Gandhi spent the last year of his life trying to quell communal violence

This year we celebrate 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi. Organisations are planning functions, memorials, and marches in his honour across not just India but the entire world. At the same time, subtle efforts to subvert his message and redirect even his title of “Father of the Nation” are under play in contemporary India. His greatest legacy has beenof Ahimsa (non-violence) and communal harmony, the cause which he ultimately lost his life to.

Do young Indians remember his efforts towards the same after the Independence of India was achieved?

He preached “Ahimsa”(non-violence) throughout the Independence movement and it was this brand of seeking justice that made him revered by Indians and feared by British colonisers. In a cruel twist of irony, he met a violent death. But even before his assassination, the Mahatma had repeatedly voiced how he did not want to live anymore because his teachings of Ahimsa had been disregarded by his own people who indulged in widespread violence before and during Partition.

On October 2, 1947, he is quoted to have said,

‘‘मेरे लिए तो आज मातम मनाने का दिन है। मैं आज तक जिन्दा पड़ा हूं। इस पर मुझ को खुद आश्चर्य होता है, शर्म लगती है, मैं वही शख्स हूं कि जिसकी जुबान से एक चीज निकलती थी कि ऐसे करो तो करोड़ों उसको मानते थे। पर आज तो मेरी कोई सुनता नहीं हैं। मैं कहूं कि तुम ऐसा करो, ‘नहीं, ऐसा नहीं करेंगे’ ऐसा कहते हैं।… ऐसी हालत में हिन्दुस्तान में मेरे लिए जगह कहां है और मैं उसमें जिन्दा रह कर क्या करूंगा ? आज मेरे से 125 वर्ष की बात छूट गई है। 100 वर्ष की भी छूट गई है और 90 वर्ष की भी। आज मैं 79 वर्ष में तो पहुंच जाता हूं, लेकिन वह भी मुझको चुभता है।’’

(“Today is a day of mourning for me. The fact that I am still alive surprises and embarrasses me. I am the same person whose words were followed by crores of people, but now, no one listens to me. If I ask them to do something, they say, no, we will not do this. In such circumstances, where is my place in Hindustan and what will I gain by remaining alive? I used to say I want to live till the age of 125, but I have given that up now, not even 100, not even 90, today I have reached 79 years of age and even this hurts me.”)

In the lead up to agreements about Partition and Independence between Indian leaders and British authorities, rifts were evident between the extreme “Hindu” and “Muslim” factions. Sensing that political leaders were ready to risk civil war in the pursuit of power, Gandhi distanced himself from the negotiations that commenced in 1946. He called the planned Partition “vivisection of India” and set off to Naokhali in East Bengal (present day Bangladesh) where riots had erupted in mid-1947 following the proclamation of impending Partition. He walked from village to village nursing, consoling, and appealing for peace.

He travelled back to Delhi due to appeals from the British Viceroy seeking his advice on how to stop the killings, he soon realised it was a charade and that the administration was not interested in taking steps to ensure peace. He decided to leave Delhi and return to Noakhali where he was needed and listened to. Before reaching Noakhali, his train stopped at Calcutta (modern day Kolkata) and he was greeted by crowds of Muslims who were pleading with him to stay on, in Calcutta.

The Muslim minority there feared that the transfer of power to a “Hindu Congress” government in West Bengal would revive riots that had started a year ago, on August 16, 1946, after the proclamation of “Direct Action Day” by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, president of the Muslim League. The man most widely blamed for the violent riots that followed Direct Action Day was Bengal’s Muslim League,chief minister, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy who had given the police, a “holiday” to celebrate Direct Action Day which rendered the people unprotected when mobs broke out. The British Army, coldly inactive despite being present, was equally to blame for its inaction during the riots.

Suhrawardy was stripped of Calcutta’s chief ministership. He even had to give up his dream of presiding over an independent nation of Bengal—Bangladesh—a new nation state he had lobbied hard to have carved out of the Eastern quarter of British India by integrating the Hindu majority West Bengal and Muslim majority East Pakistan into a single unified land of Bengali speakers, whose language and culture would transcend any differences of religious doctrine or practice.

When the crowds of Muslims requested Gandhi to stay in Calcutta in August 1947, he agreed on one condition, that he and Suhrawardy would live under the same roof, so that they could appeal to Muslims and Hindus alike to live in peace.

“Adversity makes strange bed-fellows,” Gandhi told his prayer meeting in Calcuttaon August 11, 1947. He moved into the abandoned Hydari House with Suhrawardy. This symbolic gesture was intended to demonstrate forgiveness and communal harmony to Calcutta‘s angry and fearful Hindus and Muslims. When Hindu mobs tried to break into the house asking why the Mahatma was siding with Muslims, he answered, “I have come here to serve not only Muslims but Hindus. You can obstruct my work, even kill me. I won’t invoke the help of the police. You can prevent me from leaving this house, but what is the use of your dubbing me an enemy of the Hindus? I will not accept the label.” The Mahatma then asked them what good it would do now to “avenge” the wrongs committed in 1946.

On August 14, 1947, Gandhi had a discussion with angry Hindu youth –even a young couple who had lost a son to bitter communal hatred—and, by evening, he had won their hearts and minds. When questioned in anguish by these young parents on how they could overcome their feelings of anger and grief at their young son’s killings, he said, “adopt a Muslim child, the same age as your lost son. Bring him up as a Muslim. In these acts let your feelings of bitterness and revenge dissolve into ultimate forgiveness and compassion. Remember your son in your adopted son.”

An estimated ten thousand people gathered to hear Gandhi’s prayer that evening. “If the flames of communal strife envelop the whole country,” Gandhi asked, “how can our newborn freedom survive?”

When the moment of freedom did arriveon August 15, 1947, he awoke at 2 a.m.in Calcutta, having slept through Nehru’s “Tryst with Destiny” speech at midnight. He was not in Delhi on the very eve of India’s Independence even as political leaders in Delhi called him the architect of Indian Independence and hailed him as “Father of the Nation”. He knew his work to bring about communal peace was more important.

He was already planning to go to West Pakistan to make a final pilgrimage to bring an end to the violence against Hindus and Sikhs. As we know, it was not to be. He was assassinated a few months later, and now, 150 years after he was born, his ideologies of Ahimsa and Communal Harmony seem to be dying a slow death too.

This Gandhi Jayanti, as we participate in functions and memorials, as we undertake activities like Swachchta Abhiyan in his honour, let us remember that the greatest way to honour him is to practice Ahimsa and honour the cause he died for- PEACE and COMMUNAL HARMONY.
 
Note: With thanks to Nitin Thakur, Asst. Editor TV9 Bharatvarsh, for valuable inputs.

References:

1. Gandhi: Ek Asambhav Sambhavna –by Sudhir Chandra
2. Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi –by Stanley Wolpert
3. Nitin Thakur Page

 
Related articles:

1. Gandhi’s contribution to Communal Harmony
2. An Essay for Our Times: Diversity and Indian Nationalism
3. Right to Analyse Gandhi and Appraise Godse

The post 150 years of Gandhi: A legacy of Ahimsa and Communal Peace appeared first on SabrangIndia.

September 28, 2019 is the 112^th birth anniversary of freedom fighter and iconic youth leader, Bhagat Singh. For the launch of the book, The Bhagat Singh Reader, edited by professor Chaman Lal, that was released at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on September 25, professor Romila Thapar, professor emeritus of the university, sent this message:
 
Bhagat Singh has a very special place in our lives, reflecting as he does, a significant aspect of our anti-colonial movement for independence, a movement that ensured our ceasing to be a colony and becoming an independent nation. It was a movement that saw an intense concern with debating and discussing the meaning of nationalism, as well as the methods of attaining freedom from an oppressive government.  To this debate Bhagat Singh made his own contribution. He was part of a large number of others, equally effective nationalists, committed to creating a recognizably secular democratic state under the leadership of Gandhi and Nehru.
 
We applaud Bhagat Singh today, not only for being a nationalist but also, and sometimes more so, for being a person who read widely, reflected on what he had read, and then worked out his ideas on how we might create the nation that we aspired to be. This was not exceptional. This was normal in those days not only to those who spoke about nationalism and the state, but who were directly involved in the making of such a state. Having decided on a democratic state they also discussed what was inherent to democracy. In this secularism had a major role.
 
The definition of secularism did not stop with just proclaiming the co-existence of all religions. It went much further. It was seen as an essential component of democratic functioning. Today this debate is marginal in the public space and seems not to reach those crafting the state.
 
Nationalism was not intended to cease once the nation-state had come into being. What is equally crucial is that the emerging state be one that ensures and protects the basic rights of every citizen. This meant establishing the equal status of every citizen, not just in law but in practice as well. In the last seventy years, we have succeeded in establishing an acknowledged independent state, after having been a colony.
 
We have still to become the secular democratic state that is universally recognized as such, and one that ensures the guarantee of human rights for all its citizens. Had Bhagat Singh lived he would have had a stellar role in making this a reality.

 

Also, the editor of the publication, Chaman Lal, made a reading of two letters of Bhagat Singh. The book launch was held by JNUTA in partnership with Harper-Collins, the publisher of the book and Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, delhi Archives, which also displayed a few items related to the freedom struggle.
 
 
Message to the Punjab Students Conference   19 October 1929 (Originally in English)
 
Bhagat Singh sent a message for the Punjab Students Conference, which was held on 19 October 1929 at Lahore with NetajiSubhas Bose as the chair. This letter was read out in the conference and was later published in The Tribune on 22 October 1929.
 
Comrades,

Today, we cannot ask the youth to take to pistols and bombs. Today, students are confronted with a far more important assignment. In the coming Lahore Session the Congress is to give call for a fierce fight for the independence of the country. The youth will have to bear a great burden in this difficult time in the history of the nation. It is true that students have faced death at the forward positions of the struggle for independence. Will they hesitate this time in proving their same staunchness and self-confidence? The youth will have to spread this revolutionary message to the far corner of the country. They have to awaken crores of slum-dwellers of the industrial areas and villagers living in worn-out cottages, so that we will be independent and the exploitation of man by man will become impossibility. Punjab is considered politically backward even otherwise. This is also the responsibility of the youth. Taking inspiration from the martyr YatindraNath Das and with boundless reverence for the country, they must prove that they can fight with steadfast resolve in this struggle for independence.

(Taken from Selected Writings of Bhagat Singh, edited by Shiv Verma)

Letter to the Editor, Modern Review   22 December 1929 (Originally in English)
 
Ramanand Chatterjee, editor of the Modern Review, ridiculed the slogan of ‘Long Live Revolution’ in one of his editorials. Bhagat Singh wrote a reply to the note and handed it over to the trying magistrate to be sent to the Modern Review. The reply was subsequently published in The Tribuneon 24 December 1929.

RamanandChatterjee wrote the following in his editorial: According to a free press message, at a meeting of the NaujawanSabha (Youth League) of Gujranwala in the Punjab a resolution was passed protesting against the arrest of students on the ground of their shouting “Long Live Revolution” and “Down with Imperialism”, before the Court of the Special Magistrate of Lahore. The resolution states they everyone has the right to utter these cries. It is difficult for laymen to say what cries are or are not legal, when even High Court judges have differed in their interpretation of the law of sedition. But young enthusiasts will pardon an old cynical journalist for confessing that the cry of “Long Live Revolution” has sometimes appeared to him to be a bit funny. A revolution may now and then have been a necessity in the world history, and we should personally like an early non-violent social, economic and political revolution in India. But, what is the exact meaning of “Long Live Revolution? To be at work is a sign of life. When a desire is expressed for revolution to live long, is it desired that the revolutionary process should be at work every hour, day, week, month and year of our lives? In other words, are we to have a revolution as often as possible? Such ceaseless revolution may make for change, but scarcely for progress, improvement and enlightenment. What one revolution offered must have time to settle down and take root and bear fruit. A ceaseless revolutionary process would make India like what James Russel Lowell called “the Catherine-while republics of South America”, of his day. No doubt, no revolution can produce a final state of improvement; there must be changes even after a revolution. But these should be brought about by evolution. There may again be a revolution after several generations, if not centuries, have passed. But that is not what is implied in the shout “Long Live Revolution”.
 
 
THE EDITOR,
MODERN REVIEW

You have, in the December (1929) issue of your esteemed magazine, written a note under the caption “Long Live Revolution”, and have pointed out the meaninglessness of this phrase. It would be impertinent on our part to try to refute or contradict the statement of such an old, experienced and renowned journalist as your noble self, for whom every enlightened India has profound admiration. Still we feel it our duty to explain what we desire to convey by the said phrase, as in a way it fell to our lot to give these “cries” a publicity in this country at this stage.

We are not the originators of this cry. The same cry had been used in Russian revolutionary movements. Upton Sinclair, the well-known socialist writer, has, in his recent novels Boston and Oil, used this cry through some of the anarchist revolutionary characters. The phrase never means that the sanguinary strife should ever continue, or that nothing should ever be stationary even for a short while. By long usage this cry achieves a significance which may not be quite justifiable from the grammatical or the etymological point of view, but nevertheless we cannot abstract from that the association of ideas connected with that. All such shouts denote a general sense which is partly acquired and partly inherent in them. For instance, when we shout “Long Live Jatin Das”, we cannot and do not mean by that shout is that the noble ideal of his life, the indomitable spirit which enabled that great martyr to bear such untold suffering and to make the extreme sacrifice for that ideal, should ever live. By raising this cry we wish that we may show the same unfailing courage in pursuance of our ideal. It is that spirit that we allude to.

Similarly, one should not interpret the word “revolution” in its literal sense. Various meanings and significances are attributed to this word attributed to this word, according to the interests of those who use or misuse it. For the established agencies of exploitation it conjures up a feeling of blood-stained horror. To the revolutionaries it is a sacred phrase. We tried to clear in our statement before the Sessions Judge, Delhi, in our trial in the Assembly Bomb Case, what we mean by the word “Revolution”.

We started therein that Revolution did not necessarily involve sanguinary strife. It was not a cult of bomb and pistol. They may sometimes be mere means for its achievement. No doubt they play a prominent part in some movements, but they do not – – for that very reason – – become one and the same thing. A rebellion is not a revolution. It may ultimately lead to that end.

The sense, in which the word ‘Revolution’ is used in that phrase, is the spirit, the longing for a change for the better. The people generally get accustomed to the established order of things and begin to tremble at the very idea of a change. It is this lethargical spirit that needs be replaced by the revolutionary spirit. Otherwise degeneration gains the upper hand and the whole humanity is led astray by the reactionary forces. Such a state of affairs leads to stagnation and paralysis in human progress. The spirit of Revolution should always permeate the soul of humanity, so that the reactionary forces may not accumulate (strength) to check its eternal onward march. Old order should change, always and ever, yielding place to new, so that one “good” order may not corrupt the world. It is in this sense that we raise the shout “Long Live Revolution.”

Yours sincerely
(Sd.) Bhagat Singh
B.K. Dutt

 
Related Articles:

1. Second killing of Bhagat Singh &Subhash Chandra Bose by the Hindutva Gang
2. Bhagat Singh and the Assembly Bombing of 1929
3. 112 Years Ago, RakshaBandhanStood for Hindu-Muslim Unity

The post What Bhagat Singh would have fought (for) in 2020 India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The video immediately went viral and was reported to the Delhi Police. DCP (Cyber Crime) Anyesh Roy who took cognizance of the video told reporters that Tyagi was a constable who had opted for voluntary retirement (VRS) in 2014. Tyagi who hails from Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, didn’t use his old uniform and had bought a fake one, the police said. He was arrested from his Uttam Nagar home.

In the video he had uploaded on social media that has since been taken down, he could be seen impersonating a senior police inspector, threatening to “shoot the protestors” if they pelted stones at policemen. He said, “Greh mantri ka adesh hai… to uska palan hoga, samvidhaan ko bachaya jayega. Chahe Babur, Akbar ya Humayun ho, agar mere upar patthar gira to main seedhe shootout kar dunga. Agar eenth se mara, mai use sambhalunga aur Ram Mandir banwaunga (We are following orders from the Home Minister and will save the Constitution… If someone pelts a stone at me, I will shoot that person. If they throw a brick at me, I will take it and use it to make Ram Mandir).”

DCP Roy released a statement online stating that the department would act suo-motu and book Tyagi under relevant sections of the IPC and IT act.

Information Bulletin pic.twitter.com/JPIBMY9Isj

— DCP Cybercrime (@DCP_CCC_Delhi) December 29, 2019

However, after Tyagi was released on bail by about 100 – 150 people who came to his rescue, he posted another video to Facebook.

In the 25-minute long video he posted on December 28 after he got back on bail, he said, Humne aisi konsi galat baat kardi…. Kuch khaas kaum ke logo ne complaint ki. 10 baje police waale aaye mujhe uthake le gaye… main fir bhi Dilli Police ka samman karta hoon. (I didn’t say anything wrong. People from a certain community filed a complaint against me and the policemen came to my house at 10 pm and arrested me. I still respect Delhi Police…)”

On his Facebook profile, Tyagi says he has been a Sub Inspector at Delhi Police from February 1997 till date.

Tyagi has been lying through his teeth, first posing as a sub-inspector even though he has retired and in the second video, claiming to continue wearing his khaki even though he’s not part of the force anymore, which a violation under law. He has asked the complainants why they didn’t file cases against UP CM Yogi Adityanath or PM Modi for echoing the same sentiments as he did, mentioning that it wasn’t his speech that was inciting, but people like Asaduddin Owaisi who were giving inflammatory speeches against the CAA-NRC and inciting the Muslims.

A look through his profile will reveal links with IAS officers other bureaucrats and his affiliation for the ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). His followers, mostly from the right-wing Hindutva brigade are also taken up by his fashionable avatar, or the image of the ‘cool’ cop that he portrays.

On December 17, he had put up a Facebook post in which he had requested PM Modi to give the Delhi Police a free hand to teach a lesson to the rioters. He had written that the answer to rioting was ‘bullets’. He had earlier too asked for ‘shoot at sight’ for protestors who had allegedly hurt members of the Delhi police.

He has openly referred to protestors as ‘jihadis’ and his followers too parrot his sentiments. Being an ex-cop, Tyagi has access to weaponry (he has posted a picture with him holding guns) and has immense influence on his followers. He is also friends with right-wingers like Updesh Rana who have been repeat hate offenders indulging in communal hatred.

Tyagi’s own profile reveals his prejudice against minorities. With a following of more than 3,000 just on Facebook, people like Tyagi can be dangerous for the safety of people he thinks don’t belong in the country. His access to weapons and his expertise in using those weapons is oddly reminiscent of Lt. Col Purohit, who was probably the first serving officer to have been arrested. He was arrested for floating Abhinav Bharat, a hardline pro-Hindu group, to collect funds to procure arms and explosives for the Malegaon blasts.

That Tyagi has ideological affiliations with the ruling parties and its allies is apparent. His words make one recall statements by top BJP leaders who have now launched a hate-speech campaign against a particular community as the protests against their CAA-NRC imposition refuse to die down.

But the point of concern is that, a person like Tyagi, can easily run camps to influence people using his hardline Hindutva ideology to brainwash them into lashing out against minorities and the marginalized. Whether he will be stopped in his tracks, at least on social media, for violating guidelines is yet to be seen.

Related:

K’taka BJP leader warns anti-CAA protesters of ‘Godhra-like’ situation
Hate Watch: BJP MLA Raja Singh officially a repeat offender of hate speech
‘Won’t meet vandals’: BJP’s KD Aggarwal on refusing to meet Muslim victim families
BJP’s Kapil Mishra says ‘shoot the traitors’ at pro-CAA rally

The post Imposter cop Rakesh Tyagi released on bail appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Wire reported on how an organised campaign has been mounted on these WhatsApp groups to stoke Islamophobia and hatred against Muslims and immigrants in the country. The messages being forwarded widely by such groups have sought to advertise the CAA as a tool to ‘kick Muslims out of India’ and ‘halve India’s population, without any effort.’

Our take: It is no surprise that the BJP IT cell has rigorously gotten to work to put out messages spreading Islamophobia and to create a fear psychosis amongst the Muslim community. This was done even after the Ayodhya verdict; the messages are more perilous now and reflective of the idea of ‘Hindu rashtra’ that has been the hidden agenda of the BJP. The BJP and its affiliates have immense control on its social media messaging and they are relentless when it comes to spewing such hate filled messages. To counter such messages is not an easy task and any prudent person would understand that most of it is misinformation aimed at creating a sentiment of divide so unless BJP’s social media army is defeated, BJP’s influence will keep growing stronger.

Some examples of these messages:

Image courtesy: Kunal Purohit/The Wire

The Wire, through the author of the article was able to access WhatsApp groups run by BJP sympathisers and close aides of its leaders. Apparently, one of these groups indicates in its description that one of its members is PM’s special representative who will convey sentiments of the group to the PM.

Image courtesy: Kunal Purohit/The Wire  

The common sentiment in all these messages is that the creation of Hindu Rashtra has begun and Muslims will be chased away from India or that their population will reduce considerably.

Image courtesy: Kunal Purohit/The Wire  
 

Image courtesy: Kunal Purohit/The Wire  

Some messages make incredulous claims such as these:

Image courtesy: Kunal Purohit/The Wire  

Image courtesy: Kunal Purohit/The Wire  

Some messages present a false narrative, presenting BJP as the only party truly fighting for Hindus:

 Image courtesy: Kunal Purohit/The Wire

The post WhatsApp- another easy medium for BJP’s hate mongers post-CAA appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Akash Vijayvargiya, son of senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, threatened violence while protesting against the Kamalnath government on crop loss and inflated power bills in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Given his background when he was arrested for thrashing an official of the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) with a bat, he said, “we don’t roam empty-handed”. Predictably, this remark of his in Hindi, went viral on social media.

Akash Vijayvargiya speaking at an event in Indore

(Image Credit: ANI News)

The BJP has failed to keep many of its aggressive party leaders and elected representatives in check. Despite being elected officials they have been abusing their positions of power and even resorting to violence. In June this year, Akash Vijayvargiya had assaulted an Indore Municipal Corporation official, while he was doing his job.  He was arrested but subsequently released on bail and there are no reports of BJP taking any kind of action against him, except a much publicised ‘rebuke’ from Prime Minister Modi.

The post Akash Vijayvargiya, BJP MLA in Indore threatens use of arms appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Is there an NSO connection with the UIDAI Aadhaar? It appears so. The Economic Times reports that investigations show that the company that backed Israeli cyber technology company NSO Group has an ‘India connection’. Francisco Partners invested in and later acquired CrossMatch, a certified supplier of biometric devices according to its website. In an August 2018 press release highlighting sales of its ‘U.are.U’ and ‘TouchChip’ line of “readers, modules and sensors” exceeding 750,000 units, the company said, “CrossMatch has a long history of providing high-performing biometric enrolment and verification devices in support of Aadhaar”.CrossMatch, according to media reports, received its certificate of approval from the Indian government in 2011. The newspaper reports that it had also tried to reach out to the UIDAI spokesperson, with specific queries around the nature of relationship between CrossMatch and the government agency. At the time of going to press, UIDAI was yet to respond.

Over the past weekend after the Whatsapp Snoop Scam broke sharp questions are being asked, not the least of which being, who benefits most from such sinister surveillance? The government, of course.Who would want the phone records/activity of Shalini Gera of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group and Bhima Koregaon case accused Sudha Bharadwaj’s lawyer; Advocate Nihalsingh Rathod, who heads the Human Rights Law Network in Nagpur, and is a lawyer of accused Surendra Gadling in the same case; Bela Bhatia, Adivasi rights activist from Chhattisgarh; Anand Teltumbde, academic and writer on Dalit issues, also an accused in the same case; Ankit Grewal, who represented Sudha Bharadwaj; and several other activists and journalists?
Now there is more. ET reports that the lawsuit filed by Facebook-owned WhatsApp against Israeli cyber technology company NSO Group has revealed not just this surveillance of lawyers, journalists and activists but also a questionable role played by private equity funds in the growth of the industry that often function in a grey zone.

This is how it works: NSO cofounders Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie did a classic management buyout of the company from San Francisco-based PE firm Francisco Partners using the financial muscle of London-based Novalpina Capital for $1 billion. Francisco Partners made about eight times the $120 million it paid to buy the company five years before. Although it had announced the sale on February 14, 2019, in a press release, that communication is no longer visible on its website. It is, however, part of the documents in the WhatsApp suit against NSO filed in a California court October 29 for allegedly hacking its servers and systems.

Francisco Partners was co-founded in 1999 by former TPG Capital principal Dipanjan ‘DJ’ Deb along with David Stanton, another senior TPG executive, who left the company in 2005 as managing partner, and others. Francisco Partners is largely said to be technology-focused, with a penchant for surveillance technology companies in the growth stage. According to those who know the company, Francisco Partners “typically buys promising companies for cheap and helps them grow, before aiming for a substantial return”.

Biometric Service Provider CrossMatch
The company, according to persons ET spoke to, also “actively solicits clients for their investee companies”. To be sure, this is not unusual among private equity firms. Novalpina, the PE firm which helped acquire the NSO Group, on the other hand, buys companies with “proven track records”.

On Friday, ET reached out to Dipanjan Deb and his assistant with questions. The evasive response by the company that tells the full story may be read here
 

The post The “India Connection” in the WhatsApp Snoop Scam appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Represenation Image     Image Courtesy: Syed Shahriyar/Al Jazeera

Kashmir, now a Union Territory, had been placed under lockdown and a communication blockade on August 5. Apart from the revocation of Article 370, what was also revoked was the state’s ‘normalcy’.

Opposition leaders were detained in their homes and still are, journalists were not allowed to report the ground reality of the aftermath of the matter and families were rendered helpless due to the restrictions on phone networks and the internet that followed.

While the government portrayed that all was well in the Valley, the trade in Kashmir took a hit of INR 10,000 crore, militants ramped up attack against non-locals killing at least 11 migrant labourers, children as young as nine were illegally detained by the military and the healthcare situation in the UT went from bad to worse.

And yet, amidst all these crises, humanity emerged.

A suspected militant attack in Shopian had left an apple trader from Punjab battling for his life. Sanjiv Kumar had been the victim of a militant attack that was carried out in a bid to drive non-Kashmiris out of the state after the revocation of its special status.

But, Parvez Ahmed, a local, came to his rescue. Parvez had lost count of the days and nights he spent tending to Sanjiv.

“All I can say is that I have been here since the day he was admitted. I’m here round the clock; I didn’t move out of the hospital for a moment,” Parvez told a correspondent with The Telegraph. “I’m not doing him any favour,” Parvez said. “We are all humans, and I will stay here as long as it takes him to recover.”

It had been more than three weeks for Sanjiv’s hospitalization and Kashmiris like Parvez upheld humanity in the name of ties built over decades. All this, despite their own suffering and the uncertainty of their own future in the Valley.

Sanjiv, who was attacked on October 15 at the Trenz village in Shopian, remained in a critical condition for days after the attack. It is only now, after 15 days that his health has started to improve.

It wasn’t just Sanjiv who was attacked that day. Another trader Charanjit, succumbed to the attack even as Parvez tried to rush them both to a Pulwama hospital. Sanjiv was later shifted to the Sri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital in Srinagar.

Sanjiv’s relatives who later arrived from Punjab say that if Sanjiv owes his life to someone, it is Parvez. Reshu Toda, Sanjiv’s brother-in-law said, “Parvez did not leave us for a minute all these days. He did not go to his home even once. We know nothing about this hospital; it is he who takes care of everything.”
As Sanjiv’s family takes turn to attend to him during the nights, there is always one constant- Parvez, who is never found to leave his bedside.

“I don’t allow them to spend a penny on his medicines. I told them we would discuss that when he recovers. Money is not an issue but survival is,” Parvez said.

“An army colonel visited us a few days ago and offered some Rs 25,000 but I did not accept it. The state has given Rs 50,000 to the family, but the money is lying with them.”

Sanjiv who had been coming to the Valley for two years in connection with the apple trade, has now found a second family in Kashmir.

But it isn’t just Parvez who is rising up in solidarity amidst the chaos in Kashmir.

In August, soon after Kashmiris in the state were caged inside their own homes, a wave of panic rose among the Kashmiri sons and daughters who were in different parts of the country with regards to the situation back home.

In one of such incidents, 32 Kashmiri girls who were in Pune for training in a nursing course under the Skill India programme, were left anxious after the Centre’s announcement. They were desperate to go back home, but were running short on funds. That’s when they put out their plea on Twitter and Harminder Singh Ahluwalia from United Sikh Mission immediately worked towards getting them home safely.

He crowd-sourced the funds through Facebook and personally accompanied the girls to their homes in Shopian, Srinagarm Kupwara, Badgam and Baramulla, with the help of some Army officers.

Similarly, actor Ashwath Bhatt provided monetary and emotional support to Kashmiri students who could pay their hostel or exam fees as they had no way of reaching their parents.

Javid Parsa, a restaurateur from Bandipora who runs his restaurant in Delhi, took it upon himself to deliver medicines, documents, messages and even connect Hajis who were in Saudi Arabia with their families back in the Valley. He also helped raise funds for a family whose home reportedly burnt down in Alochibagh, a village in south Kashmir, because they couldn’t call the fire department owing to the communication shutdown.

These are just some of the incidents where people all over the country have come out in support of Kashmiris after them being cut-off from the world. From media channels helping families connect, to citizens working social media to get messages across and spread awareness, India has shown that it stands with Kashmiris and the Kashmiris have too stood up for their brothers across the country.

Without checking the repercussions of their actions on the general public and now passing the buck to the militants, the government has already washed its hands off providing basic security to the people. With several lives at stake and even their own, it is now the Kashmiris inside and outside the Valley, along with people from other communities, who are still working to keep humanity alive.

Related:
Mamata slams Centre’s inefficient security after terrorists kill 5 Bengali labourers
The Truth of Bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir
New Report Lifts the Veil of Fabricated Normalcy in Post-Article 370 Kashmir
Lockdown hits valley economy, trade bodies peg loss at INR 10,000 crore
Kashmir & Assam rights issues at US Congressional hearing: Oct 2019
‘No outsiders in Kashmir’: Militants target non-locals, gun down apple traders and migrant labourers
 

The post Humanity Prevails: Kashmiri saves non-local in militant attack appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Here’s what he told the Time of India “We have filed an FIR for cheating as the accused is a Muslim and took the guise of Lord Hanuman and cheat people of the community and hurt there sentiments”

 

Here’s what SSP Bareilly Shailesh Kumar Pandey told Sabrangindia:

“There is no Hindu Muslim angle to it.  When apprehended the man could not explain where he is from and what he is doing here, so we have arrested him for investigation “

 

Yet there is no clear explanation of why the Police acting on a complaint filed by Bajrang Dal (not exactly known for their secular view of India) arrests ‘Naseem’, charges him under impersonation (Sec 419) and also gloats to the media about protecting ‘sentiments’ of a particular community.

 

When asked why the Police is lending itself to Bajrang Dal’s Hindutva agenda, SSP Pandey said ‘ The police has no political agenda’

 

Here’s what the Internet is saying about the matter (can be skipped) :

 

BLASPHEMOUS in ‘New India’ ? No doubt about it. Indian ? unquestionably yes.

The post Professional Impersonator in Bareilly arrested for ‘impersonating’ Gods appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Gauhati High Court, while entertaining a Writ petition against a Foreigners Tribunal order, observed in its order dated October 31 that the petitioner, Phuljan Nessa was declared a foreigner by the Tribunal but her name appeared in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Therefore, the High Court has sought information from the State Co-ordinator of NRC, Assam regarding this obvious contradiction and posted the matter for November 5.

The order can be read here.

Phuljan Nessa was declared foreigner of post 1971 stream by the Foreigners Tribunal through its order dated October 25, 2017. Phuljan had then filed the writ petition before the Gauhati High Court in November 2017. October 31 was only the second hearing of the case where information of this contradiction came to light and was pointed out to the High Court. 

Citing this order of the HC, local media reports in newspapers like the Assam-based Sangbad Pratidin sensationalised the issue. In response to this, the NRC posted an announcement issued in the “public interest” on its Facebook page:

Before the next date of hearing, just two days away, crucial questions remain: 
 
—Was the declared foreigner’s name really included in the NRC? If yes then what lead to this blunder? 
 
—Why did the NRC make the above announcement? If थे NRC’s announcement on FB is based on facts, then how did the High Court make such an observation?
 
Such an anomaly, if there exists one at all, is not the is first of its kind.
 
Not long back, there was the similar case of AhmedAliwho was a “declared foreigner“. Yet, his name was included in the first draft of the NRC. At that time the State co-ordinator for NRC, Prateek Hajela had admitted NRC’s fault and attributed it to the receipt of incomplete information from border branch of Assam police.
 
It is when such incongruities come to light that both the competence and fairness of the NRC are brought into question. Today, 19,06,657 people of Assam who have been excluded from the final draft of the NRC are now struggling to deal with the process of standing before the Foreigners Tribunals to prove their citizenship. There is more than a distinct possibility that many of these people are genuine Indian citizens, made victims of a manipulated and callous bureaucratic-political exercise. Will they ever get justice? The road ahead for them is full of hurdles which will take years to cross. 

Related articles:
Assam: Man declared foreigner by court enlisted in NRC first draft
Lives shattered by NRC, CJP reaches out and intervenes
Bengali Hindu couple falsely accused of using fake legacy person
EXCLUSIVE! Assam FT declares 282 people foreigner: Signed orders MISSING or full of errors
People’s Tribunal: NRC and its Constitutional Process and Human Cost
 
 

The post Assam: The Curious Case of Phuljan Nessa appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Whatsapp Snoopgate issue that spread like wildfire, not only had the general public under its attack, but lawyers defending the human rights activists arrested under the controversial Bhima Koregaon case have also confirmed that their phones were being targeted by Pegasus, a the surveillance software developed by Israeli company NSO group that came to be in question, The Huffington Post report.

The surveillance revelations come after the messaging platform sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group on Tuesday, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents including diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and government officials. NSO denied the allegations.

The malware attack, according to Whatsapp, exploited its video calling system to send malware to the mobile devices of a number of users. The malware would allow NSO’s clients – said to be governments and intelligence organisations – to secretly spy on a phone’s owner, opening their digital lives up to scrutiny, the Economic Times reported.

WhatsApp sued the NSO Group in a federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday, accusing it of using WhatsApp servers in the United States and elsewhere “to send malware to approximately 1,400 mobile phones and devices (‘Target Devices’)… for the purpose of conducting surveillance of specific WhatsApp users (‘Target Users’)”. It had later sent out a privacy alert message to people it detected to be targeted by Pegasus.

The NSO has said that it sells its software to governments around the world. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Cyber and Information Security division in response to an RTI query said that there was no information on any order being given to purchase the Israeli spyware Pegasus.

Why the spying on Bhima-Koregaon lawyers is a significant revelation
The spyware attack that shocked users had high-profile targets. Right from Former Union Minister Praful Patel and former Lok Sabha MP Santosh Bharatiya, the spyware attacked the phones of lawyers, journalists and human rights activists.

Among those who may have been targeted are Chhattisgarh-based activist Shalini Gera, Nagpur-based lawyer Nihalsing Rathod, Adivasi rights activist Bela Bhatia, academic and writer on Dalit issues Anand Teltumbde, former BBC journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary, and Chandigarh-based lawyer, associated with the Bhima Koregaon case, Ankit Grewal.

India has been notorious for spying on citizens without warrants, but the use of Pegasus in the Bhima-Koregaon case is particularly alarming for it makes use of files illegally obtained from the computers and phones of the accused, who have been charged with waging war against the state.

In June 2018, the Pune police had launched a series of country-wide raids on activists and lawyers involved in fighting Dalit issues, Adivasi rights, and those accused of supporting the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Civil liberty activists SudhaBharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao and Anand Teltumbde were arrested during the raids. Termed ‘Urban Naxals’ the Pune police produced ostensibly incriminating correspondence that they claimed was drawn from the computers of these activists. Now, lawyers representing the accused say the Pegasus hack proves that this correspondence was planted on their computers.

Nihalsingh Rathod, who is one of the lawyers in the team of Surendra Gadling, a popular Dailt rights lawyer, is now joining the dots saying he now knows how the so-called ‘letters’ that the police had obtained because they were planted on the hard-drives of activists.

Surendra Gadling was among those who had been arrested and booked under several activities of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code.

He told Huff Post India, he learnt he was a target when he was contacted by a researcher from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab on October 7 2019.

On October 7, 2019 he was contacted by a senior researcher John Scot-Railton from the Toronto University’s ‘Citizen Lab’ informing him that he faced a “specific digital risk”.

“The researcher told me that he suspected that my phone had been targeted by malware and compromised,” Rathod told HuffPost India. “The researcher didn’t tell me that the malware was sold exclusively to national governments, and so I did not suspect that the Indian government was behind the attack.”
“Before his arrest, similar things happened to Surendra Gadling’s phone and computer. He asked me about it. I thought it was just spam.”

Rathod said he was now planning legal action against the Indian state.

“The senior researcher told me that his lab had followed my work and during their research had found out that my profile was under a surveillance attack. All those calls made to me for two years suddenly began to make sense,” Rathod told The Wire.

The Citizen Lab was one of the first research organizations to examine how Pegasus operated.

“We have always maintained that the letters police claim to have found on Gadling’s computer were planted,” Rathod said. “As defenders of human rights and the constitution, we feel helpless and hopeless.”

However, Rathod nor Gadling are the only ones to have received such messages and calls.

Two days ago, Rupali Jadhav, a 33-year-old cultural and anti-caste activist from Pune shared screenshots of messages she had received from WhatsApp and Citizen Lab.

The reason Jadhav said her profile was compromised because she had been associated with an anti-caste cultural group called the Kabir Kala Manch and has been handling social media movements in the state. She is the official administrator of the WhatsApp and Facebook pages of Kabir Kala Manch, Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerana Abhiyan, Elgaar Parishad, and the political party Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, she told The Wire.

Degree Prasad Chouhan, a Dailt rights activist and lawyer too received a similar chain of messages as did Shalini Gera, Bela Bhatia, AnandTeltumbde and Saroj Giri.

Gera, who has been a part of the lawyers collective Jag Lag, has faced a severe backlash from several right-wing organisations and Chhattisgarh police for the work she and her colleagues had been doing in the state.

Bela Bhatia is a Bastar-based academic, researcher and human rights defender. She has participated in the preparation of many fact-finding reports and served on a Planning Commission-appointed panel to examine challenges to governance in areas of the Maoist rebellion.

Saroj Giriis  a lecturer in Political Science, University of Delhi, Delhi. He writes on contemporary social and political issues and is an activist.

Anand Teltumbde is an Indian professor, scholar, writer, and civil rights activist. He has written extensively about the caste system in India and advocated for the rights of Dalits.

Speaking about the calls and messages from Citizen Lab and WhatsApp Anand Teltumbde said, “[The researcher] explained to me what the spyware is all about. He sent me a text message first. Then I enquired about Citizen Lab’s credibility and spoke to its representative. The NSO group has said that it has given Pegasus licenses only to governments across the world. So, it is clear that the India’s government used the spyware against us, citizens.”

The espionage attempt has not spared research scholars too. Ajmal Khan, a 29-year-old Delhi based research scholar was approached by Citizen Lab too. He is well-known among students’ group in Mumbai and apart from being part of several anti-caste movements and civil rights movements, he has been active in students’ struggles including the agitation following Ph.D. scholar Rohith Vemula’s death in 2016.

It is clear that even after the denial of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the spyware attacks on the phones of these activists were not random, but were part of a carefully orchestrated plan to silence dissent and rebellion.

Condemning the development that has come to light, Amnesty International has cited this attack on activists to be a grave violation of their right to privacy and has pledged its legal support to get the Israeli ministry to stop the manufacturing of NSO’s products.

Sources – The Wire, Huffington Post.

Related:
The UK government spied on human rights groups – now they’re taking it to court
HC directs police to file report on SambhajiBhide’s role in violence: Bhima-Koregaon Case
BhimaKoregaon case: Bail Applications of three social activists rejected by Bombay High Court
Bhima-Koregaon Case: HC Refuses to Quash Case AgainstGautamNavlakha
Years of hard work taken away: DU Professor on Pune police raids without search warrant
 
 
 

The post Whatsapp Spyware Attack: Bhima-Koregaon activists being spied on by the Centre? appeared first on SabrangIndia.