"In what might be called a classic case of political naivety, the Student Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami of India, recently organised an international seminar on ‘communal harmony’ and ‘nation-building’ in collaboration with the Department of Political Science, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) where Indresh Kumar1 of the RSS was invited as the chief guest. Since Indresh Kumar could not turn up, Laxmikant Vajpayee, the State President of the BJP, substituted for him.2
"The appointment of actor Gajendra Chauhan — described by some sections of the media as a “C-lister” — to the chairmanship of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) has once again raised questions about the scarcity of credible, right-wing intellectuals. It is no secret that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been struggling to find intellectuals to head various academic and cultural institutions.
'...As the monsoons finally reached the capital last week, leading to cooler climes but also traffic snarls, a cloud also burst on the heads of the BJP and the Narendra Modi government. It has been raining scams for over a month now, but the darkest clouds have surely built around India’s most lethal one, Vyapam. This involves more than financial swindles, something the nation may be a little immune to. With Vyapam, there is a human connect in the pile of corpses, all such ordinary people, and some so young.
"A group of RSS affiliates today met Union human resource development minister Smriti Irani over four hours and lobbied to get their nominees into key posts at premier educational institutions, sources said. Several central universities, IITs and IIMs as well as school boards and textbook publishers have vacancies at the top. Although none from the minister's office or the Sangh-affiliated organisations would officially confirm it, sources said the meeting discussed appointments and the new education policy.
'How Hindutva Supremacists are rushing to give themselves Clean Chit in terror related cases.
Introduction
Whether investigations into Hindutva terror related cases are changing course? A series of apparently unconnected developments definitely strengthen the belief.
"A mining baron arrested on charges of being a prime player in the Vyapam or jobs scandal in Madhya Pradesh paid for the air tickets and other undefined expenses of top leaders of the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS, according to an income tax report from 2013. That report was not pursued by state police investigators who were handling the Vyapam inquiry till this week, when the CBI took over. "We are not shielding anyone. But let's not go by one odd report... let's wait for the CBI investigation," said the BJP's Shaina NC to NDTV.
"The Rajasthan government has asked state-run colleges to introduce the RSS founder’s biography in their libraries, it emerged on Friday, setting the stage for a potential backlash by critics who accuse the BJP regime at the Centre of trying to saffronise education. The directorate of college education (DCE) sent out a circular dated July 9 asking government colleges to purchase a particular book on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar for their libraries. The circular has been put up on the DCE’s website.
'In a major blow to the National Investigating Agency's Ajmer blast trial, 13 crucial prosecution witnesses have now turned hostile and gone back on their testimonies. In October 2007, a bomb blast in the holy Ajmer Dargah killed three and wounded more than a dozen. The Rajasthan Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and later the NIA chargesheeted 12 people who were present and former members of the RSS, or belonging to fringe groups.
'Some 30,000 Indian soldiers guarding the border with Bangladesh have a new mandate under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government this year — stop cattle from crossing illegally into the Muslim-majority neighbour. Roughly every other night, troops armed with bamboo sticks and ropes wade through jute and paddy fields and swim across ponds to chase ageing bovines, and smugglers, headed for markets in Bangladesh.
'By Tuesday afternoon, the Economic Times had taken down a report, published in the June 30 edition of the paper, from the website. Headlined “Sec 377 may be scrapped, says Gowda” the report by Sowmya Aji quoted the law minister as sending positive signals to the LGBT community on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality.
