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Showing posts from July, 2022

Ironic? Called development sector, NGOs 'don’t want' a buoyant development media

A couple of days after I did a story in Counterview titled "Why Gujarat Dalits want huge brass coin placed in new Parliament building base" ( April 17, 2022 ) the person who had conceptualised the unique 1000-kg brass coin idea, Martin Macwan, a well-known human rights leader, phoned me up to find out why dominant newspapers had “ignored” the event. Indeed, none of the two major papers which come out of Gujarat, “The Times of India” and the “Indian Express” wrote a word about it. The big brass coin has been prepared with the help of three Dalit artists – one from Odisha and two from Delhi – who have been involved gold plating the Somnath temple. Lord Buddha on one side, and Baba Ambedkar on the other, along with the big coin, a large number of small one foot coins have also been minted – all from about 2,700 kg brass utensils donated largely by Dalits in Gujarat’s around 750 villages, as also a dozen other states across India. Embossed is the writeup on each of them: Will Ind...

Hinduphobia 'alert': US white supremacists as dangerous as Islamic extremists?

Does the Hindu diaspora in the US in fears facing intensive attacks from white supremacist? It would seem so, if a new report prepared by the Rutgers University in New Jersey, authored among others by researchers associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, is any indication. Titled “Anti-Hindu Disinformation: A Case Study of Hinduphobia on Social Media”, the report seeks to compare the “dangers” the Hindu diaspora face from white supremacists with that of Islamic extremists. Based on “contemporary analysis” of “anti-Hindu hashtags and comments from popular social networking and messaging platforms Twitter, Tiktok, 4chan, Gab, and Telegram”, the report underlines, without mincing words, “Islamist extremist and white supremacist communities regularly disseminate genocidal and violent propaganda and memes against Hindus.” Of the five authors of the report, Prasiddha Sudhakar, who leads the team, is president of the Rutgers chapter of the Hindu Students Council (HSC), and is ...

Why arrest Rohingiyas with UNHCR card in West Bengal? Asks complaint to NHRC

In an unusual incident, three Rohingyas, including a child, have been arrested by cops as if they were criminals and sent to judicial custody after being produced before the court, despite the fact that they possess United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card. Bringing this to light, a senior West Bengal-based activist said that the three entered India “without any valid documents to save their lives from persecution by the Myanmar government”. Making a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission chairman, Kirity Roy, who is national convenor, Programme Against Custodial Torture and Impunity ((PACTI), and secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), said, the three were arrested on May 28, 2022 at around 8.25 pm by cops belonging to the Mekhliganj Police Station, Cooch Behar district. Roy said, police personnel interrogated them and came to the fact that they are Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and entered India without valid documents th...

US-based Hindu rights group supports 'Kali' film: 'reaction extreme, egregious'

The US-based diaspora group, Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), has asserted that “it stands in unequivocal solidarity with filmmaker Leena Manimekalai, who has faced a barrage of threats and censorship for the poster advertising her upcoming documentary ‘Kaali’, which shows Goddess Kali smoking a cigarette and holding a pride flag”. In a statement, HfHR says, “This poster has upset a subset of Hindus who seem unaware not only of the cultural practices of those who worship Kali, but of the incredible diversity inherent to Hindu traditions more broadly.” It asserts, “The true inner strength of Hindu religious traditions is that different communities have found spiritual inspiration in different ways. It is common in many parts of India for devotees of Kali to offer alcohol and meat as naivedyam (food offerings) -- including at Kolkata's Kalighat temple, which is one of the 51 holiest sites for Shakta Hindus.” The statement says, “At the Viralimalai Temple in Tamil Nadu, ...

Surveillance? Govt of India TechEdu apps 'violated' child privacy rights: HRW study

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, “How Dare They Peep into My Private Life? Children’s Rights Violations by Governments That Endorsed Online Learning During the Covid-19 Pandemic”, has raised the alarm that two apps developed by the Government of India, Diksha and e-Pathshala, were engaged in “data practices that put children’s rights at risk”.

Untouchability removal much bigger issue than new Parliament building: Macwan

Sounding a distinctly different note than the detractors of the Narendra Modi government’s plan to have a new Parliament building, Gujarat’s top Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan has declared that achieving an untouchability free India is “a much bigger challenge” than opposing to the Rs 20,000 crore project seeking to revamp the Central Vista in Delhi. Macwan told this to a gathering of students and activists at the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), which he founded about 20 km from Ahmedabad two decades ago as Dalit technical-cum-empowerment institute for teenage boys and girls. He was revealing his plan to begin a yatra to Delhi starting August 1 taking the newly minted 1,000 kg brass coin, symbolising untouchability free India. “We will reach Delhi on August 7 and plan to hand over the huge coin the President, the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairman asking them to ensure that it is placed in the Parliament building as a reminder to the Parliamentarians that even ...

Drone spraying pesticides 'catastrophic' for humans, agriculture, ecology, wildlife

Narasimha Reddy Donthi, former board member of IFOAM-Asia, which is part of the Germany-based International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), a pioneering organization on organic farming across the world, in a letter to the secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers, taking strong exception to the Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) released for aerial spraying of pesticides, has said that the move contradicts the Insecticide Act.

Prime Minister's 'affordable' housing policy fails to help Gujarat slum dwellers: Study

A new study on the implementation of one of the major policy initiatives for the urban poor by the Narendra Modi government after it came to power, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), has said that in Gujarat, which happens to be the Prime Minister’s home state, has quoted state officials as “confirming” that no progress towards tenure regularization, a key requirement for providing housing to the state’s slum dwellers. Stating that this particularly true of smaller town, the study, carried out by the non-profit Homes in the City (HIC), which is based in Bhuj, district headquarter of Kutch that saw a devastating earthquake in 2001, says, the failure to provide affordable housing is there despite the fact that there has been “significant demand” in all the 83 out of 153 Gujarat municipalities studied by experts involved in the study. According to the study, out f a total of 1.41 lakh demands for housing under the Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC) category, 94,232 (66.7%) ...

Toxic hate taking 'epidemic form': Shabana Azmi, others condemn Udaipur beheading

In a statement, actor Shabana Azmi, writer Ramachandra Guha, former Chief of Indian Navy Admiral L. Ramdas, former Planning Commission member Dr Syeda Hameed, Air Vice Marshal (retd) Kapil Kak, Major General Sudhir Vombatkere (retd), danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, and musician TM Krishna, among others, have urged the Government of India to “immediately act to stop hate mongering by all sections in all forms.”

North Gujarat gram panchayat bars villagers from dealing with Muslim hawkers, traders

By Our Representative  A gram panchayat in North Gujarat has barred its residents not to buy anything from Muslim traders and hawkers. An order of the Waghasan group gram panchayat of Tharad taluka of Banaskantha district dated June 30 states that the decision has been taken in the wake of beheading of a Hindu tailor after he posted a derogatory writeup on Prophet Mohammad in Udaipur. The gram panchayat resolution says, anyone seen buying or selling any commodity from a Muslim hawker or trader would be fined Rs 5,100. Bringing this to light, Mujahid Nafees, convener, Minority Coordination Committee, in a letter to Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, says, the state government should take legal action against the panchayat chief who has signed the “unjust” order. The letter says, the act of the sarpanch and other signatories is a violation of rule of law of the state and threat to peace, pointing out, the move is in violation of Article 15 of the Constitution, whi...

Concerned at 'calls for genocide' of Muslims, US begins to directly deal with Indian officials

The US is concerned at open calls being made for a genocide of Indian Muslims, US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain has said. Dehumanizing rhetoric was escalating the persecution of India’s minorities, creating a challenge for the United States, he added.  He was speaking at a three-day International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington DC during the panel discussion on Religious Freedom in India: Challenges for the US.