With Yogi Adityanath as CM of India’s largest state, the BJP has launched Project Polarisation 2.0

March 20, 2017

The Gorakhpur strongman and Hindu hardliner's selection shows that communal concerns trump development.

Yogi Adityanath

The Modi-Shah duo’s decision to install five-term Gorakhpur MP Adityanath as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh blows a hole through the argument that it was vikas or development and not communal concerns that won the Bharatiya Janata Party the state.

Even for those who were willing to take the party at face value when it claimed that its decision to not field a single Muslim candidate in the state polls was not linked to inclusive governance, the elevation of Adityanath, a Hindutva hardliner and known rabble-rouser, is galling.

Every jibe that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah took at Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav or Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati during the Uttar Pradesh election campaign applies equally, if not more, to Adityanath.

When Akhilesh Yadav, fighting to come to power for the second time as chief minister, coined the slogan “kaam bolta hai”, Modi’s counterpunch was: “kaam nahi, kaarnaama bolta hai” – it’s not the work but your misdeeds that speak. But Uttar Pradesh’s new chief minister can match all his predecessors karnaama for kaarnama.

The evidence of Adityanath’s unvarnished hatred towards Muslims is far too copious to be linked here. But here’s a sample where he exhorts his supporters to kill a 100 Muslims if one Hindu is killed by the other side.

Adityanath was also present on stage at an event organised by his private militia, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, where a speaker at said that dead Muslim women should be dug out of their graves and raped.

Adityanath is no garden-variety Hindutva rabble rouser. What makes him potent is the ability to deliver what he says. The Gorakphur strongman’s Hindu Yuva Vahini is one more in the long list of so-called Indian cultural organisations that contribute to our rich tapestry through alleged rioting, burning of trains and intimidation. Adityanath himself faces several cases of rioting, attempt to murder and intimidation. His assets include a rifle and a revolver. His website describes him as the hero of Hindu re-awakening, the symbol of cultural nationalism, and a Hindutva and development visionary.

Winning at all costs

Barring the setbacks in the Bihar and Delhi Assembly elections in 2015, the combination of Modi’s mass appeal and Shah’s organisational genius is believed to have turned the BJP into an election-winning machine. Jubilant party supporters claim that electoral victory is all that matters in a democracy. That kind of cynicism may have a place in the world of tribal sporting affinities, but should it apply to the more serious affairs of a wider world? Football managers like Jose Mourinho of Manchester United famously encourage “anti-football” which entails playing an ugly brand of the sport and constantly testing the limits of law in the quest for trophies. Such coaches are usually regarded as having the winning mentality.

Even after a thumping electoral win in Uttar Pradesh that gave the BJP 312 of 403 seats, near four-fifths majority, Adityanath’s anointment is a signal that the party is putting a premium on winning future elections in the state based on cynical arithmetic rather than performance in office.

Irrespective of performance, Adityanath can be used as the mascot for consolidating the united spectrum of Hindu votes or USHV – a term that has caught the fancy of BJP supporting amateur psephologists on Twitter – especially in the face of complete opposition unity. Since we live in the golden age of alphabet soups, USHV is good old religious polarisation in a fancy new acronym.

It is undeniable that Modi enjoys such spectacular personal credibility that even a high-risk gamble such demonetisation with tawdry execution paid off handsomely. Several surveys show that people are willing to undergo minor inconveniences because of the faith in Modi’s intent to root out corruption. Despite such approval, dizzying for any politician, why do Modi and Shah need an Adityanath-shaped insurance cover for which there the perceptional premium could end being greater than the electoral sum assured?

The extremely ambitious and driven Adityanath is not a shrinking violet who would quietly take orders from the high command and run the state government under the godhead of Modi. On multiple occasions, the popular “Yogi”, as he is termed, has threatened to rebel against the BJP.

The veneer of vikas

A Thakur with roots in Garhwal, Ajay Singh Bisht took the name Adityanath upon entering the monastic fold. He and his guru Avedyanath have lorded Gorakhpur and the adjoining areas since Independence. The Gorakshnath peeth, whose temporal head Adityanath is, has been a driving force in the Ramjanmabhoomi movement for the construction of a temple dedicated to Lord Rama at his purported birthplace in Ayodhya.

In the the lands where Adityanath’s writ runs large, a popular slogan goes: “Gorakhpur mean rehna hai too Yogi Yogi kahna hai.” If you want to stay in Gorakhpur, you have to chant “yogi, yogi”. Now, Gorakhpur can be replaced by the whole of Uttar Pradesh.

Ironically, the Nath sect (also known as the kanphatas for the earring worn by its adherents) of Shaivite tradition that Adityanath claims to head is a pillar of Yogic philosophy, the cornerstone of which is universal empathy. The sect, founded by 10th-century mystic Matsyendranath, counts even the Sai Baba of Shirdi as a member. The school has produced The Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā, one of the three Sanskrit classics on Yoga. Adityanath, of course, is known for proudly keeping the maala (rosary beads) in one hand and bhaala (spear) in other.

In 2016, Praveen Patil a pollster who runs 5forty3 and is a vocal supporter of Modi, analysed the electoral prospects in Uttar Pradesh and tipped Adityanath to be the BJP’s face in the state. In his SWOT analysis of Adityanath, Patil noted:

“Adityanath enthuses the base like no other among the current crop of leaders in UP, there is no doubt about it. Furthermore, Yogi’s ascendancy will create similar political conditions as that of Modi’s ascendancy of 2013 vis-à-vis BJP’s reverse osmotic relationship with the intelligentsia. The fact is that whenever the intelligentsia, especially of the Lutyens variety, gets angry at BJP and starts a campaign of vilification against its leaders, it creates a much stronger opposite reaction from the party workers and supporters. Yogi Adityanath is bound to create some very angry editorial and TV studio creatures in Delhi which in turn would bring the best out of BJP-Sangh karyakarta brigade.”

Patil further said that in Uttar Pradesh’s electoral landscape a deep reverse Hindu vote polarisation was the only effective counter measure to overcome the tactically antagonistic Muslim vote-bank. “With the Mahant of Goraknath Math at the helm of affairs in the BJP and his Hindu Yuva Vahini working parallel with the BJP and the Sangh, it is indeed the best possible recipe for reverse polarisation,” he said.

The heat and dust of elections in Uttar Pradesh has settled down, but Project Polarisation 2.0 mounted on the scaffolding of development, with Adityanath steering the rath may have just begun.

This article was first published on Scroll.in

Nearly one lakh school dropouts in Meghalaya in 4 years

March 20, 2017

Nearly one lakh students have dropped out of schools in Meghalaya in the past four years, the Meghalaya government informed the state assembly today.

Economic condition of the family, domestic sibling care and migration were some of the causes of the high drop- out rates in the state.

The main causes of dropouts are the economic condition of the parents, lack of success due to small habitation, poor teaching, domestic and sibling care and migration, Education and Literacy Minister Deborah C Marak told the Assembly.

She said the number of dropouts in 2013-14 was 33,557.

In 2014-15 it was 31,276 while the following year the number went down to 14,957 and last year it was 17,299.

The Minister said the government has set up special training centres to bring them back to school and efforts are on to wean them back through various programs and initiatives.

One of the programmes initiated was the effort to try and improve the quality of teachers education and also introducing a flexible timing of the training centres to cater to those children who cannot attend school during the day time, Marak said.

She also said that the training modules were translated into local languages for better teaching and learning in lower primary section even as free textbooks, midday meal and teaching and learning methods were provided free of cost.

Marak also informed that West Khasi Hills district registered 4508 number of children who dropped out of school followed by Jaintia Hills district having 1440 dropouts and Ri-bhoi district having 1041 dropouts.

Efforts are also being taken to create community awareness wherein the parents and the community as a whole are made aware of the importance of education for the future of every child, the Minister said.

Enrolment drives were also taken during celebration of world literacy day and transport and escort allowances were provided to children residing in the difficult coal mine areas, she said.

ABVP creates ruckus over ex-BHU professor’s remarks against RSS

March 20, 2017

ABVP workers allegedly created ruckus in Bareilly College accusing a retired BHU professor of making controversial remarks against RSS founder MS Golwalkar and its chief Mohan Bhagwat, leading to tension on the campus.

The seminar was cancelled after agitated members of the RSS student-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad broke chairs and tables in the campus and demanded that a case be lodged against the professor Chauthi Ram Yadav for his comments at the event yesterday, police said today.

The ABVP workers raised slogans that they would not allow their college to turn into another JNU. Eventually the organisers cancelled the seminar and escorted Yadav outside the college campus.

Police said that an FIR has been filed against Yadav even as he later apologised and maintained that he had made no reference to Bhagwat.

“Late on Sunday night, an FIR was lodged against Yadav at police station Baradari on the basis of the complaint filed against him. Police and para-military personnel have been deployed outside the college to ensure that the situation remains under control,” SP City (Bareilly) Sameer Saurabh said.

Later, Yadav clarified, “I never made any reference to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat…If my statement has hurt anyone’s sentiment, then I tender my apology.”

US Pressures G20 Into Dropping Climate Reference from Joint Statement

March 20, 2017

'Climate change is out for the time being,' said one anonymous German official

The statement does mention the need to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, but overall the language appears weaker than previous communiques, critics said. (Photo: Francesco Falciani/flickr/cc)

Finance ministers for the Group of 20 (G20), which comprises the world's biggest economies, dropped a joint statement mentioning funding for the fight against climate change after pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia.

A G20 official taking part in the annual meeting told Reuters that efforts by this year's German leadership to keep climate funding in the statement had hit a wall.

"Climate change is out for the time being," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin stressed that the move did not mark the end of the road for the statement. The G20 is scheduled to meet in full in July in Hamburg.

"There can be a way to overcome disagreements today—that is, not writing about it in the communique," Sapin told reporters on Friday. "But not writing about it doesn't mean not talking about it. Not writing about it means that there are difficulties, that there is a disagreement and that we we must work on them in the coming months."

The statement does mention the need to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, but overall the language appears weaker than previous communiques, critics said.

Bloomberg reported:

The 23-page draft, obtained by Bloomberg News, outlines how the most prosperous nations can lead by example, cutting their own greenhouse-gas emissions, financing efforts to curb pollution in poorer countries and take other steps to support the landmark Paris climate accord.
"The link between global warming and the organization of financial markets and even the organization of the global economy" is particularly important for France, Sapin said in Baden-Baden. "We'll see whether there'll be agreement with the U.S. administration, but there can be no going back on this for the G-20."

At the last G20 meeting in July 2016, the group's financial leaders urged all countries that had signed onto the landmark Paris climate accord to bring the deal into action as soon as possible. But President Donald Trump, who has referred to global warming as a "Chinese hoax," took office vowing to remove the U.S. from the voluntary agreement.

On Thursday, a day before the finance meeting, the Trump administration unveiled its "skinny budget" proposal, which included a 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As Friends of the Earth senior political strategist Ben Schreiber said at the time, "With this budget, Trump has made it clear that he is prioritizing Big Oil profits over the health of the American people."

This article was first published on commondreams.org

‘More royal than the king’: an encounter with French Zionism

March 20, 2017

The fabrication of lies and false accusations to intimidate their opponents is only to be expected from those willing to legitimize killing and torture in support of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

A child plays by the fenced-in house of al-Ghirayim family between the Jewish settlement of Givon Hahadasha and the West Bank village of Beit Ijza, north of Jerusalem, Dec. 11, 2016. Mick Tsikas/AAP/PA Images. All rights reserved.

My latest encounter with international Zionism was in Paris, March 10, following the screening of the documentary film “Derrière les Fronts” at Cinema 3 Luxembourg.

I was there to participate in the debate that followed the screening as I appear prominently in the film itself. But immediately after one of the spectators asked a genuine and sincere question about the psychopathologies that I encounter as a clinician in Palestine, a friend of Israel took the microphone to occupy the occasion with a very long, hateful, and chauvinistic speech about “Palestinian paranoia” and “the Arab’s natural violence and racism” – until finally the audience could no longer tolerate his diatribe and a loud collective outcry arose demanding he let someone else speak.

This person’s name, gender, color, religion and appearance are less important than his role, which is to arrive at every possible time and place and to any activity that gives recognition to Palestinians.

I encountered “him” countless times in the past – when I spoke, as a student, at Saint Peter’s University in New York years ago; when I spoke among professionals at the “Thinking Space” special event of The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London after the 2014 Gaza war, and now at a cinema in Paris.

His role is to occupy the time devoted to public debate in order to prevent a meaningful discussion from taking place; to intimidate the speakers and the audience by his aggressive and accusing attitude, and to make use of the occasion to defame and threaten the speakers and the people responsible for organizing the activity giving recognition to the Palestinian experience.

At this moment, we see Israel is hastily cooking up new laws to criminalize and punish individuals involved in both BDS and in exposing Israel’s shameful illegal actions.

Within just the past few days, Israel has deported Hugh Lanning, the Chairman of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, for his involvement in criticizing Israel; and Kahlil Tufkaji, the Director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and an expert in mapping and settlement, has also been arrested.

Meanwhile, Israel’s friends in Europe and the USA are acting ‘more royal than the king,’ with regards to Palestinians and international friends of Palestinians, marking them, weaving lies to smear their reputations and attacking them through their means of livelihood.

Everywhere the mighty truncheon of Israel is swayed to threaten all who dare criticize the occupation or mobilize nonviolent action to address human rights abuses in Palestine.

I have friends who have been receiving threats to their lives for their involvement in supporting Palestinian rights. One must wonder what recourse is left for Palestinians when diplomacy fails and nonviolent action is criminalized – to ask this question is not to encourage violence but to observe the way in which supporters of Zionism, through systematically extinguishing all possible avenues of non-violent public response, are themselves implicated in the episodes of violence that follow.

In this context, the monopolizer of the microphone in the cinema has made the deliberate false claim that the screening of this film had been organized in the framework of the "Israel-Apartheid" week. He makes the absurd accusation that both I and the director of the film are agents of terrorism – and by so doing, endangering our careers, our personal freedom, and our physical safety. He further asserts the colossal inflammatory falsehood that I identify Israeli civilians as legitimate targets of armed resistance!

Finally, he admits that he finds the film “incomprehensible.” Maybe because in his conscious mind the well-worn untruth remains: the Palestinians “don’t exist – where are the Palestinians?”

But the film gives life and an undeniable presence to the Palestinians in their beautiful diversity: the Archbishop Atallah Hanna, the hunger-striking detainee Sheikh Khader Adnan, the director of a queer organization Aswat – Ghadir AlShafie, a university professor Dr. Abaher Al Saqqa, an additional member of a university faculty, and the x-prisoner academic Rula Abu Dahho, and Deema Zallooum, the young mother who saved her child from being kidnapped by settlers.

All of these Palestinians join me in conveying a unified message: we will continue to share our variant testimonies about the occupation, no matter what power is used to break the tissues of Palestinian solidarity. We will strengthen our networking with the supporters of justice and extend our hands to the friends of Palestine.

This piece was first published on Middle East Monitor on 16 March 2017.

Suhana, Nahid and the Curse of Muslim Intolerance

March 20, 2017

It is up to the Mullahs and overtly sensitive Muslims to decide whether they want Islam to become an ossified, irrelevant doctrine or whether they want it to be a flag bearer of inclusivity and freedom.

Nahid Afrin, based in Assam and Suhana Sayed, based in Bangalore, are today united by grief. They are grieving over what the Mullahs have turned Islam into: an intolerant, insensitive and abusive creed hell bent on giving a bad name to Muslims. The fatwa (see editor's note below) against Nahid Afrin by Ulema in Assam and the online trolls against Suhana by ‘Mangalore Muslims’ is indicative of a larger malaise which has come to characterise Muslim society in India. While Suhana has been very nearly silenced, Nahid needs to be saluted for the courage that she has shown in standing up to those bigoted organizations who claim to speak in the name of Islam and Muslims.

Two fundamental objections have been made against these two girls by reactionary Muslim organizations. They are accused of showing their faces to people who are not related to them by blood thus breaking the code of Purdah in Islam. Secondly they are accused of singing and indulging in music which the conservatives think is not permitted in Islam. Suhana is also accused of singing Hindu devotional hymns, thereby seriously compromising the monotheistic principle of Islam which expressly forbids any eulogy for anyone else other than Allah. Let’s take all these objections one by one.

Much has been said about the institution of Purdah in Islam. Whether it refers to a garment which women above a certain age are supposed to wear in public or whether it refers to a division between public and private spaces is an open question. The conservative sections have argued that Purdah is ordained in Islam and that it practically means that women should not show their bodies in public, more so to strangers. However, there is no consensus on which party part can be shown and which cannot. While some say that it is alright to show the face, others have disapproved of it. It is argued that the face and hair of women have the capacity to ‘tempt’ men and therefore women should keep them covered at all times.

Again, since sexuality and culture are intricately linked, some societies find even the hands of Muslim women too tempting and therefore they are barred from showing their hands in public. There is no end to such ridiculous reading of the scripture. Since Islam gets influenced by different cultural patterns, we see a wide divergence in terms of actual practice of the Purdah. While some intellectuals have argued that Purdah actually refers to physical separation between the public and the private, there are very few takers for such an interpretation. More or less there is a consensus that women should not show their faces in public.

The second objection relates to the appropriateness of music and singing in Islam. There has been a long running debate within Muslim societies whether Islam forbids or permits music and singing. On the whole, the scholarly consensus seems to be that only such kind of singing and music be allowed which is expressly for the glory of Allah. All other kinds of music, especially the ones which are for ‘entertainment’ are considered un-Islamic and therefore prohibited in Islam. Despite such a theological consensus, Muslim society in India has produced many musicians and singers. Their contribution to music is so immense that without their reference, one cannot think of writing a history of Indian music. Almost all of them were also religious and God fearing Muslims and they seemed to have overcome the conservative resistance put on their music and singing.

The problem is that till today, they are not considered good Muslims by the Ulema despite bringing laurels to the country for their musical accomplishments. The scholarly opinion remains the same and unchanged since many centuries. And that’s why citing names of Indian Muslim musicians and singers to defend Suhana and Nahid is not going to help. It is not also enough to say that when Prophet of Islam went to Medina, women sang in his honour. It is also not enough to cite Hadiths where it is stated through Aisha, the Prophet’s wife that women used to come and sing in her house in the presence of the Prophet.

What is required is an attempt to break this scholarly consensus which argues that music and singing is forbidden in Islam. Doing so does not require an exegetical exercise of sifting through the pages of Islamic literature, but to argue boldly and consistently that Islam needs to be one with the fundamental marker of contemporary modernity: that of expanding choice and freedom. It is up to these Mullahs and overtly sensitive Muslims to decide whether they want Islam to become an ossified, irrelevant doctrine or whether they want it to be a flag bearer of inclusivity and freedom.

(Editor's note: Some news reports have pointed out that there was no fatwa against Nahid, only a pamphlet was issued. While the media's motive in playing up a fatwa that never was must be questioned, the problem of growing, the curse of growing Muslim intolerance too must be addressed).

Arshad Alam is a NewAgeIslam.com columnist and a social and political commentator

This story was first published on New Age Islam.

A leaf from the illustrious life of the CM of Uttar Pradesh

March 20, 2017

Account of a ten year old story: Helps you understand the CM of UP.

What happened in the eastern Uttar Pradesh town was not a conflict but violence unleashed by MP Yogi Adityanath and his henchmen

If one tries to understand the developments in Gorakhpur and its neighbouring areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh (Poorvanchal) from January 26 to 31, 2007 through the eyes of the print and electronic media, one moves further away from the truth. It is a sordid story of a highly communalised media conjuring up a riot, collaborating with BJP MP Yogi Adityanath, a Bal Thackeray clone and heir to the Gorakhnath Peeth operating from the Gorakhnath temple. Adityanath is a BJP MP for ‘technical’ reasons and cares a damn for the niceties of party discipline because he knows that the party cannot dissociate itself from him. Though he mocked the party by holding a Vishwa Hindu Maha Sammelan at the same time as the BJP’s National Council meet in Lucknow, the party did not mind. It had earlier swallowed the defeat of its candidate in the Assembly election by Adityanath’s candidate. One should know that he is a Thakur; and a Thakur heads the BJP now. The Thakur spread across party lines ensures that Adityanath is allowed to have his own way in his fiefdom, i.e. Poorvanchal. He makes it a point to give calls for a Gorakhpur bandh whenever the chief minister visits the town.

Also read: “Kill 10 Muslims for Murder of Every Hindu” – Among CM Yogi Adityanath’s Choicest Words

'Poorvanchal mein rahan hai to Yogi-Yogi kahna hoga' (You have to chant Yogi’s name if you want to live in Poorvanchal) is a slogan popularised by his gang. But how true is the claim of his hold on Gorakhpur, leave alone Poorvanchal? He has lost all local elections held recently in and around Gorakhpur, and could only manage to lure the relatively respected Samajwadi Party (SP) member and mayoral candidate Anju Chaudhary to his side.

Apparently, Chaudhary fell a victim to the myth spun around him during the last 15 years. Adityanath has been called the Yuvak Hindu Samrat, Narendra Modi of Poorvanchal, the premier of the Hindu Rashtra of Poorvanchal. He has used the wealth of the Gorakhnath Temple to sustain his army of lumpen youth. Adityanath has followed the RSS methodology in creating organisations with different names that he calls cultural bodies. Among these are Hindu Yuva Vahini, Sri Ram Shakti Prakoshtha, Gorakhnath Purvanchal Vikas Manch, Hindu Mahasabha and Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh. Adityanath himself is the main functionary of these unregistered outfits. He also controls much of the functioning of the Bajrang Dal and the Hindu Jagran Manch. He holds his durbar in his temple that is attended by local police and officials.

Adityanath has perfected his technique of manufacturing riots. An insignificant incident like a Hindu’s clothes getting stained accidentally by the paan spat by a Muslim is turned into an act of humiliation of Hindus. A rape in which the victim is dalit and the perpetrator Muslim is used to substantiate the allegation that “Muslims rape our women” and all hell is let loose on the Muslims. The last 11 years are witness to several such acts. No criminal case has been registered against him except once in 1999 when a case was registered against him in Maharajganj after the killing of the official gunman accompanying sp leader Talat Aziz. The police and administration have remained mute spectators with the political leadership looking the other way. All this has given him an air of invincibility. Muslims have been given to understand that neither the Bahujan Samaj Party, nor the sp is willing to rein him in. Perhaps the SP is seeking to counter Mayawati’s Brahmin card with its own Thakur card by indulging him. The Congress is nowhere and also lacks a will to take him on. All this leaves the Muslims here with no option but to resign themselves to their fate.

This time, however, his plans went awry. On the night of January 26-27, Pankaj Rai, a history-sheeter, and his gang chased a dance party performing at a marriage. They mingled with a Muharram procession and the processionists thought that they were being attacked. Suddenly a gunshot was heard, which the then administration thinks was Rai’s act. As panic set in, more people — both Hindu and Muslim — were beaten up and a young man, Raj Kumar Agrahari, was badly injured and hospitalised. The District Magistrate (DM) was informed at 1.30am and he told officials to brief Adityanath that he should not visit the site. Initially, the MP agreed. But as Agrahari died, Adityanath declared that now he would go to the spot and seek revenge for the killing of a Hindu by Muslims. He reached the spot with his lumpen who destroyed a mazhar. He declared his resolve to ensure justice for the Hindus, swords were flashed before the dm and senior police officers. Short of policemen, the administration tried to persuade the MP to vacate the place but he didn’t budge.

When the now-determined dm took the dagger away from a goon, they charged towards him and demanded the dagger back. Upon this, the dm ordered the police to disperse them by force. Suddenly the MP found himself facing a situation that was not in the script. Afraid that the lathis might find Adityanath, his well-wishers cried out for compromise. The MP demanded that curfew be imposed and withdrew. Though the dm didn’t think a curfew was required as the violence was designed to disrupt Muharram, he agreed to the MP’s demand.

Later, however, Adityanath announced a torchlight procession. The administration succeeded in preventing it from moving but it was captured on camera and a non-procession was turned into one by the willing media. Emboldened, he announced a Shraddhanjali Sabha the next day at the town’s busiest crossroad. By this time, the dm had resolved not to allow it any further as the police reinforcements were in. He issued orders that no meeting was to be allowed and that any violator was to be arrested. With unambiguous orders, the police moved. Adityanath dismissed the warning as a hollow threat but landed in an unforeseen situation.

He and his ‘followers’ were taken to the police line. Soon, a police van arrived and the detained people were asked to board the jail-bound vehicle. Adityanath jumped into the bus, declaring that he cannot leave his followers. To their surprise, the bus started moving and they realised that they were in trouble. The three-km journey to the jail took more than 90 minutes as his goons pelted stones and every other means to block the van but to no avail. For the first time in his life, Adityanath is jailed under Section 151A of the crpc only to find later that he has also been booked under Sections 146, 147, 279, 506 of the Indian Penal Code for leading the attack on the mazaar (grave). On the strength of this fir, Adityanath is remanded to 14-day judicial custody.

On January 29, his followers assembled at Gorakhnath Temple that falls in an area where more than 50 percent of the population is Muslim. They start throwing stones and burning tyres in the direction of the Muslim locality and on the road. But there is no retaliation from the other side.

Dr Hari Om, the then dm in-charge, wishes to put it on record that not a single incident of slogan-shouting or stone-pelting was resorted to by Muslims. He wants the world to know that although much grieved by the decision to impose curfew as it hampered Muharram, the Muslims, led by the venerable Miyan saheb, assured the administration of all cooperation as peace was more important and kept their word. Meanwhile, the media kept screaming that Gorakhpur was burning, the walls of the Gorakhnath Temple were demolished. Which, of course, was a naked lie.

And all of a sudden, the district magistrate was informed that he’s been shunted along with the superintendent of police. As he moved away, Rashid, a Muslim youth, was killed. It is a matter of discussion in Gorakhpur that it was done by a Hindu Yuva Vahini man who injured himself to use it as a cover. Newspapers flashed the pictures of the Yuva Vahini man’s bandaged leg, obliterating the killing of Rashid altogether.

So where was the riot, as imagined by the interested media, asks Hari Om. From January 27 to 29, Adityanath and his goons laid siege to Gorakhpur without any provocation from Muslims. A mazhar was gutted, masjids and shops of Muslims destroyed, government properties damaged by the gangs, stone pelting on the police by his goons: do these make a perfect riot? A riot involves some degree of involvement of two warring groups. How is it that areas with substantial Muslim population did not experience any untoward incident barring the planned attacks of Adityanath’s gangs? Why did cm Mulayam Singh Yadav remove the officers who jailed the BJP MP who was hell-bent on destroying peace? Why did the officers’ successors go straight to Adityanath for forgiveness? Why did the media fail to report the facts as facts?

Hari Om has one regret — that he had assured Muslims that by giving a reprieve of 7-8 hours in the curfew on January 29, he would ensure that the Muharram tradition was not disturbed. However, the moment he was removed, Rashid was killed to celebrate it as Adityanath’s victory and the curfew was extended. Tazias remained where they were. The Muslims kept their word, he did not. This young officer has just one question for his country: can a community feel at home where it is prevented from even mourning by all kinds of machination? Can a community celebrate its existence in a country where law-keepers look over their shoulders when it is attacked? Such is the sad story of Uttar Pradesh, the truth of one of the many riots that were not.

First published in Tehelka.com, Feb 17, 2007
https://communalism.blogspot.in/2007/02/riot-manufactured-in-gorakhpur.html

Jaipur hotel owner and his business targeted over beef

March 20, 2017

Incident: The case of Hotel Hyatt Rabbani, Polo Victory, Jaipur
Date: 19^th March, 2017
Time: 6 pm onwards
Arrested: Receptionist Wasim and cleaner Qasim, Jaipur police on the look out for the owner Naeem Rabbani
Charges, disturbing peace, restraining under sec 151 Cr PC
Hotel now sealed by JMC and Sample of meat collected from Waste, will be sent for examination.

One Kamal Didi (she signs as Kamal Didi too) of the Rashtriya Mahila Gau Rakshak Sewa Mandal was trying to catch stray cows with the help of the Nagar Nigam to take them to the Gaushalas when Qasim, a cleaner boy from Rabbani Hotel, came to throw garbage in an empty plot near the dustbin on Kanti Chandra Road in Jaipur. All the hoteliers and other private residents throw garbage there. Some of the stray cows who were hanging out near the kachra (the stray cow population of the city is always hovering near dustbins, as they are very hungry), immediately went for the freshly thrown bags, which had food waste along with some chicken / mutton bones.

Kamal Didi immediately started thrashing Qasim accusing him of trying to pollute the cows with beef, dragged him and brought him to the hotel, with 15 other of her followers. In next to no time more than a hundred people joined them later, all wanting the hotel owner Rabbani to come out. The police was called and it was alleged that beef was being cooked and served in his hotel.

The police and the media arrived together. The Gau Rakshaks are always with the media. When they could not find Rabbani, they picked up Wasim the receptionist and the cleaner and booked them under section 151 CrPC and arrested them.

At the hotel they found brochures on the activities of the SIO (the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Hind, JIE), writings of Maulana Wahauddin and the communal harmony campaign literature of Jamaat. So the police reached the JIE’s office asking for Naeem Rabbani. When they learnt that he was not there, they went to his house. Not finding him there either, in line with filmstar Ajeet's his famous dialogue ‘Uski ma, behen ko utha lao’ (Get hold of his mother and sister), they picked up the brother-in-law Abdul Rehamn, who had nothing to do with the hotel.

That is when people got in touch with me.

I rushed to the Sindhi camp police station. The police let the brother-in-law go. It was only on our way out that we learnt that they had picked up two others of the hotel. After dropping Abdul Rehman safely to his relatives, we went back to the police station to meet the other two and get them out. But the police told us that they had been booked and arrested. They would be produced in front of a magistrate and restrained.

What is interesting is that the protest over the hoax cry that beef was being cooked, resulted in police taking the meat samples and also the Jaipur municipal corporation sealing the hotel. They got all the guests out and sealed it.

What is sad is that Hyatt Rabbani has been getting awards regularly from the hoteliers association for good service among other things. Now the hotel is closed. Rabbani is being asked to show up in the morning (of March 20) and will also be restrained under sec 151 of CrPC.

The Muslim community leadership in the city is in a state of shock over how the police could act under pressure and book Rabbani his staff over a mere a allegation, without basis, of beef being cooked and served. They are very upset. The electronic media has virtually declared that the meat samples were of suspicious nature, did not look like mutton or chicken.

So even before Yogi Adityanath takes over as UP CM, the rest of their lot are so emboldened that they take no time in declaring a Muslim who runs a hotel as committing a heinous crime. Some were also sure that this was done by the next door hotelier who was threatened by their booming business. The ward councillor Nirmala Sharma was also there directing the corporation staff to seal the hotel. While this was being done, the crowds were shouting Jai Shri Ram! In fact, Jai Shri Ram and other slogans were constantly being raised in the drama which lasted for four-and-a-half hours. From 6 pm to 10.30 pm.

Qasim and Wasim are spending the night in the police station. Hopefully they should be released tomorrow. Rabbani not knowing what has hit him, was just working hard in his business is now preparing to face the police. His friends and other members of the Muslim community kept saying that all over Jaipur people are throwing garbage as there are not even garbage bins. Why take action against us only? When I told this to a senior police official he said the police only act when somebody complains.

This is not the first beef related case in Rajasthan. On May 30, 2015 in village Birloka, Khimsar tehsil, Nagaur district, 60-year-old Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi was lynched by a mob simply because a rumour was spread that Muslims had killed more than 200 cows for a feast and pictures of the carcasses started circulating on social media.

Young men in thousands gathered in the fields of Kumhari village where the carcasses were lying as the municipality contractor had rented the field to dispose of cattle carcass, as a routine municipal exercise. Hate speeches and protests took off all over and before one knew Abdul Ghaffar Quereshi who had nothing to do with the incident was beaten with iron rods and killed in the market place, despite some of his Hindu neighbours trying to help him. The hate speech had provoked the neighbourhood to just kill the man as they wanted him out of the village.

The PUCL condemns this attack by the police and Kamal Didi who have maligned the name of Naeem Rabbani and appeals to the police commissioner Jaipur, Sanjay Agarwal to stop this attack on the hotelier and his business. The DCP west and the local police need to be charge-sheeted for acting against Rabbani under pressure of the Gau Rakshaks and the ward councilor. The JMC should also be held accountable for sealing the hotel for no reason, acting under pressure from the ward councillor.

Kavita Srivastava is Secretary, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)

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