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Anand breaks jinx, defeats Carlsen in third match

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Viswanathan Anand Carlsen Jinx

Chennai: Indian chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand Tuesday defeated World Champion Magnus Carlsen in 34 moves in the third game of their world title match held in Russia, in the process breaking the “Carlsen Jinx” bugging him since losing the world title to Carlsen last year.

At the end of the third game in the 12 game match, both the players have 1.5 points each.

Grandmaster Nigel Short tweeted: “I said at the start of the game, ‘contrary to popular belief, the match is not over’. However, for some Indian trolls, I am anti-Anand.”

In the Queen’s Gambit Declined opening, playing white, Indian ace Anand started confidently and the moves progressed as per the book with the champion castling on the King side.

While Anand was pushing out his pawns to pave the way for his pieces, Carlsen brought out his queen side knight.

On move 7, Anand started pushing his c-pawn and his other pawns on the queen side and Carlsen similarly responded.

A flurry of activity began on move 11 with Anand traded his white bishop for Carlsen’s white bishop. Following that, Anand gave up his b-pawn in order to advance his c file pawn to the seventh rank.

Anand’s 17th move of putting his knight on the g5 square aiming for a play centered around his pawn on the seventh rank.

This made Carlsen to go into deep thought for a whopping 32 minutes to make his move.

This prompted world number 7 Grandmaster Anish Giri to tweet: “Interesting, the axiom that Magnus has an unearthly memory is being challenged right now.”

Speaking to IANS, world number 23 Grandmaster P.Harikrishna said: “It is unclear why Carlsen took so long. Seems he was figuring out the way to take Anand out of theory/home preparation.”

Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujarathi tweeted that the board position was reached in Aronian-Adams but Harikrishna said the Aronian-Adams, though ended in a draw, was not an easy one.

“The position is actually good for Anand as Carlsen’s queen is not in active play and there is not much of an active coordination among his pieces,” Harikrishna said.

At this point Anand exchanged his knight on g5 for Carlsen’s knight on e4 square. The champion captured the white piece with his knight on f6.

Experts were of the view that the game was on razor edge and a mistake by any one of the player would be disastrous.

Soon the other two knights got exchanged and Anand’s queen got into active play, a luxury that was not available for Carlsen.

In move 32, Carlsen gave up his rook for Anand’s black bishop and facing further loss of a piece, resigned.

Reacting to the game, Giri told IANS: “I don’t think there was a change in strategy for Anand. The strategy has always been fine, just today it finally worked out well. Anand got very lucky that Carlsen was completely unaware of this relatively well known variation.”

“If Carlsen had been better prepared, the game should have been ended in a draw, but then again that’s the weakness of Carlsen so there are no “ifs”. I am very glad that Anand came back, now we will have a real fight!” he said.

“The game once again proves that Anand plays well in complicated situation which is not Carlsen’s forte,” Harikrishna told IANS.

He said Anand seemed to have prepared well whereas the opening seems to have surprised Carlsen.

“It is difficult to play this position with black pieces,” he added.

He agreed that the win will bring a lot change for Anand and it is good to bounce back.

On Wednesday Carlsen will play white.

(IANS)

Remembering MSS Pandian, the Mentor and Teacher Extraordinaire

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Noted scholar and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Professor M.S.S. Pandian, considered an authority on the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, passed away on 10th November 14, following a cardiac arrest. Pandian, 57, died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, where he was rushed following a cardiac arrest. He is survived by his wife S. Anandhi and a daughter.

MSS Pandian

by Aakshi Magazine

For those of us who were taught by him, MSS Pandian left an indelible mark, and his sudden death is hard to process.

There was nothing intimidating about Pandian, despite his scholarship. He was that rare academic whose academics was never isolated from his politics, it actually stemmed from it. He brought his politics to the classroom, which made his classes unique.

His work on caste in Tamil politics ( Brahmin and Non-Brahmin: Genealogies of the Tamil Political), and the lens with which he looked at history and politics, is subversive in a society (and academia) where caste is always masked and never discussed directly for what it is. So was his non-nationalistic worldview. This could not have been easy to do. Apart from being a supporter of the Tamil Eelam struggle, in recent years, he also became a keen follower and supporter of the Kashmir struggle for azadi. Pandian could take these stands and discuss them with students, and not be worried that he was being “simplistic” as academics tend to be. For him, complexity of ideas did not mean cynicism, especially towards movements for justice and equality. Yet his academics was never activist jargon either.

I was taught by him during my Master’s degree in JNU. He had also joined the same year, and his two classes in which he taught us the ideas of Phule, Periyar, Ambedkar as well as Nationalism and Regional movements, were revelatory. He made us question and think, and made History relevant in a way nothing else did. During my Master’s I questioned a lot of things about academics, and it was Pandian’s classes which made me feel understood, even as they taught me so much.

It wasn’t just what he taught, but also how he taught, and I think we should talk about this so that we do not forget it. Pandian never intimidated anyone and made academic ideas accessible. No jargon, so much depth, but also respecting the fact that each student’s intelligence (and interest) is different. We had to write a seminar paper in our final semester and I remember how tense he was because all of us were struggling with writing a long paper for the first time. I remember one particular discussion in which a very unsure and nervous student told Pandian what his seminar paper would be on. Pandian was gentle with him, asking him questions in accordance with his idea, which helped make his paper clearer. By the end of the semester, his seminar paper had grown and developed, but in his own way. I don’t think any other teacher would have had this patience, or this understanding. This was his gift. I know of a friend who he mentored and guided through her M.Phil thesis even though he had never even met her then, nor was she even from the University where he taught. I know there must be more stories like this.

To me too, he has been a mentor. He was always helpful and encouraging, writing recommendations when I needed them, helping me get an internship, or even helping in “breaking” a news story. He edited the draft of my PhD proposal with keen interest, and was always an email away even though we had never actually met again since my Master’s 3 years ago. I also remember a draft of a work on films that he had once talked about and then shared with me, and also mentioned something on Kashmir, work which we would not get to see.

Sometimes, Pandian would send out emails about his daughter to his students, and we could sense he was perhaps alone staying in Delhi. It must have been hard for him. The last email he sent was about a drawing his daughter had made in class about equality and justice. There were parts of his personality which perhaps we will never understand. There was a phase when he would write un-thought out comments on student’s walls on facebook, which he would later apologize for.

Once when I hadn’t got admission to a PhD programme I had applied to, he wrote- “some we win, most we lose”. For us shocked by his sudden death, perhaps he would say- “take it easy”. My thoughts are with his wife and his daughter. Maybe knowing so many mourn with them will give them strength.

The author is a research scholar at University of St Andrews, Scotland and independent film critic.

Third of Modi's council of ministers faces criminal charges: ADR

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modi-cabinet

New Delhi:  Atleast 30 percent of the ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s council of ministers have criminal charges against them, think tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said here Monday.

According to ADR, 20 of 64 ministers analysed on the basis of their own declarations face criminal charges, while 92 percent of the ministers are multi-millionaires.

An ADR statement said affidavits of 64 of 66 ministers (including Modi) had been analysed and details of union ministers Suresh Prabhu and Birendra Singh had not been scrutinised as they were not yet members of either house.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley however said any suggestions there were criminals in the cabinet were “completely baseless”.

“These are cases arising out of criminal accusations, not cases out of a crime,” Jaitley told reporters on Monday, adding that the prime minister had personally vetted the new ministers.

According to ADR, 11 (17 percent) ministers have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to attempt to murder, communal disharmony, and electoral violations.

Of the 21 newly inducted ministers, eight have declared criminal cases.

“Ramshankar Katheria from Agra constituency has declared a case related to attempt to murder. Among the rest of the ministers, Uma Bharti from Jhansi of BJP had also declared a case related to attempt to murder,” the statement added.

The release said that among the newly inducted ministers, Y.S. Chowdary, Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh belonging to Telugu Desam Party, had declared the highest total assets of Rs. 189.69 crore followed by Jayant Sinha (BJP) from Hazaribagh with assets worth Rs.55.67 crore and Mahesh Sharma (BJP) from Gautam Budhha Nagar with total assets worth Rs.47.37 crore.

The average assets size of the newly-inducted ministers is Rs.18.48 crore. In totality, the average assets size per minister is Rs.14.25 crore, the release added.

Of the 64 ministers, 59 are multi millionaires.

The highest increase in assets has been declared by Sharma, owner of a hospital chain in UP. The assets of Sharma rose by Rs.31.52 crore from Rs.15.85 crores as Lok Sabha MP in 2009 to Rs 47.37 crores in 2014.

Chowdary declared the highest total assets of Rs.189.69 crores followed by Sinha with assets worth Rs.55.67 crores and Sharma with total assets worth Rs.47.37 crores.

(IANS)

The Strangeness of the Mars One Project

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Even though 200,000 people have (supposedly) signed up as potential volunteers on a one-way trip to Mars, there are still frightfully few details about how the mission will be accomplished. From the article:

[Astronaut Chris Hadfield] says that Mars One fails at even the most basic starting point of any manned space mission: If there are no specifications for the craft that will carry the crew, if you don’t know the very dimensions of the capsule they will be traveling in, you can’t begin to select the people who will be living and working inside of it. “I really counsel every single one of the people who is interested in Mars One, whenever they ask me about it, to start asking the hard questions now. I want to see the technical specifications of the vehicle that is orbiting Earth. I want to know: How does a space suit on Mars work? Show me how it is pressurized, and how it is cooled. What’s the glove design? None of that stuff can be bought off the rack. It does not exist. You can’t just go to SpaceMart and buy those things.”

The author concludes that the Mars One Project is “…at best, an amazingly hubristic fantasy: an absolute faith in the free market, in technology, in the media, in money, to be able to somehow, magically, do what thousands of highly qualified people in government agencies have so far not yet been able to do over decades of diligently trying, making slow headway through individually hard-won breakthroughs, working in relative anonymity pursuing their life’s work.”

Egypt draft law to restrict media coverage of the military

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egypt-press-freedom

by Al-Akhbar

Egypt is drafting a law tightening restrictions on media coverage of the armed forces, government and judicial sources said, alarming journalists who believe this move will sound the death knell for freedom of the press.

One source played down any threat to freedoms won after the 2011 overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak, saying legislation under discussion would restrict only reporting that endangers “national security” as Egypt fights Islamist militants.

However, journalists and activists fear that if implemented, the law would end general coverage of the military which, as the main pillar of the Egyptian state, wields major political and economic influence.

A law in effect for decades already bans reporting on the military without permission, but a text of the new draft leaked to local media would increase curbs and penalties.

Before Mubarak’s fall, Egyptian media ran only official statements on the army, but after the uprising the ban was not fully enforced and criticism of the military became widespread.

The draft has not been officially released, but a text that appeared in the pro-government El-Watan newspaper last week suggests it will ban publication of “any news, information, statistics, statements or documents related to the armed forces, their formations, movements… operations or plans” without written permission from army general command.

Anyone who breaks the law would face up to five years in jail and a fine of 10,000 to 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,398 to $6,990.50), rising to prison without parole and a fine of 100,000-200,000 pounds ($13,981-27,962) in times of war or emergency rule.

That wording would cripple reporters in a country where the military has provided most presidents since Gamal Abdel Nasser and his Free Officers overthrew the monarchy in 1952. The army also controls businesses from bottled water to washing machine makers, and supervises infrastructure projects including an expansion of the Suez Canal.

The government has not publicly commented on the leaked draft but three sources said the law was being discussed by Egypt’s Council of State, a judicial body that advises the government and drafts legislation.

“I see the law as very bad and an assault on press freedom,” said Amer Tammam, a journalist at the state-owned Egyptian Al-Akhbar newspaper. “The defense ministry carries out economic projects… If I publish a report on corruption in any of these projects do I get jailed for five years? If I publish a report about a fight at a petrol station that belongs to the army do I also go to jail?”

The proposed law adds fire to the flame

A source said the changes had been prompted by violence in the Sinai Peninsula where the army is battling militants.

“First, it is a draft. It is still being discussed by the Council of State so no one knows what it will say,” said the source, declining to be named as he was not authorized to speak.

“But the aim is not to ban anyone from writing about the military in general. Nowhere in the world are journalists allowed to write about military movements or operations without checking that it does not undermine security or expose troops.”

Journalists worry that what harms “national security” is open to interpretation and the law will expose them to arrest and military trial if they misjudge the red lines. They say it gives the army scope to eliminate criticism.

“The draft law uses loose phrasing… and will… open the door to fear among journalists that they will be pursued by the military,” said another journalist, declining to be named.

The 2011 uprising led to the election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi as president. Mursi was ousted last year by then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, after protests against Mursi’s rule. Sisi went on to win a presidential vote in May.

Since Sisi came to power, Egyptian media have largely reverted to the self-censorship they practiced before 2011.

After an attack that killed 33 security personnel in Sinai last month, Egyptian newspaper editors issued a statement promising not to publish reports that would undermine the army.

On Wednesday, seven Egyptian non-governmental organizations announced that they would not participate in the UN’s Universal Periodic Review, which all 193 UN countries must undergo every four years, saying they feared anyone who spoke against the Cairo authorities would face persecution back home.

Moreover, Cairo has set a November 10 deadline for all NGOs to register with the government, in a move activists warn will deal a death blow to the country’s civil society.

“Civil society is on the verge of disappearing,” warned Philippe Dam of Human Rights Watch.

In late October, Sisi approved of a military decree, similar to martial law implemented at the time of ousted Mubarak, to expand military power under the pretext of “ensuring stability.”

Sisi’s critics are likely to see such a step as the latest move to clamp down on dissent by a government that also issued a strict new law curbing protests.

Ending martial law throughout the country, which gives the authorities wide-ranging policing powers, was one of the demands of the popular uprising.

As Sisi’s government continues to tighten its military grip on the country, the UN’s top human rights body took Egypt to task Wednesday for a litany of rights abuses, including its crackdown on supporters of ousted Mursi, journalists and activists.

The participant countries and rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, condemned Sisi’s government and urged the council to order an international probe into the crackdown, mass arrests and unfair trials.

(Reuters, AFP, Anadolu, Al-Akhbar)

Four women die after sterilization operations fail in Chhattisgarh

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People waiting for there turn in the family planning centre to register for sterilization in Patna. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

People waiting for there turn in the family planning centre to register for sterilization in Patna. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

Bilaspur: Four women died last night and ten others were left critical after undergoing a sterilization operation at a government camp in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district.

Commissioner Sonmani Vora said that the government has ordered an investigation and a compensation of INR 2 lakh each has been announced for the next of kin of the four deceased.

“All the women have been admitted to Bilaspur district hospitals, around 10 of them have already been shifted to Apollo and preparations are being done for 10 more. The entire team is here and we are in consultation with other hospitals also,” said Vora.

At least 85 women were operated upon at the government-run Nemi Chand hospital in the Pendari area of Bilaspur as part of a family planning camp. Many of them later started complaining of pain and fever.

Commissioner Vora said that out of all those women 55 are still ‘in trouble’.

“Around 55 women are in trouble. The CM has also ordered inquiry, one medical team has departed from Raipur, and the medical director is also coming. According to my information total 85 operations were conducted, and further probe will be carried based on the investigation report,” he added.

(ANI)

Israel to confiscate 3,000 acres of Palestinian village land near Jerusalem

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MIDEAST PALESTINIAN BEIT IKSA

Jerusalem/Ma’an: Locals said on Saturday that Israeli authorities delivered orders to the village of Beit Iksa north of Jerusalem indicating the confiscation of 12,852 dunums (3,176 acres) of Palestinian land.

Locals told Ma’an that soldiers deployed at the military checkpoint at the entrance to the village delivered confiscation orders signed by the Israeli military commander in the West Bank, Nitzan Alon, that gave them until Dec. 31, 2017 to remain on their land.

Villagers said that soldiers informed them that an official from the Israeli military liaison would arrive on Monday to specify which lands that would be confiscated, adding that the lands confiscated would be used for “military purposes.”

Israeli officials, however, denied the reports late Sunday.

A spokeswoman of COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry unit in charge of civil administration in the Palestinian territories, told Ma’an that there were only Israeli military orders to renew a confiscation order for 163 dunams (41 acres) of land in Beit Iksa north of Jerusalem.

“Around 163 dunams were temporarily confiscated in 2004 for military purposes,” the spokeswoman said.

“The new orders mean that the area will be used for military purposes until 2017,” she added.

Although located immediately next to Jerusalem, the village’s lands have been progressively confiscated and the village is surrounded on all sides by the Israeli separation wall. Villagers can no longer travel to Jerusalem without permits, and Palestinians not resident in Beit Iksa cannot enter the single Israeli checkpoint that allows access to the village.

Ninety-three percent of the village is under full Israeli military control, and a majority of the total land of the village falls in areas outside of the separation wall, meaning they have been de facto confiscated, including about 1,500 dunums (371 acres) where Jewish-only settlements have been built.

The head of the Beit Iksa village council Saada al-Khatib told Ma’an that according to the order and the maps that soldiers had shown them Saturday, the lands that would be confiscated are between parcels 7 and 8 and include Haraeq al-Arab, Thahr Biddu, Numus, and Khatab areas around the village.

Al-Khatib added that the Israeli authorities claim that the confiscation order has been under way since 2012, and that the new order issued on Saturday only emphasizes the old order.

The order would prevent dozens of farmers from reaching their lands, he said, calling upon Palestinian ministries and national institutions to support the village of Beit Iksa and its neighbors.

He added that the order came after the Israeli municipality announced the approval of 244 housing units to be built in the Ramot settlement, which was previously built on lands confiscated from the settlement.

Al-Khatib warned that the land confiscation orders being issued to many villages were an attempt to carry out the “Judaization” of Beit Iksa after sealing the village shut and surrounding it with a checkpoint and the separation wall, turning it into an 2,500-dunum prison.

The U.S. launches another dumb war in the Middle East. Why hitting ISIS will just make matters worse

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For most of this century, we’ve been fighting wars to enhance our security, and each time, we find ourselves with more enemies and less security.

Kobani strike

by Steve Chapman, Reason

War, it’s been said, is God’s way of teaching Americans geography. Maybe we do learn how to locate the countries we invade or bomb on a map. But recent experience indicates how much we don’t know about those societies and how slow we are at learning.

The United States is still involved in a 13-year-old war in Afghanistan, and President Barack Obama has undertaken a new one against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, just three years after he withdrew the last of our troops from Iraq. The administration is also carrying on a drone missile campaign—which looks eerily like war from the receiving end—in Pakistan and Yemen.

Yet the republic has just concluded an election campaign that gave almost no attention to what the United States government is doing, or should be doing, in these places. For the most part, the topic was discussed in only the vaguest terms, but often it was simply absent. No country in history has ever done so much fighting in so many places with so little interest from its own citizens.

Nor do the people in power who make these ambitious commitments necessarily have a clue where they will lead. Over and over, things turn out in ways that come as a complete and thoroughly unwelcome surprise.

No one could have imagined in October 2001, when we went into Afghanistan to crush the Taliban and al-Qaida, that we would still be there 13 years later and so would they. Nor did we realize that our crucial supposed ally in the fight, Pakistan, would prove not merely unhelpful but downright hostile.

As New York Times correspondent Carlotta Gall documented in her book “The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014,” the government of Pakistan was actively helping our foes while reaping $23 billion in aid from Washington. U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke eventually realized, “We may be fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong country.”

Unexpected? Of course. But it’s the sort of thing that happens when governments act with slivers of knowledge and mountains of hubris, relying on bright visions and brute force. That’s how we stormed into Iraq and won a swift military victory—which we proceeded to squander by disbanding the Iraqi military and banning former members of Saddam Hussein’s party from the new government.

Both decisions sounded sensible—but only because our leaders were so ignorant of Iraq that they had no idea what the effects would be. In practice, we managed to turn huge numbers of Iraqis against us and spawn an insurgency that would kill thousands of our troops. We also inadvertently rained blessings on our longtime enemy to the east. The U.S. fought a war against Iraq, and the winner was Iran.

The war on Islamic State is even more rife with uncertainty, because so many of its enemies are our enemies. If we do damage to it, we are indirectly strengthening the mullahs in Tehran, al-Qaida and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. We’re also bolstering the irresponsible Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad whose persecution of Sunnis gave rise to the group.

The Wall Street Journal reports that by hitting Islamic State targets in Syria, we helped al-Qaida units to defeat the “moderate” Syrian rebels we have helped in their fight against Assad. Meanwhile, our NATO ally Turkey balks at assisting us. Why? Because those fighting on “our” side include Kurdish groups allied with separatists it has been fighting for 30 years.

For that matter, the U.S. air war is the best recruiting tool the Islamic State ever had. Already, a confidential UN Security Council report recently noted, some 15,000 foreigners have poured into the region to join it and other extremist groups.

“Numbers since 2010 are now many times the size of the cumulative numbers of foreign terrorist fighters between 1990 and 2010—and are growing,” it said, according to The Guardian. As usual, we’re creating jihadis faster than we kill them. Chances are excellent that we are also sowing an array of unforeseen problems that will haunt us for years to come.

For most of this century, we’ve been fighting wars to enhance our security, and each time, we find ourselves with more enemies and less security. By now it should be clear that is not a coincidence. If the war on Islamic State solves nothing or makes things worse, we will be unhappy, but we shouldn’t be surprised.

Steve Chapman is a columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Tribune.

80 percent Catalans vote for independence from Spain

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catalonia-independence-vote-spain

by RT

An overwhelming majority of Catalans have said “yes” to independence and secession from the central Spanish government in Madrid in a highly-anticipated but symbolic referendum poll on Sunday.

Some 80.72 percent voted to form a state independent of Spain, Joana Ortega, vice president Catalonia said shortly after midnight, with over two million Catalans reportedly turning out for the unofficial referendum. Ortega could not immediately give an official turnout rate since there was no formal electoral roll for some 5.4 million registered Catalan voters.

Voters were given two questions to answer, “Do you want Catalonia to be a state?” was the first and in the case of a positive response, voters were asked: “Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state?”

“Yes-no” response obtained 10.11 percent; “no-no” 4.55 percent; and blank votes accounted for 0.56 percent, with 88.44 percent of the votes counted.

President of Catalonia, Artur Mas, called the symbolic vote on independence “a complete success” with “clearly more than two million people” participating despite the veto imposed by Madrid.

“Let no one forget, especially the Spanish government, that Catalonia has once again shown that it wants to govern itself,” he said at a hearing in Barcelona after the vote. It is “a giant step in our legitimate aspiration to peacefully and freely decide our future.”

A message clearly not understood in Madrid, where the Minister of Justice, Rafael Catala, on behalf of the Spanish government, defined the vote as “political propaganda organized by pro-independence forces.”

After Spain’s High Court ruled the independence referendum proposed by Catalan leader Artur Mas unconstitutional last month, the Madrid government has also issued a ban on the informal poll, forbidding Catalans from making any public show of support for independence.

In response to Catala’s statement, Mas said he feels bad for the people in central government who missed “a golden opportunity to understand the message of Catalan will,” recalling the examples of referendums held recently in Scotland as well as Quebec province of Canada in 1995.

Earlier, the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, stated the vote “will not have any effect.”

But that did not stop some 41,000 volunteers from organizing the election with over 1,300 polling centers set up for the historic vote.

In the meantime, Mas said his government will push for an official referendum.

“We deserve the right to vote in a definitive referendum and this is something that maybe is understood in Madrid, but if it is not understood in Madrid our will is to go on with this process,” he said after casting his ballot.

As for Madrid, Catala said, that the central government would evaluate the facts of Sunday’s vote and decide whether or not to begin legal proceedings against the regional government.

Historically Catalonia, which already enjoys significant autonomy from Madrid, has been one of Spain’s better-off regions and the local population has resented having to send their taxes to the capital to help support poorer areas of the country. However, the area of 7.5 million people is currently €57.1 billion euros ($78.5 billion) in debt, which is the most of any of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions.

Catalonia, which accounts for one-fifth of Spain’s economic output, has had no problem in attracting foreign investment, which grew by 31.5 percent in 2013 according to figures from Spain’s economy ministry.

Ahmednagar Massacre of Dalits: Fact-Finding Report

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Preliminary fact finding report on the inhuman murders of Dalits on 20 October 2014 at Jawakhede (Khalsa), Taluka Pathardi, District Ahmednagar.

Photo: The Indian Express

Photo: The Indian Express

by Dalit Atyachar Virodhi Kruti Samiti, Mumbai

On 20th October 2014, in Jawakhede (Khalsa), Taluka Pathardi, District Ahmednagar, the entire family comprising the father, mother and a son, of Buddhist faith, was killed brutally.

On 27th October 2014, the Dalit Atyachar Virodhi Kruti Samiti sent a committee to Jawakhede village on a fact-finding mission to probe these murders. The said committee comprised of Subodh More (social activist and freelance journalist), Jatin Desai (senior journalist), Pheroze Mithiborwala (social activist), Uttam Jagirdar (social activist), Sudhakar Kashyap (correspondent of IBN Lokmat), Anjan Veldurkar (activist), Vinod Shinde (activist), Professor Ranganath Pathare (senior literary person from Ahmednagar), Bela Sakhare (Nagpur), Keshav Waghmare (social activist from Pune).

Jawakhede village is at a distance of 62kms from Ahmednagar, with a population of about 3000 people. A majority of the population belongs to Maratha and Vanjari caste; while the Dalit, Muslim and Christians live in minority. About 30 households belong to the Buddhist community.

The road going to the main village is a tar road, but the road leading to the Dalit residences is an unpaved road. The village falls under Pathardi-Shevgaon constituency. Shimati Monika Rajle, a BJP candidate (erstwhile NCP candidate) is the MLA from this constituency.

Prior to the murder, the family of Sanjay Jagannath Jadhav (42), Jayashri Sanjay Jadhav (38) and Sunil Sanjay Jadhav (19), were staying in a tin shed on their farm where they harvested millet.

Sanjay has three brothers; all the four brothers, after the division of the property became equal property owner of more than an acre of land. Sanjay’s son Sunil was studying Dairy Science in Mumbai. He was visiting the village during the vacation period.

While he was on a college holiday, he and his family were brutally murdered on 20th October 2014. Sunil was cut in two pieces, waist down and his penis was battered. His father Sanjay Jagannath Jadhav was also attacked in the same way. His mother Jayashri Sanjay Jadhav was struck on her head and her ear was cut.

A few days before the killing of the family, their watch-dog who watches over the adjacent farm, was killed by anonymous people. The “Wagh” families, which belong to a majority Maratha community live in close proximity as also the Vanjari community.

The said murders, which appear to be pre-planned, took place during the middle of the night. The attackers killed the entire family in the out-house. The murderers tried to hide the “bloody” evidence by putting soil and millet crop at the site of murder. Then the bodies were cut in pieces and wrapped in rugs and gunny sacks and thrown in a well near the Jadhav residence.

Sunil’s legs and head was shoved into the borewell a short distance away. Since the borewell’s mouth was narrow, the murderers cut the head and legs into tiny pieces. As per the information given by the locals, the murderers tried to destroy the evidence of the murders. The remaining part of Sunil’s body were scattered all over the village.

The Police took about two days (21st & 22nd October) to find the entire body. The last rites were performed after all the body pieces were found.

Suresh Jadhav, brother of deceased Sanjay, informed the committee that their family has shared names of a few suspects with the Police. However, he regretted the fact that the Police has not arrested anyone.

Suresh Jadhav mentioned that since the suspect “Wagh” family is related to Shri Anil Karale (Deputy Chief, Nagar District) and Shrimati Monika Rajle, the Police is not taking any action against them. Due to political pressure, the police is not investigating the case properly and the culprits are not being arrested.

The deceased Sanjay Jadhav’s brother, Sunil, and their father Jagannath, also mentioned to the fact finding committee that they have shared the suspects names and evidence with the Police. Once again, instead of booking the murderers, the family members are being harassed by interrogating them. The deceased Sanjay’s father, Jagannath with tremendous disappointment shared with the fact-finding committee that if the Police does not book the criminals, he would have no other option but to immolate himself.

When the committee members met Shrimati Monika Rajle, she informed the committee that there have been no incidences of communal disharmony in the village, She said that the villagers were extending total co-operation with the Police who were investigating the said murders. However, she could not explain the delay in arresting the murderers till now.

The fact finding committee met Addl. Police Superintendent Shrimati Sunita Thakare-Salunkhe and inquired why there were no arrests despite the Jadhav family having shared the names of the suspects. The fact finding committee demanded why no action was taken against the suspects. She informed the committee that due to lack of evidence against the suspects no arrests were made.

Shrimati Sunita Thakare-Salunkhe felt that according to her, the modus operandi of the murders at Sonai, Nagar in the year 2013 and these murders is similar. She suspected these murders were done out of ethnic pride.

The sequence of events, i.e. the killing of the watch-dog just two days prior to the murder of Jadhav family, the murder of the family, throwing the bodies cut into tiny pieces in a borewell, none of the “Wagh” families who stay in the vicinity coming to the rescue of Jadhav family; assumes possibility of the murderers being locals from the village or someone who is very familiar with the area.

The committee members raised the question as to why the Police was not considering these possibilities, in all seriousness.

The Police is suspecting an illegal relationship between Sunil and an adult woman from one of the “Wagh” families. However, the committee feels this direction in the investigation is inconclusive or irrelevant. It has become the norm to presume an illegal relationship angle in all Dalit murders. This has become evident in Sonai, Kharda, Kewalepada- Bhandara and Khairlanje incidents, prior to this. The committee is of the opinion that such a line of investigation only leads to defamation of Dalits and gathers sympathy for the criminals in the minds of the upper caste community.

When the committee visited Jawakhede, the post mortem report and FIR was not made available to them, hence they are unable to find out the medical reason for the death of the deceased Jadhav family members. However, Lokmat (a daily newspaper in Pune) has reported basis the post mortem report that all of them were first strangulated before the murder.

The committee was informed that after four days of the murders, the police charged unknown people under The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of), 1989 (Atrocities Act). However, in the opinion of the said committee, the Atrocities Act is applicable only for Hindus, therefore, any charges against an unknown person may not be valid as an unknown person doesn’t have a identity, religion, caste or gender. The committee is questioning the inaction by the Police to take any steps against the suspected upper caste people, and suspects that the police are acting under political pressure.

On 21st October, one day after the murders on 20th October, four people belonging to the Pardhi community were publically stoned by the villagers in presence of the Police. This act was committed outside the premises of Alakoti Gram-Panchayat office in Parner District; and the trigger was: “allegation of theft”. In this incident, Rahul Punjya Chavan and Pikesh Punjya Chavan died and two other victims were grievously injured and have been hospitalised.

In the last few years, there has been marked increase in atrocities against the Dalit Adivasi Nomadic tribes in Ahmednagar District.

In the year 2013, there were 111 cases registered in this district and in this year, so far, till October about 74 cases have been registered. This includes the murder of three young sweeper community people in Sonai by cutting their bodies into pieces, Nitin Aage’s murder after torturing him. Thereafter, on 22nd June 2014, Aaba Kale a deaf and mute, tiller from Kashti village which falls under Dist. Shrigonda, was tortured by the relatives of Shri. Babanrao Pachpute on account of his alleged intercast love affair. The village falls under constituency of Shri. Babanrao Pachpute.

Much before these incidents, many similar vincidents have transpired. These include, the incident of setting fire to Baban Misal and Janabai Borge from the Matang community; the brutal bashing of Dipak Kamble in Karjat District; the rape and murder of Suman Kale from a Nomadic community; the murder of Walekar, a Dalit youth from Paithan village in Shevgaon District; to name a few.

In none of these incidents any of the criminals have been stringently punished. In fact with the support of Police & Politicians, these casteist criminals are getting stronger. This has resulted in more and more atrocities being inflicted upon Dalits.

Certain castes and dynasties from Ahmednagar are responsible for the increasing incidents of atrocities; their flourishing economic affluence, their political dominance and the resulting arrogance plus the attitude that “nobody can touch me” is the root cause behind these incidents. Along with the economic growth, there should have been a complementary cultural change, however, there is a lack of empathy for the downtrodden in the society, or such empathy does not reflect in our society.

The progressive movements that seek social reforms have been weakened, the forces opposing the atrocities against Dalits are not vociferous. All this is resulting in increasing attacks on the community. Be it political leaders from the district or social activists like Anna Hazare, none of them are speaking out against these incidents. As a result, these casteist forces are getting stronger and more powerful. This is what the members of the fact-finding committee opine.

The Police, so far, has not taken any action vis a vis the attacks on Dalits in the districts of Beed-Parali, Padoda, Jalna, Hingoli which are adjacent to Ahmednagar district. In these circumstances, there is no hope of justice or redressal so also there is guarantee to the safety of life and limb and property.

Through this fact finding report, we make the following demands and suggestions to the new government. We demand immediate implementation of these demands/ suggestions.

Demands and suggestions:

  1. Immediate arrests of criminals involved in the Jawakhede murders
  2. Stringent punishments for the criminals involved in murder of two Pardhi community members and causing injuries to the other members of the community
  3. Immediate arrest of criminals involved in the Kashti-Shrigonda atrocities incident
  4. Protection to the witnesses and the affected Dalit victims
  5. Rehabilitation of victim Dalit families
  6. Declaration of Ahmednagar as “Atrocities Prone” district and police protection to all Dalit residential areas
  7. Suspension of officers responsible for neglecting their duties to take action under Atrocities Act
  8. Speedy trial of all communal crime court cases in Ahmednagar by a special Fast Track Court
  9. Strict action be taken against the police and administrative officers holding them responsible for the atrocities in their village/ district

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