We are living in a society that is increasingly becoming intolerant towards our food choices, our clothing, our lifestyles, our very raison d’etre of existence. If you are a minority, and especially a Muslim, then the fear is overwhelming. The choice is either between conformity or fear of bodily harm. This is a problem, and the first step towards solving any problem is the sincere need to acknowledge that there is a problem.
The intolerance is not just restricted to remote rural villages in the hinterland. The venom has crept right into my and your cozy urban bubbles, where we like to insulate ourselves. I am not even talking about the shameful attacks that took place in South Delhi, where three men were assaulted by the “so-called Gau-Rakshaks”.
I am talking about well educated, influential people providing rationalisation to vigilante attacks, which in any other civilised country would have been thoroughly condemned across all political spectrum.
Take for instance, Harbir Singh. A first look at his Facebook profile, and you would see someone, who has had the best of upbringing, the best of education, a promising career. He happens to be a social media influencer, writes occasional columns for Times of India and his spouse is a Senior Assistant Editor with the same newspaper.
But Dwell deeper into his thinking, and you would come to terms with a very different uncomfortable reality of his thoughts. Here is a Facebook post (which has now been deleted), that he made in the light of the recent increased cow-vigilantism. This post had close to 200 likes and was shared by around 50 people, including the well known public figure Tarek Fateh.
Let us take a short walk through Harbir’s mind. He ends his first paragraph with a rationalisation of the increasing violence in the name of cows, and calls it inevitable, which he also claims has ‘broad public approval’.
The next paragraph is filled with arguments which are simply not grounded in reality. A simple look at the judicial exonerations of people like Swami Aseemanand, judicial proceedings of convicted mass murderers like Maya Kodnani (who has been out on bail since 2014) and what increasingly looks like from the way the judiciary has taken this case, she is going to have her convictions overturned.
There are numerous such cases, where terrorists are being protected by the state, due to their affiliations with organisations perceived close to the government in power. When was the last time you heard Islamists being treated with such kid gloves ? The state comes down heavily on Islamist terrorists, and very rightly so.
But anyway, let us move on to his third and fourth paragraphs. This is where the problem is, which so many of us have taken deep objection to. He begins with another assumption that our state is weak, and is unable to provide justice to victims.
What he ends with, is an all out call for mob violence against the “flock of Islamist Maulanas”. In his world, the syncretic India that provides space to different religious and political philosophies, simply does not exist.
So, if there are people in our society (whom he perceives as Islamists), he thinks the natural consequence should be an all out mob violence against every single Muslim living in India. He calls it an inevitable outcome, and asks us to conform to his wisdom, but we will not ! We will challenge it, at each and every step !
I started a campaign trying to take down his hateful message ! A Muslim friend of mine did the same as well. The next thing we know, Harbir Singh got outright abusive with my friend. He posted the following on his Facebook page. These posts have also been taken down (presumably by him)
What worries me, is not just the actions of a sole individual but the increasing tendency to provide intellectual justifications for crimes which should be condemned outright. Period ! If we don’t all get together to spread the message of love and unity, then we won’t be able to fight the fascism that has crept slowly into our society. Remember, fascism, when it arrives at our doorsteps, won’t come dressed in a Hitler’s SS brown shirt, but rather dressed in smart ties and suits of well educated English speaking men ! Hence – Organise, Agitate, Resist!
This article was first published on Janta Ka Reporter
He is the only one who can reinvent the Aam Aadmi Party, be a counter to a resurgent BJP.
Regardless of the Aam Aadmi Party’s performance in the municipal elections held in Delhi on Sunday, its leader Arvind Kejriwal should resign as chief minister and hand over the reins of governance to his deputy, Manish Sisodia. This would free Kejriwal to return to the people to reinvent the popular movement from which the party was spawned.
This suggestion is being made not because the predicted loss for the Aam Aadmi Party in the civic elections, forecast by exit polls, undermines his moral authority to govern Delhi, as was recently made out by Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav.
Indeed, Assembly and municipal polls have different dynamics. For instance, the Congress under Sheila Dikshit lost twice to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the local body elections and yet continued to garner a majority in the Delhi Assembly. What applied to her, and still does to others, should to Kejriwal as well.
The reasons why Kejriwal should resign are of a completely different order. India’s electoral politics shows alarming signs that it no longer serves the purpose of educating people, of enabling them to comprehend issues in all their subtleties and debating them. This was manifest in Delhi, where its electorate seemingly confused the categories of duty and responsibility of its state government with those of the three municipal corporations, which are currently ruled by the BJP. Messaging is now paramount, because of which it was made out that Delhi’s problems – from the clearing of garbage to mosquito control – were the failings of the Aam Aadmi Party government.
However, Delhi’s cleanliness is the responsibility of the municipalities, notorious for their corruption. Ask any roadside vendor in the city and he will regale you with the amount of bribe he pays every month to municipal officials and beat constables who also pinch cigarettes, cold drinks and snacks and food for free.
Who in Delhi will not vouch for the money he or she has saved over the last two years because of the sharp reduction in power rates that the government has brought about? Then, there are the growing number of areas in the city that have been liberated from the clutches of the water mafia. Think of the Aam Aadmi Party’s focus on improving government schools and on building mohalla clinics that have won accolades from global health experts.
You would think the Aam Aadmi Party’s record of the last two years would inspire Delhiites to believe the party is best placed to run the city’s municipalities. The exit polls, however, seem to show that governance doesn’t matter to people. Infinitely more important is the messaging, through which, with a little help from the media, a pan-India leadership cult has been created, and an impression made that the BJP is impossible to trounce, thereby underscoring the sheer futility of voting for anyone else.
It is true that exit polls have gone wrong in the past. They may still in Delhi.
Kejriwal’s time to reinvent AAP
Nevertheless, even an Aam Aadmi Party victory should not deter Kejriwal from resigning. India desperately needs a movement to counter the inimical consequences of the politics the BJP is pursuing. Providing exemplary governance in Delhi cannot be a comprehensive counter to it. For one, Delhi is a quasi state, dependent on the mercies of the Central government, whose representative, the lieutenant governor, in his imperious conduct might be making the British administrators of yore snigger in their graves. The Aam Aadmi Party government will continue to encounter impediments in the pursuit of its goals.
For the other, Delhi does not have a distinctive regional or linguistic identity, nor is it beset with political competition among castes, the three factors largely responsible for the emergence of a clutch of state-based parties. From this perspective, Delhi’s cosmopolitan identity was precisely why the city became the home base of the Aam Aadmi Party, which did not seek votes on the basis of caste or religious or linguistic affiliations. Instead, it sought to redefine the idea of citizenry through the pursuit of a brand of politics that promised clean governance and effective delivery of services to all, but, obviously, with a special emphasis on the last man in the queue.
It was supposed to turn into a national movement, a Delhi model, so to speak, that others in India would feel encouraged to emulate. This is why Delhi surprised all in the 2013 Assembly elections, when the Aam Aadmi Party won the confidence of a large segment of Delhiites to come to power and then, a year on, went on to expand that into an overwhelming majority in the next elections.
In other words, the Aam Aadmi Party as an idea will have relevance in Delhi as long as it holds out the promise of going national. But it has the opportunity of reinventing its personality only until 2020, which is when Delhi will have its next Assembly elections. This, therefore, is just the moment for Kejriwal to launch a movement, combining some old ideas with some new ones. What ought to then be the strands of a reinvented Aam Aadmi Party movement?
It was Arvind Kejriwal's activism and organisational skills that contributed to making the 2011 anti-corruption movement led by social activist Anna Hazare the success it was. Credit: Money Sharma / AFP
Silent Opposition
Regardless of the BJP’s victories in Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states in March, there is disquiet in the country over the communal polarisation it has relentlessly pursued through its Hindutva philosophy, of which the most virulent manifestation is vigilantism over cow protection. No less dangerous is the fusing of Hindutva with nationalism, a combination so powerful that it has suppressed acute anxieties arising from agrarian distress, jobless growth and rampant corruption that the much-touted antidote of demonetisation – the withdrawal of high-value notes in November with the aim of flushing out black money – palpably failed to cure.
The sharp edge of Hindutva has cut many. For instance, Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, quite sarcastically, mentioned that development no longer counts, and that he should instead daily tweet a photo of himself paying obeisance at a temple. To a person close to him, he confided, “Do we Yadavs have to now learn how to respect the cow? When I rebuilt a temple in the chief minister’s residence, did I publicise it?”
To this person, he also spoke of how he didn’t need a lesson in showing respect for the Army and subscribing to the BJP’s tenets of nationalism. After all, as Yadav pointed out, he studied in a Sainik school, some of his friends are commanding officers in the Army, and his wife belongs to an Army family. But all such credentials and the development projects he undertook did not count as the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election was turned into a Hindu-Muslim show and voting for the BJP became proof of nationalistic feelings.
But Akhilesh Yadav’s sharp articulations, made by most non-BJP politicians privately, are not heard in the public arena. This is because politics has become synonymous with electoral contests. Non-BJP politicians turn to people in the weeks before voting, thus haunted by the fear that statements countering the BJP’s religious nationalism propaganda could have the effect of further polarising the electorate. At best, therefore, they seek to turn the electorate’s focus on their agenda.
But this fails because the emotions of hate and spurious grievances inundate other competing agendas. Therefore, the BJP is in a win-win situation. It polarises society because it stands to gain. And because others shy away from countering the BJP’s Hindutva spin, its technique of mobilisation isn’t challenged. Comprehending that politics is the best medium of educating the people, the Sangh has a year-long programme of disseminating its political ideas.
This can only be challenged through a counter-movement, of which the principal ingredients have to be a battle for Hinduism and nationalism. These can be expressed through a chain of questions: Who is a devout Hindu? Is it he who kills in the name of the cow? What do we do with cattle that have stopped yielding milk and have become an economic burden on farmers? Do we require the political ideology of Hinduism? Do we need an exclusivist, destructive nationalism? Through which model of governance can an inclusivist idea of nationalism be nurtured?
Two recent incidents show just how fearful Opposition politicians have become.
In Saharanpur, BJP MP Raghav Lakhanpal’s alleged insistence on leading an Ambedkar Jayanti yatra through a communally fraught locality led to communal clashes on Thursday. Despite her clamour for Dalit-Muslim unity, Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati hasn’t visited the site of the clashes yet. And in Delhi on Saturday night, three Muslim men were beaten up, reportedly in the presence of the police, for ferrying buffaloes. A first information report has been filed against the victims while the assailants had not been caught at the time of writing this piece. In a city bustling with politicians with national stature, none have had the courage to mount public pressure on the police to explain their conduct.
It isn’t that non-BJP politicians are not dismayed at the turn Indian polity has taken. But they have been silent because they fear their intervention would be perceived as Muslim appeasement and would incite the passion of Hindus. But such apprehensions persist among politicians because they haven’t educated their followers on what is at stake in the BJP’s appropriation of Hinduism and advocacy of Hindu nationalism.
Man for the job
Given that Kejriwal is steeped in activism and given his ability to organise and agitate – which was why the anti-corruption movement of 2011 for a Jan Lokpal Bill to hold government officials accountable became such a success – he is just the person to trigger a debate over Hinduism and nationalism. Not just in TV studios or in newspapers columns, but among the people.
Kejriwal ought to be the man to lead it because the bug of power hasn’t presumably bitten him. Self-avowedly, he has often harped on the fact that he and his party are in electoral politics not for power but to transform polity and build a better India.
All this doesn’t mean that the Aam Aadmi Party cannot continue to govern Delhi. That responsibility can devolve on Sisodia. He, in his quiet way, can continue to administer the city-state while Kejriwal plays the role of the conscientious challenger and political educator of the masses.
Indeed, the Aam Aadmi Party is often torn between providing governance in Delhi and playing the Opposition role nationally. Many, rather wrongly, accuse it of frittering away its energies in the quest to achieve its political ambition. By resigning as Delhi chief minister, Kejriwal would eject this duality. What would Kejriwal think of the suggestion that he should resign?
On April 7, noted sports writer Pradeep Magazine retweeted author Krishan Partap Singh’s tweet with the following comment, “Maybe time to give up power and educate people once again @ArvindKejriwal. Vote does not represent people’s voice.”
Among the 489 people who retweeted Magazine’s message was Arvind Kejriwal himself.
Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist in Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, has as its backdrop the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
Long Live Dongria Kondhs’ Struggle to Save Niyamgiri Hills!
New Delhi, April 24: Prafulla Samantara, National Convener, National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements and the leader of Lokshakti Abhiyan, Orissa has been awarded The Goldman Environmental Prize, Asia, 2017. The Goldman Environmental Prize honours the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists for their sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the Natural environment.
He has been awarded the Prize for committing his life for the peoples’ struggle and the hardships that he has faced in the historic 12-year legal battle along with Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti that affirmed the indigenous Dongria Kondh’s land rights and protected the Niyamgiri Hills from a massive, open-pit aluminium ore mine proposed by Vedanta.
Prafulla Samantara, 65, a socialist by thoughts, has been a part of many leading Peoples’ struggles, one of which is Anti-POSCO Movement (POSCO Pratirodh Sangharsh Samiti) in Orissa. POSCO planned to invest in the mining industry, the building of a Steel Plant, captive power plant and a port in Erasama block of Jagatsinghpur District. Along with the activists like Abhay Sahoo, Prashant Paikaray, Manorama, and many others, he stood against the land acquisition process by POSCO; and has fought the legal battle in the Courts.
He has undertaken Satyagraha, hunger fasts, padyatras, rallies against the building of Dams and Barrages and the emerging issues out of it on the upper stream of river Mahanadi. Living on the campus of Lohia Academy, Bhubaneshwar, he has kept its doors open for everyone and movements struggling for equity, justice and rights-based development. Respected by peoples’ movements and academics and intellectuals alike, he has given articulation to a socialist vision for Odisha and is an ardent advocate of the open loot of the natural resources of Odisha by corporations. He has been kidnapped, assaulted and attacked on many occasions by the mining company for his activism, and continues to receive threats for his ‘anti-development’ stance. But He stands strongly against such threats by believing in “We Shall Fight, We Shall Win!”
The National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements (NAPM) welcomes the decision of the Goldman Environmental Prize and congratulates Prafulla Samantara. This is an award for the valiant struggles of the communities to save the environment and secure their right to live with dignity and oppose destruction and loot of land, water and forest by corporations in the name of development.
Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan – NAPM, while, congratulating Prafulla Samantara for winning this award said,“It is the victory and recognition of the struggle of the Dongria Kondh tribe, the people of Niyamgiri Hills and the Comrades like Lado Sikaka and Lingraj Azad against the big Corporates. It is a victory of the movement and everyone who over the years has contributed to this struggle. Prafulla has proved his own commitment and courage to the world and this award succeeds in countering the false propaganda of the agencies who call it an extremist movement. This is a struggle of the poorest of the poor against the biggest corporations in the world. We are proud of and supporter of his work because he is a fighter”
The fact that this growth estimate was spurious, produced at the behest of the BJP government which specialises in “post-truths”, was pointed out by many
Some weeks ago when the official “quick estimates” of GDP for the third quarter of 2016-17 (October-December) had been released, putting the GDP growth in this quarter (over the corresponding quarter of 2015-16) at 7 percent, which broadly conformed to the CSO’s prediction before demonetisation, a veritable chorus had gone up that the critics of demonetisation had been proved wrong, that the measure did not have the recessionary effect they had claimed it would.
The fact that this growth estimate was spurious, produced at the behest of the BJP government which specialises in “post-truths”, was pointed out by many (see People’s Democracy, March 13). One particularly bizarre element in that estimate had been the growth rate of manufacturing output at 7.7 percent, when according to the index of industrial production, the manufacturing sector had grown only by 0.2 percent in that quarter. We now have fresh figures for industrial production for the month of February 2017, and they only confirm what the critics have been arguing, viz. that demonetisation has had a seriously recessionary effect on the economy.
It should of course be made clear that the Indian economy has witnessed an absolute industrial stagnation for several years now which has to do with a stagnation in domestic demand combined with sluggish net exports owing to the ongoing world capitalist crisis. But as if this was not enough, the Modi government chose to impose upon the economy a massive demonetisation for no rhyme or reason; and this has compounded the industrial recession even further. February 2017 had an index of industrial production that was 1.2 percent below that of February 2016; and for manufacturing the index was a full 2 percent below a year ago. February 2016 itself had witnessed a 0.6 percent growth compared to the preceding February, so that the decline in growth rate is 2.6 percent.
Within manufacturing, the consumer goods sector, which is where the impounding of people’s purchasing power through demonetisation is likely to have the maximum impact, registered a -5.6 percent growth rate, compared to 0.6 percent in February 2016. For the entire April-February period, the growth rate of consumer goods industries has been 0.1 percent in 2016-17 compared to 3.2 percent in 2015-16. And the manufacturing sector as a whole has witnessed, for the April-February period of 2016-17, a growth rate of -0.3 percent compared to 2.3 percent for the corresponding period of 2015-16. Not surprisingly, even bourgeois “experts” belonging to various “think-tanks”, who are taken aback by these poor figures, are now beginning to attribute them to the persistent effects of demonetisation.
It may however be argued that simply showing a fall in growth rate in manufacturing or in consumer goods compared to a year ago is insufficient for establishing the recessionary effects of demonetisation. What is needed is a finer analysis, comparing the trend before November 2016 when demonetisation occurred with the trend after November 2016. Only if there is an observed break in the trend around the time of demonetisation can we say with some degree of confidence that demonetisation did have a recessionary impact.
It is obvious, as already mentioned, that the impact of demonetisation is likely to be felt most strongly on consumer goods output. The other segments, such as basic industries, capital goods industries and intermediate goods industries, typically represent purchases not by households or even petty producers so much as by corporate, or generally larger, enterprises, and in their case the shortage of currency does not constitute a major hurdle to effecting a purchase, because payments are usually made through non-cash means. Of course, if the demand for consumer goods, and therefore the output of consumer goods, is adversely affected by the shortage of purchasing power owing to demonetisation, then this will also affect the demand for producer goods; but this effect will occur only with a time-lag. The immediate impact of demonetisation will be felt primarily on consumer goods, which are purchased by households and in whose purchase cash payments play a major role.
In fact one can go even further. The demand for consumer durables is likely to be less affected by a cash shortage than the demand for consumer non-durables. This is so for two reasons. First, because the purchase of consumer durables, as it involves relatively lumpy payments, is effected to a greater degree through non-cash means than through cash, so that the direct effect of a withdrawal of cash from the economy upon the demand for consumer durables is likely to be less than upon the demand for consumer non-durables. And secondly, with regard to the indirect effect, arising from the loss of incomes of people who are hit by the direct effects of cash-shortage and therefore reduce their demand for consumer durables, this typically would take time to manifest itself. For both these reasons if the short-term impact of demonetisation is to be investigated then the sector to look at is the consumer non-durables sector.
Accordingly I have calculated the growth rate of output of the consumer non-durables sector, from the index of industrial production, separately for two sub-periods: April-October 2016-17 and November-February 2016-17, over the corresponding months of the preceding year. For both sub-periods there is an absolute decline in 2016-17, but while the drop is 2.47 percent for the first sub-period of seven months, it increases to 3.62 percent for the next four months.
There is a further point to be noted here. When there is a fall in demand for consumer goods, it is not as if the output of the sector is curtailed immediately. The fall in demand typically entails an increase in inventories with the sellers, and only when this happens do they cut down on their orders from the producers and the latter in turn cut back on production in response to the curtailment of orders. There is therefore a necessary time-lag between the reduction in demand and the reduction in output.
Keeping this in mind if we calculate the growth in the index of industrial production for consumer non-durables for the months December-February 2016-17 (over the corresponding months of 2015-16), ie, leave out November itself when the effect of demonetisation on output could not have been felt in view of the time-lags, we obtain a growth rate of -5.3 percent. While the growth rate was -1.85 percent for the period April-November 2016-17, it fell to -5.3 percent for the next three months, which shows a decisive break in the trend. This trend was negative for the year as a whole, but it became even more negative for the three months December-February 2016-17 when the effect of demonetisation got further superimposed on the already negative trend.
The index of industrial production, it must be remembered, is extremely inadequate for capturing developments in the small-scale sector where the impact of demonetisation has been the most pronounced. It is prepared by compiling data from 15 sources which are mainly government ministries and official departments. They do not include any source that can provide data on what is happening to the small-scale sector.
The IIP of course is still much better than the GDP estimates which of late have started relying on company statistics to arrive at production data, which is absurd because of the existence of a vast non-company sector. This absurdity gets further heightened when we look at the quick estimate of GDP, such as the one that came out recently and the government used for debunking its critics. This is because in arriving at these quick estimates only some company data are looked at, and not even comprehensive data for all companies. But even the IIP which is much better than these various GDP estimates in giving an indication of industrial growth, is also flawed, in the sense of not taking cognizance of developments in the small-scale sector. If, despite this flaw, the IIP shows such a sharp break in trend, and a sharp curtailment in industrial output in the post-demonetisation months, then the real impact of demonetisation can be easily imagined, when we also take into account the sector which is its primary victim, namely the sector of small-scale and petty production.
Needless to say, the impact of demonetisation has not been confined to the manufacturing sector. Its impact on services and other tertiary activities, especially in the small-scale sector, has been quite profoundly adverse. We have looked only at the manufacturing sector because some data on it have become available recently. Our query in other words has been the following: can we find any evidence of an adverse impact of demonetisation in data pertaining to just one particular sector that have come out recently? And the answer is overwhelmingly in the positive, which should dispel all the lies that government propaganda has been peddling of late about demonetisation having had no recessionary effect.
Bhalchandra Mungekar, former Member of Parliament of Rajya Sabha, former member of Planning Commission and former Vice-Chancellor of University of Mumbai talk to Sruti M. D. and Souradeep Roy on the anti-Dalit measures of the present BJP-led NDA government. He says that Ministry of Social Justice and Ministry of Culture have reduced funds allotted for Dalit empowerment. When he was a member of the Planning Commission, he developed the National Translation Mission to translate literary productions from 20 odd languages into 4 or 5 other languages every year. The present government has diverted the funds allotted to this mission.
The Supreme Court today admitted a writ petition filed by Quint reporter Poonam Agarwal for a court-monitored investigation into the death of gunner Roy Mathew, to seek guidelines on the application of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to bring it in line with the Constitution and prevent its misuse, and to conduct an inquiry into the persistence of the 'sahayak' system in the army. The judges issued notice to the government. The Quint journalist was charged with spying under the OSA and abetment to suicide under the IPC. Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam and Adv Prashant Kumar appeared for the petitioner.
Atrocities on Indian Muslims have a reaction in Kashmir
Kashmir is a tinderbox now. Areas like Charar-e-Sharief and Khansahib assembly segments in Budgam used to witness 70% plus polling and during 2011 Panchayat elections, the turnout was 80 to 90% in Budgam district.
What is the reason for this huge shift? Why 99% people in Budgam district which is part of Srinagar Lok Sabha seat have boycotted the recent elections? Why was there so much of violence? Different people have different reasons for this massive election boycott and subsequent violence, but I view all this development in a different perspective.
The rise of BJP–RSS lead Hindutva forces across India and subsequent riots , murders & torture of Indian minorities especially Muslims has added fuel to anti India sentiments among Kashmiri youth. The 5 month long 2016 summer agitation is also linked to it. Dozens of provocative videos depicting atrocities on Indian Muslims have become viral on social media from last few years. Almost 90% of Kashmiri youth who own smart-phones have these videos in their cell phones and this has made them believe that India is no more a secular country and BJP –RSS combine are posing a direct threat not only to Indian Muslims but they are a threat to Kashmir as well. The increased incidents of stone pelting from last few years in Kashmir can be related to growing activities of rightwing Hindu extremists across India.
Tagores’s My Heaven:
12-year-old Faizan Ahmed Dar, a Seventh Standard student was shot dead on April 8 by security forces on poll duty in Dalwan village of Badgaon district in Central Kashmir. Photo credit: Greater Kashmir.
Famous Bengali poet Ravindra Nath Tagore who was awarded Noble prize for his book Gitanjali has around 157 poems. One of the poem is titled “My Heaven”. More than 100 years back Tagore prays to God that the people of his country (India) should be fearless and society should not be divided in the name of caste, language and religion.
Faizan Ahmed Dar, the 12-year-old boy from Dalwan had been taught the same poem in his local school. In neat handwriting this little boy answers the question written with red pen: “What does Tagore wish for India and Indians”? Faizan pens down the answer in blue pen: “He wished people of free India should be fearless, proud of their culture and loving”.
While writing this answer Faizan would have never ever thought that he would become a victim of violence which is someway related to growing religious intolerance across India that has a direct effect not only in Alwar, Muzaffar Nagar or Dadri but in the remote Dalwan village of Kashmir as well. India has once again been divided in the name of religion.
The way 55-year-old Pehlu Khan from Rajathan was murdered by cow vigilantes is a blot on Indian democracy. Irony is that local BJP leader and MLA who was on a TV show, didn’t have words to say sorry to Pelhu’s son’s. Similarly, a communal BJP leader Adityanath Yogi who is known for his anti-Muslim stand was appointed Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
How can we expect peace and calm in this whole scenario? Pertinently Pehlu Khan had not purchased two cows for slaughtering them but he wanted to have their milk, but nobody listened to him; reason was his religion.
Conclusion: How can we call it a democracy when people are asked to vote under the shadow of gun? While I am writing this piece I see at least 300 military personnel outside my house to guard a small polling station with 2 rooms. This polling station is among 38 polling booths where re-election for Srinagar parliamentary seat is being held by Election Commission of India (ECI). It was so shocking to see CRPF personnel’s being kicked out in some village during recent elections. Why shall these poor people become victims of state’s high headedness?
Our youth are becoming more and more violent day by day and Indian state instead of listening to them will continue to use force on them. Why is BJP lead government pushing our youth towards militancy? People of Kashmir need peace and resolution of their political problem. It cannot be achieved by holding elections or use of force but through a meaningful dialogue which is unfortunately not happening. BJP and its offshoots should stop harassing Muslims, Dalits and other minorities across India.
Indian leadership has been portraying past Assembly and panchayat elections as a referendum in their favour. Now there has been only 7 % voting in recent by-election in 3 districts of Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal, will BJP, Congress and other Indian mainstream political parties have a courage to call this complete election boycott a referendum? It is the time when New Delhi must stop acting like an ostrich.
A day after Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh called for ensuring the safety of Kashmiris students across India, a Kashmiri studying at the reputed Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani (Rajasthan) received threats to his life, as soon as he woke up this morning. Hashim Sofi, a research fellow at Department of Science and Technology, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) staying at Malviya Bhavan hostel found threats written on the door of his room and on his clothes as well.
“As I woke up early morning last day, I couldn’t believe my eyes for what was written on the face of my door at Maliya Bhavan Hostel BITS Pilani. To add to the surprise, I later on found my clothes have also been pasted with some heartbreaking quotes. I wonder why such animosity for the Kashmiris,” Sofi wrote in a Facebook post.
Sofi is now thinking of giving up studying at Pilani.
"A group of people were standing outside. I had an argument with them and asked them why they were doing it secretly rather than saying it to my face," the Bandipore boy, who had joined the institute 20 days ago, told The Telegraph.
He said he had informed his guide Anirudh Roy, who was deeply hurt by the development.
Hashim alleged that sometime later, he found racially insulting messages scrawled on his clothes that he had hung out to dry.
"I complained to the chief warden, after which I was allotted a room in the staff quarters and assured that action would be taken against the culprits," he said.
But his frightened family asked him to return. "I took my guide's permission and returned (to the Valley on Saturday)."
The institute said Hashim left without telling anyone.
"My career demands that I go back but my conscience does not allow me to…. I think I will not return to that place again," Sofi has told the media.
Hashim's is the second complaint of harassment in Rajasthan in a week, after a group of Kashmiris studying at Mewar University were allegedly called terrorists and beaten up at a market in Chittorgarh.
Billboards declaring Kashmiris as stone-throwers and asking them to leave have surfaced in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
Giridhar M. Kunkur, chief of publications and media relations at the Pilani institute, acknowledged in an email to The Telegraph that "objectionable comments" had indeed been scrawled on Hashim's door.
He, however, added that no such complaint had "till date" come from "any other scholar or student from Jammu and Kashmir" at the institute.
Kunkur said the institute had been admitting students from Jammu and Kashmir at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD levels for a long time and had a "good number" of them on the campus currently.
