THE National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has come out with its ritual annual report. And the statistics are grim. Like the prices of vegetables, crimes in our country too have a tendency only to rise up, up and above. If only these statistics become weapons, can we see a change.Let’s recount our achievements as detailed by the NCRB. Data shows that cases under Crime against Women have reported an increase of 2.9 per cent in 2016 over 2015. Delhi once again, being the national capital city, does not disappoint. It ranks first in terms of the crime rate against women.

IN a letter written by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat to Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on December 5, 2017, she brought the issue of non-payment of compensation announced by him to the next of kin of Junaid, to his notice.Junaid, son of Jalaladuddin, resident of Khatauli village, Faridabad, Haryana, was brutally stabbed to death by a communally motivated group, on June 22, 2017.On June 29, the papers carried the statement of the chief minister of Haryana, condemning the murder. He also declared a compensation of  Rs Ten lakhs.

THE Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan (BAA), in a statement issued on December 5, has urged the people of Gujarat and especially the peasantry including adivasis, dalits, minorities, fish workers and forest dwellers to ensure the defeat of the BJP in the 2017 assembly elections for betraying the peasantry and intensifying the anti-farmer neo-liberal policies in Gujarat as well as all over the country. The plight of the peasantry has become even more miserable under the three and half years rule of the NDA government led by the BJP.

THE latest report of the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) reveals a steady increase in crimes against women and an alarming rise in sexual assaults on children. In 2016, 3.4 lakh cases of crimes against women were registered. This is a 2.9 per cent increase over the previous year. Of these 32 per cent concerned domestic violence, 25 per cent sexual harassment and 11.5 per cent rape. Statistics relating to crimes against women are always an underestimate as many cases go unreported, or, FIRs are not registered.

THE town that is called Ayodhya in Valmiki’s Ramayana, as well as today, was known as Awadh in pre-British times. Tulsidas in his Ramcharit Manas called it Awadh-puri. It was a large city, capital of the province that was also called Awadh. It had, therefore, a large Muslim population. So it was that when Babur established the Mughal Empire in India in 1526, and Awadh or Ayodhya fell into his hands, his governor Mir Baqi built a large mosque there, which came to be known as the Babri Masjid.