-The Hindustan Times In a jolt to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, a Supreme Court-appointed lawyer's report on the post-Godhra 2002 riots has held that he can be prosecuted for "promoting enmity among different groups". Amicus curiae (friend of the court) Raju Ramachandran's report, made public on Monday,  on a complaint by riot victim Zakia Jafri, differs from the clean chit given to Modi by the SC-appointed special investigation team (SIT) last...

Police investigation of Sanal Edamaraku for debunking a “miracle” at a church is a crime against the Constitution. Early in March, little drops of water began to drip from the feet of the statue of Jesus nailed to the cross on the church of Our Lady of Velankanni, down on to Mumbai's unlovely Irla Road. Hundreds began to flock to the church to collect the holy water in little plastic bottles,...

Dalits, OBCs in India’s colleges are using beef as a symbol of a resurgent identity     “Non-Brahmins have evidently undergone a revolution. From being beef-eaters to have become non-beef-eaters was indeed a revolution. But if non-Brahmins underwent one revolution, Brahmins had undergone two. They gave up beef-eating, which was one revolution. To have given up meat-eating altogether and become vegetarians was another revolution.”     —B.R. Ambedkar *** The Beef Menu     Available In Kerala,...

Organising a food festival can hardly be described as an act promoting hatred between students or communities. The controversy over the Beef Festival recently organised on the campus of Osmania University in Hyderabad and the threat of professors being investigated by the police for “instigating” the organisers needs to be understood in the context of the larger politics of food and policing of food practices. Across the country, different communities in different...

This month a group of Dalit (or Untouchables, as they were formerly labelled) students organised a Beef Festival in Osmania University of Hyderabad. It was the festival to assert their culinary rights in public and make a political statement of dietary habits of Dalits and Muslims – by cooking and eating beef Biryani on campus. About 2000 students participated and although it started out well, the festival was disrupted and students...