Jyoti Punwani writes on human rights issues. You can e-mail the author at jyoti.punwani@gmail.com
'It wasn't as if the senior police inspectors in charge of the police stations were not aware of the communal tension that was being created in their areas before and during the riots.' 'Yet they chose not to act,' recalls Jyoti Punwani.
If the Bhima Koregaon commission is terminated before completing its work, the people affected by the violence 'would feel cheated'.
'Look at Kejriwal. With his work, he's made a place in our hearts. But the BJP leaders have only abuses for us," protesters at Shaheen Bagh tell Jyoti Punwani.
'The circumstances indicate that the government is not serious about the commission...' '...We are not at the mercy of the government.'
'There is a contradiction between what the then CM said in the assembly and the legislative council, and the direction taken by the police investigation.'
'Was he afraid that his answers during cross-examination would land him in trouble under the new ruling dispensation?'
'It was a reaffirmation of his party's unrelenting defiance of its erstwhile ally, the BJP; an attempt to forge a new relationship with the community the Shiv Sena had always targeted; and a pointer towards the political imperative of taking everyone along if the fight against the ruling party had to succeed,' notes Jyoti Punwani.
'In UP, the CM actually announced that his administration would 'take revenge' against rioters.' 'That must have been music to his police force's ears for it substantiated what the police always do: Take revenge on an entire community for the violence of a few,' points out Jyoti Punwani.
'Both sides were so embittered by what had happened last year that I didn't know what to expect.'
At this point commission member Sumit Mullick asked the government counsel: 'Your job is to protect the State. How are these questions on Peshwas relevant?'
When a university allows a small group of students to prevent classes being held; when the professor selected to hold those classes gives up and goes back to his hometown; what conclusion can be drawn, asks Jyoti Punwani.
'The Babri Masjid wasn't just a mosque, it was a test of our secularism,' says Jyoti Punwani.
'Whenever Dalits have agitated on the streets, the government has blamed Naxalites.'
In 2014, young Muslims became Owaisi fans. But five years of BJP rule and a weakening Opposition have drawn older Muslims too towards the AIMIM chief. Not enough, though.
The Election Commission sent a notice to Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the BJP's Mumbai chief. This is probably because a leading newspaper highlighted his utterances on its front page.
So who stands to benefit the most by a weak Opposition? What's behind the sudden public spat between the two parties?
This Teacher's Day, students remember Syed Feroze Ashraf, 'Uncle' who changed the lives of many children forever.
'It's not only what's been done politically. It's also the way it's been done. It's the suffocating atmosphere.'
'Is the application the Press Council's voice or the government's? 'It has been reported that other members of the PCI were taken aback at the Press Council's application. 'These members need to publicly question the chairman to redeem their own positions,' says Jyoti Punwani.
The injured -- 130 -- cannot go back to work nor do they have homes to return to. Many of them refuse to leave the hospital while some of their relatives sleep in the hospital corridors. Apart from their physical injuries, the trauma of seeing their family members swept away haunts them as does the loss of all their possessions. But the BJP-Sena government remains indifferent to this human crisis.
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