A few examples of Indian religious profiling Religious Profiling
[JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE: The good thing is that the racial profiling of Sikhs in the US, or rather the `patting search’ of turbans – something similar was done in India in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh – has triggered a lively debate in India. The bad news is that Indian state governments and their police forces, brutal as a norm, continue to indulge in a spot of religious and racial profiling themselves. These two incidences, in the BJP ruled Gujarat where chief minister Narendra Modi still holds power, and Bihar, ruled by socialist Nitish Kumar in a coalition with the BJP, share one thing in common, apart from the inhuman policemen. In both cases, the victims were Muslim youth, one a thief, the other just another common man.]
And a few more cases from India of the result of Religious Profiling
BPO man, a Muslim, thrashed for Modi convoy intrusion
By Deepal Trevedie
Ahmedabad, August 29, 2007 [Asian Age] : A 22-year-old BPO employee was mercilessly thrashed by the city police and "taught a lesson" for daring to disrupt Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s convoy.
Mr. Modi was passing by on Ashram Road after inaugurating a function when Hussain Tahir Marketwala tried to cross the road. A convoy vehicle had to apply its brakes.
Mr. Modi’s personal commando asked for his car to be stopped near Hussain. He got down to have a word with Hussain, who was the only "civilian" on the road, but Mr. Modi gestured to the commando to get back in the car and get going.
However, soon after Mr. Modi’s vehicle passed, about half a dozen local policemen took hold of Hussain. He was asked for his name, and "once it was clear that he was a Muslim he was beaten up mercilessly," a policeman told this newspaper. "The police thrashed him on the road itself... They said it was necessary to teach him a lesson to dare to come in front of the chief minister’s convoy."
The policeman acknowledged that the man was beaten severely once it became evident from this name that he was a Muslim. "After the Godhra riots, all the terrorists who have come to kill Mr. Modi have been Muslims. Muslims cannot be trusted in Gujarat. They might have an agenda to damage the chief minister. We cannot take things lightly. If something happens to Mr. Modi, it would be said that the police did not do anything. This Muslim had to be taught a lesson to respect the chief minister," a policeman said.
He said the policemen who thrashed Hussain were not from any particular police station but were deployed on special security duty. Worse, while Hussain was being beaten up on the road after the convoy had passed, some bystanders tried to cheer the police and exhorted them to teach a lesson to the "anti-national Muslim."
Later, Hussain was taken to the Navrangpura police station and interrogated for two hours. After his family arrived there and the police was convinced that Hussain was innocent, he was allowed to go.
Hussain sustained serious injuries and had to seek medical help. In fact, his ear injury is quite major and may even lead to a hearing impairment.
However, Hussain and his family not only deny this but have refused to criticise the police or the public beating. Sources said the family was petrified and had decided that they could not afford to take a stand against the police.
"Muslims in Gujarat live under constant fear. Even if they are right, they do not want to prove the administration or the government wrong. They feel that if they do so, they will be further targeted and harassed," a Muslim schoolteacher who sought anonymity said.
"We live like second-class citizens. But we lack courage to stand up because in doing so there is more danger to us," he said.
Najma Marketwala, Hussain’s sister, told this newspaper: "It is just hype. My brother has been beaten up. But the cops have been very cooperative. In fact, we are big fans of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. We have no complaints against the police or anyone else."
Hussain Marketwala himself said later: "I had no clue that the road was closed and the CM was travelling. I committed a very serious mistake. I had to be punished. The police has done nothing wrong in beating me up in public."
A policeman said: "It seems the Marketwala family is scared to come out in the open against the government. This is the general psyche of Muslims in Gujarat today."
Hemant Patel, a businessman, who was on Ashram Road at the time of the incident, said: "The police has done nothing wrong. Everyone knows that Modi is a Hindu Hriday Samrat. The police cannot take chances. After all, Muslims cannot be trusted. Hussain should have been jailed. You never know, this could have been a mock exercise sponsored by some Islamic group. It cannot be taken lightly."
II
The Telegraph, Calcutta, Wednesday, August 29, 2007
‘Thief’ dragged behind police bike
GAUTAM SARKAR AND SANTOSH SINGH
Aug. 28: An alleged thief was tied to a police motorcycle and dragged 500 yards before a cheering crowd yesterday in a Bihar district that has been a byword for police cruelty.
Aurangzeb (22), cried in pain and pleaded for mercy but the roadside mob kicked him repeatedly as the shirtless man was dragged on his stomach and chest along a street in Nathnagar, 8km from Bhagalpur district headquarters.
TV pictures showed how the mob had earlier tied the young rickshaw-puller’s hands behind his back and kicked and punched him as he writhed on the ground, soaked in sweat and mud, his trousers unbuttoned.
Aurangzeb was waiting for customers before a temple in the afternoon when a woman accused him of having snatched her gold chain. The chain was allegedly found on Aurangzeb. The young man lay in the Bhagalpur jail hospital today — with no clear word on his condition — a short distance from the areas where the police had blinded 30-odd under trials in 1981 by pouring acid into their eyes.
The infamous “Bhagalpur blindings” had found some popular support but this evening, in the communally sensitive town, an armed crowd of 2,000 had gathered near the Nathnagar police station.
“The situation is charged,” said the deputy inspector-general of police (Bhagalpur range), Girijanandan Sharma, blaming the tensions on “rumours” of Aurangzeb’s death.
Earlier, as news channels beamed yesterday’s incident across the nation, the state administration suspended assistant sub-inspector Ram Balak Singh and constable Ramchandar Rai and ordered an inquiry. The two had reached the spot while the mob was beating Aurangzeb. They tied one of his feet to their motorbike and Singh rode it to the police station. By then Aurangzeb had “lost consciousness”. Said state home secretary Afzal Amanullah.
The young man, his body covered in cuts and bruises, was put on a cart and taken to a town hospital and then shifted to the jail.
“He is an orphan and I brought him up. I fear they (the police) will kill him,” said a sobbing Bibi Sabra, Aurangzeb’s grandmother, at their home in Hasanabad on the outskirts of Nathnagar. Aurangzeb’s sister Anjuman, 14, said their parents had died many years ago.
District magistrate Vipin Kumar was non-committal when asked about Aurangzeb’s condition.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad said: “This is how a person from the minority community is treated under (chief minister) Nitish Kumar’s rule.”
“Action has been taken. Police brutality will not be tolerated,” Kumar said.
Amanullah promised that the police would “find out the members of the public who beat up Aurangzeb”.
DIG Sharma had earlier denied police cruelty, saying his men had “done a good job in rescuing the thief from the crowd”.
“Aurangzeb was tied to the motorcycle to prevent him from escaping, but he fell on the bumpy road accidentally and got dragged for a short distance,” he claimed.
He also said the accused had a criminal history and had recently been let out of jail. The officer in charge of Nathnagar police station, Jawed Mahmood, backed him but failed to provide the case details.
“The police yesterday repeated the Raj’s brutality. On January 13, 1785, Tilka Manjhi, the Paharia freedom fighter, was tied to a horse and dragged around Bhagalpur before he was hanged,” a local teacher said.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Hats, Caps, Turbans, scarves -- racial profiling in West and East
US Sikhs outraged by new turban search policy
[JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE:
US Sikhs outraged by new turban search policy
by Maxim KniazkovSun Aug 26, 2007
The largest civil rights organization of American Sikhs has expressed outrage at a new US airport security policy that it said allows arbitrary searches of turbans, a sacred headdress for members of the religion.
The Sikh Coalition said Saturday it had been informed by the Transportation Security Administration that under its new guidelines, turbans could be subject to manual pat-downs even if their wearers had passed a metal detector test.
"Telling screeners to search people in turbans is the same as telling them to search black people or Arabs or Muslims," Amardeep Singh, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, said in a statement. "The policy allows screeners to single out travelers on the basis of their religion."
Singh argued that the message the new TSA policy sends to the public is that "people who wear turbans are dangerous."
"That attitude challenges the spirit of religious pluralism on which our country was built," he stated.
TSA spokeswoman Lara Uselding, reached by AFP by telephone late Saturday, acknowledged that on August 4, the agency that oversees security at 450 US airports as well as railroads, ports and mass transit systems revised its screening procedures for head coverings.
But she denied the changes that will be carried out by all 43,000 US airport screeners had anything to do with religious beliefs espoused by travelers.
"TSA does not conduct ethnic or religious profiling, and employs multiple checks and balances to ensure profiling does not happen," Uselding assured.
However, the coalition insisted the feelings of about 500,000 followers of the Sikh religion who have made their home in the United States were still likely to be hurt.
The turban is a sacred headdress in the Sikh religion given to its followers by the faith's founding gurus, or prophets.
Obligatory for men and optional for women, it is worn to underscore the distinct Sikh identity and full commitment to the faith, according to members of the religion.
Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world followed by an estimated 23 million adherents, the majority of them in India. The largest Sikh communities in the United States are located on the West Coast.
Because of their devotion to the turban, some Sikh individuals have been harassed in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, as some Americans associated them with members of Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh gas station owner from Mesa, Arizona, was shot and killed four days after the attacks by a mentally unstable American man, who had concluded, after seeing Balbir's turban, that he was an ally of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
According to the Sikh Coalition, the new headdress policy marks a significant departure from procedures adopted by the US government in November 2001.
The old policy, the group said, allowed airport screeners to search turbans only after their owners had triggered alarms when passing through a metal detector. Screeners were also required to do as much as possible to avoid physically touching the sacred turbans.
The new procedures recommend physical pat-downs of the Sikh headdress without acknowledging the religious sensitivities involved, the coalition noted.
Uselding did not elaborate on the search techniques.
The new headwear policy also covers cowboy hats and some berets, the Sikh coalition acknowledged. But it noted that the turban was the only type of mandatory religious garb, the mere presence of which could trigger a secondary screening at security checkpoints.
"Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of Sikhs have been harassed, beaten, and even killed because of the association of their turbans and beards with terrorism," noted the coalition statement. "The TSA procedures put an official stamp of approval on this harmful stereotyping by the public."
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
[JOHN DAYAL’S NOTE:
US Sikhs outraged by new turban search policy
by Maxim KniazkovSun Aug 26, 2007
The largest civil rights organization of American Sikhs has expressed outrage at a new US airport security policy that it said allows arbitrary searches of turbans, a sacred headdress for members of the religion.
The Sikh Coalition said Saturday it had been informed by the Transportation Security Administration that under its new guidelines, turbans could be subject to manual pat-downs even if their wearers had passed a metal detector test.
"Telling screeners to search people in turbans is the same as telling them to search black people or Arabs or Muslims," Amardeep Singh, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, said in a statement. "The policy allows screeners to single out travelers on the basis of their religion."
Singh argued that the message the new TSA policy sends to the public is that "people who wear turbans are dangerous."
"That attitude challenges the spirit of religious pluralism on which our country was built," he stated.
TSA spokeswoman Lara Uselding, reached by AFP by telephone late Saturday, acknowledged that on August 4, the agency that oversees security at 450 US airports as well as railroads, ports and mass transit systems revised its screening procedures for head coverings.
But she denied the changes that will be carried out by all 43,000 US airport screeners had anything to do with religious beliefs espoused by travelers.
"TSA does not conduct ethnic or religious profiling, and employs multiple checks and balances to ensure profiling does not happen," Uselding assured.
However, the coalition insisted the feelings of about 500,000 followers of the Sikh religion who have made their home in the United States were still likely to be hurt.
The turban is a sacred headdress in the Sikh religion given to its followers by the faith's founding gurus, or prophets.
Obligatory for men and optional for women, it is worn to underscore the distinct Sikh identity and full commitment to the faith, according to members of the religion.
Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world followed by an estimated 23 million adherents, the majority of them in India. The largest Sikh communities in the United States are located on the West Coast.
Because of their devotion to the turban, some Sikh individuals have been harassed in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, as some Americans associated them with members of Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh gas station owner from Mesa, Arizona, was shot and killed four days after the attacks by a mentally unstable American man, who had concluded, after seeing Balbir's turban, that he was an ally of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
According to the Sikh Coalition, the new headdress policy marks a significant departure from procedures adopted by the US government in November 2001.
The old policy, the group said, allowed airport screeners to search turbans only after their owners had triggered alarms when passing through a metal detector. Screeners were also required to do as much as possible to avoid physically touching the sacred turbans.
The new procedures recommend physical pat-downs of the Sikh headdress without acknowledging the religious sensitivities involved, the coalition noted.
Uselding did not elaborate on the search techniques.
The new headwear policy also covers cowboy hats and some berets, the Sikh coalition acknowledged. But it noted that the turban was the only type of mandatory religious garb, the mere presence of which could trigger a secondary screening at security checkpoints.
"Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of Sikhs have been harassed, beaten, and even killed because of the association of their turbans and beards with terrorism," noted the coalition statement. "The TSA procedures put an official stamp of approval on this harmful stereotyping by the public."
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Monday, August 27, 2007
For the Dalit, it is his Wife, or his Life
Bihar man ostracized for refusing to give wife to rich man
[JOHN DAYAL’s NOTE: The sexual exploitation of Dalit women is no less than physical violence against the men, to the economic throttling of the entire community. Though this incident took place in Bihar, it is not unknown in most states of India – including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Kerala has had its own history. The National Commission for Women, and its equivalents in the States have failed to take cognizance of this crime, and it is only that police have acted on the rare formal complaints. A huge conspiracy of silence involves the aggressors, the victims, the police and the political apparatus. One hopes that the highlighting of this case in the national media will move the National Human Rights Commission, the Central and State government and Non Governmental Organisations to challenge what are otherwise seen as a social reality. Counsel Smita Nirula in her pioneering work “Broken People’’ for the Human Rights Watch recorded the testimony of Dalit women who have been victims of sexual exploitation in rural and urban areas of India]
Bihar man ostracized for refusing to give wife to rich man
[IANS Monday, August 27, 2007 at 23:14]
Patna: A poor landless labourer and his family have been ostracised in a Bihar village for his refusal to hand over his wife to a rich man.
Rudo Mandal, 40, and his wife Sushila Devi, 30, have been forced to go hungry along with their six children after they were threatened with dire consequences by the henchmen of the person who demanded the worker to give him his wife.
"First they demanded that I hand over my wife and when I refused they ostracised us and threatened to eliminate us," Mandal, a labourer in Haripur village under Daghmdaha block in Purnea district, about 300 km from here, said Monday.
Mandal along with his wife and children met the Purnea district superintendent of police, seeking security for the family. "We have informed the SP about the threat to our lives and sought security," he said. Sushila Devi said they have been running from pillar to post for justice, but to no avail. "We were socially ostracised for trying to protect our honour," she said.
Mandal was denied work in the village under the orders of the rich man. The villager said he and his family had met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his Janata durbar or public meet a few weeks ago. "We were promised justice, but nothing has happened so far," he said.
The family was planning to migrate from Bihar if they failed to get justice. Mandal's case is not an isolated one. There are several such instances in rural Bihar where powerful landed people still behave like feudal lords of the past.
NO JUSTICE: The family met Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, but didn't get justice.
© 2007 IBNLive.com India. All Rights Reserved. A Web18 Venture
[JOHN DAYAL’s NOTE: The sexual exploitation of Dalit women is no less than physical violence against the men, to the economic throttling of the entire community. Though this incident took place in Bihar, it is not unknown in most states of India – including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Kerala has had its own history. The National Commission for Women, and its equivalents in the States have failed to take cognizance of this crime, and it is only that police have acted on the rare formal complaints. A huge conspiracy of silence involves the aggressors, the victims, the police and the political apparatus. One hopes that the highlighting of this case in the national media will move the National Human Rights Commission, the Central and State government and Non Governmental Organisations to challenge what are otherwise seen as a social reality. Counsel Smita Nirula in her pioneering work “Broken People’’ for the Human Rights Watch recorded the testimony of Dalit women who have been victims of sexual exploitation in rural and urban areas of India]
Bihar man ostracized for refusing to give wife to rich man
[IANS Monday, August 27, 2007 at 23:14]
Patna: A poor landless labourer and his family have been ostracised in a Bihar village for his refusal to hand over his wife to a rich man.
Rudo Mandal, 40, and his wife Sushila Devi, 30, have been forced to go hungry along with their six children after they were threatened with dire consequences by the henchmen of the person who demanded the worker to give him his wife.
"First they demanded that I hand over my wife and when I refused they ostracised us and threatened to eliminate us," Mandal, a labourer in Haripur village under Daghmdaha block in Purnea district, about 300 km from here, said Monday.
Mandal along with his wife and children met the Purnea district superintendent of police, seeking security for the family. "We have informed the SP about the threat to our lives and sought security," he said. Sushila Devi said they have been running from pillar to post for justice, but to no avail. "We were socially ostracised for trying to protect our honour," she said.
Mandal was denied work in the village under the orders of the rich man. The villager said he and his family had met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his Janata durbar or public meet a few weeks ago. "We were promised justice, but nothing has happened so far," he said.
The family was planning to migrate from Bihar if they failed to get justice. Mandal's case is not an isolated one. There are several such instances in rural Bihar where powerful landed people still behave like feudal lords of the past.
NO JUSTICE: The family met Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, but didn't get justice.
© 2007 IBNLive.com India. All Rights Reserved. A Web18 Venture
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Responding to the Chief Justice of India to get justice for Dalit Christians
Your honour, we discriminate
HT, August 24, 2007 Mumbai edition Op-Ed page
George Menezes
I AM responding to an embarrassing question asked by the Chief Justice of India while disposing of our case for equal rights for Dalit Christians. He asked whether Christians also practise the caste system. He gave the Centre eight weeks to respond to the Court.
The case has reached this point, after over 57 years of peaceful agitation. The process has seen several judicial interventions and an unbelievable number of Commissions studying the problem.
I have been a part of the process since 1986 as National President of the All India Catholic Union, and, in the last few years, from the sidelines watching and advising a massive grassroots movement involving several lay organisations, both Catholic and non-Catholic, supported very strongly by the Bishops Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
I speak in this piece only about the Catholic Church, and I have to say to the honourable Chief Justice, hanging down my head in shame like Tom Dooley, that there has been a rampant caste system, both in the community and in the hierarchical Church.
Today an activist judiciary almost walks the talk. I am therefore tempted to take Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan for a walk. Let us walk into the villages, where dalits live together no matter what religion they belong to. Let us enter the hut of the Chamar family. Ramesh Chamar and his parents are Hindus. His brother John befriended some Salesian priests, studied in the Don Bosco School and became a Catholic. The whole family continues to be discriminated against in humiliating ways, by the upper castes Hindus, as well as by upper caste Catholics in the village.
But there is discrimination, not just from the community, but from the Government. Ramesh gets all the benefits reserved for Hindu Dalits. John gets none. Ironically, the upper-class Catholics in the area would never consider marrying their daughter to him.
Let me take a longer walk. I am presiding over a meeting of the Working Committee of the All India Catholic Union in a Diocese in Southern India. Suddenly a group of Catholic Dalits from the Diocese barge into the meeting and shout slogans against us.
They ask me to stop the meeting and walk with them through the Diocese. They take me to the Church and show me the "side" their only access to the Church and the benches at the back earmarked only for them. They take me to the cemetery, where a wall separates the burial place of the Dalits from that of the upper castes. Due to space constraints I am listing only a very few of the acts of discrimination they are subjected to. I get really mad and feel terribly ashamed. Together with members of the Working Committee, we break the wall and invite being arrested by the police for trespass. I notice with sadness that the upper caste members of my Working Committee are reluctant to join me in breaking the wall.
No doubt, things have changed since then and both the Catholic community and the Church are aware of the mortal sins they are committing. But the progress is slow, and therefore even today, in answer to the question of the Chief Justice, I have reluctantly to admit that the Catholic community and the hierarchical Church are discriminating against Dalit Catholics. That this is happening is natural in a country like India. The Church is not an island. It lives and breathes in the social milieu in which it exists. The Hindu upper caste discrimination against Dalits has a natural fall out on the Church. The economic exploitation, cultural suppression and political domination of the Dalits in the whole country for hundreds of years have their own repercussions on the Catholic Church dominated by an upper caste clergy.
Christianity has certainly made a difference and diluted the effect of the presence of caste discrimination. But it still exists and needs to be taken cognisance of by the Supreme Court. If special benefits provided in the Constitution have been given to Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhist Dalits, based not on religion but on social discrimination, there is no reason why the Christian Dalits who still suffer indescribable social ostracisation, despite their Christianity, should not be included in the Presidential Order of 1950, and get the same benefits.
Fifty seven years is a long time to wait, your Honour.
George Menezes is President Emeritus, All India Catholic Union
HT, August 24, 2007 Mumbai edition Op-Ed page
George Menezes
I AM responding to an embarrassing question asked by the Chief Justice of India while disposing of our case for equal rights for Dalit Christians. He asked whether Christians also practise the caste system. He gave the Centre eight weeks to respond to the Court.
The case has reached this point, after over 57 years of peaceful agitation. The process has seen several judicial interventions and an unbelievable number of Commissions studying the problem.
I have been a part of the process since 1986 as National President of the All India Catholic Union, and, in the last few years, from the sidelines watching and advising a massive grassroots movement involving several lay organisations, both Catholic and non-Catholic, supported very strongly by the Bishops Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
I speak in this piece only about the Catholic Church, and I have to say to the honourable Chief Justice, hanging down my head in shame like Tom Dooley, that there has been a rampant caste system, both in the community and in the hierarchical Church.
Today an activist judiciary almost walks the talk. I am therefore tempted to take Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan for a walk. Let us walk into the villages, where dalits live together no matter what religion they belong to. Let us enter the hut of the Chamar family. Ramesh Chamar and his parents are Hindus. His brother John befriended some Salesian priests, studied in the Don Bosco School and became a Catholic. The whole family continues to be discriminated against in humiliating ways, by the upper castes Hindus, as well as by upper caste Catholics in the village.
But there is discrimination, not just from the community, but from the Government. Ramesh gets all the benefits reserved for Hindu Dalits. John gets none. Ironically, the upper-class Catholics in the area would never consider marrying their daughter to him.
Let me take a longer walk. I am presiding over a meeting of the Working Committee of the All India Catholic Union in a Diocese in Southern India. Suddenly a group of Catholic Dalits from the Diocese barge into the meeting and shout slogans against us.
They ask me to stop the meeting and walk with them through the Diocese. They take me to the Church and show me the "side" their only access to the Church and the benches at the back earmarked only for them. They take me to the cemetery, where a wall separates the burial place of the Dalits from that of the upper castes. Due to space constraints I am listing only a very few of the acts of discrimination they are subjected to. I get really mad and feel terribly ashamed. Together with members of the Working Committee, we break the wall and invite being arrested by the police for trespass. I notice with sadness that the upper caste members of my Working Committee are reluctant to join me in breaking the wall.
No doubt, things have changed since then and both the Catholic community and the Church are aware of the mortal sins they are committing. But the progress is slow, and therefore even today, in answer to the question of the Chief Justice, I have reluctantly to admit that the Catholic community and the hierarchical Church are discriminating against Dalit Catholics. That this is happening is natural in a country like India. The Church is not an island. It lives and breathes in the social milieu in which it exists. The Hindu upper caste discrimination against Dalits has a natural fall out on the Church. The economic exploitation, cultural suppression and political domination of the Dalits in the whole country for hundreds of years have their own repercussions on the Catholic Church dominated by an upper caste clergy.
Christianity has certainly made a difference and diluted the effect of the presence of caste discrimination. But it still exists and needs to be taken cognisance of by the Supreme Court. If special benefits provided in the Constitution have been given to Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhist Dalits, based not on religion but on social discrimination, there is no reason why the Christian Dalits who still suffer indescribable social ostracisation, despite their Christianity, should not be included in the Presidential Order of 1950, and get the same benefits.
Fifty seven years is a long time to wait, your Honour.
George Menezes is President Emeritus, All India Catholic Union
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Lest we forget
Lest we forget
“Out of 610 judges in various High Courts [at the relevant time], there are hardly about 20 judges belonging to the SCs and STs.” -- The Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law Ministry quoting from the report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution: From the pages of the Hindu, 1th August
“Out of 610 judges in various High Courts [at the relevant time], there are hardly about 20 judges belonging to the SCs and STs.” -- The Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law Ministry quoting from the report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution: From the pages of the Hindu, 1th August
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Don't forget Dalit Christians, Muslims on Independence Day
URGENT PRESS STATEMENT
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 15, 2007
Christian Community welcomes President, PM assurances to Minorities, Dalits, Poor
But action needed on ground to restore security, dignity
Dalit Christians, Muslims still ignored
[Following is the text of the press release issued by Dr John Dayal, Member, NIC, Government of India, on behalf of the All India Catholic Union, the All India Christian Council and the United Christian Action on Independence Day 2007]
The Christian community greets fellow citizens on 60 years of India’s Independence, and prays for the welfare of all Indians and our leaders. We recognise that Freedom is a gift of God who made every human being free – specially free from oppression of caste, free from discrimination on grounds of skin colour, religion, faith, and class.
Even as we thank God, we also acknowledge the debt we owe to all those who fought for our freedom from feudal and colonial rule, among them Pinto in the 18th Century who was hanged for raising his voice against the Portuguese, and the hundreds of thousands who sacrificed themselves so the country could be free of Imperial rule, and the stronghold of princelings and landlords.
We congratulate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his brave words and promises to the nation from Red Fort. We also congratulate President Pratibha Patil for similar expressions in her first address to the nation. We share their dream of an India united despite its many diversities. We fully support his promise of an India in which every citizen can live a life of dignity, self- respect, decency and hope. We welcome the rehabilitation promise for farmers who lose land to SEZs, but we oppose SEZs in areas that take away not just land, but dignity, livelihood and ultimately the fruits of Independence from the poorest of the poor.
We hope the government will soon enact measures to activate the Prime Minister’s commitment to the economic, social, political and educational empowerment of Scheduled Castes, Tribes, OBCs and religious minorities.
Dr Manmohan Singh must ensure his promises are not weakened by lack of political will in the Government, the vested interests of many, and the opposition of communal and feudal elements in the ruling classes. All too often have promises for Dalits and Minorities in Five-Year Plans, annual Budgets and Republic Day and Independence Day speeches died an early death.
We search in vain in the two speeches for some hope for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. We hope the government will expeditiously implement the decisions of the Sachchar Commission and the Justice Misra Commission who said Dalits should not be divided on the basis of religion in affirmative action. We hope Dr Buta Singh’s National Scheduled caste Commission and the Supreme Court of India will give justice to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims a s justice has been done in the past to Dalits professing the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths.
We wish to remind the Honourable President and Prime Minister of India of the great hope and expectations of the poor of the land from them and their government. These hopes must not be belied.
Dr. John Dayal
Member: National Integration Council, Government of India
National President: All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919)
Secretary General: All India Christian Council (Founded 1999)
President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992)
505 Link, 18 IP Extension, Delhi 110092 India
Email: johndayal@vsnl.com , http://groups.google.com/group/JohnDayal, Phone: 91-11-22722262 Mobile 09811021072
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 15, 2007
Christian Community welcomes President, PM assurances to Minorities, Dalits, Poor
But action needed on ground to restore security, dignity
Dalit Christians, Muslims still ignored
[Following is the text of the press release issued by Dr John Dayal, Member, NIC, Government of India, on behalf of the All India Catholic Union, the All India Christian Council and the United Christian Action on Independence Day 2007]
The Christian community greets fellow citizens on 60 years of India’s Independence, and prays for the welfare of all Indians and our leaders. We recognise that Freedom is a gift of God who made every human being free – specially free from oppression of caste, free from discrimination on grounds of skin colour, religion, faith, and class.
Even as we thank God, we also acknowledge the debt we owe to all those who fought for our freedom from feudal and colonial rule, among them Pinto in the 18th Century who was hanged for raising his voice against the Portuguese, and the hundreds of thousands who sacrificed themselves so the country could be free of Imperial rule, and the stronghold of princelings and landlords.
We congratulate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his brave words and promises to the nation from Red Fort. We also congratulate President Pratibha Patil for similar expressions in her first address to the nation. We share their dream of an India united despite its many diversities. We fully support his promise of an India in which every citizen can live a life of dignity, self- respect, decency and hope. We welcome the rehabilitation promise for farmers who lose land to SEZs, but we oppose SEZs in areas that take away not just land, but dignity, livelihood and ultimately the fruits of Independence from the poorest of the poor.
We hope the government will soon enact measures to activate the Prime Minister’s commitment to the economic, social, political and educational empowerment of Scheduled Castes, Tribes, OBCs and religious minorities.
Dr Manmohan Singh must ensure his promises are not weakened by lack of political will in the Government, the vested interests of many, and the opposition of communal and feudal elements in the ruling classes. All too often have promises for Dalits and Minorities in Five-Year Plans, annual Budgets and Republic Day and Independence Day speeches died an early death.
We search in vain in the two speeches for some hope for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. We hope the government will expeditiously implement the decisions of the Sachchar Commission and the Justice Misra Commission who said Dalits should not be divided on the basis of religion in affirmative action. We hope Dr Buta Singh’s National Scheduled caste Commission and the Supreme Court of India will give justice to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims a s justice has been done in the past to Dalits professing the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths.
We wish to remind the Honourable President and Prime Minister of India of the great hope and expectations of the poor of the land from them and their government. These hopes must not be belied.
Dr. John Dayal
Member: National Integration Council, Government of India
National President: All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919)
Secretary General: All India Christian Council (Founded 1999)
President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992)
505 Link, 18 IP Extension, Delhi 110092 India
Email: johndayal@vsnl.com , http://groups.google.com/group/JohnDayal, Phone: 91-11-22722262 Mobile 09811021072
Monday, August 13, 2007
2002 Gujarat Muslim masscres at Chief Minsiter Narendra Modi's orders, says his former Home Minister
Ahmedabad, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's once trusted lieutenant Govardhan Zadaphia, home minister during the Gujarat riots, has spoken openly that he was following the chief minister's orders during the infamous riots of 2002. Zadaphia while talking to NDTV admits responsibility of mass killing but he says he just followed Modi’s order.
''Even today, I am a friend to Modi and at the given time when I was with him, it was a cadre of RSS which believed that a leader is the leader and you have to follow the order.
''During 2002 I was responsible for whatever had happened, even today I am responsible for that, I don't deny my responsibility even though I am not a Minister.
''Modi has been discriminating against his own people, denying ticket to a leader like Haren Pandya,the political murder of him was done first and the physical thereafter,'' he added.
Modi has been under attack ever since Zadaphia and four other BJP MLAs were suspended from the BJP for anti-party activities. Party rebel has been touring state in an effort to garner support and highlight Modi’s failure.
The rebels are said to be backed by Modi-baiters like Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta, both former chief ministers.
One survey done by party which was leaked to media shows BJP will fail miserably if elections are held today in Gujrat. Some of the dissidents had voted for the UPA nominee Pratibha Patil in the recent presidential election.
''People are with us and the only thing is that nobody wants to leave the house, but if forced, we will leave the house,'' said Zadaphia.
Zadaphia enjoys good clout among the Patels, an influential vote-bank. Union Textile Minister Shankersingh Vaghela has already held a series of meetings with the rebels.
But BJP leader Arun Jaitley's recent visit to bring about a patch-up has only helped rebels garner more support from within the party.
''Even today, I am a friend to Modi and at the given time when I was with him, it was a cadre of RSS which believed that a leader is the leader and you have to follow the order.
''During 2002 I was responsible for whatever had happened, even today I am responsible for that, I don't deny my responsibility even though I am not a Minister.
''Modi has been discriminating against his own people, denying ticket to a leader like Haren Pandya,the political murder of him was done first and the physical thereafter,'' he added.
Modi has been under attack ever since Zadaphia and four other BJP MLAs were suspended from the BJP for anti-party activities. Party rebel has been touring state in an effort to garner support and highlight Modi’s failure.
The rebels are said to be backed by Modi-baiters like Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta, both former chief ministers.
One survey done by party which was leaked to media shows BJP will fail miserably if elections are held today in Gujrat. Some of the dissidents had voted for the UPA nominee Pratibha Patil in the recent presidential election.
''People are with us and the only thing is that nobody wants to leave the house, but if forced, we will leave the house,'' said Zadaphia.
Zadaphia enjoys good clout among the Patels, an influential vote-bank. Union Textile Minister Shankersingh Vaghela has already held a series of meetings with the rebels.
But BJP leader Arun Jaitley's recent visit to bring about a patch-up has only helped rebels garner more support from within the party.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Condemned!
Press Statement
New Delhi 11 August 2007
Triply condemned – for attacking a woman, a refuge-seeker and a writer
[Text of Press Statement issued by Dr John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council, Government of India and President of the All India Catholic Union.]
The Andhra Pradesh legislators of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) have not covered themselves or their party with glory by attacking Bangladeshi woman writer Taslima Nasreen, now in living in exile in India, at the Hyderabad Press Club where she was launching a new book. The attack on a woman would have been contemptible in itself, the religious bigotry and political opportunism shown by Legislators Moazzam Khan, Pasha Qadri and Afsar Khan reduces it to a level where even their own co-religionists, howsoever orthodox, would find it difficult to defend, whatever the real or perceived provocation.
Law Commission member Prof Tahir Mahmood has done right to point out that it is not persons of religion but political workers who have assaulted the writer. The fact that the party, which is confined to a pocket of the ancient city, is unrepentant explains more than any words can do the depth of its political vested interest.
But a very thin line divides religious fundamentalism and the politicians and politics that feed off it. Whether it is the MIM of Hyderabad clinging to a narrow ledge of power in the black depths of our political system, or the Sangh Parivar more sonorous in its might, or for that matter extreme and sometimes violent elements of other faiths, mother tongues and ethnicities, each one of them stands condemned in the civilised modern nation which Nehru dreamt of 60 years ago.
I congratulate Professor Zoya Hasan, member of the National Minorities Commission and like Prof Mahmood, an author herself whose family has seen intolerance of her own community, that while each one of us has the right to expression and free speech, it can be practiced only if each one of us extends it to others. It will be recalled that the protest against Da Vinci Code in Mumbai remained peaceful, and merely verbal.
Faith itself remains beyond challenge, but religious practices are open to reform. Europe’s burning of heretics and blasphemers at the stake has been buried with the Dark ages. Modern religion surely can do without an intolerance that goes counter to God’s expressed love for his Creation. And therefore violence is inexcusable and must be condemned whenever and wherever it takes place, and whosoever is its author. Ms Barkha Dutt, hugely talented Television anchorperson does Civil society grave injustice is trying to insinuate that activists criticise only Hindus. Activists never criticise Hindus. They criticise the bullies and killers of the Sangh Parivar to whom the Constitution of India, the Indian Penal Code and the teachings of India’s own saints hold no meaning, as they criticise and condemn the bullies of the MIM.
The State cannot differentiate, nor can it discriminate. Above all, it cannot dither. The rule of law must prevail at all times. And the protection of the Law must be available to everyone in India, even if they are Bangladeshi women writers in exile in this great and otherwise haven of Democracy where the Mind is still free and the heart still warm.
Dr. John Dayal
Member: National Integration Council
Government of India
National President: All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919)
Secretary General: All India Christian Council (Founded 1999)
President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992)
505 Link, 18 IP Extension, Delhi 110092 India
Email: johndayal@vsnl.com
http://groups.google.com/group/JohnDayal
Phone: 91-11-22722262 Mobile 09811021072
New Delhi 11 August 2007
Triply condemned – for attacking a woman, a refuge-seeker and a writer
[Text of Press Statement issued by Dr John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council, Government of India and President of the All India Catholic Union.]
The Andhra Pradesh legislators of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) have not covered themselves or their party with glory by attacking Bangladeshi woman writer Taslima Nasreen, now in living in exile in India, at the Hyderabad Press Club where she was launching a new book. The attack on a woman would have been contemptible in itself, the religious bigotry and political opportunism shown by Legislators Moazzam Khan, Pasha Qadri and Afsar Khan reduces it to a level where even their own co-religionists, howsoever orthodox, would find it difficult to defend, whatever the real or perceived provocation.
Law Commission member Prof Tahir Mahmood has done right to point out that it is not persons of religion but political workers who have assaulted the writer. The fact that the party, which is confined to a pocket of the ancient city, is unrepentant explains more than any words can do the depth of its political vested interest.
But a very thin line divides religious fundamentalism and the politicians and politics that feed off it. Whether it is the MIM of Hyderabad clinging to a narrow ledge of power in the black depths of our political system, or the Sangh Parivar more sonorous in its might, or for that matter extreme and sometimes violent elements of other faiths, mother tongues and ethnicities, each one of them stands condemned in the civilised modern nation which Nehru dreamt of 60 years ago.
I congratulate Professor Zoya Hasan, member of the National Minorities Commission and like Prof Mahmood, an author herself whose family has seen intolerance of her own community, that while each one of us has the right to expression and free speech, it can be practiced only if each one of us extends it to others. It will be recalled that the protest against Da Vinci Code in Mumbai remained peaceful, and merely verbal.
Faith itself remains beyond challenge, but religious practices are open to reform. Europe’s burning of heretics and blasphemers at the stake has been buried with the Dark ages. Modern religion surely can do without an intolerance that goes counter to God’s expressed love for his Creation. And therefore violence is inexcusable and must be condemned whenever and wherever it takes place, and whosoever is its author. Ms Barkha Dutt, hugely talented Television anchorperson does Civil society grave injustice is trying to insinuate that activists criticise only Hindus. Activists never criticise Hindus. They criticise the bullies and killers of the Sangh Parivar to whom the Constitution of India, the Indian Penal Code and the teachings of India’s own saints hold no meaning, as they criticise and condemn the bullies of the MIM.
The State cannot differentiate, nor can it discriminate. Above all, it cannot dither. The rule of law must prevail at all times. And the protection of the Law must be available to everyone in India, even if they are Bangladeshi women writers in exile in this great and otherwise haven of Democracy where the Mind is still free and the heart still warm.
Dr. John Dayal
Member: National Integration Council
Government of India
National President: All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919)
Secretary General: All India Christian Council (Founded 1999)
President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992)
505 Link, 18 IP Extension, Delhi 110092 India
Email: johndayal@vsnl.com
http://groups.google.com/group/JohnDayal
Phone: 91-11-22722262 Mobile 09811021072
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Delhi Police charge unnamed Australia-based groups with hate crime
Police register case under Sections 505 and 505 Indian Penal Code for postal, email threats from Australia-based Hindutva groups to Sonia Gandhi, John Dayal
New Delhi, August 8th 2007
Two months after emails and letters were received by National Integration member Dr John Dayal from Australia-based Hindutva groups, targeting him and Indian National Congress and United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi with hate speech and communal threats to their person, the Mandawali police station of Delhi Police has at last registered a formal criminal case and launched the second phase of their investigations.
The criminal cases have been filed under Sections 505 and 507 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 505 is for crimes by a person or persons circulating statements “with intent to cause or likely to cause fear or alarm to the general public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity, likely to incite any class or community to commit any offence against any class or community. The Section also covers statements creating enmity, hate or ill will between communities
Section 507 charges people with the crime of Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication. The sections invite prison terms of three years and two years of rigorous imprisonment, and fines.
The complaint was earlier investigated by the Cyber crime and economic offences wings of the Delhi police before being formalised into what is called the FIR. [FIR number 377 registered on 8 August 2007 at Police Station Mandawali, East Delhi District, Delhi Police.]
The complaint had also been sent to the High Commissioner of Australia in New Delhi has been no response from Australia.
The letter from unnamed Australia-based groups had been received by Dr Dayal at his home through the Indian Postal Service.
In his complaint to the Commissioner of Delhi Police on 10th May 2007, Dr Dayal, president of the All India Catholic Union and Secretary General of the All India Christian Council said the following:
On the evening of 9th May 2007, I received by post at my address an envelope bearing Australian postage stamps. I opened the envelop, and was shocked to see, and to read, its contents.
The letter was on computer laser print, apparently from the website http://www.hindujagruti.org with the Caption “Hindu Janajagruti Samiti: with the further caption “Devout Hindus stop conversions in MP”. In the white space in the point out, and on the reverse, in a blue felt tip pen, the following threatening words have been written by some apparently literate person, apparently fluent in English, purportedly a student living abroad [in Australia, perhaps, going by the postage stamps and Post Office cancellation marks]:
The writer of the hand-written letter says: “You filthy John Dayal, Stop your dirty conversions in India. Using foreign money to lure poor gullible Hindus into Christianity. We are young Hindus living and studying in foreign countries. If you don not stop your conversions, we will come and kill, chase all Christians out of India. If you are a Christian, go and live in a Christian country. You can stay in our country but stop your conversions. We will not let our Hindu motherland be abused by a filthy dog like you. You will be our first target. Rot in hell, you filthy dog. Go to Pakistan and Saudi and see what your activities will get you there. They will chop your balls and feed it to the dogs. You have the support of that Catholic prostitute Sonia and that pig of a pope of yours. Keep doing this and see what we do to you. You know Gandhi was killed by a Hindu. What are you. Get out of our country, you dirty DOG. Take that Catholic Bitch – Sonia Gandhi family with you.”
I do not fear such threats to my life. I have faith in Christ.
I also have faith in the Democracy of my country and its law and justice system. As a citizen of India, I expect the law and order process to take care of such lunatics,
I am sure the Delhi police will file this FIR under suitable sections of the penal code, and take appropriate action under postal and internet laws of the land.
Thank you,
And God bless
Dr. John Dayal”
New Delhi, August 8th 2007
Two months after emails and letters were received by National Integration member Dr John Dayal from Australia-based Hindutva groups, targeting him and Indian National Congress and United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi with hate speech and communal threats to their person, the Mandawali police station of Delhi Police has at last registered a formal criminal case and launched the second phase of their investigations.
The criminal cases have been filed under Sections 505 and 507 of the Indian Penal Code. Section 505 is for crimes by a person or persons circulating statements “with intent to cause or likely to cause fear or alarm to the general public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity, likely to incite any class or community to commit any offence against any class or community. The Section also covers statements creating enmity, hate or ill will between communities
Section 507 charges people with the crime of Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication. The sections invite prison terms of three years and two years of rigorous imprisonment, and fines.
The complaint was earlier investigated by the Cyber crime and economic offences wings of the Delhi police before being formalised into what is called the FIR. [FIR number 377 registered on 8 August 2007 at Police Station Mandawali, East Delhi District, Delhi Police.]
The complaint had also been sent to the High Commissioner of Australia in New Delhi has been no response from Australia.
The letter from unnamed Australia-based groups had been received by Dr Dayal at his home through the Indian Postal Service.
In his complaint to the Commissioner of Delhi Police on 10th May 2007, Dr Dayal, president of the All India Catholic Union and Secretary General of the All India Christian Council said the following:
On the evening of 9th May 2007, I received by post at my address an envelope bearing Australian postage stamps. I opened the envelop, and was shocked to see, and to read, its contents.
The letter was on computer laser print, apparently from the website http://www.hindujagruti.org with the Caption “Hindu Janajagruti Samiti: with the further caption “Devout Hindus stop conversions in MP”. In the white space in the point out, and on the reverse, in a blue felt tip pen, the following threatening words have been written by some apparently literate person, apparently fluent in English, purportedly a student living abroad [in Australia, perhaps, going by the postage stamps and Post Office cancellation marks]:
The writer of the hand-written letter says: “You filthy John Dayal, Stop your dirty conversions in India. Using foreign money to lure poor gullible Hindus into Christianity. We are young Hindus living and studying in foreign countries. If you don not stop your conversions, we will come and kill, chase all Christians out of India. If you are a Christian, go and live in a Christian country. You can stay in our country but stop your conversions. We will not let our Hindu motherland be abused by a filthy dog like you. You will be our first target. Rot in hell, you filthy dog. Go to Pakistan and Saudi and see what your activities will get you there. They will chop your balls and feed it to the dogs. You have the support of that Catholic prostitute Sonia and that pig of a pope of yours. Keep doing this and see what we do to you. You know Gandhi was killed by a Hindu. What are you. Get out of our country, you dirty DOG. Take that Catholic Bitch – Sonia Gandhi family with you.”
I do not fear such threats to my life. I have faith in Christ.
I also have faith in the Democracy of my country and its law and justice system. As a citizen of India, I expect the law and order process to take care of such lunatics,
I am sure the Delhi police will file this FIR under suitable sections of the penal code, and take appropriate action under postal and internet laws of the land.
Thank you,
And God bless
Dr. John Dayal”
Monday, August 6, 2007
Indian Media -- the bullet as well as the gun
Turn of Phrase – Semantics of Faith?
The media has its own grammar. And it own spin which leaves far behind Roget of the Thesaurus, Wren and Martin, and the Chicago Stylebook.
Or so it seems
According to the Hindustan Times today:
-- 6 million or 60 Lakh cows were `culled’ in the UK alone during the 2001 outbreak of an epidemic
-- In Manipur, 300,000 chicken too were `culled’
-- So were 16 wild bore in a Kerala zoo after a foot and mouth disease outbreak, which of course had no connection with various Left politicians and religious leaders putting their foot in their mouth!
-- Some days ago, hundreds of dogs were `killed’ in Bangalore after one of them killed child.
-- But Shiva, the black Herefordshire polled [hornless] bull in a UK Temple who was founded ill with bovine Tuberculosis, was `slaughtered’, if one is to go by the anchors of Indian television, including IBN CNN, not to speak of the screamers of Hindi language Television. That is the word they had to use in this case.
In the event, the poor black bull died of a lethal injection. The other 60 lakh cows were shot. Chinese and Vietnamese pigs were machine-gunned in a deep pit like a scene out of a WWII film. The chicken had their necks wrung and broken, and if they were small, they were asphyxiated alive in plastic bags. I do not know how the zoo authorities in Thiruvanthapuram were cullied – injection or bullet.
And this is what the dictionary says:
Slaughter (livestock): the method of killing animals to eat them
Cull: to select and kill (surplus animals)
Put to sleep: to put (an animal) to death in a humane way: to put a sick old dog to sleep.
-----------
Item Two
Kerala, Media and Ministers
From the Hindu, Cochin, 6 August 2007
“Each Media organisation has its own politics, agenda, whipping boys and blue eyed boys. The financial dealings of many were not transparent, though they pretend to be fighting against corruption. Some journalists are becoming part of a Media Mafia.” – Kerala Cooperation Minister Mr. G Sudhakaran explaining away Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan’s acidic comment against the Editor of Deepika newspaper, Mr. M A Pharis who he called “A hate man.”
The media has its own grammar. And it own spin which leaves far behind Roget of the Thesaurus, Wren and Martin, and the Chicago Stylebook.
Or so it seems
According to the Hindustan Times today:
-- 6 million or 60 Lakh cows were `culled’ in the UK alone during the 2001 outbreak of an epidemic
-- In Manipur, 300,000 chicken too were `culled’
-- So were 16 wild bore in a Kerala zoo after a foot and mouth disease outbreak, which of course had no connection with various Left politicians and religious leaders putting their foot in their mouth!
-- Some days ago, hundreds of dogs were `killed’ in Bangalore after one of them killed child.
-- But Shiva, the black Herefordshire polled [hornless] bull in a UK Temple who was founded ill with bovine Tuberculosis, was `slaughtered’, if one is to go by the anchors of Indian television, including IBN CNN, not to speak of the screamers of Hindi language Television. That is the word they had to use in this case.
In the event, the poor black bull died of a lethal injection. The other 60 lakh cows were shot. Chinese and Vietnamese pigs were machine-gunned in a deep pit like a scene out of a WWII film. The chicken had their necks wrung and broken, and if they were small, they were asphyxiated alive in plastic bags. I do not know how the zoo authorities in Thiruvanthapuram were cullied – injection or bullet.
And this is what the dictionary says:
Slaughter (livestock): the method of killing animals to eat them
Cull: to select and kill (surplus animals)
Put to sleep: to put (an animal) to death in a humane way: to put a sick old dog to sleep.
-----------
Item Two
Kerala, Media and Ministers
From the Hindu, Cochin, 6 August 2007
“Each Media organisation has its own politics, agenda, whipping boys and blue eyed boys. The financial dealings of many were not transparent, though they pretend to be fighting against corruption. Some journalists are becoming part of a Media Mafia.” – Kerala Cooperation Minister Mr. G Sudhakaran explaining away Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan’s acidic comment against the Editor of Deepika newspaper, Mr. M A Pharis who he called “A hate man.”
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Contextual Data -- and is anyonelkistyenbing in Tirupathi, Andhra
HINDUISM IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A FACTOID FROM THE INTERNET
According to the 2000 US Census, there are 1.679 million Indian Americans in the US of whom 1.081 million are Hindus. The one million Hindus constitute 0.4 percent of the US population of 290 million. Hindu-Americans consider themselves as synonymous with Indian American. Non-Hindu Indian Americans constitute 70 percent of Indian Americans or 700,000. To put it another way, Hindu Americans constitute 64 percent of Indian Americans. Yet Hindu-Americans consider themselves as synonymous with Indian-Americans and India as synonymous with Hindutva. This presumption is not supported by the empirical data. Of the US overall US population of 290 million, Christians constitute 225 million or 77 percent, with another 20 percent of Christian background identifying themselves Atheists and Agnostics. Jews constitute 4 million or 1.3 percent, Muslims 1.6 million or 0.5 million, Buddhists 1.5 million or 0.5 percent, Hindus 1 million or 0.4 percent.
Despite their small numbers, Indian Hindus have prospered enormously in the open and tolerant American Christian atmosphere. Hundreds of Hindu temples have been built throughout the US, many of them highly visible constructions in Christian neighborhoods. Unlike Muslims and Buddhists in the US who both exceed the Hindu population in the US, Hindus are more aggressive in religious display. They, for the record, do not mix much with fellow Indians among the Christians, Dalits, Buddhists and Muslims. The community-based organisations far outnumber united NRI groups.
-- Raju George C. Thomas, Visiting US Fulbright Professor, Faculty of the Political Sciences, Jove Ilica 165, Belgrade University, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Montenegro
----------------
A FACTOID FROM THE INTERNET
According to the 2000 US Census, there are 1.679 million Indian Americans in the US of whom 1.081 million are Hindus. The one million Hindus constitute 0.4 percent of the US population of 290 million. Hindu-Americans consider themselves as synonymous with Indian American. Non-Hindu Indian Americans constitute 70 percent of Indian Americans or 700,000. To put it another way, Hindu Americans constitute 64 percent of Indian Americans. Yet Hindu-Americans consider themselves as synonymous with Indian-Americans and India as synonymous with Hindutva. This presumption is not supported by the empirical data. Of the US overall US population of 290 million, Christians constitute 225 million or 77 percent, with another 20 percent of Christian background identifying themselves Atheists and Agnostics. Jews constitute 4 million or 1.3 percent, Muslims 1.6 million or 0.5 million, Buddhists 1.5 million or 0.5 percent, Hindus 1 million or 0.4 percent.
Despite their small numbers, Indian Hindus have prospered enormously in the open and tolerant American Christian atmosphere. Hundreds of Hindu temples have been built throughout the US, many of them highly visible constructions in Christian neighborhoods. Unlike Muslims and Buddhists in the US who both exceed the Hindu population in the US, Hindus are more aggressive in religious display. They, for the record, do not mix much with fellow Indians among the Christians, Dalits, Buddhists and Muslims. The community-based organisations far outnumber united NRI groups.
-- Raju George C. Thomas, Visiting US Fulbright Professor, Faculty of the Political Sciences, Jove Ilica 165, Belgrade University, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Montenegro
----------------
From John Dayal -- Request for assistance with inputs in writing Book on Persecution of Christians in India
Dear Friends
1. My new book “Matter of Equity – Freedom of Faith in Secular India” has been recently published to very good reviews in the Indian media and on the Internet – both by Christian writers and by others. The book is priced in India Hardcover at Rs 800 a copy and in the US etc at US Dollars 65, airmail free. Its Hindi version “Dharma-nishpekshita ke sangharsh” [struggles in secularism’] was published this week when I received the first copy. It will be formally released at a seminar in New Delhi later this month. This is priced at Rs 300, postage free. Both books are available from me at my email address. Postage free of course. Both books have been highlighted as the first interrogation of India’s secular claims, which so far had been critiques only from a Marxist or Muslim perspective and point of view.
2. The next book, which I am co-editing and writing with Adv Edward Arokiadoss, Treasurer of the All India Catholic Union of which I am the National President, and a leading activist from Madurai, is all but ready to go to the Printers. It is a definite documentation and reflection on the Struggle of the Dalit Christians in the Courts of Justice and Political Platforms in India. I am expecting it to be out within a few months. It will be about 400 pages including a significant appendix.
3. I am now undertaking a major project – the first definitive documentation and analysis of Persecution of Christians in India since Independence.
This will be monumental, will shatter many myths.
It is not just a narrative of individual incidents of violence. From the gang rape of Nuns in UP and Madhya Pradesh to the naked parade of Father Christudas in Dumka, Bihar [now Jharkhand} to the burning alive of the Staines family and the killing of Fr. Chrsturaj in Orissa will, of course, be recounted, the pattern analyzed, the guilty states indicted. Many important cases will be documented right to the court decision, whenever they reached a stage of justice being meted to the guilty, and those cases which never saw the light of day.
It will also look critically at the emergence of the Anti Conversion laws, the so called Freedom of Religious Acts, and will analyse the political response to it, from the Congress to the BJP
I will also review the response of various groups and stakeholders to it. The stakeholders are:
[1] The Catholic Church and its three official and other unofficial groups such as Syro Malabar, Syro Malankara, Latin, Church in Tribal area, and the Laity groups
[2] The Episcopal protestant churches – Presbyterian, CNI, CSI, Lutheran etc
[3] The evangelical and Pentecost churches and independent church groups
[4] The secular human rights groups and NGOS –n both funded through FCRA accounts and non-funded
[5] Legal fraternity and judicial structures
[6] The Indian police – IPS, Paramilitary and state police forces
[7] Legislative bodies in the states and the Parliament of India attitude to anti Christian hate and violence compared to anti-Muslim, anti-Sikh and anti-Muslim concerns; enacting of bizarre laws impacting Christianity
[8] the Prime Ministers and Presidents of India – from Nehru through Manmohan Singh and major leaders including Indira Gandhi, Vajpayee, Karunanidhi, the Marxists and Sonia Gandhi]
[9] The political discourse on conversions
[10]. The Sangh Parivar, the Islamic fundamentalists and others in the hate campaign
The Chapterization will include focus on States of Concern –
i Gujarat
ii Orissa
iii Madhya Pradesh
iv Chhattisgarh
v Rajasthan
vi Jharkhand
vii Karnataka
vii Andhra Pradesh
vii the North Eastern states
This is a major effort and requires your cooperation.
My early colleagues after I started documenting anti Christian issues on a daily basis in 1996 – and later made the first ever presentation of the Indian reality before UN organs, UK, European and US Governments and legislatures –n were men such as Samson Christian and Fr Cedric Prakash in Ahmedabad and Mr. Sajan George and Oliver D’Souza in Bangalore. Others to join early were Rev Bernard Chand Malik from the US, later joined by John Prabhudoss pioneers of FIACONA, Rev Jaswant Singha and some more. Dolphy D Souza in the Bombay Catholic Sabha and Abraham Mathai, now Vice chair of the Maharashtra Minority commission have contributed extraordinarily to the data. After Dr Joseph D Souza and others helped found the All India Christian Council, the activists have included Mr. Sam Paul, Albert Lael, Moses Parmar, Rev Kumarswamy, Rev Paricha and Madhu Chandra. The activist writers include the veteran Anto Akkara, Nirmala Carvalho and Vishal Arora. The advent of the Christian Law Association with activists such as Tehmina Ram Arora, Len, Pastor Sanjay and others have added a new dimension to documentation. Sister Mary and others have been instrumental in forming fact finding teams of some impact. Friends such as Teesta Setalvad of Communalism Combat, Shamsul Islam and Neelima Sharma of Nishant, Admirals Bhagwat and Ramdas, Ram Punyani, V B Rawat, and actor Mahesh Bhatt have been a source of strength.
I will be grateful for all detailed data – fact finding reports, news reports, photographs. Court judgments, FIRs that any of you have in your posses. My collection is extensive, but surely not complete or comprehensive.
I will wait for your response, your food wishes – and your data.
My deadline is to bring it out by Christmas.
Which means I must have all the data by end of October
I also invite advice.
I am of course honour bound to acknowledge every source, and pray with those who wish to remain anonymous
God bless you
John Dayal
New Delhi, 6 August 2007
1. My new book “Matter of Equity – Freedom of Faith in Secular India” has been recently published to very good reviews in the Indian media and on the Internet – both by Christian writers and by others. The book is priced in India Hardcover at Rs 800 a copy and in the US etc at US Dollars 65, airmail free. Its Hindi version “Dharma-nishpekshita ke sangharsh” [struggles in secularism’] was published this week when I received the first copy. It will be formally released at a seminar in New Delhi later this month. This is priced at Rs 300, postage free. Both books are available from me at my email address. Postage free of course. Both books have been highlighted as the first interrogation of India’s secular claims, which so far had been critiques only from a Marxist or Muslim perspective and point of view.
2. The next book, which I am co-editing and writing with Adv Edward Arokiadoss, Treasurer of the All India Catholic Union of which I am the National President, and a leading activist from Madurai, is all but ready to go to the Printers. It is a definite documentation and reflection on the Struggle of the Dalit Christians in the Courts of Justice and Political Platforms in India. I am expecting it to be out within a few months. It will be about 400 pages including a significant appendix.
3. I am now undertaking a major project – the first definitive documentation and analysis of Persecution of Christians in India since Independence.
This will be monumental, will shatter many myths.
It is not just a narrative of individual incidents of violence. From the gang rape of Nuns in UP and Madhya Pradesh to the naked parade of Father Christudas in Dumka, Bihar [now Jharkhand} to the burning alive of the Staines family and the killing of Fr. Chrsturaj in Orissa will, of course, be recounted, the pattern analyzed, the guilty states indicted. Many important cases will be documented right to the court decision, whenever they reached a stage of justice being meted to the guilty, and those cases which never saw the light of day.
It will also look critically at the emergence of the Anti Conversion laws, the so called Freedom of Religious Acts, and will analyse the political response to it, from the Congress to the BJP
I will also review the response of various groups and stakeholders to it. The stakeholders are:
[1] The Catholic Church and its three official and other unofficial groups such as Syro Malabar, Syro Malankara, Latin, Church in Tribal area, and the Laity groups
[2] The Episcopal protestant churches – Presbyterian, CNI, CSI, Lutheran etc
[3] The evangelical and Pentecost churches and independent church groups
[4] The secular human rights groups and NGOS –n both funded through FCRA accounts and non-funded
[5] Legal fraternity and judicial structures
[6] The Indian police – IPS, Paramilitary and state police forces
[7] Legislative bodies in the states and the Parliament of India attitude to anti Christian hate and violence compared to anti-Muslim, anti-Sikh and anti-Muslim concerns; enacting of bizarre laws impacting Christianity
[8] the Prime Ministers and Presidents of India – from Nehru through Manmohan Singh and major leaders including Indira Gandhi, Vajpayee, Karunanidhi, the Marxists and Sonia Gandhi]
[9] The political discourse on conversions
[10]. The Sangh Parivar, the Islamic fundamentalists and others in the hate campaign
The Chapterization will include focus on States of Concern –
i Gujarat
ii Orissa
iii Madhya Pradesh
iv Chhattisgarh
v Rajasthan
vi Jharkhand
vii Karnataka
vii Andhra Pradesh
vii the North Eastern states
This is a major effort and requires your cooperation.
My early colleagues after I started documenting anti Christian issues on a daily basis in 1996 – and later made the first ever presentation of the Indian reality before UN organs, UK, European and US Governments and legislatures –n were men such as Samson Christian and Fr Cedric Prakash in Ahmedabad and Mr. Sajan George and Oliver D’Souza in Bangalore. Others to join early were Rev Bernard Chand Malik from the US, later joined by John Prabhudoss pioneers of FIACONA, Rev Jaswant Singha and some more. Dolphy D Souza in the Bombay Catholic Sabha and Abraham Mathai, now Vice chair of the Maharashtra Minority commission have contributed extraordinarily to the data. After Dr Joseph D Souza and others helped found the All India Christian Council, the activists have included Mr. Sam Paul, Albert Lael, Moses Parmar, Rev Kumarswamy, Rev Paricha and Madhu Chandra. The activist writers include the veteran Anto Akkara, Nirmala Carvalho and Vishal Arora. The advent of the Christian Law Association with activists such as Tehmina Ram Arora, Len, Pastor Sanjay and others have added a new dimension to documentation. Sister Mary and others have been instrumental in forming fact finding teams of some impact. Friends such as Teesta Setalvad of Communalism Combat, Shamsul Islam and Neelima Sharma of Nishant, Admirals Bhagwat and Ramdas, Ram Punyani, V B Rawat, and actor Mahesh Bhatt have been a source of strength.
I will be grateful for all detailed data – fact finding reports, news reports, photographs. Court judgments, FIRs that any of you have in your posses. My collection is extensive, but surely not complete or comprehensive.
I will wait for your response, your food wishes – and your data.
My deadline is to bring it out by Christmas.
Which means I must have all the data by end of October
I also invite advice.
I am of course honour bound to acknowledge every source, and pray with those who wish to remain anonymous
God bless you
John Dayal
New Delhi, 6 August 2007
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