Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. These three states have been at the centre of people’s movements in the last few years with farmers protests over loan waivers, onions, MSPs (minimum support price) and forest rights. Many became spectacles that awed the nation and brought the government to heel. It would be obvious that if the leaders of these people’s movements stood up for election, they would win a decisive mandate. But this was not to be.
 
Amra Ram from Rajasthan is the AIKS vice-president and has been at the forefront of farmers’ agitation. He has contested all the Lok Sabha elections since 1996 but has never won.
 
Hours before filing his nomination on April 15, Amra Ram, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate from Sikar, Rajasthan, said in a public meeting, “The government has money for the big businessmen. They have money for the Adanis and Ambanis. But what do they have for the farmers? Nothing. Which is why we farmers have to fight now.”
 
This public meeting happened in the same Krishi Upaj Mandi where the farmers from the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, under the banner of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the farmers’ body of CPI(M), and led by Amra Ram, had created a massive movement that lasted 13 days, in September 2017. The farmers had protested demanding better prices for their crops, loan waiver, and relaxation in the strict rules that now govern the trade in farm animals. Farmers from the districts of Sikar, Churu, and Jhunjhunu sat in protest in the main markets, surrounded government offices, and blocked roads. After the 13-day long agitation, the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in the state was forced to give in to the farmers’ demands.
 
He got about 30,000 votes while the sitting BJP MP got around 8 lakh votes. Even Bollywood actress Swara Bhasker campaigned for Amra Ram in Sikar but this high powered celebrity-driven campaign did not convert to votes for the grassroots leader.
 
Congress won seven of the eight seats in Sikar in the previous assembly polls, with an independent candidate emerging victorious in the other. It fielded Subhash Maharia, a Jat candidate and a three-time BJP MP from Sikar, against the BJP’s Swami Sumedhanand Saraswati, the current MP.
 
In 2014, despite the Modi wave, Maharia fought as an independent candidate and was able to garner at least one lakh votes.
 
BJP candidate Sumedhanand Saraswati, who contested the Lok Sabha elections from the same constituency in 2014, on the demand of Baba Ramdev, won. However, the local leadership of BJP consider him an outsider as he hails from Haryana, and his candidacy had reportedly made them resentful.
 
On May 3, Modi addressed a public meeting in Sikar. He only talked about national security –not once referring to the agrarian crisis — once again using the Pulwama attack and Uri surgical strike to provoke the people. Modi has again and again used hyper-nationalism as a campaign weapon to garner votes. It sits well with his autocratic, strongman image. Even in Sikar, it looked like his main focus was on finding out how loudly the crowd could chant “Bharat Mata Ki Jai.” Clearly, this farmer dominated seat saw the vote fall prey to this hyped sentiment with farmers themselves overlooking their own hardships and issues.
 
While India’s reprisal action after the Pulwama terror attack impressed the families of youth recruited in large numbers every year from Shekhawati’s villages to the Army and paramilitary forces, farmers were unhappy over the incomplete waiver of loans by the Congress government in the State despite its promise. Farmers in the three Jat-dominated Lok Sabha constituencies have complained of banks rejecting their waiver claims.
 
Many a people’s candidate fielded by the CPI (M) has faced a similar fate.
 
In Dindori, Maharashtra, one of the farm leaders of the memorable Kisan Long March that made the Devendra Fadnavis govt take notice, stood up for elections. He could garner only 9% of the total votes and suffered defeat against BJP.  

 
JP Gavit came in third in his Dindori constituency. He has emerged as one of the most hard-working and influential tribal leaders, having represented the Kalwan Surgana constituency seven times. He is both an Adivasi and a farmer. He was the driving force behind the two Farmers’ Long March, called by the CPI(M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha in the state over the last one year. He has been at the forefront of the farmers’ protests over the past two years, and is the lone leftist MLA in the assembly.
 
He was pitted against BJP’s Bharati Pawar (now MP) and NCP’s Dhanraj Mahale in this constituency reserved for ST candidates due to the significant tribal population.
 
The CPI(M) had been keen that the Congress and NCP set aside their claim on the seat as part of their plans of forging a greater opposition alliance in the state. Of the total six legislative constituencies that are part of the Dindori Lok Sabha seat, the NCP is in control of three and was unwilling to let go of its claim on the seat.
 
In Jharkhand, the Mahagathbandhan has been swept away like sand castles on a beach.
 
The infighting and refusal to give up seats for the greater good meant that votes and voter shares were divided. Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) candidate, Pradeep Yadav, who was at the forefront of agitations against land acquisition for a proposed power plant promoted by the Adani Group, was painted as one who was opposed to the “real development” of Godda, his constituency. He had vowed to not let Congress win come what may when the grand old party refused to remove its candidate from the contest. 

Senior member of the CPI(M) Brinda Karat told Sabrangindia how the entire election had been managed and organised by the Adani group. A clear example of how Indian democracy is now almost completely at the mercy of money power and corporate capital.
 
Godda, largely known for Lalmatia coal mines of Eastern Coalfields Limited, which helps run two super-thermal power stations in Bihar and Bengal, has been facing a serious problem of displacement due to land acquisition.
 
Even as the oustees clamour for compensation, there is another unrest brewing over the Jharkhand government’s approval to Adani Power Plant, intended to sell power to Bangladesh, which could add to the number of native oustees.
 
Pradeep Yadav in Godda received around 38% –an impressive number –of the votes against the 53% votes that the sitting BJP MP got. Many say he lost because Congress refused to leave the seat and cut into his vote share. The Congress seems to have played spoiler here, too.
 
The alliance of Congress, JMM, JVM and RJD was hoping to bag as many as eight seats by fighting together and ensuring the transfer of core and cadre votes across constituencies. But it did not work in the face of the proverbial “Modi Tsunami”.
 
In Godda, the BJP had worked on a strategy to counter the Muslim-Yadav combination of the Mahagathbandhan while simultaneously emphasising on the development initiatives of party candidate Nishikant Dubey. Even an alleged sexual harassment case was opened up against Yadav before elections.
 
Left’s flop show
Many people’s candidates who lost were fielded by CPI (M).
 
In West Bengal, a state ruled by the CPI(M)-led Left Front for 34 uninterrupted years, the party drew a blank in its worst performance ever and lost its deposit in 40 of the 41 seats it contested.
 
The CPI(M) played a pivotal role in government formation at the centre in 1989, 1996 and 2004, based on its stupendous performance in Bengal. In 2004, it bagged 26 of the 42 seats in the state, the maximum.
 
Since the formation of the CPI(M), following a split in the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1964, the party never drew a blank in the state in Lok Sabha elections.
 
The CPI(M)-led Left Front, which ruled the state for 34 years from 1977 to 2011, has bagged a measly 7.8 per cent of votes so far, with its candidates being decimated to third and fourth spots in the seats it contested.
 
The CPI(M)’s slide in Bengal started from 2009 with TMC’s surge, and in 2014 it got only two seats.
 
Stunned by the defeat, most state CPI(M) leaders declined to comment but said it would introspect the results and take corrective measures. trends showed that the Left was virtually routed in its bastions of Kerala and Bengal. General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said it was time for the entire opposition to introspect.
 
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is led in two seats in Tamil Nadu — Coimbatore and Madurai — by more than one lakh votes each and one in Kerala by around 9,000 votes.
 
The results of the Lok Sabha elections dealt a blow to the Left parties which have already been on the decline across the country. The CPI(M) lost its last bastion of Kerala where it trailed in all seats it contested.
 
In 2014, the party had nine seats and the CPI one. By 12 pm on May 23, both parties together were leading only in five seats. This was a steep fall from the 2004 high of 59 seats. Both the parties are struggling to provide a credible justification for this decimation.
 
In the run-up to the elections, the Left parties struggled to find allies. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury proposed to the Congress a “no-contest policy” in West Bengal. The Congress snubbed his proposal and going one step ahead fielded their party president Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad which swept away all the hopes that the CPI(M) had from Kerala too.
 
Barring Alappuzha, the Left was trailing in all the seats. The CPI(M)’s internal assessment was that they would get at least seven seats.
 
All eyes were trained on Begusarai in Bihar where the Left hoped for a miracle with CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar. While Kumar ruled the news cycle, he could not get enough votes to sail through. He was trailing at a distant second to Union Minister and BJP leader Giriraj Singh.
 
Tamil Nadu is the only exception as the Left was ahead in four seats.
 
Another Left party, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), was leading in one seat in Kerala, where it is a part of the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).
 
Ambedkar rising
The tallest leader of the people, a candidate who was the son of Indian soil through and through and gifted the country with its constitution could not win any election he contested. People’s candidates have seldom had such luck
 
Babasaheb Ambedkar contested in the Bombay North first Indian General Election of 1952, but lost to his former assistant and Congress Party candidate Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar. He tried to enter Lok Sabha again in the by-election of 1954 from Bhandara, but he placed third (the Congress Party won). According to current terms, the Nehru wave then had taken away his chances.
 
“It is a strange phenomenon of India’s democracy, that one of its most distinguished sons, highly accomplished academically, a scholar and fearless leader and champion of the rights of the downtrodden, could not win a popular election,” Ajit Ranade wrote in Mumbai Mirror. Ambedkar still became a member of Rajya Sabha and served the country.
 
In 2019, his grandson has made a dent politically with the newly formed Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA.) The newly formed VBA garnered about 41 lakh votes in the Lok Sabha election. That is about 14% of the total votes polled in Maharashtra.
 
Prakash Ambedkar told News 18, “We secured about 41 lakh votes in this Lok Sabha election, which is about 14% of the total votes polled in the state. We have enough votes to get the status of a regional party.”
 
The emergence of a new party founded by Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dalit icon and social reformer BR Ambedkar, adversely affected the vote-share of the Congress in many seats.
 
In a country where caste-based voting seemed to have taken a back-seat over the issue of nationalism, Maharashtra witnessed a reverse trend.
 
A look at the vote-share showed that the Congress and its allies could have won from at least seven more seats where the VBA’s votes are more than the NDA candidate’s winning margin against the allies.
 
Maybe all hope isn’t lost for the people’s candidate, on the whole. However, faced with a legitimate or contrived ‘consolidation’ of the ‘Hindu vote’, any hope that Indian parliament and the state legislatures will actually see representative voices there seems like a very distant dream.
 

The post Did people’s candidates ever stand a chance against the Modi wave? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Mumbai: The catchphrase of “Laav re video” (play that video) has become a hit on Maharashtrian social media. The man behind that phrase even more so.
 
Even without contesting a single seat in the Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections, MNS chief Raj Thackeray has become the sole bone of contention and opposition for the BJP-Shiv Sena combine. His series of rallies across Maharashtra coupled with fake news busting videos and an acerbic tongue caught the incumbent government by surprise before the fourth phase of elections that concluded polling in the state.
 
Thackeray has not fielded a single candidate of his 13-year-old party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), for any of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. That is why BJP and Shiv Sena could not prepare for the blitzkrieg that was to come.
 
Thackeray did what nobody could imagine much less execute. He single-handedly threw the BJP-Sena alliance in Maharashtra off the rails. He spoke against the Modi-Shah duo to expose their alleged lies, took on its own main opposition Shiv Sena, did not take sides or ask for votes for any opposition party and managed to keep his core constituency happy by keeping his son of the soil narrative intact while also pleasing left liberals.
 
After the elections wrapped in Maharashtra, BJP’s rivals invited Thackeray to hold rallies in other poll-bound states. However, he is unlikely to move out of Maharashtra. Raj Thackeray received invitations from Congress, Janata Dal (Secular), Haryana Vikas Party and a couple of community organisations in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Karnataka to address rallies but he has rebuffed all offers because he achieved what he set out to do- create ripples in Maharashtra politics.
 
“The BJP attempted to take him on but without much success. Modi can neither join his fight nor ignore it. Fadnavis attempted to fill the gap but Thackeray demolished his arguments in following rallies; education minister Vinod Tawde asked the Election Commission to check Thackeray’s expenditure on rallies but that came to a cropper because Thackeray does not have candidates or their photos on the dais. The Shiv Sena is confused because Raj, its leaders’ bete-noire, speaks everything that Uddhav wants to about Modi-Shah, but cannot,” Economic Times reported.
 
“Raj Thackeray has nothing to lose,” said Bharat Kumar Raut, a political analyst to Sabrang India. “He has no stake or ambition in Lok Sabha. Even if he misses out in the assembly elections, he has nothing to lose. Both Congress and NCP reached rock bottom in 2014. The only way to go now is up,” he said.
 
So what did Raj Thackeray do to invite such a response?
 
Fact checking in rallies
Thackeray first unveiled a unique pattern with his annual Gudi Padwa (Maharashtrian New Year on 6 April) rally at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park. In the following two weeks, he spoke at rallies in Nanded, Satara, Ichalkaranji, Pune, Solapur, and Raigad, and sharpened his speeches for half a dozen more towns and cities before campaigning in the state ended.
 
He started with video presentations on the failures of the current dispensation by naming and shaming the Modi-Shah duo. He openly accused PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah of lying to voters and used statistics, newspaper reports and onground interviews by his party colleagues to convey their policy failures.
 
In his rallies, he criticized the government for corruption (Rafale jet controversy), compromising the judiciary (the death of Justice BH Loya) and independent institutions (resignation of RBI governors), withholding data (National Crime Records Bureau and unemployment statistics) and politicising cross-border conflict. At one point, he showed a photograph of a family a BJP fan-page has claimed were beneficiaries of Modi’s anti-poverty initiatives, Economic Times reported.
 
He then called the family on stage and said that the BJP IT Cell stole their private photo off Facebook and used it as part of its propaganda.
 
“I am running this campaign because these two [Modi and Shah] are a threat to the nation,” Thackeray said towards the end. “If you vote for the BJP, you vote for these two. If you vote for the Shiv Sena, you still vote for these two. If you want to ensure that democracy survives, you need to sideline them. Don’t forget this,” he said in his rallies according to the ET report.
 
Thackeray also fact-checked BJPs ‘first digital village’ of Maharashtra claim from Harisal. He also invited a youth who had featured in one of the government ads for Harisal, on his campaign stage.
 
According to Dhaval Kulkarni, a senior political journalist who writes about MNS, Raj Thackeray is trying to ride the anti-incumbency wave before the assembly elections. “He wanted to secure a political opening. He is a charismatic leader and a great crowd puller. He used the rising resentment within the Shiv Sena ranks to his benefit without even talking about the party. The Sainiks are showing signs of disillusion with their leadership due to the constant back and forth with the BJP alliance and the lack of clarity. Many Sena leaders have admitted in private that he is the only good influential opposition right now. He obviously benefitted the opposition but what he got was what he needed the most. The reactions from the crowd,” he told Sabrang India.
 
“Raj had nowhere to go. Had he contested now, he would have definitely lost. He would have lost his status as a force to be reckoned with in state politics. So the first shocker came when he said that he won’t contest. He then launched a campaign against Modi and Shah. He did not even mention Sena. With his oratory and crowd-pulling power, he held 23 meetings in Maharashtra. He put up a grand show which had about one lakh spectators at each rally. He had slideshows and ‘Laav re video’ became a popular catchphrase. He calculated every move and warmed up his chances for the October assembly elections. Had he contested, he would have lost and would nowhere to hide his face. Instead, now he is the hero of the whole campaign,” Raut told Sabrang India.
 
Didn’t he support BJP five years ago?
“Five years ago, Thackeray had voluntarily declared his support for Modi’s bid for prime ministership. It had come after a nine-day ‘study tour’ of Gujarat. The people of Gujarat, he had said at the time, were “fortunate” to have Modi at the helm, focussed on the development of the state,” ET reported.
 
“The bureaucrats I met were planted there to feed me [positive] information,” he said in an interview. “The overall picture emerged only later,” he said in his rallies
 
“For all his disdain for PM Modi, Raj Thackeray’s politics has more similarities with the PM’s than he cares to admit. Both parties revolve around the cult of a strongman whose profile and electoral fortunes rose following violent clashes between two communities.  While Modi had de-emphasised his Hindutva moorings with a high-decibel narrative on Gujarat’s economic development in the run-up to the previous Lok Sabha elections, the MNS never completely shed its anti-migrant, xenophobic politics in spite of a successful debut in the Maharashtra assembly polls in 2009. By 2014, its seats in the 288-member assembly had shrunk from 12 to one,” ET reported.
 
“In essence, it is impossible to overlook the hypocrisy of Raj Thackeray calling out the BJP for divisive politics. But his onstage charisma, facility for oratory, and an innate knack for salty barbs and earthy humour, reminiscent of his uncle, Bal Thackeray, helps,” the report said.
 
According to Kulkarni, there is also an unconfirmed suspicion that BJP is also supporting him to divide the vote bank against Shiv Sena, which helps it cement its own singular power in the state. “Sena is an impediment to the BJP expansion in Maharashtra as both of them are essentially competing for the same vote base. It would be a natural progression to move onto the more famous and vocal cousin. In Maharashtra, it is difficult to say which way the voters will swing but small parties with a committed vote base can make a difference,” he told Sabrang India.
 
Sharad Pawar’s Game of Thrones
Political analysts credit Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar for Thackeray’s recent political revival. Last month, several media outlets quoted anonymous NCP leaders on their willingness to tie up with MNS. The deal, however, fell through after the Congress, its alliance partner, opposed it on ideological grounds. Even without an outright endorsement, it’s the Opposition led by the Congress and the NCP that stand to be the biggest beneficiaries of Thackeray’s popular tirades, ET reported.
 
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called Thackeray a “parrot reading out Pawar’s script”.
 
“Who can blame him if he gets support from Sharad Pawar? Why wouldn’t Pawar want to ally with him seeing his success recently? It would be foolish to think that Raj is so impressionable and impish that he would parrot someone else’s script,” Kulkarni said.
 
Raut disagreed and said that would be wrong to assume that Sharad Pawar is behind this. “It was not preconceived. He came around after seeing the initial success of the crowd pulling rallies. Seeing the response, he encouraged Raj Thackeray. Everyone else simply jumped into the bandwagon.”
 
“Liberals or seculars seem to be enjoying Thackeray’s splendid performance. He has done his outsourced job perfectly, thanks to Sharad Pawar who convinced him to conduct a tour against Modi-Shah. Pawar is an astute politician who understands the strength and weaknesses of friends and foes. He knew Thackeray’s charisma would do wonders. He did not disappoint him, in fact with every public meeting, his attack on Modi-Shah became sharper. Initially, Pawar wanted Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena adjusted in the Congress-NCP alliance. But Congress did not agree by saying that it would drive away North Indian voters. Ironically, Congress leaders Ashok Chavan or former Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde were the first to demand for Thackeray’s mesmerising meetings,” Nikhil Wagle, a veteran journalist wrote in an article.
 
Modi had earlier targeted Pawar in the state during his visits as he is seen as the biggest player in Maharashtra politics and also had a key role in bringing the grand alliance of Opposition parties together against the BJP at the national level.
 
On Raj Thackeray’s rallies, Author Keshav Waghmare, who has a good understanding of Maharashtra politics said, “Pawar and Thackeray had planned these rallies in advance. This was actually for the state elections. Thackeray’s speeches are a rehearsal of Assembly election campaign.”
 
“Pawar and Thackeray are helping each other according to this plan. These speeches will help NCP more than the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls. By attacking Modi, Thackeray is also defending Pawar and improving his own image too for the upcoming state elections,” he said in a report by Newslaundry.
 
How do these rallies help Raj Thackeray?
According to Raut, Raj has played a smart trick. “If you look at his past, he came up with a wonderful promise. He won 13 seats. In BMC he got 727 seats. All the Lok Sabha candidates from his party had received 2 lakh votes each. He won the Nashik Municipal elections. The mayor of Nashik was his candidate. But he could not sustain that pace. In 2014, MNS had just one seat in the assembly and 7 seats in the municipal corporation. Out of which 6 people in Mumbai defected to Shiv Sena. Even the one seat in the assembly had defected. The Nashik municipal corporation collapsed,” he told Sabrang India.
 
“In the 2009 assembly election Thackeray’s MNS got 4.8% votes, won 13 seats which went down in 2014 due to Modi wave. This year, in the Assembly elections, if MNS is able to get its 2009 vote share back, it will be an important addition to the Congress-NCP kitty and can change the number game in the state. It can reduce the 8% gap in both alliances,” Wagle wrote.
 
Livemint reported that in 2009, the then-fledgeling party had bagged nearly 5% of the vote share contesting only 11 Lok Sabha seats but was the only party to drop its absolute votes in 2014 when all other parties had increased theirs. In the 2009 Assembly election, the MNS won 13 seats with a 12% state-wide vote share – including six seats in Mumbai with a staggering 24% vote share in the city – but dropped to one seat and barely three per cent vote share five years later. That lone MLA too deserted the party as it many of its second-rung leaders. Thackeray and his MNS were all but written off till his Gudi Padwa rally, the report added.
 
The opposition space in the state has eroded and Thackeray provided some much-needed succour.
 
“In his utterances, demeanour, and willingness to take on the powerful, Thackeray is now the main opposition voice in Maharashtra. He is doing the work, the campaigning, the activism, and the confrontation that the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) should have; his earlier parochialism, muscle-flexing methods, violence as a political tool are forgotten in the moment. The Congress and the NCP have, in a rare import from business to politics, out-sourced their work to Thackeray,” Livemint reported.
 
“That Thackeray, a political write-off in 2014, is now Maharashtra’s chief campaigner for opposition parties shows the paucity of imagination in Congress-NCP and erosion of the opposition space. In the 15 years of Congress-NCP governments till 2014, the BJP and the Shiv Sena vied with each other to be the principal opposition party. Between BJP’s Eknath Khadse and Fadnavis, and Sena leaders including Bal Thackeray and his son Uddhav, they made sure that successive Congress chief ministers were kept on their toes with exposes of scams and critique of policies,” the report said.
 
Maharashtra Assembly elections are only six months away and this was the best opportunity for him to revive his image and party which had all but vanished. As the Livemint report stated, if Shiv Sena sinks, he is ready to move into that space and if Cong-NCP offer him a piece of the pie, he will accept it. He has proved to be useful and showed that he still has skin in the game. 
 
“He got more publicity than Uddhav Thackeray. His party got a second shot and his leadership came alive. On the other hand, he confused Shiv Sainiks who now don’t know where to go. Neither Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena or BJP were ready to accept him as a partner. He was a pariah and untouchable. The way he has pulled crowds, what can be said is that he will try for the Cong-NCP alliance, invisibly if need be. Congress will let MNS take the stronger seats where MNS has a stake like Thane, Nashik, Dadar, Mahim etc. Congress may field weak candidates from here,” Raut told Sabrang India.
 
It will be difficult to say if the crowds will convert to votes. “Even Balasaheb Thackeray was unsuccessful in turning crowds into votes. He couldn’t win a seat in elections. This time, if the Congress-NCP alliance sees any increase in votes or seats, the credit undoubtedly will go to Raj,” he said.
 

The post BJP and Shiv Sena were not prepared for Raj Thackeray’s fact-checked rallies appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image Courtesy: Newsclick.in
 
In the petition filed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury before the Supreme Court with regards to the electoral bonds, the BJP-led central government said in an affidavit that the decision to issue electoral bonds would promote transparency in funding and donations received by political parties.
 
It could be a political eyewash and self-serving interests as the BJP was the biggest beneficiary of the electoral bond scheme launched by the government in 2017-18, bagging 94.5% of the bonds worth a little over Rs. 210 crore.
 
The BJP’s audit and income tax reports submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI) list voluntary contribution of “Rs 210,00,02,000 through electoral bonds”, Economic Times review of the party’s annual audit report for 2017-18 shows.
 
Electoral reforms activists, former chief election commissioners, and constitutional experts have slammed this move for obfuscating transparency rather than enhancing it. It would make political funding, especially by corporations, more opaque as neither the donors nor the parties have to reveal who donated what to which party. That itself violates the constitutional principle of free and fair elections.
 
Spending on the election ending May 23 is set to rise 40 per cent to 500 billion rupees ($7 billion), according to the New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies. “It won’t be an exaggeration to say our elections will never be the same again,” said N. Bhaskara Rao, the group’s chairman, who has advised previous Indian governments in a report by The New Indian Express. “What is this if not the auctioning of our democracy to the highest-paying corporation?” he said.
 
What are electoral bonds
Anyone can buy an electoral bond at the government-owned State Bank of India in denominations ranging from 1,000 rupees to 10 million rupees ($14 to $140,000). Afterwards, they are delivered to a political party, which can exchange them for cash. They don’t carry the name of the donor and are exempt from tax.
 
They are available for a period of 10 days each in the months of January, April, July and October, with an additional period of 30 days specified by the central government in the year of general elections.
 
The bonds can be purchased only after making payment through KYC-compliant account. They can be encashed by an eligible political party only through a designated bank account with the authorised bank.
 
An electoral bond is valid for 15 days from the date of issue. No payment would be made to any payee political party if the bond is deposited after the expiry of the validity period. The bond deposited by any eligible political party into its account would be credited on the same day.
 
SBI is the only authorised bank to issue such bonds.
 
Who can buy electoral bonds
As per the provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds may be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or entities incorporated or established in India. A person can buy electoral bonds, either singly or jointly, with other individuals.
 
Even foreign companies can buy electoral bonds.
 
Which parties can receive electoral bonds
Any party that is registered under section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and has secured not less than 1% of the votes polled in the last election of the Lok Sabha or legislative assembly will be eligible to receive electoral bonds.
 
No opposition to overhaul
“India’s campaign finance overhaul began in 2017, when parliament approved an amendment that made it easier for companies to donate to campaigns, including removing a cap on corporate donations (the maximum used to be 7.5 per cent of a company’s average net profits over three years). Now new firms can also donate to political parties, opening the door for shell companies to be set up expressly for the purpose,” TNIE reported.
 
Requirements for companies to disclose how much they donated and to which party were also eliminated.
 
The changes were introduced in parliament via a money bill, a measure that only needs to be passed by the lower house controlled by Modi’s ruling coalition and not the opposition-led upper house.
 
A similar tactic was used to pass with little debate rules that changed the definition of a foreign company. Previously, all subsidiaries of international entities were treated as overseas donors and not allowed to make political contributions. Now if a foreign firm has a stake of less than 50 per cent in a company operating in India, that unit can fund Indian elections.
 
While several lawmakers protested the moves, analysts said the amendments will benefit both Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party as well as the main opposition Congress party. It was said that nobody from the opposition spoke up because they too could gain if they came to power.
 
Experts unanimously slam move
This wide leeway to corporates have drawn the ire of Jagdeep Chhokar, founder-member of the Delhi-based civil rights organisation Association of Democratic Reforms and a long-time crusader for electoral reforms. It was because of his petition in the PIL against Finance Bill unduly favouring corporations in political funding, that the Supreme Court issued a notice to the central government and Election Commission.

Chhokhar insisted that the government at the Centre is “hoodwinking the public and electorate”, because although political parties would have to show the amount of political funding in their balance sheet, they do not have to disclose to which party they have donated, Newsclick reported.
 
If the donation is made to the ruling government, the electorate would have no way of knowing the extent of crony capitalism because the party in power would obviously “reward” major and significant donors with government contracts, licenses and tenders. Moreover, the government in power would get detailed information on which the corporation has donated what amount, and can thus arm twist those who have funded its rivals more, he said in the report.
 
S Y Quraishi, a former chief election commissioner echoed Chhokhar in the report. He agreed about the apprehension of potential arm twisting by the powers-that-be. He said that the electoral bonds are the exact antithesis of transparency. The bonds will ensure the anonymity of donors, but “also kill whatever little transparency that exists now.”
 
He said, “The removal of the ceiling of 7.5% of a company’s profits that could be donated has compounded the problem. Very soon we will see companies spending all their profits on politics alone and control governments. So far, all donations above Rs 20,000 are disclosed by political parties to the Election Commission. In future, no one will know which corporation donated how much and to which party. And the inevitable quid pro quo will never be apparent.”
 
Nasim Zaidi, ex-chief election commissioner who retired in July last year has also voiced his misgivings about the government not consulting the EC before introducing electoral bonds though that was mandated by law, and also stated that because of electoral bonds, corporations would never file the donations they made to political parties, thereby trampling on the people’s fundamental right to know.
 
Legal scholar Gautam Bhatia has explained why these bonds are a threat to democracy, while Suhrith Parthasarathy, a lawyer practising in the Madras High Court, has detailed how they reward corruption, the report said.
 
The mounting criticism is apparent and the bonds are under immense scrutiny considering the nearing Lok Sabha elections. Will it be the country’s democracy that sizzles on this political self-serving hot plate?
 

The post Is India’s democracy being sold through electoral bonds? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
In the next few months, about 22,000 new people will be recruited for various ranks in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF,) exams for which begun three days before the Pulwama attack in which about 40 CRPF personnel lost their lives when an SUV containing explosives rammed into their convoy in Jammu and Kashmir.
 
The CRPF is India’s largest paramilitary force and its primary role is assisting Indian states and union territories in police operations to maintain law and order and counter insurgency. It also plays a big role in India’s general election and comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
 
The jawans that were killed on February 14 were underpaid and under-resourced as is with many who join the force. They mostly come from hinterlands to man the frontlines and be the first responders to an insurgency.  
 
Soldier’s Background
The army and the paramilitary forces recruit people who want to commit themselves to protect India’s sovereignty and to do that, they have to pass gruelling physical tests besides having mental fortitude for the most dangerous and stressful job there is. 
 
India gets most of its recruits from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and the Northeast. Most of them come from farming or labour backgrounds.
 
The 40 CRPF jawans that were killed on February 14 belonged to 16 states of India. Majority of them were from Uttar Pradesh. 12 jawans from UP were in that bus besides five from Rajasthan, four from Punjab and a couple from Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and one each from Jharkhand, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and even Jammu & Kashmir.
 
Many came from farming backgrounds while many had fathers who were either auto drivers, truck drivers, priests or daily wage labourers. Before they joined CRPF many were hawkers, folk singers and labourers themselves but joined the force to bring their families out of poverty.
 
Many of them were either recently married or had plans to get married this year. Some had left their pregnant wives to go on duty and most TV channels covered young children crying over their father’s remains wrapped in the tricolour, often clueless about what was happening around them. Many jawans were even planning their children’s marriage this year or were thinking of retirement.
  
Mounting losses
CRPF lost more men in Kashmir in 2019 than the last four years put together. And we are only halfway through February.
 
In 2010, 76 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh. The same year saw a second deadly attack on the paramilitary force in the same state, with at least 26 jawans killed. The next deadly attack would also occur in Chhattisgarh in 2017 when at least 26 Central Reserve Police Force men were killed. Losses dipped to nine in 2015, only to rise again, Scroll reported.
 
CRPF: The poorer cousin of the army
In a report by Reuters, former senior officials from CRPF said that the force is not appreciated as much, poorly paid and under-resourced when compared with the army.
 
CRPF has been tasked to be the first responder in insurgent situations. This is the primary task,” said Pranay Sahay, a former CRPF director general, in the report.
 
They fight alongside the army, yet they are paid less and get fewer benefits and less training, former officials said.
 
A low-ranking army soldier typically receives one-and-a-half times the pay of a CRPF officer of equivalent experience, said Ranbir Singh, general secretary of the Confederation of Ex-Paramilitary Forces Welfare Associations, a difference which is also reflected in their pensions, the report added.
 
Living conditions are poorer, a sensitive issue when so many of the police are so far away from home, former officers said. Suicide rates are much higher than in the army, they added.
 
“The housing satisfaction level in the CRPF is the poorest, probably around 13-14 per cent,” Sahay told Reuters. Many had to pay for private accommodation for their families because the CRPF could not provide a decent alternative, he added.
 
The caste question
The Indian army and paramilitary forces, like others in the west and east that don’t have compulsory conscription, has over the years faced a huge problem in recruitment. The middle classes and upper middle classes of urban India, who dominate the discourse of pseudo and hysterical supra-nationalism, rarely lose their children on the borders.
 
The army and paramilitary forces claim that their recruitment processes are merit-based and believe that the introduction of reservations and quotas in the armed forces will affect the morale of soldiers and it would cease to be a level playing field. Then why is it that the forces continue to induct north Indians in such high numbers?
 
Rajput Regiment, Jat Regiment, Rajputana Rifles, Maratha Light Infantry, Madras Regiment, Mahar and Gurkha Regiments. These are some of the names of Indian Army regiments. They announce the caste hierarchy before introducing patriotism or valour.
 
The reason is that India still follows a colonial method of recruitments which has never been reformed.
 
The British recruited to the Indian Army on the basis of their categorisation of certain ethnicities and castes as supposedly warrior material or “martial” and others as being “non-martial”.
 
In 1933, Lt Gen. Sir George MacMunn reckoned that of the 300 and odd million people of India then, “only 35 million belonged to the martial races and of them, only three million were males between twenty and thirty-five years of age. Recruitment from martial races became the norm since then.
 
At the time of independence, “half of India’s senior-most officers came from one single province, Punjab,” points out Steven I Wilkinson in his book, Army and Nation. Punjab comprised only 5% of the population of newly created India. Wilkinson reminds us that armies with a “high internal cohesion” have a greater capacity to intervene in domestic politics – or stage coups, wrote Dr Menaka Guruswamy who practices law at Supreme Court of India.
 
“It was the mutiny in 1857 which triggered caste-based induction in the Indian Army. It is a well-documented fact that the stated British intent was to divide the army into martial and non-martial races, wherein they defined non-martial as a class who did not have the qualities to make good leaders. Since the mutiny rose from the east and south, it was natural for the British to strike them off from roles in the army. It was the north which got rewarded for its martial heritage and the tradition of contribution to the military service,” News18 documented.
 
Wilkinson wrote that by the beginning of the 1970s, India doubled the number of ‘martial class’ units. “The Punjab Regiment that recruits mainly Sikhs and Dogras, has gone from five to 29 battalions since independence,” Wilkinson wrote. The Rajputana Rifles (mainly Jats and Rajputs) has increased from six to 21 battalions in the same period.
 
The recruitment based on caste and ethnicity was started by the British to divide the society and resultantly quash the repeat of revolts and it is still being practised.
 
The lack of reform of the colonial recruitment policies reflects poorly on the crafting of a professional fighting force. It may contribute to the high vacancy rate that plagues the officer cadre of the Army. It enforces a division of labour in the army that is located in caste when it comes to tasks like cleaning. It reinforces that which the Constitution abhors – the caste system, Guruswamy added in her report.
 
The Central government’s contention at the Supreme Court in 2012 was that this is a natural force multiplier. If this is indeed so, it posits a more dramatic challenge to our basic understanding of “We, the People”. This means that we cannot be bound to each other and we will not stand up for each other unless we are of a common caste or ethnicity. This contradicts the Constitution’s conception of India, she wrote.
 
The system trickled down to recruitments in paramilitary forces after their formation.

Compensation for Pulwama soldiers
Members of the slain jawans’ families have demanded a permanent solution for these issues. Though they have been promised jobs and compensation, they are adamant in claiming that no amount of compensation will bring their loved ones back.
 
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu today announced Rs. 5 lakh to the families of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans.
 
On the other hand, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K Palaniswami announced government jobs to one family member each of the 2 CRPF jawans from the state who lost their lives in the attack. TN govt announced a compensation of Rs. 20 lakh each to the families of the jawans.
 
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh has announced financial assistance of Rs 25 lakh each to the next of kin of the CRPF jawans from Uttarakhand killed in the attack, besides a government job to one member of each family.
 
Odisha government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each for the families of two slain CRPF jawans from the state, who were killed in Thursday’s terrorist attack.
 
The Uttar Pradesh government also announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 25 lakh each to the families of the 12 CRPF jawans of the state killed in the terror attack in Pulwama, an official said. The government will also provide a job for one member of each soldier’s family besides naming the link road in their native village after the martyrs.
 
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh for the family of a CRPF jawan from the state. The CM also promised a government job to a member of CRPF jawan Vijay Soreng’s family.
 
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has announced Rs 12 lakh compensation and a government job to the next of kin of the four CRPF jawans from the state who died in the Pulwama terror attack.
 
The Madhya Pradesh government announced compensation of Rs 1 crore to the family of Ashwini Kumar Kachhi, a CRPF jawan from the state who was killed in the attack. CM Kamal Nath paid tribute to him and said, “The martyr’s family will receive Rs 1 crore in compensation, a house, and one family member will be offered a government job.”
 
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh and the Maharashtra government announced Rs 50 lakh for the families.
 
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot revised the compensation and relief package for the family members of the five soldiers who were from Rajasthan. The government will provide either Rs. 50 lakh cash or Rs. 25 lakh cash and 25 bigha land on the Indira Gandhi Canal Project or Rs. 25 lakh with a housing board residence. The state government will also provide a government job to a dependent of the soldier, scholarship for children and Rs. 3 lakh to parents, besides other facilities.
 
Paramilitary forces put themselves in the line of fire every day for the citizens of India. These brave men and women guard the nation and protect us at the cost of their lives and the knowledge that their families will have to live in uncertainty. The sorrow from this tragedy has gripped the nation and tribute to those who lost their lives have been constantly pouring to remind us of our collective loss. What we as citizens can do is honour their memory and what they stood for when they took the oath to protect the country.
 
(Compiled by Preksha Malu)
 

The post From hinterlands to the frontline, this is how a soldier’s life begins and ends appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Going live from the Bhim Army’s official Facebook page, Founder and Human Rights Defender Chandrashekhar Azad expressed his anguish over the media blackout of the group’s rally on Friday.

 
In the Facebook Live video, he discussed all the rallies that he and the Bhim Army held in different parts of Madhya Pradesh. His first rally was in Gwalior and called the ‘Bahujan Samaj Banao’ rally. He said that the love and trust he received from the OBC people filled him with encouragement.
 
In Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, he said that many attempts were made to stall the rally but the strength shown by the OBC community made it a reality. He said that even Muslims had attended it in large numbers.
 
His main issue was with how the mainstream media acted during Bhim Army’s Patna rally which according to him was historic.
 
“There was a media blackout on our rally in Patna. Not a single line was carried in any newspapers or electronic media in Patna or Bihar. Who is responsible for this erasure? Who is the media afraid of? I understand there is government pressure on the media and they are harassed by raids and more when they write the truth. But Media is the fourth pillar of a democracy. If it doesn’t expose the truth then what will happen to democracy? I just want everyone to be aware of the Archimedes principle. If you keep putting pressure on us and keep forcing us down, we will rise with four times the force. Whatever you do, we will continue spreading awareness. We will continue in our mission to unite all Bahujan people. I will make all the sacrifices needed for our identity,” he said in the video.
 
He added that he wanted equal representation of Bahujan people in all levels of a democratic setup. He asked who was actually representing these interests in the halls of democracy. “The reserved seats are going to slaves. Who actually represents us? Who will fight for our cause and issues in the parliament? Who will actually put our struggle in the forefront in the house? A person who doesn’t know anything about our struggle, who hasn’t gone days without food and shelter, who hasn’t been humiliated by dominant castes, who hasn’t seen his community massacred, who hasn’t gone to jail on suspicion, how will such a person fight for us? This is why Bhim Army is making everyone aware through these rallies. Because it is important for them to know who speaks on their behalf,” he said in the video.
 
He asked why did the media want to keep people in the dark when the rallies gained a lot of traction online. He also asked why was it spreading fake news about the army instead of covering their events.
 
“A state BJP leader said that the party will stay in power for 50 years in this country. How can he say such a thing in a democracy? How is it possible to stay in power for so long when, forget the minorities, Dalits, Muslims and SC/ST people, even Savarnas aren’t voting for them? What is this fight for? When you look at the moves Amit Shah is making, don’t you see a big game is being played? That someone is stealing our rights from under our noses? This is why we are protesting against EVMs because they are rigged. We don’t want our votes stolen. My fight is not against a person or a community, my fight is against a system,” he said.
 
He added that he is against people who obstruct the path of justice and those who don’t follow the constitution. He was against people who take away their rights. “A woman from our community was paraded naked because her brother-in-law married someone outside their caste. You talk about competing with America and China? Can’t you see what’s happening in your own country? This is good governance? 21 Dalit kids were massacred and the SC buried the case. Who was responsible? Will the local police provide us justice? Will the CBI give me justice?” he said.
 
He said that their fight was to have reservation in the judiciary. He said he didn’t want an autocrat like Modi who kills with impunity. “The only way to stop them is by being united. We have to protect our constitution,” he said.
 
“There is a rumour that we are contesting the polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. They are categorically false. We are not a political party. We are social workers. We support BSP wholeheartedly and we are not competing with them,” he said.
 
He said that people like him are silenced by the Money Mafia Media conspiracy. “If they can’t buy us with money or scare us by Mafia, they use the media to vilify us. The media carries fake news about us to derail our campaign. We will not fall into their traps and will continue to spread awareness. If there are people who can do better work than us, then show us. We will support you. But don’t focus your energies on pulling us down. Do something constructive,” he said.
 
He added that he just wanted representation for the community, their development and implementation of their rights. “I want to assert our independent identity. Every MLA and MP should have a mission and a list of work which they will complete in five years. The 131 MPs and 111 MLA’s that are stuffing their pockets in the name of reservation and not representing us, we will not allow them to come in power again,” he said.
 
Urging the youth to join him he said, “We want people who are ready to sacrifice for this vision. Those who can dedicate themselves to social work. We welcome you. Our work is cut out for us. We need to do justice to the leaders who came before us and on whose shoulders, we stand today. We need to fulfil their dreams. My respects to all these great leaders like Babasaheb Ambedkar, Jyothiba Phule, Bhagat Singh and more,” he said.
 
He also added that he will be visiting Jharkhand and Maharashtra. It was reported that he will be holding a rally in Pune on December 30, ahead of the 201st anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon on January 1.
 
On Wednesday, Bhim Army said that about 30,000 people were expected to attend the “Bhima Koregaon Sangharsh Mahasabha.”
 

The post Chandrashekhar Azad questions the media blackout of his rallies appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 

 
In the race for Chhattisgarh’s assembly elections and power over the most resource-rich state, all major and minor political parties released their manifestos before the first phase of the elections. BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC (J) led by Ajit Jogi, who is in alliance with BSP and CPI, have all come out with their manifestos.
 
The first phase of polling was scheduled for 18 seats on Nov 12 and voting for the remaining 72 seats will happen on Nov 20.
 
Taking a look at each party’s manifesto, it becomes clear as to who the party is trying to woo, which community it has neglected and how false its promises are.
 
BJP party’s ‘Sankalp Patra’
BJP brought out a very colourful and digitally appealing manifesto called ‘Sankalp Patra’ which had every typical promise made by a party and then some. Many saw the manifesto as a gimmick to show that BJP wanted to come to power for the first time in the state. Chhattisgarh has been a BJP ruled state for 15 years.
 
Besides promising housing, hospitals, education grants, bicycles, etc, the BJP manifesto promised to end Naxalism in the state. In PM Modi’s speeches in Jagdalpur, he said that the issue of Maoism and Naxalism had been eliminated. He must have forgotten that there was a Naxal attack on security forces right before his visit. There was a life-threatening attack on Doordarshan journalists in the state where one cameraperson lost his life. Naxal and Maoist violence has only increased during BJP’s term in the last 15 years.
 
The manifesto spoke about building a film city to encourage cinema in the state and a microblogging site for the people of Chhattisgarh who are now settled abroad. A report by Sabrang India had observed how many Adivasi and tribal villages in the state had no roads, drinking water or electricity. They did not even know who their CM, PM or area MLA or MP were. There were no schools or hospitals in the area. How does BJP, which has had power for 15 years, plan to highlight the plight of these people on this microblogging site?

In the Election Watch series for Chhatisgarh, Sabrang India had reported how this year, the Modi government had made significant cuts to the support prices of small forest produce. They justified this by saying that it was a loss-making area and they had to scale down the prices. The Raman govt accepted it silently. It was a huge loss to people whose livelihoods depended on the income from forest produce. The BJP ‘Sankalp Patra’ promises to increase the support price for small forest produce by 1.5 times.

 
Why is the party behaving like an Amazon sale which hikes the original prices of the product and then discounts them, making the people think they bought it for a discount, only to realize that they bought it at MRP.
 
The manifesto did not speak about how the party will acquire the land for the tall promises it made. It did not speak about curbing the human rights violations in the state, the forced land grab of coal-rich regions and the murder of countless innocent tribal people by security forces.

Congress party’s ‘Jan Ghoshna Patra’
Party president Rahul Gandhi released the party manifesto for the state last Friday. Three days before the first phase of the election. Besides the typical promises of healthcare and farm loan waivers, it also spoke about raising the minimum support price for crops.
 
The manifesto had a special focus on women’s rights, safety, commute and police help. It spoke about quality education, free universal healthcare, increasing the income for daily wage workers, a monthly stipend for 10 lakh unemployed youth and more.
 
It spoke about bringing in special laws for the protection of journalists, lawyers and doctors. He also said that special packages worth Rs. 1 crore will be given to every Naxal affected Panchayat to curb the menace.
 
Former Chattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi said that this manifesto was a “true copy” of the one he had released on June 6, 2016, when the JCC (J) was formed.
 
AAP manifesto
AAP had an almost identical manifesto to Congress but differentiated itself with a tribal manifesto. Besides promising the typical farm loan waivers and MSP, Alcohol prohibition in the state and job generation, the 36-point manifesto also had a 20 point tribal manifesto.

 
The state has almost 32% tribal population and the AAP manifesto seems like the only one with an execution plan for tribal development.

 
It also spoke about halving electricity bills and bringing quality and subsidised education in the state. Apparently, they released their manifesto on a stamp paper.
 
It promised to bring Chhattisgarh Jan Lokpal Bill, an anti-graft legislation covering the Chief Minister, ministers, MLAs and all government officers. The manifesto also included an end of raids and Inspector Raj.
 
The Delhi-based party has fielded candidates in all the 90 assembly seats in the BJP-ruled state. The party has projected its Bhanupratappur assembly seat candidate Komal Hupendi as its chief ministerial candidate.
 
JCC (J) manifesto
Ajit Jogi released his party manifesto on a stamp paper as well. He challenged the ruling BJP, and the Congress to do the same.
 
“Jogi said he had released the 14-point manifesto of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC)(J) on stamp paper and therefore was committed to fulfilling the promises mentioned in it. “If I don’t fulfil promises made in it, I can be sent to jail,” he said in a report.
 
Jogi’s party is in an alliance with Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party and the CPI. The JCC (J) will contest 55 seats, the BSP 33 and CPI two seats.
 
Besides the typical promises made by all parties and his, there wasn’t much about tribal or mining communities in the manifesto. He said local youth would be given “cent per cent” reservation in government jobs while 90 per cent of other jobs would be reserved for them.
 
Most, if not all manifestos, touch upon the basics of election promises with some very colourful and attractive visuals, some a simple 14 points and others flogging a dead horse. With the countless forced land grabs, human rights violations, torture of men and women in custody, police brutality, Naxalism on the rise and lack of basic facilities, the manifestos don’t show much promise of actual change in the welfare of the state.
 

The post Election Watch Chhattisgarh: What do the Party Manifestos say? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

  
The pioneers of the Indian renaissance of the 19^th century would hang their heads in shame if they saw the leaders of the nation marching against the Supreme Court order on Sabarimala. In a bid for election votes, both Congress and BJP have descended on Sabarimala temple in Kerala to show their support for the people who are against women between the ages of 10 and 50 entering the temple.
 
It would do these senior leaders to go back and learn from the Indians who were forward-looking feminists, contemporaneous with the awakening, renaissance and winds of equality breezing across the globe. From the early medieval period itself, large parts of this region we call India, saw ascetics, saints, learned individuals, and political philosophers questioning the rigidity of caste and tradition, urging a spirit of deep questioning.
 
From Eknath, Namdeo and Tukaram in the region we call Maharashtra to Kabir who is the pride of Banaras, to 12^th century Basavanna,  who rejected caste rigidity, some or all of these questionings, in fact, caused a change and determined how modern Hinduism came to be defined. Others remained part of the ‘shramana’ tradition always at odds with the Brahmana one. But the battle between the ‘Shraman’ and ‘Brahman’ is as old as time, as recorded by Megasthenes in the early Indian period (elaborated by historian Romila Thapar.
 
Indian textbooks perfunctorily deal with the stories of the Brahmo Samaj and Raja Ram Mohan Roy. They narrate the contribution of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Stories of the oppression and humiliation meted out to Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule find less space. The fact that Savitribai with her partner opened the first all-girls school in Bhidewada Pune in 1848 escapes notice.
 
Swami Vivekananda who merged western ideals with Indian Hindu ideals in an attempt to create the modern intellectual Hindu and to take the Ramakrishna Mission forward. Modern India stands on the shoulders of these people who were ahead of their times and caused the Hindu reform movement in the 19^th century.
 
Most of our laws regarding the Hindu Marriage Act, the law against child marriage and dowry and the end of the Sati culture rest on the struggles begun by some of these reformers. Then why are the educated 21st-century leaders of today hell-bent on taking the country backwards and erase all the good that was achieved?
 
A deep dive into the Hindu reform movement
Colonialism gave Indians access to western ideology among other things. Many learned individuals sought knowledge and found that rationalist views were needed to reform human rights and bring social justice. Two crucial movements were born in Bengal while a far more fundamental issue was being raised in Maharashtra.
 
The leaders of the movements in Bengal were inspired by the ideas of rationalism and humanism. They laid great stress on science and education for the regeneration of Indian society. They carried on a campaign against obscurantism and inhuman customs and institutions, like the oppression of women child marriage and caste rigidity. As many social evils had acquired the sanction of religion, they also devoted themselves to religious reform. Through their deep study of ancient religious literature, they showed that all such practices and institutions were contrary to true religion.
 
Rammohan Roy’s campaign was a major factor in the banning of the inhuman practice of Sati by William Bentinck in 1829. The Brahmo Samaj founded by him in 1828, and revitalized by Debendranath Tagore and Keshub Chandra Sen, inspired similar movements in other parts of the country. Derozio, a young teacher, inspired the Young Bengal movement which questioned all traditions.
 
Roy was a Brahmin and faced oppression from his orthodox community at the time when he wanted to abolish Sati. He spoke against the caste system from which he benefitted. He quoted Vedic literature back at people to show them how they were treating other humans with such disregard.
 
“The present system of religion, adhered to by the Hindus, is not at all well calculated to promote their political interest. The distinctions of castes introducing innumerable divisions and subdivisions among them have entirely deprived them of patriotic feeling and the multitude of religious ties and ceremonies and the laws of purification have totally disqualified them from undertaking any difficult enterprise. It is, I think, necessary that some changes should take place in their religion, at least for the sake of their political advantage and social comfort,” he had said about the demerits of the caste system.
 
He was the pioneer of the reform movement in India and wanted education and equal rights for women and minorities.
 
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a great scholar and reformer, dedicated his life to the cause of improving a lot of women, particularly the Hindu widows. A social reformer and upper caste Hindu Brahmin like a Vidyasagar wanted widows to have the right to remarry and found it cruel that they were forced to live a life of ascetics and celibates. He dined with the people who were considered lower caste and opened the doors of education or them at places where only Brahmins were allowed to study. He formed almost 35 schools for the education of children.
 
“The enactment of the Sati Abolition Act XVII 1829 and the Widow Re-marriage Act XV 1856, through a successful collaboration among Indian reformers, the British government and the society, motivated uprooting of sati and widowhood systems. Evidently, a legislation enacting social reform to be successful must not only be preceded by a vigorous public opinion but should also be followed by consistent efforts to educate the masses. The Sati Abolition Act, together with the public awareness programs taken before and after the abolition, proved to be highly effective. The alertness of local administration, the efficiency of law enforcement officials, and the strong public opinion against the evils of the practice helped uproot it. The sati system died down within a quarter of a century after the promulgation of the Sati Abolition Act of 1829,” wrote Prerna Dhoop.
 
Mahadev Gobind Ranade of the Prarthana Samaj fought against the rigid caste system. The Samaj wanted universal brotherhood and equality of all castes. Ranade believed that social reform was a must and that evil had crept into the old Hindu Vedic customs and the practices of the 19^th century were besmirching the original Hindu ideal. “The change which we should all seek is a change from constraints to freedom, from credulity to faith, from status to contract, from authority to reason, from blind fatalism to human dignity,” he had said. He was against infant and child marriage and called it the greatest evil.
 
Jyotiba Phule along with Ranade found the Satya Shodhak Samaj. Phule fought the prevalent Brahmanical hegemony and suffered humiliation for setting up schools for Dalits and untouchables of the time. He wanted to ignite the fire for civil rights among peasants and people of the lower caste, strive for the emancipation of women and make them independent and shed the religious and social slavery imposed on them by Brahmins. His fight was the precursor to making untouchability a crime in the country.
 
Words from his book entitled Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustaka.
 
“All religious works are written by men and they do not contain truth from beginning to end. Changes were made by certain obstinate men in these books to suit certain occasions… and they give rise to divisions and cults full of hatred and envy.

God created all things. He is kind and desires that all should enjoy human rights. If the earth we inhabit is created by God why should the peoples of different countries be torn asunder by enmity and the madness of patriotism, and why should religious bigotry prevail so much? When there are so many rivers in different countries, how can a particular river in a particular country become the most sacred? That most sacred river does not hesitate to carry with its water the droppings of dogs. All men possess the same kind of features and intellect. Nobody is sacred by birth. Everybody has his virtues and vices as a human being….”
 
Move south to modern-day Andhra and there was Veeresalingam around the same time, close to 200 years ago, on the criticality of social reform. Kandukuri Veeresalingam (1848-1919) was also a towering figure of Telugu literature. The following excerpts on the importance of social reform are from his ‘Last Appeal’ published in the second volume of his Autobiography in 1916.
 
“For the nation’s progress, the task of reform should pay equal attention to all aspects of life and not confine itself to one of them only. One-sided development cannot be equated with true progress…. Time was when the mere mention of the topic of women’s education used to rouse the ire of the people in general. Now, there are girls’ schools everywhere and women’s education has made such rapid headway that many women there are, who are able to speak in public and publish their own books. Then there were no suitable books in the Indian languages even for men to read; now there are organisations to encourage the writing of books not only for men but for women as well…. I would, therefore, appeal respectfully to our people not to neglect the task of social reform.
 
One woman, single and strong stands out like a beacon amidst the men who spoke of Women and their rights. Savitribai Phule was her one other contemporary. Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922) had earned the titles of ‘Pandita’ and ‘Saraswati’ for her learning. She founded the Arya Mahila Sabha at Pune ‘to work for the deliverance of women from evil practices which tradition and custom have continued in India from the Past’. On her return from England and U.S.A., where she had embraced Christianity, she started the Sarada Sadan for widows, and later the Ramabai Mukti Mission. Besides a number of other writings, she published a book entitled The High Caste Hindu Woman. What did Ramabai say about the Condition of Widows?
 
“Throughout India widowhood is regarded as the punishment for horrible crimes committed by the woman in her former existence…. But it is the child-widow upon whom in an especial manner falls the abuse and hatred of the community as the greatest criminal upon whom Heaven’s judgement has been pronounced. A Hindoo woman thinks it worse than death to lose her beautiful hair. Among the Brahmans of the Deccan the heads of all widows must be shaved regularly every fortnight. Girls of fourteen and fifteen, who hardly know the reason why they are so cruelly deprived of everything they like, are often seen wearing sad countenances, their eyes swollen from shedding tears. They are glad to find a dark corner where they may hide their faces. The widow must wear a single coarse garment. She must eat only one meal during the twenty-four hours of a day. She must never take part in family feasts. A man or woman thinks it unlucky to behold a widow’s face before seeing any other object in the morning.
 
“The relations and neighbours of the young widow’s husband are always ready to call her bad names. There is scarcely a day of her life on which she is not cursed by these people as the cause of their beloved friend’s death. In addition to all this, the young widow is always looked upon with suspicion, for fear she may some time bring disgrace upon the family by committing some improper act. She is closely confined to the house, forbidden even to associate with her female friends…. Her life, then, destitute as it is of the least literary knowledge, void of all hope, empty of every pleasure and social advantage, becomes intolerable, a curse to  herself and to society at large.
 
And then a few decades down, in Kerala itself just where the current contestation around Kerala is being fomented. Shri Narayana Guru (1898-1928)p played a leading role in the awakening of the Ezhaws and the Tiyyas, the most oppressed castes in Kerala. Revered by people of all castes and communities as a saint, he summed up his teachings in the celebrated Mantra, ‘One Caste, one Religion, ‘One God for man’. The following inscription was written by him on the walls of a small temple founded by him in 1887.
 
Without differences of Caste,
No enmities of creed
All live like brothers at heart
Here in this ideal place.
 
The following excerpts are from his Jati Mimamsa (A Critique of Caste)
 
Man’s humanity marks out the human kind  
Even as bovinity proclaims a cow.
Brahminhood and such are not thus-wise;
None do see this truth, alas!…
Of the human species is even a Brahman born, as is the Pariah too,
Where is the difference then in caste as between man and man?
 
 
The Arya Samaj by Swami Dayanand Saraswati set up schools for men and women to educate them in Sanskrit literature and the Vedas among other Indian texts. Many national leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and GK Gokhale were influenced by the Samaj’s philosophy. They were also among the earliest freedom fighters who laid the foundation of a free India that we know today.
 
Swami Vivekananda had said that “A Hindu seeks to uplift himself by being the servant of all.”
 
The Pandalam royals held a special puja at Sabarimala Temple on Monday and Tuesday and turned it into a fortress. The ‘Sree Chithira Atta Thirunal” puja is meant to mark the birth anniversary of the last king of Travancore, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. How ironic since he declared a proclamation in 1936 abolishing the ban on low castes or avarnas from entering Hindu temples in the Princely State of Travancore, Kerala.
 
Human rights vs animal rights
The Supreme Court decision on Jallikattu, where a bull is cruelly tamed for sport, didn’t find many takers in Tamil Nadu either. Animal cruelty has been a part of Indian culture since time immemorial. Bulls, oxen have been sacrificed and even beef has been offered to Hindu Gods in the name of traditions and rituals.
 
Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, a leading Indologist and expert in Vedic scriptures, quoted ancient Vedic scriptures which has many examples of gods asking to be fed beef. “Indra, who Hindus believe is the god of rain and heaven, ate beef, according to the academic. The Rig Veda, he said, mentions that Indra asks to be served 15 to 20 cooked oxen. Citing the Shatapath Brahman, a Vedic text, and Yajnavalkya, an ancient philosopher, Bhaduri, said, ‘I eat it (beef) only if it is cooked till it is tender’” said a report.
 
“The Vedas encapsulate the essence of Hindu dharma. They are replete with instances of sages and even gods consuming beef. In fact, a guest in a Hindu household used to be referred to – according to the Vedas -as ‘ goghna’ or he who is served beef as part of the hospitality ritual,” he said in an interview.
 
The insensitivity shown by the ‘fringe’ elements close to the ruling party when they said that the Kerala flood happened because its citizens eat beef is shocking.
 
“The veneration of the cow has been converted into a symbol of communal identity of the Hindus and obscurantist and fundamentalist forces obdurately refuse to appreciate that the cow was not always all that sacred in the Vedic and subsequent Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical traditions—or that its flesh, along with other varieties of meat, was quite often a part of haute cuisine in early India,” said DN Jha, in a text which was the part of his 2001 book ‘The Myth of the Holy Cow.’ Many extreme right-wing elements called for the burning of this book.
 
“Self-styled custodians of nonexistent “monolithic” Hinduism assert that the eating of beef was first introduced in India by the followers of Islam who came from outside and are foreigners in this country, little realizing that their Vedic ancestors were also foreigners who ate the flesh of the cow and various other animals,” the extract reads.
 
“Fanaticism getting precedence over the fact, it is not surprising that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and their numerous outfits have a national ban on cow slaughter on their agenda. The [then] chief minister of Gujarat (Keshubhai Patel) announced some time ago, as a pre-election gimmick, the setting up of a separate department to preserve cow breeds and manage Hindu temples, and recently a Bajrang Dal leader has even threatened to enrol 30 lakh activists in the anti-cow slaughter movement during the Bakrid of 2002. So high-geared has been the propaganda about abstention from beef eating as a characteristic trait of “Hinduism” that when the RSS tried to claim that Sikhs were Hindus, there was vehement opposition from them and Sikh youth leader proposed, “Why not slaughter a cow and serve beef in a gurdwara langar?” Jha wrote.
 
“The communalists who have been raising a hullabaloo over the cow in the political arena do not realise that beef-eating remained a fairly common practice for a long time in India and that the arguments for its prevalence are based on the evidence drawn from our own scriptures and religious texts. The response of historical scholarship to the communal perception of Indian food culture, therefore, has been sober and scholars have drawn attention to the textual evidence on the subject which, in fact, begins to be available in the oldest Indian religious text, Rigveda, supposedly of divine origin. HH Wilson, writing in the first half of the nineteenth century, had asserted that the “sacrifice of the horse or of the cow, the gomedha or asvamedha, appears to have been common in the earliest periods of the Hindu ritual,” the extract said.
 
How many innocent people have been killed by cow vigilantes since the present government came to power?
Had it not been for the reformers, female infanticide would have continued to be an acceptable norm, women wouldn’t have inheritance rights, dowry deaths would be an everyday phenomenon and infants would be married off as soon as they were born. Opposition to long-held beliefs are natural, what is unnatural is going back on all the progress made by the visionaries who saw a more educated and human India.

The post 19th-century Hindu reformers would cringe at the Happenings at Sabarimala Today appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Representaion Image

New Delhi: Parents and teachers at a primary school in Delhi were mortified when they learned that children as young as 5 to 10 years old were being segregated on the basis of religion in their classrooms.
 
In a report by Indian Express, it was found that the school had placed Hindu and Muslim students in different sections.
 
“A section of teachers employed by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has alleged that a primary school in Wazirabad is segregating Hindu and Muslim students in different sections. Attendance records of the North MCD Boys’ School, Wazirabad village, Gali Number 9, accessed and analysed by The Indian Express, as of October 9, show the section-wise break up of students,” said the report.
 
It calculated the numbers of Hindu and Muslim students in every section from Class I to Class V and found out that every class had been divided on the basis of religion.
 
C B Singh Sehrawat, the teacher put in charge of the school on July 2 after the principal was transferred is being seen prima facie as the person who initiated this move. “He initiated these changes and teachers were not consulted in the matter. When some teachers tried to bring it up with him, he responded with aggression and told them that it was none of their concern and that they should do their assigned jobs,” a source told Indian Express.
 
Parents of students studying at the school told The Indian Express that they were not aware of this reorganisation. A mother of a Class IV student denied that such segregation was taking place until her son said, “There are no Hindu boys in my class. We were together until a few months back. A good friend of mine is no longer in the same classroom.”
 
The mother of a Class I student, who was not aware of this development, said, “This is extremely wrong, if true. We believe all children are equal. What is going to happen if they are treated like this at the school level itself? This is very disturbing.”
 
Taking note of the report, Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said a probe has been ordered and sought a report by December 12. Sisodia further targeted the BJP-governed MCD that operates the school and said that such actions violate the Constitution.
 

 
The teacher-in-charge was suspended on Wednesday and was found guilty following preliminary investigations. Penalty proceedings have been initiated against him according to another report by The India Express.
 
The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights sent a notice to the Director of education in North Delhi Municipal Corporation and head of the school seeking immediate dissolution of such grouping, saying it was against constitutional values, the commission sought an explanation from the director within two days.
 
Fr. Frazer Mascarenhas, the former Principal of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai spoke to Sabrang India about the importance of integration in classrooms.
 
“Inclusion is important when educating children. Our institutes have pursued the inclusion of all children regardless of their backgrounds and have made a point to include disabled kids too. When such kids learn together, it helps everyone to accept all types of people. It is a well-established principle,” he said.
 
“In India and around the world, so many different religious groups live and work together. There is no segregation there. Having segregation in education doesn’t make sense and goes against all the fundamental principles of education. Segregation provokes conflict at the later stage. Since no understanding has been mutually reached among the groups in their formative years. When you learn amongst a mixed bunch, there is a chance of interactions and learning about people and what is important to them, their values and beliefs. Everybody comes back enriched with this experience,” he added.
 
He said that no institute should become an exclusive zone or a ghetto. “Even the Supreme Court of India and the constitution gives only 50% reservation rights to minority institutions as the general populace should get a chance to integrate. No institution should become an exclusive zone or a ghetto. Such segregations are dangerous for society. Such insulations propagate stereotypes and integration becomes difficult after they graduate and become adults. We are already seeing how history is being rewritten and changed and religious groups are demonized. We should know and read our constitution which tells us that India is a secular, democratic, socialist republic. Integration is an important priority,” he said.
 
Speaking to Sabrang India, Avnita Bir, director-principal, R.N Podar School, Mumbai, said that schools need to represent the society the children live in. “We cannot represent just one segment of the society. We need to have a more mature outlook. The students shouldn’t find a dichotomy in what they see in school and I the real world. The school should be a parallel which the students can refer to when they step outside. The schools must reflect the world and the environment they inhabit. Integration is important for children as these are their formative years where their outlook is being shaped, exposed to the world. This is where they will learn to develop empathy and compassion,” she said.
 

The post Educationists condemn the religious segregation of students in Delhi school appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Where in India do you find a tribal or Bahujan protesting the burning of a Brahmin? India is a land of great ironies. Just before Dussehra witnesses the defeat of Ravan and thousands of his effigies are burned, some parts of India will no doubt be objecting to it.
 
It is interesting to note that on Monday, the Pune unit of Bhim Army submitted a letter to the city police warning that if Ravan’s effigies were burned in the city, it would hurt their sentiments and of all those who belonged to the Scheduled Castes and tribes. They wanted the police the reject all the permits that communities have asked for, to burn effigies and hold ‘Ravan Dahan programs.” They even said that if people were to go ahead and do it anyway, complaints should be lodged under the SC/ST Act (prevention of atrocities.) they even said that if it did not happen, members will come out on the streets to protest and the police will be held accountable for any law and order situation.
 
“Bhim Army district president Datta Pol, women wing president Neeta Adsule and others claim that Ravan symbolises a glorious culture and he was a king who believed in equality and justice. “But the history was distorted and Ravan was presented as a villain for thousands of years,” the letter said.
 
“The banned Communist Party of India – Maoist has put up posters in parts of Gadchiroli district opposing burning of Ravan effigies. Korchi Area Committee of the CPI-Maoist put up the posters in Gadchiroli on Sunday stating: “Rakshas ke naam par Raavan ko jalaana bandh karo (stop burning Ravan in the name of demon)” reported The Indian Express.
 
“It urged tribals and other communities to come together and agitate against the “Brahmanical Hindutva Fascist” BJP government in the Centre and the state,” the report said.
 
Many in the country either celebrate Bhramanical Hindutva until it becomes radical or extremist or apologize for having been a part of a caste system that violates ‘lower castes’ on the daily. Ramayana and Ravan are beyond these manufactured binaries.
 
The Ramayana is a literature beyond the modern simplistic understanding of the text. It is important to know why certain regions in the country sing Ravan’s praise, idolize him and object to his insult.
 
Ravan was a just and able king. He had the knowledge of all the Vedas and Shastras. He was a great Shiva devotee and an expert of the Veena, a musical instrument. It is said that he invented the Rudra Veena. He was the son of a great Bhramin sage Vishrava (or Vesamuni), and his wife, the daitya princess Kaikeshi. People of Bisrakh village in Uttar Pradesh claim that Bisrakh was named after Vishrava, and Ravana was born there. He is still considered a maha-Bhrahman in this village and every Navratri, people here perform yagnas and peace prayers for Ravana’s departed soul.
 
There are stories in Rishikesh and temples in Rameshwaram that Lord Ram had to atone for and wash away his sin for killing Ravan. But why would a God atone for killing a villain? Because Ravan was not your streetside pedestrian villain you can easily dismiss. He was also a God.

“Ram, though God incarnate, was born in a family of Kshatriyas. In the caste hierarchy, Ram was of lower rank. As a Brahmin, Ravan was custodian of Brahma-gyan (the knowledge of God). Killing him meant Brahma-hatya-paap, the sin of Brahminicide, that Ram had to wash away through penance and prayer. Another reason why this atonement was important was because Ravan was Ram’s guru,” wrote Devdutt Pattanaik, mythologist, author and columnist.
 
Tribals and Bhramins in praise of Ravan
Ravan signifies everything that is a part of human life experience. But rarely do you find Mythological villains/Brahman gods which are included as icons in modern DBA (Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi) experience. He is a representation of their struggles.
 
“The Gond Tribals of Gadchiroli, Maharashtra worship Dashanan – Ravana and his son Meghnada as Gods. The tribals extend adulations to Ravana during a tribal festival – Falgun. As per Gond Tribals, Ravana was never demonized in the Valmiki Ramayana and Sage Valmiki clearly mentioned that Ravana did not do anything wrong or maligned Sita. It was in Tulsidas Ramayana that Ravana was considered a cruel king and devilish,” reported News18.
 
In Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, people worship him and respect his unparalleled knowledge and devotion for Lord Shiva. They even mourn his death.
 
Besides Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, some regions in Karnataka also pray to Ravan. “During the harvest festival, Lankadipathi (The King of Lanka) is worshipped by people of Kolar District in Karnataka. In a procession, along with Lord Shiva’s idol, a ten-headed (Dashanan) and twenty-armed idol of Ravana is also worshipped by locals. Similarly, at Malavalli Taluka in the Mandya District of Karnataka, a temple of Ravana is visited by Hindu devotees to honor his dedication for Lord Shiva,” the report said.
 
The report added that in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, The Maudgil Bhramins conduct Shraadh and Pind Daan for Ravan, according to Hindu rituals, as they are his descendants.
 
In Mathura, Saraswat Bhramins sings hymns in praise of Ravan and Lord Shiva. There exists a ‘Lankesh Bhakta Mandal.’ They are collecting funds to build a Ravan Temple on the banks of Yamuna river. Omveer Saraswat, the founder of the Mandal said that Ravan was a charitable man with divine quality. He found the effigy burning ritual an insult to such a divine figure.
 
“Saraswat had petitioned the president and the prime minister seeking a ban on the burning of Ravana effigies on Dussehra, claiming Ravan, the king of Lanka in the epic Ramayana, was a Saraswat Brahmin, and the burning of his effigies (Ravana Dahan) was an “insult” to Saraswat Brahmins and many others who worshipped him,” reported Business Standard.

 
The majority of Indian populace believes in the villainy of Ravan. It signifies the fight of good over evil. What constitutes good or evil in this modern global village is a grey area. There are lessons far more complex in the literature than the simple retelling of Ramayan. Devdutt Pattanaik explains how Ravan cannot just be painted in one hue and how his life is a lesson for us all, no matter our caste or background.
 
“Shiva is God embodying the principle of vairagya, absolute detachment. He demonstrates his disdain for all things material by smearing his body with ash and living in crematoriums. The material world does not matter to him. Ravan may be his great devotee; he may sing Shiva’s praise, and worship Shiva every day, but he does not follow the path of Shiva,” he wrote.
 
“In reality, Ravan stands for everything that Shiva rejects. Ravan is fully attached to worldly things. He always wants what others have. He never built the city of gold – he drove out his brother, Kuber, and took over the kingdom of Lanka. Why did he abduct Sita? Avenging his sister’s mutilation was but an excuse; it was the desire to conquer the heart of a faithful wife. And during the war, he let his sons die and his brothers die before entering the battlefield himself,” he wrote.
 
“Ravan has ten pairs of eyes, which means he can see more. Ravan has ten sets of arms, which means he can do more. Ravan has ten heads, which means he can think more. And yet, this man with a superior body and superior mind submits to the basest of passions. Despite knowing the Vedas and worshipping Shiva, he remains a slave of his senses and a victim of his own ego. He arrogantly shows off his knowledge of detachment but is not wise enough to practice detachment. Deluded, he gives only lip-service to Shiva. This pretender is therefore killed by Ram, who like Shiva, is another form of God,” he concludes.
 

The post There is an India where Ravan is not a demon appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image Courtesy: Facebook

Darbhanga: The president of All Indian Muslim Bedari Karwan fro Darbhanga Karwan is allegedly being harassed by local authorities for a speech he gave in the defence of Rohingya’s human rights. Nazre Alam, also Secretary of Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind, has reportedly had many warrants of arrests and FIR against him ever since he gave a public speech to people in support of granting Rohingya people amnesty in India.
 
On September 20, AIMBK took out a protest march at the Darbhanga commissioner Dharna Sthal Maidan in Bihar. The motive of the protest was to bring the ruling govt’s attention to the plight of Rohingya Muslims and grant them amnesty along with citizenship just how it was awarding it to Hindus of neighbouring countries.

 
Led by Nazre Alam, it protested outside the office and reportedly even presented a memorandum of their demands to the commissioner. They said that if their voices would not be heard, they would protest in Delhi.

 
In his speech to the gathered crowd, he spoke about the history of Myanmar, the legacy of Muslim rule in India, the humanity with which India has accepted many refugees belonging to various backgrounds throughout history and how Rohingya Muslims needed to be helped on humanitarian grounds.
 
Some of the words from his speech were video recorded and allegedly edited to make it look like he had made threats to Hindus and said anti-national words. A news channel called Sudarshan News made it look as if he threatened to remove all traces of Hinduism from the country. Alam alleged that the fake clip was circulated everywhere.  

News channel video:

 
Speaking to Sabrang India, Alam said that he has been slapped with FIRs and non-bailable warrants. “Old political leaders in the area are giving my words a communal angle when my speech doesn’t have it. I apologized for causing any hurt to sentiments but that was not my intention and my speech was not defamatory either. These political bigwigs just want to silence people like me. They’re giving the whole Muslim community a bad name and damaging our reputation for the public by fabricating my words,” he said.
 
He added, “If India doesn’t take a strong stance against Myanmar and allows them to torture Rohingya Muslims, what message does it send? If we don’t protect the refugees, we refuse the right to be considered cultured. If we don’t have a culture, who are we? Without a peaceful culture, we won’t have a country, we won’t have the world and we won’t have any Hindus either, that’s what I meant. Why is the media silent when people like Dalai Lama, who practice Buddhism, call Rohingya Muslims terrorist?”
 
His speech at the protest march:
 
ब्यान नजरे आलम

जलाना हमें भी आता है चाहा जाए तो पूरी दुनिया को दो घंटे में जलाकर राख कर दिया जा सकता है। पर हम एसा करते नहीं क्यों कि हम मुसलमान आदम से लेकर आज तक अमन पसन्द ही रहे हैं। तुम तारीख उठाकर देखो दुनिया की कोई भी तारीख हमारे बगैर पूरी नहीं होगी। जब हमने तुम्हारे यहाँ हुकुमत की, हाकिम रहे तब देखो और आज हम जहाँ महकूम हैं वहाँ देखो, तुम्हें अमन के अलावह कुछ भी नहीं दिखेगा, दुनिया में फलने फूलने कि यही वह राज हैं जिसे हमने पा लिया है। तुम्हारे साथ साथ तमाम गैर इस्लाम का औव्वल रोज से ही यही तरीका रहा है नफरत नफरत नफरत बस इस्लाम से नफरत, शायद तुम यह भूल जाते हो कि इस्लाम आज उस मकाम पर है कि तुम उससे किनारहकश नहीं हो सकते, तुम्हें अगर दुनिया में शोहरत या बुलन्दी चाहिए तो दो ही काम करना होगा चाहो तो इस्लाम से मुहब्बत का इकरार करो या फिर नफरत आमेज कलमात कहो और जितना हो सके इस्लाम के खिलाफ काम करो, तभी तुम्हें बुलन्दी व शोहरत मिल सक्ती है।

तारीख में कौन जानता था बर्मा को, अराकान सूबा पर जब खलीफा हारूण रशीद के वक्त मुसलमान ताजिर वहाँ बसे और वहाँ के मकामी लोगों ने उन ताजिरों से मोतास्सिर होकर इस्लाम कबूल कर लिया, यहाँ तक कि अराकान के बादशाह ने भी 1430 ई0 को इस्लाम कबूल कर वहाँ मुसलमानों की हुकुमत बाजाब्तह कायम कर दी, सही मानों में तब जाकर बर्मा आलमी पैमाने पर पहचाना जाने लगा। जैसा कि मशहूर इतिहासकार दीना नाथ लिखता हैः-

‘‘बर्मा का इतिहास बहुत व्यवस्थित और स्पष्ट नहीं है। दसवी सदी के पूर्व तक के इतिहास पर तो एक प्रकार से पर्दा पड़ा हुआ है।’’

(एशिया का इतिहास)
वक्त करवट लेता रहा और साढ़े तीन सौ साल हुकुमत करने के बाद अराकान समेेत पूरे बर्मा पर ईस्ट इंडिया कम्पनी का कब्जा 1826 ई0 को हो गया। अंग्रेज अपनी बुनियादी पालिसी क्मअपकम – त्नसम  के तहत मुसलमानों और राखिने नस्ल के बौद्धों को आपस में लड़ा दिया और फसादात का सिलसिला वहीं से चल पड़ा जो अबतक थमने का नाम नहीं ले रहा है।

पन्द्रह लाख रोहिंग्या मुसलमानों पर जो वहाँ बहुसंख्यक में हैं उनपर जुल्म का सिलसिला बर्मा के 1937  ई0 में आजाद होने के साथ ही लगातार चल रहा है। फिर भी पूरी दुनिया चुप्पी साधे हुई है। एक मुसलमान अपने हक के लिए अगर सिस्टम से तंग आकर आवाज बुलन्द कर ले तो पूरी दुनिया बेचैन हो जाती है पर बर्मा के मुसलमानों पर अबतक ना खत्म होने वाले मजालिम उन्हें नहीं दिखते।

निम्नलिखित में हम आँकड़ा देते हैं कि बर्मा ने मुसलमनों के खिलाफ किस तरह से राखिने नस्ल के बौद्धों और फौजी आपरेशन के तहत मुसलमानों की नस्लकशी की जा रही है, उन्हें बर्मा छोड़ने पर मजबूर किया जा रहा हैः-

1-  1942 को पहला फसाद हुआ और मुसलमानों के कत्लेआम का आगाज कर दिया गया, लग-भग 1,50,000 मुसलमानों को मौत के घाट उतार दिया गया।
2-  1947 में लगातार कई जगहों पर फसाद रूनमा हुए।
3-  1949 से अबतब मुसलमानों के खिलाफ 14 फौजी आपरेशन हुए हैं जिनमें मार्च 1978  का आपरेशन सबसे बदतरीन था। दर्जनों बस्तियाँ जलाकर खाक कर दी गईं। मसाजिद, मदारिस को ढ़ा दिए गए और सितम तो यह है कि इस आपरेशन के बाद अराकान का नाम बदल कर त्ंाीपदम ैजंजम  कर दिया गया, 3,00,000 मुसलमान बंगलादेश में पनाहगुंजी हुए।
4-  1982 में रोहिंग्या मुसलमानों को बर्मी नागरिक्ता से महरूम कर दिया गया।
5-  2012 के फसादात में मजीद 3,50,000 रोहिंग्या मुसलमान हिजरत को मजबूर हुए।
6-  हालिया फसादात में अबतक हजारों मुसलमान को शहीद कर दिया गया। 80,000 के आस पास हिजरत कर चुके हैं।

इतना कुछ हो जाने के बावजूद आलमी मिडिया खामोश है। कहाँ गई तुम्हारी इंसानियत, तुम्हारा इंसानों के खून का दर्द, शायद यह लोग इसलिए खामोश है कि अहले इस्लाम को यह हजरात इंसान नहीं मानते।

हुकूमत-ए-हिन्द का नजरिया भी साफ है वह रोहिंग्या में हो रहे मजालिम के खिलाफ ना ही बोलता है और न ही रिफूयजी को पनाह देने के हक में है। बल्कि उसकी जेहनियत देखिए बर्मा के साथ खड़ा है।

हम हिन्दु भाईयों को आगाह कर देना चाहते है कि अगर तुम वक्त से बेदार नहीं हुए तो पूरी दुनिया में हम तो रहेंगे तुम इतिहास बनकर रह जाओगे।

संयुक्त राष्ट्र (अकवाम-ए-मुत्तहदह) के असूल के मोताबिक अगर कोई मजलूम किसी मुल्क में पनाह लेता है तो उसे वह मुल्क अपनी नागरिक्ता देगा। आज हुकूमत-ए-हिन्द इसकी भी खिलाफवर्जी करती हुई दिख रही है। हम हुकूमत को बता देना चाहते हैं कि जैसा कि मैंने शुरू में कहा है कि हुकूमत होश में आए और जिस तरह से हिन्दु रिफूयजी को Accept करती है वैसे ही मुस्लिम रिफूयजी को कबूल करे।

संयुक्त राष्ट्र (अकवाम-ए-मुत्तहदह) के साथ तमाम इंसाफ पसन्द मुल्क भी बर्मा के खिलाफ होता चला जा रहा है तो किया वजह है हिन्दी हुकूमत अपने आपको उनके खिलाफ जाकर अपना नाम सिर्फ तारीख में दर्ज करवाना चाहती है जिसका कोई भविष्य नहीं है।

बौद्धों के सब से बड़े ओस्ताद (दलाई लामा) ने भी बर्मा में हो रहे मजालिम के खिलाफ खुल कर कहा है उन्होंने यहाँ तक कह दिया कि राखिने नस्ल के बौद्ध, बौद्ध नहीं आतंकवादी हैं, पर अब भी आलमी मिडिया खामोश है। 

हम तुर्की और ईरान का खैर मकदम करते हैं और दुआ करते हैं कि इसी तरह वह मुसलमानों के हक में बोलते रहें और उनके लिए खिदमात अंजाम देते रहें।
 
नजरे आलम
सचिव
दरभंगा जमीअत उलेमा हिन्द
सह-राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष
आॅल इंडिया मुस्लिम बेदारी कारवाँ

We received the speech transcript and news channel video from Nazre Alam.

The post News channel fabricated my speech and called me anti-national appeared first on SabrangIndia.