Over 10 Years, Bengaluru Molestations Reported Rose 417%, Conviction Rate Was 0.37%

May 7, 2017

In a decade to 2016, the incidents of molestation reported in Bengaluru increased more than four-fold, statistics compiled by the Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru, on cases of molestation (under Section 354) show. Yet, according to our analysis of police data, of the 4,241 complaints filed between 2006 and 2016, the conviction rate was 0.37% (16 cases).

People stage a demonstration against molestation of women in Bengaluru. Of the 4,241 complaints of molestation filed between 2006 and 2016 in Bengaluru, the conviction rate was 0.37% (16 cases).

The number of complaints under under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (assault to outrage the modesty of a woman) rose from 150 in 2006 to 776 in 2016. Experts say this could be because of an increase in the number of incidents as well as greater willingness on the part of women to register complaints.

The data were compiled by Bengaluru Commissioner of Police for the Karnataka Legislature Committee on Prevention of Violence and Sexual Abuse of Women and Children. This data project could serve as a template for how police in India’s burgeoning cities can make sense of their crime data in public interest.

Section 354 includes sexual harassment (354A), use of criminal force with intent to disrobe (354B), voyeurism (354C) and stalking (354D). The data obtained from the Bengaluru commissionerate group these offences under ‘molestation’.

Bengaluru–India’s IT capital–entered 2017 with reports of mass molestation of women in the city’s bustling MG Road and Brigade Road areas despite deployment of thousands of police personnel. The reports came as a shock to Bengaluru residents and for people across the country who believed the city to be safe for women.

Bengaluru’s conviction rate for molestation is indicative of the larger problem nationwide. “Few women who survive sexual assault have a pathway to justice and recovery from their horror,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, an advocacy, in a statement issued after the Supreme Court upheld on May 4, 2017, the death sentence to four men who were part of the gang that raped in 2012 a Delhi physiotherapy student now known as Nirbhaya.

‘A stranger tried to kiss me in front of dozens of people! No one came to my help’

Kavya S, 24, was on her way to work when a stranger attacked her in public. “It was around 8:30 am in broad daylight, I was walking to work in Kormangala when a stranger grabbed me and tried to kiss me in front of dozens of people! No one came to my help but when I screamed and kicked him, they yelled at me and asked me to leave him,” she recounted.

Kavya immediately filed a complaint with the local police under Section 354, but did not pursue the case once she shifted her residence. “Police officials were very cooperative,” she recalled, “but I couldn’t follow up on the case as I had to shift my house and job.”

Cases such as Kavya’s are increasingly common, although Bengaluru police say they are working to improve the law and order situation for women. “We have identified areas that are hotspots for crimes against women and launched 51 Pink Hoysalas (mobile units) that are dedicated to women. We have also launched an app called ‘Suraksha’ last week (April second week). Anyone can inform us if they are in danger and we would reach the spot in 10 minutes,” S Ravi, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime), told IndiaSpend.

4,241 cases reported, 53% pending trial, 12% acquittals, 0.37% convictions

Bengaluru’s criminal justice system is marred by delays, as with the rest of India’s (discussed here, here and here). Of the 4,241 molestation cases reported, 2,248 (53%) are pending trial, according to data from the Bengaluru City Police Commissionerate.

Among the cases tried, there have been 523 acquittals (12%) and 16 convictions (0.37%)–even as the police consider 97% of cases to be “true” after investigation. A decade earlier, the figure for “true” cases was 84%, indicating more open-mindedness in dealing with women’s complaints as well as better effort on the police’s part to investigate.

However, lawyers and activists believe the large proportion of acquittals are due to shoddy investigation. “In most crime against women cases, especially the molestation cases, the accused get acquitted or the cases are kept pending for years,” Pramila Nesargi, a noted lawyer and a well-known women’s rights activist, said. “The main reason for all these is the reluctance of police in getting proper evidence.” She said the government needs to appoint well-trained investigative officers.

Source: Bengaluru City Police Commissionerate
Note: Figures are for cases under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code. Totals may not tally as some cases may be under investigation.

The government needs to think from women’s perspective, Rani Shetty, coordinator of Vanitha Sahayavani, a government agency that provides rescue and support services for women in distress, and operates from the office of the Commissioner of Police, told IndiaSpend. “I have met many victims of molestation whose cases have been pending for years. The legal system needs to be strong, there should be fast-track judgment for any cases related to women,” she said.

As per law, the police have to file a chargesheet within 90 days of a crime being reported. “[I]n most cases, they fail to do so, and this in turn affects the court proceedings,” Ugrappa VS, a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council and chairperson of the expert committee to prevent crimes against women and children, told IndiaSpend.

At the same time, public prosecutors, who are responsible for presenting the case in court, are overworked. “The main reason for cases pending for years is because public prosecutors are given too many cases,” public prosecutor SN Hiremane, who has been in the field for over 20 years, said. “I myself have 450 molestation cases pending so far.”

Judicial delays, which make it easy for the accused to get bail, can be extremely dangerous for victims of sexual assault. In one case, a grade IX student was molested by her 25-year-old neighbour. Her family filed a Section 354 case at the Peenya police station and the accused was arrested immediately. On his release on bail within four months, he kidnapped the girl and raped her. He is back in jail now.

“What happened to me shouldn’t happen to any girl. He has to be punished,” the girl told IndiaSpend.

“If the police had taken strict action on his first crime, they could have prevented the second incident. Now he is in jail but he might do the same thing when he comes out,” her father said.

The city’s burgeoning population, with a massive influx of immigrants, could be one of the factors behind molestation cases such as the one that took place on New Year’s eve, former Lokayukta Justice (Retd) N Santosh Hegde said speaking at a private college in the city in March 2017. The 2011 census had pegged Bangalore city’s population at 84.4 lakh. By 2016, it had risen to more than 1.15 crore.

“They come alone. They stay alone. And the manly desire is always there,” he said at the discussion about immigrants, adding that the benefit of anonymity in an overcrowded city apparently emboldens them to pursue their pervert desires. He also cited a lack of morals as one of the reasons.

She said cases of sexual violence against women have their root in the society’s mindset towards gender and it depends on how boys and girls are raised in home and school, Monisha Srichand, noted psychologist and Director of TalkItOver Counselling Services, explained.

“From childhood, boys are taught they are better, superior to girls, while the latter are seen as sex objects. They see it all around them in the media, movies… There’s a lot of gender inequality and as men see women walking around freely, being independent, working outside the house, being out late, they subconsciously want to assert their power over her,” she added.

(Mani is a Bengaluru-based independent journalist and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)

Courtesy: India Spend

Why Hindu farmers and cattle traders in Rajasthan are angry with gau rakshaks

May 6, 2017

Those who buy and sell milch cows and oxen for farm work say cow vigilantes have made it impossible for them to conduct their business.

Cow vigilantism has been portrayed as a blowback against the Muslim community’s insistence on consuming beef, unmindful of the fact that slaughtering cows hurts Hindus who worship the animal. This depiction has framed the cow as an incendiary issue between Hindus and Muslims, an irreconcilable clash of cultures, so to speak.

This narrative was challenged during a three-day dharna that civil society groups and a clutch of political parties organised in Jaipur from April 24 to protest the killing of Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer who was waylaid in Alwar on April 1 while transporting milch cattle to his farm.

“We insisted it was not a Muslim issue,” said Kavita Srivastava, president, Rajasthan People’s Union for Civil Liberties, who was one of the organisers of the demonstration. “Lynching is unacceptable because it does away with the rule of law.”

Srivastava said the dharna was also a protest against criminalising the victim. “The Rajasthan home minister [Gulab Chand Kataria] continues to defend those who killed Pehlu Khan,” she said. “They are gau goondas, not gau rakshaks.”

It is very likely that some readers will dismiss Srivastava’s remark as typical of the irreverence Left-liberal activists have for religion and its symbols. But Srivastava’s sentiment is shared by many Hindu farmers, dairy owners and traders who are simmering with anger against thugs masquerading as cow protectors.

Their anger is reflected in six separate clips made from a lengthy video that a journalist friend sent to this writer. He filmed it at the cattle market held every week in Jaipur. The footage was shot on April 8. The journalist-friend’s questions to a cattle trader triggered a passionate debate in which both Hindus and Muslims participated, belying the claims that the two communities have been divided because of their contrarian sentiments on the cow.

Each of the clips in the story is followed by a synopsis for those who do not understand Hindi.

‘One-way export of cattle’

In the first clip, a man in a white shirt introduces himself as Kailash, a dairy farmer who has been in the cattle trade for 35 years. He says vehicles from Rajasthan ferry milch cows to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, but always return empty. Are they being milked? “We do not know,” he declares, suggesting they might have been slaughtered.

The export of cattle from Rajasthan has had three consequences, Kailash claims. The price of cows has shot up, their population in Rajasthan has dwindled, their rampant sale has deprived farmers’ children of milk.

A vociferous rebuttal

The second video shows Kailash’s comments have enraged those around him. They accuse him of lying. Different voices are heard, though the religious identity of speakers is not always obvious. They counter Kailash on each and every point. A voice claims that Rajasthani farmers breed cows, which are counted as among the best in the country. Why breed cows in the absence of an organised dairy farming in the state, counters Kailash, who is again rebutted by many voices clamouring simultaneously.

The clip ends with a man in a checked shirt asking the videographer to follow him.

A cow worth Rs 1 lakh

In the third clip, the man in the checked shirt, bristling with rage, says he is Nemichand, a son of a Jat. He is shown standing next to a cow, which he says is worth Rs 1 lakh and gives 40 litres of milk daily. He challenges those who accuse farmers of selling cows for slaughter to come before them instead of waylaying them on roads. “Two cases have been filed against me,” Nemichand says.

‘Take care of plastic-eating cows first’

In this video, Nemichand punctures some of the pet theories of cow protectionists. Referring to the Rs 1-lakh cow he had shown to the videographer, he and others say it makes no sense to sell it for slaughter as its meat and other parts, such as skin, would fetch the buyer between Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 and Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000. Nemichand hurls expletives at gau rakshaks for the sheer irrationality of their accusation – and violent actions.

Others demand to know why gau rakshaks do not look after cows foraging in rubbish heaps, which consume plastic and die. Nemichand says that if Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi pay Rs 20 lakh to each dairy owner, they would stop trading in cattle. Later in the clip, Nemichand asks the videographer to send pictures of abandoned cows to Modi and Adityanath, saying if they arrange feed and water for them, he and others would stop their dhanda (business).

The people around him break into a chant: “Hum dhanda nahin karegein.” We will not do this business.

‘Just do the math’

The fifth clip is of Narendra Bhatore from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, who comes to Rajasthan to buy cows. He testifies to Shiv Sainiks harassing him and others in the trade, and says he cannot kill the cow because Hindu religion prohibits it, apart from the fact that it makes little economic sense to buy an animal for Rs 50,000 only to slaughter it.

Earlier, 20 vehicles would come from Madhya Pradesh to cart away cattle from Rajasthan. The number is now down to just two. Narendra describes his scary encounter with the cow protectionists in Deoli, Rajasthan, in 2016. His animals were seized, and the court case continues. “They beat me very badly,” says Narendra. “Had the police not arrived, I would have died.”

‘Can’t transport holy cows’

In this sixth video, Azharuddin, who has come from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh to Jaipur, says he buys animals for mahatmas, or holy men, who run ashrams. They provide him with letters and he secures the requisite permits before ferrying the cattle from Jaipur. Yet the Bajrang Dal activists accost him, impervious to his pleas that he purchases cows on behalf of mahatmas who worship them.

Azharuddin says he has been attacked twice, once in Bharatpur, near Agra, where his two vehicles with 15 cows and calves were seized. Each animal cost him Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.25 lakh. A case was filed against him. The cows were sent to a gaushala. Ultimately, Azharuddin won the case, but nine of his animals in the gaushala had perished by then.

Azharuddin claims that the attacks on traders and transporters of cattle began two years ago. “It has been particularly bad since Yogi Adityanath became chief minister,” he says. “This is because he speaks in a partisan language.”

These videos testify to gau rakshaks not even sparing Hindu farmers and traders ferrying cows purchased legitimately from cattle marts. It is, therefore, bewildering why the plight of Hindu victims of cow vigilantism has not been reported in the national media. Is it because a story on cow vigilantism is considered worthy only when it victimises a Muslim, or there is a dead person to mourn? Are such heartfelt narratives exploited to bring about a polarisation between Hindus and Muslims?

‘Safer to breed goats’

Hindu farmers and traders have been attacked not only on highways, too far away from their homes for anyone to come to their rescue, but also near their farms located in the vicinity of where they stay.

Take Rajinder Singh Bhati, an army clerk who retired at the age of 36, in 2006. He decided to enter into the dairy sector, not least because he was deeply interested in cross breeding cows. His farm, Tanotrai, is just a 40-minute drive from Jaipur, and his stock comprised 70 heads. Until 2014, he supplied 450 litres of milk daily to Jaipur.

Typically, Bhati would transport cows that were not in lactation from Tanotrai to other farms he has elsewhere. These serve as pastures for them. “It cuts down the cost of production,” Bhati explained. With Tanotrai as his base, he hops from one farm to another through the year.

Before embarking on such a trip one day in September 2014, he instructed his most trusted farmhand to transport 10 cows from Tanotrai to another farm of his.

In his absence, the cows were loaded onto a vehicle and driven out.

But just 2 km later, members of the Gau Rakshak Seva Samiti swooped down upon Bhati’s vehicle. They claimed that the cows were being taken to a slaughterhouse. Bhati said that the villagers intervened only because his brother had been the panchayat head. The police seized the truck and the farmhand spent a night in the lock-up.

“I returned to Tanotrai, showed the authorities the relevant documents I possessed, and told them I had served in the army,” Bhati recalled. “My man was released as were the cows.”

But life was not to be the same for Bhatti thereafter. The farmhand was so frightened he left Bhati’s service. “I was completely dependent on that man,” said Bhati. “You need honest people in the dairy business because it is so easy to adulterate milk. I just couldn’t get a replacement for him.”

He could not get a replacement because the farm’s reputation was tarnished. It was made out as if Bhati bred cows to ultimately sell them to slaughterhouses.

His interest in cows did not measure to the risk of incurring the wrath of gau rakshaks. “I sold 60 of them, keeping 10 for my family’s need for milk, and I breed goats now,” Bhati said with a chuckle.

Bhati might have had the resources to switch from breeding cows to goats, but such options are not available to most. He says what is common knowledge: that most farmers rear two or three cows to supplement their income from agriculture. This is more so in Rajasthan because it does not have an elaborate irrigation network so its farmers are vulnerable to the vagaries of monsoon rains.

“Farmers sell those cows which stop giving milk and use the proceeds to partially finance a new cow,” said Bhati. “But with gau rakshaks around, who would want to risk rearing cows?”

This is why dairy farmers, big and small, are dismayed, and angry, at the havoc gau rakshaks have wreaked on the rural economy. But they have not been able to unite against their tormentors or mount pressure on the state government to provide protection to them. “It is difficult to unite a person who has two cows with one who has 20 or 70 or 100,” Bhati said.

The Modi effect

So controversial has the cattle trade become that even the authorities are reluctant to issue relevant documents to those who purchase cattle from markets. This reluctance took an ironic twist for Shailendra Singh, who is no ordinary man. As Deputy Superintendent of Police who headed Uttar Pradesh’s Special Task Force for Poorvanchal in the early 2000s, Singh took on politician-dons Brijesh Singh and Mukhtar Ansari in Varanasi.

In 2004, he apprehended an army deserter who was going to deliver a light machine gun to Ansari, which was when he came under tremendous pressure from Mulayam Singh Yadav, then the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. In a huff, Singh resigned from the police service, and joined the Anna movement against corruption. He then joined the Congress, fought on its tickets from Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, and after meeting Modi twice, entered the Bharatiya Janata Party. Singh was in charge of Modi’s Varanasi war room during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

At the end of April, Singh bought cows in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, and sought certificates from the district authorities vouching for the legitimacy of his purchase. But the authorities declined his request. “What am I going to show gau rakshaks?” Singh asked them.

Since the authorities did not relent, an angry Singh tweeted to Modi’s twitter handle about his plight. It prompted the Prime Minister’s Office to intervene – the relevant documents were handed over to him.

Singh thanked Modi through this tweet:

“I was able to reach Modi,” Singh said. “But the aam aadmi can’t. If we can’t breed cows, improve our stock or even rear them, the rural economy can’t be given a boost.”

Oxen trade in trouble too

But it is not just about extortion and violence, for once the cattle are seized, they are sent to gaushalas until their buyers are able to secure release orders from courts. “They just don’t look after cows there,” said Parash Ram Banjara, convener of the Banjara Vikas Shakti Sangathan, who has been campaigning against cow vigilantism. “The buyers have to provide food and water and milk to them. It adds to their cost. Some just decide to abandon them.”

In October, Banjara organised a public protest against Bajrang Dal activists who abducted a member of the Banjara community and his two sons along with the six oxen they had purchased from Rajsamand district to sell them in South Rajasthan. (His interview can be read here).

“We Banjaras trade in oxen, not in cows,” said Banjara. “These oxen are used to plough the rocky terrain of South Rajasthan. Trading oxen is our identity, our right. And, mind you, we too are Hindus. But the vigilantes have turned the cow into an emotional issue for their dubious ends.”

It is palpable that cow vigilantism has many worried and they aren’t just Muslims. Some fear that cow vigilantism is bound to adversely affect milk production in the country.

“This is because if farmers don’t have buyers to whom they can sell cows which have stopped yielding milk, they will be saddled with providing for animals no longer useful to them,” said Badri Prasad, general secretary, Rajasthan Kisan Union. Since farmers struggle to feed their own families, they cannot be expected to provide fodder to animals no longer useful to them.

“Another few years of cow vigilantism and milk production will be badly hit,” Prasad predicted. He said the other inimical consequence of cow vigilantism is that it will reduce the participation of women in economic activities. It is the women who feed and take care of the one or two cows that small farmers keep to supplement their income from agriculture.

Why then are farmers not raising their voices against cow vigilantism? Hasn’t their silence enabled Hindutva forces in the country to spin the cow into a Hindu-Muslim issue?

Prasad says they are silent because of sociological changes in villages. “The younger generation wants to escape the non-profitable agriculture sector and migrate to cities,” he said. “The older generation is biding its time – they are reconciled to the inevitable.”

Inevitable? Prasad answers, “The land has been subdivided to the point of agriculture providing diminishing returns. Cow vigilantism will further hit earnings. People will start to sell their land and corporates will enter farming. Today’s farmers will become their employees.”

This might sound like a conspiracy theory floated by those who find it difficult to believe that people could kill human beings in the name of the holy cow, and consequently search for a hidden agenda. But given that gau rakshaks have not dithered from targeting the Hindu farmer who has over the centuries nurtured and worshipped the cow, it does seem a bit surprising why a Hindutva dispensation, menacing in its rhetoric and muscular in its responses, has not curbed their activities.

Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist in Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, has as its backdrop the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Republished with permission from Scroll.

So what if you a non-believing Muslim? If you have issues with Hindutva, go to Pakistan

May 6, 2017

It is appalling to see how every time I speak about the violence unleashed by RSS or VHP, I am told to leave for Pakistan.

Representational image. Photo credit: Patheos

My life has revolved around the concept of God. I have been a Muslim, a theist, an agnostic and an atheist in all types of phases of my life. I am sure, I am still just growing and my perceptions will mature as I grow.

My Muslim identity slowly faded when I picked Dawkins and Ayaan Hirsi Ali in my late teens. To put it simply I was a perpetually angry Muslim. Angry at Islam, angry at Wahabism, angry at imposed patriarchy in Islam. I believed religion was so bad for the world, so unscientific.

And so I wrote and I discussed with my fellow Hindu friends. They opened their hearts out. A lot of them told me how Muslims were always cruel and misogynistic. And they told me how I was different to see the truth. I felt a sense of moral superiority, I felt I was so unbiased and rational that I could see faults in my own religion.

A bookworm that I was, I read from Deepak Chopra to Reza Aslan, from Sam Harris to Stephen Hawkings, from Carl Sagan to Joseph Goldstein, from Plato to Nietzsche. I tried understanding paganism, Sufism, Spiritualism, Buddhism everything that came my way.I was surprised to find how I missed all the beauty the Sufis had to offer to the world, I found their philosophy strikingly similar to what the Buddha taught, for which I have immense respect.

And every time I saw a search for the truth in the writings of a physicist or a philosopher or a saint or Sufi, I only saw humility in the awe of whatever it is that has made us. Call it God, call it entropy driving random bits of matter to generate complexity, or just complex biological matter dancing to the tunes of nature’s laws, but to me, this relationship is something very personal and to associate a person’s identity with mere religion is outright ridiculous.

Some time back, I met a charismatic Muslim woman. She wore a hijab and she was studying medicine. She was highly intellectual and in her conversation, open to concepts I hadn’t even heard of. I was impressed and loved the conversation with her. She also told me no one ever forced the hijab on her and that it was her own choice, she felt closer to God that way.

And at that moment, I saw a hypocrite in me. I remembered mocking hijab-wearing women and considering them backward. I thought to myself, maybe, what is just a piece of cloth to me, maybe is an identity to her, maybe she has an attachment to it, just like one may have with a ring they wear. This is not to deny the horrific patriarchal history associated with forced covering of bodies of women, but why do we forget every human is different and everyone perceives things differently.

Why should we just presume that how we imagine a person should dress up is the only appropriate way? I want to emphasize here I do not support the forceful imposition of any kinds of clothing, and to me, the concept of modesty is different as well. But I am writing this story to emphasize that there is a latent hate culture associated with hijab which is very explicitly visible today. Many women who identify themselves as feminists mock hijabis and feel a sense of moral superiority. I want to bring forth two points to explain why it’s futile and hypocritical:

1. The message of feminism in this respect is ‘Stop dictating me what to wear.’ And it should stand for hijab as well. But what if those who wear it do so as their choice?

2. And for those who are forced to wear, when you mock a burkha clad woman, you are speaking the language of their oppressor. Stand for the true cause of feminism if you want to, which is solidarity to fellow women. Telling her that she is powerless will ultimately increase the feeling of alienation they have towards us. If you want to help her, try empowering her, help her in ways that will actually improve her condition instead of passing smirks.

Recent events in my country have opened my eyes. The same friends who applauded me when I wrote against the burkha, suddenly turned hostile when I spoke for Akhlaq. Wasn’t it hideous my friends? Shouldn’t our souls have shuddered at the thought of a man being killed by a mob for the suspicion of the type of meat he has in his fridge? Shouldn’t we weep at the applause the killers were receiving?

And there have been numerous such incidents that have followed. And all we get to hear by way of response is, ‘Media is just sensationalizing it!’ Really? And you can call yourself a human after saying that? We are talking about a loss of life! And what is more baffling is the ‘whataboutery’ that follows, which goes like this – but what about the bombs ISIS threw there in that country that day?’

The self-proclaimed nationalists unapologetically defended these violent acts by saying how the liberal Muslims are themselves responsible for their plight because they don’t criticize the extremists enough? Really? Do you know it’s actually Muslims who are most severely affected by Islamic terrorism? And it is ridiculous to expect Muslims to behave as a united, homogenous entity. We would never think of referring to Christians or Hindus in a similar way because we are aware that the catch-all description is virtually meaningless.

And it is appalling to see how every time I speak about the violence unleashed by RSS or VHP, I am told to royally leave for Pakistan. I am told ‘so what they are not as bad as ISIS’. I mean, really? Is that is your benchmark of morality? Won’t you speak up until they really become ISIS? Or you secretly want your mini ISIS here?

I dug up more and more about religions and their history. I was surprised to see how many of my Hindu friends don’t even know that what’s being sold to them in the name of Hinduism is actually ‘Hindutva’, which is the toxic equivalent of Nazism to say the least. Hinduism, on the other hand, I found to be a beautiful religion. I was dumbstruck at the intellectual complexity the Gita has to offer. People like Carl Jung and Aldous Huxley have expressed their utmost respect for Gita.

I want to ask those saffron clad rioters: ‘Do you even know what you are fighting for? You are no different from the jihadis you hate.The anger that has been sold to you is poison for you only.’ Remember what Krishna said, “Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. The reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down from the right path when reasoning is destroyed.”

‘I want to tell those Muslim hating Indians, ‘You don’t love India, you don’t even understand a fragment of the plurality it is known for, you are not Hindus, you are just haters, ego stricken Muslim haters.’ Don’t forget that Indian Independence struggle was a plural project. Look at where we are standing today after 70 years of independence, open up a news channel and listen to the issues our country is investing all the time in the world to.

Are our issues really Ram Mandir and cow protection? Is this what our country needs? Stop feeding your egos and wake up! Our power lies in our unity not in that petty sense of victory that you feel after shouting on someone following a different faith. Remember ‘together we stand, divided we fall’

Sarah Ather is an architect and freelance writer based in New Delhi

This article was first published on Kafila.

Saharanpur Up in Flames: One Dead, Thakurs Burn Down 25 Dalit Homes

May 6, 2017

Saharanpur district of western UP remains tense after Thakurs of the area tried to take a procession parade on Maharana Pratap in the region.

Photos: Two Circles.

Violence started after the Thakur community of Shimlana village took out a procession march to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maharana Pratap, and it moved towards a Dalit dominated village Shabbirpur.

At Shabbirpur, residents raised objection and as a result of that a verbal spat started between the two groups. The whole argument led to spark of violence which was supported by stone pelting and burning of private as well as public properties. After a Dalit woman was hit badly by the stone, the Dalit community also started stone pelting. Things turned out more ugly and Thakurs allegedly broke Ravidas temple and a statue of Ambedkar.

During the altercation, a stone hit 25-year-old Sumit, s/o Dharmpal, on the head and he was declared dead when taken to the hospital.

When the news of the death reached the clash site, members of Thakur community set ablaze 25 houses of the Dalit community.

Moreover, the police was also targeted this time the mob. A fire engine was broke down and three police vehicles were set on fire.

Chaman Singh Chavda, CO Deoband, also got injured when he intervened in the matter. Violence came to a halt after District Magistrate NP Singh and SSP Subhash Dubey reached the spot with security forces from adjoining districts.SSP Dubey said, “The situation is tense but in control. To maintain the peace is our priority.”

Earlier on April 20, situation in Saharanpur got communally tense when Saharanpur MP from BJP Ram Lakhan Pal Sharma tried to take out a procession March in remembrance of Dr. BR Ambedkar without permission from the government.

Sharma’s brother Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma started beating police personnel while Ram Lakhanpal Sharma started shouting on police to shoot Muslims. FIR was lodged against both of them.

ISIS gains power and innocents die as Syria retreats from peace

May 5, 2017

Trump's failed leadership is only making the sectarian violence worse.

Syrian refugees in Lebanon staying in cramped quarters, 3 September 2012. Photo Credit: Voice of America News: Margaret Besheer reports from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli; "Syrian Refugees Seek Out Smugglers". [Public domain],via Wikimedia Commons

A few months ago, it appeared as if the local ceasefires and the new geo-political realignments had moved Syria towards the end of its fratricidal six-year civil war. The Syrian government and the Turkey-based leadership of a section of the armed opposition met in Astana (Kazakhstan) and discussed the technical matters of de-escalation. Iran and Qatar had produced very important breakthroughs around towns under siege. There was no easy pathway to a peace deal, but there appeared to be signs that indicated the possibility of a genuine dialogue.

Meanwhile, at Syria’s north and Iraq’s northwest, it appeared as if ISIS would be soon squashed by the massive firepower of the various global players and by the resolve of the various militaries in the region. Gains in Mosul and in the Syrian Desert towns indicated that ISIS would have few options left to exert itself. It would not disappear – for it still commands the allegiance of a large number of fighters and sympathizers – but it would be considerably weakened.

Certainly, the ceasefire dialogue in Astana and the UN-led process in Geneva indicated that the Syrian government had the better bargaining position. Its forces – aided by Iran, Russia and other regional fighting units – had defeated the rebel forces in Aleppo and seemed poised to weaken them further in Idlib. The Syrian government’s forces had removed ISIS from Palmyra and seemed prepared to break the ISIS siege on the western city of Deir ez-Zor. A study of the battlefield in Syria indicates that between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017, 43 per cent of the Syrian army’s battles were against ISIS (this is contrary to the view that the Damascus government has not engaged ISIS).

Regime Change
Much changed in the politics of the region when US President Donald Trump authorized the missile strikes on the Syrian government’s air base on 7 April. This is not to say that the airstrikes had a major military effect on the Syrian army, but it did muddy the balance of forces in this bloody war and it will serve to extend the war and break the gestures for peace.

Just before these missile strikes, the Syrian opposition in Istanbul (Turkey) had asked for greater US involvement in the negotiations. The opposition had come to the view that US military action against the government of Bashar al-Assad was no longer possible. Trump’s missile strikes invalidated their assumption. It is now thought amongst the political leaders of the armed opposition that the US might launch a full-scale attack on the Syrian army and deliver Damascus to them.

It is a curious matter that the journalist Anand Gopal told Democracy Now that ‘I think it’s important to understand that there’s no regime change policy from the United States towards Syria. And there never has been a regime change policy.’ This view blinds itself from the decade-long attempt by the US government to overthrow the Syrian government in order to weaken Iran and Hezbollah (as I show in my book, The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution ). It also fails to see that ‘regime change’ is not always accomplished by the kind of massive bombardment seen in Iraq (2003) and Libya (2011). In Syria, the armed opposition knew from 2011 that it would not defeat the Assad government without the accompaniment of massive US airstrikes. This is why it has sought to encourage US intervention. Obama’s slogan – ‘Assad must go’ – and the adventures of US Ambassador Robert Ford to opposition protests suggested to the armed opposition that the US cruise missiles were on the way.

The shadowy promises from the United States prolonged this war, with the rebels unwilling to come to the table because they assumed that the maximal position (regime change) would be reality. At the same time, the US along with its Gulf Arab allies and Turkey financed and armed the opposition through Turkey and Jordan. This program was known as Timber Sycamore, which was the pipeline for millions of dollars of arms that entered not only the various rebel forces but also the black market. The hope that the US will eventually overthrow Assad remains central to the strategy of even the al-Qaeda proxy. Trump’s 7 April strike merely rekindled that hope and therefore broke the momentum of the peace talks.

The Pendulum of ISIS
Trump’s 7 April strike hit an airfield that – while bombing Idlib certainly – was also bombing ISIS positions outside Palmyra and toward Deir ez-Zor. Three days before Trump’s assault, Syrian army troops had moved closer to the significant Talilah crossroad, held by ISIS. They took the heights of al-Taj and al-Mazbad from ISIS. It appeared that the Syrian army was getting itself ready for an assault on the Talilah crossroad, whose capture would have allowed them to move on Deir ez-Zor, where 90,000 civilians are living in a wretched siege , and to the T3 airbase near Homs. The oil fields of al-Shaer and the gas fields of Arak would have been secured if the Syrian army had been able to take the crossroad.

Air cover came from the base that Trump’s cruise missiles hit, which delivered ISIS a momentary advantage on the ground. ISIS chatter now suggests that defeat in Mosul would be compensated by a victory in Deir ez-Zor. In practical terms, the Trump strike might very well have made this possible.

Meanwhile, the deeply fraught politics along the Turkish border has also allowed ISIS to breathe. Turkey’s intervention to prevent the advance of both the Syrian army and the US-backed largely Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces has allowed ISIS to reorganize its forces to delay the fall of Raqqa and to go south to seize Deir ez-Zor. An ISIS suicide bomber killed dozens of refugees from this war zone on 2 May in Hasakeh province. These refugees sought to go into the zone controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces. Such attacks are intended to sow fear amongst the population and in the ranks of those who are fighting ISIS.

Security Zones
The armed Syrian opposition has decided to no longer attend the Astana ceasefire talks, whose fourth round opened today. They now sniff the possibility of regime change in Damascus. Trump’s action indicates that peace is not necessary if victory remains a prospect.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke to Trump on 2 May. Putin asked Trump to endorse the Russian proposal for the creation of ‘security zones’ across Syria. Where a power is relatively dominant, it will guarantee the peace in that zone, and the various powers would ensure that attacks across zones would be curtailed. The four ‘security zones’ would be managed by the Russians, the Iranians, the Turks and the Americans. This framework resembles the Allied-occupation zones in Germany after World War 2. In their read-out of the phone call, the White House called these ‘safe, or de-escalation, zones’ – translating the Russian proposal into the language of ‘no-fly zones’ and ‘safe zones’ familiar to the American policy makers. In fact, Putin said openly that these ‘security zones’ would be ‘no-fly zones.’

At Astana, the main agenda item will be these ‘security zones,’ with a detailed document now doing the rounds of the participants. It is hoped that a final document – with the technical details for the boundaries, checkpoints, and monitoring procedures – will be ready by 22 May.

The armed Syrian opposition leadership rejected the proposal for safe zones. Ahmed Ramadan, leader of their delegation, told the Associated Press that the armed opposition was not happy with the idea of local truces. They wanted to secure a nation-wide policy. Ramadan’s delegation is in Astana, although they have not come to the table. The UN’s envoy Steffan de Mistura has urged Ramadan and his team to come back to the talks and not to ‘destroy the possibility of good news related to this issue.’
It is important to indicate that the Trump attack has also strengthened the sectarian world-view of the Saudi royal family – one of the main patrons of the armed Syrian opposition. On 2 May, the Saudi crown prince and defense minister Mohammed bin Salman told Saudi news media that his kingdom would never be able to have a dialogue with Iran. ‘How can I come to an understanding with someone, or a regime, whose principles are extremist?’ Iran, he argued, represented the Shia quest to ‘control the Islamic world.’ What Prince Salman indicated here was less the reality of Iran’s situation and more the paranoia of the Saudi government. Iran has been willing to meet with the Saudis to find a way to de-escalate the conflict in Syria and elsewhere. It has already been working with Qatar to do so, and is an active player at the Astana meetings. Recalcitrance may be found less in Iran and more in Saudi Arabia, which knows that Washington, DC will back its obstinacy to the hilt. Prince Salman’s comments have been well received by the armed opposition in Syria. They see this as confirmation that neither Trump nor Prince Salman is eager for peace in Syria. Both would like to see that war go on.
This article was made possible by the readers and supporters of AlterNet.

Vijay Prashad is professor of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of 18 books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter (AK Press, 2012), The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso, 2013) and The Death of a Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution (University of California Press, 2016). His columns appear at AlterNet every Wednesday.

This article was first published on AlterNet.

Growing global inequality: why economists of all hues are turning to Karl Marx today

May 5, 2017

2008 crisis brought out the astonishing contemporarility of Marx to the bourgeois thinkers and economists.

The 199th birth anniversary of Karl Marx falls on May 5 this year. It is a precursor to the 200th birth anniversary of Marx which is going to be celebrated worldwide.

What is the relevance of a nineteenth century philosopher, Karl Marx, who also wrote a book called Das Capital, to the people living in the twenty-first century?

Karl Marx was born 200 years ago and the first volume of Capital, a comprehensive study of capitalism, appeared 150 years ago in 1867.

So there are grounds to ask why Marx’s ideas and works have relevance in the present day world.

To be able to understand the continuing relevance and vitality of Marxist thought let us look back to the year 2008. That year saw a global financial crisis which engulfed the capitalist system the world over. Even after nearly a decade, the global capitalist economy has not fully recovered from this crisis.

This crisis brought out the astonishing contemporarility of Marx to the bourgeois thinkers and economists. The more perceptive of them were forced to acknowledge the prescience of Marx’s analysis of capitalism. The well known economist Nouriel Roubini, who is not a Marxist, said at that time “Karl Marx got it right, at some point capitalism can destroy itself”. And “We through markets worked. They are not working”.

All the major issues dominating the contemporary period, whether it be the impact of globalization, the unprecedented rise in inequalities and the environmental crisis – all these were foreseen by Marx.
In the Communist Manifesto written by Marx and Engels in 1848, the globalization process of capitalism was set out.

Capital, Volume I was published in Marx’s life time, the other two volumes were brought out by Engels later. It was the culmination of Marx’s theoretical work about the working of the capitalist system – a new mode of production. It laid bare the entire dynamics of capitalism, the extraction of surplus value from labour, the accumulation of capital and wealth in the hands of the owners of the means of production, the growing inequality, the crisis of over production and the systemic faults in the capitalist system which leads to recurrent crisis.

The development of capitalism since the days of Marx have not invalidated the theory of dynamics of capitalism spelt out by Marx.

Its further development into the monopoly stage and the globalised finance capital of today can be analysed and understood using the scientific method adopted by Marx. It was using Marx’s theoretical approach that Lenin analysed the rise of monopoly capitalism and imperialism in the early years of the 20th century.

Every major current of history, the rise of fascism, the national liberation struggles of the colonies and the establishment of socialism can be grasped from the theory set out by Marx on the historical evolution of society.

Apart from Capital, the other major contribution of Marx was historical materialism. Marx’s philosophy was based on a combination of dialectics and materialism and it is by the dialectical materialist approach that Marx arrived at a scientific understanding of how human history unfolds.

Marx expounded how the mode of production in society changes to a new mode which leads to a transformation from the old to a new society. After society became divided into classes, it is the class struggle which has propelled change. As the Communist Manifesto stated: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”.

Marx was not an economist or a political thinker alone. He set out a revolutionary philosophy, a philosophy, scope of which covers not only politics but the whole of human history, economics, society and nature. But that philosophy which is a combination of the dialectical method with materialism created a powerful combination of theory and practice which can bring about revolutionary transformation.

As Marx himself said “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it”.

It was Marx and Engels who stated that “No nation can be free if it oppresses other nations”. This was the starting point for fighting against colonialism and imperialism in the twentieth century. Though Karl Marx had only limited information about India, he wrote a series of articles in which he foretold that the Indians would rise in revolt against British rule.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the bourgeois ideologues declared Marxism is dead; they also proclaimed the “end of history”. But a quarter of a century later, all this mood of bourgeois triumphalism has vanished.

Economists of various hues have expressed anxiety about the high levels of inequality which is plaguing all the advanced capitalist countries. The inequalities of income and wealth in the advanced capitalist countries are at the highest levels in the past seventy years. In terms of income inequality, the French Economist Thomas Piketty has noted that the level of inequality in the United States is “probably higher than in any other society at any time in the past, anywhere in the world.”

At the global level, the top one per cent of adults own 51 per cent of the world’s wealth. This is what globalised finance capitalism has produced.

Karl Marx would not have been surprised at this dire state of affairs affecting the world today. He had given the working class and the other working people the scientific theory which could be the guide to action on how to transcend capitalism and build a new socialist society free from class exploitation and social oppression.

We are currently observing the year-long centenary celebrations of the October Socialist Revolution. In September this year, falls the 150th anniversary of the publication of Marx’s Das Kapital. Following that will be the 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx. All these occasions should be utilized to sharpen and deepen our understanding of Marxism-Leninism and to set out a map for socialism in India in the 21st century.

This article was first publised on NEWSCLICK.

De-Militarise Amarnath Yatra, Address Environmental Concerns in Regions of Conflict

May 5, 2017

This investigation, conducted by citizens of Kashmir and Bangalore analyses how the Amarnath Yatra in particular –as also other such ‘pilgrimages’ like the Kauser Nag and the Buddha Amarnath Yatra are being actively promoted by wings of the Indian state, especially it’s intelligence and military wings, revealing a dangerous mix between ‘state’, religion’ and ‘conflict’.

Amarnath Yatra – A Militarised Pilgrimage (which can be read here) is a must read for Indians committed to the Indian state maintaining a distance from matters of faith and worship

Extracts
(Portions have been juzxterposed in a different chronology from the original):

The Yatra
Ever year, for about 40 days Every year for about 40 days between July – August, lakhs of people travel to the Amarnath cave in South Kashmir to pay obeisance to an ice stalagmite, which is believed to be an embodiment of the Hindu deity Shiva. According to mythology, it is here that Shiva narrated the story of eternity to his consort Parvati, from where the cave gets its name Amarnath, meaning God of Eternity.

The ice stalagmite is located in a cave at an elevation of 13,500 feet. At the rear end water drips through crevices which starts freezing as it touches the floor of the cave, thus forming the stalagmite. While several kinds and shapes of ice stalagmites are found the world over, in the case of the one in the Amarnath cave, several such spirals of stalagmites unite to form a solid dome-shaped form of ice. Next to this dome are two smaller ice formations believed to represent Parvati and Ganesh. It is believed that the stalagmites change with the waxing and waning of the moon and it is only in the month of Shravan in the Hindu calendar that the formation is complete. It is also believed that the full moon day in the month of Shravan called the Shravan Poornima is particularly auspicious to pray in the cave.

The Amarnath Cave is situated in the region north of Pahalgam and south of the Zojila Pass in Kashmir. It can be accessed through 2 routes – one from Pahalgam, district Anantnag (Nunwan), to the Cave and the other from Baltal, district Ganderbal. The Pahalgam route is also the traditional one, and since it is 33 kms long it takes yatris 5 days from Nunwan to the Cave and back. Prominent milestones on this route are Chandanwari, Pisu Top, Sheesh Nag, Mahagunus Top, Panchtarni, Sangam. The second route from Baltal is a newer and shorter route of 18 kms which can be completed in a day. Both routes meet at Sangam from where there is a single path to the Cave.

While the period between 1963–1985 shows that the number of people visiting the Cave remained steady, the graph post 1985 can best be described as erratic. According to figures in the Jammu & Kashmir State Action Plan for Climate Change – Revised Final Draft (assumed to be dated 2012), about 4000 people participated in the pilgrimage in 1963. From 1985 we see a 2-fold jump in the number of yatris visiting the Cave, with a dip again almost soon after due to the active and visible conflict situation in the valley, after which another rise is seen in 1995. Below is a graph depicting the number of yatris visiting the Cave from 1963 – 2016.

GRAPH

Several people interviewed as part of the study share that before the mid-80s; approximately half of the yatris were sadhus, significant numbers from the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in India and a few Kashmiri Pandits. On a rare occasion, a few tourists from other states of India would travel on the Yatra after having heard about it upon reaching Kashmir.

The following years see spurts in numbers visiting Amarnath: 1985, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2011. While the significant dips were in: 1990, 1997, 2001, 2007, 2009 and 2013. An assessment of events around the spurts and dips shows that there are two primary causes: the socio-political events in Kashmir and India, and environmental issues.

The report documents, how with the rise of majoritarian politics in India, the numbers of ‘Yatris’ to Amarnath increased:

1996 – increase in numbers: In 1995, the Harkatul Mujaheedin announced a ban on the involvement of Kashmiris in the Yatra. In 1996, as a political reaction to the ban, the Bajrang Dal gave a ‘Chalo Amarnath’ call all over India and were able to mobilise more than 50,000 people, with 21,000 being youth members of the Bajrang Dal. This caused a sudden spurt in the number of yatris from 60,000 the previous year to 1,20,000 in 1997.

C. 2001 – a decrease in numbers: The attack on the Nunwan camp in 2000 and the Sheesh Nag camp in 2001 resulted in a fall in numbers of yatris.

D. 2004 – an increase in numbers: According to the Mahant of the Dashnami Akhara, the spiritual custodian of the mace and the Yatra, the year 2004 was unique in terms of the Hindu calendar, which had two months of Shravan instead of one, with different communities in India observing different months. Therefore the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) decided to extend the Yatra from 30 days to 45 days causing an increase in the number of yatris.

Newspaper reports suggest that as on several occasions in the past, in 2004 as well, the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sanghash Samiti (SAYSS)¹⁷ decided to defy the SASB decision to conduct the Yatra for 45 days and informally began the Yatra 15 days prior to its official opening. This could also have lead to increasing numbers in 2004.

E. 2008 – an increase in numbers: In 2008, the Forest Department transferred 100 acres of land to the SASB for a sum of Rs. 1.25 crores, in violation of the Jammu and Kashmir Forests Act, 1987, and led to vehement protests by people of the Kashmir valley. The response of the socio-religious organisations of Jammu and the violent manner in which the Indian State chose to address the protests, ensured that it soon coalesced into the ongoing struggle for self-determination and freedom. Based on writings in blogs and websites of the socio-religious organisations , we believe that there was an effort to ensure that large numbers of people participated in the Yatra in 2008 as a show of their Hindu might.

F. 2009 – fall in numbers: Due to the Amarnath land row in the previous year, curfews were imposed in regions linked to the Yatra in both Jammu and Kashmir during the June – August period. In the months after the Yatra, the issue continued to be reported in the news papers. This might have influenced people from choosing not to undertake the Yatra in 2009.

G. Fall in numbers in 2016: The extrajudicial killing of Burhan Wani on July 8th triggered a spate of violence by the armed forces against protests by the people. The Yatra had already begun on July 2nd and data shows that till July 8th, there is a similar visitation pattern as the previous year.

2. Environmental Issues
1. The fall in numbers in 1997: The increased numbers of Yatris in 1996 also coincided with an environmental anomaly in the month of August 1996. Among the 60,000 odd people mobilised to undertake the Yatra, many were religious fundamentalists who participated with the belief that they were establishing Hindu hegemony over the region, while others were from the villages who had no idea as to the nature of the Yatra, the high altitudes that need to be traversed and extreme weather conditions.

On August 21, 1996 in the late afternoon hours, there was heavy downpour of rain and snowfall all along the Yatra route, right from Khanabal to the Cave. The upper reaches were especially the worst affected with resultant storms and avalanches. This caused about 60,000 yatris being stranded at different points along the route between Islamabad and the Cave. Many hundreds of people were severely affected by exposure to the cold, and other health problems that surfaced from being in high altitudes without adequate protection. There were also some accidents caused by the stampede and jostling since there was wide spread panic among the yatris. 243 people were reported dead out of which 174 people were identified. However, this could not be an accurate figure, as in 1996 registration²⁰ of yatris was not streamlined and no credible records of movement of the yatris were maintained. The actual number of casualties could therefore well be higher than what has been reported. Following this, the Department of Kashmir Affairs, Government of India ordered an enquiry into the happenings of the period August 21–26, 1996 and to suggest measures to be undertaken in the future Yatras. Nitish K. Sengupta was appointed as the enquiry officer under whose aegis a detailed and hitherto path-breaking report with respect to the Yatra was submitted.²¹

2 The fall in numbers in 2007: A few days after the Yatra began, on July 1st, the SASB announced that the ice stalagmite had completely melted. Like in most years, the Yatra in the first few days was affected due to inclement weather and had just resumed when this news was reported in the papers, which immediately led to a fall in yatri numbers.

20. One of the recommendations of the Nitish Sengupta report was that yatris be registered and go through a medical examinationto ensure fitness for participating the yatra.

21 The contents of the report are discussed in detail in Chapter 4 and Chapter 6.

3. The fall in numbers in 2013: Two causes may be attributed to this. 1. 2012 witnessed the massive destruction of life and property in the Uttarakhand floods which affected thousands of people in the regions of Kedarnath and Badrinath. This would surely have dissuaded several people from embarking on a similarly situated Yatra like that of Amarnath. 2. In 2012, the SASB introduced the pre-registration rule, which was not yet streamlined or known to many aspiring to travel. Several langar organisations reported this to be reason for the low turnout at the Yatra.

While the above factors offer insights into events which defined the Yatra for specific years, criticality lies in answering the question, what caused the seismic nature of the graph post- 1980? And whether the Yatra remains a truly religious event, or if there are other motivators influencing it as well?

The Kashmir Valley and the Yatra
The Yatra and its impacts on the Kashmir valley must necessarily be seen in the context of the conflict in the region. Every year the SASB and the Government of India endeavour to ensure a better Yatra than the previous year – better communication on the Yatra route, better crowd management, more security for the yatris. Despite the Yatra being for about 45-55 days, there is a whole department (albeit not a large one), to facilitate and coordinate it. The people of the Valley meanwhile face various forms of restrictions and stipulations, and not just during the Yatra period. Between the Kashmiris and the yatris there is seriously differential treatment of the same needs of communication, religious expression and security.

Some of the direct ways that the Yatra affects the people of Kashmir has been discussed in the preceding chapters. Additionally, people of the Valley have to deal with increased militarisation, serious traffic jams, road congestions and road diversions during the Yatra period, especially for the 3 weeks when it is at its peak, since the SASB is committed to facilitating the Yatra, even at the cost of interests of the people living in these regions.

This differential treatment is also not limited to the Yatra period. The road between Ganderbal and Baltal, especially after Sonamarg, is known to receive snowfall during the start of winter itself, and often remains snow bound even until March. People of Sonamarg report that the SASB, who starts preparation for the Yatra from February/March itself, clear the road leading to Baltal, but leave a nearby diversion road leading to a few villages snow bound. The State Roads & Buildings Department is engaged to do this work, and despite its mandate of maintenance and upkeep of all roads in the state, does not clear the road leading to the village, since it has been engaged by the SASB for the purpose of preparation for the Yatra. State resources are diverted for the purpose of the Yatra without a thought being spared for people living in the region, and in whose interests the state departments are primarily to work with.

Mobile communication in Kashmir cannot be taken for granted, and the State frequently clamps down on mobile and internet connectivity as a way to stifle any form of resistance. Even the remote possibility of a conflict brewing leads the State to block SMS and internet services thus affecting even normal communication. However, a perusal of minutes of preparatory meetings and post Yatra review meetings of the SASB sees a lot of emphasis on the need to ensure that communication channels along the Yatra route work smoothly. BSNL towers are erected all along the route and the cellphone networks are strong almost throughout the Yatra route. Given the remote location this is surely a luxury. Since there are restrictions on cellphone service providers in J&K, SASB has started facilitating the distribution of pre-paid SIM cards as a part of the registration process itself. In J&K, either post-paid SIM cards issued in India, or pre-paid SIM cards issued in J&K work. Knowing that several yatris might not be aware of these restrictions, one part of the registration document includes a request as well as approval for a pre-paid SIM card issued in J&K. All a yatri needs to do when they arrive in Jammu / Kashmir, is to take the slip to a store which issues SIM cards, and they receive a SIM card by paying the fee, and without any of the otherwise mandatory background checks and other verifications.

This leads us to the issue of the differential way the SASB and State perceive and treat Kashmiris and the yatris. During the discussion on non-state actors, we see how the Kashmiri service providers are mandated to submit a certificate from the local police station verifying that they have no police records and are therefore cleared to be involved in the Yatra. Further, even study teams from educational institutions of Kashmir have been denied entry during the Yatra. In the context of State actors we see the suspicion with which the Indian armed forces stationed along the Yatra route view the Kashmiri service providers. A recent report in the Bangalore Mirror indicates the crux of the way Kashmiris are viewed in the context of the Yatra: “In the last 14 years, militants avoided attacking Amarnath Yatra although there have been instances when vehicles carrying pilgrims were pelted with stones”.

Discriminatory practices were seen even as far back as 1991, when a fact finding team visiting the Valley to document the violations of democratic rights and civil liberties of its people, described their journey from Jammu to Srinagar which coincided with the Yatra. The following excerpts from the report describes the gravity of the situation:

“When our team landed in Jammu on 31 July the city was full of the army, the paramilitary and the ugly Punjab Commandos who are dressed to look like death. The reason was that the Amarnath pilgrims were reaching the city, and they were to be protected from attacks by the Pakistan based fundamentalist militant organisation Harqat-ul-Ansar that had announced a ban on the Yatra. Nobody in his right senses would support the ban on the civic freedom of the Amarnath devotees, and all responsible Kashmiri organisations had dissociated themselves from the ban. But what was remarkable was the way the State’s duty of protecting the Yatris was turned into an assertion of the might and prestige of the Indian army, aimed at the people of the Kashmir valley, unfairly setup as a surrogate of the invisible Harqat-ul-Ansar….
…When we went to the Bus stand near the Tourist Reception Centre at Jammu in quest of a bus to Srinagar, we found about two dozen valley-bound passengers huddled in a group, wondering when they would find a bus to take them to what was after all the capital of the state. All the while bus after bus was moving into the departure line full of Pahalgam-bound pilgrims shouting slogans hailing Bholenath. Gun-toting army men along with transport officials were diligently seeing to it that all the Yatris got into buses and the buses formed a convoy adequately covered by protective army escort. The Srinagar bound passengers were happy that our group of thirteen wanted to go to Srinagar too. For they were 26, and had been told that if there were 40 passengers a bus to Srinagar might be arranged. And so a request was made and a bus was allotted for us. But as the tickets were being issued to us at the booking counter the clerk was twice told to stop by a transport official for this bus too might have to go to Pahalgam. It required some pleading and persuasion to at least let this one bus go to Srinagar.”

Given the decades of discriminatory practices of the State and SASB, it is obvious that there would be animosity towards it locally. But the State clearly sees any form of resistance to discrimination – armed conflict or pelting of stones – as being militant. It also does this without exploring the role of the militarized form of pilgrimage in exacerbating the situation after the year 2000. Indeed the State often does add fuel to the fire. One glaring example, shared by several in the Valley, is the issue of the Muhharam procession that has been banned in Srinagar since 1990. One of the reasons quoted by the State for this is the potential for conflict between the Shias and the Sunnis. This is just an excuse that the State uses, since there is no overt issue between the Shias and Sunnis of the city that would necessitate the banning of the procession. This continues to be a bone of contention for the people of Kashmir, who see the State going all out to promote the Yatra while stifling religious sentiments of the people of the Valley.

While all efforts to provide the best health facilities to the yatris is made, the medical infrastructure for the people of Pahalgam remains abysmal. For e.g. Pahalgam, a tehsil headquarter has only a Primary Health Centre. A few doctors are stationed here though the majority of the population of the Pahalgam tehsil are settled around the town itself. On the other hand, during the Yatra 15-20 doctors are stationed at the PHC. Though there are basic X-ray facilities, the technician who operates this is charge of 4 other such PHCs and is therefore not available in the town on all working days. A subdistrict hospital has been sanctioned but even after 4 years even the land has not been identified. The people of Pahalgam tehsil have travel about 42 kms. to Islamabad in case of any major illness.

In the name of the Yatra, there is an increase in the presence of the armed forces on the Yatra route and constant checking and frisking of vehicles and people. Baggage and body scanning machines are placed in strategic places and it is mandatory that anyone travelling on that route to go through the scanning process. For example, there is one such arrangement just outside Nunwan. Therefore any Kashmiri who needs to travel beyond Nunwan including Pahalgam, Aru Valley, Betab Valley and others, needs to go through the checking wherein vehicles are also checked thoroughly. In a region where movement is as regulated as it is in the Valley, the presence of the Yatra does not bode well for the people.

In Conclusion
The State clearly privileges the Yatra and the yatris, while keeping aside the rights of the people of Kashmir. Justice Swatanter Kumar in his judgement of 2012 pitches the right of the faithful against the rights of the Kashmris. While on the one hand he places the argument in the framework of sustainable development, on the other he argues the cause of comfort for the yatris. What he suggests as infrastructure necessary for the yatris goes against the norms of sustainable development. This will not only affect Kashmiris as pointed in Chapter 6, but will also have an implication for the yatris since the formation of the ice stalagmite will be affected, as it has been on more than one occasion. Even in 2016, the size of the ice stalagmite was only 10 ft. compared to 18 ft. in 2015 and 20 ft. in 2005. Suggestions of artificially constructing the ice stalagmite or using technology to maintain it is must surely be demeaning to the faithful. Transforming a natural and divine structure through the use of modern science is a mockery and an attempt to fool people.

The State comes through clearly as a Hindu state, making Hindus 1st class citizens of the country and all others 2nd class. In Kashmir this takes on a different meaning given that it is a disputed territory, where democratic structures are merely a façade and which is truly under military rule. The use of militarisation to curb dissent and a struggle for freedom, and the use of religious sentiments of the dominant religious community in India come together in a most lethal way in the context of the Amarnath Yatra. But this is not a loss only for Kashmir but also for India whose constitutional democracy has been done away with. For the truly faithful, it must be a matter of shame that their religion is being used by the State to further its interest and is causing a threat to Indian democracy.

It is crucial that the State take note of the serious transgressions taking place in the name of the Amarnath Yatra.

Recommendations
Some of the immediate steps that we believe need to be taken are:
-Restrict the Yatra to its traditional period of 15 days. Very importantly, the faith of the yatris cannot be instrumentalised to further India’s political interests. We also call upon devotee groups to resist this use of their faith.

-De-militarize the Amarnath Yatra. The military has no place in a space of divinity. If the terrain renders the Yatra dangerous then disaster management institutions need to be involved and not the armed forces! There have been no attacks on the Yatra and indigenous groups have been repeatedly committed to this. The people of Kashmir have consistently supported yatris in times of crises, be it in 2008 with the setting up of langars for stranded yatris, or saving their lives in the accident near Bijbehara or when Kashmir was facing brutality from the State in 2016, like never before since its formation in 1947 no harm was brought to the yatris by the Kashmiris. This compassion by the Kashmiris must be responded to by removal of the armed forces from the Yatra route.

-Conduct an Environment Impact Assessment of the pilgrimage and make necessary changes to the numbers allowed, and to its conduct.

-If indeed tunnels are being planned then these need to be stopped immediately. Construction of the tunnels will seriously compromise the stability of the mountains potentially causing catastrophe, the victims of which could very well be the yatris.
-Carrying capacity should be scientifically established and regulatory mechanisms should accordingly be put in place.

-If the government has the responsibility of administering the Yatra, it should deliver on them rather than outsourcing it. If langars are allowed to operate between Chandanwari – Cave – Baltal region then they need to be regulated. The number of langars should be rationalised, so should the menu. Discriminatory practices like disallowing entry of Kashmiris in the langars should be actively discouraged by the State.

-The Kashmiri service providers who primarily service the unorganised aspects of the Yatra, namely, tent owners, people who carry yatris on dandis, porters and horse owners have to be recognised as equal participants of the Yatra as those of the organised sector. Just as the SASB actively engages with the organised sector, the unorganised sector also need to be engaged with and opinions taken into account while planning the Yatra.

-The might that socio-religious organisations wield over the SASB and the conduct of the Yatra is nothing short of blackmail. The threat that there will be communal discontent should their opinions not be accepted should face severe punishment as per the provisions in the Indian Constitution and law. The impunity with which these organisations function and their blatant threats cannot go unpunished! Further, given that India is constitutionally a secular country and not a Hindu state, this integrity needs to be maintained. The State cannot take cues from socio-religious organisations on its conduct while setting aside the people it claims to have concern for.

-The Government of India needs to restore the Constitution vis-à-vis the conduct of the Yatra. The democratic fabric which has been run threadbare needs to be re-established. While the SASB Act itself needs to be repealed, in the event that this is not legally possible, it definitely should be cut down to size. The SASB which functions like a state within the state needs to be re-imagined such that it plays only an implementing role with decision making reposed with the state government.

-Attempts to create more Amarnaths like Buddha Amarnath and Kauser Nag need to nipped at the bud. The Buddha Amarnath Yatra is already growing by leaps and bounds and before it becomes another site of active conflict, the State needs to put an end to the way it is conducted, if it is interested in the peace that it so often claims to desire.

A Note
Amarnath Yatra: A Militarised Pilgrimage is a documentation of all facets of the Amarnath Yatra, an annual pilgrimage in Jammu and Kashmir. The report studies the history of the Yatra and stages of its evolution while examining its different motivations. State institutions involved and their role

– especially the administration – armed forces nexus has been explored. Other groups of people and organisations providing services in the Yatra including unorganised labour and the formal sector are assessed to understand the emergent power dynamics including the relationship between the socio-religious institutions and the State. The Yatra being conducted in high altitudes has serious environmental impacts, which is also studied in detail. The Yatra is fraught with controversies and conflicts and some of the more critical instances have been documented in this report. The Amarnath Yatra is one among several others which are receiving State patronage. The other upcoming Yatras and their implications has also been documented. The report concludes that the Yatra is really being conducted on the might of the Indian armed forces along with socio-religious and langar organisations mobilising people to participate. We believe that each of these aspects may be further studied for nuances which will also throw light on how religious tourism / pilgrimages are being used by the State to exercise control in areas that are in conflict with the State.

Aftermath of July 8, 2016: A Postscript
This report was scheduled to be released on July 16th, 2016. With the violence of the Indian state against Kashmiris and the sustained protests by the people the report could not be released. As in 2008, the Amarnath Yatra was underway at this time. While the Yatra saw numbers comparable to the earlier years, post July 9th the per day numbers were almost half of the previous year.

Newspapers, especially the Hindi newspapers, abounded with stories of how the yatris were scared for their lives and that they had been the target of stone pelting and other physical violence like beating. Soon after July 8th, the Yatra was stopped for a few days and when it resumed, road movement towards Pahalgam and Baltal was conducted during the night. The armed forces claimed that this was being done to protect the yatris from stone pelting and attacks from the local people. The yatris were taken in convoys of about 100-150 vehicles flanked by the armed forces. Some yatris interviewed by

A search on the internet will reveal several such coverage. As an example: Retrieved from of the armed forces made them feel safe and that though they have heard that the situation in Kashmir was tense, they themselves did not face any problems.

While it is true that vehicles were attacked, in several instances, objection was not towards the yatris themselves but the anger which was directed at the Kashmiri vehicle driver / owner for defying the strike and plying his vehicle as in the case of the ABP news team which was stopped in Srinagar .

On July 13th, 2016 a bus carrying yatris had an accident when it collided with a truck when it was on its way from Baltal to Jammu. 23 people were injured and 2 (a Kashmiri driver and a yatri) succumbed to death. One of the survivors of the accident, in an interview spoke of how he escaped from the bus, which was travelling in a convoy, and asked the police, armed forces and other yatris to help the accident victims but received no help from them. 2 Kashmiris witness to this, shouted for help and a group of about 50 people, all local people; defying curfew came and helped the yatris get out of the bus by breaking windows and the door. He goes on to say that the locals ensured that ambulances were brought to take the victims to the hospital. He also says that they were treated well in the hospital and were given all facilities. He ends his narration with “If you want to learn humanity, learn it from the Kashmiris. Do not malign the community, understand its heart. It is the first time in my life that I have experienced such humanity.” In another interview he said, “The army is here for helping us, but they did not help us. People of Kashmir and Srinagar helped us and even donated blood for us…. People run community kitchens here but Kashmiris gave us their blood and saved us.”

In another instance on the Baltal – Srinagar route, near Kangan, it was reported that people were made to get down and shout pro-Pakistan slogans. What was shared by the people but not reported in the newspapers was that the yatris were intimating the group of people standing on the road by shouting slogans similar to those mentioned earlier in the report, to which the Kashmiris responded.

As in the earlier years, in 2016 as well, by June there were reports that the Yatra would be attacked. In June 2016, the Hizbul Mujahideen released a video where Burhan Wani put to rest rumours that his organisation intended to attack the Amarnath Yatra in 2016. He went on to say that their struggle was against the Sainik colonies, which was usurping the land of Kashmirs and Kashmiri Pandit colonies which resembled the Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas. The Hindu, in June 2016 reported a senior Home Ministry official’s statement that the government did not perceive any specific threat to the Yatra. The official also said that since they did not want to take chances, they have beefed up security.

As mentioned in earlier parts of the report, it has been more than a decade since there has been an attack on the Yatra and in 2016, the Hizbul Mujahideen categorically communicated that they would not harm the Yatra, yet the armed forces and the Indian state did nothing to dispel the fear of the people. Some Kashmiris also said that the armed forces know that the Yatra would not be attacked and were using the excuse of providing security to the yatris and therefore travelling in convoys just so that they could move freely, since the armed forces were the target of the anger of the people.

Even after July 8th, there were constant reports that the different groups intended to attack the Yatra. However, there were no attacks and the Yatra was conducted for the entire 48 days without any incident. After July 8th and over the next 135 days, 109 unarmed civilians were killed, 15000 injured with 7000 sustaining severe injuries, 1178 people reported pellet injuries in the eyes of which 52 people were blinded and 300 lost partial eyesight. While such was the grim situation on the one hand and newspapers everyday were reporting these gross forms of violence by the armed forces on the people of Kashmir, there were as many reports about the peaceful conduct of the Yatra. The Governor held regular meetings to ensure that the Yatra was at no point disrupted or yatris harmed. While it is indeed the responsibility of the state to take care of its people, the differential treatment being meted out to Kashmiris and yatris clearly drove home the point that it has no concern whatsoever about the Kashmiris and privileged the Yatra.

The report has been published by the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), Srinagar and EQUATIONS, Bengaluru, Karnataka. It was finally released on April 28, 2017, eight days ago but finds little or no mention in the media.

At the UN, It’s No to Hindu Rashtra, We are a Secular Country, the Land of Gandhi & Buddha: India

May 5, 2017

Faced with questions by 112 countries in its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN), attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, who led the Indian delegation at the, said India makes no distinction between caste, creed, colour or religion of a citizen and is a secular country with no state religion. Another official who was part of the delegation says India is the land of ‘Gandhi and Buddha.’ None of the Hindutva ideologues, neither V. Savarkar nor Guru Golwalkar were mentioned as icons by India in its three and a half long review that concluded at 9.30 p.m. yesterday.

Several countries queried India on the plight of human rights, especially recent attacks on civil society through the mis-use of provisions of the FCR Act by the Modi government. There was no mention by the spate of lynchings of the minorities and Dalits by ‘Gau Rakshaks’ however. Ghana in its questions and comments made no reference, even obliquely, to the brute attack on African nationals in Delhi recently (this had caused a diplomatic crisis at the time) and the remarks of Israel and Iran –countries on two sides of the ideological and political spectrum—were virtually identical. Haiti however did bring up racism against African nationals in its comments.

Pakistan in its intervention spoke extensively and exclusively of the plight of Kashmiris and the violations by India in the region. Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, the Holy See (Vatican) and Canada and the United States asked the most searching questions to the Indian government on aspects of human rights violations especially in the past three years. The last UPR that India faced was in 2012.

Speaking at the 27th session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group at the UNHCR here, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that the Indian Constitution enshrines various provisions for the protection of the rights and interest of the minorities. Moreoever, he also said the right to free speech and expression occupies its rightful place in the core of the Indian Constitution. “As the world’s largest multi-layered democracy, we fully recognise the importance of free speech and expression. Our people are conscious of their political freedoms and exercise their choices at every opportunity,” Rohatgi told the member states.On the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Rohatgi said the Act is applied only to disturbed areas and these areas are very few and in proximity to some international borders.“Whether this Act should be repealed or not is a matter of on-going vibrant political debate in my country,” he said.

On transgenders, he said India has been at the forefront of recognising their equal rights. The Supreme Court gave a landmark judgement in 2014 directing the government to declare trans-genders a “third gender” and included them as an “Other Backward Class” entitled to affirmative action benefits.Rohatgi also mentioned the Supreme Court judgement that reinforced that trans-genders should have all rights under law, including marriage, adoption, divorce, succession and inheritance, Rohatgi added. He said India has made significant progress in addressing the special needs of persons with disabilities through its Accessible India Campaign, and by overhauling its legislative framework on the rights of persons with disabilities and the rights of persons with mental health issues. On global warming, he said India remains alert to the problem and as part of the thrust towards fulfilling its people’s right to a clean environment; it has launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan-Clean India Campaign nationwide.

Ironically, Rohatgi, who as attorney general has led the Modi government’s charge in what has been observed to be an assault on the independence of the Indian judiciary, applauded India’s higher judiciary for its ‘independence from the executive.”

The Ministry for External Affairs Statement on the eve of the 3rd UPR may be read here.

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At the UN, It’s No to Hindu Rashtra, We are a Secular Country, the Land of Gandhi & Buddha: India

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