'“Where are you from? Show me your Aadhaar card… Call the police,” an auto rickshaw driver can be heard bellowing out the order to a man, who was later identified as a 25-year-old migrant labourer from West Bengal. Even as the migrant labourer yells back saying, "You want my ID card?" in Malayalam accent and is searching his wallet, the auto driver slaps him across the face...'
'About 70 lakh people lined up to form a 620km human chain across the length of Kerala on Republic Day, read out the Preamble to the Constitution and took an oath to preserve the country’s secular and democratic character. Men and women, young and old participated in the Great Human Chain organised by the state’s ruling Left Democratic Front, mostly along a national highway...'
'From politicians, writers and celebrities to men, women and children, lakhs of people came out to form a human chain from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) headed by the CPI(M) organised the protest with leaders of the coalition parties leading it at different points... According to the LDF, 70 lakh people participated in the human chain that stretched across 620 kilometers.
'A video of BJP workers purportedly raising provocative slogans alluding to the 2002 Gujarat riots while taking out a rally in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act, has gone viral, prompting police to register a case. The rally was taken out at nearby Kuttiyadi on Monday, police said. In the video some BJP workers, carrying party flags are seen allegedly raising provocative slogans...'
'Parayan Maranna Kathakal – a play by 15 trans people in Kerala, was staged for the 25th time in Kochi on Friday. Only, in place of the many colours they have been using to express the different emotions in the play, it was an all-black theme on Friday, as a mark of protest against the newly-passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). “We are all wearing black to protest against the politics of religion. There is no caste or religion among us.
'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...'
'In a rare show of solidarity, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and its principal rival, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), came together in Kerala to oppose the amended Citizenship Act, 2019 that has triggered nationwide protests. The state’s chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, and leader of the opposition, Ramesh Chennithala, on Friday said that both fronts would hold a satyagraha in Thiruvananthapuram on December 16 to demand a complete repeal of the Act...'
'The assault on Dalit gender equality activist Bindu Ammini, by a fervent Ayyappa devotee, reveals the fragility of the Hindu nationalist male ego and a deals a chink to the Hindutva armour... Like other nativist and anti-pluralist projects, Hindutva is premised upon the restoration of a primeval order that involves the dominance of man over woman, father over son, savarna over avarna, avarna over Dalit, fair skin over dark, state over subjects, religion over law, priest over devotee, teacher over student.
'Last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that women of menstrual age could enter the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala despite a proscription against this, the Kerala government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) decided to prove its social crusader credentials by backing women who wanted to exercise their constitutional rights to visit the shrine... But all it took for the Left government to forget about constitutional rights was one election.
'A woman activist, who is part of a team headed for Sabarimala to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa Shrine, was allegedly attacked by a member of a Hindu outfit here on Tuesday. Bindu Ammini, who created history by visiting Sabarimala temple last year following the apex court order, was part of the team led by gender rights activist Trupti Desai. Ammini was attacked by a member of a Hindu outfit using pepper or chilli spray outside the police commissionerate...'
