Madhya Pradesh government | SabrangIndia

MP: Scholar Shamsul Islam’s event cancelled on “gov’t orders”

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 12:58:13 +0000

Image Courtesy:ndtv.com

Citing “government orders”, the Jal auditorium in Indore, Madhya Pradesh cancelled around March 22, 2022 an event where retired author and professor Shamsul Islam was to speak. Although Islam visited various places in Bhopal in the last two days, he said it is the first time that the government has tried to obstruct his talk.

The auditorium run by the Textile Development Trust was to speak about constitutional expectations and challenges. Islam intended to talk about freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan. However, a day before the event, the Trust sent a letter to the organisers cancelling the event.

According to NDTV, the organisers attempted one more time to avail permission for a Friday event but the owner claimed that the same cannot be done due to “unavoidable reasons”. Textile Development Trust Secretary MC Rawat told the TV news channel, in a reported fit of rage ,that it cannot go against the government and “will give his desk if asked to”.

Meanwhile, Islam told SabrangIndia that Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who was to attend the event spoke to the administration which allegedly demanded that organisers exclude Islam from the event. Islam recently attended a press conference on March 26 to condemn the whole affair.

“What crime have I done? That I oppose the two-nation theory? And even if I am guilty of a crime, how can they suddenly cancel the event, that too on Bhagat Singh’s death anniversary? [March 23] I carry his Urdu documents to show the youth about his work,” said Islam.

The former Delhi University Political Science professor is an author, columnist, dramatist and has been writing against religious bigotry, dehumanisation, totalitarianism, and the persecution of women, Dalits and minorities. Internationally known for his fundamental research work on the rise of nationalism and its development in India and elsewhere, the ex-professor is used to mild forms of aggressions, such as a scuffle at his event where he sang Maulana Hasrat Mohani’s song about Lord Krishna.

Regarding the whole affair, Islam said, “Putting aside the Constitution, these people have even flaunted the principles of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.”

The news has sparked anger on social media as well.

After professor Filippo Osella’s deportation from Thiruvananthapuram airport two days ago, an Indore auditorium cancels an event by Prof Shamsul Islam, citing government orders. He was travelling across the country to talk about religious harmony. https://t.co/e4sAQPjlmm

— Neyaz Farooquee (@nafsmanzer) March 26, 2022

Academic Freedom in India:

Filippo Osella deported.

DU’s Faculty of Law cancels Prashant Bhushan’s talk.

An event in Indore where Shamsul Islam was scheduled to speak is cancelled citing “govt orders”. pic.twitter.com/Z6U2u5asiY

— Charmy Harikrishnan ചാമി ഹരികൃഷ്ണൻ (@charmyh) March 26, 2022

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Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Workers still carrying the torch for justice

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 11:56:42 +0000

Hundreds of Kundli Industrial Area workers observed a mashaal march on December 3, 2021 from Niftam Chowk in Sonipat Haryana to the Singhu border farmers protest site, as a tribute to the workers who died during the Bhopal Gas tragedy.

Between December 2 and December 3, 1984, over 2,000 people died immediately after a gas leak incident in the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The incident is considered among the world’s worst industrial disasters. Even today, many people continue to be affected by the gas, while some families of victims of the tragedy still haven’t received their compensation.

On Friday evening, thousands of laborers from the Labour Rights Organisation marched towards the farmers protest site at the national capital’s border to pay homage to the workers who died at the time.

“Such companies should be condemned. Families are still waiting for their compensation while the gas continues to pollute the area. This needs to be addressed,” said President Shiv Kumar.

On top of demanding compensation for the victims, he demanded that all companies with poisonous gas and chemicals should be set up outside densely populated areas. Similarly, members decried the exploitation of workers in all industrial areas and oppressive regimes at the hands of the governments, police administration and companies that allowed this abuse to continue.

Labourers condemned contract practice that resulted in their economic and physical exploitation. Further, they asked that company layoffs should be stopped. Instead, they called for minimum wage, worker safety and cancellation of the four anti-labour codes.

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Indore: Muslim bangle seller’s bail case drags on

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 13:23:55 +0000

Image Courtesy:indiatoday.in

The Muslim bangle seller in Indore, Taslim Ali, has been in jail for over two months now. After being brutally beaten up by a mob publicly for his religious identity in Indore, he was implicated in an alleged molestation case and charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Since Ali has applied for bail in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, his hearing has been adjourned twice on the request of the government, and once on his own lawyer’s request. His bail hearing is now posted for hearing on November 9, increasing his incarceration by ten more days.

On August 22, he was thrashed by a mob, with his wares looted. In the video that did the rounds online, one could see that someone was tugging at his shirt and other men were emptying his bag full of bangles he meant to sell to find out what he is carrying in his bag. After finding just multiple packs of bangles the man calls out to women in the market and asks them to come and pick up as many bangles as they want.

After this news broke out, the state Home Minister Narottam Mishra had told reporters that he was selling bangles to women by posing as a Hindu and eventually a case was registered against the young man, who was a victim of the mob assault.

He was arrested on the complaint of the Class VI student who stated that the man introduced himself as Golu son of Mohar Singh (instead of Taslim Ali) and molested her while her mother had gone inside the house to get money to pay for the bangles purchased.

A case was registered against him under sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (Sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), 467 (Forgery of a valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC as well as under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

His matter was first called out on October 4, where the government asked for more time to file their replies. The order delivered by Justice Pranay Verma said, “As prayed by the learned counsel for the respondent/State, list the matter on 08.10.2021.”

On October 8, the counsel for the government argued that they needed a week’s time to produce the case diary. This delayed Taslim’s bail hearing to two weeks as the next hearing was scheduled to take place on October 25.

As another dilatory tactic, on October 25, the government informed the court that the case diary was available but the case diary of cross case was not in their possession. This led the court to adjourn the matter to October 28. Yesterday, on October 28, the high court again adjourned the matter for hearing till November 9, but this was a request from Ali’s lawyer Ehtesham Hashmi.

On the other hand, Ali’s attackers, who were caught in a video assaulting him, are already out on bail. As per media reports, 14 people were booked for assault.

According to an Article 14 report, the 25-year-old Ali’s wife and five children have been depending on relatives and friends for food and care, in addition to the mental trauma of complicated legal procedures. While Ali’s younger brother Salman is home, another brother, Jamal, is busy making the rounds of advocates and courts every day in Indore, as per the publication.

Taslim Ali moved the high court, when in August, the sessions court had denied him bail after ruling that the allegations against him were of grave nature.

The orders may be read here:

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NHRC asks MP Chief Secy Bains to report on the 28 tortured prisoners in six weeks

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 13:08:18 +0000

Image Courtesy:timesnownews.com

Following Madhya Pradesh government’s silence over National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) recommendations for legal action against Bhopal Central jail authorities for alleged physical and mental torture of 28 prisoners allegedly from the banned outfit SIMI, the organisations demanded a response from Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains within next six weeks, reported the Indian Express on April 13, 2021.

Two weeks after the NHRC’s letter, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) member Madhuri Krishnaswamy, Innocence Network’s human rights activists Wahid Shaikh and Fawaz Shaheen, and Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims member Masood Ahmed met Bains and Director General (Prisons) Arvind Kumar, to push for NHRC’s recommendations.

A three-member investigation team had written these recommendations after the NHRC conducted a spot inquiry to ascertain the veracity of the complaint made in May 2017, by Nazma Bi and nine other relatives of 21 undertrial prisoners. Victims’ kin alleged that they were subjected to constant torture after eight prisoners escaped in October 2016 and were subsequently killed in a police encounter the following day.

The team asked for legal action against jail authorities directly and indirectly involved in beating, torture, criminal intimidation and denial of basic human rights. The NHRC report also recommended action against the prison doctor Premendra Sharma, for failing to record injuries and the history of assault and torture incidents in prisoners’ medical tickets.

Further, the NHRC called for a high-level committee under a secretary rank officer to: address grievances of convicts; relax their solitary confinement to the extent possible, ensure adequate food, clothing, water, access to magazines, newspapers; ensure that prisoners are not forced to raise religious slogans.

Krishnaswamy pointed out that despite three years of waiting, the government remains reluctant to follow NHRC’s recommendations that only provide basic rights to convicts. In response, DG Kumar said the administration is “studying the jail administration’s response” and will respond to the letter in due time.

NHRC’s attention to the matter came after the DIG (Jails)’s claim in February 2021, that inmates were illegally demanding facilities such as uninterrupted movement in the campus, collective reading of namaz, individual newspapers. Seven inmates were on a hunger strike since September 2020 for these demands.

Meanwhile, family members like Haidar Hussain Nagori told the Indian Express how his brother Safdar Nagori was frisked 28 times at night and forced to chant “Jai Shree Ram” if he wanted food. Similarly, Kamaruddin Nagori’s brother talked about how his sibling lost 14 kg in the past 45 days. Further allegations claimed that prisoners are not given warm clothes even when sent from home. Farhad Khan’s brother, Arshad Khan claimed that the Holy Quran was frisked and checked twice a day and thrown on the ground. He further alleged that jail authorities tried to adopt ways to communally incite prisoners, who are subsequently beaten up.

The NHRC had detailed such events in its report but the City Central Jail’s SP denied all allegations. However, a later complaint by the Jamia teachers Solidarity Association stated that the torture intensified following the Commission’s visit.

The NHRC has asked the state government to probe the serious allegations and asked the Chief Secretary to submit an appropriate response.

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MP gov’t closes 36 employment offices, unique protest ensues

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 09:42:36 +0000

Image Courtesy:freepressjournal.in

As many as 36 employment district offices in Madhya Pradesh will be closed by the state, announced Youth Welfare Minister Yashodhra Raje during Legislative Assembly proceedings on March 2, 2021. This decision came at a time when over 13 lakh candidates have already registered for government employment from March 2020 till February 10, 2021 in Madhya Pradesh alone.

On March 4, some news channels covered a huge protest rally in Badwani district wherein youths demanded employment that was promised to them by the state government. Agitators conducted rallies and prostrated on the ground requesting the government to carry out their appointment as government employees.

Members of the protest also started a hashtag on social media “Rojgar Do” to promote their cause further. However, according to a protester speaking to the NDTV India, the government has not responded despite making promises in view of approaching municipal elections.

According to Madhya Pradesh government data, 13,57,493 applicants registered in employment exchange offices across 51 districts since last year. Of them, as many as 56,712 people applied in Guna district.

Registration at such offices is mandatory to apply for any government position. Accordingly, Madhya Pradesh recorded a 19-fold jump in unemployment registration compared to last year. Between January 1, 2021 and February 25, 2021 as many as 7,73,489 unemployed persons registered with the State Employment Exchange, said the NewsClick.

Moreover, the State Employment Exchange website stated that 5.12 lakh unemployed people registered in January 2021 and 2.60 lakh people registered by February 25, 2021. Meanwhile, 5.12 lakh people registered in 2020 and 8.45 lakh people registered as unemployed in 2019.

It is alarming that in the face of this steadily growing unemployment rate, the state government is choosing to close employment offices. Raje told the Free Press Journal that the government had taken this decision because none of the government, semi government, private companies, industries and other departments called aspirants for the interview whose names were registered at employment offices.

However, an NDTV report showed that nearly 1 lakh government posts are empty owing to the lack of related examinations in the last three years. Further, nearly one and a half crore people in Madhya Pradesh are unemployed, even though according to the government’s economic surveys, nearly 24.72 lakh people are registered as unemployed. In the school education sector, 70,000 posts are vacant. Similarly, the police department has about 90,000 empty posts but nearly three lakh applicants lost the opportunity due to delay in appointment for the last three years.

While unemployed youths agitated in the streets, the Guest Scholars’ Association reminded Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan via media reports of his promise to take them back in the administrative system. There are about 600 guest scholars waiting for a job for the last 13 months and more, said the Free Press Journal.

Hashtags like “Rojgar Do,” “Modi Job Do,” “Student Demands,” “Unemployment” are frequently being used on social media as the youth grows weary of the Modi-regime’s empty promise of 2 crore jobs.

According to Centre for Labour Studies Assistant Professor Avinash Kumar at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) speaking to The Telegraph, the share of public employment has fallen to below 20 percent out of over 100 million regular employment opportunities in 2018. This means that government jobs are decreasing annually despite their popularity among the youth.

Kumar argued that the government is largely to blame for this owing to neglect in providing public services and ill-conceived policy shocks such as demonetisation. He stated that when the government itself is sitting over its recruitments for years, it is amplifying the anger of youths.

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Madhya Pradesh may table anti ‘Love jihad’ bill in State Assembly soon!

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 13:06:15 +0000

Image Courtesy:indiaupdates.in

After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state governments of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (UP), the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government has announced that it will soon table an anti ‘Love jihad’ bill in the State Assembly. The state government has joined the others from the same political party in taking decisive steps to give legal recognition to the term “love jihad” which has been used by the right wing to attack interfaith couples.

It mostly targets Muslim men who are in a relationship with a Hindu woman. The right wing has invoked the term each time a Hindu woman is linked with a Muslim man, even if it is in a fictional depiction in an advertisement or film. It is almost a war cry when a Hindu woman is the unfortunate victim of a heinous crime such as rape, molestraion, sexual or dowry related harrasement. State governments have all but officially declared ‘love Jihad’ a crime, even though the term is not recognised in the Indian Penal Code.

Now, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra has confirmed that a “love jihad” bill will soon be introduced in the state Assembly. Once passed in the Assembly, it will include a five year rigorous imprisonment for those found violating it. The offence will be cognisable and non-bailable, said Mishra, adding that a provision to “declare marriages taking place forcefully, out of fraud or by tempting someone, for religious conversion, null and void,” will be included in the Bill. It will also consider those assisting “in committing this crime” as a “a party to the crime,” Mishra told the media.

सरकार प्रदेश में धर्मांतरण के लिए विवाह पर रोक लगाने वाला विधेयक विधानसभा के अगले सत्र में लाने की तैयारी कर रही है। इसे गैर जमानती अपराध घोषित कर मुख्य आरोपी और इसमें सहभागियों को 5 साल की कठोर सजा का प्रावधान किया जा रहा है।@BJP4MP @mohdept @DGP_MP pic.twitter.com/59bTrpl6Pn

— Dr Narottam Mishra (@drnarottammisra) November 17, 2020

As reported earlier across the media, MP’s CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan had already hinted at this new legislation against “love jihad”. The politicians are not clear on how they will propose to ignore the right to marry a person of one’s choice is guaranteed enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. Earlier this year, the Government informed Parliament that no cases of ‘love jihad’ have been reported by any of the central agencies and the term was not defined under any existing law. Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy had said Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees the freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion subject to public order, morality and health. Various courts, including the Kerala High Court, have upheld this view.

“The term ‘love jihad’ is not defined under the extant laws. No such case of ‘love jihad’ has been reported by any of the central agencies,” he had said in Parliament in reply to a written question.

The communal and patriarchal bogey called ‘Love Jihad’, created by right wing Hindutva groups, and legitimised by politicians, had got a booster dose of support recently from the Haryana government which declared it may soon bring in a law to check ‘love jihad’. The state’s chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said, “Both the Centre and the state government are taking the love jihad issue very seriously… legal provisions are being contemplated so that the guilty cannot escape and no innocent person is punished.”

Haryana’s Home Minister Anil Vij called ‘love jihad’ a disease that needed a cure, “so we can save young girls.’ Vij and Khattar’s anti ‘love jihad’ proclamations come close on the heels of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath’s ‘warning’ to Hindu-Muslim couples contemplating marriage. Adityanath had announced that his government was working to bring a strict law to curb incidents of “love jihad”. Both states have been in the limelight for a rise is crimes against women, inlcuding stalking, rape, murder, and molestation, espcialy against Dalit women and teenagers. However, men leading the governments in the state seem to feel that targeting interfaith couples who marry consensually under the law of the land should be given priority instead of strengthening the implementation of existing laws to ensure security and safety for all citizens.

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