KAIRNA: Has communal riots become intrinsic to India's Electoral Democracy?

Date: 
October 14, 2016
14th October,  2016,Timing: 3 pm, Press Club, Mumbai

Organised by:
Bebaak Collective (Voice of the Fearless)

speakers:
                                       Teesta Setalvad, civil rights activists and journalist, Mumbai
                                       Mamta, Vanangana (women's group),muzaffarnagar Uttar Pradesh
                                       Akram Chowdhury,Afkar India Foundation Kairana, Uttar Pradesh
                                       Firdaus, Kairana, Uttar Pradesh
                                       Hasina Khan, women's rights activist, Mumbai

 Kairana, a small town of the recently created Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh, has become conspicuous due to the zealous media reports alleging the “exodus” of Hindu families during 2013-16 due to the “massive influx” of Muzaffarnagar riot affected victims to the town and the consequent increase in the crime rates. Atrociously, this view was affirmed by the “findings” of the National Human Rights Commission, an apex statutory body to defend human rights violations, in its recent report that was made public in a Press Release on September 21, 2016.

This report has been strategically released before the impending Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which has a blatant communal undertone. While the horrors of Muzaffanagar riots have not receded from memory, this report even violates the promise of justice for the socially marginalised groups, who repose their faith in this country’s constitution and envisage social security from the state institutions. Bebaak Collective (Voices of the Fearless), a women’s group working to realise the rights of Muslim women, invites you all to a press meet to condemn this report by the National Human Rights Commission.

With this horrific collusion, we also intend to raise a critical question: Have riots become intrinsic to our contemporary electoral democracy rather than a strategy espoused by particular political parties and/or ideologies, where the lives, livelihoods and dignity of minority communities are major casualties?
In Solidarity

Hasina Khan and Roshni chattopadhyay
On behalf of Bebaak Collective
9870162113 / 8879491305

Bebaak Collective is a reading, learning and sharing process initiated by Muslim women. It is born out of a process of collective learning and rights-based intervention by women’s organisations and/or human rights groups working on issues related to the Muslim communities. This collective bridges the link between grassroots mobilisation and state level campaign, and anticipates emerging as a strong feminist voice of dissent in the environment of majoritarian and communal politics, speaking for the rights of Muslim women.