To counter external forces, Kashmiris must be taken into confidence

July 21, 2016

The sad reality is that every couple of years unrest grips the Kashmir Valley and expected reactions emerge from politicians, rulers and Pakistan. The unrest continues for some time and life becomes normal thereafter. Kashmir becomes the headlines of international media only when there is unrest and violence. In normal times, nobody thinks of Kashmir and Kashmiris. One needs to realise that the Kashmir is not an issue of law and order. It is a political issue and needs to be looked at accordingly.

Kashmir is burning. People are agitating especially in the South Kashmir after the killing of ‘poster boy’ Burhan Wani of militant group Hizbul Mujahideen in an encounter on July 8. So far, 40 people have died and around 200 have got serious injuries in their eyes. Many of them are operated upon, but a sizeable number of them are likely to lose vision. Earlier in the summer of 2010, students and youths were on the streets fighting security forces. More than 110 youth lost their lives in stone-pelting protests. The anger among Kashmiris and especially youths was visible. To pacify them, the then UPA government had sent an all-party delegation to Kashmir to meet the people and take them into confidence.

As expected, Pakistan tried to internationalise the issue. They raised it in the United Nations Conference on Human Rights, where India’s permanent representative Syed Akbaruddin reminded the world body that Pakistan has been shielding designated terrorists in their territory. Pakistan will observe Tuesday, July 19 as “black day to express solidarity with Kashmiris.” The timing is also important. Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif returned only few days ago after a month as he underwent a bypass surgery in the UK. Suddenly posters sprouted across Pakistan appealing to army chief Raheel Sharif to take over power in a military coup. The decision to observe July 19 as black day has also to do with Pakistan’s inner struggle between elected civilian government and the all-powerful army.

Thousands of people attended Wani’s funeral. Intelligence agencies including military intelligence should have realised the sentiments of the people and tipped off the government. Accordingly, a plan could have been drawn to prevent large-scale violence. The agencies failed to realise the popularity of Wani. Thousands of people came on the streets especially in South Kashmir. Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti appealed to parents to “rein in agitated youth” and maintain calm after four days. She also asked her party legislators to go to villages and speak to people. The government’s visibility was absent in the initial period, when it was needed most. First 24 hours are always vital. If nothing happens during that time nothing happens later. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was touring Africa and important time was lost. There was not much political movement till the PM returned from Africa. A high-powered meeting was held and opposition leaders including Sonia Gandhi were consulted. The PM asked security forces in J&K to exercise restraint. Ideally, the J&K CM should have been called for the high-power meeting. At every step, Kashmiris need to be taken into confidence.

The government needs to begin the process of dialogue. The positive thing is BJP is a coalition partner in J&K government. The government of India needs to take forward the dialogue process initiated by AB Vajpayee government. In 2003, Vajpayee, during a visit to Kashmir, unilaterally announced ceasefire with Pakistan. He categorically said that the dialogue will be held with all the stakeholders. When a journalist asked whether dialogue will be held within the framework of the Constitution, Vajpayee promptly replied "insaniyat ke dayre mein (within the framework of humanity)". The word "insaniyat" is important and accordingly dialogue should be resumed with all the stakeholders which include various factions of the Hurriyat Conference. If chairman of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari can call Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to express their solidarity then why cannot Indian leadership call him and others and resume dialogue. If some agreement can be made with Naga leadership then what prevents government to begin dialogue with the Hurriyat. Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s Hurriyat is different from that of Mirwaiz. Earlier, the government had begun dialogue with Sajjad Lone and today he is a minister in the J&K government.

The external forces always try to exploit the Kashmir issue. They cannot succeed in their design if we win their confidence. The feeling of alienation prevailing among Kashmiris must be removed. Kashmiri youths, too, have aspirations. The educated youth like others wish to go abroad and prosper. Unfortunately, many of them find it extremely difficult to get passports because some of their close or distant relatives were part of militancy at one time. Issuing passports may look like a small step but through such acts, one can win the confidence of the people and in a conflict zone it is needed the most.

The number of active militants has gone down significantly in the Valley. The number of foreign militants has also decreased. It is believed that as of now there are 146 active militants including 93 locals. There is no upsurge of Kashmiris joining militant groups. This is a positive sign. To win the trust of Kashmiris, contentious Armed Forces Special Powers’ Act (AFSPA) needs to be withdrawn from some of the areas of the Valley, where there are no major incidents of terrorism. The act provides impunity to the armed forces. Mehbooba Mufti and even earlier CM Omar Abdullah have been demanding the same for a long time.

Kashmiris should be given confidence that Article 370 will not be tampered and they will continue to enjoy rights given under the article. There is a strong feeling in the Valley that Kashmir is always ruled by Delhi and J&K government has no power. That needs to be removed through various pro-people steps in Kashmir. Political dialogue must be resumed with all the stakeholders. The Kashmir issue cannot be kept unresolved to gain political advantage in rest of the country.

(This article first appeared in Sakal Times and is being reproduced here with the permission of the author; the author a senior Mumbai based journalist has also been very active within the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy)

Gujarat Police Complicit in Attack on Dalit Tanners: Fact Finding Report

July 21, 2016

Police Authorities could have halted attackers even before they reached Una town, claims an investigation by a team of activists

Gujarat has seen angry statewide protests for four days now, since Monday last against the brutal assault of four Dalit leather tanners by self-styled cow protection vigilantes in Gir Somnath district’s Una taluka on July 11. After beginning to beat up the tanners in their village, the assailants continued to thrash them right by a police station in Una town, and four police officers have been suspended for allowing the attack to go on. A video taken by the assaulters was circulated on social media by the assaulters.

An independent fact finding by eight researchers has revealed how the police could have halted the assault even before the attackers dragged the tanners to Una town. After the self-proclaimed cow protectors forced the four Dalit men into a car in their village and were driving them to Una, they were stopped by a police vehicle on their way to the town. Did the police intervene? No, the police simply
spoke to the assailants for a few minutes and then allowed them to continue on their way, the report says.

The report also raises a few more questions about the role of the police in the horrific events. Why, for instance, did the Una police take six hours to lodge an FIR about an atrocity perpetrated outside its premises? And why did the police ensure that the injured parents of the Dalit youth could not travel to hospital in Una on the night of July 11?

Time Line of Events
The three-page report was compiled by a team of eight independent Dalit rights activists who formed a temporary forum called the Dalit Adhikar Manch and visited Una on July 17. The fact-finding team consisted of Subodh Parmar, a law student from Mehsana, and activists Kirit Rathod, Kantibhai Parmar and Kaushik Parmar.

According to the report, the attack began in the village of Mota Samadhiyala on the morning of July 11.

Balubhai Sarvaiya, a Dalit leather tanner whose family had been in the profession of skinning dead animals for several generations, had just received two dead cows from people in neighbouring villages. Balubhai’s sons Veshram and Ramesh, along with his nephews Bechar and Ashok, began to skin the carcasses in an open spot in the village. At around 10 am, a car drove by, saw them, and drove away, only to return a few minutes later with two more cars and around 35 men armed with sticks and iron pipes.

The mob accused the four Dalit men of killing cows. Even as the tanners tried to explain that they were merely skinning animals that were already dead, the gau rakshaks (cow protectors) began to rain blows and verbal abuse on them.

By this time, a villager made a phone call to Balubhai to inform him of the developments. “We rushed to the spot and pleaded with folded hands to those men, asking them to stop beating our sons,” said Kuvarben Sarvaiya, Balubhai’s wife.

Instead, the mob continued to beat the four men for more than an hour, stripped off their shirts and forced them into one of their SUVs. “We didn’t know where they were going to take them so my husband also tried to sit in the car,” said Kuvarben. "But they hit him hard on the head and hit me on my shoulder."

Allegations of Police Complicity
According to the fact-finding report, while driving from the village towards Una town 20 km away, the assailants’ cars were stopped by a police vehicle. A conversation ensued, in which the attackers reportedly told the police that they were taking the Dalit men to Una. “The police, almost joining front with the attackers, told them that they were going to the place of the incident,” said the report. “This shows that the police was involved in this atrocity.”

In Una, the four leather tanners were tied to the back of a car that bore a sticker reading “President – Shiv Sena, District – Gir Somnath”. They were then beaten again for an hour, with the attackers recording videos of the assault. The tanners were finally left at Una police station. Once again, instead of detaining the perpetrators of the assault, the police kept the victims of the crime at the station for the next few hours. A First Information Report was not lodged until six hours after the thrashing ended, and only six men were named as the accused despite a much larger mob participating in the assault.

Back in Mota Samadhiyala, villagers had called for an ambulance to take the injured Balubhai and Kuvarben to the civic hospital in Una town. According to the report, the police interfered yet again. “The police told the ambulance driver to take them to Gir Gadhda [taluka] instead of Una town,” said the report. When the couple protested, the police “threatened them and misbehaved with them”.

Technically, says Balubhai, their village is in Una taluka and Gir Gadhda is in the opposite direction. “The police was clearly taking the side of those attackers – they stopped us from going to Una because they wanted to keep us away from what was being done to our boys,” said Balubhai.

A Pattern, Not a Solitary Incident
Subodh Parmar, one of the members of the fact-finding team, claims that the Una incident is not the only atrocity against Dalits by people linked to cow protection.
“This particular incident came to light because the attackers were brazen enough to put up videos of it,” said Parmar. “But so many crimes against Dalits go unreported in Gujarat, and from what we have seen over the past few months, there have been other incidents of Dalits being attacked by people claiming to be gau rakshaks.”

Sabrangindia has reported on the pattern of attacks against Dalits and the overall laxity of the administration and government in addressing the issue. The pattern is all the more serious since a large section of the attackers/accused appear to hail from the Darbar community and have also displayed a horrific pattern of gloating after the incident –videos of assaults are taken while the attack takes place and shared on social media by the aggressors themselves.

The Press Release and Appeal to the Chief Minister, Anandi Patel can be read here.

How exactly does the Indian media define a terrorist?

July 20, 2016

The English-language media's use of the term seems to be dictated by muscular nationalism and an anti-Kashmir bias rather than any objective parameters.

On July 10, India woke up to startling pictures of massive crowds at the funeral of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in Tral, Kashmir.

The disconnect between Kashmir and the rest of India was captured by the fact that even as Wani was a figure of mass adulation in the Valley, large sections of the Indian media had described him as a “terrorist” as it had reported on his killing by Indian security forces on July 8.

This included the Times of India, Times Now as well as NDTV – even as theTelegraph, Indian Express and Business Standard stuck to the plain vanilla “militant”.

How these respective organisations differentiated between a “terrorist” and a “militant” was unclear and undefined. This might seem like hair splitting around semantics but it’s actually far deeper than that – even if this is a discussion that’s not been had in India.

“Terrorism” and “terrorist” are words laden with value judgment, used often by political players as a means of getting their own message and viewpoint across. In reality, there are few definitions of the word “terrorist” accepted across the board. Indeed, it is for this reason that a number of global publications have strict guidelines on how to use the term. In India, however, few press outlets seem to have rules about the T-word and much of its use in the country, it seems, is driven either by Arnab Goswami-esque jingoism and/or India’s highly troubled relationship with Kashmir.

History of the word “terrorism”

There are few words in the English-language which have had as tumultuous a life as “terrorism”. In fact, the word didn’t even start its life in English but in French where the regime de la terreur was a label adopted by the new French state to establish order after the first uprisings of the French Revolution in 1789. The first avatar of the word “terrorism” was therefore almost completely different from its modern meaning.

Firstly, it was applied to the functioning of a state, whereas today it is used to almost always describe non-state actors. Even more strikingly, at the time, it had decidedly positive connotations. The “terrorism” of the French state was pressed into ideals that many would today consider the foundations of the modern world: Liberté, égalité and fraternité. Given this connotation, the state used it as a badge of honour with revolutionary leader Maximilien de Robespierre proclaiming that, “terror is nothing but justice, prompt, severe and inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue.”

In its more modern form, as a tool used by people against the state, terrorism traces itself to an Italian revolutionary called Carlo Pisacane who in 1857 theorised the “propaganda of the deed”. Holding actions, and not ideas, to be the driving force of human civilisation, Pisacane was clear that as a tool of revolutionary instruction, violence was a far better teacher for the masses than a book or a speech.

The first group to take up Pisacane’s ideas were the Russian revolutionaries, Narodnaya Volya (literally, “people’s will”). Using the doctrine of the “propaganda of the deed”, the organisation assassinated prominent people – including the Tsar himself in 1881 – in order to spur a mass revolt against the Russian monarchy. Between 1881 and 1914 other assassinations inspired by Pisacane’s ideas, often undertaken by libertarian anarchists, were King Umberto I of Italy, King Carlos I of Portugal and King George I of Greece.

Note that while the terrorists till today subscribe to the “propaganda of the deed” – using violence as a way to shock – they differed starkly with most anarchists of that period in their goals. Like the French Revolution, the anarchists of the time subscribed to ideas such as democracy or human rights, which would generally be viewed as positive today, and used “terrorism” to combat autocratic regimes. Consequently, “terrorism” was mostly a value-neutral term describing a type of action rather than something pejorative. It is in this context that Indian revolutionaries such as Bhagat Singh are called “terrorists”. In fact, in its 1929 manifesto, Bhagat Singh’s party the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association was quite open to admitting that “terrorism” was a part of its policy to pull down the British Raj.

Civilians in the firing line

Post World War II, revolutionary nationalists such as the Irish Republican Army, Jewish Zionist, Palestinians and Sri Lankan Tamils would use techniques similar to the Anarchists but with one crucial difference – now mass civilian causalities were also involved. This is, of course, how modern terrorism is defined. This change also made the word a pejorative one. Post World War II, there are few self-described terrorists.

In the modern-age, “terrorism” as a term has famously avoided a common definition – Saudi Arabia even defines atheists as “terrorists”. The US State Department goes by this: “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents”. The academic and terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman has a five-part test: violence for political goals, aims to influence a broader audience, involves an organised group, targets civilians and carried out by a non-state actor.

No matter the definition, “terrorism” as a term is a highly pejorative one today and used by political players to tar their opponents. “The decision to call someone or label some organisation “terrorist” becomes almost unavoidably subjective, depending largely on whether one sympathises with or opposes the person/group/cause concerned,” explains Bruce Hoffman. “If one identifies with the victim of the violence, for example, then the act is terrorism. If, however, one identifies with the perpetrator, the violent act is regarded in a more sympathetic, if not positive (or, at the worst, an ambivalent) light; and it is not terrorism”.

Global media

Given this vagueness, many global media outlets are reluctant to use the term “terrorist”, preferring more banal – and unambiguous – words such as “gunman”, “bomber” or “militant”. “There is no agreed consensus on what constitutes a terrorist or terrorist act,” the BBC lays out in a guide for its reports. “The use of the word will frequently involve a value judgement.” It goes on to add:

The word “terrorist” itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding. We should convey to our audience the full consequences of the act by describing what happened. We should use words which specifically describe the perpetrator such as “bomber”, “attacker”, “gunman”, “kidnapper”, “insurgent”, and “militant”. We should not adopt other people’s language as our own; our responsibility is to remain objective and report in ways that enable our audiences to make their own assessments about who is doing what to whom.

Many other organisations agree with the BCC. Reuters calls the word “terrorism” and “terrorism” “emotive words” and advises reporters to not use them unless quoting someone in direct speech.

Indian media’s use of the term

The Indian media, though, seems to have no fixed guidelines on the issue and the word “terrorism” is used without any consistency. Most definitions of the act involve attacks on civilian targets but sections of the Indian media consistently use the term “terrorism”/”terrorists” to also describe cases of military targets being attacked.

In Kashmir, for example, sections of the Indian media have consistently described attacks on military installations as “terrorism”. For a November, 2015 attack on an Indian Army base in Kashmir, while NDTV, Times Now and the Times of India described the attackers as “terrorists”, Reuters and The Telegraph in contrast, stuck to “gunmen” and "militants".

Yet, even with respect to attacks on Indian security forces, there seems to be no consistency. In Manipur, for example, attacks on Indian forces have been reported by NDTV, Times Now and the Times of India using the word “militant”. The value-laden term “terrorist”, it seems, is easier to abjure when the location isn’t Kashmir.

Meaningless words

In his sparkling 1946 essay Politics and the English Language, British writer George Orwell criticises the use of what he calls “meaningless words”:

The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable’. The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different.

“Terrorism” is, of course, exactly the sort of “meaningless word” that Orwell railed against, used not for its lexical meaning but to serve various political agendas.

In most cases, the Indian media uses it either to suit the purposes of the state or various nationalist narratives. The sharp difference between the way it is used when Muslims/Kashmir are involved versus other instances such as the North-East also points to a subtle anti-Muslim bias.

The nationalist pressure on the Indian media is, of course, apparent and, in the case of Burhan Wani’s death, has even been written about by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai. As Sardesai explains, even in Britain during the 1983 UK-Argentina Falklands War, the BBC came under intense pressure to appear more patriotic. However, at the time, the organisation resisted, with director general John Birt reaffirming that the BBC was not an “extension of the political authority”. Its first journalistic commitment was to the truth, not to the nation state – a principle that the Indian media has unfortunately not stuck to when using the terms “terrorism” and “terrorist”.

This article originally appeared on Scroll. It can be found here.

रोहित वेमुला को दबाने के लिए JNU किया गया था. गुजरात को दबाने के लिए क्या होगा?

July 20, 2016

निर्बल को न सताइये, जाकी मोटी हाय |
मरे जीव के चाम से, लोह भस्म हो जाय ||

मेरे गुरु कबीर साहेब यह लिख गए हैं.

आप पढ़ते नहीं तो गलती आपकी. अब भुगतिए.

रोहित वेमुला को दबाने के लिए JNU किया गया था. गुजरात को दबाने के लिए क्या होगा? आप सब अनुभवी लोग हैं. अंदाजा लगाइए. मेरा सूत्र यह है कि जो भी होगा, ब्राह्मणवादी मीडिया के जरिए होगा और उसमें एक तरफ मुसलमान को जरूर रखा जाएगा.

सही अंदाजा लगाने वाले को ज्योतिबा फुले रचना संग्रह देकर सम्मानित किया जाएगा.

यह है 2016 के भारत के दलित…चौड़ा सीना, सिर गर्व से ऊंचा, आत्मविश्वास से भरपूर. राजकाज में हिस्सा मांगता. राष्ट्र निर्माण में हिस्सेदारी की चाहत. स्वाभिमानी.

अहमदाबाद की तस्वीर. दूसरी तस्वीर सिविल सर्विस की ऑल इंडिया टॉपर टीना डाबी की.

सुना आपने? केंद्रीय मंत्री और पूर्व बीजेपी अध्यक्ष वेंकैया नायडू ने कहा है कि गाय के मामले में राजनीति नहीं होनी चाहिए!

… क्योंकि गाय अब मुसलमानों, दलितों और ओबीसी को एकजुट कर रही है. गाय का खेल बीजेपी को महंगा पड़ने लगा है.

फोटो – बिहार चुनाव में बीजेपी का पोस्टर.

घाटी में प्रेस का गला घोंटने की कार्रवाई

July 20, 2016

July 16, 2016: जम्मू-कश्मीर पुलिस ने अखबारों के ब्यूरो में छापे मारे, कर्मचारियों को हिरासत में लिया और प्रतियां जब्त की

श्रीनगर। जम्मू-कश्मीर के दो बड़े अखबारों ने कहा है कि पिछले शनिवार की रात जम्मू-कश्मीर पुलिस ने उनके दफ्तरों पर छापे मारे। छपी हुई प्रतियों को जब्त कर लिया और कर्मचारियों को गिरफ्तार कर ले गई। साफ तौर पर यह घाटी में मीडिया का गला घोंटने की कार्रवाई है।

कश्मीर टाइम्स के मुताबिक शनिवार को आधी रात के वक्त 20 से ज्यादा पुलिस वालों ने श्रीनगर के बाहरी इलाके रंगरथ में स्थित इसके प्रिंटिंग प्रेस पर छापा मारा और फोरमैन फयाज अहमद और दस कर्मचारियों को पकड़ पर ले गए। अखबार ने कहा है – पुलिसकर्मियों ने कश्मीर टाइम्स की मेटेलिक प्रिंटिंग प्लेटों और इसकी 70000 प्रतियों को जब्त कर लिया। पुलिस ने केटी प्रेस प्राइवेट लिमिटेड प्रिंटिंग प्रेस को भी बंद करवा दिया। अखबार का कहना है कि पुलिसवालों ने वहां मौजूद कर्मचारियों से बदतमीजी की और उनके मोबाइल फोन छीन लिए। जिन कर्मचारियों ने उनकी इस हरकत का विरोध किया उनकी पिटाई की गई।

एक और बड़े अखबार का कहना है कि पुलिस ने इसके प्रिंटिंग प्रेस पर रात दो बजेे छापे मारकर छपी हुई प्रतियों को जब्त कर लिया और वहां मौजूद कर्मचारियों को हिरासत में ले लिया।

पुलिस ने अल-सुबह अंग्रेजी अखबार राइजिंग कश्मीर की प्रतियां भी जब्त कर ली और शेखपोरा (बडगाम) स्थित इसके प्रिंटिंग प्रेस पर छापा मारा।

अखबार का कहना है कि बडगाम से एक पुलिस दल ने आकर प्रेस पर छापा मारा और राइजिंग कश्मीर और अन्य प्रकाशनों की प्रतियों को जब्त कर लिया। प्रिटिंग का काम खत्म कर जाते वक्त फोरमैन मोहम्मद युसूफ समेत सभी कर्मचारियों को हिरासत में ले लिया गया। युसूफ से अखबार के वितरण स्थलों के बारे में बताने के लिए कहा गया। बाद में पुलिस वाले प्रेस इनक्लेव पहुंचे और ड्राइवर समेत अखबार की गाड़ी जब्त कर ली। ड्राइवर इरशाद खान ने कहा- उन्होंने मुझे प्रेस इनक्लेव में पकड़ लिया और पुलिस स्टेशन चलने को कहा। अखबार का कहना है कि स्टाफ को हमहमा पुलिस चौकी ले जाया गया और वहां इसकी सारी प्रतियां जब्त कर ली गई। इस दौरान सडक़ों पर वाहन नहीं चल रहे थे और सुरक्षा बल कफ्र्यू की वजह से लोगों को निकलने नहीं दे रहे थे। इस वजह से कर्मचारियों को पैदल ही दफ्तर पहुंचना पड़ा। सरकार घाटी में पहले ही इंटरनेट और टेलीफोन कनेक्शन बंद कर चुकी है। 9 जुलाई को टॉप आतंकी कमांडर बुरहान वानी के मारे जाने के बाद से छिड़े संघर्ष में अब तक 41 लोग मारे जा चुके हैं।

यहां यह याद करना जरूरी है कि 2010 और 2013 में भी सरकार ने अखबारों के वितरण और उनके वाहनों को रोक कर अखबारों को प्रकाशित होने से रोक दिया था। अखबारों की प्रतियां जब्त कर ली जाती थीं और उनका सर्कुलेशन रोक दिया जाता था। मीडियाकर्मियों को कफ्र्यू पास देना बंद कर दिया गया था।

सरकार और इसकी सुरक्षा एजेंसियां घाटी में प्रेस को रोकने औैर इसका गला घोंटने के लिए पिछले ढाई दशक से इसी तरह के हथकंडे अपना रही है।

केंद्र सरकार के गृह मंत्रालय ने 2010 ने डीएवीपी को एक पत्र जदारीर किया था। इसके बाद मनमाने ढंग से कश्मीर टाइम्स और छह अन्य प्रकाशनों के डीएवीपी विज्ञापन रोक दिए गए थे। कश्मीर टाइम्स एक मात्र अखबार है जिसे इसके बाद डीएवीपी का कोई विज्ञापन नहीं मिल रहा है। जबकि डीएवीपी के विज्ञापन अखबारों की आमदनी के प्रमुख होते हैं।

(अनुराधा भसीन जामवाल कश्मीर टाइम्स की एक्जीक्यूटिव एडीटर और पीस एक्टिविस्ट हैं। यह जानकारी कश्मीर प्रेस एसोसिएशन की ओर से जारी की गई है।)

जनसैलाब. बाबा साहेब का बुद्ध भूषण प्रेस और आंबेडकर भवन को रात के अंधेरे में गिराए जाने के खिलाफ लोगों का गुस्सा सड़कों पर

July 20, 2016

गुजरात से सैकड़ो किलोमीटर दूर मुंबई.

शहर का हाल के दिनों का सबसे बड़ा जनसैलाब. बाबा साहेब का बुद्ध भूषण प्रेस और आंबेडकर भवन को रात के अंधेरे में गिराए जाने के खिलाफ लोगों का गुस्सा सड़कों पर.

आंबेडकरवादियों से शांति की अपील मत कीजिए सरकार. संविधान और कानून की इज्जत वह आपसे ज्यादा करता है. जो शांतिपूर्ण नहीं है, वह कुछ भी हो सकता है लेकिन आंबेडकरवादी नहीं. जब वह सबसे अधिक गुस्से में होगा, तो आपके खिलाफ वोट डाल देगा… बस इतने से ही उसका काम बन जाता है. यही बाबा साहेब का रास्ता है.

गुजरात में लोगों ने यही तो कहा है कि तुम्हारी माँ है, अंतिम संस्कार तुम करो. इससे बढ़कर अहिंसक आंदोलन और क्या हो सकता है

दिल्ली में यूनाइटेड ओबीसी फोरम के संसद मार्च का जबर्दस्त असर हुआ है. सत्ताधारी दल पर भारी दबाव है. सूचना यह है कि सेंट्रल यूनिवर्सिटी में एसोसिएट प्रोफेसर और प्रोफेसर पद पर ओबीसी आरक्षण देने पर सरकार विचार कर रही है.

सत्ताधारी दल समेत कई पार्टियों के कुछ सांसद इसके पक्ष में हैं. अभी सिर्फ असिस्टेंट प्रोफेसर पद ही OBC को आरक्षण मिलता है.

ओबीसी फोरम के तमाम मित्रों को इस शानदार प्रदर्शन के लिए बधाई. लड़ाई जारी रही तो कामयाबी जरूर मिलेगी.

How Reservations Help Disadvantaged-Caste Students Get Higher Education

July 20, 2016

As many as 26% male and 35% female students from India’s most disadvantaged castes and tribes in 245 engineering colleges would not be there without reservation, according to a new study that says affirmative action policy in higher education works largely as intended.

However, reservations do place those who do not qualify for affirmative action at a disadvantage, said the study of 53,374 scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST), other backward caste (OBC) and general students by researchers from the US’ Carnegie Mellon University, published in the American Economic Review.

In this, the first part of a three-part IndiaSpend series exploring disadvantaged Indian communities in higher education, a review of education data confirmed a growing tide of SC/ST students in higher education, but their numbers still lag their proportion in the general population.

The second part will explain why the government must consider restructuring OBC reservation to benefit OBC students from deprived backgrounds, as the Supreme Court hasadvised, with their proportion in higher-education institutes nearing their proportion in the general population. The third part will explain how Muslims lag every disadvantaged group in higher education, even SCs and STs.

Source: American Economic Review

Naveen Gurappu’s story: From diffidence to confidence

Naveen Gurappu, 25, an electrical engineer and doctoral student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, is an embodiment of India’s 34-year-old system of reservation for the most disadvantaged groups.

“I would never have come so far if it had not been for the scheduled caste quota and my dad,” said Gurappu, a native of Hyderabad, son of a bank clerk who himself got his job through reservation.

“My dad enrolled me in St Martin’s High School in Hyderabad, a good school, because he wanted me to study well,” said Gurappu, from a scheduled caste called the Malas. “SBI (State Bank of India) pitched in with a yearly fellowship of Rs 500 for stationary, etc. We could not afford extra tuition or the internet at home, even though I badly needed help. Dad paid for my college, coaching and books, he treated me to my first movie—I was in class 11.” The family took a bank loan, which they are repaying, to finance Gurappu’s studies at IIT, which charges SC/ST students about Rs 60,000 per annum for the engineering programme and PhD.

In his first year at IIT, Gurappu struggled to grasp lessons, unlike his upper-caste peers. “Still, I was better off than other disadvantaged caste students because I came from a city,” he said.

Reservation helps and motivates the disadvantaged

Affirmative action spurred students from disadvantaged castes–who still lagged upper castes–to perform better in college than in school, said the Carnegie Mellon study which compared the first-year college scores of 42,914 students with their high-school scores.

Gurappu–who struggled to cope initially at IIT Gandhinagar, where he pursued a graduate degree–agreed with that assessment. “In time, I adjusted to the IIT system and standards, and even caught up with toppers in some subjects,” he said. “With the right mindset and opportunity, any socially disadvantaged student can excel in higher education.”

Disadvantaged-caste students were more likely to choose competitive majors, such as electronics, communication and computer science, than other students.

Reservation is an equaliser, but it does not get enough SC/ST/OBC students into higher education.

“Even with the attendance gains from affirmative action, the most disadvantaged castes still attend in smaller proportions than their population shares,” Dennis Epple, co-author of theAmerican Economic Review study and Thomas Lord University Professor of Economics at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, told IndiaSpend.

“Our work also indicates why affirmative action policies generate debate,” said Epple. “We find that improved educational outcomes for disadvantaged students come at a cost to those who do not receive affirmative action.”

The bottom line: SCs/STs/OBCs benefit from reservation in higher education, but affirmative action should be carefully implemented, periodically reviewed and adjusted to deliver the best outcomes.

IndiaSpend dissected higher-education enrolment data to determine what reservation is still justified in India.

Reservation and higher education expansion boost SC, ST enrolments, but not enough

India introduced 15% and 7.5% reservations for SC and ST candidates respectively in government-aided educational institutions in 1982. Some states tweaked those percentages to factor in local demographics, which the Constitution allows. So in Tamil Nadu, 18% of higher-education is reserved for SCs, 1% for STs. In some central universities in the tribal-dominated northeast, 60% of seats are reserved for ST students.

Between 2000 and 2014, the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) of SCs–a measure of the percentage of actual enrolments in higher education, regardless of age, in a given academic year, to the 18- to 23-year-old population eligible for higher education in that year–more than doubled while that of STs doubled.

Source: SAGE Publications, All India Survey on Higher Education, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Sikh Institute, UNESCO, National Sample Survey Office

Notes:
1. Gross Enrolment Ratio for Other Backward Castes and Muslims shown for 2000-01 is from 1999-2000.
2. Gross Enrolment Ratio for Other Backward Castes and Muslims shown for 2014-15 is from 2009-10.
3. OBC share of population: Kaka Kalelkar Commission estimate. OBC share in population has been variously reported since Independence, with no definite assessment as the last caste census in India was done in 1931.
4. SC and ST literacy rates for 2014-2015 are from NSS 55th Round.
5. OBC Literacy Rate: 54.8% rural, 75.3% urban
6. Muslim Literacy rate: rural male 69.1%, urban male 81%, rural female 47.4%, rural male 65.5%

Reservations have had a domino effect, spurring new generations to educate themselves.

“Reservations in past decades have increased the numbers of SC/ST families with highly-educated members, who can encourage–and provide support for–younger family members to continue their education,” said professor emeritus of economics at the University of Michigan, Thomas E Weisskopf, who has argued in favour of reservations for marginalised Indian social groups in higher education.

If parity existed between the share of SCs and STs in the general population and participation in higher education, SCs would occupy a third more seats than they do now, while STs would occupy close to double the seats.

5 ways to increase SC, ST higher-education enrolments

1. Create more infrastructure: Investing in higher education by creating more colleges and universities would help drive SC and ST enrolments, said Sachidanand Sinha of the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

SC and ST higher-education enrolments were higher in districts with a higher College-Population Index (C-PI), a measure of the number of colleges in a district for every 100,000 people aged 18 to 23, according to Identification of Educationally Backward Districts, a 2007 study Sinha led for the University Grants Commission.

“Since disadvantaged youth tend to gravitate to government-run and missionary/CSR (corporate social responsibility)-driven institutes, India needs more of those,” he said.

Although the number of colleges and universities has expanded 248% since 2000, from 11,146to 38,813, most new institutes are privately run, which means they are not obliged to reserve seats for SC and ST candidates.

2. Extend affirmative action to private-sector institutions: To drive SC and ST enrolments in private sector institutes, they could be asked to reserve seats for applicants from economically disadvantaged families and offer scholarships, said Bhushan Patwardhan, former vice chancellor, Symbiosis International University, and professor at the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, Savitribai Phule University in Pune.

Naveen Gurappu, 25, electrical engineer and doctoral student at IIT Bombay, would not have made it to the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, for a graduate engineering degree had it not been for affirmative action. As many as 26% male and 35% female scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other backward caste students in 245 engineering colleges benefited from reservation in higher education, according to a new study of 53,374 students.

3. Support students at the intermediate level: “ST and SC candidates need more support at the intermediate level. Scholarships exist for study up to class X and for graduate study but financial assistance for the intermediary expensive preparatory time is missing,” said Gurrapu.

Post-matriculation scholarships start after higher-education admission, pointed out Yagati Chinna Rao, chairperson of the Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. “Between school-leaving and admission, students are on their own. Accommodation expenses, travel to a preparatory centre, etc. fall on the family, which most can ill afford. This is when most dalit children who manage to complete school drop out.”

4. Counsel students about opportunities: Most children from SC and ST families are unaware of many higher-education opportunities, especially where there is no one who has acquired a graduate degree or more, said Rao.

So, students need counselling to understand it benefits them to study instead of working as soon as possible and to learn about opportunities, said Gurrapu. “Students in cities hear about competitive exams very early, but those from rural backgrounds often get to know about competitive exams only when they are in +2 (10th and 11th standard, or pre-university), when it is too late to start preparing,” he said.

5. Encourage CSR initiatives in education for disadvantaged students: “Primary education for all is an objective of many NGOs, higher education for the disadvantaged is not, whereas the latter would help boost primary education too when its beneficiaries raise the next generation,” said Gurappu.

Certainly, education begets education, said Sheldon Danziger of the University of Michigan and Jane Waldfogel of the London School of Economics in Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to College.

“Those who complete more education initially are more likely to seek additional education and additional training,” wrote Danziger and Waldfogel. “Education begins at home; the educational level of a child’s parents is a primary determinant of how much education that child will get and how well she and he will do in school.”

This is the first of a three-part series. Next: 1931 Data Muddies Issue Of Backward-Caste Higher-Education Quotas

(Bahri is a freelance writer and editor based in Mount Abu, Rajasthan.)

Courtesy: IndiaSpend.com

Dalits in the Hindu Rashtra, A Close Look at the Gujarat Model

July 20, 2016

For years now, we have been fed with stories, lies and half-truths about the Gujarat Model. We should not ever forget that this model began to be ‘sold’ and ‘marketed’ post 2007, in the wake of India’s worst ever genocidal pogrom against Muslims, in 2002. It is not that under other governments and political parties, deep rooted anti-minority prejudice was not allowed to fester and infiltrate within positions and institutions of power. Ahmedabad 1969, Bhiwandi-Bombay 1970 and 1984, Nellie 1983, Hashimpura 1987, Bhagalpur 1989 are brute historic testimonies to this all pervasive institutional prejudice. But never before until 2002 Gujarat, not even with Sikhs in Delhi in 1984, had utter and complete state complicity been the vehicle of a massacre. The report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and now the ongoing Zakia Jafri case—that will hopefully resume hearing today, on July 20, are testimony to this.

In 2015 the Gujarat Model stood exposed when a young, raw leader of the state’s otherwise politically powerful Patels, Hardik Patel, led a protest that showcased the hollowness of the claims. Jobs are hard to come by in any case over past years under neo liberal India, but Gujarat epitomizes ‘jobless’ growth. A few select individuals and corporate houses amass disproportionately high assets; they also fund and feed their select man and men in the political class, but even communities like the Patels who are among the OBCs in Gujarat, bear the heat and anger of frustration, unemployment, joblessness. Is this the model the country wants or needs? Is this the development that Uttar Pradesh, or Punjab, or even Gujarat that go to the polls next year want?

Over the past week, Gujarat has been burning. Literally. It began with a horrific incident at Unha, Saurashtra. Four Dalit youths who skin dead animals for a living were thrashed with iron rods, chained to a car and dragged to a police station, their ordeal captured on video by their assaulters who accused them of slaughtering a cow. The victims were targeted assaulters from the Darbar caste that accused them of killing a cow for the purpose of selling beef when all that the Dalit youths had done was skin a cow that was already dead. Dalits from Una town in Saurashtra owned a Bone Mill and had been skinning animals for that purpose. While slaughtering cows and selling or consuming beef is banned in the state, skinning of dead animals is not illegal.

This incident comes fast on the heels of another gruesome attack on Dalits about a week ago: Rama Singrakhiya, a Dalit, was allegedly hacked to death by a dominant caste mob in Sodhana village of Porbandar district. Leading Dalit campaigner and senior advocate Valjibhai Patel told Sabrangindia that there had been a series of such attacks in past months and yet no words of sharp condemnation from the state’s political leadership.

In the latest attack on July 12, reportedly, a vigilante group pounced on the four, beat them up with iron rods and sticks and chained them to their car before leaving them at Una police station. The car had the nameplate of a Shiv Sena member.

The accused also filmed the assault. The video taken by the assaulters themselves has since gone viral on social media. Though a large crowd had gathered at the place, no one seemed to forward to rescue the Dalits. A video is said to have gone viral on the social media.

Since yesterday protests have been raging all over the state, newspapers have covered them partially (though not in the ‘national’ editions) and yet television anchors –already exposed for their irresponsible role in Kashmir – have been silent. This is not a national but a commercial media. Now we have confessions reported by The Indian Express and Catch news that tell an even more sinister tale. The father of one of the nine people arrested in Una, Gujarat, for the assault on Dalits they accused of cow slaughter, alleged on Tuesday that his son, a Muslim, had been forced by the others to beat up the Dalit men to prove Muslims are just as anti-beef as gau rakshaks.

The boy's father reportedly said: "I had sent my son out to buy bananas from a shop near the bus station. But as he reached there, Pramodgiri Goswami and others came there in their car and pulled the four Dalits out of the vehicle and tied them to the car. My son stopped there out of curiosity. While he was watching from a distance, others in the gau rakshak group asked him to take a turn to beat up the Dalits and thereby show that Muslims also stood against cow slaughter… Pramodgiri thrust a strip in his hands and exhorted him to beat up the Dalits."

In a nutshell, this innocent bystander was compelled by a set of hoodlums—out to protect the cow mother –to beat and thrash Dalits. How cynical can you get? The boy's father said he had evidence on video to prove his claim. The boy is 17 years old, says The Indian Express. He was arrested on Monday night and sent to Rajkot's Observation Home for Boys. The man said: "I admit that he has beaten up the Dalit brothers and, therefore, he is guilty. But he was made to be part of the conspiracy without him knowing what it would mean."

Kiritkunar Joshi, deputy superintendent of police (SC, ST Cell), said: "The teenager is a friend of another accused named Deepak Shiyal. The boy had gone to Mota Samadhiyala riding pillion on Shiyal's motorbike. But, as of now, there is no evidence that the boy beat up the Dalits in Mota Samadhiyala also."

Quick to come to the rescue of the foot soldiers, Mohan Bhagwat of the RSS and even Gujarat’s Vishwa Hindu Parishad has condemned this ugly beating of Dalits. Why? As we saw in 2002, it is Dalits who have been used and abused to carry out the filthy designs of communal forces, against the state’s Muslims. They are the foot soldiers of the Hindu Rashtra. Except in the districts of Mehsana, Anand, Dahod and Panchmahals where many Patels were among the accused, in the urban areas it is Dalits (including Chharas) who were used as mobs for violent ends.

But what is truly conspiratorial and sinister about the fallout now, sinister designs to turn this issue into Muslim-bashing once again, that even despite agitations all over the state, despite the fact that traffic was stopped on highways, buses broken down, tyres burned, three truckloads of cow carcasses dumped at the Surendranagar Collectorate, carcarsses of cows dumped in other government offices; des[ite the fact that Mayawati, leader of the Bahujan Samaj party raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha and the upper house of Parliament was adjourned yesterday; despite the fact that Gujarati television channels appealed to people for peace; Nine persons were arrested in what Dalits are terming as part of the ‘Cow Taliban’ the commercial television media is utterly silent. Why?

It is time to loudly acknowledge that this television commercial media does not represent democratic concerns or the Indian people and in fact, as we have recently seen –in its coverage of the protests and subsequent repression in the Kashmir valley– is actually beating to pre-determined political and corporate drums. This is a matter of national shame.

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History of the word “terrorism”

Civilians in the firing line

Global media

Indian media’s use of the term

Meaningless words

रोहित वेमुला को दबाने के लिए JNU किया गया था. गुजरात को दबाने के लिए क्या होगा?

घाटी में प्रेस का गला घोंटने की कार्रवाई

July 16, 2016: जम्मू-कश्मीर पुलिस ने अखबारों के ब्यूरो में छापे मारे, कर्मचारियों को हिरासत में लिया और प्रतियां जब्त की

How Reservations Help Disadvantaged-Caste Students Get Higher Education

Dalits in the Hindu Rashtra, A Close Look at the Gujarat Model

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