DELHI HC GRANTS BAIL TO 3 STUDENT ACTIVISTS IN DELHI RIOTS CASE
A division bench of Justices Sidharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani of the High Court of Delhi on June 15 granted bail to Asif Iqbal Tanha and Pinjra Tod activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case under UAPA. The three activists, who were arrested in May 2020, have been asked to surrender their passports and not to offer any inducement to prosecution witnesses or tamper with the evidence in the case. The court observed, “We are constrained to say, that it appears, that in its anxiety to suppress dissent and in the morbid fear that matters may get out of hand, the state has blurred the line between the constitutionally guaranteed ‘right to protest’ and ‘terrorist activity’. If such blurring gains traction, democracy would be in peril.”
MUSLIM FAMILY ATTACKED IN NORTH EAST DELHI
An armed mob led allegedly by one Vipin Kumar attacked a Muslim family in Yamuna Vihar in North-East Delhi, injuring 11 male and three female members of the family in the intervening night of June 11 and 12. Attackers reportedly called them “Pakistanis”. Family head Yamin Khan said this is the second time it faces violence after the February 2020 riots. A delegation of Jamait Ulama-e-Hind reportedly met the victims and expressed their solidarity with the victims. The family told the delegation they were attacked for their Muslim identity. The delegation later took up the matter with police officials, who told them that a case has been filed and gang leader Vipin has been nabbed.
GORAKHPUR MUSLIMS WORRIED BY ‘PRESSURE’ TO SELL THEIR HOMES
The Uttar Pradesh government’s alleged plan to remove over a dozen houses in the vicinity of the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur “for the deployment of police forces to provide a security cover to the temple” has triggered an uproar, The Wire reported on June 5. The families affected by the state government’s move allege that they were made to sign the consent forms under pressure and were not given the complete information. The district administration, on the other hand, claims that the security plan is still in its nascent stages and no one is being coerced – all the families have signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) without any pressure, it claimed. The families who signed the said MoU seem scared and worried.
MAN LYNCHED OVER COW THEFT SUSPICION IN ASSAM’S TINSUKIA
A 28-year-old man was beaten to death in a village in Tinsukia district of Assam by a mob that suspected him of being a cow thief. Police have nabbed 12 people in connection with the incident. The victim was identified as Sarat Moran, a resident of Kordoiguri village in Tinsukia district. The incident reportedly took place in Korjonga Borpathar village under Baghjan police station during the wee hours, Tinsukia Superintendent of Police Debojit Deuri was reported as saying. According to villagers, the owner of a house spotted two persons at his cowshed around 1:30 am and raised an alarm. People then gathered at the spot and caught one among the duo. Some villagers then allegedly tied the man in an open field and started beating him, suspecting him to be cow thieves. The mob had also allegedly attacked the victim with a blade, leaving him injured. While the man died on the spot, another managed to escape.
UNEMPLOYMENT CAUSING BACKWARDNESS OF TELANGANA MUSLIMS
Emigration to the Gulf is not uncommon among Muslim families residing in the Old City area of Hyderabad. But corroborating this information with the data that unemployment is as high as 21 per cent among Muslims in the Old City gives an insight as to what might be the underlying cause, a report said on June 13. While emigration is common across Telangana, the dependence on remittance is higher among Muslim families due to socio-economic backwardness. As per the report, the number of Muslim households receiving remittances is about twice as much as Hindu households. Another statistic that highlights the higher dependence on remittances among Muslims is while 19 per cent of Hindu families look at remittances as a source of pursuing education, among Muslim families it is 35 per cent. These, and other such data derived by analysing National Sample Surveys conducted in the ‘Inland North-Western’ and ‘Inland North-Eastern’ regions of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh provide a multi-faceted view of the hurdles that cause socio-economic backwardness among Muslims in Telangana.
RELEASE BHIMA KOREGAON PRISONERS FROM OVERCROWDED JAILS
More than 50 foreign MPs, professors and Nobel laureates and 10 civil society organisations on June 10 urged the Government of India to immediately release the activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, in view of the raging Covid-19 crisis. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the signatories expressed concern about the deteriorating health of the prisoners due to neglect and unhygienic conditions in jails. The signatories of the letter included Jose Antonio Guevara-Bermudez, former president of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Nobel-winning writers Olga Tokarczuk and Wole Soyinka and European Parliament members Margrete Auken and Idoia Villanueva.
MINORITY SCHOOLS CHALLENGE AMENDED GUJARAT EDUCATION ACT
The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (Amendment) Act, 2021, which has made it mandatory to clear Teachers’ Aptitude Test (TAT) to become teachers and principals in minority educational institutions, has been challenged before the Gujarat High Court as “unconstitutional”. The Gujarat Assembly passed the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (Amendment) Act, 2021 on March 31 during its budget session, which was notified by the state government on June 1. Minorities feel that out of a total 5,216 grant-in-aid secondary and higher secondary schools and 1,247 government secondary and higher secondary schools in the state, category wise, there are 300 religious minority and 97 linguistic minority schools that will be affected by this amendment. These include 173 Muslim, 89 Christian, 10 Parsi, 25 Jain, 2 Jew and 1 Sikh schools.
16 JMI STUDENTS QUALIFY BIHAR ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
Sixteen students from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) have cleared the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) 64th Combined Competitive Exam (CCE). Out of the 16 students, six were girls. These students have received coaching and training from Jamia’s Residential Coaching Academy (RCA). The selected students will be placed as SDM, DSP, Revenue Officer, Commercial Tax Officer, District Audit Officer, Assistant Director Social Welfare Department etc in Bihar. Last year, at the 63rd BPSC Combined Competitive Exam (CCE), 12 students of RCA, JMI were selected. Besides, as many as 43 students cleared the UPSC Civil Services Mains Exam 2020.
MIZO MAN WITH WORLD’S LARGEST FAMILY DIES
Ziona Chana, who is believed to head one of the world’s largest families, with 38 wives, 89 children and 33 grandchildren from Mizoram, passed away at a private hospital on June 13. He was 76. Born on July 21, 1945, Zionghaka, commonly known as Ziona Chana, was the head of a Christian religious community in his village Baktawng Tlangnuam, around 100km from Aizawl. Ziona’s family members of around 1,000 live in a four-storied house called ‘Chhuan Thar Run’ (New Generation Home) with over 100 rooms in the hilly village. The mansion of Ziona has a guesthouse to lodge relatives and visitors. There is a school and playground almost exclusively for the big Christian family. Ziona’s sons and their wives, and all their children, live in different rooms in the same building, but share a common kitchen. Mizoram and his village at Baktawng Tlangnuam has become a major tourist attraction in the state because of the family.