By a remarkable coincidence, the Muslim woman’s blood group matched the Hindu man, and the Hindu woman’s blood group matched the Muslim man. Understanding the situation, both women made a thoughtful and humane decision and agreed to exchange donors, giving both men a new lease on life.

At a time when when hatred-driven politics and people spreading religious animosity push others to turn against one another, this scene offers a much-needed sense of hope and reassurance.

Thanks Sakal newspaper for this story of Everyday Harmony (: हिंदूची किडनी मुस्लिमाच्या; तर मुस्लिमाची किडनी हिंदूच्या शरीरात; तुम्हीच सांगा, या किडनीचा धर्म कोणता?)

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Closed doors of the operation theatre. Outside, the anxious heartbeats of relatives. There was neither religion nor caste here—only the will to live. Driven solely by love for their dear ones, a Hindu woman’s kidney was transplanted into a Muslim man, and a Muslim woman’s kidney into a Hindu man. This surgery was carried out at Care Sigma Hospital.

In the city, campaigning for the municipal corporation elections has come to an end. In some wards, the election turned into a Hindu–Muslim issue instead of focusing on development and civic concerns. While all this coloured the public sphere, elsewhere a Hindu woman donated her kidney to a Muslim man, and a Muslim woman donated her kidney to a Hindu man, saving their lives.

The surgery was performed at the Care Sigma Hospital. The kidneys of two men—one Hindu and one Muslim—had failed. They were undergoing treatment, but there was no option other than a kidney transplant. Not wanting to lose their life partners, with whom they had shared a lifetime of summers and monsoons and stood together through joy and sorrow, both wives agreed to donate their kidneys.

However, a problem arose because the blood groups did not match, so neither woman could donate a kidney to her own husband. As a result, both were left helpless. Meanwhile, the Muslim woman’s blood group matched the Hindu patient, and the Hindu woman’s blood group matched the Muslim patient—because blood is neither saffron nor green; it is simply blood.

Senior nephrologists at the hospital, Dr. Pradeep Saruk and Dr. Shrikant Deshmukh, counseled both families. After that, the women decided to donate their kidneys to each other’s husbands. As a result, not only were two lives saved, but a new bond of blood was formed beyond the walls of religion.

During this entire process, valuable support was provided by anesthetist Dr. Pramod Apsingekar and his colleagues, transplant coordinator Vishal Narwade, OT technicians, and other staff members. For this, the hospital’s Managing Director Dr. Unmesh Takalkar, Director Dr. Manisha Takalkar, and Chief Operating Officer Sameer Pawar congratulated the entire team.

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Tamil Nadu sets example of communal harmony amidst a polarised country

The post A rare yet heart-warming coincidence: Hindu-Muslim Kidney transplant appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Shivsena UBT Candidate Roshani Gaikwad Move Mumbai highcourt against Chunav Aayog Officers.#ShivsenaUBT #mumbai #ward3 #dahisar #Roshnigaikwad pic.twitter.com/26GwYo5mHR

— Roshni Kore Gaikwad (@Roshniatwork) January 19, 2026

When Roshni Gaikwad raised an objection, asking how the postal ballots had been opened, all the Returning Officer (RO) –a woman—told Gaikwad that she could check the CCTV footage and that it would show the ballots being opened. Gaikwad reportedly said, ‘Alright, show it to me.’ The CCTV footage was shown, but nowhere did it show the postal ballots being opened, nor did it show how many postal ballots there were. Roshni Gaikwad was contesting from Ward 3 in Dahisar East, and the other Candidate was/is BJP’s Prakash Darekar who won.

At the next step, when again all candidates were again checking the CCTV footage during the EVM process, the EVM machines were already placed there. All the seals on the EVM machines had been opened, she says in her post. The strings and seals that are normally tied and sealed were all open and cut. Again, Gaikwad raised objections again, saying that if these seals were not opened in front of us, or in front of our representatives, then the counting had to be stopped/abandoned.

In response, the RO reportedly told her, “if I created too much ‘drama’ there or caused any obstruction in the counting, they would call the police and throw her out of the premises. This threat was given to her by the RO on the spot. “After that, they forcibly started the counting. All the candidates from that ward number protested, however the ‘RO madam’ did not listen to anyone, and the counting went ahead.”

The Returning Officer in question is reportedly Sheetal Deshmukh, Election officer R/North Ward according to the official records of the BMC.

“The first round of counting was completed, then the second round, and after the third round, the madam said that the third round was the final round. When she announced the total votes, the highest number of votes was being shown for Prakash Darekar. When I asked her to tell me the total number of votes, she said it was 19,180.” Again Roshni Gaikwad raised objections. “I said that if 26,651 votes had been cast the previous day, then where was the account of the remaining 7,000 votes? Where had they gone?”

“….At that point, the madam went inside her cabin. I do not know what discussions took place there for 15–20 minutes. After that, she came out and said that they would conduct a re-counting.The re-counting began again, and once again three rounds were completed. Then the madam again said that the third round was the final round. Even then, when she announced the total votes, the number was 25,913, not the total of the previous day-26,651 votes!”

I raised my voice again and said, “Madam, even now the vote tally does not match. There is still a gap of 700–750 votes here. Where have those votes gone?’ Once again, the madam went inside, taking another 15–20 minutes. When she came back, she said that the counting of one machine had been left out, and that after counting that machine they would inform us.When the last machine was counted, I received 354 votes, while Darekar received only 26 votes. That means even in that machine, I was ahead.”

Here are the queries raised by the SS (UBT) candidate:

“My question to the Election Commission is this: was this some kind of children’s game? First you announce a total of around 19,000 votes, and about 7,000 votes simply disappear. After re-counting, you then say that the counting of one machine had been left out.

“Under what interpretation of the Constitution is the Election Commission conducting elections like this, and in what manner?””

There are no replied from an inept Election Commission.

The complete list of candidates of Ward 3 may be seen here

The Ward List of Returning Officers may be seen here.

Related:

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The post Shivsena UBT candidate Roshani Gaikwad moves Bombay HC against gross violations during recent BMC elections appeared first on SabrangIndia.

General, your tank is a powerful vehicle
It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.

General, your bomber is powerful.
It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.
But it has one defect:
It needs a mechanic.

General, human beings are very useful.
They can fly and they can kill.
But they have one defect:
They can think.

It is difficult to predict, in this day and age, how long this poem will remain relevant. But upon seeing, hearing and speaking with Aida Touma-Suleiman in Jerusalem, this poem came to mind vividly. Sixty-one-year-old Aida Touma-Suleiman is a member of Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset. She is an Israeli citizen, of Arab-Christian origin, but she declares herself an atheist.

She is a member of Israel’s Communist Party, and represents the coalition Hadash, a feminist, the editor of the party’s Arabic-language newspaper Al-Ittihad – the first and only female editor in Israel. She is also the first female member of the “high-level committee for Arab Citizens of Israel”. She fights for the rights of Israeli citizens, but also for that of the Palestinian people.

Meeting her reminded me of all those activist comrades in my own country who, despite not being Muslim, Christian, Dalit, LGBTQ++ or Adivasi, fight for human justice and often face criticism within their own communities. She is also famous for having passed a law in the Knesset, raising the legal age of marriage for women in Israel from 17 to 18.

The conversation I had with her was about Israel, but my own country, India, repeatedly came to my mind with various similar observations.

Officially, Israel is a democracy and so is India. But Hitler too rode the chariot of democracy to reach fascist dictatorship, and we see the same is happening in India and Israel today. The capitalist ruling class uses the guise of democracy to carry out anti-people work and secures legitimacy for those crimes in the name of democracy. Whereas, the Left wants to establish that very democracy in the true sense for the welfare and upliftment of the people.

Aida says, “It is true that we have gained a few rights by virtue of being Israeli citizens. We are a group of Israeli Arab citizens, who are indigenous to this land, so we can form our own political party, raise our issues in politics, and contest elections. We also have some scope to raise our voice, however little, against any wrong step taken by the Israeli government. But this was true two years ago.”

“Now, replace ‘is’ with ‘was’ in these statements – all these things have become matters of the past. It is true that whatever democracy existed in Israel, it was the only so-called democracy in the Middle-Eastern countries, and by that token, we had some rights, but in the last two years, these rights have been completely stripped away. In the last two years, an entirely new kind of situation has been created, and it is taking new shape every single day,” she adds.

Aida did not condemn the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack in the Israeli Knesset and instead raised her voice against the atrocities by the Israeli army. In response, she was suspended from parliament for two months and penalised with a two-week salary cut.

Aida also accused the Israeli army and rulers of bombing hospitals in Gaza, as a result of which only seven out of 48 surgeons survived. She condemned the Israeli army’s attack on displaced and unarmed people and refused to apologise or retract her statement.

The Knesset’s Ethics Committee, recommending action against her, said that “not condemning the Hamas attack is a betrayal of those Israeli citizens whose tax money pays your salaries as representatives… Accusing your country’s army of atrocities against Palestinians aids Israel’s enemies.” Aida had also alleged that Israeli soldiers fired bullets at Gazans fleeing for their lives through the humanitarian corridor established for evacuating civilians from the war zone.

“With what face do they call themselves the world’s most moral army and claim they do not attack the innocent and hospitals?” she had questioned.

She says that many people also think that everything was fine until October 7 and that the deteriorating situation started only after the Hamas attack. Because of this, many people conclude that if Hamas had not done this, the Israeli government would not have been forced to take such harsh measures.

Aida says, “Among those who think like this, there are many good people, who are politically literate and often supporters of Palestine as well. But I want to say that this perspective is flawed and incomplete, The history of Israel’s oppression of Palestine is older than October 7, 2023.”

She says that people outside don’t know, or they forget, what was happening in Israel before October 7, 2023. They are not allowed to see behind that date. From January 2023, until the Hamas attack in October, there were large-scale protests in Israel against the Netanyahu government because the working-class people of Israel were unhappy with the new laws the government had proposed in the name of judicial reforms.

Under the guise of these proposed reforms, the government wanted to massively increase its own powers, thus reducing the power of the judiciary. In fact, the government’s intention was to completely take over Israel’s Supreme Court, she claims, adding that the aim of these so-called reforms was that they would pass their unilateral laws and become unquestionable, and also gain legal sanction for it.

Aida says that all opposition parties including hers, opposed these proposals, and the Israeli public too protested vehemently against the repressive, dictatorial, right-wing and fascist government.

Opposition against Netanyahu

In 2021, Netanyahu’s party had lost and he had been ousted from the prime minister’s post. When he returned to power in November 2022, he tried to impose his dictatorship, which faced strong opposition in Israel. Under the cover of these legal reforms, he wanted to accelerate actions to seize Palestinian lands. Aida and her party were opposing the government’s move. The public wanted peace, and it seemed that his government would fall again.

According to surveys in September 2023, his party’s members in the Knesset were going to decrease. Right at this time, the Hamas attack happened, and citing a state of war and emergency, all protests were stopped. Several opposition party members were placed under house arrest.

Since then, the Israeli government has presented the Palestinians as villains and corrupted the public’s minds with arrogance, portraying that “Jews as better and more powerful than Palestinians”. As a result, the Israeli government was able to carry out genocide in Gaza because they had instilled hatred, anger and fear towards Palestinians within the Israeli population. The Israeli government left no stone unturned in exploiting the October 7 incident as an opportunity.

Aida was talking of Israel but hearing this, my memories took me to 2002 Godhra incident, just before which the then-BJP government in Gujarat had started becoming unpopular and had even faced defeat in the local body elections. The Godhra incident united most Hindu voters in the state against the “fear of Muslims”.

I also remembered the Kargil War, just before which the NDA government fell due to Jayalalithaa’s party’s – the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s – withdrawal of support. The declaration of the Kargil War, however, united people against Pakistan and stabilised the central government. Then I remembered the Pulwama attack, which also made the political equations favourable for the party holding chair in New Delhi.

The Israeli government had to do something to fix its declining popularity and diminishing international support. If it hadn’t done it on October 7, it would have done it on the 6th or the 8th, or the 20th or 25th. If not in October, then at some other time – on any of the 365 days of the calendar, but it would have done it for sure. This time, it just chose the pretext of the Hamas attack.

Aida insists that most people in Israel did not become supporters of the Israeli government or anti-Palestinian or right-wing racist thinkers, but it is true that the rest are afraid to express their feelings because in the surge of this kind of nationalism, it becomes very easy for power to throttle dissenting voices – no matter how rational and sensible that voice may be.

She says, “We are filled with the pain of oppression being inflicted on our own Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, but apart from that, we Palestinian Israelis living inside Israel are facing different kinds of challenges.”

Aida says that earlier, whenever the Israeli government took any repressive action in Gaza or in the West Bank, the Palestinians living in Israel would immediately go to the streets and register our protest against it.

“Now, under the declared state of emergency, we cannot do that. We are immediately arrested. Now we cannot demonstrate anywhere,” she says.

She also informs that when they tried to hold a meeting inside a hall, the owner of that hall received a message from the government that your hall will be shut down for six months, and what else would happen, was a separate matter. Another major challenge they face is that they are being turned into villains in their own cities and villages by state-sponsored propaganda against them.

In his first address to the nation after October 7, Netanyahu told Israeli citizens that they have to fight a war on four fronts. One in Gaza, the second in the West Bank, the third in Lebanon, and the fourth front is against those who, living in Israel, oppose its voice and raise the voice of justice.

According to Aida, Netanyahu was pointing a clear finger towards them. The Israeli government, she says, considers them its enemy and also presents them as traitors before the public so that the public stops paying attention to the voices they raise against their anti-people actions.

Brecht’s poem’s lines were echoing in my memory again, “Human beings can think.”

If they can think, then they can also change the circumstances.

Vineet Tiwari is a writer and human rights activist associated with India-Palestine Solidarity Network. He visited the West Bank region of Palestine in November 2025.

Courtesy: The Wire

The post A Conversation About Israel That Felt Uncomfortably Familiar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The controversial and recently conducted elections to the civic body –given huge allegations of malpractices in voter lists (exclusion of voters), delible ink being used, introduction of new machines etc. were conducted over 24 administrative wards. From sewerage operations to public health, the BMC handles local civic issues in these wards, named alphabetically from A to T. Each administrative ward is further subdivided into smaller electoral wards for which corporators are elected. There are 227 of these electoral wards. Out of these, 113 fall under the General Category, while 114 are reserved for women, including women belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and the Backwards Class of Citizens. So 121 women elected in all.

Of these 121 women, there are 14 Muslim women and one Christian woman. The break up party wise is as follows:

BJP’s winning women candidates

Ward 2 – Tejaswi Ghosadkar

Ward 8 – Yogita Patil

Ward 13 – Rani Dwivedi-Nighot

Ward 14 – Seema Kiran Shinde

Ward 15 – Jigna Shah

Ward 16 – Shweta Korgaonkar

Ward 17 – Dr Shilpa Sangore

Ward 19 – Dakshata Kavthankar

Ward 21 – Leena Deherkar

Ward 24 – Swait Jaiswal

Ward 25 – Nisha Bangera

Ward 27 – Neelam Gurav

Ward 31 – Manisha Yadav

Ward 44    – Sangeeta Sharma

Ward 46 – Yogita Koli

Ward 52    – Priti Satam

Ward 57 – Shrikala Pille

Ward 60    – Saylee Kulkarni

Ward 69 – Sudha Singh

Ward 71 – Sunita Makvani

Ward 72    – Mamta Yadav

Ward 80 – Disha Yadav

Wars 81 – Kesarben Murji Patel

Ward 82    – Ameen Jagdeshwari

Ward 84 – Anjali Samant

Ward 98    – Alka Kerkar

Ward 100 – Swapna Mhatre

Ward 103 – Hetal Gala

Ward 105 – Anita Vaiti

Ward 108 – Deepika Ghag

Ward 112 – Sakshi Dalvi

Ward 116 – Jagruti Patil

Ward 126 – Archana Bhalerao

Ward 129 – Ashwini Matekar

Ward 131 – Rakhi Jadhav

Ward 132 – Ritu Tavde

Ward 149 – Sushma Sawant

Ward 151 – Kashish Phulwariya

Ward 152 – Asha Marathe

Ward 172 – Rajeshri Shirvadkar

Ward 173 – Shilpa Keluskar

Ward 174 – Sakshi Kanojia

Ward 176 – Rekha Yadav

Ward 190 – Sheetal Gambhir

Ward 218 – Snehal Tendulkar

Ward 222 – Rita Makvana

Ward 227 – Gaoravi Shivalkar-Narwekar

These total 47 women councillors

Shiv Sena (UBT) women councillors

Ward 12 – Sarika Zhore

Ward 32 – Geeta Bhandari

Ward 39 – Pushpa Kalambe

Ward 56 – Laxmi Nitin Bhatiya

Ward 64 – Khan Rashid

Ward 73 – Lona Rawat

Ward 77 – Shivani Parab

Ward 83 – Sonali Sabe

Ward 88 – Sharvari Parab

Ward 93 – Rohini Kamble

Ward 94 – Pragya Bhutkar

Ward 114 – Rajul Patil

Ward 117 – Shweta Pawaskar

Ward 118 – Sunita Jadhav

Ward 121 – Priyadarshini Nagesh

Ward 124 – Sakina Ayub Sheikh

Ward 127 – Swarupa Patil

Ward 153 – Minakshi Patankar

Ward 155 – Snehal Shivkar

Ward 157 – Dr. Sarita Mhaske

Ward 158 – Chitra Sangle

Ward 169 – Pravina Morajkar

Ward 171 – Adv. Rani Yerunkar

Ward 186 – Archana Shinde

Ward 189- Harshala More

Ward 191 – Vishakha Raut

Ward 193 – Hemangi Varlikar

Ward 198 – Aboli Khadiye

Ward 199 – Kishori Pednekar

Ward 200 – Urmila Panchal

Ward 202 – Shraddha Jadhav

Ward 203 – Shraddha Pednekar

Ward 210 – Sonam Jamsudkar

Ward 220 – Sampada Mayekar

This totals 34 women corporators from SS (UBT).

Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) women councillors:

Ward 1 – Rekha Yadav

Ward 11 – Dr. Aditi Khursange

Ward 18 – Sandhya Doshi

Ward 42 – Dhanashree Bharadkar

Ward 51 – Varsha Tembvalkar

Ward 78 – Sofi Abdul Jabbar

Ward 133 – Nirmiti Kanade

Ward 142 – Apeksha Khandekar

Ward 146 – Samruddhi Kate

Ward 147 – Pragya Sadafule

Ward 148 – Anjali Naik

Ward 156 – Ashwini Matekar

Ward 160 – Kiran Landge

Ward 163 – Shaila Lande

Ward 166 – Minal Sanjay Turde

Ward 180 – Trushna Vishvasrao

Ward 209 – Yamini Jadhav

This totals 17 women corporators.

Women Corporators from Congress:

Ward 33 – Qamar Jahan Moin Siddiqui

Ward 28 – Ajanta Yadav

Ward 61 – Divya Sinh

Ward 90 – Adv. Tulip Miranda

Ward 110 – Asha Suresh Koparkar

Ward 101 – Karen Dmello

Ward 150 – Vaishali Ajit Shendekar

Ward 179 – Ayesha Vanu

Ward 183 – Asha Kale

Ward 184 – Sajida Khan

Ward 213 – Nasima Javed Juneja

Ward 216 – Rajashree Bhatankar

Ward 224- Ruksana Parikh Nurulamin

This makes a total of 13 women candidates.

MNS Four Women Councillors

Ward 38 – Surekha Parab

Ward 74 – Vidha Aarya

Ward 128 – Sae Shirke

Ward 205- Supriya Dilip Dalvi

AIMIM: (Four councillors)

Ward 134 – Mehjabin Khan

Ward 139 – Shabana Sheikh

Ward 143 – Shabana Kazi

Ward 145 – Khairunnisa Hussein

Samajwadi Party (One woman candidate who won)

Ward 212 – Abrahani Amrin Shehzad

Nationalist Congress Party (One woman candidate who won)

Ward 168 – Dr Saeeda Khan

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The post BMC: Women corporators past the 50% mark, 121 women get elected in 2026 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Resurrecting the outlook of Father Stan Swamy and Prof. G. N. Saibaba, Whither Human Rights in India is both a chronicle of resistance and a call to reshape the future of democracy and human dignity.

Reviews highlight it as imperative for understanding the struggles of minorities, the role of activist scholars (like contributors Harsh Mander, Teesta Setalvad), and the impact of laws like the UAPA on activists.

It is an illustrative and lucid anthology that provides a panoramic view and an unwavering critical analysis of the aggravating crisis in human rights in India, offering profound research on systemic failures and the ongoing fight for justice.

Principally, the book is a comprehensive exploration of how the devastation of human rights over the parts decade are not just a continuation of past patterns but symbolise a crucial departure or rupture, manifesting a new fascist paradigm which will make it an arduous task for future generation s to stand up against to restore past rights.

The essays trace the historical and ideological roots of India’s human rights evolution. They explore how colonial past and constitutional ideals grossly contradict current realities. Critiques analyse the rise of majoritarian politics, state violence, and impunity, especially against minorities.

The book scrutinizes the judiciary, hate speech, “bulldozer justice,” and development models. Features contributions from leading voices like Teesta Setalvad, Harsh Mander, Gautam Navlakha, and Kalpana Kannabiran.

The book addresses the persecution of activists (like the book’s editor, Anand Teltumbde under laws like the UAPA.

In a most illustrative and congeal manner the chapters of the book encompass the unprecedented destruction of human rights during the tyranny of BJP rule.

The first part includes seven papers that give a clear theoretical cognitive on vital spheres lie state violence, impunity, ‘Urban Naxal narrative, the hate speech epidemic persecution engineered by the constitutional executive, controversial supreme court rulings, growing inequality, and the superstructure of New India promoted by BJP, the Gujarat model and the ‘bulldozer justice.’

The second part features nine papers, documenting violations on minority communities like Muslims and Christians.

Introduction by Author

Teltumbde gives a most comprehensive introduction where he explores the evolution of human rights in India from the Colonial days of the British rule, linking it with the rise of British liberalism. He examined the contradictions of British imperialism with liberalism as well as the percolating of liberal ideas and catalysed social reforms that addressed oppressive practices. He chronicled the events that orchestrated the wave of human rights in the Freedom struggle and why World War 2 became a turning point in the global recognition of human rights, with creation of United Nations. Teltumbde has appraised the Indian Constitution of 1950 that secured important rights, praising India’s dedication to preserving human rights in that era.

Pertinent and positive that Tetumbde exposes the glaring loopholes in late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s policies, who he described as fostering caste discrimination as well as inequality to engineer a largely undemocratic social order, promoting even Preventive Detention and toppling the elected government of Sheikh Abdula h in Kashmir and the Elected Communist party in Kerala.

Anand makes an intensive exploration of the gradual deterioration of human rights in periods like Indo-China War, Emergency, and events under the Congress regimes that were the precursor-sponsored rise of BJP neo-fascism was bitterly critical of the regimes of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, supressing workers and student movements. He scrutinized how the 1991 economic reforms although boosted private enterprise and consumer freedom, escalated economic equality, displaced large populations and marginalised the poor due to privatisation, and linked those aberrations with informalisation of labour and commercialisation of services like healthcare and education that engineered a new era of human rights violations.

Teltumbde recounted the Babri Masjid demolition orchestrating communal polarisation and widespread violence and the transition to the 202 Gujarat agenda, with the gruesome Godhra carnage. In the main Teltumbde navigated how in essence the state’s actions stood in stark contrast to the lofty ideals of the constitution.

Anand finally explored and evaluated the making and fabric of fascism in India under Narendra Modi He reflected the role played by the media. He elaborated how Modi regime viewed civil society as an enemy, mercilessly framing activists and dissenters as threats to national security. Teltumde chronicled events symbolising the multidimensional assault on human rights, like Pulwama action, Citizenship amendment act, abrogating article 370 in Kashmir, criminalising human rights organisations, extensive use of colonial era laws like UPA.etc.

In his conclusion of the introduction, he diagnoses a return to the ancient Brahmanical order, stripping al human rights. He expresses fear of the silence and indifference of the Indian public on Modi’s regime and relentless propaganda that conceal the truth.

Chapters in the Volume

Kalpana Kannabiran examines how state actions over seven decades have reinforced impunity and aggression.

Ajay Gudavarthy and G Vijay navigate targeting of activists as anti-Hindu and terrorist to supress resistance of civil society.

Mihir Desai explores the Supreme Court’s failures to safeguard constitutional rights over the lats decade.

Subbhas Gatade draws similarities of the bulldozing of Muslim homes with Israeli demolitions in Gaza.

Teesta Setalvad diagnoses the reactionary character of the ‘Gujarat Model’, evaluating it as facade to engineer corporate welfare and communal polarisation.

Gautam Navlakaha recollects life serving a sentence as an undertrial prisoner, revealing how special laws are designed to undermine the principle of innocence until proven guilty, denying bail to prisoners making them languish for years.

Harsh Mander touches on the escalation of hate speech, vilifying Muslims as traitors.

Aakar Patel explores the persecution of Muslims, tracing it to the ideological roots of the BJP, describing Modi’s regime as one mercilessly promoting nationalism.

Vineeth Srivastav characterises Modi’s regime as fascist, which fuses rhetoric nationalism, religious identity and anti-elitism to trigger Hindu nationalism. He lucidly analyses Fascist underpinnings exploring how the cult of Modi, the normalisation of Hindu nationalism, the mockery of constitutional values, the power of propaganda, the dominance of mob mentality, the revival of religious myths, as national narratives and ‘bulldozer justice’, are a testament to New India’s transformation into a fascist society. This new India’s characterised by a fascist revival of a mythic past as well as a dynamic relationship of the state, corporate interests and highly mediated cultural nationalism, bolstering ultra-nationalism with crony capitalism.

Anand Teltumbde investigates the organised erosion of Dalit rights, in the backdrop of the marinization of constitutional protection.

Vernon Gonzalves chronicles the systematic extinguishing of prisoners’ rights under Modi.

Lancy Lobo describes the Violence unleashed on Christians, with anti-conversion laws enforced to attack on Christians.

Irfan Engineer covers the escalating violence and discrimination of Muslims under Modi’s rule.

Mahruk Edenwala exposes the failure of child protection laws, particularly in aftermath of NRC.

Bittu KR analyses the restriction on rights of the LGBTQIA for living freely and equally.

(The author is a freelance journalist)

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Ritwik Ghatak transcended realms unexplored to reinvent art of Indian revolutionary film making

“The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir” by Anand Teltumbde stands as one of the most powerful indictments of Indian democracy

Iconoclast: Path breaking biography of BR Ambedkar projects his human essence

The post Imperative for Understanding Evolution of Human Rights Paradigm: Whither Human Rights in India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A detailed audit titled “The Bihar Verdict 2025”, curated by Vote for Democracy (VFD), Maharashtra, suggests that this is precisely what unfolded in the 2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. Drawing exclusively from official Election Commission of India (ECI) data, statutory provisions, constitutional norms, and documented inconsistencies, the report presents a disturbing account of how India’s most fundamental democratic exercise was methodically hollowed out—before, during, and after polling.

What emerges is not a story of sporadic irregularities or administrative error, but of systemic electoral engineering, carried out through opaque voter roll revisions, statistical impossibilities, data suppression, and post-poll manipulation—raising urgent questions about the credibility of India’s electoral institutions.

The said report has been authored and compiled by Vote for Democracy (VFD), Maharashtra under the guidance of experts MG Devasahayam (IAS (Retd) and Founder, Forum for Electoral Integrity), Dr Pyara Lal Garg, (Former Dean, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh) and Professor Harish Karnick, (Computer Science Expert) and Madhav Deshpande, (Computer Science Expert).

The Electoral ‘Ambush’: An unprecedented Special Intensive Revision

At the centre of the report is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, notified by the ECI on June 24, 2025, just months before the Assembly election. While electoral rolls are periodically revised, the timing, scale, and opacity of this exercise make it extraordinary.

Bihar’s rolls had already undergone continuous revision since 2003, with a Special Summary Revision completed in January 2025. There was, therefore, no apparent administrative necessity for another sweeping revision so close to elections. Yet the ECI undertook precisely that—without recording reasons, disclosing empirical justification, or publishing a transparent methodology.

The report argues that this move violated statutory safeguards under the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, while also undermining constitutional guarantees under Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326. Most alarmingly, the SIR reversed a core principle of electoral democracy: the presumption of inclusion of citizens on the voter roll.

Instead, the revision effectively placed the burden of proof on voters themselves, subjecting them to what the report describes as a citizenship-style verification exercise, without any legislative sanction.

Mass disenfranchisement hidden in plain sight

The consequences of the SIR were immediate and devastating. According to official ECI figures:

• On June 24, 2025, Bihar had 7.89 crore registered voters.
• By the Draft Roll of 1 August 2025, this number had dropped to 7.24 crore—a deletion of 65.69 lakh voters.
• The Final Roll published on September 30, 2025 stood at approximately 7.42 crore electors.

Yet, the report finds that only 3.66 lakh voters were ultimately found to be ineligible. The sheer scale of deletions—nearly twenty times higher than justified exclusions—points not to routine correction but to deliberate disenfranchisement.

The most shocking phase occurred between 21 and 25 July 2025, when over 21.27 lakh voters were deleted in just three days. During this period alone:

• 5.44 lakh voters were marked as ‘dead’,
• 14.24 lakh as ‘permanently shifted’, and
• those marked ‘untraceable’ increased by an astonishing 809% overnight.

Despite the SIR being justified as a means to remove “foreigners” from the rolls, not a single foreign national was identified.

As the report notes, such numbers defy administrative logic and statistical probability, pointing instead to algorithmic or bulk deletions, carried out without genuine field verification.

The ‘rectification’ that didn’t add up

Following public criticism, the ECI claimed to have undertaken a process of rectification, stating that approximately 17 lakh objections or applications were received. However, the final numbers tell a different story.

The report documents that around 22 lakh entries were modified—far exceeding the number of applications claimed. Even after accounting for these corrections, the voter roll should have mathematically settled at approximately 7.38 crore electors. Instead, the ECI declared 7.42 crore voters, leaving an unexplained surplus of 3.24 lakh electors.

No reconciliation statement, independent audit, or transparent explanation has been provided for this discrepancy—raising serious concerns about the integrity of the final roll itself.

When the rolls kept changing after elections were notified

Electoral law and convention require voter rolls to be effectively frozen once elections are notified, to ensure certainty and fairness. Yet, the report shows that in Bihar, the rolls continued to change even after notification.

• On October 6, 2025, the electorate stood at 7.43 crore.
• By poll day, it had risen to 7.46 crore.

In just ten days, 3.34 lakh voters were added, including a sudden and unexplained spike in young voters—an impossibility given eligibility timeline.

The sanctity of the voter roll, the report argues, was thus compromised at the most critical stage of the electoral process.

Structural rigging and data suppression

Manipulation was not confined to voter rolls alone. The report details a sharp increase in polling booths—from 77,462 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to 90,740 in Bihar 2025—without a corresponding expansion in remote or riverine areas, raising questions about constituency engineering.

Equally troubling was the Election Commission’s progressive withdrawal of transparency. Constituency-wise turnout figures and final votes polled before counting—data routinely published in earlier elections—were withheld. Instead, fragmented district-level data was released, making independent verification virtually impossible.

Institutional capture at the grassroots

At the ground level, the report highlights the deployment of 1.8 lakh ‘Jeevika Didis’ as poll volunteers—women who were also beneficiaries of state welfare schemes involving cash transfers. This, the report argues, blurred the line between welfare delivery and election administration, undermining the neutrality of the electoral machinery.

The imbalance in Booth Level Agents (BLAs) further compounded the problem. While the ruling alliance deployed over 91,000 agents, the opposition averaged just 1.55 agents per booth, creating vast unmonitored spaces within polling stations.

Poll-day violations and the ‘midnight hike’

Polling and counting days were marked by a series of disturbing incidents: CCTV failures, VVPAT slips found discarded on roads, unauthorised vehicles near strong rooms, and the transportation of approximately 6,000 voters from Haryana through special trains, allegedly facilitated with free tickets.

But the most consequential intervention came after polling had ended. On 12 November 2025, official data recorded a uniform 0.18% increase in voter turnout—identical for both men and women across phases. This “midnight hike” added 1,34,145 votes, altering outcomes in around 20 constituencies.

In 21 seats, victory margins ranged from zero to just 15 votes, yet no automatic VVPAT recount was ordered.

More than a Bihar story

“The Bihar Verdict 2025” concludes with a stark warning: what happened in Bihar is not an isolated aberration. It represents a new mode of electoral manipulation, executed not through visible violence or overt coercion, but through administrative opacity, legal sleight of hand, and data control.

At stake is not merely the outcome of one state election, but the constitutional promise of universal adult suffrage itself.

As the report makes clear, when voters disappear from rolls, when numbers defy arithmetic, and when transparency is treated as expendable, democracy itself becomes the casualty.

The complete report may be accessed here: https://votefordemocracy.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/260113-FINAL-THE-BIHAR-VERDICT.pdf

Presentation: https://votefordemocracy.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/THE-BIHAR-VERDICT-2025-ppt.pdf

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The post The Bihar Verdict 2025: How an election was engineered before votes were cast appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The country, India, the world’s largest democracy, placed fourth out of 168 nations assessed for the likelihood of what researchers call intrastate mass killings. More significantly, India topped the list of countries facing such danger that are not already experiencing large-scale violence.

This is the December 2025 report Countries at Risk for Intrastate Mass Killing 2025-26, Statistical Risk Assessment Results, available here, from the museum’s Early Warning Project estimates India has a 7.5% chance of seeing deliberate mass violence against civilians before the end of 2026. The researchers define such violence as armed groups killing at least 1000 non-combatants within a year based on their group identity, which could include ethnicity, religion, politics or geography.

Three countries scored higher than India. Another South Asian neighbour, Myanmar, holds the top spot, followed by Chad and Sudan. However, the difference is that several high-ranking nations including Myanmar and Sudan are already dealing with ongoing mass killings, making India’s position particularly noteworthy as a potential new flashpoint.

Methodology: Researchers at the museum and Dartmouth College analysed decades of historical data to identify patterns. They look at which characteristics countries shared in the years before mass violence erupted, then search for similar warning signs today.

“Which countries today look most similar to countries that experienced mass killings in the past, in the year or two before those mass killings began?” the report asks.

The model examines more than 30 factors, from population size and economic indicators to measures of political freedom and armed conflict. Historically, roughly one or two countries experience new episodes of mass killing each year.

It was Lawrence Woocher, research director at the museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, wrote in the report’s foreword that the project aims to help officials and organisations decide where to focus resources for prevention. Pointing out that the Holocaust was preventable, Woocher wrote, “By heeding warning signs and taking early action, individuals and governments can save lives”.

The assessment looks only at future outbreaks, not whether existing violence might worsen. This approach helps fill what researchers see as a gap in prevention efforts, since ongoing crises often dominate attention.

Crucially, the researchers caution against viewing their findings as predictions. The statistical model identifies risk factors that historically appeared before mass violence, but these factors do not necessarily cause such events.

“Readers should keep in mind that our model is not causal,” the report states. “The variables identified as predicting higher or lower risk of mass killings in a country are not necessarily the factors that drive or trigger atrocities.”

For instance, a country’s large population, for instance, does not trigger violence. However, nations with bigger populations have historically been more likely to experience mass killings, making it a useful indicator when combined with other data.

The model relies on publicly available information from 2024, which means events from 2025 do not reflect in the current rankings. Data limitations also mean the assessment may not fully capture conditions in places where governments restrict access to observers. “This assessment is just one tool,” the report underlined. “It is meant to be a starting point for discussion and further research, not a definitive conclusion.”

Identifying the countries in the top tier, the report lays out specific concerns.

“For every country in the top 30, we recommend that policy makers consider whether they are devoting sufficient attention to addressing the risks of mass atrocities occurring within that country,” the authors recommended.

The report suggests several lines of inquiry. Are governments paying enough attention to the danger of systematic attacks on civilians? What specific triggers, whether elections, political upheaval or protests, could spark widespread violence?

The authors recommend that international bodies and national governments conduct their own detailed assessments of high-risk countries. Such reviews should examine what drives the risk, what scenarios seem plausible, and what existing strengths in a society need to be reinforced to prevent violence.

“Strategies and tools to address atrocity risks should, of course, be tailored to each country’s context,” the report noted.

The Early Warning Project has released annual assessments since 2014. In that time, mass atrocities have occurred in multiple countries, including genocide against the Rohingya in Burma and mass civilian deaths in South Sudan and Ethiopia. “Even in cases like these where warnings have been issued, they have simply not prompted enough early action,” Woocher stated.

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Apologies from an ashamed Hindu

Muslim student set on fire in Bareilly outside exam centre, suffers 8% burns

The post India tops among countries at risk of mass crimes, atrocities, US Holocaust Museum warns appeared first on SabrangIndia.

I profusely apologise for the incessant atrocities that are being committed against you all since 2014 by the Modi Regime.

There are thousands and lakhs of Muslim Freedom fighters, who gave their blood and lives to make this Nation, when RSS traitors were colluding with the British.

The sadistic pleasure drawn by few self-proclaimed Hindus, on withdrawal of MBBS Course from Shri. Mata Vaishnavo Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in Jammu, is so disheartening and nauseating that I don’t wish to be associated with this kind of Hindu Community.

My sense of dismay, disheartenment is so profound and intense that I now realise and feel the pain that Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar must have felt while Quitting this hate filled, demonic, human social system.

Followers of Manusmriti are using the very Constitution which promised you all, other minorities and the poor and downtrodden, a dignified, egalitarian position in the India liberated on 15-08-1947.

Neither this is that India, nor are the bulwarks of that Constitution intact.

Lynching Muslims, dehumanising them, reducing them to second citizens, bulldozing their homes and forcefully pushing them into Bangladesh, committing genocide against them like in Godhra, even a Muslim MP is not safe and are deprived of the fundamental human dignity in the Parliament.

Doesn’t matter, that Modi Regime and its cronies are accepting the Gulf Dinars from the Sheikhs, to survive and sustain their business, which in any sovereign state eg. America, would tantamount to, proceeds of crime.

I can never forgive myself for what my sister Bilkis Bano had to go through. A believer in the Rule of Law, a pious, devout Hindu can never accept this and never promote such cowardice. I am stunned to see the Hindus (baring few exceptions), not condemning the Regime which enabled atrocities on Muslims of Godhra.

It’s suffocating, I am literally gasping for breath, as the chain of events run through my mind, as a fast forwarded video, full of blood, cries for help, daggers and machetes slashing human beings, bullets fired on innocent young Muslim Kashmiris, poor truck drivers being thrashed, lynched and killed on hate filled, inhuman and fake Hindutva narrative of Cow smuggling.

I choke and wake up at nights with the cries of little kids, young girls, women being drawn into the crowd by Hindutva zombies; those tears welling down those wrinkled cheeks of mothers and fathers who lost their sons, daughters or some loved ones, a source of support and strength in old age, snatched away, ask me, IS THIS WHAT YOUR RELIGION IS ALL ABOUT?

I have read the Vedas, Upanishads, Geeta, Ramayan, Mahabharata, the texts sacred to Hindus religion. I ask any Hindu to tell me, on the basis of which Verse, are Muslims being lynched, killed and relegated to second class citizenship and made to live in fear?

I also ask my Hindu brothers and sisters, IS THIS ‘YOUR’ HINDU RELIGION AND DOES IT TEACH YOU TO KILL OTHER HUMANS, IRRESPECTIVE OF THEIR RELIGIONS AND RELEGATE THEM TO SECOND CLASS CITIZENSHIP?

What do you ask of your Idols, when you light the lamps every day in your homes, or visit the Temples? That hey lord, please give Hindutva Regime more strength to instil fear amongst Muslims and lower caste Hindus? If that’s the case he seem to be answering their prayers!

This is repulsive and I want to give away any identity that I may knowingly or unknowingly, have with such a Group, Society, Community, Religion.

I fail to understand how can pious, loving and warm Hindu friends and fellow Indians allow 04 lumpen Gujarati thugs, hard-core criminals, recognised internationally, denied Visas, summoned by International Courts, to be our representatives, using the very Constitution which GUARANTEES PROTECTION TO EVERY INDIAN?

Sorry, this is not Hindu Religion by any wild stretch of imagination. This is using Hindu Religion, like Taliban, to kill people, for Power and Control.

The Congress Party has profoundly failed to protect our Muslim brothers. It is being brought down by its on archaic bureaucracy which is not able to give shape to the dreams and vision of Rahul Gandhi. What are they doing behind paying lip service and using SM handles like Journalists and Activists. What worth is their Power? Who will expose and preempt the wicked, demonic Modi Regime? Few Journalists and SM activists, YouTubers are even doing that, at the cost of their lives. What have Congress and Opposition MPs, MLAs done about it since 2014?!

In my five decades of existence, having seen the World, learning about the Civilisations, Religions and experiencing the collective social progress we made together, especially since the Liberalisation, I have never imagined, India would be taken over by such criminals.

Now that we are and that their claim to Power and source of legitimacy is the very Hindutva, derived from Hindu Religion, I have decided to keep distance and my future course shall be carved out soon.

If this is what the HINDU RELIGION can do, as is seen since 2014, I am better off it.

I would also like to ask My dear Hindu Brothers and Sisters – with whom you have shared your homes, Offices, travelled together, played and dreamed together – whether they have become ACCUSTOMED to these atrocities against you all, to the dehumanisation, disenfranchisement and demonization of Muslims?

I hope they answer in Negative. I know many of them are as nauseated and repulsed by the bloody Communal politics of the Sangh Parivar but are mum and frightened for their own selfish reasons.

I am convinced, I owe an unconditional apology to my Muslim Brothers and Sisters. My being a Hindu, a Brahmin at that, makes me a perfect candidate to seek this unconditional apology for the dreadful experience you have had, are having.

I am too weak to do anything about it individually but I hope and wish, my fellow Indians, friends and followers, especially Hindus, Brahmins at that, share letters of support and show Muslims, show the poor, the downtrodden, the backwards class compatriot Brothers and Sisters that we don’t subscribe to what the Modi Regime is doing to them.

Yours faithfully,

Raju Parulekar
(An Ashamed Hindu)

The post Apologies from an ashamed Hindu appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Gadgil, who founded the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru, had been studying India’s ecology and environment for more than half a century. Gadgil pioneered research on the ecological significance of the Western Ghats. It was for this work that in 2024, the United Nations Environment Programme awarded him their Champions of the Earth award for the year under the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ category. Decades before this, in 1981 he was awarded the Padma Shri in 1981 and Padma Bhushan in 2006.

Fifteen years ago. Madhav Gadgil published one his widely-recognised works was his report submitted to the government as head of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) in 2011. The panel submitted its report after a lot of field visits, interactions with local communities and more. The report categorised the Western Ghats across six states into Eco Sensitive Zones of different gradations: 1 (areas of highest sensitivity), 2 (areas of high sensitivity) and 3 (areas of medium sensitivity). The report also made a lot of recommendations, including no mining or quarrying in areas listed under ESZ1.

Ironically, all states rejected the report; many called it “impractical.” And 14 years later, it has not been implemented in any form yet, across any of the six states home to the Western Ghats in India – even after another panel headed by Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan submitted another, more diluted report that also decreased the area across the Ghats that is to be eco-sensitive.

In his interview with The Hindu last year, he had expressed concerns about the disasters in the Western Ghats, adding that all the recommendations in the report were much needed to avert disasters. “What we witnessed was a model of development being imposed on people: mining operations and polluting industries were forced upon communities without their consent. At the same time, even conservation efforts were imposed in a top-down, authoritarian manner by a forest department that often acted in a tyrannical and anti-people way,” he said.

Apart from this report on the Western Ghats, his areas of work included the sacred groves of the Western Ghats to traditional ecological knowledge and peoples’ participation, India’s ecological issues and conflicts to environmental movements, and more.

Madhav Gadgil had also authored and co-authored numerous books, from This Fissured Land in 1992, to A Walk Up The Hill – Living with People and Nature, in 2023. Gadgil had also expressed strong views on the detrimental development projects coming up in the Great Nicobar Island, in tune with the warnings of scientists, conservationists, activists and several other sections of society. “If India has to act as a law-abiding country, then the Forest Rights Act would very much apply to the Shompens and the Nicobarese. Those areas should remain inviolate. They should be community forest resources of particularly vulnerable tribal groups and they should not be touched. So we are violating these laws all the time,” he had said.

A man of courage and conviction, he always opined that scientists, like all academics from various dispensations should speak truth to power.

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The post Madhav Gadgil’s unshakeable faith in science appeared first on SabrangIndia.

There was a section of political opinion consisting of mainly conservative Hindus and those arguing that India should become a Hindu nation; who opposed the Constitution right from the start. The views of these leaders of Hindu nationalist politics, supported by a conservative section of society were articulated in an article in Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece, which opposed the Indian Constitution; saying that there is/was nothing Indian about it and that it will not be accepted by Hindus. Savarkar, went on to (CNBC TV18) say that Manusmriti is the Constitution today. In this spirit Swami Avimukteshwaranand recently stated (Navbharat Times) that Manusmriti is “above” the Indian Constitution.

This stream is not the only one within India to undermine the Constitution by showing the primacy of ‘word of God’ or sacred scriptures as above its docrine. Maulana Mufti Shamail Nadwi made a similar statement recently. This Maulana has come to prominence in the last few days after his debate with Javed Akhtar on “Does God exist?”. In a viral clip, he asserts that “Muslims erred by accepting secularism and the supremacy of national institutions over Shariah, criticises democracy and the notion of placing the nation (desh) above religion. He questions whether believers should passively accept court verdicts conflicting with Islamic law. These statements (The Chenab Times), while presented as theological opinions, have been interpreted by critics as undermining India’s constitutional secularism and promoting religious supremacy.”[1]

While Manusmriti is a scriptural compilation representing the values of Brahmanism, the dominant stream within Hinduism, Sharia is based on multiple things. Sharia (Arabic: the path) is the Islamic legal-ethical system derived from:

“Qur’an, Hadith (sayings/actions of Prophet Muhammad), Ijma (consensus of scholars) and Qiyas (analogy)” It guides personal conduct and law, not just punishments. In practice, Sharia is interpreted through schools of jurisprudence (Sunni: Hanafi, Shafi‘i, Maliki, Hanbali; Shia: Ja‘fari), so there is a diversity within the legal system of Sharia.

Out of nearly 55 Muslim majority countries it shapes the laws etc. only in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan fully. It is partly i implemented in a few other Muslim majority countries. In India it forms a base in matters of Muslim personal laws only.

So, what does one do with changing times and the social patterns, which have occurred over a period of centuries when these laws were devised? Those indulging in politics in the name of religion in India harp on bringing in the Manusmriti and countries like Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia are implementing the Sharia in entirety. In many Muslim countries it is not implemented or implemented only in part.

Can Sharia be above the Constitution as the Mufti claims? The legal luminary Faizan Mustafa in a video https://youtu.be/T8BCr27fA24 argues that in every country the Constitution is supreme. The Constitution does consider Sharia in many countries and integrates some aspects of that in the Constitutions.

So, what is the status of democratic institutions in Muslim majority countries? There are different degrees of ‘democracy’ in these countries.  At the moment many social media accounts have been criticizing Shamail for encouraging Muslims not to follow the Constitution, as an anti-patriotic act. On the other hand, many are praising the Mufti for upholding the Sharia! It is interesting to note that during the medieval period of Indian History, the Muslim Kings did not make the Sharia law obligatory for the state.

While Mufti Shamail has one opinion there are others like Asghar Ali Engineer, the foremost scholar of Islam in India; who have different idea about the role of Sharia viv a vis the Constitution. Dr. Engineer harps on Shura (Mutual consultation); to argue that democracy and related principles are possible in the contemporary World. Dr. Engineer says a Quranic concept – and modern-day representative democracy – merely a human concept – may not be exactly similar. However, “the spirit of modern democracy and the Qur’anic injunction to consult people is the same”.

As per him “New institutions keep on developing and human beings, depending on their worldly experiences, keep on changing and refining these institutions. And in the contemporary world, the concept of Shura should mean democratic process and constitution of proper democratic institutions of which elections are a necessary requirement.” The Qur’anic text not only gives the concept of Shura (democratic consultation) but “does not support even remotely any concept of dictatorship or authoritarianism”.

During India’s freedom struggle, which was based on democratic principles and aimed at democratic institutions, a very highly regarded Islamic scholar Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and a dedicated Muslim leader Khan Abdl Gaffar Khan (to name but a few) strove for the values and institutions of democratic secular country. Just a few years ago the Muslim women through the Shaheen Baug movement showed their democratic strength in protecting the community from the fear of disenfranchisement.

What is needed in contemporary times? In India as Muslims are being targeted by Hindutva politics, they have become a besieged community. The conservatism among Muslim community is on a sharp rise. The major issue confronting them is enforcement of their rights using the law and its instruments, asserting representation and accountability from modern institutions.

Even in Islam there are various streams of laws and systems of jurisprudence. Since this is part of Sharia, in that case what Sharia recommends will be another contentious issue. Since Muslims are a minority in this country, they already have Personal laws, which are again under opposition.

Today within the extreme Hindu right wing there is a dominant retrograde tendency trying to bring to fore the values of Manusmriti. Such assertions which want to bring inequality in the garb of religion are not welcome. We need to also look to some European countries where religion is on the back foot.

We are living in contradictory times. On one side human society has developed the principles of dignity and equality as represented in the UN charter and on the other religious right-wing has become stronger during the last few decades. While the Mufti may be knowledgeable in concepts of Islam, we also need to know what are the trends of contemporary society and values of democratic institutions.

[1] This controversial debate has been sharply questioned by political observers, funded as it was by the Maulana himself and his Wahyain Foundation (based in Kolkata) and the Delhi based “Academic Dialogue Forum” reportedly associated with social activist Shabnam Hashmi.

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