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

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May 2, 2016

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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May 2, 2016

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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 2, 2016

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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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May 1, 2016

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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

kafila.org

Support for fasting JNU Students as JNUTA Plans Mass Hunger Strike on May 3

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May 1, 2016

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Even as the indefinite hunger strike against an unjust report of the High Level Committee (HLEC) entered its fourth day, and media attention by the ‘mainstream diminished completely, the spirit of the protesting students was undiminished. JNUTA, the teachers association will join the striking students in a mass hunger strike on May 3.
Sabrangindia had reported on the JNUTA decision on April 29.

On Friday night, April 29, a screening of Nakul Sawhney’s film “ Muzaffarnagar Baqi Hai’ took place on the campus. The screening was symbolic as this film has become iconic. It is the film that this Modi administration and its wings –the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) have reacted against, revealing as it does the Sangh Parivar’s sinister politics in stoking the flames of hatred.

Muzaffar Nagar Baqi hai was screened at Freedom Square (Admin Block) JNU where JNUSU has sat on an indefinite hunger strike. It was screened as a mark of protest against the Show cause notice served to Umar Khalid and Anirbhan Bhattacharya for screening same movie last year at Godavari Dhaba JNU.

Sabrangindia has been reporting regularly on the government-backed high-handedness against students at JNU.
A series of cultural programmes, revolutionary music, theatre and performances have been planned every evening this week at the Freedom Square to keep morales high

This Diary written by one of the fasting students really says it all.

While much of the mainstream media has remained suspiciously subdued after this renewed attack on students –unlike the coverage given in February-March this year, the prestigious Economic and Political Weekly has written a sharp editorial against the government's misconduct. Titled New Tryst with Freedom the comment piece says,"

"In a deplorable, if not entirely unexpected, move the administration of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has taken strong disciplinary actions against students it had identified for alleged indiscipline and for breaking university rules. Students have been fined from ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 and some have been rusticated for different lengths of time; one student has been declared out of bounds from the campus for five years. These are unprecedentedly harsh measures. The only time similar measures were taken was in 1983; unlike then there was no violence from the students this time.

Fasting students have been receiving support from several mass movements and despite the time of the year when examinations are on, protests have bene planned –including hunger fasts –in cities like Mumbai, Pune and others.

Letter from the Narmada Bachao Andolan

A sympathetic Facebook Post put out this image of Gandhi's Fast decades ago and advised the fasting students of JNU to have lots of "nimbu paani" (lemon water)

The students fasting are
Students participating in the indefinite hunger-strike.
-Kanhaiya Kumar, JNUSU President
-Rama Naga, General Secretary, JNUSU
-Umar Khalid
-Shweta Raj
-Chintu Kumari
-Anant Prakash Narayan
-Saborni Ahmed
-Aqsa Agha
-Nitisha Kholkar
-K. Feyaz Ahmed
-Pratim Ghoshal
-Anand
-Pankhuri Zaheer
-Samanth Singh
-Sunaina
-G. Suresh
-Birendra
-Awadesh
-Sanjeev
-Parthipan
Indefinite Hunger Strike, Day 1.
Stand by these students
‪#‎StandWithJNU
‪#‎FightBackJNU
‪#‎NoMoreRohiths

Images From JNU

But the Posters still get made every day

इस मई दिवस पर नार्दर्न कोल फील्ड सिंगरौली के कोयला मजदूरों के बीच !!

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May 1, 2016

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Image Story: Badal Saroj
This May Day, May 1, 2016, Spent With the Coal Mining Workers of the Northern Coal Fields
Singrauli, Rewa Distirct Madhya Pradesh

This is how India's Coal Mining is Done and How Its Workers Mine the Coal

Singrauli MP Dudhichua

Where is Dudhichua Singrauli MP ?

Ever Wondered Why We Have an Eight Hour Working Day, Officially at least?

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May 1, 2016

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And Who Made this Possible?

Reclaim Rights of Workers – Reclaim Rights of All

In the late 18th century, when companies started to maximise the output of their factories, companies attempted to maximize the output of their factories by keeping them running as many hours as possible, typically implementing a “sun up to sun down” work day. Wages were also extremely low, so workers themselves often needed to work these long shifts just to get by, including often sending their children to work in the factories as well, rather than getting them educated. With little representation, education, or options, factory workers also tended to work in horrible working conditions to go along with the bad hours. The typical work day at this time lasted anywhere from 10-18 hours per day, six days a week.

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions declared that May 1, 1886 ( Haymarket affair ) would be the first day that an eight hour work day would be made mandatory. when May 1, 1886 arrived, the first ever May Day parade was held with 350,000 workers walking off their jobs protesting for the eight hour work day. there were perhaps twice as many people out on the streets participating in various demonstrations and marches.

The participants in these events added up to 80,000 Haymarket affair – It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day and in reaction to the killing of several workers the previous day by the police. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they acted to disperse the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; scores of others were wounded.

India Today

This May Day, 2016, under a Regime committed to curtail the rights of the working class, it is time to remember all those movements which made this possible and to remember all those brave people who stood with vision , fought for it .. so that generations can reap a healthy, all rounded, life

Yet the governments ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and most recently Maharashtra have followed the ‘Rajasthan’ model making substantive changes in laws that have undermined the critical workers rights including on factory closure and on workplace health and safety.

We gather every year across the country today to salute the martyrs who gave up their lives in the struggle for an 8 hour workday over a hundred years ago and the countless women and men who have made and continue to make enormous sacrifice in the struggle to advance the rights of the working class. As we do so on this May Day, we also evaluate the challenges before us and our ability to address these.

Government’s agenda: Take from Workers – and give to Capital
The NDA II –BJP– government when it came to power a year ago set itself the task to weaken laws that define workers rights, including trade union and collective bargaining rights and the laws that regulate the workplace, through amendment of existing laws or through new legislation. While these proposals remain on the table, the significant changes the BJP government had hoped to bring forward have not yet found their way through parliament. In some measure this is because of the united action of trade unions including through the successful country-wide general strike on 2 September last year.

Yet the governments ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and most recently Maharashtra have followed the ‘Rajasthan’ model making substantive changes in laws that have undermined the critical workers rights including on factory closure and on workplace health and safety.

This, of course, does not mean that the BJP led union government has given up its plans to lower the threshold of workers’ rights. Having used the ordinance mechanism in the first year in government, the BJP has now turned to the mechanism of ‘executive orders’. Legislatively guaranteed retirement (Employee Provident Fund) and healthcare (Employee State Insurance) provisions have been changed through executive orders. Although in the case of the EPF the critical changes have been reversed, now for the third time, most notably through the remarkable protest led by garment workers in Bengaluru and elsewhere in Karnataka, the intent of the BJP government very clear.

It will seek every possible route, including unilateral actions, to undermine workers rights and it will do everything within its power to move workers out of legislatively guaranteed social security towards arrangements that are guided by market forces and bring profit to private sector. This is not just part of the ideological core of the BJP but the inability to deliver this would undermine the BJP government’s capacity to move on its key proposals for liberalising markets further. Savings of wage workers and their healthcare expenditure constitute large volumes of money. So long as these remain within the domain of legislative guarantee and therefore within the public sector, the privatisation of the financial sector will remain incomplete. Hence the BJP government must force this shift if it is to succeed in accomplishing its task of opening up the mainstay of our economy.

The BJP government has not restricted itself to only PF and ESI. Through two successive union budgets, the government has in real terms forced wages down by effectively freezing wages of ‘honorarium workers’ and restricting government expenditure on social security and social protection. In the last month, the promise of enhanced minimum wages notwithstanding, the BJP has caused to force down wages further by notifying wages under the NREGA at levels lower than the lowest (agricultural) minimum wage in many states.

For the BJP government, wages must be driven by market forces. Wages must indeed be kept down since the agricultural sector is in crisis and industrial production remains low. The most recent data shows that employment is on a decline: workers are not just losing permanent jobs, the number of available jobs on contract too is declining. Despite this and the drought situation in about half the country, the BJP government is still unwilling to address the question of livelihood and wages.
Law is more than Intention

For the BJP government, its intention is law and that is what it has signaled to the private sector. There is a wilful violation of existing laws. There is perhaps no employer, public or private – multinational or Indian, in the country today that is not violating labour laws. And both the BJP government at the centre and state governments are now actively engaged in allowing these violations. All sections of the working class movement have effectively resisted this and have been faced with an even greater offensive.

If until now government assisted employers in violating the right to freedom of association, today government is at the forefront in violating the right to free speech and free assembly. If until now government broke trade union struggles through employing the police in making preventive arrests, today government is actively engaged in trumping up charges so as to employ criminal law to put away activists who use democratic means of dissent against government actions.

The BJP’s attack is however not restricted to workers and peasants. It seeks to change the very notion of what a nation is and what citizenship means.
In its first year in government the BJP enforced a ‘ban’ on beef. The government effectively told us what we can and cannot eat. In the past few months through its efforts to put down students, even pushing them to their death, if they ask for what is rightfully theirs or who express a views that may be at variance with the BJP, government is effectively telling us what we can say and what we cannot and what we allowed to think and what we must not think. This, the BJP must do because it not just seeks to ensure that wages are reduced to increase profits but it seeks to alter the rules of our society by taking away the rights of those who are underprivileged and hence discriminated by class, caste, religion, gender and region. This is the India that the BJP seeks to make.

Stop the Attack on Workers – Resist and Reclaim
We have between us led many struggles in the past year. Some of them have been successful in bringing long awaited relief. We have seen an enormous resistance across the country in response to the BJP governments attack on democratic rights be they in economic, social or political life.

Across the world and in the region there is, today, a rise of conservative politics that promotes individual liberty over collective rights, private sector expansion, free markets and social and political values that artificially presupposes homogeneity amongst peoples negating the enormous diversity of peoples within societies and countries and a strong national defence. This comes with a sharpened attack on institutional social protection and security, on role of public sector and therefore on democratic rights. While in the Global North, this attack manifests itself against immigrants, against religious minorities, mostly muslims, in our own country the attack has manifest itself against migrant workers mostly dalits and adivasis and against muslims (who together constitute nearly 40% of our population) – all leading to widespread xenophobia.

Our resistance, therefore, in the coming days, has to be stronger and more united and more focused to ensure that every person irrespective of class or community enjoys the right to free speech, the right to free assembly and the right to form or join an association of their own choice. In whichever country we may be in, we join them in solidarity for it is together and together alone united in our strength and purpose, both at home and abroad, will we succeed in our resolve to:

On this May Day we need to reclaim
The Right to Free Speech
The Right to Freedom of Assembly
The Right to Freedom of Association

(Based on a statement of the National Trade Union Initiative)

JNU Teachers will Join Hunger Strike on May 3

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April 30, 2016

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JNUTA Appeal: Hunger Strike at Ad Block on 3 May 2016, Tuesday (10 AM–5 PM)

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY TEACHER’S ASSOCIATION

May 1, 2016

JNUTA Appeal

Hunger Strike at Ad Block on 3 May 2016, Tuesday (10 AM–5 PM)

Dear Colleagues and Friends

JNUTA as mandated by the GBM on 28th April calls upon all colleagues to join one day HUNGER STRIKE on 3rd MAY 2016, Tuesday (10 AM–5 PM) against non-responsive attitude of the administration on the current situation and on our demands that were re-iterated on 26th in our meeting with the Vice Chancellor. We are forced to take this step without a response on major issues including on continuation of the seniority-based rotation system in appointment of Deans and Chairpersons, on intimidation of colleagues, victimization of elected representatives, unsupportive attitude towards wardens and IHA officials when attacked by motivated elements, non-implementation of HLEC Report on harassment of Dr. Burton. The University has not even taken cognizance of a “Dossier” being circulated that denigrates JNU and its various sections in the most vile and despicable manner. The University Administration instead of inquiring into such malicious campaigns and the 12th Feb incident at Paschimabad is conspicuously silent.

Our students are on indefinite hunger strike against arbitrary penalties imposed without a credible inquiry. Instead of bringing back normalcy, the Administration is busy provoking the students by digging up old complaints, sending Proctorial Punishment declaration to special cell of Delhi police, denying striking students access to bathroom and toilet facilities etc. The Hunger Strike would enter second week soon and if administration chooses not to relent and does not engage with the students the situation is likely escalate for the worse, which is not in the best interests of the University. The overwhelming sentiment expressed in the JNUTA GBM held on 28th April was that if the University Administration still does not respond, teachers cannot remain just mute spectators.

Please join in large numbers

Prof. Ajay Patnaik

President, JNUTA

Dr. Bikramaditya Choudhary

Secretary, JNUTA

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