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ECI: Complaint against PM Modi for violating Code of Conduct

sabrang — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 13:06:40 +0000

Did Prime Minister (PM) Modi violate the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) under the Representation of People’s Act, 1951?

Member of Parliament (MP) from the Rajya Sabha, Saket Gokhale has filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) alleging clear violations Modi for using an Indian Air Force helicopter to attend an election rally in AC 96-Chilakaluripet in Palnadu, Andhra Pradesh yesterday.

He has stated in his public disclosure on ‘X’ (formerly twitter) that the ECI’s own statutory laws and rules say so.

Complaint against PM Modi with ECI for violating code of conduct

Filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Modi for using an Indian Air Force helicopter to attend an election rally in AC 96-Chilakaluripet in Palnadu, Andhra Pradesh yesterday

EC rules prohibit… pic.twitter.com/vHp8ooE32Z

— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) March 18, 2024

Narendra Modi, prime minister, used an Indian Air Force helicopter to attend an election rally in AC 96-Chilakaluripet in Palnadu, Andhra Pradesh on Sunday March 17. ECI rules prohibit use of state machinery for campaigning and as Gokhale says in his complaint, former PM Indira Gandhi was disqualified in 1975 for this very reason. He then asks if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) paid for renting of the IAF helicopter and if so, the ECI should respond to the public and explain the ground of why an IAF chopper was essential. (CMs and Other Z+ protectees use normal VVIP choppers which also have security features)’

Finally, he points out recent announcements of the ECI that state that any code of conduct violations will be dealt with strictly.

“Let us see if ECI initiates any probe or any action against PM Modi for using an IAF chopper for election campaigning” for himself and his party!

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Remembering Balbir Singh Sr

Tue, 26 May 2020 07:16:25 +0000

Image Courtesy:mumbaimirror

When Balbir Singh Sr, breathed his last on Monday, May 25, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi left immediately tweeted his condolences to the family of the deceased and his well-wishers. After all, Singh was a towering field hockey icon. A triple Olympic gold medalist, he was awarded with Padma Shree, the fourth highest civilian award of the Indian republic for his contribution to the field of sports.

Singh died at a Mohali hospital in Punjab. Some of his close relatives live in British Columbia and he had a huge following in Canada. Singh had a home in Burnaby. The North Delta MLA and a former field hockey player Ravi Kahlon is one of those in Sikh diaspora who were influenced by him.

What was ironic about Modi’s message was that Singh had faced discrimination for being a member of a minority community in Hindu-majority India. This was despite the fact that he brought many laurels to the country. His supporters have always believed that he deserved the highest civilian award of Bharat Ratna considering his performance, but he was neglected allegedly because of his religious background in a country where polarization has grown ever since Modi came to power in 2014.

Modi is the leader of currently ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is known for its anti-minority prejudices. A book on Singh, authored by a Canadian journalist Patrick Blennerhassett looks much deeper into this question. Titled as “A Forgotten Legend: Balbir Singh Sr, Triple Olympic Gold and Modi’s New India”, the biography goes into the history of India and links it with the present where attacks on religious minorities have grown under BJP government. Published in 2016, the book reveals how Singh also felt the pain of being constantly ignored.

Although Modi cannot be singled out for what happened with Singh as the country has long been ruled by Congress party that claims to be secular, he had enough time to at least get him the highest civilian honour during the past six years. This can be partly blamed on Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the mainstream Sikh regional party of Punjab which is an alliance partner of the BJP.

Interestingly, the Modi establishment conferred Bharat Ratna on a highly controversial political figure Nanaji Deshmukh last year. Deshmukh was the leader of a Hindu supremacist organization, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh of which BJP is a political wing. He had justified the Sikh Genocide in one of his writings.

Thousands of Sikhs were murdered all over India in the first week of November, 1984 following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards who were seeking revenge for military invasion on the Golden Temple Complex in Amritsar in June that year. The ill-conceived army operation had left many pilgrims dead and historical buildings heavily destroyed. This act of sacrilege which the government boasted was aimed to deal with armed militants, who had stockpiled arms inside the shrine that was used as a hideout for insurgency that saw the murders of innocent Hindus in Punjab, had enraged Sikhs across the globe. For many in the community, it was designed to attract majority Hindu votes in the impending general election while other reasonable measures could have been adopted to prevent the conflict.

The mobs led by the slain leader’s Congress party with the help of police targeted Sikhs in different parts of India. The BJP supporters also allegedly participated in the killings to avenge the murders of Hindus in Punjab that were blamed on Sikh extremists. This explains why BJP lost the election that followed and Congress got a huge mandate. It was a clear indication of the shift of BJP’s hardcore Hindu vote bank to Congress in the aftermath of Sikh massacre.

Singh himself survived the 1984 violence, as he was in Delhi at that time. Blennerhassett mentions in detail about this whole episode in his book and its impact on the sensitive mind of Singh who felt as an alien in his own home country. While we celebrate Singh’s legacy, we must also recognize the challenges faced by our heroes from minority groups and marginalized sections in a society that is unevenly divided with some more equal than others.

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Modi no reformer, manages economy incompetently: Western investors warned

Sat, 26 Oct 2019 05:47:08 +0000

In a sharp rejoinder to “Western businesspeople”, who are said to be still inclined to “defend” Prime Minister Narendra Modi by claiming that Modi may be “bad for democracy his pro-business philosophy is good for the economy”, the powerful British periodical “The Economist” has declared, “But that argument no longer washes. India’s economy is incompetently managed and doing badly.”

According to “The Economist”, India’s growth falling from 8% in the middle of last year to 5% year-on-year in the most recent quarter “might not sound too bad”, as “other emerging economies are also suffering”. However, it warns, “The slowdown looks less like a dip than a prolonged cold shower.”

The top periodical says, “Some banks and many other lenders are in crisis, with a $200bn mountain of bad debts. In the six months ending in September, the total flow of financing to businesses fell by 88%.” It adds, “Five successive rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India … have failed to pull down commercial lending rates, and in any case firms are not investing.”

“The Economist” continues, “Consumer demand has levelled off or fallen… Sales of cars and motorbikes have tumbled by 20% or more. And with the combined fiscal deficit of the federal government and the states already approaching 9% of GDP, and tax receipts falling well below expectations, there is little scope for stimulus.”

Admitting that in 2014 the Modi government inherited an economy “with plenty of problems”, it insists, “But it did too little about them. The latest downturn continues that disappointing pattern. With the exception of a steep cut in corporate taxes earlier this month, to 25%, which brings India into line with other countries in the region, the official response has been scattershot and timid.”

Instead of getting to grips with the economy, Modi will stop posing as a reformer and fully embrace his alter ego, as a chest-thumping Hindu nationalist

Pointing towards “an unusual paucity of expertise” in the Modi government and “conflicting views in his circle”, at a time when “competing interest groups vie for his ear”, the periodical advises Modi to “recruit an economic team that is based on competence and experience rather than affinity for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindu-nationalist ideology.”

Recommending privatization of state-owned banks as part of a “broader” privatisation programme that could give the government “the money it needs to succour demand”, even as making use of “levers such as the national rural-employment scheme to get money to the distressed hinterland”, “The Economist” sounds a worry: “The fear is that, instead of getting to grips with the economy, Modi will stop posing as a reformer and fully embrace his alter ego, as a chest-thumping Hindu nationalist.”

Recalling steps like abolition of special status to Jammu and Kashmir, “India’s only Muslim-majority state” and threat to “expand to the rest of the country his scheme to hunt down supposed foreign interlopers in Assam”, “The Economist” warns, ““In the face of India’s growing economic problems, focus on communal grievances seems even more reprehensible.”

Courtesy: Counter View

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Decoding Hate: Hindu Samaj Party Member spews hatred, asks for support to extremist leaders: Kamlesh Tiwari killing

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 05:53:22 +0000

Surendra Singh Rajpurohit, who goes by SSTiger Rajpurohit online, ran a 41 minute long stream on Facebook Live today, with the (translated) caption, “Disgraceful conduct of fake saffron leaders exposed live.”

In the stream, the Hindu Samaj Party member criticised BJP leaders such as Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not doing enough for the “Hindu” cause. Calling them “pigs” and “dogs”, he accused BJP leaders for coddling Muslims who he called terrorists. He also vocalised his concerns over how Hindu leaders like Kamlesh Tiwari, who he claimed have done so much for this nation, are being murdered in their own homes. He asked his viewers to wake up to this reality, and show their support or that he, Raja Singh, Updesh Rana, or Deepak Sharma might be the next to die.

At the time of writing this post, the video had 2.6 million views and has been shared 18,225 times. The video can be found here.

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Communal hate gets top nod? Modi and his ministers follow people who trend hate-filled hashtags on social media

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 11:32:14 +0000

A staunch supporter of the RSS and other Hindu outfits, Modi and other officials have yet not un-followed the handle

Image Courtesy: newslaundry.com

Many truths emerged in a divisive, hatred-filled communal war that took place on Twitter yesterday. When right-wing warriors and their Twitter army set out on the Twitter Kurukshetra to avenge Kamlesh Tiwari’s murder, they resorted to the lowest form of warfare – spewing communal hate by trending a hashtag that called for the absolute boycott of all Muslims.

While, it took more than 24 hours for the complicit social media site in addressing the open hatemongering and abiding by their own hate policy to intervene and stop the hashtag from trending; what was more surprising was that the right-wing outfits and Hindutva warriors were found to be followed by India’s Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

Not just him, BJP’s top brass – Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Railways and Commerce; Baijayant Jay Panda, the VP & Spokesperson of the BJO; Bhupendra Chaubey, news anchor and Kapil Mishra, a BJP party member too follow the people who grab every opportunity to spread communal hate.

One such example is attached below.

In this case, a twitter user personally tagged the BJP authorities, with proof, requesting them to un-follow the person for taking part in this shameful trend and sending a wrong message to the society.

At the time of publishing this, none of the authorities had done so. If hatemongering, divisive politics and radical extremism by the majority is supported by the highest authorities themselves, will the minorities ever feel safe in their own country?

Related:
Hate Watch: How Hate Trends On Twitter—A Look into Communal Echo Chambers
Decoding Hate: Murder of local ‘Hindutva’ leader, followers spew communal venom
Like Bashirhat, boy circulates derogatory content on Prophet Muhammad but Birbhum saved from burning
Who was behind the #Gandhi Jayanti vs #Godse_Amar_Rahe: India’s Twitter War?

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Church divided, faces internal issues, as anti-Christian crimes rise under Modi: Report

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 07:09:48 +0000

A top US-based Catholic ‘voice’, “National Catholic Reporter” (NCR), which claims to provide the “only significant alternative” to diverse Christian perspectives, has said that during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the United States was greeted with “a lack of enthusiasm from Christian groups”, as they are “aware of the rising violence against religious minorities in India fueled by the government’s Hindu nationalist ideology.”

During a September 2018 nuns’ protest against Malakkal in Kochi

Pointing towards the reason, NCR quotes Jesuit Fr Stanislaus Alla, theologian and professor at the Vidyajyoti College of Theology in Delhi, to say that the Church in India is “paying the price for standing up for human rights.” Alla said this on a recent trip to the United States to present a paper on public health in South Asia.

At the same time, the top Christian media site notes, “The Catholic community in India is also besieged by internal issues that have rocked the church in the past few years”, citing the public protest by nuns in Kerala against Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of raping a nun.

The Missionaries of Jesus “flouted” the country’s anti-rape laws and publicly released the picture of the survivor, causing a massive public uproar. The church was criticized for its inaction against Mulakkal, despite a “written complaint by the survivor”.

Regretting that though many within the Church consider such issues as “internal matters” and choose to resolve it without going to the police, Alla says, “We also suffer from ‘minority persecution syndrome.’ Since we are a minority in India, we tend to not let issues blow up. And that has backfired badly.”

The NCR report by Sarah Salvadore, a researcher, says, “The case polarized the community. While many felt the nuns shouldn’t have protested publicly, others called for introspection and transparency.”

Pointing out that “with cases of clerical sex abuse in India making headlines, the Church has also come under fire for protecting the institution and victim-blaming”, Alla says, “We are still in the cover-up and denial mode. Things aren’t transparent. We are not ready yet, as a church, to open our eyes and see what’s happening. We need to be accountable.”

The report says, “Although there are child protection policies within the Church in India, there is a reluctance to implement them. The draft Child Protection Policy] is at the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India-level, but “the bishops and superiors have to implement it, and not many are serious about doing so. They always want to ‘manage’ things.”

Fr Alla

Asserting that it’s this attitude that has “caused problems” for the Church, the report says, “When India’s Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, declared victory for the second time in the general elections this year, a sense of unease engulfed the country’s minority communities, who make up 18.2% of the country’s population. Since 2014, under Modi’s watch, religious persecution rose.

“Christians in India have been active contributors to its education system. But in an atmosphere of growing right-wing fundamentalism, Catholic educational institutions have come under attack. They often face criticism and are accused of proselytism”, Salvadore believes.

“State level anti-conversion laws have been enacted to regulate conversions to other religions. These laws are now used to harass Christians, and divide and polarize people”, the report says, adding, “Studies have shown that the number of Christians in India has gone down from 2.5% to 2.3%. There is absolutely no truth to the claim of forced proselytization.” It claims, “Some people convert on their own accord, but there’s no forced proselytization.”

According to the report, “In the past few years, Christians in the country’s Hindi heartland have been facing a series of attacks from Hindu extremists. More recently, outright violence has taken a backseat, and coordinated efforts are in place to shut down institutions.”

“A recent example is the police raid conducted at the home of Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy, a prominent human rights activist. Swamy, a critic of the government, has been an advocate of indigenous people undergoing trials who he said were falsely accused and imprisoned for protesting violations of their constitutional rights”, it underlines.

However, Salvadore quotes Alla to dismiss the idea that the current BJP government is particularly harsh on Christian minorities. “To be fair, Christians have suffered under other political parties as well. And it’s not just this government BJP.” Citing examples of missionaries being deported from India during the 1960s and 1970s under “secular” Congress, Alla adds, however, that the present situation is a lot “different and difficult.”

“With the BJP government’s implicit support of its fringe elements, lynchings against minorities in India, especially Muslims, have increased drastically since Modi came into power for the second time. Data shows that 90% of religious hate crimes in India in the past decade have occurred under the Modi government. In most cases, despite overwhelming evidence, the accused have walked free”, the article says.

Lamenting that Church leaders have been “measured in their response”, Salvadore says, “They’ve often reached out to Modi in an effort to build bridges”, even though BJP has been accusing the Church for being anti-Modi and encouraging Catholics to vote along communal lines. “Though the church is supposed to be apolitical, there are times when priests do make their political leanings public.”

Courtesy: Counter View

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India Not a Hindu Rashtra, Say Sikh Organisations

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 06:47:08 +0000

So many Sikh ideologues have clearly stated that each Indian should follow their own religion and RSS should not try to impose the Hindu norms on Sikhs, whose traditions have been very syncretic and are far away from the Brahmanical norms.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologues and leaders regularly keep stating that India is a Hindu Rashtra (nation). This has been very annoying for the religious minorities, particularly Muslims, Sikhs and all those who believe in Indian Constitution. This Dussehra, when RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat, in his hour-long speech, reiterated the same contention, a large number of Sikh organisations and intellectuals opposed this statement and at many places, protests were planned.

Editorials in prominent Punjabi newspapers like Punjabi Tribune and Nawa Zamana criticised the statement, while the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)—which is a constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)—also gave strong reaction to the statement by Mr Bhagwat. Giani Harpreet Singh, the acting jathedar (head priest) of Akal Takht, said that he believes RSS’s actions will create divisions in the country. “The statements being made by RSS leaders are not in the country’s interest,” he told the reporters in Amritsar on Monday. Punjab Lok Morcha Chief Amolak Singh used even stronger language to point out that the statement was part of a bigger conspiracy and must ring alarm bells.

This strong reaction against Bhagwat’s statement has a valid justification—Sikhs are being projected to be part of Hinduism by RSS. This is not the first time that the Sikhs have reacted this way. In year 2000, when K Sudarshan was the sarsanghachalak (supremo), he had gone to the extent of saying that Sikhism is a sect of Hindu religion and Khalsa was created to protect Hindus from Mughal tyranny. RSS has also floated an organisation, Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, to bring Sikhism into the fold of Hinduism. Punjab has witnessed many protests earlier as well.

The rise of Sikhism with Sant Guru Nanak has been one of the major phenomena of 16th century in India. Guru Nanak’s teachings came in the backdrop of the prevalent Brahmanism to which he and his successors were opposed. Sikhism’s teachings drew from Bhakti-Sufi saints in particular. The latter were for egalitarian values away from the Brahmanical rigidities and inequalities dictated by them. Guru Nanak was inspired by Saint Kabir and Baba Farid in particular. Sikhism drew ideological inspiration from diverse sources; its teachings focused on humanism and equality of all beings. Nanak denounced orthodox practitioners of Islam as well as Hinduism and placed emphasis on the vibrant intercommunity relationships based on the subaltern versions of Islam and Hinduism. His teachings, on one level, are a synthesis of the values of both the religions—like reincarnation and the doctrine of Karma from Hinduism and oneness of God and congregation for worship from Islam. Sikh Gurus opposed caste, worship of cow and sacred threads. As this religion evolved, it developed its own identity with Guru Granth Sahib as its major tome and other practices which had deep roots in intercommunity interactions.

The assertion of RSS about Sikhsim being sect of Hinduism is a part of political agenda of Hindu nationalists. It begins with the definition of Hindu by V D Savarkar, which says: Hindu is a person for whom the land spread between Sindhu river and the seas is holy land and fatherland. This definition cleverly separates Muslims and Christians from the group of people who own this land. Going further, he labels Islam and Christianity as ‘foreign religions’. The attempt was to bring together all non-Muslims and non-Christians in a political mobilisation for Hindu nation.

With time, due to the political contingencies, the definitions kept changing. The intent has been to co-opt all others into the fold of Hindutva politics and therefore, now even Muslims and Christians are called Hindus in their scheme of things. This is a clever manoeuvrer. First, call everybody a Hindu and then impose the Hindu identity and its symbols: Cow, Gita, Ganga, Lord Ram. This is a political intervention into the realm of religion. Murali Manohar Joshi, when he became president of then BJP (1990), cleverly put that all the Muslims are Ahmadiya Hindus and all Christians are Christi Hindus.

The issues with their formulations are multiple. The confusions, which they try to create, are also multiple. The Jains—demanding minority status—hav led a long struggle. The followers of Buddhism or Sikhism in no way can forget or give up their own religious identity. Earlier also, attempts were made to undermine Sikh identity and Punjabi language. In the face of that, Bhai Kahan Singh wrote a book, Hum Hindu Nahin (We Are Not Hindus). While RSS cabal wants to call them Keshdhari Hindus (Hindus who are not cutting their hair and beards), Sikhs’ own self perception is that of being Sikhs at a religious level.

So many a Sikh ideologues have clearly stated that each Indian should follow their own religion and RSS should not try to impose the Hindu norms on Sikhs, whose traditions have been very syncretic and are far away from Brahmanical norms. It is in line of this that Guru Granth Sahib draws from the Saint tradition—Sufi and Bhakti both. One recalls that it was Miyan Mir who was invited to lay the foundation stone of Golden temple, the major Sikh Shrine, where intercommunity meals mark the unity of communities beyond caste-based and religious boundaries.

Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, an arm of RSS is active in Punjab in propagating that Sikhism is a sect of Hinduism. Agenda of Hindutva and Hindu nationalism propagated by the RSS—which has Brahmanical values at its base—is far away from what Sikhism stands for. So, no wonder that most of the Sikh groups and ideologues are standing together to oppose the statement that India is a Hindu Rashtra.

Courtesy: News Click

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Under Modi Rule, Ambani, Adani Have Doubled Their Wealth

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 05:48:19 +0000

Meanwhile, several corporate bigwigs are heading to RSS HQ in Nagpur to earn some good marks.

The release of richest people’s lists is usually a signal for much back-slapping and triumphalism in the corporate world and its hangers on in the media. It is seen as some kind of symptom that India is doing well, people are getting wealthier, achhe din (good days) are here, although such lists are only for a 100 people (as in the case of the Forbes India list) or perhaps more (as in IIFL Hurun list), in a country of 1.3 billion people.

But these lists also reveal another side of the super wealthy corporates of the country. A comparison between the Forbes India richest people’s lists of 2014 and 2019 reveals which of the corporate honchos have flourished under Narendra Modi’s rule and which have not done so well.

Before going into the individuals, it should be noted that the total wealth of the top 100 richest Indian corporate heads increased from about Rs.25 lakh crore to over Rs.32 lakh crore between 2014 and 2019. That’s a 31% increase. The wealth of just these 100 people in 2019 is about 6% of the country’s GDP (gross domestic product). This is a measure of the high degree of inequality in the country that just 100 people own so much wealth while the vast bulk of India’s people have only a very small fraction of it.

Who has Flourished Under Modi?

Coming now to the rather curious case of individual growth among corporates, it turns out that the richest person in India, Mukesh Ambani, has more than doubled his wealth. It has increased by 118%, to be precise, from Rs.1.68 lakh crore to Rs.3.65 lakh crore between 2014 and 2019. [See chart below for top 10 sourced from the Forbes India lists]

In Gautam Adani’s case, the rise has been better. His wealth zoomed up by 121% from Rs.50.4 thousand crore in 2014 to a breath-taking Rs.1.1 lakh crore in 2019. He climbed up from the 11th place in the 2014 rankings to becoming the second richest man in India in 2019.

Both these illustrious men are known to be quite friendly with Prime Minister Modi and the ruling dispensation. Modi had even appeared in a full-page advertisement for the launch of Jio, the Reliance telecom service, which has, in three years, the largest subscriber base in India.

Adani’s association with Modi dates back to the days when Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat. But, it was Modi’s elevation to New Delhi that marked a phenomenal upswing in Adani’s fortunes.

A look at the chart above, shows that only two other people exhibit a marked growth in their wealth – Uday Kotak, owner of Kotak Mahindra Bank and other financial services, and Radhakishan Damani, who owns the DMart chain of hypermarkets in India, promoted by Damani-owned Avenue Supermarts Ltd., a company that had revenues of $2.7 billion in 2018-19. Damani’s rise is also dramatic, but remember that he owned just Rs.7,100 crore back in 2014. So, the percentage increase is from a very small beginning. He ranked 100th in 2014, and now he is at number 7.

Uday Kotak is another blue-eyed boy of the current government, and was appointed last year to head the government-controlled board of the collapsed infrastructure financing group, IL&FS.

All the other corporate bigwigs among the top 10 are doing well but only just. Pallonji Mistry, owner of construction behemoth, Shapoorji Pallonji, saw a 6% decline in wealth, as did UK-based Lakshmi Mittal, owner of steel giant Arcelor Mittal (by 34%). Kumarmangalam Birla, an old-timer in the rich list, grew his wealth by just 4%, the Godrej family increased its wealth by 3% and Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies by 15% in five years.

Many notable rich families do not figure here because this is a list of rich men or brothers (mostly). Groups like Tata Sons have distributed wealth though each of their individual components are giants in their own right. But they do not make it to the top 10. Others like Wipro Chairman Azim Premji have ‘donated’ substantial chunks of their wealth to run charities or educational trusts and have thus fallen off the list, though they continue to be super rich.

Corporate-RSS Bonhomie

A noteworthy trend that has emerged in recent years – which may have some relevance to wealth creation – is the growing bonhomie between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (which is the mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party) and corporate bigwigs. Only a few days ago, Shiv Nadar of HCL was the chief guest at the Foundation Day of RSS at Nagpur. A few days before that, Azim Premji visited the RSS headquarters and met Sangh supremo Mohan Bhagwat. In April, Ratan Tata had visited the RSS headquarters to meet Bhagwat. In fact, last year, Tata Trusts donated Rs 100 crore to Nagpur’s National Cancer Institute run by an RSS-affiliated trust named after Dr Aabaji Thatte, the personal assistant of second RSS chief M S Golwalkar. In 2017, ONGC, a premier public sector undertaking too donated Rs.100 crore to the hospital. Last month, Rahul Bajaj visited Smruti Mandir to pay tributes at the memorial of RSS founder K B Hedgewar at Nagpur.

Corporate India doesn’t kowtow to anybody unless they envisage some benefit. This increasing closeness of corporate honchos to the RSS, so much so that they have been making a beeline to Nagpur to pay respects to the founder and to confabulate with the current chief, is their way of extending support to the Modi government and generally be in its good books.

The nexus that has emerged – some call it the corporate-Hindutva alliance – also explains why the RSS supremo was all praise for the Modi government’s openly pro-corporate policies. In his Vijay Dashami speech, Bhagwat praised disinvestment of public sector units, justified foreign direct investment and talked down the “useless discussion” on economic slowdown. Remember: the Modi government had recently given corporate houses a big gift by slashing corporate tax rates from 30% to 25%, a move that would cost the government over Rs.1.45 lakh crore. Small wonder then that corporates are a happy lot – and the rich list is growing by leaps and bounds.

Courtesy: News Click

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VIFF needs to be applauded for bringing a documentary that takes a critical look at Modi’s India

Sat, 12 Oct 2019 05:50:10 +0000

While Canada remains indifferent to the growing repression of minorities and political dissidents in the world’s so called largest democracy, Anand Patwardhan’s documentary based on startling facts about India might help in breaking the global silence over this inconvenient truth.

Image Courtesy: VIFF.org

Shown at Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) Reason reveals how attacks on oppressed groups, religious minorities and civil societyo

Thanks have increased under a right wing Hindu nationalist regime led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Mainly focussed on the murders of at least four prominent rationalists and free thinkers who were assassinated by the extremists for challenging bigotry and superstition, Reason goes into the root cause of the emergence of Hindu Right. The perpetrators of these crimes enjoy the political patronage of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) that is trying to turn India into Hindu theocracy and continues to shield those involved in terrorist attacks directed at Muslims. It takes into account the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Hindu fanatics in 1948. Even though his killers owed allegiance to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a Hindu supremacist group of which BJP is a part, Modi shamelessly tries to appropriate Gandhi because of his worldwide acceptance as a pacifist leader. Modi himself is a member of the RSS. Reason goes into these complexities and contradictions to educate people about the motives of BJP.

Not surprisingly, there were attempts to stop the public screening of the film in India. So much so, some Hindu leaders openly called for physical violence against Patwardhan during a press conference right in his presence. The footage of this incident was part of the film.

Patwardhan has made similar documentaries in the past, including In Memory of Friends which was based on the murders of Communist revolutionaries who were systematically killed by the Sikh fundamentalists in Punjab during 1980s. Ironically, the Sikh militants were liquidated through extra judicial means to restore peace in Punjab, whereas Hindu extremists enjoy the backing of the Indian state.

Talking to the Straight, Patwardhan said that he is really concerned how the current government is patronizing violence and terror even as the space for secularism and scientific temperament mandated by the Indian constitution continues to shrink. He pointed out that the problem isn’t just confined to India as far right movements are on the rise all over the world, including US. It is pertinent to mention that Spice Radio had sponsored the VIFF screening of Reason. It’s CEO Shushma Datt had started a campaign against racism in 2015. #HandsAgainstRacism as it is widely known is part of social justice movement Patwardhan cares for. He told this writer that there is a need to make broader alliance against fascism under these difficult circumstances.

In the meantime, the members of Indiansn Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) – a group based in Greater Vancouver that was formed in response to the growing violence against minorities and efforts of turning India into Hindu theocracy ever since Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, presented Patwardhan with Radical Desi medal of courage before the screening of Reason at Vancity theatre on Monday, October 7.

Radical Desi is an online magazine that covers alternative politics and has been raising these issues in the Indian Diaspora in partnership with IAPI. Patwardhan was presented with the medal by the IAPI President, Parshotam Dosanjh. Others present on behalf of IAPI at the event were Rakesh Kumar, Tejinder Sharma and myself.

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FIR against celebrities who sent letter to PM against mob lynching: Bihar

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 08:38:39 +0000

The letter had been written to the PM asking him to intervene in the lynching of Muslims and minorities

An FIR was lodged in Muzaffarpur (Bihar) on Thursday, against nearly 50 celebrities, including AparnaSen, RamachandraGuha and Mani Ratnam among others, who had written an open letter to Prime Minister NarendraModi raising concerns over the surging incidents of mob lynching against Muslims and minorities.

The petition against the celebrities’ letter was filed by local advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha two months ago. The case was lodged after an order was passed by Chief Justice Magistrate Surya Kant Tiwari.

Sudhir Kumar Ojha accused the celebrities of “tarnishing the image of the country and undermining the impressive performance of the Prime Minister” while also “supporting secessionist tendencies”.

The FIR was lodged under sections relating to sedition, public nuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with an intent to provoke breach of peace of the Indian Penal Code.

The letter dated July 23, had demanded “exemplary punishment” for perpetrators of such incidents. It has also noted that ‘Jai Shri Ram’ had been reduced to a ‘provocative war cry’.

Activist SaketGokhale, a vocal critic of the Modi government has raised objections about the FIR filed against the celebrities. He intends to approach the Supreme Court against the invoking of sedition charges in this matter, especially when the SC has clearly stated that the criticism of the government is NOT sedition.

Speaking about the incident Rahul Gandhi said that the FIR against the celebrities shows that it is no secret that India is moving towards an authoritarian state. He says that anybody who raises questions against the PM or his government is either silenced, jailed or attacked under this authoritarian regime where even the media is crushed for portraying the truth.

Spike in Hate Crimes

On June 22, viral video of a Muslim man, tied up, bleeding profusely and being lynched by a mob and being forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ circulated on social media. He was Tabrez Ansari, who died because of his injuries. He was the 1^st victim of a hate crime in Modi’s 2^nd term as Prime Minister.

Two days later after the attack on Ansari, a Muslim teacher was thrown out of the train in West Bengal. He managed to escape death.
In Mumbai, in the same week, Faizal Usman, a cab driver was beaten by eight men. When he begged for mercy, the mob asked him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

In the five years of Modi’s first term in power, hate crimes against Muslims soared, with 90% of hate crimes in the past decade occurring in his term.

Between 2016 and 2019, the National Human Rights Commission registered 2,008 cases where minorities / Dalits were harassed, including cases of lynchings. Of these, UP alone accounted for 869 cases.

In regards to Dalits, the number of harassment cases registered by NHRC in UP saw an increase of nearly 41 percent.

Last year alone, Amnesty International tracked 218 hate crimes, 142 of which were against Dalits, 50 against Muslims, 40 against women and eight each against Christians, Adivasis and transgenders. The more common hate crimes were ‘honor killings’ and ‘cow-related violence’.

A Hindi Belt Phenomenon

What can be deduced from the NHRC data is that the hate crimes against the minorities and Dalits in India is mainly concentrated in a few Hindi-speaking states.

UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh (states that cover much of the ‘cow belt’) account for 64 percent of the cases.

The first step to ensuring justice and ending impunity for hate crimes is to highlight their occurrence. There are a number of sections in the Indian Penal Code that can be used to punish or prevent hate crimes, but few policemen are aware of them.

It is important for the police to take steps to unmask any potentially discriminatory motive in a crime and recognize these as specific offences.

Court Directives

In 2018, the Supreme Court directed Central and State governments to make it widely known that lynching and mob violence would ‘invite serious consequence under the law’. Then Home Minister RajnathSIngh formed a panel to suggest measures to tackle mob violence. Yet, no information about the panel’s working are public, and the hate crimes have not diminished yet.

In a May 2019 report, Human Rights Watch India pointed out that only some States had complied with the Supreme Court’s orders to designate a senior police officer in every district to prevent incidents of mob violence and ensure that the police take prompt action, including safety for witnesses; set up fast-track courts in such cases; and take action against policemen or officials who failed to comply.

It is a shame that with political hate speech adding to the mire of hate crimes, along with police bias, the national bar against hate crime has been lowered.

Why the FIR against the letter of celebrities in presence of evidence of hate crimes comes as a huge question.

Yet, while the authorities sit mum, you can help eliminate hate crimes. Download the HATE HATAO App by Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) to fight and report hate crimes in India. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hatehatao.hatehatao

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