Tension mounted in the holy town of Kashi-Varanasi, also the electoral constituency of prime minister Narendra Modi as a reported attack on a Church in the centre of town at Godhaliya was mounted. Questionable and provocative facebook posts clearly identify the mobilisation and planning behind the attack. These photographs uploaded on Rakesh Chhetri’s Facebook post are self revelatory. (See FB Posts Below). Facebook became the playground for vicious sentiments. It is to be seen whether this vast social media platform acts against this hate mongering or whether the Adityanath administration acts to tell Facebook to act.

Pravin Dubey Hindu gloated, ” Priest of the Godaulia Church, today the Hindu Yuva Shakti made you Flee.”

गांधी 150वी जयंती के दिन माहौल खराब करने की कोशिश
                 
अमन पसंद लोग जहा एक तरफ बनारस मे महात्मा गांधी की 150वी जयंती माना रहे थे वही सांप्रदायिक शक्तिया अपना काम कर रही थी । बनारस मे गोदोलिया मे स्थित  एक पुराने चर्च के अंदर तोड़ फोड़ कर रहे थे । चर्च के फादर से बदसलूकी व हिंसा इसलिए हिंदुवादी संगठन के लोग कर रहे थे क्यूकि ये अफवाह थी की धर्मपरिवर्तन क काम चर्च मे हो रहा था ।  

Meanwhile aajexpress has carried this Video acompanied by this report:

वाराणसी। जहां एक और तमाम धर्म गुरु जाति-धर्म से ऊपर उठ कर आपसी भाईचारे के साथ रहने के लिए लोगों को प्रेरित कर रहे हैं, वहीं पीएम नरेंद्र मोदी के संसदीय क्षेत्र काशी में मंगलवार को युवक और युवती को फुसलाकर धर्म परिवर्तन करने के लिए करने के लिए डाइवर्ट किए जाने मामला सामने आया।

शहर केएक चर्च में पांडेयपुर निवासी युवक को बहला-फुसलाकर धर्म परिवर्तन कराने का प्रयास किया गया। जब युवक ने इस बात की जानकारी अपने घर वालों को दी मौके पर उसके परिजन और हिंदू संगठन से जुड़े कुछ लोग पहुंचे। सारा मामला जानने के बाद लोगों ने चर्च के बाहर जमकर हंगामा किया। मामले की सूचना पाकर मौके पर पहुंची पुलिस ने किसी प्रकार लोगों को समझा-बुझा कर शांत कराया।

इस बीच पता चला कि दो दिन पहले दो युवतियों को भी माइंड वास कर धर्म परिवर्तन कराया गया है। धर्म परिवर्तन कराने के एवज में युवाओं को पैसे की लालच भी दी जा रही है। हालांकि इस मामले पर पुलिस अधिकारी फिलहाल कुछ भी करने को तैयार नहीं है। पांडेयपुर निवासी युवक घर पर झगड़ा होने के बाद गिरजाघर चौराहे पर एक चाय की दुकान पर बैठा था। युवक ने बताया कि इस दौरान उसके पास एक व्यक्ति आया और उससे बातचीत करने के बाद धर्म परिवर्तन करने की बात कही। धर्म परिवर्तन के एवज में उसे 20 हजार नकद और अच्छी जिंदगी जीने की सलाह दी। युवक ने जब इस बात की जानकारी अपने परिजनों को दी तो उसके परिवार के साथ अन्य लोग वहां पहुंचे।
युवक को धर्म परिवर्तन करने के लिए प्रेरित करने वाला व्यक्ति वहां से चला गया। मामले की जानकारी लेने के बाद लोग वही हंगामा करने लगे। इस मामले में स्थानीय पुलिस का कहना है कि शाम 6:00 बजे तक थाने पर तहरीर नहीं दी गई थी। यदि कोई मुकदमा दर्ज कराता है तो करवाई की जाएगी।
AAJExpress claims that similar attacks have taken place at Azamgarh and Jaunpur too.

जौनपुर, आजमगढ़ में भी इस तरह का मामला आ चुका है सामने
प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी के संसदीय क्षेत्र काशी में इस तरह का मामला सामने आने से पहले सूबे के जौनपुर और आजमगढ़ जिले में इस तरह का मामला सामने आ चुका है। आजमगढ़ वाले प्रकरण में जांच अभी जारी है जबकि जौनपुर वाले मामले में एक थानेदार को थाना प्रभारी के पद से लापरवाही बरतने पर हटा दिया गया था।

Here is another:

The threatening language and violence behind these posts is brazen.

The post Communal Tension in Varanasi as Hindu Extremists allegedly attack Church appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Over the last 16 months 54 attacks on journalists in India were reported in the media, according to the Hoot’s compilation.  The actual number will certainly be bigger, because last week Minister of State for Home Affairs HansrajAhir said during question hour in the LokSabha that 142 attacks on journalists took place between 2014-15.
 
Though 7 journalists were killed, reasonable evidence of their journalism being the motive for the murder is available only in one case.
 
The stories behind each of the attacks reveal a clear and persistent pattern. Investigative reporting is becoming increasingly dangerous. Journalists who venture out into the field to investigate any story, be it sand mining, stone quarrying, illegal construction, police brutality, medical negligence, an eviction drive, election campaigns,  orcivic administration corruption, are under attack.
 
Leave alone going out into the field, those who host chat shows in the relative safety of a television studio or voice opinions on social media networks are also subjected to menacing threats, stalking and doxing.
 
The perpetrators, as the narratives of these cases clearly indicate, are politicians, vigilante groups, police and security forces, lawyers (apart from the Patiala House court incident in Delhi in the wake of the JNU protests, there werea  spate of attacks by lawyers in Kerala), jittery Bollywood heroes and, increasingly, mafias or criminal gangs that operate in illegal trades and mining, often under the protection of local politicians and with the knowledge of local law enforcing agencies. Hence, even with clear accusations of the identities of the perpetrators, they get away scot-free.
 
The data with The Hoot shows that law-makers and law-enforcers are the prime culprits in the attacks and threats on the media.
 
 
54  ATTACKS
 

 
 
25 THREATS TO JOURNALISTS

 
Details of attacks and threats
The Silencing of Journalists
 
 
 
NEWS CENSORSHIP
 

1. Governments at various levels attempt censorship, so do private sector media owners.  In the period under review there were a few  outstanding examples of media censorship, of holding back news, and of self censorship. 

2. In June 2016 the Andhra Pradesh government got cable operators across the state to block Sakshi News and  No 1 news channels, on account of their coverage of the Kapu agitation.The leader of the numerically dominant Kapus, MudragadaPadmanabham, a former minister, started an indefinite fast in support of his demands, triggering a tense situation in coastal AP. Sakshi TV channel, owned by Jagan Reddy of the YSR Congress Party, lapped up these developments whereas other media houses reacted very cautiously. Then suddenly Sakshi suddenly went off the air. The  Sakshi Media Group said their channel was blocked in the state.

3. After the killing of BurhanWani the Kashmir media experienced censorship and harassment. In July the offices of the two largest newspapers were raided, their copies seized, their printing presses closed down.

4. In October the Kashmir Reader which was doing a lot of reporting from the ground found itself  banned  for a period which finally extended to three months.  Its editor described  here why it incurred the displeasure  of the state.

5. In November a ban was imposed on NDTV India by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for a 24 hour period  for its Pathankot coverage which is supposed to have revealed strategic information about  the operation. The channel moved the Supreme Court against the ban. (See the section in this report on Free Speech and the Courts.) The Ministry put the ban on hold.

6. Also in November, in the wake of demonetization, the Indore District Collector passed an order imposing restrictions on “misleading and objectionable” posts on social media related to demonetisation. P Narhari, in his order, had invoked Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure making such posts or even sharing them on social media platforms a criminal offence in the district. The Internet Freedom Foundation  in Delhi sent a legal notice asking him to withdraw the order.

 
When Tamilnadu chief minister JayalalithaJayaram passed for seven hours by the hospital authorities though  TV channels were  reporting her passing away from fairly early in the evening.  

8. In March 2017 member of Parliament and businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar got a Bangalore court to issue an ex parte injunction to The Wire to take down two articles about him. This was curious because the website was not the first to point a finger at him for attempting to align the media he owns with the political ideology he supports. Nor was it the first to describe his military-related business interests, even as his public activism has centered on the armed forces.

 
 
Self Censorship
 
 

 
 
On October 6 NDTV’s editorial director Sonia Singh sent an email to staff laying out how discussions and coverage of the surgical strike should be done. As thewire.inreportedSingh said that it had been decided across the NDTV network that it would not give space “to the political bickering that has broken out on the surgical strikes…..no debates, no airtime of my strikes vs yours, give proof etc…whether it is opposition or the govt….only the army…..to explain this.”
 
Under the title India Above Politics, Singh’s email also laid out the menu for the 9 PM news of 6 October– saying“national security cannot be compromised by politics”. An interview done by its anchor Barkha Dutt with Congress leader P Chidambaram was dropped from the evening news.
 
 
 
FREE SPEECH IN THE COURTS IN  2016-17
 
Defamation
Sedition
Bans
Legislature and the media
Community censorship
Digital challenges
 
 
 
As a year in which cases of sedition and defamation, and of censorship of films and other arts reached record numbers,  2016 saw the courts being tested constantly on the issue of  freedom of  expression. Significant orders and rulings in the supreme court and high courts this year spanned the gamut of conflicts between state and journalist, state and artist,  state appointed censor board and film makers, legislature and media, state and political opposition, and the conflict between societal censure and free expression—the right to free speech of  a citizen  versus another’s right to take offence.
 
Perhaps the most significant rulings in the course of the year were on upholding the validity of criminal defamation, and on defamation and sedition, and whether strong criticism would amount to either.
 
 
Criminal defamation, and what qualifies as defamation
 
In May, giving its verdict on a batch of petitions including the ones by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the validity of the criminal defamation law.  The court pronounced its verdict challenging the constitutional validity of sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code providing for criminal defamation. 
 
The law has no chilling effect on free speech, the apex court said. "Right to free speech is not absolute. It does not mean freedom to hurt another's reputation which is protected under Article 21 of the Constitution".  There was dismay over a ruling  which seemed to nullify efforts to decriminalize defamation.
 
A few months down the line, in August, however, the SC clarified that criticism did not constitute defamation.  The year which saw the demise of J Jayalalitha, CM of Tamilnadu, also saw the Supreme Court pull her up earlier in the year for using defamation as a political tool.   It quashed a non-bailable warrant issued against DMDK chief Vijayakanth, and said that criminal defamation proceedings cannot be initiated for merely critiquing the government.  (In the year under review the AIDMK government also filed 16 cases of defamation against in the media in just the first three months of the year.)
 
 
Sedition
 
2016 was a year when sedition went viral and a large number of cases were filed, 18 just between January and June. By the end of the year the figure was 40, according to media reports filed year-wise, state-wise, in the Hoot’s Free Speech Hub.
 
In a case hearing on  September 6  the SC clarified that sedition or defamation cases could not be slapped on anyone criticising the government: “Someone making a statement to   criticise the government does not invoke an offence under sedition or defamation law. We have made it clear that invoking of section 124(A) of IPC (sedition) requires certain guidelines to be followed as per the earlier judgement of the apex court,” a bench of Justices DipakMisra and U Lalit said while hearing a petition by Common Cause on the misuse of the sedition law.
 
In 2017 five cases have been filed so far going by media reports, in Assam, Bihar, Punjab (on 66 students which was subsequently dropped), Haryana, and Delhi.
 
 
Bans as regulation: I and B ministry vs TV channels
 

 
2016 saw three bans imposed on TV channels in the course of the year by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, for durations varying from one week to one day. NDTV India  was ordered to go  off air for a day for having revealed "strategically-sensitive" details while covering the Pathankot terrorist attack,  the one day ban quickly became a cause celebre.  The channel moved the Supreme Court   against the ban but the court deferred hearing the case. Care World TV, a health channel upon which a seven-day ban was imposed,  went to court as well and obtained a heartening  order. The Bombay High Court said the order was completely illegal and a breach of the elementary principles of natural justice.  It also observed that larger issue of the power of the central government to impose such a ban would have to be examined.
 
Given that there have been 32 bans imposed by the ministry over the last twelve years, this year may have seen the beginning of a significant push back.
 
 
Legislature and the media
 
In August 2015 an enquiry  committee set up by the UP Legislative Assembly had held staff of two TV channels of the  of TV Today group guilty of breach of privilege of Azam Khan, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister in the Samajwadi Party government in the state, and an MLA from Rampur constituency.
 
In March this year  the Supreme Court stayed the proceedings initiated by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Legislative Assembly. 
 
This committee had been set up by the Sadan on 17 September, 2013, to examine allegations aired against Khan  in a sting operation telecast on  AajTak and Headlines Today channels in relation to the  Muzaffarnagar riots. It held 48 meetings, it said in its report, examining the evidence and listening to the channel representatives, before it concluded that there had been a breach of privilege.   
 
Senior advocate Soli Sorabjee had filed a Special Leave Petition in the SC under Article 32 of the Constitution. Appearing for the TV Today Network's channels — AajTak and Headlines Today (now India Today) — submitted that UP assembly had no locus standi to direct journalists to appear before it for having conducted the sting operation since it pertained to a matter outside the assembly and did not in any way impede the functioning of the House or any of its members.
 
The case has not been heard by the apex court again, but it constitutes a significant test case on whether media exposing a legislator’s actions outside the assembly can attract a charge of breach of privilege. The detailed report of the enquiry committee does point out though that the legislator had not been given a chance to respond to the expose before it was telecast.
 
 
Triumphing over community censorship
 
In July 2016  came a judgement from the Madras High Court which was hailed  for striking a much needed blow against community censorship of the arts. In 2015 Tamil writer PerumalMurugan had announced his death as a writer after orchestrated protests demanding a ban on his novel  Mathorubhagan (One Part Woman)in his hometown of Tiruchengode in Tamil Nadu. He had been forced to tender an apology at a local peace committee meeting.
 
The Hindu  said in an editorial “The 160-page judgment by a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjay KishanKaul builds on a series of progressive rulings. It has applied the contemporary community standards test in concluding that there is nothing obscene in the novel.”  It however demurred later in its editorial that the suggestion of the bench that the state should set up an experts body to resolve conflicts such as these could itself represent a compromise. 
 
After the judgement the writer said in a statement that it had given him much  happiness."It comforts a heart that had shrunk itself and wilted. I am trying to prop up myself holding on to the light of the last lines of the judgment, "Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write."
 
The following month, in August 2016,  there was  a victory in a similar case for a Mumbai writer charged with obscenity in 2005  for a  novel published in 1994.  In this case there was no judgementthe  charge was withdrawn 11 years after being filed.  The Hindu reported that a 19-year-old student at the Urdu Department of Mumbai University had registered a complaint at the Jogeshwari police station stating that she found two paragraphs in Mr Abbas’ 1994 novel, NakhlistankiTalash (The Search of an Oasis), “objectionable” and “obscene”. The allegations cost him his job as a teacher at the Anjuman-e-Islam’s English High School and Allana Junior College. The complainant retracted her statement this year and said she had misunderstood the writing.
 
Batting for the media:
 
2017 so far has seen two significant orders from the Supreme Court. 
 
In February it directed the Bihar government to transfer RashtriyaJanata Dal (RJD) leader Mohammed Shahabuddin, the influential accused in the murder in 2016 of journalist RajdeoRanjan, to Tihar Jail from a district jail in Siwan within a week, to facilitate the trial after the CBI said they wanted to conduct his trial in Delhi.  The politician belongs to the ruling coalition.
 
In March the SC dismissed a PIL seeking an SIT probe into the role of media in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case, saying it is an "attack" on media's independence.  The apex court said it would not direct any investigation against the media unless there was evidence of a direct involvement. There cannot be an investigation into the role of media as a whole, it said.
 
The PIL had been filed by senior journalist HariJaisingh who alleged that alleged that some journalists were bribed and extended unwarranted benefits in exchange for favouring the VVIP chopper deal.
 
 
Digital challenges
Finally the courts grappled with internet bans and offences arising out of social media.
The year saw the Supreme Court rule on the  legality of Internet shutdowns under Section 144 CrPC.   In February the apex court ruled that mobile internet can be banned under this section, dismissed an appeal challenging a judgment of the Gujarat High Court which had upheld the ban on mobile internet under S.144 of Code of Criminal Procedure.  Dismissing the argument that there was a provision for such bans under the Telegraph Act the court said that using this section “becomes very necessary sometimes for law and order. There can be concurrent powers”, remarked one of the judges before dismissing the petition.
 
 
 
DILUTING THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION
 
 
Has the state been complicit in watering down the right to information conferred on Indian citizens via successive laws since  2005? Over the last two years there is increasing evidence of this. Diluting the right to information is a direct denial of the access to information the press needs to do its job. Journalists  increasingly use the law  for  their  own investigations, and frequently rely on the tenacity of the country’s RTI activists to get information about governance.
 
Pointers to dilution of  transparency and RTI
 
1.Rules currently being drafted for an amendment to the Whistleblowers Protection Act have proposed that when an RTI seeker dies his request will stand nullified. RTI advocates fear that this will increase the vulnerability of RTI activists the attacks on whom have increased over the 12 years that the Act has been in existence. The year 2016 ended with the murder of an RTI activist, and on 11April 2017 there was another murder, by attacking a tenacious Pune area activist with concrete blocks.
 
Maharashtra is the state which has both received by far the highest  number of RTI applications among states over 2005-2015, (46.2 lakh, merely a lakh less than the central government)  and has also recorded  25 per cent of  the total murders of RTI seekers countrywide,   since the Act’s inception (16 out of 66). Maharashtra is also the state which has recorded the highest number of attacks on RTI users. The correlation between heightened use of the law, and vulnerability to attack, is clearly discernable. (CHRI data).
 
2. In 2015 the Central Government submitted an affidavit opposing the decision of  the Central Information Commissioner in June 2013 to bring political parties as public authorities under the RTI Act.
 
3. The year 2017 began with an Information Commissioner seeing a transfer of the ministries under his charge, queries in relation to which he was handling.  This was after he allowed a plea seeking examination records relating to the period when the prime minister graduated from Delhi University. Was this request particularly subversive? This IC is a former law professor and the only Information Commissioner out of 14 members of the Central Information Commission who is not a former bureaucrat. 
 
4. The people chosen by the government system to deliver the right to information through the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions are increasingly former bureaucrats, though the Act says  they should be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance. Administration and governance feature at the bottom of the list.
 
Currently 91.6 percent of the serving Chief Information Commissioners in the states are retired bureaucrats, as are 93 per cent of Central Information  Commissioners. 
 
5. Pointers to weakening of RTI in the states:
 

• In Karnataka  personnel sections of 34 ministers of the state have not declared public authorities under them.
• Telangana has not created a state information commission as yet. 
• The Kerala chief minister has gone in appeal to the state high court against an order by the state information commissioner.
• Information Commissions of Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh have not published any annual report on their website till date.

 
6. Pendency
The pendency of second appeals and complaints as on April 1, 2016 stood at 34,982 cases.  RTI activists say these numbers need to brought down to ensure that the applicants get information without any delays. (The Wire)
 
7. Rejection
The highest proportion of RTI applications were rejected not under the permissible exemptions under the RTI Act such as Sections 8, 9, 11 or 24 but under the category of “others”. At 43% rejections recorded under this category, more than four out of every ten RTI applications rejected were for reasons other than those permitted by the RTI Act. (CHRI data)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INTERNET SHUTDOWNS
 
The Internet was  shut down 31 times in India in 2016, and 14 times already in 2017.  Twelve shutdowns in 2016 were as preventive action, 19 as reactive action. In 2017, 9 shutdowns were preventive action, 5 reactive action.
 
 
Most internet blocks in India are taking place under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), 1973, which gives the state government the power to stop unlawful assemblies of people to prevent public disorder, rioting and so on. It can be brought into force by a notification signed by the district magistrate or a commissioner of police in a metropolitan area. However, legal experts have been arguing against the constitutional validity of imposing internet shutdowns, especially under Section 144 of the CrPC.
 
One argument is that Section 144 does not even contain the appropriate legal power to order a suspension of Internet services, since the power to regulate telegraphs (or the internet in this case) is vested with the Union and not with the state. In that context, any internet shutdown should really take place under Section 5(2) of the Telegraph Act and Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. (The former empowers the Union government to intercept or prevent the transmission of messages under certain circumstances and the latter refers to the blocking of specific websites.)
 
 
Statewise Shutdowns
 

 
(Source: SFLC.in)
 
Longest shutdown:   Jammu& Kashmir in 2016-17.
Following the killing of BurhanWani, Kashmir valley and the Jammu region experienced a suspension of mobile internet services to check the spread of rumors on 9th July, 2016.  Mobile internet services were restored in Jammu region on 26th July, 2016; after being suspended for 17 days. Mobile internet services were reported restored in the Kashmir valley on 19th November for post paid connections and on 27th January, 2017 for pre-paid connections.
 
 
 
Reasons for shutdowns
 
Kashmir
 

• To check rumor mongering
• On operational and security grounds and to prevent law and order situations
• broadband services suspended in light of re-polling in 38 stations of Budgam district.
• Due to bandhs being declared in the Chenab valley

 
Gujarat
Patidar agitation
 
UP
Communal tensions
 
Odisha

• Communal tension,
• To prevent rumour mongering over a social media post

 
Rajasthan

• Communal tension,
• Stabbing of a VHP activist,
• Social media post

 
Haryana
Jat agitation
 
Bihar
Communal clashes
 
Jharkhand
Communal clashes
 
Arunachal
Death of a former chief minister
 
Manipur
Law and order turmoil over economic blockade by the United Naga Council (UNC).
 
Nagaland
Unrest over reservation in local body elections
 
 
 
 
 
CENSORSHIP OF THE ARTS IN 2016-17
 
 

 
 
A SNAPSHOT
 
Issues on which Indian films were censored or blocked by CBFC or citizenry:
 

• Homophobia (KaBodyscapes, Aligarh, Moonlight, Mama’s Boys)
• Distorting history (Padmavati)
• Depicting female fantasies (Lipstick under my Burkha)
• Using Pakistani artistes (AeDilHaiMushkil)
• “Steamy” scenes  (AeDilHaiMushkil,  Wazir, Unindian,)
• Abusive language (Houseful 3,
• Showing a community in bad light (Parched, Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd)
• Showing a state in bad light (Udta Punjab)
• Baring body parts (Parched, Kathakali)
• Showing female inner wear (BaarBaarDekho)
• Using the F word (Raaz Reboot)
• Satirising religious epics (Mama’s Boys)
• Resemblance to PM, impending elections (ModikaGaon)
• Portraying communal riot of 1946 (Danga – The Great Calcutta Killing of 1946)
• References to political figures (Coffee with D)
• Too close to real life, could disturb peace in (Power of Patidar, SalagtoSawal)
• May disturb peace (SharanamGachchami)
• The director’s accent ('Serendipity Cinema')

 
 
Censorship on television
Pakistani serials  (Dropped from Zindagi channel)
 
 
Censorship of events

• Udaipur Film fest venue changed after ABVP complaint
• Issue:This whole event is not good for society. The event is being organised by people who have communist ideology”

• Shiv Sena seeks cancellation of RahatFateh Ali Khan’s concert in Ahmedabad.
• Issue: Country and Gujarat facing severe drought

• FIR against comedians for show telecast on TV channel
• Issue: Hurting religious sentiments by mimicking Sirsa-based DeraSachchaSauda’s head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

• Opposing Kerala Litfest
• Issue: Festival had an “anti Muslim attitude.”

• Screening of film on Kashmir in IIT Delhi disrupted
• Issue: Anti-national

 
 
Censoring theatre
Jai Bhim, Jai Bharat
Issue: Words like ‘Khairlanji’, ‘Hindutva’, ‘Ramabai Nagar’, ‘kutra’ (dog)
 
 
Films denied certification:
Lipstick under my Burkha
Missing on a Weekend
MohallaAssi
 
Arts censorship in the states
 
In Punjab the ruling coalition  raised many objections to Udta Punjab,  a film portraying the drug culture in the state, and the CBFC order 94 cuts. The Bombay High Court stepped in however, to order that the film should be released with a single cut.
 
In Kaithal in Haryana in January 2016 television actor KikuSharda of the show‘Comedy Nights With Kapil’, was arrested for mimicking DeraSachaSauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on his show, and sent to 14 days judicial custody.
 
In January 2016 the Madhya Pradesh High Court issued notices to the government of India, Information and broadcasting ministry, censor board and the directors and actors of film 'BajiraoMastani' over its release without showing the script to the decedents of the royal family.
 
In February in Uttar Pradesh residents of Aligarh found that the film Aligarh
had been banned from being screened in the city after ShakuntalaBharti, the BJP mayor, protested against its screening. She felt the film would  defame the city by linking it “with homosexuality". 
 
In March 2016 the CBFC muted words in the  Kannada film KiragoorinaGayyaligalu which is an adapation of a novel fo the same name. Audiences inKarnataka  found themselves watching a  film interspersed with muted words.
 
In July in Kerala the Mammootty starrer-“Kasaba,” ran into trouble right after its release  with the  Kerala Women’s Commission today issuing notices to the actor, the movie’s director and producer for  allegedly “portraying women in a poor light” through some scenes and dialogues.”
 
In Tamilnaduin October 2016 The Madras High Court upheld an order of the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), which had refused to grant certification to a feature film in Tamil directed by K. Ganeshan, titled PorkalathilOru Poo, based on incidents in the life of a LTTE journalist named IsaiPriya in Sri Lanka. FCAT upheld the CBFC order on the grounds that the film criticises India and the Sri Lankan Army and justifies Tamil Eelam. The firm also portrayed Sri Lankan war crimes.
 
But earlier in March a Sri Lankan film Muttrupulliya, a docu-drama that portrays the life of the Tamil ethnic population in post-war Sri Lanka, has won its appeal with the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in Chennai refused to certify it.
 
 
PERPETRATORS OF CENSORSHIP
 
Central Board of Film Certification
Suomoto censorship in cases of more
than 30 films which came for certification
 
Religious groups:
Hindu Sena
DeraSachchaSauda followers
 
Political organisations
MahrashtraNavnirmanSena
ABVP
Shiv Sena
SAD-BJP
 
Cultural groups
Shri Rajput KarniSena
The Punjabi Cultural Heritage Board
 
Courts
Bombay High Court
censors Jolly LLB after  CBFC clears it.
 
Individuals and families
Shahid Rafi, son of late playback singer Mohd Rafi,
taking objection to dialogue that purportedly
insulted the singer in AeDilHaiMushkil
MasrubhaiRabari , a BJP worker  from Anjar town  Parched
Peter Mukherjea and his sister ShangonDasgupta
Subhash Chandra, RajyaSabha MP from Haryana and chairman of Zee
 
Professional bodies
Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India (COEAI)
Single-screens in 4 states ban films with Pakistani actors
 
 
UPHOLDERS OF ARTISTIC FREEDOM
 
Bombay High Court in case of Udta Punjab
Bombay High Court in case of Dark Chocolate
Delhi High Court in the case of Santa Banta Pvt Ltd
Kerala High Court in the case of KaBodyscapes
 
 
However in 2016 the government appointed  a committee headed by film maker ShyamBenegal to examine the issue of censorship which had become increasingly contentious. The committee recommended certification of films for viewing by different audiences instead of censorship by ordering cuts,  and by the end of the year the Hindustan Times was reporting that the hyperactive Central Board of Film Certification had cleared new ratings to allow adult content in films. The first quarter of 2017 has seen a marked drop in the number of films ordered to drop scenes.
 
CBFC annual report. No of films released with a certificate in 2015-16  were  135.
 
http://www.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/2015-2016-brought-a-strict-side-of-censor-board-135-hindi-films-were-given-a-certificate-268565.html
 
Urdu writers asked to declare: My book not against the govt, nation
2016-03-19 | New delhi, Delhi
Ref: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/urdu-writers-asked-to-declare-my-book-not-against-the-govt-nation/
The National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL), which operates under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, has introduced a form which requires authors of books NCPUL acquires annually to declare that the content will not be against the government or the country. The form, received by several Urdu writers and editors over the past few months, also asks authors to provide signatures of two witnesses. Originally circulated in Urdu, the form, accessed by The Indian Express, reads: “I son/daughter of confirm that my book/magazine titled which has been approved for bulk purchase by NCPUL’s monetary assistance scheme does not contain anything against the policies of the government of India or the interest of the nation, does not cause disharmony of any sort between different classes of the country, and is not monetarily supported by any government or non-government institution.”
 
Censoring the arts—humouring offended mobs
 
RESEARCH:
 
Sevanti Ninan
GeetaSeshu
ShilpiGoyal
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The post THE INDIA FREEDOM REPORT, JANUARY 2016-APRIL 2017 (THE HOOT) appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Photo Credit: AFP

​Rafia Afsar , an alumna of the American International School of Dhaka (AISD) writes in the aftermath of her schoolmate Tarishi Jain ’s death:

Dear World,

Several horrible atrocities are taking place in our time, one of which occurred in our loving city of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Many people unfortunately died and many fingers were pointed but this letter isn’t about the killings.

This letter is to celebrate the lives of three of our beloved friends who we will never see again – this is to celebrate love.

Our community, the Tigers of AISD share a deep connection full of passion, love, devotion and loyalty. We aren’t just a collection of batch mates of years past from a school, we are a family that comes together to celebrate our school’s events, its students and their success, the victories of our sports teams, the graduation of each batch that passes out and so much more. But for the first time we came together, that too in stronger numbers than we’ve ever gathered, for something other than celebrating. We came together to mourn.

Abinta Kabir, Tarishi Jain and Faraaz Hossain are names that you heard for the first time on Saturday morning. For us, they are the names of our basketball star athlete, our designated choreographer and our executive council’s president. Our entire school only consisted of a little over 700 tightly-knitted students, hence everyone knew everyone.

Abinta was someone who always made us laugh with her stories and left us in awe with how effortlessly she shot hoops while playing for our basketball team.

Tarishi was someone who inspired us with her ideas, work ethic and flawlessness and always came to the rescue whenever any of us would be lost at ideas for cultural events. She brought us joy in being Tigers.

Faraaz was someone we all looked up to. He showed us what a good leader is with everything he did, and was modest. He taught us to care about the world around us and made us believe that we can make a difference.

All three of them were great friends to each other and this was evident in their last moments. We feel so fortunate to have had them as a part of our family. We can only hope that we carry out lives that will make them smile in pride of what their fellow Tigers have achieved. They will always be there in the memories and hearts of us all.

We can only hope that you never have to experience the loss that we have felt, and will continue to feel so. We encourage everyone to face the outcomes of incidents like these with love, the way we Tigers have been doing. Let’s hope that we, the world, are able to celebrate life and celebrate love.

The post Face the Fallout with Love, pleads Classmate of Tarishi appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In a statement made on March 17, 2015, Cardinal Mar Baselios Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) and the National United Christian Forum (NUCF), of which the Evangelical Fellowship of India(EFI) is a member together with the CBCI and the National Council of Churches, said: “The cultural DNA of India of pluralism and diversity is being threatened. We are anxious about the implications of the fundamentalist political thesis that India is “one nation, one people and one culture”.

A year later, Cardinal Cleemis, at the end of the CBCI general body meeting in Bangalore, told the media “ “narrow, unitary cultural nationalism… widespread intolerance… a systematic concerted effort to manipulate the education system’’ are the main challenges facing the Church in India.”

The Christian community’s sense of foreboding, and pain, has been reflected in the persecution data released this month by the Evangelical Fellowship of India, the main source of authentic data of violence against India’s  27 million Christians. The EFI report for 2015 said as many as 177 cases were documented in 2015. The report can be read here. 

Topping the list are the states of Madhya Pradesh with 36 cases, followed by its neighbours, Chhattisgarh, 20 cases, and Uttar Pradesh, with 22 cases. The actual volume of violent persecution is not known. State agencies are reluctant to speak on this matter and governments do not keep records unless local police register formal cases under the Indian Penal and Criminal Procedure codes. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in control, of the national government for 22 months only (it earlier ruled from 1998 to 2004), the party has been in control of these states for three terms. 

Physical violence, including assaults by mobs, beatings and torture, were the most common with 68 cases, followed by stopping of worship in churches (18 cases) and attacks on churches (18 cases). Arrests of pastors and their companions was a major issue with 18 cases, which does not include those who are rounded up by the police and let off after some time, and others who were in the custody of mobs for various lengths of time. 

A frightening aspect of this violence is an increasing number of rapes, particularly of Catholic Nuns, and other kinds of gender violence. Recent months have seen an increasing trend to polarise the people in villages, leading to social exclusion, ostracisation and denial of employment and social services. 
At least three cases of rape were recorded, including on Nuns. 

Protests by Christian groups against persecution, especially in New Delhi have been brutally crushed. Agitators, including Nuns and other women, Clergy and professions have been cane-charged, dragged to police vans and detained in cases last year.

The population of the Christian community has remained stagnant at 2.3 per cent (2011 census) of the country’s 1.02 billion population for decades, though both the Hindus, at 80.05 per cent and Muslims at 13.4 per cent have shown a continuing growth.

Throughout the year, Federal and State ministers, Members of Parliament and other politicians of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) targetted the community in terms that have been described as amounting to hate.

Towards the end of the year, government spokespersons said the administration will oppose in the Supreme Court any move to grant Christians of Dalit origin the Scheduled Castes designation that would enable them to access jobs in the government and political representation at federal Parliament and local legislature levels.

Christians not only continue to live under the threat of physical violence, but also are at the receiving end of state harassment and repressive laws that severely curb Freedom of Religion and Belief though the country is a signatory to United Nations and other international declarations, covenants, and treaties on this most fundamental of human rights. 

They have, in fact, been further disempowered with the National Sample Survey Office reporting that unemployment among Christians nearly doubled in 2010-2011 compared to the previous two years. The report, Employment and Unemployment Situation among Major Religious Groups in India, was released early this month based on data collected during the same period. It showed Christians who lived in villages were unemployed at a rate of 4.5 percent, while Christians in cities were at 5.9 percent, both substantial increases from the previous survey that showed a 3.9 rate for villages and 2.9 for cities. This increases the vulnerability of the smaller groups, and is a severe handicap in their access to justice.

A 48-year-old nun from Kerala of the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate order was allegedly gang-raped at a nursing home in Pandari area Raipur city, the capital of Chhattisgarh state on June 20, 2015. The victim, who worked at the nursing centre run by the missionaries, was sleeping when two masked men entered the building at around 1.30 am. The nun was tied up and raped by the two men. She was found gagged and tied to the bed by other nursing centre staff in the morning. Some reports claimed that the nun was found bleeding profusely and was in an unconscious state. The incident sparked protests across the city as local Christian community took out a rally to express their anguish. The police investigations into the gang rape have been criticized for shoddiness.

In West Bengal, a 71-year-old nun of a convent school was gang-raped on March 20, 2015 in Ranaghat town, some 80 kilometres from Kolkata. She was injured so badly that she had to undergo a surgery. Police blamed a gang of robbers and ruled out any motive behind the rape, which triggered protests and angry reactions from Christian leaders in a state that worships Mother Teresa as a saint.  

In the neighbouring state of Odisha (Orissa) the district Kandhamal which had seen two major attacks on Christians in 2007-08 by armed groups of Hindu extremists, saw coercive violence on Christmas 2015. Gangs of religious extremists  blocked the road with stones in major towns. A special target was  Barakhama village, which is 13 kilometres from Balliguda sub divisional headquarters and scene of large scale violence in 2007 Christmas and August 2008. 

The terror-stricken Christian leaders immediately informed to the police personnel as well as Special Forces deputed for Christmas celebration. They cleared the road and did not allow them to come to Church. 

State impunity, political arrogance of the ruling groups in various States of the Union, and increasing complicity of local police and sometimes the media, aggravate the pressure on terrorized communities in remote villages and small towns. 

A frightening aspect of this violence (against Christians) is an increasing number of rapes, particularly of Catholic Nuns, and other kinds of gender violence. Recent months have seen an increasing trend to polarise the people in villages, leading to social exclusion, ostracisation and denial of employment and social services. 

In many cases, justice has been denied to those arrested on trumped-up charges – mostly pastors or their associates – and detained in police stations or their liberty curtailed in other manners. 

Government organisations, including the National Commission of Minorities, have expressed their helplessness in the matter. Many government structures and functionaries, including in the State Minority and human rights organisations, are enmeshed in bureaucratic red tape. Most such organisations consist of political appointees reluctant to take affirmative action. 

Human rights and Freedom of Faith organisations, including the Evangelical Fellowship of India, the Alliance Defending Freedom India and Christian Legal Association, have had to mobilise legal assistance to ensure the freedom of the people, and the security of the pastors and members of churches. A National Helpline by the United Christian Forum backed my members of the EFI, ADF, CLA and others are an immediate channel of communication and assistance. 

The persecution of Christians is also seen within the larger context of sustained violence and persecution of India’s very large Muslim community – at more than 14 per cent of the population, the second largest in the world after Indonesia. The sustained hate campaign against Muslims by several Union Ministers and cadres of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with its myriad specialised organizations known as the “Sangh Parivar”, radicalizes people at all levels, and more so in rural areas.

The cadres are a ready base for violence against Christians. Both Muslims and Christians have in recent months been also branded as “anti nationals”, adding another layer of targetted hate. 

Christians and Muslims have been named as “enemies of the nation” in the foundation documents of the RSS and the phrase is common in the public discourse in social media. Christian activists and others have been targetted and coerced on social media, some of them receiving death threats in 2015. 

The persecution of Christians in India is also rooted in highly bigoted laws that have invited international scrutiny, including by the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion and Belief of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The prime among them is Article 341 Part 3, which effectively criminalises conversion of Indian citizens of Christianity and Islam, its punitive measures denying the country’s 180 million Dalit population (once described as untouchables till the term was outlawed) all affirmative action including reservations in legislatures, government employment and institutions of higher learning.
 
Laws against conversions in six of the largest States of the Union not only rob Tribals and Dalits of their rights to Freedom of Faith, some of them have punitive measures against pastors connected with the people. Most dangerously, the anti conversion laws seem to provide a 'carte blanche', or licence to non-state actors such as members of the larger "Sangh Parivar" and some other ideologically-aligned groups of the RSS but also the police and local governments to target Christians and their institutions. 

The continuing and adverse government focus on National and International Civil Society and Human Rights organisations also nurtures the environment of hate against minority groups, specially the Christian community which has a large number of institutions at the grassroots in areas of health, education and the welfare of women and children. The Persecution list does not cover such laws being use against Christian not for profit and voluntary groups whose funds have been stopped, international funding curtailed or licenses cancelled. Licenses for accepting foreign donations under the Foreign Contribution regulation act are due for revalidation in March 2016. 

Churches, specially villages, and prayer houses continue to invite adverse attention from neighbours, as well as civil and police authorities.  Even prayers in houses have come in for attack, specially in central India, but also in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. For instance, in Satyamangalam in Erode district of Tamil Nadu that a Sub-Inspector of Police had questioned the occupants of a home where prayers were going on whether they had obtained requisite permissions to conduct such prayers. When they replied that they had no knowledge of the need for any such permission, they were told by the police officer that they cannot conduct such prayers again without obtaining permission from the District Collector. In several districts across the country, groups that meet in homes for worship and prayer are facing similar problems.

Although it does not strictly fit into the definition of “persecution”, the community is concerned at the persistent attempt by the RSS to put an end to Minority Rights and to “Saffronise Education”, as it is called in political discourse in the country. Even as the Government is gearing up to introduce a new “National Education Policy”, the education scenario remains much the same as what it was, when the previous “NEP” (1968, 1986, 1992) were drawn up. In the meantime, RSS is demanding education based on Indian (Hindu) thoughts, introducing books/syllabus on Hindutva, getting key posts in Higher Education, Indianising science, and asking church authorities to install statues of Hindi deities in their schools and other institutions, specially in Chhattisgarh.

(The author is a journalist, occasional documentary film maker and social activist)
 

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