Here is a mail we have received from the organizers of a Freethinkers' Meet to be held in Kerala.
Friends,
Science trust-Calicut and Yukthiyugam magazine ( to commence publication shortly) invite all interested friends to attend a meet at Thrissur, Kerala on 20th November. For details, please see the attached brochure.
TIRUNELVELI: Even as the participation of Bishops and priests in the ongoing anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project agitation is growing gradually, Hindu outfits have started their campaign in support of the project.
Bishops and priests of Roman Catholic and Church of SouthIndia have expressed their solidarity with the agitating population, mostly Christians.
RC Bishop of Tuticorin Diocese Rt. Rev. Yvon Ambroise recently visited Idinthakarai, where 127 persons were on an indefinite fast. RC Bishop of Palayamkottai Diocese Rt. Rev. A. Jude Paulraj inaugurated the demonstration held at Palayamkottai recently against the project.
The CSI Bishop of Tuticorin – Nazareth Diocese, Most Rev. A.D. Jebachandran, and CSI Bishop of Tirunelveli Diocese J.J. Christdoss, along with several priests, visited the protest venue at Idinthakarai.
Against this backdrop, the Hindu outfits have started their campaign in support of the project through demonstrations and by submitting petitions to the Tirunelveli Collector.
While the Hindu Desiya Congress handed over a memorandum to Dr. Selvaraj on Tuesday, the Hindu Munnani organised a demonstration on Jawahar Grounds, Palayamkottai, on Wednesday.
Speakers at the protest venue demanded immediate commissioning of the project, “in the best interest of the country”. They alleged that the protest was being orchestrated with the funding from foreign countries, “which never wanted a strong and developed India.”
“The ongoing agitation is nothing but a subversive activity and treason and hence the State and the Central governments should take stringent action against those who are orchestrating the protests directly and indirectly,” said V.P. Jayakumar, State vice-president, Hindu Munnani.
Members of the Thennaadu Munnetra Kazhagam, another Hindu outfit, have also expressed their support. The Shatriya Nadar Iyakkam and some more organisations have decided to start relay fast at Chettikulam in support of the project.
Nine youth accused in Malegaon blast case of 2006 have been granted bail by the MCOCA court. (Nov 6 2011). These Muslim youth were arrested after the bomb exploded on the Shab-e-Barat, killing several people. Immediately after that the Anti Terrorist Sqaud, arrested nine Muslim youth, there was really no evidence worth its name against them. Still police which is, motivated more by biases than by professionalism, arrested these Muslims youth. The investigation agencies have firmly believed all through that all terrorists are Muslims. Human rights workers tried to reason with the top police authorities that how can Muslim youth conspire to kill their own kin. In other quarters the way the virus of Islamophobia and anti Muslim sentiments has gripped a large section in society including the police authorities, have strong biases against Muslims. The investigation for authorities so far had become an easy job, after every blast, catch hold of few Muslim youth put them behind bars and then try to generate the evidence, if possible.
Similar things happened in Mecca Masjid blast when the authorities arrested nearly 25 Muslim youth after the blast in the mosque. That time even the National Commission for Minorities minced no words and concluded that the case against Muslim youths, who were detained in the immediate aftermath of the 2007 Mecca Masjid blasts, has been fabricated.
The Godhra train burning investigation is also mired in much deeper misconception, where nothing could be proved against the alleged Chief conspirator, Maulana Haji Umarji. Despite that, other Muslim youth were given the sentence. All these investigations show a clear pattern that the biases of the investigation authorities overtake their professional training. This was also one of thelazyway of going about things as arresting Muslims after such an episode is passé’ in public opinion and in the media in particular. Barring a small section of media others hardly played their role of raising doubts about the methods of investigating authorities.
In the blasts in Nanded (April 2006) two Bajrang dal activists died while making the bombs. They were making the bombs in the house of one Mr. Rajkondawar, a RSS worker. It had all the clear evidence of the Hindutva terror gang undertaking such terrorist operations. But Mahrashtra ATS stubbornly ignored the basic point and protected the real guilty of the crime. It took the like of Hemant Karkare to impeccably unearth the evidence linking the Malegaon blast of 2008 with Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pandey and other RSS associates, to meticulously demonstrate that the real cause of terror attacks in these places from Nanded, Modassa, Parbhani, Jalna, Aurangabad, Ajmer and Samjhauta blast lies somewhere else. It is unfortunate that the police officer of such an integrity was killed in the Mumbai terror attack on 26/11 2008.
What was happening so far was that since police was merrily botching up the investigation, the real culprits were becoming bolder and they went on committing one after the other acts of terror. There is a long list of RSS affiliates, against whom there is a strong ground to allege them. Of course, RSS true to its character was quick to say that those involved in acts of terror, had already ‘left’ the RSS. The matters really could not be hidden after the confession of Swami Aseemanand, which was reported first by the gutsy magazine Tehelka. Swami Aseemanand, an RSS worker, who was working for VHP in Dangs, organizing Shabri Kumbh in the presence of top RSS top brass, confessed in presence of a magistrate. This confession as per the law can be treated as an evidence in the court. He spilled the beans and confessed his role in Mecca masjid and other blasts and also named his colleagues in the crime. This forced the agencies to do the course correction in some ways. Aseemanandhas named senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar, the murdered RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and senior RSS pracharaks Sandeep Dange and Ramji Kalsangra, among others, as being key conspirators in the terror blast.
The result of this fortunately is that in Malegaon blast accused after 5 years of their suffering and loss of youthful years in jails, have been granted the bails. This raises multiple questions as far as our society and nation are concerned. First is, do we deserve such a biased investigation agencies who, episode after episode, keep repeating the same method despite the lack of proper evidence. The heavy reliance of agencies on the role of SIMI, a banned organization and some vague groups with Muslim names has been the favorite line of investigation of the authorities. How can this trend be reversed? The biases in the minds of authorities are also a reflection of ‘social common sense’ prevalent in the society. This ‘social common sense’ has been manufactured by communal forces and media has disseminated it further. Despite the Harmony Programs by Government, despite the Home ministry’s lip service to prop up National Foundation for communal harmony, not many awareness programs have been consistently followed or taken up seriously.
The state has enough resources to ensure that police academies, the officers training institutes and college-universities are made the conduit to disseminate the values of plural traditions, the synthesis of religions in the form of Bhakti and Sufi traditions, the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi on communal harmony. A lot is possible to give a prop to the values of harmony which underlie the India’s freedom movement and are inherent in Indian Constitution. There are many a NGOs and individuals who are trying to do this work, but definitely their reach is very limited. This promotion of culture of amity and celebration of diversity by the state is a must at this juncture.
The second point of serious concern is what does state and society do when the lives of innocents are ruined by the callous attitude of investigation authorities. There have demands that these youth should be adequately compensated and their amount of compensation should be recovered from the salaries of the police officers who are blinded by their prejudices and push aside professionalism to give a free play to their biases in arresting these youth. A suitable rehabilitation program, scholarship, assistance to rebuild the life has to be the responsibility of the state in these matters. State must come forward to undo the severe harm it has inflicted on these innocent youth.
"Love is stronger than
hate" says the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in
its latest issue - of course, in their own inimitable acerbic style. The magazine
was firebombed on November 2, 2011 for satirizing radical Islamists. The
cartoon on the cover page of the magazine had depicted Muhammad promising
"100 lashes if you don't die from laughter."
After last week's attack, the
magazine has been operating from the offices of Liberation, a leading
leftwing daily founded by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Criticizing those who said the
cartoons were Islamophobic and childish, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who herself
was at the receiving end of Islamist violence, writes:
"This self-censorship goes
beyond a reticence to display representations of the Islamic prophet. Fear
of Islamist violence has curtailed critical discussions of the Quran, and silenced
those who would decry the treatment of women in some Islamic communities.
... ... ... For militant Islamists, there is no ideological distinction
between firebombing a newspaper's headquarters and murdering a filmmaker like
Theo Van Gogh.
... ... Finally, let's not
overlook that though there are Muslims who may react with violence, many more
are non-militants who may not like Muhammad satirized but who have accepted
free speech. Why should we presume that Muslims will be provoked to violence by
childish drawings?" (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca)
You are cordially invited for the function arranged on Sunday 13thNovember 2011 at 10 a.m. at Shri Krishnaraja Parishanmandira,Chamarajpet, Bangalore in connection with the launch of two books andthe lectures in memory of Dr. Debiprasad Chattopadyaya. The invite is attached. Please forward it to your friends and requestthem also to attend.
