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“Opt Out” of Aadhar a Must, Citizens’ All India Protest

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Today June 30 a multi-city protest against the mandatory insistence on the Aadhar Card will be held in eight cities.

Social Media Campaign: Protesters will get together and tweet @UIDAI using hashtag #UIDAIAnswerUs asking UIDAI to engage in conversation with us and answer questions on the enormous harassment Aadhaar is causing us with its coercion. 

In case you would like to organise an event in your city, please do email us at contact@rethinkaadhaar.inor righttofoodindia@gmail.com or tweet at @no2UID and check out Resources, campaign posters at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BwNsF33ss7UlQzhBOGdOb0NwckE


TMC protests against AadharProtesting citizens are citizens concerned about the Unique Identification or Aadhaar project.

They have raised the critical issue which is that they believe that the project is unconstitutional, technically flawed, and violates our fundamental rights and civil liberties. 
The demand:s of the protesters: 

1) Government stop mandatory use of Aadhaar and withdraw notifications making Aadhaar mandatory for any government benefits, subsidy, or services, first stopping forcing this on children's welfare and education schemes.

2) Stop commercial use of citizens' biometrics data.

3) Allow Rajya Sabha amendment for an "Opt Out" of Aadhaar, if a citizen so wishes, and get all stored biometrics data and authentication records deleted.

Citizens have been asked to  join for signature campaigns and conversations on concerns on Aadhaar on June 30, Friday at the multiple locations of the protest. These are:

Delhi — UIDAI Regional Office Ground Floor, Pragati Maidan Metro Station, June 30, 10 am 

Bengaluru  — Town Hall, June 30, 11 am to 1 pm

Jaipur – Lecture and Discussion with youths – IDS, 8B, Jhalana Institutional Area, 9:15 am

Madhya Pradesh – Survey is going on Aadhaar and NFSA in 9 Districts

Bihar – Signature Campaign in Patna, Gaya, Samastipur, Arwal, Nawada 

Lucknow UP – Aadhaar photocopies will be burnt at Daliganj Chauraha at 2 p.m 

West Bengal – Deputation in two districts

Karnataka – Signature campaign, Public meetings, protest in 10 Districts.

 

SC Must Act, Clear Confusions on Aadhar,Govt Pressuring Telecom Operators to Make it Compulsory: Sanjay Hegde, The Hindu he Hindu

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SC Must Act: It is time the Chief Justice of India set up the larger Bench to examine privacy challenges to Aadhaar, says Senior Advocate Sanjay hegde in The Hindu

Today is the day of the All India Protests Against aadhar and hence we are focussing on the arguments brought out in the story

The entire piece may be read here

The task before the sentinel: privacy challenges to Aadhaar

"The expansion of Aadhaar continues. The effort is now emboldened by a Supreme Court judgment that has stuck a band-aid on a gaping wound, which required stitches if not surgery. Individual holdouts against Aadhaar have been recognised and grudgingly protected by the judgment. There is, however, no broad declaration against an overpowering state’s propensity to stretch out to every sphere to compel individual surrender of little remnants of liberty. The architecture of enforced surveillance has been left intact.

As good as its use
Aadhaar is a classic case of technology being amoral. The splitting of the atom gave us nuclear energy. It also gave us weapons with the capacity to destroy civilisation. Similarly, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) began only with the mandate to confirm a citizen’s unique identity. A stand-alone authority, with biometric information and fingerprints, which could, in cases of doubt, identify with certainty any claimant of government subsidies or special services. Aadhaar’s claim was to weed out duplicates and forgeries, thus ensuring targeted distribution by administrations.

However, the UIDAI database has today ceased to be only a neutral identifier of a person’s identity. In the Information Age, where data is the new oil, the temptation to maximise the use of an all-encompassing database is simply too strong. More and more service providers sought linkages to the data and the government ramped up the number of government and other organisations that could insist on an Aadhaar-based identity alone as a sine qua non for dealing with the user. Shortly after the Supreme Court’s recent judgment of June 9, 2017, the government publicised a prior notification of June 1, 2017, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The notification makes it mandatory for bank account holders to produce an Aadhaar number.
The government has also deliberately misconstrued an earlier Supreme Court order in order to pressurise telecom operators to make Aadhaar a requirement for all mobile phone users. Even education and health services have been used to broaden the Aadhaar net and draw in more people into the dragnet. Schools insist on newly admitted children having Aadhaar numbers, which are not given until the parents too submit to Aadhaar registration.

There are reports that the Civil Aviation Ministry wants to make Aadhaar identification mandatory for access to commercial flights. The government has decided to make the cost of holding out unbearable to the non-compliant and present courts with a fait accompli.

The entire piece may be read here

#NotInMyName: Renuka Shahane’s gut-wrenching post will make you cry

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On the day thousands of Indians protested against public lynchings in India and abroad, actor Renuka Shahane posted a heartfelt message on the topic titled ‘Not In My Name.’

not name renuka shahane

Shahane, known for her liberal views, said that she did not care what religion did the 16-year-old Junaid belong to nor was she bothered about the religious background of the Harayana boy’s murderers.

She wrote, “I don’t care what religion those lynchers belonged to. Nor do I care what religion Junaid belonged to. I only care about one thing. A group of mean, cruel human beings killed a teenager and assaulted three other young men brutally!”

 

Sharing her personal fear, Shahane said that her heart ‘breaks for Junaid’s mother because her own elder son will turn 16 next year.

“My elder son will turn 16 next year. My heart breaks for Junaid’s mother. Not only did a group of cruel human beings kill Junaid, another group of cruel human beings egged them on. Junaid was also killed by those cruel people who witnessed the insanity & chose to remain silent,” Her Facebook post said.

Read her full Facebook post below;

 

NOT IN MY NAME

Junaid was lynched by a mob of cruel human beings. I don’t care what religion those lynchers belonged to. Nor do I care what religion Junaid belonged to. I only care about one thing. A group of mean, cruel human beings killed a teenager and assaulted three other young men brutally!
Junaid was 16.
My elder son will turn 16 next year.
My heart breaks for Junaid’s mother.
Not only did a group of cruel human beings kill Junaid, another group of cruel human beings egged them on. Junaid was also killed by those cruel people who witnessed the insanity & chose to remain silent.
There are some cruel people who justify this lynching.
Yes! Hate allows for all sorts of justification.
There has been a long list of these lynchings. It has become so common that no one talks about it. Nobody asks questions about what happened to the perpetrators. Whether they were caught & given the strictest punishment or whether they were released to unleash more violence!
I cannot fathom how anyone can kill unarmed, innocent human beings!
I cannot fathom how people can justify this horrific violence!
Instead of taking law into their own hands why are police complaints not made?
Is it because the lynch mob knows that there is no reason behind what they have done?
All they want to do is to kill in the name of hate.
Whichever religion, ideology, language, ethnicity you belong to, lynching done in any name cannot be condoned!
We’ve suffered so many riots, terrorist attacks, pogroms, lynchings but we haven’t learnt anything.
The bottom line is that innocent human beings become the target of that hate. They are usually poor. They are usually those who are incapable of fighting back. It is really too, too disheartening.
Innocence dies when hate rules!
I cannot be a part of those who encourage hate.
I was with the Ekta Manch marching from Parel to Azad Maidan singing ” Hum hongey kaamyaab….” to promote brotherhood between fellow citizens of all faiths in 1993 after the horrendous riots followed by the heinous bomb blasts in Mumbai.
I marched to the Gateway of India to protest the utter failure & crass mishandling of 26/11 by the then Congress Govt in the State and the Centre in 2008.
I supported the Anna Hazare anti corruption movement when he waged the civil battle against the UPA 2 Govt at the Centre.
I was vocal about women’s safety after the horrendous rape & murder of Jyoti Singh as well as Pallavi Purkayastha as well as the sickening hacking of Swathi.
Today I stand firmly against the lynch mentality that has an active political patronage in our country.
I do not belong to any political party. I am a citizen of one of the finest democracies in the World. That is why it is so important for all of us to respect & protect the tenets of our Constitution.
I, as a proud citizen of India, do not conform to the views of anyone who actively or passively supports this lynching.
My allegiance lies with the Constitution of India.
If the Govt or any other body does anything to undermine the basic tenets of democracy in our country, I will vocally oppose it.
I so wanted to be a part of the peaceful civil protest at Carter Road today but I can’t. But I will not be a part of this hate!
I do not want my children to inherit this hate.
I will not have the blood of innocents on my hands.

NOT IN MY NAME!

Courtesy: Facebook Post
 

IIT-Bombay students protest against fee hike aka “user charges”

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As students organise against a hike ranging from 30% to 300% in the semester fees, director blames "national policy", justifies the increase as "user or service charges".


Students protesting at IIT-Bombay on June 22, 2017.

“Users have to pay for what they use”, said the director of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), Devang Khakhar, last Thursday as he addressed students on campus protesting a massive hike in the semester fees announced this May.

Terming the hike as “user charges or service charges”, he made no bones about the neoliberal economic logic that treats education as any ‘goods or services’ bought and sold in the market — and violating the very basis on which the IITs were set up by the Indian government in the 1950s and 60s.

“The objective of the IITs was to provide a space that nurtures some of the brightest minds in the country, who’d contribute to India’s goals of scientific and technological development. Students are not consumers and colleges are not shops, at least not the government institutions,” said a PhD student at IIT-B, on condition of anonymity.

The latest hike at IIT-B comes a year after the undergraduate tuition fees was more than doubled across the IITs — the premier public-sector institutions of higher technical education and research.

This time, while tuition has not been hiked, there is an increase of 300% in the hostel rent, 167% in the gymkhana fees, 100% in exam, registration and medical fees, and 30-50% in other charges.

This means that all students—undergraduate, postgraduate and research; across categories—will need to pay an increased sum between Rs 4,750 and Rs 7,250 from the upcoming Autumn Semester onwards. But students have calculated that counting the end-semester mess overdue charges, those using hostel facilities will actually have to pay even more from the next (after Autumn) semester onwards—a hike of Rs 8,670 to 11,170 per semester.

For nearly two months now, IIT-B students have been organising on the campus, demanding rollback of the hike, which they’ve called “undemocratic” and “non-transparent” as no elected student body was consulted on the matter.

They’ve formed a collective called Students Against Fee Hike, IIT-B , sent emails and submitted representations to the administration. More than 700 students signed a petition opposing the fee hike—although the majority of students are currently not on campus, as the new semester begins mid-July.

Yet, last Thursday, when the students finally gained an audience with the director after a 10-hour long protest rally and sit-in outside the main administrative building — he could only promise them a “white paper” explaining what costs the institute was trying to recover and why they were being passed on to students.

He also assured them of an Open House meeting soon where he’d address students’ questions, and said the administration would try its best to resolve the issue.

But Khakhar said the institute was just “falling in line” with “national policy”. He said since the tuition at IITs was already subsidised, subsidy was going to be cut for the apparently “non-academic” part of expenses, such as for living in the hostel, eating in the mess, using medical and sports facilities, etc.

Earlier, the administration had simply attributed the hike to “inflation”.

The director did not agree to extend the payment deadline, which is July 11, 2017 (with delayed payments allowed till July 19, against a fine of Rs 100 per day).

He said even if the fee was reduced, it would not go back to what it was earlier.

He added that “special provisions” could be made for those who could not afford the hike, although that is likely to be a one-time affair.

For now, the protests are on hold, but students plan to resume and intensify the agitation if they do not hear back favourably from the director soon.

A PhD student, who is an active member of the Students Against Fee Hike, IIT-B collective, said, “We are waiting for an email from the director, as promised. We want to the issue to be resolved as soon as possible, as the fee payment deadline is approaching fast. Otherwise we will resume the protests this week.”

Less than 10 years ago, the annual tuition fees for undergraduate courses at the IITs used to be Rs 25,000.

Under the UPA, the fee was doubled to Rs 50,000 per annum in 2008, and then hiked to Rs 90,000 per annum in 2013.

Last year, the Modi-led NDA approved a steep hike from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2 lakh per year, with fee waivers for reserved category and sections of economically weak students.

For the rest, loan facilities were brandished as the solutions. There was some talk of interest-free loans for IIT students, not for those of other engineering institutions, such as the NITs, which also faced a massive fee hike from Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.25 lakh last year.

This means that in order to access quality higher technical education, even from the institutions set up by the government, students need to be either wealthy or indebted. And we only need to look at the U.S. to know how dire and vicious student debt cycles can get.  

Even the 2016 hike came after the MHRD revised downwards the original hike recommendation which was Rs 3 lakh, made by a panel headed by Ashok Mitra, chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT-Roorkee.

In 2011, the Kakodkar Committee, headed by nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar, had recommended that tuition fees for all undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes be hiked to Rs 2-2.5 lakhs per annum.

But while the UPA did not accept the Kakodkar Committee recommendation to hike fees so steeply all at once, the IIT Council did officially declare that “the fee may be revised periodically”.

This push to turn the IITs into “self-financing” institutions—with the government throwing its hands up by saying it already spends around Rs 6 lakh on each IIT student per year—is accompanied by selling out initiatives like the
Higher Education Financing Agency , which will basically borrow from the debt market and lend to the institutions for “infrastructure” development, requiring the institutes to pay back the principal amount. This will again lead to hike in the student fees.

Last December, IIT Kharagpur saw students protest against a hike of more than Rs 8,000 in the fees. Students even gheraoed the officials, including the director, inside their offices for around 17 hours. Finally, the
administration agreed to a partial rollback .

Courtesy: Newsclick.in
 

When the UAE leader “asked US to bomb al-Jazeera”

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"We do not promote the idea of press freedom. What we talk about is responsibility in speech": UAE Ambassador to Moscow


Mohamed bin Zayed: reportedly asked General Tommy Franks to bomb TV station

Of the 13 demands made by Saudi Arabia and the UEA in their ultimatum to Qatar, the one causing most consternation internationally is the call for al-Jazeera to be shut down. On Wednesday, the BBC's renowned World Affairs Editor, John Simpson, and David Kaye, the UN's Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, were the latest to object.

Simpson said closure of Qatar-based broadcaster would be "serious step backwards for the whole world" and Kaye said it would be a "major blow against media pluralism".
For the Saudis and Emiratis, though, its closure would be a step towards more "responsible" journalism.  “We do not claim to have press freedom," Omar Ghobash, the UAE's ambassador to Moscow told the Guardian. "We do not promote the idea of press freedom. What we talk about is responsibility in speech."

The Emiratis – as a leaked diplomatic cable shows – have had al-Jazeera in their sights for years, and shutting it down is not the most drastic solution they have ever contemplated.
In 2001, shortly before the start of the Afghan war, Qatar's emir complained to Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's president, about Mohammed bin Zayed, one of the sheikh's sons.

According to the emir, Mohammed bin Zayed – who at the time was chief of staff of the Emirati armed forces – had asked Tommy Franks, the American general in charge of CENTCOM, to bomb al-Jazeera.

Sheikh Zayed is said to have responded to the emir's complaint with the derisive reply: "Do you blame him?" 

Mohammed bin Zayed's desire to bomb al-Jazeera – or rather, to have the Americans bomb it for him – doesn't seem to have harmed his career. Today, MBZ (as he is widely known) is Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE's armed forces. Along with the Saudi Crown Prince, he is also seen as one of the key figures leading the current feud with Qatar.

The story of the Qatari emir's complaint was recounted by MBZ himself during a meeting in January 2003 with the State Department's Director of Policy Planning, Richard Haass. Describing other parts of their conversation, the leaked diplomatic cable says:

"MBZ noted that public opinion in the Arab world would be containable provided military action [the invasion of Iraq] was short and decisive.  Keeping Israeli PM Ariel Sharon in his box was also important.  

"Returning to a common theme in his discussions with visiting US officials, MBZ emphasised the importance of reining in the Doha-based al-Jazeera satellite network prior to any military action.  He recommended against sending in journalists with war fighters – at least in the beginning – as the prospect of televising scenes of civilian casualties was just too risky.  

"MBZ said it was a mystery to him why the Qataris continued to inflame public opinion via JSC [Jazeera Satellite Channel] and suggested that the US use its weight to pressure Doha." 

Whether at the behest of MBZ or not, the Americans did subsequently bomb al-Jazeera (twice) – though not its Doha headquarters. In 2001, during the Afghan war, an American missile destroyed the station's office in Kabul. In 2003, during the Iraq war, another American missile hit al-Jazeera's office in Baghdad, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub.

Courtesy: al-bab.com

India: From Democracy to a Banana Republic

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The cow protection movement's original intent was only to embarrass the government according to Verghese Kurien

gaurakshak

BJP under Modi government had pushed its core Hindutva agenda to the limits,  veteran LK Advani’s main agenda of Ram Mandir was not enough for NDA II, Cow politics was raised vehemently and cow vigilantes groups were backed by BJP and grew since as early as 2009.

The then Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi not only talked about cow protection but he went further ahead and started campaign against Buffalo Meat (Pink Revolution). The campaign against Pink Revolution had drastic affect in Uttar Pradesh after BJP came in power and the present UP CM Yogi Adityanath began crackdown on so-called illegal slaughterhouses. Thousands of people have got unemployed, businesses related to buffalo meat and leather has been down to almost zero.MS Golwalkar, the RSS chief between 1940 and 1973, was the brain behind the cow protection movement in the 1960s. The government set up a committee to consider the demand of a nationwide ban on cow slaughter. The committee lasted twelve years. In that period, Golwalkar became friends with one of the committee members, Verghese Kurien, known as the ‘Milkman of India’.

 

Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma visited Bisada village in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh to pay his respects to Mohammed Akhlaq’s murder accused Ravin Sisodia’s body and family. Sharma, who is Lok Sabha MP for the local constituency, tweeted images of himself at the gathering om 7th Oct 2016.

Kurien opposed the ban on cow slaughter for economic reasons — the dairy business needs to get rid of old and unhealthy cows. In his autobiography, Kurien revealed Golwalkar’s real reason for the cow protection movement.

Kurien quoted Golwakar as saying he started the cow protection movement only to embarrass the government. He went around India collecting a million signatures for his petition, and saw in a village in UP a woman who went from house to house in the scorching heat to get more signatures.

Kurien quotes Golwalkar, “This is when I realized that the woman was actually doing it for her cow, which was her bread and butter, and I realized how much potential the cow has… I saw that the cow has potential to unify the country — she symbolizes the culture of Bharat… you agree with me to ban cow slaughter on this committee and I promise you, five years from that date, I will have united the country. What I’m trying to tell you is that I’m not a fool, I’m not a fanatic. I’m just cold-blooded about this. I want to use the cow to bring out our Indianness, So please cooperate with me on this.”

But the stringent and hardcore cow protection campaign of Sangh Parivar led by BJP under Narendra Modi leadership has turned into nightmare for Indians, especially for Minorities who are being lynched in public without any one coming forward to protect them.

Below is the timeline of incidents related to Gau Rakshaks since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister and BJP’s drive for hardcore cow protection

March 4 2015: Maharashtra banned beef; anyone found in possession or sale would face five years of jail and a ₹10,000 fine. While a 1976 law prevented the slaughter of cows in Maharashtra, the new Act banned the slaughter of bulls as well as bullocks.

March 16 2015: Haryana passed a stringent bill banning the sale of beef. The law mandated five years of rigorous imprisonment for selling beef — same as that in Maharashtra — and a fine of up to ₹50,000.

May 30 2015 : Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, 60, was killed in Birloka , in Khimsar tehsil of Nagaur district, Rajasthan after rumours spread that he had killed 200 cows for a feast. Pictures of carcasses were spread on social media. Young men gathered in the thousands in the fields of Kumhari village and brutally murdered him.

August 29 2015: Residents of Chilla village, near east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, clashed with four truck drivers night who were reportedly transferring buffaloes to a slaughter house in Gazipur.

September 28 2015: A mob lynched Mohammed Akhlaque in Bisada village, Dadri, on allegations of killing a cow and consuming its meat on Eid.

October 1 2015: Six students of Sree Kerala Varma College in Thrissur, Kerala, were suspended for organising a beef fest on campus to protest against the Dadri lynching.

October 6 2015: A cattle trader in Karnataka had a narrow escape after Bajrang Dal activists attacked him with metal rods on a rumour about a stolen cow.

October 9 2015: A mob went on a rampage following rumours that a cow had been slaughtered in Mainpuri district in UP.

October 9 2015: A petrol bomb attack on a Srinagar-bound truck left three men — two Kashmiris and a policeman — battling burn injuries (one of them died later). The truck was set on fire allegedly by rightwing activists in Jammu’s Udhampur district.

October 16 2015: A village mob lynched a man in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh for alleged cattle smuggling.

October 19 2015: Hindu hardliners threw black ink at J&K MLA Engineer Rashid in Delhi. He was thrashed earlier for holding a beef party in Srinagar.

December 3 2015: Violent clashes broke out in Haryana’s Palwal district when villagers stopped a truck allegedly carrying cow meat.

January 13 2016: Cow protection group attacked a couple at Khirkiya railway station in Madhya Pradesh over allegations that they were carrying beef.

March 18 2016: Two Muslim cattle-traders, including a 15-year-old, were beaten and hanged from a tree in Jharkhand’s Latehar district. Five suspects, including a member of a local gau raksha vigilante group, were later arrested.

April 2 2016: Mustain Abbas was killed, allegedly by Gau Raksha Dal members in Kurukshetra, Haryana while he was transporting a buffalo. The High Court of Punjab and Haryana ordered CBI to probe the murder on May 9.

May 6 2016: The Bombay High Court ruled that it will no longer be illegal to consume or keep imported beef but upheld the Maharashtra government’s ban on slaughter of cows and bullocks.

June 2 2016 : A mob of cow protection activists brutally assaulted alledged cattle smugglers in Rajasthan’s Pratapgarh, they took pictures of his naked body after he fell unconscious from brutality.

June 10 2016: Two ‘beef transporters’ were beaten up and force-fed cow dung allegedly by the Gurgaon Gau Raksha Dal in Haryana.

July 10 2016: Bajrang Dal members brutally attacked a Dalit family in Koppa in Karnataka, claiming there was beef inside their house.

July 11 2016: Seven members of a Dalit family were beaten up by about 35 gau rakshaks for skinning a dead cow in Una, in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district.

July 26 2016: Two Muslim women were beaten up at Mandsaur railway station in Madhya Pradesh on suspicion of carrying beef.

July 30 2016: A mob attacked the house of a Muslim family on suspicion of cow slaughter in UP’s Muzaffarnagar district.

August 5 2016: Two Dalits thrashed for refusing to remove dead bodies of cows in Lucknow. The Dalit workers were on protest against the growing attacks on community since Una, Gujarat attack.

August 18 2016 : BJP worker Praveen Poojary Killed by Hindu right-wing organisation over cow smuggling suspicion in Udupi, Karnataka.

August 24 2016 : In Mewat, Haryana 10 members of Gau Raksha killed a Muslim couple in their 30s, Rasheedan and Ibrahim, Two other members of their family, Ayesha and Jafruddin, were seriously injured.

September 18 2016 : Mohammad Ayub Mev 25-year-old was thrashed brutally by cow vigilantes after his pick up truck carrying bullock and calf met with an accident in which the calf died. He later died in hospital due to critical injuries.

March 18 2017 : Hotel Hayat Rabbani in Jaipur sealed by Nagar Nigam after one Kamala Didi of Gau Raksha Dal accused they were feeding beef to cows and organizing beef party in Hotel , they thrashed Qasim ,19 year old helper who was later arrested by Police.

March 22 2017 : Several Meat shops torched and vandalised by cow vigilantes group in Hathras District of U.P. right after BJP coming into power .

March 24 2017 : 12 Slaughterhouses sealed alleging to be without permit across Uttar Pradesh after Yogi Adityanath took the charge as Chief Minister of UP.

March 27 2017 :  Seven people, allegedly from a vigilante group, have been arrested for attacking and trying to sexually harass women at a house in Tellar village of Karkala, Udupi, Karnataka. The vigilante group members had entered the victim’s house as they suspected that cattle was being slaughtered illegally.

April 1 2017 :  Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister Raman Singh claimed will hang those who kill cows in his state.

April 4 2017 : 55 years old Dairy Farmer Pehlu Khan died in Alwar, Rajasthan after brutally beaten by cow vigilantes belonging to Hindu Right Wing organisations along with 5 other companions. He was transporting milch cows bought from Jaipur Animal fair to his home town Mewat District in Haryana.

April 12, 2017: 60 years old man was tied to tree and brutally beaten over alleged cow smuggling in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.

April 21, 2017: A nine-year-old girl along with four of her family members were attacked by self-proclaimed ‘gau rakshaks’ (cow vigilante) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district, four accused arrested.

April 23, 2017: The Delhi Police Monday arrested PFA office-bearer named Gaurav Guptathe case related to the assault of three youths by some people allegedly belonging to animal welfare group People For Animals (PFA).

May 4, 2017: Gau rakshaks attack two Hindu men on suspicion of being Muslim cow smugglers in Greater Noida.

12 May, 2017:  Gau rakshaks thrashed five people who were allegedly caught slaughtering a buffalo illegally inside the premises of a private dairy in the Gandhi Park area of the city in Delhi.

13 May, 2017:  Gau-Rakshaks cornered a man and started thrashing him ruthlessly, accusing him of beating a cow in Bhopal. The victim is said to have sustained severe injuries after the incident and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

25 May, 2017: A group of self-proclaimed ‘gau rakshaks’ created mayhem at the Bhubaneswar railway station on Wednesday, attacking two persons who were legally transporting 20 milch cows. No arrests have been made so far.

26 May, 2017: Gau Rakshaks’ In Malegaon Beat Up Two Meat Traders, Force Them To Chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’

2 June, 2017: Haryana: Gau rakshaks attacked youth with knife infront of police in Gohana.

12 June, 2017: Mob of at least 50 people intercepted five trucks near Rajasthan’s Barmer attacking drivers and attempting to set fire to the vehicles carrying cows purchased by Tamil Nadu government under a project to protect cows.

22 June, 2017: 15 years old Muslim teenager Junaid was stabbed to death while 3 of his brothers injured on a local train in Haryana after a mob accused them as beef eaters.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

Me, The Muslim

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Today I stand at a pass. Intensely patriotic and intensely bitter. The fear has disappeared to be replaced by an anger. 

Born to an army officer, and living the '71 war at Udhampur as a 4 year old, very close to the action – means one cut one's teeth on patriotism. I always thought I could kill for my country. I still think I can. I would rather not kill however. 

Life was simple for me till 1993 – till I was caught in the Bombay riots. I had seen them in Allahabad before. But not so close up. I had a gun go off a couple of feet near me. Saw enough blood. And burning vehicles. And suddenly I was a second class citizen. I will never forget a day after the riots had simmered down.

The bus conductor shouted at a man in a skull cap and short-changed him. His wife tugged at his sleeves and he let it go. There were expletives to follow when the couple got off. I had to now fear for being a Muslim. Ask any Muslim who lived through that period. And I did not even know how to be one. Never did. The primal fear matured and became chronic over the years. The housing refused. The slights. All very base and crude. All very common.

Today I stand at a pass. Intensely patriotic and intensely bitter. The fear has disappeared to be replaced by an anger. 

Bal Thakeray was given a state funeral. An MP (member of parliament) attended the funeral of the murderer of Akhlaque. The litany of things to get angry at is endless. 

I might be a rationalist, a humanist, an atheist, but I am a Muslim. They are my people. I am considered one of them. That is my identity. I am an Indian Muslim. I might believe I am a world citizen but that hardly matters. 

And I am angry for the Indian Muslims. I have sometimes wondered how easy it would be to convert people into terrorists. I can rationalise my anger. Not all can. Indoctrination does not take place in any madarssa or some hole in the wall. It takes place on the streets. It takes place in offices. In courtrooms. It takes place in plain view. And not by any Muslims. 

At this stage I have no faith in the state. Zilch. Not even the judiciary. Just people. They are what is left of my country for me. The seculars. And I know they are in a minority. They are also prosecuted and hounded. But then I know how to belong to a minority. I have lived and prospered so far amongst these friends. For I know not one communal amongst them. And they have too. You can live life as a Muslim in India. Just have a lot of friends. Secular friends. May their tribe grow. 

Here is to my friends. My India. The one I love.

#ILoveMyIndia

PS. Do not ask me how I feel for our children. For them to be considered prey. To be objects of hate the moment they are born. We can leave that heartbreak out. I wish they were not born to us. For their sakes.

Thousands March in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow & Other Centres, Express Outrage Against Lynch and Bloodshed

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In Delhi, activists, academics, journalists and politicians walked in to the protest # Not In My Name. It culminated into a protest Music Concert.

  
Image Courtesy: Dhruv Sangari, FB


Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times

                                                                                      
    
Image Courtesy: FB

In Mumbai, actors Konkana Sen, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin, Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi and many others braved the heavy rains to attend the protest. It rained and pured except for a brief lull of 35 minutes during the two hour protest but the 400 plus band of supporters stood in the rain, at the Carter Road promenade and protested.  In Lucknow, protesters are seen sporting black armbands. In Kolkatta activists and celebrities like Aparna Sen were seen together, protesting in anger and outrage.


Kolkatta, FB Image


Hyderabad, FB Image


Lucknow, FB

    

   
Yousuf Saeed, FB                                                                                         FB

 

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