Dalits Media Watch News Updates 11.01.15 2 priests booked for murder of 3 youths in Mathura - The Times Of India timesofindia.indiatimes/city/agra/2-priests-booked-for-murder-of-3-youths-in-Mathura/articleshow/45833207.cms Schoolgirls in Punjab strip searched; probe ordered - The Hindu thehindu/news/national/other-states/schoolgirls-in-punjab-strip-searched-probe-ordered/article6776338.ece?ref=tpnews Dalit land rights campaign shapes up on the wall - The Times Of India timesofindia.indiatimes/city/chandigarh/Dalit-land-rights-campaign-shapes-up-on-the-wall/articleshow/45838841.cms Caste is his comrade: Manjhi wields Dalit officers to gain grip over Bihar - The Hindustan Times hindustantimes/india-news/manjhi-does-a-mayawati-wields-dalit-officers-to-gain-grip-over-bihar/article1-1305550.aspx Supreme Court shuts reservation window for selection of top bankers - The Economic Times economictimes.indiatimes/news/politics-and-nation/supreme-court-shuts-reservation-window-for-selection-of-top-bankers/articleshow/45840313.cms In the business of protest - The Times Of India timesofindia.indiatimes/city/delhi/In-the-business-of-protest/articleshow/45838756.cms Dalit CM: Look who’s talking - Deccan Chronicle deccanchronicle/150111/nation-current-affairs/article/dalit-cm-look-who%E2%80%99s-talking The Times Of India 2 priests booked for murder of 3 youths in Mathura timesofindia.indiatimes/city/agra/2-priests-booked-for-murder-of-3-youths-in-Mathura/articleshow/45833207.cms PTI | Jan 10, 2015, 02.01 PM IST Two priests have been booked for allegedly killing three youths, whose bodies were found in a yagya shala near Bankey Bihari temple here, police said on Saturday. MATHURA: Two priests have been booked for allegedly killing three youths, whose bodies were found in a yagya shala near Bankey Bihari temple here, police said on Saturday. The accused identified as Anand Kishore Goswami and Jugal Kishore Goswami have been booked for killing Aakash, Kalyan and Manoj, aged between 20-25, who were found dead yesterday, SHO, Vrindavan police station Akhilesh Tripathi said. A yagya shala is a place where havans are performed. Aakash and Manoj were Dalits, the SHO said adding that a case under section 302 (murder) of the IPC and relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 has been registered against the accused. Efforts are on to nab the accused, who have fled with their families, he said. The Hindu Schoolgirls in Punjab strip searched; probe ordered thehindu/news/national/other-states/schoolgirls-in-punjab-strip-searched-probe-ordered/article6776338.ece?ref=tpnews Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar A day after 13 girl students of a school in Gurdaspur were strip searched by a lady teacher for alleged theft, the Punjab government has ordered a probe into the incident. Reacting to a report that the girls were subjected to humiliation after Rs. 500 went missing from the purse of one of the teachers, Punjab Education Minister Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema said strict action would be taken against any teacher found guilty. He said the District Education Officer (Elementary) of Gurdaspur has appointed the inquiry officers and would be submitting a report in a fortnight. Dr. Cheema said instructions had also been issued to all government schools to prevent such incidents. The Gurdaspur police had earlier registered a case under Section 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage modesty of woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code and under provisions of the SC/ST Act on a complaint from the parents of girls. Absconding The police said the students of Government Girls Middle School in Madiala village had alleged that their drawing teacher Harjit Kaur subjected them to strip search. The accused is absconding. They were subjected to the humiliating experience after Rs. 500 went missing from the purse of a teacher The Times Of India Dalit land rights campaign shapes up on the wall timesofindia.indiatimes/city/chandigarh/Dalit-land-rights-campaign-shapes-up-on-the-wall/articleshow/45838841.cms Neel Kamal,TNN | Jan 11, 2015, 02.17 AM IST BARNALA: The struggle of dalits, landless and small farmers for getting the right to cultivate common panchayat lands is taking shape on the wall, with the legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh becoming the leitmotif of the campaign. Walls in villages bear the martyrs etching showing him leading the fight and urging people, 18 March nu kafan bann ke Chandigarh chalo (head for Chandigarh on March 18 for a do-or-die struggle). There are also paintings of protesting villagers shouting Inquilab zindabad. The brainchild of a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) student Simarjit Singh, who belongs to nearby Sekha village, the images are firing the imagination of the villagers. A first-year student at Chandigarh government college of Arts, Simarjit is associated with a newly-formed body for rights of landless, and is using his creative skills to inspire the villagers to focus on the land rights issue. Simrajit covered 4 villages in Ludhiana and Sangrur through last week and has been invited by two dozen villages to emblazon his message on the walls. The organization has decided to hold a protest at Chandigarh on March 18 and graffiti is a buildup to it. The student explained how the wall art had come about: Being associated with Punjab students unions and farming class, I have seen what a miserable life the landless and small farmers lead. Few weeks ago, when we decided to hold a protest for giving land rights to landless on panchayat lands and for dalits families out of lands earmarked for dalits, I decided to lend an artistic touch. He added: I decided to use graffiti in inspiring people to get ready to fight for their rights and used water colours to paint images of Bhagat Singh on walls in villages. I am also making images of people heading for Chandigarh for the protest. Organization convener Mukesh Malaud said they would protest at Chandigarh and continue struggling till the landless and small farmers are given lands and dalits get the right to cultivate lands allocated to them. The Hindustan Times Caste is his comrade: Manjhi wields Dalit officers to gain grip over Bihar hindustantimes/india-news/manjhi-does-a-mayawati-wields-dalit-officers-to-gain-grip-over-bihar/article1-1305550.aspx Rai Atul Krishna, Hindustan Times Patna, January 11, 2015 First Published: 11:15 IST(11/1/2015) | Last Updated: 12:03 IST(11/1/2015) As he pursues a markedly pro-Dalit agenda to move out of the shadow of his predecessor Nitish Kumar, Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi is doing a Mayawati to come to grips with levers of power. Following in the footsteps of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Manjhi has been placing his co-Dalits in key administrative positions to consolidate his position as CM. Into only his eighth month as head of the government, Manjhi has already appointed at least a dozen Dalit IAS and IPS officers to crucial positions in order to obtain de facto command over the state administration. In doing so, Manjhi - Bihars third Dalit CM after Bhola Paswan Shastri (three short terms between June 1968 and Jan 1972) and Ram Sunder Das (April 1979-Feb 1980) - has replaced key Nitish officers by his own men. Manjhi is pursuing the Dalits-have-numbers-will-rule model of BSP founder Kanshi Ram. Having Dalit officers in key positions is crucial to his agenda, said PK Sinha, ex-chief of Bihar gazetted officers association and a former MLC, who was once close to Nitish. Posting of Dalit officers on key positions started as soon as Manjhi took over as CM in May last year after Nitish resigned following the ruling JD (U)s two out of 40 seats Lok Sabha poll show in Bihar. Manjhi was chosen for the post as he was regarded as a pliant leader with not much of a following of his own. But the pursuit of an agenda of Dalit unity appears to have enabled him to create a constituency of his own. Among the most critical of his Dalit postings was the appointment last week of Sudhir Kumar, a 1987 batch IAS officer, as principal secretary (home). Kumar replaced Amir Subhani, who was holding the position for the past six years. This came on the back of the appointment of Amrik Singh Nimbran, a retired Dalit IPS officer, as the security advisor to the CM. This was a new post created for Nimbran, a Dalit employees union leader while he was in service. Another Dalit IPS officer given a key security position was additional director general of police Sunil Kumar (1987 batch). He has been given charge of special branch, which handles the CMs security, and of the CID. Sources in the state bureaucracy said these postings had given Manjhi a firm grip over the police administration and are critical for him to control Bihar and succeed as the states ruler. Manjhi voiced his keenness to deliver the goods at a public meeting in Jehanabad on Saturday. He said it was important for him to succeed, as his failure would send out the message that the downtrodden could not rule. Another Dalit IAS officer important to Manjhis agenda is Atish Chandra (1994 batch), secretary in the CMs secretariat. Appointed to the post by Nitish (in August 2012), Chandra is a confidant of Manjhi now. Manjhis confidence in Chandra was confirmed when, in June last year, less than a month after becoming CM, he gave Chandra additional charge of the information and public relations department (IPRD). The IPRD is crucial in that it handles the CMs publicity and plays a crucial role in building the governments image. Chandras wife, Anupama S Nilekar, holds the important position of inspector general of police (headquarters). As critical an appointment last week was of Amrit Lal Meena as principal secretary to the chief minister. Meena is a scheduled tribe officer. But he is on the same page as the Dalit officers by way of depressed classes consciousness, said an IAS officer known to him. Manjhi has also taken a firm grip over the administration of Patna district, which covers the state capital and seat of the state administration, by placing Dalit officers at its helm. Earlier, officers close to Nitish held these positions. Narmadeshwar Lal (1998 batch), who hails from Manjhis native Gaya district, holds additional charge as the Patna division commissioner even though he has been made secretary, building construction department. Manjhi also appointed Amrendra Kumar Ambedkar, a Dalit IPS officer from Jehanabad, as inspector general of police, Patna Zone. Abhay Kumar Singh, appointed district magistrate of Patna last October, is a Dalit officer. Other Dalit officers given charge of key positions during Manjhis seven month tenure are B Rajendra (urban development and housing secretary), Deepak Prasad (secretary, tourism) and S Sidharth (secretary, labour resources). Jitan Manjhi has ushered in Dalit consciousness in Bihar like no other leader has done before. Dalits are solidly behind him and look upon him as their hope for a better future, said Uday Manjhi. As chairman of Bihar mahadalit commission, which looks after the interest of poorest among Dalits, Uday Manjhis is an important voice. A Nitish appointee, he is now firmly on the side of his co-Dalit CM. If one were to be looking for evidence of the coming of age of Jitan Manjhi as a Dalit leader, here it is. The Economic Times Supreme Court shuts reservation window for selection of top bankers economictimes.indiatimes/news/politics-and-nation/supreme-court-shuts-reservation-window-for-selection-of-top-bankers/articleshow/45840313.cms By TNN | 11 Jan, 2015, 11.13AM IST NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that there could be no quota for SC and ST employees for top posts in public sector banks but reservation for them was permissible in posts from scale-I till scale-VI. A bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice A K Sikri held that though there was no provision for reservation in promotions in banks for officers from scale-I onwards but an office memorandum was issued by Department of Public Enterprises in November 2004 permitting quota up to scale-VI. The bench inferred that the policy of no reservation in the matter of promotion is applicable only from scaleVII and above. It, therefore, clearly follows that in so far as promotion from scale-I to scale-II, scale-II to scale-III, scale-III to scale-IV , scale-IV to scale-V , scale-V to scale-VI are concerned, reservation is to be provided. The bench said: It is clarified that at present there is no provision for reservation in promotion by selection only in respect of those posts which carry an ultimate salary of 5,700 per month (revised to 18,300 and 20,800 per month in respect of those public sector undertakings following IDA pattern). Qua (with regard to) appellant banks, that would be in respect of scaleVII and above. Therefore, to carry out promotions from scale-I upwards up to scaleVI, reservation in promotion in favour of SCST employees has to be given. The court passed the order on a bunch of appeals filed by banks challenging an order by the Madras high court directing them to provide reservation on the ground that there is no adequate representation of SC ST category officers in groupIV and above. The apex court held that the high court in its 2009 verdict has gone by the lofty ideals enshrined in Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution as well as the fact that in these banks there is no adequate representation of SCST category of officers in group-IV and above. That may be so. It can only provide justification for making a provision of this nature. However, in the absence of such a provision, same cannot be read by overstretching the language of office memorandum dated August 13, 1997 it said. Clarifying its verdict, the bench said, it would have the effect of allowing the writ petitions with directions to the appellant banks to make provision for reservations while carrying out promotions from scale-I to scale-II and upward upto scale-VI. The Times Of India In the business of protest timesofindia.indiatimes/city/delhi/In-the-business-of-protest/articleshow/45838756.cms? Martand Kaushik,TNN | Jan 11, 2015, 01.56 AM IST NEW DELHI: Sultan Singh Gautam, the founder of Gautam Book Center, does not give a damn about Flipkart, Amazon and the like. Most of the books he sells — some he publishes himself — are unlikely to be on the radar of people running these companies. Himself a Dalit, Gautam has been, for long, collecting just about every book ever written on the caste system. Run out of a narrow, winding lane in Shahdaras Hardevpuri, the store, with a collection of almost 4,000 titles, has made itself indispensable for any scholar working on caste in India. But its not fame or financial gain that Gautam is after. What drives him is an instinct to serve his community. The existence of Gautam Book Center itself is a sign of protest. Exclusion of Dalits from the mainstream discourse has been going on for thousands of years. The books in my store acknowledge the caste system as a social reality of India. The object of Dalit literature and publishing is to put this excluded community in the centre of the discourse, he said. In line with his activism, Gautam has published over 400 titles in Hindi and English dealing with the caste system. These books include Dalit autobiographies, short stories, poetry, novels, non-fiction and even academic works. The highest selling books are those by B R Ambedkar himself. Like Annihilation of Caste, The Buddha and His Dhamma and Who Were The Shudras. Autobiographies like Joothan by Omprakash Valmiki are popular too. They are first-hand accounts of caste oppression and often include graphic descriptions of violence and degradation. They portray the caste system in all its ugliness, he said. And Gautam does not stand alone here. The network of Dalit publishing in Hindi challenging the mainstream discourse goes all the way back to 1920s when Swami Achutanand started the Adi Hindu movement, which argued that Dalits were the indigenous inhabitants of India and upper castes were foreign invaders. In the early 20th century, many Dalit writers like Swami Achutanand and Chandrikaprasad Jigyasu published their works on old typeset presses often found in the backrooms of their houses. These were pamphlets of short historical articles, poetry, dramas and songs distributed at Dalit melas or political gatherings. Some of the early pamphlets containing short historical articles, poetry, dramas and songs can still be found at Gautam Book Center. In the 50s and 60s, the discourse was influenced by Ambedkar and his political entities Scheduled Castes Federation and Republican Party of India. In the 80s and 90s, political developments like the rise of BSP, Hindutva politics and the Mandal Commission led to the consolidation of a popular Dalit identity that is reflected in the pamphlets from this period. Gautam himself has written and edited up to 25 books over the last 20 years. Most of them are caste-related but one has a different take. While researching for a book of old sayings that were meant to be epithets against various castes, Gautam realized that there were more sayings against women than any one caste in particular. So that turned into a book of its own—Indecent Sayings against Women in Indian Literature. Garhwali sayings are the worst, he said. One goes like this, just like a bull should be killed in the corner of the field, so that the blood doesnt spoil the crops, a woman must also be beaten in the corner of the house so that no one hears her screaming. Gautam entered the Dalit literary sphere in 1994 when he set up a stall selling pamphlets and books at Parliament Street on Ambedkar Jayanti. Community gatherings still remain the most important model of Dalit literary distribution. Its precisely this sense of community, often called Dalit consciousness, that Gautam wants to spread. And, he thinks, theres no better way to do it than to sell books. There is anger in the community which is always at the risk of becoming violence. Books help turn this anger into dialogue. Gautam sets up a stall every year at World Book Fair in Pragati Maidan. The books can also be bought at gautambookcenter. Deccan Chronicle Dalit CM: Look who’s talking deccanchronicle/150111/nation-current-affairs/article/dalit-cm-look-who%E2%80%99s-talking DC | Shyam Sundar Vattam | January 11, 2015, 05.01 am IST Bengaluru: It began with veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge joining the race for the Chief Minister’s gaddi when his party was voted to power in 2013, but the chorus for a Dalit leader’s ascent to the top post seems to be growing louder now, much to the discomfiture of incumbent Siddaramaiah. More leaders in the ruling party are discussing the prospect of a Dalit leader occupying the post after revenue minister V Srinivas Prasad, identified as a member of Mr. Siddaramaiah’s kitchen cabinet, raised this issue and found support from infrastructure minister R Roshan Baig. Mr. Srinivas Prasad said that as people belonging to all other communities had served as Chief Minister, an opportunity should be given to a Dalit leader to head the state. Social Welfare minister H Anjaneya, also an acolyte of Mr. Siddaramaiah, agreed with his cabinet colleagues but said that as Mr. Kharge lost the opportunity, though he was projected as CM candidate in 2008, the party could offer the post to a Dalit leader only in 2018, rather than taking a call during the present government’s tenure. Post the Assembly polls in 2013, legislators backed Mr. Siddaramaiah, and the party high command endorsed their decision. “When the people’s mandate is for Mr Siddaramaiah, there is no chance for anyone else to become the Chief Minister till 2018. We will request Mr Siddaramaiah to impress upon national leaders the need to elect a Dalit leader as Chief Minister in 2018. Till then, there is no question of changing Mr Siddaramaiah, who is the champion of Dalits, backward classes and minorities,” Mr Anjaneya told the media here on Saturday. Sources in the party said Mr Siddaramaiah was upset with Mr Srinivas Prasad and Mr Baig for raising the issue at this juncture, which became evident by the Chief Minister’s retort: “Why are you asking me? Go and ask the people who are making these statements,” when reporters asked him about his cabinet colleagues speaking up for a Dalit to head the state government. With KPCC president Dr G Parameshwar and Mr. Siddaramaiah at loggerheads on issues like reshuffle of the ministry, and completion of the exercise of appointing heads for state-owned boards and corporations, the issue could snowball into a controversy, according to senior leaders of Congress. News monitored by Girish Pant & AJEET
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 09:41:20 +0000
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