27, AUG, 2015, THURSDAY 10:55:25 PM

Himanshi Dhawan,TNN | Aug 28, 2015, 03.51 AM IST

READ MORE Women's Panel|NGO|FTII|BJP Netas

Chandigarh-based Rekha Sharma (in pic) and Patna's Sushma Sahu joined the NCW recently as members.

NEW DELHI: Even as the controversy around appointment of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) chairperson Gajendra Chauhanrefuses to die, the government has appointed two BJP functionaries as members of the National Commission for Women (NCW).

While one was a district secretary and media in-charge in Haryanawhen PM Narendra Modi was in charge of the state, the other till recently was BJP's Mahila Morcha chief in Bihar.

Chandigarh-based Rekha Sharma and Patna's Sushma Sahu joined the NCW recently as members, taking the count to three members and one chairperson. The move has been slammed by women's rights activists who have questioned the credentials of the two appointees, saying the commission was reduced to a "political parking lot".

This comes at a time when efforts of the women and child development (WCD) ministry to strengthen the commission by giving it more teeth have been repeatedly stymied. The much touted NCW bill continues to be on the backburner.

Sharma's profile on the commission's website said she ran her own event management centre by the name of 'Chavi' where she organized "engrossing seminars and debates" and also ran an NGO called Haryana Mahila Uthan Samiti which works for the empowerment of rural women in Haryana. The profile also describes her as a social media activist.

Sharma claimed she had worked closely with Modi between 1996 and 1998 before he became Gujarat CM.

"I learnt a lot from him. The way he moves… his way of working is very fast, he takes decisions very quickly. He walks the talk," she said, adding that she would be turning her attention to women's shelter homes and monitor their running.

Sharma is married to an Army officer and worked in various family welfare activities within the Army. Her father was closely associated with the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Patna-based Sahu, who joined the commission last week, has been a BJP member for 14 years, first as a municipal councilor for two terms and then as the women's cell head. Sahu, who taught at Patna University, said she was keen on working on improving legislation related to women.

Asked about the Modi government, Sahu said it was like "ayurveda or homeopathic" medicine that looked at long-term policy solutions. Sahu said she was a victim of domestic violence and had raised her daughter as a single parent. "I have seen the pain and stigma attached to a divorcee and a single parent very closely and I can't bear exploitation. I want to be the voice of the women who face injustice not for popularity but for justice," she said.

Commenting on the new appointments, Centre for Social Research's Ranjana Kumari said, "Whether it is Congress or BJP or any other party, this institution (NCW) has been weakened consistently. It has been made a political parking lot where the competence of its members never matches the job assignment. It has been disempowered as a women's agency which is convenient for the political class."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/After-FTII-BJP-netas-in-womens-panel/articleshow/48704082.cms

Open letter to Hardik Patel by Ex-IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt

Dear Hardik Patel,

I am a common citizen of Gujarat. I did not know who you were until a few days ago. I have a feeling I will be seeing a lot more of you now. I have read that your organisation, Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), came into existence less than a month ago. I have been told that you believe that the Patidar community is losing out in the development race because of reservation quota.

Depending from where you are looking at it, reservations, in their current form, might be a problem for some and a lifeline for others. One thing I clearly don't understand is, if you think reservations are a problem, why are you asking for it? In a television interview you said that the government should either give reservation to the patidars or remove reservation all together. This is like saying "Give me a piece of the cake or throw the entire cake away." On one hand you are saying that reservation causes problems and on the other hand you are demanding it too. If the Patidar community gets reservations, it will still be a problem for the rest of the citizens and the Patidar community will go from being against the problem to being a part of it. As someone who is a strong supporter of the Patidar community, why are you letting this happen to the reputation of the community?

I was also curious about a few thing that I saw during your rally. In a state where majority of your audience speaks in Gujarati, your speech was completely in Hindi. Who was your real audience? You have photos with political leaders from BJP, Congress and AAP. Have you decided which party you are supporting? Your past and present actions don't look apolitical to me. I am yet to connect the emerging dots, but I see a pattern akin to the India Against Corruptionmovement conceived by Ajit Doval of the Vivekanda International Foundation.

Anyways, coming back to what happened yesterday. You wanted to hold a rally to demand reservations for Patidar. It is your right to demand anything you want to from the government as long as it is peaceful. For reasons best known to them, the Government of Gujaratwent out of the way to facilitate your rally even at the cost of holding an entire city to ransom. They even waived the Toll Tax for your vehicles and gave you the GMDC ground for free. They even permitted you to walk all the way to the Collector Office from that place. The road blocks and crazy honking by your friends caused a lot of inconvenience to a lot of people but the government of the day still let you do it because of some ulterior motive that is still not clear to many of us.

You got the ground. You got the permission for a rally right through the heart of the city. You even got the state to bring in thousands of police personnel to ensure that no one disrupted your rally and everything was facilitated for your convenience. Great.

You were given permission to use the GMDC ground till a particular time. At 8pm, when the police asked you to vacate the government property, why did you not agree? Why are there photos and videos of your fellow patidars shouting slogans and destroying public property? Doesn't the government have the right to ask you to move out after the permission expires? Similarly there is footage of Police Personnel damaging vehicles of the Media and mindlessly assaulting media persons at the GMDC venue. What went wrong? Where did the bonhomie vanish? And, more importantly, why did it vanish? Do we, as citizens of Ahmedabad, have a right to know or was it some private arrangement between you and the Government?

Be that as it may, you refused to vacate the GMDC grounds and the police arrested you and intriguingly let you go after sometime. The violence that started after your arrest has continued even after your release.

I don't see how your supporters think any of these things will help their case. If they were angry at you being arrested, there are legal ways to go about it. Those are the ways everyone follows if they feel an arrest was illegal. If they were angry that they are not in the reserved category then as they already know, there is a pre defined procedure to ask for it. Government authorities get to decide on a case by case basis if your community is eligible for reservation. There are set guidelines/checklists to do this.

Any individual or a group, howsoever influential he or it may be, cannot be allowed to hold the city or the state at ransom with the tacit blessings and connivance of the Government. It is the duty of the Government to prevent such situations from developing so as to ensure the safety of the other citizens.

It was also great amusing to see people come in really expensive cars to your rally and then claim to be 'under priviledged'. As a lot of people have noted, a 'show of strength' to prove that you are one of the 'weaker castes' is hilariously ironic. If the money spent in organizing this rally was used to help the poor brethren of your community, some of them would definitely have benefitted.

At 22, you have a lot of good years ahead of you. I would suggest improving your knowledge atleast on topics that you are fighting for. For starters, I would recommend that you read the Constitution of India. Even your so called adversaries in the Government may benefit by revisiting the Constitution. It will give both sides an idea about their rights and duties.

I hope I have made my point. I have a feeling I will see you more often atleast till the 2017 elections in Gujarat. I hope you use your power to bring positive change in the country. Youth in India rarely get this chance, don't spoil it for the rest of us. Don't malign the reputation of your community/city/state.

I don't know what is your understanding with the Government of the day and who is driving this agitation and why, but if you ever start a genuine and non-violent campaign to revisit the issue of reservations, most of us will stand by you. For now, lets stop this violence and bring back normalcy to our city and state.

Here's to hoping for a more peaceful and sensible tomorrow.

Best wishes,

Apoorv Shah /Sanjiv Bhatt

This letter is a modified version of a brilliant letter written by my young friend, Apoorv Shah. The insinuations and innuendos in this modified version of the letter are entirely mine. The original letter is available on his blog My Two Cents.
(http://www.mytwocents.co.in/…/an-open-letter-to-mr-hardik-p…)

Oppression of women who defeated Naxalism continues, media remains silent #WTFnews

Two Indian Sister Ordered to Be Raped by Village Council Beg Supreme Court for Help

They are being punished by the unelected council  ( Khap Panchayat )  because their brother eloped with a married woman from a higher caste

A petition to save two sisters in India from being raped and publicly humiliated for their brother's actions, a punishment handed down by an unofficial village council, has gathered considerable support for its demand that authorities intervene and stop the "disgusting ruling" from being enforced.

The petition by human rights organization Amnesty International has garnered over 16,000 signatures thus far, and calls for law enforcement to stop the council-sanctioned rape of 23-year-old Meenakshi Kumari and her 15-year-old sister in Baghpat village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The unelected council of elders ordered that Kumari and her sister — both members of the low Dalit caste — be raped and paraded naked with blackened faces, after their brother eloped with a married woman of a higher caste. He and the woman, who belongs to the dominant Jat caste, were in love and eloped after she was forced to marry someone from her own caste, according to reports.

Kumari also approached India's Supreme Court herself last week, saying that police have been harassing her and her family instead of protecting them.

In a plea to the court Kumari said she and her family "cannot return back to her village and have been rendered homeless."

The court has asked for a response from the Uttar Pradesh government.

"Nothing could justify this abhorrent punishment," the Amnesty petition reads. "It's not fair. It's not right. And it's against the law. Demand that the local authorities intervene immediately."

Village councils in northern India, known as khap panchayats, are generally comprised of senior male members of the community's high castes. Although the councils have been declared illegal by the courts, their edicts are still observed in many parts of rural India.

http://time.com/4014444/india-khap-panchayat-two-sisters-rape-ordered-uttar-pradesh/

PRESS RELEASE

28 August 2015

• We condemn the deaths in police firing as well as police crackdown on protesters seeking reservation benefits forPatel. – Rohit Prajapati & Trupti Shah
• The recent, unfortunate incidents across Gujarat only points out how misleading has been the so-called "Government of Gujarat's Model of Growth" as claimed by the BJP governments since more than a decade at both the state and now at national level.

We have repeatedly pointed out that the demand and need for reservations in government jobs and education is a positive corrective measure for historical social injustice & deprivation based on caste system and not primarily for the economic deprivation. 

We condemn the deaths in police firing as well as police crackdown on protesters seeking reservation benefits for Patel. We also condemn the government deployment of heavy police force to terrorise the protestors and ordinary people.

We believe that the demands of the Patidar Samaj should be debated in a peaceful and constructive manner, their demands mainly point out to the grim situation about unemployment, job-killing growth, lack of social security, privatisation and commercialisation of education & health and anti-farmer, anti-agricultural, anti-labour policies of the BJP governments both at Gujarat and at the national level, which has been repeatedly pointed out by social activists over the past decades in Gujarat. The feeling of injustice and deprivation is resulted from the economic policies that have favoured mainly large corporate houses, unrestricted growth of self-financed educational institutions and job-killing growth, contractual jobs in face of vacancies in government jobs.

We have repeatedly pointed out that the demand and need for reservations in government jobs and education is a positive corrective measure for historical social injustice & deprivation based on caste system and not primarily for the economic deprivation.

The recent, unfortunate incidents across Gujarat only points out how misleading has been the so-called "Government of Gujarat's Model of Growth" as claimed by the BJP governments since more than a decade at both the state and now at national level. The prevailing social tensions mainly point out the results of BJP governments' constant failure of "Government of Gujarat's Model of Growth" and refusal to engage in constructive debate about policies and strategies to ensure development for all sections of societies.

The recent events in Gujarat primarily point out the consequences of sidelining of the concerns about appropriate economic policy, labour policy, agricultural, education & health policy and issues of social security. We believe that government should be responsive to the demands of every section of society and should engage in constructive dialogue constantly to prevent social tensions without any prejudice.

The failure of BJP led Gujarat and central government in timely engaging with constructive dialogue with the agitationists has led to emergence of violence and social tensions in the state of Gujarat. We condemn the government's attitude in failing to engage timely.

The Prime Minister's appeal for peace and resolution through dialogue is vague and formal; and comes belatedly pointing the CMO and PMO's failure in averting violence and social tensions in Gujarat.

We appeal for peace and harmony in the state, while stand in solidarity for every Indian citizen's fundamental right to peacefully express, protest, dissent without fear of state repression.

Rohit Prajapati

Does PM Modi prefer talk over deeds ? Lights, camera, inaction!

Modi wants to fly higher

ASKED about his strategy towards Pakistan, Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, said that he wanted "friendship: I keep trying to find new ways all the time." After telling The Economist so, in May, it briefly looked as if the tetchy relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours would improve. Mr Modi agreed with his counterpart,Nawaz Sharif, to visit Pakistan next year for a regional forum. And the two leaders said their national-security advisers would meet in Delhi on August 24th.

It would have been the first proper conversation since Mr Modi scrapped talks between senior diplomats, on a pretext, a year ago. But it flopped before it began. First Pakistan's generals were furious that Mr Sharif agreed that the agenda would include terrorism (India's top concern) but not the disputed region of Kashmir (the generals'). Then gunfire was exchanged over the "line of control" in Kashmir. Adding to the ugly mood were terrorist attacks in northern India, which India blamed on Pakistan. Both sides gave up on the security talks, though they are badly needed.

Mr Modi can claim that India reaches out to Pakistan only for thePakistani army, which controls foreign policy and matters of security, to slap away his proffered hand—just as it blocks freer trade and backs terrorists who attack India. On a planned trip in September to America, or on his just-installed hotline to the White House, he will present Pakistan's army as the perennial troublemaker. Rubbing it in, in September India will celebrate the 50th anniversary of a short war in which the Pakistani army tried but failed to seize parts of Indian-run Kashmir.

Mr Modi's diplomacy appears to involve making warm statements now and putting off tough steps till later. It is like his style in domestic affairs. The prime minister is a forceful communicator. But he postpones the arduous job of getting things done. His critics say that Mr Modi cares more for the theatre of politics than the hard grind of passing laws or accomplishing reform through compromise. A former cabinet minister complains that Mr Modi's rhetoric is "way ahead of his plans".

An example is the government's claim at the start of the year that it would push through a bill promoting infrastructure and development by making it easier to acquire land from landowners. Yet the parliamentary process was managed poorly. After much confrontation, the government withdrew crucial parts of the bill in August, boosting opposition morale.

Similarly Mr Modi and his finance minister, Arun Jaitley, have vowed that a uniform goods-and-services tax (GST) will be in place by next April, fostering the kind of single market India badly needs. Yet in this summer's parliamentary session, neither man reached out to opponents in the Congress party, and nothing got done. A special one-off session might yet be called to pass the GST, but only if government and opposition can compromise. If not, a big, long-promised reform will be delayed again.

Elsewhere, an ambitious goal announced last year to deal with appalling public hygiene and water pollution has seen only modest follow-up. Investors grumble that promises to simplify tax laws, cut corporation tax and privatise state firms have come to little. Talk of creating millions of jobs on the back of an infrastructure boom now sounds empty.

A continent masquerading as a country: Explore India in our interactive map

This week India's media were agog when 75,000 people, including postgraduates and engineers, applied for 30 posts as "peons"—office boys—in Chhattisgarh's state government. And hundreds of thousands of protesters belonging to the Patel or Patidar caste shut down Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat state, which Mr Modi used to run, leading to violence including eight deaths. The Patels demanded official favours for their caste, despite its success in business, including control of Gujarat's huge diamond-cutting business. Both developments suggest that many ordinary people do not share the government's upbeat rhetoric about economic prospects.

Mr Modi's defenders say he is far more active than previous leaders, and that voters understand that change takes time. Signs of fresh interest in Indian manufacturing include news that Foxconn, a Taiwanese manufacturer, may spend $5 billion on a factory in Maharashtra to make smartphones. Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains popular, winning a string of municipal elections in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in August. And a big national opinion poll taken early in August suggests that 79% of Indians still approve of Mr Modi.

Caste, creed and conflict

But a tougher electoral test comes in Bihar, a northern state of over 100m people with assembly elections expected in October. The BJP did unexpectedly well there in the general election last year, winning 22 of 40 parliamentary seats. Any worse performance this time would hurt Mr Modi, who is campaigning hard in the state. Opposing the BJP is a coalition led by the incumbent chief minister, Nitish Kumar. He hopes for a repeat of state elections in Delhi, in February, when non-BJP parties in effect backed a single outfit (Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party) and won in a landslide.

Caste and religious identities matter especially in Bihar, a reason why Congress complained this week about the much-delayed release of census data collected in 2011 on religious affiliation. It shows that India's Muslim population has grown substantially quicker, accounting now for 14.2% of the population, than the majority Hindu one, which has just slipped to under 80% for the first time. The Muslim population in Bihar is especially fast-growing, and Congress warns that some campaigners in an already violent race will use new data to rally Hindus against minorities.

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21662586-does-prime-minister-prefer-talk-over-deeds-lights-camera-inaction

The Patel protests are a slap in the face for Narendra Modi's vibrant Gujarat