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6 RSS workers held for threatening Malayalam poet Kureepuzha Sreekumar

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Well known poet Kureeppuzha Sreekumar man was handled by RSS goons in Kerala. He was chief guest at the annual day celebration of a library. He spoke against RSS and cast and communal violence unleashed by them.After the meeting they surrounded and abused him.organisers protected him and took him to a police station. I spoke to him. He is safe.He filed a complaint. Six RSS activists were arrested today for allegedly threatening a noted Malayalam poet in Kollam district with the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) ordering a thorough probe into the incident. The incident took place at Kotttukkal when Kureepuzha Sreekumar was returning after addressing a function last night, police said.

He was stopped by a group of RSS activists as he was getting into his car and allegedly threatened, they said. Sreekumar, while addressing the function, had attacked Hindutva forces over their stand on the controversy over the construction of a “caste wall” at Vadayampady near Kochi.

Dalits in Vadayampady, near Kochi, have been protesting against attempts to deny their access to a plot attached to a temple, so far used as a public space. In 2017, the agitators had also pulled down a wall that was erected by the temple management which claims ownership of the land. “The event was held on an open ground. I told the audience about Vadayampady and that they should not let the ground become inaccessible to people based on their religion and caste,” Sreekumar said. A case has been registered against about 15 RSS activists in connection with the incident which happened late on Monday night on the basis of the poet’s complaint and six were arrested. The arrested men have been identified as Deepu, Manu, Kiran, Liju, Sreejith and Shyam. The local unit of the CPI-M supported the poet, it is learned.The issue was also raised in the Kerala Assembly today.

Replying to the submission on the matter by Mulakara Ratnakaran of the CPI, the chief minister said that a group of 15 RSS/BJP workers led by a panchayat member Dipu were behind the incident.
Cases have been registered against 15 people under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and six have been arrested so far, he said.There has been an increase in attacks on the freedom of expression in the country since the past few years, Vijayan said, adding that M M Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Gauri Lankesh had lost their lives due to such intolerance.

In Kerala also renowned writer M T Vasudevan Nair and film maker Kamal were among those who had been threatened. Such incidents would be dealt with sternly and will not be allowed to be repeated, he said.The government will provide necessary protection to ensure that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, the chief minister said.

Kerala stands out as an island of hope, when attacks on freedom of expression are taking place elsewhere in the country, he added.
 
 

A candle for Ankit … and his lost love and a flickering secularism

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A worrying silence echoes in the public sphere

It was an act of violence and terror, albeit of a critically different kind. When 23-year-old Ankit Saxena’s throat was slit after an altercation with the family members of his childhood sweetheart a few days ago, while the usual suspects of the BJP, Manoj Tiwari, and the Bajrang Dal swung into pre-scripted, hate-driven action, a worrying silence from votaries of “secularism” and “religious progressives” echoed in the public sphere.

It would be easy to assuage the guilt caused by this silence by brushing off Ankit’s murder as an act of individual brutality and insanity, atypical and distinguished from organised, targeted killings in the name of faith or caste. Young Ankit’s death can also then be distinguished aside and away from the “secularism and Constitution in danger” paradigm. Warning bells need not be rung. For the venomous proponents of the “love jihad” myth, this is an act in reverse, with the young man, a Hindu, a victim. For both sides of the deep communal divide, the response is common: Greater segregation, less democratisation for the young, no sharing of spaces. Do no candles need to be lit for Ankit and his lost love?

This story appeared as the lead editorial piece in The Indian Express on February 6, 2018. The rest of the story may be read here 

#JusticeForAnkitSaxena: Shehla Rashid’s, ‘Question to my Muslim friends’

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Would you peacefully allow your sister/daughter to marry a non-Muslim man?

Ankit Saxena

Would you peacefully allow your sister/daughter to marry a non-Muslim man? Because, if you won’t, we lose the moral authority to fight the ruckus created by RSS over the so-called “Love Jihad”. The Special Marriage Act allows interfaith couples to register a marriage without conversion. When we, as a minority, insist on our Constitutional rights, let’s remember that this too is a Constitutional right. Not only do minority communities have Constitutional rights, individuals too have Constitutional rights.
 
The way an adult Muslim woman Hadiya has a right to choose Shefin Jahan as her life partner, another adult Muslim woman has a right to choose Ankit Saxena as her partner. It’s the Constitution – and not Islamic/Hindu law – that gives both of them this right. Both Islamic and Hindu law require the father to “give away” the daughter. But it is the Constitution that allowed Hadiya to choose her partner. So, when you outrage – and rightly so – over the denial of her right to choose, please understand that the right is Constitutional, and is available to all adult Muslim women, regardless of who they love. When we insist that Hadiya be treated as an adult, as an individual who has Constitutional rights, let’s please uphold the same standard for all adult Muslim women – regardless of who they love.
 
There are those who hate Muslims, and those who love Muslims – who do we prefer?
 
A 20-yr old Hindu girl who said “I love Muslims” was driven to suicide by BJP members. A 23-yr old boy who dared to love a Muslim girl was killed by conservatives of the other shade.
Shame on us.
 
If we do not make room for love, we deserve to be ruled by hatred.
 
#JusticeForAnkitSaxena

(As received through Whatsapp).
 
 

“Ground-breaking” research challenges Modi government’s affidavit on female genital mutilation in India

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Will the government show the same grit and enthusiasm for triple talaq to ban the practice of FGM/C in the Bohra Community?” Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor

Bohra Women
Image Courtesy: GettyImages

A new “ground-breaking” national research on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) directly questions the affidavit recently filed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in the Supreme Court doubting existence of the practice in India.

The report titled, ‘The Clitoral Hood a Contested Site: Khafd or Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in India’ has been released to mark the UN’s ‘International Day (February 6) of Zero Tolerance for FGM’. 

“With the dignity, health and well-being of millions of girls at stake, there is no time to waste. Together, we can and must end this harmful practice,” reads a message from the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

Some of the key findings of the report:
 

  • 75% of all daughters of the study sample were subjected to FGM/C, which means it continues to be practiced on little girls. 
  • 97% of women who remembered their FGM/C experience from childhood recalled it as painful. While most women said they suffered immediate pain from the procedure only 2 women said they did not have any immediate or long-term impact from FGM/C.
  • Despite sex being a taboo topic, approximately 33% of women subjected to FGM/C in the study believe it has negatively impacted their sexual life. Low sex drive, inability to feel sexual pleasure, difficulty trusting sexual partners, and over sensitivity in the clitoral area were some of the problems identified by several women.
  • Close to 10% of the women who had undergone the procedure in the current study specifically mentioned urinary problems, recurring UTIs, burning and incontinence. In addition, one of the study participants reported bleeding of the clitoral hood area due to irritation.
  • Many respondents in the study reported feeling fear, anxiety, shame, anger, depression, low-self-esteem, and/or betrayal of trust as some of the fallouts that they associated with their FGM/C.

The report was released at a press conference held Monday in Delhi by  WeSpeakOut, the largest survivor-led movement to end Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) amongst Bohras, in collaboration with Nari Samata Manch, a trust for gender equality. WeSpeakOut members were joined by Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, at the press conference.

Basing itself on narratives from survivors, the report flies in the face of the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s “alarming affidavit” to the Supreme Court that stated, “there is no official data which supports the existence of FGM.”

Masooma Ranalvi, founder of WeSpeakOut welcomed the report stating: “Anyone who doubts or denies the existence of FGM/C in India must read this report filled with heart wrenching stories of the many harms from FGM/C. By turning a blind eye and doing nothing about FGM/C, the Government of India is denying women and girls their rights enshrined in the Indian constitution. In keeping with its international human rights commitments under numerous treaty bodies, India must at once pass a law that bans the act of providing FGM/C.”

Addressing the media Tharoor said: “Women’s right to dignity supersedes right to freedom of religion. Law cannot and should not question the idea of divine but law can and must regulate human action that hurts others. Will the government show the same grit and enthusiasm for triple talaq to ban the practice of FGM/C in the Bohra Community?” 

Read the full report.
http://wespeakout.org/site/assets/files/1439/fgmc_study_results_jan_2018.pdf
 

The Taj Mahal will soon be known as ‘Tej Mandir’: Vinay Katiyar

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If you believe Vinay Katiyar, the Bajrang Dal founder who is currently BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh, the Taj Mahal will soon be known by its proper name: ‘Tej Mandir’.

Vinay katiyar
Image: Screengrab

In Katiyar’s version of Indian history, the building of the Taj Mahal by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan is fiction. The fact is that it was Aurangzeb who turned a Hindu temple into a burial ground.

Katiyar’s remarks were in the context of news reports about the upcoming Taj Mahotsav scheduled to be held between February 18 and 27 will feature a dance drama on Lord Ram.

“You can call it Taj Mahotsav or Tej Mahotsav, both are the same,” Katiyar told ANI when asked about the 10-day event in Agra. “There is not much difference between Taj and Tej…Our Tej Mandir was turned into a cremation ground by Aurangzeb. Taj Mahal will be converted into Tej Mandir soon.”
He also told Times Now there will come a time when “some administrator”  will destroy the cremation ground.

Times Now

UP’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath and governor Ram Naik are scheduled to grace the Mahotsav on opening day. The state government has said it has nothing to do with the decision on the theme of the Taj Mahotsav involving Lord Ram which was decided by a local committee.

Kasganj violence pre-planned, police conduct anti-Muslim: Fact-finding report

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The violence in Kasganj town in UP on Republic Day was not spontaneous but the result of a conspiracy hatched by some Hindu groups with a clear intent to raise the communal temperature,  while the police acted in a blatantly partisan manner on January 26 as also on subsequent days.

Kasganj Riots

These are the main conclusions of a fact finding team of 13 lawyers and activists set-up by the group ‘United Against Hate’ and led by the retired DIG police, SR Darapuri that toured Kasganj on February 2. Its report was released simultaneously in Lucknow and Delhi on Monday.

 “After talking extensively to local people of both the communities, it became clear that the situation in Kasganj was not any spontaneous clash between two communities but was a carefully planned attack”, said the report.

It may be recalled that on January 26 one person — Chandan Gupta — succumbed to bullet injuries while another — Naushad – was seriously injured. According to the report, it remains unclear as who had fired the shots that killed Gupta and injured Naushad.

“The police and administration, as testified by locals and ground evidence, played a partisan role, and allowed the mob led by Sankalp Foundation and ABVP to run amok and indulge in organized violence, specially targeting Muslim-owned shops and property, including two mosques,” said the report. In calculated fashion, Muslim property adjoining property owned by Hindus was spared for fear that the flames from the former might engulf the latter.

As further evidence of police bias, the report points out that the FIRs are silent on the attack on two mosques and only Muslim localities were sealed by the police. On January 25, the police stood as mute witness as Muslim shops were looted and gutted immediately after the funeral procession for Gupta.

The report also blamed the police for not naming the culprits despite the fact that a video that has gone viral clearly shows them marching menacingly towards a Muslim locality with some of them carrying country-made guns.

On Monday, two police constables on bandobust duty were suspended after the door of a mosque was torched.

Is the 2018 Union Budget Really a Pro-Farmer Budget?

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Krishna Prasad, Finance Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha discusses the implications of the 2018 union budget, which claims to be a ‘pro-farmer’ budget.

Interview with P. Krishna Prasad
Interviewed by P. Ambedkar

In conversation with Newsclick, Krishna Prasad, Finance Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha discusses the implications of the 2018 union budget, which claims to be a ‘pro-farmer’ budget. From low MSPs, to lack of land reforms and farmer suicides, he brings to light all the ways in which the BJP government has repeatedly ignored the needs of the agrarian community.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Agra: Muslims attempt ‘Tiranga Yatra’ to highlight grievances

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Agra (IANS): Muslims in Agra on Monday tried to take out a “Tiranga Yatra” but were held back at the Shahid Smarak, where they presented a memorandum to a district official, listing a set of demands and grievances.

Tiranga Yatra
Representative Image (Photo: PTI)

The Tiranga Yatra was in response to a similar yatra last week by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Over a 100 Muslims, comprising youth, senior community leaders, Ulemas and Maulvis, led by Shabana Khandelwal, gathered at the Shahid Smarak with the national tricolour. But senior police officials said due to Section 144 being in force, the procession could not be permitted.

Khandelwal told IANS: “Our Tiranga Yatra was non-political and through this we want to demonstrate our firm solidarity with the nation and our patriotism including our love for the national tricolour.

“For no rhyme or reason Muslims were being targeted and branded as being opposed to the national patriotic fervour. The Muslims have made tremendous sacrifices both during the Independence movement and after during the wars and in the national developmental process.”

The demonstrators shouted “Pakistan Murdabad”.

In their memorandum addressed to the President of India, they demanded fair treatment, and safety to Muslims and their institutions.

“In the name of ‘Vande Matram’, many people were pointlessly harassed. This should stop. Also in the name of ‘Love Jihad’ and cow slaughter, many Muslims have suffered.”

They demanded a judicial probe in the Kasganj incident and fair compensation to the family of Chandan Gupta, who was killed in sectarian violence in the Uttar Pradesh town last month.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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