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A Quizzer is finding the story behind every Delhi Metro Station this quarantine

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Did you know Shalimar Bagh Metro Station was named after two monuments of the same name in Lahore and Srinagar? Or did you know that it’s not the Indian National Army but India’s second airlines company that gave its name to INA Metro Station? Here, we talk about a quizzing initiative from a DU student that aims to tell the story behind every metro station.

 

‘Ever travelled on the Delhi Metro? The 229 stations carry a thousand stories.’ reads the bio of an Instagram handle called Delhi Metro Quiz (@delhimetroquiz). It’s a page that attempts to bring out these stories behind every station through the medium of quizzing.

While some might just quizzing as a ‘nerdy’ activity, the University of Delhi does have a thriving culture of quizzers with expertise in various fields. Shivam Sanoria, a second-year student from North Campus’s Cluster Innovation Centre (CIC) decided to have a fun initiative through which people could get to know amusing and informative tidbits of information every day.

The Delhi Metro Quiz is also relatable for college-going students as the Delhi Metro is undeniably the most popular mode of transport for a majority of Delhi’s college students. Shivam’s curated questions and facts only tell us that every time we get down on a metro station, there’s a part of history that we’re stepping on. Shivam has been running the page, along with his peer and fellow quizzer Shubham Jha who helps in formulating the questions. Jha is currently a second-year student from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies.

Unfortunately, with the current global pandemic, the metros have stopped moving as everything has come to a halt. This quarantine is what gave Shivam time to think about this initiative. ‘The page started on 4th April, but the idea was cooking in my brain for a long time, as I wanted to conduct a quiz on Delhi metro stations. So, when I got time (due to quarantine), I thought why not do it online?’ he says.

From historical incidents behind a particular station to the life details of the person after which a station is named, Shivam’s quiz has been covering various aspects of not only the metro network but also the city’s culture. And the passion behind the questions can be seen from Shivam’s own love for quizzing. As he puts it himself, ‘I’ve been into quizzing for 5 years, from school time itself…and it’s one of the most important things in my college life.’

You can check out Shivam’s work and can gain some knowledge about the Delhi and India channelised via Delhi Metro  on The Delhi Metro Quiz’s Instagram page.

 

Image Credits- DU Beat Archives

Shaurya Singh Thapa

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The “Bare Minimum” Feminists: Are They Enough? Barely

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This piece talks about the growing expectation to gain a “good guy” tag by men, by virtue of fulfilling the least they are required to do. It delves into the nuances of feminism, and how these men miss out on what the movement has been voicing out.

Women do household work in almost all the societies because they are expected to, that’s what has been normalised in our society. Obviously, now the situation is slightly better, with us reaching the fourth wave of feminism, people becoming more aware, more women stepping out, taking roles in workspaces, and better spaces to come out and talk about these issues. But on the ground level, women are still harassed in these same workspaces, threatened if they speak out and out, and are discriminated against on several platforms. Yet, if a man makes a cup of tea or does the cooking, popular culture celebrates him with such pomp and show. And this is just for one day; I’m not talking about househusbands here, just the members of “I’ll do the dishes once in a blue moon” men club. It’s good that sometimes, such men break conventions, but do we really need to celebrate them for doing the bare minimum? It should not be exceptional for them to do this, rather a basic responsibility which they should fulfil given that they have been exempted from it for so long.Again, these days I have personally interacted with so many male friends who think that by just respecting their mother, sister, or girlfriend, they deserve brownie points, and the badge of being a feminist. What they do not realise is that these are basic things which are expected from us as humans, and while it’s good that we adhere to these ideals, we cannot just get desperate to seek a “good guy” tag. Let the women do talking for their own issues, and we men can then be understanding allies to these feminists.

Often, in metropolitan cities, we get fooled by the illusion of tokenistic feminism, and hail the “bare minimum” feminists as thegold standard of change-makers and influencers. It is good that Shah Rukh Khan decided to put Deepika Padukone’s name in the credits before him for one of his movies, but it is just a symbolic move. In fact, any actor irrespective of gender should be featured in the cast credits according to their screen time or role in the film. Actresses do not need any sympathetic mentions. Better representation and equal pay for equal roles, the film producers should focus more on that.It makes me cringe from the deepest corner of my heart when I see slam artists or actresses being invited as guest speakers and influencers at feminist conclaves (although, the most that I have cringed is when Kirori Mal College had an event by Women’s Development Cell where all guest speakers were men!). Why stick with poster ladies always? Yes, clearly these influencers have positive influence but all I am saying is that we should honour other women too who are doing on-ground work and bettering the lives of Indian women. The glamourisation needs to stop. Along with an Aranya Johar and a Twinkle Khanna, it would be good to bring forward a Pramila Nesaragi (Lawyer and Women Rights Activist), Laxmi Agarwal (Founder of Chanv foundation, an NGO helping acid attack survivors), Shaheen Mistri (CEO of Teach For India) and the women protesting against the government’s recent controversial legal measures in Delhi, Assam, and all over. We don’t even know most of their names or significant work, but the least we can do is recognise them rather than just sharing an Instagram video of an actress or even an actor (read: Ayushmann Khurrana) spreading a manufactured message of feminism ahead of their film’s release.

Therefore, this Women’s Day, let us stop being content with the bare minimum and think and act more instead. Tokenistic measures would help us sleep in the night but deep down, we do know that the perfect reality is far from the imperfect truth that dominates our society right now. Let’s not celebrate only the “bare minimum” feminists (and let us not be one either).

Shaurya Singh Thapa

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Multiple Gatherings and Misunderstood Heckling at Hindu College

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19th January has been a dark day in Indian history, marking the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 after increasing attacks by Islamist insurgents. This day has hence been remembered by the country as a mark of respect to the community but has also been extremely politicised, mostly by the far-Right in various ways.

One example of this can be what went down this Monday at Hindu College. Like many other parts of the country, the protests against the ruling government’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act are in full swing especially among the student community in Delhi.

Similarly, groups of students had planned to hold their march in solidarity to these protests, and a reading of the Preamble. By last Saturday, word began to be circulated so that other students of Hindu College would also know about the march that would start from the College’s New Academic Block (also called the Science Block) and cover the rest of the college too.

Coincidentally, by Sunday (19th January), a poster was being circulated regarding a gathering in memory of the tragic mass displacement of Kashmiri pandits at the Science Block on the same day, just half an hour before the march.

These two gatherings clearly felt to be organised by different sets of students. Controversy arose with a recent video featuring Deepika Sharma, a student from the college. She was at the talk on the Kashmiri pundits’ exodus at the Science block. According to what she said in social media, she was heckled by the participants of the other march.

The video of this has been misinterpreted and shared by various platforms like OpIndia, Swarajya, and The Logical Indian and some celebrities like director Vivek Agnihotri. Such sources allege that ‘leftist goons heckled and shouted at her’. In the video, you can hear ‘Islamophobia’ being shouted in the background by protestors. But here’s the truth behind it from ground reports at Hindu itself.

First of all, calling the protestors ‘leftist goons’ is a very basic stereotype and a false claim. For the truth is that not a single Left-aligned poster or flag (with allegiance to any Leftist student body like AISA and SFI) was raised. The students in the march and Preamble-reading had gathered as students of the college, and not representing a particular political front.

Second, the slogans regarding the current government being Islamophobic were not meant to bring down the talk on Kashmiri pandits at all. These slogans were raised, solely for the students’ own dissent. These were students. Not goons.

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Some of the protestors do feel that they could have silenced the volume of their slogans a little as they passed through the side of the Science Block where the other talk was happening. But before this issue gets further politicised, what needs to be understood is that this protest was anti-CAA and by no means, anti-Kashmiri Pandits or anti-Hindu as other sources or Deepika Sharma might misinterpret it.

In fact, as you can see in the image featured above, the posters used by the protestors also tried to evoke empathy for the pandits. This protest didn’t seem to have been pro/anti towards any religion or community.

So, one needs to go through the contexts of both these gatherings again before jumping to conclusions. A close analysis will tell you that the claim of ‘one girl battling the heckling of Leftist goons’ is an exaggerated misinterpretation of an unintentional clash of events.

 

Image Credits: Himanshu Singh and Abhiram

 

Shaurya Singh Thapa

[email protected]

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Ghost Stories: New Year, (somewhat) New Scares

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Is Ghost Stories a spooky offering or a movie that you are well off ‘ghosting’?

 

What struck me watching Lust Stories way back when it released, was how all the four anthology films in it, somehow felt connected thematically despite being directed by individuals who are polar opposites of each other.

And this is what’s different in Netflix’s latest Indian offering, Ghost Stories. Directed by the same batch of the aforementioned anthology, this web movie also offers four different stories by Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Karon Johar, and Dibakar Banerjee.

Apart from the common theme of a supernatural phenomenon, all the stories are really disparate in terms of story and visual elements. And for this reason, the arrangement of the short films seems a bit haphazard. This criticism seems a bit too far-fetched but then, most of these shorts didn’t manage that much of a lasting mark, ending up as just decent attempts at Indian horror.

An exception can be Dibakar Banerjee’s segment which can arguably be the best part of Ghost Stories. The segment hardly has any night shots but the visual imagery of a destroyed village (inhabited by zombie-like hybrid creatures) under a dim sky is enough to amaze the viewer. The basic storyline of Banerjee’s film is that people of the ‘Bigtown’ had come to this ‘Smalltown’ and started eating the locals. This for some reason, starts a wave of a new race of human meat-eaters. The makeup work on these beasts is top-notch, and the entire rural setting made me crave more horrors. If this short is later turned in a full-length feature film, I would totally be up for it!

But, if we solely assess the other films in terms of visual elements, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap have also done a good job in creating a spooky atmosphere. But then cause of some unnecessary scenes being dragged out, their efforts seem to look a bit pretentious as if the director is forcing you to feel scared (especially in Kashyap’s segment). Regardless, in Kashyap’s film, Sobhita Dhulipala (Made in Heaven, Raman Raghav 2.0) pulls off a convincing performance of a pregnant woman, obsessed with dolls whom she treats as her kids (although it’s only one angle of the story).

So basically, Akhtar and Kashyap’s work on Ghost Stories might be slightly flawed or underwhelming for some, but still, it makes for a good one time watch. But then, for a bizarre and tasteless finale to the anthology, we get Karan Johar…

Now, I’ll admit Karan Johar might hardly be considered as an ‘artsy’ director for many including me, but I thoroughly enjoyed his short in Lust Stories (it was my personal favourite in it). I liked seeing Karan Johar writing and directing a story where there was no need for PG-13 family melodrama and he could get truly get raunchy, sexual, and heart-warming at the same time.

And in Ghost Stories, he tried crafting a half-baked story making it unnecessarily raunchy in scenes; so much so that it felt like a Lust Stories spin-off. The protagonist’s husband goofily (unintentionally goofy acting maybe) talks to his ‘dead’ grandmother (possibly her spirit) every day and that concerns her obviously. Her best friend tells her to give him a blowjob and sort the matter out. And also there are some weird noises which she hears in the house, to which the best friend says ‘That’s the only blowjob that has been happening’.

Puns so bad that they’re good, but they seem so unnecessary. And the edits are so sudden that you are feeling a bit weird anticipating what will happen in the segment, but then you’re suddenly transported to the next scene with a stylish shot of a wedding probably shot at Sanjay Leela Bhansali setpiece. No offence to the production design team behind this wedding and the huge mansion where ‘Granny’ lives, but the setting seems so caricaturish that it might suit a Manyavar ad more than a film.

Whether it’s the orangish ‘candle flame-like’ tone of Zoya’s segment to the dark colourless tone in Anurag Kashyap’s, the colour palettes are different but all spooky. Karan Johar’s film on the other hand, has a cliched look which one might have seen in other Indian horror films. The main reason why I couldn’t appreciate this particular segment that much was because I couldn’t adjust with its tone, compared to the other parts.

Overall, Ghost Stories is a unique presentation by Netflix which shows that Indian filmmakers are indeed trying to up their game in genres where Indian cinema has been mocked usually. Even if it’s imperfect, it does give the average Bollywood viewer hope for better scares in future Indian cinema. Finally, watch the Zoya and Kashyap’s segments for the thrills, bite your nails with Dibakar Banerjee, and you can totally skip Karan Johar if you want too.

 

Featured Image Credits- Netflix

 

Shaurya Singh Thapa

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Writing’s on the wall: the walls of North Campus

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Every aspect of North Campus has its own story to tell. Just take the walls for instance; there is something or the other stuck, painted, splattered on these walls that are bound to catch your eye.

One can begin their “Dilli Deewar Darshan” with a common DU thing i.e. student politics. Take the left or the right, various shades of political opinion are expressed on the bricks that form the foundations of several colleges and lanes. This definitely includes the posters and bills featuring quirky close-up photographs with loud fancy fonts. Even before a fresher gets to know about parties like ABVP and NSUI, he will know who is Rocky Tuseer, Rajat Chaudhary or Mahamedha Nagar, all thanks to the endless posters and vibrant graffiti. Getting layers of these posters is like a monthly affair for many such “walls for democracy” in the campus. And some of the thin paper bills even start getting shredded over time making the wall look like a bizarre work of modern art. Sometimes rain might be the reason for the tearing away of these posters. However, we all know that rain and Delhi don’t have long-lasting relationships. So, one might wonder which beast goes on scratching off these posters in a savage fashion ravaging our North Campus walls.

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However, the walls don’t get tattooed with the names of DUSU candidates always. Sometimes there are scribbles of meaningful text and art as well.  Many free thinkers and peaceful revolutionaries form a part of the DU family and their mental product is reflected on the walls too. For instance, you can spot the words “Free Saibaba” spray-painted in different areas. This refers to the sudden arrest of DU Professor GN Saibaba who has been hailed as a crusader for peasant movements. Some detailed imagery and messages can also be found relating to women empowerment, road safety and menstruation awareness. These adornments to the North Campus walls are much needed for the aesthetic appeal and social relevance.

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Talking about art and politics and social messages, it is no surprise that the Father of the Nation is also a featured guest. Mahatma Gandhi’s face is virtually everywhere in the country be it in textbooks or currency notes or the DU walls. A few walls near Vishwavidyalaya metro station and the souvenir shop, in particular, have several bright murals on Gandhi’s morals (no pun intended).  Apart from Gandhi, historical greats like Swami Vivekananda and Bhagat Singh also keep a watchful eye on the students of DU.

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A knowledge hub like Delhi University attracts people from diverse parts of the country. Many shift to North Campus with hopes, dreams and their parents’ money in their pocket and tend to shift in flats and PGs. So, it’s no surprise that amongst the tons of Post It notes stuck on the walls, advertisements for PG and other facilities occupy a major share too (especially on the Kamala Nagar and Hudson Line side).  The names and ads are totally random so you can expect anything from “Radhe Radhe Boys PG” to “Cook Dhoni”.

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Ranging from mundane to outrageous, these walls are something which makes North Campus what it is. The walls are filled with diverse colours, fonts, political parties, student unions, rebel messages, and paintings. Maybe indirectly, this symbolises the whole DU culture itself, a life filled with hues, cultures and ideas of all sorts…

 

Featured Image credits- Shaurya Singh Thapa

 

Shaurya Singh Thapa

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Neutrality: Ek Prem Katha

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The youth of the nation has taken to the streets to protest against the highly controversial and non-inclusive Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Over a period of the last few weeks, the country has been burning, literally. From Jamia Millia Islamia to  Aligarh Muslim University, students have been at the forefront and are facing the brunt for correcting the damage put on by the erstwhile generation. As the protests spread like wildfire, and Millenials lie to their parents to echo the streets with chants of Azaadi, one particular section of the society remains silent.

They say, ‘silence is an answer too’. As the community with the largest fan-following and influence, Bollywood takes the side of neutrality, yet again. Except for a handful of celebrities, who were trolled by CAA supporters or have lost important posts, the privileged ‘biggies’ of the industry stayed silence as ‘their’ universities and people of ‘their’ religion suffered!

Bollywood doesn’t give a second thought before capitalising the chants of Azaadi by Kanhaiya Kumar, the same chants which are condemned as “anti-national”, Bollywood doesn’t give a second thought either before uploading group-fies or attending exclusive parties with ‘you know who’. This country worships Bollywood stars; their influence over the public is unparallel, a single tweet, a single post condemning the brutality would not just bring a significant impact in society stating their prominence but also give a moment to their followers to ponder upon their thoughts.

However, several other celebrities not only condemned their silence but also called them out for being such spineless icons, moreover, stating them as nothing but businessmen.

The very celebrities who feed off society’s money and brain to produce and act in movies which promote jingoism in the name of nationalism, from Vicky Kaushal’s ‘defining’ role in Uri to Akshay Kumar’s well, most of the movies in the past decade, their neutral stance and silence speak a lot. From the ‘Khan’s’ of the industry, unfortunately, comes nothing but silence, again.

Shah Rukh Khan who was a student of JMI remains eerily indifferent to the sheer violence showered on the students.

Standing in solidarity with the students, several celebs did indeed take a defining stand and ended up losing several followers. Anurag Kashyap’s followers fell drastically to 76.3K from over 5 lakh. Over a series of tweets, his followers have admitted to ‘not’ have unfollowed him. The director has been very vocal about his stand against the CAA-NRC and BJP government and believes his political stances to be a reason for the same.

As some biggies like Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan (who is rather busy in releasing Dabbang 3) fail to even make a basic solidarity statement, some other biggies of the industry dominate both Twitter and the streets. Some of them being, Konkona Sensharma, Richa Chadha, Paineeti Chopra, Jim Sarbh, Manoj Bajpayee and Dia Mirza.

While at the same time Parineeti Chopra who was erstwhile Haryana Government’s ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign’s brand ambassador has been removed from her post. However, the government has clarified that her contract ended in 2017 and has been removed due to the same.

Irony flourished as Akshay Kumar’s reel life ‘nationalist’ character fell flat as compared to his real-life ‘silent’ character. As his wife Twinkle Khanna vehemently opposed the government’s stance, Kumar tweeted about liking a tweet by mistake on violence incited in JMI. Trolled further as ‘Canadian Kumar’, his silence was considered as being spineless and hypocritical.

While some polarize themselves into silence, others polarize mass movements and open criticism of the government. However, there arises a third type- the balanced neutral stand. The ones who condemn the brutality and then add a ‘but’. Ironically, Vicky Kaushal and Ayushmann Khurana who have given movies like Uri and Article 15 took a rather moderate stand. Their neatly crafted words and an impeccable PR team to keep the fans of both spectrums in hand makes us question diplomacy as their new job. Recipients of National Award, the youth certainly asks for a more established and bold stance.

Satviki, a student of Miranda House, says, “I feel it is extremely important for public figures to make their stance clear on as important issues as this. India is a country which practically worships it’s Bollywood stars and they shape public opinion. So the silence of all these hotshot actors with extremely huge fanbases to not use their power and privilege is saddening.”

In times of oppression and tyranny, choosing silence over dissent, choosing silence over voice, choosing silence is nothing but siding with the oppressor. As actors like Jim Sarbh, Farhan Akhtar, Huma Qureshi, Arjun Mathur, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub and comics like Sahil Shah, Kaneez Surka, Kunal Kamra, take to the streets of August Kranti Maidan, Mumbai, meanwhile celebrity journalists like Faye D’Souza and Rana Ayyub rightfully use their privilege and celebrity status to influence and stand for what they believe in.

Bollywood is full of ironies, and amidst a hundred more out there, another irony screams right into the nation’s face today,  as Khurrana stands fixed in Article 15 he says, ‘Staying neutral when a fire is raging, is standing with the ones who lit it’. And at times of tyranny, let’s not forget those who remain neutral in situations of injustice, side with the oppressor!

Next time, when the fan in you rises and you boast about the first day-first show, remember, when our democracy was dying, your idol was not there to save it.
Featured Image Credits- Twitter

Anandi Sen 

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Sex and the Kiddy: Sexual awakenings in Indian teenage

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The act of making love (or making babies), maybe that’s how we explain the three-letter word that is SEX. Sex, an activity that gives comfort to some and discomfort to some others when talked out loud.

 

In retrospect, my nimble pre-high school mind was told by a couple of so-called “corrupted” friends that sex is basically, “jab bade log nude hoke pyaar karte hai“. The image of a man and a woman, hugging passionately bare naked and kissing each other. That’s it. Nothing much but still more raunchy than Bollywood songs showing scenes of flower pollination back in the 90s.

 

Again, I could never think that anyone other than a societal pair of a man and woman would engage in this lovemaking because I of course, didn’t know same-sex couples could exist. It’s a shame that my generation was introduced first to cuss words like “faggot” before terms like LGBTQ.

 

Anyway, this whole sex thing just sparked a slow-burning fire of curiosity in me, rather than lust or infatuation. Still, that was early childhood, age of being satisfied with whatever my normal happy middle-class life offered me, rather than craving for more. I was happy enough to see a bikini-clad model on a misogynistic page of Delhi Times or a late-night telecast of FTV. I, of course, used to feel guilty about viewing such stuff and being pleased about it.

 

I used to feel the same guilt after I started masturbating a few years later. Maybe, we all share that guilt at one point or the other. And this is the tale of my normal sexual awakening. I’ve had friends who faced other kinds of guilt. One of my 10th-grade friends felt guilty that he started fantasising about male celebrities just like how the majority of the boys in my class were busy lusting on the female ones. Another of my 10th-grade friends felt guilty on masturbating itself, as she felt masturbation is a taboo for girls.

 

And such guilts exist mostly when society starts getting prude. It’s this prudeness that we need to remove, in order to normalise sex, sexuality and sex education.

 

Of course, this does not imply for all the kiddies; they should have their own time and space to explore their body and traditionally, giving sex education might seem like you’re telling them “18+ stuff”. The problem is with this concept itself. Sex education isn’t always “18+ stuff” that’s to be hushed when the kid is young. We are talking about a normal physical activity, not a pornographic fantasy.

 

Apart from the inner workings of the body, we should all be educated well on how normal an occurrence is sex. In certain societies of this country, we look at sex as something very special and maybe the whole specialness takes away the normalcy. It’s then when sex begins to be seen as something abnormal, a taboo.

 

These days, the kids are getting smarter and smarter. They won’t be fooled if you tell them that babies fall from the sky or any one of those tales. Before they enter adulthood, they must be educated in bad touch, consent and the very fact that sex is normal.

 

They’re to be told that it’s normal for any gender to make love with each other. And just like any normal collective decision that we take in our normal life, we need to ask too. You call up someone for a party; you ask him or her. You choose a college course; you ask your parents (although ideally, you should just ask yourself). Similarly, it’s perfectly normal if you want to get productive in this reproductive task but ASK FIRST. And this should be one of the basic tenets of Sex Ed for any layperson.

 

Consent is something which should be kept in mind even if you are naked with your lover. A friend of mine told me how she knew this man who was having sex with his lady, putting a condom on and then suddenly stopped mid-way, removed the condom and resumed entering her. It shocked me how the chap didn’t even ask his partner before engaging in raw love making. Sex isn’t a one-person act; therefore, just considering the opinions of one person in a sexual union is a real “dick move”.

 

To put it in a nutshell, educating a youngling on sex focusses less on how to do it but more on what to do before you do it. If sex is something that adults do, then better grow up when you do it. Your bed should be thought of more as a sensual space of consent and being content for making love rather than a set-piece for making hardcore porn.

 

So, this was my story of how my mind opened up to sex and everything associated with it because you see, it’s not just the reproductive parts that should be involved in this act but also your productive mind!

 

Featured Image Credits: Salt n Peppa

Shaurya Singh Thapa

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Forget Pooja, but ABVP, what is this behaviour?

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As student protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act engulfed Delhi University too, members from Akhil Bhartiya Vidya Parishad (ABVP) raised their ugly head.

 

If you are following the news lately, you know what’s happening all over the country right now. The internet shutdown on North-Eastern states has been lifted only today but since the last week, protests in solidarity with these states have been progressing in full swing. Even though the causes have slightly altered with the student protestors expressing rage against the communal nature behind the CAA, the north-east states (especially Assam and Meghalaya) have been protesting mainly against illegal immigrants.

Yet their enemy is the same, the ruling government.

Clearly the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) backed ABVP supports the Bill as it has been passed under the ruling government’s tenure. Well, they are entitled to their opinions but then in the past few days, they have been trying to force their opinions on others. Ah, this is something which wouldn’t surprise people as this is what makes most of the ABVP leaders (or goons) famous (infamous).

The day before yesterday, when protestors gathered at Arts Faculty for a peaceful protest against the police brutality observed in Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University, ABVP leaders like Ankita Biswas (the president of ABVP’s Hindu College unit) and members like Rahul Choudhary were caught on camera assaulting the protestors. They want to paint these protests as ‘communist’ just because many AISA (All India Students’ Association) and SFI (Students’ Federation of India) members had participated in the demonstrations.

But as per first-hand accounts, no Leftist propaganda is being shared over here. The students are coming together just to protest and express their displeasure at the government. But again, the ABVP unsurprisingly remain adamant with their false claims.

Just take into account Gaurav Chanana’s open proclamations of violence on his Whatsapp stories. Chanana is a zonal coordinator for the ABVP and two days back, he wrote ‘DU mei communist ki safai pichle 5 ghante se chal rahi hai…aap bhi aaye’ (which translates to ‘Communists are being beaten up in DU since the last 5 hours…You’re also requested to join’).

He followed it up yesterday by sharing a report by The Quint detailing the extent to which student protestors in Delhi have been injured and hospitalized. Chanana proudly claims, ‘Yeh hai ABVP ke sher, Agli baar DU mei aane se pehle 10 baar sochna, rashtra vidhrohiyo’ (‘This is the might of ABVP’s lions. Next time, think 10 times before entering DU, you anti-nationals’).

Yesterday in fact, ABVP started its own counter-protest ‘in support of CAA’ at 12 noon (even though they wrote 12 am on their poster, yes that happened). When the protest by other students, and AISA/SFI members against the CAA started in Arts Fac, ABVP tried shouting more and more to show their might but to no avail. So, what did they do?

Of course, they used force.

Prominent incidents that got captured on video include ABVP members pulling out people from the protest at Arts Faculty and demanding them to take out their ID cards (with the police standing nearby and nodding to this). Now, in order to just protest or put forward opinions in a gathering, we need an ID card?

The ABVP person in the forefront in this video was Akshit Dhaiya, President of the Delhi University Students’ Union. A counter-view has been given by some people (some of whom are ABVP supporters themselves) is that he just pulled this student out of the crowd and asked for his ID card for the student’s ‘own protection’. This seems like a very conveniently worded excuse.

The last straw to ABVP’s notorious actions yesterday was another video which was shared yesterday (the cover image of the article is taken from it) where a male student (who has requested us not to share the video) is surrounded by two male ABVP members on a bench. With threatening voices and words, they demand to know the student’s stance on the CAA. Then they go on asking if he was in the protest against CAA, and if he was, then why.

Alas! It’s ABVP which is the dominant party in DUSU and despite these instances of hooliganism, they continue to say that DU stands in solidarity with the Citizenship Amendment Act. Just come to North Campus’ Arts Faculty or Campus Law Centre and you’ll figure out how much DU is actually supporting the Act!

But despite this continuous goonish behaviour, the protestors in DU stand undeterred and continue to take their stand.

The irony is that back in the 1970s, the ABVP itself engaged in large-scale protests against the authoritarian regime of PM Indira Gandhi. And now, look how the tables have turned.

 

Featured Image Credits- Pinjratod

 

Shaurya Singh Thapa

[email protected]

 

 

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Campus Central

A Bill becomes an Act, and a Promise becomes a Joke: Citizenship Amendment Act is about religion but more than that

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There have been some misconceptions in the past few days regarding the nature of the recent protests in Assam and other North-Eastern states. And therefore, some have been shying away from talking about it. Others are misinformed thinking the Assamese people are just protesting about religion, ignoring the whole debate about ‘illegal migration’. Here’s a deeper look.

 

While Assam faces an internet shutdown, other Indians are learning more and more about the Citizenship Amendment Act. The Internet itself is offering differing points of view. While some are understanding how the protests in North-East are dissatisfied voices against fall promises, the Twitter handles of prominent Right-wing leaders try assuring us that everything is all right. Some have even gone to the extent of calling this a massive conspiracy; director Vivek Agnihotri (a very ‘right’ individuals with often wrong assumptions) says that Pakistan is supplying arms to these protesters in Assam and goes on to call the movement against Citizenship Amendment Act, ‘Pakistan’s revenge for Kashmir’!

But those who can figure out the wrongs, are out on the streets even in Delhi, looking beyond their privilege and uniting for solidarity with the North-East, a region which mainland India has ignored more than often. Yesterday, Jamia Milia Islamia’s peaceful march by students and staff to the Parliament wasn’t allowed to step beyond the college gates too as the police engaged in lathi charges, and used tear gas to disperse the crowds. Another march took place to Jantar Mantar today.

Contrary to the anger amongst Delhi’s youth, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) led Delhi University Students’ Union, posted a message on their social media handles on 11th December, which didn’t surprise many. ‘ABVP wholeheartedly welcomes passage of the #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 in the Upper House of the Parliament of India. The persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh will now be able to get citizenship of India and lead a life of dignity.’

Clearly, the Citizenship Amendment Bill which now became an Act has a religious background to it, for the Centre which backed it. If you look at it from a simplistic perspective, you would think that the only controversial aspect of the bill as many of you know, is just the fact that Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh would be denied easy citizenship in India as these countries already have an Islamic majority. The central government in the nation and DUSU out here in Delhi University want you to see the Act only in terms of religion. And obviously, in terms of religion, the Act is biased as it seems to allow persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists from such countries (as if Muslims cannot be persecuted at all in these countries). So, that’s how the initial buzz around Citizenship Amendment developed in the cities. #MuslimLivesMatter is trending amongst many Instagram posts and for the right reason.

Screenshot (14)Official post by ABVP

But now, with the rise in violence and chaos, and the deployment of paramilitary in the North-East, we must be informed that it’s not the communal angle for which the locals are fighting authority. They are angered by a promise that got broken, proving again that the mainland cares little for them.

To quote an Assamese friend (who wishes to remain unnamed for now), ‘Assamese people voted for BJP hoping that the party will remove illegal migrants. But now this selective bias of keeping some migrants, and removing the rest, means that our demands mean nothing for them.’ To put it in a nutshell, the inhabitants of Assam and other states of the North-East don’t wish to have anyone don’t want to provide refuge anymore to illegal migrants.

Whether a person follows Hinduism or Islam, speaks Bengali or Assamese, that is not the first priority for the protesters. All that bothered these protesters was if a person is in an illegal immigrant and all. Early on this year, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam was riddled with its own problems (many ‘true’ inhabitants’ names were removed while many ‘illegal foreigners’ made it to the list), but it did offer the locals some hope. Now, with the BJP-led Centre’s plan of selectively choosing who will stay in Assam, and who will not, has turned the NRC into a joke.

Again, those who are looking at this issue from their simplistic bubble might interpret the current rage in Assam as ‘xenophobic’. But we should take a minute to understand the situation over there. An already overlooked region, the North-East has limited land and limited resources, and cultural identities (note we’re talking about cultural identity, not religious identity) of the people here are endangered. They just can’t afford to hold any illegal immigrants; such demands and issues have been raised by the region for so long. And what did the North-Easterners get in return for these demands: a joke.

A joke that became a bill and now has turned into an Act.

Hence, if you are reading up about the Act and the rage around it, please don’t just look at it from a simplistic understanding. It’s not possible to think about what the locals must be feeling there, but try to broaden your thought. After all, even the bespectacled debating lapdog of the Centre has gone against the Centre this time!

Know that the Act is definitely communal, but also heavily exploitative of the demands of a cultural and numerical minority. Today, one section of this country saw its electoral rights being played with to suit the Centre’s own agendas, tomorrow it might be your rights, your identity, that might become a joke…

 

Featured Image Credits- Biju Boro

 

Shaurya Singh Thapa

[email protected]

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sex amma

Sex Amma: Aids to prevent AIDS

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Dear Munchkins

 

Many of you little idlis like to  “canoodle” around with your special chutneys, or maybe even with some random dosas so as to spice up your thaalis. I would be lying if I said I don’t enjoy a little bit of mirchi myself. Yet, today, on World AIDS Day, I feel it an obligation to prime you all about this ravaging pandemic so as to ensure your safety.

 

Did you know, around 37.9 million people across the world are living with AIDS? Within India itself we have around 2.1 million diagnosed patients. It is not an uncommon disease, implying that all you little vadas need to be extremely careful and cautious while having sex. It is important to note that HIV does not spread through bodily contacts such as handshakes, or hugs. It is spread only in certain body fluids from a person who has HIV. These fluids are blood, semen, pre-seminal fluids, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk.

 

All you lovely uttapams must watch out for signs and symptoms of the virus. The first few weeks after initial infection, one may experience no symptoms or an influenza-like illness including fever, headache, rash, or sore throat. As the infection progresses, one can develop other signs and symptoms, such as swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fever, diarrhoea and cough.

 

In such cases, little idlis, you must get tested and treated for sexually transmitted diseases. Having an STD can increase your risk of becoming infected with HIV or spreading it to others. The most imperative and obvious measure to be taken is the use of contraceptives. It is crucial that you have healthy communication with your sexual partners. If either is HIV positive, taking regular medication can reduce the amount of the virus in the body to an undetectable level. People with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative partner through sex.

 

Other points to note so as to reduce the risk of getting HIV is avoiding risky sexual behaviours and limiting the number of sexual partners. Another common source of the spread is sharing needles or syringes that may be contaminated with HIV infected blood.

 

Though HIV is not a curable disease, timely treatments and correct medication can prevent its spread and allow the patients to live longer healthier lives. Today is an opportunity for all of us to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. It is high time we end this taboo and stand together as one!

 

Stay safe, my sweet jalebis, and happy sex!

 

 

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