Rajasthan's Gehlot Takes on Haryana CM on Hindutva Violence; Unconstitutional to Pass Bills Without Discussion with No Confidence Motion Pending
Nuh violence spreading, six strategic minerals opened to private mining, 14,000 schoolkids displaced in Manipur, Railways in two minds about mental health of train shooter, women workers hit jackpot
A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia and Tanweer Alam | With inputs from Kalrav Joshi | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal
Snapshot of the day
August 3, 2023
Pratik Kanjilal
The Haryana government says that social media accelerated the sectarian violence in the state. Mobile internet services will remain suspended in Nuh, Faridabad and Palwal districts and in three subdivisions of Gurgaon district ― Sohna, Pataudi and Manesar ― until August 5, reports Indian Express.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has said that the administration will help the Rajasthan Police if they seek to apprehend much-feted cow vigilante Monu Manesar, who was to star in the Hindutva procession in Nuh which triggered the violence. He did not say why his state police took no steps against Manesar, who is wanted for two murders, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot immediately called him out, tweeting, “Khattar makes a statement in the media that he will help the Rajasthan Police in every possible way, but when our police went to arrest the accused of the Nasir-Junaid murder case, the Haryana Police did not cooperate, but even registered an FIR against the Rajasthan Police. . The Haryana Police is not cooperating with the Rajasthan Police in finding the accused who are absconding. Mr. Khattar failed to stop the violence happening in Haryana and is now giving such statements just to divert the attention of the people.”
Meanwhile, scared by the violence, some Muslim migrants in Gurugram are trying to leave the city, at least for a while. Most of the slum-dwellers are from West Bengal. Police deny any incident in the area.
The Bollywood actor Govinda tweeted his pain at what happened in Gurgaon following the burning down of a mosque and the murder of its maulvi. “Shame on the people who call themselves Hindus and do such things,” he wrote. Subjected to vicious trolling by right-wing handles, the superstar deleted his entire Twitter account, claiming it had been hacked and that he had put out the tweet in question.
Hours after additional columns of central security forces were mobilised to contain possible violence in Manipur during the mass burial of 35 Kukis killed in the ethnic conflict, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum postponed the burial by five days, at the request of the Home Ministry and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga. Among other things, ITLF has demanded the Kuki community’s “total separation from Manipur”.
At the same time, the Manipur High Court in an early morning hearing today ordered the state’s ‘double-engine’ to maintain status quo at what was going to be the burial site. The Hindu reports that the court also granted liberty to Kuki groups to approach the authorities for an official burial site.
Anticipating demographic change due to the ongoing influx of refugees from Myanmar, the United Naga Council, an apex body of Nagas in Manipur, has asked the N Biren Singh government to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC). “The NRC is the only feasible mechanism to curb the unwarranted population invasion in Manipur,” the UNC said. It also accused the Union government of encouraging the influx. Manipur is populated by three major communities — the Meiteis, the Nagas and the Kuki-Zomis. The last are assumed to be immigrants.
The New York Times points out that the train shooting, the ethnic cleansing in Manipur and the outbreak of sectarian incidents in Haryana, near Delhi, are happening at a very inconvenient time for PM Modi. Just before the G20 summit in September, during India’s presidency, the world is seeing that Hindu nationalist leaders have emboldened “chaotic elements” in the country.
As of August 2, the Ministry of Education has reported the displacement of more than 14,000 schoolchildren in Manipur. A significant majority, accounting for over 93% of these affected children, have been successfully enrolled in the nearest available schools. Union Minister of State for Education, Annapurna Devi, conveyed this information through a written response in the Rajya Sabha. However, these are just official figures. Now, to such an enormous figure, how many families and villages are gone?
The “interest of justice” demands that the ASI continue its survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises, the Allahabad High Court said on Thursday afternoon, dismissing a petition by the Anjuman Mosque Committee challenging a lower court’s decision ordering the survey in the first place.
A Gujarat High Court judge who was set to hear Teesta Setalvad’s petition seeking quashing of the ‘tampering with evidence’ and ‘attempt to frame Modi’ FIR has recused himself. No reason was given and the case will now be assigned to another judge.
In his third one-year extension, Rajiv Gauba has been asked to stay on Cabinet Secretary till 2024.
A Pune college lecturer, Ashoke Dhole at Symbiosis College, is the latest scholar to be questioned for class room comments, with students affiliated to the RSS and BJP complaining that he had insulted Hindu deities. A video posted online as ‘proof’ that he insulted Ram and Sita shows no such thing. What the lecturer was saying that god is one and that there is no benefit in calling her by different names.
Honey-trapped Defence Research and Development Organisation scientist Pradeep Kurulkar, who was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad under the Official Secrets Act for sharing sensitive defence material with a woman, has sought bail, claiming that the ‘secrets’ he revealed in WhatsApp chats with her were in the public domain.
Women are still bearing the burden in India. Women who are not in the labour force (neither employed nor seeking employment) spend the longest time on unpaid domestic/care work, averaging 7.5 hours per day. But working women work harder, spending only 1.7 hours less on chores. Men take it easy ― the unemployed spend 3.5 hours a day on chores, and the employed spend 2.7 hours.
Cinema art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai has died by suicide in his studio, aged 57. A bankruptcy court had admitted an insolvency petition against his company ND’s Art World. Desai had defaulted on a Rs 252 crore loan taken in the last decade.
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