text stringlengths 13 81.7k |
|---|
Across the road from the panchayat, Ankur Saini, a metal shop owner, says he will vote for the BJP. |
Eighty per cent of the town's population is Muslim, 20 per cent are Hindus. |
The shop next to his is closed, says Saini, because the shopkeeper left because he was a victim of "rangdari (extortion)". |
"I have faced no insecurity or threat," he says and adds that once Hindus and Muslims were almost equal in the town, but now the latter are in larger numbers. |
Aman Singh. the senior police inspector at the town's kotwali, says members of the extortion gang -- who preyed on citizens -- are now in prison. |
There have been no incidents of communal tension in the last six months since he took over, Aman Singh says, adding that no cases have been registered pertaining to the alleged exodus. |
IMAGE: On the way to BJP MP Hukum Singh's farm. His daughter Mriganka Singh is fighting her first election. |
At the other end of Kairana, three kilometres from the town and down a lonely stretch surrounded by fields and trees, lies Hukum Singh's farm. |
Dharmendra, the e-rickshaw driver, who is going to vote for Akhilesh, is anxious that he might not get a "savari (passenger)" returning from the farm. |
He is going to vote for the SP because the e-rickshaw has been provided by the state government. Earlier he pulled a cycle rickshaw and made about Rs 100 a day, now he earns Rs 300. |
"My wife is going to vote for the BJP, but I'm voting for Akhilesh," he says. |
Past a massively beautiful banyan tree lies Hukum Singh's sprawling farm. His daughter Mriganka Singh is out campaigning and is being helped by her father and children. The family has moved to Kairana to bolster her campaign. |
That afternoon, Avantika, one of her daughters, is home and says her mother has been campaigning door-to-door. |
Her SP and RLD rivals say Mriganka is an outsider, that she does not live in Kairana. The daughter-nephew battle is seen as an advantage for the SP's Nahid Hasan, who says he will get double the 25,000 Hindu votes he won in the 2014 by-election. |
There are 370,000 voters in Kairana. |
IMAGE: Women outside their 'homes' in a camp for displaced victims of the Muzzaffarnagar riots in the adjacent district. |
On the way out of the town, one crosses a resettlement camp of those who escaped the riots in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts. Some homes are pucca, some are tents. |
A community of daily wagers who earn Rs 300 a day, they say will vote for Akhilesh. "We don't know SP or anyone, we only know Akhilesh," says Furqan Mohammad. |
The women sit around in cots and complain about the absence of a school -- but still support the SP. |
Most of the 900 plus people come from Fugana, Muzaffarnagar, where only one Muslim family stayed back after the 2013 riots, they say. The rest have all moved out for good. |
Sitting outside a house, chopping vegetables, a group of women say they left their homes with whatever they could carry on themselves. |
Some say their homes have been vandalised, the bolts have been stolen; the roofs removed. |
This is home now. They will not return. |
"A new masjid is ready, but the school isn't. The children mostly go to schools nearby. |
"Par Masjid se zyada zaroori, kabrastan hai (a cemetery is more important than a masjid)," says Nafisa as she waits for the vegetable seller to decide what to cook for dinner. |
IMAGE: Gurjar farmer Bhawar Singh, 80, has voted in every election. Safety is more important than development, he says. |
Who will rule Kairana will determine not only the lives of the displaced but of the town itself, which historically has been more famous for the Kirana Gharana, one of the most influential traditions of Indian classical music. |
Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubai Hangal, Sawai Gandharva, Sureshbabu Mane, Roshanara Begum, Begum Akhtar, Hirabai Barodekar and Hindi cinema's gem Mohammad Rafi belonged to this gharana. |
There are no signs in Kairana to show that this was once a great school of music. A statue of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan Ali, the doyen of the gharana, apparently stands at the entrance of All India Radio in New Delhi. |
"This election is a battle between good and evil," Bhairon Singh had said at the Kalsyan chaupal, "Not between the Hindu and the Muslim." |
The town's cultural ties with the Kirana Gharana may have been lost in present Kairana, but perhaps the spirit of the gharana is still alive somewhere in its roots. |
This could yet prove the silliest of seasons for economic pundits even by the dismal standards of a benighted tribe. |
The shocking killing of Kausar Bi by the Gujarat police has rightly been receiving breathless condemnation. |
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual monetary policy statement, like the statements of all central banks, deserves to be examined as much for what it says as for what it leaves unsaid. |
THE £280,000 refurbishment transformed what had been one of Edinburgh’s most notorious pubs into the city’s first “blues fusion bar”. |
Amanda Caygill, licensee at the Barrelhouse Bar and Diner, which has replaced the former Jock’s Lodge pub, promised a relaxed, New Orleans-style setting, with booth seating, live music and quality food. |
And she says it has been a big success since it opened at the end of last year – but not everyone is so impressed with the new venue. |
A leaflet delivered to thousands of nearby homes criticises the new bar for making this corner of the Capital look like America’s Deep South. |
The former Evening News editor is standing in the Craigentinny/Duddingston ward in May’s local elections. |
He said: “It’s the look of the place from the outside – I have no problem with what goes on inside. I like blues as much as anyone – I used to play in a blues band when I was a student. |
“It just looks like a shed outside and does nothing to improve the area. It just looks run-down. |
He said he was putting out 3000 leaflets in a bid to win over voters. |
But Ms Caygill defended the appearance of her bar, said it was doing good business and noted she had not had any complaints about its look. |
“I can’t keep everyone happy,” she said. “I also remember being told if you can’t say something nice you should keep quiet. |
She said there had been no adverse comments on the design or appearance of the place. |
“We had a few teething problems – no phone number to start with – but these things happen,” she said. |
And she said she was “not worried at all” about criticism of what she described as the “stripped back” design. |
The Jock’s Lodge pub had been shut since 2011 after drug dealer James Carlin was shot on the premises. |
But Ms Caygill, who owns The Espy in Portobello and 52 Canoes at the West End, took over the property despite its past, arguing that the new bar could be part of the change going on in the area and its new style would attract customers from other parts of the city. |
The protest in Gaza, the Great March of Return, is expected to reach a peak next week on May 15. May 15 is the 70th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, and also the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, which is the mass deportation of most of the native population in Palestine. On this highly hist... |
The U.S. has been the main mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process since 1991. And in light of President Trump’s policies and statements recently, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinians will no longer accept the U.S. as a mediator. He expressed some of his frustrations in March of this... |
MAHMOUD ABBAS: More than one American official has said that settlements are legitimate. Their ambassador in Tel Aviv, David Friedman, has said that they, Israel, are building on their own land. Son of a dog. Building on their own land? He is a settler. His family are settlers. He’s the American ambassador in Tel Aviv?... |
SHARMINI PERIES: Why is the U.S. the lead mediator for peace between Israel and Palestine? How did this historically come about, and are they the best nation to take a lead on bringing peace to the Palestinian and Israeli people? Well, let’s speak to a historian on the subject, and Professor Ilan Pappe is going to join... |
ILAN PAPPE: It’s a pleasure to be on your show. |
SHARMINI PERIES: Ilan, why do you argue that Palestinians are better off without the U.S.? |
ILAN PAPPE: Well, the reason is a retrospective historical analysis, going back to the aftermath of the June ’67 war, when American mediation became hegemonic and dominated the peace efforts. And ever since that moment the negotiation ended in loss of land for the Palestinians, expropriation of land by the Israelis. An... |
SHARMINI PERIES: Ilan, historically, before the U.S. assumed this role as the mediator and got involved, who was talking about bringing peace? Who were the main players and negotiators? |
ILAN PAPPE: Well, during their mandatory periods when Britain was ruling Palestine, Britain was the main mediator, and the Palestinians did not fare better under their mediation. Between ’48 and ’67. There was hardly any mediation effort. But if there was any, it was conducted by the United Nations. The United Nations ... |
SHARMINI PERIES: Now, Ilan, historically over these 70 years no one has really been very successful as mediators. What options do the Palestinians have? A mediator that Israel would accept, and where the decisions made under such negotiation would stick. Or are we even there, to have that kind of dialogue at this time? |
ILAN PAPPE: Well, I don’t think the issue now is finding a mediator. The issue is really changing world public opinion and perception about the essence of the problem in Palestine, and what needs to be done in order to change the reality on the ground. What you need, I think, now is more or less what you needed in the ... |
So I think if we will be now looking for a new mediator, this will not change the reality as much as would a sustained campaign of pressure, and a recognition that the problem in Palestine is not the lack of peace, but the continuation of the colonization that has started 100 years ago and has not ended ever since. |
SHARMINI PERIES: And Ilan, would you argue that that sustained campaign for international attention, and making people more conscientious about what’s going on in Palestine, needs to be peaceful? |
ILAN PAPPE: Well, I think that, you know, the term peaceful sometimes means that Palestinians are not allowed to have a popular resistance, which I think they do. Of course it would be much better than resorting to suicide bombs, or launching of missiles. But I think the main issue, if I may add, is not just the sustai... |
And I think that once the endgame is clear, also the method of bringing it about with the help of international pressure would be clearer. And therefore it’s not so much a question of peaceful protest as much as is a clear vision, a clear endgame to which these protests would lead to. |
SHARMINI PERIES: Ilan, thank you so much for joining me for this segment one. Please join me again for segment two, where we will continue this conversation with Ilan Pappe. |
SHARMINI PERIES: Welcome back to the Real News Network. I’m in conversation with Professor Ilan Pappe. He’s a historian and activist. He teaches at the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, where he is also the director of the university’s Center for Palestinian Stu... |
ILAN PAPPE: It’s a pleasure to be again on the program. |
SHARMINI PERIES: Let’s continue our conversation. When we ended the last segment, we were talking about the nature of the sustained campaign that needs also an endgame. How do you imagine such a campaign? |
ILAN PAPPE: Well, I think we already have some very encouraging beginning in the form of the BDS movement, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which galvanized successfully the international public opinion and sent a very strong message to Israel that its continued policies of oppression is not accepted, a... |
There are also indications that this might be beginning with the EU sanctions on Israeli goods that come from the occupied West Bank. So it’s a long, it’s a long journey, but I think this particular path, the path of international pressure, is quite successful. What we are looking for is to see more progress on the Pal... |
SHARMINI PERIES: All right, Ilan, and now, you mentioned BDS campaign and its successes, and those are rather notable. You know, we have more and more student organizations in the diaspora taking up this mission. It is also something that has the resources behind it. And we see its success. And and that’s very encourag... |
ILAN PAPPE: Well, it’s difficult to find yet a clear indication that this position in the civil society has reached the upper echelons of policymaking, although there were some indication that politicians, senior politicians, who are, who identify with the struggle for Palestinian rights, such as the leader of the Labo... |
SHARMINI PERIES: Ilan, you’ve indicated that the U.S. is not the appropriate mediator for the Palestine-Israeli conflict. Now, why are you saying that? Are there any role that the U.S. could play that would be constructive and useful for both on the ground? |
Well, the Americans, from the very beginning of their mediation effort, were a biased broker. They represented only the Israeli point of view. They disregarded totally the Palestinian perspective, narrative, and aspirations, and they saw their role as convincing the Palestinians in accepting any Israeli dictate, with v... |
Now, in order for the United States to play a more constructive role, you need a basic change in the American perception of the conflict. I think even people like President Obama did not understand properly what the conflict was all about. Some of them, cynically, some of them genuinely misunderstood what is the proble... |
May I just add one sentence, that of course should those segments of the American civil society who joined the BDS, or understand the need to pressure Israel, put pressure on the American government to have the leading role in such pressure, as happened eventually in South Africa, that would be a very positive contribu... |
SHARMINI PERIES: And Ilan, finally, let me ask you what needs to take place within Israel and the state of Israel, as well as in terms of civil society in Israel, for a constructive dialogue to really take root. |
ILAN PAPPE: Well, in many ways, you need to deprogram the Israeli Jewish society, to de-Zionize it, to decolonize it. There is a certain ideology that informs most of the Israeli Jews, which is racist, which doesn’t have any place for a genuine reconciliation with the Palestinians. And until we don’t start such a proce... |
SHARMINI PERIES: And Ilan, before you go, were there a period since 1948 when this seemed possible, in terms of the Israeli psyche in terms of achieving peace? |
ILAN PAPPE: No. I think, unfortunately, the 70 years of Israel’s existence did not offer many periods or moments in which the kind of persons I was talking about was possible. We have to remember that in ’48, the catastrophe left the Palestinians and Palestine in ruins, and it took a while for them to regroup the great... |
So I think we cannot really draw on any precedent from the past. We will have to create afresh a new approach if we really want to bring peace and reconciliation to this torn country. |
SHARMINI PERIES: All right, Ilan, I thank you so much for joining us today. This has been a very interesting dialogue, and I hope that you can come on the Real News, and continue to unpack and help people understand what has happened in the, in the, not only in Israel-Palestine but also in the regional context to build... |
ILAN PAPPE: OK. I would love to do that. Thank you. |
Argentina cruised into the semi-finals of the Davis Cup and looked poised for a clash with defending champions Serbia who moved into a 2-0 first-day lead away to Sweden on Friday. |
France were also well placed going into Saturday's doubles after Richard Gasquet clawed back a two-set deficit against Germany's Florian Mayer in Stuttgart as last year's runners-up also won both opening singles. |
Spain went into their later quarter-final against the United States in Austin, Texas, without deposed world number one Rafa Nadal but there were rare Davis Cup outings for Roger Federer and Andy Murray in lower-tier ties. |
Federer, the 16-times Grand Slam champion, returned to the competition after a near two-year absence to help Switzerland into a 2-0 lead against Portugal in a European Zone tie, although he made 48 unforced errors while beating Rui Machado in four sets in Berne. |
Murray made up for his recent Wimbledon semi-final defeat in brutal fashion, thrashing Luxembourg's hapless Laurent Bram 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 for a rare "triple bagel" to level the Euro/Africa Zone 2 second-round tie at one apiece in Scotland. |
While Federer and Murray went about their business, the serious action was taking place in the World Group, although Serbia's clash with Sweden was also something of a mismatch. |
Even with newly-crowned Wimbledon champion and world number one Novak Djokovic pulling out of the singles with a knee niggle, Serbia made short work of the lowly-ranked Swedes who are without their powerhouse world number five Robin Soderling. |
Viktor Troicki beat world number 297 Michael Ryderstedt 6-3, 6-1, 6-7, 7-5 before Janko Tipsarevic saw off Ervin Eleskovic in quick time when his opponent retired hurt with a knee injury trailing 6-2, 1-0. |
"First of all I am very happy I brought the point to my country," said Tipsarevic. "But I am feeling really bad for Ervin and I couldn't imagine this day would finish this way." |
Victory for Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic on Saturday against the decent Swedish doubles duo of Robert Lindstedt and Simon Aspelin will put the Serbians through to a mouth-watering home tie with Argentina in September. |
Argentina began Friday already 2-0 ahead against Kazakhstan after their tie in Buenos Aires started a day earlier because of municipal elections on Sunday and the south Americans took a decisive lead when Juan Ignacio Chela and Eduardo Schwank beat Evgeny Korolev and Yuriy Schukin in straight sets. |
Argentina, for whom Juan Martin del Potro returned to action, did not drop a set in the three rubbers. |
"At the end of the day everything was easier than expected," Argentina captain Tito Vazquez said after Argentina reached their seventh semi-final in 10 years. |
"Definitely we're looking forward to playing in the semi-finals. I think it will be against last year's champions, Serbia, and we'll see if we can give a surprise and get closer to what we want, that is to win the Davis Cup one day." |
The performance of the day was from Frenchman Gasquet. |
He trailed by two sets against Mayer but hit back to win 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 before Gael Monfils then beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6, 7-6, 6-4. |
Mayer, ranked 20 in the world, suffered from cramps as Gasquet turned the match around. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.