Thursday, September 8, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Church Law and the Future of Jai Bhim Network in Hungary

 

 

Know Buddha, Know Life

No Buddha, No Life..!



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[ZESTCaste] School for Dalit children in suspended IAS officer's house

 

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/school-for-dalit-children-in-suspended-ias-officers-house-132237

School for Dalit children in suspended IAS officer's house

Press Trust of India, Updated: September 08, 2011 12:40 IST

Patna: A confiscated palatial house of an IAS officer, suspended for
taking graft, became a full-fledged primary school today.

Shiv Shankar Verma's property at upscale Bailey Road here was
confiscated by Bihar government on September 4 and the cabinet had on
September 6 decided to hand over the building to the state human
resources department as part of inter-department transfer.

Verma, a former minor irrigation secretary, is the first official to
feel the heat of Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009 and faces a Rs. 1.44
crore disproportionate assets case along with eight other relatives.

Sleuths of Special Vigilance Unit had raided Verma's houses on July 6,
2007 and found movable and immovable properties estimated at Rs. 1.43
crore, which were disproportionate to his known sources in income.

The three-storey house was confiscated following orders of Patna High
Court which had on August 19 upheld the directive of Special Vigilance
Court in a case charging Verma with amassing wealth beyond
his known sources of income.

Bihar Special Courts Act came into force last year after presidential
assent and allows the government to confiscate property of an accused
in a corruption case during trial.

The primary school of Rukanpura Mushari which was earlier running in
slums was shifted to the confiscated property, Patna district
education officer Medho Das said.

Most of the school's students are dalits, he added.

During the raid on Verma's house the Vigilance sleuths also seized 9
kg gold bar with Swiss hallmark, 800 guineas, Rs. 16.50 lakh in cash,
USD 1600, jewellery valued at over Rs. 81 lakh, investments in share
market amounting to Rs. 20 lakh and papers pertaining to investments
in immovable properties at four places, official sources said.

The Special Vigilance court has also ordered confiscation of
properties of an employee of Patna collectorate and a former motor
vehicles inspector posted at Aurangabad.

Sixteen more cases on confiscation of property are before Vigilance
courts, the sources said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had during his electioneering for the
assembly polls last year had promised that the properties of corrupt
officials would be confiscated for opening much-needed schools in
Bihar.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/school-for-dalit-children-in-suspended-ias-officers-house-132237&cp

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[ZESTCaste] Another Minor Dalit Girl Raped in Uttar Pradesh

 

http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?734003

Another Minor Dalit Girl Raped in Uttar Pradesh
PTI | Unnao (UP) | Sep 08, 2011

A nine-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by her uncle here in
Achalganj area, police said today.

The victim, belonging to Gohna village, had gone to graze her goat
when her uncle allegedly raped her yesterday, they said.

The accused has been arrested and the girl sent for medical
examination, the police added.

Filed On: Sep 08, 2011 14:09 IST

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[ZESTCaste] BSP protest in RS against ''anti-dalit'' govt policies

 

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5420279

07/09/2011
BSP protest in RS against ''anti-dalit'' govt policies

New Delhi, Sep 7 (PTI) BSP members today created noisy scenes in the
Rajya Sabha today after HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said there was
reservation in admission for students of reserved categories in
institutes of national importance, but no such provision existed in
the appointment of faculty.
Sibal made the remark in the Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the
Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing,
Kancheepuram Bill, 2011, triggering acrimonious exchanges between the
treasury benches and BSP.
Soon, BSP members rushed into the well, raising slogans against the
Government for its "anti-dalit" policies, forcing adjournment of the
House for 30 minutes.
The BSP members were supported by their RJD and LJP counterparts.
The trouble started when Jesudasu Seelam (Cong) demanded reservation
for SC/ST and OBC students after the Bill was moved by the HRD
Minister.
Seelam was immediately joined by BSP members, who raised the issue of
reservation in institutes of national importance, including the IITs,
saying that the reserved categories had negligible representation in
such institutes.
BSP leader S C Mishra pointed out that out of a total of 478 faculty
members in IIT Delhi, there was only one member belonging to the
reserved category.

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[ZESTCaste] Three Dalit youths found murdered

 

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/three-dalit-youths-found-murdered/814719.html

Three Dalit youths found murdered
PTI | 05:09 PM,Sep 07,2011

Bulandshahr (UP), Sep 7 (PTI) Three Dalit youths were today allegedly
murdered by unidentified persons in Jeetgarhi village under
Sikandrabad police station area here, police said.The bodies of
Hansraj (20), Satveer (22) and Nityanand (22) were found lying outside
the village, SSP R K S Rathore said.There were no injury marks on the
bodies and police suspect that they were strangled.

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[ZESTCaste] Slipping in slippers (Ajoy Bose)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Slipping-in-slippers/Article1-742874.aspx

Slipping in slippers
Ajoy Bose
September 07, 2011

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati has every reason to get mad at
the sweeping allegations made about her by recent WikiLeaks
revelations quoting secret cables sent out by the US embassy in New
Delhi to Washington. Amidst the palpable delight among the chattering
classes at this new stick to
beat their favourite whipping girl, what is being conveniently
overlooked is that the source material used for the salacious
'Portrait of a Lady' penned by a junior US embassy official in
October, 2008 appears to be entirely based on casual conversations
with unnamed Lucknow journalists.

The colourful accounts of Mayawati sending a jet plane to Mumbai to
fetch her favourite sandals, making an errant minister do sit-ups and
employing eight cooks and two tasters in her kitchen have virtually no
authenticity, particularly since none of the concerned hacks printed
the information they shared with the American embassy in their own
publications.

The BSP supremo is well known for her personal eccentricities,
splurges and imperious ways. But it is also true that Mayawati has,
for more than two decades, had an openly hostile relationship with the
media, particularly those based in Lucknow. In fact, BSP workers in
the city attacked the offices of a prominent Hindi daily in the winter
of 1995 after it published a particularly scurrilous story about the
unmarried Dalit leader having an illegitimate daughter. Although local
journalists have become more discreet after Mayawati's decisive
victory in the 2007 assembly polls, they can hardly be regarded as
unbiased or objective sources of information.

Interestingly, barely two months before the US embassy cable on her,
two Delhi-based correspondents of The New York Times and The
Washington Post went to Lucknow to do special profiles of the lady.
They were, surprisingly, granted a rare interview with Mayawati and
also met a large cross section of people in Lucknow and nearby rural
areas, including Dalits. Both the articles were appreciative of the
political distance travelled by the Dalit woman leader while
simultaneously reflecting allegations of corruption and authoritarian
behaviour by her detractors. However, what the two correspondents,
professional journalists as they were, did not do was print Lucknow
media-inspired gossip that they had no way of cross-checking.

It is possible the absence of the same professional discrimination by
the US embassy had something to do with Washington's annoyance at that
time with Mayawati for almost scuppering the India-US nuclear deal.
Moreover, the fact that such secret cables were never supposed to
never see the light of day gave their authors a certain licence that
the journalists did not have. Unfortunately, however sensational and
uncorroborated, the information wearing the garb of WikiLeaks
revelations allows the print and electronic media to go to town
against select targets without fear of defamation.

Indeed, this is turning out to be a major drawback of WikiLeaks which
spews out classified US embassy material, some providing useful
insights but a lot more unreliable stuff based on hearsay. Sometimes,
the documents seem downright dubious as in the case of a cable dated
May 29, 2007 claiming that Mayawati's close aide Satish Mishra had
declared her corrupt and authoritarian. It is quite unbelievable that
a few weeks after Mayawati's historic election victory, of which
Mishra was a major architect through his Dalit-Brahmin alliance, he
would choose to rubbish his leader to an American diplomat.

Ajoy Bose is the author of Behenji: A Political Biography of Mayawati.
The views expressed by the author are personal.


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[ZESTCaste] Parliamentary panel recommends SC/ST quota in Railway catering contracts

 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/railways/parliamentary-panel-recommends-sc/st-quota-in-railway-catering-contracts/articleshow/9899917.cms

7 Sep, 2011, 08.00PM IST, PTI
Parliamentary panel recommends SC/ST quota in Railway catering contracts

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel has recommended introducing
reservation for SC/ST entrepreneurs in award of major catering
contracts in Railways.

The committee on welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in
its latest report has noted that the Railway Ministry have
"underestimated" the capability of SC and ST whereas there is no
dearth of SC/ST businessmen who may like to invest in catering
services in railways.

The panel has opined that if reservation is provided in award of major
catering contracts, many SC/ST entrepreneurs would be willing to make
investments.

Recommending reservation in award of major catering contracts, the
30-member committee headed by TMC MP Gobinda Chandra Naskar, has
stated that such an effort would definitely empower them socially as
well as economically.

So a certain quota of contracts should be earmarked exclusively for
SC/ST, the panel recommended.

The committee observed that despite its earlier recommendation to make
provision for inclusion of SC/ST member in the Railway Board, it has
been found they are indifferent and not willing to act when it comes
to issues concerning the welfare of SC/STs.

The committee has therefore urged the government to initiate action to
make specific provisions to include SC/ST members on the Board by
amending the existing rules and guidelines governing appointments to
the Board.

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[ZESTCaste] Maya in a a fix over urban local bodies elections

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Maya-in-a-a-fix-over-urban-local-bodies-elections/articleshow/9901837.cms

Maya in a a fix over urban local bodies elections
Ashish Tripathi, TNN | Sep 7, 2011, 10.55PM IST

LUCKNOW: The Mayawati government is in a fix on holding urban local
bodies in the state.
The Election Commission has asked the state government to conduct
urban local bodies elections between last week of September and first
week of November, as the term of the existing elected bodies is
expiring on November 30.

However, the amendments in the rules of urban body and mayoral
elections done by the state government are either subjudice or
awaiting governor's approval. In such a situation, the state
government will either have to go for the elections as per the old
rules or defer them. The deferment, however, can be done only on the
grounds of ""public interes"" or ""unavoidable circumstances"".

The state government had earlier this year proposed two amendments in
the local bodies poll -- elections for the municipal corporations and
municipalities not to be held on political party symbols and that the
elections for the post of mayor and municipal chairpersons will be
indirect. The decision of not holding elections on party symbol was
stayed by the Allahabad High Court in May this year. The government
has filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court. On the
other hand, the governor has not approved the UP Urban Local Self
Government Act (second amendment) 2011 which provides for indirect
mayoral elections.

The high court order and governor's decision not to sign the amendment
came as a blow for the Mayawati government which did not want the
elections on party lines because of the party's poor influence in
urban areas. The ruling BSP feels that a defeat in urban local bodies
elections would affect party's prospects adversely in assembly
elections due next year in April-May as difference between the two
elections is of four months. Sources said that the state government
will take a final decision on holding local bodies elections after
taking legal opinion. The Opposition parties, however, are mounting
pressure for holding elections in time.

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[ZESTCaste] IIIT Bill stalled in RS over faculty quota

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/IIIT-Bill-stalled-in-RS-over-faculty-quota/843300/

IIIT Bill stalled in RS over faculty quota
Express news service Posted online: Thu Sep 08 2011, 02:41 hrs
New Delhi : The government was unable to get a Bill passed in the
Rajya Sabha on Wednesday as Congress MP J D Seelam proposed for
reservation in faculty in institutions of excellence, which was
supported by the BSP, RJD and LJP members.

Seelam demanded reservation for SC/ST and OBC candidates in the Indian
Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing,
Kancheepuram, soon after HRD minister Kapil Sibal moved the Bill which
seeks to upgrade it to an institute of national importance.

As Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan was about to ask for a voice vote for
the passage of the Bill without discussion, Seelam raised the issue of
reservation, prompting members of the BSP, RJD, LJP and the Left to
seek discussion on the Bill. S C Mishra of the BSP accused the
Congress and BJP of reaching an understanding for passage of the Bill
without debate.

Sibal said while there is reservation in admissions in the
institutions of national importance, there's no such provision in the
case of faculty.

Amidst acrimonious scenes, Khan adjourned the House for 15 minutes.
Senior ministers, including P Chidambaram, Sibal and Pawan Kumar
Bansal, were visibly upset with Seelam.

When the House reassembled and Sibal clarified that there was no
provision of reservation in the faculty, BSP, RJD and LJP members
rushed into the well and shouted slogans against the government. The
House was adjourned for 30 minutes.

The Bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha.


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[ZESTCaste] My name is

http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/09/05/oped/my-name-is/225961.html

Oped»
My name is

Subhash Sarki

SEP 05 -
Dalits have evolved officially as an identity group with
constitutional recognition after a long and arduous journey of
struggle in Nepal. They spearheaded their movement for social
recognition and political space alone and together with both peaceful
and armed movements. As a result, a Dalit does not hesitate to occupy
a seat at a table where a high caste Hindu is sipping tea even in
rural parts of Nepal. However, the fundamental question remains
whether the high caste person actually looks up to the Dalit when he
discloses his identity at the table.

A diagnosis of the Hindu high caste mindset is not much difficult when
we have so many Dalits who themselves do not prefer to publicly admit
their Dalit identity. This is clearly shown by the decrease in the
Dalit population from 15.7 percent in the 1991 census to 12.8 percent
in 2001. Along with an improvement in the socio-economic status,
Dalits seem to be inclined to hide or change their traditional family
names with something sounding close to high caste Hindus. Changing the
ancestral family name and assimilation with Hindu high castes has been
their strategy to release themselves from the humiliation of being a
Dalit.

A section of Dalits has nurtured and promoted the idea of Mahatma
Gandhi who believed that their status could be raised by changing or
obscuring their traditional last names while still retaining elements
of the caste system. But their status has not improved significantly
more than half a century after Gandhi conferred on them the name
Harijan to elevate them to a Hindu high caste. Although India has
achieved double-digit economic growth and a Dalit woman Mayawati has
been elected to the position of chief minister of the Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh, incidences of humiliation and caste-based violence
against Dalits have not ended.

The flipside of the proposition is even scarier because the effort to
be absorbed into the Hindu high castes puts Dalits at a morally worse
situation for promoting caste discrimination. Despite all the efforts
and successes to assimilate Dalits into the Hindu high castes, a
certain section of them is likely to remain where they were. Jacques
Derrida, pioneer of the theory of deconstruction, has long before
inferred that complete erasure is always postponed. The promoters of
the movement have then obtained a place in the Hindu high caste and so
bear moral obligation to sustain its characteristics. It requires them
to impose discrimination and humiliation on the remaining Dalit
population, from whom they have just separated, so as to maintain
their position as high caste Hindus. A worse situation arises in this
hypothetical situation when the former survivors surpass the ethical
boundary of social justice which they had been pursuing until
recently.

The movement towards assimilating into the Hindu high castes also puts
its promoters at risk of psychological vulnerability of perpetuating
humiliation upon oneself. For example, a person working in an
organisation maintains a sufficient distance from Dalit colleagues for
fear of his or her Dalit identity being revealed. They refuse to
recognize themselves as Dalits. They do not fall short of inflicting
verbal and behavioural humiliation at Dalits just to emphasize that
they belong to the Hindu high caste.

A friend of mine who adapted a high caste surname said that his
children grew up with their newly adopted last names, and never
thought that their parents belonged to a Dalit community. One day,
they went to a village where they encountered a taste of
untouchability when entering the home of a high caste Hindu. These
Dalits are destined to a fortune no better than that of Oedipus the
King who suffered not knowing what he was running away from his whole
life.

Entrapped in a similar deception, Dalits choose the route for their
liberation engineered by Bahunbad. The route must be quicker and
easier, but the destination they are heading for is, however, always
procrastinated so as not to allow their liberation. Bahunbad always
disguises the obviousness of sustaining its "superiority" only
prolonging the emancipation of Dalits because the "superiority" of the
Hindu high caste is a matter of their difference from Dalits and their
delayed full-fledged identity evolution. It is done by disqualifying
the ability to use the reasoning of Dalits via perpetuation of
stereotype images.

The whole range of Bahunbadi discourses have inundated the Dalit
identity with stereotype images so that their vision to see beyond
their traditional identity has been limited. They cannot look at their
distinctly glorious history of occupational contribution to the
evolution of the modern world. While society was immersed in the
illusion of angels and super lords, the ancestors of the Dalits were
laying the foundation of art and science. They were excelling in the
use of iron, gold, silver, bronze, animal skins, clothes, wood, bamboo
and whatever material was available during the time. No expert
knowledge is required here to see the correlation between their work
in the pre-civilization period and current science and technology to
confirm that Dalits were actually down-to-earth thinkers and
practitioners and not barbaric and impure as represented by the images
in Bahunbadi discourse.

Any effort to escape impurity ends in its acceptance as long as Dalits
look for their liberation within this Bahunbadi discourse. The
politics of annihilation will thwart the evolution of Dalit identity
to its entirety. Whatever economically and socio-politically elevated
position Dalits attain, the Hindu high castes will continue to look
down upon Dalits for their Dalit identity, whether they reveal their
Dalit identity or not, as

long as the image of Dalits is perpetuated to maintain "superiority"
of the Hindu high castes. Dalits will not be able to fully garner
respect and dignity as long as they search for their elevation within
the current Bahunbadi discourse. A new discourse has to be started by
admitting that history has been constructed in a wrong manner so as to
fully develop the Dalit identity and logically lead the Dalit movement
that can place Dalits at the forefront as a graceful and dignified
social group.

Posted on: 2011-09-06 07:09


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