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Thursday, March 4, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Nepal: CA panel submits its report

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=CA+panel+submits+its+report++&NewsID=231019

CA panel submits its report
Last Updated : 2010-03-03 1:08 PM

The Himalayan Times

Himalayan News Service

KATHMANDU: A Constituent Assembly (CA) committee formed to study the
preliminary reports of CA's 11 thematic committees today submitted the
report of Committee to Determine the Structure of Constitutional
Bodies to the full House of the CA. The CA's meeting to convene
tomorrow is likely to approve the report. Once approved, it will be
forwarded to the Constitutional Committee (CC), which is mandated to
integrate all reports and prepare single draft of the new
constitution.

The study-committee's coordinator Agni Prasad Kharel today presented
the report to the CA.

The proposed six bodies are Commissions on Women, Dalit, Indigenous
and Nationalities, Muslim, Minority and Disability and Madhesi. The
report of the committee will probably be approved by the CA full House
to sit on Wednesday.

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[ZESTCaste] Govt open to providing OBC quota on lines of SC/ST reservation

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_govt-open-to-providing-obc-quota-on-lines-of-sc-st-reservation_1355141

Govt open to providing OBC quota on lines of SC/ST reservation
PTI

Thursday, March 4, 2010 15:10 IST

New Delhi: In a bid to bring on board parties which are opposing the
Women's Reservation Bill in its present form, government today said it
was open to evolving a national consensus for granting reservation to
the OBCs on the lines provided to SCs and STs.

"Reservation is provided to SCs and STs in Lok Sabha with
constitutional amendment but no such reservation exists for OBCs....
Unless that happens we cannot do it in case of Women
Reservation...that's a different arena," law minister M Veerappa Moily
told reporters outside Parliament.

He added that the parties, which are opposing the Bill and are
demanding quota within quota, can extend their support to the Bill and
then think of the "larger canvas for providing reservation to OBCs in
both Houses (Lok Sabha and State Assemblies)".

He said that supporting the Bill "does not prevent them from taking up
the larger issue of reservation for OBCs in general.

"If they are very keen on the issue of OBC representation, they should
first try to build a national consensus for reserving seats for OBC
men and women in general for both Houses....that stands logic but
their present demand does not stand any logic," Moily, who himself
belongs to the backward classes said.

Moily's statement is significant in view of the fact that the Women's
Reservation Bill has been hanging fire for over a decade with major
parties from Hindi belt opposing it on the ground that it should have
quota within quota for OBCs.

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[ZESTCaste] SC/STs can’t claim quota in promotion

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=SC/STs+can%E2%80%99t+claim+quota+in+promotion&artid=gqkvZ0s3OfY=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&SEO=&SectionName=rSY%7C6QYp3kQ=

SC/STs can't claim quota in promotion

Express News Service
First Published : 04 Mar 2010 03:51:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 04 Mar 2010 06:35:38 AM IST

CHENNAI: Members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes cannot claim
reservation in promotion as a matter of right, the Madras High Court
has held.

Article 16(4) of the Constitution providing for reservation in
promotion was only an enabling provision, Justice K Chandru observed
while dismissing a writ petition from the SC/ST Employees Welfare
Association of the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) in
Manali on Wednesday.

It was for the State to make appropriate rules consistent with
Articles 16(4), 16(4A) and 335 of the Constitution by granting due
representation in various posts. If the State wanted to make a
provision, it would have to collect sufficient data showing the
backwardness of the class, the inadequacy of representation of that
class in public employment and the mandatory compliance with Article
335 of the Constitution.

The court could not sit in appeal over the judgment of the State or
the employer and ordain that the particular post be filled by direct
recruitment/promotion and no mandamus could be issued either to
provide for reservation or for relaxation.

The attempt of the petitioner association to enforce a right, which
was neither constitutional nor supported by any law made in this
regard, could not be sustained. Further, as held by the Supreme Court,
the court could not issue a writ in the nature of mandamus directing
the CPCL to fill up a particular post without the Government of India
or the CPCL undertaking an exercise to identify such posts to be
filled up by reservation in promotion. The writ petition was
misconceived and devoid of merits, the judge said, and dismissed it.

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[ZESTCaste] The age of reason

http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/prabhatshunglu/2416/61604/age-of-reason.html

The age of reason
Thursday , March 04, 2010 at 11 : 43

What if freedom of speech is untouched and untainted by religion? Why
does freedom of speech and expression get challenged just at the
threshold where religion seems to rear its head? Why is Hindu or
Muslim way of life as distinct and separate from the bedrock that
constitutes way of life for the entire humanity?

Are we to assume Socrates did deserve a death he ordained for himself
for having spoken his mind. A mind that laid bare the arrogance and
sham of the powers-that-be. Was Plato wrong in disseminating his
guru's Republic? Was not Buddhism pushed out of this country for
having challenged the dominant religious thought process of the times
and having laid bare the chinks in its armour?

Should we leave Thackerays and Bhagwats of this world to interpret one
of the oldest religions for any one of us. If Husain is accused of
painting Hindu pantheon goddesses in nude, what degree and intensity
of religio-sexual freedom are we espousing lending ourselves to
worshipping the symbolic phallus grounded in a symbolic vagina in the
most detailed manner? Should not the practice be discontinued because
it rebels against our sense and sensibility? Faithfuls all over have
obviously devised better ways to appease their gods. But this one
takes the cake.

What harm would be brought upon a Muslim woman divorcee if the law of
the land grants her alumni as against a shariati adalat which imposes
primitive justice? Why should economically weaker sections of the
society, across religions, be denied benefits of reservation? Or are
they condemned to live a life coloured by caste and religious bias and
tainted by that ultimate bias - poverty? Did not those who claim to be
Aryans encroach on the rights of the native aboriginals when they
settled in India and claimed it to be their own land?

Did Shah Rukh deserve such an acrimony for what he said? Prove that he
is NOT a better Indian than you and me. Prove that Husain is not as
much an Indian as you and me. Prove that Indian Muslims deserve to
come under the right-wingers' swords because somebody planned and put
aflame innocent passengers on board a train or per chance a train
bogey caught fire. And because somebody's god of small things differs
in imagery than yours.

The onus to prove anything is on Raj Thackeray, Bal Thackeray, Modi,
bigoted religious preachers and on a government that takes pride in
tom-toming secularism but every so often is found weak-kneed in
tackling the slightest ho-hum by religious fundamentalists. The onus
to come out clean on our inconsiderate ways of interpreting 'us'
versus 'them,' on our own parochial ways of juxtaposing relationships
in the backdrop of our sustained ignorance lies very much on us as a
collective band that constitutes a society rather than on one Shah
Rukh Khan or a MF Husain. Because at the end of it all what we help
build is an impenetrable layer of fanaticism around us that does not
allow space for freedom of speech and expression.

For these are the same forces who will pin you down to a number game
because that is one domain they claim confidence of having an edge
over reason. If surveys could have delivered the country of all its
ills and controversies a grand Ram temple mounted with a gold-polished
Hindu-ite symbol jutting out of its structure would have been adorning
the Ayodhya sky right above the disputed site as the potent symbol of
militant Hinduism.

But for past two decades and more, society has precisely been hijacked
by the thought process of a political class defined by the RSS and its
'Hindutva' affiliates. For the Sangh Parivar, symbols of the Ramayana
as envisaged in Valmiki and Tulsi Ramayana are the unquestionable
symbols of faith which every 'Hindu worth his salt' must adhere and
propagate.

For the record though there are as many versions of Ramayana followed
across south and South-East Asian countries which put Ram and Ravana
in a different light than the characters described in Valmiki's
Ramayana. A Buddhist jataka (tale) of Ramayana projects Ram and Sita
as siblings. In a Thai version of the Ramayana, Hanuman is not a
celibate but far from it, he's quite a ladies man who loves to do a
peeping-Tom when in Lanka. Ravana, along with Ram is worshipped as a
great sage in Buddhist and Jain versions of the Ramayana. There are
certain versions of the Ramayana written from Sita's perspective who
claims victory over Ram. Jyotiba Phule, Periyar and Babasaheb Ambedkar
had a different take on Valmiki's Ramayana from a purely caste-based
angle. In their version Ram is more or less a symbol of upper caste
out to subjugate the original inhabitants of this great land.

The point in question is also not whether Husain could or should have
retained Indian citizenship. The issue is not about citizenship at all
and those harping on it, whether inadvertently or not, are playing in
the hands of those who espouse rabid sentiments. What if those brush
strokes were brought to fall on the canvas by a Hari Krishna than a
Husain. Would he still been forced into exile by our samaj and become
the object of abject hate. Or the same samaj would have treated him
differently because he belongs to majority faith. But again we already
have answered this double-speak years ago because we did not reserve
such sentiments for Husain's contemporary from the field of Hindustani
music going by the name of Pandit Ravi Shankar. No ho-hum was raised
when Ravi Shankar quietly settled in the US accusing the Indian
government of not recognising his achievements enough. But Panditji
was conferred the Bharat Ratna soon enough. He has been living in the
US past over two decades, and now only visits India along with his
daughter Anoushka, purportedly to establish her in a land that gave
him international fame and considered him as one of its 'Ratnas'. But
when Husain takes up Qatari citizenship his faith is questioned and
being brought in direct clash with civilisational pundits.

What kind of democratic liberalism and inclusiveness are we professing
that feeds on suspicion and gets threatened by a mere brush stroke.
Inclusive development is all about taking the path of reason. It is
about all-round sahishundta ( tolerance ) - a trait eroding,
unfortunately, at a speed faster than opening a software fired by
Windows 7. We will but only have ourselves to blame for its
extinction, much as the falling count of tigers in India.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Dalits prevented from celebrating Holi; five arrested

http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-62207.html

Dalits prevented from celebrating Holi; five arrested

Noida, Mar 2 : Tension prevailed in a village here when Dalits were
prevented from celebrating Holi by four youths.

Police said the clash occurred in Ghadi Chaukhandi village of Sector
58 yesterday when Sandeep, Pradeep, Prahalad and Pankaj accused the
Dalits of eve-teasing and attacked them with lathis and stones.

Five people were arrested and a case had been registered, police added.

A Dalit, Kripal, in his complaint, said the four youths prevented him
and his friends from celebrating the festival of colours in the
village.

One of the accused Sandeep lodged FIR against Kripal and 10 others
accusing them of assault and eve-teasing, police added.

--UNI