Condemn The False Case Filed Against JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar

By Democratic Teachers' Network

15 February, 2016
Countercurrents.org

We condemn in the strongest terms the police raid upon student hostels in Jawaharlal Nehru University. JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, a charismatic voice of the democratic aspirations of students, was lifted by plain clothes police in what appeared to bystanders to be a vigilante attack rather than a police action. Male police have been breaking into and entering hostels including women’s hostels, in a blatant violation of the rule of law. The fact that a student leader was arrested on charges of sedition, a draconian colonial law intended to break the Indian National freedom struggle, demonstrates the anti-national character of the police and the fascist government directing them. The case was filed directly by BJP MP Maheish Girri, who is proudly taking forward the deadly persecution of marginalised people that has come to characterize BJP MPs and MLAs - other examples include Sangeet Som who incited the Muzaffarnagar riots and the lynch mob against Aqlakh Ahmad (despite himself being a beef exporter), and Ramchander Rao and Bandaru Dattatreya who hounded dalit student Rohith Vemula to death.

Further, Kanhaiya has been at the forefront of protests before the MHRD against their shutting down non-NET fellowships for University students, and against their role in the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula. Is the education of students, the democratization of universities, an anti-national cause? Is it anti-national to oppose the death penalty - which has been abolished by 140 other countries - the majority of countries in the world? Are those countries acting against their own national interests when they abolished death penalty? What kind of nation believes the death of a human being is necessary for national integrity?

The particular islamophobic blood-thirsty campaign that the ABVP-RSS and their paid media outlets such as Zee News, etc. are running against Umar Khalid, one of the organisers of the protest meeting at JNU, demonising his Muslim identity, yet again displays their blatant hatred towards anyone who is not a caste Hindu. This hatred is extended to all those who have been in the forefront of the struggle against Fascism. This falls right in line with the killings of Prof. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabolkar, Ujjain University professor Dr. Sabharwal, and many others, by the Sangh Parivar. This is in addition to other acts of vandalism such as the attack on a meeting regarding Justice for Rohith Vemula at Mahatma Gandhi University, Nalgonda, and similar other attacks on protest gatherings at Lucknow University, Ambedkar University, brutal beatings assisted by the police on protesting students at Delhi, etc. The Haryana Central University in fact even filed FIRs against its own students who had only taken out a candle march in the memory of Rohith, accusing them of “anti-national activities” and has banned all protests in future.

The unfolding fascist face of the BJP is also evident when we consider that the last time a JNUSU president was arrested was during the Emergency period from 1975-77. If student leaders can be arbitrarily picked up under colonial laws, another Emergency under these communal fascists is not far away. The general public should realise the growing spread of undemocratic RSS control over every supposedly independent and

autonomous space. The JNU Vice-Chancellor is an example of this trend, being a person who is comfortable attending “science events” organised by RSS-related organization, Vijnana Bharati, despite the profoundly unscientific statements made by RSS members including the current Prime Minister. The VC’s statement about this event reveals both his bias and his ignorance of constitutional law; he seems to not be aware of Article 19 of the Constitution which upholds freedom of speech and association. A constitutional bench of 5 Supreme Court judges has examined the Sedition Act in Kedar Nath Singh vs. State of Bihar (AIR 1962 SC 955), and concluded that comments, “however strongly worded, expressing disapprobation of the actions of Government”, under which Kanhaiya has been charged, “without exciting those feelings which generate the inclination to cause public disorder by acts of violence, would not be penal”. Several other judgments have upheld this distinction between criticism, however strongly worded, and an incitement to “imminent lawless action”. It is notable that Mr. Sangeet Som is more guilty of inciting “imminent lawless action” than anyone else mentioned in this statement.

Over the last one and half years, we have seen planned takeover of Central Institutions by the RSS through either coercion and cooption of the administrative bodies supposed to govern these institutions, or through blatant use of crude force by using the police and their own vigilante groups. Since the current BJP government has come to power, it has been in the news either for the unsuitable appointments to head institutions such as ICHR, FTII; packing positions in the CBI with Gujarat cadre who have protected Modi from being charged for his murderous riot-mongering in Gujarat; or for their unapologetic interference in the functioning of the top institutions in this country to shut down the progressive voices of this country's institutions. This includes banning the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (APSC) in IIT-Madras, targeting the ASA students in UoH, abruptly terminating the appointment of Gandhian activist and professor Sandeep Pandey at IIT-BHU, accusing him of absurd charges of being “anti-national” and “naxalite” at the behest of the VC of Banaras Hindu University (known to be an RSS pracharak from Allahabad university), clamping down upon the campus community at Pondicherry University accusing the entire community of “Islamization”, ABVP preventing Siddharth Varadarajan from speaking at Allahabad University etc. All of these instances show a clear disregard for universities as spaces of debate, dialogue and critical thinking spaces. It also demonstrates the policy of intimidation to frighten and silence the voices of students and teachers in the universities who question the status quo. It is time that all the citizens of this country who believe in democracy make their voices heard against this muffling of dissent that is highly detrimental to the democratic functioning of this country.

We demand that the Union Government must take immediate steps to prevent the intimidation of students and to immediately withdraw this patently false case that tramples on Kanhaiya and others’ Constitutional rights. We demand that the police should immediately leave JNU campus, and that all other campuses across the country should be demilitarized, which includes the revoking of all anti-democratic circulars and bans on student activities in educational institutions. The Sedition Act, and other such colonially imposed draconian laws, must be immediately revoked by anyone who claims to have national interests in mind.

ਚੋਟੀ ਦੇ ਮਾਰਕਸੀ ਚਿੰਤਕ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਰਣਧੀਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ ਸਦੀਵੀ ਵਿਛੋੜਾ ਦੇ ਗਏ

ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਅਧਿਕਾਰ ਸਭਾ ਵਲੋਂ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੇ ਦੇਹਾਂਤ ਉੱਪਰ ਡੂੰਘੇ ਦੁੱਖ ਦਾ ਪ੍ਰਗਟਾਵਾ

ਅੱਜ ਇਥੇ ਪ੍ਰੈੱਸ ਬਿਆਨ ਜਾਰੀ ਕਰਦਿਆਂ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਅਧਿਕਾਰ ਸਭਾ, ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਸੂਬਾ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਏ.ਕੇ. ਮਲੇਰੀ ਅਤੇ ਜਨਰਲ ਸਕੱਤਰ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਜਗਮੋਹਨ ਸਿੰਘ ਨੇ ਉੱਘੇ ਮਾਰਕਸੀ ਚਿੰਤਕ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਰਣਧੀਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ ਦੇ ਦੇਹਾਂਤ ਉੱਪਰ ਡੂੰਘੇ ਦੁੱਖ ਦਾ ਇਜ਼ਹਾਰ ਕਰਦਿਆਂ ਕਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੇ ਸਦੀਵੀ ਵਿਛੋੜੇ ਨਾਲ ਮਨੁੱਖਤਾ ਇਕ ਉੱਚਕੋਟੀ ਦੇ ਜ਼ਹੀਨ, ਇਨਸਾਨੀਅਤ ਪ੍ਰੇਮੀ ਚਿੰਤਕ ਤੋਂ ਵਾਂਝੀ ਹੋ ਗਈ ਹੈ। ਉਹ ਦਿੱਲੀ ਯੂਨੀਵਰਸਿਟੀ ਵਿਚ ਰਾਜਨੀਤਕ ਸਿਧਾਂਤ ਦੇ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਰਹੇ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਬੇਸ਼ੁਮਾਰ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਵਿਗਿਆਨਕ ਸਮਾਜਵਾਦੀ ਨਜ਼ਰੀਏ ਨਾਲ ਜੋੜਿਆ। ਉਹ ਇਨਕਲਾਬੀ ਸਮਾਜਿਕ ਤਬਦੀਲੀ ਨੂੰ ਪ੍ਰਣਾਏ ਕਮਿਊਨਿਸਟ ਨਜ਼ਰੀਏ ਵਾਲੇ ਪ੍ਰਤੀਬਧ ਚਿੰਤਕ ਹੋਣ ਦੇ ਨਾਤੇ ਫਿਰਕਾਪ੍ਰਸਤੀ, ਮੂਲਵਾਦ ਸਮੇਤ ਹਰ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੇ ਪਿਛਾਖੜੀ ਵਿਚਾਰਾਂ ਦੇ ਤਿੱਖੇ ਆਲੋਚਕ ਅਤੇ ਔਰਤਾਂ ਦੀ ਬੰਦਖ਼ਲਾਸੀ ਦੇ ਦਿ੍ਰੜ ਮੁਦੱਈ ਸਨ। 1939 'ਚ ਕਮਿਊਨਿਸਟ ਲਹਿਰ ਵਿਚ ਸ਼ਾਮਲ ਹੋਣ ਦੇ ਸਮੇਂ ਤੋਂ ਲੈ ਕੇ ਆਖ਼ਰੀ ਦਮ ਤਕ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਸਮਾਜ ਦੇ ਆਦਰਸ਼ ਨੂੰ ਬੁਲੰਦ ਰੱਖਿਆ। ਆਪਣੇ ਸਮੇਂ ਦੇ ਭਖਦੇ ਵਿਚਾਰਧਾਰਕ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਸਵਾਲਾਂ ਉੱਪਰ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਡੱਟਕੇ ਸਟੈਂਡ ਲਿਆ ਅਤੇ ਸੰਸਾਰ ਸਮਾਜਵਾਦੀ ਪ੍ਰਬੰਧ ਨੂੰ ਲੱਗੀ ਪਛਾੜ ਦੇ ਕਾਰਨਾਂ ਦਾ ਆਲੋਚਨਾਤਮਕ ਅਧਿਐਨ ਕਰਦਿਆਂ ਵੱਡ-ਅਕਾਰੀ ਭਰਵਾਂ ਵਿਸ਼ਲੇਸ਼ਣ ਪੇਸ਼ ਕੀਤਾ। ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਸੱਤ ਦਹਾਕੇ ਲੰਮੀ ਸਰਗਰਮ ਚਿੰਤਨਸ਼ੀਲ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਵਿਚ ਭਖਵੇਂ ਸਵਾਲਾਂ ਉੱਪਰ ਬੇਸ਼ੁਮਾਰ ਲੈਕਚਰ ਦਿੱਤੇ ਅਤੇ ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਤੋਂ ਇਲਾਵਾ 'ਕਰਾਸਿਸ ਆਫ ਸੋਸ਼ਲਿਜ਼ਮ, ਰਿਜ਼ਨ, ਰੈਵੋਲੂਸ਼ਨ ਐਂਡ ਪੁਲੀਟੀਕਲ ਥਿਊਰੀ, ਫਾਈਵ ਲੈਕਚਰਜ਼ ਇਨ ਮਾਰਕਸਿਸਟ ਮੋਡ, ਆਫ ਮਾਰਕਸਿਜ਼ਮ ਐਂਡ ਇੰਡੀਅਨ ਪਾਲਿਟਿਕਸ, ਮਾਰਕਸਿਜ਼ਮ-ਸੋਸ਼ਲਿਜ਼ਮ ਐਂਡ ਇੰਡੀਅਨ ਪਾਲਿਟਿਕਸ, ਕਾਨਟੈਂਪਰੇਰੀ ਇਕਾਲੋਜੀਕਲ ਕਰਾਸਿਸ, ਇੰਡੀਅਨ ਪਾਲਿਟਿਕਸ ਟੂਡੇ ਦੇ ਰੂਪ 'ਚ ਸੱਤ ਬਹੁਮੁੱਲੀਆਂ ਕਿਤਾਬਾਂ ਮਨੁੱਖਤਾ ਦੀ ਝੋਲੀ ਪਾਈਆਂ। ਸਭਾ ਦੇ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਨੇ ਕਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੇ ਡੂੰਘਾ ਅਧਿਐਨ ਸਮਾਜਿਕ ਤਬਦੀਲੀ ਲਈ ਸਰਗਰਮ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਤਾਕਤਾਂ, ਬੁੱਧੀਜੀਵੀਆਂ ਅਤੇ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਲਈ ਬਹੁਮੁੱਲਾ ਬੌਧਿਕ ਖ਼ਜ਼ਾਨਾ ਹਨ।
1 ਫਰਵਰੀ 2016

ਸ਼ੀਤਲ ਫਾਈਬਰ ਕਾਂਡ ਦੇ ਦੋਸ਼ੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਬਰੀ ਹੋਣ ਲਈ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਦੀ ਨਾਲਾਇਕੀ ਜ਼ਿੰਮੇਵਾਰ-ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਅਧਿਕਾਰ ਸਭਾ

ਅੱਜ ਇਥੇ ਪ੍ਰੈੱਸ ਬਿਆਨ ਜਾਰੀ ਕਰਦਿਆਂ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਅਧਿਕਾਰ ਸਭਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਸੂਬਾ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਏ.ਕੇ. ਮਲੇਰੀ ਅਤੇ  ਸੂਬਾ ਜਨਰਲ ਸਕੱਤਰ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਜਗਮੋਹਨ ਸਿੰਘ ਨੇ ਜਲੰਧਰ ਦੀ ਅਦਾਲਤ ਵਲੋਂ ਸ਼ੀਤਲ ਫਾਈਬਰ ਫੈਕਟਰੀ ਹਾਦਸੇ ਦੇ ਮਾਮਲੇ ਵਿਚ ਫੈਕਟਰੀ ਮਾਲਕ ਸ਼ੀਤਲ ਵਿੱਜ ਅਤੇ ਸਾਰੇ ਮੁਲਜ਼ਮਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਬਰੀ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਪੁਰਜ਼ੋਰ ਨਿਖੇਧੀ ਕੀਤੀ ਹੈ। ਅਪ੍ਰੈਲ 2012 'ਚ ਹੋਏ ਇਸ ਜਾਨਲੇਵਾ ਹਾਦਸੇ ਵਿਚ 22 ਮਜ਼ਦੂਰ ਮਾਰੇ ਗਏ ਸਨ। ਇਸ ਹਾਦਸੇ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਜੱਗ ਜ਼ਾਹਰ ਹੋਈਆਂ ਫੈਕਟਰੀਆਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਨਿਹਾਇਤ ਅਸੁਰੱਖਿਅਤ ਕੰਮ ਹਾਲਤਾਂ ਦੇ ਬਾਵਜੂਦ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਵਲੋਂ ਇਸ ਮਾਮਲੇ ਨੂੰ ਗੰਭੀਰਤਾ ਨਾਲ ਲੈ ਕੇ ਬੇਨਿਯਮੀਆਂ ਕਰਨ ਵਾਲੇ ਫੈਕਟਰੀ ਮਾਲਕ, ਠੇਕੇਦਾਰ ਅਤੇ ਕਿਰਤ ਤੇ ਹੋਰ ਸਬੰਧਤ ਵਿਭਾਗਾਂ ਦੇ ਦੋਸ਼ੀ ਅਧਿਕਾਰੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਢੁੱਕਵੀਂ ਸਜ਼ਾ ਦਿਵਾਉਣ ਲਈ ਲੋੜੀਂਦੀ ਪੈਰਵਾਈ ਨਹੀਂ ਕੀਤੀ ਗਈ। ਇਸ ਮਿਲੀਭੁਗਤ ਕਾਰਨ ਅਤਿ ਸੰਗੀਨ ਬੇਨਿਯਮੀਆਂ ਅਤੇ ਗ਼ੈਰਕਾਨੂੰਨੀਆਂ ਕਰਨ ਵਾਲਾ ਸੱਤਾਧਾਰੀ ਧਿਰ ਦਾ ਖ਼ਾਸ-ਮ-ਖ਼ਾਸ ਵਿਅਕਤੀ ਫੈਕਟਰੀ ਮਾਲਕ ਅਤੇ ਸਾਰੇ ਸਬੰਧਤ ਦੋਸ਼ੀ ਬਰੀ ਹੋ ਗਏ। ਸਭਾ ਦੇ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਨੇ ਕਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਸਪਸ਼ਟ ਕਰੇ ਕਿ ਜੇ ਫੈਕਟਰੀ ਮਾਲਕ ਤੇ ਇਸ ਕੇਸ ਵਿਚ ਨਾਮਜ਼ੱਦ ਕੀਤੇ ਹੋਰ ਵਿਅਕਤੀ ਦੋਸ਼ੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਤਾਂ ਫਿਰ 22 ਮਜ਼ਦੂਰਾਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਜਾਨਾਂ ਲੈਣ ਵਾਲੇ ਹਾਦਸੇ ਦੇ ਜ਼ਿੰਮੇਵਾਰ ਕੌਣ ਸਨ? ਇਕ ਪਾਸੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਲੋਕ ਸੰਘਰਸ਼ਾਂ ਤੋਂ ਸਰਕਾਰੀ ਤੇ ਨਿੱਜੀ ਜਾਇਦਾਦ ਨੂੰ ਨੁਕਸਾਨ ਦਾ ਹਊਆ ਖੜ੍ਹਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਕਾਲੇ ਕਾਨੂੰਨ ਪਾਸ ਕਰ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ ਦੂਜੇ ਪਾਸੇ ਫੈਕਟਰੀਆਂ ਅਤੇ ਹੋਰ ਕੰਮ ਦੀਆਂ ਥਾਵਾਂ ਉੱਪਰ ਸਰਮਾਏਦਾਰੀ ਅਤੇ ਠੇਕੇਦਾਰਾਂ ਦੇ ਮਨੁੱਖਤਾ ਵਿਰੋਧੀ ਜੁਰਮਾਂ ਤੇ ਲਾਕਾਨੂੰਨੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਨਜ਼ਰਅੰਦਾਜ਼ ਕਰਕੇ ਸਮਾਜ ਦੀ ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਕੀਮਤੀ ਦੌਲਤ ਕਿਰਤ-ਸ਼ਕਤੀ ਦੀਆਂ ਜਾਨਾਂ ਲੈਣ ਵਾਲੀਆਂ ਅਸੁਰੱਖਿਅਤ ਕੰਮ ਹਾਲਤਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਹੋਰ ਅਸੁਰੱਖਿਅਤ ਬਣਾ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ। ਸਭਾ ਦੇ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਨੇ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਦੀ ਨਾਲਾਇਕੀ ਅਤੇ ਗ਼ੈਰਜ਼ਿੰਮੇਵਾਰੀ ਕਾਰਨ ਦਿੱਤੇ ਜਾ ਰਹੇ ਅਜਿਹੇ ਦੋਹਰੇ ਮਿਆਰਾਂ ਵਾਲੇ, ਮਜ਼ਦੂਰ ਵਿਰੋਧੀ ਅਤੇ ਸਰਮਾਏਦਾਰੀ ਪੱਖੀ ਫ਼ੈਸਲਿਆਂ ਅਤੇ ਕਿਰਤ ਕਾਨੂੰਨਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਕਾਰਪੋਰੇਟ ਸਰਮਾਏਦਾਰੀ ਪੱਖੀ ਸੋਧਾਂ ਦੇ ਮੱਦੇਨਜ਼ਰ ਟਰੇਡ ਯੂਨੀਅਨਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਸਮੂਹ ਲੋਕ ਜਥੇਬੰਦੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਵਿਸ਼ਾਲ ਜਨਤਕ ਲਹਿਰ ਉਸਾਰਕੇ ਮਜ਼ਦੂਰਾਂ ਦੀ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਦੀ ਸੁਰੱਖਿਆ ਲਈ ਜਥੇਬੰਦਕ ਤਾਕਤ ਨੂੰ ਮਜ਼ਬੂਤ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਅਪੀਲ ਕੀਤੀ ਹੈ।ਮਿਤੀ: 29 ਜਨਵਰੀ 2016

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Sur¨AwqI mµdI hwlq coN sµBldy hI rwStrI soiem syvk sµG(Awr.AYs.AYsN) Aqy ies dI srkwr ny roihQ vomylw Aqy ausdy swQIAW nwl kIqy vrqwau ƒ vwjb Tihrwaux leI ‘AµbydkvbwdI’ kOmvwdI hmlw iv~F id~qw hY[ Tµfw m~Tw rvwieqI A&sos pRgt krn dw iKAwl r~Kx dI AwpxI sImq zuµmyvwrI qoN mukq hox qoæ ip~CoN auhnW(Awr.AYs.AYs. Aqy ies dI srkwr) ny s~B qo pihlW roihQ dy dilq hox ’qy svwl KVw kIqw[ auhnW dwAvw kIqw ik roihQ pRmwixq dilq nhIN sI ikauNik aus dy mWipaU coN ie~k gYr dilq sI[ aus dw bwp p~CVIAW SRyxIAW nwl sbµiDq hY[ ikauNik qhwfI pihcwx ipqw nwl juVI hoeI hY, ies kr ky roihQ AslI dilq hox dw dwAvw nhIN kr skdw[

ieh kihky ik ‘roihQ ny dilq hox dw mKOtw pwieAw hoieAw sI’ dilqW ƒ roihQ dI mOq nwl srokwr nw r~Kx leI pRorx dw inµdxXog Xqn Awr.AYs.AYsN dI isAwsq dy AslI Axmnu~KI suBwA dw pRgtwvw hY[ ijvyN ies q~Q roihQ dI mOq G~t duKdweI bxw dyvygw[

d¨srw kµm Awr.AYs.AYs. ny roihQ Aqy ausdI jQybµdI Aµbydkr ividAwrQI AYsosIeySn (ey.AYs.ey.)dI isAwsq ’qy svwl auTwky kIqw hY[ roihQ dI Awqmh~iqAw qoN isrP ie~k idn bwAd hI dlIl id~qI geI ik ey.AYs.ey. dI isAwsq dw dilq muµidAW nwl koeI irSqw nhIN sI[ ieh dyS ivroDI iksm dy mu~dy auTw rhI sI ijs kr ky roihQ smyq ey.AYs.ey.Aqy ausdy mYNbr iksy hmdrdI dy kwbl nhIN hn[ G~to G~t dySBgq dilq ey.AYs.ey. dI hmwieq iv~c nw inqrn[

Xwk¨b mYnn dI PWsI dw ivroD krn Aqy p~CmI au~qr pRdys iv~c i&rk¨ ihµsw ’qy AwDwirq ‘muz~Prngr bwkI hY’ nwmI dSqwvyjI iPlm idKwaux aupr hoey hmly ivru~D jQybµd kIqy ros mwrc iv~c Swml hox krky ey.AYs.ey. ƒ dyS DrohI grdwinAw igAw[

ieh is~D krn leI ik roihQ Aqy aus dI jQybdI ey.AYs.ey. Asl iv~c Aµbydkr dI byiezqI kr rhy sn hYrwnIjnk dlIl id~qI geI[ ikauNik Xwk¨b mYnn ƒ bwbw swihb duAwrw ilKy sµivDwn dIAW DwrwvW hyT GVy FukvyN kwƒnW Anuswr hI szw id~qI geI hY ies kr ky szw dy ivroD dI kwrvweI bwbw swihb ƒ nIcw idKwauxw hY[ roihQ ies byAdbI dw doSI hY[

Awr.AYs.AYs. dy ividAwrQI ivµg ƒ idSw inrdyS dyx vwly ie~k sµG pRcwrk ny tI.vI. A~gy ikhw ik AlIgV musilm X¨nIvristI Aqy jwmIAw mIlIAw ieslwmIAW sµsQwvW v~loN pCVy vrgW Aqy AYs.sI./AYs.tI. ividAwrQIAW ƒ rwKvW krn dy h~k qoN vWJy r~Kx ivru~D roihQ Aqy aus dI jQybdI ey.AYs.ey. ny kdy vI Awvwz nhIN auTweI Aqy kdy vI iehnW sµsQwvW dy G~t igxqI cirqr ƒ cuxOqI nhIN id~qI[ ies qy swbq huµdw hY ik roihQ Aqy aus dI jQybdI ey.AYs.ey. dilqW dy h~kW v~l iDAwn nhIN idµdI sI[ ie~Qy iPr suJwA id~qw jw irhw hY ik quhwƒ dilq swbq hox leI iehnW sµsQwvW dy G~t igxqI cir~qr au~pr svwl auTwauxw hovygw[

ieh dlIl pihcwx dy mwp dµf im~Qx Aqy ies ƒ ihµd¨qvI eyjµfy nwl n~QI krn dw Xqn hY[ ihµd¨qvI iksm dy rwStrvwd dw iksy vI Fµg nwl ivroD krdI dilq isAwsq Awpxy Awp dyS ivroDI Aqy hmly dy lwiek bx jWdI hY [ Awr.AYs.AYs. dilqW ƒ Awpxy mu~idAW Aqy sµGI swQIAW dI cox dy h~k qoN vWJy krn dw Xqn kr rhI hY[ jy auh soVI soc muqwbk gYr dilq mu~idAW auBwrdy hn jW hor vI bdq~r jy auh musilm mu~idAW ƒ Awpxy mu~idAW vjoN lYNdy hn qW auhnW ƒiDrkwr id~qw jWdw hY[

Awr.AYs.AYs dw Aµbydkr nuµ inglx leI AKiqAwr kIqw hmlwvr ru~K ipCly do dhwikAW ’c smwijk inAW dIAW lihrW v~loN pYdw kIqI aUrzw ƒ vrqx ’c rhI nwkwmI dw pRgtwvw hY[ dilq Aqy p~CVy vrgW dI isAwsI jmh¨rI kwrvweIAW iv~c BwgIdwrI dI ie~Cw ƒ pihcwxdy hoey sµG Awpxy mwArky dy dilq Aqy p~CVy vrg isrjx dy Fµg qrIikAW Koj irhw hY[ ikauNik iehnW dI jwgRqI dy mu~Fly dOr iv~c dilqWp~CVy vrgW Aqy musilmW dy eyky dw nwArw id~qw igAw, sµG pirvwr musilmW ƒ inKyV ky bwkIAW ƒ Awpxy klwvy iv~c lYxw cwhuµdw hY[ ey.AYs.ey vrgIAW jQybµdIAW sµG dy ies cwl iv~c roVw bx rhIAW hn ikauNik AijhIAW jQybµdIAW hr iksm dy d~by ku~cly BweIcwirAW dw ie~k morcw auswr ky smwijk mukqI dy pRojYkt dI smr~Qw hwsl krn dw Xqn kr rhIAW hn[ ey.AYs.ey. ny AwpxIAW srgrmIAW rwhIN szw Xukq muslmwnW ƒ hmwieq dw pRgtwvw kIqw hY ,sµG isAwsq ies ƒ brdwSq nhIN kr skdI[

ieh hYrwnIvwlI g~l nhIN ik AijhI du~K dI GVI iv~c vI Awr.AYs.AYs. ny roihQ Aqy ausdy dosqW au~qy auhnW dy AD¨ry dyS ivroDI dilq idKwvy ’qy hmlw krn qoN sµkoc nhIN kIqw[

srkwr v~loN mwnv sryq ivkws mµqrwly dI ip~T ’qy Awauxw mµdBwgw Aqy dlIl rihq hY[ ieh hux dSqwvyjW duAwrw swbq ho cu~ikAw hY ik mµqrwly ny bµfwr¨ d~qwqRyAw dI bynqI aupr loV qoN v~D qv~jo id~qI[ swƒ swirAW ƒ pqw hY ik koeI AiDkwrI rojmrHw dy msilAW iv~c lgwqwr cwr Xwd p~qr Byjx dw joKæm nhIN auTwauNdw[ [ ieh iblkul sp~St hY ik iSkwieq krqw (ies mwmly ’c mµqrI) dI qs~lI krvwaux leI X¨nIvristI aupr ie~k ivsæyS Fµg nwl kwrvweI krn leI Tos r¨p iv~c dbw pwieAw igAw[

simRqI ierwnI dy sp~sætI krn iv~c DoKw sw& Jlkdw hY[ auh doS lwauNdI hY ik ieh ividAwrQIAW dy do gu~tW ’c tkrw sI Aqy ies iv~c koeI jwqI svwl nhIN sI[ auh ie~k mh~qv p¨rn q~Q ƒ CupwauNdI hY ik ausdw mµqrwlw ijs ividAwrQI jQybµdI dw p~K lY rhI hY auh Awr.AYs.AYs. nwl sbµiDq hY Aqy mµqrI Kæud vI sµG pirvwr dw ih~sw hY[ ies kr ky auh ies mwmly ’c p~Kpwq dy doS ƒ nkwr nhIN skdI[ d¨jw auh koeI hor ies ƒ jwqpwqI mwmlw bnwaux dI gµdI Kyf bxwaux iv~c Swml nhIN hY[ ausdy Awpxy swQI bµfwr¨ d~qwqRyAw ny hI ieh doS lwieAw ik X¨nIvristI kYNps iv~c jwqpwqI Aqy dyS ivroDI DVy srgrm hn[

mµqrI AD¨rI scweI dI klw iv~c inpuµn hox dw Xqn kr rhI jwpdI hY pr hr vwrI ausdw pwj Ku~l jWdw hY[ jdoN ausny kWgrs nyqw dI ic~TI ieh swbq krn leI pys kIqI ik aus dw mµqrwlw ivroDI iDr dy Awg¨AW v~loN auTwey mu~idAW dI vI pYrvweI krdw hY, auh ieh q~Q Cupw jWdI hY ik ies d¨sry mwmly ƒ Aihm nhIN smiJAw igAw Aqy X¨nIvristI ny vI ies ƒ gµBIrqw nwl nhIN ilAw sI[ pr ies qwzw mwmly iv~c mµqrwly v~loN lgwqwr hukmW dI qwmIl krn dy dbw kwrn X¨nIvristI ny roihQ ƒ szw nw dyx dy Awpxy pihly PYsly ƒ aultw id~qw[

ie~k d¨rdrSn it~pxIkwr ny svwl ijs ƒ swfy coN bhuqy mwm¨lI smJdy hn auTwieAw ik pIVq ividAwrQI jQybµdI mµqrI kol ikauN cIkdI kurlwauNdI rhI? kI ausƒ XkIn sI ik mµqrI auhnW coN hox kwrn auhnW dI CyqI m~dd krygw? mµqrI ny ividAwrQI jQybµdI dy khy ƒ s~c ikvyæ mµn ilAw? kI ausny koeI qPqIS kIqI? ieh aus v~loN ByijAw koeI Awm not nhIN sI ijhVw aus vrgy ivAkqI l¨µ ausdy AiDkwr Kyqr coN iksy v~loN aus q~k phuµc krn vyly rvwieqI qOr ’qy aus kol ByijAw jWdw hY[ ieh ey.AYs.eyN dy AprwDW dI sp~St qOr ’qy s¨cI bnwauNdw hY Aqy rwStr ivroDI jwqpwqI q~qW dy ivru~D X¨nIvristI v~loN kwrvweI krvwauNx leI mµqrwly dy dKl mµg krdw hY[ auh dwAvw nhIN kr skdw ik auh inrp~K hY[

Awqmh~iqAw ip~CoN aup kulpqI dy pRqIkrm smyq X¨nIvsistI dw rol bVw hI Srmnwk hY[ auh ƒ APsos hY pr ieh nhIN smJ skdw ik roihQ ny ieh isry dw kdm ikauN auTwieAw? pr jdoN ausƒ pu~iCAw igAw ik ausny roihQ dy du~K Bry p~qr qoN bwAd aus q~k phuµc ikauN nw kIqI qW aus ƒ kihxw ipAw ik ausƒ kwiedy kwƒnw Anuswr kwrvweI krnI peI[

ies Tµfy, vihSI kOmvwdI julm ny roihQ iv~c iek~lypx dI Bwvnw Br id~qI ijs qoN auh Awpxw jIvn Kqm kr ky Cutkwrw pw skdw sI[ jy mYN Awpxy ivAkqIqv ƒ pRgt krnw cwhuµdw hW qW mYƒ ies dyS BgqI dI dusætqw qy fuplIkosI is~Dy m~Qy tkrxw pvygw[ jy AsIN smyN isr kwrvweI nw kIqI Aqy ieh ƒ s~qw qoN pwsy nw kIqw qW hor bhuq ijµdgIAW clIAW jwxgIAW[

(dw itRibaUn coN Dnvwd sihq)

ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਅਧਿਕਾਰ ਸਭਾ ਨੇ ਦਲਿਤ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀ ਦੀ ਖ਼ੁਦਕੁਸ਼ੀ ਲਈ ਅਕਾਦਮਿਕ ਮਾਹੌਲ ਨੂੰ ਜ਼ਿੰਮੇਵਾਰ ਕਰਾਰ ਦਿੱਤਾ

ਜਲੰਧਰ, 19 ਜਨਵਰੀ : ਅੱਜ ਇਥੇ ਪ੍ਰੈੱਸ ਬਿਆਨ ਜਾਰੀ ਕਰਦਿਆਂ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਅਧਿਕਾਰ ਸਭਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਸੂਬਾ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਏ.ਕੇ.ਮਲੇਰੀ ਅਤੇ ਜਨਰਲ ਸਕੱਤਰ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਜਗਮੋਹਣ ਸਿੰਘ ਨੇ ਸੱਤਾਧਾਰੀ ਹਿੰਦੂਤਵੀ ਤਾਕਤਾਂ ਦੀ ਵਿਦਿਅਕ ਸੰਸਥਾਵਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਵਧ ਰਹੀ ਦਖ਼ਲਅੰਦਾਜ਼ੀ ਨਾਲ ਦਿਨੋਦਿਨ ਵਿਗੜ ਰਹੇ ਅਕਾਦਮਿਕ ਮਾਹੌਲ ਨੂੰ ਨਿਹਾਇਤ ਚਿੰਤਾਜਨਕ ਵਰਤਾਰਾ ਕਰਾਰ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਹੈ ਜਿਸ ਦੇ ਸਿੱਟੇ ਵਜੋਂ ਹੋਣਹਾਰ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀ ਖ਼ੁਦਕੁਸ਼ੀਆਂ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਮਜਬੂਰ ਹੋ ਰਹੇ ਹਨ ਅਤੇ ਪਿਛਲੇ ਚਾਰ ਸਾਲਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਐਸੇ 18 ਹੋਣਹਾਰ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀ ਖ਼ੁਦਕੁਸ਼ੀਆਂ ਚੁੱਕੇ ਹਨ। ਸਭਾ ਦੇ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਨੇ ਕਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਹੈਦਰਾਬਾਦ ਸੈਂਟਰਲ ਯੂਨੀਵਰਸਿਟੀ ਦੇ ਸਕਾਲਰ ਰੋਹਿਤ ਵੇਮੁਲਾ ਦੀ ਖ਼ੁਦਕੁਸ਼ੀ ਲਈ ਮੌਜੂਦਾ ਵਾਈਸ ਚਾਂਸਲਰ ਸਮੇਤ ਯੂਨੀਵਰਸਿਟੀ ਪ੍ਰਸ਼ਾਸਨ, ਮੌਜੂਦਾ ਹਕੂਮਤ ਅਤੇ ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦਾ ਸਿਰਜਿਆ ਨਾਸਾਜ਼ਗਰ ਅਕਾਦਮਿਕ ਮਾਹੌਲ ਜ਼ਿੰਮੇਵਾਰ ਹਨ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਦੱਬੇਕੁਚਲੇ ਸਮਾਜ ਦੇ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਦੀ ਹੱਕਜਤਾਈ ਅਤੇ ਮਨੁੱਖੀ ਮਾਣ-ਸਨਮਾਨ ਵੱਲ ਸੰਜੀਦਗੀ ਨਾਲ ਧਿਆਨ ਦੇਣ ਦੀ ਬਜਾਏ ਜਾਤਪਾਤੀ ਵਿਤਕਰੇ ਵਿਰੁੱਧ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੀ ਆਵਾਜ਼ ਨੂੰ ਕੁਚਲਣ ਲਈ ਘਿਣਾਉਣੇ ਢੰਗ ਅਖ਼ਤਿਆਰ ਕੀਤੇ ਅਤੇ ਹਿੰਦੂਤਵੀ ਫਰੰਟ ਜਥੇਬੰਦੀ ਅਖਿਲ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀ ਪ੍ਰੀਸ਼ਦ ਦੀ ਇਕ ਫਰਜ਼ੀ ਸ਼ਿਕਾਇਤ ਨੂੰ ਬਹਾਨਾ ਬਣਾਕੇ ਪੰਜ ਦਲਿਤ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਯੁਨੀਵਰਸਿਟੀ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ ਕੱਢ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਗਿਆ। ਇਸ ਵਾਈਸ ਚਾਂਸਲਰ ਦਾ ਦਲਿਤ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਬਹਾਨੇ ਬਣਾਕੇ ਸਜ਼ਾਵਾਂ ਦੇਣ ਦਾ ਪੂਰਾਣਾ ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਹੈ ਜੋ ਸਾਬਤ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਇਸ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਸਜ਼ਾਵਾਂ ਦੱਬੇਕੁਚਲੇ ਸਮਾਜ ਦੇ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਪੜ੍ਹਾਈ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਹਰ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਗਿਣਮਿੱਥਕੇ ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ ਜਾਂਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ।ਉਹਨਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਆਰਥਿਕ ਤੰਗੀ ਪੈਦਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਹੋਰ ਪ੍ਰੇਸ਼ਾਨ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ।ਇਹ ਖ਼ੁਦਕੁਸ਼ੀ ਨਾ ਹੋ ਕੇ ਦੱਬੇ-ਕੁਚਲੇ ਸਮਾਜ ਦੇ ਇਕ ਹੋਣਹਾਰ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀ ਦਾ ਕਤਲ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਉਸ ਦੀ ਮੌਤ ਲਈ ਵਾਈਸ ਚਾਂਸਲਰ ਅਤੇ ਕੇਂਦਰੀ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਜ਼ਿੰਮੇਵਾਰ ਹਨ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੀ ਮਿਲੀਭੁਗਤ ਤਹਿਤ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਯੂਨੀਵਰਸਿਟੀ ਤੋਂ ਕੱਢਿਆ ਗਿਆ।ਸਭਾ ਦੇ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਨੇ ਮੰਗ ਕੀਤੀ ਕਿ ਸਬੰਧਤ ਮੰਤਰੀਆਂ ਅਤੇ ਵੀ.ਸੀ. ਵਿਰੁੱਧ ਐੱਸ.ਸੀ.ਐੱਸ.ਟੀ. ਐਕਟ ਤਹਿਤ ਸਖ਼ਤ ਕਾਨੂੰਨੀ ਕਾਰਵਾਈ ਕੀਤੀ ਜਾਵੇ, ਅਜੇਹੇ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਵਕਤ ਸਿਰ ਉਹਨਾਂ ਦੀ ਹੱਕੀ ਸਕਾਲਰਸ਼ਿਪ ਨਾ ਦੇਣ ਲਈ ਜ਼ਿੰਮੇਵਾਰ ਅਧਿਕਾਰੀਆਂ ਤੇ ਵੀ ਕਾਰਵਾਈ ਕੀਤੀ ਜਾਵੇ। ਦੱਬੇਕੁਚਲੇ ਅਤੇ ਪਿਛੜੇ ਸਮਾਜ ਦੇ ਵਿਦਿਆਰਥੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਵਿਕਾਸ ਲਈ ਮਹਿਫੂਜ਼ ਅਤੇ ਸਾਜ਼ਗਰ ਅਕਾਦਮਿਕ ਮਾਹੌਲ ਬਣਾਇਆ ਜਾਵੇ ਅਤੇ ਵਿਦਿਅਕ ਸੰਸਥਾਵਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਦਖ਼ਲਅੰਦਾਜ਼ੀ ਤੋਂ ਮੁਕਤ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਵੇ।

He has left us with only his words

• MEENA KANDASAMY

• Rohith Vemula’s death is the unforeseeable climax of a struggle that he was spearheading against casteist, communal forces.

  The suicide of a Dalit student is not just an individual exit strategy, it is a shaming of society that has failed him or her. Rohith Vemula’s death comes as the sad, unforeseeable climax of a struggle that he was spearheading against casteist, communal forces. One of the five Dalit scholars who were expelled from the University of Hyderabad on charges moved by the right-wing student organisation, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, he kept the spirit of resilience alive until his last moments. Even as Rohith being driven to death shows us the vulnerability of our most militant students, it also lays bare the true state of our educational system: a vice chancellor with a decades-old history of rusticating Dalit students, the involvement of Central ministers to settle scores on behalf of right-wing Hindu forces, the entire administrative machinery becoming a puppet of the ruling political forces, and the tragic consequences of social apathy.
  Meena Kandasamy
  There could not be a more potent image of the caste system at play than the expulsion of these five Dalit students. Even though the ensuing strikes highlighted the sense of solidarity among the Dalit Bahujan student community, the act of expelling these students itself carried grim reminders. Just as the Manusmriti ordains the outcaste to leave the caste quarters, the very ritual of punishment appeared to have all the symbolism that accompanies a caste cleansing. Education has now become a disciplining enterprise working against Dalit students: they are constantly under threat of rustication, expulsion, defamation, discontinuation. In a society where students have waged massive struggles to ensure their right to access higher educational institutions through the protective, enabling concept of the reservation policy, no one has dared to shed light on how many of these students are allowed to leave these institutions with degrees, how many become dropouts, become permanent victims of depression, how many end up dead.
  Students like him
  
  That Dalit students like Rohith Vemula enter universities to pursue a doctoral degree is a testament to their intelligence, perseverance, and a relentless struggle against caste discrimination that attempts to destroy them from the first day.
  Textbooks ridden with caste hegemony, the atmosphere that reinforces alienation within college campuses, classmates who take pride in their dominant caste status, teachers who condemn them to miserable fates and thus enact a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure — these are the impossible challenges for Dalit students to surmount. Caste which ingrains the notion of intellectual superiority, when replicated within the boundaries of academia, becomes a poison potent enough to kill and consume lives. Classrooms, instead of becoming sites of resistance and subversion, become assertions of unbridled caste power by those who believe in the twice-born, sacred threads of knowledge transmission, and who are inherently obliged to maintain the status quo.
  The tiny minority of students from oppressed backgrounds who try to camouflage and masquerade out of the fear of being ostracised are punished at the time of exposure — like the mythical Karna — with the curse of fatal failure. Those Dalit students who emerge in their own right, with their identity out in the open and for all to see, become the proverbial Ekalavyas, left alive, but unable to practise their art. This is not the fate of students alone because within these corridors of caste power, Dalit-Bahujan faculty are also at the receiving end of ostracisation. As much as I have watched in awe my mother’s struggle in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, I have also watched with absolute helplessness the woman I love crumble and disintegrate. The dismal representation of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classes faculty members in our IITs/Indian Institutes of Management and universities renders the caste discrimination absolute because students from similar backgrounds do not even find a support group to hear their difficulties or give them advice.
  In front of interview panels of Brahminical professors whose hostility reminds one of firing squads, how does a student hold his or her own? These professors, who on the one hand might have mastered nuclear physics, but on the other hand cradle their dearest caste prejudices, represent only one dimension of the problem of caste terrorism in academia. When combined with right-wing political student groupings like the ABVP, it reaches a deadly high.
  Our universities have become the modern killing fields. Like all other battlegrounds, institutions of higher education also specialise in things beyond caste discrimination. They are also notorious for the sexual harassment visited upon women students and faculty members alike, stories that are hushed up, stories that are twisted to character assassinate the victims who resist, raise an alarm, do not allow sex to be extracted under threat, compulsion or coercion. Just as Rohith’s suicide has broken the silence over caste as a killer, one day we will also hear the stories of women who were driven to death by these ivory towers.
  What we see in the case of the University of Hyderabad is the deadly combination of caste supremacy and political pandering. The role of the state machinery, especially the police force, to threaten and subdue students has been established as a classical method of repression on campuses. In the days that followed the derecognition of the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, IIT Madras became a veritable site of siege, with uniformed men and women everywhere on the campus, guarding its gates night and day. (The decision was revoked later after much protest.) Now, we have a similar massive deployment of armed police on the Hyderabad campus, and the imposition of curfew under Section 144.
  A pledge to keep
  
  Rohith, you have left behind your dream of becoming a science writer like Carl Sagan, and left us with only your words. Each of our words now carries the weight of your death, every tear carries your unrealised dream. We will become the explosive stardust that you speak of, the stardust that will singe this oppressive system of caste. Within every university, every college, every school in this country, each of our slogans will carry the spirit of your struggle. Dr. Ambedkar spoke of caste as the monster that crosses ones path every way one turns, and within the agraharams that are the Indian educational institutions, our very physical presence must embody the message of caste annihilation. Let every despicable casteist force wince when they encounter a Dalit, a Shudra, an Adivasi, a Bahujan, a woman staking claim within academia, let them realise that we have come here to end a system that has kept trying hard to put an end to us, that we have come here to cause nightmares to those who dared to snatch our dreams. Let them realise that Vedic times, the era of pouring molten lead into the ears of the Shudras who hear the sacred texts, the era of cutting the tongues of those who dared to utter the knowledge that was denied to them, are long gone. Let them understand that we have stormed these bastions to educate, to agitate, to organise; we did not come here to die. We have come to learn, but let the monsters of caste and their henchmen bear in mind that we have come here also to teach them an unforgettable lesson.
  (Meena Kandasamy is a poet and writer.)

Rohit Vemula's Final Letter, who ended his life fighting casteism at university of Hydrabad

I Loved Science, Stars, Nature And People.......18 January, 2016Countercurrents.org“Good morning,I would not be around when you read this letter. Don’t get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write.I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt.The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense.May be I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That’s pathetic. And that’s why I am doing this.People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don’t believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds.If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that.Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive.'From shadows to the stars.'Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing.To ASA [Ambedkar Students Association] family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me very much. I wish all the very best for the future.For one last time,Jai BheemI forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself.No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act.This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this.Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone.“

Free speech in India, 2015

Courtesy   http://www.thehoot.org/research/special-reports/free-speech-in-india-2015-9091

IN Special Reports | 31/12/2015

Eight deaths, 30 attacks, 48 cases of defamation, 14 of sedition—its been grim year for free speech in India.

THE HOOT's annual free speech report

Nituparna Rajbongshi

 Introduction

2015 was a hugely eventful year for free speech in India. There were legal, political and technological developments that set the tone for these issues to be debated all year round. And journalists were at their most vulnerable, with deaths, attacks, threats, sedition and defamation cases against them at an all-time high.
This report presents:

• The year’s leading challengers of free speech
• A statistical summation of free speech violations, 2015
• A calendar of stand-out events related to free speech
• A short summary of important developments in the following categories:

              Free speech and the judiciary
            Government actions in the realm of free speech
              Free speech and the political class
              Free speech in the online and mobile realm

THE YEAR’S  LEADING CHALLENGERS TO MEDIA FREEDOM

We begin by listing those politicians and government organizations who deserve recognition for the challenge they posed to media freedom in this country.
The top ranks go to these four:

• Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa and the Tamil Nadu government
• The Government and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
• The Central Board of Film Certification
• The Chhattisgarh state government

CM Jayalalithaa and the Tamil Nadu Government

When the Chennai floods brought journalists from other parts of the country to Tamil Nadu, they noticed that questions about fixing blame were neither asked by the press in Tamil Nadu, nor answered by officials at press conferences. It was an indicator of the defamation capital that this city has become.
In 2015 the chief minister, her ministers, and her government filed a large number of criminal defamation cases against a range of magazines and individuals, prompting the Supreme Court to take note by the year end. The apex court said that the bulk of defamation cases against political leaders has  been filed in Tamil Nadu, and slammed the state government for granting sanction for prosecution in these cases.
In May the Supreme Court gave omnibus relief to the magazine Nakkeeranin connection with a set of 15 criminal defamation proceedings initiated against it by the chief minister, ministers and senior IAS officers in Tamil Nadu. These 15 complaints cited all its 20 reporters as respondents.
In November, criticism of government in action led the City Public Prosecutor M.L.Jegan to file a criminal defamation case against the weekly magazine Ananda Vikatan for ‘maligning’ the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister because an article had asked what Jayalalithaa had done so far.
In this report’s total count of 48 defamation cases in 2015,  the Tamil Nadu government accounts for 11 of them and for two of the 14 sedition cases filed in the country.  In December 2015 the Telegraph  reported that the Jayalalithaa government has filed a total of 190 defamation cases during it tenure.

The Government of India and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

The I& B ministry under the Bharatiya Janata Party government has become an image manager for its leaders and a censor rather than a provider of information. Its brief now is to safeguard the PM’s image. A few days ago, the Hindu reported that the Ministry will also monitor footage showing the I&B Minister and the Minister for I&B State, in what is an unprecedented move.
 In 2015 Sathiyam TV, a Chennai-based Tamil language news and current affairs channel, received  a show cause notice alleging that two of their broadcasts had portrayed Narendra Modi in a poor light. In the course of the year, the government issued an advisory to news channels not to telecast the Nirbhaya documentary and served a legal notice to the BBC for airing the Nirbhaya film 'India's Daughter'. It also focused its energies on preventing information leaks to the media and defended its curbs on journalists.
In the course of the year, three channels were issued show cause notices on why they should not face action for YakubMemon’s execution coverage. Among other actions, the I&B Ministry banned a documentary on beef and issued a notice to a Gujarat channel for 'sullying' the image of the prime minister.
Following the extended resistance of the students of the Film and Television Institute of India to the appointment of a director at the International Film Festival of India later in the year, the Ministry decided to drop the student film section at the festival.

The Central Board of Film Certification

This government body acquired a new head early in the year, Pahlaj Nihalani, who remained in the news all year round. The body he headed censored some 21 films in the course of the year, one of which came in for 218 cuts. The CBFC made the most news at the end of the year for shortening the duration of a James Bond kiss. Consequently, on the first day of 2016 the government announced a 6-member panel to review the functioning of the CBFC.
 
Journalists in Jagdalpur, Bastar district, protest against the continued detention of journalists Somaru Nag and Santosh Yadav on December 22.

The Chhattisgarh Government

It  jailed two journalists and presided over the state harassment of journalists in the Bastar region, which led them to hold a protest in Jagdalpur at the end of the year.

A statistical summation of free speech violations, 2015

Category	Number of Cases
Deaths	10	8 (Journalists), 2(Intellectuals)
Attacks	30
Arrests	3
Threats	27
Sedition	14	35(people charged with sedition)
Defamation	48
Censorship of film	21
Censorship of broadcast media	4
Censorship of print  media	3
Censorship of Music	2
Censorship of Cyber Media	13
Hate speech	13

These figures  are based on incidents reported in the press and should be treated as conservative estimates. The figures on attacks against journalists collected by the National Crime Records Bureau are not available yet for 2015. The figures for deaths include those cases in which investigations are not complete.
For cases and their details see here

A 2015 FREE SPEECH CALENDER

 January
 Jan 4: Attack on G Stephen Babu, Editor of Crime Today at Vinukonda in Guntur district.
 Jan 14 : Tamil writer Perumal Murugan announces his ‘death’ as a writer on his Facebook page, after being hounded by caste-based groups and Hindutva forces in Tiruchengode, Tamil Nadu, for his novel Madhorubhagan
Jan 16: Leela Samson resigns as Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, reportedly over ‘interference, coercion and corruption of panel members and officers of the organisation who are appointed by the ministry.’ Nine members resign a day later in support.
Jan 28: Shirin Dalvi, editor of Mumbai-based newspaper Avadhnama, is arrested for reproducing the cover of Charlie Hebdo magazine.

February
February 2: A police complaint is lodged against the organizers of the comedy group All India Bakchod by the Brahman Ekta Seva Sanstha for alleged abusive language in a roast that was organized in Mumbai on Dec 20, 2014.
February 2: Members of the Kongu Vellalr community abduct and thrash Tamil writer ‘Puliyur’ Murugesan for allegedly portraying the women of their community in a bad light in his compendium of short stories.
February 11: Penguin India agrees to withdraw and pulp all unsold copies of American scholar Wendy Doniger's 'The Hindus: An Alternative History' after a protracted legal battle with Hindutva organization Shiksha Bachao Andolan ends in a settlement.
February 21: Senior Communist leader, rationalist and writer of the popular book ‘Shivajikonhota’, Govind Pansare is shot by two persons on February 16 when out on a morning walk with his wife. He succumbs to his injuries five days later.

 March
March 5: The Indian government imposes a blanket ban on the screening of a controversial documentary ‘India’s daughter’ on the Delhi gang rape incident as it carried an interview of one of the convicted persons.
March 9: Nagaland government blocks the Internet and mobile data services and bans the circulation of videos and photographs of the lynching of Syed Sarif alias Farid Khan by a huge mob.
March 18: Mere criticism is not seditious, rules the Bombay High Court upholding a petition that challenged the charge of sedition against cartoonist Aseem Trivedi.
March 24: In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court of India strikes down Sec 66 A of the amended Information Technology Act, 2000 as ‘unconstitutional’.

April
April 8: The Supreme Court seeks the government’s view on the decriminalizing of defamation, while hearing a batch of petitions led by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy challenging the constitutional validity of defamation.
April 13: More than one lakh people from all walks of life send in their recommendations to save the principle of net neutrality following TRAI recommendations on OTT services and online media.
April 28: The Shiv Sena moves a privilege motion against writer and columnist Shobhaa De for her tweets allegedly insulting Maharashtrian culture.

May
May 14: The Supreme Court upholds the framing of obscenity charges against poet Vasant Dattatreya Gurjar for his poem on Gandhi.
May 29: The Meghalaya High Court imposes a ban on media coverage of bandh calls issued by insurgency groups.

June
 
Photojournalist Shahid Tantray thrashed in Nowhatta by police personnel.  Photo  credit: Mukhtar Ahmad
June 6: Bilal Bahadur, photo editor of Kashmir Life, is attacked and severely beaten by a mob in Srinagar, incensed at coverage of their Friday protests in the Nowhatta area.
June 7: The Ministry of Home Affairs denies security clearance to Sun TV for 33 TV channels which could lead to their shut down. Pending criminal cases against the company’s owners is cited as the reason.
June 8: Shajahanpur-based journalist Jagendra Singh dies of burn injuries, eight days after he alleged in a video that he was set on fire by a group of police and supporters of Uttar Pradesh Minister for Dairy Development, Ram Murti Verma.
June 12: Kanpur-based journalist Deepak Mishra is shot at by unidentified persons. He says the attack was after he wrote a series of articles on gambling dens in a small newspaper Dainik Mera Sach, but police say it because of a personal dispute with a neighbour.
June 15: Haider Khan, a journalist in Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit district, is brutally assaulted, tied to a motorcycle and dragged on the ground, allegedly for his reports on dubious land deals.
June 22: Sandeep Kothari, a 40-year-old journalist based in Jabalpur, is allegedly kidnapped from Balagat in Madhya Pradesh and set on fire. He dies later. He had written against the illegal mining mafia and was being pressurized to withdraw a case he had filed on this topic.
June 23: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who is facing multiple cases in Delhi, Mumbai, Assam, Mohali and Kerala, challenges the hate speech provisions of Sections 153, 153A, 153B, 295, 295A, 298 and 505 of the Indian Penal Code as violative of his freedom of speech.

July
July 5:  Akshay Singh, a reporter with Aaj Tak channel, who was covering the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, dies in mysterious circumstances in Meghnagar near Jhabua, minutes after interviewing the father of Namrata Damor, a student whose body was found near a railway track in Ujjain district of the state. At least 23 people had died an unnatural death, according to a special investigative team probing the scam.

August  
August 8: Raja Chaturvedi, a journalist working in Kannauj district in Uttar Pradesh, is shot dead just outside his house by unidentified persons.
August 8: Sanjay Pathak, a stringer with a local Hindi newspaper, in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district, is killed by two persons in Faridpur area in the district.
August 27: A Rs 250-crore defamation case is filed by Essar Steel against Caravan magazine.
August 27: The Maharashtra government issues a circular to all police stations directing that sedition charges be applied if citizens criticize public officials or politicians.
August 30: Former Vice Chancellor of Hampi University, rationalist and well known Kannada writer MM Kalburgi, is shot dead in his residence. He was attacked for his views against idolatary in a campaign of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
 
Prof  Kalburgi and Linganna Satyampet (in yellow) in a discussion, Shahapur, 2010

September
September 2: The Internet is blocked in Manipur indefinitely after an outbreak of violence in Churachandpur
September 4: Hindu groups force literary critic M M Basheer to stop writing a regular column on the Ramayana for the Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi.
September 9: The Gujarat High Court upholds a ban on internet services during the Patel agitation in Gujarat.
September 24: Internet services are  suspended in Jammu and Kashmir to ‘stop miscreants from posting objectionable pictures’ of beef slaughter during the Eid festival. The ban on internet services was re-imposed in November for the visit of Prime Minister NarendraModi.
September 30: Freelance journalist Ajay Vidrohi is shot dead in Sitamarhi, days before the Bihar state elections.

October
October 10: Hemant Yadav, a  journalist with a local news channel, is shot dead by motorcycle-borne gunmen in Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh.
October 10: Sudheendra Kulkarni, who heads the Observer Research Foundation, is attacked by Shiv Sena party members and his face blackened with ink for organizing a book launch of former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.
October 27: Mithilesh Pandey, a reporter with Dainik Jagran is shot dead in his house in Khastha village in Gaya district of Bihar.
October 7: Acclaimed writer Nayantara Sahgal and poet Ashok Vajpayi return their Sahitya Akademi awards to protest the threats to free speech and intolerance in the wake of the killing of Professor Kalburgi and the Dadri lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq and are followed suit by  a number of eminent writers, film-makers and poets. Eminent writer Uday Prakash had returned his award in September.
October 7: Two concerts of Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali in Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra are cancelled following protests by the Shiv Sena which is opposed to all ‘cultural ties’ with Pakistan.
October 9: The Delhi High Court seeks the CBFC’s response to a petition on the denial of a certificate for ‘En Dino Muzaffarnagar’, a documentary on the Muzaffarnagar riots made by the late Shubradeep Chakravorty and Meera Chaudhary. The film was to be granted an ‘A’ certificate.
October 10: Adivasi journalist Someru Nag and Hindi media reporter Santosh Yadav are arrested by Chhattisgarh police on suspicion of supporting Maoists.  Despite protests by local journalists and a signature campaign by academics and activists across India appealing for their release, the duo are still in jail.
October 12: Indo-Pak band Mekaal Hasan Band is not allowed to perform in Ahmedabad’s Sheth CN College of Fine Arts after a scheduled concert was disallowed by the college trustees in the wake of a protest by the Shiv Sena.
October 31: Tamil folk singer S Kovan is slapped with a sedition case for singing songs critical of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her liquor policy. Kovan heads the Makkal Kalai Ilakkiya Kazhagam or People’s Art and Literary Association, a 30-year old cultural organization that stages plays on social issues.

November
Nov 19: The Director of Film Festivals drops the entire students’ section from the IFFI fearing trouble from students of the FTII who have been protesting over the lack of transparency in appointments to the Governing Council. A 139-day strike by the students over the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan and four others ends inconclusively.
Nov 20: The CBFC cuts four scenes from ‘Spectre’, the James Bond film, two for alleged profanity and two for ‘excessive kissing’.
Nov 23: Newspapers in Nagaland carry blank editorials to register their misgivings at the directive of the Assam Rifles that they should not cover banned groups

December
December 1: Several offices of the Marathi daily Lokmata reattacked for publishing an allegedly blasphemous cartoon depicting ISIS funding in an article titled 'ISIS cha Paisa' (ISIS' money).
Dec 9: Mohammed Wasim-ul-Haq, the chief editor of Akhbar-e-Mashriq, an Urdu daily from Kolkata, is taken into preventive custody by police in Delhi for an article critical of the provocative statements of a Hindu leader.
Dec 10: The Tamil Nadu government files sedition charges against a Tamil news weekly 'Namadhu Manasatchi' for allegedly publishing a false and seditious report on public healthcare.
Dec 10: Tamil Nadu Handloom and Textile Minister S. Gokula Indira files a criminal defamation case against Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan for publishing an article criticizing the ministry.
Dec 16: Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications,  informs Parliament that the Government has blocked 844 social media pages till November under the IT Act.
Dec 17: Newspapers in Imphal shut down for a day following a bomb threat to the editor-in-chief of Impact TV.
Dec 21: The Rajasthan government blocks Internet services in some districts indefinitely after communal clashes in the districts of Nagaur, Dungarpur, Udaipur, Bhilwara and other parts of the state.
Dec 26: As part of the ongoing controversy over alleged corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association, Tejbir Singh, father of Delhi cricketer Himmat Singh, files a defamation suit against suspended BJP leader Kirti Azad, and former cricketers Bishan Singh Bedi and Surender Khanna.
Dec 26: A petition is filed in the Madras High Court by Paneerselvi, seeking an interim stay on the release of Ram Gopal Verma’s film ‘Killing Veerappan’ because the “entire movie is filled up with false information which is nothing but creating law and order problems in Tamil Nadu."
Dec 27: Kerala photographer Rafeeque Taliparamba’s studio is burnt down after he questioned certain Islamic practices including the tradition of purdah on a WhatsApp group.
Dec 30: The Delhi and District Cricket Association files a defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and suspended BJP leader Kirti Azad for their “wild and baseless” allegations of corruption against the cricket body.
Dec 31: Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) chief and Tamil film actor Vijayakanth spits at journalists and dares them to ask Chief Minister  J. Jayalalithaa similar questions about the upcoming assembly elections.

Sectorwise developments

FREE SPEECH AND THE JUDICIARY
The year saw a number of legal developments with implications for free speech.  The most significant of these came in the first quarter of the year.
On March 24 the Supreme Court Justices J Chelameswar and R F Nariman struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (which criminalized annoying, menacing and offensive speech), along with Section 118(d) of the Kerala Police Act (which criminalized annoying speech) for violating the fundamental right to free speech enshrined in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Section 79 of the IT Act which immunizes intermediaries from liability was held valid by the Court subject to certain conditions. Only Section 69A of the IT Act, which allows the government to block websites, on certain limited grounds, was held entirely constitutional by the Court.
See analysis here: A blow for free speech
Several cases of defamation and sedition as well as several media related cases went up to the apex court in the course of year. Most of the time, it weighed in on the side of the freedom of speech of the accused.
The SC dismisses a Tamil Nadu government petition charging folk singer Kovan with sedition.
It extends the stay on defamation proceedings against DMKD leader Vijayakanth by the Tamil Nadu government.
The apex court pulls up the state government for filing so  many defamation cases.
 It also steps in to protect journalists from similar actions by the Delhi Government
The Supreme Court stays a Delhi government circular on defamation
The Supreme Court stays defamation proceedings filed against journalists and publishers in older cases.
It stays defamation proceedings against Rajdeep Sardesai and seven others.
It also stays proceedings against AroonPurie.

In a case of defamation being filed against publications and writers, the Supreme Court declines to transfer a defamation suit against Caravan by EssartoDelhi.
But in the case of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management, the Court calls the institute’s Rs 50 crore suit against Caravan bogus and lets the case be transferred to Delhi.
In June, the Supreme Court has to step into the case of the Union Home Ministry denying security clearance to Sun TV on account of criminal cases pending against them. It stays the Tamil Nadu High Court order cancelling Former Union Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran’sbail.
No security clearance for Sun TV: Home Ministry
SC smells `political vendetta' against Maran, stays arrest
SC stays till September 14 a HC order cancelling Maran's bail
In 2015,  the Law Commission recommended doing away with the death penalty for all offences except terrorism and sedition. But sedition became such a frequently imposed charge that the prospect of such a recommendation is worrying. There were 26 cases that we captured from media reports but the number could be larger.
But in the case of Hardik Patel and the charge of sedition levied against him by the Gujarat government, there were several successive developments with the Supreme Court initially refusing to quash  sedition charges against him, and then transferring his plea against the sedition charge to another bench in November.
In terms of restraining the media in 2015, the Supreme Court observed in  August that the government should regulate social media to curb malicious campaigns.
SC calls for new law to regulate social media

GOVERNMENT ACTIONS IN THE REALM OF FREE SPEECH
Between the Central Board of Film Certification, the Ministry of Information  & Broadcasting  and the Ministry of Home Affairs,  a hyperactive government did more than  its share of censorship and policing.
These are the instances we recorded stretching across the categories defined in the opening table of this report.
Stand on ‘kiss’ proves costly for CBFC officer?
What the CBFC Didn’t Want You to Hear in ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’
Kerala government puts curbs on staff’s creative works, then does a rethink
Modi critic removed from cultural panel
In India, James Bond has only half a licence to kiss
 Facebook reports surge in government requests for data
 I&B Ministry appoints four new censor board members, two with BJP links
I&B Ministry now bans documentary on beef

Pakistani author denied Indian visa for literary festival
Government blocks pro-IS websites
Centre to ask social media companies to block sensitive posts
For media monitor, work is counting PM, Ministers on TV
I&B notice to Gujarat channel for 'sullying' image of Modi
Censor okays, then blocks film on assassins of General A S Vaidya
Censor Board to vet film glorifying Khalistan cause
Sathiyam TV moves Delhi HC against I&B Ministry order
Sunni outfit calls for ban on Iranian film depicting the Prophet Mohammad
Censor Board refuses to clear documentary on Modi-Kejriwal’s 2014 Varanasi battle
With 72 cases, Kerala records highest ‘offences against State’, Assam 2nd: NCRB data -
I&B  officials head to FTII as students up the ante
Government defends curbs on journalists
Explain why you shouldn’t face action for Yakub’s execution coverage: Government notice to three channels
Define contours of right to privacy, Centre tells Supreme Court
Porn ban: Why India’s order to block 857 websites might not work
Ban only on sites promoting child porn, says Centre
Number of ‘adult’ films trimmed for TV rising
NIA special cell to monitor terror chatter on the internet?
Censor Board Decides To Withdraw Controversial List Of Cuss Words
Government blocks 40 websites citing religious intolerance
Home Ministry denies security clearance to Sun TV  
Intelligence Bureau red-flags a Punjabi movie ‘Jinda and Sukha’ based on A S Vaidya killers
Government serves legal notice to the BBC for airing Nirbhaya film 'India's Daughter'; Congress and BJP spar
Government unblocks 32 websites as they promise to cooperate
Government plans fresh policy to prevent info leaks to media

Directives to television channels
I&B Ministry's advisory to news channels to not telecast the Nirbhaya documentary

FREE SPEECH AND THE POLITICAL CLASS
Between filing defamation cases against each other and the media, and indulging in hate speech, the political class contributed its share to the longlist of free speech violations in 2015.
The numbers of incidents in specific categories are in the opening table of this report.
Congress politician sues Kannada channel for Rs 100 crore in defamation case
Sadhvi Balika Saraswati Booked for Hate Speech
Rahul Gandhi moves SC for decriminalizing defamation law
Chandrababu supporters file defamation case against KCR in AP
Police refuse to file hate speech FIR against TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee
Hate speech charge sheets filed against Anubrata Mondaland Dudhkumar Mondal

Guwahti High Court gives respite to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in hate speech  on Ayodhya row at a function organized at Kaziranga University on March 15.
BJP legislator T Raja Singh of Goa denies charges of making a provocative speech aimed at fomenting communal tension.
Charges framed against Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh in defamation case
Geelani ‘Seditious’ Letter To Nawaz Sharif Proves That India Can Never Trust Hurriyat
Jayalalithaa files defamation case against Nakkeeran
Muslims have a Pakistan, you don't, Sena tells Jains
Jhabua Explosion: Defamation Case Against MP Congress Chief
Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee files defamation suit againstWest Bengal Left Front chairman  Biman Bose
Gujarat police book Patidar leader under sedition charges
Notice to Ramesh in defamation plea filed by Dhumal
Defamation notice to two Chhattisgarh ministers
Tamil folk singer charged with sedition for anti-Jayalalithaa songs
FIR against Akbaruddin Owaisi for his speech at an election rally in Bihar.
South Africa files defamation suit against Modi
National Herald remark: Congress sends legal notice to Javadekar
Rahul Gandhi refuses in Supreme Court to regret his statement on RSS
Jayalalithaa sues Ananda Vikatan magazine for ‘defamatory’ article
Tamil Nadu Minister files defamation case against Vikatan

Arrest warrant against BJP MP

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ONLINE AND MOBILE REALM
Reddit to honour 'Do Not Track' requests from visitors to its website
Cybercrime hit half of India’s Net users, says study
Facebook blocks certain news articles; transparency?
US court rules in favor of Facebook, says blocking content is legal
Indian startup Silver Push raises hackles in US over privacy violation
Google defeats most claims in browser tracking lawsuit
Protecting users online: Google, Vodafone top the list
Internet freedom improved in India for the second consecutive year in 2015: Report
Google, WhatsApp Accused Of Breaching Users’ Privacy
Only partly free
India becoming strategic target for cyber-criminals: Report
Indian hackers bring down Pak websites on Independence Day
Facebook cancels internship of Harvard student who exposed Messenger privacy flaw
ISPs seek clarity from government on porn ban
Can't peep into bedrooms to stop porn, AG tells SC
Porn ban: New order vague, cannot be implemented, say ISPs
Some Indian ISPs Seem to Be Blocking Porn Websites
Housing.com site hacked
Anonymous India hack BSNL website, claim to have access to 30 million records

Facebook Global Government Requests Report: Restricted access to 5,832 pieces of content in India
YouTube removes Nirbhaya documentary: TV reports