Afroz Alam Sahil, BeyondHeadlines

A documentary film ‘PARTITION REVISITED’ ( by Rajeev Yadav & Shahnawaz Alam) is put on youtube for general public.

The documentary is based on the 2nd October 2011 riots in Rudrapur of Uttrakhand. The violence orchestrated by RSS fanatics on Birth date of Mahatma Gandhi, the man of Peace and Non Violence, left four muslim men dead and many injured. Feared with further violence many muslim families silently moved from this part of Uttrakhand.

The documentary establishes how Policemen & mobs led by leaders of the BJP, Congress & BSP had ransacked shops and settlements of Muslims in their third successful attempt within two years to stoke communal riot.

It should be noted that the riot, which took place on Gandhi Jayanti, led to a massive outmigration of the victimized community, reminding one of the days of the 1947 partition.

This film focuses on precisely this yet unnoticed phenomenon that we could trace out in this first-ever state-sponsored communal riot since the formation of Uttarakhand.

The documentary claims that the riots were engineered by RSS which has been working for a long time in this part to arouse the dormant anti Muslim sentiments in the Bengalis, Sikhs & Panjabi Hindus who came after partition to India.

At a time when the state is going to polls this riot assumes an electoral importance. Therefore we request you to accord the due importance to this humble effort of ours.

Video Link:

PARTITION REVISITED (A Documentry based on 2011 Rudrapur, Uttarakhand Riots)

Forbesganj (Araria): All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Rahul Gandhi yesterday visited Bhajanpur Village in Forbesganj in Araria District of Bihar and met the kith and kins of poor Muslims whose dear-ones were killed or injured in a police firing on June 3. He assured them justice and better medical treatment.

He asked State Congress President Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser to bring the injured boy Md Rashid Ansari to New Delhi for treatment.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ASNMR7oaBk[/youtube]

Rahul’s two-hour-long visit to the village of Bihar’s poverty-stricken Araria District was termed by the state’s ruling coalition government of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a delayed and politically motivated act that would yield no gains for the Congress party. But considering the fact that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has not so far visited Forbesganj and met the victims’ kin, the Congress party and other opposition parties hinted at intensifying their attacks on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Clad in his trademark white kurta-pyjama and black slippers, the Amethi MP later Rahul landed at the Chunapur defence aerodrome near Purnia and straightway drove to the house of Fatkan Ansari, whose 20-year-old son Mustafa was among the victims. With tears in his eyes, Mustafa’s elder brother Kapil Ansari narrated how his unarmed brother was shot and how a heartless policeman later stomped on him in full public view, leading to his death.

Sitting in a plastic chair in the front yard of a house, Rahul keenly heard the relatives of the four people killed, including a pregnant woman and a six-month-old infant, in the police firing narrate their grievances. An apparently contemplative Rahul asked questions of the victims quite a few times and turned to a Congress leader seated beside him for interpretation of phrases in the local dialect spoken by the aggrieved people.

The Congress party youth icon, accompanied by Ali Kaiser, then visited the homes of the nine people who were injured in the firing and promised them help with better medical treatment. After meeting seven-year-old Manzoor Ansari, who received bullet injuries on parts of his face, Rahul asked his mother, Phulia Khatoon, to prepare for the boy to be brought to Delhi and asked Kaiser to make the necessary arrangements.

Rahul also applied balm on the wounds of Rafique Ansari whose 10-month-old grandson Naushad was killed in the firing. He also walked to the home of Mohd Farooq Ansari whose pregnant wife Shahjabeen Khatoon was among the victims.

Forbesganj police firing victim: Sahil Ansari (Courtesy: TCN)

During his visit, Rahul did not give much time to the factory employees who lined up on the route carrying placards that read, “Mr Gandhi, listen to us.” “I don’t have much time. E-mail me your grievances,” Rahul was quoted as having told them by one of the employees, Lalit Agrawal.

The gruesome incident took place as the locals were protesting construction of a starch factory in the area on the government acquired land. The upcoming factory had raised a wall which blocked only approach road of the village Bhajanpur to outside world.  To register their protest the locals on Jun3 assembled at the place where the wall was being raised.  During the demonstration police without warning opened the fire on the villagers.  As a result 4 members of a minority community were killed and 30 others injured including a 6-month-old infant and a pregnant woman.

The state authorities claimed that the villagers were forcibly demolishing the wall. BJP politician Sushil Kumar Modi had earlier visited the area to lend support colleague BJP leader connected with upcoming factory.

A video showed a police man jumping over the head a protestor.  The policeman was later arrested and charged with murder.  In other case when a dead body was received for post mortem, it was found that the man was still alive.

Last week, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had sent a team of party leaders to console and offer relief amount among the victims. The party has given Rs 1 lakh each to the family of the deceased and Rs 25,000 each to the injured. The Congress Party is continuously demanding CBI probe into the firing.

Realizing police highhandedness in the case, CM Nitish Kumar ordered a judicial probe but surprising many he neither suspended any police officer nor did announce compensation for the victims.

Families of the dead victims visited Delhi and met the national press on Saturday 18 June. Shabnam Hashmi of ANHAD, a non governmental organisation, accompanied them. A video played at the Press Meet showed Bihar police committing unjustified brutalities on the villagers.

On June 21 National Commission for Minorities Chairperson Wajahat Habibullah  also visited the village and denounced the police action. He felt that the issue could have been resolved without the use of force. The Forbesganj police firing was wholly unjustified and could have been avoided, he said.

The incident has severely hit the popularity of Nitish Kumar.  He has lost credibility amongst Muslims and his façade of giving clean administration to the Bihar state.

New Delhi: About 10 students of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), most of them girls, were manhandled by the Delhi Police men along with the varsity guards early this evening. Ironically, the university administration was nowhere to be found. Four students with two girls were beaten mercilessly by the police. Later, they were taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre for medical treatment.

Around 30-40 students of famous AJK Mass Communication Research Centre (MCRC), JMI, have been sitting on hunger strike since May 7 demanding that they be allowed to sit for their annual examinations. They have been denied for appearing in the examinations because of shortage of attendance. Majority of the protesting students, who have attendance percentage between 65 to73, have been denied medical relaxation of 15% in the mandatory 75% attendance.

Notably, around 200 students have not been permitted to appear in their final examination only because they fell short in required percentage of attendance.

The students had produced medical certificates issued from different renowned hospitals and doctors across the country, but the university rejected the certificates, terming them forged and fake. The students allege that the varsity is unduly strict with them while bending its rules for several others.

It all started at around 4 p.m. to 4:30 pm. when agitating students had decided to shade themselves from the scorching sun using a bed spread as a make shift tent. At this point, the Bulls (private security guards of the university) intervened, roughed up the students and forcefully snatched away the bed spread.

The police, which was a mute observer, then jolted into action and called their extra hands. Satyaveer Dagar, station house officer (SHO) of Jamia Nagar police station, reached the spot and personally beat the students, of which most were girls and women. The women were shoved and scratched. One of the girls, not even a university student, was so badly scratched that she bean to bleed. Three boys were also injured and bleeding because of the forcefulness and beating by the police. He even assaulted one student’s mother and threatened to beat her up as well. There was no lady police present. He then forcefully put away five students into the PCR van and hurried away from the spot.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYSkw0_cTvU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0hseOi6W6k&feature=player_embedded#at=25[/youtube]The spot where the students were agitating was completely destroyed. The police made sure that all the banners and plaques were torn and thrown away. At the police station, no one was allowed to meet the detained students. The police also refused to file a first information report (FIR). The students, however, were let off after a period of three hours.

When BeyondHeadlines contacted the SHO and enquired about the incidents, he denied saying that no such incident took place. When this correspondent cross questioned him that he had personally met the students in blood strained torn clothes and with several scratches on their body, he angrily reacted and replied “if you have met the students and rely on them, write whatever they have told. I don’t have anything to say,” and hanged up the call.

Talking to BeyondHeadlines, Jamia Proctor Masood Alam also echoed the SHO’s comment. “No report of lathi charge and manhandling has been reported. As per the varsity regulations, it is necessary for the students to have 75% students. They have not been allowed to sit in the examination because they did not fulfill the required criteria. Even the Delhi High Court has rejected their case,” the proctor argued.

JMI Media Coordinator Simi Malhotra said: “As it is a holiday, I am not aware of any development.” Earlier, the authorities have taken a stand that they would not reverse their decision as the High Court has already rejected students’ petition. Ironically, no representative of Jamia Old Boys’ Association (JOBA) was present at the spot.

Surprisingly, also no one on behalf of the university administration was seen at the spot.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Data Ram, who was present at the spot, informed BeyondHeadlines that he would investigate the incident and take proper action against the police official found guilty. “I have allowed students to continue their peaceful protest and have assured them to provide police security. Six constables along with an inspector will be here to ensure the students’ security.”

When asked on whose order the police action was carried out, surprisingly, he said that he had no information in this regard.

Several attempts to contact Jamia Vice Chancellor Najeeb Jang failed as he did not pick up the phone.

Condemning the incident, Manisha Sethi, president, Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association (JTSA), an independent Jamia teachers body,  has said: “We are of the firm belief that university campuses cannot be run like cantonments. The administration cannot engage with its students—whether it believes their demands justified or not—through the police, nor can it take away the democratic right to peacefully protest.”

As of now, the students are back on the strike and have refused to end the indefinite hunger strike against the university. They have filed a complaint against the police. So has the assaulted mother of one of the students. All of this happened exactly at the time, when the M.A. Mass Communication entrance aspirants were about to finish their exam and leave the university. The students claim: “This seems like a set up by the department to distract the agitating students who planned on letting the aspirants know the real picture of the MCRC.”

Abu Zafar,  BeyondHeadlines

New Delhi: A group of artist, journalist, activists, filmmakers, and musicians came together with a festival named ‘Justice on Trial’ to raise voices against conviction of Doctor Binayak Sen in New Delhi on Teusday.

Binayak Sen is an Indian pediatrician, public health specialist and activist convicted on charges of sedition, currently serving life term in Raipur Central Jail in Chhattisgarh. He is the national Vice-President of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He is also one of the 2011 winners of the Bharatiya Manavata Vikas Puraskar.

(Courtesy: www.binayaksen.net)

Dr. Binayak Sen’s wife Ilina Sen, who is also a professor, too participated in this festival. Sharing her feelings about the festival she said “The campaign against the conviction and incarceration of Dr. Binayak Sen has to be seen in the larger context of lending our voices against the gross injustice that so many of the people of our country experience every day.”

The discussion was moderated by Vrinda Grover, human rights lawyer. Ms. Sen and social activist Aruna Roy spoke about the present situation and challenges of Indian democracy.

Cultural program Manzil / Faith Gonsalves was considered very effective. Audience also sang the song “Daulat badi hai ya shuhrat badi hai ya qismat badi hai ya mohabbat” (wealth is important, or fame is important, or destiny is important, or love is important) with the performers.

Annad Patwardhan, noted documentary filmmakers showed his film Prisoners of Conscience which focuses on the State of Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi from in 70s.

Anand remembered the days he spent with Binayak Sen: “I met Binayak almost 25 years ago showing this film at that time he was working with Chahtis Garh Mukti Morcha. I spent a couple of days with him at that time. I found him a man with a loving heart. ”

Actress Sharmila Tagore was also present in this discussion where she termed Binayak  Sen as an achiever. ”He is an achiever. I value the work he had done. We have high hopes that bail will be granted to him,” she said.

Writer Arundhati Roy, Kavita Shirivastava, general secretary of People Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan also participated on the last day of this festival.

abuzafar@beyondheadlines.in