How Indian and Chinese troops fought at Galwan River Valley

How Indian and Chinese troops fought at Galwan River Valley

Syed Ali Mujtaba

The Indian troops fight with PLA on Monday June 15, 2020 had claimed at least 23 soldiers’ lives. The death toll may go up as at least 24 soldiers are battling for life, said a senior government official familiar with the debriefing of Galwan valley survivors at the hospitals in Leh the capital of Ladak. There are over 110 Indian soldiers who are badly injured in same fight and are under treatment, said the same source. 

In response to the Indian causalities, the Indian Army source claim that  it intercepted a Chinese military communication suggesting that over 40 PLA soldiers were killed or injured in the fight with the Indian troops. There is no reaction from the Chinese side and they have not yet reported their causalities.  

The fighting began on Monday night, June 15, after Indian troops belonging to the 16 Bihar Regiment, under commanding officer, Colonel Santosh Babu dismantled a Chinese tent set up near a position code-named Patrol Point 14, close to the mouth of the Galwan River.

The tent that was there but was dismantled by the PLA as part of its disengagement process after the army commanders meeting held earlier was again set up at the same place.

Commanding officer Colonel Babu of 16 Bihar regiment ‘got orders from the top’ to go ahead and dismantle the tent.  He went with his troops that led to clashes with its Chinese counterpart and in the ensuing fight, the Indian troops burnt down the Chinese tent.   

 The PLA has made allegation that Colonel Babu’s troops crossed a buffer zone separating the two sides, violating border-management protocols and did not use the white flags and banners to enter the Chinese side. This prompted the Chinese side to engage the Indian soldiers into hand to hand fist fight.

 The Indian troops fought with bare hands for over eight hours in sub-zero temperatures and had no means of defense as there was no one to back them up.  On the contrary, the PLA had iron rods as well as batons wrapped in barbed wire. Some were even carrying improvised weapons but were non fire arms.

The PLA hunted down the unarmed Indian soldiers when they started running away from the fight and killed some of them without showing any mercy. Few Indian soldiers who fled the scene and ran to the hillsides were also chased and killed by the PLA. One Indian soldier, jumped into the Galwan River in a desperate effort to save his life, but was pulled out from the water and killed.

The PLA dragged many Indian soldiers to their side and killed them in a cold blood manner. Later their dead bodies were handed over to the Indian side.

The investigation and inquiries of this incident is a procedural matter, but the obvious questions that every Indian has in mind is who had ordered Colonel Santosh Babu and lead his troops and dismantle the Chinese tent. Knowing very it’s lion’s den why the lambs were sent to become the mincemeat.

The Indian soldiers were not killed in action but were done to death by those who commanded them to go to the Chinese side. 

Secondly, why there were no backup troops when the Indian soldiers came under attack by the PLA.  Even the Indian rescue operation was shoddy. The Indian casualties could have been minimized if the evacuation could have been done swiftly.

Well answers to these questions cannot be brushed behind the veil of defense secrecy. What has happened at Galwan is a national shame. Those who have brought disrepute to the Indian Army should not go unpunished.

Tailpiece: This report is prepared based on the available open sources. The author does not claim any responsibility for the authenticity of the source. The questions that are raised are in larger public interest and with the objective is to give vent to people’s concerns.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

2002 Gujarat Riot Victim’s Rehabilitation Woes Continues

2002 Gujarat Riot Victim’s Rehabilitation Woes Continues

Syed Ali Mujtaba

The woe of the victim families of the Gujarat riots of 2002 continues unabated. Even 18 years after that horrendous communal program the victims are living in utter neglect.

Close to two lakh people were displaced in the 2002 Gujarat riots. These people remained displaced for more than a year then some Muslim relief organizations, along with a few local NGOs, settled 16,087 people in 83 relief colonies spread across Gujarat.

What happened to the rest of the people neither the government nor do the NGOs have any clue, none has ever kept any account of such internally displaced people.

Among the 16,087 displaced people, some 200 victim families were rehabilitated at Dhoraji Nagar and Citizen Nagar in Ahmadabad. This was done with the help of local Muslim philanthropists.  

Citizen Nagar a slum of 40 houses, popularly known as Bombay hotel area, was donated by the Kerala Muslim League Relief Committee then headed by late E. Ahmed, MP from Malappuram.  

Close to both Dhoraji Nagar and Citizen Nagar localities is Ahmadabad’s Pirana garbage dump yard which is one-kilometer long and fifty feet high heap of trash. As the garbage dumping from all over the city continues, its foul smell pervades the entire atmosphere over these two colonies. The bad smell causes breathing problem to the people living in there.

A PIL seeking closure of the Pirana garbage dump is pending in the Gujarat high court and no one seems to be bothered about its impact on the public health.

There is no traversable road to these rehabilitation colonies. During the rainy season, the filth from the garbage dump comes inside the houses of these human habitats and continues till the monsoon ends.

There is no regular outflow of the sewage from these localities. Water borne diseases are common in the twin colonies.  The ground water is not potable and people have to travel some distance to get drinkable water.  

There is no primary health centers located in these localities. There is no school for the children there. Mostly children go to the garbage dump yard to pick up rags or something useful that they can sell.

Most men are doing low level jobs in the chemical factories nearby. The average income of the family here is about INR two thousand per month. Most of them are daily-wage earners and their earnings are insufficient for a family unit of five or six.  

Like all the relief colonies spread across Gujarat, these two rehabilitation colonies were also set up as a temporary camp but now have burgeoned into a permanent slum.

However, the ownership documents of these dwellings have not yet been given to the rehabilitated families. This is a major issue and because this most of these people face the problem in getting a PAN card, Aadhaar, passport or even a loan.

The Gujarat government had promised the development of these Muslim ghettos where the riot victims are living but even after eighteen years their apathy is palpable.

Pandemic has exposed the knowledge base of India’s ruling elite

Pandemic has exposed the knowledge base of India’s ruling elite

Syed Ali Mujtaba

Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist and a demi- god to the students of International Relations world over. In his recent essay ‘The Pandemic and Political Order- It Takes a State’ in the July/August 2020 Volume of Foreign Affairs, he has come up with some poignant analysis of the responses of different countries to the global pandemics COVID 19.

Francis Fukuyama, the author of the book ‘The End of History and the Last Man,’ (1992), in the current essay says many things about how different states are dealing with the novel virus. However, the nugget of his wisdom is his comment that ‘the knowledge base of the governments is directly proportional to their response to deal with the novel virus.’

What the celebrated author is trying say is the global pandemic has unmasked the governing capacity of those currently in power in different countries. He goes on to say the virus has put to test the knowledge of the governments and their responses are as per the limitation of their knowledge base.   

Now if we apply this hypothesis of well-respected author Francis Fukuyama on Indian ruling elite and try to dig into their knowledge base, we can get the answer why their response to such a catastrophe has been so squinted so far.

We all know the knowledge base of our politicians. The educational qualifications of some of them are a national shame. Our Prime Minster Narendra Damodardas Modi has a BA degree in Political Science and got a third class. He graduated from School of Open Learning, University of Delhi in 1978. The educational qualification of the Union minister Smriti Irani is only 10 + 2.  

Now if this educational background of the political leadership the only comment that comes in mind is; Bas ek hi ullu kaafi hai barbaad gulistan karne ko, har shaakh pe ullu baitha hai anjaame gulistan kya hoga… ( just only one owl is sufficient to ruin a garden, when there is an owl at every branch, God only knows the fate of the garden!)

Some counter the above argument saying that the deficiencies of the political figures are covered by the bureaucrats who advises them with their supra intellectual knowledge base.

Now if we dig the knowledge base of our bureaucracy  supposedly the backbone of the knowledge base of the governance of the country many may concur that these ‘Babu’s’ knowledge growth stops once  they pass the civil service exams. Thereafter their effort is in playing the “2+2= 5” game. This means their priority is on promotion and pay scale increment rather than enhancing their knowledge base.  

Further, these bureaucrats are posted in different capacities with different jobs and by the time they gain some knowledge in a given area of specialization they are being transferred. This makes them jack of all and master of none.

In sum, the knowledge base of the steel frame of India is quite shallow and their advice to the political leadership is corresponding to their knowledge base.

Now, if such is the character and composition of the knowledge base of the ruling elite of the country, then obviously their response to deal with the Pandemic could be equated to the parable; ‘the Blind Men and an Elephant.’  So this is the dilemma of Indian ruling elite in dealing with the novel virus.

Industrialist Rajiv Bajaj has succinctly summed up this phenomenon when he taunted that the government has flattened the wrong curve! 

This is exactly what Francis Fukuyama was talking about while making the point that poor knowledge base of the ruling elite is directly responsible for the mismanagement of the global problem.

Fukuyama goes on to make the statement on China from where it is widely believed that corona virus has emerged. He says that even as the Chinese ruling elite were the first to face the heat of the pandemics, they showed extra ordinary reflexes in dealing with the problem. And this reflects upon the knowledge base of the Chinese ruling elite.

Fukuyama further says, other governments who are now struggling with the Pandemics were just sitting with the problem till it started knocking their doors. Their delayed decision to deal with the problem has exposed their poor knowledge base.

As far as India is concerned, the world health organization (WHO) has been issuing warnings about coronavirus attack since November 2019. The Indian ruling elite did not take it seriously and never thought of making preparation for dealing with the virus.

Even after three months when the first Covid case was reported from Thrissur, Kerala on January 30, 2020 and that was the date when WHO issued the sixth warming, Indian ruling elite never woke up to the simmering reality.

In the month of February Indian ruling elite was busy in preparation of hosting ‘Namaste Trump’ event in Gujarat. In March the government was busy till 21^st, toppling the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. So roughly 120 days the ruling elite squandered at the expense of the lives of the countrymen.

It was only from March 25, 2020, that the government became serious about dealing with the pandemics. In the best of its wisdom what the government did was to totally lock down the country for next 54 days. This ill-conceived government response to the pandemic never slowed down the attack of the virus rather it spurred in this period, exposing the utter failure of the government in dealing with the problem.

In the process what the ruling elite actually did was to take the India’s GDP in its hands and threw it down the cliff. Now it’s collecting its pieces and trying to kick start the economy by giving stimulus packages.   This is the rarest kind of human rascality in the contemporary history of the world.

As Indian we are all witness to the bankruptcy of the knowledge base of the ruling elite of the country.  The responsibility of committing such a disaster can be fixed on the poor knowledge of the governing class of India. Truly, the pandemic has exposed the governing capacity of India’s ruling elite.

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Syed Ali Mjtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com        

Muslims Need Advocacy Body to Protect Muslims

Muslims Need Advocacy Body to Protect Muslims     

Syed Ali Mujtaba

Indian Muslim constitutes about 12 % of the total population of the country. However, since independence they have never faced such a hostile situation as they are facing now, under the shadow of Covid -19. It seems the Covid-19 has ripped open India’s communal underbelly from where radical Hindus are swamping across the country with anti-Muslim – anti-Islam rants.

In just recent memory we all know how Muslims were vilified for the Tabligi Jamat activity. Then emerges the case of Dr Aarti Lalchandani, principal of government hospital in Kanpur, who was caught on camera saying Coronavirus positive Muslims are terrorists and should be killed. The latest addition to it is the lie from Maneka Gandhi, ex BJP MP who vilified the Muslims of Mallapuram for the killing of an elephant in Kerala.

The conclusion is the spread of communal virus is something which has come to stay with us and the community has to address the growing hate crime against Muslims in India. In this context, there is an urgent need for a nongovernmental organization to deal with all such issues affecting the Muslims. This NGO should serve as a platform to find effective solutions for the increasing persecution of the Muslims in India. 

Muslim persecution has become more pronounced after the BJP government has come to power in 2014. It appears that all and sundry got a license to persecute the Muslims in a well thought out political project in India. As part of such project, many organizations have sprouted up in many states, spewing venom against the Muslims in the India.  

Hate crimes are mostly executed with the support of local politicians, police and local administration. They all work in tandem with right wing Hindu organizations to execute the task to persecute the Muslims. Most of these organizations are run by some radical youth having a strong political support. Most of these crimes go unpunished and that gives strength to such groups to attack Muslims with impunity.

Lynching of Muslims has become a normal crime today that was never thought off before in India. Hate Speeches against Muslims again has become a common feature in the country. Those engaged in targeting the Muslims are mostly politicians, people in power and position and even religious heads. All these crimes are committed in the name of Hindu nationalism but none ever get prosecuted.

During the Covid-19 lockdown the persecutions of Muslims have increased many folds. After the Tabigi Jamat incident many Muslims were beaten up and their homes are vandalized. Some were socially boycotted in many places and even excommunicated.

The motive of the Hindutva forces is to attack the Muslims to cultivate a fear among them about the superiority of the Hindu community. Such anti minority campaign is to build majority vote bank to win elections.       

The fact is Hindu religious fanaticism is growing beyond any one’s imagination in India. The executive, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, even the press are hands in gloves with the conspirators against the Muslim community.

In such situation how do does Muslim community can handle this campaign going on against them in India? Obviously Muslims have to organize themselves.  This could be in the form of a body that may look into the cases of persecution and provide legal and financial help to the needy. The effort of such an organization should be to provide the necessary relief to the victims of the religious persecution. 

Such a NGO should be a monitoring group with the task list out the cases of Muslim persecution taking place in India. It should document the source of persecution, categorizing them into political, government, individuals etc. There should be a proper documentation of the nature of Muslim persecution on all India level.     

The task of such NGO should be to highlight the cases of Muslim persecution through the media. It should be done to generate support of the wider secular audience and act as advocacy body for the victims of the religious persecution.  

The composition of such NGO should be individuals and organizations from the Muslim community and also like minded people drawn from other communities. However, below such superstructure, there should be a solid base of thousands of volunteers that needs to be established from all over India to support such cause.

The mission of this organization should be to provide comprehensive support to the persecuted Muslims of India. Cases involving widows, women and children and families should get top priority.  Among those who are beaten up and need medical emergencies must get immediate support. Those whose homes are vandalized should may also get due attention.

The mandate of such organization should be the constitutional rights of the Muslims are not being flaunted and they are not being discriminated on religious grounds. This organization should liaison with the government officials and courts and those Muslims taken into custody on false accusations should be given legal aid.

Any such organization should have an all India structure and have to be coordinated from a central toll free phone number. There should be a dedicated phone number where such cases are reported by the community members. The volunteers should be immediately rushed to the troubled spot contacted on the WhatsApp. In such effort there should be partnerships with like minded organization working on the ground to come to help the Muslim community.

Such an NGO should take up the numerous cases that could be filed in courts against the hate mongers. And for this, the most important thing is to organize the Muslim lawyers on All India basis. Such legal forum can alone stop such communal virus spreading in the country.   

In this context Muslims also have to find an independent media platform to air their views. The social media platform can be used to reach out to the millions.  This could be done through starting websites both in English and regional languages. Many Muslim youth are waiting to do such activity provided if someone gives them a head start.  There is also need to nurture some websites that are dedicated to Muslim cause.   

There is also a need to start media schools to train Muslim youth enter the media industry. They should be made job ready to find employment in this growing media industry. One such media school is already running in Chennai called QIAMS (www.qiams.in). Such idea needs to be replicated elsewhere in India. As a starting point, some students can be mobilized from different location of India and sent to Chennai for media training.   

In sum, the foremost thing in all such effort is to build trust and confidence of the community towards such an organization. It is high time for the Muslims to get organized on these lines as such effort can alone give them any hope to live with dignity in India.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

Migrant Worker’s Plight Rips Open India’s Underbelly

Migrant Worker’s Plight Rips Open India’s Underbelly   

Syed Ali Mujtaba

The most powerful theme during the Covid-19 is the social murder of the migrant workers committed by the Prime Minister of India who knowingly created conditions for them when he announced the nationwide lock down on March 24, 2020 in just four hours of notice.

This singular announcement deprived some Eight crore (80000000) people from bare necessities of daily living and pushed them in a position of hunger, starvation and beggar for mercy.  

The entire country is witness to this social murder committed by one individual who pushed a large swath of population into destitute.  Perhaps after the Bengal famine of 1943, this is the singular man made disaster created by the self-appointed C-in-C to lead the Covid 19 war.  

The story of the poorest migration to urban India could be traced to the neo-liberalism that started in the 1990s with the opening up of the economy in India. All and sundry from the countryside started flocking into the big cities lured by opportunities and exciting possibilities. These cities not only sustained them but also improved the well being of their life and also of their families in the native villages.

According to the 2010 census there were Four crore migrant workers engaged in various works in different parts of urban India. This Four crore now is estimated to have swelled to Eight crore according to some unofficial reports. 

As the Madhya Pradesh operation-topple got over on March 21, the government woke up to the threats of Covid 19 and abruptly announced the lock down of the country on March 24, 2020.

This singular announcement closed down the construction activities, factories and industries and other allied activities lock stock and barrel. The majority of the workforce employed in these economic activities became jobless as employers pushed them out of their premises without giving them any salary or succor for survival.

This horrendous move forced the laborers to an uncertain future and willy-nilly they had to return to their native places with nothing to eat.  The reverse migration is one of the biggest stories of independent India caused by the hasty decision of the Prime Minister of the country.  

The sudden lock down created an economic and humanitarian crisis unprecedented in the country.  The most shocking fact was the national media initially decided to sit out of this story, but when economic hardship and denial of life became heart rendering, a few media outlets did come in open to narrate the human suffering created by the ill-conceived idea of lock down to contain the Covid-19.

The government’s sudden decision to shut the nation stripped invisible millions of their livelihood as 81 % of the urban population, 87% of the rural population lost their jobs. In April alone, some 1220 crore jobs were lost and about 1215 lakh workers were rendered jobless. The unemployment rate shot up to an unprecedented 26% from 8% due to nationwide lock down. Further, the economic growth fell to a zero, with some financial institutions pegging it at 0.1 GDP%, and some even giving it negative points.

Industrialist Rajiv Bajaj succulently summed up these phenomena; “A draconian but porous lock down to slow the spread of coronavirus ended up flattening the wrong curve and left the country with the worst of both worlds.”

When Prime Minister Modi announced the first lock down he was reported to have said, his one crore party members will feed five people each from March 26, totaling almost 265 crore plates of food.  But no BJP member came forward to feed the hungry on the ground.

What actually happened were the chilling images beamed o the TV sets of a man eating raw meat of a dead animal at a national highway, a man using his bare hand to drink split milk on the road while a dog was licking the same, a toddler playing with her dead mother's corpse on a railway platform, as sidelight of the lock down.

 

The images also told the most humiliating story of the police brutality committed on these migrant workers to enforce the lock down. The police were seen flogging the half-dead migrants in a bid to stop them from being infected by the Coronavirus. The brutality of the police force on the helpless migrant workers will remain etched on the minds of all those who watched such images on their TV sets.

Why the order did to the police not come with the message of being compassionate to migrant workers is a sad commentary on the uncouth elements that are running the largest democracy in the world.      

It is a matter of introspection why the lock down was not announced a week after these workers was sent home safely. The only answer is that forming the BJP IN Madhya Pradesh was more important than the Covid-19.

 

Since the lock down was announced after the disaster management act was operation, the central government did not take up the responsibility to make the arrangements to transport the people affected by the government’s announcement. What the central government did was to shift its burden on the state government and this burden was tossed back and forth till the workers decided to take toughest journeys of their lives.

With their livelihoods being stripped and nothing being left for them to fall back, the workers had decided to walk miles, covering 500-1000 km at a stretch. Soon the trickle became an exodus and highways were stamped with the invisible million’s bleeding feet, as men, women and children walked on foot or on their rickety cycles, most often without footwear.

The workers braving the scorching sun, carrying their meager belongings, also their tiny tots, some even their old parents on their backs made their arduous journey. On the way they were treated with disdain and had to face police brutality and humiliation. They were seen being sprayed with insecticide as if they are the carriers of the coronavirus. In their entire journey hardly a few came forward to mitigate their sufferings.

Accidents were another fatal blow to these migrant workers on the move. Nearly 200 migrant workers died in road accidents and the majority of deaths in accidents took place during the third phase of the lockdown (May 4 - May 17).

In one of the heart-rending accidents, 16 migrant workers were crushed to death by a freight train in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district on May 8. The workers were tired and slept on the tracks when the train ran over them. In another accident, at least eight people died when a truck they were traveling in collided with a bus in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna on May 14. Likewise, on May 16 at least 24 migrant laborers were killed when a truck in which they were travelling collided with another vehicle in Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya.

The fact that the government announced the ’shramik special’ trains to ferry stranded migrant workers to their native places but the first such train ferried passengers on May 1. Here the question is why only 300 trains were pressed into service initially, when Railway has the capacity to run 19 000 trains daily. 

The ‘shramik special’ were started especially to ferry the passengers’ free of cost but a big fuss was made as to who will foot the bill. The central government passed the buck on state government and after the buck being passed back and forth it was extracted from the passengers, some say the cumulative income was Rs 20-22 crores.

The most outrageous thing that happened was when two of the “shramik” trains headed for Bihar, one reached Orissa, the other Delhi!  All such trains were running for 40 hours and had no arrangements for food or water. This was how the train journey of migrant workers took place under Covid -19 lock down.

If the foot and train journey were miserable, the bus journey was still painful for the migrant workers. Hearing the rumor that free buses were arranged for them to take home they gathered with their families at Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi but soon they realized that it was a hoax and so they decided to walk their way. There was utter confusion in providing them the services. Again the centre and state governments had tiff on bearing the cost in the end when the buses were pressed into service it overcharged laborers for the journey that was meant to be free of cost for them. 

On reaching home these labors did not get any comfort. The government provided little direct relief to them to take care of their livelihood. On the other hand, several state governments decided to suspend labor laws, including minimum safety norms, even subjecting them to 12 hour work days. 

Even as all these were happening acrimony between UP Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath and MNS chief, Raj Thackeray broke out on the issue of laborers. The UP CM announced to ‘seek permission for migrant workers’ and MNS leader retorting ‘laborers will have to seek nod of the Maharashtra government if they wish to work there.’    

The fifty four days lock down of the country from March 25 to May 31st was the harshest punishment given to the country to contain the spread of the Covid-19. It was done without proper planning and foreseeing the difficulties of the people especially the migrant workers.

While one government order took away the livelihood from them there was no economic support provided to them. The impact of the lock down un-stitched the vulnerability of this segment of the society to the bleeding point. The fact is even basic justice was denied to them. This was the most unjust aspect of the current dispensation under Covid 19 lock down.  

These migrant workers are in dire need of a national register for meaningful socio-economic interventions to be made to them. But no government is keen to do such exercise. They want to use them as vote banks for elections and abuse them during the time of crisis. Neither the government nor the society has any remorse towards their sufferings. So no bell tolls for the migrant workers in India, this is the sum and summary of the migrant workers story under the Covid-19.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

Dead Elephant Ploy Maneka’s Gift to Anti-Muslim Media

Dead Elephant Ploy Maneka’s Gift to Anti-Muslim Media

Syed Ali Mujtaba

ANTI-MUSLIM propaganda refuses to die down in India. After the Tablighi Jamaat, Muslims of Malappuram district of Kerala have become the target of communal propaganda for purportedly killing a pregnant elephant apparently died of eating pineapple laced with explosives.

According to forest officials, the wild elephant had left the forests of the Silent Valley in Palakkad district and wandered into the nearby village in search of food and reached Mannarkkad, where it found the cracker-stuffed pineapple. When the pachyderm consumed the pineapple, an explosion stuffed in it went off badly injuring her. The elephant was left in searing pain and eventually died standing in a river.

The tragic incident actually happened in Mannarkkad, in Palakkad district and not in Muslim majority Malappuram district which actually is about 54 Kms from Mannarkkad.

But a BJP leader and the ‘godi media’ were prompt to link the incident to the Muslim majority Malappuram district. The entire event was communalised with thousands of Hindu zealots using their twitter handles to spread Islamophobia. Once again an anti Tablighi Jamaat-like atmosphere was created in the country.

The anti-Muslim canard owes it to the BJP MP and former Union minister, Maneka Gandhi, who made a nasty comment on her twitter handle @Manekagandhibjp about the incident. Holding the entire Muslim population of the Malappuram district responsible for the animal’s death, she tried to vilify the community.

“Mallapuram is known for its intense criminal activity especially with regards to animals. No action has ever been taken against a single poacher or wildlife killers, so they keep doing it. I can only suggest that you call/mail and ask for action”, she commented on the elephant’s death in a tweet.

Later, Maneka Gandhi repeated the same lines while talking to the News agency, Asia News International (ANI). She portrayed Malappuram as India’s most violent district. “It is a murder, Malappuram is famous for such incidents, and it’s India’s most violent district. For instance, they throw poison on roads so that 300-400 birds & dogs die at one time,” she told ANI.

Maneka’s comment has a political perspective. The BJP is gleefully carrying on its head this burden of Nehru dynasty which has no relevance to BJP politics. So, her comment is sure to turn the heads of her BJP and RSS masters. They would recognise her hidden talent and reward her for the same. This lie of the former BJP MP was to bell the Muslim cat and hog the limelight.

As soon as Meneka Gandhi’s comment was made public, the “Godi media” including Times Now, Republic TV, Zee News, India TV, Dainik Jagaran, Hindustan Times, News18, First Post as well as many Hindi and English news outlets lapped it up without verifying geographic location of the incident.

To add spice to the story, the Godi media started demographically profiling the Muslim dominated Malappuram district. What it obliquely pointed was the Muslim majority district is a thorn in India’s Hindu identity. This is not the first time the media did this. Some time back, it projected Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh as a terror factory and a center of Indian Mujahedin.

The other aspect of media’s ingenuity was that like the Palghar episode where Sonia Gandhi’s name was dragged into the killing of two Sadhus to create a ruckus, similarly the media lapped up at the Maneka Gandhi’s comment to tarnish the image of Muslims. Like lynch mob, the anti-Muslim anti-Islam hate media factories targeted an entire community.

A Twitter handle named ‘Sumit for You’ with more than lakh followers said, “Muslims in Kerala killing elephants. They are jealous of elephants now. Shame Malappuram, the jihadi ISIS…”

Another tweet was: “Indian Izlamists have a particular hatred for elephant, cows, and monkeys because these are symbols of Hindu faith system. The brutal murder of the pregnant elephant in Kerala’s Muslim majority Malappuram district is perhaps part of this same hateful mindset.”

The Malappuram district, since its inception, has been vulnerable to xenophobic, Islamophobic remarks, rants, of the Sangh Parivar.   The demographic features of Malappuram make it seductive for anti- Islam and anti-Muslim propaganda. And now, when Maneka Gandhi, without a bit of shame, propagated a lie, the fault lines of the district’s demographic profile got criminalized.

Nevertheless, the killing of the elephant is an inexcusable offence, and the killers must be punished. But it is also important to know the whole gambit of the news without anti-Muslim anti-Islam propaganda.

There is no mention in the media discourse of the nature verses human conflict going on in the Western Ghats. Animals come out of their natural habitat in search of food as it happened in this elephant’s case while humans eager to save their food from being poached devise ways to protect them from the animals. They use barbed wires and other such things to fence and protect their morsel from being eaten by the beasts. This dimension of animal verses human conflict has never been highlighted in this elephant killing episode.

Animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi and the ‘Godi media’ wore filtered glasses to start anti-Muslim, anti- Islam rants without understanding the nuances of the human relationship with the nature in this part of the world.

What emerges, some Indian leaders and the media are mountain blind. They have no clue to the myriad problems of the Silent Valley of the Western Ghats. What they like to see is a slightest opportunity where they could start anti-Muslim anti-Islam propaganda.

Now, without sounding unsympathetic to the animal, a counter to the fuss made about the pregnancy of the elephant by raising the question, did the elephant killers had any clue to the beast’s body till its autopsy report was made known.

Now, if this is linked to the pregnancy of Jamia Millia Islamia student, Safoora Zargar, who was arrested for her role in leading the anti-CAA protest. The question is where would be the human compassion, with   elephant or human. What comes out clearly from this elephant story is that human compassion for the fellow humans is scorned and compassion for a beast is flowing.

The tailpiece is: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has assured strict action would be taken against those involved in the killing of the pregnant elephant in Kerala and culprits will be brought to justice.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

SC seeks Govt and PCI response on Media Coverage of Tabligi Incident

SC seeks Govt and PCI response on Media Coverage of Tabligi Incident

Syed Ali Mujtaba

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, Justices L Nageswara Rao and M M Shantanagoudar, asked the Press Council of India and Centre to place their response within two weeks about action taken against media communalizing the Nizamuddin Tabligi Jamat Markaz issue in March 2020. 

The case was heard through video conferencing on Wednesday, May 27. 

The court asked the Press Council of India (PCI) whether TV channels  broadcasting allegedly communally sensitive news did any violation of the Cable TV (Regulation) Act of 1995.

‘What action did the PCI initiated against certain sections of print and electronic media on allegations of communalization of the Markaz issue,’ the court asked?

On the allegations of circulation of Fake News by certain sections of print and electronic media on the Markaz issue, the Court asked the Press Council of India (PCI), whether it had initiated any action against them?  

The bench asked the Central government what measures it had taken to ensure that public isn’t instigated that may later become a law and order problem?

The court also asked the Central government to respond to the plea seeking a probe into the circumstances leading to the holding of the Tablighi Jamaat convention in Delhi in March.

The court wants to know whether the Markaz of the Tablighi Jamaat alone is responsible for the convention or the government has any role in permitting the foreigners in attending the function. When the government had the knowledge of COVID-19 spread, what prevented the government from stopping the convention?

Senior advocate,  Dushyant Dave arguing for the plaintiff said this is a grave issue impacting minority rights. It makes out an offence under the law.  This is a serious matter. It requires court’s intervention and appropriate action, Dave said.  

  He added; certain sections of print and electronic media indulged in communalization of the Nizamuddin Markaz issue. It circulated a lot of fake news, which was misleading and damaging the social fabric of the nation.  Why is the government silent?

The bench while ordering to implead the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) as a party respondent scheduled the hearing after two weeks.

Earlier, on Monday April 13, 2020, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the petitions filed by the JamiatUlama-i-Hind and others seeking a direction to stop the media from communalizing the Tablighi Jamaat incident linking it to COVID-19 infection.

The Apex Court had asked the petitioners to impaled the Press Council of India (PCI) as a party to the case and had posted it for hearing after two weeks.  

The court at that time did not pass any interim order at this stage of the case without the Press Council of India (PCI) being impaled in the case. 

“We want to make solid long term measures about the news items as it is a question of larger reporting. Once we take cognizance of every thing,  people will then understand,” the bench then observed. 

The case then was also heard through video-conferencing.

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 Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com