Activists condemn VCK leader Thirumavalavan's comments on same-sex relationships
A collective statement, issued by LGBTQIA+ Persons Who Stand For Social Justice called the comment 'deeply disturbing' and 'unscientific.'
The comment, made at the Let Us Learn Democracy and Student Parliament 2025 conference on April 12, came in response to a law student's question about same-sex relationships in the context of Tamil society's definition of love. Thirumavalavan replied that 'in English, they call that perversion' and stated that love between two men goes against nature.
The Tamil Nadu Rainbow Coalition (TNRC), a collective of groups and individuals from the sexual and gender minority communities, in a separate open letter to Thirumalavan, expressing 'deep anguish and disappointment', stated that homosexuality is neither unnatural nor a disorder, citing the World Health Organization's removal of homosexuality from its International Classification of Disorders in 1990. They also noted the Indian Psychiatric Society's endorsement of homosexuality as a natural variation of human sexuality.
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Business Standard
41 minutes ago
- Business Standard
US expands militarised zones to 1/3 of southern border, stirs controversy
The Army has posted thousands of the warnings in New Mexico and western Texas, declaring a restricted area by authority of the commander AP Columbus Orange no-entry signs posted by the US military in English and Spanish dot the New Mexico desert, where a border wall cuts past onion fields and parched ranches with tufts of tall grass growing amidst wiry brush and yucca trees. The Army has posted thousands of the warnings in New Mexico and western Texas, declaring a restricted area by authority of the commander. It's part of a major shift that has thrust the military into border enforcement with Mexico like never before. The move places long stretches of the border under the supervision of nearby military bases, empowering US troops to detain people who enter the country illegally and sidestep a law prohibiting military involvement in civilian law enforcement. It is done under the authority of the national emergency on the border declared by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. US authorities say the zones are needed to close gaps in border enforcement and help in the wider fight against human smuggling networks and brutal drug cartels. The militarisation is being challenged in court, and has been criticised by civil rights advocates, humanitarian aid groups and outdoor enthusiasts who object to being blocked from public lands while troops have free rein. Abbey Carpenter, a leader of a search-and-rescue group for missing migrants, said public access is being denied across sweltering stretches of desert where migrant deaths have surged. Maybe there are more deaths, but we don't know," she said. Military expansion Two militarised zones form a buffer along 230 miles of border, from Fort Hancock, Texas, through El Paso and westward across vast New Mexico ranchlands. The Defense Department added an additional 250-mile zone last week in Texas' Rio Grande Valley and plans another near Yuma, Arizona. Combined, the zones will cover nearly one-third of the US border with Mexico. They are patrolled by at least 7,600 members of the armed forces, vastly expanding the US government presence on the border. Reaction to the military buffer has been mixed among residents of New Mexico's rural Luna County, where a strong culture of individual liberty is tempered by the desire to squelch networks bringing migrants and contraband across the border. We as a family have always been very supportive of the mission, and very supportive of border security, said James Johnson, a fourth-generation farmer overseeing seasonal labourers as they filled giant plastic crates with onions, earning $ 22 per container. Military deployments under prior presidents put eyes and ears on the border, Johnson said. This version is trying to give some teeth. But some hunters and hikers fear they're being locked out of a rugged and cherished landscape. I don't want to go down there with my hunting rifle and all of a sudden somebody rolls up on me and says that I'm in a military zone, said Ray Trejo, a coordinator for the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and a Luna County commissioner. I don't know if these folks have been taught to deescalate situations. A former public school teacher of English as a second language, Trejo said military trespassing charges seem inhumane in an economy built on immigrant farm labour. If the Army, Border Patrol, law enforcement in general are detaining people for reasons of transporting, of human smuggling, I don't have a problem, he said. But people are coming into our country to work, stepping now all of a sudden into a military zone, and they have no idea. Nicole Wieman, an Army command spokesperson, said the Army is negotiating possible public access for recreation and hunting, and will honour private rights to grazing and mining. Increased punishment More than 1,400 migrants have been charged with trespassing on military territory, facing a possible 18-month prison sentence for a first offense. That's on top of an illegal entry charge that brings up to six months in custody. After that, most are turned over to US Customs and Border Protection for likely deportation. There have been no apparent arrests of US citizens. At a federal courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on the banks of the Upper Rio Grande, migrants in drab county jail jumpsuits and chains filed before a magistrate judge on a recent weekday. A 29-year-old Guatemalan woman struggled to understand instructions through a Spanish interpreter as she pleaded guilty to illegal entry. A judge set aside military trespassing charges for lack of evidence, but sentenced her to two weeks in jail before being transferred for likely deportation. She sells pottery, she's a very simple woman with a sixth-grade education, a public defence attorney told the judge. She told me she's going back and she's going to stay there. Border crossings Border Patrol arrests along the southern border this year have dropped to the lowest level in six decades, including a 30 per cent decrease in June from the prior month as attempted crossings dwindle. On June 28, the Border Patrol made only 137 arrests, a stark contrast with late 2023, when arrests topped 10,000 on the busiest days. The first militarised zones, introduced in April and May, extend west of El Paso past factories and cattle yards to partially encircle the New Mexico border village of Columbus, and its 1,450 residents. It was here that Mexican revolutionary forces led by Pancho Villa crossed into the US in a deadly 1916 raid. These days, a port of entry at Columbus is where hundreds of children with US citizenship cross daily from a bedroom community in Mexico to board public school buses and attend classes nearby. Columbus Mayor Philip Skinner, a Republican, says he's seen the occasional military vehicle but no evidence of disruption in an area where illegal crossings have been rare. We're kind of not tuned in to this national politics, Skinner said. Oversight is divided between US Army commands in Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The militarised zones sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits the military from conducting civilian law enforcement on US soil. Russell Johnson, a rancher and former Border Patrol agent, said he welcomes the new militarised zone where his ranch borders Mexico on land leased from the Bureau of Land Management. We have seen absolutely almost everything imaginable that can happen on the border, and most of it's bad, he said, recalling off-road vehicle chases on his ranch and lifeless bodies recovered by Border Patrol. In late April, he said, five armoured military vehicles spent several days at a gap in the border wall, where construction was suspended at the outset of the Biden presidency. But, he said, he hasn't seen much of the military in recent weeks. The only thing that's really changed is the little extra signage, he said. We're not seeing the military presence out here like we kind of anticipated." Court challenges Federal public defenders have challenged the military's new oversight of public land in New Mexico, seizing on the arrest of a Mexican man for trespassing through remote terrain to test the legal waters. They decried the designation of a new military zone without congressional authorization for the sole purpose of enabling military action on American soil as "a matter of staggering and unpreceded political significance. A judge has not ruled on the issue. In the meantime, court challenges to trespassing charges in the militarised zone have met with a mixture of convictions and acquittals at trial. Ryan Ellison, the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico, won trespassing convictions in June against two immigrants who entered a militarised zone again after an initial warning. There's not going to be an issue as to whether or not they were on notice, he told a recent news conference. American Civil Liberties Union attorney Rebecca Sheff says the federal government is testing a more punitive approach to border enforcement with the new military zones and worries it will be expanded border-wide. To the extent the federal government has aspirations to establish a much more hostile military presence along the border, this is a vehicle that they're pushing on to potentially do so. And that's very concerning, she said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
Mind your language: Why linguistic battles in ‘New' India won't work
'In this country, those who speak English will soon feel ashamed – the creation of such a country is not far away': Union Home Minister Amit Shah.'Any attempt to impose Hindi on Marathi speakers will not be tolerated': Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray.'Do not ever try to divide Marathi-speaking people through Hindi": Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav 'Some entitled bigots brand us chauvinists and anti-nationals for the 'crime' of demanding Tamil's rightful place in Tamil Nadu. The true chauvinists and anti-nationals are the Hindi zealots who believe their entitlement is natural, but our resistance is treason": Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK 'wars' are back on the national agenda and how. Linguistic chauvinism has always been a political weapon. Only now, has it resurfaced in a manner that exposes the underlying hypocrisies and narrow political agendas of leaders who seek to divert attention from the real issues of our start with the home minister. Shah's grievances against English are rooted in the Sangh Parivar's Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan belief system, a belief that views English as being a colonial language antithetical to 'Indian culture'. Ironically, Shah enrolled for a bio-chemistry course at St Xavier's College in Ahmedabad, widely considered an elite English institution in the city. He later shifted to the CU Shah Science College in the city. His son, Jay Shah, now the president of the International Cricket Conference – the apex body of the original sport of the Empire – studied at Loyola Hall in Ahmedabad, another of the city's much sought after English medium yet, Shah has never hidden his disdain for English. Ahmedabad-based senior journalist Rajiv Shah relates an interesting story. Rajiv, who worked with The Times of India, was once told by Shah - then a minister in the Gujarat government - that he didn't read the country's leading newspaper because it was an English later, during an election campaign, Shah spotted Rajiv at a rally and objected to a news item in The Times of India. The journalist asked the minister: 'How do you know of this news item when you say you don't read an English paper?''I don't read your paper, but there are many others who tell me what appears in it,' was the minister's sharp Shah, the Thackerays have also sent their children to English medium schools. Nor have they stopped speaking or giving interviews in Hindi. And yet, their politics revolves around a 'Marathi-first' agenda, if only to establish a distinctive identity in a crowded political marketplace. If for Shah, the 'Hindi-centric' worldview is designed to position the BJP as a 'nationalistic' force taking on an elite Nehruvian Congress, for the Thackerays, rekindling the language issue is an attempt to revive the 'sons of the soil' movement that was Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray's original while the Sena chieftain may have spewed fire on non-Marathi speakers, his first job as a cartoonist was with the English daily, Free Press Journal. Today, when the Sena has split wide open and is facing an existential crisis, the Gen-next Thackerays are seeking a reunion of sorts under the garb of linguistic MK Stalin too, raising the bogey of Hindi being 'imposed' on the people of Tamil Nadu is a familiar political weapon ahead of a big election year in the state. The rise of the Dravidian parties in the 1960s revolved around the strident anti-Hindi agitations meant to refurbish a resilient Dravidian culture. Six decades later, by claiming that the New Education Policy's three-language formula is another attempt to force Hindi on Tamil-speaking citizens, the DMK chief minister is reigniting a north-versus-south battle to consolidate his position as a flag-bearer of regional while espousing a 'Tamil-first' war-cry, the fact is that the next-generation of the DMK's first family is sending their children to study in foreign universities. Not to forget that most private schools in Chennai are inclined to offer a three language syllabus, including Hindi as an is really the nub of the issue across the country. Politicians who rail against English, from old-style socialist Lohia-ties to Hindutvawaadis to regional warriors, all choose to send their kin to English-language Shah can rant against English, but he only needs to do a survey of his own Union Cabinet colleagues to find out how many of them, if any, have chosen to send their children to a Hindi or regional language medium school. At least half a dozen cabinet ministers have their children studying in prestigious foreign universities. English is no longer seen as a colonial relic but a language of aspiration and ambition. Travel to any corner of the country and witness the rapid expansion of English language coaching classes, all aimed at providing a 'new' India a chance to climb up the social from being ' ashamed' of speaking English, most young Indians seek to excel at it. Sadly, it's the quality of English teaching that leaves a lot to be desired in several parts of the country, one reason why Gujarat, for example, has lost out in the soft skills-driven service Hindi is also now a language of growth and ambition in many corners of India. Just look at the success of so many films made in the south but becoming blockbuster Hindi film releases. The traditional north-south divide is rapidly disappearing on the big screen, as it is indeed on the other great Indian theatre of dreams. The cricket field too: who would have thought at the turn of the century that Ranchi-born, Hindi-speaking Mahendra Singh Dhoni would be the ultimate Chennai hero?Mumbai, too, is now less of a Maharashtrian city than ever in the past: Hindi is not just the language of its famed film industry but also the street language of livelihoods, nurtured uniquely by waves of North Indian migration and assimilation. The Bombay versus Mumbai versus Bambai debate has hollowed out a buzzing cosmopolitanism, replacing any real angst over language divides. Yes, pride in the local language still matters, but it no longer needs one language to be pitted against is why those who might be fighting language wars need to realise that these are losing battles which may yield temporary political dividends but cannot be sustained beyond a point. Linguistic diversity is India's strength, being multilingual a competitive advantage. Politicians who have run out of ideas may seek refuge in linguistic chauvinism, most young Indians are job-seekers, not language I once interviewed a senior politician who insisted on speaking in Hindi because he wanted to reach out to the 'masses'. Interview over, he introduced me proudly to his son: 'Please meet my America-educated young man!'(Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author. His latest book is 2024: The Election That Surprised India)- Ends(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)Must Watch
India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
Video: In Trinidad and Tobago, PM Kamla quotes Gujarati poem written by Modi
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Friday, while addressing a community gathering, quoted a poem written by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his Gujarati book 'Aankh Aa Dhanya Che' (meaning 'Blessed Are These Eyes').The quoted lines of the poem reflect on memories, past struggles and the strength of shared experiences of the Indian prime minister. The poem speaks of looking back into the past, remembering those who walked together during hard times and how those memories become part of one's journey. advertisementHere is the part of the poem, translated in English from Gujarati, which Trinidad and Tobago PM quoted:In the recesses of my mindI travel far into the pastAnd each phase I see unfolds a memoryMy recall comes with easeEach visage easily recognisedNothing stays hiddenFor thus is the truth plain to seeFor our companionsWith whom we sufferedNever forgottenTogether endured those sufferingsThey become the journey in the end The Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister's gesture came during a community event at the National Cycling Velodrome in Couva, held as part of Prime Minister Modi's two-day visit to the Caribbean nation, 40% of whose population is of Indian to India's Ministry of External Affairs, around 556,800 people of Indian descent live in the country, including 1,800 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). The rest are descendants of indentured labourers who migrated from India between 1845 and 1917.- EndsMust Watch IN THIS STORY#Narendra Modi
