Some Facts, Figures & Comments on the Gujarat Elections

December 19, 2017

Every election, state or national is also the story of big wins, narrow losses, a nail-biting finish. This time, the Gujarat 2017 state election (results of which were known yesterday) were so much more. For the first time since Narendra Modi took charge of the state, there was a serious challenge to his being able to see his party through. The saffron hued BJP, armed with a viciously polarising arsenal, made it finally. But only just.

For all the 150 plus seats bluster byBJP party president, Amit Shah, the EVMs which are just faulty enough to vote BJP out of the 30 odd parties on any machine, the questionably opartisan attitude of the Election Commission, the 50 plus Modi rallies, the 18 central ministers parked all over the state, the deliberate polarisation by the prime minister in his speeches (that did not attract any reprimand from the CEC), the fake Pakistani conspiracy campaign and the naughty Ahmed Patel for CM posters, the BJP has just won by 8 odd seats. This tells its own story

This indicates five things:
1) It is still easy to sell Vikas on the back of religious polarisation
2) The cities of this country are full of ‘educated illiterates’ who neither understand economics nor low social indicators after 22 years of governance.
3) Not a single exit poll has come close to the actual figure clearly suggesting how deeply the media has been compromised and paid off
4) Rahul Gandhi is a serious challenge than anybody ever gave him credit for and
5) The BJP is no longer going to get 2019 on a platter

So forget Vikas and get ready for some scary times where hate-bartering and polarisation will be used to reap in votes. We may see more incidents like the ghastly killings by the mobs of the more gau-rakshaks backed by the brigands of the VHP and the Bajrang Dals. Because Gujarat just proved that is how the right wing pulls back a losing election.

2019 is going to be dirty business. Good luck Good luck.

And what about the EVMs?

These three images tell their own story. More votes polled than registered. We yet do not know what the EC is doing about this.

Evm surat
Evm Vedroad
EVM 3

And do what this Video

Concerned citizens have started this FB page
https://www.facebook.com/back2ballot/

More Interesting facts and figures
The Congress, India’s major opposition party, written off as a has been by an increasingly rapacious media polled as many as 85 lakh votes in 2014, three years ago when the Modi wave swept India into an abyss.

Three and a half years later, in 2017, Congress got nearly 1 crore 25 lakh votes. This is a whopping 47% increase!

The BJP’s vote fell from 1 crore 52 lakh (2014) to 1 crore 47 lakh (2017).

The number of total votes polled increased by 39 lakh, yet BJP’s share fell by 5 lakh votes.

However, of course, BJP still won 49.1% votes.

The Gujarat election results declared today revealed a tight contest in assembly seats such as Himatnagar, Porbandar, Vijapur, Deodar, Dangs, Mansa and Godhra. The BJP and Congress were locked in a nail-biting contest in at least 16 seats in Gujarat, where the victory margin was less than 2,000 votes and of just about 200 votes in a few.

Spoilers: In seats like Dholka and Fatepura, smaller parties like NCP and BSP ate into the crucial votes which some described as snatching of near-certain victories from the Congress. The independents also scored big in some seats.

The assembly seats to have seen a photo-finish included Himatnagar, Porbandar, Vijapur, Deodar, Dangs, Mansa and Godhra. At many places, independent candidates, primarily rebels, cut votes of either of the two main parties.

In tribal-dominated Dangs, Congress managed a slender margin of 768 over the nearest rival BJP while in Kaprada, another ST seat, the Congress snatched victory by a mere 170 votes.

The NOTA option polled 1.8 per cent of the total votes and a huge 5 lakh of the Gujarati voter said no to both the BJP, Congress and all contestants.

There were at least eight seats, where Congress candidates trailed their nearest rivals by less than 2,000 votes, including in Godhra where BJP’s CK Raulji won by just 258 votes. The NOTA or none-of-the-above votes counted 3,050 in Godhra and one independent candidate got over 18,000 votes to finish third.

Again, in the Dholka constituency, Congress lost by a margin of 327 votes. Significantly, in this seat, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Nationalist Congress Party bagged 3,139 and 1,198 votes, respectively.
Similarly at the Fatepura seat, where BJP won by a margin of 2,711 votes over the Congress, the NCP candidate got 2747 votes. The NCP played spoiler for the Congress here.

Congress lost the Botad seat by a margin of 906 votes where BSP bagged 966 votes. Three independents collectively got around 7,500 votes here. So BSP and independents cost the Congress this seat.

The BJP had its share of narrow misses as well. Apart from Kaprada constituency, the party lost the Mansa seat by a vote of 524 votes and the Deodar seat by 972 votes.

Takeaways for the opposition Congress Party from the Gujarat Elections

1) Significant increase in votes received

2) Seats that slipped:
a. Congress could not hold on 15 seats that it win in 2012. That made the difference.
b. Of these 4 were ST seats. Last time it had won 3 of these 4 huge margins of 15-25 thousand votes.
c. Another four seats were those, in which sitting MLAs have lost to the BJP.
d. It was these seats that made a difference between forming the government and opposition.

3) Impact of revolt by Vaghela neutralised
a. Out of 14 seats, where its MLAs had defected to BJP, Congress won 10.
b. Another 2 it narrowly lost by margins of 258 and 1164 votes.
c. Congress won both the seats held by Shankar Singh Vaghela and his son, i.e. Kapadvanj and Bayad by huge margins of 27,226 and 7901 votes. This must come as satisfaction to Congress.
d. The party floated by Shankar Singh Vaghela got only 84 thousand votes in total!

4) Congress lost 16 seats in a tight contest:
a. Congress lost 3 seats with margins less than 1000 votes.
b. Congress lost 5 seats with margins between 1000-2000 votes.
c. Congress lost 8 seats with margins between 2000-3000 votes.
d. BJP lost 12 seats in close fights.
e. BJP lost four seats with margin less than 1000 votes.
f. BJP lost five seats with margins between 1000-2000 votes.
g. BJP lost three seats with margins between 2000-3000 votes.

5) Disaster in cities
a. Congress won only 3 out of 36 city seats!
b. In semi urban seats, Congress won 12 out of 27 seats
c. In rural areas, Congress+ won 65 out of 119 seats. BJP won 51.
d. Congress alliance won 13 out 21 tribal seats with an average margin of over 17 thousand votes.

6) Margins
a. Congress lost 15 sitting seats to BJP.
b. BJP retained 82 sitting seats with reduced margins.
c. The average margin of BJP victory is 29967 votes.
d. The average margin of Congress victory is 13354 votes.
e. In 33 city seats, the average margin of BJP victory is 47626 votes.
f. In semi-urban seats, average margin of BJP victory is 20526 and Congress is14249.
g. In rural areas, the average margin of BJP victory is 21316 and of Congress is 13155.
h. In ST seats, the average margin of BJP victory is 19,716 and Congress is over 17,218.

7) What clicked for Congress
a. It ran a successful campaign.
b. It was able to communicate with voters.
c. Rahul Gandhi led from the front and connected with the voters.
d. The social media campaign was a hit.
e. It could respond quickly to issues raised by BJP and PM.
f. It successfully formed social alliances.
g. It very well connected with rural voters.
h. It managed the seats of the defected MLAs well.

What didn’t click for Congress
a. It had a poor ground level organization.
b. It lacked a proper response to BJP’s aggression on ‘Nationalism’ and its ‘Anti-muslim’ propaganda.
c. It fell short of social engineering at the ‘sub-caste’ level.
d. It is still not able to connect with a large section of urban voters.
e. Social media defamation of Congress and Rahul Gandhi in cities still has a negative impact.
f. The GST and employment campaign did have a resonance, but more was required to address aspirational urban voter, who needs to be communicated of Congress record of economic progress, infrastructure development etc.
g. An answer required against the charges of corruption, most of which emerged from the notional losses projected by CAG in UPA regime.

Reasons Behind Uttara Kannada’s Errupting into Communal Violence, December 2017

December 19, 2017

With Karnataka getting ready for assembly elections in coming May 2018, BJP leaders in the state have only intensified the tensed situation, perhaps for political purposes.

Newsclick Image by Sumit Kumar

In the backdrop of the mysterious death of Paresh Mesta in Honnavara town of Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district, members of Hindutva outfits have kept the district on a fore of communal violence. Rumours and lies around Mesta’s death that his dead body was found in a brutalised condition which later turned out to be false allegations which catalysed the situation. With Karnataka getting ready for assembly elections in coming May 2018, BJP leaders in the state have only intensified the tensed situation, perhaps for political purposes. Though signs of normalcy are being established, however, posters terming Mesta as ‘Hindu tiger’, claiming him to be ‘Hindu Martyr’ have been put up by various groups in villages of Uttara Kannada.

It all started on December 1 in port town of Honnavara. On the occasion of Eid-Milad, some Muslim youth had unfurled a green flag at the Chandavar circle in the town. After which a number of Hindu youth reached the place and installed a pole with saffron flag there leading to clashes between the two groups in which at least five persons were injured. On December 6, the town witnessed another incident of a communal clash over an accident in which Paresh Mesta was allegedly also a part of it. Mesta went missing since then and his dead body was found floating in town’s Shetty Kere Lake on December 8. Rumours around Mesta’s death started circulating in social media groups and State BJP leaders were the forerunners in spreading them. The rumours of Mesta’s body being brutalised were turned down by the preliminary postmortem report, however, Hindutva outfits have resorted to communal violence across the district. Muslim communities have remained in a state of fear, locking themselves inside their houses. In order to bring in normalcy, Karnataka Police arrested about 160 persons allegedly belonging to Hindutva groups for taking part in riots across the district. In the recent riots t was reported that at least 50 persons were injured and properties belonging to Muslims were vandalised.

Speaking to Newsclick, Civil rights activist H. S. Anupama, a doctor at Jalaja General and Maternity Clinic in Honnavara described the tensed atmosphere caused among the Muslim communities due to violence. “In the last ten days, my clinic hasn’t been visited by any Muslim patients. Instead, some of my patients have contacted me through phone and told that stones are being pelted at their houses”. She said, “at least in the last two decades, Uttara Kannada has not seen any such communal violence, however, other parts of the state have witnessed such situations.”

BJP MPs from the state, Anant Kumar Hegde, and Shobha Karandlaje have reportedly made hate statements despite communal tensions. Karandlaje claimed Paresh Mesta to be a BJP activist and accused “Jihadists” to be responsible for Mesta’s death, however, it turned out that Mesta’s father denied any such Party affiliation of his son. Hegde, on the other hand, had earlier called for a ‘Jail Bharo’ from December 19, demanding the release of the persons arrested during riots. After some of the arrested people were released on December 15, hedge wrote a Facebook post threatening more violence . It said, “The chief minister should be ready for a bigger Marikamba Habba”, (Marikamba Habbais an annual event where animals are sacrificed near a temple).

Brief history of communal violence in Karnataka
How did a region known for its secular values turn into a hotbed of communal politics in the state? Shivsundar, a longtime associate of Gauri Lankesh Patrike traced the history of communal violence in the state of Karnataka. According to him Uttara Kannada district transformed into such a site gradually, after a planned effort of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar.

In 1985 Kolar witnessed communal tension after the decision of BJP and RSS to celebrate Ganesh Utsav in public in grand scale; in 1990 a riot broke out with the preparation for Eid-Milad celebrations in Kolar. BJP along with RSS did a door to door campaign and mobilised the locals and protested the Eid procession being carried out in Kolar.

BJP and RSS sympathisers celebrated the laying of foundation stone of Ram temple in Ayodhya on 10 November 1989. This resulted in a series of riots in Arsikere, Hubli, and Dharwad. In 1990 the Rath Yatra of the BJP had again sparked a communal tension in the regions of the procession; this tension continued till1992 following the Babri Masjid demolition.

In 1994, a dispute around an Urdu news channel broke out. The Kannada Para Sanghas (Kannada organisation) joined hands with the Hindu fundamentalist groups in the state and opposed the initiative. This again triggered communal tensions in the state.

Shivsundar noted that since 2004, BJP has become stronger and in collaboration with RSS, has been trying to polarise the state. According to the database of communal violence in the state collated by Alternate Law Forum (ALF) in Bangalore, festivals and public gatherings have been the main sites of communal violence. Twenty four churches were vandalised under Yeddyurappa led BJP government, in 2008.

Shivsundar says, “In 2017 BJP has changed its agenda from development to communal polarisation. The recent attack on Baba Bundangiri shrine in December 2017 proves it.”

Shivsundar also pointed out that, BJP and RSS had tried hard to communalise the Hyderabad-Karnataka regions but were unsuccessful. The syncretic nature of the region posed a serious challenge to their efforts to communalise the region; after which, they have occupied the Mumbai Karnataka region. Dakshina Kannada is also one of the regions that are now the soft targets of communal agenda of the BJP and RSS.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

India’s daughters: Battered, Unlettered and Penniless

December 19, 2017

In a damning indictment of how poorly India treats its women, a study by two prestigious international institutes has found that one in every three Indian women is a survivor of lifelong intimate partner violence. A report prepared jointly by Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security (Washington) and the Peace Research Institute (Oslo), 37 per cent of Indian women experience violence at the hands of their intimate partners.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines intimate partner violence as “… any behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological or sexual harm to those in the relationship, including acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors.” This is the most common form of violence faced by women worldwide. According to a 2013 study titled The Global Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women by K.M Devries, 30 per cent of women globally aged 15 and older have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence.

The study includes data on a variety of parameters and ranks countries based on how well or poorly women are treated there. India ranks 131, which may be higher than perceived arch rival Pakistan’s lowly 150^th rank, but is way lower than Ghana, Tunisia and Uganda… even Iran scored higher at 116^th!

But it doesn’t stop at just domestic abuse. India’s record is marred by poor scores on several other key parameters. The average Indian girl gets 5 years of schooling, while the average Iranian girl gets 8. India also scores poorly on the financial inclusion front with a meagre 43 per cent which pales in comparison to even Iran where the corresponding figure is 87 per cent. Women’s share of seats in the Indian Parliament is at an abysmal 12 per cent, well below even Nepal that has 30 per cent. At 81 per cent, Nepal also trumps India’s 29 per cent in women’s employment figures.

Lies about Santa? They could be good for your child

December 19, 2017

Christmas is a magical time of year, especially for children. Unfortunately, between elaborate Elf on the Shelf staging and fending off questions about Santa, parents are often left wondering how much of the magic depends on them.

Santa Claus
Developmental psychology suggests that fantastical beliefs in children are associated with positive developmental outcomes. And parents need not worry, children will bust the Santa myth themselves, when the time is right. (Shutterstock)

Specifically, many parents worry about whether they should encourage their children’s belief in the physical reality of Santa, about the potential impact of lying to them and what to do when their children realize they’ve been duped.

Rest assured, parents, it’s not all up to you. In fact, the best approach involves supporting your kids while they figure it out on their own. They will, and it won’t be as bad as you expect.

As a developmental scientist, I spend most of my time researching children’s trust. I’m interested in how trust develops and what happens when it’s broken. During the holiday season, I spend a lot of time thinking about Santa.

As a proud auntie of three children under the age of four, my Santa musings have taken on a new significance. But, unlike many parents, I see the development of a belief in the physical reality of Santa, and the eventual myth-busting, as impressive achievements to be celebrated, not feared!

Research in the field of developmental psychology suggests that such fantastical beliefs are not actually harmful, but are associated with a number of positive developmental outcomes — from exercising the “counterfactual reasoning skills” needed for human innovation to boosting emotional development.

When kids question the magic

The vast majority of children will at some point believe in Santa. While many children learn these beliefs at home, the cultural support for Santa is so strong that children in households that don’t actively endorse the myth still sometimes believe.

Yet, despite Santa’s impressive marketing strategy, most children will abandon their belief by the age of eight. Though many parents fear this transition, it’s an inevitable part of growing up.

How can Santa be prepping for Christmas at the North Pole and greeting kids in the mall and scuba diving? Here a diver feeds a ray at the Coex Aquarium in Seoul, South Korea in December 2017. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Santa is a mix of mundane and magical qualities. He is a jolly man dressed in red with a snowy beard. He also flies with the help of reindeer, visits all the world’s children in a single night and knows if you’ve been naughty or nice.

With age, a child’s thinking develops to the point where they start to notice Santa does magical things that physical objects can’t. This newfound knowledge is evident in the types of questions children are asking.

Younger children are often interested in general details about Santa, like: “Where does Santa live?” Older children are more likely to hone in on Santa’s extraordinary abilities: “How does Santa get around the whole world in a single night?”

Should you bust the myth?

Recognizing these challenging questions for what they are — cognitive development in action — may free some parents from the burden of belief.

If your goal is to extend your child’s belief in the physical reality of Santa, you can respond to the questions with plausible explanations or evidence. This is where NORAD, the online tracker that shows Santa’s progress around the globe on Christmas Eve, can come in handy.

If instead you want to let your child take the lead, you can simply direct the question back to them, allowing your child to come up with explanations for themselves: “I don’t know, how do you think the sleigh flies?”

Finally, if you think it’s time to usher your child into the common adult understanding of Santa as a beloved fantasy figure, you can provide different, disconfirming evidence and explanations.

My Santa myth was busted shortly after the discovery of Santa’s gift tags in my mother’s robe pocket. Regardless of which strategy you choose, it is inevitable that eventually the evidence against Santa will become overwhelming and the belief will become unsustainable.

Lies with good intentions

If you choose to extend your child’s belief in Santa, and your child realizes you have deceived them, how will they respond?

If Santa’s elves make handmade toys, how does he deliver electronics? And what does this do to the magic of Christmas for children from poorer families? (Shutterstock)

As it turns out, probably pretty well. In a study examining children’s reaction to discovering the truth about Santa, parents generally took the transition much harder than their children, who actually felt quite positive about the discovery.

And why wouldn’t they? Santa is one of countless things children learn through the testimony of others. Because we rely on others for so much of what we know, humans are surprisingly well-equipped for the task. They evaluate both the source and content of the information they have received in light of their existing knowledge and their memory of past interactions with the source.

This means that, when compared to all of the reliable information that parents share with their children over their lives, it is highly unlikely a single lie will cause irreparable damage.

Children are also discovering the truth about Santa at around the same time they are starting to understand that some lies, like Santa lies, are told with good intentions.

Why Santa is for small gifts

Believing in impossible beings such as Santa is a special kind of magic available only to children.

Research suggests that fantastical beliefs are associated with a number of positive developmental outcomes. So, if your child is still a believer, feel free to protect that belief.

As your child ages, especially if there are younger siblings in the house, there are creative ways to keep the Santa experience positive, even after their belief in the physical reality of Santa has been abandoned.

Finally, always remember, as children are figuring out how the world really works, that they are going to look to the people and things around them for evidence.

It might be a good idea to give modest gifts from Santa and save the big ones for parents, because no matter what your family income, every child deserves to feel loved by Santa on Christmas morning.

Kristen Dunfield, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Concordia University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

How do we fight anti-rights fundamentalism at the United Nations?

December 19, 2017

An extract from the first report of a new initiative tracks how fundamentalist groups have embraced the UN as a site to foster conservative social change.

Mapping anti-rights actors and their connections. Infographic: OURs Initiative.

The trend is unmistakable and deeply alarming: in international human rights spaces, religious fundamentalists are now operating with increased impact, frequency, coordination, resources, and support.

The worldwide rise in religious fundamentalist actors is not happening in a vacuum. This growing phenomenon is inextricably linked to geopolitics, systemic and growing inequalities and economic disparities, conflict, militarism, and other political, social, and economic factors. In turn, these factors drive religious fundamentalists to regional and international policy spaces in search of increased impact.

Our ongoing analysis of religious fundamentalisms and fundamentalist discourses and strategies underpins our understanding of the forces currently at play at the United Nations. Religious fundamentalisms are about the strategic use and misuse of religion by particular state and non-state actors to gain power and control. They are about the authoritarian manipulation of religion, as well as references to culture and tradition, rhetoric linked to sovereignty, and employment of patriarchal and absolutist interpretations of religion to achieve political, social and/or economic power. Across regions and religious contexts, fundamentalisms seek to employ references to religion, culture, and tradition to justify violence and discrimination.

A common theme amongst conservative and anti-rights actors is their fixation on gender and sexuality. Gender justice is greatly undermined by the strategies of religious fundamentalisms, which use the bodies of women, girls, and individuals with non-conforming gender identities or sexual orientations as a battlefield in their struggles to appropriate and maintain institutional and social power. Time and again, across regions and levels, women are turned into symbols of community, embodiments of the nation’s ‘culture and tradition’ and its future reproduction. Women and non-conforming bodies and sexualities become key sites of religio-political preoccupation and control, as they are considered the custodians of family norms and honor.

…women are turned into symbols of community, embodiments of the nation’s ‘culture and tradition’…Unsurprisingly then, in a recent study on young feminist organising worldwide, a significant percentage of the 1,400 survey participants described fundamentalisms as a top challenge to their work, and a significant threat to their safety and security. In a previous survey of over 1,600 Women Human Rights Defenders worldwide, activists listed the top negative impacts of religious fundamentalists as: limited health rights and reduced fulfillment of reproductive rights; less autonomy for women; increased gender-based violence; restrictions on sexual rights; and diminished rights for women in the public sphere.

We now watch as these fundamentalist strategies and preoccupations manifest themselves at the international human rights level. The United Nations has become another space in which bodies and autonomy are used as pawns in a struggle to appropriate institutional power. But here the impact of religious fundamentalisms is not to violate our rights directly, but to erode the very basis on which we can make claims at all. If, according to their arguments, we have no rights to violate, then there will be no basis to claim rights or hold our governments accountable.Anti-rights actors are chipping away at the very content and structure of our human rights…

Anti-rights actors are chipping away at the very content and structure of our human rights concepts, institutions, and protections, with disastrous consequences for human rights and gender justice. These manifest in sexual rights, including rights to bodily integrity, the right to choose one’s partner, and the right to decide on sexual relations; rights related to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI); reproductive rights and health, including access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), contraception, and safe abortion; equal property and inheritance rights; equal rights in all aspects of family law including marriage, divorce, and custody of children; freedom of expression, belief, assembly, and opinion; the right to reclaim, reaffirm, and participate in all aspects of religious and cultural life; the right to live free from gender-based violence; and women’s full equality.

Anti-rights mobilisation at the international level constitutes a response to the significant feminist and progressive organising and impact therein over the past three decades. It also represents ultra-conservative actors’ new commitment to multilateral processes as a space of influence. Today we are witnessing a set of interlocking factors that paint an unsettling picture of our human rights system under attack: increased coordination of religious fundamentalists across regional, institutional, and religious lines in human rights spaces, and the strategic and proactive undermining and co-optation of our human rights framework.

Key anti-rights strategies. Infographic: OURs Initiative.

Although fundamentalisms are often shaped in opposition to globalisation, they also embrace the international realm as a site to foster conservative social change. Similarly, while their messaging is often situated in an opposition to modernity, they are both a product of modernity and happy to fight using ‘modern’ tools. Fundamentalist discourses are strongly focused on the primacy of ‘state sovereignty’ and question the very legitimacy of international standards and their universal application to all. Their engagement in the international arena operates as a Trojan horse meant to undercut the objectives and operation of human rights systems, transform the human rights framework, and transmit new rights norms infused with their values and messaging.

In international human rights spaces anti-rights actors are misusing religion, along with arguments based on culture, tradition, and national sovereignty, to erode and undermine the universality of human rights. Common themes emerge in their advocacy: emphasis of the ‘traditional family,’ ‘morality,’ protection, and fixed gender roles; emotive and divisive language; misleading and co-opted discourses and misinformation; charges of elitism; and arguments based on ideas of moral superiority and cultural ‘authenticity.’

Although fundamentalisms are often shaped in opposition to globalisation, they also embrace the international realm as a site to foster conservative social change.

Feminist and other progressive activists have worked hard to hold our ground and to push back against these hostile initiatives to protect and further our rights. We now need a sharper understanding of these trends, including key actors, discourses, and their current impact, in order to continue countering them. Based on this knowledge, we need to organise collectively and creatively to maintain and continue developing human right standards to reclaim our rights, protect universality, and hold governments accountable for their rights violations.

The Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) is a new collaborative initiative to monitor, analyse, and share information on anti-rights initiatives. The focus of its first report is the international human rights sphere. It includes information on anti-rights actors, their discourses, strategies, and significant impacts in 2015 and 2016.

The Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) is a new collaborative initiative to monitor, analyse, and share information on anti-rights initiatives threatening international and regional human rights systems.

Courtesy: https://www.opendemocracy.net

Gujarat Elections: The Fight Has Just Begun, We’ll Fight BJP Tooth and Nail, says Jignesh Mevani after Winning from Vadgam

December 19, 2017

Dalit leader Mevani was supported by all opposition parties and defeated BJP by 19,696 votes.

Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani won from Vadgam, a Scheduled Caste reserved seat in Banaskantha district, on Monday as an independent candidate. He defeated BJP’s Vijaykumar Harkhabhai Chakravarti, a Congress turncoat, by 19,696 votes. The BJP managed to retain the state it has been ruling for over two decades with a thin majority.

Mevani was supported by the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and others. Speaking to Newsclick over phone, he said, “I thank people of Vadgam for showing faith in my candidature and ensuring my victory.”

“Though the BJP has come to power, we will keep marching ahead and fight for people’s right. Now, the voices of the voiceless and oppressed will be heard in Gujarat. The fight has just started. As a strong Opposition, we will fight the fascist forces tooth and nail. I am committed to people and will always be there with them,” he said.

The statewide verdict, he says, is a bit disappointing but he will always fight for the rights of people on the floor of the house as well as in the streets.

“We will set our agenda while discarding their communal and fascist policies,” he added.

“The division of votes did not take place, at least not among Dalits and Muslims. Jignesh bhai has worked hard for these communities, braving the wrath of the state. His victory has heralded a change in the home turn of PM Modi,” a local Bhawesh Kumar told Newsclick.

The 36-year-old advocate-turned politician shot to fame after he organised movement in July, in the aftermath of flogging of Dalit youths in Una, Gujarat. He led a long march ‘Azadi Kooch’ demanding land for his community. In another jolt for the Gujarat government, Mevani then organised Dalit protests against the old-age practice of disposing animal carcasses over the Una incident.

Political observers proclaimed him as “the face of resistance against BJP”, along-with Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor.

A day before the counting, Mevani rubbished predictions of a BJP victory and said, “Exit polls are nonsense. BJP is definitely going to lose this time and will not form the government.”

In the current elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi worked on new political strategies in Gujarat to take on the BJP in prime minister Modi’s home state. Apart from visiting a series of temples in an apparent attempt to project the Congress in a soft Hindutva mould, an understanding was reached with dominant and emerging caste leaders in Gujarat, including Hardik Patel of the Patidars, Jignesh Mewani of the Dalits and Alpesh Thakor of the OBCs.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

“The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights Bill) 2016 criminalises Transgender Persons”

December 19, 2017

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights Bill) 2016 poses threat to some of the basic rights of transgender people. Far from guaranteeing their protection, the bill gets the definition of a transgender person wrong, and ends up excluding a majority of the community. Individuals and groups came together to protest the bill at Parliament Street, Delhi on 17th December.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

A Fearful Xmas For Christians In India

December 19, 2017

“Mamta and Anita, Dalit sisters of Iroli Gurjar village in Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh wait in the district courts for their kin, and a Pastor, to be released on bail. The Pastor and five others were beaten up on 4th December when a mob entered Mamta’s house where a prayer was in progress, and stopped the prayers for the healing of her ill husband alleging it was a ruse to convert people”, says Dr John Dayal, a vociferous member of the All India Catholic Union (AICU) and the United Christian Forum (UCF).

Meanwhile, according to various news reports, the Hindu Jagran Manch in Uttar Pradesh, a state headed by the tantric Yogi Adityanath – a shape of things to come – has warned Christian schools against celebrating Christmas saying that it is a step towards forceful conversions.

In neighboring Madhya Pradesh, a Catholic carol group was attacked, beaten up and their van burnt by fundamentalist hoodlums. As here, the police arrested the victims who were later released on bail. The carol singing had been deemed to an act of forcible ad fraudulent conversion.

While Madhya Pradesh has a notorious anti conversion law, Uttar Pradesh does not. Both states are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Incidents of Christians being threatened over Christmas celebrations are also coming in from other north Indian states. Christians not only in these states, but also in the entire cow belt where the BJP dominates will be celebrating Christmas with reduced freedom and in fear.

Such targeting of Christian minorities in India has been building up since 1999, when under the BJP led NDA government, over 45 tribal churches and prayer halls were burnt during the Christmas season and soon after, the Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons were burnt to death by a rabid Hindu extremist mob. The subsequent period saw increased attacks on Christians, which did not change even after the Congress headed UPA government’s 10 year stint – such is the extent to which right wing forces have raised false canards against Christians in the fascist effort to create enemies of the minorities to consolidate the Hindu vote. During the NDA I and the UPA I and II rule, an average of over 400 incidents of attacks on churches, pastors, priests and nuns were reported nationwide by the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI). After summer of 2014, when the BJP came to power with a majority in the general elections, the targeting of Christians has taken very sinister proportions, which a complicit media fails to report and complicit Christian human rights and community organizations fail to voice at national and international fora.

According to Persecution Relief, “there have been more than 1000 cases in the past 2 years; more than 6 pastors martyred for their faith; 100’s of Churches attacked; more than 300 men, women and children beaten up; innumerable false cases of conversions registered where many men and women of God are lodged in jails; so many Churches and House Churches closed down by local government administration; Bibles and Christian Literature’s burnt, Churches vandalized and desecrated, registrations cancelled under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, International aid stopped alleging misuse of foreign funding for proselytization, Christian Orphanages and Schools closed down on dubious grounds – to list a few of the incidents.

The BJP, in its effort to proselytize Hindutva by legitimizing it through the statements of community members, roped in Alphons Kannanthanam, a former bureaucrat to do its bidding by giving him an unimportant political post. NDA I did the same through its member of the National Commission for Minorities (NMC), John Joseph. Alphons subsequently started stating that PM Modi is ‘doing what any good Christian would do’ and that under the BJP there have been no attacks on Christians since 2014. Both the man and his statements were disowned by the church that he comes from –The Roman Catholic Church in Kerala.

Similarly, other Christian bodies in India, including those that were once highly respected internationally and are now in the gutters of compromise, self-preservation and self-interest, too have compromised with the BJP and have failed to stand up for the rights of Christians in India, even going as far as giving the BJP and its leaders a clean chit regarding its anti-Christian campaign, stating that the BJP is good for the future of India while all sane people can see that a fascist state that seeks to suppress and destroy the Christian faith is underway.

With the latest dubious victory of the BJP in the Gujarat polls after running an extensive communal campaign, the right wing will only be emboldened and its effort to enable the creation a Hindurashtra in which Christians have no equal place will shift into top gear and there will be more extensive targeting and suppression of Christians, more particularly in North India. This is even more obvious considering that the BJP is on the decline as seen in Gujarat and they will do everything possible to remain in power in the general elections in 2019.

Ironically, although the excesses of the BJP and its right wing cohorts regularly makes international headlines every other week, the West, especially the US and UK have failed to stand up to the government of India over its fascist violence as required under various international charters and agreements, even as the UN has failed to condemn the violence. For all practical purposes, the Christian community in India is left high and dry by the electorate and the international community to face the onslaught of fascist forces.

Oliver D’Souza is an award winning author and editor of Dalit Post.

Courtesy: www.countercurrents.org

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