The Pune Police have filed a case against Gujarat Dalit activist- legislator Jignesh Mevani and Umar Khalid of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University for making “provocative” speeches during an event on Dec 31.
Both were charged with spreading disharmony which triggered the caste tension between Dalits and Marathas that brought Mumbai to a standstill.
The police had also refused permission for the “All India Students Summit 2018” where Mevani and Khalid were to speak at in Mumbai on Jan 4. Some students were also taken into preventive custody for proceeding with the event.
According to the case filed against Jignesh Mevani and Umar Khalid, their speeches created enmity between people in an event in Pune on Dec 31 due to which clashes broke out between Dalits attending the bi-centennial celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle and local right-wing groups on Jan 1.
Bhima Koregaon violence: FIR against Jignesh Mevani, Umar Khalid
Another fire in Mumbai: 4 killed, 7 injured in residential building in Marol
Just a week after Mumbai’s Kamala Mills fire took several lives, another major fire broke out at a residential building in Marol in Mumbai’s Andheri East area.
Four members of Kothari family lost their lives and atleast seven others were injured in the tragic fire. The deceased were identified as Sakina Kapasi, Mohin Kapasi, Tasleem Kapasi and Dawood Kapasi.
According to reports, the injured are being treated at the Cooper and Mukund hospitals.
A week ago 15 people died in a rooftop fire at a commercial building in the city.
An investigation into the cause of the fire has begun. According to reports, the fire started at around 1:30 am Indian time.
On Dec 28, 14 people were killed in a major fire which broke out at the Kamala Mills compound in Lower Parel.
Rejected Vishwas takes dig at AAP on Rajya Sabha nominations
The rift between senior leader Kumar Vishwas and Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party is getting uglier with new twists emerging out every time.This time the reason is for Delhi Rajya Sabha seats for which the party chief decided to nominate Delhi-based businessman Sushil Gupta, Chartered Accountant ND Gupta and party functionary Sanjay Singh by sidelining old companion and founding member Vishwas.
A dejected poet-turned politician Vishwas addressing the media said, “Maine jo jo sach bola aaj uska puruskar dand swaroop mujhe diya gaya. Arvind ne mujhe muskurate huye kaha tha ke ‘sir ji aapko marenge par shaheed nahi hone denge’ main unko badhai deta hu ke main apni shahadat sweekar karta hu (I have been rewarded for speaking the truth in the form of punishment. Once, while smiling Kejriwal told me ‘we will kill you but will not let you become a martyr. Today, I want to congratulate him and I accept my martyrdom),” after the announcement of AAP’s Rajya Sabha candidatures.
Vishwas, who is a national executive and key member of AAP did not attend the PAC (Political Affairs Committee) meeting. He is also a member of the PAC.
The election for the three Rajya Sabha seats is scheduled on January 16.
About the Guptas
In 2013, Sushil Gupta contested Assembly elections from Congress party from Moti Nagar. The total asset of Sushil is worth Rs.164 crore.
ND Gupta is the former president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and an expert in GST.
Indian Navy's MIG29K crashes at Goa airport, pilot safe
In the first incident involving MIG-29ks, the fighter aircraft with a trainee pilot crashed while taking off the runway at Goa’s Dabolim airport on Jan 3.
According to the Indian Navy’s tweet, the pilot was safe.
The Navy spokesperson said, “External fire extinguished. Efforts in hand to localise & extinguish internal fire onboard the MiG 29 k aircraft.”
“The pilot has ejected to safety. Fire on the aircraft is being extinguished,” a Navy officer said.
A Mig29K aircraft with under-trainee pilot goes off runway while taking off at Goa airport. Pilot ejects to safety. Fire on aircraft being extinguished @DefenceMinIndia @SpokespersonMoD
— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) January 3, 2018
Normal flight operations were suspended due to the accident.
Fodder scam case: Quantum of sentence to be pronounced on Jan 4
The special CBI Court in Ranchi will pronounce the quantum of sentence in the fodder scam case against former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and 15 others on January 4.
The quantum of sentence was postponed due to the passing away of advocate Vindeshwari Prasad, as per reports.
The Special Court finds Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Tejashwi Yadav and Manoj Jha guilty of contempt of court in the fodder scam case and has summoned them on January 23.
Maharashtra caste clash enters third day, state bandh today
The caste violence in Maharashtra has entered the third day with a state-wide bandh call by groups of protestors. The bandh call was declared by Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar. Almost 250 groups supported the bandh.
Educational institutions remained closed; the lifelines of commuters, trains and buses are running on usual schedules but are facing pressures to stop plying by protest groups.
Major routes like Eastern Expressway, Western Expressway, Eastern freeway, Harbour line, etc. are severely affected due to traffic blockade.
Thirteen buses of the civic transport service ‘BEST’ were damaged by protesters in Kalanagar area (Bandra), Dharavi, Kamraj Nagar, Santosh Nagar, Dindoshi and Hanuman Nagar, an official from the Disaster Management Unit of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
Internet services have been suspended to lesser the tension in Aurangabad.
How it all started?
The incident occurred when clashes broke out between villagers and a large group of people marking January 1, 1818, victory of British troops over Peshwa Bajirao II’s army in Koregaon Bhima. Many groups of Dalits, who were going to celebrate an event near Pune city to mark 200 years of the Bhima Koregaon battle, were attacked.
Reliving Partition, feeling the pain all over again
There is something so very different about Gulzar saheb, that it’s difficult to describe or even pinpoint. It’s not just the way he dresses so elegantly in white cotton kurta pyjamas, but the manner in which he observes the happenings around him before documenting them in prose or lyrics or verse. Needless to add, there is an abundance of emotions wrapped around each word written by him.
This latest from Gulzar saheb – ‘Footprints on Zero Line — Writings On The Partition’ are his sentiments and thoughts and much more along the strain. Written so very powerfully that though I hadn’t witnessed the Partition and the pain it had dragged along, but reading his verse and prose tucked in the pages of this volume hit me hard.
Of course, Gulzar saheb had witnessed the Partition and experienced those upheavals, and the impact and imprints they’d left on him are largely present in his writings. That pain manages to seep in each one of those words. But there is no stopping at the juncture; his sentences and sentiments are powerful enough to nudge and remind one how the horrifying turn of events of the Partition have the potential to affect our lives to this day; words along the strain — ‘those who forget the errors of the past are doomed to repeat them.’
To quote Gulzar saheb, “I have witnessed the Partition. I have experienced the Partition. Standing on Zero Line I am still watching the trail of Partition. Seventy years have passed. Time has not been able to blow off the footprints. I don’t know how long it will take for them to sink into history and be the past.”
Dedicating this book ‘To Dina, my birthplace in Pakistan’, he dwells on Dina and its people. He also dwells on several other locales like the Kashmir Valley where people are going through pain of the severest sorts.
As I sit reading page after page of this book, it does get emotional, tears cannot be held back. Let me quote Gulzar saheb’s this particular verse titled ‘Zero Line’ tucked in this volume —
‘Walking up to Wagah with measured steps/
When I came to stand at the Zero line/
My shadow fell in Pakistan!/
The sun was behind me/
And my abbu was standing in front/
He saw me/
Resting his stick on the ground/
He smiled and said,/
‘When I had left my body there/
I came back home, Punni!’
Abbu used to call me ‘Punni.’/
‘I had hoped you would come,/
For you had not received the news of my death/
I knew you would come to bid me farewell!’/
Startled, the moment paused/
He tapped the ground with his stick/
Stretching his hand, he said:/
‘Come, let us go to Dina!’
My friends who had come to receive me at Wagah/
Held me by the hand and took me to Lahore/
In the din of the city no voices came back to me/
But I could see a trail of silence/
That led to Dina …’
What I have found remarkable in Gulzar saheb’s collection of verse and prose is the fact that he narrates his own emotional pain with as much sensitivity as he does yours and mine.
With that, that bonding takes off, taking readers to the varying locales here and there, where pain persists in high doses.
In fact, in one of his short stories titled ‘Search’ (which incidentally he has dedicated to me), he takes the readers to the Kashmir Valley, to the ground realities that persist in that Valley.
I read and then re-read that short story and then sat and wept. After all, Gulzar saheb has conveyed so beautifully the hurt and pain that Kashmiri goes through day after day.
In each one of the short stories in this volume, human situations take shape, there are destined twists and turns, bringing to the fore the fragility of forms and psyches. The helplessness of the hapless human being hits the reader.
Read this volume. Experience the emotional pain seep right into you through the words and verse of Gulzar saheb.
letters@tehelka.com
Canada: 14 Ontario gurdwaras ban entry of Indian officials
In an unusual move, fourteen gurdwara management committees in Ontario province of Canada have imposed a ban on the entry of Indian government representatives to gurdwaras under their control, using a local law against trespassing. The decision was taken at a meeting at Jot Parkash Gurdwara in Brampton on December 30. However, there will be no ban on any Indian official paying a personal visit to any gurdwara run by these committees.
When contacted, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh said he had no information about such a decision. He said no one could be stopped from entering a gurdwara. But a spokesman of the concerned gurdwara committees in Canada, Amarjit Singh Mann, said: “We have just made it official. Indian officials were not allowed to speak or organise any function in any of these 14 gurdwaras even in the past. But that was a kind of unwritten understanding within the community. But now we have made it official as we found that Indian government officials were trying to interfere in our functioning. But our decision will nullify all such attempts by Indian government.”
In recent years, the Indian High Commission in Canada has been making attempts to improve ties with the Sikh diaspora there, which had been affected since Operation Blue Star in 1984. The latest development has come as a setback to these efforts. Series of meetings were held by these committees since December 9 before taking the final call.
A press note released by the gurdwara management committees to explain the decision read, “Pursuant to the Trespass to Property Act (1990), the management of these gurdwaras reserves the right to bar entry to officials of the Indian Government, including but not limited to Indian elected officials, Indian consular officials and members of organisations who seek to undermine the Sikh nation and Sikh institutions.”
It further says, “Keeping in mind the interference of Indian Consular and Indian Government officials in the lives of Canadian Sikhs, gurdwara management committees have jointly taken the decision to bar the entry of these officials and members from gurdwaras across Canada. The presence of these officials makes members of the Sikh community uncomfortable due to their agenda of undermining the autonomy of Sikh institutions and organisations. It is our obligation to ensure the safety of the Sangat, and accordingly we have arrived at this decision.”
Speaking about the decision, Mann added: “There were many recent incidents in which our Sikh brothers and sisters were being pressurised by Indian High Commission to ensure their intervention in these gurdwaras by hook or crook. So we have ended this chapter by making it official that no Indian representative can enter gurdwara to make speech or organise any function. They can only come here in personal capacity as devotees. We will keep close watch on their activities even if they come as devotees.”
Harjit Singh Sahota, representative of Gurdwara Jot Parkash where the last meeting was held, said: “It is just the start and we are hopeful that more and more gurdwara committees will take this step to block access of Indian officials. There are around 25 gurdwaras in Ontario. I am hopeful that all gurdwaras will make it officials in coming days not only in Ontario, but in whole of Canada and US.”
In Amritsar, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh said, “I have no information about this decision. I do not know the reason behind this decision. But in principle, no one can be stopped from visiting a gurdwara.”
Asked if he ever received any complaint from Sikhs in Canada about alleged intervention of Indian High Commission officials in affairs of Sikh gurdwaras in Canada, the Jathedar said, “I didn’t get any such complaint. But no interference of anyone in gurdwara management can be accepted.”
Last year, the Indian Consulate in Canada had faced a similar situation when it booked a gurdwara in Vancouver for Akhand Path (three-day-long uninterrupted reciting of Guru Granth Sahib) in the month of June to celebrate 350th birthday anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. The Indian Consulate had to cancel the event at last moment due to “unavoidable circumstances”. Later, some pro-Khalistan groups claimed credit for forcing the gurdwara committee concerned to cancel the booking.
Recently, a video went viral in which some Sikh youths apparently blocked the entry of Indian government representatives in an Australian gurdwara.
Mumbai halts in caste clash: Section 144 imposed
Section 144 was imposed on January 2 in various parts of Mumbai as the clash between Dalit and Maratha communities turned violent in Pune and nearby areas.
As a precautionary measure, Many educational institutes including schools and colleges were also shut down in Mumbai.
Mumbai’s Harbour Line was blocked by protesters.
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis urged for peace and ordered a judicial probe into the Bhima Koregaon incident.
How it all started?
The incident occurred when clashes broke out between villagers and a large group of people marking January 1, 1818, victory of British troops over Peshwa Bajirao II’s army in Koregaon Bhima. Many groups of Dalits, who were going to celebrate an event near Pune city to mark 200 years of the Bhima Koregaon battle, were attacked.
“Don’t believe in rumours. Traffic on Eastern expressway was affected due to protests. It’s moving now. Traffic at Chembur Naka is still affected. There is nothing to panic. Verify facts with police officers and men before posting anything on social media,” police tweeted.
Don’t believe in rumours. Traffic on Eastern expressway was affected due to protests. It’s moving now. Traffic at Chembur Naka is still affected. There is nothing to panic. Verify facts with police officers and men before posting anything on social media.
— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) January 2, 2018
US H-1B visa rules may deport 7.5L Indians
The Donald Trump-led administration is reviewing a proposal to end the grant of H-1B visa extension to the holders, which could possibly lead to the deportation of around 7,50,000 Indians whose applications for Green Card had already been accepted.
According to reports, around 500,000 to 750,000 Indians with H-1B visas could be deported if the administration decides to consider the proposal which is aligned with Trump’s vision of “Buy American, Hire American.”
