What Modi Government Must Ask Itself: Amarnath Yatra Attack

July 12, 2017

The cowardly and barbaric terrorist attack on Amarnath pilgrims has killed seven of them, including five women, and injured many more. The central government has expressed its resolve to identify, apprehend and punish those guilty of this dastardly crime. Every citizen of India would want this to happen without any delay. The CPI(M), while strongly condemning the attack, has expressed its deep condolences to the bereaved families and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

There is also legitimate concern as to how such a terrorist attack could take place in spite of the heavy security measures which were said to have been made for the annual pilgrimage to Amarnath. It is reported that intelligence agencies had issued an alert about terrorists plan to attack the yatris. There are also reports that the bus disregarded the rules laid down for all participants of moving in a convoy, the times for movement and so on. The government must conduct an urgent inquiry into these issues including whether there were any security lapses and take appropriate measures.

There have not been such direct attacks on the Yatra for the last fifteen years. The last time such horrific attacks took place on the Amarnath Yatra were in the three consecutive years of 2000, 2001 and 2002 when the Vajpayee Government was ruling at the centre and its then ally, the National Conference, was ruling the state. The worst attack in terms of numbers of those killed was in 2000 when the base camp in Pahalgam was attacked and over 80 people were killed.

Seven pilgrims were killed in the Amarnath Yatra terror attack

While it is yet to be established as to which terrorist group is behind the present attack, the role of Pakistan in promoting, patronizing and sponsoring such dastardly attacks has been well established.

The politics behind this attack and steps to defeat the nefarious aims of the terrorists is as important to understand and address as are the administrative measures the government must take. This in turn is linked to the turmoil in Kashmir and the widespread disaffection and alienation of the people of Kashmir from the Indian establishment and its policies.

The smooth conduct of the Amarnath Yatra with the support of local people along its route has symbolized the pluralist culture of Kashmir and Kashmiriyat. There have been numerous examples when it is the locals who have come to the assistance of yatris. Even last year, when the Valley was riven with militant protests, firings and curfew in the wake of the killing of Burhan Wani, the example of locals helping out yatris caught in a tragic bus accident, even as the rest of the convoy sped past, was an example of this culture. The political aim of those who mastermind and who carry out terror attacks on innocents, targeting religious beliefs, is precisely to destroy what remains of this culture. The difference between 2000 and 2017 is the harsh reality that religious extremists owing allegiance to the most sectarian Islamist ideologies, far removed from the culture and way of life and traditions of Kashmir, are gaining influence, especially among a section of the youth.

Family members mourn the victims of the Amarnath Yatra terror attack

But instead of understanding the different dimensions of the issues, instead of initiating a political dialogue the present central government and its coalition government in the state have gravely erred by looking at Kashmir only through the narrow prism of "security" while refusing to address the political dimensions. The Modi Government has turned its back on what Vajpayee-ji had said as Prime Minister in his Independence Day speech in 2002. "For us, Kashmir is not a piece of land…it is a test case of secularism. India has always withstood the test of a secular nation. Jammu and Kashmir is a living example of this."

But today we are failing this test, we have ignored the needs and voices of the people of Kashmir, we have reduced the entire issue to one concerning Pakistan, thereby strengthening and helping their goal of keeping Kashmir in a state of permanent turmoil and disaffection while the anti-Kashmiriyat forces gain support. The very same population which today is so alienated had created history just three years ago when it turned its back on the militants' call for a boycott of the assembly elections with the largest turnout in each of the five phases of the elections: from the lowest at 49 per cent to the highest at 72 per cent and an average voter turnout in all the phases of around 65 per cent. The Prime Minister had visited the Valley as part of the election campaign several times and in his speech at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar had declared, "I have come to share your pain and sorrow. Your sorrow is my sorrow, your pain is my pain, your problem is my problem…" The people gave his government a chance. The sense of betrayal therefore is all the greater.

According to reports, intelligence agencies had issued an alert about terrorists plan to attack the yatris (File photo)

Equally tragically, the aim of the terrorists to decimate the culture of Kashmiriyat gets a big boost when, in the rest of India, the ruling party patronizes and promotes politics to divert the attention of the people from the failures of the government in their day-to-day lives with slogans and actions to deliberately polarize and divide people on communal lines. In the name of nationalism, the worst kind of jingoistic, chauvinistic and communal politics is propagated day after day, the target being all those who oppose the Hindutva agenda of the ruling combine. Kashmiris in particular are soft targets when they migrate in search of a livelihood to other parts of India, or when as students they seek better educational facilities than are available in the Valley. When Kashmiri shopkeepers in Mussoorie are threatened with eviction, or when Kashmiri students in Delhi or Rajasthan are beaten or viewed with hostility and suspicion on the understanding that every Kashmiri is a terrorist, it fuels the alienation in the Valley. It is most welcome therefore that at this time, the Home Minister of India, Shri Rajnath Singh, has reiterated that the job of his ministry is to maintain harmony. Each form of fundamentalism and communalism strengthens the other.

While mourning for those innocents who were brutally shot down on their way back from a pilgrimage to Amarnath, while committing ourselves as citizens to fight terrorism, our resolve to fight all those forces who divide people in the name of religion, whether we are in Srinagar or in Delhi, must be strengthened.

Brinda Karat is a Politburo member of the CPI(M) and a former Member of the Rajya Sabha.

This article was first published on NDTV, Republished with Authors Permission.

It is the Poor that will Suffer the Increased Burdens of GST: Surajit Mazumdar

July 12, 2017

India’s tax structure is regressive in character, because it is heavily biased towards indirect taxes, the burden of which falls disproportionately on poorer sections.

Interview with Surajit Mazumdar
Interviewed by Subin Dennis

Surajit Mazumdar says that India’s tax structure is regressive in character, because it is heavily biased towards indirect taxes, the burden of which falls disproportionately on poorer sections. The large majority of people in India, despite their incomes being very low, actually pay taxes. This is because whenever you buy something, somewhere or the other there is an element of taxation that enters into it through indirect taxes.

At the same time, India’s India's tax-to-GDP ratio is exceptionally low – just 18%, centre and states combined. Progress would entail an increase in the tax-to-GDP ratio, and this increase should be in a manner where the proportion of direct taxes should increase relative to the proportion of indirect taxes. The state needs to generate more revenue from those who have the ability to pay and step up public spending in areas which will benefit the poor.

Two-thirds of our taxes come from indirect taxes. The norm is the other way around – two-thirds should come from direct taxes.

But that is not what the GST is attempting to do, as the government is relying on indirect rather than direct taxes to attempt to generate more revenue.

It is a myth that is being propagated that this is a win-win situation where the people will have to pay less tax and yet the state will have more revenues.

Image Courtesy: pixabay.com

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

I live in Hope # Protests against Mob Lynchings # Not in My Name

July 12, 2017

A fifteen-year old boy was lynched to death in a train by a mob, when he was returning home with his relatives, on the evening of Thursday, June 22, after doing his Eid shopping in Delhi. The mob threw his body at Asaoti railway station near Faridabad. The boy's name was Junaid Khan. There have been more than a dozen cases of lynching of Muslim men across India since Narendra Modi came to power, particularly since September 28, 2015 when a mob lynched 50-year old Mohammad Akhlaq at Dadri, near NOIDA, over rumours that he had consumed beef.

In all such cases, like that of Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan and Riazuddin Ali, there was not only public outrage, witnesses were identified, FIRs lodged and the cases proceeded in the courts. But this case was different. As the Indian Express reported on the front page on Sunday, June 25, of the about 200 people who were there on the Asaoti platform while Junaid bled to death, not one of them had seen anything. The police could not muster a single witness to Junaid's killing. Even now, two weeks after the lynching, there have been some arrests but no great leads in to why and who killed Junaid. The footage only captured three men boarding a motorcycle and fleeing from the area soon after the train in which Junaid was killed came to a halt at the station. This indicates unmistakable intention, but nobody, wants to identify the killers.

Aarti Sethi writes searingly in Kafila Online, that the police cannot find a witness because something very peculiar and uniquely terrifying seems to have happened to those present at Junaid’s death :
"the totalising force of an unspoken, but collectively binding, agreement between Hindus to not see the dead body of a Muslim child" Aarti Sethi in the same piece draws a stark conclusion : " On June 22, 2017, the Republic effectively ended. India is no longer a secular constitutional republic but on the precipice of being transformed into a majoritarian state…"

However, here, I argues that there is still hope. If the civil society comes out loudly and unmistakably against such mob lynchings and if this is the beginnings of a united democratic movement.

I could not believe the descriptions of Junaid's lynching in full public view inside the train, no one coming to held, no one admitting to have seen anything as the child's body lay on a platform where it had been thrown.

I also suddenly remembered the video of the lynching of the sons of Balu Sarvaiya, a SC by caste who traditionally skins and disposes off dead cows , who were flogged with belts and sticks on suspicion of having slaughtered a cow. One of Balu's sons was dragged by a car on the road, till the video went viral (it was the assailants that used social emdia) and thousands of Dalits protested the next day. Fortunately, the sons of Balu Sarvaiya survived.

My next reaction was to take out my ruffled, yellow-paged copy of Lee Harper's " To Kill a Mocking Bird" to check what lynching meant in the racially charged southern States of America.

In this memorable best-seller, there was no description or scene of any actual lynching. Only two in which the mob had gathered . One in which the African-American gentleman drove his car fast past a mob inching to lynch him and his family. The other near-lynching scene was in which Atticus Flinch, the lawyer defending Tom Robinson, the man accused of having raped a white girl, guards the main door of the jail in which the accused is lodged. A seemingly drunk mob gathers outside the jail, it seems with the clear intention of breaking the prisoner Tom Robinson out of the jail and lynching him., the purpose being to send a message to the African-Ameican community and to prevent Tom from going to trial. The mob comes very close to Atticus and asks him to move away which the lawyer refuses. Atticus' children manage to reach the jail and talk the mob into dispersing.

When I consider these fictional accounts of lynch crowds in the United States in the racially charged 1920s and 30s, and compare them with what is happening in the cases of Muslims and Dalits in India at present, I am liable to agree with Walt Disney when he remarked " Truth is stranger than fiction" and even more grim and cruel..

The silence over Junaid's lynching on Thursday, June 22, was both eerie and frightening This silence was finally and firmly broken on the evening of June 28, when there were #NotInMyName protests in Delhi and 18 other cities of India, like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune, Faridabad, Chandigarh,Thiruvanthapuram, Lucknow, Patna, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Gaya, Allahabad and five cities abroad.(The Economic & Political Weekly gives a vivid and live account.)

I was present in a 2000+ strong gathering (Dr. PS Sahni of PIL Watch group puts the number at 3000 while another estimate says it was 3500) as activists from all walks of life gathered in drizzling rain, during the '# Not in My name' protest meeting full of songs, poetry, memoralia and mono-acting, at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, The protest was a great success as the rain as well as the support and enthusiasm of the gathering brought much relief both to the beseiged minority community as well as the educated middle classes all around. It was a most moving and powerful show of cultural resistance to emerging fascism.

I soaked in every moment of the cheerful solidarity expressed by the protest with the victims of the ongoing lynching tyranny. The meeting began with a strong and combative introduction by Saba Dewan, on how the # Not in My Name campaign originated and moved forward after 15-year old Junaid's lynching last week Thursday and the reign of silence and fear that followed.

Though the immediate families of Junaid and Pehlu Khan could not arrive despite every intention, they were represented by relatives and vocal members of their village. The audience were in tears when Mohd. Azharuddin from Junaid's neighbourhood, read out a 'fictional' letter from heaven from Junaid to his mother on earth.

The meeting was spruced up with Gandhiji's favourite Bhajan 'Vaishnava Jana' sung by Mohd. Haneef Khan and group, recitations of nazms by Dr. Padmawati 'Chhinna' Dua, Gauhar Raza, Sabita , Akhil Kumar and Vinod Dua, the song-with-guitar 'Bullah ki' by Rabbi Sher Gill and a powerful performance by danseuese-cum-actor Maya Rao.

The audience cheered and clapped throughout, undeterred by the drizzling rain. Soon news trickled in that similar 'NOT IN MY NAME' protest meetings were simultaneously going on in 19 Indian cities and were scheduled that day in 5 cities abroad. I could spot some of the faces I knew of well-known women activists, journalists, human rights activists, Professors, lawyers, student leaders.

Particularly noticeable were the skull caps and beards of people who were for once feeling at home. Also noticeable were. the emerging faces of resistance to tyranny and incoming facism. Must congratulate the visible faces of the organising team, particularly film-maker Saba Dewanand Rahul Roy.

I say visible faces because I do not think it was spontaneous. It was so well planned, organised, co-ordinated and executed beautifully. Plenty of resources – human, moral, material, temporal – seem to have gone behind it. It gives us hope. Congratulations to the emerging faces of #NotInMyName event in 19 cities in India and 5 cities abroad. I fully agree that#NotInMyName is a much-needed step forward from the prevailing fear and silent acquiscence to frequent lynchings of our Muslim brethren. It has unmistakably and firmly broken that silence. But it needs to be taken forward and broadened in scope.

Even now the public protests continue. There was a massive protest on July 3 at Dadar, Mumbai, led by filmmaker Anand Patwardhan and supported by various organizations, political parties and trade unions like AITUC. Kolkata witnessed a fiery torchlight procession on July 4, organised by the Young Bengal group. On July 8, despite non-cooperation by the police, Ahmedabad saw a massive demonstration organised by Gujarat Jan Andolan with people from all walks of life holding placards – 'Not In My Name', 'Shed Hate Not Blood' and 'Democracy Not Mobocracy'.

As I sit to complete and release this piece, news comes of 100+protest actions across Delhi on August 27 : Say NO to Hatred!#NotInMyName.

State and civil society were both quick to respond to these protests. Electronic and print media gave better coverage than usual. For days, these protests were the only talking point over social media, both Facebook and Twitter.

The very next Saturday after the Wednesday 28 June protests, the President of India who is the Constitutional Head of State used strong words when he remarked :“When mob lynching becomes so high and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilant enough? I am not talking of vigilantism, I am talking of are we vigilant enough, proactively to save the basic tenets of our country.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence the day after the nation-wide protests , making general remarks, expressing "sadness on some of the things going on…..killing people in the name of protecting cows is not acceptable….As a society there is no place for violence…. No person in this nation has the right to take the law in his or her own hands… " These words of the Chief Executive appear significant but the general public reaction was, it was too late, too little.

Facebook was aflutter with a retired English Professor Javed Mullick's Hindi poem :
" Dekho logo Modi boley
Dhol bajao, jashn manao,
Uchhlo, Koodo, khushi manao
Dekho, dekho Modi boley.
Modi boley, Modi boley
Jab duniya ne, phatkaar lagaee,
Janta cheekhee aur chillaee
Gussey mein sadkon par ayee
Tab kahin jaakar,
Bahut sambhal kar,
Ghuma phira kar,
Thoda sach jhoothon mein milakar
Zara -zara sa muh ko kholey.
Modi boley, Modi boley."

From the evening of the #NotInMyName protests on June 28, Facebook was full of cheerful photos and optimistic reports of how much relief these mass secular protests had brought to the minority community and common citizens.

Writing in the online journal, Countercurrents.org, Dr. P. S. Sahni of the PIL Watch group said " A thousand seeds of resistance got planted yesterday evening at Jantar Mantar, national protest site, Delhi on the blood shed by Junaid". Dr.Sahni thought this was the largest public gathering at Jantar Mantar for a long time. He observed, significantly, that it has brought much solace and confidence to the Muslim community , as did the public meeting in June 1984 at the Constitution Club against 'Operation Bluestar' at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, bring a sense of relief to the Sikhs at that time. Sohail Hashmi, cultural Historian, wrote on Facebook : "

What a great feeling of relief, lifting of the shroud of despondency and a rekindling of hope".
In sync with tough laws recently passed by the British and German Parliaments, and the US Congress against hate crime and hate speech, an online petition was launched last week in India too. Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani, Tehseen Poonawala, student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Shehla Rashid and Bollywood actor Swara Bhaskar jointly launched a national campaign against mob lynching last week. They urged the Government to pass a law against mob lynching to be known , in short, as MASUKA or Manav Suraksha Kanoon.

There were some negative or critical comments too. I cannot agree at all with Shivam Vij of Huffington Post that #NotInMyName protests did more harm than good. Like the rain which accompanied the 3000+ strong protest at JANTAR Mantar , it reduced the political temperatures, tension and brought an immediate sense of relief to the Muslim community, that they are not alone in their suffering and that they belong to this nation as much as the others. Shivam Vij also seems to be completely oblivious of the amount of left-liberal support received by the Dalit movements of Una as well as Shaharanpur, the Adivasi struggles of Chhatishgarh and the farmers' struggles.

His seem like cynical comments. To say that these protests were basically the act of the Left Elite and that they did not touch upon the life of the common man – ignoring completely the daily legal/police lynching of the workers, peasants, Adivasis and Kashmiris. I cannot bring myself to agree. Lynching , whether by the State or the mob, cannot be tolerated at any cost and must be resolutely and strongly protested and opposed. Every such protest is valuable and cannot be minimalised.

Gautam Benegal, eminent graphic designer, painter, writer, documentary filmmaker from Kolkata, made an apt comment on Facebook, which went viral –
"The mob lynchers have a B Team. These are educated, English speaking Hindutva supporters who provide cover up fire to the backward mob killers. They keep silent at the violence of the mobs, but have a million critical things for people protesting the killings.

-"Oh but why didn't these people protest against Malda or WB killings?"
-"Oh but these siculars like NDTV will only speak of Junaid and never of police officer Pandit"
-"Oh, where were you when the Kashmiri pandits were being chucked out."
-"Oh if you speak out against the communal killings, you are the one polarising India."

Before you know it you will be defending your positions against their whataboutery and the targeted hate killings will become just another thing. These people are no less responsible than the brutal and crazy mob, for the hate-hole India finds itself in."

We also sought the reactions of people active on the Facebook and this is what they said.
Harbans Mukhia , retired Professor of History at JNU, was forthright :"a march here and some slogan shouting there touches merely the fringe of the vast problem. But Not in My Name gave voice to what was being felt by a mass of people. The fact that even the PM had to respond to it and some small steps are being taken puts the regime even more open to charge of misconduct the next time a lynching happens. Unfortunately political parties have lost their legitimacy. Thus such protests leading to a movement at the level of civil society need to be organized by different groups at different levels. But the protest did show that India is ready to resile from the extreme to which it is being driven. Some hope still lives on."

John Dayal, writer, human rights activist and former President of the All India Catholic Union asked on Facebook : " Is a #MillionMarch possible before 2019?" When asked pointedly on his view of the mob lynchings and the ensuing protest, he issued a common appeal to all religious leaders, particularly his own,which runs thus :
" We as a people have not shown, or voiced, our love and support for our brothers and sisters in distress. We have remained silent, or subdued, in the face of lynchings of Muslims and of Dalits by the cow vigilantes.

We have not spoken truth to power on many occasions in recent times.

We have not shown our oneness and solidarity with civil society which has shown courage to protest.

On the other hand, many in the leadership have made common cause with Ceasar, pleading that this capitulation will secure the community against persecution and targeting.
Can we be safe when our brother is targeted ?
This must weigh heavy on our conscience.
Our statement of preferential option for the poor, our policy on the Dalits, our new focus on the Tribals of central India, and our code on gender justice ring hollow, otherwise.
Our proven track record of service, in education and health, already dwarfed by the massive infusion of resources into these sectors by the government, corporate sectors nd other faith groups, will no longer be sufficient.

Religion is a moral and ethical watchdog.
It empowers the poor.
And makes us a pillar of civil society, which today plays an important role in safeguarding the constitutional values that underpin the Idea of India.
This Idea of India is based on Values of dharma.
In joining civil society and the common citizen in reclaiming citizenship and pristine constitutionality, we proclaim these values.
We call upon you to give the leadership India requires at this hour to strengthen its courage and resolve."

Krishnendu Sarkar, who is a senior management consultant presently in the Middle East, makes very definitive and clinching remarks : "Person who is lynched is Indian . The person who lynches is also Indian. The lynching must stop saving life of both. The Hindus who are misguided and participate in lynching must be educated and informed that they become criminal inviting legal punishment and community exclusion and shame for their family and children. They must stop becoming cold blooded murderer and play in hand of politicians. Also bystanders in group must intervene to stop such situation. Looking for some effort to save India. "

Khaja Jamaluddin, retired tea-planter from Kerala, now located at Hyderabad is very concerned when he says : " I definitely stand with all those who oppose this oppressive violently-bent regime.I wish we can dislodge this unholy ruling junta and replace them with what we as a United India were always used to."

Dr. Tripta Wahi, political scientist and former Professor at Delhi University takes up the issue of the extent of palpably false and unhistorical brain-washing that the mob is subjected to , when it engages in lynching an unsuspecting member of the minority or Dalit community : " Also one has to begin to address the question of historic facts. You go to any temple anywhere in India you find it being continuously stated that the temple was destroyed by the Muslim rulers. It is not denied that temples were demolished by some rulers,but majority of temples were not . It also needs to be remembered that shariat did not have provision for treating Hindus as zimmis,that is, people who were protected by the state on payment of a tax. Yet it happened. In response to the exigencies of the situation new developments took place in India despite opposition in the Islamic world. I personally think that short topical and relevant questions must be taken directly to the people . After all what is happening needs to be countered. Also Hindu rulers were doing the same kind of things in Java Sumatra etc which is regarded as greater India with pride by the self same persons/ideology . Hinduism also wiped out Buddhism and absorbed bhakti movement and made it caste ridden."

The important role of independent intellectuals and social groups to act as a 'safety valve' and mobilise strong public opinion against the break-down of law and order and the vanishing of the rule of law, cannot be minimized at all. I asked my respondents the pointed question : When there is such mob lynching of our Muslim and Dalit brethren and the State deliberately looks away, while appreciating the positive role of civil society, are some meetings and protests enough or do all secular and democratic forces need to come together in a strong, mass-based political movement to meet the challenge of the fascist, anti-democratic forces ?

Walter Fernandes, Jesuit, well known scholar, human rights activist and presently Senior Fellow at a Gauhati-basedResearch Institute, said : Yes Aurobindo I to believe that we should come together in a strong anti-fascist coalition though at my age I can give it mainly moral support. Please go ahead. The main objective is not winning the elections but providing ideological and moral support to the anti-fascist forces not based on any party."

Moolchand Sonkar, Dalit poet and writer responded : "a mass-based strong United anti-fascist democratic front is needed to meet the challenge but before going ahead a proper strategy be chalked out. "

Arun Maji, Advocate at Supreme Court and Convenor of India Against Fascism, said : " We urgently require to form a joint platform to resist the fascist Hindutwa forces."

Professor Ravinder Goel of Delhi University was conclusive, while limiting himself to the question of an united front to meet the fascist challenge : " In my view progressive forces ( left of all colours and socialists along with liberal individuals) should try to forge a unity and united front among themselves. Currently no need to join with various bourgeois parties. but support pro-people action of all. The question of all secular and democratic forces need to come together in a broad, mass-based strong United anti-fascist democratic front to meet the challenge of RSS and Hindutva forces should be taken up at a future date. In the absence of a united front of left forces it will essentially lead to tailing behind one or the other bourgeois parties and it will split when the chips are down. Remember the experience of PUCL days."

(The writer is a human rights activist, general secretary, Peoples' Rights Organisation, a human rights body)

As 7 Hindu Pilgrims Die, 164% Rise In Terror-Related Civilian Deaths in J&K Over A Year

July 12, 2017

The killing of seven Hindu pilgrims in southern Kashmir enroute from the holy cave of Amarnath is the latest bloody statistic in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), which has witnessed a 45% rise in terrorism-related deaths–and 164% increase in civilian deaths alone–over the year ending June 30, 2017 according to an IndiaSpend analysis of data from the South Asian Terrorism Portal, run by the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, a nonprofit.

A man rides his bicycle past a poster of Burhan Wani, a commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group, during restrictions on the occasion of Wani’s death anniversary, in Srinagar July 8, 2017.

Unidentified terrorists reportedly opened fire on a police vehicle at around 8 pm on July 10. When police retaliated, the terrorists fired indiscriminately, and a bus full of pilgrims returning from Amarnath was caught in the crossfire, according to the police. Others said there was no crossfire and the pilgrims were targets, with later reports saying the bus was attacked twice in three minutes.

The Kashmir Police blamed the Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terror group, for the attack, alleging it was masterminded by Pakistani terrorist Abu Ismail. LeT spokesperson Abdullah Ghaznavi, however, denied the charges and blamed “Indian agencies” for the “highly reprehensible act”, the deadliest on Amarnath pilgrims in 15 years.

Kashmiris, including separatists, were quick to condemn the attack.

Widespread criticism of the terrorists in Kashmir drew a reaction from India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh.

Over 18 years, 52 pilgrims killed in five attacks

Over the past 18 years, at least 52 Amarnath pilgrims have been killed in five terrorist attacks. The deadliest attack was mounted by LeT terrorists on August 1, 2000. That attack left 21 pilgrims dead in Pahalgam.

The latest attack comes hours after a curfew and social-media ban was lifted in the Kashmir Valley after restrictions were imposed in anticipation of a possible attack to mark the death anniversary of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani.

Wani was gunned down by security forces a little over a year ago on July 8, 2016. What followed were violent protests, several months of curfew and an overall deterioration in J&K’s security situation.

Death toll of security forces, civilians up in 1 year

The number of security personnel killed in terrorist violence has nearly doubled from 51 in the year preceding Wani’s death to 98 in the following year, according to an analysis of data compiled by SATP.

The SATP compiles data on fatalities due to terrorism from media reports. The data are provisional and compiled as on July 10, 2017.

On July 8, 2017, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa paid tributes to Wani on his first death anniversary. Sharif said Wani’s death “infused a new spirit in the struggle for freedom” in the Kashmir Valley.

The 45% increase in deaths of civilians, security personnel and terrorists from 216 in 2015-16 to 313 in 2016-17 is the highest year-on-year percentage increase over the past five years.

Civilian deaths have increased 164%, as we said, from 14 in 2015-16 to 37 in 2016-17 while terrorist deaths have risen 18% during this period to 178 in 2016-17.

There has been a 42% increase in terrorism-related deaths in J&K since the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government (BJP) came to power in May 2014, compared with the last three years of the second term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA-II), IndiaSpend reported on May 27, 2017.

India has had successes against terrorism – both on the security and diplomatic front.

On May 27, 2017, Wani’s successor Sabzar Bhat was killed in an anti-terrorist operation by security forces.

On June 27, 2017, United States designated Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin a “global terrorist,” ahead of Modi’s meeting with American President Donald Trump in Washington, DC.

Salahuddin also leads the United Jihad Council, an umbrella organisation for anti-India terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, known to operate out of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

Salahuddin has openly admitted to carrying out attacks against India, including on an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, Punjab, on January 2, 2016.

(Sethi is a Mumbai-based freelance writer and defence analyst.)

Courtesy: India Spend

What is it about Gujarat 2002 that Inspires Fantasies(Sic) Among Modi Bhakts?

July 12, 2017

In 2000 it was before Narendra Modi had been enlisted by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as its mascot in the western Indian state of Gujarat that the last attack on Amarnath Yatris had taken place. Praveen Togadia, a younger man there was fired with his peculiar brand of vitreol. That attack was more even more brutal than the one that took place on July 10. In the year 2000 attack, that took place, 99 lives were lost of pilgrims and jawaans who tried to save them. Togadia, played out his revenge politics in Gujarat. Holding a press conference in Ahmedabad on August 1, 2000 he said, loud and clear, "Wahan ka jawaab yahan denge." In nine to twelve centres from Surat in the south of Gujarat to Khed Bharma in the north, attacks on minority properties were engineered, with VHP and Bajrang Dal men at the forefront. In October 2001 Modi was in Gujarat and two years after the first attack on Amarnath yatris we saw Gujarat burn, for months, under his watch, in 2002.

The past week even before the dastardly terror attack has been rife on social media, especially after the communal violence in Bashirat in Bengal, bhakts, have evoked threats and fantasies about the genocidal carnage of 2002. What is it about Gujarat 2002 that it inspires Fantsies (Sic) among Modi Bhakts?

“Hope you all remember what happened in 2002”. It was a touching news report about a Muslim doctor and his Hindu compounder spreading message of peace in violence-hit Basirhat has angered a BJP youth leader to go on a communal rant and threaten violence. There is nothing offensive in the news posted by Hindustan Times on its Facebook page that, for some reason, got Srinivas Raghavan's goat. Raghavan is no ordinary Indian, he is General Secretary of a BJP Yuva Morcha.

Reacting to HT report on a doctor’s appeal for communal harmony, Raghavan said, “I remember what Mahatma Gandhi did. Enough is enough. We will not tolerate this anymore. Hope you all remember what happened in 2002.” When confronted by other users, he continued his rant, talking of “warning you guys”, “go back to your mother country”, “we are waiting to take revenge” (of 17th century rulers), “the day is not too far”, and so on.

On his Facebook profile section, Raghavan describes himself as a “charismatic go-getter” and a “believer in making India great again”. His page is full of pictures with senior BJP leaders.
On the one hand, we have Modi and his defence league tell the authorities (even the courts) that he did his job, and that 2002 was all about good governance. What then is it about 2002 that inspires excitement (sic) and threat-laden fantasies (sic) among the Modi Bhakts?

Tathagata Roy, the present Governor of Tripura and the former president of the West Bengal state unit of BJP from 2002 till 2006 had stated on Twitter about ‘appreciating what the Hindus did in 2002’.

Another hate spewing Hindutva handle, HDL India, called to turn UP into Gujarat to save it from turning into Kashmir. The @HDLIndiaOrg account is now suspended

In 2015, Amitesh Singh, who was followed by Prime Minister Modi on Twitter went a step further and actually gave call for a massacre. Singh was arrested over his tweet and has since disabled his account. In his twitter profile, Singh claimed to be vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yuva Morcha but the party denied any association with him. According to news reports, Singh was the grandson of a BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh.

Is that all in social media, making appreciative noises about 2002? Here are some others who gloat and celebrate the breakdown of Constitutional machinery, weak at best, wilful at best, about the loss of 1926 Muslim lives in 2002 post Godhra train burning in which 59 lives were lost. Read on:

Azaadi Kooch Begins, Dalits, Patidars, Muslims March from Ahmedabad to Mehsana Despite Police Ban

July 12, 2017

https://www.facebook.com/DalitCameraDC/videos/1174668232592096/

https://www.facebook.com/jignesh.mevani/videos/1459827724053400/

Dalit youth leader, Jignesh Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar, formerly president of the JNU Student's Union plan to go to Mehsana, a North Gujarat town, to lead Azadi Kooch or Freedom March, on Wednesday, for which permission, given last month, was cancelled two days ago. According to an organizer of the march, which is planned to end on July 18 in Dhanera, Banaskantha district with a big rally, activists from across India would court arrest if they are stopped. Today that march has begun.

One year of una Flogging: Dalits, right activists, Patidars come together at Ahmedabad pm on July 11

The meeting in Ahmedabad on Tuesday started with a video on the flogging incident and continued for nearly five hours as one by one the speakers gave hard-hitting speeches centred around the rights of marginal communities, interspered with slogans of “hume chahiyeh azadi” and “Inqualab Zindabad”.

“Gai ki poonch tum rakho, humey humari zameen do (keep the cow’s tail with you, give us our land)”. The slogan reverberated inside Ahmedabad’s Ambedkar Hall, where over 2,000 people led by Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM) gathered on Tuesday to mark one year of flogging of Dalit youths by alleged gau rakshaks in Una as they were skinning a cow’s carcass. The event, which started with a two-minute silence for the victims of Amarnath yatra terror attack, was attended by former JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar, brother of Junaid Khan who was lynched by a mob on a train in Faridabad recently, Raza Haider of anti-lynching campaign Notinmyname and Patidar leader Reshma Patel.

The meeting started with a video on the flogging incident and continued for nearly five hours as one by one the speakers gave hard-hitting speeches centred around the rights of marginal communities, interspered with slogans of “hume chahiyeh azadi” and “Inqualab Zindabad”.

“The Una movement has been a milestone and we will make su-re that we do not let the spirit fade. The terror of gau rakshas has increased in the last one year, but we need to come together to fight it,” said RDAM leader Jignesh Mewani as he exhorted people to join Azadi Koonch, a week-long march to mark the Una flogging anniversary, scheduled to begin from Mehsana on Wednesday. “The Mehsana authorities have withdrawn permission for the march, but we will gather here and get detained if we have to,” said Mewani.

Kanhaiya hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him “prachar mantri”. “Modi has brought acchey din only through Twitter. He said demonitisation is a surgical strike against terrorism. So how will you explain Amarnath attack… We are a secular country and things like Azadi Koonch are our way of talking about equality… Azadi Koonch is a march questioning the Gujarat model,” he said. “Let us make sure that in the 2017 Gujarat elections, we sent the lotus (BJP) back to its house. Azadi Kooch has the support of Patidars,” said Resham Patel.

The Ahmedabad programmes were held amidst a controversial transcript of a video of the incident, attached to the CBI chargesheet against the Una cow vigilantes in the flogging case, revealing that accused had tried to identify the Dalits as Muslims.

Jignesh Mevani with Kanhaiya Kumar in Saraspur

According to the Gujarati transcript, the accused tried call one of the victims as Muslim, saying, “Tell the truth … You belong to which community? Don’t do drama here … stop crying … Beat him up. What is your name? I know you very well … Your name is Aarif … Why did you run away? Tell me will you ever run away? You slaughtered the cow.” It adds, “Let us tie them to the vehicle and thrash them. Only then will they understand."

The chargesheet identifies mastermind of Una flogging as Sanatan Gau Seva Trust's Shantilal Monpara, who allegedly hatched a conspiracy with his aides to claim that the Dalit men had slaughtered the cow should be identified as Muslims. The Dalits were actually skinning a cow, their hereditary occupation, killed by a lion. Dalits from Gujarat strongly believe that justice has not been delivered to the Una flogging victims. Gujarat's largest Dalit NGO Navsarjan Trust's Kantilal Parmar says, "The Gujarat government has refused to transfer case to the special atrocity court in Veraval, though one year has passed." The Sarvaiyas, who were assaulted by the cow vigilantes, were also in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. “We came here to give an application to the Collector demanding action in the flogging case. There has been no justice,” said Balu Sarvaiya, father of one of the flogging victims, adding that he will not be joining Azadi Koonch march.

Listing what has not been done to the Sarvaiya family and other Dalits in the hereditary occupation, Parmar says, the government has "not allocated agriculture land for livelihood of the surviving family", nor has it allocation land for "burial ground in Mota Samdhiyala village to the Dalits for cremation", as the dominant caste people do not allow them use the common village cremation ground.

Pointing out that the state government has not done "proper rehabilitation of the victims' family, Parmar says, "Nor has the state government provided employment to the unemployed Dalits after many of them decided to quit their routine work of skinning dead cattle."

A year after Burhan Wani, Kashmir is Locked in a Worsening Cycle of Despair & Violence

July 11, 2017

A worrying trend is sections of militants making the departure from fighting for independence or merger with Pakistan to fighting in the name of khilafat. Two months ago, Zakir Musa, broke away from Hizb-ul-Mujahideen by first threatening the Hurriyat leaders. The likes of Zakir Musa and the theory of khilafat may not find much currency in the Valley which is still bound to its traditional syncretic culture.

Almost a year after Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani’s killing, a cop Muhammad Ayub Pandith was lynched by an angry mob outside Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid while night long Jumat-ul-Vida prayers were going on inside the mosque. The cop was dressed in civvies and generated suspicions while he was taking photographs at the gate of the mosque. An altercation with some people who objected to his presence prompted him to fish out his gun, possibly in self defence, and press the trigger, injuring three people. Whether the provocation to thrash him till death stemmed from the firing, his allegedly suspicious behavior, his identity as a cop, or all of these; the incident marks a new low in Kashmir, where back in the eighties (1980s) murders and stabbings were almost unknown.

How did the Valley descend into this level of desperation, frustration, anger and hatred? The seeds of discontent lay in the preceding years.

Anti-India sentiment was already deepening due to Indian government’s failure in politically resolving a long pending dispute during the decade of comparative calm. Added to that the exacerbating human rights situation despite a diminishing graph of militancy with targeting of peaceful assemblies and stone pelting protestors brutally had already made the Valley restive by 2010, pushing smitten and humiliated young men to join the ranks of militants.

Burhan Wani belonged to the same crop of young men and became the poster boy of new age of militancy. His death inspired many youngsters to pick up the gun. But there are several other factors that have pushed teenagers and youth to that path.

The repressive action against protestors and by-standers, in the after-math of his death, especially, the liberal use of high velocity lead pellet guns by police and CRPF is one of the main factors. Pellet ridden bodies and blinded faces of children as young as four years old became the most defining images of Kashmir in 2016 after Burhan Wani’s killing. This brutality was seen as continuum and worsening of human rights situation.

Anger was also fuelled by the shabby relief and rescue work during the 2014 floods and in far greater measure by the unholy alliance between PDP and BJP. The PDP, which sought votes in the 2014 elections on the promise of keeping saffron out of the Valley, finally made its peace with BJP and formed a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. PDP’s strongest bastion – South Kashmir – is today a hotbed of militancy and reportedly many youth who canvassed for the party in 2014 elections eventually joined the ranks of militants.

An altering idea of India with beef bans, lynchings, Love-Jehad and anti-minority violence by hooligans, patronised by the BJP in power at the Centre, and scripting a new discourse across the country also deepens the insecurities, anxieties of the Kashmiri youth, transforming the already deepening anti-India sentiment into hatred. Needless to point out that this conflict generation has seen only a militarized and brutal face of India, never its democratic one. The sole event of periodic elections since 1996 has been bandied about as democracy, the benefits of which have been insufficient to not just address the political aspirations of the people but also their day to day needs like development and employment.

Post Burhan Wani, Kashmir has been a story of over-all despair where normality has a new definition and where militancy and protests are churning a complex narrative. Even though the Valley has witnessed comparative calm since last October, more and more youth are mesmerised by the idea of picking up guns. They are either inspired by their own harassment, prison terms under the draconian Public Safety Act or the collective oppression around them or they are ex-militants. Some of them are engineering and IT professionals or studying in professional colleges with promising careers. Even some cops deserted their posts and are believed to have joined militant groups. Religious radicalization is also a source of inspiration for some of the new entrants into the fold of militancy.

The newer trends in militancy reveal a far greater brotherhood with foreign militants, teenagers joining militancy and starved of arms and cash, this militancy by and large remains indigenous. Increasing incidents of looting of banks and arms from police installations and ill-trained but determined militants further corroborates that point. The proliferating numbers are not so huge as to ring alarm bells. But respect, sympathy and support for militants across the Valley certainly is. Massive funerals are held for slain militants, including foreign militants. But more significantly, swarms of people descend on the encounter site to shout slogans and pelt stones and queer the pitch for the security forces by making all efforts to rescue holed up militants.

Across the Valley, occasional stone pelting protests over the slightest of provocation has become the new normal. School and college students including young girls, though still very rare, initially provoked by the killing of a student by security forces inside the college campus in Pulwama, have also begun joining street protests, often with stones to pelt.

This generation is no longer deterred by the brutal clampdown of protests or of the lethal consequences of picking up the gun, revealing the depths of desperation.

A young lawyer, I have known since he was an enthusiastic law student with tremendous positive energy, told me in November 2016 of the immense frustration that overcomes him when he is fighting against a legal justice system that fails to deliver or when he witnesses how ten year old boys have been detained because the police wanted to arrest their elder family members. “Sometimes, out of helplessness I myself want to pick up the gun.” The young professional is far too mature and seasoned to do that but even for a thought like that to creep in his mind is disturbing, encapsulating the extent of frustration, desperation and loss of sense of fear that pushes many to take on the mighty Indian State and its security apparatus with guns, stones or even bare hands. What is even more disturbing is that they know that the State will not budge, but for them it is a choice between enduring constant pain and humiliation and committing, what may well be, ‘honour suicide’.

A worrying trend is sections of militants making the departure from fighting for independence or merger with Pakistan to fighting in the name of khilafat. Two months ago, Zakir Musa, broke away from Hizb-ul-Mujahideen by first threatening the Hurriyat leaders. The likes of Zakir Musa and the theory of khilafat may not find much currency in the Valley which is still bound to its traditional syncretic culture. However, expressions of anger against the Indian State as well as their remote-controlled regime in Jammu and Kashmir, brutality by the security forces and even a weakened and corrupted Hurriyat have turned Zakir Musa into a hero, as witnessed during the night of Jumat-ul-Vida inside the Jamia Masjid where slogans in his support were raised, while a lone cop was being lynched outside.

As I write this, reports pour in of 7 Amarnath yatris killed and several injured in a militant attack in South Kashmir. At this moment, it will be jumping the gun to presume this as a new norm. It is still not clear whether the attack was a pre-meditated one or a case of being caught at the wrong place and wrong time. Besides, such attacks, even though aberrations, have happened in the past in the Valley.

Like the cop’s lynching, the attack on the pilgrims has been widely condemned in the Valley which continues to be mesmerized by the plural traditions of the pilgrimage. Many in the Valley believe that the radicalised militants are backed by the Indian agencies, though there is no evidence to suggest the same. Some others fear that the radicalised militants may gradually gravitate towards Islamic State operatives or may already have. Whether or not there is an element of truth in such assumptions, the choking of civilian space and the targeting of liberal voices among those espousing a separatist ideology through constant militarization and brutalization of the society is enlarging the base of radicalized elements.

Massive human rights abuse and the worsening patterns of impunity that have made the transition from silence and inaction over complaints to harassing, intimidating and even registering cases against complainants and victims keeps the pot of frustration and anger boiling. The situation is typified by the haunting image of an army officer strapping a young man to a jeep and using him as a ‘human shield’ for over five hours and its justification by accusing the man of pelting stones and its far more brazen legitimization by rewarding the officer of violating military norms in doing so. Either the Indian government has no policy on Kashmir or it dangerously hopes to cash in on the rich electoral harvest (elsewhere in the country) of demonising Kashmir by pushing it towards chaos through perpetuation of brutality and injustices.

This sense of injustice primarily pushes the Kashmiri youth to make their choices within a choked space of absolute despair – to pelt stones, pick up the gun or carrying on with their mundane life.

Anger, alienation and despair finds manifestation in various forms. Many youngsters transcend their own personal and collective sense of helplessness to punctuate Kashmir’s chaos by charting a creative and imaginative narrative by writing and painting about Kashmir’s despair as well as by making positive interventions by organising relief work for those distressed by the conflict, documenting their tragedies or holding dialogues and workshops on conflict transformation or issues like Right to Information and Climate change on a smaller and low-key level. On their shoulders, these young people keep aloft the simmering of hope that has no takers in New Delhi.

The Indian government, which wants to believe that the problem is only “5 percent” stone pelters and militants operating in “three districts” of the Valley, turn a convenient blind eye to such positive energy. Recently, a documentary film, “Under the Shade of the Fallen Chinars”, show-casing artistic pursuits of students as an expression against the brutalization of Kashmir, was banned.

It does not suit the official narrative of denial about the causes of Kashmir’s anger and convenient naming of an enemy across the border that “engineers and motivates youth” to pelt stones or pick up the gun. Though motivation through religious radicalization and money cannot be out-rightly denied, there has to be enough sense of desperation to come out on the roads in protest with all the risks involved.

As long as Indian government’s policy is locked in a grid of denial, obsession with Pakistan, military doctrine and ruling Kashmir through jackboots, disregarding not just the voices of protest but also the sometimes sage advice of the state government or other civil society members, Kashmir will continue to be locked in this vicious cycle of tragedy, pain, grief, brutality and violent reprisal. Only, it will continue to get worse.

(The author is Executive Editor Kashmir Times and a peace activist)

How the Executive Council is Functioning at JNU: The 267th Meeting & Attacks on Faculty

July 11, 2017

The 268th Executive Council meeting on the 30th of June represents perhaps the most sustained attack on the employment, career advancement, and professional development rights of JNU teachers in JNU’s history. In a press release issued the JNUTA has stated that, although this attack was met with fierce opposition from JNU teacher representatives, the decisions that appear to have been finalised in this last Executive Council spell out the highly condemnable intent of the JNU administration to harass JNU teachers and to hack away at the rights that the teachers’ movement has won.

The JNUTA will be bringing out detailed releases with regards to many of the ‘decisions’ taken in the EC on 30th June, but as even a summary list shows, there is an impunity borne of scant respect for rules and norms that is relentlessly targeting the JNU faculty and their rights and collective decisions. Shamefully, the JNU Registrar has failed to perform the duties prescribed by the Statutes once again. The letter written by 50 AC/EC members to the members of the EC about the M.Phil./PhD ordinances was not tabled, and once again, the minutes of the 143rd AC were placed before the EC without giving time to member’s of the AC to record their opinions. In fact, the Registrar admitted that the minutes of the 143rd AC were circulated just half an hour prior to the 268th EC meeting!

Some of the decisions taken in the 268th EC are as as below.

Even as the EC did not approve of the relieving of Prof. Rajeev Kumar, SC&SS, there was a decision that the order would not be withdrawn; rather legal opinion would be sought. The JNUTA has already demanded the colleague’s reinstatement, because lien is the right of the employee and it is his choice which institution he wishes to pursue his career in.
The confirmation of two colleagues has been withheld on spurious grounds. In one case, a re-verification of a caste certificate is the pretext, when there is no valid ground for any suspicion. In the second case, the decisions of a Selection Committee and previous EC decisions from over four years ago is sought to be overturned, and the terms of the employee’s contract violated with impunity. The JNUTA takes a very serious view of both these decisions, not only for the torture and mental harassment they cause the individual colleagues, but of the scandalous precedent they set. Equally alarming is the subterfuge employed in bringing up the second case in the EC– there was not one hint in the agenda papers or in the papers tabled at the meeting that the intent was to attempt to terminate a colleague without any intimation to her. The JNUTA rejects the need for any enquiry on the matter.
Promotions of three colleagues have been withheld, all three from one of the intellectually most vibrant Centres of the university, on grounds that have remained formally unspecified. As per the recommendations made to the EC, and the letters the three colleagues received, were told to re-apply again in three months. As expected, this spurious ‘recommendation’ was not upheld in the EC as it is against the CAS rules; the three colleagues will now lose a year of seniority. JNU teachers representatives’ demand for the Selection Committee minutes were turned down, despite the fact that it is the statutory right of EC members to access these documents. Breaking from past norms whereby notes of dissent given in Selection Committees are tabled if requested, EC members were advised that one or two differing opinions cannot be accorded any weight. JNUTA rejects this majoritarian reasoning completely, as the import of a dissent note lies in the substantive point it raises, which may be strong enough in law/rule/propriety to inform the EC of corruption, discrimination, wrongful application of rules in a Selection Committee. Since neither the VC nor the Selection Committee is the appointing authority, all facts pertaining to an appointment must be placed before the body that is empowered to do so.
The VC’s tampering with the database of experts continues, despite the fact that the matter is sub judice. From what JNUTA has been able to glean, the VC has “finalised” (i.e. made illegal additions to the Panel of Experts for the following Centres/Schools over the past six months, based on what has been reported to the AC and/or EC: School of Arts & Aesthetics, School of Computer & Systems Sciences, Centre for Linguistics (twice), Centre for Political Studies, Special Centre for Nanoscience, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Centre for Philosophy, Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Environmental Sciences. Despite requests to reveal the names of such additions were not acceded to, and instead a decision has purportedly been taken to add whatever names the VC dreams up to the database of experts permanently. The JNUTA rejects this blatant violation of the Statutes, Ordinances, and the UGC Regulations 2010. It wishes to flag the seriousness of this new EC decision very seriously, as this decision ensures that the VC can henceforth nominate only ‘his’ experts to Selection Committees.
To satisfy an external member’s inordinate interest in the names shortlisted for a position in a Centre in SSS, the EC has agreed to make available to him the three Screening Committees’ recommendations and CVs of all candidates who were called for interview. It has also decided to invite external ‘experts’ to enquire into this matter. This brazen vitiation of the screening process by rendering it open to manipulation by vested interests is not only condemnable, it also ignores the fact that each Centre’s shortlist is in fact already screened by the university IQAC. On the one hand, the minutes of Selection Committees are denied to EC members; but on the other hand, individual members are being allowed a free hand to pervert due process at will.
Archives managed and developed by the Centre’s/Schools, such as the Archives on Contemporary History of India, the P.C. Joshi Archives, are to be wrested away from Centres and handed over to the University Librarian. The JNUTA finds this move extremely regressive, as the construction and categorisation of these archives is the intellectual property of faculty and Centres who have built them, and it is under their guidance and control that these archives can continue to grow.
Unbeknownst to colleagues in the Centre of the Study of Social Systems, an ‘enquiry’ was conducted into clerical errors committed by the staff in entering marks into the award blank for the JNUEE 2016. Although the Vibha Tandon Committee that was designated by the VC to conduct the error has categorically stated that these errors are nothing beyond “human error”, the EC was actively misled, through the furnishing of falsified documents that a dismissed teacher was involved in correcting the scripts, that there needs to be a further action of “fixing responsibility”. JNUTA has already sharply condemned the reports in the media on this matter, and demands the JNU administration issue an official rejoinder forthwith and an enquiry into the leak ordered at once.
The JNUTA is shocked to learn that the University administration is contemplating setting up a VC-nominated committee to function as the Internal Complaints Committee under the anti-Sexual Harassment Act 2013, effectively derecognising the GSCASH. Aside from the fact that the GSCASH is unequivocally and unambiguously designated at the JNU EC and the Court as the ICC for JNU, the JNUTA would like the EC to pause and reflect upon whether it would really like to take this openly confrontational line with the JNU community. The GSCASH was won by collective action by the JNU community after two years of intense struggle, and all attempts to undermine this unique institution have been thwarted by the university community over the last 19 years.
The EC has once again gifted away JNU’s autonomy by resolving that henceforth only UGC rules for the counting of past service will be employed in JNU. If the information that there will be no retrospective application of these rules and that the JNU Ordinances in existence at the time will govern past cases, JNUTA fails to understand why one case will be referred to the UGC for “clarification” at all.
The witchhunt of JNU faculty for for their exercise of the right of freedom of speech and expression also continues. The Bidyut Chakrabarty headed committee (that JNUTA had objected to earlier) has already met five times. The JNUTA condemns this travesty of an enquiry and cautions the JNU administration that these moves to deny teachers their rights under the law of the land will be met with an appropriate response.

In other news, EC also appears to have accepted the JNU administration’s proposal to erect “a statue of suitable height and size” on a “proper elevated platform” of Swami Vivek ananda. JNUTA would be delighted if this would bring about a spiritual commitment in the current JNU administration’s towards building a society in which truth prevails. But if the series of decisions that the 268th EC has taken, marked by libel, discrimination, illegality, and injustice against the teaching community, are any indication, it is unlikely that this statue will have the desired effect.

(Ayesha Kidwai, President, JNUTA & Pradeep Shinde, Secretary)

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As 7 Hindu Pilgrims Die, 164% Rise In Terror-Related Civilian Deaths in J&K Over A Year

What is it about Gujarat 2002 that Inspires Fantasies(Sic) Among Modi Bhakts?

Azaadi Kooch Begins, Dalits, Patidars, Muslims March from Ahmedabad to Mehsana Despite Police Ban

A year after Burhan Wani, Kashmir is Locked in a Worsening Cycle of Despair & Violence

How the Executive Council is Functioning at JNU: The 267th Meeting & Attacks on Faculty

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