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Modi’s Undeclared Emergency: Academia feels the Heat

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Universities Under Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi, a pithy comparison
 
Even during the 21 months of the Emergency between 1975-1977, the bastions of learning were never shabbily treated as they are now

I was a teacher at a University in Bihar in 1974, and played a very active role in the J.P-led  (Jayaprakash Narayan-led) movement. Along with a few colleagues, I was detained under the dreaded MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971) and was suspended from service under the rules. After release from the jail , we were not discriminated against. Even though it was well known that JP had asked the students to give one year to the country and discontinue their studies, the University treated us, as any other teacher and not like an enemy who might be influencing students to respond to J.P.'s call. Even the students' organisations affiliated to the Indira Congress and the CPI did not treat us dis-repectfully or interfered with us in any way.
 
 When the emergency was clamped, we continued our activities to oppose Indira Gandhi and the emergency and were detained under  the Defence of India Act (1915). Following our release on bail, we were placed under suspension, which was withdrawn only after Indira Gandhi's defeat and the lifting of the emergency. The suspension order was passed at the instance of the State government.  However, the University did not impose any restriction on our entry into the college nor  did it interfere with our movement inside college or the university .In fact, even the students ' organisations affiliated to the Indira Congress and the CPI did not treat us disrespectfully.
 
Under Narendra Modi, educational institutions are under attack in a planned manner .With Modi coming to power, the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) has suddenly sprung into action. It creates a conflict and then complains to univerisity authorities, who act either on their own or at the instance of government to suppress other organisations.
 
This happened at the IIT, Chennai, in the Central University, Hyderabad and many other places. The most outrageous was the wholesale attack on JNU .The Union Government went out on full-scale attack, and allowed its goon brigade in black to beat up Kanhaiya Kumar in the court and other  JNU students in Patiala court campus with hundreds of policemen looking the other way.
 
The ABVP, empowered by the administration’s silence and authorities acting in tandem has become a familiar pattern in educational institutions by now .The organisations affiliated to the ruling party and the agencies of the State collaborating in this suppression of the opposition is a well known and time-tested strategy of  fascist organisations .
 
The latest and most naked show of the power of the State is the order regarding Professor Saibaba of Delhi University ‘not to enter the college without permission’. He is  physically (90 % ) differently abled. What are the authorities afraid of? They have nothing to fear. But the order is meant to display the iron fist which Modiji had kept concealed in democratic gloves before coming to power. It is the same show of brute power that was evidenced when the CBI raided the residence of Himanchal chief minister just as he was leaving for a Mandir (temple) to perform a Puja on the day of his daughter's wedding .
 
The autonomy of universities nurture an atmosphere in which a hundred flowers may bloom and a hundred thoughts may prevail[1]. This is  indispensable for  pushing further the frontiers of knowledge, and should be protected, at all costs, from Modi's brutal attack .

(The author is a veteran civil rights activists associated with major movements and the People's Union for Civil Liberties,PUCL)

 

[1] Though he did not live up to it, the sound and magnificent call was given by Mao.
 

A Classic Case of the Abuse of Power: Malegaon 2006 blasts

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Cover Photo Credit: Mid-day.com

Background

Three days before four bombs went off in the textile town of Malegaon in north Maharashtra on September 8, 2006, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked chief ministers to “embark immediately upon a proactive policy to ensure that a few individual acts do not result in tarnishing the image of an entire community and remove any feelings of persecution and alienation from the minds of the minorities.” 
 
Singh, a member of Sikh minority, was speaking in the aftermath of widespread arrests of Muslim men after 7/11 train blasts. 
 Singh’s meaningful and empathic advice fell on deaf ears of the men-in-Khakhi when the very next day (emphasis added) of the Malegaon blasts (September 9, 2006) an unattributed source in Maharashtra ATS told the media that SIMI activists committed the crime to create “communal tension”.

Even before the emergence of any leads in the investigation, the ATS, with the help of local police, had formed a notion to follow up its regular ‘standard pattern’ in the Malegaon blasts. The needle of suspicion was instantly made to swing towards Muslims. Nine Muslims, including seven from Malegaon, were picked up by the ATS and charged with the first major attack against Indian Muslims. Soon the Malegaon syndrome – of Muslims killing fellow Muslims in blasts – travelled to the south when the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad was rocked by a terror attack on May 18, 2007. The blasts at Ajmer Sharief followed on October 11, 2007. This is not to forget the attack on the Samjhauta Express on February 18, 2007, earlier. 
 
Emboldened by a consistently flawed investigation, the terrorists returned to Malegaon (Modasa in Gujarat witnessed a terror attack on the same day) on September 29, 2008 to complete a vicious cycle of violence. It was the sheer determination, honesty, and professionalism of the late Hemant Karkare that changed the course of the terror narrative in the country.

The verdict
 
Justice delayed is justice denied. But in the case of the Malegaon blast case, the long delay of a decade resulted in partial justice, at least, when on April 25, 2016, the Special MCOCA court judge VV Patil gave a historic ruling discharging the nine men and discarding all the charges slapped by the ATS and the CBI. Judge Patil wrote, 
 
“Needless to mention that immediately after the bomb blast the ATS Officers conducted investigation and merely on suspicion projected (emphasis added) the accused No.1 to 9 as the authors of the bomb blast dated 8.9.2006. It appears to me that as the accused no.1 to 9 were having criminal antecedent, they become the scape­goat at the hands of ATS.” (emphasis added). (Page 31)
 
Key points from the landmark verdict that can be read here

The ATS shamelessly tried to build a fictitious case against the accused but failed miserably. Unlike the CBI, which chose an honourable exit from the case –by remaining absent during the hearing of the discharge application– the Maharashtra ATS vigorously argued for the framing of charges against the accused despite the fact that, in law, the NIA’s investigation had an overriding effect on the investigation carried by the ATS and the CBI. The judge outrightly rejected the very basis of the ATS theory of Muslims killing fellow Muslims in order to create communal tension:
 
“In my view the basic foundation or the object shown by ATS behind the blast dated 8.9.2006 is not acceptable to a man of ordinary prudence.” (page 30)
 
“It seems to me highly impossible that the accused No.1 to 9 who are from Muslim community would have decided to kill their own people to create disharmony in two community that too on a holy day i.e. Shab­-E­-Barat.” (page 30)
 
After debunking the ATS theory, the judge went on to reason that the best time to disturb the communal harmony of the textile town and the state was or would have been during the Ganesh immersion which preceded September 9, 2006 and went on peacefully without any untoward incident. To cause riots in Malegaon, the judge said, the accused “ought have planted bombs at the time of Ganesh immersion day which would have caused death of most of the Hindu peoples.” (page 30)
 
Justice VV Patil legally demolished each legal contention and the case law cited by the ATS and Hindu terror accused (Manohar Narwaria, Rajendra Chaudhary, Dhan Singh Shiv Singh, Lokesh Sharma). For example, the judge put aside the submission of the ATS that argued against discharge at this stage. The prosecution argued that “which set of accused persons are guilty or innocent cannot be decided at this stage.” The ruling also dismissed the legal contention of the Hindu accused that the transfer of investigation to the NIA was a “re-investigation”. The court ruled that the investigation transfer to the NIA was “further investigation”. 
 
“In my view, only because after handing over the investigation to it, if the NIA visited the scene of crime, examined the injured and interrogated the accused persons and verified the earlier statements of the witnesses and arrived at a different conclusion than the conclusion arrived by previous investigating agency, it does not mean that they have carried out the re­investigation and the same is vitiated as unauthorised. Thus, I hold that the investigation carried out by the NIA is not a fresh, de­ novo or re­investigation but the same is a further investigation u/s 173[8] of Criminal Procedure Code.” (page no. 20)
 
The court also dismissed the contention that since the ATS and the CBI had filed the charge sheet against the nine accused, the same cannot be ignored to discharge the the first set of the accused. The judge notes that it was after the confession of Aseemanand to a magistrate under section 164 of CrPC, the investigation was transferred to the NIA “to do complete justice to the victims” of the Malegaon blasts. The court clearly says in the ruling that the charge sheet filed by the NIA “has overriding effect upon the charge-sheets filed by ATS and CBI”, upholding the view adopted by defence lawyers. [1]
 
The court also upheld that argument of the defence lawyers that the NIA’s chargesheet against the Hindu accused itself is a proof that no purpose would be served to prosecute the first set of accused (Muslim accused). The court held that there is “not sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused.” Justice Patil says, 
 
“The Judge is not a mere Post office to frame the charge at the behest of the prosecution, but has to exercise his judicial mind to the facts of the case in order to determine whether a case for trial has been made out by the prosecution.”
 
The court also held that the entire case of the ATS is based on confessional statement of the accused, statement of a witness under section 164 Cr.PC, mobile phone conversation between the two accused, wires, soil samples lifted from the godown of the late Shabbir Masiullah.
 
The court upheld that the further investigation by the NIA proved that the confessional statements of the accused were taken under duress, the witness who recorded the statement under section 164 Cr,.PC negated the recording of any such statement, and the mobile phone conversation (“Madarchod Jitna bolega na utna bol tu uske bad bolna mat ham log hai na pandhara dis pahele he wo saman nikal diye bas ham log gaon me nahi la paye, samaj gaya na”) cannot be connected to the bomb blasts of September 9, 2006. 
 
The judgement comes down heavily on the theory that the RDX used in the blasts was assembled in the godown of the late Shabbir Masiullah who was already in the custody of Mumbai crime branch when the blasts took place. The court said that Masiullah was arrested by the ATS on August 3, 2006, much before the September 9, 2006 Malegaon blasts. 
 
“It appears to me highly impossible and improbable that the ATS which is a most competent investigating agency in Maharashtra would not have conducted raid upon the godown of accused no.2 [Shabbir Masiullah] after his arrest in a serious crime viz for section 10 and 13 of Unlawful Activities [prevention] Act.” (page no. 29-30)
 
The entire ruling is based on legal reasoning and evidence placed before the court thus ending the presumption that there can be two sets of accused for a single crime.
 
The only problematic part of the judgement is on page 31 where the judge seems to have been carried away without actually knowing the ATS officers. It says, “However, it should be mentioned here that the ATS Officers who conducted the investigation were having no animosity with these accused persons to book them in the crime, therefore, in my view as they discharged their public duty but in a wrong way, so they may not be blamed for it.”
 
Now compare the section 26 of MCOCA with the above observation of the learned judge:
Section 26. Protection of action taken in good faith: “No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against the State Government or any officer or authority of the State Government for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done in pursuance of this Act or any rule made there under or any order issued under any such rule.”
 
The section clearly gives complete immunity to the officers who wrongfully implicated the accused in Malegaon 2006 blasts.
 
The writer is a freelance journalist based in Malegaon. 

[1] Section 6(6) of the Central Government Act, The National Investigation Agency Act, 2008: Investigation of Scheduled Offences. – 6 (6) Where any direction has been given under sub-section (4) or sub-section (5), the State Government and any police officer of the State Government investigating the offence shall not proceed with the investigation and shall forthwith transmit the relevant documents and records to the Agency. Arguments in the MCOCA court were drafted on behalf of the accused by advocate Irfana Hamdani conducted in the court by advocate Sharif Shaikh.

Islamist Terrorism, Sectarian Violence: Chilling Echoes of Pastor Niemoller

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Love and peace: A Shia-Sunni marriage in Pakistan. Photo courtesy: The Dawn

As a woman of Pakistani/Indian, Muslim heritage I have remained blissfully untouched by the sectarianism that is claiming the lives of so many in our communities. The shock and horror at the daily threats, violence and murder seem all the more frightening as, like many of the same heritage, my extended family is made up of Sunnis, Shias, Ahmadis, people of other faiths, and non-believers. Communities that once lived together and inter-married are now being made separate by the poisonous spread of Islamist ideologies. Sectarianism is not unique to Islam but the violence perpetrated in its name knows no bounds. Its targets are all people, everywhere. Its objective it would seem is nothing more than to keep us in a place of perpetual fear.  

2016 is going to be another bloody year as the terrorists continue to wage their war against us all. The list of atrocities seems endless. After each event follows that oft repeated question – ‘how did we get here?’ Public outcry, government statements, articles in the media, phone-ins and documentaries follow and we all listen to experts and others like us trying to work out how we got here and what do we do about it. But then we return to our daily lives until the next incident takes place.

I was jolted from this well-worn pattern of incident and public response when I saw a post on social media. The Clarion Project published details taken from the ISIS propaganda magazine Dabiq of a hit list of 22 Western Muslim leaders as ‘Imams of Kufr’ who should be killed. The diverse list of politicians, Salafis and Sufis includes those known to have links to Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. This, despite the fact that the Islamic State’s ideology is directly descended from that of the Muslim Brotherhood. The list names Muslim leaders from Britain, Canada, USA and Australia.

This latest hit list is the most recent in a number that have been circulated across the world.  In September 2015, a hit list containing the names and photographs of secular bloggers, writers and activists around the world, including nine bloggers based in the UK, was circulated in Bangladesh. Xulhan Manon, founder of Bangladesh’s first and only LGBT magazine was brutally murdered by suspected Islamist extremists. Manon’s murder took place only weeks after Nazimuddin Samad was brutally murdered by Islamists after posting on Facebook. Sadly, these lists are not new but there was something even more chilling about the list posted by Clarion Project. As I read the names I was reminded of the famous quotation by Pastor Niemoller a prominent Protestant pastor who opposed the Nazi regime.   

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— 
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— 
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

The Islamists, often with tacit government support, have been coming for the socialists, trade unionists, activists, writers and others in many Muslim majority countries across the world. The thirst for blood and lust for violence not yet sated by the murders, rapes and brutality meted out against Yazidis, Shias, Ahmadis, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jews, believers, non-believers, secularists, bloggers, writers, activists, women, men, children – basically anyone who does not fit their distorted world view.

ISIS, it would seem now have new targets in their sights and some are those considered within the Islamist fold. Some who have remained silent at the murders and atrocities being committed by ISIS, others who have shared or tacitly endorsed the Muslim victim narrative and peddled the radical, hateful ideology of ISIS and other Islamists groups, are now targets too. The exposure of this complicity brings me no comfort. I feel utter despair at where we are now. Is this list a signal of the Islamists turning on each other or is it another example of Islamic sectarianism?


7th January 2016. Paris. Photo: Paul Alfred Henri

ISIS released their latest hit list only weeks after the brutal murder of Asad Shah and on the same day as Channel 4 broadcast a documentary in which Trevor Philips, former head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission unveiling a new poll telling us ‘what Muslims really think’. From press reports leading up to broadcast of the documentary it would seem that Muslims in Britain are uniquely unwilling to integrate into British society. Although the poll does not address the issue of Muslim sectarian divisions it would appear from the murder of Asad Shah and the ISIS list that perhaps we should now assume that Muslims are actually unable to live with each other too.  

The Shia-Sunni schism in Islam and its ongoing aftermath is well documented. However, in 2014, the Muslim Institute (I am a Fellow) took the bold step of putting sectarianism under the scalpel and giving insight into the ummah – the transnational Muslim community. As Ziauddin Sardar states in the introduction to this edition of Critical Muslim – It is simply not good enough to be a Muslim. You have to be labelled Sunni or Shia, and from there on progressively put in smaller boxes….And to those who deviate one iota …are, by definition, kaffirs – infidels who deserve to die.

This chilling statement from Ziauddin Sardar sums up the basis of divides amongst Muslims and the battle for an authentic Muslim identity. There is no longer any space for those of us who are secular and progressive and, as Kenan Malik says wear our faith lightly and not as a sacrosanct public identity. The primacy of a faith identity above all else is now commonly accepted but for Muslims this in itself is no longer enough. This was made absolutely clear in the recent incident of sectarian violence in Glasgow – a city that is no stranger to religious divisions. The brutal murder of Asad Shah, a Glasgow shopkeeper shed a spotlight on sectarian violence amongst Muslims in the West. 

It now seems that hardly a day goes by without some discussion about sectarianism and Islam. I warmly welcome the space opening up about the position of Ahmadis in Islam and a much belated recognition of the violence and abuse this community has suffered over many years. Pakistan has led the way in the treatment of Ahmadis. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, often described as a nationalist and socialist, was Prime Minister of Pakistan when the constitution was amended and Ahmadis declared non-Muslims.

This was followed in 1984 under the regime of General Zia ul Haq when Ordinance XX was introduced and it became a criminal offence for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslims. These developments took place long before the days of ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Taliban and their extremist offspring. The daily impact of this persecution and restriction on Ahmadis' freedom to practise their faith is movingly described by Shamila Ghyas. The violence and murder is becoming worse but we should be cautious about ignoring the prejudice and discrimination which has gone unchallenged for many years. We must also acknowledge that persecution of Ahmadis is not limited to Pakistan but includes Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and many other countries where Ahmadis are designated as non-Muslims. Saudi Arabia where Ahmadis are forbidden from performing Haj, one of the five pillars of Islam – has faced calls from human rights organisations to cease its persecution of Ahmadis.

Following the debates in the media it is heartening to hear many Muslims state their abhorrence at the attacks on Ahmadis. However there are those who continue to label Muslims not like them as ‘other’ and outside of Islam. This labelling as ‘other’ or non-Muslim is made all the more dangerous for those who do not conform to the accepted norms by increasing levels of community policing which has extended from women and girls through codes of honour and shame to everyone in the community. An issue that demands much more attention.  No doubt the ISIS list, like the murder of Asad Shah, will help continue discussions about divisions between different Muslim groups but there needs to be a much more open conversation about those outside of Islam who are also at grave risk.

In my work with the Centre for Secular Space, I have spent several years working closely with members of the Council of Ex-Muslims (CEMB) tackling Islamism and other religious fundamentalisms and extremism. During that time I have met many activists, bloggers and atheists – believers of other faiths, agnostics and atheists who regularly receive threats of violence against them and their families. They include people like Imad Iddine Habib, an ex- Salafi Muslim who fled to the UK from Morocco as well as secular Muslims considered to now be ex-Muslims by the Islamists.

There is very little understanding amongst the authorities about the threats and experiences of these groups of people and a total lack of focus on their experiences by the wider or Muslim communities. Is this because they are outside of a faith identity? Or is it because there is a lack of understanding about the complex nature of the context of the threats? In the cases of the Bangladeshi activists and atheists I have worked with, the police and others appear focused on the communal element of the threats without recognising the extremist/Islamist ideologies present in them and in some cases refusing to investigate the threats as hate crimes as a result of religion and belief. This response is to a significant degree the result of ongoing police engagement with community leaders who act as gatekeepers and community ‘experts’ advising the police.


"I am Bamako. We are Humanity". Sign at memorial at Bataclan Theatre. Photo: Karima Bennoune

Finding a way to tackle sectarian violence and the ongoing threats to all of us from Islamist terrorism will continue. But one thing is clear – Muslim or non-Muslim- we are all in their sights and are at risk. But it is incumbent on us all to speak up and challenge whomever, wherever and whenever we can and remember the lesson in the quote from Pastor Niemoller before it’s too late.

This article was first published on Open Democracy.
 

Battle lines Drawn: Lathi Charge in Allahabad University against Protesting Students

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University’s Decision to Deny Offline Admissions Contested by Student Community, VC Says disgruntled Students are a Minority

Mohammed Zabir Injured Student of the Allahabad University


Richa Singh, President of the Union addressing students on Sunday, May 1

UPDATE on MAY 3:
According to a press note released by president of the union, Richa Singh, on May 3
 
• Several protesting students sustained severe injurious in a brutal police lathicharge
• There are attempts to falsely implicate, President Richa under serious charges by VC, Prof. Ratan Lal Hangloo
• Students have meanwhile resolved to further intensify the ongoing struggle against compulsory online application and online entrance exam
• The VC has been refusing to meet and engage with the elected student representative
 
On Monday, May 2, 2016, a brutal lathi charge was unleashed on peacefully protesting students and this, says Richa is ‘an attempt to suppress the ongoing protest movement against online admissions which excludes a large section of students from the rural and marginalised communities.’ The police was called in on orders of the Vice Chancellor, and the Chief Proctor in Allahabad University, allege the students. It is the Samajwadi Party (SP) that rules Uttar Pradesh (UP). Rucha Singh joined the SP recently.
 
According to the press release, the VC has also lodged false complaint against Richa Singh and other office bearers of the student union. They have been accused of rioting and vitiating the academic atmosphere of the university. VC has also constituted disciplinary committee to take action against protesting students.  She added, “I am not going to be intimidated by false charges of VC. In the coming days we are going to intensify the struggle. For that we are going to sit on indefinite hunger strike. Compulsory online application is against those who come from rural background and belong to marginalized community. Moreover, if other central universities like, BHU, AMU, Hyderabad University and JNU can have both the option of online and offline, they why not Allahabad University?” she asks

The story on May 2:

Allahabad University has joined the string of universities using police action against peacefully protesting students. A lathi charge, reportedly brutal has resulted in severe head injuries to 5 or 6 students. Richa Singh, Student Union president told Sabrangindia that this was the administration’s move to break up the united students protest.

Monday, May 2, all departments of the 128-year old Allahabad University were shut down. Even though examinations are on, the strike has been called in protest of the allegedly discriminatory admission policies of the University under the newly appointed Vice Chancellor. The firebrand and articulate first woman president of the Students’ Union, Richa Singh and her colleagues were lead a protest against the university’s decision to deny admissions to students unless they are applied to, online.

Vice Chancellor Rattan Lal Hangloo speaking to Sabrangindia denied the charges of the students.”For all the undergraduate courses, both the online and offline options are available,” he explained. “It is only in the post graduate courses, following the MHRD and UGC guidelines that we have implemented this. Two hundred students have no objection, there are barely 20 who are protesting,” he added. “The online system is better and cleaner, you eliminate corruption and caste etc,” he said.

On Saturday, April 30, protests against the University’s unilateral decision against compulsory online application form for those seeking admission in post graduate courses intensified. Students were demanding option for offline along with online as most of the students come from rural backgrounds.  A full-fledged meeting of the Students Union on Sunday sought and obtained a consensus of support from students, the press release has said.

President, Richa Singh told Sabrangindia, “When most of the central universities like BHU, AMU, JNU, Hyderabad University and others have both the options available for students then why is the same procedure –more equitable and accessible –followed by the University of Allahabad? It is more than needed in Allahabad University because it is located in a state which has 78% of a rural population. “ Making her point sharply she added that “making online application compulsory will prevent the entry of many, coming from rural background and from marginalised communities.”  The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has both online and offline procedures for admission for students.

Richa Singh through a press release alleged that as protests escalated over the week end, Vice Chancellor, Rattan Lal Hangloo actually went to the extent of trying to dissolve the Student’s Union and even rusticate the elected president. Within an hour of announcing this decision in a press release, however, the press release was withdrawn. This is not the end of the confrontation however. The administration under the new VC has been at loggerheads against the 29 year old first ever Woman’s President of the Union. political activities and programme inside the university campus.’ All manner of tactics and intimidations have been used against her, she alleges largely because she has succeeded in energising a campus seeped in a combination of gang wars, political vendetta, all bound by patriarchy. “Suddenly areas and spaces in the university that were inaccessible to us women have been opened up and it is like a breath of fresh air, :says Richa. 

Though the press release ‘rusticating ‘ Richa was withdrawn a ‘high powered committee’ has been constituted ‘to take disciplinary action against protesting student leaders.’ Student leaders have termed the act as an attempt to the dissolve student union for the purpose of curtailing the student voice and movement. The VC has also reportedly lodged criminal complaint against Richa Singh in police station. Richa further added, “This is an attempt to implicate me under false charges and is in continuity with the previous acts. I will not be intimidated.”  The VC has also ‘banned all kinds of Suspended Vice Chancellor, Appa Rao of the Hyderabad Central University (HCU), Hyderabad has also since March 22 when unprecedented police action was unleashed on students, also ‘disallowed’ political activities on the campus.

Protesting students have alleged that when students went with their demand to VC, he not only refused to meet with the elected office bearers of the student union but also locked himself in his office. Against that, for more than two hours, students organized dharna in front of VC office but in vain.

Recently at a meeting in Mumbai Organised by the Youth Assembly Against Discrimination on April 23, 2016 Richa Singh had said, Like in 1942 We Told Britishers, Today We Tell RSS-BJP to Quit India”

As Dalits in a Gujarat village threaten self-immolation is Anandiben listening?

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Dalits from Modi’s Home District of Mehsana and the CM’s home taluka of Visnagar threaten Self-Immolation


Image for representation purpose only

Something is amiss in the state of Denmark. The proverbial Shakespearean phrase appears to sum it all.

Yesterday, May Day 2016, more than 300 rural families employed in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme in Jharkhand's Latehar, one of India's poorest districts, have donated their small annual wage increase to prime minister Narendra Modi. The workers attached five rupee notes to a letter addressed to the prime minister that was posted on May Day.

“The government must be really short of money if it is unable to raise NREGA wages to the minimum wage, that too when one third of the rural population is affected by drought,” reads the letter by the workers, noting that the central government had increased their wage this year by only Rs 5, from Rs 162 to Rs 167 earlier in April. This the villagers of this village in Latehar, Jharkand saw as an insult. Rs 167 is Rs 45 below the state minimum wage Rs 212 per day in Jharkhand. There are over 1.1 lakh families in Latehar district working in the scheme under which the government provides 100 days of employment a year to any rural household willing to do manual work – building public works such as roads, ponds, wells. Of this, 43% are women, and 37% are tribals.

Then today, May 2, the very next day, The Times of India and The Indian Express have broken the news that 35 Dalit families, living in Nedali village of Mehsana, just 15 kilometres from Modi’s hometown of Vadnagar have threatened self-immolation  due to the humiliating boycott that they face. The boycott is on account of their struggle for justice under the Atrocities Act — they dared to seek legal actions against alleged atrocities committed by eight members of upper castes in the village—and that is not on in Mehsana. It is this extreme discrimination has forced them to write to the chief minister seeking her leave to immolate themselves in a village just 15 km Modi's home town, Vadanagar. All this while the BJP dominated NDA II government seeks to appropriate Babasaheb Ambedkar and the country as a whole is celebrating Dr BR Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary.

Dalits Discriminated in Gujarat
Dalits are not a happy lot in the state of Gujarat. A quick look at the detailed documentation of violence and exclusion suffered by Dalits in the state since January this year reveal sharp and persistent cases of exclusion, violence and a denial of basic rights especially in Mehsana district and even in Sabarkantha.

Only in February this year, Dalit families from Lakshmipura-Bhandu, a small village of Visnagar taluka also in Mehsana ( Mehsana is also the home district of Anandi Patel, chief minister) were ‘not allowed’ to build a toilet! Even with today's reports of this letter seeking permission to self-immolate another one, of a Dalit groom and his family members being attacked and assaulted for ‘daring to ride a horse’ during the marriage procession )Khadol village Sabarkantha were documented by the media. Newspapers say this is the second such incident in 12 days.

In January 2016, on two separate occasions, Dalit sarpanches were not ‘allowed’ to hoist the national flag, the tricolour, on Republic Day.

The government, following the famed Gujarat model, has also passed a controversial land acquisition bill that will deprive small land-owners, farmers, Dalits, Adivais,owners of any say in land acquired by big business and government (April 1, 2016)  but is doing precious little on issue related to the fundamental protection of the rights of all it citizens. The resistance of the Gujarat government to make public the Inquiry Report into the Thangadh firing that left three Dalits dead after Gujarat police officers had used AK-47s to kill peaceful protesters.
 
But this letter written by 35 Dalit families representing a few hundred residents of the village seriously questions the government. The Times of India reports that the letter written by Babubhai Shankarbhai Senma, 46, of Nandali in Kheralu taluka of Mehsana district, addressed to the chief minister, says that Senma families, comprising 35 members, seek permission of self-immolation as members of upper castes have forced all villagers to boycott them. The boycott is in reaction to Senmas seeking legal action against eight upper caste persons under atrocity laws.

 According to the letter accessed by the TOI, Senma, who belongs to Dalit community, had gone to Mehsana district industrial centre to seek a sewing machine for her daughter-in-law, when one of the accused, identified as Jujarji Parmar, had hurled casterelated slurs and slapped him. Following the incident, Senma had approached local police, but no actions were initiated. However, the accused as ked villagers to boycott Senma and other members of his community. Following the direction from the upper caste member, villagers had not only boycotted the Senmas, but also stopped supplying essential commodities to them.

“Senma community members are not being given food grains, water, milk and fodder for their cattle. The villagers have stopped employing Senmas as daily wage labourers. Upper caste community members have issued diktat that if any villager is found employing a member of Senma community , then he too will be boycotted,“ said the letter. Senma alleged in his letter that the upper caste community members have been threatening Dalits to leave the village or face dire consequences.
 “The accused persons are threatening to burn us alive. Despite making several representations to the state administration, no government representative came to meet us. Therefore, please allow us permission for self-immolation," said Senma.
 

Smriti Irani’s ire is baseless: Bhagat Singh’s friends saw themselves as ‘revolutionary terrorists’

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By attacking historian Bipin Chandra's book, politicians have yet again waded into territory best left to professionals.

On December 23, 1929, some members of the Hindustan Republican Socialist Army and Association attempted to blow up a train carrying the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, just outside Delhi. Though the train was derailed, Irwin escaped unscathed. However, the action drew the wrath of Mahatma Gandhi who thanked god for saving the life of the British official and lambasted the young revolutionaries.Their act, he said in an essay titled The Cult of The Bomb, was “a most outrageous crime”.

A few weeks later, in January 1930, a young member of the HRSA, Bhagawati Charan Vohra, in consultation with his colleague Bhagat Singh, wrote a response to Gandhi’s critique of their tactics. It was titled The Philosophy of the Bomb.
“The revolutionaries see the advent of the revolution in the restlessness of youth, in its desire to break free from the mental bondage and religious superstitions that hold them,” Vohra declared. As young people get more saturated with the “psychology of revolution”, he suggested, they will come to have a clearer realisation of national bondage, the desire for freedom will grow and, “in their righteous anger, the infuriated youth will begin to kill the oppressors”.

He wrote:

“Thus has terrorism been born in the country. It is a phase, a necessary, an inevitable phase of the revolution. Terrorism is not the complete revolution and the revolution is not complete without terrorism. This thesis can be supported by an analysis of any and every revolution in history. Terrorism instills fear in the hearts of the oppressors, it brings hopes of revenge and redemption to the oppressed masses, it gives courage and self-confidence to the wavering, it shatters the spell of the superiority of the ruling class and raises the status of the subject race in the eyes of the world, because it is the most convincing proof of a nation’s hunger for freedom.”

It is very clear from this extract that the revolutionaries considered terror as a legitimate means, a necessary stage in the scheme of revolutionary struggle. While reading the text, it is important to remember that these people were well aware of the difference between terror, violence and armed struggle. All these words are used appropriately, with the exactness of intention.

Creating fear
Terrorist actions are part of armed struggle. There is a distinctiveness to them: they are random, generally unannounced, intended more to surprise the enemy and the general population and strike awe in them.

A terrorist act is mainly aimed at creating fear in the hearts of the adversary. An act of terror creates an impact that is hugely disproportionate to the scale of the action. It challenges the claim of military superiority of the enemy.

Terrorist acts are also aimed at converting sceptics into followers by assuring them that the revolutionaries hold the real power. As Vohra declared in the essay: “It gives courage and self-confidence to the wavering.”

The writings of Bhagat Singh make it apparent that even when he justified the use of violence and terror, he did not make a fetish of them. If one wants to describe this, it has to be called “revolutionary terror”: terror for the sake of revolution. Terror then is a technique. (It is also used by the state. When the police burns down entire villages, it is resorting to terror.)

One also needs to remember that Singh and his friends were deeply inspired by Russian revolutionaries, who used the method of terror in their struggle against the Tsar.

It’s clear that historian Bipan Chandra was not making a value judgment when he described Bhagat Singh and his comrades as “revolutionary terrorists” in India’s Struggle for Independence, the book he co-authored in 1988 with some of India’s most respected historians. More than two decades later, the book, which has long been a part of Delhi University’s curriculum, drew objections from members of the Rajya Sabha for describing Bhagat Singh and his comrades as terrorists.
On Thursday, the Deputy Speaker of the Rajya Sabha PJ Kurien thought it fit to intervene in a scholarly debate using his privilege and Delhi University backed down, stopping the sale and distribution of the book. Human Resources Minister Smiti Irani also weighed in, describing the text as an “academic murder of sacrifices of individuals”.

But anyone who has studied the period knows, Bipin Chandra was merely fixing a description to Bhagat and his comrades, trying to remain faithful to the way they saw themselves at one point of their revolutionary life.

Accomplished authors
Bipan Chandra is no pamphleteer, neither are his co-authors, who include KN Pannikar and Mridula Mukherjee. They are professional historians who are in the business of language, they use their words with care. If there is some discomfort with some words, ideally it should be debated by Bipan Chandra’s academic peers and not the public or their representatives, who are not trained in the discipline.

MPs or MLAs should not use the power and privilege that they enjoy and claim in the name of being the representatives of the people to judge matters that are better left to professionals. It will be a death blow to the very culture of professionalism.
It is also sad that a university that seeks a seat among the top universities of the world does not have the courage to stand up to this bullying and assert its scholarly right.

By preventing students from reading the book, which describes Bhagat Singh and his comrades as “revolutionary terrorists”, we deprive them of an opportunity to understand and appreciate the journey of words like “terror”, to think why at one point of time it was used with pride and how its meaning has changed.

Article first published on Scroll.in

‘The queer fight is against Western hegemony, not by its side’: Activists of Bangladesh

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May 1, 2016 Received through Meena Seshu

Anindya Hajra, a friend and Queer activist in Kolkata posted this on FB.
The following letter was sent to me very early this morning over WhatsApp by a queer activist friend from Bangladesh with who I have been trying to establish contact over the past few days (and was successful only yesterday) and who wanted this to be shared as widely as possible. They said this letter was a joint one written by many persons, specifically ‘their comrades’. I have kept the original spellings. On asking them as to what this letter should be called if anything at all, they said, “Naam naai” (There is no name). Hence that is how I am sharing this letter – Anindya

“…while the West has hand-picked extremist Islam as its enemy (with the banner of ISIS) – speaking out against the violence of labor practices and money-making in third world nations is not high on their agenda.”


Xulhaz Mannan     Image: huffingtonpost.in

Dear all,

I am writing to you from a rather desperate place in the hope that you will heed my plea. I am sure that this is reaching you because you have posted something or the other about the two murders of the gay activists in Bangladesh. We are all outraged,shaken and deeply saddened by their untimely brutal deaths. Having said that please read this carefully. Let us honor the dead but not forget the living. Please stop circulating any content containing the following, especially if you are from the North America, Europe:

Xulhaz Mannan as the face of the entire LGBT movement

Roopbaan, or any other organization associated with the term “LGBT”

Bangladesh as an islamic fundamentalist country unsafe for secular bloggers, free thinkers or gender deviants.

“Freedom, diversity and tolerance are Bangladeshi values”.

You see, when you sit on powerful land and demand justice from a government, whether you are well-intentioned radical queers or people of color or marginalized activists who want to demand justice alongside us, sharing these contents, or making this news viral will not help right now. Putting pressure on your local/national governments will not help either. However, what will happen is that this will create a false image of an “islamic” fundamentalist country out to kill queers demanding that international wellwishers (read: Europe and USA) come and save them from the brown men. The deviants and queers are hiding but the international call for justice is making it difficult to avoid being visible. People will be writing many falsehoods, searching for quotes, searching for queers to justify, give opinions, come out and protest. But you see, when the most powerful leader(Mannan) in the country was unsafe, think about what will happen not to the other rich folx, or even the middle class folx, but the lower income folx, or those who are isolated and not networked, or are disabled or ill have always been most vulnerable but now even more so. This makes them the most easy targets for any violent backlash that may include the media/society’s call for justice around the world.

If at this point you are wondering why I am talking about visibility at all it must be noted that it is a tendency among activists and social justice folx to think awareness will take care of most problems. Awareness calls for visibility. However, visibility does not ensure safety or security. Forcing visibility in unsafe situations like this might benefit those who can seek asylum or humanitarian parole (super expensive!), or have top-notch security but it will only make those without these options totally disposable.

You might be doing it with all the good intentions, but it’s hella violent right now for us.

Already, there has been a plethora of articles shared from international news outlets on the killings and they all link back to the same rhetoric- “a rising intolerance is gripping the secular democracy of Bangladesh”. Think about those words for a second. In the past ten years about 84 killings have been claimed by religious extremist groups (some of them are dubious as they come from SITE, whose reliability with facts has very little credibility). In those ten years, how many murders and deaths have taken place in the country due to the political atmosphere, either by the ruling party or its militant youth wing Chhatro League (Youth/Students League)? The number count exceeds the thousands. Add to that the deaths of laborers in factories (i.e. Rana Plaza, Tazreen Garments fire etc) and deaths through cold-blooded murder and through forcibly removing people from their own lands for “development” (four have died in Banshkhali in Chittagong protesting the setting up of a coal-powered electric plant) and the picture we see is not of a secular democracy. Bangladesh is not a secular democracy, nor has it ever been so.

Ask yourselves what is at stake when the international media focuses on some deaths and not others? Why “free speech” and “sexual and gender diversity” and not power-grabbing, land-grabbing and coercion? Because while the West has hand-picked extremist Islam as its enemy (with the banner of ISIS) speaking out against the violence of labor practices and money-making in third world nations is not high on their agenda.

I mean who benefits from this global division of labor and hence the exploitation of the poor here? You got it: the rich in the West!

But if we were to look closely, the silence on some deaths and the outrage on others fits very neatly into the West’s agenda of domination- for here is yet another example of a third-world country whose ‘free speech’ needs saving from backward Islam. For one, it provides the West with key bargaining tools with which it can ramp up military outposts in the third world to fight its own battles (let us not forget that Al-Qaeda was funded by the US to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan or that Saudi Arabia and the US have been bedfellows for years). And secondly, they can use these narratives to make third-world states bend to their will through aiding the investigations of only certain murders (such as Avijit Roy’s or Xulhaz Mannan’s).
Let us refocus our attention on the narrative of tolerance. What does it mean for a country to be tolerant or intolerant? As far as media portals in the West would have us believe it is related only to speaking out against religion or against the gay (sometimes lesbian) population. Note: gay people do not encompass all the other deviants who see gender in all the different combinations possible. And even here, only certain bodies are marked for grief and outrage and others are not. Is it not religious extremism that millions of Hindus are unaccounted for in Bangladesh, that Hindu villages burn and Hindu bodies are killed on a regular basis? Is it not violence enough when Bangali settlers forcibly remove indigenous folx from their own land and then exploit their bodies for labor? Is it also not news-worthy when queers are murdered on the streets as they go about trying to make ends meet (in February Shejuti Hijra was shot and it only warranted a small news piece)? Think, too, of the countless murders that happen which are only afforded a small column outlining name, location and manner of killing- how many of these bodies were poor, were queer and died that way?

When we are told what we need is tolerance we are only told that for certain bodies- middle class, mostly, or somehow aligned, however coincidentally, with the US ideology against Islam. This tolerance does not and will never equate to justice because those other bodies will continue dying as we push for some sort of liberal, middle-class tolerance.

To all of our queer and radical queer allies abroad and to our mainstream and/or liberal and/or left-leaning allies at home- please take all of the above into consideration. In your eagerness to help and be accounted for, you might be pushing us into a direction that benefits the Empire/West while simultaneously making life dangerous for the most vulnerable among us- those queers who do not even have the safety and mobility of the ones who were killed, those who are vulnerable due to their employment as sex workers, those who are reading all the hype on The Guardian and Buzzfeed and BBC and wondering how on earth this helps them get out of their homes because now even more people are looking their way- their battles are not with tolerance but economic justice, justice for rapes, coercion and displacement.

You all are concerned about your friends in Bangladesh. You have lost friends in Bangladesh and there are others you cannot connect with. You are feeling angry, frustrated, helpless, energized to act. Recently we had requested that people stop reaching out to the media, or embassies, or governments or posting pictures of vigils etc that might increase visibility. We do need your help, energy and rage. We are tired but grateful that there are so many wellwishers around the world but we need you to help prevent more harm. If solidarity is your aim, then help us gather resources to aid those in need, those who have now been thrust under the microscope of visibility and aid them in relocations or even economically in order to survive. The queer fight is against Western hegemony, not by its side.

Note: We use the word queer loosely since this is written in English, a language not our own. So queer is a place-holder for a deviant existence that is punished.
In rage,

অসভ্য মানুষজন (Reads as ‘Asabhya Manushjan’)
 
Courtesy: kafila.org 

Diary of a JNU Student on Hunger Strike: Pankhuri Zaheer

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“I wanted to bring you something but I didn’t know what to get you so I got you a bottle of water,” says a friend who would perhaps never identify herself as a student activist but since 9th February, like many like her, has been an integral part of the stand with JNU movement.

19 of us have decided to sit on an indefinite hunger strike till the time the farcical report of the High Level Enquiry is not rolled backed in its entirety. Today, April 30th, is the third day of our hunger strike.


Water – A Gift for Hunger Strikers. Photo Courtesy, K. Fayaz Ahmed

The common understanding is that neither the organizers nor the participants in the 9th February incident have done anything that was unbecoming of a University student and hence warranted a disciplinary action. Additionally, if at all an enquiry is required because of the ruckus created by the ABVP students, it should have been conducted by a committee that is inclusive and unbiased. The allegiances of the faculty members conducting the enquiry have been under question since its inception (Rakesh Bhatnagar, the person chairing the inquiry is also the fund collector of Youth for Equality- a quasi-right wing, anti reservation force). Repeatedly the students union and the teachers association have questioned the legitimacy of this committee. It should be noted that the committee submitted its ‘report’ on 11th March. And it is only now in the month of April, when most students in the campus are busy with final submissions and exams, the Vice Chancellor has decided to take action. Quite laughably, the administration thinks that by doing so they will be able to catch us unawares and carry out their nefarious plan. Clearly they are underestimating the collective strength of students and teachers and other concerned groups on campus. The punishments to the students range from hefty fines to rustication for various durations.

It must be mentioned that Mujeed Gattoo, a Kashmiri student who was marked by the administration from a video of the cultural protest has been targeted and rusticated for one whole year from the university. This strike is also against the witch hunting of Kashmiri and other minority students.

 

Indefinite hunger strike as mode of struggle has been seen with skepticism by some sections of the sympathizers of the movement. Concerns range from a decline in the militancy of the movement to the general health of the hunger strikers who have to sit outside the Administration Bloc building in this heat all day long without food. A comrade says we should have done gherao of the administration building and not let any official work happen. My mother says that the government is beraham and does not care if some students live or die. Perhaps all the concerns have some merit to them but it is the resolve of the 19 students that now that we have decided to go through with the hunger strike, we shall not step back till every clause of the HLEC report is withdrawn.

Interestingly, ABVP is striking too. In what seems to be an attempt by the HLEC to appear neutral in the eyes of outsiders, they have also fined Saurabh Sharma, JNUSU joint Secretary and ABVP member, who led the ABVP students on 9th February as they disrupted a peaceful cultural protest. Five members of ABVP including him are sitting next to us on an indefinite hunger strike with two demands- revocation of Saurab Sharma’s fine and much stricter punishments for the ‘anti-nationals’.

Hunger striking in the month of April in Delhi is a painful process. It becomes worse when you wake up to loud chanting of Om Namah Shivai and Gayatri Mantra followed by recordings of Hanuman Chalisa, Ma tujhe salaam and other choice songs from the playlist, coming from your right.

The Playlist reached its obnoxious best when ABVP students decided to disrupt the film screening of ‘Muzaffarnagar Baqi hai’ yesterday with loud Bollywood film songs. Lata Mangeshkar, AR Rehman and Lucky Ali rang out in an attempt to silence our determination to talk about organized Hindu right wing pogroms in the country. The screening was also done to assert that we will not tolerate intimidating moves by the administration like show cause notices to student activists for ‘participating in’ similar film screenings, as was done with Anirban and Umar recently. The slogan, after the screening saw over 300 students participating, being ‘tum kitne show cause bhejoge?’. The disgruntled ABVP students resorted to verbal provocation threatening to break our bones if we even dared to touch the speakers. While some of us got very angry, others immediately stepped up to avoid any unnecessary confrontation. The atmosphere was tense throughout the screening. With JNUSU deciding that it will continue holding events of solidarity at Ad bloc, this atmosphere of threat and violence is bound to remain.

Screening of ‘Muzaffar Nagar Baqi Hai’ during the hunger strike, continues, despite sonic assault from ABVP

Over the last three days many teachers from JNUTA have come to show support. Activists like Shabnam Hashmi and Harsh Mander have also come to show solidarity and to ask what more can be done in the city and in the country.

Students stop by on their way to class and exams and ask if we need anything, they gather again in the evening to sings songs with us, raise slogans and generally keep the spirits up.

The yearly May Day event where students and workers march together through the campus will culminate this year at the ad block re-christened as freedom square by the protestors where students will be addressed by mess, sanitation and other workers of the university.

I have been told that the Skavengers, a reggae band in the city which sings beautiful political songs will also come and perform tomorrow. Teachers and Civil rights activists will also soon join the struggle by sitting on day long relay hunger strikes.

We are a small part of the larger student stirring in the country. I don’t know what role we play or how important we are, but we all realize that it is crucial to keep fighting right now. The education system in the country cannot be left to the mercy of this right wing government. We must fight with all possible modes of struggle to reject not just the HLEC but also the casteist dictats of the HCU vice Chancellor, the fee hike and personal grooming courses for SC/ST students in IITs, the atrocious appointment of a Sangh worker as the Chairperson in FTII, the institutional gender insensitivity in Jadavpur and all other attacks in institutions of higher education in the country. If the almost three month long movement of Stand with JNU has taught us anything, it is that we are not alone. That it is possible to forge larger solidarities in the face of this fascist attack. That together we will fight and win.

Ladhenge! Jeetenge!

Pankhuri Zaheer is a student of Womens’ Studies at Jawharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She is one of the nineteen students currently on indefinite hunger strike in protest against the Higher Level Enquiry Committee (HLEC) measures against JNU students for the events of February 9, 2016                                                                           

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