ISIS extremists kill Syrian poet, son on charges of apostasy

March 12, 2016

The poet and his son: Photo courtesy ABNA

The Islamic State (ISIS) executed a poet Mohammed Bashir al-Aani and his son Elyas on accusations of apostasy in Syria's Deir al-Zour province two days ago.

Al-Aani and his son were kidnapped in the eastern town of Deir Ezzor in September 2015 and taken to an unknown location. The poet had returned to the area with his son to bury his wife, who had died in Damascus after the family travelled to the capital to get better medical treatment for her.

Born in 1960, Al-Aani was one of the prominent poets from the eastern Deir Ezzor province and a member of ‘Arab Writers Union in Syria’.

Little is known about the poet’s son Elyas, but photos circulated by activists show a young man in his early 20s.

Al-Aani was noted for his civilian opposition to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Known for his lyrical style, he wrote and published three books of poetry in Syria. Aani is the most high-profile cultural figure known to have been executed by terrorist gangs in Syria in 2016.

According to the Middle East Eye, Aani had returned to the area with his son to bury his wife, who had died in Damascus after the family travelled to the capital to get better medical treatment for her.

His last published poem, The Banishment of the Loser, spoke of “long exhaustion,” and ended with the line, “I am the one who will trade tranquility for defeat.”

ISIS which holds large areas of Deir Ezzor under siege has executed large numbers of civilians, mostly on charges of apostasy or spying.

In December last year militants from the group assassinated respected journalist Naji Jerf, who had come to be nicknamed “Uncle” due to his work training young Syrian reporters.

(Based on reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Syrian Free Press Network).

Police threatens Soni Sori family, takes them to undisclosed Location: Lawyers

March 11, 2016

Soni Sori’s lawyers have outlined the allegedly illegal and coercive actions by IG Kalluri. In a letter to DGP Chhatisgarh, AN Upadhyay, her lawyers have outlined the threats to her father and detailed how her sister and brother-in-law have been taken to undisclosed locations

Text of the Letter

March 11, 2016
To,
Mr AN Upadhyay
Director General of Police, Chhattisgarh
Police Headquarters
Naya Raipur, Chhattisgarh

Subject – Repeated Harassment, Intimidation and Persecution of Ms Soni Sori’s relatives, including Mr. Ajay Markam and his wife, Ms. Dhani Markam, by police officials of Bastar Range*

Sir,
This is to bring to your notice serious incidents of intense harassment and intimidation of various relatives of our client, Ms. Soni Sori, by different police officials within the Bastar Range. Most urgently, as of today evening, Ms. Soni’s brother-in-law, Mr. Ajay Markam, has been held in
police custody for a day and a half, with no intimation to his family about his whereabouts and the reasons for his detention.

His wife and Ms. Sori’s sister, Ms. Dhani Markam, has also been picked up today by Bastar police and taken to an undisclosed location.

As you are aware, Ms. Soni Sori was attacked with some corrosive chemical by three unidentified men on a motorcycle, while she was returning home around 10:30 pm on 20.2.2016. An SIT comprising of ASP Sukma Mr Santosh Singh, CSP Jagdalpur Ms Deepmala Kashyap and ASP Bijapur IK Elesela was set up to investigate this attack on Ms. Sori.

Instead of conducting a genuine inquiry into a serious matter, the police under Mr. Kalluri have turned this investigation into an excuse for harassment of Ms. Soni’s relatives, as detailed below –

1. Mr. Ajay Markam s/o Mohan Markam, is Ms. Sori’s brother-in-law and a close associate living in Geedam, Dantewada. He was taken in for questioning on March 1st, 2016, and extensively interrogated by ASP Sukma, Mr. Santosh Singh, in the presence of other SIT officials at PS Geedam, Dantewada. During this questioning, he was repeatedly told by the interrogating team that the police would arrest him for orchestrating the attack on Ms. Sori. He was asked to give his phone number to the investigators – a request with which he complied.

Later that evening, he received a call from an unknown number on his phone, where a caller whose voice Mr. Markam did not recognize, spoke to him in Halbi, insinuating that Mr. Markam had ordered the chemical attack on Ms.Sori. As a responsible citizen, Mr. Markam gave full information about this mischievous call to the Town Inspector of PS Geedam verbally on March 1
st itself. The next day, he took a letter with detailed information about this call to PS Geedam, but was advised to give that information to Kuakonda PS, since he was within the jurisdiction of PS Kuakonda at the exact time when he had received this mysterious call on his phone. He complied with this request also, and submitted written information about this call to PS Kuakonda on March 3, 2016.

Then, on the 09.03.2016, Mr. Markam was picked up by TI of Kuakonda PS, Mr. Sharat Chandra and taken to the Kuakonda PS, kept there till late at night, and interrogated for the entire duration. Again, yesterday, on 10.03.2016, Mr. Markam, was picked up from his house in Geedam by the Mr. Sharat Chandra, TI of Kuakonda, and taken in for questioning in Jagdalpur. He has not been heard from since, and no information has been forthcoming to his family as to the reasons for his prolonged detention. Since this detention is well beyond the 24 hours limit, it is clearly illegal and violative of Mr. Markam’s fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 22(2) of the Constitution, and Section 57 of the CrPC.

2.Today, concerned family members of Mr. Markam, including Mr. Mundra Ram Sori (Ms. Sori’s father and the father-in-law of Mr Markam), and Mr Markam’s mother Ms. Pali Markam, and his sister Jyoti Sori went to speak with the IG of Bastar Range, Mr. SRP Kalluri, to express their concernsabout the well-being of Mr. Markam and to seek information about his detention. However, Mr. Kalluri treated them with utter disrespect, spoke to them in vulgar, abusive language and openly threatened and intimidated the family members that he (Mr. Kalluri) will destroy all of Ms. Sori’s family.

He specifically mentioned that he will ensure that Mr. Markam will be not be released from police custody, and the rest of Ms. Sori’s family will also be made to suffer for her indiscretions in questioning Mr.Kalluri. He specifically threatened Mr. Mundra Ram Sori that his daughter, our client, Ms. Soni will be killed and that his grandson, Mr Lingaram Kodopi will also be jailed. This type of grossly offensive and threatening behavior towards an old, invalid person, who is also an ex-sarpanch and a victim of Naxalite violence, and other women family members, by a senior
police officer is utterly shocking and painful.

3. Ms. Dhani Markam w/o Mr. Ajay Markam, is the sister of our client, Ms. Soni Sori. She studies nursing in Adawal- Bodli, Bastar and resides in the nursing training institute’s hostel. Bastar police visited her hostel yesterday and wanted to take Ms. Dhani Markam away, but the warden of the institute did not allow them take Ms. Markam without proper warrants etc. A three-member police team again visited the hostel today and has reportedly taken away Ms. Markam from the hostel with them, without giving any information to the family or to the hostel authorities. It is a matter of serious concern to the family members that a young woman has been taken by the police to an undisclosed location and this is against all legal procedures of interrogation or detention.

We request you to take note of these illegal activities of the Bastar police purporting to fulfill their investigative role. This type of open harassment and intimidation of the family members of our client is causing intense emotional strain on her and making her fearful of her own safety and that of those close to her. It is clear that through such intense persecution of all those associated with our client, the police wish to silence her and pressure her into withdrawing the serious charges of atrocities that she has leveled against them – if that happens, it will indeed be a very severe blow to the democratic framework of our nation.

We request that you intervene at the earliest, restore Ms and Mr. Markam to their families, and stop further harassment of Ms. Soni’s family members, in order to instill a sense of safety and security amongst the residents of Bastar division.

Sincerely,
Adv. Shalini Gera
Adv. Isha Khandelwal

Copies have been sent to –
1. Mr. DM Awasthi, Special DGP (Anti Naxal Operations), Chhattisgarh
2. Ms. Chhaya Sharma, DIG; Mr. Sanjay Jain, Sr SP, Ms Sumedha Dwivedi,
Sr SP, Investigation Division, National Human Rights Commission
3. Mr. AK Parashar, Focal Point of Human Rights Defenders, NHRC

European nationalism, khaki shorts

March 11, 2016

First published on: October 1, 2003

The RSS that wants to be regarded as indigenous and reviles secular democracy as “western”, has itself borrowed its whole construction of the nation from a narrow western exclusionary nationalism

The advance of the neo-liberal agenda and its demand for free flow of capital and commodities is seen to be generally unrelated to the fault lines of ethnic and religious violence that are opening up in various countries. If they are related they are seen more in terms of an assault by forces of backwardness on a “civilised West”. Even those who are victims of this assault do not challenge what constitutes western civilisation but only invert its categories. To others, the nation state is passé and is an anachronism that will be overcome in an increasingly globalised world.

In economic language, things are not quite what they seem: often, terms are constructed to mean their opposite. Globalisation, competition and free trade are some of these terms. People may think that these are all positive ideas: globalisation should mean the free flow of people and ideas, allowing advances taking place anywhere to be shared by others; competition should translate as more choices for the consumer. And free trade should make it easy for producers to get a better deal.

Unfortunately, the reality is quite different. Globalisation has meant a free flow of commodities and capital, that also primarily of speculative capital. Free flow of ideas has come up against a much harsher Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime. Competition in practice has meant mergers and acquisitions on a global scale and creation of mega monopolies. The other element missing from this picture is that globalisation of the current variety is only for finance capital and commodities: people are excluded from the globalisation scheme. They are up against a far harsher immigration regime today. While a global corporate elite — rich, mobile, and integrated — is emerging, the overwhelming majority in most countries are becoming marginal to this global economy. They are increasingly pauperised as their nations implode or fracture.

Some supporters of globalisation argue that it is better to submit to an American Imperium with its “western” values, as this would automatically secularise countries such as India. With increased globalisation, the world will become infused with common global values, presumably much better than the national and local ones currently in vogue. Unfortunately for this view, globalisation has been accompanied by far more violent “religious” and ethnic conflicts: somewhere this equation between a “civilising” global order and realities on the ground is breaking down.

If we locate the problem correctly, the reasons are not difficult to seek. In the period of struggles against colonial regimes, the nationalist forces all over the world had differing views of the nation, much in the same way that they did in India. It is not surprising that in most national movements, civic nationalism with its core of economic nationalism became the dominant force as economic exploitation of people and countries was at the centre of colonialism. If we give up the economic space of the nation, the basis of civic nationalism then collapses. Once the leadership, in country after country, decided to give up their economic space under the assault of neo-liberal globalisation, they had two choices: either give up the concept of the nation itself or define the nation in terms of either a cultural, linguistic or an ethnic identity. As giving up the nation would mean accepting virtual re-colonisation, therefore the need arose for falling back on narrow nationalism with its attendant ethnic or religious fault lines.

The global neo-liberal agenda is to dismantle the nation state except for its police functions. As Wayne Ellwood notes: “True believers in the neo-liberal agenda would prefer a pliant nation state, one which supports them when it is necessary and stands aside the rest of the time (Redesigning the Global Economy, New Internationalist, Jan-Feb, 2000). If the nation states are to be dismantled except for their police function, they cannot have legitimacy without re-defining themselves.

A state that only oppresses its people to further global corporate rule must find some other identity. It is here that the ethnic and religious agenda are playing themselves out. By redefining the nation in religious or ethnic terms, they turn the focus away from the process of re-colonisation. Similarly, it is difficult for the new imperial order to claim legitimacy for forcing a global corporate rule on the world including their people. Therefore, they need the legitimising myth of a rational and civilised “West” being confronted by forces of darkness rising out of the “non-West”.

The West as an Ideology
After September 11, there is the recurring motif in the media of clash of civilisations. The West and Islam — in conflict from the time of the Crusades — are pictured in perpetual conflict except for a small interregnum in which the West clashed with the ‘Evil Empire’ of Communism. We had expert after expert and political leaders — dim-witted or otherwise — echoing that the attack on the World Trade towers is an attack on western values and civilisation. The underlying message is clear; the killing of thousands of innocent people is non-western and could be the handiwork of only those who find themselves incompatible with the West.

It is not only the “injured” west that is replaying endlessly the theme of clash of civilisations. The Indian (Hindutva) variant has also projected an alliance of civilisations — Hindu-Christian and Zionist — against the new Evil Empire of a resurgent ‘Jihadi’ Islam and portrayed itself as a victim of past Islamic dominance needing redress.

The current national and international backdrop is allegedly this clash of religions. In the west, it is cloaked as the Huntington thesis, a clash of civilisations. Strangely enough, a Talibanised Islam also echoes this view of clash of civilisations. And at home, we have the Hindutva lobby who seek to project in the past a conflict between religions — a homogenised monolithic Hinduism against an equally monolithic Islam.

The Hindutva view which posits itself as an “opponent” of the west has absorbed the entire format of the west in its construction of a mythical Hindu past.

The underlying subtext of such worldviews is that current society is built on a foundation of hate and conflict, with the “we” and “they” being interchanged. In this worldview, periodic sectarian clashes — Palestine, Bosnia, World Trade towers, Afghanistan and closer to home, Gujarat — are a reaffirmation of this framework of clash of “religions”.

In all conflicts, we hear about the superiority of the values of “us” against “their” inferior ones. A Bush talks about the “western civilisation values” forgetting the genocide of the Jews in Hitler’s gas chambers, 350 years of slavery of Africans and King Leopold’s horror filled colonial regime in Congo that killed 10 million in his lust for collecting and selling rubber. Similarly, Vajpayee talks about 10,000 of years of Hindu tolerance, unmindful of the savage repression of Dalits throughout this “tolerant” period. This amnesia over history is very much a part of this civilisational discourse.
The problem with this kind of partial view of the West or Hinduism is that it seeks to present a mythical and airbrushed past. The mythical “past” is for projecting a particular future in which “Western” or “Hindu” values would be hegemonic. The hegemony of “western” values boils down to the dominance of “western” multinational corporations and their global corporate empire. The “Hindu” is a euphemism for the upper caste Brahmanical order, which would acquire a dominant position under the hegemonic ideology of Hindutva.

Myth-making and falsifying history is a part of this future project. The history chosen is crafted out of the past and quite often even manufactured. In this version of the West for example, Greece — the classical civilisation — is the progenitor of all western values. And this Greece arose from a primordial Aryan Greece with hardly any influence of the proximate older civilisation of African Egypt or Semitic Phoenicia. This deeply racist view of history, in which the “West” and “western values” have borrowed nothing from elsewhere, provides the underpinning of the popular view of this manufactured West. All other groups then are denizens of a space, which is informed by inferior values, largely irrational and generally primitive.

The bloody wars between nations in Europe including two world wars, the brutal repression of its religious minorities, gas chambers, are all forgotten and are somehow extrinsic to the innate “West” that germinated in Greece, lay dormant in the Dark Ages and has now put up its green shoots all over the physical west — Europe and Americas. That the indigenous people of Americas were “ethnically cleansed” just as Moors from Spain were after being there for more than 800 years, does not find a place in this narrative.

If building myths did not involve building a particular future, we could perhaps ignore it as common prejudice that would slowly disappear with a better appreciation of the past. Just as colonialism sought legitimacy defining itself in terms of its civilising role, current imperialism couches its mission as one of spreading reason. This idea of western history as reason and civilisation is a myth that needs to be exposed in the fight against the neo-imperial order.

Hindutva as an Ideology
The Hindutva view which posits itself as an “opponent” of the west has absorbed the entire format of the west in its construction of a mythical Hindu past. Denying its Dravidian antecedents, Mohenjo Daro and Harappa are Aryanised. The inequity of the caste system, the clashes with Buddhism, the conflicts within Hinduism — Shaivites versus Vaishnavites — are all airbrushed out. All intolerance is attributed to Islam while Hinduism — in this view — remains innately tolerant.

The problem is that while the past is the terrain in which this battle is being fought, the project is one of creating a future exclusionary India in which minorities know their “place”. The fight against this manufactured past is necessary to create a society that does not exclude any community, not merely out of love for tolerance, but as the only basis of a nation.

Quite often the RSS agenda is thought of as a much larger fundamentalist wave in the world. Whether it is the Christian Right, the Ayatollahs in Iran or the VHP here, there is no question that fundamentalism has gained ground. It is true that fundamentalists do share certain common features with those who want to use religion for a “nationalist” project. The fundamentalists — Islamic, Christian or Hindu — want the people to recover a past where peoples’ lives were governed by sanction of the scriptures. Therefore, both religious nationalists and fundamentalists seek to glorify the past.

The RSS project, however, is not one of merely returning to this past. Its core project is one of building a “modern” nation in which minorities have no place: they can either be “assimilated” or live in complete subjugation. The RSS agenda is one of building a homogeneous nation, a bleak landscape where there is no diversity or plurality.

It is not an accident that an Islamic Pakistan and a Hindutva-led India are at the brink of war: this is the history of this variety of nationalism. Unfortunately for all of us, this war, unlike the European wars of the past, may be fought with nuclear weapons. This is why European nationalism wrapped in Khaki shorts is so dangerous.

The RSS concept of a homogeneous nation is not an original one. It was borrowed, lock stock and Khaki knickers from Europe. The premise of much of European nationalism was this exclusionary homogenous nation, which led to 300 years of continuous bloodletting, ending with two world wars last century. The RSS project has also little of traditional Hindu values, which it quite often derides as weak and effeminate. Tolerance, love and peace, in this scheme of things, are what led to India’s enslavement and therefore the RSS espousal of the newfound “virtues” of intolerance and “militant” Hinduism. Much of the RSS criticism of Gandhi is a criticism of this kind of “soft” Hinduism, which in their view led India to be repeatedly invaded and conquered. Gandhi’s religious idiom was therefore dangerous to the RSS, as was his secular politics.

European nationalism soaked Europe in blood; massacres and brutal persecution of all minorities — ethnic, linguistic and religious was its hallmark. Not that this form of nationalism was not contested. The French Revolution produced the other view of nationalism — civic nationalism — where all citizens were equal in the nation irrespective of any other characteristic. The blood and race variety of nationalism is built on the straitjacket of homogeneity and exclusions; the second (civic) allows diversity and plurality. However, civic nationalism, the dominant form today in Europe, had ceded ground to the blood and race variety of nationalism before being de-legitimised by Hitler in his gas chambers.

The West has a high degree of collective amnesia; it forgets its bloody past. Thus when Bush talks about “our western civilisation and its value”, he does not mean genocide, slavery, colonial plunder and bloody wars that was also the characteristic of its past. In the West, the recent emergence of a more tolerant civic nationalism must be seen against the backdrop of its extended barbaric, past exclusionary, ethnic nationalism. The amnesia encourages the belief that the West had civilised nationalism while the others have only the brutal variant. However, even today there are uncomfortable echoes from its past: immigrant Turks in Germany cannot get citizenship even after three generations. And Enoch Powell in England earlier, and Le Pen in France now, stand for this exclusionary variety of nationalism, where ethnicity or “white nationalism” is the basis of the nation.

That the RSS nationalism is a derivative of this exclusionary ethnic European nationalism is clear in the way Golwalkar defines the nation, “ … Nation — satisfying all the five essential requirements of the scientific nation concept of the modern world.” (italics added). Further, “Thus applying the modern understanding of ‘Nation’ to our present conditions, the conclusion is unquestionably forced upon us that in this country, Hindusthan, the Hindu Race with its Hindu Religion, Hindu Culture and Hindu Language, (the natural family of Sanskrit and her offsprings) complete the Nation concept…” (Ref: We or Our Nationhood Defined). Both Golwalkar and Savarkar, the other ideologue of Hindutva, were looking at how to build a “modern” nation using religion as an important element. This involved — as a natural corollary to this trajectory of nationalism — the glorification of a Hindu past.

Nations as we know them today did not lie hidden in some remote past and have not merely unfolded in modern times. They have been historically constructed out of language, culture and race; quite often this construction of the nation has led to bloody conflicts. Even language, the cement in many of the nation states today, grew and was standardised in the last 300 years: the nation and its language grew together. The process was not a simple, linear one. The complexity of nation building thus involved dissolving multiple identities that people had into simple, monolingual, mono-religious and mono-cultural ones.

Historically, the homogenising process that accompanied European nation building produced relatively sterile monocultures, banishing its minorities to either the Americas or to its prisons. Ironically, many of the ethnically cleansed minorities of Europe replicated the same pattern even more violently on the indigenous population of the Americas.

Present day Europe is striking in its homogeneity. Countries largely speak only one language, are largely Protestant (Germany, England, Sweden) or Catholic (France, Spain, Italy) and if they have linguistic or religious minorities such as the Basques in Spain, or the Catholics in Northern Ireland, they are still in conflict. The nationalist wars in Europe altered fundamentally the landscape of European nations, the result of continuous wars that they fought. Added to this dangerous mix of culture, language and religion, was the new found enthusiasm for scientific racism: that black and brown populations were “biologically” inferior, leading to the killing of six million Jews and half a million gypsies of Indian origin.

Golwalkar traces his lineage from this definition of narrow European nationalism. His nationhood is defined in terms of five “unities”: geography, race, religion, culture and language. Plurality has no place in such a nation. This is the vision that was the basis of the RSS slogan of “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan.”

Golwalkar tried to remove the problem of language by claiming Sanskrit as the mother language and therefore declaring that all Indian languages are either derived from Sanskrit or they are not Indian. Urdu, even though it is totally indigenous to the country, became in the eyes of the RSS, foreign and Dravidian languages had to be claimed as derived from Sanskrit. The language riots of the 60s forced the RSS to give up, at least publicly, that Hindi should be the only national language; the fascination for Sanskrit still remains. The Hindu-Hindustan plank obviously still remains intact.

The striking feature of Golwalkar’s variety of nationalism is not only what it claims as its basis but also what it does not. It nowhere talks about the economic basis of nationalism: the right of a people to control its economy, market and its resources. It is not surprising therefore that the RSS did not fight the British: their main focus was against the enemy of the “Hindu” nation: the “secularists” and the Muslims. It is not an accident that the BJP government is quite happy to surrender India’s economy to the US, IMF and World Bank while still claiming to be nationalists. Advani riding the Toyota Rath is not a coincidence in his bloody march to the Babri Masjid. It symbolises their “Hindu” nationalism in which the national economy has no space.

Once the nation is defined in these narrow terms, the crucial question is what to do with the excluded minorities. Golwalkar’s solution was simple: either accept his homogenous framework of the nation (Murli Joshi’s Ahmediya Hindus, Christiya Hindus) or remain outside, forever subordinated and in peril of extinction.

Why do the RSS ideologues so viscerally hate the secularists? It might be thought that as Hindutva proponents, their target would be other religious groups. In physical terms, that is quite true as a Gujarat brings out, but in ideological terms, they share a kinship with the Taliban or similar fundamentalist groups. An Islamic Pakistan (or Afghanistan) sits quite comfortably with the concept of a Hindu Indian nation even if it means continuous wars. What the RSS cannot tolerate is the idea of a nation that is inclusive and allows plurality. The secular definition of the nation, by which the nation state is neutral between religions and does not allow religion any place in governance, goes against the very basis of the monolithic nation built on identities of certain kinds. It is this definition of the nation that is at the core of the dispute. And in this dispute, the fundamentalists and the communal fascists are on the same side.

While the RSS wants to be regarded as indigenous and reviles secular democracy as “western”, the RSS has itself borrowed its whole construction of the nation from a narrow western exclusionary nationalism. It is blind to the truly original contribution that India has made to the discourse on nation and nationalism. The concept of a plural nation, with many languages, religions and cultures, is a unique one and it is this unique experiment that is in danger of derailing now. And derailing for a putrid form of European nationalism that even Europe has discarded.
It is not an accident that an Islamic Pakistan and a Hindutva-led India are at the brink of war: this is the history of this variety of nationalism. Unfortunately for all of us, this war, unlike the European wars of the past, may be fought with nuclear weapons. This is why European nationalism wrapped in Khaki shorts is so dangerous.

Archived from Communalism Combat, October 2003. Year 10, No. 92, Forum

Manufacturing ‘anti-nationals’: Zee TV Unravelled

March 11, 2016

Courtesy: Kafila.org

Sudhir Chaudhary of Zee News has been spewing venom at students and teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University for some time now, and I have been informed by concerned friends that over the last two days there has been a concerted campaign against me personally.

Since I do not watch so-called news on a channel that appears to brazenly doctor videos and seems ignorant of minimum levels of journalistic ethics, I am relying on links sent to me by well wishers.

On March 8, I believe a clip from a video made in 2014 was circulated, in which I am heard saying that Hinduism is the world’s most violent religion, because its very foundation is the caste system.

I am told that Sudhir Chaudhary challenged me to prove the video was doctored. (Of course, he did not say anything about recent stories about recent doctored videos on JNU such as this or this or this or this.)

I am certainly not going to engage with an alleged criminal extortionist, but here let me say that the clip I have seen circulating on Twitter, which I assume is the one on Zee, is not doctored, but it is massively decontextualised.

I post below the link to the entire event – which was not a classroom lecture, but a political meeting organised by a student group in 2014 after the Kiss of Love protest was attacked in Delhi by Sangh supporters.
I will first deal with that video, and then Sudhir Chaudhari and IBN 7.

The background

First, the background to that event organised by Democratic Students Federation at a night meeting in JNU.

Taking a cue from Kochi, Kolkata and Hyderabad, students of JNU and DU called for a rally outside the office of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)…[While the protest in Kerala was an outcome of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha volunteers vandalising Downtown Cafe in Kozhikode, the rally at Kolkata was triggered because of a 17-year-old girl being refused entry into the Star Theatre because she was wearing a skirt.]
The event saw as many as 600 people in attendance at Jhandewalan metro station. The RSS office was heavily fortified by police, who didn’t permit the participants to go up till Keshav Puram (where the office is located). But the protestors were resilient and marched on for 2 km around the area until they were stopped by 40-50 slogan-carrying RSS workers near Desh Bandhu Gupta Road….
The sea of support on the page was peppered with derogatory comments from various Sangh Parivaar groups, some of them more disturbing than others. “We need a special ‘chumma’ from you tomorrow. Kal Pankhuri sabko akele chumma degi”; “Why only kiss of love, why not f*ck of love?”; “I will attend only if you give me 20 girls to have sex with”; and many more along similar lines.
The organisers were flooded with calls and messages from RSS affiliates, with the Bajrang Dal giving an open call on Facebook to attack the protestors….
[A] student said: “Online, people trolled around saying things like ‘If you carry out this protest, we’ll rape you, we’ll kiss your sisters’ etc, which is simply unacceptable. How can the RSS form their own notion of morality?”
— 'Fighting back with love: Delhi's Kiss of Love campaign registers strong protest against moral policing' – DNA, November 8, 2014

At the meeting after this event in JNU, apart from students, two teachers spoke, Rajarshi Dasgupta and myself. I begin by giving Rajarshi, an old friend and colleague, a kiss on the cheek, in the spirit of the event. The Hindutva trolls have got their boxers in a twist over that too. Poor guys. They really need to get a life.

I will give you below some of the vicious and misogynist comments made by these Ma Bharati ke veer sapoot [these brave sons of Mother India] which should leave us in no doubt about the violence of Hindutva-vadis, who object to Hinduism being called a violent religion.
Here is the part of the video where I speak. I stand by every word and gesture. And I post it not as self advertisement, but to set the record straight.

So – do I stand by my statement that Hinduism is a deeply violent religion, that its very foundation is violence towards women and castes declared as “lower”?

This is a lesson thousands of us have learnt from Ambedkar and Periyar, and it is a lesson well learnt. Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti on December 27, 1927, during the Mahad Satyagraha, and that day is observed as Manusmriti Dahan Divas by Ambedkarites every year all over the country. On March 8, former ABVP students joined with other JNU students to publicly burn the Manusmriti on International Women’s Day.

One of the key texts that form the very foundation of Hinduism is this violently misogynist, anti-women and Brahminical text that Ambedkar dissects in Philosophy of Hinduism, that erudite essay which concludes:

Inequality is the soul of Hinduism. The morality of Hinduism is only social. It is unmoral and inhuman to say the least. What is unmoral and inhuman easily becomes immoral, inhuman and infamous.
— BR Ambedkar, 'Philosophy of Hinduism'.

This is why Ambedkar was deeply dissatisfied by a mere temple entry movement.

I didn’t launch the temple entry movement because I wanted the Depressed Classes to become worshipers of idols which they were prevented from worshiping or because I believed temple entry would make them equal members in and an integral part of the Hindu Society. So far as this aspect of the case is concerned I would advise the Depressed Classes to insist upon a complete overhauling of Hindu Society and Hindu theology before they consent to become an integral part of Hindu Society. I started temple entry Satyagraha only because I felt that was the best way of energizing the Depressed Classes and making them conscious of their position. As I believe I have achieved that purpose I have no more use for temple entry. I want the Depressed Classes to concentrate their energy and resource on politics and education and I hope that they will realise the importance of both.
— BR Ambedkar, 'Do Depressed Classes desire Temple Entry?'

We know that these misogynist and Brahminical views continue to hold sway in 21st century India – from caste violence against Dalits to urban middle classes practising untouchability. And here are some brave men on Twitter who protest that Hinduism is not violent.

[Click here to learn more about FGM]

It’s not just me of course, many many women have faced this kind of abuse in social media from desh bhakts who have no other work than to fantasise about rape and violence on women, and in their frustration, to count condoms that others get lucky enough to use.

Turning now from the criminally ignorant to the radical revolutionary Periyar:

If god is the root cause for our degradation destroy that god. If it is religion destroy it. If it is Manu Darma, Gita, or any other Mythology (Purana), burn them to ashes. If it is temple, tank, or festival, boycott them. Finally if it is our politics, come forward to declare it openly”.
— Veeramani, January 1981 (2005), 'Collected Works of Periyar EVR', Third Edition, Chennai. The Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution, p. 489.

I stand on the shoulders of giants when I say that Hinduism is a violent religion.

I also believe that there are believing Hindus who are struggling from within to change the hideous aspects, and they face as much opposition as those of us who claim not to be religious. And yes, all religions are patriarchal and oppressive, and there are men and women within those faiths as well as those who have exited, who regularly battle it out. For instance, take this rally on International Women’s Day on March 8, in Mumbai, in which women of different faiths came together to protest notions of purity and hygiene that marginalise women, and to question the role of clerics and priests.

Also take a look at PK Yasser Arafath’s paper in Economic and Political Weekly (Vol. 49, Issue No. 49, 06 Dec, 2014) in which Arafath questions the ways in which certain Muslim/Islamist groups criticised the “Kiss of Love” protests in Kerala.

He argues that Muslim/Islamist organisations that conducted counter-protests against the “Kiss of Love” failed to comprehend the trajectory of Hindutva’s urbanspatial intervention, and have misread Islam’s own engagements with the “body”.

***

The case of Sudhir Chaudhary

Zee News Editors Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia were arrested in 2012 after a complaint by Jindal Steel and Power Limited that they had demanded Rs 100 crore in return for not airing negative news against the firm. Chaudhary and Ahluwalia were released on bail later. Chaudhary and Ahluwalia were caught on camera demanding Rs 100 crore for not airing negative news against the firm.

That case is still going on, and in June 2015, a Patiala House court issued notices to them questioning their bail.

But wait, there’s more.
In 2007, Sudhir Chaudhary was head of a channel called Janmat. Where is that channel now? Why doesn’t it exist?

Because it was closed down after Chaudhary allegedly ran a fake sting operation on a school teacher for supposedly running a sex racket, as a result of which she was attacked by a mob on camera. She took the matter to court later and the channel was found guilty of manufacturing a sting (the “student” in the supposed sting turned out to be a journalist). A local businessman with a grouse against the teacher had allegedly connived with this courageous, ultra nationalist journalist Sudhir Chaudhary to frame her.

The channel was then closed down for a month and now runs as Live India.

The Indian Government banned the channel for a month due to the false sting. It was banned because it breached the Cable Networks Regulation Act, 1995, by broadcasting an admittedly doctored sting operation.

Is there a fit case for similar action against Zee News now?

The case of IBN 7 and Love Jehad

As for IBN 7 which on March 8 canvassed the views of the ati desh bhakt as to whether charges of sedition should be slapped against me, you can read details of what it did in 2009 here.

From the content it appears to have been made in October 2009, at the time the police presented its report to the Kerala High Court saying there was no evidence of in the state of Love Jihad, that alleged ploy by Muslim men to seduce Hindu women to Islam in order to conver them.But the video was uploaded on July 22, 2013.

This alleged investigation by IBN 7 is certainly shocking, but not for the reason you’d imagine. In the entire video of about 30 minutes there is not one shred of evidence presented. All you have is an extremely high-pitched commentary by IBN reporters that claims the existence of a widespread ring of Islamic Love Jihad – jis ka “baakayda manual bhi hai” – this manual is not shown to us, in fact, no evidence at all is shown to us. Indeed, after a series of claims and assertions, the commentary actually confesses that off camera, the police tell us the names of many organisations involved in this, but "saboot na hone ke chalte" (because there is no proof) we cannot reveal those names.

But it’s worse than giving us no evidence. There is outright misrepresentation of what people say. At one point, claiming to show us a Love Jihad ke haathon barbad ladki, there is a glimpse of a pixellated face and a girl’s voice says the following words in Malayalam “through the use of mobile phones, then in schools, through friends, in ice cream parlours, theatres, in these sorts of places…” it’s only a fragment, one cannot make out the context of what she is saying. Off camera a man’s voice asks something I couldn’t catch. She replies “..there is attraction…”

But on the screen appear in Hindi, as she is speaking, the words:
"Meri usse mulaqaat ek bus stop par hui thi. Vo roz mere peechhe aata tha. Kisi tarah mera number uske haath lag gaya. Voh roz phone karne laga. Mujhe laga ki vo mujhe pyar karta hai, par ye meri galat phehmi thi…” (I met him at a bus stop. He used to follow me every day. Somehow he got my number. He phoned me every day. I thought he loved me, but it was my misunderstanding….)

The viewer is led to believe that the Hindi words are a translation of what the woman says in Malayalam, even though her voice stops after that fragment. There is also a reference to a diary of the woman, but no pages from it are shown to us. The Hindi script on screen goes on to detail a situation in which this woman is kept in a house, many men come to her in cars, and so on. Not that any of this, even the Hindi words on the screen, mention Muslims or conversion, but this does not stop the IBN 7 reporters and anchor from repeating in a high decibel way, ad nauseam, that they are exposing through this, the Love Jihad campaign.

From other voice fragments in women’s voices (in Malayalam) it is clear that they are talking about common seduction techniques – for example, that men give clothes and cosmetics as gifts, take the girls on picnics and so on. Again, what the context is in which they say this is not clear. But while they do not mention Love Jihad or Muslims, the reporters’ commentaries, the Hindi voice-overs and Hindi text on screen keeps linking all this to both. The reporter says he has toured all over Kerala and found hundreds of girls are missing – what does this prove? Nothing, of course, but sure enough, the links are made by the anchor and reporter, to you guessed it, Love Jihad.

In the most shocking piece of dishonesty, the commentary presents the pixellated face supposedly of a father waiting for his daughter who went missing six months ago. The voice-over says that their home was then attacked by armed men who threatened them against going to the police, and told them they would never see their daughter again. The mother’s pixellated face and voice then appear, and what we heard in the voice-over is written in Hindi as she speaks, as if she is saying "then our house was attacked" and so on.

But what she is actually saying in Malayalam is this:

“She went away of her own wish. She did come back briefly once, and we tried our best to persuade her to stay. If she didn’t want to stay with us, we said we would put her up in the convent, but…”

If this blatant dishonesty is not a fit case for a complaint against IBN 7 under the Cable Networks Regulation Act, 1995, what is?

These are the desh bhakts, G Sampath calls it "goonda nationalism" – spewing violence and hatred, criminal extortionists and brazen falsifiers of facts.

No wonder so many of us prefer the proud anti-national company of Narmada Bachao Andolan, Soni Sori, Kabir Kala Manch…the list is endless.

Nivedita Menon is Professor at Centre for Comparative Politics & Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University. A version of this appeared first on Kafila.

आग कुरेदोगे, चिंगारी दामन तक तो आएगी…

March 11, 2016

Having chosen to be part of the sanghi lynch mob, Zee News has cast aside every pretense of journalistic ethics. Already in the dock for doctoring videos to aide the ABVP's sinister agenda of raising the bogey of 'anti-nationals' at JNU, in its ongoing witch-hunt it has found fresh targets in poet and scientist Gauhar Raza and academic Nivedita Menon. Reproduced below is the poem that Raza recited at a recent mushaira, a portion of which was plucked out of context by Zee News to tar the poet with "anti-national" brush.

Gauhar Raza / गौहर रज़ा

आग कुरेदोगे, चिंगारी दामन तक तो आएगी…

'धर्म में लिपटी वतन परस्ती क्या क्या स्वांग रचाएगी
मसली कलियाँ, झुलसा गुलशन, ज़र्द ख़िज़ाँ दिखलाएगी
यूरोप जिस वहशत से अब भी सहमा सहमा रहता है
खतरा है वह वहशत मेरे मुल्क में आग लगायेगी
जर्मन गैसकदों से अबतक खून की बदबू आती है
अंधी वतन परस्ती हम को उस रस्ते ले जायेगी
अंधे कुएं में झूट की नाव तेज़ चली थी मान लिया
लेकिन बाहर रौशन दुनियां तुम से सच बुलवायेगी
नफ़रत में जो पले बढे हैं, नफ़रत में जो खेले हैं
नफ़रत देखो आगे आगे उनसे क्या करवायेगी
फनकारो से पूछ रहे हो क्यों लौटाए हैं सम्मान
पूछो, कितने चुप बैठे हैं, शर्म उन्हें कब आयेगी
यह मत खाओ, वह मत पहनो, इश्क़ तो बिलकुल करना मत
देश द्रोह की छाप तुम्हारे ऊपर भी लग जायेगी
यह मत भूलो अगली नस्लें रौशन शोला होती हैं
आग कुरेदोगे, चिंगारी दामन तक तो आएगी'
-गौहर रज़ा

[IN ROMAN SCRIPT]

aag kuredoge, chingari daaman tak to aayegi…

Dharm me lipti watan parasti kya kya swang rachayegi,
masli kaliyan, jhulsa gulshan, zard khizaan dikhlayengi..
Europe jis vahshat se ab bhi sehma sehma rehta hai,
khatra hai wo vahshat mere mulq mein aag lagayegi..
German gaskado (gas chambers) se ab tak khoon ki badboo aati hai,
andhi watan parasti hum ko us raste le jayegi..
Andhe kuen me jhooth ki naav tez chali thi maan liya,
lekin bahar roshan dunia tum se sach bulwayegi..
Nafrat me jo pale badhe hain, nafrat me jo khele hain,
nafrat dekho aage aage unse kya karwayegi..
Fankaron se pooch rahe ho kyun lautaye hain samman,
Poocho, kitne chup baithe hain, sharm unhe kab aayegi..
Yeh mat khao, wo mat pehno, ishq to bilkul karna mat,
deshdroh ki chap tumhare upar bhi lag jayegi..
Yeh mat bhulo agli naslein roshan shola hoti hain,
aag kuredoge, chingari daaman tak to aayegi…

— Gauhar Raza

Courtesy: Communalism Blogspot

SEE ALSO:

The statement in Defence of Gauhar Raza (March 10, 2016)

The Importance of the Zakia Jafri Petition Hearings to Resume on April 6-7, 2016

March 11, 2016

Hearings in the Zakia Jafri Criminal Revision Application will resume after many months on April 6-7, 2016. The Gujarat High Court (HC) passed this Order yesterday, on March 10, 2016

In April 2013, after first filing a complaint with the Director General of Police (DGP) Gujarat, Zakia Ahsan Jafri, assisted by the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) filed her Protest Petition. This is a right allowed under law when a complainant (this time also a Survivor) fundamentally disagrees with the investigating agency and makes out a criminal case to charge sheet accused. In this case the investigating agency was (and is) the Special Investigation Agency (SIT) headed by RK Raghavan who filed a final report in the case on February 8, 2012. It took Zakia Jafri and CJP over a year to access the investigation papers and reports of AK Malhotra (SIT member) filed before the Supreme Court.

After arguments through most of year 2013, the Magistrate rejected the Protest Petition (December 26, 2013). Within eight days, son of Zakia Jafri, two other survivors of the Gulberg massacre and two trustees of CJP, Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand were falsely implicated in a criminal case by the Gujarat police. All attempts were made to prevent filing of the Criminal Revision Application (CRA) in the Gujarat High Court. This is required to be done within three months of the Order. Despite all the pressures, the CRA was filed in March 2014. For a year, official translations were undertaken of all documents. Just as the appeal was beginning hearing (August 2015), another onslaught, this time through the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was launched against Setalvad and Anand.

Despite all attempts to thwart the hearing, hearings began on August 3 and 4 (2015) and continued for three more sessions in August 2015 before the SIT again asked for adjournments! On the eve of the last dates set to commence arguments, the SIT again asked for an adjournment (March 10 and 11) on grounds that the counsel was sick. The Gujarat High Court has now scheduled arguments to re-commence on April 6 and 7, 2016.

This article, written and published in 2013 is being re-published because it outlines the significance of the legal effort afoot to bring ultimate accountability for the genocidal killings of 2002

It is not often that the battle against aggressive communalism, the sustained mobilization that precedes brute and targeted violence and includes hate speech and hate writing, the deliberate debilitation and paralysis of preventive and pro active measures of law and order that minimize the spread of reprisal violence and protect lives and properties, gets sustained and validated through courts of law. In the south Asian context, majoritarian communalism fed in an insidious manner by its minority prototype has the unique characteristic to deteriorate into authoritarianism, even fascism. Be it Sri Lanka, Pakistan or India events past and present are testimony to this. In the cases of all countries of the region, communalists of the majority find ready partners with fundamentalists of the minority.

For over four decades now, aggressive communalism has made deep inroads into the pillars of the Indian republic, executive, legislature and even the judiciary. The calculated, and bloody mobilization of an ostensibly religious kind by India’s main opposition party from the late 1980s was purely political; it consolidated a rigid vote-bank of middle and upper class Hindus while demonizing the minority vote bank as the raison d’être for its existence. This section of Indians, fortuitously a numerical minority still substantial number at 27-30 per cent of the overall vote, have aggressively celebrated the bloody attacks on minorities and its critics even as the this rath yatra led by LK Advani had a bloody trail en route (Hubli, Karnataka, Jaipur, Rajasthan, Surat, Gujarat among others). Writers and commentators have analysed this phenomenon as the republic’s descent into proto-fascism, with forces of the Hindu right, the Bharatiya Janata Party –the parliamentary wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its more modern avatars, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal (BD) manipulating institutions of democratic governance. Our administration, our police, even our Courts barely withstood the systematic onslaught.

It is in this unique context that the battle for acknowledgement, justice and accountability for the well-orchestrated state directed and executed crimes of 2002 in Gujarat needs to be understood. For over 11 years now, a steely band of survivors, backed by groups of civil and legal rights groups and activists have extracted, for the first time a degree of acknowledgement, transparency and accountability from an indifferent system. One hundred and twenty-six sentences (imprisonments for life), pronounced to, among others, policemen, powerful politicians (one former minister) and strongmen of outfits of the VHP and BD, is a success story in its own right.

What the Zakia Jafri protest petition filed on April 15, 2013 attempts is to take this battle for accountability several steps further, and deeper. In carving out a substantial case of criminal conspiracy planned and executed by the state’s chief minister who is also its home minister, this unique and historic legal intervention, apart from the individual cases of the 59 accused involved raises serious questions about
a) the systemic build up of communal mobilization and inaction by state agencies and actors;
b) the lacunae in monitoring and check on hate speech, hate writing, pamphleteering;
c) the state and government’s specific response to a tragedy like Godhra on February 27, 2002;
d) contemporaneous records that reveal government’s intent to contain the impact and spread of violence;
e) transparency in summoning assistance from the military /paramilitary forces;
f) comparative analysis of districts & commissionerates worst affected by violence (15) and those that held their own (SPs/DMs refused to bow down to political masters);
g) role of whistleblowers in pinning down accountability from political masters;
h) the role of survivors/activists/ legal and civil rights groups;
i) the role of the media in covering the build up and fall out of mass crimes.

Gujarat in early 2002 was sitting on a communal cauldron, carefully stoked since October-November of 2001. Records of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) that are well-documented parts of the protest petition (annexures to the affidavit of former SIB Gujarat chief, RB Sreekumar) as well as responses received from the office of the chief minister during the course of the investigation clearly establish that sustained efforts to keep districts and cities of Gujarat on the boil were afoot (reference pgs 178, Paras 426-442 of the protest petition). Significantly the newly sworn in chief minister, Narendra Modi who had been brought in by the party’s national leadership after a series of bye-election losses in September 2001, is at the helm of the law and order machinery as the state’s home minister but does little to act against this communal mobilization. SIB warnings include detailed notings of the aggressive anti-minority speeches being made by BJP party leaders as also persons belonging to the VHP and BD. One such comment recorded would prove to be prescient, “Yeh andar ki baat hai, police hamaari saath hai.” (stated by one Prahlad Patel on his way upstate to Faizabad-Ayodhya). Despite this climate and warnings, Godhra with a poor record, is left unguarded and unprepared. Despite platoons of the military and paramilitary being not far away (at Vadodara), they are not galvanized. When the Sabarmati Express arrives five hours late at the Godhra station on the fateful day, February 27, 2002, Godhra and many parts of Gujarat were already sitting on a communal tinderbox.

It is how the Godhra tragedy is deliberately manipulated that requires a careful and dispassionate study for all those concerned with non-partisan governance. The first information on Godhra received by the chief minister, home and revenue department from the district magistrate, Jayanti Ravi details the sequence of events – aggressive and provocative sloganeering by kar sevaks that caused a mob of Muslims to gather and pelt stones. This reasoning that explains, partially at least how and why a crowd gathered when the train stopped after it had left and the chain was pulled, is thereafter deliberately and consciously obliterated by the government in official statements and releases. The chief minister in the assembly around 1 p.m that afternoon hints at a sinister and Machiavellian conspiracy. (paras 50-54 at pages 37-39 of the protest petition and paras 127-174, pages 71-92 of the protest petition ).

But it is other jigsaws in the puzzle that have fallen into place during the analysis of investigation papers and preparation of the protest petition that point to the chilling manoevres by men and women in positions of governance to abdicate their oath to the Indian Constitution and consciously allow a chain of criminal actions to spiral out of control, that bear careful understanding and discussion. Between 9 a.m. when news of the tragedy at Godhra has been received and 10.30 a.m. when an official meeting of home department officials is called by the chief minister, phone call records (that were deliberately ignored by the Special Investigation Team, SIT) show that the chief minister was in close touch with Jaideep Patel (accused number 21 in the criminal complaint). Jaideep Patel, far from being a man from officialdom, is actually a strongman of the VHP, the state’s general secretary. Despatched to Godhra soon after these telephone conversations it is the same Jaideep Patel who thereafter attends an official meeting at the Collectorate at Godhra (para 69, page 45 of the protest petition) and to whom the chief minister orders the 54 dead bodies of Godhra victims to be handed over. It is a VHP man who is given the responsibility of transporting these bodies to Ahmedabad in a motor cavalcade that causes violence in its wake (paras 73-81 at pages 47-50 of the protest petition) and Jaideep Patel who hands them over to the authorities at Sola Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad. Jaideep Patel thereafter is also charged with being an instigator of mobs to violence at Naroda Gaam, the next day, February 28, 2002.

This close contact between the chief minister and Jaideep Patel, both accused in the Zakia Jafri criminal complaint dated June 8, 2006 continues right through till February 28, 2002 when the massacres at Naroda and Gulberg are being executed. At 15:26:06 hours, Jaideep Patel calls the chief minister at his official number and has a conversation lasting 141 seconds. Jaideep Patel’s is one of just three calls on this number. Incidentally all the official office and residential numbers of the chief minister for both days show a shockingly low number of calls, raising more questions than they answer. The mobile number of the chief minister has been left deliberately uninvestigated by the SIT (para 106, page 61 of the protest petition)

After this surreptitious indications of the criminal conspiracy that was to unfold, the chief minister, then health minister, Ashok Bhatt, minister of state for home, Gordhan Zadaphiya and Jaideep Patel are in touch and a controversial decision to conduct postmortems on the bodies of the unfortunate Godhra victims, in the open at the railway yard, in full public view of an aggressive crowd of VHP persons, baying for blood, is taken. Chief minister who is accused number 1 in this protest petition is present at Godhra at the railway yard while these illegal post mortems are allowed. (paras 473-477, pages 211-212 of the protest petition)

Law and procedure are exacting about whom bodies of such calamities are to be given; they require to be in the safe keeping of the police authorities (in this case the Godhra police where the case was registered) until claimed by relatives to whom they need to be handed over with due procedure. Photographs of gruesome/gory are strictly prohibited from being displayed or published. (para 480, page 214 of the protest petition). Not only were the gory charred remains displayed but they were allowed to be widely publicized in violation of Section 233, 4 (vi), Volume III of the Gujarat Police Manual.

The narrative behind this legal journey is in itself an exploration into systemic efficacy and response. Zakia Jafri, widow of quarterised, burned and slain former parliamentarian Ahsan Jafri first filed this criminal complaint before the Director General of Police, Gujarat. The man to hold this position by June 8, 2006, the date of the complaint, was none less than many times promoted despite being indicted Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad PC Pande. When the Gujarat police failed to register an FIR, she along with the Citizens for Justice and Peace, approached the High Court and later, when relief was denied further, the Supreme of India. On April 27, 2009 the Supreme Court, seeing merit in the issues raised by the complaint handed it over to the already appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) under former CBI director, RK Raghavan.

The investigations by the SIT resulted in four reports, three before the Supreme Court. While the SIT, despite contradictory findings concluded there was no evidence against any of the accused, the Amicus Curiae (friend of the court) senior counsel Raju Ramachandran said to the contrary. His report dated July 25, 2011 told the Supreme Court that there was a clear case for the prosecution of Modi and three others, at least. Based on this contrary advice, the Supreme Court on September 12, 2011 told the SIT to file its final report after considering the amicus’ contrary view and, in the event of this being no different from its conclusions before the Supreme Court, specifically entitled Zakia Jafri to a complete set of the investigation papers to file a competent protest petition. After a battle of five years, the complaint that began with a plea for registration of an FIR had now proceeded to the stage of a charge sheet being filed against the accused.

SIT did not change its conclusions and filed yet another report stating that no criminal charges were made out. As questionable, was its adamant refusal to comply with the Supreme Court’s order dated September 12, 2011 and give all the investigation papers to Zakia Jafri. The 514 page protest petition is an elaborate testimony to the reasons behind the SIT’s refusal to comply. Its own investigation papers have provided a wealth of further evidence of the callous complicity at the very highest levels in the state administration to paralyse the administration into inaction, deliberately refuse preventive arrests or the declaration of curfew, allow funeral processions to be the launching pads of attacks and rioting, neutralize any action on hate speech etc. By 2013 it is clear that the SIT has not simply performed an onerous job in a desultory and unprofessional fashion. It is today through its partisan conclusions completely obfuscating the dividing line between being an independent investigating agency that it was bound to be, given its appointment by the Supreme Court, to becoming a spokesperson for the Modi administration.

Raghavan, Malhotra and Shukla the three main spokespersons for the SIT have cynically misled the Supreme court when they stated that the funeral processions of the Godhra victims in Godhra and at least five-eight other locations (Khedbrahma, Vadodara, Modasa, Dahod, Anand) were peaceful. The evidence from Police Control Room (PCR) records submitted by PC Pande to the SIT after 15.3.2011 reveal a cold-blooded mobilization of RSS workers and VHP men at the Sola Civil hospital from 4 a.m. onwards on 28.2.2002 in aggressive anticipation for the arrival of the dead bodies. Repeated PCR messages, that the home department under Modi (A-1, who held the home portfolio) and PC Pande (A-21) were trying to conceal, show that both in Ahmedabad and in several locations all over Gujarat, crowds were mobilized to aggressively parade bodies with bloodthirsty sloganeering, inciting mobs to attack innocent Muslims.

The then joint police commissioner, Ahmedabad, Shivanand Jha, also an accused in the complaint (A-38), was jurisdictionally in charge of Sola Civil Hospital in Zone 1. As the messages extracted show, repeated PCR messages desperately ask for more bandobast; they speak of the staff and doctors of the hospital being under threat; of a 5,000-6,000 strong mob accompanying the bodies and finally one message also says that “riots have broken out.” (paras 559-560 at pages 244-247 of the protest petition) These records also reveal what the SIT was trying hard to conceal — that while the Ahmedabad police under PC Pande and the home department under Modi and then MOS, home Gordhan Zadaphiya (A-5 ) had enough forces to escort a VHP leader known for his incendiary slogans, Giriraj Kishore, from the airport to the Sola Civil hospital to accompany the processionists, — they did not have enough forces to send to Naroda Patiya where 96 persons were massacred in broad daylight (charge-sheet figures in the Naroda Patiya case, though more deaths have been recorded) and 69 persons at Gulberg society the same day and around the same time aggressive processions were being allowed.

Sustained warnings from the SIB, even after the Godhra tragedy on February 27, 2002 show that large sections of the police were aware and knew of what should be expected all over the state now that the Godhra tragedy had happened. As early as 12:30 pm on the 27th February: An SIB officer through fax no 525 communicated to the headquarters that there were reports that some dead bodies would be brought to Kalupur Hospital station in Ahmedabad city. The same message said that kar sevaks had given explosive interviews to a TV station at Godhra and had threatened to unleash violence against the Muslims.

But it is the panic messages from 1.51 a.m. onwards on February 28, 2002 from police wireless vans positioned at Sola Hospital demanding immediate protection from Special Reserve Police platoons and the presence of DCP Zone 1 that are grave testimony to the planned gory scenario that was to unfold. The message at 2:44 hours on February 28, 2002: the motor cavalcade has reached Sola Civil Hospital. Page No. 5790 of Annexure IV, File XIV reveals that at 04:00 am a mob comprising of 3,000 swayamsevaks, that is the members of the RSS, had already gathered at the Civil Sola Hospital. Again, another message three minutes later at 7:17 a.m. (Page 5797 of Annexure IV, File XIV of the documents) says that a mob of 500 people was holding up the traffic. By 11:55 am a PCR message is sent out saying that the Hindu mob had become violent and had set a vehicle on fire and was indulging in arson on the highway. Message at 11.55 a.m. on 28.2.2002 (Page No. 6162 Annexure IV File XV) saying that “Sayyed Saheb, the Protocol Officer had informed Sola-1 that riots have started at Sola civil hospital at the High Court where the dead bodies were brought. Again, there is another message with no indication of time (Page No.6172 of 28.2.2002) that states that the officers and employees of the hospital had been surrounded by a 500 strong mob and they could not come out”. The message also made a demand for more security for the civil hospital at Sola. In a cynical disregard of this hard documentary evidence, the SIT in its first investigation report dated May 12, 2010, the chairman’s comments, May 14, 2010 and its final report dated February 8, 2012 say the funeral processions were peaceful.

On the morning of February 28, 2002, another SIB message says that a funeral procession was allowed to take place at Khedbrahma, a town in Sabarkantha district and adds that soon after the funeral procession 2 Muslims on their way to Khedbrahma were stabbed and the situation had become very tense. All this and more has been ignored by the SIT completely.

Other documentary evidence of deliberate acts of provocation by persons like Jaideep Patel Kaushik Mehta (also both accused) and Dileep Trivedi are recorded by the SIB that states that deliberately inflammatory and false statements of “women being molested at Godhra” are being propagated by these persons; other meetings at Vapi, Khedbrahma, Bhavnagar etc are being held by RSS, VHP, BD to whip up sentiments (paras 631-637, pages 274-276 of the protest petition). One message at Annexure III, File XVIII (D-160) at Page No. 19 Message No. 531 from SIB Police to KR Singh at 1810 hours on 27.2.2002, actually records that “on 27.2.2002 at 4.30 p.m. when the train arrived at the Ahmedabad Railway station, the kar sevaks were armed with ‘dandas’ and shouting murderous slogans ‘khoon ka badla khoon’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.”

While the chief minister has travelled 300 kilometres to Godhra and returned the same night, he does not visit any of the refugee camps where in brute reprisal killings, women, children and men of the minority have been lodged until well after the visit of the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), former chief justice JS Verma on May 21-22, 2002. He also announces a discriminatory compensation package for those killed at Godhra and those thereafter. The crucial and sensational meeting at his residence on the night of February 27, 2002, is where direct evidence of the conspiracy in operation has been alleged.

Officers and others who were present have over the past eleven years indicated the directly illegal orders conveyed by the accused chief minister. Unlike crucial law and order meetings at times of crises this meeting has not been minuted. What transpired at this meeting was first publicly revealed through the report of the Concerned Citizens Tribunal—Crimes Against Humanity headed by Justices VR Krishna Iyer, PB Sawant and Hosbet Suresh. Thereafter in the course of the SIT investigations, a serving officer of the Gujarat police, Sanjiv Bhatt testified directly and corroborated this. The protest petition makes a strong case for testing this evidence in court. Amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran in his report to the Supreme Court has also clearly opined that it is not for the investigating agency to pre-judge the evidence but place it to be tested during trial.

Despite the evidence of intense communal mobilisation, bloodthirsty speeches and actual attacks on innocent citizens of the minority, on the day of the Godhra tragedy, there is no appeal for peace and calm by the state’s chief minister and home minister; no preventive arrests are made despite 19 attacks on minorities in Ahmedabad on February 27, 2002 itself; no prohibitory orders are issued and there is no clarity from the investigation papers as to when the army was actually called and deployed. SIT has not bothered to record the statement of Major Zameeruddin Shah in charge of the army operations in Gujarat neither that of KPS Gill sent in by the erstwhile NDA government in May 2002 simply because the violence continued and refused to stop. Hence the protest petition apart from praying for the charge sheeting of all the accused also makes a strong case for a transfer of the further investigation to an independent agency

The failure of the SIT was to examine the evidence objectively, evaluate the motive behind the government supporting a bandh called by the VHP and RSS and its impact, tested officers of the ground who were sending warnings against the claims of their accused superiors who have collaborated in partisan mis-governance. An honest and robust investigation would have made a strong comparative analysis between those districts of Gujarat that burned and those that withstood the illegal instructions from above while succumbing to rampaging militias of the RSS-VHP-BD combine from below. Bhavnagar and Panchmahals are interesting studies.

SP Rahul Sharma despite all attempts to unleash bloodshed, held his own, even though re-enforcements and troops were deliberately delayed by his seniors in Gandhinagar.Annoyed at his non partisan conduct he was transferred out by March 26, 2002. Brought to the crime branch where he again, made significant points about non partisan charge sheets in both the Gulberg and Naroda Patiya investigations, he was transferred yet again. The narrative of the conspiracy of partisan governance and subversion of the justice process runs in parallel to a cynical policy of punishments of those officers and administrators who refused to bow down to a cynical leadership and rewards for those who succumbed and became collaborators.

Unfashionable as it is to quote from Jawaharlal Nehru when he said that "The [real] danger to India, is from Hindu right-wing communalism", it seems more than appropriate given the continued attempts by the government in power in Gujarat and the party in power to belittle what has been an onerous and exacting battle, fought at great risk, within the courts.

(This article first appeared in the Economic and Political Weekly, April-May 2013)

References:
1. Relentless Attack to Break the Resistance https://sabrangindia.in/column/relentless-attack-break-resistance

Communal Targeting Of Scientist Gauhar Raza: Citizens’ Statement Condemning Zee News

March 10, 2016

It is quite shocking that Zee news has targeted well known academics who are also widely respected public figures. Over the past week, Nivedita Menon — a feminist political scientist, writer, and translator — and most recently, Gauhar Raza — scientist, poet, film maker– have been labeled as “desh drohi” ‘anti-national’ by the channel. Gauhar Raza, was portrayed as part of what it terms in derogatory and unethical language the ” Afzal-loving poets’ gang”. In both cases, decontextualised video clippings of these individuals appearances in public events have been aired and their names repeatedly flashed through evening bulletins.

Singling out of individuals and creating a mass-frenzy against them using the medium of TV is a dangerous trend. Zee TV initiated this defamatory exercise in the case of the students of the JNU also, and these doctored videos have become the basis of arrest and harassment of Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban. They have not yet apologised for this highly irresponsible act. Despite their bluff being called, they have persisted.

That Zee News can continue to flout all ethical codes of journalistic conduct, and conduct this relentless tirade against Nivedita Menon and Gauhar Raza is criminal and unacceptable. We call upon the Press Council of India and the Broadcast Association to take note of this criminality and initiate necessary action against the channel. We also appeal to the governments of Delhi and the centre to initiate criminal proceeding against the channel for putting a citizen’s life under threat.

We strongly condemn this unethical and criminal act of the Zee news and demand an unconditional apology from them.

ABHA BHAIYA
ABHA DEV HABIB, DU
ABHIJIT A.M, LOKAYAT, PUNE
ACHIN VANAIK
ADITI MANGALDAS
ALKA ACHARYA
AMAR KANWAR
AMEET PARAMESWARAN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, JNU
AMIT SENGUPTA, JOURNALIST
AMITABH PANDEY
AMMU JOSEPH, BANGALORE
ANAND PATWARDHAN
ANEESH PRADHAN
ANIL CHAUDHARY
APOORVANAND, DU
ARCHANA PRASAD, PROFESSOR, JNU
ARINDAM BANERJEE
ARJUN DEV
ARUN KARTHIK B., GRADUATE STUDENT – IIT KANPUR
ARUNA RODRIGUES, MHOW, M.P.
ARUNDHATI DHURU
ASAD ZAIDI
ASHEESH MAMGAIN
ASHISH KOTHARI, KALPAVRIKSH, PUNE
ASHOK BHOWMICK
ASHOK VAJPEYI
ATUL SOOD
AVINASH KUMAR, ACTIVIST
AYESHA KIDWAI, JNU
AZHAR KHAN, JALGOAN, MAHARASHTRA
BAVISKAR SHARAD, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, CENTRE FOR FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE STUDIES
BHASHA SINGH, JOURNALIST AND WRITER
BHAVNA SHARMA
BRINDA SINGH
C.P. CHANDRASEKHAR
CHANDRAKANT N GAIKWAD
CHIRASHREE DAS GUPTA
CYNTHIA KUMAR
DEV DESAI, GUJARAT
DIKSHANT
DILIP SIMEON
DIPA SINHA
DR AJITA WSS DELHI
DR KAREN GABRIEL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DU
DR SHAMBHAVI PRAKASH, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY
DR. ANAND TELTUMBDE, PROFESSOR VGSOM, IIT, KHARAGPUR 721302
DUNU ROY
EHTASHAM KHAN, JOURNALIST
G. ARUNIMA
GAUTAM NAVLAKHA, PUDR
GAUTAM THAKER
GHANSHYAM SHAH (AHMEDABAD)
GITHA HARIHARAN
HAPPYMON JACOB
HARIDAS T
HARJINDER (LALTU) SINGH
HARSH KAPOOR
HARSH MANDER, WRITER, ACTIVIST
HESTER DU PLESSIS
HIMANSHU JOSHI, JOURNALIST
HIREN GANDHI, – DARSHAN, AHMEDABAD
IMRAN KHAN
INDU CHANDRASEKHAR
IQBAL AHMAD, JOURNOULIST
IRA PANDEY
JAINANDAN
JANAKI NAIR, PROFESSOR
JAVED ANAND
JAYATI GHOSH, JNU
JOHN DAYAL
JUHI JAIN
JYOTI PUNWANI
KALPANA KANNABIRAN
KALYANI MENON-SEN, FEMINIST LEARNING PARTNERSHIPS
AMMU JOSEPH, BANGALORE
KAMAL CHENOY
KAMAYANI BALI MAHABAL- FEMINIST, MUMBAI
KAMLESH SHAHARE
KAREN GABRIEL, DU
KARTHIK BITTU, HYDERABAD
KARUNA D W, RESEARCHER, CHENNAI
KAUSAR WIZARAT
KAVERI INDIRA
KAVITA KRISHNAN, SECRETARY AIPWA
KAVITA SHARMA, JMS, DELHI
KHUSHBOO JAIN
KIRTI SINGH
KM SHRIMALI
KN PANIKKAR
KUMAR SHIRALKAR
KUMAR SUNDARAM
LALIT KUMAR
LEENA DABIRU
M. DAVID AMALANADANE, PHARMACIST, KARAIKAL
MADAN GOPAL
MADHAVI KALE
MADHU PRASAD
MADHU SAHNI
MADHURESH KUMAR
MADHURI KRISHNASWAMY, JAGRIT ADIVASI DALIT SANGATHAN
MAHESH PANDYA, GUJARAT SOCIAL WATCH
MAHTAB ALAM, ACTIVIST AND WRITER
MANAN TRIVEDI, GUJARAT
MANASI THAPLIYAL
MANGALESH DABRAL
MANISHA GUPTE, WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVIST, PUNE
MANOJ KULKARNI
MANSI SHARMA
MARIEME HELIE LUCAS, SECULARISM IS A WOMEN’S ISSUE (SIAWI)
MARY E JOHN
MAYA PANDIT-NARKAR
MAYA VALECHA
MIHIR PANDYA
MILIND CHAVAN, PEOPLES’ UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
MINAKSHI SINGH, SAMARPAN
MK RAINA
MOGGALLAN BHARTI
MOHAMMAD AMIR
MOHAN KUMAWAT, FILMMAKER
MOHAN RAO
MOUSHUMI BASU
MURLI MANOHAR PRASAD SINGH
N.D. JAYAPRAKASH
NANDINI RAO
NANDINI SUNDAR
NASEERUDDIN SHAH, ACTOR
NASIRUDDIN HAIDER KHAN, JOURNALIST
NAVAID HAMID, PRESIDENT, ALL INDIA MUSLIM MAJLIS E MUSHWARAT
NEELIMA SHARMA
NEERAJ JAIN, LOKAYAT AND SOCIALIST PARTY (INDIA)
NIRAJ THOMBARE
NISHA BISWAS, KOLKATA
NIVEDITA MENON
OVAIS SULTAN KHAN
PAMELA PHILIPOSE
PANKAJ BISHT
PANKAJ CHANDRA
PARIMAL MAYA SUDHAKAR, HEAD-ACADEMICS, MIT SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT, PUNE
PARUL MUKHERJI
PATHIK ARORA
PENDYALA MADHUSUDHANA CHARY,JOURNALIST, TELANGANA
PERVIN JEHANGIR
PRABHAT PATNAIK, JNU
PRADIP DATA, PROFESSOR, JNU
PRAKASH K RAY, EDITOR, BARGAD.ORG
PRASAD CHACKO, SOCIAL ACTIVIST, AHMEDABAD
PRASHANT BHUSHAN
PRATHAMA BANERJEE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR (CSDS)
PRATIKSHA BAXI
PRAVEEN JHA
PRITAM PAL
PROF. ADITYA MUKHERJEE
PROF. MAYA PANDIT
PROF. MRIDULA MUKHERJEE
PUNEET SHARMA
PURUSHOTTAM AGRAWAL
PYOLI SWATIJA, ADVOCATE, SUPREME COURT
R. RAMACHANDRAN, JOURNALIST, NEW DELHI.
RAJAT DATTA
RAJENDRA PRASAD
RAJENDRA SHARMA
RAJESH SINHA
RAJINDER CHAUDHARY, FORMER PROFESSOR, M. D. UNIVERSITY, ROHTAK
RAJIV KUMAR
RAKESH, GENERAL SECRETARY,IPTA
RAKHI SEHGAL
RAM PUNIYANI
RAMPRAKASH, JALES, MP
RAVI KUMAR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, SOUTH ASIAN UNIVERSITY
RITOO M. JERATH
ROHIT, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, CESP, JNU
RUNU CHAKRABORTY
S.P. SHUKLA
SABA AZAD
SABA DEWAN
SABA GREWAL
SADANAND MENON, WRITER/CRITIC
SADHNA ARYA
SAGOLSEM PAVEL
SAHBA FAROOQUI, AIDWA
SAHIR RAZA
SANIA HASHMI
SANJEEV KUMAR
SANJIV BHATT
SANKARA NARAYANAN
SARAH HASHMI
SAROOP DHRUV. – DARSHAN, AHMEDABAD
SATYA SIVARAMAN, JOURNALIST
SATYAM VARMA (JOURNALIST, ACTIVIST)
SEEMA MISRA, ADVOCATE
SHABNAM HASHMI, SOCIAL ACTIVIST
SHAKTI KAK
SHALINI GERA
SHAMA MAHAMED, DENTIST, PUNE
SHAMEERA ASHROFF
SHAMIM MODI, SHRAMIK ADIVASI SANGHATAN
SHAMSUL ISLAM, NISHANT NATYA MANCH
SHARANYA NAYAK, ODISHA
SHARMILA TAGORE
SHEBA ASLAM FEHMI
SHUBHA MENON
SHUBHA MUDGAL
SHWETA BHATT
SMITA GUPTA, ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION
SOHAIL HASHMI
SUBHASH GATADE, NEW SOCIALIST INITIATIVE
SUBHASH KANE
SUBHASH, NEW SOCIALIST INITIATIVE
SUCHARITA SEN, PROFESSOR, JNU
SUDHA BHARADWAJ
SUDHIR DEVADAS
SUMAN BHATTACHARYYA
SUMIT SARKAR
SUNALINI KUMAR
SUPRIYA CHOTANI
SUPRIYA CHOTANI
SUPRIYA VARMA
SURESH PINGALE
SURJIT DABAS
SUSAN VISVANATHAN
SWATI DESAI
SYEDA HAMEED
TANIKA SARKAR
TEESTA SETALVAD
UDAYA KUMAR, PROFESSOR JNU
UJJWAL K HOWDHURY
UMA V CHANDRU, WSS, KARNATAKA
V. RAJENDRAN
V.G. ANTO, GANDHI NAGAR, THUMBAL P.O., SALEM – 636 114, TAMIL NADU
V.K. TRIPATHI, IIT DELHI
VAISHNA NARANG, PROFESSOR OF LINGUISTICS, JNU
Vijaya Venkataraman
VIKAS DUBEY
VIKAS RAWAL
VIMALBHAI, ENVIRONMENTALIST
VINEET TIWARI
VINOD KOSHTI, NEW DELHI
VISHNU NAGAR
WASI HAIDER
ZAKIA SOMAN

Muslim organisation takes up cudgels against extremism

March 10, 2016

Express photo: The organisation is also asking people to be careful while renting out their houses.

Written by Garima Mishra | Pune | Updated: March 10, 2016 6:03 am

Among the pamphlets and bills stuck on the building of Harun Mukati Islamic Centre (HMIC) in Aurangabad, some say: ‘ISIS se bachchon ko bachaiye, Lashkar-e-Toiba se bachhon ko bachaiye’ (save your children from ISIS, save your children from Lashkar-e-Toiba).

Others declare ‘jihaad against terrorism’.

Among the several initiatives this social organisation has taken up, one of them is to raise awareness among Muslim youths and their families to guard against extremist groups.

Yusuf Mukati, who founded the organisation in the name of his father over a year ago, said, “The issue of terrorism has been haunting the nation. These days, every incident is given a Hindu-Muslim twist. Muslim youngsters are being misguided by extremist organisations. Many a times, they get carried away and join such groups. In a recent case nearly two months ago in Aurangabad, a youngster was caught by the police for being involved with the Islamic State. That’s why we felt the need to raise awareness about the issue, especially in the Muslim community.”

Around two weeks ago, HMIC organised a lecture on the topic ‘Fight against Terrorism’, which saw participation from six maulanas – three from sunni community and three from tablighi community, and an ATS official. Nearly 1,500 people attended the event, where the maulanas interacted with youngsters.

“They briefed them on how Islam does not preach bloodshed and terrorism; the prophet propagates the message of peace and love. They stressed that enemy countries, especially Pakistan, are spreading falsehoods about the Muslim community, such as their diminishing population and how we are unsafe in India. The maulanas told the youngsters that they should not believe such things and go astray. Besides, they should also stay alert on social media, which is widely being used to trap Muslim youngsters with vulnerable minds. The youth were advised against posting hurtful comments related to sensitive issues on social media,” said Mukati. He added that through posters, the organisation is also asking people to be careful while renting out their houses and to keep the police in the loop.

HMIC runs various skill development programmes for girls, where they learn stitching, computer operations, yoga, mehendi, aerobics, calligraphy etc free of cost. “The teachers at the Centre ask the girls to keep a watch on the men in their house, especially young brothers, and see that they do not fall prey to any terrorist group,” said Mukati.

Chai Pe Shaadi

In a spin-off of the PM’s ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ strategy, HMIC has begun ‘Chai Pe Shaadi’, an initiative seeking to render a social service. It reaches out to financially weak Muslims and helps them organise weddings by offering free-of-cost venues, services of a kaazi (priest) and tea for the guests. The initiative was started nearly two months ago and so far, seven weddings have take place. “Often, the financially weak have to approach money lenders and borrow money on a high interest to organise a wedding. We want to help them. Apart from arranging the venue and a kaazi for them, we also provide tea for nearly 800 people, free-of-cost,” said Mukati.

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/muslim-organisation-takes-up-cudgels-against-extremism/#sthash.J7NGpdRP.dpuf

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आग कुरेदोगे, चिंगारी दामन तक तो आएगी…

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Muslim organisation takes up cudgels against extremism

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The RSS that wants to be regarded as indigenous and reviles secular democracy as “western”, has itself borrowed its whole construction of the nation from a narrow western exclusionary nationalism

Gauhar Raza / गौहर रज़ा आग कुरेदोगे, चिंगारी दामन तक तो आएगी…

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Gauhar Raza / गौहर रज़ा

आग कुरेदोगे, चिंगारी दामन तक तो आएगी…