South Asia Citizens Web

A collective protest by a wide range of civil society groups was held on 19 March 2015 against 300 days of the Modi govt. The protest was held at Jantar Mantar in Delhi from 11 am to 6 pm. A report was released on the occasion. Photos of the event by Mukul Dube are posted below

That superstition is integral to Karnataka politics has been proved yet again with the Janata Dal (Secular) allegedly performing black magic to invoke a curse on the ruling Congress before handing over the party head office it had occupied in the heart of the city for the last three decades to India’s Grand Old Party.

Of late, everyone seems to want to sing and, worse, patronise “the Sufi ghazal” whatever that may be. The more brazen have also discovered a sufiana dance. From the little I have observed of the latter it appears to be a mishmash of Kathak and foxtrot. I suspect the surging excitement with Sufi motifs is linked to a pervasive fear of puritan Islam.

PUDR expresses outrage at the gang-rape of a 71 year old nun by a gang of “dacoits” inside a convent in Gangnapur village, Nadia district, West Bengal on 14th March 2015. The men reportedly raided and desecrated the convent before taking away 12 lakhs. Clearly, the motive was not merely to rob and decamp but to punish the school and the community through this horrendous gang-rape. In this connection, PUDR wishes to draw attention to the disturbing trend of attacks on Christians, including their institutions and places of worship, in recent times.

Aggressive mobilisations around proclaimed community interests and assault on democratic rights of citizens is common in the so called mainland India too. This type of politics has specially spread along with the rise of Mr Modi in the national politics. The loudest are the Hindutva organisations that claim to represent the interests of the so called Hindu majority. While many thousands of minority citizens have been displaced and killed in riots, and their places of worship attacked, Hindutva forces have attacked the rights of all citizens to read books they like, see movies they wish to see, spend time with persons they like, eat what they like, and discuss and debate issues related to their lives.