What happened to Allama Iqbal
The renowned Urdu poet Iqbal ( known as Allama Iqbal ) was secular and a nationalist in his youth. In 1904 he wrote his famous song ‘Saare jahaan se achcha Hindustan hamaara‘.
Allahabad
Pakistani ( and Indian ) Muslims are fake Muslims ? Asks Justice Katju
Islam spread in large parts of the world because of its great message of equality, and the social emancipation it gave to the suppressed sections of society. But Muslims in our subcontinent mostly practice the caste system, which represents inequality, and is directly contrary to what the great Prophet taught.
93RD ANNIVERSARY OF KAKORI MARTYRS
REMEMBERING THEIR EGALITARIAN-SECULAR IDEOLOGY AND JOINT MARTYRDOMS CAN BE A BULWARK AGAINST THE HINDUTVA ONSLAUGHT
Children’s Day (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s Birthday)
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) was one of the greatest men the globe has known. He was the first Prime Minister of India. He was also the architect of India‘s Foreign Policy. In 1950 under his leadership India’s Five-Year Plan was started. The country made great strides in the field of science and technology under his guidance. He dedicated his entire life to the nation. His life is an open book. He was born rich but lived like an ordinary man. He loved children immensely from the core of his heart. World Children’s Day was first established in 1954. It is globally celebrated on November 20 each year. India started observing Children’s Day in 1969 along with other countries of the world. After Nehru’s death in 1964, it was unanimously decided to celebrate his birthday 14 November as Children’s Day. Since then every year Children’s Day is observed on 14th, November, the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru in India. He loved children and is fondly remembered as Chacha Nehru. To bring up children as useful citizens were his utmost desire. Their company was his solace and comfort. He knew their nature, feelings, psychology, mood and attitude well. He knew that the future of the country depended on them. His fondness for children increased with the years. No doubt, the story of his life is one of the noble words and righteous deeds. In the children’s Special Number of Shankar’s Weekly (3.12.1949), he expressed his affection for children thus: “I like to be with the children, to talk to them and all the more to play with them. In their company for a while forget that am so old and that was a child long, long ago.” “If you (the children) were with me, I would love to talk to you about this beautiful world of ours, about flowers, about birds and animals, about mountains and glaciers, and about all the other wonderful things our world is bestowed with. You know, so much beauty is perceptible all around us yet grown-up people like me often remain unaware about it and, engrossed in the office…
Bail to Arnab Goswami or personal freedom to intimidate, humiliate and harass the political opponents of the ruling party
The Supreme Court’s decision to give bail to Arnab Goswami to defend ‘personal liberty ‘ which cannot be allowed to get hampered, as Justice Chandrachud remarked and further added if ‘states go against it as they should know there is a Supreme Court’ ready to ‘protect’ people’s personal liberties. Justice Chandrachud is considered to be one of the top thinking judges of our time, a very knowledgeable and the one who had disagreed many times with the major judgements. However, yesterday’s arguments which came live through two wonderful online sites live law and bar bench showed as if the special sitting was just a plan to give Arnab bail. From day one, Arnab Goswami never followed any procedures and bypassed them. He had no faith in lower courts and was indecent during the hearing there. His bail application was pending at the bigger court but he decided to approach the high court but when the high court too asked him to go to the lower court for the regular bail as is the procedure, his lawyers felt it is enough. They should get intervention from the Supreme Court. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave raised questions about Supreme Court registry picking up Arnab Goswami’s case so fast and listing it in the top when thousands of such cases have been pending in the court for matters rarely to come in the listing. Issue of political leaders and activists languishing in jail in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of article 370 is rarely heard on time. Habeas Corpus petition of former Chief Minister Farookh Abdullah was dismissed after the government said that he has been ‘released’ even when he was not. Similar things happened to Prof Saifuddin Sauz and the court accepted the ‘government’ version as gospel truth. For the last several years, we have so many activists suffering enormously in such difficult circumstances in various jails but there is no outrage related to personal liberty. Varavara Rao, Stan Swamy are over 80 years and suffer from various age-related ailments. They can’t stand and need caretakers but the outrage is complete ‘gayab’….
Campaign to Curb Inter-faith marriages: Ruse to Restrict Women’s Freedom
Dr Ram Puniyani writes on the politics of Love Jihad. Know what is Love Jihad, and what is Jihad. Allahabad High Court in its recent judgment opposed the conversion to get married to the person of another faith. The logic is that in the Special Marriages Act, interfaith marriages are totally acceptable. One Muslim woman had converted to Hinduism to get married to a Hindu man. Talking in this aftermath the UP Chief Minister launched a tirade against Muslim men. As per him many Muslim youths hide their religious identity, lure the Hindu girls and then convert them to Islam. They will be dealt with sternly and their own funeral processions (Ram Naam Satya Hai) will be taken out. In a strict warning, he said that such incidents will not be allowed, his Government will come out with a law against it. He also said that posters will be put up of those indulging in such activities. As if on the cue, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, another BJP ruled state came forward with the resolve of his Government to bring a law against such interfaith marriages, Muslim boy-Hindu girls, which are referred to by the derogatory ‘Love Jihad’, which by now has become a sort of provocation for violence., as witnessed in the case of Muzzafarnagar violence of UP in 2013. In contrast to these hyperbole speeches by BJP leaders, the number of cases of interfaith marriages is a handful. There are both types of such marriages. One does recall the marriage of Trinamool Congress MP, Nusrat Jahan to a Hindu and the way she was trolled. Selectively case of Nikita Tomar, who was murdered by a Muslim man, in which case Tausif and Rehan have been arrested and hashtag #KshtriyaLivesMatter is making the rounds is also being projected as attempted love jihad. Officially speaking G.Kishan Reddy, Junior minister in Home Ministry had stated in Parliament that there is no such category as love jihad. He also pointed this out while replying to a question by a Kerala MP, about love Jihad cases in Kerala. As per him…
TIME TO JUDGE THE JUDGEMENT: Kafeel’s is no ordinary case. How many judges are doing their duty today?
When the only cause for elation, even a smile in the morning, is news of the release of an innocent detainee with the words that his detention ‘was bad in law’, then democracy is indeed staring at its nadir. Priyanka Gandhi called Kafeel after his release. We would have liked to call the judges who delivered this judgment. Why? For doing their duty? For upholding a fundamental principle of the law? That a man is innocent until proved guilty? But how many judges are doing their duty today? If they were, would Sharjeel Imam, Devangana Kalita (who was indeed granted bail on one of several charges) and numerous others be rotting behind bars? Here we do not even talk of the Bhima Koregaon/Elgaar Parishad case in which many intellectuals, journalists, advocates, professors and human rights defenders are in jail on charges similar to those levelled against Dr. Kafeel Khan. Kafeel’s is no ordinary case. Accusations made against him were never really about the ‘incendiary’ speech he is supposed to have made at Aligarh Muslim University. It is well known that the deep corruption and mismanagement of a hospital in Gorakhpur where sixty children lost their lives for lack of oxygen, was brought to light when the man in charge—Kafeel Khan—disclosed the fact that earlier bills for cylinders were kept pending despite his repeated reminders resulting in total unavailability of oxygen in the hospital. He was never forgiven for this and it was only a matter of time before the predator pounced on the prey. He was arrested in 2017 for dereliction of duty and being engaged in private practice. In 2018, Dr. Khan was released on bail as the court did not find him guilty of medical negligence. When a departmental inquiry cleared him of all charges a fresh inquiry was initiated clearly suggesting that there was more to this case than met the eye. The Uttar Pradesh government got another opportunity to nab him after his speech at AMU in December 2019 during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens movement when he was accused of promoting…
The law of Sedition: Endangering the very idea of an inclusive Democracy
British left India in August 1947 but left many of their draconian laws here as a colonial legacy. Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code 1860, i.e., the law of sedition is one such law. British Government of India had inserted it in the penal code in the late 19th century to curb anti-colonial activities in British India. However, in Independent India, it has often been conveniently misused by successive central and state governments to harass their critiques under the grab of sedition. Even high-profile individuals like Arundhati Roy could not save herself from the heat of this law for being too critical of the government policies for openly sympathizing with Kashmiri separatists. And now, Vinod Dua, an acclaimed journalist has become its latest target or victim so to say for allegedly accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using “deaths and terror attacks” to get votes. Given its frequent misuse, Indians must give serious thoughts over the need, rationale, and utility of having a sedition law in Independent India. The sedition law has been often misused by the colonial dispensation and its legacy of misuse continued even after independence as successive Indian governments did not hesitate in invoking it to curb dissent and harass individuals who were too critical of government policies. While the British government mainly used it against politicians like Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak, Azad, etc, independent India has used it even against dissenting doctors, students, teachers, journalists, human rights activists, scholars, poor, tribals and so on. This shows it has outwitted even the British in repressing dissent and criticism of the government. And through their reckless propaganda, ultra-nationalists have made it synonymous with being anti-national. The present Bhartiya Janata Party governments are also using the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, National Security Act and even Epidemic Diseases Act to silence any dissent by targeting people who participated in anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens protests, any protests during coronavirus crisis and ordinary Muslim citizens even in local disputes. The sedition law should have been repealed after independence. Even after drawing severe flak from the opposition and courts…
Time for serious police reform to make it more humane
The father-son duo arrested and then murdered in the judicial police custody in Tuticorin is a horrific reminder of unaccountability and brutality of the policing system in India. So far some of them have been suspended and one officer is transferred but that will never resolve the crisis as police in India has been used and misused by the parties in power to suit their political interest and hence they have ‘ascending order of ‘reverence’ for the political masters and descending order of contempt for the ‘political opposition’ of the ruling party of the time. I am using this term of Baba Saheb Ambedkar which he spoke about the Indian society. First, let us speak about what has happened in Tamilnadu. It is reported that Jayaraj (59) and his son Emmanuel Benicks (31) were arrested by the police on June 19th for allegedly ‘violating’ the curfew order in the lockdown. They owned a mobile shop at a place called Sathnakulam, a small town in district Tuticorin. The police reported that the two had not closed their shop after the defined time period and hence were arrested. There is no sign of any remorse from the Tamilnadu government in this case. The complete details as we have found out from various newspapers and first-person accounts are the following. Jayaraj was arrested by the police initially for violating the curfew norms and not closing his shop on time. It is said that it was 15 minutes late around 7 pm. Police took Jayraj to the local police station and started beating him. His son Benicks also went along and was upset seeing his father being beaten up mercilessly. Perhaps he might have an altercation with the policemen who were beating his father in front of her. Now, this was enough for the police to beat both them. It is alleged that the police assaulted them whole night mercilessly. They were shamed as both father and son were made naked in front of each other with police barbarity in full flow. By the morning they were in bad shape and bleeding profusely. It…
ON 45TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EMERGENCY IN INDIA : CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENTS PROVE RSS LEADERSHIP KOWTOWED TO INDIRA GANDHI
RSS is a Hindutva gurukul (university) which specializes in training cadres in speaking lies and manufacturing history. As the latest proof, we find on the 45th anniversary of the Emergency, an ideologue of RSS, Ram Madhav, a prominent graduate of the above gurukul, to claim that Indian democracy survives due to “leaders in the government who fought for that very freedom and are committed to liberal democratic values, not just as a matter of compulsion but as an article of faith.”[i] His take is that RSS-BJP leaders fought against the Emergency not due to any compulsion but as an article of faith in democracy. Both the claims are while lies, not because many of the critics claim but even as per the contemporary RSS documents available. Let us take first, the claim that the RSS-BJP rulers are/have been committed to the liberal democratic values as a faith. The most prominent ideologue of the RSS, MS Golwalkar, also known as ‘Guru of Hate’ [whom PM Modi credits for grooming him into a political leader] while addressing the 1350 top-level cadres of the RSS in 1940 declared, “RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land.”[ii] With such a philosophical liking for totalitarianism, the RSS hated sharing of power. It could be seen in its strong opposition to the federal structure of the constitution, a ‘Basic’ feature of the India polity. Golwalkar declared in 1961, “Today’s federal form of government not only gives birth but also nourishes the feelings of separatism, in a way refuses to recognize the fact of one nation and destroys it. It must be completely uprooted, constitution purified and unitary form of government be established.”[iii] So far Emergency is concerned the RSS claim of fighting against it needs to be evaluated in the light of contemporary narratives including the RSS documents. In this connection two narratives one by a veteran thinker and journalist of India, Prabhash Joshi and the other by TV Rajeswar, former Intelligence Bureau [IB] chief who was the deputy…
Treatment In Private Hospital On Public Money Possible But No Relief If Private Transport Used
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic over the last 3 months has failed on almost every front. Not only has the government been unsuccessful in containing the exponential spread of the disease but has through its actions given rise to one of the biggest humanitarian crises our country has ever seen. It has violated the basic human rights of lakhs of Dalit, Adivasi, Bahujan people through its narrow-mindedness, short-sightedness and insensitivity. The top ministers and officials of the government have given short shrift to scientists and doctors, and thereby failed to ground their decisions in the latest scientific research concerning the progression of the pandemic. The government chose to hire the American corporate consulting agency, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for advice on how to handle the crisis. BCG is best known for providing strategic advice on management solutions and claims no expertise in responding to public health crises. More importantly, how will an American company advise us to become self-reliant is unclear? Surprisingly, those within the Bhartiya Janta Party or Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh who are advocates of Swadeshi have gone silent. Or is it that for clinging to power they are willing to sacrifice national interests? In a joint statement released by the Indian Public Health Association, the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and the Indian Association of Epidemiologists, the country’s foremost doctors, epidemiologists and public health activists have criticised the government for not consulting experts: “Policymakers apparently relied overwhelmingly on bureaucrats. The engagement with experts in the areas of epidemiology, public health, preventive medicine and social scientists was limited.” The government has been unable to build up adequate healthcare capacity, something which should have been top priority right from the initial days of the lockdown. There have been reports of patients having to share beds in hospitals and shortages of medical equipment and staff. Besides, regular medical services for life-threatening conditions such as tuberculosis, HIV and cancer have been severely disrupted which has led to thousands of people being denied life-saving treatments. People with common ailments but requiring medical care…
We don’t need Tyranny of anyone in democracy: elected or ‘Un-elected’
In the last few weeks, we saw some hard-hitting ‘statements’ made by some big legal names. The Solicitor General of India, Mr Tushar Mehta made many allegations accusing some former judges, some high courts and senior lawyers for trying to ‘influence’ the court. It is the same gentleman who spoke that there is no migration crisis in India and everything has been handled so well. Mehta Saheb these days are upset with high courts and many lawyers have raised the issue of public litigation. Another big luminary jumped in and accused that ‘un-elected’ people are trying to run the government through the Supreme Court. His point was that there is a PIL syndicate and these people criticise the judges on social media and if the judgement does not come along with their line of thinking then they start blaming the judges. This legal luminary also said that this is ‘tyranny of un-elected’ which put motive to every judge who is blamed. Now, according to him that there is nothing wrong in criticising Supreme Court but the issue comes when we put motive to judges when the judgement is not as per our choice. This has come at the time when Supreme Court faced severe criticism from our former judges like Justice Markandey Katju, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice A P Shah. Many senior advocates of the bar too have been critical. Unlike the Supreme Court, high courts of various states have been able to take up cases related to migrant workers and gave various order. Now the term being used against human rights defenders and those who have filed various litigation that they are imposing ‘tyranny of unelected’. Now this is really serious. Being elected does not give anyone authority to trample with the constitution or law of the land. Leaders are elected so that they make laws as per the wishes of the people but at the same point of time, it is the people based on their quality and experience that they join various services of the executive though the judiciary is an autonomous institution. You can’t have…
Violence against Dalits and women on the high in Uttar Pradesh
Two incidents in Uttar Pradesh have reflected in the growing normalisation of violence and complete collapse of the law and order. The first incident happened in district Farrukhabad where a couple kept hostage to 23 children at their home and threatened to blow them off unless their demands are met. Subhash Batham was on the bail from the high court after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for some crime by the lower court. These twenty-three children were of his neighbours who had gathered there to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. At the end, Subhash was killed in police operation while his wife too died as angry villagers assaulted her. As per reports, there was huge cache of arms and ammunition at his home. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister was ‘happy’ with the ‘performance’ of the police who saved the lives of these innocent children but the question arises how come such a thing happen. How are this that the criminals are getting bails easily in the state while peaceful protests are being converted and portrayed criminal. The second incident is more horrific in terms of brutality. A young man after an altercation with his wife chopped her head off and carried it till two kilometre as he walked out of his home. The people watched him making videos in their mobile but none could stop him. Finally, the police arrested him. When the police snatched the chopped head from his hand, this man shouted the slogan: Bharat mataa kee jai and Jai Shri Ram. Both the news except for sensational news stories did not receive much attention as it deserved. Media was more bothered about Yogi Adityanath’s ‘fiery’ and ‘spicy’ speeches in Delhi. The law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh are definitely disturbing but it does not become the topic of discussion. We don’t blame Yogi Adityanath for the same but what he has done is to encourage such a situation and no sincere efforts has been made to deal with such a situation as they are not merely law and order situation but reflection of what is happening…
CJI Gogoi was blot on judiciary, but why were the other justices mute like Bheeshma Pitamah, seeing the cheer haran of the Supreme Court?
Indians need answers to judiciary’s failures in Gogoi’s tenure By Justice Markandey Katju When former chief justice of India Dipak Misra misbehaved in allocating cases in the Supreme Court, four of the senior-most justices of the apex court, including Ranjan Gogoi, protested. These justices did so by holding an open press conference in January 2018 and speaking against Misra. But Gogoi (I refuse to call him justice) committed much greater misconducts, of various kinds, and practically prostrated before the BJP-run government and handed over almost the entire Supreme Court to the political executive, giving up its solemn duty of protecting the rights of the people. However, when Gogoi did all this, not a single voice of open dissent was heard from any of the Supreme Court justices. When the disgraceful MISA judgment (ADM Jabalpur vs Shivakant Shukla) of 1976 was delivered, there was at least the brave dissenting voice of justice H.R. Khanna. But when the shameful Ayodhya verdict was delivered by the Supreme Court in November 2019, it was unanimous. Gogoi was a blot on the judiciary, but on the judicial side, all judges are equals, and the chief justice is not their superior. Why then did the other justices surrender their consciences to Gogoi, as is evident from these instances (among several others): There were five Supreme Court justices on the Ayodhya bench. It was of course expected of Gogoi to have done as he was told by the Union government. But how could the other four justices have agreed to such an outrageous, scandalous and opprobrious verdict? (See The Ayodhya verdict is based on a strange feat of logic published online). Where were the inner voices and scruples of these four justices? Or had the justices handed them over to Gogoi? 2.While rejecting the bail plea of columnist Abhijit Iyer Mitra in October 2018, Gogoi made a flippant and cruel remark: “The safest place for you is jail.” Now it is well settled after the leading judgment of the celebrated justice Krishna Iyer in State of Rajasthan vs Balchand in 1977 that bail, not jail, is the…
Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhumi Case : hope that the Judgment of the Supreme Court restores confidence of all citizens in rule of law and the Constitution
Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhumi Case : hope that the Judgment of the Supreme Court restores confidence of all citizens in rule of law and the Constitution .
PMC Bank failure: How safe the Indian Banks are?
Never put your all eggs in a single basket. Keep your deposits in different banks and not in different branches of a single bank.
Dr Kafeel khan’s media villain must explain their mischievous stories.
Dr Kafeel Khan exonerated : Who will fix media accountability now? Dr Kafeel khan’s media villain must explain their mischievous stories.
PRIVATE INTEREST MASQURADING AS POLICY CRITIQUE
Geeta Gandhi Kingdom’s attempt to defend the indefensible in the garb of an academic have come a cropper. She cannot be in London and Lucknow at the same time, ideologically speaking.
HOW RSS BETRAYED THE ANTI-EMERGENCY STRUGGLE
ON 44TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EMERGENCY IN INDIA : HOW RSS BETRAYED THE ANTI-EMERGENCY STRUGGLE National Emergency was imposed on the country by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25-26, 1975, and it lasted for 19 months. This period is considered as ”dark times’ for Indian democratic polity. Indira Gandhi claimed that due to Jaiprakash Narayan’s call to the armed forces to disobey the ‘illegal’ orders of Congress rulers had created a situation of anarchy and there was danger to the existence of Indian Republic so there was no alternative but to impose Emergency under article 352 of the Constitution. RSS claims that it opposed Emergency promulgated by Indira Gandhi heroically and suffered immensely for resisting Emergency. But there are dozens of contemporary narratives which dispute and decry this claim of the RSS. We will be referring here to such two narratives by a veteran thinker and journalist of India, Prabhash Joshi and TV Rajeswar, former Intelligence Bureau [IB] chief who was the deputy chief of IB when Emergency was imposed. They recounted the days of Emergency (or state terrorism) when RSS surrendered to the repressive regime of Indira Gandhi, assured her and her son, Sanjay Gandhi to enforce faithfully the draconian 20-point programme announced by the Emergency regime. Large number of RSS cadres came out of jails by submitting MAAFINAMAAS (mercy petitions). Despite all this betrayal thousands of RSS cadres continue to get monthly pension for persecution during Emergency. The BJP ruled states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra decided to award a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 to those who were jailed during the Emergency period for more than a month and Rs 5000 to those who were jailed for less than a month. This rule took care of the financial interest of those RSS cadres who might have submitted mercy letters completing only one or two months’ jail term. For securing such a fat pension there was no such condition that the beneficiary should have been in jail for the whole period of the Emergency. Interestingly, in the case of anti-British freedom struggle there has…
How tiny pests traverse long distance to attack mustard crops
The persistent pests of mustard plants in the Gangetic plain come raiding all the way from the Himalayas, a new study has revealed.