South Asia Citizens Web

In the wake of horrific Una violence it is clear that anti dalit mindset prevails. This explains as to how such acts have been taking place earlier as well, though they have gone up now during last two years or so (2016). What we need to understand is that this mindset is due to political ideology which upholds the caste system in a subtle way.

The issue of ‘honour’ killings has been swept under the rug

over a few generations, it became difficult for people to call the children of those who had migrated from heartland India ‘Hindustani’ – as Hindustan was the name for India. The term ‘Mohajir’ gained more currency to describe these immigrants and their children.

A law is being passed to regulate the online world and prevent abuse of the internet. Many use it to commit criminal acts, harass, intimidate and blackmail, particularly women. This is a good step and the authorities should be congratulated. The punishments are also more moderate and sensible than before. This is all good. However, the proposed law also makes it a criminal offense to “say anything negatively or propagate against Bangabandhu and the 1971 war”.

Aadhaar-based biometric authentication was recently made compulsory for users of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in Ranchi District, Jharkhand. This involves installing “Point of Sale” (PoS) machines at PDS outlets, and verifying the identity of cardholders by matching their fingerprints against the Aadhaar database over the internet.