Delhi NCR | SabrangIndia

Plea against VHP rallies in Delhi-NCR on Aug 2 had stated “rallies likely to fan communal fires, incite people”

sabrang — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 09:17:28 +0000

On August 2, 2023, an Interlocutory Application (IA) was filed by Shaheen Abdullah in the Supreme Court in the pending writ petition concerning hate speeches in India. The said plea was urgently moved to the Supreme Court in the wake of the communal violence that took place in Nuh, Haryana on July 31. Through the said petition, the Supreme Court was urged to intervene in the rallies planned by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) region.

It is pertinent to note that on July 31, a religious procession was being taken out by the VHP- Bajrang Dal in Nuh, where clashes had taken place between the Muslim and the Hindu community. Pursuant to the clashes, violence had spread to other districts of Haryana, where members of the Muslim community were being incessantly targeted by Hindutva mobs. Reports of Mosques and shops run by Muslim being vandalised and burnt also surfaced from Gurugram, Haryana.

Many videos of members of Bajrang Dal and VHP conducting demonstrations and protest in districts of Haryana also emerged where they could be seen and heard raising offensive and inciting slogans calling for committing violence against Muslims.

In the application, the following incidents were highlighted: “That it is pertinent to note that in a rally hosted by Bajrang Dal which is the youth wing of the said VHP on 01.08.2023 at Bhiwani, Haryana participants shouted slogans calling for violence against Muslims [(“Jab Mulle kaate jaayenge, Ram Ram Chillaayenge” (When Muslims will be chopped off, we will shout Ram Ram)]. In another rally, also held by Bajrang Dal on 01.08.2023 in Najafgarh, Delhi after clashes during a Muharram procession in Nangloi, Delhi, the members shouted hateful slogans against Muslims [“Desh ke gaddaron ko, Goli maro salon ko (shoot the traitors of our country)].”

On the morning of August 2, a list of rallies planned by VHP across Delhi-NCR surfaced on the social media. The following rallies were planned, as provided in the application:

“Delhi-Haryana border;

Noida (from Sector 21A to Rajnigandha Chowk), Uttar Pradesh;

Manesar, Haryana;

23 localities in Delhi including Karol Bagh, Patel Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Mayur Vihar, Mukherjee Nagar, Narela, Moti Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Nangloi, Ambedkar Nagar, Najafgarh etc.”

The applicant highlighted the urgency for attention of the Court and strong apprehension of law and order situation associated with the proposed rallies by stating “That given the fact that the situation in Nuh and Gurgaon continues to be extremely tense and even the slightest provocation could result in serious loss of life and damage to property, rallies that are likely to fan communal fires and incite people to resort to violence, ought to not be permitted. It is submitted that such rallies that demonize communities and openly call for violence and killing of people are not limited in terms of their impact to just those areas that are presently dealing with communal tensions but will inevitably lead to communal disharmony and violence of an unfathomable scale across the country.”

With this, the applicant had prayed that “Direction be issued to the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, DGP, Uttar Pradesh, DGP, Haryana and such other authorities as deemed appropriate by this Hon’ble Court to take adequate action so as to ensure that the rallies scheduled to take place on August 2 are not allowed”

The applicant had further prayed that in case the rallies are taken out, the same should be recorded and the footage should be placed before the Supreme Court, along with the transcripts and the translations.

The complete application can be read here:

Download PDF

The order of the Supreme Court along with the observations can be read here.

Previous orders in the Shaheen Abdullah case:

On May 17, a bench led by Justice KM Joseph, who has now retired, had heard the said case on hate speech and hate crime matters. During the said hearing, Justice KM Joseph had stated that prompt action against perpetrators irrespective of their religions will ensure that no hate crimes take place. ““I do not think anyone has any interest other than the best interest of our nation. The only point is, when you take action promptly – irrespective of religion, irrespective of anything else – and just make [India] into a country ruled by the rule of law. There will be no problems”, as reported by the LiveLaw.

Previous to this, in February 2023, Shaheen Abdullah had approached the court seeking a ban on an impending meeting of the Sakal Hindu Samaj in Maharashtra. The petitioner had cited alleged instances of anti-Muslim rhetoric used by the right-wing group during a previous rally. The bench had accepted the demand of the petitioner that the meeting should be recorded on video, and issued an appropriate direction to that effect to the police inspector of the area. The bench had adjourned the hearing after recording an undertaking made by the State of Maharashtra that if permission is granted for the Sakal Hindu Samaj to hold its proposed meeting in Mumbai, it would be subject to the condition that no one would make any hate speech, act in defiance of law, or disturb the public order. The bench had also directed the state police to, if the permission was granted and the occasion arose, to invoke Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allows the police to make preventive arrests.

In October 2022, a bench headed by Justice KM Joseph had issued direction to the Governments of NCT of Delhi, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh to take suo moto action against any hate speech crime, without waiting for any complaint. Failure to take action against incidents of hate speech – irrespective of the religion of the maker of such speech – would be contempt of court, the bench had warned. While issuing a set of interim directions to curb hate speech, the Supreme Court had observed, “There cannot be fraternity unless different religious communities are available to live in harmony.”

Supreme Court trains its gaze on hate speech, once again

How the Supreme Court has interpreted hate speech over decades

Nuh Haryana: Who cast the first stone?

Nuh Clashes planned and coordinated, more such violence likely before 2024 Polls: Satyapal Malik

Union MOS Home questions arms allowed in ‘religious’ procession at Nuh, Haryana: Rao Inderjit Singh

Communal violence erupts in Nuh, Mewat, five killed, provocations by VHP-Bajrang Dal continue

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MHA shuts down internet services at farmer protest sites across Delhi-NCR

Sat, 30 Jan 2021 12:36:47 +0000

Image Courtesy:economictimes.indiatimes.com

The internet, even when it works, is extremely slow in and around the protest sites near Delhi’s borders. Most farmers, supporters and even the media, who arrive by the hundreds at each site daily are hampered by this in many ways. Most who are coming from out of town, often for the first time, or are driving down in extreme fog, negotiating various diversions that come up, have been depending on navigation devices, apps, online maps to get here. Online messaging services are also heavily used to meet logistical challenges, share what supplies are needed at each protest site, are arranged quickly, and delivered.

By Saturday, all internet services were suspended by orders of the Union Home Ministry purportedly to “maintain public safety and averting public emergency” in the Singhu, Ghazipur, Tikri borders and adjoining areas. The Home Ministry order reads: “… it is necessary and expedient to order the temporary suspension of internet services in the areas of Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri, and their adjoining areas in the NCT of Delhi from 11 PM on January 29 to 11 PM on January 31.” The services have also been slow in areas around the border that extended well into Delhi.

It was the viral video of Rakesh Tikait breaking down and refusing to leave his supporters, especially the Sikh farmers and the elderly at the mercy of security forces on the night of January 28 that had led to thousands of supporters arriving overnight at Ghazipur from Across Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. They continue to arrive in large numbers. “The net is slow, but we reached somehow,” said one who had driven down with food and water, and kept a live video chat on throughout the way. “We kept looking at social media to keep a tab on what was going down at the borders,” said another farmer. Scores of those who attend live stream the speeches, and the visuals from each site, so the message and the news travels far and wide as it unfolds.

Internet was also suspended around protest sites in Delhi on January 26 when the situation was tense, and chaos was reported from the Nangloi area, where the police launched tear gas, lathicharge on farmers groups, and some people threw stones at police. The Haryana government had, on Friday, issued an order shutting down internet services in 14 districts till January 30, these districts are: Ambala, Yamuna Nagar, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal, Panipat, Hisar, Jind, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Fatehabad, Rewari and Sirsa. Only voice calls will be allowed in these areas. Earlier the internet had already been shut in Sonipat, Palwal and Jhajjar areas of the state.

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Who Benefits from Soaring Tomato Prices?

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 09:52:18 +0000

Mystery: Soaring Tomato Prices Four Months After Crash, Who Benefits?

Roberts ganj, Sonbhadra in East UP and Delhi Mumbai’s retail sabzi mandis have one thing in common. Tomatoes are selling at Rs 120 per kilogram. Mother Dairy was offering the vegetable at Rs 96 per kilo and online groceries at Rs 99.

Four months ago, this March, angry farmers from Andhra Pradesh to east UP had flung ripe tomatoes on the streets in vocal protest after a government failed to protect tBeir econoMic interest, did not provide a fair sustained market price for the vegetable. Prices had crashed and ripe tomatoes stained the streets. In the market they were available at Rs 1, sometimes even 50 paise per kilogram.

Where then is the state when farmers suffer from these huge market fluctuations for their produce? The agrarian distress has hit Indian farmers hard not allowing them to enhance their economy with cooperatives that run storage and distribution units. As a result, the farmer will not gain through today’s staggeringly high price.

Today, newspapers report that on Tuesday, tomatoes prices sold at ₹96-110 a kg in the Delhi NCR region. No questions have been asked whether this upsurge in pricing will go to the farmer. In Mumbai, tomatoes were retailing at around ₹110/kg, in Kolkata at ₹99/kg, in Hyderabad at ₹108/kg, and in Bengaluru at ₹80-92/kg.

High prices are hurting retail consumers badly, and even large buyers such as restaurants seem to be facing the brunt. A McDonald’s restaurant in Noida put up a sign telling its customers that owing to temporary unavailability of tomatoes, “we are unable to add tomatoes in various products.” The situation, it said, is expected to become stable soon.

With fresh tomatoes turning expensive, some consumers are switching over to processed puree. A 200-ml pack of tomato puree across brands costs ₹20-25, and a 1-kg pack about ₹85 in Delhi.

Restaurant chains, which typically source their supplies through annual contracts on pre-determined prices, are seen largely insulated from the sharp hike in prices, which have more than quadrupled over the past three months in major markets.

The early arrival of the monsoon across the country impacted the standing crop in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, among other States, leading to a decline in arrivals.

But how come just four months ago our farmers were not protected from the price slump? Then, Upset with sudden fall in tomato prices, farmers threw their produces on a street near the APMC market and farmers in eastern UP were no less enraged. The issue of fair pricing for farmers and the minimum support price for agricultural produce is a political hot potato- promised at election time and unfulfilled thereafter.

In March this year, angry farmers had staged a protest blaming the failure of APMC committee, merchants and officers of Agriculture Marketing Department for the dip in prices.They hadalleged that till Tuesday, tomato was sold at Rs. 8 to 10 per kilo.

When the market opened on Wednesday morning, the price was as low as Rs. 1 per kilo and within a couple of hours it came down to 50 paisa a kilo, leaving the farmers angry.

Delhi NCR, tomato prices were sold at ₹96-110 a kg on Tuesday. Safal, the subsidiary of Mother Dairy, was selling tomatoes at ₹96/kg, and online grocers BigBasket and Grofers at ₹99/kg and ₹98/kg, respectively. Desi tomatoes online were even more expensive at ₹105/kg.

In Mumbai, tomatoes were retailing at around ₹110/kg, in Kolkata at ₹99/kg, in Hyderabad at ₹108/kg, and in Bengaluru at ₹80-92/kg.

Prices are expected to stay firm in the near term, traders and officials said, hinting that consumers will likely get a respite only towards end-August when fresh supplies from key growing regions of Nashik and Kolar are expected.

While high prices are hurting retail consumers badly, even large buyers such as restaurants seem to be facing the brunt. A McDonald’s restaurant in Noida put up a sign telling its customers that owing to temporary unavailability of tomatoes, “we are unable to add tomatoes in various products.” The situation, it said, is expected to become stable soon.

The high prices have turned the vegetable into a precious commodity: there are reports of traders seeking armed protection for the stored tomatoes from markets in Madhya Pradesh.

With fresh tomatoes turning expensive, some consumers are switching over to processed puree. A 200-ml pack of tomato puree across brands costs ₹20-25, and a 1-kg pack about ₹85 in Delhi.

The early arrival of the monsoon across the country impacted the standing crop in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, among other States, leading to a decline in arrivals.

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