Allegation by BJP MP of illegal mosques false: Delhi Minorities Commission’s fact finding team

August 2, 2019

In a major embarrassment to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Delhi Minorities Commission’s (DMC) fact finding team has refuted the allegations by BJP MP Parvesh Verma of mushrooming of illegal mosques on government land in West Delhi. BJP MP from Delhi, Manoj Tiwari, had made similar allegations about other areas of Delhi.

DMC released the report of its 5-member fact-finding committee, headed by human rights activist Ovais Sultan Khan, titled ‘The Legal Status of Religious Spaces in and around West Delhi’ on Thursday. The committee said the allegations targeted a particular community and tried to “disturb the communal harmony.” The committee also urged the DMC to lodge a complaint against the BJP MP with the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha as it is “clearly found that he has violated his oath of office.”

Last month, BJP MP Parvesh Verma had submitted a list of 54 mosques and graveyards, which allegedly existed in an unauthorised manner on government land across his constituency of West Delhi to Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal. He had raised the issue earlier also and on June 24, the DMC set up a five-member fact-finding committee.

The report was released at a press conference organised on Thursday. The committee head Ovais Sultan Khan said, “the BJP MP was selective in his outburst.” He also said they did not find any of the 54 mosques or graveyards on government land. He further added that they found a temple which was on a government land and the BJP MP’s posters were on it. Also, there were a lot of temples on government land and asked “why the selective outrage?”

DMC chairman Zafarul Islam Khan, said, “We understand it [the statement] was on communal lines. Election is coming and they want to talk about these things so that there is polarisation and increase in their vote bank.”

The committee visited all the sites listed by the BJP MP and found that the list was made in such a hurry, to further the party’s communal agenda, that there was one name which was repeated and in eight locations, they could not locate any mosque.

The committee has given eight recommendations in its report and has asked to lodge an FIR against BJP MP Parvesh Verma for “spreading rumours against a particular community and trying to disturb peace and harmony in Delhi.”

“In view of the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi, there should be zero tolerance against those spreading hate and incitement to violence against particular communities,” another recommendation of the committee read.

The entire report can be read here.

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Dalits and Adivasis missing from mainstream Indian news media: Oxfam-NewsLaundry report

August 2, 2019

A report released by Oxfam India and News Laundry has revealed that Indian media is dominated by upper castes and media organisations have failed to diversify their newsroom and news coverage. The report titled ‘Who Tells Our Stories Matters: Representation of marginalised caste groups in Indian Newsrooms’ studies the representation of people from different caste groups in the Indian media.

For this research study, six English and seven Hindi newspapers, flagship debate shows on 14 television channels, 11 digital news outlets, and 12 magazines were examined to collect caste details for the period of October 2018 to Match 2019. Over 65,000 articles and news debates were analysed across the publications to provide a quantitative picture of which groups get to speak on various subjects and to what extent.

Key Findings:

Of the 121 newsroom leadership positions – editor-in-chief, managing editor, executive editor, bureau chief, input/output editor – across the newspapers, TV news channels, news websites, and magazines under study, 106 are occupied by upper castes, five by other backward classes and six by people from minority communities. The case of four individuals could not be identified.
Three out of every four anchors (among a total of 40 anchors in Hindi channels and 47 in English channels) of debates are upper caste. Not one is Dalit, Adivasi, or OBC
For over 70% of their primetime debate shows, news channels draw the majority of panellists from the upper castes
No more than 5% of all articles in English newspapers are written by Dalits and Adivasis. Hindi newspapers fare slightly better at around 10%
Around 72% of bylined articles on news websites are written by people from the upper castes
Only 10 of the 972 articles featuring on the cover pages of the 12 magazines under study are about issues related to caste.

The following graphs gives a glimpse of the overall caste composition (%) of 7 English news channels:

In all the 7 channels, more than 50% of the appearance as well as the panelists belonged to the general category.

Interestingly, debates on caste issues were presided by panelists belonging to the general category in 6 major English news channels. The following graphs shows the same.

Apart from the caste dominance in English news media, even the Hindi news media is replete with this unequal representation with 100% of the leadership position being occupied by general category people. Further, 81% of the Hindi anchors belong to the general category. The following graph gives the caste composition of panelists in 7 major Hindi news channels and reflects that more than 60% of the panelists were from the general category.

Similar to the English news channels, debates on caste issues were pre-dominated by general category panelists in Hindi news channels as well.

All in all, the report reveals that the minorities are extremely under-represented in the Indian news media which in turn affects the quality of news coverage. An absence of minorities in the leadership position reflects the evident bias for a minority to grow and reach the top ladder in the media industry.
Abhinandan Sekri, CEO Newslaundry, said “This report is important and after seeing the results we are totally convinced of its need. There is no democracy without diversity. For democracy to thrive, journalism must thrive and for journalism to thrive, diversity must be robust. We have to do this consciously because the numbers on caste diversity in newsrooms are dismal. This is a dreadful commentary on the quality of our democracy. This report is a first step in holding a mirror to ourselves and once we have a dashboard with the numbers on it, we can try and improve them every year. We will aim to do this report annually and hopefully see the numbers improve. We hope other industries do so too, across newsrooms and board rooms.”

“This report is important for those working in and working with the media as it presents an opportunity before them to deliberate a way forward that upholds the constitutional guarantees of equality and fraternity,” said Amitabh Behar, CEO, Oxfam India.
The joint press statement by Oxfam India and NewsLaundry read, “The report starkly reaffirms that marginalised groups are absent in the news media, particularly in leadership positions which determine who gets the space. Even stories written on those affected by discrimination are by those who are privileged and upper caste. Honest collective efforts have not been made to include more voices and create equal representation in newsrooms. It is disheartening to see that the media, which is one of the most recognised institutions of democracy, fails Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised groups.”

The entire report can be read here.

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Mohammad Ali Jauhar University being targeted for its minority status: RS MP Tazeen Fatma

August 2, 2019

In the backdrop of a money laundering case being filed against Lok Sabha (LS) MP and founder of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, Azam Khan, university’s pro-vice chancellor and Rajya Sabha (RS) MP Tazeen Fatma has made public an appeal to save the university from the constant attacks by the ruling regime.

Stating that the case on Khan is an attempt by the ruling regime to paralyze the education system, especially because the University has a minority status and educates thousands of minorities, particularly Muslims yearly, Tazeen Fatma in her appeal said, “Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, which is driven by the altruistic principles, despite its impeccable contribution in nation building and the upliftment of the downtrodden is now being targeted for all the wrong reasons by the incumbent government in the state and at the centre as well. The far-right forces are furthering their agenda of demolition of the educational institutions, particularly the universities.”

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a case against Khan on Thursday under provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, after the directorate took cognisance of at least 26 first information reports (FIR) filed by the police against him. His name features on the state’s anti-land mafia website, which was launched in June 2017 to help identify those who grab land and initiate action against them. Part of the land allegedly grabbed by Khan was acquired to set up the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University.

Fatma further wrote, “A fully functional, up and running university is being ruined on the false pretext of irregularities in the purchase of land and that too in the times when in the outside world the land is usually leased by the governments for educational institutions. All this witch-hunting is just for the reason that the University commemorates the name of a freedom fighter who hails from the minority section of the society and the Chancellor who is a powerful voice in the opposition of the government.”

Responding to the land grab case against him, Azam Khan said, “My name has been added to the anti-land mafia portal. This dispute is about 3.75 bigha land. Will the trust, which is buying 400 acres land to make a university, commit fraud on 3.75 bigha land? Out of these 3.75 bigha land, there are many owners. These people have done registry and taken money via cheques from us.”

Khan further alleged that during the recent raid on his university, over the suspicion of rare books being stolen by them, women professors at the institution were “heckled and abused and his university looted.” He also claimed that he had received those books as gifts. Police carried out raids at Mohammad Ali Jauhar University and recovered more than 1000 expensive books allegedly stolen from other institutes in Rampur. “They have looted my university. The university was supposed to open tomorrow. Where will 3,500 students go now? I have shut down medical college and hospital. I don’t want to run it now… They have looted my antique books,” Khan said.

In a veiled jibe at the ruling party and its leaders, Khan criticised the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and said, “Who will make institutions now? Why do you call them ‘temples’? Yogiji do you loot temples like this? All the things they have taken with them have been bought by us.”

In response to the raids, Azam Khan’s son and MLA Abdullah Azam Khan protested and allegedly obstructed police officials who claim to have confiscated 50 boxes of 2,500 rare and valuable books. Abdullah along with dozens of Samajwadi Party leaders and hundreds of workers were briefly detained by the police officials.

The Opposition party’s leader, Akhilesh Yadav, alleged the there was a conspiracy to defame Azam Khan by framing him in false cases and ruin Mohammad Ali Jauhar University. “The charge of book theft is childish and cheap,” he added. “The BJP government adopted an undemocratic way to prevent peaceful protest by the SP. The citizen’s rights were suppressed, which is condemnable. Abdullah was detained as soon as he came out of his house in Rampur.”

Allahabad High Court asked the Adityanath government to provide details of the case that led the police to raid the university. Justices SK Gupta and SS Shamshery directed the state’s law officer to apprise it of the case after hearing a petition by the university’s registrar challenging the police action. The bench posted the matter for hearing on August 6.

Appealing the academia and the civil society to strand against this autocratic nature of the ruling regime which is “terminally damaging the unity, amity and the integrity” of the society, Fatma’s appeal read, “As Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, Rampur is on the verge of being murdered politically, I appeal to one and all to rise up to the occasion and extend their solidarity in favour of saving the very foundation of our country’s glory.”

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‘Non-Lethal’ Crowd-Control Methods Have Killed 24, Blinded 139 In Kashmir

August 2, 2019

Srinagar: Violent protests in Kashmir are quelled using what the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) describes as ‘non-lethal’ crowd-control measures. These include pellet guns, tear gas and chilli-filled shells (containing PAVA or pelargonic acid vanillyl amide, found in chillies).

Tanveer Ahmad, a second-year undergraduate student at Srinagar’s Amar Singh College, was hit by a tear gas shell during a protest against the rape of a minor girl in Sumbal in Baramulla district.

But these munitions are far from non-lethal, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of MHA data and Srinagar hospital records.
We found that:

Tear-gas shells killed five between January 2010 and May 2019, and injured 176 between July 2016 and February 2019.

Chilli-filled shells killed one and caused respiratory problems in 51 of 294 respondents (non-combatants) surveyed for a medical study in downtown Srinagar. Of them, 97% developed cough and irritation within few seconds of breathing the gas.
Metal pellets have killed 18, blinded 139, injured 2,942 and caused eye injuries to 1,459 between July 2016 and February 2019.

These munitions killed 24 persons between January 2010 and May 2019, and injured 4,577 and blinded 139 between July 2016 and February 2019.

Over 100,000 tear gas canisters and almost 50,000 rounds of chilli spray have been used in over 4,000 incidents of stone-pelting in different parts of Kashmir since 2010, a senior security official who did not wish to be named told IndiaSpend. This situation worsened after July 2016 when militant commander, Burhan Wani, was shot dead by forces. There are no figures available on the use of pellets.

Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have expressed outrage over the crowd control methods used in Kashmir and demanded a ban on these, especially pellets, which have blinded victims.

While the impact of pellets on victims has been documented extensively, there are few reports available on the effects of tear gas and chilli spray. We found in our investigations that these gases, which spread quickly, cause widespread damage to the health of those exposed. Those affected are not just those targeted by the forces but also passersby and those at home in the vicinity of the protest. Inhaling these gases causes paroxysms of cough and burning in the eyes, victims told us.

These accounts were confirmed by a May 2014 study published by Parvaiz Koul, professor and head of department, internal medicine at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar, and his colleagues at the department of internal and pulmonary medicine.

The researchers at SKIMS surveyed 294 bystanders exposed to pepper gas (as chilli-filled shells are referred to in the study) used against stone-pelters in Kashmir. Around 97% had developed cough and irritation of the throat within a few seconds of breathing the pungent gas as we mentioned earlier.

Exacerbation of lung diseases

“Among our interviewees, 16 developed exacerbation of their underlying respiratory disorders and one patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) developed a severe exacerbation of COPD immediately following exposure (She died in the hospital, three days later),” the SKIMS study said. “Symptoms lasted for one day to a week (median 24 hours), and in 94 percent of re-exposed individuals, symptoms recurred with similar severity on re-exposure.”

Exposure to tear gas and pepper gas is dangerous for human health both in the long and the short run, said S Balamurugan, principal investigator at the Chennai Chest Research Institute. Those exposed to them could become vulnerable to lung disease earlier in life, he warned.

“If there are asthma and COPD patients in a locality where these gases are used, they are bound to suffer and have exacerbations,” he said. “There is a 100% chance that children and elderly people will get affected. It can cause long-term effects, especially in a high-altitude place like Kashmir. Used frequently in a certain locality, it will cause problems for healthy people as well.”

Despite these documented effects, the Jammu and Kashmir police have issued a tender for fresh supplies of tear gas munitions.

Ages of some killed: 13, 17, 76

In 2010 the unrest in the Valley turned particularly violent, with the massive involvement of people in protests including stone-pelting. Since then, residents of Srinagar and other towns like Anantnag, Baramulla, Pulwama and Shopian have been witnessing regular use of metal pellets, tear gas and chilli sprays to quell protests and stone-pelters. The security situation in some south Kashmir towns has been particularly fragile in recent years.

One of the most widely discussed cases was of tear-gas victim Tufail Mattoo, 17, of Saida Kadal, Srinagar, who was killed after he was hit by a shell while government forces were dispersing protesters on June 11, 2010 at nearby Rajori Kadal. Mattoo was on his way to his coaching class when he was hit, newspapers had reported.

Another victim was the 13-year-old Wamiq Farooq, who was killed on January 31, 2010 when a tear gas shell, fired at point-blank range, hit his head. These killings triggered a series of protests which later resulted in agitations all across Kashmir.

There were two other tear gas deaths during protests: Gowhar Nazir of Zainakote HMT, on the outskirts of Srinagar in November 2014 and Irfan Ahmad, 18, in August 2016 in Malarata in the Nowhatta area of Srinagar. A 76-year-old man, Ghulam Muhammad Khan, was killed in November 2016 at Elahi Bagh when he was hit by a tear gas shell.

‘My wife was going to a hospital when she was hit’

Gowhar Nazir Dar’s brother, Shahzad Nazir Dar, a gaunt youngster with sunken eyes, sat in his home in the Omarabad HMT area of western Srinagar, recalling his loss. “I was not like this when my brother was alive–I was physically very fit,” said Dar, who stopped studying after his second year in BA. “When I look at Gowhar’s laptop, I get very emotional. He had hardly used it when he got killed.”

“When I look at Gowhar’s laptop, I get very emotional,” says Shahzad Nazir Dar of his brother, an engineering student, who had been killed when a crowd was tear-gassed at a protest on the outskirts of Srinagar. “He had hardly used it when he got killed.”

Gowhar was a computer-applications engineering student who had nearly completed his degree when he was killed.

“My younger brother, Farnosh has developed a cardiac problem, while my mother is in depression,” said Shahzad. “Doctors have told us that we should never leave her alone.” Their father, Nazir Ahmad Dar, has been told that his son, Shahzad, will be given a government job as compensation but the offer is yet to arrive.

“Despite CID (Criminal Investigation Department) police and CIK (Counter Intelligence Kashmir) verification, my son is not being given employment under SRO 43 (statutory rules and order which guarantees employment to the next of kin of the innocent killed),” said Nazir.
“Instead, they recently offered us Rs 4 lakh in cash which we refused.”

Arsalan Bhat, 19, of Dangarpora, Pulwama, was hit by a tear gas shell causing severe facial injuries in April 2018. He has already undergone two plastic surgeries at SKIMS and is waiting for the third.

“Doctors told us that he has to go through another surgery after six months and have advised against exposure to sunlight,” said Rayees Ahmad, Bhat’s cousin. “He is a student and has lost many weeks of studies because of the surgeries. It has cost his family Rs 60,000 so far and they don’t know how much the third surgery will cost.”

Tanveer Ahmad of Zainakote, Srinagar, a second-year undergraduate student at Srinagar’s Amar Singh College, was hit by a tear gas shell outside his college while he and his fellow students were protesting against the rape of a minor girl in Sumbal, in Baramulla district, an incident which evoked massive protests in May 2019.

“The government calls them non-lethal weapons for dispersing protesters but how are they not lethal if they are doing this to people?” asked Ahmad.

For Zahoor Ahmad Bhat of Shalteng in Srinagar district, the spring and summer of 2017 have been traumatic. His wife, Nighat, had to undergo several facial surgeries after she was hit by a tear gas shell when women were protesting against the lack of power supply in their area.

“She was not even part of the protest when women had blocked the main road outside our locality,” he said. “She had to go to the hospital for a check-up. But police fired tear gas shells indiscriminately and one of the shells hit her in the face. Thank God, the plastic surgeries gave her back her face. But, she has turned somewhat temperamental after that incident. She was very shy but now she loses her temper with the children and other family members.”

The young and old suffer the most

People with respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the elderly and very young suffer the most when tear gas and pepper gas are used, said a report in Greater Kashmir published in October 2016, quoting senior physicians.

The medical file of a tear gas shell victim at a Srinagar hospital. Upto 97% of those exposed to tear gas and chilli spray complained of cough and throat irritation, found a study conducted by doctors at SKIMS.

Tear gas is poisonous, Sundeep Salvi, director of Pune-based Chest Research Foundation, said. “It is meant to kill a person; it is meant to cause harm,” he pointed out. “But how much harm it is causing in Kashmir, I have no knowledge. I need to study cases before I comment on that.”

“Tear gas under the Geneva Convention is characterized as a chemical warfare agent, and so it is precluded for use in warfare, but it is used very frequently against civilians,” Sven-Eric Jordt, a nerve gas expert at Yale University School of Medicine, told National Geographic on June 12, 2013 in an interview. “That’s very illogical.”

Incidents of exacerbation of COPD and asthma, and the number of patients suffering from these arrive in larger numbers from areas which report more tear gas and pepper gas use, said doctors at Srinagar’s Chest Diseases Hospital (CDH) and Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital. There are no data available to back this statement but the number of patients goes up every time a violent protest is dealt with using gas, the doctors said.

Sound cannons next? No, says govt

Despite this, media reports on June 24, 2019 claimed, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is now considering using sound cannons for crowd control in Kashmir instead of pellet guns. The use of long range acoustic devices (LRAD) could cause hearing damage, concluded a study by the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPRD), published in March 2017.

“High-intensity directed acoustic devices (HIDA) devices such as LRAD are designed to deliver audible warning messages over long ranges (up to 1km),” the study said. “However, at closer distances it is considerably more incapacitating and can produce 120 db (decibles) of sound at 60m and peak levels of 130db at 4 meters. Hearing damage can occur at levels as low as 80 db, if exposure is over a long period.” These are high decibel levels–120 db is equivalent to the noise made by a thunderclap.

The media reports followed a notification or request for information put out by the CRPF on its website, asking manufacturers to submit details of long-range acoustic devices, or sound cannons, by June 30, 2019.

But these reports were denied by Sanjay Kumar, the CRPF spokesperson. “We have no information that CRPF is now going to use any sound cannons in Kashmir,” he told IndiaSpend. “In the first place, let me inform you that stone-pelting incidents have considerably declined. We don’t feel the need of using force anymore. We observe utmost restraint. But if the need arises, we resort to tear gas or pepper gas shelling in a responsible manner.”

Kashmir Police too denied the reports. “I don’t procure the supplies (the authentic information can be had from police headquarters),” said Swayam Prakash Pani, the inspector general of police.

The state had conducted trials in 2010 in Sopore and old Srinagar city and found the use of sound cannons unfeasible, said senior superintendent of police, armoury, Gulzar Ahmad. “So, I don’t think there is any probability of using sound cannons in Kashmir,” Ahmad told IndiaSpend.

The report could have been planted by “some munitions manufacturers for business opportunities”, a top official of Jammu & Kashmir police, who did not wish to be named, alleged. “Surprisingly, these reports have come at a time when the security situation in Kashmir is much better as compared to the past two-three years: Stone-pelting is now witnessed quite occasionally.”

A June 26, 2019, ministry of home affairs statement backed the claim that there has been a sharp decrease in number of stone-pelting incidents across Kashmir. “The Government [has] constituted a Joint Monitoring Committee involving all concerned agencies at the central level and a Multi-Disciplinary Terror Monitoring Group (TMG) at the State level for sustained action against terror funding,” it said. “This has, inter-alia, resulted in a significant decline in the incidents of stone pelting in 2019 so far, compared to the number of incidents during the corresponding period last year.”

Only 40 incidents of stone-pelting have been reported in the first six months of 2019 against 1,458 incidents in 2018 and 2,653 in 2016, a media report on July 14, 2019 stated, quoting figures from the union home ministry.

Solutions Box

Crowd control should not end up maiming and killing people. I think alternative methods of crowd control such as water cannons, baton charges and rubber bullets should be deployed to avoid injuries and casualties among protesters and prevent collateral damage.

Parvaiz Koul, Professor and Head of Department of Internal & Pulmonary Medicine, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar.

The government should not treat the stone-throwing mobs and innocent citizens alike. Tear gas and pepper gas don’t distinguish between innocent people and those involved in rioting. The government should either stop using such methods or provide protection to innocent citizens.

S Balamurugan, Principal Investigator, Chennai Chest Research Institute.

(Parvaiz is a Srinagar-based journalist.)

Courtesy: India Spend

Climate denial: Donald Trump mimics criminal behaviour when justifying his stance

August 2, 2019

While much of the world now recognises the need for immediate action, there are still those who question the scientific consensus on climate change and deter efforts to tackle it. As might be expected, they have the attention of US President Donald Trump and his Republican administration.

US President Donald J. Trump announcing that the US will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, June 1 2017. EPA/SHAWN THEW

The Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change was held at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC on July 25 2019. The Heartland Institute considers itself one of “the world’s leading free market think-tanks”, which “promotes free market solutions to social and economic problems”. It’s perhaps best known for its climate scepticism.

Discussions at the annual event include disputing scientific observations on climate change, criticising “climate alarmists” and promoting fossil fuels. As the choice of venue might suggest, the arguments made here seem to overlap with what the president and the ruling Republican Party has previously said on climate change.

Temperature data shows rapid warming in the past few decades. According to NASA data, 2016 was the warmest year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. NASA’s Earth Observatory

From my background studying criminal behaviour, I found something striking about the way Trump justifies inaction on climate change. Through his own words, the president’s arguments mimic patterns in criminal behaviour that criminologists call “techniques of neutralisation”.

Criminologists contend that criminals use techniques of neutralisation to help deny or justify a crime they have committed. These five techniques were first defined in 1964 from the types of arguments given by young people in the criminal justice system when justifying their actions.

Denial of responsibility – it is not the offender’s fault.
Denial of injury of harm – the crime does not cause significant harm or may have positive results.
Denial of victim – there is no clear victim.
Condemnation of the condemner – the offender criticises the criminal justice system to avoid criticism of the offender.
Appeal to higher loyalties – deviant behaviour was in aid of a greater good or to benefit someone else.

When justifying their actions in interviews, the answers offenders give often follow a predictable pattern. Photographee.eu/Shutterstock

When we flip the context from petty criminals to powerful politicians and lobbyists, it’s not hard to see the same pattern emerging.

Denial of responsibility – climate change is happening, but humans aren’t the cause.
Denial of injury or harm – there’s no significant harm caused by human action and there may even be some benefits.
Denial of victim – there’s no climate change and so no victims, but if such victims of climate change victims existed, they’d deserve to be victimised.
Condemnation of the condemner – climate change research is misrepresented by scientists, and manipulated by the media, politicians and environmentalists.
Appeal to higher loyalties – economic progress and development are more important than preventing climate change. This will help protect us from energy poverty and allow developing nations to prosper.

Deception trumps climate action

How can a criminologist’s perspective help us understand how President Trump and climate deniers obscure the scientific consensus on climate change? I believe it helps us see their statements in a new light. Rather than being ill-informed interventions on the topic, Trump’s words reflect a deliberate attempt to shift blame, erase the plight of those already suffering from climate change and turn the fire on climate scientists who study the problem.

In tweets, speeches, and in conversations with journalists, these patterns appear to play out. When denying responsibility for tackling the climate problem, external competitors like China make for a useful scapegoat.

Trump’s comments on climate change often deflect blame, but they may just as often question if it’s happening at all. This ambivalence helps to undermine concerns that climate change will cause a great deal of harm to people in the US and worldwide.

I believe that there’s a change in weather and I think it changes both ways ….

There’s no credible possibility that climate change isn’t happening, but by engineering a false sense of uncertainty about the science, Trump can condemn those condemning him for inaction – the climate scientists themselves.

Don’t forget, it used to be called global warming, that wasn’t working, then it was called climate change, now it’s actually called extreme weather because with extreme weather you can’t miss.

The poorest are predicted to suffer the worst consequences of climate change in the US, but by withdrawing the world’s largest economy from the Paris Climate Accords, Trump argues he is standing up for these people by acting in their best interest.

The Paris climate accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers – who I love – and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production.

Given the grave consequences of the US doing nothing on climate change, should deflecting blame, sowing uncertainty and condemning experts on such a scale be labelled criminal? I believe that these perceived similarities – between how offenders justify their behaviour to the criminal justice system and how Trump justifies his position on climate change to the world – are no coincidence. We shouldn’t always read ignorance in what Trump says – it might suit him and climate deniers more than we think.

Courtesy: The Conversation

Selective Silence & Outrage: The Unnao Story

August 2, 2019

The stand taken by the Supreme Court of India on the Unnao case is a slap on the face of the tall claims of law and order in Uttar Pradesh. That all the four cases related to it are now transferred to Delhi and that the accused will face a swift trial –to be concluded within 45 days from yesterday– reflect how deliberate were Uttar Pradesh government’s effort to deny the Victim Survivor justice.

Can you imagine the horror and terror that this brave girl faced through the henchmen of the MLA Kuldeep Sengar who enjoyed patronage of all the political parties?

The issue of women’s safety should be of paramount concern but look around, at the people. The b….. village is sleeping, not reacting, as if nothing happened. Where are the political parties in Uttar Pradesh? Why has the issue not been raised as sharply and powerfully as happened during the Nirbhaya case (2012)? Can you even imagine how much misery has been brought upon the , this case has brought so much misery for the girl’s family? Her father was arrested, tortured and ultimately died in custody. The girl has been blaming herself for his death. Her mother has faced trauma. The girl and her mother were gang raped by the goons of Sanger. Her uncle too was arrested on false charges. And finally, when she did not leave her struggle and continued to fight for “justice”, the powerful MLA and henchmen planned a murder of the entire family so that the cases could be closed.

How poorly this reflects on our system when a victim nearly dies a case is closed. It is important that these thugs and cheats are boycotted publicly and punished by the courts of law.

The BJP moved after the high tone adopted by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and expelled Senger but with a faint heart. Of course, the party, will compensate his wife or brothers with some position as they did to the politician who abused Ms Mayawati. Then she was rewarded with an elected MLA post. The woman is now a minister. Look at how the BJP leader Jagdambika Pal has defended Sengar by accusing the opposition of plotting the murder of the family of the Unnao survivor but has not uttered a word against the goons of the same fraternity ?

As I said before, we have all failed.

The Thakur leaders remained mute and in fact protected their own community goon masquerading as leader. The Thakur community remained under the grip of their male leadership and did not stand up. The ‘others’ who felt that it is not an important issue since the ‘victim’ does not hail from a ‘marginalised’ or ‘minority’ community. This incident happened during the Kathua case. The ‘nation’ new about Kathua at the time but not Unnao. I do not say that Kathua incident was not important. I have all support for those brave legal fighters who fought and I can understand the limitations of ours, resources and everything but we do understand also the dilemmas of people.

The Kathua verdict is already out. It was actively followed up and taken up by activists. But unfortunately the Unnao incident was not taken up that seriously resulting in state brutality. The state tried to muzzle her voice. She was desperately going from pillar to post. The case in the CBI court has not yet begun. Why? There was no judge appointed! Her uncle faced false charges while father was arrested, tortured and killed in police custody. In the meanwhile, the girl and her mother were also gang raped. This incident reveals just how powerful these terrorists are.

Frankly, in India, incidents become stories when the perpetrators of crime belong to other communities. Have you ever imagined what would have happened if, the criminals had belonged to other community particularly Muslim, in the case of Unnao ? I can bet we would have seen Karni Senas, Ram Senas, Kshatriya Senas, Hindu Yova Vahinis, Bajrangis and what not in the street and country would have been in the boil and prime time fake warriors would have been debating about this all the time instigating people to boycott or even take revenge.

But this is not the case with the Thakurs alone. We have seen this in all the communities including Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims too where certain matters are treated ‘internal’ and people do not speak up. Women’s issues are basically treated internally and become volatile only when the aggressor belong to another community.

A crime is a crime is a crime and we need to stand up and speak against. This country is losing its soul, its conscience. My worry does not merely concern the constitutional court’s supremacy. Hopefully, both the girl and her lawyer will survive.

The real concern is selective anger and selective silence. The principles of ‘convenience’ need to be given a go by if we want to survive as a democratic nation which can truly be called civilised.

I hope the brave girl of Unnao will survive and continue to speak up. Her story can only inspire many others who are forced to remain silent. I can only salute to this girl for her indomitable spirit, her courage in the face of adversity. She has lost so many family members. This is an insurmountable loss. However her strength is an abiding inspiration. Exemplary punishment to the perpetrators is one non-negotiable. The system needs to do more. The culture of impunity needs to be ruptured once and for all.

Will the Supreme court monitoring of this case, send the much-needed message to the all powerful who think they are above the law?

Let us see how our political parties take up this issue and ensure that no such leader is given any space in their parties. Will they rise up and make an operation clean up in their respective parties ? Will our society stand up when the matter comes from the communities. Will communities stand up and boycott who are found of such criminal acts.

The Supreme Court guided court verdict in this case will come soon and hopefully, within months we will have some semblance of justice. The larger question is for us all of us as a society ? Will the society remain mute to ‘internal’ violent crimes, human rights violations and only take to streets when crimes are committed by ‘others’?

This is the biggest challenge. Treat crime as a crime whoever does it is a criminal. Ofcourse everybody has a right to have a fair trial. We hope the terror regimes which have many enclaves like this in many places of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other parts of India will come to an end if there are clear cut guidelines. And hopefully, one day, these people will also called ‘terrorist’ by the government. Will they ? Not at all because, the action against Sengar has only happened after the outburst of the Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court can widen and monitor this case regularly and give an ambiguous order regarding the behavior of the police officer or investigating agencies, it will go in a long long way. Nothing substantial happened after Nribhaya case but now time has come when we all have to sit and ponder over as why we are unable to grow and become a civilised society. Dont leave everything for politicians and government to ‘think’ as larger ownership in this case is of the society which failed to rise up.

Official ‘negligence’ behind rural jobs scheme worker Lakhan’s suicide in Jharkhand

August 2, 2019

The Jharkhand NREGA Watch, in a Fact Finding Report on the death of Lakhan Mahto, 43, last week, has said that the chief reason for his suicide is failure of the government administration, which refused to re-imburse the “outstanding amount of Rs 1,18,545 from the government for the wages and material payments”, which he badly needed in order repay the loan he had taken from informal sources.

The well constructed by Lakhan

Calling it a “major administrative failure”, as Lakhan was “literally forced to take risky loans while the government has the responsibility to make all payments under MGNREGA and the beneficiaries are not supposed to invest a single penny”, the report states that “28 other MGNREGA well beneficiaries are also facing similar situations.”

Text of the report:

On July 25, 2019, Lakhan Mahto, 43, a resident of Patratu village of Patratu Gram panchayat in Chanho block, jumped into a well that he himself had constructed and gave his life. He was the lone earning member of the household. While the family was dependent on cultivation, Lakhan also had to work as labourer for coping with the distress. Lakhan’s 85-year-old mother (Gujari Devi), 36-year-old wife (Vimala Devi) and three children Suraj (18 years), Neeraj (15 years) and Praveen (12 years) were the other members of the family.

Cause of death

Lakhan Mahto had constructed a well under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGREGA) on his land. The work code of this scheme is 3401005010/IF/7080901221509 and was sanctioned in December 2017. Lakhan had to pay for the materials as well as for the labour wages as the payments were not made on time. He had to take loans for this purpose and was hoping that the money will be soon received from the government.

However, despite a lot of efforts he could not get back the money for materials which he had already invested. This resulted in a lot of stress and soon, Lakhan was under great psychological trauma and depression.

On the day of the tragedy, Lakhan woke up at around 4’o clock in the morning and went to the nearby farm where he had the well, constructed. When he did not return for a long time, people went in search for him and found him dead inside the well.

Lakhan’s wife

Administration’s negligence

Lakhan’s wife, Vimla Devi, said that her husband had to borrow a total Rs 1.70 Lakh from three of his relatives between January and February 2018 for completion of the well, but he could not repay the loan even after 14 months as wages and material payments were not released to the concerned labourers and vendors in their bank accounts, by the government.

It is a major administrative failure that Lakhan was literally forced to take risky loans while the government has the responsibility to make all payments under MGNREGA and the beneficiaries are not supposed to invest a single penny.

Further, it is important to understand that Lakhan had to pay to the labourers at a local rate which is much higher than the then MGNREGA wage rate of Rs 168 per day. The block administration could not ensure a timely material supply to the worksite which compelled him to take loan from others for procuring the materials in order to complete the scheme.

Lakhan, for the last 13 months, had been regularly visiting the block office, hoping for re-imbursement of the outstanding amount of Rs 1,18,545 from the government for the wages and material payments. Apart from Lakhan Mahto, in Patratu Panchayat, 28 other MGNREGA well beneficiaries are also facing similar situations.

Present situation

Even after five days of this tragic event, the government has neither offered a single benefit or compensation to the family and nor had paid the outstanding money which led to the tragic death of Lakhan Mahto. The mother of Lakhan, Gujri Devi, an 85-year-old elderly lady, did not get the benefit of old age pension under the central pension scheme despite being eligible for the benefit.

The ration received under the Annapurna Anna Yojana was discontinued in December 2010. While she has submitted applications at the Panchayat and Block level several times, her grievances still remain unheard and unaddressed.

The family has not yet been offered the benefits of National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) under the National Social Assistance programme (NSAP) wherein the family is suppose to get a onetime compensation of Rs 20,000 after the death of the earning member of the family.

Lakhan’s family members

Baseless claims by the administration

During interaction with the family members the fact finding committee had found out that the claims made by the Block administration that Lakhan was drunk and intoxicated during the time of the incident, is baseless and false. The neighbours and family members had shared that Lakhan was never addicted to alcohol.

Jharkhand NREGA Watch demands that:

As per the notification 4-110 (NREGA)/ 10 RDD 4716, Ranchi, dated 01/08/2011, immediate compensation should be paid to the dependents of Lakhan Mahto.
The family members should be provided Rs. 20000 immediately as per the National Family Benefit Scheme(NFBS)
VImla Devi, wife of late Lakhan Mahto, should be enrolled under the widow pension scheme and the administration must ensure the payments of the same with immediate effect.
The pending material payments for the scheme should be made immediately and re-imbursement of the to Lakhan’s family must be ensured.
We demand strong administrative action against the responsible officials who had failed to make on time payments which in turn led to the tragic incident. The department should identify the responsible persons and file criminal cases against them as soon as possible.
The state government should take appropriate and effective steps to eradicate the complexity in material procurement and payments.

Courtesy: Counter View

Hindu and Muslim Communalism

August 2, 2019

Excerpts from ‘Who is Bharat Mata?’

Hindu and Muslim Communalism¹
(From Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Volume Six)

With Independence Day right around the corner, the Indian Cultural Forum will be doing a series on the ideas that built India. From national movements to regional resistances, there have been multiple ideologies and leaders who’ve shaped the country’s desire for sovereignty and the post-Independence period. In the coming weeks we will attempt to bring together writing on many of these leaders and what legacies they have left us. As Independence Day approaches there will be a singular and deafening narrative built on hyper-nationalism. Instead, ICF will be publishing the many ideas, some contrary to each other, that actually lead to the formation of a free nation.

‘Who is Bharat Mata, whose victory you wish?’ asked Jawaharlal Nehru—a leading light of the Indian freedom movement who would become the country’s first prime minister—at a public gathering in 1936. And then he explained: the mountains and rivers, forests and fields were of course dear to everyone, but what counted ultimately were ‘the people of India…spread out all over this vast land. Bharat Mata, Mother India, [is] essentially these millions of people, and victory to her [is] victory to these people.’

Edited by Purushottam Agrawal, ”’Who is Bharat Mata?’: On History, Culture and the Idea of India” is a collection of writings and speeches by and on Nehru. It shows us the mind—the ideology, born of experience, observation and deep study—behind Nehru’s democratic and inclusive idea of India. It is a book of particular relevance at a time when “nationalism” and the slogan “Bharat Mata ki Jai” are being used to construct a militant and purely emotional idea of India that excludes millions of residents and citizens. The following is an excerpt from the chapter “The Idea and the Making of India”.

…It must be remembered that the communalism of a majority community must of necessity bear a closer resemblance to nationalism than the communalism of a minority group. One of the best tests of its true nature is what relation it bears to the national struggle. If it is politically reactionary or lays stress on communal problems rather than national ones then it is obviously anti-national.

The Simon Commission,² as is well known, met with a widespread and almost unanimous boycott in India. Bhai Parmanandji,³ in his recent presidential address at Ajmer, says that this boycott was unfortunate for the Hindus, and he approvingly mentions that the Punjab Hindus (probably under his guidance) cooperated with the Commission. Thus Bhaiji is of opinion that, whatever the national aspect of the question might have been, it was desirable for the Hindus to cooperate with the British Government in order to gain some communal advantages. This is obviously an anti-national attitude. Even from the narrow communal point of view it is difficult to see its wisdom, or communal advantages can only be given at the expense of another community, and when both seek the favours of the ruling power, there is little chance of obtaining even a superficial advantage.

Bhaiji’s argument, repeatedly stated, is that the British Government is so strongly entrenched in India that it cannot be shaken by any popular movement and therefore it is folly to try to do so. The only alternative is to seek its favours. That is an argument which I can only characterise, with all respect to him, as wholly unworthy of any people however fallen they might be.

Bhaiji’s view is that the cry of Hindu-Muslim unity is a false cry and a wrong ideal to aim at because the power of gift is in the hands of the government. Granting this power of gift, every cry other than one of seeking the government’s favours is futile. And if the possibility of Hindu-Muslim cooperation and collaboration is ruled out,⁴ nationalism is also ruled out in the country-wide sense of the word. The inevitable consequence, and Bhaiji accepts this, is what the calls “Hindu nationalism”, which is but another name for Hindu communalism. What is the way to this? Cooperation with British imperialism. “I feel an impulse within me,” says Bhaiji in his presidential address, “that the Hindus would willingly cooperate with Great Britain if their status and responsible position as the premier community in India is recognised in the political institutions of new India.”

This attitude of trying to combine with the ruling power against another community or group is the natural and only policy which communalism can adopt. It fits in of course entirely with the wishes of the ruling power which can then play off one group against another. It was the policy which was adopted by the Muslim communalists with some apparent temporary advantages to themselves. It is the policy which the Hindu Mahasabha partly favoured from its earliest days but could not adopt wholeheartedly because of the pressure of nationalist Hindus, and which its leaders now seem to have definitely adopted.

Dr Moonje,⁵ presiding over the C.P. Hindu Conference on May 17, 1933 made it clear that “the Mahasabha never had any faith in the kind of noncooperation which Mahatma Gandhi has been preaching and practising. It believes in the eternal Sanatan Law of stimulus and response, namely, responsive cooperation. The Mahasabha holds that whatever may be the constitution of the legislatures, they should never be boycotted.” Dr. Moonje is an authority on Sanatan Law, but I hope it does not lay down that the response to a kick should be grovelling at the feet of him who kicks. This speech was made when a widespread national struggle was going on and there was unprecedented repression under the ordinance regime. I shall not discuss here the wisdom of stating, long before the British-made constitution had taken shape, that whatever happens they would work it. Was this not an invitation to the government to ignore the Mahasabha for in any event it would accept the new dispensation?

Dr Moonje himself went to the Round Table Conference in 1930, at the height of the civil disobedience movement, though in justice to him it must be stated that he had declared that he went in his individual capacity. Subsequently of course the Mahasabha took full part in the London conferences and committees.

Of the part taken by the Mahasabha representatives in these deliberations, especially by those from the Punjab and Sind, I wish only to say that it was a most painful one. Politically it was most reactionary and efforts were made to increase the reserved powers and safeguards of the British Government or the Governors in order to prevent the Muslim majorities in certain provinces from exercising effective power. The identical policy and argument of the Muslim communalists in regard to the whole of India were repeated by Hindu communalists in regard to certain provinces. But of course the special powers of Governors were not going to be confined to some provinces. They would inevitably apply to all the provinces. The reason for this reactionary attitude in both the cases was of course fear of the majority. Whatever the reason, this played entirely into the hands of the British Government.
[…]
Reality and Myth⁶

(From Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru: Volume Six)

Groups of upper class people try to cover up their own class interests by making it appear that they stand for the communal demands of religious minorities or majorities.

A critical examination of the various communal demands put forward on behalf of Hindus, Muslims or others reveals that they have nothing to do with the masses. At the most they deal with some jobs for a few of the unemployed intellectuals but it is obvious that the problem even of the unemployed middle class intellectuals cannot be solved by a redistribution of state jobs. There are far too many unemployed persons of the middle class to be absorbed in state or other services and their number is growing at a rapid pace. So far as the masses are concerned there is absolutely no reference to them or to their wants in the numerous demands put forward by communal organizations. Apparently the communalists do not consider them as worthy of attention. What is there, in the various communal formulae, in regard to the distress of the agriculturists, their rent or revenue or the staggering burden of debt that crushes them? Or in regard to the factory or railway or other workers who have to face continuous cuts in wages and a vanishing standard of living? Or the lower middle classes who, for want of employment and work, are sinking in the slough of despair? Heated arguments take place about seats in councils and separate and joint electorates and the separation of provinces which can affect or interest only a few. Is the starving peasant likely to be interested in this when hunger gnaws his stomach? But our communal friends take good care to avoid these real issues, for a solution of them might affect their own interests, and they try to divert people’s attention to entirely unreal and, from the mass point of view, trivial matters.

Communalism is essentially a hunt for favours from a third party—the ruling power. The communalist can only think in terms of a continuation of foreign domination and he tries to make the best of it for his own particular group. Delete the foreign power and the communal arguments and demands fall to the ground. Both the foreign power and the communalists, as representing some upper class groups, want no essential change of the political and economic structure; both are interested in the preservation and augmentation of their vested interests. Because of this, both cannot tackle the real economic problems which confront the country, for a solution of these would upset the present social structure and devest the vested interests. For both, this ostrichlike policy of ignoring real issues is bound to end in disaster. Facts and economic forces are more powerful than governments and empires and can only be ignored at peril.

Communalism thus becomes another name for political and social reaction and the British Government, being the citadel of this reaction in India, naturally throws its sheltering wings over a useful ally. Many a false trail is drawn to confuse the issue; we are told of Islamic culture and Hindu culture, of religion and old custom, of ancient glories and the like. But behind all this lies political and social reaction, and communalism must therefore be fought on all fronts and given no quarter. Because the inward nature of communalism has not been sufficiently realised, it has often sailed under false colours and taken in many an unwary person. It is an undoubted fact that many a Congressman has almost unconsciously partly succumbed to it and tried to reconcile his nationalism with this narrow and reactionary creed. A real appreciation of its true nature would demonstrate that there can be no common ground between the two. They belong to different species. It is time that Congressmen and others who have flirted with Hindu or Muslim or Sikh or any other communalism should understand this position and make their choice. No one can have it both ways, and the choice lies between political and social progress and stark reaction. An association with any form of communalism means the strengthening of the forces- of reaction and of British imperialism in India; it means opposition to social and economic changes and a toleration of the present terrible distress of our people; it means a blind ignoring of world forces and events.

What are communal organizations? They are not religious although they confine themselves to religious groups and exploit the name of religion. They are not cultural and have done nothing for culture although they talk bravely of a past culture. They are not ethical or moral groups for their teachings are singularly devoid of all ethics and morality. They are certainly not economic groupings for there is no economic link binding their members and they have no shadow of an economic programme. Some of them claim not to be political even. What then are they?
As a matter of fact they function politically and their demands are political, but calling themselves non-political, they avoid the real issues and only succeed in obstructing the path of others.

1. 27 November 1933. The Tribune, 30 November 1933. Reprinted in Recent Essays and Writings, (Allahabad, 1934), 47–61.
2. The Simon Commission was a group of 7 British MPs sent to India in 1928 to study constitutional reforms and make recommendations to the government.
3. Bhai Parmanand was an Indian nationalist and a prominent leader of the Hindu Mahasabha.
4. Bhai Parmanand stated that “we have reached a stage when the Congress with its theory of Swaraj through Hindu-Moslem unity and civil disobedience goes entirely out of the field.”
5. Another Mahasabha leader
6. Statement to the press, Allahabad, 5 January 1934. The Tribune, 8 January 1934. Reprinted in Recent Essays and Writings, (Allahabad, 1934), 72-81.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

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Selective Silence & Outrage: The Unnao Story

Official ‘negligence’ behind rural jobs scheme worker Lakhan’s suicide in Jharkhand

Text of the report:

Cause of death

Administration’s negligence

Present situation

Baseless claims by the administration

Jharkhand NREGA Watch demands that:

Hindu and Muslim Communalism

Excerpts from ‘Who is Bharat Mata?’

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