Around 11.30 PM on Saturday night, two men riding a motorcycle began harassing a Muslim couple waiting at a bus stop, insisting they chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. One of the men also allegedly flashed the woman. However, this enraged bystanders who then thrashed the accused and handed them over to police.  

“When one of the men flashed before the woman, the onlookers intervened and called the police. The two men were handed over to Kotwali police. We arrested them after recording the couple’s statement,” Chauthmal Verma, station house officer of Alwar Mahila Thana, told Hindustan Times.

The accused have been identified as Vansh Bhardwaj (23) and Surendra Mohan Bhatia (32). The police also conducted a medical examination of the accused, which revealed Bhatia was in a drunken state during the incident. Alwar police on Sunday arrested them under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 A (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt ), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 509. The complaint was filed at a women’s police station and the accused were produced before a judge and remanded to judicial custody.

Related:
Goddess Durga unifies people beyond religion

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The central government’s policy think-tank on Monday launched the school education quality index aimed at evaluating the performance of states and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector.

Image Courtesy: IndiaTV

It is states like Kerala and others including, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam were ranked as the best-performing (among large states), each achieving an overall performance score above 60.0% while Uttar Pradesh was ranked last according to Niti Aayog.

The government policy think-tank that replaced the decades old Planning Commission launched the school education quality index which was aimed to evaluate the performance of states and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector on Monday, September 30.In this report, Kerala has the highest overall performance score of 76.6% while Uttar Pradesh was last among large states, with an overall performance score of 36.4%.

Among the smaller states, Manipur ranks first among the Small States on the outcomes category, with a score of 82.1%. Arunachal Pradesh has the lowest score, at 27.2%. In the Governance Processes Aiding Outcomes category, Mizoram has the highest score of 47.5% while Arunachal Pradesh ranks last with a score of 18.3%.

Manipur, Tripura and Goa are the top-performing states, each achieving an overall performance score above 55%. Manipur has the highest overall performance score of 68.8%. Arunachal Pradesh ranks last, with an overall performance score of 24.6%.

Union Territories like Chandigarh has the highest overall performance score of 82.9% while Lakshadweep ranks last, with an overall performance score of 31.9%. Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli are the top-performing UTs, with each achieving an overall performance score above 50%.Delhi, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep performed better on the governance processes aiding outcomes category, the report noted.

The School Education Quality Index (SEQI) aims to bring an outcomes focus to education policy by providing States and UTs with a platform to identify their strengths and weaknesses and undertake requisite course corrections or policy interventions.

It was developed through a collaborative process including key stakeholders ministry of human resource development (MHRD), the World Bank and sector experts, the index consists of 30 critical indicators that assess the delivery of quality education.

“Quality school education is a function of a targeted focus on learning outcomes, efficient governance structures, provision of necessary infrastructure and ensuring equitable academic opportunities.

SEQI is meant to exist in a’ symbiotic ecosystem’, which converges efforts across the government to evolve an education assessment and vision, which resonates with the ideals of a youthful nation and which realises the potential of every single child across India,” Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.

Both the states and the UTs are ranked on their overall performance in the reference year 2016-17, as well as on the change in their performance between the reference year and base year (2015-16).

“Most States and UTs perform better on Outcomes than on Governance Processes Aiding Outcomes, but there is variation within these categories in terms of specific areas of strength and weakness. It is, therefore, important for States and UTs to strengthen their capacity to address their specific areas for improvement,” the report noted.
 

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The Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPI-M) issued a statement on Monday, September 30, 2019 decrying the announcement of the Block Development Council polls in Jammu and Kashmir on October 24. The party said that the announcement was a ‘travesty of democracy’.
In the statement, CPI-M said, “It is an attempt to portray to the world that “normalcy” prevails when in fact for the last two months there has been an unprecedented clampdown on communications, movement of citizens and continued incarceration of political leaders and activists. The elections to the BDCs in such a situation will be nothing but a sham.”

The party said that the Electoral College for the BDC elections comprises of panches and sarpanches but over “61 per cent of their seats were lying vacant, mainly in the 138 blocks in the valley, owing to people’s non participation in the elections which were held in December 2018.” The party also said that it was evident that the State Election Commission hold elections to fill these vacant posts first.

The party questioned Home Minister Amit Shah’s claims of Jammu and Kashmir not being under any restrictions and that such notions were only of those who opposed the government. It demanded that the government answer why there was a communications blockade and why leaders were in jail.

“These are not just restrictions but a continuing assault on democracy”, the party stated, accusing Shah misleading the country through ‘untruths’.

The party concluded its statement by saying, “The CPI (M) reiterates its demand for restoration of normalcy, release of all political leaders and activists and elections to be held after the right to political activity is restored.”

J&K Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar declared on Sunday that the BDC elections will be held in 310 blocks on October 24 and the counting of votes will take place the same day.
 

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When you see #GoBackModi trending on Twitter, you can very easily guess where Prime Minister NarendraModi is at that moment. Drawing inspiration from the phrase “Simon, Go Back” in the revolution against the British rule in India, the people of Tamil Nadu have started a social media movement against the PM once again.

With more than 118K tweets at the time of writing this article, this hashtag has trended most notably during the election campaign in March, in April 2018 when the PM arrived to inaugurate the DefExpo arms exhibition and earlier this year in January when Modi arrived in Tamil Nadu to lay the foundation of a proposed AIIMS campus in Madurai.

On landing in Chennai, Modi made mention of his efforts to popularize the Tamil language in the US. He said, “During my visit to the United States of America, when I said something in Tamil and I told the world that Tamil is one of the world’s oldest languages, so even today, the language resonates across the United States.” However, this failed to impress the people of Tamil Nadu.

Modimade a number of references recently about the linguistic plurality of the country which appeared to be aimed at calming sentiments frayed by home minister Amit Shah’s comment that Hindi should be the unifying language of India.

What Twitter Users Said

A visit to Tamil Nadu is not the only occasion on which #GoBackModi has gone viral. In February, supporters of the then-ruling TDP had used the hashtag when Modi visited Andhra Pradesh to protest the Centre’s purported refusal to give special category status to the state.

#GoBackModi was also used used in the run-up to the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event in Houston last week.

Damage Control by the BJP

While #GoBackModi became the number one trending hashtag in India, the BhartiyaJanata Party (BJP) presumably tried to do some damage control by getting #TNWelcomesModi to start trending too. However, the Twitterati were quick to call them out on this.

These tweets from the people of Tamil Nadu reflect their anger towards the ‘step-motherly’ treatment they’ve received by the BJP and the PM’s alleged silence and inaction with issues related to the state. In the past, the tweets from users in Tamil Nadu listed introduction of NEET, Modi not visiting Tamil Nadu when Cyclone Gaja hit the state’s Cauvery Delta region, imposition of Sanskrit and Hindi and not protecting Tamil Nadu’s interests in water wars with neighboring states.

Related Articles –
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https://sabrangindia.in/article/election-2019-bots-bat-contenders-manipulate-twitter-trends

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The CPI (M)-led LDF triumphed in Kerala’s Pala constituency, taking over the Assembly seat from the Opposition Congress-led UDF. Mani C Kappan, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won with a margin of 2,943 votes defeating his rival Jose Tom Pulikkunel, an independent candidate led by the Congress- led United Democratic Front (UDF).

Kappan received 54,137 votes while Pulikkunel received 51,194 votes. NDA candidate N Hari received only 1,804 votes.

Pala was earlier represented by veteran Kerala Congress leader and former Finance Minister KM Mani for 54 years till his death in April 2019. The last time the LDF witnessed victory in Pala was in 1980 when their candidate was KC(M) founder KM Mani, who had switched over to the LDF in the wake of the political rumbling over the Emergency.

The by-poll victory comes as a huge relief and morale booster to the LDF after its poor show in the national elections. It had won only one of the 20 parliamentary seats (Alapuzha) in the State where the Left had been traditionally strong.

What Analysts Say

Analysts feel that infighting within the Kerala Congress party affected the outcome.

NP Chekutty, a left-leaning political observer, said that the LDF had lost heavily in the Lok Sabha election due to consolidation of minority votes in favour of the UDF over the candidature of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad. The hasty move by the LDF government to implement the SC verdict on the entry of women between the age of 10 and 50 in the Sabarimala temple also was a factor in their loss, he observed.

“The minorities had rallied behind the Congress believing that it was in a better position to fight the Hindutva forces nationally. However, the decline of the party at the national level has shaken their trust. The result in Pala could be seen as a sign of the minorities swinging back to the LDF, which is politically and ideologically strong to take on the BJP and the RSS,” he said.

J Prabhash, an analyst, said, “This shows that people think differently when it comes to Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The infighting within the Kerala Congress also perhaps played a role as some people may have stayed from voting. The by-election saw 6% less polling compared to the number of voters in the 2016 Assembly elections.”

What the Win means for LDF

The results have put the UDF on a backfoot in the wake of the upcoming by-elections in five more assembly constituencies on October 21^st.

The by-poll was viewed as an acid test for the LDF, UDF and BJP led NDA as a victory would’ve given these three major combines a boost in the upcoming by-elections.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, “The by-poll victory will give strength to the LDF government to carry out its development works, as well as welfare activities more vigorously.”

This surprise win will give the LDF to carry forward its party’s social and economic agenda in the State.
 

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No arrests have yet been made in the heinous rape and murder of a girl in Sultanpur, UP. The body of the girl was found on September 10, grievously mutilated and hung from a tree in the Baijapur village of the district. The villagers out to weed the fields in the morning, witnessed the horrible image and immediately alerted the local police about the matter.

However, a fortnight later, no arrests have been made in the matter. The police have been tight-lipped about the incident since day one for the fear of the intensity of the crime causing a furore about the public. Furthermore, they have not even been able to identify the victim in all this time.

Though the police have kept its silence on the issue, the cause to deliver justice to the victim has been taken up by women and human rights organizations in the State.

On Thursday, members of the political party of CPI(M), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) and the Student’s Federation of India (SFI) along with advocates and other activists, demanded a judicial enquiry in the matter along with the conviction of the negligent police officers investigating the case.

It is disappointing to see that the police have treated this matter with such flippancy what with delaying the post-mortem and losing crucial evidence.

Whether these protests will take steam and compel the police to speed up its probe and bring the offenders to book remains to be seen.

Related Articles:

1. Mutilated body of girl found hanging from tree in Sultanpur, Badaun 2.0?
2. सुल्तानपुरकेनिर्भयाकांडपरडीजीसेमिलनेपहुंचामहिलासंगठनकाप्रतिनिधिमंडल, नहींमिले
 
 

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Political agitation intensified on Wednesday in the case of the alleged suspension of 17 students of Church School Beldih in Bishtupur for purportedly bunking class and chanting the slogan “Jai Shri Ram” in the coridoor.

The ICSE- affiliated school neither denied nor confirmed that the 17 students, including two girls, were chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, but confirmed that the students were sent home on Tuesday on a “weeklong study leave”. The right-wing group Shiksha Satyagraha and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the RSS termed the leave as ‘suspension’.

Members of the Sampoorna Hindu Samaj, Jamshedpur Tiger Club, KesariSena, My Durbar SevaSangh, Student AJSU and VHP took to the road regarding the matter. They also submitted a memorandum to Vineet Kumar, the District Superintendent of Education (DSE) demanding action on the school.

According to sources, the school’s management got to know about these protests in the early hours on Wednesday, when they decided to revoke the so-called ‘suspension’ and asked the students to return to school. The parents told the media that the school had asked the students to resume classes on Thursday.

Lillian Peterson, the Principal of the school, did not speak to the media in this matter and the management said that it wanted no more controversy. Later, in a press release on Wednesday, it clarified that it never suspended any student.
 

Ankit Anand from Shiksha Satyagraha said, “The school follows a particular religion; why can’t they respect others’ religion?” He added, “Schools say that they are secular and teach their students to respect all religions, so why do we come across these incidents? I know that as students they shouldn’t have shouted slogans in the school corridor. But, instead of being sent home, the students could have been counselled properly. What was the point of sending them home on a so-called study leave? The school only didn’t use the term suspension.”

Much Ado About Nothing?

The furore kicked up by the right-wing groups seems to only stir up communal feelings in the area.

Statements by some of the parents of the children involved in the issue imply that the organizations protesting against the school’s disciplinary action had been exaggerated in nature.

A parent, who did not want to be named, said the students were chanting “Jai Shri Ram” in a “spirit of fun” and “among themselves”.
“This is a sensitive time, because the students are in Class XII and have their pre-boards and boards,” the parent said. “It (the chanting) was blown out of proportion.”

Nipping It in The Bud

District Education Officer (DEO) Shivendra Kumar in his statement clarified the official stand on the matter. Saying that the education department would with what the school had given in writing, he said, “First, it’s an internal matter of the school. Second, when the school has said in writing that students have not been suspended, there is no room for further discussion. I hope things calm down soon.”
 

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The crime of a casteist slur or intimidation under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has to be in public view of a public witness, said the Bombay High Court while granting pre-arrest bail to an accused.

The Act, under section (3)(1)(x) provides that the offense of abusing the person on the basis of his/her caste must have taken place ‘in any place within public view.’

In a case put forth by a Kalyan court last year, Justice A M Badar had rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the accused. The case was taken up by the Bombay HC this year and it said, “is clear that the word ‘public’ not only relates to the location, but also to the subjects witnessing the incidence of insult or intimidation to the member of scheduled caste or scheduled tribe.” It also said, “Presence of both ingredients is necessary for making out the offence of atrocity.” The Court added that it was “clear that abuses, insult or humiliation must take place in presence of or in the proximity of at least one independent public witness.”

The court said the expression “in any place within public view” has a specific meaning. “The act of insult or intimidation must be visible and audible to the public in order to constitute such act to be an offence under Section 3(1)(x) of the Act…The word ‘public’ not only relates to the location defined by the word ‘place’, but also to the subjects witnessing the incidence of insult or intimidation…” said the order.

In this case, the FIR stated that, “accused caught hold of her hand and threatened her.” Here the Court did not take into account Section (3)(1)(xii) “being in a position to dominate the will of a woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe and uses that position to exploit her sexually to which she would not have otherwise agreed”, which does not mention ‘within public view’ to be a deciding factor for a slur / intimidation to be considered an offense.

The other sections of the The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, apart from Section (3)(i)(x), do not anywhere mention of atrocities to be considered offenses only under ‘public view’.

Similar Cases

In March 2018 last year, a division bench of Justices Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and PrakashNaik granted a man interim protection from arrest saying, “Prima facie, on reading of the complaint, the abuses which have been hurled at the complainant by the accused are not within public view.”

The case against the man was filed by his neighbour with whom he had a prior dispute. According to the FIR, he had allegedly accosted the woman and threatened her to withdraw the case registered against him. The woman who belongs to the Hindu Mahar community, was then allegedly abused by him in the name of her caste.

The court ignored the Section (3)(i)(xii) in this case too.

In 2017, the Delhi High Court ruled that any offensive post on social media that targets an individual of the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe communities, even if made in a closed group, is punishable. Justice VipinSinghi noted, “When a member registered with Facebook changes the privacy settings to ‘public’ from ‘private’, it makes his/her writings on the ‘wall’ accessible not only to the other members who are befriended by the author of the writings on the “wall”, but also by any other member registered with Facebook. However, even if privacy settings are retained by a Facebook member as “private”, making of an offending post by the member – which falls foul of Section under Section 3(1)(x) of the SC/ST Act—may still be punishable.”

In the same year, a bench of Justices J Chelameshwar and S Abdul Nazeer ruled that using casteist remarks over phone in a public place against the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category amount to criminal offence warranting a jail of a maximum five years.
 
How You Can Take Action

In 2008, a bench comprising Justice AltamasKabir and Justice MarkandeyKatju said that in the age of democracy and equality, no people or community should be insulted or looked down upon, and nobody’s feelings should be hurt. This is also the spirit of our Constitution and is part of its basic features.

Why then, in some of the cases mentioned above, is the Court taking such a myopic view of the Act instead of taking a wholesome view to cease such atrocities?

The Constitution of India and its hate speech laws aim to prevent discord among its many ethnic and religious communities. If you have been a victim of such an offense or have witnessed someone being subjected to such slurs, we request you to be a crusader of unity with us and take action by:
 

1. Reporting a Hate Crime on our website – https://cjp.org.in/report-crime/
2. Help fight hate on the new Hate Hatao app – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hatehatao.hatehatao

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The States of Gujarat and Maharashtra, in addition to the State of Madhya Pradesh, and the inter-State body of Narmada Control Authority, were impleaded through an interim order passed by Justice Ramana and Justice Ajay Rastogi on the September 18, 2019.
 
The affidavits in reply filed by the Union of India and the Narmada Control Authority have rejected, among others, the plea for reducing the water level in the Sardar Sarovar to 122m by keeping the gates open. The affidavits have also claimed that the Narmada Control Authority and its various subgroups, for Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) as well as environment, have already granted all the requisite permissions for filling of the reservoir to FRL in 2017 itself.
 
The State of Gujarat has also contended that the Supreme Court’s order of February, 8, 2017, had directed all the PAFs to vacate the villages by  July 31, 2017 and that this should have been complied with. 
 
The Petitioners, on the other hand, submitted that thousands of families, as indicated in the letter by the Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh dated May 27, 2019, have been residing in 76 villages, and their R&R remains pending.  The said letter stated that about 3000 applications by the claimants are pending, for the land entitlement or 60 lakh rupees package, granted by the Supreme Court itself in its 2017 order. It was also accepted that a number of tasks related to R&R remain pending and the civic amenities as per NWDTA & State policy, such as drinking water, roads, drainage and others, were not in place. 
 
Today, a Bench comprising of Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Krishna Murari heard the Senior Counsel for the Petitioners, Sanjay Parikhji, who pointed out the gravity of submergence affecting human life and livelihood and requested that on account of the fact that R&R has not been completed, the rise in water levels was not in accordance with law and therefore, it should be brought down so that human sufferings are lessened.
 
Senior counsel for the M.P. government, Kapil Sibal sought time to file an affidavit pointing out the status of R&R. He also asserted that the impact of submergence is much more severe than what has been presented. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, submitted on behalf of the Union and NCA that water level in reservoir has been raised as per the procedure in the award. 
 
The Court, after hearing all the parties, directed the State of Madhya Pradesh to file an affidavit by September 30 and fixed the matter for hearing on 1st October. The Court also drew attention of the Solicitor General to the provision in NWDTA regarding a Review Committee meeting suggested in the interim order and observed that a decision should be taken in the meanwhile. It may be pointed out that the Review Committee comprises of the Chief Ministers of the 4 States- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan as members, chaired by the Minister for Water Resources of the Union of India. 
 
The present crisis and controversy has arisen because the State of Gujarat wanted to increase the water level to 138.68 m in spite of State of Madhya Pradesh resisting it on the ground that the pending rehabilitation, submergence cannot be done and the R&R of thousands of families still pending. Because of the rise in water level in Sardar Sarovar, 176 villages have been submerged severely impacting their life and livelihood- islands/tapoos have been created, roads have been submerged and communication is severely affected.  
 
Related Articles:
1.      Four CMs must Meet, resolve contentious rehabilitation issue, on Narmada: SC
2.       Narmada valley: SC notice to Gujarat, MP, M’rashtra on submergence sans rehabilitation
 
 

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The Parksite Police in Vikhroli have made one arrest in the case of the molestation of two school girls at Kidzania, R City Mall. The perpetrator was posted as an attendant at the indoor theme park. According to the investigating officers, the accused, Ranveer Singh Rathod allegedly molested the girls on September 18, 2019. The students from three classes of a suburban school were in the mall for a day-long trip.

An officer said, “One of the students seemed upset when she returned home. When her father called up her class teacher, she told him that Mr. Rathod had touched his daughter inappropriately while strapping a seat belt on her. When the girl protested, Mr. Rathod brushed aside her concerns saying ‘aisa chalta hai [this is normal]’.”

The teacher said a written complaint had been submitted to Mr. Rathod’s employers.

On September 19, the girl’s father filed a complaint with the Parksite police. Another girl from the school too filed a similar complaint against the Kidzania attendant. Senior police inspector Kalpana Pawar said, “We have arrested the accused based on the complaint received from the two girls.”

The accused has been booked under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for outraging a woman’s modesty along with sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Growing Security Concerns

Statistics show that every 15 minutes, a child is sexually abused in India.  A recent study found that the national conviction rate for child rape is 28.2% and pendency in these cases is at 89.6%. Data show that conviction rates remain as low as 10.2% and 6% in states like Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha respectively.

There is no question that there is a murky underbelly of slapdash background checks in India. With no difficulties in attaining fake documents and stringent background checks, the probability of hiring a wrong person is 1 out of 6.

The lack of a data repository makes it inherently difficult for companies to screen a candidate’s criminal, legal, educational and financial status. Also, the cumbersome and time-consuming process of sourcing such data from inherently bureaucratic organizations, which is mostly
inconclusive, is one of reason why background checks are given a miss in the country.

Companies owe it to their customers to prevent such heinous incidents, but whether the gap between quickly filling vacancies and conforming to safe hiring procedures will be bridged, only time will tell.
 

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