Gaushala & Ram Mandir Slogans: Is MP’s Makhanlal Chaturvedi University Turning Saffron?

September 25, 2017

Bhopal-based Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication (MCNUJC) is apparently being turned into an “RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) propaganda laboratory”.

Bhopal-based Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication (MCNUJC) is apparently being turned into an “RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) propaganda laboratory”.Several people connected with the RSS have allegedly been preferred in appointments to the varsity over deserving candidates.

Under career advancement scheme, the university recently promoted five associate professors to the post of professor. But the appointments, allege students and teachers, were made violating the guidelines of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The new appointees allegedly do not fulfil the UGC’s minimum qualification criteria.

“Sanjay Dwivedi, who was associate professor in the Mass Communication Department, was promoted as professor without having a PhD. Dr P Shashikala, who teaches at New Media Technology Department, does not have an experience of three years as associate professor. But she too has been promoted as professor. The appointment of Dr Avinash Vajpayee, posted at Media Management Department of the university, was already surrounded in controversy. His API (academic performance index) score is not according to UGC’s 2016 guideline. His PhD is also not in relevant subject,” Avinish Mishra, a student of Electronic Media Department, told NewsClick.

He said all of them in addition to two others are associated with RSS and therefore, they were given preference over other deserving teachers who were in the queue.

The Government of India’s gazette notification says a person being to promoted or appointed as professor must have doctorate and served as associate professor for at least three years.

But MCU Rector Lajpat Ahuja argues that it is not necessary to have a PhD to be promoted to the post of professor.

However, experts rubbished the rector’s arguments adding that gone are the days when research works used to be considered equivalent to PhD.

Meanwhile, when NewsClick visited the university campus on September 5, students were busy celebrating the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi and were carrying out a procession outside the campus ahead of the customary immersion of Ganesha idol.

They future journalists were raising controversial slogans like ‘Har Ghar Bhagwa Chayega, Ram Rajya Phir Aayega’; ‘Ek Hi Nara, Ek Hi Naam, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram’; ‘Ram Lala Hum Aayenge, Mandir Wahin Banayenge’; and ‘Qasam Ram Ki Khate Hain, Mandir Wahin Banayenge’.

The university is already marred in controversy after its decision to build a ‘gaushala’ (cowshed) at its new campus, which is being built in Bishankhedi on the outskirts of Bhopal. The proposed 50-acre campus will have a cowshed on two acres, which is “low-lying where no construction is possible”.

Though Vice Chancellor BK Kuthiala refused to talk to us despite our repeated requests, he had earlier told Indian Express pointing out merits of having a cowshed in the campus, “Milk and curd will go to students living in hostels and the staff living on the campus. Also, fuel from a biogas plant will come in handy.”

He said ancient centres of learning such as Nalanda and Takshashila were self-sufficient and had cowsheds on their campuses. He was not sure if any modern university has one, though.

The VC was widely criticised for implementing the ‘RSS agenda’ in the university after media reported the proposed move.

Ramsharan Joshi, former director at the university’s Noida campus, expressed his anguish on Facebook. “When people can come up with ideas like putting tanks in JNU campus to invoke nationalism, why are we astonished over opening of a cowshed in the campus?” he wrote on the social media platform.

“Places like Rashtrapati Bhawan, Vice-president house, Nehru Museum and Indira Gandhi Kala Kendra have ample space. I humbly request to open cowsheds in these places as well…after all we have to make a ‘New India’,” he added.

He took a dig at the VC saying, “Cabinet ministers and bureaucrats own big bungalows. Why shouldn’t we rear some cow mothers out there? Even the VC could be appointed as their OSD (Officer on Special Duty) to perform this job.”

A student of Mass Communication, who did not wish to be named, considers the decision as a case of “misplaced priorities”. “The university has failed to build its campus. It has failed to provide even basic infrastructure required for media students. Clearly, it is a case of misplaced priorities,” he said adding that “no one is against the idea of gaushala but we are questioning this Sangh-parivar backed administration”.

This is not the first time when the university is being accused of “toeing the RSS agenda”.

A few years ago, the university had reportedly conducted a written examination that had questions like “who was the founder of the Jan Sangh”, “who conceptualised integral humanism’’ and “which political leader was born on December 25”.

The Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication was set up by an Act passed in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly in 1990 and inaugurated a year later.

The university runs 21 courses in journalism, communications, management, printing, graphics and multimedia, film production and computer applications, among other subjects.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Is BJP seeing its own ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ in Deendayal Upadhyay?

September 25, 2017

The sudden iconisation of Deendayal Upadhyaya is an indirect admission that despite its long political journey it has not been possible for sangh parivar to raise a leader whose appeal cuts across broad cross sections of society?

BJP, In Search Of An Icon: Is Deendayal Upadhyay Party's Mahatma Gandhi?

BJP in search of an icon. Photo credit: Outlook

‘Nirastapadapeshe Erandopi Drumayate !’ – Sanskrit Proverb
(In a treeless country even castor counts for a big tree)
( Quoted in ‘An Occasion for the RSS’, GPD, http://www.epw.in/journal/2006/12)

Come September 25 and the capital would see the culmination of the year-long birth centenary celebrations of Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Pandit Deendayal Upadhayay . The year gone by had witnessed flurry of activities around Deendayal Upadhyay supposedly to project him as one of the ‘makers of modern India’. Exactly a year ago Prime Minister Modi had shared a piece of his mind at a public meeting in Kozhikode wherein he had specifically put Deendayal Upadhyaya in the same category as Mahatma Gandhi and Lohia who had “[i]nfluenced and shaped Indian political thought in the last century”.

The newly elected President of India Ramnath Kovind – who had started his political journey with BJP – in his first speech as President also seemed to corroborate the overall thinking of the ruling dispensation by ending his maiden speech with a call to build an egalitarian society as “envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deendayal Upadhyayaji”….

No doubt followers normally tend to elevate their leaders above seven heavens but the question arises whether such eulogy helps others suddenly develop a very positive understanding about the leader. Can the leader save oneself from scrutiny about her/his worldview, how s/he viewed and dealt with major challenges in her/his times?

Remember, Deendayal Upadhyaya (25 September 1916 – 11 February 1968) who started his social-political life as an RSS worker in 1937, was made joint provincial organiser for the whole of United Province in 1945. It is important to note that he — like fellow swayamsevaks(1) — kept himself aloof from the raging anti-colonial struggle which was at its peak in those times and concentrated on organisation building. Interestingly one notices that even his biographers maintain a studied silence on his role and activities during this period and suddenly jump to 1947 to tell us that he was made Sahpracharak of UP in 1947 and how with the setting up of ‘Rasthradharma Publications’ by RSS in the same year he was made editor of weekly ‘Panchajanya‘ and daily ‘Swadesh’.

What is more worrisome is that while revisiting the tumultuous period in India’s history, one does not find any self-criticism on his part rather a subtle justification for non-participation in the anti-colonial struggle.

“[W]e were obsessed by the misleading notion that freedom consisted merely in overthrowing foreign rule. Opposition to a foreign government does not necessarily imply genuine love of Motherland… During the struggle for independence great emphasis was laid on the opposition to British rule… It came to be believed that whoever opposed the British was a patriot. A regular campaign was launched in those days to create utter dissatisfaction against the British by holding them responsible for every problem and misery which the people in our country had to face.”
(CP Bhishikar, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya: Ideology and Perception: Concept of the Rashtra,vol. v, Suruchi, Delhi, 169)

Apart from the struggle for liberation from colonial yoke, another dominant trend which reverberated in those times focussed itself on social emancipation. The struggles against caste hierarchy, gender discrimination. obscurantist social practices and customs etc – initiated or led by the great Jyothee Thass, Ayyankali, Narayan Guru, Periyar, Mangu Ram, Ambedkar and many others had impacted the stagnant Indian society as never before.

RSS as well as other Hindu Supremacist organisations always viewed these struggles with suspicion, opposed them and felt that they are ‘divisive’ struggles which are detrimental to the project of pan-Hindu unity. It is now history how the cumulative impact of these struggles led to the formation of Constitution — when Dr Ambedkar led the drafting committee for the Constitution, thanks to the efforts of Gandhi as well as Nehru — which was premised on the inviolability of individual rights with special provisions of positive discrimination for millions of Indians who had been denied any human rights quoting religious scriptures.

Looking back, it is evident how proponents of Hindu Rashtra opposed making of such a Constitution and had rather espoused Manusmriti as independent India’s constitution (2). Deendayal Upadhyay who was a leading participant in the organisation’s work then seemed to make a more refined sounding argument justifying casteism and even equating it with Swadharma ( one’s own religion) later:

“Even though slogans of equality are raised in the modern world, the concept of equality has to be accepted with discretion. Our actual experience is that from the practical and material point of view, no two men are alike… Considerable bitterness could be avoided if the idea of equality as conceived by Hindu thinkers is studied more carefully. The first and basic premise is that even if men have different qualities and different kinds of duties allotted to them according to their qualities or aptitudes, all duties are equally dignified. This is called swadharma, and there is an unequivocal assurance that to follow swadharma is itself equivalent to the worship of God. So, in any duties performed to fulfill swadharma, the question of high and low, dignified and undignified does not arise at all. If the duty is done without selfishness, no blame attaches itself to the doer.”
(C. P. Bhishikar, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya: Ideology and Perception: Concept of the Rashtra,vol. v, Suruchi, Delhi, 169).

Christophe Jafferlot discusses Upadhyay’s continued fascination towards varna vyavastha while unpacking Deendayal’s ideas of ‘Integral Humanism – for whom it was ‘a model of social cohesion to which each caste could adhere, including the ‘untouchables’ . Jafferlot further adds:

“Upadhyaya shared similar beliefs. The organic unity of the varna vyavastha is one of the key ideas of his philosophy of ‘integral humanism’, referred to as the cornerstone of their ideology by Sangh Parivar leaders. In 1965, he wrote: ‘In our concept of four castes, they are analogous to the different limbs of Virat-Purusha, the primeval man whose sacrifice, according to the Rig Veda, gave birth to society in the form of the varna vyavastha.’ For him, the varna vyavastha was endowed with the organic unity that could sustain the nation-making process.

Deendayal abhorred the idea of secularism (3) and he felt that the ‘Constitution had to be changed radically as “it runs counter to the unity and indivisibility of Bharat. There is no recognition of the idea of Bharat Mata, our sacred mother land, as enshrined in the hearts of our people. ‘and how “[The] Jana Sangh believes that Bharatiya culture like Bharatvarsh is one and indivisible. Any talk of composite culture, therefore, is not only untrue but also dangerous, for it tends to weaken national unity and encourages fissiparous tendencies”
(Jana Sangh’s Principles and Policies, January 25, 1965, page 16).

Anyone can see that this understanding logically flows from the way Deendayal looks at Muslims as a ‘complex problem’:

“[A]fter independence many important problems had to be faced by the government, the political parties and the people… But the Muslim problem is the oldest, the most complicated and it assumes ever-new forms. This problem has been facing us for the last twelve hundred years.”
[BN Jog, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya: Ideology & Perception-Politics for Nation’s Sake, vol. vi, Suruchi Prakashan, Delhi, 73.]

To conclude, the sudden iconisation of Deendayal Upadhyay – around fifty years after his death – raises an important question about the Hindutva project also. It is rather an indirect admission that despite its long political journey – which has helped it to reach centrestage of India’s polity – it has not been possible for it to raise a leader of such a stature whose appeal cuts across broad cross sections of society?

Proponents of Hindu Rashtra must have realised how Deendayal could be such an icon for ‘New India’ as he stuck to ‘Golwalkar’s organicist thought’ but also ‘supplemented it with Gandhian discourse and articulated these in a version of Hindu nationalism that aimed at erasing the communal image of the Jana Sangh in favour of a softer, spiritual, non-aggressive image stressing social equality, ‘Indianisation’ and social harmony.’
(Thomas Blom Hansen, The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India, Oxford University Press, pages 84-85)

References
1. For example, contemporary reports of the British intelligence agencies on the Quit India Movement are explicit in describing the fact that it was not an individual abstention, the RSS had kept itself aloof from the movement. According to one such report, “…the Sangh has scrupulously kept itself within the law, and in particular, has refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August 1942”.[Andersen, WalterK. & Damle, Shridhar D., The Brotherhood in Saffron: the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism, Westview Press, 1987, 44.]
2. The RSS organ Organiser (November 30, 1949, p.3) complained: “But in our constitution there is no mention of the unique constitutional developments in ancient Bharat. Manu’s laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing”.
3. In an RSS meeting in Aligarh, Upadhyaya said: “By declaring Bharat as a secular nation, the soul of Bharat has been attacked. A secular state is full of woes [sic]. Although Ravana’s dharmaless state of Lanka had plenty of gold, it had no Rama Rajya (state) in it.”

(Subhash Gatade is a writer, translator and activist).

(This article was also published on Outlook).

I am in Self-Imposed House Arrest After Being Attacked: Kancha Iliah Shepherd

September 24, 2017

The Hindu reports that intrepid academic Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd’s car was attacked with stones and chappals by a group of people belonging to the Vaisya community.Mr. Ilaiah said he was returning to Hyderabad after attending a meeting of the Telangana Mass and Social Organisations Forum (T-MASS). The protesters blocked his car and squatted in front of it.Mr. Ilaiah called up the activists of T-MASS, who alerted the police and rushed to the spot. The police shielded Mr. Ilaiah and took him to the station, where he lodged a complaint.He was provided police escort to continue his journey.

Kancha Iliah Shepher’s Own Account:

“As I and Dr. Bheenaveni Ramaiah (Assistant Professor of Sociology, Osmania University), one of my relatives, my Driver narrowly missed a major murderous attack at Parakal, Bhupalpally district on 23/9/2017 by the Arya-Vysya forces at 4.45 pm. In this context, I am issuing this statement.

They were about 30 and more people with big stones in their hands at the Ambedkar statue at the road turning point junction towards Warangal. Some attackers started chasing my car hitting it from behind from Bhupalapalli onwards with hands. They would have attacked us at the Bhupalapalli red light cross. But my driver’s speed movement once the green light appeared saved us there. With a pre-plan a team was also waiting at Parkal. There also my driver took quick turn to the right drove to the nearby police station in Parakal with highest speed possible. The mob was also followed my car upto the police station.

Thankfully all the police personal quickly covered my vehicle. The CI and SI really provided protection. The Arya-Vysyas tried to push themselves into the Police Station. They waited there till I gave the petition and started with two protection police vehicles.

As the police followed us in two vehicles, as we reached Ghanpur, there were several Arya-Vysyas on the road to attack our car even when the police were there. There again the local CI protected with a great skill by taking us through village roads and could reach Hyderabad safely in the night at 10pm. It was a fear stricken travel.

Ever since my effigy burning on September 10, 2017 started I had to lodge three cases. Two in Osmania PS after Arya-Vysya leaders Ramakrishna and Ramana’s threats. The second one after the Fatwa issued by TG Venkatesh MP, TDP and at also Parkal murderous attack.

The national parties like Congress, CPM and CPI did not even condemn at the national level.

The Telangana Congress, TDP and other parties were also silent. Only Telangana CPM and CPI condemned. The ruling TRS and BJP were all the time supporting the Arya-Vysays and abusing me on the TV channels. No major human right activists came forward in my support within Telangana, quite tragically.

In my two petitions at Osmania I requested for strong police protection at my house. That is also not provided.

I am losing faith in the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of Speech also.
In this fearful situation I took the following decisions:
1) Till October 4, 2017 end I impose a Self-House Arrest myself and remain at Home. If I need to go out on personal needs like (medical and other) I will inform the Osmania Police Station.
2) I remain silent for all the media networkers of the State are concerned. If they are national or international by appointment I may speak. That is also in good faith.

I thank my driver and the police officials involved in my protection.

Editor’s Note:

Kancha Iliah Shepherd writes biting on the hegemonies and exclusions by caste. Especially the economic domination by caste elites.

Read:
1. What is Social Smuggling by Sahukars (Traders)? asks Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
2. “A TDP MP issues a fatwa to kill me and the Telangana, Andhra and central governments say nothing”: Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd

Censorship, Intimidation, Murder Threats to Free Expression in India: PEN International

September 24, 2017

In a scathing cirticism of the state of freedom and rule of law in India, PEN International has come down heavily on the government. A Resolution was passed to this effect at on India at the Poets-Essayists-Novelists (PEN) International Congress held at Ukraine on 19th -22nd September. The assassination of firebrand journalist Gauri Lankesh is specifically mentioned in the resolution as is the rise in rabid and unchecked ‘nationalist’ discourse.

The text of the Resolution reads:
The state of freedom of expression in India continues to deteriorate. Writers who voice dissenting viewpoints continue to be at risk for harassment and murder, and India’s defamation laws continue to be exploited by self-interested parties to prevent the publication of material that may well be in the public interest.

A culture of intolerance linked to an emerging nationalist discourse and a rise in vigilantism – which PEN International identified in its 2015 and 2016 reports on freedom of expression in the country, and reiterated in its submission to the 27th session of the Working Group of the Universal Periodic Review – continues to grow.

The low-cost of initiating defamation proceedings in the courts, combined with an expectation of impunity for attacks carried out against writers, intimidate critical voices into silence and result in a chill on freedom of expression.

In the past six weeks alone, three incidents have demonstrated the dire state of freedom of expression in the country:

MURDER: On 5 September 2017, Gauri Lankesh, a senior journalist and editor of the weekly Kannada-language tabloid Gauri Lankesh Patrike, was shot dead in front of her home in Bengaluru, Karnataka state. Lankesh, aged 55, was an outspoken critic of communalism and caste-based discrimination in her writing, and a champion of progressive causes, such as supporting student movements.
To date there have been no arrests in the case, and the murders remain at large.
At least 16 writers or print journalists have been killed in India since 2013. Lankesh’s murder follows three similar recent murders – of scholar M M Kalburgi, rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, and activist Govind Pansare – which have remained unsolved, and which led to 39 Indian writers and artists returning awards from India’s Sahitya Akademi (Literature Academy) in protest against the Academy’s silence and governmental inaction, and more than 130 writers, artists and filmmakers returning other accolades.

CENSORSHIP: On 4 August 2017, the Karkardooma District Court in Delhi approved an order prohibiting the publication and sale of Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev, without hearing the defence of either the book’s publisher or author. The subject of the book, Ramdev, is a religious leader and yoga practitioner with a vast business empire. Investigative journalist Priyanka Pathak had conducted rigorous research including over 50 interviews, and traced his trajectory from being a yoga proponent to a successful businessman.
In May 2016, the Supreme Court had upheld the constitutionality of India’s criminal defamation legislation, arguing that a person’s right to freedom of speech must be balanced with the other’s right to reputation. Ramdev was able to use this legislation to prevent the publication of the book.

HARASSMENT: Also on August 4, some aggrieved readers of the Santhal community burned an effigy of novelist Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, and copies of his two books in Pakur, Jharkhand, where he works as a government physician. Shekhar’s critically acclaimed work focuses on the Santhal community, which lives primarily in eastern India and parts of Bangladesh.
The August 4 incident was the latest in a campaign of harassment being led against Shekhar stemming back to 2015. Though local police have offered him protection, Shehkar’s freedom of expression continues to be under threat from multiple sources. On 12 August, the state government banned a collection of his short stories on the grounds that it portrayed Santhal women in a bad light and could provoke a backlash.

The Assembly of Delegates of PEN International calls on the Indian authorities to:
— Investigate the murder of Gauri Lankesh and earlier murders of Kalburgi, Dabholkar, and Pansare, and attacks, harassment, and threats against writers and journalists, and bring the perpetrators to justice;
— Act to stop threats to Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, and lift the ban on his book in Jharkhand state;
— Train more police to recognise and investigate attacks and abuse, including online threats, against writers and journalists;
— Repeal criminal defamation laws and other legislation used to restrict legitimate expression;
— Cease to employ pre-publication censorship by the courts; and,
— Protect the rights of those who express their views peacefully, instead of acceding to demands of those who claim offence, seek bans and threaten violence
— The day after Gauri Lankesh’s brute murder PEN had passed a resolution that may be read here

IT Bends to Rakesh Sinha Threat, Sends Harsh Mander’s Orgn Notice ?

September 24, 2017

Threatened by a call for compassion, empathy, peace and harmony? Rakesh Sinha, the new face of the RSS, under the Modi regime, threatened Harsh Mander’s that “they” would have his fund sources investigated and Lo and Behold, today’s newspaper reports say that Mandir has received an IT notice. The “threat” was issued on national television about a week ago.

Following through with the politics of raid and vendetta that has now come to be seen and regarded as the hall mark of Modi ‘s stint in power, thus latest round if vengeful politics appears to be a response of a shaky regime worried and concerned by peace workers on the ground.

Beginning early September from the victim survivors of the Nellie survivors (1983 anti minority pogrom), the Caravan of Love has been winding through different states if India and is currently in Gujarat. On Rajasthan, mobs tried to stop these brave peace warriors when they tried to meet the family of Pehlu Khan until a peace protest led by Mandir and in which John Dayal and other prominent participants also joined, compelled the mobsters to back off.

Mander’s, speaking to Sabrangindia said, “Rakesh Sinha openly threatened on national television that “they” would have our find sources investigated and now this is what they have done. They are seriously rattled by the Karavan e Mohabbat, it has got under their skin.”

In a press note issued on Saturday, the noted human rights activist and former IAS officer has questioned the timing of an income tax notice to the Centre for Equity Studies, a think-tank that he helps run, and asked whether it is being targeted because of the work Harsh Mander and others are doing to show solidarity with the victims of communal violence across India.
The press note is published below in its entirety.

“A number of independent individuals, organisations and social movements collaborated to take out through many parts of the country a Karwan-e-Mohabbat, as a journey of atonement, solidarity, healing, conscience and justice with people living with hate violence. This was an entirely crowd funded Karwan, and the funds for this were received by Aman Biradari Trust, which does not have an FCRA.

On September 15, 2017, the Karwan was scheduled to stop at Behror at the site at which Pehlu Khan had been lynched, to pay tribute to his memory by placing a few flowers there. But a day before this, the Hindu Jagran Manch, Bajrang Dal and VHP announced that they would not allow the Karwan to pay this tribute. The Karwan responded by announcing that it would press ahead with its proposed tribute despite all opposition. In a television debate on September 14, 2017, in NDTV’s Left, Right and Centre anchored by Nidhi Razdan, I joined by phone from the Karwan bus. Mr Rakesh Sinha of the RSS during the debate made angry personalised attacks against me. He also said that I was against the RSS. I replied that I am indeed against the ideology of the RSS, because its belief in a Hindu rashtra contravenes the Indian constitution. During this same debate, Mr Sinha said, in a barely veiled threat, that the funding of ‘my’ organisations would be investigated. The next morning, despite stone-throwing mobs, I did finally prevail in placing flowers at the site of Pehlu Khan’s lynching.

Four days later, an organisation of which I am the director and one of the founders, the Centre for Equity Studies, received by email a notice under Section 143 (2) of the Income Tax Act for a Full Scrutiny of the income tax returns of the Centre for Equity Studies for the assessment year 2016-17. This has been followed by another notice dated September 20, 2017, by which they have retrospectively and suo moto rectified their earlier assessment order that our returns are in order. Both these order are attached.

The Income Tax Department may claim that this is just a routine notice. But the timing of the notice shortly after the public threat for getting the funding of ‘my’ organisations investigated, and the fact that less than 1 per cent of returns are scrutinised, suggest that this could well be an act of state vengeance and intimidation.

I would also like to point out that the Centre for Equity Studies had nothing whatsoever to do with the Karwan-e-Mohabbat. It brings out the annual India Exclusion Report, and works with homeless persons and other vulnerable groups.

We are happy to subject ourselves to any scrutiny, and will fully cooperate with the investigation, as we believe in public accountability. But I would like to state categorically that no amount of state intimidation of the organisations that I am associated with, would succeed to silencing my public dissent with policies and ideologies that I believe are detrimental to India’s constitutional values.”

Says Prabhakar Sinha of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL):

“Anybody who raises his voice against Modi receives Income Tax Department’s notice , or has his premises raided by the ED or the CBI or some other government agency , but Modi is not questioned about living beyond his means , or about the milliom-rupee(Rs 10 lakhs)coat and the other expensive gifts he took from businessmen and the lies he told about his passing B.A. and M.A. examinations or the the sources of the astronomical amount he spent on his 2014 election campaign because all the investigating agencies are under him .

The Investigating Agencies are the Watchdogs maintained on taxes paid by the people to protect their interest and not dogs to maul political opponents of the masters of the day.

A Prime Minister is a public servant .He is guilty of corruption if he receives expensive gifts from businessmen or others .Modi, like us, is expected to declare the gifts he receives and and pay gift tax on them if the gift is not graft. Modi has been donning most expensive clothes and is reported to be spending uninmaginably high amounts on food and soft drinks and mineral water etc. which he cannot afford on his salary.Had our Investigating Agencies been free to play their legitimate role , Modi , too, would have been under investigation like Donald Trump and the political opponents he has been trying to silence by setting the Investigating agencies onto them.”

Bekhauf BHU: Inspiring Uprising By BHU Students For Gender Justice

September 24, 2017

On September 21, 2016, a woman student of BHU was groped and molested on a campus street by some motorcycle borne men. Guards posted on the campus did not come to help her, she alleged. And what is worse, when she along with other students approached the Proctor and administrators asking them to check CCTV footage and help identify the molesters, she was told “Don’t you know the Prime Minister Modi ji is visiting Varanasi – we’re busy the next couple of days till he leaves. But why were you out on the streets in the evening?”

The same night, women students of Triveni gathered and demanded the Administrative Warden meet them. The Administrative Warden, in turn, said nothing could be done till after Modi’s visit. When the survivor of the molestation demanded that lights be installed on dark streets on the campus the Warden said, “Why do you need to go out on the dark streets? Several girls stay out late – till 9-10 pm – and wear provocative clothes, it’s they who create the climate in which incidents of molestation happen.”

Dawn on September 22 saw something extraordinary: women students began gathering at the BHU Main Gate from 5 am onwards, and their numbers kept swelling till night. That was the day the PM Modi – who is also Member of Parliament from Varanasi – was to visit Varanasi, and was due to cross the street in front of the BHU Main Gate.

Students hung a huge banner on the main gate that said: “BHU GC VC Go Back – Bachegi Beti Tabhi To Padhegi Beti (a reference to Modi’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao slogan, reminding him that women need safety from sexual harassment in order to study.) Reportedly, Modi had to change his route to avoid crossing this banner and this infuriated BHU students.

The protest continued on the night of the September 22 and throughout the day on the September 23, with male students of BHU joining the women students in support and solidarity with their demands. The demands included that the GSCASH (the body against sexual harassment) be made active and gender-sensitive; gender sensitization of all administrative personnel on the campus; that the discriminatory rules (including restrictions on Wi-Fi availability, discriminatory curfew timings, and a ban on non-vegetarian food) for women’s hostels be scrapped; street lights on the campus; and other measures to ensure that women students can walk freely and without fear on the campus.

ABVP Tried To Censor ‘Unsafe BHU’ Slogans
One of the main slogans of the BHU students movement has been against ‘Unsafe BHU’; another demanded ‘Pitrsatta se azaadi’ (Freedom from Patriarchy). These slogans, the BHU ABVP unit declared, were ‘anti-national.’ The ABVP men began arguing with the women students that BHU was ‘Shiv ji ki nagri, bhole baba ki nagri’ (the town of Lord Shiva) and so could not be called ‘unsafe’. “We support our sisters and will protect them’, said the ABVP, ‘but don’t call the campus unsafe. Don’t raise slogans demanding freedom – these are Leftist slogans and intended to turn BHU into JNU.” But this stand of the ABVP was roundly rejected by the women students, who declared, “BHU is indeed unsafe, why should we not call it so?” The women students were simply unwilling to accept the paternalistic ‘Big Brotherly’ protection offered by the ABVP men in exchange for silence on sexual harassment. They got solidarity from hundreds of men students of BHU – but it was the ABVP that refused solidarity and tried to censor the slogans used by the women students. On one occasion, an ABVP man literally tried to snatch the mike away from a woman student of BHU.

It was after this that some miscreants set fire to a motorbike outside one of the BHU gates, and pelted stones, one of which reportedly hit a policeman. I am told by BHU students that it is a total fabrication that any of the student protesters pelted any stone or indeed indulged in any retaliatory violence. Rather the stone pelting and arson by the unknown men was a pretext for the police to rush into the campus and use tear gas, lathis and rubber bullets against protesting students – injuring several severely.

The BHU women students have been agitating for equality for a long time – against the rules imposed on them by the Vice Chancellor who is a proud member of the fascist RSS Their movement against sexual harassment is now making history. ABVP tries to tell BHU women to be “well-behaved” unlike JNU’s “anti-national, badly-behaved” women. But women everywhere are rejecting these attempts to divide them into categories of “sluts” and “sati-savitris,” “good women” and “bad women.” They’re rejecting the attempts to pit BHU women against JNU and DU and Jadavpur women. They’re refusing to allow anyone to tell them that demanding freedom from patriarchy is “anti-national.” Jadavpur and West Bengal

JNU does, indeed, have a functioning, autonomous GSCASH that is widely recognized as a model for other campuses – and the JNU VC, another BJP appointee like the BHU VC GC Tripathi has just made an attempt to dismantle it and replace it with a puppet body that will basically function under his own thumb.

RSS Deeply Resents Women’s Movements For Equality
The RSS in fact wanted Manusmriti (which is anti-Dalit and which says women must be always subordinate to fathers, husbands and sons) to be India’s Constitution This is what Mohan Bhagwat means today when he says that India’s Constitution should be brought in line with “Indian values.” The RSS finds it impossible to swallow the fact that women’s struggles for liberation could and should be counted among “Indian values.” Bhagwat has said, elsewhere, that the RSS stands for “familyism not feminism” – and that’s the problem. “Familyism” offers so-called “protection” as long as “mothers, sisters, daughters” are willing to accept patriarchal authority and avoid asserting individual identity, autonomy, and independence. This is precisely what the ABVP tried to tell the BHU women students – but failed to get them to accept.

What the RSS “familyism” means is also made clear by the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who quoted the Manusmriti in his ‘Matrshakti’ article, saying that “a woman is protected in her childhood by her father, by her husband in her youth and by her son in her old age — so that way a woman is not capable of being left free or independent.” In that piece he had said that women’s reservations in Assembly or Parliament should not be considered till there was an assessment of whether women’s reservations in panchayats had affected their “primary role as wives and mothers.” He had added for good measure that women who “acquire manly qualities” (i.e assert their independence and equality) become like “demons.” Is it any surprise that in Yogi’s UP, women students demanding freedom from patriarchy are being lathicharged?

The RSS bid to ‘capture’ campuses requires them to suppress any demand for freedom by women. In November 2015, the Panchjanya (RSS organ) carried a cover feature which proclaimed that the inclusion of “human rights, women’s rights, religious freedom, discrimination and exclusion, sexual justice and secularism” in the JNU curriculum and the setting up of academic centres like the Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, Centre for Women’s Studies and North East India Studies Programme was due to a conspiracy of Leftists. The article also described the JNU campus students’ movements for “secularism, minority rights, human rights, women’s rights and the rights of deprived sections of society” as “the flourishing crop of such poison” that “can be seen all over the University in the slogans, posters and pamphlets that cover its walls.”

Clearly, the RSS see the demands of women or other oppressed sections for equality and liberation as ‘anti-national’ and ‘poisonous.’ This is why it scares them deeply to find that these demands are not confined to JNU; they are not even a JNU export: campuses from DU to HCU to Jadavpur to Mahendragarh (Haryana) to Thiruvananthapuram to AMU and BHU have seen similar movements that refuse to be shamed, silenced or suppressed.

Like the BHU ABVP, other RSS and BJP voices too have expressed discomfiture not only about women students’ demands for rights, but about the very presence of women in higher education. BJP’s West Bengal President Dilip Ghosh, now a BJP MLA from the state, declared that Jadavpur University’s women students who accused ABVP members of molesting them, are “shameless” (behaya) and that women who did not want to be molested should not go out to protest. He said “Those who fear so much for their modesty, why did they go there? This is shamelessness. Making such allegations (of molestation) is very cheap” (Indian Express, May 15, 2016).

Modi says ‘Beti Bachao’ – but this is promise of paternalistic protection is dependent on the ‘daughters’ being docile and obedient and silent. If the ‘daughters’ speak up loudly and as equals, the ABVP mindset promptly says (see screenshot of tweet by an ex-ABVP supporter of Yogi Adityanath) that “Rogue daughters deserve this treatment” (i.e deserve to be beaten up by the police.
It’s time to enlighten Modi and his ABVP cadre that Indian women do not have to “become like foreign women” in order to demand their rights. BHU women do not have to “be like JNU women” to demand their rights. Rather, women anywhere in the world are asserting the radical idea that they have a right to be treated as human beings – not as “mothers and sisters” who receive protection conditional on good behavior; not as “goddesses” to be worshipped in the abstract and beaten, raped and killed in the real world.

Salaam BHU’s women students: you have written a new, inspiring chapter in India’s women’s movement and student movement!

(The author is is Secretary, All India Progressive Women’s Association, AIPWA)

1. Harassment of Women in BHU Invites Mass Protest: Banaras

Understanding Hike in Oil Prices in the BJP Regime

September 23, 2017

THE country is suffering again as the average price of petrol has reached Rs 75 per litre and the average diesel price has reached Rs 62 per litre by the mid-September. The retail price of petrol was this high during the second half of 2013 and the first half of 2014 i.e., during the last year of the UPA-2 government. The average international price of crude oil was more than 140 US dollar per barrel (one barrel=159 litres approximately) then. The NDA government was formed in the end of May 2014. Fortunately, the international crude oil price came down from 146.5 US dollar per barrel (in June 2014) to only 62 US dollar per barrel by January 2015. However, as compared to a drop of 55 per cent in the international price of crude oil, the domestic retail price of petrol registered a drop of merely 22 per cent during the same time period.

Petrol Price Hike

Thus, less than 50 per cent of the benefit of reduction in the international price of oil was passed on to the domestic consumers in India. The international price of crude remained less than 70 dollar per barrel since then. The difference between domestic and international price of oil has gone up substantially during the time of NDA government as compared to that during the UPA-2 time. The petrol price went up to nearly Rs 80 per litre during the UPA time primarily because of the high international price of crude oil. But, the recent increase to Rs 75 (more than Rs 80 in Mumbai and elsewhere) per litre has not happened due to any increase in the international oil price but because of the increase in the difference between the domestic selling price and international price of oil. This gap comprises of the cost of refining, marketing (including the profit of the oil marketing companies) and the taxes.

There is no evidence to suggest that anything other than tax components of the difference under consideration has gone up significantly during the last three years. As a proportion of GDP, the sales tax revenue from the petro-products, which accrues to the state governments, has also not gone up. However, the central government’s tax revenue from petroleum products has almost doubled as the proportion of GDP during the last two years from 0.9 per cent to 1.8 per cent of GDP. Therefore, this time, the price hike has happened primarily because of the higher tax collection from the petro-products by the central government. This has been the main story of oil price in the time of BJP. The argument can be substantiated with the help of the following empirical evidence.

In the above chart, monthly data from January 2010 to September 2017 has been considered on three variables – average international price of crude oil (simple average of the Dated Brent, West Texas Intermediate and the Dubai Fateh) in terms of US dollar per barrel from primary commodity price database of IMF, the exchange rate of rupee per US dollar from the handbook of statistics, RBI and the domestic average price of petrol in rupees per litre (for the four metro cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai) from the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL). The entire period has been divided into two parts – the UPA-2 regime (i.e., upto May 2014) and the NDA regime (June 2014 onwards). The top most broken line depicts the movement in the international average price of crude oil in terms of US dollar per barrel. This went up to 160 US dollar in 2011 and 2012 from 100 dollars per barrel in mid-2010. This was around 140 dollars per barrel till June 2014. Then, as mentioned above, the sharp decline takes place and it stabilizes below 70 dollars per barrel. The dotted line draws the movement in the exchange rate of rupee per dollar, which has gone up from around Rs 45 per dollar to Rs 65 per dollar on an average during the time period under consideration. With the help of this exchange rate, we have converted the international crude oil price series in dollar per barrel into rupee per litre series, which is depicted by the unbroken thin line in the above graph. Clearly, it went up from around Rs 30 per litre in the beginning of 2010 to Rs 59 (almost double) by September 2013. In June 2014, it was more than Rs 55 when the current BJP government assumed office. However, luckily it came down to Rs 25 per litre by January 2015. It has stabilized more or less near Rs 30 per litre now. When the international crude price went up from Rs 30 to Rs 60, the domestic petrol price also went up from Rs 45 to almost Rs 80. However, when the international price came down from Rs 55 to Rs 25, the domestic price of petrol came down from Rs 78 to only Rs 62 per litre. Therefore, the domestic consumers were deprived of getting the benefit of the lower international oil prices. The unbroken thick line depicts the retail price of petrol (average of Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai) in the graph above. It never went down below Rs 60 per litre before firming up again to more than Rs 74 per litre.

What distinguishes the NDA regime from the UPA-2 regime, vis-à-vis the oil price policy, is the thick broken line measuring the difference between the domestic petrol price and the international price of crude oil in terms of rupees per litre. As is clearly evident, this difference has been maintained at a very high level of Rs 40 per litre since January 2015. The thick broken line depicts how the gap increased from around Rs 23 per litre during the UPA regime to as high as Rs 40 per litre in the NDA regime. As mentioned above, this has happened primarily because of larger tax collection from the petroleum by the central government. Therefore, the recent hike has not happened out of compulsion but it was a deliberate government policy to raise the price.

The union minister for tourism of the present NDA government, K J Alphons has clarified this on record, “it is an intentional decision made by the government. We are going to tax people who can afford to pay… We are here for welfare of the downtrodden, ensure electricity in every village, make houses, build toilets. It is going to cost enormous amount of money”. Many serious studies, however, have shown that the rise in oil price has a significant negative impact on growth and inflation in the Indian context. Nobody is against larger pro-poor social sector expenditure. However, pitting one against the other, is a cliché tactic. The direct taxes, and not the indirect taxes, are levied following the ability to pay approach. If the government would have been really serious about collecting more taxes, from those who can pay, in order to incur larger pro-people expenditures, the revenue from various direct taxes like income and profit tax should have been increased for those who have the ability to pay. However, when the international price is more or less stable, if the domestic price of petro-products increases to a very high-level due to higher taxation, it is not justifiable. It is definitely going to increase prices in every other sector of the economy and reduce growth in the face of the current slowdown. Instead of providing petroleum subsidy, if the petroleum sector is used as the main vehicle to raise more indirect tax revenue in the central exchequer, it would go against the interest of the majority of the common people of this country. The direction of the pro-people policy should be to reduce petroleum price in the country by reducing the central government taxes on petro-products and to expand expenditure by raising more direct tax revenues from the rich profit and income earners.

(Courtesy: People’s Democracy: http://peoplesdemocracy.in/2017/0924_pd/oil-price-hike-time-bjp)

One More Godman, Alwar-based Falahari Maharaj accused of Rape, Victim Motivated by Ram Rahim case, Arrested

September 23, 2017

The self-styled godman, who also has an ashram in Bilaspur, allegedly threatened the woman to not disclose the incident to anyone, citing his influence.

A 58-year-old self-styled godman in Rajasthan’s Alwar who allegedly raped a 21-year-old law student after promising her to make her a judge, is the latest in a series of scandals involving dubious Godmen, who has today been arrested reports NDTV. Godmen who run large businesses and operations have been found to be close not just to the politically powerful but even those holding high constitutional positions, it is alleged.

Rajasthan Police, compelled to arrest the Baba after the complaint, said the man – Alwar-based Kaushlendra Falahari Maharaj who commands a strong following across India – allegedly raped the woman devotee on August 7 when she went to his ashram to offer her first stipend as a token of respect. The woman, a resident of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, lodged an FIR and state police took up the case on September 11.

A case was then lodged against 70-year-old Swami Kaushlendra Prapannachari Falahari Maharaj with the women police station here on September 11, said Bilaspur Additional Superintendent of Police Archana Jha, based on the complaint. The incident had allegedly taken place at Madhusudan ashram of the godman in Alwar, Rajasthan, on August 7 this year, she said.

“The family members of the victim have been devotees of the Maharaj for the past two decades. Recently, the woman, who is a law student, joined an internship at a company through the godman’s recommendation…. she came to Alwar to give the Maharaj Rs. 3,000 that she got as a stipend,” said Shishram Meena, station house officer, Aravali Vihar police station, Alwar, quoted by both The Hindustan Times and The Tribune.

Police said he allegedly raped her during this stay at the ashram in Alwar. The allegations have come roughly a month after Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted for raping two women devotees 15 years ago. police said Singh’s conviction motivated the woman to make the complaint.

According to the criminal complaint, the parents of the woman, who is a student of law at Jaipur, are followers of Falahari Maharaj and have been for the past several years, the police officer said. It was on the baba’s recommendation, she did an internship under a senior lawyer in New Delhi for which she received a stipend of Rs 3,000. Her parents asked her to donate the stipend amount to the baba’s ashram in Alwar, the ASP said.

Following her parents’ advice, she went to the ashram on Raksha Bandhan last month. Citing occurrence of ‘grahan’ (eclipse) that day, the self-proclaimed religious guru advised her to stay in the ashram which she agreed to, Jha said. During the night, the baba called the woman in his room and allegedly sexually assaulted her, the ASP said, quoting from the complaint.

The baba asked her not to tell anyone about the incident and threatened to harm her if she did so, she said. When the survivor came home here this month, she narrated the ordeal to her parents following which a rape complaint was lodged with the women cell, Jha added.

A case was registered against the accused under IPC Sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation), the police officer said.

The survivor’s statement was recorded before a magistrate here and the case diary sent to the Alwar Police for further action, she added.

“She was raped by the baba on the pretext of making her a judge. The girl came back to Bilaspur and narrated the whole incident to family members,” said additional superintendent of police, Bilaspur, Archana Jha. Rajasthan police added that the self-styled godman, who also has an ashram in Bilaspur, allegedly threatened the woman to not disclose the incident to anyone, citing his influence.

“The woman has said in the complaint that following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, she got courage and decided to report the matter to the police,” added Meena.

The accused was admitted to a private hospital on Wednesday. “Alwar police have taken up the investigation and we will also be speaking with the victim to know more about the case. As of now, we haven’t been able to question the godman as he is admitted in a hospital,” said Meena.

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Gaushala & Ram Mandir Slogans: Is MP’s Makhanlal Chaturvedi University Turning Saffron?

Bhopal-based Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication (MCNUJC) is apparently being turned into an “RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) propaganda laboratory”.

Is BJP seeing its own ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ in Deendayal Upadhyay?

The sudden iconisation of Deendayal Upadhyaya is an indirect admission that despite its long political journey it has not been possible for sangh parivar to raise a leader whose appeal cuts across broad cross sections of society?

I am in Self-Imposed House Arrest After Being Attacked: Kancha Iliah Shepherd

Kancha Iliah Shepher’s Own Account:

Censorship, Intimidation, Murder Threats to Free Expression in India: PEN International

IT Bends to Rakesh Sinha Threat, Sends Harsh Mander’s Orgn Notice ?

Bekhauf BHU: Inspiring Uprising By BHU Students For Gender Justice

Understanding Hike in Oil Prices in the BJP Regime

One More Godman, Alwar-based Falahari Maharaj accused of Rape, Victim Motivated by Ram Rahim case, Arrested

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