Police remove controversial signboards barring entry of non-local Muslims in Mulshi
According to the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), Muslims running businesses or working as vendors and labourers in Paud, Pirangut, Kolvan, Suatwadi and surrounding areas have been facing threats, forced shutdowns, and boycott appeals after a temple idol was allegedly desecrated by a minor boy in May.
The two organisations, in a joint complaint submitted to the state chief secretary, Pune district collector, and senior police officers, alleged that the banners targeting Muslims who do not belong to the particular area were put up in many areas, including religious places, without any legal sanction.
They also alleged that several bakeries and scrap shops owned by Muslims had shut down due to pressure from the fringe elements, and the local police failed to check it.
PUCL member Milind Champanerkar said the group had also written to Baramati MP Supriya Sule and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, demanding action.
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The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
What the ‘neutral clean-up' of Bihar's poll rolls really is
In recent years, India has experienced a subtle, yet significant, shift in how citizenship and national belonging are defined, and, increasingly, how voting rights are determined. This transformation is most evident in the ongoing electoral roll revision by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in Bihar, just months before the State Assembly elections later this year. The hurried and opaque nature of this process risks the wrongful exclusion of lakhs of eligible voters, posing a serious threat not only to the integrity of the electoral system but also to the constitutional values of equality, fraternity and justice. Anything but a routine update On the surface, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar appears to be a routine update. But in practice, it is anything but. Nearly 4.74 crore voters — close to 60% of Bihar's electorate — are now required to prove their eligibility through a new set of documents. The threshold for inclusion has shifted dramatically. Under the SIR guidelines, any voter not listed in the 2003 rolls must now provide documentary proof of citizenship. This includes birth certificate, school-leaving documents, land deeds, or official citizenship papers, which are records that are difficult to produce even in urban centres, let alone in the rural stretches of Bihar. Crucially, many of these documents, particularly birth certificate, are the responsibility of the state to issue. However, the state has historically failed to do so at scale, placing the burden on individuals to obtain and provide them. What is being presented as a neutral 'clean-up' of electoral rolls carries a serious risk of disenfranchising millions. The poor, Muslims and migrant workers, who make up a significant portion of Bihar's population, with migrants alone constituting around 20% are likely to be disproportionately affected. There is a significant risk that large numbers of migrant workers, predominantly men, could be removed from electoral rolls. This represents a sharp break from previous practices, where self-declaration was deemed sufficient for enrolment, a principle supported by electoral regulations and the Supreme Court of India. The shift suggests a deeper reconfiguration of the relationship between the state and its citizens. The ECI claims that the revision is aimed at eliminating duplicate entries, removing deceased voters and filtering out ineligible electors, while also including newly eligible ones. Legally, the ECI is empowered to do this. But the scale, the timing and the method of the current exercise are deeply problematic. It is neither practical to execute such a massive overhaul within a few weeks, nor reasonable to demand documentation that many voters, particularly from marginalised communities, simply do not possess. Media reports suggest that many such voters do have widely held government-issued IDs such as Aadhaar, voter ID card, labour cards, and MGNREGA cards, none of which is being accepted as sufficient proof of eligibility. There is a Kafkaesque irony at the heart of this: the very voter ID cards issued by the ECI are now deemed inadequate. By refusing to recognise its own identification document, the ECI is not only disenfranchising citizens but also eroding its institutional credibility. If its own ID cards are no longer considered trustworthy for verification, what does that imply about the integrity of the electoral process and the legitimacy of past elections? An encroachment Electoral integrity is not just about removing duplicates; it is about ensuring that every citizen has an opportunity to vote. The ECI's mandate is to facilitate participation, not put up bureaucratic hurdles. By shifting into the terrain of citizenship verification, the ECI is encroaching upon a domain that lies with the judiciary and designated tribunals. There is an apprehension that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) could be given the authority to refer individuals suspected of being foreign nationals to citizenship authorities — a task previously outside the ECI's remit. This shift, and the resistance to it, both have precedent. In the past, the judiciary has expressed concern over attempts to place the burden of proving citizenship on individuals, including those who had already participated in the electoral process. It has held that prior inclusion on an electoral roll implies that verification had already taken place. Again, in 2005, during the Assam roll revision, the Court stressed that anyone facing deletion from the rolls must be given notice and an opportunity to respond, and that questions of citizenship must be resolved by the appropriate authority. The current process in Bihar, with its heavy documentation demands and compressed timelines, is beginning to resemble a de facto National Register of Citizens (NRC) but without any legislative basis or judicial oversight. It imports the logic of citizenship audits into electoral administration, turning a democratic procedure into an exclusionary instrument. There is a deeper political logic behind the timing of this voter roll revision exercise. Its launch is particularly significant in the context of fiercely contested State elections, where every vote matters. The political motivations are hard to ignore: estimates suggest that as many as two crore voters could be removed from the rolls if the current process continues unchecked. In States such as Bihar, the deletion of even a few hundred thousand names could decisively influence outcomes in tightly contested constituencies. Already facing strong anti-incumbency sentiment and a growing challenge from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) stands to gain from such revisions. With the outcome still uncertain, voter roll revisions take on clear political significance. Compounding matters is the logistical challenge. The ECI has launched this document-heavy exercise during the monsoon season, when large parts of Bihar are flood-prone. It has imposed a 30-day deadline — a window in which many migrant workers are still away from home. This confluence of administrative rigidity and ecological vulnerability has created a perfect storm for disenfranchisement. An institution entrusted with ensuring free and fair elections, risks becoming a gatekeeper to democratic participation. The larger implications Critics rightly see the revision as a form of demographic manipulation — a subtler version of gerrymandering by exclusion. The implications go well beyond Bihar, carrying national significance. This new process is part of a broader political project aimed at weakening pluralism, even as substantive political participation and contestation are systematically constrained. It aligns with majoritarian narratives that cast a doubt on the loyalty and belonging of certain communities, particularly Muslims, and seeks to diminish their political influence by undermining both their representation and their right to vote. What is unfolding in Bihar may well serve as a template for other States. ECI officials have indicated plans for similar special revisions in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. If this model is replicated, it may institutionalise a more document-intensive approach to voter verification — one that risks undoing decades of progress in empowering historically marginalised communities by offering them meaningful opportunities to participate in the democratic process. The Bihar voter roll revision is now under challenge in the Supreme Court for violating fundamental rights including the right to vote, equality before law, non-discrimination, and dignity. If it is not struck down, it could strip lakhs of citizens of their right to vote, distorting electoral outcomes and eroding faith in democratic institutions. What is at risk is not just participation, but the very credibility of free and fair elections, an inviolable part of the Constitution's basic structure. Zoya Hasan is Professor Emerita, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Scroll.in
5 hours ago
- Scroll.in
Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri
The Assam government has demolished the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin from nearly 1,157 acres of government land in Dhubri district to make way for a solar power project, District Magistrate Dibakar Nath told Scroll on Tuesday. The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, which is heading the project, has already been allotted the land, Nath added. Residents affected by the demolitions told Scroll that nearly 10,000 Bengali-origin Muslims, who had been living in the area for at least three to four decades, were displaced from Chirakuta 1 and 2, Charuakhara Jungle Block and Santeshpur villages under the Chapar revenue circle in Dhubri. 'These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,' Towfique Hussian, an affected resident, told Scroll. On March 30, the district administration submitted a proposal to convert the Village Grazing Land, a category of government land designated for cattle grazing, for the solar power project, according to minutes of a district-level land advisory meeting held on April 2. The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited had acquired around 1,289 acres of government land for the plant. According to the district administration, it had issued eviction notices in advance and made daily public announcements asking residents to vacate and dismantle their homes before Sunday. Police personnel and bulldozers began arriving at the eviction sites on Monday. 'Many of the residents have already moved their belongings out of fear…Everyday people were moving,' Hussian said. 'Those who did not move earlier, their homes were demolished on Tuesday.' Some residents protested against the eviction drive and threw stones at the bulldozers, damaging three of them. The police lathi-charged the protesters. Akhil Gogoi, independent MLA and chief of Raijor Dal, arrived at the eviction site on Tuesday. He told those displaced that he would request Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to allot 165 acres for their rehabilitation. Gogoi was subsequently detained by police for a brief period. 'This eviction is illegal and unconstitutional,' he later said. 'The matter is pending before the Gauhati High Court. The Himanta Biswa Sarma government is demolishing homes unlawfully.' Gogoi claimed that such evictions were being conducted against Muslims to capture Hindu votes. 'The BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government is targeting the minorities just because they are Muslims,' he added. Later in the day, Sarma said the state government will carry out another eviction drive on July 10 in the Paikar area, a reserved forest area in Goalpara district. 'Our aim is clear the encroached land and use them for the public,' the chief minister told reporters. 'We are with the indigenous people of Assam while Akhil Gogoi stands for a particular community. That's our poltical ideology. We will keep doing our work.' About 400 residents from the Charuabakhra Jangal Block village, who were living on the government land after losing their homes due to erosion caused by the Brahmaputra river, had moved the Gauhati High Court against the eviction notices in April. The residents said that the action of the district authorities violated the judgement laid down by the Supreme Court in November. The case is still pending in the High Court. In November, the Supreme Court had held as illegal the practice of demolishing properties of persons accused of crimes as a punitive measure. It added that processes must be followed before removing allegedly illegal encroachments. This is the fourth major eviction carried out in the last 30 days. On June 16, Goalpara authorities demolished the homes of 690 families, all of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, who were living on an allegedly encroached land in the Hasila Beel, a wetland. The families told Scroll that many of them were living in the area before it was declared a wetland. Ninety-three families of Bengali-origin Muslims were evicted on June 30 in Assam's Nalbari district during an anti-encroachment drive on nearly 150 acres of village grazing reserve land in the Barkhetri revenue circle. On Thursday, around 220 families were evicted during an anti-encroachment drive in upper Assam's Lakhimpur district. The district authorities said the families were living on 77 acres of land at four locations, including three Village Grazing Reserves. Since the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have been ousted from government land, between 2016 and August 2024, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department.
India Today
6 hours ago
- India Today
Our development will reach Muslims even sans their vote: BJP's new Bengal chief
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya—a seasoned Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member—has been entrusted with presidency of the party in West Bengal in the run-up to the assembly polls next year. The appointment is being seen as recognition of his ability to act as a bridge between the old and new guards in the state unit and bringing a distinctly Bengali ideological sensibility to the political for his deep-rooted connection with Bengali culture—as a soft-spoken bhadralok who often quotes poets Shankha Ghosh and Shakti Chattopadhyay—Bhattacharya is seeking to reposition the BJP beyond personality-centric politics in the his first public addresses, Bhattacharya projected an inclusive vision: protecting Bengal's plural identity, encouraging harmony between Hindus and Muslims and advocating education over violence. He urged 'nationalist Muslims' to work alongside the BJP to counter radicalisation, signalling a conscious outreach beyond the party's traditional BJP leaders and cadre, Bhattacharya's message is clear: party before self. He has sent subtle signals of collaboration with veterans such as Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and former Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, stressing that the organisation is greater than any individual. Bhattacharya has also called upon anti-Trinamool Congress parties, including the Left, to join forces to oust the Mamata Banerjee's government in 2026. He appears eager to weave Bengali ethos into the BJP's broader narrative, forging new alliances while reviving its grassroots vigour. Excerpts from an exclusive interview:Q. You have taken charge at a critical time in Bengal. What is the blueprint you intend to follow in the run-up to assembly elections?A. The BJP's style of functioning is built on structure and continuity. We were already preparing a roadmap for January 2026. From there on, we will transition to our plan for April, when we expect the elections to take place. This process began even before I became state president. That is the strength of our organisational backbone—we move forward with consistency.Q. How do you see the political situation on the ground?A. What we're dealing with in Bengal is multilayered. There's one kind of leadership in this house (BJP) and quite another in the house across the street (Trinamool Congress). And there's a difference. Bengal has a unique political grammar—Hindu Bengalis, Leftists, caste-based groups, Muslims, each with its own posture and are confronting rampant illegal immigration. The Rohingyas have been systematically settled here. If this continues unchecked and the Trinamool returns to power through these tactics, then mark my words: what you saw in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly (such as most MLAs being Muslims) will be repeated in the West Bengal assembly. That is the situation unfolding before the people of Bengal. Even those who would never vote for the BJP—the traditional Left, the self-declared progressives—have begun to recognise the warning signs, especially after the recent events in How do you see the Bangladesh situation?A. We have seen bullets being fired. The leader of the Communist Party of Bangladesh—a Hindu—was the first to be murdered. Back home in Murshidabad, a Trinamool MLA's family had to flee. These aren't ideological talking points—these are lived Gandhi, who created Bangladesh, is now dishonoured there—her effigy urinated upon. A library named after her was burnt down, destroying 70,000 books, including works by Abul Bashar, Badal Sircar and Bratya Basu. This is Islamist fascism, blinded by religion. Islamic fundamentalist forces—the same ones operating in Pakistan—are using Bangladesh as a launch-pad to spread their influence across India.Q. How does all this impact Bengal?A. What is unfolding in Kolkata should concern everyone—a city stripped of dignity, aesthetics and order. Lawlessness parades openly because the state government, propped up by fear rather than legitimacy, has no moral authority. If the government continues to act with such impunity—whether by claiming to be a welfare state or by adopting totalitarian tendencies—the outcome will be at Pakistan, the only country created explicitly in the name of religion. If that logic had prevailed globally, we wouldn't have had 22 separate countries in the Arab League. Many of these nations aren't exclusively Muslim. Those now cheering Pakistan from Bangladesh have forgotten history. In the Jessore Cantonment, over 150,000 women were raped. It's a legacy of trauma carved into stone. And here we are, watching the West Bengal government turn a blind eye to these was always said about Bangladesh that 'We are not separate in Dhaka and Kolkata'. We made films together, shared literature. We still do. But this bond is being sabotaged. From 1936 to 1949, East Pakistan faced constant upheaval. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who wasn't affiliated with any political party at the time, reached out to Subhas Chandra Bose and his brother Sarat Bose, seeking their help. Mookerjee had been an academic. But the worsening Hindu crisis drew him into there is an exodus of capital and skill from Bengal. The highly educated are underpaid IT majdoors while their counterparts in Bengaluru, Chennai or Delhi thrive. The less-educated build Delhi's buildings, run Noida's kitchens and power Gurugram's hotels, yet remain invisible in their own an identity crisis. People in Delhi's posh Bengali neighbourhood, Chittaranjan Park, now hesitate to admit their roots. The cultural pride of Bengal has collapsed. And this rot is political, fuelled by bomb politics, civic volunteers-turned-enforcers and a complete absence of healthy public discourse.Q. What has been the BJP's response?A. We aren't doing anything extraordinary—we are just trying to restore order. But even that is seen as confrontation. The Trinamool Congress, without police and civic volunteers, cannot win even one election booth. They dominate not through popularity but intimidation. We are doing politics in this poisoned landscape. Still, we believe we can change Bengal's political narrative just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed India's. Today, democracy is our religion and development our children in Bengal are being forced to migrate. Where are the children of Trinamool leaders like Javed Khan and Firhad Hakim studying? Abroad. Meanwhile, the poor are sent to Khariji madrasas or, worse still, handed stones and swords. That isn't education; it's appeal to everyone: social reform is non-negotiable. We must win people's minds, not just votes. The BJP has never claimed to win 100 per cent support [of Hindus]. In many booths, we got just 5-7 votes. But we are growing. We've broken barriers in places like Kaliganj during the recent bypoll. Muslim voters, too, are realising that the BJP will be in power at the Centre for at least 20 more years. They now understand that the Centre is working for them, not treating them as You sound more receptive towards Muslims than Suvendu Adhikari, who has publicly called for Hindu consolidation and said that the BJP can win the Bengal polls without the support of Muslims.A. What I and Suvendu Adhikari are saying are not contradictory. Suvendu is the Leader of the Opposition. He has been heckled, insulted, even manhandled, in Muslim-dominated areas. But we all want inclusive development and growth in Bengal. Even if the Muslims do not vote for us, our development must and will reach their why am I referencing Bangladesh? Look at the silence surrounding gang-rapes there. Mujibur Rahman's legacy is invoked, yet a chit fund operator—awarded the Nobel Prize—is now the head of their government. Meanwhile, Islamic fundamentalism is rising and no one are spreading this message across Bengal and beyond—that India is moving forward but Bengal is stuck. After Partition, Sindh was lost. Half of Punjab is gone. Bengal, too, lost half of itself. But Bengal will not be divided along religious lines again. This is a powerful movement. We do not want power for power's sake. Bengal deserves a civilised society.Q. Many Bengali-speaking migrant workers from Bengal are being labelled as Bangladeshis and deported. Secondly, the NREGA fund freeze by the Centre—stopping the funds didn't help the BJP. The Lok Sabha poll results are proof of that.A. The Centre cannot bypass court orders. Clause 27 of the MGNREGA Act justifies the freeze. Irregularities cannot be overlooked. The court has permitted the Centre to continue the investigations. Even the state has acknowledged in court that corruption for migrant labourers, I was the first to raise the issue. During my time as MLA of Basirhat Dakshin (September 2014 to May 2016), I spoke to several Trinamool leaders and ministers. I urged them to help labourers—mostly Muslims—facing hardships in southern Indian cities such as Chennai. No one did.I finally asked these labourers if they would accept help from the local RSS. Their only problem was shelter. The RSS gave them food, even baby food for their children. These people came back and supported me in the state elections in 2016. I lost but because they had supported me, Trinamool goons razed their homes. This is why I say that Muslims are not safe under the Trinamool. A change is imminent in 2026.Q. But is the BJP organisationally strong enough to take on the Trinamool? Will the party, for instance, be able to deploy booth agents everywhere?A. The post-poll violence of 2021 certainly damaged our organisation. People got scared. But that's no longer the case. In 2026, you will see that the BJP will have its men in most booths in Bengal. People are waiting to topple this government. The binary was set in 2019, and it held firm through the recent Kaliganj bypoll. The people have decided: the BJP will form the government in Bengal in to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch
