Dalit protests rock India’s financial capital Mumbai
Two people have been killed, more than 300 have been detained, and several have been charged by the police.
At the forefront of the protests are Dalits, a community in Hindu society that has traditionally been at the bottom of the social ladder.
They are angry at attacks against them by Hindu nationalists as they celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Dalit victory over Hindu ruler Peshwa at the battle of Bhima-Koregaon.
The marginalized community sees the battle as a symbol of its emancipation. In 1927, Dalit icon Bhim Rao Amdedkar paid tribute to the battle, and the tradition has continued since.
“This is a deliberate attack against Dalit assertion of their rights,” said Paul Divakar, general secretary of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights. “The attack isn’t only against Dalits. It’s an assault on the diversity of India.”
The Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “don’t like this Dalit consciousness emerging and asserting,” said Kancha Ilaiah, a political theorist, writer and activist for Dalit rights.
RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha denied the organization’s role in the troubles, saying: “We believe in the development of the Dalits, and we’ve been working toward that. The issue has been exploited by political parties for their own politics.”
But citing attacks against religious minorities, Divakar said: “The BJP and RSS pretend to be inclusive, but with each passing day we see the involvement of Hindu nationalists in such attacks. They promote the divisive nature of nationalism.”
India probes report on breach of national identity database
From Reuters, India on Thursday began investigating a report that access to its database of the identity details of more than 1 billion citizens was being sold for just $8 on social media, in what could be one of the giant program’s biggest security breaches.
The Tribune newspaper said it had been able to buy login credentials to the Aadhaar database, allowing it to acquire information such as the names, telephone numbers and home addresses of millions of people.
The paper said it bought access for as little as 500 rupees ($7.89) from someone on a WhatsApp social media group.
The “case appears to be an instance of misuse,” said the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which runs the biometric identity card scheme, the world’s largest.
The agency said it had initiated a police complaint against the people responsible for selling the access, but did not identify them.
Crucial data, “including biometric information, is fully safe and secure,” the agency said in a statement. The database incorporates fingerprints and iris scans, besides basic information details.
“Mere display of demographic information can’t be misused without biometrics,” it added, ruling out financial fraud, saying access to bank accounts required further authentication that involved fingerprint and iris scans.
But the breach is the latest in a programme facing increasing scrutiny over privacy concerns and is likely to prompt further questions about data safety.
India’s Supreme Court is holding hearings to decide if a drive by the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to link Aadhaar to private and public services infringes the privacy rights of individuals.
“The perils of making Aadhaar mandatory and linking it to bank accounts, as insisted upon by the Modi government, are visible here,” Sitaram Yechury, a leader of the communist party, said in a Twitter post.
“Do we need more proof to stop this madness?”
Last month, the agency barred telecoms firm Bharti Airtel and its Airtel Payments Bank from using Aadhaar details to verify customers’ identities, because the facility was being misused to open accounts on its payment platform.
NEW DELHI: Protests continued on Thursday for the third consecutive day in India’s financial capital Mumbai.