Contrary to what his name suggests, Bechu Lal Yadav, 29, isn’t a seller of goods. He is a recordist of identity. He is amongst a new breed of technical professionals that have come up overnight – the Biometricwallahs. Continue reading The Biometricwallah
STATEMENT OF PROTEST
We write to protest the denial of entry to David Barsamian by Immigration Authorities at the New Delhi airport in the early hours of September 23, 2011, and we write to draw attention to the growing arbitrariness of the Indian Government in dealing with dissent of any kind.
David Barsamian is a veteran broadcaster, and founder and director of Alternative Radio, a weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the US, Canada, Europe and beyond. For more than 25 years Alternative Radio has provided information, analyses and views that are frequently ignored in other media. Structured around intensive interviews conducted by David Barsamian, these programs are carried by over 125 radio stations and heard by millions of listeners. He is the author of numerous books with Edward Said, Eqbal Ahmad, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy and Tariq Ali.
Continue reading David Barsamian’s Deportation: Statement of Protest
Guest post by A. SUNEETHA, VASUDHA NAGARAJ, R. SRIVATSAN, GOGU SHYAMALA, SARATH DAVALA and R.V. RAMANA MURTHY
[This post was sent to us on the 23rd of September, when the strike, still on-going, entered its tenth day. On the date of posting this, the strike had entered its sixteenth day].
Sakala Janula Samme (extraordinary general strike) in the ten districts of Telangana has entered its tenth day today. Miners in the Singareni Collieries, private college teachers and students, road transport employees unions, school teachers, university staff, lawyers in the lower and high courts, the electricity employees union—in short almost all employees (who usually refuse to see beyond their immediate benefits) and contract workers (who under normal circumstances cannot afford to lose wages) needed by the state to “govern” its people—have gone on strike.
Government in this region, already seriously impaired and facing severe challenges from the movement since 2009 has come to a standstill. In an extraordinary “do or die” battle for the formation of a separate Telangana state, the various joint action committees promise to continue this strike till a separate Telangana state is formed.
So Kingfisher has decided to ground its low-cost airline, Kingfisher Red. Here’s what the Indian media will not tell you. Continue reading What the Indian media will not tell you about Kingfisher Red
This release comes from the ASSOCIATION OF PARENTS OF DISAPPEARED PERSONS
The Bund Amira Kadal, Srinagar – 190001, Jammu and Kashmir
Press Release:
28th September 2011
Yesterday’s (27th September 2011) statement made by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on unmarked graves and mass graves is hurtful and amounts to trivializing a serious issue of enforced disappearances and unmarked graves. Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) believes that Omar Abdullah’s statement created an impression of him being an advocate of the culpable armed forces personnel as opposed to the representative of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Omar Abdullah has said, “The families would have to help us, indicating in which graveyard they suspect their member could be buried so that we will do the needful.” This is a shameless assertion. How would families know where their loved ones are buried? If the family members of the disappeared had any clue, as to where their family members are buried, then they would have already sought the permission for the exhumations from the District Magistrates. Continue reading ‘This obfuscation amounts to complicity’ – APDP response to Omar Abdullah’s speech on unmarked and mass graves
This is a public statement by AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
AI Index: ASA 20/046/2011 26 September 2011
As the session of the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly opens in Srinagar, Amnesty International is writing to all members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) to raise human rights concerns in the house and ensure that such issues are not ignored during the session.
Although there appears to be a consistent decrease in the overall numbers of members of armed groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), human right violations continue to remain a significant and widespread concern in the state.
Amnesty International calls on all MLAs to raise human rights issues during the assembly session and call upon the state government to take immediate action required to remedy the situation. In particular, Amnesty International asks you to raise the specific issues below. While not an exhaustive list of human rights concerns in the state, discussion on these would indicate the commitment to human rights of the state legislative assembly and be an important step towards improving the human rights of all residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
This release comes from the INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE’S TRIBUNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE IN INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR (IPTK)
Srinagar, September 26, 2011
To: Honourable Members
Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly
Government of Jammu and Kashmir
Re.: Unknown and Unmarked Graves of Kashmir: Investigation, Prosecution, and Reparation
We appeal to the Members of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislative Assembly to address the following urgent issues in light of the findings put forward by the State Human Rights Commission of Jammu and Kashmir (SHRC) pertaining to unknown and unmarked graves. The SHRC investigated unmarked graves in Bandipora, Baramulla, Kupwara, and Handwara districts across 38 graveyards and verified 2,156 unidentified bodies in unidentified graves, as documented in its report of July 2011. Continue reading Unknown and Unmarked Graves of Kashmir: Investigation, Prosecution, and Reparation: IPTK
What a farce! What a farce of a fast! One doesn’t quite know whether to laugh or cry over this state of affairs in the world’s largest democracy. It is a sad day in a nation’s history when someone who presided over a state-sanctioned genocide goes on fast in the name of “peace and harmony” and media vultures and assorted politicians rush to canonize him as the apostle of peace. When it comes to political theatre, few can beat our politicians. They have no qualms in mimicking their more successful fellow travelers if it can get them a few more votes or push them a couple of notches up the popularity ladder.
[JAGANNATH SARKAR, who passed away in April, was among those who led the spectacular rise of CPI in Bihar in the 1960s and 1970s. He was among a handful of Bihar CPI leaders who envisioned the crisis in CPI in the mid-1970s. Today is his first birthday after he passed away – he was born on 25 September 1919. The piece below is an important document that gives a glimpse of the debate on new caste assertions in the CPI. It was written by Sarkar in 1998, following the National Council meeting of the CPI. It has been translated by Raj Ballabh from Hindi. – AN]
The National Council of the CPI accepted, if belatedly, in its review report of March 1998 that there has been a serious decline in the basic mass base of the party and its class-based mass base has fragmented on the basis of caste. It has accepted that the party could not face the deviation of ‘social justice’ in the form of ‘backward casteism’ in its theatricality, or indeed politically and practically; that the party could not maintain its distinct identity, as a party that was politically and practically different from the Laloo-led Janata Dal Government. What is more, the toxin of casteism began to show its effects within the party as well. Indeed, it is an issue of serious concern which should be analyzed in detail.
Continue reading The Decline of Communist Mass Base in Bihar: Jagannath Sarkar
Guest post by PARAYI
The Indian government’s planning commission has just told the Supreme court that about 31 rupees a day [slightly more than half a dollar] is enough for a family to live on. The news papers had the details of a diet which can be had on that money. Few grams of rice+ fewer grams of vegetable + no fruit + no fuel etc etc…. Continue reading How To Have Chicken Curry in Peace: Parayi
Guest Post by V. GEETHA
Readers of Kafila might have heard of the horrific shootings that took place at Paramakudi and Madurai on September 11. Officially seven people died when police opened fire on dalits who had gathered to pay their respects to Immanuel Sekaran, a dalit leader who was brutally killed in 1957 in circumstances that pointed to the complicity of dominant caste thevars in carrying out this murder. (The thevars are an important constituent of the ‘Mukkulathor’ complex of castes that includes the kallars and the maravars.) Subsequently, U Muthuramalinga Thevar, Forward Bloc leader was arrested in connection with Sekaran’s death – he stood trail and was released two years later, because the case against him was not established and proved. (Thevar was proud of his anti-communism and his Hinduism; to him he claimed that patriotism and theistic belief constituted his very vision, they were the ‘eyes’ through which he saw the world.) Continue reading Desecrating Memory – The Paramakudi Police Shootings: V Geetha
In a damning revelation, a Right to Information application has revealed the Jihadi Literature that Delhi Police recovered from amongst the belongings of the slain terrorists killed in an encounter at Batla House in Delhi two years ago. The hateful, provocative and extremist nature of the recovered literature should be a matter of alarm for everyone. Given below is the cover of the book that contained the Jihadi Lit: Continue reading Revealed: The Jihadi Literature that Delhi Police Recovered from the Terrorists They Killed in Batla House
Update: The Press Trust of India confirms the Kashmir angle. See more updates at the end of this post.
David Barsamian, founder director of Alternative Radio, and independent radio legend, was deported on arrival from New Delhi airport in the early hours of Sept 23. Details are awaited since David is probably still on the plane back. But between his arrival sometime after midnight, and his being “put back” on a flight at 3am, David was able to only make a quick call to his ‘home’ here in Delhi, to the family of his longtime sitar guru, Debu Chaudhuri. Continue reading India deports radio broadcaster David Barsamian upon arrival at Delhi airport
The Ministry of Higher Education has issued a directive that all state universities should hire the services of Rakna Lanka Ltd for provision of security services. The undersigned of the University academic community considers that directive to be in complete contravention of the norms and conventions by which universities are expected to function.
The letter issued by the Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education seeks to bypass standard procedures that are followed in the university system in the hiring and outsourcing of services. That process requires tenders to be called for and for a suitable company to be selected in a transparent and independent manner. The Secretary’s instruction therefore is in violation of established processes and is contrary to the underpinning principles of governance and the autonomy of academic institutions.
Read the whole article here.
Respected Prime Minister of India, and Chief Minister of Tamilnadu:
We are residents and organisations from Japan, and are intimately aware of the unpredictability and uncontrollable nature of nuclear power. We are the unfortunate witnesses of two nuclear holocausts. It is with pain that we see the Indian Government pursuing a dangerous path of constructing large nuclear power plants within even larger nuclear “parks” where power generation capacities are pegged at up to 10,000 MW.
Continue reading Letter from Japan to the Prime Minister of India
Senkodi, a 20 year old woman, part of Makkal Mandram a commune in Kancheepuram immolated herself outside the collector’s office on the 29th of August in Kancheepuram. She left a letter saying that it was in solidarity with the campaign against the death penalty awarded to Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan in the case relating to Rajiv Gandhi’s killing. Growing up in the commune Senkodi was part of the struggles that were around her such as those for land and other rights of marginalised communities. Much has been written about her both maligning her and her comrades as well as hailing her ‘martyrdom’. Below is a piece that brings into question the reasons for her death and the reactions to it. It is translated as accurately as possible in language and tone from it’s original Tamil version. It is a piece written to raise questions within progressive spaces in tamilnadu, but can be easily read into similar contexts.
Guest post by PREMA REVATHI
Translated from the Tamil by Ponni
The human heart is a strange creature. The utter helplessness and pathos I felt after I heard of the death of Senkodi reminded me of lines I had heard ages ago which stuck with me;
Guest Post by PREMA REVATHI
An English translation, with a background note, is available here.
மனித மனம் விசித்திரமானது. செங்கொடியின் மரணச்செய்தியை கேட்டதும் ஆறாத இயலாமையின் இருள் சூழ்ந்துகொண்டுவிட்ட மனதில் எப்போதொ ஒரு காலத்தில் மனதில் ஆழப்பதிந்துபோன
“ இந்த பூமியின் தேசங்களில்
ஒளி வீசுக செங்கொடியே…”
என்ற பாடல் வரிகள் மீண்டும் மீண்டும் அலையாடியது.
புரட்சிகர போராட்டத்தால் இந்த பூமியையே மாற்றிவிடும் ஒரு பெருங்கனவு இன்று முள்ளாய் உறுத்தும் ஒரு பழங்கனவாய் விடைகள் இல்லாத திசைவழிகள் இல்லாத நம்பிக்கைதரும் தலைமைகள் இல்லாத இத்தனிமையான அரசியல் இரவில் துறுத்திக்கொண்டிருக்கும் வேதனை முகத்தில் அறைகிறது.
ஆயிரமாயிரம் வார்த்தைகள் செங்கொடி பற்றி எழுதப்பட்டுவிட்ட, எழுதப்பட்டுகொண்டிருக்கும் இக்கணத்தில் நெஞ்சுருக்கும் இந்த இன்மையும் புகைப்படத்தில் தீர்க்கமாயொளிர்ந்து கொண்டிருக்கும் அவள் விழிகள் கேட்கும் கேள்விகளும் அலைகழித்துக் கொண்டே இருக்கின்றன.
It is the sort of place you will not find unless you are looking for it. Even if you find the address in Hardevpuri near Shahdara, you will not know where to knock. There is no signboard that will tell you this is Gautam Book Center. “A signboard will attract the attention of those who don’t like our books,” explains AK Gautam.
These are not books of pornography or an underground militia. These are books on caste.
Continue reading Gautam Book Centre
This release comes from the PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES, Rajasthan
Gopalgarh (Bharatpur, Mewat) Police Firing Incident
Preliminary Findings of the Fact Finding Team released in the Press Conference on 19th Sept, 2011
This preliminary report of the PUCL team pertains to the incident of the police firing in Gopalgarh, district Bharatpur, Rajasthan. As per the media reports, the police resorted to firing to quell rioting mobs. The government has acknowledged eight deaths and 23 injured in this incident. Following this, the PUCL, Rajasthan constituted a Fact Finding Team to conduct independent inquiry into this incident. The team comprised Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary, PUCL, Professor Shail Mayaram (Delhi), Professor Yogendra Yadav(Delhi), Ms. Nishat Hussain (Vice President, PUCL, Rajasthan) Mr. Sawai Singh (Organising Secretary PUCL, Rajasthan), Mr. Noor Mohammed (PUCL, Alwar), Mr Virendra Vidrohi (PUCL, Alwar), Adv. Ramjan Chowdhary (PUCL, Mewat district, Haryana), Mr Gaurav Srivastava(PUCL intern). Mr. Neelabh Mishra, Editor, Outlook (Hindi) and a section of progressive members of the Gurjar and Meo community also accompanied and assisted the fact finding team. Continue reading ‘Every eye-witness said there was no death before the police intervened’
This release comes via the NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS
Nellore, September 18 : “Government of Andhra Pradesh has given licenses to 28 companies to establish thermal power plants with a total capacity of 32,000 MW. How can a fragile coastal zone can take up so much of ecological pressure ? Is this the way to plan the needs of electricity for development ?” asked the delegates who had come from different parts of the State and joined by eminent social activists Medha Patkar, Sandeep Pandey, Banwari Lal Sharma, Gabriele Dietrich, Sister Celia, Manoj Tyagi, Viveknanad Mathane, P Chennaiah, Ramakrishnam Raju and others. Jan Sansad was hosted by NAPM and Jana Vigyan Vedika at the premises of Nehru Yuva Kendra, Nellore. Continue reading ‘Jan Sansad demands a Development Planning Act not an Act to Facilitate Land Acquisition’
Wars, insurgencies, floods, an economy in the doldrums, and now dengue. If Pakistan is not a “failed state,” some credit must go to the Pakistani sense of humour.
There’s been terrible out break of Dengue fever in Lahore. 39 have died and the toll keeps rising – it was 36 when I began collecting the material for this post. Sohaib Gulbadan tweets: “My Hizb-ut-Tahrir friend is sharing articles suggesting dengue outbreak in Lahore is a CIA strategy. Acha.”
Perhaps it is in response to that sort of stuff that Haseeb Asif writes this hilarious blog post:
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 