The statement is not only silent on the growth of Hindutva extremism, it squarely blames the Islamic and Sikh militant groups for violence and terror. In other words the joint statement mimics the narrative of the Indian state on terrorism and there is hardly any acknowledgement of the threat Hindutva forces pose to peace and diversity. 
 
The statement is based on an understanding between the law enforcement and security agencies of both countries that “resolved to step up their bilateral cooperation under the supervision of the National Security Advisor’s Dialogue, the Joint Working Group on Counter-terrorism and its Experts’ Sub-Group”.  
 
However, as one proceeds further it only establishes this as one sided policy document that perceives this threat coming from the minority terror organizations alone, and not a single reference is made to the Hindu terror groups involved in large scale violence against minorities and political critics in India under the Modi government.
 
The statement goes on to name these groups specifically. “They (law and enforcement and security agencies) are committed to work together to neutralize the threats emanating from terrorist groups such as Al Qaida, ISIS, the Haqqani Network, LeT, JeM, Babbar Khalsa International, and the International Sikh Youth Federation”.
 
From the announcement one can conclude that it benefits India more than Canada considering the bad press Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got as soon as he started his weeklong visit to Indian accusing him of being soft on the Sikh separatists in Canada.
 
After all, the conspiracy of the Air India bombing that left 329 people dead on June 23, 1985 was hatched on the Canadian soil. The crime was blamed on the Babbar Khalsa which is a banned Sikh terror group in Canada. The security agencies continue to claim that this was done in retaliation to the repression of Sikhs in India in 1984. The armed insurgency for separate Sikh homeland had a big support in Canada. Although the movement is long dead in Punjab, the Indian politicians have tried to keep its fear alive to polarize Hindu majority votes. They still believe that Khalistanis have a complete influence over political parties in Canada. Though Khalistan supporters have a strong presence in many South Asian ridings, their activities are mostly confined to propaganda in the absence of any popular support in Punjab, where people have moved on.   
 
Under an intense attack coming from the Indian leadership and media, Trudeau was forced to say that he supports “United India” – a slogan that remains popular with the mainstream Indian political parties, including the ruling Hindu right wing Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) that aspires to transform India into Hindu theocracy. The ideology of Hindutva based on the belief that India belongs to the Hindu majority where minorities should not enjoy special treatment is at the heart of the political philosophy of the BJP. For the record, it is important to clarify that Hindutva is different from Hinduism and the two terms should never be confused. It is more like a political brand of Hindu identity being practiced by the BJP and its apologists.  
It is pertinent to mention that ever since the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power with brute majority in 2014, the Hindu right wing groups have intensified violent activities. Not only are minority communities like Muslims and Christians potential targets, political critics of the BJP and its policies in the Hindu community, are also threatened, intimidated and sometimes killed.  
 
Some of these groups have also been involved in bomb blasts targeting Muslim localities and their places of worship. One such group was complicit in the bombing of Samjhauta rail that connects India and Pakistan on February 18, 2007. That attack had left 68 people dead, mostly Pakistani Muslims. There are indications that the BJP government is using its influence to save the conspirators and shift the blame on Islamic extremists. Incidentally, Trudeau was in India on the 11^th anniversary of the tragedy that was completely forgotten and overlooked even by the Indian media that was more obsessed with the issue of Khalistan and its relationship with Canada.
 
Notably, the world renowned leader of the passive resistance movement Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by the Hindu extremists in 1948. Gandhi was killed for standing up against violence against Muslims during the Indo Pak partition in 1947. That was a first high profile act of terrorism in the post British India by the Hindu extremists. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) – an ultra-Hindu nationalist organization, of which the BJP is a political wing, was briefly banned after the assassination. The assassin of Gandhi belonged to this group. Although RSS denies its involvement in the murder, some BJP leaders have created controversies by attacking Gandhi and glorifying his assassin, Nathuram Godse, as “a patriot”. It is pertinent to mention that Modi is an RSS member. 
The Hindutva groups that are involved in bombings owe allegiance to the ideology of Godse. 
 
Ironically, Trudeau visited the spiritual center of Gandhi in Gujarat and yet, he never stated anything in relation to the growing extremism and violence in India by those who see Godse, and not Gandhi, as their hero. This is despite the fact that Canada claims to be a human rights leader in the world.
On the contrary, Narendra Modi strongly condemned the separatist forces (read Sikh extremists) active in Canada. He categorically stated that their designs to disintegrate India will not be tolerated. Likewise, when Trudeau met Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh, who has been openly accusing Trudeau government of patronizing Khalistanis, he couldn’t raise any concern over human rights abuse and state violence in Punjab. It was Amrinder Singh who controlled the conversation in which he also gave Trudeau a list of nine Canadians who the Punjab government claims are conspiring to disturb peace in his state. Trudeau missed an opportunity to counter him about the recent arrest and torture of a Sikh activist Jagtar Johal from U.K. Johal has been campaigning for justice for the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre engineered by Amrinder Singh’s Congress Party. The Canadian Sikh MPs had made statements in support of Johal, who many believe is being framed by the Punjabi police for series of isolated political killings in the recent months. 
 
The Modi government in particular and the Indian government in general, have always been critical of Islamic and Sikh extremists and blamed them for threatening the peace and unity. But we rarely hear them saying anything like that in terms of Hindutva terror. The list of the banned terror groups of National Investigation Agency (NIA) in India too does not include a single Hindutva organization even though the NIA has been investigating some of the crimes committed by them. 
 
Trudeau, therefore, has failed to achieve anything when it comes to challenging the threat of Hindutva extremism which has sympathizers even in Canada and US and has done everything that suits the Indian interests for the sake of free trade relations. Respecting India’s sovereignty and trade relations is one thing, but to completely turn a blind eye to what is happening in that part of the world for pragmatic reasons is a bad leadership. By doing so, Trudeau has given a cold shoulder to those in Canada who have been writing letters to him through their MPs to raise the issue of growing attacks on minorities in that country. Apparently, in today’s world, it’s the majoritarianism that works which only weakens the case for a real and inclusive model of democracy. Hope someone listens. 

The post Framework for cooperation between India and Canada on terrorism remains silent over Hindutva extremism appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The systematic and ongoing targeting of Muslims, including three incidents of lynching in the last week and one killing by a policeman in Jharkhand, triggered a wave of protests in the social media. Flooded with hashtags like #StopKillingMuslims, #BlackEid, #StopLynchingMuslims and #EidWithBlackArmBand, the campaign called upon Muslims to wear black bands on their arms on Eid Day to protest against what looks like an unrelenting ‘Lynch in India’ menace.

Heeding the call, the brothers of 15-year-old Hafiz Junaid who was murdered by a lynch mob in the outskirts of Delhi last Friday and others from his village Khandawli in Faridabad, Haryana wore black bands on Eid. So did a large number of Muslims elsewhere.

Also read: On Eid ul Fitr, a Poem for the Late 15-Year-Old Hafiz Junaid.

The Indian Express reports: "As Muslims across Mewat observed a ‘black Eid’ to protest the violence against their community members, 23-year-old Irshad joined them with a black band on his arm. Irshad is the son of cattle farmer Pehlu Khan, who was lynched by a mob of alleged cow protection vigilantes in April. Almost two months after his father succumbed to his injuries, Irshad is disappointed that some of the accused are still free. Eid festivities in this region, populated by Meo Muslims, were dampened by the memory of that incident. “Tyauhar ki itni khushi nahi hai jitna in baaton ka gham hai (The joy of the festival has been dampened by the sorrow caused by these incidents),” said Irshad.

The proposed protest was backed by top officials from the Darul Uloom, Nadva, All India Muslim Majlis Mushawarat; Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Jamiatul Ulema Hind, Jamiatul Ulema and prominent Muslims, including retired judges and civil servants, from across India.

Now, documentary film-maker and activist Anand Patwardhan has called upon all citizens to wear black badges for “at least a week”. “By itself the black ribbon is just a piece of cloth… [but] it is also a way to awaken the sleeping who think everything is fine”, reads Patwardhan’s message on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Khurshid Alam, a lawyer from Kolkota urges Indian Muslims to go beyond “pointless protests”.

We reproduce below his article first published on Two Circles:

Amidst blaring Bollywood numbers doing a surgical strike through my windows, I am trying to pen down my thoughts on the proposed Black Band Protest against mob-lynching of people in general and Muslims in particular. Agreed, protest is vital to democracy but is there any point in protesting just for the sake of it?

Among those who would be protesting with their black bands on Eid, there will be such anti-socials who extort money from people to decorate the streets with stolen electricity and make the lives of their neighbours hell with loud music for all the three days of Eid and there will also be those good Muslims who choose to remain silent on every social issue of the locality but they will be very content with their Black Band Protest because they believe – “Kuch nahi karne se achcha kam se kam patti lagakar protest zahir to kiya!” (protesting with black bands on arms is better than not doing anything at all).

Quran says, “Let there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good , enjoining Al-Ma‘roof and forbidding Al-Munkar (all that is bad). And it is they who are the successful.” Our protests lack spirit because we are selective and if not self-centric then at least community-centric or caste-centric or region-centric or ideology-centric. We do not invite to all that is good and neither forbid all that is bad. A life of a Communist or a Sanghi or a Hindu or a Dalit or any human being is as precious as that of a Muslim. In theory, there is no caste system in Islam but in practice there are places where upper caste Muslims don’t hesitate to ruin the lives of low caste Muslims and they cry foul when non-Muslims mistreat them.

Just because some Pratapgarhi or any visionless leader has appealed to Muslims to sport black bands on Eid Day, emotional fools that we are rush to such gimicks. What about the sanctity of Eid? It is human nature to adopt the easy way out. Sporting black band is one of those easy way out. Enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil is obligatory upon all the Ummah, men and women, each according to his or her circumstances.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever among you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand [by taking action]; and if he cannot, then with his tongue [by speaking out]; and if he cannot, then with his heart [by feeling that it is wrong] – and that is the weakest of faith.” Why are we satisfied and content with the weakest display of our faith? Let’s not forget that good is the enemy of great. Ghalib has aptly said, “Haq to yeh hai ke haq ada na hua.” (the Truths is that we did not fulfill the rights).

We are in one of the best democracies of the world. Our democracy gives us the options like filing of PILs, complaint to NHRC or SHRCs, representation to the Executives, getting politically conscious of our rights and holding our elected representatives accountable for their breach of duties. Let’s ask ourselves that have we ever tried to change any evil by our actions first or we have limited ourselves to coffee table discussions and black band protests only! In spite of various cases and allegations of corruption in the Judiciary, it is still dispensing justice to the people of India. Why don’t the Muslim organizations include in their long term plans to encourage and support the entry of right minded youth in the Judiciary and Administration of the country? We need much more likes of Zakat Foundation of India.

These pointless protests will not lead us anywhere. The regime which has leased reign of terror will not be moved by our black bands. It has taken them more than 60 years of hardcore preparation to occupy the throne of Delhi and our able leadership should have the vision to prepare such efficient roadmaps to sail us through. In order to follow the teaching of our beloved Prophet to exhibit the highest level of faith, we need to empower ourselves likewise. Black band or No band, Eid Mubarak to all.

Sheikh Khurshid Alam is a Kolkata-based advocate.

This article was first published on Two Circles.

The post Call for all citizens to wear black bands for “at least a week”; Muslims must go beyond “pointless protests”, says lawyer appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Open letter to Prime Minister Rutte about the visit of Indian Prime Minister Modi to the Netherlands:
Talk to Narendra Modi on human rights violations
 
On June 27, Prime Minister Modi of India will pay his first official visit to the Netherlands. Reasons for this visit are the 70 years diplomatic relations between India and the Netherlands and the fact that the Netherlands is one of the largest investors in India. 

Silent support for violence of hindu extremists
The close Dutch relationship with India is a good reason to address the deteriorating human rights situation in India during the discussion with the Indian Prime Minister. Under Modi's hindu-nationalist government, the marginalization of minority groups such as Dalits (‘untouchables’), Christians and Muslims has increased significantly. Especially these groups, together more than a third of the Indian population, are nowadays regularly victims of extremist Hindu groups who respond by violence to every alleged abuse of cows. The government of India largely ignores this violence. In April of this year, Human Rights Watch also expressed her concern about this. In that month, ‘cow protectors’ killed a 55-year-old man who was on his way with his cattle truck.

We (India Committee of the Netherlands) urge you to ask Prime Minister Modi to actively promote the rights of minorities and to speak out against the violence of the Hindu extremist groups.

Freedom of expression heavily under pressure
India is known as a country with a great diversity of civil society organizations that are e.g. addressing rights violations and appeal to the government to act against them. However, the freedom of critical human rights and environmental organizations – which are supposed to be crucial for a democracy – is heavily under pressure…. 

Dutch Member of Parliament Mr. Joël Voordewind has raised a number of parliamentary questions on Mr. Modi’s visit to the Netherlands which are related to similar human rights concerns as the Open Letter. You will find them here. Mr. Voordewind asked the government to respond to these questions before the visit of Mr. Modi. 

Full Text of the Open Letter:
Open letter to Prime Minister Rutte about the visit of Indian Prime Minister Modi to the Netherlands:
Talk to Narendra Modi about human rights violations

ICN, June 24, 2017

On June 27, Prime Minister Modi of India will pay his first official visit to the Netherlands. Reasons for this visit are the 70 years diplomatic relations between India and the Netherlands and the fact that the Netherlands is one of the largest investors in India.

Silent support for violence of hindu extremists
The close Dutch relationship with India is a good reason to address the deteriorating human rights situation in India during the discussion with the Indian Prime Minister. Under Modi's hindu-nationalist government, the marginalization of minority groups such as Dalits (‘untouchables’), Christians and Muslims has increased significantly. Especially these groups, together more than a third of the Indian population, are nowadays regularly victims of extremist Hindu groups who respond by violence to every alleged abuse of cows. The government of India largely ignores this violence. In April of this year, Human Rights Watch also expressed her concern about this. In that month, ‘cow protectors’ killed a 55-year-old man who was on his way with his cattle truck.

We urge you to ask Prime Minister Modi to actively promote the rights of minorities and to speak out against the violence of the Hindu extremist groups.

Freedom of expression heavily under pressure
India is known as a country with a great diversity of civil society organizations that are e.g. addressing rights violations and appeal to the government to act against them. However, the freedom of critical human rights and environmental organizations – which are supposed to be crucial for a democracy – is heavily under pressure. The UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Association stated last year that the restrictions imposed by the Indian government on getting foreign funding "might disproportionately affect those organizations engaged in critical human rights work, those which address issues of government accountability and good governance, or represent vulnerable and minority populations or views."
Recently, for example, Dalit organization Navsarjan was unable to receive money from foreign donors. Navsarjan carries out development programs for Dalits and supports Dalits to stand up for their rights.

Refusal of visa hampers cooperation for human rights
Also for Dutch civil society organizations it becomes increasingly difficult to cooperate with Indian human rights organizations and to support their work. Another way to frustrate this cooperation is to refuse visas for employees of Dutch organizations, including journalists. For example, the person signing this open letter has been refused a visa for India for almost 15 years.
In response to parliamentary questions, Minister Koenders of Foreign Affairs announced in February that the Netherlands will exert itself to "pay attention to this situation [the various obstacles for Indian and Dutch civil society] and will continue to do so". The visit of your colleague Modi is a unique opportunity to emphatically discuss this issue again and to make it a point of permanent attention in the bilateral and multilateral relations with India.

Violations of labour rights by Dutch companies
With his program Make in India, Modi wants to put India on the map as an economic superpower. Success stories about economic growth are manifold. The downside of it gets much less attention. According to the Dutch policy on international corporate social responsibility, doing business in a country like India is not free of obligations, but must comply with the OECD Guidelines for responsible business conduct. As often confirmed by your government, there are often substantial, serious violations of labour rights in the supply chains of Dutch and other companies that are operating in India. For example, girls work as modern slaves on cotton fields and in spinning mills for products that international companies sell on the Dutch market. Also in for example vegetable seed production, mining and processing of natural stone and the production of leather products, Dutch companies are involved in systemic rights abuses.

Actively together against child labour, exploitation and modern slavery
Currently, at the initiative of Minister Ploumen, Dutch civil society organizations, companies, trade unions ánd the Dutch government are working together on solutions in various sector agreements [called covenants], including in the textile sector. But to address the labour and human rights problems in Indian supply chains of Dutch companies, engagement of the Indian government is indispensable.

In line with her policy, the Dutch government should take the opportunity of this state visit to do the maximum within her capacity to get the support of the Indian government to address child labour, modern slavery, exploitation and other abuses in the chains of Dutch companies.

( Issued by Gerard Oonk director India Committee of the Netherlands)

The post Talk to Modi on Human Rights Violations: Dutch Parliamentarians, India Committee of the Netherlands appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Kashyap, a known critic of right-wing militancy in India, was among those prominent people who instantly condemned the utterly shameful attack on Bhansali. Although he posted a series of tweets expressing his disgust on violence against Bhansali, it was his one tweet directly blaming ‘Hindu extremists’ that evoked plenty of reactions on the microblogging site.

His tweet read, “Hindu extremists have stepped out of twitter into the real world now.. and Hindu terrorism is not a myth anymore.”

The goons led by Karni Sena, whose chief has been a known supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were reportedly enraged that the character Padmavati in Bhansali’s film had intimate scenes with Alauddin Khilji. However, this was soon rejected by Bhansali.

Kashyap wrote, “We are living in the times where everyone who does not read or research knows more truth than those who have spent a lifetime doing it”

The producer of Udta Punjab, found plenty of support from his colleagues in Bollywood. Karan Johar too took to Twitter expressing his condemnation in unequivocal manner.

Johar tweeted, “No member of our industry should be silent on this matter!!! It’s calls for unity and NOT selective indifference!!!”

Johar was responding to Farhan Akhtar’s tweet, which called for voices in the Bollywood to come together in condemnation of the latest attack by the right-wing Hindutva brigade on creative freedom.

Akhtar had written, “My fellow film folk, if we do not unite now against these recurring incidents of bullying, it’s going to get much worse. #IstandbySLB.”

Johar, it seems was on fire, as he took the right-wing trolls head on on Twitter. This is how he responded to a troll, who made obnoxious remarks about his sexuality.

Activists of a local organisation, Rajput Karni Sena, on Friday had attacked Sanjay Leela Bhansali for allegedly distorting historical facts involving Padmavati.

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter
 

The post “Hindu extremists have stepped out of twitter into the real world now” appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Whether Indian Intelligence Agencies have decided to function as new ‘post offices’ of US intel agencies? Put it other ways whether US intel inputs have started overriding the meticulous investigations done by Indian intelligence agencies?

There are enough indications which seem to corroborate this observation.

And perhaps the latest in the series seems to be the Samjhauta Express bomb blast case, where NIA seems to be contemplating putting the blame on Lashkar terrorists and absolving the Hindutva terrorists involved in the case basing itself on some vague input from US supposedly involving Lashkar-e-Toiba operative. In fact, anyone who has closely followed functioning of NIA of late would have noticed that news had started trickling in since beginning of April 16 itself where the agency which was keen to “wrap up probe into the terror attack” had suddenly woken up to the role of the dreaded outfit. Reports suddenly started appearing in leading national dailies about NIA chief travelling to US “[t]o meet his US counterparts and get more details about the involvement of the LeT financier Arif Qasmani in the incident, government sources said.”

While one could hear voices of moderation where legal eagles did point out the difficulties in suddenly ‘shifting’ the blame from Hindutva terrorists to LeT, it was getting clear that the investigating agencies has made its mind to revise its earlier focus of investigation:
 

Remember that the chargesheet filed by the NIA had already focussed on the role of RSS Pracharak Aseemanand who had propounded a ‘bomb ka badla bomb theory’ supposedly to give a fitting reply to the "perceived persecution of Hindus by the members of the Muslim community".

And by the end of May a media house even shared the news with its readers that,

Remember the case is under trial at a court in Panchkula, and 19 witnesses have turned hostile so far. The 68 people killed in the incident on February 18, 2007 near Panipat included both Indians and Pakistanis.

II
Perhaps an indication of this changed atmosphere can also be had from a recent interview by Vikash Narain Rai, who was former DG (Law and Order) Haryana and who had headed the SIT ( Special Investigation Team) which was constituted to investigate the Samjhauta Express explosion of February 2007 wherein he told Seema Mustafa that their team had  “[c]onfirmed the involvement of the Sunil Joshi group in the Samjhauta explosion and the fact that no one from SIMI was involved,” In this exclusive interview to The Citizen he details,

This interview follows a Facebook post by him wherein he had shared the manner in which a news channel interviewed him about this investigation wherein he categorically told “…[N]ews X that the SIT had totally ruled out the involvement of any Pakistani hand or Simi group in the dastardly crime.” In fact he emphatically,

According to him, “the explosives that had been put together to ensure that the fire would expand in a moving train, and not subside with the one burst, were planted in suitcases.” All of these had been destroyed but as Rai recalls, “we were very lucky to find one such suitcase intact.” 

The make of the suitcase took the investigators to Indore, to a Raghunandan attache shop which was owned by a Bora Muslim and had two young employees, a Hindu and a Muslim. On further questioning the two employees said that two men who appeared to be Hindus who spoke in a local Indori accent, and were clearly from the city itself had purchased the suitcase.

On further investigation the team ‘established two facts as Rai put it: one, the Samjhauta case involved Sunil Joshi and his men; and two, there was no SIMI or Pakistan hand in this. According to him the investigation could not move further because of “complete non-cooperation from Madhya Pradesh and more specifically from Indore.”

Rai said that in meetings held by the Ministry of Home Affairs at the time the Investigating Officers of Malegaon, Ajmer and other such terror attacks would exchange notes pointing towards the involvement of Hindu groups…
Interestingly Rai recalls a long conversation he had with the then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare. He said that Karkare, investigating the Malegaon blasts, also said that he had considerable evidence that the Hindu extremists were involved in this case as well. He told Rai that he was putting the evidence together and would get back to him with more details as soon as he had stitched the loose ends. Rai said that this did not happen as Karkare was murdered soon after in the Mumbai terror attack.

III
Anyone who has followed the case knows that this particular case has seen many shifts and turns.

And when the NIA finally took up the case in 2010, it was expected that final word would be said in the case. In fact it was the same period when investigators probing the blasts had discovered footprints of similar Hindutva terrorist group which had carried out the Malegaon terror attack (Sep 2008) (The Telegraph, June 27, 2010). In fact it was the same time when few activists of the RSS had been apprehended by the Rajasthan ATS and more leads about the same outfit’s involvement in the May 2007 Mecca mosque blast in Hyderabad had emerged. The similarity in the triggering mechanism for the Mecca mosque blast and the Feb 2007 Samjhauta Express blast was also found to be striking. The home ministry had deemed it necessary to closely monitor the probe against the real perpetrators which was the only way to unravel the “complex web”.

Perhaps all of us were rather naive at that time.

Here is the same NIA supposedly getting ready to push under the carpet all the hard work done by its own officers and going full steam ahead on some vague input of US intel agencies, forgetting the fact that one of the biggest terror attack in India (26/11) was handiwork of one of their own agents (David Headley) who also worked for LeT.
 

The post Exit Hindutva Terrorists, Enter Lashkar bombers – Towards Clean Chit to Samjhauta Bombers? appeared first on SabrangIndia.