by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Gujarat Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking why atrocities were being committed against Dalits, minorities and farmers in India and charged the BJP and RSS with instigating anti-Dalit violence in Bhima Koregaon in Maharasthra.
“The way in which Hardik (Patel), Alpesh (Thakore) and Jignesh (Mevani) with the support of the youth in Gujarat brought the BJP down from over 150 seats (target set by BJP in Gujarat) to 99 seats… That is the reason we are being targetted,” Mevani told his Yuva Hunkar rally here.
“And this is the reason why the people of the (Rashtriya Swayamsewak) Sangh and BJP spread violence in Bhima Koregaon,” he said, referring to the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon near Pune last week in which one person lost his life and several vehicles were damaged.
The rally for which the Delhi Police had originally denied permission was held at Jantar Mantar, a short distance from Parliament House in central Delhi. But Mevani and his supporters shelved plans to take out a procession to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The newly elected MLA also said that when he fought elections in Gujarat he always spoke about bringing people together.
“Throughout the election campaign, we said that for 22 years the BJP followed the politics of division, while we always spoke about binding people together,” he said. “We don’t follow love-jihad.”
“We only talk about love and harmony. We will celebrate April 14 and Valentine’s Day too,” he said.
Referring to the violence that marked the 200th anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle in Pune last week, he asked: “Why the violence took place in Bhima Koregaon?
“I don’t have to answer it but you have to answer me… This you have to answer why Rs 15 lakh didn’t come in everyone’s account, why no jobs to youth? Why farmers were shot dead in Mandsaur? Why no justice to the Una Dalit victims? Why Najeeb Ahmed went missing? Why Rohit Vemula died? We’ll ask all these questions from you, (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji.”
Mevani, who won from Vadgam in Gujarat in Assembly elections, said elected representatives were not allowed to speak and that was Gujarat’s model.
Further targeting Modi, Mevani said he supported the government’s “Digital India” initiative but asked the Prime Minister to ensure a technology first “so that no one is made to die inside a sewer”.
He also sought an immediate release of Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad — a Dalit leader who has been jailed and the National Security Act (NSA) slapped against him for allegdly instigating violence in Saharanpur in June last year.
Former Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Kanhaiya Kumar said the rally had been called “to protect the Constitution and not for any religion”. He alleged that the BJP was creating communal divisions to rule.
“The BJP does not want ‘Ram Rajya’… In the fight between Allah and Ram, the victory will always go to Nathuram (Godse),” said the student leader.
Earlier, scores of people gathered around the barricaded Parliament Street for the protest march planned by Mevani.
“No permission has been given to anyone (to hold a rally),” Joint Commissioner of Police Ajay Chaudhary told reporters here.
The Gujarat lawmaker slammed the police and the central government for denying permission to the protest.
“An elected representative is not allowed to speak… This is extremely unfortunate.”
Some 1,500 security personnel in riot gear, with tear gas launchers and water cannons, were deployed on Parliament Street. As many as 42 organisation — parties, associations and student groups — took part in the rally.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi : India is among the deadliest countries for defenders of rights related to land, territory, environment, rights NGO Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
In its global report ‘Deadly but Preventable Attacks: Killings and Enforced Disappearances of Those who Defend Human Rights’, released on Tuesday, the rights watchdog said: “In India, journalists, land rights activists, and those advocating the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, Dalits and Adivasis (tribal) are among those at risk of attack.”
Among the deadliest countries for this group of human rights defenders are Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, India and Honduras, it said.
According to an Amnesty release, as many as 3,500 human rights defenders were killed worldwide since 1998 while the number in 2016 was 281– a significant increase from 156 defenders killed in 2015 and 136 in 2014.
Also, 48 journalists were killed worldwide in 2016, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The report included testimonies from human rights defenders as well as their relatives and colleagues in India, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Mauritania, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Sudan and Syria.
Many described how victims’ pleas for protection had been repeatedly ignored by the authorities and how the attackers had evaded justice, fueling a deadly cycle of impunity, it said.
Asmita Basu, Programmes Director at Amnesty International India, said human rights defenders were painted as a threat to development or traditional values.
“Human rights defenders, instead of being recognised and protected by the state, are
portrayed as ‘criminals’, ‘foreign agents’, ‘anti-nationals’ and ‘terrorists’, and painted as a threat to development or traditional values. Such labels are divisive, signal contempt for constitutional rights, and give a green light to further abuses,” she said, as per the release.
The report has brought together stories from around the world including that of journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was fatally shot outside her home in Bengaluru in September 2017.
It also mentioned Chhattisgarh’s Jailal Rathia, who had challenged the Adivasi land grabbing and later died of what was suspected as deliberate poisoning, and killing of Maharashtra Dalit activist Chandrakant Gaikwad.
The report focused on the gravest of violations against human rights defenders– killings and enforced disappearances.
“The motives behind these attacks are multiple and layered. Some people are attacked because of their legitimate activities, for example, as they stand up to powerful actors violating human rights, share information and raise awareness, or confront discriminatory public opinion and social norms. Others are attacked both for what they do and who they are,” it said.
The human rights defenders included those defending the rights of women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and indigenous peoples and minority groups, it added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Author Sujatha Gidla
By Saket Suman,
New Delhi : The nation has just celebrated Independence Day with great pomp and fervour — but does this special occasion evoke similar sentiments among the Dalits living in the country? No, contends author Sujatha Gidla, who was born an “untouchable” and is now creating waves in US literary circles with a provocative memoir capturing the life of her community in India.
Until recently, Gidla was just another New Yorker, working as a conductor on the city Subway. But her recent memoir, “Ants among Elephants”, which not only details her memories of growing up as a Dalit woman in India but also lists the many instances of “discrimination and humiliation” that she and her family were customarily subjected to, has thrust her into the limelight.
On how she responds to special occasions like Independence Day, the author said that, as children, they would admire iconic figures like Gandhi and Nehru, and celebrate the day — but things changed gradually as they become more aware.
“When I joined the RSU (Radical Students Union) we were told that (this) Independence was not real independence, that it was only transfer of power. And now we don’t feel anything because we are not made to feel that we are Indians like other Indians.
“It is the same thing in the universities where I studied. I don’t have that pride of my alma mater because we were not treated as equals. None of us have that pride, not even my mother,” Gidla told IANS in an email interview from New York.
The author further quipped that, by and large, “this is not independence” for members of her community.
“There have been many types of discrimination in various parts of the world. As far as I know, caste-based discrimination is uniquely cruel. There is racism in America, but I will never compare it with caste and rather say that caste is much worse.
“I will also say this: Blacks here are murdered, they have been lynched. But I have never read about another place where untouchables are fed excreta, made to drink urine and paraded naked. Even under slavery, the slave owners took care to feed their slaves in order to keep them fit to work. Untouchables in India never even had that,” Gidla said.
She reiterated that untouchability is neither a religious nor a cultural problem. It is rather a social problem and that there has to be “some sort of fundamental change”; otherwise the Dalits will “continue to suffer”.
Elaborating on the “suffering” that she repeatedly mentions in the book, Gidla said most Dalits in India, particularly those trying to fight against the caste system, live under constant duress due to verbal attacks and the threat of physical violence.
“Our neighbours in India have been actively trying to kick my mom out of her apartment. Her (upper) caste colleagues hate the fact that her daughter wrote a successful book.
“That is the irony; we cannot even celebrate the publication of the book because we are afraid that it will make people around us unhappy. Even fellow untouchables are not posting it on social media for fear of being exposed to their colleagues and (upper) caste friends as untouchables,” she elaborated.
Gidla’s grandparents converted to Christianity at the onset of the 20th century and were educated at Canadian missionary schools. She too, with the help of Canadian missionaries, studied physics at the Regional Engineering College in Warangal, in what is Telangana today. She was also a researcher in applied physics at IIT-Madras.
Gidla initially worked as a developer in software design, then moved to banking but lost her job in 2009 during the economic crisis. Finally, she took up the job of a conductor at the New York Subway.
This book, Gidla said, initially began as an investigation into the caste system but finally took the shape of a memoir as her family members also enriched its pages with their personal experiences and reflections.
So what would bring “freedom” in the true sense to Gidla and her family, as also to over 300 million Dalits in India?
“True freedom is equal access to everything in society — education, jobs, etc, etc. When that is achieved, the prejudices will begin to disappear, but only gradually, not instantaneously. Without having equal access to economic betterment all these words about caste being an evil practice or we should treat untouchables with respect are meaningless,” she maintained.
The book has been published in the US by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan publishers, and is yet to hit the Indian market.
(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Gandhinagar : Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government treated every section of the society equally and was committed to minorities’ empowerment with dignity but “without appeasement”.
Addressing a cheque distribution programme of Gujarat Minorities Development Finance Corporation here, he said: “Minorities, Dalits, farmers, women and every other section of the country have played an equal role in nation building.”
“There is no place for any kind of discrimination against any religion, caste and community in this agenda. India’s uniqueness is its unity in diversity, ‘Sarva Dharm Sadbhav’. Secularism is in the DNA of India,” he said, adding that “some elements want to disturb this fabric”.
“We all need to come together to defeat such elements. The Modi government will not allow any destructive agenda to dominate our developmental narrative.
“Empowerment without appeasement, inclusive growth and antyodaya (commitment to take benefits of development to the last person of the society) is our agenda,” he said.
Naqvi urged people to be cautious of hostile forces trying to disturb an atmosphere of trust and development.
“We have to remain cautious against these elements. Every section/community of the country is feeling a sense of trust and development under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said, claiming these forces were trying to disturb the atmosphere by creating a “fabricated atmosphere of insecurity”.
“Like all others, minorities are safe and secure in India,” he said, accusing certain opposition parties and their allies of trying to give a “communal colour to criminal incidents” but “fail to understand that their acts will only provide a cover for persons involved in such incidents”.
Saying that India was much ahead of other democratic countries in ensuring freedom of expression to its people, Naqvi however cautioned that in the name of such freedom, one should not do anything that helps elements inimical to national interest.
He said those unable to digest the developmental works carried out by the Modi government had become disappointed and desperate since they failed to find even a single logical issue against it.
“In their desperation, they are misusing religion as well as community and caste issues for narrow political interests. Earlier, these people raised the issue of so-called intolerance and launched ‘award wapsi’ (return of awards) campaign. Now, they are trying to disturb peace through political propaganda by raising the baseless issue of a sense of insecurity among members of a particular community,” Naqvi added.
—IANS
