Dear Reader,

Rights activist Teesta Setalvad and former DGP of Gujarat R B Sreekumar were arrested last weekend on charges of “criminal conspiracy, forgery” and under other sections of the IPC. This was pursuant to a Supreme Court order that upheld the clean chit by the SIT to then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots case and further suggested that the petitioners had indulged in "abuse of process" and “need to be to proceeded with”.

These seemingly hasty and arbitrary arrests have raised hackles among the members of the civil society who have taken to the streets in protest. The Court’s judgement, they argued in a statement, “seeks to deter citizens from holding the state accountable for enabling violence in future”. The Citizen brings you the story.

The Caravan deep dives into the precarious situation in Lakshadweep – the idyllic paradise in the Arabian Sea off India’s Malabar coast – that has seen a dire economic downturn, protests and deep distrust between the citizens and the state. This misery is laid at the doorstep of the advent of Prafulla Khoda Patel in 2020 as the Administrator, a former cabinet minister in Gujarat, whose arbitrary decisions have seemingly plunged the islands into a recession.

Reporting from Kishanganj in Bihar, मैं मीडिया focuses on the rampant practice of manual scavenging on paltry wages and without any safety equipment. A practice that is outlawed in India through the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (PEMSR).

And, in the wake of the recent controversy on Hindi’s status as the “national language”, The India Forum looks at the context of the debate and why it reeks of an attempt to merge nation, language and religion – ‘Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan’.

For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF

 
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Thousands Protest Against Supreme Court Order, Setalvad and Sreekumar Arrests

Activists and civil society groups took to the streets in protest against the arrest of rights activist Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar. The Citizen reports.

Read Here

 
 

द्वीप में दमन

The Caravan highlights that Lakshadweep today is far from being an idyllic paradise. Arbitrary decisions and uncalled-for measures, which directly affect the economy and livelihoods of the citizens, by the islands’ Administrator, are breaking the economy and the people’s trust in the government.

Read Here

 
 

सीमांचल में कागजों पर प्रतिबंधित मैनुअल स्कैवेंजिंग

Despite a law prohibiting the employment of manual scavengers, मैं मीडिया reports from Bihar’s Kishanganj on how a practice described as “inhuman” is rampant, even as the local administration lives in denial.

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Loud Mouths and Invisible Tails: The New Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan Debate

The strident attempts to install Hindi as the “national language” has at its root the quest to impose a monochromatic identity of India – one language, one religion and one nation, The India Forum argues.

Read Here

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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