Right watch

Can the Love of Justice be Assassinated?: Arvind Narrain and Saumya Uma remember Shahid Azmi

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Guest post by ARVIND NARRAIN and SAUMYA UMA

Progressive lawyers, social activists and academics have invested much time in trying to puzzle out what is the progressive potential of law. Sometimes, answers to deep philosophical questions emerge from a single life. Shahid Azmi’s life   (1977-2010) exemplifies one answer to this perennial question. It was a life which took to the legal profession with the objective of using  law as a shield and tool in the quest for justice. It was also a life which was tragically cut short, when Shahid Azmi was assassinated  at the  age of thirty three.

Continue reading Can the Love of Justice be Assassinated?: Arvind Narrain and Saumya Uma remember Shahid Azmi →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Law, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Why I was saddened by Kasab’s execution

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Rejoice, fellow Indians. Ajmal Kasab has been hanged. But please excuse me, I am not joining you. Your cheering and hooting and hurrahs feel like a medieval lynch mob celebrating the death of the sinner and not the sin. Barbaric is the word that comes to mind.

This isn’t merely about the morality or aesthetic of capital punishment. I want to ask you: what did we just achieve? Ten terrorists had come to kill and be killed, to cause maximum damage of the sort that they surely knew they’d be killed. Nine of them were killed in direct encounter. Did we hail their deaths? Do we say their deaths were justice? So if we killed Ajmal Kasab four years later- “with due process” – what exactly have we achieved? Continue reading Why I was saddened by Kasab’s execution →

Culture, Identities, Media politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Ek Tha Tiger: Death and Bal K. Thackeray

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We have reasons to be grateful that Bal K. Thackeray has died, a normal, natural death. Several of those whom he admired, didn’t. Adolf Hitler, the fellow ‘artist’ he often invoked, killed himself, his mistress and his dog. Indira Gandhi, and her son Sanjay, the mother and son firm of despots that Bal Thackeray endorsed, didn’t go gently into the night either. Sanjay Gandhi, the ‘bold young man’ whom Thackeray recognized as a fellow spirit came spiraling down in his own airplane, demonstrating that the indifferent sky does occasionally listen  to the prayers of the earth to alleviate its burden. Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv both fell to the forces that their own ruling dispensation had nurtured, Khalistani zealots and the LTTE.  Bal Thackeray was lucky to have lived as long as he did, sipping his lukewarm beer, spitting out his bile. Very lucky. As for us, we are fortunate that Thackeray did not get to go down as a Maratha martyr, just as a lapsed cartoonist, a would-be caudillo and a has-been demagogue. Continue reading Ek Tha Tiger: Death and Bal K. Thackeray →

Government, Law, Right watch

A dangerous idea

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For easy sharing, you can find this image on Twitter and Facebook.

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

Social Media Regulation vs. Suppression of Freedom of Speech: Pranesh Prakash

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Guest post by PRANESH PRAKASH

This morning, there was a short report in the Mumbai Mirror about two girls having been arrested for comments one of them made, and the other ‘liked’, on Facebook about Bal Thackeray:

Police on Sunday arrested a 21-year-old girl for questioning the total shutdown in the city for Bal Thackeray’s funeral on her Facebook account. Another girl who ‘liked’ the comment was also arrested.

The duo were booked under Section 295 (a) of the IPC (for hurting religious sentiments) and Section 64 (a) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Though the girl withdrew her comment and apologised, a mob of some 2,000 Shiv Sena workers attacked and ransacked her uncle’s orthopaedic clinic at Palghar.

“Her comment said people like Thackeray are born and die daily and one should not observe a bandh for that,” said PI Uttam Sonawane.

What provisions of law were used?

There’s a small mistake in Mumbai Mirror‘s reportage as there is no section “64(a)”1 in the Information Technology (IT) Act, nor a section “295(a)” in the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They must have meant section 295A of the IPC (“outraging religious feelings of any class”) and section 66A of the IT Act (“sending offensive messages through communication service, etc.”). The Wall Street Journal’s Shreya Shah has confirmed that the second provision was section 66A of the IT Act.

Section 295A of the IPC is cognizable and non-bailable, and hence the police have the powers to arrest a person accused of this without a warrant.2 Section 66A of the IT Act is cognizable and bailable. Some news sources claim that section 505(2) of the IPC (“Statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes”) has also been invoked.

This is clearly a case of misapplication of s.295A of the IPC.3 This provision has been frivolously used numerous times in Maharashtra. Even the banning of James Laine’s book Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India happened under s.295A, and the ban was subsequently held to have been unlawful by both the Bombay High Court as well as the Supreme Court. Indeed, s.295A has not been applied in cases where it is more apparent, making this seem like a parody news report. Continue reading Social Media Regulation vs. Suppression of Freedom of Speech: Pranesh Prakash →

Bad ideas, Government, Identities, Law, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

The Uttar Pradesh administration has a prominent role in the burning of Bhadarsa: Rihai Manch

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This release was put out by the RIHAI MANCH on 9 November

Jannatunisa, a victim of violence in Bhadarsa

Faizabad 9 November 2012: An investigation team of Rihai Manch visited the Bhadarsa village which was affected by communal violence during Dussehra celebrations. The team found out that the violence was well planned and was executed by communal elements in connivance with the administration. The role of the media in this incident is also suspicious. The team also found that the administration is forcing the affected families to erase any evidence of the incident and they have not even been compensated. No FIR has yet been registered yet. The team has also requested the Sheetla Singh Investigation Commission (constituted by the Press Council of India) to visit the area. Continue reading The Uttar Pradesh administration has a prominent role in the burning of Bhadarsa: Rihai Manch →

Government, Identities, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

भदरसा के जलने में प्रशासन की अहम भूमिका: रिहाई मंच

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This release in Hindi about recent communal violence in the Bhadarsa area of Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh comes to us from the RIHAI MANCH. Please help us translate this into English by translating just one paragraph in the comments

Jannatunisa

फैजाबाद, 9 नवम्बर 2012। रिहाई मंच के जांचदल ने दशहरा के दौरान हुयी साम्प्रदायिक हिंसा से प्रभावित भदरसा गांव का दौरा किया। जांच दल ने पाया कि भदरसा में हुयी हिंसा पूरी तरह सुनियोजित थी जिसे साम्प्रदायिक तत्वों और प्रशासन की मिलीभगत से अंजाम दिया गया जिसमें मीडिया की भूमिका भी संदिग्ध थी। जांच दल ने यह भी पाया कि प्रशासन की तरफ से आगजनी से पीडित परिवारों से घटना के साक्ष्य जबरन मिटवाए जा रहे हैं जबकि पीडि़तों को न तो उचित मुआवजा मिला है और ना ही एफआईआर दर्ज किये गये हैं। जांच दल ने प्रेस काउंसिल द्वारा गठित शीतला सिंह जांच आयोग से भी भदरसा जाने की मांग की है। Continue reading भदरसा के जलने में प्रशासन की अहम भूमिका: रिहाई मंच →

Right watch, Frontiers, Identities, Violence/Conflict, Politics, Movements

“We may weep but we will stay”: Women resist evictions in Palestine: Kalyani Menon Sen

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Guest post by KALYANI MENON SEN

Umm Nabil’s settler-occupied house is painted with Israeli symbols. (Photo: Aruna Rao)

Umm Nabil al Kurd is 82 years old. She is tiny and frail – her hands tremble as she takes the mike. But her voice is steady as she describes how she lost her home.

“We came to Jerusalem from Haifa as refugees in 1948” she says. “The Jordanians allotted us our house. We have lived there for 60 years – my children were born there. It was small and broken when we moved in – we extended it and improved it as our family grew. We planted a garden. When my son got married and the grandchildren came, we built a separate unit for him at the back of the main house. We built with our own money, with our own hands. Then, two years ago, the Israelis came with the police and told us to leave. They said the house was theirs. They pushed me to the ground, called me filthy names, turned their dogs on me. They threw out our furniture and moved into the house. We went to court but the judge said we were occupying the house illegally – he told us to pay 100,000 shekels as rent for the years that we had lived in the house. We had to pay – my husband would have been imprisoned if we did not. We are still fighting the case – the next hearing is in July but I don’t know if we will ever get the house back.” Continue reading “We may weep but we will stay”: Women resist evictions in Palestine: Kalyani Menon Sen →

Centre watch, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Boycott Zionazi Apartheid at Delhi International Arts Festival!

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[Posted below is a statement by artistes, writers and the Indian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. The statement is self-explanatory. However, as we shall be explaining in a series of posts on Kafila soon, Zionism in Israel has perfected the most hated techniques of their own twentieth century tormentors, the Nazis, against the people of Palestine. Worse still, it has given these techniques a veneer of ‘normalcy’ – and every ‘cultural exchange’ with Israel only helps further normalize this most despicable form of colonial occupation.  ‘Settlements’, in this game of occupation, become the mode of annexing more and more of the Palestinian territory through settling of civilian Jewish populations in what still remains of Palestinian areas. – AN]

Call to boycott The Cameri Theatre at the Delhi International Arts Festival 2012

The organizers of the Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF) — the Prasiddha Foundation, the Hindustan Times and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) — have invited The Cameri Theatre from Israel to perform at Siri Fort on November 4th as part of the Festival’s celebration of “the spirit of Delhi”.

The Cameri Theatre serves as an official propaganda tool for the State of Israel — a state that occupies Palestinian lands and practises apartheid policies on the Palestinian people. The Cameri theatre is complicit in the Israeli Occupation of Palestine because it chooses to perform in the illegal settlement of Ariel. Ariel is one of the largest settlements in the occupied West Bank, located on expropriated agricultural Palestinian land. The construction of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land violates international law, and amounts to a war crime.

The apartheid wall with watch tower - photo taken during a visit in September
The apartheid wall with watch tower – (photo AN/NM) taken in September

Illegal Ariel contaminates Palestinian water and agricultural lands. Illegal Ariel is surrounded by walls and fences, and closely guarded by soldiers and armed security personnel. A theatrical performance in this illegal settlement is, by definition, a performance to an exclusively Israeli audience. Palestinians living even in the nearest village are physically excluded from attending. By performing in such circumstances, the Cameri profits from and legitimizes Israel’s illegal colonization policies, and becomes an accomplice to these crimes.

Continue reading Boycott Zionazi Apartheid at Delhi International Arts Festival! →

Bad ideas, Countryside, Frontiers, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

The Beginning of the Middle of the End: Haseeb Asif

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Guest post by HASEEB ASIF

Pakistan’s remote North Waziristan tribal area is seen from the air Feb. 17, 2007. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

One day as I walked to the market to buy some eggs, I noticed strange graffiti on a wall. Emblazoned in red paint was an invitation to join the fight against zionist subversion, western imperialism and painful hemorrhoids; the end having been muddled with a physician’s note.

It was an open call to Jihad by a militant Islamic organization. Jihad! The camaraderie, the righteousness, the third degree burns; it’s all I’d ever wanted. I was tired of being oppressed. There I was, in the prime of my youth, jobless, eggless, with subnormal visual acuity and four strands of the dengue virus, and who was to blame? I could imagine the conversation with my therapist.

“Doctor, I’m moody, I can’t sleep and I never seem to have enough energy to do anything.”

“Why, I believe you’re suffering from oppression”

I called their toll free number and signed myself up. They sent me a brochure and a medical plan; both had pictures of the same mutilated bodies.

‘Jihad summer camp, three months, graduating candidates get a certificate of martyrculation and up to 72 virgins in heaven (note: amount varies according to stock), HEC accredited, facial hair mandatory’.

I consulted with my parents, my mother was thrilled; she’d always wanted a martyr in the family. Father just grunted and made a time honoured gesture with his middle finger.

Two days later a brother Mehsud showed up at my door, he’d been sent by the organization to escort me back to their base.

“It’s a great thing you’re about to do, brother.” I was only packing my clothes. Continue reading The Beginning of the Middle of the End: Haseeb Asif →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Everyday Life, Law, Right watch

How not to handle online hate speech in India

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The first amendment to the Indian Constitution, passed in 1951, allows the government to impose “reasonable restrictions” on a citizen’s right to freedom of speech and expression, in order to protect “the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence”.

The means to impose these “reasonable restrictions” are described in several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc). Section 298 of the IPC makes punishable words uttered “with the deliberate intent of wounding religious feelings”; section 504 addresses “intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace”; section 153 makes punishable speech acts that lead or could have led to rioting; section 295A could land you in jail for three years over “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings”; section 153B permits the punishment of speech acts that question any social, religious or linguistic group’s allegiance to the Constitution of India or that such a group be denied Constitutional rights. Read more…

Bad ideas, Culture, Government, Identities, Images, Language, Law, Politics, Right watch, Sex, Violence/Conflict

Stuck Between Gandhi and Cultural Crap: Papilio Buddha Reveals Much

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Sometimes a minor cut on the surface of the skin will do to reveal the rot beneath. This is precisely what the film Papilio Buddha, made by the New York-based Malayalee film-maker Jayan Cherian, which draws broadly upon contemporary caste politics in Kerala, has achieved for us. In fact, its achievement on this count is simply amazing. At a single stroke, it has brought to light several stinking sores above which Malayalees, especially many Malayalee intellectuals who  occasionally don the garb of public intellectuals, strut. Continue reading Stuck Between Gandhi and Cultural Crap: Papilio Buddha Reveals Much →

Bad ideas, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

I am a Hindu and I am not a terrorist

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I am a Hindu and I am not a terrorist. Don’t get me wrong. Not all Hindus are terrorists and not all terrorists are Hindus. Heck, all Hindus don’t even subscribe to the political ideology called Hindutva. No, I am not saying all Hindutvawaadis are terrorists or that all terrorists are Hindutvawaadis. Let’s get this straight: terror has no religion. Continue reading I am a Hindu and I am not a terrorist →

Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

When the pseudo-sentiments of the pseudo-religious are pseudo-hurt

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In neighbouring Pakistan, an Islamic cleric recently accused a young Christian girl, Rimsha Masih, of blasphemy, a charge punishable by life imprisonment. He said she had burnt some pages that contained verses from the Quran. The 14 year old girl hails from a poor family and suffers from Down’s Syndrome. An eyewitness to the event showed courage and told a magistrate the truth: it was the Muslim cleric who had put those burnt pages in Rimsha’s bag. The cleric has been arrested and is set, in turn, to be charged with blasphemy.

I have been thinking about the incident. Insulting somebody’s religion is bad. It may cause offence. Often it is intended to cause offence. If somebody insults Islam, by doing things like burning pages containing verses from the Quran, it is bound to outrage a Muslim. Continue reading When the pseudo-sentiments of the pseudo-religious are pseudo-hurt →

Bad ideas, Debates, Identities, Law, Right watch

Saving our heritage

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The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) received a letter from the Jamiat-ul Ulama-e-Hind. The letter wanted 31 protected mosques to be opened for prayers. “Although the commission was not very keen that heritage monuments should be opened for prayers, it decided to suggest a joint survey for ascertaining the condition of these mosques.” Officials from the NCM, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Wakf Board will carry out the joint inspection according to the suggestion made by the commission in its letter sent to the Ministry of Culture towards the end of July.

This reference made by the NCM needs to be looked at a little carefully, because the issue is not likely to remain restricted to these 31 mosques nor will it remain confined to Delhi. The reference impinges on questions of law and will eventually inform our attitude to the wider question of heritage protection. Continue reading Saving our heritage →

Countryside, Debates, Movements, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Reading the Violence in Assam: Here and There: Musab Iqbal

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Guest post by MUSAB IQBAL
… the fact that violence was not merely transitional, a birthmark or a departure, but a much more general and continuous aspect of modern life – Gyanendra Pandey

1.

The misreading or out of place reading of any local and contextual issue and putting it in a wrong frame can be very catastrophic. The recent episode of violence in Assam and the fury it triggered across the country is a classic example of such misreading. But apart from the misreading this complete episode is certainly indicator of certain other phenomenon underlying our fragile society.

Moreover it looks that this is not only adding to verbal construction of abuse but also a very controlled confusion working at someone’s behest. The rally and violence in Mumbai, Ranchi, and Jamshedpur whose motivating factor was this violence happening in northeast and cross border against “Muslims”. The other episode, which adds to cynicism, is through popular newspapers in South India and in Assam publishing that Assamese will be subject to target and then under the cloud of rumor and suspicion these residents of the state is forced to run.

Continue reading Reading the Violence in Assam: Here and There: Musab Iqbal →

Government, Law, Media politics, Right watch, Technology

Full text: The Indian government’s recent orders to Internet Service Providers to block websites, webpages and Twitter accounts

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Joji Thomas Philip has put out these documents in The Economic Times.

18 August:

19 August: Continue reading Full text: The Indian government’s recent orders to Internet Service Providers to block websites, webpages and Twitter accounts →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Debates, Government, Right watch, Technology, Violence/Conflict

An Analysis of the Latest Round of Internet Censorship in India (Communalism and Rioting Edition): Pranesh Prakash

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Guest post by PRANESH PRAKASH

How many items have been blocked?

There are a total of 309 specific items (those being URLs, Twitter accounts, img tags, blog posts, blogs, and a handful of websites) that have been blocked. This number is meaningless at one level, given that it doesn’t differentiate between the blocking of an entire website (with dozens or hundreds of web pages) from the blocking of a single webpage. However, given that very few websites have been blocked at the domain-level, that number is still reasonably useful. Continue reading An Analysis of the Latest Round of Internet Censorship in India (Communalism and Rioting Edition): Pranesh Prakash →

Capitalism, Government, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Maruti workers produced in district court: Anumeha Yadav

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Guest post by ANUMEHA YADAV

In Manesar 25 July court
In Manesar 25 July court

Satbir, a 28 year old worker, was among four workers from Maruti’s Manesar plant produced by Haryana police at the district court in Gurgaon on Wednesday afternoon. Satbir has multiple fractures in his left leg and was taken to the civil hospital from the court room. “I fell while trying to flee the plant. I was in the morning Shift A; we had stayed back because we heard the union leaders were meeting the management to negotiate the reinstatement of a worker,” he recounts. “The violence began after 7 pm, I don’t know why it started. Gate 1 was closed. I feared that I may get attacked in the rioting and the confusion. I and two of my colleagues tried to jump off the back wall but I fell,” he says. Continue reading Maruti workers produced in district court: Anumeha Yadav →