Muslim Youth Killed in Police Firing, Goalpara: Assam

July 2, 2017

http://newsclick.in/muslim-youth-killed-police-firing-assams-goalpara

Yakub Ali, a 22-year-old Muslim man, was killed when the police opened fire against protesters at Kharboja Village of Goalpara District in Assam. The protesters were marching towards National Highway 37 to demonstrate against the alleged harassment of D (doubtful) voters by the Border Police and Foreigners Tribunals. The rally was led by an advocate n am ed Nazrul Islam, along with two other advocates.

Currently, as per the directives of the Supreme Court, nearly 100 Foreigners Tribunals are reviewing the list of D-voters. Election Commission identified D-voters were put on that list by the Election Commission stating lack of proper citizenship credentials and thereby dropping their names. Hundreds of such voters, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims and Hindus of Bangladeshi origin, have been lodged in detention centers across the state. On June 30, the protesters assembled as per the call of Advocate Islam who stated in a leaflet that the rally demands to put an end to the “injustice meted out to Assam’s Muslims and Bengali Hindus.” The leaflet further read, “The national highway would be blocked on June 30 from Makori to Sulmara and Pancharatna and Naranarayan Setu against the injustice”, and it urged the protesters to be non-violent.

The words of an eyewitness , Hussain Ahmed Madani, quoted as “About hundred people raising slogans demanding inclusion of genuine citizens in the NRC were stopped close to Naranarayan Setu (a bridge over river Brahmaputra) by the police asking them for the permission letter to hold the protest. CRPF personnel were also present. The aim of the protesters was to block the National Highway 37 which connects Goalpara to the neighbouring Bongaingaon district (and thereafter to West Bengal). Though the protesters had applied for permission, it was not granted by the police.”

While, Goalpara superintendent of police Amitava Sinha said:"When the police and CRPF personnel prevented them from blocking the highway, the protesters started pelting stones at them and at passing vehicles. The security personnel had to resort to a lathicharge and fire a few rounds in the air to bring the situation under control”.
Sinha added: "After being recently released on bail, Islam had sought permission for a road blockade but was denied consent. Yet, he and his supporters went ahead with the blockade. We arrested a few of them while they were on their way to the protest venue but some managed to reach the venue and tried to block the highway".
Rezaul Karim Sarkar, general secretary of the All Assam Minority Students Union, said, "It was a calculated plan of the Goalpara deputy commissioner and the SP to unleash violence on people from the minority community. We demand stern action against the police officials involved in the killing of an innocent picketer."
Opposition parties condemned the Goaplara police firing and demanded a judicial enquiry.

Courtesy: Newsclick

With Only 20% of India’s City Sewage Treated; Urban Areas’ Groundwater “to turn into” Contaminated Aquifers

July 2, 2017

A recent Government of India report has delivered stiff warning that groundwater resources in growing urban centres are likely to become “contaminated as much by residual contaminants from erstwhile agricultural activities and poor rural sanitation as by contamination from more current haphazard waste-water disposal.”

Pointing out that “only 33% urban Indians are connected to a piped sewer system and 13% – roughly 50 million urban Indians – still defecate in the open”, the report, prepared by a committee headed by India’s foremost water resources expert Dr Mihir Shah, says that “large parts of the modern cities remain unconnected to the sewage system as they live in unauthorised or illegal areas or slums, where state services do not reach.”

Noting that surveys of groundwater quality in many cities reveal “a large magnitude of water-borne pathogenic contamination – commonly referred to as bacteriological contamination – , the report insists, they signify “clear signs of groundwater contamination by sewage.”

The report, titled “A 21st Century Institutional Architecture for India’s Water Reforms Report”, comes at a time when top Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, a noted economist from the University of Columbia, has been advocating the need to encourage urbanization as fast as possible.

According to the report, however, number of people living in urban areas is expected to more than double by 2050, and “this will pose unprecedented challenges for water management in urban India”, because there is a huge demand for rapidly industrialising and urbanizing when the potential for augmenting water supply is “limited”, water tables are “falling” and water quality issues have “increasingly come to the fore.”

Insisting that “many urban stretches of rivers and lakes are overstrained and overburdened by industrial waste, sewage and agricultural runoff”, the report states, “These wastewaters are overloading rivers and lakes with toxic chemicals and wastes, consequently poisoning water resources and supplies” and the toxins find their way into “plants and animals, causing severe ecological toxicity.”

“In India, cities produce nearly 40,000 million litres of sewage every day and barely 20 percent of it is treated”, the report asserts, quoting a Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) survey as stating that “only 2% towns have both sewerage systems and sewage treatment plants.”

“Averaged for 71 cities and towns, groundwater constitutes 48% of the share in urban water supply. In India, 56 per cent of metropolitan, class-I and class-II cities are dependent on groundwater either fully or partially”, the report says.

Further noting that “unaccounted water in urban areas exceeds 50% according to the Central Ground Water Board’s report on the groundwater scenario in 28 Indian cities”, the report, which has been submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office for further action, says, “Privately driven, individualistic pumping of groundwater has led to problems of co-terminal depletion and contamination of aquifers.”

Courtesy: Counterview

The Ghost of Godhra comes to Haunt, Again

July 1, 2017

Godhra Train Burning

The decision to include a VHP man at a top level meeting at the Collectorate at Godhra on February 27, 2002 has been affirmed by then DM Jayanti Ravi, who has –in contravention to what she told the Concerned citizens Tribunal headed by Justices VR Krishna Iyer and PB Sawant in 2002 – also denied that the decision to hand over the bodies to Patel to transport to Ahmedabad was hers: she passes the buck to Mamlatdar, Nalyava. SIT, never known to get to the bottom of the issue is likely to obfuscate further by relying on the fact that the letter given to Patel by the administration was not ‘signed’ by him on receiving the bodies

Five days ago, on June 29 to be precise, M.L. Nalvaya, in 2002 executive magistrate (Mamlatdar) of Godhra, stated clearly in evidence before the special court appointed under the Supreme Court directives, trying the crimes committed on February 28, 2002 in the Naroda Gaam case that he had, on instructions of his higher officers ‘prepared a letter to hand over the charred bodies of those killed in the Godhra mass arson’ to none less than ‘Jaideep Patel, secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Nalvaya was brought ion at the fag end of he Naroda Gam case that has been slagging in the courts, as a defence witness.

Patel, is an accused in the Naroda Gam case, currently out on bail. Eleven Muslims were killed in Naroda Gam and there are 82 accused, including former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the SC has been playing a cat and mouse game on the issue of handing over the bodies of Jaideep Patel and the controversial decision taken to transport the charred victims bodies to Ahmedabad Iin the first place. According to the SIT, the letter does not have any signature acknowledging that the bodies had been received. The bodies were brought to Ahmedabad from Godhra and were handed over to the relatives in full public glare where funeral processions attended by hate-filled mobs of RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal were allowed full reign of the streets and the cadres hurled inciteful slogans even as ‘curfew’ was apparently declared.

Nalvaya, who is currently sub-divisional magistrate in Dahod, said he went to the spot where the Sabarmati Express coach was set ablaze at Godhra railway station and, under the supervision of his senior officers, he examined the bodies and completed other formalities. Later, Nalvaya said, he wrote a letter that the bodies should be handed over to Jaideep Patel.

The fact that a controversial high-level decision, taken in the presence of the then chief minister of the state, Narendra Modi to transport the bodies of the Godhra Victims to Ahmedabad was taken at a meeting at the District Collector’s Office (around 4 p.m. on February 27, 2002) has been the source of key investigations, initiated by Survivors and Rights activists since. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the SC and headed by RK Raghavan was compelled to first interrogate the issue in the Zakia Jafri Case, after the SC ordered it to do “ look into the evidence” in April 2009.

Significantly, the SIT that was also tasked by the SC to further investigate and prosecute the Godhra trial itself, did not bother to look into this issue in the trial that was completed and judgement delivered in 2011. On being cross-examined by the Special Investigation (SIT), which probed the case, Nalvaya said he wrote the letter at the instance of his senior officers. He said the letter was not signed by Jaideep Patel and was handed over to someone else. He also said he did not know Patel and had never met him.

Ironically, the SIT has been playing a cat and mouse game on the issue of the 4 p.m. meeting at the Collectorate where also, Jaideep Patel was allowed to attend (on instructions of the then chief minister) and on the controversial decision ‘taken at the highest levels’ to hand over the bodies of the Godhra Survivors to a man from a an admittedly rabid outfit like the VHP, known to instigate communal flare-ups.

In the course of the Zakia Jafri Complaint and related investigations conducted by the SIT between 2009 and 2012, in her Section 161 statement dated 15.09.09, the then District Collector DM/Collector, Godhra Jayanti Ravi clearly states that at the meeting called by the CM at the Collectorate, Jaideep Patel was present. The then chief minister has denied this. Jayanti Ravi further admits that the decision to hand over bodies to Jaideep Patel was a high level decision. In a subsequent statement dated 26.10.2009 and 3.11.2009 she however blames Mamlatdar Nalvaya for this decision to hand over bodies to Jaideep Patel of the VHP. Nalvaya however in his affidavit before the Nanavati-Shah Commission affirms that it was on the instructions of DM Ravi that the bodies of the Godhra victims were handed over to a VHP man. In the course of the Zakia Jafri Complaint related investigations, a crucial document, which is a fax sent by DM Jayanti Ravi to Gandhinagar informing CM/HM of the dispatch of dead bodies suggests that she was fully in on the procedure and decision to hand over the bodies to Jaideep Patel.

The statements of Mahendra Laljibhai Nalvaya, former Mamlatdar are telling. In his statement dated 28.10.2009 where he clearly states that it was “as per the instructions of Jayanti Ravi, DM and late BN Damor, ADM, Godhra that these dead bodies were handed over officially to Jaideep Patel and Hasmukh Patel of Vishwa Hindu Parishad. This he repeats in the second statement before SIT dated 3.4.2011 his affidavit before the Nanavati Commission.

Significantly, senior advocate, Raju Ramachandran in his Interim Report dated 20.1.2011 clearly states that

        “…7, Another aspect is the fact that VHP General Secretary Jaideep Patel and Shri Modi were at Godhra on 27.02.2002. The statement of Jaideep Patel that he
         did not meet Shri Narendra Modi at Godhra does not inspite confidence. This has to be examined as the Mamlatdar would not have handed over the dead bodies
         to a non-government person i.e. Jaideep Patel until and unless somebody very high told him to do so.”

The three volume report of the Concerned Citizens Tribunal-Gujarat 2002 is arguably the best investigation on the Gujarat genocidal carnage of 2002. In its report there is a chapter on Godhra that makes for critical reading. Within this section two significant points made by the panel headed by Justice VR Krishna Iyer, PB Sawant and Hosbet Suresh (among others) are:

          “4.4. The chief minister of Gujarat, Shri Narendra Modi, accompanied by health minister, Shri Ashok Bhatt and other cabinet colleagues, arrived in Godhra
           around 2 p.m. that day. After meeting the collector, he decided to take the bodies to Ahmedabad. It was the decision of Shri Modi to take the badly charred
           bodies to Ahmedabad against the advice of the district administration. Initially, the chief minister and his colleagues had wanted to take the bodies in the same
           train onwards to Ahmedabad. The district administration strongly advised against this for law and order reasons, after which a motor cavalcade drove the bodies
           to the Sola Civil hospital at Ahmedabad.

          ….5.10. A point to be noted is evidence recorded by the media, of ordinary victims of the Godhra arson, who did not wish to be part of any political project of
          "vengeance". The Times of India (March 3, 2002) quoted Govind Makwana, who lost his son Umakant (22) in the fire that engulfed coach S-6 of the Sabarmati
         Express. "I am extremely disturbed by what is happening in our area. I had pleaded with folded hands to all who came to my son’s cremation to restrain
         themselves and maintain peace. Killing other people is not a solution. Losing a son is shattering, and I want no father or mother to suffer from this feeling".

That the decision to transport the bodies of the Godhra victims –outside the jurisdictional area to Ahmedabad where communal feelings were allowed to grow – was not just controversial but a decision that ought or should be scrutinised has been clear. That it was a man from the VHP to whom the chief executive of the state decided to hand over the bodies, seals the claim that the decision ‘to take Godhra to the rest of Gujarat’ was not one devoid of serious mischief: a signal to bands in the mob for anger and reprisal to rule the streets and for innocents to be targeted and killed.

The Ghost of Godhra come to haunt us, Again.

The European Commission’s Anti-Trust Action against Google

July 1, 2017

Google has a near absolute monopoly over the search engine market with more than 90% market share in most countries.

In a landmark case, the European Commission has imposed a fine of €2.42 billion on Google for abusing its dominance in the search engine market, by giving undue advantage to its ‘comparison shopping service’ and illegally suppressing its competitors.

Apart from the fine, the Commission has given Google 90 days to change its algorithms in compliance with the order, failing which the company will have to pay a penalty equivalent to 5% of the average daily earnings of its parent company, Alphabet.

Google has a near absolute monopoly over the search engine market with more than 90% market share in most countries. This gives it a considerable say in deciding what consumers view on the internet. Using this to its advantage, Google gave prominence to its own comparison shopping service in search results which appear when consumers search for a particular product.

Comparison shopping service is any website where consumers can compare the prices offered by competing online retailers for a product. Retailers pay the comparison shopping service to display their items and their prices on the service’s website.

More traffic to the website would mean that more retailers would be willing to pay for listing their items on the site.

When consumers use Google search to find a product, the first items displayed are those listed with Google’s own comparison shopping service. Rival comparison service providers, even those with very high ranking, were not displayed in the first page of the search results. According to the European Commission, the highly ranked rival services were pushed to the fourth page. This meant that they get hardly 1% of the total clicks.

The European Commission found fault in the fact that Google’s comparison service is not subject to Google’s own generic search algorithm. It was never demoted in search results, irrespective of its relevance.

This led the Commission to rule that Google deliberately and illegally demoted rivals in the search results, thereby restricting competition and abusing its monopoly power.

The numbers given by the Commission show the extent of the adverse impact that Google’s anti-trust behaviour had on its competitors. To quote from the Commission’s press release, “Since the beginning of each abuse, Google's comparison shopping service has increased its traffic 45-fold in the United Kingdom, 35-fold in Germany, 19-fold in France, 29-fold in the Netherlands, 17-fold in Spain and 14-fold in Italy”.

Correspondingly, traffic to rival comparison shopping services has fallen rapidly. There were “sudden drops of traffic to certain rival websites of 85% in the United Kingdom, up to 92% in Germany and 80% in France.”

This is not the first time Google has been in news for its monopolistic practices, though this is the first time such a huge fine has been imposed on it. The European Commission’s order is an important, if a very small, step towards controlling the misuse of market power by digital monopolies.

In India too, Google resorts to similar monopolistic practices, without facing any disciplinary action. The Director General (DG) of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), whose mandate is the preventing of anti-competitive behavior of firms, came out with a report on Google’s questionable market behaviour in September 2015.

As in the European Commission’s case, the CCI too found that in Google’s universal search its own services are unfairly promoted at the expense of its competitors. For example, when people search for addresses, Google Maps and Google Places appear at the top of the search results. This has a serious adverse impact on the visibility of competing online map services, considering the fact the topmost search result gets 35% of all the clicks and all the results in the first page together get 95% of the clicks. Even if a competitor provides a better service, the customer might simply remain unaware. This is not only bad for competitors, but also for consumers.

The CCI report compiled many other such practices of Google that unfairly and adversely impact its competitors, and thereby constitute anti-trust behaviour. The report states that Google’s behaviour violates sections 4(2)(a)(i), 4(2)(b)(ii), 4(2)(c) and 4(2)(e) of the Competition Act of 2002.

It was estimated by many that Google could be fined up to six billion dollars if CCI accepts the DG’s report and rules against Google. But two years have passed since the report was submitted, and there has been no news of any action taken.

Meanwhile the monopoly practices of the digital giant continue unhindered. The BJP government which has been making much noise about Startup India has taken little notice of this issue. After all, such anti-trust behaviour will have an adverse impact on start-ups, most of which are coming up in the digital sphere. Unless the government wakes up from its slumber and places checks on digital giants like Google and Facebook, Startup India will never reach the finishing line.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Rise in One Voice, Save One of the Oldest Civilizations of the World: Medha Patkar

July 1, 2017

The situation at one of the oldest sites of human civilisations – the Narmada valley of Madhya Pradesh is today worse than a battlefield where the humble, hard working farmers, fisher folk, potters and labourers are struggling day in and day out to simply survive against the onslaught of the Sardar Sarovar Dam built on the Narmada river in Gujarat.

Narmada protest
Image: A.M. Faruqui

They have resisted the dam for the last 32 years which was planned to drown their lands. Even then, they fought to get their due rehabilitation and compensation that was denied to them. Today, they are pushed to the brink of a crisis that seems overwhelingly difficult to tackle.

Electoral Gimmick

According to the Supreme Court, the finalisation of dam should be undertaken only after the completion of all rehabilitation and compensation work among the Dam Affected People. The Supreme Court did give a deadline of July 31. The governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in cohorts with the Central government have unilaterally taken the decision to close the gates of the dam well before rehabilitation work has been completed, or even the court deadline has been met. It is said that the decision to forcibly close the dam gates is another one of BJP,'s tactics planbed keeping in mind the upcoming state elections in Gujarat sceduled later this year.

Corruption & Coercion

Completely corrupt practices are underway in the Narmada valley in the name of rehabilitation and compensation.

– Even after the significant findings of the Jha Commission that pointed out huge irregularities in the disbursal of compensation monies, the elected governments completely swept the report of the commission under the rug. People who lost out due to corruption still await justice. The present trend consists of ‘secretive’ administrative visits and giving a "clean chit" to every aspect of the incomplete work of rehabilitation and compensation. Each day, the villages under threat of Submissions, see visita by engineers or patwaris who are conducting random surveys and changing the lists of affectedlists persons on a whim. People in the submergence area don’t even know if their name is still on the list or not even if they live right there, in the submergence areas. The entire Narmada valley is rife with such cases where people, esspecially the poor and the landless, find no mention in the lists and have nowhere to go. Tens of thousands of people are still inhabiting the submergence zone as they have not got compensation or rehabilitation.

– Even those who have received paltry compensation are not enough to survive. Rehabilitation sites are marked by extreme government apathy. In some places there is no clean drinking water.

– The entire state and machinery of Madhya Pradesh is more interested in the forcible eviction of people than to cooperate with the citizens of this country whose rights are being undermined. Administrative officials and police are busy trying to cover up the stains their political masters have created.

State Repression
– In order to curb the syrong voice of emerging dissent, the government of Madhya Pradesh has enacted the Rajya Suraksha Kanun (RASUKA) (Gazette Notification May 25) on the lines of National Security Act to declare any protest illegal which, in effect means, a complete suspension of human rights in a place which is hit by a man-made disaster (submergence due the dam). These people have not received their due and are not ready to leave their lands, homes, cattle, community centers. Their entire life and livelihoods are at stake.

Narmada Bachao Andolan,(NBA), at the forefront of the struggle of the farmers, farm labourers, fisher folk, potters, adivasis and women of the Narmada valley calls out to all democratic forces of the country and outside to raise their voice against the illegal injustice against a river, a valley and its people. As believers in non-violence, we rest our hope on the Constitution and collective will of the people of India who have earlier gained Independence through satyagraha to come together once again.

Why do minorities have to prove their loyalty and nationalism time and again?

July 1, 2017

It was the summer of 2010. This was my first visit to London and I couldn't resist a bist to Madam Tussaud's, the famous wax museum. I wanted to see the wax statues of my favorite celebrities. I was so delighted to see them there and came back with sweet memories, but the most cherished memory was not about these statues. It was something else that has remained deeply etched in my memory.

Today, with the systematic outbreak of recent incidents of gruedomr violence against Muslims in India- the country ofmy birth– it is an important narrative to share.

At the museum, among several famous Indian icons was Sachin Tendulkar – a prominent batsman of the Indian cricket team. While I was busy taking pictures, a couple came up to me and asked me if I can take their picture with Tendulkar. Perhaps, they were husband and wife with a son. Both appeared to be practicing Muslims with the man wearing a skull cap and sporting a beard and his wife wearing a burka. I made them stand at the right angle and took several pictures of them on their camera. They were all happy and left thanking me for this small favour, a common enough feature at any tourist attraction.

I do not know which country the couple was from. I never asked them. But it is possible that they were of Indian origin like myself. May be not. They could be Pakistanis who are also fond of cricket like many Indians. When it comes to cricket fans they often do not discriminate between the players like our politicians do.

I regret not asking them which part of the world they were from and why they liked Tendulkar. But that is not relevant. What is relevant is that they were a Muslim couple and wanted to be pictured with the statue of Tendulkar – an Indian cricket hero and this story is important to remember and share, to break the stereotypes about Indian Muslims being supporters of Pakistani cricket team. These myths have rather gained currency under a right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India. The BJP has always been accusing Indian Muslims of supporting Pakistan and that allegation is not just limited to cricket. If the BJP has its way it would try to "prove", again and again, that the entire Muslim population in India is loyal to Pakistan. We have been listening to this irrational crap all these years. Now that they are in power these stories are being widely accepted.

In these circumstances, when thevIndian cricket team recently lost to Pakistan, 15 Muslims were arrested in Madhya Pradesh after being accused of celebrating the victory of Pakistan. They were initially booked for sedition, but later the police dropped those charges and rather framed them for inciting violence between the two religious communities and disturbing peace. If this was not bad enough, the alleged complainant has stated that he was forced to make these false allegations by the police that is directly acting under the instructions of their political masters who are used to projecting Muslims with a perenially suspicious eye.

Even if one believes that Muslims did celebrate the victory of Pakistan what's the big deal? The cricket fans on either side see no boundaries. They can sometimes rejoice over the best performance of a rival team and that is called sportsmanship. The charges of sedition and even disturbing peace are highly uncalled for. If the Indian police is so worried about peace and unity then why not charge the supporters of BJP who every now and then keep spewing venom against Muslims and incite hatred?

Though the BJP came to power with brute majority in 2014, Muslims and other minorities have always been under a microscope in the world's so called largest secular democracy. I remember sharing the London visit story to many of my friends before 2014 and not surprisingly the prejudice against Muslims within the Indian community has been so strong even before the BJP rode to power on the Hindu nationalist plank that many who heard it either laughed at it or brushed it aside as an exceptional case. They mostly believed that Muslims in India can never be trusted.

The most disturbing part is that many Sikhs, the community I belong to are also deeply influenced by such propaganda. Early this year, when I was visiting India, a friend tried to justify the ongoing violence against Muslims under the BJP government saying that the community has been involved in crime and terrorism. I had to remind him that the Sikhs too became target of similar attacks during 1980s and were frequently blamed for terrorist acts of a few Sikh separatists and accused of being anti-national. So much so, the Sikhs were also seen as Pakistani allies by the Hindu fanatics. And this was all happening under a secularist Congress government.

I remember how as a teenager when I had long hair and sported a turban I was often taunted by my classmates as a "terrorist". My brother and I were once separated from other bus passengers by the soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force at a checkpoint on a highway, and our luggage frisked while other passengers looked on, helplessly. On one occasion I was picked by the Punjab Police as I was taking a stroll after my dinner and taken to a police station where they beat me up for no reason. Thankfully, my father who was a government servant used his common sense and connections to find me out and take me back home. Who knows what the police intended to do with me? They were threatening to kill me in a staged shootout on the way to the police station. I was 17 at that time. We often heard about people being killed in staged shootings during the period of Sikh militancy and was constantly worried about my ownsafety.

Its a shame that majoritarian democracy that is the root of the problem is not being seen as a real danger. The process of othering the minorities has been going on for years. With the BJP being in power it has only intensified. The alarming aspect of this process is that it also pits one religious minority against the other. When there is an attempt to scapegoat one community the chances are that other religious minorities also fall into the trap laid by the majoritarian groups. That is what is happening now with Muslims in India and elsewhere. The growing Islamophobia in the west has made the job easier for the BJP which has a clear mandate to turn Indian into Hindu theocracy.

Nevertheless, however powerless we maybe, we need to amplify the stories such as the one buried in my memory so that people can resist the attempts by the powerful to pollute our minds through false propaganda that is aimed to divide us so that they can rule.

For now, Indians like me welcome the victory of the Pakistani cricket team, have no hesitation in waving a Pakistani flag and even say, Long Live Pakistan. If that makes me anti national, so be it.

How far and until when we will have to keep proving our nationalism? And who holds the right to give out certificates of patriotism? If the majoritarian democracy holds that power, I reject it completely.

Don’t Kill in My Name: A Report on the Protest

June 30, 2017

The spontaneous "Not in My Name" protests were held in at least 10 cities across India on Wednesday evening, 28 June 2017. Even London and Toronto witnessed protests against targeted mob lynching in India. The protest call kicked off with filmmaker Saba Dewan creating a Facebook event in the name "Not in My Name" for Jantar Mantar, Delhi. It soon caught the attention of a wide range of people in Delhi, followed by people in other cities. These protests are "citizens' protests" in the sense that they were spontaneous expressions of outrage following 16-year-old Junaid's lynching on 22 July. Also, the protests were not organised by political parties, though several political leaders and activists joined the protests.

Delhi

A large number of academics, writers, artists, students and political activists came out in protest on a humid evening at Jantar Mantar, Delhi.

Organisers of the protest at Delhi preferred cultural performances over slogans and speeches.

Bengaluru

It was a vibrant protest in Bengaluru with creative "Not in My Name" banners in front of the Town Hall.

Benny Kuruvilla says "All kinds of folks were there (in Bengaluru), which was good. Some wanted to shout slogans but organisers wanted a silent protest."

Mumbai

Image Courtesy: india.com
Protestors braved the heavy showers and gathered on Carter Road in Bandra, Mumbai.

Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times
Bollywood actors Shabana Azmi, Konkana Sen Sharma, Kalki Koechlin and Nandita Das came out to protest in Mumbai.

Chandigarh

Image Courtesy: Sameer Singh
Though the protest at Chandigarh was called at short notice, it saw a good number of protestors.

Image Credit: Sameer Singh
Amy Singh says "It was raining. We had traffic jams," but "people made it loud and clear that citizens would not allow any kind of hate crimes, violence against minorities or Muslim mob lynching anymore."

Trivandrum

Image Courtesy: Anu Arunima
At the protest in Trivandrum, people registered their anger and anguish through songs and poetry. The protestors pledged to fight fascism in every possible way.

Image Courtesy: Korah Abraham
Professor G Arunima says, "There were people who travelled from Trissur and Kottayam to come to Trivandrum for the protest – it was so heartening!"

Gaya

Image Courtesy: Shaqir Akhtar
In Gaya, the protest was called by the youth and most of the participants were also youngsters.

Image Courtesy: Shaqir Akhtar
At Ambedkar Chowk, Gaya, protestors formed a line and held placards for everybody to read.

Kolkata

Image Courtesy: Aatreyee Das
In Kolkata, the protestors made brief speeches expressing their anger at the culture of mob lynching.

Image Courtesy: Anuradha Kapoor

Abu Sohel, student of Jadavpur University, comments on something that the mainstream media overlooked: "As an atheist person born in a Muslim household, I have felt for long that the larger population in India doesn’t know how to respect cultural practices of the minority communities residing in India. Anyone with a basic understanding of Islam would know that ‘namaz’ (the ritual prayer observed by practicing Muslims) is an extremely personal thing with nothing but the idea of the invisible Allah standing in front of them, yet when a dozen of Muslims chose to offer namaz at the protest site to make a political statement, photographers and media personnel stood in front of them, all huddled up trying to get a ‘million dollar shot’ thus disrupting their prayer, while turning the whole act into an exotic spectacle, reducing the presence of the few members of the Muslim community to sheer ‘tokenism’. And yet the mainstream media, which seemed to be more preoccupied with celebrities present at the event, were lauded by the organizers for their media coverage! "

Titi Roy, who joined the protest in Kolkata, said "it was a day when you wanted to do something against the terrible atrocities happening around you".

Jaipur

Image Courtesy: Not In My Name Facebook Page
Not in My Name protest was held at Gandhi Nagar in Jaipur

Image Courtesy: Not In My Name Facebook Page

London

Poet and Academic Nitisha Paul at the protest in SOAS, London

The protest in London was held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Writer Meena Kandasamy at the protest in SOAS, London

Toronto

Image Courtesy: Atreyee Majumder

At Toronto, the protestors delivered a press release asking the Consulate to issue a statement against the killings in India. The protest was a call to the diaspora to engage in sustained action, because as Ree puts it "we need more than one protest".

Image Courtesy: Maithili Venkataraman

Sara Abraham says that over 50 people attended the protest in Toronto for a full 2 hours, and close to 30 sent their regrets. Flowers were left in memory of Junaid in front of the Indian High Commission at Toronto, Canada.

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Muslim Youth Killed in Police Firing, Goalpara: Assam

GST & The Basic Structure of the Indian Constitution

With Only 20% of India’s City Sewage Treated; Urban Areas’ Groundwater “to turn into” Contaminated Aquifers

The Ghost of Godhra comes to Haunt, Again

The European Commission’s Anti-Trust Action against Google

Google has a near absolute monopoly over the search engine market with more than 90% market share in most countries.

Rise in One Voice, Save One of the Oldest Civilizations of the World: Medha Patkar

Why do minorities have to prove their loyalty and nationalism time and again?

Don’t Kill in My Name: A Report on the Protest

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