Usman Ansari, like Mohammad Akhlaq
I took Usman Ansari’s one good hand in mine and said that I had come with the message of sharing his pain. I sought his forgiveness, on behalf of all of us.
Yogi Adityanath is as much a creation of the so-called secular parties as of the Sangh
The masks have been thrown to the winds. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his most trusted aide and Bhartiya Janata Party President Amit Shah have audaciously signalled to both national and global public opinion that they feel no need for masks and fig-leafs any longer.
Why the Hashimpura massacre of 42 Muslim men in 1987 is relevant in the polarised UP of today
In India, we have accustomed ourselves to erasing from public memory horrendous injustices and moving on. Moving on without healing, without remorse, without even elementary justice. Moving on as though nothing happened.
Who killed Sohrabuddin? Debate around judge’s death puts focus back on murders by Gujarat police
On November 26, 2005, a man in his thirties named Sohrabuddin Sheikh was gunned down by a team of the Gujarat police. The police claimed that Sheikh was an operative of the Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist organisation and that he was, along with Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency, planning a high-profile assassination of a senior leader in Gujarat
When our caravan of love defied threats of violence to pay tribute to Pehlu Khan
On the 10th day of the Karwan-e-Mohabbat, as we met bereaved and grieving families – Muslim families that had lost their loved ones to cow vigilantism or police aggression – in five villages of the Nuh district of Mewat, we got news of anger and hostility to the advance of our peace caravan to Behror in Alwar district.
What growth? The GDP numbers don’t account for the first-hand accounts of pain and suffering
The latest salvo from the Centre on the shock and awe demonetisation excercise is that the move did not have an adverse impact on India’s buoyant economic growth story. This is contrary to the pessimistic expectations of economists, statisticians and bankers the world over – and not just those from the Left – that the sudden withdrawal of 86% of the currency in circulation before November 8 would cripple the country’s economy.
What a tribunal that blamed a man sleeping on the road for his death should know about homelessness
Close to 10 years after a reversing dumper truck ran over and crushed a 35-year-old sleeping on a Mumbai road in November 2007, a motor accident claims tribunal last month held that the victim was equally to blame for the accident. It held that the deceased was also “negligent” as he dangerously chose to sleep on the corner of the road.
The woman who lost 25 members of her family in the 2002 riots and went on to help other widows
Farzan Biwi, 22, who lost her husband during communal violence 2 months ago and since living in a relief camp, kisses her 15 days old baby in Ahmedabad, 16 May 2002. Farzan’s baby is among the 45 babies born in this camp since its opening following the sectarial violence in which nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, have died.
The taming of Kashmir is seen to be essential for the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra
It is impossible to comprehend the policy of New Delhi to Kashmir without recognising that for people on both sides of the ideological divide in India, Kashmir has a supreme symbolic importance well beyond just the land and its people.
Why Jharkhand’s anti-conversion bill is against Constitution and not necessary
Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das. Jharkhand will not be the first government to pass an anti-conversion law if this is voted for by the state assembly. Anti-conversion laws were passed in Orissa in 1967, in Madhya Pradesh in 1968, in Gujarat in 2003 and Chhattisgarh in 2006.