UK NRIs protest lynching of minorities, Dalits by "RSS-led mobs", hate, hysteria

Counterview Desk
Even as India goes to polls on April 11 in an atmosphere allegedly causing deep concern, several UK-based human rights and Dalits organisations held a vigil outside the Indian High Commission in London Pointing out that this was part of a global day of action with a similar protests taking place in New York and in solidarity with people’s agenda 2019 event which took place in Delhi, they released a set of demands on rights situation in India.
Participants included representatives from the South Asia Solidarity Group, CasteWatch UK, SOAS India Society, Dr Ambedkar Memorial Committee GB, and the Ambedkar International Mission.

A note by the organisers:

The demonstrators held pictures of Mohamed Aqhlakh, Zafar, Gauri Lankesh, Junaid Khan and Asifa and placards saying ‘Ambedkar Bhagat Singh! Democracy will win!’
The shouted slogans such as ‘Modi! Modi! Shame! Shame! No more killings in our name!’, ‘Hands Off Dr Teltumde! Hands Off Dr Saibaba!’ and ‘Justice for Junaid! Justice for Gauri Lankesh! Justice for Asifa! Justice for Judge Loya!’
They expressed their deep concern that lynchings of Muslims, Dalits and Christians by RSS-led mobs, assassinations of dissenters, rapes and escalating violence against women and girls, the arrests and incarceration of human rights defenders and progressive intellectuals have indeed turned India into a republic of fear.
They noted that a media loyal to the government whips up hate and hysteria on a daily basis, while journalists who speak out are persecuted and even murdered. The independence of the judiciary has been systematically compromised and even judges are not safe from assassination if they dare to remain impartial.
They condemned the increasing repression and daily human rights violations in Kashmir, which is happening as the military occupation is intensified and extended, and warmongering jingoistic rhetoric is used cynically for electoral gain leading the country to the brink of a devastating war with Pakistan.
They expressed their concern that blatantly anti-people and pro-corporate economic policies coupled with shameless corruption have led to massive unemployment, corporate takeover of land, indebtedness and an epidemic of farmer suicides. Adivasi communities are being displaced and facing acute violence when they resist, and forests destroyed on an unprecendented scale; that basic economic rights are being denied to the vast majority of India’s people.
They condemned the open calls from prominent Hindutva figures to do away with the Indian Constitution – the cornerstone of the country’s democracy and civil liberties, written by Dr BR Ambedkar after India’s independence and the fact that these figures want to replace it with the Manusmriti, an ancient Brahminical legal text which is known for its misogyny and its contempt for oppressed castes.
Demands
On Mob Lynching and RSS-sponsored terror:

Ensure justice for the victims and survivors of lynch mobs, and that all those who perpetrate and incite mob lynchings, caste, communal and ethnic massacres and rapes, and extra-judicial killings are arrested and prosecuted.
Enact The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) law;
Enact a law against discrimination, hate crimes and atrocities against religious, ethnic and racial minorities;
Scrap all ‘cow protection’ and ‘anti-conversion’ laws;
Enact a law for protection of inter-caste, inter-faith and same-gotra couples;
Set up a Task Force specifically to counter and dismantle communal and far-right terror groups; bring the perpetrators of assassinations of dissenters and journalists to justice

On Bhima Koregaon

Immediately arrest and prosecute Milind Ekbote, Sambhaji Bhide and others from the Hindutva groups responsible for conspiracy, hate, incitement and violence against Dalits during the 200th anniversary commemorations of Bhima Koregaon on 1 January 2018;
Close FIRs and unconditionally withdraw charges against all those who participated in protests on 2 January 2018 against the violence against Dalits in Bhima Koregaon, and all those arrested in the witch hunt of Dalit youth and children which followed.
Immediately release all human rights activists, lawyers, academics and artists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon incidents and drop the fake charges against them.

On Dr GN Saibaba

End the torture of disabled academic and human rights activist Dr GN Saibaba and immediately release him.

Against Draconian Laws and State Repression

Scrap all draconian laws including Sections124A (sedition), 499 (criminal defamation), Unlawful Activities (Preventions) Act (UAPA), National Security Act (NSA), Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) and free all prisoners arrested under these and older draconian laws like TADA;
Set up a Supreme Court monitored high-powered tribunal to look into countrywide cases of custodial torture and killings;
Enact police reforms to ensure the police force is held accountable to the Constitution and FIR is registered in every encounter, and every incident of custodial violence;
End militarisation of civilian areas in Kashmir, Bastar and the Northeast;
End detention camps for “suspected illegal immigrants” in all states.

For Dalit and Adivasi People’s Rights

Implement the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 2018, punish police officials for failing to file FIRs/record evidence;
Increase funding, and utilise all funds allocated for scholarships and schemes for members of SCs and STs;
Enact a law (Rohith Act) against caste discrimination in educational institutions;
Approach the Supreme Court to fast-track pending appeals against acquittals in Dalit massacre cases in Bihar and other states;
Enforce the Forest Rights Act, accept all community and individual claims;
Release the thousands of adivasi under-trial prisoners languishing in jails on false charges, especially in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana.

Comments

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.

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.

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...

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.

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

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).

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

From triple centurion to master coach: Bob Simpson’s enduring legacy

By Harsh Thakor* Former Australia cricket captain and coach Bob Simpson has died in Sydney aged 89. He leaves behind an indelible legacy, having shaped Australian cricket for more than four decades as a player, captain and coach. Beyond the field, he also served the game as a law-maker, referee and commentator, carving a permanent niche among the all-time greats of Australian cricket.

Counterview

Search This Blog