Shahina the Terrorist

This report about my friend Shahina came in Malayalam newspaper Janmabhoomi. Titled "Shahina tried to sabotage the Delhi blast case as well", it says "Shahina, who tried to sabotage the Bangalore blast case, is understood to have tried to sabotage the investigations of the Delhi blasts that happened in 2008 September."

So how did Shahina sabotage the Bangalore blast case? By exposing some bogus witnesses the Police had manufactured. The case against her is that she intimidated and tried to influence the witnesses. (A video of her "intimidating" one of the witnesses could be found here).

Seeing this report in Janmabhoomi, I don't know whether to cry or laugh.

In this case, I know Shahina and was with her during the post Delhi blast days. So I know this is nonsense. But in many other cases we see similar reports -- in Janmabhoomi, in Mathrubhumi, in Kerala Kaumudi.. and we tend to believe at least a large part of it. Because we do not have any reason not to believe it.

This news tells me how foolish I was. A late realization, but I think better late than never. Thanks Shahina for being a twist in the story. I know it has not been that great an experience for you, but still.

   *    *    *

(In September 2008, a significant part of an article by Shahina that appeared in The Hoot was used in an email that the media houses received "from Indian Mujahideen". She wrote about that experience in Hindustan Times later. The blog post mentioned in that note can be found on this diary, here).

Terrorist Factory

"The criminal engineering of making an unmaking of a terrorist is nothing new, but for me it is new. I traveled to Kudaku to meet the prosecution witnesses in Madani case. Prabhakar, Yoganand and Rafeeq are the three witnesses who gave the testimony that they have seen Madani in the place with Naseer. Among the three, Yoganand and Prabhakar are BJP activists. I took the interview of K K Yoganand and Rafeeq. Both of them disclosed that they have seen Madani only in Television. Yoganand saw him in person for the first time when Madani was brought to Kodaku for staging the whole drama of 'evidence collection..", writes Shahina.

For more, see the report in Tehelka: Why is this man still in Prison?

Thanks Shahina for taking this up and taking the trouble to talk to the witnesses. The Kerala media and the public -- Hindus, Christians and Muslims alike, except some who did not mind getting termed "fundamentalists" -- seemed to take Madani's Kudaku visit for granted. And there were movies like Anwar that gave a second judgment on Coimbatore blasts.

Good that you are with Tehelka, you are here to tell us these stories:-)

An Encounter

I happened to have an 'encounter' with Praveen Swami recently, thanks to Annie Zaidi who mistook me for a Counter Currents editor. I must admit that this is the closest of its sort that one can imagine.

It is upto the readers to decide whether this was fake or not. :-) [See link]

[Also see: Comments at this older post]

The Business of Killing and Getting killed

The tribals are forced to shoot the easy prey -- the poor jawans from Bihar or Orissa who hardly had any choice but to join the forces.

The poor armymen and the police in turn are forced to kill the poor tribals.

Because they are the people who come face to face.

I am tired of the reasonings of why the tribals side with the Maosists -- I know they have incentives to offer, like an alternative goverment, a justice system in place as opposed to a corrupt and failed state judiciary.. I'm also tired of the 'success stories' of Salva Judum -- the state also has incentives to offer in getting the tribals to fight among themselves.

Both the 'Naxalite' thinktanks and the 'state', with all their good or bad intentions (be it the money in the mines, the social justice they read in books, sheer existential dilemma, an urge to save the tribals from the goverment and Multinationals or a similar urge to save the same people from the Maoists' hands..) live "happily ever after". This happiness includes the pride in giving up the silver spoon for a social cause.

Then there are cleansing methods like areal strikes, in which big guns can operate themselves without the fear of getting hurt.

A third party who makes hay in this mess is the 'Parivar', who want to take the Adivasis into their army and prepare them for other types of genocides.

I am sure the days are coming when the people realize they are being taken for a ride, and kick all these outsiders out. I mean, if any of them remain.

Khan Saheb, you better remain Rahul

Scene one: SRK and Obama

Shah Rukh: "My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist."
Obama: "Yes I know that. Sorry for that airport incident."
SRK: "And my son in the film -- he is not a Muslim, he is actually a Rathore -- is also not a terrorist."
Obama: "I know -- I am sorry for him too.."
SRK: "But all other Muslims excluding my immediate family -- they are probably terrorists. And if they talk of Palestine or Israel, then you can be sure."
Obama: "Mm.."
SRK: "And yes, a terrorist has to be a Muslim, that everyone knows, right?"

* * *

Scene two : SRK and Shiv Sena

SRK: "My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist."
Shiv Sainiks: "But we are.. and it is people like us who decide who should be called a terrorist. You see, we can even execute a series of riots in a communally sensitive atmosphere and make people remember only the blasts that followed.."

* * *

Scene 3: SRK and audience

SRK: "My name is Khan.."
Audience: "Sorry you better be Rahul. Otherwise we are not going to fill your cinema halls. No matter how much ever a good guy you try to be."

* * *

Scene 4: SRK and me

SRK: "His name is Karan Johar, and he is not a terrorist".
Me: "You want me to believe that, after Kurbaan and MNIK?"

* * *

[Related News: Sena terror prevails; MNIK not to be released in Mumbai
Let those who love Pak-lover SRK watch MNIK: Thackeray]

[Related fact: I went at 6:25 for 6:30 show on the opening day, and got tickets comfortably. The show was not full.]

[Related post: Where does Aamir lead us?]

[.. and a related e-mail]

Sitting Ducks : A Beemapalli reflection

In a guest post, Bobby Kunhu tries to put down his mixed feelings on his visit to Beemapalli (near Thriruvananthapuram, Kerala) after the police firing that happened on May 17.



It is with the utmost hesitation that I write this. Hesitation because I think I have not understood, nor have many others who have written about the May police firing in Beemapalli. Not that there is any ambiguity in anybody's (who has visited the place) mind about the specific incidents that took place on 17th of May this year. As a part of a small fact finding team trying to tie up its report, I'd rather use this space to raise contextual questions about the police firing that have been haunting me since I heard the first reports of the firing.

At the outset, I need to assert as a human rights lawyer (and independent of the socio-economic realities of Beemapalli) that what happened on May 17th in Beemapalli is one of the worst possible crimes - where lives of 6 people were taken by forces of the state, without following the procedure established by law - in other words extra-judicial murders - and calling it by any other name is as offensive as the incident itself. In my mind, the incident involves the police allegedly firing 50 rounds of bullets at a gathering in a coastal village. The facts are that 43 people were injured and 6 died in the police firing. The fact is that all the people who died and were injured were Muslims. The fact is that there is no credible evidence shown that the crowd fired at was violent or provocative. The fact is that there is no damage reported from the police side. The fact is that the police bypassed the usual procedures that need to be adopted before a firing. Having made that assertion, let me move on to the first set of concerns that have been haunting me.



Silent Media, Silent Opposition

The first of these is the general social and political reactions to Beemapalli firing. In fact one of the factors that led me to take the initiative in organising a fact-finding was the deafening silence that followed the violence in Beemapalli. It looked like that only "Muslim" organisations were interested in taking up the issue. Even the political opposition did not seem like wanting to capitalise this serious lapse in governance. When I tried prying into the possible reason, a newspaper report lauding the media for acting sensibly by maintaining silence and thereby averting a communal issue was literally thrown at my face. (The report was titled, Signs of a Mature Media, Opposition).

But was this violence communal to start with? The victims of the violence did not seem to think so - despite all of them belonging to one single community!!

Interestingly apart from the high profile Lavalin case, the national and Kerala media was filled with stories of racist violence in Australia around this time. Then how did such gruesome violence fail to capture collective social imaginations? The only plausible answer that comes to my mind is the identity of those killed and injured in Beemapally - they were all from fish worker Muslim community - and do not have messiahs touting their cause.

There are other reasons as well for my arrival at this hypothesis. The first being that in the past couple of decades state violence in all its manifestations is being directed against traditionally and structurally marginalised groups. Formal expressions were demonstrated in Muthanga, Chengara and now Beemapalli. Insidious and subtle expressions through changes in reservation structure, discourse on terror used to de-legitimise communitarian political expressions and so on.

Dangerous Activities

Interestingly Beemapalli, being a Muslim ghetto has figured many a time in police narratives on terror. It would take another full essay to analyse this. It is in this context that couple of weeks after the firing, an intelligence report dated before the firing was leaked to the press. This report warns the state police of dangerous and illegal activity in Beemapalli and Malappuram. Much to my amusement, what the newspapers omitted was that this "dangerous" activity is the trade in pirated CD/DVDs that Bheemapally is notorious for. Interestingly, this has been subsequently used to close down this trade and increase police presence in Beemapalli. One of the speculations that was aired as a reason for the extreme violence from the police firing was to gain a foothold into this lucrative terrain.

Claims on Coastal Resources

The next reason is rooted in the socio-economic conditions prevailing in coastal areas generally and Beemapally specifically. The Indian coast has been a simmering pot of discontent for sometime now - aggravated especially after the tsunami. This discontent is rooted in multiple contestations for coastal resources and fish-worker resistance articulated through their right to the coast as a common property resource. I have been witness to a number of concerted efforts to divide the coastal community during the tsunami rehabilitation process. Some of these experiences have been documented as well. These contestations are grounded in the fact of the vulnerability of the coastal communities and Dalit and Muslim communities amongst these are even more vulnerable. Beemapally violence needs to be seen in this context as well. Portrayal of the police violence in Beemapally as communal riots instigated by a Beemapally mob by the police and a section of society including segments of the Catholic church subtly fails to acknowledge that the neighbouring hamlet Cheriyathura is inhabited by Latin Catholics. This reading is inherently dangerous as it pits two similarly placed vulnerable communities against each other.

Two Beemapallis and a Free Run

Further, Magalene, a fish worker leader confirms my suspicion that social indicators in Beemapalli are much worse compared to neighbouring fishing hamlets. She points to the fact that there are two Beemapallys in existence - one glossy Beemapally made of the DVD/CD trade and the other fish-worker hamlet which lacks even basic hygiene and sanitary requirements. She also points to the abysmal female literacy and empowerment in this hamlet in support of her claim. This also perhaps points to a hegemonic social apathy towards people that are forced to live on the fringes - a certain lack of value for their lives. This also could have contributed to the unchallenged free run that the Police is having with their version of the violence and attempts to portray their violence as a communal clash.

My next set of concerns is regarding the impunity with which the Police framed a community as communally volatile and in all probabilities is getting away with it. In his report to the government, DGP Jacob Punnose claims that the police fired 50 rounds and there are 43 injured and 6 dead - indicating that police fired to hit. This also dispels claims that several rounds were fired in the air. Of course there are other unsubstantiated claims in DGP Punnose's report. But what gets my nerve is the shoddy framing that the police has indulged in, without having done any homework whatsoever - is this born out of a confidence that the Police force would get away with murder since the people killed are fishing Muslims? The confidence of the police seems to be bolstered by the collective silences and framing of Bheemapalli as a dangerous area mentioned above. It needs to be remembered that DGP Punnose is spearheading the demand for Police reforms and reducing political control over the police. In the process many vital questions remain unanswered, including questions that would legally place the violence as cold-blooded murder within criminal jurisprudence.

The silence on Beemapalli violence opens many cans of worms - including the deeply hegemonic nature of Kerala's responses to its marginalised, latent communalism within the administration and media and so on and so forth. The responses to Beemapalli has left me perplexed, especially after having visited the place. But, having spend considerable time and energy on conflict situations, my sense is that Kerala might be sitting on a social time bomb, if it continues this lackadaisical attitude towards its marginalised population.

I believe Beemapalli calls for a classical "secular" response and honest peace building exercises that would instill a sense of confidence in Beemapally residents that they are not being persecuted - but that might be a difficult job and would call for extreme commitment.

* * *

Sudeep adds: This diary earlier carried a first response to the firing news, various responses to that, and a couple of news reports. Here.

[Image courtesy: Pop Art Machine]

Delhi Encounter: an interesting whodunnit

The whole encounter and the mysteries behind it are reaching new highs. It beats Agatha Christie.

Those who say the encounter was fake are living in wonderland, says Praveen Swami in The Hindu.

In reply came a detailed response Shuddhabrata Sengupta: Curioser and Curioser (those who have read Alice in Wonderland would know :-))

Latest news on this (from rediff): Delhi cops file Jamianagar encounter affidavit

"Ever since the Jamia nagar encounter at L-18 Batla House occurred, it has been surrounded by controversies. While the Home Ministry and the Delhi cops claim that it was this encounter that helped them solve the mystery surrounding the recent spate of bomb blasts in the
country, several activists have been claiming that the entire operation was fake.

The Delhi police while justifying their actions state in a detailed affidavit that their initial plan was to conduct a raid at Batla House..."

Whatever be the truth, there sure is an element of entertainment a sense of fear.

Additional DGP lashes out at Nanavati

"I am a police officer, committed to the Constitution, who has filed four affidavits before the Nanavati Commission. Every commission has the responsibility to analyse and probe the truth about the information even if it is scribbled on a torn piece of paper. As the report of a senior Intelligence officer in the state, my affidavits have their own seriousness in the state where genocide (it would be a big lie to history as well as to humanity to term the atrocities unleashed in Gujarat as Hindu-Muslim riot) took place. Many things, with proof, about the situations that led to the riots and the roles of the senior officials in them have all been included in the report submitted before the commission.

I have been threatened by Government Pleader Aravidn Pande and Home Secretary Murmu that it would cause repercussions if I tell the truth before the Commission. I have even recorded their speeches and presented before the Commission. The Commission had the responsibility to verify the truth about them. The Commission should also have recommended punishment for me had the affidavits I submitted been false. Instead of this the Commission canonized the perpetrators of the riots.."

says R. B. Sreekumar, who was Additional DGP in Gujarat. [full article]

Costume Designers of Delhi Police

Wondered how it came about that the three arrested suspects came to be in possession of brand new Taliban rumaals, which they could readily pull out of their pockets to cover their faces, asked SADANAND MENON in Karutha Mashi.

Original Malayalam version appeared in Malayalam Vaarika of the Indian Express, Oct. 3, 2008. Translated version, The uses and misuses of photographs, on The Hoot.

Police later admitted that they had bought these rumaals in bulk to cover faces of accused. What is the point that they want to prove?

A birthday party

This story happens in the US of A.

It is a kid's birthday party.

He tells his mom he wants to call Elizabeth who's in his class.

Mom asks, "Is she white, or black?"

"Just a minute, I'll check with her."

* * *

This was supposed to be a joke. The innocence part is probably a bit exaggerated. But the conditioning that we go through in our early years, and the effect that is has on us, remains a fact.

I hear about a Jew who grew up in Canada. How the family members injected racism into their bloods when they were kids. How "saving Israel" became their first priority in life. And how she felt ashamed of it when she grew up and got to know more about Israel. And how she became an outsider, an "agent", at home..

More Missing People, Crying Mothers

This time, Samjhautha Express. Killing about 70 people on the spot. Another shot at making fear prevail over any attempts towards peace.

[From India eNews: Diaries from Samjhauta: "It was exactly one year to the day that I had boarded the Delhi-Attari Express that would take me onward to Lahore via the Samjhauta Express from Attari. One year hence I cannot but be overcome by emotions to hear the news of the tragedy that took place last Sunday..", writes Rudroneel Ghosh.]

The tragedy, security lapses, images of the suspects, and an image of a BSF man on a horseback alongside the train (that one on the front page of today's The Telegraph) are all over the newspapers and television. And Pakistan and India getting into a word of wars again.

You think it's just the scale of the horror of the incident that makes the media jump on it so happily? I think thats just a part of it.

Now, think Nithari. Another feast that the media has had in recent times, despite the news of the missing children coming out very late. What made it easy meat? Missing children? Skeletons? Crying moms? May be all of that, but looking closer, I see something common: An easy villain.

(Almost every news report related to Nithari had Moninder Singh's photo with it. And for "us" on this side, there is an "easy villain" in ISI every time any act of terror happens in this country. This time it wasn't so easy, as many of the people who died were Pakistanis. Still the media is playing that "Pak hand" card, though in a more subtle way.).

Here's another story that had both missing clildren and people continuously living in fear. And yes, it has crying Mothers too.

Families of missing people from Jammu and Kashmir were on a day-long hunger strike yesterday (Thursday, February 22) in New Delhi.

I heard this from a journalist friend in Delhi. I try googling but can't find anything on it in our leading "National" newspapers. The only news article I could find on this is from "Greater Kashmir", that calls it a "part of a campaign to mobilise public support against human rights violations in the strife-torn state."

"Sixty family members of the missing people, mostly women, arrived here [Delhi] on Monday from Srinagar in a bus to participate in the campaign", goes the news.

[The false encounter killings in Kashmir came to news again recently, with former Superintendent of Police Hansraj Parihar and his deputy in Ganderbal, Bhadur Ram, arrested for allegedly killing five south Kashmir villagers in fake encounters after dubbing them as Pakistani militants, for reward money. I had read that news at a couple of places but all I could find now with Google was a single Indian Express article: "There is a man who says his brother, a Special Police official, was picked up from home, tortured to death and to hide the truth..."

Then a Kashmiri Observer article about a protest strike in Kashmir. And a statement in Peoples Democracy. Is there a filter working inside Google India like, say, the one in China? I am not sure.]

An Iraqi girl speaks Malayalam

Sameeha translates her neighbour, a 13-year old Iraqi girl who lived in the next flat, who lost her parents when they were having a lunch together.

In English, it translates roughly as..

"I can't forget the childhood
That smelt blood
Ate bombs
Heard lullabies of gunshots

We will resist
At least with slingshots
Till our last bones are broken
We, children of Baghdad.."

"Who knows what she'll become tomorrow..", Sameeha asks. What will we call the girl, "insurgent", or "terrorist"? When will the rest of us realize War is not a matter of whether Saddam was a martyr or a villain?

Bloody Brahmaputra

Hindi-speaking population. Killings. Assam. ULFA, no "suspected ULFA". Fear. Key terms right now.

"Dibrugarh, Jan. 5: Suspected Ulfa militants today carried out a string of attacks on Hindi-speaking people in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts, killing 13 people and injuring 15 others. The slaughter revived memories of a similar carnage engineered by the outfit in 2003.." (13 kiln labourers die in Ulfa attack, The Telegraph, Saturday Jan 6 2007)

"Dibrugarh/Guwahati, Jan. 6: The maelstrom of violence unleashed by the banned Ulfa since last evening continued to churn throughout the night, with the death toll rising to 48 and a total of 23 others injured in the twin Upper Assam districts of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh.." (Assam reels under carnage, Sunday Jan 7)

"Jan. 7: The rat-a-tat of automatic weapons pierced the Assam air again tonight, claiming nine lives as the outlawed Ulfa carried its hate campaign against Hindi-speaking people to a third district.

After targeting migrant brick kiln workers, vendors and daily-wage labourers in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia on Friday night, Ulfa militants singled out Hindi-speaking people at two places in neighbouring Sivasagar district.." (Stench of death & fire of anger; More die in twin strikes, Monday Jan 8)

"Jan. 8: After four days of targeting hapless Hindi-speaking people, Ulfa militants triggered two blasts in the vicinity of an army cantonment today, as if to show that they can strike anywhere, anytime.

The blasts near the Narengi cantonment occurred even as the army was preparing to go hard at Ulfa for the relentless communal purge that has left the Hindi-speaking community shell-shocked.

Seven persons were wounded in the twin explosions at Satgaon market, barely 100 metres from the entrance to the Narengi cantonment.." (Blasts near base mock army; Ulfa kills two more migrants in Golaghat, Tuesday Jan 9)

And then, today's Guwahati newslatter says:

"Jan. 9: Former defence minister George Fernandes today met three Ulfa leaders in a Guwahati jail and came out carrying the message that the banned militant group is not behind the attacks on Hindi-speaking people.." (Fernandes plays Ulfa ‘advocate’)

I don't know much to comment about these attacks. But there are reasons to believe this is not so simple an issue. And it is not surprising that the target is almost always the daily wages labourers.

* * *

It may be just coincidence that this one piece of news about a new book also came on Saturday.

"Guwahati, Jan. 5: When Rita Choudhury won her first literary honour — the Asam Sahitya Sabha award — in 1981, she was not present at the ceremony to receive it.

She was in Dibrugarh jail with thousands of other political prisoners at the height of the anti-foreigners’ movement.

Over 20 years after that historic mass movement, Choudhury is ready with a novel that promises to tell the insider’s story of the agitation.

To be unveiled tomorrow at the Guwahati Press Club, Ei Somoy Sei Somoy (Now and then) has already evoked great curiosity, particularly because of the subject it deals with.."

(A movement comes alive in ink- Writer and activist documents the anti-foreigners’ agitation in Assam, The Telegraph Guwahati newsletter, 6 Jan 2007. See archives)

I would like to read this book if I can get hold of a translation. It may help us understand the tension in this state better.



[Earlier post: Blasts, Nov 6 2006]

D2: Missing the action

Not that Dhoom 2: Back in Action missed the action-- we missed whatever action/inaction of D2 because we had a bag with us. We had to return the purchased tickets. Because we happened to be in a sensitive locality, in sensitive times.

After the double bomb blasts in the first week of November, a rikshaw-puller, his wife and their one and a half year old kid died in a follow-up incident at Guwahati railway station on 23rd November. If that wasn't enough, it seems ULFA has put a "ban" on screening Hindi films in the state.

Despite all this, the cinema halls were flocked with people-- it was just three days after the blast-- thanks to all the hype as well as the curiosity associated with a sequel. And in general, the public here appear to be used to all this-- they didn't seem to give a damn, and the streets were as crowded as it could get.

[Coming back to the film, I think they're overdoing the publicity-- the Guwahati city special of The Telegraph has been carrying Dhoom specials-- interviews with Hritik, Bipasha, Abhishek, Aishwarya and the director Sanjay Gadhvi, the "Dhoom quotient" and what not.. for more than a week now; it's slowly getting on one's nerves!]

Blasts

The news of blasts in Guwahati city leaves us shocked. We were at one of the blast sites a couple of days back. What do these blasts achieve? Is this the only way to get noticed or to raise one's stakes in a bargain? Can't we even dream of a day when we can walk free in this part of India without being afraid of an uncertain blast or a certain armyman?

Afzal zinda hai

The title refers to news that Mohammad Afzal Guru's execution, originally scheduled for today morning 6am, has been put off. However, this post is not about Afzal. But I got to writing this thanks to him.

Yesterday being the last day before the fazi, I happened to enter a couple of noicy rooms filled with people baying for blood, one on an orcut community and another on The Times of India page, and one would be shocked to see the amount of misinformation that gets propagated and becomes common wisdom.

It seems the Supreme Court order said "[the attack on parliament] had shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to [him]. But scanning through the aawaaz, I realized that this "collective conscience" won't be satisfied until the last Muslim in this nation is hanged.

The blogpage ToI promoted on its page had comments like

"DHANAJAY SERVED 14 YEARS IN JAIL AND THEN HE WAS HANGED
THE IDIOT PRESIDENT DID NOT EVEN ALLOW HIS FAMILY MEMBERS TO MEET HIM IN RASTRAPATI BHAVAN

BECAUSE HE WAS A HINDU

HOWEVER A MUSLIM TERRORISTS FAMILY GOT AN APPOINTMENT FOR HALF AN HOUR WITH PRESIDENT IN A DAY"..

(yes, in all caps) and

"B*star'd Abdul Kalam finally he also chose to be Mus'lim first than an Indian President"..

(and much more)

When I responded to making Dhananjoy vs Afzal a Hindu/Muslim issue, asking him to get their facts right (If one chooses to make it a Hindu versus others issue then it has been a huge triumph for the caste Hindus, as almost 100% of the people hanged in independent India are Dalits or religious minorities), someone (who calls himself "SUDIP IS AN ASSHOLE") writes, "WHY DO YOU DIVIDE BASED ON CASTE FIRST OF ALL"?[** footnote on this below the post]

S.I.A.S continues: "YOU MUST BE A COMMIE ASS* STILL SUPPOTING MUSLIMS
DO YOU KNOW IN KERALA, WEST BENGAL (COMMIES LAND) MUSLIM POPULATIONS HAVE EXCEEDED THAN THAT OF HINDU POPULATION IN MORE THAN 50% DISTRICTS

IN KERALA MANY PLACES HINDUS ARE DISALLOWED TO COOK IN THE DAY TIME IN THE MONTH OF RAMZAN"

Well I didn't know this one! I hail from Kerala, and from the *only* district in Kerala that has more Muslims than Hindus (Kerala has 14 districts). I still would like to know the source of this guy's information, as this gives an idea how intense is the hate campaign against Muslims of this country.

I do get to hear glimpses of such "wisdom" making rounds once in a while from various sources. For instance, when I once visited some schools run by the Sangh Parivar in the tribal areas of Maharashtra. They are teaching the children, so far so good, but one lesson that is repeated often is that Muslims and Christians are our enemies. Even the games and songs talked of how one should take to talvaar (the sword).

Another popular myth links Bombay riots (1992 Dec-93 Jan/Feb) to 1993 March Bombay blasts, about which Dilip writes here.

And about the "bombs in every house" that is women, and the parents who allow her to go to college which ends up in them in "having love affairs, often with Muslims" and how can we prevent this from happening..? Prasant Jha in Himal, got link from Shivam's blog. By now, not quite shocking.

* * *

[** Why do you divide based on caste? Seemingly innocent question. Like those people who say "why do you want to divide people with reservations". There was a time when I used to ask this too. When one section takes all the privileges that it has got in the society being the "dominant" section, and when some sections are denied most of those previleges, that is not "dividing" people. When one tries to account for the discrimination, she is.

Why is it that it is always Dalits (who are outside the castes), and then Muslims and Christians, who get death sentence?

I don't count Afzal in this, his has been a speacial case, he got good media attention, has got good connections including foreign ones.. Most other victims of death penalty in independent India haven't had such luxury. Here's one reference.]

A mail comparing Israel and India

I had got this comparison between Israel and India by e-mail. Later a friend of mine showed it to me on his screen. I said I saw it before.

ISRAEL

POPULATION: 7 million (less than half of Mumbai)
SIZE: Less than that of Kerala
ACT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST IT: 2 soldiers kidnapped by Hezbolla, 1 by Hamas
RETALIATORY ACTION: war on Lebanon and Gaza

INDIA

POPULATION: 1 billion+
SIZE: 6th largest in the world
ACT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST IT: 200+ dead in Mumbai blast, 8 in Kashmir
RETALIATORY ACTION: a speech by PM

So is the mail (and those who called my attention to the same) trying to say that we should feel happy we aren't killing innocent people in retaliation? ("More than 54 civilians, at least 34 of them children, have been killed in a town in south Lebanon in the deadliest Israeli strike of the conflict so far", says BBC, July 30).

And some people seem to be busy pointing out that the smoke wasn't as thick. Or did they mean that Israel was dropping food packets for the poor Lebanese and the stories of air-strikes on civilians was propaganda made up by some Reuters and BBC journos who had vested interests?

[I recall meeting an Israeli friend who said he would have probably turned a militant too had he been born a Palestinian. I had written about it here.]

* * *

May be I'll get the mail again in a few days, or may be by now people are more comfortable not mouthing words like Lebanon (Lebanon is the homeland of artist, poet and thinker Kahlil Gibran).