Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
HINDUTVA POLITICS ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE IN ASSAM
Editors
The clashes between Bodos and Assamese Muslims have led to an officially estimated 58 deaths, which is widely acknowledged to be a gross underestimate, and over 4 lakhs have been made refugees in the last few weeks. While the violence was sparked by a few incidents that were unfortunately not responded to by the police and local administration, the area has witnessed past episodes of violence, including the ghastly Nellie massacre in 1983 when almost 3000 innocent Muslims were killed. BJP is now adding a considerable amount of fuel to the fire by raising the slogan of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants as a way of both discrediting the ruling Congress government in the state and creating further cleavage between communities on the basis of religion that suits the Hindutva agenda. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the area and urged the state government to take steps to counteract the rioting and also provided relief to the victims. As the accompanying article by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer indicates, all steps have to be taken to oppose the vicious propaganda by Hindutvawadis and others about migrants from Bangladesh as the cause of this crisis.
ASSAM AND BODO -MUSLIM CLASHES – REASONS AND ANALYSIS
Asghar Ali Engineer
Much has been written in newspapers by now about the disaster that occurred in lower Assam, in Kokrajhar and three other districts. About 58 persons have died since 6th July though main clashes occurred from 19th July onwards and now some kind of uneasy situation prevails. More than 4 lakh have become refugees living in 27 different camps of which 3 lakh are Muslims. Newspapers generally narrate events and hardly analyze or give reasons on the basis of in-depth study. Read more…
ON THE ONGOING ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN ASSAM: A STATEMENT
The following is the text of a Statement issued in Delhi on 27 July 2012, endorsed by a number of concerned organizations and individuals. Read more…
FOR RETIRED MAOISTS, REGRET AND ISOLATION
Vivekananda Nemana
Since the founding of communist parties the world over, some of the best and most sensitive members of the society have been joining the party and major developments especially setback result in some of them leaving but never with regret. In India, it happened after the great Telangana peasant struggle, after the setback in Naxalbari movement and disillusionment with the Maoist movement. It is perhaps the first time, journalist Nemana has undertaken to document the experience of the Indian Maoists. Read more…
CLASH AT AN AUTO PLANT IN INDIA TURNS DEADLY
Vikas Bajaj and Sruthi Gottipati
Mumbai, India — One person was killed and more than 70 others injured during a violent struggle between workers and management at a car factory near New Delhi on Wednesday night, illustrating a sharp escalation in labor tensions. Read more…
MANESAR: CLASS STRUGGLE OF THE 21ST CENTURY
Amaresh Misra
While right wing sections inside the media, fanatically anti-working class bloggers, vested interest in the Haryana establishment, and other sundry forces are baying for Trade Union/Communist blood in the unfortunate incidents that took place inside the Maruti-Suzuki plant at Manesar, sober assessment reveals a different picture. Read more…
NEW YORK CITY TAXI DRIVERS WIN A VICTORY
Vinod Mubayi
Many taxi drivers in New York City are of South Asian origin, Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis. Many struggle to make a living driving cabs leased from owners of large fleets. For several years the taxi drivers have represented by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance NYTWA), a progressive union, led by its executive director Bhairavi Desai, which has consistently fought for a better deal for its members. On July 12 the NYTWA achieved part of its goal when the Taxi and Limousine Commission, a New York City agency, voted to approve a 17% fare hike with almost all of the benefits going to the cab drivers. Read more…
JUSTICE FOR BATHANI TOLA MASSACRE VICTIMS DEMANDED
Mohammad Ali
In 1996, armed thugs of Ranveer Sena ransacked the village Bathani Tola in Bihar and massacred 21 poor peasants. Twenty three of the accused were convicted by the Ara Session Court in 2010. However, on an appeal, the Patna High Court acquitted all of them, naturally and appropriately eliciting the anger of the civil society. Read more…
VIOLENCE AND ‘CLEAN CHITS’: SANGMA BACKS BJP ON KANDHAMAL
Ram Puniyani
Purno Agitok Sangma, a former speaker of the Indian Parliament and Chief Minister of Meghalaya as a member of the Congress Party took many turns, the latest being a support for the misdeeds of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), which sponsored him for the post of the President of India. Such opportunism is not unheard of in India, but Sangma symbolizes one of the most despicable examples. Read more…
LT. COL PUROHIT: ACTS OF TERROR AND FINDING ESCAPE ROUTE
Ram Puniyani
In the wake of the various acts of terror and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s motor cycle being traced, it became clear that the investigating agencies are acting on the wrong thesis that ‘all terrorists are Muslims’. A Pandora’s box opened and the link of ex-ABVP activist, Pragya Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pandey, retired Major Upadhayay, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Swami Aseemanand came to surface. Read more…
BRUTAL ATTACK ON PRISONERS (IN SRI LANKA) BY ARMED FORCES
The defeat of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) does not seem to have ended the anti-Tamil policies of the Sri Lanka government; brutalization of Tamil prisoners is one expression of such a policy. Read more…
INDIAN MUSLIMS’ MUSHAWARAT DELIBERATES ON NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
The Milli Gazette
A major organization of Indian Muslims expresses its views on logistics of travel for Haj, rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pundits, treatment of Muslim prisoners, terrorism, rehabilitation of Muslims in Gujarat and other issues. Read more…
MUSLIMS HELP IN TEMPLE CONSTRUCTION IN RAMADAN IN BIHAR
IANS
Patna: In an example of communal harmony in India, Muslims in the holy month of Ramadan have helped in the construction of a Jain temple in Bhagalpur town of Bihar. Read more…
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: India must ensure prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into Chhattisgarh killings by security forces
Public Statement (AI Index: ASA 20/024/2012 (2 July 2012)
India must ensure prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into Chhattisgarh killings of innocent Adivasis by security forces. Read more…
CARNAGE AND THE MOTIVES: ANTI MUSLIM VIOLENCE AND ANTI SIKH MASSACRE
Ram Puniyani
Last few months (June 2012) Narendra Modi has been much in news for his spectacular rise in BJP hierarchy and his projection as the BJP nominee for the future Prime Minister. That there is blood on the hands of Modi, carnage of 2002 Gujarat, cannot be washed off with any amount of pouring the water of ‘myth of vibrant Gujarat’. Modi-BJP is also labeled as Fascist by many social scientists-activists. On many a political debates on TV or other forum, when such charges are labeled against Modi-BJP pat comes the reply, if Modi is fascist for Gujarat carnage, what about the Congress-the anti Sikh pogrom of 1984. Its true murder is a murder, inexcusable, irrespective of who does it. In that sense Congress is also guilty of letting Anti Sikh pogrom take place right under its nose, many of its cadres-leaders instigating the riot, while the police machinery at best looking the other way round. Read more…
SETBACK IN NEPAL
Srinivasan Ramani
The split among the Maoists at a time when there is yet another deadlock in the Constitution writing process in Nepal is a major setback for both the democratic process as well as the left movement in that country. Read more…
A CRUEL AND UNUSUAL RECORD [of USA]
Jimmy Carter
Although the US has never stood for human rights except when it suites its imperialist interest, it is till significant that a former US President is raising this issue. Read more…
HIGGS-BOSON
[The article below is an unusual piece in INSAF Bulletin but is being produced because of the profound significance of recent proof the existence of Higgs-Boson. The version without photos is included in August INSAF Bulletin and the version with photographs appears as a Supplement. We thank Professor Gurtu for writing this article for the readers of INSAF Bulletin.
Professor Atul Gurtu is an experimental particle physicist who recently retired from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai). His name appears among the top particle physicists of the world. From 2003-2011 Prof Gurtu was the Leader and Spokesperson of the Indian team in the CMS Collaboration at CERN, Geneva. He is currently an Adjunct Distinguished Professor at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. He will be happy to explain and clarify any points on recent discovery of the Higgs-Boson and can be contacted at atul.gurtu@gmail.com
Of course some would claim that Higgs-Boson was known to Indians from Vedic times and its properties are mentioned in Rigveda. Editors ] Read more…
OBITUARY: CAPTAIN LAKSHMI SAHGAL (1914 – 2012) – A LIFE OF STRUGGLE
Parvathi Menon
“The fight will go on,” said Captain Lakshmi Sehgal one day in 2006, sitting in her crowded Kanpur clinic where, at 92, she still saw patients every morning. She was speaking on camera to Singeli Agnew, a young filmmaker from the Graduate School of Journalism, Berkeley, who was making a documentary on her life. Read more…
OBITUARY: SUNIL JANAH, 1918 – 2102
Ram Rahman
Sunil Janah, the seasoned photographer whose searing coverage of the Bengal Famine and vivid political portraiture of the 1940s and 1950s helped chronicle a tumultuous era in the life of India, passed away at his home in Berkeley, California, this past Thursday. He was 94. Read more…
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