By Prakruti Maniar:

The ‘it’s complicated’ relationship between AAP and Delhi has gone on for far too long. With assembly elections seemingly imminent, we evaluate the strategy that AAP has been following to regain lost ground.

First, let’s all take a moment to see how, starting December 2013, elections in India have undergone a massive change. First, the Aam Aadmi Party put an end to Sheila Dixit’s fifteen year old rule in Delhi, then the BJP got a clear majority alone and the NDA got a mega-mandate in May 2014. And what will turn out to be the most interesting fight of them all – Maharashtra, with as many as five major parties, is going to elections on 15th October. For politicians and voters, this game of thrones has begun well.

Adding to this is the much forgotten but equally important state, Delhi. After AAP, along with Congress, formed the government last year, only for Arvind Kejriwal to resign as CM 49 days later, the state has been under President’s Rule since February 17, 2014.

In June 2014, AAP went to the Supreme Court to allow for the dissolution and subsequent round of fresh elections. The Supreme Court then asked Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung to look into the possibility. In July, AAP began to blame the BJP of trying to lure its MLAs and yet again insisted on fresh elections. There was little progress for two months and suddenly, two things happened in the first week of September.

1. LG Najeeb Jung wrote to the President to ask the majority party BJP to come forward and take a shot at forming government.

2. AAP released a sting operation video where Delhi BJP vice-president Sher Singh Dagar is seen bribing AAP MLA Dinesh Mohaniya to resign, so that the effective strength of the Assembly would crumble to a number suitable for the 28 member NDA.

The SC has now asked the Centre to come to a decision by October 10 and bring this initiation by LG to a political conclusion.

So, should Delhi go for re-elections? Here are the arguments –

The cost of an election is high and if it can be avoided, it’s good for the taxpayers’ money. However, the timing of this demand by the LG seems all wrong. The NDA had earlier declined to form the government, even when it had 32 seats. Even now, it hasn’t staked its claim and this was a suggestion by the LG, which is unusual. That Delhi needs an administration is clear, the President’s Rule cannot go on forever. Issues like law and order, water and electricity shortage have been ailing Delhi since the days of Sheila Dixit, and even after voting for change last December, it’s the common man that’s losing out.

Even as the state mulls this decision and waits for an answer, the elections website says, “…the assembly elections will be held by the end of 2014 as Delhi is currently under President’s rule…”. There are chances that they will be shifted to early 2015, given two already high profile states – Jammu and Kashmir, and Jharkhand – are going to polls in December.

On the contenders’ front, AAP has come back to the people of Delhi, who gave them full support even when they were a new party with only promises and honest intent to show.

BJP, with their recent by-polls defeats, the dissatisfaction with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (which is under them) and the receding of the Modi-wave, is on tethers. Either way is a perilous one for them. They also do not have a credible candidate to project for the post of the CM. Any attempt by the BJP to form the government now, after the sting operation and allegations of horse-trading, will taint its image further and it will be willingly exposing itself to a lot of flak from all sections, be it the citizens or opposition parties.

Congress, on the other hand, though seems like a party with no immediate future, has a lot going its way. The anti-incumbency was against the UPA regime. Congress alone may just do fine and give the party an electoral boost, as reflected in the recent bypolls.

On the surface, it may seem that a re-election might throw up yet another hung assembly as no party enjoys a clear majority. Here, we come to why AAP stands a chance at forming the government in Delhi, and what its strategy is to regain lost grounds –

1. Even though they made no real mark in the LS polls, their vote share actually increased from 29.3 per cent to 32.9 per cent, which is a positive sign. Perhaps taking a lesson from their 4-seat victory in Punjab in Lok Sabha, they might focus on careful selection of candidates and addressing core issues.

2. AAP started out too fast and spread too thin. They wanted to do too much and in too little a time. They had the power but couldn’t handle it well enough. However, much time has passed and AAP, which seemed to fall in a downward spiral post the Lok Sabha debacle, has gathered itself again. They launched the AAP Youth Wing and the Chaatra Yuva Sangharsha Samiti has a presence in 50 colleges now. Next year, they also plan to contest in the DUSU elections. There is also the Aap ki Vistaar Samiti. By itself, it may not seem like a big deal – however, these are signs that the party is strengthening its organizational structure, looking to build up from the bottom, including the young, politically active class of the society. The urban poor and urban lower-middle class are still with AAP, and this will call for greater participation.

3. Their biggest step to strengthen their presence is the “Mission Vistaar” launched in June 2014 to reform their Political Affairs Committee – a volunteer drive that provides a platform for people to start working for the party at booth level. AAP’s biggest strength has been its people connect and grassroot governance. The common man is more affected by water cuts and electricity, by law and order situation, and these small problems cannot be solved by the Centre, no matter how strong. With Delhi being both a municipality and a state, AAP has the edge. A team, headed by Naveen Jaihind, has been formed to strengthen the party organisation in rural and semi-urban regions in the capital.

4. Arvind Kejriwal made two major mistakes – resigning from the CM post, and spreading too thin in the Lok Sabha polls instead of focussing on Delhi. He has already apologized for the former, and collectively, AAP has been consistent in its focus of anti-corruption. They will not be contesting the Maharashtra assembly polls but instead, will make a ‘Citizen’s Charter’ and the volunteers will launch the “Jagrut Nagrik” initiative, which will conduct campaigns in constituencies to identify corrupt candidates and convey it to the people.

AAP is just two years old. It started out wonderfully, then stumbled. However, it seems to have learnt quickly and is returning to its Delhi strong-hold, continuing to reach out to people at the individual level, as has been their strength. Until such time as they have both the money and people, in numbers, to allow them bigger dreams, they must stick to what they do best – address the right issues and spread awareness, and use targeted solutions. It still remains the people’s best hope for a clean government and work on rebuilding this brand image is well under way.

The post With The Delhi Re-Election Approaching, Here’s How AAP Is Trying To Get It’s Act Together appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Guru Prakash:

Apparently the presumed President-in-waiting of Pakistan has made up his mind to face the electorate in the general elections of 2018. Given the fragile and turbulent political history of our western neighbor, it is not unthinkable to imagine the realpolitik expectations from a dynast. The country’s democratic credentials were at stake for the entire past fortnight when the famed cricketer and the Canadian priest cajoled the protesters to go berserk. It’s only in Pakistan where one can legitimize vandalism in the name of demonstration. Dissent and not disturbance is the essence of democracy.

Amidst the breakdown of constitutional machinery, Mr. Bilawal Bhutto has come out with a loud and belligerent statement on taking away the entire Kashmir in the conclave of the Pakistan Peoples Party. As expected, the statement was received with huge cheer and applauses of approval. The rhetoric of the leader shows him in extremely poor light. Mr. Bhutto has been a student of Modern history at the prestigious Oxford University. I did not have the fortune to attend a course at any of the hallowed precincts at the University of Oxford, but I am sure that facts and history are impervious to any institutional interpretations. The instrument of accession signed between the Union of India and the Maharaja of Kashmir forcefully declares the province of Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India. The IOA is considered as a legal documents and thus retains the sanctity and validity of any legal treatise. The invasion of Pashtuns orchestrated and supported by the Pakistani army at the time of partition is a significant event in the history of the valley. The areas occupied by them still remain under the supervision and administration of the Pakistani government.

The ill treatment of the Pakistani administration for people residing in these areas such as Gilgit, Baltistan and Hounza is an open secret. The worst affected areas of the flood are included in these parts of Kashmir. When the complete area is suffering with natural calamity of inexplicable proportions, it is not expected from a leader of national stature to indulge in this level of rhetoric that is completely devoid of reason and rationality. This statement would do noting apart from encouraging the fringe elements of the nation, who constantly search for opportunities to hamper the prevailing law and order. Instead of extending cooperation in the efforts to mitigate the damages of flood and indulging in irrelevant statement making, Mr. Bhutto is just flaunting his inability and poor understanding to the world.

The Indian High Commission should take a note of this belligerent demeanour and register its strong disapproval on the utterances of the prince. Kashmir is and will remain an integral part of India.

The post The Belligerent Bilawal And His Pipe Dream Of Taking All Of Kashmir To Pakistan appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Durjoy Choudhary:

It’s been almost 3 weeks since the police brutally attacked peacefully protesting students at Jadavpur University. A lot has transpired since.

The Vice Chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti, who was the interim VC before the incident, has now been made the permanent VC. A new grievance committee to investigate the molestation was set up. Sadly, it had neither a human rights activist nor a retired judge on the panel as per the Vishaka guidelines. The father of the girl has publicly voiced the fact that he does not condone or support the movement.

To say the movement has failed, however, would not only being smugly superficial but also stupid. The students of the University have decided to take the fight to the new VC-  the very same who unleashed the state police on them, and there is a chance that trouble might brew up after the University officially reopens post vacation.

That being said, students from all over the world have protested in the past two weeks. From Alipur in Kolkata to Ann Arbor in Michigan, din of clamour knew no boundaries.

Here are a few pictures, capturing the very essence of Hokkolorob, that travelled the world.

Pic: Fraction of one lah people on the September 20 rally in Kolkata

Pic: Tai to boli comrade, ghore tolo barricade(Translation: That’s why I say comrade, let’s set up a barricade)

Pic: Chandannagar, in solidarity

Pic: Birbhum raises it voice in support of Jadavpur University

Pic: Pune is with you JU

Pic: IIT Kharagpur expresses solidarity with JU

Pic: Support from Silchar. Hokkolorob

Pic: A student at a protest at the University of Hyderabad

Pic: Effigy burning at TISS, Hyderabad

Pic: TISS Guwahati. Hokkolorob

Pic: Aunpam Chatterjee/Sreyashi Choudhary. Bangalore turned out in large numbers to express solidarity with JU students.

Pic: IIT Madras protest march, in solidarity with Jadavpur University

Pic: Support from across the border from Bangladesh.

Pic: the French in solidarity with JU

Pic: Marburg, Germany condemns the brutal police/state machinery action on the students of JU

Pic: the sounds of Hokkolorob cross the Atlantic to Ann Arbor, University of Michigan

Pic: University of Iowa. In solidarity.

Pic: Closer home,. The engineers from Salt Lake express their support

Pic: Jadavpur University Teacher’s Association(JUTA) at a sit-in demonstration, protesting against the police action on student and demanding the Vice Chancellor’s removal, leading And teaching, as always, how it should be done.

In conclusion, the movement may seem to have lost most of its steam from the outside, but on the inside, the students are still angry. The decision to make the Vice Chancellor permanent is being deemed as a challenge to the movement – one which the students seem to accept with resilience.

Seldom in recent history has a non partisan movement spread so far and wide, in a short span of time, demanding for the most basic of human rights- Freedom. To express and not be exploited, to be heard and not be ruthlessly trampled on, to fight for what’s right and persevere for a just cause.

This is how history gets created. We lived it.

Photo-story compiled by Nishant Chhinkwani

HokKolorob (literal meaning – let the sounds ring!) is no longer confined to the 2006 album of Ornob. It has stretched out to millions of wavelengths across the world, but slightly in a different context. In the wake of the democratic student’s movement of Jadavpur University in 2014 that rose out of the basic demands of security of women and the freedom of individuals inside the campus premises, which later took a much larger picture in the political scenario of West Bengal, or Kolkata to be specific, the couple of words “HokKolorob” dropped the insignificant space that divides them, only to be tagged by the significant hash to reach out to thousands, if not millions through the social networking media. So how effective was this #hokkolorob? Well, the world has seen big socio-political movements that were built with the help of these hashtags, all across the human virtual existence, through the media of social-networks – be it “Occupy Wall Street” in 2011 or “Turkey” or “Egypt” in 2013 or Kolkata in 2014. And we have strong evidence to back that off – the hundred thousand people, mainly students, who marched the streets of Kolkata on the 20th of September, 2014, protesting against the brutal atrocities of the Kolkata Police and the ruling government of West Bengal on the early hours of the 17th of September, 2014 inside the Jadavpur University.

20th of September, 2014 will stay in the memories of both the students of Jadavpur University, as well as the ruling party of the West Bengal government, for very different reasons though, for a very long time. For the students of Jadavpur University and the whole students’ community of West Bengal, it was a small victory against the system that they are fighting against. And for the ruling party of the West Bengal government, the rally or the “micchil” of the hundred thousand students, was the first of its kind since their clean sweep victory in the Legislative Assembly polls in 2011, where so many people raised their voices against the injustices of the system. The “micchil”, with all its enormity and its lack of political colour, or should I say non-partisan approach, to march the streets where the opposition, in any form, is not at all tolerated, was actually a strong move towards a more democratic expression of thoughts and speech. It was as if things were just about to turn – to roar that “Change is inevitable”.

I was a part of the rally, just like the rest of the hundred thousand, who participated to become a part of a historical march, not only because the police marched inside the JU campus and beat up a hundred students; not only because a girl was dragged by the hair, inside the boys’ hostel and molested by a dozen frustrated students; not only because the Vice Chancellor chose to save the boys instead of setting up a neutral unbiased committee; not only because the Education Minister threatened to unleash a counter movement by the students’ front of the ruling party; not only because our honourable Chief Minister had labelled the police atrocities on the wee hours of the 17th of September, 2014 as a “Chotto Ghotona” (insignificant issue); but because the anger had been tamed for long against the ruling government’s atrocities and injustices in the name of ‘development’. The massive rally, which was composed mainly of the students’ community of Kolkata, was bound to be driven by the burst of the strong adrenaline that was bottled up inside each of the hundred thousand for the last quarter of a decade, due to all the “Chotto Ghotonas” (insignificant issues) that had been happening all across the state. And for a rally so huge, it is impossible to have the same slogans at all points. As a matter of fact, on trying to deliver certain slogans, it was almost impossible to get the same response as not everyone was accustomed with the slogans, except for one. Each of the students’ community that came from the various schools, colleges, universities and research institutes were habituated with different slogans that were popular in their own circuit. But now, there was only one slogan that unified all of the hundred thousand, one slogan that got the same response from each of the groups, one slogan that roared in unison to reach the all-important seat of power across the Hooghly river, and that too because of the inclusion of the small hashtag and the lack of the dividing space of Ornob’s 2006’s album.The hashtag that brought all of the democratic students’ community across the world, through the social networking sites, to support a movement that grew out of a “Chotto Ghotona” (insignificant issue) in Kolkata. The hashtag that gave rise to the slogan that promisesto roar every time injustice is served by the system – “Hok, Hok, Hokkolorob” #hokkolorob

Durjoy Choudhary is a singer songwriter, who is finishing up his M.Phil in Linguistics at Jadavpur University. In addition, he also teaches Jazz and Blues history in Centre of Studies in African Literature and Culture, JU.

The post In Pictures: How A Student Movement From India Gained Solidarity Across The World #Hokkolorob appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

Saumyata Joshi and Saif Ahmad Khan:

Malala Yousafzai, the educational campaigner from Swat valley in Pakistan, came to prominence by writing for BBC Urdu about life under Taliban. In her writings published under the pen name Gul Makai, she often spoke about her family’s fight for girls’ education in her community, which was deeply misogynistic and had a hypocritical approach towards issues pertaining to women. Malala’s father Ziauddin served as an educational campaigner in the Swat valley and founded Khushal School, the only all girls school in the entire valley, where Malala received her education. When Taliban took control of the Swat valley, Malala and her father continued with their educational campaigns for girls which were against the conventional ideals of Taliban. On Tuesday 9th October 2012, Malala was targeted by the Taliban and shot in the head at point black range while riding the bus home from school.

Malala’s miraculous recovery paved her journey from Swat valley to the halls of United Nations in New York. In recognition of her courage, Malala was honoured with the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2013. Six days after Malala Yousufzai delivered a historic address at the United Nations in the presence of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to mark the 1st anniversary of Malala Day, a Taliban fighter wrote a letter to her in which he tried to explain to Malala the reasons as to why she was attacked by the Taliban. Adnan Rashid, the author of the letter and a Talibani militant, is wanted in Pakistan on charges of attempting to assassinate Former Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.

Rashid’s letter to Malala is reflective of the deep frustration within the Taliban camp in regards to the handling of the entire Malala episode. This becomes evident when Rashid states in his letter, “When you were attacked, it was shocking for me. I wish it would never have happened and I had advised you before.” While Rashid’s words do sound apologetic in the beginning, his standing as a Talib starts becoming obvious when he refrains from calling the attack on Malala “Un-Islamic” and leaves it on to Almighty Allah to decide on the same.

He further reasons that the Taliban did not attack Malala because she was “going to school” or because of her being an “education lover”. He goes on to claim that the Taliban is not opposed to the education of men and women but only plotted to kill Malala because she was running a smear campaign against the Taliban through her provocative writings and was derailing their efforts of bringing Islamic rule to Swat. Ironically, Rashid tries to establish the feminist and egalitarian credentials of the Taliban by rhetorically asking Malala as to why she was the only girl to be attacked when there were thousands of girls going to school “before and after the Taliban insurgency in Swat”.

The opening two paragraphs of Rashid’s letter point out at the dual-mindedness of a terrorist who is surprisingly liberal in an ultra-conservative terrorist organization. Rashid himself realizes the same as he points out at the beginning of the letter that he is writing to Malala in his “personal capacity” and his views might not be shared by the “Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban” or other “Jihad outfits”. His expressing of remorse of the attack on Malala shows that many Talibs realize the negative impact which the entire episode has had on Taliban’s standing as an outfit in the pro-feminist Muslim-majority provinces of Pakistan. However, bound by his allegiance towards his terrorist organization, Rashid tries to justify the attack on Malala and shrewdly shies away from delving into the theological aspects of the debate on the “Malala Attack”.

After briefly enumerating on the reasons behind Taliban’s targeting of schools, which Rashid opines was also being done by the Pakistani army as both the army and Taliban were responsible for turning of schools into transit camps, Rashid tries to address the core issue of education. While solidly maintaining that Malala was attacked because of her propaganda and not educational-activism, Rashid tries to debunk the idea of secular education by going deep into the memory lane and praising the Islamic system of education prevalent in what he calls “Muslim India”. Among the many myths which Rashid moots in this letter include white lies like “Muslim India” being bereft of poverty, crisis and clash of civilizations. Citing an extract from the writing of Sir TB Macaulay, Rashid claims that the secular system of Western English education is premised on “producing more and more Asians in blood but English in taste, to produce more and more Africans in colour but English in opinion, to produce more and more non English people but English in morale.”

The religious fanaticism of this Talib starts becoming crystal clear when he stresses on Englishmen being “staunch supporters and slaves of Jews”. What unfolds next is an even more blatant assertion of religious exclusivism when Rashid quotes Malala and suggests that the only teacher and book which is capable of changing the world is the Quran as revealed to the Holy Prophet Muhammad and this needs to be specified for the well-being of the masses. Rashid’s letter is a clear endorsement of the theocratic bent of mind of the Taliban which is planked on the argument that while Taliban’s efforts are concerted on implementing the Quran and joining the world with its Creator, the United Nations intends to enslave the world by implementing man-made laws instead of the divinely ordained ones. Rashid reprimands Malala for supporting democracy and justice from the citadel of injustice ie the United Nations. He refers to the P-5 as a group of 5 wicked nations who have many a times stonewalled attempts of taking the Zionist State of Israel to task when all other nations were in favour of the same.

Instead of rationally addressing the subject of Taliban’s attacks on polio campaigners and apologizing for the same, as raised by Malala herself during her speech at the United Nations, Rashid resorts to usage of conspiracy theories and half truths by pointing out to forced sterilization of more than 1 million Muslim women in Uzbekistan. Quoting Bertrand Russell, Rashid says that Taliban’s reservations in regards to the polio vaccination programme are planked on the fact that they “produce the sort of character and sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable” which in turn were directed towards the establishment of “global education, global economy, global trade, global government and finally global religion”. Criticizing Malala for saying that Malala Day belongs to every individual who has raised his voice for their rights, Rashid asks Malala why such a day is not accorded to those who succumb to the mighty and peace loving Americans. He asks Malala would she have been accorded the same amount of media attention and sympathy had she been a victim of the American drone attacks. Mocking Malala, Rashid hopes that the Pakistanis, Indians and Burmese learn from the compassion of Muhammad, Gandhi and Buddha by putting an end to the butchery prevalent in Balochistan, Kashmir and Burma. Rashid concludes his letter to Malala by advising her to adopt Islamic and pushtoon culture, joining some Madrassah near her home town and learning from the Book of Allah. He further advises her to use the knowledge attained from the same to subvert the evil political goals of the elite Western nations.

While Rashid’s letter is geo-politically sound in terms of the unjust dominance and influence of the West, specifically America, he does little to justify the sexist and fanatic nature of his organization. Rashid’s letter only strengthens the image of the Taliban being a “religiously exclusivist” organization wherein rights of women are relegated to dressing up in traditional Islamic attire and learning about the Quran from some nearby Islamic school. Rashid’s tacit justification of the attack on Malala on grounds of her supposed provocative writings and his open support for Taliban’s anti-polio campaign, leave little space for a debate on whether Taliban’s goals are humane or not.

(This academic paper was originally written as part of a paper presentation competition at Delhi University by Saumyata Joshi and Saif Ahmad Khan. The authors would like to congratulate Malala Yousufzai on winning the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.)

The post The Malala-Affair Through The Eyes Of Adnan Rashid: Geopolitics, Misogyny & Theocracy appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Anshul Kumar Pandey:

Perhaps the most anticipated announcement of the whole year is that of the Nobel Prize. Awarded in the disciplines of Chemistry, Physics, Literature, Medicine, Economics and Peace, the Nobel Prize, in the eyes of many, is the ultimate recognition of one’s contribution to the chosen field. In the past, Indians have won the prize in the fields of Literature, Economics, Physics and Peace. This year, another Indian, Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, was awarded the Nobel for Peace, along with the 17 year old Pakistani child education activist Malala Yousufzai.

The announcement has come at a time when both India and Pakistan have seen an escalation in tension along the International Border. The governments of both countries have traded charges of breaking the ceasefire and heavy civilian casualties have been reported from both sides of the border. Add to the fact that both the nations are nuclear rivals with a history of four wars behind them, and you have a world sitting up to take notice of the ongoing escalation of hostilities. A Nobel Prize shared by the citizens of these two hostile neighbours then, is a very subtle hint by the world community to de-escalate confrontation along the border.

Tensions in Islamabad

Things had not been this rough from the start. After taking over the reins of government in May 2014, the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi reached out to all the heads of the SAARC nations, including Pakistan, and invited them to his oath taking ceremony. Mr. Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, was gracious enough to accept the invitation although there was much debate at home before he could do so. At that time, the two Prime Ministers agreed to cooperate to ensure peace in the sub-continent.

However, in the past few months, Mr. Sharif’s government has wobbled at home on account of the twin protests headed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chief Tahir-ul-Qadri. These protests, calling for the resignation of Mr. Sharif and fresh elections, have paralyzed any activity in Islamabad and have forced the government to the back foot. However, Mr. Sharif still retains a strong backing from the majority of parliamentarians who want him to continue.

The protests have had their consequences though. As pressure on the government mounted, many political observers within Pakistan began to anticipate an imminent coup. However, the military chief General Raheel Sharif (not related to the Prime Minister) rebuffed any suggestions towards the same, even when 5 out of the 11 core commanders of the military were in favor of the army intervening to end the political crises. The army chief, however, successfully managed to get the government to ‘cede space’ to the military in the areas of Security and Foreign Policy. This means that the Prime Minister does not have the capability to take independent decisions anymore when it comes to Indo-Pak relations and the decisions are ultimately taken and approved at the meetings of the National Security Council, which has been criticized in the past as providing legal cover for increasing the role of military in foreign affairs.

Tough Response from New Delhi

One of the major reasons for the growing hostilities along the border has been the hardline approach taken by the new right-wing government headed by Mr. Modi in New Delhi. The Indian Prime Minister had relentlessly attacked his predecessor for continuing dialogue with Pakistan even when the latter engaged in a ‘proxy-war‘ of terrorism and militancy in Jammu & Kashmir through infiltrations effected by repeated ceasefire violations.

After becoming the Prime Minister, although Mr. Modi displayed his softer side by inviting Mr. Sharif for his oath taking ceremony and agreeing to cooperate in the future, he was also quick to break off dialogue after Pakistan did not heed a warning to disengage the separatists. The issue of Kashmir has always been a sensitive one for both the countries, and Pakistan’s repeated attempts to engage the separatists operating from the Indian side of Kashmir had been viewed as a way to pinprick the Indian establishment and to keep the Kashmir issue alive in the international arena.

At the recent UN General Assembly session, Mr. Nawaz Sharif tried to remind his international audience about the importance of some sort of resolution of the Kashmir dispute as a pre-condition to the improvement of bilateral ties between the two nations, while Mr. Modi rebuffed his counterpart by stating that bilateral issues would not be solved by raising them on international platforms.

The repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan are being seen by the Indian administration to be an attention seeking move now that India is not engaging its hostile neighbor with talks and flag meetings. Instead, Mr. Modi’s government has asked the border troops to answer a bullet with another bullet which has significantly raised the morale of the armed forces and has resulted in heavy casualties on the other side of the border. Although this tough response has soothed the sentiments of Mr. Modi’s domestic audience, on the whole, it has only resulted in the escalation of hostilities to newer heights.

Nobel to the Rescue

The west recognizes the fact that a confrontation between two nuclear armed rivals does not only pose a threat to the stability of the subcontinent, but can possibly have catastrophic consequences for the peace and tranquillity of the entire world. A joint Nobel at this juncture to citizens of both the countries is being seen by many as a subtle hint by the world community to both the nations to de-escalate the tensions at the border. This is not to say that both these activists did not deserve the Nobel prize on the basis of their own incredibly inspiring hard work. Instead, it is to reaffirm the fact that the world sees more areas of cooperation and a potential for rapid progress through peace and cooperation between the two countries, rather than hostility and strife.

Some media persons have already christened this prize as the ‘LoC Nobel’. Predictably enough, 17 year old Malala Yousufzai, the youngest recipient of the Nobel peace prize and only the second person from Pakistan to be thus honored, expressed her desire to see the Prime Ministers of both the countries in attendance at the Nobel Award ceremony in December. She also exhorted both the countries to stop fighting each other and instead fight for peace, development and progress.

However, the Indian Prime Minister has been reluctant to answer the call. In a statement released to the media, he congratulated both the people for the prize, but remained tight lipped on the proposal by the Pakistani teenager. The Pakistani Taliban, however, has been quick to read the significance of this Nobel. According to a report published in Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper, members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan have commented that Malala did not represent Islam and threatened that people like her who continued to take ‘anti-Islamic’ positions would continue being targeted.

As the last lines of this article were being written, India accused Pakistan of yet again violating the ceasefire in its Poonch sector, after a 41 hour calm. Whether this Nobel succeeds in cooling down the tensions between the countries, only time will tell.

The post The Politics Of The ‘LoC Nobel': Another Step Towards ‘Aman Ki Asha’? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Simona Kalikova:

“I wish my skin was as fair as yours”/ “I would kill for your figure – especially for your narrow hips”/“I want my eyes to be as blue as yours”/“Your are so pretty, why can’t I be like you…?!?”

Being a European woman in India, these are the compliments I hear from you ladies on a daily basis. A lot of people might perceive them as very comforting and self-confidence building. Personally, I perceive them as utterly scary and deeply insane. Why would you like to be someone else other than your beautiful self?

You are beautiful in your own way!

Having travelled to more than 30 countries on 4 different continents, I have seen women of all colours and shapes – from plump African mothers with two children at each limb, to twiggy Japanese schoolgirls. The curves that make the beauty of one would not suit the other and vice versa. And yet, we try so hard to become someone we are not. In Europe, we worship tanned bodies, whereas in India, you consider fairness as the most beautiful and desirable. We both spend insane amounts of money on tanning/fairness creams and other costly procedures whose sole purpose is to make us look different from who we are, and thus a little bit more comfortable with our bodies. Let me ask you, how can you be different from who you are and at the same time be more comfortable with our own body? I hope I am not the only one who sees the thundering nonsense!

Don’t deliberately give away your liberty!

We live in wonderful times when we don’t have to artificially shape our bodies by wearing uncomfortable corsets/small footwear and other torture instruments just to be socially accepted. And yet, we continuously internalize the pressure that media and society project on us and voluntarily torture our bodies by over-exercising, food deprivation leading to anorexia and bulimia, and uncomfortably tight clothes supposed to make our bodies look “as perfect as the girl from the advertisement”.

What’s wrong with me?

You might think that I am so critical just because I’m jealous, because I could not make it. Maybe I should try harder, spend more money just to have those lovely curves, that pretty, flawless skin, that perfectly shaped body. But I confess, I tried really hard. I have undergone three laser surgeries to remove acne from my face and one surgery to remove freckles from my body. I spent every second day in the fitness centre for more than a year trying to get the perfect tummy, hips and buttock I see on the covers of fashion journals. But even though (or maybe because?) I have undergone this all, I didn’t become more comfortable with who I was. There was still an endless list of changes I wanted to make to my body before I would even think of accepting it.

And honestly, I am fed up of this insane competition with an artificially photoshopped shadow of a woman. I am tired of pretending I am someone who I am not. I am sick of betraying my own intelligence, my own body, my own sex. Therefore I quit, here and now.

Go beyond the body!

Looking back at those times when I have tried so hard to become a model/princess/goddess/the embodiment of perfection, I have to sincerely laugh at myself and believe me, it’s a very liberating laugh. Such a waste of time, money, energy and potential on something that will grow old in 20 years from now on anyway!

My face is (despite the chirurgical interventions) still covered with pimples, my body is still full of freckles and my figure is definitely not size zero. And yet, I feel so great about who I am as I have never felt before. After I wake up every morning, I smile to my reflection in the mirror, I thank my body for being here for me and allowing me to have such an interesting, fulfilling life, and I start to do something instead of trying to be someone.

Do something instead of Being someone!

Because if we want to change something in this world, if we want to make a contribution and build a more equal society, a mere being definitely won’t be enough – we will have to do something about it all.

Indian ladies, if I could give you one advice – love and own who you are! Not only would you feel wonderful and beautiful by loving your bodies, but you will also have much more time to actually do something with your lives and thus, more time to change the society which you live in.

Yours very imperfect and very happy,
Simona.

Student by occupation, women right’s activist by vocation and feminist by heart, Simona Kalikova is  pursuing a master’s degree in law at Sciences Po in Paris. Currently on her sabbatical year in India, she is researching for her master thesis about legal regulation of sex work in India, working with NGOs helping, dignifying and empowering women, travelling, freelancing and undermining patriarchy. 

The post “Indian Ladies, Own Who You Are!” – A Letter From A European Woman In India appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Preetam Sengupta:

Alas! We have lost our hearts – not to love, but to misogyny and bigotry, and to every other form of degraded thinking that an abjectly insecure patriarchal system keeps drilling into us day in and day out. It is, after all, this very societal conditioning that has slowly and surreptitiously taught us to ascribe the “woman” the status of the “other” sex. Goes without saying, this thin line between “sex” and “gender” is constantly subject to being blurred, redefined, and tailor-made to suit a man’s (still the defining agent of societal organisations) own selfish purpose. It seems a call for the permanent revolution of the mind is the need of the hour! What is wrong with us – men and women alike? If some men are strutting around shifting the onus of their heinous acts on women, few women in turn, are paying lip-service to this masochistic tyranny, thereby helping the perpetuation of a system gone rancid.

Yet, it is not like women alone are falling prey to such inhuman manoeuvres. Young boys and girls are no exception to the rule either. Unfortunately enough, sexual violence, it appears, has become the “rule” rather than the aberration of our times. Starting from tendering justifications for assaults against women by drawing attention to how “provocatively” a certain girl has dressed to pointing out her indiscretionary emulation of the “Western culture” to showing the audacity of stepping outside one’s demarcated threshold at odd hours unchaperoned by the men-folk, we men have said it all – cried it hoarse.

If a man condemns this “rape culture”, he is sought to be dismissed as “just another gay”, while women professing the same have the brunt of a “slut” to bear. What’s with this fetish for compartmentalising sexuality, I say? Besides, how and when does this irresistible drive for callous generalisation of people, their habits, their beliefs, their sexualities, and their identities see sense? Why and how is it difficult to be gender-sensitive? We had long heard of the dictum – “equality for equals”. Yet, nowhere else, more than in our rotten democracy perhaps, we have come to live under the materialisation of the saying.

If the government were a democratic arrangement, the police would be its most disappointing institution. Unabashedly undemocratic in its approach to a group of citizens peacefully protesting against the recent flurry of bestiality in every part of the country, while being well within their constitutional rights, the police deploys a force of five hundred to “take care of” a handful hundreds by means of lathi-charging, pelting tear gas and water-canons. Not to mention its proactively commendable role in working as the state’s emissary in trying to hush things up by paying “compensation” to the victim’s family. One must take special heed of the vestiges of an outdated colonial law which continues to plague the act of delivering justice in our country. Moreover, justice delayed becomes justice denied more often in the course of history than we would wish to concede.

We must condemn violence in all its forms and variegated manifestations, because violence cannot be alleviated with violence, but compassion and love. Our first impulse of anger in rape cases is always directed at the perpetrator. However, death penalty isn’t the solution to a societal malaise like rape. Of course, the perpetrators are culpable adequately but death penalty kills the mortal being alone; the humanitarian and ethical issue looming large goes unaddressed. Not to mention the fact that such a barbaric punitive measure defies both the principles of our constitution and international human rights law. Besides, solely legal responses would not suffice. The most effective approach would consist in moulding people’s thoughts to redress socio-economic inequalities, cultural mores as well as the malice of easy impunity built into our system.

Hence, it is against such a browbeaten culture of subordination that we must raise our voices together! Let a collective conscience lead us all to a common destination, irrespective of individual differences – as we rightfully demand an overhaul of the legal system through devising stricter laws, to be effected with integrity in an efficient system, while at the same time, and most importantly, each one works towards educating oneself in the doctrine of not gender difference, but gender equality. At the end of the day, it is only a matter of whether we treat our fellow human beings as human beings. Therefore, invoking Eve Ensler’s “Man Prayer”, I say:

“May I be a man.
Who creates space rather than dominates it.
Who seeks kindness over control. Who refuses the slap, the gun, the choke, the insult, the punch.
May I cherish, respect and love my mother.
May the resonance of that love translate into loving all women and living things.”

The post In The Heart Of Darkness: Why Our Approach Towards Gender Based Violence Needs A Radical Overhaul appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

Submitted Anonymously:

Last week, I was on a hospital bed getting my stomach washed. A few hours before I had taken a lethal quantity of tablets to end my life. Luckily, I survived to tell my story. Why did I take the decision to kill my own self? What compelled me to take such a fatal path? Had I failed in the exams? Had my partner ditched me? The answer is no. The more I interrogate myself with these questions, the more I find myself confounded. The truth is I don’t know why I wanted to die, but I know how I reached that dark corner of life where only hopelessness was my companion. The thing I called ‘dark corner’ was a panic attack I could not cope up with.

Picture Credits: ventolinmono

I am a depressed teenager with high dreams and lofty ambitions. I am a coolie carrying the burden of expectations of this society, my family and my own self. I have been fighting a war of nerves for many years now. I was 16 when the shrinks at the hospital declared that I was bipolar, which means I am suffering from manic-depressive illness. The disease has its own vicissitudes – I am happy sometimes, and often, I take a long trip to the valley of gloom. Mostly, I don’t have a yen for eating anything. I often feel like giving up everything and running away from my own self.

I have no qualms in saying that I am mentally unwell, but the society has. It was evening time when I was brought to the hospital by one of my friends. I was quivering while my abdomen was toxic enough to kill me. Here started the story of whispers and favourable lies. Except the medics, few of my friends and family, everyone was told a made-up story of how the tablets accidently entered my belly. Some were told I had gastro problems. No one was told the truth that in the surge of my stigmatized illness I had attempted self-murder. Why? Because had they known the real account of my doing, my future was doomed. In our society, mental illness is not treated at par with other illnesses.

We are the outcasts of this civilized world. People will show sympathy towards us but then talk ill behind our backs. Very few will understand. You can’t talk openly about your health because then they would have only one line for you – He is mental! He is a psycho! Wo Pagal hai! Yes, I am weak and suffer from a disease that is related to the mind. But I didn’t choose my illness, then why punish me for what is not in my control?

In a country where there is only one psychiatrist for a whopping 343,000 people, silence is the hallmark of any mental health disease. There is a silent majority which continues to suffer because of the stigma we have attached with mental health related disorders. There is a need for greater awareness to destigmatize mental illnesses. The National Mental Health Policy, launched this year, is certainly a first step towards that.

I survived to tell my tale, but there are thousands who succumb on that hospital bed without even knowing that their condition could have improved and there was no need to hide their condition. Let’s speak up and end the stigma that enforces this lethal silence.

The author is a student of journalism and wishes to remain anonymous.

The post “Post Suicide Note, I Survived”, A Shocking Experience Of How Our Society Treats Mental Illness appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Youth Alliance:

Take a moment today. Here, right now, just stop. We, as a nation, in a much celebrating manner recognize childbirth as a woman’s domain. Why not then, can we embrace the fact that women menstruate? We rejoice and celebrate those nine months of pregnancy but what about the rest of a woman’s life journey where the significance of life flows out of her? Why is she then, a victim of myths and taboos? Instead of dreading their menses, early humans cherished the uterus and women’s cycles of menstruation, Pregnancy, birth and menopause and celebrated the uterus as the body’s center of Female power and creativity.

It is out of question then, that this periods’ related discrepancy is NOT perpetual and ancestral. What happened then? Where did we lose the way? Or rather paved new paths? Think about all those times when the shopkeeper wrapped up your sanitary napkin in a newspaper and put it in a black packet before he gave it to you as if it were some kind of a bomb. Think about the times where perhaps you or your female counterpart kept standing outside the temple or a mosque. These are the generalities. There are places where women have never went out and bought a sanitary pad on their own from the market, shying away from the male shopkeeper. There are cases, worse still, where women haven’t even used a sanitary napkin considering ‘wasting’ money on it to be irrelevant. Only 12% of Indian women have access to sanitary napkins. But today we are not here to deal with these issues. We are here to start slow but make it big. We are here to embrace womanhood. The moment’s over and now, today, we at ONUS, Youth Alliance are making an effort to eliminate the evil myths regarding menstruation that play in the shadow of our hearts.

Youth Alliance has collaborated with Goonj, the expert in the field with their initiative “Not Just A Piece of Cloth” to take the issue of lack of access to sanitary pads and menstrual hygiene to the university and proudly announces #Five Days of Dignity”, whereby we shall solemnly try to break the shackles which shackles woman every month. Our program is majorly centered at two colleges- Hindu and Jesus Marry College. Our initiative will involve sensitive street plays, a simulation drive where we will make sanitary napkins in our college campuses, dialogue with eminent personalities where people will get a chance to speak openly about menstruation through a discussion forum. It will also involve street interviews where we shall ask random questions about menstruation just to reach out to the discomfort on this issue. We vouch to make a change; do you care to be the change? Please be the support we are seeking. Join us in our campaign.

Our five days are our dignity. What are your five days like?

Join us on 3, 5, 7 Nov in Hindu and Jesus and Mary College.

The post What Comes To Your Mind When You Hear The Word ‘Periods’? #5DaysOfDignity appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Anjali Bhardwaj, Amrita Johri, Bhanupriya Rao:

The Right to Information Act is under threat once again! This time due to the Government’s inaction in appointing the Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission (CIC). For the first time in the history of the RTI Act, the CIC is without a Chief. Judging by the lack of initiative and intent  of the Government on the issue of appointment of the Chief, it might well be a case of waiting for Godot.

How can the Central Information Commission function smoothly without a Chief?

The Central Information Commission is an independent appellate body set up under the RTI Act to adjudicate on appeals and complaints of citizens who have been denied access to information under the law. The Central Information Commission is responsible for overseeing the functioning of the Act and disposing appeals pertaining to the Central Government, Union Territories and Delhi. The Commission has various powers under the Act including the order disclosure of information, penalizing officials for delaying or denying information and compensating the appellant for any loss suffered. One of the landmark rulings by the CIC was the order in June 2013, when it ruled that political parties were public authorities and hence were mandated to come within the purview of the RTI Act.

The Chief Information Commissioner, plays a central role in the functioning of the Information Commission. The RTI Act says that the  ‘general superintendence, direction and management’ of the Commission rests with the Chief. Apart from the fact that a statutory body cannot remain headless, there is a possibility of the decisions being challenged in a court of law.

Then there is the issue of the efficiency and management of the information commission itself, which is impaired in the absence of a Chief. Already there is a huge backlog in the Commission with close to 25,000 appeals and complaints pending. Often people have to wait for more than a year for their appeals and complaints to be heard. The absence of a Chief will cause the pendency in the Commission to increase further.

Where is the delay in appointment of the CIC? More importantly, why?

The Central Information Commission has been without a CIC for a month now. As a practice, the incoming Chief is selected in advance to assume office as soon as the incumbent’s term is over. A selection committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha (LoP) and a Union Cabinet Minister recommend names to the President, who appoints the Information Commissioners.

If media reports are to be believed, the ambiguity surrounding the LoP issue is the reason for the delay in the appointment. However, the drafters of the RTI legislation had the foresight to anticipate a situation that we find ourselves in today and ensured safeguards in the law. The RTI Act clarifies that in the absence of a recognised Leader of Opposition, the Leader of the single largest group in opposition in the Lok Sabha shall be deemed to be the Leader of Opposition for the purposes of the selection committee.

When reminded of this absolute clarity in the RTI Act which ought not to have confounded the Government at all, the MoS for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh in a presser on the 8th of September, said that ‘the process was underway and the Chief would be appointed soon’. Its been 13 days since and yet no word from the Government!

Is this the real face of the decisive, efficient and transparent governance promised to us by Mr. Modi? What happened to the clarion call to fight corruption and establish an ‘Open, Transparent and Systems-based Government’?

Our RTI Call-a-Thon (A process of calling our MPs to demand accountability that we started the last time the RTI Act was in danger), found key BJP MPs unconcerned by the threat to the RTI. BS Yeddyurappa feigned ignorance of the matter while Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, a General Secretary said ‘the process is underway’ before he hung up.

The Opposition and the deafening sounds of silence

The silence of the government on the issue is only equally matched by the studied silence of the opposition. This is the same opposition, the Indian National Congress, that trumpeted its achievement of passing the RTI law in the run up to the elections. In one interview, the leader of the party, Rahul Gandhi, mentioned RTI as many as 33 times as an achievement of the UPA Government! And yet today, when the hour arrives for questioning the Government on protecting that very Fundamental Right to Information, the opposition remains a silent bystander.

That anticipation of action from the opposition may well be futile, if our conversations or attempts at having one, are any indication. The office of Mallikarjun Kharge (the leader of the INC on the floor of Lok Sabha) told us, during our RTI Call-a-Thon, that it is ‘not the business of the opposition to worry about the appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner -it’s the responsibility of the Government’.

What can you do?

If doing nothing were an option, it would be mighty convenient to opt for it. But when the grave danger of our Fundamental Right to Information being denied to us, stares us in our face, being silent is no longer a luxury we can afford. Here is what you can do:

1. Sign and share this petition asking the PMO to appoint a Chief Information Commissioner.
2. Participate in ‘RTI Call-a-Thon’. Call your MP and ask them to write to PMO India to appoint a CIC. Tell us of their response by sharing it on the SaveRTI Facebook page.
3. Participate in the ‘SaveRTI challenge’. Familiar with the Ice-bucket challenge and the ‘Book challenge? Well, here is ‘SaveRTI challenge’. All you need to do is sign and share the petition and tag 10 of your friends to do the same.
4. If on twitter, follow the handles @sns_india @AnjaliB_ and @saveRTIIndia. Use the hashtag #SaveRTI and stay tuned as we tweet updates and participate in the upcoming tweetathons.
5. If you are a social media enthusiast, you could tweet/FB to MPs using this database developed by Grassroute India

Join the campaign to #SaveRTI. Its your fundamental right and let no one take that away from you. Act now!

The post The Right To Information Act Is Under Threat Again, And This Time It Is The Modi Government appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Prakruti Maniar:

The ‘it’s complicated’ relationship between AAP and Delhi has gone on for far too long. With assembly elections seemingly imminent, we evaluate the strategy that AAP has been following to regain lost ground.

First, let’s all take a moment to see how, starting December 2013, elections in India have undergone a massive change. First, the Aam Aadmi Party put an end to Sheila Dixit’s fifteen year old rule in Delhi, then the BJP got a clear majority alone and the NDA got a mega-mandate in May 2014. And what will turn out to be the most interesting fight of them all — Maharashtra, with as many as five major parties, is going to elections on 15th October. For politicians and voters, this game of thrones has begun well.

Adding to this is the much forgotten but equally important state, Delhi. After AAP, along with Congress, formed the government last year, only for Arvind Kejriwal to resign as CM 49 days later, the state has been under President’s Rule since February 17, 2014.

In June 2014, AAP went to the Supreme Court to allow for the dissolution and subsequent round of fresh elections. The Supreme Court then asked Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung to look into the possibility. In July, AAP began to blame the BJP of trying to lure its MLAs and yet again insisted on fresh elections. There was little progress for two months and suddenly, two things happened in the first week of September.

1. LG Najeeb Jung wrote to the President to ask the majority party BJP to come forward and take a shot at forming government.

2. AAP released a sting operation video where Delhi BJP vice-president Sher Singh Dagar is seen bribing AAP MLA Dinesh Mohaniya to resign, so that the effective strength of the Assembly would crumble to a number suitable for the 28 member NDA.

The SC has now asked the Centre to come to a decision by October 10 and bring this initiation by LG to a political conclusion.

So, should Delhi go for re-elections? Here are the arguments —

The cost of an election is high and if it can be avoided, it’s good for the taxpayers’ money. However, the timing of this demand by the LG seems all wrong. The NDA had earlier declined to form the government, even when it had 32 seats. Even now, it hasn’t staked its claim and this was a suggestion by the LG, which is unusual. That Delhi needs an administration is clear, the President’s Rule cannot go on forever. Issues like law and order, water and electricity shortage have been ailing Delhi since the days of Sheila Dixit, and even after voting for change last December, it’s the common man that’s losing out.

Even as the state mulls this decision and waits for an answer, the elections website says, “…the assembly elections will be held by the end of 2014 as Delhi is currently under President’s rule…”. There are chances that they will be shifted to early 2015, given two already high profile states — Jammu and Kashmir, and Jharkhand — are going to polls in December.

On the contenders’ front, AAP has come back to the people of Delhi, who gave them full support even when they were a new party with only promises and honest intent to show.

BJP, with their recent by-polls defeats, the dissatisfaction with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (which is under them) and the receding of the Modi-wave, is on tethers. Either way is a perilous one for them. They also do not have a credible candidate to project for the post of the CM. Any attempt by the BJP to form the government now, after the sting operation and allegations of horse-trading, will taint its image further and it will be willingly exposing itself to a lot of flak from all sections, be it the citizens or opposition parties.

Congress, on the other hand, though seems like a party with no immediate future, has a lot going its way. The anti-incumbency was against the UPA regime. Congress alone may just do fine and give the party an electoral boost, as reflected in the recent bypolls.

On the surface, it may seem that a re-election might throw up yet another hung assembly as no party enjoys a clear majority. Here, we come to why AAP stands a chance at forming the government in Delhi, and what its strategy is to regain lost grounds –

1. Even though they made no real mark in the LS polls, their vote share actually increased from 29.3 per cent to 32.9 per cent, which is a positive sign. Perhaps taking a lesson from their 4-seat victory in Punjab in Lok Sabha, they might focus on careful selection of candidates and addressing core issues.

2. AAP started out too fast and spread too thin. They wanted to do too much and in too little a time. They had the power but couldn’t handle it well enough. However, much time has passed and AAP, which seemed to fall in a downward spiral post the Lok Sabha debacle, has gathered itself again. They launched the AAP Youth Wing and the Chaatra Yuva Sangharsha Samiti has a presence in 50 colleges now. Next year, they also plan to contest in the DUSU elections. There is also the Aap ki Vistaar Samiti. By itself, it may not seem like a big deal — however, these are signs that the party is strengthening its organizational structure, looking to build up from the bottom, including the young, politically active class of the society. The urban poor and urban lower-middle class are still with AAP, and this will call for greater participation.

3. Their biggest step to strengthen their presence is the “Mission Vistaar” launched in June 2014 to reform their Political Affairs Committee — a volunteer drive that provides a platform for people to start working for the party at booth level. AAP’s biggest strength has been its people connect and grassroot governance. The common man is more affected by water cuts and electricity, by law and order situation, and these small problems cannot be solved by the Centre, no matter how strong. With Delhi being both a municipality and a state, AAP has the edge. A team, headed by Naveen Jaihind, has been formed to strengthen the party organisation in rural and semi-urban regions in the capital.

4. Arvind Kejriwal made two major mistakes — resigning from the CM post, and spreading too thin in the Lok Sabha polls instead of focussing on Delhi. He has already apologized for the former, and collectively, AAP has been consistent in its focus of anti-corruption. They will not be contesting the Maharashtra assembly polls but instead, will make a ‘Citizen’s Charter’ and the volunteers will launch the “Jagrut Nagrik” initiative, which will conduct campaigns in constituencies to identify corrupt candidates and convey it to the people.

AAP is just two years old. It started out wonderfully, then stumbled. However, it seems to have learnt quickly and is returning to its Delhi strong-hold, continuing to reach out to people at the individual level, as has been their strength. Until such time as they have both the money and people, in numbers, to allow them bigger dreams, they must stick to what they do best — address the right issues and spread awareness, and use targeted solutions. It still remains the people’s best hope for a clean government and work on rebuilding this brand image is well under way.

The post With The Delhi Re-Election Approaching, Here’s How AAP Is Trying To Get It’s Act Together appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Guru Prakash:

Apparently the presumed President-in-waiting of Pakistan has made up his mind to face the electorate in the general elections of 2018. Given the fragile and turbulent political history of our western neighbor, it is not unthinkable to imagine the realpolitik expectations from a dynast. The country’s democratic credentials were at stake for the entire past fortnight when the famed cricketer and the Canadian priest cajoled the protesters to go berserk. It’s only in Pakistan where one can legitimize vandalism in the name of demonstration. Dissent and not disturbance is the essence of democracy.

Amidst the breakdown of constitutional machinery, Mr. Bilawal Bhutto has come out with a loud and belligerent statement on taking away the entire Kashmir in the conclave of the Pakistan Peoples Party. As expected, the statement was received with huge cheer and applauses of approval. The rhetoric of the leader shows him in extremely poor light. Mr. Bhutto has been a student of Modern history at the prestigious Oxford University. I did not have the fortune to attend a course at any of the hallowed precincts at the University of Oxford, but I am sure that facts and history are impervious to any institutional interpretations. The instrument of accession signed between the Union of India and the Maharaja of Kashmir forcefully declares the province of Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India. The IOA is considered as a legal documents and thus retains the sanctity and validity of any legal treatise. The invasion of Pashtuns orchestrated and supported by the Pakistani army at the time of partition is a significant event in the history of the valley. The areas occupied by them still remain under the supervision and administration of the Pakistani government.

The ill treatment of the Pakistani administration for people residing in these areas such as Gilgit, Baltistan and Hounza is an open secret. The worst affected areas of the flood are included in these parts of Kashmir. When the complete area is suffering with natural calamity of inexplicable proportions, it is not expected from a leader of national stature to indulge in this level of rhetoric that is completely devoid of reason and rationality. This statement would do noting apart from encouraging the fringe elements of the nation, who constantly search for opportunities to hamper the prevailing law and order. Instead of extending cooperation in the efforts to mitigate the damages of flood and indulging in irrelevant statement making, Mr. Bhutto is just flaunting his inability and poor understanding to the world.

The Indian High Commission should take a note of this belligerent demeanour and register its strong disapproval on the utterances of the prince. Kashmir is and will remain an integral part of India.

The post The Belligerent Bilawal And His Pipe Dream Of Taking All Of Kashmir To Pakistan appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Durjoy Choudhary:

It’s been almost 3 weeks since the police brutally attacked peacefully protesting students at Jadavpur University. A lot has transpired since.

The Vice Chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti, who was the interim VC before the incident, has now been made the permanent VC. A new grievance committee to investigate the molestation was set up. Sadly, it had neither a human rights activist nor a retired judge on the panel as per the Vishaka guidelines. The father of the girl has publicly voiced the fact that he does not condone or support the movement.

To say the movement has failed, however, would not only being smugly superficial but also stupid. The students of the University have decided to take the fight to the new VC-  the very same who unleashed the state police on them, and there is a chance that trouble might brew up after the University officially reopens post vacation.

That being said, students from all over the world have protested in the past two weeks. From Alipur in Kolkata to Ann Arbor in Michigan, din of clamour knew no boundaries.

Here are a few pictures, capturing the very essence of Hokkolorob, that travelled the world.

Pic: Fraction of one lah people on the September 20 rally in Kolkata

Pic: Tai to boli comrade, ghore tolo barricade(Translation: That’s why I say comrade, let’s set up a barricade)

Pic: Chandannagar, in solidarity

Pic: Birbhum raises it voice in support of Jadavpur University

Pic: Pune is with you JU

Pic: IIT Kharagpur expresses solidarity with JU

Pic: Support from Silchar. Hokkolorob

Pic: A student at a protest at the University of Hyderabad

Pic: Effigy burning at TISS, Hyderabad

Pic: TISS Guwahati. Hokkolorob

Pic: Aunpam Chatterjee/Sreyashi Choudhary. Bangalore turned out in large numbers to express solidarity with JU students.

Pic: IIT Madras protest march, in solidarity with Jadavpur University

Pic: Support from across the border from Bangladesh.

Pic: the French in solidarity with JU

Pic: Marburg, Germany condemns the brutal police/state machinery action on the students of JU

Pic: the sounds of Hokkolorob cross the Atlantic to Ann Arbor, University of Michigan

Pic: University of Iowa. In solidarity.

Pic: Closer home,. The engineers from Salt Lake express their support

Pic: Jadavpur University Teacher’s Association(JUTA) at a sit-in demonstration, protesting against the police action on student and demanding the Vice Chancellor’s removal, leading And teaching, as always, how it should be done.

In conclusion, the movement may seem to have lost most of its steam from the outside, but on the inside, the students are still angry. The decision to make the Vice Chancellor permanent is being deemed as a challenge to the movement – one which the students seem to accept with resilience.

Seldom in recent history has a non partisan movement spread so far and wide, in a short span of time, demanding for the most basic of human rights- Freedom. To express and not be exploited, to be heard and not be ruthlessly trampled on, to fight for what’s right and persevere for a just cause.

This is how history gets created. We lived it.

Photo-story compiled by Nishant Chhinkwani

HokKolorob (literal meaning — let the sounds ring!) is no longer confined to the 2006 album of Ornob. It has stretched out to millions of wavelengths across the world, but slightly in a different context. In the wake of the democratic student’s movement of Jadavpur University in 2014 that rose out of the basic demands of security of women and the freedom of individuals inside the campus premises, which later took a much larger picture in the political scenario of West Bengal, or Kolkata to be specific, the couple of words “HokKolorob” dropped the insignificant space that divides them, only to be tagged by the significant hash to reach out to thousands, if not millions through the social networking media. So how effective was this #hokkolorob? Well, the world has seen big socio-political movements that were built with the help of these hashtags, all across the human virtual existence, through the media of social-networks — be it “Occupy Wall Street” in 2011 or “Turkey” or “Egypt” in 2013 or Kolkata in 2014. And we have strong evidence to back that off — the hundred thousand people, mainly students, who marched the streets of Kolkata on the 20th of September, 2014, protesting against the brutal atrocities of the Kolkata Police and the ruling government of West Bengal on the early hours of the 17th of September, 2014 inside the Jadavpur University.

20th of September, 2014 will stay in the memories of both the students of Jadavpur University, as well as the ruling party of the West Bengal government, for very different reasons though, for a very long time. For the students of Jadavpur University and the whole students’ community of West Bengal, it was a small victory against the system that they are fighting against. And for the ruling party of the West Bengal government, the rally or the “micchil” of the hundred thousand students, was the first of its kind since their clean sweep victory in the Legislative Assembly polls in 2011, where so many people raised their voices against the injustices of the system. The “micchil”, with all its enormity and its lack of political colour, or should I say non-partisan approach, to march the streets where the opposition, in any form, is not at all tolerated, was actually a strong move towards a more democratic expression of thoughts and speech. It was as if things were just about to turn — to roar that “Change is inevitable”.

I was a part of the rally, just like the rest of the hundred thousand, who participated to become a part of a historical march, not only because the police marched inside the JU campus and beat up a hundred students; not only because a girl was dragged by the hair, inside the boys’ hostel and molested by a dozen frustrated students; not only because the Vice Chancellor chose to save the boys instead of setting up a neutral unbiased committee; not only because the Education Minister threatened to unleash a counter movement by the students’ front of the ruling party; not only because our honourable Chief Minister had labelled the police atrocities on the wee hours of the 17th of September, 2014 as a “Chotto Ghotona” (insignificant issue); but because the anger had been tamed for long against the ruling government’s atrocities and injustices in the name of ‘development’. The massive rally, which was composed mainly of the students’ community of Kolkata, was bound to be driven by the burst of the strong adrenaline that was bottled up inside each of the hundred thousand for the last quarter of a decade, due to all the “Chotto Ghotonas” (insignificant issues) that had been happening all across the state. And for a rally so huge, it is impossible to have the same slogans at all points. As a matter of fact, on trying to deliver certain slogans, it was almost impossible to get the same response as not everyone was accustomed with the slogans, except for one. Each of the students’ community that came from the various schools, colleges, universities and research institutes were habituated with different slogans that were popular in their own circuit. But now, there was only one slogan that unified all of the hundred thousand, one slogan that got the same response from each of the groups, one slogan that roared in unison to reach the all-important seat of power across the Hooghly river, and that too because of the inclusion of the small hashtag and the lack of the dividing space of Ornob’s 2006’s album.The hashtag that brought all of the democratic students’ community across the world, through the social networking sites, to support a movement that grew out of a “Chotto Ghotona” (insignificant issue) in Kolkata. The hashtag that gave rise to the slogan that promisesto roar every time injustice is served by the system — “Hok, Hok, Hokkolorob” #hokkolorob

Durjoy Choudhary is a singer songwriter, who is finishing up his M.Phil in Linguistics at Jadavpur University. In addition, he also teaches Jazz and Blues history in Centre of Studies in African Literature and Culture, JU.

The post In Pictures: How A Student Movement From India Gained Solidarity Across The World #Hokkolorob appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Deepak Mehta:

“To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice” - Desmond Tutu

“What says the law?
You will not kill.
How does it say it?
By killing!” – Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables

We have entered the 21st century but the impressions of a primitive age are still present in our world and they are reflected when it comes to the punishing of a criminal in the form of his/her execution commonly known as the death penalty. Death penalty is a debatable issue today as since 1979, over 70 countries have abolished it for all ordinary crimes. Over 130 nations no longer have the death penalty in law or practice, and only a handful of governments carry out executions each year.

Under the Indian Penal Code, crimes that are punishable with a death sentence include treason, abetment of mutiny, perjury resulting in the conviction and death of an innocent person, murder, kidnapping for ransom and dacoity with murder. Following the Nirbhaya case, the Parliament changed the law to make a second charge of rape punishable with the death penalty. The Criminal Procedure Code requires special reasons to be given for awarding capital punishment and in 1980, the apex court had set the “rarest of rare” criteria in such cases.

As per NCRB, between 2001 and 2011, an average of 132 death sentences were handed down each year by trial courts across the country and during the same period, the Honorable Supreme Court has confirmed only 3-4 death sentences each year. The last two executions were of 26/11 Pak terrorist Ajmal Kasab in 2012, and Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru in 2013.

Although in India, the execution rate has fallen down to a commendable level, but the stigma of death penalty still looms large in our Law.

Every day, prisoners – men, women, even children – face execution. Whatever their crime, whether they are guilty or innocent, their lives are claimed by a system of justice that values retribution over rehabilitation. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It violates the right to life. Whatever form it takes – electrocution, hanging, gassing, beheading, stoning, shooting or lethal injection- it is a violent punishment that should have no place in today’s criminal justice system.

The death penalty is discriminatory. It is often used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of certain racial, ethnic and religious groups. It is imposed and carried out arbitrarily. In some countries, it is used as a tool of repression – a swift and brutal way of silencing political opposition. The death penalty is irrevocable, coupled with a justice system that is prone to human error and prejudice, the risk of executing an innocent person is ever present. Mistakes like that cannot be undone. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948 – recognizes each person’s right to life (Article 3) and categorically states that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (Article 5). The UN reaffirmed and strengthened its position against the death penalty in December 2007 when the General Assembly passed a resolution calling upon the member states to establish a moratorium on executions “with a view to abolishing the death penalty”.

There are certain myths in the society about the death penalty. Some of them are – death penalty reduces the crime rate, the threat of execution is an effective strategy in preventing terrorism, and the death penalty is fine as long as the majority of public supports it. But this eye for an eye approach will consequently make the whole world blind. This doesn’t end violence, but preserves it and starts a vicious circle.

In 2004, in the USA, the average murder rate for states that used the death penalty was 5.71 per 100,000 of the population as against 4.02 per 100,000 in states that did not use it. In 2003 in Canada, 27 years after the country abolished the death penalty, the murder rate had fallen by 44% since 1975, when capital punishment was still enforced.

Further, the people who aim at spreading terror in the society are least concerned about their own lives. The execution of these people will only make them a ‘martyr’ in the eyes of their sympathizers. And, when the administration fails to deliver a social structure sans crime, the politicians use the death penalty as a tool to cover up their failures of providing public security in the name of citizen’s safety. They reiterate that for a crime free society, majority of the population supports death penalty! The real picture is slightly different. This is illustrated by polls in the USA and other countries which show significant drops in support for the death penalty when life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is offered as an alternative. In the USA, a May 2006 poll by the Gallup Company found support for the death penalty dropped from 65 per cent to 48 per cent when life imprisonment without parole was offered as an option.

Death penalty may be used as a weapon to silence the voice of political opposition. In Japan, executions are typically held in secret with prisoners being informed just hours before they are killed and family members are given no prior notice. In China and Vietnam, information about the death penalty, such as the annual number of executions, is classified as a state secret. Calls from the UN to divulge this information have been met with steadfast refusal. This leaves the public in those countries without information and stifles debate around this important human rights issue. Logic would also dictate that such secrecy would lessen any alleged deterring effect that executions have. In Singapore too the situation is much the same. Singapore endorses the death penalty but keeps silent about how much it is used in the country. Controls imposed by the government on press and civil society organizations curb freedom of expression and are an obstacle to the independent monitoring of human rights, including the death penalty. Consequently, there is virtually no public debate about the death penalty in Singapore and the government has consistently maintained that capital punishment is not a human rights issue.

Some argue that it’s the most cost effective solution to violent crime. But, a society cannot condone violence and sacrifice human rights as a cost-cutting measure. The decision to take a human life should not rest on financial motives.

So, a civilized society must have a reformative instead of punitive approach towards criminals. The absence of death penalty will provide these criminals a chance to repent, reform and rehabilitate. When a criminal will come out of jail as a reformed citizen, he may be an example that might be able to deter others from criminal activities. Execution is a serious human rights issue and death penalty is not even digestible to some victims of heinous crimes and their relatives.

“To those who say society must take a life for a life, we say ‘not in our name’.” - Marie Deans, relative of a murder victim, USA.

Also read: The Nithari Case: Should A Mentally Ill Convict Be Hanged Based On A Torture Confession?

The post Why Death Penalty Is The Symptom Of A Violent Culture And Not A Solution appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Akhil Katyal:

I will give you two big reasons to come join the Delhi Queer Pride this 30th November. One, that there is something dark upon us– a climate of bigotry that is targeting series of folks which it considers as trouble – be it homosexuals, Hijras, inter-caste couples, kissing teenagers or even women in live-in relationships. And that we need to start blowing up this darkness with little dynamites of light. Thousands of people need to be on the street just for this, to take care of this rising intolerance. And second, that the Delhi Queer Pride is something very unique in the world. As the campaigns for LGBT rights in many cities across the globe devolve into little other than yearly extravaganzas mainly for local businesses and only-fun-no-politics parades, Delhi along with so many other cities and small towns in India and the global south, seems to be doing something very heartening – holding politics and celebration in the same hands, smiling and sloganeering, and coming on the streets for not just the world which gets better for a few privileged gay and lesbian folk, but with a vision that wants to restore the world to the outsiders, the trouble-makers, the ones at the receiving end of the menacing heterosexist, Brahmanical forces that are on the ascendant here. Let me elaborate on both these reasons.

First, there are things that have happened just in the last three months that should permanently seal outrage on our skins and tell us what we are up against. Close to the Bangalore Pride last week, the Bangalore police arbitrarily arrested, even dragging some from their homes, around 170 Hijras and siphoned them off to the Beggars colony on unfounded charges. The big-scale purge was shocking and made a mockery of the ground-breaking NLSA vs. Union of India Supreme Court judgment earlier this year which promised “to safeguard the constitutional rights of the members of the TG community”. The picture is hardly better closer to us in the capital. Recently, at a very popular central Delhi market, which is also a meeting and cruising point for lots of working class and lower middle class queer men, a bunch of goons got together and beat up these folks, with sticks. Seeing visibly effeminate or slightly cross-dressed men sent their blood raging and with cries of “inko sabak sikhaana hi padega” (“they have to be taught a lesson”) and “saare gay hain, ek ek ko pakad ke peeto” (“all are gay, beat the hell out of each of them”), they set about chasing and beating these men. I am left thinking what it must do to the sense of claim over public space for people meeting such egregious violence on a regular evening out in the park or strolling by the pavements. And it strengthens my resolve that we must be out on the streets, in public spaces, parading, taking this space away from the likes of men who thought nothing of thrashing up folks they thought were different. This culture of intolerance is best resisted in full public glare. We can’t only tweet against it, we have to march against it.

There are many other examples which expand this murky picture and link it unmistakably to the powers that be in Delhi today. The recent kiss-of-love protest near the Jhandewalan metro station, for example, saw vile counter-protests by the Sangh Parivar calling the kissing bunch – ‘Western, un-cultured, freaks’. The student outfit of this same Parivar – the ABVP – continues to trash every idea of women’s choice in the book as they carry on campaigns against live-in relationships in places like Delhi University and promise to take this campaign countrywide.

Meanwhile, a national spokesperson of our ruling party, the hollow-headed Shaina NC takes gender-phobia and misogyny to a sparkling new level when, at a function in Jaipur recently, she says that she does not know whether the BSP leader Mayawati is a “he or a she”. Yes, because a Dalit woman who heads her own party and is powerful, spoils the very foundation of your fragile, Brahmanical, chiffon femininity. When we march in the Pride parade in Delhi this 30th November, we march against all of these signs of dogmatism. We raise alarm against all of them. We celebrate the possibility of the world which does not have to meet the likes of Hijra-phobic police forces, of misogynist student outfits whose world sees no colour but khaki and saffron, of moralizing, casteist social forces who we hope will finally go gently into that good night.

My second reason is equally important. That Delhi Queer pride, along with pride marches in some other countries of the global south, are the last standing bulwarks of a vision of LGBT politics that is celebratory without being apolitical. That the future of LGBT politics that is worth its salt is being written on the streets of Delhi, Kolkata, Dhaka or Kampala. Because, otherwise, there are such perverse ways in which the rhetoric of LGBT rights have been redrawn around the world. Consider this – we live in a time when Israel uses the lexicon of LGBT rights and the fact that it has homosexual soldiers in its army, as a legitimizing device for its genocidal offensive against Palestine. It’s a sad day for LGBT politics to find itself turning into an alleyway where it lends even a shred of credibility to one of the most gruesome and oldest military occupations in the world. That is not the future we want to write for LGBT politics in India. Or, for instance, consider the fact that the Human Rights Campaign in the U.S.A. – which calls itself the country’s largest “civil rights” organization working for equality of LGBT Americans – recently named, without sensing any contradiction, Monsanto, the “best place to work for LGBT equality”. One could have vomited. Monsanto has created havoc in the world of seeds and farming around the world. But the HRC mandate is that the farmers who are brought to starvation due to Monsato’s policies around the world, India included, farmers who are facing ruining lawsuits from the company for patent infringement, are to be easily written off the calculus of a self-involved LGBT politics. If HRC has it its way around the world, the shroud covering the Indian cotton farmer who has committed suicide due to bankruptcy, will be rainbow coloured. And we don’t want that day ever to come.

In India, LGBT politics has not come to this form, not yet, but strong signs of it are there and we have to resist them with all our might. In the Delhi Queer Pride this year, we march as individuals, holding in our hands the promise of a world in which LGBT politics runs with a larger progressive mandate and ties up with a larger vision of equality for all, not just for few gays and lesbians who have made it. We march against the rising tide of fanaticism and censorship in our own country, and within our government, and to tell the world around us, that we who believe in equality, freedom and pleasure, of every kind and on all counts, are here to stay and to remake the world in our mould. Watch out for us all.

Akhil Katyal is a writer and translator based in Delhi. His first book of poetry “Night Charge Extra” is forthcoming with Writers Workshop in June, 2015.

The post LGBT Or Not, Why Delhi Queer Pride Is For Everyone! appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Rachita Taneja: 

Prakash Javadekar
Minister of State – Environment, Forests and Climate Change
Government of India

We are writing to express a deep concern over the future of the Western Ghats and the biodiversity heritage it holds.

The Western Ghats are an important part of India’s ecological balance. This is perhaps, why 39 properties have been declared as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The area of the Western Ghats covers less than 6% of India yet it comprises of more than 30% of the country’s entire biodiversity. These are only some of the few reasons why it has become one of only ten areas in the world recognized as a biodiversity hotspot.

People living in this region depend on the ecosystem of the Ghats either directly or indirectly. With annual rainfall ranging from 50 to 700 cm, and several perennial rivers, the Western Ghats provide for farming and livelihood to almost 300 million Indians.

But the Western Ghats are under threat and have been under threat for years now. As the Western Ghats Ecological Expert Panel stated in their report,

“…expansion of commercial plantation in Western Ghats has led to fragmentation of forest, soil erosion, degradation of river ecosystems and toxic contamination of the environment”

The threats to the Western Ghats are wide and varied: forest loss in the Western Ghats has been so rapid that out of the original 182,500 km² of primary vegetation, only 12,450 km²  (i.e. 6.8%) remains. This means that most of the Ghats have been logged and converted into power plants, mines or agricultural land, threatening local communities, and the rich biodiversity.

With environmental laws being diluted, the future of the Western Ghats hangs in the balance. Right now, we are at a critical turning point: decisive action will be crucial if we are to avert a series of environmental and human rights catastrophes that will affect generations to come.

We appeal to the government to uphold the recommendations of the Gadgil report which states that 66% of the Western Ghats that have been demarcated as “Ecologically Sensitive” should not be opened up to mining, construction or any other environmentally destructive activities. Furthermore, we encourage the government to ensure that any development plans have high level of participation from local people, Gram Panchayats and village level institutions.

We strongly urge the Environment Minister and the Government to ensure that the Western Ghats, and the communities that rely on it, receive all the support required to survive and thrive. We cannot let such an important ecosystem be destroyed in the name of a development that is unlikely to benefit those who are most dependent on this land.

Sign the petition here.

The post An Open Later To The Environment Minister: Why We Need To Protect The Western Ghats, And Fast appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Prerana Y.S.K:

In India, a woman is raped every 32 minutes.
A minor girl is abducted every 36 minutes.
A girl is trafficked every 46 minutes.
A woman is sexually harassed every 12 minutes.
21 women are murdered every day.

And this is the why feminism is called ‘feminism’ and not ‘humanism’ or ‘penises have been oppressed for too long now’, dear Men’s Rights Activists. Because women have been oppressed for so long that they are a symbol of oppression, and that’s what the “fem” in feminism refers to.

Globally, and on Youth Ki Awaaz, feminism has been a recurring theme and a rather controversial one. Some people seem to be of the opinion that feminism propagates women to take up a violent duel with men, and sadly, that might even be true if you keep calling us ‘bra burning and men hating feminazis’.

Being a feminist, I’d like to clear the air and state that feminism seeks gender equality and not the overthrowing and domination of a certain gender, unlike the men’s rights activism; go to Wikipedia, and you’ve got your proof, more so because Wikipedia is written and articulated by the common people themselves.

Actually, I firmly believe that feminism is the only solution to gender justice and it’s not about men or women only but the entire spectrum of gender and sexes; One cannot limit feminism to the empowerment of women, yes, but one cannot refuse the fact that upliftment of women and the LGBTQ community is a basic necessity for our society to achieve gender equality.

Afterall, how many men are burnt in dowry deaths? How many men are permitted to emote outside their loos? How many bisexuals are considered ‘legitimate’?

Also, as the famous feminist Jessica Valenti often keeps reiterating, “Feminism isn’t simply about being a woman in a position of power. It’s battling systemic inequities; it’s a social justice movement that believes sexism, racism and classism exist and interconnect, and that they should be consistently challenged”.

Observing an ideology similar to Valenti’s, an independent arts collective -Eye – which is also anti-establishment, queer positive, and anti racist, has come up with a feminist convention called Hysteria to initiate a healthy and intellectual conversation about feminism on a public forum in India.

It is a rather revolutionary concept and ideology; its primary aim is to make its audience – be they curious, concerned, or indifferent – question the world they inhabit, and the rules that govern it.

By extension, they hope to make their audience question themselves.

This is exactly what is needed in today’s dogmatic and hypocritical world which seems to be suffering from ‘pseudo-intellectual diarrhoea’.

When asked why the team behind Hysteria had opted for the name ‘Hysteria’, Manisha Ganguly, Co-Creator of Hysteria and Eye, replied- “Inherently patriarchal, the concept of hysteria as a mental illness was created to restrict independent feminine spirit, and conform women to the set stereotype of domesticity and docility. We wanted to obliterate the relation to this fictional “feminine” mental illness, reclaim the word from oppressive patriarchal connotations, and through it, expose the desperate attempt made by patriarchy to control and stigmatize independent spirit, and prevent the development of the feminist movement”.

They further explained “By reclaiming this word as feminist, we are in essence, raging against the patriarchy and no longer look upon this word as an insult, but as a pathology that speaks to and against the patriarchy. Secondly, we also wish to redeem the frenzy as something far from chaotic madness. Hysteria, to us, is the frenzy of an uprising that is a deliberate attack on the patriarchy; an attack that speaks out against gender discrimination, and gender violence, and works methodically to expose and demolish patriarchal machinery in everyday life”.

As a consumer of their ideology, the complex cognitive processes behind this nomenclature surprise me and lead me to further believe in the legitimacy of their cause and convictions.

Keeping their ideologies and the need of contemporary India in mind, the convention tries to launch dialogue on themes such as the male gaze in cinema and art, rape culture and the patriarchy, fascism in the Indian context, gender, queer theory and LGBTQ rights, sexual harassment at work, etc.

These are very pressing themes in India which need to be overtly and overly debated and deliberated upon so as to reach a mutually beneficial and equally worthy conclusion.

Further, volunteers at Eye believe in artivism – a beautiful amalgamation of art and activism, and in today’s world, where creativity as a medium has been bound to experiential schools and youth of Kolkata, it’s an innovative move to club social welfare with creative outlets of the members of the society, eventually leading to a more erudite society.

Personally, this revolutionary feminist convention comes across as India’s kick-start towards tackling our ignorance and inexperience with regard to the taboo theme of gender, sexuality and equality for all.

I have suffered the brunt of our society’s sexism and repetitive stereotyping on a daily basis: ‘Why’d you crop your hair short? Are you gay? Do you want to get raped, why go out after 9:30pm? This lake is not for women; please go back to your posh locality. Stop being so tough, you tomboy! You have a thing for that guy? He’s so gay, though!’.

Argh.

I really need these dull witted and imbecile comments to stop, and right now, Hysteria seems like a stepping stone to better our vapid society.

“Our convention is open to all who are victims of gender oppression, such as sexism, misogyny, trans misogyny, cissexism, transphobia and binarism. We seek to empower and liberate everyone targeted by the patriarchy and the kyriarchy. If this applies to you, you are welcome as long as you act in accordance with our safer spaces policy,” said Aranya Gupta, Co-Creator of Hysteria and Eye, and Manisha’s partner in crime.

And if you are, well, go ahead and be a part of this collective outrage against the inertia of Patriarchal Oppression!

Click here to know more about Hysteria, or help out with their cause.

Donate here, because they’re all young and penniless (like us).

The post ‘Hysteria': Of Feminism, Gender Equality And The Collective Outrage Against Patriarchy appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Oxfam India:

I screamed and burst into tears, “You don’t understand my feelings. What kind of solutions are you suggesting?” The counselor on the other side of the table however sat calmly, unfazed by the outburst. “Well, I am in love with him and you tell me to leave him. Will I not be upset?” I demanded to know. But Meena didi (the Social Worker) did not even blink at my tantrums. And I slowly realised that she was only testing me and my determination to sustain the relationship. And then she became my confidante and friend.

It all began when I fell in love with Dasarathi, my classmate in college, and we got married at a temple. I belong to a Scheduled Caste while Dasarathi belongs to a Scheduled Tribe, a social grouping that is considered higher than SCs in Kandhamal.

After we started living together, I realised that he was a very possessive person. He did not like the fact that I was working because to him that meant that I would be interacting with other men. He got so jealous after a point that he wanted me to quit my government job as a teacher. And I did… for him! Though we struggled for money, it was ok with us.

The fairytale went on until one day his estranged family decided to intervene. His brother dropped in one day and took him out for a while. Dasarathi told me he would be back in just a bit, and since his brother had come to their house for the first time, he would be staying for dinner. He left me with instructions that I should start cooking. I got on with the task and cooked an elaborate meal. All done, I waited for them to return. But they never came back home.

After waiting until the next morning, I called him and got to know that his brother had taken him away and had no plans of sending him back. Aghast and alone, I spent days trying to contact him. At times, he would send messages that he will come home soon but never turned up. Then, 26 days later, I went to the Women Support Centre at Phulbani’s Superintendant of Police’s office, run by ISD. I had seen the sign board many times so I knew where the Centre was. What I did not know was that I would need it one day.

The Centre staff listened to my whole story, established the fact that I was never legally married to Dasarathi and that it was unlikely that he would come back. They now needed to work out a strategy and, as a first step, asked me to move in with my parents. I asked them to send a letter to him but the social workers told me to be patient. And that a letter may be perceived mistakenly as a divorce notice. They wanted to meet him and talk to him.

I faced problems from other quarters too. My parents refused to take me back but agreed to let me live with my grandmother. I was now jobless too, and so I joined the training centre at Ahimsa NGO, working as a counselor. I also shifted to the government run shelter home attached to the NGO.

My husband would repeatedly call me and say a lot of sweet nothings. He would come to visit and bring gifts. But, there never was a word of commitment from him on when he would get back together with me.

When the Support Centre finally sent him a notice, his elder brother appeared and argued on his behalf. I argued that my husband was not a child and that he should come and settle matters. Yet, nothing happened. There was even a time when he got drunk and came to Ahimsa to argue with me. When our Director intervened, he beat the Director up and had to be arrested. It was a very frustrating time for me. But the Support Centre did not let me give up.

I had left my job for him. I had to even terminate a pregnancy because he did not want children yet. And his disappearance is what I got as a reward. But Ahimsa taught me confidence. So while I wanted that he be punished, I did not want to leave him either because I loved him so much.

The Support Centre then arranged for another meeting where Dasarathi finally showed up, apologised and agreed for a court marriage. The counseling team facilitated an agreement for a court marriage. It was then that I, because of the support from the social workers, decided that I did not want to marry him. He had no respect for me, why should I then do this was my question. His face was a sight to behold when I said that. While initially reluctant, I finally agreed to the marriage. The main issue for him was that his elder brother was ostracizing him as I belonged to a lower caste according to them. And that because of this, he might never find a suitable bride. That was the peg his brother used for an emotional blackmail.

With Dasharathi agreeing to a court marriage, and his family coming around, I in a way proved that I can fight my battles and win them too. “Sabita stands as an icon for fight against caste discrimination and politics in Kandhamal which has been a hotbed for so much contempt and stigma based on caste for so long,” said Meena, the social worker at the Support Centre.

Needless to say, my wedding was a family affair for the WSC team who backed me at each step in my pursuit of happiness.

The post “I Quit My Job And Even Terminated A Pregnancy For Him, And Then He Disappeared!” appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Anshul Mittal:

My friend was gang raped by a group of girls and no he didn’t enjoy it.

Yes, you read it right. However unbelievable it may sound, but men are also raped, they are also sexually assaulted, and it is not something that they enjoy. We all are familiar with the famous movie ‘Aitraaz’. Although it was only reel life, but it was based on a very important issue of our real lives which is going unnoticed in our society. According to an article that quotes a Human Rights Watch Report, one in every two boys is sexually abused in India. So why is it that whenever we hear the word sexual harassment we only think of a girl, a woman or an old lady as a victim?

Picture Credit

The sexual harassment of women at workplace Act, 2013 is not gender neutral. How is the mental agony a man faces of not getting promoted in his job because he is not sleeping with his boss any different from that faced by a woman? The feminists argue that today our priority should be to protect women, assumed to be the weaker section of the society, and the male chauvinists boast that men are strong enough to take care of themselves. Being a woman myself, I believe that the only difference between a man and a woman is in their body structure and both of them deserve equality in all spheres of life.

While doing my research on this topic, I asked some of my friends what they thought about sexual assault of men. The majority of them were surprised to know that something like this even exists and those who did said that they were sure men enjoy such things. It is because of this attitude that such cases go unreported. Men fear that their masculinity will be questioned if they come out and tell what happened to them. Why do men need an approval from the society to prove their masculinity?

The decision to make rape laws gender neutral was taken by the Centre by passing the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 bill but this amendment was reversed the very same year. According to Pinky Behra, a practising lawyer in  the Supreme Court, ‘as section 375 of the Indian Penal Court stands, rape is something that only a man can do to a woman and if such an act is committed against a man he can only complaint with the police but cannot prosecute the accused in the court of law’.

The story of Vinodhan is one among the many unnoticed, unheard, uncared stories framing every day in India. Sexual assault is not simply a “crime of passion” where the perpetrator loses control. Rather it is about “power and control”. By turning a blind eye against sexual assault of men, are we ourselves making this a male dominant society? Do we ourselves believe that men are stronger than women? Do we want to live in that India which becomes safe for our daughters, but we are still scared to send our sons out of the house alone? It is time we make India safe for all its citizens and not only for the fairer sex and the first step in doing this is to overcome the mental block that men always want sex and they are never the “victims” of this act.

The post ‘My Friend Was Gang Raped By A Group Of Girls': Turning The Gaze On Male Rape appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

Youth Ki Awaaz recently organized ‘CONVERGE‘ – a series of talks ‘for those who give a damn’, on a diverse range of subjects from politics and society to entrepreneurship and writing. The first speaker was independent Journalist Neha Dixit who spoke at length on ‘the courage to tell a hidden story’. Neha, who covers development, gender and politics in South Asia and has reported for India Ink-The New York Times, Outlook, FountainInk, Al Jazeera and others, talks about corporate and political takeover of the media, why a story is killed and how journalists need to recognize their privilege.

Subscribe to the CONVERGE YouTube channel for more videos that we will put up regularly.

The post [VIDEO] Journalist Neha Dixit Talks About ‘The Courage To Tell A Hidden Story’ At CONVERGE appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.