‘Roshni Act’ being misused to stir up communal tensions in Jammu, say residents
Date: 30 November 2020
Category: Propaganda
The issue of the 2001 Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, also called Roshni Act, is being used by right-wing ideologists to create communal tensions in Jammu, allege residents. The Act, which was passed in 2001 by the National Conference government under Farooq Abdullah, aimed to generate revenues for hydroelectric power plant projects by transferring ownership to people in possession of state land against the payment of a premium as determined by the government. The Act was recently scrapped, after the High Court declared it “illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable” and extensive levels of corruption discovered in its implementation. Right-wing groups have been claiming that the Act was an attempt to change the demography of Hindu-majority Jammu district, pointing out that out of the 30,000 cases of land transfer reported in the state government order, 25,000 were from Jammu and only 4,500 were from Kashmir. BJP has branded this issue as a case of “land jihad”. However, Muslim leaders and intellectuals point out that out of 44,000 kanals of land regularized under the Act, only 1,180 had been regularized in favour of Muslims in Jammu district. Out of the list of 544 names given out by the accountant general, some names were being selectively leaked to the press to create a false narrative of ‘land jihad’. Their statements were made in a press conference convened on 29 November, where they pointed out that people of Jammu should be made aware of a deliberate attempt to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the district. The speakers also included members of the Gujjar community and Sheikh Shakeel, the petitioner who had originally approached the HC seeking action against people who occupied huge tracts of government land. They said that political parties (eg, the BJP Youth Wing) with malicious intent were taking out protests specifically in Muslim-majority areas such as Sunjwa and Bathindi. Shakeel also pointed out that his fight was against the land mafia, and not small landholders like Gujjar nomads, who should be protected as per the forest right act. In addition, none of the 11 colonies regularized in Jammu over the years had included Muslim-majority colonies, he said.
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‘Biryani being served at farmer’s protest’- TOI report irks netizens
Date: 30 November 2020
Category: Media bias
A video posted by the official Twitter handle of The Times of India and a retweet of the same by a journalist at the media house, with the title “Biryani is being served at farmer’s protest site”, irks many social media users. Some feel that the kind of food being served was irrelevant and the tweet was indirectly trying to give a communal color to the protest. “So farmers have no right to eat Biryani?” one user asked. Former IPS officer DR N C Asthana tweeted-“Either you are hinting at a religion or luxury. You are wrong on both counts. How does it become news? ”. Journalist Dhanya Rajendran pointed out that reporters waiting outside political party offices for days are served all manners of food, but there were never any tweets about them.
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US senators cite India as an example of Facebook’s lax attitudes towards bigotry
Date: 17 November 2020
Category: Hate violence: physical and verbal
A letter to Facebook, written by US President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet candidate Chris Coons and signed by 14 other US senators, has asked the company to adopt stricter policies against circulation of hate content through its platforms and cited India as an example where these messages have led to anti-Muslim violence. “Reports indicate that…Facebook and WhatsApp have been used to incite violence against Muslims in India, and that Facebook has been used to promote hate and violence in other areas around the world. Advocacy groups similarly detailed the extent and persistence of anti-Muslim hate content on Facebook India in multiple reports last year, concerns that have been amplified by recent allegations that some high-ranking employees at Facebook India have enabled hate speech against Muslims and others by applying the platform's content moderation policies in a selective manner,” the letter says. “With regard to the Muslim community in particular, the civil rights audit noted advocates’ ‘alarm that Muslims feel under siege on Facebook’ and explained how attacks on Muslims present unique considerations that require separate analysis and response compared to other kinds of attacks. Yet, the auditors noted, ‘Facebook has not yet publicly studied or acknowledged the particular ways anti-Muslim bigotry manifests on its platform.’,” the letter says. “Furthermore, the civil rights audit found that Facebook is not sufficiently attuned to how its algorithms ‘fuel extreme and polarizing content,’ and thereby may ‘driv[e] people toward self-reinforcing echo chambers of extremism,’”, the letter adds. Since July 2019, Facebook has a ‘call to arms’ policy in place, which prohibits event pages that call for individuals to bring weapons to a location. The letter, however, points out that the policy does not seem to be effective enough.
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Events in Bangladesh become communal fodder for BJP in West Bengal election campaign
Date: 25 November 2020
Category: Propaganda
After Bangladeshi cricketer Shakib Al Hasan, under threats from hardline Islamists in his country, was forced to apologize for “inaugurating” a puja pandal in Kolkata, BJP in West Bengal is using this episode in its election campaign to further its communal agenda. In West Bengal, Hasan’s apology became the latest weapon for Hindutva rallying against secularism—coming as it did after a series of attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh and in time to buttress their campaign that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is an apologist for Islamic fundamentalism. State assembly elections are due in the first half of 2021, as the new government must be formed before 26 May. Hundreds of Hindutva supporters in West Bengal share news stories from Bangladesh on Hasan’s climbdown on Facebook and WhatsApp groups, asking people to see through the “hollowness” of the concept of Hindu-Muslim coexistence. “The hypocrisy of the sick-ular lot in India exposed! Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan had to issue a public apology after receiving death threats from one Mohsin Talukder for attending a Kali Puja inauguration in Kolkata,” read an 18 November tweet by Tathagata Roy, a Bengal BJP veteran who after serving as governor of Tripura and Meghalaya is now waiting for the party’s permission to re-join politics. The controversy around Hasan came after the VHP and its youth wing, the Bajrang Dal, launched an agitation in Kolkata on 10 November before the Bangladesh deputy high commission, the culmination of a social-media campaign since July 2020 alleging atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh. Similar protests were staged statewide. On 9 November, the Bajrang Dal organised a protest march in Tamluk town of East Midnapore district and Rampurhat town of Birbhum district. The next day, the VHP took out a rally in Cooch Behar district and on 11 November,the Hindu Jagran Manch rallied in Asansol town. On 13 November, the Bajrang Dal staged a demonstration in Durgapur town. Poster campaigns were reported from other districts. The Swastika, the weekly Bengali mouthpiece of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), raised the Bangladesh issue over the past few months- for example, on 16 November, 12 October and 24 August.The Hindutva groups’ consistent campaign in West Bengal on the state of Hindus in Bangladesh is aimed at blunting the campaign of the Trinamool and two other opposition groups, the Congress and the Left—all of whom have been campaigning to protect “Bengal’s secular character”. They warn Hindus of West Bengal of what they term “rising jihadi influence”: they refer to the rise in proportion of Muslims from 19.85% in 1947 to 27.01% in 2011 and the perceived empowering of Muslim fundamentalists during CM Banerjee’s regime. On 17 November, a public gathering was organised in the Ranaghat area of Nadia district, which borders Bangladesh, by the Nikhil Bharat Bangali Samanyaya Samiti (NiBBSS), an organisation representing Hindu migrants from Bangladesh and aligned with the BJP since 2019. The BJP’s Ranaghat MP Jagannath Sarkar also attended the meeting. During the event, organisers cited the recent attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh to justify the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 and demanded that the Centre frame the rules for the CAA before the Bengal Assembly elections. “The latest round of atrocities on Hindus should help open the eyes of those who are still opposing the CAA,” NiBBSS leader Subodh Biswas said. “They should now realise why the Hindus had to leave Bangladesh and come here and why they should be granted citizenship.” The BJP and other Hindutva groups are running a campaign saying those opposing CAA, despite knowing the sufferings of the Hindus in Bangladesh, are “anti-Hindu”. On the other hand, some observers point out that despite all the talk by BJP on atrocities in Bangladesh, the NDA government at the centre had not taken up the matter directly with the Bangladesh government.
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https://www.article-14.com/post/bangladesh-fundamentalism-fuels-hindutva-agenda-in-poll-bound-bengal
Police crackdown on anti-CAA protestors at Shah Jamal in Aligarh
Date: 28 February 2020
Category: Targeted police action
On 28 February, when a dust storm broke out followed by rain at Shah Jamal in Aligarh, where a protest was being held against CAA and NRC, police came and took the protestors’ tents away, causing many women to fall ill. On the night of 1 March, the residents began a fresh protest at Chungi Gate near Aligarh Muslim University against the attack of other protestors in the city between February 22 and 24.
On 23 February, a day after anti-CAA protestors in Shah Jamal demonstrated in front of the local police station for taking away their food supplies and other essentials like blankets and tarpaulin sheets, police fired tear gas at the protest site and forced the protestors to temporarily disperse. However, the protestors, who mostly comprise working class men and women from the lower income groups, are determined to continue. Like Shaheen Bagh, a predominant number of protestors at Shah Jamal are women.
The protestors report that they are under the constant surveillance of police, including local imams and volunteers who give out food, blankets, tea, refreshments etc. Local police officers allege that they are “supported by AMU”, although few such students, except for local residents of Shah Jamal or Upper Fort, were seen at the scene. Several unnamed FIRs have been registered and police have issued several notices threatening punitive fines to compensate for loss of public property.
According to the protestors, even journalists from some of the Hindi media houses have been scornful of them and had directly asked them to wind up the demonstrations, which started on January 24.
The residents of Shah Jamal, which is attached to one of the richest dargahs in Uttar Pradesh, already live a life of constant oppression and deprivation. The only government building in the locality is the police station- there are no government schools or hospitals. Police constantly barge into their lives and into any attempts to get their issues heard.
Sources:
https://www.newsclick.in/why-crackdown-shah-jamal-protesters-injust
Anti-CAA demonstrators come under lathi charge at Hauz Rani in Delhi
Date: 23 November 2020
Category: Targeted police action
Protestors including women and children were hurt after police charged with lathis towards a peaceful demonstration against Citizenship Amendment Act in Hauz Rani, south Delhi. They were marching in response to a Bharat Bandh called by Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad. The protestors allege that even the private parts of minor girls were targeted for beating. An ensuing stampede caused further injuries. FIRs were registered against at least 20 protestors, including women, for carrying out demonstrations.
The protestors, who had been on a sit-in at Gandhi Park, were stopped from marching ahead after police put up barricades on the road.
Sources:
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/anti-caa-protesters-lathi-charged-by-delhi-police
https://twitter.com/srivatsayb/status/1231634548938555392?lang=en
BJP MLA calls Shaheen Bagh protest a ‘global conspiracy by Muslims against India’
Date: 22 February 2020
Category: Hate violence: Verbal
Surendra Nath Singh, BJP MLA from UP’s Bairia, calls the Shaheen Bagh protest against CAA and NRC a conspiracy sponsored by Muslim countries at the global level to “divide the country”. He also attacked AIMIM chief Asadudheen Owaisi as an enemy of the country, whose feelings are “pro-Pakistan”.
In a rather confusing statement, Singh added: “If his DNA test is conducted, it will be proved that like Jinnah, he wants to make India a Muslim country”. He will be “set right” like senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan had been “set right” by chief minister Adityanath and the Indian Constitution, he added.
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