Jyoti Punwani writes on human rights issues. You can e-mail the author at jyoti.punwani@gmail.com
'It's like the BJP is mocking people: Do what you want, we'll still win.'
'Religion is being deprived of its spirituality and is being used for strife and war.' 'The task right now is to keep raising a voice in favour of the 'Real Hindustan', its democracy, its composite culture, its people and their welfare.'
'I really wish I knew how to arouse love in the hearts of people, how to make them understand that religion comes later, first we are all humans.'
'The 10% increase in women voters was a determined bloc of voters.' 'They were willing to try this third party, specially because it seemed it had done something in Delhi.'
'He won't be able to migrate; he must survive in that environment.' 'He will go back after the election to becoming invisible.'
This senior cop who deposed in such detail about the Elgar Parishad, however, claimed to know nothing about the opposition to it from organisations such as Milind Ekbote's Samastha Hindu Aghadi as well as Pune's then Mayor Mukta Tilak.
Rashmi Shukla's testimony comes as a revelation because the proceedings of the Elgar Parishad form the basis of the Bhima Koregaon case which has become an international cause celebre.
'We urge you to take remedial measures to address this blatant injustice pending withdrawal of the case against them,' the MPs write.
The former BJP corporator was named by a villager in a police complaint made three days before the January 1, 2018 violence at Bhima Koregaon. Yet, the police did not include his name in the FIR.
Where does one find a man who shows no bitterness or animosity towards Hindus, even after a frenzied Hindu mob burnt his house down?, Jyoti Punwani asks in this tribute to a truly extraordinary Indian.
Unlike other top police officers, A A Khan spoke boldly --- be it while defending 'encounters' in many of which he was involved, or in tracing the cause of the ghastly Radhabai Chawl incident, recalls Jyoti Punwani. Encounters were useful, he said, because hardened criminals who were targeted were beyond reform and no good for society.
Not just in the hostel, but in college too, they would block his way in the corridor; snatch his mobile; make him get up from where he was sitting; crowd around him in the mess; drag him into their room and threaten to hit him with a belt.
'The wrong person had to spend a banvaas of 14 years on a wrong charge.'
Right from his arrest in May 2014, the Nagpur jail authorities have denied Professor Saibaba his basic rights, even flouting court orders in the process.
'There have been more than 70 cases of extra-judicial killings in Assam.' 'In some cases, people have been taken away from their homes by the police and then shot.'
Would a Muslim or Christian or Dalit mob who lynched someone because their religious feelings were hurt be given State protection? asks Jyoti Punwani.
No report of the violence was sent by Mumbai's police commissioner to the government. Why was the violence then considered serious enough to be included in the Terms of Reference? Was it a balancing act to counter the accusations that were then being made against Hindutva leaders Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote?
The Supreme Court found enough grounds to order a CBI probe into 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur between 2000 and 2012.
The police do not have it in them to confront the Hindutva groups in a country ruled by a Hindutva party. No wonder Munawar Faruqui feels this is the end for him, asserts Jyoti Punwani.
'Father Stan was concerned about other innocents who may be implicated and put inside without the slightest proof, the way he was.'
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