Gujarat Dalit rights leader detained as he went to represent to CM over mysterious "slaughter" of 548 cows

By A Representative
Gujarat's grassroots Dalit rights leader Natubhai Parmar, seeking to represent before chief minister Vijay Rupani on what he called "mysterious disappearance" of 548 cows in a cattle shed or panrapol in Junagadh district over the past three years, was on Sunday detained by the Surendranagar police on suspicion that he might "disturb" Rupani's programme. According to Parmar, he was "set free only after Rupani left the spot." Along with Parmar, 30 of his supporters, too, were detained.
Parmar, who is with Gujarat's biggest Dallit rights organization, Navsarjan Trust, shot into prominence for organizing a unique protest against cow vigilantes' terror in 2016 by dumping a truck full of dead cows in front of Surendranagar district collector's office, telling the administration to "find out" who killed them before disposing them of.
During his recent campaigns he has been propagating that cattle consuming plastics is the main reason for cow slaughter, and not those who are sought to be targeted for it -- Dalits involved in the hereditary caste-based job of skinning cows.
Early this week, he took out a rally and handed over a 25 kg plastic taken out of a dead cow's womb to the Surendranagar district collector, telling him, this should be handed over to Rupani as a grim reminder that cows are being forced to die by eating leftovers mixed with plastic because of the failure of the government to take care of cows, whom it considers holy. He took out a similar rally a year ago.

Parmar told me, based on information, widely reported in local media, he wanted to represent to the chief minister, that "no investigation has yet been ordered into the mysterious disappearance of so many cows from the goshala or cow shed, run by a family trust near Torania village. As many as 789 stray cows were handed by the Junagadh Municipal Corporation (JMC) with Rs 3,000 per cow to the trust."
Pointing out that of the 789 just 241 cows are currently said to be surviving, Parmar, who runs Gautam Buddha Goseva Ashram in Surendranagar, said, "The JMC in all handed over Rs 23.67 lakh to the cow shed to take care of the cows three years ago. It means that JMC officials, too, should be held responsible for negligence of the cows that were handed over to the trust."
The written representation, which Parmar was to hand over to the chief minister, demanded action against the trust's management under the state law, which stipulates life imprisonment of those found responsible of cow slaughter, wondering why the police authorities have not begun any investigation so far.
"The goseva trust currently has just 153 of the 789 cows it was given. It claims, it has given 88 of them to individuals who have taken up the responsibility of taking care of them", the letter states, seeking CBI inquiry into the possible death of the cows.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

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...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Weaponizing faith? 'I Love Muhammad' and the politics of manufactured riots

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* A disturbing new pattern of communal violence has emerged in several north Indian cities: attacks on Muslims during the “I Love Muhammad” processions held to mark Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. This adds to the grim catalogue of Modi-era violence against Muslims, alongside cow vigilantism, so-called “love jihad” campaigns, attacks for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” and assaults during religious festivals.

Counterview

Search This Blog