Apart from answering the question on ‘suspicious voter’ category, the exchange in the Upper House also focused on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and concerns over their integrity, which the ECI refuted by citing legal history and public information. In response, Law Minister Arjun Lal Meghwal provided the ECI’s official stance. On the first point, the ECI clarified that the Representation of People Act, 1951, does not recognise a category of “suspicious voters.” On the matter of potential manipulation, the ECI stated that election results cannot be manipulated on EVMs. 

ECI rejects apprehensions, cites court rulings

Emphasising that the EVMs cannot be manipulated, the response from the ECI via the Law Ministry also stated that as many 42 petitions against use of EVMs which have been filed before various High Courts and Supreme Court and after going through various aspects of the technological soundness and the administrative safeguards involved in the use of EVMs, courts have found “EVMs tamper proof, credible and reliable.” The Law Minister also informed the House that the machines have been used in numerous elections and have undergone public and legal scrutiny over the years. 

“The ECI has stated that there is no doubt in fairness and integrity of EVMs which have stood the test of several elections, public and legal scrutiny over the years. The ECI has further informed that in at least 42 petitions against use of EVMs which have been filed before various High Courts and Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and after going through various aspects of the technological soundness and the administrative safeguards involved in the use of EVMs, the Hon’ble courts have repeatedly held that EVMs are tamper proof, credible and reliable. The ECI has also mentioned that in order to dispel any apprehension of any kind whatsoever, EVM related documents, such as manual on EVM and VVPAT, presentation on EVM, status paper on EVM, legal history of EVMs and VVPATs and FAQs on EVM are available in public domain i.e. ECI website (https://www.eci.gov.in/evm-vvpat)” Law Minister said in Rajya Sabha

Furthermore, the ECI noted that to help voters understand the technology and processes, EVM-related documents such as the manual on EVM and VVPAT, a status paper, and a legal history of the machines are publicly available on its official website.

ECI’s answer dated 31.07.2025 can be read here

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The post No category of suspicious voters as per the RP Act, 1951: ECI told in Rajya Sabha appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The article also notes the RSS’s controversial history, including its association with communal violence—such as the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a former RSS member and the 1990s demolition of a 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya, which sparked significant backlash.

The post 100 yrs of RSS as seen by global media house: Power, controversy, push for Hindu-first India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Additional City Civil And Session Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat had on April 3, framed charges against Revanna under Sections 376(2)(k) (rape by a person in a position of dominance), 376(2)(n) (repeated rape), 354(A) (sexual harassment), 354(B) (assault or use of force with intent to disrobe), 354(C) (voyeurism), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and Section 66(e) of the Information Technology Act. 

The Supreme Court of India, had, in November 2024 dismissed the bail plea of ex-MP Prajwal Revanna booked for rape, sexual assault. In August, a Special Investigation Team of Karnataka which is probing four cases of sexual assault and harassment against Revanna submitted a 2,144-page charge sheet. A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma rejected the plea and observed that Revanna is a very influential person. Appearing for Revanna, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said that a charge sheet has been filed in the case and section 376 of the IPC was not there in the initial complaint.

The special court had, on April 3 had framed charges against Prajwal Revanna for sexually assaulting the farm labourer who worked for his family. The 1,625-page-long charge sheet, filed on September 14, 2024, said that the woman was sexually assaulted thrice, two times at the family’s farmhouse and once at their residence in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru.

As per prosecution, the victim worked as a maid at a farmhouse owned by the Revanna family. It is claimed that from 2021, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Revanna repeatedly raped her and filmed the assaults in different locations. Further, it is alleged that Revanna used the videos to intimidate and silence her, preventing her from complaining.

The SIT formed in this case is also investigating three cases registered against Prajwal and he is presently in judicial custody. The SIT had arrested Prajwal at the Bengaluru Airport on his arrival from Germany on May 30 last year. He was arrested in Crime No.107/2024, registered with the Holenarasipura Town Police Station.

Senior advocates Ashok Nayak and BN Jagadeesha were special public prosecutors in the case. 

The complainant, the 47-year-old farm labourer, Mridula*, was working at the family farmhouse in Gannikada and also accompanied the family during their trips to Bengaluru. She had accused Prajwal of raping her when he had called her inside the room on the pretext of bringing him water at the farmhouse. He was accused of raping her a second time when she had accompanied the family to their house in Basavangudi, Bengaluru.

According to the chargesheet, the assault took place in 2021 at the Gannikada farmhouse. “Mridula was cleaning a room on the first floor when Prajwal came and asked if the room was cleaned. He then asked her to fetch some water. Mridula came back with a jug (chombu) of water when Prajwal suddenly pulled her inside his room. He then locked the door. Mridula asked him to open the door, “Baagilu tegi anna, bhaya aagutte (Open the door anna, I’m scared),” the chargesheet said. Prajwal responded with “Enu agalla” (Nothing will happen) to her cries and then raped her. The chargesheet said that he recorded the assault on his phone.

A case of kidnapping has also been filed against Prajwal’s parents, HD Revanna and Bhavani, and Prajwal’s relative, Satish Babanna, as Mridula had complained that she was taken to the farm on April 29, 2024, and kept for a few days. This coincided with the time that the videos had started circulating. On May 2, Mridula’s son filed a complaint of kidnapping against Prajwal after he came to know of the videos. At the time, Mridula was forced to record a video saying she was alright and had not been kidnapped. A couple of days later, she managed to escape from the farm where she was being held.

Prajwal has been in jail since June 2024, after complaints of sexual assault and having recorded the encounters on video emerged. 

The complaints started after thousands of video clips of these alleged encounters started circulating during the general elections held last year, when Prajwal, the incumbent MP, was contesting from the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency. A Special Investigation Team was formed to look into all the allegations, and four women came forward with complaints against him. 

Other cases against Revanna

There are three more cases filed against Prajwal Revanna. Of these, the first complaint was filed by Girija* and her daughter, Sunitha*. Prajwal is accused of raping Girija and forcing Sunitha to strip on a video call.  In another case, Prajwal is accused of raping Priya*, a former member of the local body and JD(S) party worker. This assault is said to have taken place at Prajwal’s then official residence in Hassan, says The News Minute. A case of molestation has also been filed against Prajwal by another woman who said that he had molested her when she had approached him to seek help on a personal matter.

* Names of the victims have been changed to protect their identity.

Related:

India’s flawed rape laws: a betrayal of equality

Report card: BJP and crimes against women

The post Prajwal Revanna convicted of rape in first case, sentencing of August 2 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

• Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP leader and former MP, and self-styled god-woman
• Lt Col Prasad Purohit, a serving Army intelligence officer at the time of arrest
• Major (Retd) Ramesh Upadhyay
• Sameer Kulkarni
• Sudhakar Chaturvedi
• Ajay Rahirkar
• Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey

The special court, presided over by Judge A.K. Lahoti, stated that the prosecution had failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt and that the accused “deserved the benefit of doubt”. 

The Malegaon Blast: What happened?

On September 29, 2008, a powerful explosion ripped through Bhikku Chowk, a Muslim-dominated commercial area in Malegaon, Maharashtra. The bomb, fitted on an LML Freedom motorcycle bearing a fake number plate, killed six persons and injured over 100.

Initial investigations by the Maharashtra ATS, led by the late Hemant Karkare, suggested the use of RDX and ammonium nitrate. The ATS soon traced the motorcycle to Pragya Singh Thakur, who initially denied ownership.

The conspiracy, as detailed in the ATS’s 4,500-page chargesheet, involved:

• Planning meetings in Raigad Fort, Deolali, Pune, Bhopal, Indore, Faridabad, Kolkata, and Nashik
• Procurement of explosives by Lt Col Purohit from army stocks during his J&K posting
• Bomb assembly at Sudhakar Chaturvedi’s house in Deolali, whose keys were stored at the Military Intelligence office
• A radical plan to establish a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation) through Abhinav Bharat, a group allegedly floated by Purohit and others.

How the case collapsed

The Malegaon 2008 blast case was initially investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) under the leadership of the late Hemant Karkare. In January 2009, the ATS filed its primary charge sheet, naming 12 accused, including Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, both of whom had been arrested months after the explosion.

In 2011, the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which eventually filed a supplementary charge sheet on May 13, 2016.

The ATS investigation had alleged that Thakur, Purohit (who was identified as the founder of Abhinav Bharat, a radical right-wing group), and others were part of a larger conspiracy aimed at taking “revenge” and instilling fear among the Muslim community. According to the ATS, the accused participated in a series of conspiracy meetings held in cities including Bhopal and Indore. It further claimed that the motorcycle used in the blast was registered in Thakur’s name, and that she had made it available for use in the attack.

In its 2009 charge sheet, the ATS invoked multiple provisions, including the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), against all the accused. 

However, a significant shift occurred after the NIA took over. Between 2011 and 2016, the agency had initially opposed any relief sought by Thakur. But in a complete reversal, the NIA’s 2016 supplementary charge sheet dropped all charges against her. While it retained several allegations against the remaining accused, invoking sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Explosive Substances Act, the agency asserted that it found no credible evidence implicating Thakur. Instead, the NIA accused the ATS of coercing witnesses into giving statements against her and recommended dropping MCOCA charges against all 12 accused.

Notably, the supplementary charge sheet was filed without informing the designated Special Public Prosecutor, Avinash Rasal, raising questions about procedural transparency.

Despite the NIA’s exoneration of Thakur, the special NIA court refused to discharge her, stating that it could not overlook the incriminating material submitted earlier by the ATS.

Despite early investigative successes, the case gradually fell apart. The court’s verdict outlines technical and evidentiary failures, but the rot runs far deeper.

(Detailed copy of the ATS charge sheet may be read here.)

1. Forensic failures and “contaminated” evidence

• No fingerprints or DNA were recovered from the blast site 
• The bike’s chassis and engine numbers were destroyed, and could not be conclusively linked to Thakur
• The court ruled that forensic samples were contaminated, making them unreliable 

2. Discredited intercepts and defective sanctions

• Phone taps of the accused were ruled inadmissible due to lack of proper legal sanction 
• The court held that two UAPA sanctions signed by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) were procedurally defective.
• MCOCA, initially invoked by the ATS for establishing an organised crime syndicate, was later dropped by the NIA in its 2016 charge sheet

Vanishing Evidence: Missing papers, missing justice

One of the darkest chapters in the case is the disappearance of key evidence:

• Confessional statements of at least 13 witnesses and two accused, recorded under CrPC 164 and MCOCA, went missing from court records by 2016, as per Mumbai Mirror
• These included accounts of meetings between Pragya Thakur and Ramji Kalsangra (an absconding accused) discussing the Malegaon blast plan.
• A special court eventually allowed the use of photocopies, over defence objections, after the originals remained untraceable despite court-to-court tracking 

Compounding this, new statements recorded by the NIA in Delhi directly contradicted the earlier ones, which now lead to exonerating the accused 

Witnesses Turn Hostile: 39 and counting

Of the 323 witnesses examined, at least 39 turned hostile, including serving Army officers and other key prosecution witnesses, as per The Hindu. Many of these had earlier confirmed:

• Attendance at planning meetings
• The ideological indoctrination of “Hindu Rashtra”
• Purohit’s and Thakur’s involvement in Abhinav Bharat

Yet under oath, they reversed their earlier testimonies.

Another 30 witnesses died before they could testify.

Critically, no prosecution for perjury was initiated, and the court did not question the pattern of defection.

Political winds and prosecutorial apathy

The prosecution’s attitude changed after 2014, a fact publicly confirmed by Rohini Salian, the initial special public prosecutor, according to Indian Express.

In 2015, Salian disclosed that she had been instructed by NIA officials to “go soft” on the accused. When she refused, she was side-lined and replaced. She recounted how:

“A senior NIA officer came and said there are instructions from higher-ups. Someone else will appear instead of you,” as reported by Indian Express. 

Salian’s replacement, Avinash Rasal, led the rest of the trial. The NIA’s 2016 supplementary chargesheet notably weakened the ATS case, dropped MCOCA, and questioned the credibility .of the confessions obtained under ATS custody — often on the basis of alleged torture/

The accused claimed their confessions were coerced. The NIA appeared to agree — without formally prosecuting the ATS for custodial abuse.

Abhinav Bharat- forgotten conspiracy

The ATS had built a robust case that Abhinav Bharat was a radical Hindutva outfit plotting systemic violence.

• Meeting transcripts, many recorded by Swami Dayanand Pandey himself, showed elaborate plans for a parallel state structure with its own flag, constitution, and army, as per a report of SabrangIndia.
• The accused discussed revenge for Muslim acts of terror, equipping themselves to create a “Hindu Rashtra” by force.
• The Bhonsala Military School in Nashik — used for training cadres — was spared scrutiny 
• Senior army officials who facilitated meetings or gave access to explosives were listed as witnesses, not accused

Despite this, the court held that the group’s structure could not be proved, and hence conspiracy could not be established.

A bigger network, never investigated

The Malegaon case was not an isolated act. It had alleged links to:

• Samjhauta Express blasts (2007)
• Ajmer Sharif Dargah blast (2007)
• Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad (2007)
• Nanded and Parbhani mosque blasts (2003–2006)

The ATS had initially argued for treating these as part of a larger Hindutva terror network, with shared ideology, funding, and personnel. This theory was quietly shelved when the NIA took over in 2011.

(Detailed report may be read here.)

What justice meant for the victims

Most of the Malegaon victims were poor Muslim daily wage workers. Their families waited 17 years for justice.

• No reparations have been announced for their suffering.
• No accountability has been fixed on investigative agencies for case mismanagement.
• No police officials have faced scrutiny for custodial torture or botched procedures

Meanwhile, the accused have moved on:

• Pragya Thakur was a sitting Member of Parliament.
• Lt Col Purohit was reinstated into the Army.
• Others have resumed public life, with some even receiving public felicitation by Hindu outfits, as reported by Sabrang India

Notably, through the judgement, the court said that families of all six victims of the blast will be given Rs 2 lakh each, and all injured victims will be given Rs 50,000 as compensation.

The real cost of acquittal

Judge Lahoti’s observation that “Terrorism has no religion as no religion advocates violence… Judgments cannot be based on morals and public perception” is legally sound. But this case was not just about legal thresholds.

It is about:

• Vanishing documents
• Reversed testimonies
• Political interference
• Institutional sabotage
• And a justice system that slowly but surely stopped caring

The acquittal may be final, but it is not exoneration. It is a legal closure of a political wound, not a factual resolution.

Conclusion: Not a verdict, but a warning

The Malegaon blast trial was never just about one bombing. It was about the integrity of our institutions, the non-negotiability of secularism, and the State’s duty to remain impartial in matters of terror.

The July 31, 2025 verdict might be a bookend to the case. But it is also an open question to the Indian republic: When evidence disappears, witnesses retreat, prosecutors fall silent, and ideology infiltrates investigation— can we still call it justice?

Related:

ARCHIVES: Hindutva Terror – The terror trail from Nanded to Malegaon and beyond

Criminal conspiracy – The ATS charge sheet in the Malegaon blast case

Malegaon blast case: Court rejects Pragya’s plea seeking exemption from appearing for trail

Malegaon Blast Accused Sadhvi Pragya may get Z-Security

PM Modi Defends Malegaon Blast Accused Sadhvi Pragya’s Candidature

The post Malegaon Acquittals: A judgement of some doubt, a trail of uneven justice appeared first on SabrangIndia.

For Banasha Bibi, a paralysis patient who has lived her entire life in Assam, the declaration is more than a legal win. It is a validation of identity long denied and a hard-won end to state-inflicted trauma that began when a notice suddenly arrived accusing her of being a Bangladeshi.

Banasha Bibi along with her husband, outside their home

The Case: A forgotten reference resurfaces

Banasha Bibi was born in 1968 in Barbakhara village, Manikpur police station, Bongaigaon district, to Batalu Sardar (also known as Batasu Sardar) and Ajufa Khatun. She married Rafijal Ali in 1980 and has resided in Assam her entire life, raising thirteen children. Despite possessing valid Indian documents across decades, Banasha Bibi was suddenly served a notice in 2022, twenty years after a reference was made in 2002 (Ref. No. IM(D)T/Case No. 761/2002), accusing her of being an illegal migrant from Bangladesh.

For twenty years, Banasha was unaware that her citizenship had been challenged. The tribunal admitted that the delay itself raised serious concerns, and that the investigation violated basic legal norms. Despite this, she was forced to prove her citizenship—an overwhelming task for someone with no legal training, limited mobility, and minimal resources. That’s when CJP stepped in with full legal, paralegal, and logistical support.

A deeply flawed investigation

CJP’s legal team, led by Advocate Dewan Abdur Rahim, junior advocate Sahidur Rahman, and state in-charge Nanda Ghosh, methodically dismantled the case against Banasha by submitting robust documentation and witness testimony to the Tribunal. The CJP legal team exposed the severe procedural violations and falsehoods underpinning the reference against her:

• No investigation was conducted: The Investigating Officer (I.O.) submitted a fabricated report. He never visited her home, never issued a notice, and never examined any witnesses. Statements supposedly recorded from Banasha Bibi and others were concocted without interaction.
• No documentary evidence seized: The I.O. failed to seize or produce any document—passport, identification, or otherwise—to substantiate the claim that Banasha Bibi was a foreigner.
• No proof of foreign origin: The inquiry report lacked the name or address of any foreign country, and did not trace any alleged cross-border movement.
• Violation of legal procedure: There was no compliance with the procedure mandated under the Foreigners Act or principles of natural justice. Crucially, the notice reached Banasha only in 2022—20 years after the case was registered, making the very reference barred by limitation.

CJP’s Legal Defence: Documents, testimony, and due process

CJP provided comprehensive legal and paralegal support, filing affidavits, marshalling evidence, and presenting multiple witnesses. CJP placed on record a comprehensive set of documents that proved Banasha Bibi’s deep roots in Assam, including:

• Voter lists:
  • Her father, Batalu Sardar, appeared in the 1959, 1966, and 1970 rolls—long before the March 25, 1971 cut-off.
  • Banasha herself was listed as a voter in 1989, 1993, 1997, 2006, 2010, 2019, and 2022.
• Identity documents:
  • Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) 
  • Aadhaar Card 
  • PAN Card
  • Ration Card
  • One from Secretary, Nowapara Gaon Panchayat, affirming her identity and parentage.
  • A second confirming her marriage to Rafijal Ali and her family lineage from the same locality.
• Gaon panchayat certificates:
  • One from Secretary, Nowapara Gaon Panchayat, affirming her identity and parentage.
  • A second confirming her marriage to Rafijal Ali and her family lineage from the same locality.

Oral Testimony:

• DW-2 (GP Secretary Mrinendra Sarma) authenticated the certificates issued from GP records.
• DW-3 (Rajab Ali) testified as her brother, identifying Batalu Sardar as their father and confirming their shared familial history.
• DW-4 (Sahalam Ali), a neighbour, corroborated that Banasha was born and raised in Barbakhara.

These testimonies met the standard under Section 50 of the Indian Evidence Act, proving her parentage and longstanding community recognition.

The Tribunal’s Verdict: Citizenship proven beyond doubt

In his reasoned order, Tribunal Member Dulal Saha accepted the documentary and oral evidence, affirming that Banasha Bibi was born in Assam, had lived there continuously, and had cast votes for decades. On July 25, 2025, CJP’s Assam team formally handed over the tribunal’s certified order to Banasha Bibi’s family at Barbakhara. Her family expressed deep gratitude to CJP for their unwavering support in the face of state negligence and intimidation.

Banasha Bibi’s acquittal is a personal victory, a legal triumph, and a moral indictment of Assam’s discriminatory foreigner detection regime. Her case underscores how citizenship trials have become tools of marginalisation, not justice. 

It also reveals the essential role of civil society organisations like CJP in safeguarding constitutional rights when the state fails its own people.

Banasha’s courage, despite her health condition, and CJP’s tireless advocacy have restored one woman’s legal identity—but thousands remain entangled in similar, unjust proceedings. As Assam continues to witness arbitrary detentions and foreigner references, the case of Banasha Bibi stands as both a victory and a warning: the Constitutional promise of equality and due process must not be hollowed out by bureaucratic callousness or prejudice.

The order may be read here.

Related:

“She Can’t Just Disappear”: Gauhati High Court told as state fails to produce handover certificate in Doyjan Bibi “pushback” case

Gauhati High Court seeks Centre’s May 2025 deportation notification as legality of re-detention of Abdul Shiekh and Majibur Rehman is scrutinised

Confusion over identity clouds ‘pushback case’ of Doyjan Bibi, Gauhati High Court directs state to verify true identity and whereabouts

The post CJP-Led Legal Victory: Bengali-speaking Muslim woman with limited mobility declared Indian appeared first on SabrangIndia.

It is a strange fact that while the RSS and its leaders have never made any secret as to what their agenda is, there are many apologists – many of them quite sincere – who repeatedly state that ‘they are not really like that’, ‘Oh but they have changed’, ‘You don’t think they really believe that do you?’ etc.

One of the issues on which the RSS made its thoughts very clear was their rejection of the Constitution of India when it was passed in 1949 and their determination to replace it with the Manusmriti. This is also something that its apologists, both honest and dishonest, have attempted to cover up repeatedly. It is a fact, however, that at the time when the Constitution was passed not only did the RSS publicly burn effigies of Dr. Ambedkar and J. Nehru in the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi but Sankar Subbar Aiyer wrote in the Organiser in an article entitled ‘Manu rules Our Hearts’ and Savarkar saw Manusmriti ‘as the scripture that is most worshippable after the Vedas’ and is the ‘basis of the spiritual and divine march of the nation.’ Golwalkar glorified Manu as ‘the first, greatest and the wisest law lawgiver of mankind.’

It is very strange and particularly ominous for Kerala that Sashi Tharoor recently commented that the RSS had ‘moved on’ from its earlier commitment to the Manusmriti (maybe he is the one moving on).

It is important to remember, therefore, that on the 5th of August, 2019 at the time of the bhoomi pooja of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, not only were the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of UP present making a mockery of the secular nature of our Constitution but the RSS Sarsangchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, was also present. He made a short speech on the occasion, reciting only a single shloka from the Manusmriti in Sanskrit:

एतद् देशप्रसूतस्य सकाशादग्रजन्मनः ।
स्वं स्वं चरित्रं शिक्षेरन् पृथिव्यां सर्वमानवाः ॥ २० ॥

From a first-born (i.e, a Brahmana), born in that country
Let all men on earth learn their respective duties.

It is, therefore, clear that the RSS is pursuing its agenda of bringing the entire country within the confines of its Manuvadi Hindutva project which it hopes to bring to fruition in 2025, the centenary year of its foundation.

It was often thought that Kerala has a special ‘exceptionalism’ that makes it immune to penetration by the Hindutva forces. Unfortunately, this is an illusion. Kerala has a very special place in the RSS agenda and its earlier lack of success in the electoral arena made it design a series of methods in order to create what it calls the correct ‘Hindu atmosphere’ in Kerala. It has been relentless in its implementation of these methods in the State. Success in Kerala is of especial importance to the RSS which Golwalkar described as a fortress of all three internal enemies of Hindutva – Muslims, Christians and communists. He said ‘hostile elements within the country pose a far greater menace to national security than aggressors from outside.’ (A Bunch of Thoughts, 1966). His commitment to the capture of this fortress is evident from the fact that he visited Kerala every year until his death.

There should be no doubts about the fact that the Manuvadi Hindutva project aims to destroy everything that makes Kerala unique – its strong syncretic cultural and religious forms and observances that weld various communities together in a common Malayali identity, its vibrant culture of progressive, avant garde literature, cinema, dance forms and theatre, its strong social reform Renaissance movement that pushed back caste oppression, patriarchal dominance, feudal ways of thinking and brought about social transformation in the State, its promotion of rational and scientific thinking and its history of struggle and sacrifice against both colonial and class exploitation.

Manuvadi Hindutva promotes inequality in every sphere. It denies women all rights, it glorifies birth-based inequality and vocations, it justifies upper caste domination of society and religion, it extols economic exploitation and it discriminates against non-Hindus whom it seeks to deprive of their rights to equal citizenship.

It would seem that understanding the real objectives of the Manuvadi-Hindutva project would make it impossible to achieve. Truth, however, is more complicated. A large number of people do not believe the bitter truth about their co-religionists and caste brethren just as many are prepared to support their country, right or wrong. In addition, those in charge of successfully bringing this project to fruition employ guile, media management, use of money and power, lies and arousal of hatred against minorities, oppressed castes and women to successfully add dimensions to their project that are acceptable and even welcomed by large sections of people. The RSS has honed its skills with years of experience of making the victims of its project its supporters and implementers.

The belief in Kerala’s ‘exceptionalism’ which would make it immune to RSS machinations has also contributed to the rather complacent attitude displayed to many of its activities. The RSS itself has had no illusions about the difficulties it will face in what it calls the creation of a Hindu atmosphere in the State and has, therefore, adopted a multi-pronged approach to furthering its objectives in the State. Some elements of this have been utilized successfully in other parts of the country, some are unique to its tactics in Kerala. To successfully counter the RSS march forward, a deep study of its activities in the State is necessary. Along with this, mobilizing masses of people against its machinations is also essential.

As early as 1942, Golwalkar deputed 2 pracharaks, Thengadi and Oak, to set up shakhas in Malabar and Travancore. This was at a time when the young communist party was growing in popularity as it took up the issues of the exploited tenants, agricultural workers, and workers in the beedi, coir, cashew etc. industries. Casteist feudal elements were greatly opposed to both the Congress and Communist movements and the Raja of Nilambur and the Zamorin of Calicut helped establish the first shakhas in Kozhikode and Kannur districts. Dominant caste landlords – many of who belonged to the Congress – were also supportive. In 1943, the first training camp was organized in Kozhikode. Golwalkar attended this and was told by Thengadi that the communist movement was the biggest obstacle in the growth of the organization. He instructed Thengadi to do what was needed to break the movement. After the assassination of Gandhi, RSS camps were raided for weapons by Communists who also disrupted their activities. The RSS also used violence against its opponents. This was described by the poet, ONV Kurup who recalled being beaten up along with other progressive writers at Golwalkar’s instigation. Golwalkar justified the use of violence by using the analogy of the necessity to use the surgeon’s knife to save a life, in this case it was to save the Hindu society.

The role played by the RSS in the ‘Liberation Struggle’ against the first EMS Government is often forgotten. Not only did its cadres play an important role in organizing the struggle and ensuring the participation of a large number of caste Hindus, both men and women, and the ‘liberal’ Vajpayee addressed a large public meeting in Kottayam, exhorting his listeners to bring down the Government. When it was removed, the RSS celebrated with ‘Vijayaya divasams’ in many parts of the country.

Violent attacks by the RSS were also witnessed against the beedi workers who organized the Dinesh Beedi Co-operative when they were driven out of employment at Ganesh Beedi factories with the connivance of the RSS with the owner who was a staunch RSS supporter. Several Dinesh Beedi factories were bombed, killing and maiming many workers. Militant leaders of the beedi workers were also attacked and killed in well-planned attacks. The Communists also retaliated. While they lost more cadres they were also able to act in self-defence.

Since 1948, the RSS has used ‘temple movements’ aimed at uniting large masses of Hindus and targeting a minority group simultaneously. This is necessary in order to create a strong sense of ‘Hindu’ unity without erasing the inequalities of caste. While the placing of idols in the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in late 1948 was the beginning of its most significant mobilization that bore fruit five decades later, the earliest such movement in South India was launched to construct a Vivekananda Memorial at the southernmost tip of the country. It was met with opposition from the Christian fishing community in the area and this was utilized by the RSS and its various Parivar units including the BJP to garner support in the region. It was an RSS cadre from Kerala, PB Lakshmanan, who actually broke the cross that the fishermen had placed there. Most political parties and heads of governments contributed to the construction of the Memorial, a notable exception being Com. EMS Namboodripad who was Chief Minister of Kerala at the time. Even M. Karunanidhi contributed to the cause illustrating how difficult it is for even secular leaders to remain firm in their defence of their Constitutional responsibilities at a time when popular sentiment seems to be in favour of their doing the opposite. Of course, how much of this popular sentiment is genuine and how much the creation of media and vested interests is a moot question that needs serious study and attention.

To make a dent in Kerala, the RSS decided fairly early that it should not concentrate on fighting elections and trying to steadily augment electoral gains. It realized that the composition of the Kerala polity with large numbers of people belonging to the minority communities, large sections of the majority community opposed to its politics because of its involvement in class struggles and social movements and a strong, vibrant Communist movement would not allow it to make electoral gains that would propel it to power. It therefore developed and honed its strategy of infiltrating different sections of Kerala society by various means until a situation was created that it could use for achieving impressive electoral success. It therefore concentrated its efforts on taking over temples and using them as a base for various activities that would create the Hindu atmosphere it had been feeling the lack of since its inception, it would create new and utilize traditional observances that would not only strengthen a sense of Hindu identity and but would also erode strongly held syncretic beliefs between members of different religious communities. In addition, it would also use methods like social service in the fields of health, education and ‘feeding’ to gain the support of the poorer and socially oppressed sections. Women of all classes and castes who are generally extremely religious-minded were specially targeted with programmes of religious instructions, bhajan singing, temple visits and regular performance of old and new rituals while patriarchal norms and ideals of pativrata were regularly inculcated and strengthened among them.

The 2023 publication, ‘Elections Can Wait: The Politics of constructing a ‘Hindu atmosphere’ in Kerala, South India’ by Dayal Paleri and R.Santosh (IIT Chennai) is a detailed analysis of the way in which organisations affiliated to the RSS have worked at various levels in Kodangallur in Thrissur district. Its work started here in 1966 with the establishment of a single shakha and since then it has worked tirelessly ‘in the world of the everyday and the ordinary, from the workplaces, schools and communities, where the realities of Hindu nationalism are created and maintained.’

After its entry into the area, the RSS established branches of 3 organisations – Desiya Seva Bharathi (for social welfare activities), Kerala Kshetra Samarakshana Samiti (for Temple ‘protection’) and Vivekananda Vedic Vision Kendra. ‘The attempt to create a ‘Hindu atmosphere’ by these organisations ultimately aims at building a hegemonic and exclusivist Hindutva sociality, public sphere and subjectivities devoid of the impurities of other religions and irreligiosities of the secular ethos of Kerala society. The Hindutva organisations assume that their paramount mission is to bring about a foundational cultural transformation of society centred on a ‘Hindu atmosphere’ which they believe will naturally lead to the political and electoral preferences of people becoming solely confined to Hindutva politics’.

The Sree Kurumba Bhagavathy temple situated in the heart of Kodangallur dominates the area. It was closed to the ‘lower caste people’ until the strong social reform movements led by the SNDP and other organisations of oppressed social groups. The area also saw intense peasant mobilisations against rural distress and exploitation that led to the growing influence of the Communist movement. This influence has remained strong until very recently. As a result, not only the temple but its surroundings became open, public spaces and the 3 days temple festival not only attracted large numbers of Muslims but many of them were actively involved in its organization.

The 70s and 80s saw movements for land acquisition by the landless led by the Communists and much conflict with the landlords. The RSS actively supported the landlords and were responsible for several violent attacks on Communist leaders and cadres. The RSS started recruiting rich businessmen belonging to the lower castes and this drew members of these communities into its base. Since the 80s, when most of the struggles for occupation of land had been successfully concluded and many of the previously landless became landed and new business groups were emerging due to migrations to the Gulf (and of course much of the credit for these social processes goes to the Communists), the RSS benefited from the support of sections of these newly affluent groups and was able to shift from violent class attacks on the struggling poor and their leaders to social welfare activities. It has been noted that while these did gain some sympathy for the RSS workers the welfare activities of the State, specially under the LDF, are extremely effective as are its focus on public health and education. I should add here that I live in a BJP-ruled State and visit another MP, very often. While government education and health services are abysmal I have not seen any kind of welfare activities being carried out by RSS cadres. It seems that they carry these out in some places in Kerala only to compete with the Left-ruled Govt.

It was the focus on activities around the temple that have, however, paid the greatest dividends to the RSS in Kodangallur. Today there is a wall built around the temple to protect it from the polluting presence of Christians and Muslims, the participation of these communities in the Temple festivals and gatherings is now minimal and RSS supporters and members now oversee not only the temple management but the organization of events in and around the temple and the use of its spaces for conducting ceremonies and rituals for Hindu men, women and children creating the ‘Hindu atmosphere’ that is their objective. Today, the BJP is the single largest party in the Kodangallur municipality.

What was achieved in Kodangallur has been sought to be replicated across the State through various Temple activities and pilgrimages. It is the Sabarimala temple and the pilgrimage in which tens of thousands participate that has been the focus of the Sangh Parivar and its supporters over several decades since 1950 when the original temple caught fire.

The Sabarimala temple had been a religious site visited by members of all communities in earlier years. A Muslim friend of the deity Ayappa, Varava, has his own place in the various beliefs and rituals associated with the place. In fact, he even has his own place within the temple. A church, at a short distance from the temple, is visited by the pilgrims at the end of the pilgrimage. Many changes have, however, occurred. While Varava still occupies a place in the temple there are attempts being made to convert him into a Hindu and there is now almost no participation in the pilgrimage by non-Hindus.

The Supreme Court judgment in 2018 stated that women of all ages were free to visit the temple and that any ban on their entry was a form of untouchability that was anti-Constitutional. While the LDF government in power announced that it would implement the judgment, other parties acted in chameleon-like ways. To begin with, RSS and BJP leaders welcomed the judgment as did leaders of the Congress including Sashi Tharoor. Within days, however, the RSS and BJP smelt an opportunity to make a great leap forward in recalcitrant Kerala and soon came out strongly against the SC judgment. The then President of the State BJP, Sreedharan Pillai said at a meeting, ‘Sabarimala is a puzzle…But we have to put forward an agenda, and others are gradually falling for it. It is a golden chance.’ The Sangh Parivar wanted to start an Ayodhya-like agitation over the issue and Yogi Aditynath opined ‘there were many attempts to insult believers at both holy places and asked them to start an Ayodhya type agitation at Kerala’s hill temple to keep their faith.’

Sreedharan Pillai’s statement that ‘others are gradually falling for it’ proved to be only too correct. Not only did the Congress leadership, including Sashi Tharoor who had a change of heart on arrival in Kerala from Delhi, joined protests against the SC judgment vociferously. Leaders of the Muslim and Christian community joined them enthusiastically.

The political motives behind the movement were revealed by Amit Shah who said in Kannur that ‘The BJP will take over the protest of the Ayyappa devotees. We will not mind throwing out the government if the Kerala govt. tries to steamroll the traditions of the Sabarimala temple.’ Extraordinary that the Home Minister of the Govt. of India threatened to remove a State Govt. for abiding by the decision of the Supreme Court! Sreedharan Pillai went even further and said ‘The protest is not against the issue of entry of women into the temple but against the communist government in the state. Communists are trying to destroy the temple; our protest is against the communists.’

It must be said that the Communists, the left, the progressive forces and those on the side of social justice fought back with all their might. A massive Women’s Wall was organized from one end of the State to the other with nearly 5 million women participants. The Kerala Renaissance and its lessons were recalled again and again. The Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, said repeatedly that the Constitution was above all rituals and traditions and that the SC verdict would be upheld by his Government. For this he had to face not only opposition from many quarters but also casteist abuse.

The Sabarimala conflict revealed the harsh patriarchy that still dominated much of Kerala society. Caste divisions were also uncovered. Large numbers of upper caste women who never participated in movements and agitations took to the streets for a cause that ultimately weakened their own status and rights.

The movement was and should be a great learning experience for the people of Kerala. It brought into focus the forces arrayed on both sides of a battle for minds and hearts that will have very far reaching consequences. It has brought into focus the challenge that the unfinished Renaissance of Kerala faces. It has brought into focus the desperation of the vested interests that are determined to win back all that they have lost in battle after battle led by the Left, by the exploited and the socially oppressed. It is significant that Sabarimala did not become an Ayodhya because of the ‘exceptionalism’ of Kerala. At the same time, the strong mobilization that the reactionary forces could inspire, far beyond the strength of just the Sangh Parivar and its supporters, also needs to be understood.

The resistance demonstrated against this mobilization needs to be strengthened. This is certainly the responsibility of the Left forces but it is a responsibility that must be shared by all those who are determined to combat the Manuvadi Hindutva that threatens to destroy Kerala.

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The resignation comes a day after the union government, on July 29, 2025, notified Gupta’s appointment as a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court for a two-year term. This appointment was made despite Sharma’s formal representations to the Supreme Court Collegium, the President of India, the Ministry of Law and Justice, and the Chief Justice of the MP High Court, opposing his elevation. Sharma had submitted that Gupta had subjected her to continued humiliation, discrimination, and casteist behaviour when he was her administrative superior.

A resignation letter that reads like an indictment

In her resignation, accessed and reported by The Print, Sharma declared she was resigning with the “ache of betrayal — not at the hands of a criminal or an accused, but at the hands of the very system I swore to serve.” She described being subjected to “unrelenting harassment, not merely of the body or the mind, but of my dignity, my voice, and my very existence as a woman judge who dared to speak up.”

Rejecting the notion that her resignation was an act of personal defeat, Sharma wrote, as reported by Hindustan Times, “I am resigning from judicial service, not because I failed the institution, but because the institution has failed me.” Her words were not just personal; they carried an institutional warning: “Let this letter haunt the files it enters. Let it whisper in the hallways where silence once reigned.”

Allegations ignored, harassment unchecked

Sharma’s allegations were not anonymous, nor unsupported. As The Print and Hindustan Times both confirm, she made detailed and documented complaints against Gupta—including incidents of public humiliation, caste-based insults, and interference in her professional assessments. She alleged that Gupta and his wife not only demeaned her, but also sought to control her social interactions, particularly objecting to her friendship with their daughter.

In her petition before the Supreme Court, filed earlier this year, Sharma accused Gupta of abusing his administrative position to downgrade her performance ratings and creating a hostile work environment during her tenure as a trainee judge. The harassment, she claimed, extended to personal insults and attempts to damage her reputation.

Yet, despite multiple representations, Sharma states there was no inquiry, no notice, no opportunity to be heard—a complete abandonment of even the most basic tenets of natural justice. “The same judiciary that sermonizes about transparency from the bench failed to even follow the basic tenets of natural justice within its own halls,” her letter reads, as per The Print.

A troubling elevation amid allegations

Notably, Gupta’s elevation had previously been blocked by the Supreme Court Collegium in 2023, headed by then CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, after it received Sharma’s and other complaints. The file was returned to the Madhya Pradesh High Court for further inquiry. However, after what appears to be a perfunctory probe, where Sharma was never even called to testify, according to The Print, Gupta was given a clean chit and his name re-sent for reconsideration in April 2025.

ThePrint also reported that Gupta faced multiple complaints from other judicial officers, including a Dalit judge who accused him of casteist harassment, and another senior judge who alleged intimidation and derogatory remarks about High Court judges. None of these complaints, Sharma notes in her resignation, were adequately investigated.

Supreme Court had earlier reinstated Sharma

In February 2025, Sharma won a significant legal victory when the Supreme Court set aside her 2023 dismissal, calling it “punitive, arbitrary and illegal.” A bench led by Justice B.V. Nagarathna noted that her appraisal had ignored critical factors, including a miscarriage and long COVID-related complications. The judgment emphasised institutional responsibility in supporting women judges, particularly during health crises or maternity.

Yet even after her reinstatement, Sharma said she continued to face subtle retaliation, including an “advisory” from the HC to mend her behaviour. Her attempts to convert her earlier complaint into a formal grievance were met with silence.

A system that rewards power, not truth

Throughout her letter, Sharma reiterates that her protest is not about revenge, but about accountability. “. Shri Rajesh Kumar Gupta who orchestrated my suffering was not questioned – was rewarded. Recommended. Elevated. Given a pedestal instead of a summons. Shri Rajesh Kumar Gupta the man I accused not lightly, not anonymously, but with documented facts and the raw courage only a wounded woman can Summon was not even asked to explain. No inquiry. No notice. No hearing. No accountability—is now titled Justice, a cruel joke upon the very word,” she wrote, as per ThePrint.

In a scathing indictment of the collegium system, she warned that rewarding impunity sends a chilling message to other whistleblowers within the judiciary. “In that silence, I saw the brutal truth of our times that integrity is optional, power is protection, and those who speak the truth are punished more severely than those who violate it,” she wrote. “The same institution that teaches equality before law handpicked power over truth.”

Senior Advocate Indira Jaising: A structural betrayal

Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, who represented Sharma in her SC challenge against dismissal, told ThePrint: that this is not the first time she was dealing with a case where a woman judge has been forced to resign. She added: “As she said, ‘the judiciary’s daughters’ have been let down by the judiciary itself. I agree. There is something very wrong with the process of appointing judges of the high court behind closed doors. Surprisingly, the judiciary and the government are on the same page”

Jaising argued that closed-door appointments without adequate scrutiny of complaints were symptomatic of institutional decay. She said, “We lost a very good judicial officer with an unblemished record of service. She won in the judicial side but lost on the administrative side.”

A call for institutional introspection

Sharma’s resignation is not merely a personal exit—it is a formal indictment of the judiciary’s failure to uphold its own principles. She closes her letter with piercing words:

“I leave now, with wounds that no reinstatement, no compensation, no apology will ever heal—but also with my truth intact. Let this letter haunt the files it enters. Let it whisper in the hallways where silence once reigned. Let it live longer than the reputations hastily protected, and the wrongs quietly buried. 

I sign off not as an officer of the court, but as a victim of its silence. 

Where were the rules then? Where was the revered transparency then? 

You refused to protect one of your own. 

You refused to uphold the principles you preach. 

You refused to be just where it mattered the most. 

And if this does not shake your conscience, then perhaps the rot runs deeper than we dare admit.

I leave this institution with no medals, no celebration, and no bitterness—only the bitter truth that the judiciary failed me. But worse—it failed itself. 

This letter of resignation is not closure. It is a statement of protest. Let it remain in your archives as a reminder that there once was a woman judge in Madhya Pradesh who gave her all to justice, and was broken by the system that preached it the loudest. 

And if even one judge, one registrar, one member of the Collegium reads this and feels unease then perhaps, my voice has done more justice than my robe ever could.”

Her act—bold, painful, and unflinchingly honest—now stands as a testament to how women in the judiciary are treated. It raises deeply troubling questions about the integrity of appointments, the erasure of women’s voices in power structures, and the danger of silencing dissent through procedural opacity.

Related:

Beed to Delhi: Lawyer beaten in Maharashtra, judge threatened in Delhi—what the path for justice means for women practioners in today’s India

When Courts Fail Survivors: How patriarchy shapes justice in sexual offence against women cases

Surviving Communal Wrath: Women who have defied the silence, demanded accountability from the state

‘We are considered servants, not humans’: Women of Jai Bhim Nagar reveal the violence of domestic work

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The judgment is a significant ruling. It is notable, not for what it dismantled, as the Act itself remains on the statute books, but for the specific legal grounds upon which it provided relief. The High Court’s strict focus on the principles of locus standi (the right to bring a complaint) and the failure to establish a prima facie criminal case has resulted in a precedent against the potential weaponization of the law by third-party vigilantes. As a crucial judicial interpretation in the early life of this anti-conversion statute, the Mustafa judgment provides a clear precedent for challenging such prosecutions even as the government reportedly has been planning to repeal the law in the State of Karnataka.

Facts of the case

The facts of the Mustafa case presented a scenario that the KPRFR Act was seemingly designed to address. On May 4, 2025, a complaint was filed by Ramesh Mallappa Navi, a devotee at the Ramatheerth Temple in Jamkhandi. He alleged that the petitioners were distributing Islamic pamphlets and, when confronted, made derogatory statements about Hinduism, declaring their mission was to “make the whole world turn towards Islam” and threatening those who stood in their way. In India today, while this information could be the crux of an angry Whatsapp forward, it is within the framework of Constitutional rights to propagate their own religion under Article 25. Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of the Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.

In this case, the First Information Report (FIR) invoked the specific language of the KPRFR Act, alleging that the petitioners offered “material incentives, such as vehicles and job opportunities in Dubai,” to entice people to convert. This allegation of “allurement” is a central pillar of the offense defined under Section 3 of the Act. With a fact pattern that so closely mirrored the legislative intent, the stage was set for a direct examination of the law’s application. However, the High Court based its decision on fundamental procedural and substantive flaws in the prosecution’s case without needing to delve into a broader constitutional inquiry.

The First Pillar: Who has the right to complain?

The court’s primary reason for quashing the FIR was the complainant’s lack of legal standing. It held unequivocally that the complaint was initiated by a “third party, who does not fall within the category of persons enumerated under Section 4 of the Act.” This made the registration of the FIR “legally invalid.”

Section 4 of the KPRFR Act specifies that a complaint can only be lodged by the person who was allegedly converted, their parents, siblings, or another relative by blood, marriage, or adoption. The complainant in this case, a bystander at the temple, fit none of these criteria.

The strict enforcement of this provision sends a clear message: the machinery of this criminal statute cannot be triggered by just any concerned citizen or ideological activist. This interpretation provides a significant judicial counterweight to the expansive language found in the Act and its counterparts in other states. The Karnataka Act, for instance, also vaguely permits complaints from anyone “in any form associated or a colleague,” and a recent amendment to the Uttar Pradesh law allows “any person” to file an FIR. Such provisions effectively deputize the public, risking a flood of vexatious litigation driven by vigilante groups.

The Mustafa judgment’s reasoning re-centres the legal process on the individual whose rights are actually at stake, the alleged victim of the unlawful conversion. It shifts the focus from the offended sensibilities of an observer to the tangible harm, if any, experienced by the person whose freedom of conscience is the subject of the dispute. This creates a “procedural firewall,” a preliminary legal argument that lawyers can now raise to challenge cases based on generalized accusations or those motivated by communal animosity.

The Second Pillar: Was there an “attempt to convert”?

Beyond the procedural defect, the High Court found a fatal flaw in the substance of the complaint itself. Even taking all the allegations in the FIR at face value, the court concluded that they “fail to satisfy the essential elements of an offence under Section 3 of the Act.”

The reasoning was precise: “There is no allegation that the petitioners converted or attempted to convert any person to another religion.” This finding establishes a high bar for prosecution. It clarifies that generalized acts of proselytization, such as distributing literature, debating theology etc do not, by themselves, constitute a criminal offense under the Act. To invoke the law, the state must demonstrate a specific, targeted act aimed at converting an identifiable individual.

This distinction implicitly draws a line between the constitutionally protected right to “propagate” religion under Article 25 and a prosecutable “attempt to convert” under the KPRFR Act. The judgment indicates that for religious speech to lose its constitutional shield and become a criminal act, it must crystallize into a concrete attempt directed at a specific person. The absence of such an allegation in the Mustafa FIR, despite its detailed account of the petitioners’ actions, rendered the complaint legally unsustainable. This serves as another important safeguard, providing defence counsels with a clear substantive argument against the use of the Act to police all forms of religious outreach.

The National Context: A pattern of legislative escalation

The Karnataka Act is not an isolated piece of legislation but part of a coordinated national trend. Since 2017, states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Haryana have enacted or amended anti-conversion laws, each more stringent than the last. This new generation of statutes shares a common architecture and ideological underpinning, often justified by the unsubstantiated “love jihad” narrative and anxieties about demographic change.

These laws are characterized by:

• Overly Broad Definitions: Terms like “allurement” are defined so broadly as to include offers of free education or employment by religious institutions, potentially criminalizing legitimate charitable work.
• Targeting of Interfaith Marriage: The explicit inclusion of “promise of marriage” as a prohibited means of conversion directly intrudes into the personal autonomy of adults to choose their partners, a right recognized by the Supreme Court as part of the right to life under Article 21.
• Discriminatory Exemptions: Some of these laws exempt “reconversion” to a person’s “immediate previous religion,” a provision widely seen as creating a one-way street that privileges a return to Hinduism while penalizing conversions away from it.
• Intrusive Procedures: The laws mandate a complex pre- and post-conversion declaration process before a District Magistrate, including public notices and police inquiries, transforming a personal act of faith into a matter of public scrutiny and bureaucratic approval.
• Draconian Penalties: Offenses, for example in Rajasthan’s anti-conversion law are cognizable and non-bailable, and the burden of proof is reversed, requiring the accused to prove that the conversion was lawful, contrary to the foundational principle of “innocent until proven guilty.”

This intrusive and blatant disregard for the fundamental freedoms has led to a nationwide legal battle, with numerous petitions challenging these laws pending before various High Courts and the Supreme Court.

The legal challenges to these laws are setting the stage for a potential conflict between two competing lines of Supreme Court jurisprudence. On one side stands the 1977 judgment in Rev. Stainislaus v. State of Madhya Pradesh. In this case, a Constitution Bench upheld early anti-conversion laws, narrowly interpreting the right to “propagate” religion under Article 25 as not including a fundamental right to convert another person. It validated these laws under the state’s power to maintain “public order.”

On the other side is the modern, expansive doctrine of individual autonomy articulated in the landmark 2017 Right to Privacy judgment, Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India. The nine-judge bench in Puttaswamy established privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21, encompassing dignity, personal autonomy, and the freedom to make fundamental life choices regarding family, marriage, and belief.

The new anti-conversion laws, with their intrusive state surveillance of personal faith decisions, lie directly at the intersection of this doctrinal clash. While Stainislaus focused on preventing conversion through illegitimate means like force or fraud, the new laws regulate the very act of voluntary conversion itself. The requirement to declare one’s intent to convert to the state and face a public inquiry is a direct challenge to the “zone of choice and self-determination” that Puttaswamy sought to protect.

The central constitutional question is no longer merely about the right to propagate (the Stainislaus issue), but about whether the state can impose such a burdensome and invasive procedure on a deeply personal choice without violating the right to privacy and liberty (the Puttaswamy issue).

The Path forward

The Mustafa judgment is a significant outcome of a cautious judicial approach, focused strictly on the letter of the law. It provides immediate, tangible relief and establishes crucial procedural checks without precipitating a direct constitutional confrontation. Its legacy will be to provide the accused and their counsel with specific, effective legal arguments to challenge prosecutions at the very initial stage, thereby helping to curb potential abuses of the law.

However, the larger battle remains. The core provisions of the KPRFR Act and its sister statutes, such as their broad definitions, discriminatory clauses, and invasive procedures, are yet to be tested on the anvil of the Constitution. Ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to reconcile the state’s interest in preventing coercive conversions with the individual’s fundamental rights to privacy, liberty, equality, and conscience. The Mustafa judgment is a crucial first chapter in this unfolding constitutional matter, a stabilizing judgment that clarifies important procedural grounds while the principal constitutional adjudication awaits.

(The author is part of the legal research team of the organisation)

Related

https://cjp.org.in/anti-conversion-laws-being-weaponised-cjp-seeks-interim-relief-against-misuse-of-anti-conversion-laws/

https://cjp.org.in/cjp-plea-against-anti-conversion-laws-sc-seeks-to-know-status-of-cases-challenging-anti-conversion-laws-in-hcs/

https://cjp.org.in/cjp-other-rights-groups-challenge-maharashtra-govt-gr-setting-up-a-committee-to-monitor-inter-faith-marriages/

The post K’taka Anti-Conversion Law: HC judgement sets a precedent against potential weaponisation by third-party vigilantes appeared first on SabrangIndia.

According to The Wire, on July 19 the police detained at least 74 migrant workers — 11 from West Bengal and 63 from Assam — whom they suspected were undocumented Bangladeshis. These numbers just kept rising as the days proceeded. While nearly all have since been released following sustained public outcry, Hindustan Times reported that ten individuals remain in custody, alleged to be “confirmed Bangladeshis,” with deportation proceedings underway. Gurugram Police PRO Sandeep Kumar, according to Hindustan Times, said these ten are “confirmed Bangladeshis” and immigration proceedings have begun. However, officials have failed to provide clarity on the basis for these designations or the total number detained beyond the approximate figures.

“They said we are from Bangladesh. I had my Aadhaar card and voter ID, but they didn’t care,” said Hafizur Sheikh, as reported by Kashmir Media Service, a cleaner from West Bengal’s Nadia district, who was taken into custody on July 19 despite offering to procure physical copies of his documentation.

A campaign marked by fear and prejudice

The operation has induced widespread panic in migrant-dense neighbourhoods. NewsLaundry and other outlets documented how nearly 400 out of 500 Bengali-speaking workers in Sector 49’s “Bengali Market” fled the area in fear of police action, many carrying luggage by their doors in case they were detained at night.

In interviews, detainees described being picked up solely due to language or origin — Bengali speakers from Assam or Bengal targeted, held for days, denied legal counsel or phone access, forced to sign unexplained documents, and often stripped of mobile phones permanently, as per the reports of The Wire and Hindustan Times.

Fatima Begum, a domestic worker detained en route to work, recounts evenings of her children crying unanswered in the absence of her. “No one told us why we were held,” she said. According to the report of Hindustan Times, Aisha Khatun added: “Even after being released, we are scared to step outside”.

The drive has also sown panic in migrant-dense neighbourhoods. The Wire found that Khatola village, home to nearly 2,000 Assamese Muslim workers, was eerily deserted, with only a handful of women left. “We stayed because our husbands are inside [detention centres],” said Rohima. “But most have fled to Dhubri in Assam.”

In interviews with The Wire, detainees described being picked up based solely on their language or place of origin. Some said they were held for days, denied access to communication or legal aid, and forced to sign papers before being released without explanation. Mobile phones were confiscated and, in many cases, never returned.

In Palam Vihar, landlords have started evicting Bengali-speaking tenants under police pressure. Migrants are boarding buses to Murshidabad, Malda, Barpeta, and Karimganj, afraid that their turn will come next, according to The Tribune.

A drive rooted in Delhi’s directives

The detentions align with a May 2, 2025 directive from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs mandating states to identify and deport undocumented Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, granting a 30-day window for verification under specified guidelines, according to the report of Times of India. In keeping, Gurugram set up four operational holding centres, a move confirmed by Deputy Commissioner Ajay Kumar in the Kashmir Media Service report, though detailed detainee counts and procedural transparency remain undisclosed.

Gurugram police have claimed the drive was part of ongoing verification operations and that most detainees were released after district-level identity confirmation. Arpit Jain, DCP (Headquarters), said suspects were “kept in holding areas till verification completed,” though he did not define the exact criteria or process for such determinations, as reported in The Week.

Voices of Resistance and Anguish

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condemned the crackdown, calling it targeted, discriminatory and an attack on Bengalis across India. 

The second most spoken language in the country, Bangla, is also the second most spoken language of Assam.

To threaten citizens, who want to coexist peacefully respecting all languages and religions, with persecution for upholding their own mother tongue is discriminatory and…

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) July 19, 2025

Have been increasingly receiving reports of detentions of and atrocities on our Bengali-speaking people from different districts of West Bengal in Gurgaon, Haryana. West Bengal police is receiving these reports from Haryana police in the name of requests for identity searches.…

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) July 24, 2025

TMC MP Mahua Moitra, likened the situation to “living in Nazi Germany.” 

Nazi BJP targeting Bengalis. We will not tolerate these brazen attacks on our linguistic & ethnic identity. My interview on @timesofindia pic.twitter.com/jRXPreIozd

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) July 28, 2025

Attention! Migrant workers from Bengal being picked up illegally by @gurgaonpolice, is Sector 10 A community center an illegal detention camp? Maids, cooks, menial workers living in complete terror. #NaziGermany pic.twitter.com/uTaSQIK3s0

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) July 24, 2025

Asaduddin Owaisi, MP from Hyderabad, called the mass detentions illegal and classist: “This government acts strong with the weak, and weak with the strong. Most of those who are accused of being “illegal immigrants” are the poorest of the poor: slum-dwellers, cleaners, domestic workers, rag-pickers, etc.”

Police in different parts of India have been illegally detaining Bengali-speaking Muslim citizens and accusing them of being Bangladeshi. There have been disturbing reports of Indian citizens being pushed into Bangladesh at gunpoint. This government acts strong with the weak, and… https://t.co/wtQEKiDAaL pic.twitter.com/9BRSWsf31k

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) July 26, 2025

On July 21, CPI-ML’s Supanta Sinha visited one of the Gurugram detention centres and described conditions as “inhumane.” The party has threatened legal action, calling the entire operation unconstitutional. Sinha told The Wire that “These are illegal detentions, people are being held with no charges, no legal counsel, and no due process – only because they speak Bengali or are Muslims from Assam or Bengal.”

Cases of coercion and corruption

Multiple families report coerced release only after bribes or influence. In Khandsa’s ragpicker colony, Mijanur Molla claimed his father-in-law was released only after paying ₹6,000, despite valid documentation. He alleged beatings occurred in custody, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Another case involved Ashraful Islam, son of an Assam Industrial Security Force constable, detained on July 19 along with eight others. Despite presenting Aadhaar, PAN, school certificates, and even his father’s service ID, they were called “Bangladeshi” and held on suspicion — though local officials later intervened to seek his release, as per the report of Scroll.

‘We’re cooked for their kids, now we’re criminals’

Physical and psychological trauma continues: “This wasn’t just about legality — it was about dignity. We cook for their children, clean their houses, but they treat us like criminals,” reflected Aisha Khatun while speaking to Hindustan Times.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Times reported at least 10 trucks hauling migrants’ belongings out of Gurugram slum clusters — signalling early signs of a labour shortage in domestic and sanitation services.

Data Denied, Rights Denied

The entire operation also reveals a systemic absence of reliable migrant data. In Parliament, TMC MP Samirul Islam raised pressing questions to the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment on the status and deaths of migrant workers in the last five years. The Ministry failed to provide comprehensive data. “I sought data from the last five years, and we all know about the plight of migrant workers who were forced to walk long distances during the COVID-19-induced lockdown. There was no data available — or perhaps the BJP government is deliberately trying to hide its inefficiencies in protecting the rights of these migrants.” he wrote on X.

Islam also accused BJP-ruled states like Odisha, Maharashtra, and Delhi of unlawfully detaining and deporting Bengali migrants, with zero coordination with West Bengal. “I just want to warn the BJP: you cannot conceal your anti-Bengali attitude by hiding the data. Under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, we will continue to fight for the rights of these people.,” he said.

I asked a few questions to the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment regarding migrant workers. If you go through the questions and answers (the document is attached below), it becomes clear that we live in a country where the government does not maintain a timely or reliable… pic.twitter.com/c0gHh6PPLE

— Samirul Islam (@SamirulAITC) July 26, 2025

Conclusion

This is not the first such episode of mass detention in India. In recent weeks, a chilling pattern has emerged across multiple Indian states, including Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, where Bengali-speaking migrant workers, most of them Indian citizens, have been rounded up in mass raids, detained without proper inquiry, denied recognition of valid Indian documentation, and in some cases, forcibly deported to Bangladesh. (Detailed report may be read here.)

What began as a bureaucratic drive for “verification” has morphed into a surveillance campaign against linguistic and religious identity, disproportionately targeting poor Bengali-speaking Muslims. The absence of legal transparency, arbitrary detentions, and disregard for basic rights reveal deep fissures in the fabric of India’s constitutional promise.

Until procedural safeguards, accountability, and respect for dignity are restored, those who migrate for work risk living in a perpetual state of suspicion — their citizenship conditional, their humanity contested.

Related:

Gauhati High Court demands Centre’s deportation order amid mounting legal questions over re-detention of bail-compliant individuals

Under Siege for Speaking Bengali: Detentions, deportations and a rising pushback against the targeting of Bengali migrant workers across India

No breach, no recall, yet detained again: Gauhati HC seeks affidavit from State for re-detentions of COVID-era released detainees

“Illegal detention cannot be allowed even for a minute”: Gauhati HC orders release of Goalpara man picked up despite complying with bail conditions

Foreigner in Life, Indian in Death: The cruel end of Abdul Matleb in assam’s detention camp

Pushed Out of Sight: The covert deportation and detention crisis at Assam’s Matia detention centre

The post Under Suspicion: Bengali Migrant workers face mass detentions, fear, and statelessness in Gurugram crackdown appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Chief Minister’s remark came in response to a query on whether the state could become volatile if his government proceeded with its plan to issue gun licences exclusively to “original inhabitants” of Assam. His answer: not only is an explosive situation expected, it is welcome.

This is not political theatre. It is policy-as-provocation. Sarma’s statement, and the policies that surround it, point to a deliberate campaign of ethnic polarisation, state-backed dispossession, and Islamophobic scapegoating—paired with corporate interests and executed through a language of legality and security. This exposé traces the calculated threads of that campaign.

Weaponising Identity: The gun licence policy

On May 28, 2025, Sarma first declared that from August 1, the government would allow online applications for arms licences, but only for “indigenous” people—khilonjia—living in “vulnerable remote areas” of five districts: Dhubri, Barpeta, Morigaon, Nagaon, and South Salmara-Mankachar.

One should note that these districts are not arbitrarily chosen. They are overwhelmingly populated by Bengali-speaking Muslims, who the BJP-RSS ecosystem consistently labels as “infiltrators” or “illegal immigrants.” Two of them—Dhubri and South Salmara-Mankachar—border Bangladesh. Sarma cited vague feelings of “insecurity” among indigenous groups as justification, but no evidence of law-and-order breakdown was provided. Instead, the justification seems rooted in demography and fear.

As per The Assam Tribune, Sarma told the media “Someday the situation will be explosive. How will our people survive if there is an explosion?”

He paired this rhetoric with assurances that the “final approval” for gun licences would rest with district commissioners after police verification, as per the Indian Arms Act. But the context, armed mobilisation of one ethnic group in regions where another is numerically dominant, is what makes this policy chilling. It is not about self-defence. It is about creating authorised paramilitarisation of Assamese Hindus in Muslim-majority districts.

The Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP) condemned the statement as “reckless and dangerous,” saying it “betrays the constitutional duty of a Chief Minister to ensure law and order, not incite unrest.”

“Urging people to bear arms is not just irresponsible—it’s an admission that the government can no longer ensure basic law and order,” said AJP leaders Lurinjyoti Gogoi and Jagadish Bhuyan while addressing a press conference, reported GuwahatiPlus. They further stated that “This is the same government that came to power pledging to protect Jati, Mati, and Bheti, but now it’s propagating fear instead of security.”

Evictions and Ethnic Targeting: The ground beneath the guns

The gun licence policy cannot be separated from another state project unfolding in parallel: massive, violent eviction drives targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims and marginalised tribal populations across Assam.

These evictions, carried out under the guise of forest protection or encroachment removal, have surged dramatically since the Advantage Assam 2.0 Investor Summit in February and the Rising Northeast Investors’ Summit in May 2025.

As provided by Liberation, a central organ of CPI(ML), fact-finding team from CPI(ML) visiting Goalpara’s Ashudubi village on July 16–17 uncovered the scale and cruelty of these operations:

• Over 1,100 houses demolished with 60 bulldozers
• Entire village encircled with trenches to block humanitarian aid
• At least two deaths: Monirul Islam, who committed suicide after receiving an eviction notice; Anaruddin Sheikh, who died of a heart attack as his house was razed
• No rehabilitation or resettlement, despite High Court orders mandating it

The CPI(ML) called the eviction campaign a “war-like operation”. Their report revealed that the eviction area, Ashudubi, had been renamed “Paikan” solely to label it as forest land and circumvent existing settlement rights.

“The victims are poor peasants and working-class Muslim families who have lived in the area for 60–70 years. Government buildings existed there too, but it was renamed and cleared,” the report said.

In the past four years of Sarma’s regime, over 1.19 lakh bighas (roughly 160 sq. km) have been cleared, often with lethal force. These are not isolated instances but part of an escalating trend.

Corporate colonisation behind the curtain

While the public justification for evictions rests on fears of “illegal Bangladeshi settlers,” the actual beneficiaries of the land-clearing campaigns are large corporates:

• Dhubri & Goalpara: 4,000 bighas cleared for Adani’s 3,000 MW thermal plant
• Dima Hasao: Adani cement factory being set up
• Kokrajhar: Adani power project underway
• Karbi Anglong: Reliance constructing compressed biogas plants

The chronological proximity of eviction escalations and investment summits is no coincidence. It reflects a state-backed project of corporate land acquisition, achieved through ethnic cleansing. Communal rhetoric is the political mask for a deeper economic dispossession.

A detailed report on the same may be read here.

Torchlight rallies and calls for exclusion

On July 25, thousands of Assamese and tribal residents in Dhemaji district held a torch rally shouting slogans like “Bangladeshi Go Back” and “Bangladeshi Hosiar.” Their demands: vacate the district in 15 days—or else. The state government has neither condemned the threats nor responded with restraint.

The signs from Assam all indicate an impending mass ethnic cleansing – from the statements of the CM to the social media posts.

And every single institution that is supposed to prevent this is either helpless or unwilling to act. https://t.co/NGkKWrsH5d

— Sarayu Pani (@sarayupani) July 27, 2025

Assamese Awakening
Thousands and Thousands of Assamese and tribals people came out on streets of Dhemaji district with ‘Mashals’ shouting “Bangladeshi Hosiar” “Bangladeshi Go Back” in support of @himantabiswa Government for eviction of suspected Bangladeshi Muslims from… pic.twitter.com/1ckDVSvvLO

— Oxomiya Jiyori (@SouleFacts) July 25, 2025

আপাদমস্তক আত্মসম্মান-বিহীন একটি জাতি। Meanwhile an actual ethnic cleansing similar to the one in 70s and 80s is imminent in Assam. This is what happens when people think of history only in terms of religion and forget that violence and ethnic cleansing can take other forms too. pic.twitter.com/Je4Tt5H2Dn

— Jayati (@Jayati_M93) July 27, 2025

These visuals are chillingly reminiscent of the early 1980s. In 1983, just before the Nellie massacre, in which over 2,000 Bengali-Muslims were butchered, then-BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave a speech in Guwahati warning that a “river of blood” would flow if elections were held. In one of his speeches, Vajpayee was quoted as saying, “Foreigners have come here and the government does nothing. What if they had come into Punjab instead? People would have chopped them into pieces and thrown them away.” His words were read into the Lok Sabha record by former CPIM MP Indrajit Gupta in 1996. Today, Sarma’s rhetoric follows the same pattern, this time coupled with arms and state backing. 

NRC Weaponisation: Bengali Hindus not spared

This manufactured polarisation is not confined to Muslims. Bengali-speaking Hindus are also being targeted through revived NRC-linked harassment.

As per media reports that emerged on July 28, in Cooch Behar, West Bengal, 72-year-old egg-seller Nishikanta Das received a Foreigners Tribunal notice from Assam accusing him of illegally entering India between 1966 and 1971. His voter ID, Aadhaar, and ration card were rejected. Though Das proved his citizenship during a police detention in 2001, the tribunal now demands documents in his deceased father’s name.

“My father passed away 45 years ago. I’ve now found the document but will not return to the tribunal. I’ve had enough,” he told The Times of India.

Das’s story highlights that even working-class Hindu migrants are not immune. The Trinamool Congress has alleged that the BJP is using NRC-linked harassment to manufacture fear among all borderland Bengalis—Muslims and Hindus alike. Rajbanshis and Matuas, both marginalised communities, are now in the crosshairs.

Conclusion: A recipe for chaos, not governance

At the heart of Assam’s current political project lies not administrative reform or inclusive development, but a sustained strategy of majoritarian consolidation anchored in fear, suspicion, and cultural dominance. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has overseen a carefully layered campaign: one that marries communal dog-whistling with structural violence, cloaking targeted exclusions as policy, and presenting repressive crackdowns as law and order imperatives.

The “indigenous-first” gun licensing policy is not about citizen security but about engineering a psychological state of siege, where “indigenous” Hindus are imagined as under attack and armed self-defence becomes both justified and state-endorsed. Eviction drives, often militarised, disproportionately target Bengali-speaking Muslims, branding them as “encroachers” without legal inquiry or rehabilitation. At the same time, land is quietly handed over to industrial houses or infrastructural projects with opaque benefits for local communities. What is sold to the public as “development” is, in fact, a reordering of land and belonging, violently enforced through bulldozers, police firings, and a language of ethnic hierarchy.

The State’s actions do not exist in isolation. They are embedded within and legitimised by an ideological climate in which Bengali-speaking Muslims are persistently labelled as infiltrators, encroachers, and outsiders, regardless of their legal status, decades of residence, or community contributions. The NRC has left millions in limbo. Yet, no political will has emerged to remedy the resulting humanitarian crisis. Instead, Sarma’s administration continues to leverage this uncertainty as a tool of coercion and compliance.

Worse still, under the guise of this polarisation, it is the poor — across communities — who suffer the most. Whether it is a landless Muslim family evicted from their home at gunpoint, or an Adivasi worker displaced by corporate land takeovers, or a low-income Hindu villager pushed to arm themselves out of fear, the brunt of the state’s divisive politics is borne by those with the least protection and voice. Public resources are redirected to militarisation, surveillance, and spectacle. Welfare is replaced by repression. Governance becomes theatre. The poor become collateral damage in a battle for ideological dominance.

This is not just the story of one Chief Minister’s political ambitions. It is the anatomy of a regime that is weaponising statecraft to redraw the boundaries of citizenship, belonging, and fear. Assam today stands at a precipice where pluralism is under siege, dissent is criminalised, and the very idea of India’s constitutional promise is being hollowed out—bulldozed, one community at a time.

Related:

The contested interpretation of the Immigrant Expulsion from Assam Act, 1950

Assam: When six ordinary Indian women were forcibly pushed out from India–No Man’s land– Bangladesh & then back

Assam Border Police cracks down on residents battling citizenship rights without due process, pushes 145 locals over the border?

Supreme Court and the Rofiqul Hoque Judgment: A new chapter in Assam’s citizenship jurisprudence on discrepancies in documentary evidence

Pushed Out of Sight: The covert deportation and detention crisis at Assam’s Matia detention centre

28,000 cases withdrawn or votes secured? Assam CM’s move to drop ‘Foreigner’ cases against Koch Rajbongshi promise under scrutiny

The post ‘An Explosive Situation’: Gun licences, evictions, and the manufacturing of a majoritarian crisis in Assam appeared first on SabrangIndia.