In the Hadiya case: A group of young lawyers from Lawyers Collective, who were present in the Supreme Court during the last hearing where Hadiya was summoned to be heard before the bench, discuss the unusual events that played out in the courtroom, decisional autonomy, and why this is a highly gendered issue.
Courtesy: Newsclick.in
In the middle of Rahu Kaalam
At the cusp of Shani Pradosh
I sip my cuppa of herbal tea
In the Athurveda Society
Just then –
A screech, a wail
That says, all heil
The cosmic atoms scurry here and there
My hair stands still, in the middle of air
From my balcony
What do I see
One mud pot, two white bedsheets
Three kilo rice, camphor, agarbathis
Pssst, they say
What, I enquire
Pass your cigarette lighter
We have to fire the pyre
Who is gone?
I stage whisper
It is Chiranjeev Yama-ji!!!
He, who lived in Kalichi?
Sandalwood paste
Applied with haste
The tulsi leaves
With vibhuthis
The abhishekam material
Is auspiciously readied
The death procession, starts to exit
After the high priest does his deed
I follow them
First left, then right
Men and women
Black and white
Life and afterlife
Atma and Moksha
1 and 0
Everything in harmony
Everything is a binary
So says the writing
In the Book of Destiny
We reach the crematorium maidan
Chiranjeev Yama-ji’s feet, face the south
The sentry in his uniform halts us with his lathi
The basti bully is pushed forward by his saathi,
Permission denied, Mere Bhai
Unless you have that – UIDAI
Now what sort of gobbledegook is that?
The bully asks, after he has had a spat
No Aadhaar
No death rite
(So don’t fight)
Show pyaar, o yaar
The death clerk in a bush-shirt points to a notification. Printed on an eco-solvent latex machine. It is the government signboard. The death clerk says in a high octave: Ladies and Gentlemen. In lieu of the fake deaths and duplicate deaths there has been an epidemic of benami deaths. These benami deaths threaten to destroy our society. It’s devastating our binary integrity. And so, as per Gazette No. 10/2017/F. No. P.12011/11/2016-ES Cell- DoR, all dead atmas have to be linked to Aadhaar. Full Stop!
Aadhaar: What be this godly creation?
Aadhaar: Who knows from whence this supreme astra sprang?
Aadhaar: How this celestial body cometh?
Aadhaar: Was it created or did it mutate?
The Most Highest He, who is in highest heaven,
He knows it – or perchance even He knows not
We sit outside the deathly gate
We wait to find out Yama Ji’s fate
His skin turns green, his robes are bloody red
Copper eyeballs, they pop out of his head
Time ticks
No one is in a hurry
Such is life
When things are binary
Mud pots and plastic bags
Cooked rice and green grams
Banana leaves and stale flowers
Darbha grass and agathee leaves
All things, binary
All things dead
Every single decision: 0 or 1
That’s how life becomes … no fun
Binary we are
Binary we will be
Binary is reality
Remember: The Eternal Truth
Even if you want to visit the bar
O Humanoid, You need an Aadhaar
Meanwhile –
At the Municipal gates
Hate multiplies into hate
Aadhaar is being sold
Hundred times, the rate
And Chiranjeev Yama-Ji?
He is trapped by our folly
What happens next, no one knows
We ask each other, at the gate
How long do we have to wait?
Citizens, don’t you know?
Now, what more don’t we know
It’s as simple as doh dooni chaar
You are all trapped here
Till Chiranjeev Yama-ji, gets his Aadhaar
Poem by Ramu Ramanathan
Recited by Joy Sengupta
Courtesy: https://aadhaar.fail/
On January 17, 2018 it will be two years since the ‘institutional murder of Rohith Vemula.’ Hyderabad University will commemorate the second death anniversary of 26-year-old Dalit student Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide on campus after alleging that he was being persecuted by university officials on account of his caste. VC Appa Rao Podile temporarily removed by the Modi-Smriti Irani combine when the outrage was at its height, was cynically re-instated in March 2016 after violence was unleashed on students and teachers on campus.
As Rohith’s close associates friends plan to commemorate his death, the sprawling campus is witnessing tensions between the RSS’ touth wing, the ABVP and Dalit students. It was the ABVP that has been largely held responsible for the spate of attacks on Ambedkarite students at the HCU. What has provoked this tension is a cynical Facebook post from two months ago that abuses K Laxminarayana, a professor in the school of economics who is a Dalit. The language used is sic.
“Bastard Laxminarayana now preaching what is saffronisation. He even don’t know basics of Economics and now preaching about Saffronisation. He has became professor only because of his blackmailing tricks.” The invective is the offering of Karan Palsaniya, a PhD student in the History department. He is also a senior leader of the ABVP, not just in Hyderabad – he is a national co-convenor.
The pathetic thing is that this comment was posted on a Facebook page handled by a group of students from the university which Professor Laxminarayana has been associated with for nearly 30 years. He is also a former president of the University of Hyderabad Teachers’ Association. Days after the Facebook post, he wrote a formal letter of complaint to the Vice Chancellor, describing it as “highly derogatory, objectionable and targeting my dignity and humble social background from which I rose to the post of professorship”.
The professor requested the university to initiate action against the student. Not surprisingly, he has received no response from the Vice Chancellor, Appa Rao Podile, or any other official.
The professor says “The questions were in the context of the present government’s educational policies. No one from the University teaching faculty or its officials raised any objections to the questions. So how can a student of some other discipline attack me in this vicious manner? The intent was to humiliate me publicly by using abusive language. It vitiated the atmosphere on the campus. Surely the officials recognise the urgency of resolving such matters especially after Rohith Vemula’s suicide.”
Media reports state that university administration has used the winter break as an excuse saying that this prevented urgent action as requested by the professor and that Mr Palsaniya has been asked to explain his comments to a committee on Wednesday: the second-year anniversary of Rohith Vemula’s death.
It was in August 2015, Vemula was suspended along with four other Dalit students for being “casteist, extremist and anti-national.” The action followed a complaint against him by the ABVP. Vemula was a member of the Ambedkar Students Association. There was a history of strain between the two groups that had been getting tauter. The ABVP said that one of its leaders had been so badly injured by Vemula and his group that he was hospitalized. After his fellowship payment was suspended, Vemula was told to leave his hostel. He moved into a tent on the campus as part of a sit-in protest. In January 2016, he was found dead in a friend’s room in the University; he had hanged himself.
University students attend a protest inside Tehran University as anti-riot Iranian police prevent them from joining other protesters. AP Photo
Although the Mashhad protests were spearheaded by conservative opponents of President Hassan Rouhani to discredit his economic policies, the organizers lost control of the crowd. Protesters angrily chanted slogans – such as “Leave Syria alone, think about us” and “Death to Hezbollah” – that were aimed at not only Rouhani but the entire Islamic regime.
In the days that followed, protests spread to 80 cities, leading to at least 22 deaths and over 1,000 arrests. On Jan. 8, Rouhani, who won a second term last May, said they signaled Iranians want not only a stronger economy but also more freedom.
While the government says it now has the situation under control, that doesn’t eliminate the significance of the largest protests since 2009, when millions came out to oppose the outcome of that year’s presidential election. The government forcefully suppressed that uprising, and two candidates who disputed the results remain under house arrest.
Why have so many Iranians again taken to the streets and will these protests have a larger impact than those eight years ago? As a close observer of Iran, I believe there are several important differences between the protests today and in 2009 that can help us answer both questions.
Iran President Hassan Rouhani says the protests show Iranians are crying out for both economic and political change. Iranian Presidency Office via AP
Not surprisingly, the conservative faction of the Islamic regime was quick to blame Iran’s adversaries, namely the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia. In contrast, reformists say that the protests are about economic grievances such as unemployment, inequality and corruption.
They do have a point. While the overall economy is growing again, and many indicators have turned positive in the past two years, the gains haven’t been shared by all Iranians.
The economy grew 13.4 percent in 2016 after oil and financial sanctions were lifted as part of the nuclear agreement with the West, which increased the country’s oil and gas production.
The non-oil sector, however, expanded just 3.3 percent – a clear sign the economy’s recovery has been slow in visibly improving people’s living standards. Real incomes of many segments of the economy remain weak, and the housing and construction sector remains in recession.
Unemployment is still high, at 12 percent, particularly among young university graduates. But it is much higher in small towns and peripheral regions of the country, where many of the protests occurred, driven by concerns over inequality and poverty.
Under Iran’s Constitution the supreme leader has broad powers, and even Rouhani has a limited ability to influence key policies, including those concerning the economy. Some key policies are entirely off limits, such as Iran’s involvement in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. These campaigns, which are costing Iran billions of dollars every year, seem to be driving at least some of the protesters’ anger.
Iranian worshipers chant slogans during a rally against anti-government protestors in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 5. AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi
There are three key differences between today’s uprisings and those in 2009.
In 2009, the demands were political. The reformist faction of the ruling regime, which disputed the results of the presidential election, was the main actor in the protests. Current protests do not have a visible political leader and appear to be directed at the entire regime, including reformists. This is best demonstrated by one of the slogans frequently chanted by protesters, which roughly translates as, “It is over for all of you.”
Another difference is that the 2009 protests were centered around the capital Tehran and other major cities. While the recent demonstrations involve fewer actual protesters, they are spread over a much larger area of the country, including many small cities that suffer from underdevelopment and low incomes.
These primarily young protesters, including unemployed university graduates and low-income workers, are also outraged by the frequent reports of corruption and unfair accumulation of wealth among some government officials. Competing factions of the ruling elite have frequently exposed each others’ corruption, revelations that have alienated the marginalized segments of the population that are struggling with poverty and unemployment. Economic issues are far more important today than they were for the primarily middle-class protesters of 2009.
Finally, the U.S. response to the current uprisings has also been markedly different.
The Obama administration reacted with caution to the 2009 uprisings and refrained from openly cheering on the protesters, motivated by a fear that overt support would provoke a harsher crackdown.
In contrast, President Donald Trump and his State Department have actively supported the protesters, and the U.S. is trying to mobilize an international condemnation of the Iranian government’s response. This initiative, however, faces strong resistance from China and Russia in the United Nations.
Concern about a stronger reaction from the Trump administration might explain the cautious and measured approach of Iran’s security forces in confronting the current protesters. The response was more violent and brutal in 2009.
Activists in Los Angeles praise the Trump administration’s support for protesters in Iran. Concern about a stronger reaction from the Trump administration may be a factor in the regime’s more measured approach to the uprisings than in 2009. Reuters/Monica Almeida
The protestors’ focus on economic rather than political issues enables some moderate members of the regime to meaningfully address their grievances rather than being forced to keep silent or issue outright condemnations, as they did in 2009.
While condemning the acts of violence by some protesters, many of Iran’s political leaders, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have expressed sympathy for their economic concerns.
They have also led to some changes in fiscal budget and economic reform priorities. Planned increases in prices of fuel and bread, for example, have been suspended.
While it’s encouraging that the government is reacting to protester concerns at all, stalling important economic reforms is not the right way to do it. These steps will surely be welcomed by lower-income Iranians, ensuring they’re politically popular, yet they may lead to more hardship down the road by worsening the budget deficit and potentially fueling inflation.
Instead of keeping prices of essential items artificially low, which leads to considerable waste and inefficiency in the economy, it would be more effective to offer targeted subsidies to the poor while doing more to fight corruption and political nepotism, a primary cause of rising income and wealth disparities in Iran.
Will the recent unrest serve as a wake-up call for the political elite that more needs to be done?
Unfortunately, an inefficient populist response is probably as far as the country’s supreme leader will be willing to go – at least for now. Protesters’ more political demands, such as tackling corruption, limiting Khamenei’s powers or reducing Iran’s role in regional conflicts, are unlikely to be addressed anytime soon.
Iran’s political system carefully screens candidates for public office and thus remains closed to ordinary citizens, leaving Iranians with few options for influencing government policy besides the streets. And neither political faction, reformist or conservative, has yet offered any practical solution for how to change that.
For most Iranians, however, corruption, poverty and economic inequality can not be addressed without serious reforms. And that suggests that while the most recent uprising may be winding down, similar uprisings are likely in the future.
Nader Habibi, Henry J. Leir Professor of Practice in Economics of the Middle East, Brandeis University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Srinagar: On Tuesday, January 9, Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) declared the result of students appeared in 10th class examinations. Over 62 percent students were declared successful.
A BOSE official said that 69,056 students including 35,997 boys and 33,059 girls appeared in the examinations of which 63.33 percent boys and 62.52 percent girls passed which included Insha Mushtaq, who was hit by pellets on the evening of July 11, 2016, when she opened a window to look outside her home in Sedow village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
Image courtesy: Kashmir Observer
She has qualified the 10th standard examinations and is looking forward to taking up medical subjects and become a doctor.
“She is very happy. She passed the exam despite taking help from a dictator. I have been receiving congratulatory calls since yesterday,” Insha’s father Mushtaq Ahmed Lone told TwoCircles.net over the phone.
“She is saying that she will take up medical subjects and work hard to become a doctor.”
Mushtaq further says that he will send her to Srinagar for further studies.
“I was at home when I was hit by hundreds of pellets, mostly on my face.They (pellets) even went inside my mouth,” Insha was quoted as saying in an Amnesty International report titled “Losing Sight in Kashmir” on the impact of pellet-firing guns. The report had also noted that many school and university students who had been hit in the eyes continue to have learning difficulties.
Insha was lauded by the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah under whose regime the pellet guns were introduced in Kashmir and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.
Abdullah tweeted: “May Allah keep rewarding your hard work and efforts.”
Senior separatist leader Umer Farooq also tweeted: “Congratulations to brave Insha Mushtaq… Despite going through the trauma of losing her eyesight due to pellets, she has managed an amazing feat. Her determination and resilience is an example for everyone. May Allah bless her always!”
More than 200 people hit by pellets fired by security forces during street protests in 2016 lost their vision either permanently or partially.
The unrest began on July 8, 2016, when Hizbul commander Burhan Wani was killed by the security forces in Anantnag district.
Courtesy: Two Circles
Make no mistake: the next big sci fi book coming out from India will come from members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This statement, of course, will not bode well with the emerging market for new speculative fiction writers from India, but what can our lovely writers do when they are faced with such stiff opposition from the BJP?
Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of our country, had already made excellent pitches that the publishing industry (already rattled because of injunctions coming their way , courtesy Baba Ramdev), has ignored. He had suggested that we already had pushpak vimans in India. How dare we read about the Wright brothers in school textbooks? This was, of course, followed by his next book of haikus, tentatively titled “Climate change/ my dear/ is in your head” (Please ignore the syllable count).
Taking cue from his life source, aka our Prime Minister, Vasudev Devani, the Rajasthan Education Minister has said that Newton did not discover gravitation, Brahmagupta did, 1000 years ago. I have two problems with this. Why do the BJP and the RSS only focus on round numbers? Brahmagupta II might well have discovered gravitation 1001 years ago. For my second reservation, consider this statement of his:
Abhi mai teen chaar din pehle padh raha tha, ki Newton ka… gurtwakarshan ka niyam kisne kiya? To bataya ki Newton ne kiya, maine bhi padha, aapne bhi padha. Gehrai me jayenge, to Brahmagupta Dwitiya ne usse ek hazar saal pehle is gurutwakarshan ka niyam diya tha (A few days ago, I was reading about Newton…who came up with the law of gravitation? Newton did, this is what I read, you read. If you delve deeper, Bramhagupta the second had given us this rule a thousand years before Newton).
Now, if you are the education minister who is 70 years of age, I would expect you to have read about Newton a little earlier in life, not two to three days before a programme celebrating 72 years of the foundation of Rajasthan University. This is not the first time, though, that the Rajasthan Minister has been inspired by the Prime Minister. Earlier, he had declared cow exhale oxygen. Quick question for you sir: when we fart, what gas is it that makes the smell pungent?
Needless to say, what is worrying is the fact that such statements are not made in private, and his wisdom is not confined to the members of his family. Students of a state university have to keep up with such nonsense. No wonder you are led to a sign that says “Page not Found ” when you want visit the university’s website and wish to take an “Overview” of the university.
What would the view look like if, in a room full of students and teachers, such comments are made? Bleak, my friend, very bleak.
On a more serious note (please note that all the above points were also made very, very seriously), this makes a mockery of the struggle our unversities went through to give quality, affordable education to its citizens. If we dig up the history of colonial education, and the subsequent transition into post colonial educational institues, we will realise the immense investment in education in Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision of a modern India.
Our constitution says that developing a “scientific temper” is one of our fundamental duties. Not only that, this Brainpickings article gives an introductory look into the relationship between Rabindranath Tagore and Albert Einstein. The relationship between India’s tryst with modernity in general, and Einstein in particular, went far deeper. Two young professors at the University of Calcutta, Satyendra Nath Bose and Meghnad Saha, translated Einstein’s book on relativity from the original German, into English for the first time, anywhere in the world. Published by Calcutta University in 1920, it was titled The Principle of Relativity. Original Papers by A. Einstein and H. Minkowski, translated into English by M.N. Saha and S.N. Bose with a historical introduction by P.C. Mahalanobis.
As Bose’s grandson writes in his blog:
It is generally accepted, although not commonly known, that this publication was the first English translation from the original German of these famous papers — anywhere in the world. When I first learned this fact it struck me as remarkable that two young Lecturers of Physics and Applied Mathematics — Saha was 26 years old and Bose 25 — both entirely self-taught in physics, located in the far outskirts of the British Empire, a colonised people living under colonial rule, with very little access to the latest scientific publications coming out of Europe, were cognisant enough of the happenings in the world of science to embark on such a task in 1919-20.
Meanwhile, it is 2018 – almost a hundred years since Bose and Saha’s stupendous achievement, and more than 70 years since we gained independence from our colonial rulers.
If some good soul in heaven tells Newton of this history, he will probably throw an apple, either at Brahmagupta II, or at Vasudev Devani.
Courtesy: Newsclick.in
Prakash Ambedkar has pointed out a threatening Facebook post against Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis and minister, Girish Bapat allegedly by a close associate of Manohar (Shambhaji) Bhide, Raosaheb Patil against which the Maharashtra government and administration have simply failed to act.
Addressing a packed press conference at his office in South Mumbai yesterday, Ambedkar called Milind Ekbote and Shambhaji Bhide homegrown terrorists. Claiming to have proof that Raosaheb Patil, is a close aide of Shambhaji Bhide, Ambedkar quotes the January 1 post (screen shot) that has been subsequently deleted. “If the numbers (of those killed at Bhima Koregaon) do not add up, then Girish Bapat and CM Devendra Phadnavis should be also cut up. I don’t have problems.”
This sinister and violent FB post was made at 10.12. a.m on January 1, 2018. Prakash Ambedkar said that while the Dalit leadership took constructive steps to ensure containment of the anger and damage, Hindutvawaadi organisations like this were out to create anarchy and mayhem –unfettered and unscrutinised– that day. Ambedkar has been calling for the arrests of Ekbote and Bhide from the first day of the Bhima Koregaom violence. He has also been making a distinction between the RSS, which he terms as ‘scrutinised’ Hindutvawaadi organisation and those like the Sanatan Sanstha which are both unfettered and unscrutinised.
The response of the police has been as bad as the contents of this post, said Ambedkar. “The CP, Pune, Additional CP, Pune, SP, Pune Rural, Additional SP, Pune and IB officials simply did not communicate the warnings that this kind of venomous and dangerous message meant, to the chief minister. Why?” he asked. “We demand that all these officers are transferred to the Mantralaya for decorative posts since they have let the force down and failed in their duty,” he said.
Ambedkar further demanded, “Why is CM not acting against men who are threatening his life? Never before has a post like this ever dared to be put out on social media. We demand action against Ekbote and Bhide. They are the future Hafeez Sayeed’s of Hindutva, home grown terrorists.”
“Who is their ‘Guru’,” he asked. “Shambhaji Bhide. Hence action against them both is a must,” he asserted.
Referring to the Lokmat newspaper of March 5, 2010 filed by the Margao representative that reported on Pune-based Sahran Kulkarni of Sanatan Sanstha’s involvement in both the Margao Diwali blasts and the blasts that had taken place at German bakery on February 13 as part of a common thread and conspiracy, he alleged that the Pune’s German bakery investigation is incomplete and inconclusive. The lower court afforded death sentence, the appeal was heard in the High court and went unreported. Ujwal Nikam was the special public prosecutor, the Court commuted the death penalty but the accused was given ten years for the RDX seized in his house. These are matters of great concern and need thorough and intrepid investigation.
Last week, Ambedkar had named Sambhaji Bhide of Shiv Pratisthan and Milind Ekbote of Samast Hindu Aghadi as persons behind the riots and the police had also booked them. The FIR was registered at Pimpri police station against Bhide, Ekbote and their supporters, and was later sent to Pune Rural Police, which has Bhima Koregaon under its jurisdiction. The complaint was filed by social worker Anita Ravindra Salve (39), a member of the Bahujan Republican Socialist Party. Both have been booked under IPC sections for attempt to murder and rioting, and relevant sections of the Prevention of Atrocities Act following the clashes in Bhima Koregaon.
Alleging targeting of Dalits, he said, “We have been told around 3,000 persons have been either detained or arrested. The police action is wrong.” DCP Cyber Crime Akbar Pathan said they had not received any complaint about allegedly threatening post that Ambedkar had pointed out.
Aadhar Card is the biggest threat to the security of citizens of India in today’s time. Not only is it very vulnerable to constant hacks, but also a huge tool for surveillance for UIDAI and the Indian government through the Fingerprint, iris scanner and it’s massive database.
Video Courtesy: Dhruv Rathee
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