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Archives for September 2014

The word 'Hindu' invented by Muslims: Veerappa Moily

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veerappa-moily

Bangalore: Former Karnataka chief minister and union minister M. Veerappa Moily stirred up a controversy, when he said that the word ‘Hindu’ was invented by the Muslims in the medieval age.

He was speaking at a book launch event at Central College here on Sunday.

He said, “The word Hindu was invented by the Muslims. They wanted to separate people living in India from them. They called us Hindus. There is no mention of the word Hindu in our Vedas and Upanishads.”

Former prime minister and JD(S) leader H. D. Deve Gowda criticized Moily for bringing up the issue. Reacting to Moily’s statement, he said, “I request people like Moily not to raise such issues. Why are we going back to ancient times, medieval age etc? Can’t we live peacefully?” .

Hindutva extremist and Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik, whose party members had raised Pakistan’s national flag in 2012 on a government building in  Sindgi, near Bijapur, Karnataka and then accused the Muslim community for the mischief, too condemned Moily’s statement.

Egypt evicts Rafah residents to create buffer zone

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Egyptian soldiers stand guard on a mosque's minaret in the Egyptian city of Rafah, Sept. 8, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

Egyptian soldiers stand guard on a mosque’s minaret in the Egyptian city of Rafah, Sept. 8, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

– by Al-Monitor

Rafah, Egypt: Concern has spread among residents of the border areas in the northern Sinai Peninsula following the Egyptian army’s planned establishment of a buffer zone on the Egyptian side of Rafah along the border with the Gaza Strip.

The undeclared move prompted local concern that a new reality is being secretly shaped, and that the government has adopted a policy of strategic patience to draw the map of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the expense of the people in Sinai.

The Egyptian army has stated its military operations in Sinai are part of the war on terrorism, yet residents believe the operations are designed to forcibly displace them.

Informed authority sources told Al-Monitor that the army’s plan to establish a buffer zone will take two years to implement and will necessitate the razing of homes located about a kilometer (0.6 miles) inside the Rafah border. The plan also necessitates building a large barrier equipped with surveillance cameras and lights, and deploying ground sensors to abort any Palestinian attempts to dig tunnels or smuggle arms.

An official source explained that several countries seek to achieve stability in the area and will help the Egyptian authorities fund the project. The source refused to name these countries.

On the reasons behind the establishment of the buffer zone, the source said, “Every country has the right to preserve its borders as it deems fit. No country in the world accepts that its rights be violated the way they are violated on the border with the Gaza Strip.”

The source said that homes will be razed to empty the area in preparation for the so-called protection of the national security project. He said the government, not the army, is the authority designated to compensate residents and talk about whether their rights are legitimate.

The source added, “The establishment of a buffer zone on the border is of absolute necessity to preserve Egyptian national security, particularly with the growing plans to export the Palestinian cause to Egyptian territory, away from its natural context. Thus, we cannot be emotional while thinking of the [population] displacement issue.”

A source who is a member of the Sawarka tribe and close to Sinai authorities told Al-Monitor that the border operations — namely, the demolition of houses — are designed to control the area where Hamas is promoting its influence through the tunnels.

Rafah resident Um Ibrahim told Al-Monitor how her family’s house on the Gaza border was blown up. “The army blew up our house, claiming there were tunnels. This is totally untrue. We told them, ‘If there are indeed tunnels, blow us up with the house.’ The officer replied, ‘Relax, all of the houses in [the Egyptian side of] Rafah will be destroyed and razed. Forget about this area and find yourself another place to live in. This is about Egypt’s national security,’” she said.

Um Ibrahim added, “If the area will be used to preserve the security of Egypt, we demand the government provide us a place to live.”

According to residents of the border area, the attempts to displace them began when Hamas came to power in the Gaza Strip. In 2009, ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attempted to build a separation barrier made of steel in the highly populated border area. Other attempts were made to dig a 10-kilometer (6-mile) stream of water along the Gaza border.

At the time, Egyptian authorities said the steel barrier was designed to preserve national security and halt smuggling operations through the tunnels. Mubarak’s buffer zone was never completed following local objections broadcast in the Egyptian media, the escalation in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian portrayal of the issue as an Egyptian attempt to tighten the siege on Gaza.

Residents of the Egyptian side of Rafah said that drilling equipment shakes the ground and further cracks the foundations of their houses. Beneath the houses are tunnels, which further weaken the ground, according to Mohammed al-Barahimeh, who lives just a few meters from the border.

He told Al-Monitor, “Since 2009, the successive Egyptian authorities have tried to create a buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza at our expense and without compensation and without even providing us another place to live.”

Barahimeh said, “Mubarak failed to displace us, as we managed to express our real suffering to the public. But today, harsh plans are being implemented to displace us, while the Egyptian public opinion is being deluded with the pretext of the war on terrorism. The Egyptian people believe that the army’s actions are part of the war on terrorism.”

Authorities under Mubarak were not the only ones working to displace border residents. The Sinai residents were shocked when the Ministry of Defense under the rule of ousted President Mohammed Morsi passed a December 2012 decision, Decree No. 203, prohibiting the right to own, rent or build property located within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the border. Sinai residents largely rejected the decision, viewing it as an attempt to halt life in the area, according to local resident Mohammed al-Manei.

Manei told Al-Monitor that it has become more difficult to stand against the army’s decisions. The army has chosen the right time to build the buffer zone. Public opinion has been mobilized against Rafah, the tunnels and Gaza, with the army linking them to the war on terrorism.

Sinai novelist Massaad Abu-Fajr told Al-Monitor, “The Egyptian government is fighting to preserve its violated border in a different way. Yet, we need to exert pressure on it to develop its means. As for the reason why the people of Sinai are paying the price, some of them did not declare their clear rejection of Hamas.”

He added, “Everything that is taking place in Sinai is the consequence of Hamas keeping its grip over the Gaza Strip, turning Sinai into a corridor for smuggling and a reservoir to store missiles and weapons. The movement is working to expel the state from Sinai by turning our children into smugglers and terrorists, and using Sinai as a place to keep criminal groups out of Gaza.”

If Hamas is ousted, said Abu-Fajr, half of Sinai’s problems will be solved.

With the aggravation of the political situation between the Egyptian and Palestinian sides, the people of Sinai remain victims until further notice.

Source

100 days of Modi points to emergent disaster – An independent report released in the US

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Yogi Adityanath

– by Ghadar Alliance

The Ghadar Alliance, a US-based educational/watchdog coalition created by concerned citizens in the wake of the BJP victory, today released a comprehensive ‘100-day report’ evaluating the performance of the Modi government’s first 100 days in office. The report, titled “Fast Track to Troubling Times,” is being released as Modi prepares for his first visit to the US as India’s Prime Minister. Modi’s US tour begins on September 26th.

The report is the first independent ‘people’s’ report to be published since Modi came into office, and identifies the economy, religious extremism and human rights as grave areas of concern. “We have been very careful and meticulous in collecting data only from public sources to build an evidence-based and fully data-driven report,” said Raja Swamy, economic anthropologist and one of the authors of the report. “When it comes to the economy, our report shows that the new administration wants to eliminate all democratic protections in favor of corporate giveaways and ripoffs. One example of this are the amendments that the Modi regime has proposed to the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 that do away with meaningful safeguards for those losing land, especially for India’s poor, marginal peasantry and indigenous peoples. The proposed amendments accept in-toto all corporate demands and eliminate existing safeguards. From the evidence available, can we not conclude that the minimal protections for ordinary people are being wiped out to favor corporations?” he added. The report is replete with such detail as it compares the Modi budget with the previous United Progressive Alliance budget, and points to such facts as the BJP government’s plan to raise four times more money through the ‘sale of State assets’ than the previous government did.

The report highlights the empowerment of violent gangs of the supremacist Hindu Right under the Modi dispensation. In the three months since Modi took charge, there have been over 600 cases of anti-minority violence in one single state, Uttar Pradesh (a state in the North), and several cases of forced ‘reconversion’ of Dalits (India’s so-called untouchable castes) to Hinduism. “If there is one thing that is clear already it is that under Modi, Hindu supremacist gangs will virtually rule the streets. There is a palpable sense of insecurity today among minorities, Dalits and women as non-state actors have turned hyper-aggressive, and Modi, through his consistent silence and refusal to hold offenders accountable, has given tacit approval” said Anu Mandavilli of the San Jose Peace and Justice Center and a co-founder of the Ghadar Alliance. “The privileging of economic growth as the primary goal functions to dictate an amnesia about Modi’s Gujarat record with US investors eager to capitalize on the Indian market,” added Professor Snehal Shingavi, also a co-founder of the Ghadar Alliance. “And for many of us born and raised in a racialized US context, the targeting of minorities in India by Hindu reactionaries uncomfortably corresponds to our own experiences with anti-immigrant racism here.”

The report compares the first 100 days of the new government with Modi’s 12 years of rule in Gujarat. “Examining Modi’s first 100 days in the context of his record in Gujarat reveals a number of disturbing parallels, and these parallels legitimize the report’s predictive capacity,” said Mandavilli. The report is the first in a series of actions that the Ghadar Alliance is initiating to keep a consistent and critical focus on the BJP/RSS from outside India. The Founding Committee of the Alliance is intergenerational, of multiple faiths, of diverse professions and geography. “We represent the true diversity of India rather than the narrow homogeneity of Modi supporters lining up to welcome him here in the US,” said Dr. Swamy.

Dalits 'created' by Muslims, says RSS

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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

New Delhi: In a brazen attempt to woo Dalits into their fold, and concoct a version of history, which would put even the most conspiratorial in the country to shame, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has sought to attribute the birth of communities long oppressed as “untouchables”, to “Muslim invasion” in medieval times.

Three top RSS leaders, Bhaiyyaji Joshi, Suresh Soni, and Krishna Gopal, have articulated these views in their forewords to three books, authored by BJP spokesman Vijay Sonkar Shastri and released by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently — “Hindu Charmakar Jati”, “Hindu Khatik Jati” and “Hindu Valmiki Jati”.

The Sangh leaders claimed that these castes had come into existence due to atrocities by foreign invaders and did not exist in Hindu religion earlier.

According to Joshi, ‘shudras’ were never untouchables in Hindu scriptures. ‘Islamic atrocities’ during the medieval age resulted in the emergence of untouchables, Dalits and Indian Muslims.

He further elaborated, “To violate Hindu swabhiman (dignity) of Chanwarvanshiya Kshatriyas, foreign invaders from Arab, Muslim rulers and beef-eaters, forced them to do abominable works like killing cows, skinning them and throwing their carcasses in deserted places. Foreign invaders thus created a caste of charma-karma (dealing with skin) by giving such works as punishment to proud Hindu prisoners.”

Another top RSS functionary, Suresh Soni, echoed the same: “Dalits had their genesis during Turks, Muslims and Mughal eras. Today’s castes like Valmikis, Sudarshan, Majhabi Sikhs and their 624 sub-castes came into being as a result of atrocities against Brahmins and Kshatriyas during Medieval or Islamic age,” he wrote.

Krishna Gopal, Sah-sarkaryavah, RSS, went on to bolster the Sangh’s new found agenda saying, “In pre-historic and Vedic age, Khatik castes have been recognized as Brahmins who affected sacrifices. It may be noted that before the advent of Muslim invaders, there is no reference to rearing pigs in India. It was a vocation adopted by Hindus to defend their religion.”

How these RSS functionaries came to these conclusions, and what historical sources did they base their “reasearch” on, is, like all other Hindutva theories – unexplained, but it is clear that the outfit is trying to intensify its efforts to unite various caste and sub-castes under one Hindu identity, in an attempt to create, a Hindu Rashtra.

The Dalits, according to many sociologists, are considered the most oppressed community in the world. In many parts of India, communities considered “high caste”, continue to persecute the so-called “low caste” as “untouchables”.

To this day, the community is forced to clean the human waste of “high caste” people and carry it on their heads, and in some areas, they are not allowed to wear shoes or walk on the road, used by the “high caste”.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, had advocated conversion to other religions, as the only solution for the annihilation of caste. However, Hindutva forces, fearing nibbling down of Hindu population, has always sought to bring back the community into the Hindu fold, although only superficially.

Israel tech site paying “interns” to covertly plant stories in social media

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Nathan Miller explains his “digital engagement” strategy with Israel21c.

Nathan Miller explains his “digital engagement” strategy with Israel21c.

– by Asa Winstanley

An investigation by The Electronic Intifada has revealed that the online publication Israel21c is hiring students as “digital ambassadors” to plant its stories in online discussion forums and social media without revealing that they work for the publication.

Israel21c is part of propaganda efforts aimed to improve Israel’s image and distract from Israel’s occupation, abuse and massacres of Palestinians.

Deceptive methods

An ad for the position (published in full below) was contained in an email obtained by The Electronic Intifada. It stipulates that each “ambassador” must engage in “significant conversations” online, making a note of them and reporting back to Israel21c staff.

Posing as a student interested in this internship, The Electronic Intifada spoke over the phone to a publicist responsible for recruitment.

He explicitly confirmed their intent to use deceptive methods.

Sam Bialosky of the public relations consultancy Miller Ink said, when posting their stories “you wouldn’t directly reference that you’re interning for Israel21c.” Bialosky made it clear to The Electronic Intifada’s undercover reporter: “that would sort of defeat the point of posting it.”

Miller Ink is the agency responsible for much of Israel21c’s press.

“We’ll send you the posts … we’re basically going to tell you what to say … and you’re going to have to send this out to people that you know,” Bialosky clarified, stipulating that “you’re going to be limited in your ability to tailor it.”

Israel21c is a publication dedicated to running fluff pieces about the alleged wonders of Israeli technology. The goal appears to be that such stories will distract attention from Israeli atrocities and help to market Israel as an attractive technology hub.

“What would be your job is to push that article out on social media,” Bialosky explained: “point to this sort of article on a community website, on a message board. Sort of a – ‘oh hey,’ you know, ‘you should look at this, here’s some good information on that.’”

Spin

Bialosky clarified that the goal of the program was not just to plant stories in the tech media, but in other specialist press too: “when a story about autism pops up … we’d like for that article to pop up on, say, I think its Autism Daily Digest.” This was possibly a reference to Autism Asperger’s Digest, a magazine about the neurodevelopmental condition.

“There’s a specific community that, they have an autistic child, that they get emails and we’d like for an Israel21c article to be on that … It helps broaden our reach,” he explained. “Medical innovations are, you know, it’s a different emotional interaction.”

Israel21c did not reply to an email requesting comment.

Headlines currently running on Israel21c’s website give an idea of the spin: “An Israeli technology just made the world safer,” “Israel – where fashion and technology meet,” a story about Hebrew University’s commercial arm titled “50 years of bringing brilliant ideas from lab to market” and “The maverick thinker behind Iron Dome” – the US-funded missile system which Israel claims is capable of intercepting rockets fired by Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza.

Israel21c claims on its “About” page that it has “placed more than 10,000” such stories in the press around the world, including the BBC,The New York Times, AP, Reuters, CNN and Al Jazeera, “as well as top blogs, Huffington Post, Treehugger, MedGadget and Gizmodo.”

The website was established at the end of 2001 by Zvi Alon and Eric Benhamou, two Silicon Valley executives. A 2002 profile defined the problem it sought to face: “If Americans find the conflict depressing and boring, and want to watch a positive story they can identify with, Zvi Alon, Eric Benhamou and their friends in Silicon Valley aim to provide it.”

“Digital ambassadors”

The ad for paid interns was forwarded to the mailing list of the Israeli Students Association at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York earlier this month by the local Hillel office coordinator.

The email was sent to the Hillel by Sam Bialosky.

Miller Ink is a small public relations outfit run (apparently out of the local Starbucks) by Nathan Miller (a former speech writer at Israel’s UN mission in New York).

“Please find attached a part-time paid internship opportunity with ISRAEL21c. We are looking for smart, passionate college and graduate students,” wrote Bialosky.

In the ad, applicants are asked to send a resume to Miller, along with a short writing sample.

“We are looking for students in college or graduate school who are passionate about ISRAEL21c’s Mission, and excited to share its content with their networks and others on social media and beyond,” it states.

Successful “digital ambassadors” are to be paid a stipend of $600 in exchange for between two and three hours per week over a six-month period. A “launch conference” for this, the “second class” of ambassadors, will take place in September in Los Angeles.

Miller Ink, contracted by Israel21c for this task, states on its websitethat it services include “social media campaigns” and “media messaging.”

In the above video presentation, Miller himself talks about his “digital engagement” PR work with Israeli21c and how it aims at “changing hearts and minds” about Israel “one conversation, one story, one person at a time.”

He also talks about his time as a speech writer for Israel at the UN. He relates how in 2012, during the Palestinian Authority’s bid for UN recognition of Palestine as an observer state, the overwhelming majority of delegates were against Israel’s obstruction of that process.

He says he started thinking about ways to change the conversation: “what I really relied on a lot of the time were stories, personal narratives of Israelis who are doing amazing things that others could relate to.”

Israel21c is “one of the most comprehensive, interesting resources today for stories about Israel beyond the conflict,” he says.

Techwashing

With Israel coming under ever-increasing criticism for its human rights abuses and war crimes against Palestinians and other Arabs, changing the subject is a common tactic for Israel’s PR flacks and official propaganda or hasbara efforts.

Attempting to shift the conversation over to Israeli technology in this way is sometimes dubbed “techwashing.” Similar tactics include “greenwashing” – the effort to market Israel as supposedly environmentally friendly (something Israel21c is involved in too) – and “pinkwashing” – the effort to market Israel as LGBT-friendly and progressive as well as a welcoming destination for gay-male sex tourism.

The main point about such cynical strategies is that, even were these stories all true, it would not in any way mitigate Israeli atrocities, such as its most recent round of slaughter in the Gaza Strip.

According to UN figures, between 7 July, when this attack began, and 26 August, when an ongoing ceasefire was announced, Israel killed 2,104 Palestinians, at least seventy percent of whom were civilians – including 495 children.

Such basic facts mean that “techwashing” is ultimately a losing strategy – a desperate act for desperate propagandists. But even on their own terms, many of these stories turn out to be exaggerated.

The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah documented one example of this in his most recent book The Battle for Justice in Palestine (147-50). Israel21c has been involved in promoting an Israeli solar energy company called BrightSource.

In 2010, the company received $1.3 billion in loan guarantee funding from the US government, and was even promoted by President Barack Obama in his weekly video address.

Although Obama promoted the company as an American success story, it turned out that “the lion’s share of the high-tech career opportunities BrightSource was advertising were located in Jerusalem” (The Battle for Justice in Palestine, 148).

Despite the hype, a stock market flotation had to be abandoned hours before it had been due to begin in April 2012, due to doubts about the firm’s prospects. It turned out BrightSource was using an antiquated, mirror-based solar technology that has been eclipsed by other solar power technologies in which Israel lags.

Online hasbara

As has been well covered by The Electronic Intifada, Israel has set up several initiatives for the spread of hasbara (or propaganda) online in recent years. The latest of these is the “Hasbara war room” at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a private university.

The inaccurately-titled Israeli propaganda group HonestReporting has a similarly-titled program to Israel21c’s “digital ambassadors” – their “digital diplomats.” The purpose of that course is to train people in “using the power of the Internet to fight Israel’s new war … of public relations.”

HonestReporting’s managing editor is Simon Plosker, a reservist who serves in the Israeli army’s spokesperson’s unit.

The Electronic Intifada has also exposed outright forgeries and fakes spread by pro-Israel propagandists online, most recently the video of a “child firing an RPG on Gaza Beach” which was actually from Libya.

While there is no indication that Israe21c is involved in concoting such outright forgeries, the way it boasts about how it has “placed” its fluffy, feel-good tech stories in the mainstream media represents a more subtle form of propaganda.

It is notable then, that Israel21c seems to be more the work of America’s Israel lobby, rather than being an initiative of Israeli government agencies or Israeli institutions.

Israel lobby funding

Israel21c is registered in the US as a 501(c)(3) – a tax-exempt non-profit organization.

Its information returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service show it to be registered in San Francisco, in an office only a five minute walk away from the Israeli consulate.

The forms also show they have an office in Israel, with registered operating expenses of $131,307 in 2010 and $129,484 in 2011.

Between 2008 and 2012, Israel21c raised a total of $3.2 million in revenue. The forms disclose that between 2010 and 2012, $347,099 of this was in “government grants.”

Israel21c did not reply to an email asking which government departments had given this cash.

An analysis by The Electronic Intifada of information returns mentioning Israel21c reveals that one of their biggest seed donors in 2001 was The Feldman Foundation based in Dallas, Texas.

This group donated $120,000 to Israeli21c between 2002 and 2004.

In the same years it was funding Israel21c, the foundation also gave tens of thousands of dollars to other Zionist organizations, including, The Israel Project, Project Interchange (which sends influential Americans, especially policy chiefs, on trips to Israel) and the New Israel Fund. It also gave $33,000 to The Jerusalem Foundation to support Pisgat Ze’ev, an illegal Israeli settlement in east Jerusalem.

The biggest donor to Israel21c has been the Jewish Communal Fund, which manages $1.2 billion for its various philanthropic clients.

Donations to Israel21c via the fund totaled $220,160 between 2008 and 2010.

Backed by major AIPAC donors

Another generous donor to Israel21c has been a foundation controlled by Susan Wexner. HLMH gave $168,224 in 2008. Wexner has also contributed more than $850,000 to StandWithUs, a stridently anti-Palestinian propaganda group that works closely with the Israeli government.

Israel21c’s Board of Directors is stacked with former and current American Israel Public Affairs Committee personnel. Most notably, these include Israel21c’s president, Amy Friedkin, who was AIPAC president between 2002 and 2004.

Another donor to Israel21c, The Goodman Family Supporting Foundation, also gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to AIPAC and to its affiliates the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the American Israel Education Foundation from 2009-2011. It gaveIsrael21c $20,000 in the same period.

Israel21c’s staff of four North American and British editors seem all to be based in Israel.

One editor, Karin Kloosterman, has long been an editor for the Israel greenwashing blog Green Prophet.

Not likely to succeed

In 2012, the National Union of Israeli Students launched a similar program to spread Israeli propaganda online. That scheme offered Israeli university students $2,000 to spread pro-Israel propaganda online for five hours per week from the “comfort of home.”

American Israel lobby groups now seems to be emulating the strategy.

But such schemes are unlikely to gain much traction. As Palestinian doctor Belal Dabour showed in a recent article for The Electronic Intifada, in the war of narrative on Twitter, “so far it seems the Palestinians are winning.”

Ali Abunimah contributed research and analysis.

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"Agitation against land-grabbing to continue"

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Deve-Gowda

Bangalore: Former prime minister and JD(S) leader H. D. Deve Gowda has lent his support to the agitation launched by freedom fighter H. S. Doreswamy and JD(S) former MLA A. T. Ramaswamy against land-grabbing in the State.

He appealed to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, against evicting poor landless farmers who had encroached upon “negligible” portion of government land for their livelihood, and asked the government to take action against the “land-sharks” who have allegedly encroached thousands of acres of government land.

Addressing a press conference in Bangalore on Saturday, Gowda said he wanted to join the struggle lead by Doreswamy, but stayed away as his involvement would give the issue a political colour. He said, Doreswamy being a person who dislikes being associated with any political outfit, he stayed away from joining him in the protest. “However, I do believe that land-grabbing has to be stopped,” he said.

Protesters with H S Doreswamy on an indefinite sit-in against land-grab in front of Town Hall, Bangalore.

Protesters with H. S. Doreswamy on an indefinite sit-in against land-grab in front of Town Hall, Bangalore.

H. S. Doreswamy is on an indefinite sit-in with farmer-activists of the Anti-Land Grabbing Action Committee in front of Town Hall for the past 15 days.

Speaking to Nasheman, A. T. Ramaswamy, said “around 20 thousand acres of land has been encroached illegally by land grabbers in around Bangalore, and over 4 lakh acres of government land across the state has been encroached by producing fake documentation.”

He demanded an immediate legal action against such criminals under the Goonda Act and to form special courts to take quick action against such cases based on his ‘Ramaswamy Joint Legislature Committee on Encroachments in Bangalore Urban District, 2007’ report.

Doreswamy has warned the State government that if no measures are taken in a week, he and his fellow protesters would intensify their agitation.

He said, “We give seven days to the Government to respond, failing which we will intensify our fight. We are not afraid of going to jail to save public land from land-grabbers.”

The protestors told Nasheman, that agitation against land-grabbing will continue if no action against land grabbers are not taken.

Mass Arrest in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh: Black days of Emergency are here?

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Poet and Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao and several others were taken into preventive custody after they went ahead with a public meeting of the ‘Pratyamnaya Rajakeeya Vedika’.

Revolutionary poet Varavara Rao and several others were taken into preventive custody after they went ahead with a public meeting of the ‘Pratyamnaya Rajakeeya Vedika’.

The following is a press statement from the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO), issued in public interest following the arrest of revolutionary poet Varavara Rao and other activists.

The AP and Telangana State governments have coercively prevented the one day convention of the FORUM FOR ALTERNATIVE POLITICS in Hyderabad on 21 Sep 2014 from being held. This is a most condemnable, undemocratic and unconstitutional acts of the two governments.

The meeting was scheduled between 10 am and 5pm and speakers from other states were invited to participate in the meeting.

The convener of the forum, Mr Varavararao and a few other activists, have been taken in to custody by the police. Mr Kalyanrao , senior member of VIRASAM was arrested in Dachepalli (Guntur district) who was on his way to Hyderabad to the attend this meeting. Mr. Chilaka Chandrashekar (General Secretary APCLC) and many other leaders of peoples’ organizations were picked up from their houses and have been detained in Machvaram police station (Guntur district). Mr. Suresh Narayanrao and other office bearers of APCLC were detained in Kachguda police station in Hyderabad city. About fifteen members of Chytanya Mahila Samakya were also arrested and detained. Twenty Passenger Trains have been cancelled to prevent people from attending the convention in Hyderabad. It is reported that about 300 people have been arrested including the members of the Forum. Bojjaa Tarakam and Prof. Haragopal were not allowed to reach the venue of the meeting and were asked to return to their houses by the police and have been forced to remain indoors.

The police claim that the arrests are being made as preventive measure and had information that the Forum for Alternative Politics is a front Organisation of the Maoist Party. Since the mass organizations are banned they do not allow any kind of meetings conducted by them. Anticipating the situation Mr. Varavararao had moved a petition but it has been rejected by the High Court. Encouraged by the High court order the police surrounded the venue and erected barricades to prevent the people to reach and enter the venue (Sundaraiah Vignan Bhavan). A delegation of APCLC made efforts to meet the Chief Minister and request him to direct the police not to arrest the activists and give permission to hold the meeting. But the CM did not give an appointment to the delegation. Attempts were also made to meet the Home Minister and the Commissioner of Police but to no effect. The attitude of the government and the police is extremely hostile. They are determined to disturb the meeting and create a panic among the common citizenry. After frantic parleys the Home Minister spoke to a delegation and then the police agreed to free the activist but only after 9 pm attesting the unconstitutional and undemocratic intent of the government not to let the FORUM’s meeting happen.

Revolutionary poet Varavar Rao and G. Padma Kumari releasing a poster of proposed public meeting at Hyderabad for floating `Forum for Alternative Politics' at a press meet in Warangal on Monday. Photo: M. Murali, The Hindu

Revolutionary poet Varavar Rao and G. Padma Kumari releasing a poster of proposed public meeting at Hyderabad for floating `Forum for Alternative Politics’ at a press meet in Warangal on Monday. Photo: M. Murali, The Hindu

A few days back only the FORUM FOR ALTERNATIVE POLITICS was formed by several intellectuals with Mr.Varavararao as its convener. The object of the forum is to inform the public about revolutionary politics and revolutionary parties and to subject the models of development and mainstream politics to a radical political scrutiny. Whatever be the politic of the FORUM, it has the constitutional guarantee to pursue it in constitutional manner. The government of Telangana or its police may have problems with the members of the FORUM but it has no authority whatsoever to curb its constitutional guaranteed rights to pursue its politics. It is their democratic right to engage in practice their politics within the bounds of the constitution of India. The government and the police are subverting the constitution by preventing the Forum from holding the meeting.

It will be in order here to remind the AP/Telangana governments that the Supreme Court of India in some of its decisions made observations that to sympathize with even the Maoist Politics and subscribing to its ideology are not offences. Then what is the fault of the FORUM???

Characterising the FORUM as front organization of Maoist Party and banning its meetings and activities is not only unconstitutional but also undemocratic. The arrest all over the state reminds us the days of Emergency.

Further the dream that formation of new Telangana state will guarantee the basic rights and a repression-free society is cruelly shattered within hundred days.

WE Demand

That all the arrested persons must be released immediately. That the forum must be allowed to conduct meetings and other activities freely. The state must restrain from curbing civil and political rights of the citizens.

C. Chandrasekhar (CLC, Andhra Pradesh), Paramjeet Singh (PUDR, Delhi), Parmindar Singh (AFDR, Punjab), Phulendro Konsam (COHR, Manipur) and Tapas Chakraborty (APDR, West Bengal)

(Coordinators of CDRO).

Constituent Organisations: Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC); Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR, West Bengal); Bandi Mukti Morcha (West Bengal); Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR, Mumbai); Coordination for Human Rights (COHR, Manipur); Human Rights Forum (HRF, Andhra Pradesh); Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), Assam; Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR); Organisation for Protection of Democratic Rights (OPDR, Andhra Pradesh); Peoples’ Committee for Human Rights (PCHR, Jammu and Kashmir); Peoples Democratic Forum (PDF, Karnataka); Peoples Union For Democratic Rights (PUDR, Delhi); Peoples Union for Civil Rights (PUCR, Haryana) and Campaign for Peace & Democracy in Manipur (CPDM), Delhi.

Tools for divisive politics: Love Jihad propaganda spurs hate, not dialogue

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Yogi Adityanath

After the last general elections where Narendra Modi and his party won a majority overwhelmingly, the BJP has not been doing so well in subsequent by-elections. The Lalu-Nitish experiment is one model, but whether it will be replicated in different parts of the country is a million-vote question. The BJP appears to resort to the basic tools of divisive politics. On one hand Yogi Adityanath, with his venomous ‘hate speeches’ has come up as BJP’s major player; on the other the word of mouth propaganda of ‘love jihad’ is being spread like wildfire.

This year, Adityanath began his hate attack on Muslim minorities blaming all communal riots on Muslims when he campaigned for the BJP ahead of the general elections. In subsequent speeches he went on to make similar baseless allegations such as wherever Muslims are in the majority there is more trouble, or that when they trigger the violence then they also have to face the consequences.

None of this is grounded in the analysis of the communal violence in India. Referring to ‘Love Jihad,’ Adityanath said that if ‘they’ convert one Hindu girl, we will convert 100 Muslim girls. His unrelenting ‘hate speeches’ are going on at the time when the Prime Minister himself has asked for a ten-year moratorium on violence. Mr. Modi seems to be deliberately looking the other way when all this Hate propaganda is on.

The ‘Love Jihad’ propaganda is a double-edged weapon: By stating that Muslim youth are being trained to lure Hindu girls, on one hand they demonize Muslims and on the other they tighten their control of the lives of girls and women. In this propaganda, Hindu women are projected as gullible, easy to be lured and incapable of deciding for themselves. In a way the communal agenda’s twin goals are achieved here. Communal politics wants to marginalize the religious minorities at the surface level and at the deeper societal level it aims to restrict the rights and freedom of women.

BJP affiliates are not only indulging in word-of-mouth propaganda on this issue. They have also started forming fronts to oppose ‘love jihad,’ some of them have come up in western UP, and more seem to be in the offing. VHP has come to the forefront on this issue by stating that “Patriots will support our crusade against ‘love jihad’ that is leading the country towards another partition.” One more Sangh Parivar-related organization, the Dharma Jagran Manch, has started a similar campaign which is appealing to Hindus to oppose the ‘threat’ of ‘love jihad.’

As far as Hindu girls being converted to Islam through Love Jihad is concerned, it is a hoax- there is no doubt about that. A friend wrote from UP that he was to talk in a girls college there. He met a young faculty member all charged up to save Hindu girls, claiming that over 6,000 girls have been converted in his area. When confronted to give the names of some of the alleged converts, he retracted, saying he has heard rumours of it and so it must be true.

A booklet priced Rs 15 about the Love Jihad conspiracy has been published by some Hindu zealots: ‘How to Save Our Women from the Terrorism of Love Jihad’. It contains some alleged case studies. Most of these stories feature a typical pattern: a young Hindu woman lured into a relationship or into marriage by a Muslim man who had allegedly posed as a Hindu. It is claimed that those who get married often convert to Islam and need to be ‘rescued’ and this is where the RSS affiliates want to pitch in according to their plans.

While lot of historical material has come out on the issue of Love Jihad, two items in particular need to be mentioned. Many analysts have compared the Modi politics with the politics indulged in by Hitler, who used a similar tactic to polarize German opinion against the Jews, who were called the ‘internal enemy’. The Nazi propaganda held that Jewish young men had been luring German girls and polluting the purity of Aryan blood with a view to subjugating the German nation.

Similar tactics were adopted by Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha in India in the 1920s, when organizations to save the honor of Hindu women were formed and pamphlets like ‘Hindu Auratonki Loot’ (Loot of Hindu Women) were brought out. This propaganda was a potent weapon to polarize the communities along religious lines.

Can this be combated in some way? There is news that some Muslim youth have planned peace marches in the areas to create an atmosphere of amity. I hope more such marches take place and can restore the sanity of our society and surely members from the majority religious community will join these marches spontaneously to boost the amity amongst communities.

Maun Mohan, now Maun Modi? Kejriwal’s appeal letter to Narendra Modi

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An appeal to the PM to speak up against communalism and corruption in his party.

Kejriwal-Modi

– by Arvind Kejriwal

Dear Prime Minister,

Your government has completed nearly four months in office now and its performance is being widely discussed. People have mixed feelings.

They believe that you are an excellent orator. But your own partymen and ministers are doing exactly the opposite of what you speak, and when they do that, you remain silent. This has perplexed many people.

For instance, your speech on Independence Day impressed many. You said that we should shun communalism for the next decade, since communalism does not help anyone. People were happy to hear these words. But just a few days later an MP of your own party, Yogi Adityanath, delivered hate speeches.

Your partymen tried to spread hatred in the name of ‘love jihad’. People were surprised. How was it that your own partymen were not listening to you? People expected that you would admonish Yogi Adityanath and others in your party who indulged in spreading communal hatred. But you chose to remain silent, which disappointed Indians.

You spoke against UPA’s corruption during Lok Sabha elections. It was one of your main campaign planks. You had promised a corruption-free India. Recently, you went to the extent of saying — “Na khaunga, na khaane dunga.” (neither will i take bribe, nor will i allow anyone to take bribe). People were happy to hear that.

There was a feeling that from now on, the corrupt would be punished and honest people would be rewarded. But when your health minister Harsh Vardhan removed a very honest officer, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, from the post of chief vigilance officer at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, for no reason, it was a major disappointment.

The entire country knows how Chaturvedi has been fighting against corruption. His work has been appreciated by none less than the president of India and a parliamentary standing committee. People expected your government to reward such people.

Both media and public have severely criticised Chaturvedi’s removal. Everyone expected that you would intervene and get Chaturvedi reinstated as CVO of AIIMS. But when you remained silent on this issue also, people were further disappointed.

A few days back, the Union home ministry issued a notification severely curtailing the powers of Delhi’s anti-corruption branch (ACB), stripping it of the power to probe central government employees for bribery. This has turned it into a completely ineffective body. How can you remove corruption by curtailing the powers of ACB? To remove corruption, you need to provide ACB with adequate resources, effective powers and honest manpower.

People had hoped that since you have always been speaking so strongly against corruption, you would certainly reprimand your home minister and ask him to withdraw this notification. But you remained silent on such a critical matter also.

There were strong rumours that the son of one of your ministers accepted bribes for transfers and postings. When you came to know about it, you apparently called the father and son and scolded them. People felt so good when they heard this, though your office issued a statement on August 27 calling such reports as malicious and denied any such incident. My humble request is that next time, if any minister’s son accepts a bribe, kindly hand him over to the police in addition to scolding him.

A vice-president of Delhi BJP was caught on camera offering Rs 4 crore to an Aam Aadmi Party MLA to defect. BJP’s Delhi unit has been trying its best to form a government dishonestly. People are desperately hoping that you will stop your Delhi unit from doing this. But you have again preferred to remain silent.

The Supreme Court recently observed that those leaders facing serious criminal charges should not be made ministers. But at least 13 of your ministers face such charges, including murder and bribery. People hoped that you will immediately remove them, yet again you remained silent.

You had repeatedly accused PM Manmohan Singh of inaction when our soldiers on the Pakistan border were being beheaded and when the Chinese were violating our borders. People liked your speeches which matched with their patriotic feelings whenever you raised this issue.

But Pakistan and China are violating Indian borders with greater frequency since you took over. China’s attitude is even stranger. At a time when you are according such a warm welcome to their visiting president, they entered deep into our territory. So, people are wondering whether there are any compulsions that first Manmohan Singh and now you can’t take those effective steps which you had been demanding all along?

During elections you had promised ‘achche din’. The country has been waiting since 65 years for ‘achche din’. However, it is becoming extremely difficult for the middle class and poor people, who voted for you, to make two ends meet due to sharp price rise. You have all the power now. You have full majority in Parliament. People can live without ‘achche din’ for some more time. But we sincerely urge you to do something to contain prices and provide relief to people from inflation.

Mr Prime Minister, you have been given a historic chance. There are huge expectations from you. However, bypoll results show that people are slowly losing hope. We hope you will not let this historic opportunity slip.

The writer is former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener.

Anti-Islam ad campaign to run on New York City buses and subways

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Blogger paid $100,000 to place ads, one of which was rejected by MTA on grounds it could ‘incite or provoke violence.’

Geller’s posters will appear on a hundred MTA buses across New York.

Geller’s posters will appear on a hundred MTA buses across New York.

– by Nicky Woolf

Controversial blogger and activist Pamela Geller has paid $100,000 to place advertisements on New York City buses and in subway stations that feature anti-Islamic messages and images including one of James Foley, the American journalist beheaded by Isis in August.

The campaign, which is being funded by Geller’s advocacy group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AMDI), features six posters including the one that features Foley. All the posters carry messages critical of Islam. One features a picture of Adolf Hitler.

This is not the first time Geller’s organisation has used posters on New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority’s ad space to court controversy. In 2012, her organisation paid for posters to appear in ten New York subway stations.

This time around the posters, which include some Geller used in 2012 and some new designs, will be only in two subway stations, but will also appear on a hundred MTA buses. They are scheduled to appear on 29 September.

In 2012, after the MTA at first did not allow Geller to buy advertising space, a court ruled that the posters were “political” in nature, and therefore covered by the First Amendment. “We review every viewpoint ad,” said Kevin Ortiz, deputy director of external communications at the MTA “but a series of court rulings have made clear that our hands are largely tied.”

Mona Eltahawy, the Egyptian-American activist and writer, was charged with “criminal mischief” after spray-painting over the posters. Four other people were also reportedly arrested for defacing the posters with stickers.

Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York said that she fully respected Geller’s right to exercise her free speech, but pointed to the fact that anti-Muslim hate crimes are up 143% since last year, according to figures released on Thursday by the NYPD’s hate crimes task force. Sarsour was herself the target of a hate crime this September, after a man chased and threatened to behead her in New York.

“The question here is what could be the consequences of these ads going up at a time like this,” Sarsour said. “We have ignorant people walking around who are waiting to act on their hatred for Muslims. We don’t need ads across New York City that try to link Islam and Isis.”

Since the controversy surrounding Geller’s last poster campaign, the MTA has revised its standards regarding advertising. Now, any ad that contains a political viewpoint must display the words “this is a paid advertisement sponsored by [sponsor]. The display of this advertisement does not imply MTA’s endorsement of any views expressed.”

Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the ADL in New York said: “Pamela Geller frequently crosses the line into racism when she criticizes Islam. In this particular case with the ads on New York City buses, it does not appear that she has done so.”

The MTA announced on Friday that a fifth poster, also submitted by Geller’s organisation, was rejected by their safety and security director because they feared it had the potential to “imminently incite or provoke violence,” according to a statement. Under the new rules put in place after Geller’s 2012 campaign, that is sufficient grounds for the MTA to refuse to run an ad.

Adam Lisberg, the head spokesperson for the MTA, denied that any value judgments were involved. “We make these decisions in a content-neutral way,” he told the Guardian. “We have narrowly drafted our advertising standards because of the First Amendment considerations involved.

He said the MTA was not yet aware of a legal challenge from Geller.

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