The police have cordoned off certain Muslim areas close to Charminar in Hyderabad and have begun the operations to go to every house and demand to see documents including Aadhaar cards and vehicle registration documents. They were asking details about children, their schools and whether they owned the houses they were staying in or they […]
Category: #RealityCheck
How ‘Practicing Religion’ On ‘Public Places’ Can Violate The Law?
In India, both the freedom to practice religion and the right against noise pollution are protected by the Constitution, and no Indian citizen are allowed to violate this law. While traveling to my hometown in July, I got stuck in a massive traffic jam caused by kanwariya — the devotees of the god Shiva. Not […]
Hyderabad’s ‘Salafi-Barelwi’ Tussle Needs To Be Contained Before It Turns Into Conflict
The rift between two Muslim groups in the city – the Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith (AH) and the Ahl-e-Sunnat ul Jamaat (ASJ) – has come out in the open. A series of incidents in a little over two years has ensured this. The latest was the tussle between adherents the AH, popularly known as Salafis, described as hardline […]
Hyderabad’s ‘Rohingya Refugees’ Are Fearful Of Speaking Out As CAA Protests Roils
Described as the world’s most persecuted minority, India’s ‘Rohingya refugees’ are fearful of speaking out against India’s controversial new citizenship law which specifically excludes them. Mohammed Zubair pointed at a blue tin gate guarding a plot of land on which construction was busily afoot. A year ago, in 2018, the vacant plot served as a […]
‘Custodial Killings’ Are An Alibi For Failure Of Governance In Telangana
The early morning execution of four rape suspects in Hyderabad on the 6th of December this year was actually a custodial killing, and it was bad enough; what was worse, however, was the jubilatory response to it. When the President of a constitutional democracy publicly asserts that child sex offenders should not be allowed a […]
Overflowing Drainage Stagnation, Stench Assaults Visitors To ‘Historic Charminar’ In Hyderabad
Hundreds of visitors who thronged the historic Charminar on weekend had an obnoxious welcome as the entire area was reeking of nasty stench that emanated from an overflowing drainage that left the newly laid road right in front of the monument soaked in sewerage water. Visitors in large numbers were seen struggling along the narrow […]
Why All ‘Rape Victims’ Demanding ‘Prompt Justice’ After #Disha Rape Case Killing In Telangana?
The controversial ‘encounter’ killing of the four accused in the ‘Disha’ rape and murder case in Hyderabad has brought to the fore the divisions in Telangana along caste and class lines. Days after the young Hyderabad vet’s alleged rapist-killers were shot dead by the Cyberabad police when they tried to ‘flee’, families of other such […]
Reckless ‘Adventurism’ Of Telangana Police In Crime Investigation
The unravelling of the tragi-comic events emanating from the newly formed State of Telangana, for, definitely, something or everything is rotten in that State, as revealed by the bizarre happenings, during the last one week, consequent upon the heinous sex-crime, committed by four emotionally corrupted youth on a government veterinary doctor Priyanka Reddy (now referred […]
Why ‘Distressed Women’ Aren’t Aware Of ‘Sakhi Centres’ In Hyderabad?
The Sakhi centres in the state were established around 2015 to provide round-the-clock help to women in distress. A search for the Sakhi centre situated in Secunderabad, which promises 24X7 help to women in distress, will prove challenging for women in Hyderabad. Neither does the place show up on Google maps nor is it easy […]
Jogini – The ‘Religious Sex Slave’ Of Telangana
At the age of 10, against her wishes, Kalpana was married to a village deity Yellamma, and made a Jogini. Joginis are girl or women dedicted to god, who are then forced to lead their lives as sex slaves, having no agency over their bodies. It is only the women from the “lowered castes” of […]