The powerful RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has called for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter, describing this as a ‘sacred duty’, and adding that in states where the RSS has dedicated swayamsewaks in power, strong laws are already in place.
“Is there a problem if we are good-looking?” a young Dalit man, who was thrashed by Rajput men of his village for sporting a moustache, asks a reporter.
On February 28, 15 years would have passed since a gale of violence engulfed 20 out of the 25 districts of Gujarat. This persisted for several weeks, and in some places for months, as state authorities did little to control it.
In the early hours of a midsummer morning, at the outskirts of Ahmedabad near the city’s waterworks, on June 15, 2004, the Gujarat police shot dead four occupants of a car. One of those killed was a young 19-year-old woman. Her name was Ishrat Jahan.
Some events leave a permanent mark on the history of a people. For many in my generation, one such moment of iconic suffering was the felling by a frenzied mob of a medieval mosque on December 6, 1992.
India’s democracy suffered a body blow this week when police raids across six cities resulted in five prominent left-wing human rights defenders being arrested, the homes and offices of many more searched, and their documents, books, mobile phones and laptops seized.
The fate of four million Bengali speaking people in India’s large north-eastern state of Assam today hangs in perilous balance. Their names have been left out of the penultimate draft of the National Citizens Register. This means that if they are unable to prove their Indian citizenship in the last chance they will get for this – with only one month to file their claims…
Like in the jungle, it is the survival of the fittest. Elected Governments are doing everything in their power to exclude people and the poor from getting benefits that are rightfully theirs.
In Modi’s India, minorities are being reduced to second class citizens. A fearsome climate against Dalits, Adivasis, Christians, Muslims has been mounted by hate speech, threats and assaults.
Neelabh Mishra, editor-in-chief (far left) with some of his editorial staff at National Herald. Harsh Mander remembers Neelabh as “A man who was utterly generous to his partner, to his family, to his friends, and to everyone in need. A man gentle to the core of his soul.”