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Fatwas issued against molvis who take money for one-night stand with divorced women in the name of ‘nikaah halala’

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An investigation team of India Today TV channel has exposed the shocking fact of some molvis from Delhi and west UP turning the Islamic stipulation of nikaah halala into a lucrative business offering their ‘sexual service’ for cash to enable a divorced wife from re-uniting with her estranged husband.

Fatwa against halala

Using candid camera, the sting operation has videographic evidence of several molvis speaking to undercover India Today correspondents offering their one-night “service” to a victim of triple talaq for a “fee” ranging from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 1.5 lakh.

It is said that during the time of the Prophet some men used to keep women on tenterhooks through the humiliating practice of divorcing their wives and remarrying them again and again. To put a check on this practice, the Quran stipulated that if a husband divorces his wife three times (marriage-divorce, remarriage-divorce, remarriage-divorce), she then becomes haraam (prohibited, illegal) for him. He can no longer remarry her yet again except under certain circumstances which are as follows: the divorced wife marries someone else, the marriage is consummated, the second marriage happens to end in a divorce or the husband happens to die. Only in such a situation does it become halal (permitted) for the original husband and wife who already have three divorces between them to remarry (nikaah). Thus, nikaah halala.

What was meant to be a check on the humiliation and exploitation of women has been turned on its head and women are the victims once again.

For some clerics, in India and elsewhere too, nikaah halala has come to simply mean that a husband can remarry his wife after triple talaq, provided she were to marry some other male, the marriage is consummated, followed by instant divorce. Bluntly stated, it means that a divorced wife must have sex with another man, even if only once, before she becomes halal once again to her husband.

It is for this consummation of the marriage for which several molvis from north India have been caught on candid camera offering to themselves sleep with the estranged wife for a night or even a few hours to complete the supposed procedure for nikaah halala.  

To understand the Islamic position on this shameful practice, Sabrang India spoke to two senior maulanas from Varanasi. Both maulanas issued a written fatwa is response to a written query and also spoke on camera denouncing the practice as un-Islamic, inhuman, anti-women, shameful, disgraceful.

Here below are the English translations of the operative parts of the two fatwas issued in Urdu:

Summary: Fatwa of Maulana Abdul Batin, Chief Mufti of Darul Ifta Ibrahimi, Varanasi

If the facts as disclosed by the said TV channel are correct and true, the molvis concerned are entirely to be blamed. Their misconduct has nothing to do with the teachings of Islam. No words are adequate to condemn such molvis. If they are in fact guilty of such dirty, disgusting, disgraceful and unholy conduct, the same can never be sanctioned by the Shariah, law of the land or any code of civilized conduct. It therefore becomes obligatory on such persons to repent having behaved in such lowly fashion and seek God’s forgiveness. If having repented they refrain from such conduct in future they should be forgiven. If not, it becomes the duty of the leadership of the community and society to take necessary punitive action against them.
 

Summary: Fatwa of Maulana Mohammed Haroon Rashid Naqshbandi, Mufti and Imam Usmania Jama Masjid, Varanasi.  

If the allegations against the molvis are found to be true and correct, if for a fees (irrespective of the amount charged) and as a matter of business they are engaging in relations with an estranged wife in order to make her halal (legitimate) for the husband, then from an Islamic point of view such people are guilty of committing a very grave sin. Their conduct is totally haram and they are worthy of the most stringent punishment. It is the duty of Muslims to socially boycott such molvis for Allah has clearly directed believers not to associate with people who indulge in sinful acts.

Here are the copies of the original fatwa:

 

Bangladesh: ‘Expelled’ Jamaat-Shibir elements rejuvenate the extremist Jama’atul Mujahideen

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To join militant groups and carry out attacks, they are using a ‘get expelled from Jamaat-Shibir strategy,’ police say

 

New JMB’s Shibir connection
With the expelled Jamaat and Shibir members ready to serve New JMB’s purpose willingly, the terror group is also eager to recruit them Image: Mahmud Hossain Opu

Leaders and activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir are allegedly using a “get expelled strategy” to join the New JMB, a new faction of banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, to carry out terror attacks across Bangladesh.

With very little scope to play a role in the country’s political arena nowadays, Jamaat and Shibir over the years had secretly expelled over various unclear reasons a number of its members who were later found to be involved with militancy.

Their goal is to create anarchy, native and international pressure on the Awami League-led government and ultimately oust it from power, police officials have said.

New JMB, looking for fresh members after its top leaders and activists were either killed or arrested in recent operations by security agencies, is also eager to recruit the expelled members of Jamaat and Shibir as they would serve its purpose willingly.

“Former Shibir members are the ones who are now leading New JMB,” Monirul Islam, chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, claimed recently after arresting one of the Gulshan restaurant attack masterminds, Aslam Hossain Rashed alias Rash.

Monirul said: “Rashed joined New JMB following the footsteps of Shibir leader Shariful Islam, who was involved in the killing of Rajshahi University teacher Rezaul Karim Siddiquee.”

Another CTTC official, requesting anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that New JMB was now being led by one Ayub Bachchu who is a former Shibir activist.

In the latest development, New JMB militant Saiful Islam, also a former Shibir member, blew himself up with mid-range explosives at a hotel room in the capital’s Panthapath, about 300 metre away from Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, during a police raid on Tuesday morning.

Later, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque told reporters: “The militant Saiful, also the son of a Jamaat leader from Khulna, had planned to launch a bomb attack on the processions heading to the museum at Dhanmondi 32 to pay tribute to Bangabandhu.”

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, in several instances, had claimed that Jamaat and Shibir were behind the militant outfits in the country.

Jamaat, the country’s largest religious political party, have always denied such claims, but some intelligence reports last year had found the allegations to be true.

According to the reports, many Jamaat and Shibir members were both directly and indirectly involved with different militant groups. Some organisations owned by Jamaat leaders were also found to be financing those outfits.

Several high officials at the Police Headquarters, CTTC and Rapid Action Battalion also admitted that there was a connection between Jamaat-Shibir and New JMB.

CTTC Additional Deputy Commissioner Abdul Mannan told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have found names of several persons, organisations and groups that are connected to New JMB. We are investigating them.”
 

Militant ties nothing new for Jamaat-Shibir

Connection with militancy, however, is not something new for the Jamaat and Shibir as many from these organisations were earlier found involved with different outfits including Ansar Al Islam, Shahid Hamza Brigade, Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami and Hizb-ut Tahrir, police claimed.

Even though the security agencies and government claim that the Islamic State does not exist in Bangladesh, they say the expelled Jamaat and Shibir members follow the Syria-based terror group’s ideology to carry out attacks in Bangladesh.

Police also recently claimed to have found direct links between Jamaat-Shibir and recent terror attacks.

Former Shibir member Marzan, who was an Arabic department student at Chittagong University, was the chief coordinator of the Gulshan attack that killed 22 people in July 2016.

New JMB chief Tamim Chowdhury, killed in a police raid last year, and Ansarullah Bangla Team (later rebranded as Ansar Al Islam) chief Ziaul Haque, who is still on the run, had recruited many former Jamaat-Shibir members in their organisations and had them take part in most of the attacks in the past few years, police said.

New JMB member Ershad alias Mamun, arrested in March 2015, is a former Shibir activist who had first revealed many plans of the new terror outfit during interrogations.

The law enforcement agencies, apparently, did not pay much attention to his claims at that time. But a number of attacks, including the one at Holey Artisan Bakery, several murders and bomb blast at a naval base in Chittagong, since then had had them shocked and forced them to take New JMB more seriously.
Since 2015, police have arrested many Islamist militants who were originally with Jamaat and Shibir, but later joined different terror groups, including the New JMB, directly or indirectly.

After the nationwide simultaneous bomb attacks in August 2005, security agencies had arrested seven members of the original Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, all of whom were former members of Jamaat or Shibir.

In October the same year, the courts and judges in different districts were targeted in another series bombings. The next month, a suicide bombing carried out by the JMB had killed two senior assistant judges and wounded three others in Jhalakathi.

Police investigations later found that the bomber, Hasan Al Mamun, and his family members had close ties to Jamaat. Hasan was also a Shibir member.

In October 2003, Bangladesh Bank had ordered all commercial banks and financial institutions to freeze the accounts of several Malaysian nationals associated with the Jamaat for their suspected involvement in financing terrorism.

Militant activities had come into the spotlight again in February 2013 after the gruesome killing of blogger and civil rights activist Ahmed Rajib Haider, who had helped coordinate the Shahbagh movement, allegedly by Shibir members.

The Jamaat and its affiliated organisations earlier had accused Rajib of mocking Islam in his blog posts.

However, a month later, police’s Detective Branch (DB) arrested five North South University students in connection with Rajib’s murder.

CTTC Unit chief Monirul Islam, who was the DB spokesperson at that time, had said that these five murdered Rajib following direct orders from a Shibir leader named Rana.

Expulsions of Jamaat and Shibir members over reasons such as violation of party rules and ties to various crimes have become more of a trick move that grants them the right to officially claim that they do not endorse militancy, police officials said.

Dhaka Tribune’s attempts to contact top Jamaat and Shibir leaders over phone, text messages and emails for comments on the issue yielded no response.

Courtesy: Dhaka Tribune
 

This Everyday Patriotism Agnipariksha (Trial by Fire) from Hindutva Needs an Innovative Response

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On the eve of 71st anniversary of India’s Independence, the government of UP led by a senior leader of Hindu Mahasabha and RSS, Mahant Adityanath Yogi, came out with a shocking order for madrasaas (Islamic seminaries).

madarsa

These institutiond were ordered to compulsorily observe India’s Independence Day, August 15, and the same compellef  to video-graph the exercise, to be sent to the administration, as patriotism proof.

The order was issued by registrar of UP Madrasa Shiksha Parishad, Rahul Gupta. The circular directed all madrasaas to hoist the tricolour and sing the national anthem at 8 am. The madrasaa gatherings were also asked to be told about the sacrifices of the freedom fighters. The flag hoisting was to  be followed by a speech on the importance of the freedom struggle and the sacrifices made by freedom fighters. It was also ordered that students would have to pay tributes to freedom fighters on the occasion.[1]

When asked why only madrasaas were ordered to celebrate Independence with a list of dos and provide proof of the same and this order was not applicable on the government school, the Basic Education Board secretary, Sanjay Sinha, crossing all norms of decency, fair-play, justice and equal treatment to all citizens, made this shocking statement: “We trust our schools. They are our teachers, our students and so why should we seek any evidence.”[2]

Thus making it clear that madarsa students and teachers were ‘others’ whose loyalty was suspect. This statement not only doubted the loyalty of Muslims attached to madrasaas but is also directed at generating  hatred towards the largest minority of UP. Such a statement coming from a senior UP official could lead to provokrd or perpetrated violence against Muslims in general and is a criminal act under section 153 A of the Indian Penal Code. The police should have filed FIR under the law.[3]

No action was taken by the State which the situation demanded. Even more shameful was the indifferent attitude of prominent Muslim organisations of UP who slept over it, instead of taking recourse to judicial redressal.
 
Madrassas played a great and heroic role in the struggle for India’s Freedom
 
The madrasas under communal attack in UP and elsewhere have been part of India’s glorious freedom struggle. The renowned historian RC Majumdar who produced tremendous body of research based works on the Cellular Jail found out that the first batch of persons who were  incarcerated there consisted of leaders of thr 1857 Uprising like Maulana Fazle Haq Khairabadi, Maulana Liaqat Ali and Maulana Jafar Ali Thaneshwari who died there while serving life sentences. The second batch of prisoners were Wahabi maulvi revolutionaries who had continued waging the 1857 liberation struggle.[4] VD Savarkar before turning into an apostle of Hindu separatism, in his monumental work on 1857 Uprising, The Indian War of Independence 1857 hugely praised maulvis like Ahmed Shah who “had woven fine and cleverly the webs of the Jehad.”[5]

According to the contemporary documents of the British military archives, in Delhi itself the British army after capturing the city in September 1857 hanged more than 3000 teachers and students of madrasaas. Muslims were not allowed entry into the city till 1859.

During the anti-colonial freedom movement, these were madrasaa maulvis (teachers) like Maulana Shibli Nomani, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Maulana Mohammed Ali, Maulana Hifzur Rehman, Maulana Hasrat Mohani, Hafiz Ibrahim, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Maulana Habeebur Rehman Ludhianvi and Maulana Madani who with Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel bore brunt of the repression for being part of the freedom movement. Some of these maulvis were incarcerated at Malta and spent half of their lives in the British jails. It is to be noted that these maulvis refused to accept Partition of India on the religious bases despite Congress accepting it.

Madrassas with such a glorious role in the freedom struggle of India with countless martyrs from its past fraternity in the cause of the freedom of India, are being ridiculed and harassed for being ‘disloyal’. The State is out to teach the ‘anti-national’ Muslims patriotism. Let’s compare this fundamental character of madrasaas with the role of RSS and Hindu Mahasabha in the freedom struggle whose children the rule India presently.

The RSS Hatred for the Tricolour
 The RSS since its inception in 1925 hated anything, which symbolized the united struggle of the Indian people against British rule. The case of the Tricolour is the most pertinent one. In December 1929 Congress at its Lahore session adopted ‘Purna Swaraj’ or complete self-rule as the national goal and called upon the people to observe January 26, 1930 as Independence Day by displaying and honouring the Tricolour (the Tricolour was by consensus considered the flag of the national movement by this time). In response to this Hedgewar as chief issued a circular to all the RSS shakhas to worship the bhagwa jhanda (saffron flag) as the national flag.

Golwalkar, the most prominent ideologue of the RSS and Guru of many of present lot of RSS/BJP leaders while addressing a Gurupurnima gathering in Nagpur on July 14, 1946, stated that it was the saffron flag which in totality represented their great culture. It was the embodiment of God: “We firmly believe that in the end the whole nation will bow before this saffron flag.”[6]

Even after independence when the Tricolour became the National Flag, it was the RSS which refused to accept it as the National Flag. Golwalkar while discussing the issue of the national flag in an essay entitled ‘Drifting and Drifting’ in the book Bunch of Thoughts, an RSS publication and collection of writings of Golwalkar, decried Tricolour in the following words: “Our leaders have set up a new flag for our country. Why did they do so? It is just a case of drifting and imitating….Ours is an ancient and great nation with a glorious past. Then, had we no flag of our own? Had we no national emblem at all these thousands of years? Undoubtedly, we had. Then why this utter void, this utter vacuum in our minds?”[7]

The most shocking denigration of the National Flag by the RSS came just on the eve of India’s Independence. The RSS English organ Organizer (August 14, 1947) while demanding hoisting of saffron flag at the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi, openly denigrated the choice of the Tri-colour as the National Flag in the following words: “the people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it never be respected and owned by Hindus. the word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country.”

RSS/HINDU MAHA SABHA SHAMELESSLY BETRYED FREEDOM STRUGGLE
The RSS/BJP governors of UP by enforcing celebration of Independence Day on the madrassas of UP are, in fact, attempting to cover-up their betrayal of the glorious united freedom struggle of Indian people. The RSS never participated in the freedom struggle and it was confessed by Guru Golwalkar who was boss of the organization 1940 onward. Non-cooperation Movement and Quit India Movement were two great milestones in the history of the Indian Freedom Movement and here is how he decried these movements.

“Definitely there are bound to be bad results of struggle. The boys became unruly after the 1920-21 movement. It is not an attempt to throw mud at the leaders. But these are inevitable products after the struggle. The matter is that we could not properly control these results. After 1942, people often started thinking that there was no need to think of the law.”[8]

Thus, Golwalkar wanted the Indians to respect the draconian and repressive laws of the inhuman British rulers! Guruji also confessed how RSS kept away from the freedom movement.

“In 1942 also there was a strong sentiment in the hearts of many. At that time, too the routine work of Sangh continued. Sangh vowed not to do anything directly. However, upheaval (uthal-puthal) in the minds of Sangh volunteers continued. Sangh is an organization of inactive persons, their talks are useless, not only outsiders but also many of our volunteers did talk like this. They were greatly disgusted too.”[9]

The Hindu Mahasabha led by RSS beloved, Savarkar, ran coalition governments with Muslim League in Bengal, Sind and NWFP when Congress was banned due to the launch of Quit India Movement. Shockingly, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, another Hindutva icon of RSS/BJP was deputy chief minister in the Muslim League ministry of Bengal.[10]

It must have been the ideological reason that Golwalkar (RSS chief since 1940), Deendayal Upadhyay (prominent RSS cadre since 1937) and LK Advani (RSS activist since 1942) never participated in the freedom struggle.

Even the greatest Hindutva icon of the RSS/BJP, Savarkar wrote 4-5 mercy petitions to the British masters for release from Cellular Jail. Ultimately, he was released after 10 years whereas he had been sentenced for 50 years.

This discriminatory order doubting the patriotism of Muslims imposed by the RSS/BJP rulers of UP for madrasaas has, naturally, terrorized Muslims of UP and a strong sense of despair prevails amongst them. They are scared that this issue like cow will be used to physically target them and another spell of lynching and destruction will follow.

Saddest part is that the Muslim organizations which mushroom in UP and elsewhere have kept mum on this brazen attack. The discriminatory order was not challenged for being a serious cause of spreading hatred against common Muslims. Apart from challenging it, madrasaa administrations should have used this opportunity to the to equip the Muslim audiences with the anti-national history of the RSS/BJP rulers. If they announce that next August 15 (2018), the madrassas would discuss the treacherous anti-national role of the Hindutva gang while following this order, it may be consigned to the dustbin. But for it the madrasaas will have to prepare documents in Urdu specially focussing on the betrayal of freedom struggle by the Hindutva gang. Next August 15 is not too long away, the preparations must start now.

 

[3] Ingredients of Section 153A: ∙ The act of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste, community or any other group. ∙ Acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different groups or castes or communities, if the acts disturb public tranquillity. ∙ Acts causing fear or alarm or a feeling of insecurity among members of any religious, racial, language or regional group or caste or community by use of criminal force or violence against them.
[4] RC Majumdar, Penal Settlements in Andamans, Government of India, Delhi, 1975, 143.
[5] VD Savarkar, The Indian War of Independence 1857, Rajdhani, Delhi, 88.
[6] MS Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd., volume I, p. 98.
[7] MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, pp. 237-238.
[8] SGSD, volume IV, 41.
[9] Ibid., p. 40.
[10] Samagar Savarkar Wangmaya (Collected Works of Savarkar), Hindu Mahasabha,  Poona, 1963,  479-480.
 

Gorakhpur Tragedy: BRD Principal & 3 Others Found Guilty, Clean Chit to Dr Kafeel Khan

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The probing committee found out only lack of coordination between Dr Kafeel and his team.

After the tragic death of 30 children at BRD Medical College hit the headlines on August 11 2017, Gorakhpur District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela formed an investigating committee comprising of 5 members. The team, which submitted its report to the DM who finally submitted it to the state government, has named the  principal of the college to the clerical staff as prima facie accused. The probing committee found out only lack of coordination between Dr Kafeel and his team.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Panel to Probe Rohith Vemula’s Death: A Cynical Denial of Caste Discrimination

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There is an anonymous poem called “Mr. Nobody” which makes sly fun of the fact that everyone pleads innocence when things go terribly wrong. This childish poem comes to mind—in a bizarre, tragic form—on reading the verdict of the official panel set up to probe the death of Rohith Vemula. The panel, a judicial commission set up by the Human Resources Development ministry, consists of one man, former Allahabad high court judge Justice A K Roopanwal.


Image courtesy Orijit Sen

His report claims that “Vemula was a troubled individual and was unhappy for several reasons”. It essentially says no one and nothing is responsible for Rohith’s death. In one stroke, it whitewashes the discriminatory action taken by the Hyderabad Central University against Rohith and his fellow students. It absolves the BJP leaders at whose behest the action was apparently taken. 

The report does more: it rids India of caste like magic. Wear a blindfold, it seems to say, plug your ears, and caste discrimination will go away. To tell people who have been treated as unequal citizens that the inequality does not exist is cruelty. To tell those who are fighting caste inequality that it does not exist is cynical mockery.     

The report is not exactly a surprise, however. Indeed, it is quite predictable. Last year, the enquiry commission report submitted to the HRD ministry began the blindfolding and whitewashing exercise by claiming Rohith was not a dalit; and, of course, by absolving, of all responsibility, then HRD minister Smriti Irani and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya.

Not all of us need to be blindfolded or suffer from a wilful loss of memory. The Indian Cultural Forum reiterates its solidarity with all those who will continue to ask for justice for all the Rohiths of India.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

Resist the Republic of Fear! Stop Mob Lynching in India

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South Asians March in London on Independence Day, Send Open Letter to the President of India

Open Letter to the President of India on Independence day

Our demands to the President of India

The President of India
Shri Ram Nath Kovind
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi, Delhi – 110004

Your excellency,

We the undersigned are extremely distressed and concerned that during the last three years,  India has become a country where Hindu supremacist gangs can lynch and rape freely and without any fear of punishment, where children, women and men are brutally killed for what they eat, who they love and simply for who they are. On this 70th anniversary of independence, India has become a Republic of Fear where justice, democracy and the basic right to life lie in tatters, and the Constitution of Dr Ambedkar is violated daily with the government’s blessing. The fact that Prime Minister Modi, and those closest to him, have  refused to condemn these incidents and focused instead on targeting any dissent as ‘anti-national’ and on whipping up exclusionary and violent Hindu nationalism is further cause for deep concern about India’s future. PM Modi’s highly Islamophobic comments about retiring Vice-President Hamid Ansari, after he dared to suggest that Muslims felt increasingly insecure in India, are just one recent example.

We demand that the BJP government put an end to the violence against Muslims, Christians and Dalits and indict not only the perpetrators of these horrific crimes but those, including senior politicians of the BJP, who have instigated communal and anti-Dalit violence.  

We demand the immediate resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who has been one of the most virulent promoters of hate and has callously tried to evade responsibility for the deaths of nearly 70 children in a government hospital in his longstanding constituency. 

We demand the immediate release of Dalit leader Chandrashekhar and his colleagues who were arrested in the wake of protests against the attacks on Dalits in UP.

Those who have been murdered in the current epidemic of mob lynching, which are inspired and directly orchestrated by Hindu far-right organizations closely linked to the BJP and its parent body the RSS, include 16 year old Junaid (lynched in Ballabhgarh, Haryana), 15 year old Swapnil Sonawane (lynched in Thane , Mumbai ), Zafar Hussein (lynched in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan), Maan Devi (lynched in Agra, UP), Laljibhai Sarvaiya (lynched in Ankolali, Gujarat), Pastor Sultan Masih (murdered in Ludhiana, Punjab), Pehlu Khan (lynched in Alwar, Rajasthan), Mohammad Akhlaque (lynched in Dadri, UP) Asghar Ali (Ramgarh, Jharkhand), Otera Bibi (Murshidabad, West Bengal) and many others.

While violence against Muslim and Christian communities has been increasing since the early 1990s, and upper caste atrocities on Dalits are a longstanding phenomenon, there has been a massive escalation in both since Modi and the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014. Emboldened by the victory of the BJP, Hindu supremacist gangs with links to the ruling party, or in some parts of India directly set up by the state, are the chief perpetrators of these abuses which are occurring unchecked. Some of the types of extreme violations affecting Muslims, Christians and Dalits include:

  • Lynchings of Muslims and Dalits, and stripping, flogging and public humiliations. These terrible acts of violence are taking place across India, including in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam and even in the outskirts of the national capital, Delhi. To start with the pretext was often that the victims have eaten beef, or slaughtered cows, or are transporting cows in order to slaughter them. The perpetrators are Hindu-supremacist gangs of so-called Cow Vigilantes. In the vast majority of cases, they have been neither punished nor condemned by the government. Instead the police have often charged the victims and BJP state governments have given tacit encouragement to the violence by making statements and announcing policies which call for harsh penalties for cow slaughter. While this violence continues, more recently there have been attacks which do not claim any motive other than sheer religious hatred. Christians are also under attack. Here the scale of violence is demonstrated by the figures for 2016 alone: 10 people were killed and over 500 members of the clergy or community leaders were physically attacked. The recent launching of a campaign against Christian conversions by Jharkhand’s BJP government, which misleadingly invokes Gandhi, appears to be an ominous prelude to more violence against the Christian minority.
  • There is a horrifying rise in the rapes, mutilation, acid attacks and other forms of violence, often followed by murder, of women and girls of all communities, but Dalit women and girls and those from religious minorities are being specifically targeted. Among recent cases are two Muslim women raped and their relatives killed after being falsely accused of eating beef in Haryana and the gruesome gang rape of the recently buried body of a Muslim woman in UP. In 2016 alone, 34 Christian women including nuns were raped, molested or beaten. Some of the worst violence against Christians is taking place in Chhattisgarh which has long had a BJP government.
  • Muslim or Dalit and so-called ‘lower-caste’ men in relationships with, or married to, Hindu or upper-caste women have been brutally attacked or murdered by mobs. In the case of Muslim men these murders are being instigated and justified by the baseless trope of ‘love jihad’ according to which Muslim men abduct and have relationships with Hindu women only to convert them to Islam
  • Many areas, particularly in UP, but also elsewhere, have seen attempts at ethnic cleansing with threats and attempts to displace long-established Muslim communities. 2013 saw a pogrom in Muzaffarnagar UP which had a chilling similarity with the genocidal killings of Muslims which took place in Gujarat in 2002 when Modi was Chief Minister of the state. In Muzaffarnagar some 50,000 people were displaced, many were children. As human rights organisations have noted, the attacks in both Muzaffarnagar as in Gujarat were deliberately engineered by Hindu supremacists
  • The appointment of Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister of UP, India’s most populous state, in March 2017 has further emboldened those perpetrating communal and caste violence in UP, which is also spilling over to other states. Adityanath has a record of hate speech and has several criminal cases pending against him. He stated in 2005: “I will not stop till I turn UP and India into a Hindu rashtra (state)” Since he became Chief Minister, Hindu supremacist groups and in particular the Hindu Yuva Vahini a violent youth organisation founded by him, have engineered a series of attacks on Muslims and Dalits. Recent incidents include burning and looting of Dalit homes by upper caste mobs in Saharanpur who shouted ‘the police is with us, the administration is with us’, and the lynching of an elderly Muslim man in Bulandshahr on the pretext that he helped a relative elope with a Hindu girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the last few days, nearly 70 young children died in UP in a government hospital in Gorakhpur, which was Yogi Adityanath’s own constituency.  We are appalled that the Chief Minister has tried to justify the recent deaths, saying it is ‘normal’ for children to die in August, and has ordered the police to organise Janamashtami celebrations on a ‘grand’ scale when people are in mourning for the avoidable deaths of so many children.  Meanwhile, the central and UP government and their captive media are focussing on whether or not pupils in Muslim schools will recite Hindu nationalist slogans for Independence Day, and have outrageously called the children’s deaths a ‘distraction’ from these ‘real’ issues!

The cases mentioned above are only a small indication of what is now a human rights emergency with religious minorities and Dalits under attack as never before. But resistance is also growing, as in the protests led by women in Jharkhand after Asghar Ali’s murder, and the massive #NotInMyName demonstrations against mob lynching taking place in cities across India as well as internationally in London and elsewhere. On the 70th anniversary of India’s Independence, we will not remain silent and allow the forces of the Hindu right to transform India into a Republic of Fear.

Yours sincerely
Nirmala Rajasingam

South Asia Solidarity Group
Satpal Muman
Castewatch UK
SOAS India Society
Santosh Dass
Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance
Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations UK
Eugene Culas
Voice of Dalit International (VODI)
Sajjad Hassan
Together 4 Good

Courtesy: Southasiasolidarity.org

For Indian Corporates, Its the BJP that was the Preferred Party for Largesse: 2012-2016

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Analysis of Donations from Corporates & Business Houses to National Parties – FY 2012-13 to 2015-16

(Known donations above Rs 20,000 only)

For complete report in English and the summary in Hindi, containing sector-wise in-depth analysis of donations received by National Parties between FY 2012-13 & 2015-16, kindly refer to the attached reports.

Introduction

Political parties are required to submit details of donors who have made donations above Rs 20,000 in a financial year (between 1st April and 31st March) to the Election Commission of India, every year. Parties provide details of the name, address, PAN, mode of payment and amount contributed by each donor who has made donation above Rs 20,000 in their submission.
 

  • Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), in its earlier report dated 8th January, 2014, specified that various sectors of business houses in 8 years, between FY 2004-05 & 2011-12, donated a total of Rs 378.89 cr to National Parties, constituting 87% of the total contribution from known sources of political parties.
  • This report analyses the donations from corporates to National Parties between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16.
  • Political parties considered for the report are BJP, INC, NCP, CPI and CPM. Though a National party, BSP has not been considered for analysis in this report as the party has declared that it received no voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from any donor between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16.
  • It is seen from the analysis that various sectors of business houses, in 4 years, donated a total of Rs 956.77 cr, constituting 89% of the total contribution to political parties from known sources.

Inline image 1 
Graph: Percentage share of donations from various business houses to National Parties, between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16

Executive Summary

  1. Donations from corporate/ business houses
    1. Out of the 5 National Parties, BJP received the maximum donations of Rs 705.81 cr from 2987 corporate donors followed by INC which received a total contribution of Rs 198.16 cr from 167 corporate donors.
    2. Between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16, BJP’s and INC’s voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from corporate/business houses is 92% and 85% respectively.
    3. CPI and CPM have the lowest share of corporate donations at 4% and 17% respectively.

Inline image 2 
Graph: Share of donations from corporate/business houses in total donations to national parties between FY 2012-13 to 2015-16

 

  1. Year-wise corporate donations to National Parties
    1. National parties have received the maximum corporate donations in the FY 2014-15, during which Lok Sabha elections were held.
    2. Corporate donations received in FY 2014-15 alone forms 60% of the total corporate donations received between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16.
    3. Donations from corporates to National Parties reduced by 86.58% between FY 2014-15 and 2015-16.
    4.  
  2.  Top corporate donors to National Parties
    1. Despite not donating during FY 2012-13, Satya Electoral Trust was the top donor to three of the National Parties, between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16. The Trust donated a total of 35 number of times in 3 years, amounting to Rs 260.87 cr.
    2. BJP declared receiving Rs 193.62 cr while INC was the recipient of Rs 57.25 cr of funds from the trust. NCP received Rs 10 cr from Satya Electoral Trust during the same period.
    3. General Electoral Trust, which was formed before the Electoral Scheme was launched by the Government in 2013, was the second highest corporate donor to BJP and INC. Between FY 2012-13 & 2015-16, the Trust donated Rs 70.7 cr and Rs 54.1 cr to the two National Parties, respectively.
    4. CPI and CPM: The top donors to the Communist parties were ‘Associations’ or ‘Unions’. CPI received a total of Rs 14.64 lakhs from 15 different associations/ unions while CPM received a total of Rs 1.09 cr from 7 different associations.

 

  1. Categorization of donors based on their type of businesses

            a)The contributions from corporate/ business houses have been divided into 14 sectors by ADR and does not form a part of the submission made by parties to  ECI. The sectors include Trusts & Group of companies, Manufacturing, oil & power, mining, construction, exports/imports, real estate among others.
             b)A total of Rs 956.77 cr was donated by all the corporate/ business houses to the 5 National Parties between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16.
            c)For “Categorization of various corporate/ business houses” for the purpose of this analysis, please refer to Page 6 of the attached report. Various business interests of the groups of companies is provided in Annexure -1
            d)Donations from Electoral Trusts to National Parties between FY 2012-13 & 2015-16 is given in Annexure – 2.
 5.     Sectors with top donations to National Parties – Year-wise

            a)      The real-estate sector was the biggest donor to the National Parties during FY 2012-13, contributing a total amount of Rs 16.95 cr to the parties. BJP received the                 highest contribution of Rs 15.96 cr followed by INC with Rs 95 lakhs and CPM with Rs 4 lakhs.

            b)      Trusts and Groups of Companies with varied interests in mining, real-estate, power, newspapers etc., donated the highest amount of Rs 419.69 cr, between                 FY 2013-14 to 2015-16, to the National Parties.

            c)       Between FY 2012-13 & 2015-16, manufacturing sector was the second highest overall contributor, contributing a total of Rs 123.67 cr to the 5 National Parties.
 

  • Political parties which received maximum contributions from various sectors
    1. BJP, INC and NCP, all three received the maximum contributions from Trusts & Group of companies. BJP received the highest, Rs 287.69 cr from Trusts & Group of companies, followed by INC with Rs 129.16 cr and NCP with Rs 15.78 cr.
    2. BJP received the highest donations from all 14 sectors including Real-estate (Rs 105.20 cr), Mining, construction, exports/ imports (Rs 83.56 cr), Chemicals/ Pharmaceuticals (Rs 31.94 cr) etc.
    3.  

 

  1. Donations without PAN details and address:
    1. A total of 1933 donations through which national parties received Rs 384.04 cr do not have PAN details in the contribution form.
    2. National parties have received Rs 355.08 cr from 1546 donations which do not have address details in the contribution form.
    3. 99% of such donations without PAN and address details worth Rs 159.59 cr belong to the BJP.

 
Inline image 7 

  1. Unsegregated donations:
    1. Political parties reported receiving 262 donations worth Rs 10.48 cr from such corporate entities who have zero internet presence or if they do there is ambiguity about the nature of their work.
    2. Contact details of most of these companies were unavailable in cases where they were visible online.

 

Recommendations of ADR

  1. The Supreme Court gave a judgment on 13-09-2013, declaring that no part of a candidate affidavit should be left blank. Similarly, no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000, should be blank.
  2. All donors who have donated a minimum of Rs 20,000 as a single or multiple donations should provide their PAN details.
  3. Date on which the donation was made should be recorded by the party and submitted in Form 24A.
  4. Any party which does not submit its donation statement to the ECI on or before 31st Oct should be heavily penalized and its income should not be tax-exempted.
  5. A total of Rs 159.67 cr was collected by the National Parties from 1062 corporate donors without obtaining their PAN and Address details. Such incomplete contributions reports must be returned to the parties by the ECI, to deter them from providing incomplete information.
  6. Corporates should make details of their political contributions available in public domain through their websites (in annual reports or in a dedicated page) for increasing transparency in political financing.
  7. Annual scrutiny of donations reports of National, Regional and unrecognized parties should be initiated by a dedicated department of the CBDT, to discourage donations from shell companies or illegal entities.

 

A Life Without Biryani, History Texts Without Mughuls : India 2017

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The Maharashtra government has revised its history textbooks for classes VII and IX. They have come up with a marvellous plan to exclude the Mughals. According to a Mumbai Mirror report, Akbar’s reign has been reduced to three lines to accomodate more from Shivaji’s Maratha Empire. We hope that the textbooks will also say that Shivaji was not a ‘Hindu’ ruler of his kingdom, and employed Muslims soldiers. But what do we lose if we remove the Mughals from our shared history of the subcontinent? Two examples: one, from our day-day-day lives, and another from our shared cultural heritage.
 

 
If we choose to forget Akbar, we also forget these paintings which accompanied translations of Valmiki’s Sankrit Ramayana into Persian:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

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