"...Lending credence to the theory that the attacks were not spontaneous but planned, shopowners told TOI on Sunday that the men went around the area on May 31 and June 1, abusing them and threatening them to keep their shops closed. While the police have dismissed any conspiracy , there is no explanation as to how these shops were singled out. The bakeries and the salons were closed at the time of the attack. The shop names were in English and Marathi, nothing that could reveal the Muslim identity of the owners..."
"Vocalist Shubha Mudgal, who is currently touring in the USA, was apparently threatened by a board member of the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple. While the audience was looking forward to Shubha Mudgal and Bombay Jayshree’s performance at the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple’s auditorium area, one board member insisted on meeting and talking to Shubha Mudgal. A source says, “As soon as she stepped aside, the man began to intimidate Shubhaji, criticising her for her ‘anti-Modi, anti-Hindu and antinational’ stand.
'There are millions of Indias within our country and Nisha Pahuja's documentary 'The World Before Her' captivates us with this detail. Training her camera on a beauty factory, where contestants go in to be polished so one can become the next Miss India, and then on a Durga Vahini camp where girls are coached by Hindu extremists, Pahuja shows us a disturbing portrait of the modern Indian woman.
"The 32-year-old Goan Facebooker who made national headlines for his anti-Narendra Modi and anti-Manohar Parrikar posts last week, was once a fan of the Goa chief minister and even volunteered for a Sangh Parivar outfit. After being interrogated for nearly seven hours by Crime Branch officials earlier this week, the visibly shaken Devu Chodankar, a Vizag-based shipbuilding professional, also said that the incident could have put him off Facebook forever...
"Now that the election dust has settled, it is perhaps a good time to have a sensible debate on secularism, especially around claims that it is an oddity in a deeply religious society such as India; and, even worse, a political trick to “privilege” minorities in exchange for their votes... All that has happened is that a certain kind of secular politics has been rejected and it will be wrong to deduce from this that the idea of secular India itself has been rejected. Yet, this is how it is being interpreted.
"Anil Shirole, the newly-elected BJP MP from Pune, left his party leaders red-faced by justifying the murderous assault on a techie four days ago by members of a radical Hindu outfit. "The people of Pune want peace. What was posted on Facebook was sad. It was bound to have some repercussions," Mr Shirole told reporters. He, however, later clarified that his repercussions comment was completely taken out of context..."
"Mohsin Shaikh, a 24-year old from Solapur district, who worked as an IT manager with a private firm in Pune was beaten to death by a mob. Mohsin was returning home late on Monday with a friend, Riyaz, after performing namaz at a mosque in Hadapsar area on the outskirts of Pune. A violent mob attacked him with stones and hockey sticks around 9 pm. Riyaz alleged that Moshin was targeted because he was wearing a skull cap and had a beard. Mohsin sustained severe injuries to his head and died early on Tuesday.
"“Hinduize the politics, militarize the Hindus,” declares a logo used by the Hindu Rashtra Sena, seven of whose members have been arrested for beating a Muslim information technology worker to death in Pune on Monday night. The attack on 24-year-old Mohsin Sadiq Shaikh, who was returning from prayers at a local mosque, came the day after mobs damaged approximately 190 public buses after rumours that derogatory images of Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray had been posted on Facebook and WhatsApp.
"Even if people die, their histories shouldn't. This is Gopinath Munde, the supposed gentle face of the BJP in Maharashtra. In Dec 1992, Munde led a delegation of kar sevaks from Maharashtra to demolish the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. In Jan 1993, during the Bombay Riots, his PA was apprehended by the army carrying a revolver in public registered to Munde. RTI enquiries suggest the case against Munde & his PA was subsequently dropped by the BJP-Sena government..."
"Another case filed by the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti (SBAS) against a textbook published a decade ago has resulted in Orient Blackswan (OBS) — a publisher specialising in academic books — undertaking a pre-release assessment of books that might attract similar reaction. One such book, Megha Kumar’s Communalism and Sexual Violence: Ahmedabad since 1969 , was withheld from release after it was put on sale. The publishers had announced the book on their website under the segment “New Books and Events” in March along with several other books which continue to be available.
