Show solidarity with Anand Teltumbde
It has been three years since Rohit Vemula had to sacrifice his life to the system. His death is an example of how the government, police department, politicians and authorities can systematically finish a creative person. This silencing of voices didn’t end with Vemula, in fact his incident was just the beginning of it all.
Today all activists who speak against the dictatorship of the government are facing threat of being jailed. This way, the efforts are on to silence them forever. All those who participated in Koregaon movement a year ago are being branded ‘Urban Naxals’ and are being jailed. Government wants to finish off every person who’d speak against its ideology before the upcoming elections. Koregaon movement is just a pretext. The Real design is to create violence in an event and blame the participants for it so that genuine progressive movements can be finished forever. This agenda is clear from the subsequent incidents.
Unfortunately, the place where the Dalits were instigated by anti-social elements was around the Sambhaji’s burial site. Sambhaji was killed by Aurangzeb’s army as a result of conspiracy between Peshwas, Marathas and Rajputs. His body was collected and given a dignified burial by Govind, a Dalit from Mahar community, and not Peshwes or Marathas. Govind built a burial tomb in his field. After Govind Mahar dies, his memorial was built right around Sambhaji’s funeral site, by his family members.
This narrative from the pages of history is adequate to understand who betrayed Shivaji and his son Sambhaji, and who stood by their side when things went wrong. But Sangh Parivar has always been creating skewed narratives of history. And this incident too has one such stretched story in their version. They believe the body was not buried by Govind Mahar but a person called Shivale, from the Maratha community. Not just that, they almost destroyed the burial site of Govind Mahar that was right next to Sambhaji’s site two days prior to Koregaon day celebrations. This action was clearly aimed at instigating the Dalits who would be taking part in Koregaon day. But the Dalits maintained silence and peace and the event ended on a calm note over discussions and deliberations.
But the Sangh Parivar wanted a ruckus to break out on Koregaon day. So the Sangh Parivar pelted stones at the meeting held on January 1 and attacked the Dalits armed with Saffron flags. Dalits were forced to defend. But all the Sangh Parivar leaders involved in violence were given a clean chit. All the progressive leaders were branded ‘extremists’ and sent to jail. Tragedy is the police made an FIR based on the complaint lodged by those who took part in the violence, blaming the progressive thinkers for it. Sangh Parivar has said the instigating speech delivered by the thinkers led to violence in Koregaon. But the entire video and speech is with the police. If there were any such elements, the police could lodge a suo moto case. The question arises as to why the complaint was lodged as per the convenience of Sangh Parivar, after a whole week.
Tragically enough, writer Anand Teltumbde who never took part in the event has also been named in the FIR. The police are keen to arrest him even when he says he did not take part in the Elgar Parishad convention, and provided all proof and witnesses to the effect. Yet, the arrest seems too imminent. Teltumbde is also being branded ‘Urban Naxal’ with this. His statement carries no weight and his plea before the courts has fallen on deaf ears.
The stage has been set to severe a hand that writes, shut the brain that thinks and a tongue that speaks. It is easy to understand why the government is after Teltumbde. He is a rare writer who helped Dalit writing thrive in the country. He put out incidents like Khairlanji and others before the world that were happening in India. Else, one would have never known the fact behind Khairlanji. Dalits have begun to understand their realities. Writers like Teltumbde are a challenge to the lies that are being spread through Sangh Parivar.
In this background, plans are afoot to clear him off with Koregaon as the pretext. It is rather worrisome that no people or political parties that indulge in Dalit appeasement have spoken in support of Teltumbde. He has not just written for the Dalits but has written and spoken a lot against Modi government too. Just as Vemula was isolated, Teltumbde is also being isolated right now. For all these reasons, he has to be supported by parties, regions and organisations. If he is supported in the strongest voice today, no government would dare quash the freedom of expression in the future.
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Rupee hits all-time low for second time in a week
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 31 paise to settle at 91.99 against the US dollar on Wednesday, touching the lowest closing level for the second time in less than a week, amid increased month-end demand for the greenback.
Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance. However, increased month-end demand for the American currency as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions dented investors' sentiments.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.60 and touched an early high of 91.50, but pared all the gains to touch an intra-day low of 91.99 against the greenback.
The domestic unit settled 31 paise down, revisiting its lowest-ever closing level of 91.99 against the greenback. The Indian currency previously ended at this level on January 23 when it also hit its all-time intraday low of 92 against the US dollar.
On Tuesday, the rupee rebounded from its all-time low levels and gained 22 paise to close at 91.68 against the US dollar.
Analysts said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe bolstered investor sentiment.
India and the European Union on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA), under which a number of domestic sectors such as apparel, chemicals and footwear will get duty-free entry into the 27-nation bloc, while the EU will get access to the Indian market at concessional duty for cars and wines, an official said.
The deal has been dubbed the "mother of all deals" as it will create a market of about 2 billion people.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at 96.14.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 67.28 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 487.20 points to settle at 82,344.68, while Nifty surged 167.35 points to 25,342.75.
Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers and purchased equities worth Rs 480.26 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
