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Indian Express
13 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Decode Politics: Why Fadnavis govt is granting Sindhi refugees land titles
In a significant step towards aiding displaced Sindhi families, the BJP-led Mahayuti government in Maharashtra has announced it will issue property titles to five lakh such families residing in 35 cities across the state under the 'Special Abhay Yojana 2025'. The decision, part of the BJP's poll pledges, comes at a time when the state government has launched an intense drive against 'illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants' across the state. Behind this outreach is a BJP-RSS push to bring Sindhis, who were forced to migrate from Sindh in Pakistan after Partition in 1947, under the larger Hindu umbrella. While announcing the scheme Tuesday, state Revenue Minister and Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, 'The Special Abhay Scheme will be implemented, under which residential and commercial land in 30 colonies of the Sindhi community, displaced after the 1947 Partition, will be converted to free-hold (Occupancy Class-I) according to the law.' Under the scheme, all properties in possession of Sindhis or registered with a local self-government body as of December 31, 2024 will receive ownership titles at concessional rates. The land will be converted to free-hold upon payment of a premium. 'This scheme will serve as a milestone for the welfare of the Sindhi community and reflects the government's citizen-centric policies,' Bawankule said. This move to introduce a special policy for displaced Sindhi families fulfils a promise made by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ahead of the 2024 Assembly elections, Bawankule added. The scheme will provide legal ownership rights to homes and establishments in 30 colonies across cities such as Nagpur, Jalgaon, and Mumbai. In Ulhasnagar, which has been excluded from this scheme and has the state's largest Sindhi population, a separate policy will be introduced. The Revenue Department will implement the scheme, delivering justice to the Sindhi community, Bawankule said. Sindhis, who have been living in their colonies for several decades, had long been demanding that the government legally acknowledge their settlements. The issue has been discussed in the state Legislative Assembly and Council on several occasions in the past. In the aftermath of the Partition, a large number of Sindhi Hindus fled the Sindh region. At the time, it was estimated that 10 lakh Sindhi families migrated to India as refugees. To address their concerns, refugee colonies were set up by the government across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and other states. These settlements became homes for the refugees who left behind in Pakistan their possessions and assets. Reeling in poverty, resettled Sindhis in India were forced to rebuild their lives from scratch. As per the 2011 Census, there are 28 lakh Sindhi language speakers in India. This figure excludes ethnic Sindhis who don't speak the language and some Kutchis who do not identify as ethnic Sindhis. At 7.2 lakh, Maharashtra has the second-largest Sindhi-speaking population after Gujarat at 11.8 lakh. The timing of the scheme is crucial as the state government wants to convey a strong message to the Sindhi community in Maharashtra. By granting property rights to Sindhu refugees, the BJP also wants to reinforce its commitment to Hindus. Secondly, the Mahayuti government also wants to make a distinction between Hindu Sindhi refugees and other migrants. While the drive against illegal Bangladeshis in the state has been debated since the 1990s, the Fadnavis government has decided to push it for the first time. 'Illegal Bangladeshis manage to get fake birth certificates and Aadhaar cards. They are being provided these documents by some local authorities and enjoy patronage of non-BJP politicians who want to use them for vote bank politics,' said state BJP leader Kirit Somaiya. The state government has directed district collectors to carry out anti-illegal immigration drives. It has also urged them to cancel fake birth certificates and other such documents, and submit them to the state revenue and health departments. Bawankule said, 'The Maharashtra government has decided to crack down against illegal Bangladeshis/Rohingyas. Through its special drive, the government will cancel 42 lakh fake certificates issued to illegal Bangladeshis till August 15.' He claimed that this figure may rise. The Opposition, while welcoming the government's decision to resettle Sindhi refugees, cautioned against the 'harassment' of the Muslim community in the name of an anti-illegal immigration drive. State Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal said, 'The BJP's politics is to divide and rule in the name of religion, caste and community. We are not against government action against illegal Bangladeshi migrants. But if it is used as a tool to harass Indian Muslim citizens, which is not acceptable.'
The Hindu
13 minutes ago
- The Hindu
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do
This week, the poster boys for toxic masculinity have been all over the news. Israel, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, continues to starve the people of Palestine. Its brutal actions, which have flattened neighbourhoods, killed tens of thousands of people, and decimated hospitals and schools, amount to genocide, according to many experts, writes Aaratrika Bhaumik in this explainer. For some, Israel's response to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, may not have been entirely unexpected. Back then, Major-General Ghasan Alyan from the Israeli Defence Ministry warned in a video, 'Human beasts are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza – no electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell – you will get hell.' The mastermind of the Hamas attack was also a ruthless, bloodthirsty man 'married to the Palestinian cause', Yahya Sinwar. As Stanly Johny said, on the rise and fall of Sinwar, 'violence defined his method.' Sinwar was killed in 2024 by the Israeli Defence Forces, but the scores between Israel and Hamas have still not been settled. All this bluster — which Netanyahu described best in 2014 when he said, 'A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do' — has nearly wiped out an entire region. In a 2019 academic paper titled Masculinity, war and militarism, Claire Duncanson wrote, 'Boys and men are socialised into thinking that being tough, being aggressive, being in authority, in control, are important markers of being a man.' She quotes various feminist scholars as arguing that 'men do not dominate in the world's militaries because they are naturally more violent, aggressive and tough,... but because in many cultures... proving oneself on the battlefield has been deemed an important way to prove oneself a man.' Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has organised photoshoots of himself riding horses bare-chested, or walking through the wilderness brandishing a gun, and who continues to wage a war against Ukraine, is one of the prototypes of this stereotype. With their blind (or perhaps calculated) rage and thirst for revenge, Sinwar and Netanyahu, who have together brought Gaza to its knees, are the others. Elsewhere, U.S. President Donald Trump, whose government has been aiding Netanyahu in the war, had yet another emotional outburst this week. On July 30, he hit his 'friend' India with a 25% tariff along with an 'unspecified penalty' for buying Russian oil and weapons. Trump rode to power calling several women, from Kamala Harris to Nancy Pelosi, 'unhinged' and 'crazy'. But today, by terming India's economy 'dead', he is the one putting painstakingly built India-U.S. ties at risk. The Hindu editorial says that 'something does seem to have shifted in India-US relations'. One of the primary objectives of patriarchy is the expansion of power. And this relentless pursuit of power without principles is causing moral bankruptcy, as Ashwani Kumar lamented in this piece earlier this month. Men with the most power around us are clinging on to it by doing whatever it takes: bullying, waging war, killing innocent people. Where are the compassionate women and men and a leadership of empathy and care that the world so desperately needs? It is all too clear that decision-making, especially on world issues, cannot be left to the whims of manchildren who mask incompetence and insensitivity with bravado. Toolkit In this photo essay, Ritu Raj Konwar captures the hustle and bustle of Ima Market, which is run entirely by women in Imphal, Manipur's capital. The market hosts 5,000-6,000 women vendors, who sell vegetables, fruits, textiles, toys, fish, spices, and utensils. Male shopkeepers and vendors are not allowed to set up or run stalls in this centuries-old market, which serves to empower women socially and economically. Wordsworth Femi-genocide: This month, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, called for immediate global action to halt the unfolding 'femi-genocide' in Gaza. Alsalem said that existing concepts in legal and criminal frameworks can no longer adequately describe the scale and nature of the crimes inflicted by Israeli forces on Palestinian women and girls. 'What is happening to Palestinian women and girls is not collateral damage of war,' she said. 'It is the intentional destruction of their lives and bodies, for being Palestinian and for being women.' Ouch! Now girls are marrying at the age of 25. By then, many, not all, have been in relationships with multiple men. By the time a woman is 25, she is fully grown. It is only natural that by then, her youth has slipped away somewhere. Aniruddhacharya, also known as Pookie Baba People we met Rohin Bhatt is a lawyer in the Supreme Court. In 2022, Bhatt had asked the then Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, to modify the appearance slips for lawyers in the apex court to include an additional column for people's pronouns so that they may be correctly used in orders and judgments. When asked how much further courts have to go to become more gender-sensitive, Bhatt points out problems of both infrastructure and attitude. As a queer lawyer, he says he is typecast. 'I am often called an 'LGBT lawyer' who does 'LGBT cases' but my work is so much more — across civil, criminal, and constitutional law,' he says. Bhatt imagines that in a truly inclusive space, he and others would be seen as 'not just lawyers who do queer cases, but as good lawyers in our own right who can argue other briefs with equal expertise, in addition to queer rights cases.'
New Indian Express
13 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Madras HC: Remand orders against BJP lawyers' wing secy illegal
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has held illegal the remand orders issued by the respective judicial magistrates in Coimbatore and Thirukazhukundram against advocate D Alexis Sudhakar, the state secretary of BJP's lawyers wing. Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan passed the orders recently on the criminal revision petitions filed by Sudhakar who was arrested on the charges of possession of weapons and cheating. Senior counsel Abudu Kumar Rajaratnam, appearing for Sudhakar, submitted that he was falsely implicated in a series of criminal cases by the police out of political vendetta and was arrested last year. The remand orders issued by the judicial magistrates were arbitrary and in violation of Article 22 (1) of the Constitution which guarantees the right to be informed of the grounds of arrest and the right to consult and be defended by a lawyer of one's choice. He also submitted that mandatory statutory safeguards including service of ground and reasons of arrest and intimation to family members were disregarded by the police officers while arresting Sudhakar. Justice Ilanthiraiyan held that a perusal of the arrest memo reveals the ground arrest and reasons for arrest were not stated. That apart, there is no record to show the petitioner's family was informed of the arrest. The non-compliance of the mandatory provisions is a clear violation, the judge said in the order. He held the remand itself is illegal when the petitioner was not informed of the reasons and the grounds for the arrest.
