RSS And Politics: Conspiracy Is The Mantra – By Shamsul Islam (Oct 9, 2013, Countercurrents)

RSS specializes in double-speak and triple speak. In fact, the situation is so critical that it may be an understatement regarding RSS behavior. No other organization which claims to be committed to moral regeneration of India can compete with RSS in manufacturing lies. The current public manifestations of RSS for active participation in Indian politics, specially, forcing BJP to adopt Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate for 2014 elections is continuation of the same conspiratorial mind-set. In the aftermath of brutal killing of Father of the Nation, Gandhiji by committed and trained cadres of Hindutva camp, RSS was forced by Jawaharlal Nehru & Sardar Patel to write a constitution declaring that RSS would be “devoted purely to cultural work” and would not indulge in “political” activities. But the fact is not that cat is out of the bag now recently. Despite its assurances that it would not participate in politics to the Nation (on the basis of which ban imposed on it for being responsible for killing of Gandhiji was lifted), it is not first time that it has violated this cardinal pledge.

The most prominent ideologue of the RSS, MS Golwalkar, openly declared that it had political ambitions and wanted to control politics directly. It was in total violation of the pledge to the Government of India that RSS would not indulge in political activities. While addressing a gathering of top ranking RSS on March 16, 1954, at Sindi, Wardha, he said: “If we say that we are part of the organization and accept its discipline then selectiveness has no place in life. Do what is told. If told to play kabaddi, play kabaddi; told to hold meeting then meeting….For instance some of our friends were told to go and work for politics that does not mean that they have great interest or inspiration for it. They don’t die for politics like fish without water. If they are told to withdraw from politics then also there is no objection. Their discretion is just not required.” [Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan, (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Volume III, Bharatiya Vichar Sadhana, Nagpur, nd, p. 32]

He continued to relish RSS ambition to control politics of a democratic-Secular India clandestinely and did not mind sharing this ambition publically. While addressing top level cadres of the RSS at Indore on March 5, 1960, this Hindutva ideologue, went on to declare: “We know this also that some of our Swayamsevaks work in politics. There they have to organize according to the needs of work public meetings, processions etc., have to raise slogans. All these things have no place in our work. However, like the character in a play whatever role has been assigned should be portrayed with best of capability. But sometimes Swayamsevaks go beyond the role assigned to a performer (nat) as they develop over-zealousness in their hearts, to the extent that they become useless for this work. This is not good.” [Ibid, Volume IV, pp. 4-5.] We find here Golwalkar referring to the Swayamsevaks loaned to political offshoot as ‘nat’ or performers who are meant to dance to the tunes of the RSS. This fact should not be missed here that Golwalkar’s above design of controlling the political arm was elaborated in March 1960 almost nine years after the establishment of Jansangh (the forerunner of the BJP) in 1951.

The RSS cadres who control the BJP keep on harping that BJP is an independent political organization and does not work under the dictates of the RSS. It is pertinent that one compares this claim with the facts available in the official publications of the RSS to know the whole nexus. The central publication house of the RSS, Suruchi Prakashan, Delhi, published a book in 1997, titled Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par (ON THE ROAD TO GREAT GLORY) penned by Sadanand Damodar Sapre, a senior RSS functionary. This book contains details of more than 40 organizations created by the RSS for different tasks. The preface of the book itself declares that, “Without the knowledge of the different kinds of activities of the Sawyamsevaks (the volunteers of the RSS) the introduction of the RSS is incomplete. Keeping this in mind it has been attempted in this book to produce the brief information about the diverse activities of the Sawyamsevaks. This book covers the organizational status till 1996.We believe that this book will prove to be of use for those who want to understand the RSS along with the Swyamsevaks.”

The BJP as a political organization figures prominently in it at number 3 out of 37 major outfits. The chapter on Jana Sangh/BJP describes in details how and why RSS created them. This publication of the RSS also shows how the organization is run in a clandestine manner. It runs like a well-organized mafia through its subsidiaries and pocket organizations. There has always been a conscious attempt to create confusion about its different fronts which provide RSS with the opportunity to dissociate with any of these as per its convenience. For instance it used Hindu Jagaran Manch (HJM) for attacking Christians in late 1990s and when public opinion, media, judiciary and Parliament seemed to turn against it, RSS denied any relation with HJM. Moreover, when nefarious designs of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Dharam Sansad were exposed before the Nation, RSS announced that these were independent organizations. Interestingly, it was often seen mediating between the BJP lead government (1998-2004) and these outfits. …

http://www.countercurrents.org/islam091013.htm

SEE ALSO:

• BJP Speaks with Forked Tongue – Editorial (Oct 13, 2013, Peoples Democracy)
  http://pd.cpim.org/2013/1013_pd/10132013_edit.html
• This Way To Oudh – By Prarthna Gahilote (Oct 21, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288125
• Modi’s shining Gujarat: a half truth – By Dr. Ataur Rahman (Oct 9, 2013, Twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2013oct09/modi%E2%80%99s_shining_gujarat_half_truth.html
• Commandeering change – By Harish Khare (Oct 10, 2013, The Hindu)
  http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/commandeering-change/article5218380.ece

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Bottoms At The Pyramid – By R.K. Misra, Bhasha Singh (Oct 21, 2013, Outlook)

From the plush Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel airport in Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar is a dream drive. Till last year, though, just before the road takes a turn to the bridge across the Sabarmati river, an array of bare bottoms used to make people flinch and turn away. But the municipal corporation hit upon a brilliant idea to solve this – they constructed a wall to hide the slums on this VVIP route and added a bamboo plantation for good measure. The exhibits may have been hidden from public view but the spillovers are still on display every morning! Cut to Gandhinagar, and to the majestic Mahatma Mandir, a swanky Rs 500 crore monument to chief minister Narendra Modi but ironically named after the half-clad Mahatma Gandhi. On the road leading from the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway to this global convention centre, the view again has been cut off but the stench remains. Switch to the secretariat.

The sachivalaya has undergone a major renovation. Gone is the old staid sarkari look, in its place is a stylised corporate one, carrying the distinct stamp of Modi. But barring the CM’s newly constructed block, pass any other gallery and the toilets yell from a distance, making you hold your breath. Even the IAS officers hold their breath as they pass. The temples of the state are not immune to this problem either. The Saranpur Hanuman temple, 164 km from the state capital Gandhinagar, is a popular place of pilgrimage. Thousands congregate here daily. It has a toilet, and there’s even a loo for the ladies. Both western style and Indian. They, however, are usually locked. The janitor says the locks can be opened for a payment of Rs 4 but he can’t guarantee a clean loo or flowing water. Indeed, the ‘toilets’ there are an exception in the vast countryside where “sit and shoot” is both an essential chore and a national pastime. While prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi may have stirred a sandstorm with his temple-toilet remark, most cities of Gujarat, including its capital, are sorely lacking in these basic public facilities.

Also, “the gender discrimination is acute,” says Prof Purabi Bhattacharya, who says even the ones that exist in the capital are so filthy that one would end up sick if one was to use it. Housewife Jayshri Vyas, who stays in the comparatively better off Panchayatnagar area in Rajkot, voices the same sentiment. A CAG report for the period up to March 2012 points out that 18,321 anganwadis in the state are without toilets. Additionally, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board has issued notices to eight municipal corporations and 159 municipalities for not following guidelines on solid waste disposal. Gujarat was free of manual scavenging, claimed the state government in an affidavit as far back as in 2004. The same government, however, commissioned the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to carry out a survey in 2006 and the report identified 12,000 people carrying ‘night soil’. Even more strangely, while claiming Gujarat to be scavenger-free, the state government has also been availing central grants for the rehabilitation of scavengers.

Gujarat Safai Kamdar Vikas Nigam MD C.S. Rajpal told Outlook, “Gujarat has completed a survey on manual scavenging in statutory towns and not a single case was reported”. But asked how railway tracks and platforms were being cleaned now, he had no answer. Martin Mackwan, a rights activist, believes Modi is targeting the Dalits with his statement on toilets and wonders aloud if the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate would allow toilets to be built at the disputed site at Ayodhya, as has been suggested by the Congress’s Jairam Ramesh (or originally by Kanshi Ram). The census figures are equally revealing. As many as 52 lakh households in the state have no toilet. Over 64 lakh households do not have any drainage facility and 49 lakh people are defecating in the open. And another unique distinction for Gujarat: there are more toilets in the state serviced by animals (4,890) than by scavengers (2,566).

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288146

SEE ALSO:

• Politics Of Sanitation: Political Failure And People’s Movement – By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastav (Oct 7, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/srivastav071013.htm
• That Stinking Feeling – By Neha Bhatt (Oct 21, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288148

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The strange case of Akhlaque Ahmed Khan: In jail although acquitted in one case, bail granted in another – By M Reyaz (Oct 4, 2013, Twocircles.net)

Akhlaque Ahmed Khan was not granted bail ever in the Delhi case (he was subsequently acquitted in 2006), he was granted bails in both the cases that were filed against him in Kolkata. On mere charge of alleged conspiracy to ‘wage war against the government’ an accused is languishing in jail for over 14 years. The story of Akhlaque Ahmed Khan of Kolkata is one of most intriguing, for in the same month in January, 1999 he was made co accused, along with Syed Abu Nasir of Bangladesh and others in two terror cases – one in Kolkata and other in Delhi. While in October, 2006 Akhlaque was acquitted from the Delhi case, he is still languishing in Kolkata’s Presidency Jail as an under trial in connection with the Kolkata case. What is more intriguing is that he is behind bar, although in the same case the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) had granted him bail way back in April, 1999 as he had failed to furnish the security bond on time.

In the first case, in the Alipore court, he was granted bail and later discharged from the case as Police failed to file any charge-sheet against him. As the Police had failed to file the charge-sheet within three months in the ongoing case too, after serving the statutory 90 days period Akhlaque was given the bail order in April 1999, along with two other co-accused Abdullah Salafi, Mritunjoy Das who are since out on bail, on security bonds of Rs 10,000. However, as Akhlaque was anyway not granted bail in the Delhi case and was in Tihar Jail, his counsel advised Akhlaque’s family “to wait for his bail/acquittal in the Delhi case, as he would not be freed even after furnishing the bail bond.” The counsel suggested that the bail bond could be deposited even later.

After his acquittal in the Delhi case in October 2006, however, as the counsel of Akhlaque approached the Calcutta court, they were faced with what his youngest brother Azad Ahmed Khan describe as “harrowing experiences”. They had to run from pillar to post, literally, seeking permission to furnish the bail bond, says he, but to no avail. As the charges were already framed in the said case and it was transferred to the session court for trial, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) said that it now has “no jurisdiction to pass any order” over the case. This was a case, in fact, where even the learned public prosecutor Ashoke Bakshi on November 22, 2006 had rebuked the honorable court and had “supported the contention of the advocate for the petitioner and submitted that the order of bail dated 16.4.1999 is still in force and therefore, the learned CMM has committed wrong in refusing to accept the bail bond.”

In fact he had suggested that the order of bail should be confirmed by the Court of Session and the learned CMM should be directed to accept the bail bond in terms of the order dated 16.4.1999.” The fast-track court session court, where his case was being heard, however, observed that the petitioner’s right to be released on bail “stood extinguished on filing of chargesheet on 15.01.2002…As the accused who was directed to be released on bail did not furnish the bail bond after the order was passed and remained in custody, he cannot claim the execution of the said order by furnishing bail after filing of the charge-sheet and commitment of the case to the Court of Session.” On suggestion of the senior lawyers, Akhlaque had then approached the Cacultta High Court for quashing of charges under 120B/121/121A/122 and other such serious charges relating to criminal conspiracy of waging war against the government and pleaded that he was discharged from the Bhawanipur case (which was pursued in Alipore court) and also acquitted from the Delhi court on similar charges. The defence counsel had said that if some forged documents were at all found, the accused may be tried for forgery.

The Calcutta HC had, however, discharged the revisional petition for quashing of the proceeding arguing that the Delhi court’s disbelieving the claim of the prosecution “cannot be a ground for disbelieving the prosecution case, so far as the present case is concerned.” In fact from CMM to Session Court to the HC, Akhaque’s bail plea was repeatedly rejected considering the ‘seriousness’ of the charges, even when his mother fell very sick. Akhlaque was not allowed a parole even when his mother died on June 28, 2009. The trial is still on in a fast track court, and consequently Akhlaque awaits his fate.

http://twocircles.net/2013oct04/strange_case_akhlaque_ahmed_khan_jail_although_acquitted_one_case_bail_granted_another.htm

SEE ALSO:

• Police Playing Partisan Role In Muzaffarnagar Riot Investigations, Allege Villagers – By Deevakar Anand (Oct 1, 2013, Tehelka)
  http://www.tehelka.com/police-playing-partisan-role-in-muzaffarnagar-riot-investigations-allege-villagers/
• Memorandum to PM for keeping promise on Communal Violence Bill – By M Reyaz (Oct 8, 2013, Twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2013oct08/memorandum_pm_keeping_promise_communal_violence_bill.html
• Indian Muslims increasingly disenchanted – Syed Zafar Mahmood with Deepa Kurup (Oct 6, 2013, The Hindu)
  http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/indian-muslims-increasingly-disenchanted-syed-zafar-mahmood/article5206992.ece
• Shinde’s directions to CMs: Better Late Than Never – By Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam (Oct 2, 2013, Twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2013oct02/shinde%E2%80%99s_directions_cms_better_late_never.html

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The ‘None of the Above’ Option – By Manjari Katju (Oct 19, 2013, EPW)

Campaigns to “cleanse” the political system have gained considerable ground in the last few years in urban India. These have strengthened with the nearing of assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as also the general elections scheduled for 2014. Coupled with this are attempts, both institutional and movement-driven, to make democracy in India more participatory. It may be useful to start with a brief look at the legal history of the various moves towards this cleansing of the electoral system. In July this year the Supreme Court ruled that parliamentarians and state legislators who were convicted of serious crimes, meaning carrying a jail term of two years or more, would be barred from contesting elections. The Court struck down Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act which allowed convicted members of Parliament and Legislative Assemblies to continue in office while their appeals journeyed through courts often for indefinite periods. The government, backed by support from almost all political parties, had introduced a bill in Parliament to override this Supreme Court judgment and then passed the ill-fated ordinance which now stands withdrawn.

In September, close on the heels of the contentious ordinance, came another judgment from the Supreme Court. On a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) a few years back, it ruled that voters should have the option to reject all the candidates who were standing for election in their constituency. It directed the Election Commission (EC) of India to include the option “None of the Above” (now popularly called NOTA) in the electronic voting machines (EVMs). The Supreme Court felt that this would contribute to cleansing politics – that the political leadership would formally know that there are people unhappy with the parties’ choice of candidates. The logic is that this would build moral pressure on political parties and possibly bring about a rethink on their choice of candidates, making them hesitant to put up candidates with criminal records. According to the Court, exercising the option of rejecting all candidates would lead to a “systemic change” in the whole electoral process.

The Supreme Court stated that besides cleaning up politics, the option of negative vote would foster greater participation among voters as this would draw to the polling booths those who otherwise do not vote because they are not satisfied with the candidates contesting elections. The right to a negative vote would encourage them to visit the polling stations and express their unhappiness by exercising their choice of rejection. The Court felt that this would also contribute to bringing down impersonation in voting. The proposal for a negative vote had come from, among others, the EC in 2001 when James Lyngdoh was the chief election commissioner (CEC). It was reiterated in 2004 by CEC T S Krishna Murthy (see note 1). Though the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 provide that one can refuse to vote after identifying oneself and thereafter, appropriate entries would be made by the polling officer in the electoral register, etc, this procedure did not protect the secrecy of the negative ballot. As former CEC S Y Quraishi recently pointed out in a newspaper article, the EC has been asking for this option to ensure secrecy and bring down bogus voting and not for any other reason.

The PUCL petition on which the Supreme Court based its ruling was on the same issue – maintaining the secrecy of the voting decision. The Court went a little further in its judgment and highlighted the cleansing and participatory dimensions of the negative vote. Published research on causes and effects of negative voting brings out aspects of it not easily discernible or immediately visible (see, for instance, Kernell 1977; Fiorina and Shepsle 1989). However, this published research is more about negative responses to governmental policies/actions rather than such responses to the choice of candidates. The scholars looking at negative voting in the United States some years ago pointed out that such voting occurs when voters respond more strongly to political decisions and actions they are unhappy about than those actions/outcomes they approve of or are in favour – in which case they might not go to the polling booth at all (Fiorina and Shepsle 1989). As is obvious, it is a vote expressing disapproval. This disapproval can be both of policies and leadership.

Voters satisfied with political actions and leadership might or might not come out to vote. With the option of a negative vote, the same options are also available to those who do not approve of the candidates or policies and are generally unhappy with the whole political situation at a given time. They can choose to sit back and not come to the polling booth at all or come to the polling booth and exercise their voting rights (in secrecy) to express displeasure. Negative voting, if it is against the incumbents, highlights the issue of accountability of the political leadership more sharply than what we can call “positive” voting. Its objective is to drive home, more forcefully, the point that the leadership has to change itself and its politics, and has to govern better. Political parties may now have to be much more unambiguously accountable for their actions beginning from their choice of candidates contesting elections to the decisions they take in government. …

http://www.epw.in/commentary/none-above-option.html

SEE ALSO:

• Will Left again support Congress to keep out BJP? – By Amulya Ganguli (Oct 12, 2013, Yahoo)
  http://in.news.yahoo.com/left-again-support-congress-keep-bjp-094805100.html
• Nitish Kumar: Birth Of A New Secular – By Samar (Oct 10, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/samar101013.htm

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Reaping the Whirlwind – Editorial (Oct 19, 2013, EPW)

The protests which have been raging in the coastal and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh for over two months now have surprised most observers for their intensity and duration. An angry reaction from the people of Seemandhra, as the non-Telangana part of Andhra Pradesh has come to be termed, was on the cards once the creation of a separate Telangana was formally announced. However, the manner in which this protest in Seemandhra has sustained itself for this long and the inability of the central government to address it shows that it reflects popular anger of a fairly unprecedented nature. It will not do to suggest that this is only the result of back-room politics or some conspiracy.

Over the past decade and more, every political party in Andhra Pradesh has used and abused the Telangana statehood demand for immediate political gains. Prior to the 2004 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party ignored its own resolution demanding Telangana so as to gain support from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). In 2004, the Congress, under Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, had a pre-poll alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) that promised a separate state within a year of coming to power. After their victory, many assumed that Telangana would now be a reality and there were reports of land speculation in the Vijayawada-Guntur region in anticipation of the fact that the new capital of Seemandhra would be located there; Hyderabad was assumed as the capital of Telangana. That promise was quietly buried by the Congress in various committees, leading the TRS to ally with the TDP which now passed a resolution asking for a separate state of Telangana.

Ever since the movement of a separate Telangana intensified in the 10 districts that comprise this region it has been clear that there is active hostility to any proposal for division of the state in the 13 districts of Seemandhra. Political parties were vertically split on this with their legislators from each region taking diametrically opposite stands irrespective of their party’s official stance. The flip-flops and contortions one witnesses among many of them today may be new(s) for those in Delhi but has been on display for many months, if not years, for the people of Andhra Pradesh. Perhaps, the long years of such cynical politics – where public statements are assumed to be untruths by both the political leaders who utter them as well as by the citizenry who hear them – had made the people in Seemandhra assume that whatever these parties may state officially they would never allow Telangana to be created. The rollback of December 2009 only added to that feeling. The shock of realisation that a separate Telangana is now a close reality is perhaps one reason for this intense outpouring of protests in Seemandhra.

However, this may not explain it entirely. The manner in which Hyderabad is being sought after by the people of Seemandhra suggests that this city had emerged as some sort of a golden land of opportunity for the poor and working people of Seemandhra. This projection of aspirations on Hyderabad (and therefore the fear of loss) suggests that more than the actual opportunities which it provided, this city has, perhaps, emerged as some sort of substitute for overcoming the real hardships and troubles people are faced with. Migration to the city of opportunities as a solution to local problems with agriculture, employment and education is, after all, not something unique in Seemandhra. Unfortunately and tragically, this aspiration for Hyderabad and its riches is as much a hyperbole and chimera as is all such migration to the big cities of India (or the developing world as a whole). Seen thus, the protests on the streets of Vizianagaram and other places in Seemandhra are both the release of a pent-up anger against the cynical machinations of the political leaders as well as a cry for social and economic justice.

What is most unfortunate is that most political leaders of Seemandhra have only stoked the anger and sense of betrayal of the people, while the central government has only twiddled its thumbs since this is not Rajpath in Lutyens’ Delhi. The fears and apprehensions of the people of Seemandhra need to be addressed by the Government of India, and, also, crucially, by the leaders of the Telangana movement. Some things are easily done, for example those relating to jobs, education and access: after all, Indian citizens do not need visas to travel to or work in another state of the union and fundamental rights apply to all. Other demands may require greater empathy and negotiation. It also requires a firm administration in the state at the moment and not a chief minister who uses his position to play one side against the other. This is not the first time that a state is “losing” its capital with the formation of a new state. It has happened earlier when Meghalaya was formed and Assam had to move its capital from Shillong to Dispur. That distant experience, apart from the more recent ones, could provide some lessons for the present. The primary lesson is that division of a state need not imply division of fraternity.

http://www.epw.in/editorials/reaping-whirlwind.html

SEE ALSO:

• Slipstream People – By Ratna Rao Shekar (Oct 21, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288154
• Hyderabad and the Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh – By G Gangadhara Rao (Oct 19, 2013, EPW)
  http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2013_48/42/Hyderabad_and_the_Bifurcation_of_Andhra_Pradesh.pdf
• The Togetherness Of Division – By Madhavi Tata (Oct 21, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288153

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The doubt of the benefit – Editorial (Oct 14, 2013, The Hindu)

That the prosecution must meet the highest standards of proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, is an indispensable condition in the trial of any criminal case. The benefit of doubt should invariably go to the defendants. As the English jurist William Blackstone wrote, better that 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. In India, however, sloppy investigation and shoddy prosecution have been part of an extremely inefficient and slow justice delivery system that has allowed conviction rates to stay at alarmingly low levels. Criminals have repeatedly gotten away with murder and massacre. While reinforcing each other, money power and muscle power have turned out to be among the biggest beneficiaries of the doubt perceived by the judiciary.

Almost inevitably, in cases where the victims are poor, landless peasants and Dalits, the perpetrators have remained beyond the reach of law. On October 9, the Patna High Court acquitted all the 26 persons convicted by a lower court in the 1997 Laxmanpur Bathe case of massacre of 58 Dalits. The judges found the prosecution witnesses “not reliable” and gave the benefit of doubt to the 16 sentenced to death, and the 10 sentenced to life imprisonment. If a high-profile case such as the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre can collapse in this manner, India’s criminal justice system can infuse little confidence in its people.

Actually, the conviction in the lower court itself came after the intervention of the High Court, which expedited the trial more than 11 years after the massacre. However, the period between the massacre and the conviction was far from quiet. Both Ranvir Sena, a private army of upper caste landlords, and Maoist groups, who mobilised large sections of poor peasants, including Dalits, carried out a series of attacks and reprisals in rural Bihar. Not surprisingly, several witnesses in the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre case turned hostile. To begin with, eye-witnesses to the massacre were indeed few, as the culprits had come in the dead of the night and shot everyone they found. The trial court indeed acquitted 19 of the accused.

And while analysing the motives of the defendants, it had taken into account not only the specific, known circumstances of the massacre, but also the history and cycle of violence in the region. The appellate court, however, chose to ignore the testimony of the available witnesses. When justice is not seen as being done in a case of brutal massacre, India’s under-classes can hardly be blamed for losing faith in a system that invariably works to the advantage of the privileged and the powerful. This is a case where the State must appeal against the High Court order, and ensure that those found guilty by the trial court are put away for life.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/the-doubt-of-the-benefit/article5231817.ece

SEE ALSO:

• At stake is the dignity of Dalit women – By Namita Bhandare (Oct 11, 2013, Hindustan Times)
  http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/1134063.aspx
• Census 2011 missed 5 crore slum dwellers – By Subodh Varma (Oct 12, 2013, Times of India)
  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/24001477.cms
• Conditions of SC/ST Households: A Story of Unequal Improvement – By R B Bhagat (Oct 12, 2013, EPW)
  http://www.epw.in/notes/conditions-scst-households.html
• You Can Change Your Religion, Not Your Caste – By Abdul Khaliq (Oct 5, 2013, Tehelka)
  http://www.tehelka.com/you-can-change-your-religion-not-your-caste/

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