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DUSU Elections 2017

NSUI Objects to Broadcast of PM Modi’s Speech One Day Before DUSU Elections

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The Ministry of Human Resource Development had recently issued a direction to nearly 40,000 higher education institutions to tune into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech, to be delivered on 11 September, in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s famous address at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), which is the student wing of the Indian National Congress, has specifically condemned these actions taken by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to promote and telecast the speech in every Delhi University college just a day before the DUSU elections are scheduled.

In a press release today, the NSUI Media In-Charge, Neeraj Mishra, said, “Forcing this in Delhi University will be a flagrant violation of the moral code on conduct since the elections for the DUSU are scheduled on September 12, day after PM’s address. ABVP, one of the organisations contesting the DUSU elections is closely linked to the ruling party, the BJP.” (sic). Midrash Mathew, Media Department, NSUI, said, “It is well known that the UGC and the government are linked since the UGC works under the government directives. By telecasting the speech of our Prime Minister in all colleges of DU, it will only help further ABVP’s agenda since the speech is on Swami Vivekananda and it will actively reflect and propagate the ideologies followed by ABVP. This will be a clear violation of the moral code of conduct set by the Lyngdoh Committee, and ABVP will greatly benefit from it. Hence, the speech should not be streamed in Delhi University as it is unfair.”

NSUI issued another press release today in which they requested the Chief Election Officer (CEO) of DUSU to extend the campaigning time and election day by four days, while restricting other candidates to campaign during this time. The presidential candidate of NSUI, Rocky Tuseed, received his ballot number yesterday evening after the High Court directed the CEO. The Officer had prohibited Tuseed from campaigning for two days while the other candidates were actively campaigning. Neeraj Mishra pointed out that since the University is closed over the weekend, and the campaigning officially has to stop at 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning, Tuseed will get no time to campaign.

The CEO rejected the request put forth by the NSUI by stating that the office was constrained by the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines which directed the University to conduct the elections within 56 days. On this matter, Midrash Mathew said, “A bigger mandate of the Lyngdoh Committee is to conduct free and fair elections. If the elections are not postponed, our presidential candidate will get no time to go to students and make them aware about his views and campaign. Because of the accusations put on us, we were left in the dark when the ballot number was taken away. However, the High Court’s decision came in our favour. Hence the CEO should take our request into account.”

the-hindu-rocky-tuseed
Rocky Tuseed after being cleared to contest for DUSU elections. Image Credits: The Hindu

 

DU Beat reached out to multiple official representatives of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), but none were available for comment.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Indian Express

Bhavya Banerjee
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Islamophobia: A Threat to Humankind?

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How many times has the sight of men clad in skull caps instilled a sense of fear in you? What makes the recitation of Quran and the offering of Namaz in public places an astounding spectacle? To answer these questions well, retrospectively, it is important to understand what Islamophobia is.

Islamophobia, as the name suggests, is the irrational and unfounded fear of Muslims and/or Islam, often times used as a political rhetoric. The term surfaced in the late twentieth century, only to reach an unprecedented peak, post the 9/ 11 terrorist attacks. The perpetrators of the same were 19 men affiliated to Al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist organisation. Having mentioned the involvement of an Islamist group in this dreadful act, it became all too inevitable for the Muslim community as a whole to not be viewed under the same radar as terrorists. Treated just as such since, their community has been under tremendous pressure from agencies all across the globe.

Their blatant ostracism from the mainstream affairs of the world is not a pleasant sight to behold. US President, Donald Trump, openly campaigning for an absolute ban on Muslims entering The States is a sickening ploy, more so because it was a political propaganda camouflaged as a mitigation measure against rebellion. He garnered an unbelievably huge response to his unlikely candidacy at the presidential elections by fanning the already seething flames of hostility towards Islam in the US.

Prominent American Muslim, Edward Mitchell IV of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told Al Jazeera that it is one thing to read anti-Muslim rhetoric on the internet or to see it on Fox News and it is an other thing to hear it from the president of the United States. The same can be said about Theresa May, only she does not out rightly admit to racism. Theresa May, Prime Minister of The United Kingdom turned a deaf ear to the incessant wailing of Muslim worshippers, celebrating Ramdaan at London’s Finsbury Park Mosque, when a white van swerved sharply off the road and slammed into the crowd, killing one and injuring at least eight others. However, earlier in the same year when jihadists orchestrated an attack on London, in which eight people were killed, May was infuriated and issued a statement saying that there was far too much tolerance of Islamist extremism in the UK and announced civil liberties restriction. What May did in the latter, was indeed the right thing to do to in order to safe guard the interests of her citizens, however, the lack of reciprocal prosecution in the former suggests bigoted sentiments of the Prime Minister towards Islam.

The present day plight of Rohingya Muslims, the most vexed ethnic Muslim community in the world, is nothing short of horrific. Having to flee away from Myanmar, their home land, they find themselves negotiating the terms of refuge in neighboring nations, having to live without an identity, for what seems like an indefinite period of time. Mob lynching cases in India have been on the rise since the BJP government attained power in 2014, not to mention, the categorical slaughter of Muslim men under the pretext of beef consumption and cow annihilation. Pehlu Khan, Mohammad Aklaq, and Junaid Khan, are a few names out of a couple hundred that resonate with indignation and lost pride.

World domination as against a particular community, based on the suspicion of radical ties of a few with certain established militant organisation, is an extremely poor choice, especially when we are living in a polar world, where the dissemination of information is the freehold of media houses, a privilege which ought to be exploited, like all others. “If I was not a Muslim and all I knew about Islam is what I saw in the evening news, I might be afraid of Muslims too,” says Mitchell to Al Jazeera, highlighting the deplorable state of moral policing in media and print stations.

It is important to separate religious affiliations from counter terrorism. Terrorism is not the sole propriety of a particular community. The sinful acts of a few radical extremists should not lead the remaining 1.6 billion into apologetic surrender. It is the job, not just of the government but also of the masses to scrutinise the current scenario and come up with a mechanism to weed out the rotten lot and save Islamism of religious defamation.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Express Tribune Blog

Lakshita Arora
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Tracking the Journey of the New Defence Minister: Nirmala Sitharaman

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Born in Madurai, the temple city of Tamil Nadu, a luminary was raised in a small town, where she discovered her love for books and learned about discipline from her father. She is now heading the world’s third-largest defence force as India’s second female Minister of Defence after Indira Gandhi and the first full-time female Defence Minister.

Nirmala Sitharaman’s appointment as the Defence Minister comes as a shock, as the post was rumoured to be given to Nitin Gadkari. This reflects perfectly how patriarchy-driven our society is. The general notion about the army, since its inception, has been that of masculinity, especially in India. The fact that Sitharaman is among the 16 females in the world to be heading the defence sector at a large scale speaks volumes of how male-dominated the field is. Here is a look at the journey of our newly appointed Defence Minister.

Nirmala Sitharaman completed her graduation in Economics from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Trichy. She went on to study at Jawaharlal National University (JNU) to conclude her postgraduate and M.Phil. in Economics with a particular interest in Indo-European trade. After her marriage to Parakala Prabhakar, the couple settled down in London, where she worked actively for PricewaterhouseCoopers, researching eastern European economies. She served as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies in Hyderabad after her return to India, and became an active member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) in 2003. Sitharaman grew quickly in the ranks after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2008 and became the second female spokesperson of the national party after Sushma Swaraj by 2010. After BJP’s infamous win in the national elections in 2014, she was inducted as the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance and as the Minister for Commerce and Industry with independent charge. Working in the financial sphere, she faced serious challenges to revive India’s exports that had plummeted due to weak external demand. She also successfully communicated with multilateral bodies such as the World Trade Organisation during her tenure.

The post of Defence Minister is extremely crucial and critical in today’s day and age. Some have even questioned the legitimacy of a woman being given this great responsibility and have called this appointment unusual. Considering the fact that both eastern and western fronts are on high alert, a Defence Minister today faces numerous external challenges which entail constant dialogue with the United States of America, China, Russia, and others. Nirmala Sitharaman’s appointment will definitely forward army Chief General Bipin Rawat’s statement to the media in June about the Indian Army being all set to open up combat positions for women from words into actions. The Indian Air Force had inducted three women as fighter pilots last year, which came very timely after the government’s decision to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis.

Expectations are high from the new Defence Minister. Even though the position comes with a lot of pressure, Sitharaman is expected to handle tasks fluently because of her exceptional qualifications and understanding of national interests.

 

Feature Image Credits: La Casa Morett

Bhavya Banerjee
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Why is the glass half-empty: Delhi University students do not wish to be DU lecturers

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Graduating from University of Delhi (DU) is still considered prestigious, but why do the same students with all the merit, never want to return as teachers to their own University?

 

In a few months, a prestigious University of Delhi (DU) degree in hand, the real world with its blankness and stiff competition will begin to look curiously topsy-turvy for most third-year students. Those rose-tinted glasses, which made life in college appear idyllic for two years, will have to be inevitably chucked aside in favour of the grittier, ‘realistic’, adult perspectives which only point to one of these two scenarios, in case you are a third-year student: either you have zeroed in on an employment/higher education opportunity which you feel reasonably confident about cinching, or, you have your feet pointing in multiple directions and in no particular direction at the same time. Either way, your ultimate goal is viable employment. But what if your feet took a U-turn and chose to come back to the University, looking for employment? In fact, how do students in DU truly feel about coming back and teaching at the University one day?

“I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of becoming a university lecturer. It’s highly unstable [as an employment opportunity]… Look at the state of our universities today; there is no freedom of speech and the way our ad-hoc teachers are treated is inhumane. My teachers themselves tell me not to become a lecturer. What more do I need as a proof?” says a Botany student from the North Campus.

Delhi University Teachers' Association strike
Delhi University Teachers’ Association strike

I remember one of my teachers in the English department attesting to something similar: the foundations of higher education in India are so shaky that the next generation dare not step on it, from fear that the existing plane may collapse too. Over the last one year itself, numerous national dailies have covered the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) protests for pay-rise and against the lack of permanent positions for lecturers, the overwhelming despair and suicides of PhD research scholars when they stared at their bleak future, shutting down of centres for the Humanities in several colleges, protests against the teaching of liberal ideas and values in universities such as Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and many other related events. If a severe lack of funding plagues the Arts departments across India, the treatment meted out to lab assistants and ad-hoc lecturers in the Sciences fares no better. Teaching in a university, in short, comes with more perils than advantages.

“It’s sad, but the truth is that even I would not recommend any student to become a lecturer these days,” I recall overhearing a teacher telling another in the corridors of my college once. One after the other, as attacks mount upon the state of university education in our country from all sides, it becomes viable to look for alternatives. There are private-sector jobs and the ever desired civil services exams eyed by more and more students as the pool of competition widens further and further. Some even question what the point of an M.A. degree is, if the road to research scholarship and teaching appears this murky.  And if things are bad today, how much worse can they get tomorrow? It seems as if one door will shut forever for most of us, by the time we leave DU with our degrees next year.

 

Feature image credits: YourStory

Image credits: DU Beat

 

Deepannita Misra

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Creating Suicide Awareness On World Suicide Prevention Day

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September 10 is observed as the World Suicide Prevention Day. Suicide cases are on the rise in recent years due to reasons that need to be minimized to ensure good mental health.

On the day of September 10 organizations like World Health Organization (WHO) and International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) organize various events to promote and conduct activities for spreading more awareness about suicides. With the increasing number of suicide rates, let’s have a look at the leading causes leading to such tragedy:

  • Depression

There are over 350 million people who suffer from depression all across the world. Low self-esteem is a huge contributor. Everyone sets targets for themselves and failing to complete them can demoralize them and make them question themselves. Family issues are also undeniably a great cause for mental stress. Resorting to alcohol and other drugs seems as an easy solution to let go of the stress one undergoes. But again, that has disastrous effects which ultimately leads to addiction and contributes towards isolation from friends and family.

 

  • Peer Pressure

Peers fulfill an essential social requirement all of us have. But their impact can go wrong  at times. In a competitive environment, not being able to do what your peers do or not achieving something as good as your peers can inject a sense of low morale in oneself. The thought of not doing something worthwhile terrorizes the mind and harms mental health.

Creating awareness on prevention of suicides
Creating awareness on prevention of suicides

 

  • Cyber Bullying

Cyber bullying cases have intensified with the rise of the internet’s popularity where over 25% of the teens have reported to being repeatedly bullied over the internet. In recent times, there has been an outburst of suicidal cases due to a game called “The Blue Whale Challenge” which is targeting  teens. The challenges include tasks like carving a whale on your body and eventually, the last challenge of the game requires the person to commit suicide.

 

  • Relationship Issues

Being in a relationship is seen as a very normal part of our lives today. However, deep attachment to your partner and the inability to cope up with conflicts induce a great degree of pain that encourages self-harm and even suicide. Such cases make a person’s mind fragile and they are exposed to suicidal thoughts eventually resulting in committing suicide.

 

But amidst all the mental chaos, we must not forget that we have been blessed with the gift of life and that we should rejoice it. Talking to friends or family members can lessen our burden and also help us find solutions to any problems. Sports, games, music, debates etc. help us in keeping our minds healthy. Hanging out with friends or reading a book may help too. Doing social work helps one feel satisfied and fills one with joy. There are adequate ways to cope up and solve mental issues that trouble us. But we must face it and overcome such hurdles. So this September, let’s smile and spread smiles to let people know that we care.

Feature image credits: Village Publishing

Image credits: TWLoha

 

Karan Singhania

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The Plight of Students Not Fluent in English

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Do students who are fluent in English have more resources available at their disposal and is there a linguistic bias prevalent in the University of Delhi?

The English bias is a very real phenomenon, especially in a country like ours, which hasn’t been able to completely break free from the chains of colonialism, even after 70 years of independence. In the University of Delhi (DU), an institute where the medium of communication is primarily English, this becomes especially problematic for a lot of students. An education in DU is not exclusive to private school students, and the teaching methods should reflect that, doing justice to the diverse student body.

While some professors try to accommodate students from a Hindi-medium background, this practise varies from college to college.  For instance, The Directorate of Hindi Medium Implementation publishes translations of various books from English to Hindi every year. But these translations are not enough to cover the curriculum’s width and depth. Supplementary readings and handouts that professors circulate in the classroom are majorly in English, and students who are not comfortable with the language miss out on them. For them, the only way to understand the syllabus and its contents is either to seek help from guides or helpful friends. They spend long hours looking up words in the English-to-Hindi dictionary in order to understand their curriculum better. This task is tedious and the language barrier and lack of resources leads them to spend immense energy on something as basic as having access to the study material in a language which they are comfortable with. Similarly, students fluent in other regional languages face a drawback too.

Rinki, a student of B.A. Programme, studying Psychology and English from Daulat Ram College, says, “Bohot Hindi-medium students class mein bolne mein hesitate karte hain. Yeh zaroori hai ki aise motivational programmes college mein hon jisse unka stress aur hesitation kam ho (A lot of students from the Hindi-medium backgrounds hesitate in speaking in their class. It is important that colleges organise motivational programmes to help students reduce their stress levels and hesitation.)”

It is essential that we acknowledge that this emphasis on our education being imparted in English results in other students not comfortable with the language suffering immense academic losses. It is important that we establish this fact – having the ability to read and write in English is an additional skill, not a minimum requirement to have access to a good education. It is imperative that we remember that fluency in English should not be a prerequisite to be able to understand your professors.  Fluency in English is closely linked with education in private schools. It is a product of one’s privilege as much as it is the product of one’s dedication and hard work. It would be highly unfair if these criteria were allowed to determine and influence the quality of education imparted to students who don’t speak in English.  Colleges must actively seek out and encourage the faculty to bridge the gap between the resources available to English speakers and those more comfortable in regional languages.  Apart from ensuring that reading material and secondary readings are translated, they must also ensure that the faculty encourages all students to actively participate in class. The purpose of a language is to facilitate discussion, debate, learning and expression. But when language starts restricting people from actively seeking a good education, it becomes highly problematic. The first step in solving a problem is realizing that we have one.

September 8th was World Literacy Day, and it reminded us that education is the greatest gift mankind gave itself. Today, we are living in  times where we can see our mother tongue slowly fading out, both in terms of its relevance and common use.  And therefore, it is even more important that those who speak the language should be encouraged to pursue it further. If students who prefer regional languages over English keep encountering challenges while trying to pursue an education, it would lead to the slow demise of the language and would act as a deterrent for others wishing to pursue it.

 

Feature Image Credits: Pinterest

Kinjal Pandey
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Has Our Democracy Matured Enough Yet?

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With the country’s top-notch universities going to polls, JNUSU on 8th September and DUSU on 12th September, we celebrate the International Day for Democracy on 15th September amidst intolerance for dissent and curbed free spaces in universities.

Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Since centuries, the disciplines of politics, philosophy, law, sociology etc. have revolved around the notions of power and rights – be it of the state or of the people. Questions of sovereignty, national interest, natural rights, freedom, legitimacy, coercion, rule of law etc. have been raised to, for, and against state power.  Many theorists and intellectuals of the liberal tradition  maintain that where the roots of democracy are not ingrained deeply and people’s civil liberties face threats constantly, societies soon fall into the trap of authoritarianism. They are then susceptible to radical change through social movements and rebellion. This happened once in India during the late 60s and early 70s, when people faced a serious crisis of inflation and drought in 1966-67, already draining resources, and a fragile economy due to the three wars fought in 1962, 1965 and 1971. With a corrupt government ready to stifle dissent and reward the supporters  of despotism, we saw the ascent of the Naxalbari Movement in Bengal and the JP movement in Gujarat. The government’s immediate response to such uprisings was the brutal suppression of the dissenters, finally giving way to the imposition of an internal Emergency in 1975, which is still commemorated as the darkest phase for democracy in India. Maybe, as the liberals put it, ‘our democracy had still not matured and we fell into trap of absolutism’, and thus Lord Acton’s remark for Indira’s India proved right.

In 2014, we saw the rise of another  party which won with a sweeping majority with the help of a charismatic demagogue. Issues of tolerance, or rather intolerance, jobless growth, majoritarianism, what to eat, or better, what not to eat, censorship of artistic freedom or the of teaching Indian values (#SANSKAAR), moral policing in the form Anti-Romeo squads etc. have resurfaced in the political scene. Cows are safer in this country than women.  Draconian, archaic sedition laws which were a part of British Raj are being used to infiltrate university spaces, army tanks are placed to instil nationalism when there  are already problems regarding hostels, a journalist who spoke her mind has been killed and a girl who raises her opinion is bombarded with rape threats. In this atmosphere, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) and Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) polls will happen. Whereas in one, debate and ideology play a crucial role for the winning party, in the other, caste and muscle-money power rule the results. Even after 70 years, we believe that holding an election is the crux of any democracy, both in the national scenario as well as at the university level. Though we may not be facing the dark times of Emergency again, with the judiciary being our knight-in-shining-armour (as the Triple Talaq case, right to privacy and other cases demonstrate), Modi’s “New India” is still treading upon the same path as Indira’s India. On this International Day for Democracy, let’s question whether our civil-political liberties and economic, social, and cultural rights are intact or not – whether our 70 year old democracy has matured or not.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Hindu

Oorja Tapan
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Delhi University’s Feud with Delhi Government to Continue

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It seems that the University of Delhi’s feud with the Delhi government is here to stay for a while longer, albeit more serious than before. The Delhi Government has ordered to continue with the decision to freeze funds for the 28 colleges it funded either partially or fully, till the time governing body is not appointed by the Varsity.

 

Furthermore, the government has asked Delhi University not to conduct recruitments for ad hoc or permanent teachers, or make any severe changes in the administration staff until this issue is resolved. This to-and-fro of documents has been going on since October last year, but has gained momentum only recently. On 31st July, Manish Sisodia, the Delhi Minister of Education directed a stop to funds inflow for the 28 colleges it funds, and in a tweet he claimed that it was a “deliberate and malafide attempt to delay formation of governing bodies by DU”. On 14th August, the list of governing bodies was finally sent by DU, but was rejected by the government citing procedural grounds.

 

The governing body of a college comprises of five members from the university panel, five members from the government, two university representatives, two representatives of the college faculty and the college principal. The Varsity recommended just 5 candidates for governing body to the government, whereas it was supposed to send a pool of names out of which the government had the liberty to select any five. Since the options weren’t provided for the same, the government has given DU stern warnings to not “infringe upon its rights” of nominating members. At this stage, the government reportedly wants DU to accept the nominations cleared by them and has sent the university a fresh list.

 

Since February 2017, the list concerning these recommendations has been tweaked with minor changes, edited because of change in format and rejected on procedural grounds. If the government plans to pursue its impromptu decision to halt funds, the 28 colleges that it funds will soon sway in an array of confusion and chaos.

 

Feature Image Credits: Manish Sisodia’s Twitter Handle

Vijeata Balani

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Rusticate students those who use printed posters: NGT

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The National Green Tribune (NGT) has issued a warning to the University of Delhi (DU) in particular regarding non-compliance with the tribunal.

The National Green Tribune (NGT), having failed to make a mark with words, resorted to action on Wednesday issuing a warning to the University of Delhi (DU), the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) regarding the wastage of paper during the polls this year.

A plea was filed by Nithin Chandran, a third year law student in DU when he was flabbergasted by the modus operandi of campaigning through the humongous wastage of paper. The plea read-“On every election, tonnes of paper are wasted for canvassing by the candidates and their supporters. Wherein, there is no accountability for usage of paper and neither there is any norm or procedure for re-cycling of this waste paper”. Relying upon the report published by the TIMES OF INDIA, the NGT was informed of the non-compliance of its order on Tuesday by the counsels of the law student- Piyush Singh and Aditya Parolia. The bench consisted of the NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar and B S Sajwan.

The conduct of the elections is based on the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee to be implemented from the year 2006 by the order of the Supreme Court which stated- “No candidate shall be permitted to make use of printed posters, printed pamphlets, or any other printed material for the purpose of canvassing”. “Candidates may only utilize hand- made posters at certain places in the campus, which shall be notified in advance by the election commission/university authority”.

The NGT has thereby, issued a warning to the DU students of rusticating if caught in action. Under section 26 of the NGT Act 2010, the maximum punishment if found guilty of contempt of the orders, is three years’ of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 crores.

Apart from just the art work on the walls as well as the premises of the campus; it becomes imperative to note that the littered papers are not disposed of properly or re-cycled, hence, leaving an imprint of the elections held every year. On the contrary, the Lyngdoh Committee states- “All the candidates shall be jointly responsible for ensuring the cleaning up of the polling area within 48 hours of the conclusion of polling”.

According to reports, while the next hearing is scheduled for the 18th of this month; the DUSU polls are ahead on the 12th. With all of this happening; we have to watch out for the big day and the probable last minute changes that the manifestos of the several parties might suffer.

Shrija Ganguly

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A Tribute to Gauri Lankesh: A Bullet Can Never Kill an Idea

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What can stop a mind which is devoid of fear? A mind which speaks the truth and a pen which nibs down the truth?

Three bullets which took the life of Gauri Lankesh try to tell us that they can do the same, they can even silence free voices. But the outrage afterwards – protests across the country and newspaper editorials – speaks of another story, which is the one I choose to believe.

Gauri Lankesh was a fearless journalist who opposed the communal and totalitarian politics of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and its twisted interpretations of Hinduism. She stood against the caste system, inequality, and gender discrimination. She was one of the most prominent free voices which criticised the government openly and fiercely, without any fear. She inherited a legacy of thought from her father which advocated giving a voice to the downtrodden and the oppressed, the majority of whose plight doesn’t reach the power corridors of the establishment.

In her life, she was a living example of a revolutionary mind. In a patriarchal society where the role of women is limited to working within the walls of the house, where they are not allowed to dream big, where they are still treated like the property of men and often face sexual violence both inside as well as outside the house, she was an independent woman who fiercely lived, breathed, and wrote critically of the establishment, unfazed. At a time when speaking against the government is traded for being anti-national and the space for dissent is ever-shrinking, she refused to bow down and until her last day, advocated for granting refugee status to the Rohingya Muslims. Her killing resembles the same pattern as that of M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar, and Govind Pansare. Even after huge public outrage, the snail-paced investigation in all these cases sends a clear message from the establishment.

The onus is on you. Will you listen?

If your answer is that of the ruling side, then you stand on the same side as the internet trolls, whose values are driven and encouraged by people whose rationale equates to superior quality garbage. In this case, I can see you taking this country towards an age of “unreason”, where holding power becomes the prerequisite and the sole validating agency of truth.

If your answer is on the other side, then we all stand together in this fight for freedom of expression and protection of the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution. And we all stand together to inherit the legacy of the slain journalist, who took bullets for speaking what she wanted to.

 

Feature Image Credits: Scroll

Srivedant Kar
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