About Us Contact Us
Home Blog Page 2557

I am Koonal Duggal, and they say I am “anti-university”: Dalit Student

By
-
0

Are Indian Universities becoming Authoritarian ?
 
Statement by EFLU-Joint Action Committee with Koonal Duggal

 

On April 14, 2016, on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar, Koonal Duggal, a Dalit PhD scholar in the Department of Cultural Studies, EFL University, and a guest faculty at the S N School of Fine Arts and Communication, UoH, for the first time learnt that he was no longer welcome on University premises by order of the Proctor, Prakash Kona Reddy.
 
That morning, Koonal had joined fellow Ambedkarite students and members of the SC ST Employees’ Association to participate in a small function paying homage to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Koonal was one of the invited speakers.
 
He spoke about why our engagements and convictions in Ambedkar have greater relevance in today’s context where young Dalit scholars, like Rohith Vemula and others, are being isolated and alienated to the point of self-annihilation.
 
He then sang a revolutionary song by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, “Hum Dekhenge..”, when four security guards entered the venue. As soon as he finished the song, the security guards surrounded Koonal, grabbed his hand and attempted to take him away from the programme.
 
When students and faculty intervened, they said that they were acting on orders from the Proctor, who had given specific instructions to disallow Koonal from entering the premises except with permission of University authorities. Students were not given any explanation or shown the official circular with details of the disciplinary action. In addition to the fact that by then the Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations had come to a standstill, the atmosphere had become chaotic and the audience could not pay attention to the rest of the speakers. The security guards were then told to at least respect the sentiments of the participants and wait till the end of the programme.
 
Eventually, because of the students’ intervention, Koonal could not be removed from campus but it could do little to alleviate the immense humiliation and harassment that he had been made to undergo. This was made worse by the fact that Koonal was made answerable to his fellow students about a crime that he was not aware of. He had not been personally intimated of the disciplinary action or its basis, nor was he given a chance to defend himself in front of the proctorial authority.

Koonal, who has been a student at the University for five years, whose academic research has only enriched the intellectual archives of this mediocre university, was immediately set aside from the student community for a “crime” that appeared to be so grave that it could not be articulated in a decent social setting. One can imagine the kind of fear, insecurity, shame, anger, self-doubt, embarrassment and loneliness that Koonal had to undergo until his decision to do something about it, to stand up to it and file a police complaint against the Proctor under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

I am Koonal Duggal, and they say I am “anti-university”
“I have been part of the Department of Cultural Studies, EFL University, as a JRF scholar since 2010. When I joined the University, my engagement with the social sciences was relatively new having just completed one year of MPhil at the Centre for Study of Social Sciences, Calcutta. I have sometimes spoken to my friends about how I found it difficult to come to terms with my Dalit identity. Growing up, I felt embarrassed to reveal my caste.

My apparently upper-caste surname often relieved me from the confrontations of discussing my Dalit identity. But despite my attempts at veiling my Dalit identity, I found out that my caste was questioned and I was marked as a Dalit. It was during my time at EFL University, first as a student of cultural and subaltern studies, and through my continued engagement with the Ambedkarite organization DABMSA (Dalit Adivasi Bahujan Minorities Students Association) where I was a member of the Drafting Committee, that I began to embrace the political imperative of my identity as a Dalit scholar and artist. The exposure for the first time to an Ambedkarite organisation where the leadership was with Dalits and Adivasi students who openly talked about their caste, their backgrounds and experiences made me comfortable with my own self-identification as a Dalit.

For the first time I was in the company of people who talked about caste politically, and not with stigma.

Most of my time at EFL University was spent reading and introspecting and participating as a research scholar in seminars organized by the University and by students’ organizations. In fact, one of the first times I spoke up in a public domain was during the protests against the rape of a girl student at EFL University in 2014. I spoke about the gender insensitive atmosphere at EFLU and how it had personally affected me. (The anger that drove me to speak can be traced back to the suicide of Mudasir Kamran in 2013 who was again pushed to commit suicide because of the insensitive homophobic and anti-minority behaviour of the university administration that is interlinked to my coming out as a queer individual). Since the submission of my thesis titled “Crossing Religious Boundaries: Representation, Caste and Identity in Contemporary Punjab”, I have been teaching as a guest faculty at the Fine Arts Department, UoH. I have been engaging with the politics of caste discrimination in institutions of higher education, especially in relation to Rohith Vemula’s suicide and the ongoing movement around it. The movement, in fact, gave me a more immediate context to write about my own experiences of discrimination at CSSSC. I wrote about how I felt that “[T]he larger society and its various forms of discrimination are very much present in the functionings of CSSSC and that of some of its teachers.”

Just when I was beginning to firmly locate myself in the public space and discourse as a politically educated and empowered Dalit-Queer individual, and when I was writing and speaking more about it, my political self-realization and assertion is broken and violently disrupted by the EFLU administration that has been historically known for discriminating and harassing Dalit students. It is as if such upper caste institutions will not stop persecuting dalits for their caste identity, whether they run from it or whether I embrace it.”
 
On April 15, Koonal was shown a circular by the security officials stating that “Mr. Koonal Duggal, registered in the PhD programme at the Department of Cultural Studies, EFL University, has submitted his thesis in September 2015. However, he continues to trespass on this campus, indulging in anti-university activities. Therefore, his entry into the EFL University campus, which includes the hostels, is strictly prohibited except with the permission of the Proctor.” Neither Koonal nor the student community has the slightest idea as to what anti-university activity Koonal has participated in. Was it the song that he had sung during the peaceful solidarity gathering for Justice for Rohith Vemula outside the University gates or was it the fact that he was one of the students cleaning the Ambedkar statue on April 13?

So what is it that makes Koonal such a threat to today’s university spaces? Upper caste institutions will do everything to victimize a Dalit and then when they are faced with the radical potential of the Dalit identity, they do everything to take that away as well, just as we have seen in the case of Rohith, so we see in the case of Koonal, who is being asked to prove his Dalit identity (because apparently Duggal is a surname whose ownership lies only with upper-caste Punjabi Khatris).
 
Koonal is a Dalit queer student who wouldn’t choose to keep quiet when a Kashmiri Muslim student was murdered by homophobia, when a girl is raped in his own campus, when fellowship cuts affect a research scholar and when a fellow Dalit student is forced to commit suicide in another campus, and when he himself is subjected to humiliation and discrimination in the institutions he has been part of. He knows he has got to speak.

See also:
1. Caste Discrimination in Prestigious Institutes

Missing: an international response to the rising tide of impunity

By
-
0

Civil society organisations are targeted because political elites know they have power. But where is the international backup? A contribution to the openGlobalRights debate on closing space for civil society. Español

On the 5th of March 2016, the Turkish government took control of the country’s largest private newspaper, Zaman. The takeover happened at the newspaper’s head office during bizarre if not depressingly familiar scenes: police in riot gear firing canisters of tear gas into crowds of chanting protestors.

Ten years ago, such a brazen assault on the free press might have defied the logic of Turkey’s international political calculus. No longer. Sadly, we now live in an era where political leaders and powerful non-state actors know that civil society and the media are fair game, and that egregious violations of fundamental rights are less likely to attract punitive sanctions or even a cold shoulder from the international community.  

Of course, civil society is reacting to the current threats against it, as shown through the courage of activists who continue their perilous struggle around the world every day. But it has done so mostly on a country-by-country basis. For its part, the United Nations has tried to address the situation by issuing strong condemnations in repeated resolutions, raising the profile of international agreements and supporting working groups and Special Rapporteurs, whose work helps to translate international law into practical recommendations for states to follow. Despite all of these efforts, the overall picture remains grim.

In today’s world, combatting terrorism, economic stagnation and the refugee crisis all trump the need to protect democracy and space for a vibrant civil society. There is no doubt that these are important issues, and all of them are at play in Turkey. The raid on Zaman comes at a time when European Union (EU) leaders are more likely to gloss over human rights violations—they desperately need the Turkish government’s help to address what they perceive as the much more pressing problem of mass migration through Turkey from the Middle East.
 


Emrah Gurel/Press Association Images (All rights reserved)

Thousands of protestors gather in solidarity outside the Zaman newspaper headquarters after Turkey declared a government takeover of the agency.

Governments all around the world are making similar calculations every day. A decade ago, we might have expected such attacks to be confined to particular geographic hotspots, beset by conflict, weak democratic institutions and authoritarianism. In 2014, CIVICUS published a list of 96 UN Member States that had violated fundamental freedoms to a significant degree. Our provisional findings for 2015 show that there are now at least 101 countries on this list. These countries are led by range of authoritarian, hybrid and democratic governments, and people living in these countries account for roughly 86% of the world’s population. Mimicking a contagious disease, the erosion of civil liberties has now spread worldwide.

Ever since 2013, when Edward Snowden revealed the extent of mass surveillance by the United States and several other established democracies through the Five Eyes alliance, citizens everywhere have realised that their own elected, supposedly accountable governments are threatening their fundamental freedoms. Attacks on civil society in democratic settings are now taking other forms too—from restrictive NGO rules in the UK, to harsh penalties for peaceful protestors in Spain and Australia, to public vilification of civil society in Hungary. According to our monitoring from 2015, the number of countries seriously violating space for civil society on the European continent jumped from nine to 16.

All of this has made it much more difficult for democratic states to claim the moral high ground when promoting human rights outside their borders. It has also emboldened other states, who know, like Turkey, that they are unlikely to be held to account internationally for abusing civil society.

Domestically, these violating governments also have free reign. While independent courts and a strong rule of law shield civil society from the worst forms of attack in democratic states, in many other parts of the world—where democratic institutions are much weaker—assaults on civil society are fuelled by a growing culture of impunity. This includes impunity for unidentified police officers using excessive force against peaceful protestors, and a lack of consequences for state and non-state agents who ransack NGO offices. Even worse, it means that people who have gunned down investigative journalists in cold blood are not investigated or prosecuted.Impunity also extends beyond individuals. For example, profit-making companies implicated in human rights violations—such as maquiladoras in Mexico—are not held to account. In addition, states such as Azerbaijan, Ethiopia and Egypt, which have destroyed their civil societies, continue to be courted on the international stage by democracies in geopolitical power plays. In pilot surveys that CIVICUS conducted with civil society in 2015-2016 about their operating environment, respondents in South Africa, Poland, Tajikistan and Macedonia universally rated lowest the state’s willingness to investigate abuses against the sector.

There is no doubt that civil society is unfairly targeted in all of this. No justification exists for beating or locking up people trying to foster robust democratic debate or hold leaders accountable. At the same time, civil society must avoid creating a one-track narrative based on disempowerment and victimisation. We must remember that civil society organisations, social movements and individual activists are singled out because they are having an impact, because they do have power, and because their actions are upsetting entrenched political and economic elites.

More fundamentally, the assault on civil society should be correctly understood not just as a symptom of democratic failure, but also as a weakening of the forces that can actually solve the problems of intolerance and exclusion currently dividing societies. CIVICUS’ State of Civil Society Reports in 2014 and 2015 made it abundantly clear how civil society has been the first responder in crisis and conflict situations, saving lives, reaching out with compassion to refugees and defending the rights of the most marginalised people in society.

What we now need is far greater international solidarity and the creation of an internationalised social movement, which should have as its core purpose the development of a positive counter narrative and a vision for free and equitable societies, safeguarded by a robust space for civil society. In 2016, CIVICUS plans to support these efforts through a new international campaign on civic space, and through the launch of our new Civic Space Monitor web platform. Civil society also needs to push its traditional allies to do more to prevent democratic erosions at home so that their calls for protection will be taken seriously. For instance, European CSOs must continue their efforts to ensure the EU makes more active use of tools like the framework to safeguard the rule of law, recently called into action for the first time in response to events in Poland.  

If we don’t move on this now, actions like Turkey’s outrageous takeover of Zaman newspaper—and the world’s deafening silence—will only become more common.

This article was first published on Open Democracy

हिंदुओं के खिलाफ क्यों लिखना?

By
-
0


फोटो क्रेडिट : पिक्सबे
 
“आप मुसलमानों के खिलाफ कभी कुछ क्यों नहीं लिखते?,यह सवाल अक्सर इस लेखक की तरह के कुछ लोगों से किया जाता है.इस प्रश्न में छिपा हुआ आरोप है और एक धारणा जिस पर यह पहला प्रश्न टिका हुआ है कि आप हिंदुओं के विरुद्ध लिखते हैं. इसका उत्तर कैसे दिया जाए?यह सच है कि अभी तक के लिखे की जांच करें तो प्रायः भारत में बहुसंख्यकवाद को लेकर ही चिंता या क्षोभ मिलेगा.इसके कारण उन संगठनों या व्यक्तियों की आलोचना भी मिलेगी जो इस बहुसंख्यकवाद के प्रतिनिधि  या प्रवक्ता हैं.क्या यह करना मुझ जैसे व्यक्ति के लिए स्वाभाविक है या होना चाहिए? भारत में बहुसंख्यकवाद हिंदू ही हो सकता है.कई हैं जो उनमें नहीं जो इस बहुसंख्यकवाद पर  बात करते वक्त तराजू के पलड़े बराबर करने के लिए ‘मुस्लिम सम्प्रदायवाद’की भी फौरन निंदा करना ज़रूरी समझें

नाम से मुझे हिंदू ही माना जाएगा, मैं चाहे जितना उसे मानने से इनकार करूँ. मेरी मित्र फराह नकवी ने एकबार मुझसे कहा था कि अगर फिरकावारना फसाद में फँसे तो तुम्हारा नाम तुम्हें हिंदू साबित करने के लिए काफी होगा और तुम्हारा भाग्य इससे तय   होगा कि तुम फँसे किनके बीच हो-हिंदुओं या मुसलमानों के. उस वक्त यह बहस कोई न करेगा कि मैं अभ्यासी हिंदू हूँ या नहीं,नास्तिक हूँ या संदेहवादी हूँ!

फराह की बात से मुझे इनकार नहीं. जिस स्थिति की बात वे कर रही हैं, उसमें विचार-विमर्श, तर्क-विवेक की गुंजाइश नहीं होती. अगर वह होती तो फिर फसाद की नौबत ही क्यों आती! लेकिन जब उतना तनाव और हिंसा न हो तब हम इत्मीनान से इस अस्तित्वगत दुविधा पर बात कर सकते हैं. क्या कहा जा सकता है कि मेरी हिंदू अवस्थिति ही मेरे लिखे की चिंता और दिशा संभवतः तय करती है? या उसके बावजूद ? या उसका अतिक्रमण करके?

हिंदूपन कई कारणों से मुझमें आया हो सकता है: रोज पूजा करके ही मुँह में दाना डालनेवाली या अनगिनत व्रत करनेवाली अपनी माँ की वजह से जिसे हम अपने बड़े भाई के अनुकरण में अम्मी कहने लगे! ( किसी शबाना आजमी के सुझाव पर नहीं! इस वजह से जब उन्होंने असदुद्दीन ओवैसी का मजाक उड़ाते हुए कहा कि वे चाहें तो भारत अम्मी की जय का नारा लागा सकते हैं तो मुझे चोट लगी. ऐसा करके वे अम्मी संबोधन को मुसलमानों तक महदूद करने की कोशिश कर रही थीं.) या अपने ननिहाल-ददिहाल देवघर की बचपन की यात्राओं के कारण जिनमें शिव के मंदिर जाना, उनपर चढ़ाने के लिए सुबह-सुबह बेल-पत्र तोड़ना, रोज शिव मंदिर में शाम का कीर्तन सुनना और शिव का श्रृंगार देखना जो देवघर की जेल के कैदी तैयार करके भेजते रहे हैं! दुर्गा पूजा में प्राण प्रतिष्ठा से लेकर नवमी की भगवती के लिए दी जानेवाली रक्ताक्त बलि और दशमी के विसर्जन के जुलूस तक में शामिल होना या रोज सुबह पूजा करते समय मंत्र जाप करते हुए अपने दादा को सुनना! या सीवान की अपनी तुरहा टोली में  होने वाले अखंड मानस-पाठ को खंडित न होने देने के लिए अपनी पारी संभालना! या फिर बचपन का अपना और फिर दूसरों का विशद और त्रासदायक यज्ञोपवीत संस्कार जिसके बिना कोई हिंदू खुद ब खुद ब्राह्मण नहीं बन सकता!

हिंदूपन के स्रोत ढेर सारे हैं और उनमें से कई की, हो सकता है कोई बाहरी चेतना न हो!

यह जो अवचेतन या अर्धचेतन में पड़ा हिंदूपन है, उसका मैंने कभी सामना किया हो, उससे कभी बहस की हो, याद नहीं आता. मुझ जैसे अनेकानेक होंगे जो बिना सोचे अपने भीतर हिंदूपन  वहन कर रहे होंगे. लेकिन क्या उसके भार की चेतना कभी हमें दबाती है? क्या ऐसे लोगों को जिन्हें धर्म के भार का अहसास नहीं है, सहज हिंदू या सहज मुसलमान या सिख कहा जा सकता है? या वे गैरजिम्मेदार धार्मिक हैं क्योंकि जो धर्म उनके व्यक्तित्व को गढ़ने में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाता रहा है, उसके प्रति वे कभी सचेत नहीं हुए और उसके प्रति कभी अपनी किसी जिम्मेवारी का कोई ख़याल उन्हें नहीं आया?

एक समय ऐसा आया जब यह बात तार्किक लगने लगी कि असली हिंदू धर्म मूर्तियों, संस्कारों में नहीं बसता क्योंकि ये अंधविश्वास हैं. बाद में यह बात समझ में आई कि यह दरअसल आधुनिकता के दबाव में उसके तर्कों के जरिए धर्म की सत्ता को वैध ठहराने का प्रयास था. धर्म को विज्ञान की तरह अमूर्त और सार्वभौम और प्रत्येक परिस्थिति में समानुभव ही होना चाहिए. क्या उन मूल या आधार तत्त्वों की खोज की जा सकती है जो असली, शुद्ध हिंदू धर्म को खोज निकालने में हमारी मदद करें जो भांति-भांति के आचार-विचार के नीचे कहीं दब गया है? क्या उसका कोई मूल स्रोत है,कोई गंगोत्री, जहां धर्म का नितांत विशुद्ध जल मिल सके?

इसके साथ ही यह प्रश्न भी है, जो बाद में उठा कि आखिरकार यह खोज कितनी उपयोगी है. क्या हमें किसी असली धर्म की खोज करनी ही चाहिए या उन सारे अनुभवों को धर्म की मान्यता और गरिमा देनी चाहिए जिनका अभ्यास अपनी साधारण,रोजमर्रा की ज़िंदगी में असंख्य लोग पीढ़ी दर पीढ़ी करते चले आ रहे हैं. ऐसे अनुभव प्रायः अत्यंत लघु हैं, कुछ तो एक व्यक्ति तक ही सीमित होंगे, कुछ अपने टोले या गाँव तक. अनेक के लिए उनकी कुल देवी या गृह देवी की आराधना ही पर्याप्त होगी और कइयों के लिए पीपल या सूर्य पर जल अर्पित करने में ही उस अनुभव की उपलब्धता होगी जिसे हम धार्मिक अनुभव कहते हैं. उनमें से शायद ही यह चाहे कि वह जो कर रहा है, वही सब करने लगें! लघु को वृहत और स्थानीय को सार्वभौम करने में संभव है उसे अपनी निजता के छिन जाने से कुछ गवाँ बैठने की तकलीफ हो. मेरे राम या मेरे कृष्ण अगर उसी तरह सबके हैं तो फिर मेरा उनसे ख़ास रिश्ता क्या रह गया? गोपियाँ उद्धव का जो तिरस्कार करती हैं,उसे याद कीजिए.

अस्पष्ट को स्पष्ट करने और हर चीज़ को रौशन करने का जो प्रलोभन है,जो हर रहस्य को उघाड़ देना चाहता है, कुछ भी  अनिर्वचनीय नहीं रहने देना चाहता, क्या उसके आगे हथियार डाल देने चाहिए या उस पर काबू पाना  चाहिए? इसका कोई एक उत्तर नहीं है. अपने अनुभव को सार्वजनीन बनाने की इच्छा हमेशा साम्राज्यवादी हो, ज़रूरी नहीं. फिर, हर किसी में नानक या बुद्ध या मुहम्मद साहब या यीशु या विवेकानंद जैसी महत्त्वाकांक्षा का होना ज़रूरी नहीं.

धर्म की इस उपस्थिति की स्वीकृति का अर्थ या आशय क्या हो सकता है? मनुष्य अगर मनुष्य है तो वह अपने इस दायित्व से मुक्त नहीं हो सकता कि वह जो है और जो कर रहा है उस पर सोचे और इस तरह कि अन्य को भी वह बोधगम्य हो सके. इसलिए यह कहकर छुटकारा नहीं मिल सकता कि मैं धार्मिक हूँ, लेकिन किस तरह का, यह बताना ज़रूरी नहीं समझता. इसीलिए हम सब पर अपने व्यक्तित्व के धार्मिक अंश  को समझने और उसकी व्याख्या करने का दायित्व है. इसके लिए आवश्यक होगा कि अबतक धर्म के जो मानवीय अनुभव हैं, मैं उनसे परिचय प्राप्त करूँ. क्या यह ज्ञान मुझे अपनी ‘अचेत’ या ‘सहज’ अवस्था से विचलित करता है या मुझमें उसे सजग करके उसके भीतर रहने का आत्मविश्वास और साधन प्रदान करता है?

गाँधी के हिंदू आत्मविश्वास को समझने में भी हमें समय लग गया,यह समझने में कि क्यों इस्लाम, ईसाइयत,सिख या यहूदीपन से उनके संपर्क ने न तो उनके अंदर कोई हीनता ग्रंथि गढ़ी या श्रेष्ठता का अहंकार. उन्होंने अपने ऊपर धार्मिक सुधार का जिम्मा भी वैसे नहीं लिया जैसे स्वामी दयानंद ने लिया था.उनकी रुचि उसे सार्वभौमिकता प्रदान करने की भी नहीं थी. गाँधी की इस समझ पर भी हमने बहुत बात नहीं की है कि सारे धर्म सत्य तो हैं लेकिन अपर्याप्त हैं. यह अपर्याप्तता उनके मानवीय होने के कारण ही है, इसका अर्थ यह भी है कि प्रत्येक धर्म में हर नई पीढ़ी कुछ जोड़ सकती है जो उसका अपना हो उसी तरह दूसरे धर्मों से उसका परिचय या संसर्ग भी उसे बदल सकता है.

भारत के पहले आधुनिक हिंदू के रूप में विवेकानंद का नाम याद आता है लेकिन वे अपने वक्त में सभी हिन्दुओं के बीच सहज स्वीकार्य नहीं थे. उनके गुरु रामकृष्ण परमहंस किस प्रकार के हिंदू थे? आखिर उन्होंने ही तो युवक नरेन को धार्मिक अनुभव के रोमांच से परिचित कराया था. लेकिन रामकृष्ण को मस्जिद या गिरिजाघर में उपासना करने में भी परहेज न था. इनमें से कोई न तो हीनता-ग्रंथि, न श्रेष्ठता बोध से ग्रस्त थे.

मुझे और मुझ जैसे अनेक व्यक्ति, जिन्हें इन सबका हिंदूपन अनायास और अयाचित ही प्राप्त हो गया है, क्या  सार्वभौमिकता की  हिंसक आकांक्षावाले हिंदूपन  के  आक्रमण से विचलित अनुभव करते हैं और अपने भीतर के हिन्दूपन की स्मृति को सुरक्षित रखना चाहते हैं? मैं नहीं कह सकता कि यह पूरा उत्तर है, लेकिन एक उत्तर यह  हो सकता है. इस स्मृति के प्रति उनके दायित्व बोध के कारण ही, जो वस्तुतः उन सबके प्रति कृतज्ञता की सम्वेदना से संवलित है जिनके माध्यम से यह अनुभव हम तक पहुँचा है, शायद  वह लिखते हैं जिसे हिंदुओं के विरुद्ध समझा जाता जाता है. जो भी हो, हमें अभी इस पर और बात करनी होगी.

( इसका एक प्रारूप सत्याग्रह में साप्ताहिक स्तंभ प्रत्याशित के तहत छप चुका है: http://satyagrah.scroll.in/article/100512/why-do-you-write-against-hindus)
 

A Revolution Led by Indian Youth

By
-
0

The meeting titled "Student-Youth Assembly Against Discrimination" was organised by SFI AISF AISA PSF CHHATRABHARATI AIDSO RYA AIYF DYFI and saw overwhelming response from Mumbaikars despite attempts to scuttle it.

 
Watch: Student leaders welcomed with slogans

 
Richa Singh: “Like in 1942 We Told Britishers, Today We Tell RSS-BJP to Quit India”
 
 

Shehla Rashid: "The PM's Answer To Every Problem – Selfie"

Dismissal of a Judge in Bastar: Where protecting of Adivasi Rights is Not in the ‘Pubic Interest’

By
-
0

The Queer Case of How a Judicial Officer, who happened to be a Dalit, who is sensitive to Human Rights of Adivasis has been dismissed after the Sukma Police ran interference in judicial functioning making a mockery of the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary

On the April 4, 2016 Judge Prabhakar Gwal received an automated message on his phone. It said he had been dismissed from his post as Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sukma, Chattisgarh in “public interest”. The official letter, that he later received, stated that the State Government on the recommendation of the full bench of the High Court of Chhattisgarh had dismissed him under Article 311 (2) of the Indian Constitution”. The order stated no reasons or charges for his dismissal apart from that his removal was in public interest. Prior to his dismissal, JudgeGwal had faced a series of irregular transfers; show cause notices, though what lead to this dismissal is still unclear.

In the last few months, the state of Chhattisgarh has been in the news several times. Issues that have been covered range from mass violence and atrocities against the Adivasi population to the harassment of lawyers, journalists and activists questioning the State’s actions in the Bastar region. Mr Gwal’s dismissal comes in the wake of these incidents.

The last major case that Gwal was working on was that of the illegal detention of Deva Sodi. Deva Sodi, an Adivasi resident of Sukma district, was illegally detained in Dornapalthana. When the case came up before him, Gwal issued notice to the thanaprabhari (police station representative) who replied saying that Deva was no more in his custody but had been returnedto one of his friends few days back. Noticing irregularities in the police version and procedures, he passed an order stating that the police version was false. During the inquiry, after more than 15 days, Deva was shown as arrested in a thana along with his brother (who was the complainant in the illegal detention case) in multiple cases. During the hearings of the illegal detention petition, Gwal issued letters/notices to the Inspector Generalof Bastar, Mr. SRP Kalluri and the Superintendent of Police, Mr. D Sharavan in Sukma to ask why Deva Sodi had not been produced from Dronapalthana.

Today, Gwal feels that his conduct of fair and speedy trials in Sukma and the issuing of orders against the police led to unhappiness in the police and state department and would have contributed to his abrupt and illegal dismissal.

A few days after he received his dismissal notice, Gwal also received the response to a Right to Information application that he had filed earlier in the month. The RTI response revealed that in February, the Superintendent of Police of Sukma had written to the High Court and the District Judge, Dantewadatwice complaining about Gwal. The first letter, dated February 8, 2016 complained to the District Judiciary against Gwal stating that among other things he has been granting bail to “naxal accused” and such decisions have “adversely affected the morale of the security forces” and “weakens the judicial process”. It first claims that Gwal had mentally harassed police officers. The letter begins by stating that Bastar is a difficult area and in such adverse circumstances the forces go around and puts their lives in danger arresting “naxalites”. But when the police present the arrested people in Gwal’s court he on the very first remand asks them to present chargesheets as soon as possible. The letter states that Gwal questions the actions of the police and genuineness of the arrest. The police feel that Gwal threatens them with action against them in cases where the judge thinks police has made a false arrest.

In the second letter , amongst other things, the police officer accuses Gwal of granting bail to the people they arrest as naxalites. The officer states again that the police put their lives in danger when they go into the jungles and capture and arrest people but Gwal grants them bail, which has demoralized the forces. The officer in the end asks for appropriate action to be taken against the judge.

In any other state the fact that a judge has granted bail to prisoners would not be matter in which the police forces could file complaints. In some instances, it could even lead to contempt of the court. If the prosecution/the police disagrees with a certain judgment or order, then the right recourse is to file an appeal in a higher court. These letters are shocking in that they clearly reveal that the attitude of the police in Bastar remains polarizing – that everyone must agree with the police and their version. For those who don’t agree, or dare to speak out, they have to face the consequences, even if it is a Judge.

This was not the first time when Gwal was at the odds with the police or the state. Gwal has previously been in the news for his judgment in a PMT (Pre Medical Test) paper leak scandal in Raipur. In August 2015 he passed a judgment that convicted 6 persons for the leak. He also passed orders for the registration of an FIR and subsequent investigation into the role of the then SP and Present IG of Raipur, Deepanshu Kabra and another police officer for their role in attempting to suppress evidence in the case. After this, an attempt was made to intimidate him by a local BJP MLA who had been a subordinate of the SP.

Gwal had filed a complaint of intimidation againstthe BJP MLA and DeepanshuKabra in his personal capacity at the local police station. After this all hell broke loose and instead of action against the BJP MLA and Kabra, the High Court issued a show cause notice to Gwalwhich claimed that he has violated rules under C.G. Civil Service Conduct Rule, 1965, under which they claimed that he was required to seek permission of the High Court before filing such an FIR against the BJP MLA and the police officer. An adverse order was passed against him without any inquiry and his one-year annual increment was cancelled as penalty.

Gwal had filed a complaint of intimidation against the BJP MLA and Deepanshu Kabra in his personal capacity at the local police station. After this all hell broke loose and instead of action against the BJP MLA and Kabra, the High Court issued a show cause notice to Gwal which claimed that he has violated rules under C.G. Civil Service Conduct Rule, 1965

In what appeared to be a punishment posting, Gwal was then transferred to Sukma district as CJM, in the Bastar division. In September 2015 he took up his posting where he faced unfair treatment from the start from the police and the local administration who failed to provide him the usual protections given to judges in conflict areas. In his tenure as a judge in Sukma, he realized early on how the police were carrying out large scale arrests and surrenders of what seemed to be innocent Adivasis. Not only did he conduct fair and speedy trials, he also brought to the notice of the higher judiciary the conduct of the police in the Bastar region.

In keeping with his fearless attitude and his adherence to the facts and the law,  Gwal also passed orders indicting a school in Sukma district for taking inordinately high fees. After he took cognizance in this case he received a call (of which he has an audio recording) from the District Collector who said that he should consult him before passing such judgments.After receiving this call, Gwal wrote to the District Judge and Chief Justice of Chhattisgarh, notifying them about the phone call from Collector where he explained that there was an attempt to interfere in judicial process and to influence the court. No action was taken upon his complaint. Instead he received multiple show cause notices as a response to his complaints against some of the sitting judges in the lower judiciary.

In a conflict zone like the Bastar division, where systems and guarantees of due process, and law and order, appear to have broken down, it takes a great deal of courage to be able to challenge vested interests and the powerful and to remain independent in a polarized atmosphere. The casual removal of a district judge, in contravention of procedure appears to reveal the interference of the government and the police in the judiciary.

Today Prabhakar Gwal is back in Chhattisgarh where he fears for his life and for that of his family. He adds though, that he will continue his fight and will use the appropriate legal channels and methods to challenge his dismissal. A Dalit man from a rural background, he practiced for ten years as an advocate in Chhattisgarh before becoming a judge. “If nothing else works out,” he says,  “I will just go back to my village and farm.”

(The author is a law student at Delhi University. This article is a result of interviews carried out with PrabhakarGwal during his time in Delhi)
 
See also

  1. Statement of the Indian association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) The Unconstitutional Termination of Sukma Chhatisgarh CJP Condemned dated April 24, 2016
  2.  Article in Patrika, dated April 20, 2016

Attempt to Strangulate Kanhaiya Kumar on Board a Flight, Is Assault the Only Tool to Fight Dissent He asks

By
-
0

Kanhaiya Kumar assaulted by an alleged BJP supporter who tried to strangulate him on board a Mumbai-Pune flight
Jet Airways off-loaded Kumar and the alleged attacker, Manas Deka, at the Mumbai airport for operational safety.

Nehru Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar was attacked by a co-passenger inside a Jet Airways flight on Sunday. He was asked to get off the flight along with Manas Deka, the man who allegedly tried to strangle him. Jet Airways' official statement said some guests on board the Mumbai-Pune flight were off-loaded at the Mumbai airport for operational safety.  This is the latest in a series of threats and attempted assaults on the JNU students’ union president.

Deka is believed to have ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party. One person has been detained in the case, the Mumbai police said. Kumar's associates confirmed to The Times of India that he was filing an FIR with the police. The student leader was on his way from Mumbai to Pune to attend a programme at the Film and Television Institute of India. The issue that led to the incident is not known yet. He said on Twitter that a man tried to strangulate him inside the flight. In a series of tweets that followed, he slammed the airlines for not taking any action against the other person involved in the incident.

On April 18, two people were arrested for sending a death threat to Kumar and student activist Umar Khalid.

Yet again, this time inside the aircraft, a man tries to strangulate me. — Kanhaiya Kumar (@kanhaiyajnusu) April 24, 2016 Some guests on board this morning's flight Mumbai to Pune were off loaded at Mumbai airport in interest of operational safety:

Jet Airways — ANI (@ANI_news) April 24, 2016
Basically @jetairways sees no difference between someone who assaults nd d person who is assaulted. They will deplane you, if you complain. — Kanhaiya Kumar (@kanhaiyajnusu) April 24, 2016

Kumar was sitting in a middle seat, his friend Nishant who was travelling with him told the media. The incident occurred before the plane took off. “The man in the window seat was talking on the phone, we heard him say things like ‘I will take care of it as soon as I get a chance'” he said. “Then he suddenly got up, while still on the phone, and put one hand around Kanhaiya’s throat and started pressing. When Kanhaiya tried to remove the hand, the man dropped his phone and grabbed Kanhaiya’s throat with both hands. By then, those of us travelling with Kanhaiya realised what was happening and managed to pull him off. Then security came, along with the Jet Airways pilot, and insisted that all of us get off the plane as we were ‘security threats’.”

Kumar and his fellow travellers are registering an FIR against the accused, who is currently in police custody at Mumbai airport. “He [the attacker] was travelling with several others, but the others were not asked to deplane,” Nishant added. The alleged attacker has apparently been identified as Manas Deka, who works for Tata Consultancy Services.

Kumar has also tweeted about the event.

Yet again, this time inside the aircraft, a man tries to strangulate me.

— Kanhaiya Kumar (@kanhaiyajnusu) April 24, 2016

Basically @jetairways sees no difference between someone who assaults nd d person who is assaulted. They will deplane you, if you complain.

— Kanhaiya Kumar (@kanhaiyajnusu) April 24, 2016

Manas Deka, works in TCS, a strong BJP supporter assaulted me inside the aircraft. Is assault the only tool you have, to fight dissent?

— Kanhaiya Kumar (@kanhaiyajnusu) April 24, 2016

Kumar has received multiple threats ever since he was branded as “anti-national” by certain groups after an event in JNU on February 9. He was attacked by a group of lawyers when presented at Patiala House court on February 17, attacked and abused within the JNU campus by an outsider on March 10 and had slippers and shoes thrown at him in Nagpur on April 14. A Meerut based politician Amit Jani has issued several threats to Kumar as well as JNU student Umar Khalid, and allegedly planted a threat letter and pistol in a DTC bus that enters JNU.

Kumar’s police security has been increased after all of these threats, and was with him until he was dropped to the airport in Mumbai.

International demand grows for release of Himal editor Kanak Dixit

By
-
0


Photo Credit: AFP

Over 60 leading editors and media figures, activists, intellectuals and scholars from across the world are rallying behind the prominent Nepali editor Kanak Mani Dixit, who was arrested in Katmandu by anti-graft officials yesterday, and have unequivocally demanded his release.
 

The situation has been complicated by Dixit’s sudden hospitalization this morning after suffering from high blood pressure after he was placed overnight in a prison cell.
 
Those who have signed the call for Kanak Dixit’s freedom say they “are deeply concerned about his safety and rights” and include prominent television personalities such as Karan Thapar, Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai, the former BBC journalist Sir Mark Tully and feminist historian Uma Chakravarty. Other signatories are James Astill, Political Editor of The Economist, Prof. Sumit Ganguly, the Rabindranath Tagore Chair at Indiana University, as well as Sharmain Obaid , Pakistani award winning documentary film maker, Mahfuz Anam, founder-editor of the Daily Star in Bangladesh, and Imtiaz Ahmed, Executive Director of Regional Centre for Strategic Studies in Colombo.
 
The text of the statement follows: 
 
It is with deep concern that we have learned of the arrest of Kanak Mani Dixit, the widely respected founder-editor of Himal Media and a courageous voice for transparency, freedom of expression and democratic rights in Nepal and across South Asia. The charges are related to alleged corruption but Kanak Dixit says it is part of a vendetta pursued against him by people in Government. 
 
We have known Kanak Dixit as a true professional, human rights defender and energetic journalist whose credentials are built on robust research and tremendous courage. Himal Media, a pioneer in South Asia journalism, has published Himal South Asia, Nepali Times and Himal Khabar Patrika (in the Nepali language). He has written extensively for international media including leading newspapers in India and is chairman of Sajha Yatayat, a state run transportation company, which he has been turning around from a loss-making entity. 
 
Kanak Dixit's detention comes at a time of increased pressure on free media across South Asia. We call upon all national and international media organisations, individual journalists and editors, defenders of media under pressure, on those who believe in the freedom of expression, to seek Kanak Dixit's immediate release and a fair and transparent trial, free of bias.
 
We call upon the Government of Nepal to issue a transparent and unequivocal statement on his detention for we are deeply concerned about his safety and rights. We condemn all forms of pressure tactics on editors like him and other courageous media figures such as Mahfuz Anam of the Daily Star in Dhaka, who is facing 80 cases of sedition and libel in Bangladeshi courts, and other media persons who are committed to the rule of law and justice. 
 
 
Sanjoy Narayan, Editor, The Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Rajdeep Sardesai, Chief Editor, India Today TV Group, New Delhi
Sir Mark Tully, veteran broadcaster
TN Ninan, Chairman, Business Standard Pvt Ltd, New Delhi
James Astill, Political Editor, The Economist
Swaminathan S AnklesariaAiyar, Consulting Editor, Times of india Group
Barkha Dutt, Consulting Editor, NDTV
Sharmeen Obaid, Oscar Awardee for documentaries, Pakistan
Kathika Nair, poet and writer, Paris
Maja Daruwala, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi
Sevanti Ninan, editor, The Hoot, New Delhi
Siddharth Varadarajan, Founder Editor, The Wire, New Delhi
Sumit Ganguly, Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations and Professor of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, US
Salil Tripathi, Journalist and Author, London
Imtiaz Ahmed, Executive Director, RCSS, Colombo
Mahfuz Anam, Editor, The Daily Star, Dhaka
Aunohita Mojumdar, Editor, Himal Southasian
Laxmi Murthy, Consulting Editor, Himal Southasian
Vijay Prashad, Contributing editor, Himal
Gillian Wright, Writer
Sara Hossein, Lawyer, Bangladesh Supreme Court
Zafar Sobhan, Editor, Dhaka Tribune
Afsan Chowdhury, Senior Journalist, Bangladesh
Rita Manchanda, South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR) 
Tapan K Bose, SAHFR
Dr. Naila Zaman Khan, Professor of Child Neurology and Development, Bangladesh
Lubna Mariam, Cultural activist, Bangladesh
Catherine Masud, Film Maker, US-Bangladesh
Dr Amena Mohsin, Professor, Dept. International Relations, University of Dhaka
Kalpana Sharma, independent journalist, Mumbai
Urvashi Butalia, Publisher, Zubaan
Dr. Sanjib Baruah, Professor of Political Studies, Bard College, New York, US
Dr. Bina D’Costa, Associate Professor and Director of Studies, Department of International, Australian National University
Tultul Biswas, Madhya Pradesh MahilaManch, Bhopal
C. Raja Mohan, Journalist
Tarun Basu, President, Society for Policy Studies (SPS), New Delhi
Subir Bhowmick, Senior Editor, BD24news, Kolkata
Pradip Phanjoubam, Editor, Imphal Free Press
Jyoti Malhotra, Senior Journalist, New Delhi
L. Somi Roy, Imasi Foundation, Manipur
Patricia Mukhim, Editor, The Shillong Times
Seema Mustafa, Editor, The Citizen, New Delhi
T. Monalisa Chankija, Editor, Nagaland Page, Dimapur
Akum Longchari, Editor, Morung Express, Dimapur
Teesta Setalvad, Journalist and Co-Editor Sabrangindia.in
Lalita Panicker, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Nalaka Gunwardene, Columnist, Sri Lanka
Seema Guha, senior journalist (freelance), New Delhi
Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, The Wire, New Delhi
Aruni Kashyap, Writer and Asst Professor of English, Ashoka University
Dr. Xonzoi Barbora, TISS, Guwahati
Dr. Sanjeeb Kakoty, Associate Professor, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Management Shillong
Dr. Anjuman Ara Begum, Forum-Asia, Katmandu
Uma Chakravarty, feminist historian, New Delhi
Nisha Biswas, scientist and activist, Kolkata
Preeti Gill, editor and literary agent, New Delhi
Sanjoy Hazarika, independent columnist, New Delhi
Nupur Basu, senior journalist
Sanjoy K Roy, Teamwork Arts
Neena Gopal, Resident Editor, Deccan Chronicle, Bangalore
Geeta Seshu, Journalist, Mumbai
Anusheh Anadil, Musician and Cultural Activist, Bangladesh
Kishalay Bhattacharjee, author and journalist, New Delhi
Babul Gogoi, Assam Times, Guwahati
Dr Nayanika Mookherjee, Reader in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Durham University, UK
Saadia Haq, writer and human rights activist, Pakistan
Rina Mukherjee, Independent Journalist, Kolkata
Rizio Yohannan Raj, Lila Foundation
Sandhya Srinivasan, Infochange News & Features, Mumbai
Pushpa Achanta, Journalist and Trainer, Bangalore
Manisha Chaudhry
Shoma Sen
 
 
Photo Credit: AFP

We must become the Khudai Khidmatgars of today: Anand Patwardhan

By
-
0


Image: The Hindu

I won’t occupy this space for very long as I think we should be primarily listening to some of the amazing student leaders who have collectively come to the rescue of this despondent country by giving us something to hope and cheer for.
 
We are all aware of where the internal danger to our secular, democratic fabric lies, so I will not repeat all this except to point out that it no longer lies in any single party or organization. Today an ideology based on hate but disguised as “love for Mother India” has penetrated the deepest sections of every traditional pillar of democracy – the executive, legislature, judiciary and media.
 
After the ghastly trauma of Partition and then, the murder of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, we were lulled into believing that the worst was over, that communal fascist forces had been named and shamed and they would not rise again. But they did, working quietly for decades until they mustered enough force to show their face in public again. These forces can be called Brahminists as long as we remember Dr. Ambedkar’s distinction between the insidious ideology of Brahminism and individuals that happen to be born into the Brahmin caste. The corollary is that even non-Brahmins can perpetrate Brahminism. If we do not understand that the biology of caste is less important than the ideology of caste we will not be able to distinguish between friends and foes.
 
Today the mother body that nurtures the Brahminist ideology has begun to expand its caste base. The RSS,  the largestand fastest growing NGO in the world, has spawned other groups, connected and unconnected, that pose an even greater threat to humanity than the mother body itself.
 
How was this achieved? Internationally in the last two decades, aided by the collapse, or capitulation, of the Soviet Union and China, a war has been waged on the world by an axis comprising of the USA, Israel, UK and Saudi Arabia, backed at times by various other powerful nations that collectively serve an international arms lobby whose sole aim is to perpetuate war, or the threat of war,external and internal. They have all made the simplistic but tautological calculation that as vital natural resources like oil, water and assorted minerals on this planet rapidly deplete, the only way to corner the remaining stock is by military might. I say tautological because the act of building up and deploying military power further erodes the planet’s depleting resources, apart from pre-occupying scientists whose knowledge and creativity could have otherwise served the cause of just and sustainable technologies.
 
This international axis and the arms lobby that runs it,is directly responsible for most of the wars being fought in the world at present, internal and external.
 
In the early 1990’s when the Berlin wall came down and Gorbachev was willing to sign all manner of peace pacts, it is Reagan’s America, controlled by the military industrial complex that refused the peace agenda and began to militarize outer space.  It had earlier imported Islamic Jihad and Saudi Arabia’s Bin Laden into Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to defeat godless communists. The fallout in our region was that armed jihadis entered the Kashmir valley, which until the late 1980’s had only seen non-violent protests for better governance and greater autonomy.
 
In Iraq in 2003 this axis overthrew the dictator Saddam Hussain whom they had earlier armed to the teeth, by pretending that Saddam had “weapons of mass destruction”. It is this act that gave birth to ISIS and it is ISIS or the fear of ISIS that has been used to run ever more wars, from Libya to Syria.
 
On the economic front the “liberalization” process that began in the 1980’s consolidated in the next decades as WTO GAT cast its net wider. India, then led by Congress, capitulated and what has happened to its Jal, Jungle, Zameen (water, forest, land) is history.
 
The arms industry and its relatives have many needs. Apart from minerals, fossil fuels and water, they also need to control education and popular culture in order to spread vulgar commodification. World business is a highly integrated, coordinated mechanism with unimaginable economic power.To quote a statistic from 2007, the total volume of trade by private corporations world over was over $1171 trillion; 20 times greater than the combined earnings of all the countries in the world !
 
 Any strong, secular democracy has always been anathema to imperialists and neo-colonialists out to destroy sovereignty. Having destroyed the fabric of democracy in Pakistan via Islamization, is it too far fetched that the axis of evil is now supporting the same destruction in India, via Hindutva?
 
What is fully home grown and what is externally fertilized and nurtured is not always easy to separate.In the year 2000,a BJP led NDA government in a shocking surrender of sovereignty, gave permission to the FBI to open its office in India. This was before 9/11. What followed after 9/11 was a worldwide surrender of civil liberties in the name of “fighting terror”.
 
Let us take the infamous Intelligence Bureau and the rapidly-getting- more-infamous National Intelligence Agency.  Their top leadership acts as if it is fully commandeered by hard core Hindutva. These seem to work undercover when a non-BJP government is in power but become openly pro-active when the BJP comes to power. When an honest officer like Maharashtra’s ATS chief, Hemant Karkare finds incontrovertible proof that many, if not most of the bomb blasts and terror attacks attributed to Islam-inspired terrorists were actually the handiwork of Hindutva, we see what happens to Karkarein November 2008 in the very midst of his revelations.Karkare had solved the Malegaon case and was on the brink of further major breakthroughs. On the heels of this came the confession before a magistrate of Swami Aseemanand who provided information on this and  other terror cases involving Hindutva. Today after Karkare’s murder and BJP’s return to power, many of these cases are blatantly unraveling before our very eyes. In Gujarat “clean chits” fall like manna from the sky.  In Mumbai a public prosecutor who was following Karkare’s cases is unceremoniously replaced and reveals that she was asked to “go slow” after his death.Confessional statements by Hindutvaleadersmade before a magistrate go “missing” and over 40 witnesses against Brahminists like Col. Purohit turn hostile.
 
We face a dangerous enemy that is capable of murder and has demonstrated time and again that it gets away with murder. Even today murder threats have been issued and procuring a venue for this assembly was made painfully difficult.
 
The only choice before us is to unite all forces that can possibly be united against hatred and corporate and communal fascism.
 
In doing this we have to be generous with those whose particular understanding and emphasis may differ from ours. History beckons us to shelveego problems that are endemic to all alliances and joint actions.
 
Our alliance must include not just Marxists and Ambedkarites but all those who know why Gandhi, Dabholkar, Pansare, Kalburgi, Rohith Vemula and so many others lost their lives and who killed them. Apart from organized parties it must draw into its fold living symbols of resistance like Medha Patkar, Soni Sori, Irom Sharmila, Binayak Sen, Sandeep Pande, Teesta Setalvad and SP Uday kumar,to name just a few who tirelessly work for a just and secular democracy.It must also include those who have no fixed ideology but desire the freedom to think freely.
 
In my personal opinion,in the face of an international arms trade- driven communal fascism, only an unshakable, unbreakable,and expressly non-violent (both in word and in deed) movement can win back the hearts and minds of our people. We must become the Khudai Khidmatgars of today !
 
Jai Bhim, Laal Salaam, Jai Jagat !
 

Mumbai 23.4.16
 
 
 

1...2,5562,5572,558...2,697Page 2,557 of 2,697

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Join our mailing list to get the latest human rights news that matters, straight to your mailbox.

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Join our mailing list to get the latest human rights news that matters, straight to your mailbox.

Important Links

Other Links

CONNECT

Email: sabrangind@gmail.com

© Sabrang | All Rights Reserved