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New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
CM Siddaramaiah must reveal persons behind SIT formation: Karnataka LoP Ashoka
CHITRADURGA: Assembly opposition leader R Ashoka on Sunday urged CM Siddaramaiah to reveal the real persons who pressured the state government to form the SIT to look into the Dharmasthala mass burial case. He told reporters that the present probe should not end here, but handed over to the NIA. Everyday, the state government receives thousands of complaints, and SITs are not set up. In stark contrast, the SIT for the Dharmasthala case was formed without any explicit demand, based solely on unfounded allegations, he added. 'Setting up of the SIT has tarnished the reputation of Dharmasthala and its deities. This situation must be rectified,' he insisted. He said the expenditure on the SIT is an extravagant waste of resources and the investigation was influenced by 'Urban Naxals'. 'This is a blatant conspiracy orchestrated by the Tipu gang,' he said, alleging that they are disseminating misinformation through social media. He identified a YouTuber, Sameer, as a member of this gang. DCM DK Shivakumar, ministers Dinesh Gundu Rao and Laxmi Hebbalkar have announced that they would visit Dharmasthala after the conclusion of the current legislature session.
The Print
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Print
BJP is othering Bengalis. Its Hindi imperialism won't work
Now, there is another threat hanging over the residents of Jai Hind Camp. Most of them are being branded 'Bangladeshis', 'Rohingya', 'illegal migrants', 'ghuspetiye', or 'outsiders'. Across India, Bangla-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states are being systematically targeted, humiliated, and harassed. After Muslims, 'Urban Naxals', 'Khan Market Gang', and 'Tukde Tukde Gang', the Bengali or Bangla speaker is the BJP's latest enemy. In the basti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hollow claim of 'Viksit Bharat' stands cruelly exposed. Electricity has been cut off. There is no water supply. In the monsoon, rainwater fills the hovel-like rooms, and snakes float in the sludge, sometimes biting the children sleeping in their mothers' arms. Mosquitoes swarm about like clumps of black dust. The slum lanes are pitted tracks, potholed and precipitous. Walking on the pitch-dark alleyways at night feels like a tryst with death itself. Jai Hind Camp, also called Jai Hind Bengali Basti, is a colony of migrant workers only 15 kilometres from the Lutyens bungalows of New Delhi. Yet the basti, with its fetid cesspools and mountains of garbage, seems a universe away from the manicured rose gardens of Lutyensland. Workers of Jai Hind Camp I, along with my party colleagues, visited Jai Hind Camp on 14 and 15 July. We came in solidarity to offer whatever help we could to fellow Bengalis. The first thing we discovered was that all the residents of Jai Hind Camp—all of them—are proven citizens of India. They are neither Bangladeshi nor Rohingya, nor are they 'illegal'. All of them possess not only Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, and Voter ID cards, but also land records of the small patches of land their families own in North Bengal's Cooch Behar. Their holdings in Cooch Behar are enough only for small subsistence dwellings, forcing them to wander in search of construction work. The Jai Hind Camp was established in the 1980s, and migrants from Cooch Behar started moving to Delhi in the following decades. Today, they work as rag pickers, garbage segregators, and domestic workers in nearby Vasant Kunj. Having lived here for decades, their children and grandchildren now speak fluent Dilliwallah Hindi. 'Our fathers and grandfathers were the labourers who built many Vasant Kunj homes,' they said. 'When the Asian Games stadiums and Delhi kothis were being built, the labour went from our camp. Then how are we suddenly being called videshi (foreigners) or Rohingya or Bangladeshi?' As an aside, an important question must be considered: Why has India still not created a systematic, rational policy for urban migrant workers? They build our spanking roads and shopping malls, but once the work is completed, why are they left to rot in slums, on the borders of our posh colonies? Also read: Chandrababu Naidu is dreaming new dreams at 75. What other CMs are missing An insidious campaign Because their roots are in North Bengal, the majority of migrant workers in Jai Hind Camp are Bangla speakers. And now, their language and identity are their biggest crimes. Their mother tongue is, in the eyes of the police, almost akin to a punishable offence—their citizenship is being questioned only because they are Bangla speakers. Most of them have been victims of police action. Cops come at night, pick them up, take them to the station, accuse them of being Bangladeshis or Rohingya, and demand land records as proof. Of course, once the records are shown, the police are compelled to let them off. This isn't the case in Jai Hind Camp alone. In BJP-ruled Maharashtra, migrant workers from Bengal were beaten, branded 'Bangladeshi infiltrators', and handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF). But once they showed detailed proof of identity, even the BSF was forced to return them. In BJP-ruled Odisha, over 400 Bangla-speaking workers were recently detained. The Odisha authorities were later forced to release them after the Bengal police and state administration stepped in. Many of the detained workers showed incontrovertible evidence that they were Indian citizens. In BJP-ruled Gujarat too, Bangla-speaking migrants have been attacked. In a tough directive, the Calcutta High Court has now asked none other than the Modi government to explain why these sudden country-wide raids have been taking place against Bangla speakers. The Sangh Parivar's campaign against West Bengal and Bengalis is like the Right wing's older campaign against Kashmiris. Through the 1990s and 2000s, allegations were made that Kashmiri Muslims were somehow 'Pakistan sympathisers', which only alienated the Kashmir Valley further. Now, an even more insidious campaign has started to brand citizens of Bengal as 'Bangladeshis', 'Rohingya', or 'outsiders'. It's a political campaign to somehow create the fear of 'outsiders' (read Muslims) in Bengal and spur communal polarisation ahead of the Bengal Assembly polls of 2026. Intent on stirring a Hindu-Muslim divide, the BJP is using the terms 'Bangladeshi' and 'Rohingya' as shorthand for Muslims. However, by attacking the Bangla language and even targeting Hindus, such as the recent raids by the Pune police against Hindu Matua migrants, the BJP has made a terrible mistake. It has only succeeded in painting itself as an anti-Bangla and anti-Bengal party. To attack Bangla is to attack one of the languages that built modern India. It is the language of Subhash Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekananda, and even Syama Prasad Mukherjee, who founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh—the BJP's precursor. It is also the language of Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote the national anthem. Even the BJP's preferred slogan, 'Vande Mataram', is drawn from the poem composed by Bengali litterateur and scholar Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Bangla is one of the 22 languages recognised by the Constitution. For the BJP to somehow imply that speaking Bangla casts a shadow over citizenship, or that only Hindi is the repository of Indianness, is unconstitutional and illegal. It strikes at the heart of the idea of a plural, multilingual, multicultural India. The Bengal Renaissance—the intellectual and social churn of the late 19th and early 20th century—produced the modern greats for India. Science pioneer JC Bose, first Chief Election Commissioner Sukumar Sen, statistician PC Mahalanobis, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, filmmaker Satyajit Ray, novelist Mahasweta Devi, and, more recently, filmmaker Aparna Sen and writer Amitav Ghosh, are all legatees of the Bengal Renaissance spirit of free intellectual striving and creative efflorescence. To now posit Bangla and its speakers as somehow 'anti-national' or 'foreign' betrays the BJP's customary ignorance of the very foundations of modern India. Also read: Stop telling South Indians to learn Hindi. In Hyderabad, languages coexist without imposition 'Othering' the Bengalis Today, Bengal remains true to the plural ideals of India's founding vision. A new Jagannath temple at Digha is drawing hundreds of devotees, while the state's stupendous Durga Puja has been inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Eid and Christmas are celebrated with equal fervour in Bengal. The songs of Kazi Nazrul Islam and Tagore are sung by Bengalis across communities. When North India was seized by communal riots in the 1980s and 1990s due to the BJP's Ayodhya Mandir mobilisation, Bengal remained largely peaceful. Over 1.5 crore non-Bengali migrant workers live in the state with the freedom to speak their own language and follow their own customs. The BJP's agenda is clear. After successive defeats in the 2021 Assembly and 2024 general elections, the party is attempting to pigeonhole Bengal as a place of 'Rohingya/Bangladeshis/Muslims'. The BJP is even trying to paint West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who visits temples, mosques, and churches—as every elected leader in multicultural India should—as a 'Muslim sympathiser'. This is bizarre. Banerjee herself hails from a family of pandits of the Kalighat temple, yet she believes in upholding a rooted pluralism. If infiltrators from Bangladesh and elsewhere are coming into India, surely the onus to stop them falls squarely on the BSF and the home ministry. Why has the home ministry abdicated this responsibility of protecting our borders? Why is the central government instead playing politics over infiltrators? The BJP's hate-filled politics of trying to paint Bangla speakers and Bengalis as 'Bangladeshis' and 'Rohingya' is not only a horrendous, prejudiced abuse of the nationality of a neighbouring country, but also a nasty attempt to 'other' the Bengali from the rest of Indians. Bengal can never become a laboratory project like Gujarat or Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP is easily able to demonise the minority community to consolidate its hold on the majority. The ugliness of the BJP's politics lies precisely here—this constant search for 'enemies' to attack and vilify. The cultural traditions of Bengal will not accept this wicked politics. Whether we live in Delhi or Kolkata, Bengalis are too proud of our state and language to accept a narrative that casts us as inferior to Hindi or the states of the Hindi belt. The free and questioning spirit of the Bengal Renaissance lives in us still. The BJP's Hindi imperialism did not work in Tamil Nadu. It is doomed to fail in Bengal. Sagarika Ghose is a Rajya Sabha MP, All India Trinamool Congress. She tweets @sagarikaghose. Views are personal. (Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
Time of India
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Dubbing people with different ideology Urban Naxal a fashion of govt: Pawar
Pune: NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday said the state govt had made it a fashion to label people following a different ideology as "Urban Naxals". The veteran politician made the comment criticising the Maharashtra government, after Shiv Sena MLC Manisha Kayande claimed in the assembly on Wednesday that some "Urban Naxal" organisations had entered the Ashadhi Wari. She said the state govt would have to take action against them. Reacting to the issue, Pawar told reporters in Pune, "One of the organisations labelled as 'Urban Naxals' is Lokayat. I have closely seen their work. They follow a progressive path and work on bringing change in society against regressive thoughts. It is wrong to call them 'Urban Naxals'." You Can Also Check: Pune AQI | Weather in Pune | Bank Holidays in Pune | Public Holidays in Pune Citing the arrests of some people over their alleged connection with the Naxalite outfits in the past, Pawar said, "Some people were kept in jail for some years. Later, the court gave a verdict in their favour. It has become a fashion of state govt to label someone as an 'Urban Naxal' if s/he follows a different ideology. The possibility of the state trying to control these people by terming them 'Urban Naxal' cannot be ruled out. "
India Gazette
18-06-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
Congress has no right to raise this issue: BJP's Ram Kadam on Sachin Pilot's statement
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India] June 18 (ANI): BJP MLA Ram Kadam criticised the Congress party, saying they have no right to raise the caste census issue. Reacting to Congress leader Sachin Pilot's statement on caste census, the BJP MLA questioned the Congress party's credibility on the issue due to their past record of alleged corruption. While speaking to ANI on Wednesday, Kadam said, 'This is the government of PM Modi, where promises are fulfilled when they are made. The people have been observing this for the last 11 has no right to raise this issue (caste census). When they were in power, they were involved in corruption. Every new day, there was a new case of corruption...' Earlier on Tuesday, Congress leader Sachin Pilot questioned the intention of the BJP-led Union government over the caste census, accusing them of delaying the exercise earlier by citing COVID as an excuse. On the caste census, Congress leader Sachin Pilot told reporters, 'BJP and PM Modi had earlier said that the demand for a caste census is being raised by 'Urban Naxals', and they even mentioned in parliament in writing that they do not want to conduct it. After pressure from the opposition, they suddenly accepted our demand. But the notification now says the census will be conducted in 2027. He also questioned the budget allocation to start the exercise in 2027. 'Earlier, they delayed it using COVID as an excuse, and even now, we doubt their intention to fulfil this promise. Around Rs 8,000-10,000 crore is usually spent on the census, but this government has allocated only Rs 570 crore in the budget' He stated that the caste census ensures that the government schemes' benefits reach every beneficiary. 'The caste census is not just to know a person's caste -- it is to ensure that government schemes are reaching the people, to check whether they are benefiting from them, and to understand the employment rate...' The notification to conduct the Census was published in the official Gazette on Monday, following a high-level meeting held in Delhi, where the Home Minister reviewed the plan along with the Union Home Secretary, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI), and other senior officials. The Population Census 2027 will begin with a reference date of March 1, 2027, for most parts of the country. The reference date for snow-bound and non-synchronous areas such as Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand will be October 1, 2026. (ANI)
India Gazette
17-06-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
"We doubt their intention to fulfil this promise regarding caste census": Sachin Pilot
New Delhi [India], June 17 (ANI): Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Tuesday questioned the intention of the BJP-led Union government over the caste census, accusing them of delaying the exercise earlier by citing COVID as an excuse. On caste census, Congress leader Sachin Pilot told reporters, 'BJP and PM Modi had earlier said that the demand for a caste census is being raised by 'Urban Naxals', and they even mentioned in parliament in writing that they do not want to conduct it. After pressure from the opposition, they suddenly accepted our demand. But the notification now says the census will be conducted in 2027. He also questioned the budget allocation to start the exercise in 2027. 'Earlier, they delayed it using COVID as an excuse, and even now, we doubt their intention to fulfil this promise. Around Rs 8,000-10,000 crore is usually spent on the census, but this government has allocated only Rs 570 crore in the budget' He stated that the caste census ensures that the government schemes' benefits reach every beneficiary. 'The caste census is not just to know a person's caste -- it is to ensure that government schemes are reaching the people, to check whether they are benefiting from them, and to understand the employment rate...' The notification to conduct the Census was published in the official Gazette on Monday, following a high-level meeting held in Delhi, where the Home Minister reviewed the plan along with the Union Home Secretary, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI), and other senior officials. The Population Census 2027 will begin with a reference date of March 1, 2027, for most parts of the country. The reference date for snow-bound and non-synchronous areas such as Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand will be October 1, 2026. (ANI)
