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Tue, Jul 20 09:54 PM New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) The NHRC has sought a report from the Kerala government on a complaint alleging that many Muslim families were being harassed by police investigating a recent case of attack on a private college lecturer in Muvattupuzha. T J Joseph, a Malayalam lecturer at Newman College in Thodupuzha in Idukki district, was attacked and his right hand severed by unidentified persons at Muvattupuzha on July 4 while he was returning from a church along with his family. He also suffered injuries in his left leg. He was attacked for allegedly preparing a question paper with "derogatory references" to Prophet Mohammed. The Commission took cognizance of the matter on the basis of a complaint filed by N M Siddhiq, district president of National Confederation of Human Rights at Ernakulam. Issuing a notice to the Kerala DGP in this regard on July 16, the Commission asked him to submit a report on the allegation within two weeks, NHRC said. Siddhiq alleged in his complaint that many members of Muslim families are being harassed by frequent search and seizure of various items from their houses by police in the name of investigation of the case. Two activists of radical outfit Popular Front of India were arrested on July 5 for the attack. (from yahoo.com) The Great Incendiary Hunt Takes Off in Kerala. by J Devika I have been watching the whole drama that has been unfolding after the unspeakable and utterly condemnable act of violence at Muvattupuzha in central Kerala early this month, which has been widely interpreted as the first instance of ‘Talibanist’ violence here, with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. A whole manhunt has followed it and this continues to be front-page news in many Malayalam newspapers, especially the *Mathrubhumi*.This newspaper has been working very hard to homogenize the Malayalee Muslims and make them collectively responsible for ‘Talibanism’. Everyday the news is full of reports of raids on offices of the Muslim organization, Popular Front, and the homes of activists, which apparently unearth all sorts of incendiary material, especially CDs and printed matter. Meanwhile the *Mathrubhumi* has worked overtime to plant tit-bits that would collapse many Muslim organizations into a single, threatening, monstrous presence. It looks as if the assault which began with the false propaganda around ‘Love jihad’ is careening into a horrendous climax which will undo whatever peace and trust that exists among the major religious communities in Kerala.The manner in which the Popular Front leaders have been trying to ‘explain’ the act as ‘natural’ reveals the dangerous dimensions of what it to come (of course, it is another matter that neither the CPM leaders nor the BJP bosses in north Kerala have ever been really apologetic of the horrific political murders there). The media is producing tons of ‘evidence’ on a daily basis on how the Popular Front activists have been planning and plotting this dastardly attack.The power of rhetoric is clearly being utilised to the fullest: just the other day, the mainstream media went wild about the alleged attackers possessing several SIM cards, as if possessing many SIM cards is in itself evidence for someone’s links to terrorism. I know many fellows in Kerala who possess several SIM cards and use them for such purposes as the efficient management of multiple amorous interests; would they be ‘suspected Talibanists’? Similarly, the hysteria about the hoards of CDs and printed matter seems to be with the clear intention of misleading readers into thinking that possessing such material is a crime or evidence for assent to Talibanist ideology. Well, just looking around my office, I find my desk and bookshelves full of material that celebrates ‘virtuous Malayalee womanhood’ which demands an impossible repression of anything sexual; I also have plenty of material that argues for a sadomasochist aesthetic. Now does that make me either a good asexual Malayalee woman (god forbid!) or a sadomasochist aesthete? According to the rules set by the mainstream media, I will certainly be a propagandist of sadomasochist aesthetics, because I have multiple copies of an article that defends the same which I intend to hand out to a group of readers who would like to discuss the sexuality debates within feminism! I may also be a good repressed specimen of Malayalee womanhood (alas!) since I have stored for several purposes, plenty of copies of K Chinnamma’s early 20th century proposal to turn all ‘native women’ into mothers with sexualities stiffer and straighter than my * Valyammavan*‘s (Grand-Uncle’s) stiffest starched mul-mul *mundu* (a Malayalee dhoti)! All depends on what they choose to find in my room. It is time that our journalists were taught some logic, and helped beyond the statistical fallacy (which, simply put, is the error of reasoning that results from examining a number of episodes, for example, (1) whisky+soda = intoxication,(2) vodka+soda = intoxication, and (3) gin + soda= intoxication, and coming to the conclusion that the most apparent common factor,soda, is responsible for intoxication). I am of course not saying that I know who were behind this horrible act of violence and that I am sure that the Popular Front were not involved. Given the trajectory of anti-Muslim rhetoric that has been floating around, it may well be the case that this is a foolish, irresponsible, completely unjustifiable, impulsive response by the accused. All I am saying is that the present ‘evidence’ offered by the media by which the accused are already guilty works to not so much actually prove them guilty, as to offer bits and pieces that promptly generate certain false associations that pronounce them already guilty. This is by now a familiar strategy and I am sure there are better ways to report a case investigation in a democratic society, and that there are ways to gain a degree of distance from the police accounts. But there is a parallel I can’t help noticing — between the present incident and and earlier one I had written about on kafila (1 oct 2009). The latter had to do with another shocking murder, of an innocent man on a morning walk at Varkala, near Thiruvananthapuram, and a dalit organization which had been working in the dalit colonies at Varkala, the Dalit Human Rights Network, was blamed instantly. In a sequence of events almost uncannily similar to the present one, activists of the DHRM were rounded up and accused of the most appalling crimes, with the mainstream media gleefully lapping up the cartloads of ‘evidence’ that the police was discovering on a daily basis and coining such conceptual gems as ‘dalit terrorism’. The violent act in that incident was as mindless and atrocious as in the present one — an act that was politically so damaging that one would be justified to think that only the politically-dumbest person would commit such a crime. In fact, such a person could well be judged as incapable of elementary rational calculation — and could therefore be called dangerously mad. The present act is exactly this. The professor in question had been punished and the matter seemed to have ended there. On the other side, the Muslims in Kerala, especially those active in youth organizations such as the Solidarity, have been under incessant attack recently, and therefore to engage in such violence would be nothing short of political suicide, and this is as clear as daylight to the most ordinary observer of public life in Kerala.It happens, and the police get into their act, exactly like in the Varkala murder case, producing tons of ‘evidence’ to feed the media which utilizes it to homogenize and criminalize a particular group of people. The police have still to produce credible evidence against the ‘suspects’ who have been arrested in the Varkala murder case; it is most likely that they will be let go, like the ‘suspected Maoists’ who were arrested a couple of years back in Kerala who have now been released, of which I had written about in an earlier post (22 Jan 2008). What really strikes me, however, is the timing of these incidents. The Varkala murder case came just at the point when negotiations around the Chengara land struggle seemed to be reaching somewhere; the anti-dalit tirade did much to diminish the political gain that the dalits had made through the Chengara land struggle. Now, this comes just after the successful thwarting of government promotion of neoliberal predators at Kinaloor in north Kerala in which Muslim organizations were actively involved. And lo! Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Home Minister of Kerala, tells the Kerala State Assembly on 14 July (according to *The Hindu*, Trivandrum edition,15 July) that “the Intelligence wing of the Police Department was keeping a close watch on certain human rights organisations who were suspected to be indulging in activities aimed at subverting development initatives in the State.” He further hinted that “foreign sources” may be funding these organisations and that “subversive activities would not be permitted in the State under any circumstances”. Too neat, I must say. I am well aware that one should not read too much off such close associations, one simply lacks the hard evidence to do so. But I do feel that the uncanny likeness between the two incidents gives us good reason to insist on critical distance from police versions and on independent investigation especially because the mainstrean media is outdoing the police. And of course, Balakrishnan’s profound observations may be completely innocent — but that is not the point. His words may be a brave attempt to make hay while the sun shines in between an unrelenting monsoon. Such is the desperation in the LDF: the panchayat elections are approaching and it MUST be won! As the drama unfolds after the violent incident at Muvattupuzha,our political benefactors, the LDF, have been busy with the Great Beneficiary Hunt, in view of the approaching panchayat elections which the LDF cannot afford to lose. In the recent weeks we have been witnessing a amazing proliferation and elaboration of governmental categories who are being handed pensions, cheap loans for housing, noon-meals, medicines — everybody from people suffering from various kinds of chronic and genetic ailments to unwed (tribal) mothers to senior citizens neglected by their NRI children to financially challenged Gulf-returnee women workers — have been sought out and lined up for welfare,and LDF legislators and panchayat members are busy combing their constituencies for anyone who may fit into this amazing range. The festival will last up to the upcoming panchayat elections. However, what I have been discussing — which may perhaps be called the Great Incendiary Hunt — is also part of the LDF strategy which, as even our littlest brats would tell you, has changed with a vehemence — it has moved towards the Hindus, and is determined now to tell them that they are safe from the ‘bad Muslims’. And in the bargain, one can get rid of the *rea…llly baa..dd* Muslims too, the ones who thwart neoliberal predators. There is great unity in this — everyone, including the Congress and the Muslim League, would like to be fed by the predators, everyone would love to paint themselves ‘secular’ in the bargain,everyone would love to subsume the meaning of ‘development’ to ‘neoliberal growth’. In addition, the Great Incendiary Hunt and the Great Beneficiary Hunt are strategies that ensure success in the Game of elections, but only there is only one player who can access both. Only the first is available to all players, and therefore no player sacrifices it. The second is available only to one player, the ruling coalition, and therefore the others try their best to delegitimize it — while continuing to access the first the best they can. Since all players are incessantly forwarding-calculating and promises (and lofty political ideals) are nothing but ‘cheap words’ in the universe of such Games, the LDF is likely to access both strategies. Welcome to the world of political games! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
