Based on analysis of a sample size of 2,522 (49% female, 51% male), many of whom are interviewed face-to-face, the study says that “violent repression” by the state has caused greater identification with the “irredentist neighbour”, Pakistan. In fact, it goes a long way to underline, exposure to state violence has led to decline in “national identification” with India. Thus, if independence is not an option, “subjects preferring India over Pakistan declines by nine percentage points, from 61% to 52%.

Published in “International Organization”, a quarterly peer review academic journal, authors of the study, “Violence Exposure and Ethnic Identification: Evidence from Kashmir”, Gautam Nair and Nicholas Sambanis wonder, “If state-led repression serves to strengthen parochial and non-national identities, then why do governments turn to violence in the first place?”

They provide the following answer: “While national identification declines when study subjects are exposed to the violence treatment, they are also significantly less likely … to say they would participate in peaceful protests.” Which suggests, by using repression, the government deters “moderates from collective action, even as the seeds of future grievances are sown.”

While the education level of the sample is low (36.4% of the subjects are not formally educated), “not atypical compared to the rest of India”, the median monthly household income is between Rs 5,000 and 10,000. Those interviewed are mostly labourers, students, agriculture workers, and small business owners. About 7% work in the State government, and very few (0.4%) are with the Central government. About 93% are Muslims, 5% Shias, and just 0.2% Hindus.

According to the study, “People are distrustful of the state (63% report that they never trust the government referring to the State government; 89% report distrusting the Central government of India); and they are even more distrustful of the media (89%).” It adds, “Over 90% report distrust toward the Indian army and negative attitudes extend to the local police (82%).”
 

 

The authors insist, “These negative views seem to be supported by a widely shared perception of increasing human rights violations (64% of the sample think these have increased over the previous two years, compared to 22% who think they have decreased).” This, they add, is happening at a time when those interviewed feel that rights violations are taking place in “a climate of decreasing insurgent violence.”

The study states, “Survey subjects for the most part (55%) share the view that militancy has decreased. This suggests a shared perception of unwarranted repression by the state. About 38% of respondents claim to have personally witnessed violence by the police or army and even fewer (7%) report having been injured by violence.”
 

It adds, “The vast majority of respondents rank their regional or religious identities as most important to them and their national identity comes last. The privileging of parochial identities at the expense of the national one is reflected in clear evidence of in-group bias: On average, 75% of respondents’ donations go to the Kashmir-only NGO and only 25% to the all-India NGO.”

When respondents are asked to rank their religious, ethnic, national and occupational identities in order of how important they are to them, the authors say, “The national identity is ranked last”, with “the proportion of individuals who see themselves as either Indian or Indian and Kashmiri” declining “from 23% to 19%”.

Further, “While the proportion of less-educated respondents who see themselves as Indian or Indian and Kashmiri remains unchanged (19%) when these study subjects are exposed to violence, the equivalent proportion declines from 32% to 17% among those with at least a secondary school education.”

The study finds, “High-education respondents ranked their Indian identity lower after being exposed to violence and reduced the amount they donated to the NGO working all over India by one-third, reducing their allocation from 31.4% to 19.9%. Among the more educated subgroup, the proportion who believe that Kashmir should remain a part of India (rather than becoming independent or joining Pakistan) declines from 27 percent to 21 percent.”

“When faced with a binary choice of Kashmir joining Pakistan or remaining part of India, support for remaining with India falls by more than a quarter – from 59% to 43%, compared to a smaller fall (seven percentage points) among the less educated”, it adds.
 

Development strategies based on increasing rates of economic growth, investment will not be sufficient to end Kashmir conflict

Contrary to the belief among India’s ruling politicians that development in Kashmir would take care of many of these issues, the study states, “Only about one-third of respondents felt that India’s economic growth would benefit them; the remainder either noted that the growth would not benefit them personally or else provided an irrelevant answer… Nor did a majority think that India’s rapid economic growth would change how it is seen around the world.”

Comment the authors, “We interpret this as consistent with a pre-existing large psychological distance from the nation because of a history of conflict and mutual suspicion. Kashmiris who do not see themselves as part of the nation will not expect to benefit from India’s economic power and are less likely to accept (or state) that India’s international status is rising.”

They add, “Our study suggests that development strategies based on increasing rates of economic growth will not be sufficient to end the conflict.” As regards “design and timing of peace-building strategies based on investments”, such investments are “unlikely to be successful unless threats to security are first addressed. Ongoing violence generates enmity and suspicion that diminish the potential of integrative policies.”

The study warns, “Reclaiming lost parts of the homeland has motivated enduring conflicts between China and Taiwan, North and South Korea, Greece and Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serbia and Croatia, Somalia and Ethiopia, and in other cases.”

In fact, it says, “Irredentism has been a feature of major wars, including Germany’s and Hungary’s land grabs prior to and during World War II. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 was a reminder that irredentism is as important today as it is understudied.” It adds, world over, “presence of cross-border kin groups is a risk factor for civil war.”

First published on https://www.counterview.net/

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Now put your stooges on social media into action to defame us. But in this season of the media playing your tune, sitting in your lap, there is one media house that has refused to do so. For you, success is when every Indian sings your tune, all media houses play your game, sit in your lap. NDTV did not come into being easily, even you know that.

If you are so gleeful to see our end, let’s come face to face  some day on chairs. Before a live camera.

The brazen use of a central agency against a media house comes days after anchor Nidhi Razdan asked BJP spokesperson Sambhit Batra, known for his crass bullying, to leave her show.

Meanwhile the channel has also issued a strong statement that may be read here.

तो आप डराइये, धमकाइये, आयकर विभाग से लेकर सबको लगा दीजिये। ये लीजिये हम डर से थर थर काँप रहे हैं। सोशल मीडिया और चंपुओं को लगाकर बदनामी चालू कर दीजिये लेकिन इसी वक्त में जब सब 'गोदी मीडिया' बने हुए हैं , एक ऐसा भी है जो गोद में नहीं खेल रहा है। आपकी यही कामयाबी होगी कि लोग गीत गाया करेंगे- गोदी में खेलती हैं इंडिया की हज़ारों मीडिया। एन डी टी वी इतनी आसानी से नहीं बना है, ये वो भी जानते हैं। मिटाने की इतनी ही खुशी हैं तो हुजूर किसी दिन कुर्सी पर आमने सामने हो जाइयेगा। हम होंगे, आप होंगे और कैमरा लाइव होगा ।
ये एन डी टी वी का बयान है-

This morning, the CBI stepped up the concerted harassment of NDTV and its promoters based on the same old endless false accusations.
NDTV and its promoters will fight tirelessly against this witch-hunt by multiple agencies. We will not succumb to these attempts to blatantly undermine democracy and free speech in India.

We have one message to those who are trying to destroy the institutions of India and everything it stands for: we will fight for our country and overcome these forces.

REVISED STATEMENT OF NDTV

It is shocking that the CBI conducted searches on the NDTV offices and residence of the promoters without even conducting a preliminary enquiry. This is a blatant political attack on the freedom of the press as sources confirm that under pressure, the CBI has been compelled to file an FIR based on a shoddy complaint by a disgruntled former consultant at NDTV called Sanjay Dutt, who has been making false allegations and filing cases in courts of law with these false allegations. So far, he has not obtained a single order from any of these courts.
 
Legal analysts are astounded that where courts have rejected giving any order in all these years, the CBI conducts raids based on what is a private complaint.
 
The allegation appears to be for a loan which has been repaid by Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy more than seven years ago. (Scroll down for evidence of this.)
 
Even though lakhs and crores of rupees of dues have not been paid by several industrialists and no criminal case has yet been registered against any of them by the CBI, the CBI has chosen not only to register an FIR, but also conduct a search for a loan which has been duly repaid to ICICI Bank. Moreover, ICICI is a private bank.
 
The allegation that no disclosure was made to SEBI and other regulatory authorities is not only incorrect and false but also does not cloth the CBI with any power to register cases and search which further amplifies the fact that the search by the CBI is only a witch-hunt against independent media.
 
NDTV and its promoters have never defaulted on any loan to ICICI or any other bank. We adhere to the highest levels of integrity and independence. It is clearly the independence and fearlessness of NDTV's team that the ruling party's politicians cannot stomach and the CBI raid is merely another attempt at silencing the media.
 
No matter how much the politicians attack us – We will not give up the fight for freedom and the independence of media in India.

The post Come Face to Face Live on Camera: Ravish Kumar,TV Journo Challenges Modi Sarkar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A poster with a picture of the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, is pictured in Cairo, Egypt. August 2013. Michael Kappeler/DPA/PA Images

The peculiar case of the Arab middle class came to the fore during a dinner with some friends and their parents in Germany. As I was sitting there enjoying my meal, the mother of a friend, aware of my opposition to the military regime in Egypt, started to attack me for my views.

What was clear to me in her verbal tirade is the inherent fear of social upheaval; the loss of what she perceived to be “Egypt”, which to me appeared to revolve around housing compounds, shopping malls and jobs in multinational companies.

The fear was palpable and real, which made me think once again about the inability of the Arab middle class to produce intellectuals capable of providing an ideological project that can envision and lead the process of social transformation.

This class seems to have become the main bulwark of support for Arab dictators, providing support for repression and wide spread state violence. Unlike other revolutionary crises, the Arab intelligentsia did not perform a progressive function.

On the contrary, they provided justification for repression and were easily coopted by the ruling military elites. This can be attributed to the ideological and class consciousness of the Arab middle class, traceable back to Nasserism and its material backbone, state capitalism, which played a significant role in the ascendance of this class.

Based on the Nasserist doctrine, ideas of class struggle, political pluralism, and social conflict were considered dangerous Marxist intrigues and were replaced by ideals of social harmony and cohesion.

For example, a union of the nation’s productive forces was introduced into the official doctrine and included the middle class, working class, and peasantry, led by the military. These groups would consistuite the “people”.

Opponents of the regime, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the communists, were considered to be outside this organic construction. Class consciousness was deliberately replaced by national consciousness, a feature that would become the hallmark of the urban middle class.

Even though many aspects of Nasserism collapsed and state capitalism is all but gone, the notion of social harmony as the natural state of affairs, with the clear hierarchy of classes and the trumping of national consciousness over class consciousness, remains hegemonic.

This has had a number of repercussions on the intellectual development of the urban middle class. Even though still a small minority, this class has recast itself as the representative of the nation with its class norms, practices and interests. The country has become the nation of the urban middle class, marginalizing and ignoring the vast majority who no longer fit into this narrative.

The most prominent example of which is the reaction to the transfer of two Egyptian islands in the Red Sea from Egypt to Saudi Arabia. This transfer elicited the first mass protests, led by the middle class, against the regime. A reaction that is entirely consistent with the nationalist image this class holds of itself as the “protector” of national sovereignty.

On the other hand, there is mounting evidence of mass abuses and extrajudicial killings in Sinai. This, however, has produced no response from the same class, as the inhabitants of Sinai are not considered part of the “people”.

This notion of natural social harmony also acted to define the urban based protest movement, anchored in the middle class, as a reformist movement that has had no desire to take over the state apparatus. The primary goal during revolutionary upheaval was to pressure military elites to achieve short-term strategic goals, like the removal of Mubarak, rather than wide scale social transformation. The military was seen as a naturel ally that embodies national interests.

As such, there is no inherent hostility between these two social groups. The aim was to restore the natural equilibrium of harmony, which was seen as having been disrupted during the late Mubarak era as class conflict had intensified to a degree that could no longer be ignored.

Thus, the aim of the protest movement was a restoration of the “old” through the liberalization of the political system without any economic or social transformations that would lead to deep structural changes.

The urban middle class is averse to situations where class conflict is heightened and thus justifies repression by the state. Class conflict is seen as an existential threat to the nation.

This outlook has paved the way for the proliferation of conspiracy theories. Those participating in social protests are identified as outsiders and, naturally, agents of hostile powers who are hoping to disrupt social harmony and destroy the nation.
The primary focus of the urban middle class is to preserve the nation, which it implicitly identifies as an extension of itself. This has had a significant impact on the intellectual development of the Arab middle class, and the political movement that arose from it.

The Muslim Brotherhood, with its roots in the middle class, for example, did not have a coherent ideological vision of social transformation; they were limited to a project of individual moral reform, which they argued would eliminate moral decay and government corruption.

On the other hand, the left and the Nasserists, who are more sympathetic to the working class, did not attempt to lead and radicalize the labor movement. They chose to focus on limited economic demands from the paternalistic state, ignoring the social realities of the urban poor who played an integral role during the mass protest of 2011 and 2012.       
                                    
These examples illustrate the condition of the Egyptian intelligentsia who are still under the stranglehold of Nasserist ideals of social harmony. This has had a number of repercussions on the political climate of modern Egypt.

First, they focused their attention on issues of corruption and governance, rather than social structures and their historical development. Thus, the dominant notion is that if a limited number of elites are changed, societal issues will be resolved. The removal of a sitting leader becomes their grandest goal.

Second, there is clear denial of Arab societal problems being the product of social structures and social struggle, since the view of natural social harmony would then be shattered. This stunts Arab intellectual development, causing it to act as a tool for the justification of existing elite structures rather than a way to challenge and alter them.

Third, the casting of the middle class as the embodiment of the nation marginalizes the vast majority of the other classes and relegates them to the background, which impedes the creation of cross-class coalitions.

Finally, and most importantly is the development of a siege mentality by the urban middle class in situations of revolutionary crisis when class conflict is heightened. This only results in the urban middle class coming into closer alliance with military elites, who are viewed as the only protection against those who threaten their perception of the nation.

Thus, rather than perform a progressive function, it provides justification for state repression and violence, even though the military elites are accumulating wealth at the expense of all the classes, including the middle class.

Unless there is a substantial change in the view among Arab intellectuals of class conflict and social struggle as drivers of social change, the development of a revolutionary framework will be limited and the Arab intelligentsia will only act as junior partners in state repression and the degradation of Arab societies.

Maged Mandour graduated from Cambridge with a Masters in International Relations. He is a political analyst and the columnist of “Chronicles of the Arab Revolt” on openDemocracy. He is also a writer for Sada, the online journal for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Follow him @MagedMandour

Courtesy: Open Democracy
 

The post On the absence of Arab intellectuals: a class under siege appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Dr. Ilina Sen, academician and activist released the book. While releasing the book she said that it would be naive to examine cases of violence in South Chhatisgarh independent of the resource presence there. Mineral deposits in the state, in most cases, intersect with traditional settlements of adivasis, and therefore places their eviction by the state, as an inevitable. The adivasis, in most of these cases, have displayed enormous courage, resisting the corporations, the governments and the vigilante groups. Hence the unforeseen and totally unjust presence and multiplication of violence. We have some of the richest corporations of the world—international as well as national—allying with the governments to annihilate the people and their ways of life. There are multiple forms of resistance that includes cultural forms as well, through which the people speak for themselves. The alliance between the corporations and the state and central governments is now quite obvious, and the onus is on all of us to critique, resist and extend solidarities towards the people.

Pushpa Rokde, who works with the Dainik Prakhar Samachar in Chhatisgarh is the only adivasi woman journalist from Bastar. She was one of the firsts to report the cases of rapes and atrocities by security forces in Bijapur in 2015. She spoke about the challenges of being an adivasi and a journalist. She spoke about how the state and the police view her as being pro maoist or going to meet maoists whenever she goes in the interior areas of Chhatisgarh to cover stories. She mentioned how the situation has deteriorated due to increasing numbers of fake encounters. Because of this fear, she said that men were afraid of taking ailing women to hospitals for fear of being killed midway. She said that Adivasis are truthful and have called encounters fake only when innocent people were killed. She said that the state has intimidated those journalists who have chosen to speak the truth.

Shreya K, a WSS activist, placed sexual violence within the larger history of violence of all forms in Chhattisgarh, which peaked between 2005 and 2009 where the Salwa Judum was in active operation. She asserted the presence of a pattern in terms of specific acts—unwanted touch on various body parts and especially sexual organs, pilfering of chickens, taking away money and so on—in areas filled with security forces. The incoming of forces has been continuing in newer forms post the Supreme Court banishment of the Salwa Judum, therefore contributing towards the manifold increase in multifarious instances of violence and sexual assault in particular. It has to be noted, she said, that one could derive identical patterns if one were to examine three factors in the state—the flow of government forces, constancy of violence and the presence of natural resources eyed by mining corporations. We’ve always been able to read the presence of sexual violence into incidents of warfare—where the inequality of power across spectrums are maximum, making justice an almost impossible end. Instances of sexual violence are seldom reported (due to the insistence of taboos), and if reported, the due process is seldom begun. Shreya spoke poignantly about the emotional and physical pain many victims she’d met had suffered, and one of the most important acts we could do, she said, is to bear witness, and hence the launch of the book.

Adv. Yug Mohit Choudhary, human rights lawyer, underlined the vulnerabilities to which people working in the state of Chhattisgarh— lawyers, journalists, academicians—are exposed, certainly caused by the absence of the rule of law. The instances of injustice and violence seems to be ever present in the state—and bearing witness to these events of urgency is a duty we all are responsible to. He examined an event that occurred in a village called Sarkeguda, in Chhattisgarh, in particular—where 17 villagers were killed by CRPF forces on 28 June 2012. The case, after analyses reveals stark violation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s)—wherein there are evidences of gunshots at the back, head injuries, bodies shot when they were kneeling and incise wounds—which clearly indicate possible torture and fictitious encounters. The case is still undergoing a Judicial Commission Enquiry, awaiting justice, he said. He ended by highlighting that there is consistent lying from the side of the state, and this denial of truth seems to be the status quo. We should, he said, together think of strategies as a collective—to give and bear witness.

The three speakers were followed by the presentation of a few video documents from the state—recorded in 2016—recording state violence against the adivasis in Chhattisgarh, collected by Women Against Sexual Violence and Repression (WSS).

A photo exhibition on Bastar by renowned photographer Javed Iqbal was exhibited on the occasion. This was followed by a question-answer session with the speakers, and the session ended with a few cultural programme.

Courtesy: India Resists
 

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UN report details massive destruction and serious rights violations since July 2015 in southeast Turkey

The post Serious rights violations in southeast Turkey: UN Report appeared first on SabrangIndia.

First, here is the statement issued by 20 faculty members of the Academic Council today, about half the members present at the adjourned 142nd AC Meeting.

PRESS RELEASE BY MEMBERS OF THE JNU ACADEMIC COUNCIL
We, faculty members of the JNU Academic Council, are shocked and dismayed at the manner in which the Vice Chancellor has conducted the 142^nd Academic Council meeting of December 23^rd (adjourned to December 26^th). This was a thinly attended meeting since it was held at short notice in the middle of the winter vacation, despite several requests for rescheduling.
The minutes of the previous (141^st) Academic Council meeting that had been circulated contained many errors, misrepresentations, and falsities. Several of these had been pointed out by many members of the Academic Council, including in written representations to the Registrar.

The Registrar misled the Academic Council that no written submissions had been received and retracted only when copies of such responses were provided to him. The repeated tampering of minutes has become a serious problem that is affecting the functioning of the university and is against all procedural norms.
One of the most alarming insertions to the minutes gave the Vice Chancellor powers to manipulate the list of experts for Selection Committees sent by the Centres and Schools. This had not been approved by the previous Academic Council meeting.
However, the Vice Chancellor abruptly stopped the discussion on this item, refused to accept the removal of the wrongly inserted sentence, and declared the minutes passed.
After this, he tried to push through all the remaining agenda items without any discussion despite several objections from the floor, including by those who were not allowed to speak even once. A large number of Academic Council members stood up in protest, but the Registrar hurriedly read a part of the agenda, which no one could hear amidst the protests, and the Vice Chancellor announced that all items were passed.
After the Vice Chancellor got up to leave the meeting, a group of students entered the hall shouting slogans. This occurred after the Vice Chancellor was already near the exit.
We disapprove of the way in which opinions of many in the house were not heard and democratic norms were violated in the conduct of the 142^nd Academic Council meeting by the administration led by the Vice Chancellor.
– Signed
Rekha V. Rajan, Ranjani Mazumdar, Ramila P. Bisht, Raman P Sinha, Pradeep K Shinde, Vikas Rawal, Nupur Chowdhury, Nivedita Menon, Lata Singh, Jayati Ghosh, Ishtiaque Ahmad, Hemant Adlakha, Anupama Roy, Amir Ali, Ajith Kanna, Ajoy Kumar Karnati, Ajay Kumar, Saitya Brata Das, Rajib Dasgupta, BS Butola.

 
Second, here is the statement issued by the Administration:

Jawaharlal Nehru University Press Release Date: 26.12.2016
The Academic Council meeting of JNU was held on 23 December 2016 and was adjourned since all the agenda items could not be discussed. The adjourned Academic Council meeting of the university concluded on 26 December 2016 and all the remaining agenda items were discussed and approved. The most significant among them was the adoption of the 5th May 2016 UGC gazette notification on admission procedures for various academic programmes and courses.
While the AC meeting was going on smoothly, a handful of faculty members tried their best to disrupt the meeting by constantly shouting at the chairperson while he was speaking. One member even ran to the chairperson by waiving a piece of paper and shouting at the Chairperson, but was urged to sit for peaceful conduct of the meeting. When members were expressing their views on various agenda items, a few members were overly rude and agitated and sought to prevent the meeting from moving forward to discuss the agenda items.
Towards the end of the AC meeting, someone from this group of members, disrupting the meeting, called in the students who were protesting outside the venue. A group of unruly students broke open the latch of the meeting room after thumping the door, came inside and began to shout slogans at the Chairperson and the Academic Council members. The meeting at this time was already over and necessary decisions had been taken by the Academic Council.
The JNU administration urges the Academic Council members, who tried to disrupt the meeting, to desist from indulging in such acts in future. Some members of the Academic Council have demanded that appropriate action should be taken against the unruly behavior of some AC members who tried to disrupt the proceedings. Many members also have urged the Vice Chancellor to take immediate disciplinary action against a group of students barging into the venue and creating pandemonium. (Registrar).

It should be clear from the 20 endorsements on our statement that far from a “handful”, about half of the members present were objecting to the blatant abuse of power by the VC.
Second, the faculty member “waiving” (sic) the piece of paper was in fact drawing attention to the written submission the Registrar claimed not to have received, which was in fact already tabled in the first part of this AC meeting on Friday 23rd. This was what he had to concede eventually.
Third, the AC meeting did not go on “smoothly” from the very first moment, because the VC tried to say that the Minutes of the previous AC meeting had been confirmed because no written submissions had been received. So the protests had immediately begun.

Fourth and most importantly, the Adminstration’s statement claims that this 142nd AC meeting adopted “the 5th May 2016 UGC gazette notification on admission procedures for various academic programmes and courses.”

This UGC Gazette is extremely problematic, but I will come to it in a moment. The point here is to say that this Gazette was not in fact discussed in this AC meeting. It was noted in the Minutes of the last AC meeting (the 141st AC held in May 2016) as passed, but the minutes needed to be approved at this 142nd AC meeting before the UGC Gazette can be deemed to have been “adopted” by JNU. But as we have noted, the Minutes were not permitted to be discussed at all.

Most members present at the last AC (141st) in fact say that the UGC Gazette was placed but not discussed. So its appearance in the Minutes of the 141st AC may be another instance of manipulation of Minutes.

The facts are these. At the beginning of the AC meeting on Friday 23rd, the JNUTA representative had alerted the AC to the fact that we needed to reopen the question of the UGC Gazette, and that the university should write to UGC for clarifications before we adopted it, as it is extremely anti-student and also runs counter to constitutionally guaranteed social justice policies. The VC had agreed at that point that JNU should write to UGC for clarifications, but this point was to have been addressed in the adjourned meeting today.

However, we never got the opportunity to reopen the question because the VC declared the minutes as approved overriding all our protests.

What is the UGC Gazette Notification of May 2016?
The relevant point is that while laying down the procedure of admission to M.Phil/Ph.D programmes, it sets out a two stage process:

Higher Education Instituions shall admit candidates by a two stage process through:
* An Entrance Test shall be qualifying with qualifying marks as 50%. The syllabus of the Entrance Test shall consist of 50% of research methodology and 50% shall be subject specific and
* An interview/viva-voce to be organized by the HEI as mentioned in clause 1.2 when the candidates are required to discuss their research interest/area through a presentation before a duly constituted Department Research Committee.

This means that the written examination is the first stage, which will act as an elimination stage, in which 5o percent marks have to be secured, with no relaxation for disadvantaged and constitutionally recognized categories.

Only those who reach the second stage will even be considered for admission, and this stage is the viva stage. Thus the viva will determine who will be admitted, but only after the initial weeding out stage.

Those of us who have worked in the Indian University system for decades know that it is our robust social justice policies that have made our universities vibrant, lively and challenging spaces where intellectual practice is being constantly reshaped.

The UGC notification is an attempt to sabotage this trend, and the JNU VC is acting as a willing servitor to this politics. One element of this politics is to control and manipulate the selection of both students and faculty.

We cannot permit this to happen.

Courtesy: kafila.online
 

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In a statement issued yesterday, the PUCL has stated that that the Kucheipadar village had played a crucial role in the anti‐bauxite mining movement and Sarangi was closely associated with the movement for many years supporting the community in their struggle against displacement. The movement had to suffer tremendous state repression. In the year 2000, three Adivasis  were killed in police firing. During 2005‐2006, hundreds of people were picked up by police and put in jail on false cases of which people had no knowledge. Even today, people are being arrested for cases registered ten years ago. Added to this is the unstated policy of the government of labeling every struggle of the Adivasis as ‘Maoists’ and then in the name of containing ‘Maoists menace’ indiscriminately arrest and kill innocent Adivasis. So it was in January 2011 the security forces had brutally killed 9 people in Basangamali, in Kashipur Block, which included five young Adivasi girls.

Not surprisingly, the same policy is being pursued to suppress the anti‐mining struggle of Adivasis in Niyamgiri hills. Only a few days ago one Adivasi, Mando Kadraka, was killed by the security forces, and he was branded as a Maoist. In December 2015, the DVF (a special wing of the Odisha police formed to tackle the Maoists) had killed three Adivasis in the Karlapat sanctuary area (in the adjacent district of Kalahandi) and declared them as Maoists. What is common to all these areas is the rich bauxite deposits and the sinister design of the state to handover these resources to the corporates by silencing the voice of opposition. The arrest of Debaranjan  is just an example of it.PUCL demands that the government of Odisha  withdraw all the old cases falsely foisted on local people and activists and unconditionally release those who have been arrested.

The statement was issued by Pramodini Pradhan, convenor, PUCL‐Odisha.

The post Arrest of Activist Debaranjan Sarangi Condemned appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Sign the Petition here: Stand with JNU

We, the students of Mumbai extend our support to and express solidarity with the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who are under systematic attack from the Delhi Police and certain sections of the media. We disagree with the slogans raised by a small section of people on the JNU campus, during a protest and do not identify or sympathise with those who provoke violence against the people of India and the state. However, the manner in which the Government has dealt with this situation is alarming and distressing.

The JNU Student Union President Kanhaiya Kumar has been arrested by the police under charges of sedition. From all videos and eye witness accounts that have surfaced after the protest, it is clear that Kanhaiya Kumar was not part of the group chanting the slogans and can be called a bystander or observer at best. A video of his speech has emerged where he makes it clear that he was not supporting that particular group of protestors and in fact asserts his faith in the Constitution of India.

Keeping this is mind, we must ask: what is the formal pretext under which he has been arrested? We do not believe it is acceptable for a police force to enter a University, which is intended to be a forum for debate and discussion, and arrest a student leader and lock him up in jail even though he has not broken any law. The media has been imploring the Delhi Police Commissioner to release evidence that suggests Kanhaiya Kumar raised slogans along with the group of protestors concerned. The police has so far not released any evidence against Kanhaiya. He has been charged under the Sedition law, which cannot be applied to anyone unless there has been incitement of violence against the state, and Kanhaiya has done anything but that. The arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional arrest of a student from a University seems to be a gross misuse of political power to stifle opinions that differ from those of the ruling establishment.

The larger problem is the way sections of the media and the Government are using this episode to tarnish JNU as a whole with one brush, calling it a 'den of anti-nationals'. This kind of irresponsible rhetoric that maligns an educational institution of the country, is unfair and appears to serve a political narrative that does not tolerate dissenting voices. The assault of JNU students, staff and journalists by lawyers and BJP MLA OP Sharma outside Patiala House Court has only proved how those associated with the University are being victimized by those in the ruling dispensation. The refusal of the police to take action against the culprits of the Patiala House attack, and the determination to keep Kanhaiya behind bars, sends out a disturbing message to students across India : If you do not toe the line of the Government, a pretext will be found to punish you. This environment is not at all conducive for any educational institution.

We appeal to the conscience of the Prime Minister and request him to end this farce being enacted in JNU and release Kanhaiya Kumar. There is a problem with the slogans that were raised by some students of JNU and it needs to be addressed with the sensitivity it deserves and after sufficient thought has gone into it. Knee-jerk reactions like arresting a student leader can never be the solution.

This is a petition to the Government of India from a collection of students from Mumbai colleges. The chief petitioners are students of a Mumbai college and can be contacted at studentswithjnu@gmail.com. 

Only college students from Mumbai should sign this petition. Your identity will not be revealed if you so wish.

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