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The Hindu
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
An unravelling: On the Malegaon acquittals
The 2008 Malegaon blast, killing six and injuring 95 others, during Ramzan, was an extreme act of terror. The initial investigation by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) posited a chilling conspiracy by Hindutva extremists to exact revenge through a 'blast for a blast', emulating the polarising methods of Islamist terror groups. This narrative seemed solidified by circumstantial evidence, including electronic transcripts of secret meetings and a confession by Sangh Parivar activist Aseemanand. The case was politically fraught from the start. The ATS investigation was a pivotal moment, as it sought to identify perpetrators irrespective of religion, especially after Muslim youth were wrongly charged and later acquitted in the 2006 Malegaon blasts. However, this unbiased approach appeared to falter with the consolidation of Hindutva political power. After the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the agency filed a supplementary charge sheet. Amid allegations that the NIA was under pressure to be lenient, a Special Court rightly ruled in 2018 that a full trial was the best course. Seventeen years later, the final acquittal of all accused, including Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and Pragya Singh Thakur, leaves a profound sense of unease. Far from refuting the existence of Hindutva-led extremism, the judgment is an indictment of the prosecution's methods and a reminder of how justice can be undone. The court exposed a foundation of unreliable evidence, noting that key witnesses turned hostile, alleging coercion by the ATS — a claim also noted by the NIA. The explosive electronic transcripts were deemed inadmissible for failing to meet mandatory legal safeguards against tampering. The court also rejected the defence of Purohit, who argued that he was a military intelligence officer infiltrating the group, but acquitted him as the evidence failed to meet what it saw as the legal standard for a conviction. The political circumstances suggest a consistent attempt to reframe the alleged acts of terror not as criminal, but with a communal narrative. In 2019, while still under trial for grave terror charges, Pragya Thakur was fielded as a parliamentary candidate by the Bharatiya Janata Party and won from Bhopal. Her political elevation as a Hindutva icon was precisely because of her purported role in fomenting retaliatory attacks against Muslims. Her subsequent career, marked by an endorsement of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin, Nathuram Godse, has only confirmed the dangerous mainstreaming of extremist voices. The acquittal lays bare the unsettling reality that when state agencies fail, extremist organisations can get away with heinous crimes. Terror has no single religious face and, without a competent and scrupulous policing, prosecution and justice system, its perpetrators, whoever they may be, can walk free.
Express Tribune
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
The Hague vindication
Listen to article Pakistan's lawfare stance on water for arbitration has got a shot in the arm. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague stood behind the lower riparian state, and categorically pronounced that it has the due and legitimate authority to 'adjudicate' in any dispute between the two countries over the Indus Water Treaty (1960). It went a step ahead to rule that Pakistan's concerns on India holding the treaty in 'abeyance' and the threats of "weaponising water" are "not hypothetical", and go on to actively undermine the treaty obligations. This is the second endorsement to come from the international fora after the World Bank that attributed Delhi's unilateral withdrawal from the commitment as unlawful. The legal perspective emerged as the PCA was deliberating the Pakistan-India dispute over Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects, whose final decision is due in summer this year. The court seized the opportunity to announce a supplemental award on June 27, 2025, wherein the PCA held high its discretion to adjudicate that went on to reinforce Islamabad's stance that the IWT is fully operational and cannot be set aside by India through unilateral declarations. The Foreign Office was quick to call on Delhi to see reason in global legal decorum and immediately restore water supply to Pakistan. Nonetheless, the Hindutva-led dispensation's adamant attitude to reject the PCA testimony, and continue with its illegal action must instantly drive retribution. Islamabad's case was preeminent and all the three of its points laid down before the PCA were upheld by the jurists. They pertained to weaponisation of water politics by India; and included: interruption of water supply used for downstream irrigation through the filling of reservoirs; the opening of dam gates to release stored water in excessive volumes in a manner that causes flooding downstream; and the rapid, mass release of sediment impacting rivers, land, infrastructure and people living downstream. This nod from PCA must serve as an awakening call for India, and the least option it has is to submit to the will of International Law and uphold its stature as a responsible state.
The Wire
30-05-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
'Heart Lamp' Burns Bright: How Banu Mushtaq Illuminates Muslim Women's Hidden World
Let us start with the obvious categories of perception, that Banu Mushtaq is a Muslim, a woman and a writer. All three terms are important aspects of her identity that inform her literary perspective. Her lived experience as a Muslim woman undoubtedly shapes the intimacy and empathy with which she writes, influences her literary concerns, and contributes to the authenticity of her voice. However, to suggest that her recent honour – the Booker International Prize for her book Heart Lamp – stems from these identity markers alone would be reductive and unfair to her considerable literary merit. Her translator Deepa Bhasthi emphasises this point, saying 'it would be a disservice to reduce Banu's work to her religious identity, for her stories transcend the confines of a faith and its cultural traditions'. Indeed, her identity extends far beyond these markers, as evidenced by her conscious evolution the day she threw off the burkha and became an activist, a journalist, a protestor in public rallies and wore a black coat as any other lawyer and went to court. Banu's characters could well be named Gita and Sita instead of Arifa, and Jameela because the poverty that pervades Muslim women pervades the Hindu women too. That's where her universal appeal lies but the oppression of Muslim women is markedly different because the patriarchy that suppresses them is empowered and sanctioned by religious authority. The subterranean power of the 'Tablighi Jamaat' (a group of men that go home to home preaching how to be a 'good Muslim') is so pervasive that no woman can dare challenge it. By putting the women in burkha, the Muslim men have succeeded in erasing their individual identity. When you see them in a public space, you do not see Arifa and Jameela, you merely see a different gender walking out there. That's the power of Muslim patriarchy. They control their women's right to exist as individual beings. The woman first belongs to the family – the father, husband, brother, and son, similar to what 'Manu Smriti' prescribed for the Hindu woman. But in public spaces they are a large community of non-entities, thanks to the burkha. No Hindu woman has conceded that power to her man. And therein lies a huge difference. Also read: Banu Mushtaq's Importance Goes Much Beyond the BookerThe Hindu patriarchy, on the other hand, cannot impose its will on women on the implicit authority of religion, though caste factors do play an important role in the assertion of 'family honour' – a pride that always rests on denying the autonomy of the female agency. This is one crucial area where the Hindutva-led majoritarianism is reviving patriarchy by undergirding family values and community unity in the face of threats from the Other. A typical example of this are the laws passed by some BJP-ruled states aimed at the imaginary crime of 'love jihad' – which have now ended up as a joke because in UP they could not even find half-a-dozen such cases. There is a more important identity of Banu Mushtaq that I wish to focus on – one that she has crafted for herself and suits her far more significantly than anything else. That she is a 'critical insider'. She proclaimed this identity, quite justifiably, at a recent event in Mysore before the Booker prize was announced. Let us develop these two terms a bit more. Belonging, as she does to the 'Bandaya Movement' that produced the 'Bandaya Sahitya' of the mid-1970s in Kannada literature, critical thinking and questioning were a necessary precondition to her writings and public acts. The pioneers of the movement came from the oppressed classes, the Muslims, Dalits, and women. And she has a foot in two of the three camps – an authenticity that is doubly reinforced. She acknowledges without any hesitation, the contribution of Baraguru Ramachandrappa and P. Lankesh to her own literary and social awareness. It was P. Lankesh who prodded her to become a journalist by filing stories for his famous Lankesh Patrike on the events in her home-town Hassan and its surroundings. Later, he encouraged her to tell her story and the stories of others in her community. From a journalist to an activist to a lawyer, her journey has been one of continuous progression in social and political consciousness that has regularly found literary back to the issue of being a 'critical insider', let us understand where she stands with the help of her stories. The most frequent characters that recur in her stories are women, mostly poor and uneducated, the maulvis and mutawallis (those who interpret the Sharia laws). All of them operate within the pervasive control of the mosque and the madrassa. They seem to live in a different universe. And different rules and an arcane system of justice apply there. Banu Mushtaq tells their stories with great empathy and at times, wry humour. Being an 'insider', Banu Mushtaq implicitly accepts the cosmology and the world-view of her faith, abides by its holy scriptures – the Qur'an and the Hadith. But being 'critical' she questions the men that mediate between her and her Allah. She questions their knowledge of the holy texts and their ability to perceive the humanism and the nobility inherent in it. She questions the web of institutions and the rules built by the men of religion to subjugate other men and more so, the women. But the critical insider doesn't go beyond questioning, or perhaps that is the journalist in her, who sees her role as the asker of questions rather than the provider of answers. Her protagonists certainly protest but it seems muffled, and they do not rebel. They seem to have only two options – to die by suicide or fall in line. Walking out of the all-enveloping confines and fear of the jamaat does not exist as an option in her stories, except in one, 'Huttu' – 'Birth' (not included in Heart Lamp but in the larger Kannada collection, Hasina and other Stories). Here the young girl, Nishat, elopes with her tuition teacher, a Hindu boy, but then, in an act of repentance and as an expiation of her guilt, sends back her five-year-old daughter to live with her grandparents and her mamas and mamis. But why? Why should she sacrifice her dearest daughter to the very confines from which she has escaped? The wider world that seems the natural habitat of a similarly placed Hindu protagonist does not seem to be an easy option for her character. Also read: No Story Is Ever 'Small': Banu Mushtaq's International Booker Acceptance SpeechIn one poignant story, the woman drops the match-stick that she was about to strike after dousing herself in kerosene, at the heartrending cry of her eldest daughter, as in 'Heart Lamp', or the wife of the mutawalli walks out of home, as in 'Black Cobras', determined to get a vasectomy operation done for herself. Here the vasectomy operation is seen as a slap to the mutawalli who has been preaching to all the women that getting such an operation is 'haram' – against the will of God. One must accept that Banu Mushtaq writes of present-day reality in Muslim society with profound insight. And the reality is depressing and disturbing. A poor, uneducated Muslim woman's life is indeed hellish and brutal. Their men are mainly responsible for this, and religion hardly provides any succour. As a chronicler of her community's state of affairs, Banu Mushtaq could not have been more accurate. As a 'critical insider', she offers something invaluable to young Muslim girls—a mirror to see their reality clearly and a voice that validates their struggles. Her own journey from traditional constraints to becoming an activist, journalist, and award-winning writer serves as a powerful testament to what is possible. Through her authentic storytelling and public presence, she creates space for protest, rebellion, and reform within her community. Her work doesn't provide easy answers, but it asks the essential questions and shows that transformation, however difficult, remains within Joshi was formerly in the Cabinet Secretariat.
Time of India
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Pahalgam terror attack: Pakistan condoles death of tourists in Jammu and Kashmir
NEW DELHI: Pakistan on Wednesday extended condolences while simultaneously distancing itself from the brutal terror attack near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, a day after 28 tourists were killed in the violence. The country's foreign office expressed concern and offered sympathies, but its defence minister dismissed any link to Islamabad, calling the incident a result of "home-grown" discontent within India. 'We are concerned at the loss of tourists' lives in an attack in Anantnag district. We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery,' said a statement from the Pakistan Foreign Office in response to media queries. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trending in in 2025: Local network access control [Click Here] Esseps Learn More Undo The attack, which occurred in the Baisaran meadow near Pahalgam, is the deadliest in the Valley since the Pulwama bombing of 2019. Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Asif, in an interview with Live 92 News, asserted, 'Pakistan has no connection with this. These are local uprisings, from Nagaland to Kashmir, Chhattisgarh to Manipur. It's not foreign interference.' Asif went on to label the violence as a rebellion against what he described as Hindutva-led repression, saying, 'These are people asking for their rights. Hindutva forces are repressing minorities, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims… and people are reacting.' The comments sharply contrast with India's longstanding position that Pakistan-based groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and its proxies like The Resistance Front (TRF), are actively involved in stoking terror in Jammu and Kashmir. Further intensifying the rhetoric, Asif accused India of backing unrest in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan, 'India is sponsoring unrest in Balochistan. We've presented evidence multiple times of India's hand behind instability in Pakistan.' While asserting that Pakistan condemns terrorism 'under any circumstances,' Asif added, 'If the army or police are committing atrocities against people denied fundamental rights, blaming Pakistan becomes a convenient excuse.'
