by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By C. Uday Bhaskar,
August 15 this year marks the 71st anniversary of Indian independence. As the Prime Minister unfurls the national flag at the Red Fort, it is a celebratory moment; yet, a certain sense of bleakness and despondency is palpable. There is a deeply ingrained perception that anarchy is spreading in the country and that the state has abdicated in its primary responsibility of ensuring the safety and security of every citizen, irrespective of religion, caste, class and gender. Recent events bear testimony to this mood.
In an unprecedented development, the Attorney General (AG) of India K.K. Venugopal informed the Supreme Court in an anguished manner that there was an incident of major rioting every week in different parts of the country and that they often go unpunished. The AG noted: “Kanwarias (a sect of Hindu pilgrims) are overturning vehicles in Delhi…There is an incident of major rioting every week, even by educated groups. Marathas in Maharashtra, SC/ST (scheduled caste/scheduled tribe)… nothing is done.”
Earlier, a former Chief Justice of India, T.S. Thakur, asked a very pertinent question: “When we see day in and day out, mobs lynching people, it’s a complete failure of rule of law. If a mob can take the law into its hands and administer summary justice, what kind of rule of law is this?”
The sub-text in both cases is that the Indian State has become selective in how it applies the law and that there is a tacit indifference to the safety and welfare of the minority citizenry.
Thus what is disturbing is the pattern that emerges in the disaggregation of the violence that is ostensibly spontaneous — be it the rioting mob, the beef-lynchings or now the Kanwarias, the annual north Indian ritual of carrying water from the Ganga to one’s home.
Thousands of Hindu devotees walk long distances in July-August to collect the sacred water and, over the years, the numbers have been swelling and the entire event has acquired a huge carnival profile with music, dancing, et al. Given the religious significance attached to the event and the majority Hindu sentiment nurtured by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Kanwaria pilgrimage also has an electoral relevance. This has clearly become more acute in the run-up to the 2019 national election.
Indian politics and the gradual absorption of the religious leader to high office is exemplified by the election of Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk, as the Chief Minister of India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh in March 2017. This was a significant development at the time for South Asia, for not even Pakistan, which was created on the basis of religion, had appointed an Islamic cleric to such office.
Thus, in August, India witnessed an unusual spectacle — that of Kanwarias being showered with rose petals from a helicopter by none less than the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and senior police officials. That some of these Kanwarias have become a law unto themselves has been brought to the attention of the courts – but as the AG noted, “nothing is done”.
The ascendancy of religious orientation in Indian politics and the BJP’s empathy for unbridled Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) fervour has an electoral dimension to it. Uttar Pradesh is the swing state that will shape the outcome at the in 2019 elections. Thus the pandering to the majority community is predictable — but this comes with a very heavy price.
Citizenship in India is no longer equal and the law, alas, is not applied equitably. On its 71st independence anniversary, one cannot ignore the conjecture that India, which had determinedly rejected the two-nation theory in August 1947, is now moving towards it in a visible manner. The question whether the silent Indian majority, that is Hindu, subscribes to the ugly manifestation of Hindutva and the violence associated with it, remains moot. But the state cannot abdicate and the exhortation of the Attorney General should not be ignored.
(The author is Director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi. The article is in special arrangement with South Asia Monitor)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : A day after he survived an attack on his life in the heart of the capital, JNU scholar Umar Khalid on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to assure in his Independence Day speech that critics of the government won’t be targeted.
“Modiji, you had asked for suggestions for your IDay speech. I have a suggestion to make – can you please state that you guarantee that there will be no attack on those who criticize your government and its many failures,” Khalid said in a post on social media.
The Prime Minister has sought suggestions from citizens for his Independence Day speech.
In his post in response to Modi’s solicitation, the JNU scholar, who is fighting a legal battle since he was charged with sedition in 2016, said the attempted gun attack on his life on Monday was to “scare us into silence”.
“What does ‘freedom’ even mean if the citizens of this country have to be ready to die for their ‘crime’ of just being vocal against injustice.
“The fact that two days before Independence Day, in one of the most ‘high security’ zones of the national capital, an armed assailant could dare to attack me in broad daylight only goes onto show the brazen impunity that some people feel they enjoy under the present regime.”
He also said if something happened to him tomorrow, “then do not just hold that ‘unidentified gunman’ responsible”.
The real culprits, he said, were “those who from their seats of power have been breeding an atmosphere of hatred, of bloodlust and fear… Those who have provided an atmosphere of complete impunity for assassins and mob lynchers… those spokespersons of the ruling party (BJP) and the prime time anchors and TV channels who have spread canards about me”.
He said even after the police has registered an offence under Section 307 and Arms Act, saffron agents were trying to suggest that the attack never happened.
Khalid said the arrests made in the murder case of Gauri Lankesh exposed the hands of “Hindutva terror outfits”.
“Tomorrow while there will be once again a shower of high voltage lies and sugar-coated jumlas from the ramparts of Dalmia Group’s Red Fort, our fight for real freedom and dignity, and making the dreams of Bhagat Singh and Babasaheb Ambedkar into a reality will continue with greater resolve.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : JNU scholar Umar Khalid, accused of raising anti-national slogans in 2016, on Monday survived an attempt to kill him in the heart of the capital, saying he escaped only because of his friends.
Police, however, said it was not clear whether the gunshot fired by the attacker was aimed at him or not.
A shaken Khalid told the media that a man approached him with a gun when he was outside the Constitution Hall, tried to overpower him and shoot him down.
“Thankfully, my friends were there with me. They tried to overpower him but he ran away and he fired from across the road.
“I was very scared at that moment when he pointed a gun at me. At that moment, I was reminded of what happened to (writer activist) Gauri Lankesh. I thought that moment has arrived,” Khalid said.
Joint Commissioner of Police Ajay Chaudhary said preliminary investigation showed that an unknown man dragged Khalid when he was with five friends at a tea stall outside the Constitution Club, not far from Parliament.
“A scuffle took place between them,” the officer said. “The accused managed to escape. It is not clear yet whether the attacker fired or not with his weapon.”
He said the case was being probed from all possible angles. A weapon found at the spot was being examined. “We have deployed the best officers to nab the attacker.”
Khalid went to the Constitution Club to attend a “United Against Hate” programme where the listed speakers included noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan, MP Manoj Jha and journalist Amit Sen Gupta.
Arif, a witness to the crime, said Khalid was with him when they were targeted. He said there were at least two attackers. But police spoke about only one attacker.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma earlier quoted Khalid as saying that someone pounced on him and pushed him around 2.30 p.m.
“Thereafter he tried to fire at Khalid. But the person couldn’t fire immediately,” Verma said.
The officer said the local police were not informed about the programme at the Constitution Club, a popular venue for seminars, meetings and press conferences.
The incident took place about half-a-kilometre from Parliament and behind the high-security Reserve Bank of India. The Constitution Club is itself located in a block of apartments, many of which are allocated to MPs.
Khalid was rusticated and fined by the Jawaharlal Nehru University last month after he along with two others — Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Bhattacharya — were found guilty of raising anti-national slogans at a poetry-reading event in the campus on February 9, 2016.
Khalid said he felt that Monday’s incident was an attempt to silence anyone who raise their voice against the Modi government.
He said that in the last two years, since the JNU episode which led to his jailing, “there has been misinformation everywhere” about him and his politics. He accused a section of the media of spreading propaganda against him.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : A day after the Maharashtra ATS arrested three men affiliated to radical Hindu outfits for plotting terror attacks, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Saturday asked if the RSS and BJP would condemn those outfits.
“Maharashtra ATS announced the arrest of three men affiliated to radical Hindu outfits. Who rules Maharashtra? The BJP. Hindu, Muslim or any other religion, radicalism is radicalism. Terror is terror. There is no purpose in burying one’s head in the sand,” said Chidambaram on Twitter.
“Will the RSS and BJP condemn those who are plotting and planning terror attacks?” he asked.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday claimed to have foiled a terrorist attempt to strike in different parts of the state following the arrest of three persons and seizure of at least 20 crude bombs and expolsives and material used in bomb-making.
Official sources said the first to be arrested early Friday was Hindu Janjagran Samiti (HJS) activist Vaibhav Raut from his home in Nala Sopara, Palghar district.
Later, his accomplice Sharad Kalaskar was arrested from there by the ATS teams, which were accompanied by a dog squad and forensics experts.
A third right-wing activist Sudhnava Gondhalekar — allegedly linked to Shri Shiv Pratisthan — was arrested from Pune.
The sources said that the accused planned to carry out terror hits in Mumbai, Pune, Solapur and Satara districts in the coming few days.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The government on Saturday accused the Congress, its President Rahul Gandhi and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi of betraying Muslim women by thwarting the passage of the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha, and appealed to women organisations across the country to start a peaceful agitation against the Opposition to create moral pressure to pass the law.
Addressing a press conference at the just-concluded monsoon session of Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said: “The government did three amendments in triple talaq bill. The question is why Congress, Rahul Gandhiji and Soniaji are trying to thwart the bill. Why are they trying to create obstacles?. By thwarting triple talaq bill, they betrayed our Muslim sisters”.
Raising questions over the conduct of the Congress and other opposition parties, he asked “when the bill was passed unanimously in Lok Sabha, then why are they trying to create hurdles in Rajya Sabha repeatedly”.
“I think, all the women organisations, the organisations who work for gender justice and crores of Muslim sisters should start a peaceful and non-violent agitation. They should create a moral pressure on Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and other opposition (leaders) so that the triple talaq law could be passed expeditiously and the victim women could get protection,” Kumar said.
Referring to the amendments brought by the government in the bill, Kumar said only the victim woman and her blood relative can complain, the bail provision will be decided by the magistrate only after hearing the victim and the compensation will be decided by the court.
Talking about the session, he said the “most important thing of the session was that the no-confidence motion was defeated and the opposition was given a befitting reply that BJP, NDA and NDA+ are united. This was also proved with the election of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman.”
His deputy Vijay Goel also accused the Opposition of consciously creating difficulties in passing the triple talaq bill.
“We (Rajya Sabha) passed 14 bills in this session, including six ordinances. The triple talaq bill would have been passed if the Opposition had not created hurdles intentionally. The Opposition passed the bill in Lok Sabha but despite the amendments in it, they did not allow passage of it in Rajya Sabha,” he said.
Goel further said the session of Parliament was productive for the government with 21 bills passed by the Lok Sabha and 14 by the Rajya Sabha.
Calling it a “social justice” session, Goel said a social justice fortnight will be celebrated from August 15-30 to mark the passage of the bill giving constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes and the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) bill.
Goel said all the ministers will approach people in their homes in their constituencies and inform them about the bills passed by the government.
“The programme will be celebrated every year between August 1 and 9,” he added.
—IANS
