‘Call special Parliament session to demonstrate national unity’: Congress on Pahalgam terror attack
NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi Tuesday urged PM Narendra Modi to convene a special session of Parliament to discuss the Pahalgam terror attack, with the idea of demonstrating a collective national resolve and unity. The two leaders of opposition wrote separately to Modi on Monday night. Congress had sought an all-party meeting on the day of the gruesome killings of tourists in Kashmir, which the govt had agreed to immediately. Kharge wrote to the PM, “At this moment, when unity and solidarity is essential, opposition believes it is important to convene a special session of both Houses of Parliament at the earliest. This will be a powerful demonstration of our collective resolve and will to deal with the brutal terror attack in Pahalgam on innocent citizens on April 22. It’s is our fond hope that the session will be accordingly convened.” In a similar brief letter, Rahul said the Pahalgam terror attack has “outraged” every Indian and that New Delhi must at this critical time show that it stands together against terrorism. He said the special session would be a platform for people’s representatives “to show their unity and determination”. AICC spokesman Jairam Ramesh said the letters were written after a discussion between the Congress brass and several opposition leaders. The idea is to show unity, let there be a discussion with responsibility,” he added. The demand, already made by RJD and CPI earlier, may add a fresh twist to the post-Pahalgam to and fro between the govt and the opposition. While the opposition has extended support to the govt on the response it proposes against the attack “masterminded by Pakistan”, Congress has also accused the ruling BJP and RSS of using the attack to target Muslims in the country through social media handles. Some opposition parties have also blamed the security lapse and the intelligence failure for the attack. While Congress has presented the theme of “unity” with the govt as far as response to the attack is concerned, its leaders in states – like AICC Karnataka incharge and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala in Bengaluru on Tuesday – have been attacking the ruling BJP and the PM for the security lapse. Congress has been critical of the PM for missing the all-party meeting and instead attending an election rally in Bihar, as done by Congress president Kharge at a rally in Jaipur on Monday. Ramesh said when the Parliament meets for the special session, PM Modi should attend both the Houses. Courtesy : TOI Note: This news is originally published on https://timesofindia.com and is for use by the non-military/non-commercial community, especially those in the human rights sector.
Muslims, Dalits not disposed to crime, says survey report
This finding marks a departure from perceptions prevalent in other regions of the country and highlights the unique stance of the state’s law enforcement on issues of crime and community relations In a revealing survey conducted among police respondents in Punjab, a significant majority has expressed the firm belief that neither Muslims nor Dalits are naturally predisposed to criminal behaviour. As per the “Status of Policing in India Report’ (SPIR)”, done by the Common Cause and Lokniti-CSDC organisation, this finding marks a departure from perceptions prevalent in other regions of the country and highlights the unique stance of the state’s law enforcement on issues of crime and community relations. According to the survey data, an overwhelming percentage of police officers in Punjab (over 80%) contend that Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis do not have inherent tendencies towards crime. This belief was notably stronger among Punjab’s police compared to respondents from other states, indicating a profound suspicion of the stereotype that links specific communities to criminality. The survey also highlighted law enforcement’s approach to public safety issues. The Punjab Police reported the highest proportion of arrests related to loitering and public nuisance, accounting for 60% of the total arrests, significantly outpacing the other states surveyed. This reflects a proactive stance on maintaining public order, despite the low association perceived between crime and these communities. When it comes to justifying the controversial practice of torture, police respondents from Punjab displayed a relatively low tolerance. Only 15% reported a high propensity to justify such actions, while a considerable 30% indicated a low propensity and another 30% showed a very low propensity. Furthermore, Punjab has been identified as one of the states with the least justification for mob violence, especially concerning allegations of cow slaughter. A robust 62% of the respondents stated that mob violence was not at all justified, aligning with similar findings from states like Kerala and West Bengal, which also exhibited low levels of justification for such behaviour. The survey not only sheds light on the perceptions of crime among law-enforcement officials in Punjab but also reinforces the significance of community relations in upholding justice and security in the region. The findings suggest a move towards a more equitable perspective on crime with respect to community background, which could potentially influence future policing strategies and community outreach programmes. The Status of Policing in India Report (SPIR) 2025 was released on March 26 at the India International Centre by a distinguished panel of experts, including Justice S Muralidhar, former Chief Justice of the Odisha High Court, Vrinda Grover, lawyer and activist, Dr Amar Jesani, public health expert and the Editor of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, and Prakash Singh, IPS (retd) and a former DGP of UP, Assam and BSF. The Punjab angle of the report studied by The Tribune talks about the response of the Punjab Police respondents. Sixth in the series, the SPIR 2025 on “Police Torture and (Un)Accountability” is the only report of its kind in India to focus on police high-handedness and custodial violence at police stations across the country. 80 pc Punjab cops hold this view An overwhelming percentage of police officers in Punjab (over 80%) contend that Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis do not have inherent tendencies towards crime. This belief was notably stronger among Punjab’s police compared to respondents from other states, indicating a profound suspicion of the stereotype that links specific communities to criminality Courtesy :Jupinderjit Singh, The Tribune Note: This news is originally published on https://thetribune.com and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights.
Rioter tag, Muslim migrant workers from Bengal ‘thrashed’ in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh
‘Forced returns’ have sparked fear among migrant workers from Murshidabad and Malda, many of whom were now worried about their survival The fallout of the Samserganj riots reached BJP-ruled Odisha and Uttar Pradesh on Monday when around 70 migrant labourers of the minority community from Murshidabad and Malda were allegedly assaulted and sent home when they reached those states to resume work. Some 50 workers from Murshidabad had left for Keonjhar, Odisha, on Sunday, after their Eid break. They had to return home late Monday night in the same bus arranged by a labour contractor after being attacked allegedly by Hindutva activists who accused them of attacking a particular community in riot-hit Murshidabad. Similarly, 24 migrant workers from Sujapur in Malda, who had been working in a garments factory in Jamalpur in Uttar Pradesh, were also allegedly beaten up and forced back. The violence, which erupted over protests against the amended waqf law, had spread in pockets of Murshidabad, leaving three dead and damaging homes and property. The “forced returns” have sparked fear among migrant workers from Murshidabad and Malda, many of whom were now worried about their survival. On Monday, a Special Investigating Team (SIT) formed by the Bengal government arrested 12 migrant labourers from Jharsuguda in Odisha for their alleged role in the Murshidabad riots. However, these migrant workers who were attacked and forced to return home, claimed they were not involved in violence but were paying the price of perception. Momin Miyan, a labour contractor from Suti, who had arranged the Odisha-bound trip, said: “We just came home for a small break which coincided with the anti-waqf Act protests. We didn’t take part in it.” Momin, who has been recruiting labourers for 12 years, said he had arranged a bus for workers to Keonjhar as usual. “Around 5.30am on Monday, a group of youths with Bajrang Dal flags stopped our bus at Jashipur More in Mayurbhanj. We were dragged out and beaten up…. They accused us of attacking their community. They warned us that the bus would be set on fire if we didn’t leave,” said Momin. One of the 24 migrant workers from Sujapur in Malda who had been working in Jamalpur, Uttar Pradesh, for seven years, said a group of youths with saffron flags in their hands attacked them when they were working. “They accused us of attacking a community and asked us to leave, saying we would not be allowed to work there. Some of us were beaten up severely,” he said. Monirul Khan of Sujapur, who returned from UP, said when they went to the police, they were detained and were released “only after paying a bribe of ₹30,000”. “We have been working in UP for seven years. There was no problem earlier. But the scenario changed after the Murshidabad violence. Now it has become a question of our survival since we are not feeling secure to return there,” he said. When the Sujapur workers were detained at Jamalpur Kotwali police station, Fatema Khatun, wife of migrant worker Shariful Khan, lodged a complaint with the Kaliachak police in Malda. The issue was taken up by the Migrant Workers’ Unity Forum. Its general secretary, Asif Farooq, wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah, urging him to ensure the safety and rights of migrant workers across states. Jangipur SDO Ekam J. Singh professed ignorance. “If I get any complaint, I will report it to the state government,” he said. The CPM said that TMC MP Abu Taher’s comment about the role of migrant workers in the riots was also to blame. “Abu Taher’s comment was amplified by BJP leader Tarunjyoti Tewari on social media. Within hours, attacks were unleashed in Odisha and UP. The Centre has also abrogated its responsibility to protect migrant workers…,” said CPM state secretary Md Salim and added that his party units in the two states were alerted to help Bengal workers. Samirul Islam, chairman of West Bengal Migrant Workers’ Welfare Board and TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP, blamed the BJP. “Such attacks on migrant workers are not new in BJP-ruled states. Wherever they find Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers, they always find an issue to torture them,” he said. Samik Bhattacharya, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP, argued that such incidents were the result of suspicion after states like Tamil Nadu found many Bengali-speaking people with fake Indian documents, who are Bangladeshi infiltrators. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu was not a BJP-ruled state. “Tamil Nadu government, which is not run by the BJP, was the first to conduct a combing operation and discovered many such migrant workers with fake identities. After that, they stopped allowing Bengali migrant workers to work in their state. The allegations that came from other states are likely to be the result of such suspicion,” said Bhattacharya. Courtesy : Alamgir Hossain, The Telegraph Note: This news was originally published on https://thetelegraph.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights.
Muslim member cannot continue as State Waqf Board member on expiry of tenure in State Bar Council: Supreme CourtOnline legal consultation
The Supreme Court has ruled that a Muslim member of a State Bar Council, appointed to the State Waqf Board, could not continue as a member of the Board on expiry of his tenure in the Bar Council.Online legal consultation The Bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Rajesh Bindal on Tuesday observed that eligibility to the Waqf Board under Section 14(1)(b)(iii) of the Waqf Act, 1995 flew directly from the individual’s status as a Muslim member of the bar council and ended with it. Overruling a Manipur High Court order, which allowed a former Bar Council member to retain his seat on the Board despite demitting the bar council, the top court of the country said that without such membership in the Parliament, the State Legislative Assembly or the Bar Council, the very basis for their membership in the Board ceased to exist. The matter pertained to a dispute between Firoz Ahmad Khalid and Rabi Khan over membership in the State Waqf Board. In February 2023, the Manipur government appointed Khalid to the Board after his election to the Bar Council, replacing Khan, whose term had ended.Legal research services While a single-judge Bench of the High Court dismissed the challenge to this appointment, a Division Bench reversed that ruling, holding that Explanation II to Section 14 only required sitting MPs and MLAs to vacate Waqf Board posts upon expiry of their tenures, and made no such mention of Bar Council members. The Apex Court ruled that Explanation II to Section 14(1)(b) of the 1995 Act did not explicitly mention that the term of a Muslim member of the Bar Council in the Board was also co-terminus with their term in the Bar Council. This must be understood to be implied upon a reading of the provision as a whole, it added. The Bench, however, clarified that where there were no Muslim members in any of the three categories mentioned in Section 14(1)(b) of the 1995 Act, ex-Muslim Members of Parliament or State Legislative Assembly or ex-Member of the Bar Council, as the case may be, shall constitute the electoral college. It said if there was no serving Muslim member in the Bar Council and no senior Muslim advocate was available, only then would an ex-Member of the Bar Council be eligible to be a Member of the Board. It was axiomatic to state that an existing Muslim Member of the Board from the Bar Council would cease to be a Member of the Board, upon the completion of their tenure as a Member of the Bar Council, when there was another Muslim Member available to replace them from within the Bar Council, noted the Bench. The Apex Court further held that the Bombay High Court order in Shri Asif S/o Shaukat Qureshi vs State of Maharashtra to permit a former Bar Council member to remain on the Board was not a good law. It also rejected the argument that Explanation II’s silence implied legislative intent to exclude Bar Council members from its scope. The Apex Court observed that giving an overreaching interpretation to Explanation II would amount to treating the MPs and MLAs differently from members of the Bar Council. No intelligible differentia was discernible for such a classification from the scheme of the provision, it added. Restoring the single-judge Bench order, the top court of the country upheld appellant Khalid’s appointment by the State of Manipur. Courtesy : India Legal Note: This news was originally published on https://indialegal.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights.
‘Minority communities must take care of each other’: Mamata urges people to maintain peace after Murshidabad violence
Urging people not to trust the BJP and its allies, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee alleged that they want to incite riots. Kolkata: Alleging that the BJP and the RSS initiated a “vicious false campaign” in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged the people to maintain peace, and stated that the majority and the minority communities must take care of each other. Referring to the violence in Murshidabad, Banerjee said “these forces” were using the backdrop of “an unfortunate incident” that happened “on provocation” to play divisive politics. “BJP and its allies have suddenly become very aggressive in West Bengal. These allies include RSS. I have not taken the RSS’s name earlier, but I am being forced now to identify them. Together, they all have initiated a vicious false campaign in the State,” she alleged in the open letter, which was made public late in the night. “These forces are using the backdrop of an unfortunate incident that happened on provocation. They are using the backdrop to play divisive politics. They are planning to play the ‘divide and rule’ game. This is sinister,” she added. Asserting that the “criminals” behind the riots are being strongly dealt with, Banerjee said that at the same time “mutual mistrust and distrust” must be avoided. “The majority and the minority communities must work together and take care of each other,” she said. “They had originally planned to use the Ram Navami day for playing with fire, but the Ram Navami celebrations in West Bengal have been most peaceful. Then they tried to use some subsequent matters relating to the agitations against the Waqf (Amendment) Act,” she alleged. Urging people not to trust the BJP and its allies, she alleged that they want to incite riots. “…riots can affect everyone. We love all. We want to stay together. We condemn riots. We are against riots. They want to divide us for some narrow electoral politics,” she said. The CM said she has taken “strong actions” for maintaining law and order and saving human lives and dignity. “Two police officers-in-charge have been removed. Police is investigating. Further actions are being taken. Please remember that riots are created neither by Hindus, nor by Muslims, riots are engineered by criminals. Strict actions will be taken against all criminals. No one will be spared,” she said. Banerjee claimed that protest rallies are not allowed in the BJP-ruled UP, Bihar, MP and Rajasthan, but no such anti-Constitutional dispensation is there in West Bengal. “When they use bulldozers in UP, agony comes. In contrast, in West Bengal, when someone suffers, we help. That is our approach in West Bengal. No community will be disturbed or adversely affected in West Bengal. We strongly condemn such disturbances,” she said. “Those who create riots always come from outside and then go away. We from inside have to now fight against their bad deeds. We shall together survive and win,” she said. Banerjee said her “detractors”, the BJP, want to divert people’s attention from the burning problem of price rise, and hence they have taken recourse to “inflammatory propaganda”. “Jealousy has no cure. The jealous cannot go beyond their narrow vision. Our detractors do not want employment, development, creativity – their only interest is to ensure price rise, to enhance costs of medicines, hospital charges and insurance premium, to increase the price of petrol, diesel and even domestic cooking gas,” she said. “Finally, my appeal to everyone again is: stay calm, stay united. Do not give in to mistrust and distrust. Do not be diverted by their false communal rhetoric,” she said. Three people were killed, several others injured, and numerous properties were vandalised during protests over the Waqf (Amendment) Act in Murshidabad last week. Courtesy : News Nine Note: This news is originally published on https://newsnine.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights.
Waqf Amendment Act: State Oversight Vs Minority Rights
The challenge to waqf reform is how to build consensus on State oversight of waqf properties without violating minority rights Way back in 1929, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi wrote in Young India that “numerical strength savours of violence when it acts in total disregard of any strongly felt opinion of minority”. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar stated resolutely in the Constituent Assembly debates that “rights of minorities should be absolute rights. They should not be subject to consideration as to what another party (read nation) may like to do to minorities within its jurisdiction”. In the West, John Stuart Mill warned that representative democracy, with all its political and moral trappings, is susceptible to the ‘‘tyranny of the majority’’, and so in the interest of democratic principles, nations must determine the limits of collective interference in the life of the individual. The rights of the minority can be hollowed out by the acts of transgressions committed by governments and by those of the social majority, engendering both social and political tyranny. The three political philosophers; Gandhi, Ambedkar and Mill, quoted above, find themselves on common ground arguing for institutionalisation of minority rights as sinews of democratic equality and a good republic. The Waqf Act, 2025, de-institutionalises the minority rights as enshrined in the Indian Constitution, violates several provisions of fundamental rights, including the principles of secularism, threatens the moral consciousness to fraternity and tolerance in India, and panders to the “majoritarianism” of the Hindutva project in the name of ‘‘one country, one people, and one nation’’. Through the Waqf Act, the government intends to bring in a strong State-regulatory-regime to control and manage the Waqf properties owned by Muslims and to settle the disputes of such properties. Waqf, an Arabic-Urdu word, literally meaning ‘‘detention’’, but in common parlance is the religious-cum-charitable endowments, held in God’s (Allah’s) name, which is donated particularly by Muslims as part of religious rite. The waqf properties in India, currently exceeding 8.72 lakh, includes all kinds of property such as mosques, kabristans (graveyards), maqbaras, idgahs, dargahs, khanqahs, anjumans, imambaras and ashoorkhanas. The law empowers the government, through the district collector, to determine the legitimacy of waqf property. Earlier the determination, in cases of disputes, was done by the Waqf Tribunal, a quasi-judicial process. But with the new law, it is left to the vagaries and arbitrariness of the district collector, whose impartiality and integrity seem to be in short supply of late. Interestingly, the disputes will mean an immediate handover of the waqf properties to the government until the cases are solved, which may take many years. Those opposing the law say that it is the classic suborn-case of waqf property grab by the government. The Constitution guarantees right to freedom of religion to every citizen, to the extent that one can freely profess, practise and propagate religion, of course, subject to public order, morality and health. It also gives the religious communities the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes and to manage their ‘‘own affairs’’ in religious matters. Further, the Constitution protects the interests of minorities by giving them the right to conserve their culture. As arranged in the Constitution, the architecture of fundamental rights, particularly of the religious/linguistic minorities, explicates a certain degree of autonomy that the minorities must claim when conjoined with their right to freedom and equality in the larger framework of deepening of democracy. Muslims in India, as a religious minority, are numerically smaller when compared to Hindus in general. They remain a non-dominant group with its symbols and values inadequately, or perhaps not, represented in the mainstream civil society; and have a distinct culture, which they want to preserve. Waqf is a part of this distinct religious and cultural ethos in Islam, not only in India but across continents, and Muslims believe that its practice is an essential religious obligation to stave off inequality, pain and suffering, prevalent in their community. The acceptance of “legal pluralism” in the legal system in India allows the prevalence of personal laws of different religions based on the definition of law in the Constitution—Article 13 (3)(a)—which explicitly explains that law includes, among others, the customs or usage having (non)legislative sources. Legal pluralism in the backdrop, waqf disputes require to be settled, not by the district collector, but by the provisions of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, which in no way subsumes the overriding effect of the State laws. It has been observed that the Parliament, since independence, has remained keen to enact a comprehensive law for the regulation of waqf properties. However, no such effort is made for the majority community’s religious or charitable endowments. In the present Act, the State intervenes in the Muslim personal laws through disproportionally empowering the local administrative and revenue officials to oversee the management of the waqf properties. Certainly, the intent of the new law is the State’s control and management of waqf properties at the peril of minority rights, especially the constitutional right to property, of Muslims. The removal of the concept of ‘‘waqf by use’’, which essentially means that a property can be considered as waqf through its use as waqf, is also decried as an effort by the government to de-notify large swathes of land on the basis of suspicion of the original declaration called waqfnama. Most of the waqf properties are verbally donated, much before the documentation system became the standard norm. In such circumstances and as under the present law, Muslims are bound to lose a large number of waqf properties. In the federal scheme of the Constitution, waqf as charitable and religious endowments is present in the concurrent list (entry 28) and burials and burial grounds in the State list (entry 10). The central Act, laying down the framework of Waqf Council and Waqf Boards, is seen as yet another act of centralisation by the incumbent government. It is interesting to note that some of the non-Bharatiya Janata Party State governments, particularly West Bengal, have