Countryside, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Independent inquiry into Muzaffarnagar ‘Riots’: Mohan Rao, Ish Mishra, Pragya Singh, Vikas Bajpai

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Press Statement on the Report  prepared by Mohan Rao, Ish Mishra, Pragya Singh and Vikas Bajpai                                                                                

December 30, 2013

A team of independent academics and a journalist carried out an inquiry into the communal violence that shook Muzaffarnagar district in UP this past September. The report is based on the findings of the team during its visit to Muzaffarnagar district on the 9th and the 10th of November and again on the 27th November. The members of the team were:

  • Dr. Mohan Rao, Faculty, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU.
  • Mr Ish Misra, Faculty, Department of Political Science, Hindu College, Delhi University.
  • Ms.Pragya Singh, Journalist, Outlook, and
  • Dr. Vikas Bajpai, Ph.D. Scholar, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU.

The team also drew upon the assistance of Dr. Subhash Tyagi, Professor of Geography, Machra College, Meerut, and Praveen Raj Tyagi, Principal Greenland Public School, Duhai, Ghaziabad, in the collection of some data and the conduct of the visit.

OBJECTIVES OF OUR ENQUIRY:

  1. To investigate the role of state agencies in either preventing or containing violence, in taking appropriate punitive actions against the guilty and also to investigate some incidents of communal violence.
  2. To investigate the role of the government in providing relief and rehabilitating the displaced and the progress made in displaced people going back to their villages and homes.
  3. To understand economic, social and political reasons that led to the recent spate of communal violence in this area of Western Uttar Pradesh. Continue reading Independent inquiry into Muzaffarnagar ‘Riots’: Mohan Rao, Ish Mishra, Pragya Singh, Vikas Bajpai →
Government, Language, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

ऐसा तो गुजरात में भी नहीं हुआ था: अपूर्वानंद

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ऐसा तो गुजरात में भी नहीं हुआ था! हाँ! हमें 2002 की गर्मियां ज़रूर याद हैं, मस्जिदों में चल रही पनाहगाह की याद है, याद हैं गम से खामोश और समझदार आँखें जो हमें देख रही थीं जो उनका दुःख बँटाने आए थे वहाँ, कुछ घंटे, कुछ दिन, कुछ वक्त गुजारने, फिर जो अपने घरों को लौट जाने को थे क्योंकि हमारे घर थे जहां हम लौट सकते थे, घर जो आपका इंतज़ार जितना करता है उससे कहीं ज़्यादा दिन-हफ्ते उससे बाहर गुजारते हुए आप उसका करते हैं. वे आँखें जानती थीं कि हमारे घर हैं लौटने को और उनके नहीं हैं. वे अशफाक, सायरा, शकीला होने की वजह से बार-बार घर खोजने को नए, सिरे से उन्हें बसाने को मजबूर हैं, कि उनको  और उनकी आगे की पीढ़ियों को इसका इत्मीनान दिलाने में यह धर्मनिरपेक्ष भारत,यह हिन्दुस्तान लाचार है. जिसकी हस्ती कभी नहीं मिटती, उस हिन्दुस्तान को बनाने वालों में कई को ज़रूर एक ज़िंदगी में कई जिंदगियां गढ़नी पड़ती हैं. एक घर के बाद कई घर बसाने पड़ते हैं. Continue reading ऐसा तो गुजरात में भी नहीं हुआ था: अपूर्वानंद →

Capitalism, Excavation, Politics, Right watch

The Year That Was and the Challenge of 2014

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This is a slightly modified version of the article ‘Winds of Change’, published in Economic and Political Weekly (28 December, 2013). As the year ends and we brace up for the big battle that lies ahead in the coming year, here are some reflections on matters that may have a bearing on that battle. Politics is undergoing a transformation, in India as elsewhere. But perhaps, more importantly, it is also what we have so far understood as politics, that is on the point of transformation. For over a century, social science disciplines have maintained a neat distinction between the political and the economic, between state and capital and so on. Marxism ostensibly challenged this false division – but only to assert that the real thing was ‘economics’; that politics was mere epi-phenomenon. But the story of capital was never an economic story alone. In diverse ways, movements in different parts of the world are about this forced division, and the destruction of politics that followed in actual life as economics became a domain of so-called iron laws and economic models began to determine the ways we were taught to see and understand politics.  In the neoliberal 1990s and part of the 2000s, economic laws and the ‘needs’ of capital became sacrosanct – all politics was made to sing and dance to its tune. Only rank outsiders to this world could ask the emperor’s new clothes kind of questions. That is what seems to be happening. Till now, even those who saw that the emperor was naked, went on a maun vrata (vow of silence), fearing ridicule.

The dying old Kulin Brahmin in Goutam Ghose’s Bengali film Antarjali Jatra suddenly sprang to life on seeing his new attractive wife who had been married to him for the sole purpose of accompanying him in his life beyond as sati. Much like that character, the decrepit and ramshackle BJP seems to have suddenly sprung to life at the fantasy of power, having been out in the cold for almost a decade. And just as the young bride in the film was provided by another old impoverished Brahmin (his unmarried daughter), so an utterly impoverished Congress has provided the BJP with the most tantalizing possibility of what it might get in its life beyond.

How else do we explain the fact that the BJP after 2004, already in shambles with all its old leaders gone and its organization ridden with internal bickering and loss of direction, suddenly seems to have made such a comeback in the recent elections in five states? The ‘return of the BJP’ seems to be the overt message of the results of these elections. For there is certainly no doubt that in the past one year so, ever since the orchestrated rise of Narendra Modi in all-India level politics, the BJP’s fortunes too seem to have started turning. This development, however, was greatly facilitated by the Congress in more ways than one. The Congress seemed determined to hand over the game to Modi and the Hindu Right. Continue reading The Year That Was and the Challenge of 2014 →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Debates, Government, Politics

Corporate Sabotage and AAP’s Chavez Moment

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Even as the new AAP government was preparing to take oath of office, the news came of an unprecedented hike in the price of CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) – a hike of Rs 5.15 per kg. In principle, there is nothing wrong with a price-hike that is supposedly necessitated by the need to reduce supplies to metropolitan centres in order to ensure a more equitable distribution to other towns. However, knowing the way the Congress Party functions, the timing of this hike gives rise to legitimate suspicion that the intention is mala fide. At the very least, the decision could have waited till the new government assumed office and some consultation with the new government was carried out. This move shows up the nature of what can be expected from Congress and its ‘outside support’ to the new government.

Expectedly, auto-rickshaw drivers have started making noises about going on strike if fares are not commensurately hiked. If auto fares are raised, it hits the middle class, and if they are not, it alienates the auto-drivers.This clearly throws any new government into a quandary. Continue reading Corporate Sabotage and AAP’s Chavez Moment →

Debates, Government, Identities, Left watch, Politics

Arvind Kejriwal, master-blaster

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Arvind Kejriwal is the new Sachin Tendulkar. You throw him the most difficult googly and he sweeps it to add runs for his century. In 2011, he started a national anti-corruption movement with the specific aim of setting up an anti-corruption ombudsman called Lokpal. The movement’s public face and leader was Anna Hazare, a respected social leader, who like Gandhi, believes in fasting for politics. The critics said Anna is just a puppet and it’s Kejriwal’s movement, and that such sophistry showed Kejriwal (who takes oath as chief minister of Delhi tomorrow) had sinister motives.

Kejriwal’s critics said that fasting unto death was a blackmail strategy not suited to a democracy. Kejriwal can’t have a Lokpal just because he wants it. His popular support is just media hype. If he really wants a Lokpal, why doesn’t he form a political party and contest elections?

Kejriwal’s critics said he was supported by the RSS and the BJP, that he is a BJP stooge, that the Lokpal movement was a right-wing conspiracy to remove pristine, super-secular, people-loving, chosen-by-god Congress party from power. Continue reading Arvind Kejriwal, master-blaster →

Bad ideas, Genders, Identities, Law, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Sex

Sex and the courtroom

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A politician is exposed using State surveillance to allegedly woo his love interest. An editor tells a reporter his daughter’s age that the easiest way for her to keep her job would be to have sex with him. A godman and his son are both arrested for sexual assault and rape. A riot in Muzaffarnagar over false rumours of inter-religious ‘eve teasing’ left 48 dead and 15,000 homeless. The debate on rape, consent, gender relations sparked by December 16, 2012 continued throughout 2013. And by the end of it the Indian Supreme Court decided that the Indian Constitution’s letter and spirit were not being violated by criminalising consenting adults for having sex, in case the sex happened to be anything other than peno-vaginal.

India 2013 is like a pubescent 13 year old realising there’s something about the body that the mind needs to grapple with. There’s something about power, pleasure, social mores, class, law and so on, that comes together in the body and negotiates its way through bodily desire. There’s a sexual churning out there, and it’s not as titillating as the annual sex surveys news magazines do, nor is it as literary and profound as the language an incarcerated editor wields. Continue reading Sex and the courtroom →

Language, Law, Violence/Conflict

Magistrate Ganatra’s Dictionary and the Crime Scene of Language

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Written in the wake of the dismissal of Zakia Jafri’s Petition by an Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court

On 13th June, 1971, a courageous Pakistani journalist called Anthony Mascaranhas published an article in the Sunday Times, London, which was headlined ‘Genocide‘. The story of how this article got to be written and published is noteworthy in itself – and is an object lesson in how an ethical journalist takes and follows through a difficult decision. Forty two years later, Is it too late to wonder if a Gujarati magistrate could have taken an ethical leaf out of a Pakistani-Goan journalist’s lexicon?

Continue reading Magistrate Ganatra’s Dictionary and the Crime Scene of Language →

Government, Identities, Movements, Politics

Why AAP is the new Congress

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There is nothing novel about new parties upsetting the two-party binary. We have seen that happen through the process of Mandalisation in many states. But all those new parties have come up in the name of one or more identities caste, community, region. The BJP is the Brahmin-Bania party of Hindu nationalism. The BSP is the party of the Dalits, the JD(U) of the Kurmis, the BJD of Odisha. Many of these parties don’t have ambitions to rival the Congress or the BJP on the national stage.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is an exception in that its central ideology is good governance. This helps it escape identity politics. At the same time, the AAP embraces identity politics like everyone else does: its symbol, the broom, was from day one targeted at the Valmikis. Be it Muslims or Dalits or Brahmins, the AAP quietly takes note of identity politics and gives lip service, even as the party as a whole does not identify itself with any one community. The only other party which handles identity politics this way is the Congress. Continue reading Why AAP is the new Congress →

Debates, Everyday Life, Feminism, Genders, Language, Left watch, Sex, Violence/Conflict

In Tragic and Tough Times – Thoughts in the Wake of A Rape Charge and a Suicide: Sucheta De and Shivani Nag

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Guest Post by SUCHETA DE and SHIVANI NAG

In Tragic and Tough Times, Let Us be True to Our Democratic and Gender-Just Principles.

We are confronted by a painful episode involving a rape charge and a suicide, that poses many tough and tangled questions to us – as the JNU community and also as individuals and activists committed to secularism, democracy and gender justice. Let us, for a moment, reiterate what one of the late Khurshid Anwar’s friends has said in his recent post on Kafila: the suicide does not prove him guilty of the charge of rape, and it does not prove his innocence either.

The suicide is a horrible, tragic occurrence – and it is a tragedy we should not compound with irresponsible utterances. A charge of rape does not necessarily turn the accused into a convicted rapist. True. And equally truly, it does not turn the woman making the charge, overnight, into a slut, a murderer, or a communal/political conspirator. Continue reading In Tragic and Tough Times – Thoughts in the Wake of A Rape Charge and a Suicide: Sucheta De and Shivani Nag →

Empire/ Imperialism, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Movements, Violence/Conflict

Hayaat-e-Azadi, The Life of Freedom: Suvaid Yaseen

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Guest Post by SUVAID YASEEN

Ho Agar Khudnigar-o-Khudgar-o-Khudgeer Khudi
Ye Bhi Mumkin Hai Ke Tu Mout Se Bhi Mer Na Sake

[If the ‘ego’ is self‐preserving, self‐creating and self‐sustaining, 
Then it is possible that even death may not kill you.]
— Allama Iqbal,  Hayaat-e-Abadi, Zarb-e-Kaleem

Hayaat / Life
Hayaat / Life

The News

On the evening of 14th July 2013, I received a text message from a friend saying Hayaat had been hit by pellets in the eyes. Both his eyes were damaged. As I read the text, I became numb. I was at loss how to respond, trying to sink in what had just happened.

Continue reading Hayaat-e-Azadi, The Life of Freedom: Suvaid Yaseen →

Law, Right watch

Naz and Notional Equality: Aman

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 A guest post by Aman finds fault with the Supreme Court’s reasoning on equality

In Suresh Kumar Koushal and another v. Naz Foundation and others (Naz), the Supreme Court notes that, ‘It is relevant to mention here that the Section 377 IPC does not criminalize a particular people or identity or orientation. It merely identifies certain acts which if committed would constitute an offence. Such a prohibition regulates sexual conduct regardless of gender identity and orientation.’ By concentrating on the acts and not people, it is perhaps tries to convince us (and perhaps itself) that this is not a debate about homosexuality. However, the short-sightedness of the Supreme Court in discounting how these ‘acts’ are so fundamentally connected to a group’s orientation/identity is clear; it does exactly what it says it’s not doing (i.e. criminalize a particular people or identity or orientation).

The text of section 377 is facially neutral and applies to all people but it is not very difficult to see that the provision impacts homosexuals. As mentioned earlier, the so called ‘unnatural acts’ are the only ways homosexuals can have sex. This obviously implies that it is the homosexuals who have to continue bearing the stigma of being a criminal. The symbolic effect of branding homosexuals as criminals was evinced by the Delhi High Court when it said that provisions like these add to the reasons for homosexuality being treated as bent, queer, repugnant, deviant and perverse, leading to further marginalisation of the homosexuals. What could have been an attempt by the Indian judiciary to bring down one of the obstructions for integration, has become an enforcement of a dominant notion of ‘natural’ sex which will naturally lead to concealment of true identity of many people who are anyway struggling in the society to prove that they are normal.

Continue reading Naz and Notional Equality: Aman →

Culture, Language, Law, Movements

An Appeal for restraint to all by the family and friends of Khurshid Anwar

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Guest post by The Campaign for Khurshid Anwar

We are friends, family and well-wishers of the late Dr. Khurshid Anwar.  We have come together to keep alive the memory of his signal contribution to peace, secularism and communal harmony in the subcontinent, including his pioneering work in training thousands of volunteers to uphold these ideals over a long career as a grassroots activist.

We are deeply shocked and concerned at the trial by media and social media, which he was irresponsibly subjected to in the last few months, on a matter which had never been subjected to any kind of formal scrutiny by any responsible authority.

We seek to catalyze discussions on these aspects, via blogs, social media as well as public events and in responsible sections of the mainstream press. We strongly affirm the freedom of expression of the press as well as of individuals, but insist that such freedoms place an onus upon all to act with responsibility.

In keeping with this spirit of responsibility, we strongly discourage and dissociate ourselves from any attempts to reveal the identity of, or otherwise target the lady who has leveled serious allegations against Dr Anwar. As his family, personal friends and comrades, we do find it impossible to believe such allegations against a fiercely committed feminist such as himself, but do not presume to judge the matter ourselves.

Anybody who is indulging in any irresponsible statements about the lady in question is only doing a disservice to the memory of Khurshid Anwar.

We request all those commenting on the matter to desist from any conjectures and speculation upon the matter, and let the investigation take its course.

Ali Javed
Meenakshi Sundriyal
Ritwik Agrawal

On behalf of:

The Campaign for Khurshid Anwar

campaignforkhurshidanwar@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-For-Khurshid-Anwar-STOP-the-Media-Trials

Culture, Education, Images

Freezing History in a Pedagogy-proof Textbook: Kishore Darak

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Guest Post by KISHORE DARAK

In the current academic year, the fourth grade history textbook in Maharashtra titled Shivchhatrapati depicting the valiant life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (1630-1680) completed 43 long years of its existence, this being in itself a record. More than 3 million children in the 75000 plus schools affiliated to the Maharashtra State Board follow the textbook presently. It is probably the only example of textbook in the world which teaches the life of a single historical personality to 9 year old pupils.

The textbook shows remarkable similarity with a 1952 Marathi film, Chhatrapati Shivaji, directed by Bhalji Pendharkar who is known for his support of right wing ideology. The original version of 1970 and subsequent editions of the textbook follow an exact sequence of scenes and contain similar visuals as we see in the movie, as the first two images demonstrate.

Meeting between Afzhal Khan and Shivaji Maharaj 

In the 1952 film

Untitled 3In the text-book (Republished 2000)

Untitled 4

Continue reading Freezing History in a Pedagogy-proof Textbook: Kishore Darak →

Bad ideas, Debates, Everyday Life, Identities

Cultures of Servitude and the Khobragade-Richard Issue: Nissim Mannathukkaren

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Guest Post by Nissim Mannathukkaren

When the great lord passes the wise peasant bows deeply and silently farts. (Ethiopian proverb)

When progressive politics finds itself in agreement with Arnab Goswami, then it is time for the alarm bells to ring. What has been unfolding over the last week has been nothing but spectacular: a wronged and humiliated ‘Third World’ nation (finally) standing up to the imperialist Satan over the Devyani Khobragade episode. A story supposedly fit for lore. But in reality it would have been comical only if it did not have serious consequences.

What is comical is a nation whose elites and middle classes are perfectly in sync with the American worldview (India is among the top America-loving nations in the world) and think that America is the epitome of democracy (a survey from a couple of years ago showed that Indians, more than any other people in the world, think that the United States is a multilateral rather than a unilateral actor), whose students and youth dream the American dream (the largest number of foreign students in America are from India), whose rulers salivate at the prospect of an eternal soiree with the American establishment (after all, the Indo-American strategic partnership has been called the ‘defining alliance of the 21st century’) have suddenly woken up to the rude reality that maybe the Americans do not think about us in the same way! Hence our petulant reactions – like a spurned lover.  Continue reading Cultures of Servitude and the Khobragade-Richard Issue: Nissim Mannathukkaren →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Debates, Government, Language, Media politics

Aam Aadmi, Khaas Politics: Satya Sagar

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   Guest Post by SATYA SAGAR                                          

From time to time in the history of every nation there emerges a maverick force that collapses the existing system by taking its logic to the extremes.  Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party are precisely that, a ‘wild card’ in Indian politics, threatening to turn it upside down in ways no one could have imagined before.

Ever since they were born out of the throes of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement, a couple of years ago, everyone has tried to slot the AAP in the regular political categories of right, left and center. Some have dubbed the Aam Aadmi Party as the ‘new Congress’ and others as the ‘B Team’ of the BJP. Supporters of the party have hailed its leader Arvind Kejriwal as a ‘modern day Gandhi’ while one opponent has intriguingly called his party ‘right wing Maoists’! Continue reading Aam Aadmi, Khaas Politics: Satya Sagar →

Bad ideas

An Appeal to the media regarding the ongoing vilification of Khursheed Anwar and his organisation:Institute For Social Democracy

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A statement by The institute for Social Democracy

पिछले सोलह दिसंबर से  मीडिया के छोटे  और ग़ैर ज़िम्मेदार हिस्से द्वारा प्रचारित प्रसारित की  गयी एक रिपोर्ट ने खुर्शीद अनवर (पूर्व निदेशक, ISD ) को  आत्म हत्या करने पर मजबूर कर दिया।

हम ISD कि ओर से मीडिया द्वारा फैलाए जा रहे इन भ्रामक और ग़लत तथ्यों का विरोध करते हैं. हम ज़ोर दे कर  कहना  चाहते हैं कि

  • यह कहना  कि ‘सम्बन्ध आपसी सहमति से बनाये गए थे’ बिना किन्ही तथ्यों के आधार पर प्रचारित किया जा रहा है. हमारा यह  मानना है कि खुर्शीद अनवर द्वारा  लिखे गए जिस कथित नोट का ज़िक्र किया जा रहा है वह है ही नहीं।
  • १२ सितम्बर को खुर्शीद अनवर ने कोई पार्टी नहीं दी थी, उनके घर पर  आने का प्रस्ताव स्वयं इला जोशी व मयंक सक्सेना के द्वारा दिया था जिसे खुर्शीद ने स्वीकार किया था. इन दो लोगों के अलावा बाकी  लोगों के आने के बारे मे उन्हें कोई पूर्व सूचना नहीं थी.
  • हम स्पष्ट करना चाहते हैं कि बूँद टीम का ISD से औपचारिक या अनौपचारिक किसी भी प्रकार का कोई सम्बन्ध नहीं रहा है. ISD ने बूँद को कभी किसी भी प्रकार की आर्थिक मदद नहीं  दी. Continue reading An Appeal to the media regarding the ongoing vilification of Khursheed Anwar and his organisation:Institute For Social Democracy →
Debates, Feminism, Genders, Language, Media politics, Sex

On the Death of Khurshid Anwar: Kalyani Menon Sen and Kavita Krishnan

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Guest Post by KALYANI MENON SEN & KAVITA KRISHNAN

(Find Hindi translation below the English statement)

We are deeply shocked and saddened by the death of Khurshid Anwar.

As activists committed to ending violence against women, we have been trying to ensure the due process of law and justice in relation to the allegations against Khurshid Anwar. Continue reading On the Death of Khurshid Anwar: Kalyani Menon Sen and Kavita Krishnan →

Culture, Debates, Government, Right watch

Statue of Unity – How the Varna Media is Loving It !

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..The man who belonged to the whole country has now been abducted by Narendra Modi, a pracharak of RSS, the communal organization who the Sardar fought against throughout his life. ..The only purpose of the construction of the Sardar Patel statue which was declared by Narendra Modi after he was anointed as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial Candidate is to collect votes for the 2014 elections in the name of this leader of India’s freedom struggle. It is therefore a downright irony that the RSS pracharak is trying to build the facade of unity by erecting the statue of one of the staunchest opponents of RSS. (Facade of Unity – RSS Abducts Sardar Patel, Pratik Sinha October 31, 2013 |

I

History bears witness the fact that the attitude to appear ‘big’ or ‘tall’ so that even posterity remembers you is very evident in every megalomaniac. It is a different matter that due to a poor sense of history, such megalomaniacs cannot even comprehend that thanks to the way they subdued a population, or cleanse it of ‘others’, actually overwhelms the giant monuments they build or the memorials they erect to commemorate their bloody victories. The Halakus, the Chengiz Khans, the Menanders or the Mussolinis of the world are remembered today not as noble representatives of humanity but as its other. Continue reading Statue of Unity – How the Varna Media is Loving It ! →

Sex, Bad ideas, Culture

खुर्शीद अनवर की आत्महत्या और कुछ सवाल

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आखिर खुर्शीद अनवर ने ज़िंदगी से बाहर छलांग लगा ली.यह असमय निधन नहीं था. यह कोई बहादुरी नहीं थी. और न बुजदिली. क्या यह एक फैसला था या फैसले का अभाव? अखबार इसे बलात्कार के आरोपी एक एन.जी.ओ. प्रमुख की आत्महत्या कह रहे हैं. क्या उन्होंने आत्महत्या इसलिए कर ली कि उनपर लगे आरोप सही थे और उनके पास कोई बचाव नहीं था? या इसलिए कि ये आरोप बिलकुल गलत थे और वे इनके निरंतर सार्वजनिक प्रचार से बेहद अपमानित महसूस कर रहे थे? Continue reading खुर्शीद अनवर की आत्महत्या और कुछ सवाल →

Capitalism, Everyday Life, Government, Law

Khobragade’s Arrest – Labour Law Violation Issue, Not Foreign Policy Issue: Gharelu Kaamgaar Sangathan and NTUI

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Guest Post by GHARELU KAAMGAAR SANGATHAN, (GKS) Haryana & New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI)

We express strong outrage at the Indian government’s reaction to the case of visa fraud and exploitation of her domestic worker against Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade in the United States. In its dealing of the case, the Indian government is only seeking to protect the dignity and honour of Ms. Khobragade, and has shown a complete lack of respect for the underlying issue – that of the abuse and exploitation of a domestic worker by a senior official. Ms. Khobragade’s father, Mr. Uttam Khobragade, is a politician and has a played a harmful role in suppressing the facts of the case and in diverting attention from it.

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Frontiers, Genders, Law, Mirror Worlds

Section 377 and the Love with Odd Edges: Pallavi Paul

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A Guest Post by PALLAVI PAUL

It is like watching an 80’s slasher film on an old VHS. The gruesomeness of mangled bodies, extra slimy trails of thick blood, intestines plastered against the screen. Parts of the image are eaten up by the glitch-ghosts that hang above them.  The erased bits , however, intensify the onset of the apocalypse instead of putting it away. It is impossible to tell whether something is happening, happened or will happen. Time is put through a particle accelerator, and what follows is a journey through a dilapidated scene of crime, with pure tone for background score.

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