Why no action against Gujarat cops publicly flogging minority youth? Asks petition

By A Representative
An email petition, floated by Mujahid Nafees, convener, Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), Gujarat, addressed to Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, has wondered why till now no action has been taken against the police personnel responsible for publicly flogging three youth belonging to the minority community.
Referring to the incident, which took place in village Undhela, Matar taluka, Kheda district, the petition, endorsed by several human rights activists, says, there is lack of action despite the fact that video clips/ images and newspaper reports of an incident that occurred on 3rd / 4th October, 2022 of public flogging by police personnel of those held for allegedly pelting stone/s at garba venue.”
The petition states, according to reports, an argument over the location of a garba event in the village spiralled into violence with Muslim residents objecting to holding the programme near the village mosque. “An FIR was registered against the alleged Muslim miscreants for the alleged violence”, it says.
A day later, according to the petition, the videos which emerged a day later, and going rounds, shows the police personnel brought the arrested persons din a police van near the event venue, where the altercation over garba was held. They were taken near an electric pole where one police personnel pulls them by their hands and another beat them mercilessly: all of this while the crowd around cheered the police brutality.

Bhupendra Patel, Mujahid Nafees

Regretting that no action has been taken/initiated till date, only an inquiry committee of Ahmedabad IG has been ordered after a legal notice sent to top Gujarat government authorities, the petition says, “This is in complete violation of all rights of those flogged by those responsible for the maintaining law and order.”
Stating that what happened in Undhela village is “open and brazen violation” not only against the protected rights under Article 21 but against the whole “constitutional spirit of a civilized society”, the petition says, it violates international law and conventions to which India is a signatory, especially for eschewing all forms of torture, the Supreme Court judgement in the DK Basu case and Article 141 of the Constitution.
Pointing out that “there is no section in any police manual or Indian penal code that allows police to indiscriminately assault citizens”, the petition demands, that the police department should file FIR against the police personnel involved in flogging, the accused police personnel should be suspended and arrested, and the victims paid compensation.

---

Click here for signatories

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

Gujarat government urged to introduce heat-stress safety rules for construction workers

By A Representative A representation submitted to Gujarat Labour, Skill Development and Employment Minister Kunvarji Bavaliya has urged the state government to introduce legally enforceable safety standards to protect construction workers from extreme heat and heatwaves, and to launch a financial assistance scheme for labourers affected by climate-related health risks.

Search This Blog