Of rights new, and prejudice old: A response to Justice Chauhan’s speech at Madurayam 2022
Ujjaini Chatterji·January 15, 2023 https://theleaflet.in/of-rights-new-and-prejudice-old-a-response-to-justice-chauhans-speech-at-madurayam-2022/ retired Justice Dr. B.S. Chauhan, being one of the key speakers, emphatically stated that women in India need no empowerment because the Manusmriti already granted them all rights.

The shocking statement by a former Supreme Court judge is particularly worrying as it appears to be a part of a growing echo that seeks to replace our secular and democratic constitutional principles of equality and justice with that of the regressive Manusmriti, and hence I feel the need to respond to it.

There is growing disinformation around Manusmriti that is being categorically spread. One such instance I came across was when, in a gender equity forum by BRICS, Union Minister and Parliamentarian Meenakshi Lekhi referred to the Manusmriti to suggest that Manu’s laws gave women the right to succession of property. Thankfully, this blatant misinformation was countered by entrepreneur Anuradha Exwaized, who in turn quoted the precise shlok from Manusmriti that forbade women, sons, and slaves from owning any property. The shlok states that whatever they earn are properties of the man to whom they belong.

Similarly, last year, Delhi High Court judge, Justice Prathibha M. Singh publicly stated that Manusmriti gave women “respectable position” and women were blessed by his laws. She was speaking at an event on the subject – ‘Facing the unseen barriers: Addressing challenges faced by Women in Science, Technology, Entrepreneurship and Mathematics (STEM)’.

the Manusmriti served as the constitutional law of Brahmins and legitimised the absolute objectification and subjugation of women. The Constitution of India introduced the values of equality before law and fundamental rights that were available to all citizens...However, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who was the architect of our Constitution and a member of the untouchable Mahar community, continued his struggle for greater freedoms. As the Union Law Minister, Dr. Ambedkar reintroduced the Hindu Code Bill before the Parliament in 1947. These were bills that proposed to grant women the right to marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption, and guardianship along with the right to own property, the right to equal inheritance as that of men.

Tracking rising religious hatred in India, from half a world away By Pranshu Verma January 16, 2023 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/01/16/hindu-hate-crimes-raqib-hameed-naik/ Raqib Hameed Naik, a Kashmiri Muslim journalist hiding in America, is ready to bring his data project out of the shadows  -- Naik, 29, is the founder of HindutvaWatch.org, one of the most robust real-time data sets of human rights abuses in the world’s largest democracy. Using video and picture evidence submitted by a network of Indian activists, along with news aggregation, the site tracks hate crimes by Hindus against Muslims, Christians and members of the lower-ranked castes. Since its founding in April 2021, it has catalogued more than 1,000 instances of violent attacks and rhetoric. 

“गुजरात दंगों में मोदी सीधे ज़िम्मेदार”BBC की इस फ़िल्म को भारत में ‘देखना मना है’ |Modi Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9GXCk-sj_k Jan 19, 2023
A BBC documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question,’ looks at “the tensions between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the country’s Muslim minority”, as well as “investigating claims” concerning his role in the large-scale communal violence that erupted in Gujarat in the months of February and March, in 2002 that left “over a thousand dead.”

In the first part of a new series aired in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on Tuesday evening, a UK government report, earlier marked as “restricted”, that has never been published or revealed so far, has been shown in detail. The documentary has a series of images of the text of the report, and in one statement, the inquiry report says that “Narendra Modi is directly responsible”. It refers to the chain of events as a “systematic campaign of violence” which has “all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing.”

गोधरा के 20 साल: दीवारें लगाकर बाँट दिये गये हिंदू-मुसलमान | Gujarat Election 2022 | Arfa Khanum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXiVviB3q_4&list=PLzia1qLN9v2AHSiNcnbKDpcn3L17RuAIb&index=14&t=0s

The Wire Meets Victims Of 2002 Riots, 'Wounds Of Riots Still Fresh' | Gujarat Election | Arfa Khanum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkG1HAJvsfw&list=PLzia1qLN9v2AHSiNcnbKDpcn3L17RuAIb&index=5&t=0s

Complaint Issues Against BBC Documentary On Gujarat Riots Targeting PM Modi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTQnSf8CvAc Jan 20, 2023 Advocate Vineet Jindal  20 Jan, 2023 argues that the documentary has the effect of dividing the country..