Scrap-this-Crap Protest

The formal name of this protest is: The Daily Protest for the Survival of our Civil Liberties (DPSCL). And the reasons why I am thinking of starting this Protest next week at Jantar Mantar are as follows:

Today, i.e. 5th October, the clampdown in Jammu & Kashmir entered its 3rd Month. Can you imagine the pain and anguish you will go through if you are forced to live under an undeclared curfew? No movement, No business, No school, no college, No communication! Jammu & Kashmir, the so called Heaven on Earth, is living under these hellish conditions for the past 2 Months. Thousands of innocent Kashmiris, including kids, are being detained in the name of Public Safety under PSA.

PSA or Public Safety Act is so draconian that a person can be detained under it for as long as 2 years! The detained person does not have the right to move a bail application before a court, and cannot engage any lawyer to represent him or her before the detaining authority.

For a Delhiite, it might be very difficult to imagine him/herself living under such severe restrictions but if you or your parents, are farmer, you know that pain. It’s because farmers have remained trapped in draconian laws like Essential Commodities Act and various land ceilings Acts since independence. The government tells them where, how and at what price they can sell the crop they have grown! The way govt. is controlling the lives of Kashmiris for the past 2+ months, it has controlled the lives of farmers for the past 71+ years.

If you are one of the 19,06,657 Assamese who have been excluded from the final list of NRC, you would also know how it feels like to be suddenly robbed of all your rights. Because you have been robbed off your citizenship, which is the source of most fundamental rights. One would have hoped that government would scrap this ridiculous exercise which is harassing crores of Indians and stripping citizenship from people who have been living with us for decades. Instead, our Home Minister is planning to implement it in West Bengal and other states!

But this painful story has an evil twist. Not every undocumented person is an ‘illegal immigrant’ in his eyes. He has divided them, because he is so good at dividing, into two categories: Refugees and Infiltrators. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians are Refugees. They will be gifted Citizenship once the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 is passed by the Parliament. Muslims are Infiltrator and they will be driven out of the country. Where? Nobody knows. Maybe thrown into the Bay of Bengal or sent to the Moon.

These are extremely difficult times for the survival of our basic civil liberties. Just take a quick look at the bills this government has brought recently and you will agree: The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019; The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019; The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019, etc.

Courts, especially the Supreme Court, which are entrusted with the job of protecting our civil liberties appears to be taking this job very lightly. 5 Supreme Court Judges in a row recused themselves from hearing the petition of rights activist Gautam Navlakha before it was finally heard. Same is the case with ex-IPS Officer Sajiv Bhatt. Judge after Judge recused themselves from hearing his bail applications.

Put yourself in their shoes and ask, “If all Judges start recusing themselves like this without giving any reason in writing, where would you go for Justice? Is it fair for you to rot in jail for years just because a judge isn’t feeling like hearing your matter? And on the other hand, riot, murder and terror accused who happen to be close to power are easily getting bail…even fighting elections!

Don’t you feel sick of whatever is happening around you? Don’t you feel something needs to be done?

It’s time we take up the job of safeguarding our civil liberties in our own hands. This is the highest quality of employment a citizen an get and we must thank this government for creating such circumstances where we are compelled to take up this top job.

Jokes apart, I understand how tough this job is. From a pastime, it has suddenly become an Adventure Sport. Threat of ridicule, arrest, assault or character assassination is quite real. But what’s the point of keep living like a vegetable while the entire farm is being ransacked? What’s the point in saving your ass but losing your face? 

Hence this Daily Protest for the Survival of our Civil Liberties.

Preliminary DEMANDS:

1. Remove curbs on free movement and immediately restore mobile communication and internet in Jammu & Kashmir.

2. Scrap Public Safety Act (PSA) and immediately release everyone detained under it.

3. Grant Citizenship to all the 19,06,657 people excluded from the final list of NRC in Assam.

4. Scrap National Register of Citizens (NRC) and all plans to implement it in any other state by the Centre or State govt.

5. Scrap The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 OR make it blind to the religion of the so called “illegal immigrant”.

6. Scrap all curbs put on farmers via Essential Commodities Act and various state Agriculture Land Holding and Ceiling Acts. Instead, draft a holistic ‘Freedom to Farmers Act’.

7. Pass a law making it mandatory for any judge to provide written reason before recusing himself from hearing any case. It’s not sufficient for him to say “Not before me”.

I know some of these demands look outrageous but we have the example of Hong Kong in front of us. Their demand also looked outrageous in the beginning. In the end, CHINA gave in. Let that sink in for a minute.

So keeping the outrageousness of the demands aside, what do you think about the idea? if this Protest starts at Jantar Mantar this week (say 7th October, Monday), and you happen to be in Delhi and have some time at hand, would you like to join it in that case? Do you have a demand which you would like to add to this list? If yes, please share. Lets discuss on it.

Since it’s a DAILY protest; the plan is to structure it in a manner that your day-job doesn’t come in the way of your spirit to fight for your civil liberties. How about we time it 4PM to 10PM on weekdays and 10AM to 10PM on Weekends (Sat-Sun) and see how things develop in that one week to decide the structure for the next week?

Your comments and suggestions would be very helpful in tweaking the tone, approach and demands of this protest.

If you agree with the purpose of this protest but unfortunately do not live in Delhi, then maybe, at least share this post with your like-minded friends in NCR so that they can take a call.

But if you live in Delhi … it would be great if you can find some time in your hectic schedule to join in. If we don’t speak up now, when would we speak up? Sometimes, success or failure doesn’t matter…what matters is the fact that you didn’t take it lying down. What matters is that you fought back.

Haath ko Aaya, Muh Na Laga: The Story of 10% Quota for General Category "Poor"

BREAKING: The 124th Constitution Amendment Bill to provide 10% quota in jobs and education to general category candidates who belong to economically weaker sections has just been passed by the Parliament. It's rare that our parliament displays such unanimity and speed.

One thing that stands out in this reservation policy is ... the way "economically weaker section" has been defined. Anyone earning less than 8 Lakhs/annum is in it! Wow!

Where did this figure arrive?
It seems that the govt has imported this figure from OBC reservation. In OBC (or Other Backward Classes), anyone who earns more than 8 Lakhs/annum is considered to be part of "Creamy Layer" and hence not eligible for the benefits of reservation.

The remaining people of that particular caste, earning less than the cut-off income are considered to be representing a "backward class" in the true sense, as per the Supreme Court.

But why 8 lakhs? Ain't that a lot of money?
Well, the reason is simple. If the govt. has to deny somebody reservation - a benefit given to him by the Constitution - the reason for this denial has to be so strong that the ass of the govt. is covered. But the biggest reason is ... reservation can't be given (and hence can't be denied) solely based on financial standing of a person.

Once the presumption has been made by the President of India that a particular caste is "backward" because of its low status in the social hierarchy for various reasons and the injustice it has suffered over centuries, it's not easy to simply throw some members of that caste out just because they are not as poor as other members of that caste, unless they are earning so high that that income alone is sufficient to pull them out of their social, educational and economic backwardness.

That's why 8 lakhs/annum (earlier 6 Lakhs/annum) has been chosen because even a dead body lying in a grave can tell that someone earning 8 lakhs in a year is definitely NOT backward and no injustice would be caused to him/her if the benefit of reservation is denied.

Now to say, "someone earning 8 lakhs in a year is definitely NOT backward" is one thing, to say, "someone earning 8 lakhs in a year is definitely NOT poor" is quite the other. And this is precisely what Modi govt has said while promising 10% reservation to General category people who happen to be economically weak/backward.

Since these people can't claim any historic injustice or low social status, the Sole criteria on which they are promised reservation is their weak economic condition.

Now, in India, who can be called "economically weak' or 'economically backward' or in simple words 'poor'? Mind you, so poor that its justified to provide him the benefit of reservation which so far is only provide to SCs, STs and OBCs.

The World Bank suggests a poverty line of 3.2 PPP$ which translates into roughly a consumption level of Rs 75 per person per day. (Via Indian Express, June 2018). So anyone whose annual income/consumption is less than Rs. 27,375 can be considered 'poor'.in India.

If that's too fuckin low, let's take some help from the Finance Ministry. It says that anyone with an annual Income less than Rs 2.5 Lakhs need not bother pay Income tax based on the maxim "nanga nahayega kya aur nichodega kya."

From 2.5 - 5 Lakhs, s/he pays Income tax at the rate of 5%. And after 5 Lakhs, the rate is a whopping 20%. I guess it's fair to assume that if you are paying Income Tax, you are not economically weak. The govt doesn't have to wait for the income to rise up to as high as 8 lakhs to realize that the person isn't economically weak, while taxing him all this while.

Clearly, what could be safely said, in the case of OBC, at 8 Lakh rupees, can be fairly said, in the case of a general category person, at Rs 2.5 Lakhs.

In this time and age, where money in your bank decides your exposure and access to opportunities, it's fair and justified to provide a window of opportunity to people who do not have a sound bank balance, but a decision - good, in principle - has been reduced to a farce (and almost a 'fraud' committed on the citizens in an election year) by setting a ridiculously high income cut-off which has an effect of making more than 90% people eligible for the 10% posts.

It might turn out to be wiser to rather stay in the core-general category and compete with lesser number of people for the remaining 41% seats.

Quid Pro Quo of Honesty

I unlocked my cycle and on my way out of the parking lot at Dwarka Sec-9 Metro Station, I handed the guy the parking receipt. He glimpsed it and said 5 rupees - that's the maximum you can charge a cycle for a day.

I said, "are you sure it's 5? I parked the cycle yesterday, not today." He fumbled with the ticket once again and scanned it with caution this time while smiling apologetically and thankfully at the same time.

He peered at the dark sky for few seconds, did some mental calculations and said, "13 rupees."
Why 13, I wondered. If he added Rs.5 for the previous day and Rs. 5 as night charges to the number he quoted the first time, he should have asked for Rs 15.

Under the assumption that it was a current day ticket, he wanted to maximize his profit by charging me the maximum (Rs 5) instead of minimum (Rs 3) but when he realized that I was willing to be chopped a bit more as per rules, he gave up his temptation to chop me illegally!

After this quid pro quo of honesty, I asked myself whether I would have done the same if the parking rates were, say, Rs 30/day along with night charges to the tunes of Rs 50?
Probably not.

As Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner write in the introduction to their book Freakonomics, "incentives are the cornerstone of modern life." And although most of the people would strive to be honest even when nobody's watching over (at least 87% of the times, as one brilliant study illustrates in the book), you cannot slap tons of -ve incentives on people and yet expect them to be honest.

Exorbitant rate of tax, for instance, is one such -ve incentive. Have you checked the list of items attracting 28% GST? It’s mindbogglingly long. That being the case when around two dozen items have been recently shifted to 18% slab! With stuffs like Cement, Shampoo, commode, washbasin, Plastic and wooden furniture attracting the so called 'sin tax', who wouldn't like to cheat if opportunity exists?

In fact, it’s debatable that not paying this ridiculous tax would fall under tax evasion or civil disobedience. There’s a very thin line separating the two. A tax or for that matter any law or policy should respect the inherent desire in every human being to be reasonably honest most of the times rather than challenging him/her at every step - “let’s see if you can still be honest.”

Make no mistake, and here I quote another beautiful line from the book, "for every clever person (Arun Jaitley deludes himself to be one) who goes to the trouble of creating an incentive scheme, there is an army of people, clever or otherwise, who will inevitably spend even more time trying to beat it."

Bhaang & BJP ( भांग और भाजपा )

I am not a big Bhaang (Hemp) Connoisseur. Truth be told, I have only tried it twice in my life. Once, many years ago, in a hostel in DU and the second time, this Holi, in JNU. You can appreciate my choice of venues. :D

Bhaang has its own ways of working. Initially all seems fine but after an hour or two, it hits you. In my case, it blurred my brains ability to make distinction between reality and illusion. For example, 10 minutes after talking with my friend over the phone, I wasn't sure whether I really talked with him. I had to pull out my phone and check the call-log to reassure myself that it wasn't a dream.

If Constitution were a person, I guess BJP is having a similar impact on him as Bhaang had on me!

The way this party is coming up with one gimmick after another, even Constitution must be thinking, "is this really happening with me or is it just a nightmare?"

Imagine, just 13 seats in pocket - 7 seats short of simple majority and 4 less than the single largest party - and they have formed the government in Goa! You can imagine what sort of 'negotiations' they must have indulged in with other MLAs to reach the magic number. Same story repeated in Manipur. True, who needs to have seats in pocket when you have Governors.

Before the recent trickeries in Goa and Manipur, they tried to dope the constitution last year in Uttrakhand and Arunachal Pradesh by imposing Presidents Rule on the pretext of some of the lousiest excuses. Thankfully, these attempts to 'stone' the Constitution were foiled by the Supreme Court of India.

But, Bakre ki ammi kab tak khair manayegi? Out of the frying pan of President's rule, into the fire of Money bill ! The constitution, sitting in the circular restaurant, categorically ordered 'ordinary' lassi but they tipped it with AADHAR - a very potent variety of Bhaang which enables the other person read everything in your mind.

On 8th November, they robbed the constitution and its family of 86% of its wealth in broad day light. Since the name was charming (although it started with 'demon') and most of the people were stoned, they didn't complain and the handful of those, who did, SC didn't listen.

With the constitution finally stoned, they are now after his family - the people of India. They are particularly after those who are not yet stoned. There is still not enough nationalism in their blood. They have been labelled as Anti-nationals. Since, they speak too much logic, logic has been renamed as 'Sedition'!

So successful they have been with this narrative, even the Supreme Court, the good old friend of the Constitution, has started doubting its family's patriotism. It now demands them to prove it by standing up motionless on 'Jan Gan Man'.

But I believe that Constitution is a strong guy. He won't remain stoned forever. But after recovering, maybe in a few years, he will certainly ask, "did it really happen?"

The Creep Wins Eventually! (Tanu weds Manu returns)

Until now, Movies like 'Raanjhanaa' taught men that if they creep the hell out of the girl, stalk her, accost her, be persistently annoying despite the girl explicitly telling you a zillion times in more than one languages that she absolutely detests you, she would eventually develop feelings for you, she would eventually fall in love with you.

In this lopsided education system, 'Tanu weds Manu returns' comes as a refreshing leveler. It teaches the women that this trick of creepy persistence works well for them as well. This curly haired Kangana aka Tanu was told to leave by so many people with a straight face so many times that a self respecting person would have left the solar system let alone the village but our shameless-lady didn't budge an inch and voila, she got the guy. Her antics worked and she snapped her husband back into the frying pan just before he could land himself into the fire!

Apart from a seriously heady mix of humor, concocted almost entirely by Deepak Dobriyal (Pappi), some social messages (excluding the above one!) were also weaved in the script very smartly. I am not sure if the Modi government offered to partly fund the film for promoting its 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' campaign (an offer which later would have been withdrawn under the pressure of 'khap Panchayats' for criticizing 'Honor Killing'!)

But even if the film would have been as mundane as a CCTV footage of a deserted road, I would have still ended up giving this film 4 out of 5 stars for this one scene - Kangana hugging that Rickshaw-walla guy! Oh, what an enchanting moment it was. I could smell her! I was like, "That's awesome. That's my kinda girl!"
Ok Ok, I am a very biased film reviewer, but I can't help it. Deal with it!

The film also opened up doors of limitless possibilities for a lot of guys and girls shackled in the "Indian culture"; doors which they thought can't open once shut. The key to these 'closed doors' was handed over via these pithy words of kangana to her lawyer tenant, "Didi kehte hi ho ya maante bhi ho?" (do u call me sister as a formality or you really mean it?)

Most ice-breaking sessions between a guy and a girl in most parts of India happen with "Didi" or "Bhaiyya" operating as a default salutation. And once uttered the whole paraphernalia of Rakshabandhan kicks in. Its a downward spiral, a bottomless bore-well. Once you fall into it, you gotta have the luck of 'Prince' to come out of it alive. Or so one thought.

But no. Your actions speak louder than words. Doesn't matter what you called him/her the first few occasions. Don't get bogged down under the burden of some words. You need not to resign over something you said during election campaign; brush it aside calling it a 'Chunavi-jumla' and move on. Just flirt unabashedly and the damage of the word (Didi or Bhaiyya) can be undone!

However, demeaning Artificial Insemination didn't go down my throat (no pun intended) well. I mean, had some cunning chacha or a nasty sister-in-law blew the lid off the secret, I would have understood it but the taunt coming from the Athlete-kangana who shredded the bigoted mentality of her alter ego to smithereens few seconds ago left a sour taste in my mouth.

Also getting into mental asylum is shown to be as easy as getting into MTV Roadies; a stupid act and you are in. Seriously? You are, for all practical purposes, calling the person MAD. It will have serious ramifications on his social life. You need some solid grounds and consistent history of the patient to take as drastic a step as incarcerating him into asylum. Throwing a chair and raising one's volume is certainly not enough.

Having said that, I enjoyed the film. Sure, Kangana Ranaut was everywhere - not just one but two! Maybe she will collect another best-actor National award for this film but it was not just her, as most people are claiming, which makes this film as enthralling and entertaining. Madhavan's subtle and in-the-character acting was worth watching, Jimmy Shergil's honesty was very disarming, the lawyer-tenant played his part with such finesse and what can I say about the spectacular acting of Deepak Dobriyal. Probably it was his Midas kiss which transformed this film into gold.

Go for it.

Beauty pageant and the corporate sector

There is something strikingly similar between beauty pageant and the corporate sector.

Both are considered evil. They represent precisely what the so called "Indian Culture" and Indian Constitution proscribe.

The Saffron brigade and the Ulemas cry themselves hoarse in criticizing this blind imitation of west which is destroying our basic values. (I dont know if there's any other issue there they come together!). "Good girls don't do such (tawdry) stuff" is a widely held belief.

Similarly, a corporation is almost always seen as the incarnation of Satan whose only job is to suck the blood of poor Indians and amass wealth, something that goes against our culture that eulogizes austerity and constitution which has Socialism enshrined into it.

Yet when the winners of these 'desi' beauty pageants go on to participate in Miss World or Miss Universe contests, they suddenly become a matter of National pride. If she wins, she becomes the ambassador of the Indian culture to the world!

And when a Tata Motors acquire Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) or an Apollo Tyres bids to buy Cooper Tire, the nation suddenly slumps into multiple orgasms! The feeling of pride and nationality is so high that it can probably only be surpassed if India beats Pakistan in a cricket world cup final.

From saboteurs of nation and its values to being national icons, that's hell of a leap!

Peepli Live @ Agra Slums

December 12th, 2014

Probably the only achievement of my Agra visit to unravel the conversion-mystery was - I was asked by the residents of the slums of Vednagar near Deori Road, Agra, to stay back for a while and have lunch with them.

Belonging to a fraternity with which they were, by then, thoroughly pissed off to such an extent that a mere sight of a creature toting a camera and brandishing a mike would immediately send them in search for a hiding, a lunch offer was indeed an achievement. 

It was a community lunch. Vegetables, rice and wheat flour had been provided by a local Muslim group headed by a Samajvadi Party (SP) leader. 4-5 days of near standstill in their hand to mouth existence had brought them together; crisis has this cohesive effect. In that freezing cold weather, it was the first meal of the day for many, thanks to intermittent rains which had turned the entire slum area into a swamp and pushed the lunch time to as late as 4 PM.

In the morning, with 5-6 police personnel with SLRs (Rifles, not the cameras) right at the entrance of the slum cluster, I was a bit apprehensive about the success of my mission when i showed up at ground zero. Surprisingly, no one stopped or interrogated me. With every passing minute, my ease with the area grew. By noon, I felt at home!

Neither my eyes nor my local inquiry could confirm the figure doing the rounds in the newspapers - 380. The number of Muslims claimed to have converted to Hinduism. Less than 200 people live in the slum according to Ismail aka Thekedaar, the contractor of the rag-pickers in the slum. He was the point of contact between the converters and the convertees.

The two RSS affiliated Hindu right-wing outfits - Bajrang Dal and Dharm Jagran Manch - the proud organizers of this so called 'Home-coming' ceremony have asserted that these people converted 'voluntarily'. They even have a video-proof of the same in which a few dozen people donning skull caps are performing a 'hawan', putting 'tilak' on each other's forehead and Ismail admitting that the conversion took place with their consent.

Ismail now claims to be totally unaware of the 'nature' of the 'hawan' till the very end. He says that he was abruptly told by the Pundit, who himself appeared at the eleventh hour, that 'hitherto you were a Muslim but now you are a Hindu' when the hawan concluded and he had to fake willingness lest the men in saffron should run a rampage in the slum. "They were 30-40 men surrounding us. Had I declined then, there would have been khoon-kharaba (riot) here," he said.

May be Ismail and his friends were duped into conversion or may be they were simply lured. But now that the issue has transcended local boundaries and captured the space inside the parliament, the only possible option with the Vednagar slum dwellers is to reject conversion altogether. They can't say they agreed to renounce Islam and embrace Hinduism for BPL cards etc for such an act attracts severe punishment and ostracisation under sharia law. In some Islamic countries, the punishment of apostasy is death!

I asked this question to Mufti Mudassir Qadri, Secretary of Tanzim Ulmai Ahle Sunnat, Agra, the organization which is now running a Madarsa in the slum post-incident to teach the children and youth about Islam religion.

"These people say that they have been duped into conversion. But let's hypothetically assume that these people converted willingly. What would have happened then?"

"Since it's a hypothetical question, lets first disassociate it from these people," he replied. "Now answering to your question, if they had moved out, nobody would have come to persuade or force them to return to Islam and they would have been boycotted by the Muslim community. What's worse than being banished by the community?"

"What community?" was also a question that flashed my mind but i chose not to ask. Do these people care what community thinks about them? or vice versa. I mean, who gives a damn to the lives of rag-pickers living in deplorable shanties in a hard-to-find slum? Who cares whether they are Muslim or Hindu?

To put things in perspective, this whole activity was so nondescript that even the neighbours living in their pucca-houses only came to know about this National-issue happening in their backyard through TV and newspapers. The didn't even know for how long these people have been living there in the slum in that area.

The people in the slums simply had no clue that this seemingly inconsequential activity would become such a big issue and that they would become an overnight celebrities. Suddenly, the entire nation, especially Media and certain religious and political groups, was taking keen interest in their lives. They were under surveillance.

If the slum dwellers were grappling with this mouse turned monster, so were the RSS and its affiliates which carried out this conversion exercise. They invited the media to cover the event to announce the resurgence of saffron power to the world. Instead, it boomeranged on them with charges of forged conversions. 

Now, they too have no choice but to refute any doles or promises made out to these poor Vednagar slum residents. They can't say we 'bribed' these people with BPL cards etc to embrace Hinduism for it's a crime to induce someone to convert according to constitution of India. Bajrang Dal maintains that it's the self-realization of these people that Hinduism is the best way forwards which has motivated them to leave the religion which their ancestors accepted under certain circumstances.

What amuses me in this argument is that the Bajrang Dal and company are so sure about the religion of the ancestors of these people but they have no clue about their Nationality! Now that the issue has backfired, it has suddenly manifested to the saffron brigade that many of these slum dwellers are from Bangladesh!

Lets assume all of them are illegal Bangadeshi immigrants. If you had this apprehension, why didn't you verify their nationality before organizing this mass-conversion for them? Or is it that nationality doesn't matter to you at all as long as one is becoming a Hindu? 

And what about the promise of BPL cards? Doesn't one need to be an Indian Citizen for that? Oh I remember, a Hindu is an Indian (Hindustani) citizen by default.

Has this nationality trump card deflected the focus from the question of conversion? well, partly yes. Media loves controversy and new twists in the tale are constantly needed to keep it fresh and juicy. Journalists picked the bait with pleasure. A 'nationalistic' reporter of a Hindi News Channel in particular took it personally. He was so convinced that Ismail was from Bangladesh and alluded it so many time in his brief P2C, that even the Election Commission of India would be forced to check whether it issued voter Identity card to Ismail by mistake. He later went on to grill Ismail and his sister to ascertain their identical paternity. Like a grammar Nazi, he would catch a mismatch in their pronunciation. I was amused and befuddled by the superlative journalistic skills of my friend.

I couldn't help but ask him why he was so hellbent on proving Ismail a Bangladeshi?

"Why is it appearing to you so?" he replied.

"Not just me. Anyone can see through what you are doing."

"but nobody else is speaking."

"not my problem if they are not."

"Then you should also shut up."

"I wish I could."

By that time, somebody intervened and the argument was cut short. No I am not saying that one should simply trust what he is being told. But I guess being skeptical doesn't mean you stoop below minimum level of courtesy and professionalism expected from you. My hunch is, if this controversy had erupted in an middle class locality, he would have done many things differently.

Having said that, the only good thing that happened to Vednagar slum out of this controversy is - education for the kids. I couldn't clearly identify the reasons behind almost no kid going to school; perennially absent teachers was one of them. Of course the focus of the new makeshift Madarsa is on acquainting the children to Islam but they are taught Hindi, English and Urdu as well. If this initiative survives the test of time, maybe some of the children, some years down the line would move up the socio-economic ladder so that they don't have to convert their religion again for some petty benefits. And trust me, some of the kids were really smart to actually make that change happen.