'On May 22, Dr Payal Tadvi, a 26-year-old oppressed caste Muslim gynaecologist, died by suicide in Mumbai. Earlier that day, she had apparently performed two surgeries and spoken to her mother on the phone. For months leading up to her death, she had told her family that she was being harassed by three “upper” caste women doctors. They allegedly went to the toilet and then wiped their feet on her bed, called her casteist slurs, made fun of her for being a tribal on WhatsApp groups and threatened to not allow her to enter operation theatres or perform deliveries.
'India has seen an estimated 56 deaths between 2015-18 of which at least 15 have been in Jharkhand, according to data compiled by the Right to Food Campaign... While Digital India, bullet trains and space missions make news in Delhi, Jharkhand has a different problem — hunger. Starvation, an unfortunate reality of the 21st century, has emerged as a silent killer in the state. But, for the government, there is nothing called starvation deaths...
'There is a crude certainty to this Narendra Modi victory that no amount of talk about governance, delivery or economics can hide. Search the map of India for those states where the percentage of non-Hindus approaches or crosses a majority, and you find that this is where the supposed juggernaut of Modi’s governance comes to a halt—Punjab, where the only seats the BJP won were the state’s two Hindu-dominated constituencies; Kerala; the Kashmir Valley; and a few of the states in the northeast.
'Twelve years after a blast ripped apart two coaches of the Samjhauta Express, killing 68, no one has been found guilty of the crime. On March 20, all the accused who faced trial were acquitted by a special court. That includes accused number one, Swami Aseemanand, who had already been acquitted in the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif blast cases and who now walks free. Handing out the verdict, the special court said the National Investigation Agency had failed to establish the guilt of the accused.
'On February 3, 2019, Smriti Irani declared: “The day ‘pradhan sevak‘ Narendra Modi ji decides to retire, I will also leave Indian politics.” The statement is remarkable on many levels. Why would a 42-year old politician, already a Union minister with cabinet rank, and with bright political prospects, sacrifice her career just because the numero uno of her party, 26 years her senior, will hang his boots eventually? This is the same Irani who had threatened to go on a fast-unto-death if Modi did not resign over Gujarat riots.
'A Mumbai-based doctor who was arrested for allegedly posting “anti-Hindu” comments on Facebook was granted bail on Thursday, The Indian Express reported. Sunilkumar Nishad claimed his posts did not criticise any religion. According to ANI, a resident had complained that Nishad had made derogatory remarks about the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bhopal Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Singh Thakur as well as anti-Hindu and anti-Brahminical comments. Nishad was arrested on Wednesday. “I don’t even know who the complainant is,” Nishad told The Indian Express.
'Thousands of people—students, workers and activists belonging to Dalit, OBC and Tribal organisations along with workers of opposition parties—took to the streets in Bihar on 5 March as part of the bandh (shutdown) against the BJP’s anti-Dalit and anti-Adivasi policies.
'A Tihar Jail undertrial was branded an ‘Om’ symbol [considered holy by the Hindus] on his back which, allegedly was the handiwork of a jail superintendent who used hot metal for carving. Nabbir, an undertrial prisoner at the Tihar jail, told his family that he was branded with an Om symbol and was not fed for two days. He said that he was subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment by jail superintendent Rajesh Chauhan. After his family informed his counsel, the counsel moved an application in the court.
'On April 7, an elderly Muslim man named Shaukat Ali was heckled and abused by a mob at Biswanath Chariali town in Assam. Ali was thrashed by the mob for allegedly selling beef in the weekly market. Moreover, to the utter disgrace of any sensitive human being, Ali was made to kneel down and forced to eat pork by the mob, as per reports... Among the few people who could manage to talk to Ali in GMCH was Rehana Sultana, a researcher of Gauhati University. Speaking to Newsclick, Rehna narrated her experience in GMCH as also what Ali said during the short conversation.
'On February 26, Ashish Joshi, a department of telecom (DoT) official, was suspended. The suspension came one day after Joshi filed a complaint against Kapil Mishra, a controversial MLA, reporting a Facebook video posted by the latter. In the video, Mishra calls for attacks on several prominent actors, activists and politicians including Barkha Dutt, Prashanth Bhushan, Kamal Hassan and Naseeruddin Shah. He claims these individuals are “enemies of the nation” and that they support Pakistan. Additionally, he suggests that they should be dragged out of their homes onto the streets...'
