Citizens for Justice and Peace
To Be or Not to Be The Identity Crisis of the Non-Savarna Indian
16-Oct-2019
While for the Savarna Indian, to be without identity is an assertion of equality, for the vast numbers of Non-Savarnas, it is in the head-count that the quantum of caste privilege starkly stands out. The Good Since its inception, on paper at least, India’s Constitutional foundations declare its push to become a casteless society. The…
How do you police the police? A User’s Guide provides some answers
15-Oct-2019
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has released a recently prepared User Guide on the Maharashtra’s Police Complaints Authorities or PCAs. These authorities were established to inquire into complaints by the public against police personnel, including grievances as to serious misconduct, corruption, and abuse of authority. The whole issue of a Police Complaints Authority…
Manual Scavenging: Why the gov’t’s conscience is not clean about the Swachh Bharat Mission PUDR Report exposes stark realities
02-Oct-2019
On October 2, 2014, the Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission with the aim to achieve universal sanitation coverage within five years as a “fitting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi” on his 150th Birth Anniversary in 2019. While the Government lauds the success of the Mission covering 99.2 per cent of rural India in the last…
Dissent Note: Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 How and why opposition MPs denounced the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016
09-Sep-2019
Former Member of Parliament from the Raiganj parliamentary constituency, CPI (M) leader Mohammed Salim and CPI(M) polit bureau member lost the elections this time. But in January this year, he submitted a crucial dissenting note to the now lapsed Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 to the Joint Parliamentary Committee appointed. Given the key issues raised, and…
Making Every Vote Matter SOPs related to transfer, storage and handling of EVMs
06-May-2019
Ever since they were first brought into play, EVMs have always attracted suspicion from different quarters. From fears of hacking to the possibility of malfunction, EVMs have remained controversial despite the Election Commission’s assurances. The ECI has in place certain ground rules about the transfer, storage, testing and use of the controversial devices. The EVMs and WPATs…
Election Model Code of Conduct: How to Spot and Report Violations Community Resource
04-Apr-2019
For candidates, election season is often a battle for political survival and sometimes they end up crossing ethical and legal lines. Therefore, the Election Commission of India came up with a Model Code of Conduct to monitor and regulate the behaviour of candidates and parties during elections. This was done to ensure that elections take…
Locating the Role of State and Changing Nature of Violence Part-1 of a Study on Communal Violence by Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
13-Feb-2019
As per newspaper reports, the number of communal incidents all over India in 2018 has been the lowest in the past four years. The Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) monitors reports of communal incidents in five newspapers every year. In 2018 the number of communal incidents reported was 38 as compared to…
Role of the Media: How Hate was Spread in 2002 in Gujarat Excerpts from the Concerned Citizens Tribunal Report, Crimes Against Humanity, Gujarat 2002
29-Jan-2019
The following piece that first appeared in the Nov Dec 2002 edition of Communalism Combat examines the role of media in spreading hate during the Gujarat 2002 communal carnage. The Tribunal recommends that all the recommendations made by the Editors’ Guild in its report on the Gujarat carnage be implemented. India; Rights and Wrongs the Editors…
गुमराह करने वाले न्यूज़ चैनलों के ख़िलाफ़ करें शिकायत घृणास्पद या उत्तेजक विषय प्रसारित करने वाले समाचार चैनलों के ख़िलाफ़ शिकायत कैसे दर्ज करें
05-Dec-2018
जनता से जुड़े मुद्दों पर निष्पक्ष, सच उजागर करते और ईमानदार नज़रिए से लबरेज़ कार्यक्रमों का लगातार कम होता जाना, अब समाचार चैनलों में परिपाटी सा बन गया है. नज़रिए और नीयत की ये गिरावट कोई नई बात भी नहीं है. कुछ समाचार चैनल नियमित रूप से ऐसी सामग्रियों का प्रसारण कर रहे हैं जो…
Taking Errant News Broadcasters to Task How to file a complaint against news channels airing hateful or inciteful content
12-Jul-2018
It is not new to see news channels, created to broadcast an honest and unbiased view of the world to the masses, tumbling in their work. Some news channels now are presenting aggressive, biased and allegedly dishonest content to the public on a regular basis. These news channels are required to follow a certain set…