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Zakia Jafri

IAMC Weekly News Roundup – April 22nd, 2013

by newsdigest on April 23, 2013

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

Gujarat govt’s failure to protect people during 2002 riots: US report (Apr 21, 2013, Times of India)

India’s civil society continues to express concern over the Gujarat government’s failure to protect people or arrest those responsible for communal violence in 2002, a US report on human rights has said. The report, titled ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012′ released by the US state department, as mandated by the Congress, says human rights groups continue to allege that investigative bodies in their reports showed bias in favour of Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi.

“Civil society activists continued to express concern about the Gujarat government’s failure to protect the population or arrest those responsible for communal violence in 2002 that resulted in the killing of more than 1,200 persons, the majority of whom were Muslim, although there was progress in several court cases,” said the report, which was released by US secretary of state John Kerry on Friday. “Human rights groups continue to allege that investigative bodies showed bias in favour of Modi in their reports,” the US report said.

The chapter on India in the report runs into 60 pages, according to which the most significant human rights problems in India in 2012 were police and security force abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture, and rape; widespread corruption at all levels of government, leading to denial of justice; and separatist, insurgent, and societal violence. “Other human rights problems included disappearances, poor prison conditions that were frequently life-threatening, arbitrary arrest and detention, and lengthy pretrial detention. The judiciary was overburdened, and court backlogs led to lengthy delays or the denial of justice,” the report said.

“Authorities continued to infringe on citizens’ privacy rights,” it said. “Separatist insurgents and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, the northeastern states, and the Naxalite belt committed numerous serious abuses, including killing armed forces personnel, police, government officials, and civilians. Insurgents were responsible for numerous cases of kidnapping, torture, rape, and extortion, and they used child soldiers,” the report said. For the second consecutive year, Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast saw considerably less violence than in the past, it added.

The state department said, law enforcement and legal avenues for rape victims were inadequate, overtaxed, and unable to address the issue effectively. “Law enforcement officers sometimes worked to reconcile rape victims and their attackers, in some cases encouraging female rape victims to marry their attackers. Doctors sometimes further abused rape victims who had come to report the crimes by using the ‘two finger test’ to speculate on their sexual history,” it said, while referring to the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/19661625.cms

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Kodnani’s Death move to warn Advani,deflect Zakia? (Apr 18, 2013, Times of India)

The Gujarat government’s clearance on Monday of the file put forth by the special investigations team that recommended death penalty for former minister Maya Kodnani, instead of a life term, in the Naroda Patia massacre of 2002 has brought about turmoil in the entire Sangh Parivar in Gujarat. The file had been submitted to the legal department in September 2012 and the timing is most discussed.

In an interview to BBC on January 28 this year, BJP president Rajnath Singh had said that Maya Kodnani is innocent and the party will fully support her in the legal battle. But the moveon Monday against Kodnani is now being seen with suspicion by even Parivar insiders because Kodnani’s loyalties lie with L K Advani. Kodnani’s parents, who have a strong Parivar background, had met RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat in Ahmedabad last fortnight and requested him to use his good offices to help Kodnani. Many local RSS stalwarts had supported the impassioned plea from the family.

The timing of the clearance of the file is important as it comes seven months after the SIT submitted the report and deflects attention from Zakia Jafri protest petition against chief minister Narendra Modi with thousands of pages of wireless messages and call data record as evidence that Modi government knew about the violence in advance. Also, it comes on the heels of a section of the BJP and NDA favouring Advani as PM. The change in government’s stance is stark. In 2009, when Kodnani was granted bail and SIT wanted bail cancellation, the Modi government replied to SIT that Maya is innocent and denied permission. Even during trial, Kodnani was not arrested.

Kodnani was sentenced to 28 years in jail August 2012 with 30 others for their role in the Naroda Patiya massacre. Kodnani, a three-time Naroda MLA, was identified in the court by 11survivors as a mob leader. Kodnani, a gynaecologist inducted as minister of state for women and child development by Modi in 2007, is the first former minister to be found guilty in any case relating to the riots.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/19607944.cms

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Probe Narendra Modi’s call records in Tulsiram encounter case: Sohrabuddin’s brother (Apr 20, 2013, India Today)

Rubabuddin Shaikh, brother of alleged slain gangster Sohrabuddin Shaikh, has demanded that CBI should investigate phone call records of the office of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and senior IPS officers in connection with the Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case. “Rubabuddin Shaikh has sought probe of telephone calls between the office of Chief Minister and senior IPS officers under Sec 173 (8) of the CrPC,” his lawyer Mukul Sinha said. The section allows further investigation after charge sheet is filed. Sohrabuddin was killed in an alleged fake encounter by Gujarat police in November 2005.

“The telephone records produced by CID (Gujarat) in the case of Tulsiram Prajapati along with the charge sheet reveals that at least two accused, namely Amit Shah (then Minister of State for Home) and IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, were in constant touch with the office of Chief Minister of Gujarat throughout December 2006,” Rubabuddin’s application to the CBI director states. “Frequency of their contacts markedly increased on and after December 12, 2006,” it adds. Shah, the key accused in Soharabuddin case, also figures as kingpin of the conspiracy in the case related to subsequent fake encounter of Sohrabuddin’s aide Prajapati. Shaikh was killed on November 26, 2005 in Ahmedabad.

Prajapati was the sole witness to his kidnapping and killing, according to CBI. Prajapati was killed in another encounter on December 28, 2006. “CBI has not investigated the details of phone call records of the office of the Chief Minister and senior IPS officers,” Sinha said. “It should also collect telephone records of all the Officers on Special Duty (OSDs) in the office of the Chief Minister apart from gathering call records of Shah, both mobile and landline (residence and office),” Rubabuddin’s application says.

Rubabuddin has also asked the central probe agency to investigate the manner in which Sohrabuddin’s wife Kausar Bi was killed. “The persons who are connected with the case in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are yet to be questioned,” it states. The decision to transfer IPS officer D G Vanzara from Anti-Terrorism Squad to Bhuj as Border Range DIG must also be probed, Rubabuddin has prayed in his application. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had said that murders of Prajapati and Sohrabuddin were part of the same conspiracy and there should be a single trial.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/probe-narendra-modis-call-records-in-tulsiram-encounter-case-sohrabuddins-brother/1/266830.html

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Bangalore blast: Terrorist attack or political plot? (Apr 18, 2013, First Post)

The lone blast outside the BJP office in Bangalore yesterday sparked the usual flurry of media overkill. There was the usual, knee-jerk speculation about jihadis, Islamic terror, blah blah. This is, of course, par for course these days in the aftermath of a bombing, be it in Boston or Bangalore. What makes the recent Bangalore incident an exception, however, is that it almost instantly triggered a flurry of political name-calling – an activity usually suspended in the immediate aftermath of a suspected terrorist attack. As wildly inaccurate rumours of multiple blasts circulated online, Congress party spokesman Shakeel Ahmad shot off his Twitter mouth: “If the blast near BJP’s office is a terror attack, it will certainly help BJP politically on the eve of election.” The allegation in turned spawned its BJP mirror, ie the Congress party staged the attack to consolidate the minority vote.

Cue the high decibel outrage, mutual recriminations and general confusion – which was compounded by the Home Ministry stepping in to insist that the attack “pointed to an Indian Mujaheddin footprint.” The state of hysterical anxiety amongst Karnataka politicians is not exactly news. More surprising is the air of cynicism that has quickly taken hold barely 24 hours after a shocking, if not fatal, attack. “Election Bomb?” screams the headline scrawled acrossBangalore Mirror’s front page, accompanied by a story that more or less makes the case for a faked terror attack: The blast has the police and forensic investigators baffled on three counts: One, the bomb was set off in a residential locality instead of a crowded place, as is typical of a terrorist strike. Two, the bomb was an incendiary one – intended to produce fire; not of the type that could cause mass destruction. Third, none of the terrorist organisations has claimed responsibility for the blast; nor there seems to be any motive behind the blast.

Over and again, the print version of the story casts doubt on the claim of a terrorist attack: Not to be left behind, Karnataka home minister R Ashoka dramatically declared, “Terrorist attack targeted the BJP national and state leaders visiting the party head office during election campaign.” This despite not one major leader being in the office at the hour, and not even a window pane at the party HQ cracking in the blast. The Mirror goes on to note the damage suffered by the house outside which the bomb was actually located, “but it never came into focus. The blast was truly and surely hijacked by the political parties.” What’s more interesting is that the story’s online version contains none of this language – except the three reasons why the bomb is “baffling” – and carries a far less accusatory headline: “Blast rocks Bangalore.”

The Mirror’s editorial choices also offer a contrast with its sister publication, the Times of India, which chose to play the story straight, as a possible terror attack, though noting: Senior intelligence officers, however, said poor execution ruled out the involvement of any big-time terror module. One theory was that the attack could have been carried out by locals or politically motivated individuals. Because the bomb was not packed with nails, nuts and screws, the shrapnel of choice, some felt there was no hard evidence yet of an IM operation. The casualties would have been higher had the blast occurred during the evening, when scores of people visit temples in the vicinity. Further, with elections approaching, there would have been hectic activity in Jagannath Bhavan.

The weary citizens of the city have meanwhile gone back to their daily business, unmoved by conspiracy theories whether they involve the IM, BJP or Congress. Their attitude best summed up by this quote from a resident of the locality that experienced the blast: ‘Malleswaram is one of the calmest places in the city which still retains Bangalore’s old-world charm. And in Malleswaram, Temple Street exemplified old Bangalore with its places of worship and low traffic. However, the scene changed with the BJP office shifting here. We do not know who was responsible for the blast or why they chose temple street. If the BJP office was the target, why should we have a political party’s office in a residential layout and why should we suffer for just being their neighbours?’ For most Bangaloreans, the blast merely confirmed a more everyday truth: Politicians make bad neighbours.

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/bangalore-blast-terrorist-attack-or-political-plot-709148.html

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High Court cancels bail of ex RSS members accused in Mecca Masjid blast (Apr 18, 2013, New Indian Express)

The Andhra Pradesh High Court Thursday cancelled the bail granted by a lower court to two former RSS members accused in the 2007 terror attack at the historic Mecca Masjid here. The high court asked the sessions court to reconsider its orders, granting bail to Lokesh Sharma and Devender Gupta.

The high court verdict has come as a relief to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which opposed the bail on the ground that it could hamper the investigations. The NIA had also argued that freeing the two accused on bail could also have an impact on the probe in the Malegaon, Ajmer and Samjhauta Express blasts as they are also suspected to be involved in all these terror attacks.

Nine people were killed and over 60 injured in the powerful bomb blast during Friday prayers on May 18, 2007, at the 17th century mosque here. The high court on Dec 4, 2012, suspended the bail granted by the IVth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Court here on Nov 27. Sharma and Gupta, former members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), are among six accused arrested by the NIA in the case.

Swamy Aseemanand, Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar alias Bharat Bhai, Tejaram and Rajender Choudhary alias Samundar are the other accused in the judicial custody. Two others, Sandeep V. Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra, are untraceable and on the run. According to the investigators, another key accused, Sunil Joshi, was gunned down by his associates in December 2007 following some differences.

http://newindianexpress.com/nation/High-Court-cancels-bail-of-Mecca-Masjid-blast-accused/2013/04/18/article1550642.ece

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Flutter over Bishop’s Hindu terror remark (Apr 17, 2013, New Indian Express)

Bishop M Prakash, Chairman, Tamil Nadu Minorities Commission, created a flutter at a press conference held in the presence of Collector Archana Patnaik and Superintendent of Police T Senthil Kumar at the Collectorate here on Tuesday by saying that Hindu terrorists were objecting to the construction of churches.

However, he retracted his words after some electronic media persons played his recorded voice and said that his statement would have serious repercussions if it was published or telecast. Realising his blunder, he defended himself, saying that he referred to Hindu fanatics and not terrorists.

Going a step further to convince reporters he said, “I am a Christian but most of my relatives are Hindus. I respect all religions. During my visit to various districts, Christians complained that Hindu fanatics are objecting and blocking the construction of churches. Christians also complained that Vinayakar temples are being constructed everywhere, but it is difficult to get permission to construct churches and mosques. It is the voice of the Christians and not mine. Hence I ask Collectors and SPs to permit the construction of churches in TN.”

When pointed out that the Collectors and the Superintendents of Police had the right to refuse permission in some cases to prevent law and order problem in their respective districts, Bishop Prakash said that the commission would cooperate with the Collector and the SP in such cases.

http://newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/Flutter-over-Bishops-Hindu-terror-remark/2013/04/17/article1548344.ece

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Christian victims tell People’s tribunal about arrests on false charges (Apr 20, 2013, Twocircles.net)

More than 70 Christian Pastors told a People’s Tribunal in Bengaluru city today how a highly communalized Karnataka police arrested many of them and kept them confined in police stations or jails on false charges in league with hoodlums of the Sangh Parivar. Women too were also not spared. The Women victims broke down as they narrated the violence against them. The victims remained in confinement from overnight to several days, the distinguished jury consisting of eminent social activists heard in the Tribunal organized by the All India Christian Council to assess the victimization and persecution of Christian pastors and attacks on churches in the state. It was quite clear from the narrations that Uttara Canara was the foci of the anti-Christian violence, but incidents of persecution were reported from every one of the 30 districts of the state during 2012 and in the first three months of 2013.

The “People’s Hearing on Persecution of Christians in Karnataka” was held at the Institute of Agriculture Technologists in the city. The Jury consisted of Mrs Brinda Adige, the celebrated Founder member of Global Concerns India, Advocate Omkar KB, and Mr K L Ashok, general secretary of Komu Souhardha Vedhike [Communal Harmony Front].and Mr. Mohamed Rafi Ahmed,General Secretay Forum for Democracy and Communal Amity. The Public Hearing comes in the wake of the statement by former Karnataka High court judge Michael Saldanha that Karnataka had witnessed 1,000 cases of persecution of Christians in three years between 2010 and 2012 – an average of more than 300 a year. This was the situation in 2012 also. Most of the victims remain in great fear. Of the 200 persons requested to come to the hearing, only 80 agreed to come. But all of them were afraid of what would happen to them if they spoke in public at the hearing. Many asked the Christian Council how they would be protected if anything happened to them after they gave their evidence.

From the statements of the victim, it is clear that the police have been heavily penetrated and politicized under the BJP rule of Mr. B S Yediyurappa and of his successors, while local thugs and Sangh activists across the state have been encouraged to take the law into their own hands. Many villages show a sharp increase in intolerance, encouraged by the inaction of police forces. Incidents of intolerance included Sangh Parivar members goading villages to stop the construction of churches, demolition of existing structures and stopping people from preaching or peacefully distributing literature. Witnesses identified their attackers as belonging to RSS, the Bajrang Dal and some local frontal organizations. Justice was procured only after the victims approached the local and higher courts. The High Court had to intervene in one case to allow the construction of a religious structure. The victims were, in essence, suffered four types of persecution – those who were imprisoned, those who had their churches destroyed, those who were physically assaulted and beaten up by mobs, and others who were stopped from praying or preaching.

Speaking on behalf of the jury, Advocate Omkar said it was clear the machinery of the state was used by the radical political elements to harass the Christian community and specially the pastors and religious leaders. There was a well-organized anti-Christian violence in 2008. It seems there is still a strong nexus between the police, the local village chiefs, tehsildhars against the community at the behest of the Sangh Parival. The state is also fully culpable. Advocate Omkar said the protectors had become the attackers. K Ashok called upon the community to make common cause with the civil society and progressive forces in asserting fundamental rights including freedom of faith. He also called for legal literacy in the community. Mohamed Rafi Ahmed said it was heart rendering to hear the tales of horror and the many incidents of police complicity the Bajrang Dal and others. The Government must take notice of it. India has a secular Constitution and it is the right of every citizen to practice, profess and propagate his faith. He asked the victims to stand for firm and pursue justice with the perseverance.

The All India Christian Council expressed its deep regret at the inaction of the State Government and the State Minority Commission in coming to the rescue of the persecuted Christians. The Council demanded that the Governor and Chief Minister send out categorical instructions to every police station to take notice of such incidents of violence and take stern action the aggressors. The Council has also demanded a single-window redressal system by the State Director General of Police to listen to complaints because local police station are not recording the incidents, said Dr. John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council and Secretary General of All India Christian Council. The testimonies have been recorded and are available for the press and the government. Copies will be sent to the concerned departments and a copy will be sent to the Chief Justice of Karnataka.

http://twocircles.net/2013apr20/christian_victims_tell_people%E2%80%99s_tribunal_about_arrests_false.html

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CBI to SC: Cautious approach delayed appeal against Advani in Babri case (Apr 17, 2013, First Post)

Not condoning delay in filing appeal against the Allahabad High Court’s order on dropping conspiracy charge against BJP leader LK Advani and others in the Babri Masjid demolition case would cause irreparable loss, the CBI told the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The agency contended before a bench of justices HL Dattu and JS Khehar that delay in approaching apex court against HC order be condoned and its appeal against Advani and others be heard on merit.

The bench, however, said that it will decide on condonation of delay only after hearing the contentions of Advani and others who have sought dismissal of CBI’s plea on the ground of delay. “In normal case we would have done it but in this there is objection from the other side. We will first hear all sides on the issue,” the bench said when senior advocate P P Rao, appearing for CBI, pleaded for condonation of 167 days delay. The bench posted the case for hearing on 17 July.

CBI in its affidavit said that if delay is not condoned then it would cause failure of justice as the accused would get away without facing trial for serious offence. “The delay in filing the SLP is not intentional and deliberate, but bona fide. In case the delay in preferring the SLP is not condoned, it will result in irreparable loss and injury to the State and the failure of justice by letting off the accused without facing trial for serious offences. The purpose of filing of this SLP in public interest would be frustrated,” the affidavit said.

The agency said that delay was caused because the then Solicitor General (SG) had to go through the voluminous documents before approving the draft of appeal and he was also busy in other cases including 2G case. “Time has been consumed because the appealing party was the state and it had to be circumspective and take all necessary steps before challenging the impugned order of the High Court. The delay has been occasioned because everyone associated with the matter was cautious keeping in mind the sensitivity involved in the matter and wanted to exercise due diligence,” the affidavit said.

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/cbi-to-sc-cautious-approach-delayed-appeal-against-advani-in-babri-case-704810.html

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Tormented by cops over Dalit rape victim gone missing, kin commit suicide (Apr 22, 2013, Hindustan Times)

A 38-year-old woman and her 12-year-old daughter died while her husband and two minor sons ended up in a critical condition after the Dalit family consumed poison in Bheri Akbarpur village of Uklana, 50km from district headquarters Hisar, allegedly tormented by the police over the whereabouts of her elder daughter who is missing after filing a report of rape.

The suicide pact came to light around 9am on Monday, when villagers took the family (names withheld to protect rape victim’s identity) to a hospital in Uklana and the police were informed. At the Hisar civil hospital, two members of the family were declared dead and the 40-year-old family head and two sons, 9 and 11, were referred to the PGIMS hospital at Rohtak, 100km away, where the man narrated the family’s woes. The two boys were in a critical condition.

A casual labourer, the man said his 16-year-old daughter who had reported rape in May last year was missing since many months, and not only would the police keep pressing him to locate her, but the family had been suffering humiliation at the hands of the villagers too. He said he wanted to kill only himself but, when he discussed it with his family, they wanted to do the same.

The rape FIR had been lodged on May 19 last year, two days after the girl had first gone missing and then found at a nearby village. The rape accused, arrested a day after the FIR, remains behind bars, even as the girl reportedly went missing again in June, the report for which was lodged only this February, it is learnt. Meanwhile, the sixth hearing of the case is on April 30, at which the police have to give status of the missing report filed on February 22. Thus under pressure for their failure to locate the girl, the police allegedly quizzed her father repeatedly.

“The case is in a fast-track court at Hisar. But as the girl’s statement has not been recorded, the court has been postponing the matter for around four months,” a police official said. Though deputy superintendent of police Mukesh Jakhar said he “did not know” if the family was being pressurised, officials sought to underline that the family’s financial condition was not good leading to them being “disturbed”.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1048675.aspx

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Baba makes in-laws kick woman into miscarriage (Apr 16, 2013, DNA India)

A 20-year-old pregnant woman from Nashik was allegedly kicked in the tummy by her husband and three of his relatives to induce an abortion of the two-month-old foetus. The police said this was done at the behest of a baba (godman) who had told the family that if the woman gave birth to a girl, the child would be a harbinger of bad times for the family. The woman’s husband and his brother have been arrested for the brutal assault.

In all, seven people, including the husband’s mother, have been named in the complaint. On April 5, her husband and his relatives assaulted her to cause the miscarriage, said the victim’s, Suvarna Gaikwad, maternal uncle Somnath Tadakhe, adding that Suvarna’s neighbours had told him about the assault. The incident comes at a time when the chorus for the protection of women has been getting sharper. The alleged brutality also brings into focus the need to enact the Anti-Superstition (Eradication) bill which has been caught up in the legislative process for at least seven years.

An offence registered at Panchavati police station states that Suvarna’s husband had also been demanding dowry. Tadakhe said his niece married Khanderao in May, 2012. “At the time of the wedding, no undue demand had been made by her in-laws but quarrels between the couple started barely two months later,” said Tadakhe. “They demanded money to buy a motorcycle besides other luxuries.”

Tadakhe said Suvarna’s mother-in-law is a devout follower of a godman from Niphad taluka. “To broker peace between the couple, the godman often gave Suvarna’s mother-in-law a powder-like substance. Recently, he told the mother-in-law that Suvarna would deliver a girl if she continued the pregnancy and the girl child would herald wrath on the family.” When Suvarna’s husband asked her to undergo an abortion, she refused. Besides the police, a local organisation that works to eradicate superstition has also intervened.

http://www.dnaindia.com/pune/1822905/report-baba-makes-in-laws-kick-woman-into-miscarriage

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Opinions and Editorials

India can do better than Modi or Rahul – By T. M. Krishna (Apr 22, 2013, The Hindu)

As the whole country views on television and reads in every newspaper the battle between Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Rahul Gandhi, I am only worried that we have actually come to this. We don’t care anymore about thought, kindness, honesty, action, responsibility, courage, leadership. We have one person who refuses to answer any question on the blood on his hands as Chief Minister and another who is being projected as a mature philosopher when we actually need a dynamic leader. Recently at one of his many public appearances, Mr. Modi was asked whether he would take moral responsibility for the 2002 riots, to which he replied that he had already answered questions about the riots numerous times. But the same man has over the last few months been willing to answer time and again the same questions about his developed Gujarat.

Every time Mr. Modi’s name is discussed, the riots are a part of the narrative and the criticism is that we are trapping him within that event. But why not? Any person with some human essence must ask those questions time and again. Whether or not he was party to the violence is up to the courts to decide, but he was the Chief Minister of the State and has refused to say that he should have acted differently. How can we ever ignore that? In fact we should not. In my travels I have always met so many middle class Indians who think Mr. Modi is the Bill Gates of Indian politics. “Go to Gujarat and see the transformation, development, bridges, roads, IT companies, the speed of decision making and you will realise why he is the right person for us.” When I hear these statements I am filled with sadness that we as a society can easily erase people from our minds. We say that the courts have not convicted Mr. Modi, but we readily accuse someone else as being a criminal even when no verdict has been proclaimed. Essentially, economic growth seems to erase all sense of human decency.

I am also told that “after all the Muslims have also voted for him.” Honestly, I don’t care if all the Muslims in the world voted for him. I care that people died, not Muslims, Christians or Hindus. I am not aware of the voting patterns of Gujarat, that’s for psephologists. But I am aware that reasons for a minority community to behave in a certain way are usually driven by the behaviour of the dominant group. The “dominants” manipulate and coerce the weak to act in certain ways. The positive economic changes seen in the lives of the majority also influences the behavioural pattern of the minority. I am not saying these are the reasons but let us just keep this in mind. We as human beings are built to empathise and feel for others. Let us not lose sight of this basic quality of humanity in the dream of economic comfort or seeming political “stability.” I would rather be poor than inhuman! Mr. Modi, I will not stop asking you this: “Will you take moral responsibility for the riots?” You owe this country an answer.

While this is one end of the political narrative, there exists another in the form of a smart, genuine young man who needs to know what he is doing. Someone has to tell Rahul Gandhi that he is not a philosopher and India doesn’t need one in him! We need a strong individual who is honest and willing to show courage. He need not constantly mention the problems of the political and bureaucratic class. We are only too aware of its failings, and are constantly made aware of them. We do not need a “magic wand” but someone with a will to change things and has not until date shown any will. Mr. Gandhi has floated thoughts on “what ails Indian society.” So, what next? There seems to be a stupor hovering over him, a cloud of inertia and intellectual lethargy. The country can ill afford a slumber of ideas, courage and determination in a man who is meant to be waking the nation up.

What one misses in Mr. Gandhi is not earnestness of intent, not sincerity, but a crucial breaking of the trust barrier, a totally convincing breakthrough in winning the nation’s trust. He can fight all his political battles with Mr. Modi or anyone else but first he must be willing to fight the battle of his life for this country. Unless the nation sees him do that how can it entrust its future to him? His advisers don’t seem to see that the absence of a trust breakthrough in Mr. Gandhi is what Mr. Modi is cashing in on and substituting with his own brand of “I can do it” in surplus. India needs a good human being at its helm but also a proactive person with serious, practical ideas of how to change this nation. We have in him an exhaustingly long prologue; what we need now is the main action. …

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/india-can-do-better-than-modi-or-rahul/article4640436.ece

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The Seven Year Itch In Bihar – By Nirala (Apr 27, 2013, Tehelka)

ON 16 April, Bihar’s capital, Patna, witnessed an act of political grandstanding by the Janata Dal (United), which leads the state’s ruling coalition. Shivanand Tiwari, Rajya Sabha MP and party spokesperson, called a press conference to attack his party’s junior coalition partner, the BJP. “We haven’t forced the BJP to partner us and it is free to walk out,” Tiwari thundered. “The government will survive without it.” Perhaps the BJP thought, he smirked, it was more important of the two because it ruled several states while the JD(U) ruled only Bihar. If the BJP quits, he said, “we will fight Bihar’s election by ourselves: all the 40 Lok Sabha seats and all the 243 Assembly seats.” Left unsaid was that minus the JD(U), the BJP cannot really hope to storm back to power in New Delhi at the head of a coalition following next year’s General Election.

The two parties have never bickered as much as now during their partnership of 17 years, through several prequels and splinters of the JD(U). Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U)’s de facto supremo, Nitish Kumar, threw the gauntlet by daring the BJP to name Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate and risk a break with the JD(U). Secularism, Kumar said, was non-negotiable, and then followed up by saying Modi should own up to the killing of some 2,000 Muslims in February-March 2002 by zealots linked with the RSS, the BJP’s ideological parent, which supplies the party most of its politicians, including Modi. The BJP shot back, telling Kumar to mind his business.

The verbal duel set the Ganges on fire, bringing juiciness back to Bihar’s politics, which has been rather staid since the coalition first won power in the 2005 Assembly election and retained it five years later. Among other rumours that flew hard and thick this week, one said Modi was considering contesting the 2014 parliamentary election from a seat in Patna and have the last laugh by winning it. But is the sparring for real? At the end of his press conference, Tiwari admitted that any breakdown of the coalition would be “unfortunate”. Around the same time, Kumar and his Deputy Chief Minister, Sushil Modi of the BJP, were hanging out together at a function without a trace of bad blood. The BJP’s state president, Giriraj Singh, a Narendra Modi-supporter who held back no punches in attacking Kumar this week, too was in attendance.

The two parties have a history of bickering one day and shaking hands the next. They have been accused of barking without biting. But with temperatures as high as this week’s, the question uppermost in political minds is: which of the two would be the loser if the partnership is called off? Also, would Nitish Kumar succeed in exorcising the ghost of the BJP by ending the partnership now and convincing the state’s Muslims, who are over 16 percent of its eight crore people, to vote for the JD(U)?

Crunch some numbers to get a sense of what might lie ahead for the two parties. The vote share of the JD(U) stood at over 22.5 percent, the largest among all political parties in the fray, at the 2010 Assembly polls. This was an improvement of over 2 percent since 2005. On the other hand, the BJP polled considerably less, just shy of 16.5 percent, which was an increase of less than 1 percent over 2005.

http://tehelka.com/the-seven-year-itch-in-bihar-2/

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Secular mask – Editorial (Apr 20, 2013, Deccan Herald)

The Gujarat government’s decision to seek death penalty for 10 convicts, including a former state cabinet minister Maya Kodnani and a senior Bajrang Dal leader, in the Naroda Patya massacre case will not be seen as prompted by a sense of justice but by politics. The government has also decided to ask for enhancement of the prison terms awarded to 22 other convicts and appeal against acquittals of some others. They had been found guilty last year and convicted for their roles in the massacre of 97 Muslims in the post-Godhra violence in 2002. Though it may be claimed that the government’s decision is largely procedural, as it is the SIT which decided to appeal the verdict, chief minister Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial ambitions probably have much to do with the government’s move.

Modi’s biggest handicap in the campaign for acceptance as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate is the taint of the 2002 communal killings. He faces charges of not only not doing enough to prevent and control the attacks on Muslims but also inspiring them. Many NDA partners, and some leaders even in the BJP, are uncomfortable with the communal image of Modi. The JD(U) has clearly said that it would support only a secular leader for the prime minister’s office. The decision to seek harsher punishment for the Naroda Patya convicts might be intended to project Modi as a secular leader. It would show Modi as a leader who is fair and just and ready to invoke the provisions for maximum punishment for those involved in communal killings. Who could claim greater secular credentials?

But the attempt at image makeover will not appeal to many as convincing. Maya Kodnani was a minister in the Modi government even when she faced serious charges. The government had supported her and the other accused during the time of investigation and trial. The sudden realisation of their guilt and the move to seek stronger punishment for them will be considered opportunistic and even treacherous in some quarters. The credibility of a leader who is willing to sacrifice his supporters in order to promote his personal interests is bound to be questioned. On the other side, the secular image being projected will also be dismissed as sham. Modi might end up alienating at least a section of the Sangh parivar following without getting value in return in terms of a secular image. Delayed raj dharma is alloyed raj dharma.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/327117/secular-mask.html

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End this callousness – Editorial (Apr 22, 2013, The Hindu)

It’s been four months since agitated citizens exploded in anger against sexual violence directed at women, since the Prime Minister said the Delhi gang rape victim’s death last December would not be in vain and the nation took a collective vow to repudiate the medieval social attitudes and patriarchal prejudices that give rise to and sanction violence against women. More than two months have gone by since the law relating to sexual violence was bolstered by a series of penal measures.

Yet, India continues to be a country highly unsafe for women and girls. The latest incident in which a five-year-old was left fighting for survival after being raped and brutalised is yet another reminder that penal processes, greater security and harsher laws are not enough to protect the innocent. It may be possible to police late night bus or train services, and even our ill-lit streets, but what does one do about the predator lurking in the garb of a close relative or neighbour? Crime statistics say most rapists are known to their victims, and perhaps no defence is available against them except for families and communities to stop tolerating and making excuses for crimes committed by “their own.”

In the midst of indignant protests over the Delhi incident last December, there was talk of channelling the emotion and energy into a constructive course of action. There were calls for rational debate and a positive change in the attitude of society, of men, and, in particular, of the law enforcement machinery. However, what seems to remain unchanged is the callousness of sections of officialdom. The police station to which the parents of the five-year-old girl went to complain that she was missing made them wait for hours to register the complaint. And there was an unacceptable delay in acting on it. The police did not even search the building in which the family lived, and ultimately it was the girl’s cries in a ground floor room that attracted a neighbour’s attention.

A policeman has been accused of offering Rs. 2,000 as hush money to the family so that they did not go to higher authorities or the media. Similarly, the police in Tenali in Andhra Pradesh was accused of doing nothing when a woman was pushed under the wheels of a truck after she took on a group of men harassing her daughter. In Kancheepuram recently, a police officer said that a woman, who had confronted some men teasing a child, “should have ignored them and walked past quietly.” He would have us believe that she was responsible for the eventual killing of her father by those men. No law will achieve its purpose unless its enforcers shed their insensitivity and callousness towards the victims of sexual crime.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/end-this-callousness/article4640450.ece

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The Larger Implications of the Novartis Glivec Judgment – By Sudip Chaudhuri (Apr 27, 2013, Economic & Political Weekl)

The Supreme Court of India has recently rejected the plea of Novartis for patent protection for its anti-cancer drug sold in the name of Glivec or Gleevec. The judgment has evoked extreme reactions. While some have greeted it as a landmark judgment which will make medicines more affordable, others have condemned it as harmful for innovation and foreign investment. We will analyse here some of the implications of the judgment. Patent laws are national laws. With no restrictions before the introduction of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organisation in 1995, India abolished product patent protection in drugs (and food) in 1972. Even under TRIPS, though product patents are mandatory, countries have some flexibilities to frame their own patent laws to suit their national interests. Thus legally and legitimately, what is patentable in India may not be so in other countries as we will see below.

Novartis applied for a patent for imatinib (and other derivatives of a compound) in the United States (US) in April 1994, abandoning an earlier application made a year earlier. (The judgment refers to this as the Zimmermann patent after the name of the inventor.) After getting marketing approval, what the company started selling as the drug for treating chronic myeloid leukaemia was not imatinib but a derivative of it viz, imatinib mesylate. It did not apply for a separate patent for imatinib mesylate in the US because as the judgment shows the Zimmermann patent covered not only imatinib but also imatinib mesylate. Novartis could not at that time apply for a patent for imatinib/mesylate in India because the country was not required to provide protection for a patent applied or granted elsewhere before TRIPS came into being, i e, before 1 January 1995. What it did in India after 1995 (in July 1998) was to apply for a patent for the beta crystalline form of imatinib mesylate. But what India did in 2005 when she reintroduced product patent protection was to insert a condition in Section 3(d) that “the mere discovery of a new form of a known substance which does not result in the enhancement of the known efficacy of that substance” is not patentable.

Under the transitional arrangements used by India as permitted by TRIPS, the Novartis beta crystalline patent application was processed for grant of patent only after 2004. The patent was rejected initially by the patent office in January 2006 and then by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) in June 2009. The Supreme Court judgment is basically related to the appeal of Novartis against this rejection of the patent by the IPAB. Novartis argued before the Supreme Court that starting from the Zimmermann patent, beta crystalline form for which the patent was applied in India was developed through two inventions – from imatinib to imatinib mesylate and then from the latter to the beta crystalline form. The Supreme Court however ruled that imatinib mesylate was a known substance directly following from the Zimmermann patent and hence does not qualify as an “invention” in terms of clauses (j) and (ja) of Section 2(1). It also ruled that the beta crystalline form does not satisfy the Section 3(d) criterion. The Supreme Court interpreted the word “efficacy” to mean therapeutic efficacy. The Supreme Court held that “therapeutic efficacy of a medicine must be judged strictly and narrowly” (p 91). Improved therapeutic efficacy must be claimed and established. Supreme Court rejected the appeal and hence denied the patent to Novartis because Novartis could not demonstrate that the new form (beta crystalline) of the known substance (imatinib mesylate) enhanced the therapeutic efficacy of the drug. The court rejected Novartis’ claims of better bioavailability and better physical characteristics such as better storability of the compound saying that these do not necessarily improve the therapeutic effect.

When Novartis applied for a patent for the beta crystalline form in India in 1998, it did not claim any therapeutic benefit. It was not required to do so at that stage because the Section 3(d) efficacy criterion was introduced much later. After the patent was taken up for examination after 2004 and after the grant of the patent was opposed (India’s legislation provides for pre-grant opposition), Novartis filed affidavits to satisfy the requirement of Section 3(d). But it was admitted that no study had been done earlier since nowhere in the world had such conditions been imposed. Acknow-ledging the spirit of the law, Novartis had the honourable option to withdraw the patent application. Rather what it did was to wage a seven-year-long legal battle opposing not only the rulings of the patent office and the appellate board but filing writ petitions for declaring Section 3(d) as unconstitutional! (The latter was dismissed by the Madras High Court in 2007.) Noting that what Novartis was selling in the US and in India was imatinib mesylate and not the beta crystalline form, the court remarked that the case of Novartis “appears in rather poor light and the claim for patent for beta crystalline form of imatinib mesylate would only appear as an attempt to obtain patent for imatinib mesylate, which would otherwise not be permissible in this country” (p 96).

The judgment will have a positive impact on affordability and accessibility of medicines. Generic companies sell the anti-cancer drug at a fraction of more than the Rs 1 lakh charged by Novartis for a dose of the product. Patent is given for a limited time period, currently for 20 years under TRIPS. Thus after the expiry of the patent, other firms can and do enter the market and that results in a fall in the prices and hence of profits of the patent holder. The multinational corporations (MNCs) holding the patents often try to block or delay this competition by getting secondary patents on minor changes to the product, a practice which has come to be known as evergreening. But the objective of the patent system is not to encourage or permit patenting of new forms of old drugs to basically extend the patent term. Thus what, basically, the Supreme Court in interpreting Section 3(d) is saying is that consumers should not be forced to pay higher prices just because it is chemically a new drug unless there is a therapeutic benefit involved. It is not saying that a new form cannot be patented. All that it is saying is that under the current law it cannot be patented unless it is therapeutically more effective. … The deeper implication of the judgment is that it is not only justified to deny patents when incremental innovation is trivial as in the case of beta crystalline patent application. The judgment has linked the entire question of patenting with net benefits to society and has highlighted the relevance of specific conditions of a country for deciding the appropriate patent regime. If as the judgment notes, the experience in the 1950s and 1960s justified a change in the patent regime in the 1970s, then should not a similar experience after 2005 lead to another change? Of course in the 1970s India had the freedom. Now countries are bound by TRIPS. But TRIPS is not a permanent agreement. It provides for review. The Supreme Court did not comment on the fairness or otherwise of TRIPS. But what it says and implies do provide a justification for a review of TRIPS.

http://www.epw.in/commentary/larger-implications-novartis-glivec-judgment.html

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A criminal state of affairs – By Stalin K (Apr 20, 2013, Tehelka)

Ten Years ago, I started on a journey to document practices of untouchability across several states and religions of India. 25,000 kilometres, 9,000 minutes of footage and four years later, I put together a documentary called India Untouched. The main reason for making this film was to challenge the belief of most Indians that untouchability is a thing of the past. In the years since the making of that film, little has changed. We still receive reports of barber shops refusing to shave Dalits. Homeowners unwilling to rent their houses to Dalits. Children segregated and discriminated in schools, women not allowed to draw water from wells, families pushed out of temples. Segregated mosques, churches, even crematoriums. Pervasive violence aimed at those who challenge caste discrimination. Social and economic boycotts for those who dare to transgress caste boundaries. Newly-weds chased and killed because they chose to marry outside their own caste. Rapes. Acid attacks. The list goes on shamelessly.

What is more shameful is that these practices are manifestations of a belief that views certain castes as nothing but an impure sect, which should remain servile and accepting of its lesser status. Our failure is to see this belief as endorsing of and perpetuating criminal behaviour. Article 17 of the Indian Constitution states that “Untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of untouchability shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.” However, society continues to look at untouchability as a social given, grounded in ‘tradition’. Instead, we should see such practices for what they are: criminal acts. If your house were burgled, you would expect the case to be treated as a criminal act/offence. Such a luxury is not afforded, however, to Dalits facing discrimination and persecution. The laws in place to address the scourge of caste-based discrimination may be progressive, but the mechanisms that exist to enforce legislation are regressive.

A large part of the problem is that law enforcement agencies operate in a reactive rather than a proactive manner. Despite the prevalence of caste-based behaviour leading to untouchability (criminal offences) these agencies wait for an aggrieved party to file a complaint – and report violation of Article 17 – rather than do their job in enforcing the law. How else does one explain the fact that police stations and courts have not taken any suo moto cognizance of these everyday events? How else can we understand that there are no public or government campaigns to remind citizens that untouchability has been abolished, and that those practicing it will be treated as criminals? In order to fall in line with the shifted morality and ethics of our time, we need a strong and proactive law enforcement mechanism. We do not have this in India. On 14 April 2012, we launched a campaign at Video Volunteers (a media and human rights organisation) to draw attention to the issue of untouchability. To date, we have collated 30 videos that document breaches of Article 17.

Together with the videos, we collected 2,800 signatures that were sent to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) with an appeal that the videos be taken as evidences of offences, and that those involved be prosecuted. Despite submitting the petition and video evidence twice over, we have not received any sort of acknowledgement – let alone action – from the NCSC. We have now sought answers with an application under the RTI Act. It’s a sign of the times when one needs to file an RTI with the institution responsible for protecting the rights of Scheduled Castes, just to find out what is going on. As a society, when we hear about untouchability practices, we should feel outraged, as we would with other criminal acts like murder and rape. It’s time we accepted that the practice of untouchability is not the vestigial remains of some backward, social phenomenon or tradition: it’s a criminal offence. Let’s start calling it what it is.

http://tehelka.com/a-criminal-state-of-affairs/

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – April 15th, 2013

by newsdigest on April 16, 2013

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

Zakia moves court, challenges clean chit to Modi in Gulbarg massacre (Apr 15, 2013, Hindustan Times)

Zakia Jafri, the widow of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, on Monday demanded a chargesheet be filed against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 58 others for their alleged complicity in the 2002 riots and sought a rejection of the special investigation team’s (SIT’s) clean chit to them. Zakia, in her court petition challenging the Supreme Court-appointed SIT’s closure report on her husband’s killing in the Gulberg Society incident of February 28, 2002, alleged the SIT “covered up the crimes and misled the court”.

Zakia, in her 514-page petition, has also demanded that the SIT report be scrapped and a further probe by an independent agency be ordered into the circumstances in which her husband was burnt to death. “She (Zakia Jafri) has filed two volumes of petitions and 10 CDs containing documents and other evidence. The court has directed the SIT to first argue on the matter from April 24,” a lawyer concerned with the case said.

The petitioner argued: “As part of the conspiracy to allow anti-minority riots, the administration and the police were deliberately paralysed and neutralised by the conspiracy hatched by Modi and others.” Zakia alleged the main police control room in Ahmedabad ignored messages sent by policemen about violence being unleashed by karsevaks.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1044695.aspx

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Narendra Modi failed to tackle Gujarat riots in 2002: JD(U) (Apr 13, 2013, Times of India)

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is not in the prime ministerial race, the JanataDal-United (JD-U) said Saturday. “We have made our stand clear on PM issue. Nitish Kumar is not in the race for Prime Minister,” JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said at a press conference. The JD(U) began a two-day meet on Saturday amid signals that the party may not immediately press the BJP to declare a prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, while maintaining its reservations over Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Tyagi said his party would give the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) time to declare the prime ministerial candidate. “We will wait for the BJP to declare PM candidate and we will comment then,” he said. On being asked about Modi as PM candidate, Tyagi said “he was not able to tackle Gujarat riots in 2002″. He, however, said that “we are not opposed to LK Advani for PM candidate.” Nitish Kumar has, on more than one occasion, expressed grave reservations over Modi’s candidature for prime ministership, given his alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Tyagi also added that his party would not form government with Congress in future. “There is no question of forming government with Congress if situation arises,” the party spokesperson said. While the JD(U) national executive met on Saturday, the national convention will take place Sunday. The JD(U) is the largest constituent of the NDA after the BJP, with 20 members in the Lok Sabha. The party leads the government in Bihar, with the BJP as its junior partner.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/19529240.cms

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Fake encounter case: Non-bailable warrants against 19 policemen (Apr 13, 2013, Times of India)

A court here has issued non-bailable warrants against 19 policemen in a 31-year-old fake encounter case, officials said here today. Chief judicial magistrate Ram Swaroop Saroj yesterday issued non-bailable warrants against 19 policemen and fixed April 30 as the next date of hearing.

Police claimed to have killed one Devendra Singh in an encounter in Gopiganj area here on April 4, 1982. Later the state government, on a complaint by Devendra’s brother, handed over the probe to the CB-CID which found the encounter fake.

A case of murder and criminal conspiracy was lodged against 20 policemen. Only one accused appeared regularly in court hearings. The court had earlier written to the Uttar Pradesh DGP for the appearance of 19 policemen who did not attend the court proceedings.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-13/lucknow/38510654_1_31-year-old-fake-encounter-case-non-bailable-warrants-20-policemen

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India policemen suspended for ‘taking bribes’ in Mumbai (Apr 11, 2013,BBC)

Thirty-six policemen in the Indian city of Mumbai have been suspended after they were allegedly filmed taking bribes, officials say. The footage shows policemen accepting 50 rupees (92 cents; 60p) to 150 rupees ($2.75; £1.80) from Kasam Khan.

Mr Khan said he was carrying out building works at a friend’s home in Nehru Nagar area when he was visited by policemen asking for bribes. The footage was recorded over a two week period in March, he said. Mumbai’s police chief Satyapal Singh called it “a shameful incident” and said that the policemen if found guilty would be punished.

Authorities have ordered an inquiry by the anti-corruption bureau. Mr Khan said he installed the video camera after some policemen threatened to frame him for carrying out illegal extensions unless he paid the bribery money. He submitted the footage to a senior police official which in turn resulted in the moves against the policemen.

This is the first time action has been taken against such a large number of policemen in Mumbai. The force’s website describes police in the city “as custodians of your trust” who strive “to enforce the law of the land impartially and firmly without fear or favour”.

The BBC’s Zubair Ahmed in Mumbai says authorities in Maharashtra state have launched an anti-corruption drive after 74 people were killed in a recent building collapse there. There have been allegations that a large number of illegal buildings have been built in and around Mumbai by unscrupulous builders who bribe police and local administration officials to turn a blind eye to poor safety standards, our correspondent adds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22103928

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RSS worker on bike with explosives dies in blast (Apr 7, 2013, Deccan Chronicle)

A worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was killed when the bike on which he was travelling, allegedly with explosive material, exploded at Maruthayil near Mattannur on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as AV Dileep Kumar (27), son of Ambiloth Sankaran, police said. The incident occurred at 5.30 am as Dileep was coming towards Mattannur. The bike was completely destroyed in the explosion. Three houses within a 50 metre radius also suffered minor damage, police added. Although Dileep was rushed to a hospital in Kannur, doctors said he was brought dead.

Top police officials including Kannur Range IG Jose George, Kannur SP Rahul Nair and others visited the spot. Bomb squad and forensic experts also visited the spot and gathered evidence. The actual cause of the explosion will be known only after a thorough probe, police said. According to initial indication, Dileep was carrying around 3 kg of explosive, said a member of the bomb squad who examined the spot. CPI-M Kannu district secretary P Jayarajan said the incident was more proof that the RSS was trying to vitiate peace in the district. The police had failed in effectively countering RSS violence, he said.

RSS Kannur district leader Valsan Thillenkeri said Dileep was not a member of the RSS. He was only a sympathizer of the organization. According to Valsan, the mishap was accidental and also pointed out that the family of Dileep were makers of traditional firecrackers. Dileep was carrying the explosive material after the festival in a local temple, he added. Police sources however said that Dileepan did not have a licence to manufacture firecrackers. A case was registered under the Explosives Act.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130407/news-current-affairs/article/rss-worker-bike-explosives-dies-blast

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12 injured in communal violence in Jaipur (Apr 14, 2013, Hindustan Times)

A dozen people were injured on Saturday in communal violence in Jaipur following an objectionable religious comment on social networking website Facebook, police said. According to police, tension gripped Mulla Talai area of the city, 300 km from state capital Jaipur, when a mob thrashed a restaurant owner from a different community.

“Some people from the restaurant owner’s community retaliated. Both groups pelted stones at each other, in which about a dozen people, including two children, sustained injuries. We resorted to mild baton charge to disperse them,” said a police officer. “The derogatory comment targeting a particular religion has been deleted. We have also rounded up the man who shared the comment,” said the officer.

Police have been deployed in the area and people are not being allowed to gather. A similar Facebook comment had led to communal violence in the state’s Makrana town about 10 days ago. In a similar case, communal violence had left over two dozen people injured in Jaipur’s Sanganer area April 4.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1044115.aspx

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1984 riots: Blow to Tytler as CBI told to examine witnesses (Apr 10, 2013, IBN)

In yet another setback for Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, a Delhi court ordered the CBI to re-investigate the role of the three-time MP in the killings of Sikhs near a gurudwara on November 1, 1984, rejecting the closure report filed by the investigative agency.

Lawyer HS Phoolka said, “On November 6, 1984 Jagdish Tytler went to the Police Commissioner’s office and asked him to release his men. This is clear proof but despite that the CBI never investigated his role.”

The CBI in fact has twice given a clean chit to Tytler – first in 2007 and then again in 2009. Phoolka’s principal argument in this case is that the CBI had ignored key witnesses while filing closure. This was accepted by the court and despite fears this new twist will further delay justice in this nearly 30-year-old case, families of riot victims said they still had hope.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/1984-riots-blow-to-tytler-as-cbi-told-to-examine-witnesses/384464-37-64.html

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CBI to question Ramdev in missing Guru case (Apr 9, 2013, Hindustan Times)

CBI is expected to question yoga guru Ramdev soon in connection with alleged kidnapping of his guru Swami Shankar Dev who mysteriously went missing six years ago while taking a morning walk in Haridwar. CBI sources said on Tuesday that an agency team had already visited Haridwar to pick clues and is likely to visit the temple town in Uttarakhand again soon to question Ramdev and his aide Balkrishna in the kidnapping case.

The sources said the focus of the questioning will be to get any information which might help in tracking down Shankar Dev’s whereabouts. The agency had registered a case in March in this connection under Section 365 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) against unknown persons. The section pertains to kidnapping or abducting and wrongful confinement.

Uttarakhand Police had registered a case of abduction to probe the disappearance of Dev, who had been living in Ramdev’s ashram but was missing since July 2007 when he had set out for a morning walk. The FIR was reportedly filed by Ramdev’s aide Acharya Balkrishna at Kankhal police station three days after the Swami went missing under mysterious circumstances.

The state government had earlier sent a request to CBI in October 2012 to probe the case but the same was rejected as the state police had not even registered a case, the basic formality before the agency takes up the probe. Shankar Dev was the founder of Divya Yog Mandir Trust, currently headed by Ramdev who is under scanner for alleged violations in labelling of some of the products of the Trust.

Ramdev had earlier welcomed the decision of the government for a CBI probe into the disappearance of his guru. Ramdev and his trusts are facing a number of probes by the Income Tax, Service Tax and Enforcement Directorate for alleged evasion of taxes and irregularities in complying with forex laws.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1039939.aspx

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NIA: Don’t agree with Sadhvi’s cancer report (Apr 9, 2013, Times of India)

The National Investigating Agency on Monday told the Bombay high court that it did not agree with a medical report stating that Sadhvi Pragya Singh, accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, is suffering from breast cancer. Special public prosecutor Rohini Salian told Justice Abhay Thipsay, who is hearing a bail plea application filed by the Sadhvi, that it disputed the report. The NIA may seek a fresh medical report to determine her condition.

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani and advocate Ganesh Sovani, counsel for the Sadhvi, said pointed out that both the Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer hospital, Bhopal, conducted a mammography test on her and had said that said she had had cancer. They said that a doctor at Breach Candy Hospital too had confirmed that Sadhvi had cancer. Sadhvi Pragya has sought bail both on merits as well as to undergo medical treatment.

Sadhvi, is one of the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast and the RSS worker Sunil Joshi murder case. A blast at Dikku Chowk in Muslim-majority Malegaon on 29 September 2008 killed six persons. A bike used in the blasts was allegedly traced to Sadhvi Pragya, whose trail led to the other accused, including Lt Col Purohit. The charge sheet alleged that all the 11 accused were part of an organisation called Abhinav Bharat which aimed at establishing a Hindu rashtra through violent means. The NIA said she could undergo treatment at the Bhopal hospital or in Tata Memorial hospital, Mumbai.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-09/mumbai/38403172_1_2008-malegaon-blast-case-jawaharlal-nehru-cancer-hospital-ganesh-sovani

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Cops put 10-year-old Dalit ‘rape victim’ behind bars, upper caste villagers ‘terrorise’ family (Apr 11, 2013, Indian Express)

Life, for them, had never been easy. The couple and their family of 16 live in a two-room tenement and the father, who works at a local grocery store for a daily wage of Rs 200, is the only earning member. Theirs is also one of four Jatav Dalit families in a majority Lodhe Rajput village just outside Bulandshahr city, and have been under pressure for long. But over the last few days, things have turned downright ugly, they said. The couple’s 10-year-old daughter, their ninth child, was allegedly raped by a 35-year-old Rajput man on Sunday. And when the girl and her mother went to the police station in Bulandshahr to complain, the girl was made to spend the night in the lock-up. Now, the majority Rajputs of the village are pressuring the family to withdraw the case and leave the village of 150 houses even as the police said medical examination of the girl has not established rape or injury.

But the Jatav family is adamant. It is neither willing to withdraw the case nor leave the village because it is home despite everything. They hope the law will come to their rescue. “The Rajputs say they are men. They say they get tempted when they see a girl of my daughter’s age. They are blaming us saying why did we let her go out alone,” the girl’s mother told The Indian Express Wednesday. “They have been threatening to kill us, burn down our ancestral home and stone my daughter to death if we do not withdraw the rape case. Even the village panchayat, including the sarpanch, is in favour of the accused and is asking the family to settle the matter,” she alleged. “We are so scared that we cannot go out of our house. A day after the incident, all the Rajputs came and encircled our house. They told me to settle a price for my daughter and keep quiet about the case or else they would stone her to death,” the mother alleged. “I picked up my daughter in an unconscious state from the road. She was traumatized and was shivering. How can they expect me to withdraw the case?”

Hearing her mother speak, the 10-year-old girl, who was lying on a cot in the verandah with a blanket over her face, murmured weakly, “yes, he should not be spared”. She said she was walking to a local shop Sunday evening when the man, later identified as Harinder, a father of three who has since been arrested, asked her to accompany him to the field to water crops. “I told him I am going home. He stuffed a cloth in my mouth and took me to the field where he misbehaved with me. He then said he would throw me into the river if I dare to narrate the incident to my parents,” the girl said, her voice barely audible. “I am very scared of the villagers.” The girl’s four-year-old niece, who had accompanied her to the shop, said the man forced the 10-year-old to go with him and dragged her by her dress. “I ran back home and told her mother. We then went looking for her,” she said. The mother said the 10-year-old had bite marks on her body and scratches on her back when they found her.

When they went to the Bulandshahr women’s police station to complain, the girl was made to spend the night in the lock-up with another woman. “The woman inspector asked me to wait outside and took my daughter inside. She made her sit inside the lock-up through the night while I sat outside. We were sent back the next morning after a case was registered,” the mother said. Superintendent of Police (City), Ajay Kumar, admitted it was a lapse by the police and called it “illegal confinement” of the girl. He said an inquiry had been ordered against the officers on duty and that two women constables on duty had been suspended and two sub-inspectors transferred to the police lines. In Lucknow, the DGP’s office Wednesday ordered that a FIR be registered against unidentified police personnel for putting the girl in the lock-up in Bulandshahr.

Kumar also said the constables had asked the girl to sit in the lock-up as they feared she would leave without registering a proper complaint. Since the SHO was busy in a crime meeting, the constables thought they would ask the girl to wait until she returns. “Since the girl was a minor, her custody should have been given to her parents. The constables had no business asking her to sit inside the lock-up for the entire night,” Kumar said. “Eyewitnesses and the wife of the accused, who was reportedly with him throughout the day, have said the girl had gone to his field to pluck tomatoes, when he scolded her and asked her to go back. We have not found any evidence against the accused yet. However, we are waiting for the pathology report,” Kumar added.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1100667/

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Opinions and Editorials

The reality of Narendra Modi’s politics – By Aakar Patel (Apr 14, 2013, Deccan Chronicle)

Let’s look at the myth of Narendra Modi as a development candidate. There is no problem with the idea of him being projected as a candidate, or even as THE candidate, for development. This is because it is a good and positive approach in what is generally a country where politics is done on the basis of identity, not policy or governance. However, is the claim true? Many in the BJP — Smriti Irani is one — have said that nobody else in India has ever campaigned on development alone. Modi is the only man not to divide the electorate by talking of identity issues.

Let us assume that this is the case, and that Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, others in parties like the CPI(M), and Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Behari Vajpayee before them, demanded votes purely on the basis of caste and religion. But even if we were to accept that this were so, it must be recognised that development is only a part of Modi’s appeal and attraction. In Gujarat, as elsewhere, the BJP is essentially a caste-based party. Its primary votebank is the peasant Patel, whom the rebel Keshubhai tried unsuccessfully to break in the last elections. To illustrate this, let’s look at the numbers. Four out of nine ministers in Modi’s previous Cabinet and three out of seven in his current one are Patels. This is votebank politics, not development politics, because in choosing his ministers, Modi looks at their caste. And so it’s wrong to say that the Gujarat BJP, including Modi, spurns caste politics. The second aspect of identity politics is the politics of religion.

It is difficult to be convinced that Modi’s appeal to a segment of the Gujarati population is not because of his tough and uncompromising Hindutva. Let’s look at examples here. When his minister Maya Kodnani was convicted for the killing of 95 Gujarati Muslims last year, Modi did not condemn her. Actually when most Gujaratis knew of her involvement in the massacre at Naroda Patiya, Modi first gave her a ticket to contest and then made her minister. She has been sentenced to 28 years in jail for her actions, but he has avoided taking questions about her crimes. When his deputy home minister Amit Shah was jailed after being charged in a case where a Muslim man and his wife were wrongly killed, Modi backed him. In fact, he had him elevated a few weeks ago to the post of general secretary in the BJP.

The signal that Modi has consistently sent out is that he is going to be tough on Muslims, and if his team makes an error, and even if they are convicted of crimes against Muslims, he will not back off from supporting them and he will not condemn them. He doesn’t disown them, and doesn’t distance himself from their awful actions because this is an achievement that has brought him the admiration of many in the Gujarati middle class. Modi doesn’t need to advertise this side to his divisive politics because the media does it for him. He says that he is unfairly accused, but the facts are quite clear, as we can see. We can continue to talk about him as a development candidate, but the reality of his politics does not validate that claim.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130414/commentary-op-ed/commentary/reality-narendra-modi%E2%80%99s-politics

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Profiles of prejudice – By Jyoti Punwani (Apr 11, 2013, The Hindu)

Is there a grand conspiracy among the country’s intelligence and police agencies to demonise the Muslim community and Islam as many allege? Or is it that when police of different States single out Muslims for different treatment, their conduct should be treated as unconnected random acts based on prejudice? A senior officer of the Mumbai police had to apologise this week to the Jamaat-e-Islami-e-Hind, one of the country’s two largest Muslim bodies. A circular issued by the Special Branch to police stations across the city, asked them to keep an eye on the Girls’ Islamic Organisation (GIO), the female students’ wing of the Jamaat. The GIO, the Marathi circular noted, was “trying to motivate girls towards Islam and asking them to live in accordance with the Koran and the Hadees.” Its main aim, said the circular, was to “inspire students towards orthodox Islam, prepare them for jihad, propagate Islam, and through such propagation, work for Islamisation of the world.”

Threatened with defamation, the officer apologised to the Jamaat – for the “hurt” the allegations had caused, not for the allegations themselves, though the circular bore his signature. This was the input he had received from “some other agency,” he maintained, and he had had to forward it. What he regretted was the leak of the internal circular. He would seek out the person responsible for the leak and make sure he was convicted, he said. Such determination to convict other colleagues who have hurt Muslims in rather extreme ways, not just their feelings, has never been shown by Mumbai’s senior policemen. The officer was livid not because his colleagues had made unsubstantiated allegations against a mainstream Muslim organisation, but because he had been embarrassed publicly. Ironically, the man in question is regarded as one of the few secular officers of the Mumbai police.

Police in other States aren’t so concerned about keeping up appearances. The Delhi Police Special Cell is quite open about the message it wants to convey about Muslims to the country. In 2008, they had draped the three boys arrested after the mysterious Batla House encounter in the red-and-white scarves popularised by the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. The pictures of the boys, alleged to be members of the terror outfit, Indian Mujaheedin, wearing these scarves were flashed across the country. It turned out that the Delhi Police had bought these scarves in bulk, no doubt for the numerous Muslims they knew they would be arresting as “terrorists-who’d-slunk-into-the-capital-to-strike” (many of whom have since been honourably acquitted). Instead of the nondescript black hoods/coloured handkerchiefs/loose dupattas that detenus are made to wear in front of the camera, these scarves would leave an indelible, visual impression. Every time viewers saw these, they’d know some more Muslims with pan-Islamic terrorist links had been apprehended.

This long-term plan to stereotype terror accused was foiled by the furious response it evoked. But now, even more diabolic ways have been worked out by the police of other States to stamp Muslim terror suspects by marks of their faith. Yusuf Nalband was released in February after his name failed to feature in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) charge sheet in the Bangalore assassination case. He and four others, including Deccan Herald journalist Muthi-ur-Rahman Siddiqui and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist Aijaz Ahmed Mirza, had been arrested from their shared apartment last August. The allegation against them was that they were part of an Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) plot to assassinate Hindutva leaders. …

The Special Cell’s attempt to project the suspected terrorist as a devout Muslim would have gone unnoticed some years back. Now, the police’s continuous targeting of Muslims has made them alert. The mischievous substitution was exposed by the Muslim Mirror, an online portal. Making suspects display signs of their religious identity when presenting them before the world is not the police’s job. Surely, such religious profiling constitutes an offence. The Jamaat-e-Islami, that threatened to sue the Mumbai Special Branch for defamation, may let the matter die with a written explanation, for the latter’s communal prejudice now stands exposed. But the Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi Police can’t be let off. Who will force them to explain?

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/profiles-of-prejudice/article4603258.ece

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Carnage 84: The Ambushing Of Witnesses – By Ajmer Singh, Etmad A. Khan (Apr 10, 2013, Tehelka)

The dead cannot strike a deal so the living did. To bail out those who led the massacre of Sikhs in 1984. One witness was offered Rs 25 lakh to forget or not name the men who led the mob that killed 12 members of her family. She refused to give in. She was beaten and constantly threatened but she didn’t yield.

But some others did. They turned hostile one by one. Those who stuck to their deposition were left to fend for themselves, with neither the protector nor the adjudicator finding anything amiss. Congress leaders HKL Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar were let off, due to the behind-the-scenes machinations that included allurement and intimidation. And the not-so-subtle threat of a 1984 redux. Democracy and justice lay shamed.

Investigations reveal that in almost all cases, deals were struck to win over witnesses. In Bhagat’s case, Rs 25 lakh was offered to a witness. In Tytler’s case, a week after changing his statement the prime witness went abroad for a year and the second witness is still in the US. There were threats to their lives as well and a prominent Sikh leader was involved in pressurising the witness to say Tytler didn’t lead the mob.

Further sensational disclosures were made that a prime witness, who turned hostile, against Sajjan Kumar was taken to the Congress leader’s residence. Some of these witnesses enjoy a lavish lifestyle and their families misled Tehelka about their whereabouts. Our investigations uncovered the network of middlemen who struck dubious deals to win over witnesses, subvert the truth and derail justice.

http://tehelka.com/when-a-big-tree-falls-the-earth-shakes-2/

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The Thin Line Between Dissent And Rebellion – By Sunaina Kumar (Apr 20, 2013, Tehelka)

For the past two years, Sheetal Sathe had not been seen, but her songs continued to haunt our consciousness. The young singer with the soul-stirring voice was portrayed as a symbol of hope in Jai Bhim Comrade, Anand Patwardhan’s searing documentary on the Dalits of Maharashtra. Sathe, a member of the Pune-based cultural group of Dalit protest singers and poets, Kabir Kala Manch, was branded a Naxalite in 2011. Since then she had been underground, along with Sachin Mali and Sagar Gorkhe and three other members of the group. On 2 April, Sathe and Mali surfaced in full media glare, staged a ‘satyagraha’ outside the Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, and courted arrest. As they were taken into custody, Sathe retained her fieriness and raised slogans as she was whisked into the police jeep.

Sathe and Mali (both 27, married and expecting their first child) are facing charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Mali was retained in ATS (Anti-Terrorism Squad) custody, and Sathe sent to judicial custody on compassionate grounds until 17 April. The recent ruling by the Bombay High Court granting bail to Kabir Kala Manch members Deepak Dengle and Siddharth Bhonsle, who were arrested in May 2011 (along with Angela Sontakke, a member of the banned CPI(Maoist), still behind bars) gave hope to the disbanded cultural group and led to the decision of Sathe and Mali to come out of hiding. The high court declared that mere sympathy to Maoist ideology does not incriminate a person, and none of the Kabir Kala Manch members can be said to be active members of CPI(Maoist).

Through music and poetry, Kabir Kala Manch took up the cause of social inequality, exploitation of the underclasses, farmer suicides, female infanticide, Dalit killings and the widening net of corruption. Patwardhan of the Kabir Kala Manch Defence Committee, made up of civil society activists, says that Kabir Kala Manch members are at an impressionable age where their ideological thinking is still in process and their work covers a wide spectrum of political ideas such as Ambedkarism, socialism and Marxism. “I have known them since 2007 and can vouch for the fact that they have never taken up arms,” says Patwardhan. Kabir Kala Manch was formed in Pune in 2002 in the wake of the Gujarat riots and made up of students and young professionals who performed protest poetry and plays in slums and streets, shaking up the cultural scene in Pune as they presented a voice for the voiceless. Both Mali’s and Sathe’s academic backgrounds are exemplary; Sathe being a gold medallist and post graduate from Pune University.

Mumbai-based lawyer and activist Kamayani Bali Mahabal, also a member of the Kabir Kala Manch Defence Committee, says that the existence of the group is crucial as they create space for dissent through shayari and songs that are much more effective than speeches. “They are responsible artists who interpret art as a catalyst for social change. Unfortunately, for the State there is no distinction between Dalit protesters and activists and Naxalites,” says Mahabal, who was exposed to their work through Jai Bhim Comrade. Mihir Desai, the lawyer for Sathe and Mali, says the defence is waiting for the Anti- Terrorism Squad to complete its investigation and file a supplementary chargesheet.

“A lot of people who fight for radical changes in society get attracted to different ideologies, but as the Bombay High Court stated, as long as you don’t act in pursuance of those ideologies, you are not guilty,” says Desai. Despite repeated attempts, TEHELKA was unable to reach the Anti-Terrorism Squad. Patwardhan says that the case against the Kabir Kala Manch proves that the State does not tolerate the voice of weaker sections of society. “In our democracy, only the upper-class elites are allowed to have a voice,” he says. Kabir Kala Manch member and poet Deepak Dengle, who is out on bail after two years in prison, penned a poem in jail called Kis kis ko qaid karoge, mocking those who imprison lovers of freedom. The stirring words of the poem promise that the young revolutionaries will not be kept quiet for long.

http://tehelka.com/the-thin-line-between-dissent-and-rebellion/

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Murder In The Tea Garden – By Ratnadip Choudhury (Apr 3, 2013, Tehelka)

Lush green tea gardens meet the eye on both sides of the National Highway 37. Providing both succor to the onlooker and livelihood to the lakhs of people dependent on the tea industry, these estates are the lifeline of upper Assam. The Panitola Tea Estate in the Tinsukia district is one of the oldest tea gardens of this region. Among the many Adivasi families (also known as tea garden workers) living in the labour lines of Panitola, is the family of 43-year-old Gangaram Koul, a popular leader of the All Assam Tea Tribe Students’ Association (AATTSA). A breakaway from the norm where tea tribe children follow their fathers to work in the gardens, Koul passed his Higher Secondary with first division. Graduating from the Dibrugarh University, Koul had taken on the mantle of fighting for the rights of tea tribes in his garden and surrounding areas. A fight that was to cost Koul his life.

On the evening of 25 March, on his way back home, Koul was attacked by a group of people wielding machetes and iron rods, who first beat him up and then hacked him to death. The gruesome murder has left the entire tea tribe community shocked. Koul was not only a popular leader among the tea garden workers, he was also their crusader who stood up to the corrupt practices in the region. Koul had been fighting against the corruption in the Public Distribution System (PDS) meant for the tea labourers in Tinsukia and neighbouring Dibrugarh district. The Tarun Gogoi administration ordered a CID probe into Koul’s murder. Under severe criticism from the media and protests by AATTSA activists over allegations of local Congress leaders’ hand behind the killing, on 2 April, the government had to approach the CBI to take over the investigation.

“We feel that the same forces involved in the corrupt activities my husband was trying to expose is behind his murder,” says Koul’s wife Sakhila Munda, who teaches in a primary school in nearby Digboi town. “He had been instrumental in creating awareness among our community on how they were being exploited and their foodgrain looted.” Sakhila is having a hard time explaining to her shocked son Bishal, 14, and daughter Meghali, 9, on why their father was killed for doing the right thing. Koul’s tryst with politics began during his college days, when he was attracted to communist ideals and joined the CPI(ML). He raised the Sangrami Chah Shramik Sangha (SCSS) to counter the “monopoly” exercised by the Assam Cha Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), the largest tea labourers’ union in the state, also known to be close to the ruling Congress. Following his death, the CPI(ML) called for a statewide bandh, and the police was forced to file an FIR against local Congress MLA Raju Sahu, two panchayat leaders of the Congress, two local office-bearers of the ACMS in Panitola and Purushuttom Singh, a PDS licencee as accused in plotting the gruesome murder.

Koul had reportedly found that 29 of some 50 Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards from a fair price shop owned by a Sudha Devi Singh in the Panitola Tea Estate were bogus, and the rice drawn on these cards were sold in the black market. Sudha Devi Singh is the sister-in-law of one of the accused, Purushuttom Singh. With the help of his colleague Subrajyoti Bardhan, Koul raised the alarm and soon the tea tribe community joined the movement that led to the suspension of Sudha Singh’s PDS licence. A case on this issue is still pending at the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Tinsukia district. Koul found that Purushuttom Singh, a PDS licencee himself, was operating along similar lines. Local people found that he had lifted two quintals of wheat from the Laipuli GPSS but did not distribute it, and had also shown a huge number of bogus consumers in the population list of 2004-06. But the Office of the Deputy Director of Food and Supply of Consumer Affairs reinstated his licence. “The Food and Civil Supplies Department allowed Singh to lift PDS items from the Laipuli GPSS on 26 December last year when Singh had no valid licence,” alleges Bardhan, also a state committee member of the CPI(ML). “It proves how corrupt officials are involved in this loot and plunder of the PDS.”

Koul had alleged that district officials were openly violating norms of transparency in the sub-allotment of PDS items. PDS items are sub-allotted by the deputy commissioner’s office and the list of the items must be uploaded on the National Informative Centre’s website. In Tinsukia district, all these ground rules were violated. “Koul found that all mandatory norms were violated and how the PDS mafia makes a separate sub-allotment list that shows much less than the actual quantity sub-allotted by the deputy commissioner,” says a tea garden worker on condition of anonymity. Koul’s stand against corruption added to his popularity. He even contested the Assembly polls in 2006 and 2011. In 2006, he contested from Chabua and finished fourth, with 3,042 votes. Again, in the 2011 Assembly polls, Koul secured more than 7,000 votes, a clear indication of his increasing popularity. In 2009, he had also contested for the Lok Sabha from the Dibrugarh constituency. He fought elections every time as a CPI(ML) candidate. However, more than his growing political clout, it is his crusade against the irregularities in the PDS that has forced the government to ask for a CBI probe. What it throws up could well decide the Congress’ fortunes among the tea tribes of Assam.

http://tehelka.com/murder-in-the-tea-garden/

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Let’s help realise the vision of Ambedkar for Dalits – By Anurodh Lalit Jain (Apr 14, 2013, The Hindu)

As the nation pays tribute to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on his 122 birth anniversary (April 14), one would realise that much more remains to be done to achieve his aim of social equality for the suppressed classes. A principal architect in drafting the Constitution, he made significant efforts at giving political rights and social freedom to Dalits. However, till date, members of Schedule Castes continue to face caste biases. Dr. Ambedkar had a first-hand experience of untouchability in school, where he was segregated from caste Hindus. He was allowed to drink water from vessel only if it was poured from a height by the peon. In his biography, he spoke of school days when he would not drink water as very often the peon intentionally became unavailable.

Even today, there are instances where Dalit children are made to sit separately for the mid-day meal. Also, in some places students belonging to caste Hindus refuse to eat the food cooked by the ‘lower caste’ people. In a few districts of Madhya Pradesh, Dalit children are reportedly served food from a distance. Such caste biases in school will not only deprive these children of education but also fill their minds with pessimism about society at a tender age. Dr. Ambedkar throughout his life advised Dalits to get educated before agitating for their rights. Data from the House listing & Housing Census 2011 highlight the continued injustice done to Dalits through the demeaning practice of manual scavenging. These workers collect human excreta with their brooms and tinplate and carry it for disposal.

This work division continues based upon the traditional Hindu social order, which assigns to the Dalits the dirty, mean jobs. Dr. Ambedkar said that “in India, a man is not a scavenger because of his work. He is a scavenger because of his birth irrespective of the question whether he does scavenging or not.” A depressing fact as revealed in the 2011 census data on households is that an estimated 8 lakh people are traditionally engaged in manual removal of night soil – a great embarrassment to the State governments that are still in denial mode. Dr. Ambedkar’s efforts to root out such caste biases were perceived to be advanced by Mayawati, who eventually became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. However, the census data show that Uttar Pradesh continues to have the dubious distinction of leading the list with approximately 3.2 lakh people still involved in manually removing human waste.

The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act in 1993 has provision for punishment, including fine, for employing scavengers or constructing dry toilets. However, manual scavengers are continued to be employed to this day by municipalities, the Railways and defence establishments. The UPA government, on the advice of the National Advisory Council, has recognised manual scavenging as a social problem rather than as a sanitation issue and is looking for ways to stop the abhorrent practice.

Dr. Ambedkar is considered the messiah for his efforts to bring equal opportunity and social justice to the marginalised communities. A real tribute to the great leader would be to continue with his efforts of empowering the Scheduled Castes and helping them overcome the vicious cycle of caste and cultural barrier, rather than merely offering flowers to his statue on his birth and death anniversaries.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/lets-help-realise-the-vision-of-ambedkar-for-dalits/article4614717.ece

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – February 18th, 2013

February 19, 2013

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup Communal Harmony ‘Inter-faith dialogue only way out for communal harmony and social stability’ News Headlines Wrote on Modi as a citizen of India, Jaitley twists facts: Katju Zakia Jafri told to challenge SIT report by April 15 Saffron terror exposed? Sunil Joshi was mastermind behind all blasts between [...]

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – February 11th, 2013

February 12, 2013

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup News Headlines SC allows Zakia Jafri to file fresh petition against SIT clean chit to Narendra Modi Students, teachers and activists protest at SRCC against Modi visit Activists condemn Afzal Guru’s hanging BJP-Ajmer blasts link? Ramgarh MLA meets blasts accused Six cops held for theft during Dhule riots [...]

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – October 1st, 2012

October 2, 2012

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup Announcements India’s response to its Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations disappoints human rights groups – India refuses to agree to adequate steps to protect members of minority religions Communal Harmony Communal harmony delegation visiting Faizabad and Ayodhya Seminar in Chandigarh focuses on role of education in [...]

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – July 23rd, 2012

July 23, 2012

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup News Headlines Gujarat riots: Zakia Jafri’s lawyers resume inspection of SIT report giving clean chit to Modi Narendra Modi a decayed fruit, should be thrown out: Keshubhai Swiss bank link to Sohrab encounter? CBI arrests Yoga guru Ramdev’s aide Balkrishna Rajasthan riots: CBI questions BJP MLA Retd major [...]

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US reaffirmation of visa denial to Modi welcomed by IAMC

April 26, 2012

Tuesday April 26, 2012 The Indian American Muslim Council (http://www.iamc.com) an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos today welcomed the US State Department’s reiteration of its position on the issue of a US visa for Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Congressman Walsh had [...]

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – March 19th, 2012

March 19, 2012

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup Announcements TIME’s cover story on Narendra Modi a distortion of truth, says Indian American group News Headlines ‘General perception of public is that Narendra Modi is communal’ Denial of SIT report to Zakia Jafri violation of SC order ‘Same weapons in 2 encounters’ Mumbai constable among five arrested [...]

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – February 20th, 2012

February 19, 2012

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup Communal Harmony Around empty Gulberg, Muslims, Hindus find a way to co-exist British Muslims in state to study communal harmony News Headlines ’02 riots: Ex-judge puts Modi in dock HC notice to Modi govt over plea for relief by riots victims Saffron brigade halts Muslim realty deals in [...]

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IAMC Weekly News Roundup – September 12th, 2011

September 13, 2011

In this issue of IAMC News Roundup Announcements IAMC Condemns Blast Outside Delhi High Court News Headlines SC has not given clean chit to Modi: Cong Will a trial court in Gujarat ever prosecute Modi? Modi faces two contempt petitions for letter to PM Court issues notice to Modi on ‘targeted’ IAS officer’s plea Don’t [...]

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