The First Attempt: Bomb thrown at Pune at Gandhi on June 25,1934

January 30, 2019

Contrary to popular belief, there were many failed attempts on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Mahatma. Out of these attempts five are well documented and involve the Pune branch of the Hindu Mahasabha. Three of which also point to the involvement of Narayan Apte and Nathuram Godse.

The following text is based on the book Hatyakand (The Story of Gandhi’s Murder), a good work in Hindi giving a minute–by–minute account of the Gandhi murder trial.

The First Attempt: Bomb thrown at Pune
25th June 1934, Pune: During the Harijan Yatra in 1934, the Mahatma visited Pune. On 25th June he was to deliver a speech at the Corporation Auditorium. The Mahatma and Kasturba were travelling in a motorcade consisting of two similar cars. At one place en route the car in which the Gandhis were travelling was detained at a railway level crossing.

The first car arrived at the auditorium and the welcoming committee assumed that the Gandhis had arrived and stepped forward to welcome them. Just then a bomb was thrown at the car which exploded, grievously injuring the chief officer of the municipal corporation, two policeman and seven others.

The bomb was reportedly hurled by anti–Gandhi Hindu extremists as mentioned by Mahatma’s secretary Pyarelal in his book, The Last Phase, and by his biographer BG Tendulkar. Pyarelal has written: “This time their attempt was very well planned and executed to perfection….” Implying that the attempts before 25th June 1934 failed due to lack of planning and co–ordination. And also that the murderers were getting better with each attempt.

Pyarelal has said: “These people kept photographs of Gandhi, Nehru and other Congress leaders in their shoes. They were trained to shoot by using Gandhiji’s photograph as their target, these were the same people who later murdered the Mahatma while he was striving to bring peace to a riot ravaged Delhi, in 1948.”

After the attack, speaking at the function to felicitate him, the Mahatma said: “It is sad that this happened while I am working for the uplift of the Harijans. I have no desire for martyrdom as yet, but if it is to happen I am prepared to face it. But in trying to kill me why are they inconsiderate to the innocents who are likely to be killed or injured along with me? My wife and three young girls who are like daughters to me were travelling in the car with me. How have they angered you?”

The attacker escaped and there is no record of investigations or arrests. This was the first documented attempt in India on the life of the Mahatma. Many historians have alleged that this was the work of the Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte gang. This gang was involved in several other bomb attacks on other opponents of their Hindutva and dominance of the upper caste ideology.

(http://web.mahatma.org.in/attempts/attempt0.asp)

First published on Communalism Combat, October 2000

IIT Kharagpur stands in solidarity with Prof. Anand Teltumbde

January 29, 2019

He was invited to serve as a Professor in IIT Kharagpur, where he taught business management courses for more than five years before joining GIM. Currently, he heads the Big Data Analytics program of GIM and has launched a post-graduation course this year, the first of its kind in the country.

After students and teachers at IIM-A, education rights activists and academicians from Canada, more than 260 Students, Faculty and Alumni from IIT Kharagpur signed a statement in solidarity with Professor Anand Teltumbde.

He was invited to serve as a Professor in IIT Kharagpur, where he taught business management courses for more than five years before joining GIM. Currently, he heads the Big Data Analytics program of GIM and has launched a post-graduation course this year, the first of its kind in the country.

The appeal for quashing the false FIR against Dr Anand, filed by the Pune Police was rejected on 14 January by the Supreme Court and gave four weeks to seek pre-arrest bail from the competent court. Until now Anand felt confident that whatever charges the Police levied could be proved as criminal fabrication once they landed before the court.

An FIR was filed against Anand Teltumbde in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima violence and for his alleged Maoist links. Teltumbe had said in his petition that he was in Pune on Dec 31 and Jan 1 but did not attend the event even though he was the co-convener.

The apex court also refused to interfere with the ongoing investigation in the case.

However, a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Ashok Bhushan and S K Kaul extended the interim protection from arrest granted to Teltumbde by the Bombay High Court by four weeks. The apex court said Teltumbde could seek regular bail from the competent trial court in the meantime.

The statement by people at IIT Kharagpur added that for a person who has devoted almost four decades of his professional life in serving this state apparatus and advocating justice for the marginalized, such criminalization is utterly unjust.

“With all his intellectual contributions, Prof. Teltumbde has lived his life as an honest truth seeker and has questioned any injustice throughout his life. Whatever criticisms he made, and whatever questions he placed, he has made it with utmost scholastic discipline. Keeping all his activities and credentials in mind, it is quite unfortunate that a scholar like him is having to face such police actions without any iota of wrongdoing,” they said.

Full text of the statement:

Statement to stand against the threat of imminent arrest of Prof. Anand Teltumbde – Students, Faculty and Alumni of IIT Kharagpur

We, the undersigned students, faculty, alumni and others from IIT Kharagpur are shocked by the threat of imminent arrest of our ex-colleague, Prof. Anand Teltumbde. This comes in the aftermath of rejection of the appeal he filed at the Supreme Court regarding the baseless FIR lodged against him by the Pune police under the pretext of the Bhima-Koregaon incident. He has currently been granted a period of four weeks for seeking pre-arrest bail from the competent Court.

Details of the charges can be viewed in the following link: http://bit.ly/chargesonanand.

Prof. Teltumbde has been known as a renowned management professional and a scholar.

He graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from VNIT Nagpur and pursued a degree in Management from IIM Ahmedabad. He did his doctorate in Cybernetics and has held responsible positions in the corporate sector such as Executive Director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Managing Director & CEO of Petronet India Ltd. Even while being in the corporate sector, unusually, he published over 20 research papers in prestigious journals.

Later, he was invited to serve as a Professor in IIT Kharagpur, where he taught business management courses for more than five years before joining GIM. Currently, he heads the Big Data Analytics program of GIM and has launched a post-graduation course this year, the first of its kind in the country.

Despite his highly active professional life, he has always been intent on giving back to society. His intellectual contribution encompasses studying of various social issues and publishing of hundreds of articles along with a regular column, “Margin Speak” in the prestigious Economic and Political Weekly (EPW). He has authored 26 books which have been well received and widely read in India and abroad by prestigious publishing houses such as Zed books, Routledge, and Penguin Random House. Besides this he has also delivered hundreds of lectures across India and abroad for the past three decades thereby carrying out the role of a public intellectual. Various universities have conferred upon him several laurels, awards and honorary doctorates.

Coming from the poorest of the poor family, Prof. Teltumbde passed through the best institutes in the country with scholastic achievements. Just being an alumnus of hallowed IIM Ahmedabad, he could have easily lived a luxurious life only if he had chosen to ignore social oddities around him. However, with a sense of contributing to better the lives of people, he decided to just make enough to sustain his family at a reasonable living standard and devote time to make intellectual contribution, the only thing possible, towards making the world a little more just. Informed by this instinct, the residue of activism during his school and college days naturally landed him in organizations like Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) of which he is today the General Secretary and All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) of which he is a presidium member.

He has selflessly fought against caste-based discrimination and human rights violation of the marginalized. Moreover, he has been vocal about the education sector which is adversely affected by the neoliberal policies adopted by successive governments. By closing down primary schools, severely cutting funds in higher education institutes, encouraging private investments on education, funding private institutes by tax-payers’ money, forcing institutes to generate their own funds through fee hikes or corporate funded research etc., the ruling dispensation has continually tried to push forth their monstrous neoliberal agenda of liberalisation and privatisation.

These incidents are not be treated as stray incidents, rather they aim towards dissociating the marginalized masses from the fruits of education. These issues of national concern have been constantly brought to the fore by activists and students under the banner of AIFRTE.

Prof. Anand Teltumbde has been a guiding force behind this nationwide movement to save the education sector in India.

There is not an iota of unlawful in either his voluminous writings or selfless activism. Rather, his entire academic career and corporate career of nearly four decades have been without a single blemish and exemplar of the integrity of highest degree. Despite all these, the danger of being arrested looms large over him. Moreover, as in insinuation of his connection with Bhima-Koregaon or Elgar Parishad, he has been a critique of the episode and his criticism has been published in The Wire [https://thewire.in/caste/myth-bhima-koregaon-reinforces-identities-seeks-transcend].

Under the preposterous charges slapped against him, Dr. Teltumbde can only be arrested under the draconian UAPA which can mean years of incarceration. Even a hardened criminal can get away with his crime with a metered punishment of a year or two but an innocent person merely for the police, invariably acting at the behest of political bosses, claim that they have evidence against him could keep for years in jail. The arrest for him is not simply the hardship of prison life, it is keeping him away from his laptop which has been integral with his body, from his library which has been part of his life, half-written manuscripts of books committed to various publishers, his research papers which are in various stages of completion, his students who staked their future on his professional reputation, his institute that invested so much resources in his name and recently took him on its Board of Governors, and his numerous friends and of course his family—his wife, who, as the granddaughter of Babasaheb Ambedkar hardly bargained for this fate and daughters who are already disturbed not knowing whatever that has been happening to him since August last year.

For a person who has devoted almost four decades of his professional life in serving this state apparatus and advocating justice for the marginalized, such criminalization is utterly unjust.

With all his intellectual contributions, Prof. Teltumbde has lived his life as an honest truth seeker and has questioned any injustice throughout his life. Whatever criticisms he made, and whatever questions he placed, he has made it with utmost scholastic discipline.

Keeping all his activities and credentials in mind, it is quite unfortunate that a scholar like him is having to face such police actions without any iota of wrongdoing. We stand by Prof. Teltumbde and demand quashing of the baseless FIR against him not only to lend him and his family strength to endure this torture but also to do our part as responsible citizens in protecting the democratic ethos of our country.

Signatories:

Ayan Chandra, Research scholar
Aratrika Dey, Student
Rajesh S, Student
Selva Balaji M, Research Scholar
Shuvodip Majumdar, RS
Akash Chakraborty, JPA
MARXIM RAHULA BHARATHI B, Student
Rajdeep Sarkar, Student
anirban goswami, junior Research fellow
Jigar Solanki, Student
Sabyasachi Sengupta , Ex Professor
Soumen Moulik, Alumnus, Assistant Professor (Ph.D. from IIT KGP)
Pritam Bhattacharya, Research Scholar
Niloy Ganguly, Professor
Shitanshu Shekhar Chakraborty , Alumni
Arun babu k, PhD scholar
Arnab Poddar, Research Scholar
Dipannita Podder, Student
Debolina Chatterjee, Student
M N Goswami, Assistant Professor
Mirwaiz Rahaman, Assistant Professor
Dipshikha Podder, Student
Saurav Dash, Ex-Ph.D. scholar IIT Kharagpur
Shailendra Patel, M.Tech 2nd year Rubber Technology
Parveen Sahni, Student
AMIT BISWAS, Student
Shailendra Patel, M.Tech 2nd year Rubber Technology
Utkarsh, M. Tech Student
Arunava Bandyopadhyay , Research Scholar
Deepak verma, Student
Susila, Student
Lavanya V, M Tech from agricultural and food engineering department
vivek singh, IIT KGP
Anamika, Student
Rajdeep Biswas, Student
Karri Chandra Sekhara Sai Unmesh, Alumni, IIT Kharagpur (2018)
Sandeep, Intern
Harsh Deshmukh, Alumnus
lakshya, student
Murali Karthik, Student
Ravi Shaw, Research Scholar
Shivam Meena , Student IIT kharagpur
Rajneesh, Student
Charan Reddy, Alumnus, Software engineer
RajarajanS, Alumni
Rahul Kranti Kiran, Student
Dileeppavansurya, Student
Vivek Wandile, Student
Arindam Roy, Research scholar
Kalyani , Alumni,iit kgp
Pratik banka, Student
Kunal Singha, Research scholar
Chandramani kumar, Coral Mtech, iit kgp
Kssr, Student
Jagadish Patra , Student
Saurabh Nayak, Student
Saurabh Nayak, Student
Vivek shirode, Student
Shree narayan , Student
Smayukta Nanda, Alumnus,Chief strategic officer, TRC
Billa Rakesh, student
Subrata Ghosh, Research Scholar
Vikas Nimesh, Research Scholar
Amit Kumar, Kharagpur
Mridupon kutum, Student at IITKGP
Neelanjan Akuli, Student
Navami T S, Research Scholar
Debabrata Dutta, Senior reserach fellow
Pratik Hirekhan, Student
Siri, Student
sanjeevi kumar Uppu, Alumnus, SME
Ranajoy Sadhukhan, Student
Kumar Rishav, Student
Prathmesh Deshmukh , B.Tech student IIT KGP
Chakit Chawda, student
M.Sreelekha, Student
Kshitij Saraogi, Student
Likhit Pilli, B.Tech Student
Priyanka Bhaskar, Student
shambhavi dhote, student
Anand Azad, M.TECH STUDENT
Prashant Jeph, Alumnus, Ex- Hall president ,R.k hall
Priyank Yadav, Alumnus, Associate Consultant
Chiranjivee saksham , Alumnus, Electrical engineer
Sayan Das, Student
Yashasvi, Student
vinay kumar, Student
Sunny kumar, M.tech
Darun Prakash, Student
Siddhant Gupta , Student
SARVOTTAM KUMAR MODI, Student
Sandeep, Student
ravi teja, Student
Tina, 1st year UG student
Tanay Jagani, Student
Ishita , Student
Paritosh Jawalikar, Student
SUMIT SEN, 2nd year UG
Anand Raj, B.Tech Student
Paras Prateek, Student, IIT Kharagpur
Amrita Biswas, Student
Saswata Banerjee, Student
RADHAKRISHNA , Student
Ritesh kumar, student
Komal Thawrani, Alumnus, Urban Planner
Siba Smarak Panigrahi, UG (1st Year, B.Tech) Student
Diya Guha Roy, Senior Lecturer
Himanshu, Student
Mohidul Alam Mallick, Phd Research Scholar
Satyam Sevanya, UG student IIT Kharagpur
Amit kumar , Student
Prashant Singh, Student
Ranjeet kumar, Student
sibsankar Rahut, Research scholar
Thomas A Vempiliyath, Phd Scholar
VANKNAVATH SHOBHAN NAIK, Alumni
Abhinav Kumar, Student
Asheesh, Student
Atluri Balachandar, B.Tech 4th year student
Mahesh Singh, PhD Scholar
kovvuri lova sri koutilya varma, graduate
Saswat Dash, Student
Bhaskar Neog, Doctoral Scholar
Shashwat Dixit , Student
Bhart Singh, Alumnus
Shreya Jajodia, MBA 2nd Year Student
Ankur Garg, Student
KARANAM GNANA DEEPIKA, student
Subhadip Bouri, 4th year undergraduate
Akshat Suwalka, Student in IIT KHARAGPUR
Srinu Manikala, Student
Amar Mallick, Student
Bishakha Bera, Student
Sagar, Student
DAMINI SAHU, Student
shalini singh, research scholar
shalini singh, research scholar
Sanket Ramteke, Student
Suraj Kumar, Student
Rohit Yerramsetty, Student
Hima Swetha, Student
TABAN SALAM, student
P MEHENDI, STUDENT
shravan kumar singh, phd student
Sujit Ghosh, Research Scholar
Anubhav saboth, Student
Nikhil Yadav, Student
Tapas Mishra, Assistant Professor, NIT, Rourkela
Abhirup Roy Karmakar, Research Scholar
Aysha Jennath, Student
Giri Bhushan Sharma, PhD Scholar
Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, Professor
Shailesh Kanojiya, Student
Nokku Prudhvi , Engineer(alumini of IIT Kharagpur)
Tuhin Maparu, Alumnus, IIT Kharagpur
sushmita sharma, student
Anjana S, Student
PRIANKA PAUL, research scholar
Ankit Gaurav, Student
Ayan Saha, STUDENT
Karan Sushilkumar, Student(UG)
Ayush chandra, M.sc
Parth Paradkar, Student
Sidharth V, Student
Nishant Labhane, Alumnus, Assistant Professor
Aman Batra, Student, IITKGP
Nikhil Gupta, Student
Jana Ammaji Sadhana, student
Akshit Kumar, Student
D Kalyan Kumar, Student
Diana Bokinala, Student
Abhishek Kumar, Alumnus, Technical Executive UIDAI
Sindhu Thati, Student
Ambati Srujitha Reddy, Student
vaibhav dhiman, student @ IIT kgp
Sharbani Roy, Student
R Sai Aravind Naik, Student
Jatin Chhapola, Student
Ayush Jaiswal, Student
Dhrubajyoti Sen, Professor
Pathlavath Suresh, Student
Rishi Kant Rajpoot, STUDENT
Yudhisthir Behera , STUDENT
S Janakiraman, Research Scholar
Navdesh Nirwan, M.Tech. Scholar
Manohar K, Student
ARHUM Ansari, Student
Sudipta Ray, Research Scholar
ayush kanwar, Student
nikhil shah, student
Satya Prakash Dash, Student
Abhishek Anand , Alumnus, Inside Sales Executive
Nikhil Korra, Student
S Sidhartha, student first year ug
Yashwant Singh Chawda, 2nd year Student
vikash khakhal, student
M Siddharth, Student at IIT KGP
Ashish Singhadia, Research Scholar
ashish singh, mtech
Sachidanand , Student
B Venkatasainath, Research scholar
Dhananjay kumar, Student
HARI CHAND, M.Tech. Student iitkgp
Aditya Maramwar, student at KGP
Dhiraj Pawar, Post graduate student at IIT Kharagpur
Ritik Khobra, Student
Muhammad Hussain, 1st year B.tech,IIT Kharagpur
M Kumar, Engineer
Dilna Das, Student
GAURAV KUMAR, Research scholar
Shubham Gupta, Student
Dhane Dhiraj Manohar, Associate Professor
Kiran Kumar Reddy Papannagari, Student
Ravi Sharma, Student
Shanmuk, Research scholar
Siva Datta Budaraju , Student
Rohini Nari, SN/IG Hall,IIT Kharagpur
Monnie parida, Research Scholar
Rajesh, Software Engineer
Sudeep Sharma, Student at IIT kgp
Sriharsha, Student
Rupali Singh, Research scholar
Joy Aditya Barua, Final year UG
Saketh Varma, Student
Poonam Tripathi, Alumnus, Training Analyst
Ashish Dhiman, Alumnus, Geophysicist at WAPCOS Limited
Hemal Pawar, Alumnus, Consultant
CHADUVULA HEMANTH, Research Scholar
BINDU PRIYATHA, Student
Lalith vishnu, Student
DEEPANJAN MRIDHA, M.TECH, 2ND YEAR
Amitabha Bhattacharya, Professor
Arkaprava Ghosh, Student
Deepanjan Saha, Research Scholar
Subhojit Sengupta, Research Scholar
PRABHDEVA P, JRF
Jayeeta Mitra, Assistant Prof
Susenjit Ghosh, Student
Anupam Banerjee, Research Scholar
V.GOBINATH, Researcher
Siddhartha Sen, Professor
Rohit Chillar, Student
Aakash S, Alumni
Sahil Goyal, Alumni, 2018 batch
Dipak Prasad, Research Scholar
Rakesh Kumar, Student
Mohd Zuhair, Research Scholar
Arpita Sreemany, Senior Research Fellow
k sandeep kumar, student
LAVETI VAMSI, 4th year UG student of the department of architecture and regional planning
NIKHIL MADAN GHANGHAV, IIT KGP STUDENT
Karthik Reddy, Student UG
Saurav Suman, 5th year dual degree student
Sudarshan Pal, Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Former Associate Professor & HOD, Physics, Kharagpur College
Anoop A., Associate Professor
Pradeep Kumar, Student
Saswati , Research Scholar
Sriku, Student
Gowrishankar, Faculty
Tuli Bakshi, Ex Research Scholar,IIT kgp
Amir sohel, P. G student
Aadi Swadipto Mondal, Student
A.S.S.Lakshman, Alumnus, Associate Consultant
Subrato Mondal, Alumnus, Development Architect, Standard Chartered GBS

Opinion: Why are Muslims blamed for the crimes committed against them?

January 29, 2019

As far as Muslims and other religious minorities are concerned, it’s good to introspect about their plight. It is not correct to have a feeling of victimhood. But can we understand the broad political global phenomenon in such a superficial way, where Muslims are blamed for their own plight? Can we present Hindus as a uniform community pitted against the uniform Muslim community?

Naseeruddin Shah in an interview to Karawan-E-Mohabbat expressed his anguish and anger at the killing of Subodh Kumar Singh, the police inspector. Shah’s interview brought forth the issue of insecurity, particularly of the religious minorities in India. While this did remind the nation of the direction in which India has been heading for the last few years, there was an angry response to Shah’s interview from intolerant sections of society who left no stone unturned in calling him names and in humiliating him in social media.

At the same time, RSS’s mouthpiece Organiser carried an interview by Shah’s cousin, Syed Rizwan Ahmad. Ahmad is introduced as an Islamic scholar. Ahmad in the interview says that Muslims are unsafe only in nations where Muslims are in majority and that in India intolerance is the birth child of Muslim incompatibility to exist peacefully with other faiths.

He goes on to blame the Indian Muslims for their plight in this country as they failed to play a proactive role in Shah Bano and Kashmiri Pandit issues. It is due to this that Hindus have started feeling that they are getting a raw deal. As per him, intolerance is the pseudo-narrative of pseudo seculars and intolerant Muslims.

As far as Muslims and other religious minorities are concerned, it’s good to introspect about their plight. It is not correct to have a feeling of victimhood. But can we understand the broad political global phenomenon in such a superficial way, where Muslims are blamed for their own plight? Can we present Hindus as a uniform community pitted against the uniform Muslim community? Globally it is true that the Muslim majority countries in West Asia are witnessing more civil wars and more insecurity. Let’s also note here that while on the Indian side we blame Pakistan for the acts of terror, the number of deaths of innocent civilians is many times higher in Pakistan than in India, and let’s not forget Pakistan lost its Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in a terror attack. Again we see that oil-rich zones witness more civil wars and terror attacks. The sequential rise of Mujahideen, Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the region saw acts of terror and violence in these areas. Has this been due to Islam? Why this phenomenon was not there during the cold war era or prior to that?

This violence in West Asia (also called the middle-east) has been promoted primarily by the American policy of controlling oil wealth. In the wake of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, America was not able to counter it by sending its own army as the army morale was low after the humiliating defeat in the Vietnam War.

The USA, by clever machinations, started promoting fundamentalist groups in these regions, brainwashing Muslim youth in few Madrassas in Pakistan and it richly funded (eight thousand million dollars) and heavily armed (Seven thousand tons of armaments, including latest weapons) these groups which came from this process. This sowed the seeds of violence, terrorism and led to insecurity in the region. Mahmood Mamdani’s book ‘Good Muslim-Bad Muslim’ gives the accurate account of the process which was employed by the mighty superpower to prop up terrorist groups. To add salt to the wounds, after the 9/11 2001 twin tower attack, the American media popularized the phrase ‘Islamic terrorism’ and laid the foundation of global Islamophobia. The wealth of Muslim majority countries, the oil, became its biggest handicap.

Islam came to India with Arab traders and many embraced it for many reasons, one of which could be to escape the tyranny of the caste system. One recalls that Muslim kings like Akbar promoted inter-religion interaction and many of the most demonized Aurangzeb’s top officers were Hindus. In India, while the impression is being created that Muslims are intolerant, the fact during the medieval period, Hindu-Muslim interactions created Ganga Jamuna tehzeeb, well presented in Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Discovery of India’ and beautifully captured in the Shyam Benegal’s immortal serial ‘Bharat Ek Khoj,’ based on this book.

During freedom movement majority of Muslims were with Indian National Congress and were equal partners in the freedom movement. This gets well reflected in the Muslim freedom fighters like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abul Gaffar Khan and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai among others. Partition was the clever move of the British Empire to weaken India and to have a subservient state in South Asia in the form of Pakistan.

The communal poison was spread here by communal organizations, Muslim League; Hindu Mahasabha and RSS. Sardar Patel went to the extent of saying that it was due to the communal poison spread by RSS, that the murder of the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi could take place. The rising communal violence, the arrest of innocent Muslim youth on the pretext of acts of terror, then lynching’s in the name of cow-beef have created massive insecurity. We can see a correlation between rising insecurity and the rise in ghettoization, fundamentalism and the use of Burqa among other orthodox practices.

The Muslim community has also made a few mistakes.

The section of Muslim community which opposed the Supreme Court verdict on Shah Bano pushed the whole community back. The section of leadership highlighting Babri mosque demolition has not been good for the large section of the community. No doubt the Babri mosque issue has been doctored to show that it was a place of birth of Lord Ram, still Muslim leadership should focus on livelihoods than identity issues. Muslim leadership needs to focus on issues of equity. Now, dominant communal discourse by so-called Islamic scholars is trying to put all the blame of the plight of the Muslim community on Muslims themselves. Nothing can be farther from the truth, it’s like blaming the victim for the crime.

Deadline for Online Corrections in NRC Draft extended by One Month

January 29, 2019

Guwahati, 29 January: In a huge relief to lakhs of people in Assam, the deadline for the process for online correction in draft NRC has been extended by another one month.

Image: https://cjp.org.in/

As per a communique released on 28th January by the office of the State Coordinator of NRC, the online correction of names and other relevant data appearing in draft NRC will be continued till 28th February, 2019. The statement issued on official Facebook page of NRC says, “Kind attention – Last date to avail name etc correction facility via online mode has been extended up to 28th February 2019.”

The correction process is for those 2.89 crore people, whose names appeared in the final draft NRC published on 31st July, 2018. The NRC authority in his earlier order declared that claim applications and correction process will go on simultaneously. The claim applications were a means for those 40,07,707 persons who had been excluded from final draft NRC to have their names included this time.

“Though the process of receiving claim applications started from 23rd September last year no Nagorik Seva Kendra (NSK) were ordered to receive the correction applications or issued correction forms. Thus the NSKs were in the dark regarding issuing of correction forms or receiving such forms. Many people downloaded the correction forms from NRC website and filled it up on their own. But when they went to submit it in their respective NSKs the LRCR or other officials on duty said that they have not received any communication to accept such forms. So, they can’t accept it. Even many people tried to submit correction forms through online process but the official website for correction process didn’t work till 31st December, 2018” says Mubarak Ali, Volunteer Motivator from CJP who is helping people with the NRC Claims, Corrections and Objections process.

“The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) which is continuously helping the distressed people in the Claims, Corrections and Objections process of NRC, tried several times but the NRC authority couldn’t declare the fixed time by when the correction process will be started. It was only in the second part of December we came to know that the correction process of the draft NRC will be started in online and offline system from 2nd January to 31st January,2019” says Pranjal Chaudhary another CJP Volunteer Motivator from Kokrajhar District.

CJP Volunteer Motivator from Barpeta District Majidul Islam alleged, “If the correction process had gone on simultaneously with the claim process then our community volunteers could have done both the work at the same time. But, when the correction process started only after completion of the claim process on 31st December, 2018, we have to move once again to the far flung areas, which has become time consuming and expensive.”

CJP Volunteer Motivator from Bongaigaon Sitenjoy Sarker says, “The correction process have been started from 2nd January, 2019. But in no NSK the NRC authority have supplied the correction forms. Poor and uneducated people can’t collect the correction forms from the computer centres due to absence of awareness and in many cases monetary crisis. Every family have some errors in the draft NRC. So, all of them have to submit correction forms. But to collect forms from the computer centres means a payment of at least 10 rupees. But, one who wants to borrow this form from the computer centres in the forward areas have to spent a working day and at least 50 rupees for traveling charges. When we go to help people we have to borrow the forms of our own. We can’t ask them even the charges of photocopy of the forms. In this way how much we can spend? How much the aware people involved with us as community volunteers can bear? Still, we are working day and night for the error free and inclusive NRC. But, when the leaders of the ruling party continuously discrediting the NRC, faith of the general masses also diminishes. It has affected the correction process highly. Even a general perception have been created that the NRC is not going to resolve any problem. The entire exercise on NRC will go on vain. So, what is necessity of correction in NRC?”

This is not the view of a single person, but, has been becoming the general perception. From 2nd of January the correction process of NRC has begun. Till now only a miniscule number of correction forms have been submitted through online and offline system. The correction applications submitted in offline system have not been processed yet. So, many people summited their forms in the respective NSKs are in confusion. Some NSKs in initial period denied to accept the offline forms. But, under pressure from various counterparts they were compelled to accept it. Still, they are not processing this forms citing that, no official order have been received regarding the processing correction forms.

In this complicated situation, many people started to return their correction forms from the respective NSKs. The NRC authority is not aware of the situation. They are only concern about the fact that out 68 lakhs family who have submitted their NRC applications, each and every ARN of which some or all names have appeared in the draft list is required one or some correction. But, the last date for submission of correction forms is just round the corner and only a few of correction forms have been received. In this situation, the NRC authority have extended the deadline for the submission of correction forms for another one month. But, the extended period is only for online system.

Now, how many people will able to go to computer centres any pay at least 100 rupees for filling in online correction forms? If someone fails to submit correction forms then not only that person, but their entire family and future generations have to suffer the consequences. In Assam, it is very frequent that hundreds of people have been becoming foreigners only because of minor discrepancies in their name or age in one or more documents. The administration needs to take this into account and make necessary arrangements at each NSK to collect and process all the offline corrections forms submitted so far and also encourage people who haven’t been able to do so thus far to fill and submit their forms.

Veteran Parliamentarian and political legend George Fernandes no more

January 29, 2019

Fernandes was born in Mangaluru in 1930 and was training to be a Roman Catholic priest when he was drawn to trade union politics. He rose to prominence after his surprise victory in the 1967 parliamentary elections, over a Congress veteran in Mumbai.

New Delhi: Hair unkempt, manacled hands raised in defiance, the black and white photo of George Fernandes while he was arrested during Emergency, will always be the most iconic and powerful image of the former Defence Minister of India.

During the 1975 Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government, George Fernandes was arrested for what was dubbed the “Baroda Dynamite Conspiracy” to blow up government establishments and railway tracks. He contested the 1977 election from jail and won the Muzaffarpur constituency in Bihar by a landslide.

George Fernandes became a hero of the Emergency. He was made minister when the Janata Party came to power in 1977 with Morarji Desai as Prime Minister.

He passed away at the age of 88 on January 29. He had been unwell and bedridden over the past few years.

Fernandes was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, which had forced him out of the public eye for several years, and had recently contracted swine flu, his long-time associate, Jaya Jaitly, said, adding that he died at his residence.

Mr Fernandes was born in Mangaluru in 1930 and was training to be a Roman Catholic priest when he was drawn to trade union politics. He rose to prominence after his surprise victory in the 1967 parliamentary elections, over a Congress veteran in Mumbai. In 1974, he organised a nationwide railway strike.

Fernandes joined the BJP-led NDA government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998 and 1999, in which he was appointed the defence minister. Under his stewardship, India fought the Kargil war in 1999. It was also during his tenure that India conducted a nuclear test at Pokhran in 1998.

He slapped foreign exchange violation charges against Coca-Cola and IBM, which forced them to shut down their operations and quit India. Coca-Cola returned after 20 years.

George Fernandes served as Defence Minister between 1998 and 2004.

He was a prominent leader of the socialist movement in the 1970s. He was a senior Janata Dal leader before he founded the Samata Party.

Apart from the defence ministry during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government, Mr Fernandes held several ministerial portfolios including communications, industry and railways.

Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Fernandes’ colleague for years in several socialist parties, said his unimpeachable commitment to democracy and willingness to go to any length to propagate his cause was an inspiration to him and many others during the Emergency.

Across UP’s Hate Crimes, A Pattern: ‘Outsiders’ Fuel Passions, Police Act Selectively, Relationships Crumble

January 29, 2019

Adhauli village, Bulandshahr: Now, with the benefit of hindsight, people can connect the dots and see the pattern emerging across hate crimes in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Dinesh Rajput, in Bulandshahr’s Adhauli village, was one of the first to call the police when a carcass, purportedly of a cow, was found near a pond. In a few hours, an angry mob–including people from outside the village, as villagers later said–had unleashed violence and vandalised a mosque. The issue would have been resolved in a less-violent way, if not for the “outsiders”, Rajput told FactChecker, “They egged the villagers on.”

It starts with a minor incident, controversial enough to draw the crowds, but the situation remains on slow burn. Until people from outside the village appear, fueling passions and inciting the mob until it commits a crime that destroys lives, relationships and neighbourly coexistence, for a long time to come.

“Mahual kharab karna chahate the wo log,” Dinesh Rajput of Adhauli village of Bulandshahr district in western UP, where a mosque was vandalised on August 25, 2017, said, meaning “they wanted to vitiate the atmosphere”.

After the crime, “they” disappear as quickly as they had arrived, often before the police reach the scene. Unable to pin the blame on anyone, the police start rounding up people at random.

Saddam (who shared only one name) of Purbaliyan village in Muzaffarnagar in western UP, where a dispute over a cricket match resulted in violence, narrated just such a series of events to explain how a riot was flamed and a hate crime committed; as did the neighbours of Mohammad Younus, who was shot dead in Naseerpur village of Mau district in south-eastern UP on June 26, 2017, where police investigations showed that the accused were local criminals trying to stoke communal tensions to distract the police from an ongoing investigation.

In Bulandshahr’s Soi village, where an elderly Muslim man was lynched, allegedly by a mob of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) activists, locals said the activists had intervened in a dispute between two families over the elopement of an interfaith couple. The police, initially, had dithered over confirming the link to the HYV.

In Sonda Habibpur village of the same district, the police are yet to arrest the main accused in a case of violence against a Dalit man, after his son eloped with a Muslim girl from the village. The victim’s family alleged that the police were going slow because the accused had links with local leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power in the state and at the Centre.

UP has reported the largest number of hate crimes since 2009, as per Hate Crime Watch, a database of religious identity-based hate crimes across India from 2009 to 2018. In our reporting from the site of many of these crimes, witnesses and victims veered towards a consensus–there is a pattern to these incidents, which is nearly formulaic in its reiteration.

For many, the link became clear after the December 4, 2018, violence in Bulandshahr, when two people–including a policeman–were killed during a violent demonstration by a mob protesting against the alleged slaughter of cows. “The way the carcasses appeared, the way a mob gathered and indulged in violence. This was exactly how it happened here as well,” Rajput of Adhauli said.

S R Darapuri, a former Indian Police Service officer who retired as an inspector general of the UP police, agreed, pointing to a “careful strategy” behind these hate crimes.

“The plan now seems to be to communalise these small, seemingly trivial, and often even personal disputes so that both communities get mobilised,” said Darapuri. “The police, then, quickly steps in and imposes harsh charges on the Muslim community.”

Such a strategy is important to those among Hindu right-wing groups that want to trigger communal riots. “Their efforts to trigger major communal riots in UP have failed, largely because the Muslim community has not responded to provocations,” said Darapuri.

This is the second story in our series reporting from the site of 13 recent hate crimes in Uttar Pradesh. Read the first story here.

The pattern

Early on the morning of August 25, 2017, a carcass, purportedly of a cow, was found in a pond just outside Adhauli village.

“We immediately called the police because we didn’t want any trouble,” said Arman Khan, whose uncle carries out commercial fishing in the pond. But, before the police could come, a crowd had converged at the pond. The villagers suspected them of being “Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena-wale”–Hindu right-wing activists–from neighbouring villages.

Villagers such as Dinesh Rajput, who was the first to call the police, kept a tense watch–the village has always been communally sensitive, the local police told FactChecker during our field visit in December 2018. The crowd started chanting slogans, insinuating that Muslims from the village were responsible for slaughtering the cow whose carcass had been found.

After a couple of hours, the police decided to leave and file a First Information Report (FIR). Rajput said he was afraid that things would spiral out of control, and tried to prevent the police from leaving: “I told them they must stay in the village or else the situation might get worse.”

Shortly after the police left, Rajput’s fears came true. The mob in the village square, now in the hundreds, marched to the narrow lane where most Muslims live, and started shouting slogans. Locals later said the slogans were largely around “Bharat mata” and “gau mata”. As the anger built up, the mob reached Jama Masjid, the village mosque. A few in the crowd decided to break into the mosque, and the mob followed, armed with sticks and stones. Within minutes, the mosque had been vandalised, its doors broken and furniture upturned, Khan said.

Before the police could return, Rajput told FactChecker, the people from outside the village had left. “Most of us could not identify them properly because they were not locals,” he said, “So the police started picking us [villagers] up.”

Rajput said the issue would have been resolved in a less violent manner were it not for the “outsiders”. “People here know their limits,” he said, “We fight but we back off soon enough–it has never reached such a state. Those activists egged the villagers on.”

Rewind. Repeat.

A year before this, on July 30, 2016, a near-identical sequence of events had played out more than 150 km away, in Muzaffarnagar’s Kadhli village.

This is the story we pieced together from our visit. Around 8.30 a.m., some villagers had started suspecting that a calf was being slaughtered in the home of cattle-trader and daily-wager Zeeshan (who was referred to by only one name, even in the FIR, and has since left the village). Some told FactChecker they had seen a calf being taken into Zeeshan’s house. However, one neighbour who did not wish to be named, said a Hindu man had sold Zeeshan the calf the previous night to entrap him. The neighbour alleged that the same man, later, tipped other villagers off about the slaughter.

Shortly after, a crowd had gathered, a trickle turning into a stream. “In no time, there were around 500 people there,” Ravi Kumar, a resident of the village, told FactChecker while pointing to a narrow lane outside Zeeshan’s house, less than 20 feet wide.

Kumar, an advocate, was getting ready to leave for work that day, he said, when he noticed the crowd. There was one thing about the crowd that disturbed him and led him to make a call to the police: “Most of the crowd were from the neighbouring Mandwandi village. Some of them were with the Bajrang Dal and other gau rakshak dals [cow protection groups].”

Before the police could come, the swelling crowd had attacked Zeeshan’s house and assaulted his wife Shehnaz and children. “They were beaten badly; we could see even the children bleeding,” a neighbour said, not wishing to be named. Scared, Zeeshan’s family fled the scene, only to return a week after the incident to find their house destroyed and their cattle stolen.

“The situation would not have escalated so much if not for those outsiders,” said Kumar, pointing out that the family had been living there for decades, despite whispers that they slaughtered the odd calf now and then, sold to them by villagers who had no use for it any more.

Until that violent episode, Kadhli had had an impeccable record for communal harmony. Around 40% of its 1,500-odd residents are Muslim. “In fact, our longest-serving pradhan was a Muslim man. He was loved and respected by all; even today, the village remembers him,” another villager added, also preferring to remain anonymous.

Life has gone back to usual for many Muslim families in Kadhli. Sabila Begum, who lives with her daughters in the house opposite the one where Zeeshan’s family lived, said that to her, the village remained safe. “No matter what happens outside in the world, nothing happens here. The Hindus and Muslims have always lived in peace,” she said.

The house where Zeeshan lived, in Kadhli village of Muzaffarnagar district in western Uttar Pradesh, is now vacant, having been sold to another Muslim family. This wall was knocked down by an angry mob, which gathered there on July 30, 2016, on the suspicion that the family was slaughtering a calf. Villagers said the new owners had rebuilt the wall.

Nevertheless, Begum did remember the day the mob attacked her neighbour’s house. “Before we could do anything, the family had fled,” she said. “While they were being beaten up,” a neighbour interjected.

What happened next is another common strand that ties together the hate crimes we examined.

Partisan policing

When the police came to Kadhli, they saw Zeeshan’s house ransacked from the inside and its outer wall broken down. The first thing they did, however, was to register a First Information Report (FIR) against Zeeshan, his wife and a few other members of his family for cow slaughter, local police records, reviewed by FactChecker, show.

The station diary of the local police showed that no complaint was registered about the family having been assaulted, the house vandalised or the cattle stolen–these did not find mention in the investigations at all. Zeeshan, Shehnaz and their nephews Parvez and Saddam were booked under Sections 3, 5 and 8 of the UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act of 1955.

Zeeshan, Parvez and Saddam spent close to nine months in jail, though Shehnaz was bailed out.

Officials at the Khatauli police station, under whose jurisdiction Kadhli falls, told FactChecker there had been no violence at Zeeshan’s house or against his family. Instead, they said with finality, Zeeshan had been booked for cow slaughter previously too.

Turning the known into unknown

Across the UP hate crime spots that we visited, police action, or inaction, took different forms. In two of the hate crimes we investigated, the accused had been identified but the police did not press charges and closed the investigation within months.

In Bijnore, this played out in full police and media presence on July 5, 2018, when an interfaith couple, Monica and Suhel, were assaulted by BJP activists outside the Additional District Magistrate’s office where they had gone to register their marriage, as directed by the Allahabad High Court.

According to Monica’s FIR, a copy of which is with FactChecker, before they could do so, “a mob of 15-20 people led by Neeraj Vishnoi and BJP leader Harjinder Kaur barged into the room and starting assaulting and abusing us. Wanting to kill us, the mob even tried to abduct us and warned me to not get married with my partner.”

Monica added that despite the Allahabad High Court’s directions to the police to protect the couple, she feared for their lives.

The FIR mentions Kaur’s BJP links, and police officials told FactChecker that Vishnoi is a part of several Hindu right-wing organisations.

However, five months after the incident, when FactChecker visited Bijnore’s Kotwali Shahar police station where the FIR was lodged, the investigations had been shut down. “The couple was not keen on pursuing the case and hence, we found no point in pressing it,” one police official said, speaking anonymously.

In Moradabad, Haji Aslam had a similar experience. A meat-trader, 38-year-old Aslam’s mini-van was burnt down by five men on two motorcycles in August 2018.

Haji Aslam outside his house in Moradabad city, western Uttar Pradesh. He recognised the Hindu men who set his mini-van afire, but police said they would file an FIR only against “unknown” persons. Needing the FIR to claim insurance, Aslam gave in. The case was closed, no arrests made.

His driven and cleaner, who were in the van, were dragged out, abused and assaulted, and some people in the mob drove away in the van.

Driver Aamir and cleaner Asim have since taken up other jobs. “The mob called them ‘katuwein’ [a communal slur referring to Muslim men] and asked them what they were carrying. As soon as they responded, the mob dragged them out and slapped them repeatedly,” Aslam said.

As soon as Aslam heard the news, he rushed to where the mini-van had been taken, in the heart of a Hindu-dominated basti (hamlet), a five-minute drive from the spot where the vehicle had been intercepted. “A huge crowd had gathered there to witness the burning of my mini-van. I heard slogans being shouted,” he said.

Aslam rushed to a local police post to get help. A constable accompanied him, “saw the sight [of the burning mini-van] and said there was nothing he could do. Instead, he told me to flee from the basti or else the mob would kill me too,” Aslam said.

Aslam then went to the Katghar police station in Moradabad city to register an FIR. The police did register one, but with different facts. “They insisted that I say that the mini-van was burnt by some locals who were upset with the pungent smell [of rotting animal remains],” he said.

When he refused, the police suggested another change–that Aslam record an FIR against “unknown” persons. Aslam refused: “After all, I had seen those people burning the van. I could not forget them. I knew their names, too; some of them were with the Shiv Sena.”

But the police insisted. Aslam was desperate–he needed to register an FIR to claim insurance for the van, whose loss had destroyed his livelihood. He had bought the van only two years earlier and was still paying off the loan. “I gave in. They realised my weakness and told me that they wouldn’t help me if I insisted on the names,” he said.

The “unknown” people were never arrested, and the police closed the investigations less than four months later.

When FactChecker visited the Katghar police station, the Station House Officer, Komal Singh, said he did not know enough about the case. “The officers in-charge of that case have been transferred out,” he said.

Aslam said he no longer cared about the outcome of the investigations. “Nothing is going to come out of this. I am certain the police won’t do anything,” he said.

This is the second of a six-part series. You can read the first part here.

Next: Why Police Action Across UP’s Hate Crime Hot Spots Is Causing Fear And Alarm Among Muslims

(Purohit is an independent journalist, writing on politics, gender, development, migration and the intersections between them. He is an alumnus of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.)

Courtesy: https://factchecker.in/

RSS worker faked own murder to claim insurance sum

January 29, 2019

Himmat Patidar, who is believed to be a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist from Ratlam, allegedly killed his farm labourer Madan Malviya last week and burned his face to pass off the body as his own in order to mislead the police and claim the insurance money totalling Rs 20 lakh to repay his debts.

Himmat Patidar and Madan Malviya.

Ratlam: BJP had raised a huge stink over an RSS worker’s murder in Madhya Pradesh and pointed fingers at the new Congress government in power, accusing them of deteriorating law and order in the state.

Himmat Patidar, who is believed to be a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist from Ratlam, allegedly killed his farm labourer Madan Malviya last week and burned his face to pass off the body as his own in order to mislead the police and claim the insurance money totalling Rs 20 lakh to repay his debts.

Patidar is alive and is on the run, a senior police officer said.

Tiwari said police had initially suspected Malviya had killed Patidar, but they grew suspicious after finding a diary near the body which contained details like Patidar’s insurance number, fixed deposits, bank PIN numbers. Police also found a mobile phone next to the body, but the call data had been erased.

“This prompted us to order DNA test of the victim,” Tiwari said adding that the test revealed that the body was that of Malviya’s and not Patidar’s.

Ratlam Additional Superintendent of Police Pradip Sharma said Patidar had initially tried to sever Malviya’s head. When he could not, Patidar burned Malviya’s face and planted his mobile phone, Aadhaar card, and a diary near Malviya’s body, Sharma said.

Police have established the identity of the deceased Malviya through DNA test, Ratlam Superintendent of Police Gaurav Tiwari told reporters in a press conference.

The SP clarified that though Patidar used to attend RSS ‘shakhas’, he was not holding any post in the BJP’s parent organisation. Patidar’s brother Sanjay Patidar is said to be associated with the RSS. He is the district RSS music band chief. It was earlier reported that Patidar was a former Karyawah (secretary) of Shivpur Mandal.

Suggesting that Patidar’s planning was meticulous but for a flaw, the SP said the accused dressed the victim in his own clothes after killing him but didn’t change his under-pant, an oversight that revealed the true identity of the deceased.

“The accused failed to change the deceased’s underwear with his own which ultimately led to the identification of Malviya by his wife,” the senior police officer said.

When asked about the probable motive behind the crime, the SP said Patidar could have hatched the conspiracy to fake his own killing to claim the insurance sum totalling Rs 20 lakh to repay his loan.

“Patidar had got himself insured through the State Bank of India for Rs. 20 lakh sometime back and made his wife his nominee. He had taken some loan. He was also into money lending,” the SP said, adding that he might have plotted the crime to claim the insurance money to repay his debt.

Police have announced a reward of Rs 10,000 for any information on whereabouts of Patidar, the SP added.

Police are also probing whether Patidar’s family was involved in the crime, as it was his father who had informed them about his missing son. The SP said Patidar’s father had identified the body, whose face was burnt, as it was clad in the clothes worn by his son along with his belongings.

Referring to a tweet by former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan after the Ratlam murder, Home Minister Bala Bachchan Monday asked if Chouhan will also visit the house Malviya, a Dalit. “The BJP’s original character has come to light. Himmat Patidar has turned out to be killer. BJP workers are taking the law into their hands but the party is passing the blame to us,’’ Bachchan said in Bhopal.

With inputs from PTI.

Time To Discontinue The State Awards

January 29, 2019

Former President Pranab Mukherjee has been awarded Bharat Ratna along with Nana Ji Deshmukh and Bhupen Hazarika. Obviously, many people have heart burn with this as there is a long list of well deserved people who should have been acknowledged by the state. Apart from Bharat Ratna, hundreds of other awards are presented by the government every year as mark of respect, gratitude and acknowledgment to their work.

There is fierce debate now whether Prnab Mukherjee really deserve Bharat Ratna ? What is his contribution to India as a whole except the fact that he has been a ‘networker’ across the party line and have never taken strong ideological position. Frankly speaking among his contemporaries both V P Singh and Arjun Singh, the two veteran Congressmen were far superior to Mukherjee in their commitment to social justice and secularism. While V P Singh must get credit for solidly leading a political campaign in favor of the OBCs and resulting his political and social isolation, Arjun Singh must be credited for supporting not merely second Mandal but also the vast changes in the education system. The legacy of Arjun Singh in the Ministry for Human Resource Development, in terms of opening up Central Universities, giving a fair autonomy to UGC, the curriculum in the NCERT text book must be evaluated. The Minister who will take charge of HRD under the new government will have a completely decimated Ministry.

Pranab Mukherjee’s stint as a finance minister was absolute and miserable failure. He not merely protected but supported the Ambanis unlike V P Singh who waged a complete war against the corrupt industrial houses thus taking the wrath of Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister. Even as a president of India, Pranab Mukherjee never showed any particular concern for the failure to protect secular values and social justice. So much so, that he went to RSS Headquarter in Nagpur. Mukherjee only secret is his ‘secred thread’ and being a brahmin helped him enormously in networking. Both RSS and Congress look for the Brahmins to lead their organisations. Mukherjee’s acceptance in RSS is a clever ploy of the organisation to keep hot seat of India reserved for the Brahmins. Mukherjee respect in media and a careful image makeover is a media construct and should not be seen beyond that. I have not heard much from him about mob lynching or killing of youths in the universities. He continued to sign papers on dotted lines and in fact was advising Modi from the back.

There is no doubt that these awards have been highly politicised and devalued. There was a time when we used to look for it in such a awe. I dont think that from the beginning the awards were given with out merit but yes, Congress’s subsequent government devalued it. Bestowing Award to Rajiv Gandhi, Sachin Tendulkar, M G Ramachandran and many others actually devalued it. The fact that Congress Party could not provide Bharat Ratna to legends like Baba Saheb Ambedkar, EVR Periyar, Anna Durrai,Captain Jai Pal Singh Munda, Acharya Narendra Dev, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Dhyan Chand and many more. K Kamraj was given the award and so did C Rajagopalachari and Dr Radhakrishanan but they never thought of honoring the legend of Periyar. Similarly there are numerous other names given and a huge number of other left. The award became synonymous to Congress thought so it is natural for those who disagree with them, to convert the award in their own.

In this age, I wont call for the Award to be given to Saint Raidas, Kabir, Jyotiba Phule, Savitri Bai Phule and so many others. I can say, they remain much bigger than the award. Even Baba Saheb Ambedkar as Bharat Ratna has been thoroughly degraded today.

Definitely there are numerous other contemporaries who could have been awarded but never got this. Late Karpoori Thakur, Manywar Kanshiram, former Prime Minister V P Singh, former President K R Narayanan, Dilip Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Naushad and so on.

I have not put names of any authors, writers and human rights defenders and law practitioner who fight all the odd cases and fight against state apparatus too. State will never acknowledge those who fight for human rights of the people and challenge its authority. In fact, if authors and defenders get the awards, it only means they have only served and protected the oppressive apparatus. If state apparatus respect human rights and people’s autonomy, then they should do it but I am sure they will never remain unbiased.

Giving State awards remain a clever way of state patronage to art and culture. State want to tell us who is great and who is not. Who is worth watching and who is not. Who is worth readable and who is not. I wont subscribe to that. Fact is many people remain much bigger than state acknowledgement. Periyar never featured here but he is highly respected by people. Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar remain out of the state apparatus for long and was sought to be forgotten by the state but it was the people who kept his spirit high. Even the highest award to Bharat Ratna and his portrait at the Parliament House was put by the person who has been out of state memory, Shri V P Singh, when he honored Dr Ambedkar and former South African legend Nelson Mandela together. What a great combination it was which restored the value of Bharat Ratna but since then it is absolutely politicised and degraded.

When Morarji Desai became Prime Minister of India in 1977, the first thing he scrapped was the State patronage and Awards. I think that was a great decision but the Congress brought it back and now BJP want to patronise the Sanghis through these awards. I think the time has come that these awards be scrapped again and instead make autonomous body to refer these awards and help the artists, authors who are in need. State patronage actually kills art, culture, literature, movements which must remind the powerful that the art it is not for their propaganda but for people’s power. Since the awards have been made according to political benefits of the ruling party, it is time the awards are completely abolished and instead government provide necessary protection to dissent in art, culture, literature, politics and movements. That alone would be the greatest service to India and its democracy.

Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist. He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter @freetohumanity Email: vbrawat@gmail.com

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org/

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The First Attempt: Bomb thrown at Pune at Gandhi on June 25,1934

Contrary to popular belief, there were many failed attempts on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Mahatma. Out of these attempts five are well documented and involve the Pune branch of the Hindu Mahasabha. Three of which also point to the involvement of Narayan Apte and Nathuram Godse.

IIT Kharagpur stands in solidarity with Prof. Anand Teltumbde

He was invited to serve as a Professor in IIT Kharagpur, where he taught business management courses for more than five years before joining GIM. Currently, he heads the Big Data Analytics program of GIM and has launched a post-graduation course this year, the first of its kind in the country.

Opinion: Why are Muslims blamed for the crimes committed against them?

Deadline for Online Corrections in NRC Draft extended by One Month

Guwahati, 29 January: In a huge relief to lakhs of people in Assam, the deadline for the process for online correction in draft NRC has been extended by another one month.

Veteran Parliamentarian and political legend George Fernandes no more

Fernandes was born in Mangaluru in 1930 and was training to be a Roman Catholic priest when he was drawn to trade union politics. He rose to prominence after his surprise victory in the 1967 parliamentary elections, over a Congress veteran in Mumbai.

Across UP’s Hate Crimes, A Pattern: ‘Outsiders’ Fuel Passions, Police Act Selectively, Relationships Crumble

RSS worker faked own murder to claim insurance sum

Time To Discontinue The State Awards

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