'On January 1, the Chennai Police Commissioner held a press conference about crime statistics – and when asked a question about the kolam protest in Besant Nagar, the top cop seemed well prepared with printed slides and a video on a projector. Answering the questions that many have been asking around why the protesters were detained for simply drawing kolams on the road, AK Viswanathan declared that the detention was not for the traditional art. “We did not give them permission for the Kolam protest but the arrest was not made for drawing kolams.
'...As law students, it was extremely disturbing for us when we realized that “halting of riots” has been made a prerequisite by you for entertaining the pleas pertaining to the violent clamp down on the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act throughout the country. In the legendary history of this Hon’ble Court, this is the first time that the plight of the fundamental rights of the people is being heard on a “conditional” basis.
Submitted by narendramodifacts on Wed, 01/01/2020 - 00:00
Surveillance is going be a major theme in 2020. The good news is that there will be lots of dissent and protest this year. But how will an authoritarian government without a concept of compromise - or even tactical retreat - deal with widespread protest? Especially if this protest involves a large number of Muslims?
First, protestors will be demonised mercilessly. A propaganda attack must be the first response according to their war manual. We have had six years to see how the violent, communal rhetoric of the "proud to be followed by PM Narendra Modi" twitter army sets the tone of more mainstream discourse. The protestors will be anti-national, extremist, illiterate, puncture-wallahs who can be identified by their clothes. The Sangh twitterati will find evidence of a foreign hand - where there are signs of intelligent life, they see a foreign hand. The importance of a foreign hand is that once there is a foreign hand, nothing is off-limits. The propaganda is to pave the way for a "law and order" response to the protests. Dissenters need to be monitored, controlled and punished. We have already seen this language in use.
'The contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) have led to a volatile situation nationwide. In Bihar’s Aurangabad, a brutal police crackdown has led to allegations of instances where Muslims were arbitrarily arrested... Video clips making rounds on social media have shown Bihar Police in Aurangabad town vandalising cars and bikes. Reports claim 45 men were arrested in Aurangabad town since December 21 in cases of stone pelting. It is alleged that many of them were innocent...
'Till three years ago, Rahima Begum, 24, from Dhubri spent her days by looking after her three children and making them learn the alphabets, while her husband was away for construction work. But now Rahima spends eight hours a day rolling beedi (tobacco in tendu leaf). Her three children — Salma, 9, Faruk, 5, and Suleman (4) — also join in, rolling one bundle of beedi after another in the backyard of her house in Gaspara village, along the Indo-Bangla border, 16 km from Dhubri town...
'Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Uttar Pradesh's Barkhera constituency Kishan Lal Rajpoot, along with his 15 identified and more than 35 unidentified supporters, have been booked for allegedly beating a police constable with shoes at a police post and robbing him of a gold chain and wallet... Gurjar said: "When I reached the spot, they abused and thrashed me. They opened fire at me and I had a narrow escape.
'Author Bhaavna Arora tweeted two images – a screenshot of an injured elderly man and a photo of an old man who can be seen pelting a stone – along with the message, “Chacha patharbaaji karega to kya khane ko milega? Biryani? (Uncle, if you pelt stones, what will you eat? Biryani?)”. Her tweet has garnered over 1,000 retweets... Another Twitter user Vivek posted the images and quipped, “Newton’s third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”... One more tweet, comparing the same two images, has garnered more than 1,000 retweets so far...
'...Though he was the first CJI to face a sexual harassment charge, the controversy deepened when he sat on the bench hearing the case in a Saturday hearing devised by him. Justice Gogoi was absolved by a questionable due process, and then the Central government persuaded the woman not to file further internal proceedings on the promise of reinstatement for her relatives and herself. This cloud will remain on his tenure, and the court... He had his own home-grown agenda relentlessly to push the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
'Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Monday evening issued another warning of punishment after Priyanka Gandhi lashed out at the state police for cracking down on people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The Congress leader demanded a judicial inquiry into the “unlawful conduct” of the force. “Anyone interrupting a sanyasi’s continuous efforts for public welfare will be punished,” the chief minister’s office tweeted.
'...Here was a firebrand monk whose entire politics revolved around fuelling hostility towards Muslims. A five-time member of Parliament, he had criminal cases against him for leading violence against Muslims. He had brazenly justified this violence on national television... Over the next year, the attacks became physical: the Uttar Pradesh police gunned down nearly 50 people, mostly Muslim and Dalit, in “encounters” that investigations later suggested were nothing short of extrajudicial killings.
