Stating that spaces in the city like Mumbra, Shivaji Nagar and Bhendi Bazaar bear testimony to the “othering” processes in Mumbai, where there is heavy surveillance but scarce provision of basic services, a study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) says that “demonisation of Muslims in the city is related to a global Islamophobic climate”, where Muslims are seen as terrorists, violent and bad citizens.
“These spaces have become known as areas where many Muslims resettled in the wake of the riots of 1992-1993, an event which changed the socio-spatial fabric of the city through a process of segregation and ghettoisation,” says the paper by TISS’s Centre for Urban Policy and Governance, School of Habitat Studies, which is part of a three-year research project titled “people, places and infrastructure: countering urban violence and promoting social justice in Mumbai, Durban and Rio de Janeiro”.
BRUTAL POLICE BEHAVIOUR AGAINST VADODARA’S MINORITIES REMINISCENT OF 2002
In a fax and email message to Commissioner of Police, Vadodara, Mr. E. Radhakrishan, cced to Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Government of Gujarat; and Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi, and later released to the press on 29 September, Concerned Citizens of Vadodara said inter alia: “We are shocked to know that brutal police attacks are continued on the night of 27th September 2014. As per the complaint by Ms. Ashiyana Abdul Latif Shaikh (aged about 45 years) on the night of 27 around 2.00 a.m., police rounded up moholla in the area of Wadi Taiwada and entered the houses of people. About 8-10 plain clothed police who also covered their face with clothes having pipes and iron roads broke their door, window and entered her house. Broke fridge, lights and picked up her son Abdul Raheman (aged 19). When women from the house asked why they are picking him up they assaulted Ms. Ashiyana on head and hands, her younger daughter Mubina on back and legs and brutally assaulted Amrin Abdul Latif Shaikh (aged about 22). They tore Ms. Amrin Abdul Latif Shaikh clothes and beat her with iron road on head, shoulder and back.”
They urged the authorities to take concrete steps to bring normalcy in Vadodara and take immediate actions in the cases of assault on women by police.
PUNE BISHOP CALLS FOR AN END TO HINDU-MUSLIM VIOLENCE
Police in Vadodara (Gujarat) arrested 140 people who took part in clashes between Hindus and Muslims over the weekend triggered by an anti-Islamic image posted on Facebook. During the unrest, two men were stabbed and more than a dozen injured. Local authorities deployed police to stop the rioting, calling on religious leaders of both communities to intervene to calm people down. As a precautionary measure, internet and phone were blocked.
“Our country is not built on any particular religious community, nor on any particular belief. Obviously, I recognise the enormous contribution Hindus have made to nation-building, for which I am deeply grateful. However, India was built by people of other religions as well: the Taj Mahal by Muslim, social reforms about equality and human dignity by Christians, outstanding national service Sikhs and Parsees, sculptures by Buddhist,” Mgr Thomas Dabre, Bishop of Pune, said. All this “should be highlighted at a time of religious intolerance and terrorism,” he explained.
HC REJECTS HRS CHIEF BAIL IN COMMUNAL CASE
The Bombay HC on 29 September rejected the bail application of Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS) chief Dhananjay Desai, who is facing charges of alleged involvement in a criminal conspiracy that resulted in the murder of 28-year-old Mohsin Shaikh in Hadapsar in Pune on 2 June and the violence following objectionable posts on a social media site. Justice Mardulla Bhatkar while rejecting the bail, in its order, said prima facie the materials are available against him hence the court cannot release him on bail. The court, however, directed to expedite his trial.
Desai was arrested on 10 June; he had applied for bail on 26 June which was earlier rejected by the session court of Pune. According to police, the interrogation of 21 suspects arrested and two minors detained for allegedly attacking Mohsin had revealed that Desai had instigated them to launch a series of violent protests after objectionable posts were put up on a social media site.
RSS CHIEF’S SPEECH LIVE TELECAST ‘ABUSE OF STATE POWER’
Controversy broke out over Doordarshan’s live telecast of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s address at Nagpur on 3 October with Congress and Left parties accusing the Modi government of misusing the state broadcaster. Congress spokesman Sandeep Dikshit termed the hour-long telecast as a “dangerous tradition”, saying RSS is a controversial religious and political organisation.
“It is a dangerous tradition. This is not an organisation which is completely neutral. It is a controversial organisation,” he said, adding it is a political decision of the government. Congress leader Rashid Alvi said, “This naked state majoritarianism must be resisted.” Former Union minister Salman Khurshid said, “We do not accept the record of RSS as being above board in terms of our national aspirations.”
Condemning the live broadcast, CPI(M) said, “The RSS uses the occasion to propagate its Hindutva ideology. The national public broadcaster has no business to telecast live the speech of the chief of an organisation like the RSS.” The CPI also condemned the live telecast with its national secretary D Raja saying the government, particularly the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, should give an explanation to the people for allowing DD to be the mouthpiece for the RSS.
BJP TO FELICITATE MORADABAD RIOT ACCUSED LEADERS
The BJP will felicitate 63 party workers who were jailed after the 4 July street violence in Moradabad, in which the then district magistrate was badly injured. BJP supporters had clashed with police after a mahapanchayat called to protest the removal of a loudspeaker from a temple in the town’s Kanth area was disallowed, a report said on 2 October.
The BJP workers were released on bail on 26 September. The party’s Amroha unit will felicitate them on 5 October, for supposedly having spent three months in jail fighting for the rights of Dalit Hindus. UP BJP president Lakshmikant Bajpai and general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal have been invited to the felicitation ceremony, along with several office bearers of the RSS in western UP.
CHRISTIAN LEADERS URGE ODISHA GOVT TO ENSURE COMMUNAL HARMONY
The All India Christian Council (AICC) members on 1 October urged Governor of Odisha SC Jamir and chief minister Naveen Patnaik to ensure protection to the Christian community and help build peace and communal harmony in the Kanadhamal district as well as the state.
The AICC also called upon the Christian religious leaders not to side with any political party in the 15 October bypoll to Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat. AICC national president moderator bishop Dr Joseph D’Souza appealed to chief minister Patnaik to take steps against possible communalisation efforts by certain groups during the polls. It was communalisation and religious hate campaigns that had led to the gruesome killing of Graham Staines and his two children as well as the 2008 Kandhamal violence, he said.
TEMPLE WAS WASHED AFTER MY VISIT: BIHAR CM
Bihar Chief Minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi on 28 September alleged that a temple in Madhubani was “washed” after his visit. He added that the people behind the incident, however, do not hesitate to touch his feet to seek “personal favours”. Recalling the incident, Manjhi said he visited Parmeshwari Sthan, in Brahmin-dominated Tharhi village in Rajnagar assembly constituency, during the bypoll campaign last month. “My ministerial colleague Ram Lashan Raman told me how the deity and temple were cleaned soon after I visited the temple… I had gone on someone’s request,” said Manjhi, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste.