The Optics of Joe Biden
The optics of the American President Joe Biden hugging Netanyahu in the backdrop of a gruesome attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza killing over five hundred innocent people, and his concurrence to the Israeli view that the attack on the Hospital was an act of ‘the other team’ without waiting to check the veracity of the claim have unveiled the fact that the US will stand alongside Israel by fair means or foul.
Syed Sultan Mohiddin
Correspondent
Hazrath Ayesha Junior College for Girls
Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh
80% hate speech incidents occur in BJP-ruled states
Some 80 percent of the 255 documented incidents of “hate speech gatherings targeting Muslims” occurred in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states and union territories, according to a report from Hindutva Watch, the Washington DC based research group that tracks hate crimes and inflammatory speech against Muslims and other minorities in India.
Researchers wrote that India has seen an “escalating trend” of anti-Muslim speech since Modi rose to power in 2014.The report found that more than half of the documented incidents this year were orchestrated by the ruling BJP and affiliates including the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Sakal Hindu Samaj. Those groups have ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP.The report is the first of its kind to document hate speech against Muslims after India’s crime bureau stopped collecting data on hate crimes in 2017.
Hindutva Watch relied on social media and news outlets in gathering data. It used data scraping techniques to locate verifiable videos of hate speech events, and then conducted an in-depth investigation of incidents through journalists and researchers, according to an explanation of the methodology.
Though India doesn’t have an official definition for hate speech, the research group used language from the United Nations, which characterizes hate speech as “any form” of communication that employs “prejudiced or discriminatory language towards an individual group based on attributes such as religion, ethnicity, nationality and race.”
The report found that Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat witnessed the highest number of gatherings with hate speech. A third of documented incidents occurred in states scheduled to hold legislative elections this year.
Hindutva Watch, which monitored activities in 15 states and two union territories, also reported that about 64 per cent of the events propagated anti-Muslim “conspiracy theories,” including the claim that Muslims are luring Hindu women into marriage to convert them. Inflicting violence against Muslims was a rallying call in 33 per cent of the events, the report said, and 11 percent included appeals for Hindus to boycott Muslims.
- Chakraborty
Kolkata, West Bengal
Eradication of Poverty
17 October was International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Poverty is the root cause of many socio-economic problems. Overpopulation, unemployment, low literacy levels and increasing crimes are all consequences of poverty. It is said India is a rich country with poor people. In India, which houses the largest poor population, wealth and prosperity is concentrated in the hands of few, but millions don’t have access to even basic facilities like drinking water, sanitation or healthcare and often have to go to bed at night without food. Only if steps are taken to reduce poverty many of our social problems will be solved and the nation will develop and prosper. One remembers Mahatma Gandhi’s quote “Poverty is the worst form of violence.”
T.S. Karthik
27/120 Halls Rd Kilpauk, Chennai