What is physically dangerous for minority is mentally dangerous for majority

Counterview Desk
Citizens of Mumbai took out a rally on July 3 from Kotwal Garden to Chaityabhoomi to protest the series of lynchings and hate crimes that are occurring in this country with nauseating regularity. Advocate Prakash Ambedkar, leaders from trade unions and political parties as well as eminent citizens and cultural activists from all walks of life attended. A statement signed by major civil rights organisations, Left political parties and prominent citizens who participated in the "Not in my Name" rally:
The RSS/BJP rise to power in 2014 has been marked by lynchings and killings of Muslims, Dalits and rationalists while the Prime Minister speaks out only when public protests reach a critical mass and then lapses into silence until the next uproar. It started in 2014 when Mohsin Shaikh, an innocent techie was beaten to death with hockey sticks in Pune just because he looked ‘Muslim’. In Mumbai Yakub Shaikh was murdered.
Then began the killings by cow vigilantes (Gau Rakshaks). Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri, Zahid Bhatt a 16 year old in Udhampur, the hanging from a tree of Mohammed Majloom and Azad Khan in Latehar, Jharkhand, the thrashing in Una, Gujarat of 7 Dalits for skinning a dead cow, the murder of cattle traders Abu Hanifa and Riazuddin Ali in Assam, Pehlu Khan in Alwar, Rajasthan, the lynching of Bhoop Singh & Jabbar Singh in Greater NOIDA, 15 year old Junaid in Faridabad, Haryana and Alimuddin of Ranchi, Jharkhand - are all the handiwork of self-appointed cow vigilantes.
Elsewhere Ghulam Mohammed is killed in Bulandshahar for helping an inter-faith couple. Zafar Husain is lynched in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan for attempting to protect women. DSP Ayub Pandith is lynched in J&K, and Uttam and Gangesh in Jharkhand. In Hyderabad Phd scholar Rohith Vemula who fought with ABVP and was expelled from his hostel on the orders of Central government ministers, is driven to suicide. Najeeb a JNU scholar ‘disappears’ after a scuffle with ABVP and is never found again.
The murderers of rationalist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar roam free with impunity and strike twice more to kill Comrade Govind Pansare and Professor MM Kalburgi. The State refuses to ban the prime suspect, the Sanatan Sanstha.
In court confessional statements ’disappear’ and witnesses turn hostile so that saffron terrorists from Aseemanand to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur walk out of jail.
As indebted farmers continue to commit suicide, those farmers who take to the streets to protest against the destruction of the agricultural sector, are shot down by police.
In Kashmir, the decision to use brute force and pellet guns rather than initiate talks and peace measures alienates ordinary citizens.
The brutalization of this country is creating a generation that does not think violence against the weak and helpless is wrong. Everywhere minorities are under threat. But what is physically dangerous for the minority is mentally dangerous for the majority.
This is not the future we want. We are Hindus, Muslims, Christians and people of all denominations, castes and creeds including some who have no religion. We do not believe that the present regime will stop the destruction of the secular, democratic India promised to us by our Constitution. So this is not an appeal to government. It is a wake up call to the conscience of the country.
---
Bharatiya Republican Party, CPM, CPI, ANIS, Lal Nishan Paksh, Lal Nishan Paksh (L), CPI (ML), SUCI, CITU, AITUC, TUSC, Govind Pansare Abhiwadan Samiti, Sarva Shramik Sangh, Sarva Shramik Sanghatana, NTUI, ABJM, Bharatiya Mahila Federation, DYFI , AIYF, SFI, AISF, Mumbai Rahiwasi Sangh, Bruhan Mumbai Bhadekaru Parishad, BUCTU, Jati Anth Sangharsh Samiti, Samajik Atyachar Prtibandhak Chalwal, Vidhyarthi Bharati, Indian Muslim For Secular Democracy, CPDR, Tanzim e Insaaf, Janvadi Lekhak Sangh, Akhil Bharati Janvadi Mahila Sanghatan, Bharatiya Mahila Federation, Samvidhan Saanvardhan Samiti, Lok Sanskriti Manch, Maharashtra Urdu Writers Guild, Forum Against Oppression of Women, Pragatisheel Lekhak Sangh, Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Bigul Mazdoor Dasta, NAPM, Bastar Solidarity Network, Bebak Collective, Morche pe Kavi, Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan, AAP Mumbai, RPI (Secular)

Comments

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi* This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857 By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

NREGA Sangharsh Morcha demands rollback of NMMS App, restoration of workers’ rights

By A Representative The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM) has strongly demanded the immediate revocation of the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) App used for recording workers’ attendance under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Citing the Union Ministry of Rural Development’s (MoRD) July 8, 2025 directive acknowledging widespread misuse and discrepancies in the NMMS App, NSM accused the government of admitting to deep-rooted corruption while continuing to impose a failed digital system.

Bangladesh alternative more vital for NE India than Kaladan project in Myanmar

By Mehjabin Bhanu* There has been a recent surge in the number of Chin refugees entering Mizoram from the adjacent nation as a result of airstrikes by the Myanmar Army on ethnic insurgents and intense fighting along the border between India and Myanmar. Uncertainty has surrounded India's Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport project, which uses Sittwe port in Myanmar, due to the recent outbreak of hostilities along the Mizoram-Myanmar border. Construction on the road portion of the Kaladan project, which runs from Paletwa in Myanmar to Zorinpui in Mizoram, was resumed thanks to the time of relative calm during the intermittent period. However, recent unrest has increased concerns about missing the revised commissioning goal dates. The project's goal is to link northeastern states with the rest of India via an alternate route, using the Sittwe port in Myanmar. In addition to this route, India can also connect the region with the rest of India through Assam by using the Chittagon...

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Search This Blog