Latest News Update: Jul 24, 2010

Saturday, July 24, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Casteist reporting

http://thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=4708&mod=1&pg=1&sectionId=15&valid=true

Casteist reporting

An amazing story in India Today seems to think that appointing Dalit
cooks in schools is a deliberately divisive move by a state
government. K S SUDEEP marvels at Piyush Srivastava's interpretation.

Posted Friday, Jul 23 21:35:02, 2010

So those kids were all living happily together. They were friends,
caste and class did not matter. And then some "Dalit cooks" came and
divided them.

That is what this India Today report
(http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/105732/LATEST%20HEADLINES/dalit-cooks-divide-up-schoolkids.html)
tries hard to convince us. Titled "Dalit cooks divide UP schoolkids",
the report by Piyush Srivastava explains how the introduction of Dalit
cooks in schools led to a "bad situation" in Uttar Pradesh.

"Mid-day meals prepared by Dalit cooks has created such a bad
situation in UP that upper caste students are leaving government
schools in droves - so far the number is 1,000.."

The report goes on to give us some glimpse into the history and tells
us how BSP had piggybacked on the support of Dalits and Brahmins to
come to power in UP and how the Mayawati government failed to live up
to its promises.

"..But once there, Mayawati and her party failed to bridge the gap
between the upper castes and the Dalits. Rather than achieving social
harmony, it has led to increased casteism as is evident from the fact
that the students have been boycotting schools over Dalit cooks…"

Very funny, but in a very sad way. It is the upper caste and OBC
people who refused to eat food that the dalits cooked. And Sri
Srivastava concludes that it is the Dalit cooks (and the government
that ordered appointment of these Dalit cooks in schools) who are
responsible for the "increased casteism".

Some parts of the report are factually misleading as well. For
instance, it says:

" ..this [continuing instances of violence and boycott] has mounted
pressure on the BSP which had passed a diktat making it compulsory for
every government school to appoint a Dalit cook where there are two
vacancies."

It is not that the BSP government had a fancy idea one day and gave a
"diktat" of their own to appoint Dalit cooks in the schools. There are
Supreme Court orders regarding recruitment of cooks from marginalized
communities. However, I think it is a commendable effort on the UP
government's side that they went ahead and implemented these orders.
One such order says; "In appointment of cooks and helpers, preference
shall be given to Dalits, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes."

[ http://www.sccommissioners.org/courtorders#mdm ]

That is not all. The report even swears by Mahatma Gandhi in an all
out attempt to ridicule the Mayawati government.

"..What is worrying is that Mahatma Gandhi's ideals about a classless
society seem to have been forgotten.

And this is no isolated incident.

In July 2009, upper caste students in at least 15 villages of Kannauj
had stopped going to government schools. This year, the OBC students,
too, joined them when schools reopened after the summer vacation.."

Seriously, who is coming in the way of an "ideal" society? Some poor
dalit cooks? Or some people who consider themselves to be
"upper-caste" and superior to others and refuse to eat the food cooked
by others, more than 60 years past our independence? Or media like
India Today and journalists like Piyush Srivastava?

[Thanks to my friend Kuffir for sharing the link to the India Today
article on facebook. Thanks to Oommen for pointing out the SC orders
regarding appointment of cooks.]

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[ZESTCaste] TV serials respond honourably

http://thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=4701&mod=1&pg=1&sectionId=14&valid=true

TV serials respond honourably

Honour killings seem to have brought out the best among serial makers
who are now responding by highlighting these in their shows. Hopefully
the sagas of saas-bahu kitchen politics will be put on the back
burner, says D MAMTA

Posted Monday, Jul 19 23:24:59, 2010

The spate of honour killings in the recent past and the wide reportage
by the media have had many fallouts. While the government is gearing
up to consider stricter legislation to deal with these crimes,
television soaps have begun responding to the issue by introducing
dimensions that touch upon the larger issue of women's rights within a
family. After a long reign of saas-bahu serials, entertainment
channels are now taking up social evils and finding audience as well
as critical acclaim.

A few months back Geet Sabse hui parayi made its debut on Star One. In
the show the protagonist, Geet, has to marry an NRI boy at the behest
of her family. The boy is interested in the girl's money and land
which would be transferred to him after the marriage. After the
ceremony he promptly takes away her wealth and abandons Geet. Her
family takes her back and wants to keep her marriage a secret but when
they discover that she is pregnant they decide to get her married off
again. When things do not proceed according to plan the family tries
to pressurise her to abort the child and when she refuses to do so her
brother tries to kill her. Geet manages to survive this attempt and
decides to disown her family and the community and chart her own path.
Before leaving the village, however, she trashes her community and
their values in a long lecture.

Another television soap, Jyoti, on Imagine, has taken up a similar
theme. In this case the boy is from a rich and orthodox family and the
girl is a divorcee. The family obviously does not want the boy to
marry a divorcee and threatens the boy with dire consequences making
references to other `deviants' who have cast a shadow on the family's
honour and have been killed for similar infringements. In the latest
episode of the show the boy has been poisoned by his father.

Both serials show feudalistic, orthodox and patriarchal families who
act to save the family's honour, holding the woman to be the main
culprit. In both cases the victims respect their parents and family
elders but also believe that they have rights as individuals. Both the
shows raise several pertinent questions. Why is it always a woman who
has to carry the burden if a family's honour is at stake? Does the
killing or harassment of the family's younger sons and daughters
salvage a family's hounour? How does a family retain its respect after
the crimes parade them before the whole nation? Which is the bigger
crime: to marry outside your caste, class and community or to kill
someone?

Another serial on Colors, Yeh Pyaar Na Hoga Kam, highlights the role
that caste and class conflicts play in marriages. The story is set in
Lucknow where the son of a Brahmin, Abeer, falls in love with the
daughter of a Kayasth, Leher. Though the parents don't kill their
children in this show they try to make their lives unhappy. This show
presents the persistent dominance of caste in Indian society despite
the progress that has been made in other areas.

These serials bring out the perils of challenging the boundaries
defined by age old societal divisions. The divisions, among other
things, being defined by the amount of money the family has, the caste
it belongs to, its traditions and above all the `name' of the family
and the shame that will follow if this is sullied.

The serials as well as the recent honour killing incidents highlight
the dichotomous social structure we live in where on the one hand
live-in relationships are accepted easily and on the other parents
take pride in killing their errant children.

Thankfully, following the hue and cry over honour killings, television
soaps that harped upon the kitchen politics of the saas bahu variety
seem to have become passé. Serials like Jyoti, Agale Janam Mohe
Bitiya Hi Kijo, Balika Badhu and Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma have
begun responding to contemporary social issues.

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[ZESTCaste] Centre seeks views on caste census

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Centre-seeks-views-on-caste-census/articleshow/6194279.cms

Centre seeks views on caste census
21 Jul 2010, 0713 hrs IST,Devesh Kumar,ET Bureau

NEW DELHI:The Manmohan Singh government has kicked off the exercise of
eliciting the views of various political parties on castebased census.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the GoM on the subject,
set the ball rolling here on Monday, when he met JD(U) president
Sharad Yadav, one of the most vociferous advocates of the demand.

The finance minister, however, is yet to write letters to leaders of
various political parties, seeking their views on the demand for
enumerating caste in the ongoing census exercise , as had been decided
at the July 1 meeting of the GoM. The ministerial panel had, while
finalising the course of action, decided to give four weeks'
time-frame to enable the political outfits to formulate their
response.

In his meeting with Mr Yadav on Monday night, the finance minister, it
is learnt, sought his views on the proposal to have caste-based census
, and the roadmap to go about the exercise. The JD(U) leader, while
reiterating his party's support to the demand, outlined an 8-point
charter.

Mr Yadav, who's also the convenor of the NDA, said the task of
collecting information on caste could be initiated from the February
headcount, in which the three columns set aside for SCs, STs and
others would be replaced by just one column on the person's caste. ``
Ask the enumerators to enter the caste name of the person... People
know their caste and the enumerators, who are local, also know the
caste of the people. No one will lie about his/her caste because lying
does not give him/her any benefit. It rather reduces the number of
his/her caste,'' the JD(U) leader argued.

He favoured getting the ministry of social justice, both at the
central and state levels, in the frame to get the real picture. ``
Officials of the ministry are aware which caste in the state belongs
to SC and which one to OBC. They are also aware of the tribe and caste
names. On the basis of the population of individual castes and tribes,
these officials will find out the numbers of SCs, STs and the OBCs,''
the JD(U) leader maintained.

OBCs, according to Mr Yadav, had two lists in a state — central list
and the state list. `` The officials of the ministry of social justice
are quite capable of preparing the data of OBCs under the two lists.
In some states, there are more than one state list of OBCs. The
officials in the states concerned are equipped to find out the
individual caste populations in each list. The National Commission of
Backward Classes and the State Commissions are there to help the
officials,'' he said.

The social justice ministry, he concluded , may send the data on the
population of SCs, STs, OBCs and others to the Census Commissioner.

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[ZESTCaste] Govt again asks parties to send views on caste census

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govt-again-asks-parties-to-send-views-on-caste-census/articleshow/6207068.cms

Govt again asks parties to send views on caste census
TNN, Jul 24, 2010, 03.27am IST

NEW DELHI: Sensing trouble over the demand for caste census in the
Parliament session starting Monday, the government has urged political
parties to submit their opinions to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee
who is heading a GoM on the issue. Parliamentary affairs minister
Pawan Kumar Bansal said the government will take it further once the
replies are received.

Bansal told reporters on Friday that a few replies had been received
to the letter written by Mukherjee to political parties seeking their
views on including caste as a factor in census.

Also, the Centre has listed the women's reservation bill in the
agenda, raising speculation if it will be brought to Lok Sabha. "We
hope to bring it in the LS. Mukherjee has announced in Lok Sabha that
we will bring it after consultations with all concerned. We will carry
out some consultations," Bansal said.

While the Centre had committed to consider the demand for caste census
in the last session, the failure to clinch the issue may see OBC
chieftains stall Parliament.

The coming Bihar polls have led to aggression among OBC leaders and
rivals Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav may adopt a tough posture in
Parliament.

The monsoon session starting Monday will have 24 sittings over 33
days. There are key bills like civil nuclear liability bill which the
Centre is keen to pass.

Following longstanding opposition from Trinamool Congress chief Mamata
Banerjee, the twin bills of Land Acquisition Amendment and R&R have
been officially taken off the priority. The RD ministry has not listed
them for consideration, realising that government would be unable to
move further on them.

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[ZESTCaste] NTPC dumps Mayawati; to power MP

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ntpc-dumps-mayawati;-to-power-mp/645307/

NTPC dumps Mayawati; to power MP

Agencies Posted online: Mon Jul 12 2010, 16:29 hrs
New Delhi : State-owned NTPC has scrapped its plans to set up a
4,000-MW power plant in Uttar Pradesh over differences with the
Mayawati-led BSP state government, and instead moved the coal-fired
project to Barethi in Madhya Pradesh.
The Madhya Pradesh government has assured land, water and fuel for the
project and NTPC is currently conducting site-specific studies, a
senior company official said.

"We are preparing the feasibility report for the 3,960-MW project at
Barethi in Madhya Pradesh," he said.

Originally, NTPC had planned a 3,960 MW supercritical thermal power
project in Uttar Pradesh on the initiative of Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, who wanted to set up a power plant in the Bundelkhand region.

However, the plans ran into problems over differences with the state
government on usage of electricity generated by the project.

The government had wanted all the power produced from the project for
Uttar Pradesh, while rules permit sale of only 50 per cent of the
electricity generated to the state where the plant is being set up.

The state was also unwilling to make land and water available to the
project. Instead, it wanted the company to set up the project in a
joint venture with the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd, which was
found to be unfeasible, the official said.

Meanwhile, studies at the Barethi site are underway and the project
report is expected by the end of 2010.

The detailed project report (DPR) would be ready by the end of the
calender year, and the project is slated to be commissioned during the
XIIth Five Year Plan Period (2012-17), a source close to the
development said.

NTPC, which has power generation capacity of over 30,000 MW from all
sources of energy, is planning to augment it to 50,000 MW by March
2012.

Of its total of over 30,000 MW, the company's plants at Uttar Pradesh
contribute about 7,000 MW.

NTPC has five power projects in Uttar Pradesh – Singrauli (2,000 MW),
Rihand (2,000 MW), Dadri (1,330 MW), Unchahar (1,050 MW) and Tanda
(440 MW) -- totalling a capacity of 6,820 MW.

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[ZESTCaste] The Muslim-Yadav card - Mulayam Singh is desperately trying to revive the old alliance

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/aditi-phadnismuslim-yadav-card/402302/

Aditi Phadnis: The Muslim-Yadav card

Mulayam Singh is desperately trying to revive the old alliance
Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi July 24, 2010, 0:05 IST

Jijeevisha is a Hindi word describing the will to live. It is much in
use in Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the context of the Samajwadi Party (SP)
chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The past few months haven't been kind to Yadav. He thought his party
was sinking because of Amar Singh, his former general secretary. But
although he dropped Singh, the condition of the SP has not improved.
In the last electoral test, the by-election for the Domariaganj
assembly seat in June, the SP was No. 4. To Yadav's discomfiture — and
that of his colleagues who had been saying that only when Singh was
thrown out would SP's fortunes improve — an unknown party, the Peace
Party, supported by Singh, came third.

Earlier this week, Yadav apologised to the Muslims for having tied up
with Kalyan Singh. This has softened the Muslims towards him but has
deeply angered the Lodhs, the caste that Kalyan Singh represents. The
feeling among the Lodhs is: He can't use us and throw us away. Kalyan
Singh contested the 2007 assembly elections as an independent
candidate but was supported by the SP. His son Rajvir lost the
election from home turf Dibai by 1.5 lakh votes to the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP). In 2009, Rajvir formally joined the SP. But he left the
party 11 months later. When Yadav began talking as if his biggest
mistake was to have tied up with Kalyan Singh, it was the Muslims he
was speaking to. But the Lodhs were listening as well. The revenge
will not take long coming. It won't be dramatic but it will decimate
the SP vote bank — in assembly constituencies, 3,000 to 5,000 votes
can represent the gap between victory and defeat. And if the Lodhs
turn away from the SP in every constituency, well, the SP is going to
face serious haemorrhage.

The short point is that unless Yadav can get his act together in UP,
small challengers like the Peace Party and Kalyan Singh could spell
devastation for his plans of challenging Mayawati.

The Peace Party of India (PPI) was started by bureaucrat — he was
selected for the allied services and worked as a customs officer — Dr
Mohammad Ayub, who is actually a trained surgeon. He gave up his
government job and started a hospital in his hometown Gorakhpur. The
PPI was launched in 2008, not necessarily as a party for Muslims, but
for professionals. Chartered accountants, doctors and lawyers are its
members. The party has units in 35 districts in UP but is important
only in eastern UP. In Domariaganj, it fielded a Brahmin. So you could
possibly call it a very small, professionals' version of the BSP in
its "sarvajan samaaj" mode.

The PPI is going to nibble away at Congress and SP votes, but it is
the SP that is most worried. Hence Yadav's "apology" and his plans to
launch Azam Khan as the next SP star. Azam Khan was deposed by
Jayaprada from Rampur in the run-up to the 2009 general election and
left the party. He has returned and is likely to get a hero's welcome.
This will be another move to placate the Muslims. A meeting of the
Ulema Council (the body of clerics from Azamgarh, formed after the
Batla House encounter in 2008, which contested the 2009 elections) has
also been sought by Yadav and could endorse him.

The thing is, UP is quite content with Mayawati. Sure there is
corruption, but it isn't of the scale that prevailed during the Yadav
regime when even the water carrier in the SP was extorting.
Considerable development is taking place in villages, especially for
the Dalit community. While Mayawati has denied naming her brother
Anand as her political heir, it is quite clear that he is the
single-point source of advice when it comes to money matters. But
Mayawati retains the veto power, something Yadav had lost towards the
end of his last tenure — although he was warned about the activities
of his brothers and cousins, he did not act. So, while there is no
wave in Mayawati's favour, levels of disapproval are low.

But on the other hand, Yadav is the only street fighter now left in
UP. The Congress is too refined to oppose Mayawati (did you notice how
the Congress reacted to UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna's criticism of the
chief minister some months ago? It was as if Bahuguna had made an
indecent suggestion). The BJP is too old. That leaves only Yadav.

What Yadav is trying to do is to revive the Muslim-Yadav combine in UP
that served his colleague Lalu Prasad so well in Bihar for so long.
Such an alliance will give him leverage to get other castes on the
bandwagon too, although at this point, it looks difficult — he has
dispatched a colleague, Manoj Pande, to placate the Brahmins, but they
are now looking to the Congress.

There are reports that Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam's son, and Amar Singh
had a meeting in London recently to see if a patch-up was possible.
When discussions turned to financial matters, talks broke down. That
relationship might be hard to repair. But, at a time when everything
seems to be going against him, Mulayam Singh Yadav is not ready to
throw in the towel. Not yet.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati's park project at cost of trees: Apex court told

http://sify.com/news/mayawati-s-park-project-at-cost-of-trees-apex-court-told-news-national-khxuadaacjj.html

IANS
Mayawati's park project at cost of trees: Apex court told

2010-07-23 20:00:00

The Supreme Court was told Friday that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati's ambitious NOIDA park project dedicated to BSP and Dalit
icons was being set up on land that was a 'deemed forest' and large
number of trees were being felled for the purpose.

'This was not a natural forest but a deemed forest that had a dense
collection of variety of trees planted about 35 years ago,' senior
counsel Jayant Bhushan told the green bench of Chief Justice S.H.
Kapadia, Justice Aftab Alam and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan.

The senior counsel said this following a query by Chief Justice
Kapadia asking, 'What is the basis of your submission that it is a
forest land? What is the status of the said land in the revenue
records?'

The counsel told the court that in revenue records the NOIDA park land
was shown as agricultural land. He said the park was being set up by
cutting large number of trees and denuding the entire area.

At this Justice Radhakrishnan wanted to know if all the trees were cut
and what was their age. Jayant Bhushan told the court that the trees
were planted when NOIDA was being set up in the mid 70s. He said the
trees were more than 30 years old.

Jayant Bhushan said there were three issues that needed to be
addressed by the court. One is whether NOIDA park was being set up on
forest land. Secondly, whether the state government had taken the
Ministry of Environment and Forests approval under the Environmental
Impact Assessment Notification (EIAN) of 2006, and finally, its impact
on the Okhala Bird Sanctuary that is in not far from the park.

In the meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government in its affidavit before
the Supreme Court has accused the MoEF of deliberately creating
bottlenecks to delay the project.

The state government has taken exception to the centre's affidavit
seeking more time to undertake an 'integrated and holistic'
environmental impact assessment of the project.

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[ZESTCaste] Rahul vs NaMo in Bihar (Opinion)

http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/columnists/rahul-vs-namo-in-bihar/192324.html

Rahul vs NaMo in Bihar

Aditya SinhaExpress News ServiceFirst Published : 24 Jul 2010 11:37:00
PM ISTLast Updated : 23 Jul 2010 11:49:33 PM IST

Every sixth Bihari is a Muslim. (On the other hand, every eighth
Indian is a Muslim according to the 2001 census, though some in the
community argue that it is closer to every seventh Indian. In any
case, ten per cent of India's Muslims are in Bihar.) The Bihar
Assembly polls will take place in around three months, and as always,
whoever has the best caste/community combination will win. Incumbent
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tried to split the Muslim vote by
attacking his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi over a minor matter of
newspaper ads during the BJP meet in Patna last month. It apparently
backfired. The Muslims are now doubly suspicious of Nitish despite his
not-inconsiderable achievements of fast-tracking development and
improving security; and the upper castes do not look as if they will
transfer their votes from the BJP to the JD(U) in constituencies where
the latter will fight. Lalu Prasad has gained. After a year of
silently suffering the cavalier treatment by his senior UPA partner,
he can afford himself a smile. He now has the edge in Bihar.

This has not gone unnoticed by the Congress party which, like Rip Van
Winkle, hopes to electorally wake up in Bihar after 20 long years. It
is repeatedly said that the Congress cannot ever hope for a
parliamentary majority unless it gets substantial numbers of MPs from
the Hindi heartland states of UP (80 Lok Sabha seats) and Bihar (40).
Bihar, due to Lalu's dominance for most of the past two decades,
seemed a much tougher nut to crack than UP. Rahul Gandhi's surprising
performance in UP in last year's Lok Sabha elections appears to have
given the Congress a ray of hope.

Given the Muslim voter's importance in the Congress' traditional
electoral strategy, the party not surprisingly last month appointed a
relatively young, fresh face as its party chief: Mehboob Ali Kaiser.
And then, seeing how Nitish fell flat on his face trying to confuse
Muslims by demonising their enemy no. 1, Narendra Modi, the Congress
has decided to do one better, and this is perhaps why it aggressively
moved the Central Bureau of Investigation against his close associate
and Gujarat minister of state for home, Amit Shah. If the CBI summoned
Shah, do not assume this is a logical consequence of the investigation
of the encounter killing of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, which has
already led to the arrest of an IPS officer (Gujarat claims
Sohrabuddin had terrorist links, much like Dawood Ibrahim). If the CBI
acted methodically, Ottavio Quattrocchi would be singing arias in
Tihar jail. And saying the investigation was ordered by the Supreme
Court is besides the fact; the ruling party can turn up or lower the
pressure in CBI cases whenever it chooses. The summons is simply
intended to show Bihar's Muslims that the Congress is their enemy's
enemy; so the Congress deserves their votes.

You may wonder whether this strategy is any good, and the best clue is
in how Lalu behaves. His core combination of the Yadavs and Muslims in
Bihar has been impregnable; you could argue that hubris is what
defeated him in the last Assembly elections. His voter-coalition has
survived longer than Mulayam Singh's in UP because unlike Mulayam,
Lalu never betrayed his voters by getting into bed with Kalyan Singh,
the man who oversaw the 1992 demolition in Ayodhya. If he feels even
slightly unsettled by other politicians' outreach to Muslims, he will
react. The fact that he has not and that after a long year in sulk he
finally allows himself an occasional smile should tell you how good
the Congress' strategy is.

There are also rumours that the Congress may try to woo back its
traditional Dalit voters by announcing that its chief ministerial
candidate will be Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. (She can safely be a
candidate because the likelihood of the Congress taking the lead in
forming a government is remote.) Though she is the late Jagjivan Ram's
daughter and also India's first woman Speaker, these are credentials
that impress only middle-class newspaper readers, not rural Dalits.
More importantly, Ram Vilas Paswan is well-entrenched as Bihar's Dalit
leader. This rumour will thus remain a fanciful notion.

The only sure hope for the Congress party is Rahul Gandhi. Indeed,
with Nitish scoring a self-goal by bickering with his alliance
partner, and with Lalu not participating in the central government (a
source of patronage for party workers and constituents), you would
think this is the best window of opportunity that Rahul and his party
have in Bihar. Strangely, the princeling has of late kept a low
profile.

Perhaps it has to do with his 40th birthday last month, when the youth
icon holidayed abroad to celebrate his metamorphosis into a
middle-aged man. Around that time, The Economist wrote a damaging
piece about Rahul and the fact that no one knew about this future
prime minister's policy on anything (although many have guessed that
Rahul believes Union home minister P Chidambaram to be "intellectually
arrogant", as Digvijay Singh put it). Rahul's beliefs are so secret
that you would need Leonardo DiCaprio in the film Inception to enter
his dream and dig them out. And since then, Rahul has not stirred from
Delhi, preferring to meet party colleagues from Andhra Pradesh and
Tamil Nadu at his home. (It is not known if he accompanied his
brother-in-law Robert Vadra to South Africa to watch the World Cup
final that was won by Spain, a country that apparently has emotional
significance for Rahul.)

Rahul has promised to visit Bihar in late August; his mother will be
addressing a rally at Patna's Gandhi Maidan a month from now. Somehow
that does not seem to measure up to the kind of effort he put into UP
where he did the occasional sleep-over at Dalit homes. This is a
chance for Rahul to show that his party is on the comeback trail;
selecting fresh candidates will help pick up a bunch of seats; and the
time to do so is now. If Rahul is just going to attend a couple of
functions here and there, the equally returns will be equally meagre.

And if that's the case, then the contest will be simply Nitish versus
Lalu. With three months to go, Nitish has enough time to make up lost
ground. In which case, the results will show that Bihar was not just
Nitish's win, but Rahul's loss. Rahul may try and chalk it up as one
of those losses like Gujarat and UP in 2007 that did not matter in the
long run. But if the voters see it differently, then the princeling's
plan to become prime minister (and one unfettered by coalition allies)
will, to refer back to Inception, remain a dream-within-a-dream
editorchief@expressbuzz.com

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[ZESTCaste] FIR against institute for cheating govt of SC/ST funds

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/FIR-against-institute-for-cheating-govt-of-SC/ST-funds/articleshow/6207492.cms

FIR against institute for cheating govt of SC/ST funds
TNN, Jul 24, 2010, 12.57am IST

LUCKNOW: An FIR was lodged with Chinhat police against the management
of Ram Swaroop Memorial College on Faizabad Road, accusing it of
misappropriating funds. The management was accused of misappropriating
government funds amounting to several lakhs meant for Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) students.

Reports said that the case was registered in connection with a
complaint that the institute has around 230 students under SC/ST head,
from whom the management charged a total of Rs 60 lakh as fees.

As per government reports, the institute should have taken a fee of Rs
75,000 per head from these students. The institute, however, charged
Rs 95,000 instead. On the other hand, the institute also sought
compensation from the state government against the SC/ST students.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit attacked for walking on caste Hindu's farm

http://expressbuzz.com/states/tamilnadu/dalit-attacked-for-walking-on-caste-hindus-farm/192396.html

Dalit attacked for walking on caste Hindu's farm

Prince Jebakumar

First Published : 24 Jul 2010 02:54:25 AM IST
Last Updated : 24 Jul 2010 08:30:28 AM IST

MADURAI: Atrocities against Dalits continue in rural pockets and in
one such incident a Dalit was attacked just because he walked through
the farm of a caste Hindu.

Ilaiyaraja (27) of Dalit Colony, in Kachirayanpatti village, near
Kottampatti, was on his way back home after visiting his grandmother,
who lives in Manapatti, a nearby village, on July 17. When he came
near Aladi Vayal, he walked across a farm as it was a short cut to
reach home. Mani, who was herding sheep in that area scolded
Ilaiyaraja for walking through the farm and slapped him.

Ranjith and Vignesh, sons of Mani attacked Ilaiyaraja with sickles and
other sharp instruments. Ilaiyaraja, who sustained head injury ran to
his uncle's house in Manapatti village. His relatives including
Ayyammal, Kannan and Mookambal rushed back to the spot where
Ilaiyaraja was attacked.

Caste Hindus, including the trio, surrounded them and used abusive
words against the Dalits and started attacking the entire group. They
did not spare anyone until Kannan fell on his knees and begged for
mercy. All the injured Dalits were taken to Melur government hospital
with the help of 108 ambulance service. Ilaiyaraja was referred to the
GRH in Madurai.

Meanwhile, Mani, got himself admitted to the hospital citing that he
was attacked by the Dalits. Police have registered a case, based on
the complaint lodged by the Dalits and the accused have been booked
under sections 147, 148, 294 (b), 324, 506 (II) of IPC and section
3(1)(10) Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act 1989. A counter
case was also registered by the police based on the complaint lodged
by the caste Hindus.So far, Ranjith, Vignesh, Thirupathi and
Vijayakumar have been arrested by the police in this regard.

Speaking to Express, Ilaiyaraja said that he was beaten up by the
caste Hindus with a leather belt.

Executive Director of Equal Right (an NGO), C Anandaraj, told Express
the injured should be provided with a relief of Rs 50,000 each.
Further, a women's commission should be set up to enquire into the
attack as women were also involved.

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[ZESTCaste] Principal beats dalit students in UP school

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/principal-beats-dalit-students-in-up-school-39317

Principal beats dalit students in UP school
NDTV Correspondent, Updated: July 24, 2010 00:28 IST

Etawah, UP: Five dalit students at Navoday Vidyalay in Uttar
Pradesh's Etawah district were badly beaten on Friday by the school
Principal and four other teachers for carrying mobile inside the
classroom.

Among them, 16-year-old-Rakesh, a student of class 12th, who was badly
injured in the incident, has been rushed to Lucknow for treatment.

Rakesh and his friends were dragged inside a room and thrashed, Rakesh
was hit in the groin while fellow student Amit's head was tonsured.

Now, questions are being asked whether this was a case of corporal
punishment or upper caste teachers beating dalit students?

The punishment was so severe that most senior students have now gone
on hunger strike against the school establishment.

"Our principal and four teachers have beaten us without any reason, in
a room," said Vikas, student of 8th standard.

Junior students are taking their meals but the rest are not.

"It was a trivial issue, they found a mobile on us, there were seven
people with the principal and they threw us on the floor and beat us,"
said another student Dharmendra.

"Our history teacher was there, the chemistry teacher was there, the
political science teacher too was there, all of them beat us," said
Ankit, a student.

The principal does not deny beating the student, but says that the
severity of the punishment handed out is being exaggerated by the
students.

Some parents allege that the staff at the school would deliberately
pick dalit students and punish them.

"Authorities here discriminate against dalit students," said Mahavir, parent.

"This is true that we confiscated a mobile. The student threatened the
teacher. So we did thrash him. Now, we have suspended him and sent him
to Lucknow," said S K Tiwari, Principal.

The district administration has now stepped in and the matter is now
being reported to the District Magistrate.

"We got this information which is why I came here. The principal is
denying all these allegations. But I will submit my report to the DM;
the SDM has tried to convince students to end their hunger strike,"
said Gyan Prakash, District Inspector of Schools.

Cases of Corporal punishment is most schools in villages practically
go unnoticed but this strike by students against their principal and
teachers for the alleged atrocities has managed to draw the attention
of the district administration and might lead to stern action.

Story first published: July 24, 2010 00:14 IST

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

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