“The new Brahmanical forces are not just Modi and Amit Shah but Ambani and Adani”

-Jignesh Mevani, MLA, Vadgam

 
It was a spectacular show of solidarity on the last evening of the year 2017 when newly elected MLA Jignesh Mevani, the mother of the late research scholar Rohith Vemula, Radhika Vemula, tribal rights activist Soni Sori, activist Ulka Mahajan, senior leader Prakash Ambedkar and others shared the stage together at the historic and bustling Shanivarwada in Pune, commemorating the bi-centenary year of the battle of Bhima Koregaon and resolved to fight the ‘Neo Peshwai’ unitedly. Shanirwada, coloquially and politically epitomises the hold of Brahmanical hegemony on the rest of Hindu society.
 
Thousands of Dalit Bahujan women and children gather every year at Bhima Koregaon, 30 kms away from Pune, to commemorate the valiant battle that a regiment of 500 Mahars fought against a strength of approximately 28,000 soldiers of the Peshwa Kingdom. This battle is especially remembered as a unique assertion of the Mahar identity against their oppressors-the Peshwa kings. On the occasion of the bi-centenary of Bhima Koregaon, the Elgaar Parishad ascertained that in contemporary India, the oppression against Dalits, Muslims, Adivasis and women has intensified and that there was a need to identify who the contemporary Peshwas.

 
Neo-Peshwas and Punishment
“The way my son and other scholars were punished was a discrimination against people of a particular caste in which the BJP played a vital role. These ministers killed my son. This is the new Peshwa.” said Radhika Vemula speaking to a full audience. She spoke about the various battles she fought at home against her own exploitation and gave a message to women to play a greater role in social movements against regressive forces.
 
To this, Umar Khalid responded, “They killed your son, but behold, several Rohiths have emerged!” He reminded that the city was remembered for the gallantry of the Bhima Koregaon warriors of the Mahar regiment who were very few in numbers and illustrated the relevance of a united force.
 
Attacks on Constitution
“We challenge you, you cannot amend the Constitution. Constitution is in our DNA. ” said Vinay Ratan Singh, the national president of the Bhim Army while stating that the basic premises (of equalityt and non-discrimination) enshrined in the constitution were under threat from the regressive forces of New-Peshwai and they must be fought against. Dontha Prashanth, who was also present on the occasion, asked, “We were socially boycotted because we had started reading Ambedkar and we wanted reservation to be implemented in a systematic manner. Is this not Peshwa Raj?” He said that after the brutalities suffered under the 200 year old Peshwa kingdom, what India is experiencing is Round Two of the Peshwa Raj. He criticised the present government for supporting anti reservation movements, and cutting down welfare schemes for Dalits and Bahujans.
 
Annihilation of Caste will Defeat Ideology of Sangh
Umar Khalid further added that the RSS, established in 1925, had great rapport with the British and identified Muslims as enemies. “Hegdewar of RSS talks against secularism. We can’t defeat Sangh till we fight casteism because the root of RSS is this very caste system.” He added. Pointing out the contradictions in prime minister Modi’s actions, he asked, “Though he goes around inaugurating statues of Ambedkar, does he know what Ambedkar said about Hindu Rashtra being the worst fate of the country?” He stressed that Muslims and Christians are not tenants who are “staying on rent” in India and are as much a citizen of the country as anyone else”

 
The fight is not just in the books anymore!
“When Jignesh won in Gujarat, I could feel the joy in Bastar” expressed Soni Sori, the Adivasi leader who travelled here all the way from Chhattisgarh. She appealed to people to look deeply into the plight of Adivasis and pointed out the increasing number of encounters, illegal detentions and the mass sexual exploitation of women in these regions. She said that her experiences arose from the practical experiences of dealing with these issues day in and day out. “When they inserted stones in my private parts, I did not abandon the path set in our Constitution, whether they killed my husband or attacked my house or compelled my mother to die, I never left the path that the Constitution has showed us. Babasaheb Ambedkar has given a great tool in our hands and we must utilise it for our emancipation!” she said in a forceful speech. 
 
The Battle on the Streets
Amidst huge applause, the newly elected MLA from Vadgam, Gujarat-Jignesh Mevani left the audience spell-bound with his wit and analogies. He said, “While the people were divided through the riots and violence (of 2002), precious land was being silently being transferred over to Ambanis and Adanis. Therefore, these are the real Brahmanical forces that have taken the form of the Neo Peshwai. They are the supremacist and imperialist forces.” He spoke about the need to talk about the issues of farmers, manual scavengers and other such marginalised groups without resorting to sectarianism. “The fight against the Neo-Peshwas will be fought on the streets and not just in Parliament,” asserted Mevani.
 
There were other cultural performances by groups like the Kabir Kala Manch. The program ended with a pledge to come together and fight the Neo Peshwai in the presence of Dalit leader, Prakash Ambedkar and grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. After this, many groups and organisations left for Bhima Koregaon to pay respects to the Mahar community members who fought the battle.
 
There they faced swords and violence of Brahmanical forces who were allowed to unleash their terror as a mute and insufficient police force watched. Sabrangindia reported on this yesterday from ground zero.

Related Articles:
Dalit, Bahujans resist attempts to spread terror: Bhima Koregaon
 
 

The post Redefining Peshwai in Contemporary India: Elgaar Parishad, Shanivarwada, Pune appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Maratha Kranti Morcha, a rallye for Marathi castes demanding respect of their rights in Mumbai last year. Mhidanesh/Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-SA

Yet Narendra Modi’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is making a dramatic effort to woo such lower castes. Three of these are especially important: reviewing social justice schemes, revisiting job reservations, and the sub-categorisation of lower castes.
These measures will eventually deepen India’s caste politics and strengthen the caste system – the world’s oldest surviving social hierarchy.

In India, society is divided among higher castes, lower castes (known as Other Backward Castes or OBCs, among the socially and “educationally backward” sections of Indian society), Scheduled Castes (known as Dalits, formerly “Untouchables”), and Scheduled Tribes (known as Adivasis).

Today, the BJP is strategically working to win the heart and the vote of millions of lower castes, who make up 41% of the Indian population. However, the BJP’s outreach initiatives are not born out of a concern for social justice; they are part of an electoral agenda.
 

Changing the BJP’s image

The BJP’s defeat in the 2009 general election proved a turning point for its engagement with lower castes. While still playing the Hindu nationalism card with dominant upper castes, the BJP is now deploying multiple strategies to win over lower castes too.
For example, Amit Shah, now the party’s president, first highlighted Modi’s own lower-caste background in the 2014 election in Uttar Pradesh. Later on, as prime minister, Modi was projected as the champion of lower caste groups. The party’s support for a Dalit presidential candidate was internationally hyped. Similarly, a recent cabinet reshuffle brought in more lower-caste leaders to appropriate the “numerical demographic” of OBCs for political gain.

The BJP is also making lower caste-friendly gestures in assembly elections campaigns in Gujarat and Karnataka. It highlights its commitment to provide constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), a statutory body that works for the welfare of lower castes.

Interestingly, the BJP is also pushing the idea of revisiting the existing system of reservation, which allocates 27% of governmental jobs and seats in educational institutions to lower castes. This the party proposes to do by setting up a committee to sub-categorise these groups into “backward”, “extremely backward” and “most backward” classes.
 

Lower caste identity through history

These are big developments. For decades, most political parties – including the Jana Sangh, which morphed into the BJP in 1980 – played their politics in the usual framework, excluding the lower-caste categories from the power structure of the state.
The notion of “affirmative action through reservation” only appeared in the mid-1970s when socialist parties led by politicians Ram Manohar Lohia and Chaudhary Charan Singh started using it to mobilise and consolidate the lower castes as a separate political identity.

The identity of lower castes only began to coalesce in 1955, when the first Backward Classes Commission under Kaka Kalelkar recommended various reservation quotas in technical, professional and government institutions.

Lower castes in India have been associated with menial work and high rates of poverty. Sharada Prasad CS/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Then in 1990, lower-caste mobilisation was galvanised when the Second Backward Classes Commission – popularly known as the Mandal Commission – recommended that 27% of positions in educational institutions and public employment be reserved for OBCs.

This was violently opposed by non-political bodies, including conservative student organisations. Many of these were close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an ultra-nationalist ideological group that supports the BJP. In 2006, these student wings fiercely opposed the Congress-led government’s decision to implement 27% lower caste job reservations in premier higher educational institutions.
 

Towards a universal Hindu identity

But now, India’s right-wing organisations have made peace with lower-caste aspirations. This has proved electorally rewarding, with the BJP successfully winning a greater share of the OBC vote. A third of the OBCs shifted to the BJP in the 2014 election, and in subsequent state elections.

Strategically, the BJP has focused on dismantling the caste-based parties’ monopoly over lower-caste votes. The tactic of painting other parties as corrupt bastions of single-caste politics worked wonders, as did an effort to compress the existing 2,479 lower castes into a smaller unit of individualised caste identity to diminish their collective heft.

The BJP also supported the aspirations of lower castes’ leaders through either finance or political alliance, accommodating OBC leaders in the party or ministerial portfolios at local, state and national level.

At the same time, the party is building a network of lower castes cadres in both rural and urban areas, as well as among young people and women. To penetrate the lower castes’ social base, the BJP formed an OBC Morcha or “special wing” in July 2015.

Religious ceremonies are organised to include lower castes back into the folds of Hinduism. Asim Chaudury/Flickr, CC BY-SA

On the one hand, right-wing Hindu organisations are engaged in the radical Hinduisation of lower castes and Dalits through programmes such as “Ghar Wapsi” or “Home Coming”, rituals of conversion to Hinduism, and running religious, spiritual and service programmes in lower caste areas.

On the other hand, the BJP’s core clientele of higher castes are satisfied thanks to the works of its right-wing support organisations. They continue spreading messages they want to hear, such as tactically portraying Muslims as a common enemy.

With many of its much-acclaimed policies failing to deliver, the BJP knows it has to sustain the charisma of Narendra Modi long enough to fight the 2019 legislative elections.

The party’s central challenge is to retain its support base while simultaneously supplementing it enough to ensure electoral victories. To do this, it must mobilise the emerging middle-class OBC vote – and it’s clearly prepared to do almost whatever it takes.

Afroz Alam, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, Maulana Azad National Urdu University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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What is Social Smuggling ?

In his latest book Post-Hindu India where he has developed the argument of caste economic exploitation in a chapter Social Smuggling, the supremac. His effigies have been burnt in Telegana and Andhra Pradesh by Arya Vysya Sangam demanding a ban on his book, and his immediate arrest. 

The concept Social Smuggling I coined in my book Post-Hindu India (Sage 2009) has generated a law and order issue, created by the Arya Vysya organizations of the two Telugu States.

The Vysya Associations have issued a death threat to me for applying this concept to the Vysya model of caste based business historically leading to a massive amount of wealth being hidden under ground called Guptha Dhana.

The chapter Social Smugglers that was first translated by Msco publishers in the whole was published by a small local book seller with the title Samajika Smugglerlu: Komatollu. This booklet is being burnt all over Andhra Pradesh and Telengana to pressure the state Governments to ban it. In this context the concept Social Smugglers needs to be examined at some length here.

The Social Smuggling process started from the post-Guptha period of fifth century AD and continues to operate even today. Till British colonialism came to India the completely caste controlled business was only in the hands of the Banias. Even the British did not touched the caste centered business from the villages upwards, including the ritual economy around Hindu temples.

Wealth and gold was also hidden in the temple treasuries without allowing it to re-enter market transactions. This whole process of wealth accumulation by exploiting the labour of the productive masses, drawing it into a caste economy and not allowing it to plough back into society, cannot be understood by the concept ‘exploitation’ that was very apt for the West.

Indian exploitation has a massive component of the use of caste ‘social borders’ to control the accumulated wealth within that border of heavily exploited wealth. It was used by the traders for their good life and gave enough to the temples for better survival of priests. The remaining surplus was hidden under ground, over ground and also in the temples. This process did not allow the cash economy to come back in the form of investment either for agrarian development or for promotion of mercantile capital. This whole process is nothing but Social Smuggling. The wealth did not go outside India but did get arrested and used only within the caste borders.

This process is continuing even now in different modes. In all grain markets the Shahukars are the main buyers of the produce for very low cost from the farmers and sell the same goods for huge prices for the same producers of wealth.

Let us take rice, for example. Paddy is bought from farmers at a very low price by the Shahukars. They convert the paddy into polished rice in their mills and sell back to the same producers for a five to six times higher price. So also for cotton, chilli and so on. The largest rice mill owner network is controlled by this caste. From this to pushing the Indian economy into the monopoly of the Ambani-Adani massive ‘caste control of capital’ has become possible only because of Social Smuggling.

From the Bombay mills to all petroleum products, ownership is established by a mix of class exploitation and caste business encirclement. This trader caste based encirclement does not allow any other caste business person to survive.

The second major character of, thus, socially smuggled economy is that it does not have any human empathy for the lower caste poor. The poor among the same caste get some help but the wretched of the earth —the Dalit Adivasi poor—do not get sympathetic treatment. They are not able to establish some Social Justice Fund in their caste organizations, like the Muslim rich do in the name zakat for the poor of their own religion. The upper castes claim that the SC/ST/OBCs are Hindus. But they never share a rupee with them in the ritual or social realm.

Class exploiters in the West have a social investment fund. Willing preferential treatment for blacks and poor and so on are some of the aims. The Social Smugglers do not even have that kind of God feared empathy. Hence the lower caste poor die of starvation, hunger and distress generated suicides. The rich peoples wealth accumulation has no limits.

It is this Socially Smuggled economy that does not want to allow even preferential treatment to the Dalit/Adivasis/OBCs by providing employment in the shops and companies. These masses have been asking for reservation in the private sector for decades. And as soon as such concerns and demands are raised the Shishakar anchors shout in unions ‘MERIT IS DEAD.’

Socially Smuggled economy produces intellectuals who constantly protect that encircled border of wealth very seriously.

Caste Economy within Nation State
The Caste economy has established its own borders within the nation state. This issue could not be addressed within the framework of class exploitation. The notion of social smuggling no doubt, has to be developed much more in the future. But I made a small attempt in my book Post-Hindu India and it has brought the richest caste of India onto the streets.

For this they are burning my effigies all over the Telugu States for the last three days. Death threats are being issued. But they can be stopped only by counter mobilization of all Shudras (Kammas, Reddys, Jats, Patels, Maratas, OBCs, Dalits, Adivasis so on). All these communities are still operating mainly in the agrarian sector and small entrepreneurship.

In the shahukar economy they are very few and continue to be victims of the Social Smuggling process in the Indian caste economy. Let our economists debate this notion of Social Smuggling.
 
(Prof. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy,Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Gachibowli, Hyderabad-32)

Related Articles:

1. The Day of the Violent Vegetarian and the Myth of the Militant Meat Eater
2.Academics Cry Halt to Hounding of Kancha Ilaiah by Brahminical Bodies, Police

3. Untouchable God

The post What is Social Smuggling by Sahukars (Traders)? asks Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Dalits have alleged that they are not allowed to enter the temple during any religiousevent as it is believed that they will bring bad luck.“We went to Ram Janki temple in the village to attend `Ramayana Paath’ on Monday .But to our shock, we were asked to first read the notice pasted at the entrance by the temple priest KunwarBahadur in which he has warned the Dalits to keep themselves away from the temple as a 10day `Ramayana Paath’ is underway ,“ said Kaushalya Devi, a resident of Gadaha village.
 

The post While Ramayana Path Underway at UP temple, Dalits told to stay away appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Maldharis had taken over one side of the road with their buffaloes as self-possessed shelter. The relief truck before me was flinging bundles of used clothes at the local people that eagerly waited for such relief material carrying vehicles. I saw that the pillion riders on a motor cycle too could manage to fetch one such bundle of clothes and shoved the bundle in an empty travel bag. It was a common sight that the local people quickly selected if they found something interesting before throwing away the rest which lay spread on the roads.

The highway from Radhanpur to Byavar had a great deal of police presence as there were numerous politicians visiting area. We reached village Runi of Kankrej area. The village has presence of the Jain temple that has its property spread in 20 bighas of land with surrounding compound wall. Part of the wall had collapsed. Across the road, opposite the temple, is the Dalit area, having living quarters of leather workers and the scavengers. Most homes had one living room of barely eight feet by eight feet with an open extension with an overhead roof serving as the veranda. Some people had managed to empty their homes of the sludge and sand that had filled the living room up to the ceiling. The water levels had risen in this area at the level of about 13 feet from the ground. People had taken shelter on the top floor of the village co-operative society or over the small terraces, braving the rain and winds for about 30 hours before the army had reached them with some biscuits.

We could see on one room house with terrace that a young Dalit man had lost all his post graduate degree certificates along with two children in the primary school, whose books were drying on the terrace tarred with dirt and water.

It was in 1979, I had volunteered as a college student in Morbi after the Machhu dam had burst. We, as volunteers, helped the locals to clear their homes of the sludge. Here, I saw in the Runi village that there were no volunteers helping the local people. There were only visitors and relief distributors. The rich in the village had access to the JCB machines as Dalits waited to hire tractors to dump away the rotten grain, beddings and other soiled material from their quarters. The Government did not pay them the rents of these hired tractors.

The scavenger families were still stuck with their quarters filled with sludge as many of the old people were unable to clear it themselves in absence of their young children away as migrant labor force. An old woman had the assistance of her two sons-in-law who had come specially to help their mother-in-law to clear her one-room home, as there was no other place for her today. An old man was sitting in one corner. He had lost his buffalo. He earned his living by playing drum and making supda, the caste-based occupations.

Each Dalit family I visited had lost an average of 800 kilograms of grain that they had stored, part of the community system of storing one year of ration for the family. As the trucks distributing packed food occupied the narrow village road, the locals refused to take the food as they were tired of the same. They were worried about cleaning of their homes of the sludge fearing the epidemic. The stench of rotting grain was too strong and they barely had place to sleep leave alone the swamps of mosquitoes.
 

The rich in the village had access to the JCB machines as Dalits waited to hire tractors to dump away the rotten grain, beddings and other soiled material from their quarters. The Government did not pay them the rents of these hired tractors

At the centre of the village under a tree lay a heap of used garments, dumped by the relief workers as there were no takers. Some families of the Majirana community sat in the midst of some open land around the mud homes with bamboo roofs which had tumbled on the ground. People in the village had never ever in the history of their life met with such tragedy. They said they were battered by the main Narmada Canal. At a distance, the canal was visible, as a large portion of the canal unable to withstand the pressure had given away quickly raising the water levels in the village. As per people, the ganda baval trees have deep roots which have penetrated the base of the canal, weakening it.

Dalits were happy that they were able to bargain from the village panchayat and thus had got a pucca cement-brick wall was constructed around some of their dwellings. The wall constructed barely six months ago is no more as it did not have deep enough foundations required and mandated by law. All that had collapsed in the vicinity were the new government scheme constructions, as the many year old structures stood firmly on the ground.

Next, we visited village Khariya, the village which has found more than 22 dead bodies from beneath the sand. The road is washed away at the end of the village as several villages could be seen at a far distance, submerged in the flood waters and were accessible only by the boat. The police and the volunteers were guarding the queue of people, whose homes were on the other side and were awaiting their turn to the two boats that were ferrying people. No one has idea here about the human deaths. Most people live here scattered in their farms. Worse, the migrant labourers from other areas lived in these farms and no one has the actual number of these laborers.

Part of the population is at a safer distance from river Banas. Although their homes were flooded, now they were clean and had no sludge as we saw in the previous village. But all the relief teams have focused relief distribution here. We saw large stack of mattresses which were locked away in a room awaiting distribution. Relief teams had their flags on vehicles and the Khastriya-Thakor Sena and RSS were more visible. It was common sight that the local people were rejecting the relief material, as they did not require them anymore. The caste distinctions and prejudices are intact and have refused to be washed away with flood waters or be submerged under the sludge. Local people do ask for the ‘caste’ of the visitors and often the relief workers, too.

The damage has been to the homes of people. They have lost grain stored for their annual requirement. They have lost their savings as most people do not deposit them in the bank. Worst, those who have farm lands have lost the top soil. The farm boundaries have disappeared. My colleagues, who were with me Narendabhai, Mohanbhai, Kalpeshbhai, said, “For some there is blessing in disguise. If one class of people have smile on their faces, they are the sand mafia. The Banas has brought along with its flood water multi-million tons of sand which finds its way even to Ahmedabad construction sites.”

As the politicians are busy blaming each other, it is the army and the civil society that has performed, saving the lives of people and providing them the relief. Except for the police, there is little presence of the government in the area. The quick survey for the purpose of paying cash doles has been completed by the primary school teachers. Poor people’s helplessness is visibly disturbing.
—
*Founder, Navsarjan Trust, Ahmedabad. Pix: Tathya Macwan

This article was first published on counterview.org
 

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On June 21, 2017, Dalit judge Justice C.S. Karnan was arrested on a charge of contempt of court. He has been in the news since his appointment in 2009 with his frequent public complaints against the judiciary. In November 2011, he had filed a complaint before the National Commission for Scheduled castes alleging harassment and discrimination by fellow judges. In 2014, he entered the courtroom where a PIL on a list of recommended judges for appointment was being heard and stated that the list was ‘not fair.’ The judiciary, at large, condemned his behaviour, calling it ‘unbecoming of a judge’ and ‘uncharitable.’ In September 2016, he accused the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court of caste discrimination. Justice Karnan’s allegations have all been met with scorn and ridicule. Outrage over the sheer impossibility of a High Court judge making such direct allegations against his seniors has taken centre stage, with no one actually looking at whether there is any truth in Justice Karnan’s allegations.
Legislations require judges to exercise their independent discretion and reasoning to decide different cases based on their factual situations. In doing this, it is impossible for judges not to draw from their own lived experience. This is why the caste composition, among other parameters of identity, of the judiciary is important; in order to ensure fair representation and understanding of the interests and problems of different classes of people.

Traditional caste-based opportunity structures continue to shape access to, and participation in, legal education. Although elite law schools claim to be casteless and classless, caste remains present both systemically and otherwise in these institutions, impacting the eventual composition of the legal fraternity in the country.

A survey conducted by some students in NLSIU in 2015, showed that over 80% of the college’s students were Hindu, while less than 1% were Muslim. IDIA Law found the same statistics when they surveyed students across several National Law Universities. It was found that 65% percent of the students at NLSIU are upper-caste, with 27% being Brahmin. Similarly, a survey conducted in Jindal Global Law School in 2014 found that 61% of its student population is upper-caste.

In the law school, caste takes the form of class, manifesting as accent, fashion and attitude. IDIA’s Diversity Survey found that around 20 percent of students surveyed in various National Law Schools face harassment, or bullying, because of various factors, such as their familial background, poor English language skills, dressing sense, knowledge of popular culture, caste, or ethnicity. Thirty-five percent also reported that they had trouble fitting in with the student community in their college because of their background. A survey of students conducted by two of its students in NLSIU in 2003, showed a strong correlation between the caste/class background of students and various activities, such as mooting and debating, which are important markers of social capital in law school environments. Ten years later, the IDIA survey also found that students with poor English language skills tended to participate less in extracurricular activities. Caste manifests strongly as class in terms of fluency of English in urban India today.

As an upper-caste law student, I have the privilege of not experiencing my caste in any institution.  Lower-caste students from elite law schools, however, speak of experiencing discrimination and casteism in college. For instance, Akhil Kang, a Dalit graduate of NALSAR, an elite law school in Hyderabad, writes of how classmates would look directly at him while speaking about how ‘some lower caste’ individuals do not deserve the opportunity of studying in an institution like NALSAR. Sumit Baudh, a Dalit graduate of NLSIU, Bangalore writes of what he refers to as the ‘roll call of shame.’ The roll numbers of students were arranged with the names of General category students followed by SC/ST students, or ‘reserved category’ students. Attendance would be taken before each of their classes daily with names read out in this order, a ‘rehearsal of (the institution’s) merit and casteism.’ In this manner, the caste which students had entered law school with remained in spite of their entrance into an elite legal institution. Anoop Kumar also notes the resistance and disbelief expressed by upper-caste students when they are told that caste still exists even in urban spaces and is not only linked to poverty, but also broader systemic oppression.

Historically, upper-castes have controlled the production of knowledge by restricting lower castes’ access to education, which continues today, as seen from the statistics above. ‘Merit’ is considered the sole legitimate marker of ability, when in reality it cannot be distanced from the privilege of one’s birth.

Ever since Justice Balakrishnan retired from the Supreme Court in 2010, no judge belonging to a Scheduled Caste has been appointed to the apex of the judiciary. As of 2016, no High Court in the country had a Chief Justice who belonged to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. As an upper-caste woman, I will never experience caste even if I do become a judge one day, so I cannot speak to the veracity of Justice Karnan’s claims, or to his lived experience. As upper-caste allies, it is our bare minimum duty to listen when someone tells us they experience casteism, not shut them out like everyone has done with Justice Karnan.

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The Saharanpur police have procured a court order to get five of Bheem Army's Facebook accounts deleted. The police had moved court recently to procure the order and also get details of the persons who posted “objectionable” comments, audio and video, and the account administrators.

 The court has reportedly delivered the order last week. “We had to obtain permission from the local court before approaching the Facebook headquarters, as these five accounts are run by individuals… We have already intimated Facebook authorities through email, following which, it has asked for details of the FIR lodged and the court order,” Saharanpur SSP Babloo Kumar said.

 The step to get the Facebook accounts deleted was taken allegedly to stop the Bhim Army from spreading hatred and rumours and disturbing the law and order situation, police said. Police have engaged their cyber cell to prevent further spread of rumours after Internet and mobile messaging services were restored in the district on Saturday evening.

The cyber team is monitoring over 400 Facebook accounts and WhatsApp groups. Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to investigate cases related to the caste violence in Saharanpur has received over 100 affidavits from the family members of the accused, claiming that they were innocent.The affidavits also carried attachments containing “evidence” that the accused were present elsewhere and not at the spot where violence had broken out. The SSP office had been receiving such affidavits for the last one week. All the affidavits were forwarded to the SIT on Monday for verification of the claims.

In all, 46 FIRs have been registered and 95 people arrested. Police have also obtained non-bailable warrants against 15 other accused, including Bheem Army chief Chandrashekhar. Three Bhim Army supporters arrested Muzaffarnagar police on Sunday arrested three persons from Shukartal area of the district for allegedly collecting funds on behalf of the Bhim Army “to help Dalits, who had lost property during last month’s violence”.

Amit Kumar, Bablu and Harish — all residents of Muzaffarnagar — were on Monday produced before the court, which sent them to judicial custody. Police have seized two donation boxes, banner and pamphlets. Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Vineet Bhatnagar said: “We are collecting details about the accused… if they are connected to Bheem Army… Amit is the convenor of Muzaffarnagar-based organisation Jai Sindhu Sangh.”
 

The post UP Police Get Court Order to Block 5 Bheem Army FB Pages, Will They Act Against Caste Hindus Inciting Violence against Dalits? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Bereaved protesters surround an ambulance with the deceased's body.  

"Dr Yousuf said he would not touch Irfan's dirty body until it was cleaned because he was fasting," the deceased's brother Pervaiz Maseeh told Geo.tv. "I cleaned his body, after which the an oxygen pump was sent for Irfan, but that was empty."

The doctor's negligent response to the emergency situation and lack of facilities at the hospital, left Irfan to succumb to death.

Irfan had dived down to clean a manhole on Thursday (June 1) morning when he fell unconscious after inhaling poisonous gases locked inside, Pervaiz said. He added one after another two others jumped inside to save the other, all collapsing due to the same reason.Pervaiz had reached the site after people in the area informed him of the incident.

"When they were eventually taken out, I put Irfan on my back and rushed him to the hospital," the bereaved brother said. "A rickshaw driver stopped us on the way and gave us his vehicle to carry Irfan to the hospital as quickly as possible."But he could not be saved despite all the efforts people around made to get him back to breathe.

Protest carried out after Irfan Maseeh's death. 

The death of Irfan due to the negligence of doctor enraged the family members who started protesting with his body."No one had come to share our loss or express solidarity with us," Pervaiz said. "But Umerkot SSP Usman Bajwa visited us a while back, promising that the responsible doctor would be taken to task and complete investigation would be carried out in the case."

This was not the first death caused by the negligence of staff at Civil Hospital Umerkot, said Pervaiz. "A similar incident took place in 2014 when a sewage cleaner, struggling for life, was referred to Hyderabad for treatment as the facility in Umerkot was not equipped to treat him." 
 
 

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Patrika reports that authorities in Kushinagar asked Mushars of Mainpurkot area to take bath and apply talcum powder and perfume before going to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The administration distributed bathing soaps, shampoo, talcum powder and perfumes among poor Mushars. The officials clearly instructed them to remain clean and tidy during chief minister’s inspection.

Actually, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was scheduled to inspect Mushars’ locality in Mainpurkot village of Kushinagar on Thursday morning. The Administration was leaving no stone unturned to make this 25 minutes-long inspection a smooth affair. Deprived of development even after 70 years of independence, the locality virtually witnessed a ‘turn around’ as each and every official of the administration was busy in giving the locality a facelift. Some of them were constructing toilets in Mushars’ homes, others were busy in repairing the approach – road. Drains were cleaned. Sanitation works were conducted even inside the houses as well.

An elderly Mushar of the village said,”Sahebs came and gave us soaps, shampoo, powder and perfumes. They told us to apply them before going to the chief minister.”

Who gave these orders, obnoxious and unlawful in content? The CM or the bureaucrats?
 

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In his complaint, Venkatesh D alleged that, during his visit to Chitradurga district on Friday, Yeddyurappa had visited a Dalit family in Kelakote, where he had breakfast.

Venkatesh said that the Idli consumed by the former chief minister and other BJP functionaries were not prepared by the Dalit family adding that it was ordered from a hotel.

Venkatesh has also lodged a complaint with the Home Minister G Parameshwara who visited the family the family on Saturday.

The complainant said that Yeddyurappa’s action amounted to discrimination and untouchability.

Also accompanying Yeddyurappa in Gubbi taluk of Tumakuru district was KS Eshwarappa, Ananth Kumar.

Reacting to the news, the JDS’s state president, H D Kumaraswamy, had said, “Why did Yeddyurappa not eat the pulao prepared in their home?”

The incident has left the BJP red-faced given that the state goes for polls in less than a year’s time.

“The complaint is politically motivated and lodged by those who have been shaken by the dalit outreach programme.Their frustration is palpable,” Times of India quoted a BJP spokesperson.
 

He said, “All the leaders who raised the issue must apologise to Dalits at whose homes I had breakfast.”

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter
 

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