'The gloves are off in the election campaign for Bihar, where BJP president Amit Shah created a hugely controversial moment today when he said at a rally that "fire crackers will be burst in Pakistan if the BJP is defeated in Bihar." Rival parties criticised the comment as yet another attempt by the BJP to turn the election into a "majority vs minority battle". KC Tyagi of the Janata Dal United told NDTV, "The BJP had started the campaign with talk about development. But as it has started trailing it has decided to totally communalise the campaign."
'The BJP is clearly desperate in Bihar. And the desperation is showing. The party's star campaigner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his last-ditch attempt to turn the tide in his party's favour, has taken refuge in what his party is best known for - Communalism.
'Amit Shah, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims that when political leaders speak in public meetings, they often become "emotional" and that "their statements should not be taken with full stop, comma and all." How then should one understand Prime Minister Narendra Modi's repeated claim that BJP governments have never tinkered with reservations, during his election rallies in Bihar? His declaration that no BJP government has ever diluted the reservations policy nor will it do so in future, is as blatant an untruth as one can get, with or without commas and full stops...
'Karnataka’s roster of incidents of intolerance is only growing. The latest headline on the subject has been the abuse of Kannada filmmaker and writer Chethana Tirthahalli. Tirthahalli filed a complaint against a man who threatened her with dire consequences after she endorsed beef consumption and questioned certain Hindu practices on social media, newspapers reported.
'A 40-year-old man who was witness to the alleged murder of his nephew was found hanging on Friday at his home in Hisar in Haryana, a state which is battling outrage over the death of Dalits, including two young siblings, in the past few days, reported Press Trust of India. Badan Singh, who also belonged to the Dalit or underprivileged caste, had alleged harassment by the police because he was leading protests against them for not taking action in the alleged killing of his nephew Gurbachan Singh. Two policemen have been suspended.
'A young Dalit writer was attacked by a group of men for his writings against the caste system perceived to be “anti-Hindu”, at Davanagere in Central Karnataka early on Thursday... According to the complaint filed by 23-year-old Huchangi Prasad, a journalism student at Davanagere University who had published a ‘controversial’ book a year ago, an unidentified man came to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe hostel at the university in the early hours, claiming that Mr. Prasad’s mother had been hospitalised following a heart attack.
'Union Minister and former Army Chief General (retired) V.K. Singh found himself in the midst of yet another controversy, this time over the killing of the two Dalit children (one an infant of 11 months) in Faridabad, Haryana two days ago. The two children were burnt to death, and their mother is struggling for her life in hospital. Asked about the atrocity in Haryana, Gen. Singh said the Central government could not be associated with every incident, and the local administration had to be blamed for it.
'In an incident of caste violence in Sunped village of Faridabad district of Haryana, two children of a Dalit family were burnt alive early in the morning on Tuesday. Their parents sustained serious burns. The offenders are believed to be Rajputs of the same village. The situation in the Sunped village is tense following the incident and police have been deployed in large numbers.
The house of a Dalit family was set on fire by upper caste men. Two children were burnt alive.
'Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel was today booked by Gujarat Police under sedition charges for his alleged comments on October 3 instigating a community youth to kill policemen instead of committing suicide. “We have filed a case of sedition against Hardik Patel for his October 3 comments here telling his friends to kill
policemen,” DCP Marland Chauhan, who has become a complainant in the case, said...'
'A Dalit man and wife were reportedly stripped by the police in Greater Noida in Gautam Budh Nagar on Thursday after they insisted on registering an FIR for alleged robbery. According to a report, Sunil Gautam was robbed by miscreants on Wednesday night near Atta in Noida. He went to Dankaur police station in Greater Noida on Thursday to register an FIR along with his wife and baby. The police, however, refused to file a complaint. The couple then staged a protest outside the police station alleging inaction on part of the men in khaki.
