'Rapists have no religion': Top Indian scholars defend Prof Tejaswini Desai's statement

In a solidarity statement, the India Academic Freedom Network (IAFN), a network of university teachers and students, has said Prof Tejaswini Desai of Kolhapur Institute of Technology’s College of Engineering is being "harassed and hounded for countering statements in her classroom that Muslims are rapists and never get punished for their crimes."

Referring to an interview to a news outlet, Prof Desai had stated that “some students said Hindus never ever engaged in riots and Babri Masjid was demolished on the orders of the Supreme Court.” Prof Desai was concerned, she said, for “students of other religions in the class”.
In order that "things should not get ugly", she told them that rape is not limited to any particular religion or community and rapists don’t have any religion or caste. "It comes under the category of heinous crime,” she said.
IAFN said, "Her assertion that rapists can be from any community is borne out by the most superficial glance at newspaper reports. What she said was recorded, then doctored and circulated on social media, leading to her being forced by college authorities to go on leave and there is even a police investigation against her."
It demanded, "We call on the college authorities to revoke her forced leave, to ensure Prof Desai's safety and enable her to return honourably to her duties."
Signed by as many as 88 students and faculty of top academic institutes of India, the statement noted, "As attacks on teachers grow by the day all over the country, both by state institutions and by student activists of right wing organisations, we demand that the state, and all university/ college authorities take steps to control such intimidation and ensure academic freedom including the right of free discussion within the classroom."

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Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

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RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

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PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

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The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

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