04.07.2024.UT NEWS.Untouchables News .Chennai.26.
Minor Dalit girl working in the field raped in Almora, accused sent to jail – Almora rape race
A minor Dalit girl was raped in Almora district. It is being told that when this girl was working in the field, a young man lured her and took her away. After this, the young man raped the girl. The police have registered a case against the accused under POCSO and SCST Act and sent him to jail.
Almora: A case of rape of a poor Dalit minor girl of a village in Tadikhet development block has come to light. The father of the Dalit minor girl has given a complaint in the Patwari post that his girl was raped by a young man. The Revenue Police has registered a case against the youth under various sections including POCSO, SCST Act and arrested him and sent him behind bars.
Allegation of rape of Dalit minor girl: According to the Revenue Police, the father of the minor came to the Patwari post and gave a complaint on June 29. It was said in the complaint that his minor daughter was working in the field on June 28. During this time a young man came there. He lured her and took her away and raped her. The minor informed her family about this after coming home.
The accused was sent to jail: It was told that the accused youth is a resident of Pauda Kothar village of Tadi Khet. Seeing the seriousness of the matter, the revenue police immediately registered a case against the named accused under various sections. At the same time, the named accused of the case was searched. Naib Tehsildar Hemant Mahara, who is investigating the case, said that a case was registered against the accused under POCSO, SCST Act. The team of Revenue Police searched for him in all possible areas. After which he was arrested from Kotgaon. After presenting him in the court, he has been sent to jail behind bars. Revenue Sub Inspector Vinod Tolia, Pradeep Bijalwan, PRD Jawan Rajendra were included in the team that arrested the accused.
Case of Dalit harassment registered against armed men
A week ago, action was taken against those who came with rifles for land measurement. Now, a case has been registered against five named persons including him and 10 to 15 people for harassing Dalits by getting the land ploughed with a tractor. On June 27, in Fatehpura village of the police station area, during the land measurement, on the orders of the SDM, when three people came with rifles, their rifles were confiscated.
Gaurav Kushwaha of the village has said in the case registered that on June 27 at 10 am, Bharat Singh and Kuldeep Singh, residents of Mohalla Ashok Nagar in the city, Indra Prakash of Ghiror in Mainpuri and Shivbhadra and Yashpal alias Rinku of the village, along with 10 to 15 companions, armed with legal and illegal weapons, came to his farm with a tractor, caught the sharecropper Munna Singh Dohre, held him hostage, abused him with caste-specific abusive language and threatened to kill him, Shivbhadra forcibly ploughed the standing crop with a tractor. When the police was informed about the incident, the police arrested the riflemen. Bakewar police station in-charge inspector Rakesh Kumar Sharma said that a case has been registered and investigation is underway.
Yamuna Nagar News: Four members of Dalit family beaten up
Jagadhari. In Kail village of Sadar Jagadhari, people of Dalit community have accused people of upper caste of beating them up and breaking the wall and tower under construction. Four members of the Dalit family were injured in this fight. Only one of them was admitted to the civil hospital when his condition was serious.
The incident is of 28 June. The family members allege that even after the letter from the hospital was sent, the police did not register a case against the accused. By giving a complaint to the SP, the family members have requested to take action in the matter. On the other hand, the Jagadhari police station in-charge says that when the investigating officer went to the hospital to take the statement, the injured were missing from their beds. After taking the statement, the case will be registered. Advertisement: 0:06
Kail resident Karnapal told in the complaint to the SP that he has started construction work in his house. Whose wall and tower are being constructed. It is alleged that for the last few days, people of upper caste of the village have been abusing them and insulting them by using casteist words. On 28th June, around 10 in the morning, his family members Seema, Lajwanti, Raj Kumar, Pratik were present at home. Their mason was constructing the tower and wall. Just then, some people of the upper caste from their village came there. As soon as they arrived, the accused threatened them and said that you cannot do anything against our wishes. The accused abused his family members and insulted them by using casteist words. When his wife and son stopped the accused from speaking like this, they got furious and attacked them with sticks and rods. His mother and father who came to rescue them were also beaten badly and injured.
The accused pushed them and broke their under-construction wall and tower. When the people gathered after hearing the noise, the accused fled after threatening to kill them. His neighbor Manga Ram informed about this on Dial 112. After which the police reached the spot and took photographs of the incident spot. The people around admitted his wife, son and parents to the hospital. Where they were given treatment. Karnapal told that he complained about this to the police. It is alleged that the police did not take any action in the case. Forget about arresting the accused, no case was even registered against them. The accused are still threatening him. When no action was taken in the case, he complained about it to the SP.
On receiving information about the case, the police inspected the spot. After this, the investigating officer went to the hospital to take the statement of the injured. But the injured was not found on his bed. The investigating officer is currently on leave. The case will be registered soon after investigating the matter.
Congress sacrificing Dalit cause, says PM Modi in Rajya Sabha; Opposition stages walkout
The Congress-led opposition staged a walkout after Leader of the Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was prevented by Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar from intervening.
Kalyan Ray
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday slammed Congress for sacrificing leaders from “Dalit and backward classes” in losing causes to protect “the family”, besides taking a pot-shot at the opposition party for showing double standards while dealing with corruption.
“Whenever such a situation arises, a Dalit and backward person has to bear the brunt and that family (the Gandhis) remains safe. The same was seen here too. You would have seen the issue of Lok Sabha Speaker, there too, their defeat was certain but who did they push forward? A Dalit. They knew that he would lose, still, he was fielded,” Modi said in the Rajya Sabha, replying to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address. The Congress-led opposition staged a walkout after Leader of the Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was prevented by Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar from intervening.
Dwelling on how politicians from the Backward Class are at the receiving end in the grand old party, Modi said, “In the President and Vice President elections, in 2022, they fielded Sushil Kumar Shinde; let the Dalits lose, they themselves have nothing to lose. In 2017, when the defeat was certain, they fielded Meira Kumar…Congress has an anti-SC/ST/OBC mindset, due to which they kept humiliating former President Ram Nath Kovind.”
“With this mindset, they left no stone unturned in insulting the first tribal woman President of the country and used words no one else can.”
On the Lok Sabha results, Modi said he didn’t understand the reason for joy in Congress, which won 99 seats in comparison to 52 in 2019.
“Congress people are also happy. I can’t understand the reason for this joy…Is this joy for the hattrick of loss? Is this joy for falling to nervous 90? Is this joy for another failed launch?..I even saw Kharge ji (a Dalit leader) full of energy. Kharge ji has served his party a lot and the blame of such a loss that should have been attributed to someone else was saved by him. He stood like a wall,” Modi said.
Taking the example of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party turning into an ally of Congress from an adversary, Modi said, “In Chhattisgarh, the chief minister of the Congress government was linked to a liquor scam. AAP used to say that the ED should put this CM behind bars. ED was dear to them at that time.”
“They (Congress) are people who have double standards. In Delhi, they share the stage and level allegations against investigation agencies. They conduct rallies to protect the corrupt. In Kerala, their ‘shehzada’ appeals to send a CM—who is an ally in their alliance—to jail,” the prime minister said in an apparent reference to Congress leader’s Rahul Gandhi’s jab to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarai Vijayan on the eve of the election.
“He (Rahul) tells the Government of India to send him to jail. In Delhi, they raise an alarm over ED-CBI and the same people tell the same agencies to send the Kerala CM to jail,” Modi added.
Courtesy : DH
Haryana: How Will CM Nayab Singh Saini's New Schemes Empower Sarpanchs, Especially Those from the Dalit Community?
Kurukshetra- Once, P. Chidambaram, a unique politician with intellectual reflection, wrote in the Indian Express on February 4, 2024, that political laws and political rules are different things for politicians, while laymen use them in one sense. 2024 is the year of elections for the world because the two biggest democratic nations, India and the USA, have been involved in elections. India’s general election was in June 2024, and once again, the BJP is in power. In the context of Haryana, it might be possible that the Assembly election will commence in October 2024. In India, the government's powers and functions are divided among the Union Government, state governments, and local governments (Panchayats and Municipalities). However, Panchayats and Municipalities were inserted in 1993 by the constitution’s 73rd and 74th amendments.
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Panchayats are the first unit of the Indian democratic system and the soul of Indian society. On July 2, CM Nayab Singh Saini announced some schemes for the Gram Panchayat representatives at a state-level program in Kurukshetra. He has been trying to strengthen the hands of the Sarpanchs of villages.
He announced the following facilities to empower panchayats:
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Now the limit of Sarpanchs to work at their own discretion will be 21 lakhs; earlier it was 5 lakhs. That is, the Sarpanch will now be able to get work done up to Rs 21 lakh without a tender.
If the Sarpanch gives a separate estimate of Mitti (soil) Bharat for any work, then that will also be paid by the government.
After uploading the resolution by the Sarpanch on the Haryana Engineering Works (HEW) portal, the Junior Engineer (JE) will now be obliged to upload the estimate in 10 days. This would help speed up work in villages.
Sarpanchs will get TA/DA at the rate of Rs. 16 per KM for going out from the village for administrative work. This would motivate the Sarpanchs to encourage the government to do more work for the village's development.
These days, Sarpanchs face various kinds of cases from the villagers; sometimes, particularly Dalit Sarpanchs, cannot fight the cases properly in court due to a lack of funds. But now, at the district or sub-division level, the fee for pleading in court will be Rs. 5,500 per case instead of Rs. 1100, and for the High Court, it will be Rs. 5,500 to Rs. 33,000 per case.
The most important announcement has been that the chair of the Sarpanch will be with the DC/SSP when the state-level program is held in the village. This will provide dignity to the Sarpanchs, and officers will listen to them more seriously.
Panchayats will now be able to buy laptops and printers, which will make them more hi-tech, and 3000 computer operators have been appointed for Gram Panchayats. The stamp duty and electricity bills will come directly into the account of the panchayat.
If the Gram Panchayat is not able to solve the problem of drinking water in the village, then on the resolution of the Panchayat, the work will be done by the Public Health Department.
Gram Panchayats will be able to spend up to 30 thousand rupees from the Panchayat Fund for the national festival or special event.
The limit of expenditure on publicity, flags, or sweets for the activities of the national festival for the panchayat has been increased from 500 to 5000. (The Hindu Bureau: July 3, 2024)
Sukhbir Singh, a prominent member of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), has voiced his concerns over the Haryana government's treatment of Numberdars in villages. Singh, who is expected to contest the upcoming Assembly election from Thanesher, criticized the current administration for overlooking the contributions and importance of Numberdars.
In a recent conversation, Singh emphasized that if the INLD were to come to power, they would ensure that Numberdars receive the same respect and honor as Sarpanchs. "Numberdars have long been the pride of our villages, and it is high time they receive the recognition they deserve," he stated.
Singh, an active political figure for over a decade, also shed light on the challenges faced by Dalit Sarpanchs. He pointed out that Sarpanchs from the Dalit community often encounter various forms of discrimination from upper-caste electors and government officers. According to Singh, many Dalit Sarpanchs possess only de jure powers, with actual authority being exercised by dominant caste members.
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Highlighting the need for systemic change, Singh suggested that the government should implement special provisions to empower Dalit Sarpanchs. These measures should include training by experts in rural development and financial assistance for Dalit candidates contesting elections. Singh's remarks underscore the ongoing issues of caste discrimination and the need for inclusive governance in Haryana's rural areas.
-The Author Dr. Krishan Kumar is a scholar based in Haryana specializing in Dalits and Marginalized Studies and founder of International Ambedkar.
Law And State Terror: How The BNS Crushes Dissent
‘The law has no claim to human respect. It has no civilising mission; it’s only purpose is to protect exploitation’
Peter Kropotkin
The ascriptive social inequalities in Indian society have always influenced how the legal systems function. The judiciary has usually upheld the status quo of caste and patriarchy making it difficult for marginalised groups to seek justice. The composition of the judiciary is extremely skewed in favor of the dominant castes. In 24 high courts in India, there is not a single Dalit or Adivasi Chief Justice. No Dalit judge has been elevated to the Indian Supreme Court since K.G. Balakrishnan in 2010. Cases pertaining to atrocities against the Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim communities are handled by judges with no lived experience of these marginalised sections. Identity based prejudices thus influence the verdicts. A study by National Law University Delhi shows that by 2016, 75% of individuals sentenced to death belong to Dalit, OBC and minority communities.
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The judiciary has usually upheld the status quo of caste and patriarchy making it difficult for marginalised groups to seek justice.
People from below thus had to resort to participatory democracy in the form of protests, petitions, voicing views through speeches and writings to ensure public and political accountability. The three new criminal laws enforced on 1st July, 2024 namely the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, replacing the Code Of Criminal Procedure (1973), the Indian Penal Code (1860) and Indian Evidence Act (1872) has horrendous implications for minorities and the overall democratic structure of our society by strengthening the incarcerative arms of the state.
Creating a police state in the façade of decolonisation through law
Decolonisation in most post-independence nation states has been an incomplete and fragmented project because the colonial apparatus of governmentality namely the police, the bureaucracy, prison systems were never dismantled. The native elites secured for themselves opportunities, privileges and resources of the former white masters abandoning the broader project of decolonisation. Mahmood Mamdani the eminent scholar of African studies rightly pointed out that deracialisation did not lead to decolonisation.
On 11th August 2023 the Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the three new criminal laws to overhaul colonial era laws. However a substantive understanding of the laws shows that they strengthen authoritarian apparatuses of colonial power. The colonial state was based on extension of police power to control the subjects’ individual and collective self-expression and punish dissent, reflected in section 124(A) of the former Indian Penal Code called commonly, the Sedition Law.
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The law clearly defined what constituted sedition and what not. Post independence courts have interpreted this provision in various ways to limit its misuse by clarifying that activities that produce disaffection and suspicion on the government and disrupt the public order can be classified under sedition. It was later stayed by the Honorable Supreme Court.
What we have under the Bharatiya Naya Sanhita is the removal of the word ‘sedition’ and its replacement with terms such as ‘act endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India’ in section 152 of the BNS.
What we have under the Bharatiya Naya Sanhita is the removal of the word ‘sedition’ and its replacement with terms such as ‘act endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India’ in section 152 of the BNS. Activities that excite ‘subversive activities’ or encourage ‘feelings of separatist activities’ will be penalised without clear definition of what constitutes subversive activities or activities inciting separatist activities. The legal scholar Indira Jaising has argued in The Indian Express that the three new laws have completely reworded every provision of the previous laws leading to extreme uncertainty of what constitutes criminal activities. The previous judgements of the judiciary pertaining to the sedition law would not apply with regards to Section 152 of the BNS nullifying the stay order of the Supreme Court putting the life and liberty of citzens at major risk due to this ambiguity. Moreover the period of sentence has been extended from three years in Section 124(A) to seven years under section 152 of BNS along with a fine.
The BNS is a step further in establishing a complete police state in India. The Clause 113 of the BNS deals with terrorist acts despite having a separate law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (1967) for the former. Sections 15, 16, 17, 18A, 18B, 19, 20 are all retained. The UAPA requires a sanction to arrest someone under it but Clause 113 of the BNS acts as a general law for the police. Thus an individual can be simultaneously charged under BNS and UAPA violating the provision of Double Jeopardy of article 20(2) of the Constitution.
Indira Jaising has asserted that due to these ambiguities there will be 30% increase in backlog of court cases due to these laws and inadequate training of the police, public prosecutors, lawyers and other stakeholders in judiciary. This legal chaos will enable an Elected Autocracy like the Indian regime to stifle dissent. Any individual charged under UAPA can be detained for 180 days without a chargesheet being filed.
It sanctions police custody for 30 days and makes getting bail extremely difficult. Charging a human rights activist, student protester or a journalist simultaneously would ensure that their case never reaches the court and the pre-trial period of detention itself becomes a punishment. These new laws come up at a time when many prominent intellectuals and activists charged under UAPA await their bails.
Thus, the idea of decolonising laws is a complete farce.
Farewell to the public sphere
The aim of these laws can be best described as ‘institutionalization of terror’ borrowing a phrase from Hannah Arendt. They aim to dismember the public sphere where ‘citizens behave as a public body when they confer an unrestricted freedom of assembly and association and freedom to express and publish their opinions about matters of general interest…’ (Habermas).
The aim of these laws can be best described as ‘institutionalization of terror’ borrowing a phrase from Hannah Arendt.
Hannah Arendt observes in Origins of Totalitarianism that totalitarianism draws its legitimacy from the mob, huge masses of people uprooted from their lives by offering them solutions that oversimplify issues. India under neo-liberalism has led to creation of astronomical levels of inequality, unemployment, inflation and declining health standards. The ruling party and its affiliated organisations want to create such a mob out of these disenfranchised people through lies and false rhetoric of Indian Hindus being under threat of so-called infiltrators.
Gautama Navlakha, Siddique Kappan , Natasha Narwal and countless others offer stringent criticisms against state policy that has the potential to hollow out the state’s propaganda by exposing the lies beneath it. Thus the Government needs to silence them and punitive mechanisms that carry the cloak of democracy despite being inherently authoritarian are the best ways to do so.
Hum dekhenge: when resistance refuses to surrender
Amidst these guillotines of state terror we need to construct a dialogue of hope and despair from the lived experiences of people at the bottom of the caste-based neoliberal regime of Hindutva. As we, those with privileges keep on discussing in the comforts of our air conditioned living rooms whether or not India can still be called a democracy, the ordinary people take to the streets and fight fascism with ingenious methods of resistance. The protests at Una against the lynching of Dalit men in 2016, the farmer’s protests of 2020-21 that brought down the regime by destabilising the state machinery is a testament of the ingenuity of subaltern people to creatively invent modes of radical and defiant sociality and methods of resistance.
It is from the lived experience of survival of ordinary people that we need to create a new aesthetic of resistance. The new criminal laws will make it extremely difficult for the working class and Dalits to unionise, the Adivasis to mobilise and displaced, unemployed youth to protest their experience of abandonment by the state. The state and its apparatus will generate new vocabularies of resistance, new slogans, new symbols of protest and modes of organisation. It is worth concluding with the immortal saying of Bertolt Brecht ‘In the dark times will there be no singing? Yes there will be singing about the dark times.’
References:
- https://www.newsclick.in/what-surging-criticism-3-new-criminal-laws-all-about
- https://m.thewire.in/article/law/colonial-reality-of-indias-criminal-laws-remains-despite-the-new-hindi-names
- https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/with-new-criminal-laws-rights-won-hard-in-the-sc-are-at-risk-of-being-overruled-by-the-government-9392038/
- African leaders are colonial too – now is the chance to change | Politics | Al Jazeera
- Hannah Arendt (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Rohin Sarkar (preferred pronouns: he/him) is an eighteen year old teenager obsessed with critical theory, Anarchist studies and Ambedkarite literature. His passion other than academics include poetry by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib along with Anarchist punk by David Rovics. He also enjoys Oxford style and British Parliamentary debating because it enables him to speak his mind without fear of being censured. When not studying or debating he is chatting on politics with his friends either on WhatsApp or in the college premises.
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