'NRC, communal citizenship laws or the instituting of a uniform law code for all communities: the decks are clear for the BJP to move forward on its agenda... On Saturday, the Supreme Court decided on the Ayodhya dispute, ruling that a Ram temple will come up on the disputed spot where, till 1992, the Babri Masjid stood. The judgment is hugely significant, revolving around an intersection of faith and politics that has gripped and driven India for the past three decades. Now that the legal dispute is over, what does this point of inflection mean for Indian politics going forward?
'The main beneficiaries of the Supreme Court's verdict on Saturday are organically linked to the main accused in the crime of demolishing the mosque. And that's not good for India... The Supreme Court’s verdict in the Ayodhya matter has settled the ‘title suit’ in favour of the main Hindu plaintiff – essentially the Vishwa Hindu Parishad – but it is clear that there is much more at stake for the country than the ownership of 2.77 acres of land on which a mosque stood for 470 years until it was demolished in an act of political vandalism unparalleled in the modern world.
'Eminent historian Dwijendra Narayan Jha pioneered studies on material culture in early Indian history. In his academic career spanning more than 35 years, he undertook extensive research on society and the economy in ancient India, and probed different dimensions of feudalism in early medieval India. As a professional historian, he actively intervened in contemporary political debates that derived their relevance from historical studies.
'Ram Mandir and Kashmir (hyphenated with Pakistan) have obsessed TV news channels like no other issue. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that over the last two years at least, the twin issues have received more airtime than any other matter of national concern, even as the country was battling calamitous flooding, economic decline, rising unemployment, infant deaths, sexual crimes involving politicians.
'The news of pro-BJP groups in the United Kingdom (UK) campaigning for Conservative Party candidates ahead of the country’s general elections, scheduled for 12 December, has sparked fears of “foreign interference” in the poll process. Groups such as the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) UK and an umbrella religious charity group, the National Council of Hindu Temples (NCHT), are actively campaigning for the Conservatives in 48 seats that are expected to witness tight contests.
'West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh has once again landed in controversy for attacking a section of intelligentsia for 'eating beef at road side stalls' and 'taking pride in cleaning excreta of foreign pet dogs'. "There are people who belong to the educative society and eat beef on roadside. Why cow? I would like to ask them to eat dog meat also. It is good for health. Eat other animals' meat also. Who is stopping you? But eat at your home. Cow is our mother and we see cow killing as anti-social. There are people who keep foreign dogs at home and even clean their excreta.
'A statue of a riot-accused, who was killed in the Bulandshahr mob violence last year, has been installed in a village to honour him as a proud gau rakshak. The plaque placed with the statue names him as "Gau Rakshak Vir Shahid Sumit Dalal". Sumit Dalal died in the mob violence at Chirangvathi police station following rumours of an alleged cow slaughter incident in Mahav village on December 3, 2018. Subodh Kumar Singh, an inspector of the Uttar Pradesh police, had also lost his life in the incident.
The Chhattisgarh Unit of People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) has strongly condemned the efforts by communal groups to communalize interreligious marriages as ‘love jihad’ while pledging support to unions between two consenting adults irrespective of their class, caste, race, religion, nationality or sexuality.
'There are multiple lessons to be drawn from the conduct and experience of Furqan Ali and his schoolchildren. None perhaps more significant than the need to harness the everyday togetherness of religious communities to counter the Sangh Parivar’s politics of hatred, which seeks to demonise Muslims as anti-national and isolate them. For those late on the story, here is a recap: Furqan Ali was the headmaster of the Ghayaspur primary school, in Bilaspur block of Pilibhit district, Uttar Pradesh, until he was suspended last week.
'More than 100 people have been lynched to death in India over rumours of cow slaughter, cattle theft, child kidnapping and organ harvesting in the last four years. And the common factor that emereged through these cases is WhatsApp. Aqualitative study by researchers at the London School of Economics has found that “mobs of vigilantes” communicated with each other through the social media platform “to spread lies about the victims” and “used misinformation to mobilise, defend” and sometimes “to document and circulate images of the violence”.
