Unconfirmed reports also said that bastis in which Muslims lived were also attacked leaving many from the minority injured. Uttar Pradesh under the newly elected BJP government headed by Yogi Adityanath has seen a spiral in violent conflicts especially with the entitled and powerful castes unleashing terror against the marginalised. The fact that Dalits and religious minorities in many parts have been demonstrating signs of social and politcal unity has threatened entrenched and exploitative interests further.

Photos of injured vistims at Sahranpur district hospital

The photos on the over two dozen severely injured show the scale and brutality of the violence that was unleashed.

Photos of injured vistims at Sahranpur district hospital

Saharanpur has been on the boil since May 5 a fortnight ago after sections of the Dalit leadership affiliated to the ruling BJP clashed with the administration and in the first instance, shops and establishments of local Muslims were attacked. When any communal reaction was contained, the conflict has erupted into an all out show of upper caste brute strength (Jats and Thakurs) against the Dalit population.

Reports suggested that certain miscreants from the more powerful castes had even prepared bottles with petrol to attack Mayawati's procession and were stopped in time by the police. Thereafter when the attacks on the villages took place however, the police and administration failed to act and save lives.

Later, some unidentified, sword wielding persons attacked a Bolero car of BSP supporters, who had come from Sarsawa. The sources said the attackers fired their guns and wielded batons, killing one Dalit person on the spot and injuring four others. The injured have been admitted to the district hospital. Saharanpur has been in the grip of caste violence since April. Tension prevailed till late in the evening and into midnight.

On May 5, a Dalit group had objected to a procession of Thakurs in Shabbirpur to mark the birth anniversary of Rajput king Maharana Pratap, triggering violence, in which one person was killed and over 15 were injured.Dalit victims of the clashes say upper caste Thakurs  had earlier prevented them from installing a statue of BR Ambedkar on the premises of the Ravidas temple in the village.

Photos of injured vistims at Sahranpur district hospital

The post Two Killed after Dalits Brutally Attacked in Chandpur and Bahupura Villages, Saharanpur appeared first on SabrangIndia.

‘These people do not know hunger’: An author struggles to make sense of the Jharkhand lynchings
As seven people are killed, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar explains how cattle bind together the various communities of his ancestral village.

“The people who did this, they seem to have never seen or experienced hunger in their lives. They seem to have never been deprived of food. They just cannot understand to what extremes hunger drives a person. They just cannot understand what all a man can eat if he is kept hungry for days.”
My father’s response was to the horrific incident that took place in Reasi in Jammu late in April in which a nomadic family of five was attacked by apparent cow vigilantes, about 200 of them, who believed that the Gujjars – travelling with their goats, sheep, and cattle – were taking the cows to slaughter. The people my father referred to, the ones who did not know hunger, were those cow vigilantes.
“The poor are attacked for the scraps they somehow manage to find to eat.” The anguish in my father’s voice had not ebbed. “What will these gau rakshaks ever know about having to survive on a dead cow’s entrails?”

Life in Kishoripur

He proceeded to tell me how it was a norm among Santhals and other low-caste Hindus to utilise the remains of a dead cow for food and other purposes. He gave the example of our own village.

Kishoripur, my ancestral village, is in the Chakulia block of Jharkhand’s East Singbhum district. Kishoripur is a Santhal village, with the next two dominant communities being the Kamar (the blacksmith caste) and the Kunkal (the potter caste), both included in the Backward Caste category, yet, both considering themselves above the Santhals in the caste hierarchy though the Santhals, because we are Adivasis, do not have a caste system at all. The fictional village of Kadmadihi in my novel, The Mysterious Ailment Of Rupi Baskey, was partly modeled on Kishoripur and I have mentioned how the Kamar considered Santhals to be untouchables despite the Santhals being a majority.

In Kishoripur, too, the Kamar, years ago, considered Santhals to be untouchables. Though this situation has changed now and Kamar families come to draw water from the well my family owns, there are certain taboos that the Kamar and the Kunkal and other non-Adivasi communities in Kishoripur still adhere to. For example, the disposal of dead cattle.
In Kishoripur, which is primarily an agricultural village, nearly all families – Santhals as well as non-Santhals – own farm land and cattle to plough those lands. Apart from cows and bullocks, several families own goats and sheep. Some Santhal families also have pigs. Yet, when cattle die, a non-Adivasi family does not touch the carcass. Cattle, when alive, are an asset, but, when dead, are impure. Hence, it becomes the job of the Santhals – either from Kishoripur or some other, nearby villages – to carry the dead cattle to the “bhagar”, the spot where animal carcasses are placed. There is a saying in the colloquial Bengali spoken in the villages: “Sokunay chinay bhagar” – a vulture identifies a bhagar.

The Santhals do not just dump the dead cattle at the bhagar. They use whatever can be used of the dead animal. The skin is used for making drums and other objects. If the carcass is fresh, the flesh is cut away to be eaten as food, especially the flesh from the rump of the cattle. Those with a taste for the entrails take those away as well. The rest of the carcass is left for the sokun, the vultures.

In some villages, Muslims, who work with animal skin, come to take the dead cattle from the houses of higher-caste Hindus or those Hindus who consider themselves too pure to touch their own dead cattle to skin the carcass. Some Muslims also come to take away dead goats and sheep.

No one is killing an animal. No one is slaughtering a cow or a bullock or a buffalo or even a goat or a sheep. It is a dead animal that is providing for the needs of human beings. Down the years, despite the concept of purity and impurity, despite the caste and community differences, people from all communities in our village have lived in an atmosphere of symbiosis. There had never been the need for any cow vigilantes or goat vigilantes.

My father proceeded to recount how, during times of drought and scarcity of food, it was this meat from the carcass of a dead cow that helped people survive. The flesh of the dead cattle was cut into long, rope-like pieces. “The thick, strong plastic rope we use nowadays,” my father gave an example to show what that rope of beef looked like. Those ropes of beef were placed out in the sun to dry on bamboo lattices, which are commonly used as boundary walls around houses in villages. Drying in the sun preserved the beef, and this preserved beef saw the poor, the lower caste and the supposedly impure through days of drought and hunger.

The nomadic family that was attacked by gau rakshaks in Jammu was, perhaps, among these poor, hungry, and impure people. They were attacked by the pure gau rakshaks despite not having a single dead cow with them. Imagine what would have happened had they been carrying beef?

“Desperation drives the hungry and the poor to gather something to eat, in any way.” My father’s voice was laced with emotion. “The gau-rakshaks will never understand this.”

My father told me about a tradition in some villages where agriculture is the primary occupation and there is a lack of pasture where cattle may be taken out for grazing. Our village, Kishoripur, is one such place. In villages like these, during the farming months, from Ashadh (mid-June in the Gregorian calendar, when sowing takes place) till Kartik (mid-October in the Gregorian calendar, when harvesting takes place), the cattle of these villages are taken to settlements where there is enough pasture for the cattle to graze for three or four months. The cattle our family owns in Kishoripur, for instance, are taken to the house of a Mahato family – Mahato are Hindus, placed in the Backward Caste category – in a village called Purnapani. Purnapani is about 10 kilometres away from Kishoripur, a little off the aerodrome of the Allied Powers built in Chakulia during World War II.

Down the decades, this tradition has been ingrained so deeply that our family does not need to go to this Mahato family. Someone from this Mahato family comes to Kishoripur in June, takes all our cattle – except the bullocks we need to plough our fields – to Purnapani. While we busy ourselves with our farming, this Mahato family takes care of our cattle in their village for four months. Then, during Sohrai – the harvest festival celebrated by the Santhals, in October-November in southern Jharkhand – someone from the Mahato family comes to us in Kishoripur with all our cattle. In return, we give that Mahato family a share of our produce, usually paddy. That is how a relationship between a Santhal family and a Mahato family has grown down the decades, though their lives are so different from one another. Cattle has bound us together.

Now imagine this transport of cattle between two villages, two families, for practical reasons, in the times of purity-driven cow vigilantism.

A lone Mahato man – a member of a backward caste – is taking, perhaps, ten cows to his village to look after them while the Santhal owners of those animals are busy farming. The gau rakshaks – pure, high-caste Hindu men, who would, perhaps, never understand this relationship between a Santhal family and a Mahato family – find this Mahato man with these cows. They suspect that he is a cattle smuggler, taking the cows for slaughter. They beat him up. They might even kill him. If a lone Santhal man brings his cows back from a Mahato family, he might be in even deeper trouble. The gau rakshaks already know Adivasis to be consumers of beef.

Cow vigilantism has received some boost in Jharkhand, with cow vigilantes in April attacking even policemen on hearing rumours of cows being taken for slaughter. Maybe this was not enough. So an even more horrific method of unleashing violence and terror has been introduced in Jharkhand: branding apparently innocent men as the abductors of little children.

In the past few days, at least seven people, some of whom were reported to be cattle traders, have been lynched by mobs, fearing that those men were kidnappers. Seven men were lynched in Seraikella-Kharsawan district, while one man was lynched in Narwa area of East Singbhum district. Seraikella is one of my favourite places, while East Singbhum is my own home district. The news of these killings have filled me with terror even as I sit in Pakur in northern Jharkhand, nearly 700 kilometres away from those scenes of crime in southern Jharkhand.

The practice of mobs lynching people for possessing or consuming beef will be unlikely to become commonplace in Jharkhand, in my opinion, because the state, due to its remarkable Adivasi population, has traditionally been known to be a consumer of beef, pork, and whatever else might be considered taboo or inedible by the majority – for example, monitor lizards. Hence, what new story could be cooked up to create a situation of fear and distrust? What is most dear to people? Their children. Accuse some people of being kidnappers of children and have them lynched. In this age, when social media has become a carrier of hatred, is it that difficult to get anyone lynched? Be it beef or the abduction of little children, everything is just a pretext, an excuse. The purpose is to kill, to terrorise, to dominate, to create a pure and ideal kingdom.

Nearly every day, I see Santhal men, women, and children migrating from Pakur. So many minors must being kidnapped, forced to do things that no human being aspiring to live a life of dignity should ever do. Why is there no outrage? Why does a stray rumour of a kidnapping makes a mob in a mofussil town lynch some men ruthlessly while the entire nation is quite blind to the reality of Adivasi women and children being trafficked day in and day out?

Some days ago, I watched an English-language horror film called Darkness Falls. Roughly based on the legend of the Tooth Fairy and set in a fictional town called Darkness Falls, this film tells the story of a widow who loves children and whom children adore. However, when two children go missing, the townspeople blame that widow and burn her. When those two children are found unharmed, the people realise their mistake: they had killed an innocent woman. But it is too late. The vengeful soul of that widow returns to kill the children and adults of that town.
In this lynching movement against non-existent abductors of children, are we turning innocent men into vengeful souls?

In the film, the innocent widow is shown turning into a fearful villain and, in the climax, is killed the way villains are usually killed in mainstream, adrenaline-pumping films. She does not find justice, although everyone knows that she was innocent. In these lynching incidents too, I am afraid, those who are lynched will never find justice. Once branded villains, they will remain villains. An innocent man being killed for no fault of his, an innocent man not being given an opportunity to clear his name as he is already dead, an innocent man never finding justice – that is the kingdom we should be afraid of.

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar is a doctor and the author most recently of The Adivasi Will Not Dance, a collection of short stories.

The post ‘They Do Not Know Hunger’ Says An Author, trying to Grapple with Brutal Jharkand Killings appeared first on SabrangIndia.

With an aim to overcome the negative feedback after Delhi had a series of violent attacks on African nationals in March this year, the Delhi University has undertaken a slew of measures to encourage more enrolment. These measures include an extension of online registration for foreign nationals till May 31 and answering their queries on email.

The Foreign Students Registry (FSR) of the varsity has received over 300 applications from African nationals, the varsity said in a statement. The FSR office will also answer queries from African students on fsr@du.ac.in and fsr_du@yahoo.com and respond to phone calls on 91-11-27666756. "To increase the number, the varsity will be extending online registration deadline for foreign nationals from 20 April to May 31," it said. "The varsity is committed to reaching out to international students which will result in strengthening social, cultural and political ties between the two countries," the varsitys registrar said in the statement.

The spate of attacks in Delhi's prestigious Vasant Kunj area and the Greater Noida areas had drawn some condemnation when they happened. A serious diplomatic crisis had been caused with the diplomats of all African nations demanding accountability from India.

Representatives of 44 African countries had, at the time, accused the Indian government of failing to do enough to stop racist attacks on their nationals following a series of brutal assaults targeting Nigerians.Around a dozen people were injured, some seriously, when a mob angered by the death of a local teenager went on the rampage in a satellite city of New Delhi o March 30.The violence erupted after a group of Nigerian students who were detained in connection with the teen's death were released without charge, with police saying there was no evidence against them. The vicious assault was captured on camera and shared widely on social media, triggering concern over a rise in racist violence against Africans in India. Not even a year had passed since Congolese resident M.K. Oliver was murdered in Delhi that reprehensible attacks on African students in India have resurfaced. In 2016 there were brute attacks even in the city of Bengalaru.

What had compounded the grave human rights violations that had errupted into a diplomatic crisis was the fact that BJP MP Tarun Vijay had stated, "If we were racist, why would we have the entire south (India)… which is you know, completely Tamil, you know Kerala, you know Karnataka and Andhra. Why do we live with them …We have blacks, black people around us. You are denying your own nation, you are denying your ancestry, you are denying your culture." Mr Vijay who had made these remarks while participating in a TV debate on racism in India in the context of last week's attacks on Nigerians in Delhi suburb Greater Noida had thereafter 'apologised.'

Within two months of the brutal attacks when India faced the Universal Periodic Review for its human rights record at the United Nations however, no African country made reference to the brutal assaults though they had caused  diplomatic crisis at the time. Only Haiti, in its remarks had brought up the string of racial attacks on African students.
Economics is also a driving factor given that these enrolments by foreign students add substantial amounts to the university's exchequer. The Association of African Students in India had called on the government of India to take concrete steps to protest the lives and properties of all African students in India, and especially in Uttar Pradesh following the recent false allegations laid on five Nigerian students.

They had demanded that :
1. Failure to secure the lives of African students and to ensure maximum security in areas were African students live, we will write to African Union to cut all bi-lateral trade with India.
2. We will ensure that all the local media houses in our respective countries get details of the growing racism which African students are facing in India.
3. We will ensure that a detailed report on the barbaric racism African students are facing in India is sent to the high levels of all African governments and heads of state.
4. We will ask African students in our respective countries to stop making India their study destination with immediate effect.
5. We will call for a nationwide protest inviting all international media houses.

The People's Alliance for Democracy and Seculatism (PADS) had addressed a strong statement to the African Media and Civil Society Information Networks and identified the following reasons or tendencies behind the attacks:
 

• First, discriminatory, restrictive and narrow-minded attitudes towards many of  those who are seen by some of us as being different from  ourselves whether in terms of colour, origin, opinions, mannerisms, lifestyle or in the degree of power, resources and influence they may or may not command,  have  strengthened over the years.
• Second, not only some foreigners but also some of our own people have in recent times been targeted as a consequence of the growth of a  mob mentality among sections of our people  in recent years.
• Third, there is an increasing tendency on the part of a section of our people to arrive at conclusions on the basis of unverified assumptions and, under cover of these, to take law into their own hands.

Calling for an urgent halt to such brutality and  to bring the miscreants responsible for such criminal conduct to book, the organisation had earnestly hoped that there would be exemplary punishment to  the perpetrators on behalf of the law enforcement authorities and that the Indian government would meet all costs for treatment as also provide adequate protection.
 
 
 
 
 

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In a major boon to India’s powerful industrial group, the Adanis have been offered a $320 million “royalties holiday” in their prestigious coalmining project in Australia. The offer, reports Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), requires the Adanis to pay “just $2 million a year in royalties once the $21 billion project starts operating.”

Pointing out that “the royalty rate will then increase after several years”, quoting sources, ABC said, “Under the proposed agreement, the state would lose out on a total of $320 million in royalties”. The offer has come following Queensland state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s negotiations with Adanis over the proposed royalties holiday.
Following the negotiations, the report quotes Palaszczuk as saying, "What we know about this project is that it is vital for regional jobs." The Carmichael project is expected to produce 25 million tonnes of coal a year in its first phase.

In a separate report, the British Guardian reports, it is a “$320m deferment of Carmichael coal export royalties”, adding, the Queensland government offer comes after “a former climate change adviser to the federal government said risks inherent in Australia’s largest proposed coalmine meant Adani could shelve its plans.”

The Guardian quotes Prof Will Steffen’s Climate Council report to say that a “carbon budget” approach to a global warming limit of 2C rules out Carmichael coalmine.
“As a catalyst for opening up neighbouring mines, it could lead to total emissions from Galilee basin coal matching ‘one of the top 15 emitting countries in the world’ and making up 130% of Australia’s total carbon pollution.”, the report adds.

Quoting from the report, the Guardian says, “The carbon budget for 2C allows for less than 10% of existing Australian coal reserves to be dug up, leaving ‘no basis for developing any potential new coalmines, no matter where they are or what size they are’. This takes into account the ‘most economical’ existing sources of coal worldwide.”
“There are two undeniable trends – an accelerating uptake of renewable energy and coal plant closures,” the report is further quoted as saying. “For Australia to fight these trends is
economically, socially and environmentally unwise and counterproductive.”

Steffen said his key observation from the report was that rising impacts at “modest temperature rises” – such as bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef – along with more extreme events and warming of 1.1C-1.2C already “really put the pressure on getting out of fossil fuels probably faster than most people have thought”.
Coal, which gives out “a lot more CO2 per unit of energy” than oil or gas, comes out as “the biggest loser” under a carbon budget, Steffen said, adding, “Basically, the story is we can still burn over half the conventional oil reserves, less than half the conventional gas reserves, but very little of the coal reserves, because coal emits a lot more CO2 per unit of energy.”

“The real question is how fast can we phase out our existing mines and existing power stations before their normal lifetime is up. How do we hasten the transition? So any talk of opening up a vast new area of coal is completely out of whack with what we know about what’s happening with the climate systems”, he added.

Related Articles:

1. Australian Govt Fails to Pass Native Title Changes: Setback to Adani
2. Adani: Indian Fishermen warn Australia against Environmental Impact ahead of Coal Mine Talks – ABC News
 
 

The post Adanis “offered” $320 million royalties holiday for Australian coalmining project, even as expert says it is “not viable” appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Nisarpur, one of the villages on the bank of the Narmada facing the threat of submergence, is now on the warpath. With the central and state governments threatening to evict villagers forcibly, sending police officials as 'emmisaries' even as the Narmada authorities are avoiding any dialogue, thousands of women and men have been on the streets every day.

About 100 kilometres from the Gujarat border, not very far from the Narmada river in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, Nisarpur village is on the warpath. With forcible eviction looming large over the village and government sending police officials to warn people, here, thousands of women and men are on the street every day. Three days back, it was total strike with all shops and activities closed. On Wednesday, the villagers took out a torchlight procession. On Thursday, again, there was a rally and mass meeting, followed by a special gram sabha to pass a resolute against evicting them by closing down the Narmada dam’s 30-odd gates.

Determined to challenge eviction, the big village, where about 3,000 families live, is almost a township. With all the social and public services, shops and markets, it is, however, dependent on agriculture. Traders to artisans, all gain their livelihood, thanks to the village’s agricultural prosperity.

Farmers of the village grow wheat, maize, banana, papaya, cotton, among other crops. The prime agricultural land attached with the village and all the houses of Nisarpur were recorded as affected by the Narmada Dam at levels below 110 meters.

Lands were officially declared acquired in the year 2000, but most of the farmers, potters, fish workers, laborers, and artisans yet to be rehabilitated. Majority of villagers complain extremely poor compensation for houses they have been asked to leave. The compensation is far from sufficient to build new houses at resettlement sites the project affected families (PAFs) have been offered.

The land the PAFs at the resettlement site has being offered has been acquired from 50-odd landholders. On this site, the project affected families (PAFs) if from four other villages — Kothada, Karandia, Raswa, and Rakti – would be resettled. Ironically, 30 of these 50 landlords today are landless!
Nisarpur is just three km away from Narmada river and the well-known Koteshwar temple complex. Within this single village there are some 30 temples and 10 mosques.

Approximately 60% of Nisarpur’s population is poor, yet they have not received alternative livelihood, which ranges from fishing to making bricks at brick kilns. Many of them have not been allocated housing plots and have been cheated by middlemen, who grabbed the documents, especially of widows, and duped them.

Only recently, when complaints were written by activists, one middleman returned a widow’s documents along with Rs 15,000. However, all are not so lucky.
This is not just the case with Nisarpur but also of large number of other villages in the three districts in bordering Narmada. Government officials are visiting each of the villages, telling people to vacate the villages. In order to make their mission successful, they are paying visits to communities as never before. While police and the lower revenue officials are ready for a dialogue, this not the case with higher officials attached with the Narmada project.

Meanwhile, villagers suspect, the recent inter-state meeting of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) in Delhi on May 17, 2017, would ensure that they are forced out of their village within the next two months, They strongly feel that all this is in violation of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) and Supreme Court orders.
 

Related Articles:
1. 8,000 Dam Effected Families "threatened" with forcible eviction by MP Officials
2. Rally for the Valley SAVE NARMADA, SAVE LIFE!

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Alumni and students have protested an invitation to the controversial former inspector general of Bastar, Chattisgarh, SRP Kalluri to speak at a journalism seminar at Delhi’s Indian Institute of Mass Communication on Saturday has drawn protests from some students and alumni. “Should such a media-baiter [Indian Police Service] officer, who is also alleged to have hounded many journalists out of his region, be allowed to speak on the premises of a media institute of international repute?” about 50 alumni said in a letter on Thursday night to the government-run media school’s director general, KG Suresh.

In a letter circulated in the public dommain, they added: “Though we do not dispute any citizen’s right to speak on any issue of public importance…we firmly believe IIMC should deny this right to the likes of…Kalluri who loves to hate the media and media persons…” The police officer, who has been dogged by accusations of having been involved in severe human rights violations, has been invited to speak on marginalised communities at a seminar titled “Vartaman Paripreksh me Rashtriya Patrakarita” or nationalist journalism in today’s context.

It isn’t just Kalluri’s presence that has outraged the protestors: they have criticsed the premise of the seminar itself, which will begin, the invitation promises, with a 7 am yajna – a ritual worship or offering made before a fire.

Over the last few years, Kalluri has been accused of stoking protests against journalists, human rights activists, lawyers and researchers in Bastar. Several, including journalist Malini Subramaniam and human rights lawyer, Shalini Gera had to leave the region following harassment on Kalluri’s watch. He was transferred from his post in February. In March, he was served a disciplinary notice for attending an event in Bastar without official permission.

It wasn’t just Kalluri’s presence that had drawn the ire of the protestors: they objected to the theme of the seminar as well. “What defines ‘rashtriya’ journalism?” they asked in their letter. “Has any media school in the world introduced this discourse in its curriculum? What is the origin of the term?….It goes against the scientific and information-driven journalism.”

In addition to the yajna and Kalluri’s piece, the seminar is also scheduled to to feature the editor of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s mouthpiece, Panchjanya.

The seminar is being organised by a group called Media Scan.

Increasingly, at IIMC, the presence of conservative and rightwing groups has grown, drawing consistent protests. Talking to sections of the media, Indian Institute of Mass Communication’s director general KG Suresh described Media Scan as an “organisation of media persons” not affiliated to the Sangh. Suresh said he was unlikely to honour the alumni’s request to scuttle the seminar and, especially, Kalluri’s visit. “If we can listen to the Hurriyat, why can we not listen to Kalluri?” he asked, referring to Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, the Kashmiri separatist party.

A student of the institute, Rohin Kumar had written to him and faculty-members, in protest against the yajna. “The Indian state and its institutions have to maintain [a] “principled distance” from religiosity, is what I was taught,” he wrote. He also argued that the seminar was peddling “jingoism”.

The alumni has countered the director general's defence. “Your bid to wash your hands of the selection of speakers and theme notwithstanding, we believe that IIMC must have convinced itself of the righteousness of [the] seminar’s message before allowing it to be held at IIMC and what impression [it is] going to leave in the national and international community,” they wrote.

Defending himself against charges of allowing the institution to be used to spread RSS propaganda, Suresh pointed out that the campus is virtually empty now. “The academic session is over,” he said. “Except for the few in the hostel – who will vacate by May 31 – there is not even a single student here. Who am I saffronising then? The buildings?” He further said that the event being on a Saturday, no faculty or staff-member will be on campus either. “It will be their [Media Scan’s] own people and invitees,” he said. “If I had to saffronise, I would do it during the academic session.”

The text of the letter circulated by alumni may be read here:

An open letter to DG- IIMC, New Delhi

Sir,
We, the former students of IIMC, are writing to you to express grave concern over a few developments in the institute.

It is learnt that the institute has given permission to Media Scan for organising a daylong programme on ‘Rashtriya Patrakarita’ which translates as ‘National Journalism’ in English.

You are quoted by ‘The Telegraph’ on May 17, 2017 saying that IIMC is not an organiser but has only rented the premises. You have been quoted thus: "We give our hall for the use of media persons who want to organise an event as long as it is not objectionable, communal, obscene or provocative. Renting the hall is expensive. If I want to help a media organisation, we have to become their partner. Our only support is to give the hall. The organising, selection of speakers, paying for snacks et cetera is up to them. Exams and classes are over and we have not asked students to attend. Also, Saturday is a holiday. Can I stop anyone from lighting a lamp or garlanding an image? The yagna won't be held in the hall…..”

Sir, it is good that the institute has come out in support of media seminars and hope that it would be open to other such events as well in future. You have pointed out that the selection of speakers is not done by the institute. However, if a speaker is going to speak on journalism from the premises of IIMC, an institute which has produced hundreds of thousands of media professionals, and he is known for his open contempt to journalists, then it must ring in bells.

One of the speakers is former IG of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, Mr SRP Kalluri. While any individual of the country is well within his rights to speak on any issue of public importance in the institute but the background of that person must be looked into. That of Mr Kalluri, at least, doesn’t inspire much confidence as he has often been in news for
openly condemning media.

To cite an instance, he had openly threatened a Hindustan Times journalist recently when he went seeking clarifications for a story the former IG. The IG is quoted in the newspaper’s Nov 14, 2016 report thus: “Aap log aise karenge to hum aapko jaane hi nahi denge ..mere reference se aap gaye the…,” (If you all do like this, we will not let you visit …you went with my reference to Bastar),” an angry Kalluri told Ritesh Mishra.” Earlier, as the same story speaks, he had told the correspondent of the same newspaper, “You write whatever that comes to your mind. We don’t care a damn….” Should an IPS officer, who gives a damn to media, and is alleged to have hounded out many journalists from his region, be allowed to speak on IIMC premises? Sir, you have been a stalwart in journalism and therefore we request to ponder over this question. We, at this juncture, are not bringing forth the human rights abuses that he has been found doing in Bastar for which he has also been admonished by the National Human Rights Commission. “Chhattisgarh
Police raped and assaulted 16 women: NHRC” screamed a newspaper headline about Bijapur region of Bastar range which was taken care of by Mr Kalluri. The full report can be
read accessed through the hyperlink.

To us, the very theme of the seminar, “Rashtriya Patrakarita” sounded perplexing. What exactly is meant by this term? What defines ‘rashtriya’ journalism? Is asking questions or doubting the State considered not ‘rashtriya’? Isn’t these two things fundamental to journalism? Moreover, in our nine-month stay at IIMC, none of our teachers or academics introduced us to this term called ‘national journalism’. Has any media school in the world introduced this discourse in its curriculum? From where does this term stem? In fact, you yourself, taught editing to many a batch. We don’t remember even you using this term. Goes without saying, it goes against the scientific and “information driven journalism".
You have rightly pointed out that since IIMC is not one of the organisers and therefore it hasn’t selected theme, speakers etc. However, we strongly believe that IIMC must have taken care of the fact that as towhat message would be sent from the premises of the, arguably, the largest media school of Asia in the national and international arena. Can IIMC insulate itself from the consequences?

The programme schedule also points out that ‘yagya’ would be organised as a part of the programme. You have clarified that it will not be done in the hall provided by the IIMC. But the same Telegraph report quotes Media Scan proprietor Ashish Kumar. He says, "The yagna will not be performed by a priest but by one of us as organisers. What's wrong in it? Don't we light lamps and garland pictures at functions?". The report further writes, “Yadav said there was a Saraswati idol near the IIMC entrance but could not "recall any ritual" on it.”

We do believe that everyone is entitled to practise his/her faith. We want to bring in here that IIMC’s vision, as stated on its website, says, “The Indian Institute of Mass Communication will set global standards for media education…..contributing to human development, empowerment and participatory democracy, anchored in pluralism….”. We believe any practise done on the institute’s premises of a one particular religion is not in consonance with the very pluralism that the institute boasts of. Had it been an-all religion prayer meeting, then probably we could not have given this argument.

Sir, though we have passed out from the institute, but we still feel a belongingness towards it. We are writing to you with that spirit. We strongly believe that the organisation of the seminar, at heart of which lie many controversies, would badly damage the reputation of IIMC. And as alumni it would deeply pain us. Also, as stated above, it will not gel with the IIMC values and would, therefore, set a very bad precedent. While you have taken the charge of DG sometime back, a few of us had the good fortune of attending your classes as guest faculty when you were receptive to ideas and arguments of all the hues.

Taking into consideration the concerns raised by us, we respectfully demand the cancellation of the permission given to the organisers of this seminar. Also, we hope, that in future, you would consider all these points for the sake of good the institute.

Regards,
We, the journalists who were students of IIMC
 
There are over four dozen signatories to this protest letter.

The post What is Media Bashing ex-IG Kalluri Doing at Journalism School (IIMC) Seminar? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

India’s banking system, which was robust enough to withstand the financial crisis of 2008, is facing a crisis today. The banks, particularly the public sector ones, are burdened with huge amounts of non performing assets (NPAs), which are threatening the viability of the banking sector.
In the last three years, under BJP rule at the center, the NPAs of the banks have tripled – from Rs. 2.3 lakh crores to Rs. 6.8 lakh crores. Currently, the NPAs of public sector banks stand as high as 11% of their total advances.

Non-repayment of loans by some of India’s biggest corporate houses is the major cause of this huge accumulation of NPAs. According to the chairman of Parliamentary Accounts Committee, K V Thomas, a handful of big corporate houses account for 70% of the NPAs of the banks.

The Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitly, tried to absolve himself and his government of all the blame, claiming that the NPAs are a legacy problem. According to him the loans that were given during UPA government have turned bad and are accumulating as NPAs today.

While it is true that the UPA government compelled the public sector banks to dole out loans worth lakhs of crores to a handful of corporates, the BJP government is not far behind. It is helping the same corporates in continuing to default on the repayments – with the aid of loan refinancing and restructuring schemes introduced by the Reserve Bank.
In the last three Modi years, public sector banks have been pressured to restructure bad loans (under various schemes of RBI) worth Rs. 3.5 lakh crores belonging to the corporate houses.. These restructuring deals simply meant that the companies get new loans to pay off their old loans, which they have already defaulted on. These schemes also involve changing the terms of payments in favour of the defaulting corporates.

The infamous case of Vijay Mallya defrauding the public sector banks, is all too well known. Less publicised are those of Modi’s own crony capitalists. It is estimated that companies controlled by Adani, owe a debt of Rs. 72,000 crores mostly to public sector banks.
Since 2014, two power companies controlled by Adani’s firms have been extended loan refinance worth Rs. 15,000 crore by the public sector banks. This was done when both the companies’ earnings -before tax- were not even enough to cover the interest cost on the loans they have taken. In this sweetheart deal, the previous defaulted loans were replaced with new loans and loan repayment date was extended by one more decade. Additionally, a moratorium on interest payments was given for a considerable period, meaning that in this period these two firms need not pay even the interest amount.

Similarly, after Modi came to power, Mr. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Gas Transport Infrastructure Ltd. (RGTIL), was given a loan refinance of Rs. 4,500 crores and an extension of payment period by more than a decade.           

According to Arun Jaitly, most of the NPAs and bad loans are due to projects in power, infrastructure, mining and steel sectors – which are owned by the large corporates like Reliance, Adani and Vedanta. Let us not forget, these are the same companies (remember Vedanta’s land grab in Orissa), whose factories and plants were set up by grabbing thousands of acres of land belonging to famers and tribals.

These billionaire promoters and owners of the companies should have been compelled to transfer the shares (equity) of these companies, to the public sector banks, in lieu of the unpaid loans. Or, they should have been made to inject fresh capital in to the defaulting companies. Refinancing of the loans, extension of payment schedules and moratoriums on interest payments – without placing any responsibility on those who control the companies are bound to bring even heavier losses to the banks in the coming days.

The government seems to think that Mukesh Ambani, with net worth of more than Rs. 1.5 lakh crore rupees needs assistance in paying back the loans of his companies, while the farmers of this country are given no recourse after severe droughts and crop losses. Desperate after years of draught, farmers from Tamil Nadu and elsewhere have been agitating for months for loan waivers. Their appeals to the central government have fallen on deaf ears. Modi government steadfastly refused to provide any assistance to the debt ridden farmers. Are the farmer’s making ridiculous demands? Consider this – The entire amount of crop loans in India is worth Rs. 75,000 crore, while Mr. Adani’s firms alone owes Rs. 72,000 crores to the banking system. Adani gets a generous restructuring on the defaulted loans, while the farmers get tough love.

While the corporates are being given a free pass, Mr. Modi’s pets in RBI are baying for the blood of public sector banks. Recently, RBI’s deputy chairman Viral Aacharya suggested that the solution to the NPA crisis is re-privatisation of some of the public sector banks and some divestment of government’s stake in others, in favour of private players. RBI Chairman, Mr. Urjit Patel was not far behind, with suggestion that small banks afflicted with NPA problems should be allowed to perish naturally. The RBI satraps seem to be forgetting that it is the bulwark of public sector banks that protected India’s financial system from the crisis of 2008.

For Mr. Modi it is not enough, that Indian corporates have defrauded banks of the public money, they are now being offered the ownership of these banks.
Concession after concession given to corporates is what marks Mr. Modi’s 3 years at the helm and there is no indication of change in course away from this. Mr. Modi is making sure that those whose money purses have brought him power are going to stay safe and sound from the consequences of their own financial and business follies. Now that he has passed a law allowing corporates to make anonymous donations to political parties, grateful corporates will no doubt be flooding him with gratitude funds for his never ending election campaigns.

Courtesy: Newsclick

The post Corporate Loot of Our Banks Has Tripled in 3 Years of the Modi Regime appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Interview with Kiran Chandra
May 19, 2017
Interviewed by Pranjal , a Newsclick Production

Recent media reports have showcased  massive job cuts in the IT sector. Here, in this interview, Kiran Chandra from Forum for IT Professionals, speaks to  Newsclick on the  issue. Automation is one of the chief reasons for this retrenchment. 

Global leaders in the industry, especially in the U.S, have started adopting a protectionist policy for their countries. As a result, they are also altering the way jobs are outsourced to India.

The third important reason for this is the policy paralysis which has affected India over the past three decades. The government has been depending on the US economy for job opportunities rather than building these within India .

The post The Real Reasons Why Jobs are Being Lost in the IT Sector appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Fact Finding Team’s Report on Ambedkar Nagar Demolition (May, 2017)

The post CPDR Fact Finding Team’s Report on Ambedkar Nagar Demolition appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Of the 112 countries, the first batch of questions that will be put are officially out and can be read here. India will have to respond to queries on its human rights record on religion-based discrimination, lawlessness when it comes to attacks on religious minorities stigmatisation of Dalits (a burning issue since the first review) and violence against them. The crushing of dissent and attacks on human rights defenders will be also a matter of concern. It will also be questioned on limits on free speech, limits on work of human rights defenders, attacks on religious minorities, reports of excessive use of force, including in Jammu & Kashmir, and use of AFSPA. Other issues on which it faces questions are combating violence against women, human trafficking, tackling harmful practices such as “honour killings“, early and forced marriages, violence against children and child labour.

India's second report had come in for heavy criticism by Human Rights Council troika ­­ comprising Latvia, the Philippines and South Africa that served as rapporteurs for India's review ­­ and stakeholders in the second review in 2012. At this week's session, India will spell out steps to implement the council's recommendations after the previous reviews which it committed to follow up, as well as highlight the many recent human rights developments in the country. While the 112 countries will be given 45 seconds to 1.5 minutes each, in an intense three-and half hour session, the Indian delegation led by attorney general Mukul Rohatgi will introduce the report prepared by the country and will have to answer questions from the member nations, civil society and the troika. India’s official report can be read here.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), created under the Paris Principles of the United Nations is also supposed to submit an independent assessment and report. This report can be read here.

The Working Group on Human Rights (WGHR), Advocates for Human Rights and Indian American Muslim Council among many organisations have submitted extensive reports and fac sheets on different aspects of the human rights situation. The live web cast of the session on May 4 can be viewed here.

The list of questions this time is longer than 2012. India will also be grilled on how it combats extreme poverty, inequalities in access to health services, high levels of neonatal mortality , stunting, malnutrition, underweight children and attendance of girls in schools. The factsheets prepared by the WGHR may be read here.

The Facsheets prepared by the WGHR are on the following subjects:

• Fact Sheet-01-Right to Adequate Housing
• Fact Sheet-02-Land Rights
• Fact Sheet-03-Right to Food
• Fact Sheet-04-Right to Health
• Fact Sheet-05-Right to Water and Sanitation
• Fact Sheet-06-Right to Education
• Fact Sheet-07-Impact of Trade and Investment Agreements
• Fact Sheet-08-Militarisation and Armed Conflict
• Fact Sheet-09-Torture and Enforced Disappearances
• Fact Sheet-10-Access to Justice
• Fact Sheet-11-Death Penalty
• Fact Sheet-12-Human Rights Defenders, Freedom
• Fact Sheet-13-Women
• Fact Sheet-14-Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
• Fact Sheet-15-Children
• Fact Sheet-16-Discrimination based on work and descent
• Fact Sheet-17-Tribals
• Fact Sheet-18-Persons with Disabilities
• Fact Sheet-19-Refugees and Asylum Seekers
• Fact Sheet-20-Religious Minorities
• Fact Sheet-21-Nomadic
• Fact Sheet-22-The Elderly
• Fact Sheet-23-Right to Inform
• Fact Sheet-24-Human Rights Education
• Fact Sheet-25-National Human Rights Institutions
• Fact Sheet-26-Collaboration with UN

 Related Articles:

1. http://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-to-respond-to-the-worlds-perception-of-its-human-rights-record/298725
 

The post 112 Countries Will Question India on Its Human Rights Record: May 4, 2017 appeared first on SabrangIndia.