'On Monday, two men, hailing from the neighbouring districts of Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram, succumbed to their injuries at Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital. The two have nothing in common, except the fact that they were the latest victims of lynchings in the state. The victims – Anil Kumar from Kollam and Ajesh from Thiruvananthapuram – died after they were lynched in separate incidents. While Anil Kumar was attacked in an alleged incident of violent ‘moral policing’, Ajesh was lynched on the suspicion of theft...'
'A 25-year-old Muslim youth was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar district allegedly over his relationship with a Hindu girl. Three people have been arrested in the incident, police confirmed on Monday. The deceased has been identified as Abdul Baari, a native of Hathinaraj village. The incident occurred on November 29 at night in Maraucha village under Baskhari Police Station limits when Abdul Baari was on the way to meet the girl. He was surrounded by a few unidentified assailants and beaten to death, police confirmed...'
'In the upcoming Christian Bale-Matt Damon-starrer, Ford v Ferrari, the CBFC has asked the makers to blur out pictures of alcohol bottles and glasses containing alcohol from the frame. In images seen by HuffPost India, scenes that have alcohol bottles, both in the background and foreground, have been hastily pixelated. For instance, when a character is holding what appears to be a wine glass, the viewer only sees him holding an object, with the glass missing, effectively dampening the viewing experience.
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.
'The Rajasthan human rights commission has said that women who live with their partners before marriage are “like concubines”, and that live-in relationships should be legislated again to “protect women”. “It is the responsibility of the government and human rights organisations to protect women from the harms of live-in relationship through intensive awareness campaigns,” an order issued by the commission’s chairperson, Justice Prakash Tatia, and member, Justice Mahesh Chand Sharma, said.
'Twenty-three years after it was banned following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the Bajrang Dal on December 6 this year renewed its pledge for a Ram temple at the mosque site. The anniversary of the demolition is technically a day of “valour” (Shaurya Diwas) for the Hindutva outfit. This year, however, Shaurya Diwas wasn’t subdued as in many past years. There were elaborate press releases and there was heightened activity on right-wing Twitter handles in support of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya.
;Forget cuss words, now even the images of Indian goddesses have failed to make the cut in front of the Indian censor board. In the soon-to-be-released film Angry Indian Goddesses, amongst the 17 cuts that the Indian censor board wanted filmmakers to make, was the blurring of the images of two Indian goddesses -- a picture of Lakshmi in the credits, and later in the movie, a picture of Kali. Movie producer Gaurav Dhingra said that he had failed to make the cut in front of the revising committee.
'On Saturday, senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram admitted that the ban on Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses was unjust. “I have no hesitation in saying that the ban on Salman Rushdie’s book was wrong,” he said. The proscription was imposed 27 years back, in 1988, when Chidambaram was the Minister of State Home Affairs in Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet. The novel had outraged conservative Muslim opinion when it was published.
'Track legend P T Usha has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi protesting against the decision of School Games Federation of India to organise the athletic events for boys and girls separately. In her letter, Usha cited the SGFI calendar, showing that athletic events for boys and girls will be held separately in the second week of January 2016 and fourth week of December this year in Nasik and Pune respectively. SGFI is the national apex body for organising various sports and games among all Indian schools.
'The murder of a Bajrang Dal activist has made Karnataka tense . The Hindutva groups are calling it "revenge" for the lynching of a Muslim in distant Dadri, UP, for allegedly eating beef. Prashant Poojary, 29, was killed in Moodabidri, Dakshina Kannada, on 9 October, according to reports. Poojary had actively worked to close slaughterhouses in the district. He was allegedly murdered by six people who came on motorcycles, wearing masks and wielding knives. It was on the cards, perhaps.
