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Fake Encounter

IAMC Weekly News Roundup – April 1st, 2013

by newsdigest on April 2, 2013

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

US lawmakers paid Rs 9 lakh each to praise Modi: report (Mar 30, 2013, Indian Express)

Amid a raging controversy over the funding of the visit of three members of the US Congress, who have spoken for an American visa for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Congressmen rejected allegations questioning the legitimacy of their trip. The visit of a group of Americans including the three Congressmen – Aaron Schock, Cynthia Lummis and Cathy M Rodgers – and some businessmen has now been mired in a controversy following reports that the team members may have been paid between $3,000 (Rs 1,60,000) and $6,000 (Rs 8.68 lakhs) each for the trip. Organised by Chicago-based National Indian American Public Policy Institute (NIAPPI), the trip included visits to Bangalore, Tirupati, Jaipur, Ranthambore Tiger Reserve and Golden Temple in Amritsar and a ‘Bollywood Extravaganza’.

The team met Modi on Thursday, praised his work and invited him to visit the US, saying they will work to get him a visa, denied by the country for his alleged role in the post-Godhra riots of 2002. Following reports in an ethnic Indian daily in the US on the trip, the Congress and BJP traded attacks on each other. Congress Spokesperson Rashid Alvi said it was a “shame that the Congressmen were paid for getting a visa and certificate of development for Modi”. Vijay Jolly, convenor of Overseas BJP, rejected the charges, saying the Congressmen have spent their own money and there was no impropriety involved.

When questioned about the charges, Schock first reacted asking what was the issue involved. “All I would say is that our trip here was signed off by the appropriate authorities in our government… and specifically by the House of Representatives. I would simply say that three members of Congress don’t just leave the country. “So I am not going to get into all the nuances. Certainly some people do not like the fact that we are here… perhaps some people do not agree with what we are saying here… but certainly as American members of Congress we have a free right to come over here,” Schock said. “I have checked appropriate boxes necessary to make this trip legitimate and well within all the rules and accordances of US Congress,” he said.

NRI businessman and founder of NIAPPI Shalabh Kumar said, “There is a very strong House Ethics Committee that disapproves or approves visits by Congressmen to other countries”. “So an organisation like NIAPPI, that is a think-tank, sponsors visits, and trade people who want to go and establish business,” Kumar said. Alvi said, “One feels ashamed over this kind of news. It is an insult to a nation. The Congressmen were given Rs 9 lakh each so that America can give him (Modi) visa and a certificate of development. “This is unfortunate. If the money had been spent in Gujarat for the poor and development, then it would have been much better,” he said. Jolly said there was no controversy at all. In America, people even pay for attending a dinner with the President. “The US businessmen wanted to come to India. They spend their own money. They have been attracted by Narendra Modi’s governance,” he said, attacking the Congress for making an issue of the trip.

Gujarat Congress billed the visit as “nothing but a marketing gimmick by some global public relations firm to market Modi’. Congress President Arjun Modhwadia alleged that an impression was created as if it was an official US delegation and the US government itself has extended the invitation to Modi to visit America. Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed said in a tweet: “Modi says give visa I will give you business, Americans say give business we will give you visa. Who is bribing whom is a million dollar question.” Ahmed, who is the AICC in-charge for West Bengal and Jharkhand, said “people say the visit of US lawmakers along with a delegation to Modi means that you give us business we will give you Visa. Isn’t it a bribe?.” AICC Secretary Praveen Davar hit out at the US delegation for inviting the Gujarat Chief Minister describing it as “thoughtless” move. “I strongly condemn the three Republicans for inviting Modi to the US. Have Americans forgotten who masterminded 2002 Gujarat genocide? Repeated victory at the hustings does not absolve Modi of alleged crimes against humanity. Lawmakers must withdraw their thoughtless invite,” Davar said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1095298/

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Did aggressive Hindutva agenda cost BJP dear? (Mar 31, 2013, The Hindu)

The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a serious setback in its bastion – coastal Karnataka – in the urban local body elections, putting it in a spot of bother ahead of the Assembly elections on May 5. Now, the question is whether the defeat can be attributed to the aggressive Hindutva agenda the party and its affiliates pursued here over the last five years and if these activities alienated the youth from the party. Since 2009 and as recently as early March, the region witnessed a series of attacks on churches. There have been vigilante attacks – big and small – including the pub attack and ‘home stay’ attack in Mangalore in which young men and women were thrashed. These attacks caught national attention. The perpetrators were seen as immune to the rule of law and protected by the ruling party.

The BJP saw a 10 per cent decline in the number of seats it won in the recent ULB elections compared to the 2007 polls in coastal Karnataka. The biggest blow was in the Udupi Municipal Council, which went to the Congress after a gap of over four decades. Political observers say that people’s rejection of the militant face of Hindutva may be one explanation for this. However, various other factors related to anti-incumbency and disillusionment of the people who believed BJP to be a “party with a difference” also contributed strongly to the change in the political tide.

Associate professor at Mangalore University Rajaram Tolpady pointed out that the “bodily attack” as in the case of the ‘home stay’ case of July 28, 2012, came to be criticised by “people of all ideologies.” Militant Hindutva poses “a big threat to individual liberty which nobody tolerates,” he said. Retired professor at St. Aloysius College Rolphie Mascarenhas said minorities had been apprehensive since the beginning of the BJP rule and their fears have come true. The ULB poll results could partly be because of the cumulative effect of this.

The incidents were not isolated, but appeared to be the handiwork of an “organ of the government.” But a stronger reason for the vote against the BJP was the utter disappointment of people about the very governance of the BJP. “There was no government from day one,” he said. But political analyst G. Rajashekar suggested that the Hindutva ideology had ramifications beyond the context of elections. He hoped that the party’s poor show would create a self-doubt about Hindutva politics.

Prof. Mascarehnas suggested that it was desertion of the BJP followers that caused the damage. Even K. Ram Bhat Urimajalu, former Puttur MLA, who rebelled against the interference of RSS in BJP matters, said that “breach of trust” by the party that went against its promise of a corruption-free and selfless government was to blame for its debacle in the ULB elections. He does not accept that Hindutva agenda of the party had anything to do with it. Mr. Tolpady said that Hindutva would not work as a long-term strategy and the BJP would realise this sooner than later. He gave the example Narendra Modi in Gujarat who no longer speaks of Hindutva but keeps harping on the more acceptable “development” agenda. Experts point out that people in rural areas are much more disillusioned with the BJP than the urban voters, who expressed their preference in ULB polls.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/did-aggressive-hindutva-agenda-cost-bjp-dear/article4566036.ece

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Police make 5 dead accused in Dhule riots (Mar 28, 2013, Indian Express)

Five of the six people killed in police firing during the Dhule riots of January 6 have been named accused. Four of them, including a minor, were shot in the back, while one received a bullet in his neck. Police have named the five in a remand application filed before judicial magistrate first-class, Dhule, on January 13. Interestingly, the name of the only victim shot from the front, Rizwan Shah (22), has been omitted from the FIR. His injuries below the waist suggest police followed rules.

“We first used teargas and then lathi-charge. As we could not control the riot, we opened fire that killed five rioters,” inspector P D Pawar of Dhule Crime Branch said in the remand application. The dead who have been made accused are Asif Ansari (32), Shaikh Nasir (25), Saud Patel (17), Imran Ali (25) and Yunus Shah (22). As per the post-mortem report, the first four had bullet entry wounds in their backs, while Shah was shot in the neck and died four days later on January 10.

Prima facie, all the said accused seem to have died in police firing which was not in accordance with the police manual. “Firing must aim low and at the most threatening part of the crowd with a view not to cause fatalities but to disperse. As soon as the crowd shows signs of breaking up, firing must stop,” the manual says. The remand application also states the rioters used acid to attack police. This was not mentioned in the two FIRs police filed soon after the riots.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1094133/

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Mumbai police face defamation suit for false terror circular (Apr 1, 2013, Mumbai Mirror)

The Jamat-e-Islami Hind, a wellknown organisation that runs more than 500 educational institutions across the country, has threatened to sue the Mumbai police for defamation if they do not apologise for a Special Branch circular that alleged that members of its women’s wing “were indoctrinating college girls and imparting training in jihad.” The Girls Islamic Organisation is a branch of the hardline Jamat, one of India’s largest Islamic organisation that runs 40 high schools and 3 junior colleges in Maharashtra. On Sunday, Jamat office bearers told Mumbai Mirror that they are preparing legal action against the Mumbai police for defaming their organisation. Additional Commissioner of Police, Special Branch, Naval Bajaj, whose signature the memo bears, sought to distance himself from the controversy and said the communication was an internal circular that was never meant to be in the public domain.

“The circular was meant for internal purpose only,” Bajaj told this newspaper. “It was not supposed to be in the public domain but unfortunately it is now in the public domain. And the damage has been done. No officer will write a report on his own without getting the information.” The circular, issued in the third week of March, read: “The group GIO is an offshoot of the 65-year-old Jamat-e-Islami Organisation and is currently active in Kerala. The purported aim of this organisation is to make more and more Muslim women aware of their religion and the holy Quran.

But the real objective of this organisation is to brainwash college and school girls and train them for jihad.” The circular also names two women – Saleha Baji and Sumayya – as heading the organisation. The Jamat dubbed the circular as a conspiracy to malign Islam and Muslims. “We run 40 high schools and three junior colleges just in Maharashtra,” said Mohammad Aslam Ghazi, spokesperson, Jamat-e-Islami Hind, Maharashtra. “There seems to be no rhyme or reason to relate the Girls’ Islamic Organisation to terrorist activities. We are meeting Bajaj with a delegation on Monday to ask why the circular was issued. If he doesn’t apologise, we will file a case of defamation.” Ghazi said the Jamat-e-Islami Hind was a socio-religious organisation working for peace, justice and to fight against prejudice injected by the state machinery.

“GIO is our daughter organisation, instituted to provide girls with both Islamic and modern education,” said Ghazi. “The defamatory circular is a result of the communal minds deeply ingrained among our administrative, intelligence and security agencies.” Activists slammed the Mumbai police for what they said was a prejudiced and baseless circular. Mumbai-based criminal lawyer Majeed Memon said such circulars only created panic, suspicion and avoidable controversies.

“While it is true that the security of citizens is paramount, it is equally important that policemen do not abuse their powers under the guise of security by harassing a section of the society,” said Memon. “Aren’t policemen expected to keep an eye on everyone; why Muslim women alone?” Rizwan Merchant, another criminal lawyer, said “Every religious group is free to practice and preach their own religion. On the other hand by issuing such circulars it shows that the roving eyes of the police and it also means invasion of privacy of Muslim women.”

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/15/201304012013040112461739080efdb1c/Mumbai-police-face-defamation-suit-for-false-terror-circular.html

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Eight policemen convicted in Gonda fake encounter case (Mar 30, 2013, Times of India)

Eight policemen have been convicted by a special CBI court here in a 31-year-old fake encounter case in Gonda district in which 13 people, including a deputy superintendent of police, were killed. Special CBI judge Rajendra Singh convicted the eight yesterday and fixed April 5 as the next date to fix quantum of sentence. One policemen Prem Singh was acquitted of the charges. In all 19 policemen were made accused in the case of which 10 died during the course of the trial.

Dy SP and circle officer K P Singh and 12 other people were killed in the fake encounter in Madhopur village in March 1982. Police initially claimed that Singh was killed by criminals, but his wife Vibha Singh suspected foul play and moved the Supreme Court, which ordered a CBI inquiry. The CBI filed charge sheet against 19 policemen of which 10 died during the trail.

Those convicted include the then PAC commandant Ramakant Dixit, station house officer R B Saroj, sub-inspectors Naseem Ahmad, Mangal Singh, Parvez Hussain, Rajendra Prasad Singh, head constable Prem Narain Pandey and constable Ram Karan. The eight convicts were sent to jail.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-30/india/38144978_1_cbi-inquiry-special-cbi-court-policemen

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Civil group to move court seeking release of Nimesh Commission Report (Mar 29, 2013, Muslim Mirror)

To put pressure on the Samajwadi Party government of Uttar Pradesh to release the RD Nimesh Commission report, a civil group is moving Barabanki district court which is hearing the case of terror accused Hakim Tariq and Khalid Mujahid. The commission inquired into the 2007 arrest of the duo in connection with the serial court blasts of that year and submitted its report in August 2012 but the state government of Akhilesh Yadav has not yet released it. Awami Council for Democracy and Peace is going to file an application under section 311 of Code of Criminal Procedure seeking summoning of the RD Nimesh Commission report in the Barabanki court where the trial of the duo is going on in the blasts case.

The duo is being trialed on the basis of the charge-sheet filed by the police while the government-appointed commission has found that the very arrest of the duo was illegal. That’s why in the larger interest of the public we are going to file the petition seeking summoning of the Nimesh Commission report,” Asad Hayat of Awami Council for Democracy and Peace told Muslim Mirror over phone. He informed that he would file the petition on 2nd April.

On 23rd November 2007 several blasts took place at court premises in Varanasi, Faizabad, Lucknow. The state police picked Hakim Tariq on 12th December 2007 in Azamgarh and Khalid Mujahid on 16thDecember in Jaunpur. However, the police presented the duo before the media on 22nd December in Barabanki. The police claimed the duo was arrested with arms and ammunition. As the villagers had seen picking of the duo, there was huge protest and demonstration against the 22nd Dec. claim of the UP police. Succumbing to the public pressure the then chief minister Mayawati announced to set up a commission to look into the arrest of Tariq and Mujahid. About five years after the constitution, the commission submitted its report on 31st August 2012.

However, over six months have passed since, the SP government has not made the report public. The report has been leaked out and is available on internet. As the commission has raised questions about the claim of the police regarding the arrest of the duo, civil rights groups and family members of the duo have been demanding the state government to make the report public. “It is a serious matter of human and civil rights. The state government should not sit on this precious report. As it is sleeping on the report, I am moving the court to put pressure on the government,” Hayat said.

http://muslimmirror.com/eng/civil-group-to-move-court-seeking-release-of-nimesh-commission-report/

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Facebook post sparks protests in Maharashtra (Mar 29, 2013, Indian Express)

A post on Facebook sparked tension in parts of Bhiwandi and Thane on Thursday, with shops remaining shut through the day. The police said the post hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims. Angry crowds staged protests, demanding the arrest of the person who posted objectionable photos denigrating the holy mosque at Mecca.

According to local residents and the police, the post was initially seen by a few residents of Rabodi in Thane on Wednesday. More than 100 people from the locality staged a protest at around 8pm on Wednesday, and approached the Rabodi police station seeking action against the person who posted the pictures. By midnight, the news about the post spread to the outskirts of Bhiwandi.

A mob of around 200 people then blocked the Mumbai-Nashik highway, stopping traffic movement for more than an hour. The police had to resort to mild lathicharge to disperse the mob. Some protesters moved towards Bhiwandi. Protests were also held at Nizampura, Shantinagar, Vanzarpatti and Bhiwandi town. After the protests, the police sought permission from a metropolitan magistrate court to block the Facebook page, and by evening the page was removed.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1094688/

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Karnataka BJP law-maker in sex CD row, to stay away from May 5 assembly polls (Mar 28, 2013, DNA India)

A CD allegedly showing Karnataka BJP law maker Raghupathi Bhat in sexual acts has surfaced, prompting him to announce that he would not contest the May 5 assembly polls in the state. Bhat, a second-time law-maker from Udupi, about 400km west of Bangalore, however, denied he is the man shown in the CD and sought a probe to establish the truth.

State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Pralhad Joshi told reporters here that the party would take action only after it is proved that the man in the CD is Bhat. Bhat told Kannada TV channels from Udupi that he too had received a copy of the CD only late Wednesday and he suspects a “political conspiracy” against him. The channels did not telecast the CD on the ground that it was too explicit. Bhat said his decision to stay away from the assembly poll was intended to avoid embarrassment for his party.

Joshi also said the development would not affect BJP’s prospects in the polls. Bhat, 45, is not new to controversies. His wife Padmapriya was found dead in an apartment in Dwarka locality in southwest Delhi in July 2008 after remaining missing for five days. Karnataka Police have termed the death of Padmapriya, who was 32 at that time, as suicide and Bhat’s childhood friend Atul Rao has been charged with abetting it. The trial in the case continues.

http://www.dnaindia.com/print710.php?cid=1816613

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Kerala minister KB Ganesh Kumar quits after wife alleges domestic violence (Apr 2, 2013, Deccan Herald)

Kerala’s Forest Minister K B Ganesh Kumar handed over his resignation to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy late on Monday night after his estranged wife accused him of ill-treatment. Forty-six-year old film star-turned-politician was accompanied by his friend and State Labour Minister Shibu Baby John and other friends from the film industry including ace director Shaji Kailas and producer Suresh Kumar at the chief minister’s official residence. Though earlier in the evening he refused to resign, K.B.Ganesh Kumar was forced to change his mind after his estranged wife Yamini Thankachi, a medical professional, complained about his ill treatment of her in written to Chandy.

Chandy accepted the letter and asked her to approach the nearest police station. The chief minister then called the director general of police, K.S.Balasubramanion, and his senior cabinet colleagues and held closed door discussions. Speaking to reporters Chandy said that Kumar’s wife had come with a written complaint against the minister. “I called the DGP and handed over the complaint. In the morning Kumar had also registered a complaint at the police station. “And now in the light of this he has decided to resign and his resignation will be sent to the governor tomorrow,” he said. Kumar, in the presence of Chandy, said he was stepping down to keep the high moral standards.”For an impartial inquiry into the allegations that have been levelled, it’s improper for me to continue as a minister and hence I have stepped down.”

Earlier in the day, Thankachi accused Chandy of “cheating” her by not accepting her complaint of domestic violence by her husband who was now moving to divorce her. She claimed to have been assured by Chandy for his intervention to solve the matter amicably. But hours later Kumar filed for divorce, alleging harassment including physical torture, by his doctor wife Thankachy. “I had a complaint with me but the CM did not accept it and told me that he will intervene and bring an amicable settlement. Chandy dismissed the charge. “The last date according to the agreement was yesterday (Sunday) and I spoke to the CM yesterday (Sunday) also but today (Monday) I hear that the minister has filed a divorce petition. I was cheated by the CM,” said Thankachi. “I have been facing the brutal physical assault against me by the minister for the past 16 years and everyone in his family (including his father and former minister R.Balakrishna Pillai) is well aware of my sufferings. “I placed a lot of hope on the CM but he too cheated me,” she added.

Earlier in the day, Kumar refused to resign in the wake of the allegations and accused her of demanding Rs.75 lakh to be deposited in her name. Reacting to Thankachi’s allegations, Chandy admitted having assured her of his intervention to solve the dispute. “She had not given me any written complaint.” “I did my best to intervene to solve their issues and in the first round, I succeeded. The agreement was made out but it failed in the implementation part. I feel she is being prompted by some external forces,” he said.

Meanwhile, the opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) accused Chandy of misleading the assembly and demanded his resignation. “If a minister’s wife is not able to get her issues sorted out in a domestic violence case and Chandy totally hid this from the assembly when he made a statement last month. He has no other go but to quit,” former home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters. Leader of Opposition V.S.Achuthanandan also jumped into the fray and demanded Chandy’s resignation for misleading the house on the issue of domestic violence in the case of the minister and his wife.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/323270/kerala-minister-kb-ganesh-kumar.html

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Marathi writer charged with rape of three Dalit women, absconds (Mar 27, 2013, IBN)

A manhunt has been launched to trace leading Marathi writer Laxman Mane, who has been booked for raping three Dalit women working at a school he runs, police said on Tuesday. Mane’s family meanwhile dismissed the charges. “He is still absconding and police teams are investigating the matter,” an official from Satara police control told IANS.

A former Maharashtra legislative council member, the 63-year old Mane has been charged with raping three women who were working as temporary cooks at a residential tribal school he runs at Jakatwadi in Satara, around 250 kms to the south-east of Mumbai. According to police, the complaints were lodged on Monday night by the trio – married and aged between 30-35 – alleging Mane raped them under the lure of making them permanent employees of the school.

The victims – all aged between 30 and 35 – have claimed that he raped them between 2003 and 2010 in the school premises, at his home in Satara and at a guest house in Pune. After registering offences under Indian Penal Code Sec. 376 (rape), police teams have visited Mane’s home and other known places frequented by him, but so far he remains untraceable, the official said.

Meanwhile, Mane’s family has stoutly denied the allegations against Mane and claimed that he is being framed in the false case to malign his reputation. Mane was conferred the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1981 and Padma Shri in 2009, besides several other awards and honours during his writing career.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/marathi-writer-charged-with-rape-of-three-dalit-women-absconds/381414-3-237.html

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Opinions and Editorials

Narendra Modi’s re-induction: How to tackle BJP’s incompatibility with the RSS – By T K Arun (Apr 1, 2013, Economic Times)

Ever since the Mad Hatter admonished Alice for confusing ‘saying what she meant’ with ‘meaning what she said’, we have had clarity on the distinction between the two, one whose significance gets reinforced with every passing day in the wonderland of Indian politics. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Uma Bharti and Varun Gandhi, faces of hardline Hindutva, have been elevated to the BJP’s central leadership, while Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar , who represent reform and commitment to governance, fail to find a place in the constellation of 82 announced Sunday. Does this increase the chances of Narendra Modi being made the party’s prime ministerial candidate before the elections? Absolutely not. Does the exit of Shanta Kumar and Vasundhara Raje mean that former chief ministers have lost favour?

But Sadanand Gowda, former chief minister of Karnataka, has been roped in. Nor does Hema Malini’s exit mean any generalised fall in the stock of actresses: Smriti Irani has been elevated. But one thing is clear. Modi’s stock has risen. His former minister of state for home Amit Shah, accused of masterminding the Sohrabuddin Sheikh killing, is now a general secretary of the party, while Modi himself is the only serving chief minister to find a place in the 12 member central parliamentary board. The truth is, the BJP does not declare who its leaders really are, nor are its declared leaders the real men who matter. The BJP was created by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as its political arm and has remained as such. The RSS decides who the party’s president would be and for how long. The RSS chose Nitin Gadkari as party president and then replaced him with Rajnath Singh.

This is not in the party’s constitution but then, so what? If the BJP ends up in a position to form the government after the 2014 elections, the RSS will decide on the prime minister. An individual leader’s popularity does not really cut much ice with the RSS, who sees the BJP and the governments it forms as means to its ultimate goal: upturning liberal democracy with a political order that puts Muslims in their place as second-class citizens. The RSS’ quarrel with Modi is not ideological. Rather, the problem is that Modi is not amenable to control by the Sangh. He has rendered the Sangh toothless in Gujarat, making himself larger than life in the state. Can the Sangh risk such dentistry at the national level as well? But this real reason for silence on a pre-poll PM candidate does not have to be revealed.

A worrying paucity of allies willing to rally under ‘Modi for prime minister’ is sufficient, for the time being. The immediate challenge before the BJP is to salvage Karnataka, the first southern state to elect a BJP government. With the exit of its former strongman Yeddyurappa, the BJP faces a very tough fight there. Party president Rajnath Singh has invited none other than Narendra Modi to lead this crucial battle. Modi, sensibly, has declined this invitation to play a national role, which, by sheer coincidence, of course, also promises to be a suicidal one. But the BJP suddenly sees a ray of hope in Karnataka – Rahul Gandhi. The Congress vice-president, preaching inner party democracy, has autocratically imposed rank outsiders on the Karnataka party.

CM Ibrahim, whose chief service to the nation has been to abort a new airline mooted by the Tatas as civil aviation minister in the United Front government, is Gandhi’s choice for campaign strategist. Of course, no Congressman is mad enough to play Mad Hatter to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. So Congressmen are likely to assert inner party democracy the most effective way they know: ensure the defeat of externally imposed leaders. It is safer to play contrary on the quiet. So, impetuous Sushma Swaraj – she broke into dance at Raj Ghat once – who has turned responsible, of late – she did not demand that 10 Pakistani prisoners be killed in Indian jails in return for the one Indian prisoner who died in Pakistan – could take up the challenge. But the BJP’s real problem is the fundamental incompatibility of the RSS project with democracy. Contrary, after all, is not the same thing as contradictory. How to tackle this contradiction is the real challenge.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/19316001.cms

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From Hermitude To Holography – By Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay (Apr 8, 2013, Outlook)

…I asked him about the boundaries of existence his political clan has enforced on non-Hindus and the need for them to accept Hindu ideas and ideals as their own. Modi replied: “Yes, that was the basic argument (in the course of the Ayodhya agitation, that Muslims also must accept Lord Ram as the symbol of national identity), the main philosophy – that he also was a mahapurush (great man) of this country. And that everyone in this country should believe in this – those who led this agitation campaigned for this.” At this point of the interview, it becomes evident that Modi strongly believes that if minorities wished to coexist and feel safe in the state governed by him, it was mandatory for them to abide by the beliefs and value systems of the majority community. Meanwhile, I prodded on as Modi was opening up, and this was my best chance to get to the core of Modi’s understanding of Hindutva and I asked him: “India has a composite culture. There is tremendous social diversity. How do you look at inter-community relationships and the relationship of different social and religious groups with the State?” Modi did not answer my question explicitly but said: “People can have different forms of puja and rituals can also be different – but that does not mean that the country, the traditions of the land can become different. …

Modi’s first hurdle after he became chief minister in 2001 was to find a safe seat and become member of the state assembly within the mandatory six-month period. But this was not easy for two reasons: Modi had never contested any election in his political career, and secondly, with the BJP traversing a rough terrain, finding a safe seat was difficult. As we have seen, Modi did not have apolitical home. He had been mostly Ahmedabad-based since joining the RSS in the early 1970s and ideally wanted to contest from a city seat – where he would personally know party workers – vacated by a party colleague. But an easy entry to the state assembly proved difficult for Modi because Haren Pandya, whose seat Modi wanted, did not oblige.

If such provocation was not enough, Pandya courted further trouble in the aftermath of the 2002 riots when he appeared before the Concerned Citizens Tribunal headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Krishna Iyer in May 2002. The deposition was made on an understanding that he would not be named. However, Modi’s intelligence wing, which an unnamed source says was fine-tuned after he became chief minister because Modi had been inspired by “Shivaji’s spy network” and wanted to develop an intelligence web like that, kept track of Pandya’s movements. Even his mobile phone was tapped – media reports claimed – as a result of which Modi got to know about Pandya’s deposition in almost real-time in May 2002.

Modi, however, was not satisfied at easing Pandya out of his government. In assembly elections, held in November-December 2002, the friend-turned-foe was not nominated by the party even after the intervention of stalwarts such as Advani and Vajpayee. The media reported gleefully that in order to avoid being pressurised into nominating Pandya, Modi checked into a hospital and stopped taking phone calls from New Delhi. After this, Pandya receded from the limelight and lived a quiet life till March 26, 2003, when everything was over for him. On that dreadful morning, an unknown assassin’s gun silenced Pandya when he was returning from a morning walk in the sprawling Law Garden, a public park in Ahmedabad.

The Haren Pandya murder case became the first of the several high-profile non-2002-riots court cases in Gujarat that cast a shadow over Modi’s regime. In police parlance, the Pandya murder case was termed a cut-out murder, where the chain from the conspirator or instigator to the eventual victim is impossible to establish. A police contact explained it like this: “A wants to murder Z and instructs B to execute the order. B tells C who does not know that A is the instigator. Instructions are passed in this manner from C to D and then to E and it goes down all the way. The final contract killer does not know where the order originated from. If investigations turns nasty, then all A has to do is to make any of the people in the chain a cut-out – take him out by beginning another chain.”

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?284660

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The Fight For Muslims Is Fundamental For The Survival Of Our Democracy – By Shoma Chaudhury (Mar 28, 2013, Tehelka)

Some years ago, at a TEHELKA press conference, a young Muslim man walked up to TEHELKA Editor Tarun Tejpal and held his hand in deep gratitude. “If it had not been for your journalists, we would long have picked up the gun. Your work gives us hope, Sir,” he said. “You help us believe we belong to this country.” It was one of those rare moments of vindication journalists live for. The young man’s father, a respected maulvi, was falsely incarcerated then. We had just written his story. He would be acquitted a few years later. In a sense, it is immaterial who that young man was. Over the past few years, TEHELKA journalists have documented hundreds of stories of innocent Muslims languishing in jails – often brutally tortured – on flimsy or false charges. It is easy to blank that phrase out, to be inured to it: “Hundreds of Muslims arrested on false charges”. But each case hides hair-raising stories about prejudice, incompetence and deliberate malafide. Each case also holds stories of pain, destroyed lives and hollowed futures.

Innocent Muslims have been jailed with impunity in India over the past decade because it was easy to jail them. Within hours of any terror attack, a bunch of Muslim boys would be arrested and their names aired in the media as “masterminds”. Then they would disappear from mainstream consciousness. Their guilt was assumed: it did not need to be proved. Since 2001, a terrible maxim had seeped into the Indian mainstream: All Muslims may not be terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. It did not matter if you caught the wrong ones. No one needed veracity. Everyone only wanted the illusion of security and “action taken”.

It wasn’t easy to report on these stories and ask the hard questions. The few human rights and media groups who did, were scorned as “anti-national”. Or doctrinaire liberals. The key point was missed. It is no one’s position that those who plant bombs should go unpunished. Those, like us, who were raising flags had only two simple arguments to make. One, take the long route, catch the real culprits, remain constitutional: that is the only way to real security. Two: do not make false arrests and breed fresh despair, triggering new cycles of hate and revenge. In the clever calculations men make about security and State, they underestimate the power of human despair. When you lose faith that a system will play fair by you, it can breed fatal recklessness. It can make you abdicate from the rules that cement human relations. Despair can turn you from citizen to perpetrator. From the hunted to the hunter. Despair can be a deadly weapon.

Fortunately – even if slowly – this dangerous tide has begun to turn. The dogged exposés are paying off. Over the past few months, there have been some very significant developments. First, in November last year, nudged by a committed citizens’ group – People’s Campaign against the Politics of Terror – CPM leader Prakash Karat took a list of 22 Muslims to President Pranab Mukherjee and demanded the Centre take immediate steps to help such victims of “State-led injustice”. The demands included fast-track courts; rehabilitation and compensation for those falsely jailed; and a review of the UAPA Act. Most importantly, Karat’s delegation to the President made the idea of ‘justice for Muslims’ front-page news. The sound-proof towers had been breached.

In March this year, in another unprecedented move, in the Rajasthan High Court Infosys agreed to pay a compensation of 20 lakh to Rashid Husain, a young Muslim engineer who’d been questioned by the police and unfairly sacked from his job soon after. Hopefully, this will set a blueprint for all those whose lives and reputations have been similarly destroyed. Young men who’ve spent decades in jail; who cannot find jobs or houses to rent even when they’re acquitted; whose families find themselves ostracised and sisters find themselves unmarriageable because their brothers have been stigmatised. Finally, in a potentially far-reaching move, this week – perhaps driven by cynical electoral concerns – Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde wrote to parliamentarian Mohammed Adeeb that the government was considering setting up fast-track courts to expedite trials of Muslims in terror cases. It is absolutely crucial that this letter of intent does not go into oblivion. The fight for justice for Muslims is not an act of chivalric charity towards minorities: it is a fundamental act of survival for Indian democracy.

http://tehelka.com/the-fight-for-muslims-is-fundamental-for-the-survival-of-democracy/

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Rethinking National Counter Terrorism Centre – By Bhaskar Menon (Apr 1, 2013, Twocircles.net)

Those opposed to an unconstitutional National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) with a dangerous combination of Intelligence and Police powers should propose an alternative: a National Intelligence Centre (NIC) with statutory powers over all other civilian agencies and a Director reporting directly to the Prime Minister. This will result in the entire Intelligence establishment being brought within a constitutional framework and made accountable to Parliament. It will also ensure that reforms necessary for coherence and efficiency will get continuing attention at the highest level. The legislation on the matter should: Provide for reform: Parliament should mandate the NIC to carry out a thorough review and appraisal of existing Intelligence agencies and arrangements and recommend comprehensive changes to improve their coherence and effectiveness. Changes should aim to create dedicated capacities to monitor the full range of strategic developments in economic, social and political sectors within the country and outside, with the NIC integrating information flows and making overall analyses. That broad approach will throw into high relief the motivations and means driving significant trends and point to countries, groups and individuals that merit special attention. This process should also make clear the requirements in terms of personnel, training, technical development and budgeting for the continuous improvement of Intelligence activities. In sum, the reforms will build capacity for pro-active policy and action.

Require public reporting by the NIC: In an open democracy public understanding is critically important to counter domestic anti-national forces and foreign subversion. Parliament must mandate that relevant portions of the analytical work of the NIC be made public in regular and special reports. These must be subject to debate by central and state legislators and in the media. Require cooperation with civil society: No Intelligence agency can be effective without cooperation from members of the public. At present such cooperation is ad hoc, and can depend on anything from a general fear of officialdom to intimidation and blackmail, Parliament should mandate the NIC to create a regular, structured relationship with civil society, especially in gathering information on communal issues. On other matters affecting national security such as corruption in defence procurement and financing of violent groups within the country the NIC should have a mandate to inform and educate the media so that reporters know basic facts and policy parameters and cannot be manipulated by “leaks” from interested parties. The NIC should also work with other statutory bodies such as the National Press Council to call public attention to issues of systemic anti-national bias.

Create an Appeals Mechanism: If Intelligence operatives infringe on the rights, liberties and lives of Indian citizens there should be a mechanism to address problems without public disclosures harmful to national security. Parliament should create an easily accessed and responsive Grievance Mechanism providing for appeals up to a Parliamentary Standing Committee with confidential procedures that could, when necessary, bring matters to the attention of the Prime Minister and President. Use of this mechanism should not preclude legal options for affected parties. Promote understanding of India’s strategic interests: Intelligence agencies can only be effective within a clear strategic framework. Most developed countries, especially those with global interests, have such frameworks but few spell it out. Britain, for instance, has its famous “permanent interests” that are unspecified but boil down to the benefit it can draw from any situation. The United States is unique in publicly defining its overall national strategy as the promotion of democracy globally. That reflects the country’s anti-colonial foundation and its evolution on the basis of a set of inalienable values.

The Indian constitution draws heavily on the American and so the global expansion of democracy is also its fundamental strategic interest; but it is not the only one. Equally important is increased social equity as the country’s diverse communities move ponderously from many different stages of development into a shared economic and political system. So is the maintenance of India’s traditional values at a time when the verities of Western “progress” must be overwritten in the interests of a liveable planet. The strategic picture is further complicated by the existence of many foreign proxies within India, an unavoidable legacy of colonial rule. Under these conditions a primary national imperative is broad public awareness of what is necessary for the country’s continued evolution according to its own best lights. Parliament must make provision for these issues to be debated nationally in a continuing and constructive process that draws in educational and training institutions, including those that shape government officials and Intelligence operatives. With these parameters the NIC can be more than an effective guard against foreign and domestic enemies; it can be a powerful support for India’s vast transition to a new age.

http://twocircles.net/2013apr01/rethinking_national_counter_terrorism_centre.html

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Criminalising People’s Protests – By Anand Teltumbde (Apr 6, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)

Public protests signify that democracy is alive and well. Whatever its form, the essence of democracy is the space it provides for people to voice their protest against the government. However, while India has managed to flaunt for decades that it is the world’s largest functional democracy, it has systematically decimated such space for the masses. Today, this space has been symbolically reduced to small designated pockets in every state capital where aggrieved people can gather and shout to their hearts’ content only so that they can hear themselves. Not much unlike jails, with their barbed wire fences and narrow openings guarded by a thick posse of armed policemen, the authorities do not let public protest infect the people at large. The maximum the people protesting at these places can reach is the police sub-inspector seated there to receive their memorandums. Indian democracy has not, however, been content with this general strangulation of democratic space; it often takes offensive against the protesters by slapping criminal charges on them. Examples are legion but the recent proceedings against Irom Sharmila, the iron lady of Manipur, who was brought to Delhi to face trial for her “crime of attempting suicide” at the Jantar Mantar best highlights this trend.

Sharmila’s protest began with her indefinite fast on 3 November 2000, a day after 10 persons were shot down by the Assam Rifles, one of the Indian paramilitary forces operating in Manipur, while waiting at a bus stop just outside Imphal. The incident later came to be known as the “Malom Massacre”. Within days, Sharmila was taken by the police, and since then, she is being force-fed a liquid concoction of nutrients in a hospital, which serves as her prison. After every year in detention, she is released for a day and rearrested for attempting to commit suicide, because she refuses to call off her fast until the government repeals the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), which is in force in Manipur, Assam, Nagaland and parts of Arunachal Pradesh besides, Jammu and Kashmir. Now in its 13th year, her protest is the longest hunger strike in recorded history, which has shaken the entire world but failed to sensitise the Indian rulers. On the contrary, they chose to actuate their penal machine and charged her with an “attempt to commit suicide”, which is unlawful under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code.

The AFSPA against which Sharmila reiterated her protest to the metropolitan magistrate, Delhi however continues on the statute. This draconian Act that giving the army the unquestionable powers to shoot to kill, arrest and search or even destroy property on mere suspicion and enacted as a short-term measure to allow the deployment of the army in India’s north-eastern Naga Hills, has been in existence for over five decades. According to a report entitled “Manipur: Memorandum on Extrajudicial Summary or Arbitrary Executions” by the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the United Nations, altogether 1,528 people, including 31 women and 98 children were killed in fake encounters by the security forces in Manipur alone between 1979 and May 2012. Of these, 419 were killed by the Assam Rifles, while 481 were killed by combined teams of Manipur Police and the central security forces. These are gory statistics but they do not tell the human tragedy that befell entire generations that grew up under the shadow of the gun. It is a usual sight in Manipur to find even school kids sitting in protest against the atrocities by the armed forces.

The government cites the ongoing insurgency in the hilly state to explain its stand against the repeal of AFSPA. According to its argument, nearly 15 militant outfits are active in the state and in the period between 2007 and 2011, over 1,500 people were killed in militancy-related violence, among them were 1,011 militants and 406 civilians. This argument itself should prompt a simple question, if the army, with a free hand, has not been able to control the so-called insurgency over five decades, what is the justification for the Act? It may even be argued that the insurgency, given the government’s own statistics, has increased during the currency of the Act. This is because the excesses committed by the armed forces with impunity alienate people and impel them to take up the gun. If one dispassionately looks at the north-eastern states, comprising about 7% of India’s total area and 3.7% of its population, bigger than many countries but devoid of any notable development, one cannot but get a feel that they are like a colony governed by the armed might of India. The Constitution does provide for emergency clauses but they are meant to be short-lived. The arguments the government and its army establishment proffer for continuing with AFSPA are, interestingly, the same as the arguments advanced when the 1942 ordinance was enacted in order to keep the British Empire intact.

The same logic extends to the protesting people in mainland India. There are scores of draconian laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, the National Security Act, and various provisions in the penal code, like “sedition”, which continue to mock at our claim of being a democracy. Given the increasing divide between the majority of people mired in abominable poverty and powerlessness and a miniscule minority with all the pelf and power, people’s protests are a natural outcome. During the initial decades of post-Independence India, when the ruling classes had not yet consolidated themselves, these protests were responded to by the state with colonial decency. But by the mid-1970s, an oppressive Emergency was declared, and after a spell of political turmoil, the country entered the neo-liberal era that ideologically trashed social protests and legitimated the oppressive social Darwinist ethos of the rulers. The enforcement of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) in 1985 succeeded by the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in 2002 and thereafter UAPA in 2004 during this era, duly aided by global “security syndrome” unleashed by 9/11, should be seen in that light. …

http://www.epw.in/margin-speak/criminalising-peoples-protests.html

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Katju’s Cure – Editorial (Apr 6, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)

Ever since he took over the chairmanship of the Press Council of India in October 2011, justice Markandey Katju has been in the news – not so much for reviving the virtually defunct Press Council but for airing his views on a range of subjects from politics to foreign policy to the media. He was applauded for his intervention on the paid news phenomenon leading to an investigation that exposed the extent to which major media houses willingly sold editorial space to politicians. Yet he was criticised for his off-the-cuff and generalised remarks on the state of the media. The latest in his diatribe against the media is his suggestion that minimum qualifications be made mandatory for journalists just as they are for doctors and lawyers.

In principle, there is nothing wrong in this suggestion. In fact, the majority of mainstream media houses do insist on minimum qualifications, usually a university degree, and in some cases also a diploma in journalism. While some smaller newspapers might not insist on degrees and do recruit people without them, this is not the norm. Also, many Indian language papers with district editions have enlisted stringers who are not trained journalists. But their inputs are processed by professionals. The advantage of having such stringers has become evident in the expansion of news coverage to areas that remained outside the purview of most media.

And then there are several small community newspapers and radio stations that have come up in the last decade serving the needs of their immediate community or region. These rural journalists, many of them women with only basic literacy skills, have learned how to report, interview and edit. If justice Katju’s recommendation of minimum qualifications were to be applied, none of this vibrant community media would exist.

There are several aspects of justice Katju’s recommendation that are problematic. For one, he is conflating the problem of a drop in standards in the media with the absence of educational qualifications in journalists. A major reason for fall in standards is the state of our institutes of higher education. Where once a basic university degree was considered an achievement, today it is barely enough for entry-level jobs. Every profession is faced with the poor quality of learning in those who are products of the majority of our educational institutions. Merely raising the bar on minimum qualifications for any profession is no guarantee that the people recruited will be better equipped for the job.

What is also forgotten is the absence today of mentoring or on-the-job training within media houses to the extent it prevailed in the past. This is important because apart from some basic book knowledge, journalism is a skill that can best be learned on the job. Today, in the highly competitive environment that prevails, this kind of training is largely absent in most media houses. As a result, journalists with paper degrees but without the necessary skill sets are expected to jump into the deep without knowing how to swim. …

http://www.epw.in/editorials/katjus-cure.html

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – February 25th, 2013

by newsdigest on February 26, 2013

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup

Announcements

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

Announcements

Indian Americans outraged over bomb blasts in Dilsukhnagar area of Hyderabad

Thursday February 21, 2013

The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC - www.iamc.com), an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos has expressed its unequivocal condemnation of the twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad’s crowded Dilsukhnagar area that has claimed over a dozen lives and wounded scores of others.

IAMC is extending its deepest sympathies to the victims and families of those affected by these blasts. Once again, innocent people have been targeted by those motivated by hate and a twisted worldview that is devoid of basic compassion for fellow humans.

“The fact that the nation continues to suffer such senseless loss of life shows that our responses to earlier terror attacks have been deeply flawed and severely inadequate,” said Ahsan Khan, President of IAMC. “Law enforcement agencies should conduct a thorough and transparent investigation before pressing charges against any individual or group,” added Mr. Khan.

The fact that some media outlets have started sensationalizing the incident by naming specific groups even before the investigation has progressed is highly irresponsible. As experience with several terror acts in recent years has shown, attempts to stereotype and scapegoat an entire community can devastate hundreds of innocent lives, ruined by having to spend years behind bars for the crimes of others, only to be found innocent later. The witch-hunts launched after the blasts in Mecca Masjid, Samjhauta Express and the multiple terror acts in Malegaon are some examples of the tragedy unleashed by inept and discriminatory law enforcement.

In this difficult hour, IAMC calls upon members of every community, especially the leadership of various organizations, to help foster communal amity and eschew any rhetoric that could build sectarian tensions.

Indian-American Muslim Council (formerly Indian Muslim Council-USA) is the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with 13 chapters across the nation.

For more information please visit our new website at: http://www.iamc.com

References:

1. 13 killed, 83 injured as twin blasts rock Hyderabad
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/11-killed-scores-injured-in-hyderabad-blasts/article4439367.ece

2. Irresponsible and sensational media coverage glooms over Hyderabad twin bomb blasts
http://twocircles.net/2013feb22/irresponsible_and_sensational_media_coverage_glooms_over_hyderabad_serial_bomb_blasts.html

3. Two blasts rock Hyderabad, toll at least 11
http://twocircles.net/2013feb21/seven_killed_hyderabad_blast.html

4. Hyderabad twin blasts: Cries and chaos rent the air at hospitals
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/18619866.cms

CONTACT:

Indian American Muslim Council
Ishaq Syed
Phone: (800) 839-7270
Email: info@iamc.com

Address:
6321 W Dempster St. Suite 295
Morton Grove, IL 60053
phone/fax: 1-800-839-7270
email: info@iamc.com
Forward email

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Hyderabad blasts: Interruption of Hindutva organizations (Feb 21, 2013, Siasat)

Immediately after bomb explosion Dilsukhnagar, activists of ABVP, BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal assembled at the site of the bomb blast. They obstructed the investigating agencies in collecting evidences. In such cases, it is essential to keep the site of the incident safe because there is an apprehension that necessary evidences could be destroyed. This would create confusions in finding out the system of explosions and to identify the culprits.

On such occasions, Hindutva outfits exhibit their enthusiasm and without knowing the facts, start blaming a particular community Hindutva activists gathered in large numbers at Dilsukhnagar yesterday and started shouting slogans against a particular community. They also began to spread venom speeches.

Very often, it was observed that police also doesn’t bother to preserve the site of the incident. In the case of Bomb last case of Dilsukhnagar, police didn’t take care to preserve evidences. Hindutva activists obstructed the investigating officials from reaching the site of bomb explosion. These activists reached the place of bomb blast and disturbed the articles which were shattered. Taking advantage of this situation, BJP activists continued shouting slogans against the Muslims.

http://www.siasat.com/english/news/interruption-hindutva-organizations

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CJI expresses concern over ‘media trial’ (Feb 23, 2013, Times of India)

Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir today expressed grave concern over growing practise of “media trial” and said it could prejudice against the accused. “(Media trial) it is a matter of grave concern. This should not happen,” Kabir told reporters on the sidelines of East Zone Regional Judicial Conference on ‘Administration of Criminal Justice: Issues and Challenges’ here.

“It (media trial) can prejudice against an accused in a case,” he said. “The issue should be left to the courts to decide,” the CJI added. In reply to a question on reducing the age of juvenile from existing 18 years to 16, the demand for which came from different corners in view of involvement of a juvenile in Delhi gangarape case, Kabir said, “It can be only done by Parliament and nobody else can do it.”

On the issue of witness protection, the CJI said there should be proper protection for witnesses. “Witness protection should be there,” he said. Asked if he was satisfied with the level of witness protection now, Kabir said it should be more developed. Earlier, addressing the conference, Kabir said the concept of witness protection in the country was almost not available.

“There is not even proper sitting arrangement for witness in courts…we are not providing even minimum facilities to witnesses,” he said. The three-day conference organised by Patna High Court Bihar Judicial Acadey and National Judicial Academy was inaugurated here yesterday.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/18643589.cms

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Indian-Americans condemn Hyderabad blasts (Feb 23, 2013, Times of India)

Indian-Americans have condemned the Hyderabad bomb blasts, demanding a speedy investigation into the incident to bring the culprits to justice. In a statement, the Indian National Overseas Congress described the blasts as a crime against humanity.

Calling the bombings as terrorist act, INOC president George Abraham urged the State and Central law enforcement agencies to conduct a speedy investigation and punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law.

Another Indian American group NRI-SAHI demanded a CBI probe into the attack. “We offer our condolences and sympathies to the families of the people who died in the attack and pray for the recovery of those who were injured in the attack,” a statement said. Two powerful blasts in a crowded area close to a cluster of bus stands in Hyderabad killed 16 people and injured over 100 on Thursday.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/18644818.cms

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No change in policy on visa to Modi: US (Feb 19, 2013, IBN)

The European Union and the United Kingdom may have had a rethink on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but the USA is certainly not warming up to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake has said that there is no change in the American policy as far as granting visa t to the Gujarat Chief Minister is concerned.

“There is no question of changing or revising or softening. We may revise (the decision of visa to Modi) depending on Indian justice system completing cases against him only,” said the US Assistant Secretary of State.

Blake further told CNN-IBN that anyone could apply for a visa to the US, but the decision to grant it would depend on many factors. According to the US Assistant Secretary of State, a judicial exoneration would be one factor in reconsidering US policy on visa to the BJP leader.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/no-change-in-policy-on-visa-to-narendra-modi-us/373861-37-64.html

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IPS officer arrested in Ishrat fake encounter (Feb 21, 2013, Deccan Herald)

In a major development in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested IPS officer G L Singhal, one of the 20 officers named in the case. Singhal, then Assistant Commissioner of Police Crime Branch, was taken into custody on Thursday while searches have been held at his residence.

Now a Superintendent of Police at State Crime Records Bureau, Singhal has been described as the prime mover in the fake encounter by the Central agency. Besides Singhal, 20 other policemen were also named in the case, including DIG Vanzara, already in jail for his alleged role in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

In 2004, Ahmedabad crime branch officials shot dead Jahan and three others – Javed Sheikh, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana—in the city outskirts, alleging that they were members of the LeT and were on a mission to assassinate Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/313751/ishrat-jahan-encounter-cbi-arrests.html

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Ishrat Jahan fake encounter: Vaghela, Vanar to be CBI’s next targets (Feb 23, 2013, Daily Bhaskar)

After the arrest of IPS officer GL Singhal in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is set to take into custody two more accused in the case. Retired deputy superintendent of police (DySP) VD Vanar and suspended DySP KM Vaghela may be the CBI’s next targets. The two were posted as inspectors in 2004 in the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) and were part of the encounter team.

According to sources, Vanar and Vaghela are the key accused not only for the killing of Ishrat, but also for being part of the conspiracy and tampering with evidence. The officers were involved in bringing alleged militants Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana from Kashmir. They took a car from Madhya Pradesh to reach Jammu, picked the duo and brought them to Ahmedabad, the sources added. The two were then shown as members of a gang along with Ishrat, a 19-year-old college student from Mumbai, and Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh. All the four were killed in a fake encounter on June 15, 2004.

The militants were allegedly kept at an undisclosed place by Vanar and Vaghela, which proved the conspiracy angle in the Ishrat case. The CBI sleuths, who are busy in quizzing Singhal, are likely to arrest Vanar soon. “They may take the custody of Vaghela, who is currently lodged in Sabarmati jail for his role in the Sadik Jamal fake encounter case,” the sources said.

Vanar had served in the DCB for a longer period and was among those officers who were part of more than one encounter teams. His tenure as the inspector at Dariapur police station was recognised for his efforts to bring peace between Hindus and Muslims during the Rathyatra procession every year. Vaghela, according to police sources, was considered to be a close aide of DG Vanzara, the key accused in the Ishrat case.

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/GUJ-AHD-ishrat-jahan-fake-encounter-vaghela-vanar-to-be-cbis-next-targets-4188919-NOR.html

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BJP govt failed in Dhar (Feb 21, 2013, Indian Express)

When a minister is made to wear a green gamcha to symbolise that he had betrayed the saffron (right-wing) cause, followed by his admission that he anticipated such humiliation, it reflects more on the government than an individual. The clashes on February 15 between right-wing organisations and the police at Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Masjid and the subsequent developments have proved that communal politics sooner or later acquires a life of its own.

In 2003, the disputed shrine in Dhar town had helped the BJP whip up communal passions to its advantage when the Congress was ruling the state. Now, 10 years later, it’s feeling the heat. The ASI arrangement allows Hindus and Muslims to pray on separate days at the shrine. But when Basant Panchmi falls on a Friday, Muslims can offer namaz between 1 pm and 3 pm and the Hindus before and after that. Hindu organisations, however, said this time they would have none of the ASI arrangement and rejected every suggestion to make concession for the minority community and openly warned of consequences if they were not allowed to pray the whole day.

What happened on February 15 left both the communities unhappy, the Hindus more so because activists were caned and beaten. Hindu organisations were left with deflated egos, and warned that they would make the BJP pay. Unlike 2006, when Basant Panchmi had similarly fallen on Friday, the government left everything to the local administration this time, despite knowing well that no appeals would work because tension had been building up on the ground. Saints attending the Maha Kumbh at Allahabad added fuel to fire.

If the government had been serious about implementing the ASI order, strict orders would have gone out for Hindus not to be allowed to gather in such large numbers at the shrine, at the time they were not supposed to. Once they had let that happen, there was little the administration could do to retrieve the situation. Now, given the intra-party tussle between the BJP – with senior minister Kailash Vijayvargiya on one side and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the other – it is the administration that is being made a convenient scapegoat, with chorus growing for action against officials.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1077214/

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Murder of popular Muslim cleric sparks clashes in Bengal (Feb 21, 2013, Twocircles.net)

Imam of Park Circus Mosque and renowned cleric, popular for his oratory skills, Maulana Ruhul Quddus (49) was gunned down allegedly by a gang of goons, sparking violent protest. Maulana Quddus was allegedly killed by the communal force of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and ‘Hindu Sanghati’ wings at Herobhanga-Naliakhali Bazar areas under the Gopalpukur Panchayet area of Canning Police Station of the district South 24 Parganas on 19th February, around 1am. By morning as the news of his murder spread in the surrounding areas of South & North 24 Parganas, angry mobs gathered and ransacked houses and shops, and more than 200 houses were set ablaze. For a long time, his supporters refused to hand over the dead body of Maulana to the police and kept protesting, blocking the road in different places. Police had to resort to a lathi-charge to bring the situation under control. Section 144 has been imposed in the locality. Police officials had also sent Intelligence report to the Chief Minister that the incident may turn into communal riot.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee immediately swung into action and appealed for calm. “I appeal to the people to keep the peace at any cost. I assure that, administration will take necessary actions against the culprits. Government will be start a special investigation on this murder case and find out the real facts whether any groups was behind it or not,” she urged. Muslim leaders have alleged that from the past few years RSS-Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Sanghati workers have been continuously campaigning and spreading hatred against Muslims in the south and North 24 Parganas. Four month ago, Mualana Rejaul Karim was shot dead in Hatuganj under the diamond Harbour police station of South 24 Parganas, where too local residents had pointed fingers at the VHP workers. Police, however, has so far not been able to trace the real culprit or the motive behind the murder. With the murder of another Muslim cleric in the same district, the region is on boil now.

According to the TCN sources in the police and the district, after a religious conference (Jalsa) at Kachiamaria village of Kultali, near Jamtala Gopalganj, Maulana Quddus and another cleric Sirajul Islam Molla were coming back to his native village Dhoaghata, under Jibantala police station, 30 km from that area riding on a motorcycle. According to the statement of Molla, who was riding the bike, a group of four people forcibly stopped them showing arms and asked them to chant ‘Hindu Zindabad, Muslim Murdabad’. They then took the key of the motorcycle, their mobile phones and whatever money they had. Within minutes, one of them fired at Maulana Quddus, while Molla ran for his life. A police team under Prabin Tripathi reached the placed at Herobhanga Bazar as angry mob were pelting stones at the police and even tried to set their vehicle on fire. Police then had to resort to force to disperse the crowd. Several people have been injured. However, after Mamata Banrejee’s assurance of investigations and appeal for calm, the situation now is under control. Local Muslims have demanded that the WB CM should immediately visit the place; else they will not hand over the dead body of the Maulana for performing the last rites. State Minister Haider Aziz Shafwi, Jawed Ahmed Khan and many other Muslim leaders reached the spot and appealed for peace.

Hindu resistance party, ‘Hindu Sanghati’ leader Tapan Ghosh has, however, denied all cahrges. He told reporters, “In that area Muslims are always trying to hackle Hindu Community. Ruhul Quddus might have been an extremist and bearing lot of money on that night.” TCN sources confirmed that few days ago RSS backed Hindu Sanghati called a meeting at Subodh Mallick Square in Kolkata where many supporters from Canning and adjoining areas had joined the meeting. Maulana Ruhul Quddus was not only a Muslim cleric and a good orator, but he was also the Imam of a mosque at Darapara are in Park Circus, Kolkata. He was popular for his Bengali as well as Urdu speeches. In Khutba at Friday prayers he delivered his speech in Urdu, but in a gathering in the state he would speak in Bengali. He thus tried to build a bridge between Urdu and Bengali speaking people in the state, said Alam local youth of Dara Para Mosque.

His Namaz E Janaza was held on 20 February at 2.30 pm at Dhoaghata Village. More than 50000 people are supposed to have participated in his Janaza Namaz. Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind State Secretary Maulana Siddiqullah Chowdhury, All Bengal Minority Youth federation State Secretary Md Kamruz Zaman, State President of All India Milli Council Qari Fazlur Rahman, Jamat e Islami Hind State President Md Nuruddin, Welfare Party’s State President Dr Raisuddin, SDPI state President Taidul Islam, CPIML Liberation leader Dr Partho Ghosh, Pirjada of Furfura Sharif Kashem Siddiqui, Human Rights organization APCR state Secretary Masiur Rahman, State Secretary of Madrasa Students Union Ahsanul Bari and many others Muslim personalities expressed their shock and appealed to the Government to stop the communal activities of the Hindutva forces and bringing to justice the perpetrators of this heinous crime. According to police sources, the atmosphere is still tense in the area, but they are closing monitoring the situations. Although section 144 is still imposed, they may withdraw it soon, said a district police official. Local residents are scared that the incident may fuel communal tension if the ongoing anti-Muslims agitations by the Hindutva forces of the RSS- VHP are not controlled in the Canning area.

http://twocircles.net/2013feb21/murder_popular_muslim_cleric_sparks_clashes_bengal.html

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Dowry, assault: Ex-ACP in the dock (Feb 23, 2013, DNA India)

Alleging harassment for dowry, a woman has lodged apolice complaint against her husband and in-laws on February 14. Her father-in-law happens to be a retired assistant commissioner of police (ACP). Apart from demanding dowry, the victim has alleged, her husband had also forced her into having unnatural sex with him. The complainanthas further claimed that her in-laws had been threatening her with some obscene photographs that they had taken of her. The accused have been identified as Balaji Jadhav, the ex-ACP, his wife Indumati Jadhav and their son Sagar.

According to the MHB Colony police, the complainant lived with her in-laws in Borivli (W) but their relationship started souring in 2005 when the family began demanding dowry. “She said since she failed to comply with their demands, they took obscene photographs of her on their mobile phones and threatened her. She was also assaulted,” a police officer said.

Sources said the victim’s parents, residents of Ahmednagar, had filed a complaint with the Kopar Gaon police. “The case was transferred to the MHB Colony police as the incidents had taken place in their jurisdiction,” said Madhukar Awte, senior inspector of Kopar Gaon police station.

The MHB Colony police registered a case under sections 498A (husband or relative of husband subjecting the wife to cruelty), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 377 (unnatural offences), 376A (intercourse by a man with his wife during separation) and 384 (punishment for extortion) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of IT Act.

http://www.dnaindia.com/print710.php?cid=1803237

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Opinions and Editorials

Nothing Learnt – B. Raman (Feb 23, 2013, Outlook)

It is less than 48 hours since the two blasts in the Dilsukhnagar area of Hyderabad on the evening of February 21, 2013, resulted in the death of 16 innocent civilians. The police and the intelligence agencies are still in the preliminary stages of the investigation. They have not yet done a reconstruction of the act of terrorism. The collection and examination of the forensic evidence have not yet been completed .No arrests and interrogation have been made yet.

Instead of waiting till the investigation makes substantial progress, the police and the agencies, with the help of sensation-hungry media, have already started pointing the finger at the Muslim community, the Indian Mujahideen and Pakistan. If there is terror, it has to be a Muslim. If he is a Muslim, he has to be from the IM. If it is the IM, it must have acted at the instance of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). That seems to be the thinking reflex of the police and the agencies.

In October last, according to the Delhi Police, a Muslim suspect belonging to the IM told them during his interrogation that the IM had recced the Dilsukhnagar area as a possible target. From this, one could have reasonable suspicion that the IM might have carried out the attack. To strengthen the suspicion, one must have additional evidence which has not been forthcoming till now. Despite this, the police and the agencies in their mind have already turned the suspicion into certainty. Almost the entire investigation is now focused on the IM, overlooking other possibilities.

One cannot think of a more unprofessional way of dealing with terrorism. Very often, our initial hasty conclusions remain unproved or uncorroborated. That is why the investigation of so many of our terrorism cases has reached a dead end. Many of the cases remain undetected or unprosecuted or unsuccessful even if prosecuted. After every few months, we are taken by surprise by a new act of terrorism because we didn’t investigate professionally the previous acts of terrorism. Our track record has been one of hurtling from one hasty conclusion to another.

Instead of learning lessons from the past, we continue repeating the same mistakes. Imprecise intelligence, alerts not followed up by ground action to strengthen physical security, lack of beat patrolling by the police despite our talking about it for years, absence of professional reconstruction of an act of terrorism to determine how the terrorists managed to succeed, cover-up of the sins of commission and omission of our police and agencies – that has been our track record. Unless we get out of this unprofessional rut, terrorists will continue to strike with impunity and innocent civilians will continue to die.

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?284027

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Mirage of development – By Lyla Bavadam (Feb 23, 2013, Frontline)

On a hot day last November near Rajkot, Ramjibhai Patel, an octogenarian farmer, pointed to the middle distance and said, “See that lake?” There was indeed a shimmer in the dry landscape indicating water, but after a relatively poor monsoon, it seemed improbable. Chuckling, he said, “Yes, I see doubt on your face and you are correct. It is a mirage!” With this he launched into a diatribe against the government on issues that ranged from the non-availability of water and the high cost of farming to the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities and the cost of higher education of his grandchildren. “Life is a struggle for us. Whatever we have achieved, it is by our own sweat. Promises of the government for ordinary people like us are a mrugjal [mirage].” The story of growth in Gujarat mirrors Ramjibhai’s mrugjal. Social development indicators in this State of over 60 million people tell a story completely different from the one of success, prosperity and economic development that Chief Minister Narendra Modi would have everyone believe. The Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summits and Modi’s projection of himself as a vikas purush, a sort of development leader, are all part of the illusion that Modi builds around himself.

Despite the much-touted Vibrant Gujarat programmes, it is interesting to note that foreign direct investment is not the highest in Gujarat. Maharashtra leads this list while Gujarat is fifth. Vibrant Gujarat summits have not yielded as much as the State government would like others to believe. According to the government’s own “Socio-Economic Review, Gujarat State, 2011-12″, the promised investments in 2011 were over Rs.20 lakh crore, but only about Rs.29,813 crore was actually invested. In the same year, out of more than 8,300 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed, only about 250 became a reality. The importance given to the Vibrant Gujarat programmes is explained simply. The Gujarat model of development is focussed solely on economic growth via industrial development. For this blinkered approach to succeed, it is necessary for the government to look to private capital. A comparison of promised and actual investments in Vibrant Gujarat programmes since 2003 shows a consistent trend of investors promising more than they actually deliver.

Even though the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the State has been significant over the past 15 years, Gujarat scores low in areas of nutrition, education, employment, wages, consumer price index, rural planning, health, the status of the environment and other indicators of the overall health of society. Indeed a look at official data gathered from the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), Census 2011 and others shows that the high economic growth rate in Gujarat has been at the expense of basic human development. Paradoxically, employment has not kept pace with the spurt in economic growth. NSSO data show that growth in employment has dropped to almost zero in the past 12 years. Rural Gujarat has been particularly hit despite the fact that there has been an increase in growth in the rural sector. The explanation seems to lie with the policy changes in the sale and purchase of land. Small and medium farmers, who make up a large part of the agricultural community, are increasingly being tempted into selling their land. The lure of a large amount ofmoney is often too much for cash-strapped farmers to resist, but the outcome of this is the sudden creation of a jobless section of people. Thus, rural residents are hit. The jobs that are created in rural areas through the construction of special economic zones (SEZ), small-scale industries and similar projects are usually unsuitable for local people.

Even though there is a slightly higher workforce participation rate in Gujarat, it is offset by the fact that it is poor-quality employment and the nature of the work is largely casual. Transport infrastructure accounts for a large number of work opportunities in the State, but since these are project based, the jobs are temporary. A high demand for casual labour combined with an increase in migrant labour from other States means that the job security of workers is low and the levels of exploitation are high. The average wages (for jobs other than those under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) are also very poor, putting Gujarat at a low 14th rank among the States. The disparity in wages speaks of exploitation and an increasing use of contract workers. According to NSSO 2011 figures, the average daily wage a labourer in the informal sector in urban areas can expect in Gujarat is Rs.106 against Rs.218 in Kerala (which ranks first). In rural areas, Punjab ranks the highest at Rs.152 a day while Gujarat stands 12th at Rs.83. About 98 per cent of the women workers and about 89 per cent of the male workers in the State are engaged in informal work (against the corresponding national figures of 96 per cent and 90 per cent).

The workers’ low wages and poor purchasing power result in poor nutrition or malnutrition among them and their children. According to statistics from a report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, “Children in India, 2012—A Statistical Appraisal”, between 40 and 50 per cent of children in Gujarat are underweight, which bursts one more myth in Gujarat’s story of growth. Other States in this low weight category are Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. Human Development Report 2011 said around half of Gujarat’s children were malnourished. Infant mortality, one of the basic indicators of the success of a government, is high in Gujarat, which ranks 11th countrywide in the rate of decline of infant mortality. According to “Children in India, 2012″, the infant mortality rate in Gujarat was still high, with 44 fatalities of infants per 1,000 live births. And with fewer health care facilities in rural areas, it is no surprise that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, both of whom are kept at the bottom of the social ladder, have a higher mortality rate. In its 2012 State-wise report, the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said, “Almost every second child in Gujarat under the age of five years is undernourished and three out of four are anaemic. Infant and maternal mortality rates have reduced very slowly in the last decade…. One mother in three in Gujarat struggles with acute under-nutrition….” The issue of children’s health is further compounded by the continuance of child marriage. Gujarat ranks fourth in reported cases of child marriage. …

http://www.flonnet.com/fl3004/stories/20130308300404300.htm

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Can you hear sounds of Fascist jack-boots in India? – By Amaresh Misra (Feb 20, 2013, Times of India)

… Made famous by Hitler and Mussolini, the fascist ideology killed democracy in the 1930s and 40s in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, and several East European countries invaded by Germany during World War II. Fascism led to the incarceration and death of such noted European intellectuals asAntonio Gramsci and Frederico Garcia Lorca to name a few; it also forced Freud and Einstein to flee from Continental Europe to the USA. On 10th May, 1933, in a state-sponsored frenzy presided over gleefully by Hitler, Goebbels and other top Nazi officials-the first of its kind in modern human history-thousands of Nazi-fascist students burned over 25,000 volumes of classical and contemporary German literature (Nazi book burnings). Carried out all over Germany especially in University towns, the act presaged decades of illogical censorship and maniac, linear control of culture that destroyed German modernity and the country’s 2000 year old intellectual-cultural heritage. Thus, fascism destroyed both tradition and modernity-old and new-humanism and liberalism-religion and agnosticism-in one stroke. … Hitler justified colonialism and British rule over India. In the 1930s, he was admired by quite a few anti-communists and anti-liberal figures. MS Golwalkar, the RSS chief from 1940 to 1970 was one of them. … I hate to make comparisons-it reflects poorly on India. But truth-however ugly-has to be told; this much Mahatama Gandhi has been able to inculcate in us writers. Isn’t it incredible that what Saadhvi Rithambara and Babu Bajrangi type figures threatened Muslims with-the stripping of their citizenship rights in an imagined Hindu Rashtra-respectively-during LK Advani’s Rath Yatra for a Ram temple in Ayodhya and the 2002 Gujarat riots-was not part of some extreme right-wing fringe? Rithambara and Bajrangi both took their lessons straight from a mainstream RSS leader like Golwalkar! What a discovery! No difference between Golwalkar, Advani, Modi, Rithambara and Babu Bajrangi! What do so-called sophisticated and ‘liberal’ leaders of the BJP-and their intellectual-right wing apologists like Swapan Dasgupta and Tavleen Singh-have to say now in their defence? Will they come out openly and admit that they support a convict like Bajrangi who waxed eloquent over ripping open a Muslim mother’s womb-and that he felt like Rana Pratap committing a heinous crime-on camera-in the Aaj Tak expose? Till date, the RSS has not refuted lines written by Golwalkar. On the contrary, they form part of the core RSS ideology. …

People should wake up – Jaitley’s attack on Justice Katju should not be looked at in isolation. Digvijaya Singh, the Congress general secretary, rightly said that Jaitley owes Modi his Rajya Sabha Sabha seat – and by attacking Katju, Jaitley is returning the favour. Singh also went on to elaborate Sangh Parivar’s fascist mind-set, which rarely tolerates dissent (Digvijay Singh slams Jaitley’s remarks on Katju). The Jaitley-Katju spat represents the beginning of an open fight between Hindutvawaadis and liberal Hindus, a real life drama that will unleash with full fury in the 2014 elections. Indians have to decide whether they want a India where Bajrang Dal and Sangh Parivar activists go on a rampage attacking liberal Hindu, largely upper caste, judges, professors, media heads, senior journalists, respected intellectuals-members of the Dalit-OBC intelligentsia-as well as esteemed women personalities in social life-and the like; or they would like a peaceful India where the rule of law, liberty and freedom of speech and religion prevails. If voted to power, fascists will launch a smear campaign against modernity, pluralism, diversity, democracy and liberalism. As under Hitler, women will suffer the most under fascist-Hindutvawaadi rule. Since they supported the British in the pre-Independence era, RSS inspired forces will not hesitate to undermine Indian sovereignty in the interests of US led western block. Historically, xenophobic-fundamentalist-fascistic nationalism has always favoured the big over small, domination of superpowers over regional powers. Liberal-left nationalism on the other hand, usually fights in the interest of the people and the country. Modi’s developmental model excludes benefits to OBCs, Dalits, the middle and the small peasantry, Adivasis, organized and unorganized labour, small and medium businesses, entrepreneurs, and the lower middle classes whether Hindus or Muslims. Under the Indian fascist utopia, people are supposed to remain bogged down in inter-religious or inter-ethnic conflicts while big business corporate interests loot precious Indian resources in Indian tribal and forest regions, displace peasants in the name of development and muzzle all voices that disagree-a fascist victory in 2014 would imply an end of India’s 5000 year old civilization and culture.

Five years of NDA rule failed not only to build the Ram temple; apart from unscientific posturing on ‘Vedic Mathematics’-that too inconsistent-the BJP led government made no effort to highlight the great scientific-philosophical-cultural-artistic-moral-political achievements of Indian society before the advent of Muslims. On the contrary-the NDA regime-including senior leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi-persecuted Gandhians and liberal Hindus-and forced several Gandhian institutes-to shut down. Many erstwhile VHP-Bajrang Dal members-and former MLAs like Pawan Pandey-one of the prime accused in the Babari Masjid demolition case-left the BJP in disgust after seeing the moral degeneration of Ayodhya based BJP leaders such as Vinay Katiyar. If nothing else-this-the deliberate neglect of the very Hindu heritage the Sangh Parivar claims to protect-should persuade people to see the other side of the Sanghi moonlight. Who is going to stop Hindutvawaadis from burning Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Mahabharata, Ramayan, Arthashastra, Kamasutra-as well as ancient, medieval and modern Indian works on science, art and humanism-if they are in power and a wave of puritan-paranoia takes hold of their political persona?

RSS uses terms like ‘Hindu race’ and ‘Hindu nation’- of course both these terms have no rational-scientific basis. There is no one Hindu-Aryan race-and surely no Hindu nation-the Vedas and Puranas mention nothing of that sort-Puranas use ‘Bharat’ to denote a shifting, geographical entity. Even rational RSS sympathisers concede that different castes and tribes living in India-peoples of a modern nation-state-welded in its present form initially by the great Mughals, then the colonial British, and finally Independent India’s State power-consist of men, women and children of diverse racial origin. The concept of a single, dominant ‘Hindu race’ is not only false-it is dangerous as it allows any small group to lay claim to that status and then use it to suppress democracy and the vast majority of the Indian people. Puranas mention different kingdoms, not a ‘Hindu nation’-this does not mean that the idea of India did not exist in ancient times. It just did not exist the way the fascists want it to exist-Mughals carried forward the initial efforts of empire building by Mauryas and Guptas-and beginning from the 1857 war, the Indian Independence movement gave a modern, nationhood status to that idea.

The other aspect of course, is the use of violence for political ends, something that all fascists exercise to attain power. After all, even the most reverent Narendra Modi supporter concedes that the extremely violent Gujarat 2002 riots made possible the rise of their self-styled Hindutva icon. Fascist violence carries an abnormal strain-it reflects a mind-set that is sadist, inherently cruel and cowardly-as well as eccentric-whimsical-in the ugly sense. Killing babies and children and raping women has always been a special fascist prerogative. If some day, a crazy bout of psychosis grips a fascist in power, he can also sever facets of the fascist-big business alliance. Hitler persecuted businessmen also because they had some remote Jewish connection or the colour of their hair was not to his liking. True horror stories from Gujarat-of capricious mistreatment of even well placed individuals by Modi-will start appearing only after BJP’s defeat in the state. Don’t be surprised if suddenly, a Sangh Parivar leader takes a disliking to Ratan Tata or Cyrus Mistry for being Parsees, or to Kumar Mangalam Birla for his hair style or to the Ambanis for not contributing enough to fascist coffers-once unleashed, weird politics of paper tigers carries untold destruction.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/the-mainstream-maverick/entry/can-you-hear-sounds-of-fascist-jack-boots-in-india

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Living in fear – By T.K. Rajalakshmi (Feb 23, 2013, Frontline)

The vacant faces told the story of the wanton destruction. On January 25, a day before the Indian republic completed 63 years, 37 shops, including kiosks, belonging to members of the minority community in Asind tehsil in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district, were set ablaze even as a helpless district administration watched, busy as it was controlling another conflict in the adjacent Gulabpura tehsil. The incident occurred when the Congress, perceived to provide a safe environment for the minorities, was in power. Seventy persons were arrested, the bulk of them from the majority community of Hindu Gujjars, including a district leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). What began as a dispute over the route of a procession taken out by Muslims metamorphosed into a strategy of arson in which the livelihoods of the minority community were systematically targeted by the Hindu Right.

Bhilwara is represented by Union Minister C.P. Joshi; but no one even from the State Cabinet made a visit to the place. Sources in the Chief Minister’s Office told Frontline that Ashok Gehlot had promptly convened a meeting on January 25 and deputed the Inspector General of Police, the Divisional Commissioner and two DIG-level officers to make a quick assessment and for damage control. But the damage, it seems, had already been done. Sentiments raged against ruling party representatives. “We would just like to know how long we must remain like this in perpetual fear of being attacked. It is better that we sit across a table and discuss openly what is expected of us. If it is going to be an unequal relationship in democratic, secular India, then so be it, but tell us where we stand,” said Abid Hussain, a property dealer. The day of the arson was Bara-wafat, celebrated both as the birthday and the day of demise of the Prophet Muhammad. Permission was sought by the community’s leaders to take out a procession-a ritual they have been undertaking for years-in the tehsils of Asind and Gulabpura, both with sizable Muslim populations. However, organisations of the Hindu Right, which included the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the Shiv Sena, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal, insisted before the administration that the procession would not be allowed to pass through temple areas.

It had so transpired that the administration had not given permission to an earlier programme, a path sanchalan (route march) of the RSS, to pass through Muslim areas. The path sanchalan, planned a year earlier, was to be a show of strength, and was to coincide with the 1,101st anniversary of a Gujjar deity, Devnarayan. The chosen date was January 13. The idea was to converge on one point from three corners of Asind town, passing through areas with Muslim homes and places of worship. Asind is no stranger to communal violence; the demolition of a medieval Kalandari masjid in 2001, located on the premises of the Sawai Bhoj temple, had vitiated relations between the two communities. The masjid was never rebuilt. The administration was unprepared for the request for the “Triveni Sangam”, which appeared to be a ploy to foment tensions. Muslim leaders approached the administration, which in turn called a meeting of all community representatives on January 8 to amicably settle the matter. At the meeting, a section of the Muslim community agreed to the Sangam’s route while another did not. Given the turbulent history of Asind, District Magistrate Omkar Singh declined to oblige the Sangh.

The VHP gave a call for a bandh in Bhilwara from January 23 to 25, keeping in mind that January 25 was Milad-un-Nabi or Bara-wafat. According to Ravindra Kumar Jajoo, Vibhaag Sampark Pramukh of the RSS at Bhilwara, the administration had not allowed the earlier Janmasthami procession on the pretext that it would create tensions. Permission was not granted because the Janmasthami procession was to go past a mosque. At Gulabpura, armed mobs began gathering from 6 a.m. onwards on January 25, local people said. They retreated only at 3 p.m. when the police resorted to a lathi-charge. Had the Muslims decided to take out their procession, there would have been loss of lives, district administration officials told Frontline. Around 2,500 people armed with swords had gathered in front of a temple at Gulabpura. “The crowd was determined not to allow the Bara-wafat procession through,” said an official. That food packets were distributed to members of the armed crowd and petrol bombs were hurled at the police showed that adequate preparations had been made for a full-fledged conflict. But minority community members stayed indoors both at Gulabpura and Asind. At Gulabpura, there were skirmishes between the police and armed members of the majority community. At Asind, shops were set on fire. “There wasn’t a shortage of police force. Our focus was on protecting the residential areas,” Nitindeep Singh, Superintendent of Police, told Frontline.

It was learnt from various sources that activities of the Sangh in the region had been stepped up over the past few years, particularly in the past six months. Membership drives were on. The frequency of path sanchalans and the visits of top Sangh leaders had gone up. VHP leader Praveen Togadia had visited the district at least three times in the last six months, said a senior official. The mobilisation of the Gujjar community in activities of the Sangh was a novel phenomenon. An organisation called the Dev Sena, after the Gujjar deity Devnarayan, was part of the overall mobilisation against the minority community and an active component of the path sanchalan. District officials observed that a call for a three-day bandh was unprecedented. “There was a time when flowers used to be showered from the rooftops of Hindu households on the Bara-wafat procession,” said an elderly man at Gulabpura. A good proportion of members of the minority community in Gulabpura eke out a living as tailors. Others work for daily wages. Muslims of Asind are either petty shopkeepers or are employed in vehicle repair shops. Of the total population of 25,000 here, Muslims have around 3,500 votes. “These votes make a difference. We vote for the Congress but do not feel protected under its rule. Maybe we are safer with the BJP in power. We saw our friends from the majority community, with whom we used to sit and chat, wield swords that day,” said a Muslim youth. The legislator from Gulabpura, Ram Lal Jat, was yet to visit his constituency. Both parties, said a former mill worker, were two sides of the same coin. “One abuses us openly; the other does it quietly. There is no third alternative.” The social fabric of Bhilwara, known as the Manchester of Rajasthan, is under strain. The interdependence of Hindus and Muslims living here will be a thing of the past soon. A good section of the trading community seems to be backing Sangh activities. A fact-finding report by activists from Jaipur and Bhilwara observed that the Sangh had a tradition of organising path sanchalans for mobilisation and social consolidation. With less than nine months to go for the State Assembly elections, it is time the government acted against communal forces. …

http://www.flonnet.com/fl3004/stories/20130308300410700.htm

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Shamelessly shooting to kill – By Teesta Setalvad (Feb 20, 2013, The Hindu)

Images of the Delhi police lobbing tear gas shells at and using water canons on protesters at India Gate on a Sunday, December 23, 2012, who were agitating against the gang rape of a young girl are embedded in the nation’s psyche, courtesy of our omnipresent, 24×7 news networks, images sharpened further by the ever-prescient discussions on the 9 p.m. Newshour. Not 14 days later, also on a Sunday, about a thousand kilometres away, in faraway north Maharashtra, the town of Dhule saw a distinctly more brutal police action; the rapid firing of SLR bullets to kill six young Muslims. It was a case of being caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. They paid heavily with their young lives. In a similarly brutal and uncalled for police action at Thangadh in Surendranagar district, not far from Ahmedabad, four Gujarat officers using AK-47s had shot dead three Dalits, including a 17-year-old, on the night of September 22-23, 2012. The tragedies, at Thangadh and Dhule, that had cost these precious lives, were however reduced to media sideshows, though the print editions of English language national dailies did spotlight some issues. The police, in Dhule, were caught on mobile phone videos in shameful acts. Yet, despite the availability of such sensationally thrilling clips, the normally avaricious and greedy eye of the television camera looked away. The shots slipped into late afternoon or midnight bulletins, cleverly bypassing the noisy news hour.

One of the Dhule clips shows a constable taking a self-loading rifle from his senior officer and aiming to shoot high above the waist. Bullet marks have been found in the market place and gullies of Macchipura a kilometre deep into the Muslim area, away from any groups that had gathered. Three such shots fired in quick succession got Imran Ali in his collarbone, eventually leading to his death. Of the 23 other young Muslim men who were critical, one had a bullet fired into his cheek, narrowly missing his eye, another rupturing a liver. Another clip shows a policeman ignoring calls for protection. Yet another shows policemen in uniform looting Muslim establishments that were being destroyed and burnt by some rioters. In Thangadh, the four policemen later absconded. The murder, in 1993, of a black youth Stephen Lawrence, in the United Kingdom, and the publication, in 1999, of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report led to the critical acknowledgement that hate crimes are committed even by men in uniform and that such deeds demand institutional sensitisation and correction. What emerged was a Hate Crimes Manual that warned what constituted such practice. Since the late 1980s, when evidence of deviant conduct by men in uniform surfaced from several bouts of targeted violence countrywide (Nellie, Assam, 1983 – 3,000 Muslims massacred; Delhi, 1984 – over 3,000 Sikhs systematically killed; Hashimpura, Uttar Pradesh, 1987 – 51 Muslims shot dead by the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC); Bhagalpur, Bihar, 1989 – a massacre that left thousands dead and evidence buried below a hastily planted cauliflower field; Mumbai, 1992-1993 – over 1,200 dead; Kandhamal, Odisha, 2008 – nearly 100 Christians and Gujarat, 2002 – over 2,000 Muslims massacred), courts and judicial commissions have strongly indicted India’s police for harbouring a distinct anti-minority bias, committing crimes through a manifestation of this hatred and not being punished for it.

In 1995, I had interviewed a senior IPS officer, V.N. Rai, who taken a year’s sabbatical to complete a research study, “Combating communal conflicts: Perception of police neutrality during Hindu-Muslim riots in India.” This interview was published in over 30 Indian publications. Among other things, Rai’s interviews with hundreds of riot victims from across the country (as part of his study) produced the startling finding that in all riot situations, Hindus consider policemen as their friends while, almost without exception, the minorities – Muslims and Sikhs – experience them as their enemy. This piece of work ought to have initiated the kind of self-reflection that the Stephen Lawrence murder had led the British police to. Instead, Rai’s study was ignored by the Indian police establishment. He had to find a private publisher to publish it as a book. What it did do however was lead to the issue being flagged by senior stalwarts. The founder and former chief of the Border Security Force (BSF), K.F. Rustomjee, and DIG Padma Rosha were quick to lend their voice to this issue of crucial concern, stressing that unless the Indian police confronted the issue of deep, communal (and caste) bias, they were sowing the seeds of bitter alienation. If Rai had conducted this study today, perceptions among the minorities would reflect alienation several degrees worse.

My interview covered several sensitive areas. I asked Rai specifically about the police’s criminal dereliction of duty on December 6, 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished as 3,000-4,000 men in uniform watched. His reply was a chilling recall of another fateful Sunday 21 years ago: “The video cassette recording by the Intelligence Bureau clearly documents that not more than 3,000-4,000 ‘kar sevaks’ were within close proximity of the mosque. In such a scenario, could no effective action have been taken? The reason why no action was taken lies elsewhere. The same cassette shows policemen rejoicing, with their hands held high in victory, when the Babri Masjid was destroyed. The district magistrate and other officials were dancing with delight. That is why the ‘kar sevaks’ could not be stopped. There was no desire to do so.” None of these offenders were punished. Pitching strongly for the application of the principle of command responsibility when large-scale violence results following the failure to prevent or contain communal violence, Rai narrated the quotation “There are no bad soldiers, only bad generals.” So, leadership not only makes a substantial difference, it is the most vital, the most decisive factor in the functioning of a force whether we are talking of the police, the paramilitary or the army.

Two decades after much soul-searching – that followed the cataclysmic events before and after the demolition of a 400-year-old mosque at Ayodhya – we are still only debating (and the establishment resisting) the chain of command responsibility being applied to men in uniform when it comes to serious offences, including sexual violence. Worse, there is a shrill resistance to enact legislative protection against the systematic outbreak of communal and targeted violence through a law that will penalise policemen who fail to preserve the peace. Rai, in 1987, was the man who filed the First Information Report of the crimes committed by the PAC at Hashimpura. Fifteen years later, in 2002, in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, it was SP Rahul Sharma who charged ahead, firing to disperse a murderous Hindu mob when his men refused to act to prevent them attacking a madrassa . His prompt action saved the lives of 400 Muslim children. Today, he is at the receiving end of blows from a vindictive State government, facing every day harassment, charge sheets and worse. Rai or Sharma are unlikely heroes for Republic Day bravery medals nor are they the likely face or voice of discussions on television channels. Their raw deeds and searching reflection spotlight a raw nerve, a deep-rooted prejudice that India at 65+ unfortunately lives quite comfortably with.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/shamelessly-shooting-to-kill/article4433379.ece

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Weapons Payload – By Toral Varia Deshpande (Mar 4, 2013, Outlook)

They are usually the ‘invisible men’, but with Choppergate all over us, arms dealers are again the talk of the town. The question is, with India now the largest arms importer in the world, can we wish them away? Are they unrealistic, the policy guidelines laid down by the government vis-a-vis the arms agents? After all, international trade continues to flourish in other sectors with the open participation of agents, why keep the arms pliers in the shadows? Gulshan Luthra, editor of defence and trade magazine India Strategic, says, “The rulebook says no serving personnel can interact with a foreign supplier. But navigating the bureaucracy and negotiating and balancing policies and procedures is far from easy. Which is why, whether the government accepts it or not, these men who purportedly don’t exist actually do.” Twelve years after it was made mandatory in 2001, even today nobody has come forward to register as a defence agent with the Union ministry of defence (MoD). This is because any commission paid to an Indian citizen for an arms deal is automatically a criminal offence, forcing suppliers and agents to look for ever more devious ways to account for such payments.

The guidelines requiring the agents to register, explained an unofficial ‘defence agent’, were too intrusive and arbitrary. Full disclosure of the commission paid, bank details etc may even expose them to extortion, he says. And with defence deals often taking a decade or more to wrap up, the agents will in any case be vulnerable to changing policies, investigations and litigation. Defence analysts says the current position is absurd because international arms deals almost never happen without agents. The latest report by leading think-tank on global arms, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), says the number of arms agents working on India is at an all-time high now. So, with no official avenues open, networking is the name of the game. A trade magazine insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, says, “We’ll never officially admit to it but if you take a close look at the parties hosted by us and the guest list, you will realise that we are in fact setting the ground for future interactions. An informal introduction with a service chief by a retired chief, and the stage is all set.” As insider status is crucial; agents or conduits tend to be related to high-level politicians, bureaucrats, senior defence officers, even entertainers- perhaps also the reason why the CBI routinely fails to crack defence deal cases. For example, one of India’s most high-profile arms agents now, Abhishek Verma, comes from a leading Congress political family and is said to be close to the CBI top brass too.

Once upon a time, a certain Sudhir Choudharie was the most powerful middleman in India. In the last couple of decades, though, a new crop has risen. Almost all major overseas defence firms now have offices or liaison bureaus in India, with local representatives to push their case. The latter, in turn, have on their rolls a full retinue of retired military officers and civil servants. Among the new breed are, of course, the Tyagi brothers from the latest AgustaWestland chopper scandal. They have been operating in the power sector for a while now. Rajeev Tyagi, known in power circles as ‘Docsa Tyagi’, is a doctor by training but doesn’t have a practice. He operates out of an office in Ferozeshah Market in Delhi. Unlike other ‘agents’, Rajeev is usually seen in kurta-pyjamas. It is through him that the other two brothers started operating in power circles, brokering deals. An insider who knows them well says, “The three brothers-Sanjeev, Rajeev and Sandeep-are close to several top bjp leaders too. In fact, Rajeev Tyagi’s proximity to former PM A.B. Vajpayee was well known. He was even an unofficial interlocutor between Muslim leaders upset over the Babri mosque demolition issue and the then BJP government at the Centre.”

Arms agents are candid – commissions on deals are paid everywhere, but they are among the highest in India. A normal commission ranges between 2-5 per cent of the total contract value but in India it fluctuates from 5-15 per cent. This is because, as one agent puts it, “the risks are higher and the recipients many more”. They also claim to be even-handed while dealing with political parties, cultivating and paying off politicians across the spectrum, both in the ruling coalition and the opposition. Defence deals, especially high-value ones, take a long time to be finalised and often span over a decade. No agent can afford to take a chance and needs to keep everyone in good humour, taking into account the possibility of a change of guard and government. The SIPR 2012 yearbook observes that “India’s efforts to expand its military capabilities have made it the largest importer of major arms…but the Indian defence industrial policy requires major reforms”. With this sort of a lucrative market, a cosy relationship has endured between agents and officials and nobody wants it disturbed. Approvals from at least 18 related departments and agencies is needed (see infographic) to acquire any defence equipment. This provides ample scope for corruption. “The procurement process is so long and complicated that bribes are paid at every step to merely keep the ball in play and push the process,” says an analyst.

In the past 10 years, India’s defence forces have been on a buying spree. Close to $50 billion in purchases were made in the last decade, while this decade will see defence acquisitions worth some $100 billion more. With the elaborate checks and balances in place, it is difficult to say that greed, and not need, prompted the purchasing spree. But precisely because of the elaborate processes, the procurement process also slows down and encourages bribes at every step to speed it up. The situation has also accrued due to the inability of domestic players like DRDOs to keep pace with the modernisation of our forces. “Our ordnance factories have failed to satisfy our defence requirements,” admits Dr Laxman Behera of the official defence ministry think-tank IDSA. Talking about the new-age arms agent, defence analyst Rahul Bedi says, “The omnipresent agent is essentially an entrepreneur with a flair for public relations and man-management, and has become almost indispensable to the procurement process. Through experience, patience and tenacity in dealing with the Indian bureaucracy and the MoD’s hidebound systems, he unravels for his principals the complex procurement matrix.” In return, he gets a handsome monthly retainer and working expenses, and a hefty commission disbursed overseas on deal closure. Retainers ensure comfortable lifestyles and expensive offices whilst commissions could run into crores. Bedi recalls that “before the Bofors scandal, service officers were grateful for the odd Scotch whisky bottle, a carton of cigarettes or, for the more discerning, an expensive fountain pen or Havana cigar box from vendors or their local representatives”. Nowadays, other than cash, major enticements include jewellery, property, top-end cars, overseas education for the children of military and MoD officials and often the paid lavish wedding, anniversary or birthday parties. Other enticements include sex, premium alcohol, fully paid-up overseas family holidays, golf sets, even rare pets or antique furniture for the memsahib. Bribes aside, the arms agents do have people batting for them. Major general (retd) Mrinal Suman argues that they perform a necessary and useful task. With their domain knowledge, they can provide useful inputs on technological advancements, qualitative requirements and price-fixing besides providing after-sales support. Treating them like dirt, he adds, has not really helped.

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?284016

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – June 25th, 2012

June 26, 2012

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup News Headlines Communal violence erupts in Pratapgarh of UP Gulberg: Court raps SIT, asks for probe report NDA’s disarray has to do with the BJP’s Hindutva parochialism ‘Tulsiram saw policemen picking Sohrabuddin, wife’ (Jun 23, 2012, Indian Express Fake Encounter by ATS, Claims Mumbai Blast Accused Police, administration [...]

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – December 5th, 2011

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – November 28th, 2011

November 28, 2011

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup Communal Harmony Quran with Bhagavad Gita in a communal harmony class News Headlines Nanavati panel reluctant to expose Modi, says Mallika Sarabhai Examine Narendra Modi’s role in fake encounter: Ishrat’s kin 21 cops involved in Ishrat encounter Jamia teachers welcome SIT report on Ishrat; demand fair probe into [...]

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – November 21st, 2011

November 21, 2011

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup Communal Harmony Measure in place to observe communal harmony week News Headlines Hindu radicals disguised as Muslims planted Malegaon bombs? Justice is yet to be fully delivered in the post-Godhra riots Gujarat riots: SIT concealing evidences to protect politicians, say victims There’s threat to life, but it’s not [...]

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – October 10th, 2011

October 10, 2011

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup News Headlines Cops want to destroy papers in Sanjiv Bhatt’s possession: Teesta Setalvad Bhatt’s arrest: US groups write to Prez, PM; warn to launch global campaign Narendra Modi to blame if Sanjeev Bhatt is harmed: Abhishek Manu Singhvi Gulbarg victims move court to seek direction to SIT to [...]

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Indian Americans seek assurance from PM, Chief Justice on intimidation free CBI inquiry into Fake Encounter Killings

May 17, 2010

Indian Muslim Council-USA (IMC-USA – http://www.imc-usa.org ), an advocacy group dedicated toward safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos is calling on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court S. H. Kapadia to monitor and ensure an intimidation free Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the fake encounter killings of [...]

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